RTHK: Russia's Gazprom halts gas supplies to Poland

Russia's Gazprom will halt gas shipments to Poland via the Yamal pipeline from Wednesday, Poland's PGNiG gas firm said in a statement on Tuesday.

"On April 26, 2022, Gazprom informed PGNiG of its intention to completely suspend deliveries under the Yamal contract... on April 27," PGNiG said.

The operator said that Poland was prepared to obtain necessary supplies from other sources.

"All deliveries to customers are being made according to their demand," the company said.

The Polish government also said it was ready to face any interruption of supply from Russia.

"There will be no shortage of gas in Polish homes," Climate Minister Anna Moskwa said on Twitter.

"Since the first day of the war we have declared that we are ready for full independence from Russian raw materials," she said.

"Poland has the necessary gas reserves and sources of supply to protect our security. For years we have been successfully making ourselves independent from Russia," she added.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said gas storage facilities were 76 percent full and Poland was ready to "obtain gas from all possible other directions".

Gazprom did not confirm the cut-off but a senior executive at the company was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that "Poland must pay for gas supplies according to the new payment procedure".

Following the introduction of sanctions against Russia over its assault on Ukraine, the Kremlin has warned EU member states that their gas supplies will be cut unless they paid in roubles.

Western countries have refused to do so, saying that they can continue to pay in euros or dollars.

The EU as a whole received around 40 percent of its gas supplies from Russia in 2021.

Poland imports liquefied gas through a terminal on the Baltic coast and is also hoping to receive supplies from Norway via the Baltic Pipe project which is expected to be completed later this year.

The 900-kilometre link should eventually cover around 50 percent of Poland's consumption. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2022-04-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Iconic Hanoi train street cafes reopen

Coffee shops along the railway line in Hanoi have reopened after more than two years.





The two-kilometre Train street starts from Le Duan, goes through Tran Phu and Cua Dong and ends at Phung Hung Street.





In October 2019, all the coffee shops along the railway line were shut to ensure traffic safety.







In order to reopen, the coffee shops have to pledge to conform to railway safety regulations, meaning that they can only operate indoor services.











More visitors have returned to the street as the Covid-19 pandemic has been brought under control in Hanoi.



Nguyen Phuong Hai from Hoan Kiem District said train street was less exciting than before because people have to follow traffic safety regulations.



Nguyen Thi Nguyet, owner of a coffee shop, on the street said more customers had visited her shop at the weekend, including foreigners.



Seni Van Hauwaert, a tourist from Belgium, said that whenever she visits Vietnam, she comes to the train street to enjoy coffee.



These unique coffee shops have not only created jobs for many people but also become a must-visit spot in Hanoi.


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Freedom is awaking from its coma today because of a huge, huge, huge Supreme Court decision  huge, Rush Limbaugh declared in 2010. I cannot tell you how big this is.

What, pray tell, had roused freedom from its slumber?

The Supreme Courts Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which ruled that corporations have First Amendment rights. I thought then, like most conservatives, that the court was correct. Unlike many these days, I still do. The New York Times Co. has every right to argue for its preferred policies, and so does Koch Industries.

Its difficult to exaggerate how committed the right once was to this principle and how much it appalled the left. Masterpiece Cakeshop, we conservatives contended, had every right not to be compelled to make gay wedding cakes because of the owners religious beliefs. Hobby Lobby had a First Amendment right to defy provisions of the Affordable Care Act that violated its religious freedom. We won both arguments at the Supreme Court.

That era is now officially over.

Florida recently passed the Parental Rights in Education bill (tendentiously called the Dont Say Gay law by detractors). The Disney Co., under Chief Executive Bob Chapek, tried to stay out of the controversy. But a pincer movement of internal and external political pressure forced the company to publicly oppose the bill.

Worse, a video of a Disney meeting at which executives boasted of their not at all secret agenda to incorporate gay and transgender themes into Disney content was leaked at the worst possible moment. The very online right was already in a full-blown moral panic about pedophilia, basically holding that anyone who opposed the bill was either a groomer or groomer friendly. (Once a term for adults who manipulate underage children for sexual abuse, groomer suddenly meant dissenters from a moral crusade.)

Against the broader backdrop of the populist fatalism of the Trump era, which holds that conservatives never win when they play by the rules, it was something of a perfect storm.

Florida Republicans, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, voted to strip Disney World of its special status under something called the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Crafted by Republicans in 1967, the improvement district deal exempted Disney World from zoning and tax laws in exchange for Disney transforming a massive amount of swampy land into the Magic Kingdom and running it without taxpayer money. Economically and politically, it was win-win for both Disney and Florida  until last week, when a remarkable number of politicians suddenly embraced a purist libertarian opposition to such public-private partnerships of which there are over a thousand in Florida.

Of course, Orlando International Airport and Daytona International Speedway, with similar exemptions, will be fine, because the libertarian arguments are entirely pretextual. This was about punishing Disney. Floridas lieutenant governor even admits that if Disney simply changed its politics, everything could go back to normal. Oh, is that all?

The view on the right is that DeSantis is a courageous brawler, beating back a behemoth of woke capitalism. Its certainly true that DeSantis comes out a winner on the national stage as he contemplates a presidential run in 2024.

I will also concede that DeSantis supporters have a point. If corporations will let themselves be bullied out of their lanes by the left, they shouldnt be surprised if they invite retaliation from the right. As problematic as I find this whole spectacle, it would be a good thing if corporations thought twice about picking sides in the culture war. As Michael Jordan once said, Republicans buy sneakers too.

But whether the costs outweigh the benefits is unknowable, particularly in a climate in which what constitutes winning is redefined on the fly by Twitter mobs. After all, as National Reviews Charlie Cooke notes, DeSantis had already won: Disney took its shot at the Florida parental rights bill, and even though all of its sponsors were recipients of Disneys political contributions, Disney lost. But the rights equivalent of Twitter-addicted woke activists wanted a pound of Mouse flesh.

Privately, some defenders say the Reedy Creek Improvement District rescission, which doesnt go into effect until next year, will never happen. Saner heads will prevail, opting not to shift massive burdens onto county governments and taxpayers (this would explain why Disney has largely stayed mum). But that theory assumes DeSantis is the mobs master, not its servant.

And even if  a big if  corporate America takes the right lessons here, theres no chance activists on the left or right will, at least for the foreseeable future. When you reward mobs, you get more mobs.

Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch: @JonahDispatch.
State superintendent candidates Debbie Critchfield, Branden Durst and Sherri Ybarra verbally dueled for the Republican nomination Monday night, energetically clashing on school policy and trading one-liners in an hour-long debate broadcast across the state.

The three GOP primary contenders put their campaign messaging on full display during Idaho Public Televisions Idaho Debates. Ybarra flexed her seven years in office, Critchfield struck at Ybarras lack of leadership, and Durst, again, portrayed himself as an outsider in the field.

I believe we need to get government out of the way and let parents lead as God intended, Durst said.

The debate saw:

Durst defend his conduct during a profane exchange that occurred after a legislative committee and decry the Senates decision not to hear a bill that could have included jail time for librarians who disseminate material harmful to minors.

Ybarra and Critchfield, who was president of the State Board of Education early in the pandemic, defend their roles in responding to the pandemic.

The trio split on issues from critical race theory to backsliding early literacy test scores.

The same was the case for early literacy funding, a hot topic in education politics this year.

From open to close, Critchfield questioned Ybarras strength of leadership, arguing that the superintendent has played a back-seat role in securing increased funding for early literacy and more from the Legislature.

Who is it that is driving education? Critchfield rhetorically asked, crediting Gov. Brad Little, and downplaying Ybarras role, in locking down a $46.6 million increase in early literacy funding from the Legislature this year.

Notably, Ybarra had requested $39.3 million for full-day kindergarten programs, a smaller predecessor to Littles $46.6-million ask.

Opposing the literacy funding boost, now signed into law, Durst echoed critical lawmakers, who said increased early literacy funding would cause the shuttering of half-day kindergarten programs for families who want them.

Durst, a former Democratic state senator, repeated his support for a failed bill that would have allowed parents to spend tax dollars on private school tuition through education savings accounts.

I believe that we should have the public schools competing with private schools for money and for students, Durst said.

With some study Critchfield said she would support such a proposal if were not defunding our public schools and it could not come at the expense of our rural schools.

Ybarra repeated a hardline stance that shes made on the campaign trail, opposing any tax money toward private school tuition and saying her opponents are voucher supporters to the vocal opposition of Critchfield.

Things turned testy at times. At one point, as Ybarra touted an increase in the number of charter schools in the state, Critchfield interjected, pointing out that Ybarra isnt on the state charter school commission that authorizes new charters.

Ybarra shot back, Excuse me. Like in a third-grade classroom, we teach our students not to interrupt. I was speaking, and you can have your turn in a moment.

The debate closed with stump speech-style closers and final blows that were sprinkled with political overtones.

On May 17, youll get your final chance to do something youve wanted to do for a long time, which is say Lets go Branden, Durst said, playing on the insult of President Joe Biden.

Critchfield in her closing remarks made an apparent dig at Ybarras use of fuzzy data to defend her record, and added, Its not about political rhetoric.

Ybarra ended with, Like the kids say, please vote for Sherri in the primary.

The candidates will debate again at 6 p.m. Tuesday on KTVB, the last joint appearance they have planned before the May 17 primary. The debate will also air on the Treasure Valley news stations website.

While the superintendents candidates will debate twice, contenders in other statewide offices wont ever square off. Some have refused to debate or reneged on commitments to debate, including Gov. Brad Little and Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin in the governors race; state Rep. Priscilla Giddings of White Bird in the lieutenant governors race; and incumbent Rep. Mike Simpson in his congressional race.

There arent any debates scheduled on the Democratic side of the superintendents race, where former Idaho Education Association President Terry Gilbert is unopposed. The Republican nominee will face Gilbert in the general election in November.

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Public Defender Sandra Haley asked the Henry County Board of Supervisors during their regular meeting on Tuesday to supplement the payroll in her office.

With a current caseload of 757, Haley said, Henry County represents 48 percent of her offices work, and in order to fund a 5% increase in pay, $15,193.34 in additional money would be required from the County.

Haleys office defends clients not only in Henry County, but also in Martinsville and Patrick County.

While the caseload in Henry County has declined 7% since 2016, the number of cases in Martinsville has increased from 33% to 41% percent and Patrick County is up from 15% to 19%.

Were down to six attorneys, said Haley. Recruitment and retention is tremendously difficult right now, and our office with our attorneys are going up against 13 commonwealths attorneys.

But data provided by Haley in her written salary supplement request to the Board of Supervisors show attorneys on both sides of the bench are among the most well-paid among local government employees.

While Haley shows her office with 17 employees and a current salary budget of $759,273, the Henry County Commonwealths Attorneys Office has 11 employees with a payroll of $780,706. If Haleys supplement request were to be fully funded by all three jurisdictions her office represents, the payroll in her office would increase to $790,926.

The highest paid on both lists is Commonwealths Attorney Andrew Nester at $169,453 followed by Haley at $126,217.

The Assistant Commonwealths Attorney makes $91,744 compared to the Deputy Public Defender who makes $86,753, but would earn $91,091 if Haleys supplement request were to be fully funded.

Other employees in Haleys office are paid varying decreasing amounts down to a legal assistant making $37,091 a year.

Haley lists as vacant positions for four additional assistant public defenders and a legal assistant.

In Nesters office, other employees are paid varying decreasing amounts down to a victim witness assistant who is paid $29,547 per year.

The Board of Supervisors took no action on the request.

In other matters the Board:

Considered resolutions honoring World War II Veteran Jim Weinerth, recognizing the 50th anniversary of Piedmont Community Services, recognizing the 40th anniversary of the Martinsville-Henry County Crimestoppers and recognizing the 50th anniversary of the Oak Level Ruritan Club.

Issued a proclamation declaring May 11-17 as National Peace Officers Memorial Week in Henry County. Six Henry County law enforcement officers have given their lives in the line of duty: John Hughes Mitchell  end of watch May 4, 1922, shot by a bootlegger suspect; George S. Frame  end of watch March 25, 1923, shot by a bootlegger during an arrest; John J. Johnstonend of watch January 27, 1945, lost control of patrol vehicle, killed in the crash; Willis Herman Fergusonend of watch March 18, 1975, struck by a vehicle while assisting a motorist; George Melvin Brownend of watch June 26, 1984, killed in vehicle crash while transporting a prisoner; Paul Edward Grubb, end of watch July 2, 1989, shot by suspect while SWAT was executing a narcotics search warrant.

Heard from Uptown Partnership Executive Director Kathy Deacon about revitalization efforts in the uptown area of Martinsville. Next week Im celebrating my one-year anniversary with the Partnership and we are proud of the work we do, said Deacon. Were excited to be a part of this broader vision. It takes a village, and the village is not just uptown.

Heard County Treasurer Scott Grindstaff provide an update on delinquent tax collection efforts, in which he reported 88 percent of personal property taxes and 92 percent of real estate taxes have been collected.

Heard Director of Tourism and Talent Development Sarah Hodges explain that the Visitor Center uptown is now closed and her office is moving to well outfitted mobile units. Said Hodges: We think that what is most beneficial is to be at an event space and that would put us at about 136 events a year.

Appropriated $1,380,387 for the construction of section 6A of the Dick & Willie Passage Trail. The amount includes $257,251 from the reserve fund for the Countys match. The contract was awarded to Inland Construction Inc. of Abingdon.

Awarded a contract of $750,000 to C.W. Cauley & Sons Inc. for site work at Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre, Lot #5.

Awarded a contract of $800,000 to Timmons Group for engineering services for site work at Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre.

Appropriated $50,000 in ARPA funds for the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief grant for a tutoring program and after-school program.

Appropriated $133,656 received from the Virginia Department of Education School-Based Mental Health Grant to aid in the recruitment and retention of mental health workers.

Appropriated $171,768 to the School Board Contingency Reserve for grants to account for the VDOE grant and any additional grants awarded this fiscal year by the VDOE.

Appropriated $26,957 to the Sheriffs Office from the State Asset Forfeiture fund.

Approved a proposed resolution in support of the West Piedmont Multi-jurisdictional Hazardous Mitigation Plan.

Bill Wyatt is a reporter for the Martinsville Bulletin. He can be reached at 276-638-8801, Ext. 2360. Follow him @billdwyatt.

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Beginning May 1, 2022, qualifying government agencies and nonprofit organizations wanting to enhance, create and protect fish and wildlife habitats along the Catawba-Wateree River are encouraged to submit applications for grants provided by Duke Energys Catawba-Wateree Habitat Enhancement Program (CWHEP).

Projects eligible for funding include a wide range of categories  from planting native shoreline vegetation, constructing osprey platforms and wood duck boxes, and installing fish attractors to purchasing property and conservation easements along the Catawba-Wateree River that permanently preserve rare and unique habitats.

Past projects have ranged from construction of waterfowl nesting platforms and boxes to the creation of large underwater reefs for fish habitat.

For 2022, almost $1.9 million is available for enhancement projects located in North Carolina.

Funds over $1.3 million are available for projects located in South Carolina. Individual project awards typically range from $10,000 to $50,000.

Since 2007, the program has provided over $2.3 million in awards in the Carolinas for habitat enhancement projects. A panel of scientists, along with several private citizens, will select projects that will receive funding in 2022.

CWHEP is a cooperative effort by Duke Energy, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR).

The program is funded annually from a fee charged to individuals and residential marina developers seeking permits to build piers on the Catawba-Wateree lakes. The Foundation For The Carolinas administers the funds.

Those interested in seeking funds from CWHEP this year are encouraged to complete an application found at Catawba-Wateree Habitat Enhancement Program and submit it for consideration before July 31, 2022.

In addition to the Catawba-Wateree program, a Keowee-Toxaway Habitat Enhancement Program (KTHEP) was established in 2015 for projects along Lake Keowee and Lake Jocassee and their watersheds in the foothills region of South Carolina. Program information for the KTHEP can be found at Keowee-Toxaway Habitat Enhancement Program.
Graduates, industry partners and McDowell Technical Community College (MTCC) administrators and board members met Monday morning in an informal gathering designed for members of the NC General Assembly to highlight the economic impact of MTCC and the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS).

The group discussed a wide range of issues important to regional and statewide workforce development, including the need for stronger investment in NCCCS to strengthen the quality and viability of programs and services at community colleges across the state. Like McDowell Tech, these 58 colleges serve a tremendous value to North Carolina families, students, employers and taxpayers.

Rep. Dudley Greene (NC-85) said he heard the group loud and clear.

I am a product of the community college system, he said, joking that he attended a neighboring community college 100 years ago, and I know the value of what you do. I particularly appreciate the flexibility that McDowell Tech and other community colleges have to rapidly gear up to meet the needs of industry as a whole, because that is an economic driver for the state.

Whether in the health care industry or advanced manufacturing, he invited the group to contact him with ideas for how the state can continue to find ways to solve workforce needs.

MTCC students, graduates in attendance included: Lamina Duckworth, an LPN with UNC Health Caldwell who is retired from a 30-year career in financial management and will soon finish McDowell Techs Associate Degree Nursing program through Foothills Nursing Consortium; Brett Duke, a welder with Morganton Pressure Vessels (MVP) and recent MTCC Welding program graduate; and Noah Pauley, a recent Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) graduate who is employed with the Burnsville Police Department.

Industry representatives in attendance included: Dr. Tonia Hale, Interim CEO at Mission McDowell Hospital and CEO/CNO at Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine; Dr. Chuck Tucker, division associate vice president of Academic Affairs at HCA Healthcare; Heather Spawn, human resources at Morganton Pressure Vessels; and Brian Piercy, president of the McDowell Fire and Rescue Association.

MTCC Board of Trustees in attendance included: Gary Stroud, chairman, who is also an executive board member of the N.C. Association of Community College Trustees; Gwen Conley; Ray McKesson; and Don Ramsey.

Dr. Brian S. Merritt, MTCC president, facilitated the conversation with students and employers, who spoke about labor shortages, the importance of the quality training and opportunities provided by MTCC and NCCCS, and the personal connection they have to the faculty, the college, and to the community, which made their experiences so special. The economic impact of MTCC and all 58 of North Carolinas community colleges was also a strong topic of discussion.

Merritt made it clear: The keyword is investment. A stronger investment is needed in our students. Our most valuable asset is our people, and we must invest in our employees to pay competitive wages. Our employees are passionate about our purpose. However, purpose doesnt pay the bills. The time is now to make the investment of a lifetime in the future of North Carolina, an investment that will drive our economy for decades to come.

According to a report recently release by the state, in FY 2019-20, MTCC added $67.8 million in income to the McDowell County economy, a value approximately equal to 4.4% of the countys total gross regional product (GRP). Expressed in terms of jobs, MTCCs impact supported 1,462 jobs. For perspective, the activities of MTCC and its students support one out of every 14 jobs in McDowell County.

Statewide, the N.C. Community College System adds $17.1 billion in income to North Carolina and supports one out of every 19 jobs.

On an individual level, that report estimated that for every $1 a student spends on education at McDowell Technical Community College, they gain $5.50 in lifetime earnings. Expressed another way, the average associate degree graduate from MTCC earns $7,000 more per year than their counterparts working in North Carolina who only have a high school education.

That equates to a 27.5% annual rate of return for MTCC graduates, according to data from the Economic Impact Report. The annual rate of return for 30-year investment in the Stock Market is only 10.6%.

More Than Just the Numbers

But it is more personal for students and employers  the returns are often about much more than numbers. Lamina Duckworth, expressed appreciation to the college and specific faculty and staff for the quality of the Nurse Aide and Practical Nursing Education programs she studied at McDowell Tech.

Duckworth had retired from the city of Morganton before she decided to return to college to study nursing. She initially chose McDowell Techs Nurse Aide program because of its compact schedule, but quickly realized the superior quality and personal touch that McDowell Tech offered compared to other colleges she had attended or was familiar with.

As a working nurse, she said, I appreciate that McDowell Tech prepared me not just to be a nurse, but a strong one. With the pandemic, nursing shortages, and radical changes in the nursing profession, she told the group that she felt well-prepared for some of the unique challenges she has faced in the nursing profession in the last couple of years.

Dr. Tonia Hale, Interim CEO at Mission McDowell Hospital and CEO/CNO at Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine, expanded on Duckworths comments about changes in nursing practice in recent years due to extreme staffing shortages.

Hale is a nurse herself, having started her health care career as a pharmacy technician 35 years ago, and transitioning to nursing in 1994. During the pandemic, she said, many older nurses left the profession and many who had previously considered careers in nursing had second thoughts about entering a profession which demanded potentially life-threatening or life-altering consequences for their own health and that of their families.

Data shows that the nationwide nursing shortage, which had previously held relatively steady at around 15%, is now topping 27% consistently. It is the most shocking time I have seen in my life, she said.

There are so many options for nurses today and so many openings in the field, that those of us in management have had to look at alternative models of patient care to meet staffing and patient needs, she said. That includes bringing back LPN-RN teams for patient care and adding paramedics to our care teams.

Another member of the Mission team, Dr. Chuck Tucker, division associate vice president of Academic Affairs at HCA Healthcare, echoed Hales concerns.

Tucker is also a nurse, former EMT (emergency medical technician) and nursing educator and administrator.

Friday afternoon, he said, I checked a number of hospital and similar websites and quickly found over 1,000 open positions for nurses in Western North Carolina. Yet, based on current levels, we are only turning out 554 nursing graduates a year to fill those positions.

HCA/Mission is doing its part, Tucker said, to work with McDowell Tech and other colleges to expand clinical spots in HCA hospitals and clinics to help allow for expansion of nursing slots throughout the region.

Expanding capacity in nursing programs requires additional funding for additional faculty, administrative costs and facility expansion, as well as approval by the N.C. State Board of Nursing, but Tucker said that both are critical to reducing nursing shortages, now and in the future.

Ironically, in MTCCs recent facilities master planning process, the most significant need and top priority identified by faculty, staff and community stakeholders was a new Health Sciences and Public Safety Complex to support the colleges new standalone Associate Degree Nursing program and other allied health, fire and rescue training programs. Initial estimates indicate that such a facility would cost between $15 and $20 million.

Public Service degree programs represent a consistently popular option for students, all with high rates of job placement and job satisfaction. Noah Pauley is recent graduate of McDowell Techs Basic Law Enforcement Training Program (BLET).

Pauley is a native of Burnsville who had worked as a firefighter in DeKalb, Georgia before returning to North Carolina to train for a job in law enforcement. After talking with Alan Moore, director of MTCCs BLET program, Pauley chose to attend McDowell Tech over programs at two other community colleges closer to his home in Madison County. During the time he was in BLET, he drove an hour and 15 minutes each way to class.

But ultimately, he said, It was the best decision I could have made.

He feels the quality of McDowell Techs BLET program is head and shoulders above other programs, and when he entered a training position with a local sheriffs department after graduation, his superiors were impressed with the training he had already received. Currently, Pauley works with the Burnsville Police Department in his hometown.

Brett Duke, a welder with Morganton Pressure Vessels (MVP), told the group that he had always wanted to be a welder, but having to work full time made it next to impossible for him to take welding classes. However, on recommendation of a family member, he decided to talk with Clay Dowdle, lead welding instructor at McDowell Tech, and found that Dowdle was willing to work with his employer to facilitate class attendance. Duke enrolled in the program tuition-free through the Learn & Grow Scholarship Program and graduated last fall.

He had high praise for Dowdle and the welding program in general.

Heather Spawn, who works in Human Resources at Morganton Pressure Vessels, told the group that recruiting welders is an ongoing problem, but that MPV regularly works with Dowdle to allow their employees to take evening classes in welding at the college.

The demand for welders is so strong, she said, that the company even hires high school graduates to do what they refer to as non-pressure welds, as opposed to pressure retaining welds, welds that have to hold under pressurization.

MPV is certified by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and not only welds pressurized tanks or vessels, but also does a variety of other specialized welds, such as medical equipment welds.

Dowdle told the group that he believes the recent offer of tuition-free college has helped grow his program. He currently has approximately 27 students enrolled, which is much higher than in previous years.

Weve got to let students know that they dont have to go to a four-year college, said Brian Piercy, a member of the McDowell County Board of Education and the McDowell Fire and Rescue Association.

He referenced a recent Career and College Promise student who simultaneously graduated from McDowell Tech and McDowell High School and makes $45,000 per year in a technical career field  right out of high school.

We desperately need investments in our employees, our students, and our facilities to produce graduates for our workforce, like our public service professions, he said. How can we provide the services that people need, that they demand, without that investment? Piercy also referenced joint plans in the early stages by MTCC, the McDowell Fire and Rescue Association, and others to conceive a joint-use Health Sciences & Public Safety Training Complex to be located at MTCC.

People understand the value of what we do and fully support McDowell Tech and the N.C. Community College System, said Merritt, following the meeting. However, N.C.s investment in community colleges is only 53% of the total state funding received for first and second-year university students in North Carolina. We aim to be competitive and need stronger funding to keep our high-quality faculty from leaving. We must continue to drive home this message about investment in our community colleges to ensure future students like Lamina, Brett, and Noah, and employers like Mission McDowell, Morganton Pressure Vessels and our public safety partners have a skilled workforce ready to serve our communities.
Taanli 3, that is the name of the operation, took place from April 2 to 25 at the border between the two countries. This is not the first time that the two countries have collaborated in the fight against terrorism. They have already been in operations Taanli 1 and 2.

For this third phase, a joint headquarters has been set up in Dori, in the northeast of Burkina Faso. The press kit mentions very significant resources: several hundred soldiers deployed, ground units mobilized, as well as surveillance and combat air assets.

The two staffs are pleased with the success of this operation. They mention an important balance sheet: a hundred terrorists neutralized, 40 others arrested. During civil-military actions, the soldiers also distributed 200 tons of food and medicine to the civilian population.

It should be noted that this military operation took place in the far north of Burkina Faso, where several sources warned last week of probable abuses against civilians. The Burkinabe Ministry of Defense refuted these allegations in a statement issued on Sunday, April 24. It nevertheless announced the opening of an investigation into these serious allegations.
New sanction against striking teachers of the SET, the Togo Teachers Union. On Monday, April 25, the Minister in charge of the Civil Service issued four orders: 112 teachers lost their jobs for good.

All of them were part of the cohort of teachers first removed from the classroom in late March and early April and transferred to other departments of the administration. This time, therefore, these 112 teachers have been dismissed or fired for serious breaches of the texts governing their profession. They are accused of acts of incitement to violence, disobedience and revolt. At issue: disruptions in the school environment in certain localities when students left their schools at the beginning of the month to demand the return of their teachers.

The SET is the union that has been trying to mobilize for several weeks to demand better working conditions and better pay for teachers. But for the government, it is not a legitimate interlocutor. The authorities consider the union to be illegal.

SET secretary general Kokou Mawouegna says he is not discouraged. In any struggle, one leaves feathers. The union is considering its remedies.

It should be noted that three members of the SET are still in the civil prison of Lome. And that in the four decrees signed Monday by Minister Gilbert Bawara, it is indicated that 26 other teachers are reinstated in their duties and six others temporarily excluded.
A new attack in northern Benin killed a police officer and injured others in the early hours of Tuesday, April 26. It targeted the police station in Monsey, a district of the town of Karimama, in northeastern Benin, on the border with Niger.

Several sources confirm the attack perpetrated at around 4 a.m. on Tuesday, April 26. This time, it was not a home-made explosive device. According to our information, it was the work of eight armed men who arrived on four motorcycles. They shot a policeman and set fire to the police station. Photos of embers inside the police station and damage in the courtyard have circulated on social networks.

Given the modus operandi and the area, Karimama, the commune where Park W is located, many observers deduce that this is an attack by a terrorist group. On the other hand, some security sources say that they do not yet have all the clues to conclude that this was a jihadist operation. These sources had the same reservation during the attack on the Keremou police station near Park W in February 2020.

The police and elected officials in the region are mobilized. The government has not yet said anything about what happened. Its leader, Patrice Talon, held his meeting with the most representative trade union confederations on Tuesday at the Marina Palace on the increase in wages and the minimum wage.
Ethiopian rebels in the Tigray region claimed on Tuesday to have withdrawn from areas they had occupied for nine months in the neighbouring Afar region, one of the conditions set by the Ethiopian government for a truce announced in March.

Neither the Ethiopian federal government nor the regional authorities in Afar responded immediately to confirm or deny this, and it was not possible to verify on the ground the claims of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been at war with Addis Ababa since November 2020.

Two TPLF spokesmen, Getachew Reda and Kindeya Gebrehiwot, said Tuesday that rebel troops had completely evacuated Afar.

We have already withdrawn from all areas of Afar occupied by the TPLF, Kindeya Gebrehiwot said.

The conflict in Tigray erupted in November 2020 when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the army there to dislodge the TPLF, a party that administered the region and which he accused of attacking military bases.

The TPLF, which ruled Ethiopia for nearly 30 years until Mr. Abiy came to power in 2018, had been challenging the authority of the federal government for several months.

After initially conquering Tigray, the federal army was driven out in June 2021 by a TPLF counteroffensive, which then advanced into neighboring regions and then toward Addis Ababa.

From the start, we never intended to stay permanently in Afar, we went there to resolve security threats to Tigray, especially represented by Afar militias, Kindeya Gebrehiwot said Tuesday.

The recent truce has allowed several convoys to bring humanitarian aid by road to Tigray for the first time since mid-December, a region which the UN describes as a de facto blockade for which each side blames the other.
Babies and toddlers who've been given antibiotics might have a less vigorous immune response to routine childhood vaccinations, new research warns.

The study is the first to suggest that antibiotics might dampen youngsters' ability to generate infection-fighting antibodies in response to vaccination.

Experts cautioned that more research is necessary, and it's not clear whether antibiotic use is linked to higher rates of breakthrough infections.

But the study builds on earlier work, in lab animals and one study of adults, hinting at a way that antibiotics could hinder antibody production: The drugs temporarily kill off some of the beneficial bacteria that live in the gut, and those bugs play a key role in immune function.

Routine childhood vaccines against diseases like polio, measles, mumps, and chickenpox are highly effective. They work by exposing the body to killed or weakened versions of a germ (or part of it), which trains the immune system to fight the foreign invader if a child later encounters it. Critically, vaccines spur the immune system to generate antibodies that recognize particular proteins on the germ's surface.

But it has long been clear that children vary in the strength of their antibody response to vaccination. The reasons for that variance are largely unknown.

"Until now, it's been a big black box," said senior researcher Dr. Michael Pichichero. "Some people used to say it was bad luck, which isn't a very good answer."

According to Pichichero, his team's findings make a compelling case that antibiotic use is a factor. And they underscore the importance of using the medications only when necessary, he said.

The study involved 560 babies and toddlers who had blood samples taken at their routine checkups between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. The researchers used those to measure the children's antibody responses to four routine childhood vaccinations.

Overall, 342 youngsters (or 61%) received at least one antibiotic prescription. And those children were more likely to show vaccine antibody responses that were "sub-protective," versus children who'd received no antibiotics.

Among 12-month-olds who'd been given antibiotics, for example, just over 20% had a sub-protective antibody response to some antigen in the vaccines they'd received, the investigators found.

The researchers also found that the more antibiotic prescriptions a child received in the first year of life, the lower the vaccine antibody levels at the ages of 12 to 15 months. Each prescription was linked to a 6% to 11% dip in antibody levels, depending on the vaccine.

"I do think this study has important implications," said Pichichero, who directs the Rochester General Hospital Research Institute, in Rochester, N.Y. The findings were published online April 27 in the journal Pediatrics.

It underscores the importance of "judicious" antibiotic useprescribing the drugs only when necessary, he said.

Pichichero stressed that antibiotics only treat bacterial infections, and should not be used for viral infections like the common cold or flu. So, parents should not push their pediatrician for an antibiotic prescription for those types of ills, he noted.

That is the key message for parents, agreed Dr. Octavio Ramilo, chief of infectious diseases at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

"We know that excessive antibiotic use is not good," he said.

Ramilo called the antibody findings "very provocative," but cautioned that more studies are needed to understand whether and how antibiotics affect the immune response to vaccination.

"We do know the gut microbiome helps educate the immune system," said Ramilo, who co-wrote an editorial published with the findings.

But, he noted, the study could not show whether changes in children's gut bacteria explained the lower antibody levels linked to antibiotic use. Future studies, Ramilo said, could investigate that by collecting stool samples from youngsters.

He also noted that the ultimate consequence of the lower antibody response is unclear: Did children given antibiotics have a higher rate of any vaccine-preventable infections?

Even though a course of antibiotics can disturb the gut's normal bacterial makeup, it does rebound, Pichichero noted.

According to Ramilo, one question is how recent would any antibiotic use have to be to affect a child's antibody response to vaccination.

What is clear, though, is that parents should have their child vaccinated on schedule. Both doctors cautioned against delaying a child's next dose because of a recent antibiotic prescription.

Explore further Longer interval between COVID-19 vaccines generates up to nine times as many antibodies

More information: Timothy J. Chapman et al, Antibiotic Use and Vaccine Antibody Levels, Pediatrics (2022). Timothy J. Chapman et al, Antibiotic Use and Vaccine Antibody Levels,(2022). DOI: 10.1542/peds.2021-052061 The American Academy of Pediatrics has information for parents on antibiotics. Journal information: Pediatrics

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A new study shows the existence of a connection between atherosclerotic plaques and the central nervous system. This previously unknown "circuit" involves three systemically acting tissues, the immune system, the nervous system and the cardiovascular system. This crosstalk is functional as interference into the nervous system affects atherosclerosis progression as demonstrated in experimental models. It could be a target for innovative therapies.

Composed by an accumulation of cholesterol, fibrous tissue and immune cells, plaques represent the hallmark of atherosclerosis. The consequences, from heart attack to stroke to peripheral artery occlusion disease, constitute the main cause of death worldwide claiming 3.9 million deaths per year in Europe alone.

Published in the journal Nature, the study involved both experimental models and human tissues, by a collaboration between I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed in Pozzilli, Italy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany, with key findings by Prof. Andreas Habenicht and Dr. Sarajo K. Mohanta, and other scientific institutions participating in the "PLAQUEFIGHT" Project, funded by the European Union.

Professor Daniela Carnevale, Department of Angiocardioneurology and Translational Medicine of Neuromed, says, "When there is an atherosclerotic plaque, aggregates of immune cells also formed in the outer connective tissue of the blood vessel called the adventitia. Interestingly, these aggregates bear similarities to a lymph node whichunder healthy conditions, regulate our immune responses. Importantly, the connective tissue surrounding arteries is rich in nerve fibers that, as our work has now shown, establish a direct connection between the plaque and the brain. In fact, this adventitia tissue is used by the nervous system as main conduit to reach all organs throughout the body."

Then researchers reconstructed the entire path of nerve fibers, up to the central nervous system. Carnevale says, "At this point, we were able to see that signals coming from the plaque, once they reach the brain, influence the autonomic nervous system through the vagus nerve down to the spleen. Here, specific immune cells are activated and enter the blood circulation, leading to the progression of the plaques themselves."

It is a real circuit, defined by the authors as the artery-brain circuit, or ABC. "Like all circuits, it can be disconnected or modulated." Carnevale says, "We performed further experiments by interrupting nerve connections toward the spleen. In this way, impulses on the immune cells present in this organ are interrupted. The result of this therapeutic interruption is that plaques in the arteries not only slowed their growth, but stabilized making the disease less severe."

Considering that stability of atherosclerotic plaque is one of the most clinically relevant traits in evaluating severity of disease, and that in this study the components of the ABC were identified also in isolated human arteries affected by atherosclerosis, the research has a very significant translational potential.

Professor Giuseppe Lembo, head of the Department of Angiocardioneurology and Translational Medicine of Neuromed, says, "It is an absolutely new visionone that paves the way to new classes and previously unforeseen therapeutic strategies. One hypothesis is to act, by specific bioelectronic devices and many other potential means to affect the nerves that reach the spleen, in particular on the vagus nerve branch connected to the celiac ganglion. In other words, fighting atherosclerosis by non-pharmacological therapy."

Explore further Fighting hypertension through electrical impulses

More information: Andreas Habenicht, Neuroimmune cardiovascular interfaces control atherosclerosis, Nature (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04673-6 Journal information: Nature Andreas Habenicht, Neuroimmune cardiovascular interfaces control atherosclerosis,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04673-6

Provided by Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed I.R.C.C.S.
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A core aspect of fairness is the ability to divide resources impartially among others. Previous research has shown that fair sharing behavior is a skill typically learned between the ages of four and six. However, little is known about the cognitive building blocks that develop these skills. Researchers at Harvard University, Boston College and the University of California, Irvine, examined children's fair sharing behavior in relation to number knowledge, working memory, and cognitive control. A new study published in Child Development showed that symbolic counting skills were the single biggest predictor of children's fair sharing behavior and that prompting children to count also improved this behavior.

"This is the first research to investigate whether symbolic counting exerts a causal impact on sharing behavior," said Nadia Chernyak, assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. "We reasoned that children who do not share fairly would benefit from the modeling of proper counting behaviors thereby providing them with a behavioral tool that would facilitate fair sharing."

Researchers assessed children's sharing and counting skills across two studies using a pre-post-test design in which children were given a series of sharing tasks where they distributed valuable resources (stickers) between themselves and another individual. Across both studies, parents of fifty-three participants completed an optional demographics form. Of these participants, 79% of parents reported their child's ethnicity as White, 8% as Asian or Pacific Islander, 4% as Black, 4% as Other or Multiracial, and 2% did not report a race or ethnicity.

The first study assessed the sharing behaviors of ninety-seven three-to-five-year-olds. This study explored the relationship between sharing behavior and counting, cognitive control (e.g., playing an "opposite" game), and working memory (experimenters read a list of colors and children were asked to repeat them back in the exact order) and whether sharing behavior could be improved with a short counting intervention.

The results provide strong evidence that counting skills are related to fair sharing even when accounting for other general cognitive skills. For children who had not yet mastered the principles of counting, an intervention (encouraging counting through use of animal cards) improved their sharing behavior, among older children in particular. However, in the first study, the researchers acknowledge that the results employed a small sample of children and relied on exploratory analyses, creating difficulties for them to make firm conclusions about which specific children may benefit most from the intervention.

In a second study with 219 three-to-five-year-olds, researchers aimed to replicate the effects observed in the first study and enhance the counting intervention by increasing structural similarities between the counting task and the sharing task while also increasing linguistic cues. For example, some children may have had trouble seeing the connection between the items they were prompted to count (cards with animals) and the items that were then used in the sharing game (stickers). Children were also encouraged to transfer newly gained skillsets by being asked to count stickers during the post-test sharing tasks.

The results again demonstrate that counting skills are strongly related to sharing behavior and that counting prompts can promote better performance on both numerical and sharing tasks. In this study, researchers made sure to include a larger sample of children to allow a more thorough investigation of the characteristics of children who may benefit the most from our counting intervention.

The authors caution that one of the reasons young children often do not share well may be because they are still learning to count. "It's important to recognize the differences in how children and adults process, respond, emphasize, and encode numerical information," said Sara Cordes, psychology professor at Boston College."Children's behavior should not be evaluated with what we think they 'ought' to be doing, but with respect to their developmental stage and a full understanding of their current cognitive abilities and how they relate to social skills."

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More information: A counting intervention promotes fair sharing in preschoolers, Child Development (2022). Journal information: Child Development A counting intervention promotes fair sharing in preschoolers,(2022). DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13775
Digitally-colorized negative-stained transmission electron micrograph of avian influenza viruses. Credit CDC/F.A. Murphy

China has confirmed the first known human case of the H3N8 strain of avian flu, but health authorities say there is a low risk of widespread transmission among people.

H3N8 is known to have been circulating since 2002 after first emerging in North American waterfowl. It is known to infect horses, dogs and seals, but has not previously been detected in humans.

China's National Health Commission on Tuesday said a four-year-old boy living in central Henan province tested positive for the strain after being hospitalized earlier this month with a fever and other symptoms.

The boy's family raised chickens at home and lived in an area populated by wild ducks, the NHC said in a statement.

The boy was infected directly by birds and the strain was not found to have "the ability to effectively infect humans", the commission said.

It added that tests of the boy's close human contacts found "no abnormalities".

The NHC said the boy's case was a "one-off cross-species transmission, and the risk of large-scale transmission is low".

It warned the public to nevertheless stay away from dead or sick birds and seek immediate treatment for fever or respiratory symptoms.

Avian influenza occurs mainly in wild birds and poultry. Cases of transmission between humans are extremely rare.

The H5N1 and H7N9 strains of bird flu, detected in 1997 and 2013, respectively, have been responsible for most cases of human illness from avian influenza, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.

Human infections of zoonotic, or animal-borne, influenzas are "primarily acquired through direct contact with infected animals or contaminated environments, but do not result in efficient transmission of these viruses between people", according to the World Health Organization.

In 2012, H3N8 was blamed for the deaths of more than 160 seals off the northeastern coast of the United States after it caused deadly pneumonia in the animals.

Explore further First human case of H10N3 bird flu: What we know

 2022 AFP
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The growing use of smart control and monitoring tools in nursing increasingly decouples it from ethical and moral considerationsthis is the core thesis of a now internationally published analysis by a researcher at Karl Landsteiner University for Health Sciences in Krems (Austria). The argument, published in Nursing Philosophy, sets out the change in role that digital monitoring and AI-based decision-making processes are bringing about for nurses: Perceiving care recipients as people with individual needs could fall victim to standardized, "smart" decision-making processes. However, involving nursing staff in the development of monitoring technologies or redefining the nursing profession could provide a remedy.

Digital monitoring has long been part of everyday life in nursingand in the long-term care sector, it covers many areas of life: Vital functions are monitored, as are daily activities and behaviors. Sensors on clothing record physiological dataand those in the floor record walking and falling behavior. Smart mattresses provide information about sleep patternsand door sensors raise alerts when people leave their accommodation. Increasingly, the data collected is being integrated and analyzed by artificial intelligence (AI) for deviations from desired patterns. But how does the ever-growing use of these digital assistants affect what is known as the "nursing gaze?" This has now been analyzed for the first time worldwide by Prof. Giovanni Rubeis, Head of the Department of Biomedical Ethics and Health Care Ethics at Karl Landsteiner University for Health Sciences (KL Krems) in Austria.

Data double

The "nursing gaze" describes viewing the person being cared for both as an individual personality and as an embodiment of a medical or age-related need. "But the greatly increased use of digital control and monitoring tools is increasingly narrowing this view to quantifiable, standardized values," argues Prof. Rubeis. "Pain assessment, progression prognosis and treatment recommendations are increasingly done by algorithms. In fact, Prof. Rubeis is already talking about the creation of the "data double," that digital representation of a patient in need of care that consists of purely technical values. "The more we hide the person in need of care behind their data, the more we also decouple decision-making processes about measures from their individual needs," notes Prof. Rubeis. "Anddespite all the advantages that these technologies naturally offerdecisions are based on standard assumptions that cannot be optimal for every individual. This then begins a dehumanization of care."

Moral immunization

The use of digital and AI-based technologies, however, says Prof. Rubeis, is often portrayed in a purely positive light for nursing staffthus "immunizing" them from moral judgments. "Digital monitoring technologies are seen as a means to achieve a higher quality of life and a life free of limitations," Prof. Rubeis said. "This also relieves caregivers of their moral responsibility to assess whether these noble goals are even being achieved with the chosen technologies. Or whether those affected even want to live such a controlled life. The "nursing gaze" becomes blind in one eye."

According to Prof. Rubeis, however, the nursing gaze, which goes beyond physical needs and perceives those in need of care as individuals, can certainly coexist with digitalization in the care sector. However, the task of nurses should not be to act as guardian angels of humanity and protect those affected from the negative effects of digital monitoring. Rather, people from nursing professions with their experience and focus on the individual should be involved in decisions about the development or use of digital monitoring technologies. In this way, ethical risks can be prevented instead of burdening caregivers with cushioning the collateral damage of technology. Thus, the analysis of KL Krems not only shows a possiblegloomyvision of the future, but also offers concrete starting points for optimally using the enormous possibilities of digitalization in nursing care for the benefit of all concerned.

Explore further Good end-of-life care out of reach for many Black nursing home residents

More information: Giovanni Rubeis, Adiaphorisation and the digital nursing gaze: Liquid surveillance in longterm care, Nursing Philosophy (2022). Giovanni Rubeis, Adiaphorisation and the digital nursing gaze: Liquid surveillance in longterm care,(2022). DOI: 10.1111/nup.12388

Provided by Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences
Paolo Macchiarini won praise in 2011 after claiming to have performed the world's first synthetic trachea transplants.

An Italian doctor who made headlines for pioneering windpipe surgery went on trial in Sweden on Wednesday, charged with assault for performing the experimental procedure.

Paolo Macchiarini won praise in 2011 after claiming to have performed the world's first synthetic trachea transplants using stem cells while he was a surgeon at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute.

The procedure was hailed as a breakthrough in regenerative medicine.

But allegations soon emerged that the risky procedure had been carried out on at least one person who had not been critically ill at the time of the operation.

The 63-year-old appeared in court in a blue suit Wednesday, where he listened to translated audio as prosecutors listed the charges of "aggravated assault" against three patients.

'Disregard for science'

The Karolinska Institute has confirmed that the three individuals have since died, but did not directly link the deaths to the operations.

"Macchiarini has carried out the surgery with complete disregard for science and tried experience," prosecutor Karin Lundstrom-Kron told the court.

As prosecutors presented their case they referenced both external and internal reviews of the case, including one published in 2016 by physician Kjell Asplund, who argued that Macchiarini should never have been employed by Karolinska in the first place.

"It is clear that this method has not worked," prosecutor Jim Westerberg said, adding that Macchiarini had embellished the benefits of the procedure.

Macchiarini, who took notes without showing much emotion, has maintained the operations constituted treatments and not experiments, and denied being criminally responsible.

"He contends that he has performed health care, cured and helped," Macchiarini's lawyer Bjorn Hurtig told AFP during a recess.

The prosecution's presentation of evidence is expected to continue over several days so the defence will likely not be able to present its side until next week.

But Hurtig said they had "high hopes" they would be able to counter the prosecution's evidence.

"There are quite a lot of gaps in that evidence and there is a lot of evidence that we argue are favourable to our view of things," he said.

Downplayed risks

In 2013, the Karolinska hospital suspended all transplants and refused to extend Macchiarini's contract as a surgeon.

A year later, several surgeons at the hospital filed a complaint alleging that Macchiarini had downplayed the risks of the procedure.

Macchiarini carried out three surgeries at Karolinska University Hospital in 2011 and 2012, using an artificial windpipe made of plastic and coating it with the patient's own stem cells.

Together with his colleagues, he performed a total of eight such transplants between 2011 and 2014, the five others taking place in Russia.

An external review in 2015 found Macchiarini guilty of research misconduct, but despite sacking him, the Karolinska Institute repeatedly defended him until 2018, when it found him and several other researchers guilty.

The university's principal stepped down over the scandal, as well as a number of other people.

Medical journal The Lancet in 2018 retracted two papers authored by Macchiarini.

The trial, held in the Solna district court near the Karolinska Institute, is scheduled to take place over 13 days.

Explore further Medical journal Lancet retracts papers on artificial windpipe graft

 2022 AFP
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, depressive symptoms increased and life satisfaction decreased among secondary school children in England, particularly among girls, reports a new study led by UCL researchers.

The researchers say the increase will have led to approximately 60,000 more secondary school students whose depressive symptoms would surpass a clinical threshold, adding further strain to young people's mental health services.

The study, published in Royal Society Open Science, compared two groups of adolescents over two separate 1.5-year periods just before, and during, the pandemic.

Corresponding author Dr. Praveetha Patalay (UCL Center for Longitudinal Studies and MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Aging at UCL) said: "Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there had been widespread concern about rising mental health difficulties among adolescents.

"Here, we have found the pandemic contributed to a small additional rise in mental health difficulties among adolescents in England. As the pandemic is ongoing and many of its negative impacts may be long lasting, there is a need to prioritize young people and resource sufficient support for their mental health and well-being."

The researchers, based at UCL, University of Manchester, University of Dundee, and the Evidence Based Practice Unit (at UCL and the Anna Freud National Center for Children and Families), compared adolescents taking part in the Education for Well-being program, which has been tracking a total of 11,450 secondary school pupils in two phases, providing what the authors call a natural experiment to compare two similar groups of children over different time periods.

The phase two cohort was tracked from September-October 2019 to February-April 2021, providing insight into the impacts of the pandemic, while pupils in the first phase were assessed from late 2018 to early 2020, so their data was used as a comparison group. The pupils were in years 7, 8, and 9 at the start of the study periods.

In line with previously reported evidence of rising mental health difficulties among young people, the researchers found that the pupils in phase two experienced slightly more depressive symptoms at baseline (the start of the study period) than the pupils in phase one. In both groups, depressive symptoms increased across the study period (as is expected during adolescence), but there was a greater increase for the adolescents in phase two who were exposed to the pandemic.

The researchers estimate that had the pandemic not occurred, there would be 6% fewer adolescents in England with high levels of depressive symptoms such as low mood, loss of pleasure and poor concentration, compared to what would have been expected based on existing trends (27.1% experienced high depressive symptoms, while 25.5% would have been expected, which equates to a 1.6 percentage point difference in prevalence, or 6% increase in the number of adolescents with high depressive symptoms).

The pandemic appeared to impact girls' mental health more than boys', as girls experienced greater depressive symptoms and lower well-being. The authors also examined behavioral difficulties and found no overall impact of the pandemic.

Joint first author Dr. Rosie Mansfield (UCL Center for Longitudinal Studies) commented: "Young people in England are already facing long waiting lists to access mental health support, and it is clear that the challenging circumstances of the pandemic have further worsened many people's mental health and well-being and widened inequalities. Prioritizing young people's mental health requires more than just talk, as we need a properly resourced, public health approach that builds capacity within and between sectors."

Explore further Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health visits in pediatric primary care

More information: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health: a natural experiment, Royal Society Open Science (2022). royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211114 Journal information: Royal Society Open Science The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health: a natural experiment,(2022). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211114
Inflammation in the gums can increase susceptibility to other forms of inflammation, such as arthritis, through changes to immune cell precursors in the bone marrow, according to new research led by Penn scientists and collaborators. Credit: Katie Vicari

The immune system remembers. Often this memory, primed by past encounters with threats like bacteria or viruses, is an asset. But when that memory is sparked by internal drivers, like chronic inflammation, it can prove detrimental, perpetuating a misguided immune response.

In a new paper in Cell, researchers from the School of Dental Medicine, together with an international team including colleagues at the Technical University of Dresden, lay out the mechanism by which innate immune memory can cause one type of inflammatory conditionin this example, gum diseaseto increase susceptibility to anotherhere, arthritisthrough alterations to immune cell precursors in the bone marrow. In a mouse model, the team demonstrated that recipients of a bone marrow transplant were predisposed to more severe arthritis if their donor had inflammatory gum disease.

"Although we use periodontitis and arthritis as our model, our findings go above and beyond these examples," says George Hajishengallis, a professor in Penn Dental Medicine and a corresponding author on the work. "This is in fact a central mechanism, a unifying principle underlying the association between a variety of comorbidities."

The researchers note that this mechanism may also prompt a reconsideration of how bone marrow donors are selected, as donors with certain types of immune memory caused by underlying inflammatory conditions might put bone marrow transplant recipients at a higher risk of inflammatory disorders.

Basis in the bone marrow

In previous work, Hajishengallis had partnered with co-corresponding author Triantafyllos Chavakis of Technical University of Dresden and collaborators to explore the role of innate immune memory. Their findings showed that, just like the adaptive immune system's T cells and B cells, the innate immune system's myeloid cells, such as neutrophils and macrophages, could "remember" past encounters, becoming more responsive when exposed to a new threat. The work also pinpointed how this memory was encoded, tracing it to the bone marrow, and showed that this "trained immunity" could be transferred from one organism to another through a bone marrow transplant, protecting recipients from cancer through an innate immune response.

While that is good news, Hajishengallis and Chavakis also believed that trained immunity could be detrimental in the right contexts. While attending a meeting on innate immunity in Greece in 2019, the two scientists brainstormed over dinner at an outdoor tavern, jotting down their thoughts on a napkin. They later formalized some of their hypotheses about this potential "dark side" of trained immune in a publication in Nature Reviews Immunology in 2021.

"The thoughts went like this: We knew the gum disease periodontitis increased the risk of comorbidities like cardiovascular disease," says Hajishengallis. "And the reverse is also true: People with the inflammatory disease colitis, for example, have an increased prevalence of periodontal disease. Different mechanisms have been proposed, but no one unifying mechanism could explain this bidirectionality."

"We started thinking about a possible unifying mechanism that could underlie the association between several distinct comorbidities," says Chavakis.

Building on their earlier discovery related to "trained" precursors in the bone marrow, the scientists set out to see whether they could trace the source of the association between comorbidities to the innate immune training they already knew was happening in the bone marrow.

Setting out to test this hypothesis, the team first showed that, within a week of inducing a mouse to have periodontal disease, the animal's myeloid cells and their progenitor cells expanded in the bone marrow. Examining these cells weeks later, after periodontitis was intentionally resolved, the researchers did not notice significant changes in how the cells looked or behaved.

However, these progenitor cells appeared to have memorized the inflammation they were exposed to, as they harbored important epigenetic changes: alterations in molecular markers that affect the ways genes are turned on and off but do not alter the actual DNA sequence. The researchers found that these alterations, triggered by inflammation, could alter the manner in which the genes would be expressed after a future challenge. The overall pattern of epigenetic changes, the researchers noted, was associated with known signatures of the inflammatory response.

Mice with induced periodontal disease also had more severe responses to a later immune system challenge, evidence of trained immunity.

To put the whole picture together regarding the link between inflammatory conditions, the "critical experiment," as Hajishengallis explains, was a bone marrow transplant. Mice that had periodontitis, a severe form of gum disease, served as donors, as did a group of healthy mice serving as controls. Two hundred stem cells from their bone marrow were transplanted into mice that had never had gum disease and which had had their own bone marrow irradiated. A few months later, these mice were exposed to collagen antibodies, which trigger arthritis.

"Mice that received the transplant from mice with periodontitis developed more severe arthritis than mice that received a donation of stem cells from periodontally healthy mice," says Hajishengallis.

"And higher joint inflammation in recipient mice was due to inflammatory cells deriving from the periodontitis-trained stem cells," says Chavakis.

Further experiments suggested that the signaling pathway governed by a receptor for the molecule IL-1 played a vital role in contributing to this inflammatory memory. Mice that lacked IL-1 receptor signaling could not generate the immune memory that made the recipient mice more susceptible to comorbidities, the researchers found.

Clinical implications

The work has implications for bone marrow transplants in humans, a common course of therapy in addressing blood cancers.

"Of course, it's a great thing if you find a matching donor for bone marrow transplantation," says Hajishengallis. "But our findings suggest that it's important for clinicians to keep in mind how the medical history of the donor is going to affect the health of the recipient."

The work also underscores that blocking IL-1 receptor signaling could be an effective approach to mitigate against these knock-on effects of trained immunity.

"We've seen anti-IL-1 antibodies used in clinical trials for atherosclerosis with excellent results," Hajishengallis says. "It could be that it was in part because it was blocking this maladaptive trained immunity."

Follow-up projects are examining how other inflammatory conditions, may be linked with periodontal disease, a sign, the researchers say, of how crucial oral health is to overall health.

"I'm proud for the field of dentistry that this work, with significance to a wide range of medical conditions, began by investigating oral health," Hajishengallis says.

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More information: Xiaofei Li et al, Maladaptive innate immune training of myelopoiesis links inflammatory comorbidities, Cell (2022). Xiaofei Li et al, Maladaptive innate immune training of myelopoiesis links inflammatory comorbidities,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.043 George Hajishengallis et al, Local and systemic mechanisms linking periodontal disease and inflammatory comorbidities, Nature Reviews Immunology (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41577-020-00488-6 Journal information: Nature Reviews Immunology , Cell
These bar charts show projected life expectancy for men and women aged 65 years in 2016 and 2043, with and without dementia, and by educational background. Credit:  2022 The Lancet Public Health, Kasajima, et al.

A new detailed microsimulation, using a database of 40 million people, has examined the future of Japan's aging population up to 2043. It projects that more people will live longer, and that overall years spent living with dementia will decrease. However, the model highlighted the diversity of impacts on different segments of the population, as Japanese women with a less than high school education and aged 75 and over may be disproportionately affected by both dementia and frailty. Better understanding where health gaps like this exist can help inform public health planning, to minimize future economic costs and support those most in need.

Taking care of the older members of society is a common concern around the world. Japan is famous for its long-lived residents, the number of which continues to rise. In 2020, almost 30% of the Japanese population was aged 65 years or older, and this age group is not projected to peak until 2034. Caring for people with age-related ailments, such as dementia and frailty, poses a challenge both to individuals and public health care systems.

Microsimulation models, which are computer models that can provide detailed analysis on an individual basis, are currently used to project future population health in some countries, such as the U.K. and the U.S. Professor Hideki Hashimoto and researchers at the University of Tokyo, along with researchers from Stanford University in the U.S., wanted to create a new microsimulation model for Japan, which would take into account more diverse conditions than had been considered before.

"We developed a new Japanese microsimulation model that accounts for 13 chronic conditions (including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression and dependency), as well as frailty and dementia," explained Hashimoto. "Using an ultra-large data system, we were able to 'follow' a virtual cohort of more than 40 million people aged 60 and over from 2016 to 2043."

According to Hashimoto, projections of aging in Japan usually rely on the "average" status of older people and so don't consider the diversity of the population. "I believe that problems of aging are a matter of health gaps over the course of people's lives," he said. "Our projection brings attention to a widening health gap among older people. It highlighted that women with a less than high school education aged 75 or over are more likely to be affected."

Identifying where health gaps like this exist could be used to better inform public policy, not only about health care but other influential aspects of life. "Japan's case may suggest that improvement in educational attainment, as well as population health, could be a key to making a healthier and more manageable aging society," said Hashimoto.

Positively, this study, published in The Lancet Public Health, shows hope for a future where many people live longer and more healthy lives. "People might believe that an increase in cases of dementia is inescapable, given population aging. However, in this study we found that in Japan, despite an aging population, the number of people with dementia is expected to decrease over the next two decades," said Hashimoto. "Population aging does not necessarily mean an increase of social burden for care, but it does bring a diversity of problems that requires careful study and science-based policy attention, to close the health gap."

More information: Projecting prevalence of frailty and dementia and the economic cost of care in Japan from 2016 to 2043: a microsimulation modelling study, The Lancet Public Health (2022). Journal information: The Lancet Public Health Projecting prevalence of frailty and dementia and the economic cost of care in Japan from 2016 to 2043: a microsimulation modelling study,(2022). www.thelancet.com/journals/lan  (22)00044-5/fulltext
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

To say that college years are a time of great change is an understatement; whether you stay at or close to home, or move away to a four-year university, the post-high school years are often a time of new experiences, unfamiliar responsibilities, growing pains, and learning curves. They can also be a time when some students have to navigate their own physical and mental health for the first time without parental support.

"College is a key developmental time; the age of onset for lifetime mental health problems also directly coincides with traditional college years75 percent of lifetime mental health problems will onset by age 24," says Sarah K. Lipson, a Boston University School of Public Health assistant professor of health law, policy, and management. For more than 10 years, she's studied college student mental health with the Healthy Minds Network, a national project she co-leads with researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University.

In a new study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, Lipson and her colleagues reveal just how common depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues are, and how these issues unequally take a toll on students of color. The paper looks at survey data collected by the Healthy Minds Network between 2013 and 2021 from 350,000 students at over 300 campuses. It's the first long-term, multi-campus study of its kind to parse out differences in treatment and prevalence of mental health issues across race and ethnicity. The study was co-authored by Lipson and other members of the Healthy Minds Network team.

"As a budding clinician of color, I think the tracking of these trends helps support efforts related to stigma reduction and [mental health] education that can be targeted toward certain communities," says Jasmine Morigney, a clinical psychology doctoral student at Eastern Michigan University and a co-author on the study.

The researchers used screening tools to measure mental health symptoms, levels of flourishing, and whether a student received treatment during their time at college; participants self-identified their race and ethnicity.

They found that the mental health of college students across the United States has been on a consistent decline for all eight years of data analyzed, with an overall 135 percent increase in depression and 110 percent increase in anxiety from 2013 to 2021; the number of students who met the criteria for one or more mental health problems in 2021 had doubled from 2013.

Need for mental health support outpacing resources

American Indian/Alaskan Native college students were found to have the largest increases in depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and other mental health problems, as well as the largest decreases in flourishing. Back in 2016, about a third of American Indian/Alaskan Native students screened positive for depression, a similar level to other racial and ethnic groups in the study. But by the 2019 and 2020 semesters, half of those respondents were screening positive for depression.

"There has not been nearly enough research on this population," Lipson says. "My hope is that these data document the urgency around understanding some of the unique factors shaping these students' mental health. American Indian/Alaskan Native students need to be brought into the conversation for universities to invest in resources that align with their preferences."

For white students, the prevalence of non-suicidal self-injury and symptoms of eating disorders increased most significantly compared to other groups. In all other categoriesdepression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and one or more mental health problemsincreases were seen the most among non-white students. During the semesters of the COVID-19 pandemic, American Indian/Alaskan Native students and Asian/Pacific Islander/Desi American (APIDA) students reported the most significant increases in mental health concerns, according to the data.

Although more students overall are seeking help and access to mental health services on college campuses than they were in 2013which is good news, says Lipsonthe prevalence of mental health issues seems to be outpacing the number of students finding and receiving support. And some groups of students are actually less likely to get help than a decade ago. For example, Arab American students experienced a 22 percent jump in mental health issues, but had an 18 percent decrease in treatment over the eight years of the study, highlighting a critical gap between onset of symptoms and accessing help. During the semesters of the pandemicwhen many schools went remotefewer students of color were accessing necessary services.

"I find the change in treatment rates among students of color in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic to be quite surprising," Morigney says. Treatment declined the most in 2020 among APIDA and Black students. "Given the impact of the pandemic on this community and concentrated traumatic racism, it makes this finding quite alarming," she says.

Not just a pandemic problem

Though researchers tracked significant increases in anxiety and depression during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lipson says the numbers show a continuation of a troubling trend rather than a singular spike.

"The crisis related to mental health exists beyond the college and university setting," Lipson says. But the potential to intervene and reach students at a uniquely important time of life is huge. "It might not be perfect, but many four-year colleges offer some of the best resources people will ever have," Lipson says, since these institutions can use their resources to remove many barriers to care, such as a lack of available providers, long wait times, and financial restraints.

University policies to address and eliminate racial discrimination on campus and in healthcare settings can also reduce the mental health risk factors that many students of color experience.

"I would love to see universities work to enhance and promote diversity in their behavioral health staff," says Morigney. Students of color may not know if their campus counseling centers have staff with similar cultural backgrounds and could be reluctant to seek out services, she says. "The majority of mental health professionals are white, and universities are critical for not only providing students with culturally and ethnically diverse care, but also providing opportunities for clinicians of color to serve these student bodies." Providing training opportunities to encourage students of color to enter the field of mental health is also a huge opportunity.

"One of the most important aspects of this study is documenting these inequalities and communicating them to folks who can use this information to enact change," Lipson says. For colleges across the country worried about retention ratesmany colleges are seeing more students quit before completing their studiesshe says the conversations about retaining students and mental health need to be brought together. It's often the "same students who have the lowest rate of retention in higher education [who] are the same students who are least likely to access mental health services when they are struggling, and mental health is a predictor of retention," she says.

"In the big picture, we need to bring mental health into the classroom so that it doesn't require a student needing to make time or getting motivated to seek help," Lipson says. "There is a lot we can do to bring mental health into the default of students' lives."

Explore further Majority of US faculty help students with mental health issuesbut few are trained for it

More information: Sarah Ketchen Lipson et al, Trends in college student mental health and help-seeking by race/ethnicity: Findings from the national healthy minds study, 20132021, Journal of Affective Disorders (2022). Journal information: Journal of Affective Disorders Sarah Ketchen Lipson et al, Trends in college student mental health and help-seeking by race/ethnicity: Findings from the national healthy minds study, 20132021,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.03.038
A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has found that administration of a drug currently used to reduce cholesterol levels in the bloodstream can reduce the risk of developing proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) from non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR). In their paper published in JAMA Ophthalmology, the group describes their cohort study involving 5,835 patients who were taking fenofibrate and 144,417 others who were not, and what they learned about its efficacy in preventing diabetic macular edema (DME), PDR and vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR). Robert Frank, with the Wayne State University School of Medicine, has published an Invited Commentary piece in the same journal issue describing the work by the team in Pennsylvania.

Prior research has suggested that diabetic patients who take the cholesterol drug fenofibrate were less likely to develop PDR or VTDR, but the data was nonspecific. To date, two clinical trials have been conducted to test the use of fenofibrate in diabetic patients. One of them, the ACCORD-Eye trial, showed less progression severity, but did not focus on PDR or DME. And the FIELD study showed that patients using fenofibrate were less likely to receive laser eye treatment for PDR or DME, but it did not involve levels of progression.

In this new effort, the researchers accessed data in the Medicare Advantage database that involved the period 2002 to 2019. Included in the database was information about patient diabetes and eye status and whether they had been given fenofibrate. In all, the researchers included 150,252 NPDR patients (all over age 18) in their analysis5,835 of whom were taking fenofibrate and 144,417 who were not. They found that 27,325 patients progressed to VTDR, which included 4,086 patients to PDR and 22,750 who progressed to DME. They also found that use of fenofibrate resulted in an 8% reduced risk of progression to VTDR and a 24% reduction in progression to PDR. They saw no reduction in progression to DME. The researchers suggest that the use of fenofibrate can provide a modest reduction in progression of NPDR patients to PDR and VTDR, which indicates some degree of protection against the breakdown of the blood-retinal barrier.

Explore further Treatment effect of fenofibrate varies in patients with T2DM

More information: Elana Meer et al, Association of Fenofibrate Use and the Risk of Progression to Vision-Threatening Diabetic Retinopathy, JAMA Ophthalmology (2022). Elana Meer et al, Association of Fenofibrate Use and the Risk of Progression to Vision-Threatening Diabetic Retinopathy,(2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2022.0633 Robert N. Frank, Use of Fenofibrate in the Management of Diabetic RetinopathyLarge Population Analyses, JAMA Ophthalmology (2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2022.0634 Journal information: JAMA Ophthalmology

 2022 Science X Network
Peptides of the Wuhan basic variant and the Delta variant bind well with HLA-DRB1*03:01 (high orange column on the left), while Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 peptides are no longer recognized by this molecule. Credit: S.Nersisyan et al.

Scholars from HSE University and the RAS Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry have demonstrated the efficiency of T-cell immune response against the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. In approximately 90% of vaccinated Europeans, T-cell immunity was as effective against omicron as with other variants. The results of the study were published in PeerJ.

The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 caused a new wave of the global pandemic. The new mutations help the virus spread more effectively and avoid antibodies, which is why those who have already had the disease or who have been vaccinated are getting infected more often. At the same time, recent data shows that the severity of the disease in vaccinated patients is significantly lower than in people who have not contacted the virus.

The researchers assume that this can be explained by several factors. First, the omicron variant is slower at infecting the human cells; second, there is a hypothesis that a lighter course of the disease is related to effective action of T-cell immunity.

To confirm this assumption, a team of researchers from the HSE Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology and the RAS Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (Stepan Nersisyan, Anton Zhiyanov, Alexey Galatenko, Maxim Shkurnikov, Maria Zakharova, Irina Ishina, Inna Kurbatskaia, Azad Mamedov, Alexander Gabibov, and Alexander Tonevitsky) studied the omicron variant for mutations that help it avoid the T-cell immune response.

The development of T-cell response starts from the recognition of virus peptides (short fragments of proteins) with the molecules of the human major histocompatibility complex (HLA). The more peptides that are recognized, the faster and more efficient T-cell immunity is. Virus mutations can change such peptides, which is why they can stop being recognized by HLA molecules, and the T-cell response will be less effective.

T-CoV, a bioinformatics algorithm, demonstrated that the omicron variant avoided none of the HLA molecule variants. But it detected several HLA molecule variants that started to become less effective at recognizing the omicron's S-protein. An outstanding discovery was the HLA-DRB1*03:01 variant of the molecule. The most important peptide of the virus managed to avoid it. Interestingly, both types of omicron, BA.1 and BA.2 (also known as "Stealth"), evaded immune response recognition, though this was achieved by completely different mutations.

The bioinformatics calculations were verified experimentally in a laboratory. The researchers proved that there is no binding between omicron peptides and HLA-DRB1*03:01 molecule, which was expressed in vitro.

The researchers emphasize that the initial peptide from the Wuhan basic variant, as well as delta peptide, are recognized effectively by this molecule.

The authors emphasize that the detected HLA-DRB1*03:01 variant is present in a big share of the global population: for example, in 8.9% of Europeans.

"The population diversity of HLA molecules, as well as the specificity of their work do not let the virus avoid the T-cell immune response. But the virus has managed to hide its S-protein from one of the HLA molecules. Importantly, most of COVID-19 vaccines (Sputnik V, Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and some others) carry specifically this virus protein. This means that people with the variant HLA-DRB1*03:01 (who make up 9% of Europe's population, for example) vaccinated by S-protein may suffer from a more severe course of the disease caused by the omicron variant," said Alexander Tonevitsky, Dean of the HSE Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology.

More information: Stepan Nersisyan et al, Alterations in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and Delta peptides presentation by HLA molecules, PeerJ (2022). Journal information: PeerJ Stepan Nersisyan et al, Alterations in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and Delta peptides presentation by HLA molecules,(2022). DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13354

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Cross section through an embryonic mouse heart showing misexpression of smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (MYH11) in cardiomyocytes (green). Cell nuclei shown in blue. Credit: Frank Conlon Lab (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Inside embryonic cells, specific proteins control the rate at which genetic information is transcribed from DNA to messenger RNAa crucial regulatory step before proteins are created. Then, organs develop and hopefully function properly. Those specific "regulatory" proteins are called transcription factors, and they do their thing by binding to specific DNA sequences at just the right time.

Scientists have known that mutations to three cardiac transcription factorsGATA4, NKX2-5 and TBX5lead to a range of congenital heart disease states. Researchers have thought that an inability of these mutated genes to "turn on" cardiac genes is what leads to heart disease.

Now, the lab of Frank Conlon, Ph.D., professor of biology and genetics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has discovered there's more to the story. It involves non-cardiac genes, as well as answering a question researchers have struggled with for years.

Aside from the aforementioned transcription factors, past research showed that a protein complex subunit called CHD4 seems to play a major role in congenital heart disease. Deleting it causes embryonic death in animal models. Mutations to it cause major problems with proteins involved in skeletal and muscle development.

As it turns out, CHD4 is essential for numerous developmental events, such as ensuring proper timing of the switch from stem cell lineages to differentiated cell typesthat is, the moment when stem cells turn into, for example, heart cells or leg muscle cells. CDH4 also is essential for maintaining cell differentiationkeeping heart cells healthy heart cells. And CDH4 is a player in activating cellular processes to deal with DNA damage.

Yet, CHD4 cannot bind DNA. It needs to be brought to a specific location, or genetic loci, of a cardiac gene to do its work. So, scientists could not answer the key question of how CHD4 played its role in cardiac disease.

Conlon's lab, in collaboration with colleagues at UNC-Chapel Hill, Princeton, and Boston Children's Hospital, shows that GATA4, NKX2-5 and TBX5 interact with CHD4 inside the embryonic heart, recruiting it for action, and that's how CHD4 plays its role in heart health and disease.

These findings, published in the journal Genes & Development, imply that heart disease states are not only due to loss of cardiac gene expression, but that these genes' recruitment of CHD4 can lead to an inappropriate expression of non-cardiac genes, leading in the end to faulty heart development.

To put this implication to the test, Conlon and his collaborators removed the binding site for NKX2-5 in the skeletal muscle gene Acta1 in mice, and independently, the GATA4 binding site in the smooth muscle gene Myh11.

"In both instances, the mutation led to the inappropriate expression of the non-cardiac genes in the heart in a dominant manner," said Conlon, a member of the UNC McAllister Heart Institute. "This provides a mechanism for the prevalence of congenital heart disease in humans with just one mutated copy of NKX2-5, GATA4 or TBX5."

Explore further Lack of CHD4 leads to abnormal myofibrils, heart defects

More information: Zachary L. Robbe et al, CHD4 is recruited by GATA4 and NKX2-5 to repress noncardiac gene programs in the developing heart, Genes & Development (2022). Journal information: Genes & Development Zachary L. Robbe et al, CHD4 is recruited by GATA4 and NKX2-5 to repress noncardiac gene programs in the developing heart,(2022). DOI: 10.1101/gad.349154.121
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Understanding how infectious diseases, such as COVID-19 (causative pathogenSARS-CoV-2), spread requires a deep understanding of our social connections and networks. It is the way forward for efficient infection prevention and control, according to researchers writing in the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics.

S. Mahadevi, Shyam S. Kamath, and D. Pushparaj Shetty of the Department of Mathematical and Computational Sciences at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka in Surathkal, Mangalore, India, explain that it is important to have effective models of infectious disease, especially those with the potential to cause debilitating global pandemics. The team has used graph energy centrality to study COVID-19 data from South Korea (Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) by building a transmission network from that data and also from the Johns Hopkins University data in the U.S. The team has also used data from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, and elsewhere to help them validate their model.

The model allows them to home in on the most active nodes, the likely infectious superspreaders, within the network. If such nodes can be detected in a network before a disease has spread widely, those individuals, and perhaps even sites and events might be put under specific isolation rules to slow if not stave off the emergence of a pandemic. The researchers point out that many of the emergent human infectious diseases arise from wild animal hosts where the native virus or other pathogen is often endemic. A problem commonly arises when humans are interacting closely with those animals or other vectors of disease and the pathogen opportunistically makes the leap from species to species reaching a person who would essentially be Patient 0.

Subsequently, the detection of high-risk hosts is important for the management and monitoring of such diseases, especially the identification of those at risk with wide social networks. This will be critical in the face of the next lethal pandemic.

Explore further Modeling the potential role of super spreaders on COVID-19 transmission dynamics

More information: S. Mahadevi et al, Study of novel COVID-19 data using graph energy centrality: a soft computing approach, International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics (2022). Journal information: International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics S. Mahadevi et al, Study of novel COVID-19 data using graph energy centrality: a soft computing approach,(2022). DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2022.122287
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A comprehensive tool that can assess the symptoms of Long COVID has been developed at the University of Birmingham for use in research and clinical care.

Developed with patients that have lived experience of Long COVID, the tool can capture symptoms and their impact on everyday life.

Currently more than 200 symptoms are associated with Long COVID which can affect people for months after the original coronavirus infection has gone. These can affect many organs in the body and include breathlessness, fatigue, or brain fog and are estimated to affect around 1.3 million people in the UK and more than 100 million people worldwide.

Healthcare providers and researchers need reliable ways of measuring these symptoms as they are experienced by patients to help them develop new treatments and provide the best possible care.

A team from the University of Birmingham's Center for Patient-Reported Outcomes Research designed the Symptom Burden Questionnaire for Long COVID to address this challenge. Patients can use it to report symptoms and the data can be used to help identify treatments, and test whether these are safe and effective. The approach is published today (27 April 2022) in the BMJ.

"People living with Long COVID say they experience a huge range of symptoms but getting these recognized by healthcare practitioners and policy-makers has been a struggle," said senior author, Dr. Sarah Hughes. "We designed and tested this tool with our patient partners to ensure it is as comprehensive as possible, while also not being burdensome for patients to complete."

Public partner Karen Matthews from LongCOVID SOS noted "I participated in a study quite early on in my condition and the questionnaire used didn't capture the breadth of what I was feeling. Being able to shape something that could record that experience more effectively is worthwhile and I hope it gives researchers and people like me taking part in future studies some valuable evidence."

The resulting questionnaire measures different symptoms of Long COVID and the impact of these symptoms on daily life. It was developed with extensive patient input following regulatory guidance, meaning its scores may be used to support regulatory decisions around the approval of new therapies for Long COVID and by policymakers.

The study was carried out in partnership with patient data technology specialist, Aparito Ltd, and funded by the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation. The team plans to carry out more development and testing to explore how the tool can be used in routine clinical practice, including translating it for use in other countries and minority ethnic communities.

More information: Development and validation of the Symptom Burden Questionnaire for Long COVID: a Rasch analysis., BMJ (2022). Development and validation of the Symptom Burden Questionnaire for Long COVID: a Rasch analysis.,(2022). Further details regarding the measure and access for use can be found at www.birmingham.ac.uk/sbq Journal information: British Medical Journal (BMJ)
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Issues around vaccine acceptance must be addressed alongside equity of access and logistics if the goal of vaccinating 70% of the world's population against COVID-19 is to be met, says a report by global health policy experts.

Emerging causes of so-called "vaccine hesitancy," described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines," should be monitored continually in order to better understand the problem, according to the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP).

The 26 April Countering COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Report spotlights the socio-political and psychological issues around vaccine hesitancy and sets out recommendations for overcoming them.

It says surveillance systems are needed to track any adverse effects of vaccines, while non-politicized debate and transparency around data are essential to improving COVID-19 immunization rates worldwide.

IAP co-chair Margaret Hamburg said: "Vaccine hesitancy is one of the most pressing issues of our response to COVID and more broadly our opportunity to prevent disease and improve health."

She said it was "critically important" to engage with people who would benefit from vaccines.

The WHO has said that at least 70% of the population of every country must be fully vaccinated by mid-2022 in order to bring the pandemic under control. But so far only 15.2% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to Our World in Data.

Vaccine hesitancy is one of a number of factors contributing to this gap, according to the IAP report.

It recommends that science communicators engage with communities in open debateswith roll-out plans adjusted to take account of feedbackas a way of allaying fears. But it warns that such debates should not be politicized.

"Really listening to people's concerns and responding to them is important as we attempt to help people feel more comfortable with accepting vaccines and the fact they will protect their health and prevent disease," said Hamburg.

The IAP has more than 140 national, regional and global member academies that work to support the role of science in finding evidence-based solutions to public health and other development challenges. Its two secretariats are based in Italy and the U.S.

The report, produced to help governments and science communicators improve vaccine acceptance, recommends integrating more visual imagery, such as internet memes, into vaccine communications. But caution is advised on repeating false claims, even when rebutting them, to avoid putting unnecessary attention on misinformation.

It also advocates for greater transparency in sharing vaccine data. "There should be clear communication protocols for communicating with the public about adverse events," it says.

But Fatima Hassan, founder of the Health Justice Initiative, based in South Africa, says that while this might be valuable advice for global health leaders and science communicators, such sharing has proven problematic in the past.

Referring to the impact of data on blood clots and delays in vaccine delivery in some countries, she told SciDev.Net: "Pharmaceutical companies that did data sharing may require some introspection because there was a lot of confusion caused."

A rare but serious blood-clotting problem, known as vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, has been linked with the COVID-19 vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Hassan also suggests that vaccine hesitancy may be a less pressing problem in the global South than in the North.

Research published in Nature shows considerably higher willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine in low- and middle-income countries compared with the U.S. and Russia.

Considering just 15% of Africans are fully vaccinated, according to Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention statistics, compared to 66% of the U.S. population, Hassan sees access to vaccines as a more pressing problem.

"The majority of vaccine supplies have been prioritized for richer countries, and there isn't meaningful technology transfer," she said. "These issues point more to the fact that the real problem is inequality, and that vaccine hesitancy is one part of a much bigger, very complex picture."

However, even before COVID-19, scientists highlighted the need for more data on vaccine hesitancy worldwide.

A study of 149 countries published in The Lancet in 2020 estimated that confidence in the importance, safety, and effectiveness of vaccines fell in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and South Korea between 2015 and 2019, before the pandemic.

"Our findings highlight the importance of regular monitoring to detect emerging trends to prompt interventions to build and sustain vaccine confidence," the researchers wrote.

In January this year, a separate study on COVID-19 acceptance in South Asia, published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases found that at least two-thirds of the population in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal were willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Explore further Study examines COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake in autism community

Provided by SciDev.Net
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Since the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, a group of Yale researchers has diligently tracked the virus via a useful but decidedly unglamorous source: sewage.

Daily measurements from the New Haven wastewater treatment facility have yielded a series of important insights about the pandemic's course. In one study, a group of Yale researchers including Yale SOM's Edward H. Kaplan, a professor of operations research, public health, and engineering, and Jordan Peccia, professor of chemical and environmental engineering, demonstrated that the concentration of COVID-19 RNA per milliliter of sewage sludge rises and falls with the rate of infection seen in testing and hospitalization data. In another, they found that testing wastewater can provide an early warning sign of a worsening outbreak, three to five days before hospitalizations begin to surge.

Now they've uncovered yet another secret in the sludge. In their latest paper, Kaplan, Peccia, and Yale student coauthors Alessandro Zulli and Marcela Sanchez use wastewater data to calculate the cumulative COVID-19 incidence rate in New Haven and present a formula that would allow other municipalities to do the same. Their results suggest that nearly a third of people in the New Haven area had been infected by May 2021a finding that is consistent with three other independent statistical estimates, but notably larger than the 12% figure derived from official case counts.

To develop their estimate, Kaplan and Peccia needed just one reliable measure of how many people had been infected against which to calibrate their wastewater measurements. They were fortunate to have data from the Centers for Disease Control, which conducted antibody blood testing in Connecticut in the summer of 2020. That CDC testing, which took place before the arrival of vaccines, told the researchers how many people had been infected up to that point. After matching the CDC's estimate with the concentration of RNA in wastewater at the same time, they could extrapolate forward to May 2021.

Any city could, in theory, do the same, whether using CDC data from the area or antibody tests from another source. "The principle is what's important," Kaplan explains. With frequent sewage data and one accurate point-in-time estimate of infections, the same basic approach can work anywhere.

Knowing how many people have been infected with COVID-19 over time "is important to knowing what our actual immunity to SARS-CoV-2 could be," Peccia explainsbut getting a good grasp on the cumulative incidence rate has proved challenging. (The CDC antibody tests from 2020 were helpful but not nationally representative and quickly fell out of date.)

Official case counts, which are derived from testing, reflect inconsistencies in testing across the U.S. Early in the pandemic, tests were scarce; more recently, the widespread use of at-home tests means that not every positive result is being reported to public health authorities as a new case of COVID-19. Trying to reverse engineer the number from other signals, such as hospitalizations, is equally tricky: some variants have put more people in the hospital than others.

But where tests and other measures fail, toilets succeed. People who contract COVID-19 go to the bathroom whether or not they get tested, making wastewater one of the few direct, population-level sources of information about the pandemic's ebb and flow. "How many infections are happening? That's the hidden thing that you want to see," Kaplan says. "We believe the wastewater signal is giving us the very best view of that."

In New Haven, the incidence rate derived from sewage suggests "there's a lot of immunity out there," Peccia says. "We're not all as vaccinated as we should be and not as boosted as we should be, but there's a lot of people that have been infected. If you just go back and you look at [case counts], you'll really underestimate that."

Kaplan and Peccia are quick to point out that wastewater monitoring, for all its merits, is no substitute for testing. After all, "you can't do contact tracing off of wastewater," Kaplan says. Tests help individuals know whether to isolate and allow public health officials to link cases to vaccination status, for instance. But testing programs are also very expensive, and as the pandemic stretches on, "we're going to need to augment them in some way."

Wastewater monitoring offers a powerful and economical complement to a conventional COVID-19 testing program. In addition to calculating cumulative incidence rates, wastewater data makes it possible for officials to spot emerging outbreaks. Kaplan cites the example of Norwich, Connecticut, which used wastewater data to identify a cluster of cases and intervene before it spread further.

Kaplan and Peccia also see potential in sewage-based monitoring for diseases beyond COVID-19. They're in the early stages of studying influenza in New Haven; wastewater has previously been used to track polio in the developing world. The work they and others have been doing, Peccia says, "lays the groundwork for many, many other types of viruses."

More information: Edward H. Kaplan et al, Scaling SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations to population estimates of infection, Scientific Reports (2022). Journal information: Scientific Reports Edward H. Kaplan et al, Scaling SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations to population estimates of infection,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07523-7
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee will release more details Monday surrounding why he abruptly canceled the execution of Oscar Smith, delaying his previous plan to reveal the reasons this week, the Republican's spokesperson confirmed.

Casey Black said in an email Tuesday that the governor's office will be releasing more information and action steps." Lee had previously promised reporters to provide new information this week. However, the governor's office pointed to the pending adjournment of the GOP-controlled General Assembly as a reason to push back divulging execution details.

I think thats fair to folks who are stretched thin covering final items of import in the legislature and trying to cover this issue with attention to detail, Communications Director Laine Arnold said in a follow-up email.

Last week, Lee issued a statement saying there had been an oversight in preparation for lethal injection as he granted a temporary reprieve to the 72-year-old Smith. A day later, he said the reprieve was needed because of a technical oversight, without explaining further.

The governor's office and Department of Correction have since declined to answer direct questions about the planned execution, including whether the execution drugs were compounded, and if so, whether a pharmacist had those drugs independently tested for potency, sterility and endotoxins as outlined in the state's lethal injection protocols. The protocol allows the state to use compounded or manufactured drugs.

The reprieve will be in effect until June 1. In the interim, attorneys and death penalty watchdog groups have called for an independent investigation into the matter. To date, the state has declined to say whether they will do so.

Smith was convicted of the 1989 killings of his estranged wife and her two teenage sons. He is the oldest inmate on Tennessee's death row.

He had been scheduled to receive a three-drug injection at a Nashville maximum security prison. In Tennessee, officials use midazolam, a sedative to render the inmate unconscious; vecuronium bromide, to paralyze the inmate; and potassium chloride, to stop the heart.

Lethal injection drugs have been a challenge to obtain for some states as many pharmacies and manufacturers refuse to supply the medications for executions. This has forced some states to explore other execution methods, including South Carolina forging ahead with plans for a firing squad.

In Tennessee, some inmates can choose between lethal injection or the electric chair.

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 U.S. is experiencing a labor shortage that's partly fueled by a drop-off in immigration, which ground to a halt during the coronavirus pandemic. By some estimates, the U.S. now has an 2 million fewer immigrants than it would have if the pace had stayed the same. That's helped lead to a desperate scramble for workers in many sectors, from meatpacking to homebuilding. It's also contributing to supply shortages and price increases. Just 10 miles from the Rio Grande, Mike Helle's farm in Texas is so short of immigrants that he's replaced hundreds of acres of labor-intensive leafy greens with crops that can be harvested by machinery. He's also increased pay for his workers, who are almost exclusively immigrants.
WASHINGTON (AP)  House Democrats vowed to continue investigating consulting giant McKinsey's work with opioid drugmakers after a Wednesday hearing detailed how the firm had advised companies pushing painkillers as well as U.S. health regulators.

The hearing before a House committee is part of an ongoing probe into McKinseys role in the U.S. opioid crisis that has been linked to over 500,000 overdose deaths from both prescription pain medications and illicit drugs like fentanyl.

McKinsey's top executive challenged some of the committee's findings but said the company has overhauled how it does business and no longer works with opioid manufacturers, including OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma.

Ive apologized for our work for Purdue and other opioid manufacturers and we fully recognize it fell short of our standards, said Bob Sternfels in testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. He said the company would continue cooperating with investigators.

Last year the consulting powerhouse agreed to pay $600 million to settle lawsuits over its work advising opioid makers, though it admitted no wrongdoing.

Lawmakers questioned Sternfels for three hours about revelations that his company allowed consultants working for Purdue Pharma to simultaneously advise the Food and Drug Administration, the agency tasked with overseeing drug safety.

McKinsey was advising both the fox and the hen-house  and getting paid by both, said Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. Clearly, McKinsey should not be setting strategy for both drug companies and the FDA.

A preliminary report from the committee found 22 McKinsey consultants who worked for both the FDA and an opioid manufacturer over the span of a decade. The overlapping work included McKinsey staffers advising the FDA on overhauling its drug safety division, according to the committee's review of thousands of company documents.

Meanwhile, McKinsey consultants recommended cash prizes and unrivaled recognition for top OxyContin sales reps to increase Purdue's revenue, according to a 2013 strategy presentation released Wednesday.

Lawmakers heard conflicting accounts of whether McKinseys work helped Purdue avoid tighter FDA regulation.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, testifying remotely, said that her states own investigation into McKinsey uncovered emails recommending Purdue band together with other drugmakers in 2009 to defend against strict treatment by the FDA.

Sternfeld said McKinsey did not share FDA documents or intelligence with Purdue and said claims of information sharing were inaccurate.

He also testified that McKinsey was open with FDA about its pharmaceutical consulting work.

We made very clear that we were working both with the industry and with opioids in particular, Sternfeld said. FDA officials have previously stated they were aware of McKinsey's pharmaceutical consulting.

Maloney and other Democrats repeatedly suggested McKinsey's work may have violated federal contracting rules on disclosing potential conflicts of interest.

On Wednesday, Maloney introduced legislation that would bolster requirements for contractors to disclose potential conflicts. A bipartisan group of Senators previously introduced similar legislation in their chamber.

The committee's Republicans spent most of their allotted time undercutting the relevance of the hearing, noting the vast majority of opioid overdoses are now caused by fentanyl and heroin, not prescription drugs. They urged tighter border security, noting nearly all illicit opioids enter the U.S. through the southern border.

We have a new opioid crisis, folks, and it's not from big pharma in the United States it's from the drug cartels who operate sites in Mexico, said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida.

House Democrats spotlighted several examples of McKinsey touting its FDA connections when soliciting consulting business from drugmakers. The company also submitted advice on dealing with the opioid epidemic to members of the Trump administration, according to the report. It's unclear if the information had any effect on federal policy.

For decades, McKinsey has been the preeminent corporate consulting firm, advising many of the world's biggest companies on strategy and operations. The company has also made inroads into government consulting, receiving nearly $1 billion in federal contracts.

The Oversight Committee scrutinized McKinsey's work on three dozen FDA contracts worth more than $65 million, stretching from 2008 to 2021.

At a separate Senate hearing Tuesday, the head of FDA's drug center told lawmakers McKinsey's work dealt with organizational design and did not entail involvement in product regulation." The agency currently has no contracts with McKinsey, she noted, and no new awards are expected while Congress investigates the firm.

The House report did not conclude that McKinsey's FDA consulting resulted in lighter regulation of OxyContin or any other opioids.

For years the FDA has attempted to discourage doctors from overprescribing the drugs, mainly by adding starker warnings to their labeling. Prescriptions have fallen from their peak in 2012, but mainly due to new prescribing limits imposed by state and local governments, insurers and hospital systems.

AP Writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this story from Cherry Hill, N.J.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Montanas high mountain peaks and slower-paced lifestyle have drawn many newcomers over the past 10 years, including minority populations.

The state is seeing the third-fastest-growing Hispanic population in the country, following only North and South Dakota. The 2020 Census reflects a nearly doubled Hispanic population over the last 10 years, although Montana State University researcher Sally Moyce expects only a sliver of that population is represented in the data.

Though fast growing, the population remains below 100,000, meaning Montana is considered a new-growth community with limited Spanish-speaking resources, said Moyce. The state lacks certain basics such as Spanish-speaking health care providers, Spanish versions of documents and health questionnaires, exacerbating health disparities that already exist due to lack of affordable housing.

In fact, according to the 2020 Census, Montanas Hispanic population is closer to 45,000, an increase of approximately 16,634 people, about 4.2% of the states population. That's up from 2.9% in 2010.

Americas Hispanic populations are often migratory, stopping in areas where there is work. Between the construction at Big Sky and growing hospitality industry, Gallatin Valley is seeing a significant portion of the growing minority population, Moyce said, adding that the outdoors are also appealing to those traveling from South and Central American countries.

Community Health Partners (CHP) in Bozeman provides primary care for all, regardless of ability to pay and sees much of the Hispanic population. About 5.6% of the clinics patient population speak a language other than English and of those, 90% are Spanish speakers, said CHP Communication Specialist Buck Taylor.

Were speaking Spanish in all our locations every day, said Taylor. CHP has sites in Bozeman, Belgrade, Livingston and West Yellowstone as well as two school based clinics.

CHP has worked to bolster its Spanish speaking providers or take on translators since the mid-2000s when Mexican immigrants moved to Bozeman seemingly overnight, said Taylor. The center has managed to flesh out its Spanish options for its patients, but has recently run into a new phenomenon as CHP refers patients out to specialists.

Those referred to private practices to see specialists are, at times, not able to receive services because there are no Spanish speaking providers or translators. At this point, local providers have leaned on CHP or other services to bridge the gap.

Hispanic communities in rural settings often struggle to access comprehensive health care, resulting in more chronic illness.

For the Mexican population, with at least a decade of integration, many have found ways to communicate, sometimes at the expense of having a child translate, Taylor said.

But as organized crime and gang violence persist in Honduras and other countries in South and Central America, more families are being displaced than ever. Taylor has seen more Honduran families arrive in Bozeman over the last year who have struggled to integrate into the community.

Bienvenidos, a Bozeman organization that received its nonprofit status in Sept. 2021, is working with 28 Hispanic families to help them integrate into the community. Of those, eight families arrived in the last month, said Amanda Cater who is on the board of directors for the organization.

There are multiple families on the groups waiting list, Cater said, adding that there arent enough volunteers to serve all those in need. Most families are from Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Volunteers with the group are both Spanish speakers and non-Spanish speakers, and help newcomers access groceries from the food bank and connect them with resources. Cater recently taught a man how to use the bus system in Bozeman as transportation presents major obstacles to accessing community resources.

Cater has helped get patients to doctors appointments, but finds most families hit a language barrier early on, unable even to make their own appointments.

A significant portion of health care involves phone conversations to schedule appointments, receive lab results, discuss treatment plans and more. But without Spanish speakers at reception or in provider positions, the information can be lost over the phone, said Dr. Claire Kenamore, Billings Clinic pediatrician in Bozeman.

These families end up receiving very fractured health care, Kenamore said. Theyll have one small part of the problem fixed at one visit, but they dont get an overall plan of attack.

Kenamore usually sets the patients' next appointments while they're in her office in order to get them scheduled while a translator is present. Communicating with the next clinic ensures the staff has a translator on the day of the appointment.

While the Hispanic communities in Montana face similar health disparities as in other parts of the country, the issues are more acute in rural communities due to resource and physician shortages, said Josh Billstein, director of strategic development with Billings Clinic.

We have to be careful not to come to folks with solutions in a health care mindset. We want to be a partner, and a lot of that is listening to those communities, Billstein said.

Novel partnerships, particularly with MSU, that engage Hispanic immigrants in health research is one way Billstein and the Billings Clinic team are participating in the conversations around health care access for the growing minority group.

At regularly held health fairs with community partners, a research team screens Hispanic individuals and is able to provide some services to those without health insurance. The fairs also provide a snapshot into the general health of the community.

Though housing costs may eventually force out immigrants, Billstein and Kenamore recognize a community benefit in understanding care for new and growing minorities in Montana.

"Its important that this population knows that they are welcome here," Kenamore said, adding that continuity of care is critical in creating positive health outcomes.

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A nationwide study looking at the health of counties identified the cost of child care as one of the biggest challenges Missoula County families face.

The University of Wisconsins Population Health Institute released the annual report Wednesday, which looked at more than 90 health-influencing factors including education, housing, jobs, transportation and access to medical care, to rank counties based on health outcomes.

The study found the burden of child care poses one of the greatest challenges to counties nationwide, and Missoula County is no exception.

In Montana, on average, households with two children are spending 31% of their total income on child care, according to the study. In Missoula, households spend an average 25% to 29% of their income on child care costs.

When a single household expense consumes the majority of a paycheck, it becomes difficult to meet competing needs and can force households into tough decisions like choosing between quality child care, paying rent, and purchasing nutritious food, the study said.

Child care is considered unaffordable by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services if it takes up more than 7% of a households total income.

As it stands, there is not a single county in the country where child care costs for two children are at or below the affordability benchmark, a University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute press release stated.

The study goes on to identify racial disparities in access to child care and overall health outcomes.

According to the study, American Indian and Alaska Native families in Montana have a median household income of $35,859, while the median household income for white families in Montana is $58,291.

Missoulas overall median household income was $63,400, according to the study.

Missoula County ranked sixth out of Montana's 56 counties in terms of health outcomes overall.

Gallatin County took first place, and Roosevelt County had the worst outcomes of any Montana county. In order, the top five counties ahead of Missoula in the rankings were Gallatin County, Carbon County, Madison County, Beaverhead County and Jefferson County.

Missoula County had a 16% rate of adult smoking, an 18% rate of physical inactivity and a 96% rate of high school completion, the report said.

Notably, only 18% of Missoula Countys population reportedly experienced severe housing problems, which the study included if a household lacks complete kitchen or plumbing facilities, is overcrowded or is severely cost-burdened.

The report also provides action items communities can undertake in efforts to improve their health outcomes.

To improve access to child care, Michael Stevenson with the University of Wisconsins Population Health Institute suggested implementing child care subsidies and publicly funded pre-kindergarten classes for 3- and 4-year-olds.

The Health Institute also included suggestions for broader health improvements, like expanding government assistance programs such as Earned Income Tax Credits and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

The University of Wisconsins Population Health Institute proposes integrating social services across delivery systems and disciplinary boundaries, such as by combining housing with workforce services.

Another option is to provide health care outreach to those whose employers do not offer affordable coverage, who are self-employed or who are unemployed.

To read the full report, visit bit.ly/3xYyp9V.

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After about an hour of arguments in front of a packed courtroom, a Missoula judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Clinton pastor who claims he was discriminated against by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The lawsuit, filed last fall by Clinton Community Church Pastor Brandon Huber, accuses the Missoula Organization of Realtors (MOR) and NAR of discriminating against him for requiring that he undergo an ethics hearing process over alleged anti-LGBTQ+ actions he made in the Clinton church.

The lawsuit said MOR accused Huber of violating their hate speech policy when Huber pulled out of a lunch program partnership with the Missoula Food Bank over their use of LGBTQ+ inserts, saying they were contrary to the churchs teachings. A third party made a complaint to MOR, triggering the administrative process of an ethics hearing. Huber filed the suit in November, and subsequently added NAR as a defendant.

Wednesday's arguments focused on whether it was appropriate for the lawsuit to be in a courtroom at all, since Huber hasnt undergone the NAR ethics process yet.

Huber was scheduled to go through an ethics hearing in December, but it was postponed to let the legal process unfold. An ethics hearing is standard practice when a complaint accuses a member of violating a NAR or MOR hate speech policy.

Matthew Monforton, representing Huber, said the pastor has been disciplined for his religious beliefs by having to go through the ethics process.

NARs religiously bigoted ethics proceeding is a form of punishment, Monforton argued, adding an ethics investigation will be a circus of anti-Christian bigotry."

This is not some walk in the park, Monforton said. His arguments leaned heavily on the contention that ethics proceedings based on religious practice are a violation of the Montana Human Rights Act, and the hearing itself is causing Huber undue stress and expenditure of resources.

Missoula County District Court Judge Jason Marks shot down Monforton's claims.

I dont think this case is ripe  I think going through an administrative process is not an injury that puts this case properly before me, Judge Marks said from the bench. From my perspective its pretty straightforward.

If theres an adverse finding in the eventual ethics hearing, Huber is welcome to bring the matter back to the court, the judge added.

The Realtors' group, represented by Raph Graybill and Natasha Jones, echoed the judge's reasoning in their arguments.

Graybill and Jones emphasized that Huber has not faced any actual disciplinary action or injury. For a lawsuit to have merit in a courtroom, Huber needs to prove injury and violation of legally protected rights. This hasnt happened yet, Graybill said.

Youve got to show injury, he said. The injury that remains, after all the briefing thats gone back and forth, is that Mr. Huber will have to attend a hearing that he agreed to attend.

Huber agreed to the ethics hearing process when he became a member of NAR. The groups ethical rules are a condition of membership, Jones said.

Everyone agrees that Mr. Huber is subject to the code of ethics, Graybill said. Part of that is that he agrees if there is an ethical dispute, he will go through the hearing process thats spelled out.

Defense stressed that because the complaint against Huber hadnt gone through administrative procedures, the case doesn't belong in a courtroom.

Requiring the participation and exhaustion of administrative remedies is typical, legal and is not improper interference as alleged in the brief, Jones said. There has been no discipline and no findings of guilt, she added.

Huber still is a member of both MOR and NAR, has full access to multiple listing services and is still working with Windermere to sell homes.

After the ruling, Monforton maintained the Bible and Huber's proclamations aren't hate speech and shouldn't subject his client to any ethics proceedings. The pair intend to appeal the courts ruling to the Montana Supreme Court.

MOR CEO Jim Bachand said the group is pleased with the courts decision to dismiss the case.

The allegations were premature given there has been no hearing on Mr. Hubers case and no findings have been made against him, Bachand said in a statement to the Missoulian. (MOR) will determine when to reschedule the previously planned ethics hearing and carefully review the matter, while following due process to ensure fairness to all involved parties.

The hearing drew over 20 spectators, including Pastor Jordan JD Hall, who founded the Montana Daily Gazette, and Sen. Theresa Manzella (R-Hamilton). Hall hosted the God, Country, Family tour, which stopped by Clinton last fall in support of Huber.

After the hearing was adjourned, Huber joined Manzella and Hall in a prayer circle outside of the courtroom.

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A Missoula nurse was sentenced in federal court on Tuesday to two years of probation for diverting fentanyl and hydromorphone at Community Medical Center.

Mary S. Monahan, 61, pleaded guilty in January to unlawfully obtaining controlled substances by fraud or deception. She was fined $2,000 as part of the sentence.

U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen presided.

Federal court documents allege that from July 2020 to February 2021 Monahan diverted fentanyl and hydromorphone while she was working at CMC.

On two occasions, co-workers saw Monahan acting suspiciously. In January 2021, a staff member saw Monahan with her back to a patient filling syringes with two drug vials.

"Monahan put something in her jacket pocket, pulled up her right arm sleeve to her elbow, stepped into the corner of the curtain, then returned and wiped her arm with an alcohol pad and raised it for about a minute," the press release said.

A month later in February, a second co-worker saw Monahan doing something with her hands before putting a vial into the pocket of her scrubs. CMC supervisors confronted Monahan, who admitted to taking narcotics and using them.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karla E. Painter prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration with assistance from the Missoula Police Department.

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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.
POKROVSK, Ukraine  As Russian forces intensify their shelling of eastern Ukraine, more people are leaving their homes in search of safety.

In Pokrovsk, a town in the Donetsk region, people lined up Tuesday to board a train headed to the far west of the country along the border with Hungary and Slovakia. One person was lifted onto the train in a wheelchair, another on a stretcher.

The passengers took with them cats, dogs, a few bags and boxes, and the memory of those who did not flee in time.

We were in the basement, but my daughter didnt make it and was hit with shrapnel on the doorstep during shelling on Monday, said Mykola Kharchenko, 74. We had to bury her in the garden near the pear tree.

He said his village, Vremivka, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Pokrovsk, was under heavy fire for four days and everything was destroyed. With tears in his eyes, Kharchenko said he somehow held himself together at home, but once he reached the train station he fell apart.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

 Putin gets what he didnt want: Ukraine army closer to West

 Top Russian diplomat warns Ukraine against provoking WWIII

 Frances victorious Macron boosts weapons, stakes in Ukraine

 Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra organized by Met, Polish operas

Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle that the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross should be involved in the evacuation of civilians from a besieged steel plant in Ukraines southeastern city of Mariupol.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that during their one-on-one meeting Tuesday, Guterres and Putin discussed the proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians from conflict zones, namely in relation to the situation in Mariupol.

The sprawling Azovstal steel plant has been almost completely destroyed by Russian attacks but it is the last pocket of organized Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.

An estimated 2,000 troops and 1,000 civilians are said to be holed up in bunkers underneath the wrecked structure.

Dujarric said that following the Guterres-Putin agreement in principle, discussions will be held with the U.N. humanitarian office and the Russian Defense Ministry on the evacuation.

WASHINGTON  The State Department says U.S. diplomats have begun returning to Ukraine by making day trips to temporary offices in the western city of Lviv from neighboring Poland.

The department said the first group of diplomats crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border and traveled to Lviv on Tuesday morning before returning to Poland later in the day.

The step came just two days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed Ukrainian leaders during a secrecy-shrouded visit to Kyiv that the U.S. would start restaffing its diplomatic facilities in Ukraine this week.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the agency has accelerated its review of re-opening the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, which was closed shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. He said operations at the embassy would resume as soon as possible depending on the security situation in the capital.

UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned about reports of new security incidents in a Russian-backed separatist region of Moldova and urges all concerned to refrain from any statements or actions that could escalate tensions.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Tuesday that Guterres has called for efforts to lower tensions throughout Trans-Dniester. Explosions rocked the region for the second day in a row, knocking out two powerful radio antennas close to the Ukrainian border. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Ukraine all but blamed Russia.

Russian speakers of the strip of land with about 470,000 people between Moldova and Ukraine nominally seceded from Moldova in 1990, one year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, fearing the country might shortly merge with Romania, whose language and culture it broadly shares.

The separatist region fought a brief war with Moldova in 1992 and declared itself an independent state, though it remains unrecognized by any country, including Russia which bases about 1,500 troops there, calling them peacekeepers. Concerns are high that those forces could be used to invade Ukraine from the west.

Haq said the U.N. continues to fully support efforts by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to reach a political settlement of the Trans-Dniester conflict in the so-called 5+2 process which comprises Trans-Dniester, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE with the United States and the European Union as observers. The aim is to strengthen Moldovas independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, with a special status for Trans-Dniester.

BERLIN  Germanys vice chancellor says his country has come very, very close to independence from Russian oil and an embargo on deliveries would now be manageable.

Germany, which has Europes biggest economy, has said so far that it aims to end Russian oil imports by the end of this year.

Speaking Tuesday during a visit to Poland, Economy Minister Robert Habeck  who is also the vice chancellor and responsible for energy  said that his country has cut Russias share of its oil supply from 35% before the war in Ukraine to about 12%.

Habeck said the situation is such that an embargo has become manageable for Germany. He added that the problem that just a few weeks ago seemed very big for Germany has become significantly smaller  so that independence from Russian oil imports has come very, very close.

Russian gas imports, however, are a bigger issue for Germany. Berlin has said that it will need longer to do without gas supplies from Russia.

LONDON  Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain does not want war to escalate beyond Ukraines borders, and rejected an allegation by Moscow that the West is fighting a proxy conflict with Russia.

But Johnson said Ukrainians are being attacked from within Russian territory and have a right to protect and defend themselves by striking inside Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused NATO of pouring oil on the fire with its support for Ukraine, and said the risk of World War III should not be underestimated. Russia has singled Britain out for criticism after a U.K. government minister said it was legitimate for Ukraine to hit fuel depots in Russia with U.K.-supplied weapons.

In an interview with British station Talk TV, Johnson said its very, very important that we dont accept the way that the Russians are trying to frame what is happening in Ukraine.

He said: They are trying to frame this as a conflict between Russia and the West, or Russia and NATO. Thats not what is going on.

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia  Slovakias President Zuzana Caputova released a video addressing the invading Russian soldiers, their commanders and all whom it may concern, urging them to stop the war in Ukraine.

In the three-minute video in Russian with the subtitles in Slovak, Caputova condemned war crimes against women, children and civilians.

You justify your invasion by talking about liberation, Caputova told them. How were you intending to liberate Tatiana from Irpin, killed by a Russian grenade together with her two children? Or Olena from Hostomel, raped by one of you in a car? she asked.

Referring to testimonies of women who have survived, Caputova says they find that words are not enough when they try to describe the pain you have made a part of their lives simply because... Well, why even? None of us knows Do you?

She says with each passing day, you are only increasing the army of wounded souls and bodies of women, children and innocent people.

If you still feel any leftover of humanity in you, bring it to life and end this horrible war.

MOSCOW  Russias President Vladimir Putin says Moscow still hopes to negotiate a peaceful settlement with Ukraine, even as the fighting has continued.

Speaking at a Kremlin meeting Tuesday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Putin noted that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators made what he described as a serious breakthrough in their talks in Istanbul, Turkey, last month. He claimed, however, that the Ukrainian side later walked back on some of the tentative agreements reached in Istanbul.

In particular, Putin said Ukrainian negotiators have changed their position on the issue of the status of Crimea and separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, offering to leave it for the countries presidents to discuss. Putin charged that the shift in the Ukrainian stand makes it hard to negotiate a future deal. Ukrainian officials have been evasive about the details of talks and the Russian claims of Ukraine walking back from its earlier proposals.

Putin has demanded that Ukraine recognize Russias sovereignty over Crimea and recognize independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine as part of a future agreement on ending the hostilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that those issues could only be decided by a future nationwide vote.

During Tuesdays Kremlin meeting, Guterres criticized Russias military action in Ukraine as a flagrant violation of its neighbors territorial integrity. He also urged Russia to allow the evacuation of civilians trapped at a giant steel mill in Mariupol surrounded by the Russian forces.

Putin responded by claiming that the Russian forces have offered humanitarian corridors to civilians holed up at the Azovstal steel plant, charging that the Ukrainian defenders of the plant were using civilians as shields and not allowing them to leave.

KYIV, Ukraine  The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has expressed concern about the tensions in a Moscow-backed separatist region of Moldova.

The ministry noted that an attack on an administrative building in Tiraspol, the center of the separatist Trans-Dniester province of Moldova, along with explosions that hit broadcast antennas and other facilities in the region follow a Russian officers statement about Moscows intention to fully take control of Ukraines south and build a land corridor to Trans-Dniester.

It said in a Tuesday statement that Ukraine resolutely supports Moldovas territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders and condemn attempts to draw the Trans-Dniester region of Moldova into the full-fledged war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine and call for deescalating tensions.

Trans-Dniester, a strip of land with about 470,000 people, has been under the control of separatist authorities since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops in the breakaway region, nominally as peacekeepers.

WARSAW, Poland  The Polish climate minister gave assurances on Tuesday that the country has plenty of natural gas on reserve, following reports that Russia has suspended gas supplies to Poland.

Anna Moskwa, minister for climate and environment, tweeted: Poland has the necessary gas reserves and sources of supply that protect our security  we have been effectively independent from Russia for years. Our warehouses are 76% full. There will be no shortage of gas in Polish homes.

Her tweet followed reports by the Onet news portal that Russia has suspended gas supplies to Poland under the Yamal contract. Onet reported that a crisis team had gathered at the Ministry of Climate to deal with the matter. Onet said, citing unnamed sources, that Russia had insisted on a Friday deadline for payment in rubles and that Poland has said it would not pay in rubles.

Poland has been working to wean itself off of Russian energy sources and was due to end its reliance on Russian gas this year.

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany  U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the war in Ukraine has already weakened Russias military capability.

Austin said after meeting allies and partners at the United States Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Tuesday that, since Russia began the invasion, its land forces have sustained pretty substantial casualties, as well as lost a lot of equipment and used a lot of precision-guided munitions.

He said that they are, in fact, in terms of military capability, weaker than when they started, and  itll be harder for them to replace some of this capability as they go forward because of the sanctions and the trade restrictions that have been placed on them.

Austin reiterated that we would like to make sure, again, that they dont have the same type of capability to bully their neighbors that we saw at the outset of this conflict.

He criticized Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs warning that the threat of a nuclear conflict should not be underestimated.

Austin said that its unhelpful and dangerous to rattle sabers and speculate about the use of nuclear weapons.

MOSCOW  A senior Kremlin official says that Ukraine may split into several parts.

Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, said in remarks published Tuesday that the policies of the West and the Kyiv regime controlled by it would only be the breakup of Ukraine into several states.

The statement comes as Russia says it has focused on expanding control over Ukraines eastern industrial heartland called Donbas. Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian troops there since 2014 when conflict erupted following Russias annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula.

Moscow launched military action in Ukraine on Feb. 24, days after recognizing the separatist regions independence.

Last week, a senior Russian military officer said that along with taking control over Donbas, Russia also wants to overtake southern Ukraine, saying such a move would also open a land corridor between Russia and the separatist Trans-Dniester region of Moldova.

MADRID  Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Tuesday he was very worried by the explosions this week in the separatist region of Trans-Dniester, adding that they reminded him too much of occurrences in the Donbas region immediately prior to Russias invasion of Ukraine late February.

I remember before Feb. 21, there have been some series of false-flag operations in Donbas region, so called people republics, that were used as the pretext by Russia to recognize and then to sign the so-called friendship and assistance treaties and then to start the military operation, Rinkevics told reporters in Madrid.

Im very worried about the current trend in Trans-Dniester because that resembles a little bit that pattern that we have seen, he added.

Police in Trans-Dniester say two explosions Tuesday in a radio facility close to the Ukrainian border knocked two antennas out of service. On Monday, several explosions were reported to have hit the Ministry of State Security in Tiraspol, the regions capital.

Trans-Dniester, a strip of land in Moldova, has been under the control of separatists since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops there. The United States has warned that Russia could launch false-flag attacks in nearby nations as a pretext for sending in troops to those nations.

Rinkevics was in Madrid to meet his Spanish counterpart and discuss the Ukraine war and the upcoming NATO summit in the Spanish capital.

The Russian military has warned it could strike Ukrainian decision-making centers in the Ukrainian capital and said wouldnt be stopped by the possible presence of Western advisers there.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday accused the U.K. of making statements encouraging Ukraine to use Western weapons to carry out strikes on the Russian territory, warning that if it happens the Russian military could retaliate by hitting government structures in Kyiv.

It directly pointed at U.K. Minister for the Armed Forces James Heappey, who told Times Radio that it was not necessarily a problem if Ukraine British-donated weapons were used to hit sites on Russian soil.

The ministry said in a statement that the Russian armed forces are ready to deal retaliatory strikes with long-range precision guided weapons on Kyiv centers that would make such decisions. It noted that the presence of citizens of one of Western countries in the Ukrainian decision-making centers wont necessarily pose a problem for Russia in making a decision to launch retaliatory action.

The Russian military so far has avoided striking presidential, government and military headquarters in Kyiv during its campaign in Ukraine that has entered a third month.

WASHINGTON  Secretary of State Antony Blinken is urging Congress to fully fund the Biden administrations proposed budget for the State Department, telling lawmakers the spending is critical to ensuring that the war in Ukraine is a strategic failure for Russia and a message to other countries that might invade their neighbors.

Blinken said his weekend visit to Kyiv with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had left him with the indelible impression that Ukraine is winning, particularly in the capital. It was right in front of us: the Ukrainians have won the battle for Kyiv, he said.

Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that the U.S.-led global response to Russias invasion had underscored the power and purpose of American diplomacy. He said the $60.4 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year was needed to continue to rally partners and allies in the cause.

We will, we have to continue to drive that diplomacy forward to seize what I believe are the strategic opportunities and address risks presented by Russias overreach, as countries reconsider their policies, priorities, their relationships, Blinken said. The budget request before you predated this crisis, but fully funding it is critical in my judgment to ensuring Russias war in Ukraine is a strategic failure for the Kremlin and serves as a powerful lesson to those who might consider following its path.

Blinken did not name other nations that might be considering following Russias lead but his comment was seen as a veiled reference to China, which has sided with Russia in the Ukraine conflict and has made no secret of its desire to re-unify the island of Taiwan with the mainland.

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine  The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency says it was possible that an accident could have occurred when Russian troops seized control of the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster during the war in Ukraine.

Speaking on a visit to the former nuclear power plant Tuesday on the 36th anniversary of the meltdown, Rafael Mariano Grossi said the situation in 1986 was completely different. In this case, what we had was a nuclear safety situation which was not normal, and could have developed into an accident.

Russian troops moved into the radiation-contaminated Chernobyl exclusion zone in February on their way toward the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and withdrew late last month as Russia switched its focus to fighting in eastern Ukraine. The site is now back in Ukrainian hands and communications which were disrupted have been restored.

Russian forces continue to hold a working nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the Zaporizhzhia plant, where there was fighting nearby in early March which damaged the plants training facility.

Clearly, the physical integrity of one nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, was compromised, we also had situations where the external power was interrupted including here (Chernobyl) so there were a number of events that were compromising the normal operations of any nuclear power facility, Grossi said.

Those were avoided but of course, as I was saying, the situation was not stable and we have to stay on alert.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Native American leaders said Tuesday they were excited about a series of meetings this week with land managers as the Biden administration considers prohibiting new oil and gas development on hundreds of square miles of federal land in northwestern New Mexico that several tribes consider sacred.

Top officials with the All Pueblo Council of Governors said during a virtual briefing that they will reiterate their support for the proposal during tribal consultations. The meetings are part of the public outreach being done by the U.S. Interior Department as it considers the withdrawal from nearly 550 square miles (1,425 square kilometers) around Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is from Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, cited the cultural significance of the area surrounding the national park when she first proposed the 20-year withdrawal during a visit in November. She has said many tribes in the Southwest, including her own, have a connection to the area.

Randall Vicente, the governor of Acoma Pueblo, said tribes were ready to band together to ensure more permanent protections are adopted for lands outside park boundaries.

He said the remnants of stone dwellings, ceremonial kivas, pottery sherds, petroglyphs, shrines and the other cultural resources that dot the high desert around Chaco Canyon were left there by the ancestors of today's pueblo people.

Together, this area is one irreplaceable, sacred, interconnected landscape unlike any other. We remain tied to those resources," he said, describing them as the footprints and fingerprints of our ancestors.

A World Heritage site, Chaco park is thought to be the center of what was once a hub of Indigenous civilization.

The Navajo Nation is among the Native American tribes that support increased protections, but top tribal officials have called for a smaller area around Chaco to be set aside as a way to limit the economic impact on families who rely on revenues from oil and gas leasing.

In a nod to the Navajo concerns, the pueblo leaders said the withdrawal would not affect development on land overseen by the Navajo Nation or individual Navajo allottee owners. However, allottees have argued that taking federal parcels off the board would leave them landlocked and curb the interest of oil companies in leasing their land.

Pueblo leaders said Tuesday their tribes continue to work on an ethnographic study that they hope will provide more insight for federal managers on cultural resources in northwestern New Mexico.

Ben Chavarria, historic preservation officer for Santa Clara Pueblo, said Chaco's influence can still be seen today in the pueblos' governance systems, dances, songs, prayers and other customs.

Describing its essence as independent and alive, he said the greater Chaco region is "an area of such immense cultural and traditional importance to the pueblo that it cannot be conveyed in words.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  The U.S. Interior Department has issued a decision to limit roughly half the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil and gas leasing. The decision rolls back an approach taken by the prior Trump administration, and it drew criticism from Alaska's U.S. senators.

The decision signed by Laura Daniel-Davis, principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management, was dated Monday. It was released following a recent visit to the state by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

The decision is in line with a position the U.S. Bureau of Land Management earlier this year said it favored. The land agency falls under the Interior Department.

The reserve covers about 36,000 square miles (92,000 square kilometers) on Alaska's North Slope. Under the decision, about 18,000 square miles (48,000 square kilometers) would be open to oil and gas leasing. That includes some lands closest to existing leases centered on the Greater Mooses Tooth and Bear Tooth units and the Umiat field, the decision states.

The plan would prevent oil and gas development in areas considered important for sensitive bird populations and the Teshekpuk and Western Arctic caribou herds, the decision states. New infrastructure would be prohibited on about 13,000 square miles (34,000 square kilometers), it states.

Plans advanced during the Trump administration would have allowed for oil and gas leasing on about 29,000 square miles (75,000 square kilometers).

Alaska U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, criticized Monday's decision as shortsighted.

"It is simply shocking that the Biden administration can look at the world and decide that Alaska is where keep it in the ground should apply, Murkowski said in a statement.

President Joe Biden at the start of his term last year directed officials to review and respond to agency actions under the prior administration that were deemed in conflict with policies Biden set out around the environment, public health and climate change. The decision is an extension of that process.

The Bureau of Land Management said the new decision calls for management consistent with plans adopted during the Obama administration, while including certain more protective lease stipulations and operating procedures for threatened and endangered species from the Trump-era plan.

Some conservation groups said they view the new decision as positive but want more action.

World events have predictably led to industry lobbyists and the lawmakers they bankroll calling for new domestic oil and gas leasing and production, especially in Arctic Alaska, and in the name of energy security,'" Kristen Miller, conservation director with the Alaska Wilderness League, said in a statement. In reality, the answer to energy security does not lie beneath the thawing Arctic permafrost but in accelerating the shift to clean, renewable sources of power generation.

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In the many years I had the privilege of teaching Montana history, one of my absolute favorite chapters was on the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention. The diversity of people gathered at our state capitol during the wintry months of 1972 created a document that has stood the test of time and been admired and emulated across this nation. Tragically, in this year of celebrating the 50th anniversary of that document, our Montana Constitution is facing unprecedented attacks by the very people who have sworn to uphold it.

Our Declaration of Rights is broader and bigger than the Bill of Rights and its Right to Know guarantees that all Montanans have the ability to examine government operations and exercise citizen influence against government power. This Right to Know along with the Right of Participation are affectionately, and appropriately, known as the Sunshine Laws.

Recently, a legislative committee met to discuss and examine how the courts respond to the publics requests for information on their inner workings. As it turns out, not just the courts but the Legislature and state agencies are doing a lot of work to make sure the public can exercise its Right to Know. One glaring omission from that examination was the Governor's office. Republicans have done much hand-wringing over the judiciarys practices, but have failed to look into whether Gov. Gianforte maintains the same standards of transparency and accountability to the public.

This week, we learned more about Gov. Gianfortes attempt to deny the Right to Know to Montanans seeking information on how and why he decided which bills to support or oppose during the most recent legislative session. The Governor's office wouldnt hand over the memos tracking that decision making, claiming that these documents are under attorney-client privilege. But thats not how the Right to Know works. You cant defeat our rights just by having a lawyer write your documents or copying one on an email. The public has the Right to Know what policy advice the Governor asks for and receives.

We also know that the Governor's office has been charging exorbitant fees to avoid giving members of the public access to their government records. Requests have been made for the Lieutenant Governors emails, which are unquestionably information the public has a Right to Know. The decisions and communications of senior government officials are at the heart of what Right to Know means. But these requests were effectively denied when the Governor's Office said the records would be handed over only after charging the citizens tens of thousands of dollars. The records have been compiled, but the Governor wont give them over without a massive payout.

Finally, the Governor's office has obstructed the publics Right to Know through unconscionable delays. For example, a citizen wanted to discover why the Governor decided to drop bad actor actions against Hecla Mining, which had previously stopped that corporation from continuing to poison our land and water. The Governor's office staff and their compensation have grown massively, so it shouldnt take long for someone to perform one simple search on their email server. But months later, the Governor's office still hasnt handed over the documents the public clearly has a right to see.

With these indefensible actions, the Governor is betraying our history, our Constitution and our rights, including the Right to Know what hes up to behind closed doors. This is what we need to investigate  and change  if we care about upholding our Constitution, and if were serious about limiting government power.

Rep. Moffie Funk (D-Helena) is a retired teacher and represents House District 82 in the Montana Legislature.

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DALLAS  Karen Baum Gordon knows how to tell a story, and most of all, how to begin one. From the moment you open her memoir, "The Last Letter," youre hooked.

My father tried to kill himself when he was 86 years old are the words that launch this remarkable journey, which is best summed up in the subtitle:

"A Fathers Struggle, a Daughters Quest, and the Long Shadow of the Holocaust."

Now 66, Gordon grew up in Dallas and graduated from Hillcrest High School before ascending to Harvard.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, our 21st-century world has been pondering the same question that has haunted her family:

What are the enduring legacies of war?

For her, it begins with her father, a traveling shoe salesman whom she describes as an extrovert and a passionate fan of the Cowboys and Mavericks during his days in Dallas.

The about the book section of Gordons website peels back the layers, however, to uncover a darker narrative:

Born a German Jew in 1915, Rudy Baum was 86 years old when he sealed the garage door of his Dallas home, turned on the car ignition, and tried to end his life. After confronting her fathers attempted suicide, Karen Baum Gordon, Rudys daughter, began a sincere effort to understand the sequence of events that led her father to that dreadful day in 2002. What she found were hidden scars of generational struggles reaching back to the camps and ghettos of the Third Reich.

World history left its mark on her childhood, too. She was a second-grader at Preston Hollow Elementary School when President John F. Kennedy came to town in 1963. Because she grew up here, returning is always memorable, most of all for the homecoming it represents. Her older siblings, Richard and Diane, also grew up in Dallas.

During her days at Hillcrest, Gordon worked as a waitress at The Grape, stoking her desire to become a chef. She later switched gears, becoming part of the global management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company.

She now makes her home in Brooklyn, New York, where she and her family were living when the 9/11 terrorist attack toppled the Twin Towers. On that day, her grown children were the same age she was when Kennedy came to Dallas.

"The Last Letter" is a study of the lasting effects of such events.

Gordons book offers a deep dive into the lives of two of its victims  her grandparents, Julie and Norbert Baum  whom their son tried in vain to save from the madness that would later engulf them.

Rudy hailed from Frankfurt, Germany, from which his parents were deported in 1941. Both parents died in 1942 in the odz Ghetto in Poland.

Rudy came to the U.S. in 1936 and joined the U.S. Army in 1941 before becoming a citizen in 1942. He served in the unit commanded by Gen. George S. Patton that liberated Buchenwald  on his 30th birthday, April 11, 1945.

Before then, however, much had gone wrong.

From 1936 to 1941, his mother wrote him 88 letters that form the basis of Gordons memoir. Rudy later found out his mother killed herself at odz, but why would he eventually attempt the same? Why would he, as his daughter says, seek to create his own private gas chamber?

I felt compelled to understand why, she says. Having the letters translated really started to give me insight into more about my father that I never knew  and what he carried with him.

Gordons mother, Hanne Baum, returned home one day, barely in time to rescue her dying husband, who lived until 2009, seven years after his suicide attempt. Only then did Gordon begin her journey of understanding. Her mother died in 2007.

Her parents were members of Temple Emanu-El, where, in a recent interview with the Texas Jewish Post, Rabbi David Stern spoke of the feeling that shadowed Rudy Baum and millions of others.

We sometimes think survivors have just survived by emerging from the Shoah, but for some that means surviving from being a survivor, Stern said. This is a reminder that the finish line wasnt just making it out, but it is making it through every day since.
Editors note: The News Herald sent candidate questionnaires to candidates who have primary challengers for local races in Burke County. Each candidate received the same questions and none of their answers were edited by the newspaper. More responses from commissioner candidates will print later this week.

Name: Phil Smith

Party Affiliation: Republican

Seeking Office: Burke County Board of Commissioners

Age: 61

Profession: Realtor, Retired Educator, Retired Military

Education: Bachelor of Science  Texas A&M University; Master of Arts  Gardner Webb University; Ed.S  Appalachian State University.

Family: Married to Penny McFalls Smith for thirty years. We have two sons, Garrett, and Andrew.

Community Involvement: Life Member Veterans of Foreign Wars Table Rock Post; Life Member Disabled American Veterans Morganton Post 43; Member American Legion Post 234 Valdese.

1. Have you ever been convicted of a felony? No

2. Do you currently owe back property taxes? No

3. How do you believe commissioners should address facility inadequacies for the health department and social services?

The departments of social services and health face a huge inadequacy in the facility they are headquartered in. I might add that our Burke County Public Schools have that problem too as they are located in the same building. The heating and cooling systems seem to never work and there is an extreme lack of space. Instead of building the new jail that was/is not needed our commissioners should have built a new human resources center. Everyone that has ever worked at the present human resources center knows how outdated and inadequate it is. The old jail would have served our needs for a long time. Every county around us has a new jail it seems, so building ours as a money-making venture was extremely short-sighted. We have to have better decision makers on our board of commissioners. If elected, I pledge to halt the building of any other facility until we commit to the building of a new human resources center, that is, if we can get this present boondoggle (jail) paid for.

4. What are your feelings on commissioners creating a long-term regional drug rehabilitation facility?

Until I am shown a reasonable explanation of our need for and our ability to support or fund a long-term regional drug rehabilitation facility, I cannot support this. Presently, there are in the neighborhood of fifteen drug rehab facilities within a 3040-mile radius of Morganton. Why would this facility be any better equipped to rehabilitate than the others? Here are some questions I have concerning our proposed drug rehabilitation facility that must be answered:

Who will own it if it becomes a rehab center?

Who pays for the rehab center and how much?

Who will run the rehab center?

How many employees and who pays them?

Where will the sheriff go as they plan to use his office in the rehab center?

Where will the reformed rehabbers go upon discharging them?

Why not sell it to a private company or keep as a jail for juveniles and females?

5. There has been controversy over the placement of the Confederate statue on the Old Burke County Courthouse square and a call to create a committee to discuss/address its location. What decisions would you like to see the board of commissioners make on the statue/committee?

The statue is a historical artifact and should remain where it is. It serves as a reminder to all of what a misguided political party can do to our nation. The young men whose names are inscribed on the statue probably had no more of a desire to fight for the extension of slavery than those of us would be today. They went to war because this was their home and could no more fight against their families, friends, and neighbors than we would today. Burke County was completely controlled by Democrats when the statue was erected. The Democratic party was behind every effort to sustain and extend the institution of slavery in our nations history. The Democratic party started a civil war to keep people in chains. There is another statue on the east side of the courthouse of Senator Sam Ervin, Jr. I do not favor the removal of it either, even though he served as the Constitutional authority for our Congress to keep segregation and Jim Crow laws in place. He also led the fight in the Senate to stop a Constitutional Amendment to make prayer legal in our schools. He has a library in his honor on the campus of W.P.C.C. and strangely enough there is little or no mention of these issues in the library. He is remembered for only about one-tenth of his political career  Watergate. Both of the statues should remain as a lesson for future generations of how destructive the Democratic Party has been for the United States.

6. What priorities do you think the board should set to live up to its All About Advancing slogan?

Our board of commissioners should advocate and actively promote: 1) job creation for our county  meaningful jobs that pay well and will help keep our children and grandchildren here. Promote jobs that will increase our tax base. Drug rehabilitation centers and dog pounds will create little to no tax revenue. 2) The creation of a trades school which would be a part of our public schools for grades 9-12 to train our students in technical areas like plumbing, welding, electrical, machinists, heavy equipment mechanics, and pipefitters. The medical professions could possibly be taught there also. All of these require no bachelors degree. We must stop thinking that every student that comes through the schoolhouse door will go to a four-year university. These students would report to that school each day and attend all day at that school taking required courses along with their technical field of choice. There would be no bussing from one high school to another. 3) Lower the property tax rate and help our citizens during these hard economic times. Our taxes are much higher than the surrounding counties with our populace having very little to show for it, and 4) Extend the county and city water lines to include EVERY home and business in Burke County. That is how to live up to All About Advancing!

7. What makes you qualified to become a commissioner?

I believe this is not a fair question to begin with. It implies that only a special class of person or a politician can do the job. I believe a teacher, poultry farmer, policeman, hairdresser, plumber, and newspaper writer can be just as qualified as the special class or a politician. That is how our founders intended for a political office to be. However, I believe I am qualified to be a commissioner because of my thirty years of work as an educator, where I prepared budgets and supervised schools, buildings and grounds, nutrition, transportation, curriculum, personnel, and other various roles in the schools. I worked in eastern, western, and central Burke County, and I know its people. I also served thirty years in the United States Army and North Carolina Army National Guard. I have led at one time upwards of over one hundred soldiers as a chief warrant officer. I have served my country, state and community in Southwest Asia, hurricane disasters, and fighting forest fires here in Burke County. I look forward to serving again as a county commissioner.
SCL Health, also known as Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health, and Intermountain Healthcare have merged to form a new organization serving patients and communities in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, Utah, Idaho and Nevada.

The scope and scale of the merger will enhance care provided at SCL Healths hospitals and clinics. Patients can access the same excellent providers and facilities, and use their same insurance plan with trusted caretakers.

Its also important to note that the names and focus of SCL Healths hospitals remain the same  to improve the health of the people and communities they serve and help them live the healthiest lives possible. The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth found creative ways to provide healthcare in Colorado, Kansas and Montana more than a century ago. Intermountain Healthcare will continue working through strong community partnerships, evidence-based programs and services to help people outside the hospital walls.

Intermountain Healthcare president and chief executive ocer Marc Harrison, M.D., is condent about this united eort. With this merger, well create a model population health-oriented system that provides high-quality, aordable and accessible care to more patients," Dr. Harrison said. "The merger provides a healthcare model for the rest of the country.

According to Dr. Harrison, the new merged organization will focus on ensuring more accessible, more aordable, and focused care while keeping people healthy rather than simply treating them when they are sick.

Improving health

According to national statistics, 6 in 10 Americans live with at least one chronic disease, and those diseases are responsible for killing more than 1.7 million people in this country every year. Prevention is, in part, behavioral and can be addressed by individual choices. Prevention must also be facilitated by healthcare providers.
Highlands College will use a $1 million grant to develop and enhance workforce training programs tailored to Buttes economy and ramp up efforts to match local residents with local employers and industries.

Butte-Silver Bow officials and commissioners agreed to steer $1 million in federal COVID relief and economic stimulus funds to the project with Highlands College in hopes of filling area employment shortages and meeting todays skilled-labor demands.

The sub-grant will be used for education and training in high-demand trades, connecting people with local employers directly or through internships, purchasing updated equipment for instruction and supporting staff positions and instructors, among other things.

The efforts will be geared toward numerous sectors, including construction, welding and fabrication trades, automotive technology, health care, civil engineering technology, cybersecurity, heavy equipment and CDL training.

The mission of Highlands College is workforce development and work-related programs that meet industry needs, so this is a beautiful fit for us, Highlands College Interim Dean Karen VanDaveer said Wednesday. This was an opportunity to work with our community to stimulate our economy.

J.P. Gallagher, Butte-Silver Bows chief executive, said the $1 million project will provide boosts to Butte and the college.

Even if we have students that come from out of town, they come, they live here, they attend Highlands College, they improve enrollment  thats an investment into Butte as well, Gallagher said. So all of this kind of stacks on top of each other, but ultimately, Butte-Silver Bow is going to benefit from the skilled labor that is going to come out of Highlands College.

The money is from $15.7 million Butte-Silver Bow received as part of a $1.9 trillion COVID relief and stimulus package approved by congressional Democrats in March 2021. A local committee recommended the workforce project and commissioners OKd it last week.

Highlands College and its parent, Montana Technological University, developed and pitched the project and must provide periodic updates on what is being done and detailed invoices showing how the money is spent.

More than two dozen occupations with current or future labor shortages in Montana and southwest Montana were identified, many with projected annual job openings through 2030 and average wages as determined by the Montana Department of Labor and Industry.

Certified nursing assistants are in great demand, for example, with 768 openings projected annually in Montana. More than 130 of those each year are expected to come in southwest Montana.

Other occupations in great need of workers are tractor-trailer drivers, automotive technicians and mechanics, welders and cutters, and under the umbrella of construction technology, carpenters, laborers, maintenance workers and front-line supervisors.

VanDaveer said Highlands is already a regional leader in workforce development and the grant will help expand programs and gear more training to industry needs.

As an example, some students in construction technology will build modular homes. One modular-home manufacturer  Foothold  has new operations at Buttes business park and the county is working with the Stace McGee Group to locate another modular home builder.

Richard Miller, a carpentry instructor at Highlands, said students next fall can start a two-year program and build a home in two parts on a temporary foundation in an outdoor classroom.

Our freshmen will come in next year and theyll have a part in every aspect of that home from beginning to completion, Miller said. Then the following year, we will start a new home with that incoming class, so once we get going, well have two houses going at different phases at any given time.

They will learn skills they can apply to other types of homes or jobs in light construction industries too, Miller said.

They will have those skills where they can walk out and be hired as an apprentice-level carpenter instead of just a laborer, he said.

Parameters on placing and selling the newly built homes havent been determined, but they are likely to end up in Butte or nearby areas and could be sold to those with lower incomes. The proceeds would be used to buy new materials and grow the program.

The grant will help fund education and training to meet new demands in automotive technology as more electric and hybrid vehicles are built, VanDaveer said, and to expand the commercial driving (CDL) program.

Highlands will use some of the money to upgrade or buy new teaching tools, including a heavy equipment simulator.

That means the students who graduate from our program, they can go out and they have been behind the heavy equipment, VanDaveer said. They can be operators, they can go into construction and have an endorsement in heavy equipment. So its going to give our students a higher chance of getting jobs in our community.

Butte-Silver Bow Budget Director Danette Gleason worked out financial details of the grant project and said it was the first time in many years the county had collaborated with Montana Tech on such a project.

Gallagher said Butte and so many other communities are trying to meet higher demands for high-skilled workers.

Were excited about the prospect of what this can bring to our community, he said.

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Editor's note: Humanities Montana celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022. Throughout the year, its monthly newsletter features Golden Anniversary letters from previous Humanities Montana board members, grantees, speakers, and friends that reflect on what 50 years of Humanities Montana has meant to them and to the state.

A capacity crowd in Fort Peck, on a snowy Friday night, gathered to learn more about Islam. Another crowded room, this time a bar, people young and old waiting to listen to a poet. Schoolchildren jammed into a gym, quieting to hear songs about Montanas history. Book fairs showcasing authors. Facilitated conversations with strangers, beginning with a poem. Weekly DIY Humanities newsletters arriving on my computer, keeping me connected and sane during the first year of COVID.

These are some of the memories that come to mind when I think of Humanities Montana.

Connection is the key: connecting to oneself, to others in ones local community, to Montana, our country, and the world. Humanities Montanas programs help us make those connections. Stories are the primary means to that end: telling stories, listening to stories, and making new stories about ourselves and each other. We connect through those stories, revealing bits of ourselves and learning about others  all at the same time.

Through my involvement with Humanities Montana over the past quarter-century, I have made good friends across the state and have come to really appreciate the saying, Montana is a small town spread across hundreds of miles. Friendships across the state have made not only people, but the places they live in, more alive.

Living in a small town in rural Stillwater County, its easy to become insular, focusing on local issues and not paying much attention to whats happening beyond our community. Humanities Montana programs bring informed and skilled people with new ideas and concepts who lead discussions that help make sense of the larger world and show us how we connect to it.

For me, songs from the Depression era led to conversations about local history with neighbors who lived through it. A group discussion on poems led to insights on myself and others, which in turn enhanced teamwork. A facilitated discussion just before Thanksgiving in 2019 provided ideas on how to handle politically-divided family conversations. Recent online programs on confirmation bias and lateral reading helped me understand my role in a polarized society while also providing concrete ideas on how to better navigate misleading websites.

Montana is a big and varied state, with majestic mountains, lovely river valleys, and ever-changing prairies. Its people are equally varied with farmers and ranchers, miners and newly transplanted retirees rubbing shoulders  and ideas  in local cafes. Strongly held opinions should not separate us. Humanities Montana can help facilitate much-needed conversations to keep us connected to each other, recognizing that we are much more alike than we are different.

Humanities Montanas effect is subtle for the most part. Emphasizing our common humanity, its programs help us find common ground. No big bangs or flashy experiences, but deeply human ones when we learn something new about others and ourselves. For the next 50 years, my hope is that Humanities Montana will continue to grow and expand its programs so that all towns and communities will be able to enjoy and grow stronger.

Kathleen Ralph was a Humanities Montana board member from 2007 to 2012.

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MUSCATINE  Muscatine residents and Muscatine Power & Water customers alike can expect to see the start of many different projects throughout the next year, according to the companys latest updates.

MPW leadership presented updates this week during a board of trustees meeting on the companys strategic plan, which went over a number of different projects and plans.

One of the most notable projects announced was a new customer service app where customers would be able to manage their accounts, see account history, communicate with customer service staff and receive messages from MPW. Erica Cox, director of customer and technology experience, said the app is expected to be released by the end of 2022 alongside a new billing system.

"This is the first time that well be launching an app for our customers to use," Cox said. "One of the reasons why were so excited about it is because we have had customers ask about getting an app and having an app makes it a little bit easier for customers to access their accounts. We just really wanted to meet customers where theyre at and make it as easy to do business with them as we can."

MPW also announced that it would be installing a third electric vehicle charging station at the Muscatine Mall in the hopes of serving residents on the north side of Muscatine as well as visitors from out of town. The third charging station is expected to be operational by the end of July.

Trustees also received an update on the companys fiber service expansion. MPW announced that construction work for this fiber extension will begin this summer. Once the project is complete, residents living along North Tipton Road from north of Highway 61 to Canterbury Road will have the opportunity to receive higher-grade MPW services.

Also occurring this summer will be the engineering and design work for two more large expansions that were funded through the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program. Construction for these expansions is slated to begin sometime in 2023.

The meeting ended with an update on the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)s annual capacity auction results for the 2022-23 planning year, where it was shared that the price of electricity purchased through MISOs bulk electric system had gone up 64.5% since last March.

Mark Roberts, director of finance and accounting, said MPW had a net loss of $497,000 in March. The loss, however, was anticipated and budgeted for, and Roberts assured that customers bills would not be impacted at this time.

We see losses from time to time, and much of that is driven by non-cash issues, primarily depreciation, Roberts explained. It doesnt have any impact on our cash position and how we look at the rates that we charge customers.

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CEDAR RAPIDS  A former University of Iowa student charged with killing his parents and sister last year in Cedar Rapids asked a judge Tuesday to move his trial out of Linn County because media coverage has been "pervasive and inflammatory" and makes it impossible to find impartial jurors.

Tyler Johnston, a lawyer for Alexander Ken Jackson, 21, said he was most concerned about the coverage from the local media and social media comments on those articles. The defense submitted 66 exhibits of those articles from area media coverage.

A jury pool would be prejudiced by this coverage, and after this hearing a jury will know Jackson  who was at the hearing wearing a green jumpsuit  is in jail, which jurors aren't allowed to know at trial, Johnston noted.

This was the first pretrial hearing that Jackson has attended. His lawyers have obtained a written waiver for him to not be present at every hearing since his arrest June 15, 2021.

Johnston said the articles paint his client in a bad light, and people in the community know or are familiar with him and his family members. Jackson went to the UI and  like his sister, Sabrina Jackson, 19  graduated from Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids.

Amber Foley, another of Jackson's three lawyers, pointed out Facebook posts, included in the submitted exhibits, for 6th Judicial District Chief Judge Lars Anderson to review that the lawyers say shows prejudice. Those had been shared 143 times and had 111 comments.

Moving the trial to another district, such as Council Bluffs or some other city on the western side of the state, where the media markets don't overlap, would eliminate or lessen media coverage of the proceedings, Johnston said.

First Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter said the news articles about this case have been factual and far from inflammatory. She also didn't think the articles were sensational.

Slaughter pointed out that "rigorous" voir dire  questioning of potential jurors  can eliminate those who are prejudice and can't be impartial. The court could also send out pretrial questionnaires to "weed out" any jurors who can't be fair.

There was much more pretrial publicity and information available to the public about the Drew Blahnik murder case, which Slaughter prosecuted last year, and through questioning at jury selection the prosecution and defense agreed to seat a jury in Linn County.

She said Jackson's lawyer is being somewhat "hypocritical" when he mentions how the news coverage after this hearing will alert the potential jury pool to Jackson being in jail because the defense "has gone out of the way" to keep him out of every pretrial hearing until this one.

Slaughter also argued that there is nothing to prove that the people who made comments on social media are from Linn County, some other area or another state. The defense hasn't met its burden to move the trial out of Linn County, she said.

Johnston also asked the judge to leave the record open for a week after this hearing to allow the defense to submit additional media coverage concerning this hearing as part of its argument. Judge Anderson said he would, and would allow the prosecution to make any response to those additional exhibits before making a ruling.

Jackson is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He is accused of killing his father, Jan Jackson, 61; mother, Melissa Jackson, 68; and sister, Sabrina Jackson, 19.

Police were called about 8:30 a.m. June 15, 2021, to the Jackson home at 4414 Oak Leaf Ct. NE and found the three family members had been fatally shot, a criminal complaint said.

Alexander Jackson, then 20, told police he had been awakened by gunfire and was shot in the foot as he struggled over a rifle with a masked intruder.

Investigators found no evidence of forced entry or burglary at the home, the complaint stated. They found a .22-caliber Browning semi-automatic rifle in the home that police think is the murder weapon. Jackson said he and his father had left it on the fireplace after cleaning it the night before, according to the complaint.

Jackson remains in jail on a $3 million cash-only bail.

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Googles Equiano and Facebooks 2Africa submarine cables will likely not increase home fibre speeds or substantially affect prices. Still, they will help bring content from platforms like YouTube and Instagram closer to end-users.

From the perspective of major data centre providers in South Africa, these submarine cable projects will bring multiple benefits.

Africa Data Centres sales director Paul Schonborn told MyBroadband that Google and Facebooks undersea cable projects will result in a reduction in the cost of international connectivity rates for interconnected data centre networking.

Data Centre Interconnection (DCI) is when two or more data centres are interlinked.

DCI lets different data centres share data, improving the end users experience by reducing latency and shifting the cost of international bandwidth from Internet service providers to content distributors like Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, and Amazon.

An added benefit of DCI is the redundancy it provides  if one data centre fails, the companies and services depending on it can function from backups at another data centre.

Internet giants like Google and Facebook are dependent on DCI for their day-to-day operations.

DCI is made possible by distributed Internet exchange points (IXPs)  physical infrastructure that network operators, content delivery networks, and cloud service providers use to exchange web traffic.

This exchange of web traffic is called peering, and it is essential for low-cost Internet services since companies dont have to pay a third party to transport their web traffic.

Teracos NAPAfrica is Africas largest IXP and offers free peering services to all its clients.

Cybersmart CTO Laurie Fialkov told MyBroadband that Equiano is critical for Googles international capacity link at its Johannesburg peering point since it is currently at capacity.

Their current overseas transit is at capacity, so Google peering in Johannesburg is not working properly, said Fialkov.

This caused YouTube to perform poorly for many home fibre broadband subscribers earlier in the year, he explained.

In late March this year, MyBroadband forum users reported YouTube streaming problems, which Google engineers confirmed was due to capacity constraints in its Johannesburg cluster.

The issue appears to have been resolved for the moment.

South Africa has a glut of international bandwidth available on cable systems such as Seacom, WACS, EASSy, and SACS.

However, Google might prefer not to buy extra capacity from existing providers as these tend to be long-term contracts.

Instead, it hopes to complete Equiano in late 2022, bringing a massive amount of international capacity online that Google can use to transport content to South Africa.

An additional benefit of the undersea cable projects is that they would boost business for local data centre operators.

Colocation demand will increase for data centre providers from companies wanting to be closer to the network providers, said Schonborn.

The increase of demand for colocation services will be a result of [the undersea cable projects] attracting international cloud, OTT and hyperscale companies who consider deploying their services within data centres in South Africa.

On another note, it will also improve network redundancy between data centres, thereby improving service level agreements on connectivity, he said.

Therefore, even if multiple submarine cables should get critically damaged, like what happened with the WACS and SAT-3 break in 2020, it would not as severely disrupt international Internet traffic.

In other words, data centres could promise greater uptime to their clients.
MultiChoice has hit back at eMedias arguments over satellite bandwidth capacity being a reason for the pay-TV broadcaster dropping four E-tv channels from its DStv bouquets.

The companies are battling before the Competition Tribunal after eMedia complained about DStv cutting the eMovies, eMovies Extra, eExtra, and eToonz channels from its channel line-up.

DStv originally planned to suspend broadcasting the channels at the end of March 2022, when its five-year carriage agreement with eMedia expired.

eMedia argued on Monday that DStv had incorrectly claimed that it did not have sufficient capacity on its satellites to host E-tvs channels.

It also said that MultiChoice backtracked when eMedias calculations proved this was not the case.

However, on Tuesday, MultiChoice legal counsel Michelle Norton said that eMedia had misconstrued MultiChoices justifications for dropping the channels.

She explained that eMedias founding affidavit claimed MultiChoice had no constraints regarding the channels it could carry on DStv.

Thats why MultiChoices responded with an explanation that satellite bandwidth limited its channel capacity.

Norton said MultiChoice did not suggest they didnt have enough capacity for E-tv specifically, but only that DStvs satellite space had to be used prudently because of its scarcity.

MultiChoice wanted to use the capacity occupied by E-tv to enhance its offering, improve growth, and carry three SABC channels that it would be forced to include under South Africas must-carry regulations.

Norton said eMedias subsequent responding affidavit then shifted the ground because its experts had chosen to calculate capacity on one of the satellites used by DStv  Intelsat IS-20  to prove there was enough room to broadcast E-tvs channels.

eMedias experts estimated that DStv supposedly had enough satellite capacity for 230 high definition channels on IS-20, and that it was only broadcasting 155.

These calculations suggested it could carry another 75 channels and that the four being removed only occupied 1.7% of the capacity.

eMedia also said MultiChoice had additional capacity available on Intelsat IS-36, raising a new complaint.

MultiChoice refuted eMedias experts estimation as completely inaccurate, instead stating there was only space for another four channels on IS-20.

MultiChoice said to ensure the matter with the tribunal could be heard on time, it only responded with a 4-page affidavit explaining errors in the calculations on this satellite.

eMedia then hit back in a 20-page document accusing MultiChoice of hiding the fact that it was using the IS-36 satellite for E-tvs channels and calling the affidavit a cooked up afterthought.

MultiChoices expert defended his stance, stating he did not intend to obscure the capacity on IS-36 because he was only asked to deal with the bandwidth on IS-20.

The real numbers

MultiChoice eventually provided full calculations, which showed it only had space for four channels on IS-20 and ten on IS-36 in the next five years.

These exclude the new SABC channels it must add following negotiations between DStv and the public broadcaster.

Norton said these negotiations could be finalised any time now, contrary to eMedias claim that the channels could still take long to begin airing.

After accounting for the SABCs channels, that leaves DStv with 11 free channels for the duration of its long-term carriage agreements, which is the next five years.

Continuing to broadcast the E-tv channels would cut this down to 7.

MultiChoice emphasised that the rejection of the four E-tv channels was based on an assessment of their distinctiveness and appeal, which fell short of MultiChoices commercial requirements.

eMedia has argued that DStv provided it with unrivalled exposure and potential for revenue, due to its dominant market position.

It alleges it could lose around 19% of its advertising revenue should DStv proceed with dropping the channels.

But Norton pointed out that viewers could access the four channels on several platforms.

Three of the channels had been broadcast on Openview for four years before E-tv and DStv signed their five-year carriage agreement in 2017. The remaining channel  eMovies Extra  was also available on Openview since 2016.

Openview continued to broadcast the channels during their time on DStv.

Norton also argued that Openview had an estimated 2.7 million subscribers and a market share of 35%, which was not insignificant.

eExtra has also been on the packages of another major satellite service in the country  StarSat  since April 2017

In addition, the channels are available via free-to-air digital TV broadcasts, which are expected to see increased adoption with the analogue switch-off at the end of June 2022.

Norton added that eMedias video streaming service eVOD was another platform where the channels could be distributed.

MultiChoice has also denied that it has refused to supply the channels but contends that E-tv was instead seeking an obligation to buy.

Now read: Amazon streaming video hiring spree in South Africa
The return of the St. Helena Farmers Market and a Soroptimist Lobster Feed! This week Im out to make your mouth water 

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Farmers Market alert! The market returns to Crane Park on May 6. Im also told that the markets annual art competition is back, with a focus on Californias native bees. Read about the soon-to-be-revealed winners in next weeks Star.

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The notion of a crab transforming into a lobster is fairly horrifying, but the notion of the traditional Soroptimist Crab Feed transforming this year into a Lobster Feed is much easier to take. The event is set for 5:30 to 11 p.m. Saturday, June 4, at the former St. Helena Catholic School. Menegon Catering is handling the lobster, and tickets are already available at sisthelena.org. Expect a lot more details next week.

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Wouldnt it be lovely to have a pen pal again? Lindsay Rose and Cynthia Kee are working together to connect people of all ages with local seniors this May in honor of Older Americans Month. Go to https://form.jotform.com/220756539681061 to be matched with a senior. Youre encouraged to write at least two letters, but who knows? You might strike up a lasting friendship.

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You might recall that St. Helena High School ag teacher Judy Aschwanden was named St. Helena Teacher of the Year. But did you know that Charlene Rabanal from the St. Helena High School office is one of Napa Countys Classified School Employees of the Year? Nominated in the Clerical and Administrative Services category, Charlene is moving on to compete at the state level. Go Charlene!

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The Cameo Cinemas May 9 screening of The Godfather with an introduction by director Francis Ford Coppola was announced Monday and sold out faster than it takes to leave the gun and take the cannoli. Being a gentleman and a class act (not to mention our neighbor!), Coppola gracefully agreed to return for a second screening at 7 p.m. May 10. By the time you read this the second show might be sold out too, but its worth checking cameocinema.com just in case.

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Sometime I would appreciate it if a younger person were to sit down across a table from me and take a few minutes to explain what a meme is. But until then, Im satisfied to report that Bliss, the bucolic photo of a grassy Sonoma hillside snapped by former St. Helena resident Chuck ORear that became the default background of Windows XP, has become a meme. According to an amusing story in the Press-Democrat, folks have been visiting the exact spot (which is now a vineyard) and posting their own photos of it on social media. The meme aspect escapes me, but its certainly an exquisite photo worthy of its fame. My best to Chuck and his charming wife Daphne Larkin.

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I'm pleased to pass on this message from Thursday Pulpit columnist Burke Owens: "The St Helena United Methodist Church has recently transformed its website into a beautiful entity of communication. Please search for sthelenaunitedmethodistchurch.org on your computer, pad or smart phone to stay connected with what our faith community is up to, our worship, small group meetings and events. We are a reconciling church, open to any and all people and look forward to speaking with you soon."

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The Caymus Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will hold their annual luncheon April 30 at the home of Past Regent Marjorie McNay with Regent Dianne Fraser presiding. The meeting will celebrate the chapters founding 50 years ago on April 5, 1972. Happy birthday, ladies!

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Are you a frequent patron of the St. Helena Public Library? Why not join the friendly and knowledgeable staff? The city is looking for a part-time library assistant, with hourly wages of $19.58-$23.76. Apply at calopps.org.

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I was sad to read of the motorcycle crash south of Calistoga that injured St. Helenas Laura March and her partner Marc Ferneau, who were both seriously hurt. Laura is a St. Helena native whos managed Keenan Winerys tasting room since 1996. Though she suffered life-altering injuries, Laura is already recovering at home. As of last week, Marc was still in the hospital. Their friends are raising money for rehabilitation expenses and training and adaptive equipment. Help at gofundme.com/f/donate-to-help-st-helena-and-napa-natives.
After more than two years of Zoom, the city of St. Helena is preparing to return to in-person meetings.

The council told staff Tuesday to start working on a hybrid format in which the council would be present and consultants and staff would be able to participate virtually at the city managers discretion.

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Staff will need at least 30 days of lead time to acquire new technology and train staff before before returning to the in-person format. The June 7 Planning Commission meeting is tentatively scheduled to be St. Helenas first in-person meeting since March 2020.

Im suffering from Zoom fatigue, Vice Mayor Paul Dohring said at Tuesdays council meeting, held via Zoom. We are losing a fair amount of interaction and transparency when we are not having folks in person. Theres definitely a drop-off in participation, and the city I think is suffering from it.

The return to in-person meetings would apply to the City Council, Planning Commission, and other city boards and committees.

You can reach Jesse Duarte at 967-6803 or jduarte@sthelenastar.com.

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Napa Countys law enforcement agencies have recently published inventories of their military equipment because of a new state law.

The Napa County Sheriffs Department  which contracts with the American Canyon Police Department  identified 28 pieces of equipment, and the Napa Police Department identified 14 pieces of equipment as a result of the law. Additionally, the Calistoga Police Department and the St. Helena Police Department have each identified zero pieces of responsive equipment, according to the police chiefs at each department.

The sheriffs office equipment includes a Lenco Bearcat G3 armored vehicle, ballistic breaching shotguns, armor-piercing rounds, a reconnaissance robot, a tactical robot, AR-15 style rifles, a drone, several 40-millimeter grenade launchers, chemical agents, flashbang devices, smoke grenades and more.

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The Napa Police Departments list is relatively similar. The department has a Lenco Bearcat G2 armored vehicle, a remote-controlled tactical robot, AR-15 style rifles, 9mm submachine guns, smoke canisters, grenade launchers, and more.

Local government boards that oversee those agencies are also in the process of adopting military equipment use policies because the new law, Assembly Bill 481  which came into effect on Jan. 1 this year  also requires that.

Both inventories  available as attachments on the agendas for the April 19 Napa County Board of Supervisors meeting, for the sheriffs office, and the April 19 Napa City Council meeting, for the Napa Police Department  contain descriptions of each of the items, what theyre used for, the cost and quantity of the item, training requirements and compliance protocols.

Napa Police Chief Jennifer Gonzales told the Napa City Council last week that many of the items identified are restricted to SWAT  Special Weapons and Tactics  team use. Thats also true for the sheriffs office, according to that inventory.

Napa County Sheriff Oscar Ortiz told the Napa County Board of Supervisors last week that the law stemmed from the United States Department of Defense 1033 program, which allows the department to send excess military property to local law enforcement agencies. The sheriffs department doesnt participate in that program, he said, but the department decided to report everything that could qualify as military equipment under the language of the law.

Wed rather over-report and publish everything we have, Ortiz said. Were not asking to purchase anything today, were not asking for anything new, and we want to assure this body that everything weve had weve had for years.

Gonzales said that one major change the law brings is that law enforcement agencies need to ask for permission from their governing bodies if they want to purchase new military equipment. That means that such bodies, such as the Napa City Council, could choose to approve or reject such requests for equipment.

The department would also need permission from the council for military equipment used by partner agencies, Gonzales said.

If we were to have a need to purchase equipment that is not already identified on this list, we would have to, under the new law, come back to this body and ask for permission, Gonzales said. In the past it has been the chiefs authority to purchase items. And obviously, past chiefs have discussed it with their city managers at the time. But now the state law requires a universal throughout the state: all the departments have to go to their governing board and have that authority. Thats the new part.

Gonzales said AB 481 and similar police oversight actions have happened as a results of critical incidents that happened nationwide in recent years  such as the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer  and communities saying they want more oversight as a result.

An argument in support of the law from the Asian Solidarity Collective says regulating police acquisition of military equipment is critical because the militarization of police departments leads to increased civilian deaths, and militarized policing teams are more often deployed in communities of color.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union website, federal programs to provide local departments with surplus military equipment have outfitted officers with firepower that is often far beyond what is necessary for their jobs as protectors of their communities.

Gonzales said that many of the pieces of equipment identified, however, help the department carry out nonlethal approaches to major incidents.

A lot of these items are designed to be either less lethal or nonlethal items so we can help with deescalating critical incidents. Gonzales said. If we look back at our basic law enforcement strategy, its to prevent loss of life, to seek peaceful resolution in incidents using the least amount of force possible. And we also want to minimize the risk to bystanders that are involved.

You can reach Edward Booth at 707-256-2213.

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During Vinitaly 2022 in Verona I had the honor to attend a seminar titled Iconic Women in Italian Wine. The name says it all, and it lived up to all expectations.

Organized by two of the most impactful critics in the Italian wine world, it was the first collaboration of this kind between Monica Larner from Robert Parkers The Wine Advocate and Alison Napjus from The Wine Spectator Magazine.

The panel included some of Italys most influential women behind some of the most relevant wine brands in the country and world wide.

The roster was composed of Amarone della Valpolicella champion Marilisa Allegrini Albiera Antinori from the Antinori Family empire; Priscilla Incisa della Rocchetta from Sassicaia; Barolo producer Chiara Boschis; Elisabetta Foradori from the Tentino; Elena Fucci, who has shined a light in the Basilicata region, and Sicilian star, Arianna Occhipinti.

After thoughtful introductions by the two hosts, a deep conversation about the state of the wine industry followed. Insights on the current challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic were a hot topic as well as sustainability and relevance in the marketplace.

I have to admit, I was, like the rest of the audience, in awe at having decades of experience in front of us discussing the many challenges this women have faced respectively being ambassadors of their own regions to the world.

Marilisa Allegrini described her struggle traveling the world as early as the 1980s portraying the relevance of the Valpolicella efforts in wine lists across the globe.

With the same passion and enthusiasm, Elena Fucci told the story of her journey making Aglianico del Vulture and relaying its importance amongst the world's best wines.

Each panelist brought a wine to share with the audience; in front of us there was a magnificent display of memorable wines presented in a blind setting allowing for interaction with the audience.

Some of the highlights included the 2019 Arianna Occhipinti, Terre Siciliane Igt Frappato Vini di Contrada BB portraying the depth, liveliness and elegance of Frappato, grown and vinified in ideal conditions.

The 2010 Chiara Boschis, Barolo Cannubi, with wisdom, complexity and spice-driven magic, simply showed beautifully.

From Elena Fucci, the 2012 Aglianico del Vulture Titolo out of a 3-liter format rivaled some of the best wines of the world with a dark fruited core, and seriousness and length in the finish.

And without a doubt the 2013 Sassicaia from Bolgheri has many decades of life ahead, but it was a joy to taste, with the undeniable stamp of this powerhouse, dressed with layers of dark cherry and a subtle layer of smoked pepper and spice.

All in all, it was a fantastic opportunity to hear firsthand from this group of pioneers who continue to hold the flag high for quality and longevity in the wine world and inspire the next generations.
Quake hits Georgia-Azerbaijan border zone, also felt in Armenia

Biden signs Lend-Lease Act to defend democracy in Ukraine

EU considers additional funds for eastern countries for a deal to ban Russian oil

Armenia PM to visit Netherlands

Germany's finance minister warns that wage increases could further fuel inflation

Ursula von der Leyen travels to Hungary to persuade Orban to support sanctions on Russia

NEWS.am digest: Armenia marks May 9, Shushi liberation; Azerbaijan opens fire on Sotk gold mine

Ursula von der Leyen says unanimous vote on key areas of EU policy no longer makes sense

Resistance movement marches through central streets of Yerevan

US First Lady meets with Slovak President

North Korea urges citizens to strictly adhere to antiviral measures in connection with COVID-19

Armenian TV host dies after falling into river

Javelin manufacturer to double production of anti-tank missile systems

Sri Lankan Prime Minister submits his resignation to the President

Marukyan: There should have been half million people on streets now if people really wanted change of power in Armenia

Russia envoy to Armenia: Everyone should avoid steps that could aggravate situation

Oil prices drop in Saudi Arabia after COVID-19 outbreak in China

Armenia army general staff ex-deputy chief: I will say its a lie if someone says it was possible to win 44-day war

Georgia condemns presidential elections in South Ossetia

ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party official says authorities plan to divide Armenian diaspora

Azerbaijan continues attempts to appropriate Armenian Dadivank Monastery

Bitcoin is trading at a low since the summer of 2021

Armenia ambassador-at-large: Whoever says 'they want Artsakh to be part of Azerbaijan' probably wants it

Turkeys Erdogan to attend Teknofest in Azerbaijan

System Of a Down members welcome opposition Resistance Movement actions in Armenia (PHOTOS)

Journalist attacked in Baku

19 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia in past 5 days

Novak: Russia has already started selling oil to a number of new buyers

Putin: NATO countries did not want to hear Russia

Two Chinese ships enter Japanese territorial waters

China assures Australia of peaceful intentions in cooperation with Solomon Islands

Holy Etchmiadzin clergy visit Victory Park memorial in Yerevan

Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan: Let us live for new victories

Armenia ex-defense minister: Wedding at Mountains ideologically impossible after change of power

NATO Secretary General urges Putin to withdraw troops from Ukraine

Karabakh negotiation process did not fail under Armenia ex-President Serzh Sargsyan, says Seyran Ohanyan

Armenia ex-defense minister: Resistance Movements breakthrough moment already passed

Karabakh President visits Stepanakert Memorial on May 9 anniversaries

Armenia Investigative Committee chief on including PM Pashinyan as defendant: We have just accepted proceedings

Heavy snowfall recorded in Armenia rural community, in May!

Karabakh President: Shushi is in captivity again, Artsakh must always be Armenian and impregnable

Armenias Pashinyan to Russias Putin: Memory of great past obliges us to strengthen our inherited friendly ties

Armenia PM arrives at Victory Park accompanied by enhanced security

Armenia ex-President Serzh Sargsyan: For stateless servile creatures, cost of peace is homage paid to enemy

Azerbaijanis desecrate Armenian church in occupied Togh village of Artsakh (VIDEO)

Armenia PM: Blood of our martyrs who gave their lives to Motherland should not be forgotten

Armenia premier, president, others are at Victory Park

Armenia marks May 9

Armenia PM visits Yerevan military pantheon

Zelenskyy and German Parliament Speaker discuss heavy weapons supply to Ukraine

Bloomberg: Hungary continues to block EU oil sanctions against Russia

Israel to abolish mandatory PCR testing at airport as of 20 May

US and G7 countries introduce new package of sanctions against Russia and Belarus

Syrian President visits Iran

Canada PM visits city of Irpin in Ukraine

Armenia's ex-president Serzh Sargsyan is on France Square

Ukrainian media report on US First Lady's visit to Uzhhorod, Ukraine

Marine Le Pen still hopes to defeat Macron in parliamentary elections

German Parliament Speaker arrives in Kiev

German media reports Russian hacker attack on German government website

Resistance Movement rally in Gyumri ends: next rally will take place tomorrow in France Square

Armenia Ombudsman's Office to monitor rallies also in Gyumri

Media: IS militants fire seven rockets at Tajik Armed Forces

Rally of Resistance Movement in Gyumri

Germany registers steepest rise in diesel prices among EU countries since February

Minute of silence declared in Artsakh on 9 May in memory of those killed fighting for homeland

Bloomberg: G7 leaders to discuss possible new sanctions against Russia

Ex-security chief John Lee named new leader of Hong Kong

Xi Jinping Delivers a Keynote Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022

Resistance movement heads to Gyumri with car march

Andy Warhol's portrait of Marilyn Monroe breaks all records at auction in New York

Ancient Roman 2,000-year-old relic bought in US for $35

Ferrari bans Justin Bieber from buying its sports cars

St. Kirakos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir reopened seven years later

NATO chief warns of further escalation of Ukraine situation in coming weeks

Azerbaijan intensely firing toward Armenias Sotk gold mine, 1 wounded

Iran FM discusses nuclear talks in Vienna with UN Secretary General

Yerevan.Today: Azerbaijani journalists are in Armenia

Candidate with Turkish citizenship and served in Turkey army is nominated for US Senate

Opposition Yerevan rally participant remanded in custody

Armenia Investigative Committee comments on cases of blocking streets with trucks

Resistance Movement holding rally in Vanadzor

US accuses Russia of using chemical weapons in Syria

Women kick off march in downtown Yerevan

Man found dead under Yerevan bridge

Armenia Judge Boris Bakhshiyan released from custody

Armenia President meets with Security Council secretary

Biden demands to stop leaks of US intel sharing with Ukraine

At least 22 dead in explosion at 5-star hotel in Cuba

Newspaper: Armenia PM had arrangement with ruling political teams parliament faction

G7 leaders to discuss possible new sanctions on Russia

Armenia Security Council chief: No talk of withdrawing Russian peacekeepers from Artsakh

Resistance Movement heading towards Vanadzor by motorcade

Newspaper: Armenia consumer market inflation was 2.3% in April compared to March

Pentagon announces additional $150M in aid to Ukraine

Sri Lanka's president declares state of emergency amid mass protests

Austria needs several years to give up on Russian gas

Biden to sign new arms package for Ukraine worth at least $100 million

Armenia's third President Serzh Sargsyan in France Square

Armenia parliament speakers mother spits at protesters
Moscow does not refuse to negotiate with Kiev and expects to reach agreements on the diplomatic track, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, TASS reported.

His remarks came at a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday.

"Despite the fact that a military operation is underway, we nevertheless still count on the fact that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track as well - we are negotiating, we are not giving up on them," the Russian leader said.

According to him, Ukraine proposes to consider the situation with the territories of Crimea and Donbas immediately at the level of the two heads of state, but these issues cannot be resolved without preliminary discussions. At the same time, Moscow does not agree to sign security agreements without resolving these issues.

The Russian leader pointed out that after the events in Bucha, Ukrainian negotiators "withdrew from their previous intentions to take the issues of security guarantees and the territory of Crimea, Sevastopol and Donbas out of the equation." "They simply abandoned that. And in their draft agreement on this matter, presented to us, they simply indicated in two articles that these issues should be resolved at a meeting of heads of state. But it is clear to us that these issues - if we take them to the level of heads of state without first resolving them at least within the framework of the draft agreement - it is clear to us that they will never be resolved," Putin said.

"In this case, we simply cannot sign the security guarantees without resolving the territorial issues concerning Crimea, Sevastopol, and Donbas," he added.
We are going to clean the country from perversion. We are going to disinfect the government building and return our patient to his place of dwelling. Vahagn Chakhalyan, the co-founder of the Kamq (Will) initiative, stated this Wednesday during their protest at Republic Square in Yerevanand referring to Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan.

Chakhalyan and the other participants of this protest are wearing gas masks and medical gowns and are holding tools for disinfection.

Chakhalyan said that the gas mask will be one of the best tools of the new Armenian authorities, and called on all opposition members to get gas masks.

These protesters are holding banners that read, "No to perversion!" and "Nikol, leave!"

But before they could reach the main government building, the police stopped them, asked them where they were going, said that the government building was a specially protected area, and urged them to bypass the building.

Subsequently, an argument broke out between a protester and a police officer.

Shortly afterwards, the police apprehended Vahagn Chakhalyan and several others, and pushed the others out from outside the government building.
I am optimistic about the developments regarding the peace and normalization process in South Caucasus. The Ambassador of the Netherlands to Azerbaijan, Pauline Eiseman, said this in a response to a question by APA, the latter reported.

She noted that the European Union (EU) is active in this process.

The diplomat recalled the meetings of European Council President Charles Michel with the parties.

The ambassador noted that the meeting of the EU, Azerbaijani, and Armenian leaders in Brussels on April 6 was successful and fruitful.

"Some agreements have been reached, the phone conversations have been held after the meeting at the MFA levels. Surely, such direct contacts are important. Touching upon the relations between the people, I would like to mention that this is important. The EU may give support to this issue," Eiseman said.
GeoProMining announces the completion of the co-financing of the second subvention community development program in the Vardenis region of the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia. This was noted during the meeting of the General Director of GPM Gold Anatoly Gogotin with the Governor of the Gegharkunik Province Karen Sargsyan.

The amount of GeoProMining Gold co-financing of the second stage of the program amounted to 50 million drams within the framework of design work for 79 million drams. As part of the program, a number of tasks were solved in the field of social infrastructure in the region where the company operates. In particular, the issues of gas supply, water supply to a number of villages in the Geghamasar community, and lighting networks for rural streets have been resolved.

As part of the first subvention program, the Company provided assistance to the community of Vardenis worth 50 million drams. In 2020-21 several streets were reconstructed and landscaped, as well as the central park of the city of Vardenis. The parties also discussed investment projects directed by the company for the reorganization of the Sotk gold mine operating in the region. The management of GPM Gold acquainted the governor with a number of social programs and discussed the prospects for cooperation in this area.

GeoProMining Gold General Director Anatoly Gogotin: GeoProMining Gold is a socially responsible company. We always try to invest as much as possible in the development of social infrastructure and humanitarian programs. Our social programs, developed in cooperation with local governments, serve to improve the standard of living of citizens and their well-being.

Governor of Gegharkunik Province Karen Sargsyan: In the person of GeoProMining Gold, we have a good friend and partner who is actively involved in the life of the communities of the region and has been participating in social development programs for many years. At the first stage of the partnership, we significantly improved the social infrastructure of the city of Vardenis, and now we are continuing programs for the infrastructure development of the villages of the region, where our partner is actively involved.

It should be reminded that GeoProMining Group of Companies, one of the largest industrial investors in Armenia, has been operating in the country for 15 years. The Armenian assets of the group consist of the Sotk gold mine, the Ararat gold recovery plant and the Agarak copper-molybdenum combine. Over 15 years of operation, the group has invested over 400 million USD in the modernization of its Armenian enterprises. The amount of the Group's social investments in the development of the regions of presence exceeds 15 million USD.
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Arusyak Julhakyan, an MP from the ruling majority Civil Contract Faction of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia and member of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), on Tuesday delivered a speech at the Plenary Sitting of PACE Spring Session, the NA informed.

Dear colleagues, honorable chair, earlier today you stated that you see this platform as an agora rather than an arena. And I do share this approach. Unfortunately, sometimes we use this respective platform as a battlefield, forgetting the initial idea the Council of Europe is based on: idea of gathering European nations together to find solutions to common problems, the idea of rebuilding and maintaining peace on a shattered continent, the idea of upholding human rights in Europe.

Yesterday, my Azerbaijani colleague declared that Azerbaijan has done and still does everything to reach peace. And I understood that being in the same organization we, however, have different perceptions concerning the core values the organization is based on. We have different perceptions of peace, different perceptions of human rights.

When you shell a maternity hospital, it does not lead to peace. When you behead an elder civilian, this does not lead to peace.

When you create a trophy park with degrading and dehumanizing mannequins of Armenian soldiers in the heart of your capital, when you proudly take your children to that park and show them these mannequins and so called trophies, this does not lead to peace. This can lead to disrespect, maybe hatred but not peace.

When you refuse releasing prisoners of war, other detained people, when you make them a subject of bargaining continuously demanding more and more concessions, this does not lead to peace. When you give no importance to the ECHR rulings, resolutions of the PACE and the European Parliament related to the Armenian prisoners of war denying the international instruments designed for the protection of human rights, this does not lead to peace.

When you shoot at villages, at peaceful civilians living in their homeland, using small and large caliber weapons, this does not lead to peace.

When you intentionally blow up the gas pipeline and deprive the peaceful population, including children, of heating in the coldest weather conditions leaving them freeze, this is not about peace.

When your Armed Forces using loudspeakers, threaten the peaceful population prompting them to leave their homes and native villages, this is not peace.

When you destruct, annihilate Armenian churches, historical-cultural monuments, cemeteries even after the ruling of the International Court of Justice, respective resolutions by the PACE and the European Parliament, when your president publicly orders to erase the ancient Armenian manuscripts from the Armenian churches in Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)], thus erasing the Armenian trace from these territories, this is not about peace.

So, dear colleagues, speaking about peace, lets make sure that here in this agora we understand that word the same way. Maybe this will help us to start a confidence building process, peace building process and eventually bring a real peace to our region. Arusyak Julhakyan said.
The French Ambassador for Eastern Partnership, Brice Roquefeuil, will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan next week, the French foreign ministry said in a statement, Turan reported

To note, it is about the French Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, but the French foreign ministry did not use this name of the position.

The visit will be a continuation of the regional visit which started on April 11 with a visit to Yerevan. Paris welcomes the direct dialogue between the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the decision of the two countries to create a bilateral commission on border issues and conclude a peace treaty. France intends to support this process, the aforesaid statement added.

To note, Javier Colomina Piriz, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy and NATO Secretary Generals Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, will also visit Azerbaijan on Thursday and Friday with a similar mission. Earlier he visited Armenia and Georgia.
YEREVAN.  President Alen Simonyan of the Republic of Armenia National Assembly (RA NA) on Wednesday received the representatives of the delegation that carried out an OSCE/ODIHR Observation Mission in Armenia, the NA informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Speaking about the aim of the visit, Eoghan Murphy, the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Observation Mission during the 2021 snap parliamentary election in Armenia, noted that they are in Armenia for presenting the final report prepared by the OSCE/ODIHR.

At the meeting they talked about the importance of the parliamentary diplomacy in Armenia, also discussing the ways of power-opposition partnership and interaction in the parliaments of the democratic countries.

The RA NA President touched upon the legislative amendments on the period followed the June 20, 2021 elections and the issues relating to the current state of democracy in Armenia.

Referring to the security problems of the region, the RA NA President highly appreciated the role of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly as an important platform for strengthening the trust in the OSCE region, drawing the attention of the OSCE representative to the aggressive announcements by the representatives of Azerbaijan in the OSCE PA. He documented that it could be possible to reach peace in the region only through the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict, which should include the clarification of the Artsakh status on the basis of the execution of the right to its self-determination by the people of Artsakh.

The sides also spoke about the international standards of the electoral systems, in this context observing the achievements recorded by the nationwide elections in Armenia.
The European Commission has launched proceedings that could eventually lead to a partial suspension of Hungary's support payments for violating the bloc's legal rules, AP reports.

The European Commission officially notified Hungary about the start of the process. The notification opens a round of discussions and Hungary has two months to provide explanations and propose remedies.

The case marks the first use of a new mechanism to allow the EU to take action to protect its budget, as the European Union's highest court ruled in February that the procedure was legally accepted.

The European Commission said that the main goal would be to reach an agreement so that the process could be stopped. If not, the process will continue and the commission will eventually make proposals for consideration by EU members.

The proposed measures, such as suspending payments or ordering financial corrections, must be proportionate, taking into account the impact of violations on the EU budget, the commission said. Therefore, a complete suspension of EU funding is unlikely. Any action requires the approval of a qualified majority of the members of the European Council - 55% of the member states representing at least 65% of the total population of the EU.

The new tool does not target EU members for general breaches of EU law, but was designed to protect EU financial interests from breaches affecting the bloc's overall budget.

The Commission decided to oppose Hungary due to concerns about the country's use of EU money, a perceived lack of proper anti-corruption procedures, and alleged violations of EU law.

Commission officials said Hungary has consistently failed to implement EU recommendations for more than 10 years.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 27.04.22:

Car from Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyans convoy hit and killed a pregnant woman.

The Armenian police confirmed the information about the accident involving Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's government motorcade.

The citizen was hit by a car of the Road Police, which was on duty.

The pregnant girl, who was run over by a motorcade, has died, the child also could not be saved.

This 29-year-old pregnant woman was Sona Mnatsakanyan, and she was working at the Support Our Heroes (SOH)-Armenia organization.

Mnatsakanyan was born and raised in Berkanush village of Artashat city. She had gotten married last year and was living in Yerevan.

Earlier it was reported that the government motorcade of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hit a pedestrian at the intersection of Leo-Paronyan-Proshyan streets in Yerevan.

Azerbaijani foreign minister Jeyhun Bayramov talked about the "results" of talks with his Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan.

His remarks came at a joint press briefing with visiting Georgian FM Ilia Darchiashvili

After putting an end to the conflict, one of the priority issues for us is the provision of sustainable peace in the region, Bayramov noted.

The FM noted he and his Armenian counterpart have already had some results.

I have already had two telephone conversations with Armenian FM. There is already conditions for the start of Commission on delimitation and demarcation of borders to operate," Bayramov added.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia on Tuesday received a formal request from a number of parents and relatives of soldiers killed during the war unleashed by Azerbaijan in 2020 in Karabakh to recognize these servicemen as victims in the respective criminal case, and this request was granted.

On the same day, the Prosecutor General's Office received a separate formal request to include Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as a defendant in the criminal case under investigation into the causes of the catastrophic consequences of the 2020 Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war.

Opposition forces protests continue in Yerevan.

The political opposition in Armenia, headed by the Armenia and With Honor parliamentary factions, launched protests against the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Yesterday, ARF youth and some citizens led by Armenian MP Anna Grigoryan started to march on Yerevan from the Ararat Province village of Tigranashen.

Armenias ARF Youth Union on Wednesday staged a protest on Komitas Avenue in Yerevan.

Parliamentary Vice Speaker, Hayastan MP Ishkhan Saghatelyan reported live on Facebook that police had detained the protesters.

The Human Rights Defenders Office later announced they had visited 24 detainees and were told that police used force to detain them and provided no legal justification.

Also today Young activists of the Resistance Movement blocked the intersection of Mashtots Avenue and Khorenatsi Street in Yerevan and set up a small house with the inscription "Polis" in the middle of the road.

One of the protesters said that the enemy had re-installed a customs checkpoint on the Goris-Kapan highway.

After a while, the protesters ended the rally by apologizing to the drivers. There were practically no police officers on the avenue at the time.

The situation in Ukraine remains highly tense.

Ukraines general staff said Wednesday Russian forces were pressing their offensive in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions and they had captured several settlements.

However, Britain's defense ministry said Ukraine retains control over the majority of its airspace.

Meanwhile, a series of blasts were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine, authorities sai.

According to them, an ammunition depot in the Belgorod province caught fire around the same time.

Ukraine also accused Russia of trying to drag Moldovas breakaway region of Transnistria into its war after authorities in the Russia-backed region, adjacent to southwest Ukraine, said they had been targeted by a series of attacks.

Russias Gazprom has suspended gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria, citing the two countries refusal to pay in Russian rubles.

https://news.am/eng/news/698737.html

In turn, the head of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, called Gazprom's statement to stop gas supplies to the EU countries unjustified and unacceptable.

Tuesday marked the 36th anniversary of what is considered the worlds worst ever nuclear disaster in Chernobyl.

And the international media said there is relief that the hulking sarcophagus covering the reactors radioactivity has returned to Ukrainian control.

But concerns have far from dissipated for atomic sites in Ukraine, as authorities even said Tuesday that missiles had flown low over a nuclear power station in a close call in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

According to the Ukrainian side, the plant suffered a power and communications outage that stirred fears of a possible new calamity at the site.
In the Haitian culture, the Vodou deity Papa Legba is a bit of a trickster. His color is red. He is associated with dogs. He resides at every crosswalk and has the power to open the roads.

Most Haitians offer a small sacrifice at each crosswalk, or kafou, to appease the god. That is the basis at the heart of Kafou, a 2017 film produced in Haiti, which will be shown on April 29 at 7 p.m. at the Bill Cosford Cinema on the Coral Gables Campus.

The two main protagonists, Doc and Zoe, are hired by an underground kidnapping company to deliver a package. The job comes with an ominous caveat: never stop the car, never roll down the windows, never open the trunk.

The crime caper begins to get complicated when at the first crossroad they stumble upon a dog. The choices they make will be irrevocable.

It is a dark comedy, said Jacqueline Charles, a Miami Herald journalist who has covered Haiti for decades. The film gives viewers a chance to see the talent in a country where there is no working movie theater and where this film opens the door to a necessary conversation around whats taking shape in Haiti.

Haiti is a nation continually in turmoil, whether dealing with natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, or political strife. In 2021, Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated, and the country continues to be plagued by gang violence and an economy in crisis.

Charles will be the moderator of a panel that will follow the screening. She will be speaking with director Bruno Mourral, who is also a co-writer, and Gilbert Mirambeau Jr., a co-writer.

One of the topics central to the film is that of kidnappings since Zoe, Doc, and a third character named Fritz get involved in these crimes.

Filmed on the streets of Port-au-Prince, the film would be difficult, if not impossible, to make on those same streets today given the increase in gang-related kidnappings, said Charles.

Kidnappings in Haiti have become the leading security concern for individuals who live in or who visit the country, she said.  Kafou gives viewers a look into what essentially has become a pandemic in the Caribbean nation through the lens of talented Haiti-born filmmakers.

Mourral and Mirambeau started to make the film in 2015, amid working on a feature film Kidnapping Inc., about the widespread kidnappings.

Since the dictatorship in the 1960s, Haiti has always been a violent country, said Mourral. But in 2004, the kidnapping phenomenon became a big issue which impacted the social and economic life of the countryespecially in the capital.

Our family and friends have been victims of this violence, he said. These countless stories inspired us to bring this difficult and serious subject to light through a dark comedy twist.

Financing the movie was not easy. According to Mourral, they borrowed money from banks, family, and friends to finish it. And only one sponsor offered them funds.

Because of budget issues, insecurity, and violence, we had to shoot the movie in four parts, he said.

Although the film deals with the dark side of Haitian society, it also has funny moments that will resonate with all audiences, said Charles.

The creators of the film hope the audience will become knowledgeable about the plight of Haiti.

 Kafou is a way to bring awareness to this kidnapping phenomenon destroying our beloved country, said Mourral. It is also a way to point to multiple breaches in our society that starts with the choices you must make at any crossroad of your life and the consequences that comes with it.

He hopes the audience will be intrigued with the movie and that it will stimulate difficult conversations about Haiti.

Visit https://cosfordcinema.com/event/kafou/ for more information about this event.
Spears student graduating at 19, next stop: law school

Media Contact: Terry Tush | Director, Marketing and Communications | 405-744-2703 | terry.tush@okstate.edu

Joe Stone may not know what to do when he wakes up Sunday, May 8.

For the first time in nearly two years, the Spears School of Business economics major wont begin his day concerned with his latest homework assignment, when his next big project is due or if hes studied enough for his next text.

At 19 years old (yes, thats correct, 19!), Stone will be a college graduate when he rolls out of bed that morning. Since arriving at Oklahoma State University in August 2020, he has made it his mission to graduate in two years. Although he arrived on the Stillwater campus with 34 credits from taking advanced placement courses in high school, Stone had to take full class loads the last five semesters (Fall 2020 and 2021, Summer 2021, and Spring 2021 and 2022) to graduate in May.

Stone will walk across the Gallagher-Iba Arena stage during the Spears School of Business commencement ceremony May 7 having accomplished his goal, and even more impressive, with a 4.0 grade-point average and no student debt.

Once I got to college, my sister and I were splitting the GI Bill from my dad, so each of us got two years, Stone said, And I was like, 'Well, if I can find a way to make it out of here in two years, Im going to do it.' But it has been difficult.

I was often the class clown growing up and as the class clown, you dont want the teachers to think youre smart. But I think that coming into college I just had a different mindset about everything. This is when it starts to get important to me. I think that was the big thing that pushed me to decide to graduate at 19. I don't think it was any ideas of grandeur that I had when I was younger.

Stone took 19 hours every fall and spring semester at OSU, and enrolled in 10 hours the one summer semester he was on campus, all before reaching the age of 20.

Stone maintained straight-As while taking that full class load and holding down a job. He kept his job at a large electronic store warehouse in his hometown of Norman and would work between 8 to 15 hours each weekend.

Stone admits that he missed out on many college experiences by concentrating on his studies, but he believes graduating in two years is worth the sacrifices.

There were a lot of times where I wanted to be able to do things with my girlfriend and my roommate, but I just didnt have the time and I had to say no, he said. I definitely missed out on a lot of what people would call the college experience because of it.

I didnt go to any games, I didnt party, I didnt do anything. I sat and I studied mostly. I've told people multiple times throughout college that the hardest part of college for me has been maintaining my close relationships with people around me because I oftentimes didn't feel like I had time for them. But I also made time to have fun. The spring semester of last year, my roommate, Jacob, and I dropped everything and spontaneously went on a road trip for a week.

Stone was recently recognized during the Spears Business Best in Biz awards ceremony as a Top 5 Senior in the Department of Economics. He was also honored in April by being one of nine students statewide to be awarded a $2,000 scholarship by the Economics Club of Oklahoma.

The Best in Biz awards ceremony was the first time Id ever been to something like that, he said. Even in high school, I never received any awards, so I thought it was kind of weird to get recognition for my achievements, because Im not used to it. Im used to just doing my own thing and just being happy that Im doing it.

The next challenge for Stone will be attending law school at the University of Oklahoma. He will begin this fall as a 20-year-old law school student (he turns 20 in June), and he has already bonded with some of his new classmates.

The recently accepted OU College of Law Class of 2025 was invited to a special event in Oklahoma City and Stone caught the attention of several future classmates.

One of the first times my age came up was when this guy turns around and grabs three or four people and points at me and says, Tell them your age. I was like, Oh goodness, he said. Another time some of the non-traditional students were talking about how old I was making them feel, and one made a comment, This is Joseph, who just came out of kindergarten, and I thought that was really funny. It doesnt bother me, and I think its funny.

Stone is eager to begin law school, but realizes that it will be much different than his two years at OSU.

I dont know if itll be exactly the same as far as how busy I am, but when Ive talked to the admissions people about my time at OSU they always say something like, OK, well then law school shouldnt be too much of a change of pace for you. Stone said.

The teenager said 150 students will enter OU College of Law this year, and they will be split into four sections, taking all their classes together over the next four years. Stone, like many his age, is still not sure which career path he will take when he graduates from law school.

I think it would be cool to be an attorney and part of me thinks it would be really awesome to be a judge because that sounds like fun, but I also know its really hard to become a judge, he said. I think my biggest desire is I just want to do something that I feel challenged doing and that I go to work every day and just enjoy it.
Spears Business, United WE unveil research on the Status of Women in Oklahoma

Media Contact: Terry Tush | Director, Marketing and Communications | 405-744-2703 | terry.tush@okstate.edu

The Spears School of Business and United WE, a non-partisan nonprofit organization, released Wednesday a year-long study examining womens economic status in Oklahoma and to highlight areas of possible action to economically empower women and their families.

The Status of Women in Oklahoma report shows that women in Oklahoma face challenges that hinder them from achieving their full economic impact.

Dr Laura Ahlstrom, assistant professor of economics at Oklahoma State University, was commissioned to conduct the research by United WE, a non-partisan nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance all womens economic and civic leadership. The research shows that the gender earnings gap is larger in Oklahoma than in the United States overall. Oklahoma women earned 74.5 cents for every dollar earned by a man between 2015 and 2019, compared to 80.8 cents per dollar for U.S. women. If current trends continue, women in Oklahoma will not see equal pay until 2076.

Our research illuminates the challenges and inequities faced by women in Oklahoma while serving as a benchmark for tracking the advancement and progress of women in our state, Ahlstrom said. The data validates the importance of removing barriers and advocating for policies that support women, ultimately making families and communities healthier and the economy stronger.

Ahlstroms research also reveals that child care in Oklahoma is unaffordable for many families. The average cost of child care in Oklahoma is more expensive than a year of in-state tuition at a four-year public college. The typical married couple in Oklahoma spends about 11.7% of their income for infant care and 20.6% of their income for two children. Child care is considered affordable if it costs 7% or less of a familys income.

We are delighted to partner with such a well-respected organization as United WE to explore the status of women in Oklahoma, said Dr. Ken Eastman, dean at Spears Business. At Spears, we are committed to enhancing the opportunities of women and all Oklahomans and Dr. Ahlstroms research provides valuable insight on areas of needed improvements.

Spears Business and the Ash Grove Charitable Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of one of the largest cement companies in the United States that serves multiple regions in Oklahoma, funded the research project. The findings highlight areas of possible action to help economically empower women and their families. Findings from the research include the following:

Employment and Earnings

Oklahomas gender earnings gap is one of the highest in the country. Women in Oklahoma effectively stop getting paid on Sept. 24 relative to Oct. 29 for women in the United States overall.

If equal pay were a reality in Oklahoma, the poverty rate for working women would be reduced by nearly 50%, and womens earnings would increase by approximately $5.4 billion annually.

If women in the state took off one day of work, the Oklahoma GDP would lose $222.4 million.

Child Care

The annual cost of child care for an infant in Oklahoma in 2020 was $8,940, or $745 a month. The typical married family with two incomes spends about 12% of their income on infant child care compared to 40% for the typical single parent.

The annual cost of infant care in Oklahoma is greater than the cost of in-state tuition at a public, four-year university in the state.

Health Care

In 2019, Oklahoma was only one of two states where the uninsured rate was higher than 14% while the U.S. national average was 9.2%. The state had the second highest number of uninsured women in the United States in 2022.

Smaller percentages of men and women in Oklahoma are enrolled in Medicaid compared to their United States peers. Among women in the United States, about 21% are enrolled in Medicaid relative to 18-19% of Oklahoma women.

Poverty and Social Insurance

Women in Oklahoma ages 25 to 64 have a higher poverty rate than men in Oklahoma as well as when compared to women in the United States overall.

Among women who are 65 years old and older, the share of women in poverty in Oklahoma is lower than the percentage for women in the United States as a whole.

Civic Engagement

About one-fifth of the Oklahoma legislators were women in 2021, a smaller share than the United States average.

Oklahoma women vote more than Oklahoma men, but voter turnout rates are lower in Oklahoma for both genders than for men and women in the United States overall.

We have a long history of commissioning research in nearby states so we are delighted to expand our efforts into Oklahoma to better understand the challenges hindering our regions women from achieving their full economic potential, said Wendy Doyle, president and CEO of United WE. It is our collective responsibility to take this research, identify innovative solutions, educate elected officials and community leaders, and unite to advance and support policies that strengthen Oklahoma women and families for the economic development of our region.

A copy of the Status of Women in Oklahoma report is available on the United WE website: https://united-we.org/status-of-women-in-ok.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of graduating from Oklahoma State University, Patrick Glenn and his wife, Briar, donated $25,000 to OSUs School of Architecture.

Glenns mark graduation milestone with gift to School of Architecture

Media Contact: Mack Burke | Editorial Coordinator | 405-744-5540 | editor@okstate.edu

Patrick and Briar Glenn have built their success on a foundation provided by the Oklahoma State University School of Architecture.

The Dallas couple recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of Patricks graduation from the program with a $25,000 gift to establish the Glenn Prize for the School of Architecture.

"I would not be where I am today if it wasnt for all the professors in the School of Architecture, Patrick said. It really had a profound impact on my life, my work ethic and how I approach things. And so in a way, it was a big thank you to the School of Architecture.

The endowed fund will provide prize money for an annual competition within the school in which students design educational facilities  a nod to the couples work as the owners of Glenn | Partners, a firm dedicated to designing innovative and forward-thinking educational facilities.

With the Glenns, we were able to imagine a path for their legacy that would simultaneously highlight their career focus in the design of educational facilities while providing students more appreciation of this important area of practice, said Suzanne Bilbeisi, head of the OSU School of Architecture. The Glenn Prize will annually recognize and reward excellent student design work of this project type.

Patrick said the balance of design theory and technical training offered within the OSU School of Architecture sets it apart from other programs.

I think OSU is really a perfect balance between those two philosophies, Patrick said. Theyre definitely rooted in design theory and critical thinking and those important guiding principles, but they also teach students how to think practically and pragmatically about design, making sure its affordable and buildable. I think thats one reason why Ive been successful in my career and why other Oklahoma State graduates are successful. They come out of school with this blended, balanced level of knowledge and experience.

The Glenn Prize for the School of Architecture will support an annual competition among student designers.

The Glenns have committed to an additional annual gift to bolster its impact on students.

While the new endowment grows, we felt the earnings available to award werent impactful enough for a student, Patrick said. So thats why were enhancing it every year. As long as were doing well and were growing financially, well always be able to enhance the gift with year-end additional contributions just to make it a little bit more impactful and more meaningful for the students.

While students will see the most direct impact, the Glenns hope their gift will help enhance the school as a whole.

We are doing it so that the professors and the program are able to offer things to the students that were not offered in the past, Patrick said. Its really about enhancing the program and trying to support the mission that Suzanne and her team are trying to accomplish.

To further impact the School of Architecture, Patrick and Briar have made plans for a future estate gift. In addition, the couple plans to give another gift to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Briars graduation from the program. In the meantime, they feel honored to give back to the program that built them.

Were going to enjoy life and enjoy retirement when that time comes, Patrick said. Weve worked extremely hard, partnered with some amazing and talented colleagues, and made a lot of sacrifices along the way to have achieved the amount of success weve seen. Sharing in our rewards and giving back to our roots was the right thing to do. We both have wonderful memories of Stillwater and all the professors who helped build that program and continue to guide students today. I can truly say that we would not be the people we are today without that experience.

Patrick and Briar are excited to support the school with their gifts.

I feel honored to have something at the school that has my name on it, Patrick said. That program, those years, those professors, that town and that university had such an influence and tremendous impact on me.

"So if were able to give back and even have my name as a part of the OSU School of Architecture legacy, it just means a lot to me. So to have something that will live on beyond my lifetime is truly special.

Photos by: Parsacle Photo and Phil Shockley

Story by: Chelsea Dinterman | STATE Magazine
OSU Academic Medical District to serve veterans, improve mental health care

Media Contact: Mack Burke | Editorial Coordinator | 405-744-5540 | editor@okstate.edu

A couple of recently vacated buildings and parking lots sit across the street to the north of the Oklahoma State University Medical Center (OSUMC) in downtown Tulsa. It may not look like much now, but in the coming years it will become the hub of the new OSU Academic Medical District.

In October 2021, a ceremonial groundbreaking was held where two existing buildings, donated by the state and just across the street from OSUMC, will be renovated into the new Veterans Hospital in Tulsa.

Next to the VA hospital will be a new mental health hospital operated by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

OSU Medicine physicians and residents, as well as third- and fourth-year medical students on rotation, will

treat patients at both new facilities. An estimated 100 additional residency spots will be created between the new VA and mental health hospitals, along with about 30 new clinical faculty positions.

OSU already has established itself in the southwest corner of downtown Tulsa with the OSU Medical Center as well as 10 primary care and specialty OSU Medicine clinics in the Physicians Office Building and Houston Center just steps away from the hospital.

OSU-CHS President Johnny Stephens (left) and OSU President Kayse Shrum gather with VHiT Project Director Courtney Knoblock and the Veterans Health Administrations Deputy to the Deputy Under Secretary for Health Steven L. Lieberman (right) at the groundbreaking for the Veterans Hospital in Tulsa

The mission of OSU Center for Health Sciences and the College of Osteopathic Medicine is to improve the health and wellbeing of those living in rural and underserved Oklahoma through quality health care. Its an essential part of the land-grant mission of Oklahoma State University, said Dr. Johnny Stephens, president of OSU-CHS.

While improving rural medicine will always be a core tenant of OSU-CHS, Stephens said he saw an opportunity for OSU to help meet the health care needs of veterans and those with mental health disorders in the Tulsa area by establishing the OSU Academic Medical District.

Serving Those Who Served

In February 2020, the presidential budget submitted to the U.S. Congress for 2021 included a $120 million appropriation for the construction of a Veterans Hospital in Tulsa (VHiT).

Its the first hospital built under the CHIP-IN Act  Communities Helping Invest through Property and Improvements Needed for Veterans Act of 2016.

U.S. Sens. Jim Inhofe and James Lankford  as well as U.S. Reps. Markwayne Mullin and Kevin Hern  supported the proposal to build a VA hospital in downtown Tulsa and worked to secure the appropriation along with the Eastern Oklahoma VA Health Care System, VA Rocky Mountain Network and Veterans Health Administration.

An overwhelming majority of veterans in eastern Oklahoma live in the Tulsa metropolitan area and do not have access to hospital care at a VA facility. Having a VA hospital centrally located in Tulsa will allow eastern Oklahoma veterans greater access to care and services that are currently not available, said Jonathan Plasencia, associate director of Eastern Oklahoma VA Health Care System.

In order to make the hospital a reality, more than just the federal appropriation was needed. The state of Oklahoma transferred ownership of the Kerr-Edmondson buildings in downtown Tulsa to OSU. Next, the city of Tulsa will construct an $8 million parking structure on the site. Tulsa County has committed $4 million from its American Rescue Plan Act allocation to go toward project infrastructure funding.



The remaining costs will be covered by philanthropic donations, led by the Anne & Henry Zarrow Foundation, which helped form the Veterans Hospital in Tulsa, LLC.

Construction and renovation work on the new VA hospital is under way and is slated to be completed in late 2023. OSU will then transfer ownership of the hospital to the VA with the aim of opening the 275,000-square-foot facility to patients in 2024.

Now OSU president, Dr. Kayse Shrum was serving as president of OSU-CHS and dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine when the VHiT project was first proposed.

Our veterans in northeast Oklahoma deserve a much-needed, easily accessible modern medical center where they can receive quality, compassionate care in a timely manner, Shrum said. For OSU-CHS, its been a great privilege to be part of this visionary project. While caring for veterans is a top priority, the affiliation with the Veterans Affairs Hospital near our Tulsa campus will benefit our students and residents tremendously and further enhance our medical school nationally.

Plasencia said the new 58-bed facility means veterans living in Tulsa and northeast Oklahoma will have access to a state-of-the-art medical and surgical hospital.

OSU Medicine has been a tremendous partner and champion for veterans in eastern Oklahoma. They, along with the Anne & Henry Zarrow Foundation, led the charge to get the first VA hospital approved under the CHIP-IN Act, Plasencia said. The proximity to OSU Medical Center and the new mental health hospital will allow us to increase the complexity of our services and share resources with them. Being part of this project will allow our veterans to have better access to quality care and services not currently offered in the Tulsa area.

Shrum said having the VA hospital as part of the expanded OSU Academic Medical District is just as beneficial to OSU physicians, residents and students.

Many physicians in practice today benefited from training at a Veterans Affairs hospital. As we see it, making sure our veterans receive the very best care is the least we can do to honor them for their devoted service to our country, she said.

Mental and Physical Health

According to state data, an estimated 17,000 adults in Tulsa will experience severe mental illness in a given year, and 16,000 youth will experience a major depressive episode.

But the existing mental health hospital in Tulsa  a 56-bed facility in midtown  isnt enough to meet demand, said Carrie Slatton-Hodges, commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS).

What Tulsa and northeast Oklahoma need is a modern psychiatric hospital with expanded bed space and one that is designed to meet current and future treatment needs, Slatton-Hodges said.

The location of the proposed 150,000-square-foot facility is also an improvement.

"It's going to provide a teaching environment for the training of more Oklahoma behavioral health professionals, access to innovative care and an opportunity to engage in other areas of medicine and advanced integrated services." - Carrie Slatton-Hughes, ODMHSAS Commissioner

Creating this facility to stand as part of a larger, comprehensive medical center increases quality of care, opportunities for medical integration and an understanding that mental health and addiction issues are treatable, just as any other disease, she said.

ODMHSAS has submitted a proposal to utilize American Rescue Plan Act funds to expand the new facility to 106 beds, reducing stresses on other parts of the statewide treatment system and providing Oklahomans access to services they want and need. If approved by the legislature, work could start on the new mental health hospital by late 2022.

Roughly 66,000 people in Tulsa may experience some sort of mental health issue in a given year, according to ODMHSAS, and the new facility will mean expanded access to advanced psychiatric services, without having to leave Tulsa.

Fast Facts Square Footage

OSU Medical Center | 556,000

VA Hospital in Tulsa | 275,000

Mental health hospital | 150,096

Number of Beds

OSU Medical Center | 235

VA Hospital in Tulsa | 58

Mental health hospital | 106

OSU Academic Medical District Residency Spots

Current | 200+

After completion of VA hospital in Tulsa and mental health hospital | 300+

Dr. Stephens said he is proud that OSU Medicine can help meet the growing need for mental health care in Tulsa and the surrounding area.

The new mental health hospital in the OSU Academic Medical District will offer the chance to expand care and services to these patients while at the same time growing our behavioral health staff and residency programs as well as offering medical students, residents and physicians more learning and patient care opportunities, Stephens said.

Slatton-Hodges said it will be just as beneficial for ODMHSAS and the new hospital to be in proximity to OSU Medical Center and the VA hospital.

It gives access to the tremendous resource that is OSU Medicine. Its going to provide a teaching environment for the training of more Oklahoma behavioral health professionals, access to innovative care and an opportunity to engage in other areas of medicine and advanced integrated services, she said.

The opportunities for collaboration are incredible.

Slatton-Hodges added that mental health care is a priority issue in Oklahoma and should be more visible.

Being part of the OSU Academic Medical District also helps demonstrate to the public that what we are talking about is an important part of overall health and reduces misperceptions that may exist, she said. Its also a statement to the community and reaffirms our commitment to the overall health and wellbeing of Oklahomans.

Photos By: provided

Story By: Sara Plummer | STATE Magazine
Singapore executes intellectually disabled man

An activist protests against the execution of Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam during a candlelight vigil outside Singapore's Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AP

Singapore on Wednesday executed a mentally disabled Malaysian man condemned for a drug offence after a court dismissed a last-minute challenge from his mother and international pleas to spare him.



Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for over a decade after he was convicted of trafficking about 43 grammes of heroin into Singapore. The city-state's government has said its use of the death penalty for drug crimes is made clear at the borders.



Nagaenthrans family and social activists confirmed the execution Wednesday.



On this score may I declare that Malaysia is far more humane, his sister Sarmila Dharmalingam said. Zero to Singapore on this.



Nagaenthrans supporters and lawyers said he had an IQ of 69 and was intellectually disabled, and that the execution of a mentally ill person was prohibited under international human rights law.



Nagaenthran Dharmalingams name will go down in history as the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice, said Maya Foa, director of non-governmental organization Reprieve.



Hanging an intellectually disabled, mentally unwell man because he was coerced into carrying less than three tablespoons of diamorphine is unjustifiable and a flagrant violation of international laws that Singapore has chosen to sign up to.



Nagaenthran and his mother had filed a motion Monday arguing that it was unconstitutional to proceed with his death sentence and that he may not have been given a fair trial because the chief justice who presided over his appeals had been the attorney general when Nagaenthran was convicted in 2010.



The court dismissed the motion, describing it as frivolous.



His family said Nagaenthrans body will be brought back to his hometown in Malaysia's northern state of Perak, where they have made preparations for his funeral.



Singapore had halted executions for two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic before resuming them with the execution of a drug trafficker in March.



Anyone found with over 15 grammes of heroin faces death in Singapore, although judges can reduce this to life in prison at their discretion. Attempts to reduce Nagaenthran's sentence or obtain a presidential pardon failed.



Malaysias leader, European Union representatives and global figures such as British business magnate Richard Branson called for Nagaenthrans life to be spared and used the case to advocate for ending capital punishment. (AP)
AD HOC ANNOUNCEMENT PURSUANT TO ART. 53 LR



Shareholders agreed to the Board of Directors recommendations for all proposed resolutions

Dividend of CHF 2.00 approved

All Board members re-elected and Conditional Board of Directors appointed, effective as from the date of the settlement of the tender offer by CSL Behring AG

ST. GALLEN, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

At todays 94th Annual General Meeting of Vifor Pharma Ltd., shareholders approved all proposed resolutions put forward by the Board of Directors. The Annual General Meeting was again held in accordance with the Ordinance 3 and the COVID-19 Act and has been reconfirmed in view of the current status of the tender offer launched by CSL Behring AG. Shareholders exercised their rights exclusively through the independent proxy.

Shareholder approvals

Shareholders approved the Annual Report and the Annual Financial Statements of Vifor Pharma Ltd. and the consolidated Financial Statements of Vifor Pharma for 2021 by a large majority, as well as the 2021 Remuneration Report in a consultative vote. In addition, shareholders discharged the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee for the business year 2021. A dividend of CHF 2.00, as proposed by the Board of Directors, was approved and will be paid to shareholders from 3 May 2022 on.

Re-election of Board of Directors

The Annual General Meeting confirmed Chairman Jacques Theurillat and the other members of the Board of Directors, Prof. Hon. Dr. Michel Burnier, Dr. Romeo Cerutti, Dr. Alexandre LeBeaut, Dr. Sue Mahony, Asa Riisberg and Kim Stratton in office, as well as Dr. Sue Mahony (Chair), Prof. Hon. Dr. Michel Burnier and Dr. Romeo Cerutti to the Remuneration Committee.

Conditional new elections to the Board, effective as from settlement date

In addition, the Annual General Meeting conditionally elected Paul McKenzie (elected Chairman), Greg Boss, John Levy, Joy Linton, Markus Stampfli and Elizabeth Walker as new members of the Board of Directors, to become effective as from the date of settlement under the terms of the tender offer of CSL Behring AG as of 18 January 2022. Greg Boss, Joy Linton and Elizabeth Walker have been conditionally elected to the Remuneration Committee.

About Vifor Pharma Group

Vifor Pharma Group is a global pharmaceuticals company. It aims to become the global leader in iron deficiency and nephrology. The company is a partner of choice for pharmaceuticals and innovative patient-focused solutions across iron, dialysis, nephrology and rare conditions. Vifor Pharma Group strives to help patients around the world with severe, chronic and rare diseases lead better, healthier lives. It specializes in strategic global partnering, in-licensing and developing, manufacturing and marketing pharmaceutical products for precision patient care. Vifor Pharma Group holds a leading position in all its core business activities and includes the companies: Vifor Pharma, Sanifit Therapeutics, and Vifor Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharma (a joint company with Fresenius Medical Care). Vifor Pharma Group is headquartered in Switzerland and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX Swiss Exchange, VIFN, ISIN: CH0364749348). For more information, please visit viforpharma.com
New Delhi [India] April 26 (ANI/PRNewswire): A Coffee Connect meet was organised at the Embassy of France in India in association with Business France India, in the presence of the Ambassador of France to India, H.E. Emmanuel Lenain, the CEO of Sopra Banking Software, Eric Bierry, and other prominent CEOs of the Industry. Sopra Banking Software (SBS), a global leader in banking and specialised finance software company with headquarters in Paris, announced its ambitious plan: to strengthen its footprint and increase the overall investment in India. At this event Eric Bierry shared that the Group aims to increase the overall headcount to 12,000 over the next three years across both Sopra Banking Software India and Sopra Steria India. Bierry said, "Our teams have done a tremendous job in scaling our business across different locations throughout the world. With that foundation, we are ready to make our next move as a global fintech solution provider and this decision of increasing headcounts in India is a strategic and exciting step forward." Reflecting on the company's expansion plans in India, Sunil Goyal, CEO of Sopra Banking Software India, and Deputy CEO of Sopra Steria India, said, "Our people are at the core of our business, and we're committed to creating an environment in which they can thrive. The Great Place To Work certification is a testament to the efforts we have put in to build a high-trust, high-performance culture backed by a highly engaged workforce. We are also coming up with a huge state-of-the-art campus in Noida, which shows our commitment towards our people. Despite the COVID-19 crisis, we have maintained strong growth and our plans for India is another step in our global strategy to accelerate business opportunities locally and globally." Since Sopra Banking's inception in 2012, the revenue has increased from 171 million euros to nearly half a billion. The organisation has evolved from a France-centric provider to a global one and has expanded its services to include cloud technology and an open banking platform. The organisation is focused in making finance accessible to as many people as possible and thus build a better future. Sopra Banking expanded its presence in India in 2019 with a focus on R&D and innovation centre and is now a strong family with 1000+ colleagues. India has emerged as a popular destination for FinTech companies because of the digital push that led to high digital adoption among consumers as well as SMEs. Moreover, the continuing government efforts to formalise and digitise the economy have led to a plethora of opportunities for FinTech players. "While most industries and sectors saw major setbacks during the Covid-19 pandemic, the FinTech industry has benefited from a second push towards digitisation with all operations and transactions happening virtually," added Lalit Tyagi, Head R&D Sopra Banking Software India. H.E. Emmanuel Lenain, Ambassador of France to India, remarked, "French companies are committed to investing and innovating in India. They appreciate the huge opportunities offered by the country, its incomparable talent pool, and its promising market which receives strong support from both the governments." Sopra Banking Software is the partner of choice for more than 1,500 financial institutions worldwide. The rich variety of our solutions, the strength of our conviction, and our passion for innovation enable us to support our clients on a daily basis and in their future projects, as well as in their goals regarding financial inclusion. Our customers, based in over 80 countries around the world, benefit every day from our technologies and software, as well as the expertise of our 5,000 employees. Sopra Banking Software is a subsidiary of the Sopra Steria Group, a European leader in consulting, digital services, and software development. With more than 47,000 employees, the Sopra Steria Group generated a turnover of EUR4.7 billion in 2021. For more information, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram or visit www.soprabanking.com Business France is the national agency supporting the international development of the French economy, responsible for fostering export growth by French businesses, as well as promoting and facilitating international investment in France. It promotes France's companies, business image and nationwide attractiveness as an investment location, and runs the VIE international internship programme. Business France has 1,500 personnel, both in France and in 55 countries throughout the world, who work with a network of partners. For further information, please visit: www.businessfrance.fr This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
Bengaluru (Karnataka)[India]/New York [US], April 27 (ANI/PRNewswire): Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced its collaboration with Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: NUS), a global leader in beauty and wellness. Nu Skin will take advantage of the Infosys Equinox human-centric digital commerce platform to deliver engaging and innovative experiences for consumers and affiliates. The platform aims to help Nu Skin scale its business model exponentially with social commerce-based capabilities. Infosys Equinox will help Nu Skin to sharpen its focus on creating unique, personalized, and innovative consumer engagement. Powered by Infosys Equinox's microservices-based, API-first and cloud-native design, Nu Skin plans to deliver engaging shopping experiences across multiple touch points, including websites, mobile apps and smart connected devices. Ryan Napierski, Chief Executive Officer, Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. said, "We look forward to our collaboration with Infosys to help transform our business and stay ahead of changing consumer behavior curves. We believe that Infosys can help us harness the right digital capabilities to reimagine how we connect with our customers and create a new industry paradigm for personalized beauty and wellness shopping experiences." Infosys Equinox will bring Nu Skin a choice of digital advances including conversational commerce, augmented reality, and voice commerce, which if implemented will enable the company to engage with consumers through rich digital experiences. Joe Sueper, Chief Technology Officer, Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. said, "Infosys Equinox will give us the end-to-end social commerce capabilities we need to transform our business model and provide innovative customer engagement. We're creating best-in-class architecture foundations that will power digital experiences well into the future." Karmesh Vaswani, Executive Vice President and Global Head Consumer, Retail and Logistics, Infosys, said, "Beauty and wellness brands are committing to bold changes in the way they connect with consumers, matched by systematic digital investments that can help them realize their aspirations to transform. We are excited to bring Infosys Equinox to help accelerate the development of Nu Skin's social commerce-based business model. We look forward to Nu Skin's creation of a new playbook for success in the beauty and wellness industry." Amit Kalley, Chief Executive Officer, Infosys Equinox, said, "We are excited to partner with Nu Skin in their vision of transforming the beauty and wellness industry by creating personalized and socially-connected commerce experiences. Infosys Equinox's headless and cloud-native microservices will allow Nu Skin to compose unique and delightful digital journeys across ever evolving channels for their consumers across the globe." Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: NUS) is a leading beauty and wellness company, powered by a dynamic affiliate opportunity platform. The company helps people, look, feel and live their best with products that combine the best of science, technology and nature. Backed by more than 35 years of scientific research, Nu Skin develops innovative products including Nu Skin personal care, Pharmanex nutrition and the ageLOC anti-aging brand which includes an award-winning line of beauty device systems. Nu Skin operates in approximately 50 markets worldwide in the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa and the Pacific. Rhyz Inc. is the company's strategic investment arm that includes a collection of technology and manufacturing companies to support growth in the core Nu Skin business. Nu Skin is committed to sustainability, including global initiatives such as transitioning to reduced and sustainable packaging for all products by 2030. The Nu Skin Force for Good Foundation also strives to improve children's health, education and economic circumstances throughout the world. For more information, visit nuskin.com. Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements concerning our future business opportunities and growth prospects as well as the benefits our products and services provide for our clients. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our products and services functioning as anticipated and interfacing with our clients' systems as anticipated, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 27 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Striking a chord with small business owners and customers, VistaPrint India, a leading online customization company, has launched an ad campaign, 'Mera Naam, Meri Shaan' (My Name My Pride) to help strengthen the business-customer relationship. Made to help people associate themselves profoundly with what they have created, VistaPrint's ad campaign builds on customization's emotional benefit - pride. The 40-second advertisement shows several small business owners interacting with their customers and going about their daily lives, all of whom feel proud and a lot more confident once they see their product/merchandise packaging carrying their name or their company's name. With this ad campaign, VistaPrint intends to bring out the pride that individuals feel when something is connected to their names, which is deeply tied to their sense of self. Bharath Sastry, CEO of VistaPrint India, said, "When a small business is appreciated by its customers, when an owner has created a legacy, when an entrepreneur is just starting up full of hope, when any individual just wants to create and display an identity, there is a sense of pride. We are attempting to celebrate this emotion." "Besides monetary benefits, for an entrepreneur or an owner, an important outcome of running a business is establishing their identity and the respect that comes from doing so. The film we have created aims to capture this feeling that VistaPrint understands very well and provides services that bring it alive," added Abhijit Avasthi, an advertising veteran and Founder of Sideways Consulting, who has created the ad. VistaPrint has maintained an impressive focus on building its brand resulting in the company establishing itself as a significant market leader in the e-commerce customization space in India. A pioneer in online customization, VistaPrint provides its customers with a wide selection of high-quality, customizable products at affordable pricing. VistaPrint's video advertisement will be promoted on digital mediums like YouTube, Facebook and various OTT platforms, to start with. To Watch the Video, Click on the Link Below: VistaPrint - My Name, My Pride. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 27 (ANI/SRV): Federal Soft Systems Inc.'s Global CEO, Kishore Kumar Yedam, and Global Managing Director, Kishore K, had a meeting with T. Mano Thangaraj, Minister of Information Technology, Tamil Nadu, India, to discuss and consider the organization's plan to establish a corporate office in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. With this initiative, the company aims to create 1000+ employment opportunities in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. T. Mano Thangaraj congratulated Kishore Kumar Yedam and Kishore K for winning the prestigious 'World CEO Ranking 2021' award and expressed his happiness towards Federal Soft Systems for achieving 'Icons of Tamil Nadu 2021'. Federal Soft Systems Inc. is a conglomerate digital transformation and IT products company that specializes in offering IT/AI/ML Products, App Development, Digital Marketing, and Custom Application Development Services to various business verticals through its 7 esteemed branches across the globe. In October 2021, Federal Soft Systems announced and launched 16 of the most innovative IT/AI/ML products by acquiring several companies and products. The organization's vision and key mission are to continually upgrade and become a top performer in today's existing competitive international market by generating value through people. FSS targets to provide employment opportunities to over 5000+ people around the globe and become a Unicorn on or before December 2025. As a firm, Federal Soft Systems Inc. believes development is about transforming the lives of people, not just transforming economies. Federal Soft Systems Inc. is a Great Place to Work - 2022 Certified Company recognized by Great Place to Work Institute, India. They believe a strategy needs to be built on the foundation of an overarching vision that it is meant to accomplish - Customer First, Our People Culture, Flexible Approach & Accelerate Innovations, which are its Four Strongest Pillars. In the last year, FSS has grown profusely and received many accolades such as: - Company of the Year 2021 (The CEO Story) - Most Influential business leader to watch in 2021 (Innovative Zone) - Business leader of the year 2021 (Prime Insights) - Great Place to Work Certified - 2022 (Great Place to Work Institute) - Global Achiever's Award (Indian Achiever's Forum) - Icons of Tamil Nadu Award 2021 (Times of India) - The World CEO Rankings 2021-22 (Plus Media Group) - Brand of the year - 2022 (The CEO Story) This story is provided by SRV Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], April 27 (ANI/PR Newswire): UST, a leading digital transformation solution company, recently organized a hackathon for college students in Kerala, India. The hackathon titled 'Hack for Tomorrow' had the core theme of 'Innovating Towards Net Zero'. It offered them a great opportunity to step away from the conventional academic environment and develop effective, sustainable solutions for decarbonizing supply chains. The hackathon was held at UST's Thiruvananthapuram campus in Kerala, adhering to COVID-19 protocols. The event had multiple rounds spread over 10 days, and the winners were announced today. 'Hack for Tomorrow' attracted more than 173 team registrations spanning 70 colleges from Kerala. 25 final teams were shortlisted to participate in an offline event hosted at UST Thiruvananthapuram campus. Participants were asked to create projects and were engaged through a workshop on 'Human-centered Design' by Vishnu Rajasekharan, Global Program Manager, Strategy & Culture, UST, and a session on 'Sustainable Innovation' by Tanveer Mohammedaziz, Client Partner, UST. The judging panel comprised of senior officials like Shilpa Menon, Senior Director and Center Head, UST Thiruvananthapuram, Harikrishnan Mohankumar Jayasree, Workplace Management and Operations Senior Director, UST, Ajay Sudhakaran, Head of Sales Operations, APAC, UST, Hari Chandrashekaran, Global Head-Public Sector, UST and Bhavesh Sasirajan, Alliance Partner - APAC, UST. Together, they evaluated the detailed presentations made by the teams and selected the top five winning teams. Final results - Top 3: Winner: Sussie Techies team, comprising Ranjana H, Amrita A Nair, Abhijit Narayan S, and Anupama P from College of Engineering, Trivandrum. First Runner Up: Firefox team, comprising Sujeeth B, Merin Mary Josy, John Raju, Shafna K V, from Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam. Second Runner Up: The Strategists team, comprising Chris Harris, Malavika J M, Reshma B, A Kamaljith) from Mohandas Institute of Management, Trivandrum. The winners were presented with prizes, goodies and Rs 10,000 in learning credits, and an opportunity to meet with UST's leadership team. The winning teams were introduced to technology architects at UST, who will help mentor them to create a prototype of the solution and scale it. The winners will also have an opportunity to work with UST full-time and co-develop the product. For more than 22 years, UST has worked side by side with the world's best companies to make a real impact through transformation. Powered by technology, inspired by people, and led by our purpose, we partner with our clients from design to operation. Through our nimble approach, we identify their core challenges and craft disruptive solutions that bring their vision to life. With deep domain expertise and a future-proof philosophy, we embed innovation and agility into our clients' organizations--delivering measurable value and lasting change across industries, and around the world. Together, with over 30,000 employees in 30 countries, we build for boundless impact--touching billions of lives in the process. Visit us at ust.com This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PR Newswire)
Leaders pay tribute to late President on National Reunification Day occasion

A delegation of the Party, State, National Assembly (NA), Government and the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) leaders paid tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum and offered incense at the Martyrs Monument in Hanoi on April 27 on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day (April 30).





Delegation of the Party, State, National Assembly (NA), Government and the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) leaders pay tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum (Photo: VNA)



The delegation included State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, permanent member of the Party Central Committees Secretariat Vo Van Thuong, and President of the VFF Central Committee Do Van Chien.



They showed their profound gratitude for the late President who devoted his whole life to the nation and led the Party and the people to glorious victories.



On the same day, delegations of the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Public Security, the Party Committee, People's Council and People's Committee of Hanoi also paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh and heroic martyrs.



47 years ago, April 30 went down to the nation's history as a brilliant milestone. The 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, especially the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign, liberated the South and reunified the nation.
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 27 (ANI/BusinessWire India): KLAY Preschools and Daycare, a pioneer in India in the Early Childhood Care and Education Sector (ECCE), has announced a 12-month curriculum for the new academic year from April 2022 to March 2023. The months of April and May referred to as the "Learning to Learn" period at KLAY, will focus on preparing both parents and children to get back to physical school in June 2022 with necessary interventions planned for each child. These interventions will be curated based on baseline assessments that will be conducted location-wide in order to address the specific learning needs of each child. Over 55 KLAY centres are currently open across the country for the purpose of learning loss in the early years. Reiterating KLAY's commitment to providing quality early childhood education, AK Srikanth, CEO, of KLAY Schools said, "Our aim with this industry-first approach of extending the academic calendar is to ensure we are setting a strong foundation for our children as they begin the academic year--for the first time in their lives in some cases--in the offline world. It is important for us to keep in mind that both caregivers and children are dealing with several challenges as the world continues to unlock and go back to pre-pandemic conditions. Hence a more personalized approach to mitigating the negative impact of these challenges and the learning loss that the children have experienced, prior to June 2022 was a critical move to make." The Learning To Learn phase in April and May will entail setting a strong foundation for Physical, Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (PPSED), Communication & Language, Logical and analytical skills - focus areas will include: -Setting up routines -Building attention span with a focus on the completion of simple tasks -Focus on Physical development by working on small and large muscles, thus enhancing Gross and Fine motor skills -Building trusting relationships through caring social interactions -Focus on self-regulation, sensory processing, receptive language, understanding, expressive language (using language) articulation, and executive functions (high order reasoning), thus enhancing empathy -Build age-appropriate literacy and language skills with focus on conversation skills -Build age-appropriate numeracy skills -Inculcating self-help skills, thereby helping a child to become independent and confident Commenting on the launch of the campaign, Arshleen Kalra, Curriculum Head, KLAY Schools said, "The objective of this program is to gauge the progress of every child and understand their learning needs. Further, the idea is to involve parents and caregivers, who can support their children at home to cope with the loss that has occurred in the last two years. The curriculum is curated in such a way that it addresses the most important developmental milestones that serve as the core foundation for years to come. Children are at the front and centre of everything we do at KLAY and we believe that this personalized approach will enable them to settle down with greater comfort as the academic year begins in the offline world." Since schools have reopened, KLAY has observed a significant uptick in the number of admission queries. In fact, the highest when compared to the pre-pandemic period, with over 14000+ queries just in March 2022. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
New Delhi [India] April 27 (ANI/SRV): MIT World Peace University's (MIT-WPU) Faculty of Engineering and Technology has announced the commencement of its official entrance test, MIT-WPU Engineering Entrance Test (MEET) 2022 for first year B-Tech admissions across multiple programs. Aspirants keen to pursue a career in engineering and technology are invited to apply for the test, in addition to MHT-CET and JEE (Mains) Examination. Keeping in mind the current scenario and adhering to the pandemic related guidelines, WPU-MEET will be conducted in an online mode and all aspirants will be able to undertake the proctored test from the safe confines of their homes. Modelled along the lines of other National or State Level Exams such as JEE Main, MHT-CET, PERA CET, ATMA, CAT, MAT; WPU-MEET is a 200 marks Online Computer Based test featuring Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs). Each question will have 4 responses and the aspirant has to choose the appropriate response. Aspirants can appear for the WPU-MEET 2022 entrance test on a mobile phone, laptop or desktop PC with a web camera facility. It is also necessary to have a steady internet connection for the entire duration of the test. Further, aspirants seeking admissions through MIT WPU-MEET 2022 should also clear and submit their JEE Main 2022 or MHTCET 2022 or PERACET 2022 with a non-zero score to secure confirmed admissions. By giving WPU MEET 2022 a candidate can secure provisional admission, should he/she qualify on the merit list. Candidates need not wait for JEE Main 2022 or MHTCET 2022 or PERACET 2022 results for provisional admission and can submit these scores at a later date to confirm their admission. WPU-MEET 2022 Examination Guidelines - WPU-MEET 2022 paper will be a 200 marks test with a total of 150 questions to be solved in 180 minutes - The test will consist of 2 question papers of Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ) with each paper carrying 100 marks - Paper 1 will consist of 50 questions from Mathematics with a weightage of 2 marks per question - Paper 2 will consist of 50 questions from Physics and 50 questions from Chemistry with a weightage of 1 mark per question - There is no negative marking - The test will be conducted in English only Important Dates for WPU-MEET (*Dates may change) - Last Date of Application - May 25 2022 (12PM) - Issue of Admit Card (through candidate login) - May 26 2022* - Demo Test - May 27 and 28 2022* - Date of Examination (First Round) - May 29 2022 Ranked as the 7th Best Private Engineering University in India; MIT-WPU's B-Tech program is a full-time four-year program that is divided into 12 trimesters. With a host of specializations in B-Tech including Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering; the university has nurtured some of the best industry leaders and experts in their respective fields. With robust placement records and participation of renowned companies such as IBM, HCL, Infosys, ONGC, Barclays and many more; MIT-WPU has nurtured budding engineers and techies through its value-based education system. Over the years, the institute has observed an overall increase of 20 per cent in the average salary with the highest package being offered at Rs 37.25 lacs per annum. MIT World Peace University (MIT-WPU, Formerly known as MIT Pune) has a legacy of 4 decades of educating India's youth. Ranked as India's 3rd Best Private University, MIT-WPU boasts an acclaimed faculty and a network of over 1,00,000 global alumni. The university offers over 100 undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma and PhD programs. It is also known for its prolific placements and career support provided to the students. Spread over 1000 acres, the MIT Group now encircles 10+ campuses across India, all equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and convenience. Over 50,000 students enrol every year for different courses, across the 65+ institutes of MIT World Peace University. This story is provided by SRV Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
New Delhi [India], April 27 (ANI/NewsVoir): The poster and trailer of a psychological thriller English film 'Different' was launched recently and it included artists from many countries including Iran, Russia, Nigeria. The event took place at grand function held in Mumbai where the chief guest was RRR's producer DVV Danayya, producer of Sooryavansham - GV Narasimha Rao, VP Padmalaya studio, Akbar Khan, Mukesh Rishi, Milind Gunaji, Payal Ghosh and others were present at the event. Producer NSVD Sankara Rao and Director (Dragann) Uday Bhaskar's film is really different according to its name. In many ways its concept, casting and presentation are different. It stars Hollywood actress Aziza (Russia) and Iranian actress Elham Farhadi, hero Saran will be seen. NSVD Sankara Rao who has produced the English film Different under the banner of Wonder Brothers International Films Pvt. Ltd. said, "In Different we have made a different effort. Have worked to combine artists from different countries in a single film. While Russian heroine Aziza will be seen in it, Iran's actress Elham Farhadi is also a part of this movie. This has never happened before in our country, so I hope the audience will like this experiment. This is my first experience in the film industry but working with director Uday Bhaskar was memorable. We have launched the trailer, you will have to watch the film on the big screen to know the full story. It is a psychological thriller, with suspense. There is no compromise on the quality of the film and CG work is interesting." The film's Director (Dragann) Uday Bhaskar said, "Different is a psychological thriller, which has a very different story. This is the real story of a scientist. The graphics work in the film is good. The film has not been made only for India but for the whole world. It will be released in many countries around the world." Actress Aziza said, "We are all very excited about this film. I would appreciate the director who has made this film with a lot of passion and effort. I hope the audience will also like this film." The film's hero Saran said that the entire experience of the film has been quite different for all of us. "My character is someone who hates himself. What can be more fortunate for me than to get the opportunity to work with artists from all over the world? This film is an experimental movie not only for India but also for the International market. The story of the film revolves around a doll." Iranian Actress Elham Farhadi said, "We all have very different characters and by playing this role, we experienced many different things as human beings. There are many emotions in my character, which will shock the audience. This film is a story of human selfishness. This film shows all the weaknesses of human beings. I am very happy to be a part of this film." This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 27 (ANI/NewsVoir): Lasa Supergenerics Limited, India's Leading API Manufacturer, announced that it has secured a new order of Rs 500 Million from just 5 customers. We are delighted to announce that with the efforts of our Marketing Team and the quality of product we offer we were able to grab the order of Rs 500 Million from only 5 customers in this highly competitive market scenario. Such a huge order in the beginning of the financial year shall help the company to boost its production and contribute to the top line of Company. Besides day-to-day business this bulk order will flood our Order Books yet again for this fiscal which shall help the Company not only to recover the losses incurred in the last financial year due to Natural Calamities but also to contribute towards bottom line and achieve even greater heights. Commenting on this development, Dr Omkar Herlekar, Chairman and Managing Director, Lasa Supergenerics said, "This is just the beginning of the Fiscal and our team was able to grab the opportunity. We are thankful for our customers for having such a great confidence in us. This was not possible without the efforts of our production team for manufacturing such a quality products with monopolistic approach in the segment. We are looking forward to receive such bulk orders from overseas customers in near future. These bulk orders will contribute in topline of the Company as well as help in improving EBITA of the Company. Moreover we are working in making all our products fully backward integrated which shall boost return on capital of the Company, we shall continue to remain committed to growth. We were excited to share the name of the customers with all our stake holders along with other terms of the order. However, due to restrictions as imposed by NDA signed we retain the same with us and assure you for more bulk orders in coming month." Founded in 2011, Lasa Supergenerics Limited is a globally well trusted brand with high quality products, accepted by large companies across the globe. Our Company is the pioneer and amongst the leading players in the manufacturing of Veterinary APIs, with a well-established brand known for its high-quality products amongst various customers. The Company has its unit with state of art manufacturing facilities located at Mahad and Chiplun, Maharashtra with a total installed capacity of 4,300 MT. The Company has over 25 per cent of APIs exported to counties like Australia, Bangladesh, Middle East, China, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Korea, Pakistan etc. For more details, please visit: www.lasalabs.com. Certain statements in this document may be forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties like regulatory changes, local political or economic developments, and many other factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the relevant forward-looking statements. Further, past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Given these risks, uncertainties and other risk factors, viewers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Lasa Supergenerics Ltd. will not be in any way responsible for any action taken based on such statements and undertakes no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstance. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
California [US], April 27 (ANI/NewsVoir): Rupus Global Limited, the Hong kong-based pharmaceutical Company today announced the induction of noted and eminent global researchers as advisors to the board of directors. Prof Solomon Darwin, Director, UC Berkeley-Haas Center for Corporate Innovation, Executive Director, Center for Growth Markets and Dr Satya Brahma, author columnist and founder chairman of Network 7 Media Group will be guiding and advising the Rupus Global Board of Directors in building Rupus as a strong international pharmaceutical company in its pursuit to its mission to widen its academic excellence. Rupus Global is the fastest growing pharmaceutical company, committed to increase access to high-quality healthcare by developing, producing and marketing affordable generic drugs in Domestic as well as International Markets. Announcing the appointment of two seasoned academic researchers as Advisors, (Prof) Dr Kannan Vishwanatth, Managing Director of Rupus Global Limited said, "We are pleased to announce Prof. Solomon Darwin and Dr Satya Brahma on our Board. We can't wait to see how our highly experienced board members will be enlightened to further develop the vision and purpose of building Rupus Global Limited by our newly inducted Advisors who will help strengthen our position in the market by advising on matters of strategic importance, leverage decades of top-tier industry experience, broaden and deepen our relationships, and ensure continued growth and success. Rupus Global Limited is proud to welcome these two world renowned distinguished strategic advisors as our first members of the Advisory Board." Prof Solomon Darwin hailed as the "Father of the Smart Village Movement" has broad leadership experience in corporate management and academia. He is an international speaker recognized by peers, executives, and students with numerous awards for his innovative leadership and passion for teaching. He inspires students from both business and engineering disciplines in his courses for open innovation, business models, smart cities, scalable smart villages, and business models for emerging economies. He is also known as the father of the Smart Village Movement. As an expert in "open innovation" and "open business models," he is an adviser to senior executives of multinationals and government leaders in the emerging world. The list includes large global brands and government entities in Europe, China, Russia, India, and Latin America. He directs and moderates international innovation conferences and forums, and chairs quarterly Chief Innovation Officer round tables in Silicon Valley. Before joining Berkeley Haas in 2005, he was an Associate Professor for nine years at the University of Southern California. His progressive corporate leadership experience covers a span of 14 years as a Senior Executive Officer at Bank of America, First Interstate Bank, and Glendale Federal Bank, and Motorola. During summers, Darwin regularly teaches in executive programs at prominent international universities and institutions. He has conducted workshops and programs in over 18 countries. He also serves as an honorary professor at several universities in Europe, China, South Korea, and India. His current projects, "Building Scalable Smart Villages" and "The Rebuilding India Initiative" were commissioned by the government of India. Dr Satya Brahma is a noted author and research analyst. Dr Satya is the founder chairman of Network 7 Media Group, Asia's most acclaimed research media firm engaged in timely, in-depth analysis of companies, industries, markets, and world economies. Dr Satya Brahma is also the author of many top books including the best-selling Truth VS Hype. Dr Satya Brahma is most respected and distinguished journalist and known for championing the cause of Citizen's rights and free speech. Dr Satya Brahma has been at the forefront of United Nation's Peace programs. Dr Satya holds a Master's degree in Political science with First Class First Gold Medalist from Berhampur University and a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communications. Dr Satya Brahma has often been seen in the intellectual platform as Keynote Speaker. Rupus Global Limited is a research-focused vertically integrated pharmaceutical Company, which Contract manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), finished dosage forms (FDFs), and provides contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS). The Company focuses on 5 niche business areas viz. anti-malarial, multi-therapeutic Lozenges, Oncology Products, HIV products, and Codeine-based cough syrups. The Company is a market leader in the Antimalarial API segment and is the world's third-largest contract manufacturer of Quinine salts. Rupus Global Limited product portfolio consists of the second generation, Quinine-based anti-malarial APIs, third-generation Artemisinin-based anti-malarial APIs; Niche APIs, and FDFs complimented by APIs in HIV, Diabetes, Ace Inhibitor, and CNS. Rupus Global Limited has a distributor network of ~250 distributors in India and has entered into a marketing and distribution agreement with Rx Pharma (India) to distribute the company's products domestically. It also exports its products to more than 60 emerging countries in Africa, Central and South America, and Asia. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 27 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Blend for Food is a super-app that is a one-stop destination for all things food - choicest restaurants, curated home chefs, D2C food brands for kitchen needs, favourite Food Influencers and much more. BFF for Foodies is now available on both Apple & Android Playstores and will cater to foodies in Bengaluru during this launch phase. The app has been designed keeping the food business in mind which has witnessed a massive change through the course of the pandemic. BFF wants to play an active role in this evolution of the food industry and strongly believes that food is an emotion and not a commodity. The app intends to connect restaurants, home chefs, and D2C brands with foodies for a hassle-free and premium food ordering experience. It also aims to help food brands revive their business without bleeding them dry due to the food aggregators. BFF is on a mission to create an impact in the food business and ecosystem via the creator economy and community tech. In today's world, food businesses don't need just another food aggregator platform but a partner. BFF equips the food businesses with end-to-end order management, integrated platforms, and tools to scale their business. In addition, the aim is to help businesses generate community-driven demand and discoverability. BFF will also actively partner with Food Creators and Influencers to convey impactful brand and consumer stories. When foodies are engaged with better content and storytelling, it inevitably leads to better customer acquisition and retention. Having worked with restaurants, D2C brands & food influencers, through Blend for Food's Community Brand [@theblendcommunity] on Instagram, the company has mastered this art. BFF will be the only market player offering the best 'aggregator' & 'order direct' models to deliver profitable value to food businesses. BFF has already onboarded 200+ partners across Bengaluru, plans to connect with 500+ partners in the next 3 months, and expand to 3 new cities in 2023. ''We are quite bullish about the disruption and future growth potential in the Food Commerce space. We bring Food Businesses, Consumers and Influencers under one roof to enable a networked experience. Our mantra has always been 'Food is a must; in Community we trust'. We are looking forward to building the next generation experiential platform for our users,'' says Razia Ali, Founder, Blend For Food. Blend for Food has also launched its WebMenu offerings to Restaurants in Bangalore to support hassle-free, digital-first food ordering solutions. This product allows restaurants to take their restaurant online within 5 mins through the 'order direct' model. It is a pay-per-use model for restaurants with 0% listing fees. The Blend Web Menu offers an integrated 'influencer marketing' tool that allows partner restaurants to collaborate with the best food influencers to drive discoverability and customer outreach. The participating influencers can hence monetize their content and drive accountable traction for their favourite restaurants. BFF's WebMenu is India's first one of its kind Food Commerce platform that is bringing this offering to the Indian F&B industry. ''We are a creator-led business model and are striving to develop products and services that create an impact not only in the food business but also in the journey of food creators. Our strong foodie community expertise puts us in this unique position to make the food ordering business a seamless and profitable model for our partners,'' says Hariprasad Shetty, Co-Founder, Blend For Food. BFF is already building its next version of the product which will be India's first Creator Economy-driven, Content to Commerce food platform - BlendVerse - where foodies will be able to experience a brand-new, gamified, and interactive world of food. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
New Delhi [India], April 27 (ANI/BusinessWire India): NIIT Limited, a leading global talent development corporation, today announced its appointment as an Authorized Training Partner of Salesforce, the global CRM (Customer Relationship Management) leader. The collaboration will address the exponentially growing demand in the Salesforce Ecosystem for Salesforce-skilled talent, driven by the rapid adoption of Salesforce technologies. Experienced faculties who have been certified by Salesforce will teach all programs offered through this collaboration. NIIT will offer programs on Salesforce to fresh graduates and working professionals, to build a pan-India talent pool of Salesforce Certified Professionals. Learners who graduate from these programs will receive increased networking opportunities with some of the largest companies operating in the country, including GSIs, GCCs and India Enterprises. According to research by Fortune Business insights, the global CRM market is expected to reach USD $ 128.97 billion by 2028 from USD $ 58.04 billion in 2021, while exhibiting a CAGR of 12.1% between 2021 and 2028. Separately, research by IDC (International Data Corporation) has found that Salesforce and its ecosystem of partners in India will create 1,328,200 jobs among Salesforce customers in the country, including 569,800 direct jobs and 758,400 indirect jobs by 2026. NIIT is committed to work with Salesforce to help minimize this emerging talent skill gap. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson & CEO, Salesforce India, said, "The world is witnessing huge growth in the Salesforce economy, and India is expected to play a pivotal role in this growth. As technology adoption continues to grow, we are committed to addressing the training and re-skilling imperative - equipping people with the tools and skills that they need to build dynamic careers in Salesforce technologies and thrive in a digital-first world. We are delighted to be collaborating with NIIT in our mission to democratise digital skills, nurturing future-ready individuals and bridging the skills gap." Sapnesh Lalla, CEO & Executive Director, NIIT Ltd., said, "At NIIT, we have been working with the industry and the student community for over four decades and have a deep understanding of the talent and skills requirements brought in by Digital Transformation. We are delighted to collaborate with Salesforce, the leading provider of CRM, to offer programs in Salesforce technologies to fresh graduates and working professionals. By bringing together NIIT's proven ability in delivering learning outcomes at scale and Salesforce's technical expertise, we hope to bridge the skill gap that the industry is currently faced with." This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India] April 27 (ANI/NewsVoir): Since 1996, Magnolia Bakery has been one of America's most cherished bakeshops, setting the standard for delightful and delectable desserts. Today, the iconic institution is making moves to future-proof the business and transform from a "New York treat to an anywhere eat" with a new brand identity that brings the magic of their desserts to your door. "Magnolia Bakery is growing, with greater focus on its direct-to-consumer business and an expanded retail footprint around the world. It's time to evolve Magnolia Bakery's beloved brand essence into a cohesive identity that excites both out day one locals and consumers who may never set foot in our bakeries. We're truly bringing the magic of the bakery to your doorstep, wherever you are," said Eddie Revis, Chief Marketing Officer at Magnolia Bakery. "We have created an identity that delivers on the brand's deliciously indulgent in-bakery experience with a joyful and eclectic kit of parts inspired by our design strategy - a bite of whimsical delight," said JB Hartford, Group Creative Director at JKR. "The new logo is inspired by the bakeshop's trademarked cupcake swirl - which takes up to 40 hours to perfect! - and the live theater of the bakery - mixers spinning vanilla cake batter, cupcakes being iced and banana pudding being scooped." Zonu Reddy, Partner - Spago Foods LLP, Magnolia Bakery India, "We are really excited to introduce the new identity for Magnolia Bakery here in India. The new logo and packaging embodies the essence of the brand and yet has a very young and fresh vibe to it. Magnolia Bakery India is looking at expanding the brand's footprint with a focus on newer and younger audiences. We feel that the new look and feel of the brand digitally, in store and via other brand collaterals is something that will really appeal to a younger audience in the country and allow us to tap into a new customer base in the city and when we plan to open in other cities too." The updated core brand color is inspired by the iconic green of the bakery's walls, while other colors are inspired by some of its most beloved desserts and colorful sprinkles. The bakery's eclectic interiors come to life through playful frames and patterns, like checkerboard, while a new shipping box takes after the fabled Bleecker Street bakery and Magnolia Bakery's West Village roots. Finally, the dynamic new logo system will prepare the brand for a full omnichannel experience. Magnolia Bakery will roll out the new design elements over the coming months, beginning with its digital platforms, followed up by packaging and store refreshes. For more information, please visit jkrglobal.com. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Hosur (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 27 (ANI/NewsVoir): TVS Motor Company, a reputed manufacturer of two-wheelers and three-wheelers globally, announced a strategic partnership with Rapido, India's leading on-demand delivery and mobility platform today by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). As part of the MoU, TVS Motor and Rapido will look to collaborate by leveraging synergies of their respective businesses in the fast-moving mobility market in India. Buoyed by an increasingly urban population with ready access to smartphones and increasing penetration of e-commerce and on-demand services across India, the hyperlocal mobility segments bike-taxi, auto-taxi, and delivery has experienced a significant boom and now represents a potentially ~USD 15B opportunity. By signing this MoU, TVS Motor and Rapido are bringing together their strength in mobility and seamless technology platform, respectively, to deliver a winning proposition to this demanding user base. This comprehensive partnership will cover both two-wheeler and three-wheeler vehicles and extend across ICE and EV segments. Both parties will also look to leverage the learnings from the collaboration to enhance the product usage experience of the Rapido Captain and Rider base through delivery of improved overall journey experience in the form of better product forms, credit and financing solutions, and other use cases delivered via technology innovations. Speaking at the occasion, Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director said, "TVS Motor firmly believes in the future of mobility and the strength of partnerships in this global transformation. We have always been at the forefront of driving electrification in the industry with our continued focus on EVs and Future mobility. Rapido has built a strong user base of Captains and Riders and is the leading bike-taxi platform in India today. We believe we can expand our reach in the mobility and hyper-local segments using high-quality, connected products from the TVS Electric portfolio and financing from our group. We believe that TVS Motor, TVS Credit and Rapido can be long term strategic partners as this ecosystem matures further." "Rapido has envisaged plugging first and last-mile daily commuting gaps in India, not just in metros, but beyond in tier 2 and 3, as well. We are delighted with this strategic partnership with TVS Motor Company, which is an extension of our vision and will bring us a step closer to our goals. There is a collective and shared passion for transforming and establishing the foundation stone of sustainable mobility in India. This association will help us strengthen our capabilities and expand our electric bikes fleet. The ultimate objective is to help millions of more Indians commute through an affordable, comfortable, convenient and safe alternative mode of transport," said Aravind Sanka, Co-founder at Rapido. This MoU is in line with its TVS Motor announcements in the past of expanding the electric product portfolio of TVS Motor which spreads across 5-25kW two and three-wheelers portfolio, launching all of them by mid-2023. TVS Motor aims to have electric vehicles across segments like delivery, commuter premium, high-performance sports, and electric three-wheelers while expanding the presence of TVS iQube Electric across all major cities in India. Rapido is an auto and bike taxi aggregator that is spread widely across PAN India from Tier I to Tier III cities. The app allows you to book bike taxis and autos with the minimum wait time, and maximum safety and is super easy on your pockets. How does it work? Download the app on iOS/android, log in from your account, and start booking. Once booked, the amount and captain details appear on the homepage and our captains are at the pick-up location in no time. To ensure your safety, our captains carry an additional helmet for every bike taxi ride and every ride is tracked from start to end for both auto and bike taxis. Your safety is of the utmost importance to us. With Rapido around, let's keep the traffic excuses at home and explore our cities. TVS Motor Company is a reputed two and three-wheeler manufacturer globally, championing progress through Mobility with a focus on sustainability. Rooted in our 100-year legacy of Trust, Value, and Passion for Customers and Exactness, we take pride in making internationally aspirational products of the highest quality through innovative and sustainable processes. We are the only two-wheeler company to have received the prestigious Deming Prize. Our products lead in their respective categories in the J.D. Power IQS and APEAL surveys for five years. We have been ranked No. 1 Company in the J.D. Power Customer Service Satisfaction Survey for consecutive four years. Our group company Norton Motorcycles, based in the United Kingdom, is one of the most emotive motorcycle brands in the world. Our subsidiaries in the personal e-mobility space, Swiss E-Mobility Group (SEMG) and EGO Movement, have a leading position in the e-bike market in Switzerland. TVS Motor Company endeavours to deliver the most superior customer experience across 80 countries in which we operate. For more information, please visit www.tvsmotor.com. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
George Town (Cayman Islands) [UK], April 27 (ANI/PRNewswire): Dr Yaron Rado, Chief Radiologist and Chairman of the Board of Doctors Hospital, issued the following statement regarding the three-day judicial review, Grand Court Cases Nos 55 and 150 of 2021 challenging Institutionally registered medical professionals practising in Cayman and the financial concessions awarded to them. "To set the scene: Unlike doctors on the Principal List, the Health Practice Regulations don't require institutionally registered doctors to have any postgraduate qualifications or any special training. Institutional List practitioners need only have obtained their qualifications from almost any medical school in the world (vs Principal List providers who must be registered from one of seven countries: Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States). They are also not required to provide proof of specialist qualifications to call themselves a specialist or consultant, let alone a proper residency program (5 years), a fellowship program (an additional two years), and then three years of post-specialisation experience as required for the Principal List. The only safeguard for patients to date is that institutionally registered doctors must practice at a "designated facility" and that Cabinet is responsible for designating these facilities. Of course, the problem is that until April 6 2022, the Cabinet did not require facilities to meet any particular criteria before designating them, and Cabinet has no record of why Health City, Total Health, and Aster DM were designated as such. Cabinet has also not produced any criteria for reviewing the designation of facilities. In other words, there has been nothing to stop facilities from employing inexperienced Institutional List doctors with minimal supervision. Until this court hearing, the concern had repeatedly been expressed by the local medical community that doctors on the institutional list were subject to a far lower level of regulation than doctors on the principal list, with consequent concerns for patient safety. This meant that doctors could be registered to practice here as institutional list practitioners with potentially very limited experience and qualifications. On day 2 of the JR hearing, however, the Government's QC stated that, on the Governments interpretation of the legislation, all doctors must possess the same or equivalent level of qualification and experience for registration. He stated that this is because Regulation 5 of the Health Practice Regulations is applicable to institutional list doctors as well as principal list doctors. On day 3 of the JR hearing, the Government's QC once more confirmed that this is the correct interpretation of the law, and the interpretation the government applies in regulating the institutional list. We must await Justice William's judgment to find out whether he will record that this new construction of the health practice law and regulations is correct, and must be applied going forwards, or whether he will instead recommend that the position is clarified by amending the legislation. Either way, the Government's formal position, as articulated in court last week, means that all doctors registered to practice in Cayman must now possess an appropriate, minimum level of qualification and experience. As such, Regulation 5A, and the "second-tier" institutional list (initially introduced by the Health Practice law (2013 revision), will effectively be abolished." Of these two Grand Court Cases Nos 55 and 150 of 2021 in the Cayman court, this is a huge win for healthcare in Cayman - and for all duly regulated Principal List practitioners after years of dedication and investment into their education in compliance with the Health Practice Act and under the supervision of the Medical and Dental Council (MDC). I want to express my sincere appreciation for our lawyers Sally Bowler, Chris Buttler, and Ben Tonner from McGrath Tonner, who have worked tirelessly on our behalf to help affect these changes. Unfortunately, all Institutional List physicians with boots on the ground in Cayman are exempted from meeting Principal List standards. Thankfully, the Cayman Islands Medical and Dental Society (CIMDS) has recently launched the "Green Tick" campaign to raise awareness about healthcare providers' two separate registration lists. We invite the people of the Cayman Islands to educate themselves so they can make informed healthcare choices for their families. We also ask our Government to strongly reconsider their position on this matter as each existing Institutional List provider renews their registration (every two years). They should be held to the same medical standards, values, and code of ethics we Principal List providers stand behind for our patients. At this juncture, only half the battle is won. The Government has a discretion under the various laws to waive the duties payable by healthcare facilities, indeed by anyone. However, there is currently no transparent, published guideline or criteria assisting those liable to pay these duties to understand when they will or won't be eligible for a waiver or an exemption: meaning that there is currently no transparent benchmark for obtaining a duty waiver or exemption. Health City (both in the east end and at its current and forthcoming Camana Bay facilities) receives huge financial privileges in the form of stamp duty waivers, import duty exemptions and discounts on work permit fees. This is all predicated on a contract that it entered into with the Government in 2010. By comparison, Doctors Hospital paid CI$ 1.2 million in stamp duty to acquire its current site and has spent more than CI$ 1 million in customs duty alone over the last three years. Yet 12 years later Health City's medical tourism facility, at least as the 2010 contract envisioned it to be, namely, an integrated hospital comprising of a hospital, medical university and an assisted living facility, has not materialized. So why are these concessions continuing to be granted? Doctors Hospital is concerned about this lack of transparency and the lack of any regulatory framework which ensures fairness. As a result, Doctors Hospitals seeks a declaration that transparent criteria for the granting and refusal of concessions ought to be published for all to see. Doctors Hospital has the same interest as any other taxpayer in the lawfulness of the Government collecting taxes and believes it is unlawful for the Government to grant waivers to Health City and others on the premise that it is now contractually bound to do so. In particular, when the public is losing out on large sums of money that would be available for public services. Doctors Hospital's motivation in bringing this judicial review is to, first and foremost, promote and preserve the integrity of healthcare in Cayman and to ensure that the Cayman Islands Government provides a fair and transparent tax system for all. The ultimate findings from this three-day judicial review will be revealing. I sincerely hope that patient safety and the highest principles of healthcare are fully realised and that we bring an end to a long list of discriminatory concessions that Health City's arrival in the Cayman Islands has brought about." This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking Chief Ministersto lower excise duties on the fuels, petroleum dealers in Punjab, especially in border areas, on Wednesday said it became difficult to operate as diesel is at least cheaper by Rs 6 and petrol by Re 1 compared to Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. "Successive governments in Punjab -- the Akalis and the Congress had been regularly increasing VAT on petrol and diesel, resulting in vast difference in petroleum prices in Punjab as compared to neighboring states," Monty Sehgal, spokesman for the Petrol Pump Dealers Association, Punjab, told IANS. He said the rate difference of petroleum products with neighboring states is robbing the state government of its revenue, encouraging unscrupulous trade practices and of late, the emergence of oil mafia in the state. Punjab is predominantly an agricultural state with majority of population living in rural areas. Forty-five per cent of total diesel consumed in Punjab is used in agriculture, 25 per cent in transportation, 20 per cent in industry and 10 per cent by retail consumer. The consumption in terms of litres of petrol and diesel is showing a continuous downward trend in Punjab. "Sales of diesel in terms of litres have dropped by about 30 per cent in the last couple of years," he said. The Punjab government, he said, is losing an estimated revenue of Rs 400 to 500 crore annually to its neighboring states due to business shift and the emergence of oil mafia due to massive rate difference with other states. The worst affected districts include Pathankot, Ropar, Hoshiarpur, and Mohali. --IANS vg/vd ( 277 Words) 2022-04-27-20:10:04 (IANS)
He also said the government would observe the late Chief Minister's birth anniversary as a government function every year.

Noting that Karunanidhi was never defeated in any election he had contested, Stalin, the son of Karunanidhi, also recalled the contributions of the former Chief Minister to the welfare of the Tamil people and Tamil Nadu.

Senior DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Water Resources Minister, S. Duraimurugan thanked Stalin and said that Karunanidhi was unique in all aspects including his magnanimous behaviour even towards the opposition leaders.

Leaders of all political parties, except the AIADMK but including its ally BJP, welcomed the announcement.

--IANS aal/vd

( 155 Words)

2022-04-26-21:00:02 (IANS)
Services of six trains were resumed following the conversion between Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday, days after the operation of 23 trains was stopped due to track maintenance work. According to Chief Minister's Office (CMO), after a discussion with Baghel, the Union Railway Minister has announced the operation of six major passenger trains passing through Chhattisgarh namely 18237/18238 Chhattisgarh Express, 12807/12808 Samta Express and 12771/12772 Secunderabad-Raipur-Secunderabad Express will be resumed. Earlier on Tuesday, Baghel urged Vaishnaw to restart the operation of all 23 passenger trains. The South East Central Railway, Bilaspur issued an order on April 23, stating that the operation of a total of 23 express and local trains passing through Chhattisgarh has been stopped for the next one month from April 24, 2022. In a telephonic conversation with Vaishnaw, the Chief Minister apprised him of the difficulties faced by commuters due to the cancellation of these trains. "Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel had a telephonic conversation with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and apprised him of the problems being faced by the passengers of the state due to cancellation of operation of about 23 passenger trains passing through the state," said CMO. Baghel urged the Railway Minister to resume the operation of these trains in view of public interest. The Railway Minister assured that the demand of the Chief Minister would be resolved soon after taking a suitable decision. Earlier, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister objected to the decision of the Railways to halt the operation of 23 local trains passing through the state from April 24, 2022, for track upgradation work.Chhattisgarh government wrote to Railway Board urging it to continue the operation of local trains passing through the state. According to the state government, no alternative arrangement has been made for the passengers before the closure of services of these trains. The Chhattisgarh government said earlier a total of 10 trains were discontinued by a similar kind of order by the South East Central Railway issued on March 2022. The state government wrote to Railways on April 5 requesting to continue the operation of the above trains but the request of the state government was ignored. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court was on Tuesday told that the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund can be set up as a trust can be set up but all "rigours of the Constitution" ought to apply. The court was hearing a petition seeking a declaration that the fund is "state" under Article 12 of the Constitution and to restrain it from using Prime Minister of India or Prime Minister, including its abbreviations, in its name and on its website. The PMO maintained that the PM CARES Fund comprises voluntary donations made by individuals and institutions and is not a part of the business or function of the Central government in any manner. Appearing for Public Interest Litigation petitioner Samyak Gangwal, senior advocate Shyam Divan said the Fund is very very closely interlinked with the Prime Minister of India. "Can you contract out of the Constitution? As long as you are ex-officio, the Constitution will drag you. You are ex-officio, you are taking the oath of office and your allegiance is to the Constitution," he said. As the bench asked whether he meant a trust could not have been set up, Divan said the trust can be set up but all rigours of the Constitution ought to apply there. "Today it's a trust, tomorrow it may be a private company!" he said. According to the Centre's earlier submissions, PM CARES Fund is not a "public authority" under the ambit of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, further clarifying that no government money is credited in the PM CARES Fund and only unconditional and voluntary contributions are accepted under PM CARES Fund. "It is reiterated that the Trust's fund is not a fund of the Government of India and the amount does not go in the Consolidated Fund of India," said an affidavit filed by the PMO. The Centre further said that the trust functions on the principles of transparency and public good in larger public interest like any other charitable trust and, therefore, cannot have any objection to uploading all its resolutions on its website to ensure transparency. Such a prayer is not only unheard of but is legally not maintainable, it said while urging the Delhi High Court to dismiss the petition. --IANS jw/vd ( 395 Words) 2022-04-26-21:08:01 (IANS)
The Tamil Nadu Social Welfare department and the police are on high alert over child marriages that are taking place in the state. While there were many incidents of child marriages during the lockdown period, the recent instance of a 40-year-old man trying to marry a 14-year-old girl has put the social welfare department and the police on an alert. Acting on a tip-off, Childline officials of Vellore district along with the police and revenue officials rescued a 14-year-old girl who was to be married to a 40-year-old distant relative who was entering into his third marriage. The marriage was to be solemnised at a local temple on Monday morning but the marriage was foiled Police took the groom into custody and the girl was handed over to the District Childline authorities in Vellore district. The victim had dropped out of school from Class VII and was living with her mother after her father passed away. The 40-year-old man was from Andhra Pradesh and a distant relative of the girl who had married twice earlier. In another incident, a 17-year-old girl was rescued by Police and Childline authorities in the Myladuthurai district of Tamil Nadu. Childline Vellore district coordinator, K.S. Devendiran while speaking to IANS, said: "After this incident, we are on a high alert in the district and have alerted all school authorities on whether there is any drop in girl children reaching schools. We are also in touch with the resident associations, social organisations, political parties etc." The Tamil Nadu police is also on an alert to prevent any incidents of child marriages. Sources told IANS that the state DGP was directed by the Chief Minister to get tips from across the state using the intelligence agencies on whether child marriages are taking place in Tamil Nadu. --IANS aal/pgh ( 314 Words) 2022-04-26-21:40:02 (IANS)
With ace poll strategist Prashant Kishor declining Congress' offer to join the party on Tuesday, a tweet by a Rajasthan minister, considered close to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, seems to be ruffling a few feathers in the political circles of the state. Subhash Garg from the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), an ally of the ruling Congress in Rajasthan, termed Kishor as a businessman in his tweet, trying to drive home his point that workers make an organisation strong, not an advisor. "Only leadership and workers can make an organisation strong and powerful, not advisors or service providers. Leadership needs Chanakya, not a businessman," Garg tweeted on Tuesday morning, well before the Congress announced Kishor's decision to decline the party's offer. Garg's tweet is drawing a myriad of response from the netizens, who are tweeting in support of Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot. One social media user said, "He should also write that no organisation will be strong until it gives fruits to those who work hard. The bitter truth is that the government of Rajasthan has been formed only with the hard work of @SachinPilot." Meanwhile, a Congress worker said that the statement by a Rajasthan minister, who's considered to be close to Ashok Gehlot, makes it clear that seniors in the party had reservations about inducting Kishor into the Congress fold. Earlier, senior Congress leader in Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath, had said: "We started preparing for the Assembly polls six months back, and we are not dependent on PK." --IANS arc/arm ( 267 Words) 2022-04-26-21:40:04 (IANS)
Police said based on specific reliable inputs regarding movement of two terrorists in a vehicle towards Srinagar, joint Motor Vehicle Checking Points (MVCPs) were established by police, army and SSB at various spots along the national highway and surrounding by-lanes.

"At one such MVCP established at Hanjiveera Bala, a speeding vehicle, swerving in a suspicious manner, was signalled to stop. However, as the vehicle stopped, two individuals (driver and co-driver) jumped off the vehicle and fled towards nearby wooded orchard area," police said.

The alert joint team chased the duo and succeeded in nabbing them.

They have been identified as Mohd Aqib Mir alias Kian Mir alias Raqib Mir, resident of Batpora, Sopore, and Danish Ahad Dar, resident of Sopore.A

Police said that they were searched and two Chinese pistols, two pistol magazines, 10 rounds, and two grenades were recovered from them.

"The duo has been arrested and taken into custody for further questioning besides, the vehicle has also been seized. During the course of investigation, it has transpired that the duo belong to proscribed terror outfit JeM hybrid module and were looking for targeting of PRIs and minorities/outsiders.

"The successful apprehension of these terrorists has foiled major terror plots and busted a module that was aiding the execution of various terror attacks including the killing of sarpanchs etc," it added.

--IANS zi/vd

( 260 Words)

2022-04-26-21:56:03 (IANS)
A day after offering to resign from the RJD over allegations of thrashing a party youth leader, Tej Pratap Yadav plans to hold a Bihar Yatra from May 1 and also organise Janata Darbar in his official residence in Patna, a close associate said on Tuesday. Prashant Pratap, the state chief of Chatra Janshakti Parishad (CJP), of which Tej Pratap Yadav is the national President, refused to comment on the resignation offer, while announcing the latter's programme. "Tej Pratap Yadav, the national President of CJP, will start the Janshakti Yatra from May 1. He will go to every district and also organise Janata Darbars. Besides, he will also organise Janata Darbar in his official residence in Patna for 2 hours every day. The programme will be expected to change during Assembly sessions," he said. Pratap also defended Tej Pratap Yadav against the allegations. "A scripted drama is currently underway in Patna against Tej Pratap Yadav where youth (Ramraj Yadav) alleged that Tej Pratap Yadav brutally beat him up inside Rabri Devi's residence on April 22. On the invitation card of Dawat-e-Iftar, Tej Pratap Yadav's name was also mentioned along with Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav. How could a person who is the host of such a big event do an incident like that?" he said. "There was a healthy relation seen between Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav in the Iftar party which was not a pleasing thing for other leaders. Hence, they have conspired against him. Leaders like Jagadanand Singh and Sanjay Singh are the main directors of the drama which was acted by that youth of Patna (Ramraj Yadav)," he alleged. "Being an elder son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, he is a successor of his political and personal legacy. Still, he has always promoted his younger brother for the post of Chief Minister and also projected him for the Leader of Opposition, why would he conspire against Tejashwi Yadav," Pratap said. Sources close to Tej Pratap Yadav claimed that the idea of his resignation was that he wanted Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi or Tejashwi Yadav to take note and is now seeking to apply more pressure through his forthcoming programmes. Tej Pratap Yadav on Monday said that he will resign from the party after meeting Lalu Prasad Yadav. His plan was that his announcement would turn out to be an emotional card and his family members and senior party leaders may ask him to take back his decision but this did not happen. Sources in the RJD claimed that the activities of Tej Pratap Yadav are similar to his uncles Sadhu Yadav and Subhash Yadav - now sidelined - and actually malign the RJD's image. --IANS ajk/vd ( 460 Words) 2022-04-26-23:02:04 (IANS)
The Paresh Barua-led ULFA-I claimed that it detained an "Assam police agent", and identified him as Sanjeev Sarma, hailing from Muktapur in Baihata Chariali in Kamrup Rural district.

The outfit in a statement on Tuesday claimed that Sarma has recently joined ULFA-I.

"Sarma, however, is a spy of Assam police and was forced to join ULFA-I to gather strategic information about the outfit," said the statement in Assamese.

In a video message, circulated by the ULFA-I, Sarma reportedly said that he was trained for undercover operations and was sent by Kamrup District Superintendent of police Partha Sarathi Mahanta and army official Dhunumoni Saikia.

Sarma, according to the video message, stated that he was assured a reward of Rs 1 crore for the task.

Mahanta, while talking to media persons, denied any such move of sending an agent to the ULFA-I camp.

Reacting on the issue, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who holds the Home portfolio, said that he does not think there is any need to make a comment on the ULFA-I's claim.

The ULFA-I, which during the past one year has twice extended the unilateral ceasefire and also refrained from calling bandh and boycott during last year's Independence Day, and this year's Republic Day celebrations, recently recruited some youth as its armed cadres.

--IANS sc/pgh

( 261 Words)

2022-04-26-23:20:05 (IANS)
The operation was carried out by the Special Operation Group (SOG) and the New Jalpaiguri Police station of Siliguri Metropolitan Police at Porajhar. According to Police, the recovered brown sugar was valued at Rs 2 crore.

The arrested persons were identified as Abdul Rajjak, Musidul Mandal, Habibur Sk and Atikul Islam.

Abdul and Musidul are residents of Nadia district while Habibur and Atikul are of Mushidabad.

Police said the arrested persons are members of an organised drug cartel involved in supplying drugs to various places in North Bengal.

A case has been registered New Jalpaiguri police station under the relevant sections of the NDPS Act. (ANI)
According to Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the virtual meeting will be held at 12 noon on Wednesday.

Apart from the Prime Minister and senior officials of the Prime Minister's Office, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and officials from their respective Ministries are likely to attend the meeting.

As per sources, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan will be making a presentation on the present situation of COVID, the extent of vaccination, especially the booster drive and the trajectory of cases in certain states.

In the past, PM Modi has held several meetings with the Chief Ministers, and even District Magistrates, to understand the situation on the ground.

India recorded 2,483 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. The active caseload is 15,636, while the positivity rate is 0.55 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare bulletin on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Modi on Sunday's Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast urged people to stay alert for COVID-19 during the festival season. He advised people to wear masks and wash their hands at regular intervals to keep COVID at bay.

Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya in a tweet said that over 86 per cent of the adult population is now fully vaccinated. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday expressed his condolences over the death of 11 people due to electrocution during the chariot procession in Appar Swami Temple of Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur and also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin. "Deeply pained by the mishap in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. I hope that the injured recover soon," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted. PM Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the Thanjavur mishap and Rs 50,000 for the injured persons. "An amount of Rs 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the mishap in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The injured would be given Rs 50,000," PMO further said in a tweet. An FIR has also been registered and an investigation has started in connection with deaths due to electrocution during the chariot procession in Tamil Nadu today. "A total of 11 people have died. Three people died on the spot and seven died in the hospital. 15 people are injured and have been taken to Thanjavur Medical College for treatment. FIR has been filed and an investigation into the matter has started," said V. Balakrishnan Inspector General of Police, Tiruchi Range. The police official said that the incident occurred after the temple car came in contact with a high voltage power line and went up in flames. "Prima facie it suggests that some high tension wire came in contact with the temple car (of chariot festival) during the annual chariot festival in the Kallimedu village," said Balakrishnan. "The temple car was negotiating a turn and faced some obstacle before being reversed when it came in contact with the overhead line," he added. (ANI)
In his letter, Gehlot asked for the extension of the road connecting Paniyala Mod and Delhi-Mumbai expressway up to Bharatpur in the state along with announcing the Alwar-Bharatpur (97 km) road as a national highway and upgrading it to a four-lane road.

In the letter, the chief minister said that Bharatpur has a world-famous bird sanctuary which hosts thousands of visitors from various states in the city.

The Delhi-Mumbai greenfield expressway and the newly-built Ambala-Narnaul-Paniyala Mod National Highway in Rajasthan are being connected by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through Paniyala Mod-Alwar-Badodameo, according to the letter written by Gehlot.

The chief minister, in his letter, said that the traffic coming from the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and Ambala-Narnaul-Paniyala Expressway would need an easy and accessible route to reach Bharatpur, Agra and Mathura in the future.

He further said that the road from Paniyala Mod to Delhi-Mumbai Expressway should be extended up to Bharatpur adding that the Alwar-Bharatpur road should also be declared a national highway and it is necessary to upgrade it to a four-lane.

According to Gehlot, this will boost development and provide employment opportunities in this area. (ANI)
According to the police, the accused of the incident (that took place on Saturday) has been sent to a correction home in Ranchi.

"The victim (five years old) had gone to buy a cold drink from the nearby shop, where the accused found her alone and allegedly raped her," Khunti Police informed.

A case has been registered under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Further investigation into the matter is underway. (ANI)
President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday expressed grief over the death of 11 people due to electrocution during the chariot procession in Appar Swami Temple of Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur and called it a "tragedy beyond words". "The loss of life, including that of children, due to electrocution in a procession in Thanjavur is a tragedy beyond words. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured," the President of India tweeted. The incident took place in Kalimedu village after a temple car, part of an annual chariot procession of Appar Swami Temple in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu, came in contact with a high voltage overhead line. An FIR has also been registered and an investigation has started in connection with deaths due to electrocution during the chariot procession in Tamil Nadu today. "A total of 11 people have died. Three people died on the spot and seven died in the hospital. 15 people are injured and have been taken to Thanjavur Medical College for treatment. FIR has been filed and an investigation into the matter has started," said V. Balakrishnan Inspector General of Police, Tiruchi Range. Following the accident, PM Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the Thanjavur mishap and Rs 50,000 for the injured persons. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the families of victims who died due to the Thanjavur accident. (ANI)
The government has decided to provide Rs 1,20,25,000 to the 64 victims for damage to their properties, and Rs 11 lakh (11,00,000), as medical compensation, to the 17 people injured.

Earlier on April 16, Union Minister Anurag Thakur condemned the silence of the Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi over the Karauli violence that took place early this month (April 2) and said that the opposition leader sowed the seeds of hatred and only focuses on hiding the inefficiencies of Congress.

In the Karauli district, violence broke out after the stone-pelting incident took place at a religious procession.

During the violence, several vehicles and shops were set ablaze in the communal clash following which a curfew was clamped till April 10 with some relaxation in later days.

Over the Karauli incident, the Rajasthan Congress had formed a three-member fact-finding committee, which included the MLAs Jitendra Singh and Rafiq Khan, and the Karauli district in-charge Lalit Yadav. (ANI)
"All patients have been evacuated safely. The fire broke out in one of the older buildings, the new three blocks are safe from fire. So far no report of casualties or injuries have been reported," Dr J Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary (Health) for the Tamil Nadu government said.

Several fire tenders were seen at the site.

"We received information around 11 am, and after executing the local fire safety measures, all the patients have been evacuated safely," Radhakrishnan said.

Further details into the matter are awaited. (ANI)
Days after Karnataka Rural Development Minister KS Eshwarappa tendered his resignation amid the row over a contractor dying by suicide, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said that such an incident wouldn't take place in the state. The contractor Santosh Patil had died by suicide which had triggered a political controversy in Karnataka. "We have seen a minister losing his ministry in Karnataka but that will not happen in Telangana," said Rao while addressing the 21st foundation day of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). Amid "Jai Telangana" chants, Rao joined the celebrations at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC). The TRS supremo kickstarted the celebrations by hoisting the party flag. Rao on Wednesday, while lauding the state's model of development, said that had the Centre worked like Telangana, the country's GDP would have been better. He said that the Telangana government has taken the number of medical colleges in the state from only three to 33. Rao further stated that the state has 24 hours power supply and water supply. Targetting the Centre, Rao said that the country is not utilising its full power and water capacity resulting in frequent power cuts and river water disputes. He also said that these issues need to be resolved. "Many things are not known in the country, even educated people have been kept away from many things. The installed power capacity of India is 4,135 megawatts. But it is not fully used. The country is not working the way Telangana is working. Why are there power cuts in the country, when there is sufficient availability of power," said Rao. He said, "In this country water produced is 65,000 TMC. But only 35,000 TMC is being used in the country. But why? Who is inefficient? Why do river water disputes take place in the country? Where is the solution for it? The solution should be brought to these things." Rao further stated that when the best villages in the country are awarded, 10 out of 10 villages are from Telangana. Rao was addressing the 21st plenary meeting organised on the occasion of the TRS' 21st foundation day. TRS was established on April 27, 2001, to seek the formation of an independent Telangana state. It achieved its objective on June 2, 2014, with the bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. (ANI)
On Saturday, the AIMIM leader and Hubli unit president Dadapeer Betgeri was arrested in connection with the incident.

Earlier, the husband of AIMIM Corporator Irfan Nalvatwad was also arrested.

"Out of 146, 145 accused were sent to Hubli, Dharwad, Ballari, Mysore and Kalburgi jail for judicial custody till May 30. Accused number one Wasim Pathan is in police custody," said Police commissioner N Labhuram, Hubli Dharwad Commissionerate.

The stone-pelting incident took place at Old Hubli Police Station on April 16 in which several policemen, including one inspector was injured. The mob which gathered outside the police station suddenly turned violent and started pelting stones at the police station and police vehicles.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has assured action against the perpetrators of the incident.

"Police will not hesitate to take stringent action against those who take the law into their hands. We will act against those who instigated it too. Let us not give political colours to it," Bommai said. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction to adopt the Indian Holistic Integrated Medicinal approach rather than the colonial segregated way of Allopathy, Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy in order to secure the right to health. The Bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla on Tuesday issued notice to the Union of India through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Ayush, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Law and Justice and said respondents should examine the prayer made in the petition and listed the matter for September 8, 2022. The plea sought direction to implement a Holistic Integrated Common Syllabus and Common Curriculum of Allopathy, Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy for all Medical Colleges in order to secure the right to health The petitioner, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, practising lawyer and BJP leader submitted that in spite of huge investment, the current health care system of India is not able to meet its standards and benefit the Indian population to fight against acute and chronic diseases. Healthcare delivery in India is classified under three categories primary, secondary and tertiary care. All three levels need to work in a cohesive manner to help deliver healthcare on all four pillars. The petitioner submitted that in the healthcare system of India, Sub-Centers and Primary Health Centers subsidize the primer level of HCS, Community Health Centre contribute to a secondary level of HCS, although hospitals and medical colleges are considered in the tertiary level of HCS. The petitioner further submitted that the suggested holistic integrated medicinal approach will favour the financially deprived section of the Indian population as this approach will be pocket friendly with high reach and will be able to cover such a huge dense population of the country thus making the medical education available for one and all and to support evidence-based medicine, not any particular pathy. It will also help them to build a sense of responsibility to serve their society which cannot be possible in the case of modern medicine. The petition stated that on September 15, 2020, in Rajya Sabha on the question of availability of doctors per capita, the Minister of State, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that as per information provided by the Board of Governors in supersession of Medical Council of India (MCI), 12,55,786 Allopathic Doctors are registered in MCI. Assuming 80 per cent availability, it is estimated that around 10 lakh doctors may be actually available for active service. It gives a doctor-population ratio of around 1:1,500 as per the current population estimate. "There are 7.88 lakh Ayurveda, Unani, and Homeopathy (AUH) doctors. Assuming 80 per cent availability, it is estimated that 6.30 lakh AUH doctors may be available for service and considered together with allopathic doctors, it gives a doctor population ratio of around 1:1,000," stated the plea. "In order to establish an integrated medicinal system, the Government has already made certain amendments to enable these provisions to become a part of health care policies. But so far adopted strategies are not sufficient to provide an adequate platform for an integrated medicinal approach. Therefore, it is mandatory to make appropriate amendments to legalize the status of the integrated medicinal system," read the plea. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the shared legacy of ties between India and Fiji is based on a sense of service of humanity and that despite a vast ocean separating the two countries, the culture of both nations has kept India-Fiji connected. In his video message after inaugurating the Shri Satya Sai Sanjeevani Children's Heart Hospital in Fiji, PM Modi said the hospital will enhance the health facility of the entire South Pacific region, where heart-related diseases are a major challenge, and the facility will be a way of giving new life to thousands of children. "Not just in Fiji but in the entire South Pacific region, this is the first Children's Heart Hospital. In a region where heart-related diseases are a major challenge, this hospital will give a new life to the children," said PM Modi. The prime minister said that children will not only get world-class treatment at the hospital but the surgeries will be done free of cost. Lauding the 'Vaccine Maitri' initiative through which India exported COVID-19 vaccines to other countries during the pandemic, PM Modi said, "during pandemic while handling itself, India took care of other countries too." "Following the principles of 'Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam', India considers the entire world as one family exporting medicines and essential goods during the pandemic," said the prime minister. "The shared legacy of India-Fiji relation has based the sense of service of humanity. India could fulfill its obligations during the pandemic based on these values as we could provide medicines to 150 countries and about 100 million vaccines to about 100 countries. Fiji has always been prioritized in such efforts," he said. He said despite the vast ocean separating the two countries, the culture of the two countries has kept the two nations connected and the relations between the two are based on mutual respect and strong people to people ties. He acknowledged the privilege of India getting opportunities to contribute in the socio-economic development of Fiji. PM Modi also appreciated the Sai Prem Foundation in Fiji, the Government of Fiji, and Shri Sathya Sai Sanjivini Children's Heart Hospital of India for constructing the hospital that will provide free of cost surgeries. The Prime Minister recalled that "Sri Sathya Sai Baba freed spiritualism from rituals and linked it with people's welfare. His work in the areas of education, health, for poor and deprived inspires us even today." PM Modi Modi also remembered the services of the Sai devotees during the time of Gujarat earthquake. The Prime Minister said "I consider it my great fortune that I got the constant blessings of Sahtya Sai Baba and am getting it even today." Prime Minister Modi also greeted Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama on his birthday and expressed hope that under his leadership, the relationship between the two countries will continue to strenghten.(ANI)
Union Minister Raosaheb Patil Danve on Wednesday lashed out at Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut for accusing Lok Sabha MP from Amravati Navneet Rana of links with the underworld. The Minister asked Raut to present evidence, saying mere allegations won't work. Earlier in the day, Raut alleged that the 'underworld' mafia is the mastermind behind the larger conspiracy to harm the law and order situation of Maharashtra through controversies like loudspeakers and Hanuman Chalisa. "Underworld connection of Amravati MP Navneet Rana has come up. There is a larger conspiracy to disturb the peace and tranquillity of Maharashtra through controversies like loudspeakers and Hanuman Chalisa," said Raut. He claimed that these controversies were hatched and funded by the underworld mafias. "The conspiracy was planned and financially backed by the underworld. Through these people (Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana), the underworld wanted to create their terror here (Maharashtra)," Raut said. The Union Minister further slammed the state government for doing politics by using the police. "Maharashtra Police have a name in this country, but due to small reasons, they are losing their reputation. The MP-MLA couple did not commit such a big crime for which they have been imposed with sedition law," Danve said. "It is not right to slap a sedition case on them (Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana) at all. It is wrong to defame the police and do politics in their name," he said. He said, reciting Hanuman Chalisa in the country cannot be a crime, anyone can read it. "The couple said they will chant Hanuman Chalisa by visiting Matoshree. We do not support it but the politics that is being done around this is wrong," he added. (ANI)
"The government should give a notice to Jnanendra in the first place, for providing protection to Divya Hagaragi (prime accused of PSI scam)," said Shivakumar.

He also alleged that the Crime Investigation Department is taking the matter lightly.

Earlier, Priyank Kharge had alleged that there was a huge scam in the PSI recruitment of more than 545 candidates.

The case is related to the irregularities in the appointment of police sub-inspectors in the state.

While addressing the media persons on Saturday, State Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had assured that everything related to the PSI recruitment scam will be investigated thoroughly, and stringent actions will be taken against those found guilty.

Bommai also said that the candidates who passed the exam will also be interrogated. (ANI)
Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi has expressed grief and condolences to the families of victims who lost their lives in the Thanjavur temple electrocution incident on Wednesday. "Anguished over the unfortunate mishap during the Chariot procession in Thanjavur, Governor, Thiru. R.N.Ravi, expressed grief and deepest condolences to the bereaved families of those who lost their lives, and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured," tweeted Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan. Meanwhile, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh from the party fund to the families of the deceased in the incident. 11 people lost their lives and 15 are injured after a temple chariot came in contact with a high voltage electric wire during the chariot procession. Chief Minister MK Stalin has left for Thanjavur from Chennai to meet the injured. Stalin has also announced Rs 5 lakh of financial compensation from Chief Minister Relief Fund to the families of victims. Tamil Nadu Assembly also observed a 2-minute silence for the deceased. President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed their condolences and the PM announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased. "Deeply pained by the mishap in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. I hope that the injured recover soon," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted. "An amount of Rs 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the mishap in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The injured would be given Rs 50,000," PMO further said in a tweet. An FIR has also been registered and an investigation has started in connection with the incident.According to the police Prima facie it suggested that a high tension wire came in contact with the temple car which while reversing came in contact with an overhead line and caught fire. (ANI)
Speaking to ANI, the minister informed that the Delhi government has sought a report from Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) over the fire incident.

"The people of Delhi are facing landfill fire due to MCD's negligence and 15 years of BJP's corruption. We ordered Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) on Tuesday to inquire and submit the report within 24 hours. We will make a decision on this matter after his report comes," Rai told ANI.

Further hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the minister said, "If they had worked on this, these garbage mountains would not have been here."

He said the BJP people should first go to the Bhalswa landfill and survey what they have done in the last 15 years. "If they had driven bulldozers there for 15 years, these mountains of garbage would not have stood today."

A massive fire broke out at North Delhi's Bhalswa landfill on Tuesday. According to Delhi Fire Service officials, smoke was reported around 5:00 pm that later spread into a massive fire.

Earlier in the day, locals who live near the Bhalswa dump yard in Delhi have also been reporting breathing problems after a massive fire broke in the landfill. (ANI)
The Supreme Court has reserved its judgement on the plea of a death row convict, who has claimed to be kept in solitary confinement right from the decision of the Sessions Court awarding him a death sentence, challenging the Karnataka High Court order. A bench of Justices Uday Umesh Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha reserved the order on convict BA Umesh's plea. Advocate appearing for the petitioner, Yug Mohit Chaudhry, said that the petitioner was kept in solitary confinement right from the decision of the Sessions Court awarding him a death sentence. BA Umesh has moved the Supreme Court against the Karnataka High Court order, which dismissed his plea challenging the executability of his death sentence, pursuant to the rejection of his mercy petition filed before the President. A case was registered against Umesh on February 28, 1998, by Peenya Police under Sections 376 (rape) 302 (murder) and 392 of the Indian Penal Code. On October 27, 2006, the Sessions Court passed a sentence of death against the petitioner. On February 18, 2009, Karnataka High Court supported the imposition of a death sentence. On February 1, 2011, the Apex Court dismissed the petitioner's appeal and upheld the sentence of the death penalty passed on the petitioner. On February 8, 2011, the petitioner's mother filed a mercy petition before the President, which was rejected on May 12, 2013. Counsel of the petitioner has argued before Karnataka HC that there has been an excessive and unexplained delay of two years three months and seven days, that is 827 days, in adjudicating the mercy petition thereby causing unnecessary and avoidable pain, suffering, mental torment which is in violation of Article 21 of Constitution of India. Karnataka Government has opposed the submission that the accused has been kept in solitary confinement in jail. (ANI)
AirAsia India, a low-cost Indian carrier, is run by the Tata Group. Presently, Tata Sons holds 83.67 per cent of the company. The remaining 16.33 per cent of the company is owned by AirAsia Investment Ltd (AAIL), which is part of Malaysia's AirAsia Group.

Air India Ltd (AIL) and its subsidiary Air India Express were acquired by Talace Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Private Ltd, last year.

"The proposed combination relates to the acquisition of the entire equity share capital of AirAsia India Private Limited by Air India Ltd- an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Private Limited (TSPL). At present, TSPL holds 83.67 per cent of the equity share capital of Air Asia India," the filed notice with the CCI stated.

"The Proposed Combination will not lead to any change in the competitive landscape or cause any appreciable adverse effect on competition in India, irrespective of the manner in which the relevant markets are defined," it stated.

Tata Sons formally took over Air India on January 27, 69 years after the government nationalised and took control of the airline from its original founder JRD Tata in August 1953.

It has now started the process of integrating four airlines under its belt.

As part of this process, all the four airlines- Air India, Air India Express, Vistara, AirAsia India and ground handling firm Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited (AISATS) will move to a single office.

Sources close to the development have said that Tata has identified an office space in Gurugram, Haryana where it will lease 70,000 sq ft of office space.

"It has been decided to shift various units under one roof in Gurugram in a phased manner to improve resources, enhance teamwork and create more coordination," sources said. (ANI)
Bharatiya Janata Party national president JP Nadda will chair the Madhya Pradesh party core committee meeting in New Delhi on Thursday to deliberate on the strategy for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state scheduled next year. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will visit the national capital to take part in the meeting which will also be attended by National General Secretary (Org) BL Santhosh at the BJP headquarters. According to the sources, the meeting has been called to discuss the upcoming Assembly elections in the state in 2023. There will be a detailed discussion about establishing better coordination between the organisation and the government. Discussion is also likely to take place on the cabinet expansion and appointments on corporation boards. A critical assessment of the functioning of the Madhya Pradesh government will also be discussed in detail. The meeting is seen as important because Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently was on a visit to Madhya Pradesh where he had indicated the implementation of the uniform civil code in the state. Besides Nadda and Chouhan, MP state president VD Sharma, state organisation Secertary Hitanand, Madhya Pradesh in-charge P Muralidhar Rao, Co-in-Charge Pankaja Munde, Union Minister Narendra Tomar, General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, Union Ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and others. Notably, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on April 23. Discussions were held between the two leaders for nearly 45 minutes. Chouhan had apprised the Prime Minister of the ongoing developmental work in the state. (ANI)
Congress leader Alka Lamba, who was summoned for allegedly making false statements against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal before the Punjab Assembly polls, appeared before Rupnagar police on Wednesday. She was accompanied by a party delegation consisting of Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, senior party leaders, including Punjab Congress Legislature party leader Partap Singh Bajwa, MLAs Sukhjinder Randhawa, Raj Kumar Chabbewal, former ministers Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Balbir Sidhu, Gurkirat Kotli and Punjab Youth Congress chief Brinder Dhillon. Speaking to the media here, Lamba said, "I stand by my statement." A case has also been lodged against former Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas in Rupnagar town's Sadar police station on April 12. Vishwas, who was a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party had alleged that Kejriwal had connections with separatists in Punjab, and those having sympathy with separatists used to come to his house for meetings during the last assembly polls. Lamba has been accused of backing the remarks made by Vishwas. Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) has demanded immediate cancellation of the FIR registered against Alka Lamba and Kumar Vishwas, stating that it has only been registered to settle the personal agenda as they have been critical of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. In a letter to Punjab Police DGP VK Bhawra, Senior Punjab Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said, "We on behalf of the people of Punjab in general and the Congress party in particular request you to immediately order the cancellation of FIR against senior Congress leader Alka Lamba and renowned poet of the country Dr Kumar Vishwas." "The content of the FIR, based on the complaint of someone whose identity is still not known to anyone, makes it obvious that it has only been registered to settle a personal score with these people as they have been critical of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal," the letter reads. Bajwa said that Punjab Police has no jurisdiction to register an FIR because on which the FIR is based, were allegedly made in Delhi against a person who is also based in Delhi. "Holding such a senior and responsible position you are well aware that the alleged statements, on which the FIR is based, were allegedly made in Delhi against a person who is also based in Delhi. While no criminal offence is made from the purported statements, even if these did, the Ropar/Punjab Police have no jurisdiction to register an FIR," he said. The Congress leader further said that this is not just a misuse of power and authority, but total abuse of power. "Needless to add, this FIR will not stand any legal security with the likelihood of the concerned police officers getting censured for their action aimed at pleasing their political bosses remotely based in Delhi," he added. "We will adopt all legal and constitutional means to get this unlawful FIR cancelled. We hope you are able to see the reason and order immediate cancellation of the FIR," he said. (ANI)
After the nurses of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences called off their strike last night, the Delhi High court on Wednesday directed AIIMS to constitute a board for hearing grievances of the employees. The court directed the parties to maintain harmony as it is the institute of excellence and functioning should not be hampered. Further, the court said that the competent office-bearer of the nursing union will give an undertaking of good behaviour of their members. "No punitive measures would be taken immediately on the persons identified in the incident, against whom action has not been started," the court said. "Do not take any immediate action. Let things cool down. Take undertaking, set up a board. You have to strike a balance," Justice Yashwant Varma directed AIIMS. The court was told that the president of the nurses union has already been suspended. "Two have been charge-sheeted and the president has been suspended." The bench asked the counsel appearing for AIIMS that if the institute finds anything wrong, then "take it in accordance with the law". "You won't take any immediate punitive action against any of them. Respondents will also give an undertaking that the functioning of the institute shall not be hampered," the bench said. A petition has been listed for July 29, 2022, for further hearing. Advocate Abhijat, appearing on behalf of the nurses union, submitted that the union has already decided to call off the strike. "Kindly grant time to file a reply. We will give an undertaking within 24 hours." Advocate Satya Ranjan Swain, appearing for AIIMS, submitted that doctors were not allowed to go inside the main operation theatre (OT). The bench asked him whether they want to take further action or bring to an end the issue. "Set up a board and hear the grievances of the employees. Ask the employees to submit an undertaking of good behaviour and not to interfere in the daily operations," the bench iterated. Advocate Swain submitted that after seeing the video, a show-cause notice has been issued to 37 members and 5 office bearers of the union. The bench directed advocate Swain to speak to the Director AIIMS and to take instructions to the effect that how to discipline maintain and institute is crippled. Advocate Swain further submitted that the nurses union had sent two letters regarding the issue of shift timings, to which the court told the Counsel that it is an institute which is to solve these issues. "Note their problems and bring them to an end." The High Court on Tuesday had directed the AIIMS nurses union to ensure that the employees including nurses who are on strike to join duties immediately. On Tuesday AIIMS moved Delhi HC seeking direction to Nurse Union and any staff of AIIMS to desist from resorting to strike or in any manner disrupting the general functioning of the petitioner's institute and hospital. In a letter addressed to the AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria, the Union wrote, "In response to your unilateral decision to suspend Harish Kajala, president of AllMS Nurses Union, without even citing proper reasons, the union has called an emergency executive meeting took the decision to go on indefinite strike from 8 AM on April 26 demanding immediate revocation of suspension of Harish Kumar Kajla and stopping of all kinds of retaliative measures against union executives and Union members of main operation theatre (OT)." However, reacting to the incident, taking to social media yesterday morning, the Association of Resident Doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi wrote, "Doctors and nurses have worked together in harmony, with mutual respect, to bring AIIMS to new heights. Without good nursing care, the holistic treatment of patients can't be imagined. Voice of RDA AIIMS is not against any person or union, but against this unjust behaviour." (ANI)
Former Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Kuldeep Rathore on Wednesday is in full agreement with the Congress's decision to change the state leadership, stating that the change is for the betterment of the party in the upcoming Assembly elections scheduled later this year. In major decisions taken by Congress high command on Tuesday, Pratibha Virbhadra Singh has been appointed as the chief of the party's state unit and Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu as chairman of the campaign committee. "I have been replaced by Pratibha Singh, who is now the state Congress chief. the high command has taken the decision of making Pratibha Singh as the president of the state for the betterment of the party in the upcoming elections in Himachal Pradesh," he said. "But now Pratibha Singh has been made the President, so we will all work together for Himachal Pradesh Congress and there is no estrangement between us," the former Congress chief added. Further elaborating about his achievements during his tenure, Rathore said, "Since I was made the state president, under my leadership the party won all the bye-elections in the state. We did not allow any factionalism in the state Congress." Under Rathore's leadership, Congress won two out of four municipal elections. Along with this the party also won one Lok Sabha by-election and three assembly by-elections in Himachal Pradesh. Giving clarification on his Delhi's visit, the Congress leader said, he has come here to discuss the political situation in Himachal. "My son's wedding is on May 22 and I had come to invite Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi as well as there was a political discussion regarding Himachal," he said. More significant changes have been made in the party considering the crucial polls as Harshvardhan Chauhan is appointed as the deputy CLP leader for the party. Senior leader Mukesh Agnihotri has been retained as the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi also appointed former Union minister Anand Sharma as the chairman of the Steering Committee for the Himachal Pradesh Congress, with Asha Kumari as its convenor, while former Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was appointed as the chairman of the Campaign Committee. The party will have four working presidents: Harsh Mahajan, Rajinder Rana, Vinay Kumar and Pawan Kaushal. The manifesto committee for the Congress will be headed by Dhaniram Shandil with Ashish Butail as vice-chairman. Kaul Singh Thakur will be chairman of the Coordination Committee, whereas Ram Lal Thakur will head the election management committee. Taking about whether the poll strategist Prashant Kishor will work for the party in the upcoming Assembly elections, he said, "The Himachal Congress State Unit did not have any conversation or meeting with Prashant Kishor regarding the Himachal assembly elections. The rest of the decisions are to be taken by the national-level leaders." Meanwhile, Prashant Kishor has declined to join the Congress party. Prashant Kishor has held several meetings in the last 15 days with Congress's top leadership and gave a proposal to revamp the party ahead of the 2024 general election. Kishor had given a detailed presentation with a road map for the 2024 General elections. (ANI)
Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday hit out at Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala for comparing the Excise Duty on petrol and diesel, and said that the Opposition-ruled states have not reduced the taxes despite the BJP-ruled states having done so before. Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the opposition-ruled states to reduce taxes on petrol and diesel to provide relief to the people from the price hike. Speaking to the reporters here, Thakur said, "The BJP ruled states had reduced the taxes on petrol and diesel months before which had benefitted the common man. The tax collection was reduced and the states had to bear the loss of crores of rupees, but the BJP-ruled states gave benefits to the people. But the Opposition only looks at the Centre but does not reduce the taxes in their own states. What is the reason? Don't they want to benefit the people who have voted them to power?" Asked about the Cabinet's decision to upgrade 2G mobile services to 4G at the security sites in Left Wing Extremist areas, he said that 2,542 towers would be upgraded at a cost of Rs 2,426 crore. "The decision has been taken to upgrade the 2G mobile services to 4G at the security sites in LWE areas. 2,542 towers would be upgraded which would attract the cost of Rs 2,426 crore. The 2G services would continue till the time 4G services are rolled out," he said. Notably, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved a Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) project for upgrading 2G mobile services to 4G at security sites in LWE areas. "A historic decision was taken in today's cabinet that there will be no burden on the farmers. In 2021, per bag subsidy on DAP was Rs 512. Today the subsidy per DAP bag will be Rs 2,500. Government of India will spend Rs 60,939 crore as subsidy on P&K fertilizers for Kharif crop," Thakur said elaborating on the Cabinet decisions. The Union Minister also said that Jammu And Kashmir will not only fulfil its power needs but also can sell surplus electricity to the rest part of India, thus creating the opportunity to earn crores of Rupees. "When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited J-K recently, he announced that the UT will be made Aatma Nirbhar in the field of electricity. Not only it will fulfil the power needs of the UT, but also the surplus electricity can be sold to the rest of the parts of the country which would be an opportunity for the UT to earn crores of Rupees," Thakur said. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister, approved the investment of Rs 4,526.12 crore for the 540 Megawatt (MW) Kwar Hydro Electric Project located on river Chenab, in the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. Notably, PM Modi on his first major visit to Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 on Sunday inaugurated and laid the foundation of multiple development initiatives worth Rs 20,000 crore in the Union Territory. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to clarify its position on the release of AG Perarivalan, one of the convicts serving life imprisonment in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao also pulled up the Central government and said that it "will release" Perarivalan if the government does not take a stand on the convict's mercy plea within a week. "He has already spent 36 years in jail then why not we release him," said the bench. The apex court also took strong exception on the action of the Tamil Nadu Governor for sitting on the Cabinet's release recommendation for more than three and half years and then forwarding it to the President. "Why don't you just agree to have him released? People who have served over 20 years are released... We are also offering you an escape route. Your argument that the Governor does not have the jurisdiction to take a decision on the mercy plea under Article 161 strikes a blow on the federal structure of the Constitution... Under which provision can the Governor refer the decision of the State Cabinet to the President?" the apex court bench told Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for the Centre. "If at all the Governor disagrees with the State Cabinet decision to release him, the proper course for him would be to refer it back to the Cabinet and not forward it to the President, who is bound by the aid and advice of the Centre... That cannot simply be done. We prima facie find the Governor's action wrong and you are arguing against the Constitution," it added. The matter has been listed for further hearing on May 4. On March 9, the apex court had granted bail to Perarivalan while taking into consideration his conduct, ill health and the fact that he has spent more than 30 years in prison. The bench had noted that there were no complaints about his conduct when he was released thrice before on parole. Perarivalan was ordered to be released on bail for the first time since when he was arrested. The bench had taken into note that Governor is yet to decide on Perarivalan's plea seeking release from prison. The apex court had granted bail to Perarivalan despite the Centre opposing his bail plea vehemently. Perarivalan had approached the top court seeking release from the prison based on the recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu government in September 2018. The Central government had earlier apprised the apex court that the Tamil Nadu Governor, after considering all the facts on record and relevant documents, said that the President of India is the "appropriate competent authority" to deal with the pardon plea of Perarivalan. The top court by its January 21, 2021 order had asked the Governor to decide the Perarivalan's remission of sentence plea. It had earlier expressed unhappiness over the fact that the recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu state government for the remission of the sentence had been pending before the Governor for over two years. Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at a poll rally. On February 18, 2014, the apex court commuted the death sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment on grounds of a delay of 11 years in deciding the mercy pleas by the Centre. (ANI)
Opposition leaders from the non-BJP ruled state on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his appeal to states to reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel prices to provide relief to the people from the price hike. Congress leader Deepender S Hooda accused the Centre of evading its duty on the fuel-price hikes and claimed that Haryana has the highest VAT on petrol-diesel. "Haryana has the highest VAT on petrol-diesel. Fuel prices are increased if price rises in international markets but when wheat prices increase internationally, farmers don't get increased MSP on it. The Centre is evading from its duty on the fuel-price hike," he said. Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, in a tweet, said, "Making a COVID meeting about politics! The central government has earned 26 lakh crore out of central excise on fuel, which increased 18 times even when oil prices hit rock bottom. The GST share to states still owed... compensation component to states done away with... and now pointing fingers." Congress leader Pawan Khera claimed the centre earned Rs 26 lakh crore out of central excise on petrol and diesel. "He (PM Modi) earned Rs 26 lakh crore out of central excise on petrol and diesel. Has he shared it? You didn't give the GST share to the states on time and then you ask states to further reduce VAT. He should reduce central excise and then ask others to reduce VAT," said Khera. Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council should bring petrol, diesel, and LPG under the goods and services tax ambit. PM today spoke much on petrol-diesel rather than health and the meeting turned out to be a political meeting. PM Modi should bring these- Petrol, Diesel and LPG under GST and formulate one policy for the country," he said. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray hit back and said that the state government cannot be held responsible for the spike in fuel prices. "Today, in the price of one litre of diesel in Mumbai, Rs 24.38 is for the Centre and Rs 22.37 is for the state. In petrol price, 31.58 paise is central tax and 32.55 paise state tax. Therefore, it is not a fact that petrol and diesel have become more expensive due to the state," he said. Thackeray said that Maharashtra collects the highest GST of 15 per cent in the country. Combining both direct taxes and GST, Maharashtra is the number one state in the country." Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai said that they will also decide to on reducing VAT on fuel prices after reviewing the economic situation. "In November (last year) when Centre reduced excise duty, some states followed and reduced excise duty in line with cooperative federalism. We will also decide (on reducing VAT on fuel prices) after reviewing the economic situation," said Bommai. In view of the increasing COVID cases, PM Modi held a video conferencing with the Chief Ministers of all the states and discussed more on other issues rather than health issues. The Prime Minister called upon opposition-ruled states to follow the Centre's decision by reducing taxes on petrol and diesel to provide relief to the people from the price hike. "In order to reduce the burden of rising petrol and diesel prices, the central government reduced the excise duty last November. We had urged the states too to reduce their taxes. Some states reduced the tax and provided benefits to the consumers but some didn't do so," said PM Modi. Naming opposition parties ruled states, PM Modi said, "Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand, and Tamil Nadu did not follow the advice of Central Government and people in these states are burdened with price rise." "I request these states to do now what they should have done in November. By reducing the VAT you can lower the burden faced by the residents," he added.PM Modi made the following comments during his interactions with Chief Ministers of several states over rising cases of COVID-19. The Central government in November had reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 10 respectively. Following the Center's decision, 25 states and Union Territories, mostly ruled by BJP or their allies had reduced VAT on petrol and diesel to give relief to consumers. (ANI)
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Wednesday mooted the idea that all constituents of the Peoples' Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) would contest the coming Assembly elections together to keep BJP and its B and C teams from dividing votes. He, however, added that the final decision lies with the PAGD leaders. While speaking to reporters at party headquarters, Nawa-e-Subh, Omar said, "I am not an office-bearer of the PAGD, but this is my personal opinion that the PAGD should contest elections unitedly to keep BJP and its B and C teams from dividing votes. But the end decision lies with the PAGD itself." His statement comes amid reports that Delimitation Commission is going to submit its final report within days, PAGD is a political alliance between the six-party regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir formed by Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. The alliance seeks the restoration of Article 370 and statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. Meanwhile, Omar Abdullah welcomed the Supreme Court's announcement that petitions regarding the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution would be listed after the summer vacation. "Der aaye, durust aaye'. We are well-acquainted with the fact, that because of COVID, the day-to-day functioning of not just the Supreme Court but also the High Courts and Sessions Courts have been affected, because of which the hearing on our petitions could not begin. But, we laud the Chief Justice saying that the hearing will begin after the summer vacation. The hearing will take place before a 5 judge-bench," he said. He appealed to the Chief Justice of India to hold the hearings on a fast-track basis and said that if there is a delay in the judgment, then the changes made after 2019 would be impossible to reverse. On August 5, 2019, the Centre abrogated the provisions of Article 370 and bifurcated the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Criticizing the power cuts in Kashmir at Sehri and Iftar hours during the holy month of Ramzan, Abdullah said it is being deliberately done to hassle them. "Curtailment of electricity at Sehri and Iftar hours is being deliberately done to hassle us. Are you playing with our sentiments? If your intention is not to play with our sentiments, then give power during Sehri and Iftar hours and cut it at other hours of the day," he said. Omar also criticised the Hijab ban and said that it was a religious obligation and no government has the right to interfere in religious matters. "We are a secular country. People should have the freedom to follow their religion the way they want. No government should interfere in how people follow their religion," he said. Further speaking on the loudspeakers issue, the National Conference leader said, "Why can't loudspeakers be allowed at mosques when they're being used in other places? We're being told that halal meat shouldn't be sold. Why? We aren't saying mics shouldn't be installed at temples, gurudwaras. You don't like only all that we do." "Jammu and Kashmir agreed to accession with India when we were told that all religions will be seen with equal eyes here. At that time, if it had been told that one religion would be given more importance than others here, then, maybe our decision would've been different," he added. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam on Thursday for key programmes in Diphu and Dibrugarh which are aimed at enhancing the development trajectory of this wonderful state. The Prime Minister will address the 'Peace, Unity and Development Rally' at Diphu in Karbi Anglong District at around 11:00 am. According to Prime Minister's Office (PMO), during the programme, PM Modi will also lay the foundation stone of various projects in the education sector. The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of Veterinary College (Diphu), Degree College (West Karbi Anglong) and Agricultural College (Kolonga, West Karbi Anglong). These projects, worth more than Rs 500 crore, will bring new opportunities for skilling and employment in the region. During the programme, the Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for more than 2950 Amrit Sarovar projects. The state will develop these Amrit Sarovars at a cumulative cost of around Rs 1150 crore. "Prime Minister's unwavering commitment towards peace and development of the region was exemplified with the recent signing of Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) by Government of India and Government of Assam with six Karbi militant outfits. The MoS has ushered in a new era of peace in the region. Prime Minister's address at 'Peace, Unity and Development Rally' will provide a major boost to the peace initiatives in the entire region," said PMO in a statement. At around 01:45 pm, the Prime Minister will reach Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh and dedicate Dibrugarh Cancer Hospital to the nation. Later, at around 3 pm, he will attend a public function at Khanikar ground in Dibrugarh, where he will dedicate six more cancer hospitals to the nation and lay the foundation stone for seven new cancer hospitals, At Dibrugarh, Assam Cancer Care Foundation, a joint venture of the Government of Assam and Tata Trusts, is executing a project to build South Asia's largest affordable cancer care network with 17 Cancer care hospitals spread across the state. "Under Phase 1 of the project, out of 10 hospitals, the construction of seven hospitals have been completed while three hospitals are at various level of construction. Phase 2 of the project will witness the construction of seven new cancer hospitals," it said. The Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation seven cancer hospitals completed under phase 1 of the project. These cancer Hospitals are built at Dibrugarh, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Darrang, Tezpur, Lakhimpur, and Jorhat. He will also lay the foundation stone of seven new cancer hospitals at Dhubri, Nalbari, Goalpara, Nagaon, Sivasagar, Tinsukia and Golaghat to be constructed under phase 2 of the project. Notably, the Assam government has declared a state holiday in both districts for April 28. (ANI)
According to Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, two-three terrorists, including a Pakistani terrorist of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit, were trapped inside the cordon.

Meanwhile, the operation has been halted due to the evacuation of civilians.

"Two-three terrorists including a Pakistani terrorist of JeM outfit trapped inside the cordon. Halted operation due to the evacuation of civilians. One soldier is injured during the ongoing operation. Precautions are being taken to avoid collateral damage. Trapped terrorists will be neutralised at the earliest," Kashmir Zone Police quoted IGP Kashmir in a tweet.

Further details are awaited. (ANI)
Amid the growing environmental concerns and consciousness among organisations and leaderships across the globe, the eco-friendly measures and arrangements made during two events of the Ministry of Ayush, held in Gujrat recently, inspired sustainable development and a healthy planet. As per a press release of the Ministry of Ayush, the estimated use of more than 1 lakh plastic bottles, 15,000 plastic tags and 50,000 plastic cutleries was avoided during the events, leading to an estimated reduction of 1,19,437.5 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (Co2e). Furthermore, countries, organisations and entities across the world are coming together to curb evils such as single-use plastic. While speaking at the 14th session of the Conference of Parties (CoP-14) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Single-use plastic is not only harmful to the health of the people, but it is also a major reason for the deterioration of the health of the land." With the recently concluded events of the Ministry of Ayush in Gujrat highlighted the intent of the Government to lead by example in this direction. The Prime Minister laid the foundation of the world's first WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) during the ground-breaking ceremony held at Jamnagar on April 19 and inaugurated the 3-day Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit (GAIIS) on April 20 in the presence of Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and Director-General of the World Health Organisation Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "The mega-events echoed the resolve of the country to curb single-use plastic with dedicated efforts to minimize carbon footprints. Both the events were of global prominence that captured the attention of the global community of policymakers, healthcare professionals, investors and stakeholders and were thronged by thousands," the release stated. The unique eco-friendly practices adopted in organising these two events also garnered praise from diverse communities of stakeholders. Moreover, as per the Ministry, the GAIIS event featured discussions and exhibitions during the summit and demonstrated environmental consciousness in action by adopting a wide range of measures in organisation of the event. "Considering single-use plastic including plastic water bottles, plates, cups, neck badges etc. being the key pollutant, reusable cutlery, glass bottles paper tags, paper cups etc. were used during the event," the release stated. As per the Ministry, eco-friendly practices were adopted to organize the events in line with the thought of the Prime Minister and in order to promote healthy and environment friendly practices, the participants were provided with kits that included copper bottles for drinking water. Water dispensers were installed at convenient locations to complement these efforts. While talking about the arrangements, the organizers mentioned, "Environmental consciousness remained the core of decision making for the organisation of the event such as avoiding the use of plastic flex banners and other such material with an objective to minimize carbon footprints." The visitors attending various sessions at the event also complimented the organizers for their efforts and eco-friendly measures. During the event, participating experts and speakers also expressed the potential of Ayush to achieve sustainability and net-zero. The event also featured creative exhibitions on environment-related issues and solutions. Interestingly, the exhibit on 'Smart and Sustainable Ayush Factories for the Future', showcased steps toward efficient waste disposal for a clean, green, and sustainable future and also demonstrated the way to live without plastic which is commonly taken as unavoidable and most convenient. D. Pratik Mehta, an environmentalist, mentioned that the Microplastic evil was recently reported in 80 per cent of the human blood samples tested. He also insisted on adopting an approach to living and sustaining without plastic as much as possible. (ANI)
In February, when the commission had summoned Pawar, he had sought more time from the commission to file the affidavit, and then the commission had given him more time.

inquiry commission's lawyer Ashish Satpute told that the affidavit has now been filed before the commission on behalf of Sharad Pawar, so he has been summoned by the commission as a witness on May 5 and 6, these two dates.

Maharashtra government-appointed inquiry Commission is probing the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence.

On January 2, 2018, violence erupted at an event to mark 100 years of the Bhima-Koregaon battle, leaving one dead and several injured, including 10 policemen.

The police had filed 58 cases against 162 people during a state-wide shutdown in January following clashes in Bheema-Koregaon. (ANI)
Elaborate arrangements have been made by the Assam government for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's day-long visit to the state on April 28. The Prime Minister will address a Peace, Unity and Development rally at Loringthepi in Karbi Anglong district at around 11 am on Thursday. "We have made all arrangements at Loringthepi to welcome Prime Minister Modi. We are expecting that, more than 4 lakh people will attend the big rally. This is Prime Minister Modi's first visit to Karbi Anglong district after the signing of the Karbi Peace accord between six militant outfits of the district and the government. He will lay the foundation of several educational and development projects worth over Rs 500 crore," Mukul Kathar, Secretary of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) said. The Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of Veterinary College at Diphu, Degree College at West Karbi Anglong and Agricultural College, Kolonga, West Karbi Anglong. During the programme, PM Modi will also lay the foundation stone for more than 2,950 Amrit Sarovar projects and the state will develop these Amrit Sarovar at a cumulative cost of around Rs 1,150 crore. On the other hand, tight security arrangements have also been made at Loringthepi ahead of PM Modi's visit. "We have made adequate security here and surrounding areas," SN Singh, Special DGP of Assam said. More than 10,000 police personnel have been deployed in the district. The organizers have planned to wave around one lakh tricolour flags to welcome the Prime Minister. "We are eagerly waiting for Prime Minister Modi's visit to our district. We want Peace and Development. After signing the Karbi Peace accord with six militant groups, a peaceful environment has been visible in the district and we hope that a permanent peaceful environment will be placed in the district," Kensing Bey, a resident of Manja said. After the programme of Loringthepi, Prime Minister Modi will fly to Dibrugarh where he will inaugurate seven cancer hospitals and lay the foundation for seven more across Assam from Khanikar Park in Dibrugarh. (ANI)
Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police, Dilbag Singh released Rs 4.36 crore in favour of 20 Police District heads of UT for conducting Bharat Darshan tour programme. Police Headquarters Jammu and Kashmir under the leadership of the Director General of Police, J&K Dilbag Singh is continuously providing funds for organizing various Civic Action Programmes at UT, Zone, Range and Districts Levels for conducting different social, sports, and cultural activities for general public particularly for the youth of J&K. As a part of this effort, the DGP J&K vide Police Headquarters Order No. 1492 of 2022 has released an amount of Rs 4.36 crore in favour of 20 Police District heads of UT for conducting Bharat Darshan tour programme. Under this initiative, a group of 100 youth from each district of J&K will be sent to different cities of the country and the tour will be covered by air. The programme is aimed to enrich the knowledge of youth by visiting historical places and other modern marvels of India, read a statement from Police Media Centre PHQ, J&K. Under this tour programme, a group of youth from Jammu, Samba will be visiting Delhi and Bengaluru and the group from Kathua, Ramban will be visiting Delhi and Mumbai. Similarly, a group of youth from Udhampur and Reasi will be visiting Delhi and Kolkata, and the group from Rajouri and Poonch will be visiting Delhi and Hyderabad, a group of youth from Doda and Kishtwar will be visiting Delhi and Chennai. A group from Srinagar and Ganderbal will be visiting Delhi and Kolkata, and from Budgam and Bandipora will be visiting Delhi and Mumbai. A group of youth from Baramulla including PD Sopore and Kupwara including PD Handwara will be visiting Delhi and Chennai, the group from Anantnag and Pulwama including PD Awantipora will be visiting Delhi and Bangalore and a group of youth from Shopian and Kulgam will be visiting Delhi and Hyderabad. As per the order Rs 20.40 lakh each have been released for Jammu and Samba, Rs 21.90 lakh each have been released for Kathua and Ramban, Rs 23.40 lakh each have been released for Udhampur and Reasi. Similarly, Rs 17.50 lakh each have been released for Rajouri and Poonch, and Rs 20 lakh each for Doda and Kishtwar. Rs 22.30 lakh each have been released for Srinagar and Ganderbal and Rs 22.70 lakh each for Budgam and Bandipora. An amount of Rs 24.20 lakh each has been released for Baramulla including PD Sopore, Kupwara including PD Handwara, Anantnag and Pulwama including Awantipora. Rs 21.40 lakh each have been released for Shopian and Kulgam under this order. Pertinent to mention here that Jammu and Kashmir Police under its Civic Action Programme has sent around 3000 youth from across the J&K on Bharat Darshan Tours from 2017 to 2021 to different stations and cities. (ANI)
An Allahabad High Court judge has withdrawn himself from hearing the bail plea of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. Justice Rajeev Singh of the Lucknow bench of the high court, who had granted bail to Ashish Mishra earlier, recused himself from hearing it again after the Supreme Court cancelled his bail order last week on April 18. While cancelling Mishra's bail, the Supreme Court had also asked the high court to decide his bail plea afresh and the plea came up for hearing before Justice Singh's bench. But he recused himself from hearing it afresh. Justice Singh, however, gave no reason for withdrawing himself from the single-judge bench hearing the bail plea. The next hearing of the bail plea too was not scheduled and it would be fixed for the next hearing after the constitution of a new bench to hear it, a court official said. Ashish Mishra had been arrested in the October 3 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case in which eight people, including four farmers and a journalist, were killed and several others were injured when a convoy of SUVs, including a Thar allegedly owned by his father, had mowed down four farmers. According to the FIR lodged in the case, Ashish Mishra was sitting in one of the cars. The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had granted regular bail to Ashish Mishra, observing that the present case was one of "accident by hitting with the vehicle". But the Supreme Court cancelled the bail, saying that the victims were denied "a fair and effective hearing" by the Allahabad High Court, which adopted a "myopic view of the evidence". The apex court had also Ashish Mishra to surrender before the court and asked the high court to hear Mishra's bail plea afresh. --IANS amita/vd ( 320 Words) 2022-04-27-19:00:03 (IANS)
Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said: "The country has enough coal stock. The thermal power plants have more than 9 days' coal stock... the situation is reviewed each day."

He said the coal stocks are sufficient in the country and there is no need to panic.

On Monday, Power Minister R.K. Singh and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw held a meeting here to discuss short-term and long-term strategies for dealing with the situation.

Singh had urged all stakeholders at the Central and state level to work hand in hand for unhindered power supply. He urged the power gencos to own freight rakes under the Railways Ministry scheme to deal with logistic constraints in coal supply.

Issues discussed included increasing operational efficiency for loading and unloading of coal, increasing percentage of rakes allotment for power sector, and other logistics issues.

The Congress has attacked the government on the power crisis, with Rahul Gandhi saying: "India is in the midst of a severe power crisis. In most states, common people are being forced to bear 8-hour power cuts."

He said he had warned the Modi government that lack of coal stocks will spell torment for the country as power demand peaks.

--IANS miz/pgh

( 233 Words)

2022-04-27-19:18:06 (IANS)
Claiming that import of GM Soybean Meal can ultimately lead to import dependency and an excessive foreign exchange payment situation in near future as happens in crude oil, the Soybean Processors Association of India on Wednesday protested the demand for extension of permission to import it. "Last year, there was a shortage of soybean and therefore when the original demand was made, we did not interfere. However, this year, there is ample soybean available, there is no need to import cheap GM soybean meal at the cost of farmers' interest," D.N Pathak, executive director of the Soybean Processors Association of India told media persons here. Soybean meal is the by-product of the extraction of soybean oil. Noting that the poultry industry has cited high prices of soybean meal in India to again request the government that they should be permitted to import GM soybean meal, Pathak said: "The suggestion for further import of GM soybean meal by some traders and poultry industry will be totally counter-productive. As it is, our crushing of soybean from October 2021 to March 2022 is down to 64 per cent of last year, adding to lesser availability of soybean oil and disparity in crushing." Soybean season is from October to September of next year. Against the total supply/availability of soybean this year (2021-22) of 124.22 lakh metric tonnes, including this year's production of 118.89 LMT and 1.83 LMT from last year, the expected disposal is 88 LMT for crushing, 13 LMT for sowing, 3 LMT for direct consumption and exports of 0.50 LMT will still leave 19.72 LMT for carrying forward to next year, according to supply and demand data shared by Pathak. For soybean meal, the total supply availability of 76.65 lakh tonnes while disposals of 74 lakh tonnes include poultry and aqua feed of 56 lakh tonnes, exports 10 lakh tonnes, and food use of 8 lakh tonnes, which would still leave 2.65 lakh tonnes for carrying forward to next year. The poultry industry has projected a demand of 90 lakh tonnes of soybean meal, which is totally wrong and is not supported by facts, Pathak said. "It is a complete sham. Poultry industry is controlled by corporates and takes farmers' name for the sake of it. In fact, we are putting up the real farmers' case as cheap imports will mean there are no takers for costly inhouse soybean meal. "This inflated demand is being given only to make a case for imports. We challenge the poultry industry to contest our data. The actual demand may be even lesser because the poultry industry has reduced the inclusion of soybean meal in their feed," he alleged. Asked if his Association was protesting the import or specifically GM soybean meal, he said: "We specifically demand that GM soybean meal may not be permitted as it is cheap and will harm our farmers' interest. Non-GM soybean meal is not cheap (so) no one will import it." Farmers want to sell at higher prices and the poultry industry should accept higher prices of both soybean and soybean meal, the Association said. --IANS niv/vd ( 531 Words) 2022-04-27-19:52:03 (IANS)
A Delhi Court on Wednesday acquitted a man accused of vandalism in a shop during the violence in Northeast Delhi's Khajoori Khas area following the lack of reliable evidence. He was booked by Delhi Police under sections related to rioting, unlawful assembly, arson and vandalism. Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhatt acquitted Noor Mohammad alias Noora from the charges of rioting, arson and vandalism in Bunny Bakery Shop, at Chand Bagh Pulia on February 25, 2020. The court does not find any cogent and reliable evidence on record to hold the accused guilty of charges framed against him, the acquittal order read. While acquitting the accused, the court observed, when an unlawful assembly or a large number of persons take part in arson or in a clash between two groups, in order to convict a person, at least two prosecution witnesses have to support and identify the role and involvement of the person concerned. The Court observed in the order, "The manner in which Police beat constable stated to have identified Noor Mohammad alias Noora as a rioter on April 2, 2020, in the police station when he was being interrogated by the Investigation Officer (IO), appears to be absolutely doubtful and devoid of trustworthiness." From the deposition of the IO and a sub-inspector, it is evident that the accused was not arrested on the identificatory statement of the beat constable. He was arrested in this case merely on the basis of his alleged disclosure statement recorded by the sub-inspector on March 31 2020, the court noted. The Court said, "So far as the deposition of IO to the effect that the complainant Gyenendar Kumar also identified the accused as one of the rioters on April 2, 2020, in Police Station, is concerned, the same has not been affirmed by the complainant himself. The complainant has nowhere stated in his entire deposition that he had gone to Police Station on April 2, 2020, and had identified the accused there." (ANI)
Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal on Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making political statements during a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers to discuss the spike in Covid cases in the country. Modi, in his address, said the Centre reduced the excise duty on petrol and diesel last November to reduce the burden on citizens and also requested the states to reduce their taxes and transfer the benefit to the people, but some states did and some others did not do. It was this statement that irked Balagopal and castigated Modi for using the meeting forum for politics. "Kerala, in the past six years, has not increased the tax on fuel. With that being the case a person like the Prime Minister should not have, at an important meeting taken a political position... as his was a very misleading statement," said Balagopal. "Kerala is not getting 42 per cent of the tax, instead the Centre is collecting the cess and the surcharge directly," he said, adding that the Centre has no right to it and in the coming days at the appropriate forums, protests against this will be launched. --IANS sg/vd ( 210 Words) 2022-04-27-20:08:05 (IANS)
According to the police, information regarding a sex racket being run in a spa and massage parlour named "The Space Spa" was received on Tuesday and a raid was conducted by the Special Staff of the Central District and seven persons arrested, including the spa owners - Deepak Kumar and his wife Babita.

The police have registered a case under section 3, 4 and 5 of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act 1956 at the Patel Nagar police station.

During interrogation, it was revealed that the accused couple was the mastermind and they were running this sex racket in the garb of spa and massage parlour.

Huge cache of obscene material was also recovered from the spot, the police said.

"Sustained interrogation is done to know the previous similar crime committed by them and details of their other associates, if any," police added.

--IANS uj/vd

( 180 Words)

2022-04-27-21:08:01 (IANS)
With an aim to bring back the focus on human values of peace, love and harmony in the midst of war and turmoil, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of The Art of Living Foundation, has launched the I Stand for Peace campaign from the UN office in Geneva. Ravi Shankar himself travelled across Germany, Poland and Switzerland, where he was joined by thousands in this campaign. The campaign will now move to the US next month, an official release issued by the Art of Living stated on Wednesday. As part of his Europe tour, Ravi Shankar met policymakers, diplomats and thousands of Art of Living volunteers who worked relentlessly to provide help during the Covid-19 pandemic and in rehabilitating Ukrainian refugees, helping them with trauma relief. He also met and presented Easter gifts to the refugee children in the Art of Living centre in Warsaw, Poland. Thousands gathered at COS Torwar Stadium in Warsaw for a peace meditation and pledged to #IStandForPeace, an event graced by former VP of the European Parliament, Ryzard Charnecki; Indian Ambassadors to Poland and Ukraine, among several other dignitaries, the statement said. Ravi Shankar has made a strong appeal for global forces of peace and sane voices to join hands in this hour of crisis and work towards building harmony, human values and dispel darkness and mistrust from the society. The appeal was made in the backdrop of the post-pandemic world that is braving the consequences of global conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war, the release said. "People come together when there is a crisis, when they feel threatened or when they are wise. I have a question -- can people not come together for something that is positive, something that can create harmony within the society," Ravi Shankar asked in his address at the UN in an event hosted by the International Association for Human Values and the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva on the topic Unity and Collaboration in a Post-Pandemic World'. While talking about the root cause of conflict, he said, "In past so many years, conflicts have happened when trust is broken or the communication breaks down among people. I believe inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help." --IANS mka/arm ( 391 Words) 2022-04-27-21:38:02 (IANS)
Many workers of Pakistan's activist group Sindh Taraqqi-Pasand Party (STP) staged a protest against the police crackdown on its workers and called for a shutter down strike across Shaheed Benazirabad district in Sindh Province. Armed activists of STP on Monday were forcing shopkeepers to pull down the shutters at Regal Chowk and called for a shutter down strike across Shaheed Benazirabad district to protest the arrest of its workers and the rising crime rate. The leaders of STP said that the police has arrested the group's workers in Nawabshah, Sakrand and other areas continuing for many days. They also condemned the police raid on the residence of a senior STP leader Nisar Keerio. They accused the police of wrongly arresting Keerio in a case of car theft. When the police tried to stop them one of the activists fired some shots at the police wounding a constable by the name Ramzan Jamali, said the police. According to sources, the police team fired into the air to scare away the activists after failing to disperse them by applying a baton charge, reported Dawn. The STP workers were protesting in different areas and as per the reports, the police baton charged them at several points to disperse them. The party claimed that over two dozen of its activists, workers and supporters were injured and picked up during the police action. It also claimed that all main markets and bazaars, fuel stations, shops and vending stalls remained closed in Nawabshah and Sakrand in response to the strike call. Police, however, claimed that no strike was observed anywhere in the [Shaheed Benazirabad] district, reported the media outlet. (ANI)
Norway on Tuesday announced its decision to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA) on the sidelines of Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt's three-day official visit to India from April 25-27. "We need to increase the pace of the green transition worldwide, and the use of solar cells will be important in this context. This is why Norway is joining the International Solar Alliance. This will open up new opportunities for Norwegian companies, research, and cooperation between India and Norway in this area," Huitfeldt said. "Norway plays an active role in the efforts to combat global warming and increase access to clean energy. We give high priority to climate and energy issues, and the International Solar Alliance will provide an important arena for strengthening political cooperation and strengthening collaboration on solar energy solutions with India in the time ahead," she added. The Norwegian FM highlighted the cooperation between India and Norway in various fields over the years including "a number of joint projects on climate change and the environment. Participation in the ISA will further strengthen these efforts." Norway can offer expertise in areas such as electrification, smart grids and renewable energy financing, an official statement said. Norwegian participation in the clean energy sphere in India is expanding, particularly in the private sector. Membership in the ISA will increase the visibility of India as a market for Norwegian companies, the statement further said. In addition, Norfund (the Norwegian Investment Fund for developing countries) recently gave the green light for new investments in wind and solar energy in India. During her India visit, Huitfeldt has also visited a facility for developing rooftop solar energy systems in which Norfund is one of the investors. The ISA is a multilateral organisation working for increased deployment of solar energy technologies around the world. The ISA works to increase and harmonise demand for solar energy solutions and helps member countries to secure financing for viable projects. The ISA also seeks to reduce the risks and costs associated with solar energy development. (ANI)
With action on the invasion of Ukraine held hostage by Russian vetoes at the Security Council, the UN General Assembly on Tuesday voted a measure seeking to make permanent members answerable for their vetoes. While reiterating its call for a complete reform of the Council, India said the resolution is a "flawed approach is, therefore, an aberration" to the totality of the problems with the Council's role and powers, but despite reservations, went along with its unanimous adoption by the 193-member Assembly. The resolution requires the Assembly to meet within 10 days after a veto has been cast in the Council by any of its five permanent members to debate the veto and give the vetoer a chance to speak to it. The Council will also have to send a report to the Assembly on the veto. The resolution proposed by Lichtenstein was co-sponsored by over 80 UN members, including permanent members US, Britain, and France. The other permanent members, China and Russia, did not press for a formal vote on the resolution in the face of the wide support for it and went along with it even though Beijing said it was opposed to it. India's Deputy Permanent Representative R. Ravindra drew attention to the call of several African nations to abolish the veto powers of the five permanent members or to extend it to all permanent members in an expanded Council. Without a complete reform, the Assembly can do very little about the veto powers as the permanent members "have a veto over the veto". "As rightly called out by our African brothers and sisters, it goes against the concept of sovereign equality of states and only perpetuates the mindset of the Second World War, to the victor belongs the spoils", he said. "Either all nations are treated equally in context of voting rights or else the new permanent members must also be given the veto," he added. Ravindra said that the comprehensive reform, which the leaders of UN members have mandated, has been blocked by a "vocal minority of nay-sayers". "The only way to begin to remedy what ails the Security Council is to make it more representative, credible and legitimate by including more underrepresented voices - including from developing countries and from Africa," he said. Those who oppose the reform process occurring in stages are, in this case, advocating a "piecemeal initiative" through the resolution, he said. Without naming it, Ravindra took aim at a group of countries called Uniting for Consensus (UfC) led by Italy and including Pakistan, calling it "a vocal minority of nay-sayers who have held the entire process of Security Council reform hostage over the last four decades". The UfC has blocked the reform process, known as the Inter-governmental Negotiations (IGN), using procedural gambits to prevent it from even adopting a negotiating text to be the basis of discussions claiming that it can only be done after there is consensus on all the issues. "It is therefore ironical that the same set of Member States who argue vociferously against 'piecemeal reform' in the IGN, are today themselves supporting a apiecemeal initiative', which ignores the root cause of the problem. "We, therefore, hope that other piecemeal efforts focusing on aspects of category of membership and working methods of the Council would be treated without any double standards and with a similar yardstick in future," Ravindra added. At least six members of the UfC, including Canada, Spain, Turkey, and South Korea, joined Lichtenstein in co-sponsoring the resolution. Lichtenstein's Permanent Representative Christian Wenaweser said that the resolution was being introduced without affecting the ongoing work of the IGN. Speaking as the Council is deadlocked on Ukraine by the vetoes of Russia, which has invaded that country in contravention of the UN Charter, he said: "There has never been a stronger need for innovation in order to secure the central role and voice of the United Nations." "The veto power comes with the responsibility to work for the achievement of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter at all times," he said. Since the UN members have given the Council primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security on their behalf, "the membership should be given a voice when the Security Council is unable to act in accordance with this assembly's powers and functions". (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis) --IANS al/vd ( 749 Words) 2022-04-26-23:06:02 (IANS)
Moscow [Russia], April 27 (ANI/Xinhua): Russian President Vladimir Putin met with visiting United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Kremlin on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine. Putin told Guterres that the Ukrainian issue arose after the 2014 "unconstitutional coup" in Kyiv and people in Donbass remained under blockade and military pressure even after the Minsk agreements on a peaceful settlement were reached. According to Putin, the Donbass "republics" have the right to declare their sovereignty and Russia has the right to recognize their independence and provide them with military assistance in full accordance with the UN Charter. "Despite the ongoing military operation, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track. We are negotiating and we do not refuse them," he said. Guterres proposed creating a contact group where the UN, Russia and Ukraine can discuss the situation together so that the humanitarian corridors are truly effective. He said that to resolve the situation in Ukraine's Mariupol, the UN is ready to fully mobilize its logistical capabilities and human resources, working together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as well as the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces. Guterres also said that the UN is ready in two or three days, together with the ICRC, to assess the situation at the Azovstal plant in order to evacuate civilians from there. In response, Putin denied reports that Russian humanitarian corridors are not working and stressed that 130,000 to 140,000 people have left Mariupol with the assistance of Russia and they are free to go anywhere. Putin also offered an opportunity to UN and ICRC representatives to have a look at how Russia treats Ukrainian war prisoners. Before his trip to Moscow, Guterres met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday in the capital Ankara. The UN chief will travel to Ukraine following talks with Putin. (ANI/Xinhua)
Three Chinese nationals were among the four persons killed in a car explosion inside the premises of the University of Pakistan in Karachi on Tuesday. The blast occurred in a van near Confucius Institute -- a Chinese language teaching centre at Karachi University.

"I can tell you the secretary-general strongly condemns the attack in Karachi today," said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson during the daily press briefing.

The UN chief expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and wished those injured a quick recovery.

The UN spokesperson said UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, Julien Harneis, also strongly condemned the attack and was deeply saddened by the loss of life.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday condemned the blast inside the premises of a University in Karachi and assured that the "perpetrators will surely be brought to justice."

Taking to Twitter, Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the death of Chinese nationals.

"I am deeply grieved on the loss of precious lives including of our Chinese friends in the heinous attack in Karachi today. My heartfelt condolences go to the bereaved families. I strongly condemn this cowardly act of terrorism. The perpetrators will surely be brought to justice," Sharif said in a Tweet. (ANI)
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan's social media campaign against the Pakistan army to pave way for early elections may backfire him with the defence forces clearly annoyed with the move, reported local media. Notably, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman (PTI) chairman is pursuing a policy of pressurising the military establishment to intervene and hold early elections, however, the defence forces have clearly denied interfering in the matter, reported The News International. The campaign which is being run by a sizeable number of social media PTI followers, who Imran Khan has termed as his "social media warriors", against the army and its chief has miffed the military establishment. According to defence sources, the army has all the evidence on how these smear campaigns against the army and its chief have been run and details are expected to be made public 'at the right time'. Further, the defence sources said that the army will maintain its apolitical stance and will not pressurize anyone to hold early elections. Such issues need to be discussed and decided by the politicians among themselves, added the sources. While a senior PTI leader refuted the reports of Imran Khan being involved in such campaigns, he admitted that the party wants to pressurise the establishment to pave the way for early elections, reported the media outlet. Notably, in his speech at the Lahore rally last week, Imran Khan, without naming the army, had subtly said that 'whoever made the mistake' of ousting him can rectify their mistake by holding early elections. According to observers, Khan was sending out a clear message to the military establishment. Moreover, while PTI sources claim that Imran Khan has always supported the army, some political observers noted that neither Khan nor any of the party's top leadership did anything to stop his supporters from waging the smear campaign against the army. Meanwhile, the PTI has decided to stage a sit-in in Islamabad until the announcement of the next general elections. In a video message, Khan asked PTI workers and the people of the country to make preparations for his call for a march on Islamabad in the next few weeks, according to the media outlet. However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday said it cannot hold general elections before May 2023. (ANI)
Earlier, Syrian state news agency SANA reported that Syrian air defenses were repelling an Israeli attack above Damascus.

"At about 00:41 the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack from the direction of Tiberias on some points in the vicinity of Damascus. Our air defense systems repelled enemy missiles and shot down most of them," the ministry said.

It said damage possibly caused by the attack is being assessed. (ANI/Sputnik)
Beijing has urged Islamabad to increase efforts to protect Chinese projects and personnel in Pakistan and address the "root cause of the problem" of terrorism, after Tuesday's Karachi blast that claimed the lives of three Chinese nationals. Three Chinese nationals were among the four persons killed in a car explosion inside the premises of the University of Pakistan in Karachi on Tuesday. The blast occurred in a van near Confucius Institute -- a Chinese language teaching centre at Karachi University. The Chinese state media outlet condemned the blast and demanded the Pakistani side make more efforts to protect the safety of Chinese projects and personnel. "We strongly demand that the Pakistani side make more efforts to protect the safety of Chinese institutions, projects and personnel in Pakistan, and make those organizations understand that those who try to hurt the Chinese will only bring destruction on themselves," the Global Times said in an editorial. The English language newspaper argued that China must warn that forces targeting Chinese nationals in attacks will be stricken the hardest. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility for this incident, has repeatedly threatened to launch attacks on Chinese companies and citizens in Pakistan, the newspaper said. The BLA attacked the Chinese consulate in Karachi in 2018 and staged a suicide attack near the Gwadar Port in August 2021, injuring a Chinese national. "It can be said that several serious terrorist attacks against Chinese citizens are linked to this group," the editorial said. According to the Chinese Communist party-backed daily, Pakistan has strengthened the protection of Chinese nationals but failed to address the root causes of the problem. "We must point out that Pakistan has strengthened the protection of Chinese nationals in recent years but without addressing the root causes of the problem, there will always be loopholes," it added. (ANI)
The recent Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan to target alleged hideouts of the terrorist group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has increased tensions between Islamabad and Kabul, heightening the likelihood of more violent clashes in border areas of both the countries, writes Sergio Restelli for Inside Over. Notably, the air raids in the Khost and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan that resulted in the killing of 47 innocent civilians, including children and women, have significantly increased friction between the acting Taliban government in Afghanistan and Pakistan. While the Taliban in an official statement warned of "dire consequences" if Pakistan conducts similar attacks in the future, Pakistan, refusing to acknowledge the offensive, instead blamed Kabul for failing to stop TTP's activities responsible for a spike in cross-border attacks. However, besides giving statements and condemning the attacks, the Taliban have done nothing to internationalise the issue to put pressure on Pakistan. The reason behind this lackadaisical response can be attributed to the Taliban's dependence on Islamabad, which has been at the forefront in doing its bidding for international recognition since the fall of the former government in Kabul in August last year, according to Restelli. However, several protests in different parts of Afghanistan have put the Taliban under pressure to handle growing anti-Pakistan sentiments in the country amid recent airstrikes and regular cross-border aggression from the Pakistani security forces. Moreover, for Afghans living along the Durand Line, the airstrikes have been a horrific reminder of the last two bloody decades of violent fighting between the Taliban and foreign forces (US and NATO). Pakistan's blatant show of power in name of its counter-terrorism strategy may thus result in a violent pushback from Afghanistan in tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and former Federally Administered Tribal Areas agencies. The issue of the Durand Line also remains an apple of discord between the two countries as Pakistan did not expect its proxy Taliban government to raise objections on the border fencing after coming to power in Afghanistan. Further, Islamabad is frustrated over the Taliban's inability and disinterest in addressing the TTP issue, which has led to increased cross-border attacks in Pakistan. In the context of these conflicts, Pakistan's attack on Afghan soil can be seen as a sign of frustration as the mistrust between the Taliban and Islamabad may have reached a level of no return. Thus, the coming months may witness a further spike in border clashes between the Taliban fighters and Pakistan's security forces, writes Restelli. (ANI)
Amid nationwide protests and growing calls for his resignation, Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that he will step down if he loses the majority in the Parliament. Sri Lanka has been gripped by an economic crisis with foreign debt estimated at USD 51 billion. The country appears to be on the edge of a "humanitarian crisis", according to the United Nations Development Programme, as its financial troubles grow, with rising food prices, and the country's coffers have run dry. In an interview with Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror, Rajapaksa said "GoHomeRajapaksa" campaigns are being run by only a certain section of the population and but it is not practical. Over reports of a rift between him and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka Prime Minister said they both were on the "same page" to resolve the ongoing crises as soon as possible. "Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the President. So I must always respect him as the President. He may be my younger brother, but that is a different matter. That is a personal relationship. Like everyone else we also argue, even in the Cabinet we argue. But our arguments stop there," he said. Speaking on the nationwide demonstrations calling for his ouster, Rajapaksa said the opinion of the protestors was respected, but it was only a certain section of the population who were asking the government to resign. "Only certain sections of the people are saying this. There are some groups within this section who are those, who were always against us. It is these people who are asking for us to go. But it is not practical." Mahinda Rajapaksa explained that his government came to power after the popular mandate. "Just because certain people want us to go does not mean we will go. If people want to change us, they can do it through an election." Claiming that his voters were still with him, Sri Lankan PM exuded confidence in winning in the next election. "Just because certain sections are calling on me to go, does not mean those hundreds of thousands who voted for us, want us to go. These protestors alone do not represent the entire population. Although their views are also respected," Rajapaksa said. (ANI)
Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, China is going back to the days of Mao Zedong's extreme communism and bringing back the memories of the famine in Mao's era. Writing for InsideOver, Federico Giuliani said Xi Jinping has made it his motto to make China the strongest superpower in the world but he is repeating the same mistakes that were made in the Mao Zedong era. During Mao's era, the main cause of the famine was an ill-conceived effort, executed with insufficient means, to catch up with Britain in industrialization. "The view among distinguished China observers is that Xi Jinping has reversed the economic policies followed by his predecessors, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao; policies which had made China prosperous," he said. Xi Jinping's attempts to follow in the footsteps of Mao in the 21st century would not work. Food imports in China increased from USD 14 billion to USD 104.7 billion between 2003 and 2017. Meanwhile, food export increased from USD 20.2 billion to USD 59.6 billion. But the Covid-induced disruption has aggravated an already serious situation on the food front. This predicament comes at a time when the race to industrialize in China has left it with a lop-sided development, with a shortage of arable land. "It is estimated that since 1959 at least 20 per cent of the arable land of China has been lost to industries. Only about 10 per cent of land in China is arable, as against 20 per cent for the USA," the report said. According to Giuliani, the reality of a food shortage in China is so serious that in August 2020 President Xi Jinping introduced "Operation Clean Plate" under which diners in restaurants must eat all they have ordered. There are even reports that China is trying to grab land in Latin American countries to produce food to send it back home. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on an official visit to three European countries -Germany, Denmark and France - from May 2-4, the External Affairs Ministry (MEA) said on Wednesday. In a statement, the MEA said this will be the Prime Minister's first visit abroad in 2022. In Berlin, Prime Minister will hold bilateral talks with Olaf Scholz, Federal Chancellor of Germany, and the two leaders will co-chair the sixth edition of the India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC). The biennial IGC is a unique dialogue format that also sees the participation of several Ministers from both sides. This will be Prime Minister's first IGC with Chancellor Scholz, and also the first such Government-to-Government consultations of the new German government, which assumed office in December 2021. During his visit, Prime Minister and Chancellor Scholz would also jointly address a Business Event. Prime Minister will address and interact with the Indian community in Germany. In 2021, India and Germany commemorated 70 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations and have been strategic partners since 2000. This visit will be an opportunity to enhance and intensify cooperation in a broad range of areas and for the two governments to exchange views on regional and global matters of mutual interest. PM Modi will thereafter travel to Copenhagen on an official visit at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen. He will also participate in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit being hosted by Denmark. The bilateral component of the visit will include talks with PM Frederiksen as well as an audience with Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II. The Green Strategic Partnership was the first of its kind arrangement between India and Denmark. According to the MEA release, the visit would provide both sides an opportunity to review its progress, as well as examine ways to further expand our multifaceted cooperation. During the visit, Prime Minister will attend an India-Denmark Business Forum and also address members of the Indian diaspora. During the 2nd India-Nordic Summit, Prime Minister will also interact with other Nordic leaders - Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir of Iceland, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland. The Summit will focus on subjects like post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, innovation and technology, renewable energy, the evolving global security scenario and India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic region. The 1st India-Nordic Summit took place in 2018 in Stockholm, MEA said. On his return journey on May 4, the Prime Minister will briefly stop over in Paris and meet Emmanuel Macron, President of France. India and France are celebrating 75 years of their diplomatic relations this year and the meeting between the two leaders will set a more ambitious agenda of the Strategic Partnership. (ANI)
While economists largely concur that China's debt-trap diplomacy set off Sri Lankan economic crisis, geopolitical analysts believe that the island nation fell victim to a far more dangerous form of foreign policy, that is a 'strategic-trap diplomacy', said a media report. Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, an international security and geopolitics analyst and strategic advisor from Sri Lanka, has argued that the crisis is the result of an external power intervening in the economy and political space of the island nation. Notably, the island nation has a severe liquidity crisis with foreign reserves dwindling to a minimum of USD 500 million. Being unable to pay for its large borrowings, Sri Lanka is also facing an insolvency crisis. Further, the country needs to make nearly USD 7 billion in payments on foreign loans this year itself. However, China accounts for around 10 per cent of Sri Lanka's staggering foreign debt worth around USD 3.38 billion, writes Abeyagoonasekera in ISDP Voices, adding that around 70 per cent of the island's infrastructure projects are constructed by China from its commercial borrowings at a higher percentage with opaqueness. A debt-trap situation, where the creditor country extends excessive credit to a debtor country with the intention of extracting economic or political concessions when the debtor country is unable to repay its loans, can be demonstrated by Sri Lanka's Hambanthota Port which was taken over by China on a 99-year lease in 2017. However, several academics have dismissed this idea of debt-trap diplomacy in the Sri Lankan case as being inadequate citing that the Hambanthota Port project was not proposed by China but by the Sri Lankan government and that it was a commercial, not a geostrategic venture. Notably, strategic-trap diplomacy, where the creditor country not only focuses its assistance on credit and excessive loans but simultaneously intervenes in the nation's human rights, political and security sphere, best explains Sri Lanka's scenario. According to Abeyagoonasekera, China offers financial loans to trap nations like Sri Lanka and offers human rights protection, support to alter the existing democratic political model towards an autocratic model and military assistance. China's assistance to the Rajapaksa's political party and support funding demonstrate its intentions to install an alternative to the democratic model, that is, an authoritarian model, Moreover, as China supported the Sri Lankan regime on human rights concerns, the island nation had to reciprocate by supporting China's human rights concerns in Xinjiang. Further, a military dimension is added to the strategic trap where China favours a heavily militarized model. This can be demonstrated by all the Chinese projects that have a long-term strategic design that could comfortably bring a 'hybrid model' of civil-military activity to the country concerned, a security concern for Sri Lanka and the region. The volume of loans provided by other foreign nations and private commercial loans vis-a-vis that from China is often used as an argument to dismiss the theory of debt-trap diplomacy, however, it cannot dismiss China's strategic-trap diplomacy, writes Abeyagoonasekera. Though debt-trap diplomacy is a severe concern to developing countries like Sri Lanka, a strategic trap is another concern in many other BRI nations that could fall prey to the same China-manufactured political-economic crisis as Sri Lanka. (ANI)
India should be practical about how it leverages the international environment and correct mistakes made in the past by paying more attention to hard security, said External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Wednesday while stressing on the need for capacity building. Speaking at a private conclave in the national capital, Jaishankar said, "When we are looking at India at 75, it's not just India at 75, we are also looking another 25 years ahead." "If I were to pick a single thing we have done, a difference that we have made to the world in the last 75 years, is a fact that we are a democracy," he added. Jaishankar said there is a "gut sense" that democracy is the future, and a large part of this is due to the choices made by India in the past. "There was a time when in this part of the world, we were the only democracy. If democracy is global today or we see it global today, in some measure, the credit is due to India," he said. Speaking on where India has fallen short, Jaishanakar said India didn't pay the kind of attention to its social indicators and human resources in the past. "Two, we didn't concentrate as much on manufacturing and technology trends as we should have. Three, in terms of foreign policy, we didn't give as much weight to hard security," he said. The external affairs minister stressed that India should focus on capability building in the next 25 years. "What we should be doing in the future one, in the next 25 years, is about capability, capability and capability -- in every possible domain and every possible way." He said India should be "completely fixated on the outcomes" and be "utterly practical" about how it leverages the international environment. "Second, we have to be confident about who we are. ...This idea that others define us and that we need to get the approval of other quarters --- I think that is an era we need to behind us." Apart from Jaishankar, other panellists also spoke about how they viewed India in the 75th year of independence. Jeff M. Smith, Research Fellow, South Asia at The Heritage Foundation, said it is remarkable that India has risen to the geopolitical hierarchy so quickly. "It was the 10th largest military spender in the world in 2009, today it's the third. If China had not shadowed its rise, all we would be talking about is how quickly India had risen." Jeff said India hasn't become a destabilising factor in international relations but has become more responsible. "In fact, it's settling its dispute responsibly at international forums. It is being more magnanimous in its neighbourhood and treating its neighbours more kindly. It's defending the international order," he argued. Answering a question on how India is perceived in the western quarters, Velina Tchakarova, Director of the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy, said Europe's perception of India is shifting in positive terms. "The watershed moment in India-EU ties is the realisation that we need to do more in bilateral and multilateral terms. This was the watershed moment in the understanding of how important India has become for the global order." "Also, there is a realisation on the side of European decision-makers that.... both Europe and India dont want to get caught in a binary road given the deepening systemic competition between the US and China," she said. Velina added that there may be a third way for Europe and India that would mean that both could build an own centre of trading power and would have an actual story to tell." Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was also on the panel, said India's definition in the world is increasingly shaped by the nature of India itself. "India has had a remarkable economic transformation and growth for a large number of years. It is becoming a global player on the world stage." On the security front, Harper said, "As China rises as a disruptive power, that seems to be pushing India towards a security alliance that was very different from the past." (ANI)
The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies announced a ban on the import of chips, liquors, cigarettes and tobacco products, diamonds, mobile phones, colour television sets, SUVs, cars and vans, motorcycles, toys and playing cards.

The ban won't affect the import of raw materials for cigarettes and tobacco, mobile phones priced below USD 600, Color Television sets below 32 inches, motorcycles below 250 CC and ambulances.

As per the notice, the ban would remain in place till the end of this fiscal year which ends in mid-July.

Since the first week of April, the central bank has barred commercial banks from issuing loans for the import of such luxury items. (ANI)
As per an official statement from MEA, during the visit to Bangladesh, Jaishankar will call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and also hold discussions with Bangladeshi counterpart Dr AK Abdul Momen.

The EAM's forthcoming visit to Bangladesh may be seen in the context of frequent bilateral high-level visits and exchanges particularly as both sides commemorate 50 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties, said the statement.

Notably, Jaishankar last visited Bangladesh in March 2021.

During his visit to Bhutan, the EAM will receive an audience with Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and also call on Bhutan Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering. He will also meet his counterpart Dr Tandi Dorji.

India and Bhutan share a unique and time tested bilateral relationship, characterized by utmost trust, goodwill and mutual understanding, said the statement.

Jaishankar will be Bhutan's first high-level visitor from abroad since March 2020. During the visit, the two sides will discuss all issues of mutual interest, including the upcoming high-level exchanges, economic development and hydro-power cooperation. (ANI)
"DJI is internally reassessing compliance requirements in various jurisdictions. Pending the current review, DJI will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine," the Shenzhen-headquartered company said in a statement.

"We are engaging with customers, partners and other stakeholders regarding the temporary suspension of business operations in the affected territories," it added.

The action is a rare example of a Chinese firm suspending business in response to the war in Ukraine.

Adam Lisberg, DJI's director of corporate communications for North America, said the company had taken the action "not to make a statement about any country, but to make a statement about our principles".

"DJI abhors any use of our drones to cause harm, and we are temporarily suspending sales in these countries in order to help ensure no one uses our drones in combat," Lisberg told Al Jazeera.

This announcement comes after the company last month denied claims it had been leaking Ukrainian military information to Russia.

Last week, DJI had said that they "only ever made products for civilian use and that they are not designed for military applications."

"We will never accept any use of our products to cause harm, and we will continue striving to improve the world with our work," the company said in a statement.

Earlier, DJI was sanctioned by the US for posing national security risks and supplying drones used to monitor ethnic minority Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province. (ANI)
Noting that Islamabad needs to develop good ties with Washington, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that Pakistan "cannot afford enmity" with the United States, reported local media. The premier's remarks came in the backdrop of the former Imran Khan government's claims of a foreign-funded conspiracy behind its ouster, reported Geo News. Stressing that the National Security Committee's statement clearly dismisses any foreign conspiracy, Sharif said he will however consider forming a judicial commission on the cable controversy. Notably, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has staged several protests across the country against the United States for an alleged "foreign conspiracy" to oust the country's former Prime Minister Imran Khan from power who has been unseated after the no-confidence vote initiated by the Opposition was carried in the National Assembly. Explaining the alleged conspiracy against him, Imran Khan had said that he learned three to four months ago that US officials had started meeting the leaders of the then Opposition along with PTI's dissident MPs and journalists at the US embassy. Imran Khan said that after those meetings, when US State Department official Donald Lu met the Pakistani ambassador, he knew that the no-confidence motion was being tabled against his government. Meanwhile, speaking on the sit-in announced by the PTI calling for general elections, the premier said that though his government did not believe in politics of revenge, he would not tolerate anarchy in the country, reported the media outlet. This comes after the PTI chairman Imran Khan on Monday said that he, along with his party workers, would stage a sit-in in Islamabad until the announcement of the next general elections. (ANI)
At a virtual conference organized by South Asians Against Terrorism and for Human Rights (SAATH), the speakers also called for ensuring the rule of law, upholding the constitution and ending tensions in the region.

One of the speakers at the forum, former Pakistan Senator Farhatullah Babar expressed concern at reports of a split within the security establishment.

"When one group accumulates too much power then it starts fighting amongst itself," he was quoted as saying by the Pakistan Observer.

Several speakers stressed that the current government must engage with Baloch nationalists to find an "amicable" solution to the violence.

They also urged Shehbaz Sharif's government to look to resolve the issue of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Pakistan's restive southwestern Balochistan province.

The speakers also declared that diplomatic ties with neighbouring countries especially India and Afghanistan should be improved.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last week had said he would take up the issue of Baloch missing persons with the "powerful quarters" of the country.

However, the experts have raised doubts whether words will translate into actions as the newly elected PM would require the military establishment's backing.

After assuming office, he had also expressed a desire for peaceful and cooperative ties with India. (ANI)
Jaishankar said their talks focused on food and health security, capability building and the digital domain.

"A useful meeting with valued Indian Ocean neighbour, FM @RichardJRand of Madagascar today. Discussed taking forward our development partnership, focusing on food and health security, capability building and the digital domain," Jaishankar tweeted.

Madagascar Foreign Minister also interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the group call on by Foreign Ministers of many countries attending a private geopolitical conclave in New Delhi.

Richard Randriamandrato arrived in India on Monday on his first visit to the country.

Randriamandrato is among the long line of foreign delegates who have landed in New Delhi to participate in a geopolitical conclave in the national capital.

India-Madagascar ties are on an upswing and several MoUs in key areas such as health, education, culture, information, and travel are under finalisation between the two countries.

Madagascar has a large Indian Diaspora from Gujarat and is the largest and most populous island in the Indian Ocean. (ANI)
Warsaw [Poland], April 27 (ANI/Sputnik): Poland will no longer be purchasing natural gas from Russia, instead the country will increase domestic production and look for alternative supplies, Polish Secretary of State and Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure Piotr Naimski said on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Russian energy giant Gazprom announced terminating gas supplies to Polish state-controlled gas group PGNiG and Bulgarian company Bulgargaz for their refusal to proceed with payments in rubles, as it was requested earlier. PGNiG has confirmed the complete suspension of gas supplies by Gazprom under the Yamal contract. "No. We will not be purchasing gas from the Russian side and Russian companies. Period," Naimski told Polish radio RMF FM. He pledged that Poland will not face gas shortfalls, saying that the country will be self-sufficient in gas from its own production as well as from the deliveries by alternative suppliers. "I can assure you that if the external conditions do not change, there will be gas. Unless there is some sort of a cataclysm, gas supplies will be ensured under predictable conditions," Naimski added. For its part, PGNiG said in a statement that the suspension of Russian gas imports will not affect supply to Polish consumers. PGNiG also argued that cutting supplies by Gazprom constitutes a breach of the Yamal contract terms, adding that it reserves the right to assert claims over the supply shutdown and "will use all its contractual powers and rights under the law to do so." Poland's gas contract with Gazprom provides for 10.2 billion cubic meters of gas supplies per year, covering about 50 per cent of national consumption. Despite being dependent on Russian gas, after Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine, Poland has repeatedly advocated abandoning Russian energy, both at the national and European Union level. (ANI/Sputnik)
People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command spokesperson Shi Yi in a statement also accused the United States of undermining stability in the region.

The US warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday and, according to the PLA, "hyped it [the passage] up publicly."

"The US has been frequently carrying out provocative acts to send wrong signals to 'Taiwan Independence' forces, deliberately undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China is firmly opposed to this," the PLA Eastern Theater Command said.

According to the statement, troops of the PLA Eastern Theater Command tracked and monitored the US destroyer throughout the whole course.

China continues to regard Taiwan as its province even after seven decades of separate governance.

Beijing opposes any official contact of foreign countries with Taiwan and considers the Chinese sovereignty upon it indisputable under the so-called One-China principle. (ANI)
He conveyed this message to the leaders of political parties aligned with the Sri Lankan government.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that the structure, the tenure and the portfolios of this all-party government have to be agreed upon after discussions, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Rajapaksa said the proposed all-party government is to be established after the resignation of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

He has invited the leaders of political parties of the ruling coalition for a meeting on Friday.

Sri Lanka has been gripped by an economic crisis with foreign debt estimated at USD 51 billion. The country appears to be on the edge of a "humanitarian crisis", according to the United Nations Development Programme, as its financial troubles grow, with rising food prices, and the country's coffers have run dry.

Several political parties of the ruling coalition and religious leaders have urged the Sri Lankan president to establish an all-party government to find a way out of the economic and political crisis. (ANI)
On the grounds of continued human rights abuses in Pakistan, a London-based media outlet is set to host a program calling out for suspension of Pakistan's favoured GSP+ trading status with the European Commission which was approved by the EU parliament in April 2021. While protesting Pakistan's favoured status with the EU, Eutoday.net, an independent and politically neutral media platform, said that the European Commission appeared to have done nothing about this and the human rights abuses in Pakistan persist. The media outlet flayed the Commission's inaction on Pakistan and has asked it to suspend Pakistan's GSP+ trading status immediately. "In April 2021 the European Parliament voted almost unanimously in a call for the European Commission to suspend Pakistan's favoured GSP+ trading status with the EU on the grounds of continued human rights abuses. The Commission appears to have done nothing, and the abuses continue. Join us in calling on the Commission to explain itself, and to suspend Pakistan's GSP+ trading status NOW!," said the media outlet on the social media platform. The program will be hosted under the theme 'Public Manifestation: Suspend Pakistan's GSP+Trading status with the EU now'. Pakistan is the major recipient of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) scheme for the last seven years. Under this status which is set to expire on December 31, 2023, there is zero per cent duty on several products. (ANI)
Moscow [Russia], April 27 (ANI/Sputnik): Russia has added 287 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom to the sanctions list, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. "In response to the decision of the UK government, made on March 11, to include 386 lawmakers of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to the sanctions list, on the basis of reciprocity, (the ministry) imposes personal restrictions on 287 members of the House of Commons of the British Parliament," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry said that sanctioned individuals are not allowed to enter Russia as they took active part in imposing anti-Russia sanctions by the UK. (ANI/Sputnik)
Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral John Aquilino, called on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday. This comes in the wake of the India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue on April 11 where the US had supported India as a defence industry leader in the Indo-Pacific and a net provider of security in the region, said US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. Addressing a press conference after the dialogue, he said that the US has identified a new opportunity (India) to extend the operational reach of our military to coordinate more closely together across the expanse of the Indo-Pacific. "We all understand the challenges that we are facing. The People's Republic of China is seeking to refashion the region in the international system more broadly. In ways that serve its interest," he said. "So we have identified a new opportunity to extend the operational reach of our military to coordinate more closely together across the expanse of the Indo-Pacific. We walked on the Indian Navy's decision to join the combined maritime forces in Moraine Bahrain and we have also committed to more high-end exercises together," Austin added during the conference. (ANI)
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held earlier this week has decided to give a public holiday on Sunday as well, Government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki announced.

Saturday is also a public holiday in Nepal.

"Decision will come into effect from mid-May. Office time has been changed from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM on workdays. It would be on trial phase," Spokesperson Karki said.

Nepal is undergoing a serious financial crisis with foreign reserves falling down in wake of elongating Russia-Ukraine crisis. The government is making attempt to reduce the consumption of fuels to preserve the foreign reserve and also has decided to ban the import of 10 different luxurious goods. (ANI)
Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi will be on an official visit to Panama, Honduras and Chile from April 28 to May 5, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday. This will be her first visit to these countries. Earlier she had visited Colombia in September last year. "During her visit to Panama from 28 April-1 May 2022, MoS will meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama, Erika Mouynes and Minister of Culture, H Giselle Gonzalez Villarue. The two sides will also sign agreements on Cultural Exchange Programme and Gainful Employment for dependents of officials of diplomatic mission/post," the MEA said in a statement. The visit will provide an opportunity to review progress in the bilateral relations between the two countries since the visit of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to Panama in May 2018. As per MEA, Lekhi will visit Honduras from May 1 to May 3, where she will call on the President of Honduras, Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento. She will also meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Honduras, Ambassador Eduardo Enrique Reina to discuss various bilateral, regional and international issues. The Minister of State will also lay the foundation stone for the Jamastran Valley Irrigation project funded by the Government of India through Lines of Credit. She will visit the IT Center National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) which was set up in 2008 with Government of India's assistance and currently has trained more than 20,000 students. In Santiago, Lekhi will meet with Chilean Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola Noguera and the Chilean Minister for Culture, Arts and Heritage, Julieta Brodsky Hernandez. India-Chile total trade for the year 2021-22 was USD 2.35 billion, as compared to USD 1.47 billion in 2020-21. The visit will add fresh momentum to India-Chile relations under the new government of President Gabriel Boric Font. "MOS will address and interact with the Indian diaspora and participate in curtain-raiser events for IDY 2022 and celebration of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav in all the three countries. With about 15,000 Persons of Indian Origin, Panama is home to the largest Indian diaspora in Latin America," the MEA statement reads. (ANI)
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari took oath on Wednesday as the federal minister of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif's cabinet. He is likely to be given the portfolio of the foreign ministry. President Arif Alvi administered the oath to Bilawal. The oath-taking ceremony was held at Aiwan-i-Sadr, Geo tv reported. Bilawal was first elected to the National Assembly in 2018. This is the first time he will be serving as a member of the federal cabinet, as per media reports. Former president Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal's sister Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari were also present at the Aiwan-e-Sadr to see Bilawal take the oath. Federal Ministers, including Rana Sanaullah, Naveed Qamar, Khurshid Shah, Sherry Rehman, and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, also attended the ceremony, the Geo tv reported. Taking to Twitter, Bilawal's sister Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari congratulated him earlier in the day for taking the oath as the country's federal minister. "Today Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will take oath as Pakistan's Foreign Minister in this unity government -- decided by (the) PPP CEC (central executive committee) and we couldn't be more proud of him! Already outshone in parliament and always stuck to his democratic values -- excited to witness this path if God wills," she tweeted. Earlier, there was speculation that PPP is seeking more stake in the government but the sources confirmed that Bilawal and Nawaz did not discuss anything related to the posts of Senate, Governor Punjab or Presidency, according to Geo TV. Earlier, on Friday, Pakistan President Arif Alvi administered the oath to three new federal ministers and one minister of state for the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's cabinet at the Aiwan-i-Sadr in Islamabad. On Tuesday, 33 lawmakers were inducted into the new PM's cabinet after they were sworn in by Acting President Sadiq Sanjrani in the absence of the president, who had earlier refused to administer the oath to the lawmakers. Although the oath was taken by 33 lawmakers, a notification issued by the country's Cabinet Division carried the names of 26 federal ministers and two ministers of state, Dawn newspaper reported. (ANI)
Brussels [Belgium], April 27 (ANI/Sputnik): Russian energy giant Gazprom's decision to suspend gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland is yet another attempt at blackmail, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. Gazprom said earlier in the day that it had completely suspended gas supplies to Bulgaria's largest natural gas distribution company Bulgargaz and Polish oil and gas company PGNiG, as the companies failed to pay for gas in rubles. "The announcement by Gazprom that it is unilaterally stopping delivery of gas to customers in Europe is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail. This is unjustified and unacceptable. And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier," von der Leyen said in a statement. The European Union is prepared for this scenario and is in close contact with all member states, the commission head said, adding that the bloc has been "mapping out ... coordinated EU response." President of the European Council Charles Michel said the EU was in contact with Warsaw and Sofia, and that the countries will "remain united" in the course of a gradual shutdown of Russia's gas supply. "Gazprom's decision to cut gas supplies to some EU Member States is another aggressive unilateral move by Russia. In contact with (Polish Prime Minister Mateusz) @MorawieckiM and (Bulgarian Prime Minister) @KirilPetkov. We will remain united and support each other while phasing out Russian energy imports," Michel tweeted. Last week, the CEO of German energy company E.ON, Leonhard Birnbaum, said that an immediate embargo on gas supplies from Russia would be painful for both Germany and the whole of the European Union, and could result in a split within the bloc, as some countries are more dependent on Russian energy imports than others. (ANI/Sputnik)
The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday heard the petition which was filed by the party's parliamentary leader in the provincial assembly, Muhammad Sibtain Khan, according to Dawn.

Earlier this month, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Hamza Shehbaz won the election for Punjab Chief Minister. Hamza had bagged 197 votes, including 26 from PTI dissidents, while Elahi did not get any as the PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) lawmakers felt they were not allowed to vote.

Notably, Punjab Assembly Speaker Elahi sent a reference against the dissident Members of the Parliamentary Assembly to the ECP, urging it to declare them defected from the PTI since they had allegedly violated party discipline.

The petition filed in the LHC stated that 25 lawmakers cast their votes in favour of the joint opposition's candidate Hamza Shehbaz in violation of party directions, Dawn said.

The ECP had on Monday issued notices to 46 dissident members of the National and Punjab assemblies, asking them to appear before it on April 28 and May 6, respectively.

The decision was taken at an ECP meeting during which a letter written to the commission by PTI chairman Imran was deliberated upon, as per the Pakistani publication. (ANI)
This comes amid China's zero-COVID policy which has led to restrictions on regular flights and road travel.

The directions on Tuesday were issued at a meeting with a delegation of Pakistani students who returned from China in the middle of their studies after the Covid-19 outbreak two years ago and remain stuck in Pakistan since then, reported Dawn.

Among those present in the meeting were representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, HEC, Aviation Division and senior officers of the ministry.

As per the data shared by Pakistan's foreign affairs ministry, in the first phase, China had given a list of 251 students to Pakistan out of which 60 per cent of students were reached out.

The minister directed the officials to work out a mechanism to reach out to the students and also financially support them by sharing the relative costs involved, as per the newspaper.

He also directed Pakistan's education attache to Beijing to play a central coordinating role and follow up with the Chinese authorities to resolve the issues of the students. (ANI)
Pakistan has requested China to include Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and also sought Chinese collaboration for setting up a desalination plant in Karachi which continues to face paucity of clean water. This comes at a time when Karachi, the country's most populated port city, struggles with an acute water crisis. Professor Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives during a meeting with Pang Chunxue, Chinese Charge Charge d' Affairs to Pakistan, on Tuesday, said, "My top priority is to expedite the CPEC projects to restore the confidence of the Chinese investors," reported The Nation. The Pakistan Minister told Chinese Charge d' Affairs said that CPEC is progressing since the new government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif came to power. He also pointed out that consistent meetings are being held for the implementation of projects. Slamming the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, Iqbal said, "This is unfortunate that during that last four years, Special Economic Zones were not developed which led to a downturn in investment from Chinese investors." Apart from KCR's inclusion in CPEC and the desalination plant in Karachi, Minister also urged China to resolve the issues faced by Pakistani students there, as per the media outlet. Moreover, the minister also suggested that Pakistan and China should start working on Space Technology and said that Pakistani astronauts should be given the opportunity to go to space with the Chinese. Pang assured of China's support to for the water-related projects in Pakistan. (ANI)
The Ukrainian President also thanked his counterpart for an invitation to attend the G20 summit to be held in Indonesia's Bali in November.

"Had talks with President @jokowi. Thanked for the support of sovereignty and territorial integrity, in particular for a clear position in the UN. Food security issues were discussed. Appreciate inviting me to the @g20org summit," Zelenskyy said in a tweet.

Earlier on Saturday, Zelenskyy had said that he hopes for Asian countries to "change their attitude to Ukraine" pointing to countries which have closer ties to Russia as a continuation of their ties with the former Soviet Union.

"I want very much want the Asian countries to change their attitude to Ukraine as well," Zelensky was quoted as saying by The Hill.

"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 the Soviet Union, that's why their relations remain strong with Russia," Zelenskyy had said. (ANI)
Families of the missing persons had rejected the one-time compensation provided by the Sindh home department, according to petitioners' counsel at Sindh High Coury, adding that however, the families may consider monthly compensation. The Sindh home department has sent a summary to the Chief Minister for giving one-time compensation to the families of victims of enforced disappearance, a provincial law officer told the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday. According to The News International, filing comments on a petition against the enforced disappearance of citizens from different parts of the city, the law officer submitted that the home department had proposed Rs 500,000 in compensation to the families of missing persons to provide them financial assistance in view of their plight and court orders. The high court had on a previous hearing directed the Sindh government to consider a compensation request in the provincial task force meeting to the families of missing persons whose cases had been declared as those of enforced disappearances. The Sindh home secretary submitted that the provincial government had previously allowed a compensation of Rs 500,000 to each family of 25 missing persons in 2018 and the home department considered it appropriate to consider the compensation cases of the current petitioners on the same lines. The department proposed in the summary that funds amounting to Rs 6,000,000 may be sanctioned for distribution among the families of missing persons at Rs 500,000 per family and placed at the disposal of the home department for disbursement to the closest nominated kin of families through the Karachi commissioner after his full satisfaction regarding the completion of all legal formalities, The News International reported. The petitioners' counsel, however, contested the one-time grant and submitted that monthly compensation may be given to the families instead of a one-time compensation in line with an order of the Islamabad High Court which was upheld by the Supreme Court. The provincial law officer undertook before the court that he would consult the issue with the relevant authorities and submit a report within two months. (ANI)
The US Admiral was earlier accorded a formal welcome in New Delhi with a guard of honour at the South Block, the Indian Navy informed in a tweet.

The two commanders discussed avenues to further enhance the existing cooperation between the two Navies.

"Defence cooperation has been a critical element of Indo-US relations. Towards ensuring Free, Open and Inclusive Indo-Pacific, both the Admirals discussed avenues to further enhance the existing cooperation between two Navies through capability enhancement and cooperative engagements," Indian Navy's spokesperson tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Admiral Aquilino had also called on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

This comes in the wake of the India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue earlier this month where the US had supported India as a defence industry leader in the Indo-Pacific and a net provider of security in the region. (ANI)
Kyiv [Ukraine], April 27 (ANI/Sputnik): The delegation of the Bulgarian coalition cabinet headed by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov is traveling to Kiev to negotiate possible arms supplies to Ukraine, Bulgarian broadcaster NOVA reported on Wednesday. According to reports, the delegation included the representatives of three out of four ruling parties, notably, We Continue the Change, There Is Such a People (ITN) and Democratic Bulgaria parties. The leftist Bulgarian Socialist Party that opposes arms deliveries to Ukraine refused to join the visit, saying it has sufficient information about the country. The visit is aimed at evaluating the needs of the Ukrainian people as well as handing over helmets and body armors promised earlier, according to Petkov. Meanwhile, NOVA said that the ruling coalition is seeking to clarify the partners' positions on whether Sofia should support Kiev with weaponry or not. In Kiev, Petkov is expected to hold meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, with the delegation also visiting the devastated towns in the Kiev suburbs - Borodyanka, Bucha and Irpen. Following last week's visit to Sofia by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba who asked Bulgaria for military assistance, Petkov announced on Monday the launching of a public fund-raising campaign for purchasing weapons for Ukraine. This initiative spurred a heated debate in the country, with some senior officials speaking against it. On Wednesday, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska from the ITN party told NOVA that Sofia was "already too late" to take a clear stance on rendering military support to Ukraine. As for the initiative urging citizens to donate money for purchasing military supplies, the minister called it odd. Genchovska did not join the visit to Ukraine, saying it was organized belatedly and noting that earlier there had been plenty of chances to demonstrate Bulgaria's solidarity with the Ukrainian people. (ANI/Sputnik)
A day after Pakistan's Karachi University witnessed a horrific blast, Habitan Bashir Baloch, the husband of suicide bomber Shari Baloch, was arrested by the security personnel. This comes after three Chinese nationals, among the four persons were killed in a car explosion, carried out by a female suicide bomber Shari Baloch, inside the premises of the University of Pakistan in Karachi on Tuesday. Following his arrest, Habitan Bashir Baloch is being interrogated. This is the first arrest in the blast case and was made after the scope of the investigation into the Karachi blast was expanded, reported ARY News on Wednesday. According to the sources cited by the Pakistani media outlet, the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan was informed regarding the arrest of Habitan Bashir Baloch. In a session chaired by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah at Chief Minister's House in Karachi, the Chinese envoy was briefed on the latest developments in regard to the blast. Rana Sanaullah said in a statement that the federal government assured the Chinese embassy regarding full cooperation in the investigation into the KU suicide blast. As per him, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will summon a session to make National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) functional. He also made comments on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and termed the project the future of Pakistan. The investigators have found the association of some relatives of the Karachi University's (KU) female suicide bomber Shari Baloch with the banned Baloch Students Organization (BSO). The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility for this incident, has repeatedly threatened to launch attacks on Chinese companies and citizens in Pakistan, the newspaper said. The BLA attacked the Chinese consulate in Karachi in 2018 and staged a suicide attack near the Gwadar Port in August 2021, injuring a Chinese national. "It can be said that several serious terrorist attacks against Chinese citizens are linked to this group," the editorial said.According to the Chinese Communist party-backed daily, Pakistan has strengthened the protection of Chinese nationals but failed to address the root causes of the problem. (ANI)
Citing allegations of leaking 'state secrets', China has been detaining people as young as 10 years of age, conducting trials behind closed doors and violating the basic principle of a fair trial. It is worrisome that the term 'state secret' used by China is wide and very vague. Chinese law does provide any definition of the term as such. In one of the incidents, a 10-year-old Cheng Lei, who is born in China and migrated to Australia was detained by Chinese authorities over allegedly revealing state secrets. The Australian Embassy August 2020 announced that they had been notified by Chinese authorities that Cheng Lei was suspected of illegally revealing state secrets outside of China and had been detained. However, no details were given to the Embassy of the trial as it happened behind closed doors. Her lawyer and family have been forbidden to speak about the trial. Family visits are prohibited and Cheng Lei has limited contact through letters only. Her elderly parents and children live in Australia and are very worried. The Australian Ambassador was prevented from attending the trial. In its defence, Chinese authorities said that the decision will be announced later but no details have been provided yet, reported The Hong Kong Post. Graham Fletcher, Australian Ambassador while speaking to the media said, "This is deeply concerning, unsatisfactory and regrettable. We can have no confidence in the validity of a process which is conducted in secret. Our consular agreement says that we ought to be able to attend trials." The case of Cheng Lei is not the only one as China has a long-standing history of detention and of carrying out the trials behind closed doors. China's criminal laws have been used to crack down on foreign human rights activists and media as well as citizen-journalists reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic and the human rights violations during the Hong Kong protests and of Uyghur Muslims, as per the media outlet. Another defamed form of detention used by China is Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL). This form of detention is widely criticized for being archaic and a gross violation of human rights. There have been allegations of extreme physical and mental torture, including psychological torture suffered by detainees under RSDL. (ANI)
New York [US], April 27 (ANI/Sputnik): The United Nations is currently holding talks with Moscow and Kyiv to develop a framework for the evacuation of civilians in Ukraine, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Wednesday. "Following the agreement reached in principle between the UN Secretary-General [Antonio Guterres] and Russian President [Vladimir Putin], our Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is mobilizing a team on behalf of the UN system to coordinate the evacuation of civilians in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol," Haq said. "Today, we are having a follow-up discussion with the authorities in Moscow and in Kyiv to develop an operational framework for the timely evacuation of civilians." Haq said that the United Nations now is "moving stuff" to some areas in Ukraine to provide assistance. "We are putting people on the ground and we are in talks with the sides. what we want is to make sure that a ceasefire would be respected and to move people safely," he added. (ANI/Sputnik)
Jean Paul Micomyiza was arrested by Swedish authorities in November 2020 following an indictment by Rwandan prosecution.

Micomyiza is accused of genocide, complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity, the Rwanda National Public Prosecution Authority said in a press statement.

Born in Huye district in southern Rwanda, Micomyiza was a student at the National University of Rwanda during the genocide in 1994.

While at the university, Micomyiza allegedly was a member of a committee whose mission was to search and identify Tutsi civilians to be killed, thereby playing a big role in the genocide against Tutsi, the statement said.

The 50-year-old suspect had reportedly lived in Gothenburg city in Sweden for 15 years.More than 1,000 Rwanda genocide suspects are still at large in regional countries and overseas, according to Rwanda's Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit.

This year's commemorative activities, which began on April 7 across Rwanda, will last until July 4 to mark the 100-day calamity, during which more than 1 million people, mainly Tutsi and moderate Hutus were killed. (ANI/Xinhua)
Moscow [Russia], April 27 (ANI/Sputnik): Moscow is expelling eight employees of the Japanese embassy who have been asked to leave the Russian Federation by May 10, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. On April 27, a representative of the Japanese embassy in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and was told that since the beginning of Russia's operation in Ukraine, official Tokyo had taken an openly hostile anti-Russian course, destroying mutually beneficial cooperation. "The apotheosis of this line was the expulsion of eight Russian diplomats from Japan. Guided by the principle of reciprocity, the Russian side demanded that eight Japanese diplomatic workers leave our country by May 10," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry added that the full responsibility for such a development of events lays solely with the government of Japan, which had made a choice in favour of abandoning friendly, constructive relations with Russia. Japan openly took the position of full support for neo-Nazi formations operating on the territory of Ukraine, and provides political, economic and military assistance to the regime in Kyiv, the ministry added. The Japanese Embassy in Moscow said that Tokyo did not agree with Russia's statements in connection with the expulsion of Japanese diplomats, and the country's ambassador protested at a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry. (ANI/Sputnik)
Japanese Prime Minister to visit Vietnam

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio will pay an official visit to Viet Nam from April 30 to May 1 at the invitation of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.





Viet Nam and Japan established diplomatic relations on September 21, 1973 and lifted the bilateral ties to strategy partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia in March 2014.













Prime Minister Kishida Fumio welcomes Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (left) to Tokyo in November 2021. Photo: VGP



Japan has become one of Viet Nam's top partners and the first G7 country to recognize Viet Nam's market economy status (in October 2011).

The Northeast Asian country is also the biggest ODA provider, the third largest investor, and the fourth trade partner of Viet Nam.



The two-way trade reached US$427 billion last year and US$11.2 billion in the first three months of 2022, up 11 percent against the same period last year.



As of March 20, 2022, Japanese investors pledged to pour US$64.410 billion in 4,828 projects.
Protesting the Sri Lankan government led by Rajapaksa, around 1000 public and private sector unions are set to launch a massive strike on April 28. Trade Unions and Mass Organizations said that government, semi-government and private sector workers will go on a token strike to protest against the government, reported Colombo Page. Under the theme 'Bow to the people-government go home', a strike and a joint hartal will be organized, said Ravi Kumudesh, Co-Convener of the Trade Union Coordination Center. Among those joining the strike will be workers from all sectors including education, transport, estates, ports, electricity, banks, postal services, Samurdhi, and development officers. About 50 per cent of hospitals and employees will also join the strike without disrupting hospital services, he added. To mark their protest against the Sri Lankan government, health workers on duty are to be dressed in black. Protests and marches will be held in front of all hospitals from 12.00 noon today and protests have also been organized in cities across the country. Apart from that, a massive protest and rally organized by the striking unions is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 12.00 noon in front of the Fort Railway Station. A total of 5000 people are also expected to gather near Fort Railway Station at noon and march towards Galle Face Green and Temple Trees. The striking unions are planning to march from several locations, including the Lipton Roundabout in Colombo, to the Galle Face People's Struggle Grounds to join the protest, as per the Sri Lankan media outlet. A series of protests have also been organized in cities across the country, including Colombo, by University students. Sri Lanka has been gripped by an economic crisis with foreign debt estimated at USD 51 billion. The country appears to be on the edge of a "humanitarian crisis", according to the United Nations Development Programme, as its financial troubles grow, with rising food prices, and the country's coffers have run dry. (ANI)
"Today, another Humanitarian Air Bridge landed in Kabul, carrying 34 tonnes of nutritional items and medical supplies," Lenarcic said on Twitter, as per Sputnik News Agency.

He added that it was the 15th humanitarian delivery carried out by the EU since August 2021 and called it "a sign of the EU's continued commitment to support Afghan people in these challenging times."

Taliban vowed to distribute the aid transparently. "The aid will be distributed through five government institutions. There will be transparency and we will distribute the aid fairly. Unfortunately, there are problems with aid distributed by international organizations," Mujahid said, according to TOLOnews.

Highlighting the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier said that nine million people are at risk of famine in the troubled country.

Taking to Twitter, Guterres said that the economy of Afghanistan has effectively collapsed and called on donors to fund the country so that the UN and its partners can continue to deliver lifesaving aid.The situation of human rights in Afghanistan has worsened since the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban's return to power in August last year.

Although the fighting in the country has ended, serious human rights violations continue unabated. (ANI)
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Chile for cooperation in the disability sector. The MoU aims to encourage cooperation between India's Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and Chile's government through joint initiatives in the disabilities sector. It will strengthen bilateral ties between India and Chile, an official release said. A joint Letter of Intent (LoI) was signed earlier between the countries expressing a desire for cooperation in the disability sector, especially in the areas of information sharing, cooperation in assistive device technology, development of projects of mutual interest in the disability sector, early identification and prevention of disability and exchange of experts, academicians and other administrative staff. The MoU provides the mechanism for funding to cover expenses for the activities under it, the release said, adding that the expenses for such activities will be mutually decided by both the governments on a case to case basis subject to the availability of funds and resources. The releases said that relations between India and Chile are warm and friendly based on a commonality of views on a wide range of issues. The year 2019-20 marked the 70th year of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Bilateral relations have strengthened over the years with the exchange of high-level visits, which include two visits of the President of Chile in 2005 and 2009. (ANI)
Uyghur activists, many of whom are survivors of the internment camps set up by China in the Xinjiang region on Monday demonstrated for a week outside the United Nations compound in Geneva demanding a meeting with the UN human rights chief, a media report said. The activists also demanded that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet issue an overdue report detailing rights abuses in Xinjiang, Radio Free Asia reported. Bachelet had announced last month that she had reached an agreement with the Chinese government for a visit in May, including the turbulent western China region. The Uyghurs want Bachelet to release the human rights report before she visits China. They offered to accompany the former Chilean president on the trip, the report said. "I'd be happy to take them to the camps and prisons in Urumqi," Gulbahar Jelilova, an activist said, referring to Xinjiang's capital. "If we don't accompany them, China will play a lot of games not to show them the reality. That's why we're requesting to go on this trip," she added. Gulbahar Jelilova further said she could show the U.N. team a location where Uyghurs were executed and a hospital that removed organs from dead prisoners. Jelilova said that she was detained on accusations of "aiding terrorism" while on a business trip to Urumqi and put into three different camps over a period of 15 months beginning in May 2017, the report said. She returned to Kazakhstan in September 2018, as a direct result of appeals from her two children in Kazakhstan, who sought diplomatic assistance from the Kazakh government. Jelilova has since alleged that she witnessed a number of atrocities inside the camps, including the torture and the deaths of innocent people, Radio Free Asia said. Omir Bekali, an Uyghur of Kazakh descent who said he was tortured by authorities during the nine months he spent in three camps on allegations of terrorist activities, said the demonstration outside U.N. headquarters was "one of the first solid steps we have taken to end the ongoing genocide of our people and to free them sooner." Bachelet's office has been under pressure from rights activists to issue an overdue report on rights violations by Chinese authorities targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and others have been held in a vast network of internment camps operated by the Chinese government under the pretext of preventing religious extremism and terrorism among the mostly Muslim groups, the report said. The Chinese government has publicly refuted any reports of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, however, China has been rebuked globally for the crackdown on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities, and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination. (ANI)
"Ariana Afghan Airlines has resumed flights to Moscow after nearly one year of suspension with flights from Kabul to Moscow each Monday and return flights each Tuesday," TOLOnews reported citing the Ministry of Transportation and Civil Aviation.

"The previous government had some problems in flights with Moscow, and therefore the flights were suspended," said Imamuddin Ahmadi, a spokesperson for the ministry.

This comes as tourism companies complain of a collapse in business. They called the resumption of flights effective for the Afghan economy.

"The people are facing a lot of problems. If the flights are resumed, it is clear that they will help the economic condition of the people," TOLOnews quoted Suhrab, head of a tourism company as saying.

The economists believe that the resumption of flights will bring more opportunities for transit and trade for Afghanistan.

"Direct flights can save the time of passengers. The flights can be effective in transportation, and cause an upsurge in trade and transit," TOLOnews quoted Shakir Yaqobi, an economist as saying. (ANI)
"This implements the Federal Council's decision of 13 April to adopt the EU's latest package of sanctions. The measures come into force at 6pm on 27 April 2022," the Swiss government said in a statement.

The new measures ban export of industrial robots, certain chemical products and other goods that can help strengthen Russia's industrial capacities.

An exemption will be made for export of military-grade equipment that protects from nuclear, biological or chemical hazards, under a request from the UN's Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

In the financial sector, Switzerland prohibited support for Russian entities in public ownership and registration of trusts for Russian nationals or residents.

The Council also extended the ban on export of banknotes and sales of securities in Swiss francs and euros to Belarusian nationals and entities to cover all official EU currencies. The same measure is planned for Russia. (ANI/Sputnik)
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday slammed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and said the country got rid of him, local media reported. While addressing the PML-N Workers' Convention in Lahore, Maryam Nawaz said, "Those who are predicting the end of Nawaz Sharif's politics have seen him being honour despite staying in London, on the other hand, someone sitting in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has been disgraced," ARY News reported. She said that Nawaz Sharif has just ousted a government from London and soon, he will bury the politics of his rivals. Maryam Nawaz further slammed Imran Khan and said he had promised to construct 5 million houses for the nationals but he has just constructed his own house in Zaman Park, ARY News reported. With the Pakistan government being led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, brother and Former PM Nawaz Sharif has been issued a new passport that will enable him to travel to the country, reported local media outlet citing sources. Nawaz Sharif's new passport is valid for 10 years till April 2032. The passport's status is "active" as per the evidence shared by a trusted source and it is not diplomatic but "ordinary". This is a key development as ousted PM Imran Khan's government had refused to renew Nawaz's passport after it expired in February last year. The PML-N supremo was granted an eight-week bail on medical grounds in October 2019, and a month later, he was allowed to travel abroad for treatment for four weeks but he is still in London to date, reported the media outlet. Imran Khan had been slamming Nawaz for going abroad for treatment. Earlier in February, the ousted PM noted that letting the PML-N supremo leave Pakistan was a "major mistake" of his government. (ANI)
Taking to Twitter, the High Commission of India in Port Louis said, this is another milestone in the India-Mauritius relationship.

"The platforms will enhance the operational capabilities of Mauritius Police Force and help them in catering to ever-increasing maritime challenges in the IOR," the High Commission tweeted.

Recently, the Mauritius Prime Minister was on an eight-day visit to India. He also met External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar in New Delhi.

During the visit, the Mauritius Prime Minister offered prayers at Varanasi's Kashi Vishwanath Temple. The Mauritius PM also held a meeting with the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar in the presence of the Mauritius Prime Minister and Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO).

PM Modi also held a bilateral meeting with Mauritius Prime Minister after the inauguration of the Global Ayush Summit and discussed the ongoing development partnership and cooperation in defence.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated that PM Modi and the Mauritius Prime Minister reviewed the progress of the Metro Express Project and the proposal for an AYUSH Centre of Excellence in Mauritius. (ANI)
Earlier this month, three policemen had been killed in a fierce gun attack by unidentified armed men at Bara Ajab Talab check post in Khyber district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), ARY News reported.

Police had said that an attacker was also killed in retaliation after a check post came under attack from the assailants. Police added that another cop and two citizens have also sustained injuries in the gun attack. The wounded official and citizens were shifted to the hospital.

In another incident, five policemen had been killed in a rocket attack carried out by terrorists in the Dera Ismail Khan district of KP, ARY News reported.

Terrorists had carried out a rocket attack on a police van near Chowk Yadgar of Dera Ismail Khan's Kulachi city.

Meanwhile, prioritising the North Waziristan tribal district's peace, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier said that he would soon convene a grand jirga (a tribal council responsible for settling disputes) of elders of the area in Islamabad to find a way out of the prevailing situation.

Addressing the jirga, Pakistan PM said that the people of North Waziristan had suffered the miseries and also many sacrificed, adding that the government will not ignore those who sacrificed their life, Dawn reported.

Pakistan PM announced the establishment of a university, a medical college, a mobile hospital and a Danish school in North Waziristan. PM Sharif further said that he would soon announce new projects for the district, the Pakistani newspaper reported. (ANI)
India and US have the potential to be one of the most important and foundational partnerships that we have going forward over the next decades, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday (local time). He made these remarks after Blinken testified during the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs hearing. Talking about India-US ties, Blinken said, "This partnership (India-US relations) has the potential to be one of the most important and foundational partnerships that we have going forward over the next decades." He further said that a number of countries are now relooking at some of their relationships and some of their interests particularly when it comes to their relationship with Russia. And of course, in the case of India, there's a relationship that goes back decades. Blinken continued saying that Russia, for India, was out of necessity, a partner of choice when we were not in a position to meet a partner. "Now we're investing in that effort. There is a growing strategic convergence between US-India and of course, China is a big part of that," he added. Earlier, Derek Chollet, a top advisor of US Secretary Antony Blinken said "Washington fully understands New Delhi's long-standing ties to Moscow." In an exclusive interview with ANI, Chollet said that the US is there to support India and the partnership between US and India has tremendous potential. "We understand that India has had a long-standing defense relationship with Russia over many years and part of that was because the United States was not available to be a partner. It is decades ago and we face a much different reality today," he said. "Over the last 10 years, the US-India Defense Partnership has changed dramatically. We see great potential and opportunity in their relationships. Anything that two plus two conversations between Secretary (Antony) Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had with their counterparts helped further clarify that." Asserting that India is a strategic partner of the United States, Chollet said: "We're natural allies. And this partnership has tremendous potential. It's already paying dividends for both countries in the region and all around the world. And we think, really, there's nowhere to go but up." (ANI)
Taking to Twitter, Kuleba said that he is looking forward to working together with the newly appointed Foreign Minister of Pakistan.

"Looking forward to working together with the newly appointed Foreign Minister of Pakistan Bilawal Bhutto Zardari @BBhuttoZardari. We count on further developing bilateral ties and our mutually beneficial cooperation with Pakistan," Kuleba tweeted.

On Wednesday, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and the chief of coalition ally PPP, took oath as the new Foreign Minister from Pakistan's President Arif Alvi, in Islamabad, Geo News reported.

Meanwhile, congratulations poured in after Bilawal Bhutto took oath as Foreign Minister of Pakistan.

"Heartiest congratulations to @BBhuttoZardari on the start of his public service career. I am confident he will add tremendous value to our foreign policy and inject it with a fresh perspective. I wish him the very best & look forward to working with him," Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tweeted.

"Congratulations @BBhuttoZardari Prayers for your success," Maryam Nawaz Sharif, vice president of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) tweeted. (ANI)
More than 1 million Muslim Americans voted in the 2020 election, according to an analysis conducted by Emgage.

The Muslim American group reported that 1,086,087 Muslim Americans voted in the 2020 presidential election.

That number is equal to 71 percent of registered Muslim voters in the United States, 2 percentage points higher than the 2016 turnout, according to Emgage.

Of the 1.5 million registered Muslim voters in the United States, 52 percent voted early or via absentee ballot in the 2020 election.

The group created the Million Muslim Votes campaign, which organized in 12 states it deemed key for the Muslim American community, with a special focus on Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Virginia and Illinois.

In the 12 states that were targeted, there was a 27 percent (319,310 voters) overall increase in the Muslim voter population from 2016 to 2020, Emgage reported.

North Carolina saw the largest increase in registered Muslim voters  80 percent  since the 2016 president election.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Two Stockton teenagers were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly shooting at a vehicle in Stanislaus County, according to the Ceres Police Department.

Both shooting suspects matched the description of armed carjacking suspects from earlier on Monday night in Delhi, police said. The Merced County Sheriffs Office is investigating the carjacking.

Police arrested 18-year-old Angel Estrella and a 17-year-old male, both Stockton residents, on charges of attempted murder and possessing a gun without serial numbers.

Officers were dispatched around 11 p.m. Monday to the intersection of Service and Crows Landing at 11 p.m. after a man standing at the northeast corner of the intersection fired at a vehicle stopped at a red light. The victim drove away and called police. The car was hit by gunfire, but the driver did not report any injuries.

Police said officers later located and arrested the suspects in front of the Stanislaus County Animal Services Agency and the victim identified Estrella as the shooter. An officer and her K-9 also searched the area and found two guns hidden near the building.

In the area, police additionally found a stolen vehicle related to a Delhi carjacking investigation earlier in the evening. It was low on gas when it was stolen, police said.

Merced County Sheriff deputies responded to a call of an armed carjacking at the 7-11 in Delhi on Monday night, according to a social media post by the sheriffs office.

Witnesses told deputies two young males were walking around and asking for rides to Stockton.

The two males asked the victim for a ride and when he said no, they pulled out handguns and demanded his car. They took the car and drove off toward Turlock.

Estrella was booked into Stanislaus County Public Safety Center and the 17-year-old was booked into the Stanislaus County Juvenile Hall. Estrellas bond is set at $510,000, according to jail records.

The Modesto Bee contributed to this report.
The Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois was struck by a tornado on December 10, 2021. AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

OSHA conducted an investigation after an Amazon warehouse collapsed in a tornado, killing six.

The DOL said Tuesday Amazon met "minimal federal safety guidelines," so it won't be fined.

OSHA did identify some risks inside the warehouse.

The Department of Labor (DOL) announced Tuesday that it would not fine Amazon over the collapse of one of its warehouses and subsequent deaths of six workers.

The roof of Amazon's warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, collapsed after being struck by a tornado on December 10. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) launched an investigation, following the collapse.

The collapse was the subject of intense scrutiny from the media and lawmakers, and some of the deceased workers' families, as well as some drivers who were in the warehouse at the time are in the process of suing Amazon.

The DOL said OSHA investigators found Amazon met "minimal federal safety guidelines."

OSHA said in a letter to Amazon it had identified risks in the warehouse, including the fact that not all the employees did not know where the designated storm shelter was.

The investigators also found the megaphone, which was supposed to be used in disaster situations according to the facility's emergency procedures, was locked in an inaccessible cage.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told CNBC: "OSHA's investigation did not find any violations or causes for citations, but we're constantly looking to innovate and improve our safety measures and have already begun conducting additional safety and emergency preparedness drills at our sites and will carefully consider any OSHA recommendation that we have not already."

Amazon did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider outside of normal working hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The warehouse is burning near the village of Staraya Nelidovka, Belgorod region of the Russian Federation

Read also: Ukrainian military holds firm across Donbas contact line as Russia attempts to inch closer

Just spoke with the head of the Golovino village, Denis Zolotukhin; It appears that an ammo depot is on fire near Staraya Nelidovka, said Gudkov.

Read also: Pentagon chief says Ukraine can win war against Russia if they have the right equipment, support

According to the governor, the incident has no civilian casualties and didnt damage any residential buildings.

A video of what appears to be the fire in question has emerged online.

Read also: 63rd day of Putin's war. An ammo depot in Russian Belgorod caught fire, Russia dispersed a pro-Ukrainian rally in Kherson

Earlier, Russian media reported a series of explosions at another ammunition stockpile in Irmino, near Luhansk, which is under Russian occupation since 2014.

On March 29, a fuel depot caught fire outside the city of Belgorod, following what the Russian authorities claimed was a Ukrainian attack. The Ukrainian government has denied all claims of its involvement on fires and explosions around military infrastructure in Russian territory.
Amanda Edwards/Getty

Andrew Garfield can preach.

That much was evident when he played Jim Bakker in last years The Eyes of Tammy Faye, about the irresistible and ultimately corrupt televangelist and his wife, played by Oscar winner Jessica Chastain. Then in Tick, TickBoom!, he starred as musical theater composer Jonathan Larson, who had so much to say about the world through his music that, for a generation of fans, his show Rent remains a religious text.

Now, Garfield is back talking God again in Under the Banner of Heaven, the new FX series based on the book by Jon Krakauer. The series centers on the gruesome 1984 double murder of a mother and daughter that shook a devout Mormon community in Utah, connecting the tragedy back to the founding of the Mormon church by Joseph Smith a century prior.

Jeb Pyre, the local detective played by Garfield, is a fictional character. He is everything youd expect from a pillar of the community: a good father, supportive husband, and fierce believer in Smiths teachings. But the violent murders he is investigating and the suspected killers insistence that they were committed in the name of God have him in the unfamiliar territory of questioning his own beliefs.

The thing is, even out of character, Garfield preaches too. He delivers a great sermon. Hes a natural at it.

He is so thoughtful and considered about the questions being asked of him, the characters he is playing, and the ways in which his own humanity is changed by the art he is producing that youre swept away as he speaks.

In the last year, he has played three characters in major projects that are, as Jeb Pyre experiences, having a crisis of faith. In each role, the man Garfield plays encounters something in his life that causes him to doubt his faith and how he perceives the world. Sure, there was a stint in a Spider-Man costume thrown in the middle there, but its hard not to look at his recent selection of roles and not see a throughline.

Is there something going on in his life that has him gravitating toward these character arcs? Does Andrew Garfield have a personal connection to this idea of interrogating ones faith?

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Over a Zoom call in the lead-up to Thursdays premiere of Under the Banner of Heaven, he preaches his answer.

I think if were lucky, that happens over and over and over again, where we get to expand our consciousness, he says. The only way we expand our consciousness, expand our hearts, is if they get broken open.

Transcribed, those words read as woo-woo nonsense. But it is imperative you imagine how passionate Garfield is when he speaks them. Hes not grasping for poignance the way some actors do in their pursuit of pretentiousness. The way he talks about these things is undeniably and irresistibly heartfelt.

Andrew Garfield Is Charming the Pants Off Everyone This Oscar Season

The next bit of his speech involves the words cosmic and cataclysmic. But you need to know that as he says them, it is deeply relatable and accessible.

I think we probably come into life connected to the everything, without any biases or anything in the way of our kind of cosmic understanding of the laws of nature and the universe, he says. And then, gradually, in order to survive, we have to kind of civilize ourselves. We figure out what pleases mummy and daddy, so that we get fed and clothed and have a roof over our heads and then hopefully, as we move away from that, family structure in some way. We figure out that we can survive on our own and then, hopefully, we start to go from a narrow point of view to a much more expanded point of view again. So hopefully by the end of our lives, were on our deathbed just going, Wow, and were back reconnected to the everything.

As Garfield says these things, you are rapt. You have no choice. He commands your attention. Things that you would normally roll your eyes at and deem ludicrous suddenly become gospel. Youre not aware of how vigorously youve been nodding along. The grasp only strengthens when he begins connecting those ideas to what weve been experiencingwhat he knows you, specifically, have been experiencingduring the pandemic.

I think in order for that to occur, we need to go through cataclysm, he says. And I think its happened with the pandemic. I remember at the beginning of the pandemic, I was very hopeful because I was like, Oh my God, maybe this is the cataclysmic global event that will wake everyone up to their own souls and their own deeper needs and yearnings and what actually matters. Then of course, six months go by and everyone wants to get back to their usual routine and its disappointing.

Still, he says, the cataclysma word I now casually usehappened, even if we didnt want it to or couldnt validate it at the time.

Ive known a lot of people during this period of time to have made huge changes in their lives, divorces, marriages, babies, a change of job, he continues. Its cataclysmic, and I think its healthy and very expansive. So hopefully were just constantly going through new cycles of growth and expansion. Theres a pain to it as we grow. Its painful. It has to be. It has to cost us because we have to let go of the past and we have to embrace a new version of ourselves, I think.

If you dig into what hes saying, its incredibly profound. You can tell its not off-the-cuff speechifying during a press tour. Its something hes thought a lot about, and something that grew out of a life experience he hadthe way that the roles hes been playing have interwoven with the circumstances of his own life.

Garfield is coming off a great year, the kind that a celebritys publicist could only dream of for their client. He has been the internets boyfriend and pop cultures biggest crush.

Because of the high-profile roles he played and the award season carousel he rodeTammy Faye was up for numerous awards, and he was Oscar-nominated for his turn in Tick, TickBoom!he has done countless interviews and talk show appearances. And because he was so self-effacing and willing to speak seriously about the themes of his filmsnot just in canned PR anecdoteshe accomplished the rare celebrity feat of not overstaying his welcome.

By the time he was photographed clutching a hamburger and a drink in one hand at a post-Oscars party, people didnt just swoon. They wanted more.

I think thats because for a guy who did something as Hollywood-esque as playing a surprise role in a superhero movie and lying about it, he does come off unabashedly honest. You dont know him. After our brief Zoom conversation, I still certainly dont. But he is willing to talk about things in a way that feels personal and not performative.

Its telling that his viral moment during this past year of being Extremely Everywhere wasnt while singing karaoke with a TV host or participating in some TikTok challenge. It was when he spokebeautifullyabout weathering, surviving, and, most importantly, embracing grief in honor of his late mother.

I love talking about her, by the way, so if I cry, its only a beautiful thing, he told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. This is all the unexpressed love, the grief that will remain with us until we pass because we never get enough time with each other, no matter if someone lives till 60, 15, or 99. So I hope this grief stays with me because its all the unexpressed love that I didnt get to tell her. And I told her every day. We all told her every day. She was the best of us.

Its a gorgeous sentiment, and not the kind of thing a celebrity typically talks about on a press tour.

Under the Banner of Heaven invites similarly heavy talking points, which can be awkward in brief interviews with strangers. As his co-star Gil Birmingham explains, its not just another splashy true-crime series of the kind thats become so popular, but one that involves a realm of peoples belief system and their paradigm about how they see the world and how they operate in it.

Its a show that, Garfield says, invites someone to think about and then share deeper thoughts about themselves and their perspectives, as hes doing. Its what drew him to the series in the first place.

Its very rare that you would have something so thematically epic in something so personal, in such a horrific, violent murder that would have such ramifications on an entire organization, he says. I think that is really juicy stuff.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Apr. 26MITCHELL  Two Arizonans pleaded not guilty to a variety of drug charges and allegations of child and elder abuse after authorities busted their RV at a campground near Mitchell.

Jamie Bosone, 37, and Daniel Smythe, 38, both of Mesa, Arizona, appeared in felony court Tuesday at the Davison County Public Safety Center to enter a plea of not guilty to multiple felonies.

The charges stem from April 10, when authorities were called to Betts Campground, approximately five miles west of Mitchell, for a disturbance and reports of drug activity.

When they arrived, court documents allege they located Smythe in personal possession of fentanyl and located other drugs, paraphernalia and indicators of narcotic distribution inside their RV.

Through interviews, authorities say the couple had locked a 70-year-old frail woman out of the RV. A 4-year-old child also lived in the RV.

At Tuesday's hearing, Bosone and Smythe, both of whom are being held at the Davison County Jail on a $20,000 cash-only bond, asked the court to reduce their bond to a personal recognizance bond, which would have released them from custody without a cash deposit on the condition they promise to appear for all court appearances.

Bosone's attorney, Doug Papendick, argued that the 4-year-old child had been placed in the custody of the South Dakota Department of Social Services, and that Bosone needs to be present at any custody hearings since Smythe, her husband, was also incarcerated in Davison County. Zach Flood, representing Smythe, made a similar argument in an afternoon hearing.

In his appeal to the court, Papendick told the court that Bosone and Smythe  despite having an Arizona address  most recently lived in Hawaii and still own a house there. They had recently decided to pack up into an RV and travel the country, as Smythe works in information technology and can work from anywhere.

They briefly lived and worked in Arizona, and wanted to eventually end up there permanently, but found their way to South Dakota.

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The prosecution argued against both requests for bond reduction, noting that neither Bosone nor Smythe had any ties to South Dakota beyond the potential custody hearings regarding the child.

"Other than the one matter that council referred to with regard to the child being in temporary DSS custody, the defendant has absolutely no ties to South Dakota," Davison County State's Attorney Jim Miskimins said. "Because of that, we believe she does represent a flight risk."

The prosecution pointed out Bosone had failed to appear for court once before in Arizona, and urged the court to be cautious in making any bond reduction. Smythe, however, had no record of criminal charges or court appearances.

Judge Chris Giles reminded Bosone of the severity of her charges, clarifying her four felony counts could result in up to 27 years in prison plus $54,000 fines  excluding the "many" misdemeanors lodged against her. He noted to Smythe that his charges tallied up to a potential sentence of up to 39 years in prison plus $78,000 in fines.

After hearing both the prosecution and defense, Giles ultimately cut Bosone and Smythe's bond in half, offering each a $10,000 cash-only bond with conditions that the couple remain in South Dakota until the conclusion of their hearings.

Neither Bosone nor Smythe indicated that a $10,000 cash-only bond was likely to be posted, and as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, neither had bonded out.

Each will appear for a status hearing on July 8, which will serve as a final opportunity to change a plea. If no plea agreement is reached, a jury trial will commence on Aug. 8.
The attorney for a man accused of murder asked for a mistrial after the opening arguments of the man's jury trial Tuesday.

David Heyboer, the attorney for Dustin Tucker, said St. Clair County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Sparling asked the jury to override Tucker's presumption of innocence when he asked the jury to look at the crime through the elements of first-degree premediated murder.

"That is absolutely, totally contrary to law," Heyboer said.

St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge Dan Damman asked the attorneys to reconvene on the matter Wednesday morning.

Opening arguments began shortly after the jury was seated at about 3 p.m.

Sparling began with Tucker's own words from his police interview taken shortly after the slaying, in which he allegedly admitted to dragging Danielle Smith to the basement, hitting her head on the concrete and admitting that he was going to jail for the rest of his life.

Sparling said witness testimony and text messages with Tucker's associates will show that he concocted a plan to kill Smith in May 2021, and even created an alibi.

Smith, who was in a dating relationship with Tucker prior to her death, had become an inconvenience and threat to Tucker's current girlfriend, Sparling said. There were social media posts in the days before the killing involving Smith that threatened Tucker's relationship, he said.

"The defendant made a choice, made a choice to end somebody's life because she outlived her usefulness to him," Sparling said. "He made a choice to end somebody's life because he was worried about getting caught in a relationship that was ruining his current girlfriend situation."

Tucker went to Smith's Port Huron home, attacked her in the kitchen and dragged her to the basement, unlawfully imprisoning her, the prosecutor said. He then went back to his Port Huron Township home, grabbed a gas can and returned to Smith's home, he told the jury.

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Sparling said Tucker found Smith taking a breath and moving before slamming her into the concrete.

Sparling said Tucker then gathered towels, covered Smith's body in gasoline and lit it on fire in an attempt to conceal the evidence.

Heyboer said Smith's death was not premeditated. There was a confrontation between Smith and Tucker that resulted in a struggle, and Tucker admitted he strangled her.

Smith was dead when Tucker dragged her into the basement, as is evidenced by the county medical examiner's testimony that she died of strangulation. Tucker did not imprison a live person, Heyboer said.

"I anticipate the evidence will show the jury this was not a premeditated, first-degree murder," Heyboer said.

Tucker is charged with open murder, second-degree arson and unlawful imprisonment.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Smith, 28, of Port Huron, was found dead on May 29, 2021, following a fire in a home in the 1800 block of Division Street.

Police later executed a search warrant at a home in Port Huron Township where Tucker lived before his arrest.

The St. Clair County medical examiner ruled the death of homicide, stating she most likely died by strangulation.

Contact Laura Fitzgerald at (810) 941-7072 or lfitzgeral@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Attorney for Port Huron man accused of murder asks for mistrial in first day of jury trial
By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's spy chief says Canberra is concerned Chinese police deployed to the Solomon Islands under a new security pact could use "ruthless" techniques previously used to quell anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

Andrew Shearer, the director-general of the Office of National Intelligence, travelled to the Pacific islands nation last month in a failed attempt to persuade Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare not to sign a security pact with China that has alarmed the United States and its allies.

While details of the pact have not been disclosed, Sogavare has ruled out a military base and said it covers domestic policing.

Shearer told the Raisina Dialogue conference in New Delhi that Australia responded within eight hours to Sogavare's request in November for police assistance to quell riots.

Deployed Australian police sit under the command of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force through a bilateral security treaty.

Australia is concerned about the impact of Chinese police on unity of command in security operations, he said.

"In such a fragile, volatile country Chinese policing techniques and tactics that we've seen deployed so ruthlessly in Hong Kong, for example, are completely inconsistent with the Pacific way of resolving issues and could incite further instability and violence in the Solomon Islands," he said.

The Chinese embassy in the Solomon Islands did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China said previously the security deal was not targeted at any third party and did not contradict the cooperation the Pacific nation has with other countries.

The pact has dominated the Australian election campaign, amid fears it could lead to a Chinese navy presence less than 2,000km (1,200 miles) from Australia.

On Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews told radio station 4BC it was "very likely" China would send troops to Solomons, and said the timing of the pact announcement was a form of political interference in the Australian election.

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China's foreign ministry told reporters a day earlier that "Australian politicians often seek selfish political gains by making wild remarks to smear China and clamour for war".

Shearer denied the signing of the pact was an intelligence failure by Australia, which has invested billions of dollars in aid and security assistance to the Solomon islands.

Intelligence agencies were concerned it could potentially lead to an increased Chinese military presence, despite Sogavare publicly ruling this out, he said.

China aimed to establish a network of dual use and military facilities from the west coast of Africa to the Pacific, he said.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  A senior Australian minister on Wednesday suggested that China had deliberately announced its security pact with the Solomon Islands during an election campaign to undermine her governments chances of reelection.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews accusation is consistent with her conservative Liberal Partys argument that Beijing wants the center-left Labor Party to win the May 21 election because Labor lawmakers were less likely to stand up to Chinese economic coercion.

Labor has described the governments inability to prevent the deal announced by the Chinese and Solomons governments last week as Australias biggest foreign policy failure in the Pacific since World War II.

Andrews  who is responsible for the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nations main domestic spy agency, and has access to classified secrets from other intelligence agencies  said Australians should be taking notice of and paying some attention to the timing of the Solomons' announcements.

Beijing is clearly very aware that were in a federal election campaign here at the moment. Why now? Why, right in the middle of a federal election campaign is all this coming to light? Andrews told Brisbane Radio 4BC.

"We talk about political interference and that has many forms, Andrews added.

Australia angered China in 2018 by passing national security laws that ban covert foreign interference in domestic politics. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said at the time the government was prejudiced against China and had poisoned the atmosphere of China-Australia relations.

Jim Chalmers, a senior Labor lawmaker, dismissed the possibility of China attempting to use its Solomons deal to influence the Australian election.

Even by the incredibly low standards of this government, I thought what Karen Andrews said was remarkably desperate and remarkably unhinged, Chalmers said. The Australian people will determine who wins this election.

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John Blaxland, Australian National Universitys Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies, questioned whether Andrews was drawing on classified intelligence briefings in her comments on the Solomons.

It certainly is plausible that they timed it this way. They wouldve been mindful of whats happening in the elections, Blaxland said.

Id be very surprised if China wanted to go public on siding with one side or the other because thats basically a poison chalice youre handing to that side of politics, Blaxland added.

Blaxland suspected Beijing and Paris would both welcome a change of government in the hope of resetting their bilateral relationships with Australia.

Chinas Foreign Ministry welcomed Morrisons elevation to prime minister in 2018 after the Liberal Party dumped his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull, who had banned foreign interference.

China stands ready to work with the new Australian government to move forward bilateral ties along the right track, a ministry official said at the time.

But bilateral relations have continued to sour.

France was incensed in September when Australia dumped a $66 billion contract for French-build conventional submarines. The United States and Britain will instead provide Australia with a nuclear-powered fleet.

The government boasts the new submarine deal is evidence of its superiority over Labor on national security.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry attacked Defense Minister Peter Duttons warning this week that Australians must prepare for war because of the threat from China and global insecurity spurred by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Certain Australian politicians often seek selfish political gains by making wild remarks to smear China and clamor for war, Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said the United States had a fundamental concern with the lack of transparency in Chinese activities in the Pacific islands.

Only a handful of people in a very small circle in the Solomons had seen the detail of the Chinese pact, Kritenbrink said Tuesday.

Labor on Tuesday announced a range of measures that it would implement in government to increase Australias engagement in the Pacific.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that by blaming the government, Labor was siding with China in the dispute over the Solomons pact that has raised fears of a Chinese naval presence less than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) off the northeast Australian coast.

They are playing politics with the Pacific and the only ones who are benefitting from Labors attacks on the government is the Chinese government, Morrison said Tuesday.
By Eduardo Baptista and Brenda Goh

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Millions of people in Beijing took their second COVID-19 tests of the week on Wednesday as the Chinese capital tried to keep an outbreak numbering in the dozens from spiralling into a crisis like the one the locked-down city of Shanghai is enduring.

Evidence that Shanghai's month-long isolation has become almost unbearable for many of the city's 25 million people is emerging on an almost daily basis on the country's heavily censored internet.

A widely circulated video - since taken down - showed a foreigner trying to break through metal barriers onto a Shanghai street, before being pulled back and dragged to the ground by four people in protective hazmat suits.

"I want to die," the man shouted repeatedly in Chinese and English. One of the people holding him down responded: "You came to China, you need to respect the laws and regulations here."

"Calm down, calm down," says another. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the authenticity of the video.

Such distressing scenes are being watched with apprehension in Beijing, where officials hope early mass testing will spare them the anguish of Shanghai, where officials waited for about a month as cases surged before ordering city-wide screening.

In Beijing, supermarkets have kept supplies well-stocked under orders from authorities. Shi Wei, 53, a retiree, said he was encouraged by the capital's low caseload but still nervous.

"These past two days every time I go to the supermarket there are lots of people, so I just turn around and leave, as I feel slightly unsafe," he said. "I can understand the panic, given what happened in Shanghai."

Geng, 31, who works in finance and only gave his surname, said he worried about being a close contact of a COVID case and being forced into quarantine with his whole family.

Beijing was testing the more than 3.5 million residents of its Chaoyang district on Wednesday, all of whom were screened on Monday. On Tuesday, 16 million from other districts were tested and are due for another round on Thursday.

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In total, 20 million of Beijing's 22 million will be tested three times this week.

Results for almost all samples from the first round came through on Wednesday afternoon, with 12 tubes of mixed samples showing positive, a Beijing health official said. Some 46 new cases have been identified since 4 p.m. on Tuesday, a second Beijing official said.

In mass testing in China, multiple samples are tested together in a single tube for speed and efficiency.

GLIMMER OF HOPE

The coronavirus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and authorities managed to keep outbreaks largely under control with lockdowns and travel bans. But the fast-spreading Omicron variant has tested China's "zero-COVID" policy.

Shanghai has been offered a glimmer of hope with officials reiterating that they would soon begin easing restrictions in districts that have stamped out infections, without giving a time frame or other details.

In the meantime, most people are confined to their homes. Even those who can go out have few options, with most shops and other venues closed.

Data showed six of Shanghai's 16 districts had zero cases outside quarantined areas, with numbers in seven others in the single digits. In total, Shanghai detected 171 such cases on Tuesday, down from Monday's 217.

Shanghai reported 48 new deaths on Tuesday, down from 52 the day before, taking the city's official death tally since April 17 to 238.

ECONOMIC PAIN

China's zero tolerance policy has provoked rare public anger in an important year for President Xi Jinping, over measures that look increasingly bizarre to much of the outside world that has chosen "live with COVID", even as infections spread.

Xi is widely expected to seek a third leadership term this year.

Research by Gavekal Dragonomics estimated that 57 of China's 100 biggest cities were under some form of COVID curbs as of last week.

The measures have hurt consumption, disrupted industry and prompted official efforts to stimulate the worlds second largest economy, including stepping up infrastructure investment, state television reported, citing a meeting chaired by Xi.

Hundreds of factories have been allowed to resume operations, with state media giving plenty of coverage of the reopening of Tesla's Shanghai plant last week.

But industry associations say most factories are struggling to get back to work with staff stuck at home, trucks parked in lots, and orders of components from contractors in the same situation unfilled.

Many frustrated bankers, traders and investors confined to their homes say they are considering moving to other financial centres.

(Reporting by the Beijing and Shanghai bureaus; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Lincoln Feast, Robert Birsel)
Watch: Cumberbatch waiting for the Ukrainian family to arrive at his home

Benedict Cumberbatch has revealed he has been matched with a Ukrainian family who are on their way to live with him.

The star of Sherlock and Doctor Strange made headlines in March when he said on the red carpet at the Bafta film awards that he would offer to share his home with refugees fleeing the warzone in Ukraine.

Cumberbatch, 45, has now confirmed to Sky News has been matched, adding: "They've made it out of Ukraine, I'm monitoring their progress every day.

Read more: Benedict Cumberbatch calls for action in Ukraine as he receives Hollywood sta

"Sadly, they are undergoing some medical treatment  to say anything more about that would be invasion of their privacy and too much about when they're coming and how that's being managed would invade mine  but I want to give them some stability after the turmoil that they've experienced, and that's within my home."

Benedict Cumberbatch has said he is in touch with a Ukainian family who are on their way to live with him. (Getty Images)

The Power Of The Dog star has three sons aged between six and three with theatre director wife Sophie Hunter.

Cumberbatch said: "I've been trying to help other Ukrainian families  nationals that are UK citizens  to house their extended families en masse, which you know they want to do, but it's very costly.

"So, I've been trying to help out with that financially in a couple of instances."

Benedict Cumberbatch lives with his wife Sophie Hunter and three sons. (Getty Images)

He went on: "I'm working through a wonderful charity called Refugees at Home, which is a great gateway to the government scheme, but also to offering further wider support that's needed for the psychological trauma that these people are suffering from.

"However gentle and generous and welcoming we are as hosts, we don't have the skills of the mental health professions to necessarily deal with those things.

"I would urge people to seek out further help to bolster their efforts, and people are doing an amazing amount - it makes me very proud, very, very proud of our country and very proud of what we can be at our best as a human race."

Story continues

Russian president Vladimir Putin began his military invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, prompting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to attempt to flee the country.

Benedict Cumberbatch said he is working with Refugees at Home to offer the family who stay with him mental health support. (PA)

Housing secretary Michael Gove has announced the Homes for Ukraine scheme, under which people can nominate an individual or family fleeing the Ukraine to stay in their home for up to six months.

He added households will be offered 350 a month to help with the costs.

Read more: Chris Tarrant has Ukrainian family with young baby living with him

Former Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? host Chris Tarrant recently revealed he already has a refugee family from Ukraine living with him in his home.
President Biden reportedly signaled to Congressional Hispanic Caucus members that theyd be very happy with what he does next.

President Joe Biden is signaling that he is open to considering the cancellation of student loan debt.

The Washington Post is reporting that Biden met with House Democrats and indicated that he is prepared to make major moves to relieve student loan debt, an action that could include canceling loans of tens of thousands of dollars owed by many Americans.

President Joe Biden speaks during a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest, where he made stops in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. (Photo: Karen Ducey/Getty Images)

According to the report, Biden signaled that he was prepared to use his executive authority to cancel some of the debt during a lengthy meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Monday, as revealed by two members who attended and two aides briefed on its details.

There is currently a moratorium on student loans that has been in effect since the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. There has been significant public pressure to cancel the debt more than two years later; progressives have urged the Biden White House to cancel the debt instead of continuing to extend the moratorium.

The Post reports that the president is open to a plan that could target lower-and middle-income borrowers.

Democratic Rep. Tony Cardenas of California initially asked Biden to extend the moratorium again, and the president noted that he has done so every time. Cardenas then asked Biden to issue an executive order to eliminate at least $10,000 in debt per person, arguing that many Latinos who have student loan debt still owe more than 80% of the balance after more than a decade.

According to The Washington Post, Biden was incredibly positive about that idea. In fact, he reportedly assured the lawmakers they would be very happy with what he does next.

In an op-ed for theGrio published last month, Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Arisha Hatch detailed how student loan debt affects African Americans, particularly women.

The student debt crisis is one that uniquely affects Black women, who are the most educated and indebted demographic group in our country, they wrote. Generations of policy violence and discriminatory policies like redlining and predatory lending have denied our families the opportunity to build wealth and have forced us to take on crushing amounts of debt that have severely limited our economic futures. Black women owe 22 percent more than the average student debt load of white women and are the most systematically underpaid  earning just 64 cents to every dollar earned by white men.

Story continues

Any action on relieving student loan debt could be positive for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, however, Biden remains sensitive to ensuring that the announcement would not add to inflation.

The Post notes that before the 2020 election, the president favored a plan to cancel at least $10,000 in student debt per person and for those earning less than $25,000 a year to not have to make monthly payments or accrue interest. He has not yet lived up to that expectation.

I feel very confident that he is pushing on his team to do something, and to do something significant, Cardenas told the newspaper. Thats my feeling.

TheGrio is now on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post Biden to consider canceling student loan debt, lawmakers say after meeting appeared first on TheGrio.
The Recount

Piers Morgan, the English broadcaster, and journalist said that though sentiments were high on both sides regarding Roe v. Wade, it was not the right way to behave. While speaking on Fox & Friends, the English writer discussed the relevance of the demonstrations outside Supreme Court justices homes and churches as a fallout of the draft opinion leak last week. Morgan criticized the arson attack on the anti-abortion building in Wisconsin.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday he expects a Biden administration request for supplemental funds to support Ukraine to include resources for food security.

During testimony to the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees the U.S. diplomatic and foreign assistance budget, Blinken said Russia's Feb. 24 invasion and the ongoing conflict was having impacts on food security for Ukrainians and others, given the country's role as a major source of wheat.

The United States would also focus on food security issues in May when it assumes the chairmanship of the U.N. Security Council, Blinken added.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Simon Lewis; Editing by Chris Reese)
Police are seeking the publics help in locating a West Roxbury man who went missing a week ago.

Firas Yousif Eesee, 43, of West Roxbury, was last seen in the area of Ledge Hill Road in West Roxbury on Wednesday, April 20 at about 5:30 p.m., police said.

Eesee is described as 5-foot-8 and is believed to be wearing a thick red sweater, gray sweatpants and tan shoes.

Police say Eesee has a cognitive disability and only speaks Arabic.

Anyone with information is asked to contact District E-5 Detectives at 617-343-4566.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Hundreds of San Diego parents and students last week protested a since-withdrawan plan to remove 11th-grade honors classes at the city's largest high school for equity purposes, according to local reports.

An email from Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) Principal Michelle Irwin dated April 13 says all 11th-grade History and English honors courses at the school will be eliminated, following a decision by the school last year to eliminate Advanced World History, Advance Physics, Advanced Biology and two other classes for gifted students, according to The San Diego Tribune.

"We are eliminating the 11th grade English and history Honors courses. This change will bring our English and history course offerings into alignment with what is currently offered at PHHS in 9th, 10th and 12th grade," a document attached to Irwin's email, obtained by The National Desk, reads.

As of Tuesday, however, those honors classes were restored following conversations with the school community.

HARVARD ANNOUNCES $100M FUND TO REDRESS UNIVERSITY'S TIES TO SLAVERY, BUT AIMS TO AVOID TERM REPARATIONS

"We will continue to offer our current series of Honors and AP courses. In addition, we are excited to announce that Patrick Henry will participate in a district pilot of Honors for All course options in grades 9 and 10 to offer more opportunities for our students to earn weighted credit," Irwin said in a Tuesday email to parents. "We will reach out to our rising 11th graders and parents in the upcoming weeks to solicit information regarding their course preferences for the 2022-23 school year."

A view of the city skyline in San Diego, California. Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg

Irwin continued: "We are proud of the work taking place at Patrick Henry High School to support district goals of increasing student access to challenging course offerings while ensuring high expectations for all. I would like to apologize to parents who interpreted this work as lowering the academic standards for students. I want to be clear that Patrick Henry students are some of the best academically in all of California, and we plan to continue this legacy of excellence."

Story continues

A section of the document Irwin sent to the school community on April 13, titled, "Rationale For Changes," stated that the since-withdrawan changes to curricula would help "create more balanced heterogeneously grouped classes; eliminate stigma," and "provide a well-balanced course offering for all students."

RANDI WEINGARTEN SAYS REPUBLICANS JUST DONT WANT PUBLIC SCHOOLS' IN DEBATE OVER EDUCATION

"Our goal is to have students from all ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds represented in our courses. A variety of factors including access to education, adult bias, and a persons self-generated identity contribute to the inequities we currently experience," the document continues.

San Diego Unified School District signage is seen on a Navistar International Corp. school bus. Bing Guan/Bloomberg

The move prompted hundreds of students and parents to protest last week. More than 2,000 people signed a petition on Change.org opposing the changes. The school then held two Zoom meetings after the protests last week to get input from parents.

"[H]ere at Henry, we're very proud of all the work that we're doing to support our students and to align our goals with our district goals by expanding student access to rigorous coursework," Irwin told KNSD. "We also recognize that we have students and parents who have concerns about the direction we're going, therefore we're going to pause a little bit and get more input from parents as well as students because we do want to make this a collaborative effort."

Neither Irwin nor the San Diego Unified School District immediately responded to Fox News Digital, but district spokesperson Mike Murad told KNSD that the school would be pausing the change "after hearing from students today and parents recently who had questions."

Murad added that the pause will allow school members "to continue the discussion on how to best enable each student to reach their full potential academically."
The state of California is hiring in the Department of Transportation, Corrections and Rehabilitation, Health Care Services and more.

State jobs are known for offering great benefits and enrollment in the nations largest state public pension plan.

Many of the following jobs have specific requirements, which are linked.

Sift through some of the highest paying Sacramento County-based jobs available on the CalCareers website, posted in the last seven days, as of April 27:

Assistant deputy director, statewide psychiatry services | Limited term full-time

Department: California Correctional Health Care Services

Salary range: $31,297 to $33,398 per month

The assistant deputy director of statewide psychiatry services is responsible for the oversight and implementation of all psychiatric services within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

This position is located in Elk Grove, with the possibility of a telework schedule, according to CalCareers.

The job post will remain open until filled.

Want to stand out when applying for California state jobs? Your guide to these departments

Senior architect | Permanent full-time

Department: Health Care Access and Information

Salary range: $10,311 to $12,905 per month

The senior architect reviews documents pertaining to the architectural design and construction of state healthcare facilities.

The filing deadline is May 19.

Assistant chief counsel | Permanent full-time

Department: Managed Health Care

Salary: $13,337 to $15,600 per month

The assistant chief counsel supervises attorneys and directs legal programs involving the Department of Managed Health Cares licensing and compliance review activities.

The departments employees are currently teleworking, according to CalCareers.

The filing deadline is May 2.

The Department of Developmental Services, Human Resources and Veterans Affairs are also looking to fill positions for an an assistant chief counsel in Sacramento County. All three listings are looking for permanent full-time workers and offer the same salary range as the Department of Managed Health Care.

Story continues

California state workers can cash out accrued leave. Heres how much you can take home

Appeals examiner | Limited term full-time

Department: Corrections and Rehabilitation

Salary range: $10,537 to $12,058 per month

The appeals examiner adjudicates appeals filed by inmates and parolees.

The filing deadline is May 2.

Principal transportation engineer | Permanent full-time

Department: High Speed Rail Authority

Salary range: $13,760 to $15,629 per month

The principal transportation engineer is responsible for all activities related to the contract management of the architectural and engineering consultants working on the high-speed rail program.

The post will remain open until filled.

Health actuary | Permanent full-time

Department: Public Employees Retirement System

Salary range: $11,976 to $14,994 per month

The actuarial office calculates the contribution rates employers must pay to fund their employees retirements for more than 3,500 retirement plans.

The post will remain open until filled.

Senior transportation engineer | Permanent full-time

Department: Transportation

Salary: $10,311 to $12,905

The senior transportation engineer assists in the delivery of transportation projects by district staff and external partners.

The filing deadline is May 4.

What do you want to know about life in Sacramento? Ask our California Utility Team your top-of-mind questions in the module below or email utilityteam@sacbee.com.
The Daily Beast

Lauderdale County SheriffAlabama jail guard Vicky White fatally shot herself as she and escaped murder suspect Casey White were being chased by law enforcement in Indiana on Monday, ending an extraordinary 11 days on the run that captivated the nation.Weve captured them, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding said in Evansville, Indiana, a five-hour drive from the Florence, Alabama, lockup the pair had vanished from.Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton, Vicky Whites former boss, told re
By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) -Canadian lawmakers voted unanimously on Wednesday to call Russia's attacks in Ukraine a "genocide", with members of parliament saying there was "ample evidence of systemic and massive war crimes against humanity" being committed by Moscow.

The Canadian House of Commons' motion said war crimes by Russia include mass atrocities, systematic instances of willful killing of Ukrainian civilians, the desecration of corpses, forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, torture, physical harm, mental harm, and rape.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was "absolutely right" for more and more people to describe Russia's actions in Ukraine as genocide, supporting an accusation made by U.S. President Joe Biden a day earlier.

Biden had said earlier in April that the Ukraine invasion amounted to genocide but had added that lawyers internationally would have to decide whether or not the invasion met the criteria for genocide.

Russia, which denies the genocide charges, calls its action in Ukraine a "special military operation" and said it was necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia. Moscow in turn accuses Ukraine of the genocide of Russian-speaking people, a charge that Ukraine dismisses as nonsense.

Canada is among a number of countries to have imposed sanctions on Russia after it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. On Wednesday, it imposed further sanctions on 203 individuals whom it says are complicit in Russia's attempted annexation of certain areas of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

Late on Wednesday, Canada also updated its travel advice for Moldova, citing the risk of armed conflict in Transnistria, a breakaway Russian-occupied part of Moldova in the west.

The government of Canada asked travelers to exercise a high degree of caution in Moldova and avoid all travel to Transnistria.

The Canadian government has also said it will change its sanctions laws to allow for funds or property seized or sanctioned from Russia to be paid out to help rebuild Ukraine or to those affected by Russia's invasion.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler and Jacqueline Wong)
Canton police officer Robert Huber fatally shot 46-year-old James Williams on Jan. 1. Williams was celebrating the new year by firing an AR-15 into the air. Williams' family has filed a civil lawsuit against the city and officer.

CANTON  The city and its police officer who fatally shot 46-year-old James Williams on New Year's Day are denying any wrongdoing in response to a federal civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit lodged against them by Williams' widow.

Marquetta Williams, through the law firm Blakemore, Meeker and Bowler in Akron, filed the federal complaint in March over James Williams' Jan. 1 death.

In their legal responses filed this week, the city and police officer Robert Huber denied any allegations of wrongful death, using excessive force or deliberating interfering with James Williams' medical needs after he was shot. The city and the officer also denied any claims of reckless or negligent infliction of emotional distress suffered by his three children and their mother.

Huber, who has returned to work, has not commented publicly before on the shooting.

James Williams was fatally shot by Huber, who was responding to a call about gunfire in the area of 10th Street SW. Williams was firing a high-powered rifle into the air from his patio, enclosed by a wooden privacy fence. His family has said he was celebrating the new year just after midnight.

The shooting has sparked ongoing protests and calls for transparency from the Williams family.

'I will fight until I have no breath left':Fatal Canton police shooting prompts lawsuit

Shooting: Canton police officer shoots, kills armed man just as 2022 begins

Officer Huber Response by Cassie Nist on Scribd

Robert Huber addresses allegations in his court filings

In his response, Huber contends his conduct was objectively reasonable, based on probable cause, and/or "in self-defense of a lethal threat" as he observed James Williams firing a high-powered rifle.

Huber and the city claim the officer is entitled to qualified immunity, which protects a government official from being held personally liable from paying damages in certain cases.

'Today is not the day for judgment': Law enforcement experts weigh in on Canton shooting

Story continues

Huber acknowledged that he did not turn on his police cruiser's emergency lights or sirens when he arrived at the scene and that he did not verbally identify himself as he neared James Williams.

Huber and the city deny failing to provide medical attention or assistance to James Williams who after being shot reentered his home and collapsed on the living room floor.

The Williams family is seeking compensation for his death, in an amount to be determined at trial, the court filing stated.

Huber has demanded a jury trial.

A case management conference is set for June 20 in federal court in Akron before Judge Benita Pearson.

City of Canton Response by Cassie Nist on Scribd

What happened to James Williams?

Huber is seen on body camera video arriving on scene and walking around homes in the 2300 block of 10th Street SW.

Huber heard rapid gunfire ringing out from behind a patio fence, and ran toward the patio before firing through the fence. He then retreated to his police cruiser for cover.

Huber can be heard shouting "Police, get down!" on video after firing his weapon.

James Williams' wife and children were inside the home. Marquetta Williams told Canton police officers that her husband was shooting his gun into the air celebrating New Year's Eve.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, at the request of the Stark County Prosecutor's Office and Canton Police Department, is reviewing the incident.

The results will be sent to Stark County Prosecutor Kyle Stone, who will present the case to a grand jury to decide whether or not to indict Huber on criminal charges.

Reach Cassandra cnist@gannett.com; Follow on Twitter @Cassienist

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton, police officer respond to James Williams' federal lawsuit
A resident at a home in the 1900 block of SE Van Loon Terrace in Cape Coral looks at bullet holes in the facade of the structure. Cape Coral police were investigating the shooting Wednesday morning.

Cape Coral police were investigating a shooting that injured one person Wednesday morning in the 1900 block of SE Van Loon Terrace.

Cape Coral police confirmed that the victim was transported to Gulf Coast Hospital in Fort Myers for the injury.

Police, who said they were developing suspect information, cleared their on-scene investigation, removing crime scene tape by 7 a.m.

At least a half-dozen pock-marks and holes made by bullets in the front facade and windows of the home could be seen.

Reports of the shooting were made around 3 a.m.

More: Cape Coral woman faces aggravated assault charge after allegedly shooting person at house

More: Trial begins for one of five charged in the Club Blu shooting: Kierra Kashayla Russ

Further details were unavailable.

Connect with breaking news reporter Michael Braun: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook), @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter) or mbraun@news-press.com.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Cape Coral police investigating injury shooting on S.E. Van Loon Terrace
CAIRO (Reuters) - The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) said on Wednesday that 176 were killed and 220 were injured in armed clashes that broke out on Monday in Sudan's West Darfur state.

"Some bodies were buried without being autopsied or reported," the medics' union aligned with protesters against the Oct. 25 military coup added.

Unrest across Darfur, where a war between rebels and government forces backed by militias claimed an estimated 300,000 lives in the early 2000s and displaced millions, has increased in the past two years.

(Reporting by Yasmin Hussein; Writing by Enas Alashray; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled this week that Jackson and St. Louis counties may challenge the constitutionality of a controversial state gun law, sending the case back to the circuit court.

The ruling comes after the local governments, along with St. Louis City and the Biden administration, sued the state last year shortly after Gov. Mike Parson signed the Second Amendment Preservation Act. They argued that the measure, which prohibits state enforcement of certain federal firearms restrictions, was hindering local enforcement efforts.

A Cole County Circuit judge last August ruled against the attempt to block SAPA, arguing the local governments already had an ability to fight the law  through individual lawsuits against police, brought by those who believe their Second Amendment rights were violated.

In a 6-1 decision released Tuesday, the Missouri high court reversed that decision and sent the case back to the lower courts. Judge George W. Draper III wrote that the circuit court had erred in its previous decision because the other lawsuits do not provide the local governments adequate remedy at law in which to adjudicate their specific constitutional challenges.

While the Supreme Court did not rule on the constitutionality of the law, its decision allows the local governments to continue to challenge it.

When it passed last year, SAPA was considered a victory for Republicans and gun rights activists, bolstered by lawmakers desire to push back on gun control measures promised by President Joe Bidens administration. It declares certain federal gun laws invalid if they do not have an equivalent in Missouri statutes and prohibits local police from helping federal agents to enforce them.

Police departments are also subject to $50,000 lawsuits from private citizens who believe their Second Amendment rights were violated.

But the law has also caused frustration for some in Missouri law enforcement. Since its passage, police have halted a variety of routine practices that involve either firearms or the federal government. They include withdrawing from joint efforts to enforce gun or drug laws, cutting off the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from shell casing information gathered at crime scenes and, in some cases, barring officers from even talking to federal agents without permission.

Story continues

Others have argued that the law also widens a loophole that allows convicted domestic abusers to carry guns. Last fall, the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence filed an amicus brief to challenge the constitutionality of SAPA.

In a joint statement Tuesday, the three local governments praised the high courts decision.

Municipalities and law enforcement groups across Missouri are coming together to challenge HB 85, which takes away critical tools we need to protect communities from gun violence. St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and Jackson County are pleased with todays decision and look forward to a ruling that overturns this dangerous, blatantly unconstitutional legislation, the statement said.
Reports of North Carolina fining popular retailers for overcharging customers at the checkout counter have raised concerns about losing out on money.

However, there are steps you can take to rectify the situation if you see something wrong with your receipt.

Multiple Walmarts and Dollar Generals in and around Charlotte were recently fined more than $40,000 due to price scanning errors, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. And a total of 42 stores have been fined across North Carolina during the first quarter of 2022, the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Standards Division said in a news release announcing the fines.

Thats an uptick from recent years, according to state officials.

How to combat excessive charges

As many stores continue to suffer from staffing shortages due to the pandemic, our Standards Division has seen a significant increase in stores with price scanner errors, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a statement.

If you notice youve been overcharged at a store, you can file a complaint with the Standards Division by calling 984-236-4750, the department noted in its statement.

If you paid by credit card and your charge was for $50 or more, you have 60 days to dispute the charge with your credit card company under the Fair Credit Billing Act, according to Cornell Law Schools Legal Information Institute.

The Standards Division recommends you should double-check the prices on shelves and on your receipt when youre doing your shopping and checking out. If you catch an issue before you leave the store, you can bring it up to the cashier, a store manager or a customer service representative to have it addressed.

Observer reporter Catherine Muccigrosso contributed to the reporting of this story
Chicago isn't generally considered to have an ultra-high cost of living relative to its coastal, urban counterparts. But the Midwestern city is the most expensive major city if you need to rent a car.

That's according to a NerdWallet analysis conducted in March 2022 of 360 rental car prices from eight major car rental companies in the United States.

Prices used were based on the company's lowest-priced rental (typically a sedan) from airports and off-site rental car locations. These sites were in areas with the 10 largest airports based on enplanements using 2020 Federal Aviation Administration data. Enplanements concern paying passengers who board an aircraft, including those boarding another as part of a layover.

Which metro area has the cheapest car rental price?

Here are the metro areas with the 10 largest U.S. airports by enplanements, ranked by average weekly car rental price from lowest to highest. Prices were based on both airport locations and off-site locations.

Rental car prices by metro area, with nearest airport noted.

The three cheapest places to rent a car, on average, are Charlotte, North Carolina; Orlando, Florida; and Dallas-Fort Worth. In contrast, the three most expensive metro areas to rent a car are Las Vegas, Phoenix and Chicago.

In Chicago, you'll pay on average $671 to rent a car for a week, which is about 37% more than you'd pay to rent a car in Charlotte.

What major airport has the cheapest car rental price?

It's almost always more expensive to book a rental car at an airport versus at an off-site car rental location (in general, it's about 20% more expensive). And by and large, the most expensive metro areas to rent a car also host the airports with the highest rental car prices.

Here are the 10 largest U.S. airports by enplanements, ranked by average weekly car rental price from cheapest to most expensive:

Average weekly rental rates by city.

It costs $743 on average to rent a car specifically from Chicago-O'Hare Airport, which is even higher than the $671 average price to rent a car in Chicago. Meanwhile, at Orlando Airport, the cheapest major U.S. airport to rent a car, average rates are roughly in line with prices to rent a car elsewhere in Orlando.

Story continues

Airport rental cars tend to be more expensive than off-site locations for many reasons. Many airports tack on rental car fees that you won't find when renting a vehicle from the same company at an off-site location. These include customer facility charges and airport concession fees, which fund expenses like airport security and shuttles to rental car facilities. That's on top of taxes applied at the state and local levels.

At Chicago-O'Hare, the 2019 effective tax rate, including all taxes and fees, was about 51%, according to a March 2019 report titled "Reforming Rental Car Excise Taxes" from the Tax Foundation, an independent tax policy nonprofit. In 2022, those figures include a 5% Illinois state car rental tax, a 6% excise tax levied by the city's Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, and another 9% personal property lease transaction tax imposed by the city.

How to save on rental cars

Book your trip backward: This year might be the time to book your rental car first rather than plan your vacation around flight or hotel deals (as is common). First, choose a city where you can find a great rental car deal, which could likely be Charlotte, Orlando or Dallas-Fort Worth. Then, search for a suitable mode of transport and where you'll stay.

Say you've settled on Charlotte because its rental car rates are so low relative to everywhere else. You can travel to Charlotte cheaply on points and miles, and from there, you might consider a road trip around the southern U.S.

Choose cities where you can take public transit instead: Sure, rental cars are expensive in Chicago, but you might not need one anyway. Chicago's Blue Line 'L' train provides 24-hour train service that can get you from Chicago-O'Hare Airport to downtown in about 45 minutes, which  depending on the time of day  might be faster than driving anyway. Fares from O'Hare cost $5 (just $0.75 if you're a student).

Seattle-Tacoma Airport is the second-most expensive major U.S. airport to rent a car from, but it's also served by a light rail that can take you directly to downtown Seattle in 38 minutes. In addition, by relying on public transportation, you'll save on gas and parking.

Use travel credit cards and join rental car loyalty programs: If you must travel to an expensive city and need a rental car, at least make the most of it. Charge your rental to a travel credit card with rental car benefits. The best credit cards for rental cars can offer bonus points and miles from your spending, and many come with benefits like rental car insurance coverage, which can sometimes save you hundreds of dollars.

And it's almost always a good idea to sign up for a rental company's loyalty program. Even without top tiers of elite status, these programs may offer member-exclusive rates and other benefits, such as members-only counters that can help you skip the line. Because even if you can't save money, at least you can use your purchases to earn rewards  or save you time.

More From NerdWallet

Sally French writes for NerdWallet. Email: sfrench@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @SAFmedia.

The article The Cheapest U.S. Cities With Major Airports to Rent Cars originally appeared on NerdWallet.
BRIDGEPORT, CT  The mother of a Bridgeport child who suffered second- and third- degree burns over the weekend is claiming her son was set on fire by an older child.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Maria Rua said her son, 6-year-old Dominick, "had a ball covered in gasoline then lit on fire thrown at him by an 8 year old boy."

Rua claimed the boy is her downstairs neighbor, and said he has bullied Dominick in the past.

"It's not like he accidentally was playing with gas...he threw a ball at his face and set my son on fire," Rua told News 12 Connecticut.

The neighbor's family denied the accusations to News 12 and said they have been getting threats on Facebook.

At around 4 p.m. Sunday, officers were dispatched to Louisiana Avenue on a report of a child burned, WTNH reported. Police said initial reports indicated that "up to four unattended children were seen playing with gasoline and lighting objects on fire," according to the TV station.



Read more: Bridgeport Child Burned; 'Exact Cause' Under Investigation: Reports

But Dominick's sister, Kayla Deegan, told NBC Connecticut that the family's neighbor attacked her brother.

"As soon as he walked down the stairs, the bully called his name and lured him over around the corner," Deegan said. "And in a matter of seconds he came back around the corner screaming, saying 'Mommy, they lit me on fire.'"

Dominick is currently in Bridgeport Hospital's burn unit and is expected to recover, hospital officials told NBC Connecticut.

A GoFundMe for his family has raised over $50,000 in just one day. In the fundraiser's description, Deegan wrote that her family is looking for help with hospital bills and help finding a new home.

See also: CT Gov. Lamont: Trump Made Me Ask Nicely For Disaster Aid

"It is not safe here. This kid downstairs has gotten away with too much and has a history of bullying," Deegan wrote. "Even though Dominick can't talk because he's in a lot of pain and all swollen, he said to my mom, 'Please don't take me back there.'"

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Bridgeport police said the incident is still under investigation, according to WTNH.

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GoFundMe is a Patch partner.

This article originally appeared on the Bridgeport Patch
Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday lavished praise on Cuba's leader, reiterated his wish for the Caribbean island nation to be invited to the Summit of the Americas in June and said Mexico would be hiring over 500 Cuban doctors. Lopez Obrador, who visited Cuba over the weekend as part of a regional tour of Central America and the Caribbean, said at a regular news conference that he had met with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, as well as former President Raul Castro. Lopez Obrador has emerged as the most important head of state in Latin America to criticize U.S. policy toward the region and Cuba, which he faults for mass migration, and to call for area integration and greater independence from Washington.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Twenty Muslim worshippers were killed in Ethiopia's Amhara region in clashes with unidentified armed men, an Islamic leader in the region said.

The violence was unrelated to a conflict in the neighbouring Tigray region, which erupted in November 2020 and spilled over into Amhara and Afar regions last year.

"The incident happened yesterday when Muslims were on their way to bury an individual," Seid Muhammed, president of the Amhara Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, told Reuters on Wednesday.

Seid said the armed men threw an explosive device at the Muslim crowd in the town of Gondar, killing three people and wounding five. The other victims died in ensuing clashes.

"There were lootings of shops and there were attempts to set fire to three mosques. One mosque suffered minor damage where its mat was set on fire," he said.

Gizachew Muluneh, spokesperson for the Amhara regional administration, said the incident was under investigation and he would give an update later.

A humanitarian source said 15 injured people had been transported to Gondar Referral Hospital, and it was unclear how many had been shot or injured by explosives.

In 2019, authorities arrested five people suspected of burning down four mosques in the town of Motta in the same region.

Fighting in Ethiopia's wider conflict has eased since the federal government declared a unilateral ceasefire last month, saying it would allow humanitarian aid to enter Tigray.

When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took power in 2018, he introduced sweeping political and economic reforms that won him international praise, culminating in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for peacemaking efforts with long-time enemy Eritrea.

However, regional elites say Abiy's reforms have centralised power to the detriment of Ethiopia's federal character, and some have sought to assert their own authority, leading to strife.

(Reporting by Addis Ababa Newsroom; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Estelle Shirbon and Mark Heinrich)
Thanks to climate change, the number of hurricanes and typhoons rated as Category 3 storms and higher could double by the year 2050, a new study concludes.

Using computer modeling, the study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, concluded that, as global air and water temperatures continue to rise due to excess greenhouse gas emissions, the increase in the number of major hurricanes and typhoons will affect a larger number of people.

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale assigns a number value to hurricanes and typhoons. Category 3 storms contain sustained winds of over 111 miles per hour. Category 4 storms pack winds of at least 130 mph, and a Category 5 storm contains sustained winds of 157 mph or higher.

According to the new study, climate change will help increase the wind speeds of major hurricanes by as much as 20% over the next 28 years, as well as the overall frequency of Category 4 and 5 storms by more than 200% in some parts of the world.

"Our results also reemphasize that regions that currently have a (very) low risk could start to be really impacted by tropical cyclones under climate change," Nadia Bloemendaal, a climate scientist at the University of Amsterdam and the study's lead author, told CNN. "We found it shocking to see the disproportionate amount of developing countries at risk for future climate change."

The predicted increase in the frequency of major hurricanes and typhoons is not evenly distributed in areas that already see tropical cyclone activity. While Miami is projected to see a modest annual increase in probability of experiencing a major hurricane in a given year (from 3.6% at present to 4.0% by 2050), Honolulu is forecast to see that probability more than double (from 4.0% to 8.6%) over the same span, the study found.

Total property damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was estimated at $108 billion. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Earlier this month, researchers at Colorado State University issued a report predicting another above-average Atlantic hurricane season. The report foresees at least 19 named storms, four of which will become major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.

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We estimate that 2022 will have nine hurricanes (average is 7.2), 19 named storms (average is 14.4), 90 named storm days (average is 69.4), 35 hurricane days (average is 27.0), four major (Category 3-4-5) hurricanes (average is 3.2) and nine major hurricane days (average is 7.4)," the report stated. "The probability of U.S. major hurricane landfall is estimated to be about 135% of the long-period average.

Numerous studies have linked warmer ocean water with higher-intensity tropical cyclones. What is less clear is whether climate change is increasing the total number of hurricanes and typhoons lower in intensity than those that achieve major status, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration notes on its website.

"Based on complex modeling, NOAA has suggested that an increase in Category 4 and 5 hurricanes is likely, with hurricane wind speeds increasing by up to 10%. Warmer sea temperatures also are causing hurricanes to [become] wetter, with 10%-15% more precipitation from cyclones projected in a 2 degree C scenario," NOAA's website states. "Recent storms such as Hurricane Harvey in 2017 (dropping over 60 inches in some locations), Florence in 2018 (with over 35 inches) and Imelda in 2019 (44 inches) demonstrate the devastating floods that can be triggered by these high-rain hurricanes."
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's ruling conservative coalition on Wednesday looked to downplay internal debates over climate policy ahead of a national election to be held on May 21 after signs of division re-emerged over the government's emission reduction targets.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was forced to back the government's emission targets after a member of the junior coalition partner claimed the global push toward net zero was "sort of dead anyway".

National Party Senator Matt Canavan, a vocal opponent of emission targets, also urged the government to build more coal-fired power stations, reigniting a row within the coalition over climate policy just weeks from the election.

"Everybody knows that Matt hasn't been supportive of (net zero) position ... that's not his party's position, that's not the coalition's position and it's not the government's," Morrison told reporters on Wednesday. "There is no news there."

Australia, the world's top coal and a major gas exporter, in October adopted a target to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but Morrison says he will not legislate the goal.

Morrison had to confirm his Liberal-National Party coalition government's position on emissions on Tuesday after Colin Boyce, a Liberal party candidate in resource-rich Queensland, said there was "wiggle room" in Australia's net-zero target.

Morrison needs the support of voters in coal and gas-producing regions, many of whom oppose strong action on climate change even though the wider Australian population backs efforts to slash carbon emissions.

While some coalition candidates in regional seats are talking down climate action, others in urban areas are talking up their climate credentials as they face strong challenges from independents who support lower emissions targets.

The opposition Labor party is ahead of the coalition, according to polls, although Morrison has extended his lead as the country's preferred leader.

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Centre-left Labor said the coalition was "in open warfare" about emissions policy.

"After apparently putting this war to bed over the last few months, it has erupted," Shadow Resources Minister Murray Watt told ABC television.

(Reporting by Renju Jose; Editing by Stephen Coates)
CNN anchor Brianna Keilar pressed Deborah Birx, a leading member of the White House task force on the coronavirus under former President Trump, about a number of claims she makes in a new book about her experience.

Birx came under criticism during her time at the White House by those who said she should have been more outspoken in criticizing the former presidents false statements about the coronavirus.

During her book tour, Birx has defended her tenure, often arguing that she needed to couch her rhetoric to stay in the administration, where she argues her voice was important in setting policy on the pandemic.

During the CNN interview, Keilar asked Birx about Trumps statements suggesting public health officials were doing too much testing during the early months of the pandemic. Trump argued at the time that cases were rising because more people were being tested.

Birx told the anchor that was what was difficult in this White House. Because things are being said and we were doing the opposite. And Im just very thankful to the task force.

Keilar then offered some criticism of Birx, noting that Trump was the one making the statements.

So you talk about what youre doing privately. But that comes up completely in the face against what he is saying very publicly, and what you are not necessarily saying publicly to counter what he was doing at the time, Keilar said.

Well, you know that I had no access to national media after the event of April 23rd, Birx responded. So I had to find another way to make sure my voice was heard.

Birx was referencing a press briefing conducted by Trump on April 23, 2020. On that day, Trump appeared to suggest people could inject bleach inside themselves to better protect against the coronavirus.

CNNs Keilar said Birx did have access to national media.

Yes, you did. You had access to late, to national media, Keilar said. If you chose to speak to them. But you chose not to.

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Well, Brianna, I knew from the experience I had seen in that White House that if I had done that independently, outside of the White House, I would no longer be in that White House, Birx shot back.

As she promotes her book this week, Birx has been doing a number of media appearances and interviews.

She told ABC News earlier this week she, Anthony Fauci and other top health staffers in the federal government had a resignation pact during their time serving under Trump.

I actually wasnt worried about myself being fired because I was dual-hatted, and I would go back to the State Department and my PEPFAR job full-time, she said. All of us knew what it was like to be there and in the trenches.  Although, they got to go home after the task force and back to their agencies. I was still in the White House.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
College of the Ozarks

College of the Ozarks announced Wednesday that Brad Johnson, who was previously interim president of Southwest Baptist University, will be the next leader of the private university in Point Lookout.

Johnson will start June 1.

The C of O Board of Trustees welcomes Dr. and Mrs. Brad Johnson to Hard Work U., said Shawn McKenzie, chairman of the board, in a news release. As president, we know Dr. Johnson will continue to carry out the important mission of College of the Ozarks.

He will succeed Jerry Davis, who has been president of the private Christian institution dubbed "Hard Work U" since 1988. Davis is not leaving and will transition to a new role, chancellor, this summer.

Davis will continue to work on fundraising for the university.

More: College of the Ozarks searching for new president, Jerry Davis to become chancellor

Johnson has served since 2012 as the vice president for institutional advancement at Southwest Baptist University.

He also recently served as interim president at the institution. In this role, he worked with the board to revise key institutional policies; engaged the board in discussion with the faculty of SBU; facilitated board training and restructuring; and launched four new academic programs including agriculture, cybersecurity management, and global education for both elementary and middle school levels.

He also developed a variety of new partnerships and managed day-to-day operations of this multi-site institution.

Brad Johnson

C of O conducted a national search for its next president.

It is unclear how many applied but the board and a search committee vetted applicants and narrowed the pool. Top candidates participated in intensive, two-day campus visits and interviews.

The board finalized the hiring process Tuesday.

Johnson is married to Laura Lacey Johnson, who is the author of several Bible studies, including her newest, 10-Second Prayers to Transform Your Life: From the Parables of Jesus.

Laura and I are grateful to God for this wonderful opportunity and are delighted to join the C of O family and roll up our sleeves at Hard Work U., Johnson said, in a release.

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I am deeply grateful to the Board of Trustees for their confidence in me and am extraordinarily thankful to Dr. Davis for his leadership and immeasurable legacy at this outstanding institution. Laura and I fell in love with the faculty, staff, and students and look forward to working together to celebrate the rich heritage and bright future of the College.

More: College of the Ozarks files appeal to halt anti-discrimination housing rule

Before serving at SBU, Johnson served in administrative roles at McMurry University, Hardin-Simmons University, and Howard Payne University, all in Texas. These roles include vice president for enrollment and student services and director of financial aid and scholarships.

Brad Johnson, wife Laura Lacey Johnson, and their children, Evan and Elle.

Johnson is a certified fund raising executive. He has raised more than $57 million in cash gifts and managed more than $41 million in estate gifts for SBU and Howard Payne University.

Johnson earned a bachelor's degree in education from Baylor University in 1993.

In 1996, he earned two masters degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth: one in religious education and one in marriage and family counseling. His doctorate at Baylor University focused on higher education administration.

Laura Lacey Johnson shares her messages on Christian radio stations and social media outlets. She is a graduate of Howard Payne University and Abilene Christian University. She worked as a radio personality and television news reporter in Texas.

They are members of Second Baptist Church in Springfield.

Claudette Riley is the education reporter for the News-Leader. Email news tips to criley@news-leader.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: College of the Ozarks name Brad Johnson as new president
Sen. Charles E. Grassley is only three months younger than California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but age has not been a major campaign issue as the 88-year-old Iowan seeks reelection. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

When Chuck Grassley was first elected to public office, Dwight Eisenhower was president and Alaska and Hawaii were brand-new states.

After more than 40 years in the Senate  following stints in the Iowa Legislature and three terms in the U.S. House  Grassley is now seeking another six years in office. He is 88 and would be 95 at the end of his term if reelected.

Still, Grassley faces nothing like the pressure being directed at Sen. Dianne Feinstein to stand aside, even though the Iowa Republican is only three months younger than the California Democrat. He seems certain to waltz past his 59-year-old primary opponent in June, and is a solid bet to win reelection in November.

Unlike Feinstein, Grassley also faces no clamor within his party to let someone younger take his place.

On Tuesday, the Senate Democratic leader, New York's Charles E. Schumer, conspicuously declined when asked by reporters to vouch for Feinstein's fitness to serve. "I've had a good number of discussions with Sen. Feinstein, but I'm keeping them to myself," said Schumer, who pressed her to surrender the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee when Democrats took control of the Senate last year.

Is Feinstein facing a double standard because of her gender?

No. She isn't.

Although Feinstein still seems capable of doing her job, her mental acuity has visibly declined in recent years. It is no secret the senator relies heavily on her staff  though the same can be said for many lawmakers  and suffers from memory lapses.

By contrast, Grassley "makes a point of seeming as active and vital as ever," said Dennis Goldford, a decades-long student of Iowa politics who teaches at Des Moines' Drake University. He recently chatted with Grassley at an Iowa event promoting support for Israel.

(Grassley announced his reelection bid last September in a tweet that read, Its 4 a.m. in Iowa so Im running. I do that 6 days a week." Included was an image of the senator jogging.)

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Karen Kedrowski, an Iowa State expert on women and politics, agreed the elderly incumbent has given voters no obvious reason to question his physical well-being or mental capacity. "There's been no gossip," she said, "no whispering about him not being able to do the job."

On Capitol Hill, Grassley is constantly shadowed by an aide but appears sharp and very much on top of Senate business.

More importantly, he has kept up a long-standing tradition back home, spending summers visiting each of Iowa's 99 counties.

"If you're out in the middle of rural Iowa in some county where the population is less than any one of Des Moines' suburbs, you still feel respected and paid attention to and appreciated because he shows up," Goldford said. "That means a lot in a state like this."

Tellingly, Grassley's opponents have not overtly sought to make age an issue.

His Republican rival, state Sen. Jim Carlin, has instead wrapped himself around former President Trump and echoed his lies about voter fraud and a stolen 2020 election. Democrats have split along their usual lines over which approach  rallying the party's liberal base or appealing to centrist and potential crossover voters  offers the best chance of unseating Grassley.

His main Democratic challenger, former Rep. Abby Finkenauer, is 33. When she was born, Grassley was already serving his second term in the Senate.

Finkenauer, who served a single term in the House before narrowly losing her 2020 reelection bid, refers only glancingly to the senator's advanced age. Instead, she speaks of his many decades in Washington, suggesting  in the face of Grassley's assiduous courtship of even the smallest-town voter  that he has lost touch with Iowa.

That could fall under the category of not belaboring the obvious, though there is little evidence to suggest leaning into the age issue would do her, or any of Grassley's opponents, much good. If anything, Kedrowski said, it could backfire.

Democrats were heartened last year when a Des Moines Register poll showed 64% of those surveyed said it was "time for someone else to occupy Grassley's seat. Fewer than 3 in 10 said theyd support his bid for an eighth term.

However, those sort of surveys, measuring a candidate's appeal in the abstract, don't necessarily translate when real-life opponents are matched up. A subsequent poll showed Grassley leading Finkenauer 55% to 37%.

The circumstances were similar when Feinstein prepared to seek reelection in 2018.

An April 2017 poll found more than half of California's registered voters thought it would be a bad thing for her to run again. When reminded of Feinstein's age, that sentiment grew to 62%.

The next year she was handily elected to a fifth six-year term.

Feinstein appears competent to keep serving in the Senate. Barring clear-cut evidence of incapacity, she deserves to serve out the remainder of her term and, if smart, won't run again in 2024.

Those pushing her to quit now may be politically pragmatic or ruthless, uncaring or merely unflinching, depending on your perspective. There's no reason to believe the main impetus is sexism.

The decline and fall of geriatric male senators such as South Carolina's Strom Thurmond, West Virginia's Robert Byrd and Mississippi's Thad Cochran were well-chronicled in their time.

Feinstein may be a target. But she's not a victim.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Dayton is expanding.

RMDH announced Wednesday that they received a $13 million gift from Ohios Medicaid Manages Care Plans, the largest gift ever received by RMHC Dayton.

The $13 million combined with the $8 million in community gifts raised to-date completed the first phase of their capital campaign and will allow for construction on a new facility to begin more than six months ahead of schedule.

>> Fauci: US is out of the full-blown explosive pandemic phase

Plans to raise $25 million for a new 42-room facility on the Houses current property were announced earlier this year. RMHC officials said the current 14-room facility across from Dayton Childrens Hospitals main campus is unable to meet the nonprofits growing needs.

Rita Cyr, CEO of RMHC Dayton, said the nonprofit had to turn away 63 percent of families that turned to them for housing last year.

Expanding our capacity is significant to the strategic growth of our regions healthcare sector and necessary to support the hundreds of families who travel to Dayton each year for their childs medical care, Cyr said.

The new 40,000 square-foot facility will enable holistic, wraparound serviced that support family-centered care and help improve health outcomes for pediatric patients, according to RMHC. It will consist of two finished floors, a partial basement and a shelled third floor that will be ready to accommodate future growth. Officials said finishing the shelled third floor would be part of the second phase of their project.

RMHC Aerial Rendering

RMHC Guest Room Rendering

RMHC Lobby Rendering

RMHC Playroom Rendering

RMHC Second Floor Lobby Rendering

RMHC Courtyard Rendering

>> USPS letter carrier robbed in Washington Twp.; mailbox keys stolen

According to officials, RMCH Dayton has become an important hub for pediatric healthcare with increased outpatient and specialty services, including the addition of Shriners Childrens Ohio which moved from Cincinnati to Dayton in 2021.

More than half of the families Ronald McDonald House serves are Medicaid eligible. Supporting every familys needs, while providing essential health care for their children is the goal, Maureen Corcoran, Ohio Medicaid Director, said.

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A community in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin is mourning the death of 10-year-old Iliana Lily Peters by decorating their town with purple ribbons, as new details of the case emerge.

On Wednesday, Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell said in a press conference that the juvenile suspect arrested Tuesday in connection to her death was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault and first-degree sexual assault with a child under age 13 resulting in great bodily harm. He is being held on a $1 million bail.

Newell acknowledged the heightened parental fear since Peters' disappearance. "I know that the community was very concerned to begin with because without knowledge as to who an offender is, that is a very concerning matter ... I have a 17 year-old daughter myself," he said, adding, "That's a very terrifying thing for parents to have to deal with, is to worry about, 'Can my child be the next victim of a crime?'"

While the criminal complaint is sealed, Newell said in court that the defendant told police that he left his home with the intention to rape and kill, punched the victim, knocked her down, hit her with a stick and strangled her.

The crimes, which are currently being handled in adult court, carry punishments of life imprisonment (count one), a prison term up to 60 years (count two) and imprisonment up to life (count three).

On Tuesday, the day after Peters' body was discovered in a wooded area, Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matthew Kelm clarified in a press conference, "The suspect was not a stranger, the suspect was known to the victim."

Kelm added, While nothing will bring Lily Peters back or change what happened, we are very grateful to be able to deliver this news thanks in part to the 200 tips supplied to the police department. "Driving through town and through our communities, we can see the purple ribbons and honestly, I would expect nothing less," said Kelm. Lily was last seen by family members wearing a purple shirt on the night she disappeared.

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Chippewa Falls is located about 90 miles east of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, and has a population of about 14,000 people.

Authorities discovered Lilys body on Monday morning after her father had reported her missing the previous evening when she didnt return home from her aunts residence, located just minutes away by foot. On Sunday night, Lilys bicycle was found in the woods by a walking trail near the parking lot of a local brewery and on Monday her body was discovered near the wooded trail.

On Tuesday, Kelm said a forensic autopsy is underway and that no other information about the juvenile suspect is available.

Lily was a fourth-grader at Parkview Elementary School in Chippewa Falls, which on Wednesday, shared a press release with TODAY Parents describing the extremely tragic event and outlining safety protocols and mental health resources for students.

The Chippewa Falls Area School District also designated Friday Justice for Lily day, suggesting that staff and students wear purple to honor her memory, per a district Facebook post.
ROME (Reuters) - Italian children should be given the surname of both parents, the Constitutional Court said on Wednesday, overturning the tradition by which all newborns are automatically named after their father.

The current practice is "discriminatory and harmful to the identity" of the child, the court said in a statement, adding that both parents should be able to choose the surname.

Children should be given both parents' surnames in the order they decide, unless they agree their children should take just one of them, the court added in a statement.

New legislation, to be approved by parliament, is now required to implement the decision.

Family Minister Elena Bonetti wrote on Facebook the government will fully support parliament in this process.

"We need to give substance (to the decision)...and it is a high priority and urgent task of politics to do so," she wrote, adding that parents should take equal responsibility for the upbringing of a child.

Pope Francis and Italy's political leaders have expressed concerns about the impact of a declining birth rate on the country, with the cost of raising children seen as one of the factors.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Keith Weir)
A former drug task force commander has been indicted by a Henry County grandy jury, accused of theft and violating his oath of office.

The indictment handed up against Chad Rosborough, an officer with the McDonough Police Department, accuses him of using a county credit card to buy meals at various restaurants and make unlawful purchases at places such as Home Depot and Bass Pro Shop, spending hundreds of dollars.

The Georgia attorney generals office presented the evidence to the grand jury April 14, which included 30 charges of theft by taking, unlawful use of a financial transaction card and violation of oath of office.

TRENDING HEADLINES:

Public officers must perform their duties honestly and ethically, and those who fall short do a disservice to the very people they have sworn to serve and protect, Attorney General Chris Carr said. We will not hesitate to hold accountable any public employee who is found to have engaged in fraudulent activity, and we will continue working each day to protect taxpayer dollars no matter the amount.

Law enforcement officials take an oath to uphold the publics trust, said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vic Reynolds. We are committed to investigating allegations of officer misconduct and value our relationship with the Attorney Generals office who prosecute these offenders.

Rosborough was also part of the Flint Circuit Drug Task Force.

IN OTHER NEWS:
People across the Netherlands came out to celebrate King Willem-Alexander's 55th birthday Wednesday, as the royal family works to recover its popularity following a string of blunders during the pandemic.

Tens of thousands of revellers sporting quirky orange outfits and hats took to the streets across the country, in the first such event since the coronavirus pandemic started two years ago.

Despite the spectacle however, a series of blunders by the Dutch royals during the crisis have cast a pall over festivities -- mistakes that have pushed their popularity to all-time lows.

Current affairs programme Eenvandaag on the NPO public broadcaster reported its findings over the weekend.

The king had been "invisible" during the start of the coronavirus pandemic, they told the pollsters.

In October 2020, the royals were forced to cut short a holiday to Greece following an outcry when the media reported its details.

Feelings were running high in part because the Netherlands had just gone into a partial lockdown.

Then in December last year, the royal family admitted it had been a mistake to invite 21 people to celebrate the 18th birthday of Princess Amalia -- the future queen.

At that time, people in the Netherlands were only allowed to receive four guests above the age of 13 in their homes.

- King 'doesn't learn from mistakes' -

Although the royal party was held outdoors, Willem-Alexander later informed Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte that "on reflection it was not a good idea to organise (the gathering)".

But the pollsters for Eenvandaag noted: "A perception has risen that the king doesn't learn from his mistakes and doesn't have a feeling for what's happening to ordinary Dutch citizens.

"People blame him for that."

"We all had a hard time with the coronavirus rules," one of the Eenvandaag survey's panellists wrote.

"But the king thinks they do not apply to him."

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"One is only human," another wrote. "But they (the royals) don't seem to think at all."

Saturday's NPO/Eenvandaag poll suggested trust in Willem-Alexander's kingship had fallen to 54 percent in 2022 -- down from 82 percent in 2019.

Confidence in even the most popular royal, Queen Maxima, had dipped to 61 percent from 84 percent in 2019, said the survey of 26,448 respondents.

And an Ipsos poll for the NOS news programme published Wednesday, gave the king 6.7 out of 10 -- down from 7.7 in 2020.

"The royals have made a number of blunders during the pandemic that is now seen back in these figures," Dutch historian Han van der Horst told AFP.

"There is hard work ahead for them to restore their popularity -- and to show that they are in touch with the common people."

- 'Wake-up call' -

The monarch and his family spent "King's Day" visiting the southern Dutch city of Maastricht.

Despite these setbacks, he knows it is unlikely the Dutch monarchy will disappear any time soon.

According to the Eenvandaag survey, 56 percent of people still believe the Netherlands should remain a constitutional monarchy -- as opposed to 36 percent who would prefer to see a republic.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, those on the streets celebrating King's Day were in a forgiving mood.

"The King is just human, like all of us," said 24-year-old George van der Laan in a busy street in The Hague awash with orange.

And the royals themselves have started repairing the damage.

Princess Amalia made headlines in June last year when she gave up her right to a 1.6 million euros ($1.81 million) annual income until she has finished her studies.

And more recently, Willem-Alexander made available a castle in the central Netherlands to house 32 Ukrainian refugees.

The king himself, asked about the criticism, told the NOS newscaster: "Opinion polls don't impress me that much, but what I do find helpful is constructive criticism."

There was plenty of that in the recent surveys.

Many Dutch argued the royals should be more visible during times of hardship.

They also suggested that they should have advisors on hand to point out to them the obvious bad choices.

"These surveys should serve as a wake-up call," said one Eenvandaag respondent.

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Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva indicated during a Tuesday news conference that a Los Angeles Times reporter was under criminal investigation. He later denied saying it. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

Sheriff Alex Villanueva outdid even himself at a Tuesday news conference when he said he had launched a criminal investigation targeting Los Angeles Times reporter Alene Tchekmedyian, who has steadfastly reported on the sheriffs volatile and erratic leadership of the L.A. County law enforcement agency. After being roundly criticized by 1st Amendment advocates, the sheriff hours later denied that he had said any such thing, despite his recorded and widely reported earlier statements to the contrary.

The ostensible reason for the criminal probe is the alleged leak of footage showing a sheriffs deputy kneeling on a handcuffed inmates head for three minutes inside a lockup facility at the San Fernando Courthouse on March 10, 2021. The Times has reported allegations that Villanueva knew about the incident but covered it up to avoid bad publicity.

At the news conference, Villanueva displayed the reporters photo alongside pictures of retired Cmdr. Eli Vera, who is running against him in the June 7 election, and Inspector General Max Huntsman, with arrows leading to Tchekmedyian. The sheriff implied that they may have had a role in leaking the video to Tchekmedyian, who wrote the story, but did not produce any evidence supporting those assertions.

Criminally investigating a journalist for doing her job is a shocking assault on constitutionally protected press freedoms and aligns Villanueva with any number of tin-pot dictators and power-hungry functionaries who abuse their power to retaliate against reporters for critical coverage. Claiming there is such an investigation and then later denying it is the act of a coward who seeks to intimidate his critics without having to stand behind his words. Its a demagogues standard operating procedure, as with Villanuevas ridiculous statement earlier this month that he has two sources to support his groundless claim that Huntsman is a Holocaust denier. The sheriff, naturally, wont reveal those sources.

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At the news conference, Villanueva held forth  inaccurately, of course  on the law governing reporters and their duties. If stolen material is given to a reporter, he said, Im pretty sure thats a huge complex area of the law, and freedom of the press and all that, however, when its stolen material, at some point you actually become part of the story.

Wrong. The 1st Amendment protects a reporters right to receive and publish information about matters of public interest such as excessive use of force and alleged attempts to cover it up. That remains true even if the material was passed to the reporter by someone who obtained it unlawfully.

Asked repeatedly whether Tchekmedyian was under investigation, the sheriff gestured toward the three photos and said that all parties to the act are subjects of the investigation.

Tellingly, Villanuevas rant then strayed to a stream of umbrage, old grievances and personal complaints against his former Sheriffs Department superiors, The Times, Huntsman, his election challengers, the Civilian Oversight Commission, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and anyone else who is supposedly picking on him in concert and coordination.

He recited the circumstances behind his reprimand for a 2016 incident in which he as a lieutenant violated policy by transporting a person who had been stunned by a Taser to jail instead of a hospital.

He complained that the inspector general treats misconduct allegations differently now than he did under the prior sheriff.

He griped about county lawyers because they are hired by the Board of Supervisors and not him.

He repeated a bizarre claim that The Times purposely timed several critical articles, including the kneeling incident story, to run during his March 26 reelection campaign kickoff rally  presumably in order to spoil the festivities.

And on and on, as part of a continuing recitation of pettiness.

It would be merely pathetic were it not for the enormous power Villanueva has at his disposal, not just to patrol the streets and run the jails but to investigate real and imagined crimes. His department is already probing Huntsman, former members of his staff and a member of the oversight commission. He operates a secretive investigative unit that apparently focuses on his political enemies and critics.

Los Angeles County voters chose this sheriff in 2018 in part because they were seduced into backing a supposedly liberal Democrat over the Republican incumbent. He has now swung far to the right to appeal to voters who might somehow believe he is the answer to the crime and homelessness that grew on his watch. But regardless of changing politics or ideology, the constant is Villanuevas paranoia and misuse of his authority. He is a stain on self-government  one that voters have in their power to wash away.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Authorities in Michigan are searching for up to 10 men who officials say broke into a high school and fought students.

As a result of the incident around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, students were not allowed on campus at Oak Park High School on Wednesday, April 27. The school is in a suburb of Detroit.

Oak Park Schools Superintendent Dr. Jamii J. Hitchcock said in a letter to families that eight to 10 unidentified adult males pushed past security and staff and forced their way into the high school building. The men then fought with students and security personnel, according to the superintendent.

Video shared on social media shows dozens of people involved in the brawl in the sprawling hallway.

The school building was secured and the men fled without being taken into custody. Officials learned the incident likely stemmed from another altercation that happened off school property over the weekend, Hitchcock said.

Its unclear if any of the students or staff were injured. No weapons were involved in the fight, the school district said.

Only one of the men had been identified as of Tuesday night, according to the superintendent.

At Oak Park Schools, violence of any kind will not be tolerated, Hitchcock stated. We are making every effort to identify those who trespassed on school property, entered our building and instigated violence against our students and staff. We plan to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

The school is planning on doing virtual learning for the remainder of the week.
Elon Musk is using his powerful Twitter account to bolster right-wing users who sharply criticized two company executives, exposing them to the online masses who joined in the attacks.

It started with a Tuesday tweet from political podcast host Saagar Enjeti, who was responding to a report by Politico that Twitter's legal, policy and trust leader broke down in tears at a meeting with her staff this week.

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"Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate at Twitter who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan's podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the @elonmusk takeover," Enjeti tweeted.

Tesla CEO Musk, who acquired Twitter for $44 billion this week, replied, criticizing Gadde's past actions. "Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate," he wrote.

During the 2020 presidential election, Twitter temporarily blocked a New York Post story on Democratic nominee Joe Biden's son Hunter that it said violated a policy against posting hacked materials. The company did not suspend the entire news organization but did prevent it from tweeting for a period of time.

Musk's response Tuesday was the first time he targeted specific Twitter executives by using his nearly singular ability to call attention to topics that interest him. Supporters of Musk, a prolific and freewheeling tweeter with 86 million followers, tend to pile on with his viewpoints.

The tweet could run afoul of the terms of his deal to acquire Twitter, which permit the SpaceX and Tesla CEO to tweet about his acquisition "so long as such tweets do not disparage the Company or any of its Representatives." It was not immediately clear what tools of enforcement the company had.

Musk has used the platform to criticize Twitter's decisions in the past, particularly on topics related to free speech and the banning of accounts from individuals who violate Twitter rules. Gadde is the most senior executive responsible for those decisions.

Story continues

He also used his megaphone to take a swipe at Twitter's popularity, pointing out that Donald Trump's Truth Social was "beating Twitter & TikTok" among Apple Store downloads early Wednesday.

But until now, Musk's criticisms do not appear to have been personal or targeted at individual Twitter employees. His responses to the tweets from Enjeti and online influencer Mike Cernovich also reveal the chaos - and potential harm - that can ensue when the incoming owner of a company amplifies criticism of workers there.

Personal attacks from Musk are a nightmare scenario for Twitter employees, who in recent weeks have repeatedly expressed concerns in interviews, at a companywide town hall, and internal online forums, that they could be targeted by the world's richest man.

Twitter users quickly piled onto the criticism of Gadde, including calling on Musk to fire her and using racist language to describe her. Gadde was born in India and immigrated to the United States as a child. One user said she would "go down in history as an appalling person."

Twitter employees publicly defended Gadde from the attacks on Wednesday morning. "@vijaya, fist bump of empathy," tweeted Lea Kissner, the company's head of privacy engineering.

Cernovich also tweeted about Twitter Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker, drawing a response from Musk.

Cernovich told The Washington Post that he was "surprised by the reaction to my tweet, which was a discussion of a news report."

Twitter, Musk and Gadde did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Baker declined to comment.

Enjeti responded to The Post's request on Twitter, writing Gadde was a "public figure" because she appeared on Joe Rogan's popular podcast. "My criticism of her for a policy she publicly has defended is in no way responsible for what some rando account may say to her," he tweeted.

In internal messages and at a company town hall Monday, Twitter employees asked executives for assurance that they would be able to safely do their jobs if Musk targeted them.

Musk launched a hostile takeover bid for Twitter two weeks ago, citing a desire to restore "free speech" to the platform. Over the weekend, he engaged in closed-door negotiations with the board. On Monday, the two parties announced they'd reached an agreement for an acquisition that is expected to close in three to six months, according to executives.

Employees who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution have said that they are concerned Musk may undo some of the steps they've taken to better moderate hate speech and disinformation.

Individual Twitter employees have previously faced online attacks for company policy decisions, but in the past the company has come to their defense.

After Twitter applied a fact-check label to former president Donald Trump's tweets in May 2020, conservative media figures and the president's son Donald Trump targeted Twitter executive Yoel Roth, who was working on the company's safety team at the time. They surfaced anti-Trump tweets from three years prior and claimed he was responsible for the decision to label the former president's misleading tweets, prompting a barrage of personal attacks.

Spokesman Brandon Borrman, Twitter's vice president of global communications, told The Washington Post at the time that it was "incredibly disappointing that people are attacking an individual for a company decision."

- - -

The Washington Post's Faiz Siddiqui contributed to this report.

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Elon Musk's jet is tracked via a Twitter account run by the 19-year-old Jack Sweeney. Picture Alliance/Getty Images

Jack Sweeney, 19, runs a Twitter account which tracks the location of Elon Musk's private jet.

The teen said he has backup accounts in case the page is taken down after Musk takes control of Twitter.

Musk asked Sweeney last year to remove the ElonJet account, saying it was a security risk.

The teenager who runs a Twitter account that tracks Elon Musk's private jet said that he's made back up plans in case the page is pulled after the billionaire acquires the social media platform.

Jack Sweeney, the 19-year-old who became famous after Musk offered him $5,000 to remove his @ElonJet Twitter account earlier this year, tweeted a list of other platforms where people can track the plane "in case this account disappears."

The teen's concerns emerged after it was announced on Monday that Musk is buying Twitter in a $44 bln deal that will take the firm private. The acquisition has yet to be approved by regulators, and isn't expected to close until later this year, but Sweeney expressed uncertainty over the future of his Twitter account if Musk eventually takes control of the firm.

"It remains unknown if Elon would take down ElonJet if he takes over Twitter," Sweeney said in a tweet from his personal account. "If he considers ElonJet a security risk rather than a critic then I'm probably gone."

Sweeney said the tracking data is in his Discord server and he's planning to make a Telegram channel onto which he could upload details of the jet's movements. People can also check where Musk's jet is via his Facebook and Instagram pages, he said.

The teen tagged Musk in a tweet on Monday, saying that negotiations don't have to be over and he's still willing to delete the Twitter account "if we figure something out."

Musk messaged Sweeney in fall last year, asking him to take down the Twitter account that tracks his private jet because it was a "security risk." The billionaire had previously said that social media accounts tracking his movements were "becoming a security issue."

Sweeney told Insider that he turned down Musk's offer of $5,000 in return for removing the Twitter account, because he enjoys the job. In a response to Musk, he suggested raising the figure to $50,000, which he said he could use to put towards college education or purchasing a Tesla Model 3.

Read the original article on Business Insider
This photo illustration shows an image of former President Donald Trump reflected in a phone screen that is displaying the Truth Social app, in Washington, DC, on February 21, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)

Elon Musk has suggested a new name for Donald Trumps Truth Social app as he accused Twitter, which has just agreed to buy for $44bn, of censorship.

The Tesla boss, whose takeover of the San Francisco-based platform was announced earlier this week, took to Twitter to compare it to to the former presidents own social media company.

Truth Social (terrible name) exists because Twitter censored free speech, Mr Musk tweeted.

Should be called Trumpet instead!
Gazprom demand to be paid in roubles is a breach of contract, according to Polands PGNiG (Reuters)

Russia has warned it could cut off gas supplies to other nations after turning the taps off for Nato members Poland and Bulgaria.

In a sign of even further tensions between the Kremlin and the west over Ukraine, Russia threatened to target nations if they did not comply with President Putins demands to pay for fuel in roubles.

The threat came after an announcement earlier on Wednesday that gas bound for Poland and Bulgaria would be halted. That move led to leaders across Europe accusing Moscow of blackmail over gas provision.

But refusing to back down, the Kremlin said other countries could suffer the same fate. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied Russia was engaging in blackmail and said it was a reliable energy supplier. But, he added: When the payment deadlines approach, if some consumers decline to pay under the new system, then the presidents decree of course will be applied.

Vladimir Putin had previously said unfriendly countries must pay for gas in roubles.

Russia continues to respond to the wests sanctions against Moscow and oligarchs (via REUTERS)

Poland and Bulgaria are the first to have their gas cut off by Europes main supplier since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in mid-February.

In a further move against the west, Russias foreign ministry also announced it imposed sanctions on 287 members of the House of Commons in retaliation for UK measures over the Ukraine invasion.

Unacceptable and unjustified

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission called the move to cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, also two European Union members states, unacceptable and unjustified.

The announcement by Gazprom that it is unilaterally stopping delivery of gas to customers in Europe is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail, Ms von der Leyen said.

We are prepared for this scenario. We are in close contact with all member states. We have been working to ensure alternative deliveries and the best possible storage levels across the EU.

On Wednesday, speaking to the Polish parliament, prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he believed the move was revenge for the announcement of sanctions which targeted 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom, earlier this week.

Story continues

Mr Morawiecki said Poland had received notice that Gazprom was cutting off supplies with hours of the state-owned energy giants announcement. However, the prime minister said Poland could still provide for its people because it had secured gas from other countries.

Bulgarian prime minister Kiril Petkov called Gazprom's suspension of gas deliveries to his country a gross violation of their contract and blackmail.

We will not succumb to such a racket, he added.

Ursula von der Leyen slammed Russias move to stop Bulgaria and Polands gas supply (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Get out of Russian possible as soon as possible

German gas lobby group Zukunft Gas (Future Gas) said Berlin must immediately start stockpiling more gas now that Russia is using the energy source as a political tool.

"We need to save gas now so that we have enough in winter," said the group's head Timm Kehler in a statement.

However, four European buyers have already paid for gas supplies in roubles meeting president Putins demand, Bloomberg News reported, citing a source close to Gazprom while another 10 European companie shave already opened accounts at Gazprombank to pay in the Russian currency.

Tom Marzec-Manser, head of gas analytics at the Independent Chemical and Energy Market Intelligence said the move from Russia sent a seismic warning shot to the west.

It shows the request for paying into a Gazprom bank account is a serious one, Mr Marzec-Manser told The Independent.

Its a warning shot and many major buyers that want to get their gas will have to open a Gazprom account.

Ukraines former foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin warned nations that Russia is not longer a reliable gas supplier. It's a full-blown economic war, Russia is not a reliable supplier anymore, this perception is over forever, Mr Klimkin told the BBC.

The lesson to be drawn is very simple, get out of Russian gas as soon as possible, it's a threat to your security."

Gazprom has requested buyers to pay into a bank account which can transfer funds into Rubles (AFP via Getty Images)

Europe imports large amounts of Russian natural gas, but the war in Ukraine has caused many countries to pledge to find other sources to satisfy their domestic needs.

Polish gas company PGNiG has repeatedly said it would not comply with the new scheme of payments and that Russias demand to be paid in roubles represented a breach of contract.

Polands gas supply contract with Gazprom covers about 50 per cent of national consumption.

This map shows the extent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Press Association)

Bulgaria, which meets 90 per cent of its gas needs with Gazproms imports, said it has taken steps to find alternative supplies and no restrictions on consumption was required for now.

A spokesman for the Bulgarian government said: The Russian proposal for a two-step payment procedure is in violation with the current contract and bears considerable risks for Bulgaria, including to make payments without receiving any gas deliveries from Russia.

In other developments, Russia has accused Nato of fighting a proxy war in Ukraine and said the danger of a third world war was serious and real.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

Additional reporting by agencies
Don't miss CoinDesk's Consensus 2022, the must-attend crypto & blockchain festival experience of the year in Austin, TX this June 9-12.

Talks involving the European Unions parliament, commission and council begin Thursday on controversial anti-money laundering rules for crypto transactions, the last stage towards the passage into law of measures that some have said could kill privacy and stifle innovation.

Many in the industry question the premise that tough new rules are needed against a tide of criminal behavior, but more pragmatic voices are looking at the legislative details that could prove crucial  such as how the law will treat small payments and unhosted wallets, as well as when the new law would take effect.

The draft legislation would require crypto providers to verify customer details and report suspicious transactions to the authorities  but the industry has complained it could prove burdensome to implement, and would end digital anonymity.

A last-minute protest led by Coinbase (COIN) and similar companies largely fell on deaf ears, and on March 31 European Parliament lawmakers voted to apply tough money-laundering rules to the sector, arguing the rules were needed to curb crime. Now, attention turns to what the final form of the law will be  where talks are reaching the closing stage.

Both lawmakers at the European Parliament and national government meeting in the EUs Council have said they want to see tighter monitoring of which parties take part in crypto transactions. They say that should apply even for the smallest payments  unlike for conventional bank transfers where customer identity only needs to be verified for transactions over 1,000 euros ($1,066)  as its easier to circumvent by chopping up digital payments into small chunks.

In practical terms that may not make much difference, according to a recent blog by Oldrich Peslar, head of legal at the Rockaway Blockchain Fund.

I do not think that this is some tragedy to apply checks to small crypto payments, Peslar said, because it is all information any compliant service provider could already have, and gathering it is not an administrative burden nor any invasion of privacy.

Story continues

Challenge

But from a legal point of view, it could constitute an unfair intrusion into personal affairs that could invite a legal challenge, blockchain law expert Thibault Schrepel told CoinDesk.

You are putting [on] more obligations if its crypto-related than if its not, Schrepel, an associate professor of law at the Free University of Amsterdam, said in an interview.

That would be the worst outcome, he added, potentially infringing EU human rights law  not the least because money laundering is more widespread using other, more traditional means of payment.

Lawmakers could be swayed by the risk of a legal challenge, Schrepel believes  but in practice it may be difficult to get them to retreat from a position they share with the Council. In other areas there is less consensus on the right approach  and, for the law to become final, lawmakers and governments will have to thrash out their differences in a series of closed-door meetings, beginning Thursday.

Read more: Im Not Anti-Crypto, Says Architect of Controversial EU Money Laundering Proposal

That includes the parliaments proposals to make checks apply to unhosted wallets, and to have a central blacklist of dodgy providers. Those are issues that concern Peslar, warning they could spell the end of privacy-enhancing features such as mixers or currencies like monero (XMR).

Extending bank-style know-your-customer checks to self-guarded crypto holders  such as a wallet not hosted by a central exchange  isn't aligned with my values, and is out of line with how cash is treated, he told CoinDesk. We should protect [the] privacy of people, not destroy it.

Governments may come riding to the rescue. If the final text edges towards the position of the Council of the EU, representing national ministries, that would mean a better outcome for unhosted wallets, Blockchain for Europe has said.

Yet, the lobby groups Secretary-General Robert Kopitsch told us, its not so much about what the law does, as when.

The Council says the new rules should wait for crypto licensing legislation to take effect, and apply only two years after the separate Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation is finalized. The MiCA legislation, which could allow crypto operators to work across the EU if they meet financial-stability and investor protection norms, is also currently in its closing stages of negotiation.

Lawmakers, however, want to see a phasing in of between nine and 18 months, while French central banker Francois Villeroy de Galhau on Tuesday said the rules should be implemented by at the latest early 2024.

That matters a lot, Kopitsch believes  because crypto providers might decide to drop services altogether rather than face the legal risk of a rushed job.

The timeline for implementing is actually the biggest problem of the forthcoming negotiations, Kopitsch said, noting the importance of coordinating with other jurisdictions such as the U.S. In nine months you cannot do anything.

Read more: ECB's Panetta Blasts Crypto as Ponzi Scheme Fueled by Greed

Step back

Some would rather take a step back from the fine print of negotiations and remind lawmakers that crypto is not the bogeyman of illicit finance

For criminal behavior its not bitcoin these people are going to use, because its traceable, Pascal Gauthier told CoinDesk, saying that cash and conventional finance would be far more attractive to those seeking to hide than transparent blockchains.

Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, a French company that produces hardware that can be used as unhosted wallets, cited data that suggests trades with illicit addresses represented just 0.15% of transactions last year. (Chainalysis, which carried out the research, also suggests that figure could be as much as double as new dubious activities come to light.)

Claims of widespread illicit behavior are false arguments that have been debunked, Gauthier said, adding that lawmakers who actually want to ban crypto all together were using financial crime concerns as a fig leaf.

But there are also plenty of voices urging the EU to press on with strong constraints on the sector  including global standard setters the Financial Action Task Force, officials who warn crypto is implicated in child porn and terrorism, and the European Central Banks Fabio Panetta, who likens crypto to a lawless Wild West.

Even if the industry sees those views as a wild mischaracterization of crypto risks, they are bound to color the end result. The final version of EU anti-money laundering laws wont be admired by everyone, but optimists within the sector are hoping lawmakers will at least make the best of a bad job.
By Marcelo Rochabrun

LAS BAMBAS, Peru (Reuters) - Chinese-owned MMG Ltd's huge Las Bambas copper mine in Peru is considering a plan to evict indigenous communities that have camped on the property and forced a production halt, according to an executive and a document seen by Reuters.

Under Peruvian civil law, property owners can attempt to evict trespassers by force during the first 15 days after they have settled in the property. If that time period lapses, then they need to go through a lengthier legal process.

People from the Fuerabamba and Huancuire communities entered the mine on April 14 and pitched tents inside the property, including near the mine's massive open pit. Las Bambas, which produces 2% of global copper, halted operations on April 20.

"It's still in the process of being decided," Carlos Castro, Las Bambas head of corporate affairs, said in a text message, when asked about the eviction plan on Tuesday. "The repossession defense can be exercised within the 15 days established by law."

Getting production started again at Las Bambas would add to global supply, potentially dampening prices, though the mine has faced recurring disruptions from impoverished local communities demanding higher financial contributions from the mine.

According to a letter from Peru's official ombudsman seen by Reuters, Las Bambas is planning to attempt the eviction on Wednesday.

The document, which is addressed to Peru's chief of police, asks that law enforcement officials abstain from engaging in violence if the eviction attempt takes place, considering the presence of women, children and elderly people.

A government source confirmed that the eviction had been discussed but he said a final decision was likely to be made on Wednesday. Peru is the world's no. 2 copper producer.

On Tuesday the Fuerabamba and Huancuire communities were preparing for a potential eviction, community leaders told a Reuters reporter who visited the site. Rumors had circled throughout the day about a potential attempt.

The Fuerabamba community was resettled to make way for Las Bambas, one of the word's largest copper mines, around a decade ago. The Huancuire community has sold land to Las Bambas.

(Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
In an unanticipated move, Falls Township has placed its top cop on administrative leave pending an investigation into his performance of duties.

In a brief statement issued Tuesday evening, the township confirmed Police Chief Nelson Whitney was placed on administrative leave earlier that day pending the outcome of an investigation "related to allegations made regarding performance of his duties."

Whitney was placed on a paid leave, a township spokeswoman confirmed, but that the township would not be making any further comment as the matter is personnel related. It is unknown what agency or entity will conduct the investigation into Whitney.

This news organization was not immediately successful Tuesday in reaching Whitney for comment after leaving a voice and text message. Police Association of Falls Township President Edward Elmore also did not response to an email seeking comment and Falls Supervisors Chairman Jeffry Dence did not respond to a voice message and email.

But this news organization confirmed with multiple sources that Whitney's leave followed a no-confidence vote by members of the police union.

More:Chief Nelson Whitney responds; says he has been subpoenaed by federal grand jury

For subscribers:'No-confidence' votes aren't rare in law enforcement

Falls Township Police Chief Nelson Whitney, on Friday, March 4, 2022, talks about the donations of expired police equipment from his members, that will shipped to Ukraine.

More about turmoil in Falls Police Dept:Two Falls police officers sue chief and union president over alleged lies and retaliation

More Falls police stories:Police: Falls officer on administrative leave after alleged DUI crash in Buckingham

In Whitney's absence, the 53-officer department will be overseen by its highest-ranking officer, Henry Ward, who assumes the role of acting police chief, the township confirmed.

Whitney, a 33-year member of the Falls police force, was appointed as police chief on Jan. 1, 2021, after serving as acting chief for four months following the retirement of long-time Chief William Wilcox.

The news of Whitney being placed on leave comes amid a recent flurry of lawsuits against the department and township. Since 2019, at least five current and former Falls Township police officers have filed suits in Bucks County Court alleging the township and its police department discriminated, harassed and retaliated against them.

Story continues

Earlier this year, an outside arbitrator ordered Falls Township police department to reinstate former officer Stephanie Metterle, who was terminated in October 2020 for allegedly lying in a 2019 Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission complaint about serving on the township's Major Incident Response Team (MIRT).

In the complaint, Metterle contended her termination was retaliation for filing a sex and pregnancy discrimination complaint against Falls in response to a series of alleged unlawful actions by the township, according to court documents.

The township said Metterle was never a member of MIRT and she lied in the complaint when she claimed she was removed from the team and replaced by a male officer with less seniority, according to court filings.

The matter went to binding arbitration and in a Jan. 5 decision, an arbitrator decided that while evidence presented in two hearings in 2020 and last year showed that Metterle lied about being a MIRT member when she sought and received overtime pay in 2018, he also found the township's "mismanagement" was at fault for not "fully addressing the issues at the time."

More on Nelson Whitney :Falls' new top cop pushes training, technology

More Falls Police news:'Each of these saves lives:' Falls police collect bulletproof vests, other supplies for Ukraine war

Whitney  then a lieutenant  investigated Metterle's overtime request and approved its payment, according to a copy of the decision obtained by this news organization.

The arbitrator found the township did not have just cause for dismissing Metterle and ordered her discharge reduced to a 30-day unpaid suspension. It also ordered the township to reinstate Metterle, an accident reconstruction expert, to her former position in the department, restore her seniority, pay her back wages and adjust her disciplinary record to reflect the arbitration decision.

The township has filed a 348-page petition seeking to overturn the arbitration decision in Bucks County Court. The township maintains the arbitrator exceeded his powers by ordering the township to "commit an illegal act" by forcing it to reinstate an officer that "knowingly lied" in a complaint and then in sworn testimony taken at the arbitration hearings, according to the petition.

"If allowed to stand, (the arbitration ruling) would damage the integrity of the Falls Township Police Department and Require the Township to employ an officer that has knowingly and intentionally violated the law," according to the petition.

The township also claims that Metterle was terminated after her second conduct unbecoming an officer violation and that dismissal is the 'only" punishment for a second offense, under the disciplinary code.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Falls Township Police Chief placed on administrative leave
A man said that he and his 78-year-old father were attacked by a group of kids last week on their property.

Joe Johnson owns and operates Cardinal Insurance Group in Gastonia.

[ALSO READ: Police arrest armed and dangerous suspect accused of 2 shootings in Gastonia]

Its relatively nice, and the people are fairly friendly, Johnson told Channel 9.

At about 11 a.m. on Thursday, Johnson and his father, who is his business partner, were outside of the business when they encountered the juveniles, according to a police report.

They told police they saw three boys, likely teenagers, walk across the business landscaping and asked them not to walk on the private property.

They jumped over the fence that we have in the back of the premise and broke that, and then started to attack me, Johnson said.

My dad walked around the back and tried to pull the guys off me and they attacked him, pushed him to the ground, he said. And then all three of them jumped on me at that point. And just punching and kicking and all this other stuff.

The father and son will be OK but got cuts and bruises on their faces, arms and legs.

[WANT TO WATCH ON OUR STREAMING APPS? CLICK HERE]

Johnson wants to bring awareness to the neighborhood and hopes someone will come forward with information.

And Id like to know who the guys are, you know, he said. Maybe send the information to the teachers and the parents.

The assailants have not been identified.

(Watch the video below: Action 9 helps Gastonia man who claims Duke Energy damaged driveway)
A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit that was filed by opponents of a mandatory payroll premium to fund Washington states recently delayed long-term care program, saying the court did not have jurisdiction since it was a state tax.

The ruling, filed Monday by Judge Thomas Zilly of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, is in response to the November lawsuit filed on behalf of three businesses in the state and six individuals who claimed that the program  known as the WA Cares Fund  violates a federal law that forbids the state from passing any law that requires employees to participate in a plan that provides sickness or medical benefits.

The suit also argued the law violated the Equal Protection and the Privileges and Immunities clauses of the U.S. Constitution and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act.

The Court is persuaded that the challenged WA Cares premium constitutes a tax, and the Tax Injunction Act drastically limits federal district court jurisdiction to interfere with so important a local concern as the collection of taxes, Zilly wrote, citing a 1981 U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving property taxes.

Any legal challenge to WA Cares must be brought in state court, he wrote.

The first in-the-nation program that created a defined benefit to help offset the costs of long-term care was delayed by 18 months following legislative action in January.

Richard Birmingham, a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP  the firm that filed the suit  said in an email than any pursuit of litigation through the state courts is likely to be delayed until closer to the new July 2023 implementation date to see what further action the Legislature may take that could affect the underlying law.

The delay came following criticisms about elements of the underlying law, and to give a commission tasked with providing the Legislature policy options time to consider other potential changes to the law, including possibly making the benefit portable for those who pay in and move out of state. But the delay also came at a time when opponents were raising solvency concerns, including the fact that more than 470,000 people  or approximately 13% of the states workforce  had already opted out of the program.

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The .58% of total pay per paycheck payroll tax that pays for the benefit  which was supposed to start being collected by employers at the start of the year is now delayed until July 1, 2023.

Access to the benefit to pay for things like in-home care, home modifications like wheelchair ramps and rides to the doctor is now delayed from Jan. 1, 2025, until July 1, 2026. The lifetime maximum of the benefit is $36,500, with annual increases to be determined based on inflation.

Addressing one of the criticisms raised by the lawsuit, the Legislature also allowed people born before Jan. 1, 1968, who do not become vested in the program because they do not pay the premium for 10 years, to now qualify for partial benefits under the bill.

Another bill approved this year targeted another concern leveled at the underlying law, and allowed people who work in Washington but live in other states to opt out, along with spouses or partners of active military members and temporary workers with nonimmigrant visas.

Republicans have argued that the underlying bill should be repealed, but supporters say it is a necessary measure to help a majority of residents 65 and older who are likely to require some type of assistance to live independently.

After key improvements to WA Cares during this years legislative session, the program is set up for success in the long term, Ben Veghte, the director of the WA Cares Fund, said in a written statement. This decision is another step toward making long-term care accessible for all Washingtonians and setting an example for the rest of the nation to follow.
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland and Sweden must prepare for increased Russian spy operations, cyber attacks and attempts to influence lawmakers as they consider joining NATO after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, the Nordic nations' intelligence chiefs said on Wednesday.

Russia's invasion, which it calls a "special operation", has forced Sweden and Finland to reassess their longstanding military neutrality, and they are expected to announce in May whether they will join the U.S.-led NATO alliance.

Swedes and Finns, especially decision-makers, should be more vigilant than before in spotting attempts by Russia to influence policy and perceptions, the head of Finland's security service told a joint news conference with his Swedish and Norwegian counterparts.

"Russia's possibilities for human intelligence operations are currently limited because the willingness of Finns to cooperate with Russian diplomats is at a low level," Antti Pelttari said.

Sweden's security service has already been preparing for several years for possible Russian threats targeting the country's economy and political decision-making, intelligence chief Charlotte von Essen said.

"Russia may think they now have a limited timeframe to influence the Swedish decision on whether to join NATO," she said, adding that Russian attempts to influence that move could take many forms and happen simultaneously.

The three Nordic intelligence chiefs said they would work closely together in the area of security. Norway is a longstanding NATO member.

Russia has long cast NATO enlargement as a direct threat to its own national security and has cited Ukraine's long-term ambition to join the alliance as a reason for its military actions against that country.

Russia, with which Finland shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border, has said it will deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad if Finland and Sweden decide to join NATO.

(Reporting by Essi Lehto; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Explosions and gunshots in Transnistria, the Russian-backed separatist territory in Moldova, are raising fears that Moscow is looking to escalate its grab for territory beyond its war in Ukraine.

The attacks are shrouded in confusion, with little independent presence in the restrictive territory. The interior ministry of the unrecognized independent region said drones had been detected flying in from Ukraine, as well as gunshots, Reuters reported.

At least two radio towers that broadcast in Russia were said to be damaged, while Transnistria officials say shots from inside Ukraine were fired at a village holding an ammunition depot.

Russia has blamed Ukraine for launching the attacks, while Ukraine has accused Russia of staging the explosions.

As the violence worsens, Russias Foreign Ministry has said it hopes the escalation does not get to a point where its forces would have to intervene, raising concerns that Moscow intends to expand its assault on Ukraine to neighboring countries.

Heres what to know about Transnistria:

Russian troops present in breakaway Transnistria

Russian is estimated to have around 1,500 troops stationed in Transnistria, where the majority of residents speak Russian.

The pro-Russian territory broke away from Moldova in the early 1990s, and Russian troops have been stationed in the region since the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, Moscow has never officially recognized Transnistria as independent.

Moldova has little control over the region, which maintains its own military and is backed by Russia.

Freedom House, which monitors the state of civil freedoms and democracy worldwide, rates Transnistria as not free in its 2021 report of the territory, with almost no political competition and severely restricted freedom of speech.

US monitoring violence in Transnistria

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday that the administration is closely monitoring the recent explosions in Transnistria.

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We do not know all the details yet, but we remain concerned about any attempts to escalate tension, Price said.

We reiterate the Moldovan Governments call for calm in response to these incidents. And we fully support, as you have heard us say before, Moldovas territorial integrity and sovereignty. We respect its constitutionally guaranteed neutrality.

The U.S. has provided Moldova with $30 million in humanitarian assistance for its hosting of Ukrainian refugees, and $100 million in development assistance to strengthen the countrys long-term democratic and economic resiliencies, Price said.

The U.S. and Moldovan militaries also work closely together, and the Biden administration relaunched a strategic dialogue that had been on pause for several years.

Moldova is a strong partner, Price said. We are working to make sure that they have what they need to respond to the regional consequences of Russias aggression against Ukraine.

Moscow views Moldova as moving too far West

Moldova has sought greater integration into the European Union and has accelerated those efforts during Russias war in Ukraine. Moldovan President Maia Sandu last week submitted key paperwork to the EU in what she said is a step closer to our accensino bid for the national bloc.

We are ready to do our part swiftly and diligently to give Moldova a chance for a better, safer and more prosperous future, the president tweeted.

John Herbst, director of the Atlantic Councils Eurasia Center, said Russian President Vladimir Putin views Moldovas turn to the West as a direct threat towards Moscow.

Maia Sandu is not a figure the Kremlin looks on with sympathy; they see her as someone who wants to take Moldova to the West, which of course she does, he said.

So enhancing Moscows military presence in Transnistria, would not only strengthen its aggression against Ukraine, but also its ability to apply pressure on a government in Chisinau that it does not like.

Russian official has signaled interest in Transnistria as part of Ukraine offensive

Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russias Central Military District, said Russia wants to create a path for Russian forces from Crimea in Ukraine to Transnistria.

The move would require Russia to take over much of southern and eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have been focusing their attacks after failing to secure the capital city of Kyiv.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov would not confirm or deny the ambitions when asked.

Minnekayevs remark was the first time Russia admitted to having territorial ambitions during the war.

Ukraine warns Transnistria is the next front

Ukrainian officials have warned for weeks the war would not be contained to within its borders, but have further sounded the alarm after Minnekayevs comment.

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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is prepared for Russia to attempt to destabilize the region and escalate tensions.

The goal is obvious  to destabilize the situation in the region, to threaten Moldova. They show that if Moldova supports Ukraine, there will be certain steps, Zelensky said.

We clearly understand that this is one of the steps of the Russian Federation. The special services are working there, Zelensky said. But we understand their capabilities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are ready for this and are not afraid of them.

Ukrainians have warned that Russia will implement false flag operations to pin blame on their country.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Myanmars military junta sentenced the countrys former democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, to five years in prison on April 27.

The government accused Suu Kyi of accepting bribes, amounting to $600,000 and 402 oz of gold, from her one-time protege  former Yangon Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein  for favors while she was State Councillor of Myanmar, the countrys de facto head of government. She served in the role for seven years following the countrys 2015 election before being overthrown in a coup detat last year.

Suu Kyis trial was held in secret in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, and was closed to all spectators. News of the conviction and sentencing was leaked by a legal official who was not authorized to speak to the press. Her lawyers were also barred from speaking to the media, the New York Times reported. Suu Kyi, herself, is being held at an undisclosed location in the country.

Most legal experts and foreign governments consider her detention a sham to delegitimize her and justify the militarys re-seizure of power, following Myanmars partial democratization in 2015. Its also seen as a way to keep Suu Kyi, 76, from rallying support around the country. Since being overthrown, she has been sentenced to six years imprisonment already.

She is also facing ten more corruption charges under the countrys Anti-Corruption Act. If convicted of those charges, and with sentences served consecutively, she could face 190 years in prison. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, has said that The days of Aung San Suu Kyi as a free woman are effectively over.

Suu Kyi has been a controversial figure both in Myanmar and internationally. The daughter of Myanmars founding father, Aung San, she became the leader of the countrys pro-democracy movement in 1988 after founding the National League for Democracy party. Suu Kyi was then arrested and spent 15 years in-and-out of house arrest. She won countrys 1990 general election, the first in over 30 years, which was annulled by the military. Her campaign against the annulment earned her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

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Twenty-five years later, in 2015, she won a second general election permitted by the military and became Myanmars leader. Because the constitution barred her from the presidency for having British citizen children, she assumed the role of State Councillor to exercise power.

However, Suu Kyi has been widely criticized 2017 for her perceived failure to address the genocide of Rohingya-ethnic Muslims in Myanmars Rakhine state by the countrys military. That year, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, then U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, called the situation a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.

Supporters of Suu Kyi argued that openly opposing the militarys actions would risk another coup detat and undermine the countrys fragile democracy. Nevertheless, Suu Kyi was stripped of several human rights awards across the world she had received since 1988.

However, she continues to enjoy support in Myanmar, and won the 2020 general election, before the military refused to allow parliament to sit. Since her overthrow, the country has witnessed large-scale protests opposing the military and in her support.

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(Bloomberg) -- Japan needs a substantial increase in military spending next year, a former defense minister said, as he prepared to submit a ruling party research groups national security proposals to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

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If youre thinking of the NATO level of 2% in five years time, you will need a substantial initial budget request, Itsunori Onodera, who heads the Liberal Democratic Partys Research Commission on Security, said in an interview with Bloomberg News at his offices Tuesday.

The group is calling for the pacifist nation to consider doubling defense expenditures to 2% of gross domestic product over the next five years, in line with the target set by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The former defense minister described the annual defense budget rises over the past decade as absolutely minimal. The commissions report -- which he is set to hand to the premier later Wednesday -- comes as several U.S. allies look to boost defense spending following Russias invasion of Ukraine, which has stirred global security concerns.

Public opinion is shifting in favor of a stronger military in a country whose pacifist constitution has remained unchanged since 1947. A survey carried out by the Nikkei newspaper from April 22-24 found 55% of respondents agreed Japans defense spending should be raised to 2% of GDP or more.

They thought if you took an exclusively defensive stance, no one would attack you, Onodera said. But if you look at Ukraine, there are countries that will attack in a one-sided way, he added. Its a matter of course that public perceptions will change.

The government is in the process of revising its National Security Strategy for the first time since it was adopted in 2013, along with two other key defense policy documents. Onodera, who was defense minister in 2013, highlighted the transformation in Japans security environment since then.

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At that point, China was described as a concern, North Korea was a threat, because it was launching missiles, and Russia was to be closely watched, he said. In the LDP report we are using the word threat for all of them.

The areas to be bolstered should include personnel, to bring the number of troops up to official quota levels, as well as funds to enable more use of existing defense equipment, Onodera said. Research and development spending should also be increased, he added.

The groups report calls for Japan to arm itself with what it calls the capacity to counter-attack, a idea that has drawn criticism for being contrary to the nations exclusively defensive security posture. Given Japans status as the only country to suffer nuclear attacks, the group is not advocating the idea of nuclear sharing, which was raised by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier in the year.

Potential harassment from the north is a renewed worry, Onodera said, but concerns over regional military threats had deepened even ahead of Russias invasion. Beijings clampdown on Hong Kong sparked fears that Taiwan could face a similar fate -- something many in Japan see as directly affecting their own security. North Korea is also pressing ahead with missile and nuclear weapons development.

Kim Jong Un Puts ICBMs on Parade With Vow to Expand Nuke Program

Nonetheless, substantial spending increases will face hurdles, as Japan grapples with massive public debt. The initial defense budget for the current fiscal year was 5.4 trillion yen ($42.3 billion), although that may be bolstered with extra budgets.

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  A former top-ranking State Department official is set to plead guilty for improperly helping a wealthy Gulf country try to influence U.S. policy and not disclosing on a government ethics form gifts he received from a disgraced political fundraiser.

Court records filed earlier this month say that Richard G. Olson, who was the State Department's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the end of the Obama administration, provided aid and advice to Qatar on lobbying activities in violation of a revolving door prohibition against such behavior for one year after leaving public service.

Olson, who also served as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, indicated in a signed filing earlier this month he intends to plead guilty. Its unclear if hes cooperating in other investigations.

The case represents one of the more high-profile efforts by the Justice Department in recent years to crack down on unreported or illegal influence campaigns funded by foreign governments aimed at altering U.S. policy.

Federal prosecutors also said that while at the State Department, Olson failed to disclose certain financial benefits he received from a California businessman named Imaad Zuberi. Once a major political donor, Zuberi is now serving a 12 year prison sentence for funneling illegal campaign contributions to politicos in both major parties and then peddling the resulting influence to foreign governments. The new court records do not use Zuberi's name, but The Associated Press was able to identify him based on court filings in other cases, letters a Zuberi representative has sent to Congress, and interviews with Zuberi associates.

Neither the Justice Department or Olson's attorney immediately returned requests for comment.

Shortly after Olson left the State Department, several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, launched a blockade against Qatar that sparked a massive spending spree in Washington on lobbying and other efforts to influence U.S. policy.

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Olson, Zuberi and retired Marine four-star Gen. John Allen traveled to Doha early in the diplomatic crisis to meet with top Qatari officials and discuss ways of resolving the issue, according to court records and a statement Allen's spokesman provided to the AP last year.

Federal prosecutors write in Olson's newly filed court records that shortly after the June 2017 trip, Olson, Zuberi, a Qatari official and Allen, who is only identified as Person 3," met with several Congressmen for the purpose of convincing the U.S. lawmakers to support Qatar rather than its regional rivals in the Gulf Diplomatic Crisis.

Emails that Zuberi's representative submitted in a letter to Congress also show that Zuberi pushed for Olson and Allen to accompany Qatari officials to a White House meeting with then-National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.

We should shift this conversation to WhatsApp, Allen replied. I'll let Rick speak for himself regarding his legal restrictions in dealing with the (U.S. Government).

Allen, who is now president of the influential Brookings Institute think tank, told the AP last year that White House officials were aware of and supported his efforts to revolve the crisis as a private citizen.

General Allen has never acted as an agent of the Qatari government," his spokesman, Beau Phillips, said in a statement last year.

The newly filed court documents also show that Olson worked with Zuberi to win U.S. government approval for a preclearance facility at the Doha airport, which would allow U.S.-bound passengers to clear customs before they left Qatar.

Such approval would expand the number of U.S. cities the Doha airport could serve and give it an advantage over competitors in the Gulf, prosecutors said. As ambassador, Olson had worked to establish a preclearance facility at the Abu Dhabi International Airport in the UAE.

Zuberi became notorious for courting lawmakers and diplomats like Olson. In 2015, prosecutors said, Zuberi paid for Olsons trip from New Mexico to London, where the then-ambassador met with Esam Janahi, a Bahraini businessman who offered Olson a one-year contract worth $300,000 a year. Janahi was not named in Olson's court records, but the AP identified him through separate court filings and other records.

Zuberi detailed that aspect of his relationship with Olson last year in letters to members of Congress, in which a former federal law enforcement officer hired by Zuberi cited a host of irregularities in the fundraisers prosecution and described his lengthy prison sentence as a miscarriage of justice.

___

Mustian reported from New York.
The City of Memphis seems to be stuck when it comes to getting a handle on illegal drag racing. FOX13 has done its own digging for clues that would help get to the bottom of the issue. In an exclusive and anonymous interview with a Memphis Police officer, who asked that we conceal his identity, he shared from the inside, some of the problems that plague the department and its handling of drag racing activities.

DANGEROUS DONUTS: Streets blocked as multiple vehicles spinout

The chatter still continues about a viral video that surfaced showing the intersections of South Parkway and Mississippi Boulevard closed off over the weekend as sports cars took turns doing spinouts and donuts in the middle of the roadway.

They dont have no respect for older people, you know what Im saying, said Robert Brown, a longtime South Memphis resident. He shared similar sentiments with other fellow South Memphians.

Something really needs to be done about it because some innocent people could get killed over this drag racing, this donut spinning, said Lawrence Wilson.

However, the issue is not just a problem in South Memphis. Over the past three months, reports of illegal drag racing have surfaced all across the Bluff City, including on popular interstates. Most recently, during a car takeover to target drag racing, authorities spotted a large group of performance vehicles on South Perkins and Winchester Road going at a high rate of speed.

RELATED: Man charged with street racing, leading Memphis police on high-speed chase

Authorities said on Saturday that the vehicles were attempting to race each other and dangerously changed lanes recklessly around other vehicles on the road. Police said they made contact with a driver who identified himself as 27-year-old Carrius Douglas, who was driving a silver 2017 Ford Mustang GT. Police said Douglas informed them he was driving without a license. Police said Douglas then fled but lost control when his rear tires broke loose.

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Two days later, police reported locating Douglas and his vehicle. According to police, Douglas now faces several charges including drag racing, evading arrest, violation of financial law, reckless driving and violation of registration law.

On Tuesday, a judge ordered a $5,000 bond for Douglas; according to Shelby County documentation. He has since bonded out, but is scheduled for a second court hearing Wednesday, April 27th.

The anonymous officer told FOX13, as much as they want to prevent cases like these, their hands are tied.

The publics perspective on what we actually can do and what they think that we are able to do is totally different from what we actually can do, the officer said.

The officer goes on to reveal that the departments No Chase policy puts police officers in a bind. The policy would prohibit officers from chasing illegal speed racers once they flee the scene.

The perception from the public is the police are not doing anything, when the public are the ones that cried out for the police not to be able to police.

The anonymous cop goes on to explain the frustrations.

As soon as the blue lights come on, thats considered a chase. And, if you have a No Chase policy, you cant even light them up in order to try to stop them.

Residents FOX13 spoke with recently point out that many of the intersections where racing and spinouts happen have cameras, but we found out from our anonymous MPD source that even that is not a solution.

Some have been up there for years, and theyve known, Oh, that ones been broken, but we havent fixed it yet, or the crime could happen right under it, Oh, that cameras turned the wrong way. There should be more cameras, and they should all be functional, the officer went on to say.

Meanwhile, when we asked for an effective solution for the constant speeding and racing taking over local roads and interstates, our source left us with this perspective.

Overall, the big picture is, if you dont have a police department that can police, youre going to have problems, and thats the bottom line. Until you un-handcuff the police to actually police, without violating civil rights, but effectively have the backing of the city, which weve never had, to police, to curtail the behavior, then its going to continue. It is absolutely going to continue, thats the bottom line, the officer said.

Download the FOX13 Memphis app to receive alerts from breaking news in your neighborhood.

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is preparing for a change of control at the PCK refinery in Schwedt operated by Russian state-owned Rosneft that accounts for all of Germany's remaining Russian oil imports, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Wednesday.

Germany has set out plans to become independent of Russian oil, which would make a European Union oil embargo manageable for Europe's biggest economy.

It has reduced the proportion of oil it sources from Russia to 12% from 35%, leaving PCK the only remaining consumer of Russian oil in the country.

Rosneft "is not interested in not refining Russian oil. If I call them and ask, 'What are you doing to become independent of Russian oil', they won't even pick up the phone," Habeck said in a video posted on Twitter by the economy ministry.

PCK supplies parts of eastern Germany, including Germany's capital Berlin, as well as western Poland.

In the video posted on Wednesday, Habeck said he was nearing an agreement with Poland following talks he held there on Tuesday. "We made good progress. Now it's about technical details," he said.

Under Habeck's plans, part of the supply for PCK would be shipped via the German Baltic Sea port of Rostock, and Habeck said solidarity from Poland was needed to supply the rest.

"The Poles say, quite rightly, 'We don't want to bring Polish oil to Germany to keep Schwedt alive'," Habeck said in the video.

"But we are speaking about a case where Germany supports Poland and Poland supports Germany in the event that Rosneft is no longer the operator of the refinery," he said, without elaborating.

One option could be expropriation.

Germany's Cabinet this week approved a legislative amendment that would make it easier for Germany to take control of assets and firms critical to its energy supply, a move that came in response to the growing risk of disruptions.

Asked at a news conference on Wednesday whether Germany could consider expropriating the Schwedt refinery, Habeck said: "We are in a situation where the German government must adapt to and prepare for all scenarios."

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Habeck said that Germany could cope with an EU oil embargo once a solution for PCK is found.

"If we had a transition period to organise ships that can bring oil to Rostock, that use the port there to supply Schwedt, we would be able to manage an oil embargo," he said.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; editing by Jason Neely and Sandra Maler)
Local authorities in Canada are investigating an attack that left a 14-year-old student unconscious inside a high school in the city of Richmond.



Janice Xie, a Grade 9 student at Hugh Boyd Secondary School, said a 17-year-old Grade 11 student beat her up in a school corridor and left her with head injuries on Thursday.



The victim said she was going down the stairs during lunchtime when the older student ran after her. He then started punching her and insulting her.



"He called me a homophobic slur. He called me the 'F' slur and said all Asians are ugly and that he hates all Asians," Xie was quoted as saying.



She told CTV that prior to the incident, her attacker had never interacted with her.



"He thought I was telling people he liked another girl when I didn't, she said. And I don't think I could've known anyways because I've never even spoke [sic] to him at all before that."



Xie, who was rushed to the hospital for treatment, suffered a concussion. She said the incident made her afraid of returning to school.



The victims mother, Jordana Sorensen, rushed to the school after being told that Xie passed out twice after being kicked and punched.



Tim Sorensen, the victims father, later learned that their daughter was repeatedly hit in the face as she was lying on the ground until other students intervened. He said local authorities informed him that the alleged attacker would be formally charged with assault.



The incident is currently under investigation by the local Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Richmond.



According to Cpl. Ian Henderson, the male student involved was apprehended at the scene and released to a legal guardian.



"Due to privacy concerns and the confines of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, Richmond RCMP cannot release further details or the names of those involved," Henderson wrote in a statement.



Henderson said details about the suspect were not released to the media in accordance with the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which states that information about a young offender must not be published.



Despite Xies fear of returning to school, she said she has been receiving support from friends and school counselors.



"Even though I was scared to go back, my friends made me feel better," Xie shared. "Everyone was texting me they all comforted me and said I can stay with you the whole day if you want and [they'll] walk me to class and they'll just stick by my side."



David Sadler, director of communications for the Richmond School District, released a statement to CBC noting that the school board is aware of its responsibility to foster a "positive climate and a safe, healthy environment."



Sadler also wrote that every member of their schools community must act in an "ethical, lawful manner that demonstrates respect" for others.



A family friend, Susan Tran, has launched a campaign on GoFundMe to help fund Xies trauma counseling, medical and physical therapy. According to Tran, a portion of the raised amount will be used to help her and her family get justice for this horrendous act.



Feature Image via Susan Tran

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Google has paused the new inclusive language function it rolled out last month for its online word processor after facing heavy criticism online.



The controversial feature flagged potentially inappropriate language and prompted Google Docs users to replace them with alternative terms.



For example, the online word processor suggested replacing words such as mankind" with humankind, housewife with stay-at-home-spouse and landlord with property owner.



Using inappropriate or non-inclusive terms would also prompt a pop-up message saying, Inclusive warning. Some of these words may not be inclusive to all readers. Consider using different words.



According to the tech giant, the decision was made to temporarily disable the inclusive language feature as they make further improvements to the AI-powered tool. The feature was no longer available on Google Docs, as of noon on Tuesday, April 26.



Google spokesperson Jenny Thomson told The Daily Wire that the feature is a form of AI that uses language understanding models, based on millions of common phrases and sentences, to automatically learn how people communicate and suggest changes.



However, she explained, inclusive language suggestionsan assisted writing featurecan over or undercorrect certain phrases. Were looking more carefully at the inclusive language suggestions and have paused those for further review while we continue to improve this feature.



Aside from the inclusive language feature, Google also included AI-powered edits for better word choice, use of active voice and conciseness. The changes were made available to users with Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Education Plus accounts.



Despite Googles aim to elevate your writing style and make more dynamic, clear, inclusive, and concise documents, the new features faced immediate backlash from users and advocates after they first started rolling out on March 31.



For Silkie Carlo, the director of nonprofit privacy campaigning organization Big Brother Watch, Googles new AI-powered features aren't assistive, they're deeply intrusive.



This speech-policing is profoundly clumsy, creepy and wrong, often reinforcing bias, she added. Invasive tech like this undermines privacy, freedom of expression and increasingly freedom of thought.



Vice editors reportedly found inconsistencies in Googles new features. A transcribed interview of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, for example, did not receive any suggestions despite his use of the N-word and numerous references to hunting Black people.



According to a Google spokesperson, the new writing features are still undergoing improvements.



Assisted writing uses language understanding models, which rely on millions of common phrases and sentences to automatically learn how people communicate, the representative told Vice. This also means they can reflect some human cognitive biases. Our technology is always improving, and we dont yet (and may never) have a complete solution to identifying and mitigating all unwanted word associations and biases.







Feature Image via Google Workspace Updates

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The Grand Rapids police officer who is accused of shooting a motorist to death earlier this month is a 2014 graduate of Siena Heights University in Adrian where he was a member of the schools track and field team.

Christopher Schurr was identified as the officer involved in the shooting death of Patrick Lyoya during an April 4 traffic stop, Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom confirmed to media this week.

Siena Heights officials confirmed that Schurr is a 2014 graduate of the university in Adrian, where he studied accounting and criminal justice.

He also was a top athlete, hitting a university and conference record height of more than 17 feet, as a pole vaulter in 2014 at the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships. He was named the most outstanding performer of the event.

According to The Daily Telegram archives, Schurr was one of two track and field athletes who earned national championship status for the Saints during the NAIA Championships at the Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium.

Schurr, a senior at the time, earned a gold medal when he cleared 17- 3/4 in the pole vault. The Byron Center student won on fewer misses throughout the competition.

In May of 2014, Schurr was quoted by MLive as saying he and his fiancee planned to wed in the African nation of Kenya. Schurr and his fiancee had traveled to Kenya to help build houses on a mission trip through their church, Corinth Reformed in Byron Center, south of Grand Rapids.

Me and my fiancee went to Kenya on a missions trip last year. We were asked to go again this year, but we couldnt afford a wedding and the trip, so we decided to combine them, he told MLive.

Schurr remains on administrative leave without police powers while an investigation into the shooting continues.

Police said Lyoya was stopped for having an improper license plate on his vehicle. After the stop, he attempted to run from the officer, who chased and tackled him.

The two men wrestled for the officer's stun gun before the officer pulled his pistol and shot Lyoya. An autopsy found he died of a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.

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The death sparked protests in Grand Rapids and across the nation and renewed calls for police reform.

Michigan State Police are investigating the shooting. No charges have been filed.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Grand Rapids officer accused of shooting is Siena Heights grad
GREEN BAY - A Green Bay job recruitment company is taking a new approach in helping its clients navigate a difficult labor market.

Rose Weiler, owner of New Talent Solutions, an employee recruitment company based out of Green Bay, emphasizes the importance of workplace culture and the recruitment marketing approach to find employees for the businesses she works with.

New Talent Solutions CEO Rose Weiler, right, and Natalie Volberding pose for a portrait at their office, Wednesday, April 20, in Green Bay, Wis. Samantha Madar/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

For months, Wisconsin residents have seen some of their favorite businesses have to close due to lack of staffing.

The hiring market has been extremely challenging. In December, Wisconsin's unemployment rate hit a record low of 2.8% and remained at that number as of March, according to the Department of Workforce Development. The total number of unemployed people in the state hit a record low of 88,500.

Green Bay's unemployment rate is at 3% as of February.

RELATED: Businesses say finding employees is their top headache. This series explores the trends behind Wisconsins workforce woes.

Experts say a key to navigating this challenging environment is to focus on work culture and staff development, something that New Talent Solutions has been doing since Weiler started the business in June.

She and her business partner, Natalie Volberding, launched the company with an aim to work with small or mid-size organizations that either have trouble bringing in enough employees or are looking to increase their workforce. The company works with organizations across the state.

"I saw there was a gap between recruiters and small to mid-sized businesses, smaller companies tend to get leftovers, or left behind," said Weiler.

While typical recruitment services aim to help individuals seek jobs, Weiler's team works with companies to recruit employees for their businesses.

"We don't get a candidate in and send them to five different companies," Weiler said. "We're specifically working for your organization and the candidates are your candidates. You get the first pick."

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Weiler and Volberding use a technique called "recruitment marketing," which helps them find successful candidates for the companies they work for. The approach promotes the value of working for the employer, a news release stated. New Talent Solutions works with companies to identify why employees value their employer, develop a strategy for reaching like-minded candidates, write an effective job post and implement a process nurturing every candidate with time and respect, even those who may lack traditional qualifications for a job.

New Talent Solutions CEO Rose Weiler, left, and Natalie Volberding pose for a portrait at their office, Wednesday, April 20, in Green Bay, Wis. Samantha Madar/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Weiler said the job posts play an effective role in the employee recruitment process.

"We use different (writing) techniques to capture the culture of the work place so that it reads more like an ad then a job description," Weiler said. "We have the essential things that you have to put in a job post, but it's a little more attractive."

Bug Tussel Wireless, a broadband company working to bring highspeed internet to rural markets, has been working with New Talent Solutions for over six months. Bug Tussel CEO Steve Schneider said the recruitment company helped fill their open positions quickly and efficiently.

"(Weiler) sat down and said 'what are your objectives, how can we help you?'" Schneider said. "She was able to capitalize on the internet, social media and her contacts and brought us a bunch of candidates."

When they came to Weiler, Schneider said, they had been trying to fill five business development manager positions for nearly a year. Within a month of working with New Talent Solutions all five positions were filled.

"(Weiler has been able to use a lot more efficient tools to find candidates and share with the candidates what our culture is like and what we're looking for and connect us with the right people," Schneider said.

New Talent Solutions offers full-service recruiting services such as sourcing, phone screenings and interview scheduling.

"We really pride ourselves in the fact that when someone applies we're reaching out to them immediately, at least within 24 hours if not the same day," Weiler said.

Weiler became interested in human resources after taking a behavioral organization class at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

"I thought it was fascinating to see the psychology of work and the work place," Weiler said. "I gravitated toward recruiting because of my personality. I really enjoy talking to people and I feel strongly that we should enjoy our work places. It's so fun to see people find the job that they've been looking for."

Weiler encourages any companies looking for help recruiting employees to contact her at recruiting@NewTalentSolutions.com or visit facebook.com/newtalentsolutions.

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Reach Jelissa Burns at 920-226-4241 or jburns1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @burns_jelissa or on Instagram at burns_jelissa.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: New Talent Solutions helping Wisconsin businesses with job recruitment
New York-headquartered documentary distributor Icarus Films has picked up all North American rights to Hong Kong protest film Blue Island. The film plays this week at the Hot Docs Documentary Festival in Toronto, Canada.

Directed by Chan Tze Woon (Yellowing), the film confronts the large-scale protests in Hong Kong, describing events through a mix of documentary footage and filmed reenactments.

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The distributor has not yet elaborated release plans, but says that it is taking booking requests from museums, arts organizations, film festivals and theaters across North America.

A new wave of young people took back the streets, as one generation after another has done throughout Hong Kongs history. Bullets fly. Fires ignite. White tear gas and blue water cannons encroach on public spaces. The past, the present, and the future converge, said Icarus.

The film is informed by the life-defining experiences of three men: Chen Hak-Chi, a mainland China-born intellectual who swam to Hong Kong, fleeing the 1970s Cultural Revolution; Kenneth Lam, a student leader who survived the Tiananmen Square Massacre; and Raymond Yeung, a patriotic Hong Kong businessman jailed for inciting the anti-British colonial protests of 1966-67.

All are played by young protestors who took part in the 2019 round of demonstrations in Hong Kong against a bill allowing extradition to China. The protests and the police response both became violent and were eventually silenced by the twin impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak and the introduction of Hong Kongs National Security Law in July 2020.

The film previously played as an online press and industry screening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam which had to abandon its plans for an in-person edition in January. That allows Hot Docs to claim it as world premiere. It will then have its U.S. premiere at the New Directors/New Films 2022, and its West Coast premiere at CAAMfest 2022. Overseas, Blue Island has been selected for the Taiwan International Documentary Festival in May.

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Chan and members of the films team will be attending the Hot Docs screenings in person.

Blue Island will join Icarus dGenerate Collection of independent films from mainland China curated by Karin Chien. Icarus was founded in 1978 and now represents a catalog of more than 1,000 titles.

Its other recent acquisitions include: Lost Course, about a democratic village in Chinas uprising against local corruption; Girls Always Happy, an ironically-titled a story of mutual repulsion, hatred and harm between a single mother and her daughter; and Pema Tsedens Tibetan road movie Jinpa.

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) got a standing ovation in a Wednesday House GOP conference meeting after he addressed leaked recordings of his comments in the aftermath of Jan. 6, according to members and sources in the room.

The action from McCarthys colleagues marks the clearest symbol yet that the revelation may not hurt his chances at taking the Speakers gavel if Republicans win the House.

McCarthy told members that the damning quotes from the Jan. 10, 2021, leadership call, during which he said he would suggest former President Trump resign if impeached and wondered if GOP members could be kicked off social media, were simply the leaders speculating on different scenarios.

He just said that we were going to lay out different things of what could be, said Rep. Robert Aderholt (Ala.). At this point, you know, I take his word for it.

The message during the Wednesday meeting was that Republicans need to keep pressing forward with what theyre doing to win control of the chamber after the election.

Even the conferences most conservative members said that their constituents are more concerned about high food and gas prices rather than what McCarthy said, and saw news of McCarthys comments as an attempt to divide the conference.

Several members added that they had not listened to the tapes.

This is a distraction, folks. Come on. This is simply a distraction by the left trying to drive a wedge in a very unified Republican Party and a very unified conference, said Rep. Barry Loudermilk (Ga.).

Distrust of the press also fed into willingness to not fault McCarthy for the comments.

Rep. Glenn Grothman (Wis.) said that he had not listened to the audio, and warned that not everything in the newspaper can be believed.

Unless youre a member of the press, nobody gives a damn about Jan. 6, Grothman said.

Not every member was willing to completely brush the tapes under the rug, though.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) said that she spoke in the conference meeting, and hoped to see McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise (La.) apologize for some of their comments about Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.)

We all need to be accountable for our words. Ive had to do that before. And that we need to apologize when we say something wrong, Greene said.

Greene said that said it was hurtful to hear McCarthy suggest members be removed from social media, but said his team has been helpful in assisting her with Twitter after her personal account was banned from the platform.

A lot of this stuff is just drama that the American people dont care about, Greene said.

Gaetz was less forgiving, and said he confronted Scalise in the meeting asking for reasoning behind his comment that calling Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) anti-Trump was illegal.

He didnt have one. It was pathetic, Gaetz told The Hill.

The New York Times published audio recordings on Tuesday that featured McCarthy and Scalise airing concerns about comments made by some conservative lawmakers in the days following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

McCarthy said Gaetz was putting people in jeopardy with his remarks following the riot. He was particularly concerned with comments the Florida Republican made about Cheney, according to the Times. She had already taken heat from Trump supporters after being critical of the then-president.

And he doesnt need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else, McCarthy added.

Scalise took matters a step further, suggesting that Gaetzs comment may have been illicit.

Its potentially illegal what hes doing, the No. 2 House Republican said, according to the recordings.

Other lawmakers mentioned on the call were Reps. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Barry Moore (R-Ala.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

Moore, unlike Gaetz, did not express anger at the comments about himself.

The RINOs engineering this story to promote their own selfish agenda wont be around next year to prop up the Democrats destructive Big Government scheme, and Republicans will be more united than ever after taking back the House this November, Moore said in a statement.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Oxygen

Single mother Kelli Underwood survived brain tumors, divorce, and depression, but an ill-fated love triangle would be the death of her. Underwood was born and raised in Mesquite, Texas, just east of Dallas. She married young but it wouldnt last, nor would her second marriage. As a single mother of three, she struggled to balance work and family. When it came down to it she was always a very positive person. Anybody that met her said that her smile would light up a room. Thats just the type of
A recent report by the U.S.-based nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) says Instagram "systematically fails" to protect women from online abuse and harassment.



According to CCDHs Hidden Hate report, the Meta-owned image-sharing platform did not act on 90% of complaints made about gender-based abuse and harassment received via direct messages, despite them being reported via its tools. The platform also did not resolve image-based sexual abuse messages within 48 hours.



The study involved an analysis of 8,717 messages received by five high-profile women on Instagram, including South Asian womens rights advocate and culture magazine Burnt Roti founder Sharan Dhaliwal.



Social media is a really important way we establish our brand, maintain relationships, and transact commerce, said Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the CCDH, told the Washington Post. Are we now saying the cost for women doing that is this level of abuse?



The study involved an analysis of 8,717 messages received by five high-profile women on Instagram, including South Asian womens rights advocate and culture magazine Burnt Roti founder Sharan Dhaliwal.



The report highlighted how Instagram did not act on the majority of misogynistic abuse, including unsolicited nude photos and videos, violent messages and death threats.



Dhaliwal, who has over 10,000 Instagram followers, said she has received hundreds of d*ck pics via the platforms DM system.



Its a power play  its about them feeling they have power and can walk away from that saying: I did that, the writer said.



Some abusers even use Instagrams video call function to harass female users.



Dhaliwal shared that a user tried to call her after sending her photos of male genitalia. Just days later, another user sent her 42 messages that included sexual content before attempting to video call her as well.



The study further noted how 227 of 253 accounts that sent abusive messages remained active at least a month after getting reported.



Jacey Kan, an advocacy officer for Hong Kong nonprofit Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women, told the South China Morning Post the platform has been used as a tool where targeting, coercion, and non-consensual distribution happen.



The Hong Kong-based nonprofit has seen cases of image-based abuse across different apps and platforms in Hong Kong rise from 44 cases in 2019 to 200 in 2021.



In response to the spike, the group launched a service called Ta-DA, which is focused on assisting victims in asking platforms to remove offensive content.



According to Kan, over 80% of the 309 links submitted to them were removed after their follow-up.



Metas head of womens safety, Cindy Southworth, released a statement expressing disagreement with the reports conclusions.



We do agree that the harassment of women is unacceptable, she said. Thats why we dont allow gender-based hate or any threat of sexual violence, and last year we announced stronger protections for female public figures.



Feature Image via solenfeyissa

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Iowas Bureau of Refugee Services says it is seeking families to become official sponsors of Ukrainian refugees who may be coming to Iowa under a new federal program.

In a news release, the bureau said it plans to assist families with webinars and training sessions to help sponsors understand what resettlement entails, what their duties and responsibilities will be, and the resources available to help them.

The news release did not say how many Ukrainians are likely to come to Iowa. It also did not indicate what plans are being made to deal with the Ukrainians after Afghan refugees who began arriving in the Des Moines metro late last year told Des Moines Register reporters theyve struggled without sufficient long-term housing, food and other assistance.

Mak Suceska, state refugee coordinator, told Watchdog he was unavailable for an interview about the program Wednesday. Alex Carfrae, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Human Services, which oversees the bureau, did not respond to an interview request.

While the bureau says it stands ready to help prospective sponsors, they also can apply directly through the federal program at welcome.us. Alex Murphy, a spokesperson for Gov. Kim Reynolds, said Wednesday afternoon the private sponsors do not have to inform the state or resettlement agencies of their application if they don't want to.

"Accordingly, we have no way of estimating potential numbers," he said.

Donated items are seen during a donation drive hosted by the Johnston Area Democrats for Afghan refugees at the Johnston Lions Club Community Building Saturday, April 16, 2022, in Johnston.

More: Why some Afghan refugees have fared better in Sioux City, Cedar Rapids than in Des Moines

Agency: Des Moines metro not ready for another wave of refugees

But Des Moines Refugee Support, a Des Moines nonprofit that has been working closely with Afghan refugees in the metro, said in a statement Wednesday that volunteers would love to welcome Ukrainians, but Des Moines is not ready to take them.

"We are worried about the logistics, as we have many Afghan families still in hotels, Afghans still needing food assistance, Afghan babies without diapers," the statement said. "Though the (Bureau of Refugee Services) announcement gives little detail, it does make it sound like it will put Ukrainian resettlement onto private citizens as opposed to the traditional resettlement agencies, and maybe groups of private citizens have more capacity to accept more refugees."

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Des Moines' general lack of affordable housing remains a barrier for resettlement, the statement said. "We sincerely hope that Des Moines doesn't consider itself a viable option for Ukrainians while we still have Afghans waiting in hotels for their permanent housing."

More: 'We're sending much love and hope': Iowa sends 300,000 meals to Ukraine

Democrats in the Iowa Legislature have asked that the House Oversight Committee hear testimony from the bureau to see what can be done to aid those resettling in Iowa.

Ukrainians' residency status to be only temporary

President Joe Biden has said the U.S. will accept 100,000 Ukrainians for resettlement, and Reynolds has said Iowa is prepared to accept a share of them. The new federal sponsorship program, called Uniting For Ukraine, requires that U.S. citizens and groups attest to their financial ability to sponsor any Ukrainian refugees who apply for the program.

Ukrainians approved for resettlement will be allowed into the country on what is known as humanitarian parole for up to two years. That's the same legal status granted to most of the Afghan refugees who were allowed into the country after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban last year.

Some humanitarian groups have criticized the Biden administration for providing only temporary status to the Ukrainians, saying those who want to remain in the U.S. should be given a pathway to citizenship.

More: How innovative training overcomes child care barriers for refugees

Others have said the administration should instead do more to rebuild the U.S. refugee resettlement program, which withered as the Trump administration greatly cut the number of refugees permitted to enter the country.

Iowas Bureau of Refugee Services said many Ukrainian refugees arent likely seeking permanent resettlement, and will be free to return to their home country as soon as possible.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security have estimated Ukrainians should be able to come to the U.S. about one week after applying, and as soon as Uniting for Ukraine is functional.

For state help in becoming a sponsor, contact Suceska at msucesk@dhs.state.ia.us.

Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Reach her at lrood@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8549, on Twitter at @leerood or on Facebook at Facebook.com/readerswatchdog.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa program seeks to link family sponsors to Ukrainian refugees
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli court on Wednesday convicted seven people of incitement to violence and terrorism for their role in a 2015 wedding where far-right Jews were videotaped mocking a murdered Palestinian toddler.

One of the accused was also found guilty of supporting a terrorist organization and incitement to racism, a court document said. An eighth defendant was acquitted.

The incitement charges carry a maximum five-year jail term. A sentencing hearing is due in October.

The wedding drew an outcry from both Palestinians and Israelis, coming months after one-year-old Ali Dawabshe and his parents died in an arson attack on their home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

An Israeli court in 2020 convicted a Jewish settler of their murders.

One of those convicted on Wednesday, Dov Morell, said on Twitter: "My deeds do not represent who I am today, and I regret them." But he added: "I don't think this constitutes a felony and it looks like I will appeal the conviction."

There was no immediate comment from the other defendants.

In the video, one dancing celebrant stabbed a picture of the baby while others waved assault rifles, knives and what appeared to be a petrol bomb. Wedding songs contained lyrics such as "the mosque will burn" and "the mosque will explode".

The Israeli statistics bureau says around 450,000 Israelis live in the West Bank on land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are deemed illegal under international law. Israel disputes this and cites biblical and historical ties to the land which Palestinians claim as rightfully theirs.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Mark Heinrich)
JERUSALEM (AP)  An Israeli court convicted seven Jewish men on Wednesday of inciting violence and terror and a slew of other charges for their involvement in a 2015 wedding in which participants celebrated an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents.

The Jerusalem Magistrates court found the seven guilty of a raft of offenses after glorifying with dance and song the murder of the Dawabsheh family" in a deadly West Bank firebombing by Jewish settler extremists in July 2015.

Another man, the singer at the wedding, was found not guilty. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for November, according to the Hebrew daily Haaretz.

The attack on the village of Duma in the occupied West Bank killed 18-month-old Ali and his parents Riham and Saad and drew condemnation from across Israel's political spectrum.

Months after the attack, a video from a wedding that aired on Israeli television appeared to show guests at a wedding brandishing rifles and dancing to music with lyrics calling for revenge, while some stabbed photos of Ali Dawabsheh.

The court found the men guilty on charges that included incitement to violence or terror, according to the Justice Ministry. One was found guilty of incitement to racism, supporting a terrorist group and illegal possession of a weapon, while another was found guilty of a weapon charge, according to Haaretz.

I found that the inciting nature of the incident was apparent to all, clear, incontrovertible, and teaches among others two main messages folded into the actions: expression of support for the murder of an innocent family, and calling for revenge against Arabs, the judge said.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, medics and a militant group said, in clashes that erupted after an arrest raid.

It was the second time in two days that Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian during a late-night incursion.

The Israeli military said its forces had apprehended two suspects in what it described as "counter-terrorism activities" in the city of Jenin. Subsequently it said dozens of Palestinians threw rocks and explosives devices and opened fire at the soldiers, who responded with live ammunition.

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the raid, saying the slain man, Ahmad Massad, had been summarily executed.

Video circulated on social media appeared to show at least one Palestinian firing a rifle in the street as more gunshots were heard. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said in a statement that Massad was one of its members and that he had been killed "as he confronted the occupying forces".

Israel has stepped up incursions in the West Bank following a string of recent deadly Palestinian and Arab attacks which killed 14 people in the country, including three police officers. The subsequent raids into Palestinian towns have sparked deadly clashes in which at least 17 Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, have been killed by Israeli forces.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2014 and prospects of their revival remain dim. The Palestinian Authority, which has limited rule in the West Bank, has regularly condemned the Israeli raids on land they seek for an independent state.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Tomasz Janowski)
The Manuscript Writing Cafe in Tokyo's Koenjikita district is tailored to writers looking to get work done. Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters

A Japanese cafe provides the unique service of pressuring writers into meeting their deadlines.

Customers can choose, "mild," "regular," or "hard" modes and fill in their work goals upon arrival.

On "hard" mode, the cafe staff will hover over one's shoulder and monitor one's progress.

A Japanese cafe in Tokyo has developed a unique solution to keep writers (or anyone) on a deadline from taking their foot off the gas  by having customers pay staff to pressure them to complete their work.

The "Manuscript Writing Cafe" in the city's Koenjikita district has 10 seats catered to manga artists, writers, and editors who want to buckle down with an unlimited supply of coffee and tea.

The catch  you're not going to be allowed to pack up and leave for the day until you've finished your work.

The cafe provides a goal-tracking system that requires customers to write down their work goals for the day before settling in.

Besides recording their time in and time out from the cafe, customers also have to tell the cafe staff whether they want to beaver away at their tasks on mild, regular, or hard modes.

The cafe staff then tailors the intensity of their monitoring service based on what customers pick, per Reuters.

Mild-mode customers will get a gentle check-in at the counter on whether the task was completed. Regular-mode customers will get an hourly prodding.

Those looking to work under more intense pressure can opt for the "hard" mode, which involves a staff member constantly hovering over their shoulders and watching them work.

According to one of the cafe's rules, customers are not supposed to leave the store until they accomplish their work goals. To further motivate them, the cafe also has a board that lists the names of everyone who left without completing their tasks for the day.

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Speaking to Reuters, the cafe's owner, Takuya Kawai, said he was there to "support" his customers rather than monitor them.

"The cafe went viral on social media, and people are saying the rules are scary or that it feels like being watched from behind," said the 52-year-old writer.

"As a result what they thought would take a day actually was completed in three hours, or tasks that usually take three hours were done in one," he added.

Kawai said he also allows customers to extend their working hours past closing time  as long as they pay the cafe's charges of approximately $1 for the first 30 minutes, and $2.34 for every hour after that.

Blogger Emiko Sasaki told Reuters the cafe allowed her to get work done instead of being distracted by social media.

"It's good to be able to concentrate on writing," who got three articles written in three hours.

Read the original article on Insider
STORY: A Jordanian initiative reduces food waste during Ramadan

by collecting Iftar leftovers

and distributing them to charities and underprivileged families

Location: Amman, Jordan

(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY MANAGER AT BANK AL ETIHAD, RAND ZUAYTIR, SAYING:

The campaign has two goals. The first is to help people who are in need during the holy month of Ramadan. The second goal, which is also an important one, is to curb food waste during this month. We're all aware of the high percentage of food waste during Ramadan.

The initiative is organized by Bank al Etihad

in cooperation with the ride-sharing app Careem

(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CAREEM CAPTAIN, NATHMI AQIL, SAYING:

All Careem captains who are in Amman are tasked to deliver meals to the Food Bank. Since the start of the campaign, we have delivered more than 1,000 orders to the Food Bank.
A federal judge on Wednesday denied Tesla CEO Elon Musks request to terminate an agreement he entered with the SEC in 2018 requiring him to run certain Twitter posts by securities lawyers for pre-approval.

The judge also denied Musks motion to quash a new subpoena by the SEC. The decision came as Musk was in the process of acquiring Twitter for $44 billion.

The 2018 agreement was part of a $40 million settlement over charges that Musk misled investors by falsely tweeting that he had secured funding to take Tesla private. Musk relinquished his role as chair of Teslas board as part of it.

The SEC in November served Musk with a subpoena after he tweeted about potentially selling a large portion of his holdings in Tesla without obtaining pre-approval. Musk, who routinely publicly disdains the SEC, in February accused the agency of a harassment campaign aimed at chilling his right to free speech and moved to seek an end to the agreement.

With regard to the First Amendment argument, it is undisputed in this case that Musks tweets are at least presumptively protected speech, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman wrote in his opinion denying the motion Wednesday. At the same time, however, even Musk concedes that his free speech rights do not permit him to engage in speech that is or could be considered fraudulent or otherwise violative of the securities laws.

Liman noted that parties can waive First Amendment rights in consent decrees as the one Musk has with the SEC.

Musks argument that the SEC has used the consent decree to harass him and to launch investigations of his speech is likewise meritless and, in this case, particularly ironic, Liman wrote. The Supreme Court has instructed that modification should not be granted where a party relies upon events that actually were anticipated at the time it entered into a decree.

Musk should have anticipated that he would be subject to further SEC investigations, Liman said.

In response to the decision, Musk lawyer Alex Spiro said "stay tuned."

Nothing will ever change the truth, which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have," Spiro said. "All that's left some half-decade later is remnant litigation which will continue to make that truth clearer and clearer."
Katie Price faces a Crown Court trial after denying breaching a restraining order against her ex-husbands fiancee, over a message in which she accused the pair of having an affair.

The 43-year-old former glamour model is said to have sent Kieran Hayler a message on 21 January this year, in which she branded his new partner, Michelle Penticost, a c***ing whore and a gutter slag.

Price was banned from contacting Penticost directly or indirectly on 3 June 2019, under the terms of a five-year restraining order.

She was fined for hurling a foul-mouthed tirade of abuse at her during a row in a school playground.

Price, wearing white trainers, a green tracksuit and a black gilet, appeared at Crawley Magistrates Court on Wednesday, accused of contacting Penticost indirectly in breach of the restraining order.

She was supported by her reality TV star fiance Carl Woods, 33, who sat in the public gallery.

The court heard that her message to Hayler may have been triggered by an Instagram post by Penticost, which she denies was aimed at Price.

Prices message read: Tell your c***ing whore, piece of shit, girlfriend not to start on me.

She has a restraining order so shouldnt try antagonise me as she is in breach and Im sure she doesnt want people knowing that she was having an affair with you behind my back. That gutter slag.

(PA Wire)

Price, who became a household name around the turn of the millennium, stood in the dock to confirm her name, address and date of birth, before pleading not guilty to the single charge, which can be tried in either the magistrates court or the Crown Court.

Joe Harrington, defending, said: The issues relate to her mental health and the triggers which led to sending that message.

Asked where she wanted the trial to be heard, Price said: The Crown Court please.

District Judge Amanda Kelly said the offence carries a maximum sentence of up to five years imprisonment and warned Price: You are in really grave danger of going to prison.

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She said: This is a very serious allegation in which it is alleged you used indirectly vile and nasty language towards Ms Penticost, someone you were prohibited from contacting directly or indirectly by a restraining order.

The judge granted Price bail ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing on 25 May at Lewes Crown Court, on condition she does not contact Penticost either directly or indirectly, except for handing over children.

It seems to me, Ms Price, that all of the children caught up in your relationships past and present need their adults to behave like adults, the judge said. Stop exposing them to very public squabbles.
ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakhstan may declare a prominent Russian television host persona non grata after he said the Central Asian nation could meet the same fate as Ukraine if it did not side decisively with Russia, a Kazakh official said on Wednesday.

Although it has not condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic, has called for the crisis to be resolved in line with the United Nations charter, has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and has said it will abide by Western sanctions against Moscow.

Tigran Keosayan - married to Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-backed media outlet RT - said on his YouTube show that Kazakhstan was being "ungrateful" and "sly" by failing to show its support for Russia.

Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aibek Smadiyarov said Keosayan's comments were "insulting" and lacked objectivity.

"Perhaps his statement reflects the views of some parts of the Russian public and political establishment, but it goes against the spirit and essence of the cooperation between our countries and the existing agreements between our leaders," he added.

"I expect he will be included in the list of people who are not welcome in Kazakhstan."

Kazakhstan has close economic ties with Russia, as well as a a large ethnic Russian minority among its 19 million people.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also received armed assistance from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) to put down anti-government riots in January.

However, Kazakhstan has also attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in Western investment, mostly in the oil and gas sector, and says its foreign policy follows a "multivector" approach.

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
STORY: "I don't want to ever stage anything ... This is our life and we never wanted this. We longed for a peaceful, normal life, and we had it."

Lytovchenko believes that if people around the world see the situation through her eyes, it will help the Ukrainian cause.

She said the fundraiser is launched by another Kharkiv native living in the United States.

It attracted attention from musicians all over the world who have now joined her fundraising efforts composing 'The Brave Ones'.
Matt Abdoo, chef at Pig Beach barbecue restaurant in New York and Florida, is joining the TODAY to celebrate the start of grilling season with a few of his go-to cookout recipes. He's cooking up spicy, sweet and sticky baby back ribs in a hot honey sauce and charred Mexican-style street corn.

Hot Honey Baby Back Ribs by Matt Abdoo

This recipe is the perfect sweet heat, sticky baby back rib for anytime of year.

Mexican Street Corn (Elote) by Matt Abdoo

Grilled Mexican street corn is an exciting way to kick up the all-time favorite summer side. It adds so much flavor, you may never be satisfied with just butter ever again.

If you like those great grilling recipes, you should also try these:

Italian Marinated Chicken Kebabs with Lemon-Garlic Yogurt by Matt Abdoo

Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad by Matt Abdoo
A global consulting company is under fire for accusations it helped opioid manufacturers make big profits while also consulting for the government agency in charge of regulating those very drugs.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform grilled McKinsey & Company over findings in a new investigative report pointing to alleged conflicts of interest over its work with drug companies and the Food and Drug Administration.

According to the report, at least 22 McKinsey consultants, including senior partners, worked for both FDA and opioid manufacturers on related topics, including at the same time.

McKinsey was advising both the fox and the hen house and getting paid by both, said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. For nearly 15 years, McKinsey secretly designed strategies for companies like Purdue to boost sales of addictive painkillers paving the way for an explosion of drug abuse and overdoses across the country.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey spearheaded the investigated and testified about her offices findings.

We found that at the same time McKinsey was working for Purdue, the same McKinsey consultants were in fact working for the FDA, said Healey.

Healey said McKinsey actively worked to advise drug companies to fight off government regulations for addictive prescription drugs.

Did McKinsey advise Purdue to undermine federal drug safety measures and if so, how? asked Rep. Maloney.

The answer to that is quite simply absolutely, said Healey. McKinsey was actively coaching Purdue on how to ban together with other opioid companies to fight against those stricter safety requirements.

McKinsey fired back against the findings in the report and insisted there has not been a conflict of interest.

It looked at a time period of the work without examining the nature of the work, said Bob Sternfels, Global Managing Partner for McKinsey & Company. It implied incorrect conflict standards and it took large speculative leaps to reach unwarranted findings.

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McKinsey denied consulting for the FDA about opioids specifically while working for the drug companies.

Instead, Sternfels said the company focused on administrative and operational issues with the FDA.

McKinsey did not, did not, serve both the FDA and Purdue on opioid-related matters, said Sternfels.

McKinsey said the company takes additional measures to ensure compliance and accountability.

We fully recognize the terrible consequences of the opioid epidemic, said Sternfels. Weve acknowledged our role in serving opioid manufacturers, and we apologize for that work. Weve been committed to being part of the solution.

On Tuesday, lawmakers said the FDA announced changes to its contracts with McKinsey as the investigation is underway.

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Following questioning from U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the top official at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that the FDA has stopped issuing contracts to the consulting firm, McKinsey & Co., while ongoing investigations look into the failure by McKinsey to disclose potential conflicts of interest while the firm was working with the FDA on issues related to opioids at the same time it was working for opioid companies, including Purdue Pharma, said Hassans office.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee Wednesday said lawmakers should instead be focusing on the influx of drugs coming in at the border.

It is driven by the thousands of pounds and other illicit opioids pouring across our southern border every day because of President Bidens open-border policy, said Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Apr. 26PEARL  Just days after Mississippi State took two of three against Ole Miss in Oxford, the Rebels and Bulldogs face off again at Pearl's Trustmark Park for the Governor's Cup.

Pregame:

Here are the lineups for Ole Miss and Mississippi State

Ole Miss

1. CF Justin Bench

2. SS Jacob Gonzalez

3. 1B Tim Elko

4. LF Kevin Graham

5. C Calvin Harris

6. Kemp Alderman

7. RF Hayden Leatherwood

8. 3B Reagan Burford

9. 2B Peyton Chatagnier

SP Drew McDaniel

Mississippi State

1. 2B R.J. Yeager

2. 3B Kamren James

3. DH Luke Hancock

4. C Logan Tanner

5. 1B Hunter Hines

6. LF Brad Cumbest

7. RF Kellum Clark

8. CF Jess Davis

9. SS Tanner Leggett

SP Mikey Tepper

First inning:

Sophomore shortstop Jacob Gonzalez hit a triple to drive senior centerfielder Juston Bench home. Senior first baseman Tim Elko then drove Gonzalez home on a groundout. MSU tied the game in the bottom of the inning on a single from freshman Hunter Hines that forced an errant throw from sophomore third baseman Reagan Burford. Tied at two, heading to the second.

Second inning:

The Rebels were retired in order in the top of the inning. A pair of walks put had runners on the corners with two outs for Mississippi State, but junior Drew McDaniel was able to get out of the inning. Still a 2-2 game heading to the third.

Third inning:

Ole Miss was retired in order for the second inning in a row. McDaniel also retired the side in order. Tied at two, headed to the fourth.

Fourth inning:

Nothing going for either team. Still tied at two, headed to the fifth.

Fifth inning:

Senior first baseman Tim Elko drove in two runs with a single. Senior outfielder Kevin Graham drove Elko in with a double down the right field line. Ole Miss leads 5-2.

MICHAEL KATZ is the Ole Miss athletics reporter for the Daily Journal. Contact him at michael.katz@djournal.com.
Alona Mazurenko - Tuesday, 26 April 2022, 20:02 At a long negotiating table, Russian President Vladimir Putin told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that he was counting on "an agreement with Ukraine on the diplomatic track." Source: pro-Kremlin media RIA Novosti According to Putin: "Russia expects to reach an agreement with Ukraine on the diplomatic track. We are holding negotiations and not abandoning them. In addition, we managed to achieve a major breakthrough in the talks in Istanbul." Background: Antonio Guterres arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, 26 April, to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine. Later, on Thursday, 28 April, he intends to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. On 24 April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, the possible resumption of talks with Russia, and the evacuation of blockaded Ukrainian military personnel and civilians. Antonio Guterres also spoke to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday 24 April to discuss the situation in Mariupol and Kherson. On 19 April, the UN Secretary-General called for a four-day Holy Week humanitarian pause beginning on Holy Thursday and running through Easter Sunday, April 24th, to allow for the opening of a series of humanitarian corridors. However, Russia continued to carry out artillery shelling and airstrikes on Ukrainian cities on Easter, particularly on "Azovstal" in Mariupol. Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has accused the UN of condoning Russian war and the murder of innocent civilians by Russian aggressors. In his opinion, the UN ignores Russia's war crimes because Russia possesses nuclear weapons.
Liz Truss with Maros Sefcovic, the EU's negotiator - Rob Pinney/AFP

Liz Truss's "warm" words had failed to get results in Northern Ireland Protocol talks with the EU, Lord Frost, her predecessor as Brexit negotiator, said on Wednesday.

Lord Frost said the Government should now trigger Article 16 of the treaty that created the Irish Sea border and unilaterally override the protocol, which would anger Brussels and risk a trade war.

"It's time to put our own interests first, the integrity of UK first, the British people first and I hope the Government will decide to do so," he said, denying that triggering Article 16 would break international law.

The former Cabinet minister  who negotiated the protocol  said the UK signed it under duress during talks that were "not the finest hour" of British diplomacy.

Ms Truss, the Foreign Secretary, attempted to "reset" relations with the EU when she took over negotiations on the protocol from Lord Frost at the end of December.

Threats to trigger Article 16 were dialled down and she invited Maros Sefcovic, the EU's negotiator, to her country grace and favour residence Chevening House for talks.

"On the protocol issue, I think she has found what I found. Whether the words from the UK are warm or not warm, and whatever our posture, EU interests remain as they are," Lord Frost said at an event at the Policy Exchange think tank in London.

"She's made, I think, no more progress really than than we made last year in the negotiations. I'm in no way surprised by that. More broadly, I think she's doing an excellent job."

While Ms Truss gets on well with Mr Sefcovic, The Telegraph understands she thinks the EU has been unreasonable and not pragmatic enough in the negotiations given the risk to peace and stability in Northern Ireland.

Unionists fear the protocol is driving a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, while the Government argues that checks on British goods entering the province to ensure they meet EU standards are having a chilling effect on trade.

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"I think Unionist criticism is best directed at the EU and the Commission who put us in this position in the first place," Lord Frost said, responding to the suggestion that the Tories sold out the DUP by agreeing the deal.

He blamed the protocol for bringing politics in Northern Ireland to "breaking point" ahead of the Stormont elections on May 5 and said the European Commission had destroyed Unionist consent for the treaty when it threatened to use Article 16 to enforce a Covid vaccine export ban at the start of the year.

Lord Frost said that he had no choice but to agree to the protocol as Brussels turned the screws in the hope that Brexit would be reversed in the last days of 2019.

He said British negotiators were "actually shut" in a meeting room in the commission's Berlaymont HQ until 2am on the final night of the talks while the EU executive debated whether to sign off the agreement.

"We put up with all this treatment because we wanted to get things done," Lord Frost said, adding that the alternative was the UK remaining in the EU.

"So we faced a choice, take this deal and try and get it through Parliament and sort out the detail in 2020 [trade talks] or walk away, fail to deliver Brexit on October 31 and almost certainly see the Government collapse."

He accused Ireland of choosing to protect EU interests and its place in the Single Market over "working collaboratively with the UK to find solutions that can work in Northern Ireland".

Trying to retrospectively rewrite history

But Neale Richmond, the Dublin Rathdown MP and Fine Gael European Affairs spokesman, told The Telegraph: "Once again we have the man who stepped off the pitch trying to retrospectively rewrite the course of history and try to cast blame for his perceived failings on the EU.

"There certainly is hope on the European side that the change in leadership on the British side might side may allow for a more proactive and productive approach," he said of Ms Truss.

The European Commission has repeatedly pointed to its willingness to change its own laws to ensure the continued supply of medicines to Northern Ireland as proof of its willingness to be flexible.

It has offered to cut a large number of checks in return for bolstered market surveillance to ensure British goods are not crossing the invisible border into EU member Ireland.
U.S. President Joe Biden, former U.S. President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his wife and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea Clinton attend the funeral service for former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the Washington National Cathedral April 27, 2022 (Getty Images)

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was remembered by two presidents and one of her successors as a tireless crusader for democracy at a Wednesday memorial service attended by a veritable whos who of the US foreign policy establishment over the past three decades.

Albright, who served as the US Ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997 and led the US State Department from 1997 to 2001, was the first woman to serve in either post. She passed away on 23 March after a long battle with cancer.

After her casket was escorted into Washingtons National Cathedral by a group of former Diplomatic Security Service special agents who served on her security detail, President Joe Biden  the first of three eulogisers  described the trailblazing diplomat as a force of nature and a truly proud American who made all of us prouder to be Americans.

"With her goodness and grace, her humanity and her intellect, she turned the tide of history, said Mr Biden, who recalled how hed learned of her passing while en route to an emergency Nato summit to discuss Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Biden said Albright was a big part of why the alliance has remained strong and galvanised long after the end of the Cold War, and described the deafening cheer he received during a speech in Warsaw when he mentioned her name.

It was spontaneous  it was real, he said. Her name is still synonymous with America as a force for good in the world.

Mr Biden also recalled how Albright remained a nexus of the US foreign policy community long after she left the State Department, and said the ex-diplomat was always  on top of the latest developments, always speaking out for democracy, and always the first to sound the alarm about fascism.

The man who chose her as the first woman to lead the State Department, former president Bill Clinton, said he last spoke to Albright two weeks before she passed, and recounted how she did not want to waste time discussing her health because the only thing that matter[ed] was what kind of world were going to leave to our grandchildren.

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Madeleine made a decision that with her last breath, she would go out with her boots on, Mr Clinton said, by supporting President Biden and all of America's efforts to help Ukraine.

The former president said he asked Albright to serve as Secretary of State because her life story  that of an immigrant who came to America as a refugee  was about to become the story of the last part of the 20th century and much of the world, and because Albright could be the voice of America at its best.

She had a full, hopeful life because she knew what she believed in, what she was for. She knew what she was against. And she wanted other people feel the same way and talk about it instead of killing each other over it, he said.

The 67th US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, remembered Albright  who was the 64th  as a role model for countless young women who she mentored through the Albright Institute at her alma mater, Wellesley College, and recalled how she had urged her to push the envelope on womens rights in a landmark speech she delivered to the 1995 UN Conference on Women in Beijing.

She spent her entire life counselling, cajoling, inspiring and lifting up so many of us are here today, Ms Clinton said, adding that angels in heaven will be wearing their best pins and putting on their dancing shoes to welcome Albright.

Because if as Madeline believed there's a special place in hell for women who don't support other women, they haven't seen anyone like her yet.
Apr. 27AUBURN  Recent and future high school graduates will soon be able to attend one of Maine's seven community colleges tuition-free for up to two years, thanks to a one-time program approved by the state last week.

The $20 million initiative proposed by Gov. Janet Mills earlier this year promises to make higher education more accessible to roughly 8,000 students affected by the pandemic and grow Maine's skilled workforce.

Students who have graduated from high school or received a General Educational Development certificate in 2020, 2021, 2022 or 2023 are eligible for the program. Individuals must currently live in Maine, be a full-time student, and apply for federal financial aid, if they qualify.

The program will cover tuition and mandatory fees  but not room and board  beginning with the summer term.

During the 2021-22 school year, a full-time in-state student spent about $3,864 in tuition and mandatory fees, according to the Maine Community College System website.

"It's crazy, because I live like less than 10 minutes away," said Emily Strachan of Lewiston, a first-year student at Central Maine Community College. "So I'm just coming here and doing classes, and I'm just not gonna have to worry about anything, pretty much."

Associate Dean of Enrollment Managements Andrew Morong said he's confident the new program will help bring in hundreds of new students to Central Maine Community College in Auburn over the next few years.

"This is a huge win for, not just the state of Maine, but more specifically the middle class," Morong said. "You know, the middle class, they're forgotten about when it comes to financial aid in higher education. They make too much to qualify for Pell Grants and things like that, but they don't make enough to be able to write the check to pay for higher education out of pocket."

New Mainers, who are not eligible for federal financial aid, will also benefit from the program, he added.

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Ryan Crockett of Old Orchard Beach, a first-year student at Central Maine Community College, said he transferred to the college this semester from a four-year school due to the cost.

"Speaking out of personal experience, I think it's a really good idea" to start at a community college, Crockett said. "Especially, you know, not having to worry about the loans. I know the cost of what you really want to do shouldn't be a factor, but sadly, it is for a lot of people."

He said he'll put the money he would have spent on tuition toward housing and food costs, saving money for when he transfers back to a four-year college in the future.

Crockett, Strachan and Kali Thompson of Waterville each said they believe that attending Central Maine Community College is a better value than starting at a four-year school, especially if tuition is covered.

"You could just come here, go to community college and like figure it out, what you want to do (while) taking classes," Thompson said.

The university system will also benefit from increased enrollment through this program, according to Morong.

"As we get more students in the community college level, that means that we're going to be sending more students on to the university system, as well as transfer students seeking their bachelor's degree," he said.

Similar to other community colleges in the U.S., Maine's community colleges saw a sharp drop in enrollment following the start of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. Enrollment dropped 13.4% statewide, from 17,327 enrolled in the fall of 2019 to 15,005 students in the fall of 2021.

So far, the idea of attending community college for free in Maine has proved popular. A Facebook post from Central Maine Community College advertising the state funding program has gotten far more attention than most other posts, Director of Marketing and Communications Rachel McKinley said.

In one week, the post has garnered 423 shares, reaching 47,000 people as of Tuesday evening.

Central Maine Community College will host two information sessions on its campus in Kirk Hall room 103 on May 5 and 9 beginning at 7 p.m. More information about the program can be found on its website at https://www.cmcc.edu/free.
Ralf Rangnick knows Manchester Uniteds Champions League destiny is out of their hands (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

Interim manager Ralf Rangnick knows Champions League qualification is unrealistic as Manchester United prepare to take on Chelsea without a swathe of key players.

Harry Maguire and Jadon Sancho have joined the Red Devils lengthy list of absentees for Thursdays rearranged Premier League clash with Thomas Tuchels Blues.

There is talk of further protests as United return to Old Trafford wounded by back-to-back away losses at Liverpool and Arsenal, which have all but ended any faint hopes of reaching the Champions League.

I dont think it makes sense now to still speak and speculate about the Champions League, Rangnick said. We need to be realistic.

Even if we win all four games, its still not in our own hands. But what is in our own hands is the way that we play, the level of performance.

Even for the next season its important to finish this season on the best possible note.

Asked about the impact of Champions League qualification on Uniteds summer transfer business, he said: Of course it would be better if we play Champions League next season, but this also affects other clubs. This is not a problem that only Manchester United has.

The renewal of the contract of Bruno (Fernandes) showed that its still possible  this club is an attractive club and with a new manager (Erik ten Hag).

With a new approach with a new manager and the way he wants to play, this is still a massively interesting club.

I am looking forward to help both Erik and the club, and everyone at the club, to get the best and to change the whole approach again next season so that Manchester United can be a top club again.

For now, though, the focus is on facing Chelsea without a number of key players.

Paul Pogba, Edinson Cavani and Luke Shaw remain absent against Chelsea, so too does midfielder Fred after a negative reaction upon returning to training.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka is also a doubt for a match that captain Maguire and big-money summer signing Sancho will also miss.

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Fred is unfortunately not yet available, Rangnick said. He tried to train yesterday but afterwards I had a long conversation with him and he just told me that he doesnt feel fully fit. Hes not at 100 per cent.

With a player like Fred, who is always committed to give his very best, I dont think it make sense with the muscular injury that he had to play him too early because that would mean we take the risk of a re-injury and this is something I dont want to do.

So, he wont be available unfortunately tomorrow and apart from that we have Harry Maguire, who is not available tomorrow.

He has some issues with his knee, not a big thing, some niggle in his knee, but he hasnt been training yesterday or today so he wont be available.

Paul obviously, Fred, Edinson, Luke Shaw and Jadon is ill. He has had tonsillitis since yesterday, couldnt train today and will also not be available tomorrow.

Paul Pogba has not had a successful spell at Old Trafford (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

Such injury issues mean Rangnick will lean on Uniteds youth system.

Hannibal Mejbri, 19, featured at Liverpool and 17-year-old Alejandro Garnacho has been on the bench recently, with Alvaro Fernandez, 19, another pushing to be involved.

We will try to play the best possible team of those players that are available, Rangnick added.

Right now that means we have 14 of our own professional team without the youngsters that are available and probably three or four of those young players will be part of the squad.
President Nguyen Xuan Phuc receives Lao Vice President Pany Yathotou

Vietnam and Laos need to maintain the regular exchange of delegations and high-ranking officials and strive to turn economic, trade and investment cooperation into a pillar of bilateral relations, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc said on April 26.













President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) shakes hands with Vice President of Laos Pany Yathotou (Photo: VNA)



President Phuc made the statement while hosting a reception in Hanoi for Vice President of Laos Pany Yathotou, who is paying an official visit to Vietnam.



The Vietnamese President spoke highly of the contributions made by the Lao Vice President to the development of Laos-Vietnam special relations and congratulated Laos on the countrys important achievements in recent years.



He expressed his belief that under the leadership of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP), its people will effectively carry out the resolution issued at the 11th National Congress of the LPRP as well as the socio-economic development plan for 20212025, bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control, and revive the economy.



Welcoming the results of talks held earlier the same day between the Lao Vice President and her Vietnamese counterpart Vo Thi Anh Xuan, President Phuc underlined that, to promote the efficiency of the bilateral cooperation, the two sides should collaborate in order to carry out agreements reached by high-ranking officials, particularly the outcomes of a State visit by the Vietnamese President to Laos in August 2021.



The two countries were urged to seek new sources and orientations for cooperation projects, especially strategic infrastructure that connects the two economies and capitalise on the seaport system and 17 free trade agreements Vietnam has signed, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), so as to expand markets for exports of both Vietnam and Laos.



He stressed the need to enhance cooperation in defence, security, education-training, healthcare, people-to-people exchanges, partnerships between localities, and continue supporting each other at international forums, especially in maintaining solidarity and the central role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).



For her part, Vice President Yathotou voiced her delight at paying an official visit to Vietnam in her new position and conveyed regards from General Secretary of the LPRP Central Committee and President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith to President Phuc and high-ranking officials of Vietnam.



She highly valued the Vietnamese peoples recent achievements in all fields, especially in the implementation of the resolution issued at the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam.



She also thanked the Vietnamese Party, State and people for their support to Laos during the past struggle for national independence as well as the current cause of national construction, protection and development, pledging that she will spare no efforts in strengthening the Laos-Vietnam great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation.



The two sides underscored the significance of the Vietnam - Laos, Laos - Vietnam Solidarity and Friendship Year 2022 and agreed to hold activities marking the 60th founding anniversary of their diplomatic ties, and 45 years of the signing of the Vietnam - Laos Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, thereby contributing to bolstering sentiments among people of the two countries, particularly younger generations.
As South Africa on Wednesday marks a key date in the fight against apartheid, one of the last surviving leaders of that struggle says the nation's liberators have fallen out of touch with the people.

In an interview with AFP, 87-year-old Mac Maharaj warned that corruption risked undermining the gains of the democracy that he fought and suffered for.

"Everything shows it has lost contact with the ground," Maharaj said of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

He was one of the party's leading figures, spending more than a decade imprisoned alongside Nelson Mandela.

Maharaj famously smuggled Mandela's autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" out of prison and joined Mandela's cabinet after he won the first free elections on April 27, 1994.

But a judicial inquiry this year laid out an extensive web of graft and cronyism under former president Jacob Zuma that left even basic government services gutted.

Maharaj also served as Zuma's spokesman but retired in 2015, several years before his presidency was prematurely curtailed by mounting scandal.

"The country is facing a moment where there is a conjunction of different crises that are all feeding into one major crisis," Maharaj said, citing graft, poverty and unemployment.

Maharaj believes that current President Cyril Ramaphosa is tackling corruption, albeit too slowly for some.

"There is real sense that under Cyril Ramaphosa, he is not doing enough, fast enough," Maharaj said.

"But what I think Cyril had done right is that in the face of these challenges of weeding out corruption, he has never overstepped the boundaries of law," he said. "That has slowed the process."

"I hear people say they want a quicker prosecution, but we are dealing with corruption of an extremely complicated nature," he said.

The judicial inquiry laid significant blame on the Gupta family from India, accused of widespread bribery, and on American consultancy Bain, which has been forced to recant some its work and refund its fees.

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The international nature of the corruption makes prosecution difficult, Maharaj said.

The inquiry also singled out senior ANC members, which has only deepened in-fighting within a party that voters are increasingly disillusioned with.

- 'Many mistakes' -

"We have made many mistakes, and we have also moved the country forward in many respects," he said, sitting opposite a bookshelf at an upmarket house he shares with his older sister and son, on the northern outskirts of Johannesburg.

"We have accumulated vast experience, but we are not drawing lessons from those mistakes," said Maharaj.

During the struggle, Maharaj led the ANC's underground operation. He was jailed for 12 years alongside Mandela at the notorious Robben Island prison.

After Mandela was elected president on April 27, 1994, Maharaj joined the cabinet as transport minister. A picture of the two men together hung next to a book shelf displaying some of the books he has penned or edited.

The ANC lately has preached self-cleansing and renewal, but according to Maharaj, it has "not yet fleshed out what renewal is."

It needs "real revolution inside the party to bring about renewal".

Maharaj recently co-authored a book titled "Breakthrough: The Struggles and Secret Talks that Brought Apartheid South Africa to the Negotiating Table."

The book reveals intricate details about the jostling for position that unfolded before the start of formal talks that saw the country transition to democracy.

Maharaj played a key role in keeping those negotiations on track.

He joined the struggle as a student, was arrested in June 1964, charged with five others at the famous Rivonia Trial on 177 counts of sabotage. He smuggled Mandela's memoir out of prison on his release in 1976.

sn/gs/ri
Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking with Michael Voris of Church Militant (Vimeo/Church Militant)

GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has claimed Christians who help undocumented migrants are in thrall to Satan.

Speaking to the far-right Catholic activist Michael Voris, the Georgia Republican said she wanted to see moderate groups such as Catholic Relief Services that aid resettlement stripped of federal funding.

What it is, is Satans controlling the church, Ms Greene, an evangelical Protestant, said in an interview for Mr Voriss Church Militant website.

The church is not doing its job, and its not adhering to the teachings of Christ, and its not adhering to what the word of God says were supposed to do and how were supposed to live.

The hour-long interview was held on Thursday, a day before Ms Greene testified in a North Carolina lawsuit that is seeking to ban her from running for re-election.

She rehashed old grievances about being a victim of the 6 January Capitol riots, and claimed the US was so sinful that she couldnt work out why God hasnt destroyed us.

Ms Greene added that Christian groups who help migrants were trying to destroy the United States.

We are supposed to love one another, but their definition of what love one another means, means destroying our laws.

It means completely perverting what our Constitution says. It means taking unreal advantage of the American taxpayer.

And it means pushing a globalist policy on the American people and forcing America to become something that we are not supposed to be.

Michael Voris, founder of Church Militant, was ordered to remove the name Catholic from his organisation (Vimeo/Church Militant)

In a clip obtained by watchdog Right Wing Watch, Ms Greene went on to say the US should suspend aid to any nation that undocumented migrants are arriving from.

Oh, Im sorry, Guatemala, youre not getting a check this year because youve sent X number of thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of people to illegally invade our country as if theyre an army.

They may not have guns, but theyre the numbers of a regiment of an army. We wont be able to send you your foreign aid until you bring your people back.

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Church Militant, formed by ex-CBS News producer Mr Voris in Michigan in 2008, promoted the interview under the headline: Marjorie for Pope.

In 2012, Church Militant had to change its name from Real Catholic TV after the Archdiocese of Detroit said it did not regard them as being authorised to use the word Catholic.

Mr Voris has been sued for defamation for smearing members of the Catholic church.
Owner and founder of MyMarijuanaCards.com, Moe Branson, works at a computer in a temporary office in downtown Sioux Falls where medical marijuana patients are able to have in-person consultations with state-certified doctors able to qualify them for the state's medical cannabis program.

In the 19 months since South Dakotan voted to legalize medical marijuana, fewer than 500 patients have been certified by the state health department for a medical marijuana identification card.

But a Michigan-based business, which connects individuals seeking state certification to use cannabis for medicinal purposes with physicians eligible to make that recommendation, is hoping to change that.

"Despite being available since November, only a few South Dakota residents have been able to obtain a state-issued medical cannabis card due to the limited number of doctors authorized to certify patients in the state, said Molefi Branson, the founder of MyMarijuanaCards.com.

As of Tuesday, the Department of Health had issued just 419 medical marijuana cards to patients. Branson's nationally leading medical cannabis certification and telehealth company kicked off the state's first-ever, three-day mass patient screening event Tuesday in downtown Sioux Falls. The event was dubbed Marijuana Spring Fling, and runs through Thursday.

More: Gov. Kristi Noem blocks automatic removal of old marijuana charges from background checks

While several websites and companies exist to connect cannabis-friendly doctors with aspiring medical marijuana cardholders, Branson said South Dakota's medical marijuana law requires South Dakotans receive certification from a medical professional licensed to practice medicine before they can be considered for a card through the DOH. The law also requires screenings be in person, not over the telephone or via video conference, as allowed in several other states.

That, coupled with apprehension among the healthcare systems in South Dakota to provide direction to their physicians about certifying patients, has made certification a challenge for many, including a handful of the clients who attended the event Tuesday.

An individual identifying himself as Mark said following the election in 2020 when medical marijuana was approved at the polls, he wrongly assumed the process of obtaining a medical marijuana card through the state would be relatively simple.

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But not having doctors available has made it nearly impossible, he said. Mark declined to share his last name, because of the remaining stigmas and potential legality issues involving cannabis use.

"I figured it would be a hell of a lot easier," he said, paying the $275 fee for a consultation with one of two doctors working at MyMarijuanaCards.com's event.

While both the Sioux Falls-area's leading healthcare organizations, Sanford Health and Avera Health, have publicly taken a neutral position on medical marijuana  leaving the decision to certify patients for medical cannabis use up to individual doctors  the way the state law is written has many physicians hesitant.

That's because right now, when a doctor certifies a patient, they're attesting they will see a "therapeutic or palliative benefit" from the medical use of cannabis.

Branson said his company made hundreds of inquiries to physicians around the state without any success in finding doctors to partner with.

More: Medical marijuana law changing after Gov. Kristi Noem signs cannabis bills into law

So Branson found physicians primarily based in Illinois and Missouri to obtain licensure in South Dakota who were willing to travel to the Mount Rushmore State for the mass-screening event. And through midday, more than 100 patients had been certified as qualifying for medical marijuana at mass-screening event.

"The demand is so high and we had zero luck with any practitioners in South Dakota wanting to put their neck out for patients," he said. "So we had to get them licensed here."

Any residents who want to participate in the screening are required to register in advance by calling MyMarijuanaCards Sioux Falls at (605) 961-5711, according to a press release by the company.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls hosts SD's first mass medical marijuana patient screening
Apr. 27MASSENA  The Massena Central School District has made plans to transition from using federal stimulus money it has received when those awards begin to expire starting next year.

The district received $3.9 million in Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriation funding, and that grant ends in September 2023. The district also received $8.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding, which expires in September 2024.

Superintendent Patrick H. Brady reminded school board members Monday night that they had been presented a plan last June on how the district intended to use the federal stimulus funds.

"These were the second and third stimulus funds all together. There were three different packages provided to districts. We do know that these federal funds are going to start to recede starting in September 2023 and then the following year, 2024," he said.

Mr. Brady said Business Manager Nickolas Brouillette had penned a memorandum to ensure "that at the end of this, you're not looking at a fiscal cliff" that could impact the district and its programs.

"Each bullet in it describes a different strategy or approach the district is actively taking to ensure that these funds last longer than the short window that they're set to expire within. The superintendent, The Finance Committee and myself as the business manager have worked diligently to make the best use of these funds with the long-term sustainability as a top priority given we have seen funding can be feast or famine in our business," Mr. Brouillette said.

He said the district had approved a number of one-time expenditures such as furniture upgrades and the purchase of additional vehicles.

"We put existing staffing into these grants to allow us to increase the surplus within the budget each year, allow us to put that money into reserves, put it into our unappropriated fund balance, which is a very flexible pot of money that we have access to," he said.

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"We've also added the prioritized additions that Pat (Brady) and I worked with all of the administrators closely on. They've done a lot of work to prepare and provide backup to the requests. Pat and I review them, bring them to the Finance Committee, and ultimately they're brought to the board for approval," Mr. Brouillette said.

He said, throughout the process, they've been able to keep the tax levy at 0%.

"We've been able to give the money back to our local residents by not increasing taxes each year. We've increased our reserves and fund balance that we have access to, that we can use for many years to come. That way, it's not expiring within the two years," he said.

In addition, he said, they built the budget to include the salaries of everyone who is being paid out of federal funds. Those additional staff and existing staff who were moved from the general fund to the federal grants can be moved back into the general fund easily, he said, noting they also generate a surplus within the general budget.

"The district has included enough money in next year's budget to include these salaries, so in essence the general fund budget could absorb these salaries within current structure. This is done to avoid a potential 'fiscal cliff' or considerable appropriated fund balance increase when the federal funds dry up," Mr. Brouillette said.

He also addressed the current $49.6 million capital project.

"We have been using $1 million of budgeted funds to help reduce the debt resulting from this project. Cash that we infuse into the capital fund now will create revenue over the next 15 years. We receive aid based on the total cost and only finance what we need, so we will receive more aid than debt we pay out," he said.

Mr. Brouillette said that rather than maintain the unappropriated fund balance at 4%, they kept it around 10% the past few years "to allow greater flexibility and ability to use the money when the need comes."

In addition, he said, "The new staffing and initiatives are closely monitored and can be assessed on a case-by-case basis if the promise of a fully funded foundation aid is broken."
ABERDEEN, NJ  This week, U.S. News & World Report released its 2022 rankings, listing nearly 24,000 high schools across the nation.



Schools are ranked on their performance on state-required tests, graduation and how well they prepare students for college. Here are all their high school rankings for the state of New Jersey.

And here is how Matawan-Aberdeen Regional High School ranked (Click on the school name to see their full profile):

Matawan-Aberdeen Regional High School is ranked 117th in the state of New Jersey. Students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement coursework and exams. The AP participation rate at Matawan Regional High School is 39%. The total minority enrollment is 39%, and 25% of students are economically disadvantaged. Matawan Regional High School is the only high school in the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District.

Overall Score 84.35/100



39% Took at Least One AP Exam

32% Passed at Least One AP Exam

49% Mathematics Proficiency

66% Reading Proficiency

34% Science Proficiency

91% Graduation Rate

Read more: These NJ High Schools Are Among 2022's Best: U.S. News

But, U.S. News & World Report school rankings have their critics. James Fallows, a former U.S. News editor, even called them "meaningless" in an interview with NPR.

"The reason they started doing it back in the early 1980s under the guidance of a man named Mel Elfin, was because it was a brilliant business strategy," Fallows said. "By appealing to the human desire for rankings and knowing where you stand and where somebody else stands, they were able to make a very strong part of their business, which is now basically the only part of their business."

U.S. News, however, contends that the rankings help parents make better-informed decisions about their children's education.

"The goal is to provide a clear, unbiased picture," the report says, "of how well public schools serve all of their students  from the highest to lowest achieving  in preparing them to demonstrate proficiency in basic skills as well as readiness for college-level work."

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Ninety percent of the rankings incorporate performances on AP and IB exams and standardized tests, while the remaining 10 percent is the graduation rate. The data used in this year's ranking is from the 2019-20 academic school year. U.S. News adjusted its calculation of these measures to account for the impact COVID-19 had on schools in the 2019-20 school year.

Read more about the methodology here.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

This article originally appeared on the Matawan-Aberdeen Patch
Apr. 27Kennedy DeRuy has found a college home.

And in the Big Apple at that.

DeRuy, who helped McAuley Catholic's girls basketball team reach historic heights, signed with Hunter College based in Manhattan, New York on Tuesday inside MCHS's gymnasium.

The Ozark 7 Player of the Year said she's excited about the next phase of her life.

"It's pretty far, but I have been visiting there since I was seven," DeRuy said. "I took a lot of family trips there and I always pictured myself there. I told my parents, 'I'm going to live here. I promise. It's going to happen.' They were like, 'Ok, we'll see about that.' I picked it because No. 1, it felt like home. I love city life.

"No. 2, it has a great journalism and broadcasting program. That's exactly what I want to do. It has a lot of connections with a lot of major sports and news networks. It's definitely a foot in the door for me and that is all I need to take off in whatever area I go into with broadcasting."

DeRuy said she also considered Coe College out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"Coe College had a great campus, really nice facilities," DeRuy added. "The coaches were great and nice. But I felt like Hunter was the best opportunity for me."

A 5-foot-8 guard/forward, DeRuy posted stat lines of 16 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 4.2 steals per game this past season. She put together a well-decorated career for the Warriors, finishing as the program's fourth all-time leading scorer with 1,379 points.

While she was at McAuley, DeRuy helped the program reach the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2002 and only the third time in school history during the 2020-21 campaign. The Warriors' superb senior class of DeRuy, Kayleigh Teeter and Avery Eminger went a combined 79-34 over their four years.

That stretch included district championship appearances in every season, including two titles and two runner-up finishes.

"I've been working towards all those goals for McAuley since freshman year," DeRuy said. "I'm really blessed that I got to accomplish all that. That one goal was to be on the scoring title list. I feel so humbled because every step of the way that school was behind my back cheering me on, being at all the games and always supporting me. I had a great support cast at McAuley.

"They instilled all the valuable human characteristics a human would want to be: respecting others, teamwork and leadership. Don't be a follower, be a leader. Coach (Mike) Howard definitely instilled that into me. I'll carry that through basketball and way beyond. I definitely will take my McAuley blood with me all the way to New York."
Singapores Supreme Court dismissed a Malaysian womans final challenge to her sons death sentence, scheduled to be carried out on Wednesday, April 27.



Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, 33, was convicted in 2010 on drug trafficking charges. He was found guilty of carrying 42.72 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin strapped to his leg after arriving in Singapore from Malaysia and was originally scheduled to be hanged at the end of last year under Singapores mandatory death penalty.



Under Singapores 1974 Misuse of Drugs Acts Second Schedule, anyone caught with more than 15 grams of heroin automatically receives the death sentence. Those caught with less face 30 years to life in imprisonment.



Nagaenthran, who was 21 years old at the time of his conviction, has been on death row for over a decade. According to his lawyers, he had been pressured to carry the drugs by a friend at the time who was threatening to kill his girlfriend. Nagaenthran also has a purported IQ of 69, which is a level considered mentally disabled.



Nagaenthrans mother, Panchalai Supermaniam, filed a last minute plea on Monday; however, the Court of Appeal dismissed the motion the day after on April 26.



In her plea, Panchalai argued that Chief Justice Sundaresh Menons death sentencing was unconstitutional because he was also serving as the attorney-general at the time of the conviction.



In front of a packed courtroom, she told the room via an interpreter, I want my son back alive, Your Honor. She added that she needed more time to get a lawyer to represent her son.



Justice Andrew Phang, one of the judges present during the motion on Tuesday, declared the application was devoid of merit and a calculated attempt to disrupt the legal system.



No court in the world would allow an applicant to prolong matters ad infinitum by filing these motions, he said. There must come a time when the last word of the court is the last word.



Nagaenthrans case has garnered international attention, with several human rights groups and high-profile figures condemning his death sentence. The United Nations, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and British billionaire Richard Branson have all scrutinized Singapore for its harsh drug laws.



Despite pressure from the international community, Singapores courts have consistently dismissed appeals, including ones that cite Nagaenthran as a mentally disabled individual. Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon ruled that there was no admissible evidence showing any decline in the appellants mental condition after the commission of the offense.



While the execution is scheduled to proceed, the court granted Nagaenthrans final request to spend two hours with his family and hold their hands.



Featured Image via The Star

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Apr. 19New Mexico's U.S. senators are holding discussions with veterans this week on a recent recommendation to shut down smaller Department of Veterans Affairs' health clinics in four New Mexico towns.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, an Albuquerque Democrat, will be at the VFW San Juan Argonne Post 1547 in Las Vegas, N.M., Tuesday at 4:30 p.m., according to a news release.

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, a Nambe Democrat, will hold a listening session with veterans concerned about the issue Wednesday. The event is scheduled to take place from 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Student Union Ballroom on the New Mexico Highlands University campus. Doors open at 12:30 p.m.

The Department of Veterans Affairs' Asset and Infrastructure Review, released in March, said the agency should centralize services in major hubs nationwide, where demand remains high. It recommends shutting down smaller facilities and letting community health centers provide services for veterans there. New Mexico clinics suggested for closure in the review include those in Espanola, Gallup, Las Vegas and Raton. The Las Vegas site saw a decrease in enrollment of over 55 percent in the past five years, the report says.

Both senators have been vocal in their desire to keep the clinics open.

"Closing these facilities will adversely affect the care they [veterans] receive and I will fight against any recommendation that closes facilities or requires our Veterans travel longer and further for care," Lujan said in a recent statement. "It is also unconscionable to push our veterans for VA care to local providers that are already strained."
A Michigan man accused of terrorizing residents by leaving nooses and racist handwritten notes around his community to stop people from supporting Black Lives Matter has been charged with hate crimes, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Kenneth Pilon, 61, was charged with six counts of interfering with federally protected activities for incidents dating to June and July 2020, the height of nationwide protests following George Floyd's death. Floyd, a Black man, was killed May 25, 2020, after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes.

Authorities allege in an affidavit that Pilon went to stores in Saginaw leaving nooses attached to a note that read: An accessory to be worn with your BLM t-shirt. Happy protesting! The messages were found in several places, including a Goodwill parking lot, inside a beverage cooler at a 7-Eleven and in a Walmart parking lot.

He also left a noose and a note in a vehicle owned by Regina Simon and her then-husband, Donald Simon, according to the affidavit.

Regina Simon said she thinks her family was targeted after Pilon drove by and saw her in her yard wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt her son made. They found the note and the noose the next day when her husband went to get coffee. Regina Simon is Mexican and white, and her ex-husband is Black.

A noose and note left in a vehicle owned by Regina Simon and her then-husband. (Regina Simon)

"When he got into his truck, he noticed in the side of the door was this noose with a note attached to it," she said Wednesday. "At first I'm thinking it's a joke, somebody trying to be funny, but then I'm like this isn't funny."

Donald Simon said he felt "violated."

"I can't understand that this racism is still alive," he said.

Regina Simon took a photograph of it that she posted on Facebook. She was then contacted by the NAACP, which got the FBI involved.

Regina Simon said she wasn't going to let the note intimidate her, so her family held a protest in their community. She said she also wanted her daughter, who was 5 at the time, to know the importance of standing up for what you believe in.

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"We're aware that there are people who have that feeling in their heart," she said, referring to Pilon. "But that's not going to change the way that we live. I'm not going to let somebody bring hate to our door and make us change who we are."

The affidavit further alleges that Pilon also called multiple Starbucks stores in and around Saginaw to leave derogatory messages. It alleges that when an employee would answer, Pilon would say: "Tell the Starbucks workers wearing BLM shirts that the only good n-word is a dead n-word. He told another worker that he did not like Black Lives Matter T-shirts and that he was "gonna go out and lynch me a n-word," according to the affidavit.

Days before the calls, Starbucks had announced that it was providing Black Lives Matter shirts to employees who wanted to wear them.

Federal authorities said Pilon wanted to intimidate people "from participating lawfully in speech and peaceful assembly opposing the denial of Black peoples right to enjoy police protection and services free from brutality."

It's not clear whether Pilon has obtained an attorney.
Illinois residents who have appeared in a photograph on the Google Photos app within the last seven years may be eligible for a cut of a $100 million class-action privacy settlement reached by Google this month.

The lawsuit alleges Googles face grouping tool, which sorts faces in the Google Photos app by similarity, runs afoul of Illinois biometric privacy law. The law requires companies to get user consent for the use of such technologies.

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The settlement was filed in Cook County Circuit Court April 14, and Judge Anna M. Loftus issued an order granting preliminary approval of the agreement Monday.

Google did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which resolves a group of lawsuits filed by five named plaintiffs. The first lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in March 2016. Two plaintiffs filed suit in state court in 2019 after a judge found they lacked standing to pursue their claims in federal court, and additional plaintiffs later filed their own lawsuits.

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If a final order is approved in the case, Illinois residents who appeared in a photograph in Google Photos between May 1, 2015, and the date of the settlements preliminary approval would be eligible to take part in the deal. While the amount of the payments will depend on how many people file claims, attorneys estimate each class member will receive between $200 and $400, according to the agreement.

Loftus ordered notification of the settlement be sent to class members via email or U.S. mail no later than May 27.

Were pleased to resolve this matter relating to specific laws in Illinois, and we remain committed to building easy-to-use controls for our users, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement Tuesday.

Castaneda said Google Photos users in Illinois would be prompted to provide opt-in consent to face grouping in the coming weeks. Those changes will also be gradually rolled out across the U.S., he said. Users can choose to turn face grouping off, in which case face groups will be deleted from their accounts.

Each of the five named plaintiffs in the case is eligible to receive a $5,000 payment, and attorneys will be able to apply for up to $40 million in fees plus costs and expenses, to be paid out of the settlement fund, according to the agreement.

Scott Bursor, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, declined to comment Tuesday.

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The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, passed in 2008, is among the strictest such laws in the U.S. Last year, Facebook received approval for a landmark $650 million class-action settlement in an Illinois biometric privacy case over its facial tagging feature, but the payouts were delayed more than a year after two objectors appealed the award of attorneys fees in the case.

In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld the February 2021 class-action settlement and attorney fee award, freeing up payments for the 1.6 million Illinois Facebook users who filed claims. Those who did should expect to see checks of almost $400 in the mail starting next month.

A final approval hearing for the Google settlement is scheduled for September.
Microsoft released a report on Wednesday detailing how Russian-backed hackers unleashed a series of cyber operations against Ukraine as early as March 2021.

According to the report, at least six separate Russian-backed hacking groups have launched more than 200 cyber operations against Ukraine, including destructive attacks that have threatened civilian welfare. The report also found that the hackers engaged in a broad range of espionage and intelligence activities.

Microsoft found nearly 40 destructive attacks, 32 percent of which directly targeted Ukrainian government organizations while 40 percent were aimed at critical sectors.

The attacks have not only degraded the systems of institutions in Ukraine but have also sought to disrupt peoples access to reliable information and critical life services on which civilians depend, and have attempted to shake confidence in the countrys leadership, said Tom Burt, a Microsoft vice president, in a blog post.

The report comes as the war in Ukraine intensifies and the number of military and civilian casualties rises. Russia announced on Wednesday that it was ceasing its natural gas shipments to Poland and Bulgaria in response to Western sanctions.

The Microsoft report found that the cyberattacks were strongly tied and sometimes directly timed with the kinetic military operations on the ground targeting Ukrainian services and institutions. For instance, cyberattacks were launched against a major broadcasting company on March 1, on the same day the Russian military directed a missile strike against a TV tower in Kyiv.

The tech company also said Russian cyber operations began as early as March 2021, with the hackers attempting to gain a larger foothold into Ukrainian systems. The hackers also tried to gain access to the systems of NATO member states, it said.

The report concluded that its likely the attacks weve observed are only a fraction of activity targeting Ukraine.

This is the second time this month that Microsoft has released findings related to Russian cyberattacks amid the war. In early April, the tech giant said it disrupted cyberattacks intended to target Ukraine and organizations in the United States and the European Union.

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Microsoft alleged that a Russian hacking group called Strontium was aiming at Ukrainian media organizations as well as foreign policy-related institutions in the U.S. and the EU.

The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Minneapolis police officers in riot gear leave as protesters gather after an officer shot and killed a black man in Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 11, 2021. Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images

Minneapolis police trainers used racist tropes in training scenarios, a new report uncovered.

Trainers "relied on racist tropes to impersonate Black community members as part of scenario-based training," the report said.

It also found that trainers furthered race-based policing practices and taught them to the rookie officers.

Minneapolis Police Department trainers used racially biased tropes to impersonate Black people during training scenarios, a new report from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found.

"Observations from MPD's recent Academy training sessions in 2021 provided additional evidence of MPD's deficient training," the agency said in the report. "Some trainers relied on racist tropes to impersonate Black community members as part of scenario-based training and other trainers used racist or sexist tropes."

The report, released on Wednesday, also said that the agency's investigation found training in the MPD furthered race-based policing and encouraged rookie officers to use these practices in the field.

One example from 2020 investigated by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights showed body camera footage of a field training officer and trainee completing a search of an intoxicated Black woman who said she did not have any weapons on her.

Two hours later, the same pair stopped an intoxicated white man who confessed to having a knife with him. Instead of performing a search, the trainer told the trainee not to complete one because "I just didn't want you to waste your time."

Data from the report showed that 63% of all use of force incidents that MPD officers recorded were against Black individuals, though Black people make up about 19% of the Minneapolis population.

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights also found that training overall is insufficient, with one lieutenant explaining he believes the poor and inconsistent training for supervisors is the root of most problems in the department.

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights began its investigation into the police department on June 1, 2020  a week after George Floyd was killed by former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020.

Read the original article on Insider
By Alexander Tanas

CHISINAU (Reuters) -Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestria said on Wednesday that shots were fired from Ukraine towards a village that houses an ammunition depot, the latest report to raise concern that Russia's war might expand.

The interior ministry of the unrecognised region that borders southwestern Ukraine said in a statement that several drones had been detected flying over the village of Cobasna overnight and they had come from Ukraine.

It said shots were later fired towards the border village from Ukrainian territory on Wednesday morning. It gave no further details, but said nobody had been hurt.

Russia has a contingent of troops in Transdniestria guarding many tonnes of ammunition stored in the region since before the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Moscow also has peacekeepers there after a conflict between separatist and Moldovan forces.

Transdniestria's interior ministry cited "experts" as saying that Cobasna holds the biggest ammunition depot in Europe.

Ukraine has accused Russia of trying to mastermind false flag attacks in the region, including explosions that damaged two radio masts on Tuesday. The region itself blames the attacks on Ukraine.

Vadim Krasnoselsky, the self-styled president of Transdniestria, said late on Wednesday that reports he had announced a general mobilisation and prevented men of military age from leaving were "absurd lies" thought up by provocateurs.

"I officially declare that the leadership of the republic has not taken such decisions," he said in an online post.

Moldovan authorities said queues of cars and trucks had formed on the road out of Transdniestria into the rest of Moldova because of tougher controls at checkpoints that Transdniestria had brought in on Tuesday.

The Kremlin said it was seriously concerned by the developments. The Russian foreign ministry was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying it wants to avoid a scenario in which Moscow would have to intervene there.

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The statements have put Moldova on edge.

"We need to make financial and logistical efforts to build a professional army, modern and well-equipped," said Moldovan President Maia Sandu.

"We are going through a very difficult period for our country, but investments in the army are very necessary, they are needed for infrastructure, for the security and defence of the state," she said.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar accused Russia of being ready to use Transdniestria as a bridgehead to move on Ukraine or the rest of Moldova.

(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk and David Ljunggren; Writing by Tom Balmforth, Editing by Angus MacSwan, William Maclean and Jonathan Oatis)
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission.

A former resident of Woodbridge, New Jersey is looking into a bizarre case revolving around Colonia High School. The resident, a man named Al Lupiano, says that more than 100 people that attended or worked at Colonia High School have had rare brain tumors.

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Multiple attendees from Colonia High School have experienced rare brain tumors

Colonia High School front

According to Al Lupiano, the main push behind the current investigation, over 100 people have come forward with similar news in the past few weeks.

Lupiano, who graduated from Colonia High School in 1989, says that his siblings all graduated in 91, 95, and 98. His wife Michele also graduated from the school in 1991. In early August of 2021, doctors diagnosed Lupianos sister with a glioma brain tumor. The tumor was a very rare and highly aggressive malignant tumor of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

In a post shared in late March, Lupiano notes that the approximate incident rate for GBM is 30 out of 1,000,000 people. Additionally, Lupiano was given the news about his wifes diagnosis the same day doctors diagnosed his sister.

His wifes tumor was an acoustic neuroma, or vestibular schwannoma, with an incident rate of approximately 10 in 1,000,000 people. Further creating more concern, Lupiano says a doctor diagnosed him with a rare brain tumor back in 1999.

As such, doctors diagnosed three people within the same small group with rare brain tumors. It was this coincidence that led Lupiano to begin investigating Colonia High School. His doctor at the time believed it could have possibly had to do with radiation exposure of some type.

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Searching for evidence

brain MRI

If three cases of rare brain tumors popping up in such a small group werent alarming enough, the rest of the news certainly is. After discovering his sister and wifes tumors, Lupiano began looking into things himself.

He says he spent hours searching the internet and talking to people about brain tumors. He discovered many people from the Woodbridge Township had also been diagnosed with rare brain tumors.

Lupiano continued looking for a connection, to figure out why so many from that township might have been affected. Many of them had grown up on different streets and parts of the township. The only thing that they all had in common was Colonia High School. The entirety of the group had graduated from the school between 1975 and 1995.

While it is possible that Colonia High School isnt the cause of the exposure to whatever caused these cases, Lupiano says its the only common thread between all of those affected.

As such, he has been meeting with local and state officials to try to figure out whats going on. But Lupiano says the state and local agencies arent taking it seriously enough.

Im a little frustrated, Lupiano told NewsNation. Were getting a lot of warm wishes, and were willing to help from state and federal agencies. But, as of yet, theyre not willing to get involved.

Currently, its unclear what, if anything, at Colonia High School could be causing these brain tumors to develop. Lupiano continues to push his quest for answers as well as action to stop whatever it is.

Click here to read the full article.

See the original version of this article on BGR.com
The mother of Tyre Sampson has said the death of her son, who died after falling from a Florida thrill ride last month, could have been prevented.

Nekia Dodd, who was speaking after the announcement of a lawsuit filed against the owner of the Orlando FreeFall ride and others on Monday, told Good Morning America that her sons death couldve been prevented.

This couldve been prevented ... it shouldve been prevented, said Ms Dodd, who pointed to allegedly insufficient safety checks on Sampsons seat. So as an operator, you have a job to check those rides, you know.

His mother went on to say how a video allegedly taken by a bystander on 24 March showed Sampsons seat with an opening multipole inches larger than that of other customers on the 430-foot (131-meter) attraction.

That allowed him to slip through the gap between the restraint harness and his seat, causing his death, as an initial report into the death found.

The video I saw, that was not done, said Ms Dodd of the checks, as ABC 7 News reported. And if it was done, it shouldve been done more than once, you know.

Her comments came as a family attorney, Ben Crump, announced a lawsuit against the owner of the Orlando FreeFall, Orlando Slingshot, for negligence. The operators, the ICON Orlando park, are also named.

The defendants in Tyres case showed negligence in a multitude of ways, said Mr Crump. From the ride and seat manufacturers and the installer to the owners and operators, the defendants had more than enough chances to enact safeguards, such as seatbelts, that could have prevented Tyres death.

Tyre Sampsons. mother spoke out on Monday (ABC 7 News)

That allegedly included the possibility to install seatbelts on the ride, which was not done despite costing $660 (523), the lawsuit claimed. The ride is mechanically operated with restraints controlled by sensors.

Last week, an official report said Sampson was not properly secured in the seat and that a safety sensor had been manually adjusted to increase the gap between the restraint harness and the seat so that he could fit in. That was described as being a operator error.

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Sampson, who weighed 380 lbs (172kg) and was six feet two inches in height, was thought to be bigger than the maximum sized passenger on the rides operation manual, but was allowed to ride, however.

The Orlando FreeFall tower (WFTV)

The report also said there were many other potential contributions to the accident and that a full review of the rides design and operations was needed.

He could have been a doctor, lawyer, astronaut, anything besides being an athlete, said the teenagers father Yarnell Sampson on Tuesday in an interview with NBC 5. That was just one part of his life.

Orlando Slingshot continues to fully cooperate with the state during its investigation, and we will continue to do so until it has officially concluded, said the rides owner, Orlando Slingshot, in a statement to the news outlet. We reiterate that all protocols, procedures and safety measures provided by the manufacturer of the ride were followed.

The Independent has approached ICON for comment.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.
CARLSBAD, CA  Mother's Day on Sunday, May 8, is still a few weeks away, but if you plan to treat your mother to brunch or dinner out, reservations may fill up quickly in Carlsbad as the nation approaches the most normal celebration of moms since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Local restaurants in Carlsbad have taken a financial hit during the pandemic and could use the business. Some are closed so their employees can support their own mothers or be pampered by their children, but here are some options in Carlsbad and across San Diego County:



20|Twenty: A "Mother's Day Breakfast Buffet by the Sea" will be served 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. May 8, with such specialties as made-to-order omelet station, seafood options of crab legs, shrimp and ahi poke, plus carving station starring prime rib. Children's menu offered, too. $120 for adults; $40 for kids 3-12; and free for kids 3 and under. Full menu here. Reservations here. Location: 5480 Grand Pacific Drive, Carlsbad.



7 Mile Kitchen at Sheraton Carlsbad Resort: Treat Mom to special Mother's Day brunch with bottomless mimosas and juice pairings at poolside eatery. Menu options include fruit bowls, brioche French toast, hashes, omelets and artisanal pizzas. Menu here. Reservations here. Location: 5420 Grand Pacific Drive, Carlsbad.



Buca Di Beppo: Takeout packages offered Mother's Day weekend for pick-up or delivery May 6-8. Serving five, to-go special ($65) includes bread and choice of salad and pasta, plus dessert. Another version ($75) includes same, but with added entree. See here for details. Locations in Carlsbad, Mira Mesa and San Diego.



Corner Bakery: On Saturday and Sunday, May 7-8, the matriarchs of your family will receive complimentary bakery item with purchase of lunch or dinner entree. Or surprise Mom with with breakfast in bed and order from an array of to-go breakfast items, including limited time offer of Blueberry Topped Pancakes. Website. Locations in Carlsbad, San Diego and La Jolla.



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Eureka!: Treat Mom to "Mommy's On a Break" cocktail paired with $35 prix-fixe menu. Starter choices: crispy, glazed Brussels sprouts; spinach and artichoke dip; or mac n' cheese balls. Entree selections: Fresno fig burger; spicy chicken sandwich; cowboy burger; veggie beet burger; or cobb salad. "Mommy's On a Break" blends tequila, blood orange, yuzu, Grand Poppy Amaro, rosemary and lemon. Mother's Day special runs May 4-10. Website. Locations in Carlsbad, La Jolla and San Diego.

Urban Plates: The first 50 moms who come in Mother's Day will get roses, and the first 180 will receive complimentary chocolate pudding. Plus two new seafood dishes on menu: Roasted Barramundi Sea Bass Plate; and Wild Ahi Nicoise Salad. Locations in Carlsbad, Del Mar and La Jolla.



Animae: Three-course Mother's Day brunch planned 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. May 8 ($80 per person.) at eatery from celebrity chef Brian Malarkey. Among starter options: poached shrimp; Napa salad; or steak tartare. Second-course choices: chicken congee; steamed buns; or crab cakes. Third-course selections: sisig with egg, chicharron and garlic rice; char sui scramble and potatoes; turon French toast; seafood crepe; or a fried fish sando. Finish meal with shared strawberry roll cake. Info and reservations here. Location: 969 Pacific Hwy., San Diego.

Herb & Sea: A three-course, Mother's Day brunch ($70 per person from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.) will open with lemon blueberry rolls, followed by choice of avocado toast, pork belly, crab cake or butter lemon salad. Main selections: lobster roll; Benedict with prosciutto; filet and eggs; brioche French toast; or mushroom and polenta with poached egg. Reservations and menu details. Location: 131 D St., Encinitas.

The Marine Room: Mom can enjoy a four-course Mother's Day menu at the legendary beachfront restaurant, featuring free-flowing champagne. Plus mothers will receive box of handcrafted chocolates as a memento. Reservations online or at 858-459-7222. Location: 2000 Spindrift Drive, La Jolla.



The Shores Restaurant: Saturday and Sunday brunch from Executive Chef Mike Minor is planned Mother's Day weekend, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. May 7-8. Brunch will be served in the Mediterranean-inspired dining room or patio, or on outdoor dining area on the oceanfront lawn. Brunch menu and reservations here. Location: 8110 Camino Del Oro, La Jolla.



If you're looking for something else, check OpenTable for restaurants in your area taking reservations for Mother's Day.

Several chain restaurants and other eateries are open for Mother's Day this year, and some are offering specials.



Below are a few more options to get you started, featuring everything from casual to fine dining. As always, it's advisable to call ahead to make sure the restaurants in the Carlsbad and San Diego area are participating and to inquire about any COVID-19 restrictions or limitations.

Applebee's is adding a $10 bonus card to the purchase of a $50 gift card for Mother's Day and other special occasions, including graduations and Father's Day. Locations in Chula Vista, El Cajon, Escondido, National City, Oceanside and San Diego.

Cafe Sevilla: The Spanish-influenced eatery to host Mother's Day brunch from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., accompanied by live Spanish guitar. Menu to include Spanish eggs Benedict (poached eggs, Spanish jamon Serrano crisp and saffron hollandaise on Kalamata olive loaf); short rib hash topped with two fried eggs; and breakfast-meat paella, with pork tenderloin, sausage, chicken, flat iron steak, saffron bomba rice and two fried eggs. All moms receive complimentary glass of champagne, too. Reservations and details. Location in San Diego.



California Pizza Kitchen: CPKs are offering a way to show your love for Mom: heart-shaped, crispy thin crust pizzas. The special is for dine-in only May 8. Details. Locations in Chula Vista, Escondido, San Diego and Solana Beach.

Dickey's Barbecue Pit: Mother's Day falls on a Sunday, and ... kids, 12 and under, eat free on Sundays with minimum $10 purchase at participating locations. One kids' meal per check. The offer is for dine-in, delivery and carryout orders. Use code KEFOLO at online checkout. Not valid with other coupons, offers, discounts or promos. Website. Locations in El Cajon, San Marcos and San Diego.



Eddie V's: A special Mother's Day prix-fixe, three-course brunch menu planned May 8 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., with entree options of lobster quiche Florentine, roasted avocado with jumbo lump crab or steak and eggs. (Adults $55/children $16.) Mimosas, Bloody Marys and bellinis also available, along with a la carte menu. Reservations here. Locations in La Jolla and San Diego.



El Torito: Enjoy all-you-can-eat Mother's Day brunch 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 8, with ham and tri-tip carving station, build-your-own tacos, made-to-order omelets, $5 cadillac margs, Bloody Marys, micheladas, unlimited champagne and more. (NOTE ONE EXCEPTION: Marina del Rey restaurant offering four-course, prix-fixe brunch menu for $34.) Website here. Location in La Mesa.



Fleming's Prime Steakhouse: Mother's Day special offered May 7-8, with three-course menu featuring salad, dessert and filet mignon paired with choice of crab-stuffed shrimp or lobster tail scampi. Dinner menu and children's three-course available all day. Also offered for pick-up or delivery. Locations in La Jolla and San Diego.



Fogo de Chao Brazilian steakhouse is offering a ready-to-reheat Mother's Day Celebration Package that feeds six and features a choice of fire-roasted meats, sides and dessert. Meals should be ordered at least 24 hours in advance and are available all day May 7, and until 10:30 a.m. May 8. Location in San Diego.

Joe's Crab Shack: A four-course, Mother's Day menu offered May 8, with prices based off entree selections. Options: Land and Sea ($45); Shrimp & Seafood Ensemble ($52); Joe's Classic Steampot ($64); Dungeness Crab Bucket ($69); plus add-on lobster tail for $17. Meals also include starter, salad and dessert. See here for details. Locations in Oceanside and San Diego.



Morton's, The Steakhouse is accepting reservations for Mother's Day, and also will bring the meal to Mom in select locations. Location in San Diego.

North Italia: Just in time for Mother's Day, the eatery launches new spring dishes and cocktails. Among brunch and dinner standouts: hanger steak tagliata with charred broccolini and Tuscan bean ragu; caprese sandwich; sweet corn and fontina with roasted corn and white polenta. See here for info and reservations. Locations in San Diego.



Outback Steakhouse: A special Mother's Day menu runs May 4-8 with such dishes as filet with shrimp "grilled on the barbie" or coconut-style; prime rib; option for adding lobster tail to any entree; Peach Bellini with vodka, peach puree and blood orange juice topped with prosecco, strawberries and mint; and the new "Thunder & Lightning" pecan brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Website. Locations in El Cajon, National City, Oceanside, Poway, San Diego and San Marcos.



Red Lobster: Celebrate Mother's Day at home with "Create Your Own Family Feast" takeout ($54.99), that serves four with choice of three seafood dishes, two sides and Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Select from shrimp scampi, grilled shrimp, coconut shrimp, fried whitefish, salmon and more. Or step up to "Ultimate Family Feast" ($124.99), with lobster tails, crab legs, shrimp scampi and "Walt's Favorite Shrimp." Order info here. Also offered through June 26 is gift card  for every $50 spent on Red Lobster gift cards purchased in-restaurant or online, receive bonus coupon for $10 off order of $30 or more from June 27 to Aug. 31. Locations in Chula Vista, La Mesa, Oceanside and San Diego.



Ruth's Chris Steak House: A Mother' Day weekend, prix-fixe menu, starting at $57 per person, offered May 6-8. Starters include salads or lobster bisque. Entree options, plus sides: steak and shrimp; steak and lobster; or twin tails. Chef's selection desserts. See here for info and reservations. Locations in Del Mar and San Diego.



Seasons 52: On-site Mother's Day brunch (10 a.m. - 2 p.m.) to feature such a la carte entrees as crab and cheddar quiche, French toast with bacon, shrimp and grits, plus brunch cocktails. Available for takeout are Mother's Day Green Boxes To Go, (serve four to six with reheating instructions) with choices of apricot-glazed ham, salmon or beef tenderloin, plus salad, sides and chocolate-dipped strawberry desserts. Make dining reservations, or order to-go options by May 2 for May 7 pick-up. Location in San Diego.



This article originally appeared on the Carlsbad Patch
Nearly 1.1 million Muslim voters cast a ballot in the 2020 election, turning out in numbers large enough to swing the presidential race in key battleground states, according to a new report.

The analysis by Emgage, a Muslim American civic group, found that 71 percent of registered Muslim voters in the U.S. went to the polls that year  an uptick of 2 percentage points compared to 2016, and 4 points higher than the nationwide turnout level in 2020.

In the 12 states where the organization signed up and mobilized Muslim voters, the number of registered Muslim voters grew by 27 percent.

The Muslim American community is relatively small in number, but its participation was targeted enough to make a difference in 2020. In Georgia, where President Joe Biden won by almost 12,000 votes, more than 61,000 Muslim voters came to the polls, said the document by Emgage. In Pennsylvania, which Biden carried by nearly 81,000 votes, about 125,000 Muslim voters turned out.

The report demonstrates the impact of Muslim Americans efforts in recent years to flex their political muscle. Emgages political action committee, which bills itself as the largest Muslim American PAC in the nation, endorsed Biden in the 2020 general election and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic primary. Emgage also hosted a Democratic presidential primary forum that year.

The group described its outreach to Muslim Americans as including making 1.8 million calls, sending over 3.6 million text messages and over 400,000 mailers, knocking on over 20,000 doors, holding over 50 organizing training sessions, and activating 672 volunteers nationwide. It also held voter registration drives at mosques, ran ads in community newspapers, and joined a get-out-the-vote rally for Muslims in Philadelphia.

Mohamed Gula, national organizing director at Emgage, said the increase in voter participation in 2020 was all about the conversations that were being had  its the belief that we are a part of the American fabric.

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Though Covid-19 forced it to pivot to digital organizing and ballot chasing, Emgage discovered that the accessibility of organizing online gave smaller Muslim groups the ability to participate in their mobilization efforts. The group reported that more than half of Muslim voters in 2020 cast an early or absentee ballot.

Despite its PACs support of Biden, Emgage said its voter engagement program in 2020 was nonpartisan and operated through its 501(c)(3). That is changing this year: Emgage told POLITICO it is launching its Million Muslim Votes 2.0 project to turn out Muslim voters in the 2022 midterms, and plans to take sides this time while canvassing in primaries and general elections.

The group has already issued endorsements in several congressional races  including for progressive Democratic state Rep. Summer Lee in Pennsylvania and Democratic Rep. Andy Levin, who is engaged in a fierce member-on-member primary in Michigan  and there are more to come. Emgage is also expanding its voter outreach to include two additional states, Georgia and Maryland.
Photo credit: Kyle Petty Charity Ride

The annual Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America begins its 26th edition April 30 in Phoenix.

This years Ride will cover 1,500 miles in seven days, six of them actual travel days in Arizona and Utah.

The most recent Ride generated $1.7 million and sent 128 children to camp.

After a frustrating two-year interruption brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic, the annual Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America begins its 26th edition April 30 in Phoenix. The annual motorcycle ride serves as a major fund-raiser for the Petty familys Victory Junction Gang Camp near Randleman, N.C.

The upcoming KPCR is a somewhat abbreviated version of what was once a challenging endurance test. The first one in 1995 was truly across America. A group of perhaps 35 bikers began in Santa Clara, Cal. and rode across eight states, ending a week later near Charlotte, N.C. As many as 50 others joined up and dropped off along the way, but most in the core group of 35 (Editor note: Including Autoweek senior motorsports writer Al Pearce) were still there at the end of the grueling week.

Since then, other rides have started in California, Texas, Oregon, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Washington state, and upstate New York. They have ended in North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Mississippi, and Wisconsin. Ride organizers often speak of going through  even if only briefly  all 48 of the lower states. Close, but not quite right: the Ride has gone through 46 of the 48, missing only Rhode Island and Delaware. (And there is uncertainty about Connecticut).

The most recent ride in 2019 was its longest. It began in Seattle, worked its way southward to New Mexico, turned eastward and crossed the southwest and Deep South en route to the west coast of Florida. By the time it ended in Key Largo, Fl. nine days after leaving Seattle, nobody associated with the Ride imagined it would be more than two years before they gathered again.

As usual, former racer and current NASCAR TV commentator Kyle Petty will lead the caravan. Retired Cup Series drivers Richard Petty, Harry Gant, Donnie Allison, and Ken Schrader will be along for at least part of the time. NASCAR Hall of Fame candidate and Arizona native Hershel McGriff likely will make an appearance, but at 94 its unlikely hell do the whole ride as he has in the recent past. Current Cup Series driver Erik Jones, fresh off his strong run at Talladega, will ride a day or two before heading back for the May 8 race at Darlington.

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It was a difficult but sensible call to postpone the 2000 and 2001 Rides when COVID-19 became an issue. Nearly three years in the making, Im beyond thrilled to finally get our riders back together for Arizona and Utah, Kyle Petty, 61, said in a statement. This Ride is all about stopping to see some of the beautiful places weve ridden by in the past, mixed with a few new places for our riders to explore. Together, well create memories to last a lifetime and its all for the kids at Victory Junction.

This Year's Ride

This years Ride will cover only 1,500 miles in seven days, six of them actual travel days in Arizona and Utah. The 200-plus so riders and two dozen support personnel will leave Phoenix on Saturday, April 30 and make a lap around Phoenix Raceway before going to the first overnight in Lake Havasu, Arizona. Day 2 will be a fairly short Sunday ride to Flagstaff, Az., followed by a similarly short ride on Monday from Flagstaff to Bryce Canyon City, Utah. Riders will overnight there and have a lay-around free day for local day trips on Tuesday, May 3.

Theyll resume riding on Wednesday, May 4, going from Bryce Canyon City to nearby Monument Valley, Utah for another overnight. The Ride stays in Sedona on Thursday night, May 5 before ending up back in Phoenix on Friday night, May 6.

The trip will include Route 66, visiting Grand Canyon National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. The free day on May 3 in Bryce Canyon City allows riders to wander around on their own and see local attractions like the Grand Staircase and Humphries Peak.

The previous 25 Rides have generated funds to allow more than 8,200 children to attend Victory Junction Camp at no cost to their families. The most recent Ride generated $1.7 million and sent 128 children to camp. The Ride has been the camps primary beneficiary since the Petty family created it 2004 in honor of the late Adam Petty, Kyles son, Richards grandson and Lees great-grandson. The fourth-generation racer was killed during an Xfinity Series practice session at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Mothers Day weekend of 2000.
The House of Representatives has unanimously approved a bill that would help determine the feasibility of creating a national Asian Pacific American museum in Washington, D.C.



On Tuesday, members of the lower house passed H.R.3525, a bill that would establish a commission to review the development of the proposed National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture.





The commission would be tasked to determine the potential costs involved in building the new museum, as well as its possible location in the Washington area and whether it would be a part of the Smithsonian Institution.



The proposed bill mandates that the commission would have 18 months to report to Congress and the president with its findings.



Its a joy to see this AAPI museum study bill arrive at this point today, said Rep. Grace Meng (D, NY-6), who proposed the bill last year.



Meng noted during the floor debate that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have made significant contributions to the economy, culture and history of the U.S. for years, citing examples such as the Chinese workers who helped construct the transcontinental railroad.



Those contributions are often unheard of and simply forgotten, she was quoted as saying. It is time to change that.



Rep. Andy Kim (D, NJ-3) also spoke in favor of the bill. During the debate, he shared that he hopes his sons will grow up proud of their heritage.



I dont want my kids to understand who they are through sources of hate and discrimination, he said. I want them to feel pride. Our story is not just an Asian American story, its an American story.



H.R.3525, which supports Mengs previous efforts to pass a bill that would have the museum built, is now headed to the Senate for its concurrence.







Feature Image via Associated Press

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Cinco de Mayo, the commemoration of Mexicos victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, is far more popular in the United States than it is in Mexico, and that means you dont have to make a trip to celebrate.

Whether they typically serve Mexican fare or not, bars and restaurants throughout the city are offering specials on tacos, tequila and other Mexican favorites along with music, games and giveaways.

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All events happen on May 5 unless otherwise specified, though many of the celebrations run all week.

Azul Mariscos

The restaurant offers a special version of its $80 Patron margarita tower May 5-8, with red, white and green drinks to form the colors of the Mexican flag. 1177 N. Elston Ave., 773-770-3766, azulmariscos.com

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Bar Takito

Hear mariachi starting at 6 p.m. April 30 and May 5. On May 3 $2.95 tacos will be on offer along with tableside magic from 6-9 p.m. All three days you can order a $29 margarita flight featuring strawberry, coconut and cucumber varieties representing the red, white and green of the Mexican flag. Youll also have a chance to win Takito swag. 201 N. Morgan St., 312-888-9485, bartakito.com

Burrito Beach

Cinco de Mayo specials at Burrito Beach. (Burrito Beach)

Weeklong specials include $5 tacos May 3, $5 nachos May 4 and $5 burritos May 5. The offer is limited to one per person daily. Locations vary, burritobeach.com

Cruz Blanca

Kick off your celebration April 30 with a Refresh Your Cinco Fiesta from noon to 4 p.m. featuring a DJ, cornhole and a beer tub on the patio. Follow @cruzblancachi on Instagram for the chance to win beer, swag and other prizes May 1-5. Come back May 5 for the can releases of Paloma grapefruit saison and Pachamama tropical lager. Both beers will be available as draft pours or in a four-pack of 16-ounce cans. 904 W. Randolph St., 312-733-1975, brewpub.cruzblanca.com

The Dawson

Share an order of lamb barbacoa roasted in banana leaves and served with pickled onions and corn tortillas ($38). 730 W. Grand Ave., 312-243-8955, the-dawson.com

Gaijin

Carnitas Osaka at Gaijin. (Misty Nguyen)

Fuse Japanese and Mexican fare and you get Carnitas Osaka, a savory pancake made with crispy pork shoulder, carrots and bonito flake ($20) available May 2-9. 950 W. Lake St., 312-265-1348, gaijinchicago.com

The Hampton Social

Order shrimp tacos and youll get a free margarita shot. Locations vary, thehamptonsocial.com

Hewn

The bakerys pastry and savory teams team to make empanadas with pork, chorizo, eggs and diced potatoes ($6.75) or roasted poblanos, beans and Chihuahua cheese ($6). For something sweet, pick up a four-pack of dulce de leche whoopie pies for $13. 1733 Central St., Evanston, 847-869-4396; hewnbread.com

Hopsmith

Tacos and margaritas from Hopsmith/Taco Alley. (Big Onion Hospitality)

Buy an order of tacos on Cinco de Mayo and youll get a voucher for a free order of tacos from the Gold Coast bars late night Taco Alley window through the end of June. Pair them with an avocado ($17), a spicy watermelon ($14) or frozen chocolate ($16) margarita offered on May 5. Taco Alley will also be offering free tacos to anyone from 11 p.m. to midnight May 7. 15 W. Division St., 312-600-9816, hopsmithchicago.com

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Hoyts American Tavern

The restaurant celebrates all month with a menu of summery drinks made with Calirosa tequila including a cucumber margarita and a Mexican mule. Order one 4-8 p.m. May 5 and youll also get a tasting of Calirosa tequila. 71 E. Wacker Drive, 312-346-7100, sonesta.com

La Josie

Catch a set from DJ Rudy de Anda from 7-11 p.m. while enjoying agave flights and new seasonal dishes. 740 W. Randolph St., 312-929-2900, lajosie.com

Macs Wood Grilled

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Choose from beer-battered whitefish tacos with housemade poblano corn relish, grilled chicken breast tacos with housemade pico de gallo or grilled steak tacos with cilantro and diced onion for $12. All three platters come with tortilla chips, pico de gallo and salsa verde. Pair them with a $4 bottle of Corona. The specials are available May 1-5. 1801 W. Division St., 773-782-4400, macswoodgrilled.com

Old Town Pour House

A fiesta running from 6:30-9:30 p.m. features two drinks, a chips and salsa station, Loteria games and a DJ for $20. Additional specials include $4 Corona Extra, $5 Corona hard seltzer and $6 Titos cocktails. 1419 N. Wells St., 312-477-2800, oldtownpourhouse.com

Roberts Pizza & Dough Co.

Pair a carne asada pizza made with grilled steak, queso fresco, black beans and guacamole ($28) with a $10 margarita or $24 bucket of six Modelos. 465 N. McClurg Court, 312-265-1328, robertspizzacompany.com

Timothy OTooles

All four locations offer margarita specials including a $11 prickly pear margarita, $12 pineapple ginger margarita and a $10 classic margarita. Locations vary, timothyotooles.com

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Tumans Tap & Grill

Mexican-inspired specials include a $13 skirt steak taco dinner, $10 steak burrito, $3 Tecate cans and $5 drafts of Sun King Brewery Pachanga Mexican-style lager. 2159 W. Chicago Ave., 773-782-1400, tumanstapandgrill.com

Velvet Taco

The fast casual chain offers a special steak milanese taco ($5.95) May 4-10 featuring breaded steak, avocado, red chili aioli and pickled fresnos. Tag a friend in the comments of Velvet Tacos Instagram page on May 5 for a chance to win a margarita party including 24 tacos and red velvet cake. Locations vary, velvettaco.com

Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.
There must be something in Pennsylvania's water. A week after a Pittsburgh bettor hit a 500-to-1 ticket on Marcus Smart winning Defensive Player of the Year, a BetMGM customer in the "Keystone State" banged a three-leg parlay at 1,551-to-1 odds. The parlay was comprised of first field goal scorer props from each of last night's three NBA playoff games and paid out $15,515 on a $10 wager.

Hoop there it is

As sports betting continues to be legalized in states across the country, first basket parlays have become a popular type of wager among bettors. What's not to love about an exponential sweat with astronomical odds?

The first two legs of the BetMGM customer's parlay were "exact method" first field goal props, where the bettor needed to nail not just who would score the game's first basket, but also how.

Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton celebrates a play against the New Orleans Pelicans in the first half during game five of the first round for the 2022 NBA playoffs at Footprint Center. (Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)

Needing a Kevin Huerter three-pointer to kick things off, the bettor caught an unfortunate break when the Heat won the opening tip. Miami's Max Strus missed a trey of his own, though, and Atlanta's De'Andre Hunter claimed the rebound. Eight seconds later, Huerter swished a corner three off a deflected pass.

Leg No. 2 also necessitated a three-pointer, this time from Memphis' Desmond Bane. The shooting guard buried a jumper from beyond the arc, 18 seconds after the Grizzlies claimed the tip-off. Bane would later be assessed a technical foul for shoving Timberwolves coach Chris Finch in one of the wildest games of the NBA season, which also featured the dunk of the year.

With the most difficult legs of the parlay wrapped up, the bettor just needed Phoenix's Deandre Ayton to score the first basket in the Suns-Pelicans nightcap to turn his sawbuck into more than $15,000. Ayton won the tip then found himself double-teamed on the baseline as the shot clock began to run out on the game's opening possession. The big man channeled Dirk Nowitzki, performing a 180-degree fadeaway to drain a jumper over Brandon Ingram and Jaxson Hayes, making our bettor five figures richer.

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Here is the parlay, complete with the odds for each leg:
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's Senate on Wednesday passed a bill imposing jail terms of at least 15 years for paying a ransom to free someone who has been kidnapped, and made abduction punishable by death in cases where victims die.

Armed gangs operating mostly in northeastern and north-central states of Nigeria have for more than a decade spread terror through kidnappings for ransom, targeting students, villagers and motorists on highways. They have also killed thousands of people.

The bill, which amends Nigeria's terrorism law, mandates the death penalty for convicted kidnappers where the abduction leads to loss of life, and life imprisonment in other cases.

Opeyemi Bamidele, chairman of the Senate's judiciary, human rights and legal committee, told the Senate that making ransom payment punishable with jail would "discourage the rising spate of kidnapping and abduction for ransom in Nigeria, which is fast spreading across the country".

President Muhammadu Buhari's government has already classified the armed kidnapping gangs, known locally as "bandits", as terrorists this year - but that has not stemmed the kidnappings, now almost a daily occurrence.

The bill will be debated in the lower House of Representatives before being sent for the president to sign.

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Editing by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Kevin Liffey)
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

In her 2021 speech conceding to now-Rep. Shontel Brown (D), progressive firebrand Nina Turner didnt bow out with cheery congratulations to her opponent. Instead, she gave a warning.

I am going to work hard to ensure that something like this doesnt happen to another progressive candidate again. We didnt lose this race. Evil money manipulated and maligned this election, she said.

Now, just nine months after their last nasty and nationalized primary, Turners putting that promise to the test and running against Brown all over again. In doing so, shes embarked on an uphill battle, with money, outside players and the power of Browns incumbency working against her.

Every time I come home it seems like theres another paid for by, Turner said, referencing outside groups spending money against her. Theyre making up super PACs now to come at me Its just really unbelievable.

Their initial primary became a case study in the rifts between moderate and progressives within the Democratic Partyand still has a similar impact this cycle.

And while Turner and Browns last matchup wasnt long ago, their playing field has dramatically shifted in the months since. At the start of their special-election primary last year, Turner was an outspoken former state senator with close ties to the progressive movement writ large. She had a massive social media following. She initially had a strong lead in fundraising, outpacing Brown, whod been a city councilor and a county Democratic Party chair.

But the tables have turned since Brown cashed in her ticket to Capitol Hill.

Browns now an incumbent with a record to run on and a relatively progressive voting streak and membership in Congressional Progressive Caucus. Since being elected, shes voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill and Democrats signature social-spending bill, the Build Back Better Act.

Shes a pragmatic progressive, but shes focused on taking care of Cleveland and making sure that her district has the infrastructure funding and the constituent service and all this other sort of stuff that you need from a good member of Congress. And I think thats why shes gonna win, said Aaron Pickrell, a Democratic strategist in Ohio.

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Nina Turner Mounts Likely Rematch Bid Against Rep. Shontel Brown in Ohio

Because its not about how you highlight a national progressive issue. Its about Cleveland, Pickrell added.

Brown also voted in favor of the 2022 government spending billthough critics say she overstated her role in that win.

In a Facebook post, Brown said she secured $7 million in funding for projects in Northeast Ohio. But the deadline for lawmakers to submit proposals for funding projects in the bill was before Brown was elected to office. That funding was instead secured by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) a point the Turner campaign has seized on in an attack ad against the congresswoman.

But Sen. Brown, who is not related to Rep. Brown, doesnt seem to mind. On Tuesday, he endorsed Rep. Brown for re-election. Rep. Browns campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Since her first day in Congress, Congresswoman Shontel Brown has continued her tradition of working for her constituents and our community, Sen. Brown said in a statement. I know she will continue to deliver for Ohioans in the years to come.

Turner, by contrast, remains a more outspoken progressive that seems destined for a spot in the so-called Squad. A longtime booster of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), shes been critical of President Joe Biden during the 2020 election and onward, and has been floated as a potential 2024 presidential primary contestant, potentially to challenge Biden himself. Turner declined to comment on the presidential rumors to The Daily Beast, stating only that shes focused on her current race.

In 2021, Turner received endorsements from the whos who of the progressive left, including Sanders and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

This time around, Sanders has publicly reupped his support. Turner has also continued to draw support from plenty of progressive groups, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which said that Brown came across in an interview as congenial and pleasant, but often leaves the impression shes speaking talking points, not convictions.

Turner acknowledged that it is somewhat more challenging for more prominent politicians to come out against an incumbent, even if that incumbent has been in office for a short time.

But Turner argued her endorsements from last cycle prove she can build a coalition.

I didnt feel the need to try to prove that this timeto have to do that this timeinstead, using my energy other places, she said.

Dem Star Nina Turner Blows Pledge Not to Take Lobbyist Money

Jeff Rusnak, an Ohio Democratic strategist who worked for Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016 but has supported Brown, said he thinks Turners decision to lean into support from D.C. progressives hurt her last cycle, potentially turning off more moderate voters. He added that, from his own perspective, the Turner campaign has been quieter this time around.

I know people in both campaignsits eerily quiet, and especially from the Turner campaign. I do see TV ads. Ive seen the Brown TV ads. Ive seen the [independent expenditure] TV ads for Shontel Brown. Weve probably received five or six pieces of mail either from the Brown campaign or for Brown. I received one mailerone [independent expenditure] mailingin support of Turner. And thats it, Rusnak said.

Not unlike last cycle, Brown has drawn a slew of outside support from PACs and individuals more closely aligned with the so-called Democratic establishment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosis campaign committee and the political action committee for the moderate New Democrats Coalition have donated to her reelection effort. Shes been endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, which has a policy against endorsing challengers to sitting incumbents. PACs bankrolled by cryptocurrency interests and oil moguls are backing her candidacy, too.

Turner has used that influx of outside money as an attack against Brown.

Everybody should be concerned about this, whether Im their candidate or not, that big money can overpower the will of the people and manipulate situations on the ground, Turner said.

But whether the message resonates with voters remains to be seen.

Brown defeated Turner in their last primary by just over 5 points. Ohios 11 district is heavily Democratic, meaning the winner of the primary will likely win the general election. Last cycle, Brown bested the districts Republican nominee, Laverne Gore, by more than 57 points.

But as Turner and Brown trudge on with their rematch, theres no guarantee voters are paying as much attention this time around.

Ohio Democratic strategists said voter fatigue in the district is certainly a factor. While most voters nationwide have had a year or two off from their airways being flooded with political advertisements and their mailboxes plugged with campaign flyers, a springtime primary is giving these Ohio voters whiplash.

Brown and Turners race also doesnt have the same stage it did last year when the two faced off in a special election to replace Housing and Urban Development Secretary Martha Fudge.

This time around, their House race is happening in tandem with all other House races in Ohio. The state is also being swamped by an increasingly wild Senate race, in which Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan (D) seems en route to win his party nomination while the Republican field has nearly come to blows in the fierce competition to attract a Trump endorsement (J.D. Vance prevailed).

This U.S. Senate Republican primary is bombarding the airwaves with everything anyway. So, I think a lot of this stuff is probably just getting washed around and people arent absorbing it as much, Pickrell told The Daily Beast of Turner and Browns race.

Voters may also have grown tired of the negative tone of the race, Rusnak said.

Bernie Sanders Pick Nina Turner Loses in Ohio Special Election Primary

I thought people were turned off in the last election, in particular in this race and how divisive it was, he said. The environment here is ugly, its mean. And again, I think people are just turned off by that and have had enough.

Unsurprisingly, given the tense nature of the race, Turner says she and Brown have not spoken this cycle.

Voters for Brown and Turner could also be subject to some confusion on election day, due to Ohios botched redistricting process. Democrats and Republicans in the state are in an ongoing battle over how to draw the states new district lines, to the point that candidates and voters have no guarantee on the bounds of their representation. Turner said she is going off the map proposed in the Ohio legislature in March, but said still, it could change.

Early voting in the district is already underwayand the primary election is May 3. Turner remains hopeful for an upset.

Even in the face of all of this money being thrown at us she said. Were still forging ahead in a very strong fashion.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A photo has been shared more than a thousand times in social media posts that claim it shows "Russia sending food to help Shanghai", as the city's residents faced food shortages during a weeks-long lockdown to stamp out its worst Covid-19 outbreak in 2022. However, the image circulated in state media reports in April 2020 and shows a shipment of medical supplies China sent to Moscow in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The photo was shared on Twitter on April 24. It has been shared more than 300 times.

It shows boxes labelled with an image of Chinese and Russian flags.

A line of text underneath reads "the virus will be defeated, victory will be ours" in both simplified-Chinese and Russian.

"Russia sends 6 million catties (3,600 metric tonnes) of rice and flour to aid Shanghai's pandemic situation; [supplies] pass straight through the Siberian grasslands to Shanghai," reads the simplified-Chinese text superimposed on the image.

The city of 25 million -- confined to their homes or compounds since March 2022 -- has struggled to provide fresh food to residents, while patients have reported trouble accessing regular medical care as thousands of health staff were deployed for Covid-19 testing and treatment.

A screenshot, taken on April 25, 2022, of the misleading post.

The tweet's caption translates to English as: "Even under Western bullying and sanctions, embattled Russia still donated 6 million catties of rice and flour to support Shanghai's fight against the pandemic."

Since Moscow moved troops into Ukraine on February 24, Russia has been hit with a barrage of international sanctions, including embargoes on key exports, accelerating already high inflation.

Beijing has refused to condemn the invasion and has provided a level of diplomatic cover for an increasingly isolated Russia.

The photo was also shared more than 1,600 times on Weibo, as well as on Twitter, Facebook and Douyin alongside a similar claim.

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However, it was shared in a false context; the photo actually shows medical supplies China sent to Moscow in 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A reverse image search on Google found the same image published on Twitter by China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying on April 3, 2020.

#Zakharova China will never retreat in the fight against #COVID19, as it concerns the life of the people. Work together to win this "Battle of Moscow" against virus. Victory belongs to all mankind!    ! pic.twitter.com/78S6vUoRP4  Hua Chunying  (@SpokespersonCHN) April 3, 2020

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading post (left) and the photo posted by Hua (right):

A screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading post (left) and the Twitter photo (right).

China's state broadcaster CCTV published a similar photo in a news report on April 3, 2020.

The simplified-Chinese report translates in part as: "On April 2, anti-pandemic supplies sent by the Chinese government to aid Russia has arrived in Moscow.

"Russia's spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zakharova expressed gratitude to the Chinese in a press conference on that day. The supply boxes are labelled with a moving slogan: 'the virus will be defeated, victory will be ours'."

Below is a comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (left) and the photo published by CCTV (right).

The same white container, white van and brown truck can be seen in the background, marked out by AFP:

Screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (left) and the photo in the CCTV report (right), with similar features marked out by AFP

Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on April 2, 2020 that a 26-tonne humanitarian shipment "consisting of infrared thermometers, masks, respirators, protective suits and other protective equipment" had been sent by China to Russia, according to Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade.

AFP discovered no credible reports or official statements that said Russia sent food to China in 2022.
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.
Three reputed gang bosses suspected of running the Mexican Mafia's criminal operations in Orange County were charged along with 28 others in a sprawling racketeering case that included two murders and six attempted murders, federal authorities said Wednesday.

A 33-count indictment described a tightly organized structure of Orange County street and jail gangs that reported to bosses who collected "taxes" on drug deals and used violence to enforce discipline in the rackets they were accused of running.

"All drug dealers who operated in an area controlled by the OC Mexican Mafia were required to pay a percentage of their profits from the sale of drugs to the enterprise," the indictment said. "If the drug dealer did not pay, he would not be allowed to sell drugs in that area, under threat of assault and even death."

Failure to make monthly payments to the Mexican Mafia, known as La Eme, could get an entire gang "greenlighted," meaning members would be severely assaulted, according to the indictment.

Since 2016, the "brothers" in charge of the Mexican Mafia's Orange County criminal activities were Johnny Martinez, 46, Robert Aguirre, 49, and Dennis Ortiz, 59, prosecutors said. They were each charged with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes. They oversaw a network of gangs that thrived on murder, extortion, robbery and drug trafficking, the indictment said.

Among the crimes alleged as part of the conspiracy were the fatal shootings in 2017 of two people identified only by their initials, R.R. and R.V. Prosecutors gave no details about how R.R. died, but said R.V. was lured into a vehicle, shot seven times in the back of the head and body and left dead on a street in the city of Orange.

One of the alleged attempted murders was a reputed gang member whose throat was slit while he was detained at the maximum-security Theo Lacy jail in Orange, authorities said, because he'd threatened to talk to law enforcement about the Mexican Mafia.

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One of the defendants, Michael Cooper, 44, was stabbed in the head and back in January 2018, then cut in the throat and face in December 2019 after falling out of favor with Martinez and Aguirre, according to the indictment.

"The subjects of this investigation engaged in some of the most horrific acts imaginable," said Ryan L. Korner, the special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Los Angeles.

Tracy Wilkison, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, announced the indictment outside an FBI office in Orange with officials from the FBI, IRS, Drug Enforcement Administration and local law enforcement agencies.

The suspects were indicted by a federal grand jury on April 20. Twenty-one of the suspects were already in custody, nine were arrested Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and one, Mark Cooper, 32, is a fugitive who has lived in Fountain Valley, Calif., and Tualatin, Ore., according to the U.S. attorney's office. Mark and Michael Cooper are not related.

The indictment was unsealed Wednesday.

Lawyers for most of the suspects could not be reached.

Meghan Blanco, an attorney for defendant Brenda Vanessa Campos Martinez of Tustin, said federal authorities seemed to be wasting resources prosecuting defendants already serving long state prison sentences for other crimes.

Most of these people were in local custody already facing life," she said. "I don't understand what the government was doing."

Blanco said she was not yet familiar enough with the case to comment on the specific extortion and drug trafficking allegations against Campos Martinez, 35, who was arrested Wednesday morning. Blanco was expecting her to be released later on bail.

The main racketeering conspiracy charge was filed against Johnny Martinez, Aguirre, Ortiz and eight others. It accused them of using murder, kidnapping, robbery and assault against rival gangs, witnesses to the group's misconduct and fellow Mexican Mafia figures who showed disrespect to the crime syndicate.

In one of the attempted murders, a victim identified as F.B. was attacked "for threatening to discuss the Mexican Mafia with law enforcement," the indictment said. "F.B.'s throat was slit and he was repeatedly kicked and stomped, causing serious bodily injuries to his face, head, throat, and body."

Other charges in the indictment include violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity and conspiracy to distribute heroin and methamphetamine.

The investigation included multiple undercover buys of heroin and meth from dealers selling drugs on behalf of Martinez, according to federal authorities.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
New Orleans is expected to lose another high-ranking police officer to another department, according to media reports, as the nationwide crime crisis continues to grip the Big Easy.

Deputy Superintendent Paul Noel is expected to be named Thursday as the chief of the Knoxville Police Department in Tennessee, Fox affiliate WVUE-DT reported.

Noel's departure would be the fourth high-ranking member of Superintendent Shaun Fergusons administration in recent months. Fox News Digital has reached out to the New Orleans Police Department about the matter.

A spokesperson for the Knoxville Police Department declined to confirm Noel as the new chief.

Noel joined the New Orleans Police Department in 1997 and has served in various assignments. He previously was considered to head the Chattanooga Police Department in Tennessee but that role went to Atlanta deputy chief Celeste Murphy in February.

The departure comes as New Orleans is battling a crime surge, similar to many other cities.

As of Monday, the city had 89 homicides, compared to 61 in the same time frame last year, according to data from the Metropolitan Crime Commission.

Police vehicles block access to Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021. Bryan Tarnowski/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Shootings are up slightly from 145 last year to 152 as of Monday. Robberies, armed robberies and carjackings are also up compared to 2021.

One fed-up New Orleans homeowner who said she had had her home twice broken into told local station WGNO-TV she has "a better chance of calling Ghostbusters," given the lack of response she received from the police department.

The department is also reeling from staffing shortages, which a police spokesperson said is part of a nationwide problem across many law enforcement agencies.

"Law enforcement agencies around the country are facing the same challenges related to recruiting and retention of police officers. This is not unique to New Orleans," NOPD Public Information Officer Gary Scheets said. "Operational plans are developed to strategically deploy resources with the utmost regard for ensuring public safety."

Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
The blast happened near the Confucius Institute in Karachi

China has condemned an attack that killed three of its citizens in Pakistan, demanding that Islamabad fight against those involved.

Three Chinese tutors and a Pakistani driver were killed in a suicide bombing near Karachi University's Confucius Institute on Tuesday.

The separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) said it carried out the attack.

The incident poses a key challenge for a government freshly-installed after weeks of political turmoil.

A long time ally and key investor in the country, China is heavily involved in large development projects across Pakistan. But the BLA, which is banned in Pakistan, opposes Chinese investment in the country, saying locals do not benefit.

Confucius Institutes are a key part of China's soft diplomacy strategies across the world.

What have China and Pakistan said?

"China expresses its strong condemnation and great indignation at this major terrorist attack," deputy director of the Chinese foreign ministry Zhao Lijian tweeted on Wednesday.

He urged Pakistani authorities to "deal with the aftermath" and "resolutely fight against terrorist organisations involved in the case".

Top level Pakistan officials have also scrambled to appease China since the incident.

New Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif made a personal visit to the Chinese embassy in Islamabad on Tuesday to meet officials. In a rare move, He also presented them with a handwritten letter, reaffirming his government's commitment "to eliminating all militants and terrorists from Pakistani soil".

"We won't rest until the culprits are hunted down and given exemplary punishment," he wrote.

The chief minister of Sindh province - of which Karachi is the capital - also visited the Chinese consulate, reassuring officials that Pakistan "values the services rendered by Chinese experts in the country and the province" and that those involved would be "brought to justice".

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In a statement, Pakistan's foreign office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar termed the incident "reprehensible" and a "direct attack" on Pakistan-China relations.

Former prime minister Imran Khan, who was ousted from power in early April, also weighed in, calling the incident "yet another attack with a specific agenda of trying to undermine Pakistan-China strategic relationship".

What did the BLA say?

The separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) said the suicide bomber had been a woman.

It released a photo of a woman in fatigues raising two fingers in salute who it said had carried out the attack, and named her as Shari Baloch alias Bramsh.

Balochistan, rich in natural resources but Pakistan's poorest province, is home to a long-running insurgency.

It is being transformed by major Chinese infrastructure projects on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the two countries which forms part of Beijing's ambitious Belt and Road initiative.

What is the significance of the Confucius Institutes?

The three Chinese nationals killed were teaching at the Confucius Institute of University of Karachi, which aimed to "deepen international understanding of Chinese language and culture, and promoting people-to-people exchanges between China and Pakistan".

Since its inception in 2013 however, the faculty members - who were mostly Chinese nationals - had faced threats to their safety and had to follow strict security protocols, according to Pakistan daily newspaper Dawn.

They were escorted by a security detail to and from the institute every day and to their classrooms, where students would be frisked before being allowed to enter.

The Confucius Institute is a Chinese government-run global education programme.

The institutes are seen as a way to exercise "soft power", with China spending approximately $10 bn (7.8 bn) a year on CIs and related programmes, according to a 2018 report from the Council of Foreign Relations.

The institutes operate in co-operation with affiliate colleges and universities around the world. However the close relationship between these institutes and the Chinese government has sparked concerns over issues like academic freedom and political influence, especially over controversial topics like Taiwan, Tibet and Uighurs in Xinjiang.

In 2020, the US designated the Confucius Institute as a foreign propaganda mission, saying it was "owned or effectively controlled" by a foreign government.
Mamdouh poses alone in a refuse-filled square of his Egyptian hometown; Murat in a cluster of mint-green containers that serve as a refugee housing complex in Germany; Rustam in the central hall of a jail-turned-museum in Ireland. Unusual for portrait subjects, their backs are to the camera. But portraits, at least profound ones, are never just about likeness, and these men, released from Guantanamo after having been held for years without charge, appear still marked by the U.S. militarys rule against photographing the faces of imprisoned people.

These pictures belong to Beyond Gitmo, a haunting series by Debi Cornwall thats part of Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture & Reparations | Chicago to Guantanamo, an ambitious group exhibition at the DePaul Art Museum that is at once enraging, heartbreaking and replete with humanity. Its no coincidence that the show opened this year: 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of the extralegal military prison established by the U.S. government at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the global war on terror. Meanwhile, Chicagos police department is the other institution being examined for repeated abuse of human rights. In both places, it has been mostly Black and minority bodies at stake and white bodies in charge.

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Remaking the Exceptional shifts continually between Chicago and Guantanamo. Included is the work of some two dozen individuals and collectives: artist Trevor Paglen, who shot the only known photograph of Salt Pit, a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan; activist Sarah-Ji Rhee, whos been documenting local freedom struggles since 2010; the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials group; Gitmo detainees past and present; and inmates of Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, where the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project has been leading classes for over a decade. The art here is documentary, conceptual, legalistic, therapeutic, representational, memorializing and visionary. It is whatever it needs to be and much of it  like the struggle for justice  is ongoing.

"Free Robert Allen" by Dorothy Burge from the series "Wont You Help to Sing These Songs of Freedom," 2021 in quilted fabric. From the show "Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture & Reparations | Chicago to Guantanamo" at the DePaul Art Museum. (Zoey Dalbert photo)

The show opens with a navigational chart of sorts: a print of undulating water overlaid with a constellation of eight interlinked names. Four survived torture at the hands of Chicago police; four in Guantanamo. What might they have to say to one another, across the oceans that separate them and that also have long symbolized freedom? A podcast created for the exhibition collages together their individual interviews into an imagined conversation about the carceral state and the possibilities of reparation, much as the show itself facilitates such rapport between artworks.

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Those portraits by Cornwall are joined by others, ceiling-hung effigies quilted by Dorothy Burge of CPD torture victims who remain incarcerated, that status visible in the vertically striped fabric that lines the mens faces like so many prison bars. An eight-foot-long black banner itemizes a speculative reparations ordinance for survivors of police abuse, made real when it was approved by the Chicago City Council in 2015; a second banner imagines the same for Guantanamo detainees, whose jumpsuits beget its bright orange.

Shelves display rough sketches by Darrell Cannon and Abu Zubaydah of brutal acts they were forced to undergo while in the custody of CPD officers and Guantanamo guards, respectively. Coordinates of Terror, an interactive map by the Invisible Institute, concretely links torture techniques used in war to those employed by notorious CPD officers like former commander and Vietnam vet Jon Burge and detective Richard Zuley, a senior interrogator at Gitmo for two years. The implications are clear and horrendous.

"Comfort Items, Camp 5 (Stop lying to the world)" by Debi Cornwall and Djamel Ameziane (2015) from "Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture & Reparations | Chicago to Guantanamo" at the DePaul Art Museum. (Debi Cornwall and Djamel Amezian / HANDOUT)

The heart of Remaking the Exceptional is the Tea Project, an endeavor of Amber Ginsburg and Aaron Hughes, who also co-curated the exhibition. Their Ode to the Sea, a sprawling wooden dock in the main gallery, includes an array of items to help a visitor find moorings in treacherous waters: charts for navigating the way between violence and injustice, a torture tree in the form of driftwood studded with nails, a lighthouse containing parts of a torture device, a phonograph horn broadcasting the voices of survivors. The longest-running of their collaborations has been a series of cast porcelain teacups, one for each of the 780 men imprisoned in Guantanamo (37 remain today, only 2 of whom have been convicted). Every cup bears the name and nationality of a detainee and is decorated with that countrys flower. Inspired by stories of how inmates would etch their Styrofoam cups with designs and poems, the vessels sit quietly, endlessly, on wooden shelves that line the walls of the main gallery.

Above the rows and rows of teacups hangs a grouping of art made inside Guantanamo: 48 paintings and drawings of flowers, one for each of the countries whose citizens have been imprisoned. The effect is of condolence cards or hospital art, offered with the sincere hope of comforting those in pain. Its one of a few collections of detainee art on view here  there are also ships at sea, empty tea settings, dead or wintering trees  whose themes speak movingly and metaphorically to the inner life of a person indefinitely confined.

All of these pictures  plus a rare sculpture by Khalid Qasim, a representation of the tools of knowledge ingeniously constructed from restricted supplies: wood, coffee, creamer, paint and cardboard  predate a 2017 decision by the Department of Defense to no longer allow art to leave the island. Doing so doesnt pose a traditional security risk: it threatens to humanize those who remain locked up. What else is art but evidence that a being continues to think and feel and imagine and resist, despite having endured the cruelest of treatment?

Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture & Reparations | Chicago to Guantanamo runs through August 7 at the DePaul Art Museum, 935 W. Fullerton, 773-325-7506, resources.depaul.edu
The longtime Miami-Dade County School Board Chair Perla Tabares Hantman announced Wednesday she would not seek reelection this fall, paving the way for what could be an uncontested race for the only person running for her seat: A Miami Dade College trustee whom Gov. Ron Desantis appointed in 2020.

It has been my great honor and privilege to serve the people of Florida and Miami-Dade County for nearly thirty two years; first as a member of the Florida Board of Regents, and then for twenty six wonderful years as a member of the School Board, she said in a letter addressed to Miami-Dade Schools Family, Colleagues and Community, obtained by the Herald.

Hantman, 81, was elected in 1996 to represent District 4. In November, she was reelected as board chair for the 14th time (nonconsecutive). She is the first Hispanic woman to serve as chair, according to the district.

READ MORE: Hantman is again Miami-Dade School Board chair. Broward elects new chair.

Roberto J. Alonso, 42, filed to run for the District 4 seat earlier this month. Born to Cuban parents in Hialeah, Alonso graduated from Monsignor Edward Pace High School and holds an associates degree from MDC and a bachelors from Florida International University. He developed educational software before returning to work in his familys real estate business, Costa Realtors. No one else has filed to run for the District 4 seat.

DeSantis appointed Alonso to the MDC Board in July 2020. His four-year term runs through 2024.

A review of political contributions filed with the Florida Division of Elections shows Alonso contributed $250 in 2018 to the campaign of State Sen. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, whom DeSantis recently appointed to lead the Florida Department of Education. He also contributed $250 in 2021 to Alex Rizo, the Republican from Hialeah elected to the Florida House in 2020.

Alonso was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

Board election comes amid politicization of schools

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Hantmans departure comes in an election year when education  and school boards  have become increasingly political.

This year, the Republican-led Florida Legislature moved to increase parental involvement in schools. Most recently, the state rejected dozens of math textbooks, claiming they had indoctrinating concepts.

READ MORE: After week of suspense, Florida reveals why some math texts are too woke

Just last week, DeSantis signed the Individual Freedom bill known as the Stop Woke Act and two other bills at Mater Academy Charter Middle/High School in Hialeah Gardens, where he was flanked with children holding Stop Woke and anti-critical race theory signs. DeSantis has made education a key plank of his political agenda.

Hantmans desire to do whats best for students and teachers set her apart, said United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez-Mats.

In a time when many Republican leaders are trying to undermine and dismantle public schools, Hantman, also a Republican, has fought to preserve public education with dignity and a true heart, Hernandez-Mats said.

For that reason, she said, Hantmans successor must be someone who is committed to public education.

I want her legacy to last, Hernandez-Mats said. Im eager to see who will come out to run now.

Three other board members are slated to run for reelection this year: Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall (District 2); Mari Tere Rojas (District 6); and Marta Perez (District 8). There is a primary on Aug. 23 and the general election is Nov. 8.

Neither Rojas nor Perez have challengers, according to election records. La-Shanda West, the iPrep Academy leader at Cutler Bay Senior High, is running against Bendross-Mindingall. Shes raised $2,290 compared with $22,750 raised by Bendross-Mindingall, according to Miami-Dade County election records.

READ MORE: Here are the nine people who decided on Miamis next school superintendent

Hantman fought for children and families in every ZIP code

For nearly three decades, Hantman has proved a purposeful, pragmatic, passionate, and professional hand to our district and to the greater community we serve, Vice Chair Steve Gallon III said in a statement. She epitomizes service and commitment to all employees, and even more importantly, one who has ensured fair and equitable learning and access opportunities for children and families in every ZIP code.

Gallon, a staunch ally of Hantman on the board, called her an exemplary role model and professional pillar to all who fight for education.

Hantman also had a long history with former Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who left the district in February to lead Los Angeles public schools. She was the vice chair when the board hired Carvalho as superintendent in 2008. Perez, on the board since 1998, was also on the board at that time.

On Thursday, Superintendent Jose Dotres, who replaced Carvalho, said Hantman provided a calm and steady leadership to the district and has served as a trusted mentor to countless school leaders including myself.

The chairs wisdom, patience, and unbridled commitment to the children and workforce of this district stand as an extraordinary example of public service, he said in a statement

Hernandez-Mats shared similar sentiments to Gallon, crediting Hantman with many of the improvements the district has undergone during her tenure.

Previously, there was a negative connotation with the district, she said; now, the district is a beacon in our community [and thats] largely due to her experience. Shes been a constant.

READ MORE: Carvalho on his very emotional moment to leave Miami-Dade Schools

For Hantman, the decision to step aside has been contemplated for some time, her announcement to staff said. But after three decades, she wrote, I believe the time has come for me to explore the next chapter of my life and enjoy time with my children and grandchildren.

In her letter, she touted her accomplishments, highlighting the districts transformation from a struggling school system to an A-rated district with a graduation rate exceeding 90%.

Hantman plans to serve the remainder of her term, which concludes in November.

While I am stepping away from elected office at this time, I am not stepping away from service and involvement in my community, she wrote. I will always remain a staunch advocate for our students, our workforce and my beloved school board.

Miami Herald Staff Writer Jimena Tavel contributed to this report.
Perry Township trustees met Tuesday night to discuss possible federal American Rescue Plan Act purchases. Department leaders offered their lists of priorities during a 90-minute work session.

PERRY TWP.  Department leaders made their pitch Tuesday on how they'd like to dedicate American Rescue Plan Act dollars, with much of the focus on large equipment and vehicle purchases.

More: Perry trustees OK hiring of firefighter Tyler Merchand at Tuesday meeting

Perry trustees hosted a nearly 90-minute work session to get a sense of how to spend the approximately $1.6 million of incoming federal funds. No formal decisions were made Tuesday night and further discussion is likely.

A new fire engine purchase was presented by Fire Chief Larry Sedlock, who said replacing 34-year-old backup model was atop his list. Cost for a new engine would run about $800,000.

Presently, the Fire Department has four engines in its fleet, Sedlock said. A new ambulance running about $265,000 was also broached by the chief.

"We'd like a new ambulance to increase our fleet to five," said Sedlock, adding that the agency is nearing 4,000 medical calls annually.

More: Regis Perry Memorial, Summerdale parks in line for restroom upgrades in Perry

The American Rescue Plan Act  the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill signed into law in March 2021  included $350 billion for state and local governments nationwide. Funding is to help municipalities, townships and villages rebound from COVID-19 pandemic impact.

More than $421 million in federal funds for local governments was funneled into the Ohio treasury last year. Money must be committed to specific uses by 2024 and spent no later than 2026.

Police chief seeks critical response vehicle

Perry Police Chief Mike Pomesky told trustees that a critical response, or emergency operations, vehicle would be beneficial to the Police Department. Currently, the agency utilizes an outdated ambulance provided by the Fire Department.

Perry Police Chief Mike Pomesky

A new vehicle is expected to run in excess of $200,000, according to Pomesky, who said it's a needed upgrade to assist detectives and officers during homicide investigations. Forensic materials and a power generator are stored in the vehicle.

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Funds to assist the Perry Road Department with a $615,000 Plymouth Knolls subdivision storm-water project was broached by Road Supervisor John Masalko.

More: Massillon mayor outlines how to spend American Rescue Plan Act money

A new snowplow truck and multiple utility trucks for the Road Department are also on Masalko's wish list. The agency's fleet includes trucks that were bought in 1992, 1995 and 1997.

Township Administrator Joyce Martin offered an idea for driveway and parking lot upgrades at Fasnacht Farm. Cost is estimated at about $76,000, she said.

Reach Steven at steven.grazier@indeonline.com. On Twitter: @sgrazierINDE

This article originally appeared on The Independent: Perry Township trustees hear ideas American Rescue Plan Act funds
A Brooklyn man was arrested at his home Monday and charged in the shooting that recently rattled shoppers and employees inside the American Dream megamall and left one victim in serious condition.

Anwar Stuart, 20, is currently in custody at the Rikers Island jail in New York as he awaits extradition to New Jersey on charges of attempted murder, attempted robbery, conspiracy and weapons offenses, New Jersey State Police said in an announcement on Tuesday.

Stuart allegedly shot an unidentified man during a botched robbery inside the complex on April 7, police said.

Authorities did not state the exact location within the mall where the attack took place, but multiple witnesses said they heard gunshots ring out from the second floor, near the food court.

State police apprehended Stuart in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Service and the New York Police Department.

Authorities did not release updates on the victim's condition other than to say he suffered "serious injuries" at the time of the shooting.

Nicholas Katzban is a breaking news reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get breaking news directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.

Email: katzban@northjersey.com

Twitter: @nicholaskatzban

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: American Dream NJ shooting a failed robbery, suspect arrested: cops
Thomas Webster argues he attacked a police officer in self-defense on January 6. FBI

A police officer denied punching or provoking an accused Capitol rioter claiming self-defense.

Officer Noah Rathbun said he tries not to think about the "sad" and "tragic" January 6 attack.

Prosecutors alleged that Thomas Webster tackled Rathbun to the ground outside the Capitol.

By January 6, 2021, Officer Noah Rathbun had spent more than five years with the local police force in Washington, DC, but still had never ventured to the Capitol.

His introduction to the seat of American democracy came with plumes of tear gas and a "sea of people," he said Wednesday, recalling the chaotic scene at the trial of a retired New York City police officer accused of swinging a flag pole at him and then tackling him to the ground on January 6.

"I think it's sad. This whole incident is tragic. I try not to think about it," Rathbun said of January 6. "I just think it's unfortunate to be in the nation's capital and be treated like that by another citizen."

The retired officer, Thomas Webster, has claimed self-defense, arguing that he only responded after being "hit like a freight train" outside the Capitol. But in his testimony Wednesday, Rathbun rejected the notion that he punched Webster or took any step to invite a physical confrontation.

With the help of video footage, Rathbun recounted his response to the Capitol, where he joined officers along metal bike racks to reinforce the police line holding back the hordes of Trump supporters. He recalled feeling "overwhelmed" and thinking how easily the mob could overcome the officers.

"It was just scary," Rathbun said.

"The temperature, the tension was quickly rising as we were standing there," he added. "I was pretty concerned."

Rathbun's portion of the line held until a man in a red, white, and black jacket rushed up to him, pointed at his chest, and hurled profanities at him, telling him to "take your shit off."

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"That's what people say when they want to fight," Rathbun said of the "take your shit off" comment. "It's very common."

Webster's defense lawyer, James Monroe, seized on video footage that showed Webster pushing the metal bike rack into Rathbun before being hit in the face. But Rathbun said that he only made contact with Webster's face "incidentally" after trying to "wave him off" and create distance between him and the police line.

"That was the most I could do at the time to signal to him that I needed him to back up," Rathbun said.

Rathbun also emphasized that his left hand was open, not closed into a fist.

After that contact, Webster began swinging a metal flag pole  bearing the Marine Corps flag  down on the bike rack directly in front of Rathbun, video footage showed. Webster then pushed through the bike racks and tackled Rathbun to the ground, where he attempted to remove his helmet and face mask.

In an FBI interview, Webster described his handling of Rathbun's helmet as "a hockey type of move type thing where you don't want to fight somebody." But on the witness stand Wednesday, Rathbun recalled feeling choked by his helmet's chin strap while tear gas entered his gas mask.

On Tuesday, a police detective testified that Rathbun did not initially remember his encounter with Webster days after January 6. The detective, Jonathan Lauderdale, observed the encounter while reviewing body-worn camera footage after Rathbun reported an injury he suffered to his right index finger later on January 6 in the Capitol rotunda.

Rathbun said he suffered some bruising from his violent encounter with Webster but didn't report it because he didn't view it as "meaningful" on a day that resulted in deaths and more serious injuries to police officers.

During his cross-examination, Monroe suggested that Rathbun used a hand gesture to invite Webster to fight on January 6. But Rathbun said his hand gesture was a "motion to back up."

"That was not a motion to come forward," he said, adding later, "I didn't provoke this encounter."

When asked if his left hand made contact with Webster's face, Rathbun answered, "Unintentionally, yes."

Later, when Monroe said Rathbun had pushed Webster back with "as much force as you had," the police officer corrected him in front of the jurors.

"With a reasonable amount of force," he said.

Out of the nearly 800 alleged participants charged in connection with January 6, Webster is the fourth to face a jury trial. The three previous jury trials all ended in guilty verdicts.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Conspiracy theorists, QAnon-adjacent online influencers and far-right figures are celebrating Elon Musks arrangement to purchase Twitter and anticipating the return of their suspended accounts and content on the platform.

A deal for the worlds wealthiest person to own the social media company has added another link to long-running conspiracy theories about the imminent exposure of deep state control across media and politics, in which Mr Musk is believed to be a key figure who could reveal how the company banned QAnon figures and followers from using it.

As stated weeks ago. The Twitter deal is done. Banned accounts will be restored, said Ron Watkins, a conspiracy theorist and site administrator of a message board that facilitated posts from the Q persona. Mr Watkins is running for the Republican nomination for a congressional race in Arizona, and he has repeatedly denied his connection to QAnon.

Jacob Creech, a conspiracy theorist posting as BioClandestine on Telegram, called Mr Musks acquisition a massive cause for celebration.

Deep state entities are now no longer in control of the de facto public forum, which they use to manipulate normies to carry out their will, he wrote. They just lost control of that and it will pay dividends in [2022 midterm elections] and all elections moving forward.

In the aftermath of the attacks on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021, Twitter removed more than 70,000 accounts that promoted QAnon-related content, spanning conspiratorial posts related to a baseless narrative that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, envisioned as prophetic figure secretly fighting a Democratic cabal, as part of a conspiracy-driven community often relying on antisemitic and racist tropes and hate speech.

The communities thrived across message boards and eventually mainstream social media platforms, which began to crack down on QAnon-related content within the months leading up to and following the 2020 election, though such messages and accounts continued to crop up.

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Conservatives and the far right have characterised concerns among Twitter users that Mr Musk will abandon the companys policies against misinformation and targeted hate speech as a liberal meltdown over the forthcoming discovery of Democrats alleged crimes.

Their ongoing grievances and focus on Twitter  which is relatively small compared to the billions of daily views on platforms like Instagram and Facebook  follow their rejection from what they view as a contemporary public square that has an outsized influence with the attention and reach of international media and political figures. They then turned to platforms like Telegram, Parler and Gab, and now Truth Social, where accounts routinely complain about Twitter.

QAnon John of The Patriot Voice, aka John Sabal, believes that Mr Musks purchase is a white hat driven operation  referring to hackers working to expose the company in an effort to support the former president.

He claimed that Mr Musks deal and calls among Republican officials to audit the platform will reveal backlogs and internal communications that conspired to censor free speech on the platform.

He isnt just buying Twitter, HE IS BUYING EVIDENCE, he wrote on Telegram.

They arent all just freaking out about free speech coming back to Twitter, said far-right commentator Jack Posobiec. Theyre freaking out at what Elon will find behind the curtain.

Others pointed to four-year-old message board posts from Q as evidence and claimed that Mr Musk will change the algorithms to put their misinformation and hate speech back on the platform.

It remains unclear whether Mr Musk intends to revoke the kinds of policies that Twitter has implemented to curb the spread of harassment, violent threats and misinformation on the platform, though he has long bristled at censored posts in the name of preserving free speech and has gained the praise of right-wing figures and Republican officials who were previously banned.

In a statement announcing the deal, Mr Musk said that free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.

Twitter has tremendous potential  I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it, he said.

2/ Put another way, Musk will unwind a whole range of very basic protections against harassment, abuse, disinformation. Effectively, he'll open the flood gates of hate and lies. And, he'll use Twitter as a cudgel against other social media companies to press them to backslide.  Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) April 25, 2022

Womens advocacy organisation Ultraviolet warned that Mr Musk could rip open Pandoras box and reopen the floodgates for hate and baseless conspiracy theories to proliferate on the platform.

Without any conditions for Musk to purchase Twitter, the platforms community standards and recourse to ban users who violate those standards, Twitter could set a dangerous precedent for other social media companies to follow, the groups communications director Bridget Todd said in a statement. This is a massively slippery slope.

Angelo Carusone, CEO of right-wing media watchdog group Media Matters, said Mr Musk has the potential to unwind a whole range of very basic protections against harassment, abuse, disinformation.

Effectively, hell open the flood gates of hate and lies. And, hell use Twitter as a cudgel against other social media companies to press them to backslide, he wrote, adding that Mr Musks claims of supporting free speech is actually about idealogy.

He made that clear, like when talked about the need for liberals/others to become red pilled, he said, referring to the term for far-right political awakening that Mr Musk used in 2020. Now, hell have a massive engine to red pill many. Red pilling isnt free speech, its radicalizing.
Capt. Glenn Shephard of Below Deck Sailing Yacht

Courtesy of Laurent Basset/Bravo Captain Glenn Shephard of Below Deck Sailing Yacht

Life may sound luxurious as a captain on a sailing yacht  especially when it's filmed for a hit reality show  but despite how glamorous it all may seem, it's more work than play.

"What we do is not for everyone. It's hard," Captain Glenn Shephard of Bravo's Below Deck Sailing Yacht told Travel + Leisure. "My friends see my photos on social media and they think I have a great life and I'm like, 'Go sleep in your walk-in closet for a month.'"

"It's give and take," he added. "We love it, it's the kind of people we are."

Born in Montreal and now a traveler who has visited 50 countries, Shephard  who spoke with T+L from Dubai via Zoom  has starred in all three seasons of the Bravo show, the third of which is currently airing.

Along with a crew of nine aboard the 54-meter sailing yacht, the Parsifal III can comfortably house up to an additional 12 travelers for about $150,000 a week, according to broker site Worldwide Boat. Throughout his time in front of Bravo cameras, Shephard has taken Parsifal III through Greece, Croatia, and Spain.

"One of the nicest things [about Croatia] is it's a long coast, in the Eastern Mediterranean but it has a lot of offshore islands and all of those islands make it a very nice cruising area because they prevent any swell from the sea coming from the shore," he said. "You can always find a flat, calm place to enter."

The calm areas, like Croatia, make the majority of the time the boat is out to be relatively smooth. Shephard is lucky to be adverse to seasickness but is no stranger to rocky waters as he's crossed the Atlantic about 22 times.

"When you're out there for that long  and we're out there for two-to-three weeks crossing from Gibraltar to the Caribbean  your sea legs are so built-in that when you get on shore it actually feels like the shore is moving around," he noted.

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While "built-in" sea legs may be an acquisition for some, it's nothing new for the captain. His sailing career began when he was 24 and backpacking through Rome when he met someone in need of a deckhand  and proceeded to spend almost a year at sea.

Fast forward and Shephard is surrounded by a crew that's composed of a mix of stewardesses, led by a chief stew, engineers, and deckhands  all of whom report to him. And while he told T+L he usually has a say in the selection process for the show, the first time he meets the new crew is on camera, only about a day before a charter begins.

Despite the calm demeanor that he's known for, he said, whether dealing with the crew or sailing logistics, he faces problems "all day every day."

"A lot of people say I have a very laid-back way of doing my job," he said. "That's sort of how I manage the stress  unless it's safety or something dangerous, I try not to lose my cool."

In seasons one and two Shephard is met with a brand new crew and viewers get to watch their dynamic as they work and live together unfold  a situation that is poised to create plenty of drama on the high seas. But when it comes to working with guests on board, the whole crew rallies as one team for a successful and safe trip.

"When something goes wrong on the boat we don't get to point a finger at somebody else and blame them... we are ultimately responsible," Shephard noted.

When asked what the biggest secret of the Below Deck is, (besides the fact that the camera crew doesn't sleep on the ship) the captain is quick to respond explaining that even though it looks like tensions and conflict play a huge part in the show, the crew becomes one big family

"Most good crew who are going to succeed in this industry have the ability to let stuff slide down their back and not take it too seriously," he said. "In most cases, everyone loves each other, it's like a sibling relationship, sometimes you get angry at them but you always love them, they're always family."

Now as season 3 is underway, the captain is confident in his crew  some of which he's worked with in prior seasons and would love to continue working with in the future.

"It's a great vibe on board, we've got great people. It's so nice having the core group of Gary [King], Daisy [Kelliher], Colin [MacRae] back and of course, Marcos [Spaziani] was such an amazing chef. If we do a fourth season I'd love all those guys back."

Below Deck Sailing Yacht airs every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
NEW YORK (AP)  There is a cosmic deliciousness to the fact that A Strange Loop has landed on Broadway mere yards away from one of its juiciest targets.

In the new musical that opened Tuesday at the Lyceum Theatre, we meet the character Usher, an unhappy playwright slumming as an usher at The Lion King, which in real life is playing just across 7th Avenue at the Miskoff Theatre. If the wind was just right, Usher might be able to heave a rock and hit Rafiki.

Every once and a while  sadly, too few  we get something that pushes the musical theater form completely, taking an utterly unforgettable, idiosyncratic trip. Add Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop to the list that includes Fun Home and Angels in America, both of which have echoes here. Like them, it is astonishing, challenging and awesome.

Jackson's 2020 Pulitzer Prize drama winner is a theater meta-journey  a tuneful show about a Black gay man writing a show about a Black gay man. That show is also called A Strange Loop.

Poor Usher is haunted by a Greek chorus of voices  his thoughts as well as homophobic family members  who pummel, undercut and berate him. Its Your Daily Self-Loathing! one says. I had some time to kill so I thought Id drop in to remind you of just how truly worthless you are.

Jaquel Spivey, in his Broadway debut, plays Usher with such hang-dog and sweet poignancy that it may take audience members supreme self-restraint not to go up on stage and give him a hug. He's battling a toxic stew of romantic rejection and artistic self-doubt, from shame for his secret love of white girl music to fears of being a race traitor.

Along for the ride are six sensational actors who play the chorus: Antwayn Hopper, L Morgan Lee, John-Michael Lyles, James Jackson Jr., John-Andrew Morrison and Jason Veasey. Stephen Brackett's direction is crisp and carefully varied over 100 minutes and terrific choreography by Raja Feather Kelly combines everything from twerking to gospel swaying.

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Jackson, who in real life was an usher at The Lion King, is also the songwriter, and he writes the 18 songs within the Broadway tradition, a lovely cocktail of rock and R&B, melded harmonies, ballads and belting. There are sly allusions to his influences, like Exile in Gayville, a riff on Exile in Guyville by Liz Phair, who incidentally wrote a song the musical has borrowed for its title.

Jackson's sharp dialogue  Snagging a man is like finding affordable housing in this town  theres a long waitlist and the landlords discriminate  is matched in his lyrics: Why dont you just ravage me/with your white gay Dan Savagery?

The Lion King is hardly alone as targets of some mischief. Tyler Perry gets a lot of ribbing for simple-minded, hack buffoonery, Scott Rudin gets called out for the first time from a Broadway stage and even the critics get poked ("Watch them write you off as lazy/Not to mention navel-gazy").

In one of the trippiest scenes, Usher is confronted by a group of ancestors angry with him  Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Whitney Houston and an actor representing the film Twelve Years a Slave" carrying an Oscar.

It's a musical that uses the n-wood, then apologizes for it and then continues using it, gently mocks #MeToo, harnesses internet jargon, portrays a deeply sad sex scene and is acutely profane. Jacksons sly wit is decidedly not politically correct, taking jabs at left and right. In one scene, an inner thought offers his critique of the script: Listen, you need to make it be about slavery or police violence so the allies in your audience have something intersectional to hold onto.

But it is homophobia, ultimately, that is the ultimate target of A Strange Loop, and Usher tries to go back to the beginning  his family  before the loop can close. His father is unreachable but his mother offers some hope. Can writing her a hateful Tyler Perry-style gospel play that lays out how anti-queer ugliness can be  in which the chorus sings AIDS is God's punishment  soften her heart? Will anything lead to his self-acceptance? Stay tuned.

Jackson does make one terrible mistake, though. Usher's tormentors take turns toward the beginning questioning the play's very purpose: No one cares about a writer who is struggling to write/They'll say it's way too repetitious/And so overly ambitious.

They're wrong on all counts. May A Strange Loop run as long as The Lion King.

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
Dear Amy: Recently, I was in a car accident involving a young man who tried to commit suicide by jumping into my cars path.

My 2-year-old was in the car with me but (thankfully) doesnt seem to have noticed when I hit the man.

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The man survived and I found out (through the police who arrived on the scene) that he had jumped into another cars path a few minutes before.

I was simply the next car to come along.

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The man admitted to both the paramedics and the police that he jumped in front of my car with the intent of killing himself. Several officers tried to reassure me that I wasnt in trouble and that I did nothing wrong.

Amy, I cant stop running the events through my head (and, unfortunately, I am having to repeat myself and relive it in dealing with my insurance company).

I feel like Im drowning in what-ifs.

I think therapy would be beneficial to help me with this traumatic event, but I dont know where to start.

Could you steer me toward some resources?

 What-if

Dear What-if: Traumatic stress is a normal reaction to an abnormal event. Your brain will have its own way of processing this accident, and your brain can also rewire itself again to heal.

Researching your question, I read harrowing accounts of train conductors involved in hitting people who have jumped (or been pushed) onto the tracks. One former operator whose train struck a man was quoted: As cruel as it makes it sound, for the individual [who is hit by the train]  its over. Its just beginning for the train operator.

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The emotional effects of this sort of unavoidable accident can persist, and can sometimes manifest in physical symptoms.

Because your young child was in the car at the time, I assume your response might be even more complicated  such relief that everyone survived the accident  but guilt that it happened at all, and fear that it might happen again.

Guided desensitizing therapy (perhaps returning to the spot and proceeding through safety), might help. EMDR therapy (using eye movement to aid the brains recovery) might work for you.

A daily meditation practice (along with treatment) could help you to breathe through your rumination. I highly recommend it.

You should see a trauma specialist. Your police departments victims services program or victims advocate should have a list of local therapists who could work with you.

Psychologytoday.com has a useful database of therapists and support groups, searchable by location.

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Dear Amy: I am the mother of two teen daughters, and would love advice on how to help them with a very annoying and inappropriate question they receive quite often (and started receiving in the pre-teen years): Do you have a boyfriend?

I dont understand why this is of interest to so many people, and why they think its appropriate to ask, regardless of how well they know them, or when they are in front of other people, etc.

If our daughters answer no, to this question, it seems to only prolong the misery with more questions and statements, like Why not? or I dont believe you!

My daughters havent found a way to handle the awkward position when so many people seem to regard it as perfectly normal casual conversation, and they want to be respectful to adults.

Or maybe we are being overly sensitive, and it IS perfectly reasonable to ask a teenager about their romantic life?

 Mom

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Dear Mom: Gak, I remember this question from my own teenhood! And, as the never-dating high school kid, the question was both intrusive and (bonus!) a surefire way to feel less-than.

Assure your girls that adults tend to ask this because they want to connect, but dont know how. Theyre likely not even particularly interested in the answer.

This annoyance will soon be followed by the also-challenging where are you going to college question.

Suggest that your teens find a way to laugh this off, and then distract with a question of their own: Haha  only my Instagram followers really know what Im up to. Did you date in high school?

Dear Amy: Your question from Worried, who had started excessively hoarding food in response to the pandemic, inspired me to write.

Ask Amy Daily No-nonsense advice for better living delivered to your inbox every morning. For a limited time, sign up for the Ask Amy newsletter and get the book Ask Amy: Essential Wisdom from Americas Favorite Advice Columnist for $5. >

When Worried gets their hoarding under control I urge them and others to consider donating to a food bank.

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Donations have been down at many of our food banks, and they could use the help.

 Overstocked, Too

Dear Overstocked: Great advice. Thank you!

Got a question for Amy? Enter it here and well send it to her.

Sign up here to receive the Ask Amy newsletter to get advice e-mailed to your inbox every morning, and for a limited time  get the book "Ask Amy: Essential Wisdom from Americas Favorite Advice Columnist" for $5.

2021 Amy Dickinson.
Teresa Giudice and Luis "Louie" Ruelas are refusing to take any more criticism when it comes to their relationship.

During Tuesday's episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, the couple's romance was once again put under the microscope, as the cast continued to question Louie's alleged past. However, that didn't stop Louie from taking the next step in their relationship and asking Teresa's brother, Joe Gorga, for his blessing to propose.

While out on the town during their group Nashville trip, Louie pulled Joe aside to have a heart-to-heart conversation.

"I just wanted to take this moment to thank you for being genuine with me... you helped give me a fair shape with the guys. With the girls, it's been a little bit different just because there's so much judgment about my past," Louie told Joe. "The only person I want to judge me in life honestly is your sister. I truly love her."

Luis Ruelas and Teresa Giudice, Joe Gorga

Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty; Manny Carabel/FilmMagic Luis Ruelas and Teresa Giudice (left) with Joe Gorga

"I need your sister, so I'm gonna take her to Europe next month, and I'm gonna propose to her," he continued. "I want to respect you like you're her dad, so I want to ask you for your blessing."

Though Joe said he was "glad" Louie asked him for permission, he couldn't help but address the rumors about Louie's past, including claims that he allegedly beat his ex-fiancee in front of their kids. (Louie has denied all allegations.)

Teresa Giudice Celebrates Her Fiance Luis Ruelas Birthday: Youve Changed My Life'.https://www.instagram.com/teresagiudice/

TERESA GIUDICE/Instagram Teresa Giudice and Louie Ruelas

RELATED: RHONJ: Teresa Storms Off After Claiming Others 'Want to Sabotage' Her Romance with Luis Ruelas

"I'm gonna be honest: when I first met you, I said, 'I love this guy,' and then all this stuff came out about you," Joe explained. "I haven't asked you anything 'cause when I did get involved with her ex, it was problems for me. But she's my only sister, man, and she's been through hell and back. I don't want her to go through anything else again so what's up with your past?"

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In a confessional, Joe added: "I know my sister doesn't like anyone asking him any questions, and up to this point, I've kept my mouth shut. I've just sat back and listened, but now he's asking for her hand in marriage so I want to know the truth."

Similar to his previous explanation, Louie said he got involved in "toxic relationships" with "desperate, thirsty, low-life exes" after getting divorced at age 35. But Joe didn't seem to be entirely convinced.

"You could've been involved in a toxic relationship but they're constantly coming. There's obviously some truth to some of those stories," Joe said.

Taking responsibility for his actions, Louie acknowledged that he made some mistakes, but adamantly denied he was ever abusive to another woman.

"I'm not gonna sit here and say I was this crown of a man... I was trying to figure things out and in that process, I made my own mistakes. I take ownership for that," he shared. "However, I wasn't abusive. Was I perfect? No, but when I met your sister, my life changed."

"I just want to assure you that I will always be there for her, I will never let her down, I will be there for her every second of the day because she deserves that," he added.

Gorga's Homemade Pasta & Pizza Grand Opening

Paul Zimmerman/Getty Teresa Giudice and her brother Joe Gorga

RELATED: RHONJ: Melissa Says She's in the 'Worst Spot' as She Gets Caught in the Middle of Teresa & Margaret's Feud

After hearing Louie's side of the story, Joe said he would "absolutely" give him his blessing to marry Teresa.

"Louie's admitting that he wasn't perfect, but what he is doing in the present, that's what's important," Joe said in a confessional. "And since my father's not here, I appreciate that Louie is showing me the respect. He understands what family's all about, so I support their marriage."

Though Joe and Louie smoothed things over, things were far from settled between Teresa and Margaret Josephs, who continued to feud after Margaret continuously questioned Louie's alleged past.

"I feel bad for him because people from his past are trying to hurt him, and I feel like Margaret's bringing light to it, and that's what's upsetting to me," Teresa explained to Joe and his wife Melissa Gorga during the episode.

Wanting to resolve their ongoing drama, Teresa attempted to confront Margaret during the outing. But things only got worse between the pair when Teresa claimed she's only been good to Margaret.

"Ditto? Vice versa?!" Margaret exclaimed, referring to Teresa's response. "You know what, Teresa? I have championed you from f day one. You have broken my f heart, and I am f done."

Teresa Giudice, Margaret Josephs

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty; Theo Wargo/Getty Teresa Giudice and Margaret Josephs

RELATED: RHONJ's Dramatic Season 12 Reunion Trailer Sees Teresa at the Center of the Drama

After the group got involved in the blowout fight and began to ask what unfolded between the women, Louie reached a breaking point.

"Let's go, I wanna get out of here. I just wanna get a jet and go home. It's just too much," Louie told Teresa. "Like seriously, I'm done. We don't need this. I work hard, you never have to work a day in your life. How lucky is that? Let's go move into our 50,000-square-foot house, alright? I love you."

His comments concerned the cast, with Jackie Goldschneider noting in a confessional, "Teresa worked really hard to convince us all that Louie is the greatest guy but maybe right now, we're seeing his true colors."

Added Joe in a confessional of his own: "Do I see some of the pressure getting to him? Yes, but you gotta be very strong  thick, thick, skin  to handle being with Teresa Giudice. Let's see if he can handle it."

As fans know, Louie eventually popped the question in Porto Heli, Greece, in October 2021. The couple is currently planning a wedding for this summer.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey's season 12 reunion will air next Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo. The three-part reunion concludes on May 17.
The love bubble is intact.

Teresa Giudice and boyfriend Louie Ruelas rode off into the sunset on The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 12 finale Tuesday, April 26.

I'm done, said Louie on the way out of a Nashville restaurant with Teresa. I've worked hard, you (Teresa) don't have to work a day in your life. How lucky is that? Let's move into our 50,000 square-foot house, alright? I love you.

Teresa and Louie bought a house together in Montville last spring. The just-concluded season of RHONJ revolved around the contents of Louie's bizarre beach video, where he apologized to an ex surrounded by shirtless men on a beach, and the steady drip of revelations about Louie on the show, including allegations of spousal abuse, which he denied.

Teresa Giudice and Margaret Josephs on the April 26 episode of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey."

Two episodes ago in Nashville, Teresa had enough of Margaret bringing up the video and allegations against Louie, and she slid the plates, glasses and silverware on the table in Margaret's direction with her forearm, drenching her.

On Tuesday, they were still in Nashville, and still dealing with the fallout of the Teresa table slide.

Pretending it never happened is giving it life, said Margaret to Teresa, referring to the beach tape and allegations.

I finally find somebody I like, then this has to happen, Teresa said.

All we ever heard was I don't care about the video, I've never seen the video,  Margaret said. She is so afraid of losing this relationship that she'd rather lie to protect it.

Also: Is Teresa Giudice a 'poked bear' or a dog in a shelter?

More: Melissa Gorga opening her clothing boutique, Envy, in Ridgewood

Margaret pleaded her case to Teresa.

All I ever did was be good to you, Margaret said. I stood up for you.

Well, I would say ditto, said Teresa.

It's difficult to tell if she as being sincere or cynical.

Ditto? Margaret said.

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Vice versa, Teresa said.

Words seem to escape Teresa when she's not spilling the contents of a dinner table on someone.

You have broken my (blanking) heart and I am (blanking) done, Margaret said, storming off.

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Louie then came over.

She's making you work too hard for an apology, Louie said. You don't need to answer to anybody.

The end credits stated that Teresa and Louie are now engaged after a trip to Greece together. He asked Joe Gorga, Teresa's brother, for her hand in marriage on the episode.

Joe asked about the allegations of abuse.

Louie blamed it again on thirsty exes, as he did previously on the show.

I'm not going to sit here and say I was this crown of a man, Louie said. I was trying to figure things out and in that process, I made my own mistakes. I take ownership for that. However, I wasn't abusive. Was I perfect? No, but when I met your sister, my life changed.

I just want to assure you that I will always be there for her. I will never let her down. I will be there for her every second of the day because she deserves that.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 12 reunion, the first of three, airs at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, on Bravo.

Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Real Housewives NJ: Thirsty exes, Margaret can't stop Teresa and Louie
Ronnie OSullivan made a century as he eased past Stephen Maguire (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

Ronnie OSullivan insisted Im no superstar after cruising into the Crucible semi-finals for a record 13th time by wrapping up a 13-5 win over Stephen Maguire.

The 46-year-old reeled off breaks of 71 and 126 in the first two frames of the morning session to surpass the record he had shared with Stephen Hendry for reaching the last four.

But, despite closing on emulating Hendrys record of seven world titles, OSullivan is adamant that the Scots dominance of the sport in the 1990s still makes him the greatest.

Ronnie O'Sullivan has reached a record-breaking 13th Crucible semi final - overcoming Stephen Maguire 13-5!



He beats the previous record set by Stephen Hendry.



His opponent? John Higgins or Jack Lisowski #ilovesnooker @Betfred pic.twitter.com/lp8lRN96GQ  World Snooker Tour (@WeAreWST) April 27, 2022

Stephen is an all-time legend for me, the greatest player, OSullivan told the BBC.

He was the Tiger Woods of snooker. Me, John (Higgins) and Mark (Williams) have all done well, but when he was flying he was a superstar.

When theres three of us, were not superstars. But when theres one man dominating the sport like he did, like Tiger Woods, its a different level.

Ronnie OSullivan made quick work of Stephen Maguire on Wednesday (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

OSullivan had carved a commanding lead despite never quite hitting top form against Scottish qualifier Maguire on Tuesday, but showed glimpses of his best upon the resumption after a missed black from his opponent sealed his fate.

It was another commanding win from OSullivan, who started the tournament by losing the first three frames of his first round match to David Gilbert before storming back to beat the former semi-finalist and blow away Mark Allen in round two.

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OSullivan, who will play either Higgins or Jack Lisowski in the last four, described his performance as workmanlike, but said he was looking forward to returning to the Crucibles one-table set-up on Thursday.

Ronnie OSullivan wrapped up the two frames he needed in Sheffield (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

Its workmanlike more than flowing, but Ive had to learn to steady the ship and I think thats the key to being consistent  being able to minimise the bad spells, said OSullivan.

I am looking forward to it. When it comes to the one-table set-up you can relax a bit more, and Im excited still to be in the tournament and to get there.
Watch: Police release audio of 999 call after bank robber asked for advice on handing himself in

An armed robber who stole around 400-worth of discontinued 20 notes asked police for advice shortly before handing himself in.

Roy Sinclair pulled a knife on a cashier at a Lloyds Bank in Dartford High Street, Kent, and threatened to kill her before forcing her to hand over the money during the robbery on 4 February.

The 43-year-old, from Sydenham, south-east London, entered the bank at around 3pm and was seen by members of staff wandering around the building.

When a cashier called to offer help, he walked behind their counter, pulled out a knife, and held it close to her body and demanded money, telling her: "No alarms or Ill kill you.

The victim opened the till and Sinclair stole roughly 400 in cash before running away with the money that was made up of discontinued paper 20 bank notes  which are still legal tender until the end of September this year.

Roy Sinclair pulled a knife on a cashier and forced her to hand over hundreds of pounds in discontinued money. (SWNS)

Roy Sinclair fled on foot after stealing the money from Lloyds Bank in Dartford, Kent. (SWNS)

But two days later, Sinclair phoned Kent Police and confessed to the robbery while calmly asking the call handler for advice about how to hand himself in.

He was at a bus stop trying to make his way to a police station, but could not wait any longer, so called police and officers in a car came and picked him up.

When officers were dispatched to arrest him, he was found wearing a similar hoodie to the one he wore carrying out the robbery.

A pair of green jogging bottoms, which were worn when the heist was committed were also found at his home when it was searched by officers, police said.

Roy Sinclair was jailed for five years and four months at Maidstone Crown Court. (Oast House Archive/Creative Commons/Wikipedia)

Sinclair was jailed for five years and four months at Maidstone Crown Court this week, after pleading guilty to robbery and possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.

He will also be the subject of a two-year extended licence when he is eventually released from prison.

Constable Emma Laimbeer, Kent Polices investigating officer for the case, said: The victim of this case had every good reason to believe their life was in danger and I am pleased we have now secured justice for them.

"Although Sinclair admitted the offence, it does not in any way undo the harm he has caused and the only proportionate outcome is for him to receive this custodial sentence.

"We will never show any tolerance towards anyone who chooses to use violence against innocent members of the public."
WASHINGTON (AP)  Russia and the United States have carried out an unexpected prisoner exchange in a time of high tensions, trading on Wednesday a Marine veteran jailed by Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America.

The deal involving Trevor Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace but it was all the more surprising because it was done as Russia's war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

On the other end of the swap was Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot whod been serving a 20-year federal sentence for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.

Even as the Biden administration trumpeted the swap, it made clear the resolution did not herald a broader breakthrough between the countries. Russian forces remain determined in their assault on Ukraine, the U.S. and Western allies continue to impose punishing sanctions and other Americans, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, still remain jailed in Russia.

The swap, the culmination of longstanding requests by both countries as well as private diplomatic wrangling, took place in Turkey when the two planes pulled up side by side, essentially, and then they got out, said Reed's father, Joey.

I think its going to really hit home for him and for us when we finally get to see him and touch him, he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Reed, a 30-year-old former Marine from Texas, was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though the U.S. government has described him as unjustly detained and pressed for his release while his family has asserted his innocence and expressed concerns about his deteriorating health  which included coughing up blood and a hunger strike.

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Even on Wednesday, his parents' joy was mitigated by the concern they said they felt about his physical appearance. They were struck by his unsteady gait and how thin he looked as TV footage captured him walking, flanked by guards, from a van to the jet.

He just didnt sound like himself, said Reed's mother, Paula, recounting their brief phone conversation while he was on the plane. We just asked him how he was doing and he said, Im fine. But he always says that even when he isnt. And he just didnt sound like his normal self.

Reed was en route back to the U.S., traveling with Roger Cartsens, the U.S. governments special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

President Joe Biden, who met in Washington with Reeds parents last month, hailed Reeds release and noted without elaboration that the negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly. The Russian government also confirmed the deal, with the foreign ministry describing the exchange as the result of a long negotiation process.

A senior Biden administration official cautioned that the negotiations centered on a discrete set of prisoner issues and did not represent a change to the U.S. governments condemnation of Russias violence against Ukraine.

Where we can have discussions on issues of mutual interest we will try to talk to the Russians and have a constructive conversation without any way changing our approach to the appalling violence in Ukraine, the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the administration.

Yaroshenko, for his part, was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S on drug trafficking charges. The Justice Department has described him as an experienced international drug trafficker who conspired to distribute thousands of kilograms of cocaine around the world.

A lawyer for Yaroshenko, who in 2020 unsuccessfully sought to have his client freed on compassionate release because of the coronavirus pandemic, did not return an email seeking comment Wednesday.

Russia had sought Yaroshenko's return for years while also rejecting entreaties by high-level U.S. officials to release Reed, who was approaching his 1,000th day in custody after being convicted on what one U.S. official, Ambassador John Sullivan, decried as laughable evidence.

The prisoner swap was the most prominent release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad and came even as families of detainees who have met over the last year with administration officials had described the officials as cool to the idea of an exchange.

The U.S. government does not typically embrace such exchanges. It fears doing so might encourage foreign governments to take additional Americans as prisoners as a way to extract concessions. And it is concerned about a potential false equivalency between an unjustly detained American  which U.S. officials believe Reed was  and a properly convicted criminal.

In this case, though, the U.S. decided the deal made sense in part because Yaroshenko had already served a long portion of his prison sentence, which has now been commuted, a senior official told the AP on condition of anonymity.

In a statement, the Reed family thanked Biden, for making the decision to bring Trevor home," other administration officials, and Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The family said Richardson traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reed's release.

Reed's release had no immediate impact on the cases of other Americans held by Russia. Griner, for one, was detained in February after Russian authorities said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis. Whelan is being held on espionage-related charges his family says are bogus.

Biden said Wednesday we wont stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends. U.S. officials have described Whelan as unjustly detained but as yet have not characterized Griners case in those terms. Whelan was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison; Griner is awaiting trial.

At home in Texas, the Reeds had been given a general sense of progress and had even begun cleaning Trevor's room in preparation for his return home, removing paperwork from his bed so he'd have a place to sleep.

It was a welcome turnabout from a month ago when they were demonstrating outside the White House for their son's release, then pressing their case in a private meeting with Biden.

Weve been saying for over a year if we could just speak to the president, that we felt like we could make this thing happen  and thats exactly what happened, Joey Reed said.
Over the course of the day, seven houses in the Luhansk Oblast were destroyed and some were damaged

There were no casualties.

The enemy also shelled the town of Pryvillia, Haidai stated. An enemy shell struck the courtyard of a home of a 68-year-old man, who died on the spot.

Over the course of the day, Russian invaders destroyed seven houses in the settlements of the region, and damaged many more.

In Sievierodonetsk, an apartment in a block of flats caught fire. Two houses were set on fire in Rubizhne, one in Nyzhnie, and two more in Lysychansk. Lysychansk's marketplace also caught fire, damaging some shops.

Russian invaders opened fire on this village during a civilian evacuation, including 8 children from Bilohorivka. As a result, another private house is uninhabitable, Haidai added.

Read also: 80% of Luhansk Oblast occupied, but resistance ongoing  local governor

He stressed that these reports concern just the structures that caught fire after shelling. There are houses where walls have been destroyed by enemy shells, where windows are damaged, and where parts of their roof is missing.

In the Luhansk Oblast, combat is ongoing for control over Popasna, Rubizhne, Sievierodonetsk and a number of other settlements. Russian invaders have managed to occupy Kreminna.
This is part of a series of stories on the candidates running in the May 17 primary election. Ballots will be mailed to voters April 27.

For the first time in at least 38 years, the race for Marion County's top attorney office will be contested.

Salem-area Spencer Todd announced his candidacy for Marion County District Attorney last fall against incumbent Paige Clarkson in the upcoming May 17 primaries in Oregon.

Clarkson, 48, was appointed by Gov. Kate Brown when her predecessor, Walt Beglau, announced his retirement in 2018. She ran unopposed the same year and was elected into office in January 2019.

Clarkson says she believes in "law and order and holding people accountable."

She says her two decades of experience as a prosecutor, as well as her tough-on-crime philosophy, is "trusted and tested and tried"  and they're things her 33-year-old opponent lacks.

"I am not the soft-on-crime-candidate," she said. "I am not the candidate who is going to coddle criminals."

Todd said the "experience argument isn't a good one."

He plans to bring his eight years of experience as a trial lawyer to help protect victims and prosecute cases. His career as a public defender, he says, allows him to bring an understanding of the "other team's playbook," to the District Attorney's office  the ability to better anticipate what a defense attorney would do.

Todd says there needs to be a reinvention of the way the District Attorney's office handles many cases. While prison may be the answer to high-level crimes, Todd says, more funding should be devoted to helping offenders address their problems, including treatment for drug addiction and mental illness. This approach can help keep people from reoffending and keep the community safer.

"Not everybody is just a villain. Some people, if you give them a chance, are going to be back as productive members of society," Todd said. "We need to do a better job."

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If one of the two receives more than 50 percent of the votes in May, they will become the district attorney and will avoid a run-off in November.

Paige Clarkson: 'If not me, who else?'

Between the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest, as well as legislative and governor decisions that have "reduced law enforcement's toolbox," Clarkson said her last three years have been the most challenging in her 20-year law career.

"It's hard to think of a time that rivals this," she said.

But Clarkson, who lives with her husband and four children in South Salem, says she has a vested interest in the safety and wellbeing of the community. She says her decision to run again for the county's top attorney position is more than a desire to do her job  it's an obligation.

"If not me, then who?" she said. "I am the person who knows how to do this job and I'm not going to walk away from it now when things are hard."

Clarkson graduated from Willamette University College of Law in 1999 and has worked with the Marion County District Attorney's office since 1997. Starting as a law clerk, she later became a line attorney, a senior deputy district attorney and trial team leader for the drug team. But she said her interest in law came from watching the TV show Law & Order in high school.

"I really saw those prosecutors working with law enforcement and when I watched that, I thought, I want to do that," she said. "And what I saw in the public safety system is prosecutors are the only lawyers anywhere ... whose ethical obligation is to seek justice."

Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson, right, and her daughter, Quinlan Clarkson, who is graduating from South Salem High School. Quinlan plans to attend Washington State University to study nursing.

During her time in office, Clarkson said, she's prioritized tackling violent crimes  including those against children and women  and protecting the most vulnerable community members.

"That is a timeless problem," she said. "That will always be something that we have to do. And I will always be prioritizing collaborative efforts and the training necessary to do those cases responsibly, and be able to hold those folks accountable."

She also pointed to the importance of tackling cases unique to the area at this moment in history. Coming out of the pandemic, Clarkson said prosecutors in her office have been buried in cases that are considered low-level offenses including property damage, burglaries, and trespassing.

"What makes a community feel unsafe are those kinds of offenses," she said. "If I don't focus on that and I don't make those a priority for us to prosecute, those little things become big things."

She pointed to an example of the Multnomah County District Attorney not prosecuting low-level crimes during the protests in Portland.

"That's not our process here in Marion County," she said. "I think it's the main reason why our protest activity was significantly minimized compared to Portland. When folks came here with the intent of committing a crime --- not with the intent of free speech, that should be protected ... I think those folks learned really early on not only will you be arrested, you will be prosecuted."

Clarkson has been outspoken against multiple orders by Brown, including using her clemency authority to retroactively change prison sentences for approximately 75 individuals statewide serving adult-length sentences for violent crimes that they committed when they were 15, 16, or 17 years old.

In a joint statement last week, Clarkson and Marion County Sheriff Joe Kast voiced their concerns over Brown granting clemency to a Douglas County man convicted of murdering his teenage foster child in 1995. Kyle Hedquist, who was housed at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, was released into Marion County after citing "community concerns" over returning to a residence in Douglas County.

"This case represents a shocking lack of concern by the Governors Office for the safety of our community, disregard for the transparency of any process and apathy toward the normal safety protocols for such an obvious risk," Clarkson said.

Clarkson says her proudest achievement as an attorney has been earning trust from victims and survivors of crimes, some of whom have maintained relationships with her long after the case is closed. As an elected district attorney, she said she's proud of the relationships her office has built with social service agencies such as Center for Hope and Safety and Liberty House, as well as the accomplishments of the prosecutors at the district attorney's office.

"We don't seek attention. We don't seek credit. And yet, when I walk down the hall of my office, I see prosecutors at work every day just trying to do the right thing," she said.

Clarkson has endorsements from multiple law enforcement leaders and district attorneys across the state including Marion County Sheriff Joe Kast, Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack and Polk County District Attorney Aaron Felton. Other local and state leaders including Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum; all Marion County Commissioners and City Councilors Chris Hoy and Tom Anderson have also expressed their support for Clarkson.

Meet Salem attorney Spencer Todd

While it wasn't his only career track, Todd says he always planned on becoming a lawyer like his parents. Born and raised in Salem, Todd spent his summers in high school re-building shelves in the "bowels" of the Marion County Courthouse records department.

He graduated from South Salem High School and earned his law degree from Willamette University Law School in 2013. While attending law school, he clerked for his father, Walter Todd, and other area attorneys. He currently lives in downtown Salem with his wife, Kari, who works for Nike.

Todd says the past eight years as a public defender translate well into the District Attorney's office. He says he brings a one-on-one client mentality to victims to help protect and advocate for them and have important conversations about their cases.

"As a DA, you're not the victim's lawyer, but you're the closest thing to the victim's lawyer because they're ... likely only ever going to have you answering their questions."

When it comes to the role of the lead prosecutor, Todd says he believes in an "in the trenches" approach and says he wants to lead by example.

A district attorney should be in the courtroom, he said. "If I'm asking a first-year to do a shoplifting case, I should also be doing a shoplifting case," he said.

Similar to Clarkson, Todd says large-scale cases should be prioritized.

"Prison exists for a reason," he said. "You have to be held accountable for bad crimes at the highest level  for child sex abuse, for murder, for those kinds of things."

He doesn't want to ignore low-level crimes, either, because small problems have a way of escalating.

But all cases should be prosecuted in a meaningful way. And the largest problem, Todd says, is the district attorney's office's current approach to justice: spending too many resources to send as many people as possible to prison for as long as possible.

"It's enormously expensive to send someone to prison. And it takes them away from the community ... and it also makes it so that can't work," he said. "The longer you are in prison the harder it is for you to get a job when you come back. If you're a single parent your children go into the foster care system and become a higher risk to engage in criminal conduct, as well."

Instead, Todd says the district attorney's office should strive to understand what convictions should result on a case-by-case basis; the office should also seek alternatives to prison sentences, and invest in new and existing social services.

"We as the public want to be safe. We, as the system, need to hold someone accountable, there has to be some level of punishment to stop bad conduct," Todd says. "But what we really want is that person to never offend again, get sober, get well, get whatever their issue is resolved and be a working, good parent in our society. We've got to prosecute with that goal in mind instead of, 'guy did something really bad, let's try and send him to prison.' "

Todd also says he believes in equal access to justice; receiving more input from victims to resolve their cases, address their trauma and heal; and giving judges more decision power over plea deals.

"Victims need a better lawyer," he said. "Good leadership starts with the person at the top doing the hard work and working harder than everybody else at the office and that's why people should vote for me."

Todd has garnered endorsements from state and local leaders including State Representative Teresa Alonso-Leon, Salem City Councilor Jackie Leung, Cherriots Board Director Ramiro RJ Navarro, and former Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski. He has support from multiple first responders and members of the legal community.

Paige Clarkson

Age: 48

Residence: Salem.

Family: Husband, Jason Van Meter; four children.

Occupation: Marion County District Attorney

Previous elected offices: Marion County District Attorney since 2019, first appointed in 2018.

Campaign contributions: $111,352.50

Total for campaign: $42,513.25

Spencer Todd

Age: 33.

Residence: Salem.

Family: Wife, Kari.

Occupation: Public defender.

Previous elected offices: None.

Campaign contributions: $168,361.21

Total for campaign: $153,773.63

Virginia Barreda is the breaking news and public safety reporter for the Statesman Journal. She can be reached at 503-399-6657 or at vbarreda@statesmanjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Election 2022: A look at the candidates Marion County DA
(Getty Images)

Sarah Jessica Parker has opened up about what the Met Gala means to her and how labour intensive it should be to create an outfit that coincides with the annual events theme.

The 57-year-old actor reflected on her most memorable costumes at 10 different Met Galas, which takes place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, during a recent interview withVogue.

As she spoke about the Halston gown that she wore in 2010, she expressed how important the theme of the Met Gala is to her every time that she attends. In fact, according to Parker, she finds it a little strange if guests dont spend seven to ten months working on their costumes in order to match with the theme.

All I ever think about is the theme and influence, she said. Whenever I go to the Met, I dont understand how everyone else doesnt spend seven to ten months working on it. Like how do you not arrive exhausted by the details of getting it right?

The And Just Like That star applauded the people whove put the Met Gala, its theme together, and extraordinary exhibit. With that in mind, she believes that creating a look for the event is should be an assignment that is quite labour-intensive.

All these people came together and worked really hard to put together an extraordinary exhibit and it is all academic and historical and then its fashion, she explained. It is an assignment and it should be labour-intensive. And it should be challenging.

Parker acknowledged that while it would be simpler to just pick out a beautiful dress to wear, that is not part of the assignment.

It would be so easy to find a beautiful dress to wear that night, she explained. Like that would be a great relief and like going on vacation. But that is not the assignment, the assignment is the theme.

However, she noted that not all the Met Galas themes are easy to understand. In fact, the Sex and the City star recalled how shes spent days trying to figuring how to interpret it.

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Sometimes the theme eludes you, she added. I have had conversationslike, What does this theme mean? Weve had some very abstract themes where youre like, How do you interpret that? Like singing a song. Either youre an interpreter or youre not.

The 2022 Met Gala will be taking place on 2 May, resuming its pre-pandemic schedule this year, as last years event was pushed to September 2021 and the 2020 was cancelled due Covid-19.

This years theme is In America: An Anthology of Fashion, a part-two of an exhibit from the Costume Institute at the museum. The first part of the exhibit, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion, was the theme of the 2021 Met Gala.

The upcoming event will be centred on the evolution of American fashion and will be hosted by Regina King, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Forty-one high schools will once again evaluate their safety plans and decide by June 15 if they will continue in Chicago Public Schools controversial school resource officer program.

This is not just about the vote of whether you want to keep SROs or not, CPS Chief Safety and Security Officer Jadine Chou said at Wednesdays monthly Chicago Board of Education meeting. This is about, how do you look at safety holistically  physical safety, emotional safety and relational safety?

Last summer, 19 schools decided to retain both of their uniformed Chicago police officers; 22 schools chose to keep just one officer; and 12 schools voted to exit the SRO program. Based on the school votes, the board in September approved a one-year, $11 million agreement with the Chicago Police Department for this program.

The schools that ditched one or both of their officers received nearly $3.3 million combined to pay for an alternative, such as a restorative justice coordinator or a youth intervention specialist.

Chou said Wednesday that in the coming weeks CPS will post school discipline data online while determining more ways to measure if these other approaches are working, such as the perception of safety at a school.

The 41 schools still in the SRO program must reconvene their safety committees, which will include at least two parents and two students, to review data, solicit feedback from school community members and present an updated safety plan with a recommendation on school police to the Local School Council for a vote by June 15.

The 12 schools that left the SRO program dont have to go through this whole school safety planning process again, and they will receive the same funding as last year, Chou said. Schools that voted police officers out cannot reinstate them.

The process was born from the nationwide reckoning that followed the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. CPS partnered with five community-based organizations, which hosted nine community meetings to gather input on the process and devise recommendations such as sharing school safety plans online, increasing student and community involvement in the decision-making and implementation process, and promoting stories of success.

Year one was really focused on building out what that whole school safety plan could look like in and of itself, said Juleny Santa Cruz of Mikva Challenge, one of the groups that worked on this process. Year two is a really good opportunity to continue to push the envelope on, how do we shift safety from punitive measures into holistic measures?

tswartz@tribpub.com
IRYNA BALACHUK - WEDNESDAY, 27 APRIL 2022, 08:30 In Sievierodonetsk, a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC-MP) passed information to the invaders about the deployment of Ukrainian troops. Source: Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, on Telegram Haidai's quote: "Correspondence with representatives of illegal armed groups was found in the phone which this citizen used to pass information on the number, location and armaments of Ukrainian Armed Forces military." Details: The head of the region said that the UOC-MP clergyman was exposed by law enforcement officers on 26 April.
WASHINGTON  House Democrats vowed to continue investigating consulting giant McKinseys work with opioid drugmakers after a Wednesday hearing detailed how the firm had advised companies pushing painkillers as well as U.S. health regulators.

The hearing before a House committee is part of an ongoing probe into McKinseys role in the U.S. opioid crisis that has been linked to over 500,000 overdose deaths from both prescription pain medications and illicit drugs like fentanyl.

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McKinseys top executive challenged some of the committees findings but said the company has overhauled how it does business and no longer works with opioid manufacturers, including OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma.

Ive apologized for our work for Purdue and other opioid manufacturers and we fully recognize it fell short of our standards, said Bob Sternfels in testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. He said the company would continue cooperating with investigators.

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Last year the consulting powerhouse agreed to pay $600 million to settle lawsuits over its work advising opioid makers, though it admitted no wrongdoing.

Lawmakers questioned Sternfels for three hours about revelations that his company allowed consultants working for Purdue Pharma to simultaneously advise the Food and Drug Administration, the agency tasked with overseeing drug safety.

McKinsey was advising both the fox and the hen-house  and getting paid by both, said Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. Clearly, McKinsey should not be setting strategy for both drug companies and the FDA.

A preliminary report from the committee found 22 McKinsey consultants who worked for both the FDA and an opioid manufacturer over the span of a decade. The overlapping work included McKinsey staffers advising the FDA on overhauling its drug safety division, according to the committees review of thousands of company documents.

Bob Sterfels, Global Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company, testifies remotely at a House Oversight and Reform committee hearing on April 27, 2022, in Washington. (Kevin Wolf/AP)

Meanwhile, McKinsey consultants recommended cash prizes and unrivaled recognition for top OxyContin sales reps to increase Purdues revenue, according to a 2013 strategy presentation released Wednesday.

Lawmakers heard conflicting accounts of whether McKinseys work helped Purdue avoid tighter FDA regulation.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, testifying remotely, said that her states own investigation into McKinsey uncovered emails recommending Purdue band together with other drugmakers in 2009 to defend against strict treatment by the FDA.

Sternfeld said McKinsey did not share FDA documents or intelligence with Purdue and said claims of information sharing were inaccurate.

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He also testified that McKinsey was open with FDA about its pharmaceutical consulting work.

We made very clear that we were working both with the industry and with opioids in particular, Sternfeld said. FDA officials have previously stated they were aware of McKinseys pharmaceutical consulting.

Maloney and other Democrats repeatedly suggested McKinseys work may have violated federal contracting rules on disclosing potential conflicts of interest.

On Wednesday, Maloney introduced legislation that would tighten requirements for contractors to disclose potential conflicts. A bipartisan group of Senators previously introduced similar legislation in their chamber.

The committees Republicans spent most of their allotted time undercutting the relevance of the hearing, noting the vast majority of opioid overdoses are now caused by fentanyl and heroin, not prescription drugs. They urged tighter border security, noting nearly all illicit opioids enter the U.S. through the southern border.

We have a new opioid crisis, folks, and its not from big pharma in the United States its from the drug cartels who operate sites in Mexico, said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida.

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House Democrats spotlighted several examples of McKinsey touting its FDA connections when soliciting consulting business from drugmakers. The company also submitted advice on dealing with the opioid epidemic to members of the Trump administration, according to the report. Its unclear if the information had any effect on federal policy.

For decades, McKinsey has been the preeminent corporate consulting firm, advising many of the worlds biggest companies on strategy and operations. The company has also made inroads into government consulting, receiving nearly $1 billion in federal contracts.

The Oversight Committee scrutinized McKinseys work on three dozen FDA contracts worth more than $65 million, stretching from 2008 to 2021.

At a separate Senate hearing Tuesday, the head of FDAs drug center director told lawmakers McKinseys work was about organizational design and did not entail involvement in product regulation. The agency currently has no contracts with McKinsey, she noted, and no new awards are expected while Congress investigates the firm.

The House report did not conclude that McKinseys FDA consulting resulted in lighter regulation of OxyContin or any other opioids.

For years the FDA has attempted to discourage doctors from overprescribing the drugs, mainly by adding starker warnings to their labeling. Prescriptions have fallen from their peak in 2012, but mainly due to new prescribing limits imposed by state and local governments, insurers and hospital systems.

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AP Writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this story from Cherry Hill, N.J.
The grounds of Sergey Protosenya's rented Catalonian villa viewed from the road, dated to 2011. Google Streetview

Police suspect a murder-suicide after a Russian oligarch was found dead alongside his wife and daughter.

But the oligarch's surviving son told MailOnline that his father is "not a killer."

Murder-suicide is the prevailing police theory in Sergey Protosenya's case.

The son of a Russian oligarch who was found dead alongside his wife and child has said his father is not a killer, pouring cold water on the primary theory of the police investigating the case.

Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in a villa in Lloret de Mar in Spain's Catalonia region on April 12. The bodies of his wife, Natalya, and teenage daughter, Maria, were also found with stab wounds nearby.

Protosenya, who had been retired at the time of his death, formerly served on the board of Novatek, a major Russian gas company. He was worth an estimated $440 million, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reported.

Insider confirmed via a local official that the primary working theory of the Mossos D'Esquadra, the Catalonian police force investigating the deaths, is that of murder-suicide committed by Protosenya.

But his surviving son Fedor told MailOnline that his father "is not a killer."

Protosenya's body was found with a bloodied knife and an ax nearby, but there were no bloodstains on his person and no suicide note, the Spanish outlet El Punta Vui reported.

Fedor was in the family's home in France at the time of the deaths, and alerted police to the villa after they did not answer their phones, Spanish TV outlet Telecinco reported. They were in Lloret de Mar for an Easter break, the outlet reported.

Fedor said that Protosenya loved his mother "and especially Maria my sister," MailOnline reported.

"She was his princess. He could never do anything to harm them. I don't know what happened that night but I know that my dad did not hurt them," Fedor said.

Fedor's view was underscored on April 21 by Protosenya's former employer Novatek, which issued a statement calling Protosenya "an outstanding person and a wonderful family man." The statement also suggested that media reporting around the murder-suicide theory was solely speculative.

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Josep Milan, police chief for the Catalonian region, told MailOnline that the evidence suggested this was a murder-suicide, with Protosenya as the perpetrator.

"The investigators are focusing on a person who has committed suicide and two people who were killed at home, this is what we are looking at," he told the outlet.

Protosenya's death came just a day after police found the bodies of another Russian oligarch, Vladislav Avayev, as well as his wife and child in their Moscow apartment, state-run news agency Tass reported. There is no evidence of a connection between the cases.

All three died of gunshot wounds, Tass reported, and cited an anonymous law-enforcement source as saying that Avayev killed his wife and daughter before killing himself.

Avayev was the former vice president of Gazprombank, the Russian bank set up for the state-run gas company Gazprom.

Igor Volobuev, a former vice president at Gazprombank, told Russia's The Insider news outlet that he did not know Avayev personally but said he did not believe Avayev killed himself.

"I never knew him and never heard of him before [the deaths]," Volobuev said. "I do not believe that he could have killed his wife and daughter. I think it's staged. Why? It is hard to say. Maybe he knew something and represented some kind of danger."

Translations by Oleksandr Vynogradov.

Read the original article on Business Insider
SheKnows

Mothers Day was canceled for one particular family this year  and its pretty impossible to dispute the reasoning. A dad took to Reddits AITA forum to share the awful exchange that led to him nixing his wifes celebration and users quickly rallied around him. I (M/37) have a 13 y.o son. I was a []
A prominent civil rights group is calling on Stone Mountain State Park to cancel plans for a Confederate Memorial Day rally.

The permit for the event in 2021 was denied because of the coronavirus pandemic. The park told Channel 2s Richard Elliot they legally cannot revoke this years permit.

Under Georgia law, Stone Mountain is an official Confederate memorial site. That legal status is why the Sons of Confederate Veterans applied for and got a permit to rally there on Saturday.

Now the Southern Poverty Law Center wants that permit revoked.

Michael and Sara Johnson of Duluth do not like the fact that the Sons of Confederate Veterans will hold a rally at the park this weekend on what used to be Confederate Memorial Day.

Do I personally think its OK? Far from it, Michael Johnson said.

It would not be the first pro-Confederate rally held at Stone Mountain Park. The state of Georgia officially declared it a Confederate memorial site years ago.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but its a little touchy, and a lot of people would like to see that change happen. Im one of them, said Sara Johnson.

The Southern Poverty Law Center demanded Monday that the permit for this years rally be revoked.

RELATED NEWS:

We dont want to see Stone Mountain used for hateful purposes. There is still time for the (Stone Mountain Memorial Association) to change its mind, the SPLC said in a statement.

But the SMMA said that, legally, it cannot deny the permit to any organization so long as there is no violence involved.

On Wednesday, Elliot contacted the associations CEO, who said, This is a free speech event covered by the First Amendment. We will continue to follow state law as well as honor the First Amendment rights of all Georgians.

Unless law enforcement intelligence issues us a warning of potential violence or a clear and present danger, then we will err toward maintaining an open and welcoming environment.

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Linda Koroma drove up from Fairburn to visit the mountain on Wednesday.

She believes the Sons of Confederate Veterans should keep its permit because, she said, everyone has a right to free speech.

They can express their opinion and show up and express their opinion in a respectful way and not get violent on somebody else because they hold a different opinion, Koroma said.

Elliot attempted to contact the Sons of Confederate Veterans for a comment, but so far, he has not heard back.

There is word of some protests planned against Saturdays rally. But so far, the park told Elliot, none of those groups have filed for a permit of their own.

RELATED NEWS:
A 14-year-old boy was held on $1 million cash bond Wednesday in connection with the death of a 10-year-old Wisconsin girl whose body was found Monday.

Iliana

The teenage suspect's name was not said during a court hearing Wednesday afternoon before Chippewa County District Judge Benjamin Lane, who ordered attorneys to refer to the suspect only by his initials.Iliana "Lily" Peters, 10, was found Monday morning after she disappeared Sunday, Chippewa Falls police said.

In court Wednesday, county prosecutor Wade Newell said that Lily died a violent death and that the suspect made statements to investigators saying as much.

The teen punched the girl "in the stomach, knocked her to the ground ... hit her with a stick before strangling her to the point of death before then sexually assaulting her," Newell said.

He added, "Given the statements the defendant made to law enforcement, that his intention was to rape and kill the victim from the get-go when he left the house with the victim going down the trail, the state believes there is a need to protect the community."

The boy was at a juvenile detention facility with his attorneys during the hearing, attorneys said. His attorneys requested $100,000 cash bond over video conference.

Lily's father reported her missing after she did not return home from her aunts house, Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matthew Kelm said at a news conference Monday.

Her bike was found a few blocks away from her aunts house, and on Monday morning, her body was discovered in a wooded area.

At a news conference Tuesday announcing an arrest, Kelm said the juvenile suspect was known to the victim. He declined to elaborate.

Kelm said authorities searched a home related to the girls death in Chippewa Falls, north of Eau Claire. He declined to provide additional details about the warrant.

More than 200 tips that authorities received about her death were critical to solving this case, he said.

If bond is posted, Lane ordered the boy to not have weapons and to stay away from other juveniles who are not his siblings.
A Tennessee state lawmaker said he would burn books taken out of school libraries during an exchange with another state lawmaker who asked what he proposed doing with the objectionable texts.

State Rep. Jerry Sexton, a Republican representing a region in East Tennessee, made the remark during a session of the Tennessee General Assembly on Wednesday.

During the exchange, state Rep. John Ray Clemmons, a Democrat who represents Nashville, asked Sexton what he would do when he takes these books out of a library.

What are you going to do with them? Clemmons asked, according to a clip of the exchange shared on Twitter. Are you going to put them in the street? Light them on fire? Where are they going?

Sexton responded that he doesnt have a clue.

But I would burn em, he added.

The two were discussing an amendment that would require a state commission to issue a list of approved books, the Tennessean reported.

Sexton withdrew the amendment and then added another requiring the commission review school library collections, giving the commission the power to approve or deny books, the outlet noted.

Controversy has swirled around how to educate children in the school system amid Republican opposition to what they say are books that are oversexualized or indoctrinate students on political messaging regarding race or gender.

Tennessee is one of several conservative states that have banned books from classrooms and school libraries. Tennessee has banned 16, while Texas leads with 713.

Last year, nearly 1,600 complaints were lodged against books in more than 700 libraries across the country. The Hill has compiled a list of the 10 books most targeted in the U.S.

Some Republican-led states have also banned the teaching of other topics and ideas like critical race theory, an academic framework based on the idea that racism is systemic in the nations institutions.

The most high-profile law banning certain topics in the education system was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in Florida, who banned the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in public schools from kindergarten to third grade.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A man was arrested in Oklahoma and two others in El Paso in connection with a stabbing at Grandview Park earlier this month, police said.

The three are accused in the stabbing of 25-year-old Frank Angel shortly before midnight on April 7 at the park on Jefferson Avenue in Central El Paso.

Angel was assaulted at the park by several men, stabbed multiple times and found by police lying on the street, authorities said. He was taken to a hospital in stable condition.

Rene Marquez

Street crime: El Paso serial car theft suspect arrested after stolen truck rammed into police car

Courts: 'He did wrong': El Paso student files $1 million lawsuit in police sex assault case

On Friday, the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested Rene Marquez, 21, and Isaiah Isaac Chavez, 29, in El Paso, officials said Tuesday.

Police reported that Jose Antonio Flores, 25, was arrested in Oklahoma and is awaiting extradition back to El Paso.

Isaiah Isaac Chavez

The three men, who are from Central El Paso, all face charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, officials said. Bond was set at $100,000 for each.

Marquez and Chavez are being held at the El Paso County Jail in Downtown.

Gun violence: El Paso police arrest 2, seize rifles in Northeast park shooting

More: Two men wounded in shooting in Central El Paso

Daniel Borunda may be reached at 915-546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter.

Jose Antonio Flores, booking photo from 2021.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Grandview Park stabbing results in 3 arrests in Oklahoma, El Paso
A group of top lawmakers are preparing to meet for the first time to discuss fiscal 2023 government funding as they eye the end of the year as an unofficial deadline to get a deal.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told The Hill that he will meet with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), the top Republican on the panel, on Thursday.

It will mark the first time the top four appropriators have met to talk about the next round of government funding.

Technically Congress has until Sept. 30 to fund the government, with the 2023 fiscal year starting on Oct. 1. But lawmakers frequently miss that deadline and use a short-term government funding bill to buy themselves more time. Congress didnt pass its fiscal year 2022 funding deal until last month, using three continuing resolutions to kick the can.

But the real deadline for the talks is the end of the current Congress, which runs through the first days of January 2023. Control of both the House and Senate are up for grabs in November. Republicans are confident in their ability to flip the House and feeling increasingly optimistic about netting the one seat they need to flip the 50-50 Senate.

That could put pressure on Democrats to try to cut a funding deal by the end of the year to try to lock in their spending priorities for another fiscal year. It would also take a significant fight off the plate of the new Congress if appropriators can cut a deal this year and give Shelby and Leahy, who are both retiring, one final significant victory.

Shelby acknowledged that getting a deal before the November election could be difficult, but they could put a lot of stuff in place for potential year-end discussions.

If we can work come together. If we can work our defense numbers. If we can work the others  but the question is can we do that, Shelby said.

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Shelby added that the chance that both the House and Senate could flip is all part of the equation.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. For everybody, if they can. Because you start over with another Congress, absolutely, Shelby said, asked if it would be beneficial to get a deal by the end of the year.

But getting a government funding deal could be a heavy lift.

Republicans are already making it clear that they want a higher defense number than President Bidens proposed $813.3 billion defense budget. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who will become majority leader next year if Republicans flip the Senate, has pushed for the next government funding deal to increase defense spending by five percent above inflation.

President Biden must lead by example. The presidents next budget request must include at least a 5 percent increase in defense spending above inflation. Russia and China have prioritized military modernization literally for decades, McConnell said earlier this year before Biden released his budget.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
POKROVSK, Ukraine  Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders decried the move as blackmail.

A day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to speed more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, the Kremlin used its most most essential export as leverage against two of Kyivs staunch backers. Gas prices in Europe shot up on the news.

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The tactic could eventually force targeted nations to ration gas and deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.

Poland has been a major gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and confirmed this week that it is sending the country tanks. Bulgaria, under a new liberal government that took office last fall, has cut many of its old ties to Moscow and supported sanctions against Russia over its invasion. It has also hosted Western fighter jets at a new NATO outpost on Bulgarias Black Sea coast.

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The gas cuts do not immediately put the two countries in dire trouble. Poland has been working for several years to line up other sources of energy, and the continent is heading into summer, making gas less essential for households.

Yet the cutoff and the Kremlin warning that other countries could be next sent shivers of worry through the 27-nation European Union.

Western leaders and analysts portrayed the move by Russia as a bid to divide the Western allies and undermine their unity in support of Ukraine.

It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us, said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Today, the Kremlin failed once again in his attempt to sow division amongst member states. The era of Russian fossil fuel in Europe is coming to an end.

Construction work on a 200-meter long pier being built where the gas pipeline is due to come ashore at Houstrup Strand, in West Jutland, Denmark on Feb. 23, 2021. Russia has opened a new front in its war over Ukraine, cutting two European Union nations that staunchly back Kyiv off from its gas. (John Randeris/AP)

State-controlled Russian giant Gazprom said it was shutting off the two countries because they refused to pay in Russian rubles, as President Vladimir Putin had demanded. A number of other gas-importing countries have also refused to do business in rubles.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, said the cutoff was a weaponization of energy supplies. Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov called the suspension blackmail, adding: We will not succumb to such a racket.

On the battlefield, fighting continued in the countrys east along a largely static front line some 300 miles (480 kilometers) long. Russia claimed its missiles hit a batch of weapons that the U.S. and European nations had delivered to Ukraine.

Just across the border in Russia, an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region was burning early Wednesday after several explosions were heard, the governor said.

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Explosions were also reported in Russias Kursk region near the Ukrainian border, and in Russias Voronezh region, authorities said an air defense system shot down a drone. Earlier this week, an oil storage facility in the Russian city of Bryansk was engulfed by fire.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak hinted at the countrys involvement in the fires, saying in a Telegram post that karma (is) a harsh thing.

In other developments:

 The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said the safety level at Europes largest nuclear plant, now under Russian occupation in Ukraine, is like a red light blinking as his organization tries in vain to get access for repairs.

 Just as tensions were ratcheting up, Moscow and Washington carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in the U.S.

With the help of Western arms, Ukrainian forces have been unexpectedly successful at bogging Russias forces down and thwarted their attempt to take Kyiv. Moscow now says its focus is the capture of the Donbas, the mostly Russian-speaking industrial region in eastern Ukraine.

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A defiant Putin vowed Wednesday that Russia will achieve its military goals, telling parliament, All the tasks of the special military operation we are conducting in the Donbas and Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, will be unconditionally fulfilled.

Pro-Moscow separatists have been battling Ukrainian troops in the Donbas for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics there that have been recognized by Russia.

The U.S. pressed its allies Tuesday to move at the speed of war to ensure Kyiv remains well-supplied with the weapons necessary for that battle.

The West has also sought to isolate Russia economically, by imposing punishing sanctions. Wednesdays move marked marked a major economic counteroffensive by Moscow.

Simone Tagliapietra, senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, said Russias goal is to divide and rule  pit European countries against one another as they cast about for energy.

Poland gets around 45% of its gas from Russia but is much more dependent on coal and said it was well prepared for the cutoff. Poland has ample natural gas in storage and will soon benefit from two pipelines coming online, analyst Emily McClain of Rystad Energy said.

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Bulgaria gets over 90% of its gas from Russia, and officials said they were working to find other sources, such as from Azerbaijan.

Europe is not without its own leverage since, at current prices, it is paying some $400 million a day to Russia for gas, money Putin would lose in case of a complete cutoff.

Russia can, in theory, sell oil elsewhere  to India and China, for instance. But the pipeline network from the huge deposits in the Yamal Peninsula in northwestern Siberia to Europe does not connect with the pipelines running to China. And Russia has only limited capacity to export liquefied gas by ship.

The move that Russia did today is basically a move where Russia hurts itself. The Kremlin is hurting the Russian economy because they are cutting off themselves from important revenues, von der Leyen said.

European countries have worked to reduce their dependence on Russian energy. In Germany, known for its fine cars and its autobahns without speed limits, the auto club ADAC is calling on its 21 million members to help reduce the countrys oil imports from Russia by driving less and taking their foot off the gas.

Gambrell reported from Lviv, Ukraine and Gera reported from Warsaw, Poland. Associated Press journalist Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, David Keyton in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi at Chernobyl, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.
The New School is gearing up for its 73rd annual Parsons Benefit on May 23 at The Glasshouse in New York City.

This years event will salute Tory Burch, Moda Operandis Lauren Santo Domingo, the Ford Foundations president Darren Walker and visual artist Kehinde Wiley. As chairman and chief creative officer of Tory Burch LLC, Burch has built a global brand that is also rooted in giving back. She and her fellow honorees are being celebrated for their contributions to design, retail, entrepreneurship, the arts, philanthropy, social justice and inclusivity. They are also being recognized for longstanding commitments to helping create opportunities for future generations of artists, designers and creatives.

More from WWD

Parsons executive dean Rachel Schreiber noted in a statement how Parsons was founded upon the idea that design, art and business can change the world, adding that the honorees are reimagining the creative and commercial landscape.

Last fall, Tory Burch and Parsons School of Fashion formed a five-year partnership. That included the creation of the Tory Burch Empowering Future Fashion Leaders Endowed Scholarship Fund at Parsons with a gift that will be matched to set up a $1 million fund to offer ongoing financial aid to students annually. Separately, the Tory Burch Foundation will host its third Embrace Ambition Summit, called Confronting Stereotypes and Creating New Norms, at Jazz at Lincoln Centers Frederick P. Rose Hall on June 14.

In a statement, Burch said the school is synonymous with New York fashion and its students are our industrys future, and praised its incredible faculty led by Rachel Schreiber and Ben Barry.

Wiley, who is widely known for his official portrait of former President Barack Obama, also has a busy calendar with his work on view in multiple locations around the globe. His An Archaeology of Silence is a solo show now on at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice through July 24. Slay: Artemisia Gentileschi & Kehinde Wiley is up at The Frick Art Museum in Pittsburgh until July 10. A solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston showcases his Obama portrait and his work can be found in Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London until Nov. 6. In New York, Wileys work is part of Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through March 5.

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Parsons has lined up Steve Madden Group president Liz Rodbell and LVMH Inc.s chief human resources officer Gena Smith as this years co-chairs for the benefit. Attendees will also catch a presentation of students work from programs throughout Parsons.

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Click here to read the full article.
US officials confirmed Wednesday that former US Marine Trevor Reed has been traded in a priosner swap for a Russian citizen, Reuters first reported.

Konstantin Yaroshenko, a convicted Russian drug trafficker who was serving out a 20-year sentence in the United States, was released after a lengthy negotiation process, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova also confirmed on her Telegram channel.

Mr Reed, a 30-year-old from Texas, was handed a nine-year jail sentence in 2019 after being found guilty in a Russian court of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk in Moscow.

The parents of the ex-Marine, Paula and Joey Reed, had for months been running an aggressive public campaign to pressure the Biden administration to do more to bring their son back to the US.

The charges brought against the Texas native have been categorically denied by his family as being valid, while top political figures in Washington, such as John Sullivan, the US ambassador to Russia, had described the evidence being used against the former marine as flimsy and preposterous.

Paula and Joey Reed had met with Joe Biden as recently as last month, when they managed to secure a 30-minute sitdown with the US president to discuss the work his administration was doing to bring Mr Reed home.

For months, the pair have been raising the flag about their sons detainment and his deteriorating health condition.

In December, the family reported that Mr Reed had been exposed to a cellmate who at the time was positive for tuberculosis. They claimed that their son did not receive proper testing, despite his health beginning to visibly worsen.

He spent 10 days in hospital and was returned to his prison cell in March, his Mordovian lawyer, the region where hes being held in Russia, confirmed at the time.

Shortly after being returned to the prison, his lawyer and family confirmed that the ex-Marine had been engaged in a hunger strike to protest being sent back to solitary while injured and having TB.

Last months hunger strike marked the second occasion that Mr Reed had engaged in that kind of protest.

Last year, he was protesting rights abuses, but was forced to call it off nearly a week later after having lost too much weight.
Two imprisoned men  one American, one Russian  will return to their respective homelands after a prisoner swap between the nations granted them their freedom.

Former US Marine Trevor Reed was first detained in Russia in 2019, and has not returned home since. Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko was convicted of drug related crimes in 2011 and has been sitting in a US prison.

Moscow officials announced on Wednesday that the two men were being traded in a prisoner swap; Mr Reed would return to the US and Mr Yaroshenko would return to Russia.

Trevor, a former U.S. Marine, is free from Russian detention, Joe Biden said in a statement Wednesday. I heard in the voices of Trevors parents how much theyve worried about his health and missed his presence. And I was delighted to be able to share with them the good news about Trevors freedom.

As Mr Reed's family celebrates his return, let's take a look at who he is, why he was arrested, and why the US kept a Russian pilot locked up for more than a decade.

Trevor Reed

Mr Reed, originally from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, spent his early 20's in the US Marine Corps and eventually received an honorable discharge.

In 2016, Mr Reed began dating a young Russian woman. When he returned to college at the University of North Texas in 2017, he decided he wanted to focus on International Studies, which required the selection of a foreign language course.

Mr Reed chose to study Russian, as it was his girlfriend's native language and he wanted to be able to converse with her parents in their native language. In May 2019, Mr Reed traveled to Moscow to study Russian and spend the summer with his girlfriend.

On 15 August 2019, a week before he was scheduled to fly back to Texas, Mr Reed reportedly attended a party with his girlfriend and her coworkers. He claims he was encouraged to drink large amounts of vodka, which led to him becoming drunk.

According to Mr Reed, he and his girlfriend were driven home by some of her coworkers. On the way, Mr Reed became nauseous and asked to be let out of the vehicle. When the car stopped, he got out and began running around a busy street in the early hours of 16 August. His aberrant behaviour caused his girlfriend and friends to call the police, who said they found him "in the condition of strong intoxication considering his shaky gait, rambling speech, and strong smell of alcohol. Reed waved his hands, shouted incoherent words, and behaved inadequately.

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The police took Mr Reed back to a station, where he was detained for the evening. His girlfriend was told to return around 9am local time to pick him up.

When she returned, Mr Reed was being interviewed by Russia's intelligence service, the Federal Security Services. The FSB is the successor to the KGB.

At that time Mr Reed's girlfriend learned that he was also being charged with intentionally endangering the lives and health of the officers who initially detained him. He was imprisoned for 11 months before he was sentenced to nine years in prison.

He was later sent to a penal colony in the Russian Republic of Mordovia, the New York Times reports. His family claims he was treated harshly at the penal colony and was subjected to solitary confinement. They claimed his health deteriorated during that time  including exposure to and potential contraction of tuberculosis  and that he was not allowed to receive books or letters from them.

His treatment and rapidly worsening health prompted him to launch a hunger strike in November.

Since Mr Biden took office he said he has made it a priority to see Mr Reed returned to his family.

Konstantin Yaroshenko

Mr Yaroshenko, now 53, is a Russian pilot. He spent several years in the military and later struggled to find work during the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991. He began working jobs for transportation crews in Africa in an attempt to make a living.

At some point, Mr Yaroshenko was reportedly hired to fly cocaine from South America to Liberia. He was reportedly told when he was hired that some of the drugs were bound for the US, with the rest headed for Africa or Europe. This smuggling operation was part of an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration operation.

The US detained Mr Yaroshenko in Liberia in 2010, accusing him of smuggling cocaine and knowing that some of the drugs were intended for distribution in the US.

Mr Yaroshenko was detained by Liberian authorities and later turnd over to the US. Despite the fact that he had never been to the US, Mr Yaroshenko was flown there to stand trial in 2011. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the arrest, calling it a "kidnapping of a Russian national from a third country."

Mr Yaroshenko claims he was beaten and tortured by the Liberian officials who detained him. He said his beatings were so serve that during those moments between the torture and my unconsciousness, I cried and prayed for death so I would not have to feel the pain and the beatings could stop.

Pro-Kremlin media outlets and Russian politcians used Mr Yaroshenko's kidnapping to draw attention to the breadth of the US's extraterritorial power and influence.

His family claimed he was being mistreated at the Connecticut prison where he was being held.

While US officials celebrated the return of Mr Reed to his family, there are still several Americans detained in the country, including WNBA star Brittney Griner. Ms Griner was detained on smuggling allegations after marijuana was reportedly found in her bag at a Moscow airport.

Ms Griner's family and the public have called for her release since her arrest.
A truck crashed into a house in the Marietta area on Wednesday morning.

Action News Jax crews are at the intersection of Bulls Bay Highway and 3 Creeks Boulevard.

STORY: The top high schools in Florida, according to U.S. News and World Report

It appears the truck crashed into a bedroom.

We are working to learn if anyone was injured as a result of the crash.

This is a developing story. Refresh this page and watch CBS47 Action News Jax at Noon for the latest updates.

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was heard making the comments in leaked audio recordings obtained by The New York Times. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Tucker Carlson called House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy a "puppet of the Democratic Party."

The comment came after audio was leaked of McCarthy mulling Twitter censorship for some GOP lawmakers.

Carlson said that McCarthy is "a man who, in private, sounds like an MSNBC contributor."

Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday slammed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, calling him a "puppet" of the Democratic Party.

Carlson's statements came after The New York Times published a bombshell report detailing how McCarthy was concerned about GOP lawmakers like Rep. Matt Gaetz and their potential for inciting violence following the January 6 Capitol riot.

The Times also highlighted how McCarthy, in leaked audio recordings obtained by the outlet, had mulled the possibility of censoring GOP lawmakers.

"Can't they take their Twitter accounts away, too?" McCarthy was heard saying on a call, likely referring to how former President Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter after the riot.

During his show on Tuesday, Carlson criticized McCarthy for what the lawmaker said on the call.

"Kevin McCarthy of California told his close friend, Liz Cheney, that he hoped the social media companies would censor more conservative Republicans in the Congress," Carlson said, adding that Trump had been "silenced by those companies" during his presidency.

Carlson noted McCarthy had also expressed a desire to have "tech oligarchs" take more steps to "force disobedient lawmakers off the internet."

Commenting on McCarthy's suggestion to remove some parties from Twitter, Carlson said: "Those are the tape-recorded words of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, a man who in private turns out sounds like an MSNBC contributor."

The Fox News host also warned that McCarthy or "one of his highly liberal allies" would likely become Speaker of the House if conservatives didn't "get their act together right away."

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"And that would mean we will have a Republican Congress led by a puppet of the Democratic Party," Carlson added.

Last week, The Times reported that McCarthy had told House GOP members he planned to ask Trump to resign after the Capitol riot. McCarthy had earlier denied making those comments, both in response to multiple media outlets and in a statement posted on his Twitter account.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Tucker Carlson on Tuesday reacted to a new batch of audio recordings published earlier in the day by The New York Times in which House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) raised concerns about other Republicans, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, inciting violence in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

McCarthy can be heard asking if social media companies would remove access to their accounts, like Twitter and Facebook had done with then-President Donald Trump.

Cant they take their Twitter accounts away, too? McCarthy said.

Carlson framed this as McCarthy striving to get the tech oligarchs to force disobedient lawmakers off the internet. The recording, claims Carlson, shows that the then majority, now minority, leader sounds like an MSNBC contributor in private.

And yet unless conservatives get their act together right away, Kevin McCarthy or one of his highly liberal allies like Elise Stefanik, is very likely to be Speaker of the House in January, the Fox host added as a chyron declared: Kevin McCarthy Hates People Like You And This Show.

(In fact, Stefanik has been a staunch Trump defender over the last year, after taking over the conference chair role that Rep. Liz Cheney was pushed out of after speaking out against Trumps false election claims.)

Carlson continued: That would mean we would have a Republican Congress led by a puppet of the Democratic Party.

Carlsons comments Tuesday were largely a continuation of his monologue the night prior, in which the gleeful Fox host likened Elon Musks $44 billion purchase of Twitter to Donald Trumps 2016 election win, and made the breathless claim that before today, you didnt have a right to express your disagreement in public.

You can start to see why the people in charge oppose transparency and fervently support censorship  on both sides, Carlson said Tuesday. Why? Because the more you know about them, the less satisfied youre likely to become with their leadership.

Story continues

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TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian judge detained seven crew members of a commercial ship that sank off the coast of the southern city of Gabes this month, a judicial official said on Wednesday, as authorities investigated whether the ship may have been deliberately sunk.

Tunisian officials said this month that the ship, the Xelo, sank while heading from Equatorial Guinea to Malta carrying up to 1,000 tonnes of oil and the Tunisian navy had rescued all seven crew members.

Officials later said a specialized diving team sent to counter a potential environmental disaster found the ship cargo did not contain fuel, but rather was empty.

"The investigative judge issued a detention decision against the ship's crew," said Mohamed Karay, a spokesman for the Gabes court.

Karay had previously said an investigation was being conducted to determine if the ship sank under normal circumstances or was sank to obtain compensation from insurance companies, and to look into the possibility of oil smuggling.

The crew of the ship were four Turks, two Azerbaijanis and one from Georgia.

The crew claimed the ship's route documentation had been lost, and that there was a conflict in the information they provided, Karay said.

Reuters could not immediately contact the crew, the ship owner or their legal representatives.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) is a customer engagement software company that offers a cloud-based communication platform-as-a-service, application programming interfaces (APIs) and prebuilt solution applications aimed at improving customer engagement through multiple avenues.

Through these APIs, the companys platform allows software developers to integrate messaging, voice and video functionality into new or existing business applications. The company leverages what it calls its Super Network, which is their global network of over 1,500 carrier relationships, to facilitate high speed cost-optimized global messaging and voice-based communications.





The company had over 256,000 active customer accounts as of year-end 2021. These customers range from very large to very small, and from long established corporations to brand new start-ups. Examples of customer applications could be a restaurant that needs to notify a diner when a table is ready, or connecting potential home buyers to real estate agents, or usage in large, omni-channel call centers. The company has an approximate 38% market share in this technology segment.

However, Twilio is another victim in the busted growth stock phenomenon, having declined approximately 70% from its highs in 2021 due to the unfavorable macro environment for companies that are losing money. The company went public in 2016 and currently has a $21 billion market capitalization.

Financial review

Twilio is still in a high growth mode with strong double digit revenue growth, but they are generating large operating losses. Organic revenue growth for full year 2021 was 42% and the GAAP operating loss was $916 million. In 2021, the company paid an extraordinarily high level of stock compensation totaling $630.3 million, which was equal to 22% of revenues and accounted for the majority of the operating loss.

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The companys operating cash flow was negative in 2021 at a loss of $58.2 million and the total burn rate for the year was $148 million after capital expenditures of $90 million. After successful equity capital raises over the past two years totaling $3.2 billion, the company has ample liquidity on the balance sheet. Total cash and short-term investments totaled $5.3 billion with debt of only $986 million at the quarter's end.

Valuation

The business model appears to be scalable as stock compensation levels (as a percentage of revenues) trend down and revenues continue to grow. If total revenues approach $5 billion, which some analysts expect in 2023, the company could generate free cash flow with GAAP net profits perhaps in the following year.

I have noticed that several analyst price targets are mostly derived from price-sales ratio targets. Morgan Stanley (MS) believes that Twillio should trade at a forward price-sales ratio of 8 compared to 2023 revenue estimates, or $240 per share, while Bank of America's (BAC) BofA Securities feels it should trade at 10 times their estimate of 2023 revenues, which would be $290 per share. Both banks see strong double-digit revenue growth potential for the foreseeable future.

Twilio's long-term goals include over 30% revenue growth annually for the next three years, 60% non-GAAP gross margins and 20% non-GAAP operating margins.

Guru trades

Gurus who have purchased Twilio stock recently include Catherine Wood (Trades, Portfolio) and Lee Ainslie (Trades, Portfolio). Gurus that have reduced their holdings in the stock include Spiro Segalas and Phillipe Laffont.

Conclusion

Relative valuation calls are tough to make in an environment when almost all tech stocks are going down. Being cheaper than your competitors when your competitors are substantially overvalued is not a great investment strategy.

Twilio faces some major risks, including increased competition, pricing pressures, gross margin pressure and a possible deterioration in the overall economy, both domestically and abroad. Also, continuing to dilute shareholders is a major risk as the company continues to spend heavily on stock compensation.

Twilio has the staying power with a strong balance sheet to outlast some competitors, but when the company starts reporting GAAP profits down the road, the excessive valuations may come be to realized. Waiting for a lower entry point for Twilio stock would make more sense to me, particularly in the current tech stock selloff environment.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group seeking to have U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene removed from the ballot accused her of giving "dubious" testimony during a recent court hearing.

In a court filing Wednesday, a group of Georgia voters said a text message reported by CNN two days previously casts doubt on Greene's credibility and bolsters their argument that the first-term Republican congresswoman should be disqualified from seeking reelection.

Greene's lawyer, James Bopp, said in a telephone interview that the court filing dishonestly distorts a text message she sent 15 months ago.

On Jan. 17, 2021, during the final days of Donald Trump's presidency, Greene texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to tell him some fellow Republican lawmakers had privately suggested Trump should declare martial law to remain in power.

Greene said in the text message to Meadows: "In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall (sic) law. I don't know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!"

According to the Georgia voters, the text undermines Greene's testimony during a court hearing on Friday that she could not remember whether she had ever advocated martial law as a way for Trump to stay in office.

"Greene's testimony at the hearing that she could not remember discussing martial law with anyone was already dubious," the court filing said. "This text with President Trump's Chief of Staff makes her testimony even more incredible because it seems like the kind of message with the kind of recipient that a reasonable person testifying truthfully would remember."

Greene's lawyer Bopp said the congresswoman was not advocating martial law, but rather informing Meadows about conversations her colleagues were having.

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"The text itself is very innocuous and inconsequential," he said.

An administrative judge is expected to rule early next month on whether Greene should remain on the ballot.

In a novel legal challenge, the voters argue that Greene violated a provision of the U.S. Constitution called the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause by supporting an incendiary rally that preceded last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Greene has said disqualifying her would violate her rights and be unfair to voters.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
SANTA FE, N.M.  The New Mexico sheriff investigating the fatal film-set shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin described complacency, disorganization and neglected safety measures in the making of the low-budget movie Rust.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Tuesday that he is waiting on a forensic analysis of the weapon, projectile, fingerprints and more from the FBI and state medical examiners before turning the 6-month-old case over to prosecutors to decide whether criminal charges will be filed.

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There is a degree of neglect. Whether that reaches the criminal level, that will be up to the district attorney to determine, the sheriff told Good Morning America. On Monday, he released virtually the entire case file of the investigation after a live round of ammunition killed Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza during rehearsal on Oct. 21, 2021. Filming for the Western took place at a ranch on the outskirts of the city of Santa Fe.

The vast trove of newly released law enforcement files includes lapel camera video of the mortally wounded Hutchins slipping in and out of consciousness as an evacuation helicopter arrives. Witness interrogations, email threads, text conversations, inventories of ammunition and hundreds of photographs round out the collection of evidence.

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In one newly released video, a sheriffs deputy arrives as medics attempt to attend to Hutchins inside a small wooden church where she was shot during a rehearsal in preparation for filming.

In this image from video released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, Alec Baldwin, left, smokes a cigarette while waiting to speak with investigators following a fatal shooting last year on a movie set in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (AP)

Halyna, deep breath. There you go, good girl, says a medic, urging Hutchins to take in air through an oxygen mask.

Outside, a medical evacuation helicopter lands in the desert. A law enforcement officer keeps watch over Baldwin, still in 19th century costume, as the actor smokes cigarettes from other members of the film cast.

The evidence was made public in response to media requests for records and as an effort toward transparency in the investigation. Mendoza, a Democrat, is running for reelection this year, with a competitive June primary.

Newly published documents show authorities have scraped cellphone accounts for text messages, images and audio files created by the cast, crew and munitions suppliers for Rust. Text messages recount two firearms misfires on the set prior to the deadly shooting, though none involved live ammunition.

Other videos show investigators as they debrief Baldwin within hours of the fatal shooting, talking with him inside a compact office  and rehearsal clips that show Baldwin in costume as he practices a quick-draw maneuver with a gun.

An attorney for Baldwin says the newly released files corroborate that the actor and Rust co-producer was careful with guns on the set.

Mr. Baldwin welcomes this investigation, said attorney Luke Nikas in a statement. The information that has been revealed by the authorities demonstrates, once again, that Mr. Baldwin acted responsibly.

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Under questioning by two investigators, Baldwin says that as the gun went off, he was unaware initially that Hutchins would die and shocked to learn that he had been holding a gun loaded with live ammunition. Baldwin said in a December interview with ABC News that he was on set pointing the gun at Hutchins at her instruction when it went off without his pulling the trigger.

Baldwin told the investigators that the gun should have been empty for a rehearsal with no filming.

There should have been nothing. It should have been a cold gun with no rounds inside or dummy rounds, Baldwin says. I take the gun out slowly. I turn, I cock the pistol. Bang, it goes off. She (Hutchins) hits the ground.

Baldwin repeatedly says there were no prior problems of any kind with firearms on the set of Rust.

Those statements conflict with more recent findings by state occupational safety regulators, who last week issued the maximum possible fine of nearly $137,000 against the Rust film production company.

New Mexicos Occupational Health and Safety Bureau delivered a scathing narrative of safety failures in violation of standard industry protocols, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address the two other misfires.

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The bureau also documented gun safety complaints from crew members that went unheeded and said weapons specialists were not allowed to make decisions about additional safety training. Rust Movie Productions has indicated it will dispute the findings and sanction.

At least five lawsuits have been filed over the shooting, including a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Hutchins family against Baldwin and the movies other producers. The lawsuit on behalf of widower Matt Hutchins and his 9-year-old son alleges a callous disregard in the face of safety complaints on the set.
The world's first minister for artificial intelligence says the United Arab Emirates isn't only looking for economic benefits as it seeks to become a leading nation in the sector.

The UAE's minister of state for AI, Omar bin Sultan al-Olama, said "quality of life" considerations were key, and also stressed the importance of a "responsible" rollout -- with impacts potentially reverberating for decades.

"We are looking at AI as a tool," he told AFP in an interview in Dubai. "It's a tool that we need to use to unleash the quality of life aspect."

The UAE also calls AI "machine intelligence", defining it as a branch of technology enabling systems to "think, learn, and make decisions like humans", which can support everything from virology to transport.

"Yes, economic gain is something that every country wants, and we want it too," Olama added. "But... we want to ensure the development and deployment and the use of AI is responsible."

Olama was just 27 when he was handed the cabinet-level position in 2017, tasked with launching the oil-rich Arab nation's strategy in a field which touches everything from speech and facial recognition to commerce and autonomous cars.

His appointment came a year after the UAE also named ministers for happiness, hoping to create a "happier society", and tolerance, mainly aimed at promoting coexistence in the Gulf country where foreigners make up the majority of the population.

The UAE's stated goal is to become one of the leading AI nations by 2031, creating new economic and business opportunities and generating up to 335 billion dirhams ($91 billion) in extra growth.

According to consultancy firm PwC Middle East, nearly 14 percent ($96 billion) of the UAE's gross domestic product will come from AI by 2030.

"The UAE was the only country that appointed someone to actually oversee this mandate seriously," Olama said.

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- Driverless taxis -

The wealthy Gulf country has invested heavily in technology over the past decade as it diversifies its economy and reduces its reliance on oil.

Its bets include driverless cars, with autonomous taxis already tested on the streets of the capital Abu Dhabi, while Dubai, another of the country's seven emirates, aims to have a quarter of its transport driverless by 2030.

Abu Dhabi's Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, touted as the world's first graduate-level AI university, opened to students last year, and the country has launched a number of start-up hubs and training schemes.

However, the UAE has also drawn concern over its high levels of surveillance, and in 2019 it denied reports that a popular mobile app was being used for government spying.

Olama said a big part of his job was instilling public confidence and avoiding costly errors when AI systems are put in place.

The dangers of AI include inadvertently introducing bias against certain groups of people, which could prove damaging in areas such as public services.

"It entails that there's no controversy around the deployment," Olama said of his role. "It entails that we focus on deploying it today, but in a way that makes sure it does not impact future generations negatively."

- 'Element of fear' -

An important step in the project, he said, was to properly explain AI to senior officials, to "demystify" the technology and reduce the "element of fear".

"If you're dealing with something you don't understand, you will have an aspect or element of fear associated with it, it's human nature," he said.

"One programme... is focused on training senior government officials on understanding what AI is, understanding the ethical dilemma, understanding what good and bad deployments are, how do you remove bias.

"Today, these people are our AI army. They are the people that are deploying AI across government, and really have a very strong foundation that they can build on."

The UAE also has ambitions of becoming a major player in other areas of science and technology, sending its first astronaut into space in 2019 and launching a probe in 2020 that went into Mars' orbit the following year.

This month, the country announced a digital economy strategy -- including a council headed by Olama -- hoping the sector will contribute 20 percent of GDP within 10 years.

"I don't think in the next quarter-of-a-century there's going to be an economy in the world that is not dependent for the majority of its economic activity on the digital realm, and AI is a big component of that," said Olama.

"I also think we have not seen the true impact of AI on the economy."

dm/th/pjm
The British government's ethics advisor said on Wednesday he had cleared embattled finance minister Rishi Sunak of breaching ministerial codes after investigating his family's tax affairs.

The chancellor of the exchequer earlier this month asked the adviser on ministerial standards, Christopher Geidt, to review whether he followed all the rules after revelations about his family's financial affairs stoked political controversy.

"I advise that the requirements of the ministerial code have been adhered to by the Chancellor, and that he has been assiduous in meeting his obligations and in engaging with this investigation," Geidt wrote.

Geidt also ruled that there was no conflict of interest in Sunak holding a US permanent resident Green Card, which he has since given up.

In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Sunak had requested that Geidt assess his declarations of interest since he first became a minister in 2018.

A political storm erupted after it was leaked that Sunak's wealthy Indian wife has benefited from "non-domicile" tax status in the UK, shielding her overseas income from taxes at a time when they are rising for most Britons.

After initially claiming his spouse Akshata Murty -- whose father co-founded the Indian IT behemoth Infosys -- was the victim of a smear campaign, the couple U-turned and vowed she would pay British taxes on all her global income.

Sunak was nevertheless accused of hypocrisy for raising taxes for Britons in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, while his own family has seen millions of pounds in Infosys dividends shielded from his own ministry.

Sunak is believed to be Britain's richest member of parliament.

Once a leading contender to succeed Johnson as the British leader struggled with his own series of scandals, Sunak has seen his popularity plummet in recent weeks amid the cost-of-living crisis and the revelations.

cjo/phz/har
Ukraines defense ministry on Wednesday claimed that "fighting-age" men in southern and eastern regions of Ukraine are being abducted en masse in part for Russian propaganda "victory parades."

Both Western and Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia could be targeting a significant advancement in Ukraine by May 9, also known as Victory Day, which celebrates when Russia defeated Nazi Germany in 1945.

A Ukrainian serviceman looks as smoke rises after a Russian troops shelling, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Luhansk Region, Ukraine April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Serhii Nuzhnenko

RUSSIA FREES JAILED US MARINE TREVOR REED IN EXCHANGE FOR CONVICTED RUSSIAN DRUG TRAFFICKER

Ukraine first announced last week that it believed Russia was looking to forcibly conscript Ukrainian men in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to "replenish" its forces.

But on Wednesday its defense ministry said it suspects there is another reason why it is targeting able-fighting men.

"The main purpose of such actions is to replenish the exchange fund," the defense ministry said. "Ukrainian hostages are planned to be exchanged for Russian war criminals.

"It is also possible to organize propaganda victory parades with the participation of detained Ukrainians," the statement continued.

UKRAINE SAYS RUSSIA LOOKS TO REPLENISH TROOPS BY CONSCRIPTING UKRAINIANS

The Ukrainian defense ministry said it had received information that the abducted men may be paraded through "the streets of occupied cities" as "prisoners of war."

"The victims of the occupiers are often men of military age," the ministry said in a statement, noting that former military, law enforcement officers and pro-Ukrainian activists are being targeted and taken to "filtration camps."

The ministry said that an estimated 400 Russian soldiers bearing the "Rosguard" uniform donned by Russias National Guard recently arrived at a village in the Kherson region to search for and detain men of military age.

"The detained Ukrainian men are being taken out en masse in the direction of the occupied Crimea," the ministry said.

Another 300 Ukrainian activists and military veterans are said to be being held at a "pre-trial detention center" in Kherson where they are being "interrogated and tortured"  though the statement did not go into any details on what they are being interrogated about.

Ukraine has said the arbitrary detainment and forced deportation of its citizens amounts to war crimes.
STORY: Russia said on Tuesday it pummelled Ukraine with missiles, aircraft and artillery overnight, killing at least 560 Ukrainian fighters and destroying dozens of armoured vehicles, rocket systems and other military equipment.

Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States - by far the world's two biggest nuclear powers.

Putin says the "special military operation" in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Ukraine was guilty of the genocide of Russian-speaking people.

Ukraine says it is fighting a land grab by Russia and that Putin's accusations of genocide are nonsense.
(Reuters) - Russia halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for rejecting its demand for payment in roubles, taking direct aim at European economies in its toughest retaliation so far against international sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

The step was denounced by European leaders as "blackmail", and comes as European countries have joined the United States in ramping up arms shipments to help Ukraine fend off a new Russian assault in the east.

Russia reported a series of blasts in the south of the country and a fire at an ammunition depot, the latest in a spate incidents that a Ukrainian official described as payback and "karma" for Moscow's invasion.

FIGHTING

* Russian forces were attacking a huge steel plant where fighters and some civilians are holed up in the southern city of Mariupol, an aide to the city's mayor said.

Petro Andryushchenko also said no agreements had been reached on trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday.

* Russia's defence ministry said its Kalibr missiles had struck an arms depot in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region housing weapons from the United States and European countries.

* Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces were pressing their offensive in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions and had captured several settlements.

Reports of battlefield developments could not be immediately verified by Reuters.

DIPLOMACY

* Ukraine's lead negotiator said no agreement had been reached for the Ukrainian and Russian presidents to discuss the war despite efforts by Turkey to arrange talks.

* Germany announced its first delivery of heavy weapons - Gepard or Cheetah tanks with anti-aircraft guns - to Ukraine after weeks of pressure at home and abroad.

* Russian President Vladimir Putin said any countries attempting to interfere in Ukraine would receive a swift response, and that the relevant decisions had been taken.

* The United Nations said Putin had agreed "in principle" to involvement by the United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the Mariupol steel plant.

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* Moscow freed former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, jailed on charges of fighting with police, in exchange for the United States releasing Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, jailed for drug trafficking.

MOLDOVA

* Ukraine accused Russia of trying to drag Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria into its war after authorities in the Russia-backed region, adjacent to southwest Ukraine, said they had suffered a series of attacks.

HUMAN AND ECONOMIC IMPACT

* The European Commission proposed to suspend import duties for a year on all Ukrainian goods and to exempt Ukraine's steel exports from anti-dumping and safeguard measures to help its economy.

* Ukrainian authorities dismantled a huge Soviet-era monument in Kyiv meant to symbolise friendship with Russia.

* Germany cut its economic growth forecast for 2022 to 2.2% from the 3.6% predicted in January as the war in Ukraine, sanctions and high energy prices take their toll.

* Ukrainian farmers close to the front line in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia are wearing body armour to plough their fields.

QUOTES

"The announcement by Gazprom ... is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

"This is unjustified and unacceptable. And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier."

(Compiled by Kevin Liffey)
A woman reacts as she says goodbye to her serviceman husband before he leaves to the frontline in Uzhhorod, Ukraine - Serhii Hudak/Reuters

Vladimir Putin has warned the West that he will use nuclear weapons if any other country intervenes in his war in Ukraine.

Speaking to politicians in St Petersburg, the Russian president said that "if anyone sets out to intervene in the current events from the outside and creates unacceptable threats for us that are strategic in nature, they should know that our response... will be lightning-fast".

Putin said that the military would not hesitate to use the most modern weaponry, in an escalating war of words days after Russia warned of a real threat of World War Three. Four days after the February invasion, Putin put Russia's nuclear deterrence forces on high alert.

"We have all the tools for this, that no one else can boast of having. We won't boast about it: we'll use them, if needed. And I want everyone to know that," Putin said, in a veiled reference to Moscow's nuclear arsenal.

"We have already taken all the decisions on this."

Follow the latest updates here

03:10 AM

What happened today

Russian forces used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a pro-Ukraine rally in the occupied city of Kherson on Wednesday, Ukraine's Prosecutor General said, as Moscow tightened its grip over the southern region

Western governments want to deny Russia any territorial gains from its invasion of Ukraine, officials have said in the clearest indication yet of the scale of the defeat they want to impose on Moscow

A commander of Ukrainian troops making a last stand in Mariupol said he has 600 injured and no medicine to treat them

A senior Gazprombank executive has vowed revenge against Russia after fleeing the country to join Ukraines territorial defence forces

The EU was on Wednesday split over Russian blackmail to pay for gas in roubles after Moscow's state-controlled energy giant halted deliveries to two European countries

An independent research group says Germany was the biggest buyer of Russian energy during the first two months since the start of the war in Ukraine.

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01:04 AM

Russian forces disperse pro-Ukraine rally, tighten control in occupied Kherson

Russian forces used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a pro-Ukraine rally in the occupied city of Kherson on Wednesday, Ukraine's Prosecutor General said, as Moscow tightened its grip over the southern region.

Local authorities say Russia appointed its own mayor of Kherson on Tuesday after its troops took over the administration headquarters in the regional capital, which was the first big urban centre to be seized after the Feb. 24 invasion.

Some residents have staged occasional anti-occupation rallies and crowds gathered in the centre again on Wednesday, the date Kyiv had said Russia planned to stage a referendum to create a breakaway region like those in eastern Ukraine.

12:16 AM

Germany biggest buyer of Russian energy, study shows

An independent research group says Germany was the biggest buyer of Russian energy during the first two months since the start of the war in Ukraine.

A study published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air calculates that Russia earned $66.5 billion from fossil fuel exports since Russian troops attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Using data on ship movements, real-time tracking of gas flows through pipelines and estimates based on historical monthly trade, the researchers reckon Germany paid Russia about 9.1 billion euros for fossil fuel deliveries in the first two months of the war.

11:38 PM

Canada lawmakers vote unanimously to label Russia's acts in Ukraine as 'genocide'

Canadian lawmakers voted unanimously on Wednesday to call Russia's attacks in Ukraine a "genocide", with members of parliament saying there was "ample evidence of systemic and massive war crimes against humanity" being committed by Moscow.

The Canadian House of Commons' motion said war crimes by Russia include mass atrocities, systematic instances of willful killing of Ukrainian civilians, the desecration of corpses, forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, torture, physical harm, mental harm, and rape.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was "absolutely right" for more and more people to describe Russia's actions in Ukraine as genocide, supporting an accusation made by U.S. President Joe Biden a day earlier.

10:55 PM

EU defies gas 'blackmail' as Russia pushes deeper into Ukraine

The European Union warned Russia on Wednesday it would not bend to "blackmail" over its support for Kyiv, after the Kremlin cut off gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland.

The warning came as UN chief Antonio Guterres arrived in Kyiv to meet Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Putin issued his own warning on Wednesday, saying that if Western forces intervene in Ukraine, they will face a "lightning-fast" military response.

"We have all the tools for this, that no one else can boast of having," the Russian leader told lawmakers, implicitly referring to Moscow's ballistic mis

10:29 PM

Cutting off gas to Poland and Bulgaria 'an act of aggression', says Josep Borrell

Gazprom's move to halt gas to both Poland and highly dependent Bulgaria was "an act of aggression", said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

The energy provider cut off gas supplies to the two countries after not receiving payment from them in rubles.

Mr Borrell said the move would "only accelerate Europe's conversion to green energies, which do not create dependencies".

On Wednesday European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said Poland and Bulgaria were now receiving gas from their EU neighbours.

09:01 PM

Watch: Moldova's breakaway republic tightens border controls as security concerns mount

08:55 PM

Gazprombank executive flees Russia to fight with Ukrainian army

A senior Gazprombank executive has vowed revenge against Russia after fleeing the country to join Ukraines territorial defence forces.

Igor Volobuyev, a former vice-president at Gazprombank, is the first executive from the company to speak out against the war in Ukraine, saying he could not bear to live in Moscow any longer.

Ukrainian-born Mr Volobuyev revealed that he was willing to take up arms to defend his native country.

I couldnt stay with those people, shake their hands, watch the war on my phone as if this were a horrible film and pretend I didnt care, he told Ukrainian media outlet Liga.net in Kyiv.

08:45 PM

War 'screams' need to reject Russian energy, says US

The US Energy Secretary has said that Russia's war on Ukraine "screams" that the world needs to stop importing oil and gas from Russia.

"Russia is waging a war in Ukraine and the imperative to move away from Russian oil and gas, for the world to move away from Russian oil and gas screams that there is an imperative that we electrify," said Jennifer Granholm. "Offshore wind is just a huge component in that."

At an international forum on offshore wind energy in Atlantic City, Granholm said the US as well as its energy industries "are on a war footing," and called for a rapid acceleration of renewable energy including offshore wind power.

It came as Russia cut off natural gas to Nato members Poland and Bulgaria, prompting EU leaders to accuse Moscow of "blackmail".

08:33 PM

Watch: Ukrainian officer's urgent appeal from besieged Azovstal steel plant

08:31 PM

Dispatch: The British teacher evacuating elderly from Donbas city

While most teachers on sick leave might choose to put their feet up, Guy Osborn, 65, drove a minibus from Kent to the frontlines of Ukraine.

On a dangerous mission to evacuate elderly citizens, the maths teacher at St John's Catholic School in Gravesend is now just a mile from advancing Russian forces.

He spoke to The Telegraph from Kramatorsk, an eastern Ukrainian town in the Donbas region that is surrounded on three sides by Russian forces.

That day he had driven into Severodonetsk, a frontline town under heavy Russian shelling, to evacuate civilians, including one 97-year-old woman.

It was like bonfire night, Mr Osborn said, of his first close experience of warfare.

08:21 PM

US prepares fresh aid package for Ukraine

The White House said on Wednesday that a supplemental budget request that includes Ukraine aid could be sent to the Congress as soon as Thursday.

The plan will cover military, humanitarian and economic assistance for Ukraine, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he expects a Biden administration request for supplemental funds to support Ukraine to include resources for food security.

During testimony in the Senate on Wednesday, Mr Blinken said Russia's Feb. 24 invasion and the ongoing conflict was having impacts on food security for Ukrainians and others, given the country's role as a major source of wheat.

The United States would also focus on food security issues in May when it assumes the chairmanship of the U.N. Security Council, Mr Blinken added.

08:19 PM

In maps: How Mariupol destruction has worsened

07:44 PM

'Era of Russian fossil fuels in Europe is ending'

Poland and Bulgaria are now receiving gas from their EU neighbours after Russia's state energy giant Gazprom turned off the taps, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday.

"We will ensure that Gazprom's decision has the least possible impact on European consumers," von der Leyen said.

"Today, the Kremlin failed once again in its attempt to sow division among member states. The era of Russian fossil fuels in Europe is coming to an end."

Gazprom has announced the halt of gas to both Poland and highly dependent Bulgaria after not receiving payment in rubles from the two EU members.

07:38 PM

Ukraine to rename streets in 'derussification' drive

Ukrainian cities plan to rename streets and squares associated with Russia under a process of "derussification" following Moscow's invasion.

A day after the dismantling of a huge Soviet-era monument in Kyiv that was meant to symbolise friendship between Russia and Ukraine, the city's council said on Wednesday it had compiled a list of 467 locations that could be considered for renaming.

They included a central square named after 19th century writer Leo Tolstoy and a street named Russias Lake Baikal. A road named after Minsk, the capital of close Russian ally Belarus, was also on the list.

Since Ukraine declared independence of the Soviet Union in 1991, the names of some cities have been changed to erase the legacy of hated Soviet officials.

Ihor Terekhov, mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, said that as soon as the war ends, he would table a city council bill to rename places with Russian-affiliated names.

"Even without these names, there will be too many scars that will remind us for a long time about what kind of neighbour is beyond our eastern and northern borders," he said.

07:16 PM

Russia 'trying to provoke a global price crisis', says Zelensky

Ukraine's leader has accused Russia of "trying to provoke a global price crisis" and stir "chaos" in the world's food market.

Volodymyr Zelensky said the EU's plan to suspend import duties on Ukrainian goods would be a "significant anti-crisis tool" for European and global markets.

"I am grateful to her personally and to all our European friends for this step," he said.

"Ukrainian exports will help stabilise markets," he added, saying that "all Europeans" will benefit from the move.

The Ukrainian president said he expected more countries to liberalise Ukrainian exports "soon".

07:01 PM

EU suspending import duties will help 'maintain' Ukraine economy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday welcomed EU plans to suspend import duties on Ukrainian goods, saying the move will help "maintain" Kyiv's economy, hard-hit by Russia's devastating invasion.

"It will allow us to maintain our economic activity in Ukraine to the maximum and preserve our national production," Zelensky said in a video on his Telegram channel as the war with Russia entered its third month.

Read more on these measures in our 5pm post.

06:49 PM

Watch: Kyiv pulls down Soviet-era monument of Russian friendship

06:30 PM

Ukraine has 'extremely difficult weeks' ahead

Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has warned the country has "extremely difficult weeks" ahead, warning of major "destruction" in a developing Russian offensive in the east.

"Some extremely difficult weeks lie ahead," Reznikov said in a statement on Facebook.

"Russia has already gathered forces for a large-scale offensive in eastern Ukraine," he added, saying Moscow "will try to inflict as much pain as possible" and warned of "destruction and painful casualties".

Ukrainian servicewoman walks at a position, as Russia's attack continues in Luhansk Region - Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters

06:14 PM

In Russia, Putin is struggling to hide the true toll of his war

Jade McGlynn writes on our comment pages:

The problem for Putin is that there is no way out of it without admitting to Russian failure, and thus the state eventually finds itself telling the families of dead soldiers that their sons were nothing, not even worth remembering. Meanwhile, independent Russian media are reporting that conscripts are refusing to serve, despite threats of legal action, and that there have been a number of suspicious fires at enlistment offices. As stories of mobile crematoria and abandoned corpses leak back into Russia from the front, young men appear increasingly unwilling to sacrifice themselves.

06:01 PM

Chinese drone maker suspends sales after murders accusation

The Chinese drone manufacturer DJI has suspended sales in Russia and Ukraine after accusations of helping "murder" civilians.

The ban is unlikely to address a key Ukrainian fear that drone tracking technology sold by DJI can be used to locate soldiers flying the company's aircraft.

DJI, the world's largest consumer drone maker, said: "We are engaging with customers, partners and other stakeholders regarding the temporary suspension of business operations in the affected territories."

Ukrainian officials have complained that DJI's AeroScope system had problems when the war started, causing suspicion that the Chinese firm manually intervened in the system in support of Russia.

05:45 PM

Hundreds of Russian cyberattacks in Ukraine

Russian government hackers carried out multiple cyber operations against Ukraine that appeared to support Moscow's military attacks and online propaganda campaigns, Microsoft has revealed in a report.

The reported intrusions - some of which have not been previously disclosed - suggest that hacking has played a bigger role in the conflict than has been publicly known.

Between Feb 23 and April 8, Microsoft said it observed a total of 237 Russian destructive cyberattacks inside Ukraine.

The digital onslaught, which Microsoft said began one year prior to Russia's Feb 24 invasion, may have laid the groundwork for different military missions in the war-torn territory, researchers found.

A destroyed apartment block in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region of Ukraine - Heathcliff O'Malley for The Telegraph

05:30 PM

UN chief announces arrival in Ukraine

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced his arrival in Kyiv on Wednesday following talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I have arrived in Ukraine after visiting Moscow," he wrote on his official Twitter account as he landed ahead of talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"We will continue our work to expand humanitarian support and secure the evacuation of civilians from conflict zones. The sooner this war ends, the better - for the sake of Ukraine, Russia, and the world," Guterres tweeted.

At the Moscow talks on Tuesday, Guterres repeated calls for both Russia and Ukraine to work together to set up "safe and effective" humanitarian corridors in war-torn Ukraine.

05:17 PM

Canada looks to sell off oligarch assets to compensate Ukraine

Canada is seeking novel powers to seize and sell off Russian oligarchs' assets to compensate Ukraine for war damages.

It would become the first G7 nation to permit such asset forfeitures, and is proposing that Western allies follow suit, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters in Ottawa.

"There was a weak link in (our) sanctions package, which was the ability for the government to be able to sell the assets that were seized and afterwards to use the profits to compensate the victims of this war against Ukraine," she said.

The proposed changes to its sanctions regime outlined in a budget implementation bill unveiled on Tuesday "will go a long way" to addressing that issue, she said.

04:55 PM

War in Ukraine in maps

04:43 PM

Russia suspended from UN tourism body over Ukraine war

The United Nation's tourism body on Wednesday suspended Russia from the agency over its invasion of Ukraine, arguing that it had breached its statutes.

Most of the 159 member states of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) backed the move, taken at an extraordinary general assembly, said a spokesman for the Madrid-based body.

The motion, which required a two-thirds majority, was proposed by 22 member states including Spain, Japan, Poland and France in March.

The UNWTO, which provides technical support to promote tourism, has warned that the conflict in Ukraine will hamper the global tourism sector's uneven recovery from the impact from the Covid-19 pandemic.

04:22 PM

Woman killed in Russian shelling of hospital in east Ukraine

A woman was killed in Russian shelling of a hospital in the east Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday, the regional governor said.

Russia did not immediately comment on the accusation by the Luhansk region's governor, Serhiy Gaidai. Moscow has denied targeting civilians or hospitals in its "special military operation" launched on Feb 24.

The hospital was one of only two still working in the area more than two months since Russia invaded Ukraine, Gaidai said. The other is in nearby Lysychansk.

"The Russians knew that the hospital was not empty, there were patients (there) in different conditions (along) with doctors - and that did not stop them," Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"The destruction of the building is significant. Several floors were damaged at once," Gaidai wrote. The footage could not immediately be independently verified.

04:01 PM

EU to cut duties on Ukraine imports to give economic boost

The European Union will slash duties on most imports from Ukraine as Brussels seeks to boost Kyivs conflict-stricken country, Joe Barnes reports.

The move replicates a decision by Britain on Monday to cut all trade tariffs to zero under the UK-Ukraine free-trade agreement.

The European Commission said its move, which slashes import tax on 97 per cent of goods, would offer the Ukrainian economy a boost of nearly 500 million.

It was described as an unprecedented gesture of support for a country at war by the EUs Brussels-based executive.

The European Parliament and Council still need to rubber-stamp the proposals, which are expected to comfortably pass scrutiny.

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said: Very pleased the EU is also offering duty free quota access for all Ukrainian goods. We stand with the people of Ukraine.

03:37 PM

Moldovan breakaway region says shots fired towards village

Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestria said on Wednesday that shots were fired from Ukraine towards a village that houses an ammunition depot, the latest report to raise concern that Russia's "second phase" of war may expand.

The interior ministry of the unrecognised region that borders southwestern Ukraine said in a statement that several drones had been detected flying over the village of Cobasna overnight and they had come from Ukraine.

It said shots were later fired towards the border village from Ukrainian territory on Wednesday morning. It gave no further details, but said nobody had been hurt.

Russia has a contingent of troops in Transdniestria guarding many tonnes of ammunition stored in the region since before the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Moscow also has peacekeepers there after a conflict between separatist and Moldovan forces.

03:22 PM

War in Ukraine: latest pictures

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting of the Council of Legislators in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on April 27 - Sputnik/Alexandr Demyanchuk/Kremlin

A Ukrainian serviceman enters a tank during the repair works after fighting against Russian forces in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine - Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

Ukrainian servicemen install a machine gun on the tank during the repair works after fighting against Russian forces in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine - Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

03:08 PM

Putin warns of 'lightning response' to intervention in Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday that if any other country intervenes in Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, Russia will launch a quick-fire military response.

Speaking to lawmakers, Putin said that "if anyone sets out to intervene in the current events from the outside and creates unacceptable threats for us that are strategic in nature, they should know that our response... will be lightning-fast".

The Russian leader said that the military would not hesitate to use the most modern weaponry.

"We have all the tools for this, that no one else can boast of having. We won't boast about it: we'll use them, if needed. And I want everyone to know that," Putin said.

"We have already taken all the decisions on this."

02:48 PM

MP 'delighted' to be sanctioned by Russia

Former minister Andrew Murrison has said he is "delighted" to be sanctioned by Russia.

"I assume written notification will follow which I'll frame and hang in the appropriate place," the former Foreign Office and defence minister said.

He is among 287 British MPs the Kremlin has banned from entering Russia in response to the UK's sanctions against Russian parliamentarians.

The Russian foreign ministry said the list is made up of MPs who have taken "the most active part" in drawing up sanctions against Russia and contributed to "Russophobic hysteria".

Among those blacklisted are Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, as well as Cabinet members including Jacob Rees-Mogg and George Eustice. However, several of those named are no longer members of parliament.

02:18 PM

Putin claims Russia has withstood sanctions, as economy nosedives

President Vladimir Putin has told lawmakers Russia's rouble, banking system, transport sector and economy as a whole have withstood sanctions imposed against Moscow and promised a response to attempts to isolate Russia.

However, Russia's economy ministry expects gross domestic product to shrink by 8.8 per cent in 2022 in its base case scenario, or by 12.4 per cent under a more conservative scenario, a document seen by Reuters showed on Wednesday, suggesting that sanctions pressure is taking its toll.

02:03 PM

Ukraine 'strikes Russian forces on Snake Island'

Kyiv has said its troops struck Russian positions on the Black Sea's Snake Island, which gained notoriety when Ukrainian soldiers deployed there rebuffed demands to surrender from Moscow's invading forces.

"Our forces carried out strikes on enemy positions on Snake Island," the Ukrainian military said in a statement on social media late on Tuesday, claiming to have hit a checkpoint and an anti-aircraft system.

"The Russians' losses are being clarified," it said.

Russia has not confirmed the attack on Snake Island which Moscow captured shortly after launching its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

01:56 PM

Watch: Mariupol residents attempt to clear debris from the war-torn city

01:47 PM

Putin warns Russia will respond swiftly to any interference in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned that any countries attempting to interfere in Ukraine would be faced with a swift response from Russia and said all decisions on how Moscow would react in that situation have already been taken.

Addressing lawmakers in St Petersburg, Putin claimed the West wanted to cut Russia up into different pieces and accused it of pushing Ukraine into conflict with Russia.

01:29 PM

Russia prisoner swap has 'zero' effect on relations

The United States does not expect any improvement in relations with Russia and will keep full support for Ukriane despite Wednesday's prisoner swap with Moscow, a US official said.

"It represents no change - zero - to our approach to the appalling violence in Ukraine," a senior US official told reporters.

"These discussions with the Russians that led to this exchange were strictly limited to these topics - not a broader conversation or even the start of one," he said on condition of anonymity.

The official said that the US had been in discussion with Russia for months despite the sharp deterioration of relations between the two powers over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24.

Moscow handed over a jailed ex-Marine in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug smuggling.

01:15 PM

Another 52,000 Ukrainians flee war as refugees

More than 5.3 million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russia invaded two months ago, the United Nations said Wednesday.

In total, 5,317,219 people have fled Ukraine as refugees since February 24, according to the latest data from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, an increase of 52,452 in the latest 24 hour period.

While the outflow has slowed significantly since March, UNHCR has projected that three million more Ukrainians could become refugees by the end of the year.

The exodus has been described as Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II, but some have said even this is an understatement.

01:00 PM

Finnish and Swedish security services warn of Russian meddling over Nato bids

Finland and Sweden must prepare for increased Russian spy operations, cyber attacks and attempts to influence lawmakers as they consider joining Nato, the Nordic nations' intelligence chiefs said today.

Russia's invasion has forced Sweden and Finland to reassess their longstanding military neutrality, and they are expected to announce in May whether they will join the US-led Nato alliance.

"Russia's possibilities for human intelligence operations are currently limited because the willingness of Finns to cooperate with Russian diplomats is at a low level," Antti Pelttari, the head of Finland's security service, told a joint news conference with his Swedish and Norwegian counterparts.

Sweden's security service has already been preparing for several years for possible Russian threats targeting the country's economy and political decision-making, intelligence chief Charlotte von Essen said.

12:55 PM

Ukrainian defence official says Russia ready to use Transnistria as bridgehead

Hanna Malyar, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister, accused Russia of being ready to use the territory of the Moldovan region of Transnistria as a bridgehead to move on Ukraine or the rest of Moldova.

Transnistria, a Russia-backed breakaway region of Moldova that borders Ukraine, has been subject to several attacks in the past day, local authorities say.

Russia says it is closely following events in Transnistria. The Russian foreign ministry was quoted by the Russian RIA news agency as saying it wants to avoid a scenario in which Moscow would have to intervene there.

12:36 PM

Pictured: Burial ceremonies in Borodyanka and Chernihiv

Pictured: Burial ceremonies in Borodyanka - Ken Cedeno/UPI/Shutterstock

Chernihiv - Celestino Arce Lavin/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

12:35 PM

Russia expels three Norwegian diplomats

Russia is expelling three Norwegian diplomats, the Norwegian foreign ministry said on Wednesday, weeks after Oslo expelled a similar number of Russian diplomats over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"The Russian side has no basis for accusing the Norwegian diplomats to do anything else than normal diplomatic work," the ministry told Reuters.

12:27 PM

Not clear who is behind Transnistria attacks, German foreign minister says

It is unclear who is behind attacks that have taken place in the Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday.

Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria said that shots were fired from Ukraine towards a village that houses an ammunition depot.

Ms Baerbock told the German parliament that the situation in Moldova was "extremely critical."

12:23 PM

Transnistria residents warned they will be 'eliminated with no prior warning'

Residents in a pro-Russian separatist region of Moldova have been told they will be eliminated with no prior warning in fake messages apparently designed to sow panic on Ukraines south-western border, report Nataliya Vasilyeva and Verity Bowman.

Transnistria, once a sleepy separatist enclave in the former Soviet state of Moldova that borders Ukraine, this week saw a spate of hit-and-run attacks on critical infrastructure that Ukraine and Russia blamed on each other. Residents in Transnistria said they have also been receiving text messages, warning them of a possible Ukrainian invasion. A message shared by a local resident with The Telegraph read: The Ukrainian Security Service highly recommends the evacuation of civilians to safer regions. We would like to assure you that the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not wish harm on peaceful residents but those who stay in town will be considered members of sabotage groups and will be eliminated with no prior warning.

Read the full story here.

12:08 PM

MoD issues intelligence update on Ukraine

The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.



The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 27 April 2022



Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/1IqNfdo4VA



 #StandWithUkraine  pic.twitter.com/OIkiNK4ZMI  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) April 27, 2022

11:46 AM

PM calls Russian sanctions on MPs a 'badge of honour'

MPs who have been sanctioned by Russia should consider those restrictions a badge of honour, Boris Johnson said today.

Earlier in the day, Russia's foreign ministry said it has imposed personal restrictions on 287 MPs and banned them from entering the country.

"All those 287 should regard it as a badge of honour," the Prime Minister told parliament.

11:39 AM

Brussels proposes suspending EU import duties on Ukraine

The EU's executive proposed suspending all import duties on products from Ukraine in a bid to help the country's economy survive Russia's military assault.

"This far-reaching step is designed to help boost Ukraine's exports to the EU. It will help alleviate the difficult situation of Ukrainian producers and exporters in the face of Russia's military invasion," the European Commission said.

11:27 AM

Kremlin: Gas halt result of 'unfriendly steps' against Russia

The Kremlin said that the halt of natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria over their refusal to pay in roubles was a result of unfriendly actions towards Russia.

"The need for a new payment method was a result of unprecedented unfriendly steps in the economic sphere and the financial sector, which were taken against us by unfriendly countries," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "This need was dictated by the fact that, as you know, they blocked from us - or, to put it plainly, stole - a fairly significant amount of our reserves," Mr Peskov said, adding that this led to a "transition to a new payment system". "So there is no question of blackmail here," Mr Peskov said in response to comments by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who said this was "another attempt by Russia to blackmail us with gas".

11:11 AM

UN tourism body chief says Russia is quitting organisation

The head of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) said that Russia had decided to quit the international agency just as its member states were preparing to vote on Russia's suspension over its invasion of Ukraine.

Zurab Pololikashvili, the secretary general of the Madrid-based UNWTO, said earlier he hoped members would vote to suspend Russia.

A UNWTO spokesman said that although "Russia announced its withdrawal, the assembly continues because a suspension has immediate effects".

10:54 AM

No deal reached for Ukrainian and Russian presidents to meet

Ukraine's lead negotiator said that no agreement had been reached for the Ukrainian and Russian presidents to discuss the war in Ukraine, despite efforts by Turkey to arrange such talks.

Mykhailo Podolyak said "the time of a meeting of the two countries' presidents and the context of the meeting have not yet been determined."

He drew attention to increased hostilities in east Ukraine and Russian attempts to "completely destroy" the southern city of Mariupol.

10:49 AM

Polish PM says Gazprom gas halt an 'attack on Poland'

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called Russia's halt of gas deliveries "a direct attack" on Poland, adding that the EU member would not give in to "this blackmail".

He spoke after Polish state-controlled gas utility company PGNiG confirmed that Russian giant Gazprom had "completely suspended" the supply of gas to Poland via the Yamal pipeline.

"Russia not only carried out a brutal, murderous attack on Ukraine... but Russia also attacked all of Europe's energy security and food security," Mr Morawiecki told lawmakers. "It is a direct attack on Poland... We'll deal with this blackmail, this pistol to the head in such a way that it doesn't affect Poles," he added. "Thanks to our efforts, Poland will not need Russian gas at all starting this autumn."

10:36 AM

Breaking: Russia bars entry to 287 British MPs

Russia has imposed personal restrictions on 287 MPs and banned them from entering the country, accusing them of fuelling "unwarranted Russophobic hysteria", the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the sanctions on members of the House of Commons were in response to Britain imposing similar restrictions on 386 members of its own lower house of parliament on March 11.

10:25 AM

Pictured: A destroyed neighbourhood in Borodyanka

A destroyed neighbourhood in Borodyanka - Ken Cedeno/UPI/Shutterstock

10:20 AM

Attacks on key bridge may affect Ukraine's grain export plans

Russia launched two missile strikes and damaged a strategic bridge in Ukraine's Odesa region, local officials said on Wednesday, an event that could affect Ukrainian plans to expand exports through Danube ports.

The bridge links mainland Ukraine with part of the Odesa region near the mouth of Danube.

The bridge across the Dniester Estuary is a part of the only fully Ukrainian-controlled railway route to Ukraine's ports on Danube, which Kyiv regarded as a promising route for exports in a situation where Black Sea ports are blocked.

Ukraine, a major agricultural producer, used to export most of its goods through seaports but since Russia's invasion in February has been forced to export by train via its western border or via its small Danube river ports.

The first attack was on Tuesday evening, and as a result of a rocket hit, the bridge over the estuary was damaged, however, according to local officials, it could be quickly restored.

The second blow was on Wednesday morning and the condition of the bridge has not yet been reported.

10:09 AM

German gas lobby group calls for immediate stockpiling

German gas lobby group Zukunft Gas has said that Germany must immediately start stockpiling more gas now that Russia is using the energy source as a political tool.

"We need to save gas now so that we have enough in winter," said the group's head Timm Kehler in a statement.

09:55 AM

Hew Strachan: 'The West has successfully called Vladimir Putins bluff '

Nato's assertion of escalation dominance by stealth has helped the Ukrainians check the Russians and to contain the war, argues Hew Strachan.

Since the initial shock of 24 February, the war in Ukraine has acquired a deceptive stability for those lucky enough to be viewing it from a distance. The situation maps published in the papers look much the same from day to day, with the Russians occupying territory in the east and to the south. In reality, buildings and ground change hands multiple times in fierce tactical actions. Generals talk about the big-hand, small map problem, in which scales simplify major problems, foreshorten distances and reduce the obstacles to a two-dimensional plane. The opportunity for strategic surprise seems to have passed. Satellite and signal intelligence, much of it in the public domain, gives ample warning of unfolding operations. Russias immediate intentions are clear to the world, not just to the Ukrainians. But one big strategic shift has occurred. Almost imperceptibly, the Russians have conceded escalation dominance to Nato.

Read Hew's full piece here.

09:38 AM

Greece to help Bulgaria after Russia cuts gas supply

Greece will offer help to Bulgaria after Russia cut off its gas supply, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told his Bulgarian counterpart today.

The two leaders discussed the issue by phone.

"The prime minister said that Greece will help Bulgaria to deal with the new situation caused by the Russian decisions on energy," Mitsotakis' office said in a statement, without providing further details.

09:28 AM

Russian ammunition depot set ablaze as blasts strike near Ukrainian border

09:15 AM

Turkey still in talks with Russia about buying missile defence system

Nato member Turkey said it was still talking to Russia about procuring a second batch of one of its most advanced missile defence systems despite the war in Ukraine.

The comments on state television by the head of Turkey's military procurement agency underscore Ankara's efforts to maintain good relations with Moscow during the conflict.

The agency and its chief, Ismail Demir, were sanctioned by Washington in the closing weeks of US president Donald Trump's administration for its purchase of Russia's S-400 missile defence system in 2017.

Turkey took delivery of the first batch of the surface-to-air missiles in 2019.

But Mr Demir told state television that the 2017 contract always envisioned Turkey receiving two batteries of the Russian weapon.

09:02 AM

Ukrainian presidential aide portrays blasts in Russia as payback

A Ukrainian presidential aide described explosions heard in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine on Wednesday as "karma" and payback for the war in Ukraine.

Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, in comments on the Telegram messaging app, did not acknowledge Ukraine as being responsible for the incidents.

"The reasons for the destruction of the military infrastructure in (Russian) border areas can be quite varied," he wrote, adding that "sooner or later the debts will have to be repaid" when one country decides to attack another country.

09:01 AM

Raab non-committal on supplying warplanes to Ukraine

Dominic Raab was non-committal when asked if Liz Truss was right to say that the West should supply warplanes to Ukraine.

The Justice Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I certainly don't think we should be... avoiding providing support to Ukraine at this critical moment in the war. And the Foreign Secretary is right about that." Pressed on whether she was right about providing the planes specifically, he said: "We need to listen very carefully to what the Ukrainians need and help with our allies to provide them with the military support, so that they win and so that Putin loses, and that's part of it, so is the sanctions."

08:39 AM

Truss vows to double down on Ukraine aid

Liz Truss will call for an increase in defence spending today, saying the West has overseen a generation of underinvestment which led to the invasion of Ukraine.

In what is billed by aides as a major foreign policy speech, the Foreign Secretary will say that the traditional Nato target of spending two per cent of GDP on defence should be a minimum. She will also underscore her support for Natos expansion by allowing Sweden and Finland to join, as well as vowing to double down on UK military support for Ukraine. I want to live in a world where free nations are assertive and in the ascendant, Ms Truss will say as she maps out her policy vision in the wake of the Russia invasion.

Read the full story here.

08:20 AM

EU vows 'coordinated response' to Russia gas stoppage

The EU said it was "prepared" for Moscow to suspend gas supplies to the 27-nation bloc and is planning a "coordinated" response after state-owned energy giant Gazprom turned off the taps to Poland and Bulgaria.

"Gazprom's announcement is another attempt by Russia to blackmail us with gas. We are prepared for this scenario. We are mapping out our coordinated EU response," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter. "Europeans can trust that we stand united and in solidarity with the member states impacted."

08:07 AM

Moldovan breakaway region says shots fired from Ukraine towards village

The Interior Ministry of Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria said that shots were fired from inside the territory of Ukraine overnight towards a village that houses a large ammunition depot.

The ministry also said that it had detected drones that it said were launched from Ukraine.

08:04 AM

Russia says it destroyed 'large batch' of Western-supplied arms

Russia's defence ministry said its forces had destroyed a large quantity of Western-supplied weapons in Ukraine with long-range missiles.

"On the territory of the Zaporizhzhia aluminium plant, high-precision long-range sea-based Kalibr missiles destroyed hangars with a large batch of foreign weapons and ammunition supplied by the United States and European countries for Ukrainian troops," the ministry said in a briefing.

07:57 AM

Zelensky visits Illia Matviienko, whose parents were killed in Mariupol

Zelensky visits Illia Matviienko, whose parents were killed in Mariupol - UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE /via REUTERS

07:49 AM

Bulgarian PM accuses Russia of blackmail over gas supplies

Russia's warning it was shutting off gas supplies to Bulgaria over demands to change the payment scheme is a grave breach of a current contract and amounts to blackmail, Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said today.

Mr Petkov said Bulgaria was currently reviewing all of its contracts with Gazprom, including for transit of Russian gas to Serbia and Hungary, because "one-sided blackmail was not acceptable".

Mr Petkov has talked to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who had assured him the 27-member bloc would have a common response, he said.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said it had halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay in roubles.

07:47 AM

Russia attacking Azostval steel plant, says aide to Mariupol's mayor

Russian forces are attacking the Azostval steel plant where Ukrainian fighters and some civilians are holed up in the southern city of Mariupol, an aide to the city's mayor said.

Petro Andryushchenko said no agreements had been reached on trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol today.

07:18 AM

US spies helped Ukraine know exactly when and where Russian bombs would fall

The US revealed the coordinates of Russian forces and aircraft in an unprecedented information sharing operation that helped repel Kyiv assault, reports Rozina Sabur.

The US helped foil Moscow's efforts to take Kyiv and repelled its advances elsewhere by sharing such detailed intelligence that Ukraine knew exactly when and where Russian bombs would fall, it has emerged. In an unprecedented information sharing operation, US spy agencies have even divulged the coordinates of Russian forces and aircraft to Ukrainian forces, allowing them to pre-empt attacks. The intelligence led Ukraine to shoot down a Russian plane carrying hundreds of troops to Hostomel Airport in the Kyiv suburbs in the early days of the war, according to NBC News. The shoot-down helped thwart Moscow's hopes of flooding the area with troops and equipment, a significant setback for Russia in its attempt to take the capital.

Read the full story here.

07:10 AM

Hungary's Russian gas supply running smoothly, says minister

Hungary is receiving Russian gas as normal via Serbia and Bulgaria despite a clash between the latter and Russian gas supplier Gazprom, Hungary's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Gazprom said on Wednesday it had halted deliveries to Bulgaria and Poland due to an absence of payments in roubles.

"I want to assure everyone that the non-delivery of gas shipments to Bulgaria does not mean a halt in transit shipments via Bulgaria," Peter Szijjarto said on his Facebook page.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on "unfriendly" countries to pay for gas imports in roubles, a demand only a few buyers have complied with, including Hungary, which signed a long-term gas supply deal with Russia last year.

Mr Szijjarto said Hungary's next payment was due on May 22 and the country would transfer funds in euros to Gazprombank to be converted into roubles.

06:53 AM

Swiss freeze $9 billion in sanctioned Russian wealth

The amount of Russian assets frozen under sanctions Switzerland has adopted has risen to around 9 billion Swiss francs ($9.34 billion), it has been reported by the Neue Zuercher Zeitung newspaper.

That would be around 1.5 billion francs more than Swiss authorities had reported on April 7.

In a sharp deviation from the country's traditional neutrality, Switzerland has adopted European Union sanctions against Russians involved in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

06:40 AM

Ukraine says several villages in east captured by Russian forces

Ukraine announced this morning that Russian forces had pushed deeper into the east of the country and captured several villages, as part of Moscow's offensive to take control of the Donbas.

The defence ministry said that Russian forces had pushed out Kyiv's army from Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody in the Kharkiv region and had gained control over Zarichne and Novotoshkivske in the Donetsk region.

06:37 AM

Raab: Russia halting gas supply to Poland will add to pariah status

Russia's decision to cut off gas supply to Poland will add to its status as an economic and political pariah, Dominic Raab said this morning.

"It (halting gas supply) will have a ... very damaging effect on Russia as well because it is becoming further and further, more and more, not just a political pariah, but an economic pariah," the Deputy Prime Minister told Sky News.

06:28 AM

Pictured: A crater next to an apartment in Lyman, Donetsk

Pictured: A crater next to an apartment in Lyman, Donetsk - Leo Correa /AP

06:17 AM

Russian natural gas arriving unrestricted in Austria

Russian natural gas deliveries to Austria are continuing unrestricted and there is no indication that this will change, Austrian energy minister Leonore Gewessler told ORF radio on Wednesday.

Asked if there were any indications that gas from Russia could be cut off as in Poland or Bulgaria, Ms Gewessler said: "No, we have no such indications ... deliveries to Austria remain unrestricted."

Austria obtains 80 per cent of its gas from Russia.

06:04 AM

Poland ready to help Germany import non-Russian oil

Poland is ready to help Germany import non-Russian oil, its climate minister Anna Moskwa said today, as its Western neighbour aims to find alternative to Russian supplies after Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24.

"We are ready to express our solidarity with Germany...and support them in their complete departure from oil, from Russian resources," Ms Moskwa told state owned Polskie Radio.

05:48 AM

Russian gas continues to flow to Bulgaria for time being

Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria continue to flow for the time being, Vladimir Malinov, executive director of Bulgarian gas network operator Bulgartransgaz said on Wednesday.

It comes as Bulgaria's energy ministry said Russia's Gazprom had informed Bulgarian state gas company Bulgargaz it would halt gas supplies as of Wednesday.

The ministry is set to give a news briefing on the situation later on Wednesday morning.

05:27 AM

Ukraine retains control over majority of its airspace

The UK's Ministry of Defence has advised Ukraine retains control over the majority of its airspace.

"Russia has failed to effectively destroy the Ukrainian Air Force or suppress Ukrainian air defences," the ministry posted on Twitter.

"Ukraine continues to hold Russian air assets at risk."

The ministry said Russian air activity was primarily focused on the areas of southern and eastern Ukraine, providing support to Russian troops on the ground.

Russia has very limited air access to the north and west of Ukraine, limiting offensive actions to deep strikes with stand-off weapons, the ministry added.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 27 April 2022



Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/yBkEQmjzoS



 #StandWithUkraine  pic.twitter.com/r4vIO69jIM  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) April 27, 2022

03:32 AM

Russia agrees with UN on evacuating civilians from steel plant

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Tuesday for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine, agreeing on arranging evacuations from a besieged steel plant in the battered city of Mariupol.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the Russian leader and UN chief discussed "proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians from conflict zones, namely in relation to the situation in Mariupol."

Mr Dujarric said they also agreed in principle that the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross should be involved in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel complex.

Discussions will be held with the UN humanitarian office and the Russian Defense Ministry on the evacuation, Mr Dujarric said.

The meeting lasted nearly two hours and Putin and Mr Guterres sat at opposite ends of a long white table in a room with gold curtains bordered in red.

02:36 AM

Blasts heard in Russian city of Belgorod

A series of blasts sounded in the Russian city of Belgorod, near the Ukrainian border, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Fire engulfed the ammunition depot in the province following the explosions.

Mr Gladkov said no civilians were injured by the fire, which broke out at a facility near Staraya Nelidovka village.

A weapons depot is on fire following explosions in the western Russian city of Belgorod - Supplied

01:51 AM

In pictures: Homes, towns destroyed as Russia's invasion continues

A local woman embraces a serviceman near a damaged apartment building in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine - AP

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire on a civilian area following a rocket hit in Velyka Danylivka neighbourhood, Kharkiv City, Ukraine - Anadolu

A cat sits on the porch of a damaged house in Rusaniv, Ukraine - Getty Images

01:39 AM

Chinese drone giant DJI suspends business in Russia and Ukraine

Drone giant DJI Technology Co Ltd will temporarily suspend business in Russia and Ukraine, becoming the first major Chinese company to halt sales to Russia since the invasion began.

"DJI is internally reassessing compliance requirements in various jurisdictions," the company said in a statement late on Tuesday.

"Pending the current review, DJI will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine."

Although Western firms have pulled out of Russia in protest, many Chinese companies have not -mirroring Beijing's stance of refraining from being critical of Moscow.

Ukrainian officials have accused DJI, the world's largest maker of consumer and industrial drones, of leaking data on the Ukrainian military to Russia.

But last month DJI dismissed those accusations as "utterly false".

01:33 AM

Today's top stories
LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party said on Wednesday it was looking into reports that a lawmaker watched pornography on his phone in the House of Commons debating chamber.

Two British newspapers reported that a male Conservative member of parliament was seen by colleagues watching pornography in parliament.

The issue of sexism in parliament has come to the fore in recent days after a Sunday newspaper published an article in which an anonymous Conservative lawmaker claimed the deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, Angela Rayner, sought to distract Johnson in parliament by crossing and uncrossing her legs.

Johnson has criticised the comments as misogyny. Rayner said she was "crestfallen".

Conservative Chief Whip Chris Heaton-Harris, who is responsible for enforcing party discipline, is examining the complaints about pornography, his office said in a statement.

"This behaviour is wholly unacceptable and action will be taken," a Whips Office spokesperson said.

The Sun and the Mirror reported the accusation emerged during a meeting of Conservatives members of parliament on Tuesday evening in which female lawmakers shared accounts of sexism and harassment by their colleagues.

It follows a report in the Sunday Times that 56 members of parliament, including three senior ministers, are facing allegations of sexual misconduct after being reported to a parliamentary watchdog.

Asked by an opposition lawmaker on Wednesday whether those ministers should be sacked, Johnson told parliament: "Sexual harassment is intolerable and it's quite right that members should now have a procedure by which they can bring that to the attention of the highest authorities ... and of course it's grounds for dismissal."

A 2018 report commissioned after a series of sex scandals at Westminster found that nearly one in five people working in parliament had been sexually harassed or witnessed inappropriate behaviour in the previous year.

It called for a radical change of culture.

(Reporting by William James, Muvija M and Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Toby Chopra)
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.N. special envoy for Syria announced Tuesday that he has sent invitations to the Syrian government and the opposition for an eighth round of talks starting in late May, aimed at revising the constitution of the conflict-torn country.

Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council that agreement on a revised constitution could contribute to a political solution of the 11-year conflict.

He said the seventh session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee ended on March 25, with delegations offering at least some revisions to some of the texts presented.

Pedersen said deputy special envoy Khawla Matar visited Damascus and Istanbul afterward for further discussions with the committees co-chairs and he had issued invitations for the eighth session Tuesday from May 28 to June 3 in Geneva.

He stressed that the drafting process will only move forward if the committees work is governed by a sense of compromise and constructive engagement aimed at reaching general agreement of its members.

A 2012 U.N. road map to peace in Syria approved by representatives of the United Nations, Arab League, European Union, Turkey and all five permanent Security Council members calls for the drafting of a new constitution. It ends with U.N.-supervised elections with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate. A Security Council resolution adopted in December 2015 unanimously endorsed the road map.

At a Russia-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached to form a 150-member committee to draft a new constitution. A smaller, 45-member body would do the actual drafting, including 15 members each from the government, opposition and civil society. It took until September 2019 for the committee to be formed and little progress has been achieved so far.

Pedersen stressed to the council in a video briefing that Syria is a hot conflict, not a frozen one.

He said airstrikes have increased in the northwest, there have been intensified clashes around Afrin and the northeast, and continued exchanges of rocket fire and shelling across all frontlines as well as improvised explosive devices, car bombs and other security incidents.

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Pedersen urged the council to focus on Syria.

The current strategic stalemate on the ground and Syrias absence from the headlines should not mislead anyone into thinking that the conflict needs less attention or fewer resources, or that a political settlement is not urgent, he said. Indeed, a conflict of this scale requires a comprehensive solution in line with the 2012 road map.

While the war in Ukraine is quickly catching up, Pedersen said Syria remains the biggest displacement crisis in the world with 6.8 million refugees and 6.2 million people displaced in the country -- half the pre-war population.

Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya also warned that as the world turns to other conflicts Syria is on the verge of becoming yet another forgotten crisis.

Yet millions of Syrians struggle each month to survive, to feed their families and to provide a future for their children, she said. For many, their situation has never been more dire since violence erupted in 2011.

Msuya said a staggering 4.1 million people in rebel-held northwest Syria need humanitarian aid, with almost a million people, mainly women and children, living in tents, half of which are beyond their normal lifespan.

In early July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syrias northwest Idlib. Days later, the council authorized the delivery of aid through just one of those crossings, Bab al-Hawa. That one-year mandate was extended for a year on July 9, 2021.

Msuya told the council that last year the U.N. sent some 800 trucks of cross-border aid to the northwest each month, consistently reaching 2.4 million people.

Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has said aid should be controlled by the Syrian government, its ally, and delivered across conflict lines.

Msuya said three cross-line convoys have been sent to the northwest but they cannot substitute for cross-border aid deliveries at this point.

Nebenzia called this mere unwillingness to solve the problem of humanitarian deliveries from Damascus to Idlib.

Let me be frank, in such circumstances, we can hardly see any reason why the cross-border resolution should be renewed again, he said.
In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the UN General Assembly voted on Tuesday to subject Security Council members that veto resolutions to an assembly debate on their decision within 10 days - a move as likely to affect China as it does Russia.

Passed by consensus by the 193-member assembly, the resolution was greeted with applause and comes amid widespread criticism that the United Nations has failed in its mission to prevent the Ukraine invasion, regarded by some analysts as the greatest international security crisis since World War II.

Christian Wenaweser, Liechtenstein's ambassador to the United Nations, addressing the 93-member General Assembly before it adopted the resolution. Photo: Reuters alt=Christian Wenaweser, Liechtenstein's ambassador to the United Nations, addressing the 93-member General Assembly before it adopted the resolution. Photo: Reuters>

A Security Council resolution two days after the February 24 invasion would have required Moscow to halt its attack and remove its troops from Ukraine - but Russia vetoed it.

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"There has never been a stronger need for effective multilateralism than today, and there has never been a stronger need for innovation in order to secure the central role and voice of the United Nations," said Christian Wenaweser, Liechtenstein's UN ambassador who introduced the resolution.

The resolution does not prevent the five permanent Security Council members - Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain - from wielding their veto. But it will subject them to mandatory scrutiny and debate before the General Assembly, a potentially significant check on behaviour.

Tuesday's vote came as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a three-day trip to Russia and Ukraine. This latest bid to broker a ceasefire follows efforts by France, Germany, Turkey, Israel and others.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Kremlin in Moscow on Tuesday. Photo: Sputnik/AFP alt=Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Kremlin in Moscow on Tuesday. Photo: Sputnik/AFP>

Under the terms of the resolution, the General Assembly will "hold a debate on the situation" that sparks any Security Council veto within 10 working days. The assembly is not required to take action but it does potentially put the vetoing nation on the hot seat to defend its decision. However, the vetoer has the option not to answer questions.

Analysts said that Tuesday's resolution could have a greater impact on Beijing, which is often more reluctant than Moscow to weather global criticism.

"China does actually really hate the reputational costs of using it, especially if it's ever forced to do so without Russia co-vetoing with it," said Richard Gowan, UN director of the International Crisis Group think tank.

"The Chinese have always been more cautious about using their veto than the Russians and will see this as one more reason they would prefer not to use that privilege very often."

Between 1992 and February 2022, Russia and the former Soviet Union used the veto 120 times, compared with 82 for the US, 27 for Britain, 17 for China and 16 for France, according to the watchdog group Security Council Report.

Russia's vetoes have included 16 in recent years employed to defeat resolutions condemning human rights violations in Syria.

Security Council vetoes are a significant source of frustration among UN critics and the other 188 member states that regard their use as unfair, undemocratic, a major source of institutional paralysis and might-is-right bullying.

"Too often in the recent history, the abuse of the veto undermines the council's ability to respond to challenges to international peace and security," Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's UN ambassador, said. "Russia considers the veto a green light for such crimes."

While China has generally supported Russia in the wake of the invasion, it has been relatively circumspect at the UN, underscoring its own broad economic interests and greater stake than Russia in the international rule-based order, analysts said.

"Russians have reached the point where they don't seem to care about world opinion, they're unshameable," said Louis Charbonneau, the UN director at Human Rights Watch. "As exporters of oil and gas, they have an interest in instability, which causes prices to go up. For China, instability is bad for business."

In advance of two recent successful General Assembly resolutions condemning Russia, China worked closely with the United States and European Union on wording so that it could abstain rather than join Moscow in an outright veto, analysts said. And it interceded on a motion providing UN humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan, convincing Russia not to oppose it simply because the US was involved.

"We see a distinction between China's behaviour in the real world and China's behaviour at the UN," Gowan said. "China doesn't want this war to blow up the UN system. I think that's actually something that we should see as a relief."

On April 7, Beijing gave its clear support to Moscow during a General Assembly vote to remove Russia from the UN's Human Rights Council.

But that issue directly affects China's self-interest, analysts said, amid its concerns that it could suffer the same fate over Xinjiang, where the UN has reported that some 1 million Uygurs have been held in detention camps that Beijing has called training and employment centres.

Tuesday's resolution - which was supported by nearly 100 cosponsors, including the United States and Britain - was in the works for two years amid growing discontent with UN inefficiency. It gained traction in recent weeks after the Russian invasion.

A railway station destroyed in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Photo: Reuters alt=A railway station destroyed in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Photo: Reuters>

Moscow voted against it Tuesday, arguing that an unencumbered veto was essential to the efficient working of the UN, that permanent Security Council members already give enough explanation of their actions and that it undercuts the UN's separation of powers.

Security Council reform has been debated for more than four decades amid concern that the body has locked in place an ossified 1945 power structure. But reform efforts to change it have often been blocked by rivalries - and use of the veto.

Tuesday's action was aimed at wresting more control from the smaller, more powerful council to the broadly representative assembly. In addition to the five permanent members, the Security Council has 10 members elected for two years. But those nations do not have vetoes.

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.
WASHINGTON  Russia and the United States have carried out an unexpected prisoner exchange in a time of high tensions, trading a Marine veteran jailed by Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America.

The deal announced by both countries involving Trevor Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace. It was all the more surprising because it was done as Russias war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

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The U.S., for its part, returned Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot whod been serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S. The Justice Department has described him as an experienced international drug trafficker who conspired to distribute thousands of kilograms of cocaine around the world.

Despite Reeds release, other Americans remain jailed in Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan.

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The exchange took place in Turkey, Reeds father, Joey Reed, told CNN.

The American plane pulled up next to the Russian plane and they walked both prisoners across at the same time, like you see in the movies, he said.

The swap seemed unlikely to herald any larger breakthrough between Washington and Moscow. A senior Biden administration official cautioned that the negotiations centered on a discrete set of prisoner issues and did not represent a change to the U.S. governments condemnation of Russias violence against Ukraine.

Where we can have discussions on issues of mutual interest we will try to talk to the Russians and have a constructive conversation without any way changing our approach to the appalling violence in Ukraine, the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the administration.

A poster photo of U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Russian prisoner Trevor Reed stands in Lafayette Park near the White House, March 30, 2022, in Washington. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

President Joe Biden, who met in Washington with Reeds parents last month, trumpeted Reeds release and noted without elaboration that the negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly. The Russian foreign ministry described the exchange as the result of a long negotiation process.

Reed, a 30-year-old former Marine from Texas, was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though his family maintained his innocence and the U.S. government described him as unjustly detained and expressed concern about his declining health.

A lawyer for Yaroshenko, who last year sought a reduced prison sentence because of Yaroshenkos vulnerability to COVID-19, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Wednesday.

Russia had sought Yaroshenkos return for years while also rejecting entreaties by high-level U.S. officials to release Reed, who was approaching his 1,000th day in custody and whose health had recently been worsening, according to his family.

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A senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, described Reeds case as one of utmost priority for the Biden administration. His family said Reeds poor health included symptoms of tuberculosis.

It was a difficult decision but one that we thought was worth it, the official said.

Though officials would not say where the transfer took place, in the hours before it happened commercial flight trackers identified a plane belonging to Russias federal security service as flying to Ankara, Turkey. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons also updated its website overnight to reflect that Yaroshenko was no longer in custody.

Reed was en route back to the U.S., traveling with Roger Cartsens, the U.S. governments special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

Today, our prayers have been answered and Trevor is on his way back safely to the United States, Reeds family said in a statement.

The prisoner swap was the most prominent release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad and came even as families of detainees who have met over the last year with administration officials had described the officials as cool to the idea of an exchange.

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The U.S. government does not typically embrace such exchanges for fear that it might encourage foreign governments to take additional Americans as prisoners as a way to extract concessions and to avoid a potential false equivalency between an unjustly detained American  which U.S. officials believe Reed was  and a properly convicted criminal.

In this case, though, the U.S. decided the deal made sense in part because Yaroshenko had already served a long portion of his prison sentence, which has now been commuted.

The Reed family thanked Biden for making the decision to bring Trevor home as well as other administration officials and Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who the family said traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reeds release.

The Reed family had also been working with a consultant, Jonathan Franks, who has been involved in other high-profile releases, such as the case of Michael White, a Navy veteran freed from Iran in 2020.

Reeds release had no immediate impact on the cases of other Americans held by Russia. Griner, for one, was detained in February after Russian authorities said a search of her bag revealed a cannabis derivative. Whelan is being held on espionage-related charges his family says are bogus.

U.S. officials have described Whelan as unjustly detained, and Biden said Wednesday we wont stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends.

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Reeds parents demonstrated outside the White House last month in hopes of getting a meeting with the president.

We believe that that meeting with the president is what made it happen Joey Reed told CNN. Which is what we had said all along  if we could just speak to the president, hes that kind of person.

When he is reunited with his son, the father said, I want to hug him and not let him go.
By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) -An unknown and highly contagious disease has killed 85 wild horses in less than a week at a federal corral in Colorado, officials said on Wednesday, revising the number upward from the previously announced death toll of 67.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spokesman Steven Hall told Reuters the entire facility holding more than 2,500 animals in Canon City, about 120 miles (190 km) southwest of Denver, is under quarantine. Animals that are sick or have been exposed to infected horses are being kept away from the healthy.

"Wild horses at the Wild Horse facility in Canon City have been infected with an unknown yet highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease," the BLM said in a statement on Monday.

Most of the sickened horses had been transported from Rio Blanco County, near the Utah state line, in a roundup last autumn, the BLM said.

Hall said the dead animals are undergoing necropsies, and blood and tissue samples are being analyzed at two university laboratories.

"The main symptoms seem to be respiratory issues and chest congestion," Hall said, adding that federal, state and independent veterinarians are investigating.

The wild horse and burro herds are not native to the United States but are descended from animals freed or abandoned by miners, prospectors, and others during the settlement of the American West. The BLM says the numbers, estimated at about 80,000 nationwide, must be managed because the animals foul water supplies and consume forage at the expense of native species.

The agency conducts periodic roundups, moving the animals to holding areas where some are put up for auction.

Activists say the roundups and living conditions for the corralled animals are inhumane.

"Disease outbreaks and deaths are the direct result of the BLM's mass roundups," Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign, said in a statement posted on the group's website. "We can expect to see more suffering and death if BLM continues down this dangerous and destructive path."

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein; editing by Donna Bryson and Marguerita Choy)
Attorney General Merrick Garland. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

US Attorney General said he supports the idea of some proceeds from oligarch seizures going to Ukraine.

Merrick Garland said he expects requests for legislative changes to make it easier to seize assets.

Garland told the committee the administration is likely to present a request within days.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress on Tuesday that he's in favor of some of the proceeds from Russian oligarch seizures going straight to Ukraine.

Garland had been explaining to the Senate Appropriations Committee how the US Justice Department deals with proceeds from Russian assets that have been recovered.

"The money would go into the asset forfeiture fund. So, first thing we have to do is freeze the assets," Garland told the committee. "We would support legislation that would allow some of that money to go directly to Ukraine."

The Justice Department's new task force, called "Operation KleptoCapture," was set up in early March to help detain the private jets, superyachts, and real estate of sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

Garland also told the committee that he expected there would be requests for legislative changes to make it easier to seize sanctioned Russians' assets and taking money out of the asset forfeiture fund to send to Ukraine.

"I expect very soon, within days probably, that the administration will be able to present some request," Garland said.

In early April, the US seized its first superyacht that had ties to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Spain. The vessel is valued at $90 million, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

Garland's comments follow President Joe Biden's announcement on Thursday that the US would send $800 million worth of aid to Ukraine.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Newly-found frog seen here on 10 pesos coin of its native Mexico (Jeffrey Streicher/Natural History Museum)

Six new species of frog, all of them smaller than a British 1p coin, have been discovered in the forests of Mexico.

One of the species, Craugastor candelariensis, has earned the distinction of being Mexicos smallest frog, with males only growing to be 13mm long when mature.

All six species are known as direct-developing frogs. This means they are of the rare breed which do not burst from their frogspawn as tadpoles but as fully-formed frogs.

Unfortunately for the miniature amphibians, their tiny size places them at the bottom of the food chain in the Valley of Mexico forests where they were found.

With millions of these frogs living in the leaf litter, we think theyre likely to play a hugely important role in the ecosystem as a source of food for everything else, from lizards to predatory birds, said Tom Jameson, a researcher at the University of Cambridges Department of Zoology and lead author of the paper on the frogs discovery.

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, the Natural History Museum and the University of Texas at Arlington stumbled across the new species when studying the relationship between around 500 frog specimens that had been collected in Mexico.

C rubinus' in a researchers fingertips (Jeffrey Streicher/Natural History Museum)

Until now these new species have gone unnoticed because theyre small and brown and look really similar to other frogs, said Mr Jameson.

Their habitat is one little understood by humans. Mr Jameson said: These frogs live in the dark, humid leaf litter of the forests, which is like a secret world  we dont really know anything about what goes on there. We dont understand their behaviour, how they socialise, or how they breed.

Their lifestyle is utterly fascinating, he added.

The six species all belong to the genus Craugastor, which consists of direct-developing frogs and spreads from the southern USA to northern South America.

Mr Jameson said frogs of the genus are difficult to tell apart, so scientists have long suspected that more species may exist.

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Hillside in Jalisco, Mexico where C rubinus' is found (Jeffrey Streicher)

The new species have been named Craugastor bitonium, Craugastor candelariensis, Craugastor cueyatl, Craugastor polaclavus, Craugastor portilloensis, and Craugastor rubinus.

Some of them are known as micro-endemics not because of their stature but the tiny range of their distribution. These frogs are only found in very small areas, such as a single hilltop in Mexico. This makes them highly vulnerable.

Mr Jameson explained: We named Craugastor rubinus after the garnet mines in the hillside where theyre found.

Sadly, it will only take the expansion of one mine and these frogs could be gone.

Climate change also threatens their habitats. And they are susceptible to chytridiomycosis, a deadly fungal disease that is wiping out amphibian populations across the world.

C Cueyatl sits on a 10 pesos coin, which have a 28mm diameter (Jeffrey Streicher/Natural History Museum)

But the researchers are hopeful the tiny frogs will survive. They have identified key protected areas throughout Mexico where the six new species live and now hope to work with the government and NGOs in Mexico to connect these areas together.

These frogs potentially play a really important role in the forest ecosystem, said Mr Jameson. We need to make sure that they dont just get wiped off the map because no-one even knows theyre there.

He said there are likely many more Craugastor species still to be discovered, simply because nobody has yet looked for them.

Scientists are finding new species of frog all the time and the Americas are a prime location for discovery.

Last month scientists found two new species of see-through, or glass, frogs in Ecuador that were notable for appearing almost identical but having vast genetic differences.

The team behind the Craugastor discoveries have published their research in the journal Herpetological Monographs.
Not leaving TVs switched on could help save 25 on energy bills. (Getty

The cost of living crisis has forced Brits to find ways to save money with experts suggesting switching off of so-called vampire devices can help.

Vampire devices are common electronics that drain power even while on standby  costing households a total of about 3.16bn every year.

This figure, according to research by British Gas, equates to 147 a year for the average household, the equivalent of roughly two months of electricity charges.

Examples of vampire devices included laptops, internet routers and smart speakers that are plugged in and switched on around the clock.

Keeping a television on standby overnight can cost nearly 25 a year. (Getty)

With a 54% rise in the energy price cap introduced in April  and another rise expected later in the year  households have been advised to switch off their vampire devices to limit the rise in bills.

According to the research, it costs 24.61 to keep a television on standby, while computers could cost around 11.22 a year.

Set-top boxes for televisions also cost 23.10 a year, while games consoles cost over 12 keeping on standby.

Watch: UK heading for worst cost of living crisis since the 1950s, says economist

Other prices include:

Microwave: 16.37

Shower: 9.80

Washing machine: 4.73

Printer: 3.81

Phone charger: 1.26

British Gas energy expert Marc Robson recommends plugging these devices into an extension lead that can easily switched off at night.

He said: "At night, or when not in use, try switching off devices at the mains rather than switching to standby, as even the standby light on a television uses energy.

Switching off a microwave when not in use could save households 16.37 a year. (Getty)

"Try not to overcharge your mobile phone and laptop unnecessarily.

"As soon as your device is charged, try and get into the habit of unplugging it.

"Not only will this save energy but it also prolongs battery life.

Robson also recommended using smart plugs, which can be used to check everything is off via smart phones.
A now-viral video shows a man seemingly trying to stop Olympic gold medalist skier Eileen Gu from leaving after they take a selfie together in Beijing.



The 18-year-old athlete, who often jogs around the citys streets, was accompanied by her mother riding a bicycle at the time of the incident, which occurred on Chaoyang Road.



The man, who goes by Dong Bei Xing Ge on Douyin, received backlash on Chinese social media after the clip of his encounter with Gu became widely circulated online.



Social media users criticized the man and called him rude for not letting the athlete walk away after she took a photo with him.



The man uploaded a video to Douyin on Monday and explained that he just wanted to remind Gu to be mindful of road safety. He also claimed that he asked Gus mother for permission before he took the selfie.



I am a loyal fan of Eileen Gu, the man said. I didnt try to stop her from leaving. There happened to be a vehicle coming when she tried to cross the road. I asked her to be mindful of road safety. I definitely didnt intend to hold her back.



According to the man, he was excited after taking a selfie with the popular athlete. He then asked social media users to stop criticizing him about their interaction.



Gu, who won two gold medals and a silver medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, is now a beloved celebrity in China. She is affectionately known to her fans as the Snow Princess and reportedly lets them take photos with her in public often.







Featured Image via 5-7

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In her first television interview about the shooting allegations against Tory Lanez, rapper Megan Thee Stallion highlighted a common calculation for Black women, who can feel compelled to hide their experiences with violence to protect those around them  often at the cost of their own safety.

The rapper spoke to Gayle King through tears as she recounted the moments police showed up after she was shot in the foot following a party in the Hollywood Hills. The incident occurred in the summer of 2020, as protests continued across the country in reaction to the killings of George Floyd and other Black people that year.

Megan Thee Stallion said when helicopters and police cars descended upon the scene, she downplayed her injuries, saying her bloodied foot was simply from stepping on glass.

I didnt want them to kill any of us, or shoot any of us. So I just said I stepped on glass, she said. For some reason, I was just trying to protect all of us, because I didnt want them to kill us. Even though this person just did this to me, my first reaction still was to try to save us. I didnt want to see anybody die.

Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, said the incident began in a car with Lanez, a driver, and a friend. As they drove away from the party, an argument in the car escalated, she said, and she stepped out of the vehicle. She said thats when Lanez began shooting at her.

She suffered a gunshot wound to the foot, which she said required surgery.

Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was charged with one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm-personal use of a firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office announced in October 2020. He pleaded not guilty.

In the time since the shooting, Megan Thee Stallion has faced intense online criticism from those who cite her glass claim as proof she is lying about the incident.

Story continues

While national discourse about police violence has often focused on the plight of Black men, the experiences of Black women tend to go ignored. Along with experiencing police violence themselves, experts say Black women often work to protect those around them from police violence and are left without support or protection within their own communities.

Research has shown that Black women commonly forgo their own needs in the face of police brutality and other forms of injustice; they are conditioned to withstand abuse and make a conscious self-sacrifice for what she perceives as the greater good of the community but to her own physical, psychological, and spiritual detriment, according to a 2001 study published in the journal Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. As a result, Black women are less likely to seek help in incidents of gender-based violence.

Thats the dilemma for us as Black women, a dilemma thats really unique to us. Nobody is there for Black girls, and women and queer Black people, said Elaine Richardson, a professor at Ohio State University who specializes in African American cultures, literacy and hip-hop. Were pretty much low priority, intraracially. Its simple to say Megan Thee Stallion lied, but theres a complex history behind that.

This isnt the first time Megan Thee Stallion has shared a story of such self-sacrifice. She took to Instagram Live in February 2020 to set the record straight after a 2015 mugshot surfaced. She recalled fighting with an ex-boyfriend and being pushed and in the incident.

When police arrived, she explained in 2020, she denied that the man hit her cause I dont want him to go to jail. Instead, her then-partner detailed the fight to police, and she was arrested, she said.

Black women's marginalization is well documented, and activists and organizers have spent decades working to draw attention to the unique barriers and challenges Black women face both within and outside their communities.

Black women who experience domestic or sexual violence are less likely than the general population to report these incidents due to, among many reasons, racial loyalty, according to a 2010 study published in the journal Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. And when Black women are killed or harmed by police, their stories rarely receive national attention  like Crystal Ragland, Latasha Nicole Walton and April Webster.

Although black women are routinely killed, raped, and beaten by the police, their experiences are rarely foregrounded in popular understandings of police brutality, Kimberle Crenshaw, a legal scholar known for her work on the intersections of race and gender, previously said in a statement. Yet, inclusion of black womens experiences in social movements, media narratives, and policy demands around policing and police brutality is critical to effectively combating racialized state violence for black communities and other communities of color.

Although organizers, activists and academics have managed to push the particular plight of Black women into the national conversation in recent years, this advocacy for the marginalized group is hardly new.

Black womens anti-rape activism in the 1970s aided in the creation of rape crisis centers and college campus activism. And today, countless organizations serve Black women and provide services in everything from reproduction to mental health. For example, the Black Womens Health Imperative has worked for decades to address health issues that disproportionately impact Black women; Black Womens Blueprint provides resources for survivors of gender-based violence; the Marsha P. Johnson Institute advocates for Black trans communities; and Survived & Punished works to support those incarcerated for defending themselves in incidents of gender-based violence.

With that, Richardson said, in order to mitigate this conundrum for Black women like Megan Thee Stallion, its vital to address the societal circumstances that make this violence possible.

Im all for figuring out another way to handle violence and all those social ills that plague our community, Richardson said. Thats why theres been this movement to defund the police and invest in our communities, invest in our mental health, invest in the health care, invest in education, invest in all these other systems besides the prison industrial complex and the violent systems that keep reproducing the violent systems.

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KARACHI (Reuters) - A woman suicide bomber who killed three Chinese teachers in Pakistan was a teacher who had enrolled for a master's degree months before her attack, carried out on behalf of separatist insurgents, a Pakistani official said on Wednesday.

The blast detonated by the 30-year-old woman on Tuesday blew up a minivan outside Karachi University's Confucius Institute, a Chinese language and cultural centre, killing her, the three Chinese teachers and a Pakistani driver.

It was the first major attack this year against nationals of long-time ally China working in Pakistan, and it drew Beijing's condemnation.

A separatist group, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) based in the southwestern province of Balochistan, said the mother of two, who held a graduate degree in zoology and was studying for another, had volunteered for the attack targeting China, whose investment projects in Balochistan they oppose.

"Baloch Liberation Army once again warns China to immediately halt its exploitation projects ... Otherwise our future attacks will be even harsher," the BLA said in an email.

Baloch separatist guerrillas have been fighting for a greater share of their province's natural resources for decades, mostly focusing attacks on natural gas projects, infrastructure and the security forces.

But in recent years they have attacked Chinese projects and workers. Balochistan and its deep-water port in Gwadar are a major link in China's Belt and Road network of infrastructure and energy projects stretching to the Middle East and beyond.

For years, suicide bombing in Pakistan have been a tactic of Islamist militants, usually carried out by men or boys. The Baloch separatists said this was their first suicide attack by a woman and warned of more.

The threat of suicide attacks by the BLA will be a major worry for Pakistan as it tries to reassure China it is doing everything it can to protect its projects and people.

Story continues

China's Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the attack and demanded Pakistan punish the perpetrators and prevent such incidents happening again.

A Pakistan interior ministry official who declined to be identified said the woman, a science teacher from Balochistan, had signed up for a second master's degree at Karachi University about five months ago.

An investigation had been launched by police and civilian and military intelligence agencies, the official said.

The acting vice chancellor of Karachi University, Nasira Khatoon, expressed "heartfelt condolences" to the families of the blast victims and said the campus would remain closed on Wednesday.

"We hope that the government will punish the elements involved ... and believe that every possible step will be taken to reach the elements behind the attack," she said.

(Reporting by Akhtar Soomro, Asif Shahzad and Gibran Peshimam; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Desleen Yeo (left), co-founder of YeoMama Batik with her mother. (PHOTO: YeoMama Batik)

SINGAPORE  Its been four years since the business took off, but Desleen Yeo still sheds tears of joy while standing at the entrance of YeoMama Batiks boutique  the fruit of the Yeo familys labour.

The 31-year-old co-founder of YeoMama Batik told Yahoo Finance Singapore she is a very emotional person who had tried her hand at multiple endeavours after graduation.

Yeo had worked as a piano teacher, a receptionist at a pole studio, a customer service officer at a bar in Sentosa, an events executive at an agency, a freelance presentation designer, and a henna tattoo artist. She even tried to sell her own line of polewear and bring karaoke booths to Singapore  both of which were ill-fated.

This was before the batik life chose her, Yeo said.

The seed of YeoMama Batik was first planted by Yeos mama, who casually suggested selling batik clothing when Yeo  then unemployed  was stuck at home in the later half of 2017 due to an ankle surgery. Yeo, usually energetic and active, was so bored that she threw herself into the conception of YeoMama Batik with S$40,000 from her personal savings.

What was for fun soon turned into a full-fledged batik fashion line from fabrics sourced in Indonesia. Yeo would then have tailors make the clothes from designs from YeoMama Batik, including trendier styles such as A-line dresses, cheongsam maxi dresses and jumpsuits. She experiments with different styles to get a better sense of what her clients like.

The effort that goes each handmade piece is reflected in the price, which can range from a $68 top to a $368 cardigan.

Under the guidance of her businessman father, Yeo first operated from a small store space behind a salon in January 2018, stocking batik clothing just ahead of Chinese New Year.

Business was so brisk that the landlady soon chased YeoMama Batik out for disrupting the salon. Yeo then moved to a remote location at Jalan Pelikat, but that didn't stop the customers from coming.

Story continues

By 2019, YeoMama Batik had outgrown its space. The boutique then found a new home in Oxley Bizhub. YeoMama Batik now pulls in a stable five-figure revenue on a monthly basis, compared to a borderline five-figure revenue when it first began.

A family business is fun but very annoying

Working with family is fun but also very annoying, Yeo said with a big laugh.

"I see my parents at home, I get nagged at at home and when I come to office I also get nagged over here (my mother) can still come over and (pick on things), Yeo said.

She mused, I guess its a traditional upbringing where they have certain standards of how a daughter or a wife should be. They need to know how to clean the house, cook, but at the same time my dad as a businessman hopes I can run my own business. So its like you want to juggle all of these and you want me to meet the expectation of a traditional wife so how do I balance? Sometimes you just snap.

The boutiques cleanliness was a sore point between Yeo and her mother, who would insist on cleaning everything.

I feel like a business should feel like a business. Sometimes it feels like its being handled too much like a home.

Apart from the occasional friction with her mother, Yeos business approach also clashes with her father, who is more traditional. While Yeo prioritises the intangible, "feel-good factor" of the business, her father is more focused on the business' tangible aspects.

His generation of doing business is a lot of I sell you buy. Our generation of doing business is you need to focus on customer loyalty, the customer service part of things and theres social media, theres engagement, Yeo said.

Nevertheless, family is an integral part of the YeoMama Batik brand, with the brands story featuring a quirky video with candid shots of Yeos entire family her parents, two brothers and a grandmother, dressed in batik clothes (YeoMama Batik of course).

Family also influences Yeos business decisions. For the foreseeable future, Yeo, who married last year, plans to start a family. To prepare for the potential disruption at work, she has expanded the staff strength to 5 full-time workers so that they can manage the store even when she is away.

Pandemic problems

Like other businesses, YeoMama Batik ran into its fair share of hiccups when the pandemic struck. Yeo was unable to fly to Indonesia to talk with the tailors. She also had to focus on digitalising her business as her boutique remained closed.

Even more worrying was the drop in sales, as the partial lockdown put a stop to events resulting in a lack of demand for batik clothes.

The revenue was just barely covering (our salaries), quipped Yeo.

Yeo had to completely change the production line-up so that she could stock casual clothing instead of dresses and other formal wear. She improvised by using cloths that would have been used for the dresses so that they did not have to sample new materials.

But the pandemic was not without its silver lining. YeoMama Batiks activewear line, which was a flop when it debuted in September 2019, sold like hotcakes during the partial lockdown.

Communication was also a challenge after Yeo took her interactions with her tailors online. The tailors were not fluent in English while Yeos Bahasa Indonesia was rudimentary.

She also had to contend with tailors falling sick, or being affected by floods. To deal with that, Yeo is always on the lookout for tailors to diversify her business.

Even with all these obstacles, when asked if she had ever considered returning to a corporate job, Yeo responded with a resounding no.

Just try lor was her candid advice to aspiring entrepreneurs. I just feel like theres nothing you can do wrong about it because every wrong thing will come out with a lesson learnt You never try you never know, she said.

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Forty-one high schools will once again evaluate their safety plans and decide by June 15 if they will continue in Chicago Public Schools controversial school resource officer program.

This is not just about the vote of whether you want to keep SROs or not, CPS Chief Safety and Security Officer Jadine Chou said at Wednesdays monthly Chicago Board of Education meeting. This is about, how do you look at safety holistically  physical safety, emotional safety and relational safety?

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Last summer, 19 schools decided to retain both of their uniformed Chicago police officers; 22 schools chose to keep just one officer; and 12 schools voted to exit the SRO program. Based on the school votes, the board in September approved a one-year, $11 million agreement with the Chicago Police Department for this program.

The schools that ditched one or both of their officers received nearly $3.3 million combined to pay for an alternative, such as a restorative justice coordinator or a youth intervention specialist.

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Chou said Wednesday that in the coming weeks CPS will post school discipline data online while determining more ways to measure if these other approaches are working, such as the perception of safety at a school.

Protesters gather in the Loop in June 2020 to call for the removal of school resource officers from Chicago Public Schools. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

The 41 schools still in the SRO program must reconvene their safety committees, which will include at least two parents and two students, to review data, solicit feedback from school community members and present an updated safety plan with a recommendation on school police to the Local School Council for a vote by June 15.

The 12 schools that left the SRO program dont have to go through this whole school safety planning process again, and they will receive the same funding as last year, Chou said. Schools that voted police officers out cannot reinstate them.

The process was born from the nationwide reckoning that followed the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. CPS partnered with five community-based organizations, which hosted nine community meetings to gather input on the process and devise recommendations such as sharing school safety plans online, increasing student and community involvement in the decision-making and implementation process, and promoting stories of success.

Year one was really focused on building out what that whole school safety plan could look like in and of itself, said Juleny Santa Cruz of Mikva Challenge, one of the groups that worked on this process. Year two is a really good opportunity to continue to push the envelope on, how do we shift safety from punitive measures into holistic measures?

tswartz@tribpub.com
New Yorks highest court on Wednesday tossed out the states new congressional map, ruling that it amounted to an unconstitutional gerrymander intended to elect more Democrats.

The 4-3 ruling from the state Court of Appeals deals a major blow to Democrats redistricting efforts in an already-difficult year for the party nationally. The maps out of New York had emerged as a bright spot for Democrats, who sought to more aggressively push their political advantage in the state.

Republicans need to net just five seats in the House to recapture a majority.

The new congressional map, which was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in February, created 20 Democratic-leaning and four Republican-leaning seats. Two other seats would be competitive, though tilted Democratic. New Yorks delegation is currently made up of 19 Democrats and eight Republicans. It is losing a seat during this redistricting cycle.

The court also struck down New Yorks new state Senate map.

In its ruling on Wednesday, the court  which is made up of seven judges appointed by Democrats  ordered new district lines to be drawn by a court-appointed special master ahead of this years midterm elections.

Writing for the majority, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said that the new congressional map is substantively unconstitutional as drawn with impermissible partisan purpose, and rejected an argument that the new lines should be left in place because the 2022 election cycle is already underway.

In other words, the State respondents urge that the 2022 congressional and senate elections be conducted using the unconstitutional maps, deferring any remedy for a future election, she wrote. We reject this invitation to subject the People of this state to an election conducted pursuant to an unconstitutional reapportionment.

The opinion also criticized Democrats for bucking the will of New York voters who backed the creation of an independent redistricting commission in 2014. The Democratic-controlled state legislature effectively ignored the commissions advice and opted to compose its own redistricting maps with impunity, DiFiore wrote.

Through the 2014 amendments, the People of this state adopted substantial redistricting reforms aimed at ensuring that the starting point for redistricting legislation would be district lines proffered by a bipartisan commission following significant public participation, thereby ensuring each political party and all interested persons a voice in the composition of those lines, she wrote.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.


NUKE CONFISCATION - Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the 36th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with a speech condemning Russia's "completely irresponsible actions" around nuclear power plants during its invasion and calling for "global control" of the Kremlin's nuclear capabilities. Continue reading 

STANDING HIS GROUND - Despite spiraling drug and crime crises, one Bay Area resident says he will stay and fight to save his city. Continue reading 

2A TASK FORCE - Donald Trump Jr. is launching a new gun rights group that he says will be a vehicle for fighting against Democratic gun control efforts. Continue reading 

GHOST OF DE BLASIO - NYC Mayor Eric Adams promised to crush crime but is being thwarted by remnants of his predecessor, expert says. Continue reading 

MURDER SUSPECT ARRESTED - Wisconsin police announced the arrest of a juvenile Tuesday in the death Lily Peters, 10, murdered near her aunts house. Continue reading 

POTSHOTS - Hunter Biden ripped Bill Clinton as an ahole who looks like st in a 2016 email exchange and took aim at multiple Clinton aides in 2015 emails. Continue reading 

JESSE WATTERS  Fox News host showed how the Left waged social media war on conservatives and on those with dissenting opinions under the guise of fighting "misinformation." Continue reading 

SEAN HANNITY  What does the liberal meltdown over what Elon Musk's leadership of Twitter mean, the Fox News host asks. Continue reading 

LAURA INGRAHAM  The Fox News host exposed the Left's pretensions to being cool. Continue reading 

CLINTONS IMPOTENCE - Bill Clinton said nothing he could have done as a leader would have prevented Putin's path to authoritarianism and his invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading 

SAME-OLD SCAPEGOAT - When Democrats have election year struggles  much like Novembers upcoming midterms  the media blames messaging woes. Continue reading 



TERRIFIED OF PRAYING? - NBC News sounded the alarm over the Supreme Court potentially siding with a former high school football coachs lawsuit over on-field prayers. Continue reading 

Story continues

LIBERAL HYPOCRITES  Mark Levin said the same "freakshow" of liberal hypocrites who cry foul over of Big Oil titans' behavior are aghast when someone intercedes in their Big Tech "cartel." Continue reading 

FREE SPEECH CONSEQUENCES? - New York Times writer said 2016 presidential election and Brexit are "what can go wrong" when social media fails to manage content. Continue reading 

MISLABELED - NBC News was roasted by critics after it posted a tweet describing one of the winners of "Jeopardy!" by her sexual orientation rather than her name. Continue reading 

CAROL BETH LITKOUHI - We have a legal right to know what our children are taught in school. And the public schools have a legal duty to tell us. Continue reading 



TUCKER CARLSON - Everyone will have a voice [on Twitter] and that's what they're mad about. What they don't want is the coming of diversity. Continue reading 

GREG GUTFELD - Elon Musk buying Twitter is great news for fans of free speech. Continue reading 

REBECCA GRANT - After his Kyiv visit, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin laid down a new take on Russia with six words: "We want to see Russia weakened." Continue reading 

JUDITH MILLER - Despite trying to bloody and bomb Ukraine, Putin may soon face one of his worst strategic nightmares: NATO is about to get larger. Continue reading 

WHY ARE UNIONS GROWING?  Expert says it's not necessarily wages infuriating workers, it's the wage gap between the people who own the companies and their employees. Continue reading 

ANXIOUS MOMENTS AT DRAFT - Sports psychiatrist breaks down Thursdays NFL Draft pressures, reveals how athletes can fight through the anxiety. Continue reading 

DEMENTIA LESSONS - Julie Centrella learned that a picture is worth a thousand words when she commissioned portraits of her mother, who struggled with dementia. Continue reading 

WHO IS LILY-ROSE DEPP? - Johnny Depps daughter, Lily-Rose, has featured prominently in the celebrity defamation trial. Continue reading 

DANCIN IN SEPTEMBER' ENDS - Andrew Woolfolk, who was a part of Earth, Wind & Fire during some of the band's most prominent years, has died. He was 71. Continue reading 

Whats it looking like in your neighborhood? Continue reading

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This edition of Fox News First was compiled by Fox News' Jack Durschlag. Thank you for making us your first choice in the morning! Well see you in your inbox first thing Thursday.
Glass artist Minh Martin described his concept for a glassblowing studio to the Nelson County Board of Supervisors as demonstration, participation and retail.

Martin and his wife, Anne Shapiro, presented their proposal to the board at its April meeting. Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a special use permit for the couple to build their studio in Afton.

Since we met at an art show, weve always dreamed about owning a gallery and we moved to the area a dozen years ago and have been very taken by Nelson. Ive been driving up 151 to finally find a place where we could make this happen.

Martin and Shapiro plan to build their studio on an 8.5 acre parcel of land they own along Virginia 151.

Martin presented designs for Glass Hollow Studios: The center of the barn would be where the glassblowing would happen and there would be a gallery around it.

He said he and Shapiro intend to make art in the studio and hold demonstrations and classes. Theyll sell their work as well as art made by regional artists and friends from the national craft scene. Martin added visitors might learn to make their own ornaments around the holidays or pumpkins in the fall during seasonal workshops.

We hope to employ a handful of glass artists and retail staff in the first year, Martin and Shapiros permit project narrative reads.

Martin told the board hes been a glassblower for 20 years. He presented images of his delicate and colorful stemware, vases and more fanciful things: glass weaponry, insects and a genies lamp.

Shapiro has been a textile artist for 16 years and makes natural fiber dresses and shawls. The two have three young sons who Martin said have been making good use of the land so far.

Board chair Jesse Rutherford said the studio could be a great complement to the area.

As far as the agritourism industry, when people do visit the area, its another activity for them to do, Planning and Zoning Director Dylan Bishop said. We dont have much of that type of experience.

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Ray Ramsey of the B.T. Ramsey & Sons sawmill in Piney River is pictured in a July 1984 issue of the Nelson County Times at work for the business his father built.

He smiles while loading a board onto a conveyor belt and is quoted as saying hell stay in the sawmilling business until the logs run out.

The logs, which Ramsey said are mainly sourced from Nelson County, havent run out yet, and hell be expanding the sawmilling business soon.

The Nelson County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously at its April meeting to approve a property rezoning allowing Ramsey to build an additional mill to connect to the existing saw mill.

According to Planning and Zoning Director Dylan Bishop, expansion requires a rezoning because the sawmill, at the corner of Firehouse Road and Virginia 151, is located in an area with zoning that currently prohibits sawmills. The rezoning the supervisors approved changes the propertys zoning from Business and Residential to Industrial.

On a recent April afternoon, Ramseys brother Roger was operating the head saw. From an operating booth, Roger Ramseys quick movements across the controls brought a large log back and forth over a circular saw. Each turn revealed a smooth, grained surface.

Brother Marshall Ramsey was running the debarker, quickly shaving the bark off each turning log. At the trim saw, employees manually moved boards back and forth across two saws, paying no mind to the deafening grinding. Ramsey said his son was unloading logs and Rogers son was also at work.

Through the din, Ramsey explained how the addition, which hes been working on for two years, will improve workflow. Currently finished lumber comes out on Firehouse Road and then has to be moved around the intersection to where its loaded on 151. When the addition is completed, Ramsey will be able to reverse the production line to instead shoot lumber toward 151, eliminating the step of transporting lumber around the corner.

The goal is to turn the mill and have all the lumber come out in this direction where the new buildings going, so we wont be using Firehouse Road or 151 to move the material from one side of the mill to the other. We can do everything in house and stay off the highway because, as you know, the highways are getting busier, Ramsey told the board April 12.

Ramsey said the new building was ordered in October and is expected to arrive in early May. The Virginia Department of Transportation also requested Ramsey build a barrier along 151 to channel traffic in and out.

Coincidentally, Ramsey wasnt the only person at the board of supervisors meeting with ties to the B.T. Ramsey & Sons sawmill, which has been in operation since the 1920s. West District Supervisor David Parr is the son of Jimmy Parr, who owned and operated the sawmill as The Nelson Lumber Company before Ramsey bought it and took over in 2008.

Parr said he grew up in the sawmill. He lived in a house right next door, worked at the sawmill every summer and studied lumber grading after college.

Parrs family runs five generations deep in Nelson County and the sawmill in Piney River was passed down from Parrs great grandfather, George  who Parr said he believes operated a steam-powered saw mill on the site  to his son Julian and finally to Parrs father, Jimmy.

Parr said his grandmother, Christine Carter Parr, ran Piney River Florist, a one stop shop for weddings, out of the first floor of a building next to the mill since demolished  the first step of the expansion according to Ramsey. The family lived on the second story and Jimmy Parr was born there.

Parr said his father housed a fire engine for the Piney River Volunteer Fire Department in one of the garage areas at the sawmill in the mid-1950s before the department had its own firehouse.

Ramseys father, the late Branard Tyson B.T. Ramsey, originally started the family sawmill business in Shipman after moving from the Montebello area in 1948.

Thats why we left it in his name, he said.

Everybody that came off of Montebello Mountain, those families went into the sawmill business, Ramsey added. He said all the mills in the area are run by relatives.

Ramsey & Son in Amherst, thats a third cousin.

He also listed J.P. Bradley of J.P. Bradley & Sons Lumber in Amherst as a second cousin, among other sawmilling relatives.

Ramsey said his father was married twice and had 16 children. B.T. Ramsey received three government land grants in his lifetime, cutting the timber and then reselling the land three times over.

On that April afternoon, Ramsey said the mill was cutting white oak headed for Africa and poplar headed for Vietnam and North Carolina.

We average around 18,000 feet a day, Ramsey said, adding the mill cuts more poplar than any other wood.

The 1984 article hangs in the sawmill office, along with a letter from former Virginia delegate George Allen, addressed to B.T. Ramsey.

In the letter, Allen says he enjoyed reading about Ramsey and his experiences in the Nelson County Times, writing, Keep up the good work. It is people with your character that make Nelson County so wonderfully unique.

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Three months into his role as Virginias Speaker of the House of Delegates, Todd Gilbert addressed Amherst County Republicans on April 25 with greetings from the newly liberated capital of Virginia, which drew loud applause.

Riding the high from a November election victory that gave the GOP a 52-48 majority in the Virginia House of Delegates and reclaimed the governors seat, Gilbert said Democrats still are reeling from the fallout and are imploding.

They still dont know what happened to them, Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, said to the monthly gathering of the Amherst County Republican Committee.

Gilbert said Democrats, who held the majority in the state legislature following the 2019 election, were proven wrong by many Virginians, especially in suburban areas, who finally woke up and paid attention to issues such as spikes in crime, violent offenders released from prison earlier and children kept from in-person learning in public schools during the pandemic.

Democrats created opportunities for victimization, grievances and tried to keep people in confining categories, and blamed Republicans for it, which contributed to them losing their leadership hold in the legislature, Gilbert said. Republicans, on the other hand, fought for opportunities to get people out of poverty, he said.

Our Democrat friends dont want that, Gilbert said. They dont want you pulling yourselves out of that because if you dont need them anymore, then why do you need to vote for them anymore?

Bolstered by the excitement of Gov. Glenn Youngkins campaign, he said voters showed up in droves and in rural areas to give the GOP the boost it needed to retake the House and not worry about power-sharing, although a 21-19 edge for Democrats remains in the Senate.

Gilbert spoke about going to sleep shortly after the election and waking up to discover another seat was gained in the House majority as election results continued to be tallied in certain districts.

I said, Quick, everyone go back to sleep. When we wake up, well get another one, Gilbert said in jest.

Republicans did what they said they would and made progress in the Virginia General Assembly session undoing much of the dumb, dangerous and offensive legislation passed under Democratic leadership the previous two years, Gilbert told the Amherst crowd.

We love our chances, said Gilbert of maintaining leadership. We love where we are.

Gilbert, who has served in the General Assembly since 2006, said he loves serving as Virginias 57th House speaker. Vance Wilkins, the chair of the Amherst Republican Committee who served as Virginias 53rd House speaker, praised Gilberts performance in his first session that hasnt yet culminated.

I think he did better than I did, Wilkins said.

Gilbert said with all of the Republicans momentum, the Democrats did favors for the GOP left and right in the past two years and were just getting warmed up with an agenda that would have been taken to the next level.

What they did play was pretty remarkable in terms of shamelessness, Gilbert said. They really did some awful, hurtful things that really undermined public safety, your ability to make a living, the ability for kids to just get an education, which is the whole reason schools exist.

He also criticized Democrats for measures he said undermined the states election system.

One thing after another, they went for it, said Gilbert of Democrats policies. And they paid for it.

As he fielded questions from the crowd, he was asked if there are any reasonable Democrats left in the state legislature.

No, there are not, he replied. At least, they dont vote that way.

Bill Tucker, of Lowesville, asked Gilbert about his plan for growing the GOP base to include more young people.

There are so many young Republicans out there that dont realize that theyre Republicans, Tucker said. Theyre just mad. They need to be energized for the life of this party going forward that are not in this room.

Gilbert said he has put more than 300,000 miles on his vehicle while traveling to advance the partys mission and said youth involvement has to be organic to some degree with parents help.

I would say that our grassroots is better organized and has more momentum now than Ive ever seen, Gilbert said. And so were just trying to feed that.

Gilbert said he is proud of the legislatures work to lift the mask mandate in public schools in recent months, which Republicans felt contributed greatly to learning loss during the pandemic. He added though the General Assembly is late in its endeavor for a state budget, he is confident it will be a fiscally sound one.

Next year is a pivotal one as all 140 members of the General Assembly are up for reelection, he said.

The stakes are real, he told the Amherst crowd in emphasizing the importance of voting.

I think our Democratic colleagues continue to double down on things that prove very unpopular with enough Virginians that we were able to have this opportunity and we hope that we can lead and govern and show them theres a better way than what occurred the past two years, Gilbert said. I think we can definitely build on this.

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Wishma Sandamali, a 33-year-old Sri Lankan woman, died in a Japanese detention centre in March of last year. Her death sparked debate on the treatment of the 1,500 asylum seekers currently in detention in Japan.

Many of them claim they are being treated inhumanely. Despite its economic might, Japan takes in few refugees. In 2020, it accepted less than 100 asylum seekers, while France, whose population is half the size of Japan's, took in 24,000.

Musk tweet on Japan provokes anger

canberratimes.com.au - May 09

An Elon Musk tweet saying Japan will "eventually cease to exist" without a higher birth rate has sparked sarcasm and anger - though much of the angst is aimed at a Japanese government many say does little to address the issue. An Elon Musk tweet saying Japan will "eventually cease to exist" without a higher birth rate has sparked sarcasm and anger - though much of the angst is aimed at a Japanese government many say does little to address the issue.

Panda in Japan gets Mother's Day gifts

NHK - May 09

A giant panda has received Mother's Day gifts at a theme park in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan. A giant panda has received Mother's Day gifts at a theme park in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan.

New York's top-shelf sushi surges past $1,000 a meal

Nikkein - May 09

Eating at a high-end sushi restaurant in New York City can set you back by four figures these days, with the bill pushed up by costs for shipping, ingredients and labor. Eating at a high-end sushi restaurant in New York City can set you back by four figures these days, with the bill pushed up by costs for shipping, ingredients and labor.

'Like family': Japan's virtual YouTubers make millions from fans

Japan Times - May 07

Mayu Iizuka sheds her soft-spoken personality and starts cackling, screaming and waving wildly in a makeshift studio in Tokyo as her avatar appears on a livestream before hundreds of fans. Mayu Iizuka sheds her soft-spoken personality and starts cackling, screaming and waving wildly in a makeshift studio in Tokyo as her avatar appears on a livestream before hundreds of fans.

Kanye West emerges in Japan with his new muse

msn.com - May 06

Kanye West was spotted in Japan alongside his new muse Chaney Jones, after laying low for a while following his public bitter divorce from ex-wife Kim Kardashian. Kanye West was spotted in Japan alongside his new muse Chaney Jones, after laying low for a while following his public bitter divorce from ex-wife Kim Kardashian.

Child victims of 2011 disaster remembered with carp streamers

NHK - May 06

Child victims of the major earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan in 2011 have been remembered with hundreds of streamers painted with a blue carp pattern fluttering in a clear sky. Child victims of the major earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan in 2011 have been remembered with hundreds of streamers painted with a blue carp pattern fluttering in a clear sky.

The history and meaning of Childrens Day in Japan

theconversation.com - May 05

In Japan, Childrens Day  Kodomo no Hi  is held on May 5 and marks the final national holiday of the period known as Golden Week. In Japan, Childrens Day  Kodomo no Hi  is held on May 5 and marks the final national holiday of the period known as Golden Week.

The 5 Reason Why Foreigners Should Not Marry Japanese Men

Japanese Comedian Meshida - May 04

The Japanese marriage system is a total opposite to Disney. Instead of becoming a princess, you'll turn into a housemaid. Actually Japanese husbands are more like evil fairy godmothers. The Japanese marriage system is a total opposite to Disney. Instead of becoming a princess, you'll turn into a housemaid. Actually Japanese husbands are more like evil fairy godmothers.

Head of Hokkaido tour boat operator: Fatal accident could have been avoided

NHK - May 04

The president of a tour boat operator in Hokkaido Prefecture, northern Japan, has stated in a document that a fatal accident last month could have been avoided if safety protocols were followed. The president of a tour boat operator in Hokkaido Prefecture, northern Japan, has stated in a document that a fatal accident last month could have been avoided if safety protocols were followed.

Police appeal for help from public over 2008 murder of 15-year-old girl

Japan Today - May 04

Police in Toyota City on Monday appealed to the public for any information that might help apprehend the person or persons who killed a 15-year-old girl in 2008. Police in Toyota City on Monday appealed to the public for any information that might help apprehend the person or persons who killed a 15-year-old girl in 2008.

Police officer driving patrol car arrested over fatal accident in Sapporo

Japan Today - May 03

Hokkaido Prefectural Police have arrested a 61-year-old assistant police inspector on suspicion of dangerous driving resulting in death after the patrol car he was driving hit and killed a pedestrian on Sunday. Hokkaido Prefectural Police have arrested a 61-year-old assistant police inspector on suspicion of dangerous driving resulting in death after the patrol car he was driving hit and killed a pedestrian on Sunday.

Welcome to Japans zero-waste town

plainsmenpost.com - May 03

Tucked away in the mountains of Japans Shikoku island, a town of about 1,500 residents is on an ambitious path toward a zero-waste life. Tucked away in the mountains of Japans Shikoku island, a town of about 1,500 residents is on an ambitious path toward a zero-waste life.

Vietnamese woman dies on street in Tokyo

NHK - May 02

Japanese police say a young woman has died after being found on a street in Tokyo. Investigation sources say she is believed to be a Vietnamese national. Japanese police say a young woman has died after being found on a street in Tokyo. Investigation sources say she is believed to be a Vietnamese national.

Can Japanese subway system work as a bomb shelter in time of war?

Nikkei - May 01

Subways in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv stopped operations following the launch of attacks by Russian troops. Stations, as deep as 105 meters underground, became temporary bomb shelters as citizens brought in blankets and tents to protect themselves from Russia's threat of nuclear attack. Subways in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv stopped operations following the launch of attacks by Russian troops. Stations, as deep as 105 meters underground, became temporary bomb shelters as citizens brought in blankets and tents to protect themselves from Russia's threat of nuclear attack.

Bone, shoes found near campsite where girl went missing

NHK - May 01

Part of a human skull and a child's sneakers have been found in a mountain forest in Yamanashi Prefecture, west of Tokyo, where an elementary school girl went missing from a nearby campsite three years ago. Part of a human skull and a child's sneakers have been found in a mountain forest in Yamanashi Prefecture, west of Tokyo, where an elementary school girl went missing from a nearby campsite three years ago.
A former senior member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult was released from prison Tuesday, having served a nine-year term for his involvement in three cases related to the group, people familiar with the situation said.

Makoto Hirata, 57, turned himself in to police in 2011 after nearly 17 years on the run. In 2014, he was given the nine-year jail term for his involvement in the abduction and confinement of a Tokyo notary clerk as well as the bombing of a condominium and the firebombing of an Aum facility in the capital in 1995.

The sentence was finalized after the Supreme Court rejected Hirata's appeal in 2016.

The bombing of the condominium and firebombing of the Aum facility in March 1995 -- which took place on the eve of the cult's sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system -- were aimed at impeding a police investigation into the religious group.

A 68-year-old notary clerk, Kiyoshi Kariya, died after being abducted and injected with an anesthetic by the group in February 1995. The cult were trying to find out the whereabouts of Kariya's sister, a former member who had escaped from the cult, and Hirata served as a lookout in the case.

After turning himself in, Hirata sent a number of letters to the family of the victim in which he apologized and criticized the cult, according to Kariya's eldest son Minoru. ...continue reading
FICTION: Wonderfully entertaining novel about lessons in life, love and business centered around one family's suburban Chicago restaurant.

"Marrying the Ketchups" by Jennifer Close; Knopf (320 pages, $28)



One of worst parts of waiting tables comes at the end of the shift. You're tired, you're hungry, but you still have side work to do, like making all the pawed-over, schmutz-smeared ketchup bottles into facsimiles of their once brand-new selves. This process often starts with pouring the vestiges of one bottle into another, which is a deceptively frustrating and potentially very messy task because, quite frankly, ketchup doesn't want to be poured.

Jennifer Close's lovingly lived-in novel "Marrying the Ketchups" takes its title from this dreaded duty, which it cleverly enlists as metaphor for the efforts of three cousins  Teddy, Gretchen and Jane  trying to scavenge and repackage the pieces of their lives in the wake of the 2016 election. Their existential despair comes on the heels of their grandfather's death in late October, just a week before his beloved Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years. As Gretchen observes, "Three impossible events, one right after the other. Nothing made sense anymore."

In attempting to make sense of the senseless, the 30-somethings each seek the friendly confines of Sullivan's, their family's restaurant in Oak Park, west of Chicago, which had been a neighborhood staple since their grandfather opened it in 1979. Close knowingly expounds every insider-y nuance of the restaurant business as vividly as she recaptures the rage and frustration that many Americans felt in early 2017.

Teddy's journey seems easiest, trading his job running a trendy West Loop eatery for his dreams of revitalizing the unintentionally retro Sullivan's. But his determination is frustrated  both professionally, by employees like his uncle who resist change, and personally, by his 16-year-old half-sister who moves in with him.

Gretchen had remained in New York City after college, stuck leading a '90s cover band whose glory days selling out East Coast shows had given way to learning "Macarena" for Long Island weddings. When her drummer boyfriend confesses to cheating on her with their guitarist, she breaks free and moves back into the apartment above Sullivan's where she grew up.

Her older sister, Jane, married with two kids in the affluent North Shore, seemingly has it all figured out. But even she is restless, tired of bunko with judgmental housewives and increasingly lavish birthday parties hosted by neighborhood children. As her fears of complacency and divorce materialize, she too heads to the comfort of Sullivan's.

These three, and indeed all their friends and family, are intensely recognizable characters, funny and flawed, angry and desperate, and much of the novel is dedicated to their engaging development  or lack thereof. The story accelerates in the final section owing partly to an all-too-real scandal surrounding consent, harassment and the internet, particularly acute issues in the sleazy klieg lights of the 45th president.

The conclusion is too neat, perhaps, but the characters acknowledge the privileges that made it possible. And they also realize that just because there are things that can be saved, it's often better to throw it all out and start from scratch.



Cory Oldweiler is a freelance writer and editor.
A new Netflix documentary reveals new details surrounding the death of film icon Marilyn Monroe 60 years ago. Ben Foster is The Survivor in HBOs wrenching film about former Holocaust prisoner Harry Haft, directed by Barry Levinson. A new edition of the kid-oriented Nick News spotlights children displaced by the war in Ukraine. Learn how to draw classic Disney characters in the Disney+ docuseries Sketchbook while learning personal insights about the animators.

Documentary Premiere

Even 60 years after her tragic overdose death at 36, Marilyn Monroe remains an object of fascination and speculation. Biographer Anthony Summers (Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe) provides new information from his archives of taped interviews regarding her turbulent life and rumor-shrouded death. Among the revelations: According to insiders, after her death in her L.A. home, then-President John F. Kennedy and brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, with whom she allegedly had affairs, had fixers remove items that had to do with the men.

Movie Premiere 8/7c

His body was a weapon, his soul collateral damage. Thats the wrenching real-life story of Auschwitz survivor Harry (born Hertzko) Haft, introduced as the pride of Poland in his post-war career in America as a pro boxer. Each punch he absorbs carries PTSD flashes from his time in the concentration camp, where he was kept alive only to pummel doomed fellow prisoners for their Nazi captors amusement. The remarkable Ben Foster undergoes extreme physical transformation to portray Harry from emaciated prisoner to beefy refugee. He yearns to take on the legendary Rocky Marciano if only for publicity that might help him connect with the love of his life, who disappeared in the camps. Barry Levinson directs with unflinching realism and compassion.

7/6c

CBS News correspondent Vladimir Duthiers hosts a new installment of the renowned news-for-kids series, which goes to war-torn Ukraine for a report from CBSs Imtiaz Tyab about kids in Lviv whove been driven from their hometowns by carnage but refuse to give up hope. Another segment features Nick star Gabrielle Nevaeh (That Girl Lay Lay, All That) in a trip to New York City to profile the members of Girl Scout Troop 6000, which serves the thousands of girls living in the citys shelter system.

Series Premiere

Watch the pros bring classic and contemporary Disney animated characters to life in a docuseries that doubles as instructional video and window into the minds of these gifted artists. Each episode focuses on one characterOlaf from Frozen, Captain Hook from Peter Pan, the Genie from Aladdin, Mirabel from Encanto, Young Simba from The Lion King and Kuzco from Emperors New Groove  and as an animator walks viewers through the steps to replicating these figures, they reveal their own life journeys that brought them to Disney and the drawing board.

10/9c

With NBC and ABC mostly in repeats, this is one of the few scripted originals airing on broadcast TV tonight. In the penultimate episode of the first season, Griff (Jason Isaacs) girds himself for fallout from his DUI confession, but he also gets blowback from Lex (Skye P. Marshall) over what she sees as a betrayal. While Sam (Sophia Bush) prepares for a risky surgery that could advance her career, Malcolm (Edwin Hodge) makes a run for his mothers newly vacated board seat.

Inside Wednesday TV:
Elise Poole joined the Black Lives Matter protests in Lincoln after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 with the goal of helping make a difference, even a small one.

Nearly two years later, after suffering a grievous injury that scarred her physically and mentally, Poole says she is ready to move on from being a symbol of the very kind of police brutality she was fighting against.

The city of Lincoln agreed to pay Poole $497,500 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit the 20-year-old filed after a projectile fired by law enforcement during the protests struck her in the face, nearly costing her her nose.

Ive closed one door and Im opening another, Poole said. With that comes some anxiety, but Im overall very relieved this is all over with and I can close this chapter of my life and move on and heal.

In February 2021, Poole sued the city, Lancaster County, former LPD Chief Jeff Bliemeister and Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner for violating her civil rights in how officers and deputies responded to the protests on May 30-31, 2020.

Law enforcement documented hundreds of instances where force was used during the protests, but LPD, the Lancaster County Sheriffs Office, and Nebraska State Patrol have all said those uses were justified.

As part of the agreement with Poole, the city  which will pay the full settlement  admitted no liability or wrongdoing. City Attorney Yohance Christie said the city was unsure what caused Pooles injury.

On Tuesday, in an interview at the ACLU of Nebraskas office in Lincoln, Poole said she is continuing to heal physically from her injury, but said that she continues to battle post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

It took me a long time to fully process everything, she said. It took me a year, honestly.

Poole was standing with friends near the intersection of 12th and H streets just after 10 p.m. on May 31, a little more than two hours after a curfew set by Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird had gone into effect.

Gaylor Baird enacted the curfew after protests the previous nights had become destructive, resulting in millions of dollars of damage along Lincoln Mall and elsewhere.

The protesters from two separate groups  one that had been dispersed by law enforcement earlier at the County-City Building and another that had marched from the Capitol  had squared off against law enforcement on H Street before tear gas and munitions pushed them back.

As she stepped off the curb to retreat, a sharp pain ripped across Pooles face  what her legal team believes was a drag-stabilized beanbag, typically several grams of No. 9 shot tied inside a cotton bag fired from a shotgun.

Poole felt her nose hanging near her mouth. Her friends screamed and rushed to her aid, yelling for help from street medics that were administering first aid to other protesters that night.

Pushing a scarf to the gash across her face, Poole was helped to a car a half-mile away that sped to Bryan West Campus, where surgeons found the bone, cartilage and internal valves of her nose destroyed.

Doctors were able to reattach Pooles nose, but the physical pain has been long-lasting. Poole said she still has difficulty breathing, particularly from her right nostril, which is all but closed shut.

She anticipates needing at least two surgeries in order to restore her ability to breath correctly through her nose.

While the physical pain comes and goes, Poole said the mental anguish and emotional turmoil has continued.

The whiff of something with a hospital smell can trigger a flashback of the event. Shes experienced routine night terrors of her friends screams as they scrambled to help her. Certain images or sounds  even a song that once brought her joy  can put her in a depressive state.

Doctors have diagnosed Poole with severe PTSD and prescribed her medications to help with her anxiety and depression, which has allowed her to continue to work and maintain an apartment.

Poole says her support system  mother and stepfather, sister, boyfriend, friends and roommate  are supportive and understanding, and helping her keep afloat.

I have a lot of people who love me and people from the community that have surrounded me and given me their support, she said.

Jackie Buntgen, Pooles mother, said she and her husband had sat Poole down before she went to the protests and told her to go with love in her heart.

They later rushed to the hospital shortly after learning their daughter had been shot, and have done what they can to help Poole in her recovery.

Its been hard because she really got hurt, Buntgen said. She was out there and she just wanted so much to help. For us, its just been about trying to support her and keep her happy and well.

The support from random people she meets in the community has been surprising for the once-anonymous 18-year-old who attended a protest only to become an exhibit of the violent crackdowns on Black Lives Matter protests across the country.

People recognized Poole immediately after for the scar and swelling across her face and have offered a kind word, she said. Others have told her that standing up and speaking out and filing a lawsuit to hold the law enforcement agencies accountable has inspired them.

I was just there to help give Black and brown people a voice and try to make a positive change in some way, she said. Its crazy to see how something happening to me could be such a big thing for everyone in the community. Ive never experienced that.

It has also come with its downsides.

Poole and her family have had to step away from social media, where commenters will often opine that she got what she deserved or suggested law enforcement should have used live ammunition rather than so-called less-lethal munitions.

Why is getting shot in the face a just thing for using my rights and going out and standing up for what I believe in? she asked. I was doing what was right; I wasnt doing anything wrong, and people think I got what I deserve because they dont agree with it.

I think thats really messed up.

Poole said the experience has been a full circle. She joined the protests to speak out against police brutality and was met with police brutality.

No one should have to go through that, Poole said. Im not going to compare it to being a Black or brown person, because its not the same thing. But experiencing police brutality and living my life after that, Im scared all the time.

Settling the lawsuit  Poole called the amount the city agreed to pay life-changing money  will allow her to move on from the roller coaster ride of the last two years, she said.

Poole said she plans to use the money to continue to get the medical and mental health help she needs to live normally after this.

But, she says, the experience hasnt turned her off from continuing to support the Black Lives Matter movement, other racial justice issues, and holding police accountable.

When you do something wrong, you should take accountability for it, she said. I think compassion goes a long way, and I think people should just be more compassionate.

I care a lot and Im trying my best.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS
Xi calls for efforts to build modern infrastructure system

Xinhua) 08:14, April 27, 2022

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for all-out efforts to strengthen infrastructure construction in the country's building of a modern infrastructure system.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the 11th meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, of which he is the head.

Infrastructure serves as a pillar for economic and social development, Xi said, urging the country to coordinate development and security, and optimize the layout, structure, functions and development models of infrastructure.

Other Chinese leaders, including Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng, attended the meeting.

The meeting heard reports from relevant departments on ramping up infrastructure construction and their progress on policy implementation.

While giving credit to China's achievements in major sci-tech facilities, water conservancy projects, transport hubs, information infrastructure and national strategic reserves, the meeting deemed the country's infrastructure still incompatible with the demand for national development and security.

Strengthening infrastructure construction in an all-round way is of great significance to ensuring national security, smoothing domestic circulation, facilitating the "dual circulation" of domestic and overseas markets, expanding domestic demand and promoting high-quality development, according to the meeting.

Toward this end, the country needs to bolster the construction of network-based infrastructure in fields such as transport, energy and water conservancy, with efforts made to improve efficiency, the meeting said.

China should improve the planning of waterways and the building of coastal and inland ports, and upgrade water transport facilities nationwide, the meeting said, while a smart grid must be developed, a series of new green, low-carbon energy bases built, and the oil and gas pipeline network should be fine-tuned.

Efforts should also go into strengthening the infrastructure construction for industrial upgrades in information, sci-tech and logistics, as well as building facilities for a new generation of supercomputing, cloud computing, AI platforms and broadband networks, said the meeting.

A host of regional, general and freight transport airports will be constructed nationwide, the meeting said, calling for efforts to promote the transport integration of urban agglomerations, build convenient and efficient intercity railway networks, and develop urban railways and urban rail transit.

The country needs to promote the modernization of agriculture and rural areas with infrastructure modernization, it said, also stressing the necessity to support national security infrastructure and improve the country's capability to cope with extreme situations.

On increasing financial support for infrastructure construction, the meeting called for broadening the channels for financing and encouraged the participation of social capital in the investment and operation of urban infrastructure.

The country should also adhere to its innovation-driven strategy, putting more efforts into the research and development of core technologies to shore up the technological independence of infrastructure construction, the meeting said.

In addition, the meeting underscored the contributions made by the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, saying that it has profoundly studied a variety of major issues concerning the country's fundamental and long-term development, and has played a strategically leading role.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Mr. Buxco, the cat, sits with Will Clinger as Lauralynn White listens in while Clinger talks on the phone to a Chicago police detective on April 27, 2022. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Will Clinger  the former host of the WTTW-Ch. 11 program Wild Chicago  was minding his own business, boarding a Red Line CTA train at his usual station of Thorndale to go south to the Lake Street stop to meet up with a friend.

Clinger, of Edgewater, said he had boarded the Red Line around 8:30 p.m. Monday. He sat in a somewhat empty car, but there were two people sitting across from him. He wasnt paying much attention as he was on his phone, but when the train pulled into the Addison station, a woman dashed across the aisle, grabbed his phone and ran out the door, he said.

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It was a total surprise when I suddenly found somebody grabbing my phone out of my hands and racing out of the car, Clinger said.

I probably mistakenly dashed out the door after them, giving chase to try to get my phone back, Clinger said. And the last thing I remember is falling, and I dont even remember landing.

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When his memory picks back up, Clinger said he was surrounded by the medical staff at an emergency room. The fall caused him a brain bleed, contusion, four stitches on his forehead and a swollen hand.

So the lesson is, I guess, A) dont have your phone out at night on the L, and B) if you get your phone stolen, dont chase the people that stole it because I paid a fairly hefty price, said Clinger, current host and producer of Wild Travels.

Clinger said he has lived in Chicago since 1982 and has never been the victim of a crime in the city until this incident. He said he still plans to take the L but will be more hesitant to take it at night and will try to sit in cars that are well populated.

His was one of two separate attacks within 24 hours at a pair of North Side Red Line stations. The other resulted in another man being stabbed during an armed robbery. Chicago police are now investigating the attacks on the transit system, which recently has seen a spate of similar incidents.

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Will Clinger at his Chicago home on April 27, 2022. The former host of WTTW's "Wild Chicago" and current host of "Wild Travels" was robbed at the Addison Red Line station on Monday night. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

The other attack occurred around 4:40 a.m. Monday when Chicago police were called to the Belmont CTA station, at 945 W. Belmont Ave. in Lakeview, police said. They found a 44-year-old man had been stabbed by someone who robbed him of personal items before running off, police said.

It wasnt immediately clear where on his body the man was stabbed and at what hospital he was treated, and his condition was not released by authorities, who said mass transit detectives were investigating. Police didnt say what was stolen from the man.

Later that night, around 8:45 p.m. Monday, police were called to the Addison Red Line station, at 940 W. Addison St., to investigate the battery and robbery of a man who turned out to be Clinger.

Clinger was approached by two unknown males who demanded his personal property, police said. One of the two men also punched the (64-year-old) in the face causing (him) to fall and hit his head on the wall. He suffered minor bruising and a laceration to the head and was transported to Illinois Masonic hospital in good condition, according to police.

Clinger said he has no memory of being punched.

Crime at Chicago transit stations has been making headlines this month, anecdotally suggesting an increase in violence on public transportation in the city, although statistics for the month have not yet been released. Last month, police and CTA officials committed additional resources to combat growing concerns over the safety of the transit system.

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The continued news of attacks comes as CTA grapples with spikes in violent crime and complaints that more riders are breaking rules that prohibit smoking, drinking and other nuisance behavior on trains and buses. Police and CTA officials on March 9 announced plans to address crime and rule-breaking, saying they would be doubling the number of unarmed security guards and adding more police officers and supervisors to patrol the transit system, including on the busy Red and Blue lines, with a focus on gang and narcotics crimes.

Editors note: A prior version of this story said the attack happened Tuesday.
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Morocco has become the first African country in the field of car manufacturing ahead of South Africa, said the UAE-based Sky News Arabia TV channel.

Morocco, thanks to its potential, has been able to achieve record levels in the automotive industry, said the news channel on its website, noting that this has allowed the Kingdom to be on the list of top ten countries in this area, not only in terms of number of cars produced, but also in the rate of local integration, which stands at 60%.

Citing recent data from Moroccos Foreign Exchange Office, the channel reports that the Kingdoms automotive sector exports increased by 4.1% in February 2021, reaching a value of about 15.74 billion dirhams, and that the volume of exports of the sector at the end of 2021 reached nearly 22 billion dirhams, compared to 16 billion dirhams in the third quarter of 2020, an increase of 40%.

This confirms the strength of the automotive industry in Morocco and the ability of the Kingdom to revitalize despite the global economic situation, the TV channel notes.

These figures are strong indicators of the attractiveness and flexibility of the Moroccan platform of the automotive sector, which, despite the difficult global situation, has managed to maintain its competitiveness and preserve the confidence of global players in the sector, and quickly recover its momentum with the economic recovery, says Sky News Arabia.

According to Yassin Ennsairi, member of the Researchers Forum at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, this positive development of the automotive industry is due to the work done by Morocco to create all the conditions conducive to attracting international industrial companies, and this by improving the business climate and providing all the conditions required in terms of advanced infrastructure and manpower.

The channel also quoted researcher in economics and international trade at Hassan I University in Settat, Mustafa Khayati, as saying that the automotive sector has made Morocco a distinguished exporter and that Moroccan exports of cars have exceeded those of phosphate, and most other sectors.

According to the foreign trade statistics published on February 1,2022, in 2021, exports of the automotive sector in Morocco total 83.78 billion, up 15.9% compared to 2020. The previous record, which dates from 2019, has therefore been beaten.

Despite the disruptions in the sectors global supply chains, which translate into difficulties in the supply of electronic components, the Moroccan automotive industry achieved exceptional export performance in 2021.
The year 2022 is under very good auspices, as shown by both the air traffic recorded since the recovery and the traffic expected for the coming months, according to the National Office of Airports (ONDA).

Compared to 2019, the average recovery rate forecast of passenger traffic in Moroccos airports is about 75%, the ONDA pointed out in a statement.

This rate would exceed 100% for several airports, including those of Tangier (104%), Nador (104%), Al Hoceima (106%), Oujda (108%), and Tetuan (537%), it said.

ONDA also said that Moroccos airports welcomed 2,228,723 passengers traveling aboard 21,330 air flights, between February 7 (the first day when international flights resumed) and March 31.

In March alone, Moroccan airports recorded a commercial traffic volume of 1,452,030 passengers and 13,543 flights, i.e. a 70% recovery for passengers and 80% rate for airport movements, compared to the same month of 2019, the ONDA said.

During the same month, the Mohammed V Casablanca Airport received 565,484 passengers and 5,330 flights (+71% of the total passenger traffic and 75% of the airports activity recorded in March 2019).

The airports of the Northern and Eastern regions of the Kingdom have recorded the strongest progress, with recovery rates exceeding 100%. Out of the 26 airports open to air traffic, 17 airports have been served since the reopening of the sky.

With 170,735 passengers during March 2022, domestic air traffic has recorded a recovery rate of about 67% compared to the same period in 2019.

In March 2022, the air cargo activity recorded a recovery rate of 83% compared to the same period of 2019, totaling 6,796 tons against 8,221 tons in the same period in 2019.

Regarding connectivity, 48 new air connections will be created in the summer of 2022, the ONDA added.

This includes two additional flights at the Mohammed V airport, 12 flights at the airport of Marrakech, 11 flights at the Agadir Airport, and nine flights at the airport of Nador, besides 48 new air routes. These include connections between Casablanca and Manama (Bahrain) and Kuwait City; Tangier to Rome and London-Stansted; and Oujda to Barcelona and Seville in Spain and to Montpellier and Nantes in France.

In this connection, Moroccos flag carrier RAM announced on Tuesday that it has strengthened its flight program for the 2022 summer season to better accompany the recovery of travel activity.

The National Company will thus offer 6 million seats on 80 air routes across four continents. By restoring a large part of the air routes closed since the health crisis, and by opening new routes such as Tel Aviv and Dubai, Royal Air Maroc will recover nearly 90% of its 2019 network, RAM said in a statement.

To facilitate the travel of its customers during the summer holidays, RAM will offer more than 2.2 million seats on the European continent which is home to a large community of Moroccan expatriate. Some 437 flights per week will connect 9 Moroccan airports to 32 airports in Europe, the statement said.

RAM will offer 900,000 seats to Africa with 110 flights per week, and will thus gradually recover the network it had on the continent before the Covid-19 crisis.

In North America, the carrier will offer nearly 500,000 seats, 6% more than the offer proposed in summer 2019. Some 35 weekly flights will link Casablanca to New York, Washington, Montreal and Miami.

In the Middle East, RAM will offer 200,000 seats, an increase of 25% compared to the summer 2019 offer.

In addition to Jeddah, Riyadh, Medina, Cairo and Tel Aviv (launched last March), the company will expand its network with the opening very soon of a new air route linking Casablanca to Dubai.

As a member of the oneworld Alliance, we have put its extremely dense network of more than 1,000 destinations to work for the benefit of the tourism sector by strengthening connectivity between the main emitting markets and Moroccan destinations, thereby accelerating the recovery. We have therefore opened new tourist routes while increasing frequencies on the most important routes, Chairman and CEO of RAM, Hamid Addou, was quoted in the statement as saying.
The United States has once again expressed its dissatisfaction with the new decisions of the Tunisian President, Kais Saied, in particular relating to the appointment of 3 members of the Electoral Authority which must supervise two upcoming elections in the country.

Since his election in 2019, the Tunisian head of state has often been the subject of international warnings about the decline of democracy in the country.

Washington has sounded the alarm bell once again for the democratic situation in the country. State Department spokesman Ned Price on Tuesday criticized Tunisian President Kais Saied for assuming the right to appoint the head of the Election Authority.

The United States is deeply concerned by the Tunisian presidents decision to unilaterally restructure Tunisias Independent High Authority for Elections, Ned Price said during his daily press briefing.

This reaction from American diplomacy comes as Kais Saied has decided to appoint 3 out of 7 members of this body (including its president) supposed to be independent, and who will now be on his side, if he has to stand for a coming election.

Washington has continued to communicate to Tunisian leaders the importance of maintaining the independence of the main democratic institutions and guaranteeing Tunisias return to democratic governance, insisted the State Department spokesman.

These appointments will have all the more impact as Tunisia is heading in a few months towards a referendum and a legislative election that the Independent High Authority for the elections in Tunisia must supervise.

During a trip to Tunis March 23-27, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights Uzra Zeya had visited Tunisias Independent High Authority for Elections, where she stressed U.S. commitment to free and fair elections and support for this key democratic institution to fulfill its constitutionally mandated role to run the upcoming referendum and parliamentary elections.

Tunisia has been through a serious political crisis that has compounded since July 25 after President Kais Saied seized the executive power, fired then Prime Minister, froze the activities of the parliament and suspended the immunity of lawmakers.

Recently, he dissolved parliament after 116 MPs held an online session that adopted a draft law overturning all decisions he has taken since July 25.

Thirty lawmakers among whom Speaker of Parliament had been questioned and put under investigation. They face charges including plot against the state and death penalty if they are found guilty.

Late last month, Washington voiced concern over Tunisias democratic trajectory and stressed the importance of an inclusive political and economic reform process that gives civil society a strong voice, underlining that it was deeply concerned by Kais Saieds decision to dissolve parliament, calling for a rapid return to constitutional government.

Early April, Washington said it would slash this year into two its military aid to Tunisia in reaction to the authoritarian path that the North African country has taken.

According to an announcement by the State Department spokesperson, Tunisia would receive $61 million instead of $112 million initially planned.

The Biden administration will also cut by half, $40 million, its economic aid to the North African country in connection with democracy deficit.

The United States seeks to continue to support the Tunisian people and encourage the governments return to constitutional governance, the spokesman had said. Cuts in U.S. economic and security assistance, compared to the previous years requests, reflect our significant concerns about the continued decline in democracy.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday hailed the targeted measures adopted by Morocco to mitigate the impact of soaring energy prices on economy.

The Moroccan government is today undertaking a set of targeted measures, including support for the transport sector of people and goods to relieve the rise in energy prices on production, underlined the IMF director of MENA department, Jihad Azour, during a press conference on the regional economic prospects.

He also underscored the measures taken by Morocco to expand the range of support put in place during the pandemic to alleviate the impact on certain social categories, in addition to the work in progress to renovate social policy and actions aimed at reviving the economic sectors most affected by the health crisis, including aviation and automotive industry.

In 2022, Morocco had to face the drought which had a negative impact on the agricultural campaign just as it suffered, like the rest of the world, from the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis, which caused a surge in the prices of raw materials, including oil, recalled the IMF official. He further mentioned the indirect impact of this crisis on the markets with which Morocco maintains close commercial ties, like European countries.

According to the IMF, these factors prompted the Bretton Woods institution to lower, in its semi-annual report on World Economic Outlook published last week its growth projections for the Moroccan economy to 1.1% in 2022 against 3% previously forecast.

During his press conference, the director of the IMF for the MENA region insisted that the Moroccan economy, which has been very impacted by the pandemic in 2020, was able to recover quickly in 2021. It is probably one of the countries that has had one of the fastest recoveries, he said, pointing out that this revival is the result of Important measures taken by the Moroccan government.

Morocco was one of the first countries in the region, outside the Gulf Cooperation Council, to succeed in its vaccination campaign, as the government and Bank Al-Maghrib initiated a series of measures to protect the sectors in order to secure the ability of institutions and businesses to resume their economic activities, he said.

For the IMF official, these actions have facilitated the resumption of economic activity while allowing the Kingdom to access global financial markets at very favorable rates.
The Road 702 Fire  which is impacting areas of Red Willow, Furnas and Frontier counties in Nebraska  was listed at 47% contained as Tuesday morning, four days after the blaze started in Kansas.

The wildfire that killed a former volunteer fire chief last week, injured 15 firefighters and destroyed several homes has burned 41,448 acres, according to an update from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.

The reported burn-out area grew by just under 300 acres due to the addition of a previously burned finger of the fire undetected during a previous Multi-Mission Aircraft flight that gathered data for a map of the blaze.

Additional fire support crews from surrounding states contributed to the 159 people who have assisted in fighting the dayslong fire.

Those efforts continued Tuesday in the face of stronger winds. After a break in the weather Monday, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for the area of mostly prairie and farmland. Tuesdays temperatures were warmer and humidity dropped to as low as 15%, with winds gusting to 35 mph.

Its not as quite as bad as it was when this started on Friday. Rob Powell, operations section chief for the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team One, said during a Tuesday morning briefing on Facebook. But well have high gusty winds and low humidity. We have a plan in place if we have a new (fire) start or an escape.

Among the highlights from Tuesdays report:

 The west branch of the fire encompasses the area from Cambridge and south to Lebanon. The fire north of U.S. 6-34 has been contained.

Firefighters were expected to continue to patrol and mop up in this area as well as strengthen containment lines, according to the report.

 Along the west edge  from U.S. 6-34 south to near Silver Creek firefighters continue to work on containment lines and cooling down hot spots within the timbered draws. Heavy equipment is being used to remove trees that pose a hazard to firefighters in the area.

 From near Silver Creek south to the break at Nebraska Highway 89, the perimeter has been contained and firefighters will continue to patrol and mop up.

For the eastern perimeters of the fire  from Cambridge and south to Wilsonville and into Kansas  the perimeter from State Highway 89 to Road 702 has been contained.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Dion Dawsons early life may have been filled with poverty, hardship and bouts of homelessness, but his last two years have been nothing short of meteoric.

In early 2020, Dawson was working overnights at an Amazon facility to help several family members pay bills in the midst of a pandemic. But by the end of 2021, following the death of George Floyd, he had started a nonprofit aimed at eliminating food insecurity and earned public recognition for his efforts to provide an oasis in a food desert.

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This month, Dawson, 34, was one of 18 people from around the globe selected for the highly coveted annual Echoing Green fellowship, which will help fund his initiatives: Project Dream Fridge, a community refrigerator in the heart of Englewood where residents access fresh fruit and vegetables stocked daily, and Dream Deliveries, which delivers free food to homes across the city and suburbs.

Ive been blessed to be able to live presently in the moment, Dawson told the Tribune. When you come from a background where your family has struggled, where you have to worry about where your next meal will come from, it feels good to actually live in that moment and be able to relish in the fact that day-to-day operations are secure.

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Echoing Green is a corporate backed nonprofit that identifies future leaders who have shown bold or innovative problem solving in topics ranging from health, human rights, poverty and racial justice. Former first lady Michelle Obama was a fellow in 1991.

Green fellows receive an $80,000 stipend over 18 months and Dawson said he would use the money to expand his food delivery service, which has reached as far north as Evanston and west to Schiller Park. He plans to expand throughout Cook County. Hes looking toward loftier goals, with every $1 million raised being used to feed 1,000 families in a 50-mile radius.

Echoing Green listened to me, listened to my ideas on where I think we have the best impact in changing the narrative in food insecurity, he said, and this is about getting to the root of the problem and where food insecurity is anywhere, not just in Englewood.

The topic of food insecurity has a deep personal resonance for Dawson, the youngest of four sons raised on the streets of Englewood by a single mother. He lived much of his young life in homelessness as his mother struggled with substance abuse. Still, homelessness didnt stop Dawson from finishing school, graduating from Holmes Elementary and Gage Park High schools.

After returning from a six-year stint in the Navy, Dawson found himself homeless again, living in his car, saying he had a difficult transition back to civilian life.

Dawsons life took an unexpected detour in May 2020 after Floyds death. A community member asked Dawson to do something for his neighborhood in recognition of Juneteenth, an African American holiday that gained widespread support following Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis police. I said Im going to feed 100 families, Dawson recalled.

What followed was a whirlwind that included two successful crowdfunding campaigns to buy fresh fruits and vegetables for families and the start of his own nonprofit, Dions Chicago Dream. That same year, Dawson and his wife were surprised by talk show host Ellen DeGeneres with a $25,000 check on her show for his community work.

Dawson said a real point of pride is that his program has grown from 30 households to 250 and that his organization of five owns its delivery vehicles and pays the crew a living wage.

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Dawson said he remains committed to feeding people no matter where they are. No matter if theyre in Streeterville, Englewood, West Pullman. Food insecurity doesnt look like a certain person and it doesnt come in a certain neighborhood.

wlee@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @Midnoircowboy
The West Central Research, Extension and Education Center introduced third, fourth and fifth graders from the area to Animals Inside and Out on Tuesday.

The program is designed to give students a hands-on experience with farm animals. Presenters came from around west central Nebraska to offer information and answer students questions.

Randy Saner, Extension lead educator, said the program was developed by Kearney County Extension Educator Rhonda Herrick and her team.

The program is basically to teach the kids about circulatory systems, muscle systems, Saner said. They talk about careers in agriculture, (and) we do injection sites and talk about injections.

The students circulated between various stations, with some learning in a classroom environment and others in a lab setting.

We have the beef lab to talk about simple and complex stomach digestive systems and we have the skeletal, Saner said. They talk about how skeletons protect us.

The teachers are Extension educators and 4-H leaders who came from all over west central Nebraska. Classes and labs included reproduction, circulatory, byproducts, skeletal, management, animals close-up, beef lab/digestive, muscular and careers.

We talk about byproducts, which are whats left of the beef that we dont eat that have other uses, Saner said. The idea is just to kind of help them with science, science-based information and those kind of things.

On Tuesday, there were 175 students participating from Brady, Stapleton, Maxwell, North Plattes McDaid Elementary, Sutherland, Maywood, McPherson County and home schools from Sutherland and North Platte.

Today there will be 260 students from North Platte Public Schools doing the same program.

Saner said Amber Willard, Extension assistant 4-H youth development, went to the schools prior to the event on Tuesday for classes on the various subjects.

So the students have actually had classroom time and now this is the actual lab, Saner said.

This is the first time the WCREEC has done this particular program.

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President Biden understandably wants to project a sense of normalcy after two-plus years of pandemic chaos. To that end, he has decided to attend this weekends White House Correspondents Dinner  also known as the Nerd Prom by some of the most annoying people on earth  even as top lawmakers including Kamala Harris have tested positive for COVID in recent days. This would be a defensible decision if the dinner were in any way salutary for a functioning democracy. It isnt. Its just a way-too-cozy gathering of politicians and the journalists who are supposed to cover them aggressively, the supposed justification of which is to raise money for journalism scholarships. (There are other ways to do that.) The WHCD has had its moments: Stephen Colberts evisceration of a visibly displeased George W. Bush is still an all-timer, and Seth Meyers and Barack Obama ragging on Donald Trump was hilarious until  well, you know. But really, this thing should have died a long time ago. Unfortunately, the dinner appears to be unkillable  not even years of Trumps nonattendance, a supposedly scandalous Michelle Wolf joke, and two pandemic cancellations have done the job.

With his multiple boosters and easy access to Paxlovid, Biden does not seem at high risk of a truly serious COVID case. And the Washington Post reports that because of safety concerns, he plans to skip the dinner portion of the evening and might take precautions like wearing a mask at times. Still, it seems unwise for a 79-year-old with the nuclear codes to expose himself to the virus for no great reason  especially when the event in question, with an expected attendance of 2,000, isnt taking some seemingly advisable safety steps. After a recent outbreak stemming from the Gridiron dinner (another hoary Washington politics/journalism confab), Dr. Anthony Fauci, not exactly a spotlight-hater, has decided against attending the WHCD, judging the risk to be too high for him personally. Biden probably fears looking weak if he backs out now, which is why he should have declared the entire thing nonsense months ago. But the ultimate Washington institutionalist was never going to do that, so here we are.
FACT.MR

Trichloroacetyl Chloride Market Analysis, By Purity (99%, 99.5%, 90%) By Application (Chlorpyriphos, Organic Chemical Synthesis, Oxalyl Acid Synthesis, Acetylation of Esters), By End-use Industry, by Region - Global Forecast 2021-2031

United States, Rockville MD, April 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a recently published Fact.MR report, the global Trichloroacetyl Chloride market is projected to grow at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 4.6% between 2021 and 2031. The market is expected to reach US$ 8.8 Bn by the end of 2031. The demand for Trichloroacetyl Chloride is expected to rise over the forecast period and the market was valued US$ 5.4 Bn in 2020.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Demand of Trichloroacetyl Chloride Market"

84 Tables and

112 Figures

170 Pages

Trichloroacetyl chloride demand is expected to be majorly driven by increasing use in pharmaceutical applications as a crucial pharmaceutical intermediate. Increasing use of chemical solvents in multiple industry verticals is also expected to favor trichloroacetyl chloride market potential. Government initiatives to boost the manufacturing industry are also expected to positively impact demand for trichloroacetyl chloride.

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However, strict mandates against the use of harmful chemicals to conserve the environment are expected to have a constraining effect on market growth. Nevertheless, key trichloroacetyl chloride manufacturers are focusing on expanding their manufacturing capacity to meet rising demand from the pharmaceutical sector.

Why Should Trichloroacetyl Chloride Manufacturers Focus on China?

Presence of Robust Manufacturing Sector & Supportive Government Policies

China is anticipated to provide lucrative opportunities for trichloroacetyl chloride manufacturers owing to the presence of robust manufacturing infrastructure and increasing support from the government, which is projected to drive more investments in this sector and further bolster market potential through 2031.

Story continues

Chemical products such as solvents have seen a substantial increase in demand across multiple industry verticals. Other than trichloroacetyl chloride, the demand for chemicals such as acetyl chloride, benzoyl chloride, oxalyl chloride, etc., is also anticipated to see an increase over the forecast period in China.

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Trichloroacetyl Chloride Market by Purity: 99% Trichloroacetyl Chloride 99.5% Trichloroacetyl Chloride 90% Trichloroacetyl Chloride Others





Trichloroacetyl Chloride Market by Application:



Trichloroacetyl Chloride for Chlorpyriphos Trichloroacetyl Chloride for Organic Chemical Synthesis Trichloroacetyl Chloride for Oxalyl Acid Synthesis Trichloroacetyl Chloride for Acetylation of Esters Others



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Trichloroacetyl chloride suppliers are adopting various organic and inorganic strategies to boost their revenue generation potential across the world. Supportive government initiatives to bolster manufacturing industries are also expected to provide incentives to trichloroacetyl chloride companies and propel market growth.

Increasing industrialization and chemical manufacturing are also set to be prominent trends that trichloroacetyl chloride companies will focus on and benefit from over the coming years.

Key players in the Trichloroacetyl Chloride Market

Huaian Depon Chemical Co. Ltd.

Hari Orgochem Pvt. Ltd (Chloritech Industries)

Ningxia Root Biotech Co. Ltd.

TML Industries Ltd.

Chengwu Chenhui Environmental Protection Technology Co. Ltd.

Ningbo Inno Pharmchem

SRF Ltd.

Meghmani Organics

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Key Takeaways from Trichloroacetyl Chloride Market Study

In 2020, the trichloroacetyl chloride market raked in a net worth of US$ 5.4 Bn.

Consumption of trichloroacetyl chloride is projected to rise at a CAGR of 4.6% from 2021 to 2031.

Trichloroacetyl chloride shipments are expected to account for a market valuation of US$ 8.8 Bn by 2031.

Increasing use in pharmaceutical and agricultural applications is expected to majorly guide trichloroacetyl chloride market growth over the decade.

Stringent government mandates against the use of chemicals are expected to hamper trichloroacetyl chloride market growth to a certain extent.

China is anticipated to be the most lucrative market for trichloroacetyl chloride in the Asian region.

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(Bloomberg) -- Seven banks have slashed their yuan forecasts with the currency headed for its biggest monthly decline since China unified its exchange market in 1994.

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Analysts from Credit Agricole CIB, to HSBC Bank Plc have lowered their estimates for the yuan recently as the worsening Covid outbreak and spreading lockdowns lead to declines of more than 4% this month. Some of the bearish projections were swiftly breached Thursday as the yens slide added to the depreciation pressure. Separately, a survey of 11 traders and analysts by Bloomberg show the yuan is expected to drop to 6.7 per dollar in three months, about 1% weaker than current levels.

Yuans turnaround came just months after China sought to tame its strength as Covid lockdowns fan fears that the nation will miss its economic target with even the capital Beijing battling an outbreak. While the central bank and policymakers have pledged to step up support, Chinese markets are tumbling, raising the specter of accelerating capital outflows.

I dont think this is an end to recent yuan depreciation, said Bo Zhuang, senior sovereign analyst at Loomis Sayles Investments Asia in Singapore, who raised concerns of a possible hard landing should a lockdown grip Beijing. He forecasts the yuan weakening to 6.85 per dollar this year, with a potential to hit 7 next year.

Morgan Stanley and other banks have cut their China growth forecasts to below the official projection of 5.5% for the year. Early indicators compiled by Bloomberg show domestic demand worsened in April while business confidence also plunged.

The onshore yuan fell below the 6.6 per dollar level on Thursday for the first time since November 2020. HSBC and BNP Paribas SA had predicted the currency would breach that level by the end of June while JPMorgan Chase & Co. had forecast it surpassing that point by year-end.

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Standard Chartered and Credit Agricole forecast it at 6.70 by the second quarter while Bank of America Corp. and TD Securities see the currency falling to 6.80 by year-end on worsening terms of trade. At the end of March, analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected the currency to be at around 6.38 by the end of the second quarter.

The onshore yuan has fallen 4.3% so far this month to 6.6107 per dollar while the offshore unit fell 4.6% over the same period to 6.6438.

The yuans outlook is heavily dependent on the evolving Covid and growth situation in China, said Alvin Tan, head of Asia currency strategy at the Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong, It makes sense to use controlled currency depreciation as a relief valve for the economy if growth risks were to escalate.

Measured Support

The PBOCs measured approach toward supporting the yuan is also evident from its restraint in using the daily reference rate as a signaling tool.

It set the reference rate 36 pips stronger than the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey Thursday after setting the fix broadly in line with forecasts so far this week. On Monday, the central bank cut the amount of money that banks need to have in reserve for foreign currency holdings to increase yuan liquidity.

I prefer to view the PBOC moves as managing exchange rate volatility rather than targeting an exchange rate level or view them as attempts to reverse a trend, said Philip Wee, senior foreign exchange strategist at DBS Bank Ltd in Singapore

The PBOC has various tools at its disposal to boost the yuan. It could use currency fixing, squeeze offshore yuan shorting costs and further cut the reserve requirement for foreign currencies, according to the Bloomberg survey participants.

The central bank could also limit foreign outflows and foreign currency purchases onshore, said the traders and analysts who asked not to be identified as they arent authorized to speak publicly.

(Updates throughout.)

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Dont be alarmed if you hear sirens and see multiple ambulances and a Lifesaver helicopter in Auburn and Opelika this morning.

East Alabama Health is conducting a disaster drill today from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, which will involve multiple ambulances, a Lifesaver helicopter and other public safety vehicles from Auburn and Opelika.

Nursing students and mock patients will be transported by ambulances on the following roads: Shug Jordan Parkway, South College Street, Lem Morrison Drive and Pepperell Parkway.

John Atkinson, the public relations director for EAH, said in a release that 35 nursing students from Southern Union and Auburn will be involved in the drill.

The students will travel to the Freestanding Emergency Department in Auburn and to EAMC. The mock patients will travel from Auburn School of Nursing and EAMC Education Center to the FED and to EAMC.

The Lifesaver helicopter will land at the FED in Auburn and will simulate a flight out to EAMC, according to the release.
A Lombard man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday after police caught him headed toward the villages municipal campus with a Molotov cocktail and a lighter.

Christian Frazee, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit terrorism, according to a statement from the DuPage County states attorneys office.

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Frazee and was sentenced to 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections by Judge Michael Reidy, the statement said.

Frazee also pleaded guilty to one count of child pornography. He was sentenced to three years for that charge, which will be served concurrently with the 10-year sentence.

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About 12:30 a.m. on June 1, 2020, a Lombard police officer saw Frazee dressed in all black wearing a hood, face covering and latex gloves walking near Village Hall and toward the of Lombard municipal campus, according to the statement.

He had a bat hanging from his bag and was holding a lighter in his left hand and a Motolov cocktail in his right hand as he walked toward police and city employee cars, the statement said.

Frazee also had a butane torch lighter and seven more lighters, according to the statement, which said police had extra patrol that weekend because protests and unrest in Chicago and surrounding suburbs.

Frazee was charged with possession of an incendiary device and attempted terrorism at the time.

While investigating these charges, police found hundreds of photos and videos of child pornography on Frazees phone, according to the statement. Frazee will be required to register as a sex offender for life.

In June 2020, amid legitimate protests, Mr. Frazee armed himself with a Molotov cocktail, headed toward the Lombard Hall and municipal campus intent on terrorizing the community through violence, States Attorney Robert Berlin said in the statement.

If not for the vigilance and quick actions of the Lombard Police Department, the situation may have escalated resulting in the loss of property and perhaps the loss of human life.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck says the government is preparing to take control of the countrys PCK refinery, operated by Russian state-owned Rosneft, as it scrambles to replace Russian oil to enable an EU-wide ban.

The PCK refinery in Schwedt supplies eastern Germany and western Poland.

Germany and Poland are now said to be nearing the end of discussions on a concerted effort to zero out Russian crude oil imports to Germany, with new sources re-routed through German and Polish ports.

PCK currently receives crude oil inputs from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline.

The new plan would see PCK inputs shipped through the German Baltic Sea port of Rostock and the Polish port of Gdansk through an alternative pipeline link. Habeck said the plans had been agreed, with only technical details remaining.

When asked if all-out expropriation of the refinery was a possibility, Habeck responded in the affirmative.

We are in a situation where the German government must adapt to and prepare for all scenarios, said Habeck.

Germany has succeeded in reducing Russian oil imports by over 20%, though some refineries still rely on Russian imports, which now account for 12% of Germanys overall oil imports.

On Tuesday, Habeck said a full embargo was now manageable and it could be only a matter of days before Germany can withstand a full ban on Russian oil.

Just last week, Germany suggested it would not be able to implement a full ban on Russian oil until the end of the year.

Germanys announcement also coincides with a Reuters report citing Italian officials as saying that the nationalization of its largest refinery, ultimately owned by Russian Lukoil, would be put on the Cabinets agenda on Thursday.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Anyone banking on more upside momentum for oil prices may be disappointed going forward, with a holding pattern now being determined by rising concerns over demand coupled with releases from strategic petroleum reserves.

Oil prices have fallen particularly sharply over the past week as traders worry that Chinas oil demand will take a big hit from reinstated lockdowns.

Brent blend for June delivery fell USD 10.84/bbl w/w to settle at USD 102.32/bbl, while WTI for June delivery fell USD 9.07/bbl to USD 98.54/bbl. Values were more robust along the curve, with Brent for delivery five years out falling just USD 1.44/bbl w/w to USD 72.70/bbl.

The fall in prices gained pace on 25 April after testing of Beijing residents began following COVID cases being reported in the Chaoyang district of the city.

While volatility in the energy markets remains high, there are signs that its declining, with intra-day trading ranges also trending lower. Front-month Brent appears to be in the latter stages of its third wave since Russias invasion of Ukraine. The amplitude of the waves from low to high is declining; the first wave spanned USD 43 per barrel; the second USD 23/bbl, and the third USD 14/bbl. The dampening of the cycles is mirrored in smaller intra-day trading ranges; there were 14 days in March with an intra-day trading range of more than USD 8/bbl, but there has been just one so far in April.

And now, commodity analysts at Standard Chartered are warning that fundamental risks are skewed toward a market surplus, adding that traders should be cautious about short-term price rallies and should instead maintain long exposure in the middle and back of the price curve.

Demand Hit

According to StanChart, lockdowns are likely to dent Chinas oil demand by 1.1mb/d in April. However, the decline is expected to only last a few months, with Chinas demand growth expected to come in lower by only 78 thousand barrels (kb/d) by July.

However, the experts have cautioned that any extension of area-wide lockdowns would likely extend negative demand effects into Q3, increase the Q2 demand loss and take the annual demand growth forecast into negative territory. Related: Bearish Momentum Grows, But Traders Remain Bullish On Crude

The global oil markets are currently dislocated, with crude flows having to be redirected and with shortages of specific oil products in specific locations--most particularly diesel in NW Europe. That said, StanChart says the market is not in an overall deficit and could even record a small surplus in April. The balance, however, looks tighter in Q3 and beyond, with the fall in Chinas demand expected to be transitory while the decline in Russian oil output persists. The banks projected Q3 deficit of 0.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) is small enough to be filled by further increases in OPEC output and by a continued deceleration in oil demand growth as global economic growth weakens.

The latest EIA weekly data was highly bullish according to our US oil data bull-bear index, which rose 49.8 w/w to +63.4 (see China crude imports to remain low as demand falls). Crude oil inventories fell 8.02 million barrels to 413.73 million barrels, leaving them 79.28 million barrels lower y/y and 71.61 million barrels below the five-year average. The w/w fall in crude oil inventories was 10.4 million barrels relative to the five-year average and 10.2 million barrels relative to the pre-pandemic 2015-19 average. The w/w change in the crude oil balance was dominated by a 2.09mb/d increase in crude oil exports to 4.27mb/d, just 192kb/d less than the all-time high. The overall w/w change in the balance was 2.486mb/d in the direction of lower inventories. The EIA estimate of crude oil output rose 0.1mb/d to a 23-month high of 11.9mb/d.

The U.S. oil rig count rose by a single rig w/w to a two-year high of 549 according to the latest Baker-Hughes survey, and the gas rig count also gained a single rig to a 30-month high of 144. The largest rise in oil activity was recorded in the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana, where the rig count gained two to 35. Activity in the Permian was unchanged at 332 rigs; among the Permian sub-basins, Delaware Basin activity rose by one to 172 rigs, Midland Basin activity fell by one to 130 rigs, and other Permian activity was unchanged at 30 rigs.

The latest EIA Drilling Productivity Report estimates that 433 wells were completed in the Permian Basin in March, a two-year high and still comfortably ahead of the 363 new wells drilled. The number of drilled-but-uncompleted wells (DUCs) in the Permian fell by 71 m/m (5.1%) to a five-year low of 1,309 in March, while DUCs in other regions fell by 43 (1.4%) to 2,964. The report made some significant downward revisions to Permian oil liquids output, with the March total revised 163kb/d lower to 4.975mb/d. The EIA expects Permian output to rise 82kb/d m/m in May to 5.137mb/d, with the total across the regions covered expected to rise 133kb/d to 8.649mb/d.

Overall, the bulls still have the upper hand.

The distribution of the bull-bear index has been skewed to the bullish over the past year: there have been 31 bullish, 12 bearish, and nine neutral readings. The skew is particularly pronounced in the tails, i.e., the ultra-bullish or bearish (weakest and strongest 5%), and the highly bullish or bearish readings (the next 10% in each tail). There has not been an ultra-bearish reading in the past year (the last one was 91 weeks ago), whereas there have been four ultra-bullish readings. There has only been one highly bearish data release over the past year, while the latest weeks reading is the 10th highly bullish release over the same period.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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Sustained high commodity prices and increasing oil and gas supply are set to push upstream sector payments to governments to an all-time high of $2.5 trillion this year, smashing the previous record of $2.1 trillion set in 2011, Rystad Energy research shows. Saudi Arabia is, unsurprisingly, set to top the table in terms of total cash flow to government from the sector this year, followed by the US and Iraq, with the top 10 list dominated by Middle Eastern producers. Government take varies considerably between nations, however, with Norway and Iraq seeing an average take per produced barrel of oil equivalent (boe) of around $100, while for the likes of the US and Canada the figure is below $20 per boe.

Total tax income in 2020 was just above $600 billion as low oil and gas prices and production cuts due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic early in that year sent such income to one of the lowest levels this century. Total tax income increased last year to $1.4 trillion, with higher commodity prices being the main driver behind the rise.

The leap to a record high in revenues is being driven by a combination of high oil and gas prices and lower costs. A year ago, it looked like the era of trillion-dollar revenues might have been behind us. Today it is clear that we are heading into a super cycle that will benefit petrostates. These record revenues present an unparalleled opportunity to diversify economies, says Espen Erlingsen, Head of Upstream Research at Rystad Energy

Saudi Arabia will be the largest beneficiary in absolute terms and is expected to receive just above $400 billion from its cornerstone industry this year, an increase of almost $250 billion from 2021. The US, when including royalties paid to private landowners, takes second spot with around $250 billion paid to government, an increase of $100 billion compared to 2021. Iraq follows with about $200 billion in total tax income, a doubling of its income compared to 2021.

Related: Is An End To Libyas Oil Shutdowns In Sight?



Norways position in fourth comes despite being only the tenth-largest oil and gas producer globally and the government will receive revenues of around $150 billion in total tax income. This is due to European gas prices, low levels of cost and large government ownership driving this achievement.

By the barrel

One way to measure the tax pressure for the different countries is to look at the average government take per produced barrel. This measures how much money is flowing to a particular government per produced barrel, here including both oil and gas. There are several drivers for this metric, including costs levels, oil price discounts, gas prices, tax rates and the share of national oil companies (NOC) in the different countries.

On average Iraq has the highest government take per barrel  for each barrel the country produces, around $100 goes to the government, with the low level of costs and service agreements being the drivers. Norway also has a very high government take per produced barrel, at just below $100. Again, high European gas prices, low cost levels and a large government ownership are driving this achievement. In addition, a 78% profit tax also ensures the government takes most of the exceptional profit the oil and gas industry is expected to generate this year. The US is on the other side of the scale with an average government take per produced barrel of around $20. High investment rates, low domestic gas prices and low corporate tax rates account for this relatively low number.

Per capita

While oil and gas revenues are at an all-time high, the amount of cash per citizen can vary greatly. A per capita measurement shows that Nigeria will receive around $300 per capita. Indonesia and China will jointly receive the lowest incomes per capita at around $100. At the other end of the scale, Qatar, Norway and Kuwait will receive a whopping $40,900, $28,000 and $23,200, respectively, per citizen.

By Rystad Energy

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The European Union is working to ensure alternative gas supply and pledges a coordinated response to Gazproms announcement it had stopped gas flows to Poland and Bulgaria, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

Late on Tuesday, Poland and Bulgaria said they had been notified by Gazprom that Russian gas supply to the two countries would be cut off as of Wednesday. Gazprom says supply was stopped due to absence of payments in rubles.

Commenting on the halt of Russian gas deliveries to certain EU member states, von der Leyen said on Wednesday: The announcement by Gazprom that it is unilaterally stopping delivery of gas to customers in Europe is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail.

This is unjustified and unacceptable. And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier, the EC president added.

We are mapping out our coordinated EU response, von der Leyen said.

Europeans can trust that we stand united and in full solidarity with the Member States impacted in the face of this new challenge, she noted.

Charles Michel, President of the European Council, said he is in contact with the prime ministers of Poland and Bulgaria, and that We will remain united and support each other while phasing out Russian energy imports.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki described the halt of Russian supply as a direct attack" on Poland and vowed that the country would not give in to this blackmail.

In the contract with Gazprom, Bulgaria has to pay in U.S. dollars for Russian gas and Russias demand for payment in rubles is a breach of contract and contains risks for the buyer, Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said on Wednesday.

It is clear that in the current war in Ukraine, Russia uses natural gas as a political and economic weapon, Nikolov added, noting that Bulgaria will not negotiate under pressure.

There is no risk of gas rationing in Bulgaria right now, the government said. Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said on Wednesday he had discussed the situation with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a phone call and that Bulgaria and Greece would continue to work together for energy security and diversification, which is of strategic importance for both countries and the region.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Reports of attacks on U.S. and international organizations by Russian-backed ransomware group Conti are on the rise.

Putins war in Ukraine has forced much of Europe to look for alternatives to Russian fossil fuels.

Cyberattacks have hit at least three wind power firms in Germany in the two months since Russia invaded Ukraine. A European wind power industry association says the timing of the hacks suggests possible links to hackers sympathetic with Russia aiming to wreak havoc on European renewable energy systems as Europe looks to cut its reliance on Russian fossil fuels. German firms Enercon, Nordex Group, and Deutsche Windtechnik have all reported cyber incidents in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Conti, a group that declared support for Russia at the start of the war in Ukraine, claimed responsibility for the attack on Nordex.

The cyberattacks on Germany-based wind power companies began on the day on which Russia invaded UkraineFebruary 24.

Turbine maker Enercon GmbH announced a massive disruption of the satellite communication following a cyberattack on a satellite that day.

Communication services provided via the satellite went down at almost exactly the same time that Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Enercon said last week in its latest update on the cyber incident. Around 30,000 satellite terminals used by companies and organizations from various sectors were affected across Europe, including 5,800 Enercon wind energy converters (WECs) in central Europe with a total installed power of more than 10 gigawatts.

The incident is suspected to have happened in connection with the Russian war of aggression, the disruption of the communication to the WECs is collateral damage, Enercon said, noting that There is no risk to the WECs and never has been.

Related: Four Buyers In Europe Have Paid In Rubles For Russias Gas



Earlier this month, another turbine maker, Nordex, reported a cyber security incident was detected on March 31, and response measures were initiated immediately. The company shut down IT systems across multiple locations and business units.

Preliminary results of the analysis suggest that the impact of the incident has been limited to internal IT infrastructure, Nordex said in an update on April 12.

Russia-backing Conti ransomware group claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on Nordex a few days later.

In late February, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in an alert that Conti cyber threat actors remain active and reported Conti ransomware attacks against U.S. and international organizations have risen to more than 1,000.

A portion of actors involved with Conti ransomware are based in Russia and some criminals operating from there already have documented ties with Russian intelligence apparatus, Kimberly Goody, a director with U.S. cybersecurity company Mandiant, told Reuters when the hacker group announced its support for Russia and threatened to attack Russian enemies if they respond to Putins invasion of Ukraine.

The latest cyberattack on the wind power sector in Germany was against Deutsche Windtechnik, which maintains wind turbines. Deutsche Windtechniks IT systems were targeted by a cyberattack early on April 12, the company said, noting that the wind turbines that we look after did not suffer any damage and were never in danger.

The timing of the attacks on German wind power firms suggests potential links to supporters of Russias invasion of Ukraine, Christoph Zipf, a spokesman for industry group WindEurope, told The Wall Street Journal this week.

Cyberattacks have been taking place while Germany and the whole of the EU are trying to reduce their reliance on Russian fossil fuels.

Germany, which has been the main opponent to an imminent full embargo on Russian oil imports to the EU, said on Tuesday that it hoped to find replacements for its Russian oil supply within days, according to Economy Minister Robert Habeck.

Today I can say that an (oil) embargo has become manageable for Germany, Habeck told reporters during a visit to Poland, as carried by Reuters.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Four buyers from Europe have already paid for Russian gas in rubles, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing a source close to Gazprom, as the Russian gas giant halted supply to Poland and Bulgaria.

Vladimir Putin has threatened to cut off the gas supply to Europe if the hostile nationsincluding all of the EUdo not start paying in rubles for gas. The EU has rejected Putins demands for payments in rubles, while Russia did not immediately cut off the gas supply to Europe after April 1, partly because it is dependent on revenues from gas and partly because payments for gas delivered after April 1 are not due until later this month or early May.

Some of Russias natural gas customers have agreed to pay in rubles for Russian gas, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier this month, without disclosing which buyers had agreed to pay in rubles for gas.

According to Bloombergs source on Wednesday, ten companies in Europe have already opened accounts at Gazprombank, which Putin has designated as the bank that will be handling the payments in rubles for Russian gas.

The EUs refusal to pay directly in rubles tests Putins threat to cut off the gas supply, and buyers in Europe would be running a very real risk of their supplies being cut, Katja Yafimava, a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, told Bloomberg last week.

Late on Tuesday, Poland and Bulgaria said they had been notified by Gazprom that Russian gas supply to the two countries would be cut off as of Wednesday. Gazprom says supply was stopped due to absence of payments in rubles.

Gazprom confirmed on Wednesday that the gas had been shut off to the two countries.

In the contract with Gazprom, Bulgaria has to pay in U.S. dollars for Russian gas and Russias demand for payment in rubles is a breach of contract, Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said on Wednesday.

It is clear that in the current war in Ukraine, Russia uses natural gas as a political and economic weapon, Nikolov added, noting that Bulgaria will not negotiate under pressure.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Refiners in Europe have significantly raised purchases of North Sea crude grades in recent weeks as they look to replace as much Russian crude as soon as possible, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed on Wednesday.

European buyers, especially those in the Baltic region, began raising imports of crude pumped in the UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea last month as many refiners vowed to cut dependence on Russian crude immediately, or as soon as feasible.

All cargoes of the Forties blend and all but two cargoes from the giant Johan Sverdrup field offshore Norway that have loaded so far in April have been delivered in Europe, Bloombergs data showed. Europe was not the primary destination of Forties and Johan Sverdrup crude grades before the Russian invasion of Ukraineback then, most such cargoes were going to Asia.

In March, refiners that had traditionally bought Russias flagship Urals blend  predominantly such in Finland, Poland, and Lithuania  purchased the highest volume of North Sea crude in many years13.5 million barrels, according to Bloombergs data.

Europe has also raised oil imports from the U.S. in recent weeks, as the EU mulls an import ban on Russian crude.

While the EU is considering an oil embargo, Russia upped the ante on the gas supply front, by turning off the taps to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday, citing the two countries unwillingness to pay in rubles for Russian gas.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned European companies that agreeing to ruble payments would be a breach of the sanctions against Russia.

Companies with such contracts should not accede to the Russian demands. This would be a breach of the sanctions so a high risk for the companies, von der Leyen said on Wednesday, as carried by Bloomberg.

Earlier this week, Germanys top importer of Russian gas, Uniper, said it believes it could continue buying gas without breaching the sanctions.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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ExxonMobil has increased its estimate of the gross discovered recoverable resource estimate for its Stabroek Block in offshore Guyana to 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels, thanks to three new discoveries at the site. This was increased from the previous estimate of 10 billion barrels.

Exxon stated that it had made hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone discoveries at the wells of Barreleye-1, Patwa-1 and Lukanani-1. This brings the companys total discoveries this year to five in offshore Guyana, which included the discoveries at Fangtooth and Lau Lau made earlier this year.

At Barreleye-1, Exxon discovered 230 ft (70 m) of hydrocarbon-rich sandstone and was drilled at a water depth of 3,840 ft (1,170 m). The discovery at Patwa-1, made at a water depth of 6,315 ft (1,925 m), uncovered 108 ft (33 m) of hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone. The discovery at Lukanani-1, conducted at a water depth of 4,068 ft (1,240 m) found 115 ft (35 m) of hydrocarbon-rich sandstone.

At present, Exxon has four sanctioned projects in the area, and has plans to scale this up to 10 production units. The current capacity of Liza Phase I is 130,000 barrels per day, with the Liza Destiny floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

Liza Phase II commenced production in February 2022, and aims to reach a capacity of 220,000 barrels per day using the Liza Unity FPSO.

Payara, Exxons third project in the region, has started construction on its Prosperity FPSO, and likely to commence production by the end of 2023. Its expected capacity is 220,000 barrels per day.

Finally, Yellowtail, its fourth project in the region is expected to deliver 250,000 barrels per day when its ONE GUYANA FPSO launches in 2025.

By Gandahari Cooray for Oilprice.com

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German activists have allegedly succeeded in halting the flow of crude oil through pipelines at five separate locations in protest against the countrys foot-dragging on a ban on Russian oil.



A group calling itself The Uprising of the Last Generation claims to have breached the pipelines at emergency stations on Wednesday where climate activists activated shut-off valves and then chained themselves to the valves.



According to Reuters, the five valve locations were in Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Greifswald and Koblenz.



The group said that crude oil pipelines had been turned off all over Germany and the flow of oil had been interrupted. Members of the group filmed the shut-offs, posting video and photographs on Twitter and Instagram.



According to Germanys Tichys Einblick daily, it was unclear at the time of writing if crude oil flows along this pipeline had effectively been halted.



Activists are demanding that the government of Olaf Scholz work faster to find ways to reduce Germanys dependence on Russian energy sources.



"We are in a climate emergency! The German government not only ignores it, it plans to fuel it further. To now want to drill for oil in our North Sea - this is madness that you must stop, Mr. Habeck!" activist Edmund Schulz said in a statement.



Germany, the European Unions largest economy, has waffled on Russian oil and gas, with unions and industry leaders warning that an immediate Russian natural gas ban would be disastrous to the economy.



Germany has already cut Russian oil imports by over 20%, with officials now spreading optimism that it could be only a matter of days before the country is capable of a total embargo on Russian oil.



On Tuesday, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck declared that Germany had reduced Russian oil imports to around 12% from 35% prior to the invasion of Ukraine, and that a full ban on Russian oil would be manageable soonpotentially in a matter of days.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Phillip Hanks with his family as he's recognized in the office of Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White on April 26, 2022, on the anniversary of Hanks receiving five organs in a simultaneous transplant. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

One year ago, Phillip Hanks was enduring the first of two surgeries. One was almost eight hours to give him a new intestine, stomach, liver and pancreas. The following day, Hanks was back on the operating table to get a kidney.

Hanks, a father of six, received a multivisceral transplant  a simultaneous transplant of multiple organs  at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis in April 2021. Since then, Hanks, of Joliet, said he doesnt want to say its been easy, but his health has been smooth sailing. No hiccups on the health front, no drama.

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In fact, Hanks celebrated birthday 51 on April 23. Hes still driving to Indianapolis for hospital checkups, but not as frequently.

I feel great. Im back in the gym slightly, trying to get more strength, he said. On Tuesday, the end of National Donate Life Month, Hanks was celebrating the transplant milestone in Illinois Secretary of State Jesse Whites office, surrounded by family. White read the Chicago Tribune story about Hanks journey in 2021, and recruited him to be a spokesperson for the secretary of states Organ/Tissue Donor Life Goes On program and registry. As one of 12 spokespeople, Hanks has been talking to youth in schools and at secretary of state facilities in the area. He said hes averaging a couple dozen talks every two weeks, and even shot a public service announcement.

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White calls it a perfect match. Hes been there, done that and now hes able to tell his story and spread the news of this wonderful program. White presented Hanks with a commemorative framed license plate with 5ALIVE on it. A family friend made a replica of his dream car (a 1967 Mercury Cougar XR7) in cake form to commemorate the occasion of his second chance at life through organ donation.

Phil has been so incredibly instrumental and inspiring to the program. Our mission is to strengthen the Illinois organ and tissue donor registry through outreach and registration initiatives and one of the ways we are able to do that is partnering with individuals, organizations, faith-based institutions, learning institutions ... we have coordinators go out and lead the charge and serve as advocates to help us with that mission, said Connie Boatman, director of Life Goes On. Phil hit the floor running. Its been incredible to have him on board.

As you know so many minorities believe that organ and tissue donation doesnt work or they have questions about it and were constantly working to debunk those myths. Hes a prime example that organ and tissue donation does save lives and it doesnt matter your race, ethnicity or gender.

Boatman said since Whites tenure in office, which began in 1998, Life Goes On has registered 7.3 million people for the donor program.

Hanks still gets teary-eyed when reliving April 26. He was on the transplant list by Dec. 31, 2020, and received his organs four months later. Hanks wife, Tiva, calls it a miracle.

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, left, and Phillip Hanks, who had a multiple organ transplant last year, on April 26, 2022 in White's Thompson Center office. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Im feeling very blessed, she said. We were reminiscing about the actual day: He was asking me questions about what was I feeling? How did it go? How long did it take? It was a mind-blowing experience. I was there by myself in the middle of COVID and it was scary, I spent a lot of the time on the phone with my auntie. My family was really my rock. I spent all that time in the waiting room, just talking on the phone, texting the family, giving them updates on where they were in the procedure and then afterward, she and I talked to the doctors and were felling very grateful that everything went so well. It was an out of body experience to say the least.

Hanks was beaming from ear to ear about his supportive family getting him through it all, sister, aunts, sons and daughters. Tuesday, his 4-month old granddaughter (Gianna Guyton ) was by his side, serving as motivation

We dont realize how close we are to it until it happens to us, thats why its important for us to get involved, Boatman said. Thats why what Phillip does is so important because you have to have representation. He is an awesome representation that it does work. Black people do get organs and you dont have to be rich, you dont have to be a celebrity. Its important that we educate ourselves and we exercise our due diligence to share our positions with our families to let them know what our wishes are.

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Illinoisans can register with the secretary of states Organ/Tissue Donor Registry at LifeGoesOn.com, by calling 800-210-2106 or by visiting a driver services facility.

drockett@chicagotribune.com
Igor Volobuev, vice president of state-owned Gazprombank, has confirmed that he has fled Russia and will fight with the Ukrainians against Kremlin forces after two other top executives were found dead in their homes.

Volubev, Ukrainian born, told British media he would remain in Ukraine until Kyiv was victorious and that he planned to wash off his Russian past.

The Gazprombank executive said no-one had known about his departure from Russia until now.

Volobuev also cast doubt on investigations into the alleged murder-suicides of two other high-ranking Russian oil and gas executives and their wives and daughters.

Former Gazprombank first VP Vladislav Avaev and his wife and daughter were found dead in their Moscow apartment on April 18th, while former Novatek manager Sergey Protosenya was found dead on April 19th, along with his wife and daughter, at their home in Spain.

So far, police are investigating both cases as murder-suicides.

In late February, right at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the body of Alexander Tyulyakov, deputy general director of Gazprom's unified settlement center, was found hanging from a noose in another apparent suicide.

And in late January, Leonid Shulman, the head of Gazprom-Invests transport service, was found dead in his bathroom with deep lacerations on his body.

In an interview with Ukrainian liga.net, Volobuev insisted he did not feel a threat against his life, but doubted that the mysterious deaths of his colleagues were murder-suicides.

"It's hard to believe that Avaev shot his 13-year-old daughter, wife and committed suicide. In my opinion, it's a staging of a suicide. I think he was killed, Volobuev said.

Volobuev also claimed that Akaev was not a former first VP of Gazprombank at the time of his death; rather, he was the current first VP, suggesting that the Kremlin listed him as former in order to deflect the blow of scandal on Gazprombank.

The bank was already reeling from scandal with the resignation of CEO Ruslan Dostovalov on April 2nd.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Government sources have told Reuters that Italy may temporarily nationalize the ISAB refinery owned by Lukoil, Russias second-largest oil producer whose CEO resigned after being sanctioned by the UK and the European Union.

Reuters cited unnamed sources as stating that Italys Industry Minister plans to raise the issue at a Thursday cabinet meeting, though it is not currently on the agenda.

ISAB is owned by Litasco, a Swiss-based trading company, which is in turn controlled by Lukoil.

The ISAB refinerythe largest in Italyis a major contributor to Italys refining capacity, accounting for some 22% of production. An estimated 30-40% of its input comes from Russia, according to Reuters. The news agency also cited ISABs deputy general manager as saying that the refinery would find it impossible to source crude oil input from elsewhere because it lacks credit at the international level.

Last week, Italys Ecological Transition Minister reportedly said that Italy could begin its road to independence from Russian oil by H2 2023, but not before, according to a Reuters report.

Bloomberg also reports that Lukoil managed to make a debt payment of over $34 million on the same day that Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperovs resignation was announced.

Alekperov owns over nearly 9% of Lukoil, with just over 3% of voting shares. He is worth an estimated $20 billion.

Lukoil produces some 2% of the worlds crude oil. The fact that the company has distanced itself from Russian President Vladimir Putin and criticized the invasion of Ukraine has not protected it from sanctions. Alekperov is known as a long-time Putin ally.

Alekperov resigned last week in order to protect the company's operations and investors.

In early March, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) suspended some 27 companies over Russias war on Ukraine.

Archived copies of tax payments to the Russian government show that Lukoil contributed more than 5 billion pounds to Putins war chest in 2020 alone, according to the Guardian.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Russia's state gas major Gazprom has suspended the deliveries of natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria, according to Polish and Bulgarian sources.

Russia's Vedomosti reported that a source from Polish state energy company PGNiG had confirmed the suspension of deliveries.

Gazprom later confirmed the decision after a Reuters report said the flow of gas to Poland had only been suspended briefly and later restored. The same report had quoted the Bulgarian gas transport operator as saying the flow of gas had not been interrupted.

"Gazprom has completely suspended gas supplies to Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and PGNiG (Poland) due to absence of payments in roubles," the gas major said in a statement as quoted by Reuters.

Poland's PGNiG said it had received a notification that deliveries of natural gas via the Ukraine and Belarus will be suspended at 8 am Eastern European Time today. The company also said, according to Reuters, that its storage facilities were 76 percent full, and it did not need to tap reserves to compensate for the suspension of shipments.

Russian gas satisfies about half of Poland's gas demand, while Bulgaria's dependence on Russian gas imports is close to 100 percent. The country has been negotiating alternatives, and one of the more realistic ones is importing liquefied natural gas from overseas via Greece.

Both the Polish and the Bulgarian state energy companies have said that Russia's change of the terms of the gas contracts Gazprom has with countries classified as unfriendly by Moscow is in breach of these contracts.

According to Bulgargaz, the Bulgarian state gas operator, "the two-step payment procedure proposed by the Russian side does not comply with the contract that will be in effect until the end of the year and hides significant risks for the Bulgarian side, including the risk of making payments without receiving deliveries of gas from the Russian side."

Russia announced last month that it would only accept payments in rubles for its natural gas deliveries to the European Union, sparking confusion among member states, some of which depend heavily on these deliveries.

While initially opposed to the unilateral change in contract terms, later some importers agreed to switch from dollars and euros to rubles, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said this month.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Global commodities giant Trafigura confirmed today that it will stop all crude oil purchases from Russian state-backed Rosneft by May 15th. It is the latest commodities trader to cut ties with the crude oil exporter amidst mounting pressure to cut off Russias oil revenue due to the war in Ukraine.

Initially, Trafigura had stated that it would only continue with existing contracts and not sign new deals with Rosneft. However, it faced backlash for still continuing to trade Russian commodities and thereby funding Russias war with Ukraine.

The Swiss commodities trader handles about 25% of the worlds oil each day. Other companies to cut off ties with Russian commodities traders include energy giants like BP, ENI (Italy), Equinor (Norway) and Shell. Trafiguras competitor, Vitol group, stated it will cease crude oil and refined products from Russia by the end of this year.

May 15th is the European Unions deadline for companies to cease oil purchases from Russian state-backed enterprises like Rosneft as part of its financial sanctions against Russia. Currently, roughly 50% of Russias 4.7 million bpd (barrels per day) is exported to the EU.

The EU is also considering more options to extend its current sanctions, such as tariffs, price caps, and escrow payments. To minimize the impact of the EU sanctions, Russia has sought measures such as demanding payments for their oil in roubles.

With the sanctions from Europe, Russia is increasingly looking outside the EU, at countries such as India and Turkey to fulfill orders. The Indian Oil Corporation, Indias largest refiner, made a purchase of 3 million barrels of Urals on March 23rd.

By Gandahari Cooray for Oilprice.com

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In response to Russias move to cut off gas to Poland and Bulgaria, the Biden administration has authorized more LNG shipments from two U.S. plants currently in the development phase.

Texas-based Golden Pass LNG, owned by Exxon and Qatar Petroleum, have been authorized to export an additional 0.35 billion cubic feet per day of LNG, including to Europe. The second authorization is for Louisiana-based Magnolia LNG, owned by Glenfame Group LLC, to ship an additional 0.15 billion cubic feet per day, Bloomberg reports.

Golden Pass should be online in 2025, while Magnolia is expected to launch exports around 2027.

Speaking to reporters at a U.S.-EU energy meeting in New Jersey, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the new authorizations ensure that the U.S. is able to allow those who intend to produce, have the freedom to be able to ship to Europe", Reuters reported.

On Tuesday, Russia said it would cut off gas to Poland and Bulgaria by Wednesday over their refusal to pay in roubles, sending natural gas prices surging again as the European Union grapples with the possibility of banning Russian oil and gas.

The EU has accused Russia of blackmail, with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen saying the bloc was prepared for this and vowed a coordinated response.

In March, the Department of Energy authorized exports from two currently operating LNG projects, Cheniere Energys Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas. Those authorizations gave the two LNG export facilities the ability to export 0.72 billion cubic feet per day of LNG.

At the time, the DOE noted that U.S. exporters were already exporting at or near their maximum capacity, and that the March authorizations essentially served as approval for every operating U.S. LNG export project to export at full capacity.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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SALEM, Ore. (AP)  In 1994, Kyle Hedquist led a teenager down a remote logging road, then shot her in the back of the head because he feared she might tell police about burglaries he'd committed.

This month, Oregon. Gov. Kate Brown granted clemency to Hedquist, who was serving a life sentence without parole after being convicted of murdering Nikki Thrasher when he was 18. Brown's act is unleashing a storm of criticism from prosecutors and law enforcement.

The executive clemency granted by Gov. Brown in this case is shocking and irresponsible, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said Tuesday in a statement. Hedquist, now 45, was convicted in Douglas County Circuit Court in 1995.

On Tuesday, Brown defended her clemencies, comparing them to President Joe Biden's granting of clemency Tuesday to 78 people, though those were all for nonviolent crimes.

Teenagers, even those who have committed terrible crimes, have a unique capacity for growth and change, Brown said in social media posts in which she applauded Biden's action, adding: We are a state and a nation of second chances.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 2012 ruling, said only the rare, irredeemable juvenile offender should serve life in prison, but that applies in federal cases.

Some two dozen states have banned sentencing juveniles to life without parole, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project, which advocates for humane responses to crime. The Democrat-dominated Oregon Legislature passed such a law in 2019, but the state Supreme Court has ruled it's not retroactive.

The clemency of Hedquist has fueled Republican complaints that Brown, a Democrat who is not running for reelection this year because of term limits, is soft on crime.

As with many others, the facts of this case are outrageous and brutal, Oregon Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp said Tuesday. The Governor continues to let violent criminals out of prison, and Democrats in the majority remain silent.

However, Brown said she has denied most clemency requests.

Clemency is an action I reserve for individuals who have demonstrated that they have made incredible changes in their lives to rehabilitate themselves, take accountability for their crimes, and dedicate themselves to making their communities a better place, Brown said.

While locked up in the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Hedquist spent over 20 years volunteering for hospice care services, said Liz Merah, Brown's spokeswoman.

Hedquist wrote about caring for the dying inmates in a piece that was awarded honorable mention in memoir in PEN America's 2019 Prison Writing Contest.

I couldnt have known all those years ago that death would bring my humanity back, Hedquist wrote. So I sat, I listened, their teary-eyed regurgitation of their crimes burned my ears, they left a bitter taste in my mouth as I consumed the confessions ... but somehow just being with them and listening lightened their burden before death stepped in to take them."

This month, Hedquist was released to the Salem home of a former prison chaplain after a suitable place could not be found for him in Douglas County, where Hedquist was from.

Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson and Sheriff Joe Kast, whose county includes Salem, issued a public safety notice Saturday in which they expressed significant safety concerns surrounding the sudden and ill-planned governors commutation.

Hedquist tricked the victim into driving him to a rural Douglas County location where he shot the victim execution-style in the back of the head and dumped her body along the road, Clarkson and Kast said. Hedquist admitted killing her to eliminate a witness in hope of preventing his own capture.

Brown accused several district attorneys of scoring political points by stoking public fears in these cases. Oregonians granted clemency have demonstrated they have turned their lives around and pose a low risk to the public, she said.

Merah, Browns spokeswoman, said Hedquist's conditions of sentence commutation include lifetime supervision and GPS ankle monitoring for at least six months.

If Mr. Hedquist violates any terms of his post-prison supervision, the governor can revoke his commutation, Merah said.

Since taking office in 2015, Brown has granted 1,148 sentence commutations  963 of them to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in prisons, Merah said. Also among the total were 41 commutations for inmates who fought wildfires and 72 who committed crimes as juveniles and were sentenced to more than 15 years. Brown also granted 63 pardons. Commutations reduce prison terms, while pardons forgive defendants of crimes.

The number of clemencies from governors varies widely across the nation.

 Democratic Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee, in office since 2013, has issued 1,266 clemency orders, including 422 because of the pandemic and 35 for marijuana convictions.

 California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat in office since 2019, has granted 112 pardons, 109 commutations and 34 reprieves.

 Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican who took office in 2019, has granted clemency to 17 people. The Republican governors of Mississippi, South Carolina and Idaho have issued zero clemencies during their terms.

 Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, has granted 293 clemency actions since 2020, including 275 pardons and 18 commutations. Parson said there was a backlog of clemency requests when he took office following the 2018 resignation of fellow GOP Gov. Eric Greitens.

 Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat in office since 2015, issued 159 pandemic-related temporary reprieves for inmates. Of that number, 62 were returned to custody and Wolf commuted the sentences of 97. His office said he has issued 1,996 pardons -- more than any other governor in more than 20 years.

This story has been updated to correct Hedquist's age at the time to 18.

Associated Press writers Donald Thompson in Sacramento, California; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; Emily Wagster in Jackson, Mississippi; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee; David Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri; and Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Russia cuts off gas to 2 NATO nations in bid to divide West

POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP)  Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria and threatened to do the same to other countries, using its most essential export as an attempt to punish and divide the West for its united support of Ukraine. The move was condemned by European leaders as blackmail. It marked a dramatic escalation in the economic war of sanctions and countersanctions that has unfolded parallel to the fighting on the battlefield, where fighting continues in Ukraine's east. One person was killed and at least two injured when rockets hit a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv. The commander of a marine unit inside the last stronghold in the gutted city of Mariupol said the situation there was very difficult.

Twitter abuse victims fear Musk's plans, but may not quit

Perhaps no group of people is more alarmed about Elon Musks apparent plan to make Twitter a free speech free-for-all than those most likely to be targeted for harassment: women, racial minorities and other marginalized groups. They fear that a more hands-off approach to policing the platform will embolden purveyors of hate speech, bullying and disinformation to ratchet up their bad behavior  a possibility Musk has done little to dispel. Yet even those who have faced extreme harassment on Twitter say they are unlikely to quit the platform. Despite the negative psychological toll, they still place a high value on Twitter as a place to express their views and engage with others.

EXPLAINER: Will a Russian prisoner exchange impact Griner?

Brittney Griner remains detained in Russia and its unclear how an unexpected prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia that freed marine veteran Trevor Reed will affect the status of the WNBA star. Griner has been detained in Russia since mid-February. The deal announced by both countries involving Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace. It was all the more surprising because it was done as Russias war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades. Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist who was arrested in Russia for allegedly possessing a cannabis derivative legal in much of the world. The offense can mean up to 10 years in prison.

Dem lawmaker: Biden suggests he'll ease student loan burden

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden has signaled he might forgive some student loan debt and further extend the federal moratorium on repayments. That's according to California Democratic Rep. Tony Cardenas. He's a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Cardenas said Wednesday that during a White House meeting, Biden told the group that they're going to like what he does about both proposals. That meeting was Monday. The White House was notably more measured about what Biden might do. But any move in that direction would be a boon to many of what federal figures show are 43 million Americans carrying student loans worth $1.6 trillion.

Federal judge halts preparations for end of US asylum limit

NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A judge has ordered a two-week halt on phasing out pandemic-related restrictions on seeking asylum as the Biden administration prepares for the restrictions to be fully lifted on May 23. Wednesday's decision is only a temporary setback for the administration but the federal judge appeared highly sympathetic with Louisiana and other states that sued to keep Title 42 authority. That restriction denies migrants a chance at asylum on grounds of preventing spread of COVID-19. U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays has scheduled a hearing May 13 in Lafayette, Louisiana, for arguments on whether to block Title 42 from ending as planned 10 days later.

Microsoft: Russian hacks often accompany Ukraine attacks

BOSTON (AP)  Microsoft says cyberattacks by state-backed Russian hackers have destroyed data across dozens of organizations in Ukraine and produced a chaotic information environment. The company said in a report released Wednesday that Russia-aligned threat groups were preparing long before the Feb. 24 invasion. It said they were pre-positioning for the conflict" as early as a year ago, hacking into networks to obtain footholds they could later use to collect strategic and battlefield intelligence or to facilitate future destructive attacks.

State report details bias in Minneapolis Police Department

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  A Minnesota state agency says it will work with the city of Minneapolis to negotiate solutions to resolve the pattern of race discrimination uncovered by a two-year investigation. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights says former and current city and police leaders have failed to act, effectively allowing an aggressive police culture to fester. The report details disparities in how officers use force, stop, search, arrest and cite people of color, particularly Black people, compared to white people in similar circumstances. And the state agency says the city and police department need not wait to start making necessary changes.

EXPLAINER: Brazil's Bolsonaro, top court on collision course

SAO PAULO (AP)  Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro is once again at odds with the countrys Supreme Court. He has pardoned a congressman who had just been convicted by high court justices for urging violence against one of them. Justices may review that pardon, and the case threatens to become an institutional crisis at a moment when Bolsonaro is gearing up to seek a second term. At the center of the dispute is freshman lawmaker Daniel Silveira, who was sentenced to almost nine years in prison. He had said that one justice should be seized, shaken and thrown in a garbage can. Bolsonaro issued a decree pardoning him, citing the right to free speech.

Once dead, twice billed: GAO questions COVID funeral awards

The Federal Emergency Management Agency may have been double-billed for the funerals of hundreds of people who died of COVID-19, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report Wednesday. The GAO identified 374 people who died and were listed on more than one application that received an award from the COVID-19 Funeral Assistance fund. That amounts to about $4.8 million in assistance that could have been improper or potentially fraudulent payments, the report said. FEMA says this wasn't an example of large-scale fraud and the amount of funeral assistance identified as at-risk was relatively small, with FEMAs multi-layered controls resulting in improper payments of less than 1%.

Shares of Facebook parent Meta soar despite growth slowdown

Facebook parent Metas first quarter profit jumped past Wall Streets expectations despite slower revenue growth, sending shares up sharply in after-hours trading. The company earned $7.47 billion, or $2.72 per share, in the January-March period. Thats down 21% from $9.5 billion, or $3.30 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Meta cut a sharp contrast with Google parent Alphabet, which on Monday reported what analysts called disappointing earnings, with profit below Wall Streets expectations and revenue growth slower than in previous quarters. Shares rose more than 18% to $207 in after-hours trading.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Polish and Bulgarian leaders accused Moscow of using natural gas to blackmail their countries after Russia's state-controlled energy company stopped supplying them with gas Wednesday. European Union leaders echoed those comments and were holding an emergency meeting on the Russian move.

The gas cutoff to Poland and Bulgaria came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that unfriendly countries would need to start paying for gas in rubles, Russia's currency, which Bulgaria and Poland refused to do.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said in a statement that it hadnt received any payments from Poland and Bulgaria since April 1 and was suspending their deliveries starting Wednesday. And if those countries siphon off Russian gas intended for other European customers, Gazprom said deliveries to Europe will be reduced by that amount.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the announcement by Gazprom is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail.

Europe is not without some leverage in the dispute, since it pays Russia $400 million a day for gas, money Putin would lose with a complete cutoff.

Russia, however, rejected the idea that it was using blackmail while warning it may halt gas supplies to other European customers if they also refuse to switch to paying in rubles.

Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, argued that the Russian demand to switch to paying for gas in rubles resulted from Western actions that froze Russian hard currency assets. He said those were effectively stolen by the West in an unprecedented unfriendly action.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told Poland's parliament that he thinks the suspension was revenge for new sanctions against Russia that Warsaw imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Morawiecki called it an attack on Poland and an example of gas imperialism while vowing that Poland would not be cowed by the cutoff. He said the country was safe from an energy crisis thanks to years of efforts to secure gas from other countries.

We will not succumb to Russia's gas blackmail, he told lawmakers, to applause. He also sought to assure citizens that the gas cutoff would not affect Polish households.

Some Poles and Bulgarians welcomed the cutoff for moving them closer to independence from Russian energy.

"I dont know what the results will be for regular citizens like myself, said Nina Rudnicka, a lecturer at Poznan University. But I believe that one should not bow to Russias blackmail. It was the right decision not to change to payment in rubles.

Dobrin Todorov, a resident of Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, said given a choice between freedom and dignity or gas, the answer is clear, in favor of freedom and dignity."

"So we will go through this ordeal. It cannot be compared to the hardship and tribulations that the Ukrainian people are currently suffering, Todorov added.

The new Polish sanctions against Russia, announced Tuesday, targeted 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom. Hours later, Poland said it had received notice that Gazprom was cutting off its gas supplies for failing to pay in Russian rubles. Polands gas company, PGNiG, said the gas supplies from the Yamal pipeline stopped early Wednesday.

Russian gas supplies to both Poland and Bulgaria already were expected to end later this year anyway.

Poland relies on coal for 70% of its energy needs, with gas only making up around 7% of its energy mix. Several years ago, the country opened its first terminal for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, in Swinoujscie, on the Baltic Sea coast. A pipeline from Norway is to due to start operating this year.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, whose government has been cutting many of the country's old ties with Russia, called Gazproms suspension of gas deliveries a gross violation of their contract and blackmail. He vowed to defend the country's interests and support military-technical assistance to Ukraine.

Unfortunately, in the recent past we were treated as Russias fifth column. And there are many political and economic circles that protect Russias interests," he said. We and our party will protect only Bulgarian interests.

In Bulgaria, the main consumers of gas are district heating companies. Bulgarias energy minister said his country can meet the needs of users for at least one month.

Alternative supplies are available, and Bulgaria hopes that alternative routes and supplies will also be secured at the EU level, Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said.

Russia's move raised wider concerns that other countries could be targeted next as Western countries increase their support for Ukraine amid a war now in its third month.

The Greek government held an emergency meeting Wednesday in Athens. Greece's next scheduled payment to Gazprom is due on May 25, and the government must decide whether it will comply with the demand to pay in rubles.

Greece is ramping up its liquefied natural gas storage capacity, and has contingency plans to switch several industry sectors from gas to diesel as an emergency energy source. It has also reversed a program to reduce domestic coal production.

If European nations decide not to pay in rubles, Russia can sell its oil elsewhere, such as to India and China, because oil primarily moves by ship.

It has less options with natural gas, because the pipeline network that carries gas from Russias huge deposits in northwestern Siberias Yamal Peninsula does not connect with pipelines that run to China. And Russia only has limited facilities to export super-chilled liquefied gas by ship.

Toshkov reported from Bulgaria. Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jon Gambrell in Lviv, Ukraine, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed.

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.
In 1994, Singapore caned American teenager Michael Fay for vandalism, a day after the sentence was reduced from six lashes to four in response
An Omaha man was acquitted Wednesday in the July 2020 shooting death of a man on a mini motorized dirt bike in northeast Omaha.

A jury deliberated nearly 10 hours before finding Daquandre Perry, 22, not guilty of first-degree murder in the July 26, 2020, shooting death of John Parks Jr.

Prosecutors had charged Perry with first-degree murder after several videos showed a black Nissan chasing Parks and crashing into his dirt bike before seven shots rang out. Videos also showed Perry and another man get out of the Nissan about 20 minutes later at an apartment complex four blocks away.

However, Perrys attorneys, Renee Mathias and Mallory Hughes, had pointed out several factors that they said would cause jurors to hesitate to find him guilty. Among them: Prosecutors had no murder weapon and they had no witnesses who were able to identify the driver or passenger or even provide a license plate of the Nissan.

And though Perrys DNA was on the drivers side of the car that prosecutors suspected of hitting Parks, so was the DNA of three other people.

The case had stunned neighbors near 53rd and Boyd Streets because of the brazen way it occurred. A chase and gunshots in the broad daylight of a summer Sunday afternoon.

According to court accounts:

Shortly after 2 p.m. July 26, 2020, Parks and a friend were riding their dirt bikes south on 53rd Street.

As the 20-year-olds zoomed down the street, a black Nissan Maxima turned a corner and bore down on them. The Maxima, with two people inside, eventually crashed into Parks bike.

Parks zipped away, but the Nissan kept pace until, finally, Parks ditched the bike and tried to run. Seven shots came from the Nissan. One hit Parks in the neck. Running for his life, Parks scaled a fence before collapsing and dying in a backyard.

Soon after, an Omaha police officer relayed to homicide detectives that he had pulled over Perry eight days before; he had been driving a black Nissan Maxima.

Investigators then tracked down the Nissan, which was registered to a girlfriend of Perrys. The Nissan had front-end damage that prosecutor Amy Jacobsen said was consistent with a crash with the dirt bike. Jacobsen said several surveillance cameras showed Perry and the car at the nearby apartments and at his workplace  proving that he often drove the car.

But that wasnt enough to overcome the fact that no one could identify either the driver or the passenger of the Nissan that day.

Prosecutors had charged Perry under an accomplice theory  that he may or may not have been the shooter but was guilty because he was helping the passenger run down and gun down Parks. The passenger has not been charged; prosecutors say they dont have enough evidence to try him for the shooting.

Law enforcement authorities think the shooting was gang-related  and it prompted a double slaying a few days later.

A few days after his sons death, John Parks Sr. visited Omaha from his home state of Texas. While here, prosecutors say, he thought that a couple had footage of his sons death on their phone. Prosecutors allege the elder Parks killed Michael Harbour, 35, and Nicole Hatten, 36, in a mistaken rage over that footage  which actually was a viral video of a killing in Mexico. The elder Parks is awaiting trial on two counts of first-degree murder.

Perrys trial took a turn last week when a female friend attended and used her cellphone to snap a photo of Perry. The man who police said was the passenger in the Nissan then posted that photo to his Facebook page with encouragement to Perry to stay strong, prosecutors said.

That prompted Douglas County District Judge Duane Dougherty to close the courtroom to anyone but attorneys, jurors and witnesses  and send the public to a satellite room to watch a feed of the trial.

The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that trials are public affairs and that courtrooms are open.

Paul Goodsell, editor-in-chief of The World-Herald, said the newspaper is sending a letter to the presiding judge protesting Doughertys closure. Goodsell said it is essential that courtrooms remain open  any alleged violation of court rules should be dealt with individually, not by barring everyone.

It is the third time Dougherty has barred the public from his courtroom. During a murder trial last year, he made visitors watch from a satellite room, citing COVID concerns. Several years ago, he had deputies lock his courtroom door during an inquiry into whether jurors were at an impasse in the case of an activist accused of assaulting an officer. Such inquiries also are a matter of public record.

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Jayline Perez, 21, graduated three semesters early from Roosevelt University in December 2021. With her parents and grandparents only having gone through school as far as elementary school, she credits Rush Education and Career Hub, or REACH, with changing her future.

I grew up kind of not really knowing that college was an option for me, she said. REACH was one of the only outlets I ever had besides my high school encouraging me to go to college.

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Now Perez is studying for the Medical College Admission Test and looking forward to a career in medicine. Neuroscience interests her, but she may change her mind. Perez is also working with her mentor, Dr. Susan Lopez, director of diversity, equity and inclusion for graduate medical education at Rush University Medical Center, helping with COVID-19 health disparities research (working with the data of COVID-19 patients to look at differences in outcomes by the need for Spanish interpretation) and organizing pre-med boot camps for Black and Latinx teens.

Jayline Perez is a program coordinator with the Rush Education and Career Hub, aka REACH. (VINCENT D JOHNSON / Pioneer Press)

Perezs path to health care started when she joined REACH during her junior year in high school as part of After School Matters. The Belmont Cragin resident was interested in health care to some extent, but her summer internship at Rush University Medical Center with REACHs MedSTEM Explorers program, a session with hands-on learning and skill development, made it stick. She recalls the orientation to the program giving her a sense of belonging.

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I saw that it was mostly women that were running the program  its kind of like, Wow, theres actually women that look like me out here, she remembers. They were able to understand my struggles and I was surrounded by students that have a very similar story like mine. I always felt like people probably wouldnt understand me because of my cultural background. I grew up with here in the Northwest Side, and all the barriers I had to continue to jump trying to avoid the traps of poverty. When they brought in other students like that, I was definitely able to resonate with it because I realized that I wasnt the only one.

She started with REACH in 2018, but her emotions from finding the truth behind the words Representation matters are still evident years later.

They were not just giving us clinical experience like working with patients or having that communication with other health care providers, that kind of resource, Perez said. They were also developing a sense of believing in ourselves. When you have interns helping a patient, even if its serving water, or bringing some washcloths, youre doing something for them, and for me, it was I can actually help, I can actually go further from here.

In 2021, of the students served by REACH, 75% were female, 90% were West Side residents, 88% were Black or Latinx, and 65% first-generation college attendees. The program provided more than 180 high school and college interns with more than 25,000 paid, work-based learning hours and helped 50% of MedSTEM Pathways interns and 100% of MedSTEM Explorers to earn one or more industry-recognized credentials (i.e., CPR, first aid/basic lifesaving, phlebotomy technician or ECG technician). The Rush Education and Career Hub is a pipeline for students from prekindergarten through college to participate in science and math enrichment opportunities; its mission is to increase diversity in STEM and health care professions.

I dont want our students to just be patient transport. Yes, you can start there, but I want you to be able to do more if you want to, said REACH Executive Director Rukiya Curvey Johnson. They should be the physicians, they should be the research scientists, they should be some of the anesthesiologists, and so what can we do to directly get them on that path, and being able to access higher wages and therefore more benefits and a happier or a better quality of life?

Curvey Johnson has been with REACH for five years and is the former executive director of STEM and strategic initiatives at Chicago Public Schools. Having been on the educational side for years, she said she saw REACH as an opportunity to be able to inform the pipeline on the industry side. With 10 partnering schools on the West Side and looking for more, Curvey Johnson wants every REACH student to feel what Perez feels about their future  a sense of ownership, confidence, self-agency and a chance to give back.

Thats something we try to cultivate in all of our students, she said. Building a sense of self-efficacy about what they can do to actively create change, to be a community problem-solver, to also be able to address some of the disparities they see but also just bring others along. The fact that Jayline stepped up with her sister and co-leading our med school boot camp program, its just phenomenal. Its that relationship building and having this sort of peer support to engage with to help cheer you on, which is so incredibly important.

They dont need to know what health care path they want to be in, they just have to show an interest. Its that interest that REACH wants to spark. REACHs career pathway tool lets youth explore the field led by their likes.

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Jayline Perez, left, a program coordinator with Rush Education and Career Hub, and REACH Executive Director Rukiya Curvey Johnson. (VINCENT D JOHNSON / Pioneer Press)

You can actually click I like helping people, and itll take you to a couple of careers that align with that and youll get a chance to engage and look at not only our programs, (but) other programs around the city as well, and activities that they can do that can help further and deepen that interest, Curvey Johnson said.

As for Perez, shes just getting started. Her work of giving back will continue, God willing, as a medical student in about a year, she said. Shes looking to be a resource for others who look like her in that capacity as well.

A lot of these health care disparities, one of the factors is that theres not many professionals in medicine that come from underrepresented communities, Perez said. Theyre (REACH) building up those professionals. I know that theyre very open, not just to health care, but also IT and other programs. Hopefully one day that evolves into helping another person, either as a patient or not a patient, eventually bridging that gap.

drockett@chicagotribune.com
A 22-year-old Omaha man fatally shot Easter Sunday night near 60th Street and Ames Avenue had a rainbow of friends, his mother said.

Eltio M. Tio Plater Jr. was shot shortly before 11 p.m. April 17 near a convenience store at 4219 N. 60th St. He was taken to Immanuel Medical Center by a private vehicle before being transferred to Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy, where he was pronounced dead 2 hours later.

His mother, Alicia Plater of Omaha, said her son had never been in trouble and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A review of Nebraska judicial records found no charges against him.

He had a rainbow of friends, his mother said. Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, it didnt matter to him. He literally was a free spirit who loved everyone unconditionally.

A funeral service will be 11 a.m. Tuesday at Zion Baptist Church, 2215 Grant St. An online fundraiser has been established in Platers name to help his family with expenses.

Plater, who attended Northwest High and was a 2018 graduate of Benson High, was the father of a 5-month-old girl. He loved to cook, his mother said, and recently began applying to attend culinary classes at Metro Community College.

Cooking was his way of giving back, his mother said. He loved to cook for special events like birthdays. He really liked making sushi and authentic tacos.

Alicia Plater, who works as a traveling nurse, said her son was always willing to accompany her on an out-of-town work trip. She recalled a time in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when Tio arrived to help her make the drive back to Omaha.

We had some clothes that we wanted to donate to a homeless shelter before we left town, she said. We got to the shelter and there was a homeless man laying on the sidewalk, looking very cold. Tio jumped out of the car with a coat to cover him up, and that man looked shocked. But that was the kind of son I had.

Jennifer Dalbey, who taught Plater when he attended Northwest High, said he was a good student.

My heart breaks for all of Tios family and friends, which I am sure there are many, Dalbey said. His smile, his wit and his charm lit up the classroom.

An Omaha police spokesman said Platers slaying is still a very active investigation.

Anyone with information about the shooting may contact the Omaha Police Department Homicide Unit at 402-444-5656 or Omaha Crime Stoppers at 402-444-STOP, at www.omahacrimestoppers.org or on the P3 Tips mobile app. Tips leading to an arrest in a homicide are eligible for a $25,000 reward.

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HOUSTON (AP)  With Melissa Lucios execution put on indefinite hold by a Texas appeals court, her attorneys will now be focused on trying to convince a judge to recommend she get a new trial.

But thats expected to be a tough courtroom battle and even if they manage to get the trial judge on their side, the states top criminal court  which has the final say  might disagree and keep her conviction in place, legal experts said Tuesday.

Winning a favorable recommendation is not a done deal. ...There is still a long way to go before this case is resolved, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Lucio had been set for lethal injection on Wednesday for the 2007 death of her daughter Mariah in the South Texas city of Harlingen. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals delayed her execution on Monday. If ultimately put to death, Lucio would be the first Latina executed by Texas since 1863, and the first woman the state has put to death since 2014.

Prosecutors have maintained that the girl was the victim of abuse and noted that her body was covered in bruises when she died.

Lucios attorneys say her capital murder conviction was based on an unreliable and coerced confession and she wasnt allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession.

Her lawyers also contend unscientific and false evidence misled jurors into believing Mariahs injuries could have been caused only by abuse and not by medical complications from a severe fall down a steep staircase.

In granting the execution stay, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals asked that the Brownsville trial judge in charge of Lucios case  Gabriela Garcia  review four claims her lawyers have made: whether prosecutors used false evidence to convict her; whether previously unavailable scientific evidence would have prevented her conviction; whether she is actually innocent; and whether prosecutors suppressed evidence that would have been favorable to her defense.

Tivon Schardl, one of Lucios attorneys, said that before theres a hearing to consider new evidence in the case, rulings will have to be made on two defense motions to recuse Garcia and Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz over allegations of conflict of interest and due process violations. Lucios attorney at her 2008 trial is now a prosecutor in Saenzs office. Garcias court administrator is the wife of Lucios trial attorney, and also served as his paralegal.

We hope that going forward reason and science will carry the day and Melissa will get a recommendation from the trial court joined by the state of Texas to get a new trial, Schardl said.

No timetable has been set for when Garcia will begin reviewing Lucios case. But a final decision on whether she gets a new trial could be years away.

Saenz said Monday he welcomed the opportunity to have a courtroom review of the case. He has previously expressed doubts about claims by Lucios defense attorneys that new evidence will exonerate her.

On Wednesday, a rally was planned outside the courthouse in Brownsville to ask that Saenz drop the case against Lucio.

Shell never get another execution date. Shell be free. Its just a question of when, said Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group thats helping organize Thursdays rally.

Stanley Schneider, a Houston defense attorney not connected to the case and who has defended death row inmates, said the appeals court ordered review shows that there are real questions that challenge the validity of the conviction.

Letitia Quinones, a Houston defense attorney also not connected to the case, said Lucios lawyers still have a very difficult task ahead of them as its rare to overturn a conviction in Texas.

If (the evidence) exists in the fashion that her defense attorneys have spelled out ... she has a really good chance, Quinones said.

But Dunham said the case of Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed is a good example of the difficulties that might be ahead for Lucio.

Reed got an execution stay and an appeals court ordered review of his case in November 2019 days before he was to be executed for the 1996 killing of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. Like in Lucios case Reeds supporters say new evidence has raised serious doubt about his guilt and he garnered support from celebrities and lawmakers.

But last year, a judge declined to recommend a new trial for Reed. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by Reed over his efforts to test evidence in his case.

Like Lucio, Reed has extraordinarily strong evidence of innocence and yet the Bastrop County judge ignored it, said Dunham, whose group takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.

In the case of Texas death row inmate Rigoberto Avila Jr., who alleged his conviction was based on false and outdated scientific evidence, a judge recommended a new trial, but the appeals court in March 2020 rejected the recommendation, Dunham said.

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  Leading candidates for the Republican nomination for Pennsylvanias open governor's office made big promises in Wednesday nights debate about how theyll ramp up the economy and spend state dollars, as they clawed for an edge in a huge nine-person field.

Four of the nine candidates appeared at the live-televised prime-time debate, spending part of the hour in the studio of WHTM-TV in Harrisburg trying to establish an identity or an edge on a rival.

The four met the polling threshold set by the stations parent company as they vie for the nomination to succeed the term-limited Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. Five others didnt meet the polling threshold.

The candidates were: Lou Barletta, the GOPs nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018 and a former congressman known for his crusade against illegal immigration; state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a force in Pennsylvanias right-wing politics who pushed to overturn 2020s presidential election; Bill McSwain, a lawyer in private practice who was the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia under former President Donald Trump; and Dave White, who runs an $85 million-a-year plumbing and HVAC firm and is a former Delaware County councilman.

In addition to questions on taxes and the economy, the candidates agreed that they would get rid of the states two-year-old no-excuse mail-in voting law, which some Republicans blame for Trumps 2020 election loss in the presidential battleground state.

They also said they would sign constitutional carry legislation  scrapping the states requirement that gunowners get a permit from the county to carry a concealed firearm in public. And they all said they would restrict or even ban abortion, if allowed by the U.S. Supreme Court, differing only on possible exceptions. McSwain said he would maintain exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, while the others would not.

Neither the state party nor Trump have endorsed in the race, leaving the field that much more wide open. Two-term state Attorney General Josh Shapiro does not face a challenger for the Democratic Partys nomination.

But the huge field has stoked unease among some top Republicans that a toxic candidate could win with less than 30% of the vote in the May 17 primary election.

To that end, Mastriano was asked what he would tell voters concerned that he has legal issues, worries that stem from the subpoena issued to him by the congressional committee looking into the Jan. 6 insurrection.

There are no legal issues, Mastriano responded.

On spending, the candidates struggled to say  or didnt say at all  how they would replace revenue if they cut the state's gas tax. They pledged to cut business taxes and regulations.

They also pledged to help bail out nursing homes, which have said they're having to close facilities because of inadequate Medicaid reimbursements, except for Mastriano.

Instead, he turned the question to the baseless accusation that the Wolf administration is guilty of sending the sick back into the homes which have killed at least 16,000 of our elderly during the pandemic.

Across the country, and in every state, recovering COVID-19 patients were accepted by nursing homes, more than 250,000 in the 12 months through March 1, 2021, according to federal data.

No investigation or report has thus far pointed to the policy as a cause of death or outbreak. Rather, research points to other factors  such as asymptomatic community spread  as determining factors in COVID-19 outbreaks in the homes.

On the economy, they all promised to usher in more natural gas drilling in the nation's No. 2 gas state.

We will frack, White said, using the shortened term for hydraulic fracturing, a critical method of unlocking oil and gas from rock formations. Well get it going. Thatll bring additional revenue to our state and itll grow our economy. Great-paying, six-figure jobs, 50,000 to 60,000 of them, very quickly.

However, the industry already describes drilling as strong and says it has access to the gas it needs. Rather, it lacks things that are difficult for a governor to deliver on, such as big interstate pipelines and big customers  like liquefied natural gas processing facilities  to use it.

They also vowed to turn around Pennsylvania's economy, despite the fact that it has for decades lagged most of the rest of the nation in its employment rate, population growth and the rate of job creation as its legacy industries shrank.

We shouldnt be towards the bottom, McSwain said. And its only going to change if we have a conservative outsider, not more politicians as governor.

Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at twitter.com/timelywriter

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the panel expects to decide this week about issuing a second request to McCarthy, who has declined to voluntarily appear before the panel. The committee is also looking at summoning a widening group of House Republicans for interviews, Thompson said, as more information emerges about their conversations with the Trump White House in the run-up to the Capitol siege.

The committee is racing to wrap up this phase of its work amid newly released audio recordings of McCarthy's private remarks after the Jan. 6 attack, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol trying to stop the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.

In a Jan. 10, 2021, audio recording released Tuesday by The New York Times, McCarthy tells fellow Republican leaders that Trump's far-right allies in the House are putting people in jeopardy with their public tweets and comments that could put other lawmakers at risk of violence.

McCarthy singled out several conservative representatives, among them Matt Gaetz of Florida and Mo Brooks of Alabama, as potentially endangering the security of other lawmakers and the Capitol complex. There's discussion on the call of disciplining Brooks, who addressed the Jan. 6 rally and urged the crowd to fight like hell before they marched to the Capitol. There's no indication McCarthy followed up with any disciplinary measures.

Gaetz had gone on television to attack Republicans who had criticized Trump, including Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

Hes putting people in jeopardy, McCarthy said, according to the new audio. And he doesnt need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.

On Twitter, Gaetz called McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise, who said Gaetz' actions were potentially illegal, weak men. While I was protecting President Trump from impeachment, they were protecting Liz Cheney from criticism, Gaetz tweeted late Tuesday.

Brooks dismissed the report, telling the Times on Tuesday that "Kevin McCarthy spoke before knowing the facts. He said he did not recall Mr. McCarthy ever speaking with him directly about his rally speech.

Earlier, the Times reported that McCarthy, in conversations with House Republicans, said that Trump had acknowledged bearing some responsibility for the attack.

The audio recordings released by the Times are part of reporting for a forthcoming book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future.

Thompson said the committee met most of Tuesday deciding next steps on McCarthy and other House members.

We will probably look at engaging some of the lawmakers by invitation at this point, and well go from there, Thompson said at the Capitol.

The panel had previously sought interviews from McCarthy and Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, two Trump allies central to the effort to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost to Biden.

All three have declined to voluntarily appear, but the committee has stopped short of taking the more dramatic step of issuing subpoenas to the sitting members of Congress to compel their testimony.

Thompson noted that the earlier invitation to McCarthy was sent "before this latest revelation that was reported on tape. He told reporters that in all probability McCarthy would get another invitation.

At the same time, the panel is broadening its outreach to a potentially much wider group of Republican lawmakers who are now known to have played a more substantial role than previously understood ahead of the riot and as it unfolded.

'Well make a decision on any others before the week is out, Thompson said.

Brooks, a Trump ally who was with a group of lawmakers who met in December 2020 at the White House, has suggested he would appear before the panel.

Additionally, the panel is now eyeing other House Republican lawmakers reported to have been working closely with Mark Meadows, Trump's former White House chief of staff, as they sought to challenge Biden's win.

A handful of lawmakers' names were included in testimony released late Friday as part of a court filing as the committee seeks access to Meadows' text messages.

"We will probably look at engaging some of the lawmakers by invitation at this point, and well go from there," Thompson said Tuesday.

The panel is working swiftly to launch public hearings, which it hopes to both start and conclude by June, before issuing an initial report of its findings in fall.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
A coalition of news organizations convened by the Chicago Tribune is seeking to block the Chicago Park Districts efforts to seal a pending lawsuit alleging Mayor Lori Lightfoot yelled obscenities at and defamed a Park District attorney during a call about a controversial Christopher Columbus statue.

The Park District earlier this month asked a Cook County judge to shield from the public all records in the defamation lawsuit brought by George Smyrniotis, a former Park District attorney who alleges Lightfoot blocked an agreement that had been reached with an Italian American organization to allow the statue to be displayed in a parade.

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Smyrniotis also alleges the mayor yelled obscene comments at him and another Park District attorney on a heated Zoom call, declaring that while they were out there stroking your d---- over the Columbus statue, I am trying to keep Chicago police officers from being shot and you are trying to get them shot.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot at a City Council meeting March 23, 2022. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

The Park District is arguing the case should be sealed to protect attorney-client privilege as it defends itself in a separate lawsuit brought by an Italian American organization over Lightfoots decision to remove a Columbus statue in Little Italy following protests in the city in 2020.

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But the coalition of news organizations  which also includes the Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois Press Association, WBBM-Ch. 2, WMAQ-Ch. 5, WLS-Ch. 7, WFLD-Ch. 32, WBEZ and WGN-Ch. 9  argues in a petition filed late Tuesday that the public has a significant interest in knowing about allegations of government wrongdoing. That interest outweighs the potential for privileged information being disclosed, the organizations argue in their court filing.

Allegations of workplace misconduct committed by a public official are significant in any context, the petition states. Against the backdrop where many public figures have been ousted from leadership roles based on statements or conduct that is thought to be insensitive or inappropriate, the public has an interest in the impact of statements that the complaint attributes to the mayor.

Tribune Executive Editor Mitch Pugh said in a statement that we find it unfathomable that anyone would argue this case should be conducted in secrecy given it involves the words and actions of public officials.

The coalition of media organizations that joined together to file this motion should be a clear signal of the stakes, Pugh said. We are gratified to see this distinguished group of media companies stand united in defense of the publics right to know.

The media organizations also argue the public has a vested interest in the debate over the removal of monuments, which has become a major local and national issue, as well as public safety, which Lightfoot allegedly discussed.

Weighing this blanket assertion of privilege against the wide-ranging and significant public interest in this matter, the balance weighs heavily in favor of disclosure here, the news organizations stated in the petition.

Park District spokeswoman Michele Lemons said in a statement that its motion was intended to preserve its right to privileged communications with counsel.

The attorney-client privilege embodies a fundamental principle of our jurisprudence in that it protects the confidentiality of communications between attorney and client, Lemons said.

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Smyrniotis attorney declined to comment.

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Lightfoot has said she ordered the removal of Columbus monuments after activists forcibly tried to remove a more prominent statue of Columbus in Grant Park, leading to violent clashes between police and protesters. Soon after, the city took down the statues in Grant Park and Little Italy and later removed a lesser-known statue in the South Chicago neighborhood.

The removal of the Little Italy Columbus statue prompted lawyers for the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans to sue, saying removing the statue violated a 1973 agreement. The defamation lawsuit alleges the Park District and the Italian American organization had reached an agreement last year that would have allowed the statue to be displayed in the groups annual Columbus Day parade and were negotiating over its permanent removal.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 31 Workers remove the Christopher Columbus statue from Chicago's Grant Park during the early morning hours of July 24, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

When Lightfoot found out, the lawsuit says, she threatened to pull the permit for the parade and ordered Park District officials  including Smyrniotis, then deputy general counsel for the Park District and who had worked on the settlement  to attend a Zoom meeting.

At the meeting last year, Smyrniotis alleges, Lightfoot proceeded to berate and defame the lawyers and asked them, Where did you go to law school? Did you even go to law school? Do you even have a law license?

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Lightfoot told them that they had to submit their pleadings to a city lawyer for approval and were told not to do a f------ thing with that statue without my approval.

Get that f------ statue back before noon tomorrow or I am going to have you fired, Lightfoot said, according to the complaint.

You make some kind of secret agreement with Italians.  You are out there stroking your d---- over the Columbus statue, I am trying to keep Chicago police officers from being shot and you are trying to get them shot, Lightfoot said, according to the complaint. My d--- is bigger than yours and the Italians, I have the biggest d--- in Chicago.

Lightfoot has dismissed the allegations in the defamation lawsuit as wholly lacking in merit and called its claims deeply offensive and ridiculous.

Smyrniotis alleges the comments defamed him by implying he lacked the ability to perform his job duties. He resigned from the Park District in February, according to the lawsuit.

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in Oklahomas ongoing battle with Native American tribes over the state's authority to prosecute people accused of crimes on Native American lands, following a 2020 Supreme Court decision.

The court agreed earlier this year to consider limiting its 2020 McGirt decision, a ruling that the state says has produced chaos in its courts.

The states appeal is in the case of Victor Castro-Huerta, who was charged with malnourishment of his 5-year-old stepdaughter and has since pleaded guilty to a federal child neglect charge and is awaiting sentencing.

He was initially convicted in state court but that conviction and his sentence were overturned because of the way the state courts interpreted the law in the aftermath of the McGirt ruling. The state appealed with the strong support of Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and is the latest strain on his relationship with tribal leaders in the state.

In the 2020 case, the Supreme Court ruled that a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation. The ruling applied to the Muscogee reservation, but led to similar lower court rulings upholding the historic reservations of several other Native American tribes in Oklahoma, including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Quapaw and Seminole nations that cover nearly the entire eastern half of the state.

The decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, meant that Oklahoma prosecutors lack the authority to pursue criminal cases against American Indian defendants in parts of Oklahoma that include most of Tulsa, the states second-largest city with a population of about 413,000.

Stitt said during his State of the State speech in February that Oklahoma has been robbed of the authority to prosecute crimes.

The Supreme Court does not typically reconsider its decisions so soon. But the state argued that crimes are going uninvestigated and unprosecuted because federal authorities  who can bring criminal cases on tribal land  are overwhelmed.

The state will argue that it has the right to protect Indian victims in front of the Supreme Court this week his spokesperson, Carly Atchison said.

Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. of the Cherokee Nation, the state's most populous tribe with about 261,000 citizens, believes Stitt is trying to take away tribal sovereignty after the Supreme Court in January rejected the state's request to overturn McGirt.

I think his goal now is to whittle away at McGirt, Hoskin said, calling it a 19th century mindset toward the treatment of Native Americans.

Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton agreed, calling the state's appeal and Stitt's support of the action an attack on tribal sovereignty.

"Its put a strain on our relationship ... I would like to think its a lack of education rather than a lack of understanding of treaties between two sovereign governments, the United States and the Choctaw Nation, Batton said.

Its becoming harder and harder the more hes not accepting history and what the United States agreed to do and who we are as a Choctaw Nation," Batton said.

The Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes, made up of leaders of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee and Seminole nations last fall rescinded a 2019 resolution commending and congratulating Stitt, a member of the Cherokee Nation, on his election as governor.

Stitt and tribal leaders previously clashed over Stitts desire to renegotiate tribal gambling compacts that he claimed were expiring. Federal and state courts ruled against Stitt in lawsuits over the gambling question.

Last year, Stitt decided to not renew hunting and fishing license compacts with the Cherokee and Choctaw nations as part of an ongoing dispute between the tribes and the Republican governor.

Stitt has lost support among Native American voters due to his actions, according to Hoskin.

He absolutely has, in my opinion hes the most anti-Native American governor in state history, Hoskin said. I think his defeat (for reelection) would be met with applause by many tribal leaders, certainly by me.

Donelle Harder, manager of Stitt's reelection campaign said Stitt has had disagreements with a small number of top officials of the tribes," but has good relations with tribal citizens he meets during his travels in the state.

I think every Oklahoman knows this is a critical conversation that must be had and no one group or organization should dictate the future of all 4 million Oklahomans, Harder said.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
NEW YORK (AP)  Meaningful changes could be implemented within days at the troubled Rikers Island jail complex, the head of New York Citys jails told a federal judge Tuesday.

The city has insisted that years of failed reforms could be overcome without the court taking control of the nations second-largest jail system.

You will see change, Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina promised Judge Laura Taylor Swain.

Molina said hes in alignment with recommendations from Steve Martin, a monitor tasked with reporting on changes that are needed at a jail system which includes Rikers Island, where about 5,500 inmates are held.

In a recent report, Martin said about 30% of the workforce at the jails was not coming to work or not available to work with inmates. On Tuesday, he said of Molina: Every time Ive called on the commissioner for a remedy or attention, he has stepped up.

I dont need to wait three weeks to take some actions, Molina said, promising some changes would occur within days.

Sixteen inmates died at Rikers last year, and three have died so far in 2022.

Molina spoke after he was ordered to appear by the judge after she received a scathing letter about the jails from prosecutors, who suggested Molina appear before the court as they warned that court oversight of the jail system might be necessary.

We remain alarmed by the extraordinary level of violence and disorder at the jails and the ongoing imminent risk of harm that inmates and correction officers face every day, prosecutors wrote. The jails are in a state of crisis, inmates and staff are being seriously injured, and action is desperately needed now.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Powell noted at Tuesdays electronically held hearing that city officials had repeatedly promised there would be reforms that never materialized, as officials constantly sought new deadlines for planned improvements that would then be found to be blocked by local laws or regulations.

We cant agree to continue to hit the reset button, he said.

Powell said there might be alternatives to the appointment of a receiver who would essentially take control of the jails. He said one improvement would be for a judge to order the removal of legal impediments, such as a clause in the contract with workers that requires unlimited sick leave.

He said prosecutors dont doubt the commissioners dedication, but he said the government was giving serious consideration to the appointment of a receiver.

In a statement last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Molina is laying the groundwork for long-term change.

This story has been updated to delete quotes that had been attributed to attorney Hayley Horowitz. Horowitz didnt participate in the court hearing and The Associated Press couldnt immediately identify the lawyer who told the judge inmates werent allowed out of cells due to a lack of guards, and who called receivership of the jail a meaningful possibility.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
At least 23 fires broke out in Nebraska, creating life-threatening conditions last weekend, state officials said in an update Wednesday.

And while losses are still being tallied, the fires are known to have burned more than 81,000 acres, destroying at least three homes and causing extensive damage to agricultural land.

The simultaneous fires were so aggressive that a high-level, national disaster management team jumped in to help  the first time in Nebraska since 2012. The interagency Type 1 Complex Incident Management teams are deployed in major disasters, such as 9/11, said Terry Krasko, spokesman for the Nebraska team. The umbrella agency for the teams is the U.S. Forest Service. The last time that level of expertise was used in Nebraska was during the 2012 fire year, he said  Nebraskas hottest, driest year on record and its worst fire year.

Last weekends fires claimed the life of retired Cambridge Volunteer Fire Chief John P. Trimble and left more than 15 people injured, including one person who had to be transported by air rescue to an area hospital, according to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.

NEMA reports that the fires, which mostly started on Friday or Saturday, burned more than 76,000 acres. For about half of these large fires, the number of acres burned is still unavailable from the state. At least 5,000 acres burned in Burt County, according to local officials.

Additionally, about 35,000 acres burned earlier this month in another fatal fire in southwest Nebraska.

At least eight houses burned this weekend and, of those, at least three were occupied, according to state and local reports. One of the destroyed homes was in southwest Nebraska and the other two in Burt County. Several of the other houses were seasonal cabins or had long been vacant, local officials say.

Most of the fires have been contained, but crews were still working on the largest: the Road 702 fire that has burned across 43,582 acres in Red Willow, Furnas and Frontier Counties in Nebraska and Phillips and Norton Counties in Kansas. Firefighters have brought the fire to within 88% containment as of Thursday morning, according to NEMA. That fire, in which Trumble died, started Friday.

In other news released Wednesday:

Scotts Bluff County: Up to nine fires broke out in the Panhandle county on Friday and Saturday, and a record wind gust of 83 mph was reported, according to NEMA. The winds downed power lines, uprooted trees and left upward of 4,000 homes and businesses without power. The airport at Scottsbluff closed for safety reasons. The number of acres burned was unavailable.

Blaine County: Near Purdum, five large fires were reported Friday and consumed nearly 30,000 acres. More than 20 volunteer fire departments responded, and three firetrucks were damaged.

Perkins County: Four fires were reported near the village of Elsie and burned about 4,970 acres. Four firefighters were injured.

Cheyenne and Deuel Counties: Three large fires broke out between Sunol and Lodge Pole, requiring the evacuation of some residents. Acres burned was unavailable.

Burt County: Fire started near Lyons and burned toward Macy, requiring its evacuation. Four people were injured and one person was life-flighted. Eighteen volunteer fire departments responded, and one firetruck was destroyed. Local officials say 5,000 to 5,500 acres burned.

Butler County: On Saturday, 100 calves, a hay barn and 900 calving hutches were lost in a fire that started when a front end loader sparked against some concrete. Two firefighters went to the hospital because of smoke inhalation, and several others were treated for eye irritation. Eight volunteer fire departments responded to the fire.

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The city will pay $497,500 to a Lincoln woman injured by a rubber bullet during racial justice protests in May 2020 as part of a settlement of a federal lawsuit she filed against it.

Elise Poole, now 20, participated in demonstrations south of downtown Lincoln on May 30-31, 2020, with thousands of others as part of a nationwide reaction to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

During those protests, on May 31, just after 10 p.m.  roughly two hours after a curfew set by Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird  Poole was kneeling with friends on the sidewalk near 12th and H Streets as protesters were confronted by officers in riot gear from the Lincoln Police Department and Lancaster County Sheriffs Office, according to the lawsuit filed in February 2021.

The lawsuit alleges that Poole was trying to flee from tear gas fired by police when she was struck in the face by a projectile fired by an unknown officer, who was acting to disperse the crowd through the use of rubber bullets.

After she was hurt, friends helped Poole to a hospital, while she applied pressure to keep her partially detached nose attached to her face until she could get medical aid.

Doctors later determined the bone, cartilage and internal valve of her nose were destroyed by the impact of the projectile. They performed emergency reconstructive surgery to reattach her nose.

Poole will need further surgeries in order to be able to regain normal breathing functionality, her attorneys said in a press release.

If my case protects just one other person from going through what I experienced, it was worth it, Poole said in a statement. Our protest was about protecting Black lives and calling out police violence.

Those messages are just as important today and I hope my case plays a small role in making our city safer for everyone, she added.

Daniel Gutman, a contract attorney litigating the case on behalf of the ACLU of Nebraska, said the lawsuit was successful in holding law enforcement accountable and ensuring Poole is fully compensated for the harm she suffered.

We are pleased that her case has ended in a fair agreement, Gutman said in a statement. Elise was severely injured while exercising her First Amendment right to free speech and assembly. Law enforcement must understand, and this lawsuit shows, that our constitutional rights must be respected.

The lawsuit named the city; Lancaster County; Jeff Bliemeister, who was police chief at the time; Sheriff Terry Wagner; and unknown officers working that night.

The city does not admit liability and makes no admissions of wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which cannot be used as admission or evidence of illegal conduct in any other case or dispute. Each party will pay its own attorneys fees, and Poole will pay her medical bills.

We do not know what caused Ms. Pooles injury, City Attorney Yohance Christie said. Gasoline, fireworks and other dangerous objects were thrown at our Lincoln police officers repeatedly. Just like we do not know who threw these dangerous objects at our Lincoln police officers, we do not know who or what caused Ms. Pooles injury.
Investigators from the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office said Haroon Sediqi of Lincoln and Noriza Perez-Perez, a 39-year-old Lincoln woman, were headed in opposite directions on 70th Street about 1:25 p.m. Tuesday when their vehicles collided head-on. Sediqi, who was not wearing a seat belt, was taken to Bryan Medical Center's west campus, where he was pronounced dead.
The humpback silhouette of the jumbo Boeing 747 airliner is a common sight in the skies above southeast Nebraska, thanks to the four-plane fleet of E-4Bs (the 747s fraternal military twin) at Offutt Air Force Base.

Whats rare is for civilians to get a look inside the so-called Doomsday jet that is always on alert to take off within minutes and serve as the National Airborne Operations Center in the event of a nuclear war or other calamity.

On Tuesday, leaders of the 595th Command and Control Group shut off the suite of highly classified communications systems and took several reporters on a two-hour flight around the Midwest to show off what the nearly 50-year-old planes can do.

We are proving to the world: Look, we can do our business, said Col. Brian Golden, the units commander.

Air Force officials are seeking to raise the profile of the E-4B Nightwatch plane in an effort to ensure a steady flow of funding for a critical mission that is often overshadowed by more numerous and more visible fighters and bombers.

Two weeks ago, the unit unveiled a $16 million flight deck simulator in a La Vista office park, the first time the Air Force has had its own simulator for the E-4B.

And in August, the Air Forces Global Strike Command  the 595ths Louisiana-based parent unit  is planning a ceremony to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the airborne operations mission.

The Offutt-based Strategic Air Command started operating the flights in the deep chill of the Cold War to ensure that SAC could continue command and control of its nuclear arsenal in the event of a Soviet attack.

In the 1970s, SAC moved the rapidly expanding mission from the smaller EC-135s to a variant of the 747, then the largest passenger plane flying.

It has to be so large, because of our mission set and all the people we have on board, Golden said.

The plane reporters flew on Tuesday (tail number 75-1025) was delivered in 1979. The interior still includes some period features, such as a disco-chic chandelier at the top of the circular staircase leading up into the familiar hump just aft of the cockpit.

In a 747, the hump is a lounge for passengers flying first class. In an E-4B, its the hangout for a team of mechanics from the 595th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. Spare parts and tools are carried in the planes lower cargo area.

Were truly self-sustained. We can do anything we need by ourselves, Golden said.

Aside from the cockpit, the plane has few windows. Golden said that allows for the extensive armoring in the aircrafts skin to protect communications systems from exterior heat or a circuit-destroying electromagnetic pulse.

The forward part of the main cabin includes a small suite for the secretary of defense, who uses the E-4B when traveling on overseas duty. Behind it is a secure conference room for video teleconference rooms, and a small area for passengers.

From the wings back to the tail are several compartments with work stations for the officers and enlisted service members who staff the extensive radio, telephone and computer systems that can handle the nations most critical communications in the most dire of emergencies.

We can do so many things that are necessary, said Capt. Bryan La Rance, who staffs one of the stations.

Navy Lt. Cole Swavely was a surface warfare officer before his career took a turn that brought him to Offutt, and into the back of an E-4B. Though the missions can be long, he said, its a lot smoother than flying commercial.

The seats go back and forth, he said with a grin. This thing rides like a Cadillac.

The ride may be smooth, but these are old planes on their way out. They are costly to maintain, and spare parts are scarce. They are slated for retirement within the next 10 years; a replacement plane hasnt been announced yet.

The fleet is healthy. It just takes a lot of intensity, Golden said.

The 595th has bulled ahead through a lot of adversity in the past few years.

In June 2017, a tornado struck the hangar where two E-4Bs were being stored, causing $8.5 million in damage. The floods of March 2019 destroyed the 595ths offices and alert center.

Then, a year ago, Offutt began a complete reconstruction of its runway, forcing the unit to shift operation to the Lincoln airport. But the mechanics dont have a hangar, which means aircraft maintenance is done outdoors in the elements.

Weve got 8,000 tools. We operate sometimes at three different locations, said Maj. Ted DeBonis, commander of the maintenance squadron. With the flood, the pandemic  that was inconvenient. But well still complete the mission.

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The issue of ethics is once again taking a central role in the race for Cook County assessor as first-term incumbent Fritz Kaegi is blasting his main opponent Kari Steele over her husbands work as a lobbyist for an international development company that could benefit from decisions made by the assessors office.

Ethics for years has been a key campaign issue in races for county assessor, an office responsible for accurately and fairly assessing the value of the countys 1.8 million properties. As an outsider four years ago, Kaegi defeated Assessor Joseph Berrios, who also was head of the Cook County Democratic Party, in part by pointing to Berrios history of taking campaign contributions from property tax appeal attorneys and noting Berrios hired relatives and friends in the office.

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Today, Kaegi is the county Democratic Party-backed candidate and is attacking Steele and her husband, Mazonne Maze Jackson, saying Jacksons work as a lobbyist for a real estate firm could compromise her role as assessor. Steele is now president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation Board of Greater Chicago.

Steele has countered that Kaegi has not lived up to his promises that hed reform the assessors office by making property assessments more equitable and transparent, an issue that had been highlighted by The Tax Divide, a 2018 Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois series that found assessments under Berrios placed an outsize portion of the property tax burden on the poor.

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The issue of Kaegi raising concerns about Steele came to a head following Steeles answers during a Crains Chicago Business podcast in which she declined to promise that Jackson would stop lobbying on behalf of real estate developers were she to assume the office. City and county lobbying records, as well as a Better Government Association story, have detailed that Jacksons firm, The Intelligence Group, has one lobbying client, real estate company Onni Group.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi and challenger and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board President Kari Steele. (Erin Hooley and Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Commissioner Steeles unwillingness to say that she will ensure her spouse eliminates his conflicts of interest related to his lobbying is troubling, said Kaegi campaign spokeswoman Alicia Webb. Cook County residents deserve to know whether Mr. Jackson will continue lobbying for Onni Group and other real estate developers who may seek assessments before the office she seeks to control.

In recent interviews with the Tribune, both Steele and Jackson said Jackson has not lobbied the assessors office and vowed he would not if Steele wins.

I cant state that enough, Steele said. As you see, I just keep saying he doesnt lobby the assessors office or seek official action.

She added the idea that Jacksons lobbying could pose an ethical issue for her seeking office was dredged up by Kaegis campaign to deflect that his responsibilities arent being executed. Jackson also said the criticism was crossing the line.

Quite frankly, in some cases, its offensive  the fact that she could not be able to make decisions as a woman without me being of some level of influence, he said.

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But Reform for Illinois Executive Director Alisa Kaplan said the concern is valid, and Steeles measures might be insufficient should Jackson continue lobbying for Onni Group and other developers. Thats because even the appearance of partiality could be problematic, Kaplan said.

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When it comes to corruption or bias, appearance can be as damaging to the publics trust as reality, Kaplan said. Fairly or not, the public usually sees elected officials and their spouses as a unit  as having the same financial interests. That could make it hard for Commissioner Steele to draw a line between her work and her husbands.

The issue of elected officials whose spouses work as lobbyists has also become an issue in the race for Illinois secretary of state, where City Clerk Anna Valencia has faced questions about whether her husbands lobbying activities have interfered with her role in public office.

When asked whether it was warranted to expect her husband to stop lobbying for real estate firms, Steele said, I wouldnt say its unfair for anyone to have that thought, but I would eliminate any conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest by signing an executive order barring any family member of her staffers from lobbying or seeking official action from the office.

Kaegis administration implemented a similar order that bars assessors office employees from participating in decisions that could benefit them, a relative or a private organization in which they have interest.

Steele also said she would install a full-time ethics officer and recuse herself from decisions involving Jacksons clients, though she was less specific on how other situations, such as assessments for property owners who work for Jacksons clients, should be handled.

I will look into that, Steele said, but if there was any appearance of conflict of interest, I will recuse myself.

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Kaegis campaign said the assessor already employs an ethics official, though that person also serves as the offices legal director  as is common in government agencies, assessors office spokeswoman Angelina Romero said.

Though Onni Group could benefit from decisions made by the assessors office, Jackson said the firms interests would not overlap with the mission of the assessors office.

My client Onni is my only real estate client, and they dont ask for grants or set-asides, or any specific legislative action, Jackson said. My relationship with Onni does not deal in the relationship of taxes.  Quite frankly, that is an area that I dont really understand very much.

In a statement, Onni Groups chief of staff, Duncan Wlodarczak, said we are proud of what we have been able to accomplish in Chicago with Mazes assistance. That stated, Mazes scope of work with Onni does not, has never, and will not involve the assessors office.

While Jackson said he would not lobby the assessors office, he declined to make a similar pledge for lobbying the Cook County Board, the Chicago City Council or the Illinois General Assembly, all of which can pass legislation related to property taxes.

I would just tell you that again, if it is deemed by the ethics officer that it would be a conflict, I would without question recuse myself from it, Jackson said.

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Jackson also accused Kaegi of being hypocritical. He said four years ago he endorsed Kaegi when he ran for assessor and even helped host a fundraiser in Kaegis efforts to defeat Berrios. Jackson even shared a post on social media of a flyer for the fundraiser and noted that at the time of the event  October 16, 2018  he was lobbying for Onni.

Its important that we recognize that while he is pointing the finger, he should be looking back at himself because during that same exact time, I was raising funds for him and representing the same company, and he didnt find a conflict then, Jackson said.

ayin@chicagotribune.com
NORMAL  A delivery driver was deprived of cash by a suspected robber Tuesday in north Normal, police said.

Officer Brad Park with the Normal Police Department said the victim was returning to his car after delivering food around 6:17 p.m. Tuesday in the area of Orlando Avenue and Northbrook Drive when the suspect approached him.

Park said the suspect, a male believed to be between 18 and 22 years old, threatened the victim and asked for his money. A description of the suspect's clothing was not available.

The officer said the suspect said he was armed with a gun, but no weapon was displayed.

After he was handed a minimal amount of cash, Park said, the suspect took off running and the victim went back to his car. No one was hurt and no arrests have been made as of Wednesday morning.

NPD is still actively investigating the robbery. Park encouraged anyone with information on this incident to call NPD's front desk at 309-454-9535.

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PEKIN  The latest filing in a Tazewell County lawsuit involving Reditus Laboratories and its CEO Aaron Rossi includes accusations that Rossi stole money from a Bloomington orthopedics business he worked at from 2011 to 2018, revealing details behind Rossis federal tax fraud charges.

Dr. Larry Nord, 73, of Bloomington, who operated Central Illinois Orthopedic Surgery with Dr. Brett Keller in Bloomington, spoke April 1 in a deposition to several attorneys involved in consolidated lawsuits against Rossi.

Nord, who went to medical school with Rossis father, Larry Rossi, said CIOS hired Aaron Rossi in 2011 at $80,000 per year to assist with office and computer work.

Nord said the company hired Aaron Rossi to conduct office work rather than complete a medical residency because Nord learned that Aaron Rossi had not passed the United States Medical Licensing Exam.

Aaron Rossi took control of CIOS business operations in 2013 after Nord turned the majority of the company over to Keller.

Receipts of payments for physician services were sent to the company through wire transfers or checks in the mail, Nord said.

Those were deposited in the checking account, but they were not credited to the patients bill, Nord said. That left excessive and massive amounts of miscellaneous income in the checking account for which we believe that thats where Aaron had access in writing out large bonus checks and salary checks without our consent.

Nords deposition was attached in court documents submitted Monday in a lawsuit that was filed in 2020 by Rossi against former business partner Dr. Malcolm Herzog. Rossi is a plaintiff and a counter-defendant in the lawsuit. That case has been consolidated with another Tazewell County lawsuit against Rossi filed last year by Dr. James Davie.

Mondays filing was Herzogs response to Pekin-based PAL Health Technologies opposition to a motion by several Central Illinois media outlets, including The Pantagraph, to lift a protective order sealing Reditus financial reports.

What becomes very obvious in reviewing Mr. Herzogs response and in reviewing the documents that he attaches, theres no need for a protective order in this case, said Don Craven, an attorney representing the media organizations.

These folks are all very capable of handling their own public relations issues, some parties have hired public relations experts, and each partys ability to tell their own story and willingness to tell their own story defeats the purpose of having a gag order in this case at all, Craven said.

A hearing on the media petition is scheduled for Monday.

Rossi, through spokesperson Natalie Bauer Luce, said Tuesday that theres a coordinated effort underway to destroy Aarons reputation.

This filing is nothing more than the inadmissible notes and unsupported claims from someone who threatened Aaron Rossi, Luce said.

Rossi, 39, faces federal tax fraud charges in an indictment filed last month accusing him of filing false tax returns in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

In his own notes provided to attorneys in his deposition, Nord said that in sometime after 2014, his annual income started decreasing significantly until I retired in 2017.

Nord said monthly or quarterly staff meetings to review the companys income and expense statements stopped after Aaron Rossi took control of business operations in 2013.

Keller fired Aaron Rossi from CIOS in April 2018, according to the deposition.

According to its website, Aaron Rossi reopened Pekin-based PAL Health Technologies in April 2018. Reditus Labs opened in 2019.

Reditus was appointed a receiver this month to oversee the company's financial assets amid the lawsuits against Rossi and the company.

Keller and Nord learned Rossi had "ghost payrolled" an associate of his, Jim Woodward, at CIOS for doing little or no work for the company. Meanwhile, Woodward was working for Aaron Rossis other company, PAL Health Technologies, Nord said.

The court filing also said witnesses reported Aaron Rossi has illegally performed surgeries and has used other physicians prescription pads or licenses to subscribe and distribute opioids and amphetamines to himself, family and others.

Nords deposition accused Rossi of illegally prescribing Woodward with opiates.

Woodward at the time was dying from metastatic kidney cancer, and because his insurance company found out he had written a prescription for opiates, excluded him from a cancer study and treatment program. Woodward died a year later, Nord wrote in his notes submitted to the court.

After Rossi was fired in 2018, CIOS hired an accountant to audit the businesss financial records.

We discovered that when deposits came into the office, they were deposited, but I want you to listen very carefully, Nord said. All of those deposits that came in to pay for medical services were not credited to the patients accounts receivable account. And thats why my income went down and Dr. Kellers didnt go up as much as it should.

Aaron Rossi initially contacted Nord in 2011 about completing a specialty rotation in orthopedic surgery at CIOS while he was attending Sint Eustatius Medical School in Barbados.

Nord said he later learned that Aaron Rossi did not pass the U.S. medical licensing exams and is not a doctor; however, he said Aaron Rossi often touted himself as a doctor and told CIOS office staff that he wanted to be called a doctor.

That was a big problem, because I knew that if he was not a licensed physician in the United States, or even in the State of Illinois, he could not portray himself as Dr. Aaron Rossi, MD., Nord said. It was complete fraud.

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CHARLESTON  Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said she has heard from aspiring teachers who must choose between groceries and school supplies, face challenges going to school while working and raising families, and fear the burnout that has driven many teachers from this field.

Stratton shared these stories Wednesday while visiting Eastern Illinois University to talk about teacher shortage issues statewide and efforts to help with recruitment, including recent increases in state funding for MAP grants and for higher education operating budgets.

The visit occurred as Gov. J.B. Pritzker in Springfield signed four bills into law with the aim of addressing statewide teacher shortages, including reducing the reinstatement cost for expired Illinois teacher licenses from $500 to $50.

"Our administration recognizes the vital role that educators play in communities all across the state and we are committed to supporting those who are teaching our next generation and we are committed to investing in them," Stratton said during a press conference at Buzzard Hall Auditorium.

Stratton she heard from aspiring teachers at Eastern about the importance of providing more support for teachers dealing with burnout and stress. She said the related teacher shortage did not start during the COVID-19 pandemic, but was exacerbated by its challenges.

She said the bills signed by Pritzker, a fellow Democrat, include a law lowering the minimum age to become a paraprofessional in pre-K through eighth grades by one year to 18 to provide more support in the classroom.

While touring universities to talk about teacher issues, Stratton said she's also heard calls for on-site daycare for students with children and for more flexible programs offered at night and on weekends.

She said the budget that Pritzker recently signed includes a 5% increase in the operating funds for public universities and community colleges, which could help with such programs. She said the budget also includes increasing MAP grant funding to more than $600 million to help aspiring teachers and other students.

"We know that there is more work to do, and we are digging in," Stratton said. "As we march forward, know that we are doing so with your voices at the forefront."

Eastern President David Glassman said at the press conference that the university is playing an active role in educating more aspiring teachers and getting them to school districts throughout Illinois.

"I am pleased to say that EIU is at the forefront of this critical initiative," Glassman said.

Eastern reported in advance of Stratton's visit that it has been leading educational initiatives driven by the Rural Affairs Council. EIU partners with several off-campus cohorts tailored toward working adults who are interested in becoming licensed teachers. Additionally, EIUs Grow Your Own Project was developed to focus on rural communities across Central Illinois with the purpose of developing a regional pipeline for rural communities to assist in staffing their schools.

Another one of the four bills that Pritzker signed into law on Wednesday would allow teaching students to obtain a substitute teacher's license if they have completed 90 credit hours. Currently, substitutes must have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Under another of the new laws, substitute teachers will now be allowed to spend 15 consecutive days in the same classroom. Before, short-term subs were only allowed five consecutive days.

There are more than 2,100 unfilled teaching positions statewide, Pritzker said, including 64 in Decatur Public Schools.

"Education is the foundation on which community is built," said state Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, the latter bill's sponsor. "And we owe it to current students and future generations to pour as much into Illinois educational systems as humanly possible."

Pritzker also touted the additional funding the state has poured into K-12 schools through the evidence-based funding formula that was signed into law in 2017, as well as a law signed in 2019 that will increase teachers' minimum wage to $40,000 by the start of the 2023-24 school year.

All across the nation, school districts are fighting the impact of teacher shortages, Pritzker said. Thats why Ive worked with lawmakers and school districts across the state to find new ways to bring people into the profession and encourage them to stay there. In this fight for our childrens futures, school districts should know theyre far from alone.

Contact Rob Stroud at (217) 238-6861. Follow him on Twitter: @TheRobStroud

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NORMAL  American poet and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was known for lyric poems including Paul Reveres Ride and The Song of Hiawatha, an epic that features Native American characters from the Dakota and Ojibwe tribes.

Following Longfellow's death on March 24, 1882, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a group of Bloomington-Normal educators and prominent professionals founded the Longfellow Club in memory of the poet.

The club in itself is pretty diverse as far as involving different peoples passions about a variety of topics, said David Wilson, president of the Longfellow Club, which started April 6, 1882. This isnt a religious organization. Back in the day when he died in 1882, it was a literary organization, so those roots are still there.

Seasoned and new members gathered recently at the Illinois Art Station, 101 E. Vernon Ave. in Normal, to learn more about the nonprofit and celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Longfellow Club.

Similar to the history of the club, the property where the Art Station is located goes back to the early beginnings of Normal in 1890, when the town's main source of income was derived from horses, university students and nurseries, including the Custer Brothers Nursery, where the nonprofit is today.

In 2007, the property was sold to Longfellow members John and Marilyn Freese, who renovated the building and lived there until 2020, when they sold the property to Laura Berk, president of the Art Stations foundation board.

We actually purchased it in order to preserve it until we found this potential owner, said John Freese, who joined the Longfellow Club with his wife Marilyn just over two years ago. We knew they were doing some really great things in the art community, and particularly programming art for children and youth. This is such a nice location because they can do a lot of outside artwork and other programs involving science or the environment.

Nan Rutledge, who joined the club about eight years ago with her late husband Don, said the club is a great group of people to spend time with and to learn something new.

Presenting programs is part of the process, with members taking time to research a variety of topics or people in history. For example, Rutledges program was about her father-in-law who fought during World War II in the 2nd Armored Division, named Hell on Wheels.

Its just a great group to spend time with and we always have time to just talk with each other as an informal fellowship, said Rutledge, who is a Master Naturalist with the University of Illinois Extension and a retired teacher. Im always interested to hear each individual give their program or share something new each meeting.

Club membership is limited to no more than 32 people, and people can only be invited by existing members before being voted into membership, said club member and former Normal Mayor Paul Harmon. Right now, the club has 28 members ranging in age from their 50s to their 90s. They meet at least nine times per year.

For Harmon and his wife Sandra, they were approached about 35 years ago by Marilyn and Wayne Townley about joining the club. Harmon was still in office at the time, and after one meeting, he and Sandra were both hooked.

When we first got in, there was a Dr. Tony Chrisman who always recited The Night Before Christmas from memory, but he also recited it in Pig Latin, Harmon said. It was an interesting rendition.

Marilyn Townley, who joined in the 1970s, said earlier on, the club was unique in that it included both men and women, which was uncommon at the time, but also made for more interesting and diverse conversations.

Having done multiple programs on American photographer and ethnologist Edward Curtis, Townley has seen people share their passions and others develop new interests all just from coming together as a group.

Im one of the older ones, and so now its fun to be with younger people, Townley said. The difference in ages is also a plus, its not all just one group of like-minded individuals, and we try to find members that wouldn't all be a part of the same social group, or others from different parts of town.

Membership for the Longfellow Club is by invitation only from current members. They do not take requests to join the club.

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BLOOMINGTON  On an individual level, the effects of climate change might seem impossible to counteract.

However, young volunteers with the Ecology Action Center learned April 23 how change is possible when they work together.

Around 60 environmentally conscious crews with the EAC planted thousands of trees that day in the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation Districts buffer lands off West Oakland Avenue in Bloomington.

Michael Brown, executive director of EAC, said they worked fast enough to finish the work in one day, instead of two as originally planned. He added it was a beautiful day, where everyone was smiling.

Its just kind of a nice win-win, giving back as well as getting some sunshine and enjoying the nice outdoors, he said.

He said they planted native species like white oaks, burr oaks, black oaks, red oaks, whetstone species, swamp white oaks, sweet gums and Kentucky coffee trees.

It's essentially a good diversity of native Illinois trees, Brown said. He counted 2,127 planted trees that day.

EAC coordinated volunteers with the Bloomington Kiwanis, along with the Future Farmers of America from Normal Community High School.

Mel Oliveros Perez said they were there because helping the Earth out feels great. The NCHS sophomore continued: I had a free Saturday. Why not?

Michael Canales, NCHS junior, said they need to help turn around whats going on with the environment.

Stuff like this is just one way you can help, he said.

NCHSs Lily Garcia, also a sophomore, said its important to replace all the trees being cut down to build new homes.

You see a difference when you work as a group, Oliveros Perez later said.

Brown explained their Tree Corps initiative kicked off over a year and a half ago to improve air quality, sequester carbon, address climate change, protect the watershed, build pollinator sources and wildlife habitats, and create a shading and cooling effect from trees in urban areas.

Our community is borderline non-attainment for the air pollutant ozone, and that contributes to respiratory disease, emphysema and asthma, Brown said. He noted that if the Twin Cities area does become non-attainment for ozone, there would be economic impacts from increased industrial regulations standards, mandatory vehicle emissions testing, and loss of federal transportation funding.

A few weekends ago, Brown said EAC planted a few thousand trees at Heartland Community College, and theyre also getting trees in the ground at Sugar Grove Nature Center.

Another partner of EAC is the ParkLands Foundation. He said last year they planted about 10,000 trees with them. Additionally, theyre putting in trees with Friends of the Constitution Trail, who Brown said has been doing that kind of work for years.

Tim Ervin, director of the Water Reclamation District, said coordinating with EAC on the project was a wonderful opportunity, and a good use of their buffer lands.

He explained that buffer lands between the water treatment plants exists to create setbacks from residential neighbors, offset their carbon footprint and leave room for future expansions. Ervin said they do not have current plans to expand.

The director said the trees will prove beneficial to the environment and wildlife for at least 100 years.

The investment made today will pay off for generations to come, said Ervin.

Contact Brendan Denison at (309) 820-3238. Follow Brendan Denison on Twitter: @BrendanDenison

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Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday after returning from a weeklong trip to California.

"Today I tested positive for COVID-19. I have no symptoms, and I will continue to isolate and follow CDC guidelines. I'm grateful to be both vaccinated and boosted," Harris tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

Kirsten Allen, the vice president's press secretary, said in an earlier statement that Harris tested positive for Covid-19 on rapid and PCR tests. Harris "will isolate and continue to work from the vice president's residence," Allen said.

"She has not been a close contact to the President or First Lady due to their respective recent travel schedules. She will follow CDC guidelines and the advice of her physicians. The Vice President will return to the White House when she tests negative," she added.

Harris had been scheduled to receive her intelligence briefing at 10:15 am ET Tuesday at the White House alongside President Joe Biden, according to daily guidance sent to reporters Monday evening. She did not participate in any events or meetings at the White House on Tuesday, according to a White House official.

White House Covid-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said he did not know if Harris is being treated with therapeutics.

"That's a conversation that she's having with her physician. I'm not her physician. I'm not privy to those conversations, so I don't know the answer to that," he said.

Contact tracing is underway, a White House official said. Officials will notify the appropriate people, but as of Tuesday afternoon, the office had not identified close contacts among staff.

A handful of staff members traveled with Harris to California last week, including deputy chief of staff Mike Fuchs and national security adviser Phil Gordon. It's unclear whether all staff members listed stayed in California with Harris through the duration of her weeklong trip.

Biden and Harris spoke over the phone on Tuesday afternoon, according to the White House.

"He wanted to check in and make sure she has everything she needs as she quarantines at home," a White House statement to reporters said.

The President last tested negative for Covid-19 on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Harris' isolation will have immediate impact on Senate Democrats. Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Ron Wyden of Oregon both also announced they had tested positive as well on Tuesday, meaning that their absences -- along with Harris -- will delay Democrats' plans to confirm a pair of high-profile nominees this week, a senior Democratic aide told CNN.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hoped to confirm Lisa Cook to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board and Alvaro Bedoya to be the chair of the Federal Trade Commission. But because there is broad Republican opposition to them, votes to process those nominations will be put off until Democrats, who narrowly control the 50-50 chamber, are back to full strength.

In a sign of the partisan combativeness that is so prevalent in the Senate, Republicans will still force a procedural roll call vote on Cook's nomination -- which will fail -- later Tuesday and force Democrats to go through the process of breaking a filibuster against her again. GOP senators could have given consent to waive the actual vote but didn't. Republicans have not said yet if they would do the same with Bedoya's nomination.

"That is something that members and leaders will work through in Congress," Psaki told reporters on Tuesday when asked about the dilemma. "We are confident we have the votes to get them confirmed. We're eager to have them in place. But of course, we need all the people, all members there to do that."

The Senate confirmed Lael Brainard to be the vice chair of the Fed Tuesday afternoon. Her nomination is not affected by the absences because she has bipartisan support.

Harris not a close contact of Biden

Harris arrived at the White House Tuesday morning, a White House official told CNN, and went straight to take a test. After testing positive on both PCR and rapid tests, she returned home to her residence at the Naval Observatory, where she will be isolating.

Separately, an official said Harris last saw Biden at the Easter Egg Roll on April 18. She left Washington for California that afternoon and didn't return until Monday night.

While in California last week, she held events on portfolio issues. In San Francisco on Thursday, Harris highlighted the Black maternal health crisis during events and was indoors talking to expecting mothers and health providers without a mask on. Masks are recommended, but no longer required, in most public indoor spaces in the city.

Harris held no public events over the weekend before returning to the nation's capital.

One official said Harris tested negative through her "regular" testing up until Tuesday. CNN has asked when the vice president last tested negative.

Harris completed her two-dose regimen of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine in January 2021. She received her first booster dose in late October and a second booster vaccine on April 1.

Covid makes its way through elite Washington

The vice president's positive Covid-19 test comes as the US has largely lifted most of its Covid-19 mitigation measures after the Omicron variant spike over the winter.

In accordance with federal public health guidelines, officials and visitors have not been required to wear masks or socially distance at large White House events. Covid cases in Washington have declined since their peak in early January, when the country was facing a wave of Omicron variant cases, but have been rising recently.

Though the White House has continued to hold crowded indoor events where masks are optional and officials have forgone masks in public, the administration has said they are going beyond federal guidelines to detect Covid-19 in the building. There's mandatory testing for those who come into contact with Biden and social distancing during meetings, at least when it's possible.

Psaki said on Tuesday that she does not expect the White House to implement additional Covid-related protocols as a result of Harris' positive test.

"There's a regular testing cadence. Obviously, the vice president was tested this morning because of that regular testing cadence. And for the rest of us -- anyone who's going to be around the President, to travel with him, to see him in the Oval Office -- is tested that day," she said, outlining existing White House protocols. "And even if you're not going to see him, you're on a regular testing cadence around here."

Psaki also said some White House staff have taken the additional steps of socially distancing where possible and masking of their own volition. And she confirmed that the President would still attend a number of high-profile events this week, including the White House Correspondents' Dinner and the memorial for former Vice President Walter Mondale in Minneapolis.

Officials have acknowledged that it's "possible" Biden will eventually contract Covid-19, but have emphasized the precautions being taken to prevent infection.

"The bottom line is he is vaccinated and boosted. He is very well protected. He's got very good protocols around him to protect him from getting infected. But there is no 100% anything," Jha said on Tuesday.

Covid has also been making the rounds among White House staff and among the Washington elite recently.

In late March, White House press secretary Jen Psaki cancelled her plans to travel with the President to Belgium and Poland after testing positive for Covid-19 for the second time. Her replacement on the Europe trip, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, tested positive shortly after returning from the trip. Harris' husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, tested positive for Covid-19 earlier in March.

Following the Gridiron Club Dinner, an annual event with members of the press and prominent Washington officials that was held in early April, dozens of attendees tested positive, including two Cabinet members and Harris' communication director, Jamal Simmons. He was considered to be a close contact of the vice president. Harris was criticized in the wake of that close contact for her seeming disregard of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention masking guidance for those who were exposed to Covid-19, as she did not wear a mask during the Supreme Court confirmation vote for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

The-CNN-Wire

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CNN's MJ Lee, Sarah Fortinsky and DJ Judd contributed to this report.

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SPRINGFIELD  Cannabis sales numbers from the high holiday are in and the state is once again rolling in the green.

According to data from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the state saw $59.7 million in marijuana sales and 789,000 transactions across its 110 dispensaries in the 10-day period around April 20 (or 4/20), the annual unofficial holiday when people traditionally celebrate the green stuff.

This represents a 12% jump in sales from 2021 ($53.6 million) and a 21% increase in transactions during the same period that year (653,000). In 2020, the first year of legalized recreational marijuana, the state brought in $25.1 million on 292,000 transactions around that time.

The numbers represent sales numbers from the Friday through the following Sunday of the week of 4/20.

Not surprisingly, the sales numbers this year were highest on the actual date, with $10.3 million in sales being done on 4/20/22, which fell on a Wednesday. In 2021, the number was $7.3 million, and in 2020, it was $2.7 million.

The numbers are reflective of the industry as a whole, which has continued to grow now in year three of legalized recreational sales albeit at a slower pace than last year.

The state's dispensaries have raked in more than $2 billion in the past 27 months. Sales hit nearly $1.4 billion in 2021, more than double the $669 million in its inaugural year of 2020.

So far, the state is on track to exceed last years haul, but the rate of growth has somewhat plateaued.

Industry experts say this is in part due to the tax structure of legal products, which incentivizes some to obtain their weed through illicit street sales. The growth of new dispensaries has also been stalled due to a slew of lawsuits over the lottery process for awarding new licenses.

Lawmakers left Springfield earlier this month without addressing any of these issues. Though the court case could be resolved soon. Well see.

Bailey gets Trump meeting

State Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, secured a meeting Wednesday with former President Donald Trump at the formers Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida.

Trump hosted a fundraiser that evening for U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland, who is running in a heated primary race against fellow incumbent U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville.

Trump endorsed Miller over Davis earlier this year. Could a similar endorsement be forthcoming in the Illinois governors race?

Baileys team was mum on that possibility, only pointing out that it is not the first time the candidate has met with Trump, for whom Bailey served as a delegate at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

A Trump endorsement would be a significant boost for any one of the Republican candidates vying to take on Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in the fall. Whether or not it would put them over the top is another question  one that will be answered by how Trumps chosen candidates do in primaries across the country, including in the Miller vs. Davis race.

Other Republican candidates for governor include Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, businessman Gary Rabine, former state Sen. Paul Schimpf, venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan and attorney Max Solomon.

The Illinois primary is June 28, though early voting starts May 19.

Logemann wins AFL-CIO endorsement

Rockford Ald. Jonathan Logemann was endorsed earlier this week by the Illinois AFL-CIO in his bid for the Democratic nomination in the 17th Congressional District.

Its a significant endorsement in a labor-heavy district, which stretches from Rockford to the Quad Cities to Peoria to Bloomington-Normal. The union purportedly has 120,000 members who live in the district, a strong presence that could lend organizational strength to Logemann in a six-way Democratic primary.

Also running are cannabis consultant Jacqueline McGowan, Rock Island County board member Angie Normoyle, former on-air meteorologist Eric Sorensen, former state Rep. Litesa Wallace and Marsha Williams. Rockford Ald. Linda McNeely was removed from the ballot due to a lack of valid signatures.

Republicans Charlie Helmick and Esther Joy King are also running.

The seat is considered a tossup by most political experts and perhaps the most likely Republican pickup of any Illinois congressional district.

King, who nearly defeated retiring U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline, in 2020, has nearly $1.5 million cash on hand, which would allow her to start a general election campaign in a strong position should she win the primary.

Keep an eye on the 13th

Speaking of congressional races, keep an eye on the race for the open 13th Congressional District seat, which stretches from East St. Louis to Champaign picking up Springfield and Decatur in between.

It was drawn by state lawmakers to elect a Democrat  President Biden won it by 11 points in 2020  but Republicans believe they have a shot at winning it in November.

And some national outlets are taking notice. Sabatos Crystal Ball, an online election handicapper, has changed its IL-13 race rating from likely Democratic to lean Democratic.

In justifying this change, the site states that Republicans appear to have credible recruits in these districts that are raising enough money to be competitive.

The National Journal, which also tracks House races, reported earlier this week that operatives in both parties believe that the district could become more competitive if Democrats electoral standing continues to deteriorate nationally.

Democrats Nikki Budzinski and David Palmer are running for the seat. Budzinski, who had more than $1 million cash on hand compared to Palmers $26,687 at the end of March, is considered the favorite in that primary.

Republicans Regan Deering, Matt Hausman, Terry Martin and Jesse Reising are running.

Reising reported raising an impressive $325,186 last fundraising quarter and had $267,039 on hand at the end of April. Deering, a member of the family that ran ADM for nearly four decades, had $252,706 on hand at the end of March. She raised nearly $118,000 and personally loaned her campaign $150,000.

Hausman had $51,629 on hand while Martin reported $1,000.

Contact Brenden Moore at 217-421-7984. Follow him on Twitter: @brendenmoore13

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SPRINGFIELD  Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a package of bills Wednesday aimed at easing the states shortage of teachers and other education professionals, even as a new report shows Illinois just added a record number of new teachers to its ranks.

Speaking in the library of Springfield High School just blocks from the Capitol, Pritzker said that while the education workforce picture is improving, more work still needs to be done.

In Illinois, schools still have more than 2,100 unfilled teaching positions statewide, he said. That includes 15 unfilled teaching slots here in Springfield and 64 in Decatur, with similar need for paraprofessional positions. With new tools though, and new funding at their disposal, districts all across the state are working to find new ways to bring people into this profession and to encourage them to stay there.

Pritzker signed four bills Wednesday, including House Bill 4246, which lowers the cost of renewing a lapsed educator license to $50 instead of $500; House Bill 4798, allowing currently enrolled teaching students with at least 90 credit hours to be licensed as substitute teachers; Senate Bill 3988, lowering the minimum age to become a paraprofessional in grades eight or below to 18 instead of 19; and Senate Bill 3907, allowing short-term substitute teachers to teach up to 15 consecutive days in a classroom instead of just five.

Those bills come on top of numerous other measures the state has taken in recent years to lure more people into the teaching profession.

Pritzker noted that the budget bill he signed into law April 19 increases funding for minority teacher scholarships to $4.2 million. And starting next year, the minimum annual salary for first-year teachers will increase to $40,000 due to a bill he signed in 2019.

That law, combined with proper funding and all the work to remove barriers for qualified people to enter this profession, is increasing the ranks of teachers across our state even now, Pritzker said.

According to a new report from the Illinois State Board of Education, those efforts appear to be having an impact.

ISBEs most recent Unfilled Positions Survey, released April 21, shows Illinois schools hired a record 5,676 new teachers in the fall of 2021, the most ever recorded in a single year and more than in the past five years combined. That was enough to lower the statewide vacancy rate to just 1.5%.

But the survey also showed schools in Illinois still have more than 2,100 unfilled teaching positions, mostly concentrated in chronically struggling schools, underfunded schools and those serving low-income communities.

Our low-income, bilingual and special education students have the least access to the teachers they need to grow and thrive, State Superintendent Carmen Ayala said at the news conference. We also have a severe shortage of substitute teachers, as was noted, and need an additional 2,400 paraprofessionals to fully meet our students needs in the classrooms.

A survey conducted in 2021 by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools found 88% of local school districts believed they had a teacher shortage problem while 96% reported problems finding enough substitute teachers.

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"Freedom of speech" is one of the phrases most used and most misunderstood in the United States.

Billionaire Elon Musk appears to be purchasing the social media platform Twitter for $44 billion. In doing so, he's repeating all the things he thinks we need to hear and understand about what free speech is.

My strong intuitive sense," Musk said earlier this month, "is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization." Musk added Twitter would be more reluctant to delete things and very cautious with permanent bans.

We're not sure the average American interprets "maximally trusted and broadly inclusive" the same way as a rich man who can spend $44 billion on something and acknowledge he's not buying it to make himself any money.

Can people spread misinformation and disinformation? Can they lie? Can they make threats?

Musk believes content moderators go too far in limiting what is allowed. He has said, I think we would want to err on the, if in doubt, let the speech, let it exist. ... obviously in a case where theres perhaps a lot of controversy, youre not necessarily going to promote that tweet. Im not saying I have all the answers here.

He's going to be expected to have the answers now. He's the boss.

Internet comment areas are a cesspool, from bulletin boards to local news discussions, from Facebook to Reddit. The part of the swamp that smells worst is Twitter.

I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter," Musk said, "because that is what free speech means.

If you ask five people what they think free speech is, you'll get five different answers. The one thing that's certain with a private entity, however, is that the entity gets to decide what content it allows. Denying content is not an abrogation of an individual's free speech, it's an execution of anothers' responsibility.

Too many think "freedom of speech" is also freedom from consequences. No, you don't get to say what you want anytime and anywhere and take offense when someone calls you into account.

Twitter, or Faceboook, or Truth Social or any other privately owned media group has no requirement or obligation to publish any contribution. They make the rules. You don't have a "right" to say whatever you wish. Approval is in the hands of the group and its mediators. Those companies may be criticized for their decisions, but they're under no legal obligation.

They're also under no obligation, legal or otherwise, to ensure accuracy. This is the area where "free speech" meets "stuff I believe because I saw it someplace." In the world of memes, one person's fairy tale is another person's holy writ.

And that's where the rubber has met the road on some networks. President Donald Trump was banished from Twitter for posting false claims.

Others who have been banned include:

Milo Yiannopoulos, the British far-right, alt right political commentator who likes to ridicule Islam, feminism, social justice, and political correctness.

Martin Shkreli, the convicted felon 'Pharma Bro' whose most notorious act -- obtaining the manufacturing license for the antiparasitic drug Daraprim and raising its price from $13.50 to $750 per pill -- wasn't even what landed him in jail.

Alex Jones, the far-right radio show host and conspiracy theorist. Jones' transgressions will eventually fill several books, but a number of his greatest hits still ring. He's alleged that the U.S. government either concealed information about or outright falsified the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the September 11 attacks, and the 1969 moon landing. Most recently, he's filed for bankruptcy after being convicted of multuple counts of defamation.

Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy who is well into his third year of promising shocking revelations and cout filings, issuing "guarantees" that disappear -- without apparent consequence -- like clouds on a sunny day.

These are all people, by the way -- Musk included -- who claim to be victims of cancel culture. Yet here they still are. Do you miss seeing any of them on Twitter?

Musk is a proponent the idea of freedom of speech feeding the marketplace of ideas, the argument that ideas should be aired freely to allow comparison between competing ideas, and the truth will prevail.

But after 230 years of testing, the idea hasnt proven accurate. Critics say, this model of free speech legitimizes falsehoods and buries truth.

Musk has lost in court thanks to some of his Twitter-based contributions to the marketplace of ideas.

Musk is currently battling part of the settlement for making false and misleading statements to investors. A provision said Musk must have certain tweets about Tesla reviewed by lawyers before he can post them.

He runs the Twitter show now. He's the new boss. Let's see him prove he's different from the old boss, and it's somehow all beneficial to society.

That's all Musk wants, right?

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A woman convicted of killing her 18-month-old foster child has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for the crime.

Except to answer Yes or No when Superior Court Judge Salvador Vasquez asked a question, Jamilia Shenese Hodge, 37, remained silent during her sentencing Wednesday. Her attorney, Scott King, told the court he advised her not to give a statement since she plans to appeal the sentence.

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King, who asked that Vasquez sentence Hodge to the minimum of 45 years, said in his remarks that the entirety of the evidence against Hodge hinged only upon the 6.5 hours Hodge was interrogated over two days, not on any injuries Hodges allegedly inflicted. While he respected the jurys decision, he said he didnt agree with the verdict.

We have a defendant in this case where this was the first contact with police shed ever had in any category, King said. A huge mitigating factor is a complete lack of interaction with the court.

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 (Hodge is) 37 years old and a mom of a 6-year-old, a young woman who didnt just get barely through but who took classes in business and psychology. She worked and was the sole supporter of her household: her kid, foster kids and two grown men.

King also said the big part of Hodges appeal will be methods in which police interrogated her.

Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Jatkiewicz asked if the court was really going to let Hodge decline to make a statement, then said that the victim, Emma Salinas, deserved better.

What the court is left with is two aggravating factors: Emmas age because she was defenseless, and the position of trust. Miss Hodge chose to take the kids on when they were removed from their mothers care. She not only violated their mothers trust, but she violated the trust of the state.

Jatkiewicz, who asked that Hodge be sentenced to 60 years, said Hodge admitted to heavy marijuana use since she was 15 and reminded the court that Hodge spent more time casting herself as the victim than showing remorse for the victim.

Vasquez said he doesnt understand how Hodge, who had no previous contact with the law, couldve killed Emma since nothing ever indicated she would be capable. But he did agree that Hodge violated a lot of trust.

You failed, and you failed horribly, Vasquez said. Your obligation was to bring her home, and it didnt occur.

Vasquez agreed that the states argument for the maximum sentence was valid but ultimately decided it wasnt appropriate. He sentenced her to 50 years with five years of probation and then lifetime parole.

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Gary Detective Sgt. Ed Gonzalez and Ogden Dunes Police Chief Jeremy Ogden, who were among the officers who responded to the call in 2017, attended the sentencing. Both said they had no words.

Thinking that Emmas siblings walked past her in the morning and saw her lying there, not knowing anything was wrong, then being taken away by CPS after school, Im at a loss for words, Gonzalez said. It was tragic for someone this young to have lost her life.

Well always see her lying there in her crib, Ogden added.

Hodge told police that Emma was one of four foster children in her care. She called 911 around 11:42 a.m. May 4 to report that the child had died, according to court records.

Autopsy findings showed the girl suffered a possible dislocation of vertebrae in her neck and died of asphyxia due to suffocation, which was complicated by blunt force trauma to the head. The child also had bleeding on the brain, the probable cause affidavit states.

The forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy estimated the child had been dead at least 12 hours before the 911 call, according to court records.

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In an interview with police, Hodge said she took two of her foster children to school that morning, returned home to take a third child to school and came back home around 8 a.m., when she noticed Emmas face was facing the wall in the same position as when Hodge left, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Emma had arrived home around 7:30 p.m. May 2 from visiting her biological mother, who complained the child was sick with a fever and diarrhea, records state.

Hodges boyfriend returned to the Miller home around midnight May 3 and heard Emma yelling or crying in the crib while the other children in the bedroom were trying to sleep, records state. The boyfriend told police he opened the bedroom door and told Emma to quiet down, and she did, records state.

Hodge said she did not get out of bed when her boyfriend and his brother came home from working out, but both said Hodge was awake and in the kitchen when they came home, records state.

In a follow-up interview, Hodge said she put a hand over the toddlers face to stop her from crying and put her left hand on the childs chest as she lay on her back, records state. As she spoke with investigators, Hodge started crying and said she was sorry for what happened and that it was an accident, records state.

Meredith Colias-Pete contributed.

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Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
The Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye (MP) has embarked on a working visit to some cement manufacturing companies with a call on the companies to consider the use of locally available building materials such as pozzolana, in the wake of the global crisis, as a good substitute for imported clinker in their productions.



The high price of most commercial housing units has been attributed to cost of building materials which are mainly imported. Available literature has shown that approximately US$350 million is spent annually to import about 85 percent of raw materials to produce cement.



The Minister added that up to US$30 million can be saved on imported materials by increasing the production and use of pozzolana cement to help minimize the cost of construction and ultimately improve housing affordability in the country.



The working visit, which took the sector Minister to GHACEM, Diamond Cement and Dzata Cement today in Tema was meant to understand the operations and most importantly the challenges of the companies and how government can proffer the appropriate interventions.



The governments new Affordable Housing Programme is a strategic intervention that seeks to provide incentive packages such as unencumbered land banks, infrastructure services on designated lands, tax incentives and exemptions to interested private developers.



This new arrangement is expected to greatly reduce the price of housing units and make it affordable to majority of Ghanaians, who are normally priced out of the markets due to current affordability gap in the real estate industry.



Having identified the supply of cement as one of the major cost drivers in construction, Asenso-Boakye, in his remarks, during the working visit, said the success of the new programme will depend largely on the ability to manufacture companies to adequately supply cement at an affordable rate.







As a major component in housing construction, the sector Minister believes cement manufacturing companies can support the governments drive towards the delivery of the National Affordable Housing Programme by fixing a specified selling price for the supply of cement.



This, he noted, will minimize the cost of construction, and ultimately increase the affordability of the housing units when the project is completed.



My visit here today, therefore, seeks to reinforce the governments expressed the desire to partner with major cement manufacturing companies in Ghana in the delivery of the National Affordable Housing programme. The Minister stated.



The Chief Executive Officers of Dzata Cement and GHACEM, Nana Phillip Archer and Stefano Gallini both pledged their respective companys commitment to the Governments vision of providing affordable homes to the citizenry.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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At least 36 persons were killed, and 269 others suffered injuries in 173 road accidents, across the country, during the Easter festivities.



Similarly, 143 accidents involving 28 deaths and 269 injuries were recorded within the same period the previous year.



The recent crashes, recorded from April 15 to 18, 2020, involved 147 private vehicles, 95 commercial vehicles and 66 motorcycles.



The breakdown of the recorded accidents in the police regions are as follows: Accra 83, Tema, 13, Eastern, 26, Central, 9, Central East, six, Western, one, Ashanti, three, Volta, three, Upper West, two, Upper East, one, Bono, four, Bono East, five, Western North, eight, and North East, three.



Other regions, Ahafo, Oti, Savanna and Northern, did not record any accidents.



The Director of the Police Public Affairs Directorate, Chief Superintendent (Chief Supt) Alexander Kweku Obeng, who disclosed these to the Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday, stated that the deaths involved 29 males and 7 females.



He said the causes of the accidents were speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, wrongful overtaking, and non-compliance with road traffic rules and regulations, which resulted in 37 pedestrian knockdowns.



Chief Supt. Obeng noted road accidents affected the country's socio-economic development and called on stakeholders to cooperate to address the menace.



He said ensuring road safety was a shared responsibility of all the citizenry and called on the public to support the police to protect lives and properties.



Chief Supt Obeng assured the public of the police's continuous determination to ensure that the roads were safe for commuters through effective education.



He advised drivers to adhere to road safety regulations to ensure that lives and properties were saved.



Chief Supt Obeng said that the police would not hesitate to arrest and prosecute offending drivers to deter others.



He advised pedestrians to use designated areas when crossing the road to prevent knockdowns.





Source: ghanaiantimes.com.gh









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The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has referred more than 100 public institutions in six regions to the Ghana Police Service for investigations towards prosecution.



According to the committee, the institutions had breached some procurement laws flagged by the 2018 Auditor-Generals report.



The institutions include universities and district and municipal assemblies in the Bono, Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper West and Upper East regions.

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At the opening of the committee's sitting in Sunyani in the Bono Region last Monday, its Chairman, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, said it was determined to refer institutions for prosecution, especially when it came to procurement irregularities.



In the five northern regions, we have a number of institutions that we are referring for prosecution. Here in Sunyani, we will do the same thing. By the time we finish with the whole country, we will have a tall list of candidates for prosecution, he stated.



He said in the past, the committee used a system in which it advised entities that breached the Auditor-Generals report to go back to do the right thing.



However, Dr Avedzi said, it had realised that those pieces of advice were not being taken seriously, so it had begun to apply the law.



It is not the committee that is going to prosecute them; we will recommend to the Attorney-General and police to take up the prosecution mandate, he said.



He explained that those who would be found culpable would be made to face the law, saying that for procurement issues, one could be jailed for five years or fined a maximum of GH30,000 or both.



When the Attorney-General begins to prosecute them and some of them are jailed, it will serve as a deterrent for others, Dr Avedzi stated.



Hearing



The PAC sitting in Sunyani, which started last Monday, is expected to end on Saturday, April 30, 2022.



It is considering the report of the Auditor-General on technical universities, second-cycle institutions and assemblies in the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo and Ashanti regions, covering the period ended December 31, 2018.



At the first sitting, it cited issues such as the collection of unapproved school fees from students in second-cycle institutions, unaccounted items and money, among other financial irregularities.





Cases of northern sector



Interacting with the media on the sidelines of the PAC sitting in Sunyani, a member of the committee, Mr Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, said when the committee concluded sittings last year, it gave a strong warning to institutions that this year it would start prosecuting institutions flagged in the Auditor-Generals report.





"After the conclusion of our first zonal meeting in the northern sector in Tamale, which lasted from 18th to 23rd April, we found over 100 cases, being instances of procurement infractions concerning all the assemblies and some educational institutions in the five northern regions," he stated.



Procurement infractions



Mr Dafeamekpor, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dayi, said there were a lot of procurement infractions that the Auditor-General had flagged in the report the committee was considering.



He said the committee had no power to prosecute but had the power to refer matters to appropriate institutions for further investigations and prosecution.



The South Dayi MP said the committee had introduced prosecution to make public officials be serious about their work.



He said the committee had secured police support and readiness to take up investigations and the prosecution role.



He said regional ministers had also been informed of the new development in order for them not to be taken by surprise.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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A host of dignitaries, including former United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister, Tony Blair, have attended a reception hosted by the British High Commission, in Accra, to commemorate the 95th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II.



Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, led Ghanas guests to the event on Tuesday, which also saw the launch of the longest-serving monarch's platinum anniversary on the throne.



Mr Blair hailed the Queen for being an inspiration to many across the UK and the world while recounting his first encounter with her after his election as Prime Minister before assuming office.



He said the Queen's graciousness, kindness and strong devotion to duty were examples to everyone.



Praising the deep bilateral ties between Britain and Ghana, Mr Blair said Ghana was a great country, with a future as a global leader.



"Everywhere you go in the world, you will meet Ghanaians, who are full of optimism and hope, and they are smart and intelligent people," he stated.



This relation between Britain and Ghana is one we are proud of and one we want to deepen. We believe in this country, we believe in its future, we believe in the people, and we know that Ghana is going to be not just one of the great African countries in the future but one of the great global countries of the future.



Madam Harriet Thompson, the British High Commissioner, with her husband, Mr Nick Thompson, and officials of the High Commission welcomed the invited guests to the cocktail reception.



The Queens Birthday party could not be celebrated over the past two years due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Madam Thompson noted that on the 6th of February 2022, the Queen became the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth.



She said the Queens extraordinary reign had seen her travel more widely than any other Monarch, undertaking more than 260 official visits overseers, including two to Ghana in 1961 and 1999.



On the sidelines of the event was an exhibition of Land Rovers newest Land Rover Defender, which, later this year, would be available as a hybrid vehicle for the first time in Ghana; and the Kofa e-motorbike, which is being powered by a battery technology, to help revolutionize Ghanas automobile industry.



She said with much funding from their partners at the UK Charity, the Shell Foundation, she was delighted to announce almost 10 million cedis turbocharge for Ghanas e-mobility, battery and charging sector.



Kofa is one of the organisations already benefiting from this investment and I look forward to seeing many others in the future.



The High Commissioner expressed gratitude to EY, Mark Brooks Education Limited, Westminster Group, Contracta, Prudential Insurance, B5Plus, DDP Outdoor and Pernod Ricard for their generous support towards the organisation of the event.



Dr Awal, on behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Government and the People of Ghana, extended his warmest felicitation to the Queen, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and the Government and People of the UK.



He said the relations between Ghana and the UK were steeped in history and dated back to 1867 when the then Gold Coast became a British Colony.



Since March 1957, when Ghana attained independence, the relations between Ghana and the UK had been anchored on their shared history and bilateral cooperation in various fields, as well as at the multilateral level.







Source: GNA









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MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana are pleased to announce significant progress in the bid to implement a national roaming service in Ghana amongst operators. In this regard, MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana have entered a strategic partnership to pilot national roaming in the Volta Region as the first step to a broader nationwide national roaming partnership. This agreement will see Vodafone Ghana expand coverage of its network by leveraging MTNs network infrastructure in this pilot phase.



National roaming implementation in Ghana is intended to facilitate universal access and accelerate digitalization in line with the countrys ambitions of a digital economy. This pilot is the first step to a bigger plan by Government to have a full national roaming regime amongst all operators in the country.



Patricia Obo-Nai, CEO of Vodafone Ghana in a statement said, The implementation of national roaming will enable Vodafone Ghana customers to stay connected in areas outside our current locations of coverage. This is especially important for rural communities as national roaming invariably provides a greater choice of network providers. We believe strongly that the collaboration in the Volta Region is a positive step, and working together with the Government, the regulator and MTN Ghana, we look forward to extending the national roaming service beyond the Volta Region in due course.



This agreement is a milestone for the industry and is in line with our Ambition 2025 strategic intent of Leading digital solutions for Africas progress CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh, said.



MTN fully supports the Governments National Roaming plans. We acknowledge that national roaming will extend network coverage for Ghanaians nationwide and support the growth of the Ghana Telecommunications industry. Our Engineers have worked tirelessly to test and develop solutions to various challenges encountered along the journey and we are excited about what lies ahead in this partnership with Vodafone Ghana. Selorm added.



Over the coming months, the outcome of the pilot would be instrumental in the development of the next phase of the partnership to cover more complex technical configurations for nationwide roaming on either network. We would update the market in due course.



We take the opportunity to thank the National Communications Authority (NCA) for their support and engagement through the process, and for their approval for us to proceed with this pilot. We also thank the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization for putting in place the policy framework to support such a partnership for the industry at this stage of the Ghana Telecommunications industry evolution. We are confident that this is just one of many forward-looking policies to come to safeguard the viability of the industry into the future.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The Electricity Company Ghana (ECG) has upscaled efforts to deal with illegal power consumers and retrieve what they owe the company and institute possible legal action.



In that regard, they have formed a National Revenue Protection Taskforce led by a Coordinator from the Ministry of Energy to unearth illegal connections in all ECG operational areas.



Ms Sakyiwaa Mensah, ECG Tema Region Public Relations Officer, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that, the task force was mandated to collect all debts owed the company



She said, all ECG customers and governmental institutions including State-Owned Enterprises will be disconnected by the taskforce so long as their bills are in arrears as stipulated by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) regulations.



She said the ECG reserved the right to publish the names of customers whose bills were in arrears and advised customers to pay their bills to avoid embarrassment.



She urged customers to inspect the Identification Cards of anyone or group of persons appearing as ECG task force officers and cooperate fully with the officials in the interest of the nation.



Ms Mensah encouraged the public to report any act of illegal connection to the nearest ECG office or call the task force at +233551444011 for an informant reward of 6 percent of the surcharge amount upon confirmation of the crime.



She said the identities of the informants would remain strictly confidential



Meanwhile, Mr Emmanuel Appoe, Tema Regional ECG Engineer had reiterated that ECG, Tema Region had invested a total of GHC989,800.00 in five major projects to improve reliable power supply to customers within its operational areas.



He said out of the total amount, GHC142,141.92 was invested in the upgrading of undersized conductors serving Tema Community eight and its environs.



The Tema Regional Office cover Tema, Nungua, Prampram, Afienya, Ashaiman, Ada, and Krobo districts.



Mr Appoe in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the project was undertaken within the first half of the year 2021 and included the construction of links between two of their main overhead sub-transmission to benefit Tema Communities five, and eleven and parts of Community six.



Mr. Appoe who is the Acting General Manager of ECG Tema said the construction of the link made it possible for the transfer of load from one feeder to the other in case of repair works to ensure continuous power supply.



He added that another project was the restoration of faulty underground sub-transmission link cables between two substations to ensure that Communities five, six, and ten get a better supply of power.



In some areas, the Company realized that the load on the available transformers were getting too high, hence, resulting in low voltage to customers in the catchment area. Several transformers were added to the existing ones serving Power City and surrounding areas in Prampram, Community 19, and behind the Emef Estate, he said.



The Company, he said was committed to its mission of providing safe, quality, and reliable electricity services to clients, therefore, the reason for investing heavily in the projects.



He urged developers, and the public to desist from encroaching on the right of way which might have electricity network installations saying doing so led to delays in case of faults repairing.



He admonished the public against illegal connections which end up overloading ECGs transformers.



Illegal connections are one of the main reasons for transformer overloads, which leads to low voltages for consumers and sometimes, a total breakdown of the transformers, hence, plunging customers into outages till the transformers are replaced, Mr. Appoe stated.

Source: GNA









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A research finding by the Center for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)  Water Research Institute (WRI) and Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) has revealed that about 920, 000 persons in Northern Ghana are exposed to fluoride contaminated water.



The report said most of the population relied on groundwater for drinking, which could be contaminated with fluoride and lead to dental fluorosis.



Dr Dahyann Araya, Researcher from EAWAG, said they identified that children under the age of two were particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of fluoride and could retain 80-90 per cent of fluoride dose compared to 60 per cent in adults.



She stated such children were prone to diseases such as dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis.



Dr Araya said in some districts, such as Karaga, Gushiegu and Mion, four out of 10 children were potentially exposed to fluoride poisoning.



She said the Savelugu Nanton District had the largest exposed child population of about 19,000 children, followed by the Karaga District with about 17, 000 children.



Dr Araya said the contamination was a natural and geogenic occurrence, which happened as a result of fluorides from granites getting into water sources.



Geology and high evapotranspiration are the main drivers of fluoride enrichment in groundwater. Consequently, climate change might put even greater pressure on the areas water resources, she stressed.



Dr Anthony Karikari, Deputy Director, CSIR-WRI, said they were planning to create a local treatment for the contamination.



He said the groundwater was the only source of drinking water for the residents, hence they needed to adopt solutions to mitigate the fluoride contamination.



We are looking at locally available materials we can use for the treatment of fluoride contamination. This way, the people can be taught how they could purify their drinking water, he added.



Mr Michael Kumi, Senior Research Scientist, CSIR-WRI, said they were exploring the use of an activated charcoal system, that is using charcoal to absorb fluoride contents in the water.



He said they would also consider rainwater harvesting for residents in the affected areas in the form of the One Village  One Dam project.



He also called for public sensitization of residents on fluoride contamination in water sources for them to reduce the intake of contaminated water.



The Research project is a partnership between the CSIR-Water Research Institute and EAWAG, which looked at fluoride contamination in groundwater in Ghana.

Source: GNA









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The police have initiated investigations into the mysterious death of a policeman who was on duty and reportedly shot himself at a warehouse on Graphic Road in Accra on Wednesday.



"In line with our standard operating procedure, the name and further details of the deceased officer have been withheld and will be communicated after his family has been formally notified of the incident," a police statement dated April 27, 2022, signed and issued by the Director-General, Public Affairs, DCOP Kwesi Ofori said.



The said policeman according to some people in the area was seen within the premises walking about and reportedly entered the washroom.



The police statement said, "the Ghana Police Service is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of one of our own, a Police officer who allegedly shot himself while on duty today April 27, 2022, at the Graphic Road, Abossey Okai, Accra."

Source: graphic.com.gh









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The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has urged the citizenry to work hard to consolidate the countrys democracy.



The Constitution is a living document and must be nurtured to grow. The nurturing of a living constitution is vital for the sustenance of Ghanas democracy and the promotion of sustainable development, a Deputy chairman in charge of Operations of the NCCE, Samuel Asare Akuamoah, said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) last Sunday.



He explained that democracy grew when people identified the shortfalls in its practice and took the appropriate remedial measures to set things right.



30th anniversary



Mr Akuamoah said the NCCE had rolled out some activities nationwide to mark 30 years of uninterrupted constitutional rule in Ghana, beginning April 28.



The week was instituted in 2001 to commemorate the countrys return to constitutional democratic rule, significantly on April 28, 1992, where the electorate voted in a referendum to adopt the draft Fourth Republican Constitution, which subsequently came into force on January 7, 1993.



The NCCE would hold public lectures and dialogues on the theme: After Three Decades of Democratic Rule under the 1992 Constitution: Revisiting the Agenda for Constitutional Reforms.



Since its inception, April 28 to May 4 has been observed as the Annual Constitution Week. This year marks 30 years of uninterrupted constitutional rule in the Fourth Republic.



Success



The success of constitutional rule in Ghana is classified as a fundamental accomplishment of all Ghanaians, Mr Akuamoah said.



He explained that judging from the chequered democratic history of the country, the NCCE set out to protect the Fourth Republic with the setting up of the annual Constitution Week celebration.



The NCCE deputy chairman acknowledged that concerns raised over the past 30 years were relevant to the effective functioning of the Constitution.



In the course of operating the 1992 Constitution for the past 30 years, various segments of the Ghanaian society, including government officials, legislators, political parties, academics, civil society organisations and constitutional experts have called for a thorough review of the document, he said.



Some of the concerns related to the reapportionment of power, political authority and the revitalisation of the various institutions of state with the requisite architecture and resources to make them work to make the Constitution a truly living document.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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Social commentator, Bernard Allotey Jacobs has raised serious concerns over the 2021 US Department of State report on Ghana currently in circulation in the media.



The report highlights some human rights violation issues and gives an outlook on the country's Judiciary in passing a ruling and dishing justice or otherwise to people.



United States Report On Ghana



Underscoring what it termed as "Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, Or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment", the report read that "while the constitution and law prohibit such practices, there were credible reports police beat and otherwise abused detained suspects and other citizens. Victims were often reluctant to file formal complaints. Police generally denied allegations or claimed the level of force used was justified. According to the Conduct in UN Field Missions online portal, there was one open allegation of sexual exploitation and abuse by the countrys peacekeepers deployed to the UN Mission in South Sudan: a 2018 case involving 12 peacekeepers alleged transactional sex with six adults. A UN investigation substantiated some of those allegations, leading the United Nations to repatriate the alleged offenders".



"Impunity remained a significant problem in the Ghana Police Service, and the investigation and complaints processes did not effectively address reports of abuses and bribery. Corruption, brutality, poor training, lack of oversight, and an overburdened judicial system contributed to impunity. Police often failed to respond to reports of abuses and, in many instances, did not act unless complainants paid for police transportation and other operating expenses. The Office of the Inspector General of Police and the Police Professional Standards Board investigated claims of excessive force by security force members," it further read.



Further Details of US Report



On Denial of Fair Public Trial, the report said; "While the constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary, the judiciary was subject to unlawful influence and corruption. Judicial officials reportedly accepted bribes to expedite or postpone cases, lose records, or issue favorable rulings for the payer of the bribe. A judicial complaints unit within the Ministry of Justice headed by a retired Supreme Court justice addressed complaints from the public, such as unfair treatment by a court or judge, unlawful arrest or detention, missing trial dockets, delayed trials and rendering of judgments, and bribery of judges. The government generally respected court orders."



The report titled "2021 COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES: GHANA" also established that "the law requires detainees be brought before a court within 48 hours of arrest in the absence of a judicial warrant, but authorities frequently detained individuals without charge or a valid arrest warrant for periods longer than 48 hours. Officials detained some prisoners for indefinite periods by renewing warrants or simply allowing warrants to lapse while an investigation took place. The constitution grants a detained individual the right to be informed immediately, in a language the person understands, of the reasons for detention and of his or her right to a lawyer. Most detainees, however, could not afford a lawyer. While the constitution grants the right to legal aid, the government often did not provide it".



More Exposition On Ghana's Economy



"The general practice of holding detainees without proper warrant or charge continued (see Arrest Procedures and Treatment of Detainees). On May 20, police arrested 21 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex (LGBTQI+) activists in the city of Ho on spurious unlawful assembly charges. Authorities released the activists on June 11, and dropped the case on August 5...Lengthy pretrial detention remained a serious problem. In September the Ghana Prisons Service indicated 1,595 prisoners, approximately 12 percent of all prisoners, were in pretrial status...Inadequate recordkeeping contributed to prisoners being held in egregiously excessive pretrial detention, a few for up to 10 years."



A portion on Ghana's Judiciary and on freedom of expression as well as media freedom was captured in the report reading "the constitution and law provide for freedom of expression, including for the press and other media, and the government generally respected this right, although security forces committed isolated acts of violence and harassment against journalists...There were isolated attacks on journalists by members of security forces as well as by unknown assailants and occasional threats and intimidation. In April authorities arrested online news editor David Tamakloe, allegedly working on corruption stories concerning prominent members of the government. Authorities released him without charge. Media advocates characterized the arrest as a preemptive move and a clear abuse of power as no story had been published at the time of the arrest."



Allotey Jacobs Fumes



Assessing the US Department of State report during a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show ''Kokrokoo'', Allotey Jacobs revealed there are some Ghanaian lobbyists who divulge information to the US officials in return for a favor, therefore blaming this report on them.



To him, the antagonism in Ghana among political actors is so deep that they don't mind selling the country out to the foreigners.



''The statement coming from the State Department is a reflective mirror of what we, as Ghanaians, have portrayed to the outside world . . . from the days of our struggle for independence, from the very day the UGCC was formed, from the very day the youth broke away from UGCC and formed CPP; that antagonism has built till today. It has become an obelisk, always showing our nakedness to the world in terms of our politics. Look, we never say anything good . . . The animosity has become so deepened that I can't fathom," he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi.



He noted that the issues raised by the Americans isn't exclusive to Ghana but stated that the US itself has an influx of such human right violations, citing the unfortunate incidents of some US Police personnel killing civilians, especially the George Floyd saga.



Allotey Jacobs advised the sellouts and all Ghanaians to put Ghana first and esteem the nation in everything they do, stressing, "today is you; tomorrow is you. So, if you keep on destroying because for want of power, it will come down on you tomorrow. But it has to take all of us to build Ghana . . . Ghana is suffering and it is only us that can make Ghana what it should be".

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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Mr. Wang Chao,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends,

The gate of China-US relations was opened in 1972. 50 years ago, President Richard Nixon paid a historic visit to China. Then in the same year, Senate Majority Leader Michael Mansfield and Minority Leader Hugh Scott, and House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and Minority Leader Gerald Ford followed in President Nixons footsteps, and led two consecutive visits to China. These were the first China trips by the US Congress, and they have also been marked in the annals of history.

In Senator Mansfields report to the Congress about the visit, he wrote: It is difficult to look at China, today, free of the distortions of national disparities, especially after two decades of separation. But the distortions can be tempered by perspective. It is possible, for example, to judge a bottle as half full or as half empty. If China is measured by some of our common yardsticks, whether they be highway mileage, the number of cars, television sets, kitchen gadgets, political parties, or newspaper editors  the bottle will be seen as half empty. If China is viewed in the light of its own past, the bottle is half full and rapidly filling. Representatives Boggs and Ford also said after their trip, it is in the interest of our peoples and in the interest of international peace for us to learn to live together in peace and mutual respect. These remarks, though made 50 years ago, are still resonating and relevant today.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The China-US relationship is at another historical juncture, just like 50 years ago. It is in a new round of mutual exploration, understanding, adaptation and balancing.

In the context of severe and complex China-US relations, we should not set eyes on our differences only. Rather, we should bear in mind our common interests, and show strategic vision, political courage and diplomatic wisdom. We should learn from history, overcome difficulties and challenges, rebuild trust, and take China-US relations back to the right track.

We need to take a strategic and long-term view, look far and wide, follow the trend of the times and the call of the people, and see China-US relations as mutually dependent and beneficial. We must avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation caused by individual events, and make China-US relations free from the Thucydides Trap or the tragedy of great power politics.

We need to strengthen communication, enhance mutual understanding and trust, respect each other, and treat each other as equals. People should not use American yardstick to judge China, or follow the ideological and binary narrative of Democracy versus Authoritarianism, or over-simplify China-US relations as competition.

We need to promote cooperation in various fields and expand common interests. Recently I visited Americas West Coast and also some Midwestern states. From all the forums on energy, the environment, sustainable development, agriculture, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges that I attended during the trips, I felt keenly peoples passion for developing cooperation with China, from economic and trade ties, to people-to-people exchanges, and to climate change cooperation. I could tell that they all support investment from China, they welcome Chinese students, and they look forward to exporting more agricultural products to China.

We need to manage differences and prevent crises. The Taiwan question is the most important and sensitive issue in China-US relations, and concerns Chinas core interests. The one-China principle is the unshakable political foundation of the China-US relationship, and a red line not to be crossed. We hope that the US will honor its 50-year political commitments on Taiwan, stop hollowing out the one-China principle, stop emboldening or abetting Taiwan independence separatist activities, and stop playing the Taiwan card in China-US relations. Only in this way can we truly maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and avoid major crises between our two countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation are the way for China and the United States to get along. This was the case 50 years ago, and they are still the basic principles for our relations today and in the years ahead. Our commemoration of the historic visits 50 years ago is just to draw experience from history, ensure China-US relationship will stay the course, and realize its sound and stable development for the next 50 years!

Thank you!
General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, has said that Nana Akomea's suggestion about a "Bawumia-Alan ticket is worth considering as the party prepares to elect a flagbearer for the 2024 general elections.



According to him, though it is early days yet to make any presumptions about the Bawumia-Alan ticket, it will not be out place to consider their ticket for the 2024 general elections.



A former Director of Communications of the governing NPP, Nana Akomea, has asked the party to halt its planned presidential primaries and convince Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Alan Kyerematen to run together in the 2024 presidential election.



The two are expected to contest against each other for the first time in a keen contest. Although this will be the Vice President, Dr. Bawumias first attempt, Mr. Kyerematen, the current Trade and Industry Minister, has contested against Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo thrice before he was elected President in 2016.



According to Nana Akomea, the two leading candidates in the NPP presidential race meet the requirements of the north and south balance, and so taking advantage of that to allow them to run, will prevent a rancorous contest.



But speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that it is the party's strong desire to win the 2024 general elections and that anything that will ensure their smooth victory is welcomed.



"The party needs a unified front for the 2024 general elections and we will consider any proposal which will enable us win the elections, and just as you have said it is too early to put it into discussion," he said.



"We are currently organizing all our elections and we will put the Bawumia-Alan ticket into proper perspective once the coast is cleared, but for now we will have to consider the party's internal elections first," he added.



Watch video below







Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









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Award-winning Rapper and "Made In Ghana" Ambassador, Okyeame Kwame has shared a profound message on Facebook offering a deeper insight into religion and why he thinks humans are better off without religion.



The evergreen rapper and philosopher also provided a distinction between knowing God and believing in God while maintaining strongly he is not an atheist.



The post he made reads;



Sunday reflection

Im not an Atheist, I just question everything,

A few weeks ago someone commented under one of my reflections saying you dont believe in God why do you say God should bless Sadhguru?

My response was very simple, I have never said or written anywhere that I dont believe in God.

Of course, the debate went on and on and people called me all sorts of names including Atheist.

How can you call me an Atheist when at least twice every week Im on social media saying God should bless someone?

I think I know where the problem is coming from, I once wrote that we should rather know God and not just believe God.

Knowing is absolute but belief is unsure.

If I tell my wife I believe I love her, she might slap me, but if I say I know I love you, you know the rest.

In court testimony, If I say I believe I witnessed the action, the judge might lock me up for contempt but I know what happened is a testimony.

Saying I believe there is God and I know there is God are two separate things.

God is a German word that means force.

So when I say God bless you, what I mean is, may the force of the universe bless you.

I guess the conflict is in which force? the Jewish force, the Arabian force, the African force, the European force, the Akan force, the Ewe force or the Universal force?

Religion has divided man into groups based on history, culture, traditions and ideologies. This division has created false loyalty or loyalties to our individual groups based on our identity and the power of the God that the group fears and worships.

Due to this, man is blinded to the oneness and the universality of God.

Most thinkers agree with the Akans that there is only one God, (Onyame  Kro  Pon).

Since the spirit behind the universe is not an object, then it stand to reason that it cannot be counted.

So why are we fighting over who has the best God?

No matter which religion one belongs to, I think it is safe to say that one of the key characters of this force is love and where is the presence of this love when we keep dividing ourselves into groups, sects and religions? Is the Buddhist not preaching love to all ? Is the Muslim not doing same?

Didnt Christ say the greatest is love?

Are the Africans not preaching Ubuntu ( I am because you are)?. If the answer is yes, then why do we allow ancient ideologies to divide us in 2022?

I know there is God. I interact with it everyday. It is in me, it is in you, it is in the cow, the snake, rock and in everything visible and invisible.

I deal with God everyday, because I deal with you everyday.

As much as I try ,I know I will only feel God ( force) and not See God .So you are the God I serve and if I cant forgive and be kind to you, I must shut up about the invisible force.

My questions

Is your God different from mine ?

Will a loving God be happy that His/Her children fight over who He loves

Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com









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Media, Brands And Culture Expert, King Kwasi Kyei Darkwah (KKD) has condemned the governments decision to pay Neutrality Allowance to Public Sector Workers.



There has been some form of disputations in recent times over the issue of the Political Neutrality Allowance following the strike by some Public Sector Workers under the Civil and Local Government Service Staff, CLOGSAG since Thursday, April 21st, 2022.



The Political Neutrality Allowance is an allowance to be paid to Civil and Local Government Workers to remain neutral in discharging their duties without engaging in partisanship.



Speaking on the GTV Breakfast Show with Thelma Tackie, King Kwasi Kyei Darkwah hammered home on the point made by the Actor, Oscar Provencal showing displeasure in the reason for such allowance to be paid to workers.



Who are the people who accepted this? We have to ensure that those people do not serve in any office in government for at least 15 years. Its stupidity, he professed.



Such allowance if implemented would raise a lot of allowance requests by other working groups, as some have arguably stated, to caution the government. He has asked that, is it necessary to pay someone a neutrality allowance for doing what is expected of him?



Why are we asking to be paid neutrality allowance to do what is in the Constitution? It is in the Constitution that when you work in the Civil Service, youll be neutral, he asserted.



Further with his viewpoint, he said that people want to be called leaders and bosses, but in reality, they have been appointed to serve and the eagerness to give them some recognition and accolade without them doing what is expected of them, makes them behave the way they do.



We have elected them to serve us, not to Lord over uspay you a neutrality allowance for doing your job? Then every citizen needs to be paid that too, he said brusquely.





Source: Gbcghanaonline.com









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Ghanaian Actor, Director, Philanthropist, and Producer Oscar Provencal, best known for his role as Inspector Bediako in the TV series Inspector Bediako, says Ghanaians have not done enough in honouring Ghanas first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah for his good works.



Mr. Oscar Provencal said this on the GTV Breakfast Show on Wednesday, April 27, 2022, during the Headlines Segment.



In my candid view, we have not done enough as a people to honour Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah after his overthrow and subsequently his death, he stated.



Sharing his thoughts on the topic: Remembering Nkrumah: 50 years after his death, the Veteran Ghanaian Actor maintained that looking at the kind of work Nkrumah did for Ghana and Africa during a very difficult period, something monumental should have been done in his honour.



The Ghanaian Coup of 1966 overthrew the government of Kwame Nkrumah and his Convention Peoples Party.



Nkrumah was a Political Activist in West Africa who led Ghana to Independence. He was an outspoken supporter of Socialism and Pan-Africanism.





Source: Gbcghanaonline.com









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Credit: George Hodan/public domain

Creativity has been designated a critical 21st Century Skill by the National Research Council, yet there is not one ideal, accepted way to identify creative young people and encourage the strength as part of their education. A new study from the University of Kansas found that while creativity's value has long been recognized, there are three primary methods of assessing it in young people. Those methods have pros and cons, including racialized, gendered and class-based approaches.

KU researchers analyzed studies published in eight major creativity, psychological and educational journals between 2010 and 2021 to get a better picture of the state of creativity assessments. The results showed that creativity continues to be primarily assessed by divergent thinking or creativity tests, self-report questionnaires, product-based subjective techniques and rating scales. That lack of innovation in assessments shows a refined approach is needed to build creative profiles of students, better understand how creativity develops through the span of education and encourage it in multiple domains of schooling, according to the researchers.

"There are a lot of conversations about how much improvement that creativity research in education needs. We want to promote creativity with schools and students through assessments that can be applied in classrooms. We also want to reform the current high-stakes, narrowly focused standardized tests in educationmaybe by using creativity assessments as an alternative," said Haiying Long, associate professor of educational psychology and lead author of the study. "But before we are able to achieve these purposes, we want to have a better idea of the state of creativity assessments in education over the last decade and understand what has been done and what needs to be done."

The study, written with co-authors Barbara Kerr, Williamson Family Distinguished Professor of Counseling Psychology, and Trina Emler and Max Birdnow, doctoral students in educational leadership and policy studies, all at KU, was published in the journal Review of Research in Education.

The analysis also showed that research on assessments in creativity tends to be evenly split between educational and psychological assessments. Those in education tend to focus on college more than K-12 education, while the psychological studies depend overwhelmingly on psychology undergraduates as research subjects. That is potentially problematic, the authors wrote, as those students overwhelmingly tend to be white and female, meaning they do not present a broader picture on how the assessments interact with diverse populations.

The studies are also increasingly international. That trend is encouraging, but the United States continues to lead the field. Because of that, students in many countries receive no creative assessments, while others take assessments developed in the U.S. that often do not directly translate to other languages and cultures, Long said.

Creativity assessments fall into three major approaches, the most common of which is creative or divergent thinking tests. While the tests have shown to be reliable and valid in assessing students' divergent thinking ability, they often are not tested for all potential domains and tend to focus only on intelligence or focused primarily on one aspect such as cognitive, emotional or conative aspects of creativity, according to the researchers. That problem existed to varying degrees across self-report questionnaires and product-based assessments as well. The analysis found that there are new approaches to assessing creativity appearing, but most research continues to focus on the dominant approaches of the last several decades.

"All of these approaches have been used in the field for a long time," Long said. "There are new tests or scales focusing on other aspects of creativity, such as creative potential, creative self-efficacy, creativity in different domains, but the review shows just how much the field is not changing. If you don't want to change the field, it is hard to improve it."

Perhaps most troubling, the studies on creativity assessment are primarily conducted with white students in the United States and often lack information on racial or ethnic compositions of students in international studies. That prevents further understanding of who is and is not assessed and whether there are any equity issues, the authors wrote. Also, the effect of gender socialization on creativity of girls in K-12 education has rarely been addressed, and issues of privilege and socioeconomic inequitiessuch as which students at underprivileged schools are assessedare rarely explored.

The authors close the study with several recommendations to address the shortcomings of creativity assessments in education. Ideally, all students would be screened for cognitive, personality and motivational characteristics by kindergarten to establish baselines for creative approaches with reassessments at key stages. Using multiple approaches to identify and encourage students to use creativity across domains and use of assessments outside the traditionally dominant approaches would better serve students as well, they wrote. However, the researchers acknowledge challenges in the way of that goal, including better translating research from the lab to teachers who need assessments in classrooms. To address that, the authors also called for a close collaboration between creativity researchers and educators in schools by using a service model and providing teachers with more professional development on creativity.

Long praised her colleagues in KU's creativity research group, including her co-authors as well as notable KU scholars Yong Zhao and Neal Kingston, who are working on innovative ways to assess creativity and ask deeper questions about who is assessed for creative potential, how creativity assessments can reform educational assessment more broadly, improve students' creative educational experience and contribute to an equitable and democratizing education.

"We want to fill the gap between research and practice with better ways to identify creative students. When students are selected for gifted and talented programs, it is widely based on intelligence and seldom on creativity tests," Long said. "If you don't think a student has high intelligence ability, they won't be selected for the programs. In school districts, that creativity assessment is used to identify gifted and talented students. It is considered simply a side effect of intelligence. At the same time, we do see promise for creativity assessments in addressing these questions. They can provide more equitable information than they currently do, and we want to push the field forward and do better."

Explore further People who are more creative can think of ideas with greater 'distances' between them

More information: Haiying Long et al, A Critical Review of Assessments of Creativity in Education, Review of Research in Education (2022). Haiying Long et al, A Critical Review of Assessments of Creativity in Education,(2022). DOI: 10.3102/0091732X221084326
Zoom meetings became the lifeblood of many workplaces during pandemic, but a new study points to a downside: They may limit employees' capacity for creative thinking.

In experiments with workers in several countries, researchers found two broad phenomenon: Coworkers tended to be less adept at generating creative ideas when they communicated by video, versus in-person. But virtual meetings did not harmand may have actually helpedtheir ability to zero in and make decisions.

The takeaway, experts said, is that all this workplace Zooming is neither good nor bad. But certain job tasks may be better suited to virtual communication than others.

Despite a lot of "hand-wringing" about the potential demise of workplace interaction, there are actually many similarities between video and in-person conferencing, said Melanie Brucks, one of the researchers on the new study.

"But one major difference is the physical environment," said Brucks, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School in New York City.

When coworkers are in the same room, they can feel free to look around, move around, window-gazeto essentially let their eyes and minds wander. And when it comes to creative thinking, Brucks said, wandering is good.

In contrast, video conferencing creates a very different "shared environment," where your coworker exists in a box on your device screen.

"If you even look off to the side, you've 'left' your shared environment," Brucks said. So people generally confine their visual focus to the computer screen, which also narrows their "cognitive focus."

There is nothing wrong with laser-like focus, Brucks said. She noted that virtual workplace meetings may foster efficiency, in contrast to in-person meetings that can sometimes veer into tangents.

Creativity, however, depends on allowing tangents.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, are based on two study groups: 602 people who took part in a lab study, and 1,490 employees of a large telecommunications company who were studied at their workplaces in five different countries.

People in the lab study were randomly broken into pairs and given a creative task to conquer, either in person or virtually. Each team had to come up with as many creative uses for a product (a Frisbee or bubble wrap) as they could muster in five minutes, then pick their most innovative idea.

Overall, the study found, in-person pairs conjured up more ideas. They were no better, however, at selecting their best one (as judged by the researchers); in fact, the videoconferencing pairs had a bit of an edge there.

The findings were similar in the workplace setting, with in-person pairs winning when it came to creativity, but not decision-making.

The lab study also supported the notion that the confined physical focus of Zooming is the underlying issue. Using eye-tracking technology, the researchers found that the video-call pairs spent a great deal of time staring at the computer screen, rather than looking around.

That, it seemed, was to their detriment, because teams who spent more time "gazing around the room" tended to generate more creative ideas.

The findings do make sense, said Ana Valenzuela, a professor of marketing at the Baruch College Zicklin School of Business in New York City.

She pointed to a psychology concept called embodied cognition, the idea that our mental processes are intertwined with the bodyhow it moves and interacts with the physical environment. If you are physically in "tunnel vision" mode, it's harder to be expansive in your thinking and possibly stumble upon the next great idea.

"Serendipity does not happen over Zoom," said Valenzuela, who was not part of the study.

But like Brucks, she stressed that video communication is not "bad." It simply may not be optimal for certain tasks.

Since the start of the pandemic, many companies have adopted a hybrid approach, allowing employees to alternate between working from home and coming into the office. Studies predict that even once the pandemic ends, about 20% of all U.S. workdays will be conducted remotely.

Studies like the latest one, Valenzuela said, will help companies figure out how to make the best use of in-office and home-office time.

Along with using eye-tracking, the researchers did look at whether other differences emerged between in-person and virtual interactions. In general, though, there were few: Whatever the mode of communication, coworkers spoke just as much, responded to facial expressions similarly and showed an equal degree of trust in each other.

"It's actually pretty remarkable how similar in-person and video communication have become," Brucks noted.

But there is another difference between them: When people Zoom, they are often seeing themselves onscreen, too.

In this study that was not the case, as coworkers only saw their partner onscreen during the task. Both Valenzuela and Brucks said that might have narrowed those participants' cognitive focus even more, since people could get caught up in judging their own appearance.

Explore further Eye tracking reveals where people look during Zoom, Webex

More information: The University of Colorado has tips for preventing The University of Colorado has tips for preventing 'Zoom fatigue.' Melanie S. Brucks et al, Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04643-y Journal information: Nature

Copyright  2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

(Content warning: This article contains mentions of racial discrimination against First Nations people.)

Comments pages on social media too often constitute an echo-chamber for racist rhetoric being peddled by a combination of the misinformed and the malicious.

It seems Australians have, in recent times, recognized racism as a serious problem in this country. Nowhere is the discussion about racism in this country more visible than on social media.

Mainstream media outlets have embraced social media as an avenue to publish regular articles about Indigenous peoples and racism. These posts regularly elicit comments that are misinformed, malicious, and aimed at delegitimizing Indigenous peoples' culture and identity.

Such misinformation needs to be eradicated if the conversations about Australia coming to terms with its past is going to move forward.

'Don't read the comments'

Indigenous peoples are quite vocal about avoiding the quagmire of negativity in online comments pages. Racist tropes get dug up, recycled, and leveled at Indigenous peoples. This is often done in order to silence Indigenous voices and call into question Indigenous identity.

This is not new. In 2018 Professor Bronwyn Carlson and Dr. Ryan Frazer found "some respondents reported being questioned over whether they were 'really Indigenous,' with critics drawing on stereotypical ideasparticularly about skin color."

Challenging Indigenous identity based on skin color is a well-known racist strategy.

In other cases, online comments resemble what is called "sealioning" which, according to journalist Chris Stokel Walker, "is the process of killing with dogged kindness and manufactured ignorance by asking questions, then turning on the victim in an instant."

One example of this is found in research into Indigenous peoples and social media. In this research, one participant recalled a post they had seen recently: "[] there was one commenter just said "I'm confused," obviously pointing out that how is this person Aboriginal when they've got such white skin."

Feigning confusion is a common strategy deployed to call into question Indigenous identity. The alleged confusion is often based on colonial ideas that Indigenous culture is ancient, uncivilized, and incompatible with modern Australia. The aim: to silence Indigenous voices by delegitimizing Indigenous peoples' connection to community, culture, and identity.

Mainstream media on social media

On April 7 this year, NITV published on Facebook the story of AFL player Eddie Betts' reflection on his decision not to speak up about the racism he faced early in his AFL career for fear of the retribution.

One of my research participants noted, articles about racism in Australia "only serve to just basically invite hundreds more comments of horrible racist rhetoric." The publication of Betts' story was no exception.

One commenter echoed the worn-out trope of Indigenous identity being legitimate only when it is considered "traditional." "They never do the 'traditional' thing where their [sic] was no concept of personal property within the clan [] otherwise they wouldn't have their mansions, flash cars."

The sentiment here is that the only acceptable Indigenous identity is one which rejects technology, money, or anything considered "modern."

What can moderators do?

Social media platforms are interested in stamping out negative content on their platforms. In February 2021 many of the industry's largest players signed up to a Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation.

Also in 2021, Facebook announced a new admin tool for moderators to "nurture community culture." This admin tool, powered by artificial intelligence, would alert admins to situations in the comments pages threatening to escalate to a breach of community standards.

Combating the specific types of racist rhetoric faced by Indigenous peoples however, presents unique challenges. Sealioning and feigned confusion sidesteps artificial intelligence as well as non-indigenous peoples' familiarity with harmful content. The comments typically don't always include key racist terms and slurs, rather they can appear as confusion and lines of often excessive questioning.

The damage done by the persistence of subtle racism, sealioning and challenges to Indigenous identity in comments sections remains difficult to measure.

What can be done?

Indigenous peoples identify social media as a site for collaboration and connection. Deliberately racist lines of questioning are identified by Indigenous peoples and allies and quickly challenged. In some cases, the responses to racist comments demonstrate some Indigenous peoples' willingness to educate.

Yet, systems need to be in place to better monitor these interactions, because these interactions often deteriorate into even more violent and racist altercations. However, allies calling out racist trolls could contribute to setting a standard of conversational etiquette and better facilitate meaningful discussions.

One research participant told me: "I think that people's comments have a lot to do with just not being educated on the real truth of what has happened to all of our peoples."

As more people call out misinformed and malicious commentary, more will begin to understand the complexity of identifying as Indigenous online.

This will help inspire honest conversation about Australia's past and what it means to be Indigenous.

Explore further 97% of Indigenous people report seeing negative social media content weekly

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

An ambitious legislative effort to shut down three offshore oil rigs along the Orange County coast, where beaches and fragile wetlands were soiled after a major spill in October, could be hobbled by concerns over the eventual cost to California taxpayers.

The complexities of removing even a handful of oil platforms off California shores were the focus of a hearing Tuesday in Sacramento, a reminder of why the state's billion-dollar oil industry has remained resilient for generationseven in an era when prominent California Democrats are aggressively pushing for a transition to a renewable-energy-based economy that reduces oil and gas consumption and production.

Senate Bill 953, a proposal that cleared its first hurdle Tuesday, would allow the State Lands Commission to terminate offshore oil leases by the end of 2024 if purchase agreements with oil companies cannot be negotiated beforehand. The bill would affect only three operating offshore oil platforms in state waters along the Orange County coast. The 23 oil platforms in federal waters, which are farther off the coast, would not be affected.

Though both oil producers and California's powerful trade unions oppose the bill, concerns expressed by some Democrats about the state's potential financial liability pose one of the greatest obstacles to the measure. Although the legislation passed the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee, several Democrats said the measure's fate may rest heavily on the price tag, which has yet to be determined.

"Money's not printed on trees," said state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys. "So you're saying we're going to take this money out of foster care or we're going to take it out of money that we need to build housing for homeless? We in government have an obligation, as we spend tax dollars, to balance this."

State Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, the author of the bill, said SB 953 still faces "perilous hazards" as it winds through the Legislature. But he remains hopeful that as negotiations with the oil industry, environmental leaders and union representatives continue, the bill's prospects will brighten.

Min filed the legislation after an October oil spill off Huntington Beach dumped an estimated 25,000 gallons into the ocean. Investigators suspect it was caused by a cargo ship anchor snagging a 17-mile-long pipeline that runs from an oil platform in federal waters to the Port of Long Beach.

"I think it's clear that the risks posed by offshore drilling are not justified by their benefits. Offshore oil production in both federal and state waters in California accounts for less than 0.3% of annual production in the United States," Min told the committee Tuesday. "At the same time, these offshore rigs threaten a vibrant California coastal economy that generates $44 billion a year in economic activity and employs over a half-million Californians."

Victoria Rome of the Natural Resources Defense Council told lawmakers that the only way to avoid catastrophic oil spills off the California coastline is to transition off fossil fuels.

If signed into law, Min's bill would require the State Lands Commission to conduct an amortization study of the three oil and gas leases in state waters. The study would include an estimate of the expected revenue from the leases and the expected costs the oil companies face in decommissioning the oil rigsa requirement in the existing leasesincluding removing all structures, plugging wells and restoring the ocean floor.

For example, Min said, state officials estimate that one of the platforms off the Orange County coast would cost $92 million to decommission. If the oil company's revenue from that lease were estimated to be $100 million, the state would be required to pay the company $8 million and also be responsible for the cost of removing the oil platform.

Hertzberg and other lawmakers specifically mentioned the costs that have arisen in the decommissioning of Platform Holly off the Santa Barbara coast, expressing concern that the state may end up in a similar predicament with the oil rigs off Orange County. The state of California took control of Platform Holly in 2017 after its operator, Venoco, filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations.

Jennifer Lucchesi, executive director of the State Lands Commission, in January told state lawmakers that the original operator of Holly, Exxon Mobil Corp., is responsible for plugging all the wells and removing the platform in its entirety. The company has estimated the cost to be $350 million. The state, however, is responsible for picking up a quarter of the tab, which is expected to run at least $132 million.

Sean Wallentine of the California Independent Petroleum Assn. told lawmakers the organization opposes the bill "in its current form" because of a provision that allows the state to terminate a lease if a settlement cannot be negotiated. That could be considered a legal "taking" by the state, since the oil leases in question were legally obtained, and the matter could turn into an expensive battle in court.

Chris Hannan, executive secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, also testified in opposition. Hannan said reducing oil production in California would lead to more oil being shipped in via tanker, which also poses environmental risks.

Explore further Huntington Beach oil spill inspires legislation to ban California offshore drilling

2022 Los Angeles Times.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond serves as quantum memory, which is error-correction coded to correct errors automatically. Credit: Yokohama National University

Quantum computing holds the potential to be a game-changing future technology in fields ranging from chemistry to cryptography to finance to pharmaceuticals. Compared to conventional computers, scientists suggest that quantum computers could operate many thousand times faster. To harness this power, scientists today are looking at ways to construct quantum computer networks. Fault-tolerant quantum memory, which responds well when hardware or software malfunctions occur, will play an important role in these networks. A research team from Yokohama National University is exploring quantum memory that is resilient against operational or environmental errors.

The research team reported their findings on April 27, 2022 in the journal Communications Physics.

For quantum computers to reach their full potential, scientists need to be able to construct quantum networks. In these networks, fault-tolerant quantum memory is essential. When scientists manipulate spin quantum memory, a magnetic field is required. The magnetic field hinders the integration with the superconducting quantum bits, or qubits. The qubits in quantum computing are basic units of information, similar to the binary digits, or bits, in conventional computers.

To scale up a quantum computer based on superconducting qubits, scientists need to operate under a zero magnetic field. In their search to further the technology toward an fault-tolerant quantum computer, the research team studied nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. Nitrogen-vacancy centers hold promise in a range of applications including quantum computing. Using a diamond nitrogen-vacancy center with two nuclear spins of the surrounding carbon isotopes, the team demonstrated quantum error correction in quantum memory. They tested a three-qubit quantum error correction against both a bit-flip or phase-flip error, under a zero magnetic field. The bit-flip or phase-flip errors can occur when there are changes in the magnetic field. To achieve a zero magnetic field, the team used a three-dimensional coil to cancel out the residual magnetic field including the geomagnetic field. This quantum memory is error-correction coded to correct errors automatically as they occur.

Previous research had demonstrated quantum error correction, but it was all carried out under relatively strong magnetic fields. The Yokohama National University research team is the first to demonstrate the quantum operation of the electron and nuclear spins in the absence of a magnetic field.

"The quantum error correction makes quantum memory resilient against operational or environmental errors without the need for magnetic fields and opens a way toward distributed quantum computation and a quantum internet with memory-based quantum interfaces or quantum repeaters," said Hideo Kosaka, a professor at Yokohama University and lead author on the study.

The team's demonstration can be applied to the construction of a large-scale distributed quantum computer and a long-haul quantum communication network by connecting quantum systems vulnerable to a magnetic field, such as superconducting qubits with spin-based quantum memories. Looking ahead, the research team has plans to take the technology a step further. "We want to develop a quantum interface between superconducting and photonic qubits to realize an fault-tolerant large-scale quantum computer," said Kosaka.

Explore further Flawed diamonds may provide perfect interface for quantum computers

More information: Takaya Nakazato et al, Quantum error correction of spin quantum memories in diamond under a zero magnetic field, Communications Physics (2022). Journal information: Communications Physics Takaya Nakazato et al, Quantum error correction of spin quantum memories in diamond under a zero magnetic field,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s42005-022-00875-6

Provided by Yokohama National University
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

International organizations and governments offering aid to Ukraine are not targeting their assistance effectively, according to research published in the peer-reviewed journal Public Money and Management.

More than $15 billion overall has been pledged so far in financial, technical and humanitarian support since Russia's invasion in February triggered a human-made crisis.

A comprehensive analysis of 35 national governments including the US as well as half a dozen international organizations such as the World Bank shows they were swift to respond.

However, the study provides evidence that their actions have been neither cost-effective nor appropriate and too focused on the short-term. Instead, the experts say help must prioritize sustainable goals such as rebuilding the country post-invasion.

"Our initial analysis shows paradoxical responses that give priority not only to humanitarian aid but also to military aid, and focus primarily on short-term measures," says lead author Giuseppe Grossi, from Nord University, who carried out the analysis alongside Veronika Vakulenkoalso based at the Norwegian institution.

"This is rather than addressing the long-term impacts and the reconstruction of a free and democratic Ukraine.

"Governments possess the ideas and political tools to handle the immediate effects of a human-made disaster.

"However, they may lack both the capacity to use these tools cost-effectively and the appropriate strategies to meet the various needs in a responsible and accountable way. This is especially from a long-term perspective."

The international community has been united in expressing significant support for Ukraine. Global organizations, national governments, fundraising organizations, and volunteers have also offered help with supplying weapons and other support packages for Ukraine.

The authors of this study say their research provides insights in assessing and revaluating support packages for human-made disasters and subsequent humanitarian crises. The report shines a spotlight on whether humanitarian help benefits those in crisis and highlights lessons that can be learned for future events.

Responses by countries, non-governmental organizations and international organizations are individually documented in the report which includes actions taken by the European Commission, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations.

Information from official websites and press releases was used by the authors to assess the multiple responses to the invasion. Types of humanitarian aid are detailed per country as well as military support such as drones and fuel, and other assistance eg legal assistance.

Findings reveal that help and donations were launched almost instantly but that tensions exist in the multiple international responses to supporting Ukraine.

Military support has varied from country to country with some countries being more open (eg Italy and the UK) than others (eg France and Poland) about what they have provided. The neutral status of others such as Switzerland has influenced their actions, and the authors say more financial transparency is needed over how aid is managed.

What the research suggests is that governments and international institutions might better address future crises by pooling resources from different nations.

Those countries or international organizations that have effective transfers and assistance programs for military, humanitarian and development purposes, will be able to address subsequent humanitarian disaster. This will 'reduce the harm of inequalities in Ukraine and neighboring countries' according to the authors.

They add that future research is now needed to look back at the experiences during Russia's invasion and draw important lessons from different countries about budgeting, humanitarian policies, accounting and financial auditing.

Explore further Putting survivors at the center of disaster response

More information: Giuseppe Grossi et al, New development: Accounting for human-made disasterscomparative analysis of the support to Ukraine in times of war, Public Money & Management (2022). Giuseppe Grossi et al, New development: Accounting for human-made disasterscomparative analysis of the support to Ukraine in times of war,(2022). DOI: 10.1080/09540962.2022.2061694
Yang Xin, a young photographer from northwest China's Shaanxi Province, has been catapulted into the spotlight recently thanks to a public-service project that has touched many hearts.

While working with elderly people in her home city of Shangluo, the 37-year-old photographer discovered that many of them lacked a portrait image that could be used in the event of their death. She quickly began focusing her lens on this special group of clients, helping to ensure they are remembered looking their best.

Over the course of three-plus years, she has provided funerary portraits for over 2,000 rural seniors.

"Many elderly people in mountainous or rural areas don't have professional portraits, except for their identity-card photos. When they pass away, some families can't even find a good portrait to use at their funerals," Yang said.

It all started in 2017, when she set up a public-welfare center in Shangluo named Caihong, meaning "rainbow" in English. Her team originally aimed to help "left-behind" children in the Qinling Mountains whose parents had gone to work in cities, leaving their offspring in the countryside.

She soon discovered another group that needed care and assistance, namely elderly people who were left idle in their "empty nests" as their children flocked to cities in search of better wages.

Among the most obvious ways that Yang could help this group was by providing them with the photographs that they lacked. She established a project to give framed portrait photographs to everyone over the age of 60, free of charge.

In Chinese culture, memorial portraits are used to honor the dead at funerals, and can serve as a vehicle for remembering and respecting deceased loved ones.

Yang's first attempt at producing such a photo took place in Yecun Village at the end of 2018.

"Many senior villagers were skeptical about this project. After they gave it a shot and found that we were taking pictures free of charge, the news spread by word of mouth and more people got involved," she recalled.

The portraits were printed, but due to various delays in the work process, they were not distributed to their owners until early 2019. "We felt very sad because several elderly clients had passed away before they received the photos," Yang said.

Since then, her team has sped up the photography and printing processes, trying to ensure that every elderly client gets to see their funerary portrait in good time.

Keen to ensure the clients look their best, volunteers stand ready to help those who have trouble taking care of their appearance. Hair is combed and collars straightened before the shot is taken. Volunteers also squat beside those with Parkinson's disease to ensure they don't fall while posing for the camera.

Special care is also taken to ensure the photographic prints are long-lasting. Yang decided on a printing process involving silver nitrate and sodium chloride, which provides durability.

As part of the service, Yang has held special photo exhibitions in the village squares. Her elderly clients would gather around to discuss their faces and the topic of death, exuding an air of relaxed calm.

"There are fewer gray hairs on my head than yours," one elderly villager told her friend.

"Oh, really? I think I have a better smile," the friend answered.

For Yang, such interactions provide confirmation that the project has been worthwhile. "When they looked at their portraits, they were as happy as children," she said.

The project has also received praise online from various netizens.

"My grandpa passed away last year. Yang captured the most beautiful moment in his life," one wrote.

Yang said that many younger people have spotted the photos online and been reminded of the need to visit their elderly relatives. "The rural revitalization strategy makes lives of the rural elderly better. Still, they need companionship and communication from their families," she said.

The young photographer plans to continue the work of providing the elderly with portraits, aiming to spread positive energy to more people.

"Everyone will grow old and every life needs to be respected. I hope to see more elderly people's smiling faces through my lens," she said.
All stars, including our sun, are born from a cloud of dust and gas. This cloud can also seed planets that will orbit the star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Michigan State University's Seth Jacobson and colleagues in China and France have unveiled a new theory that could help solve a galactic mystery of how our solar system evolved. Specifically, how did the gas giantsJupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptuneend up where they are, orbiting the sun like they do?

The research also has implications for how terrestrial planets such as Earth were formed and the possibility that a fifth gas giant lurks 50 billion miles out into the distance.

"Our solar system hasn't always looked the way that it does today. Over its history, the orbits of the planets have changed radically," said Jacobson, an assistant professor in the College of Natural Science's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. "But we can figure out what's happened."

The research, published in the journal Nature on April 27, offers an explanation for what happened to gas giants in other solar systems and ours.

It's a Nice model

Stars are born from massive, swirling clouds of cosmic gas and dust. Once our sun ignited, the early solar system was still filled with a primordial disk of gas that played an integral role in the formation and evolution of the planets, including the gas giants.

In the late 20th century, scientists began to believe that the gas giants initially circled the sun in neat, compact, evenly-spaced orbits. Jupiter, Saturn and the others, however, have long settled into orbits that are relatively oblong, askew and spread out.

So the question for researchers now is "Why?"

In 2005, an international team of scientists proposed an answer to that question in a trio of landmark Nature papers. The solution was originally developed in Nice, France and is known as the Nice model. It posits that there was an instability among these planets, a chaotic set of gravitational interactions that ultimately set them on their current paths.

"This was a tectonic shift in how people thought about the early solar system," Jacobson said.

The Nice model remains a leading explanation, but over the past 17 years, scientists have found new questions to ask about what triggers the Nice model instability.

For example, it was originally thought that the gas giant instability took place hundreds of millions of years after the dispersal of that primordial gas disk that birthed the solar system. But newer evidence, including some found in moon rocks retrieved by the Apollo missions, suggests it happened more quickly. That also raises new questions about how the interior solar system that's home to Earth evolved.

Working with Beibei Liu from Zhejiang University in China and Sean Raymond from the University of Bordeaux in France, Jacobson has helped find a fix that has to do with how the instability started. The team has proposed a new trigger.

"I think our new idea could really relax a lot of tensions in the field because what we've proposed is a very natural answer to when did the giant planet instability occur," Jacobson said.

An artists rendering shows a hypothetical early solar system with a young star clearing a path in the gas and dust left over from its formation. This clearing action would affect the orbits of gas giants orbiting the star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)

The new trigger

The idea started with a conversation Raymond and Jacobsen had back in 2019. They theorized the gas giants may have been set on their current paths because of how the primordial gas disk evaporated. That could explain how the planets spread out much earlier in the solar system's evolution than the Nice model originally posited and perhaps even without the instability to push them there.

"We wondered whether the Nice model was really necessary to explain the solar system," Raymond said. "We came up with the idea that the giant planets could possibly spread out by a 'rebound' effect as the disk dissipated, perhaps without ever going unstable."

Raymond and Jacobsen then reached out to Liu, who pioneered this rebound effect idea through extensive simulations of gas disks and large exoplanetsplanets in other solar systemsthat orbit close to their stars.

"The situation in our solar system is slightly different because Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are distributed on wider orbits," Liu said. "After a few iterations of brainstorm sessions, we became aware that the problem could be solved if the gas disk dissipated from the inside out."

The team found that this inside-out dissipation provided a natural trigger for the Nice model instability, Raymond said.

"We ended up strengthening the Nice model rather than destroying it," he said. "This was a fun illustration of testing our preconceived ideas and following the results wherever they lead."

With the new trigger, the picture at the beginning of the instability looks the same. There's still a nascent sun surrounded by a cloud of gas and dust. A handful of young gas giants revolve around the star in neat, compact orbits through that cloud.

"All solar systems are formed in a disk of gas and dust. It's a natural byproduct of how stars form," Jacobson said. "But as the sun turns on and starts burning its nuclear fuel, it generates sunlight, heating up the disk and eventually blowing it away from the inside out."

This created a growing hole in the cloud of gas, centered on the sun. As the hole grew, its edge swept through each of the gas giants' orbits. This transition leads to the requisite giant planet instability with very high probability, according to the team's computer simulations. The process of shifting these large planets into their current orbits also moves fast compared with Nice model's original timeline of hundreds of millions of years.

"The instability occurs early as the sun's gaseous disk dissipated, constrained to be within a few million years to 10 million years after the birth of the solar system," Liu said.

The new trigger also leads to the mixing of material from the outer solar system and the inner solar system. The Earth's geochemistry suggests that such a mixing needed to happen while our planet is still in the middle of forming.

"This process is really going to stir up the inner solar system and Earth can grow from that," Jacobson said. "That is pretty consistent with observations." Exploring the connection between the instability and Earth's formation is a subject of future work for the group.

This animation shows the results of a simulation showing how the solar system could have been rearranged by an evaporating cloud of dust and gas. The inner edge of that cloud, shown as a vertical gray line, starts near the sun (far left) and sweeps through the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, a hypothetical fifth gas giant, Uranus and Neptune. Credit: Courtesy of Liu et al.

Lastly, the team's new explanation also holds for other solar systems in our galaxy where scientists have observed gas giants orbiting their stars in configurations like what we see in our own.

"We're just one example of a solar system in our galaxy," Jacobson said. "What we're showing is that the instability occurred in a different way, one that's more universal and more consistent."

Planet 9 from outer space

Although the team's paper doesn't emphasize this, Jacobson said the work has implications for one of the most popular and occasionally heated debates about our solar system: How many planets does it have?

Currently, the answer is eight, but it turns out that the Nice model worked slightly better when the early solar system had five gas giants instead of four. Sadly, according to the model, that extra planet was hammer-thrown from our solar system during the instability, which helps the remaining gas giants find their orbits.

In 2015, however, Caltech researchers found evidence that there may yet be an undiscovered planet tooling around the outskirts of the solar system some 50 billion miles from the sun, about 47 billion miles farther out than Neptune.

There's still no concrete proof that this hypothetical planetnicknamed Planet X or Planet 9or the Nice model's "extra" planet actually exist. But, if they do, could they be one and the same?

Jacobson and his colleagues couldn't answer that question directly with their simulations, but they could do the next best thing. Knowing their instability trigger correctly reproduces the current picture of our solar system, they could test whether their model works better starting with four or five gas giants.

"For us, the outcome was very similar if you start with four or five," Jacobson said. "If you start with five, you're more likely to end up with four. But if you start with four, the orbits end up matching better."

Either way, humanity should have an answer soon. The Vera Rubin Observatory, scheduled to be operational by the end of 2023, should be able to spot Planet 9 if it is out there.

"Planet 9 is super controversial, so we didn't stress it in the paper," Jacobson said, "But we do like to talk about it with the public."

It's a reminder that our solar system is a dynamic place, still full of mysteries and discoveries waiting to be made.

Explore further Simulations suggest an Earth or Mars size planet may be lurking out beyond Neptune

More information: Beibei Liu et al, Early Solar System instability triggered by dispersal of the gaseous disk, Nature (2022). Journal information: Nature Beibei Liu et al, Early Solar System instability triggered by dispersal of the gaseous disk,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04535-1
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have utilized AI technologies to conclude that male characters are four times more prevalent in literature than female characters.

Mayank Kejriwal, a research lead at USC's Information Sciences Institute (ISI), was inspired by current work on implicit gender biases and his own expertise in natural language processing (NLP). While many published studies survey and analyze the qualitative aspects of female representation in literature and the media, Kejriwal's research particularly made use of his strengthscollecting quantitative data through existing machine learning algorithms.

To produce these findings, Kejriwal and Nagaraj accessed data through the Gutenberg Project corpus which contains English-language 3,000 books, an added attempt to mitigate researcher bias. The genre of books ranged from adventure and science fiction, to mystery and romance, and in varied mediums, including novels, short stories, and poetry.

Akarsh Nagaraj, M.S. '21, co-author of the study and Machine Learning Engineer at Meta, helped uncover the 4:1 male-female literary imbalance.

"Gender bias is very real, and when we see females four times less in literature, it has a subliminal impact on people consuming the culture," said Kejriwal, a research assistant professor in the Daniel J Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. "We quantitatively revealed in an indirect way in which bias persists in culture."

Nagaraj noted the importance of how their methods and the study's findings imparted them with a greater understanding of biases in society and its implications. "Books are a window to the past, and the writing of these authors gives us a glimpse into how people perceive the world, and how it has changed."

Men everywhereand main characters

The study outlines several methods for defining female prevalence in literature. They utilized Named Entity Recognition (NER), a prominent NLP method used to extract gender-specific characters. "One of the ways we define this is through looking at how many female pronouns are in a book compared to male pronouns," said Kejriwal. The other technique is to quantify how many female characters are the main characters in it.

This allowed the research team to determine whether the male characters were central to the story.

The study's findings also showed that the discrepancy between male and female characters decreases under female authorship. "It clearly showed us that women in those times would represent themselves much more than a male writer would," said Nagaraj.

The team's diversified methods to measure and determine female representation in literature did not come without limitations, however, when authors are neither male or female. "When we published the dataset paper, reviewers had this criticism that we were ignoring non-dichotomous genders," said Kejriwal. "But we agreed with them, in a way. We think it's completely suppressed, and we won't be able to find many [transgender individuals or non-dichotomous individuals]."

Challenging dichotomies

Kejriwal acknowledged that AI tools for identifying plural words, such as "they," which may be referring to a non-dichotomous individual, do not yet exist. Still, the study's findings build the framework for approaching such social issues and building the technologies that can address these deficits.

The study also provides a blueprint for future work on quantifying the qualitative findings they discovered through the study's methodologies. Without the inherent bias from human-designed surveys, the NLP technology also enabled them to find adjective associations with gender-specific characters, deepening their understanding of bias and its pervasiveness in society.

"Even with misattributions, the words associated with women were adjectives like 'weak,' 'amiable,' 'pretty,' and sometimes 'stupid,'" said Nagaraj. "For male characters, the words describing them included 'leadership,' 'power,' 'strength' and 'politics.'"

While the team didn't ultimately quantify this facet of their study, this difference in qualitative descriptions between gender-specific characters provides future scope for more comprehensive qualitative investigation on word associations with gender.

"Our study shows us that the real world is complex but there are benefits to all different groups in our society participating in the cultural discourse," said Kejriwal. "When we do that, there tends to be a more realistic view of society."

Kejriwal is hopeful that the study will serve to highlight the importance of interdisciplinary researchthat is, using AI technology to highlight pressing social issues and inequalities that can be addressed. Stakeholders with specialized backgrounds, including computer scientists, can offer tools to process data and answer questions, and policymakers can use this data to enact change.

Explore further Study shows stories written by children are more likely to have male characters

More information: Akarsh Nagaraj et al, Dataset for studying gender disparity in English literary texts, Data in Brief (2022). Akarsh Nagaraj et al, Dataset for studying gender disparity in English literary texts,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2022.107905
Alessia Iancarelli, a doctoral student in Northeastern's Affective and Brain Sciences lab. Credit: Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University

If you want to be a scientist, you're going to have to do a lot of reading.

Science is an endeavor focused on building and sharing knowledge. Researchers publish papers detailing their discoveries, breakthroughs, and innovations in order to share those revelations with colleagues. And there are millions of scientific papers each year.

Keeping up with the latest developments in their field is a challenge for researchers at all points of their careers, but it especially affects early-career scientists, as they also have to read the many papers that represent the foundation of their field.

"It's impossible to read everything. Absolutely impossible," Ajay Satpute, director of the Affective and Brain Science Lab and an assistant professor of psychology at Northeastern. "And if you don't know everything that has happened in the field, there's a real chance of reinventing the wheel over and over and over again." The challenge, he says, is to figure out how to train the next generation of scientists economically, balancing the need to read all the seminal papers with training them as researchers in their own right.

That task is only getting more difficult, says Alessia Iancarelli, a Ph.D student studying affective and social psychology in Satpute's lab. "The volume of published literature just keeps increasing," she says. "How are scientists able to develop their scholarship in a field given this huge amount of literature?" They have to pick and choose what to read.

But common approaches to that prioritization, Iancarelli says, can incorporate biases and leave out crucial corners of the field. So Iancarelli, Satpute and colleagues developed a machine learning approach to find a betterand less biasedway to make a reading list. Their results, which were published last week in the journal PLOS One, also help reduce gender bias.

"There really is a problem about how we develop scholarship," Satpute says. Right now, scientists will often use a search tool like Google Scholar on a topic and start from there, he says. "Or, if you're lucky, you'll get a wonderful instructor and have a great syllabus. But that's going to be basically the field through that person's eyes. And so I think that this really fills a niche that might help create balance and cross-disciplinary scholarship without necessarily having access to a wonderful instructor, because not everyone gets that."

The problem with something like Google Scholar, Iancarelli explains, is that it will give you the most popular papers in a field, measured by how many other papers have cited them. If there are subsets of that field that aren't as popular but are still relevant, the important papers on those topics might get missed with such a search.

Take, for example, the topic of aggression (which is the subject the researchers focused on to develop their algorithm). Media and video games are a particularly hot topic in aggression research, Iancarelli says, and therefore there are a lot more papers on that subset of the field than on other topics, such as the role of testosterone, and social aggression.

So Iancarelli decided to group papers on the topic of aggression into communities. Using citation network analysis, she identified 15 research communities on aggression. Rather than looking at the raw number of times a paper has been cited in another research paper, the algorithm determines a community of papers that tend to cite each other or the same core set of papers. The largest communities it revealed were media and video games, stress, traits and aggression, rumination and displaced aggression, the role of testosterone, and social aggression. But there were also some surprises, such as a smaller community of research papers focused on aggression and horses.

"If you use community detection, then you get this really rich, granular look at the aggression field," Satpute says. "You have sort of a bird's-eye-view of the entire field rather than [it appearing that] the field of aggression is basically media, video games, and violence."

In addition to diversifying the topics featured by using this community approach, the researchers also found that the percentage of articles with women first authors dubbed influential by the algorithm doubled in comparison to when they focused only on total citation counts. (Iancarelli adds there might be some biases baked into that result, as the team couldn't ask the authors directly about their gender identity and instead had to rely on assumptions based on the author's name, picture, and any pronouns used to refer to them.)

The team has released the code behind this algorithm so that others can use it and replicate their citation network analysis approach in other fields of research.

For Iancarelli, there's another motivation: "I would love to use this work to create a syllabus and teach my own course on human aggression. I would really love to base the syllabus on the most relevant papers from each different community to give a true general view of the human aggression field."

Explore further Prize winning topics found to deliver more science papers and citations than non-prize-winning topics

More information: Alessia Iancarelli et al, Using citation network analysis to enhance scholarship in psychological science: A case study of the human aggression literature, PLOS ONE (2022). Journal information: PLoS ONE Alessia Iancarelli et al, Using citation network analysis to enhance scholarship in psychological science: A case study of the human aggression literature,(2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266513
NASA's Super Pressure Balloon prepares to lift off from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand. Credit: NASA Wallops/Bill Rodman

NASA's Scientific Balloon Program is back in Wanaka, New Zealand, for another flight test of its super pressure balloon, or SPB, technology to support science missions for longer flight durations, with flights running up to 100 days.

The team is targeting early May for the balloon launch, the fourth test launch from Wanaka Airport since NASA began balloon flight operations there in 2015.

NASA last launched from Wanaka in 2017. The team had traveled to New Zealand in 2020 to begin preparations for an SPB flight but ultimately canceled the campaign due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. "We are on the cusp of perfecting our SPB balloon technology, which is poised to expand opportunities for all sorts of science and technology missions by providing relatively low-cost, near-space access for long-duration flight times at mid-latitudes," said Debbie Fairbrother, chief of NASA's Balloon Program Office. "For certain types of science, we can achieve the same results on a balloon that could only otherwise be achieved by flying into space on a rocket. Certifying the balloon as a long-duration flight vehicle is key to supporting bigger and more complex science missions in the future."

Past SPB flights have led to new processes and procedures for constructing the upper and lower fittings of the balloon to ensure the balloon stays pressurized despite the stresses from gas expansion and contraction that occur during the heating and cooling of the day-night cycle. In addition, NASA has made improvements on the launch collar electronics. The launch collar is the mechanism that holds the balloon film together after release of the balloon bubble from the spoolthe collar is released just before launch of the payload. The science and engineering communities have identified long-duration balloon flights as playing an important role in providing inexpensive access to the near-space environment for science and technology.

Technicians open a specialized shipping container with NASA's Super Pressure Balloon (SPB) in Wanaka, New Zealand, ahead of the 2022 launch campaign. The SPB is comprised of more than 10 acres of polyethylene film and weighs more than 5,300 pounds. Credit: NASA Wallops/Bill Rodman

NASA conducts SPB launches from New Zealand in collaboration with the Queenstown Airport Corporation, Queenstown Lake District Council, and Airways New Zealand. After this year's flight, the team plans to return to Wanaka in 2023 for two super pressure balloon flights, each with its own dedicated science mission of opportunity.

The SPB is an 18.8-million-cubic-foot (532,000-cubic-meter) pressurized flight vehicle designed to float at a constant density altitude despite the heating and cooling of the day-night cycle. This pressurization, coupled with the stratospheric conditions in the southern hemisphere, enables long-duration flights.

The balloon is helium-filled and about the size of the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin, New Zealand, when fully inflated at its operational float altitude of 110,000 feet (33.5 kilometers). Wanaka is NASA's dedicated launch site for mid-latitude, long-duration balloon missions.

A NASA super pressure balloon launched in March 2015 from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, on a journey that will significantly expand the envelope for conducting near-space scientific investigations. Credit: NASA's Wallops Flight Facility

Alongside the New Zealand campaign, NASA's Balloon Program is concurrently preparing for three balloon launches from Sweden, flying science missions using NASA's workhorse zero-pressure balloons. Those missions will fly across the Atlantic Ocean to land in northern Canada. NASA has additional balloon flights planned later this year from the agency's launch site in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and from Antarctica.

NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency's scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. Peraton, which operates NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) in Texas, provides mission planning, engineering services, and field operations for NASA's scientific balloon program. The CSBF team has launched more than 1,700 scientific balloons over some 40 years of operations.
The research team with newly installed rocket boxes. Pictured, left to right: Joy OKeefe, Francis Tillman, Reed Crawford, Luke Dodd, and Evan Moser. Credit: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Imagine if you had to catch every bite of your dinner with your mouth, while flying, in the dark. You'd be exhausted, and probably pretty hungry. Though some bats go for sedentary insects, most catch their food on the wing every single night. Let that sink in.

Because they expend so much energy this way, bats switch among a couple energetic strategies. The most energy-conserving of these is heterothermy. It involves lowering body temperature and metabolism to match the environment in cold weather. Endothermy, maintaining a constant internal temperature, requires more energy.

Either way, the outside temperature is important. During heterothermic periods, bats and developing pups could suffer if their environment cools off too much or too quickly. Excessive heat or cold can also impact energy reserves during endothermic phases. New University of Illinois research looks at the effect of bat box design and placement on the energetic balance of endangered Indiana bats.

"The temperature of the roost is really important because it influences the energetic expenditure of the bat during the summer. When reproductive females are rearing a pup, really cold roosts either force them into torpor (heterothermy) or make them increase their energetic expenditure to try and stay warm," says Reed Crawford, a doctoral student in the Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology at Illinois and lead author on a new paper in Conservation Physiology.

"Additionally, bats have to pant, spread saliva, wing fan, or move locations to cool themselves in overly hot roosts, and that takes energy too."

The energy a mother bat expends can affect pup development and influences both the mom and pup's survival over the winter. If bats use too much energy staying warm, that energy can't go towards growth or building fat reserves needed to get through hibernation. When roosts are too cold, pup development slows down. With deadly white-nose syndrome affecting bats during their winter sleep, it's important they enter hibernation in tip-top shape.

Crawford and co-author Joy O'Keefe, an assistant professor and wildlife extension specialist in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at Illinois, tested five bat box designs and four landscape placements to determine how they affected endangered Indiana bats during heterothermic and endothermic periods.

The five rocket box designs, tall four-sided roosts, included a standard design with two vents; one without vents; one with a chimney; one with a white tile roof; and one with an external water jacket. The water jacket is constructed from several water-filled bags placed inside an outer wall of the rocket box.

"We measured energetic expenditure and overheating risk, looking for boxes that could maintain a balance between the two," Crawford says. "The external water jacket design allowed continuously endothermic bats to use the least energy. This box also reduced overheating risk compared to the other designs."

Boxes with white-tile roofs and chimneys decreased overheating risk, but the design modifications made boxes cooler, increasing the energetic expenditure necessary to warm endothermic bats. Still, O'Keefe says these designs could reduce the risk of overheating in especially hot or sunny conditions.

When bats were in heterothermic mode, box design wasn't as important.

"Rocket boxes offer a really large gradient in temperature, sometimes as much as 10 degrees Celsius from top to bottom. And they offer roosting positions to the north, south, east, and west. With all that variability, our models show bats could move around and find a position suitable for torpor in most box designs," Crawford says.

The boxes were installed in clusters at each of four landscape placements: in the open, in closed-canopy forest, and in eastern- and western-facing locations. It turned out placement made a big difference, as well.

"In terms of energetic expenditure, landscape placement is the dominant factor determining whether the roost is going to overheat. If the roost gets a lot of sunlight, it's really important to think critically about what box design you're going to place there because it is going to be at risk of overheating on sunny days," Crawford says. "On the other hand, forest placements in full shade allowed heterothermic bats to drop into deeper torpor, potentially saving some energy."

O'Keefe notes this latest study isn't the end-all for bat box research.

"There's no one-size-fits-all for bat boxes. There's no one location that fits all. We know bat boxes have some deficiencies. They're good for continuous endothermy until they overheat. Then they're not good anymore. But when small boxes are jam-packed with bats, they won't provide suitable conditions for torpor unless it's a cool day or they're placed under a full canopy," she says. "We still don't know enough about how boxes compare with natural roosts used by various bat species, so there's still a lot of work to do."

But for now, in the current study system, it looks like rocket boxes with external water jackets may be a good option for some bats, especially those that need to recover from white-nose syndrome in the spring.

"With some bat box users declining more than 90% due to white-nose syndrome, even small energy savings could help," O'Keefe says.

Explore further Building a better bat box: Temperature variation in rocket box designs

More information: Reed D Crawford et al, Evaluating bat boxes: design and placement alter bioenergetic costs and overheating risk, Conservation Physiology (2022). Reed D Crawford et al, Evaluating bat boxes: design and placement alter bioenergetic costs and overheating risk,(2022). DOI: 10.1093/conphys/coac027
Credit: Portland State University

Portland Street Response (PSR), the city's new first-response unit, responded to 903 calls in its first year, which resulted in 405 service referrals including nine housing placements and zero arrests, according to an evaluation by PSU's Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative presented to Portland City Council Tuesday.

The program also demonstrated success in meeting outcome goals set by the city to reduce the number of calls typically responded to by police as well as reducing the number of behavioral health and non-emergency calls responded to by police and fire and reducing the number of non-life threatening 911 calls that are transported to the ER.

Key findings (All from PSR's service area and during hours of operation):

4% reduction in total calls traditionally responded to by police.

27% reduction in police response on non-emergency welfare checks and dispatches coded as "unwanted persons" calls.

12.4% reduction in fire department activity on behavioral health calls and illegal burn calls.

Only 29 clients (3.2% of all calls) required transport to hospital. Most treated on scene.

PSR clients rated PSR 5 on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best.

The PSR team made 144 referrals during the initial contact, and the team's community health workers and peer support specialists made another 261 referrals in 437 follow-up visits with clients for everything from housing and financial benefits to medical treatment and pet care. The team also helped nine people find permanent housing.

In surveys conducted in collaboration with the Street Roots Ambassador Program, people experiencing homelessness described the care they received from PSR: "I was able to survive another day because I didn't have a tent or food before them"; "They provided resources and helped me get a hot shower"; "They were friendly, treated me like a human being."

"Portland Street Response has come so far in a very short amount of timefrom a small pilot program in one neighborhood to a citywide movement that has fundamentally changed Portland's first response system. Portland Street Response provides a model for the nation to follow, and we look forward to continuing to monitor its progress and impact as it expands citywide," said Dr. Greg Townley, co-founder of PSU's Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative and the lead evaluator.

The evaluation also included recommendations to further increase the program's effectiveness: continue to expand the program across the city 24/7; provide staffing levels that allow sufficient time with clients; refine community outreach/education to include more of the unhoused community and continue to advance racial equity.

"We thank Portland State University's Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative for its thorough evaluation of Portland Street Response at the one-year mark. Having an expert and independent evaluation of the program is a key component of making sure we get it right. We take this feedback seriously and will use it as a guide going forward," said Community Health Division Chief Tim Matthews.

Portland launched PSR in the Lents neighborhood on Feb. 16, 2021, as a new first response for non-emergency calls involving people experiencing homelessness and/or mental health crises. It expanded to cover the entire Portland Police Bureau (PPB) East Precinct on Nov. 4, 2021. The initial team consisted of a firefighter paramedic, a licensed mental health crisis responder and two community health workers, with a second team added in November consisting of a firefighter EMT, a mental health crisis responder and two peer support specialists.

Portland Fire & Rescue contracted with the Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative to conduct an evaluation to examine overall program effectiveness, provide suggestions for refinement and provide recommendations for scaling up citywide.

"Since day one, Portland Street Response has led with values centering accountability, transparency, and adaptation guided by our pilot evaluations. I'm incredibly thankful for the work of PSU's Homeless Research & Action Collaborative, which shows Portland Street Response is ready to move beyond the pilot phase as a permanent solution for non-violent 911 calls relating to those experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis," said Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty.

Explore further Effectiveness of tiny pod villages as alternative shelter for people experiencing homelessness

More information: Portland Street Response: Year One Evaluation. Portland Street Response: Year One Evaluation. www.pdx.edu/homelessness/sites  1/files/2022-04/HRAC %20Portland%20Street%20Response%20One-Year%20Evaluation_for%20public%20release.pdf
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

While paying more for food and gas, low-income Americans may be squeezed by another rising cost, Cornell research suggests: tap water at home.

Many aging urban water systems need to invest in expensive upgrades, and some may opt to privatizeboth factors likely to increase water rates, said Mildred Warner, M.S., Ph.D., professor of global development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and of city and regional planning in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP).

Water costs already pose a challenge for many low-income households, particularly in places with older infrastructure, Warner said. And with more than 30 states ending pandemic moratoriums on water shut-offs, she said, policymakers and water utilities should prioritize affordability programs to assist the neediest customers.

"Water affordability is a widespread and growing problem in the U.S., especially for low-income communities and communities of color," Warner said. "This is not just a problem of aging infrastructure and poverty; private ownership contributes significantly to higher water bills and lower affordability."

Warner is a co-author of "Water Pricing and Affordability in the U.S.: Public vs. Private Ownership," published March 17 in the journal Water Policy, with Xue Zhang, M.S., Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Global Development (CALS) and lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Planning (AAP); Marcela Gonzalez Rivas, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh; and Mary Grant of Food and Water Watch.

The researchers analyzed rates charged by the 500 largest community water systems in the U.S., collectively serving about 140 million people in 48 states and Washington, D.C. They assessed the influence on water rates of a system's size and age; water source (groundwater or surface water); regional drought level; ownership structure (government-owned, cooperative or investor-owned); regulatory environment; poverty level; and water scarcity.

Controlling for all those factors, the team determined private ownership had the largest impact on annual water bills, which averaged $144 higher in privately owned systems than in public sector systems. Low-income households served by private operators spent 4.4% of their income on water service, about 1.5 percentage points more than in communities with public ownership.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends households spend no more than 3% of their income on water, Warner said.

Some of the highest annual water bills were in New Jersey and Pennsylvaniastates that have approved regulations more favorable to private operators, according to the study. California has the most investor-owned water systems, but requires them to provide affordability assistance programs to low-income customers.

The primary driver of affordability challenges was a system's concentration of poverty, the study found. But the next most important factor was private ownership of the water utility.

"Our research calls attention to the need for regulations that protect ratepayers and ensure long-term affordability," Warner said.

Federal pandemic relief and infrastructure bills promise to invest billions of dollars in water infrastructure improvements, including replacing lead service lines and pipes. But that will only partially cover modernization costs that otherwise are likely to be covered through rate increases, Warner said. And the federal spending does not subsidize affordability programs, which are typically aimed at the lowest income quintile and could include guaranteed minimum water allotments.

"We have these policies for energy, we have them for telephone servicebut we don't have them for water, a basic human need," Warner said. "We need to step up to design effective water affordability programs to make sure people don't get their water shut off."

More information: X. Zhang et al, Water pricing and affordability in the US: public vs. private ownership, Water Policy (2022). X. Zhang et al, Water pricing and affordability in the US: public vs. private ownership,(2022). DOI: 10.2166/wp.2022.283
Lead author Alta Howells (left), co-author Alysia Cox (standing right) and co-author James Leong (seated) take a gas sample for H2 analysis, review field notes and analyze aqueous chemistry on a spectrophotometer in Oman for this study. Credit: Kirt Robinson

In Oman, on the Persian Gulf, there is a large slab of ancient seafloorincluding ultramafic rocks from Earth's upper mantlecalled the Samail Ophiolite. These unique rocks not only provide valuable information about the ocean floor and Earth's upper mantle, they may also hold clues to life on other planets.

To find these clues, a team of scientists from Arizona State University, who are members of the Group Exploring Organic Processes in Geochemistry led by Everett Shock of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the School of Molecular Sciences, traveled to Oman to investigate a geological process unique to these rocks, where water reacts with them to create hydrogen gas. This process, called "serpentinization," supplies hydrogen gas to microorganisms that oxidize it for energy.

For this team, gaining an understanding of this process may lead to a better understanding of life on other planets and the development of space exploration instruments that can detect life on ocean worlds beyond Earth. The results of their findings have been published in AGU's JGR Biogeosciences, with lead author Alta Howells, who is a former ASU graduate student in the School of Life Sciences and is now a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA Ames Research Center. Shock is a co-author on this study.

"It is believed that processes like serpentinization may exist throughout the universe, and evidence has been found that it may occur on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus," Howells said.

For their study, the research team set out to determine what might influence the biodiversity of serpentinization-hosted ecosystems on Earth. Specifically, the team focused on methanogens, which are microorganisms that produce methane by oxidizing hydrogen gas with carbon dioxide. Methanogens are found in serpentinization-hosted ecosystems and are simple life forms that likely evolved early on Earth.

Conceptual diagram of the process of serpentinization in Oman. At the surface, serpentinized fluid, surrounding surface water, and storm runoff can mix, which results in geochemical gradients. The inset picture shows one of the sites in this study where surrounding surface water is gently mixing into serpentinized fluid. Credit: Howells et al.

When studying the serpentinized fluids in the Samail Ophiolite of Oman, the team found that not all serpentinization-hosted ecosystems may support methanogens. In systems where methanogens are not supported, organisms that reduce sulfate for energy may be prevalent.

"Because sulfate reducers don't produce methane, this can have a big influence on the instrumentation we develop and deploy on missions to detect life on other planets," Howells said.

Additionally, from an Earth perspective, the distribution of methanogens across the sites they studied suggests that methanogens in serpentinized fluids require more energy than methanogens found in freshwater or marine sediments.

While the cause of this has yet to be determined, it may be attributed to the high pH of serpentinized fluids or the low availability of their electron acceptor, carbon dioxide.

"A requirement for energy is fundamental to all life on Earth," Howells said. "If we can develop simple models with energy supply as a parameter to predict the occurrence and activity of life on Earth, we can deploy these models in the study of other ocean worlds."

Explore further Weathering rocks hold clues to Earth's Great Oxidation Event

More information: Alta E. G. Howells et al, Energetically Informed Niche Models of Hydrogenotrophs Detected in Sediments of Serpentinized Fluids of the Samail Ophiolite of Oman, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (2022). Journal information: Biogeosciences Alta E. G. Howells et al, Energetically Informed Niche Models of Hydrogenotrophs Detected in Sediments of Serpentinized Fluids of the Samail Ophiolite of Oman,(2022). DOI: 10.1029/2021JG006317
Left: the L=30cm tall aspect ratio G=D/L=1 RBC cell with 28 mm thick top and bottom plates D=30cm in diameter made of thermally annealed copper of thermal conductivity  p =2210Wm1K1 and thermal capacity c p =0.144Jkg1K1 at T He =(T T +T B )/25K , where T T and T B are typical temperatures of the top and bottom plates. From the top plate, most of the heat is removed via the heat exchange chamber to the liquid He vessel above it. The top plate temperature T T (t) is roughly set by pressure in the heat exchange chamber and more precisely tuned and modulated by the uniformly distributed heater glued in the spiral grove on the upper side of the top plate. A similar heater delivers either steady or harmonically modulated heat to the bottom plate. The temperature of the convective flow at locations as shown (distances in millimeters) is probed by small Ge sensors (numbered 112) and that of the plates by the finely calibrated Ge sensors T t1 , T t2 , T b1 , and T b2 embedded in them; see the photograph in the top right, showing their positions and the spiral heater grove. Credit: Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.134502

A team of researchers from the Institute of Scientific Instruments working with a colleague from Charles University, both in the Czech Republic, has shown that heat flows more efficiently when the temperature of the material through which it is flowing oscillates, as opposed to remaining steady. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes experiments they conducted with heating and cooling helium in a container and its relevance to a theory proposed just two years ago.

In 1916, physicist John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, showed an example of oscillating heat flow. He filled a container with a fluid and then placed a heated coil below it and a cooling plate on top. This forced the liquid to rise and fall in the container. The effect has come to be known as Rayleigh-Benard convectionit can be seen in the action of lava lamps. Two years ago, a team at the University of Twente proposed that heat flow in a Rayleigh-Benard convection system would be more efficient if the heat coming from the base was oscillating. In this new effort, the researchers have shown this theory to be correct.

The work involved creating a container with a heating device at the bottom that could move through a temperature gradient over time. And like Strutt, they placed a cooling device on top. Unlike Strutt, however, they used a gas rather than a liquidin their case, helium. They also carried out their experiments under cooler than ambient temperatures. To learn more about the impact of such oscillations on the heat flowing through the system, they conducted multiple runs during which the speed at of the oscillations ranged from 0.006 to 0.2 Hz.

They found that, as predicted, an oscillating heat source moved heat through the system more efficientlyas much as 25% more. Earlier theory suggested that the improvement in efficiency arises due to a destabilization between the boundaries of the liquids in the chamber, allowing the liquid areas in them to move past one another more easily.

Explore further Innovative waste heat recovery experiment in Sweden

More information: P. Urban et al, Thermal Waves and Heat Transfer Efficiency Enhancement in Harmonically Modulated Turbulent Thermal Convection, Physical Review Letters (2022). Journal information: Physical Review Letters P. Urban et al, Thermal Waves and Heat Transfer Efficiency Enhancement in Harmonically Modulated Turbulent Thermal Convection,(2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.134502

 2022 Science X Network
Credit: Professor Mike Gardner (Flinders University)

The slow-moving Australian sleepy lizard has raised new questions about vertebrate immunity after the surprise discovery of the evolutionary disappearance of genes needed for some T cell production in squamates.

A U.S.-led international research group, including South Australian Museum, Flinders University and other experts, conclude it's likely that all squamates (snakes and lizards) are missing one set of T lymphocyte cellspaving the way for new research into what these T cells do in other animals, and how squamates compensate for this difference in immunology.

The article, "Skinks Make Do without  T Cells," published in the Journal of Immunology, compares the sleepy lizard genome to other reptiles and found it likely all squamates have lost one of the two major types of T cells over time.

"Out of all animals, it's rather odd snakes and lizards have survived without this complete set of disease-fighting cells, so this discovery could encourage further research on what these missing T cells actually do in vertebrates," says co-author Flinders University Professor Mike Gardner, an expert in the squamate skink Tiliqua rugosa (commonly known as sleepy, bobtail or shingleback lizard).

SA Museum senior researcher Dr. Terry Bertozzi, another author in the article, says the disappearance of certain T cells in squamates over time points also towards previously unexplored roles of other immune cells to compensate and protect against disease, inflammation and cancer.

University of New Mexico senior lead author Professor of Biology Robert Miller says the natural deletion or knockout of this major but "enigmatic" T cell lineage raises many questions, in particular the skink's reliance on just one T cell type.

Credit: Professor Mike Gardner (Flinders University)

"The genes encoding the TCR chains in the skink do not appear to have increased in complexity to compensate for the loss of  T cells," says Professor Miller, director of the Center for Evolutionary and Theoretical Immunology, University of New Mexico.

Credit: Professor Mike Gardner (Flinders University)

T lymphocytes or T cells are key components of the vertebrate response to pathogens and cancer. There are two T cell classes based on their TCRs,  T cells and  T cells, and each plays a critical role in immune responses.

Snakes and lizards may be unique among the vertebrate lineages by lacking an entire class of T cells, the  T cells.

Explore further Plant-eating lizards on the cusp of tooth evolution

More information: Kimberly A. Morrissey et al, Comparison of Reptilian Genomes Reveals Deletions Associated with the Natural Loss of  T Cells in Squamates, The Journal of Immunology (2022). Journal information: Journal of Immunology Kimberly A. Morrissey et al, Comparison of Reptilian Genomes Reveals Deletions Associated with the Natural Loss of  T Cells in Squamates,(2022). DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.2101158
Uncovering untold secrets of NATO -- a monstrous remnant from Cold War days

Xinhua) 08:40, April 27, 2022

* Both history and military alliance theory seem to predict that once the Cold War had ended, NATO would have disintegrated. Unfortunately this has not been the case. Far from being fully disbanded, NATO has been bent on expansion.

* The relationship between the United States and its European allies within NATO is fundamentally unequal. NATO contributes to the United States' hegemonic position in Western Europe by allowing U.S. military bases and troops to be stationed in the region.

* Since 1999, NATO has expanded eastward five times, advancing more than 1,000 km all the way to the Russian border, gradually pushing Russia into a corner.

* NATO forces launched 78 days of bombardment against Yugoslavia in 1999, killing or injuring over 8,000 civilians and displacing approximately 1 million people. Other countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, have also fallen victim to the U.S.-led NATO's belligerence and violations of human rights.

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- As the Russia-Ukraine conflict rages on, tensions between NATO and Russia have verged on downright hostilities.

The gloomy reality on the ground brings up a question as to why, more than 30 years after the end of the Cold War, the world appears to have regressed to where it ever was.

Thanks to their intentionally neglected nuance in depicting the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Western media have framed Russia as the lone villain. Close scrutiny of regional geopolitics, however, makes clear that NATO, a remnant from Cold War days, bears responsibility for precipitating the current crisis, not least for its relentless expansion at the expense of Russia's security concerns.

Photo taken on April 6, 2022 shows a sculpture and flags at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

TOXIC OBSESSION WITH EXPANSION

Both history and military alliance theory seem to predict that once the Cold War had ended, NATO would have disintegrated. Unfortunately this has not been the case. Far from being fully disbanded, NATO has been bent on expansion.

"From the Russian point of view, NATO's expansion into eastern Europe is a breach of a promise" made in the 1990s, Michele Geraci, former undersecretary of state at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, told Xinhua.

What Geraci referred to was then U.S. Secretary of State James Baker's famous "not one inch eastward" assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990.

Since 1999, NATO has expanded eastward five times, advancing more than 1,000 km all the way to the Russian border, gradually pushing Russia into a corner.

Analysts say NATO's disregard of Russia's legitimate concerns on security issues and its continuous expansion is the root cause of the outbreak and escalation of this conflict. If it continues to slim down the small buffer zone left between Russia and itself, the situation will undoubtedly go worse.

The culpability of the United States and its NATO allies is "sizable," wrote Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, after the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out.

"Moving an alliance that one great power dominated to the border of another major power is inherently destabilizing and provocative," Carpenter observed.

U.S. HEGEMONY AT PLAY

The relationship between the United States and its European allies within NATO is fundamentally unequal. In order to counter the Soviet Union, Washington persuaded some European countries to form NATO in 1949 under the banner of "common defense." Since then, Washington has kept a tight grip on NATO's leadership.

As David Calleo, a political scientist based at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, has pointed out, an American general is NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, and Europe's defense "depends upon the willingness of the United States to initiate a nuclear war rather than see Europe overrun, even by conventional forces."

"Militarily, NATO is a hegemonic American protectorate," Calleo commented.

In return, NATO contributes to the United States' hegemonic position in Western Europe by allowing U.S. military bases and troops to be stationed in the region. It also tragically panders to Washington's obsession with NATO expansion by ignoring Russia's security concerns.

As it grew, NATO became a vehicle to address new global issues that worried U.S. leaders, commented the U.S. news and opinion website VOX.

"Enlarging NATO becomes the gift that keeps on giving," VOX quoted Joshua Shifrinson, an international relations scholar at Boston University, as saying.

"It was a way of incentivizing liberalization in countries that had been in the Communist bloc, showing that the United States still has a mission in Europe, and a way of the United States projecting power and checking alternative systems like the European Union," Shifrinson said.

To justify Washington's leadership, to present a unitary front in NATO, and to justify big increases in western (especially German) military budgets, "Russia must be presented as the common enemy," Robert Wade, professor of Global Political Economy at the London School of Economics, wrote in March.

GLOBAL PEACE DISRUPTOR

Russia has long been accused by the U.S.-led NATO of violating basic international rules and norms and stoking global instability. Ironically, it is precisely what people in many parts of the world believe Washington and NATO have been doing.

Speaking in March at a ceremony marking the Remembrance Day of victims of the 1999 NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic condemned the NATO attack as "brutal, horrible, criminal, (and) inhuman."

Though that small country "hardly did anything wrong to anyone... that small country and great people just wanted to be on their own, to guard their hearths, and nothing more," Vucic said, "some others, 19 big ones, wanted to show all their courage, arrogance and brutality on a small unconquered people like the Serbs."

NATO forces launched 78 days of bombardment against Yugoslavia in 1999, killing or injuring over 8,000 civilians and displacing approximately 1 million people.

Other countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, have also fallen victim to the U.S.-led NATO's belligerence and violations of human rights.

In the two-decade-long Afghanistan war fought nominally to protect civilians, NATO's airstrikes have killed thousands of civilians.

Din Mohammad, a 73-year-old Afghan man from the hamlet of Lakani in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province in south Afghanistan, still remembered the night ten years ago when the U.S. military unleashed airstrikes on his hometown, killing 63 civilians and injuring dozens more.

"The bodies of men, women and children were lying in blood and the crying of the injured was heard from every corner of the house," he told Xinhua.

"Innocent people were killed in their beds without committing any crime," said Mohammad, who lost 17 family members, including five children, that night.

After the U.S.-led NATO intervention in 2011, Libya sank into civil war and became a breeding ground for instability and terrorism.

As Alan Kuperman, associate professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, has noted, "Libya has not only failed to evolve into a democracy; it has devolved into a failed state. Violent deaths and other human rights abuses have increased severalfold" after the NATO military attacks.

In Iraq, between 184,382 and 207,156 civilians have died from "direct war-related violence caused by the United States, its allies, the Iraqi military and police, and opposition forces" from the time of the invasion through October 2019, according to the Costs of War project at the U.S. Brown University.

The death toll is "likely much higher," as not all war-related deaths were accurately recorded, it said.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
What is the first thing that pops into your mind when someone mentions a construction site? Is it the dusty air, the noise of heavy machinery, the toiling workers soaked with sweat or the quiet enjoyment of books?



The latter is certainly what one construction site in Xiamen city, East China's Fujian province, is now known for. It was catapulted into the spotlight on World Book Day, which fell on Saturday, thanks to a construction contractor building a library for the site's 200-plus workers.

The library is located in a portable container that is around 18 square meters. It was set up by China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Group Co, the contractor for an airport project at the construction site, earlier this month to promote reading and bring knowledge and pleasure to the construction workers.

More than 2,000 books in different categories, from management to 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 nonfiction to romantic novels. The library has them all," says 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 is 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 says. She has worked on many construction sites, but this is the only one with a library.

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

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

Last year, China had more than 292 million rural migrants working in cities. Such workers 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 a habit for reading, whether in print, on mobile phones or other digital devices, a national reading survey showed.

In the coming months, the number of migrant workers at the construction site in Xiamen will reach over 3,000 at the project's 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 says.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, April 27, 2022. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon spacecraft begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.

It's the first NASA crew comprised equally of men and women, including the first Black woman making a long-term spaceflight, Jessica Watkins.

"This is one of the most diversified, I think, crews that we've had in a really, really long time," said NASA's space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders.

The astronauts arrived at the space station Wednesday night, just 16 hours after a predawn liftoff from Kennedy Space Center that thrilled spectators.

"Anyone who saw it realized what a beautiful launch it was," Lueders told reporters. After an express flight comparable to traveling from New York to Singapore, the crew will move in for a five-month stay.

SpaceX has now launched five crews for NASA and two private trips in just under two years. Elon Musk's company is having an especially busy few weeks: It just finished taking three businessmen to and from the space station as NASA's first private guests.

A week after the new crew arrives, the three Americans and German they're replacing will return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule. Three Russians also live at the space station.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, April 27, 2022. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon spacecraft begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

Both SpaceX and NASA officials stressed they're taking it one step at a time to ensure safety. The private mission that concluded Monday encountered no major problems, they said, although high wind delayed the splashdown for a week.

SpaceX Launch Control wished the astronauts good luck and Godspeed moments before the Falcon rocket blasted off with the capsule, named Freedom by its crew.

"Our heartfelt thank you to every one of you that made this possible. Now let Falcon roar and Freedom ring," radioed NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, the commander. Minutes later, their recycled booster had landed on an ocean platform and their capsule was safely orbiting Earth. "It was a great ride," he said.

The SpaceX capsules are fully automatedwhich opens the space gates to a broader clienteleand they're designed to accommodate a wider range of body sizes. At the same time, NASA and the European Space Agency have been pushing for more female astronauts.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, April 27, 2022. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon spacecraft begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

While two Black women visited the space station during the shuttle era, neither moved in for a lengthy stay. Watkins, a geologist who is on NASA's short list for a moon-landing mission in the years ahead, sees her mission as "an important milestone, I think, both for the agency and for the country."

She credits supportive family and mentorsincluding Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space in 1992for "ultimately being able to live my dream."

Also cheering Watkins on was another geologist: Apollo 17's Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon in 1972. She invited the retired astronaut to the launch, along with his wife. "We sort of consider ourselves the Jessica team," he said, chuckling.

"Those of us who rode the Saturn V into space are a little bit jaded about the smaller rockets," Schmitt said after the SpaceX liftoff. "But still, it really was something and on board was a geologist ... I hope it will stand her in good stead for being part of one of the Artemis crews that go to the moon."

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, April 27, 2022. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon spacecraft begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

Like Watkins, NASA astronaut and test pilot Bob Hines is making his first spaceflight. It's the second visit for Lindgren, a physician, and the European Space Agency's lone female astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti, a former Italian Air Force fighter pilot.

Cristoforetti turned 45 on Tuesday, "so she really celebrates and is very happy with a big smile in the capsule," said the European Space Agency's director general, Josef Aschbacher. "She's really a role model and she's doing an enormously fabulous job on doing exactly that."

The just-completed private flight was NASA's first dip into space tourism after years of opposition. The space agency said the three people who paid $55 million each to visit the space station blended in while doing experiments and educational outreach. They were accompanied by a former NASA astronaut employed by Houston-based Axiom Space, which arranged the flight.

SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts, from left, pilot Bob Hines, mission specialist Jessica Watkins, commander Kjell Lindgren, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, of Italy, wave as they leave the Operations and Checkout Building for a trip to Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The four astronauts will fly to the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX's Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

The SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts, from left, mission specialist Jessica Watkins, pilot Bob Hines, commander Kjell Lindgren, and mission specialist, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, of Italy, get together after leaving the Operations and Checkout Building for a trip to Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The four astronauts will fly on SpaceX's Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

NASA astronaut Robert Hines waves to family and friends as he and crew mates depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-4 mission launch, Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Aubrey Gemignani, NASA via AP

NASA astronaut Robert Hines gestures to family and friends as he and crew mates depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-4 mission launch, Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Aubrey Gemignani, NASA via AP

NASA astronaut Bob Hines makes a hand gesture to family members after leaving the Operations and Checkout building and a trip to Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX's Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren waves as he leaves the Operations and Checkout Building for a trip to Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX's Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

NASA Mission specialist Jessica Watkins smiles as she talks to family members after leaving the Operations and Checkout building for a trip to Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX's Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

A SpaceX Falcon rocket sits on Launch Complex 39A Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts are scheduled to fly on SpaceX's mission to the International Space Station Wednesday morning. Credit: AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, of Italy, waves as she leaves the Operations and Checkout Building Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX's Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

A SpaceX Falcon rocket sits on Launch Complex 39A Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts are scheduled to fly on SpaceX's mission to the International Space Station Wednesday morning. Credit: AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

A SpaceX Falcon rocket sits on Launch Complex 39A Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts are scheduled fly on SpaceX's mission to the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

In a slow camera exposure, SpaceX Falcon rocket launches Wednesday, April 27, from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center to the ISS. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins were joined by European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Time exposure of launch from Kelly Park on Merritt Island. Credit: Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX's Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

Photographers record a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as it lifts off in this time exposure from Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX's Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. Credit: AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

"The International Space Station is not a vacation spot. It's not an amusement park. It is an international laboratory, and they absolutely understood and respected that purpose," said NASA flight director Zeb Scoville.

NASA also hired Boeing to ferry astronauts after retiring the shuttles. The company will take another shot next month at getting an empty crew capsule to the space station, after software and other problems fouled a 2019 test flight and prevented a redo last summer.

Explore further Crew of first private flight to ISS head back to Earth

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Chaille Biddle worked with a team of fellow students working in Harris Policy Labs to identify Chicago communities most vulnerable to flooding. This is an essential area of policy need," she said. Credit: Eddie Quinones

Growing up in Brooklyn and spending her undergraduate and now graduate student years in Chicago, Chaille Biddle has grown increasingly alarmed by the problem of urban flooding. When rainwater and stormwater overflow in developed areas, and the local sewer system cannot handle heavy downpours, that water fills streets and homes.

"Both of the places that I've loved and called home are long past the point of trying to avoid the worst and are really getting to a point of, how do we adapt, knowing that this is coming?" said Biddle, AB'17, now a second-year master's student at UChicago's Harris School of Public Policy.

In Chicago, urban flooding is especially problematic in lower-income and immigrant areas, where residents may hesitate to call on the city for help when basements and streets flood. And they are flooding at alarming rates: From 201019, only areas hit by hurricanes received more federal flood aid than the city and suburbs, a 2019 Chicago Tribune study found. The problems, of course, are only likely to increase as climate change makes extreme weather ever more likely.

With a team of fellow students working in Harris Policy Labs, Biddle early this year got to tackle the issue head on, making recommendations to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), northeastern Illinois' comprehensive planning agency, on how it can identify the communities most vulnerable to flooding.

"This is an essential area of policy need," said Biddle, 26, who returned to Harris for her master's after working in the private sector. "My team and I were glad to work in such a relevant area."

Among their recommendations the team identified four Chicago neighborhoods as being high in flood risk: South Shore and Pullman on the South Side and Belmont Cragin and Albany Park on the northwest.

In developing a specifically flood-related measure of social vulnerability, the team took into account the reality that many residents have an innate distrust of government agencies, a feeling, as Biddle summarized it, of "Why would they call the government, because government has never helped them before?"

Complications like these are one of the great values of the Harris Policy Labs program as it teaches "professional judgment," said Paula Worthington, the program's academic director and a senior lecturer at Harris. "Students are, for the first time, confronting the ugly realities of real-world policy work, where all of those datasets are incomplete, they all have imperfections, they all are not quite what you want" and the students must bring their own experience, intuition and study into play to help provide nuanced solutions to challenging policy issues.

Since 2016, Harris Policy Labs, an elective primarily for second-year graduate students, has done work for more than fifty government agencies and nonprofit organizations, including several municipal government departments in Chicago; the city of Gary, Indiana; Cook County Health and Hospitals System; Metropolitan Planning Council; Oxfam America; the Illinois Medical District; and the Illinois Department of Human Services.

CMAP, the client for the urban flooding project, supports the seven counties and 284 communities of northeastern Illinois with comprehensive planning. Its ON TO 2050 plan helps communities implement solutions that address transportation, the environment, housing, economic development, land use and other quality-of-life issues.

"The students provided valuable insights and brought energy and excitement to our work. I know why the students find value in this opportunity but what they may not always see is the effect their enthusiasm has on CMAP staff," said Elizabeth Scott, a principal policy analyst with the agency, referring to the experience as "refreshing and enlightening."

Scott said she was impressed that the urban flooding students not only analyzed data but also conducted interviews with Metropolitan Water Reclamation District commissioners and with a lifelong Southwest Side resident impacted by urban flooding.

As the agency addresses flood mitigation and stormwater management going forward, the students' "development of a flood-specific social vulnerability index is a result that will be of value to CMAP," said Scott.

To find where flooding was occurring in Chicago, which the students focused on as the region's densest urban area, they looked at insurance claims and also calls to the city's 311 help line.

But even the validity of 311 calls as a grassroots datapoint had to be factored against residents being more likely to report street flooding, which the city could presumably address, than basement flooding, "which people, especially in immigrant communitiesas we learned from this resident's interviewtend to try to solve themselves," said Biddle.

CMAP will take and tweak the student recommendations as the agency's own professionals see fit, Worthington emphasized, "but I think what the (flooding) students offered CMAP is a structured pilota way to identify the communities of greatest concern who deserve the greatest attention."

This was also true for two other Harris student groups, each of which tackled a different project for CMAP, said Scott. The group looking at how to increase electric vehicle charging infrastructure "did a good job narrowing in on certain key aspects of a broad policy area rather than offering a broader but superficial treatment," she said, while the one examining possible implementation of traffic congestion taxes "provided valuable insights  when our team asked follow-up questions on topics ranging from traffic safety to revenue potential to public acceptance."

Even beyond specific ideas, there's a charge that comes from such collaboration, the CMAP planner added: "When we see the planners and policy analysts of tomorrow bringing new and innovative perspectives, we're provided with an extra jolt of energy at a time that truly demands profound change for northeastern Illinois."
A side-view rendering of molybdenum disulfide, a technologically appealing material that consists of two sulfur atoms (yellow and green) for every one molybdenum (purple and blue). Nebraska researchers found that the upward shift of the green sulfur atoms contributes to the emergence of ferroelectricity, a prized but rare property that can help encode digital data using substantially less power. Credit: Alexey Lipatov / npj 2D Materials and Applications

The nanoscopic equivalent of stacking a deck of cardslayering materials a mere few atoms thick atop one anotherhas emerged as a favorite pastime of material scientists and electrical engineers worldwide.

Just as cards can differ by suit and value, the properties of those atomically thin 2D materials can vary, too: electronically, magnetically, optically or in any number of other ways. And much like combining the right cards can yield valuable hands, the right combinations of 2D materials can yield technologically valuable outcomes.

The University of NebraskaLincoln's Alexei Gruverman, Alex Sinitskii and colleagues have now demonstrated that one particular 2D material, already considered a face card, actually ranks as an ace in the hole.

That material is molybdenum disulfide, or MoS 2 . Alongside partners from Luxembourg, China and France, the Husker researchers have shown that MoS 2 possesses a long-theorized property that could help computers, phones and other microelectronics save both power and their exact electrical states, even after being turned off.

MoS 2 's power-saving, state-saving promise comes courtesy of a prized but uncommon property known as ferroelectricity. The vertical separation and arrangement of negative vs. positive charges in ferroelectric materials can be instantaneously flipped just by applying some voltage. Those oppositely aligned, or polarized, states can be read or stored as the 1s and 0s of binary data, with the states remaining even when a power source has been cut.

That set-it-and-forget-it advantage is compounded by the fact that voltage can flip polarization, and encode a respective 1 or 0, while drawing far less energy than the magnetic fields often used to encode digital data. Collectively, those benefits have positioned ferroelectric materials as a prominent player in a future even more dependent on microelectronics.

Theory-backed simulations had suggested that MoS 2 was just such a material. As with other 2D materials, though, proving it had proven fiendishly difficult. But by prodding flakes of molybdenum disulfide with a nanoscopic needle that simultaneously excited the material with an electric field, the Husker-led team has managed to confirm that MoS 2 is, in fact, ferroelectric. The material's polarized states held for up to weeks at a time, the researchers said, and were observed with the MoS 2 flakes sitting atop any one of several other materials.

"Ferroelectricity in two-dimensional materials is, in general, a new phenomenon," said Sinitskii, professor of chemistry at Nebraska. "It was discovered fairly recently, and the examples of two-dimensional systems that exhibit ferroelectric polarization are still very limited."

Ferroelectricity alone, then, would be enough to vault molybdenum disulfide up the rankings of 2D materials. Yet MoS 2 features other properties that appeal to the engineers tasked with building better devices. It's relatively easy to grow, first in bulk, then by peeling off atomically thin layers with the aid of Scotch tape. Unlike many of its 2D counterparts, it holds up when exposed to air and plays well with the oxygen-rich materials found in many electronic components.

Beyond all that, it's a semiconducting material in the vein of siliconthe longstanding choice for integrated circuits, or microchipsmeaning that its flow of electric current can be triggered and halted with minimal effort. That sets MoS 2 apart from most ferroelectrics, Gruverman said.

In the wake of the team's study, which appeared in the journal npj 2D Materials and Applications, MoS 2 now joins just a handful of materials that boast high-yet-controllable conductivity and easily switchable polarization, the researchers said.

"There was always this striving to combine semiconducting and ferroelectric properties in one material, because that would make it a very powerful materiala holy grail, if you willfor the semiconductor industry," said Gruverman, Charles Mach University Professor of physics and astronomy.

'The structure that we observed was clearly unprecedented'

The atoms of a material can take on different configurations that generate different properties. The most famous example of the phenomenon might be carbon, which can range from a soft black lump of coal to a nigh-indestructible, transparent diamond.

Molybdenum disulfide, which consists of one molybdenum atom for every two sulfur, is no exception. In its most stable state, known as 2H, the material acts as a semiconductor yet actually lacks ferroelectricity. But prodding the MoS 2 with a minuscule point shifted some of the sulfur atoms upward, the team found, altering the distances between those atoms and the molybdenum. That, in turn, altered the distribution of the atoms' electron clouds, ultimately transforming the semiconducting 2H into a more conductive, ferroelectric phase known as 1T."

To switch the polarization of MoS 2 , the researchers exploited the so-called flexo-electric effect: a change in the electrical behavior of a material when it begins straining under the force of a mechanical stress. For more than a half-century, physicists have known that the more variable the strainthat is, the greater the disparities in how various areas of a material will deform under stressthe more pronounced the electric polarization will be. Thicker materials tend to experience fairly uniform strains, Gruverman said, resulting in limited polarization and usefulness for encoding binary data.

A 2D material such as MoS 2 especially one pricked with the finest of fine pointsis a much different prospect, yielding a huge disparity in strains and, consequently, a massive flexo-electric effect.

"In materials as thin as MoS 2 , this flexo-electric effect is very profound," Gruverman said. "What's important is that this approach could be used as a very effective tool to control polarization states in ferroelectrics.

"Now we've demonstrated that, in addition to the electric field, we can use mechanical stress as a way of controlling or tuning the electronic properties of these heterostructures."

The team also discovered a surprise that could work in MoS 2 's favor. Though the flakes that Sinitskii and his colleagues fabricated were virtually pristine, the team occasionally encountered polarization signals that were substantially weaker than they expected. Curious, Sinitskii had the idea to flip the flakes over and measure the signals again, hoping to glean insights on the ultra-thin third dimension of the essentially 2D material.

When they did, the researchers determined that the flakes contained randomly alternating layers of polarizationsome with positive charges at the top and negative charges at the bottom, others vice versa.

"The structure that we observed was clearly unprecedented, because none of the two-dimensional ferroelectric structures that people observed before exhibited this kind of arrangement of ferroelectric domains," Sinitskii said.

The existence of those randomly alternating layers implied another surprise. In some cases, like-signed charges are butting up against one anotherpositive to positive or negative to negativewithout repelling each other, as they would normally be expected to. How? The team suspects that the especially high conductivity of 1T" MoS 2 promotes the flow of enough charges between those layers to prevent the repulsion. It's possible, Gruverman said, that the intra-layer currents could be controlled by flipping the polarization of the MoS 2 flakes, offering another, hyper-localized way to encode data.

"It's quite unusual to have these layers of a material where polarization in one layer doesn't care about the polarization state in the adjacent layer," Gruverman said. "Usually, this kind of head-to-head and tail-to-tail configuration would be very unfavorable. Yet it seems that, here, these layers are absolutely non-sensitive to the polarization state in the neighboring layers."

But the full promise of molybdenum disulfide may only reveal itself, Sinitskii said, when material scientistsnow knowing the true value of MoS 2 manage to play it in just the right hands.

"This is a very hot topic right now," Sinitskii said. "There are many people who are really shuffling these different layers and stacking them on top of each other. Now they have another kind of two-dimensional material that could be added to those stacks and make them more diverse, more programmable and, eventually, more useful."

Explore further Researchers obtain atomically thin molybdenum disulfide films on large-area substrates

More information: Alexey Lipatov et al, Direct observation of ferroelectricity in two-dimensional MoS2, npj 2D Materials and Applications (2022). Alexey Lipatov et al, Direct observation of ferroelectricity in two-dimensional MoS2,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41699-022-00298-5
An illustration of a near-zero index metamaterial shows that when light travels through, it moves in a constant phase. Credit: Second Bay Studios/Harvard SEAS

In physics, as in life, it's always good to look at things from different perspectives.

Since the beginning of quantum physics, how light moves and interacts with matter around it has mostly been described and understood mathematically through the lens of its energy. In 1900, Max Planck used energy to explain how light is emitted by heated objects, a seminal study in the foundation of quantum mechanics. In 1905, Albert Einstein used energy when he introduced the concept of photon.

But light has another equally important quality, known as momentum. And as it turns out, when you take momentum away, light starts behaving in really interesting ways.

An international team of physicists led by Michael Lobet, a research associate at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Eric Mazur, the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at SEAS, are re-examining the foundations of quantum physics from the perspective of momentum and exploring what happens when the momentum of light is reduced to zero.

The research is published in Nature Light: Science & Applications.

Any object with mass and velocity has momentumfrom atoms to bullets to asteroidsand momentum can be transferred from one object to another. A gun recoils when a bullet is fired because the momentum of the bullet is transferred to the gun. At the microscopic scale, an atom recoils when it emits light because of the acquired momentum of the photon. Atomic recoil, first described by Einstein when he was writing the quantum theory of radiation, is a fundamental phenomenon that governs light emission.

But a century after Planck and Einstein, a new class of metamaterials is raising questions regarding these fundamental phenomena. These metamaterials have a refractive index close to zero, meaning that when light travels through them, it doesn't travel like a wave in phases of crests and troughs. Instead, the wave is stretched out to infinity, creating a constant phase. When that happens, many of the typical processes of quantum mechanics disappear, including atomic recoil.

Why? It all goes back to momentum. In these so-called near-zero index materials, the wave momentum of light becomes zero and when the wave momentum is zero, odd things happen.

"Fundamental radiative processes are inhibited in three-dimensional near-zero index materials," says Lobet, who is currently a lecturer at the University of Namur in Belgium. "We realized that the momentum recoil of an atom is forbidden in near-zero index materials and that no momentum transfer is allowed between the electromagnetic field and the atom."

If breaking one of Einstein's rules wasn't enough, the researchers also broke perhaps the most well-known experiment in quantum physicsYoung's double-slit experiment. This experiment is used in classrooms across the globe to demonstrate the particle-wave duality in quantum physicsshowing that light can display characteristics of both waves and particles.

In a typical material, light passing through two slits produces two coherent sources of waves that interfere to form a bright spot in the center of the screen with a pattern of light and dark fringes on either side, known as diffraction fringes.

"When we modeled and numerically computed Young's double-slit experiment, it turned out that the diffraction fringes vanished when the refractive index was lowered," said co-author Larissa Vertchenko, of the Technical University of Denmark.

"As it can be seen, this work interrogates fundamental laws of quantum mechanics and probes the limits of wave-corpuscle duality," said co-author Inigo Liberal, of the Public University of Navarre in Pamplona, Spain.

While some fundamental processes are inhibited in near-zero refractive index materials, others are enhanced. Take another famous quantum phenomenonHeisenberg's uncertainty principle, more accurately known in physics as the Heisenberg inequality. This principle states that you cannot know both the position and speed of a particle with perfect accuracy and the more you know about one, the less you know about the other. But, in near-zero index materials, you know with 100% certainty that the momentum of a particle is zero, which means you have absolutely no idea where in the material the particle is at any given moment.

"This material would make a really poor microscope, but it does enable to cloak objects quite perfectly," Lobet said. "In some way, objects become invisible."

"These new theoretical results shed new light on near-zero refractive index photonics from a momentum perspective," said Mazur. "It provides insights in the understanding of light-matter interactions in systems with a low- refraction index, which can be useful for lasing and quantum optics applications."

The research could also shed light on other applications, including quantum computing, light sources that emit a single photon at a time, the lossless propagation of light through a waveguide and more.

The team next aims to revisit other foundational quantum experiments in these materials from a momentum perspective. After all, even though Einstein didn't predict near-zero refractive index materials, he did stress the importance of momentum. In his seminal 1916 paper on fundamental radiative processes, Einstein insisted that from a theoretical point of view, energy and momentum "should be considered on a completely equal footing since energy and momentum are linked in the closest possible way."

"As physicists, it's a dream to follow in the footsteps of giants like Einstein and push their ideas further," said Lobet. "We hope that we can provide a new tool that physicists can use and a new perspective, which might help us understand these fundamental processes and develop new applications."

Explore further Visualizing spin angular momentum in water waves
LAKE GEORGE  The League of Women Voters is seeking questions from the public for a Meet the Candidates Night in the Lake George Central School District on Tuesday. The forum is set for 7:15 p.m. Tuesday in the school auditorium. Residents are invited to email questions in advance to

. Organizers ask submissions to include Lake George Central School District in the subject line. There is no limit to the number of questions that can be submitted. Three seats on the Board of Education are up for election this year at the May 17 school vote. Each seat is a three-year term that begins on July 1. Incumbent board Vice President Maryanne MacKenzie is seeking reelection, but board members Melissa Seale and Linda King are not. MacKenzie was elected to the board in 2019. She serves as chair of the Policy Committee and is a member of the Board Development Committee and the Culture and Climate Committee. Linda Clark and Lisa Doster are running as a team and already have spots on the districts Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan committee. In an endorsement letter written by the women, Clark explains DEI is a part of critical race theory and criticizes the radical changes in curriculum. Doster claims a political agenda is to blame for the changes. Chris Picard, local business owner and parent of an elementary student, is also running for a seat on the board. Also on the ballot: Gregg Sawdy, Donna Prime and Mario Fasulo. All candidates are scheduled to be present to answer questions at the meeting. In addition to electing new board members on May 17, the public will also be asked to vote on the 2022-2023 budget. The budget is broken down into instructional and non-instructional components. The instructional portion includes administration and improvement, teaching, instructional media and student services. The non-instructional part includes the Board of Education, administrative services, operations and maintenance and transportation services. The proposed non-instructional budget is $3,475,803, a $16,272 increase from last years budget. The proposed instructional budget is $12,464,742, with a 1.74% increase of $212,902. Ballot propositions include purchasing a new 60-passenger bus, creating a capital reserve fund for future projects, as well as program and equipment upgrades and maintenance. A public hearing regarding the budget will also be held at the candidates forum on Tuesday, starting at 7 p.m.

LAKE GEORGE  The League of Women Voters is seeking questions from the public for a Meet the Candidates Night in the Lake George Central School District on Tuesday. The forum is set for 7:15 p.m. Tuesday in the school auditorium. Residents are invited to email questions in advance to vslwvsc@gmail.com. Organizers ask submissions to include Lake George Central School District in the subject line. There is no limit to the number of questions that can be submitted. Three seats on the Board of Education are up for election this year at the May 17 school vote. Each seat is a three-year term that begins on July 1. Incumbent board Vice President Maryanne MacKenzie is seeking reelection, but board members Melissa Seale and Linda King are not. MacKenzie was elected to the board in 2019. She serves as chair of the Policy Committee and is a member of the Board Development Committee and the Culture and Climate Committee. Linda Clark and Lisa Doster are running as a team and already have spots on the districts Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan committee. In an endorsement letter written by the women, Clark explains DEI is a part of critical race theory and criticizes the radical changes in curriculum. Doster claims a political agenda is to blame for the changes. Chris Picard, local business owner and parent of an elementary student, is also running for a seat on the board. Also on the ballot: Gregg Sawdy, Donna Prime and Mario Fasulo. All candidates are scheduled to be present to answer questions at the meeting. In addition to electing new board members on May 17, the public will also be asked to vote on the 2022-2023 budget. The budget is broken down into instructional and non-instructional components. The instructional portion includes administration and improvement, teaching, instructional media and student services. The non-instructional part includes the Board of Education, administrative services, operations and maintenance and transportation services. The proposed non-instructional budget is $3,475,803, a $16,272 increase from last years budget. The proposed instructional budget is $12,464,742, with a 1.74% increase of $212,902. Ballot propositions include purchasing a new 60-passenger bus, creating a capital reserve fund for future projects, as well as program and equipment upgrades and maintenance. A public hearing regarding the budget will also be held at the candidates forum on Tuesday, starting at 7 p.m.

LAKE GEORGE  The League of Women Voters is seeking questions from the public for a Meet the Candidates Night in the Lake George Central School District on Tuesday.

The forum is set for 7:15 p.m. Tuesday in the school auditorium.

Residents are invited to email questions in advance to vslwvsc@gmail.com. Organizers ask submissions to include Lake George Central School District in the subject line. There is no limit to the number of questions that can be submitted.

Three seats on the Board of Education are up for election this year at the May 17 school vote. Each seat is a three-year term that begins on July 1. Incumbent board Vice President Maryanne MacKenzie is seeking reelection, but board members Melissa Seale and Linda King are not.

MacKenzie was elected to the board in 2019. She serves as chair of the Policy Committee and is a member of the Board Development Committee and the Culture and Climate Committee.

Linda Clark and Lisa Doster are running as a team and already have spots on the districts Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan committee. In an endorsement letter written by the women, Clark explains DEI is a part of critical race theory and criticizes the radical changes in curriculum. Doster claims a political agenda is to blame for the changes.

Chris Picard, local business owner and parent of an elementary student, is also running for a seat on the board.

Also on the ballot: Gregg Sawdy, Donna Prime and Mario Fasulo.

All candidates are scheduled to be present to answer questions at the meeting.

In addition to electing new board members on May 17, the public will also be asked to vote on the 2022-2023 budget.

The budget is broken down into instructional and non-instructional components. The instructional portion includes administration and improvement, teaching, instructional media and student services. The non-instructional part includes the Board of Education, administrative services, operations and maintenance and transportation services.

The proposed non-instructional budget is $3,475,803, a $16,272 increase from last years budget. The proposed instructional budget is $12,464,742, with a 1.74% increase of $212,902.

Ballot propositions include purchasing a new 60-passenger bus, creating a capital reserve fund for future projects, as well as program and equipment upgrades and maintenance.

A public hearing regarding the budget will also be held at the candidates forum on Tuesday, starting at 7 p.m.

Jana DeCamilla is a staff writer who covers Moreau, Queensbury, and Lake George. She can be reached at 518-742-3272 or jdecamilla@poststar.com. Jana DeCamilla is a staff writer who covers Moreau, Queensbury, and Lake George. She can be reached at 518-742-3272 or jdecamilla@poststar.com. Jana DeCamilla is a staff writer who covers Moreau, Queensbury, and Lake George. She can be reached at 518-742-3272 or jdecamilla@poststar.com.

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A major spoiler alert for ABCs The Bachelorette played out Monday on the Wildwood Boardwalk, as co-bachelorette Rachel Recchia, 26, went on a hometown date with contestant Tyler Norris, 25, of the Rio Grande section of Middle Township.

The Boardwalk was awakened from its offseason slumber for an episode that will air this summer, beginning July 11, said Ben Rose, director of marketing for the Greater Wildwoods Convention and Visitors Bureau. He said rides and stores opened just for filming, with the idea to make it seem like it was midseason, never mind the weather and the stars outerwear.

Rose offered some exclusive details: She gave him a big kiss after they got their funnel cake, he said in a phone interview. She turned and gave him a big kiss on the lips.

They were supposed to end up at Macks Pizza (Good taste, Tyler), he said.

Recchia is a pilot who had her heart memorably broken by last seasons controversial bachelor, Clayton Echard. She and another runner-up, Gabby Windey, were both chosen as co-bachelorettes for the coming season. Windey was reported to also be filming in New Jersey, in Bedminster, Somerset County.

Wildwood Boardwalk repairs seem on target to be complete by Memorial Day WILDWOOD  As summer creeps closer, work is nearing completion on the Boardwalk between Oak 

She actually goes to his hometown to meet his parents, Rose said. They spend the day in his hometown doing the things he loves to do. Its supposed to be in season, while everything is open. Of course nothing is open. We accommodated them. The pier opened up just for them. Stores opened up just for them. We made it seem like it was in season. It was a little chilly today. Wearing a trench coat in season is not exactly apropos.

But much more realistic than the last Jersey contestants hometown date, a season limited by COVID-19 concerns, in which Haddonfields Zac Clark took eventual fiancee Tayshia Adams on a pretend trip to New York City, despite his professed love of everything Philadelphia. (Clark and Adams have since broken off their engagement.)

On Monday, the Wildwoods beach cam captured Recchia running up to greet Norris at the Wildwoods beach ball sign on the Boardwalk. They then went to Moreys Piers, where they bopped around Mariners Landing and played bumper cars. She was filmed huddled at a Boardwalk tram stop.

She also was filmed standing on the counter in a mini-ball game to sink a shot, and seeming to win a large stuffed animal in a squirt game, where Norris had somehow changed from shoes into black Converse high-tops.

News of the hometown dates routinely leaks, but they are major spoilers, as typically only four contestants get a hometown date. The blogger known as Reality Steve revealed the Wildwood location Sunday night, and was busy posting videos Monday.

Norris is a graduate of Wildwood Catholic and Cabrini University and the owner of Spirit Ball, a store on the Wildwood Boardwalk, according to LinkedIn.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents recorded in the United States reached an all-time high in 2021, as did the number of incidents in New Jersey, according to a new report.

The Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday published its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. The nations 2,717 incidents recorded in 2021 were the highest annual total since the ADL began tracking such incidents in 1979. It was a 34% increase over 2020, when there were 2,026 anti-Semitic incidents and a 193% increase from the 927 incidents recorded 10 years ago in 2012.

There were 370 anti-Semitic incidents in New Jersey  the highest annual total on record for the state and the second highest statewide total of anti-Semitic incidents in 2021. The 370 incidents were largely concentrated in the northern part of the state, with only a fraction of the total incidents happening in South Jersey. Atlantic and Cape May counties reported five and three anti-Semitic incidents in 2021, respectively, according to the ADL Hate, Extremism, Antisemitism and Terrorism map. Cumberland County reported zero incidents.

New York was the state with the most anti-Semitic incidents in the country at 416. There were reported incidents in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

The ADL classifies anti-Semitic incidents into three categories, each of which saw yearly increases. Harassment, which accounted for a majority of the incidents, rose to 1,776 cases in 2021 from 1,242 cases in 2020  an increase of 43%. There was an increase in the number of vandalism cases, with the 853 in 2021 amounting to a 14% increase over the 751 in 2020. Swastikas were used in 578 of the 853 cases.

Assaults saw the highest increase, spiking 167% to 88 cases in 2021 from 33 cases in 2020. There were 131 victims in the 88 assaults  and although 11 involved deadly weapons, there were no deaths resulting from the attacks.

Cumberland Jewish Federation to host Holocaust service, exhibit VINELAND  The Jewish Federation of Cumberland, Gloucester & Salem Counties will host a 

There were 525 incidents that occurred at Jewish institutions, such as synagogues, Jewish schools or Jewish community centers  a 61% increase over the year before.

The 331 incidents at schools and colleges were up 106% from 2020, but were not significantly different from the five-year average.

While the ADL audit focused on both criminal and non-criminal forms of antisemitism, it comes at a time when federal law enforcement in New Jersey is renewing its efforts to document hate crimes. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of New Jersey announced April 20 that it would participate in a federal-state partnership called United Against Hate. Seeking to improve the reporting of hate crimes, the initiative seeks to strengthen law-enforcement relationships with marginalized communities. The New Jersey district was one of three in the country invited to participate in the program.

New Jersey U.S. Attorney Phillip Sellinger said in an April 20 news release that the program was a response to a dramatic increase in hate crimes and hate incidents.

The ADL attributed 18% of the incidents recorded in the audit to groups of domestic extremists. The New Jersey European Heritage Association was among the extremist groups the ADL report specifically identified as a chief distributor of anti-Semitic propaganda. The group distributed explicitly white supremacist propaganda that targeted Jews, as well as Black people, immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community. One of the European Heritage Association flyers the ADL report mentioned read, Antifa is a Jewish communist militia.

Other extremist groups identified by the report included the Folkish Resistance Movement, the Goyim Defense League and White Lives Matter.

Each month of 2021, except for January and February, saw an increase in anti-Semitic incidents compared to the same month in 2020. May saw an extraordinarily high number of incidents, with the 387 recorded being the highest monthly figure for 2021 and amounting to a 148% increase over the number recorded in May 2020.

The May surge is believed to have been ignited by the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the group that controls the Gaza Strip. The audit cited several anti-Semitic attacks in the United States in that time period, as well as several incidents of anti-Semitic slogans being chanted at U.S. rallies related to the war.

Jews were being attacked in the streets for no other reason than the fact that they were Jewish, and it seemed as if the working assumption was that if you were Jewish, you were blameworthy for what was happening half a world away, ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a news release issued with the audit.

Anti-Semitic incidents spiked again in November and December, and the ADL news release said most of those incidents were not associated with anti-Israel sentiment. There were 345 incidents that did reference Israel or Zionism in 2021, up from 178 in 2020. Sixty-eight of those 345 were categorized by the ADL as being part of white-supremacist propaganda efforts.

To produce the 2021 report, the ADL partnered with several Jewish organizations, including the Community Security Initiative, the Community Security Service, Hillel International, Secure Community Network, Union of Reform Judaism and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Records of anti-Semitic incidents were evaluated by ADL staff and compiled using information from law enforcement, community leaders and victims.

Celebrity chef Carla Hall to speak at Women's Forum in Atlantic City ATLANTIC CITY  Celebrity Chef Carla Hall will be the guest speaker at the 27th annual Women

While the ADL news release said the annual audit helps the organization develop programs to combat antisemitism, it said a full understanding of American antisemitism required multiple forms of analysis, such as polling, evaluations of online antisemitism and documentation of extremist activity.

When it comes to anti-Semitic activity in America, you cannot point to any single ideology or belief system, and in many cases, we simply dont know the motivation, said Greenblatt. But we do know that Jews are experiencing more anti-Semitic incidents than we have in this country in at least 40 years, and thats a deeply troubling indicator of larger societal fissures.

Contact Chris Doyle cdoyle@pressofac.com

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ATLANTIC CITY  Property owners will pay less in 2022 to run local government, and the state will provide $5.7 million less in aid, yet spending on salaries and wages will increase almost 10% and debt service payments more than 7%.

Its made possible by the citys use of $15 million in surplus, according to the budget the city posted on the Finance Departments page on its website late Monday.

And capital spending is falling more than $12 million.

The $235 million budget ($219 million when state and federal grant spending is subtracted) was introduced April 20, and the public hearing on the budget will be May 18.

Casino payments in lieu of taxes will fall about $20 million in this years budget, to $46.65 million from $66.65 million.

That will be made up for with projected increased casino Investment Alternative Tax payments, which will increase about $22.5 million, to $45 million from $22.5 million.

The changes in PILOT and IAT funding are determined by the amended casino PILOT law, which passed the Legislature in December and was quickly signed by Gov. Phil Murphy.

The amended PILOT law has been challenged in court by Atlantic County.

A Superior Court judge found the new law violates a previous court settlement between the state and county over the original PILOT law, but has not stopped the law from taking effect. The state is asking another judge to reconsider that decision.

It is unclear how Atlantic Citys budget would be affected if a decision in the lawsuit only directs the state to pay more to Atlantic County.

But if the amended law is ultimately thrown out and the original PILOT put back into effect, the city would continue to get the additional IAT funds and would also receive much higher PILOT payments.

According to the Office of Legislative Services in a fiscal analysis of the amended PILOT bill (A5587), the city would have received $88.5 million in 2022 under the original PILOT, about $20 million more than it will receive under the amended PILOT.

The budget as introduced raises $38.6 million from local taxpayers, down 3.7% from the $40 million collected from property taxes last year.

That lowers the tax rate to $1.5997 per $100 of assessed property value, down 2.9% from last year.

For the owner of the average home assessed at $125,000, the local government tax bill will fall to about $2,000 from $2,060.

The total tax bill that includes school, library and county taxes will also fall from $3.901 to $3.792 per $100 valuation.

The average homeowner will pay $4,740 in total property taxes in 2022, down from $4,876.25 last year.

The citys assessed valuation (without casinos and other properties under payments-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements) has fallen 0.8% in the past year, to $2.41 billion from $2.43 billion.

Local revenues other than property taxes are projected to fall 2.7%, from $118.4 million to $115.2 million. They include the casino PILOT and IAT as well as $23.5 million in all other revenues.

REPORTER: Michelle Brunetti Post 609-841-2895 mpost@pressofac.com

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Electric vans produced in China are now meeting high demand on the market in Finland, reported Finnish business daily Kauppalehti on Tuesday.

Produced by Chinese multinational BYD company, the compact van BYD T3 cost just under 50,000 euros and can travel up to 310 km on a single charge.

Heidi Nieminen, Sales Director of Finnish car importer RSA Finland, told the business daily that the first T3 vans are currently in Finland, and RSA Finland will start to sell them soon.

RSA has already been exporting BYD's commercial electric vehicles to Norway for more than a year. Sales of BYD's electric passenger cars began in Norway in August 2021.

Demand for electric cars has been growing strongly in Finland, especially in recent months. According to Kauppalehti, about 14% of passenger cars registered during the first quarter were fully electric, compared to 10.3% last year.
A Marlton man will spend eight years in prison after pleading guilty to threatening an Atlantic City casino-goer with a box cutter during a December 2020 robbery attempt, the New Jersey Attorney Generals Office said Wednesday.

Shawn Applewhite, 25, must serve nearly seven years of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Applewhite was ordered to have no contact with the victim and is permanently barred from all casinos in New Jersey by Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Donna M. Taylor. He pleaded guilty to robbery March 21.

Man indicted in attempted robbery at Bally's Atlantic City ATLANTIC CITY  A Burlington County man has been indicted in an attempted robbery at Ballys

Applewhite threatened a Ballys Atlantic City customer seated at a slot machine about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 23, 2020. He approached the customer from behind, holding a box cutter to their neck while demanding money and jewelry. The customer then fought Applewhite, the Attorney Generals Office has said.

A bystander also attempted to fight off Applewhite, but Applewhite then fled without taking any property before being captured by security while trying to exit the casino, the Attorney Generals Office has said.

Applewhite was originally charged with robbery and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and could have faced 10 to 20 years in prison, as well as a fine of up to $150,000 on the robbery charge and an additional three to five years in prison with a fine of up to $15,000 on the weapon charge, the Attorney Generals Office has said.

Deputy Attorney General Katelyn Waegener prosecuted Applewhite and represented the Division of Criminal Justice Specialized Crimes Bureau at his sentencing hearing. The State Police Casino Gaming Bureau investigated the robbery attempt.

Contact Eric Conklin: 609-272-7261 econklin@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressConklin

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An East Moline man faces a 22-year sentence after pleading guilty to a first-degree murder charge that stemmed from the 2018 killing of an innocent bystander during a gang feud.

In return for Nathan C. Lutens plea on Monday, Illinois Special Prosecutor Jonathan Barnard, who is handling the case for the Rock Island County States Attorneys Office, dropped the other first-degree murder charge related to the killing of William T. Fowler, 31, of Moline, according to court records. The plea agreement stopped the trial which was scheduled to begin on Monday.

Special prosecutors can be brought in for a number of reasons, including the risk of a conflict of interest if the county's prosecutors handle a case, according to the state's Appellate Prosecutor's Office.

Fowler was shot on Dec. 9, 2018, in the 400 block of 8th Street in Moline. He died of his wounds not long after while being treated in Iowa City.

Luten, 32, chose not to delay his sentencing, and the sentence was handed down by Judge Peter Church, court records state.

Authorities said Luten was a member of one of two factions in the Maniac Latin Disciples that had come to blows. The fight led to several other incidents involving gunfire.

Also charged with Fowlers killing were Rory D. Bruno Jr., now 21, Silvis, and Emilio W. Rivera, now 18, East Moline. Both also faced first-degree murder charges and their cases were resolved in 2020.

As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Bruno pleaded guilty in September of that year to aggravated discharge of a firearm, court records state. In return, the murder charge was dropped.

Bruno was sentenced to 15 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, but the sentence was stayed pending Brunos successful completion of a sentence in a juvenile case, court records state. If he does complete the juvenile sentence, the felony case will be dismissed.

Rivera also entered a plea in a juvenile case and, as a result, the adult murder case against him was dropped on Dec. 3, 2020.

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A kitchen fire Tuesday afternoon left two families unable to stay in their Davenport homes.

Firefighters were called about 4:30 p.m. to 1420 Harrison St. for a fire alarm, according to a news release from the Davenport Fire Department. When they arrived, firefighters saw no flames from the outside of the apartment building but learned a kitchen fire had caused the sprinklers to activate.

No one was injured and the fire caused minimal damage, but the sprinklers caused significant water damage, the release states.

The American Red Cross is assisting the two families, the release states. The number of people comprising the families was not included.

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Automated cameras that read license plates have led to finding stolen vehicles and apprehending suspects in criminal cases.

Now, Scott County hopes to implement the technology  which has raised concerns for privacy advocates  on two major thoroughfares.

Automatic license plate readers, which are fixed on a sign, bridge, or squad car, capture images of motorists' license plates and convert them into computer-readable text which local law enforcement use to flag stolen vehicles or identify vehicles with suspected ties to violent crime, have become increasingly common in cities across the U.S.

Local law enforcement, including the City of Davenport, say the technology has proven to more quickly track down the subjects of Amber Alerts and stolen cars.

Privacy advocates, however, have expressed concern about unlimited databases of information that could be collected on motorists with license plate scans, which include the number, location, date and time of every scan, and potential errors in the systems that could mistakenly connect a vehicle and its owner to a suspected crime.

On Thursday, the Scott County Board of Supervisors will consider purchasing the cameras and equipment for two locations for $64,800 from Vigilant Solutions, a company recently acquired by Motorola Solutions. The money will come from a fund set up from certain vehicle sales.

Supervisors were generally supportive of the proposal and asked clarifying questions during the meeting.

One of the proposed license plate readers would capture images of east-and-west bound vehicles on Interstate 80 west of the Interstate 280 interchange. The second would be stationed at Highway 61 near the Kwik Star on 118th Avenue, said Chief Deputy Sheriff Shawn Roth.

Roth said the locations  approved by the Iowa Department of Transportation  were chosen because they covered well-traveled corridors and key access points into and out of the county. He said LeClaire had expressed interest in putting a license plate reader near the I-80 bridge across the Mississippi River, which would capture plates from people leaving or coming into the eastern edge of the county.

Already, three squad cars in the Sheriff's Office are outfitted with the license plate readers.

The readers are not speed cameras, Roth emphasized to the Scott County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The cameras, if approved, will not issue fines.

"There is no fines, fees, or monies that we're going to generate from these cameras," Roth said.

Lt. Tom Leonard gave an example of how, by chance, one of the squad car readers assisted the city of Davenport locate a vehicle connected to a homicide investigation and said the Sheriff's Office has recovered dozens of stolen vehicles, including a $77,000 new truck, with the mobile readers.

"If one of our officers is driving into an area and there may be a parked car that's pretty unassuming, they drive through, it (the automatic license reader) captures that information, it sends them an alert that says, Hey, that car is stolen," Roth said. "So we were able to get those cars back to their owners quicker."

Based on the most recent data from the Department of Justices Bureau of Justice Statistics, 93% of police departments in cities with populations of 1 million or more use their own license plate reader systems, according to the nonpartisan law and policy institute. In cities with populations of 100,000 or more, 75% of police departments use automated license plate reader systems.

The ACLU of Iowa has raised privacy concerns with accumulated shared databases of vehicles' location, date, and time of scan.

"When used in a narrow and carefully regulated way, ALPRs (Automated License Plate Readers) can help police recover stolen cars and arrest people with outstanding warrants," according to the ACLU. "The biggest problem with ALPR systems is the creation of databases with location information on every motorist who encounters the system, not just those whom the government suspects of criminal activity."

Scott County outfitted three of its squad cars with the license plate readers in 2019. The county as well has two more mobile license plate readers that can be deployed to "hot-spots." For example, if there are a lot of burglaries reported in one area of the county.

The records of license plates are then kept in a "secure law enforcement server," Roth said. Deputies undergo training on the license plate readers, which includes giving them an individual log-in and password to view the licenses.

Roth said the county currently lacks a record retention schedule that dictates how long records from the license plate readers can be kept, but are in the process of discussing such a policy. He said the county has kept records from the three squad cars outfitted with the cameras since they were installed in 2019.

Roth said the system is currently compliant with the Criminal Justice Information Services security policy, which he said addresses concerns of access control and auditing.

Asked about privacy and "Big Brother" concerns by Supervisor Tony Knobbe, Roth replied: "It is a public right away. The cameras don't peek into private property or anything like that."

The county would purchase the cameras from the vendor used by the city of Davenport, which approved installing the new surveillance tool in 2020. Davenport would then have access to the county's database of scanned license plates. Other law enforcement that use the same system would have to request permission to check the Scott County database for hits on a specific license, Roth said.

Supervisor Brinson Kinzer thanked the county for "being very diligent in being always one step ahead of bad guys," and working with other agencies in crime prevention efforts.

"I'm very supportive of this project," Kinzer added.

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EDWARDSVILLE  Some workers at an Amazon warehouse here that partially collapsed during a tornado in December didn't remember participating in tornado drills, and others didn't know where to take cover in an emergency, according to an investigation from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, released Tuesday.

In letters sent to Amazon and three contract employers, OSHA officials outlined how workers were warned to take cover 10 minutes before a tornado touched down in December, ripping through the southern half of the building and killing six people.

A megaphone, kept in the warehouse to prompt people to take shelter, was locked in a cage and not accessible that night. Instead, managers walked through the 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse and told people to take cover, according to the letter.

Some employees didn't know that only the northern bathroom was a tornado shelter, so they took cover in the restroom on the southern end instead. As the twister reached the building, walls on the southern half of the warehouse collapsed. Five people died there.

Still, OSHA found the company's severe weather policies met federal guidelines and did not issue fines or citations. Instead, it recommended Amazon and three contractors who staffed the warehouse  AB&C D.A.D. Inc., Xseed Delivery LLC and Boxify Logistics LLC  to take stock of their emergency plans and urged them to update OSHA on their progress.

Employers should re-evaluate their emergency plans for the safest shelter-in-place locations and prepare before an emergency to ensure workers know where to go and how to keep themselves safe," said OSHA's regional administrator William Donovan in a written statement.

Amazon in a statement said it was already conducting more safety and emergency preparedness drills and will "carefully consider" OSHA's other recommendations.

"We believe our team did the right thing, moving people to shelter as soon as the warning was issued," the statement said. "Our buildings  including the Edwardsville delivery station  have emergency plans that identify exit routes and shelter areas."

The three contract companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

OSHA does not evaluate construction integrity, but in the days after the collapse, federal, state and local officials started looking into the building's condition. Structural engineering experts questioned whether buildings constructed like the warehouse were appropriate for a climate expected to see more frequent tornadoes.

Then, last week, civil rights attorney Ben Crump filed two lawsuits against Amazon, the warehouse's developer TriStar Properties and builder, Contegra Construction, on behalf of the mother of a worker who died in the warehouse and three drivers who survived.

Another lawsuit filed in recent weeks included a report from a engineer with a regional search and rescue group who said he saw "significant structural issues" with the building that may have contributed to its failure.

Katie Kull  314-340-8087 @KatieKull1 on Twitter kkull@post-dispatch.com

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Bettendorf City Administrator Decker Ploehn said the two cities would share the cost and the work, taking turns for five-year increments, beginning with Bettendorf.

Costs outside of routine maintenance, such as lighting replacement or concrete repairs, will be split 50/50, he said.

The next major phase of the I-74 corridor improvements is the removal of the old bridges. The Iowa DOT is expected to let contractors for bridge demolition by summer. The method of demolition, including whether explosives are to be used, will be a decision that is made by the selected contractor.
WEST LIBERTY  If the West Liberty City Council discusses a new contract with the West Liberty Fire Department during its May 3 meeting, the volunteer fire service will extend its deadline to stop service in the city to June 3. If not, they will stop responding to city calls at midnight May 3.

After a public safety committee meeting Tuesday evening, Fire Chief Kirt Sickels said the service voted for an extension if the city appears to be acting in good faith to create a new 28E agreement. He said Mayor Katherine McCullough visited the fire station after the meeting to answer questions from the firefighters and to ask for an extension. Sickels appreciated the effort.

Were not doing this because we are trying to throw a monkey at the city, Sickels said. Im genuinely concerned if we are going to have enough personnel to be able to jump in those trucks and those ambulances and go. We have lost 11 people in the last year. That is a real concern. You cant continue to volunteer in a system that is broken.

City Manager David Haugland said he had spoken with neighboring fire departments and all agreed to respond to city fires. He said the city had 28E agreements with area departments including Wilton, Atalissa, Nichols, Muscatine and West Branch. Sickels, a 20-year veteran firefighter, said a delay of 15 to 30 minutes to an emergency  about the time it would take a neighboring department to respond  could be devastating.

Last week, the fire department proposed a new 28E agreement that would include the city, the fire department and the rural fire district on the ruling board. McCullough asked for an extension and to discuss the agreement. The district would be funded in the same way the current department is and the fire building and equipment, much of which was donated and part of which is owned by both the city and the rural district, would be the property of the 28E.

Sickels said the situation began about three years ago when the city alleged the 28E agreement that formed the fire district had expired. During negotiations for a new agreement the rural fire district asked for an audit of the money used by the department and the former West Liberty mayor refused and said the 28E had expired and the city was out of it.

The fire department was stuck in the middle of this, Sickels said.

In late 2021 the rural fire district filed suit against the city of West Liberty to continue to have fire service.

The West Liberty Volunteer Fire Department and EMS serves the second-largest by size fire district in Iowa and in 2021 the department responded to almost 800 calls. When the department was formed, the city and the rural fire district had come together to form it.

Sickels said as the department had tried to move forward, it was stopped on several occasions because of pending or ongoing litigation, but the department always voted as a department on expenditures.

Last month, the department told the city it planned to end its association, citing the city has actively waged a war upon the department through dangerous bureaucratic moves that endanger the community, including deliberately stalling attempts to hire EMS personnel.

The fire department letter also alleges incorrect accounting, mixing the departments funds with the citys general fund, and incorrect classification of expenses and donations, among other grievances.

Sickels stressed if the city did not choose to move ahead with negotiations, the department still would serve the rural fire district.

On July 5, 2021, the West Liberty Fire Department filed a petition in Iowa District Court for partnership dissolution, accounting, for damages, constructive fraud, and for temporary and permanent injunctions. The petition alleges the city of West Liberty has violated the provisions of the parties contract and breached its fiduciary responsibilities. The petition requests the court create a separate 28E agency.

The next West Liberty City Council meeting is at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 3.

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COVID-19 news from across the United States offered plenty of hope as Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser for President Joe Biden, told PBS NewsHour the country is out "out of the pandemic phase."

Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the comment Tuesday. The World Health Organization declared the spread of COVID-19 a pandemic March 11, 2020  and the WHO has not removed the virus' pandemic designation.

There is plenty of reason for hope and caution at the local level.

The COVID-19 numbers coming out of Rock Island and Scott counties remain low  but there has been a slow climb in the number of cases and the positivity rates in Rock Island County.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's county-wide COVID-19 statistics showed an increase of 111 new cases during the seven-day period ending Monday.

That's just an average of 15.9 cases per day  but also translates to a seven-day positivity rate of 4.42%. That's a significant increase in the positivity rate over the last month and close to a moderate-to-high rate of community spread.

On the Iowa side of the Quad-Cities, Scott County added 52 new COVID-19 cases during the seven-day period ending Monday. Because of a lack of reporting by the state of Iowa, the Scott County's positivity rate is not known.

Rock Island County Health Department Public Information Officer Janet Hill explained the limitations of the statistics reported by the CDC.

"We can't accurately give numbers because of the rise of at-home testing. We are looking closely at hospitalizations, which has remained low, with our own check-ins with UnityPoint and Genesis and CDC metrics," Hill said. "We are seeing a growing positivity rate, but we're more concerned with the stagnant vaccination rate.

"We are seeing more counties in Illinois move to a medium COVID-19 Community Level, and we are warily watching high transmission rates in the Northeast."

According to the CDC, 82,966 Rock Island County residents are fully vaccinated  58.5% of the county's total population. In terms of those residents with at least one booster shot, the CDC said 34,721 of those fully vaccinated have had at least one booster jab. That's just 41.8% of those vaccinated.

Rock Island County Health Department Administrator Nita Ludwig said vaccinations are now the number one priority in public health's battle against the virus.

"We saw an uptick in vaccinations as second booster became available. They are still continuing to be fairly popular. We are doing around 70 to 100 each clinic day," Ludwig said. "The Illinois Department of Public Health asks that we continue to provide vaccinations to as many as possible to get and keep everyone up to date.

"We continue to message through our website and Facebook all information and opportunities to get vaccinated. We are working on billboards in varied languages as an additional outreach effort. They will start sometime in May."

Scott County has fared a bit better in terms of vaccination numbers. According to the CDC, a total of 105,397 residents are fully vaccinated  60.9% of the county's total population. And 49,724 of the fully vaccinated have received at least one booster shot.

"We are still giving some primary first and second doses and some boosters and fourth doses  the second booster  for those eligible. Our vaccine partners in Scott County share with us that they continue to see some demand," said Scott County Health Department Public Information Officer Brooke Barnes said.

"Not much has changed in terms of our messages regarding vaccination. We join the Iowa Department of Public Health in continuing to encourage primary vaccinations as well as boosters for those eligible," Barnes added. "Although we are in a safer spot, COVID is not over and we continue to want our community to be protected."

Barnes, Ludwig and Hill said what happens in the fall may depend of the levels of individual immunity in the community.

"We are in a different place in the pandemic. More people have immunity right now through vaccination and previous infection. Plus, we now have post-infection medications to reduce the severity of disease, reduce hospitalizations or length of hospital stays, and prevent more death," Hill said.

Hill pointed out a new CDC report showed that, by February 2022, nearly six in 10 Americans had antibodies indicating prior infection from the virus that causes COVID-19.

"Evidence of infection rose among all age groups during omicron  with the largest increases among children and teens," Hill said. "However, reinfections can occur. We strongly encourage people to stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccination and boosters. Vaccinations protect against people getting really sick and dying from COVID-19, even among those who have had COVID-19."

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An investigation by Clinton patrol officers into a suspicious person standing in an alley late Friday has led to the arrest of a Clinton man for allegedly dealing in methamphetamine.

Donald John Holm, 34, is charged with one count of possession with the intent to deliver more than 49 grams of methamphetamine. The charge is a Class B felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of 25 years.

Holm also is charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance-third offense-heroin and two counts of failing to affix an Iowa drug tax stamp to the illicit drugs. Each of those charges is a Class D felony that carries a prison sentence of five years.

According to the arrest affidavit filed by Clinton Police Officer Roger Schumacher, at 10:29 p.m. Friday, Schumacher and Officer Ryan Livesay were sent to the 600 block alley between 4th and 5th Avenue South to investigate a call about a suspicious person.

Schumacher made contact with a man outside in the alley near 632 5th Ave. S.

While speaking with the man, Holm came out of the basement of the home and walked toward police.

Schumacher said he knew Holm had an outstanding warrant for failing to appear for a probation hearing on a serious misdemeanor domestic abuse conviction from October of 2020.

Holm fought with both Schumacher and Livesay and was taken to the ground and handcuffed.

During a search of Holm before putting him in the squad car, Livesay found in Holm's left front pants pocket a capped syringe and a knotted plastic bag containing an off-white powdery substance consistent with heroin.

Holm was asked if he had any more illegal drugs or contraband and he was told that taking them into the jail would result in more charges. Holm then admitted he had more contraband in his pants.

Schumacher then located a black zippered pouch concealed in the front of his pants. Inside the pouch were three knotted plastic bags containing a clear crystal-like substance consistent with methamphetamine. Officers also found a knotted plastic bag with an off-white powdery substance consistent with heroin.

Also found was a red digital scale with white powder residue, several capped syringes, a bent spoon with residue, and two small plastic bags containing residue.

All total, officers seized 49.47 grams of methamphetamine. Police have said that one-tenth of a gram is the normal dose. That means Holm allegedly possessed 494.7 doses of methamphetamine.

The heroin found in his possession totaled 1.13 grams.

Holm was being held Tuesday night in the Clinton County Jail on a cash-only bond of $25,000.

During a first appearance hearing Monday in Clinton County District Court, District Judge Michael Judge scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for May 3.

According to the arrest affidavit, Holm has drug convictions in 2007, 2011, 2017 and 2019 in both Clinton and Scott counties.

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A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a Davenport man to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to child pornography and other charges.

Chief Judge Stephanie M. Rose sentenced James Anthony Rogers, 57, of Davenport, to 216 months in prison on charges of production of child pornography, distribution of child pornography and attempted enticement of a minor, according to court records filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

The acts underlying the charges happened in 2018, according to federal court records.

Davenport police launched an investigation into Rogers after receiving information indicating Rogers may have been involved in the sexual solicitation of a boy. Multiple search warrants revealed Rogers tried to contact more than 50 boys and had sexually explicit conversations with them, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa. Rogers attempted to persuade the minors to send nude photographs of themselves and to meet in person to exchange money or alcohol for sex, according to the release.

Investigators seized a cellphone from Rogers that contained pornographic images of children.

Rogers pleaded guilty to the charges on Oct. 12, 2021.

Upon completion of his sentence, Rogers must also serve seven years of supervised release, according to court records. There is no parole in the federal system.

This case was prosecuted as part of the U.S. Department of Justices "Project Safe Childhood." The nationwide initiative started in 2006 seeks to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action and public awareness to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children.

Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.

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Quad-Citians have two new fennec foxes to visit at Niabi Zoo.

The kits, a male and female, were born on April 12 to foxes Carlos and Lidi, according to Niabi. These kits are Carlos and Lidi's first offspring but the third litter born at Niabi. Including the new additions, nine fennec foxes have been born at Niabi and the female is the first of that gender born there.

Fennec foxes are native to North Africa, where they hunt small animals in the Sahara and Sinai deserts, Niabi's release states. They are the smallest fox species but have over-sized ears which help them find food and keep cool.

Niabi got Carlos from a fellow zoo, while Lidi was confiscated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service during an investigation into illegal animal importation, the zoo said.

Niabi is part of a fennec fox breeding program that includes 40 American and Canadian zoos, the release states. The two new foxes will eventually be transferred to other zoos, joining 139 other foxes that are part of the program.

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WEST DES MOINES  Roughly 300,000 meals packaged by Iowans will be shipped to Ukraine to help feed families impacted by the Russian military invasion there.

The effort was a joint project between the state of Iowa, the West Des Moines-based charity Meals from the Heartland, and Hy-Vee, which made a $50,000 donation and whose employees volunteered to package the meals.

The United Nations has warned that millions of Ukrainians may soon face serious food insecurity because of the ongoing conflict.

To our friends in Ukraine we're sending much love and hope from Iowa, and it's coming soon, Reynolds said Tuesday during a news conference at a Hy-Vee-owned conference center where volunteers were packing meals.

Reynolds after the news conference planned to help the volunteers package meals.

Reynolds said the entire process was being supported by donations, and that the state will incur no direct expenses.

The outpouring of support has been remarkable, she said.

CHILD CARE STAFF, RATIOS: The ratio of child care workers relative to children would be reduced, and 16- and 17-year-olds could work unsupervised in child care facilities under legislation approved by the House.

Under the bill, child care centers could operate with one worker to every seven 2-year-olds, and one worker to every 10 3-year-olds.

Republicans said the legislation is designed to help address a shortage of child care workers by giving child care centers the flexibility to employ younger workers. Democrats argued the legislation will not help address the child care workforce shortage, and that 16- and 17-year-olds should not be allowed to work unsupervised in a child care setting.

House File 2198 passed the House on a 52-42 vote, with only one Democrat joining Republicans in support. It now goes to Reynolds for her consideration. She introduced a similar proposal earlier this year, and is likely to sign the bill into law.

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Apr. 26CEDAR RAPIDS  More charges will be filed against a man accused of murder in a shooting at a Cedar Rapids nightclub, police said Tuesday.

Timothy Rush, 32, is one of two suspects who have been arrested in relation to the shooting, which happened at Taboo nightclub on April 10. Rush was originally charged with second-degree murder, willful injury causing serious injury, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, reckless use of a firearm causing serious injury and possession of a firearm as a felon.

Rush will also be charged with three counts of willful injury causing bodily injury, two additional counts of willful injury causing serious injury, three counts of reckless use of a firearm causing bodily injury and two additional counts of reckless use of a firearm causing serious injury, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department.

The new charges are related to injuries sustained by five of the 10 people wounded in the shooting, the release states.

Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said Tuesday the original criminal complaint will be amended with the new charges and have additional details, but it won't be available for a day or two. Prosecutors have been working with police on the investigation.

Ten people were injured in the shooting, and two people, Nicole Owens and Michael Valentine, were killed. Rush, who was arrested the day after the shooting, is accused of killing Owens, his girlfriend and the mother of his 1-year-old child.

Rush is also accused of shooting and seriously injuring Marvin Cox, who is in the hospital in serious condition after a shot to the head.

Another man was arrested near Chicago on April 18 in relation to the shooting. Dimione Walker, 29, was arrested by federal marshals and is being held in jail in Illinois until he can be extradited back to Iowa.

Walker is charged with first-degree murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent and felon in possession of a firearm. He was also wanted by Illinois authorities in connection with parole violations for possession of a weapon.

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Rapid City Council member John Roberts said Tuesday some decisions being made in the city aren't taking citizens into consideration.

Roberts said a lack of communication from city staff and a disregard of council opinion is getting "extremely frustrating."

Roberts' comments came following public comment during Tuesday's Public Works Committee meeting. Jerry Wright, a former City Council member, said he was upset to hear the West Boulevard North remote yard waste disposal site would be shut down indefinitely May 1.

The city sent out a press release April 19 announcing the indefinite closure due to a lack of staffing, while the Fitzgerald Stadium location would open May 1. The announcement also noted curbside collection would begin May 2.

Roberts said a couple people from Ward 4 are putting together petitions against the closure.

"I know that site specifically, we've had many issues over the last few years as far as people dumping garbage and different things happening up there," Roberts said. "With a committee and talking to people and investing just a little bit of money up there, I think we could have taken care of a lot of these problems, but that wasn't even an option given to us  there were zero options given to us."

Council member Bill Evans said it seems in the three years he's been on the council there's been a movement toward convenience for the employees over the need of satisfying the constituents.

Council member Laura Armstrong said she doesn't think the decisions came easy, but said communication is not as seamless as it should be. She suggested having a community conversation similar to Community Development's Coffee with Planners sessions.

Mayor Steve Allender told the Journal on Tuesday that two emails were sent to council members April 12 and 13 discussing the changes to the yard waste disposal site, which were also obtained by the Journal. He said there was a discussion with council members about the landfill changes in February, and city staff received positive feedback.

From the emails, Allender said he and city staff received responses from two council members.

"It seems to be a common and developing theme among some council members to lambast staff, to put staff in this position of being incompetent or something in order for council members to not have to address this issue," Allender said to the Journal after the meeting.

The mayor said instead of supporting city staff and dealing with hiring and staffing issues, some council members are "throwing staff under the bus."

Allender said sometimes he and city staff receive no replies from council members and that the assumption is if no one replies to it, they're OK with whatever the email detailed.

"I don't believe we can stop progress waiting for the City Council to interact with us," he said.

Allender said having a town hall meeting every time there's a minor change is unrealistic. He said there's free curbside yard waste pickup, and the West Boulevard North site is routinely abused.

He said the closure of the site is the beginning of changes necessary to keep the Solid Waste Division operating within budget.

Allender said there have been some discussions on changing communication avenues, and has received numerous comments from city staff about being thrown under the bus, disrespected and devalued by council members about specific incidents and interference with their work.

He said city employees are the most valuable asset to the city, and being put in this position makes it an undesirable place for them to be.

"It's a concern we're going to have to address," Allender said.

 Contact Siandhara Bonnet at siandhara.bonnet@rapidcityjournal.com 

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China strongly condemned the terrorist attack Tuesday afternoon inside a university in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan said in a statement.

An explosion ripped through a shuttle passenger van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi, leaving three Chinese teachers killed and one Chinese teacher injured so far, the statement said.

"The Embassy and Consulates General of China in Pakistan express deep condolences to the victims from both countries and sincere sympathy to the injured and the bereaved families, and will make every effort to handle the incident with the Pakistani side," the statement said.

The Chinese embassy and consulates general in Pakistan has launched an emergency plan immediately, requesting the Pakistani side to make every effort to treat the wounded, thoroughly investigate the attack, and severely punish the perpetrators, said the statement.

The Chinese embassy and consulates general in Pakistan require relevant departments at all levels in Pakistan to take practical and effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, institutions and projects in Pakistan, and to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again, according to the statement.

After the terrorist attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad Tuesday afternoon to express his deepest condolences to the families of victims and the government and people of China.

Strongly condemning the attack, Shahbaz said he is deeply grieved by the loss of precious lives of the Chinese friends in the heinous terrorist attack in Karachi.

The prime minister said he has instructed that the attack be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice, adding that the Pakistani side will provide all possible assistance to the injured.

Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, said Shahbaz, adding that such vicious acts against the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China will never dent the iron brotherhood between the two countries or hinder bilateral cooperation.
Seven panelists spoke Monday on how racial prejudice and the local economy intersect, and the power of Native American spending in Rapid City.

The Rapid City Human Relations Commission-Mniluzahan Okolakiciyapi Ambassadors (HRC-MOA) hosted a learning forum Monday at Western Dakota Technical College, where organizations and community leaders discussed how vital Native American commerce is for the area, and the negative impact that occurs when racism enters the community.

Lakota Nation Invitational founder Bryan Brewer, Elevate Rapid City President/CEO Tom Johnson, Rapid City Council member Darla Drew, Rapid City Youth City Council member Adriana Young, Black Hills Powwow Vice President Dew Bad Warrior-Ganje, Oglala Sioux Tribe Treasurer Mason Big Crow and NDN Collective President/CEO Nick Tilsen spoke on the impacts Monday night.

HRC-MOA Chair Karen Mortimer said the evening was not for debate or argument, but rather discussion that could lead to solutions. She said the event planning stemmed directly from racist comments made by Grand Gateway Hotel ownership stating a new policy would be implemented banning Native Americans from the property.

This is a chance for each of you to listen to this amazing panel, ask questions and think deeply about how we can make Rapid City a better place, Mortimer said. History and place matter, relationships matter. The theme of our forums, and its really true for this one in particular, is that the more you know, the better we do as a community.

Brewer began the discussion and said this is a topic that must be talked about.

Its very difficult, some things are hard, so we have to talk, he said.

Brewer said he grew up in the area, spent four years in the military and 31 years in education. He said he started LNI on Pine Ridge because of racism. He said people were afraid to come to the reservation after Wounded Knee. Now LNI is in its 41st year in Rapid City.

He said there was discussion and people asking for LNI to pull out of the city.

Our board got together and said no way, this is our home, Brewer said. This is our treaty land, this is our home, this is where we want to be.

Brewer said to get things done, people have to talk. He said the community as a whole has to look at the root of the problem, and thats the key when people talk about economic impact.

He said the issue is Native Americans sit down and talk about what theyre going to do, but its not their problem.

Racism is not our problem, Brewer said. The non-Indian has to sit down and look at themselves.

Johnson said Rapid Citys population is at least 12% Native American, if not higher. However, Native Americans arent getting into the high demand jobs that people would expect. He said after the shooting at the Grand Gateway and the comments from ownership came to light, Elevate Rapid City performed a regional economic impact study of Native American spending. The study was comprised of data gathered in October 2020.

He said almost $360 million per year in consumer spending is brought into the community from the Native American community. Johnson said that the spending supports $131 million in payroll and 3,328 jobs, $14 million per year in local taxes and $11.5 million in state taxes.

Without the Native American spending, if they decided to boycott us suddenly, we would lose 3,000 jobs from this economy, Johnson said. We would not have those taxes to build parks, we wouldnt have those taxes to support Elevate and Vision Funds, we wouldnt have those taxes to fill potholes.

Big Crow said members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe spent more than $9 million in Rapid City over the past year, and another $6 million with the COVID-19 money. He said the tribe spent $18,386,213 over the past two years, not including the regular program money spent in the city.

Tilsen said NDN Collective works with more than 150 philanthropic organizations throughout the United States and then invests in the community. He said the group is focused on investing in the community thats been under-invested in. Tilsen said theyre now focused on job creation and housing, and will invest more than $100 million in the Rapid City community in housing, job creation and economic development.

He said the challenges they see and face in the community is not just the overt racism in situations like the Grand Gateway, but institutional and systemic racism. Tilsen cited studies that Native Americans make up less than 10% of the population in South Dakota but are responsible for 51% of people jailed in the state.

Tilsen said another indicator of racism is that a Native American child in north Rapid City has a lower life expectancy than a white child on the west side.

As a community, we have to be collectively working toward these goals because it isnt until we actually change the institutional racism that we will ever have any of these byproducts change, he said. There is always going to be the kind of racism that youve seen at the Grand Gateway, and were always going to have to file federal lawsuits  which we did and we will win  against these institutions until we actually change the core issue.

Young said historical and present day prejudice goes beyond the economy and reaches to the intergenerational trauma her generation faces. She said there are many young people who feel the pain of prejudice on a daily basis. Young said the trauma can lead to depression, substance abuse and suicide.

She said she knows young people who feel like they dont have anywhere to go and dont have a safe place to be, that they can walk down the street and feel like theyre going to lose their life.

Young said when Native American people her age talk about getting a job in Rapid City, family members are apprehensive. Theyre warned to be safe, to be respectful.

Mortimer said HRC-MOA is planning more learning forums and other forms of discussion about race relations in Rapid City. She said HRC-MOA is seeking additional community input on future topics.

 Contact Siandhara Bonnet at siandhara.bonnet@rapidcityjournal.com 

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BISMARCK, N.D. | A Bismarck man has been ordered to serve six years in prison for a 2021 New Years Day crash that killed a 24-year-old Ziebach County, South Dakota woman.

Kenyon Eagle, 20, pleaded guilty in January to criminal vehicular homicide, two counts of criminal vehicular injury and reckless endangerment.

South Central District Judge Cynthia Feland suspended all but six years of a 15-year prison sentence Tuesday. She also ordered Eagle to spend three years on probation.

Eagle was accused of driving drunk and going the wrong way in the westbound lanes of the Bismarck Expressway. His pickup truck collided head-on about 2:15 a.m. with a car driven by Tiffany Shaving of Takini, South Dakota, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

The North Dakota Highway Patrol said Shaving died at the scene. Her two passengers  Ryan Whitebull, 28, and Carlin Mellette, 25, both of Bismarck  were seriously injured and required hospitalization and surgery. Eagle also was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Eagles blood alcohol content was 0.21% at the time of the crash, Assistant Morton County States Attorney Gabrielle Goter said in court. The legal limit for driving is 0.08%.

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Last week, Elevate Rapid Citys Public Policy Director Anna Hays provided an overview of the most recent legislative session. Everyone agrees that this year was unlike any other.

Both in terms of funding and contentious debates. One of the most important and necessary accomplishments of this past session is the passing of significant funding allocations for workforce housing development.

It began with the Governors budget address which announced a $200 million intended allocation for housing infrastructure. With a variety of bills in the Senate and the House, there were strategic maneuvers and debates until the final day of the legislative session. I am thrilled to say thank you! It happened, you did it. The South Dakota Housing Development Authority will manage the distribution of these funds and were anxious to learn more about the process. The late David Lust, who worked closely as our housing consultant directing this work for two years, must be smiling down on all of us.

Since 2015, our Black Hills Area Community Foundation, and multiple local stakeholders have been working to understand our needs, our resources and promising innovative ideas from other communities. The John T. Vucurevich Foundation, Bush Foundation and others have generously invested their time and charitable dollars in this work with us. Now with funding obtained from the City Vision fund, the Strategic Housing Trust Fund will be in place to assist with multi-family housing projects that will help to provide more below-market rents in Rapid City. Addressing the areas housing needs is long, slow work. Change will not take place overnight, but coming together to address the problem will give us all our best chance to achieve progress.

Decisions to devote financial resources to address this intractable issue were not uncontested. We are grateful for the local legislators who helped to champion the finalized housing bill. The final version was House Bill 1033 and it passed with one vote to spare, 48-22. I want to thank all the West River Legislators that voted Yea and put the vote over the top of the 2/3rd's necessary to pass. You can visit sdlegislature.gov to see how legislators voted, click the All Sessions button and go to the 2022 Session

It is critically important that our elected officials, School Board, City Council, County Commission and our legislators are working to make our region successful. Several people are running for a variety of offices with elections or primaries in June. I encourage everyone to learn about these candidates and vote. These people will be making decisions that affect our lives.

Your vote matters.

Liz Hamburg is the CEO Black Hills Area Community Foundation.

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A man charged with sexually molesting a teenage girl in 2017 was arrested on a warrant in Panama City, Florida, and appeared Monday in Ravalli County Justice Court.

Cody Earl Winchester, 47, is being held two charges of felony sexual assault. Ravalli County Justice Jim Bailey continued bond at $50,000.

According to the charging affidavit, Hamilton police received a report from a woman that Winchester had twice molested her then-14-year-old daughter during times she was out of the home.

The affidavit said the family called Winchester Tattoo Cody because he claimed to be a tattoo artist and drew designs on the two young girls who lived in the home.

Winchester also allegedly told the family that he had served time in prison for murdering someone.

During a forensic interview in 2017 at Emmas House, a child advocacy center in Hamilton, both girls in the house said they were afraid of Winchester after hearing that information.

The girl who was allegedly molested said Winchester told her to not tell anyone or something will happen, the affidavit said.

She waited for about three weeks after the incidents to tell her mother.

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The small town of Virginia City was isolated from the outside world during the winter months; so it was necessary to accumulate sufficient supplies in the fall to feed and clothe the population.

Due to a failure of merchants to properly gauge the needs of the community, there developed in the spring of 1865 a fear that the supply of flour on-hand would not be sufficient to supply the ordinary demands until the first freight trains arrived from Salt Lake.

The winter of 1864-65 started out routinely enough. A September issue of the Virginia City based Montana Post noted that winter made the route from Salt Lake to Montana difficult and suggested that home owners be sure to stockpile goods. When snow closed the passes completely in December of 1864, no one was particularly alarmed.

In fact, the price of flour  the most important commodity in Virginia City at the time  dropped slightly in February 1865 to between $22 and $26 for a 98-pound bag of flour. A month later, with 40-foot drifts still clogging the passes, flour was selling for $30/sack, then $40, then $47. By mid-April, the flour market had reached a price of $65 for 98-pound sack.

Shortly thereafter, a gang of starving prospectors decided they didnt much care for the free market and forced merchants to sell at $25 a sack. Inspired, community members tried to seize flour stores from a merchant. A stand-off between sheriffs deputies and community members narrowly avoided developing into a full-fledged firefight.

Within two weeks, prices had reached an absurd level. Flour supplies had dwindled to almost nothing and merchants charged as much as $100 for a sack of flour. On April 22, a group of over 400, led by a man waving an empty flour sack on a stick, marched into town; there was little doubt of their intentions. They searched every store, house, cabin and cellar in which they suspected flour was hidden.

The search uncovered flour concealed under oats in boxes, in barrels, under floorboards, and in one large find, stored under a hay stack.

Without a single altercation, this group searched all of Virginia City and confiscated every sack of flour they found. No buildings were burned, no fights broke out. Even though a few opportunists tried to loot a store, they werent affiliated with the flour rioters.

For each of the 82 sacks confiscated, the group issued a $30 promissory note. They then transported the flour to Leviathan Hall and sold it. If a man could prove he had no flour, he could buy 18 pounds. If he had a family, he could buy more. As the supply dwindled (which must have happened quickly), the ration dropped to 10 pounds. A month later, the first flour trains made it over the passes, and Virginia City returned to normal.

So, are you curious how far 82 sacks of flour would go? Eighty-two sacks, at 98 pounds a sack, amounts to 8,036 lb. of flour. Had the ration started at 10 pounds a person, the committee could have distributed enough flour for about 803 single men. But because the ration started much higher (at 18 pounds a person), it meant that out of a starving population of over 10,000, the committee managed to feed less than 800 people.

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A Stevensville man was charged with two counts of felony partner or family member assault after allegedly striking a woman twice in one day.

Jesse Edward Bartow, 37, is being held on a $10,000 bond set by Ravalli County Justice Jim Bailey.

According to the charging affidavit, a woman called Ravalli County Dispatch shortly before 9 p.m. on April 24 to report that she had been struck by Bartow while driving to the Florence Town Pump.

A Ravalli County Sheriff's deputy found Bartow on the side of the Eastside Highway. The affidavit said the man appeared intoxicated, smelled strongly of alcoholic beverage and was having trouble maintaining his balance.

After taking Bartow into custody during the investigation, the deputy then located the woman sitting in the drivers seat of her vehicle. She appeared to be crying and was emotional when speaking to the deputy.

The affidavit said the woman reported that Bartow had a history of physically abusing her. She said he had been drunk for most of the day, which caused the woman to leave the residence for a period of time.

When she brought dinner home at about 8 p.m., the affidavit said Bartow threw the plate of food in the kitchen and a beer all around the house.

She told the deputy that Bartow then struck her in the chest and face and pulled her hair, the affidavit said. She said she was struck with both open and closed-handed strikes.

Bartow then told the woman he wanted more beer. She said she was afraid to say no and so began driving him to the Florence Town Pump hoping the store clerk would not sell any more beer to (Bartow) due to his level of intoxication, the affidavit said.

While driving near New Farm Way, the woman said Bartow raised up and struck her twice on the right side of the head hard enough to cause her head to bounce against the plastic seat belt loop on the drivers side door, the affidavit said.

The deputy noted the woman had a light redness on her upper chest area, a 3-inch long scratch mark near her collarbone and saw her wince when she touched the left side of her head.

The deputy went to the residence where he observed a broken plate on the kitchen floor with food scattered on the floor and counter top.

When asked about the incident, Bartow would not provide a statement other than answering a question about what led up to the woman calling 911. His reply: Me being a piece of s***.

A preliminary breath sample yielded a .295 breath alcohol content. In Montana, a driver is considered legally impaired with a .08 BAC.

Bartow was convicted of partner or family member assault in Ravalli County in 2007 and in Butte-Silverbow County in 2019.

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" " A 2016 study examined caffeine tolerance in people and found some surprising genetic links. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

Hordes of zombies, moaning and shuffling through an early-morning city: The groggy masses need their coffee. But not everyone's all about that morning latte. Those who don't favor coffee  the taste, the caffeine rush, the cultish hoopla  often scratch their heads in wonderment over why so much revolves around a bitter drink of hot water and soaked roasted seeds. And even those who do like coffee marvel over those caffiends who seem capable of drinking cup after cup, hour after hour.

One 2016 study from the University of Edinburgh published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that there may be a genetic reason why some people seem more prone to coffee craving than others. According to the study, those of us with a DNA variation in a gene called PDSS2 tend to drink fewer cups of coffee than those without the variation.

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What does this gene do? The bodies of those with the PDSS2 variation have a reduced ability to break down caffeine, and the scientists suggest that means that with a slower process any caffeine consumed would stay in the body longer, expanding the time between physical cravings for another dose.

It's the caffeine in coffee that can keep people alert and awake, though some experience negative effects like irritability, restlessness and upset stomach.

More than 1,200 people in seven villages across the coffee-loving nation of Italy were surveyed about their daily intake of coffee. Those with the PDSS2 variation drank on average one cup of coffee less per day than those without the variant.

The research team replicated the study with 1,731 people in the Netherlands and found the same results, although with a slightly lower difference in coffee intake between the groups  though the scientists say this discrepancy may be because Italians tend to drink smaller cups of coffee than do the Dutch, who prefer larger cups with more overall caffeine.

"The results of our study add to existing research suggesting that our drive to drink coffee may be embedded in our genes," said Dr. Nicola Pirastu, the study's lead author, in a press release. We need to do larger studies to confirm the discovery and also to clarify the biological link between PDSS2 and coffee consumption."

Researchers from the Italian coffee company Illy participated in the study, though the scientists say Illy offered no financial support. And while the study looked only at coffee consumption, who knows  perhaps we'll soon see carbonated sodas and energy drinks adopting marketing campaigns targeting certain gene pools.

Editor's note: HowStuffWorks was unable to find any additional, more recent studies further investigating the link between PDSS2 and coffee consumption as called for. If you know of any, please email us and send them our way.

Now That's Interesting It's not just humans whose preferences are influenced by genes  one study identified a genetic reason why certain breeds of dog seem more motivated by food than others.

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Originally Published: Aug 26, 2016
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Microsoft 365 Web App Account Switching for Browsers Coming This Month

Microsoft on Tuesday announced that it's adding the ability for Microsoft 365 Web app users to switch their accounts within browsers, which will be available in the next few months.

With this feature, Microsoft 365 Web app users can stay within a browser and switch between a work account, which might use Azure Active Directory for authentication, and a personal account, which might use the Microsoft account for authentication. Users are able to switch accounts via a toggle switch, without needing to sign out of one account and then sign into another.

One scenario for the Microsoft 365 Web app account switching might be a consultant working for a client. The consultant will be able to switch from using Web apps managed by the consultancy to Web apps managed by the customer.

Microsoft is planning to roll out the account switching feature for Microsoft 365 Web apps worldwide, which will start happening sometime between April and June for subscribers. It'll just be available for some Web apps initially, namely:

Excel

Microsoft 365 Admin Center

Office.com

OneDrive for the Web

Outlook for the Web

PowerPoint for the Web

Support for additional other Microsoft 365 Web apps is planned for the near future, Microsoft added.

User Controls

The account switching happens via an "account manager" toggle, which is located in the upper right corner of a browser. When clicked, it'll show a drop-down list of accounts to choose from. In Microsoft's example this account manager showed a picture of the user.

The browser that's used, doesn't appear to matter, although it won't work "if third-party cookies are disabled in a browser." Microsoft recommends "keeping tracking prevention to Balanced (Default) for Microsoft Edge, and third-party cookies enabled for other browsers."

If a user switches browsers, the accounts that they were using in the other browser don't show, "unless the user explicitly adds them there or the account is joined to the device," Microsoft explained.

Account Switching Feature Can't Be Blocked

IT pros who administer Microsoft 365 accounts won't be able to turn off the account switching feature for Microsoft 365 Web apps using a control, the announcement indicated. Organizations wanting greater control should "look at tenant restrictions functionality from Azure Active Directory," Microsoft advised.

The announcement indicated that the account toggling retains the account access permissions and privacy settings that were set up by IT pros. "In other words, each account will continue to only have access to the data they have permissions for," the announcement explained.

The account switching feature is unavailable for "Microsoft 365 Government and Germany" tenancies. It's also not available to 21Vianet (China) users.
Two Richmond-area consulting firms have joined in a de facto merger aimed at offering robotics automation services to more of their customers, especially public agencies and nonprofits.

Impact Makers, a Richmond-based technology consulting firm, and Amplitude9, a digital solutions company, said on Wednesday they have formed a partnership.

Under the deal, effective on Wednesday, Impact Makers will take over Amplitude9s existing robotics process automation service delivery, leaving Amplitude9 as a product company that will license its intellectual property to Impact Makers and others for robotics automation process services.

Anthony Fung, Amplitude9s founder and chief executive and Virginias former deputy secretary of technology, has joined Impact Makers executive team as vice president of client intelligent automation solutions.

Robotics process automation, or RPA, is a service designed to help businesses, government agencies and other organizations use technology such as artificial intelligence to automate repetitive or mundane tasks, enabling workers to focus on more complex, higher-level work.

RPA is becoming more important in todays tight labor market and as the same amount of work is being required of fewer employees, said Impact Makers Founder and CEO Micheal Pirron.

By teaming up with Tony [Fung], we will be better positioned to offer more full-scale RPA services and to meet the needs of Virginias public sector.

Pirron founded Impact Makers in 2006 with the goal of donating all of the companys profits to charity. The company is a public benefit corporation owned by two local nonprofit organizations  The Community Foundation and Virginia Community Capital.

Amplitude9 works with state and federal agencies and non-profit organizations to improve service to clients. The company has a team of consultants who also will work for Impact Makers.

By joining forces with Impact Makers, we can unlock more potential for the people of Virginia when it comes to leveraging technology to improve service delivery and improve outcomes for citizens, Fung said.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin met with visiting United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Kremlin on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Putin told Guterres that the Ukrainian issue arose after the 2014 "unconstitutional coup" in Kiev and people in Donbass remained under blockade and military pressure even after the Minsk agreements on a peaceful settlement were reached.

According to Putin, the Donbass "republics" have the right to declare their sovereignty and Russia has the right to recognize their independence and provide them with military assistance in full accordance with the UN Charter.

"Despite the ongoing military operation, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track. We are negotiating and we do not refuse them," he said.

Guterres proposed creating a contact group where the UN, Russia and Ukraine can discuss the situation together so that the humanitarian corridors are truly effective.

He said that to resolve the situation in Ukraine's Mariupol, the UN is ready to fully mobilize its logistical capabilities and human resources, working together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as well as the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces.

Guterres also said that the UN is ready in two or three days, together with the ICRC, to assess the situation at the Azovstal plant in order to evacuate civilians from there.

In response, Putin denied reports that Russian humanitarian corridors are not working and stressed that 130,000 to 140,000 people have left Mariupol with the assistance of Russia and they are free to go anywhere.

Putin also offered an opportunity to UN and ICRC representatives to have a look at how Russia treats Ukrainian war prisoners.

Before his trip to Moscow, Guterres met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday in the capital Ankara. The UN chief will travel to Ukraine following talks with Putin.
After 92 pop-up events, chef Carlo Ordaz-Nunez opened TBT El Gallo a little over year ago in a 600 square-foot kitchen with a few patio tables at 2118 W. Cary St.

Within six months demand outgrew the tiny kitchen, and hes asking you to consider helping him expand.

Through a campaign launched through crowdfunding service WeFunder, TBT El Gallo is looking for investors to help hit a $250,000 goal that will enable the team to add two new locations and a food truck. The first $75,000 goal has already been reached and will allow TBT El Gallo to add a second 2,400 square-foot location in the former Pie Five Pizza Co. at Willow Lawn that will seat about 60 people and also allow for serving alcohol, which isnt available at the current location.

At TBT El Gallo, chef Ordaz-Nunez puts a modern, often nontraditional spin on the traditional Mexican flavors he grew up enjoying with his family, always looking to push the boundaries. His tacos, burritos and sides regularly sell out and clever dish names make ordering all the more fun.

The Workin 9 to Things  Dolly Parton taco features shredded chicken thighs, chicken fat, tomatoes, chipotle, poblano crema, queso fresco, chicharrones and pickled radish. The Aloha Fluffy taco is topped with pork belly al pastor, spicy pickled pineapple, poblano crema, cilantro and pickled onion. Cant decide? The TBT Meal Deal includes two of two different types of specialty tacos, four in total, with a side and a drink for $22.50.

When investors pledge to support TBT El Gallo through WeFunder, they will receive 4% of TBT El Gallos revenues each quarter until their principal is returned, plus 50% on top of it. You can invest with as little as $100. There are also some sweet perks for different levels of investment: invest $1,000 and youll get an exclusive cooking class with Ordaz-Nunez.

While TBT El Gallo works on its expansion, we suggest placing a takeout order online to take home or enjoy on the small patio out front.

Dont skip From Mexico with Fries: a decadent combination of hearty steak fries topped with cane asada, poblano crema, pico de gallo, chichaua cheese, pickled onions, guacamole and your choice of salsa.
A Cumberland County grand jury on Tuesday indicted a Farmville man on two counts of involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving in a crash last fall involving a horse-drawn Amish buggy that killed a mother and father and injured their eight children.

Mickel I. Bates, 60, is accused of causing the deaths of Barbie Esh, 38, and her husband, John Esh, 39, who died in the Oct. 17 crash on state Route 45/Cumberland Road, about 1.3 miles south of state Route 634 in Cumberland.

Authorities said Bates was driving a 2005 Toyota Tundra south on state Route 45 about 8 p.m. when it slammed into the rear of the horse-drawn buggy, which was also headed south along Route 45. The Toyota continued on, but Bates returned to the scene a short time later, police said. Bates was not injured.

Barbie Esh died at the scene. Her husband was taken to University of Virginia Medical Center, where he died the next day.

Their eight children, ranging in age from 9 months to 16 years, were all taken to nearby hospitals for treatment of injuries that ranged from minor to serious, police said at the time.

State police said horse-drawn vehicles are becoming more popular in Buckingham, Cumberland, Charlotte and Halifax counties.

One of the couples sons was driving the buggy, the father was in the front passenger seat and the mother was in the back holding an infant at the time of the crash, said Powhatan Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Robert Cerullo, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case.

By the grace of God, the child was not injured, Cerullo said. She was ejected from the buggy and the child was found ... a number of yards away from the vehicle. The mother was deceased, the child was fine. That was a miracle.

Two of the couples children had to be flown by Medflight helicopter due to the extent of their injuries, Cerullo said. They had substantial surgeries but they survived, the prosecutor said.

Cerullo said the family had traveled to a friends home to visit and were returning home when the crash occurred.

The horse pulling the buggy had to be euthanized. The buggy was equipped with the required Slow Moving Vehicle triangle placard, as well as working headlights and taillights, police said.

Amish buggies are legal on Virginia highways, and must display the placard as they are solid black and difficult to see at night.

The wreck was the second involving an Amish buggy in October.

On Oct. 13, in the Northern Necks Richmond County, another Amish buggy was struck. Two people riding in the buggy were both seriously injured, and that horse also was euthanized.

The driver of the 2015 Jeep Cherokee that struck the buggy was not injured and was charged with reckless driving.
The Virginia House Democratic Caucus voted via secret ballot on Wednesday to remove former Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn as the partys leader in the chamber.

The stunning vote came five months after Republicans won elections for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general and took control of the House of Delegates.

Del. Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, led the effort to topple Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax.

House Democrats decided not to choose a new leader on Wednesday in order to let candidates  in addition to Scott  make their case, according to Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax. Well do it quickly, like, probably the next time were in town, he said.

Filler-Corns ouster was the first time Virginia lawmakers had deposed a minority leader since February 2007, when Del. Ward Armstrong led a move against Minority Leader Frank Hall, D-Richmond. The secret ballot was routine for such internal party matters.

Twenty-five of the 48-member Democratic caucus voted to remove Filler-Corn.

Discontent with Filler-Corn among House Democrats grew over the 2021 election losses and whether the party is prepared for the next House election, whether its held this year or next.

Scott, a lawyer, began maneuvering to unseat Filler-Corn several weeks ago. He was first elected in 2019; Filler-Corn was first elected in 2010.

The vote marks a sudden fall for Filler-Corn, who in January 2020 became the first woman to serve as speaker of the House in the chambers more than 400-year history.

In her two years as speaker, Democratic majorities in the House and Senate worked with then-Gov. Ralph Northam to usher in sweeping changes while combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Changes ranged from gun control measures to ending capital punishment, legalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana and removing much of the public Confederate iconography inside the Capitol.

Filler-Corn said in a statement: I thank the people of Virginia and my colleagues in the House of Delegates for allowing me to serve as the first woman and first person of Jewish faith to serve as Speaker in the 403-year history of our Commonwealth  truly the honor of my life.

I was proud of all that we accomplished after taking the majority in 2019 and was willing to step up as Minority Leader once more to regain that majority. Our caucus is made up of 48 talented and diverse individuals and I look forward to working with them to retake the majority.

Filler-Corn has the option of again running for the leadership post.

Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, became House speaker in January after Republicans took a 52-48 edge in the chamber. Virginia Democrats had a 55-45 majority in the House before the November election. Gilbert declined to comment on Filler-Corns ouster.

The Democratic Caucus voted Wednesday to retain its No. 2 leader, Del. Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, as caucus chair.

Scott issued a statement formally announcing his candidacy to become the next House Democratic leader.

Governor Youngkin and Republicans in the House are taking Virginia backwards, Scott said. We need to move forward with a new bold vision for our Commonwealth.

We need leadership that will stand up for every family and child in Virginia. We need a leader who can win  not just on the House Floor, but in elections in every corner of the Commonwealth. As Leader, I will fight every day to retake the majority and stop the reckless Youngkin agenda.

Scott hasnt been afraid to rebuke Youngkin on the House floor.

On Wednesday, he spoke in defense of legislation the governor vetoed that would have expanded local government powers to enforce building code requirements, especially in low-income apartment complexes such as The Communities at Southwood in South Richmond.

If youre on the side of the slumlords, vote with the governor, Scott told the House, shortly before it upheld Youngkins veto of House Bill 802, proposed by Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, on a party-line vote.

On Jan. 26, Scott criticized Youngkin in a speech on the House floor for how he and other Republicans had used race in their campaigns. That prompted Youngkin to seek a meeting with Scott in the delegates office.

The 100 House seats are next scheduled for elections in November 2023, but a court case seeks to accelerate House elections to this fall.

Former state Democratic Party chair Paul Goldman is asserting in court that the state should hold new House elections this fall because the 2021 elections  held in the old 2011 districts  did not ensure equal representation based on population.

The NAACP, the League of Women Voters and Democratic committees in Fairfax and Arlington are among the groups calling for new House elections this fall.

Appearing somber, Democrats filed out of their caucus room in the Capitol mostly without commenting.

Ugly day, said Del. Dawn Adams, D-Richmond. They then headed into the House chamber to begin the business of the day  addressing vetoes and amendments the governor issued to legislation passed in this years regular General Assembly session.

Later, Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler, D-Virginia Beach, shared her thoughts on why non-establishment Democrats wanted new leadership.

Delegate Filler-Corn helped do so much for our caucus, but it was time for a change in leadership especially after the losses of 2021, she said. We are taking our seat at the table and we will work hard to get true representation for the people of Virginia.
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The U.S. Department of State said in a statement Tuesday that it has determined an "emergency" exists in Ukraine that becomes a "national security" concern of the United States, therefore the department bypassed Congress to approve the sale of ammunition to Kiev.

The decision to sell the approximately 165 million U.S. dollars' worth of "non-standard" Soviet-era ammunition was made after Secretary of State Antony Blinken "has determined and provided detailed justification that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to Ukraine" of ammunition including grenade launchers, mortars and D-20 cannons, the statement said.

The sale, according to the statement, is "in the national security interests of the United States, thereby waiving the Congressional review requirements" under federal law.

"The proposed sale will improve Ukraine's capability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of its forces," said the statement. "Ukraine already has these items, or variants thereof, in its inventory and will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces."

The announcement came just after Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Kiev and held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Blinken notified of the arms sale.
TROUTDALE  Virginias U.S. Senator Tim Kaine toured the Blue Ridge Discovery Center in Grayson County on Wednesday as part of a visit through Southwest Virginia.

As somebody who has camped a lot up here in Grindstone, I have driven by this before and just thought that it was interesting without really knowing anything about it, Kaine said of the center. He added that he, Sen. Mark Warner and Congressman Morgan Griffith worked on an earmark request for the last bit of construction for the center.

The center has been established in the former Konnarock Lutheran Girls School, also known as the Konnarock Retreat Center, in the Troutdale area to promote education of the local environment. Kaine successfully secured $50,000 in federal funding through the FY 2022 government funding bill for the restoration of the school to address the educational opportunity gap in rural Appalachia.

The center has dedicated two years of construction and more than $2.5 million in the restoration of this property and the work is ongoing.

On its website, the Blue Ridge Discovery Center states that it is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring, discovering and sharing the natural history of the Blue Ridge Mountains  through a variety of programs and projects, including school programs, summer camps, naturalist rallies, research, restoration, and, most recently, through the field station and group campground.

We are building a world class residential education facility, biological field station, and interpretative center at the base of the highest mountains in Virginia. This center will be the catalyst to reconnect our community with one of the greatest natural treasures in North America.

Director Aaron Floyd, who led Kaine on the tour, said that the centers purpose is about the opposite of what it was for the former girls school.

The idea then was to bring young ladies from the mountains and rural areas to teach them about society and set them up for success in life while the plan now is to bring youth from urban areas to the mountains to educate them about the natural environment.

Floyd told Kaine a bit of the history of the former school. It began in 1922 with the Rev. Kenneth Killinger and his cousin Laura Scherer Copenhaver addressing the national gathering of the Womens Missionary Society of the Lutheran Church in America concerning the need for educational opportunities for women in Appalachia.

The boarding school was built in 1925, two and a half stories, with bark shingles and had an attached rear chapel. What is now the office for the center is a bark-shingled bungalow from 1936 originally used as the schools health center. The school closed in 1958 and was sold to the U.S. Forest Service in 1967. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

The Forest Service used the facility as a training facility for a few years, including as a base camp for Job Corps youth training and Appalachian Trail construction crew housing to work in state and national parks. However, the building eventually fell into disuse and disrepair.

Reunions of the women who attended school there took place on a regular basis but indoor tours became unsafe when the flooring began to deteriorate.

Efforts were undertaken by a group to restore the old school as the Konnarock Retreat Center, but the financial requirements became too much and the property was obtained by the Blue Ridge Discovery Center for its environmental education programs.

Kaine said he was especially excited to visit the center during his tour through this part of the state and hopes to come back when students are staying and studying there.

In some ways, its unlike any building Ive ever seen, the senator said. Using bark, cutting bark as shingles, Ive just never seen that on any building in Virginia or anywhere. It took me a minute to realize, wait a minute, is that what that is?

The fronts of the buildings have poplar shingles while the back area of the former school has shingles made of chestnut.

Chestnut has essentially been wiped out, Kaine said. Youll never have a building like this again. These old buildings take a lot of TLC and if you dont do that theyre gone, and when theyre gone you can never replace them. The real reason for the Blue Ridge Discovery Center is what theyre going to do for kids, but even just saving a building like this and finding a good use for it is like a really worthy mission.

The tour came on the cusp of the Blue Ridge Discovery Centers opening celebrations early next month.

The annual Naturalist Rally  not held for the past two years because of COVID  returns this year May 6-8 with a ribbon cutting at the center on Saturday, May 7, at 11:30 a.m.

The rally was formed 48 years ago at the former Konnarock Lutheran Girls School and for more than 35 years has been at the Konnarock Community Center, Floyd said. This year it comes back to where it began.

Reservations for the rooms at the center were immediately booked up. People are excited about the potential of being at the center, Floyd said.

The Mount Rogers Spring Naturalist Rally will take place from 4 p.m. on Friday, May 6, to 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 8. Events include nature hikes, field trips, and expert speakers on a variety of topics. Fees apply. Check out the Mount Rogers Naturalist Rally Facebook page or https://blueridgediscoverycenter.org/mrnrspring for more information.

The center is located at 6402 Whitetop Road in Troutdale. To get there, to take Exit 35 at Chilhowie on Interstate 81, turn onto Whitetop Road and just keep going. The center is at an intersection in Konnarock.
BRISTOL, Va.  A jury is one day closer to determining if a Bristol, Virginia police officer will be convicted of murder.

The jury heard lengthy testimony from former Bristol, Virginia police officer John Carty on Tuesday. Carty was one of three officers who witnessed Officer Johnathan Brown fatally shoot Jonathen Kohler on March 30, 2021 as he tried to elude officers at the Rodeway Inn.

Carty was the senior-most officer of the four who responded to shots fired at the motel. Dispatch alerted the officers of multiple 911 calls from guests staying in the motels rear building.

Carty testified that while en route he felt 100% confident there was a shooting in progress.

Upon arrival, officers found Kohler, 31, seated behind the wheel of his Ford Mustang parked in the rear parking lot. Carty testified that he had reasonable suspicion to believe Kohler was the shooter, since no one else was around.

Cartys suspicion grew when Kohler told him something to the effect of No it wasnt me  I wasnt the one shooting, after being asked if he knew anything about the shots. Carty also said Kohler was sweating profusely on a freezing night and that he suspected Kohler to be high on methamphetamine.

While he was running Kohlers drivers license, Carty heard the situation escalate as another officer told Kohler to keep his hands up and to stop reaching down. At that point, Carty was becoming increasingly uneasy and fearful Kohler had a gun.

I thought we were going to have a gunfight, Carty said.

Carty walked back toward Kohler and told him to cut the car off, but Kohler didnt comply. Instead, Kohler proceeded to back out of the parking space, put the car in drive and attempted to flee in the direction of Brown, 32.

It was chaos, Carty said.

Carty testified Kohlers vehicle was an immediate threat to Brown, who Carty said acted in accordance with his training.

It was later determined Kohler did fire the shots. He also had a loaded firearm under his seat and a high concentration of methamphetamine in his system and had sent threatening texts to shoot up the motel.

Carty said he was going to fire his rifle before Brown beat him to it.

Roanoke Commonwealths Attorney Donald Caldwell, the cases special prosecutor, pointed out Tuesday that the car appeared to be turning to the right of Brown when he fired. The car then crashed into a parked car to the right, and Kohler was found deceased of gunshot wounds to the head and neck.

During deliberations, the jury will be able to break down the shooting frame-by-frame, thanks to a high-tech re-creation produced by a forensic visualizations specialist at the request of the defense. The animation was created using a crime scene scan from the Virginia State Police and video footage.

The interactive tool takes the jury inside a three-dimensional version of the scene and enables jurors to replay a clip that spans from the time Kohler backs out to the time Brown fired his first shot. The jury will be able to make measurements in the program and view the shooting from virtually any vantage point, including Browns perspective.

According to testimony, Brown was 7 to 8 feet from the vehicle when it lifted forward and was 5 feet away when he fired his rifle.
CHARLOTTESVILLE  A truck and tractor-trailer tangle-up Tuesday morning scattered corn across Interstate 64 and tied up traffic for hours.

The crash, just after 8 a.m., occurred on the interstates westbound traffic lanes at mile marker 124 near the Pantops/U.S. 250 exit when a delivery-type box truck struck the tractor-trailer, causing the bigger rig to turn over and dump its corn contents across the highway.

Albemarle County Fire Rescue and Albemarle County Police Department responded to the crash and had to cut one person out of the wrecked vehicles. The person was transported to the University of Virginia Medical Center.

The foul-up forced traffic to be rerouted onto U.S. 50/Richmond Road and through Charlottesville to get back to Interstate 64. The detour was in place for more than five hours while crews worked to clear the roads, creating a backup that at times was more than four miles long, according to Virginia Department of Transportation officials.
The president is the representative of the United States, and through him the nation conveys official messages to the worlds leaders.

Citizens expect the president to carry out and uphold the values and principles of America, and he also bears political weight in his duties to establish positive relationships with foreign nations.

Conversely, President Joe Bidens inability to effectively lead America can be discerned not only domestically but also internationally, and it has created a difficulty in the relationships the United States has with allies.

He has presented a negative picture of the United States for the world to regard. The refusals of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to accept phone calls with President Biden regarding oil production demonstrates that weaknesses, an unsuccessful presidency that has devalued U.S principles and degraded the leadership of the worlds most powerful country.

President Bidens inability to open dialog with these major oil producing countries to discuss oil prices did not only draw a red circle around the White Houses failure of diplomacy, it debased the standing of the U.S. government and undermined Americas political weight and impact on the world.

The silence of Democrats regarding President Bidens weakness and ineptitude creates humiliation for the president and poses a danger to the U.S.

Having Biden in the front seat of the leadership car does not result in a firm and solid representation of what the United States and the American people stand for. Regardless of Bidens party affiliations, foreign nations feel free to not build relationships with the U.S., showing that Biden is not seen as having the strength that the President of the United States, the most powerful country in the world, should wield.

However, mocking and humiliating the president throughout social media and television shows should not satisfy Americans. It is an unpleasant era that makes the U.S president a subject of witticism, further undermining him while allowing him to continue addressing the nation and the world. As the American people laugh, the world laughs, and if even the Saudis laugh and mock our president, that should not become a happy moment for Americans.

Generally speaking, human aging requires more tolerance and mercy, not harshness and derision. Elders should be respected. Regardless of supporting or opposing President Biden, respecting him as a human being is part of American principles and conservative values. America, the nation of tolerance and the haven of humanity, must not derail and fail our dream.

Still, effective leadership is significant to protect the ship from sinking. Continuing to deny President Joe Bidens obvious lassitude will not serve the interest of the U.S.

The reckless belief and insistence of Democrats to implement their liberal policy has created a blindness and unwillingness to confirm President Bidens inability to effectively lead. But Bidens critics should oppose him respectfully. After all, by demeaning, humiliating, and mocking President Biden, the adversary will not be defeated.

Zangana is a corrections officer in the Roanoke Valley.
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Professor Chi Hou Chan. Credit: HKIAS

Wrapping upthewas, the Chair Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE) at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU). He delivered the last online talk of the Series titled "Are we ready for 6G" on 22 April 2022. Over 500 scholars, scientists in THz research, and students joined the virtual event.

While the frequency spectrum allocated to the 5th generation (5G) wireless communications have not been fully utilized, research groups worldwide are already juggling their positions for 6G, in which frequencies 100 GHz to 3 THz are promising. Imaging, sensing, and spectroscopy will also be essential applications in 6G.

According to Professor Chi Hou Chan, we are expected 6G to have high data rate, devices free form battery charging, sub millimeter second latency, massive connectivity, etc. More importantly, it is a system integration of air space, sea and ground communications.

In the talk, Professor Chan summarised his THz research on antennas, integrated circuits, and imaging in the past five years, supported by a Theme-Based Research Scheme funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council.

In addition, he discussed how system-level research could lead to new ideas and directions, setting the stage for the 6G era.

Professor Kwai Man Luk, Chair Professor of the EE, working closely with Professor Chan on the antennas project at the State Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter Waves, was the moderator.

Professor Chan joined CityU in 1998; currently, he is the Director of the SKLTMW. Besides working in computational electromagnetics for 30 years, he has extended his research interest to antennas, microwave and millimetre-wave components and systems, and more recently to terahertz science and engineering.

Elected a Fellow of IEEE in 2002, Professor Chan received the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Harrington-Mittra Computational Electromagnetics Award in 2019. He also received the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

This lecture is supported in part by the Kwang Hua Educational Foundation.

More information about the lecture, please click here.

END

About Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS)

The Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS), which was launched on 22 November 2015, aspires to be an international centre of excellence for the advancement of technology and innovation by bringing together an interdisciplinary team of world-renowned scholars and researchers, including Nobel laureates and academicians, to contribute to the solutions of pressing real-world problems. Conferences, symposiums, workshops, and lectures will be organized to facilitate exchange of ideas among academic communities locally, regionally and internationally.

About the HKIAS Distinguished Lecture Series on Electronics and Photonics

HKIAS Distinguished Lecture Series on Electronics and Photonics is another lecture series of excellence initiated by HKIAS in 2022. This series is committed to showcase the top-notch research and to develop innovative applications at various levels from electronic/photonic materials to devices and systems. The five lectures focus on discussing the latest advances in electronics and photonics for computing systems, covering topics from Nanotechnology and Nano devices, Antenna Design, Photonics, Power Electronics and Systems, Terahertz and Millimeter Waves, Wireless Communications, etc.

For upcoming lectures, please click here.

Provided by Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study
 "Modern Sentencing Mitigation" | Main | New timely issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter explores proposals for structural reform 

The main theme of this new Prison Policy Initiative report on clemency (and the lack thereof) is captured in this subtitle data point: "Our survey of eight states found an average of one commutation for every 10,000 imprisoned people each year." Here are a few excerpts from a new data report that should be read in full:

If Biden intends to truly deliver on his promises to enact large-scale criminal justice reform, this set of commutations should merely mark the beginning of a broader initiative. In fact, nothing is holding him back: the President has the power to grant commutations to large categories of people in federal prisons independently  without any action by Congress, the Department of Justice, or another third party. Despite this broad power, most U.S. presidents in the era of mass incarceration have been hesitant to use their powers of commutation.

In 2021, at the request of advocates working on clemency reform in the northeast, we submitted records requests to eight northeastern states seeking information about their commutation processes. As our survey of these eight states finds, state executive branches also chronically underuse their commutation powers. The states in our sample reported granting just 210 commutations from 2005 through mid-2021, for a total average of 13 grants a year across the eight states. For comparison, the average total prison population across these eight states from 2005 to 2020 was about 130,000  meaning that each year, this group of states commuted about one out of every 10,000 sentenced and imprisoned individuals. In fact, five of the states each reported granting just five commutations or fewer over the 16.5 years for which we requested data. And concerningly, almost no states in the sample increased their rate of commutations during the pandemic, at a time when reducing prison populations is critical to save lives....

Looking past the commutations granted by President Biden and at the operation of the federal clemency process more generally  it is clear that changes to the status quo are necessary. First, there is far too great a backlog in federal clemency applications. Data released on April 1, 2022 showed that approximately 18,270 applications for federal clemency are pending, nearly 15,000 of which are for a commutation of sentence. And, until April 2022, all of the 2,415 applications for clemency that had been acted on since the President took office in January 2021 had been administratively closed. This means that Biden had taken no action to either grant or deny clemency applications....

Historically, commutations were used much more frequently. In Massachusetts, for example, 218 commutations were granted in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and 84% of them went to people serving life sentences for murder. Connecticut was still granting regular commutations even more recently: The state granted 36 commutations between 1991 and 1994.

But grants have since slowed down drastically and become exceedingly rare across the country. Massachusetts granted just 29 commutations in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 2010s; Connecticut reported granting five from 2016 to mid-2021. Today, commutations are often explicitly reserved for  or in practices, awarded only to  narrowly defined groups, such as people who have served at least half of their sentence or those convicted of nonviolent offenses.
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Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov and visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe voiced common willingness on Tuesday to promote bilateral cooperation.

At a meeting with Wei in Ashgabat, Berdimuhamedov said that Turkmenistan attaches great importance to its relations with China, and the two countries have carried out high-level cooperation in the fields of politics, diplomacy, trade, culture, humanitarian and people-to-people exchanges, and established a strategic partnership.

China is one of Turkmenistan's largest trading partners, the president said, adding that there are more than 1,400 Turkmen students studying in China, and students can major in the Chinese language in many Turkmen universities.

Berdimuhamedov expressed the hope that the two militaries will strengthen practical cooperation in equipment technology, personnel training and other fields, and continuously push foward bilateral relations with new development.

For his part, Wei said that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China-Turkmenistan relations have achieved leap-forward development and are in their best period in history.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties, China stands ready to cement solidarity with Turkmenistan and jointly build an even closer community with a shared future for the two countries, he said.

China firmly supports Turkmenistan's permanent neutral status, firmly supports its pursuit of a development path suited to its national conditions, and firmly opposes external interference in Turkmenistan's internal affairs, Wei stressed.

In recent years, military-to-military relations between the two countries have been developing steadily and their pragmatic cooperation has been deepening day by day, he noted.

The Chinese military is willing to further expand areas of cooperation with Turkmenistan, enhance the effectiveness of cooperation and strive to elevate military-to-military relations to a higher level, Wei said.

On the same day, Turkmen Defense Minister Begench Gundogdyev held a welcome ceremony for Wei and had formal talks with him.

The two officials exchanged in-depth views on the international and regional security situations as well as the Ukrainian and the Afghan issues, and both agreed that the two militaries will continue strategic communication, conduct personnel training, and strengthen anti-terrorist and equipment technology cooperation.
Once upon a time, donuts were prosaic. Uncomplicated flavors in the classic circle-with-a-hole-in-the-middle shape were standard across donut shops, neighborhood bakeries and gas stations.

And then Kamal Grant came around and showed how much could be done with a donut.

I always loved donuts as a kid, and I think donuts are one of the most perfect baked goods, says Grant, owner of Sublime Doughnuts in Atlanta, Georgia. After serving in the U.S. Navy for four years, Grant attended the famed baking and pastry arts program at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He honed his ability to create flavors and master pastry work while at the Institute, but it was his time at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas, that taught him grain science and how to stretch the limits of the humble donut.

Studying food science allowed me to break down and understand why flour and dough does stuff, Grant says. Being able to travel the globe with the Navy exposed Grant to flavors he may not have found otherwise. (A notable example is Sublimes donut ice cream sandwich, which is a popular dessert item in Singapore.)

More than two dozen donut flavors are featured regularly on the Sublime Doughnuts menu, including yeasted raised and cake donuts, twists, filled donuts, croissant-based donuts and fritters. Grant says he opened Sublime Doughnuts in 2008, before anyone did fun, exciting things in donuts.

But why donuts?

They are classic Americana. They are fun and unique, Grant says, and with flavor combinations like white chocolate peach, sweet potato and salt-and-vinegar displayed next to classics like honey glazed and chocolate frosted, there is surely a Sublime donut for every level of adventurous eating.

The most popular flavor is the filled fresh strawberries-and-cream donut, Grant says. A yeasted donut (without a hole) is cut open and filled with freshly whipped cream cheese frosting and glazed strawberry slices. When people tell Grant that they dont like filled donuts, he insists they try one of his. You have been disrespected by filled donuts in the past! he exclaims, noting how the fresh cream and strawberries elevate what a simple donut can be.

But donuts should not just be for the morning routine, he says. Sublime Doughnuts (which had an outpost in Bangkok, Thailand, and still has kiosks inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta) is open 24-7. Sometimes you dont want to go to a bar and drink. Sometimes you just want to sit and chill, Grant says. A Sublime donut and cup of coffee are the perfect accompaniment for that, any time of day.

Curious what goes on behind the counter of a donut shop? Step inside this shop, and learn how Grant makes Sublimes signature donuts.

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has vetoed part of a budget bill for the University of Mississippi Medical Center, saying he objects to spending $50 million for improvements to the adult hospital in Jackson.

The Republican governor issued the partial veto of Senate Bill 3010 on Tuesday. Legislators specified the $50 million would come from Mississippi's pandemic recovery money from the federal government.

UMMC declined to comment on the partial veto, spokesperson Marc Rolph said Wednesday.

Reeves wrote on Twitter that UMMC's academic functions  teaching physicians, nurses and other health care professionals  are largely funded by the state, but the hospital is not.

They are responsible for their own operational budget  just like other hospitals," Reeves wrote.

The governor wrote that UMMC receives competitive advantages" over other hospitals and physician groups because it does not need the Health Department's approval for new facilities or large equipment. However, UMMC does need approval from the state college board.

There is little reason that Mississippi taxpayers should radically increase the commitment to further subsidize the operations of UMMC to the detriment of competitors," Reeves wrote. Furthermore, they currently have enough money to willingly turn away patients on private insurance, clearly indicating that they have no need for the state to underwrite their ambitious building/spending goals.

UMMC and BlueCross & BlueShield of Mississippi have been in a contract dispute the past several weeks over how much the insurer will pay for UMMC for patient care. Since April 1, UMMC and its clinics have been out-of-network for people insured by BlueCross & BlueShield, leaving those patients to pay more at UMMC or seek care elsewhere.

UMMC said in an April 1 news release that it has been underpaid tens of millions of dollars per year by the insurance company. BlueCross & BlueShield has said UMMC is seeking payment increases of more than 50% for some services and an overall increase of 30%.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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SIOUX CITY -- The City of Sioux City is asking residents to consider turning off the faucet when they brush their teeth, taking shorter showers and irrigating their lawns efficiently in effort to conserve water among moderate to severe drought conditions.

A lack of precipitation and runoff in the Missouri River's upper basin is causing lower river levels and directly impacting the city's well water supply.

"What we're seeing right now is significant lower levels in the supply wells, and we're having to valve them back a bit just to keep those wells in water," Sioux City Utilities Director Brad Puetz said Wednesday, during a news conference at City Hall. "Going into the summer months, what we're asking is voluntary water conservation from the citizens of Sioux City."

Active water conservation can reduce the need for the city to implement further steps in its water conservation plan, according to Puetz.

Under step 1 of the plan, which can be found on the city's website, some of the water conservation measures residents could be asked to take include watering yards only from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., minimizing or preferably stopping washing cars, refraining from filling or draining swimming pools and promptly repairing leaking plumbing fixtures.

"This step does not start step 1 of the conservation plan. We're trying to head it off as early as possible, asking citizens to conserve water in the home as much as possible," said Puetz, who reiterated that the city is not holding the public to any "stringent conservation levels" at this time.

Puetz doesn't expect incoming precipitation to significantly improve the situation locally or in the upper basin before the summer begins. By late May or early June, he said the city will be able to determine if step 1 or additional steps of the conservation plan need to be implemented.

South Sioux City and Dakota Dunes take Sioux City's water on an as needed basis, according to Puetz. He said the city is in contact with both of those communities about the situation. He noted that City of Sioux City departments are also being encouraged to conserve water.

"We're looking at reducing street cleaning and street flushing. Our hydrant flushing program will be on an as needed basis," he said. "We're going to do our part just as much as the citizens are to make sure that we do not need to implement any further steps, if possible."

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SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man was sentenced Monday to 15 years in federal prison for selling methamphetamine.

Kory Mammen, 52, pleaded guilty in January in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mammen was stopped by police for a traffic violation on March 26, 2021. Due to his suspicious behavior, police summoned a K9 unit, which indicated the presence of drugs in the vehicle. Officers found a bag under the driver's seat containing two syringes and 17 smaller bags containing a total of 42 grams of meth.

When Mammen was arrested again on Nov. 15, he was in possession of 65 grams of meth, which he admitted to officers he planned to sell.

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SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in federal prison for illegal possession of a firearm.

Arrion Price, 26, pleaded guilty in December in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to possession of a firearm by a felon.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Price was a passenger in a car stopped by police on June 8. After smelling marijuana, the officer ordered everyone out of the car in order to search it, and Price ran from the officer. A loaded 9mm pistol and ammunition were found in the storage sleeve of the car seat directly in front of where Price had been sitting.

Price was later apprehended, and a search of his phone revealed videos and pictures of him with a gun that appeared to be identical to the one found inside the car.

Because of his previous felony convictions, Price was prohibited from possessing guns.

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SIOUX CITY  Briar Cliff University has been awarded a $2 million grant by the U.S. Department of Commerce to create a healthcare training facility.

Briar Cliff will renovate and expand a former residence hall to create the Health Care Workforce Training Facility, according to a department of commerce news release. The grant is funded by the American Rescue Plan, a sweeping COVID relief bill signed by President Biden last year.

The Briar Cliff project will provide new health sciences training classrooms, labs and facilities needed to double the current enrollment of students and produce a highly trained healthcare workforce. This Economic Development Administration grant will be matched with $1.6 million in local funds.

President Bidens American Rescue Plan offers direct support to our nations communities as they work to respond to and recover from the pandemic and Build a Better America, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. This EDA investment will enable Briar Cliff University to expand and enhance its healthcare workforce training programs to meet employer demand.

This project was made possible by the regional planning efforts led by the Siouxland Interstate Metropolitan Planning Council (SIMPCO), according to the news release.

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BILOXI, Miss. (AP)  The possible suspect in the fatal shooting of the owner and two employees of a Mississippi Gulf Coast motel and subsequent death of a person shot during a carjacking was found dead after a standoff with police Wednesday, authorities said.

Harrison County Coroner Brian Switzer identified the possible suspect as 32-year-old Jeremy Alesunder Reynolds.

Gulfport Police Departments incoming chief, Adam Cooper, said Reynolds holed up at a Gulfport convenience store after fleeing from a stolen vehicle. Gulfport is just west of Biloxi, where the shootings took place at the Broadway Inn Express motel.

Switzer told news outlets that motel owner Mohammad Moeini, 51; Laura Lehman, 61; and Chad Green, 55, were killed at the motel. Lehman and Green both lived and worked at the motel.

WLOX-TV reported that one witness described a chaotic scene at the motel, with people fleeing.

Police said that after the motel shootings, another man was shot during a carjacking in Gulfport, and he later died in surgery. Switzer identified him as William Waltman, 52.

Cooper said police fired teargas into the store where Reynolds was holed up. After trying to negotiate with him and getting no response, police went into the store and found him dead, Cooper said. An autopsy will be performed to determine how he died.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Russia cuts off gas to 2 NATO nations in bid to divide West

POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP)  Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, using its most essential export in what was seen as a bid to punish and divide the West over its support for Ukraine.

The move, condemned by European leaders as blackmail," marked a dramatic escalation in the economic war of sanctions and countersanctions that has unfolded in parallel to the fighting on the battlefield.

The tactic, coming a day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to rush more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, could eventually force targeted nations to ration gas and could deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.

Poland has been a major gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and confirmed this week that it is sending the country tanks. Just hours before Russia's state energy giant Gazprom acted, Poland announced a new set of sanctions against the company and other Russian businesses and oligarchs.

Bulgaria, under a new liberal government that took office last fall, has cut many of its old ties to Moscow and likewise supported punitive measures against the Kremlin. It has also hosted Western fighter jets at a new NATO outpost on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.

Twitter abuse victims fear Musk's plans, but may not quit

Perhaps no group of people is more alarmed about Elon Musk's apparent plan to make Twitter a free speech free-for-all than those most likely to be targeted for harassment: women, racial minorities and other marginalized groups.

They fear that a more hands-off approach to policing the platform will embolden purveyors of hate speech, bullying and disinformation to ratchet up their bad behavior  a possibility Musk has done little to dispel.

Yet even those who have faced extreme harassment on Twitter say they are unlikely to quit the platform. Despite the negative psychological toll, they value Twitter as a diverse forum to express their views and engage with others.

That could help explain why Musk shows little concern for the underbelly of unfettered free speech, although advertisers - who account for about 90% of Twitter's revenue - may not feel the same way.

Renee Bracey Sherman, a biracial abortion rights advocate, endures a steady stream of predictable criticism on Twitter and, occasionally, an eruption of vile tweets: messages calling for her death, photos of aborted fetuses and, recently, her likeness photo-shopped as a Nazi.

EXPLAINER: Will a Russian prisoner exchange impact Griner?

Brittney Griner remains detained in Russia and it's unclear how an unexpected prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia that freed marine veteran Trevor Reed on Wednesday will affect the status of the WNBA star.

Griner has been detained in Russia since mid-February.

The deal announced by the U.S. and Russia involving Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace. It was all the more surprising because it was done as Russias war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who plays for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, was arrested in Russia for allegedly possessing a cannabis derivative legal in much of the world. The offense can mean up to 10 years in prison. Experts have predicted the two-time Olympic gold medalist could get much less if convicted.

Like many top WNBA players, Griner plays overseas as a way to supplement her income. She was returning to the country after the Russian League, in which she also plays, was taking a break for the FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament.

Dem lawmaker: Biden suggests he'll ease student loan burden

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden has signaled he might forgive some student loan debt and further extend the federal moratorium on repayments, a lawmaker who discussed the issue with him said Wednesday.

The White House was notably more measured about Biden's stance, but such moves would be a boon to many of the 43 million Americans carrying student loans worth $1.6 trillion, according to federal figures. It would also be a win for Democratic and progressive leaders who have long pressed Biden to carry through on a 2020 campaign promise that as president he would immediately" cancel up to $10,000 in debt per student.

Biden's remarks came during a wide-ranging Monday meeting at the White House with seven members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, according to Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., who was among them. He said in an interview Wednesday that he asked Biden to extend the moratorium on debt payments through this year, instead of letting it expire Aug. 31.

He immediately smiled and said, Ive extended in the past, and youre going to like what I do next," Cardenas said. So I said, Okay, wonderful. Next question.

Cardenas said he then asked about forgiving at least $10,000 in debt for each student, which he said the caucus believes Biden can do using executive powers. That would preclude the need for legislation from Congress, where there is Republican opposition.

Federal judge halts preparations for end of US asylum limit

NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A federal judge ordered a two-week halt Wednesday on the phasing out of pandemic-related restrictions on seeking asylum  and raised doubts about the Biden administration's plan to fully lift those restrictions on May 23.

For now, the decision is only a temporary setback for the administration. But the judge staked out a position that is highly sympathetic with Louisiana, Arizona and 19 other states that sued to preserve so-called Title 42 authority, which denies migrants a chance at asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

(The states) have established a substantial threat of immediate and irreparable injury resulting from the early implementation of Title 42, including unrecoverable costs on healthcare, law enforcement, detention, education, and other services for migrants," wrote U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Summerhays, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, said states were likely to succeed with their argument that the administration failed to adhere to federal procedures when it announced April 1 that it was ending Title 42 authority.

The judge has scheduled a critical hearing on May 13 in Lafayette to hear arguments on whether to block Title 42 from ending as planned 10 days later.

Microsoft: Russian hacks often accompany Ukraine attacks

BOSTON (AP)  Cyberattacks by state-backed Russian hackers have destroyed data across dozens of organizations in Ukraine and produced a chaotic information environment, Microsoft says in a report released Wednesday.

Nearly half the destructive attacks were against critical infrastructure, many times simultaneous to physical attacks, the report notes.

A top Ukrainian cybersecurity official, Victor Zhora, told reporters in a news briefing on Wednesday that cyberattacks on telecommunications have sometimes coincided with artillery and other physical attacks.

Microsoft assessed that Russia-aligned threat groups were pre-positioning for the conflict as early as March 2021, hacking into networks to obtain footholds they could later use to collect strategic and battlefield intelligence or to facilitate future destructive attacks.

During the war, Russias cyberattacks have at times not only degraded the functions of the targeted organizations but sought to disrupt citizens access to reliable information and critical life services, and to shake confidence in the countrys leadership, the company's Digital Security Unit says in the 20-page report.

State report details bias in Minneapolis Police Department

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  An extensive state investigation launched after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020 found that the Minneapolis Police Department has engaged in a pattern of race discrimination for at least the past decade.

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights said Wednesday it will negotiate a court-enforceable agreement called a consent decree with the city of Minneapolis to address the long list of problems identified in the report.

Here's a look at some of the key findings and recommendations.

PATTERNS AND PRACTICES

The agency found that the city and police department have engaged in a pattern or practice of race discrimination in violation of state law. Its report detailed evidence showing disparities in how officers use force, stop, search, arrest and cite people of color, particularly Black people, compared to white people in similar circumstances.

EXPLAINER: Brazil's Bolsonaro, top court on collision course

SAO PAULO (AP)  Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro is once again at odds with the country's Supreme Court, pardoning a congressman who had just been convicted by high court justices for urging violence against one of them.

Justices may review the pardon, and the case threatens to become an institutional crisis as Bolsonaro is gearing up to seek a second term.

CONVICTION AND PARDON

In a nearly unanimous vote, Brazils top court on April 20 sentenced freshman lawmaker Daniel Silveira to almost nine years in prison for inciting physical attacks against Supreme Court justices  particularly Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presides over a separate investigation into the dissemination of fake news that had already led to a conviction of Silveira.

May the people enter the Supreme Court, grab Alexandre de Moraes by his collar, shake his egghead and throw him in a garbage can, Silveira said in a broadcast on social media in February 2021.

Once dead, twice billed: GAO questions COVID funeral awards

The Federal Emergency Management Agency may have been double-billed for the funerals of hundreds of people who died of COVID-19, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report Wednesday.

The GAO identified 374 people who died and were listed on more than one application that received an award from the COVID-19 Funeral Assistance fund. That amounts to about $4.8 million in assistance that could have been improper or potentially fraudulent payments, the report said.

FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg said Wednesday that this was not an example of large-scale fraud and the amount of funeral assistance identified as at-risk was relatively small, with FEMA's "multi-layered internal quality controls and fraud controls" resulting in improper payments of less than 1%.

Unfortunately, fraud, particularly identity theft, is common. FEMA has controls in place to detect instances and can and will prosecute anyone who would apply for assistance fraudulently, Rothenberg said in a statement.

FEMA told the GAO that some duplicative applications were incorrectly awarded funeral assistance due to processing errors, not fraud, and benefits were not actually paid twice in some of the cases, the report said.

Shares of Facebook parent Meta soar despite growth slowdown

Facebook parent Meta's first quarter profit and its count of daily users jumped past Wall Street's expectations despite the company's slowest revenue growth since going public a decade ago. Shares were up sharply in after-hours trading.

Meta cut a sharp contrast with Google parent Alphabet, which on Monday reported what analysts called disappointing earnings, with profit below Wall Streets expectations. Google also reported a revenue growth slowdown, but for Meta this appeared to have been mitigated by an increase in daily active users that was enough to send the shorts covering and the stock surging, said Jesse Cohen, senior analyst at Investing.com.

That being said, it was a mixed report overall as the social media giant continues to struggle with slowing revenue growth amid reduced ad spending amid the current inflationary environment, Cohen said.

Apple's recent privacy changes to its iPhone software iOS have made it harder for companies like Meta to track people for advertising purposes, which also puts pressure on the companys revenue. For months now, Meta has been warning investors that its revenue cant continue to grow at the breakneck pace they are accustomed to, so its likely that the quarters single-digit revenue growth was already baked into investor expectations.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a conference call with analysts that the revenue acceleration Meta saw during the pandemic has now tapered off and the company will now slow the pace of some of our investments so it can continue to grow profits. This mainly refers to Meta's Reality Labs segment, which encompasses its futuristic metaverse project. The company, which changed its name to Meta Platforms last fall, invested more than $10 billion in Reality Labs  which includes its virtual reality headsets and augmented reality technology  in 2021.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Russia cuts off gas to 2 NATO nations in bid to divide West

POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP)  Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria and threatened to do the same to other countries, using its most essential export as an attempt to punish and divide the West for its united support of Ukraine. The move was condemned by European leaders as blackmail. It marked a dramatic escalation in the economic war of sanctions and countersanctions that has unfolded parallel to the fighting on the battlefield, where fighting continues in Ukraine's east. One person was killed and at least two injured when rockets hit a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv. The commander of a marine unit inside the last stronghold in the gutted city of Mariupol said the situation there was very difficult.

Twitter abuse victims fear Musk's plans, but may not quit

Perhaps no group of people is more alarmed about Elon Musks apparent plan to make Twitter a free speech free-for-all than those most likely to be targeted for harassment: women, racial minorities and other marginalized groups. They fear that a more hands-off approach to policing the platform will embolden purveyors of hate speech, bullying and disinformation to ratchet up their bad behavior  a possibility Musk has done little to dispel. Yet even those who have faced extreme harassment on Twitter say they are unlikely to quit the platform. Despite the negative psychological toll, they still place a high value on Twitter as a place to express their views and engage with others.

EXPLAINER: Will a Russian prisoner exchange impact Griner?

Brittney Griner remains detained in Russia and its unclear how an unexpected prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia that freed marine veteran Trevor Reed will affect the status of the WNBA star. Griner has been detained in Russia since mid-February. The deal announced by both countries involving Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace. It was all the more surprising because it was done as Russias war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades. Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist who was arrested in Russia for allegedly possessing a cannabis derivative legal in much of the world. The offense can mean up to 10 years in prison.

Dem lawmaker: Biden suggests he'll ease student loan burden

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden has signaled he might forgive some student loan debt and further extend the federal moratorium on repayments. That's according to California Democratic Rep. Tony Cardenas. He's a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Cardenas said Wednesday that during a White House meeting, Biden told the group that they're going to like what he does about both proposals. That meeting was Monday. The White House was notably more measured about what Biden might do. But any move in that direction would be a boon to many of what federal figures show are 43 million Americans carrying student loans worth $1.6 trillion.

Federal judge halts preparations for end of US asylum limit

NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A judge has ordered a two-week halt on phasing out pandemic-related restrictions on seeking asylum as the Biden administration prepares for the restrictions to be fully lifted on May 23. Wednesday's decision is only a temporary setback for the administration but the federal judge appeared highly sympathetic with Louisiana and other states that sued to keep Title 42 authority. That restriction denies migrants a chance at asylum on grounds of preventing spread of COVID-19. U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays has scheduled a hearing May 13 in Lafayette, Louisiana, for arguments on whether to block Title 42 from ending as planned 10 days later.

Microsoft: Russian hacks often accompany Ukraine attacks

BOSTON (AP)  Microsoft says cyberattacks by state-backed Russian hackers have destroyed data across dozens of organizations in Ukraine and produced a chaotic information environment. The company said in a report released Wednesday that Russia-aligned threat groups were preparing long before the Feb. 24 invasion. It said they were pre-positioning for the conflict" as early as a year ago, hacking into networks to obtain footholds they could later use to collect strategic and battlefield intelligence or to facilitate future destructive attacks.

State report details bias in Minneapolis Police Department

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  A Minnesota state agency says it will work with the city of Minneapolis to negotiate solutions to resolve the pattern of race discrimination uncovered by a two-year investigation. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights says former and current city and police leaders have failed to act, effectively allowing an aggressive police culture to fester. The report details disparities in how officers use force, stop, search, arrest and cite people of color, particularly Black people, compared to white people in similar circumstances. And the state agency says the city and police department need not wait to start making necessary changes.

EXPLAINER: Brazil's Bolsonaro, top court on collision course

SAO PAULO (AP)  Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro is once again at odds with the countrys Supreme Court. He has pardoned a congressman who had just been convicted by high court justices for urging violence against one of them. Justices may review that pardon, and the case threatens to become an institutional crisis at a moment when Bolsonaro is gearing up to seek a second term. At the center of the dispute is freshman lawmaker Daniel Silveira, who was sentenced to almost nine years in prison. He had said that one justice should be seized, shaken and thrown in a garbage can. Bolsonaro issued a decree pardoning him, citing the right to free speech.

Once dead, twice billed: GAO questions COVID funeral awards

The Federal Emergency Management Agency may have been double-billed for the funerals of hundreds of people who died of COVID-19, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report Wednesday. The GAO identified 374 people who died and were listed on more than one application that received an award from the COVID-19 Funeral Assistance fund. That amounts to about $4.8 million in assistance that could have been improper or potentially fraudulent payments, the report said. FEMA says this wasn't an example of large-scale fraud and the amount of funeral assistance identified as at-risk was relatively small, with FEMAs multi-layered controls resulting in improper payments of less than 1%.

Shares of Facebook parent Meta soar despite growth slowdown

Facebook parent Metas first quarter profit jumped past Wall Streets expectations despite slower revenue growth, sending shares up sharply in after-hours trading. The company earned $7.47 billion, or $2.72 per share, in the January-March period. Thats down 21% from $9.5 billion, or $3.30 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Meta cut a sharp contrast with Google parent Alphabet, which on Monday reported what analysts called disappointing earnings, with profit below Wall Streets expectations and revenue growth slower than in previous quarters. Shares rose more than 18% to $207 in after-hours trading.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP)  The European Union wants to start formal membership talks with North Macedonia by early this summer and renew efforts to address objections from Bulgaria that have held up the process, a top EU official said Wednesday.

Oliver Varhelyi, the EU s enlargement commissioner, said during a visit to North Macedonia that the bloc is eager to break the two-year deadlock. Hastening the process of admitting new members has taken on more urgency for the EU following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. North Macedonia is part of Europe! No time to waste to speed up the procedures! Varhelyi tweeted after a meeting with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski. Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, argues that North Macedonia has failed to honor parts of a 2017 friendship deal between the neighboring countries.

Bulgaria wants North Macedonia to recognize an ethnic Bulgarian minority in its constitution but disputes that a Macedonian minority exists in Bulgaria.

North Macedonias foreign minister, Bujar Osmani, said his country had shown an exceptional level of commitment toward accession. It's time for the European Union to lend a hand to the countries of the Western Balkans and to clearly demonstrate that the future of the region is European, Osmani said. The region is increasingly tired of waiting, which hurts the credibility of the European Union.

EU leaders gave North Macedonia and Albania the green light in 2020 to begin accession talks, although no date was set for the start of negotiations. The dispute with Bulgaria has delayed Albanias bid.

The prospect of EU membership has long been seen as an incentive driving democratic, political and economic reforms in the volatile Balkans.

Six Western Balkan countries  Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia  are at different stages in their quest to join the EU.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  A former top-ranking State Department official is set to plead guilty for improperly helping a wealthy Gulf country try to influence U.S. policy and not disclosing on a government ethics form gifts he received from a disgraced political fundraiser.

Court records filed earlier this month say that Richard G. Olson, who was the State Department's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the end of the Obama administration, provided aid and advice to Qatar on lobbying activities in violation of a revolving door prohibition against such behavior for one year after leaving public service.

Olson, who also served as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, indicated in a signed filing earlier this month he intends to plead guilty. Its unclear if hes cooperating in other investigations.

The case represents one of the more high-profile efforts by the Justice Department in recent years to crack down on unreported or illegal influence campaigns funded by foreign governments aimed at altering U.S. policy.

Federal prosecutors also said that while at the State Department, Olson failed to disclose certain financial benefits he received from a California businessman named Imaad Zuberi. Once a major political donor, Zuberi is now serving a 12 year prison sentence for funneling illegal campaign contributions to politicos in both major parties and then peddling the resulting influence to foreign governments. The new court records do not use Zuberi's name, but The Associated Press was able to identify him based on court filings in other cases, letters a Zuberi representative has sent to Congress, and interviews with Zuberi associates.

Neither the Justice Department or Olson's attorney immediately returned requests for comment.

Shortly after Olson left the State Department, several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, launched a blockade against Qatar that sparked a massive spending spree in Washington on lobbying and other efforts to influence U.S. policy.

Olson, Zuberi and retired Marine four-star Gen. John Allen traveled to Doha early in the diplomatic crisis to meet with top Qatari officials and discuss ways of resolving the issue, according to court records and a statement Allen's spokesman provided to the AP last year.

Federal prosecutors write in Olson's newly filed court records that shortly after the June 2017 trip, Olson, Zuberi, a Qatari official and Allen, who is only identified as Person 3," met with several Congressmen for the purpose of convincing the U.S. lawmakers to support Qatar rather than its regional rivals in the Gulf Diplomatic Crisis.

Emails that Zuberi's representative submitted in a letter to Congress also show that Zuberi pushed for Olson and Allen to accompany Qatari officials to a White House meeting with then-National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.

We should shift this conversation to WhatsApp, Allen replied. I'll let Rick speak for himself regarding his legal restrictions in dealing with the (U.S. Government).

Allen, who is now president of the influential Brookings Institute think tank, told the AP last year that White House officials were aware of and supported his efforts to revolve the crisis as a private citizen.

General Allen has never acted as an agent of the Qatari government," his spokesman, Beau Phillips, said in a statement last year.

The newly filed court documents also show that Olson worked with Zuberi to win U.S. government approval for a preclearance facility at the Doha airport, which would allow U.S.-bound passengers to clear customs before they left Qatar.

Such approval would expand the number of U.S. cities the Doha airport could serve and give it an advantage over competitors in the Gulf, prosecutors said. As ambassador, Olson had worked to establish a preclearance facility at the Abu Dhabi International Airport in the UAE.

Zuberi became notorious for courting lawmakers and diplomats like Olson. In 2015, prosecutors said, Zuberi paid for Olsons trip from New Mexico to London, where the then-ambassador met with Esam Janahi, a Bahraini businessman who offered Olson a one-year contract worth $300,000 a year. Janahi was not named in Olson's court records, but the AP identified him through separate court filings and other records.

Zuberi detailed that aspect of his relationship with Olson last year in letters to members of Congress, in which a former federal law enforcement officer hired by Zuberi cited a host of irregularities in the fundraisers prosecution and described his lengthy prison sentence as a miscarriage of justice.

Mustian reported from New York.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  Efforts to create a national Asian Pacific American museum in Washington, D.C., pushed ahead Tuesday with House passage of legislation that would create a commission to study the issue.

The bill approved unanimously by the House would establish a new commission to consider the feasibility of a new National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture. The measure now heads to the Senate.

The commission would be tasked with studying the costs involved with the proposed National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture, whether it should be considered as part of the Smithsonian Institution and possible locations in the Washington-area.

Its a joy to see this AAPI museum study bill arrive at this point today, said Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., referring to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

During the floor debate, Meng said Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have shaped the nation's history from its earliest days, from the Chinese laborers who helped build the transcontinental railroad to today's contributions made in culture and the economy.

Those contributions are often unheard of and simply forgotten, she said. It is time to change that.

The legislation comes as visitors have flocked to the latest addition to the National Mall, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016. Plans are underway for two other museums, the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian Womens History Museum.

Republican Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ore., said that while he supports the bill, he has concerns he hopes will be answered about the financial and operational challenges that an additional museum to the Smithsonian's portfolio could pose.

The commission would have 18 months to report its findings back to Congress and the president. The bill was approved without objections or the need for a roll call vote.

Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., spoke of having endured taunts about his heritage and wanting his own young sons to grow up proud of their background.

I dont want my kids to understand who they are through sources of hate and discrimination, he said during the floor debate.

I want them to feel pride, Kim said. Our story is not just an Asian American story, its an American 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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WASHINGTON (AP)  House Democrats vowed to continue investigating consulting giant McKinsey's work with opioid drugmakers after a Wednesday hearing detailed how the firm had advised companies pushing painkillers as well as U.S. health regulators.

The hearing before a House committee is part of an ongoing probe into McKinseys role in the U.S. opioid crisis that has been linked to over 500,000 overdose deaths from both prescription pain medications and illicit drugs like fentanyl.

McKinsey's top executive challenged some of the committee's findings but said the company has overhauled how it does business and no longer works with opioid manufacturers, including OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma.

Ive apologized for our work for Purdue and other opioid manufacturers and we fully recognize it fell short of our standards, said Bob Sternfels in testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. He said the company would continue cooperating with investigators.

Last year the consulting powerhouse agreed to pay $600 million to settle lawsuits over its work advising opioid makers, though it admitted no wrongdoing.

Lawmakers questioned Sternfels for three hours about revelations that his company allowed consultants working for Purdue Pharma to simultaneously advise the Food and Drug Administration, the agency tasked with overseeing drug safety.

McKinsey was advising both the fox and the hen-house  and getting paid by both, said Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. Clearly, McKinsey should not be setting strategy for both drug companies and the FDA.

A preliminary report from the committee found 22 McKinsey consultants who worked for both the FDA and an opioid manufacturer over the span of a decade. The overlapping work included McKinsey staffers advising the FDA on overhauling its drug safety division, according to the committee's review of thousands of company documents.

Meanwhile, McKinsey consultants recommended cash prizes and unrivaled recognition for top OxyContin sales reps to increase Purdue's revenue, according to a 2013 strategy presentation released Wednesday.

Lawmakers heard conflicting accounts of whether McKinseys work helped Purdue avoid tighter FDA regulation.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, testifying remotely, said that her states own investigation into McKinsey uncovered emails recommending Purdue band together with other drugmakers in 2009 to defend against strict treatment by the FDA.

Sternfeld said McKinsey did not share FDA documents or intelligence with Purdue and said claims of information sharing were inaccurate.

He also testified that McKinsey was open with FDA about its pharmaceutical consulting work.

We made very clear that we were working both with the industry and with opioids in particular, Sternfeld said. FDA officials have previously stated they were aware of McKinsey's pharmaceutical consulting.

Maloney and other Democrats repeatedly suggested McKinsey's work may have violated federal contracting rules on disclosing potential conflicts of interest.

On Wednesday, Maloney introduced legislation that would bolster requirements for contractors to disclose potential conflicts. A bipartisan group of Senators previously introduced similar legislation in their chamber.

The committee's Republicans spent most of their allotted time undercutting the relevance of the hearing, noting the vast majority of opioid overdoses are now caused by fentanyl and heroin, not prescription drugs. They urged tighter border security, noting nearly all illicit opioids enter the U.S. through the southern border.

We have a new opioid crisis, folks, and it's not from big pharma in the United States it's from the drug cartels who operate sites in Mexico, said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida.

House Democrats spotlighted several examples of McKinsey touting its FDA connections when soliciting consulting business from drugmakers. The company also submitted advice on dealing with the opioid epidemic to members of the Trump administration, according to the report. It's unclear if the information had any effect on federal policy.

For decades, McKinsey has been the preeminent corporate consulting firm, advising many of the world's biggest companies on strategy and operations. The company has also made inroads into government consulting, receiving nearly $1 billion in federal contracts.

The Oversight Committee scrutinized McKinsey's work on three dozen FDA contracts worth more than $65 million, stretching from 2008 to 2021.

At a separate Senate hearing Tuesday, the head of FDA's drug center told lawmakers McKinsey's work dealt with organizational design and did not entail involvement in product regulation." The agency currently has no contracts with McKinsey, she noted, and no new awards are expected while Congress investigates the firm.

The House report did not conclude that McKinsey's FDA consulting resulted in lighter regulation of OxyContin or any other opioids.

For years the FDA has attempted to discourage doctors from overprescribing the drugs, mainly by adding starker warnings to their labeling. Prescriptions have fallen from their peak in 2012, but mainly due to new prescribing limits imposed by state and local governments, insurers and hospital systems.

AP Writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this story from Cherry Hill, N.J.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  A North Carolina judge on Tuesday cut the amount of money needed to comply through the middle of next year with a step-by-step plan to address state educational inequities. But he declined to leave in place the crux of another judges order that directed cash from government coffers be sent to state agencies to cover a fiscal gap.

Special Superior Court Judge Mike Robinson ruled in long-running public education spending litigation which he began presiding over last month. Judge David Lee had directed in November that $1.75 billion be moved from state coffers to three government agencies to carry out two years of an eight-year, $5.6 billion remedial plan that he also endorsed last June.

Robinson wrote that provisions within a two-year state budget -- approved by the General Assembly and signed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper a week after Lees order -- reduced the amount now needed to carry out the plan through June 2023 to $785 million. But since a panel of the state Court of Appeals had already blocked the portion of Lee's ordering directing the transfer because it said only lawmakers can appropriate money, Robinson said he was obliged to remove that directive from his amended order.

Accordingly, this court cannot and shall not consider the legal issue of the trial courts authority to order state officers to transfer funds from the state treasury to fund the remedial plan, Robinson wrote.

That part of the ruling is a setback for school districts and parents of students who are plaintiffs in decades-long litigation over school funding. They say the state keeps falling short of its constitutional duties to help at-risk children and those in poor counties.

Still, Robinson wrote, Lee's order should be amended to declare the state has failed to fully fund those two years of the remedial plan that Lee backed, and that additional money is adjudged to be owed to three state agencies.

The Supreme Court had ordered Robinson to review Lee's order in light of the budget law and report back by April 20. The judge asked for and received an extra week, saying he needed more time to work through disagreements among state officials over how much money in the new budget law covered the remedial plan programs.

Landmark Supreme Court decisions in 1997 and 2004 declared there was a constitutionally protected right to obtain the opportunity for a sound basic education and that the state had not lived up to that mandate, especially for children in poor regions.

With Robinson's ruling, the case now returns to the state Supreme Court, which could decide to what lengths the judicial branch can go to ensure schoolchildren have the opportunity to succeed when it determines the legislative and executive branches have fallen short of their duties. No date for oral arguments has been announced.

Lee said last year that the remedial plan -- based on an outside consultants report and input from Cooper and the State Board of Education -- could satisfy the rulings from the Leandro litigation, named for a plaintiff when the lawsuit was filed in 1994.

Lee wrote that other portions of the constitution addressing education access gave him the right to direct spending.

Lawyers for Republican legislative leaders -- who only recently were added as formal parties in the case -- had argued before Robinson that Lees order directing the transfer from state coffers should have been canceled altogether. But attorneys representing school districts, parents and state officials said Robinsons job wasnt to consider whether to throw out Lees order, but whether to adjust it in light of the budget provisions.

Robinson did write Tuesday that it appeared that there would be enough unappropriated money  over $4 billion  in the state's general fund to make a transfer like Lee ordered to cover the $785 million. That unspent balance would be sitting in a savings reserve that lawmakers say can't be spent unless there is legislative approval.

Chief Justice Paul Newby named Robinson to review Lees order in light of the budget law on the same day the Supreme Court agreed to fast-track appeals over that order. In January, Lee had reached the mandatory retirement age for judges at 72. Newby had authority, however, to allow Lee to stay on the bench and perform the review. Lee had been monitoring the case since late 2016.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Police are investigating after a 6-year-old boy was reportedly left badly burned after his mom says a bully soaked a ball in gasoline, lit it on fire and hurled it at him in Connecticut.

My son was lit on fire, Maria Rua wrote on Facebook.

The attack sent Dominick to a nearby burn unit where he is being treated for second- and third-degree burns on his face and legs after getting struck with the fireball on Sunday in Bridgeport, NBC New York reported.

The Connecticut State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit is investigating the incident alongside the Bridgeport Fire Marshals Office, a state police spokesperson told McClatchy News in a statement.

Rua said that an 8-year-old neighbor, who has bullied her children before, threw the flaming ball at Dominick, according to her Facebook post.

Several children were playing with gasoline and setting items on fire outside Ruas home the day of the incident, according to a police report, Fox 61 reported.

As soon as (Dominick) walked down the stairs, the bully called his name and lured him over around the corner, and in a matter of seconds he came back around the corner screaming, saying Mommy, they lit me on fire, his sister, Kayla Deegan, told NBC New York.

Meanwhile, Deegan created a GoFundMe to raise money for her brothers hospital bills and a new home because it is not safe here, she wrote, adding that Dominick has been bullied for a while by the tenants downstairs.

In an update, Deegan posted that Dominick is doing a little better.

Yesterday was the first time he actually was able to get a few bites of food past his extremely swollen lips and into his mouth. He could only handle a few bites, but that is some good news.

As Dominick recovers, his father, Aaron Krankall, tearfully told News 12 that hes thankful his son doesnt need surgery.

Yesterday, he looked in the mirror and said, Mommy why do I look like this? That just kills me. That breaks my heart. This wasnt his choice, Rua said.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  A veritable who's who of Washington's political and foreign policy elite gathered Wednesday to pay their last respects to the late Madeleine Albright, a child of conflict-ravaged Europe who arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year old girl and became America's first female secretary of state.

The trailblazing diplomat and champion of her adopted country as the world's indispensable nation was joyously remembered by President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton as a no-nonsense, valued adviser who did not suffer fools or tyrants and was most concerned about Russia's war with Ukraine when she died last month of cancer at 84.

Biden said Albrights name was synonymous with the idea that America is a force for good in the world.

In the 20th and 21st century, freedom had no greater champion than Madeleine Korbel Albright, he said. Today we honor a truly proud American who made all of us prouder to be Americans.

He said he had learned of Albright's death while flying to Brussels for an emergency NATO summit on Ukraine and was struck by the memory of her key role in pressing for the expansion of the alliance in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union to protect Europe from a repeat of the carnage of World War II and the Cold War ideological battle between communism and democracy.

And Clinton, the man who appointed her first as his U.N. ambassador in 1993 and then as secretary of state in 1996, said his last conversation with Albright just weeks before her passing were dominated by the situation in Ukraine and her fears about the future of democracy at home and abroad.

He recalled that Albright didnt want to talk about her declining health at a moment when the West is on edge following Russias invasion of Ukraine. Albright, Clinton recalled, assured him that she was getting the best care she could, but didnt want to waste time talking about that.

The only thing that really matters is what kind of world were going to leave to our grandchildren, Clinton recalled Albright told him. He added, She made a decision with her last breath she would go out with her boots on.

Biden and Clinton, along with former President Barack Obama and several of Albright's successors as secretary of state, including Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, John Kerry and current office-holder Antony Blinken, were some 1,400 mourners who attended the funeral at Washington's National Cathedral.

The service was punctuated at points by tears, laughter and applause during reminiscences from Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Albright's three daughters, Anne, Alice and Katharine, who remembered her as a doting mom" and Granny Maddy to their own children even amid a hectic work schedule that often took her around the world.

That schedule didn't let up when she left government service in 2001 and returned to teaching at Georgetown University, started a successful international consulting company, served on the boards of numerous women's and human rights groups and became a best-selling author.

Hillary Clinton recalled stories that she had lobbied for Albright to serve as secretary of state, a role that Clinton would serve in herself during the Obama administration. Its been said that I urged my husband to nominate her as our first female secretary of state," she said. Unlike much thats said, this story was true.

The two developed a strong friendship over the years. and Hillary Clinton recalled a pair of stories about her and Albright on visits overseas during which they bonded.

Once on a walk in a drenching rainstorm in the Czech capital of Prague, Clinton said they laughed so hard they forgot they were wet. On another occasion in Beijing, Clinton recalled that she and Albright had marched through mud in a torrential downpour and confronted Chinese security forces to meet women's rights activists.

Clinton in her own tribute recalled some lighter memories of Albright, including the time she taught the foreign minister of Botswana the Macarena and danced the night away with a young, handsome man at her daughter Chelsea's wedding. She also remembered Albright as a fearless diplomat that broke barriers and then counseled, cajoled and inspired women to follow in her footsteps.

The angels better be wearing their best pins and putting on their dancing shoes, Clinton said. Because if as Madeleine believed theres a special place in hell for women who dont support other women, they havent seen anyone like her yet.

On the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and one month before her death, The New York Times printed what would be Albright's last published writing. She wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion would be a historic error that would cement his legacy as one of infamy. Until the end, she was still in a hurry to do good, Clinton said.

Other top current officials who attended the service included Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA Director Bill Burns, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Mark Milley and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The members of the VIP audience were masked, as Albright's family had requested.

Foreign dignitaries invited to the funeral included the presidents of Georgia and Kosovo and senior officials from Colombia, Bosnia and the Czech Republic.

Albright was born in what was then Czechoslovakia, but her family fled twice, first from the Nazis and then from Soviet rule. They ended up in the United States, where she studied at Wellesley College and rose through the ranks of Democratic Party foreign policy circles to become ambassador to the United Nations. Bill Clinton selected her as secretary of state in 1996 for his second term.

Although never in line for the presidency because of her foreign birth, Albright was near universally admired for breaking a glass ceiling, even by her political detractors. Several senior Republican lawmakers, including Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, attended the service.

As a Czech refugee who saw the horrors of both Nazi Germany and the Iron Curtain, she was not a dove. She played a leading role in pressing for the Clinton administration to get involved militarily in the conflict in Kosovo. My mindset is Munich, she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.

As secretary of state, Albright played a key role in persuading Clinton to go to war against the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic over his treatment of Kosovar Albanians in 1999. As U.N. ambassador, she advocated a tough U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the case of Milosevics treatment of Bosnia. NATOs intervention in Kosovo was eventually dubbed Madeleines War.

She also took a hard line on Cuba, famously saying at the United Nations that the 1996 Cuban shootdown of a civilian plane was not cojones but rather cowardice.

Bill Clinton recalled the moment in his tribute, remembering that Albright faced criticism at the time that the sharp barb was undiplomatic and unladylike." He absolutely loved it.

I called her and I said ... 'This is the best line developed and delivered by anybody in this administration," Clinton said.

In 2012, Obama awarded Albright the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, saying her life was an inspiration to all Americans.

Born Marie Jana Korbel in Prague on May 15, 1937, she was the daughter of a diplomat, Joseph Korbel. The family was Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism when she was 5. Three of her Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps.

Albright was an internationalist whose point of view was shaped in part by her background. Her family fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 as the Nazis took over their country, and she spent the war years in London.

After the war, as the Soviet Union took over vast chunks of Eastern Europe, her father brought the family to the United States. They settled in Denver, where her father taught at the University of Denver. One of Korbels best students was Condoleezza Rice, who would later succeed his daughter as secretary of state.

Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959. She worked as a journalist and later studied international relations at Columbia University, where she earned a masters degree in 1968 and a Ph.D. in 1976. She then entered politics and what was at the time the male-dominated world of foreign policy professionals.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
HOUSTON (AP)  A group of bipartisan Texas lawmakers on Wednesday visited a death row inmate whose execution they are trying to stop amid doubts about whether she fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter.

State Reps. Jeff Leach, a Republican, and Joe Moody, a Democrat, led a group of lawmakers to the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, where the state houses women on death row. Melissa Lucio faces execution on April 27.

We are blessed to have the opportunity to meet with Melissa, to pray with her, to spend time with her and were more resolute and committed than ever to fighting over the next three weeks to save her life, Leach told The Associated Press in an interview after the meeting.

Lucio was convicted of capital murder for the 2007 death of her daughter Mariah. Prosecutors say Mariah was the victim of child abuse and there is no evidence that would acquit Lucio of her daughters death.

But Lucios lawyers say jurors never heard forensic evidence that would have explained Mariahs various injuries were actually caused by a fall days before her death. They also say Lucio wasnt allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession, which they allege was not actually a confession and was given under duress after hours of relentless questioning.

Among those who have doubts about Lucios guilt are a bipartisan group of 83 Texas House members led by Leach and Moody. They sent the states Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott a letter last month asking them to grant an execution reprieve or commute her sentence. A spokeswoman for Abbotts office did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Leach said he and six other lawmakers toured the prison for about two hours before meeting privately with Lucio for about 40 minutes. The meeting was first reported by The Quorum Report, which covers Texas politics.

The lawmakers encouraged Lucio and talked with her about their efforts to stop her execution, Leach said.

It was just a sweet, sweet time together, very powerful, Leach said.

After Wednesdays meeting, Moody tweeted that, She prayed with us & hugged us; today might be the last genuine human contact she has before the state kills her.

Efforts to stop Lucios execution have also received support from reality TV star Kim Kardashian West and from several jurors at her trial who are now expressing doubts about her conviction.

In an op-ed published Sunday in the Houston Chronicle, juror Johnny Galvan Jr. said he believes jurors werent given all the information needed to make a proper decision and he now feels deep regret for sentencing Lucio to death.

The idea that my decision to take another persons life was not based on complete and accurate information in a fair trial is horrifying. There are so many problems in this case that I believe she must not be executed, Galvan wrote.

In 2019, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Lucios conviction, ruling she was deprived of her constitutional right to present a meaningful defense. However, the full court in 2021 said the conviction had to be upheld for procedural reasons.

Lucios attorneys had asked the appeals court to recall its decision but the request was denied last week.

But in a footnote in the brief decision, 5th Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham called Lucios case a systemic failure, producing a train of injustice which only the hand of the Governor can halt.

Lucio, 53, would be the first Latina executed by Texas since 1863 and the first woman since 2014. Only 17 women have been executed in the U.S. since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on the death penalty in 1976, most recently in January 2021.

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

This story has been corrected to show that Lucio would have been the first Latina to be executed by Texas since 1863, not ever.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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HOUSTON (AP)  Members of a Texas House committee on Tuesday repeatedly pressed a prosecutor to use his authority to stop the April 27 execution of a woman whose conviction is being questioned amid growing doubts about whether she fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter.

But during a sometimes contentious hearing, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz initially resisted calls from lawmakers that he ask a judge to recall the death warrant for Melissa Lucio, suggesting at first he didnt have the power to do so, then later saying there was no legal reason for him to act as various appeals court are still considering requests in her case. He later declared his belief the execution would be stopped.

I believe the (Texas Court of Criminal Appeals) will issue a stay and that is the way the system works, Saenz said.

But lawmakers on the Interim Study Committee on Criminal Justice Reform expressed frustration during the meeting in Austin that Saenz would not push the pause button himself.

Washing your hands to make this decision yourself to me is very shocking, said state Rep. Jeff Leach, the committees chair.

Saenz pushed back, saying he disagreed with claims by Lucios attorneys that there was new evidence that would exonerate her.

I am not washing my hands of this. I am dealing with it and there are hard decisions to make. You disagree with me but that doesnt mean I am washing my hands of it, Saenz said.

Saenz later said that if an appeals courts didnt take action to stop Lucios execution, he would work to delay it so the various legal claims pending in the case could be reviewed.

State Rep. Joe Moody said he believed if there are mistakes in a case, it is the duty and the moral responsibility of a prosecutor to right those wrongs.

But Saenz disagreed, saying courts call the errors, not me.

Tuesdays hearing was led by Leach and Moody, who are part of a bipartisan group of more than 80 Texas House members who are troubled by Lucios case and believe new evidence shows she did not fatally beat her daughter Mariah in 2007 in the South Texas city of Harlingen.

The lawmakers last month sent a letter to the states Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott asking them to grant an execution reprieve or commute her sentence.

Leach and Moody were among a group of seven lawmakers who last week visited Lucio on womens death row in Gatesville, Texas.

Prosecutors have maintained Mariah was the victim of child abuse as her body was covered in bruises. A medical examiner testified Mariah died from a blow to her head. Authorities say Lucio had a history of drug abuse and at times had lost custody of some of her 14 children.

But Lucios lawyers say jurors never heard forensic evidence that would have explained Mariahs various injuries were actually caused by a fall down a steep staircase. They also say Lucio wasnt allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession, which they allege was given under duress after hours of relentless questioning.

Several jurors from her trial have also expressed doubts about her conviction.

One of those jurors, Johnny Galvan Jr., appeared before the committee. In a statement that was read by his daughter, Galvan said he believed Lucios lawyers failed to present pertinent evidence in her case and he felt pressured by other jurors to sentence her to death.

I will be haunted by Ms. Lucios execution if it goes forward, Galvan said.

Earlier Tuesday, Lucios attorneys announced a fifth juror has questioned the conviction. An alternate juror has also expressed doubts.

I believe Ms. Lucio deserves a new trial and for a new jury to hear this evidence. Knowing what I know now, I dont think she should be executed, Melissa Quintanilla, the jury forewoman, said in an affidavit.

Saenz said his office had contacted the seven other jurors who sentenced Lucio and six of them had not changed their minds while the seventh had died.

After the committee meeting, Sonya Alvarez, one of Lucios sisters, said her family was encouraged after hearing Saenz say he would stop the execution if the courts didnt act.

Were just hopeful ... that hes going to do the right thing and allow this new evidence to be presented, Alvarez said.

Lucio, 52, would be the first Latina executed by Texas since 1863 and the first woman since 2014. Only 17 women have been executed in the U.S. since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on the death penalty in 1976, most recently in January 2021.

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

This story has been corrected to show that Lucio would have been the first Latina to be executed by Texas since 1863, not ever.

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 first human case of H3N8 bird flu has been detected in China; plus, Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly apparently drink each other's blood? And more of today's top news.
In Tom Gormicans sprightly, shaggy new comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Nic Cages character Nick (with a K!) Cage periodically engages in conversation with Nicky Cage, a digitally de-aged version of himself. At one point Nick the younger, costumed and styled to look like the gonzo 26-year-old who once made his entrance on a BBC chat show by turning a half-successful front handspring and flinging cash at the live audience, scolds his middle-aged self for no longer seeking roles worthy of his genius. Youre not an actor, youre a fucking MOVIE STAR! he bellows, before giving his future self a long kiss on the lips. (Later, the present-day Cage will praise his own performance as a kisser, insisting repeatedly to everyone in earshot that Nick Cage smooches good!)

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In the course of the real-life Cages now 40-year-long career, he has often had occasion to encounter his double. In Spike Jonzes Adaptation and in John Woos Face/Offnot to mention in the countless other movies where Cages character refracts some version of his on- or offscreen selfhe has chosen roles that play on the audiences assumed knowledge of his outsized star persona and well-documented personal eccentricities. The Cage-on-Cage encounters in Massive Talent speak to a dynamic that has driven the actors career for decades: Nicolas Cage is forever engaged in the search for Nicolas Cage. He is a public figure whos perfectly comfortable (and maybe even a bit obsessed) with displaying that self-reflexive dynamic in the roles he chooses.

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Nicolas Cage is forever engaged in the search for Nicolas Cage.

Nicky Cages concern for the career integrity of his elder incarnation is, in the world outside the movies frame, misplaced. Just last year, Cage received widespread critical praise for his performance in Pig, an introspective indie from a debut director about a lonely truffle-hunters search for his kidnapped porcine palhardly a movie that could be classified as a crass action blockbuster or a cynical cash grab. In recent years, Cage has appeared in a series of highly personal roles in well-regarded uncommercial projects: the trippy revenge actioner Mandy, the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out of Space, the horror-tinged samurai Western Prisoners of the Ghostland. His role choices have long been nothing if not idiosyncratic. For every Nic Cage character that lives rent-free in your head and your memes folder (Sailor Ripley in Wild at Heart! Cameron Poe in Con Air! The guy who hates bees in The Wicker Man!), there are three more in below-the-radar movies youve likely only seen if youre a hardcore Cage completist. His wild ride of a career, lovingly documented by the critic Keith Phipps in the lively new book Age of Cage, stretches to 103 films, and at 58, he shows no sign of either slowing down or growing more conservative in his tastes. Indeed, for every year thats passed since his Best Actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas in 1996, hes given less of a rats ass what anyone thinks of his choices, onscreen or off.

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In a beat poetry-styled travel diary Cage wrote for Details magazine in 1991 on the heels of the release of the straight-to-video erotic thriller Zandalee, he expressed the desire to be John Denver on acid playing the accordion (having already attained the status, in his words, of a lizard, a shark, and a heat-seeking panther  a glow-in-the-dark rollercoaster  a hard-on). The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is Cages latest stab at this surreal fantasy of somehow incarnating every conceivable existence at once. The films premisethat the fictional Nick Cage, at a low point of career burnout, accepts a well-paid offer to travel to Mallorca to attend the birthday party of a rich Spanish superfan named Javi (Pedro Pascal)gives the actor an opportunity to explore the concept of multiple competing identities. But as Nic Cage-on-Nic Cage vehicles go, Massive Talent is neither the most original nor the weirdest, which says a lot about just how many offbeat movies this heat-seeking actor has appeared in to date.

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In the buddy-comedy scenes between Cage and Pascal, Massive Talent is at its best. The fictional Cages at first resentful relationship to his adoring host turns into a fast friendship as the two bond over their shared love for the silent German Expressionist classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (one of the real-life Cages longtime favorite films) and drop acid together in a seaside village (accordions and John Denver are unfortunately not involved). Its a delight to watch these two overprivileged oddballs bond and bicker as they first evade and later, on Nicks part at least, abet the CIA surveillance team assigned to track Javi, whom they believe to be an international criminal mastermind. But the thriller plot that takes over for the last third of the movie feels hastily tacked on, with Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz both squandered in the roles of agents who have little to do but witness the action remotely through security cameras.

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But for me the biggest disappointment of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talenta likeable if lightweight comedy thats more than worth seeing for Cages and Pascals touching bromance and its Nick-confronts-Nicky fantasy sequenceswas that it didnt go even further with its central doppelganger conceit. No script that follows in Charlie Kaufmans footsteps is going to come off well when it comes to twisty self-referentiality, but in comparison with the nested narratives and competing genres of 2003s Adaptation, this latter-day execution of a similar concept (with nearly 20 more years of Cage filmography to spin into meta-jokes) almost seems to lack the courage of its high-concept convictions. The doubling of Cages character in Adaptation, where he played not a barely-fictionalized version of himself but a barely-fictionalized version of Kaufmanserved a larger purpose than just putting the actor in conversation with a version of himself. The conflict between twin brothers Charlie and Donald Kaufman (the latter a pure construct, a slick Hollywood screenwriter coasting to easy success while his tormented sibling struggles to finish a script) becomes, in the delirious final act, a battle between two kinds of filmmaking: the grand-scale blockbuster vs. the introspective indie, the flamboyant movie star vs. the fiercely private, Caligari-loving weirdo, Cage vs. Cage.

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Face/Off, from 1997, took the enigma of Cage-ian identity in a whole other direction, with Hong Kong action director John Woo transplanting the stars outsized persona into the body of fellow over-the-top-goer John Travolta, while Travoltas character migrates into Cages body via highly experimental (and enjoyably preposterous) face-switching surgery. The expressionist acting Cage had been looking for chances to explore since the reviled-at-the-time Vampires Kiss in 1989 finds its highest expression in the scenes where Cage, as a morally upright FBI agent forced by involuntary face swap to pose as the villainous Castor Troy, must communicate at once a reluctance to harm others and a credible imitation of Troys gleeful penchant for violence. Its a performance within a performance, with the grand-scaled charisma of one movie star nested inside anothera degree of meta-ness that puts Massive Talents Nick-meets-Nicky scenes to shame, and the kind of high-octane acting challenge Cage has always loved to rise to.

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I wrote an assessment of Cages career way back in 2010, when he had just released the disappointingly mundane family movie The Sorcerers Apprentice. He was then heading into one of the tougher decades of his career and life: In the 2010s, Cage struggled to find the right roles, while also dealing with financial troubles thanks to his notoriously lavish spending habits. (Yes, he did once outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for a $276,000 dinosaur skull.) But my early-2010s worries that this one-of-a-kind actor, whom Ive loved since his unmistakable eyebrows appeared above the top of a shower curtain in the 1983 teen romp Valley Girl, would disappear down a rabbit hole of mediocre blockbusters proved unfounded. It was too soon to summarize his career then, and 12 years later, it still is. Lets check in again after another dozen have passed.
If you were asked to think of a celebrity who would logically inspire the manufacturing of a Barbie made in their image, the 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II might not be the first person to jump to mind. But that is a mistake on the part of your imagination, as the British monarchy and Mattel are two of the worlds strongest brands, and whatever your feelings about them, its an iconic partnership.

If you dont believe me, the numbers speak for themselves. The doll, which retails for $75, went on sale April 20, and sold out within a matter of hours. As of the writing of this article, Queen Elizabeth Barbies are reselling for a minimum of $300 on eBay. One person is selling magnets printed with an image of the doll in her box. QVC, which isnt even one of the retailers selling the doll, is hosting a five page-long forum of people discussing the dolls design. (Many of the posters take issue with the doll looking more like Helen Mirren than Queen Elizabeth, though one person writes, I find the resolute set of the lips of Barbie/Elizabeth to be rather eerily accurateIve seen that expression over the years, on the current monarch.)

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Its difficult to quantify exactly how popular this makes the Queen Elizabeth II doll, in the scheme of all celebrity Barbies, but she seems poised to go down in history. British fashion model Twiggy was the first famous person to be made into a Barbie in 1967, and that doll is now a genuine collectible. Despite that, the now-antique Twiggy dolls are not currently reselling at the same prices as the Queen Elizabeth doll.

There have been too many celebrity Barbies to offer even an abbreviated listMattel has designed Barbie versions of everyone from Ida B. Wells to Bindie Irwin. The most expensive doll of a famous person seems to be the 2003 Marie Antoinette Barbie, designed by Bob Mackie, which routinely sells for over $2,000 on eBay. That long-gone queen is an outlier, though. With the exception of a relatively small set of celebrity dolls, most of these Barbies-made-from-people are still relatively affordable.

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The taxonomy of celebrity Barbies is complex. The companys Role Models line contains Inspiring Women, which are historical figures, and Sheroes, which are modern-day famous womenthough the distinction between a Sheroe and a plain old Role Model is honestly lost on me. And the symbolism of celebrity Barbie dolls relative market value is disquieting. It does not make me feel great to see that Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, and Maya Angeloumembers of the Inspiring Women seriesall cost only $35 and are readily available, while Queen Elizabeth is on her rise to eternal Barbie stardom.

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One uncomfortable fact about the Role Models line is that only certain peoples dolls are manufactured for the market. All these women have at least one Barbie created in their likeness for the purposes of the partnership, but whether dolls from the Role Models line make it to stores seems mostly to do with how famous the person in question is. Naomi Osaka, Misty Copeland, and Chloe Kim were all made into legitimate, purchase-ready Barbies, but Polish truck driver and blogger Iwona Blecharczyk, another Role Model, was not. In some cases, the basis for these decisions is a little less clear: astronaut Samantha Cristoforettis Barbie is available for sale, but the Zendaya Barbie never materialized.

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The mess of trying to parse Mattels priorities aside, the success of the Queen Elizabeth doll makes a great amount of economic sense. Theres a long history of the making and selling of collectibles associated with the royal family. There are coins, and plates, and dinner bells; thimbles, and commemorative spoons, and Faberge eggs. In the toy category, the most famous example is the Princess Diana Beanie Baby, which was released to raise money for Dianas memorial fund in 1997. At one time these plushies were worth thousands of dollars.

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On top of all this track record, people really like Queen Elizabeth! Despite the Windsors recent dramaand young Brits general distrust of the monarchythe Queen has managed to rise above the fray, at least in the publics imagination. A 2020 poll found that 70 percent of people in Great Britain had a positive opinion of the Queen. Olivia Colman, who played her on The Crown, has called her the ultimate feminist. She is nostalgia personified.

But no matter how beloved Elizabeth is, theres something simultaneously irritating and humorous about this nonagenarian (who, in real life, is rather hunchedas is only fair) moving units of a silver fox of a doll with a wrinkle-free face and a Made to Move Petite form. But youll stay much saner if you follow the example of Her Majesty: Let all the madness wash over you, and think of this as what it is: a very successful business deal.
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Dear Care and Feeding,

My husband and I have two sons. The younger one, who is 17, has mentioned over the course of a few years his interest in going into police work. He says he wants to be one of the good ones. My husband and I, both white, are educators who have demonstrated our commitment to social justice. Our son will be a high school senior in the fall and is talking about this career option with more confidence. I do not have positive feelings toward police and I never have. I resent the enforcement aspect and do not see how they protect and serve at all. At the same time, Ive talked favorably over the years about efforts some departments are making to reform police work, so our son doesnt just see me angry about police all the time.

Ive reached out to a friend who teaches in a criminal justice program and talked with another friend who runs therapy groups with police agencies. Ive read a lot. But Im becoming sadder by the day. I feel if I talk with our son seriously about my reservations, he will dig in his heels. Theres so much he doesnt see yet about the bigger picture of policing, and Im worried hell become one of them. My husband is not as concerned and thinks our son is young enough to find his way. He thinks that the values weve instilled in him will prevail. I should mention that our son does well in school and is fairly well-rounded, though very quiet; he doesnt like sit-down talks or trapped in the car talks. I dont know how to proceed here.

Mamas Dont Let Your Sons Be Police Officers

Dear Mamas,

In the interest of full disclosure: I have similar feelings about the policeand being a Black man in America only adds more fuel to the fire. However, I tend to agree with your husband when it comes to your son.

You should lean on the upbringing you provided your son and be confident that he will know right from wrong if he chooses this career path. Granted, its no secret that many police departments across this country are filled with power-hungry racist frat bros with guns. It certainly will be difficult for him not to be influenced by the so-called bad apples, but it isnt impossibleespecially if hes not easily swayed by peer pressure.

That said, even if he despises heart-to-heart conversations, you should still talk to him about your concerns about policing. The key is you shouldnt have a goal of trying to change his mindthat probably wont happen, and it could lead to resentment or anger down the road. Instead, you should simply state your opinion, talk about how important it is for him to set a good example if he chooses to become a police officer, and say that youll support him in whatever he decides. If he feels that youre not there to move him from his position, he may become more open to listening to you.

We need as many good white people as possible to join the police force. I hope your son decides to take on the challenge of fixing this woefully flawed organization from the inside.

Doyin

More Advice From Slate

I consider myself a moral person. Im lucky to be married to someone caring and attractive, whom I love and who loves me back. We just had our first child. My wife has a sister whos been married for several years, has kids, and seems happy. Shes also extremely sexy.
For the past few months, Dylan Peers McCoy, who covers education for the Indianapolis public radio station WFYI, has been hearing stories of parents who show up at their local public school only to find out their kids have no teachersand these missing teachers work in special education. McCoy knew special educators often struggle with paperwork, along with the stress of managing kids with complicated needs. But it wasnt till she got a few teachers on the phone that she realized exactly how their burnout was snowballing. Having so many missing colleagues meant that the teachers who got left behind were fending for themselves. On Wednesdays episode of What Next, I spoke with McCoy about why schools around the country are struggling to keep teachers in special education classrooms. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Mary Harris: Special education was born back in the 1970sthats when federal laws were passed requiring public schools to educate kids with disabilities. Since then, schools have professionals like speech therapists and organized dedicated classrooms, as well as integrated, ones to help disabled students learn. But the story of this special education staff shortage begins with a broken promise: In exchange for requiring schools to be more inclusive, the federal government promised to pay 40 percent of the cost of special education. Thats not how things worked out.

Dylan Peers McCoy: For fiscal year 2020, the federal government contributed about 13 percent of the excess costs of special education, according to data from the National Education Associationso, a fraction of what the government said. I spend a lot of time talking to CFOs and other folks within school districts, and when you ask them about the pressures on their budgets, the cost of special education comes up over and over again.

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This underfunding is coupled with lots of red tape. Unlike general ed teachers, special ed teachers need to fill out education plans for their students and closely monitor their progress. This government-mandated reporting is one more reason it can be hard for even trained professionals to stick around.

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The special ed teacher shortage looks different than some of the other teacher shortages we see. A lot of general education teachers are licensed in special education, but those teachers are not going into special education classrooms. The prototypical example Ive heard from people was: Someone gets right out of college, they have their licenses in elementary and special education, and they just want a job, so the jobs they might have the easiest time getting are these special ed jobsbecause we are so desperate for teachers in those positions.

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But then they dont stay.

Exactly. So you get a teacher. They do that job for a while. But then when another position opens up to teach third grade, theyre like: That looks like a less stressful job. Maybe Id want to teach third grade instead.

What youre talking about here is a real collision between requirements and the needs of the kids. A lot of people think about staff shortages in terms of the pandemic, but it sounds like staff shortages with special ed have been going on since well before then.

Yeah, I think thats really important. This is not a pandemic problem.

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This year, 48 out of 50 states reported shortages of special education teachers, which means many schools are forced to rely on a legal loophole: When they cant find enough trained teachers, they may choose to hire people who arent fully qualified, just as long as these candidates actively pursuing a special education certification. That meansin states like California, Virginia, Maryland, and Indianaschools are offering provisional licenses to people who might not be ready to take on the work of a special ed teacher, just so classrooms dont sit empty.

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Historically, Indiana has issued emergency permits for special education teachers. Thats something were not supposed to do under federal law. This state government came out last year and said, oh, wait a minute, we cant have these, and so theyre going to stop issuing those permits.

Who can get an emergency permit?

You have to have a college degree and sponsoring school district, essentially. In the best-case scenario what you get is: This teachers been teaching general education for a little while, theyre very qualified and experienced, and theyve agreed to take on the special education load in their school for kids with mild disabilities. So then their principal gets them an emergency permit because their principal wants to hire them. The worst-case scenarioand I have spoken to people who are in this situationis basically just, you have a college degree, you can teach special education.

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That sounds like its not great for the kids or the school.

It varies person by person. Sometimes you talk to a person and theyre a qualified special ed teacher, but they were in a training program to teach students who are deaf and hard of hearing, and then they get an emergency permit and theyre teaching students who are deaf and hard of hearing. Other times you talk to people who are completely in over their head. Even if theyre in a training program, they dont feel qualified to go into a classroom. The more I learned about this, the more I felt like my takeaway from all this reporting is that were often tasking the least-prepared teachers with educating the highest-need students. I dont think thats fair to the students, and I dont think thats fair to the teachers.

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I wonder if we can talk about some solutions here. I know you went out and looked into places that are experimenting with ways to attract and retain more special education teachers. Can you tell me a little bit about whats happening in Hawaii?

In Hawaii, theyre paying special education teachers $10,000 extra a year to teach special education on top of what they would get paid to teach general education. They just started doing that in January 2020and its working. When you look at data from 2019, 30 percent of their special education positions statewide were either entirely vacant or staffed by teachers who were not fully licensed. When you look at that same data from the fall of 2021, that percent was cut in half.

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A lot of times, teaching special ed can be thought of as the least desirable job in a school. We know its hard. We know its staffed by a lot of underqualified people. People dont think of it as a job that requires specialized expertise. So by saying, Were going to pay these people more because what they do is really important, and its important to have qualified people getting it right, it can change how the job is seen and change how teachers feel about how theyre seen. Its one thing to work a really hard job and feel like no one is recognizing you and no one sees you doing that. Paying people extra is a way of saying, look, we know this job is really hard and we think its really important.

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Where are places like Hawaii getting the cash to pay for this boost in salary?

In Hawaii, its about 1 percent of the state education budget. Thats not nothing, but thats not going to blow up the whole budget. Youre not giving $10,000 more to all of your teachers, which is a much larger pool of people. I spoke to an expert who suggested that school districts should do some cost-benefit analysis because if they did this, they might actually be able to save some money because theyre not going to have to spend as much time recruiting and training special ed teachers, which is really time consuming and expensive.

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Why wouldnt every school district do this?

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It varies by school system, but when I talk to experts about this, sometimes people say teachers unions are opposed to this. The teachers union in Hawaii has actually been advocating for this, so to say that all teachers unions are opposed to this is just fundamentally inaccurate.

That being said, Ive seen teachers unions oppose any kind of pay differentiation. So oftentimes, teachers will get paid the same amount based on sort of their experience, regardless of what job theyre doing. Its a very strong norm in education, which isnt the case in some other industrieseven in other unionized industries.

One teacher in Hawaii alluded to the fact that the extra moneys nice, but what she really needs is to feel like her school and her school system has her back.

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I think thats a really eloquent way of putting that. You cant think of this specialized shortage as a problem we can solve quickly with a silver bullet. No one has said, If you just pay special ed teachers more, we wouldnt have problems. Even people who really believe in this also point to other things that we should be doing, like making training for special education teachers easier and lower-cost, and creating schools where special ed teachers and students feel supported and part of their community. You want to create good working conditions, and there are some things were dealing with right now that are making working conditions harder at this moment than theyve been.

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On the flip side, the money does matter to a lot of people. The teacher I talked to in Hawaii, she moved into an administrative role that paid better than a general classroom role because it was year-round. She missed teaching special education, and she missed having her own students instead of helping other people with their students, but she felt like she couldnt afford to go back into teaching special ed because she needed to pay for child care. And so just like wasnt an option on the table for her. But when they said were going to pay special education teachers $10,000 more a year, she went back to the classroom, and she seemed happy when I saw her.

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If the federal government ponied up and paid for the services they said they were going to, that would help students, but its not the only way to help students. States and school districts can make these choices. Atlanta started paying special education teachers $3,000 more a year. Detroit is paying special education teachers $15,000 more a year. Even at the individual school district level, places can decide that this is a priority and theyre going to put their resources behind it.

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Black Lives Matter began as a hashtag marking the death of Trayvon Martin and the failure to find justice after his killing. In the years since, Black Lives Matter has grown into a movement with international recognition and power. Its always important to remember that Black Lives Matter is a movement but also a political ideology and a complex web of organizations. The movement has inspired millions to protest police violence. The ideology has influenced American politics for the last decade, and the organizations have pushed for social justice and policy.

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Now, one of those core groups, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, is the subject of a recent report about its finances, specifically its purchase of a $6 million home in Malibu, California, under the guidance of the groups former leader, Patrisse Cullors, ostensibly as both a safe house and as a space to film social media videos. The story, published in New York magazine, has fueled questions about the foundations judgment and whether its still a credible voice in the BLM movement. On Fridays episode of A Word, I spoke with investigative journalist Sean Campbell, the reporter behind the story. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Jason Johnson: When you tried to talk to the founders of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, how receptive were they to talk to you? How did people respond when you wanted to reach out, and what did you tell them you were writing about?

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Sean Campbell: They were not receptive at all, I would say, especially early on. So I learned about the home purchase. I had learned that a man named Dyane Pascall had purchased the home. Dyane Pascall was a financial manager for Patrisse Cullors consulting firm and also [for] the father of her child. I was like, well, this seems odd. This is a nearly $6 million purchase in cash. The person at question was not the kind of person who would just have $6 million lying around, so things seemed strange there.

I asked them questions. I laid out, basically, here is what I have for how the home was purchased, who purchased it, the dates that it happened, and questions on how the home was used. I also knew from sources that there had been coordination with a security hub that Black Lives Matter was using to monitor property where Patrisse Cullors brother was the head of the security, monitoring not only that home but also other properties that we believe she purchased with her own funds. And there were also nondisclosure agreements that we had also seen that had the names of people who were working maintenance, like pool, lawn care, and housekeeping. Her mother had a nondisclosure agreement for a housecleaning contract. So these are family members, and also her sisterwe saw an NDA associated with her as well. So these are people, her direct family, that were tied closely in with this home, and these were all part of my questionshow was it used, how did you guys use this, why is the only place were seeing this used is Patrisse Cullors personal YouTube channel, and some other questions.

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And the first response that I received was actually not even sent to me directly. It was sent to one of the head lawyers at New York magazine, Vox Media, from Patrisse Cullors lawyer, saying that my questions were defamatory and also that they would like another 24 hours to respond. Now, after that initial contact and that 24-hour extension, which we agreed to, I learned that that immediately sent them into a damage control mode, where they had to figure out a reason to explain the existence of this house. And through those conversations and also the memo, I had confirmed that the house was purchased with BLM funds and they werent even certain exactly how it was going to fit in legally with their finances, and also explaining just how they were using the resources in and around the home.

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Now, after that or through those conversations that I believe took place, that I know took place, and the memo, part of their strategy was to delay talking to me and seeing if they could break the story with another newsroom, or in some way announce information that would deflate the story. That was actually the language that was used in the memo, finding a way to deflate the story. Theyve had a gathering with other media, especially within the Black media. I was not invited to that gathering. I was not a part of any of those conversations. So since then, Ive not had any contact in terms of disclosing additional information or been invited to any of those conversations.

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Some of the pushback from supporters of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation and even some of their members has been, look, lots of other large nonprofits purchase buildings as an investment. Why is Black Lives Matter doing that so problematic? Why does that seem to be something thats worth scrutiny when lots of large nonprofits purchase real estate? Whats your response to that sort of pushback?

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When I reached out to experts about this, why might this be a problem, I think the biggest one is that this home was on the books for over a year, 17 months, and the only reason it became well-known was because I had asked them about it. And up until that point, it was only used by Patrisse Cullors and Melina Abdullah, who were connected within the organization, and for Patrisse Cullors personal YouTube channel, as far as we know. It wasnt like this was being utilized for a number of reasons. There were actually members of the organization that were very surprised to learn of the existence of this home.

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So when you talk about any of these other groups, when they make a purchase like this, its known. Its talked about. So there hadnt been any of that. So thats an issue right there. And when I talk to experts about this, thats one of those things where theyre just like, well, that raises a lot of questionswhen you have a security force thats headed by the brother, when you have staff for the home also related to Patrisse Cullors, when you have not very many people knowing about it, when you also have it being used for a personal YouTube channel. All of these are nonprofit resources seemingly being utilized by a private individual. Now, thats not kosher with nonprofit governance. Nonprofits can own property and they can use properties for the mission of the nonprofit, but a nonprofit cant buy property for a private individual or buy property and resources specifically for the use of a private individual.

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Another thing, too, is that when were talking about order of priorities, when you look at the address on the filings for the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, it is not a physical address or an address that is a building. It is a mailbox in Oakland. So if youre talking about purchasing property, any of those other organizations, they have other buildings that are office spaces that they at least lease, rent, etc., before they go about buying multimillion-dollar properties. Theres a question as to how those properties were being used.

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And theres also just the dedication of resources. It has been a known problem within the Black Lives Matter movement that many of the activists who are doing on-the-ground worktheyre so passionate for it, and this doesnt pay muchthat they are going homeless. Theyre going hungry. And theyve approached the organization about this. Not only have they been asking, How is the money being used? Are we going to be seeing any of this money? theyve said, We have people that dont have homes. When you have all these other issues within the movement and money thats honestly being collected off the work of people within the movement, how are those funds being used?

And when we talk about the Red Cross, or about purchases of property with Doctors Without Borders or the ACLU, the people who work for those, the doctors, the lawyers, they arent facing homelessness at the level or extent that were seeing with people who are working in activism within the Black Lives Matter movement.

Listen to the entire episode below, or subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Last week, Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz revealed that a Brooklyn real estate agent named Chaya Raichik was the person behind the influential conservative Twitter account Libs of TikTok.

Raichiks account, which previously operated anonymously, has become a powerful voice in the culture wars, pushing discourse designed to demonize supporters of LGBTQ rights as sexually predatory groomers of children. Raichiks account has even influenced policy through a symbiotic relationship with a top aide to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who recently signed into law a dont say gay bill that allows parents to sue school districts for employing gay or transgender teachers who are open about their lives with their students. Raichik has been at the vanguard of attempting to reframe the dangerous legislation as designed to protect children, calling it an anti-groomer bill.

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Slate scrolled through thousands of Raichiks tweets, including hundreds of deleted tweets, to understand how one real estate agent could gain such clout and to try to discern her next targets. One notable trend was clear: Raichiks feed is colored by an intense hostility to liberals generally, but she holds an especially pronounced animosity toward LGBTQ people, city dwellers, and Black people who have been killed at the hands of police.

Raichik started her account in April 2020 with a seemingly innocent mandate in her profile: I help you find your daily dose of cringe. Her early content focused on TikTok videos of ostensible progressives performing cringeworthy songs about their love of Anthony Fauci and vaccinations.

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Raichiks first original video to break 50,000 views was Fauci cringe content. Her first video to break 100,000 views was vaccine cringe content.

The key ingredient in Raichiks early success on a topic with a relatively short shelf life was shamelessly tagging alt-right and far-right heavy hitters on Twitter, a strategy she continues to use to this day.

But thats not the only tool Raichik used to send her tweets traveling across the Twitterverse. In a series of since-deleted tweets from the first couple of weeks of her account, she highlighted her affinity for popular alt-right views about the political left and about victims of police violence in particular.

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The same week that Raichik said she started the tik tok thing, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd. Prior to his conviction, Raichik had focused on a different flavor of right-wing content under other usernames. But around the time the verdict came down, Raichik let her apparent views on police violence be known: Floyd was a criminal and his death was the result of drug use, not Chauvins brutality, she made clear in a series of tweets.

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Raichiks apparent hostility for Black victims of police violence didnt end with Floyd. She also tweeted repeatedly mocking the killing of 16-year-old MaKhia Bryant, and in another video, the account endorsed random police brutality.

While she eventually deleted many of those tweets targeting the victims of police violence, Raichik has left up scores of tweets denying the existence of systemic racism. The day after Juneteenth 2021, Raichiks account posted a callout to her followers, asking them to reply with one word and she would try to find a video saying why that word is racist. What resulted was a more-than-150-part series of tweets mocking the notion that systemic racism exists. (There is, however, one form of racism that Raichik says is flourishing in America: racism against white people.)

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Raichik has also made a name for herself by helping to blow up fights within school systems and among teachers and students, even getting a number of teachers removed from their jobs. These efforts began in earnest in September 2021 when her account highlighted a dispute over racism at Arizona State University when a pair of students were asked to leave a multicultural center. One of the booted students brought a computer with a Police Lives Matter sticker into the center, while the other one wore an anti-Biden T-shirt.

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 This insanity is happening on college campuses pic.twitter.com/BrVxICZYqP  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 24, 2021

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The video exploded with 5.7 million views, Raichiks biggest hit by far, boosted by attention from the conservative media ecosystem including Fox News. The incident resulted in school administrators disciplining, for an alleged code of conduct violation, the two students of color who had confronted the white student over his Police Lives Matter sticker.

Raichik, though, has exploited every front in the conservative culture wars. Another favorite of hers is the popular conservative talking point that American cities are hellscapes dominated by theft, crime, and homelessness. Last fall, she posted a series of tweets of videos of homeless encampments, garnering hundreds of thousands of views.

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While she got her start stoking racial tensions, Raichiks real bread-and-butter lies elsewhere. Specifically, she has risen to prominence by tarring LGBTQ people, who, she has indicated with emoji, make her nauseous. Her efforts started in earnest in May 2020, when Raichik began to pivot from COVID cringe content toward vilifying LGBTQ people.

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On the eve of Pride Month, she declared her intent: This account is going to be  during pride month!! Are you ready?

Then came a series of anti-LGBTQ tweets that helped propel her account into the conservative stratosphere. First, she posted a link to a video (now deleted) with a trans person and three throw-up emojis, followed by the comment Men should not wear dresses. You cant change my mind. One day later, in another deleted tweet, her account made a grooming comment apparently for the first time, with a tweet saying STOP GROOMING KIDS. One week later, she repeated the same line. Later in June, Raichik sent out her most popular tweet to that date, mocking someone for describing the concept of gender fluidity:

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This is so messed up in so many ways pic.twitter.com/43w1Lk3gIs  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 20, 2021

At this point, it seems that Raichik realized she was onto something. For the rest of its tenure, Libs of TikTok found its footing as one of the preeminent homophobic and transphobic spaces on Twitter. Shortly thereafter, Joe Rogan even gave her a shoutout on his popular anti-leftist podcast, sending her hate-fueled star skyrocketing.

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For months, Raichik backed off the groomer discourse while still consistently posting videos mocking trans people. But in November 2021, she started up again. In a since-deleted post, Raichiks account wrote this about a prominent LGBTQ youth suicide-prevention group: The Trevor Project is a grooming organization. It was around this time that her account also started using what has become a popular online insult: Ok groomer.

Toward the end of 2021 and into the new year, Raichik found her rhythm with memes and videos calling LGBTQ people and those who supported LGBTQ youth groomers. She has even attempted to smear one of the most prominent gay men in the country. In a deleted tweet, Raichiks account accused Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigiegs husband, Chasten, of grooming kids for his work supporting LGBTQ youth.

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And then came Floridas dont say gay law, which state legislators began considering around the same time Raichik went into groomer overdrive. After all of her hard work, Raichiks account was ready for a victory lap:

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Brian Stelter: Its [Libs of TikTok] even helped inform Florida's recent parental rights law"



If true, this is one of the biggest accomplishments of my life and I will wear it with a badge of honor. We must protect innocent young kids. pic.twitter.com/ngPmsVNMjr  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 21, 2022

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In the past week since her identity was revealed, Raichik has focused extensively on decrying Lorenz for exposing her. She has also continued her anti-trans missives. But her recent online behavior has signaled a possible new aim: the free speech wars. Raichik has, paradoxically, exposed and called out dozens of random citizens for allegedly being groomers while simultaneously professing that free speech demands she be able to maintain anonymity. That hasnt stopped her, though, from portraying herself as a free speech warrior and the victim of the woke mob.

Whatever hateful course Raichik decides to take next, she may have a new ally in any potential battle over censorship and the appropriate limits of public speech: Elon Musk. The new owner of Twitter has promised to make the space even more open to views like Raichiks. And it appears the support has already begun. Just last week, Raichik posted a screenshot of Musk liking one of her tweets with the caption OMG.
COVID-19 pandemic not over yet: WHO

Xinhua) 08:43, April 27, 2022

Pedestrians walk through Grand Central Station in New York, the United States, March 28, 2022. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

"When it comes to a deadly virus, ignorance is not bliss. The WHO continues to call on all countries to maintain surveillance," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

GENEVA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Even though the number of globally reported COVID-19 cases and deaths continues to decline, largely due to a drop in testing rates, the pandemic is not over, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned here on Tuesday.

Last week, just over 15,000 coronavirus-related deaths were reported to the WHO, the lowest weekly total since March 2020, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing.

A woman puts a flower on the National COVID Memorial Wall in London, Britain, March 27, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Ying)

However, the encouraging trend should be interpreted with caution, as many countries have scaled back on testing, and as a result "the WHO is receiving less and less information about transmission and sequencing," he said.

"This makes us increasingly blind to patterns of transmission and evolution. But this virus won't go away just because countries stop looking for it. It's still spreading, it's still changing and it's still killing," Tedros said.

"When it comes to a deadly virus, ignorance is not bliss. The WHO continues to call on all countries to maintain surveillance," he said.

A man has a COVID-19 test at a test station in Berlin, capital of Germany, on March 24, 2022. (Photo by Stefan Zeitz/Xinhua)

Responding to the European Union's (EU) recent decision to enter a new post-emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, cautioned that this is not the time to lose focus on the virus nor on its potential to continue to evolve.

"The fact is that we're not out of this yet," he said.

Maria van Kerkhove, technical lead for the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said that despite the recent positive trends, she had "little confidence in the number of cases being reported around the world" due to the massive changes in testing strategies and the huge reductions in the number of tests being performed around the world.

"On the positive side, we do see a change. We are in a different phase of this pandemic, certainly, but we are still very much in the middle of this pandemic, and this is still a global problem," she said.

Performers participate in a street parade celebrating the Songkran Festival in Ayutthaya, Thailand, April 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Teng)

"Now is not the time to retreat. Now is the time to really strengthen what we have put in place and ensure that we keep people alive, and we get our economies back on track and we save people's livelihoods," she noted.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
Cover Story

All over the corporate companies, socio-economic impacts, started by the pandemic, are creating tremors of the impact which is felt legally in the Indian industry. The Indian business companies, as stated in the gearing of economic development, are contributing to the focused improvement for easing of the business process. India is placed 63rd place among the 190 countries in the World Banks Ease of Doing Business rankings. NASSCOM, a non-profit industry association, the apex institute for the $227 billion dollars ITBPM industry in India, with business implementations in Indias GDP, exports, employment, infrastructure, and global business, is providing the largest employer in the private sector.
Survey carried out before Heger's trip to Kyiv

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Prime Minister Eduard Heger is now the most trusted member of cabinet among voters, according to a new poll, with voter trust in him rising since the Ukraine war broke out.

Respondents named PM Heger as the most trustworthy member of government in a survey by the Focus polling group conducted for the Na Telo programme on private television Markiza. The poll was carried out between March 30 and April 6 with 1,007 respondents.

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The poll was carried out after Heger refused to travel to Ukraine, when he was invited to join Czech, Polish and Slovenian PMs, but before the prime minister's journey to Ukraine with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on April 9.

Refusal to go to Ukraine had no effect
Caputova rubbishes 'liberation' claims, pointing to rapes and violence

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President Zuzana Caputova has appealed directly to Russian troops in Ukraine calling on them to end what she called "this terrible war".

In a video, speaking Russian, she appealed to Russian soldiers and commanders to put an end to the war in Ukraine, saying that with each lost civilian life, they are breaching military discipline and losing their honour.

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Russian soldiers, commanders, all concerned, if you are still capable of feeling any vestige of humanity in yourself, bring it back to life and end this terrible war, she said.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/wGes3VZfUL4

Violence against women and children

The president urged them to put an end to violence, especially against women and children, citing numerous testimonies of acts of violence against Ukrainian women.

"You justify your invasion by talking of liberation. How were you intending to liberate Tatiana from Irpin, killed by a Russian grenade along with her two children? Or Olena from Hostomel, raped by one of you in a car?" she asked.

These women find that words are not enough when they try to describe the pain you have made a part of their lives simply because...Well, why even? None of us knows Do you?!, she continued.

She added: With each passing day, you are only increasing the army of wounded souls and bodies of women, children, and innocent people.

Related story
Claims he had no choice but to pay police 50,000.

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Coalition MP Martin Borgula (Sme Rodina) has been charged with corruption, according to media reports.

The website zregionu.sk was the first to break the news.

Police confirmed that as part of Operation Inferno  8th Circle, charges have been brought against several people, including one MP.

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Borgula himself, though, has said he has yet to receive any official confirmation that charges are being pressed against him, the TASR newswire reported.

Kollar supports his MP

However, following the media reports, Chair of Sme Rodina, Boris Kollar, said Borgula has the support of his whole party.

Kollar said the case against his party colleague had been brought now so that former PM Robert Fico will not be able to claim that police are only investigating opposition politicians.

Kollar criticised not only the charges against Borgula but the fact that Police Corps President Stefan Hamran had publicly spoken about the charges before any official announcement about them had been made. Hamran had said during a discussion on private television Markiza that he was aware a coalition MP would be facing charges.

Case from 2018

The allegations against Borgula relate to an ongoing legal case dating to 2018 when, the MP admits, he paid tens of thousands of euros to police officers when he was running for the post of mayor of the Old Town, Bratislava.

He claims police contacted him demanding 50,000 if he wanted to run for mayor.

Borgula said he felt he could not go to police for help, and that it was easier for him to pay the money than risk officers smashing down his door in front of his two young children and elderly mother.
PM Eduard Heger is the most popular member of the government. President Zuzana Caputova sends a clear message to Russian soldiers.

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Good evening. The Wednesday, April 27 edition of Today in Slovakia is ready with the main news of the day in less than five minutes.

Slovakia has a new map of courts

Justice Minister Maria Kolikova during the vote on the new map of Slovak courts on April 27, 2022. (Source: TASR)

The parliament approved major changes to the map of Slovak courts at its April session, just in time for Slovakia to request the first payment from the EU for its Recovery Plan.

MPs passed the law, known as the reform of the court map, on April 27.

Justice Minister Maria Kolikova (SaS), the author of the reform, sees this change as a step towards a better judiciary with a working system and clear agenda in Slovakia, even though some judges seem to disapprove.

The law was passed following a number of delays.

Government lacks trust among people

PM Eduard Heger in the parliament on April 27, 2022. (Source: TASR)

Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) has grown into the most trusted member of his cabinet among voters, according to a new poll, with voter trust in him rising since the war in Ukraine broke out.

Only one third of respondents, 33 percent, trust the prime minister. Heger became the PM on April 1, 2021, taking the position from Igor Matovic.

Moreover, as it stems from the poll, most voters do not trust ministers, and thus the government. Finance Minister Matovic (OLaNO) remains the least trusted government member.

Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia :

More than 2,200 Ukrainians crossed the Slovak-Ukrainian border to return home on April 26. As many as 2,960 refugees arrived in Slovakia on that day. The Interior Ministry announced that 281 applied for temporary refuge on Tuesday.

on that day. The Interior Ministry announced that 281 applied for temporary refuge on Tuesday. The Ukrainians who have been granted temporary refuge in Slovakia can travel to other EU member states if they meet the conditions for entry to these countries. For travel outside the EU, they must hold a valid passport.

if they meet the conditions for entry to these countries. For travel outside the EU, they must hold a valid passport. Ukrainians holding the temporary refuge status in Slovakia who decide to settle down in another EU member state, which grants them temporary refuge or other form of protection, will lose the temporary refuge status granted by Slovakia, the police explained.

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What to watch

President Caputova appeals to Russian troops to lay down weapons

video //www.youtube.com/embed/wGes3VZfUL4

President Zuzana Caputova has called on Russian soldiers in Ukraine to end what she called this terrible war.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

In the video, speaking Russian, she appealed to Russian soldiers and commanders to put an end to the war in Ukraine, saying that with each loss of civilian life, they are breaching military discipline and losing their honour.

Feature story for Wednesday

Pulling a glove on

The bell might be a sign that recess is over, but these pupils are not returning to their classroom.

Pupils at Maximilan Hell Primary School in Stiavnicke Bane study falconry as a compulsory subject from Year 5. (Source: Nikola Knazkova/srdcovky.nadaciavub.sk)

At the Maximilian Hell Primary School in Stiavnicke Bane, central Slovakia, they are about to hold a class attended by no other Slovak pupils, and probably none in the world for that matter: falconry.

The first pupil pulls on a glove and a falcon soars in, drawn by a piece of meat. The pupils take turns and no one is afraid. They say that they like learning from live animals instead of books.

In other news

A total of 1,395 people tested positive for Covid-19 in Slovakia on Tuesday, April 26. Eleven people died of Covid-19 on that day. The number of hospitalised patients with Covid fell to 901 .

in Slovakia on Tuesday, April 26. of Covid-19 on that day. The number of hospitalised patients with Covid fell to . Slovakia is going to donate more than 2 million worth of military equipment to Ukraine.

to Ukraine. EUSTREAM, Slovakias operator of the natural gas transmission network, has not recorded any problems with the supply of Russian gas, though gas transport from Russia via Ukraine to Slovakia has been lower than usual in recent weeks. It is in line with customers requirements, the operator said. The Russian energy giant Gazprom has announced that it cut off Poland and Bulgaria from Russian gas supplies.

Interior Minister Roman Mikulec (OLaNO) is currently facing a vote of no confidence in the parliament for the fifth time. The extraordinary session was requested by Smer, an opposition party. Smer, dissatisfied with his work, claims the coalition keeps him in the position only to do the dirty job, including intervening in the work of police investigators. (Source: TASR)

Former prime minister and MP Robert Fico (Smer), who has recently been charged with allegedly committing several crimes, claims that he is being monitored by Military Intelligence . Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad (OLaNO) has denied this.

. Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad (OLaNO) has denied this. The Mandate and Immunity Parliamentary Committee suspended its session , in which members were to discuss a proposal for lifting MP Robert Ficos immunity so that law enforcement could prosecute him, on the afternoon of April 27. Fico labelled the session a political process that is unbelievable and insane. The committee should reconvene in the evening hours.

, in which members were to discuss a proposal for lifting MP Robert Ficos immunity so that law enforcement could prosecute him, on the afternoon of April 27. Fico labelled the session a political process that is unbelievable and insane. The committee should reconvene in the evening hours. The Slovak parliament has approved new construction legislation . The new legal norms concern spatial planning and construction.

. The new legal norms concern spatial planning and construction. The Human Rights Parliamentary Committee approved four candidates for the post of commissioner for children: former MP Natalia Blahova, psychologist Janette Motlova, Jozef Miklosko, who is the founder of a non-profit organisation, and Julia Lindtnerova, who heads a council of parent associations.

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If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
The EU promises to fund Slovakia's expenses.

The launch of the S-300 system in Bulgaria. (Source: Defence Ministry)

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Slovak diplomacy has promised to offer help to Ukraine as long as it is needed. For now Russia insists on taking over the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic and Republic of Luhanks, which is unacceptable for Ukraine.

The Defense Ministry prepared another support package for Ukraine, reported the TASR newswire.

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Slovakia is one of Ukraine's biggest supporters

Possibly due to geographical proximity and shared similarities, Slovakia has become one of the top Ukrainian supporters amongst other European countries, placing fourth in terms of donations with Estonia in the lead.

So far Slovakia has helped not just with humanitarian aid, but donated an S-300 air defence system with a value of over 68 million, as stated by Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad (OLaNO) on his Facebook profile.

Slovakia also offered financial help in funding Ukrainians military needs. Other than that, TASR newswire reported that Ukraine has shown interest in purchasing Zuzana howitzers, which are made in Slovakia.

Aid from the EU

The EU has shown support to Ukraine by funding military needs and helping with humanitarian issues, as well as helping through supporting member states.

The Slovak foreign affairs minister, Ivan Korcok (SaS nom.), has signed a bilateral agreement with the EU worth 130 million, which should serve as a refund for Slovakias expenses linked to military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
A Minatare man faces charges after being arrested on accusations of sexually assaulting a child.

According to Scotts Bluff County Court records, Nile Poor Bear, 47, is accused of assaulting a then-14-year-old girl at her mothers home sometime in 2020. He has been charged with sexually assaulting a child between the ages of 12 and 16, a Class 1B felony.

According to an arrest affidavit, Scottsbluff Police began an investigation after receiving a child abuse intake in October 2021. A 14-year-old girl had alleged she had been inappropriately touched by a man she identified as a friend of her mother.

In November 2021, Scottsbluff police contacted police in Lincoln, where the child now lived in a facility and had made a disclosure of abuse. A Lincoln investigator interviewed the girl, who detailed the sexual assault by the man, whom she told police she had not known prior to the assault. She alleged that the assault had taken place at her mothers Scottsbluff home. She told police she had fallen asleep in a basement room and awoke to a man assaulting her. The girl told police that she yelled for her mom, who kicked the man out. The girl told police that her mother told her the mans name, which the girl provided to police, as well as a description.

Police knew the man from previous contacts, identifying him as Poor Bear. The girl identified Poor Bear from a photo array in January 2022 as the man she alleged had assaulted her.

As part of their investigation, police also interviewed the girls mother, who told police that she has a troubled memory and did not recall the incident her daughter described. However, she told police she was aware that her daughter had alleged she had been assaulted by Poor Bear. The girls grandmother had also known that the girl had made disclosures, but had not reported those allegations to police.

A warrant for Poor Bears arrest was issued in February 2022 and he was taken into custody on April 25. Bail in the case is set at $400,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, April 28, at the Scotts Bluff County courthouse.

If Poor Bear is convicted, the charge is punishable by a minimum of 20 years in prison and carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Maunette Loeks, Star-Herald, contributed to this report.

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It would appear that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis harbors ambitions to become the new Donald Trump. Whether a new Donald Trump could win the presidency in 2024 is in question. In 2020, the old Donald Trump lost the popular vote by a not-insignificant 7 million.

But even if a Trumpy candidate remained a political draw two years from now, DeSantis has a problem. He is not a Donald Trump. Try as he might, he will never be.

Its not enough to just be obnoxious. Trump was also an entertainer. His raffish wit let him get away with a lot of things. He knew how to deliver his lines. Say what you want about Trump, he had a certain charisma.

DeSantis, sadly, was born without a sense of humor. Almost every picture of him shows a scowling face with mouth open. There is no charm to smooth over the meanness.

Nor is he good at conveying the absurdity required to win over much of the Trump base. Yale and Harvard Law ruined that for him. DeSantis really underestimates Trumps following, which could hear the in-your-face intention behind their leaders ridiculous grunts. DeSantis does it straight.

When Disney objected to his Dont say gay bill, DeSantis punished the company in a flamboyantly stupid way by shooting his own taxpayers in the foot. He stripped Disney World of its self-governing status. Not only had that been what brought the massive development to Orlando in the first place, but the deal also had Disney picking up lots of the bills normally covered by local taxes to the tune of $163 million a year.

Orange Countys tax collector is not amused. Road maintenance, flood control, they (Disney) have their own power plant, wastewater, drinking water facility, Scott Randolph said. All of that debt and obligation goes over to Orange County the minute that Reedy Creek (the arrangement DeSantis attacked) is dissolved. There is no extra tax money that comes with that.

Last time we looked, disagreeing with a governor was legal. But really, was a weekend of media attention worth it? After all, DeSantis was bashing the company that employs 80,000 Floridians and provides the economic engine for an entire region.

But DeSantis has a record for making life hard for his states biggest employers. Recall his going after the states huge cruise industry for insisting that passengers be vaccinated against COVID-19. It was the height of the pandemic, and ensuring their customers safety was a business imperative. This wasnt any culture war flare-up as much as DeSantis tried to make it one.

One of the golden rules of economic development is Never do unto your tax base what youd like other states to do unto theirs. Leaving Florida would be tough for Disney, but it does have alternatives.

Louisiana could become the New Florida. Before Disney landed on Orlando as the site for its massive development, it was also considering New Orleans. The company reportedly went as far as to buy up land in nearby towns across Lake Pontchartrain.

As for the cruises, Louisiana hosts a growing industry and would like more of that, too. Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line and, yes, Disney already offer Caribbean and Central America cruises leaving from the fun city of New Orleans. And thats in addition to all those trips up the Mississippi River.

And while some prefer the beach, others want the mountains. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis offered Disney a Mountain Disneyland free from Floridas authoritarian socialist attacks on the private sector.

DeSantis may have more clever things to say such as his condemnation of Disney for being a corporation based in Burbank, California. Other governors can only hope.
No need to pardon their French: The French Department at South Iredell High School was recently recognized as exemplary by the American Association of Teachers of French.

In a news release from Iredell-Statesville Schools, the award was received in March and recognizes the quality of the French program at South Iredell High School, which is one of five schools in the nation to receive this award in 2022.

In the congratulatory email from the association, Sister Mary Helen Kashuba, who serves as the chair of the Exemplary Program Committee commended the South Iredell department.

We were impressed with all the work that you have done to strengthen and expand the French program at South Iredell High School, and to build a strong IB program, Kashuba said. It is evident that you have inspired your students to appreciate French and use it in the future.

The school has increased its enrollment in French throughout the past four years. I-SS credited educators Bonnie Estes and Dawn Kolodziej with the programs success, stating that each has been teaching at South Iredell High School for more than 15 years. It said the instructors use clubs, field trips, activities, and camps to continue to draw students into the program.

The department, with the support of the school administration, hosts National French Week in November, where students create posters, participate in cultural trivia and taste French food. Additionally, French students have participated in other programs and activities to continue broadening their foreign language skills.

It takes a village to grow a program and keep it vibrant, Estes said.

The school touts what it calls innovative and creative teaching methods while it gives standards-based assessments, and offers numerous cultural activities beyond the classroom. The school participates in the associations National French Contest and inducts students into the National French Honor Society, with many honorees annually.

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Homeowners in the Florida Panhandle are being encouraged by one sheriff to shoot burglars who enter their homes.

The comments by Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson come after deputies took into custody a frequent flyer who is accused of breaking into several homes on Wednesday, April 20. Brandon J. Harris, who Johnson said has been arrested 17 times, faces seven charges after his most recent arrest.

Deputies set up a perimeter in the Pace neighborhood when multiple people called about a suspicious person, Johnson said. About 40 minutes after the first call went out, a homeowner shot at Harris, who continued to run throughout the neighborhood.

The sheriff said Harris was caught when he jumped out of a window of a homes bedroom.

Keep scrolling for a ranking of cities with the most break-ins and burglaries

The homeowner who shot at Harris has not come forward, Johnson said.

I guess they think they did something wrong, which they did not, Johnson said. If somebody is breaking into your house, youre more than welcome to shoot at them in Santa Rosa County. We prefer that you do actually.

The homeowner fired multiple shots, but Johnson said Harris came away with just bloody cuts from fencing.

Harris charges include attempted burglary with assault, burglary and resisting arrest.

Floridians are allowed to use force to protect their home and in defense of their property.

A person who is in a dwelling or residence in which the person has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and use or threaten to use, the Florida statute states.

Johnson told the homeowner he or she is not in trouble.

Come see us, the sheriff said. We have a gun safety class we put on every other Saturday and if you take that youll shoot a lot better and hopefully save taxpayers money.

Pace is in the panhandle of Florida about 15 miles north of Pensacola.

***

2022 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Over 58,000 Sri Lankan & 72,000 Tibetan refugees living in India: MHA

by IANS |

New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has informed that a total of 58,843 Sri Lankan and 72,312 Tibetan refugees have been living in India.



In its recently submitted annual report for 2020-21, the MHA said that as on January 1,2021, there were 58,843 Sri Lankan refugees staying in 108 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and 54 in Odisha.



Besides, around 34,135 refugees are staying outside the camps, registered with the state authorities in Tamil Nadu.



Pending repatriation, certain essential relief facilities are provided to them on humanitarian grounds. These facilities include shelter in camps, cash doles, subsidised ration, clothing, utensils, medical care and educational assistance. The entire expenditure is incurred by the state government and is subsequently reimbursed by the Centre to the state. An amount of Rs 1,154 crore has been spent by the Centre for providing relief and accommodation to these refugees during the period between July, 1983 and December 31,2020.



The Ministry also said that around 3,04,269 Sri Lankan refugees have entered India in various phases between July, 1983 and August 2012. The Centre's approach is to grant relief on humanitarian grounds with the ultimate objective to repatriate them back to Sri Lanka. Relief is given pending such repatriation.



While 99,469 refugees have been repatriated to Sri Lanka up to March, 1995, there has been no organised repatriation after March,1995, some refugees have gone back to Sri Lanka or left for other countries on their own.



Similarly, as per the latest census 2019 conducted by Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC), the population of Tibetan refugees in India as on December 31,2020 was 72,312 wherein the majority of these refugees have settled themselves, either through self employment or with Government's assistance under agricultural and handicrafts' schemes in different states of the country.



Major concentration of the Tibetan refugees is in Karnataka-21,353, Himachal Pradesh-14,973, Arunachal Pradesh-4,759, Uttarakhand- 4,828, West Bengal-3,079, and Union Territory of Ladakh-6,987.



The MHA also said that the rehabilitation of Tibetan refugees is almost complete and only one residuary housing scheme is at various stages of implementation in the State of Uttarakhand.



In order to bring about uniformity with respect to extending various facilities by the Central Government and the state governments to the Tibetan refugees settled in different parts of the country, MHA has issued the Tibetan Rehabilitation Policy, 2014.



The Government of India has sanctioned a scheme of providing grant-in-aid of Rs 40 crore to His Holiness The Dalai Lama's CTRC over a period of five years commencing from 2015-16 to 2019-20 to meet the administrative and social welfare activities expenses of 36 Tibetan Settlement offices located in different States of the country and the entire amount of 40 crore has already been released, the Union Home Ministry said.



Tibetan refugees began pouring into India in the wake of the flight of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama in the year 1959 from Tibet. The Government of India decided to give them asylum as well as assistance towards temporary settlement. Care has been taken to retain their separate ethnic and cultural identity.
An expert panel Monday urged Bristol, Virginia to strongly consider ceasing landfill operations as part of a detailed series of recommendations regarding its embattled landfill.

The 11-member panel was assembled last month to study issues with the citys 137-acre quarry landfill and offer suggestions on how to remedy widespread odor and emission issues. A 40-page report was issued Monday outlining proposed steps.

The panel was assembled by Virginia Department of Environmental Quality Director Michael Rolband at the urging of state lawmakers and coordinated through the Virginia Tech School of Engineering.

The report includes 10 specific findings regarding the landfills current state and 10 proposed action steps to address odor mitigation. Finally, the panel considered scenarios for how the city could continue operating the landfill, or reasons to close it.

No cost estimates were associated with any of the recommendations.

The report recommended engineered actions intended to minimize the release of odors, reduce landfill temperatures, and manage problematic conditions beneath the landfill. This strategy includes preventing infiltration of precipitation and control and management of stormwater inside the landfill.

In its conclusions, the report also delves into potentially closing the facility.

The city should strongly consider a cessation of waste disposal operations at the landfill due to incompatibility of operations with the necessary odor mitigation and ETLF [elevated temperature landfill] remedial strategy, according to the report.

City consultants had previously warned that trying to close the quarry landfill without building up the amount of waste included in its operating plan  more than another 20 years worth  wasnt practical and could lead to additional problems.

Consensus was that landfill odors are the result of a reaction taking place beneath the landfill surface within the buried waste. The chimneys along the landfill perimeter are likely the major avenue for release of these odors into the atmosphere, according to the report. The presence of the chimneys suggests that the subsurface sidewall liner system has failed locally and the resulting poor contact between the landfill liner and quarry sidewalls hinders containment of high-temperature landfill gases.

The panel agreed engineered remedial action can significantly reduce the release of odors around the landfill perimeter, but regulatory approvals are needed to implement the proposed remedial approach involving any changes to the liner configuration.

The panel further concluded there is insufficient data to determine the degree to which odorous gas are seeping through the landfill interim cover material into the atmosphere.

The panel also concluded benzene, which is seeping into the landfills wastewater discharge, is not believed to be derived from an external source of contamination based on currently available data. Benzene is likely being derived from the waste mass, but the mechanism of production or release is unknown due to insufficient data, according to the report.

While the report does not classify the site as an elevated temperature landfill, the experts wrote that it does have similar traits.

The panel consensus was the landfill is exhibiting early signs of an elevated temperature landfill (ETLF) which is linked to production and release of odors. ETLFs are primarily characterized by temperatures in excess of 55C (131F) over a broad area for a sustained period of time and an atypical accumulation of heat, the report says.

ETLFs are characterized by low methane content in the landfill gas, high leachate production rates, leachate with elevated concentrations of organic compounds, production of odoriferous gas, rapid settlement, and self-propagating reactions that generate heat. This condition has the potential to worsen unless prompt (immediate) action is taken.

The panel recommends the following actions to address odor and emission issues:

 Test and construct a sidewall odor mitigation system around the landfill perimeter that will be designed and constructed to mitigate landfill gases emanating from the landfill/quarry sidewalls.

 Improve the performance of existing gas extraction wells, including minimizing air intrusion pathways through landfill cover. Additional gas extraction wells will be needed to reduce emissions and temperatures.

 Identify and eliminate to the extent practical any landfill gas fugitive emissions at the landfill surface. Weekly monitoring activities of gas emissions at the landfill surface will be required.

 Install settlement plates and conduct monthly surveys to document the locations and rates of settlement in the waste mass.

 Install and monitor a dedicated system of thermocouples in the waste mass to monitor landfill temperatures for greater spatial resolution (horizontal and vertical) and to provide data at a greater frequency.

 Install at least five deep dedicated monitoring wells to enable sampling and characterization of leachate and measurement of temperature profiles in the waste.

 Install and operate large-diameter dual-phase extraction wells for removal of gas and leachate. Treatment requirements for extracted leachate must be determined.

 Install a temporary geosynthetic cover over the entire landfill. This will require substantial grading of the existing landfill surface to direct runoff to the southeast corner of the landfill, where it is expected a stormwater management pond can be constructed to manage stormwater that is collected on top of the geomembrane cover.

 Develop and implement an effective and sustainable stormwater management plan and settlement management plan for the landfill.

 Create an active community outreach program to communicate strategies, provide status and progress reports and receive citizen feedback.

However, the panel also cited additional concerns.

Continuing landfill operations while implementing the proposed remedial actions is problematic. Limiting operations to the northern end of the landfill while addressing the ETLF condition in the southern area of the landfill is not recommended, according to the report.

Among its closure deliberations, the panel considered options for early closure including the feasibility of (1) installation of a permanent landfill cap at the current waste level following mitigation of odors and reduction of landfill temperatures; and (2) rapid fill of waste to the quarry rim followed by installation of permanent landfill cap.

Installing a permanent landfill cap designed to accommodate expected waste mass settlement without additional disposal of waste (other than shaping the landfill surface) once odors and landfill temperatures are adequately reduced is a feasible option, according to the report. Rapid fill of the remaining permitted air space in the landfill followed by a permanent landfill cap is not recommended given concerns for the ETLF considerations and cost considerations.

Resuming operations at the landfill in the future may be technically feasible once the odors are controlled and ETLF conditions managed. However, there may be other technical, cost, and political considerations that would inform such a decision, the report concludes.

Rolband, in a written statement, called the report crucial.

We appreciate all the hard work and dedication of the panel members and the city to focus on these important issues and develop this detailed report of recommendations on time, Rolband said in the statement. The report, the result of the panels careful and thoughtful collaboration, will be crucial to helping the city of Bristol implement practical solutions for these issues going forward.

City Manager Randy Eads said Monday he had just received a copy of the report.

The city appreciates DEQs willingness to step in and provide a panel of experts to review our landfill and the odor situation. Obviously, the report has just been released, and I have not had an opportunity to review the report in depth. Over the next several days, I will review the report with the citys consultants, council and DEQ and begin taking the appropriate steps to follow the recommendations of the experts, Eads said.

State Sen. Todd Pillion, R-Abingdon, expressed his appreciation.

Our priority has been and remains getting the best relief for the residents of Bristol in the best way possible. That means getting the best information from experts and regulators who understand the complexity of the situation with the Bristol landfill, Pillion said. I commend this expert panel for spending multiple days in Bristol visiting the landfill, smelling what Bristolians smell and working collectively to develop these findings and offer recommendations to the city of Bristol.

Pillion said the report can be a guide and expects the state to assist with funding.

During the 2022 General Assembly session, we introduced Senate and House budget amendments authorizing the Department of Environmental Quality to provide emergency technical assistance to the city of Bristol, Virginia in resolving ongoing issues with the city-owned landfill and to facilitate a long-term plan for the operational status of the landfill, Pillion said. The findings by this expert panel provide important guidance and direction for the city's consideration in determining how to proceed. We continue standing ready to facilitate state-level support for a solution to this matter.

Del. Israel O'Quinn, R-Bristol, also praised the quick response by the expert panel.

Senator Pillion and I began formalizing DEQs advisory role during the legislative session and this is an important step in that process. I am thankful for DEQ Director Rolbands attentiveness and responsiveness to the issues at the city-owned landfill and the work done by the expert panel can have a positive impact for our community," O'Quinn said. "The panels report provides a solid framework going forward, and there are real fixes and measures to implement to help everyone in Bristol. Our legislative delegation stands ready to assist DEQ and the city however we can.
A man from Lebanon, Virginia, is among eight people arrested in a human trafficking sting in Sevier County, Tennessee.

Tyler Ryan Arrington, 29, of Lebanon, has been charged with one count of solicitation of a minor.

The arrest was part of a two-day undercover operation by special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Human Trafficking Unit and several other Tennessee law enforcement agencies. In all, the investigation resulted in the arrest of eight men accused of seeking illicit sex from minors.

Over a two-day period, beginning April 21, authorities placed several advertisements on websites known to be linked to prostitution and commercial sex cases. The focus of the operation was to identify individuals seeking to engage in commercial sex acts with minors.
The likelihood that a politician would campaign on extending a lifeline to ailing local media outlets is vanishingly small.

Lets stipulate, tongue-in-cheek, that pigs that can fly might well be engineered  perhaps, since this is a fanciful postulation, some Blacksburg-based biotech company will unlock the genetic key  before Congress sends any legislation to the president that is designed to help the troubled journalism industry.

On the other hand, perhaps the very fact that a few members of Congress have grown concerned enough to introduce bills for that very purpose has to be acknowledged as a portent of how bad things have gotten. Pigs havent sprouted wings, but someplace somewhere has frozen over.

Though it would be wrong to call this sentiment universal and thus sling paint wildly from a broad brush, there is a tendency in government to prefer less scrutiny to more, and a willingness to blame the press when a news item cuts against the grain of an officials preferences, even when the press is doing no more than sharing publicly available information.

On the flip side, journalists hold their government watchdog duties sacred, a task that requires freedom to criticize, interrogate and investigate authority  acts that can be illegal in countries where the state controls the media  and so some journalists cant help but regard the prospect of government assistance of any kind with suspicion. What terms will be imposed, what compromises required, what stories silenced?

And yet there have been encouragements for these bills voiced by editorial writers and journalism advocacy groups, another sign of how rough the waters have become.

When a community loses its newspapers, or when its publications are reduced to the point that they no longer send reporters to observe government meetings or craft stories that provide regional context for national issues, thats called a news desert.

The options floated so far to counter the spread of news deserts all have merit, though contemplating a universe in which theyve been made law calls up the image of Dr. Strange peering into an alternate reality.

Ideas for tax breaks

In the summer of 2021, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act was introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives (House Bill 3940, Senate Bill 2434), the Senate version by high-ranking Democrats, the House version by bipartisan sponsors.

The bill is built on tax credits. It included a proposal for a $250 tax credit for any individual who subscribes to a local news source or financially supports a nonprofit dedicated to news, providing an extra incentive to maintain that newspaper subscription. Another tax credit would give small businesses a $5,000 credit in the first year and $2,500 in subsequent years for advertising in local media. Thirdly, theres a tax credit for news outlets that employ journalists, of $25,000 per journalist in the first year and $15,000 in subsequent years, intended to give companies incentive to retain and expand staff.

A criticism leveled at that act is that it would do more to line the pockets of corporations than actually help independent journalism survive, and though the argument has merit, it also tosses the baby out with the bathwater. The individual tax credit for subscriptions is an especially great idea, one that could stand to be adjusted so it will benefit more than the upper bracket taxpayers who itemize.

First, there needs to be some hint that the bill has a chance of getting passed. As of April 2022, nothing has happened with either version of the bill.

The tax credit for employers of journalists was later broken off and made part of the ultimately doomed Build Back Better legislative package.

And alas, the idea hasnt caught on outside D.C. either. In Virginia, Del. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington, attempted to introduce a somewhat similar bill that included a tax credit for advertising with local media and a tax credit for newspapers based on compensation paid to journalists. Its too bad the break for subscribers wasnt included, but thats a moot point so far because it never escaped the House Finance Committee.

The danger of waiting

Another bill attempted in Congress (Senate Bill 673), more fascinating and fanciful in concept, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, has Republican and Democratic supporters in both houses. The bill would allow newspaper publishers to band together to negotiate advertising terms  collective bargaining, if you will  with social media giants like Facebook (a.k.a. Meta) and Google. These companies keep the majority of online revenues for themselves, and appropriate news content as well, while minimizing the funds and web traffic that actually makes its way to the news sites that provide that content.

Perhaps a reordering of the lopsided deals between tech titans and the print news survivors would do something to slow the hemorrhaging of print journalism jobs  in the decade prior to the pandemic, newspaper staffs shrunk by 57%, and COVID-19 made the situation worse. Yet one can only speculate, as this proposal has also gone nowhere fast.

Another bill, the Future of Local News Act (House Bill 3169/Senate Bill 1601) that would establish a committee to study how local journalism contributes to democracy, why the industry is collapsing and what can be done about it, similarly languishes in committee a year after being introduced.

Whatever the potential effectiveness of these ideas, the inertia means theres no water or foam being applied to a desert-making fire thats only burning hotter.

The framers of the U.S. Constitution assigned such importance to a free press in maintaining the health of a nation that they enshrined that right in that documents First Amendment.

Yet just as reforms to necessary humanitarian agencies such as mental health treatment centers and foster care services tend to stall because they arent causes that make for catchy campaign slogans, the problems faced by local media outlets dont translate to campaign donation dollars.

They require leaders to recognize that steps must be taken to fix and course correct before the problem becomes completely insurmountable. And then these leaders must roll up their sleeves, and do and try and try again.

The idling legislation indicates that mentally, our elected leaders still arent trying. That has to change before the presses stop.
WOODLAND  A California man was taken to a Longview hospital after a Tuesday crash on southbound Interstate 5, north of Woodland, sent two tractor-trailers into the Columbia River.

The Washington State Patrol responded to the crash at about 1:30 p.m. near Milepost 23.

Tamara A. Cole, 63, of Castle Rock, lost control of her Volkswagen Jetta and spun into the middle lane, according to a State Patrol crash memo.

Coles Jetta crashed into a tractor-trailer driven by William A. Gordy, 51, of Mount Baldy, California, which then crashed into another tractor-trailer in the right lane. Gordys truck and the other tractor-trailer, driven by Kevin P. Clark, 38, of Surrey, Canada, careened through a guardrail and down an embankment, into the Columbia River, the crash memo states.

Clarks truck came to rest on its passenger side in the river. Gordys truck stopped partially in the river and the cab caught on fire, according to the State Patrol.

Becky L. Desmet, 65, of Salinas, California, slowed her car in the left lane for the crash and was rear-ended by Shawn E. Moore, 25, of Castle Rock, the crash memo states.

Gordy was taken to PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center in Longview, according to the State Patrol. Trooper Will Finn said on Twitter the driver suffered a broken finger. No one else was reportedly injured.

The State Patrol referred a charge of speeding against Cole. Her passenger, Larry E. Smith, 61, was also uninjured.

All lanes of southbound I-5 were blocked by the crash debris and for the investigation. Traffic was backed up to just south of Longview as the Tuesday afternoon commute began.

Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue, Cowlitz County Fire District 5, along with WSDOT and the State Patrol responded to the crash.

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Editors note: Information is provided by the Cowlitz County Corrections Department and local law enforcement agencies. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Theft  Longview police officers Monday arrested Summer Justine Brodie, 28, of Longview, on suspicion of second-degree theft, third-degree theft and obstructing a public servant.

Burglary  Longview police officers Monday arrested Keith Alan Byman, 33, of Longview, on suspicion of second-degree burglary. A police report says Byman was found asleep near the Starbucks inside the Longview Fred Meyer, where he was caught trespassing the week before.

Child rape, molestation  Cowlitz County deputies Monday arrested a 44-year-old Longview man on suspicion of first-degree child rape, first-degree child molestation, sexual exploitation of a minor and two additional counts of a felony child sexual abuse charge. (Editors note: The Daily News does not name arrestees of crimes involving children until suspects are charged to ensure a child isnt identified before the suspect has been formally accused of a crime.)

Fraud  A Kelso man Monday reported his bank account was drained after he gave his debit card to a friend helping him to file taxes.

Assaults

300 block of First Avenue, Kelso. Monday. A person reported being assaulted by a former co-worker on New Year's Eve.

2000 block of Allen Street, Kelso. Monday. A parent reported her daughter was jumped on the way to the bus, while school officials say the fight was planned between the two girls. The school is handling punishment.

Burglaries

100 block of Schoolhouse Road, Kelso. Monday. Report of items stolen from the yard, a shed and a barn.

1100 block of 22nd Avenue, Longview. Monday. Report of a cordless drill, batteries and other items taken from an unlocked tool shed behind a fence.

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Cowlitz County commissioners Tuesday signed on to an agreement with other Washington municipalities allocating a payout from the opioid lawsuit settled by a major pharmaceutical company earlier this year.

The Washington Attorney Generals Office reached a settlement agreement with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family in March that would provide the state with an estimated $183 million. The proposed settlement still needs to be approved by a bankruptcy court before any money is provided. As part of the agreement, the municipalities waive rights to future lawsuits.

Cowlitz County will receive about 2.5% of the states total settlement, with the county receiving 1.47%, Longview 0.62% and Kelso 0.13%. Last week, Kelso City Council approved the agreement to receive its share.

Shares of the settlement are calculated based on the population and on metrics that look at the impacts Oxycontin and opioids had on the local community. Settlement money can be used for opioid addiction treatment and prevention efforts.

Commissioner Dennis Weber said the money could be used to help pay for opioid use disorder treatment in the jail.

In other business, the commissioners approved change orders for the South Toutle Road Bridge repair project with Five Rivers Construction for additional work to lower the bridge and secure the bolts. The cost increased by $44,455 for a new total of $462,980.

The repairs include adding a reinforcing bar to the concrete foundation and installing new bolts throughout the structure, said Susan Eugenis, county engineer. The crew found it couldnt use a wrench to tighten the bolts and needed to truck in steel plates to weigh down the bridge and tighten the bolts, which cost extra, Eugenis said. The change order also includes overtime costs for doing the work on a Saturday when it was better to temporarily close the bridge, she said.

Bolts that secured the bridge to its foundation on the western side of the structure began breaking in June. In October, all of the western sides bolts broke, causing the bridge deck to lift about 2 inches above the adjoining roadway. Officials placed speed and weight limits on the roughly 113-foot section of the county road near Harry Gardner Park.

The commissioners also approved:

A modification to the interagency agreement with the Cowlitz County Noxious Weed Control Board, and the U.S. Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, adding $30,000 in grant funding for invasive plant treatments within the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and extended the contract through August 2025.

Interlocal agreements with the cities of Kalama and Woodland to allow joint bidding on construction projects when the work is the same type of work.

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Representatives should not hide from their constituents in the ivory towers of Washington, D.C.

Author and podcaster Heidi St. John, R-Battle Ground, said she was spurred to run for Washingtons 3rd Congressional District based on this notion. She says the incumbent, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, has become disconnected from voters in the region.

St. John, who announced her candidacy in February 2021, said the correct solutions for Southwest Washington residents are found in local town halls  not from across the country. St. Johns campaign priorities span from addressing what she calls indoctrination in public schools to expressing oneself without censorship.

The candidate made headway with these talking points; she raised more than $800,000  placing her in third in campaign funding. St. John is behind only Joe Kent, R-Yacolt, who raised $1.8 million and the incumbent, who sits on $2.8 million, according to the Federal Elections Commission.

Heidi St. John, Republican Age: 52. Residence: Battle Ground. Education: Multnomah University (partial). Occupation: Author and speaker. Experience: None. Online: heidistjohnforcongress.com.

St. John, a self-described conservative Christian, faced blowback for not fulfilling her pledge to drop out of the congressional race when one of the Republican candidates received an endorsement from Donald Trump. Although Kent gained the former presidents backing in September, St. John remained resolute in her campaigning.

I discovered that Joe Kent is not a conservative, so I stayed in the race, she said.

Her declaration noted Kents previous registration as a Democrat in Multnomah County, Ore., where he voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2020 primary. Kent previously told The Columbian this was a tactic to sway who the Democratic candidate would be in the general election and did not represent his political beliefs.

St. John said she did not find credibility in Kents explanation and, even if it was true, her challengers Operation Chaos scheme was disingenuous.

If youre running as a conservative, you should have a record of conservativism, especially when youre talking about Congress, she said.

Questioning government involvement

Curbing federal government overreach is foundational in St. Johns campaign.

St. John said she supports steering classroom instruction away from topics surrounding gender identity and orientation, as well as racism in America  commonly referred to as critical race theory. The subject matter is unpopular for highlighting systemic racism and white privilege. Its opponents, including St. John, insist the teachings are socially engineering students.

Quote I discovered that Joe Kent is not a conservative, so I stayed in the race, Heidi St. John said.

She said the Department of Education, an agency that determines education policy and federal assistance, has too much authority in schools. St. John, who home-schooled her seven children, said parents should have an influence on their childs curriculum.

I dont see the focus on education, St. John said. I see the focus is on social issues, which isnt the job of the school. The job of the school is to teach the kids how to think, not what to think.

Washington school districts maintain that critical race theory is not taught in its classrooms. Challengers, on the other hand, connect falsely purported mandates to the states approved Senate Bill 5044, which requires school staff to participate in diversity, equity and inclusion training. St. John also opposes these training measures.

Similarly, she said the government has too much control in medical matters. St. John fervently points to COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates as a violation of individual rights. The sentiment makes an appearance in a variety of the candidates videos, social media posts and campaign gear  one of which features the slogan, I tested positive for freedom and is embellished with an American flag.

St. John previously wrote that she would support efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, as well as other policies concerning the restriction of reproductive health care.

Security, energy independence

As encampments continue to appear along streets and rights of way, St. John said that way of living endangers both those experiencing houselessness and other residents. The candidate said supporting programs that address mental health and substance abuse are integral for reducing homelessness; even so, she added, the onus is on the individual to help themselves.

I believe that when we call it homelessness, by and large, these are people who are choosing to live this way, St. John continued. Not everyone, but a lot of them are choosing to live this way.

The candidate said residents and businesses are at risk of property damage and other consequences because of the absence of political will to strengthen law enforcement. Taking the teeth from police only results in rising crime rates, St. John said, where homelessness is a prevailing component.

There needs to be a reduction in federal spending and an emphasis on addressing the countrys debt, she said.

St. John added that environmental stewardship has led to regressive results for logging communities that rely on timber exports. The country must focus on becoming energy independent and strengthening the economy by investing in extracting resources, such as timber, and drilling domestically, she said.

Altogether, the candidate wants to find solutions to make people want to stay in the region, whether its challenging education policies or environmental measures.

My fourth grandchild is going to be due on the Fourth of July, St. John said. I want them to want to live here, to stay here and raise a family here.

Editors note: This part of a series of candidate profiles for Washingtons 3rd Congressional District. Each candidate who has consented to be interviewed will be profiled, with stories running in alphabetical order. Find all the profiles at columbian.com/election.

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The Daily News Students in Need drive has reached $22,908.

The drive raises money for the Lower Columbia College Student Success Fund. The fund makes grants to help students overcome financial humps that might otherwise force them to drop out of school.

All proceeds from the fund go to the college because the newspaper absorbs all administrative costs.

This is the drives seventh year, and its fundraising goal is to raise $35,000 by May 31.

To donate online, go to www.tdn.com/students and click on the donate button.

Latest donations

$300: anonymous in memory of our parents, Peter and Ann Peters and Stan and Ruth Pouch.

$200: Mary and Mike Harding to help local students stay in school and graduate; and Wayne and Mary Chappell.

$150: Mike and Sandy Haas in memory of Bill and Billie stiles.

$100: Pat Keller and anonymous.

$66: R.A. Long High School class of 1966 in memory of our departed classmates.

$50: anonymous

$25: M. Kay Howell and anonymous.

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In crypto, traditional markers of identity matter very little: many of the sectors most successful participants operate entirely behind pseudonyms.

In crypto, traditional markers of identity matter very little: many of the sectors most successful participants operate entirely behind pseudonyms. Some are pushing the idea of flexible identities even further, using a combination of blockchain-based conventions and gender boundaries to build their brands and raise money.

DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations, are the crypto worlds version of company-like entities. These blockchain-based communities allow members to contribute their time, skills and money in return for rewards like crypto tokens, and can be a means to organize around a single goal  like purchasing a copy of the U.S. Constitution.

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So-called simp DAOs are oriented around the relationship between female influencers and their fan bases. Typical Simp DAO members, or simps, are men seeking to express their admiration for, and attract the attention of, the influencer to whom the group is dedicated.

Some of these entities are created with the explicit blessing or oversight of the influencer in question. Instagram influencer Irene Zhao, an early player in the movement, co-founded a platform which aims to help people monetize their fan base through DAOs. Her own effort, IreneDao, has recorded more than $8 million in trades of its affiliated nonfungible tokens on OpenSea since launching in mid-January.

Fans can come up with very structured advice, like how I should do the DAO, how I should position myself in the space, or whether I should still take adverts on Instagram, Zhao told Bloomberg in an interview.

Without IreneDAO, I wouldnt even have this chance to interact with them, Zhao said, adding that moderated interactions through community platforms like Discord means she experiences less harassment in personal messages compared with other social media.

Other entities operate without the apparent participation of the people theyre named after, including one dedicated to an OnlyFans performer named Belle Delphine. Now, men are getting in on these DAOs in a different way: not as the simp, but as the simp-ee. And, as there often is in crypto, theres an additional twist.

It started out as a bit of a joke, said Eric Wall, chief investment officer at Arcane Assets and who has previously acted as an adviser to Zhaos DAO, among others. For years, some of his 82,000 Twitter followers had a ritual: posting photos of Wall, a cisgendered man, altered to look like a woman. With the rise of simp DAOs, Wall saw an opportunity.

I got a group of followers that liked the girl version of me, and it gave them an outlet to be my fans in a more playful, romantic way. He established EricaDAO in January, partly as a way to raise the profile of blockchain and crypto.

These creators have huge audiences, tens of millions of fans that are very much prepared to spend vast amounts of money and dedicate it to the causes of the simp queen, said Wall. Getting the creator economy into the blockchain space is the thing that is going to push mainstream adoption. Wall said he does not intend to make a personal profit from EricaDAO, and plans to use any earnings to sustain the DAO itself or to support charitable causes.

Bait and Switch

Walls case is just one instance of a recent uptick in cryptosphere experimentation that makes light of gender identity via the digital alteration of male figures into attractive female avatars.

Other notable men in crypto whove had community-created feminized personas include Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, El Salvadors Bitcoin-obsessed President Nayib Bukele, and Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON blockchain ecosystem and ambassador for Geneva to the World Trade Organization.

If you want to embody the ideals of crypto where youre allowed to be anonymous, then its not strange if you want to be fully anonymous in your social interactions. And if you are given the opportunity to be anonymous, then that also opens the door for you to experiment with gender, said Wall. Being constrained to your natural-born identity is not what crypto is about.

Gender fluidity for branding and profit isnt exclusive to crypto. On video and streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch, male gamers Natt and F1NN5TER perform as women, making money from confusing unaware strangers online while their fans are in on the ruse.

Its like Hannah Montana, said F1NN5TER, who dresses as his female alter ego Rose for months at a time, in an interview on YouTube last year. Youve got a very normal side, just a gamer boy making Minecraft videos, and then this weird thing on Twitch that Im doing for this community. Neither Natt nor F1NN5TER responded to requests to be interviewed.

This form of gender performance can be linked to so-called pink-washing, said Florence Smith Nicholls, a doctoral researcher in games, ethics and artificial intelligence. Brands exploit aspects of female and queer culture for their benefit, without providing any real-world support of such groups.

Nicholls said these performances on Twitch and in DAOs appear less likely to be a genuine exploration of gender identity, and instead treat gender as more like an added feature of virtual reality.

And while the stakes are high for anyone in the offline world seeking to express their gender in ways that might challenge the status quo, male crypto celebrities who choose to don a female costume from time to time arent necessarily affected by the same constraints.

Because of how theyre specifically set up, it feels less like an individuals personal journey in exploring their gender and more like a vehicle for finding another way to market crypto, Nicholls Smith, who is non-binary, said of DAOs like Walls.

Wall said his experiment with Erica hasnt resulted in much of a negative reaction from his community to date.

Most of the backlash he received has focused on the concept of simp DAOs, he said, rather than his actions. Complaints originated from those who view such organizations as further means for beautiful women to exploit their male fan base, which Wall said they likened to a type of digital enslavement.

The only reason that I get away with it is because Im transparent with the fact that I am a guy in reality, and Im doing this as a playful thing to demonstrate something, he added.

A Gender-fluid Metaverse

Since operating as Erica, Wall said his female persona has become an outlet for expression. EricaDAO provides a way for him to live outside of the sarcastic, crypto expert social branding that he had built for his male self, and to experiment with what he calls his virtual gender identity. Erica can be a vehicle to be playful, happy, or even an excuse to not have all the answers, he said.

You dont necessarily need to be confined to your biological gender in the metaverse. You can be whatever you want, and it doesnt have to be the same thing every day, said Wall, adding that he has always preferred to pick female roles when playing computer games.

You can wake up one day and say today I feel like I want to embody male ideals and characteristics, and on other days be more comfortable radiating female characteristics. Thats one of the great things about the metaverse: It doesnt have to be gendered, it can actually be pretty genderfluid.

This progression into a genderfluid metaverse might also have been aided by a base level of anonymity afforded to everyone during the pandemic, where experimentation away from prying eyes became a lot easier to achieve while staying indoors.

When people suddenly had the opportunity to work from home with cameras off, a lot of people who were closeted in their gender non-normativity felt the freedom to actually start dressing the way they wish and no one was any the wiser, said Dr. Helana Darwin, a tech researcher and author of Redoing Gender: How Non-Binary Gender Contributes Toward Social Change.

It takes a lot of emotion, energy and research. It takes finding community groups online that can speak to what identity really looks like for people.

Darwin suggested that perhaps the pandemic has further blurred the lines between whats virtual and whats reality, making it harder to distinguish where online experiences end and real ones begin. This is likely to continue as the metaverse expands, with entire communities, identities and relationships existing solely online  but feeling just as real as anything in the physical world.

If you are given the opportunity to be anonymous, then that also opens the door for you to experiment with gender, Wall told Bloomberg. Being constrained to your natural-born identity is not what crypto is about.
A member of the Red Hacker Alliance in Dongguan, China in August 2020 monitors cyberattacks around the world. Hacks have increased through the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Canada's governor general and foreign ministry, hospitals and an airline: a litany of recent cyberattacks has exposed poor defenses against hackers, despite warnings to be more vigilant since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Last week, Canada and four other Western countries, including the United States, warned that Russia was preparing to launch massive cyberattacks against Ukraine's allies in retaliation for support for Kyiv and sanctions imposed on Moscow.

On the rise for years and becoming increasingly sophisticated, "thousands" of cyberattacks, including by Russian hacker groups, target Canada every day, according to Cherie Henderson, a senior official at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Canada was second behind Britain in number of reported victims of phishing, spoofing, extortion and other Internet-enabled frauds, according to an FBI report on Internet crimes in 2020. (The report excludes the United States in the list).

The most recent victim was the Canadian airline Sunwing. A cyberattack hit one of its suppliers, causing a breakdown of the airline's operations that left thousands stranded in vacation hotspots in the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Companies may be "caught offguard and see their business activities considerably curtailed," commented Benoit Dupont, a cybersecurity researcher at the University of Montreal.

Some, especially smaller enterprises, "do not always have adequate resources and investing in cybersecurity is not always a top priority," he told AFP.

Just prior to the start of the war in Ukraine in late February, the government's Canadian Center for Cyber Security reminded of the need to protect critical infrastructure from Russian-sponsored cyber threats.

Whether it's industrial espionage, vandalism, theft of intellectual property or proprietary information, frozen accounting systems or even entire computer systems, the risks concern companies of all sizes.

Finance, energy, telecom targets

Evan Koronewski, a spokesman for the Communications Security Establishment, said the Canadian electronic eavesdropping agency monitors "cyber threat activity directed at critical infrastructure networks, including those in the financial, energy, and telecommunications sectors."

But, he added, that all sectors "are encouraged to take note and be aware of the possibility of increased cyber threat activity."

Some have taken action, according to Trevor Neiman of the Business Council of Canada, an association representing the nation's biggest employers.

"In the run-up to the to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Canadian businesses have adopted a heightened state of awareness, and they've taken a number of proactive measures to bolster their cyberdefenses," he said.

Public utility Hydro-Quebec, for example, has stepped up "surveillance specifically for this threat," its spokesman Cendrix Bouchard told AFP.

In Canada, one in four companies reported being hit by cyberattacks in 2021 and more than half paid ransoms to hackers who infected their computer systems with malware, according to a Novipro-Leger survey last fall.

Ransom amounts have been climbing, and can reach several million dollars.

Ottawa announced last year Can$80 million (US$62.5 million) over four years to bolster the nation's cyberdefenses.

But the Canadian Chamber of Commerce said it was not enough, noting that it is a drop in the bucket compared to amounts spent by Canada's G7 peers.

"The United States, Israel, and the UK are investing billions" to boost their cyberdefenses, it said.

Since the start of the pandemic, which saw more people teleworking, ransomware attacks have increased exponentially around the world.

"Malicious cyber actors, whether state sponsored or otherwise, often seek to take advantage of crises," explained BlackBerry's Marjorie Dickman.

"We saw this during the pandemic when threat actors launched repeated Covid-19-themed attacks and sought to leverage security gaps in the work-from-home setting," she said, adding that hackers now use mentions of the war in Ukraine to lure victims.

"You only have to be successfully attacked one time to really hurt your business," warned Rocco Rossi, head of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, describing it as "an ongoing battle."

"Even after the war in Ukraine ends," he said, "these cybersecurity issues won't go away."

 2022 AFP
A Phantom 4, developed by major Chinese consumer-drone maker DJI, flies during its demonstration flight in Tokyo, Thursday, March 3, 2016. Drone company DJI Technology Co said Tuesday, April 27, 2022, that it has temporarily suspended business activities in Russia and Ukraine to prevent use of its drones in combat, in a rare case of a Chinese company pulling out of Russia. Credit: AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File

Drone company DJI Technology Co has temporarily suspended business activities in Russia and Ukraine to prevent use of its drones in combat, in a rare case of a Chinese company pulling out of Russia because of the war.

"DJI is internally reassessing compliance requirements in various jurisdictions. Pending the current review, DJI will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine," the company said in a statement released Tuesday.

Many Western brands and companies have withdrawn from the Russian market due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, but Chinese firms have kept operating there. Beijing has refrained from publicly criticizing Russia over the war.

Both Ukraine and Russia are thought to be using DJI drones in combat, even though the company maintains that its products are intended for civilian use.

Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Federov wrote an open letter last month appealing to DJI to block sales of its drones in Russia, contending that Russian troops were using "DJI products in Ukraine in order to navigate their missiles to kill civilians."

The AeroScope system installed in DJI drones allows the detection and monitoring of other drones and their operators in the vicinity via special receivers. The worry is that Russians might be using the AeroScope system to attack Ukraine drone pilots.

DJI has rejected claims that it leaked data on Ukraine's military positions to Russia, after German retailer Mediamarkt cited Russia's use of DJI drones in the war as a reason it removed the company's products from its shelves.

Last week, DJI said in a statement that its drones are not marketed or sold for military use. It said it "unequivocally opposed attempts to attach weapons" to its products.

"We will never accept any use of our products to cause harm, and we will continue striving to improve the world with our work," the company said.

Another Chinese business, ride hailing company Didi Global, reversed a decision to withdraw from Russia after it was blasted by members of the Chinese public for bowing to pressure from the West.

Explore further Musk activates Starlink internet service in Ukraine

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Elon Musk, Tesla Factory, Fremont (CA, USA) in 2011. Credit: CC BY 2.0

Elon Musk may soon own Twitter Inc. but the billionaire won't be able to shake his "Twitter Sitter."

A judge on Wednesday rejected Musk's request to ditch his 2018 deal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that required a company lawyer to screen all his Tesla Inc.-related tweets. The Tesla CEO, who appears to have clinched his bid to buy Twitter, had accused the SEC of harassing him and claimed the agreement violated his free-speech rights.

"Musk was not forced to enter into the consent decree," U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman said in his written opinion. The Tesla CEO "cannot now seek to retract the agreement" by "simply bemoaning that he felt like he had to agree to it at the time" and now "wishes that he had not," Liman said.

Musk, 50, has been sparring with the SEC since he tweeted in 2018 that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private, sending the shares of the electric-car maker surging. After an investigation, the regulator sued, saying Musk had misled investors. Musk and Tesla ended that dispute by agreeing to each pay $20 million and requiring review of Musk's Tesla-related tweets.

The SEC has argued that Musk freely agreed to the limits and that review of his tweets by a Tesla securities lawyer doesn't amount to government regulation of his speech.

Liman also denied Musk's effort to block an SEC subpoena seeking information from Musk on his tweets, ruling that he's as subject to investigation by the agency as anyone else.

"The court is simply saying we can move to quash these subpoenas when they are compelled," said Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro. "Nothing will ever change the truth, which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could haveall that's left some half decade later is remnant litigation which will make that truth clearer and clearer."

Liman dispensed with Musk's argument that the SEC lacks authority to seek information from him.

"Musk may wish it were otherwise, but he remains subject to the same enforcement authorityand has the same means to challenge the exercise of that authorityas any other citizen," Liman said. "Indeed, to conclude otherwise would be to hold that a serial violator of the securities laws or a recidivist would enjoy greater protection against SEC enforcement than a person who had never even been accused of a securities law violation."

Liman said such a result would be "perverse."

The case is U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Musk, 18-cv-08865, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Explore further US judge deemed controversial Musk tweet on Tesla 'false': investors

2022 Bloomberg L.P. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Fort Worth, Texas will become the first city government in the United States to mine bitcoin, with Mayor Mattie Parker implementing a tech pilot project that could catch on across the nation.

Approved unanimously by city council vote Tuesday morning, the small-scale program will be more experimental before determining whether to dedicate significant funding according to Parker. Bitcoin mining has major potential in the U.S., with a worldwide void after the Chinese government banned cryptocurrency mining in June 2021.

Bitcoin operates on a proof-of-work mining model, with miners around the world running high-powered computers to create new bitcoin and validate transactions. Fort Worth will have a small, three-rig mine that will require professional-grade equipment, technical savviness, and electricity.

Miners will be hosted on a private network to address the security risk and each of the initiative's three machinesas small as toaster ovenswill consume the same amount of energy as a household vacuum cleaner.

"Today, with the support and partnership of Texas Blockchain Council, we're stepping into that world on a small scale while sending a big message," Parker said. "Fort Worth is where the future begins."

Three "Bitmain Antminer S9" mining rigs will run 24 hours a day and seven days a week in the climate-controlled information technology wing of Fort Worth City Hallwhere Parker, the city's first millennial mayor, oversaw the debut of the mining farm.

"For Fort Worth, a lot of people don't know who we are," Parker told CNBC. "We want to change that conversation, and we believe that tech innovation including cryptocurrency is the way we're going to do that. ...This is something brand new for any city. There's a lot of policy here that we've had to jump through hoops to understand."

Explore further Bitcoin carbon emissions rise as mining moves to US and other countries

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In 2015, a man wearing a skull mask posted a video outlining his plans to murder Brianna Wu. The skull video was only one of many such disturbing and bizarre posts targeting Wu and other women online as part of a harassment campaign dubbed GamerGate.

This was in the early days of content moderation in a social media ecosystem with far fewer rules, but still, Twitter moved quickly to remove the video, preventing it from going viral, Wu said. Though GamerGate illustrated just how inept social media platforms were at protecting their users, Twitter's prompt action served as an early example of the company's relative willingness to address criticism and work to tamp down on abuse, Wu said.

Although social media platforms have struggled to respond to misinformation, hate speech, election interference and incitement to violence, Twitter has over the years taken a more nuanced and thorough approach, developing, revising and expanding an extensive policy framework.

Twitter, for instance, led efforts to create safety policies and enforce high-profile violations of its rules. It permanently suspended right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in July 2016 and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in September 2018. Facebook did not ban Yiannopoulos and Jones until May 2019.

In summer 2020, Twitter slapped a warning label over then-President Trump's tweet threatening a harsh crackdown on protests in Minneapolis as violating its rules about "glorifying violence," and soon after flagged two more election-related tweets for fact-checking. The move distinguished Twitter from Facebook, whose chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, indicated it was not inclined to similarly take action, and paved the way for a slew of social media companies that later suspended Trump from their platforms days before the end of his term.

This year, Facebook announced a 24-hour suspension of the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., one day after Twitter permanently banned Greene for repeatedly spreading misinformation about COVID-19.

But Elon Musk's successful bid to buy Twitter could change the company's trajectory. Musk, who has said he embraces a philosophy of free speech absolutism, has made it clear he wants a platform with less enforcement, writing in a series of tweets Tuesday that he favors moderation only when legally required.

"I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people," Musk said on Twitter.

"Twitter has historically served as one of the more forward-thinking social media platforms that has always tested new ideas and concepts," said Jennifer Edwards, executive director of the Texas Social Media Research Institute at Tarleton State University.

Musk's purchase of the company and the pivot toward the laissez faire moderation ethos he favors might push other social media platforms to backtrack as well and relax their moderation standards, she said.

The dynamic of Twitter leading the pack could also flow in the opposite direction under Musk, with the new Twitter owner taking cues from his more veteran counterpart over at Facebook. For instance, Musk has already said he wants to begin "authenticating all humans" on Twittera move that, though vague, could align his platform more with Zuckerberg's, where users are expected to post under whatever name "they go by in everyday life.

Musk's intimations that he may follow suit have already prompted criticism.

"Any free speech advocate (as Musk appears to view himself) willing to require users to submit ID to access a platform is likely unaware of the crucial importance of pseudonymity and anonymity," several leaders from the digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in response to the news of Musk's purchase. Policies that require real names on Facebook have been used to push out precarious communities such as transgender people, drag queens and sex workers, the statement said.

A lot of users understandably distrust social media, don't want to provide identification and drop out, said Sophie Zhang, a former data scientist at Facebook. In South Korea, databases of real name authentication were repeatedly hacked as they formed a treasure trove of personal information, she said.

"Free speech absolutism is a nice idea," but the vast majority of content moderation isn't controversial political discussion Musk posits it to be, and so these values don't necessarily work in practice, Zhang said.

Zhang said it's too early to know how Musk's influence will affect content moderation on the platform. The challenges of the platform may force him and other supporters of free speech absolutism to reckon with the question of why he is unable to let speech flow uninfringed and simultaneously prevent the platform from becoming a morass of crypto spam, pornography and fake adverts.

"The true question to me is how Elon makes those decisions once he is actually in the position of responsibility," she said.

Christopher Bail, a professor at Duke University and director of the campus' Polarization Lab, said the premises of some of Musk's proposals are flawed. Musk is adamant that conservative voices are being minimized, and although it's possible to point to high-profile cases such as the suspension of Trump's account as examples of bias against conservatives, studies show the platform actually tends to promote conservative perspectives, Bail said.

Musk has said accounts should almost never be banned, but also has promised to crack down on spammerspresumably identifying them by the content of their speech and taking action to ban the accounts.

"I think where the rubber hits the road, it'll be more difficult than he realizes to do what he wants," Bail said.

Researchers and activists worry that Musk's focus on unfettered speech will erode tools Twitter's trust and safety team has built over the years. In giving itself approaches besides account deactivation and post removal, Twitter has made its rules substantially more enforceable, experts said. The company has exercised greater transparency than its peers, maintaining open lines of communication with researchers and made swaths of data around spam and misinformation on the platform public and available for analysis by academics and others.

Twitter maintains an archive of posts it has removed from the platform, allowing researchers to examine the reach and influence of viral misinformation. Twitter's Birdwatch initiative aims to create a crowdsourced approach to flagging of misinformation.

Wu said that during the peak of harassment she faced during GamerGate, Twitter's then vice president of trust and safety reached out to hear concerns and offer support. In the years following, Twitter separated itself from the pack by making real efforts to engage with critics like herself.

"They did more than Facebook did, more than Reddit, more than Google," said Wu, who says she informally advised the company's trust and safety team in an unpaid capacity for about five years. "Twitter has never gotten the credit it deserves for addressing harassment aggressively."

2022 Los Angeles Times.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: University of Plymouth

The UK's first e-marine hub of shore-side charging facilities for electric maritime vessels has been unveiled in Plymouth.

A series of high power DC electric charging stations has been switched on in prominent locations along the perimeter of the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park.

This includes the world's first 150kw charging facility at Mount Batten, the UK's first 75kw site at Queen Anne's Battery, and a 25kw installation at the Barbican landing stage.

Further installations are now being developed along the city's waterfront, with additional sites also being identified in Devon and Cornwall with a view to providing electric charging facilities every 10 miles along the counties' southern coastline.

The charging network has been created through the Marine e-Charging Living Lab (MeLL) initiative, a consortium led by the University of Plymouth in partnership with Plymouth City Council, Princess Yachts Limited and Aqua superPower

It directly responds to the UK government's Clean Maritime Plan for maritime net zero and its drive to increase the UK's current percentage of clean electricity to 100% by 2035.

It has also been designed to offer commercial enterprises of all sizes with a sustainable, cost-effective and time-effective means of making the switch from diesel to electric power.

Research by the University, carried out during the planning stage of the project, has shown the network has the potential to reduce port emissions by 96.60% in the next 30 years. As a result it could significantly cut the sector's impact on the climate, and reduce the damage caused by harmful gases on both human and environmental health.

Sarah Fear, Project and Knowledge Exchange Manager at the University of Plymouth and lead of the MeLL project, says that "the Clean Maritime 2050 strategy underlines how crucial it is that the sector moves forward, and includes a number of ambitious net-zero objectives. That includes the increased electrification of commercial vessels, but if there is no infrastructure in place you cannot support the growing number of businesses looking to employ this technology. This charging network is a game-changer for Plymouth's forward-thinking marine enterprises, and our ongoing research in this field is enabling the city and region to blaze a trail in clean maritime innovation."

Alex Bamberg, CEO of AQUA superpower, says that "this is the realization of an important project that started at the end of last year to further Plymouth's reputation as a center of excellence in clean maritime innovation. In deploying our dedicated marine fast charge network as part of the project, we are creating the right landscape towards decarbonisation of the marine environment, responding to the Maritime 2050 route map for maritime net-zero. We are proud to have delivered our installations on time to challenging deadlines and greatly appreciate the support of our project partners, the University of Plymouth, Plymouth City Council and Princess Yachts."

Dan Turner, Low Carbon City Officer for Plymouth City Council, says that "this is a landmark project boasting the UK's first marine charging network, demonstrating Plymouth's commitment to decarbonisation and strengthening its position as the UK's leading testbed for marine innovation, and tying into the delivery of the National Marine Park and Freeport. The Government's Clean Maritime Plan clearly states the need to reduce carbon emissions from marine transport and, by delivering this network of charging infrastructure, the partnership has helped to remove one of the key barriers to the uptake of electric vessels. We are proud to have worked with fantastic partners in the delivery of this project without whose support and collaborative working this extraordinary achievement would not have been possible."

Nick Smith, Head of Product Planning at Princess Yachts, says that "Princess Yachts cannot exist without the draw of our oceans and waterways. Therefore, we must work harmoniously to protect and enhance the marine environment. As a business, we have an ambitious sustainability roadmap and are on our journey to deliver on customer expectations as well as prepare for the future of our industry. While a full battery electric yacht may not be feasible with existing technology above around 12m, the MeLL project and its legacy has real world relevance and benefit to the growing interest we see in hotel service batteries and hybridisation. The benefits are marked with charging times nearly 40 times faster than many marina shore power connections, and the launch of this project in our brand home of Plymouth is fantastic for the city."

Explore further Rich history of Plymouth harbour detailed in new study
Researchers examine the underside of a Francis turbine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Waterpower Laboratory. Credit: Thor Nielsen/NTNU

In early April, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, issued its Working Group III report describing options for what the nations of the world can do to keep global warming from reaching catastrophic levels.

The options are many, and the need to act is urgentthe Working Group concluded that the world has just 30 monthsto 2025for greenhouse gas emissions to peak before they must be brought down.

The sobering report was not without its bright spots, however. One important finding is that renewable energy costs have plummeted in recent years, making it more and more feasible to power the world's demand for energy with non-fossil fuel sources.

Exploiting renewable energy like wind and solar power requires different ways of thinking about what to do when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, however.

And a one-hundred-year old laboratory on the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Glshaugen campus is helping to come up with solutions. You can hear about the laboratory and the research being done there in the latest episode of 63 Degrees North, NTNU's English-language podcast.

Battery or backup

The laboratorythe Waterpower Laboratoryis a five-story high structure filled with 600 millimeter stainless steel pipes and tanks with 450,000 liters of water that allow researchers to test turbines at scale model.

So when the wind stops blowing or the storm is coming, we could utilize that water in a shorter time when we need it. And then we stop the hydropower plants when we have enough wind.

Turbines, combined with generators, are the key structure that turns the kinetic energy of falling water into electric energy.

Hydropower itself is a renewable resource, but it's getting much more attention now with the buildout of more and more renewable energy, says Ole Gunnar Dahlhaug, a professor at NTNU's Department of Energy and Process Engineering and head of the Waterpower Lab.

What's key is that a hydroelectric plant can be used to back up solar or wind power when they can't generate electricity.

"The Norwegian system has more than 1,000 dams. And in that dam, we have a lot of water. And that water when it is in the dam, it's a battery. And that battery is 87 terawatt hours. That is approximately I would say 60 to 70% of the Norwegian annual utilization of energy," he said in the 63 Degrees North podcast episode on the laboratory. "So that's quite a big battery."

The way this works is to use the excess electricity from renewable sources to pump water from a lower reservoir up to an upper reservoir. That's the "battery." The water can be stored in that upper reservoir until the electricity is needed. Then the water from the upper reservoir can be run back down through the hydropower plant to generate electricity.

"So when the wind stops blowing or the storm is coming, we could utilize that water in a shorter time when we need it. And then we stop the hydropower plants when we have enough wind," Dahlhaug said.

And here's where the Waterpower Lab is making a difference: most of the turbines in today's hydropower plants aren't designed to take the stresses and strain of starting and stopping suddenly, much less pumping water up and down through the system.

Flexible operation, degassing water

Johannes Kverno is in the middle of his Ph.D. research, studying stresses on a type of hydropower turbine called a Francis turbine. For part of his research, he's using sensors on a scale model of a Francis turbine to measure just how much stress different kinds of operation will have on the turbine when he runs high pressure water through it in the lab.

"Since hydropower is a really fast acting type of power source, it's very useful and usable to quickly adjust according to the both the demand and the supply. But of course, most of the turbines in Norway at least were designed for more stable operation at close to their design points," he explained in the podcast episode. "So with more flexible operation, there will be more fatigue, which will reduce the lifetime of the runners and increase the cost of operating the plants."

Vera Gutle, who recently completed her master's degree on her research at the Waterpower Lab, used the facilities to study ways to reduce the environmental impact of high water flows around hydropower facilities.

The problem is that if the water around hydropower plants becomes supersaturated with airwhich can happen during high flow periods, like during the spring snowmeltit can make fish sick in the same way that divers who have been breathing pressurized air and who come up to the surface too quickly can get "the bends," where gas bubbles form in their bloodstream.

The Waterpower Laboratory enabled Vera to simulate these conditions and test ways to actually remove the extra airin this case, using ultrasound. They pressurize an 18,000 liter tank of water with air, and run it through a channel.

"So we let water from the tank run through the through the channel. And then we apply the ultrasound and measure the amount of air which is dissolved in the water. And then we are testing if we can reduce the amount of air that's in the channel," she said on the podcast.

A hydropower supercomputer

Hydropower has played a crucial role in the history of Norway as a country, and the story behind the Waterpower Laboratory is inextricably linked to how the nation built a modern economy.

The engineer behind its construction was a man named Gudmund Sundby. He'd been hired by the two-year-old Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1912 to help the university develop its hydropower program. It was a huge responsibility, because Norway was counting on hydropower to be the economic engine that would bring it into the global economy.

In 1912, Norway was a still a young countryit had dissolved its union with Sweden in 1905and needed to exploit the few natural resources it had to build its economy. With its steep-sided mountains and ample rainfall, hydropower was an obvious motor for Norway's economic development.

And if Norway didn't build out its hydropower potential, other countries would. Its undeveloped capacity to generate cheap electricity from falling water had already made Norway a magnet for energy-intensive industrieslike aluminum. In the early 1900s, Western countries were flocking to Norway to buy up rights to waterfallsso much so that the young Norwegian government had to pass what came to be called the "Panic Law," to get the situation under control.

Somebody had to build the expertise to harness these wild waters. That man was Gudmund Sundby.

But Sundby needed help. In an age where all calculations had to be done by hand, Sundby really needed the 1912 equivalent of a supercomputera high tech laboratory where future engineers could test and refine their designs at scale, with enough water power to really see if their calculations were right.

By 1915, Sundby had made his case. Tucked in the government's 1915 national budget was a NOK 150 000 earmark to construct a Waterpower Laboratory at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. That earmark represented 0.1 percent of the national budget at the time. It may not sound like much until you realize that in the 1940s, the American government spent "just" 1 percent of its national budget on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb.

Explore further Electric Truck Hydropower, a flexible solution to hydropower in mountainous regions
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This Saturday, the seventh annual Moonshine Car Show & Bash will take place at the Blue Ridge Institute & Museum. Over 100 vehicles that were used, or could have been used, to haul moonshine will be on display. The thoroughly authentic car show is free. The Moonshine Bash is directly across the road at the 1800 farm museum and is a ticketed event. Two distilleries, Twin Creeks of Rocky Mount and Five Mile Mountain in Floyd, will be serving moonshine tastings throughout the day. Live music will be provided by Colby Helms and the Virginia Creepers, JoJo Stockton, Seph Custer and Shavante Hughes with the Pocketkings & Soultones. Food will be available for purchase. The 1800 farm museum will be open for tours. For more information, call 540-365-4412 or email bri@ferrum.edu.
A China-linked government-sponsored threat actor observed striking European diplomatic entities in March may have been targeting Russian government officials with an updated version of a remote access trojan called PlugX.

Secureworks attributed the attempted intrusions to a threat actor it tracks as Bronze President, and by the wider cybersecurity community under the monikers Mustang Panda, TA416, HoneyMyte, RedDelta, and PKPLUG.

"The war in Ukraine has prompted many countries to deploy their cyber capabilities to gain insight about global events, political machinations, and motivations," the cybersecurity firm said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "This desire for situational awareness often extends to collecting intelligence from allies and 'friends.'"

Bronze President, active since at least July 2018, has a history of conducting espionage operations by leveraging custom and publicly available tools to compromise, maintain long-term access, and collect data from targets of interest.

Chief among its tools is PlugX, a Windows backdoor that enables threat actors to execute a variety of commands on infected systems and which has been employed by several Chinese state-sponsored actors over the years.

The latest findings from Secureworks suggest an expansion of the same campaign previously detailed by Proofpoint and ESET last month, which has involved the use of a new variant of PlugX codenamed Hodur, so labeled owing to its overlaps with another version called THOR that emerged on the scene in July 2021.

The attack chain commences with a malicious executable named "Blagoveshchensk - Blagoveshchensk Border Detachment.exe" that masquerades as a seemingly legitimate document with a PDF icon, which, when opened, leads to the deployment of an encrypted PlugX payload from a remote server.

"Blagoveshchensk is a Russian city close to the China border and is home to the 56th Blagoveshchenskiy Red Banner Border Guard Detachment," the researchers said. "This connection suggests that the filename was chosen to target officials or military personnel familiar with the region."

The fact that Russian officials may have been the target of the March 2022 campaign indicates that the threat actor is evolving its tactics in response to the political situation in Europe and the war in Ukraine.

"Targeting Russian-speaking users and European entities suggests that the threat actors have received updated tasking that reflects the changing intelligence collection requirements of the [People's Republic of China]," the researchers said.

The findings come weeks after another China-based nation-state group known as Nomad Panda (aka RedFoxtrot) was linked with medium confidence to attacks against defense and telecom sectors in South Asia by leveraging yet another version of PlugX dubbed Talisman.

"PlugX has been associated with various Chinese actors in recent years," Trellix noted last month. "This fact raises the question if the malware's code base is shared among different Chinese state-backed groups."

"On the other hand, the alleged leak of the PlugX v1 builder, as reported by Airbus in 2015, indicates that not all occurrences of PlugX are necessarily tied to Chinese actors," the cybersecurity company added.
The U.S. government on Tuesday announced up to $10 million in rewards for information on six hackers associated with the Russian military intelligence service.

"These individuals participated in malicious cyber activities on behalf of the Russian government against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act," the State Department's Rewards for Justice Program said.

All the six Russian officers are members of an advanced persistent threat group called Sandworm (aka Voodoo Bear or Iron Viking), which is known to be operating since at least 2008 with a specific focus on targeting entities in Ukraine with the goal of establishing an illicit, long-term presence in order to mine highly sensitive data.

The hackers, who are officers of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU), are as follows -

Artem Valeryevich Ochichenko, who has been linked to technical reconnaissance and spear-phishing campaigns to gain unauthorized access to IT networks of critical infrastructure facilities worldwide

Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev, who is accused of developing spear-phishing techniques and messages used by the Russian government to breach computer systems of critical infrastructure facilities

On October 15, 2020, the U.S. Justice Department indicted the aforementioned officers for carrying out destructive malware attacks with an aim to disrupt and destabilize other nations and cause monetary losses, charging them with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

As part of the initiative, the Rewards of Justice has set up a Tor website at "he5dybnt7sr6cm32xt77pazmtm65flqy6irivtflruqfc5ep7eiodiad[.]onion" that can be used to submit tips about these threat actors anonymously, or alternatively share the information via Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp.

The Sandworm collective, not long ago, was attributed to a now-neutralized sophisticated botnet malware dubbed Cyclops Blink that ensnared internet-connected firewall devices and routers from WatchGuard and ASUS.

Other recent hacking activities associated with the group include the deployment of an upgraded version of the Industroyer malware against high-voltage electrical substations in Ukraine amidst Russia's ongoing invasion of the country.
Jockey Dakota Wood, who races at Fonner Park, has been suspended for a month for failing a urine test.

The test showed the presence of THC (marijuana) in his system, according to a ruling by the Board of Stewards. That board is appointed by the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission.

Woods suspension runs April 15 through May 14. Wood, 30, appeared before the Board of Stewards at Fonner Park on April 15.

To have his Nebraska Racing and Gaming license reinstated, Wood must be professionally evaluated by a certified controlled substance counselor and produce a negative urine sample.
Hall County and Grand Island Public Schools are reviewing a contract that provides the school district with its two school interventionist staff positions.

GIPS is responsible for hiring, supervising and paying the employees, including benefits, and Hall County provides reimbursement for those costs through a grant received by Juvenile Services and its juvenile diversion program.

GIPS increases the wages for the positions yearly, though, and the grant funding Hall County receives for the positions is not keeping up.

Both interventionists want to continue working with Hall County and (GIPS) and doing this position, but its a matter of figuring out how this is going to work, Assistant County Attorney Sarah Carstensen said at Tuesdays Hall County Board of Commissioners meeting. We know, because we dont have enough money at this point, its got to change somehow. We just dont know exactly how yet.

The Community-Based Juvenile Service Aid Grant is received through the Nebraska Crime Commission, Juvenile Services Director Randy See told The Independent.

For the upcoming year, which starts July 1, Juvenile Services has received $175,000 for the two staff positions. With an enhancement grant, the total rises to $195,000.

The positions are also supported through other funds and services, See explained.

In those positions are Beth Klemme at Walnut Middle School and Andrea Hill at Grand Island Senior High.

See has met with both interventionists and GIPS Associate Superintendent Robin Dexter on the issue, Hall County Attorney Marty Klein told commissioners Tuesday.

Weve had a number of different conversations, said Klein. Were trying really hard to figure out if theres a way we can keep both of these employees there and doing the good work theyre doing. Weve batted back-and-forth a few proposals and theres another proposal that Dr. Dexter has and she has to bring that to the Superintendent (Tawana Grover).

Insurance specifically is going to increase $6,000 per person, and wages go up with each school budget cycle, Klein said.

We cant anticipate for that and the grant has not kept pace with the increase in the salaries, he said. Thats where were finding ourselves. Last year we were in a very tight situation for this budget cycle and now its just not going to be able to keep up with the increase.

Hall County Attorneys Office requested permission from the board Tuesday to notify GIPS that the county is seeking to either terminate or modify the existing memorandum of understanding between the two agencies.

The schools not going to be surprised by this, Klein said. We warned them that we would have to do this in order to continue this relationship in some form. Weve just go to notify them that we have to either amend or terminate this agreement.

The current MOU has been in place since July 1, 2018.

It is reviewed annually unless it is terminated or modified, explained Carstensen.

The county must provide written notice of termination or need for modification not less than 60 days prior to date of taking either action.

Because we think we have not enough funds to truly cover an entire years worth of wages at the rate that GIPS has been setting the wages for these folks, were in a position where we think we may need to modify this agreement with them, said Carstensen. Really what were trying to do is make this work for all.

The program has been mutually beneficial for both Hall County and GIPS, Carstensen said.

The interventionist helps with our diversion kids and assisting them while theyre at school, she said. The school benefits because we dont have so many diversion kids to take up their time for the entire day. Their day is also spent assisting kids who are at school and keeping them from becoming diversion kids or truancy kids.

Commissioner Pam Lancaster supported the action.

If theres a way for us to continue this we should, she said. On the other hand, I think the school has a responsibility on the financial side, too.

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YORK -- The wind was gusting up to 65 miles per hour in York County during the first week of April, a week that saw multiple days of high wind warnings across the state. Dan Leininger, water conservationist for the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District, saw more than an inconvenience in this storm: as he looked across the tilled fields of dark soil that comprise most of the district, he saw the wealth of the state blowing away in the howling gale force. Clouds of rich topsoil, lifted from fields and blasted south and eastward, never to return. The drought conditions across much of Nebraska, combined with sustained high winds, meant that erosion was inevitable on conventionally tilled fields where best management practices such as cover crops and diverse growing rotations are not in use.

According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, erosion happens when soil is not adequately covered to protect it from water and wind. When uncovered soil particles become detached and are washed or blown away, soil health declines, and other resources are negatively impacted such as water and air quality. The impact on air quality was evident during the recent windstorm, as Leininger noticed the swirling clouds blow off the fields and across roads, creating a possible safety hazard for drivers, as well as making breathing without eating a mouthful of soil a challenge for anyone unfortunate enough to be outside on such a day. Visions of the Dust Bowl era are hard to deny.

It is a stark contrast to visit the Project GROW (Growing Rotational crops On Wellfield) demonstration fields on the northeast side of the City of York. Amidst the brown and gold stubble of the previous years crop, vibrant green of new rye grass is coming up. The ground cover provided by the small grain crop and the other remnant plant matter on the field means that even in high winds, the soil doesnt move. Unlike the fields that surround the GROW site, there is no loss of fertility here due to erosion. Beyond simply protecting the soil from being blown away, the cover crops are also providing nutrients into the soil that will be used by the alfalfa crop to be planted after the rye is harvested in July. These fields are getting richer while the neighboring fields are deteriorating in the current weather conditions, notes Leininger.

Project GROW is a collaborative effort between the Upper Big Blue NRD and the City of York to protect the soil over the citys wellfield through best management practices. The end goal is to safeguard the groundwater beneath the soil that provides drinking water to the 7,800 people who live in York. In addition to preventing erosion, these soil health practices are preventing nitrogen leaching that could contaminate drinking water, which is becoming a major problem for rural Nebraskans.

To Leininger, the benefits of cover crops and other soil health practices have never been more obvious. As severe weather events, including periods of drought followed by intense rainfall, become more the norm through this region, protecting and improving the health of the soil is becoming an urgent issue. Healthy soils absorb and retain moisture like a sponge and wont blow away in high winds. Conventionally tilled mono-cropped fields that lie naked to the elements for much of the year are doubly prone to erosion, from the wind as well as heavy rainfall.

Leininger recommends producers incorporate the five principles of soil health into their operations to prevent erosion and naturally improve fertility:

 Provide soil armor with cover crops and plant residue.

 Minimize soil disturbance through reduced tillage.

 Increase biodiversity through diverse crop rotations.

 Incorporate livestock to add fertilizer and increase biodiversity.

 Keep a continuous live root growing in the soil through use of cover crops.

The Upper Big Blue NRD and the NRCS have programs available to assist producers in the implementation of soil health practices. It can be challenging to get started with no till and cover crops, Leininger said. Thats why the funding and guidance provided by the NRD and agency partners are available. To take advantage of these programs, contact the NRD and get started today.
A city employee in Waverly who was digging out a damaged road sign post uncovered a live grenade that had likely been buried there for decades, according to the Lancaster County Sheriff.

Sheriff Terry Wagner said the grenade's pin had been pulled, but the years of dirt and rust likely prevented the explosive from detonating when the worker picked it up at about 2:30 p.m. Monday near 148th Street and Waverly Road.

Once he realized what he was holding, Wagner said the employee put the grenade back and called 911.

Local authorities summoned the Nebraska State Patrol's bomb squad, and later called in the Air Force's Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team, which later detonated the grenade in a nearby field, Wagner said.

The sheriff described the grenade as a pineapple-style model used in World War II and the Korean War, which he said hasn't been manufactured since the 1960s.
Burt County officials still are tallying the losses from a weekend fire that destroyed two houses and many outbuildings on properties near Lyons and killed livestock and other animals.

Four firefighters also were injured battling the blaze.

The fire started shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday. With the exception of a few hot spots, the fire was under control a little over 12 hours later, said K.C. Bang, Burt County emergency manager.

Bang, who has been in the fire service for 37 years, said it was the second-most-severe wildfire he has seen, but "the winds were like I've never experienced."

Bang said the fire is under investigation.

"I feel very blessed that we didn't have any fatalities," Bang said. "The potential was there for very serious injuries if not fatalities."

Serena Byrnes and her family lost their home and several dogs at Krieghund Farm near Lyons, where they breed German shepherds.

Byrnes sat in her neighbor's driveway Saturday, watching the grass fire that was burning north of their properties get bigger.

Flames licked at the brush alongside Nebraska 51 near Lyons, which is about 80 miles north of Omaha. Then the fire started barreling east.

Byrnes, her husband, Robert, and their 4-year-old daughter ran across the street.

Serena piled their daughter and one of the family dogs into the car.

Robert started dousing the home and outbuildings with water.

The family of four lost their home, 13 outbuildings, vehicles and 14 dogs in the fire.

"It was the most horrific feeling in my life," Serena Byrnes said Tuesday.

More than 15 fires burned across the state over the weekend, whipped up by dry winds that gusted in excess of 60 mph.

The Saturday fire in Burt County also burned down the home and outbuildings of another Lyons family, Sharon and Roger Kenaston.

Officials Tuesday were continuing to battle a southwest Nebraska fire known as the Road 702 fire. As of Tuesday morning, the fire had burned 41,448 acres, officials said. It was 47% contained.

Much of central and eastern Nebraska was under a red flag warning Tuesday. High temperatures and low humidity were expected to be accompanied by high, gusting winds.

Saturday, the Byrnes family had sent their teenage son off to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Serena, Robert and their daughter decided to head to a thrift store for an outing.

From the car, they spotted flames near a friend's house. Serena Byrnes called the sheriff. The fire already been reported.

The Byrnes family took back roads to get home, keeping an eye on the fire as they went. It was staying north, but it was "unbelievably fast" and growing by the minute.

Serena Byrnes called every neighbor she could think of to warn them of the blaze.

When the fire changed direction, it was clear it would reach the Byrnes' farm.

After putting their daughter in the car, Serena Byrnes grabbed one of the family's German shepherds and put him in the backseat. She called the fire department, pleading for help to arrive.

When Byrnes turned to get dogs from their kennel building, "I looked up and it was just a wall of fire," she said.

Her husband started shouting. "Go! Go! Get out of here!"

Byrnes drove away, knowing she was leaving her husband and most of the dogs behind.

Byrnes kept in touch with her husband for a time via two-way radio. But then he went silent for 40 minutes.

Robert Byrnes was trying to douse the buildings and land with a hose before attempting to rescue family dogs and the dogs in the kennel building.

"It was just hell," Serena Byrnes said. "That's the only way I can describe it. It was like hell on Earth."

The couple saved nine dogs. Robert Byrnes sustained serious burns to his arms, legs and face.

Everything on the property was scorched. The house's foundation cracked and crumbled. Ladders and hubcaps were melted, pools of liquid on the ground.

Days later, the rubble still was smoldering, too hot to touch. The Byrnes were waiting to see if anything is salvageable.

"It's unbelievable," Byrnes said. "This was the most horrific experience we have ever had to go through."

The community has rallied behind the family, showing up in droves to keep them company or drop off supplies and donations. Many donations have been spurred by activity on a fundraising Facebook page for the family.

"The support of people is going to be crucial to build a home back," she said. "The kids keep saying they want to go home."
Did you know that..."The Biggest Camera Manufacturer in the World IsFujifilm"?

So says Mike Smith in an engaging short article published yesterday at PetaPixel.

To get to that title you have to agree not to call smartphones "cameras," but we can take their point. It's that Fuji has sold 50 million(!) Instax instant cameras, and not only does that make it the largest dedicated camera maker (there, let's call it that) in the world, but it means, "strangely," in author Smith's words, that "the success of [Fuji's] Imaging Division is largely because of film. In fact, Fujis digital cameras may actually be making a net loss[,] with film sales cross-subsidizing their development and production." In other words, Instax sales could be subsidizing the X and GFX lines all of us are so familiar with!

And here's an interesting little factoid the article points out that I had never thought of before in exactly these terms...Fuji never actually made its own completely in-house DSLR. It leapfrogged from modifying Nikon bodies directly into mirrorless.

The second X-100, an X100s (201314)

Instax flies under the radar for me. I pay it scant attention. I might have done one or two posts on it over all these years. Good thing Fuji is more attuned than I am.

The tale Mike Smith tellsof adroit business acumen leading into a unique path to successsquares with something I was told years ago by a leading independent commentator who had close ties to Canon. He said that a high-ranking contact at that company had told him confidentially that Canon was only afraid of one other company, and that it was neither Nikon nor Sony...it was Fuji. That comment predated the X100 in 2011 by quite a few years and might have coincided with the nadir of Instax in 2004, I don't recall exactly. It was somewhere around that time, anyway, early- to mid-2000s.

Prescient.

So, if you accept Mike Smith's analysis, not only did "the Kodak of Japan" succeed where the real Kodak could not, but it also has succeeded at Polaroid's game where the real Polaroid could not. Interesting. There's no other company like Fujifilm, that's for sure.

Mike

Book o' the Week

The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: a Calvin and Hobbes Treasury by Bill Watterson. I just read a dire, apocalyptic article about mental health during the pandemic, so I decided on trying an "off topic" book rec that is slightly lighter than our usual fare. If you don't appreciate it, don't worry, it's a blog. Something else will be along soon.



Link to B&H

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)

Featured Comments from:

Howard Sandler: "The problem with Instax for 'serious' photographers is that it is too successful. Fuji has done so well making millions of lo-fi inexpensive Instax cameras that it has no incentive to develop more full-featured models.

"I tried Instax after Fuji discontinued their wonderful versions of peel-apart films FP100c and FP3000b which fit the old Polaroid Land Automatic cameras. I've gone through the Instax Wide 300, Instax SQ6 (square) and Instax Mini 90 (full featured). The Instax film, though more contrasty than even slide film (maybe three stops dynamic range), has nice colour and doesn't fade. It scans nicely. (A gratuitous example of a selfie carefully set up with the Instax Mini 90 is below).

"Yet, the Fuji Instax cameras are plastic toys with only two or three zone focus, no built-in capability to add filters or off-camera flash, and little to no manual control. There are some third-party options for cameras, but I find them very expensive and of questionable reliability. There is also an even smaller niche of hacked frankenfuji cameras where the backs of Fuji Instax cameras are grafted onto cameras such as the Mamiya Press series."

Alex Mercado: "The Instax Mini Evo is the camera I recommend everyone take a gander at. It is truly a tiny marvel."

Dennis Ng: "It is quite fun, especially the larger version. The instant appeal with development and the one-of-a-kind feel. Tried it. There are occasions that it is the best."
CARBONDALE  The community has raised funds to help the families of the Salukis who died and were injured in a crash last week.

A total of $93,889 has been raised through three different GoFundMe pages to help the five SIU students who were in a two-vehicle crash near McClure on April 21.

Both Vamshi Krishna Pechetty and Pavan Swarna, who were 23 and graduate students in computer science at SIU, died in the crash, according to Chancellor Austin Lane.

Pavan Swarnas sister, Priyanka Swarna, created a fundraiser on last week to help bring Pavan Swarna back home to India.

All the love in the world cannot cull the sorrow my family is going through, Priyanka Swarna said on the GoFundMe Thursday. With a saddened heart, I'm announcing the death of my beloved brother, Pavan Swarna. For those of you that know him, he's the kindest person. His fun spirit calms the people around him. He's always there for friends and family in their time of need. In the same spirit, he went to help a friend this morning and was fatally struck by oncoming traffic. His kindness in helping his friends cost him his life. I do not have words to explain the grief my family and I are going through. We are still awaiting the law enforcement to hand over my brother.

The goal was $50,000. As of 2:20 p.m. on Tuesday, they had raised $37,724.

To donate to a fund to help Swarnas family, go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-support-pavan-swarnas-family?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer.

The following students were also involved in the crash:

Kalyan Dorna, 24, of Carbondale, a graduate student in civil engineering

Karthik Kakumanu, a graduate student in computer science

Yaswanth Uppalapati, 23, a graduate student in computer science

Karthik Kakumanus brother, Aravind Kakumanu, started a separate fundraiser the same week.

This grievous situation has disturbed each and everyone from family, friends, and work colleagues, Aravind Kakumanu said on the GoFundMe. We all are trying to cope with this situation which still seems to be a bad dream. We really appreciate any donation that could be possible from your end which helps our family and the bills.

Karthik Kakumanu was severely injured in the crash and has had to undergo surgery, according to his brother on the GoFundMe.

Doctors have mentioned that his ribs were injured and there was internal bleeding through the spleen, Aravind Kakumanu said in the GoFundMe. Further, they had to remove the spleen to avoid the major consequences which impact his immunity in the future.

The GoFundMe has raised a total of $55,359 out of $200,000 goal.

To donate to a fund to help Kakumanu, go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-support-karthik-kakumanu?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1.

The incident

Five SIU students were involved in a crash on Illinois Route 3 just north of McClure, according to the Illinois State Police and SIU Chancellor Austin Lane.

We are heartbroken to learn of a tragic car accident that has taken the lives of two members of the Saluki family and injured three others, Lane said in a Facebook post. We send our condolences to the families. We are working to support the families during this incredibly difficult time. Our Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) team is available to help others who are impacted by this tragedy. Our thoughts and hearts are with these students and their loved ones.

Pechetty and Swarna died because of the incident, Lane said.

According to ISP, Marie A. Meunier, 32, of Cape Girardeau, also died.

Meunier was traveling southbound on Route 3, just north of Old Cape Road Union County when she crossed the center line for unknown reasons, according to a news release from Illinois State Police.

Her car struck the front of a second vehicle, driven by Swarna, according to ISP.

The Union County coroner pronounced Meunier and Swarna dead on scene.

All lanes have been reopened at the site of the accident, ISP said.

No other information has been released at this time.

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SALINE COUNTY  A man was injured from multiple gunshot wounds Tuesday during a Saline County shooting.

At 12:25 a.m. police received multiple calls reporting gunshots near South Land and South Hobson streets, police said.

As they were responding to the area they received another call, but this one was a female reporting that her 37-year-old friend had been shot.

Officers arrived at the scene and located the victim at the intersection of Barnett and Land streets. He was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, police said.

Officers began life-saving measures while awaiting the Deaconess EMS to arrive.

Upon arrival, the victim was transported to Harrisburg Medical Center and then flown to an Evansville, Indiana hospital, police said.

During the course of the investigation, officers identified Tyler Farmer as a suspect in the shooting, police said.

The age and hometown of the suspect was not given by police.

At 3:22 am officers located Farmer and placed him under arrest.

Farmer was informally charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, aggravated unlawful discharge of a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to police.

Formal charges are pending.

The Harrisburg Illinois Police Department was assisted by the Saline County Sheriff's Department, Illinois State Police and Deaconess EMS.

Farmer is being held at the Saline County Detention Center.

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MARION  For the second time in a year, a church had a vehicle component stolen from its property.

A catalytic converter was stolen off the Whiteash Free Will Baptist Church on April 19  nearly a year after the same part was stolen the first time.

Surveillance video captured a vehicle and four people entering the church parking lot between 2 and 3 a.m., according to Senior Pastor Andy Lee.

The four men drove up in 2000 Monte Carlo and two were dropped off.

They then placed a saw underneath the van and started working on cutting the part off, Lee said.

The price of the part has gone up from $1,200 last year to $2,400.

"This time we had the camera installed, and it was staring at them," Lee said. "We kind of got a little bit of facial identity. Then the car had one of those like lights on the license plate and in the cameras, it blurred out what the actual license plate is."

The camera was something the church added after the original theft nearly a year ago.

The church had also started locking up their van since the original theft; however, they recently started renovations for food giveaways that took place where they stored the van.

Lee said he is aggravated that someone would do this, not once but twice, when the church is more than willing to help people in need.

We would do anything to help our community," Lee said. "If somebody had a need for food, clothing, anything at all. We do a lot to help our community, we have a lot of drives and we have a lot of food giveaways. So, if anybody ever needed help, we'd be more willing to help."

However, this incident is not far from the only one to happen to local churches.

"We've had several churches experience the same thing in the Marion area," Lee said. "We're just kind of tired of getting stolen from and nobody likes to be stolen from period. This is Southern Illinois. We're small-town communities when we look out for one another. We're not Chicago, we're not big cities where you have really high crime rates. You just feel kind of violated. It's sad that we have to have security cameras or have our vehicles locked up."

If anyone has any information, you are asked to contact the Williamson County Sheriff's Office.

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SPRINGFIELD  A pair of bills on Gov. J.B. Pritzkers desk would expand a state roadway camera monitoring program to 21 additional counties while also expanding the number of crimes the cameras can be used to investigate and the number of parties that can prosecute them.

The measures  House Bill 260 and House Bill 4481  were among 80 bills that cleared the General Assembly in the final 24-hour stretch of a legislative session in which Democrats looked to bolster their voting records on crime.

They expand a pilot program that directs the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Illinois State Police and the Illinois Toll Highway Authority to increase the number of cameras on state roads through funding from the states Road Fund. The underlying program was launched in 2020 in response to expressway shootings. ISP has recorded 580 such shootings since 2019, including 72 this year.

In February, Pritzker appeared alongside ISP Director Brendan Kelly to publicize more than 20 arrests related to expressway crime due to an increased law enforcement focus. But Melaney Arnold, an ISP spokesperson, said this week the department was unable to quantify the number of crimes solved by expressway cameras due to the number of open investigations and pending charges.

Since installation of (automatic license plate readers) in the Chicago area, our investigators in Cook County have used ALPRs, in addition to other information and evidence, as part of every investigation, she said in an email.

The bills received the backing of ISP, the states attorney general and broad majorities in the legislature.

But civil liberties advocates and lawmakers from each party aired concerns about potential misuse of the cameras, a lack of clarity regarding how camera placements will be chosen, and that an individual would be prohibited from accessing their own camera footage via the Freedom of Information Act.

Although these tools can provide some public benefit, the risk is that they're susceptible to abuse and have a chilling effect on public life, Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, said in an interview.

Its a concern that Rep. Ann Williams, a Chicago Democrat and House sponsor of HB 260, said she considered when carrying the bill.

Historically, I've been one to be very concerned about ensuring that we don't surveil society  that should not be our law enforcement approach, she said in an interview. But targeted use of cameras that are limited in use and narrow in scope, it's about violent crimes that concern people every day, and the way to hopefully address those.

Roadway expansion

The measures amend the 2020 Expressway Camera Act, which has led to the placement of about 100 license plate-reading cameras on the Dan Ryan expressway in Chicago through a $12.5 million IDOT grant. A second phase funded by that grant would add hundreds more on other Cook County roads.

Its a program currently focused on automatic license plate readers, which monitor a cars rear license plate and send the information to a central location to be analyzed by software that allows law enforcement to place a vehicle at the scene of an expressway crime, according to ISP.

Kelly told lawmakers in March that criminals choose expressways because they make escape easier, partially because there are fewer cameras to capture identifying features and its more difficult to track down witnesses. The expressway camera program is a way to counteract those disadvantages for law enforcement, he said.

The pilot program is scheduled to expire in July 2023 but would be extended through June 2025 under the measures awaiting Pritzkers signature.

One of those measures, HB 4481, would also expand it to state highways and expressways in the counties of Boone, Bureau, Champaign, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Henry, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Macon, Madison, McHenry, Morgan, Peoria, Rock Island, Sangamon, St. Clair, Will and Winnebago. It passed 95-10 in the House and 48-5 in the Senate.

The budget signed this month by Pritzker includes $20 million from the state Road Fund for the expansion.

While an added 6,300 miles of roadway  on top of about 230 miles under current law  would be eligible for cameras under the program, the new legislation contains no guidance for which roadways would receive them.

So who makes the decisions on where the cameras are placed? Barickman said. Are the cameras placed in areas that are more frequented by more minorities and does that lend to a discriminatory effect that we're targeting certain populations?

Arnold said ISP would finalize and share placement details should the bills become law.

Rep. LaToya Greenwood, an East St. Louis Democrat who sponsored HB 4481, said she expects ISP to use statewide data and data from local law enforcement agencies to determine camera placement. As a Black woman who represents one of the poorest communities in the state in East St. Louis, she said, she wouldnt be sponsoring the bill if she believed it would be misused.

She said the counties were chosen through discussions with law enforcement and lawmakers who saw a need for added crime-solving tools.

The St. Louis Metro East area that she represents has seen the second-highest concentration of expressway shootings in the state outside of Chicago, according to ISP data, with 35 occurring since 2019 including nine this year.

Law enforcement from the area sought legislative help, she said.

They needed some assistance on that highway or those highways that either lead to St. Louis or back to the Illinois side, she said.

Eligible offense expansion

The other measure on Pritzkers desk would expand investigable offenses beyond the firearms offenses and roadway condition monitoring allowed under current law.

HB 260, if signed, would allow police to use camera footage to also investigate hijacking and forcible felonies such as murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery, burglary, arson, kidnapping and aggravated battery.

Using footage to enforce petty offenses, such as speeding, would remain prohibited.

HB 260 would also give the attorney generals office, along with local states attorneys, authority to prosecute forcible felony, gunrunning and firearms offenses on camera-monitored expressways.

The measure saw roll calls of 97-10 in the House and 44-12 in the Senate, earning praise from Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who said it would aid in capturing and holding accountable individuals who terrorize residents and visitors traveling Illinois roadways.

But Rep. Curtis Tarver, a Chicago Democrat who is a personal injury and civil rights attorney, said he had concerns about the attorney generals new role under the bill because the AGs office would also defend officers accused of discrimination involving the cameras.

HB 260 specifically states cameras cannot be used to monitor individuals in a discriminatory manner contrary to applicable state or federal law.

But the law requires that footage be deleted within 120 days unless it is the subject of an ongoing investigation or pending criminal trial, and it prohibits potential discrimination victims from accessing the footage due to the FOIA exemption, he said.

You actually put into statute that you have to delete the very video that might be proof of profiling, he said. And so it eliminates a civil judges discretion to say preserve that evidence if you dont file a lawsuit (within that 120-day time frame).

Tarver said those issues, taken together, are problematic from a civil rights perspective.

ISP gets to essentially determine where cameras go. It gets to have the video and not disclose it, and it doesn't have to provide any justifiable reason, Tarver said. And at the same time, the attorney general can potentially prosecute alleged criminals, but we're also putting in statute that well delete the very video that the attorney general might have to defend those officers against. Its crazy.

On the FOIA exemption, both Williams, HB 260s House sponsor, and Arnold of ISP said allowing the images to be subject to FOIA could prove an invasive tool if accessed for tracking purposes.

Release of these images to non-law enforcement entities could have devastating consequences to law enforcement investigatory efforts, as well as the privacy of the driving public, Arnold said in an email.

Williams and Greenwood both said they were open to follow-up legislation potentially allowing an individual the ability to request their own video via FOIA.

Program transparency

While the current program focuses on license plate readers that store still images, nothing in existing law prohibits the cameras from including more invasive video technologies.

The lack of transparency regarding the program and the vagueness of the placement language led ACLU of Illinois to successfully lobby for a provision in HB 260 that requires state agencies to post online, within 90 days of the bill becoming law, details about program objectives, counties where it is operational, and policies under which the program operates.

I think part of it is that we don't fully understand, said Khadine Bennett, director of advocacy and intergovernmental affairs at ACLU of Illinois. I mean, all that the underlying law says is that those entities would work together to create a program to increase cameras, but there is no details as to like, what does that actually mean? How does that operate? How do they decide? And the hope is that that additional language would allow for more transparency there.

Another provision included in the final bill at the request of the ACLU of Illinois would require ISP, IDOT and the Tollway report to the General Assembly by June 30 each year on the cost of installation, data storage and maintenance of cameras by county, and the number of times law enforcement accessed data to investigate the crimes outlined in the statute.

Bennett said she was hopeful that lawmakers would use those reports to judge the cost effectiveness of highway cameras when its time to decide whether to extend the program.

jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government that is distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

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A 35-year-old man accused of shooting at three Orangeburg Department of Public Safety officers will spend time in federal prison.

Phillip Michael King of Orangeburg, who also has a Barnwell address, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, the U.S. Attorneys Office District of South Carolina announced on Tuesday.

Senior U.S. District Judge Terry Wooten sentenced King last month to a total of 9-1/2 years in prison, according to the office.

King has a previous federal firearms conviction, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Kings charge stems from an incident on Sept. 22, 2018 when a man reported seeing someone driving his Dodge Journey, which had been stolen.

ODPS officers attempted to stop the vehicle. King was a backseat passenger.

The vehicle failed to stop for blue lights, sirens or marked patrol cars, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. Police chased it through the city.

During the pursuit, officers claimed King leaned out of the rear passenger window and shot two rounds from a pistol toward the police car behind him.

The vehicles came to a stop on McLaine Street. King and another occupant in the pursued vehicle ran from the scene, according to the S.C. Law Enforcement Division.

Officers found a loaded 9 mm Smith & Wesson pistol in the path where King ran.

King later confessed to the shooting and to hoping that during it he would be shot and killed by the police, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

SLED forensically matched the shell casings and firearm recovered from the scene. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined the firearm was stolen.

No one was physically injured in the shooting.

King was prohibited under federal law from possessing firearms and ammunition based on numerous prior felony convictions, including assault with intent to kill in an incident related to a prior shooting, arson and a federal felon in possession of a firearm conviction. Kings convictions began in 2003 and they also include unlawful carrying of a pistol, simple assault and battery, and failure to stop for blue lights, the U.S. Attorneys Office states.

The ATFs National Integrated Ballistic Information Network investigated leads in Kings case.

King faced the following state charges in the 2018 incident, but prosecutors dropped them on Oct. 2, 2020: three counts of attempted murder and one count each of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, possession of a stolen pistol and possession of a stolen pistol with an obliterated serial number.

The U.S. Attorneys Office also announced that Anthony Legette, 37, of Columbia, pleaded guilty to felon in possession of a firearm in an unrelated case.

Senior United States District Court Judge Cameron McGowan Currie sentenced Legette to five years and three months in federal prison.

Both Kings and Legettes sentences will be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision, and there is no parole in the federal system.

Contact the writer: mbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5545. Follow on Twitter: @MRBrownTandD

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The 14-year-old accused of shooting three students at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School is being charged as an adult, 1st Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe said Wednesday.

Pascoe believes the shooting was a gang-related incident between rival groups: the Bloods and Folk Nation.

Today is far from being a great day in South Carolina, Pascoe said. True justice is not done when it is necessary to waive a 14-year-old from family court to General Sessions Court.

Today is a wakeup call for our state. Every society gets the criminal it deserves. And in South Carolina, we have 14-year-olds shooting at each other, children going to gang meetings instead of school and repeat offenders out on bond, he said.

If we do not get more community involvement, better criminal laws and major judicial reform, the violent crime problem will continue to get worse, he added.

The 14-year-old is facing the following charges: three counts of attempted murder and one count each of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime and possession of a firearm on school campus.

If convicted, the 14-year-old faces up to 30 years in prison, without parole, on each count.

Pascoe asked for the teen to be charged as an adult during a hearing last week before Family Court Judge Anne Gue Jones.

He said Jones ruled on the matter Wednesday morning.

Pascoe does not intend to release the suspects name or any information about the case until the 14-year-olds bond hearing. That hearing has not yet been scheduled.

The shooting took place on Aug. 18, 2021 around 4 p.m. on the back of the schools campus, located at 601 Bruin Parkway in Orangeburg.

The suspect has been held at the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice since the incident.

Since the beginning of the case, Orangeburg County Sheriff Leroy Ravenell has pushed to have the suspect charged as an adult.

In the wake of the incident, district officials made security changes at the school.

Immediately following the tragic event at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, several additional security measures were implemented, which included a revised bell schedule to ensure students at our largest high school would be able to leave their last period class directly to available school bus transportation, metal detectors, clear backpacks, thorough bag checks, and additional (private) security officers to work in concert with the school resource officer, Orangeburg County School District spokesperson Merry Glenne Piccolino said Monday.

As our school community continues to heal from the tragic event we experienced in August, our commitment to ensuring the safety of our school campuses is paramount, Piccolino said.

Sadly, gun violence has impacted a growing number of schools in communities across the state and nation this year. In addition to enhancing safety and security measures at our school campuses, our district also joined school systems throughout the Midlands in the Be SMART collaborative, which aims to help normalize conversations about gun safety and encourage responsible actions that can prevent child gun deaths and injuries, she said.

Piccolino said the district couldnt provide information about the condition of the three students who were injured in the shooting.

Contact the writer: mbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5545. Follow on Twitter: @MRBrownTandD.

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CORDOVA -- Mayor James Martin was pleased to announce that the town halls interior and exterior renovations are now complete. The town hall portion of the building has had the new flooring installed, and the gutter system has been redone to prevent further instances of flooding occurring in the building.

Council was able to finish these projects with the help of the American Rescue Act funds they received earlier in the year.

Council is looking at acquiring new picnic tables for the rental building for those who wish to have events out on the lawn and make use of their grill.

Council is in the process of deciding on building an addition to the rental building to manage storing the tables and chairs and other various items kept in the rental building for renters to make use of.

The next meeting will be held at 7 p.m. May 16 at Cordova Town Hall, 105 Flashover Lane.

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FLORENCE (AP)  A particularly bloody weekend that left four people dead from gun violence prompted the mayor of a South Carolina city to make a public appeal to see law enforcement as part of the solution.

The victims included an 11-year-old boy in Florence County and a man shot and killed after refusing to give someone a ride in the city of Florence, authorities said.

Also killed in Florence were a 17-year-old and 32-year-old in shootings that remain under investigation, with no arrests made. Investigators haven't announced any links between the four shootings, which happened between Friday night and early Sunday morning,

Law enforcement is just not here to handle crimes after they happen. Our law enforcement is here to work with the community to prevent these situations from happening," Florence Mayor Teresa Myers Ervin told reporters Monday.

Florence Police Chief Allen Heidler and Florence County Sheriffs Capt. Mike Brandt, standing with the mayor, promised to protect anyone who comes forward with information not only about the killings, but about any violence planned in retaliation or otherwise.

We need your help. We cant solve these crimes without your input and help, Brandt said.

Florence has about 38,000 people and about 138,000 people live in Florence County.

Along with the four people killed in Florence County, investigators said a 17-year-old student at South Florence High School was shot and killed early Sunday, about 65 miles away in Myrtle Beach. DyQuayvyon Quay Dickens died and two people were hurt in that shooting. No arrests have been made.

An arrest was made in the shooting of 37-year-old Larry Dontaye Joyner. Florence police said he was shot in his vehicle after refusing to take his neighbor to the store.

In Florence County, an 11-year-old boy was killed early Sunday. Deputies have released few details about the shooting, but said two people are in custody as they determine what charges should be filed.

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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 Joe 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. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The one-China principle is what underpins peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday.

It was reported that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said at a congressional hearing that the U.S. government is determined to make sure that Taiwan has all necessary means to defend itself against any potential aggression.

"We deplore and reject Secretary Blinken's statement," spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular news briefing.

The U.S. side shall not underestimate the strong resolve, determination and capability of the 1.4 billion Chinese people in defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Reneging on the commitment will push Taiwan to dangerous waters and bring unbearable cost to the United States itself, Wang said.

Since China and the United States established diplomatic ties in 1979, U.S. administrations, including the current one, have all clearly stated that they would adhere to the one-China policy, he said.

The China-U.S. Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations and the August 17 Communique clearly noted that "the United States of America recognized the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, and it acknowledged the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China."

In the Shanghai Communique, the U.S. side also declared that "The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position," Wang noted.

The U.S. leadership has stated on multiple occasions that the United States does not support "Taiwan independence." However, the U.S. side has not stopped selling arms to and having official contact with Taiwan, which have sent wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" forces, Wang said.

The historical trend of China's reunification cannot be held back, and the one-China principle is what underpins peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, Wang added. 
Rahil Kheirkhah is on a mission.

Earning her medical degree from Rowan Universitys School of Osteopathic Medicine (RowanSOM) on May 9, she will head to a five-year general surgery residency program with the ChristianaCare health system in Newark, Delaware.

She is bringing extraordinary credentials to her patients: a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree as well as a doctoral degree in cell and molecular biology from Rowans Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, which she earned in 2020. Kheirkhah is only the second female DO/PhD in the schools history.

The Linwood resident has always wanted to be a doctor.

I dont think I ever considered doing anything else. I knew I wanted to help people, and being a doctor was the only thing I ever thought about, she said. My family taught me a very central tenet of my life, which is you want to live your life serving others and you want to live your life giving back and always listening to the people around you.

Her parents embodied this message as they fought to reestablish themselves in a new country. Her father was a family physician and her mother a science teacher in Iran. But after they arrived in the United States when Kheirkhah was 11, they worked diligently to build new careersher father as a nurse and her mother as a real estate agent.

New opportunities

After she began medical school, Kheirkhah discovered additional ways to help patients as well as her classmates.

She founded Humans of RowanSOM, a platform that showcased each person at the school with photos and short quotations.

Moved by a talk given by Dr. Robert Nagele, professor of medicine at RowanSOM, she was selected for a summer medical research fellowship after her first year.

When I worked with them in the lab, I loved what they were doing, she said. It was very cutting edge and innovative, like nothing Id ever heard about before.

This led her to earn her doctorate within three years, receiving the Deans Award for Excellence in Research in 2018. She worked on research to develop a blood test to diagnose early-stage Alzheimers disease, which would detect the disease before patients begin to show symptoms, enabling earlier treatment.

It was probably the best decision Ive made in my seven years at Rowan, she said. Working with them gave me a chance to not only grow professionally, but also grow personally.

In Nageles program, she learned to perform and analyze research and refine her abilities to take a critical approach to problem-solving. She also assumed leadership roles on projects.

It taught me to feel comfortable about questioning the material that Im taught, looking for answers and where the answers are coming from, and approaching situations in a very scientific way.

It made me more confident that when I am practicing medicine, Ill be learning skills and reading information that is scientifically sound and making decisions that are objectively beneficial for my patients, she said.

Nageles guidance was invaluable, according to Kheirkhah.

He taught me not to shrink away from a challenge and, more importantly, to become comfortable making big decisions and standing behind them, she said. He was an incredible mentor to have, and I feel very grateful to have been able to work with him.

Handling the pressure

After earning her doctorate, Kheirkhah returned to her medical studies. She plans to continue performing research in a clinical setting, and she was drawn by the teamwork and intensity of surgery.

Theres an immediacy and urgency that demands that you be completely present in that moment, Kheirkhah said.

When youre in the operating room, it can be unpredictable and intense, and that resonated with the intense unpredictability I had been feeling growing up as an immigrant for the last 17 years, she continued.

I feel like the person who I am now was formed under a very pressurized environment, which is very similar to how you are when youre in an operating room.

Based on her experience as an immigrant, she also believes she will be able to empathize and connect with patients who feel vulnerable.

Those individual one-on-one connections are really where you can make your mark, showing who you are and what your signature is as a doctor, she said.

Marcin Jankowski, DO, MBA, FACOS, associate clinical professor at RowanSOM and trauma surgeon at ChristianaCare, has observed Kheirkhahs strong drive to help others.

Rahil is unique in that not only has she found her passion for the field of surgery, she has also found her purpose by using that passion to serve others. To a mentor, there is nothing more rewarding than to witness your mentee go through such a profound transformation and ultimate realization. I am confident that she will make an excellent and caring surgeon.

Savoring every moment

Kheirkhah is grateful for the people she met at Rowan who supported and listened to her.

Your mentors are such a significant part of where you end up in life, she said. They nudge you in the right direction, and with the right people standing behind you, you can go so far.

She eagerly awaits the next step in her career.

Im going to the hospital of my dreams and Im doing the residency of my dreams, Kheirkhah said.

Im looking forward to being the best I can be and to take this opportunity in as fully as possible as time flies bysavoring every single moment. I just want to try to be as present as possible.
Solongo Boknov is about to graduate with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree at Rowan Universitys Virtua Health School of Nursing & Health Professions, but the Mount Laurel residents self-assuredness, sunny personality, and steady hands hint at years of experienceand an unwavering drive to serve patients.

In the late 1990s, after completing medical school and working three years as an obstetrics resident in her native country of Mongolia, Boknov left everything she knew to move to California. To return to medicine, she had to learn a new language, navigate a new culture and build a new life.

Over time, Boknov began taking college courses to return to health care, first as a paramedical examiner who prepared patients for medical exams, and later as a hospital technician and phlebotomist.

Five years ago, while working at a teaching hospital in California, she encountered a resident fresh out of medical school whose hands were shaking while trying to start a patients IV.

The patient was nervous and (the resident) was nervous, Boknov recalled, so she held the patients hands while successfully talking the new doctor through each step. Her knowledge and skills caught the attention of the residents professor and her manager, but, without a nursing degree or nursing license, she wasnt allowed to perform such procedures herself.

She resolved to go back to school again, this time for nursing. She and her husband moved to New Jersey, where she enrolled in the 3+1 nursing program at Rowan College at Burlington County. She graduated with her associates degree last May, opting to continue her schooling full time to obtain her bachelors degree before working in the field.

Its an intense, rigorous program, noted Dr. Angela Ruckdeschel, one of Boknovs professors. Nurses in the bachelors degree program receive instruction on health care privacy laws, electronic health records and telemedicine, as well as how to search the current scientific literature for evidence-based practices.

In her course last semester, Ruckdeschel said, I witnessed (Boknovs) passion for learning and her compassionate temperament. Shes extremely dedicated to the profession of nursing and Im excited for her future and know that she will truly make a difference in her patients lives.

Dr. Carmen McDonald, who taught Boknov how to publish research papers at the university level, noticed her patient-centered care mindset, a view that frames the practice of medicine around the needs and wants of an individual patient.

She goes over and beyond in her work, McDonald said. What I find most fascinating about her is that she is able to apply the clinical practice of nursing, even though shes not physically doing it.

That will change soon. After graduation, Boknov hopes to work for a hospital on a medical-surgical floor or in an intensive care unit. Shes looking forward to challenging cases.

I have all these skills, Boknov said. Im ready to go to work.
BILLINGS  U.S. wildlife officials have agreed to craft a new habitat plan for the snow-loving Canada lynx that could include more land in Colorado and other western states where the rare animals would be protected, according to a legal agreement made public Tuesday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service faces a 2024 deadline to draft the new plan for the wild cats after settling a legal challenge from two environmental groups  Wild Earth Guardians and Wilderness Workshop. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen issued an order late Monday approving the settlement.

The groups sued to enforce a prior court ruling from Christensen that said federal officials wrongly excluded areas of Colorado, Montana and Idaho when they designated almost 40,000 square miles in 2014 as critical for the lynxs long-term survival.

On land designated as critical, federal agencies are required to consult with wildlife officials before taking or allowing any activities that could destroy or alter the habitats of a protected species. Those consultations can potentially lead to restrictions of logging in federal forests or limitations on dirt roads used for recreation.

Christensen cited the presence of a reproducing lynx population in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

Agency officials had earlier concluded that Colorado and adjacent areas of Wyoming and New Mexico were not essential for the recovery of the species, pointing in part to low population densities of snowshoe hares that lynx eat.

To comply with the judges order, the Fish and Wildlife Service will evaluate which parts of the Southern Rockies and elsewhere are critical for lynx and propose them for potential protections by Nov. 21, 2024, according to a statement provided by agency spokesperson Joe Szuszwalak.

Lynx are elusive, forest-dwelling animals. There is no reliable population estimate, but several hundred are believed to roam parts of the U.S. Rocky Mountains.

The animals also are found in Minnesota, Maine, Washington state and occasionally Michigan.

They were reintroduced to Colorado beginning in the late 1990s and listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act across the contiguous U.S. in 2000.

During Donald Trumps presidency, officials said the lynx had recovered and no longer needed protection after their numbers rebounded in some areas. President Joe Bidens administration reversed course in November and agreed to keep the lynxs threatened species protections. That did not resolve the dispute over what areas they would need to survive.

Theres a lot of really good habitat in Colorado  wilderness and really remote areas, said attorney John Mellgren, who represented the environmental groups that reached the settlement.

But he added that those areas face increased pressure as trees in forested areas are killed by beetles, wildfires and other problems that are being worsened by climate change.

Some scientists warn climate change could undo progress in lynx recovery, by melting away their snowy habitat and decreasing the availability of snowshoe hares.

U.S. government biologists in 2016 predicted some lynx populations would disappear by 2100. That was based on models predicting widespread and substantial habitat losses because of climate change.

Under Trump, officials shortened their time span for considering climate change threats, from 2100 to 2050, because of what they said were uncertainties in long-term climate models. A government assessment based on that shortened time span concluded lynx populations had increased versus historical levels in parts of Colorado and Maine.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- It is imperative for teachers to be proficient in professional knowledge and exemplary in moral character, noted Chinese President Xi Jinping in his visit to Renmin University of China this week.

In his words, Xi used two concepts put forward by ancient Chinese authors: "lecturer of knowledge" and "paragon of virtues."

These two concepts were famously carried in "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", or "Historical Events Retold as a Mirror for Government," a chronological general history of China written in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). According to the original text, teachers who are lecturers of knowledge are easy to find, but teachers that can be paragons in virtues and cultivate their students in this regard are hard to come by.

From Xi's point of view, to be competent in nurturing the next generation who will join and carry on the socialist cause, a teacher ought to excel in both professional knowledge and morality.

For teachers, if they would like to foster their students into a certain kind of person, they should be that kind of person themselves first, Xi noted.

He called on teachers to constantly cultivate their moral character, and set good examples for students in learning, pursuing careers and conducting oneself. 
SHERIDAN  Sheridan County Circuit Court Judge Shelley Cundiff found there was sufficient probable cause to bind Christian Torres, 15, over to district court on the amended charge of murder in the first degree during a preliminary hearing Monday.

Torres is now charged with unlawfully purposely and with premeditated malice murdering his adopted father, Edgar Eddie Jones on July 27, rather than the original charge of second degree  or not premeditated  murder. The new charge is a felony punishable by life imprisonment when the defendant is younger than 18 years old at the time of the offense, a $10,000 fine or both.

After allegedly shooting his father with a semi-automatic pistol, Torres attempted to flee to Billings in the familys truck, court documents state. Law enforcement located the defendant after he was involved in a single-car roll-over crash in Hardin, Montana, in the early hours of the morning July 28, at which time Torres admitted to a Montana State Trooper he had killed his father.

During the hearing Monday, Deputy Sheridan County and Prosecuting Attorney Christopher LaRosa had to demonstrate probable cause that Torres acted with premeditated intent.

To that end, LaRosa presented testimony from Sheridan County Sheriffs Office Deputy K. Boot Hill, who described his investigation of the Torres case and the evidence indicating Torres allegedly acted with premeditated malice.

In particular, Hill testified Torres wrote four lists in a notebook prior to his fathers death, each of which included check-list style instructions for a kind of plan.

Two of the notes mentioned gathering supplies and driving to Billings in a mongoose, which Hill said he interpreted as the truck Torres intended to drive to Montana, a reference to a vehicle in the video game Halo.

Another pair of notes included commands to execute Order 66, which Hill testified was an allusion to Star Wars, an order instructing the execution of the Jedi order. Hill said he understood Torres written intentions to execute Order 66 as the defendants plan to kill Jones.

These lists were allegedly consistent with previous behavior from the defendant, Hill said. In his capacity as school resource officer at Tongue River High School, Hill said he spoke with Torres adopted mother in March 2021, four months prior Jones death. The mother stated she was concerned about Torres behavior and afraid of the then-14-year-old.

One reason for this was a kill list Torres mother had found among his possessions, which included several names of people to eliminate, Hill said.

During Hills cross examination, defense attorney Anna Malmberg poked holes in Hills theory of the case. The lists could have been made in reference to a video game, Malmberg argued, or have some other innocent explanation. Similarly, Hill had not had the evidence analyzed by a handwriting expert to confirm Torres wrote the notes.

Malmberg also pointed out Torres had indicated to Hill that he initially intended to hurt himself  not someone else  during Hills interrogation of the defendant. How could Torres kill his father in a premeditated manner if hed initially planned to hurt himself?

Despite these arguments from the defense, Cundiff determined adequate probable cause existed to send the case back to district court with the amended charge of first-degree murder.

Because 4th Judicial District Court Judge Darci Phillips has recused herself from Torres case, the case will return to district court for a transfer hearing before Laramies 2nd Judicial District Court Judge Tori Kricken in June or July and a trial before Jacksons 9th Judicial District Court Judge Melissa Owens preliminary scheduled for August.

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Minor lapses in rule following by Wyomings county-level Republican parties have highlighted the chasm between traditional conservatives and hard liners within the states GOP.

The county Republican parties in Albany, Crook and Sublette failed to notify their respective county clerks about when they would hold their county conventions, which is required under state bylaws.

Meanwhile, the Laramie County Republican Party is at risk of losing almost all of its delegates to the upcoming state Republican convention after the group admittedly broke rules at their county convention.

Rule breaking has not been scrutinized in the past, but this year theres been a new emphasis put on rule-following among the state and county-level Republican parties.

At a Wyoming GOP executive committee meeting in early April, the panel unanimously passed a motion that stated that the party will vigorously support and enforce all state and county bylaws at the 2022 State Convention.

That focus spurred a call from the Laramie County GOP  one of the counties that frequently clashes with state GOP leadership  for state party officials to treat all counties equally when it comes to enforcement.

The problem with the state party is selective enforcement, said Diemer True, a former state lawmaker and state party chairman. Theyre overlooking the ones that they want to overlook.

Now that its clear that county parties in Albany, Sublette and Crook did not follow the bylaws, Laramie Republicans are calling for all counties to be held to the same standard. As of Tuesday evening, no formal complaints had been lodged with the state executive committee over those counties failure to notify their clerks of their conventions.

While Laramie County believes all counties should be seated, if the Credentials Committee does not look equally at the violations of all counties, it will show bias and an unfair application of the rules, Dani Olsen, chairwoman of the Laramie County GOP, said in a statement.

State Chairman Frank Eathorne did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The number of delegates that each county gets is based on its population, and Laramie is the most populous in the state. But if the Laramie party loses most of its delegates, it will end up with less voting power than Niobrara, the county with the smallest population in Wyoming.

The size of a county partys delegation ties directly to its voting power at the state Republican convention, which is set to begin May 5. The convention is held to vote on party platforms, resolutions and rules. The decisions made and adopted at the convention can influence the states politics  including which bills are brought to the Wyoming Legislature.

In the case of Laramie County, the state GOPs executive committee received a complaint that alleged the delegate and alternate delegate selection that took place at that partys GOP convention violated party bylaws. Specifically, Laramie County did not accept nominations from the floor or use secret ballots.

The Wyoming GOPs State Credentials Committee is set to meet May 5 to consider the complaint, according to a statement from the state GOP. They will then issue a recommendation that will be considered May 7.

That meeting was moved up to the conventions first day so that the Laramie County delegation would have time to cancel their hotel reservations if they are not seated, according to the state GOP statement.

The Wyoming Republican Party is working hard to safeguard its internal activities and maintain the highest standards of transparency and integrity, the statement reads. No other complaints about county conventions have been brought before the State Executive Committee.

Laramie County is not the only large county in Wyoming facing a loss of delegates. Natrona County, the second-most populous in the state, has already lost most of its delegates for failing to pay dues.

Natrona and Laramie are the two counties that continually clash with the Wyoming GOP and argue against how its being run. Olsen believes this is why there is an attempt to reduce their voting power at the convention.

A county party, let alone two of them, not having their delegates seated at the convention is unheard of in recent years.

Natrona lost its delegates now, [the state party is] looking for a rule to keep Laramie County from having a full slate of delegates, and the reason is because they want to keep an iron fist of control on the state convention, True said.

The county parties are made up of volunteers. There are national, state and county bylaws and statutes to keep track of, so minor mistakes do occur.

Bryan Miller, chairman of the Sheridan County GOP, said that it can be difficult to keep track of all the different requirements, and thats why his county party holds trainings for all precinct committeemen and women. Not all counties hold these trainings, however.

The GOP chairmen for Albany, Sublette and Crook counties did not respond to requests for comment.

Follow state politics reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis

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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.
College Boy Jesse (Jesse Stewart) is the new leadeer of the legendary D All Starz soca band.

Jesse, the 2020 International Soca Monarch (Groovy), will fill the void left by his late cousin, soca icon Blaxx (Dexter Stewart) on the legendary Roy Cape-founded bands frontline. Blaxx, a huge supporter of Jesses relatively young career, passed away from Covid-19 on March 28.
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Thirty-eight per cent of the murders committed in Trinidad and Tobago for the year thus far 
China opens Shenzhou-13 return capsule

Xinhua) 08:44, April 27, 2022

The return capsule of the Shenzhou-13 manned spaceship lands successfully at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, April 16, 2022. (Xinhua/Ren Junchuan)

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- On Tuesday, China opened the return capsule of the Shenzhou-13 manned spaceship which carried three astronauts back to Earth on April 16, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

Items carried by the spacecraft, including crop seeds, 8K high-definition memory card storing images and videos taken by the astronauts in orbit, commemorative stamps, and paintings by Hong Kong teenagers, were taken out from the return capsule.

Since the establishment of the country's manned space project, China has constantly placed importance on contributing to the national economy and people's livelihood, said the CMSA.

The Shenzhou-13 spaceship was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Oct. 16, 2021. Experiments in space science and technology were carried out during the in-orbit flight.

The mission highlights that China has completed the verification of key technologies of its space station, and also sets a record for Chinese astronauts' duration in orbit.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson on Wednesday said the Chinese mainland will continue to support cross-Strait exchanges despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said the mainland has always been committed to promoting cross-Strait exchanges, and has repeatedly stressed that cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation should not be suspended whatever the difficulties.

He added that the mainland will follow epidemic prevention measures and not impose any special restrictions on Taiwan compatriots.

On the contrary, since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority has unreasonably stopped people of the mainland from entering Taiwan, made things difficult for the normal rotation of mainland personnel stationed on the island and hindered cross-Strait marriage and family reunions, Ma said.

Denouncing the DPP authority for fabricating various excuses to impose discriminatory measures against mainland enterprises, mainland students, and mainland spouses and their families, Ma said this has exposed DPP's nature of seeking "Taiwan independence" that will cause further resentment from compatriots on both sides. 
The Pima County Board of Supervisors is set to vote on new district boundaries as part of the once-a-decade process of rebalancing the populations of the countys five districts.

The countys Redistricting Advisory Committee, consisting of five members appointed by each supervisor to oversee the redrawing of district boundaries, voted unanimously to recommend a new district map for the board to vote on approving at its May 3 meeting.

Overall, the map moves 44,810 registered voters out of their current supervisory districts and switches 21 voter precincts to different districts.

The greatest proposed changes take place along Interstate 10 and River Road, moving most of Marana to District 3.

New district boundaries are drawn every 10 years after the release of census data to balance the variance in population between districts within a 10% threshold. The current maximum population deviation between districts is 15%, and the proposed map drops that figure to less than 2%.

The last redistricting cycle in 2011 drew boundaries for the countys then-population of more than 980,000. Per the 2020 census population estimate, the county grew by more than 63,000 people as of 2020.

District 1, which currently includes Oro Valley and Marana, and District 4, which covers the eastern portion of the county, have grown the most since 2011. District 5, which covers much of Tucsons west side south of Grant Road, was the only district to lose population, according to county data.

Although the next election for the countys supervisors isnt until 2024, members of the Pima Community College Governing Board are elected within the same district lines as the board. Since voters will appoint the members for Districts 2 and 4 in November, county staffers are asking the board to approve the new boundaries by June 1 to leave time to update the voter registration database.

The countys redistricting process is taking place a year late due to the delayed release of Census data.

Voting rights

The redistricting committee met six times between February and April to discuss new map options, landing on a map the committees chairman Steve Lynn called a pretty good plan for Pima County.

Lynn previously chaired the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, a group charged with redrawing state congressional and legislative districts.

This is far easier than a statewide redistricting, not only because its fewer districts, but they really dont have as many criteria to satisfy in a local redistricting as they do in the statewide, he said. In the county, we really only had two (requirements) that had to be done and the others would be considered niceties, not necessities.

The main task is to equalize each districts population as much as possible. In the recommended map, the maximum population variation between districts is 1.7%, a difference of 30,886 county residents between the highest and lowest populated districts  4 and 5, respectively.

The other necessity is ensuring compliance with the Federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race for language minority groups. That actualized in a requirement for the county to maintain two district populations where Hispanics are able to elect candidates of their choice and not placed at a disadvantage to participate in the political process.

The proposed map maintains that requirement in Districts 2 and 5 by ensuring the population of Hispanics eligible to vote isnt reduced by more than 5%. In District 2, the current Hispanic voting-age population would drop by about 3%, while the figure would rise about 2% in District 5.

We looked at minority voting strength to be sure that we were able to withstand a challenge, if there was one, of the two minority-influenced districts. Both of those districts have a very healthy minority voting population, Lynn said. District 5 actually gained percentagewise and District 2, in part because of the Sahuarita location, dropped a couple of points but still has great influence in minority voters.

While the committee was required to look at election data for Districts 2 and 5 to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act, the committee looked at voter performance data for all five districts. Based on that analysis, the proposed map doesnt change the Democratic or Republican lean of any district, according to the county.

Members of the committee also took into account requests from jurisdictions to be split between as few districts as possible.

Marana asked to be placed in one district instead of its current split between Districts 1 and 3, and the proposed map puts the vast majority of the town in District 3. Marana Mayor Ed Honea said the change would simplify the chain of dealing with county elected officials.

The Sahuarita Town Council expressed a similar preference for the town to be consolidated into fewer districts. The redistricting committees map places Sahuarita between Districts 2 and 3, as opposed to current district lines that also divide the towns southern portion into District 4.

Historically, weve been divided amongst three districts, which in some cases can be a good thing. But you really are just a smaller piece of each one of those, said Sahuarita Mayor Tom Murphy. Part of the thought process was that if we can be as close to as much in one district as possible, then we can have a positive effect and a positive relationship working with that supervisory district as opposed to being divided.

Ultimately, Murphy said, I think itll be a line on the map at the end of the day, but Ill do my best to work with everybody for the benefit of our residents.

Population changes under proposed map Current population District 1: 219,303 District 2: 200,525 District 3: 206,987 District 4: 223,752 District 5: 192,866 Estimated population under proposed map District 1: 208,998 District 2: 208,780 District 3: 207,175 District 4: 207,761 District 5: 210,719

Registered voter changes under proposed map Current breakdown of registered voters in Pima County District 1: 159,147 (34.4% Democrat, 35.3% Republican, 30.3% Other) District 2: 96,949 (45.2% Democrat, 20.7% Republican, 34.2% Other) District 3: 118,186 (40.2% Democrat, 26.8% Republican, 33% Other) District 4: 150,963 (32.5% Democrat, 36.6% Republican, 30.9%Other) District 5: 101,170 (53.9% Democrat, 14.9% Republican, 31.2%Other) Breakdown of registered voters under proposed map District 1: 149,085 (35.7% Democrat, 34.2% Republican, 30% Other) District 2: 104,476 (43.5% Democrat, 22.5% Republican, 34% Other) District 3: 123,338 (38% Democrat, 29.1% Republican, 32.9% Other) District 4: 139,229 (32.4% Democrat, 36.7% Republican, 30.9% Other) District 5: 110,287 (53.3% Democrat, 15.2% Republican, 31.5% Other)

Contact reporter Nicole Ludden at nludden@tucson.com

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A group of eight middle and high school students gathered at one of Tucsons Sonora Quest Laboratories on Tuesday afternoon to take a tour and learn more about the different kinds of STEM-related careers they can pursue.

The visit, organized in partnership with the Southern Arizona Research, Science and Engineering Foundation (SARSEF), was part of an effort to fill labor shortages in laboratories while providing students with real-world experiences.

Eric Pickney, a senior director of enterprise risk management at Sonora Quest and a SARSEF board member, said he came up with the idea after seeing similar gaps between both entities.

When I came to work on the board, I realized that they did not have quite as much of the health sciences or health-care sciences, Pickney said. As with many industries right now, theres a shortage of staff in all levels of laboratory  anything from phlebotomists to medical lab scientists.

He said he began organizing the tour efforts to give students a glimpse into health sciences lab work, with the hope they would become inspired to pursue such careers.

Tuesdays tour consisted of students from Basis Oro Valley, Cross and Orange Grove middle schools, and Tucson High Magnet and University High. It was led by Ron Pearson, director of operations for Sonora Quest in Tucson.

He took the group through the maze of different labs on the first two floors, teaching the students about areas including phlebotomy, histology and microbiology, among others. A worker in each department then provided more specifics about their day-to-day activities and the importance of that work on a larger scale.

The participants were offered the opportunity based on their past science and research projects for the SARSEF Regional Fair, said Julie Euber, chief executive officer of SARSEF.

We found students that specifically had projects that had to do, for example, with something related to blood or disease or something that we felt would make this tour extra special for them, Euber said.

Sophie Roth Gordon, an eighth-grader at Orange Grove Middle School, was one of the eight invitees. She noted that one of her previous projects with SARSEF dealt with analyzing how exercise and certain types of food can affect a persons blood sugar.

After walking through the several departments of the Sonora Quest lab, Roth Gordon said she felt inspired by the active environments.

I really liked how hands-on it was and how you can involve yourself into knowing more about whats going on, she said. If there was a new thing that happened, like COVID and the delta (variant), something new that we didnt understand, its fun to know that you can figure it out.

Liam Superville, a senior student at Tucson High Magnet School, said the tour confirmed that he wants to stick with a STEM career as he heads off to college later this year. He hopes to pursue an education in biochemistry or biomedical engineering.

I thought the tour was really interesting. I loved seeing every department, like the histology was one that I thought was really interesting and Ive never really heard of that before, he said, in reference to the department in which workers analyze tissue samples.

Its one of my favorite things to do, work in laboratory settings like this, he added. So I can definitely see myself working in a lab environment and I really think I can thrive in that.

Contact reporter Genesis Lara at glara@tucson.com

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  Beefed up fire crews made major progress on a large prairie fire burning near the Nebraska-Kansas line on Tuesday and lighter winds allowed firefighters to keep flames from advancing significantly at big fires in the Southwest where some rural towns remain under evacuation orders.

Stiff winds remained a challenge in the Midwest, but eased in Arizona and New Mexico where they're expected to pick up again in the days ahead after fires destroyed dozens of home and charred a combined 225 square miles (580 square kilometers) last week.

"It was a very good day," said Terry Krasko, a spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team.

More than 200 firefighters are now battling the blaze in Nebraska that killed a former volunteer fire chief, injured several firefighters and destroyed several homes last week.

"No injuries. No more structures lost," Krasko told The Associated Press Tuesday night from Cambridge, Nebraska. "I think the biggest loss we had today was a few hay bales."

Overall containment grew there from 47% to 74% on Tuesday. That means crews have dug fire lines around about three-fourths of the fire that has burned 65 square miles (168 square kilometers) of mostly grasses and farmland.

"The major footprint of the fire stayed where it was supposed to be despite 30 to 40 mph winds," Krasko said. Critical fire conditions were forecast to return on Wednesday, "but not as windy."

More than 3,000 firefighters and support personnel were assigned to multiple fires Tuesday in the Southwest, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

The focus was on efforts to corral blazes in northern New Mexico, where evacuations remain in place and several small villages were threatened. Authorities have started to survey the damage but have yet to tally the number of homes and other buildings that were destroyed.

The largest of the wildfires has blackened more than 94 square miles (245 square kilometers) in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Crews continued to make progress on that fire Tuesday, but they were bracing for the weather to take a turn later this week with more hot, dry and windy conditions forecast for the area.

San Miguel County Deputy Manager Jesus Romero described the situation as touch-and-go as the winds cranked up Tuesday afternoon.

"Everybody is eager to get back home. It's still not really safe right now," he said. "There's plenty of forest still to be burned, plenty of fuels and it's plenty dry and we're dealing with the wind. Some places are a little bit better than others, but right now it's just too risky."

In Arizona, crews are working to encircle and mop up a 33-square-mile (85-square-kilometer) wildfire on the outskirts of Flagstaff that burned 30 homes and additional structures last week. Aircraft helped firefighters battling a different major fire that continued to grow, burning 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) in the Prescott National Forest in north-central Arizona.

Four new fires were reported Monday, two in Colorado and one in Oklahoma and Virginia, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Nationally, 11 large fires have burned about 342 square miles (890 square kilometers) in six states, the agency reported Tuesday.

___

Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Associated Press reporter Margaret Stafford reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press writer Paul Davenport contributed from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Scott Sonner contributed from Reno, Nevada.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Here's a look at some trending topics for today, April 26.

Amber Heard and Histrionic personality disorder

A forensic psychologist testified Tuesday that actor Amber Heard suffers from borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder, as the civil lawsuit between her and ex-husband Johnny Depp continues to wallow in the couples personal issues.

Depp is suing Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court after she wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post referring to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. The article doesn't mention Depp by name, but his lawyers say the article contains defamation by implication" because it clearly refers to allegations of domestic abuse made by heard when she filed for divorce in 2016. Read more here:

Moldova

Two explosions in a radio facility close to the Ukrainian border knocked a pair of powerful broadcast antennas out of service in Moldova's separatist region of Trans-Dniester, local police said Tuesday.

Trans-Dniester, a strip of land with about 470,000 people, has been under the control of separatist authorities since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops in the breakaway region, nominally as peacekeepers. Get more info here:

Kamala Harris tests positive for COVID

Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday after returning from a weeklong trip to California.

"Today I tested positive for COVID-19. I have no symptoms, and I will continue to isolate and follow CDC guidelines. I'm grateful to be both vaccinated and boosted," Harris tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

Kirsten Allen, the vice president's press secretary, said in an earlier statement that Harris tested positive for Covid-19 on rapid and PCR tests. Read more information here:

Trump

A New York judge found former President Donald Trump in contempt of court and set in motion $10,000 daily fines Monday for failing to adequately respond to a subpoena issued by the state's attorney general as part of a civil investigation into his business dealings.

Judge Arthur Engoron said a contempt finding was appropriate because Trump and his lawyers hadnt shown they had conducted a proper search for records sought by the subpoena. Read more about the legal fight here:

***

Get more trending topics here:

Bad Bunny, El Muerto

Madison Cawthorn

'Rust' shooting investigation

What is Title 42?

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Russia cuts off gas to 2 NATO nations in bid to divide West

POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP)  Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria and threatened to do the same to other countries, using its most essential export as an attempt to punish and divide the West for its united support of Ukraine. The move was condemned by European leaders as blackmail. It marked a dramatic escalation in the economic war of sanctions and countersanctions that has unfolded parallel to the fighting on the battlefield, where fighting continues in Ukraine's east. One person was killed and at least two injured when rockets hit a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv. The commander of a marine unit inside the last stronghold in the gutted city of Mariupol said the situation there was very difficult.

Twitter abuse victims fear Musk's plans, but may not quit

Perhaps no group of people is more alarmed about Elon Musks apparent plan to make Twitter a free speech free-for-all than those most likely to be targeted for harassment: women, racial minorities and other marginalized groups. They fear that a more hands-off approach to policing the platform will embolden purveyors of hate speech, bullying and disinformation to ratchet up their bad behavior  a possibility Musk has done little to dispel. Yet even those who have faced extreme harassment on Twitter say they are unlikely to quit the platform. Despite the negative psychological toll, they still place a high value on Twitter as a place to express their views and engage with others.

EXPLAINER: Will a Russian prisoner exchange impact Griner?

Brittney Griner remains detained in Russia and its unclear how an unexpected prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia that freed marine veteran Trevor Reed will affect the status of the WNBA star. Griner has been detained in Russia since mid-February. The deal announced by both countries involving Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace. It was all the more surprising because it was done as Russias war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades. Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist who was arrested in Russia for allegedly possessing a cannabis derivative legal in much of the world. The offense can mean up to 10 years in prison.

Dem lawmaker: Biden suggests he'll ease student loan burden

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden has signaled he might forgive some student loan debt and further extend the federal moratorium on repayments. That's according to California Democratic Rep. Tony Cardenas. He's a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Cardenas said Wednesday that during a White House meeting, Biden told the group that they're going to like what he does about both proposals. That meeting was Monday. The White House was notably more measured about what Biden might do. But any move in that direction would be a boon to many of what federal figures show are 43 million Americans carrying student loans worth $1.6 trillion.

Federal judge halts preparations for end of US asylum limit

NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A judge has ordered a two-week halt on phasing out pandemic-related restrictions on seeking asylum as the Biden administration prepares for the restrictions to be fully lifted on May 23. Wednesday's decision is only a temporary setback for the administration but the federal judge appeared highly sympathetic with Louisiana and other states that sued to keep Title 42 authority. That restriction denies migrants a chance at asylum on grounds of preventing spread of COVID-19. U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays has scheduled a hearing May 13 in Lafayette, Louisiana, for arguments on whether to block Title 42 from ending as planned 10 days later.

Microsoft: Russian hacks often accompany Ukraine attacks

BOSTON (AP)  Microsoft says cyberattacks by state-backed Russian hackers have destroyed data across dozens of organizations in Ukraine and produced a chaotic information environment. The company said in a report released Wednesday that Russia-aligned threat groups were preparing long before the Feb. 24 invasion. It said they were pre-positioning for the conflict" as early as a year ago, hacking into networks to obtain footholds they could later use to collect strategic and battlefield intelligence or to facilitate future destructive attacks.

State report details bias in Minneapolis Police Department

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  A Minnesota state agency says it will work with the city of Minneapolis to negotiate solutions to resolve the pattern of race discrimination uncovered by a two-year investigation. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights says former and current city and police leaders have failed to act, effectively allowing an aggressive police culture to fester. The report details disparities in how officers use force, stop, search, arrest and cite people of color, particularly Black people, compared to white people in similar circumstances. And the state agency says the city and police department need not wait to start making necessary changes.

EXPLAINER: Brazil's Bolsonaro, top court on collision course

SAO PAULO (AP)  Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro is once again at odds with the countrys Supreme Court. He has pardoned a congressman who had just been convicted by high court justices for urging violence against one of them. Justices may review that pardon, and the case threatens to become an institutional crisis at a moment when Bolsonaro is gearing up to seek a second term. At the center of the dispute is freshman lawmaker Daniel Silveira, who was sentenced to almost nine years in prison. He had said that one justice should be seized, shaken and thrown in a garbage can. Bolsonaro issued a decree pardoning him, citing the right to free speech.

Once dead, twice billed: GAO questions COVID funeral awards

The Federal Emergency Management Agency may have been double-billed for the funerals of hundreds of people who died of COVID-19, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report Wednesday. The GAO identified 374 people who died and were listed on more than one application that received an award from the COVID-19 Funeral Assistance fund. That amounts to about $4.8 million in assistance that could have been improper or potentially fraudulent payments, the report said. FEMA says this wasn't an example of large-scale fraud and the amount of funeral assistance identified as at-risk was relatively small, with FEMAs multi-layered controls resulting in improper payments of less than 1%.

Shares of Facebook parent Meta soar despite growth slowdown

Facebook parent Metas first quarter profit jumped past Wall Streets expectations despite slower revenue growth, sending shares up sharply in after-hours trading. The company earned $7.47 billion, or $2.72 per share, in the January-March period. Thats down 21% from $9.5 billion, or $3.30 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Meta cut a sharp contrast with Google parent Alphabet, which on Monday reported what analysts called disappointing earnings, with profit below Wall Streets expectations and revenue growth slower than in previous quarters. Shares rose more than 18% to $207 in after-hours trading.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has described Tuesday's terrorist attack in Karachi, Pakistan, as very vile, adding that China will work with Pakistan to hunt down the perpetrators, bring them to justice and make them pay a heavy price.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks on Wednesday at a regular news briefing in response to the terrorist attack on a van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi.

"We once again extend deep condolences to the victims of the two countries and sincere sympathies to the injured and the bereaved families," Wang said.

He described the incident as a premeditated suicide terrorist attack against Chinese citizens. The terrorists directly targeted teachers, the inheritors of human civilization and promoters of cultural exchanges, making the attack a very vile and a heinous act, said Wang, adding that the Chinese side expresses strong condemnation and indignation at it.

The Chinese government always attaches great importance to the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions overseas, Wang said, pointing out that following the incident, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and diplomatic missions in Pakistan immediately activated the emergency response mechanism and sent staff to the scene.

Officials of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and diplomatic missions in Pakistan have urged the Pakistani side to do its best to treat the injured, properly handle the follow-up matters of those killed, conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into the attack, arrest the perpetrators and severely punish them according to law, he said.

At the same time, stronger measures should be taken to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions in Pakistan so that such incidents will never happen again, he added.

The Chinese diplomatic missions in Pakistan also reminded Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan to strengthen security awareness and enhance the security level to ensure their own safety.

"Yesterday, the Chinese Consul General in Karachi went to the hospital to visit the injured Chinese teacher, who is receiving proper treatment and recovering," the spokesperson said.

Wang noted that Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad on Tuesday evening to express his condolences, stressing that the Pakistani government is using all its resources to conduct an in-depth probe into the incident, and will spare no effort to hunt down the perpetrators and make an example of the perpetrators in punishing them.

Wang added that the Pakistani side pledged to take further measures to strengthen the security of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan in an all-round way.

Sharif said his government will never allow any force to undermine Pakistan-China friendship and cooperation.

The blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain, Wang said, adding that China firmly supports Pakistan's anti-terrorism efforts and will work with Pakistan to hunt down the perpetrators, bring them to justice and make them pay a heavy price.

"We once again remind Chinese citizens in Pakistan to pay close attention to the local security situation and prevent security risks," he added. 
The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

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, although 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 .

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The U.S. Supreme Court, nearly two years after its landmark McGirt ruling, took up a related case Wednesday to determine who will prosecute non-Indians for crimes committed against American Indians on tribal land in much of eastern Oklahoma.

The state of Oklahoma  in its appeal to the Supreme Court of a case involving a non-Native charged with a crime against an American Indian in Indian Country  claims it still has jurisdiction.

The state has inherent sovereign authority to punish crimes committed within its borders, and no federal law preempts that authority as to crimes committed by non-Indians, Kannon Shanmugam, an attorney representing the state of Oklahoma, told the court.

Shanmugam claimed federal statutes relied upon by opponents of co-jurisdiction do not specify that the U.S. government has the exclusive right to prosecute non-Natives who commit crimes in Indian Country against tribal members.

And the core of our position is that there is simply nothing in the language of either of two statutes that divest the state of jurisdiction, Shanmugam said, referring to the General Crimes Act and Public Law 280.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled, in the same case before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, that the state of Oklahoma does not have criminal jurisdiction to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes within a tribes reservation.

The case follows the Supreme Courts July 2020 ruling that Oklahoma did not have jurisdiction to prosecute an American Indian  Jimcy McGirt  who sexually abused a girl in Wagoner County in the 1990s because Congress had never disestablished the Muscogee Nation reservation where the crime occurred.

Similar state court rulings later expanded the McGirt ruling to include the reservations of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Quapaw and Seminole nations covering much of eastern Oklahoma.

Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh appeared sympathetic to the state of Oklahomas quest, asking how a tribal member who is a victim of a crime by a non-tribal member is harmed by a state prosecution.

I dont see how it would help Indian victims; its going to hurt Indian victims, Kavanaugh said, if the state lost its appeal.

Shanmugam told the court that federal authorities are foregoing the prosecution of hundreds of minor criminal cases involving non-Indians as they focus their resources on major crimes.

Edwin Kneedler, deputy solicitor general for the U.S. Justice Department, told the court those minor cases arent being forgone but merely placed in a queue for prosecution at a later date.

Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, who authored the McGirt opinion, pointed out Oklahomas not-so-rosy track record of criminal justice when it involved American Indian victims.

In the 1920s, Oklahoma systematically used its state courts to deprive Indians of their property when oil was discovered on their lands, Gorsuch said. Theres a long history of this.

Gorsuch also noted that Congress has already provided a mechanism for tribes to cede jurisdiction from the federal government to state government in Public Law 280.

Question of co-jurisdiction

In January, the Supreme Court agreed to take up the states appeal of a case involving Victor Manuel Castro-Huerta as it considered whether the state shares criminal jurisdiction with federal officials in cases where the suspect is non-Indian and the victim is Indian.

The case is one of more than two dozen that the state of Oklahoma has appealed to the Supreme Court on the jurisdictional issue.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court rejected a request by the state to consider overturning its McGirt decision altogether.

Meanwhile, Zachary Schauf, an attorney for Castro-Huerta, urged the court to reject the state of Oklahomas claim of co-jurisdiction with the federal government to enforce crimes in Indian Country when it involves a non-Native suspect.

Oklahoma lacks jurisdiction because Congress exercised its exclusive power over Indian affairs to provide for exclusively federal jurisdiction, Schauf said.

Schauf said the Supreme Court has already confirmed that the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction in Indian Country somewhere between six and 10 times, in a reference to an earlier exchange between Gorsuch and Shanmugam.

Castro-Huerta was sentenced to serve a 35-year prison term after a Tulsa County jury found him guilty in 2017 of child neglect.

Castro-Huerta was initially charged in state court after his then-5-year-old stepdaughter, who suffered from cerebral palsy and was legally blind, was admitted in 2015 to a Tulsa hospital emergency room in critical condition.

The child, who weighed just 19 pounds at the time, was dehydrated, emaciated, and covered in lice and excrement, according to court records.

The state Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Castro-Huertas conviction and sentence nearly one year ago, after finding that the state of Oklahoma did not have jurisdiction to prosecute him in light of the McGirt ruling.

The appellate court agreed with Castro-Huerta that the state of Oklahoma did not have criminal jurisdiction to try him because his stepdaughter was a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the crime occurred within the historic boundaries of the Cherokee Nation.

Since then a federal grand jury has indicted Castro-Huerta in federal court for the neglect. He pleaded guilty Oct. 15 in Tulsa federal court to one count of child neglect after federal prosecutors picked up his dismissed state case.

He will serve a no-parole seven-year federal prison term under the terms of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors, a deal which must still be approved by a judge.

State AG, Cherokee chief respond

Originally scheduled to run for 70 minutes, the court hearing lasted a little over two hours before Chief Justice John Roberts ended the session by announcing it was Associate Justice Stephen Breyers last time to participate in oral arguments before he retires at the end of the Supreme Courts term this summer.

Following the hearing, Oklahoma Attorney General John OConnor and Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. both released statements.

OConnors statement said, in part: Today, the State of Oklahoma asked the U.S. Supreme Court to confirm that the State has the authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians in eastern Oklahoma, which is now the expanded Indian country under the McGirt decision. The State has been prosecuting such criminals since 1907.

Right now, we have two sets of rules when Indians are victimized, those that apply when perpetrator is non-Indian and a different set of rules when the perpetrator is Indian. On the ground in eastern Oklahoma, we have victims without justice and crimes without punishments.

The federal government is leaving thousands of tribal victims of crime in eastern Oklahoma without justice, and as many criminals unprosecuted and free to victimize others around the State. This has dramatically damaged public safety in eastern Oklahoma.

Clearly, a win for Oklahoma in this case is a win for these Native American victims.

Hoskins statements said, in part: Todays Supreme Court arguments reaffirmed what tribes have said all along: the state of Oklahoma has neither the facts nor the law on its side. The Justices heard clear arguments that explain how the states demand to undermine tribal sovereignty is inconsistent with legal precedent, the intent of Congress, and the basics of Indian law.

Congress has been clear on the limits of state jurisdiction on our reservations, and Governor Stitts anti-tribal views dont change those facts. While tribes have worked closely with our partners to meet our public safety responsibilities and provide a blanket of protection to everyone on our reservation, its unfortunate that the state has wasted time and resources attacking our rights and sovereignty. We hope that the Justices rule on the side of collaboration and the law, and that the governor finally chooses to join us in meeting our shared public safety goals.

A decision by the Supreme Court is expected by the end of June or early July.

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Two members of a white-supremacist prison-based gang and four other people participated in a scheme that used smuggled cellular telephones to run an illegal gun and drug sales operation that resulted in the death of one person, a 43-count indictment unsealed Monday in Tulsa federal court alleges.

The indictment charges Richard Dale Deeter Jr., 44, a member of the Universal Aryan Brotherhood, with directing a continuing criminal enterprise while he was in prison.

Deeter also faces 32 counts of using a cellphone to traffic drugs, two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, two counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of trafficking drugs, one count of firearms conspiracy, one count of drug conspiracy and one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

Others charged in the indictment include Donald B. "Donnie" Pearson, 36, of Sand Springs; Jonna Elisa Steele, 37, of Tulsa; Johnny Wesley Sparks, 36, of Tulsa; Izabella Marie Boling, 25, of Broken Arrow; and Nicole Cox, 26, of Mountain Home, Arkansas.

This case demonstrates how the use of contraband cell phones within prisons fuels violent crime in communities across our state, U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson said in a press release. My office is committed to working together with our law enforcement partners to thwart the use of contraband cell phones and hold accountable those individuals operating large scale criminal conspiracies from behind prison walls.

The indictment alleges that Deeter used cellular phones to communicate with others outside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester beginning in at least January 2021.

Prosecutors allege that Deeter, while imprisoned, directed the purchase and pick up of bulk quantities of methamphetamine from Oklahoma City for distribution in the Tulsa area and northeastern Oklahoma.

Deeter used a variety of ways to communicate with others outside prison, including Facebook Messenger, video calls, text messaging and encrypted instant messaging, according to the indictment.

Deeter would accept payment via prepaid debit cards and cash apps, the indictment alleges.

It lists a number of acts Deeter is alleged to have undertaken, including sending a text message to an individual in December that resulted in the death of another person.

In the text message, Deeter directs an unnamed person to collect a drug debt by stealing a car.

Michael Johnson, 41, was fatally shot outside his home on Jan. 5 after returning from a casino, according to Tulsa World archives.

Carl Allen Couch Jr., 36, faces first-degree murder, robbery, weapon and drug charges in Tulsa County District Court in connection with Johnson's death.

The indictment also charges Pearson, who prosecutors say is also a member of the UAB, with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, firearms conspiracy, drug conspiracy and one count of using a cellphone to traffic drugs.

Steele is charged with one count of firearms conspiracy, one count of drug conspiracy and two counts of using a cellphone to traffic drugs.

Sparks is charged with one count of drug conspiracy and one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

Boling is charged with one count of firearms conspiracy, one count of drug conspiracy and one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

Cox is charged with one count of firearms conspiracy, one count of drug conspiracy, one count of using a cellphone to traffic drugs.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Tulsa Police Department, the Tulsa County Sheriffs Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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Two jurors have successfully petitioned to be dismissed ahead of capital sentencing proceedings for David Ware, the man convicted of murder last week in the 2020 shooting of a Tulsa police officer.

Two alternate jurors will take their place in determining Ware's sentence for the murder of Sgt. Craig Johnson, the only count eligible for the death penalty.

The day prior, the jury recommended life in prison, $30,500 in fines and other near-maximum sentences for Wares non-capital counts related to Officer Aurash Zarkeshan, who survived the traffic-stop shooting after suffering critical injuries.

On Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Gray and District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler outlined several aggravating factors found in law that, if at least one is proven beyond a reasonable doubt, could allow jurors to consider the death penalty as punishment.

Under Oklahoma law, to prove that a murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel  one of the aggravating factors that open the possibility of the death penalty  prosecutors must establish beyond a reasonable doubt that a victim suffered consciously.

The state also alleged several additional aggravating circumstances against Ware when making a court filing seeking his death in September 2020: that he knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person, that Johnsons murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution, that Johnson was a peace officer when killed in the performance of his official duty and that there exists a probability that Ware would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society.
PRYOR  Mayes County residents gathered at the fairgrounds here Tuesday night to discuss the possible establishment of a tax increment financing district to lure a massive electric battery plant to MidAmerica Industrial Park.

But the real question was simple: Would such a large project be a good thing for the community or a bad thing?

Among the dozens of people who stood up to speak, the answer was mixed.

Brent Taylor, the longtime owner of Fred Taylor Furniture, urged county commissioners to establish the TIF.

What I think is that Pryor is a can-do town, and it has a can-do attitude, Taylor said.

Phyllis Radcliffe spoke in opposition to the TIF, citing concerns about the plants environmental impact, the use of government subsidies to bring it to town, and the secret nature of the project  themes that were repeated throughout the night by critics of the proposal.

One thing about this TIF: It is not about Americanism, American exceptionalism or free markets. This is corporate greed and manipulation, Radcliffe said.

More than one speaker said that while they favor growth, the area does not have the infrastructure to support such a massive project.

I just think theres a lot to continue to still discuss and look at.  Were not there yet, said Kindsey Peper.

The proposed TIF district would cover 588 acres of the 8,900-acre MidAmerica complex and remain in place for 12 years.

The development would lead to the creation of up to 6,000 new direct jobs, 1,200 indirect jobs, 16,000 new housing units and a population increase of 18,000, according to the project plan.

If the development, labeled Project Ocean, does not come to fruition, the TIF would be dissolved.

TIFs allow governmental entities to use a portion of property taxes generated within the district to invest in the districts infrastructure, providing an incentive for private investment.

As the land is developed and its value increases incrementally, the corresponding increases, or increments, in property taxes are directed back into the project to pay for public infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water.

The project the TIF would support is widely expected to be a Panasonic electric battery plant.

The estimated increment revenue to be generated by the TIF is about $300 million.

Project Ocean would receive $100 million, and MidAmerica would receive $50 million to fund infrastructure needs.

The remaining $150 million would go to the local taxing entities: Mayes County, Mayes County Common School Fund, Northeast Tech, Mayes County Health Department and the Chouteau-Mazie Public School District.

The appropriations are intended to help the entities accommodate the increased population and demands for service that are expected to come with the project.

Tuesdays meeting came a day after Gov. Kevin Stitt signed into law another incentives package designed to land the project.

House Bill 4455 would provide up to $698 million in rebates based on capital investment and job creation.

The measure calls for a 3.4% state rebate on qualified capital expenditures with a minimum investment of $3.6 billion and a maximum of $4.5 billion. The rebates also require meeting certain employment minimums and other conditions over five years.

The 10-year rebate program would be paid from state savings through the Large-scale Economic Activity and Development  or LEAD  Fund, which was created as part of HB 4455.

Oklahoma reportedly is competing with Kansas to land the massive manufacturing plant. The Kansas Legislature earlier this year approved $1.3 billion in economic development incentives for the project.

The Kansas City Star has reported that the likely Kansas location would be the Sunflower Army Ammunition site south of De Soto.

Stitt spoke via video at the start of Tuesdays meeting, telling the crowd of more than 300 people the state strongly supports the creation of the TIF.

Without the approval of this, we are not going to be able to win it, he said. So its super important that we get this across the finish line.

Stitt also said the state has set aside $145 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds that would go to communities around MidAmerica Industrial Park if the state lands Project Ocean.

The money would be spent on water treatment, infrastructure, quality of life projects and other programs.

There is a lot of money that will flow to Mayes County outside of MidAmerica if we win this because we do need to invest in those communities we know will be growing, Stitt said.

Sherry Alexander, director of business development at MidAmerica, said the organization is already working with local communities to plan for the infrastructure they will need to support such a large venture.

Get involved and help us, and lets get on the same page, she said. Because there is strength in numbers, and that is what we need to be doing right now.

Mayes County commissioners are expected to vote Thursday on a resolution establishing the TIF.

Featured video: Pryors MidAmerica Industrial Park

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Upwards of 300 people packed into the Chandler Park Community Center on Tuesday evening to give voice to their frustrations about the nearby Gilcrease Expressway extension.

At times those voices were so numerous and so loud that hardly anything  frustration or otherwise  was decipherable.

Still, the de facto leaders of a loose coalition of Berryhill-area residents who object to a number of elements of the project said after the meeting that they felt heard.

I definitely felt like they (Oklahoma Turnpike Authority officials) heard us, said Melissa Myers, who, with her husband, owns Christ-Centered Lawn & Landscaping in Berryhill. Now we just need to see what theyre going to do.

What area residents want the OTA to do is to throw out a toll being planned for the section of the turnpike between 41st and 51st streets, a section that has been free since its completion but which will have a toll assessed as soon as the rest of the turnpike is opened to traffic.

Youve taken away our free road, and the existing roads are not viable, Megan Elliott, another organizer of the residents group, told OTA officials during the meeting. Were not having it. Were not going to pay it.

Construction on the turnpike began Jan. 30, 2020. Once its complete  which is expected later this year  the $330 million, five-mile turnpike will complete the gap from where the existing Gilcrease Expressway connects to Interstate 44 just south of 51st Street to just north of U.S. 412 at Edison Street west of downtown Tulsa.

Elliott said after the meeting that residents have plenty of other concerns, too  issues that their group plans to address once the toll question is settled, such as the disgraceful condition of the alternate routes the Turnpike Authority is suggesting, the lack of sound barriers, property values and environmental concerns.

But we want to eliminate that toll, she said. Theres no way around it. Were not compromising. We want the toll eliminated. Were OK with the toll on the north end or to increase it on the bridge. Thats OK.

We cannot isolate the community of Berryhill by charging all of this money to access the community. It cant happen.

Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith drew the first jeers of the rowdy meeting early on when she told the crowd that the projects status as a toll road was known publicly at least as early as Feb. 15, 2018, when about 190 people attended a similar meeting.

Joe Echelle, deputy director of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, told the crowd that the city of Tulsa had a plan in 2014 to complete the project without tolls but that it would have taken 20 years.

By 2015, the project had changed to include having the OTA build a toll bridge across the Arkansas River, he said, and by early 2017, the plan had evolved to where the OTA was asked to take over the entire project as a toll road.

Echelle said during a press briefing before the meeting that all roads must be paid for, whether through tolls, taxes or something else.

Thats something I think people lose sight of, he said. There are no free roads in Oklahoma.

Keith said after the meeting that she, too, thinks the residents were heard  and that thats a good thing.

I think this was really good that the community came out and banded together and voiced their concerns, she said.

That speaks to how tight this community is. I think OTA has heard them, and I think they will probably go look and see if there are any solutions. Thats where I think we are.

I understand that its got to be paid for, she said. Im wanting to mitigate that 41st to 51st (toll portion)  whether we can get rid of all of it; that would be ideal  and then pass it (the toll) on to the other end. If thats possible, that would be fantastic.

The toll will be determined by the Turnpike Authority board at its May 24 meeting, but Echelle said officials think it will be about $2 for the entire trip from I-44 at 51st Street north to U.S. 412.

Featured video: Gilcrease Expressway bridge goes up over the Arkansas River

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Data this year from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams shows that of the nearly 5,000 dams in the state, 35 were rated as poor or worse and were located in an area where loss of life was probable in the event of a failure.
Relatives of Palestinian young man Ahmad Massad, who was killed by Israeli soldiers, mourn during his funeral in the village of Burqin near the West Bank city of Jenin, April 27, 2022. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)

RAMALLAH, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian young man and injured three others during a clash in the northern West Bank city of Jenin early Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry and eyewitnesses said.

Ahmad Massad, 18, died after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in Jenin, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Early in the day, an Israeli army force stormed the city and its refugee camp, and opened fired during a clash with dozens of young men, killing one and wounding three, said Palestinian eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities have not given any comment on the incidents yet. However, the Israeli press reported that a Palestinian youth was killed and three others injured during a firefight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in the city.

It said Israeli soldiers raided Jenin and the nearby town of Qabatiya in the pre-dawn hours in an attempt to arrest Palestinian suspects.

The soldiers also pinned a demolition order to the home of Raad Hazem, the Palestinian who killed three people when he opened fire in a busy bar in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on April 7, it added.

Palestinian security sources said five Palestinians were detained in the Jenin area after their homes were stormed.

On Tuesday, a Palestinian young man was killed and four others injured by Israeli soldiers when an Israeli army force stormed the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp in the Jordan Valley, southwest of the West Bank city of Jericho.

The Israeli army conducts daily raids on Palestinian towns, villages, and refugee camps in the West Bank to detain Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks against Israel.

The tension between Israelis and Palestinians has been flaring over the past few weeks in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, mainly during the Muslims' holy month of Ramadan. 
A former Tulsa police officer sentenced to life in a notorious 1982 murder case has had parole approved by Gov. Kevin Stitt and will be eligible for release as early as Friday.

Jimmie Dean Stohler, 69, was convicted of first-degree murder and soliciting murder in the slaying of 30-year-old Michele Rae Powers with a poisoned-tip arrow fired from a crossbow into her chest outside her Cherry Street apartment.

Public records show Stitt signed off on Stohlers parole certificate on April 22 pending verification of a valid home offer.

But Powers nearest living relative and local prosecutors said they only learned of Stohlers scheduled early release  which they had vehemently opposed  when contacted by the Tulsa World on Tuesday evening.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. He turned a murderer out  someone who committed murder with a crossbow. He stalked her for four months, said Rochelle Ruth, Powers' twin sister, reached at the store she owns in Henryetta. Im just sick, absolutely sick. I voted for him. How could a governor do that?

Stohler was last recommended for early release in 2013, but then-Gov. Mary Fallin denied him parole.

In response to a Tulsa World request for comment, the governor's Director of Communications Charlie Hannema provided this statement:

"Jimmie Dean Stohlers parole application came to the governor after a 4-0 recommendation from the Pardon and Parole Board in favor of paroling Mr. Stohler to the street. Governor Stitt accepted the recommendation."

'Gruesome way to die'

One night in January 1982, Powers was leaving for her overnight shift as a respiratory therapist at a nearby Tulsa hospital when she was ambushed by masked men in the parking lot of her apartment building.

She died six days later.

The use of a poison-tipped arrow  a nerve agent, mainly used for hunting  it paralyzed her entire body, and she lived for several more days with virtually no use of her physical functions. Its got to be a gruesome way to die, said Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney John Tjeerdsma.

Powers was the ex-girlfriend of Robert Doss, one of Stohlers best friends and another former police officer charged with plotting her murder.

Powers and Doss had been locked in a custody dispute for several years over their son, who was then 4. Ruth said her sister was in fear for her life after she scored a victory in the court case.

When she got visitation with her son and she walked out of the courtroom, she said to me: 'Bobs going to kill me over this,'" Ruth said.

Stohler, who had left the Tulsa Police Department after a series of discipline-related suspensions and pay cuts, reportedly admitted to police that he previously planned to kill Powers with a revolver or a knife. He told investigators he furnished the crossbow used on Powers but claimed a third man actually fired the weapon.

Doss was acquitted, and no one else besides Stohler was ever convicted in the case. He has been in prison since January 1985 and is currently held at Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington.

Objections from family, prosecutors

Independent of one another, both Ruth and the Tulsa County DAs office had appeared before the Pardon and Parole Board. After the board voted to recommend parole, they also followed up with Gov. Stitts office to object to Stohlers early release.

Ruth said she hand-delivered a personal letter, photos of her sister and a petition with the signatures of about 800 individuals in the community opposed to parole for Stohler to Stitts office. She said she was dismayed to learn officials there no longer meet with victims' or defendants' relatives as they did previously.

She wasnt the only one who spoke out.

We made our objection on the basis of the facts of case, that he was a former police officer, got a degree at ORU (Oral Roberts University) and was in his late 20s  so its not as if he was a young man  and he used his police training to try to cover up his crime, said Tjeerdsma. He also had a misconduct early on in prison in a conspiracy to harm a guard.

Trying to fend off Stohlers repeated parole requests has been a yearslong battle for Powers relatives because when his life sentence was handed down in 1985, life without parole was not an option under state law.

Also not helpful to the family's desire to keep Stohler behind bars for longer is the fact that Oklahomas Truth in Sentencing Act, commonly referred to as the 85% rule wasnt enacted until 1999.

Since then, someone convicted of murder must serve at least 85% of their sentence, which for life, works out to 38 years in prison.

Tjeerdsma said Stohlers two sentences for the two separate charges he was convicted of were to have been served consecutively, so he has served less than that current standard.

Oklahoma Department of Corrections records indicate Stohler began serving his sentence on the murder conviction in March 1989, or 33 years ago.

Double loss for family

Now a 70-year-old woman, Ruth said she laments the four decades of life her twin sister missed out on.

I think about all of the things I missed with her. She was so smart. And she was fiery  she didnt like anyone telling her what to do, Ruth said, then adding of Stohler, I dont think about him. I dont hate him  I just think he needs to serve his whole sentence: life in prison.

Ruth is also quick to recall her vivid memories of the day her sister was fatally attacked, because they had spent all afternoon together.

My little boy was 1, and we all had lunch together to celebrate her little boys fourth birthday. Michele bought her son a toy police car because his father was a policeman. She made chicken and dumplings and homemade birthday cake, and we stayed home all day, Ruth said, referring to Powers apartment in Tulsa. I think they were stalking all around us, and we didnt know it.

Ruth said during her evening drive back home to Henryetta with her son, she looked down at her purse in Okmulgee and discovered her nephew had stashed his mothers car keys inside.

She turned back for Tulsa to return the keys because she didnt want her sister walking to work for her 11 p.m. shift at the hospital in the dark, on a cold and misty winters night.

She said, 'You shouldn't have done that  I would have walked to work, but thats what I knew shed say, Ruth said, her voice breaking.

All of these years later, Ruth said she is still haunted by what-ifs. If she hadnt brought those keys back and Powers had been forced to walk, maybe she wouldnt have met her killer when she was getting into her car in the parking lot.

I guess they might have seen her coming down the steps, but, Ruth said, before trailing off and leaving her thought unfinished.

Ruth also said her family didnt just lose Michele, but her young son was also lost to them for good.

I havent touched him or kissed him or talked to him since the day she was killed, Ruth said, referring to the day her sister was fatally attacked.

She said Doss renamed the boy and never allowed him any contact with his maternal relatives. And that separation was especially painful for Michele and Rochelles mother, who died about 10 years ago.

She hired a private detective to check up on him because they moved around a lot. When they lived in Missouri, she even befriended his teacher and was invited to come and eat lunch with him at school a few times just to be near him, although he had no idea she was his grandma, Ruth said.

Then her thoughts circled back to the news of Stitts decision, and how her mother was intent that Stohler should remain locked up for good.

Im just shocked. I voted for him  Im a Republican. But I dont care whos running, Im going to be for anyone else, Ruth said of Stitt. Why would he look at that (case) and not keep him in there? I just cant understand that.

Stitt is already being targeted in his reelection campaign by ads critical of his decision to approve the 2020 early release of Lawrence Paul Anderson who is accused of fatally stabbing three people in a particularly gruesome attack in Chickasha within weeks of getting out of prison.

Anderson confessed, telling authorities he cut out one victims heart to eat. He had been released after the governor commuted his sentence for drug dealing and other earlier crimes.

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It is a scent that, for me, takes me back to my childhood. In Oklahoma, you know it all too well. The first few minutes of a spring rain shower fills the air with an earthy, almost damp smell that is as distinctive as its scientific name: petrichor.

Steve Cobb, science and operations officer at the Tulsa National Weather Service, said the word petrichor dates back to the late 1960s, when Australian scientists first did research on the topic and discovered this.

It is actually a little bit of science and mythology, Cobb said. The word stems from the Greek root word petra, which stands for rock, and chor, which means the blood or fluids of gods.

Cobb said the fragrance that humans detect is actually one of three different scientific processes that may be taking place or a combination of the three together.

The first process is a chemical fragrance that is released from naturally occurring bacteria due to the decomposition of plants. When plants break down and decompose, a bacteria that is left behind saturates the soil.

In between rainfall events, that bacteria can become packed into the soil. When a rain shower moves through, it will release this bacteria into the air and cause a scent.

Using high-speed cameras, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology did testing to find out how a raindrop is able to release these odors. Their study determined that bubbles develop upon the rain droplets contact with the ground. Those bubbles were popping and releasing aerosols that contain this bacteria, giving off what humans associate to be the scent of rain.

The rate of rainfall also made an impact on how strong the smell was. It was determined that lighter rainfall rates, containing more droplets, were better able to release the scent than a heavier rainfall event.

The second scenario is from the oils of plants.

You have plants and leaves that decay and leave behind an oil, Cobb said. This adds to the smell. The raindrop will dissolve, and the chemicals will be released into the air, and the wind will carry them upward.

And did you know that you can actually smell lightning? According to Cobb, that is the third scientific process aiding in petrichor. While it gives off a slightly different smell than the bacteria or oils, lightning can produce small amounts of ozone, which is a detectable scent to humans. Of course, there is always oxygen or O2 in the atmosphere. But when lightning occurs, it heats a channel of air and a chemical reaction occurs that will turn the O2 into O3, which is ozone.

This process actually gives off a fresh scent that can be carried miles in the distance ahead of a storm.

Turns out when your grandpa said he could smell the rain coming, he wasnt wrong.

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After a months-long period of hibernation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of market-goers at Ben Thanh Market in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City has bounced back, while the market is receiving more international tourists, helping revive its business operations.

Over the past few days, mainly on weekends, stalls selling fruits, jams, and food have been attracting crowds, including tourists coming from the northern region and foreign visitors.

Carefully inspecting and buying products at confectionery and souvenir kiosks, Michele and his wife, who are Italians, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the couple have stayed in Ho Chi Minh City for over ten days, and will remain in the city for some extra days to take tours and handle personal work.

The couple will also return to Ben Thanh Market.

Stalls that sell food, fruits, and confectionery at Ben Thanh Market in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City get crowded again. This photo shows a group of South Korean tourists checking dried fruits and products at the market on April 24, 2022. Photo: N.Tri / Tuoi Tre

While enthusiastically introducing her items to South Korean customers and busily packaging fresh and dried fruits, Nguyen Thi Mo, owner of a stall at Ben Thanh Market, said that she reopened the stall in November last year, but the number of customers has only jumped over the past two months.

On weekends, many visitors from the northern region and international tourists from Asian countries such as India and South Korea are visiting the market.

Most of the stalls selling fresh and dried fruits and jams have resumed and are open from morning till night.

The peak summer travel season and Reunification Day (April 30) will help ramp up the number of customers and travelers to the market in the coming time, said Mo.

Ben Thanh Market has seen a surge in tourists from Hanoi over the past one or two months. The picture shows a group of Hanoians buying fruits at the market last week to give them to their relatives and friends. Photo: N.Tri / Tuoi Tre

Similarly, some owners of stalls selling dried items and confectionery said that from last month onward, the number of international travelers to the market has soared 30-40 percent compared to the previous months, while arrivals from Hanoi have increased significantly.

These tourists are visiting the market mainly on weekends, so these days are witnessing sales double or triple a normal day.

Le Hong Loan, owner of a gift shop, said that during the pandemic striking the city for over two years and six months, business at the market came to a complete standstill.

However, at this time, many vendors have resumed operation and expect to earn a stable income as more visitors are returning.

In contrast, despite a surge in tourist arrivals, several shops providing clothes, fabric, and handicrafts have seen revenues falling short of expectations, while some have even shut down.

After several days of staying in Ho Chi Minh City, Michele and his wife, who are Italian nationals, come to Ben Thanh Market to buy numerous souvenirs. Photo: N.Tri / Tuoi Tre

Vo Thi Ngoc Thu, owner of a fashion shop, said that the consumption of clothes has doubled from the end of last year, but has risen only 25 percent against that seen before the pandemic because domestic customers have mainly bought essential products such as dried food and fruits to give their relatives and friends when returning to their hometowns.

Meanwhile, garments, textiles, and clothes have been chiefly selected by Southeast Asian tourists, but the number of these visitors remains low.

Over 85 percent of buyers are tourists," Thu said.

"As such, we hope that the government will ease entry rules as soon as possible and the tourism authority will launch many promotion programs to attract holidaymakers, especially foreign tourist groups with a high demand for shopping.

If the number of foreign visitors to the market climbs back 60 percent to 70 percent from now until the end of the year, business operations here will turn healthy."

Ngo Van Ha, head of the Ben Thanh Market management board, told Tuoi Tre that the number of operational stalls is around 700 to 800, making up nearly 60 percent of the total, the highest number over the past two years.

The kiosks of fruits and jams are often attractive to visitors to Ben Thanh Market in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: N.Tri / Tuoi Tre

The market is speeding up the cooperation with grassroots-level authorities and travel firms to multiply tourist arrivals, apart from renewing marketing strategies, including encouraging vendors to wear 'ao dai,' Vietnam's traditional long dress, and advertising Ben Thanh Market on various tourism platforms, Ha added.

Many vendors at wholesale and large-scale markets for tourism in Ho Chi Minh City such as Binh Tay in District 6 and Tan Binh in District 1 said that the number of market-goers was much lower than before the coronavirus pandemic, but has heralded a surge over the past month.

The rising number of tourists has driven up the sale of goods.

The majority of stalls selling food, dried fruits, and confectionery have reopened at Ben Thanh Market in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: N.Tri / Tuoi Tre

Dried seafood, cashew nuts, and lotus seeds are popular items bought by domestic and international tourists at Ben Thanh Market in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: N.Tri / Tuoi Tre

Handicrafts and souvenirs, despite seeing weaker consumption, gradually regain their popularity, thanks to the soaring number of foreign visitors to Ben Thanh Market in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: N.Tri / Tuoi Tre

Food stalls become busier at Ben Thanh Market in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. The photo shows a group of Hanoians excitedly trying rice noodle soup at an eatery at the market. Photo: N.Tri / Tuoi Tre

Le Hong Loan, owner of a souvenir shop, said that she had yet to dare to purchase new items for selling as she had to handle inventories and calibrate the consumption. Loan expects to see a surge of 40-50 percent in the consumption in the coming months after Vietnam fully reopened its doors to the world in mid-March 2022. Photo: N.Tri / Tuoi Tre

Though Ben Thanh Market becomes more bustling, multiple stalls of fabric, fashion, and handicrafts and kiosks deep inside the market are still closed or display for-rent signs due to limited buyers. Photo: N.Tri / Tuoi Tre

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SINGAPORE -- A Malaysian man convicted of drug trafficking was executed on Wednesday in Singapore despite appeals for clemency on the grounds that he had an intellectual disability, his family said.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for more than a decade for trafficking 44 grams (1.5 oz) of heroin into Singapore, which has some of the world's toughest narcotics laws. His lawyers had filed multiple appeals against his execution saying he was intellectually disabled.

His brother Navin Kumar, 22, said by telephone the execution had been carried out and said the body would be sent back to Malaysia where a funeral would be held in the town of Ipoh.

A Singapore court on Tuesday had turned down a legal challenge put forward by Nagaenthran's mother, clearing the way for the execution by hanging.

At the end of Tuesday's hearing, Dharmalingam and his family reached through a gap in a glass screen to grasp each others' hands tightly as they wept. His cries of "ma" could be heard around the courtroom.

About 300 people held a candlelight vigil at a Singapore park on Monday to protest against the planned hanging.

Nagaenthran's case has attracted world attention, with a group of United Nations experts and British billionaire Richard Branson joining Malaysia's prime minister and human rights activists to urge Singapore to commute his death sentence.

His lawyers and activists have said Nagaenthran's IQ was found to be at 69, a level recognised as an intellectual disability. However, the courts determined he knew what he was doing at the time of his crime, and ruled there was no admissible evidence showing any decline in his mental condition.

The Singapore government says the death penalty is a deterrent against drug trafficking and most of its citizens support capital punishment.
Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong applauded the fruitful growth of the Vietnam - U.S. comprehensive partnership at a reception held on Monday for U.S. Ambassador Marc E. Knapper, who has recently assumed his duty in Vietnam.

Party leader Trong congratulated Knapper on his new mission in Vietnam and wished him success during his term in the Southeast Asian country, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

He also expressed his hope that the new ambassador will continue contributing to the promotion of the bilateral relations between the two countries.

The Party chief highly appreciated the fruitful growth of the comprehensive cooperative relations between Vietnam and the U.S. in the spirit of putting aside the past, overcoming differences, promoting similarities, and looking toward the future.

Trong emphasized that Vietnam has long applied its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development, and diversification and multilateralization of foreign relations based on mutual respect, for the sake of the two countries and for regional and global peace, friendship, and cooperation.

He told his guest that the fortune, strength, international position, and prestige that Vietnam has today should be first attributed to its sound internal and external policies.

Knapper expressed his pleasure to return to Vietnam to work as a U.S. ambassador, saying he was impressed with the recent progress in bilateral links, Vietnams development achievements, and its increasingly high position in the world.

The ambassador stressed that the two countries have great potential for further expanding their cooperation in various fields, including in new spheres such as epidemic response and climate change.

The U.S. supports a strong, independent, and prosperous Vietnam and will boost the development of bilateral ties in the spirit of respect for each others political institutions, Knapper said.

He also pledged to make every effort to contribute to the cooperative ties between Vietnam and the U.S..

Earlier on February 11, Knapper, a member of the Senior Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State, presented his credentials to Vietnamese State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi as the new U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, replacing his predecessor Daniel Kritenbrink.

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Read what is in the news today:

Politics

-- Vietnamese State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc is scheduled to attend a ceremony to see off officers of Military Engineering Unit No. 1 and Level-2 Field Hospital No. 4 for the United Nations peacekeeping mission on Wednesday morning.

Society

-- Vietnam is set to scrap health declarations for domestic travelers but maintain the protocol for international arrivals in accordance with international medical regulations, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long told a meeting on Tuesday.

-- Rains are in the forecast for Vietnams northern region during the two public holidays of Reunification Day (April 30) and International Labor Day (May 1) due to the impacts of a northeast monsoon while the southern region is likely to experience showers and gusts, with downpours expected in some places, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.

-- The 16th edition of a charity program held by the Association for the Support of Vietnamese Handicapped and Orphans on Tuesday mobilized over VND33 billion (US$1.43 million) for disabled people and orphans throughout Vietnam.

-- Two grade-eight schoolgirls drowned after they and another friend had fallen into a canal in central Quang Tri Province on Tuesday afternoon.

-- Rescuers managed to save two elderly and two children from a three-story house fire in Hoang Mai District, Hanoi on Tuesday afternoon.

-- Traffic police in Ho Chi Minh City are clarifying a viral video, in which a traffic policeman kicks the face of a motorbike rider and prevents him from continuing his journey after the man had turned left against a warning sign and the policemans instructions at an intersection in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.

Business

-- Google internal data showed that 40 percent of inbound tourism information from the U.S. and Canada went to the Philippines and Vietnam, Google Asia-Pacific travel lead Hermione Joye said in a report published on Tuesday.

Sports

-- Vietnams top chess player Le Quang Liem defeated 2021 world champion Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland in the fifth round of Oslo Esports Cup on Wednesday morning.

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KUWAIT CITY, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The Kuwaiti government announced on Wednesday that the country has decided to lift all COVID-19 restrictions starting May 1.

The wearing of face masks is no longer mandatory but an option, both indoors and outdoors, said the government spokesman Tareq Al-Mezrem at a press conference.

The PCR test is no longer required for all arrivals, regardless of their immunization status, he added.

Meanwhile, all individuals, vaccinated or unvaccinated, are allowed to enter all enclosed public places, regardless of immunization status and with no PCR test needed, Al-Mezrem told the press conference.

PCR test requirements for unvaccinated people in educational institutions and workplaces are also cancelled, he noted.

For the contacts of COVID-19 positive cases, no quarantine is required and "the PCR test is required in case symptoms appear within 14 days from the date of the last contact," the spokesman said.

For those confirmed to be infected, they should be home quarantined for five days from the date of infection and the mask is mandatory, he noted. 
Travelers are no longer required to file health declarations upon entering Vietnam starting Wednesday, according to a recent decision by the Ministry of Health.

In a document sent to authorities in every province and city on Tuesday, the ministry stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has been recorded in most countries around the world, and that vaccines are effective against the current virus strains.

The numbers of both COVID-19 cases and coronavirus-related deaths have been shrinking on a global scale.

In Vietnam, the epidemic has been put under control nationwide thanks to high vaccine coverage.

The health ministry thus requested authorities in all provinces and cities to suspend the health declaration requirement for all international arrivals from April 27.

Relevant agencies will still maintain the supervision over the arrivals according to the law on the prevention and control of infectious diseases.

The health ministry will continue to stay updated on the pandemic situation in the world to decide on suitable prevention and control measures.

At a conference on Tuesday, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long announced that health declarations for domestic travelers would be scraped in the coming time.

The ministry tasked the General Department of Preventive Medicine with issuing detailed guidance regarding this matter.

Vietnam has documented 10,620,203 COVID-19 cases and 43,029 pathogen-related mortalities since the pandemic first hit the country in early 2020.

The country has recorded the average daily count of about 10,200 cases over the past week.

Above 194.8 million doses have been administered to the adult demographic of the countrys 98 million people, including 71.5 million first shots, 68.6 million second doses, 1.5 million third doses, 15.2 million additional primary jabs, and 38 million boosters.

About 17.3 million shots have been injected into children aged 12-17, and nearly 880,000 doses have been given to children aged 5-11.

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Foxtel IQ3, IQ4 and IQ5 has now added an app for 10Play.

This will be particularly helpful for subscribers who are without 10 Shake in their EPGs.

This joins existing apps for Prime Video, Netflix, ABC iview, SBS on Demand and YouTube.

Subscribers may need to reboot their IQ to initiate (hold power button for at least 5 seconds which will restart the box in a few minutes).
Theres a lot going on in Gaslit, but one thing is for sure its never dull.

The backdrop is the Watergate scandal in Washington 1972, which led to President Nixons downfall. Thats a story thats been amply dramatised in All the Presidents Men, Watergate, Nixon, Frost / Nixon, Dick and more.

Gaslit adds the perspective of Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts) a loud Arkansan socialite and wife to Nixons loyal Attorney General, John Mitchell (Sean Penn).

When Attorney General Mitchell tasks White House Counsel John Dean (Dan Stevens) to set up an espionage unit to spy on the Democractic National Committee, so begins an unstoppable train of calamity.

Dean hires macho, cloak-and-dagger lawyer G. Gordon Liddy (Shea Whigham) to take charge of the intelligence operation, bugging offices at the Watergate Hotel.

This is where we get to play God, Liddy declares.

Suffice to say not everything goes as planned, especially on the night hotel night watchman Frank Wills (Patrick Walker) starts his rounds.

For Dean, trying to impress new girlfriend Maureen (Betty Gilpin), his star rising in the Washington ranks is about to come crashing down. On the tail of the plot are FBI agents (Chris Messina, Carlos Valdes).

But it is the Mitchells we are here for. Martha just loves the high life of Washington parties and press interviews, frequently spilling the tea to journalist Winnie McLendon (Allison Tolman), creating headaches for her pipe-smoking, Attorney General husband. There are furious arguments, and even domestic violence, as a result.

It will be Martha who first warns of Nixons involvement in Watergate, thus justifying her central role in this miniseries. Yet this drama by writer Robbie Pickering and director Matt Ross affords enormous texture and spotlight to its brilliant ensemble.

Julia Roberts is magnificent in the central role of the polarising Martha, while Sean Penn is positively unrecognisable as her husband thanks to elaborate make-up (I found it less distracting than Russell Crowes turn as Roger Ailes in Loudest Mouth in the Room, for instance).

Dynamic Dan Stevens enjoys such variety in his screen roles since departing Downton Abbey, and Shea Whigham is bound to be nominated for his demented performance as the unhinged G. Gordon Liddy. Minor players are also anything but in the hands of this team.

The production team has a ball recreating 70s fashions, hair styles, locations and cars -from sunken lounge rooms to fondue parties.

Yet while this is a scintillating study of the Watergate scandal, its also a masterful, sometimes terrifying, essay on how a marriage copes with power, betrayal, truth.

People just dont like you. Thats why we cant fly Air Force One, John Mitchell tells his wife.

Gaslit is one of the better drama offerings so far this year. Dont miss it.

Gaslit is now screening on Stan.
Stan genre-bending drama Wolf Like Me, from creator, executive producer and director Abe Forsythe, has been renewed for a second season.

Isla Fisher and Josh Gad will reprise their roles for the new season.

The series is produced by Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky at Made Up Stories.

Stan Chief Content Officer Cailah Scobie said: A powerful, funny and deeply felt drama, Wolf Like Me was one of the most watched premieres in Stans history  the series forming an important part of our expanding Stan Originals slate. We cant wait for audiences to see whats in store for Isla Fishers Mary and Josh Gads Gary in the brand new season and are thrilled to continue working alongside leading local creatives Abe Forsythe and Made Up Stories, in addition to our international partners at Endeavor Content and Peacock, on this outstanding series.

Creator and Executive Producer Abe Forsythe said: Im thrilled to be able to continue Mary and Garys story into the next phase of their relationship, especially considering the stakes couldnt be higher. Knowing we have an audience invested in their story is a dream come true for us. Our crew is already having a lot of fun building on what we created with season one, I cant wait for everyone to experience it alongside our characters.

Executive producers Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky said: If people were surprised by season one of Wolf Like Me, we guarantee they will be amazed at what the universe is going to throw at Mary and Gary this time around. We couldnt be more excited to be working with Abe, Isla and Josh again on this truly unique show.

Endeavor Content EVP, TV Joe Hipps said: Were excited for Abe Forsythe and Made Up Stories to expand their exceptional storytelling around Mary and Garys incredible journey, continuing to engage dedicated Wolf Like Me fans for season two.

The Stan Original Series Wolf Like Me is produced by Made Up Stories in association with Peacock, Endeavor Content and Stan. Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky from Made Up Stories serve as executive producers, alongside executive producers Abe Forsythe, Isla Fisher and Josh Gad. Wolf Like Me Season 1 filmed in NSW and was financed with assistance from Screen NSW through the Made in NSW Fund.
The University of Dayton School of Law finished second in Ohio in one of the key measures used to judge the success of graduates in finding employment.

Job numbers for the Class of 2021 show 90.3% of graduates got full-time, long-term, bar required or J.D. advantage jobs in the 10 months after graduation. That number puts Dayton Law second among the 10 law schools in the Ohio area and in the top quarter of law schools nationally, according to the Employment Summary Reports released to the American Bar Association.

I was thrilled because that means these graduates achieved what they wanted to achieve and thats what we want for them, says Director of the Career Services Office and Assistant Dean Tim Swensen.

The School of Law has seen the percentage of its graduates getting full-time, long-term, bar required or J.D. advantage jobs in the 10 months after graduation grow each of the last three years, while maintaining its top two position in Ohio during that time.

Swensen says the quality of the graduates coming out of Dayton Law is one big reason for the continued success.

The grads themselves, like the year before, were incredibly resilient, creative and persistent, Swensen says.

He also credits the support given by the School of Laws alumni and faculty for the successful job numbers.

Our alumni came through with networking and mentorship opportunities and that was huge, Swensen says. Faculty were also recognized in the feedback as a major resource in helping grads find jobs.

Swensen hopes to repeat the hiring success in future classes by continuing to provide the one-on-one feedback that is a hallmark of the Dayton Law experience.

Our Career Services Office offers a lot of individualized attention targeted to help students get an opportunity to do what they want to do, where they want to do it, Swensen says.

View Dayton Law's Employment Summary
FILE PHOTO: Power lines connecting pylons of high-tension electricity are seen at sunset at an electricity substation in the outskirts of Ronda

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish consumers and businesses will end up paying the cost of a temporary cap on the wholesale price of natural gas, Energy and Environment Minister Teresa Ribera said on Wednesday.

Seeking to bring down electricity bills, which have soared as Russia's invasion of Ukraine pushes up natural gas prices, Spain and Portugal reached a deal with Brussels on Tuesday to limit the cost of gas on their domestic wholesale markets.

Gas will initially be capped at 40 euros ($42.21) per megawatt hour before rising to an average of around 50 euros per MWh.

That compares with current wholesale prices of around 90 euros, which Ribera said were likely to rise further as Russia cuts supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.

"To cover the ex-post adjustment of this difference between the gas price at 40 euros per megawatt hour and the real price in the official market, it will have to be distributed among energy consumers," she told parliament, without specifying how such a mechanism would work and how it would impact consumers' energy bills.

Speaking separately in an interview with state broadcaster TVE, she said she expected consumer electricity bills tied to the spot market to fall by an average of 30%, while nobody's bill should go up.

She said she expected the measure to come into force next week after approval by the cabinet and remain in place for a year, meaning Spain will be covered through next winter.

Spain and Portugal sought the exemption from EU rules to manage their own electricity prices, which are often set by expensive fossil fuels, as they have extensive renewable generation capacity.

Power industry groups and utilities, including Spain's Iberdrola have warned against intervening in the market.

($1 = 0.9476 euros)

(Reporting by Nathan Allen; editing by Inti Landauro and Barbara Lewis)
Vladimir Putin ordered all Russian gas companies to cut off supplies to any country which refused to pay in roubles last month (Photo: Getty)

Vladimir Putin ordered all Russian gas companies to cut off supplies to any country which refused to pay in roubles last month (Photo: Getty)

Russia has been accused of blackmail after cutting off its gas exports to Poland and Bulgaria.

This may be a significant turning point in the Ukrainian war, two months after Russias president Vladimir Putin first ordered an unprovoked attack on its neighbouring nation.

Poland and Bulgaria are now looking to find other sources of natural gas and preparing for the reality that Russia could soon block its oil exports, too.

But the move is not going to do Russia any favours either.

Heres everything we know so far.

How is Russia blackmailing European countries?

On Wednesday, the majority state-owned Russian gas company, Gazprom, released a statement explaining that it had completely suspended gas supplies going to Poland and Bulgaria.

These countries are essential transmit states for the Russian exports.

They were warned by the energy giant that if there was any unauthorised withdrawal of gas re-routed to other European countries, their supplies would be reduced by the same amount in retaliation.

In response, Polish gas company PGNiG said it was reserving the right to seek compensation, and intends to use all available means to do so.

This dramatic decision from Moscow also comes after repeated Ukrainian appeals for Europe to stop funding the Russian invasion by buying their energy supplies elsewhere.

Europe uses Russia for more than a third of its gas, and Gazprom has a monopoly on the pipelines the country, so cutting off Poland and Bulgarias supplies is an incendiary move from Moscow.

Gazprom claims it was following Putins decree issued last month about how countries should pay for their Russian gas exports.

Why did Putin order this?

The Russian president declared in March that all energy payments for Russian gas must be paid in roubles, the Russian currency.

This was heavily resisted by European countries, as it would have helped prop up Russias economy  effectively undoing the strict sanctions placed on the Kremlin over the invasion.

Story continues

The speaker of the lower house of Russias parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, even encouraged the company to take similar action against other unfriendly nations.

What will happen to Poland and Bulgaria?

So far, neither nation seems too concerned.

Polands deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz declared that Russia was looking to foster divisions between Western allies.

Its state gas company has bought 53% of its gas imports from Gazprom this year so far. However, Warsaw claims it can source gas elsewhere (such as Azerbaijan) and it has been preparing for such a situation for years.

Polands PGNiG gas giant said its underground gas storage was close to 80% full and that with summer coming up, it was expecting demand for energy to drop.

In Bulgaria, the prime minister Kiril Petkov said the country was reconsidering its contracts with Gazprom, which include moving Russian gas to Serbia and Hungary, pointing out: One-sided blackmail was not acceptable.

The country uses Gazprom for 90% of its gas supply but it is looking for alternative sources. For now, no restrictions are in place.

PGNiG, the state-owned company that is Polands main purchaser of Russian gas, said that it had received a letter from Russias state-controlled energy behemoth, Gazprom, informing it that all deliveries through the Yamal pipeline would be halted. https://t.co/9DHByxIm86  Kylie Atwood (@kylieatwood) April 26, 2022

How has the rest of Europe responded?

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyys chief of staff  Andriy Yermak  said that Russia was beginning the gas blackmail of Europe, and using its gas supplies as a weapon.

He called for the EU to impose an embargo on energy resources, depriving the Russians of their energy weapons.

Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab said this move was only contributing to its pariah status by threatening other countries.

He told Sky News: We will stand shoulder to shoulder with our Polish friends and allies, theyve said they can deal with this but of course it will have a very damaging effect on Russia as well.

Because it is becoming further and further, more and more, not just a political pariah but an economic pariah and that will put the squeeze ultimately on Vladimir Putin.

But one thing is true and clear. We cannot allow his bullying behaviour, whether its economic warfare or military warfare, to succeed.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen dubbed the move blackmail, and warned the EU was coming up with a co-ordinated response to this unjustified and unacceptable act from Russia.

However, Slovakia and Hungary have worked out separate deals with Gazprom, by paying a euro-denominated account into Gazprobank which then deposits the amount in roubles.

Still, von der Leyen said Moscows behaviour showed Russias unreliability as an energy supplier and maintained that the EU is prepared for this.

She promised that leaders have been working to ensure alternative deliveries and the best possible storage levels across the EU.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, mapped (Photo: PA GraphicsPress Association Images)

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, mapped (Photo: PA GraphicsPress Association Images)

This article originally appeared on HuffPost UK and has been updated.

Related...
LUANDA, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Angola exported more than 98.3 million barrels of crude oil in the first quarter of 2022, bringing in a gross revenue of over 10 billion U.S. dollars, the Angolan Ministry of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas announced Tuesday.

According to official data, the average price of crude oil stood at 103 dollars, an increase of 67 percent over the same period last year, while the export volume fell 0.21 percent year-on-year.

The ministry said China was the main destination of Angola's oil exports, followed by India and France.

South Africa, Portugal, the United States, Canada, Italy, Britain and Thailand also imported oil from the southern African nation, it added. 
Hundreds attended the annual University of North Georgia (UNG) Parent-Alumni Weekend, gathering for fun and a chance to make new memories.

Parent-Alumni Weekend 2022 was a fabulous experience for all those involved, Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving Wendi Huguley, 90, said. It was the first time in a number of years that the weekend included parents as well as university partners in the activities and Im so glad we were able to return to that model. We are all in this together and Parent-Alumni Weekend is a testament to that university unity.

The classes of 1971 and 1972 reminisced at Pine Valley for a 50th Reunion lunch, sharing photos and memories. On the Dahlonega campus, others enjoyed live music, REUNITE, author meet-and-greets, military demonstrations, and lively conversations.

Lt. Col. Tim Palmer, 01, was the keynote speaker at Memorial Retreat, an annual ceremony held to honor alumni who have fallen in battle and alumni who have passed since the previous years ceremony.

The keynote speaker at Sundays Military Awards Review was Maj. Gen. Jamie Jarrard, 88.
A view of a reception point for Ukrianinian refugees established at former shopping mall in Chelm, southeastern Poland, on Tuesday. Since February 24

, when Russia attacked Ukraine, around 2.96 million people have crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border into Poland, the Polish Border Guard has reported on Tuesday morning.  PAP/VNA Photo

MOSCOW  Russian President Vladimir Putin told the visiting UN chief on Tuesday that he still had hope for negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine.

"Despite the fact that the military operation is ongoing, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track," Putin told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who was visiting Moscow, in televised remarks.

"We are negotiating, we do not reject (talks)."

Sitting across from Guterres at a long table at the Kremlin, Putin said efforts at talks with Ukraine had been derailed by claims of atrocities committed by Russian forces in the town of Bucha outside Kyiv.

"There was a provocation in the village of Bucha, which the Russian army had nothing to do with," Putin said. "We know who prepared this provocation, by what means, and what kind of people worked on it."

Ukraine had proposed an international agreement whereby other countries would guarantee its security. In return, Kyiv would not join NATO or host foreign military bases and become a neutral, non-nuclear state.

The talks in Turkey stalled after the discovery of civilian bodies in areas near Kyiv previously occupied by Russian forces.

Putin told Guterres he was "aware of your concerns about Russia's military operation" in Ukraine and ready to discuss it, but blamed the turmoil in the country on an "anti-state coup" that overturned a pro-Russian president in 2014.

Guterres reiterated his call from an earlier meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for Moscow and Kyiv to work together with the UN to set up aid and evacuation corridors to help civilians in Ukraine.

The UN chief's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Putin agreed "in principle" to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross being involved in evacuating civilians from the Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol.

Further discussions will take place between the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Russian defence ministry, he added.

Moldova blasts

Concerns that the Ukraine war could escalate into a wider conflict grew on Tuesday as Kyiv accused Moscow of trying to create unrest in a Russian-backed separatist region of Moldova.

The United Nations and United States warned of rising tensions in the Transnistria region of Moldova, as UN chief Guterres met with Russian President Putin in Moscow and pleaded for peace.

Russian forces have been in Transnistria for decades after the predominantly Russian-speaking region seceded from the former Soviet republic.

Blasts this week targeting the state security ministry, a radio tower and military unit came after a Russian commander claimed Russian speakers in Moldova were being oppressed.

Guterres "is following with concern reports of new security incidents in the Transnistrian region of Moldova", a UN spokesman said.

The United States echoed similar concerns.

"We fully support Moldova's territorial integrity and sovereignty," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

Arms flow into Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has been lobbying for heavier firepower to push back the Russian advance now focused on the eastern region of Donbas.

Western allies are wary of being drawn into an outright war with Russia, but Washington pledged on Tuesday at a summit to move "heaven and earth" to enable Ukraine to emerge victorious.

"Ukraine clearly believes that it can win and so does everyone here," US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told 40 allies gathered at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

With arms flowing into Ukraine, Germany announced on Tuesday it would send anti-aircraft tanks  a sharp U-turn dropping its much-criticized cautious stance.

"I can say one thing: the Ukrainian army will have something to fight with," Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister, said in a briefing on Facebook.

"We have entered a completely new phase.... But this is just the beginning. Much more will come to us."

The Ukrainian defence ministry reported in its latest update that fighting was raging across the east with shelling of Kharkiv city and Russian troops launching an offensive on the town of Barvinkove near Izium.

At the entrance to Barvinkove, not far from the Russian lines, six Ukrainian soldiers were ready at any moment to dive into their trench, which they dig every day with a shovel.

Ukraine officials said there was fighting all along frontlines in the Donetsk region, and that resistance in the Azovstal factory in the besieged port city of Mariupol was still holding out.

Civilians flee

Russia said it had carried out high-precision missile strikes against 32 Ukrainian military targets including four ammunition depots on Tuesday. It also launched airstrikes against 33 targets and 100 artillery and rocket strikes.

In the south, two Russian missiles struck the industrial city of Zaporizhzhia, which has welcomed many civilians fleeing Mariupol, regional authorities said.

Russian forces are expected to soon advance on the city, giving them the potential to seize Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant.

Strikes on Tuesday killed at least nine civilians in the south and east, Ukrainian officials said.

The UN's refugee agency said it now expects more than eight million Ukrainians to eventually flee their country, with nearly 5.3 million already out, and that US$1.85 billion would be needed to host them in neighbouring countries, mainly Poland.  AFP
Waco ISD candidates, in their own words: 10 questions with hopefuls running for school board in the May 7 election.
KABUL, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A women's handicrafts exhibition kicked off Wednesday in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, which displayed a variety of traditional clothes, homemade foodstuff, and handicraft products.

The five-day show is organized by the Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AWCCI) to mark the end of Ramadan or fasting month and the upcoming Eid-al-Fitr Festival, Roya Hafizi, acting chairman of the AWCCI, told Xinhua.

According to Hafizi, more than 70 women-owned businesses from different provinces participated in the exhibition held in Shahrak-e-Aria, a residential complex near the Kabul International Airport.

"There are around 50 booths and many tables where nearly all of the companies are directly introduced by the Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Traditional clothes, handicrafts, jewelry as well as homemade foodstuff are among items put on display," she said.

Afghanistan will celebrate the Eid-al-Fitr festival on or around May 2, depending upon moon sightings. The show will wrap up on May 1. 
Wacos animal shelter has been waiving adoption fees for the last two weeks and is keeping that temporary approach in place in a push to free up space for more dogs.

The shelter is just past capacity, with 211 dogs there as of Tuesday, said Kandi Hillyer, who took over as director for the local Humane Society chapter last month. Two weeks ago the shelter put out messages stating it was calling a Code Red, a call that has helped the shelter lower its numbers in the past. Since the call went out, only about 5% of the shelters dogs have been adopted out each day while more continue to arrive.

What I can tell you is that sometimes, people come in and make decisions pretty quickly, Hillyer said. Then they get home, and animals are a lot of work.

She said the shelter took in 2,382 dogs between October 2021 and April 2022. Of those dogs, 920 were adopted out, 300 were returned to owners, 225 were sent to rescues and 805 have been sent to foster placements.

Hillyer said an animal rescue from New York plans to visit the shelter next month and take between 30 and 40, but in the meantime the shelter is still 101% full. Most of the dogs available are medium- or large-size.

An overly full shelter means illnesses could spread quickly if not detected. Hillyer said puppies infected with parvo have been brought in five times in the last six weeks, but the shelter has avoided any outbreaks so far by quarantining them.

City of Waco Animal Services Director Trey Buzbee said he suspects the strain on the shelter has something to do with COVID-19, as people return to work and find themselves with more limited time to care for animals.

Buzbee said the shelter reached capacity for the first time in years in October 2020. The Code Red call then helped quickly adopt out 40 to 50 dogs, but this time that has not happened. The city of Waco runs the shelter itself, while the Humane Society handles adoptions.

Betsy Robinson, founder of Fuzzy Friends, said rescue operations like hers can alleviate some of the pressure on city shelters, but many rescues are at or near capacity right now. Meanwhile, shelters she has never heard of before have emailed her in hopes of placing dogs with the rescue.

Its gotten so bad were getting emails from city shelters 200 miles away, Robinson said. Its heartbreaking. Theyre just bursting at the seams.

Robinson said she suspects many people, in McLennan County and throughout Texas, are returning animals they adopted earlier in the pandemic.

In just the past week, Fuzzy Friends has received three dogs that previously were adopted from the Waco shelter, Fuzzy Friends Director of Shelter Operations Cliff Kroll said. That happened with three dogs total last year, and has happened with seven so far this year.

They say theyre too busy, or something happened to a family member, Kroll said. Were getting every reason in the book.

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MIAMI (AP)  A judge in Miami on Wednesday vacated the life sentence of a 55-year-old Black man who prosecutors said was wrongfully convicted because of mistaken identity in 1991.

I feel good. Real good," Thomas Jay" Raynard James said Wednesday as he left a Miami courtroom with his attorneys and family members.

James was convicted of the 1990 death of Francis McKinnon, largely on the identification by an eyewitness who told jurors she watched him gun down her stepfather during a robbery in his Coconut Grove apartment.

Earlier Wednesday, James, wearing his red prison uniform and shackles, stood behind his mother, Doris Strong, as Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle detailed a 90-page motion her office filed asking for the conviction to be vacated.

Mom, hopefully the court will grant you the freedom youve been looking for for so many years," Fernandez Rundle told Strong, who sobbed quietly throughout the news conference.

James, who was 23 when he was convicted, was expected to be released after paperwork was completed Wednesday.

Over the past year, Fernandez Rundle said, members of her office's Justice Project poured over 20,000 pages of documents, reinterviewed witnesses, resubmitted fingerprints and retested DNA samples.

She said the case has gone through numerous appeals, post-conviction reviews, and reviews by a private investigator and the Innocence Project of Florida Inc.

None were successful in finding Mr. Thomas Raynard James innocent until we got involved," Fernandez Rundle said.

In a 90-page motion to vacate the conviction, prosecutors said what appears to be a chance coincidence that the defendant, Thomas Raynard James, had the same name as a suspect named by witnesses and anonymous tipsters ... led to the defendant's photograph being included in a lineup, and set in motion a mistaken identity."

Months later, James was arrested and charged with murder.

At the trial, eyewitness Dorothy Walton told jurors that she was sure that James, then 23, pulled the trigger.

I'm positive of it. I will never forget his face," she told jurors in 1991.

Another eyewitness who had identified James in the photo lineup testified that the person he saw that night was not in the courtroom.

But Walton's testimony was key to the jury's verdict, because there was no physical evidence tying anyone to the killing, Fernandez Rundle said. In fact, fingerprints from the scene did not match James.

But beginning last fall, Walton said she had some concerns about her testimony, Fernandez Rundle said. She initially refused to meet with prosecutors, but earlier this month made contact and said she now believes she made a mistake in identifying James as the gunman.

Fernandez Rundle said that over the years there have been conflicting stories about detectives confusing James with another man who shared his name. But that man had been arrested and was in jail at the time of the shooting, she said.

The man suspected of killing McKinnon died in 2020 in Las Vegas, the motion said.

Natlie Figgers, who represents James, urged people to speak up when they see an injustice.

It took a village to make this happen. It wasn't a smooth ride," Figgers said. I want to extend my gratitude to everyone that played a part in bringing this result."

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
WAVERLY  Nearly a year to the day after Waverly said goodbye to the beloved former band teacher, the Waverly Community Band will pay tribute to Bob Maag.

The Bob Maag Tribute Concert will be held on Sunday, May 8 at 2 p.m. in the Waverly High School auditorium.

Maag passed away May 11, 2021 at the age of 85. He spent his lifetime playing, teaching and promoting music.

Maag taught music for 33 years in District 145. During that time, he mentored many players and student teachers, including Arch Hill.

Bob was phenomenal, said Hill. Theres no other way to put it.

Hill said Maag laid the foundation for the Waverly Public Schools music program and made it one of the top programs in the state.

Hes the one that built the Waverly program to the prominence that it is, he said.

As a tribute to Maag, Hill has lined up six guest conductors who have ties to the former band director.

Maags son, Robert A. Maag Jr., who is now a band director in Pennsylvania, will take the baton, along with Kathy Dalby, who took over the Waverly band program after Maag retired. Another Waverly band director, Ron Dalton, will also lead the band.

Like Hill, Greg Olson was a student teacher under Maag. He formed a strong bond with the family and eventually was Robert A. Magg Jr.s college roommate. He will direct a number, along with Maags good friend Ken Molzer, a former band director at Papillion/LaVista.

Rounding out the six guest conductors will be Bobby Jenkins, who was a student of Maags and went on to play oboe for Mannheim Steamroller.

There will also be an honorary guest conductor, Bob Leigh, a retired band director for Platteview Public Schools.

To choose the song lineup, Hill studied the hundreds of songs Maag programmed over the years, and picked eight of Maags all-time favorites.

The concert will be followed by a reception. Hill said many of the people Maag mentored, taught or touched with his music over the years will be there.

You couldnt ever come close to the number of people hes truly touched in his life, Hill said.

Maag played the tuba in high school and college. After earning a music education degree, he started teaching in Waverly. He came to love the school and the community and decided to stay.

Maag retired from District 145 in 1991, then taught in music at an elementary school in Lincoln while working part-time at a music store.

He was a teacher throughout his entire life, Hill said.

He was also a lifelong musician. He was a member of the Lincoln Symphony for 18 years, Lincoln Municipal Band for 24 years and the Lincoln Community Band for 19 years.

Maag founded the Waverly Community Band in 2008 and led the band until 2016, when Hill took over. The band has 75 members, including Maags son and son-in-law. His wife Joy will play keyboards during the tribute concert.

Its just a whole family affair here, Hill said.

Hill said the idea of a tribute concert would probably have made Maag uncomfortable.

He hated recognition, Hill said.

But he loved teaching and playing music. And those who learned to love music under his guidance will be there to honor him.

Its going to be a great concert, said Hill. Its going to be a great day.

Suzi Nelson is the managing editor of The Waverly News. Reach her via email at suzi.nelson@ashland-gazette.com.
RAYMOND  On May 6, the Raymond Central High School commons area will be transformed. Not into its secondary use as a cafeteria, but into a new one: an art gallery.

Its a first-time event organized by the Raymond Central Art Club, led by sophomore Mae Masek, who hopes the art gallery can create new interest in the club and inspire students to pursue art as a hobby.

I think its an uplifting way to end this year, as well as to help promote the art club to new people who want to join, Masek said. So then they will be more excited about following their artist journey.

The show will feature work from students from grades six through 12, and over 150 pieces in total. Music will be performed by Raymond Central students and departing band director Jordan Luke.

The volume of work forced Masek and the art club to ask a fundamental question: how are we going to display all of this? The high school commons wasnt outfitted for hanging art.

So Masek reached out to the Raymond Central Education Foundation asking for help, and she said they supplied her a few thousand dollars to buy display panels. The foundation had recently bolstered art teacher Taylor Craigs course offerings by paying for a ceramic kiln and large-format printer for graphic design.

We're just really thankful for them to be able to do that for us, Craig said.

The gallery runs from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on May 6. Attendees will be able to vote on their favorite pieces, and awards will be given out at 7:15 p.m.

Like the art gallery, the art club itself is a new concept. Masek approached Craig last school year  when Craig was in her first year teaching at Raymond Central  and asked for help connecting the schools students who were passionate about art.

It was kind of hard to just meet people in the arts because there wasnt really much going on, Masek said. There were a lot of different art classes, but not a lot of ways to meet new people.

They resolved to start an art club, and a year and a half later, the group has about 25 members, many of whom Craig said come from different social backgrounds. She said although shes the sponsor, the club is almost entirely student-led.

Its just phenomenal to be able to see the students just take control and lead and do what they love, Craig said.

The club often works internally, collaborating on pieces during their biweekly meetings. But the club has worked on projects as visible as a backdrop for the schools prom earlier this month, and the art gallery will be the clubs biggest venture yet.

Masek said theyre accepting art in just about any form  paintings, illustrations, ceramics and creative writing.

Were just accepting anything, Masek said. This being our first year, were just trying to get a whole broad category, and then well start maybe refining down categories next year.

Because Masek expects there to be a next year. And she expects the club to keep growing, especially given the many social bases the gallery is going to touch. Craig said shes eager to see many selected works displayed, many of which will be from students who otherwise might not enter their art for consideration.

Theres a lot of people that just kind of need that little push, that really dont think theyre creative enough, Craig said. I think this is a good way to help promote that.

Masek said the art club would like to see all students whose work will be on display attend the gallery. That way, visitors can get to know the artists behind the art. But no matter how many people show up, Masek is content with the impact the gallery has made before even taking place.

Its been a lot of effort, she said. But its been such a passion for a lot of people. Its really nice to see a lot of people excited for this and more people thinking about making more art.

Sam Crisler is a reporter for The Waverly News. Reach him via email at samuel.crisler@wahoonewspaper.com.
WAHOO  The District 5 seat on the Saunders County Board of Supervisors is up for grabs during the May 10 primary election, and its a two-way race between incumbent John Smaus, a farmer from Prague, and John Wonka, a business-owner from Weston.

The Wahoo Newspaper asked the two candidates the same series of questions, about their priority issues, their districts biggest needs, COVID-19 relief funds, urban and rural interests, the AltEn situation and government transparency.

District 5 includes Prague, Malmo, Colon and Weston in the west and central portions of the county. It includes the Bohemia, Chester, Elk, Newman, Douglas, Mariposa and Chapman townships, as well as parts of the Morse Bluff, Center, Stocking and Marietta townships.

Below are the two candidates responses, in their own words, listed in alphabetical order of the candidates.

As a supervisor, what will be your priority issues?

John Smaus: Safety for District 5 and Saunders County as a whole is a top priority. We need to ensure we are equipping our local fire, rescue and police departments with the tools they need to perform their jobs safely and effectively. These are the people who care for our families at our weakest moments, we need to be sure we are doing our part in supporting their efforts. When it comes to our roads, we need to be proactive and take care of their usual maintenance, but we also need to fix the issues they have within a timely manner. We need more reliable and affordable options for rural broadband. Broadband in District 5 looks a bit like Swiss cheese with few areas of towns and rural homes with both reliable and affordable internet. We need to find creative ways to keep our property taxes at a rate which still allows us to be profitable from the farm ground and does not create a hardship for post-retirement community members on fixed incomes.

John Wonka: Safety, infrastructure, communications, a balanced, fair budget and tax levy.

What are the biggest needs of District 5 that need to be addressed?

John Smaus: The biggest needs of District 5 are outlined above, which is how I developed my personal focus on my priority issues.

John Wonka: Infrastructure. Whether its roads that need widening, bridges that need replaced, culverts that need extended, or signage that needs updated. While you still see a small tractor pulling a grain cart down the road, more often we are starting to see large grain trucks and semis that are driving up and down our roads. While there are many acreages and communities in District 5 that would benefit, the majority of the 290 square miles is agriculture. Our infrastructure needs to not only be available and safe for all, but also needs to hold up to 80- to 90-thousand-pound vehicles and the ever-growing size of machinery.

The Board of Supervisors is working to decide how to allocate its American Rescue Plan Act funds of about $4 million. If elected, where will you advocate these funds be directed?

John Smaus: There are many options that the county can choose from. I think we need to allocate these funds to areas where the entire county can see a benefit; I have been pushing for a chunk of the funding to go to the new radio system for the police and fire/rescue.

John Wonka: If elected I would advocate for the funds to be used to update the countys emergency radio system. This is utilized by the sheriffs office, fire departments and emergency management. If the radio system was to be updated using a different avenue of funding, either before or after the allocation of ARPA funds, I would favor the money being used for one of its original intended uses; clean drinking water, and acceptable infrastructure to be delivered in. There are many communities in the county that, while still within the acceptable safety level now, as far as nitrates and coliforms, may not be in the near future. Some of these communities still make use of lead pipes, which this money was intended to remediate.

Saunders County is experiencing significant growth as the Lincoln and Omaha areas encroach on the countys borders. As a member of the board, how will you balance urban interests with the countys rural and agricultural roots?

John Smaus: As a farmer I have to keep an open mind about this issue. But when it comes to this issue, there is a delicate line to walk between positive growth for the county and holding onto that which makes our county great  farm ground. There are areas of Saunders County that are allocated for growth like this, we need to utilize those areas because once you lose the farm ground, you will never get it back.

John Wonka: As the population of the county grows, so does the tax base. Growth and development is of great importance to the future of our county. To accomplish sustainable growth and development, we have to be willing to invest in the future of our county with schools, roads and social services, but also balancing the need to lessen the burden on our local landowners and local taxpayers.

In your opinion, how should the county continue its response to the AltEn situation, and how can the county avoid environmental disasters in the future?

John Smaus: This is a unique and frustrating issue as this is out of the scope of the countys control, and as a board member, it feels like my hands are tied. We need to push for a cleanup of the contaminants instead of testing for what it is doing. We can do the testing after the cleanup is done. No more dragging this on, no more discussions about testing while the issue is still laying out on the ground. There needs to be a plan designed immediately for clean up, it needs to be executed this year and then testing should resume. For problems in the future, we need to stay on top of the conditional use permits and make sure they are abiding by the permit. If we find they are not, that needs to be addressed quickly even up to the point of revoking the permit.

John Wonka: It is my understanding that the situation is in the hands of the State of Nebraska, NDEE, and hopefully soon, the EPA. If elected I plan to assist these agencies with any and all means deemed necessary to help remediate the situation. In the future I would like to see if a situation similar, or any situation that has the ability to have environmental effects, once deemed a potential hazard, it is dealt with in a just and timely manner. As to not let it spiral out into a situation we see today.

How will you ensure that all of your constituents opinions, even those with which you may not agree, are being heard?

John Smaus: This is a hard thing for a supervisor to control, that is why I push for every constituent to call me personally to either talk over the phone or meet in person. Show me what the issue is, why you believe it is an issue, why you are concerned, how does this affect you or your family. As a supervisor I like to personally look at the issue to get a better understanding. You have to be open-minded and able to walk in other peoples shoes even if you dont agree with them. Even if I dont agree with the severity of an issue brought to me by a constituent, it doesnt mean it wont receive the same amount of attention and driving force as one that I share an opinion on.

John Wonka: If elected, I will be elected to represent not only my district but ensure the betterment of the county as a whole. While I will have my opinion on many matters, I will listen to, weigh and consider everyones opinions equally. I have always considered myself somewhat of a devils advocate, and will have no problem bringing an opposing opinion to the board for consideration and discussion.

Sam Crisler is a reporter for the Wahoo Newspaper. Reach him via email at samuel.crisler@wahoonewspaper.com.
SILVIS  One of two dogs that attacked and killed a neighbors dog in Silvis will be humanely euthanized. The other will be given a reprieve, according to a ruling from the Silvis public safety committee.

During a special meeting Monday evening, the committee discussed three attacks within six weeks where two dogs in the care of Benjamin McAfee attacked nearby dogs, including the latest where a dog was killed. McAfee told the committee he believes a pit bull-boxer mix  Tru  he is watching for a friend was responsible for the death and asked that his dog, Reese, a pit bull-mastiff mix, be spared. He maintained part of the attack appeared to be rough playing by Reese, who he said has not previously shown signs of aggression.

I do think Tru did it and I do think Tru needs to be put down, McAfee said.

McAfee said he has been around dogs all his life and he felt bad about the incidents.

Dennis Peeters, owner of the dog who was killed, said he recalled his miniature poodle, Dexter, brought home from Teskes 17 weeks earlier. He had a folder of photos photos and X-rays showing the injuries Dexter suffered. Dexter and Peeters other dog, Winston, were attacked by Tru and Reese, leaving Dexter with a severed spine, broken ribs and punctured organs. Dexter was euthanized after the attack. He and a neighbor also told the city council their stories last week.

Peeters said he was walking his dogs when the two pit bull mix dogs charged and attacked. It was the second time it had happened, and Winston had several stitches in three areas. Peeters later learned the same two dogs attacked his neighbors dog, which had gotten loose. He said the two dogs had the neighbors dog in their mouths before the attack was stopped. Both said it appeared McAfees dogs were involved in the attacks. Peeters also said he loves dogs and did not want to see one put down if it did not have to be.

The committee determined Tru caused Dexters death and would be euthanized. Committee chair Tony Trulson asked McAfee to offer assurance Reese would not cause any more problems. McAfee promised to leash Reese when he goes outside.

The committee told McAfee he must fence his backyard to contain the dog. McAfee agreed to do that this weekend.

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WATERLOO -- Black Hawk Button Club will meet from 1-4 p.m. Wednesday at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Waterloo. The program presentation is "Netsuke" Asian-themed buttons. Anyone interested in the art, history, and preservation of buttons is welcome to join us. For additional information call Anna at (319) 415-7550.
WATERLOO  Police arrested three people and seized several guns while searching a Waterloo home Monday afternoon.

Arrested were Paris Kalid Wilder II, 21, of 1018 Western Ave.; and Denzale Devon Babuta Ratliff, 28, of 1203 Kaplan Drive, for felon in possession of a firearm and fourth-degree theft;

Also arrested was Robmarciono Omarion Robinson, 17, for felon in possession of a firearm. Robinson was charged as an adult, according to court records.

Court records state officers with the Violent Crime Apprehension Team executed a search warrant at a home at 121 Wellington St. around 6:20 p.m. Monday and found an AR-15 rifle, a 9 mm Smith and Wesson M and P pistol and a 9 mm Glock Model 26 handgun.

At least one of the firearms had been reported stolen from Cedar Falls, according to court records.

Investigators obtained digital evidence that Robinson possessed a Glock 26 with an extended magazine, court records state.

Wilder is prohibited from handling firearms because of a prior conviction in a 2018 shooting in which one person was injured.

Ratliff is on federal supervised release for weapons charges from a 2018 traffic stop.

Robinson is awaiting trial for drug and firearm charges stemming from a February traffic stop on Broadway Street.

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WATERLOO -- Cedar Valley's all-male chorus Proud Image Chorus is asking men interested in a capella barbershop style singing to attend Guest Night at 7 p.m. May 3.

The event for potential new members is at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 4031 Lafayette Road, Evansdale.

Those interested who have experience singing in church choir, high school chorus or looking for a new hobby may attend.

For more details, call Eric Boyd, membership vice president at 319-504-4645.

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UNITED NATIONS, April 27 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday condemned the attack in the University of Karachi in Pakistan that led to multiple deaths.

The secretary-general expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and wished those injured a quick recovery, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN chief, told a daily press briefing.

An explosion ripped through a shuttle passenger van of the Confucius Institute at the university on Tuesday, leaving three Chinese teachers dead, one Chinese teacher injured and causing several Pakistani casualties, according to a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson.

China expressed strong condemnation and great indignation at the attack, as well as deep condolences to the victims and sincere sympathy to the injured and the bereaved families, the spokesperson said Wednesday.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao has made an urgent phone call to the Pakistani Ambassador to China to express extremely grave concern, the spokesperson added.

After the terrorist attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy to express his condolences, saying that the Pakistani government will conduct an in-depth probe into the incident, punish the perpetrators, and strengthen security of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan in an all-round way.

Sharif said his government will never allow any force to undermine Pakistan-China friendship. Local authorities in Sindh and Karachi have launched a full-scale investigation to hunt down the perpetrators, according to the spokesperson.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese diplomatic missions in Pakistan will continue to urge relevant Pakistani departments to handle properly the follow-up matters of those killed, treat the injured, and resolutely crack down on the terrorist organization involved, the spokesperson said.

The blood of the Chinese cannot be shed in vain, and those behind this incident will surely pay the price, the spokesperson added.

Also on Tuesday, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, Julien Harneis, strongly condemned the attack and was deeply saddened by the loss of life, Haq said.

Harneis said attacks that deliberately target education, teachers, and places of learning are particularly condemnable and sent his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, both in Pakistan and in China, Haq added. 
Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria and threatened to do the same to other countries, using its most essential export as an attempt to punish and divide the West for its united support of Ukraine. The move was condemned by European leaders as blackmail. It marked a dramatic escalation in the economic war of sanctions and countersanctions that has unfolded parallel to the fighting on the battlefield, where fighting continues in Ukraine's east. One person was killed and at least two injured when rockets hit a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv. The commander of a marine unit inside the last stronghold in the gutted city of Mariupol said the situation there was very difficult.
Documents of killed/captured Ukrainian soldiers

So many of them are brought in bags from the front line that we no longer have time to count all of them

The Russians also bury the dead and mark locations so that people can find later

WtR
Russia Hits Record Oil Revenues  in face of Western sanctions

The Russian economy is riding out the pressure of sanctions on the back of $60BN in crude sales. In comparison, the whole of 2021 saw oil revenue total $120BN

Its exposed an intl divide in responding to Moscow, and comes despite oil production reportedly dropping by around 700,000 barrels per day. Some exports have been diverted to Turkey and Italy, both posting far bigger orders in April compared to last month.

US Treasury Sec Janet Yellen admitted banning Russian oil and gas could hurt Europe severely  while having very little negative impact on Russia. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also warned of a dramatic economic crisis if a total embargo is imposed.

Subscribe to RT t.me/rtnews

WtR
As per triggering WW3 is worrying people?

WW3 has been triggered by the USA. Yet will it take off?

No one seems to make very much for the fact and distinction that WW3 is already completely started. The US and NATO started this war, they manage Ukrainian targeting, they supply data, they supply the weapons, ammunition and training, tactical planning, communications, satellite TV for PC data, talent intercepts, fortified bunkers, and even as a pinnacle to a degree, NATO officers are present in multiple numbers (passports are recorded and stored for evidence). This fighting is each and every bit a US/NATO war and the deal is to use Azov or Ukrainian armed forces as the cannon fodder. The US had a notion when they started this war that they had an easy run, as in opposition to Russia and would win..except..however, Russia out-smarted them, out-fought them, out-teched them and out-maneuvered them at each and every step. From the very beginning the US dedicated themselves to WW3, due to the fact that they conceived they will (not can) win. Now they comprehend they will lose in Ukraine and that is a byproduct of believing your own rhetoric. Either they can sue for unconditional capitulation to Russia (not going to happen) or they will double down, which is all they are successful at and of doing when they are blinded with the aid of hysteria, rhetoric and uncontrollable panic

Russia has a distinctive escalation dominance. It is now not in Russias desire to begin an all-out combat with NATO/USA/EU at this stage. But it will come.at the most beneficial time for Russia. In the period in-between the Ukraine war and WW3, the US/NATO are very generously throwing upwards of 50% their real fundamental reserves of ancient gear (and now more and more new), and unbelievable quantities of ammunition onto the bonfire for destruction at Russias leisure, which is to Russias gain when the battle starts off-evolved in earnest. They are donating some of their pinnacle weapons and strategic communications structures to Russians analysts, so that Russia can compromise them in time for the major battle. Isnt that what any individual blinded via hysteria and panic normally does?

Russia has introduced that she will get rid of NATO from Europe, and she will do so  in her very own time and in accordance to her very own schedule. But considering the fact that US/NATO have doubled down in the way they have and the methods they use as terrorists. The US and NATO will have to be completely de-fanged and knackered at the same time  all with stand-off weapons, no nuke war if at all possible

WtR
Tory Burch names Sydney Sweeney global brand ambassador By



Jennifer Braun Published

Apr 27, 2022

has named award-winning actor and multi-hyphenate, Sydney Sweeney, as the global brand ambassador for Tory Burch handbags and shoes.





Tory Burch names Sydney Sweeney global brand ambassador - Tory Burch



Sweeney is well-known for her roles in HBOs record-breaking series Euphoria as well as The White Lotus, The Handmaids Tale, and the forthcoming film Madame Web.



In 2020, she also established her own production company, Fifty-Fifty Films, with the aim to spotlight up-and-coming female directors, screenwriters and authors.

Sweeneys mission to empower women is in line with Torys, where through the Tory Foundation, launched in 2009, she equally helps to advance womens empowerment and provide capital, education, and digital resources to women entrepreneurs.



Sweeney, who began acting at the age of 15, has an entrepreneurial spirit and passion for supporting women that resonated with Burch. In turn, the strong tie between Burch and Sweeny allowed the partnership to blossom organically.



"Sydney is one of the most talented and relevant young actors working today, but I am equally inspired by her curiosity and confidence," said Burch, in a statement. "She is unapologetic and empowered in her approach to acting and business. I am thrilled to start working together."



"I'm so excited to partner with Tory Burch as her brand ambassador," added Sweeney. "I've been a fan of her clothing and accessories for years, and I admire her tireless work to support women. I'm inspired not only by Tory's vision and the business she has built, but also by her kindness and philanthropy. I am so looking forward to the beautiful partnership and meaningful conversations to come."
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Razia, a 23-year-old woman, runs a tailor shop in the Daman district of Kandahar in war-torn Afghanistan, where traditions usually do not encourage women to work outside the home.

"I am trying to develop it (the tailor shop)," Razia said, adding that some 50 women are working in her workshop and each receives a monthly salary.

Selling her products to Kandahar city, the capital of the southern province of Kandahar, Razia said that her employees are happy with the income to support their families.

Women and girls working in the workshop are engaged in embroidery, sewing traditional clothes and making burka, an envelope-like veil that covers a woman from head to toe.

"Our products include embroidery, traditional clothes which are in high demand among Afghans," Razia told Xinhua.

In an effort to develop her products, Razia said she had visited Kabul twice to put her products on display at a handicrafts exhibition to find more customers.

Although women are active in the field of health, education and also business, schoolgirls from grade 7th to 12th cannot attend the classroom.

In a recent decision, the Ministry of Higher Education separated educational days for male and female students at universities. Based on the decision, the girl students could attend classes on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday while boy students attend the universities on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Razia, ambitious, has always tried to display her products at craft exhibitions, and also called upon local authorities to reopen Juma Bazaar (Friday Bazaar), a local market where businesspersons used to sell their products.

Razia's colleague Khudija assumed that working women help stabilize the economy.

"My team is composed of 12 women working here and selling our products," said Khudija. "On the one hand (it) helps us to earn livelihood and on the other, stabilizes the domestic economy."

In the northern Mazar-i-Sharif, another woman Habiba Amini has also opened a tailor shop and provided job opportunities for 40 women in the city. 
Loyal to the Soil and Oaktown Alliance are helping emerging Black entrepreneurs get their retail footing downtown.

Plus, ThirdLove celebrates its new SF store with a Bra Swap event, Reformation donates T-shirt proceeds to a green cause, and The Bar Code hosts a Cali-chic pop-up.

Now you can get that ThirdLove feeling on Fillmore Street. ThirdLove's 24/7 Classic T-shirt bra. (Courtesy of ThirdLove) It's officially official! The San Franciscobased lingerie/sleepwear/activewear brand has a hometown brick-and-mortar. To celebrate the grand opening of its gorgeous Pacific Heights spot, ThirdLove wants to give your boobs a giftand do some good at the same time.

Here's the dealio: From Friday, April 29th through Sunday, May 1st, it will be hosting a Bra Swap. Simply bring in an old bra to donate and, voila, you'll receive a promo code for a free (yes, f-r-e-e!) 24/7 Classic T-shirt bra. (You, or a store associate, simply order online.) Whether you're a newbie or loyal customer, this is the bra you want. It's crazy-comfy with stay-put, pretty pleated straps and more than 100,000 five-star reviews. Our advice: Get the girls hooked up. P.S. ThirdLove also recently opened a store in Walnut Creek. A Bra Swap event will take place there May 68. // 2033 Fillmore St. (Pacific Heights), thirdlove.com

Woot! Downtown Oakland gets its first Black-owned biz collective + storefront. See on Instagram Last Saturday, Loyal to the Soil (LTTS) opened the spanking-new doors to its Oaktown home on Broadway. The new collective and sharply curated store is all about promoting collaboration among Black-owned businesses. Every three months, LTTS will select a new group of 15 or so emerging brands to showcase their products, as well as receive hands-on mentorship from Oakstop Alliance, a local nonprofit partner.

The new collective is the brainchild of Michelle Walton and Wesley Dawan, owners of The Collective Oakland Bookstore. "Black entrepreneurs are faced with little to no cultural representation in Oaklands storefronts, and since the closure of Lake Merritts International Marketplace in November 2021, business owners are without a community-based storefront and have limited business support," says Walton. By providing a curated shopping experience comprised of small Black-owned businesses, we can make establishing a secure storefront presence more accessible, allowing entrepreneurs to test different products and markets without risking their business, ultimately jumpstarting their transition to successful, independent business owners." Only thing left to doshop 'til you drop. // 1719 Broadway (Oakland), // 1719 Broadway (Oakland), @loyaltothesoiloakland

Keep those Earth Day vibes going with Reformation tees. (Courtesy of Reformation) Is shopping for a cause your jam? Same. Hit up Reformation on Fillmore Street and grab a sustainable graphic tee ($48) with a message promoting a healthy, happy planet. Yeah, they're cute, too. Plus, 50 percent of proceeds from each Climate Tee purchased here will go to SF's Friends of the Urban Forest.

Sustainably made in Los Angeles of 97 percent organic cotton (3 percent spandex), every shirt saves 11 pounds of carbon dioxide and more than 2,000 gallons of water. We also suggest peeking at the organic sweatshirts available online. This heather grey Round Earther babe is currently in our cart. // 2360 Fillmore St. (Pacific Heights), thereformation.com

It's double the pop-up fun at SF's The Bar Code with d'Offay + RaliCouture. (Courtesy of d'Offay) As it's wont to do, The Bar Code in Presidio Heights is hosting a fabulous pop-up from Tuesday, May 3rd to Sunday, May 8th. The stars of the show: effortless and elegant fashions from L.A.-made d'Offay and beautiful fine jewelry from SF's RaliCouture. Hint, hint: Mother's Day is May 8th. (Don't forget about dog mamas, plant parentsand you, whatever your maternal sitch.)

// 11am to 5pm; 3600 Sacramento St. (Presidio Heights), thebarcodesf.com




KABUL, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The hardliner Daesh or Islamic State outfit's activities have been suppressed by 98 percent in Afghanistan and will not be a threat any more, the state-run news agency Bakhtar reported Wednesday.

"The phenomenon of Islamic State commonly known as Daesh in Afghanistan has been curbed by 98 percent and could not pose a threat in the country any more," Bakhtar quoting a statement of the Ministry for Interior as saying.

Dismissing the reported threats from the hardliner group, the statement asserted, "The Islamic Emirate will never allow Daesh or any other groups to use the Afghan soil against any country."

The statement came after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for twin bomb attacks on a school in Kabul that left scores dead and injured on April 19.

Unidentified armed men also killed five commuters on Samangan-Balkh road late Tuesday and no groups or individuals have claimed responsibility. 


New WA Resources Deployment Valued at $1m

Sydney, April 26, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Etherstack plc ( ASX:ESK ) is pleased to announce its Australian subsidiary, Auria Wireless Pty Limited, has entered a contract with communications system integrator, RCS Telecommunications Pty Ltd, to provide the Company's P25 digital radio network technology to the end customer, being a major iron ore mining company active in the Pilbara region of north-west Western Australia.Key highlights- New project will provide AUD $1 million in revenue for FY 2022- Seventh order received since May 2020 for this WA resources sector end user- Aggregate orders of over AUD $2.3 million now received since May 2020 for this end user- Additional orders are expected for recurring support for this end user, with expected commencement in H2 2022The order is to deploy a network at a new mine in Western Australia and will provide the Company A$1m in revenue which will be fully recognised in FY2022. The network deployment is also expected to contribute to additional long term annual support revenues commencing in FY2023.Additional recurring revenues from support associated with networks previously announced and deployed to the end customer during FY2021 are expected to commence in H2 FY2022.This order represents the seventh order for the Company's digital radio technology for new mining projects with the end resources customer in the past 24 months. The combined value of these seven orders since May 2020 is in excess of A$2.3m and Etherstack management are confident of further follow-on orders within the next 12 months to the same end user.Etherstack CEO, David Deacon said, "Our Australian manufactured P25 network technology has performed extremely well in previous deployments with the end customer. We believe they value local access to our design, manufacturing and support team. We look forward to growing the relationship and providing unmatched support for decades to come."About Etherstack Plc

Etherstack (ASX:ESK) is a wireless technology company specialising in developing, manufacturing and licensing mission critical radio technologies for wireless equipment manufacturers and network operators around the globe. With a particular focus in the public safety, defence, utilities, transportation and resource sectors, Etherstack's technology and solutions can be found in radio communications equipment used in the most demanding situations. The company has Research and Development facilities in London, Sydney, New York and Yokohama.


Initial Drill Hole Completed at Warriner Creek Project

Melbourne, April 27, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cohiba Minerals Limited ( ASX:CHK ) ( OTCMKTS:CHKMF ) is pleased to announce that the first of two drill holes has been completed at the Warriner Creek East Prospect (EL6324, Area B) and drilling has commenced at the Warriner Creek West Prospect (E6324, Area A) in South Australia as part of the Farm-In Agreement that Cohiba has with Tigers Dominion Group Pty Ltd (TDG).Highlights:- First of two drill holes at the Warriner Creek East Prospect, targeting a Carrapateena style potential IOCG deposit, was completed to a target depth of 658.6m;- A second hole at Warriner Creek East is planned but the exact positioning will be determined following a detailed assessment of the first hole;- Drilling has commenced at the Warriner Creek West Prospect where a 150 - 200m drill hole is planned to intersect a shallow Prominent Hill style target zone which exhibits a moderately intense magnetic anomaly.The Warriner Creek Project comprises 2 tenements under exploration licence to TDG, EL 6324 (Areas A and B) and EL 6533, which cover a combined area of 346 km2 over strategic IOCG targets in the Gawler Craton (Figures 1 & 2*).The first hole was drilled at Warriner Creek East (Figure 2*) and targeted a Carrapateena style IOCG deposit based on an isolated low-order magnetic anomaly and a near-coincident gravity anomaly.The drilling encountered intensely quartz-altered granite (Figure 3*) followed by pegmatites and banded quartz biotite and magnetite gneiss at depth with variable weak to intense silicification. There was pervasive red K-feldspar alteration, minor sericitic-chloritic alteration and minor haematisation.Numerous cross-cutting mafic and ultramafic dykes may explain the magnetic anomaly encountered over the target area but the gravity anomaly has not, as yet, been fully explained. A detailed analysis of the drill core will be undertaken to assist in determining the exact nature of the follow-up work which will enable the source of the gravity anomaly to be identified.The drill core has been logged in detail and will be sent back to Adelaide for further assessment and targeted sampling for laboratory analysis.TDG conducted a review of the Warriner Creek East project including further petrological work on core from WCKDDH01 (Mason Geoscience P/L Report #4285, 2019) which confirmed the historical geological logging of alteration within the basement gneissic sequence. TDG concluded that this level of geochemical anomalism and alteration was consistent with WCKDDH01 being proximal to a potential significant IOCG breccia system which formed the primary technical driver behind the current drilling program.A second hole at the Warriner Creek East Prospect is planned but the exact positioning will be determined following a detailed assessment of the first hole.The drill rig has commenced drilling over the Warriner Creek West Prospect where a 150 - 200m drill hole was planned to intersect a shallow Prominent Hill style target zone which exhibits a moderately intense magnetic anomaly.Cohiba's CEO, Andrew Graham says, "We are excited about the opportunities presented at Warriner Creek and are committed to fully investigating the target areas. The Company considers the Warriner Creek project to be a strategic undertaking that will contribute to its long-term goal of being a significant explorer in the Gawler Craton."*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Cohiba Minerals Limited

Cohiba Minerals Limited (ASX:CHK) is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with the primary focus of investing in the resource sector through direct tenement acquisition, joint ventures, farm in arrangements and new project generation. The shares of the company trade under the ticker symbol CHK.

The Company recently acquired 100% of the shares in Charge Lithium Pty Ltd, which holds exploration licences in Western Australia.


Quarterly Activities Report

Sydney, April 27, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - NSX Limited ( ASX:NSX ) is pleased to provide its Activities Report and ASX Appendix 4C Cashflow Statement for the period ended 31 March 2022 (3Q22).Group Cash Flow Activities Report- Cash at the end of the quarter was $1.9 million, following a net cash outflow of $1.3 million as part of continuing operations.- During the quarter $0.3 million in cash receipts were received from customers. The cash receipts in the March quarter were up $0.09 million on the previous quarter, and up $0.1 million on the previous corresponding period (pcp). The company receives most of its annual revenue (on a cash basis) in the September quarter.- Cash payments for administration costs for the quarter are $0.7 million down $0.1 million on December quarter but up $0.3 million on the September quarter. There were some one-off costs paid during December quarter related to ASX fees for $0.2 million and legal fees for $0.04 million. ASIC Industry Levy for $0.3 million was paid in March 2022.- Cash payments for intellectual property for the period are $0.21 million up $0.09 million on the December quarter and up $0.2 million on the September quarter. This is part of ongoing software upgrades.- Cash payments to staff, corporate and the board for the period were $0.4 million down $0.1 million on the previous quarter. This is mainly to reduction of staff during the previous quarter.Quarterly Business Activities ReportNSX Limited Activities- Directors being related parties of the Company, for the purposes of this report, were paid remuneration in the amount of $102,000 during the March quarter. No other related party payments were made.- On 15 March 2022, Mr John Karantzis tendered his resignation. Mr Tod McGrouther was appointed the NSX interim CEO and Managing Director.- On 12 April 2022, NSX announced the appointment of Mr Barnaby Egerton-Warburton as a nonexecutive, independent director to the boards of NSXL and NSXA after receiving ASICs non-objection.- The Board is aware of the cash position as disclosed in the Appendix 4C, section 8. The Company has several methods which will increase the case available to the Company. These are:o The bulk of cash drive from the operations of the business is received in the first quarter of each financial year. This means that the Company will satisfy the two quarters reporting requirement at that time; pluso As the proposed JV in with Abiliti progresses it is expected that the JV wil raise capital to support the operations and licence capital requirements during 2022/2023 financial year. NSX's participation and support is in knowledge transfer and consulting which will generate consulting fees for the business; ando The Company retains its ability to place up to 25% of the issued capital to interested parties and/or conduct a rights issue.o The Company's major shareholder has provided written support that they would support a capital raise at the appropriate time.ClearPay Joint Venture Activities- DvP platform software development continues; and- DESS Digital Ledger Technology system continues to operate with no downtime.KSA Commodities & Securities Exchange MOU Activities- As announced on 29 September 2021, NSX Limited entered into a joint venture with Ajlan & Bros Holding Group ("Abilitii") in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ("KSA") to explore opportunites to create a second securities and the first commodities exchange.- The Company has continued its work on the business plan for submission to KSA regulators, and if this is successful would move to a joint venture arrangement.- Meetings were held with the JV partner and representatives from the KSA Government and regulators during the period. Further information on market licence application conditions are expected in the next few weeks. This will provide further insights on how the JV may proceed.National Stock Exchange (NSXA) Activities- The activities of the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, National Stock Exchange of Australia ("NSXA"), involved business as usual processing of new admission applications and market operations.- During the period 2 new issuers commenced quotation with another entity progressing through the admissions process.- The NSXA continues to position itself as the venture and emerging companies exchange, creating a clear differentiation from other Australian markets.- Draft ETP and ETF Rules completed and NSXA is working toward a package of informal rule lodgements in consultation with ASIC that also include alignment of rules with recent changes to ASIC Market Integrity Rules and the work associated with the NSX Trading System upgrade.- NSXA is reviewing its position on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies ("SPAC's"), after the receipt of correspondence from ASIC on 7 April 2022.*To view the full Quarterly Report, please visit:About NSX Limited

NSX Limited (ASX:NSX) via its wholly owned subsidiary National Stock Exchange of Australia Limited (NSXA) operates the Tier 1 Licensed stock exchange facility for the listing of equity securities, corporate debt and investment scheme units. The company is also involved in trading and settlement activities.


Quarterly Activities Report

Sydney, April 27, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - During the quarter the Australian Government granted Major Project Status to the Broken Hill Cobalt Project. Major Project Status extends for a three-year period to support the project through its development phase.The awarding of Major Project Status provides Cobalt Blue Holdings Limited ( ASX:COB ) ( FRA:COH ) ( OTCMKTS:CBBHF ) with extra support from the Major Project Facilitation Office Agency, including a single-entry point for Australian Government approvals, project support and coordination with State approvals.The grant of Major Project Status by the Australian Government acknowledges the strategic significance of the BHCP as a key national project and is formal recognition of the national economic implications of the BHCP through its contribution to growth, productivity, government revenue, industry and regional development.To view the full Quarterly Report, please visit:About Cobalt Blue Holdings Limited

Cobalt Blue Holdings Ltd (ASX:COB) (FRA:COH) (OTCMKTS:CBBHF) is an exploration and project development company. Work programs advancing the Broken Hill Cobalt Project in New South Wales continue. Our ambitious goals are subject to funding availability. Cobalt is a strategic metal in strong demand for new generation batteries, particularly lithium-ion batteries now being widely used in clean energy systems.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  The Republican primary in New Mexicos governor race has taken a pugnacious turn.

With absentee voting set to begin in just two weeks, GOP candidate Rebecca Dow launched a television ad this week that calls rival Mark Ronchettis conservative credentials into question, saying Ronchetti pretends hes a Trump Republican.

The ad also includes footage of the former KRQE-TV meteorologist referring to Trump as the orange one during a 2019 climate symposium.

In response, Ronchettis campaign slammed the ads claims as false, saying Ronchetti never left the Republican Party and saying his past comments about Trump were old jokes taken out of context.

The Trump-related remarks were also campaign fodder in Ronchettis 2020 run for an open U.S. Senate seat. He won a three-way Republican primary race that year, but lost in the general election to Democrat Ben Ray Lujan.

Its not at all surprising that Rebecca Dow has chosen to go on the attack. She cant run on her liberal voting record, or her numerous ethics scandals and lawsuits, so her only option is to run a negative campaign, Jessica Hanson, Ronchettis campaign manager, said in a Tuesday statement.

Ronchetti and Dow are two of the five Republicans vying for the partys nomination in the June primary election, but are the only GOP candidates who have launched television ads so far, according to network files.

Whoever wins the Republican primary will face off against incumbent Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who is seeking reelection, and Libertarian candidate Karen Bedonie in the November general election.

Dows latest ad began airing this week. Her campaign is spending more than $34,000 to air it on several Albuquerque-based network stations, according to public files.

In a statement, the three-term state lawmaker from Truth or Consequences called herself the clear conservative pick in the GOP primary.

Mark Ronchetti was caught on camera, more than once, revealing his true ideals, so he has no other option than to deflect his continued mocking of President Trump as a joke, Dow told the Journal.

Meanwhile, voter records show Ronchetti is a registered Republican and voted in every state general election dating back to 2006. But he did not vote in the primary elections in 2018 or 2016, when Trump was first running for president.

A Ronchetti campaign spokesman said Ronchetti did not back away from Trump during his 2020 campaign, despite fierce criticism.

In addition, Ronchetti will vote for the Republican Partys presidential nominee in 2024  whether it ends up being Trump or someone else, campaign spokesman Enrique Knell said Tuesday.

He also indicated Ronchetti, who recently reported raising more than $2.1 million for his campaign since announcing his candidacy in October, was positioned to launch more TV ads of his own, saying, We wont personally attack any candidate, but we will set the record straight on the issues.

This years primary election is June 7, with absentee voting set to get underway May 10.
SYDNEY, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Tourism in Australia's state of Queensland is on track to earn a few billion dollars throughout April, a dramatic change of fortune from recent years when the industry languished during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tourism windfall for the "sunshine state" is being at least partially attributed to three consecutive long weekends for Easter, Anzac Day and Labor Day, which will be celebrated in Queensland this coming Monday.

The influx over the Easter break led to the busiest days since the pandemic for Brisbane, Cairns and Gold Coast airports, the gateways to three of the state's most popular destinations.

Tourism authorities noted the state had 21 percent more visitors than the previous Easter, when states such as New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria were at different stages of their battles against COVID-19.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) Chief Executive Daniel Gschwind confirmed that Easter had been a "game changer" for the sector and had "delivered the turnaround and the mood for tourism operators that we had hoped for."

"The Anzac weekend and the long weekend ahead of us are giving the industry the boost we need after the struggle we have had over the past two years," Gschwind said.

Tourism operators recorded strong booking figures over the Anzac break, which coincided with the end of school holidays in the NSW and Victoria.

"Occupancy rates on the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Cairns and the Whitsundays held at 83 percent on average through the week with interstate visitors extending Easter breaks into Anzac Day," Queensland Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said on Tuesday, adding the state was likely to earn 2 billion Australian dollars (about 1.43 billion U.S. dollars) for the month.

"We're encouraging Queenslanders to explore their own backyard this Labor Day long weekend," Hinchliffe said. "Whether it's sport, adventure, fishing or film there's a lot to love, see and do."

Tourism Whitsundays Chief Executive Rick Hamilton told Xinhua on Wednesday that business remained brisk around the Great Barrier Reef region with accommodation for the upcoming weekend at about 75 percent.

Associate Professor Brent Moyle from Griffith University's Institute for Tourism said the string of long weekends had "provided a welcome relief" for the tourism sector with people making the most of the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends.

Moyle, however, added a note of caution by saying April's brisk turnover was a "short-term cash injection" and the tourism economy would require continued intervention by state and federal governments to ensure Queensland remained at the "cutting-edge of tourism experience design and innovation".

"Keeping our focus on 'iconic experiences of the future' will retain the existing markets, while creating demand from emerging international markets enticed by our unique culture and heritage as the tourism sector reopens globally," he told Xinhua. 
The Albuquerque Police Department is warning the public not to fall for a scam in which a person pretends to be an actual sergeant with the department and asks the mark to bring vouchers to the main headquarters.

Rebecca Atkins, an APD spokeswoman, said the scammer is calling people and telling them they have missed court in a case they were supposed to testify in and are now wanted on a misdemeanor warrant for failing to appear. She said it appears to be targeting healthcare workers.

The caller then goes on to say the individual could reduce their bond by purchasing vouchers at a Walgreens or CVS for several hundred dollars, Atkins said. They then ask the individual to bring those vouchers to APD Main.

Atkins warned the public not to respond to phone calls or texts of this nature and instead report it to (505) 242-COPS.
She had heard the April 22 forecast, the incendiary combination of high winds and low humidity that portended a devastating conflagration with a single errant spark.

It was hard to ignore the ominous prediction. The National Weather Service in Albuquerque had repeatedly warned of a very, very bad day that Friday.

Katie Bock hadnt been overly concerned. Her Los Rios neighborhood in Rio Rancho near Corrales Road and N.M. 528 is mostly desert and safely away from bosque or forest.

And besides, she was more than 1,600 miles away visiting family in North Carolina, where it was a balmy Friday with a light 3 mph breeze and nearly 70% humidity.

Then the text messages from her neighbors started coming.

Just as predicted, fires were exploding across New Mexico  and one of them was three doors north of her home.

The strongest steel, they say, is forged by fire. Back home, Bock was learning that fire was forging a stronger community, from the two teens who rescued an elderly couple from their burning home to those who came together to help the couple once the fire was out.

It is amazing how all of the neighbors have connected  the only good thing to come out of this, Bock said. We do vary in our political views, but we take care of each other.

Neighbors say the fire broke out at the home of Mary and Al McCoy on Rio Ruidoso NE around 2 p.m. last Friday.

Sophie Shurter, 17, and her friend Brooke Cue Curley, 18, both seniors at V. Sue Cleveland High School and just weeks from graduation, were hanging out at the Shurter home when they smelled the smoke, saw the flames and heard Mary McCoys screams for help three doors north.

Sophies dad, Tony Shurter, who works a night shift in Los Alamos, was also home, in pajamas and barefoot.

By the time I put my shoes on, the house was engulfed, he said. I would have been too late to save my neighbors.

So would Rio Rancho firefighters, who arrived quickly, but not before flames fanned by howling winds clocked at 44 mph had all but destroyed the home.

It was unprecedented, Rio Rancho Battalion Chief Ryan Floersheim said. The house fire was fully involved.

But the girls were in time.

Without hesitation, they rushed into the burning house and brought out Al McCoy, who is 85 and weakened by a stroke. They also rescued Mary McCoy, 77, who was outside, but unwilling to leave her husband of nearly 60 years.

Those girls didnt think twice about running into that burning house, said Sophies mother, Kylee Shurter. Theyre more curious about those who wouldnt.

Firefighters worked heroically to keep the fire from spreading to other homes, despite the extreme winds and lack of fire hydrants in the neighborhood.

Ive never seen a response like it, Tony Shurter said. That fire could have easily burned down this neighborhood, shot right up the arroyo, and that dense, dry sagebrush and tumbleweeds would have burned up like tinder.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Floersheim said this week. He also confirmed that the McCoys dog was a fatality in the fire.

So much damage was done. Al McCoy, who suffered severe injuries to his lungs, remains hospitalized, intubated and in perilous condition. Mary McCoy also suffered lung damage, but refused to remain in the hospital, one neighbor said.

The couple lost everything. But they gained a community that has rallied around them.

Its such a God story, said Lynley York, a nurse who lives in nearby Corrales. The amazing thing to me is how the community stepped up.

The night before the fire, York said she had been awakened several times by thoughts of a house fire. That, she believes, was a call from God to be ready to help someone.

When I heard about the fire the next day, I knew that was it, so I drove down to see how I could help, York said.

She offered Mary McCoy her rental home in Corrales until a new tenant moves in and is helping her navigate the process of putting her life back together.

But, like most of the neighbors, York is quick to deflect praise. Paramedics, for example, returned to the scene even after Mary McCoy had initially waived off medical assistance, York said.

They knew Mary needed help, even if she didnt, she said.

York also credits critical care Dr. Eleana Zamora, who not only treated Al McCoy at the University of New Mexico Sandoval Regional Medical Center in Rio Rancho, but also made a house call to see Mary McCoy, update her on her husbands condition and provide her with a wig, since all of Marys wigs burned in the fire.

I call her Dr. Angel, York said.

Two other angels are Amy Fletcher and Kailee Hicks, both Rio Rancho women who didnt know each other, the McCoys or York, but are now working together to help the couple, who have no family nearby.

I heard about the fire and knew I needed to help, so I did a lot of praying and asked to be led to the right people, Hicks said.

Hicks set up an online donation site for specific immediate needs for Mary McCoy, such as clothing, coffee and gift certificates, and a Venmo account for monetary donations.

Fletcher helped spread the word online via social media and assisted York in helping Mary McCoy obtain replacement identification and a drivers license.

Nico Ortiz, owner of Turtle Mountain Brewing, offered his two locations in Rio Rancho as donation drop-off sites.

Even before the Red Cross stepped in Monday, nearly all the item requests were filled and at least $600 raised, Hicks said.

Its been so amazing to see how much kindness and caring is out there, Hicks said. People just really want to help. They just need to know how.

Neighbors also checked on each other during and after the fire.

I didnt know many neighbors names before this, but have learned a lot, said Bock, who returned from North Carolina on Saturday evening. We all have.

Bock said she loves her neighborhood because of its breathtaking view of the Sandia Mountains.

Whats even more beautiful now to her are the neighbors.

UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Reach Joline at 730-2793, jkrueger@abqjournal.com.

Cash donations: Venmo @Kailee-Hicks

Questions:Text Kailee Hicks (208) 640-3024.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

LAS VEGAS, N.M.  Dion Maes and Roger Lucero were hunkered down in Luceros 2008 Ford F-150 pickup truck in the parking lot of Memorial Middle School in Las Vegas on Tuesday afternoon. A stiff, chilly breeze was blowing.

The school has been serving as a shelter for those forced to evacuate their homes because of the fires raging in northern New Mexico.

Maes and Lucero qualify. Maes is from Mora but had been staying for some weeks at Luceros home in Carmen, about a dozen miles south of Mora. The 54-year-olds are lifelong friends and attended Mora High School together.

Last Thursday, they drove to Las Vegas to get away from the smoke in Carmen and were not allowed to return when they tried to go back.

Since then, they have been living in the truck, staying nights in state parks. On Monday night they were at Storrie Lake State Park.

We froze our butts off, said Maes. I brought just two pairs of pants with me. We are out of resources. We are short on fuel and funds. Im just nervous as hell. I dont have the words. We are homeless is what we are.

This is a very serious thing, Lucero said.

Even so, fire officials are making progress on the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire in San Miguel and Mora counties, though dry lightning and high winds from thunderstorms could fuel fire weather later this week, fire officials said Tuesday evening.

The fire has burned about 60,600 acres and is 20% contained.

Incident commander Carl Schwope said crews are attacking the 180 miles of fire perimeter in tough country.

Everybody is working to really make this fire area secure so we can change these evacuation levels, Schwope said.

Crews have prepped homes in Upper Gallinas Canyon in case the fires southern edge flares up, said operations section chief Jayson Coil.

Work continues on the northwest side of the fire that could pose a threat to Mora later this week.

San Miguel County Sheriff Chris Lopez said officials are about 70% done assessing structural damage.

One of the main issues is not being able to get into those areas that are still too hot, Lopez said. We made a couple notifications (about structure loss) today, and tomorrow were going to start making a bunch more.

Earlier on Tuesday, Coil said some residents had been interfering with firefighter operations in closed areas.

Dont go into the areas that youre not supposed to be in yet that have been evacuated, Coil said. Dont impersonate firefighters and dont impede their work  please just let us do our job. We want to put this fire out. We want to get you guys back in your homes.

The New Mexico Environment and Health departments warn that wildfire smoke will continue to impact air quality and road visibility Wednesday.

Smoke from the many wildfires burning in northern New Mexico will likely impact Pendaries, Rociada, Mora, Sapello, Watrous, Wagon Mound, Ocate and La Cueva.

Back in Las Vegas, Maes and Lucero only found out about the shelter at the school on Tuesday. They were able to get food there and were considering asking to be allowed to sleep on cots available in the building.

We thought we could get by without taking (beds) from the really needy, but now we find ourselves in need, Maes said.

Red Cross officials say as many as 200 cots are available at the shelter, but so far only 15 to 20 people per night have been using them. That number is expected to increase as people run low on money to pay for motels or are unable to continue to stay with friends.

One person staying overnight at the shelter is Regina Lucero, 44, no relation to Roger. She fears the house she had been living in for just a couple of months in Ocate, 24 miles northwest of Wagon Mound, has been lost to the Cooks Peak Fire. She lived there with her teenage son and daughter and their father.

When she returned to the house recently to get pets that had been left there, she said, the fire looked bright and orange and like a monster going in and out of the pine trees.

She believes everything in the area was destroyed.

The children are staying with their father in a trailer in Las Vegas, but Regina is using the shelter for now.

Im just grateful we were able to save our animals, she said, growing emotional as she talked. But I lost my main purse, everything else.

Composing herself, she said she was starting a new job as a waitress in Las Vegas on Wednesday, so she can make some money. I know God will not give me more than I can handle.

Other Northern NM Fires
NOTICE OF PUBLIC LIQUOR HEARING



NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to anyone wishing to comment on the applications that the City of Albuquerque Liquor Hearing Officer, Steven M. Chavez, Esq., pursuant to  60-6B-4D(1), NMSA 1978 as amended, and  13-2-1 Revised Ordinances, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1994 as amended, will hold a public hearing Via Zoom Video Conference on Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 9:00 a.m., for the purpose of considering the applications for a liquor license set forth hereunder.

If any persons desire to testify, participate or otherwise submit comments, please contact Donna Montoya, Liquor License Coordinator at: (505) 768-3147 or by email donna@cabq.gov at least 72 hours before the hearing.

NOTICE OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES: If you have a disability and require special assistance to participate in this hearing, please contact Donna Montoya at least three days before the hearing date at 768-3147.

1. Liquor License/Application No.: Manufacturer (Rectifier)

1222851

Applicant: New Mexico Fresh Foods, LLC

Doing Business As: Verde Food

Proposed/Mailing Address: 5600 Venice Ave. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113

The Applicant is seeking Manufacturer (Rectifier) Liquor License. Applicant is requesting a Distance Waiver as the Premises Address is located within 300 and 400 ft. of the nearest Church.

2. Liquor License/Application No.: 1223071

Applicant: Athenaoula, LLC

Doing Business As: Tulas

Proposed Address: 8100 Wyoming Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113

Mailing Address: 8525 Jefferson St NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113

The Applicant is seeking a Restaurant B Liquor License with On-Premises Consumption and Patio Service.

3. Liquor License/Application No.: 1349/1226895

Applicant: Zazz ABQ, LLC

Doing Business As: Hotel Zazz

Proposed/Mailing Address: 3711 Central Avenue NE, Albuquerque, NM 87108

The Applicant is seeking a Transfer of Ownership and Change of Location of Canopy Liquor License No. 1349 with On-Premise Consumption and Patio Service. Applicant is requesting a Waiver from the City of Albuquerque as the Proposed Premises is within 300 Feet of the nearest Church.

April 25, 2022

Steven M. Chavez, Esq.

Liquor Hearing Officer

Journal: April 27, May 4, 2022
NOTICE is hereby given that on March 11, 2022, The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD), PO Box 581, Albuquerque, NM 87103-0581, filed with the STATE ENGINEER Application No. SP-1690-2-T for Permit to Temporarily Change the Point of Diversion of Surface Water of the Rio Grande within the State of New Mexico.

Sandoval and Bernalillo County are the Counties affected by the diversion and in which the water has been or will be put to beneficial use. This notice is ordered to be published in the Albuquerque Journal.

The applicant proposes to temporarily (until December 31, 2025) discontinue the diversion of up to 8,000 acre-feet per annum of surface water from the Angostura Diversion Dam (SP-1690-2), on land owned by the MRGCD, at a point where X = 363,856 and Y = 3,916,198 meters, UTM Zone 13N NAD 83, Sandoval County, and to temporarily begin the diversion of surface water from the Rio Grande at a point where X = 1,536,450 feet and Y = 1,557,709 feet, New Mexico State Plane, Central Zone, NAD 83, Sandoval County, for the continued irrigation of the portion of the MRGCD service area served by the Corrales Main Canal on the west side of the Rio Grande on MRGCD Maps 13 through 26, within Sandoval and Bernalillo counties. The Corrales Siphon, the infrastructure that conveys surface water in the Corrales Main Canal from the east side of the Rio Grande to the west side of the Rio Grande is in need of repair or replacement.

To view the application and supporting documentation contact the State Engineer District Office to arrange a date and time for an appointment located at 5550 San Antonio Dr NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109.

Any person, firm or corporation or other entity asserting standing to file objections or protests shall do so in writing (objection must be legible, signed, and include the writers complete name, phone number, email address, and mailing address). If the protest does not include the complete name, phone number, email address, and mailing address, it may be deemed invalid and not accepted for filing unless Protestant provides with the protest an affidavit stating that it does not have one of the above-listed elements/requirements (phone number, mailing address, email address, etc.). The objection to the approval of the application must be based on: (1) Detriment; if detriment, you must specifically identify your water rights; and/or (2) Public Welfare/Conservation of Water; if public welfare or conservation of water within the state of New Mexico, you shall be required to provide evidence showing how you will be substantially and specifically affected. The written protest must be filed, in triplicate, with the State Engineer, 5550 San Antonio Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109, on or before June 24, 2022. Facsimiles (faxes) will be accepted as a valid protest if the hard copy is hand-delivered or mailed and postmarked within 24-hours of the facsimile. Mailing postmark will be used to validate the 24-hour period. Protests can be faxed to the Office of the State Engineer, 505-383-4030. If no valid protest or objection is filed, the State Engineer will evaluate the application in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 72 NMSA 1978.

Journal: April 27, May 4, 11, 2022
Navajo Housing Authority (NHA)

Procurement Department

INVITATION FOR BID

ADVERTISED IFB #555

EXTERIOR REPAIRS ON PUBLIC RENTAL UNITS AT AZ12-077 IN

SWEETWATER, AZ

The Navajo Housing Authority (NHA) (Hereinafter called the Owner) invites all qualified Licensed General Contractors to bid on Exterior Repairs on Public Rental Units. Detailed information may be obtained via email to Darlene Yazzie, Procurement Specialist, darleney@hooghan.org and requesting for Advertised IFB #555 Exterior Repairs on Public Rental Units at AZ12-077 in Sweetwater, AZ. The Owner will receive Sealed Bids until 2:00PM (MST) on May 24, 2022 via email to darleney@hooghan.org. Bids will be opened and publicly read aloud immediately after the specified closing time. The NHA will not be accepting in-person or post office/courier submissions from Vendors on any solicitation responses effective, March 16, 2020. The NHA is concerned about everyones safety and this is a necessary step to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Faxed proposals will not be accepted.

This invitation is unrestricted; however, preference shall be given to Navajo Organization and Navajo Owned Economic Enterprises in accordance with 24 CFR 1000.48, 1000.50 and 1000.52.

Journal: April 27, 29, 30, 2022
INVITATION TO BID

NO. 2022-06

TRUCHAS FIRE DEPARTMENT UNDERGROUND WATER STORAGE PROJECT COMMODITY CODE: 90976,90922

The Rio Arriba Board of County Commissioners are accepting sealed bids for the purpose of underground water storage project for the Truchas Fire Department.

Invitation to bid packets may be obtained from the Office of Grants & Contracts- Rio Arriba County, Administrative Complex, 1 Main Street County Courthouse Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico or contact the Grants and Contracts Coordinators office at (575) 588-7254 ext. 4370 or by email

rvjaramillo@rio-arriba.org.

Proposals must be received at the office of Grants & Contracts on or before Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at 10:00 A.M. Late proposals shall be rejected and will be returned unopened.

One original and three hard copies of the bid shall be submitted in a sealed envelope with the following clearly indicated on the outside of the envelope: BID NO. 2022-06 TRUCHAS FIRE DEPARTMENT UNDERGROUND WATER STORAGE PROJECT TO BE OPENED ON

5/11/2022 AT 10:00 A.M..

The Board of County Commissioners of Rio Arriba County reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, to waive technicalities, and to accept the proposal it seems to be in the best interest of Rio Arriba County.

For the Board of County Commissioners- Rio Arriba County

Rosario Jaramillo

Grants & Contracts Coordinator

Journal: April 27, May 4, 2022
SINGAPORE  Singapore on Wednesday executed a Malaysian man convicted of drug smuggling after a court dismissed a last-minute challenge from his mother and international pleas to spare him on grounds he was mentally disabled.

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for over a decade after he was found guilty of trafficking about 43 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin into Singapore. The city-states government has said its use of the death penalty for drug crimes is made clear at the borders.

Nagaenthrans family and social activists confirmed the execution Wednesday.

On this score may I declare that Malaysia is far more humane, his sister, Sarmila Dharmalingam, said. Zero to Singapore on this.

Nagaenthrans supporters and lawyers said he had an IQ of 69 and was intellectually disabled, and that the execution of a mentally ill person was prohibited under international human rights law.

Singapore courts cited psychiatrists testimony that he was not mentally disabled and had understood his actions at the time of his crime.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingams name will go down in history as the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice, said Maya Foa, director of nongovernmental organization Reprieve.

Hanging an intellectually disabled, mentally unwell man because he was coerced into carrying less than three tablespoons of diamorphine is unjustifiable and a flagrant violation of international laws that Singapore has chosen to sign up to, she said.

Nagaenthran and his mother filed a motion Monday arguing that it was unconstitutional to proceed with his death sentence and that he may not have been given a fair trial because the chief justice who presided over his appeals had been the attorney general when Nagaenthran was convicted in 2010, which the filing alleged could be a conflict of interest.

The court dismissed the motion, describing it as frivolous.

His family said Nagaenthrans body will be brought to their hometown in Malaysias northern state of Perak for a funeral.

Singapore had halted executions for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming them with the execution of a drug trafficker in March.

Anyone found with over 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin faces the death sentence in Singapore, although it can be reduced to life in prison. Attempts to reduce Nagaenthrans sentence or obtain a presidential pardon failed.

Malaysias leader, European Union representatives and global figures such as British business magnate Richard Branson called for Nagaenthrans life to be spared and used the case to advocate for ending capital punishment.

Human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement that Nagaenthrans hanging highlights the deep flaws of the death penalty in Singapore and the horror of its continued use.

The execution of Nagaenthran is a disgraceful act by the Singapore government  ruthlessly carried out despite extensive protests in Singapore and Malaysia and an outcry across the world, said Amnesty Internationals Asia-Pacific regional director Erwin van der Borght.

According to activists, another Malaysian, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, is scheduled to be executed in Singapore on Friday. He was convicted of smuggling 45 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin from Malaysia. Singapore doesnt formally announce its hangings.

___

Ng reported from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
WASHINGTON  Russia and the United States have carried out an unexpected prisoner exchange in a time of high tensions, trading on Wednesday a Marine veteran jailed by Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America.

The deal involving Trevor Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace but it was all the more surprising because it was done as Russias war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

On the other end of the swap was Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot whod been serving a 20-year federal sentence for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.

Even as the Biden administration trumpeted the swap, it made clear the resolution did not herald a broader breakthrough between the countries. Russian forces remain determined in their assault on Ukraine, the U.S. and Western allies continue to impose punishing sanctions and other Americans, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, still remain jailed in Russia.

The swap, the culmination of longstanding requests by both countries as well as private diplomatic wrangling, took place in Turkey when the two planes pulled up side by side, essentially, and then they got out, said Reeds father, Joey.

I think its going to really hit home for him and for us when we finally get to see him and touch him, he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Reed, a 30-year-old former Marine from Texas, was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though the U.S. government has described him as unjustly detained and pressed for his release while his family has asserted his innocence and expressed concerns about his deteriorating health  which included coughing up blood and a hunger strike.

Even on Wednesday, his parents joy was mitigated by the concern they said they felt about his physical appearance. They were struck by his unsteady gait and how thin he looked as TV footage captured him walking, flanked by guards, from a van to the jet.

He just didnt sound like himself, said Reeds mother, Paula, recounting their brief phone conversation while he was on the plane. We just asked him how he was doing and he said, Im fine. But he always says that even when he isnt. And he just didnt sound like his normal self.

Reed was en route back to the U.S., traveling with Roger Cartsens, the U.S. governments special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

President Joe Biden, who met in Washington with Reeds parents last month, hailed Reeds release and noted without elaboration that the negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly. The Russian government also confirmed the deal, with the foreign ministry describing the exchange as the result of a long negotiation process.

A senior Biden administration official cautioned that the negotiations centered on a discrete set of prisoner issues and did not represent a change to the U.S. governments condemnation of Russias violence against Ukraine.

Where we can have discussions on issues of mutual interest we will try to talk to the Russians and have a constructive conversation without any way changing our approach to the appalling violence in Ukraine, the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the administration.

Yaroshenko, for his part, was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S on drug trafficking charges. The Justice Department has described him as an experienced international drug trafficker who conspired to distribute thousands of kilograms of cocaine around the world.

A lawyer for Yaroshenko, who in 2020 unsuccessfully sought to have his client freed on compassionate release because of the coronavirus pandemic, did not return an email seeking comment Wednesday.

Russia had sought Yaroshenkos return for years while also rejecting entreaties by high-level U.S. officials to release Reed, who was approaching his 1,000th day in custody after being convicted on what one U.S. official, Ambassador John Sullivan, decried as laughable evidence.

The prisoner swap was the most prominent release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad and came even as families of detainees who have met over the last year with administration officials had described the officials as cool to the idea of an exchange.

The U.S. government does not typically embrace such exchanges. It fears doing so might encourage foreign governments to take additional Americans as prisoners as a way to extract concessions. And it is concerned about a potential false equivalency between an unjustly detained American  which U.S. officials believe Reed was  and a properly convicted criminal.

In this case, though, the U.S. decided the deal made sense in part because Yaroshenko had already served a long portion of his prison sentence, which has now been commuted, a senior official told the AP on condition of anonymity.

In a statement, the Reed family thanked Biden, for making the decision to bring Trevor home, other administration officials, and Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The family said Richardson traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reeds release.

Reeds release had no immediate impact on the cases of other Americans held by Russia. Griner, for one, was detained in February after Russian authorities said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis. Whelan is being held on espionage-related charges his family says are bogus.

Biden said Wednesday we wont stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends. U.S. officials have described Whelan as unjustly detained but as yet have not characterized Griners case in those terms. Whelan was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison; Griner is awaiting trial.

At home in Texas, the Reeds had been given a general sense of progress and had even begun cleaning Trevors room in preparation for his return home, removing paperwork from his bed so hed have a place to sleep.

It was a welcome turnabout from a month ago when they were demonstrating outside the White House for their sons release, then pressing their case in a private meeting with Biden.

Weve been saying for over a year if we could just speak to the president, that we felt like we could make this thing happen  and thats exactly what happened, Joey Reed said.
WASHINGTON  House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy assured colleagues Wednesday he never asked then-President Donald Trump to resign over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, defending private conversations that have spilled into the open and jeopardized his leadership.

It was McCarthys first face-to-face meeting with House Republicans amid the fallout from his criticisms of Trump as well as the partys most far-right members, but its probably not the last time hell have to shore up his own standing as leader. In line to become House speaker if Republicans win control in the fall midterm election, McCarthy has treacherous months ahead.

For now, he received a standing ovation.

One Republican in the room said the meeting was cathartic for lawmakers. Another voiced confidence that McCarthy would be the next speaker.

Hes got the support of the conference and then some, Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., said as he left the private session at GOP headquarters across the street from the Capitol.

Yet amid the show of support, McCarthy was challenged by two of the partys most hard-right lawmakers  Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia  who said they felt particularly singled out by the leadership team over their fiery comments around Jan. 6. Trump ally Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., who helped organize challenges to the 2020 election results, also voiced concerns, another Republican said.

Gaetz, in an appearance on Tucker Carlsons Fox News Channel program Wednesday night, said of McCarthy, Its debasing for Republicans to give this guy a standing ovation.

The detractors are a political force among the Republicans, but they also appeared to be in a dwindling minority as rank-and-file lawmakers rallied around McCarthy, the man who recruited many of them to Congress and is now raising untold millions to win back the House.

You guys obsess over January 6. Nobody cares, Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., told a gaggle of reporters outside House GOP headquarters. Its history.

A California Republican long eyeing the speakers gavel, McCarthy is at a critical juncture as he works to ascend to the top leadership position. It will be his second try after a failed 2015 bid  but one now fully dependent on his volatile relationship with Trump, who still holds great influence over the party and can make and break careers.

New audio recordings released in recent days by The New York Times portray McCarthy as fed up with Trump in the aftermath of the Capitol attack, when the defeated president rallied his supporters to head to Congress and object to Democrat Joe Bidens election victory.

In the recordings, McCarthy is heard telling Republicans privately that he was considering asking Trump to resign. In another recording released late Tuesday, McCarthy warns that dangerous public commentary from Gaetz and others is putting people in jeopardy of potential violence.

McCarthy has denied The New York Times account of events, leading Democrats and others to call him a liar, as audio of the secretly recorded calls was released. The House committee investigating Jan. 6 is seeking an interview with him.

On Wednesday, McCarthy stood at party headquarters and defended his actions, suggesting he was merely running through possible scenarios as Democrats moved to impeach Trump in the aftermath of the violent siege.

In the GOP meeting, McCarthy clearly stated that he never asked the president to resign, the Republicans said. He has also publicly said he did not do so. The Times did not report that he asked Trump to resign, only that he told Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and other members he would.

As president, Trump had affectionately referred to McCarthy as My Kevin, one of his earliest endorsers, but their relationship has frayed over time. McCarthy momentarily turned on Trump as his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to disrupt certification of Bidens 2020 presidential win.

In the days after the riot, it seemed Republicans in Washington might part ways with Trump. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell gave blistering speeches against Trump, and McCarthys public and private conversations at that time show flashes of anger and the depth of angst over the shocking, devastating riot by Trump supporters.

But once Biden took office McCarthy quickly went to Trumps Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to patch things up with the defeated president.

Trump and McCarthy spoke last week, and the former president told the leader he was not mad about the disclosures.

To become speaker if Republicans win back the House, McCarthy would need to win at least 218 votes.

President Trump said their relationship has never been stronger. Thats good enough for me, said Roger Williams, R-Texas. Were totally supportive of Kevin McCarthy.

Hes got my support. Hes got everybody elses support, too, he said.

Still, Gaetz and other detractors remain a force McCarthy must contend with, much like the lawmakers six years ago who denied him backing to become speaker. He abruptly dropped out of the race.

Gaetz tweeted late Tuesday that the private comments from McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican leader, to Cheney and others are the behavior of weak men, not leaders.

Among past rivals for the speakers gavels, Scalise of Louisiana is no longer outwardly chasing McCarthy for the job, and has in fact become wrapped in the Jan. 6 fallout.

Scalise also faced questions Wednesday in the private meeting after the Times had reported that he joined McCarthy in raising concerns about Gaetzs public comments at the time, Republicans said.

Scalise said the call had been a private conversation, and no one had been accused of anything.

In a statement, Scalise said its pathetic that this is what the media chooses to cover. He said with inflation, crime and other issues, its obvious that Democrats and the media continue to double down on their obsession with January 6th to distract public attention from the absolutely dismal state of the country.

Yet other Republicans remained noncommittal about McCarthy. Asked if he still has the votes to be the party leader, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said, Time will tell.

From the Democratic side, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the caucus chairman who is also seen as a potential speaker candidate if Democrats retain control, dismissed the Republican strategy for winning back the House as nothing but lies.

Every day its a five-point playbook: Number one, lie. Number two, lie. Number three, lie. Number four, lie. Number five, lie again, he said.

Jeffries said it would be nice if, instead of the infighting, the chaos, the shots fired against each other, the knife fights in a phone booth that is the modern day House Republican Conference, that they would actually decide to work with us on issues of importance to the American people.

___

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Alan Fram and video journalist Rick Gentilo contributed to this report.
Syria crisis should not be neglected: UN envoy

Xinhua) 08:59, April 27, 2022

UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen (R, on the screen) speaks via a video link at a Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York, on April 26, 2022. Geir Pedersen warned Tuesday that the Syria crisis should not be neglected despite its absence from news headlines. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, April 26 (Xinhua) -- UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen warned Tuesday that the Syria crisis should not be neglected despite its absence from news headlines.

"Syria is a hot conflict, not a frozen one," he told the Security Council in a briefing.

"Therefore my message today is simple: focus on Syria. The current strategic stalemate on the ground and Syria's absence from the headlines should not mislead anyone into thinking that the conflict needs less attention or fewer resources, or that a political solution is not urgent," he said. "Indeed, a conflict of this scale requires a comprehensive political solution in line with Security Council Resolution 2254."

Airstrikes in the Northwest picked up again and there have been intensified clashes around Afrin and the Northeast, amid continued exchanges of rocket fire and shelling across all front lines, improvised explosive devices, car bombs and other security incidents, he said.

Terrorism is still a significant threat, with at least two listed terrorist groups carrying out operations or holding territory. It is worrying that Islamic State attacks are picking up once again, following a relative lull in February, he said.

Syria is still among the greatest humanitarian crises in the world. While the displacement in Ukraine is tragically catching up, Syria remains the biggest displacement crisis in the world, with 6.8 million refugees and 6.9 million internally displaced persons. Syrians across the country still face a devastating economic crisis after more than a decade of war and conflict, corruption, mismanagement, the Lebanese financial crisis, COVID-19, and sanctions -- and now the economic spillover of the Ukraine conflict, he said.

The World Food Programme notes that between 2019 and 2021, the price of basic food items increased by a staggering 800 percent. Syrians have been forced to ration energy products, or to choose between buying food, fuel or medicine. This economic predicament will only fuel the displacement crisis and humanitarian crisis, with knock-on effects for stability in the region and beyond, he warned.

"We can always do more to alleviate the worst effects of this crisis with humanitarian assistance and indeed we should continue to do so. But there are plainly also other steps that can be taken to address the various measures and dynamics, internal or external, that are contributing to this crisis," he said.

Many of the things that Syrians suffer from most are inherently political in nature. They require difficult steps by political actors, involving negotiations and give-and-take. They ultimately require a comprehensive implementation of all aspects of Security Council Resolution 2254, he said.

"We must remain focused on achieving a comprehensive political resolution to the conflict, in line with Resolution 2254, respecting the sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity of Syria, and enabling the Syrian people to realize their legitimate aspirations," said Pedersen.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
MANILA, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has refused the invitation of U.S. President Joe Biden to attend the summit between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next month.

In a taped meeting with some members of the Cabinet aired on Wednesday, Duterte said he received an invitation to attend an ASEAN "dialogue" with Biden, but there would be a newly elected Philippine president and the next administration may not like any "agreement" or "commitment" to be discussed in the meeting.

"It's not good to go there knowing we already have a new president," Duterte said.

On May 9, Filipinos will elect a new president to succeed Duterte, whose six-year term ends in June. Duterte was elected president in 2016. The Philippine constitution permits the president to serve a single six-year term.

The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs has not issued an official statement on who will attend the summit. Duterte never visited the United States during his term in office.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. 
A retired New York State Supreme Court Justice recommended a two-year suspension Wednesday for Bob Baffert for repeated medication violations after the two-time Triple Crown-winning trainers hearing with the New York Racing Association.

The 50-page ruling by hearing officer O. Peter Sherwood is not a final decision. Bafferts camp and NYRA each have 14 days to offer rebuttals before a three-person panel rules on his status.

NYRA met its burden with respect to all three of the charges against Baffert, Sherwood wrote in his opinion, referring to charges of conduct detrimental to the best interests of racing, the health and safety of horses and jockeys, and the organizations business operations. NYRA maintains (and the record shows) that Baffert has engaged in a pattern and practice of unlawful conduct that has no parallel in the modern history of thoroughbred racing.

The panels decision cannot be appealed through NYRAs process, which was developed last year after Baffert successfully sued in federal court to get his initial suspension in the state of New York lifted. That suspension in May came before the Belmont Stakes and after Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit tested positive for a substance that was not permitted in a horses system on race day.

Churchill Downs suspended Baffert for two years, leaving him unable to enter horses in the Kentucky Derby this year and next. Baffert is fighting that ban in federal court, and his legal team could also continue fighting any discipline imposed in New York.

Despite the fact that Bob has never had a single medication violation in New York, we expected this interim recommendation to the panel, which is not NYRAs final decision, attorney Clark Brewster said in a statement. We will contest this recommendation until we ultimately find a neutral, detached decision-maker that doesnt rubber stamp the NYRA lawyers demands.

NYRA declined additional comment, deferring to the report.

Baffert on April 3 began serving a 90-day suspension imposed by the state of Kentucky for medication violations. The suspension will be honored in all 38 states where horse racing occurs and would mean no Baffert-trained horses in the Preakness on May 21 or the Belmont on June 11.

He already has transferred horses to other trainers so they can run in the Derby on May 7.

Bafferts future at NYRAs three tracks  Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga Race Course  depends on the panels final decision.

If Saratoga attorney John J. Carusone, New York Thoroughbred Horsemens Association executive director Will Alempijevic and New York Race Track Chaplaincy of America leader the Rev. Humberto Chavez take up Sherwoods full recommendation, Baffert would be banned at NYRA tracks until summer 2024.

Medina Spirit tested positive for the corticosteroid betamethasone, which is not allowed in Kentucky on race day, and was later disqualified. The colt finished third in the Preakness two weeks after the Derby.

Medina Spirit collapsed and died in December in California. An exam found no definitive cause of death.

Baffert-trained Cruel Intention, Eclair, Charlatan, Gamine and Merneith also tested positive for a substance not allowed at that level on race day. Those violations occurred in California, Arkansas or Kentucky; none was in New York.

These banned substances had the capacity to affect their performance, Sherwood wrote.

Baffert, 69, is a Hall of Fame trainer who has become the face of the sport. He won the Triple Crown twice: in 2015 with American Pharoah and in 2018 with Justify.

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
BANGKOK  A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted former leader Aung San Suu Kyi of corruption and sentenced her to five years in prison Wednesday in the first of several corruption cases against her.

Suu Kyi, 76, who was ousted by an army takeover last year, has denied the allegation that she accepted gold and hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bribe from a top political colleague.

Her supporters and independent legal experts consider Suu Kyis prosecution an unjust attempt to discredit her and legitimize the militarys seizure of power while preventing her from returning to an active role in politics.

The daughter of Aung San, Myanmars founding father, Suu Kyi became a public figure in 1988 during a failed uprising against a previous military government when she helped found the National League for Democracy party. She spent 15 of the next 21 years under house arrest for leading a nonviolent struggle for democracy that earned her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. When the army allowed an election in 2015, her party won a landslide victory and she became the de facto head of state. Her party won a greater majority in the 2020 polls.

Suu Kyi is widely revered at home for her role in the countrys pro-democracy movement  and was long viewed abroad as an icon of that struggle, epitomized by her years under house arrest.

But she also has been heavily criticized for showing deference to the military while ignoring and, at times, even defending rights violations  most notably a 2017 crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that rights groups have labeled genocide. While she has disputed allegations that army personnel killed Rohingya civilians, torched houses and raped women and she remains immensely popular at home, that stance has tarnished her reputation abroad.

She has already been sentenced to six years imprisonment in other cases and faces 10 more corruption charges. The maximum punishment under the Anti-Corruption Act is 15 years in prison and a fine for each charge. Convictions in the other cases could bring sentences of more than 100 years in prison in total.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his appeal Tuesday for Myanmars military to release all political prisoners including Suu Kyi and his condemnation of the military takeover of the country on Feb. 1, 2021, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The U.N. chief also repeated his call for an immediate end to violence and repression in Myanmar and for respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines the principles of equality before the law, the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, and all the guarantees necessary for a persons defense, Haq said.

These are trumped-up charges, politically motivated, to keep her inside prison for such a long time and also are designed to keep her away from the political limelight, said Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, a Geneva-based activist with the pro-democracy group Burma Campaign UK. And Im sure the military is also thinking, by sentencing her, they are grabbing the hope away from people but, in reality, its doing completely the opposite because people havent lost hope. They are still standing up against the military.

Suu Kyis trial in the capital, Naypyitaw, was closed to the media, diplomats and spectators, and her lawyers were barred from speaking to the media. The evening newscast on state television confirmed the sentence.

Following the victory of Suu Kyis party in the 2020 general election, lawmakers were not allowed to take their seats when the army seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, arresting Suu Kyi and many senior colleagues in her party and government. The army said it acted because there had been massive electoral fraud, but independent election observers didnt find any major irregularities.

The takeover was met with large nonviolent protests nationwide which security forces quashed with lethal force, killing almost 1,800 civilians, according to a watchdog group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

As repression escalated, armed resistance against the military government grew, and some U.N. experts now characterize the country as being in a state of civil war.

Suu Kyi has not been seen or allowed to speak in public since she was detained and is being held in an undisclosed location. However, at last weeks final hearing in the case, she appeared to be in good health and asked her supporters to stay united, said a legal official familiar with the proceedings who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to release information.

In earlier cases, Suu Kyi was sentenced to six years imprisonment on charges of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, violating coronavirus restrictions and sedition.

In the case decided Wednesday, she was accused of receiving $600,000 and seven gold bars in 2017-18 from Phyo Min Thein, the former chief minister of Yangon, the countrys biggest city, and a senior member of her political party. Her lawyers, before they were served with gag orders late last year, said she rejected all his testimony against her as absurd.

The nine other cases currently being tried under the Anti-Corruption Act include several related to the purchase and rental of a helicopter by one of her former Cabinet ministers.

Suu Kyi is also charged with diverting money meant as charitable donations to build a residence, and with misusing her position to obtain rental properties at lower-than-market prices for a foundation named after her mother. The state Anti-Corruption Commission has declared that several of her alleged actions deprived the state of revenue it would otherwise have earned.

Another corruption charge alleging that she accepted a bribe has not yet gone to trial.

Suu Kyi is also being tried on a charge of violating the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, and on a charge alleging election fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of three years.

The days of Aung San Suu Kyi as a free woman are effectively over. Myanmars junta and the countrys kangaroo courts are walking in lockstep to put Aung San Suu Kyi away for what could ultimately be the equivalent of a life sentence, given her advanced age, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. Destroying popular democracy in Myanmar also means getting rid of Aung San Suu Kyi, and the junta is leaving nothing to chance.
PROVIDENCE, R.I.  Three days before Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter, the worlds richest man tweeted a photo of Bill Gates and used a crude term to make fun of his belly.

Playful, aggressive and often juvenile, Musks past tweets show how he has used social media to craft his public image as a brash billionaire unafraid to offend. They may also reveal clues as to how Musk will govern the platform he hopes to own.

Look at the feed: Its all over the place. Its erratic. At times its pretty extreme, said Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University professor who studies social media and who recently assigned Musks tweets as reading material for their students. It paints him as some sort of rebel leader who will take control of the public square to save it. That is a myth he has constructed.

Musk joined Twitter in 2009 and now has more than 85 million followers  the seventh most of any account and the highest for any business leader. He had mused about buying the site before he agreed on Monday to pay $44 billion for Twitter, which he said he hopes to turn into a haven where all speech is allowed.

I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means, Musk wrote in a tweet.

As the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk uses his Twitter account to make business announcements and promote his enterprises. He muses about technology and trade, but has also posted jokes about womens breasts and once compared Canadas prime minister to Hitler. He regularly weighs in on global events, as he did in March 2020 when he tweeted that The coronavirus pandemic is dumb.

On Tuesday Musk used Twitter to criticize one of the platforms top executives and an attorney, in one case in a reply to a far-right activist who promoted the discredited conspiracy theory that pizza parlors around the U.S. were being used to traffic children.

Musks tweets were followed by a wave of harassment by other accounts that targeted both individuals. For Vijaya Gadde, an 11-year Twitter employee who heads up the companys legal, policy and trust divisions, the harassment included racist and misogynistic attacks, in addition to calls for Musk to fire her.

Musk has long used the megaphone of his Twitter account to punch back at critics or people he opposes, such as when he attacked a diver working to rescue boys trapped in a cave in Thailand by calling him a pedo, short for pedophile. The diver had previously mocked Musks proposal to use a sub to rescue the boys. Musk, who won a defamation suit filed by the diver, later said he never intended pedo to be interpreted as pedophile.

A few years ago, after software engineer Cher Scarlett criticized Musks handling of the cave incident, the tech billionaire fired back and she was soon being harassed by dozens of Musks online fans. He later deleted the posts, but not before Scarlett had to lock down her account because she was receiving so many hateful messages.

Its ironic to me that somebody who claims they want to buy Twitter to protect free speech has such thin skin, she said. Hes a very smart man, and when he replies to people that criticize him, he knows what hes doing. To me thats not championing free speech, its weaponizing free speech, and I think thats what hell do owning this platform.

Nineteen-year-old Jack Sweeney got Musks attention when he created an automated Twitter account that tracked the movements of Musks jet. Musk responded by offering Sweeney $5,000 to pull the account. When Sweeney refused, Musk blocked him on Twitter.

Sweeney said hes worried he may get kicked off the site entirely if Musks takeover is approved. But he said he likes Musks free speech absolutism, and hopes he sees it through.

Hell make it more open, and I think thats a good thing, Sweeney said.

Musks use of Twitter has also led to problems for his own companies. In one August 2018 tweet, for instance, Musk asserted that he had the funding to take Tesla private for $420 a share, although a court has ruled that it wasnt true. That led to an SEC investigation that Musk is still fighting.

More recently, Musk appeared to have violated SEC rules that required him to disclose that hed acquired a 5% stake in Twitter; instead he waited until he had more than 9%. Experts say these issues arent likely to affect his Twitter acquisition.

Last year another federal agency, the National Labor Relations Board, ordered Musk to delete a tweet that officials said illegally threatened to cut stock options for Tesla employees who joined the United Auto Workers union.

Those tweets helped cement Musks reputation as a brash outsider, a workingmans billionaire, Grygiel said. But that doesnt mean he is equipped to run a social media platform with more than 200 million users, the professor added.

Maybe he wants to burn it down, Grygiel said. I dont know. But I do know that it shows that no one person should have this kind of power.

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This story has been corrected to note that Musk joined Twitter in 2009, not 2010.
DETROIT  A federal judge has rejected Elon Musks bid to throw out a securities fraud settlement over tweets claiming that Musk had the funding to take Tesla private in 2018.

Judge Lewis Liman on Wednesday also denied a motion to nullify a subpoena of Musk seeking information about possible violations of his settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Musk had asked the Manhattan federal court to scrap the settlement, which required that his tweets be approved by a Tesla attorney before being published. The SEC is investigating whether the Tesla CEO violated the settlement with tweets last November asking Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. Limons ruling said that Musk made the tweets without getting pre-approval.

The whole dispute stems from an October 2018 agreement with the SEC that Musk signed. He and Tesla each agreed to pay $20 million in civil fines over Musks tweets about having the funding secured to take Tesla private at $420 per share.

The funding was far from locked up, and the electric vehicle company remains public, but Teslas stock price jumped. The settlement specified governance changes, including Musks ouster as board chairman, as well as pre-approval of his tweets.

Limons ruling clears the way for the SEC to seek a court order enforcing the subpoena, and for an investigation into another possible violation of the settlement by Musk.

Musk attorney Alex Spiro contended the SEC is using the settlement and near limitless resources to chill Musks speech. He wrote in court documents that Musk signed the settlement when Tesla was a less mature company and SEC action jeopardized the companys financing at a critical time.

He also alleged that the subpoena from the SEC is illegal, and that the agency cant take action about Musks tweets without court authorization.

But in a 22-page ruling, Liman wrote that Musks claim that economic duress caused him to sign the settlement is wholly unpersuasive.

Even if Musk was worried that litigation with the SEC would ruin Tesla financially, that does not establish a basis for him to get out of the judgment he voluntarily signed, Liman wrote.

The judge also said the argument that the SEC had used the settlement order to harass Musk and launch investigations was meritless.

Musk could hardly have thought that at the time he entered the decree (settlement) he would have been immune from non-public SEC investigations, Liman wrote. It is unsurprising that when Musk tweeted that he was thinking about selling 10% of his interest in Tesla  that the SEC would have some questions.

Now the SEC could ask Liman to enforce the subpoena, which Liman wrote is the proper legal forum for Musk to challenge it. In the settlement, Musk also agreed not to deny the SECs allegations in the 2018 securities fraud complaint. The SEC also could investigate Musks recent denials.

Musk has contended in a recent interview that he did indeed have the funding lined up in 2018. But a judge in a separate case ruled that his tweets about that were false.

An SEC spokesman didnt respond to a message asking whether it would try to enforce the subpoena. A message was left Wednesday seeking comment from Spiro about whether Musk will appeal Limans order.

Liman wrote in his ruling that the funding secured tweet allegedly was false. Musk had not discussed specific deal terms with any potential financing partners, and he knew the potential transaction was uncertain and subject to numerous contingencies, Liman wrote.

He also agreed with the SEC that Congress gave it broad powers to investigate if someone has violated federal securities laws. Musk may wish it were otherwise, but he remains subject to the same enforcement authority  and has the same means to challenge the exercise of that authority  as any other citizen, Liman wrote.
WASHINGTON  A veritable whos who of Washingtons political and foreign policy elite gathered Wednesday to pay their last respects to the late Madeleine Albright, a child of conflict-ravaged Europe who arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year old girl and became Americas first female secretary of state.

The trailblazing diplomat and champion of her adopted country as the worlds indispensable nation was joyously remembered by President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton as a no-nonsense, valued adviser who did not suffer fools or tyrants and was most concerned about Russias war with Ukraine when she died last month of cancer at 84.

Biden said Albrights name was synonymous with the idea that America is a force for good in the world.

In the 20th and 21st century, freedom had no greater champion than Madeleine Korbel Albright, he said. Today we honor a truly proud American who made all of us prouder to be Americans.

He said he had learned of Albrights death while flying to Brussels for an emergency NATO summit on Ukraine and was struck by the memory of her key role in pressing for the expansion of the alliance in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union to protect Europe from a repeat of the carnage of World War II and the Cold War ideological battle between communism and democracy.

And Clinton, the man who appointed her first as his U.N. ambassador in 1993 and then as secretary of state in 1996, said his last conversation with Albright just weeks before her passing were dominated by the situation in Ukraine and her fears about the future of democracy at home and abroad.

He recalled that Albright didnt want to talk about her declining health at a moment when the West is on edge following Russias invasion of Ukraine. Albright, Clinton recalled, assured him that she was getting the best care she could, but didnt want to waste time talking about that.

The only thing that really matters is what kind of world were going to leave to our grandchildren, Clinton recalled Albright told him. He added, She made a decision with her last breath she would go out with her boots on.

Biden and Clinton, along with former President Barack Obama and several of Albrights successors as secretary of state, including Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, John Kerry and current office-holder Antony Blinken, were some 1,400 mourners who attended the funeral at Washingtons National Cathedral.

The service was punctuated at points by tears, laughter and applause during reminiscences from Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Albrights three daughters, Anne, Alice and Katharine, who remembered her as a doting mom and Granny Maddy to their own children even amid a hectic work schedule that often took her around the world.

That schedule didnt let up when she left government service in 2001 and returned to teaching at Georgetown University, started a successful international consulting company, served on the boards of numerous womens and human rights groups and became a best-selling author.

Hillary Clinton recalled stories that she had lobbied for Albright to serve as secretary of state, a role that Clinton would serve in herself during the Obama administration. Its been said that I urged my husband to nominate her as our first female secretary of state, she said. Unlike much thats said, this story was true.

The two developed a strong friendship over the years. and Hillary Clinton recalled a pair of stories about her and Albright on visits overseas during which they bonded.

Once on a walk in a drenching rainstorm in the Czech capital of Prague, Clinton said they laughed so hard they forgot they were wet. On another occasion in Beijing, Clinton recalled that she and Albright had marched through mud in a torrential downpour and confronted Chinese security forces to meet womens rights activists.

Clinton in her own tribute recalled some lighter memories of Albright, including the time she taught the foreign minister of Botswana the Macarena and danced the night away with a young, handsome man at her daughter Chelseas wedding. She also remembered Albright as a fearless diplomat that broke barriers and then counseled, cajoled and inspired women to follow in her footsteps.

The angels better be wearing their best pins and putting on their dancing shoes, Clinton said. Because if as Madeleine believed theres a special place in hell for women who dont support other women, they havent seen anyone like her yet.

On the eve of Russias invasion of Ukraine and one month before her death, The New York Times printed what would be Albrights last published writing. She wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion would be a historic error that would cement his legacy as one of infamy. Until the end, she was still in a hurry to do good, Clinton said.

Other top current officials who attended the service included Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA Director Bill Burns, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Mark Milley and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The members of the VIP audience were masked, as Albrights family had requested.

Foreign dignitaries invited to the funeral included the presidents of Georgia and Kosovo and senior officials from Colombia, Bosnia and the Czech Republic.

Albright was born in what was then Czechoslovakia, but her family fled twice, first from the Nazis and then from Soviet rule. They ended up in the United States, where she studied at Wellesley College and rose through the ranks of Democratic Party foreign policy circles to become ambassador to the United Nations. Bill Clinton selected her as secretary of state in 1996 for his second term.

Although never in line for the presidency because of her foreign birth, Albright was near universally admired for breaking a glass ceiling, even by her political detractors. Several senior Republican lawmakers, including Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, attended the service.

As a Czech refugee who saw the horrors of both Nazi Germany and the Iron Curtain, she was not a dove. She played a leading role in pressing for the Clinton administration to get involved militarily in the conflict in Kosovo. My mindset is Munich, she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.

As secretary of state, Albright played a key role in persuading Clinton to go to war against the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic over his treatment of Kosovar Albanians in 1999. As U.N. ambassador, she advocated a tough U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the case of Milosevics treatment of Bosnia. NATOs intervention in Kosovo was eventually dubbed Madeleines War.

She also took a hard line on Cuba, famously saying at the United Nations that the 1996 Cuban shootdown of a civilian plane was not cojones but rather cowardice.

Bill Clinton recalled the moment in his tribute, remembering that Albright faced criticism at the time that the sharp barb was undiplomatic and unladylike. He absolutely loved it.

I called her and I said  This is the best line developed and delivered by anybody in this administration, Clinton said.

In 2012, Obama awarded Albright the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, saying her life was an inspiration to all Americans.

Born Marie Jana Korbel in Prague on May 15, 1937, she was the daughter of a diplomat, Joseph Korbel. The family was Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism when she was 5. Three of her Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps.

Albright was an internationalist whose point of view was shaped in part by her background. Her family fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 as the Nazis took over their country, and she spent the war years in London.

After the war, as the Soviet Union took over vast chunks of Eastern Europe, her father brought the family to the United States. They settled in Denver, where her father taught at the University of Denver. One of Korbels best students was Condoleezza Rice, who would later succeed his daughter as secretary of state.

Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959. She worked as a journalist and later studied international relations at Columbia University, where she earned a masters degree in 1968 and a Ph.D. in 1976. She then entered politics and what was at the time the male-dominated world of foreign policy professionals.
Video meetings dampen brainstorming because we are so hyper-focused on the face in that box that we dont let our eyes and minds wander as much, a new study found.

Staring isnt good for creativity. While its rude to stare at someone in real life, its expected when on a video call, researchers said.

When it comes to evaluating those new ideas, though, that focus, at least in one-on-one chats, seems to make remote meetings slightly better than in-person chats, Wednesdays study in the journal Nature said.

Researchers watched 745 pairs of engineers in five different countries try to come up with creative ideas for using a Frisbee or bubble wrap. Those in the same room generated on average one more idea, which is about 17% more than those in remote meetings. And those in-person ideas were judged by outside experts to be more creative, the study found.

Study author Melanie Brucks, an applied psychology professor at Columbia Universitys business school, said it was the outcome she expected  but not the reason she expected.

At first she figured it had to be the social and physical distance  maybe the two people just didnt connect as well or people didnt know who speaks when. But several different tests for social connectedness found that the remote meeting pairs were connecting with each other in the same way as people in the same room.

Then the eyes gave it away. When Brucks tracked eye movement she found that people in the same room gazed away more often, looked around. But the remote meeting pairs didnt.

They were too focused on specifically the task at hand and that made them narrower in their thinking, Brucks said  in an interview over Zoom.

This makes sense because faces draw our focus, said Georgetown University psychology professor Adam Green, who wasnt part of the research.

Faces really matter to our brains and we devote a lot of attention to looking at faces, said Green, president of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity. When we are with someone in person, it is not considered polite to stare directly at their face for an extended period of time.

Remote meetings work otherwise, Brucks said.

Its not that Zooms bad, everythings worse. It seems like (the problem) is unique to the more generative, creative process, Brucks said.

When it was time to evaluate those options, the remote meeting engineers picked out the better choice  as judged by a team of outside experts  slightly more than those in person, the study found.

The experiment started before the pandemic and was done using WebEx with one company in offices in Portugal, Israel, Finland, Hungary and India. The results were about the same across the different locations.

When I brainstorm now on Zoom, I turn off my camera, Brucks said. She notes thats no different than talking on the telephone, except she establishes a personal connection by starting with the camera on.

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: @borenbears

___

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.
Boeings CEO is lamenting the deal that his company cut with former President Donald Trump to produce new Air Force One jets.

David Calhoun said it was a public negotiation and we took some risks in accepting a fixed-price contract that made Boeing responsible if it cost more than expected to convert two Boeing 747 jumbo jets into presidential planes.

Air Force One Im just going to call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation, a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably should not have taken, Calhoun said Wednesday, but we are where we are, and were going to deliver great airplanes.

Calhoun commented on the planes when an analyst asked him about the matter during a call to discuss Boeings first-quarter earnings results. The company lost $1.2 billion and took a $660 million write-down for Air Force One.

Calhoun was on the board but he was not CEO when Boeing agreed to the $3.9 billion deal with the White House in 2018, and when it took a fixed-cost contract to build a new military training jet, which Boeing just wrote down by $367 million.

Yes, they were written off the day we took them, knowing that we would be investing a fair amount of our own money in the planes, Calhoun said.

Back in 2018, Boeing tweeted that it was proud to build the next generation of Air Force One, providing American presidents with a flying White House at outstanding value to taxpayers. The Trump White House said the deal would save taxpayers more than $1.4 billion.

The jets are being outfitted with advanced communications equipment, work spaces, sleeping areas and other features that make it a flying office for the president. The work is taking place in San Antonio, Texas.

Boeing sued a subcontractor that it blamed for delays last year. On Wednesday, Boeing officials said the pandemic and supply-chain issues have also slowed the work.

Its unclear what the planes will look like. Trump took a keen interest in the planes and even promoted his own paint job which is still displayed on Boeings website. However, many purists have called for keeping the current livery, which dates to the time of President John F. Kennedy. Air Force officials said last fall that no decision had been made.

Boeing promised to deliver the planes by December 2024 under a contract negotiated by then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who was fired in late 2019 in the fallout from two deadly crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets. Calhoun said he doesnt want any more fixed-price contracts.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  For the first time, New Mexicos independent voters this year can show up at the polls in a primary election and cast a ballot.

But theres a catch: They will have to register with a major party before accepting the ballot.

Its a small step intended to address the growing number of voters who register without a party affiliation  some of whom show up at the polls without realizing they cant vote in the primary.

The more participation we have in our democracy, the better, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, New Mexicos chief elections officer, said Wednesday in a news conference.

Lawmakers authorized the change in 2020, but this years primary election will be the first allowing voters to take advantage of the new rule.

Its part of a broader policy shift allowing same-day voter registration in New Mexico.

Under the new law, voters who are independent or a member of a minor political party may change their registration at the polls and receive a ballot for the major party of their choice.

The old system closed the voter rolls four weeks before Election Day.

Bob Perls. a former state legislator and U.S. diplomat, described the change as a baby step toward opening up New Mexicos primary elections to a broader group of voters.

He said he hopes the change will prompt candidates to design their campaigns to reach voters beyond their partys base  especially important in a state like New Mexico where some candidates face opposition only in the primary, not in the general election.

Its an incentive, Perls said, for all candidates to listen to all voters all the time.

Disenchanted

The number of voters in New Mexico registered as decline to state  the designation for independents  has shot up 26% over the last eight years, or about five times as fast as the voting rolls overall.

The state had 239,000 independents in 2014, for example, compared with 302,000 this year. About 1.3 million people are registered to vote overall, growth of a little over 5% since 2014.

In an interview, Brian Sanderoff, a political analyst and president of Research & Polling Inc., said independents are disproportionately younger than Democratic and Republican voters.

They also tend to turn out at a lower rate in general elections, he said.

Younger adults are more disenchanted with the major parties  the Democrats and Republicans  and theyre more likely to register as independent of those major parties, Sanderoff said.

Their numbers have shot up dramatically. In 1990, independents made up 8% of New Mexicos registered voters, Sanderoff said.

The potential impact of the new law, he said, will depend on whether campaigns  either candidates or outside groups  target unaffiliated voters and try to persuade them to cast ballots in the primary.

Not only would independent voters have to be motivated to show up, Sanderoff said, but theyd have to be willing to fill out the paperwork at the polls to change their affiliation  a process election workers say takes five to 10 minutes.

Frankly, I suspect most independents arent even aware of this change, Sanderoff said.

Nevertheless, they make up a significant part of the potential electorate.

About 23% of New Mexicos voters are unaffiliated, and another 1% are registered with minor parties. About 45% of the states voters are Democrats, 31% are Republicans and 1% are Libertarians. (The figures dont add up to 100% because of rounding.)

ID required

The new law comes with some limits.

Independents, for example, wont be able to mail in absentee ballots during the primary.

The ability to register with a party and immediately cast a ballot, however, will be available at Election Day voting locations and at every county clerks office during early voting.

The availability varies at satellite early voting places. In Bernalillo, Santa Fe and Dona Ana counties, the registration option will be available at all early voting locations.

But in some counties, it may be available at only some early voting places.

To use the same-day registration system, a resident must bring a New Mexico drivers license or ID card issued through the state Motor Vehicle Division or a similar document with a photo verifying their identity and address.

Voters who want to switch back to independent after the primary can go to nmvote.org after casting a ballot to update their registration.

The primary election is June 7. Absentee voting begins May 10, and expanded early voting begins May 21.

Toulouse Oliver said the change will be meaningful given that every primary election draws some would-be voters who arent eligible to participate because theyre not registered with a major party.

Sometimes, she said, theyre not even aware they never registered with a party and are disappointed to learn their voice wont be heard.

As an election administrator, that is one of the most heartbreaking things I ever have to do, she said.
Cheil Worldwide announces the appointment of Carlos Limseob Chung as the new Managing Director for Cheil South West Asia Region. Mr. Chung was formerly the Head of Omni-channel Business Team in Cheil HQ for three years. He comes with over 22 years of multi-disciplinary experience, and has spent the last 12 years in Cheil. Carlos Limseob Chung replaces Will Jin as part of routine reshuffle. Mr. Jin is back in Cheil Headquarters at Seoul to take on the position of Head of Korea Business.

Carlos Limseob Chung joined Cheil Worldwide in 2009 and went on to become an Executive in 2022 and then became the new Managing Director for Cheil South West Asia Region.

He specializes in Retail, Commerce and O2O solutions and has recently led the setup of Samsung Electronics D2C business strategy globally as part of his stint in Cheil HQ.

He has also served as the Head of Retail Business in Cheil India for six and half years from 2012 till 2018, which gives him a deep understanding of the Indian market and its customers which will enhance business growth in the Indian market not only for Samsung business but also beyond.

Speaking on his appointment, Mr. Carlos Limseob Chung, Managing Director Cheil SWA said, India being the most dynamic market in the world is considered to have great potential in becoming a Global Hub for Cheil Worldwide.

Our businesses are changing. And so are the expectations that clients have from their Agencies. This is changing the advertising businesses globally. Clients no longer look towards the advertising agency for communication solutions alone. They expect us to be their business partners and help drive their business together. This is really huge and for us to deliver on this we need to change.

And while we continue to fortify our relevance for Samsung, we are planning to invest aggressively in India to focus on growing our Non-Samsung portfolio along with Experience Commerce.
Chingari, Indias renowned short video app has collaborated with Readers Books Club, a summary YouTube channel for books, to provide its users with a unique experience of acquiring knowledge through the short video app. The prime thought behind Chingari and Readers Books Club coming together is to share the knowledge of books on social media which is a rare concept but a much needed one. The GenZ today must be provided access to the world of books on a social media platform that is widely used across the country.

Speaking on the collaboration, Sumit Ghosh, CEO & Co-Founder, Chingari, said, The young and zealous users on our platform adapt fast to the world of social media and are aggressively involved in creating and consuming content. With our collaboration with Readers Books Club, our aim is to open the world of books to these young minds so that they can learn about different sectors and niches.

Readers Books Club was founded in 2019 and within a short span of time the platform has 1.26 M+ YouTube subscribers, which speaks volumes of its popularity and the quality of content that it creates for the audience. Amit Kumarr, Founder, Readers Books Club has worked for corporate for over 15 Years, in the field of IT, Corporate Training, NLP & Law of Attraction workshops. So far he has conducted over 250 training sessions thereby expanding the family of subscribers at Readers Books Club. Excited about the tie up with Chingari, Amit said, We are really excited for this collaboration, as Chingari is the exact platform, which people are looking for, owing to the presence of a robust short video format, which is the new trend across all platforms. I think this is an opportunity, where we will be able to connect to millions of people and share all the knowledge, lessons and learning from 1000s of books from Inspiration, motivation to leadership to mythology to spirituality to habits to success principles and what not.

This collaboration will be an opportunity for the social media app users to gain an opportunity to discover some amazing books which can help them to be successful in life, helping them learn and grow. In todays busiest world people are so busy in their own lives that they forget to give some time for their personal learning. The content created by Readers Books Club on Chingari will help the users in gaining knowledge in an exciting and easy to understand format.

With this collaboration both Chingari and Readers Books Club aim at improving the knowledge and book reading habits amongst the audiences. While the users will not directly read books, it will bring them closer to the world of books which has innumerable advantages for them and their growth.
Indore-based startup, GoPaani, has raised $600K seed funding from investors such as 3one4 Capital, PointOne Capital, and a host of angel investors including Mukund Jha (Dunzo co-founder) among others.

Founded by childhood friends Ankit Ranka and Arpit Sharda, GoPaani is a one-step solution for every daily water service provider to manage their business in a hassle-free way. GoPaani aims to be a complete app-based solution for daily delivery businesses in India. Starting with water jar suppliers, this app allows businesses to keep track of product inventory from dispatch, delivery, collection and unloading. Employees of these businesses get their app login to make delivery entries, and the business admin can track and generate real-time reports on employees work. Customers are also able to keep track of deliveries, make bill payments, give star ratings to deliveries, order additional products and message business owners - this brings transparency and improves customer experience.

The seed funding round saw participation from the leadership team of 3one4 Capital and PointOne Capital. Angel investors include Mukund Jha (Dunzo Co-founder), 6 Columbia University Alumni - Rohit Gupta (CEO, Dream Game Studios), Sharath Gururaj (India Head, Cermati.com), Devendra Laulkar (Co-founder, Avoma) and others, Satish Thakur (AVP, Swiggy) and two US-based investors Dan Clay Ellis (Founder, RallyTeam) and Kaushal Lahankar (Head of Machine Learning, S&P Global).

Ankit Ranka, Co-founder, GoPaani said, We started GoPaani to solve the problems faced by over 1.2 million water delivery businesses in India like product loss, billing issues, poor customer service. We have seen adoption with other delivery businesses facing similar problems like milk and tiffin delivery. With GoPaani already present in 15 states across India and 8 different languages, we plan to focus on water delivery businesses and build the product for a wider set of delivery businesses starting next year.

As more and more Indians increasingly use digital tools, many small businesses and vendors continue to operate offline. These businesses primarily operate within a radius of 5-8 km and calculate inventory and sales in traditional ways by maintaining ledgers on paper  which are both time-consuming and prone to causing loss.

GoPaani is trying to change that by equipping these small businesses with a suite of products to digitize their journals and manage their expenses and staff.

Arpit Sharda, Co-founder, GoPaani said, Before GoPaani, I was into plastic sourcing, manufacturing and trading for over 8 years. I saw the pain points of delivery businesses such as water, milk suppliers very closely and every now and then got requests for technology help from these businesses. When I discussed this with Ankit, we decided to launch a digital representation of the daily sheets that these businesses carry - that was the starting point for us. From there on, we kept on building what our customers needed.

As per studies, there are over 20 million daily delivery businesses in India - water, milk, vegetable, newspaper, gas cylinder, tiffin, laundry, catering, B2B delivery etc. From a Software subscription perspective it's a USD 2.3 billion yearly market.

Anurag Ramdasan, Partner, 3one4 Capital mentioned, GoPaani is having a significant impact on Water Jar delivery or daily delivery business in general. Daily delivery businesses serve billions of customers every day but still rely on pen and paper for collections and inventory management which results in inefficiency and pilferages. We are excited to partner with Ankit and Arpit who have shown great understanding of the problem statement as evident from their product execution skills.

As of now, GoPaani has started with its initial network of water suppliers contacts in central India and used existing online listings to reach a more comprehensive network all over the country. In addition, they have connected with water suppliers from every region by becoming a part of their WhatsApp groups, which has helped them reach many customers at once.
Indias largest D2C Unicorn, Licious announced today that it has invested $1mn in a Bengaluru-based fresh pet food startup, Pawfectly Made. Pawfectly Made will continue to function as a separate entity with its own production processes and supply chain, as Licious comes in as a strategic partner leveraging their rich & nuanced understanding of the fresh animal protein sector to guide & scale Pawfectly Made faster.

The fresh pet food segment in India is at an inflection point, driving both Indian & international players to introduce their variegated product offerings to a fast-expanding user base. According to *TechSci Research, the Indian pet food market is growing at a CAGR of 18% and expected to reach $642 million by 2022 end. In spite of the growth opportunity that the industry provides, the pet food sector in India has restricted choices and customers have to be largely dependent on pre-packaged processed food. Pawfectly Made disrupted this status quo by introducing customizable fresh pet-food made with high-quality ingredients allowing convenient options for pet-parents to choose from. As a brand built on the tenets of uncompromised quality & freshness, Licious is passionate about delivering the best in product & experience to their customers. The company also firmly believes that India deserves better meat & has been working tirelessly towards transforming the meats & seafood industry through significant interventions in supply chain and technology, developing better products & experience while improving industry benchmarks. Licious sees a strong synergy with Pawfectly Made when it comes to offering high quality fresh products & elevated meaty experience to customers.

Speaking about the development, Nichelle Kamat, VP Category, Licious, said, "We at Licious have always been committed to building a brand synonymous with freshness and quality in meats & seafood by bolstering the industry with global standards of sourcing, supply chain and technology. We are equally enthused by business ideas that are adjacent and complementary to our vision of building Licious as the Everything-Meat Brand. Pawfectly Made is a good strategic fit for us given the shared vision and synergies across the value chain. The investment will give us access to a unique consumer play and product portfolio that will complement our existing infrastructure.

Since its inception in 2015, Licious has adopted 100% traceable and sustainable sourcing practices, creating quality benchmarks for the industry. The Bengaluru-based brand is also the largest D2C brand from India to be certified with FSSC22000, one of the highest food safety certifications in the world. Rooted in a sustainability mission, Licious is also the first company in the segment to take a pledge towards achieving complete ESG compliance.
With an action-packed, mind-bending and globetrotting drama, Disney+ Hotstar is all set to launch an original live-action series Marvel Studios Moon Knight. Directed by Mohamed Diab and filmmaking duo Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, the series is laden with Egyptian mythology and iconography that feature a new genre of an MCU hero who is vengeful and complex. With its darker, mature themes, the series pushes the boundaries of the ever-evolving MCU storytelling with an intense, mysterious and thematically edgy series of events. Starring Golden Globe winner Oscar Isaac as the lead, it also features Ethan Hawke, May Calamawy and others. As the legacy of Marvel Studios gets carried forward with its latest series, discover these behind-the-scenes actions that went into bringing the show alive on screen.

Watch the newest Marvel Studios character on Disney+ Hotstar in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.

Consultations with Egyptian archaeologists for an engrossing script

Marvel Studios made sure the writers room was stocked with research material to help Head writer, Jeremy Slater and his team. The team was regularly visited by an Egyptian archaeologist to get the right references to Egyptian culture and symbolism.

Marvel Studios first Arabian director

One of the directors of Marvel Studios Moon Knight, Mohamed Diab, is a talented Egyptian auteur, and is the first Arab director to direct a Marvel project.

Using experts to portray mental health themes accurately

For Marvel Studios Moon Knight, filmmakers got on board Dr Paul Puri, a board-certified psychiatrist, who is an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCLA and past president of the UCLA Psychiatric Clinical Faculty Association. Dr Puri consulted on the aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder to help both the actors and the filmmakers understand the disorder and its implications.

Consultations with Egyptologists for production design

Production Designer Stefania Cella was adamant about reflecting ancient Egypt with as much precision as possible in the series sets. This led her to work collaboratively with two Egyptologists and an Egyptian supervising art director to make sure her designs authentically represented Egypt.

Building large-scale realistic sets in Budapest

The production team built large-scale sets on soundstages at Origo Studios in Budapest, Hungary. The Origo Studios features 10 stages (8 soundstages, 2 VFX/multimedia stages) totalling 195,000 square feet and 10 acres of the backlot. With Hungary being a hub for filming period pieces, the team had ready access to several field-specific experts who specialized in, for example, ancient statuary, pottery and hieroglyphics.

It took three months to build the statues of Egyptian deities

Designed following the Egyptologist's specifications and Marvels brief, the assiduous attention to detail of Stefania Cellas designs meant that the construction of the sets was a massive undertaking. It took a team of sculptors, brought in from Stefania Cellas native Italy, three months just to create the statues of the Egyptian deities that stand in the Chamber of the Gods, where much of the series action takes place. The Chamber itself was built on a huge 47,074 square-foot soundstage that was a height of almost three stories and was decorated with yellow hieroglyphs related to divinity.

Set designed to reflect duality and identity

Stefania Cella designed the set to symbolically represent Steven Grant as well. Her use of water on the set, and of similarly reflective surfaces in some of the other sets, recalls the series themes of duality and identity.

An entire Egyptian exhibit was made from scratch

The museum scenes in the series required the team to create an entire Egyptian exhibit from scratch. The preparation and construction of this took the art department months to complete, filling the hall with hand-built columns, displays of the teams curation and even a brand-new and fully stocked gift shop.

Recreating Brixton in Budapest

To recreate the street scenes of Brixton, a market street in Budapest was remodelled by changing signs. A curved street to match the one in Brixton was found and set designers dressed a restaurant to reflect Soho.

Dressing Arthur Harrow as a cult leader

Arthur Harrows look was inspired by cult leaders of the past and is simple, classic and elegant. The robe is made from linen fabric with a rust colour to show a richness against the sand colours and the neutral London colours. The costume is monk-like to give it a more worldly, international feel, complete with oversized woven sandals reflecting what a monk would wear. Harrow wears two bracelets with symbolism from ancient Egyptian art that represents death.

Tune into Disney+ Hotstar 30th March onwards to witness Marc Spector embrace the chaos in Marvel Studios Moon Knight
Veet, the world leader in depilatory products, launched its new campaign with brand ambassador Katrina Kaif today. The campaign focuses on equipping and catering to the needs of the modern, multifaceted, young women of today with Veets Cold Wax Strips.

Directed by popular filmmaker Punit Malhotra, the campaign The Better Way to Wax speaks to women seeking quick and effective hair removal solutions during peak summer months. Veet Cold Wax Strips have quickly become popular with women due to the ease of use and great results at home. Cold waxing offers better results than the more common hot sugar waxing, minus the discomfort, mess, and loss of time that is important for women who are on the go and looking for a quick fix for hair removal, without compromising on results.

Speaking about the campaign, Mr. Dilen Gandhi, Regional Marketing Director, South Asia  Health & Nutrition, Reckitt, said, We understand that the multifaceted woman of today is looking to make her life simpler with innovative, easy to use solutions without compromising results. We are excited to launch our new campaign #TheBetterWayToWax with Katrina Kaif. She resonates and inspires women who know what they want in life and achieve same with confidence and style. This campaign is our way to celebrate women who dont compromise and want the best in everything that they do. Veet Cold Wax Strips are the perfect solution offering a convenient and effective way to remove hair with great results.

Commenting on the launch, Actress and Entrepreneur, Katrina Kaif said, Veet is an iconic brand that resonates with women like me who are juggling numerous responsibilities and are looking for a convenient yet effective solution to their grooming needs. My longstanding journey with Veet makes our association even more special, I'm looking forward to the latest campaign #TheBetterWayToWax and hoping the audience likes it too."

Punit Malhotra, Director, Writer and Ad Filmmaker said, I am delighted to partner with Veet, a brand that celebrates self-expression and provides innovative solutions to both men and women in their hair-removal journey. With #TheBetterWayToWax, we brought out Katrinas fun authentic self and tried to show the viewers how she manages different roles in her very busy everyday life. I have personally loved directing the ad and being a part of this journey with Veet.

Bobby Pawar, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Havas Group India added, The campaign is built on the insight that todays women are not only playing many roles, they are also excelling in them. Their lives are as experience-rich as they are time-poor and Veet is the perfect wellness partner to give them the excellence they live by, while also seamlessly fitting into their busy lives.

Actress, entrepreneur, and fitness enthusiast Katrina Kaif perfectly embodies qualities of a modern woman. Her journey from a celebrity to an entrepreneur is a powerful representation that ensures that she is the perfect fit for Veet.

#TheBetterWayToWax is a 360-degree marketing campaign across digital and television that aims to establish Veet Cold Wax Strips as an easy-to-use product that delivers effective and efficient results at home such as up to 28-days of smoothness & removal of shortest of hair due it its cool gel wax technology.

The Veet Cold Wax Strips are available in retail stores across India and e-commerce websites at a starting price of INR 99.
Wondrlab and Whats Your Problem have hired Mandar Sawant and Sherwin Mascarenhas, senior creative talent with social, digital, and platform-first expertise.

Amit Akali, CCO and Co-founder Wondrlab, explains, At Wondrlab weve always had truly integrated teams - people with digital and social expertise, working in the same team with people from mainline backgrounds. The mandates handled by them will be digital, social, and in most cases, entire integrated mandates, but its one team that delivers the best solution across platforms and mediums.

Our intention is to do the very best social, digital work in the industry. Both Sherwin and Mandar, have done some cutting-edge, award-winning work for brands like 5-Star and Samsung. Theyve further brought in some exciting, young digital talent with them. Were looking forward to them pushing the creative envelope at Wondrlab. 

Mandar comes with nearly 11 years of experience in advertising, having worked majorly in the digital realm, on brands like Vodafone, Samsung Mobile, Diageo Johnnie Walker, Black & White, Cadbury 5 Star, Maruti Nexa, Monkey Shoulder, to name a few. Mandar was an integral part of the Samsung x Nat Geo India award-winning campaign #UncoverTheEpic. Mandar will be working closely with creative leads, Dipti Rode, and, Tanuj Khanna.

Mandar said, Im stoked to be a part of the Wondrlab WYP squad. The goal is to push the envelope in creativity and do more innovative and digitally clutter-breaking work for brands. Its also a great opportunity to work under the mentorship of an inspiring creative leader like Amit Akali.

Sherwin Mascarenhas joined WondrLab as Content Director, reporting to Sameet Ali Soni and Rahul Mahajan, the Content Leads. Sherwin comes with over a decade of experience in digital advertising and platform-first thinking, having previously worked in the digital and integrated teams at Ogilvy, Publicis, and WYP Brand Solutions. Hes worked on brands like Cadbury 5 Star, Cadbury Perk, Cadbury Fuse, Vodafone, Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, Siemens, Changi Airport, and a few others. He was a part of the Impact Top 30 under 30, 2020, and has won various awards, including for Cadbury 5-star Do Nothing Assist.

On joining WondrLab Sherwin said, As a digital-first thinker, joining WYP WondrLab is an amazing opportunity to work with people and brands who truly think platform first. It's also great to work with an inspirational mentor like Amit Akali again."
Some months ago, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Ganz invited Palestinian Authority (PA) strongman Mahmoud Abbas to his home for dinner. Despite the fact that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Police work with Abbass police force on a regular basis, the vision of a meal in Ganzs home was disconcerting; too personal, too cozy. Dinner with a man who regularly incites violence against Israeli citizens and pays for acts of terror seemed a step too far.

There were, apparently, no flies on the wall, and nothing appears to have leaked. But as violence in Israel increases, the Israeli governments intention has become clear. Sitting between the PA as Scylla and Hamas as Charybdis, Israel will choose Scylla.

Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, is waging war against both Israel and the more nationalist PA. Israels goal is to ensure that Hamas does not oust the PA from the West Bank, putting Islamist radicals on both sides of the Jewish state. It would have been easier had Abbas been less of a corrupt dictator and had he encouraged Palestinians to work with Israel in the 16 years since his first -- and last -- election. But he didnt.

In a brief and bloody civil war, Hamas threw the PA out of Gaza in 2007 and established its own crushing and corrupt version of Palestinian governance. It is now determined to take over the West Bank -- starting with the holy sites in Jerusalem, particularly the mosque on the Temple Mount. The challenge to Abbas has always been there, but only last year did Hamas bring its operatives out in the West Bank and in Jerusalem with flags flying -- announcing that Hamas was staking a claim to territory there.

The second war is against Israel. Not a grab for territories, but a war against the existence of the State of Israel and its people. Not only is Hamas taking the River to the Sea position, but it is working with Iran to smuggle weapons into Israel proper and incite Israeli Arabs to violence against their fellow citizens. Americans should note that Iran has had billions of dollars restored by the Biden administration over the past 15 months, and it is spending them on more than just nuclear capabilities. Forget about the Sunni-Shiite split. Iran has long supported Sunni jihadists in the Middle East and Africa. After a funding hiatus, because Hamas wouldnt support Irans war in Syria, Iran has a priority list and the attacks against Israel are at the top.

Abbas and the PA are playing catch up with Hamas and Iran.

From a long-ago position as guarantor of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which promised self-governance to the Palestinian Authority -- never statehood or independence -- the PA has expanded its goals and operations. Going full-tilt after canceling the 2021 Palestinian elections, PA television was full of speeches and music videos promising glory for those who killed Jews. A music video was repeatedly broadcast in which Palestinians declared, I fired my shots, I threw my bomb, I detonated, detonated, detonated my [explosive] belts. My brother, throw my blood on the enemy like bullets. Abbass religious affairs advisor told viewers, Islam does not want you to be submissive to others, and if you die fighting, you go to paradise; if you kill the enemies, they go to hell.

Hamas began firing rockets into Israel in April 2021. The rocket war ended in an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire, but the underlying civil war and the war against Israel remain in place. This Spring, both Hamas and the PA have fanned the flames of violence against Israel, and both are taking the hardest line possible. And after the clashes in Jerusalem, Hamas again began firing rockets into Israel.

Not willing to cede ground to Hamas in the propaganda war, Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said last week, "This is not a disputed land. Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, and this occupied land will be liberated. Jerusalem is ours, and Palestine is ours."

Despite Shtayyehs rhetoric, Israel will continue to provide security assistance to the Palestinian Authority police and continue to arrest and remove Hamas from the mosque on the Temple Mount regardless of the bad publicity. Israel will continue to provide funds to the PA, regardless of the terms of Israeli legislation that forbids such payments as long as the PA pays salaries to terrorists and their families. Israel will continue to patrol the waters off the Gaza Strip to interdict weapons coming from Iran. Israel will continue to prop up Abbas.

As Israel sails between Scylla and Charybdis, from Jerusalems point of view, better Scylla. Hence Ganzs dinner with Abbas.

Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

Image: Public Domain
Ever since China launched its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), some Western analysts have portrayed it as a geopolitical offensive designed to increase Chinas influence in, and ultimately control of, Eurasia. These analysts often base their portrayal on the classic geopolitical writings of Alfred Thayer Mahan, Halford Mackinder, and Nicholas Spykman, all of whom envisioned global politics as a clash between great Eurasian land powers and insular and peninsular sea powers. Over a decade ago, Naval War College scholars Toshi Yoshihara and James Holmes wrote a book titled Chinese Naval Strategy in the 21st Century: The Turn to Mahan in which they cite Chinese sources to support their claim that the PLA Navy looks to Mahan for geopolitical inspiration. Robert D. Kaplan, in a paper originally prepared for the Pentagons Office of Net Assessment (The Return of Marco Polos World), argued that the BRI was part of Chinas strategy to dominate Mackinders World Island. Claudia Astarita, a lecturer at Sciences Po Lyon and an associate fellow at the University of Melbournes Asia Institute, has described the BRI as Chinas attempt to extend its influence across Spykmans Eurasian Rimland (Western Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia). Perhaps the best proof that China indeed views the world this way is its repeated denials that the BRI has anything to do with geopolitics and Chinas quest for hegemony. Here is a case in point.

Teng Jianqun is a retired Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) colonel who is the Director of the Department for American Studies and Center for Arms Control and International Security at Chinas Institute of International Studies. He served in the PLA for 25 years, edited Chinas Academy of Military Sciences journal World Military Review for a dozen years, and is widely published and frequently quoted in official Chinese publications. In other words, his writings and opinions carry the imprimatur of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In November 2018, Teng Jianqun wrote an article for the China Association for International Friendly Contact titled Three Geopolitical Theories and the Belt and Road Initiative. In that article, he reviews what he calls the Sea Power theory of Mahan, the Heartland theory of Mackinder, and the Rimland theory of Spykman, as concepts to control the world from a geographical perspective. Teng asserts that the three geopolitical theories differ from the Belt and Road initiative fundamentally and cannot be mentioned in the same breath... The thrust of Tengs article is that these three geopolitical theories are outdated, belonging to the previous century's international relations.

Teng describe s the Mahan, Mackinder, and Spykman theories of geopolitics as theoretical bases for nations in pursuit of becoming an imperialist power, colonial plunder, expansion and aggression or even for waging wars. In contrast, he writes, Chinas BRI does not pursue control of certain regions... but advocates mutual consultation, joint construction and co-sharing, and intends to build a new type of international relations and forge a community with a shared future for humanity. China, he writes, has neither intentions nor capabilities to control the sea, the land and the rim land of the world. the BRI, he claims, does not serve as the theoretical basis for China to seek hegemony. Instead, Teng characterizes the BRI as geopolitics under globalization that features a shared future for humanity with the countries in the world interlinked and complementing each other on the world industrial chain. The BRI, he writes, upholds the spirit of open regional cooperation, and strives to preserve the global free trade.

Teng concludes this article by claiming that the BRI offers a plan full of Chinese wisdom for global governance, seeks to promote the fundamental interests of the international community, and manifests the common ideal and beautiful pursuit of mankind. And, of course, he criticizes then-president Trump for showing a unilateralist tendency and staging trade wars, which [have] chilled the international community.

Interestingly, Teng in December 2020 wrote an article envisioning the transition to President Joe Biden as having positive implications for Asia-Pacific security. He predicted that Bidens coming to power would result in the tension between China and the United States in various areas [being] eased, opined that the Biden administration will relax the policy of extreme pressure that President Trump sustained for four years, and predicted further that Biden will address cooperation rather than confrontation, including the restoration of the Sino-US strategic and economic dialogue. In other words, Teng saw the Trump administration as acting on the belief that the BRI was indeed a geopolitical offensive, while the Biden administration would view it as less threatening. Teng has since criticized the Biden administration for not distancing itself enough from Trumps policies.

The CCP wants us to believe that it has no hegemonic ambitions; that its BRI is just another multilateral advance for mankind; that those Western observers who see China as following a geopolitical master plan to dominate Eurasia and the world are wrong; that we should stop reading Mahan, Mackinder, and Spykman (even though Chinese strategists still do). We follow Teng Jianquns advice at our peril.

Image: Mathildem16
Speaking on the first day of Ramadan, April 1, 2022, Mahmoud al-Habbash, the Supreme Sharia Judge of the Palestinian Authority, extolled the jihads waged by the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, during Ramadan:

How was this month [of Ramadan] in the life of Prophet [Muhammad]? Did the Prophet spend Ramadan in calmness, serenity, laziness, and sleepiness? Far be it from him The Prophet entered the great Battle of Badr [624] during Ramadan... Also in the month of Ramadan, in the 8th year of the Hijra [629-630], the Prophet and the Muslims conquered Mecca... Ramadan is  a month of Jihad, conquest, and victory.

This is hardly the first time leading Palestinians have invoked the early history of jihad in connection to Ramadan. During last years Ramadan, on April 16, 2021, Al Jazeera published an article by Adnan Abu Amar, head of the Political Science Department at the University of the Ummah in Gaza, explaining how Palestinians find inspiration in various jihads throughout Islamic history, prominent among them the raid of Badr, the conquest of Mecca, the conquest of al-Andalus [Spain], and the battle of the pavement of martyrs [the Battle of Tours].

Those who understand the true nature and motivation of these battles and conquests must wonder: Why are Palestinians, who present themselves as victims of land-grabbing Israeli oppressors, praising and finding inspiration in the land-grabbing oppressors of history? After all, in all of these military engagements, the Muslims were the aggressors: they invaded non-Muslim territory, butchered and enslaved its inhabitants, and appropriated their lands -- and for no other reason than that they were infidels, non-Muslims.

The battle of Badr was occasioned by Muhammads raids on non-Muslim caravans; the conquest of Mecca was simply that, the conquest of a non-Muslim city; the conquest of al-Andalus is a reference to the years 711-716 when Muslims invaded and slaughtered countless thousands of Christians in Spain and torched their churches; and the battle of Tours is, of course, where the Muslim invasions into Western Europe were finally halted in 732.

That Palestinian elements are constantly praising the unjustified conquests of others is hardly uncommon. On May 29, Hizb al-Tahrir -- the Liberation Party -- often holds large, outdoor events near al-Aqsa mosque to commemorate the anniversary of the Islamic conquest of Constantinople (May 29, 1453). After all the takbirs (chants of Allahu Akbar) had subsided at one of these events, Palestinian cleric Nidhal Siam said:

Oh Muslims, the anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople brings tidings of things to come. It brings tidings that Rome will be conquered in the near future, Allah willing [Moreover,] Islam will throw its neighbors to the ground, and its reach will span across the east and the west of this Earth. This is Allahs promise, and Allah does not renege on his promises.

The Palestinian cleric and assembled throng then repeatedly chanted, By means of the Caliphate and the consolidation of power, Muhammad the Conqueror vanquished Constantinople! and Your conquest, oh Rome, is a matter of certainty!

Again, the question must be emphasized: why are the Palestinians -- who, when speaking to the international community, present themselves as an oppressed people whose land is unjustly occupied -- finding inspiration in and seeking to emulate those who oppress and steal the lands of others?

If anything, shouldnt the Palestinians be sympathizing with, say, the Christians of Spain, whose land was occupied, and they themselves brutalized by the occupiers, namely, the Muslim invaders from North Africa?

Similarly, if, as they claim, the Palestinians are an oppressed people whose land was stolen, shouldnt they sympathize with the Christians of Constantinople, rather than Muhammad the Conqueror, an unsavory pedophile who invaded and conquered the ancient Christian city, while subjecting its indigenous inhabitants to all sorts of unspeakable atrocities?

As for Rome, what does it have to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict that it, too, deserves to be conquered? Absolutely nothing -- except that, since the conquest of Constantinople, Islam has seen Rome as the symbolic head of the Christian world, and therefore in urgent need of subjugating; or, to quote the Islamic State, We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah [We will cast] fear into the hearts of the cross-worshipers.

Perhaps most telling is Palestinian cleric Siams claim (delivered to thundering applause) that Islam will throw its neighbors to the ground, and that its reach will span across the east and the west of this Earth. In other words, no non-Muslim is safe from the sword of jihad -- including those who live countless leagues away from and have nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Surely all this must seem surreal when placed in context? How can Palestinians present themselves as a conquered and oppressed people whose land was stolen -- while, in the very same breath, praising former and hoping for future conquests, replete with oppression and land grabbing from other peoples, only because they were/are non-Muslim?

And that is the grand lesson: when all is said and done, Islamic notions of justice are based on a simple dichotomy: whenever Muslims conquer, slaughter, subjugate, and steal land -- that is just; whenever they have to live under infidel authority, that is unjust. Hence the virulent hatred for Israel.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

Image: Picryl
Gerard Baker, in his weekly column in The Wall Street Journal, dated April 26, signaled that the paper hardly countenances a second presidential term for Donald J. Trump.

He writes:

[T]he Republican Party is too important a political institution to continue to be a vehicle for this grand deception. The mess the other party has made of the country in 15 months is too extensive to risk the chance of further damage. There are too many capable Republicans who uphold high conservative ideals while embracing the populist values that are energizing the party's base, understand the need to abide by the U.S. Constitution, and believe in the importance of a Republican victory more than the satisfaction of their own self-grievance for it to be willingly shackled once again to the vanities of a cynical opportunist. Will someone speak that truth at least?

In this regard, Baker suggests a softer dislike for Mr. Trump than that of Bret Stephens, who left the Journal for The New York Times, but seems equally ad hominem.

The title of Baker's anti-Trump column, "GOP Leaders Remain Shackled to Donald Trump," indicates the blurred vision by which he views the former president. For Baker, to be "shackled" to Mr. Trump is a bad thing. Close to the end of his screed, Baker as much as predicts political disaster for the Republican Party should "it be shackled once again to the vanities of a cynical opportunist." For the Trump base, Trump-shackling is what is called for to rid the country of this Biden disaster.

Earlier in this column, Baker writes of "the fervent desire of much of the Republican Party's top brass, its major donors, business leaders who urgently crave a Republican restoration, and many of the party's most prominent supporters in the media and elsewhere ... for Mr. Trump to break the habits of a lifetime and go quietly away." [Emphasis added.] These are the Republicans, Baker advises, who don't believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen, don't regard the "the Jan. 6 riots as a legitimate act of protest" that included "federal agents provocateurs [sic]."

These are, also, the kind of Republicans who cave to the woke generation, rather than crave its withering away.

In his penultimate paragraph, Baker writes, "There are too many capable Republicans who uphold high conservative ideals while embracing the populist values that are energizing the party's base." Let us stop there. Whom does Gerard Baker think he's kidding? The Wall Street Journal abhors populism; it shrinks from the populist mindset the way a vampire shrinks from daylight. Baker's GOP "top brass," etc. are the creatures of the swamp that Donald Trump is committed to drain. The "business leaders" cited by columnist Baker may have the arms of "Republicans," but their voices are the voices of woke-ists.

By referring to Mr. Trump as a "cynical opportunist" columnist Baker reveals that he is ready to engage Trump -- and the Trumpists -- with the language of the political insult. He is still far from the vitriol hurled regularly at Mr. Trump by the likes of a Bret Stephens from the propaganda section of The New York Times, but just wait.

Insults were regularly hurled at another great American, in the midst of the Civil War. I am thinking of General Ulysses Grant, whose dismissal was sought on grounds of drunkenness, of alcoholism  as he was winning battles, as at Shiloh. After that Tennessee battle, with its nearly 24,000 casualties on both sides, Lincoln was said to have brushed aside calls for Grant's dismissal with this: "I can't spare this man; he fights,"

The phenomenon of Trump-loathing from a Deep-Stater based on opposition to populism, or based on personal dislike, rejects the essence of Donald J. Trump's attractiveness to us populists: we can't spare this man; he fights.

Image: Library of Congress via Picryl, no known restrictions.
George Bernard Shaw stated that "Some men see things as they are and ask why. I see things that never were and ask why not." Robert Kennedy used this quote in nearly every speech he made during his ill-fated presidential campaign of 1968. Despite being the only person ever to win both a Nobel Prize for Literature and an Oscar, Shaw was also a strident anti-Semite, a noted eugenicist, and a lifelong avowed socialist. To his credit, he did pen Pygmalion, which, with a bit of musical assistance from Lerner and Loewe, became My Fair Lady  a play that is the gold standard of musical theater. Shaw's life serves as an example of the imperfection of all who have ever drawn a breath.

Today, Shaw shares a position on the Mt. Rushmore of socialism with such disparate individuals as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Utopian thought, it would seem, is not bound by age or sex differences. In our society, however, it is bound by political persuasion. The belief held by those on the left that utopian thought is theirs and theirs alone drives me, as a conservative, to distraction. Progressives, in their usual impolite manner, declare that only "visionaries" who espouse a desire to live in a world of socialism (with its inevitable tyranny) are capable of envisioning our world as a better place. Only those willing to sit in a circle singing "Kumbaya" or Lennon's "Imagine" (oh, the ironic yet inelegant symmetry of Lennon putting Lenin to music) are deemed worthy of asking, "Why not?"

Well, as a conservative, I am asking, "Why not?" I want to live in a meritocratic world where equality of opportunity is guaranteed, but results must be attained  a world where equality of circumstance is neither expected nor overvalued. The person who makes good choices and puts his back into his efforts will do well. The person who expects the labors of others to support him will not. We would celebrate winners but also encourage losers to do better next time. Those individuals unable to compete due to circumstances beyond their control will be accommodated. For all others, accomplishment will determine circumstance. I say, "Why not?"

I'd like to live in a world where the color of a person's skin is truly irrelevant. No more is given to, nor expected of a white, brown, or black person. A person would be celebrated or not, depending on his accomplishments. Occasionally, we get a little help from our friends (there's that John Lennon again), but our labors will have built "that" or not. Honest criticisms of accomplishment, or lack thereof, are welcomed and taken at face value. No racism or spin is allowed, and none shall be inferred. I say, "Why not?"

I'd like to live in a world of diverse opinions, not a world where we are commanded or coerced to think a certain way. God has given us the gifts of logic and common sense. We are certainly able, though not often enough inclined, to use them. Let's strive to utilize those gifts on a routine basis. I say, "Why not?"

I'd like to live in a world where people have respect for authority because they have granted that authority. I say, "Why not?"

Finally, I'd like to live in a world where all people are free to worship their God peacefully and without fear of discrimination. In that world, no religion or sect would do damage to any other. There would be no room for hateful or warlike ideologies. You are even free to choose Lennon's "no religion." It would be up to each individual. My conservative utopia might not be the stuff of which socialist dreams are made, but I will pit my vision against theirs any day. I emphatically say, "Why not?"

Image: PxHere.
World-changing ideas sometimes spring forward from the most unexpected places: even the Sunday comic strips.

One conspicuous example is that the idea of using electronic ankle bracelets to monitor the location of prisoners and reduce prison overcrowding was inspired by a 1987 Spiderman cartoon. Yes, a Spiderman cartoon!

Another example of miraculous innovation from an unexpected source was the concept for the Rhino Tank. This was a major World War II breakthrough that came from Sergeant Curtis Cullin in the Third Army after the D-Day Invasion. It allowed American tanks trapped in Hedgerow country to cut their way through the heavy trees and bushes with "tusks" on the front of their tanks without exposing their weak underbellies to enemy fire.

This impressive innovation saved many lives and accelerated the allied advance to victory. Without the resulting breakout in the Bocage region of France, Patton's lightning campaign in Normandy would not have been possible.

With this in mind, I would like to offer up a suggestion that might strike a blow for freedom for the war in Ukraine. But allow me to first provide some historical context and a background.

In Vietnam, allied forces initiated something called the Chu Hoi (Open Arms) program. It was a major feature of the Physiological Operations campaign launched by the United States to help win the war in Southeast Asia. Its main purpose was to persuade North Vietnamese soldiers to defect from the North Viet Nam Army and to take rank with their South Vietnamese counterparts.

The program consisted primarily of dropping leaflets over the locations where the enemy was most likely to see them and pick them up. The message to the enemy soldiers was essentially that "you have fought bravely and well but your situation is hopeless...come join us in the fight for freedom."

The leaflet drop did achieve a certain level of success even though, in the end, unfortunately, North Vietnam prevailed in that war.

Some of the most pathetic people on Earth have to be the Russian conscripts who make up a large part of the Russian Army. They have been lied to, duped, underpaid ($25 per month versus $1,000 per month for U.S. soldiers), underfed, shot at, and killed in a cause they do not understand or believe in.

There have been refusals and even mutinies in the Russian ranks. One report says the invading troops even ran over a Russian general to express their dissatisfaction with the "s--- show" that is being conducted by their army's high command.

Rarely has there ever been an army riper for the picking in terms of defecting to the other side. Ukrainian special propaganda units have already been encouraging defections from their troubled enemy.

But there is another element that might be added to the open arms program to accelerate its effectiveness. The United States might aggressively invite defecting Russian soldiers to immigrate to our country in an expedited program. Job training and English classes would be made available. To be successful the program should be well designed and generous. The message could be broadly advertised through leaflets, loudspeaker broadcasts, social media, and radio programs.

Here in the United States, we have many jobs that go begging. As of March 31, there were eleven million unfilled jobs that were unfilled. Employers are complaining that it is difficult to find qualified and willing workers. Some suggest that American workers have become somewhat spoiled and indifferent. The once-famous American work ethic is becoming a little tattered with the excess of federal money in full circulation.

This offer to the Russian soldiers would accelerate even further the concept of America as the land of opportunity. Who better to seize that opportunity than those who appreciate our freedoms the most? People who have suffered under the yoke of communist mismanagement. They have known the lack of freedom and would be that much more eager for a chance to break away.

Thousands of young professionals have already been fleeing the former Soviet Union in surprisingly high numbers. Many are disgusted with the invasion of the Ukraine and the accompanying war crimes perpetrated by their country's leader.

The loss of the best and brightest will have long-term consequences for Russia's economy.

There are some potential issues with this strategy. The Russian government would attempt to infiltrate the defectors with its own agents. It might try to punish and prevent soldiers from leaving with threats of executions or imprisonment. It would not be easy by any means. There is also the question of the many war crimes committed by the Russian soldiers that would have to be dealt with.

But on the positive side, there is fertile ground to reap a major harvest. Young Russian soldiers without enough food to eat might be eager to leave their hard and bitter circumstances for the promise of a new life in the New World. They might become some of our hardest working and most appreciative citizens. The ranks of the Russian Army might be decimated by an accelerated program creating major desertions.

An important part of making such a program work is a smooth coordination and administration by the Ukrainian troops on the front lines. Those defecting would have to have confidence that they would be treated fairly and honorably and not be summarily shot by angry local soldiers or citizens.

In the end, we are asking those who have been enlisted in an evil cause to give up the "dark side" and join us in a fight for decency. The rewards financially and morally would be substantial and fulfilling. Many would come and many would stay and be forever grateful.

In her famous inscription on the Statue of Liberty, Emma Lazarus spoke of holding up the lamp by the golden door to freedom. For the benighted, conscripted, abused Russian soldiers fighting for nothing in Ukraine, this offer could be that golden lamp.

Jared Knott, author of Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters: Thirty-Nine Tiny Mistakes That Changed the World Forever. Knott was a decorated combat infantry officer in Vietnam in the First Air Cavalry Division.

Image: Alan Levine via PxHere, CC BY 2.0.
Harvard's employees, students, and graduates are no doubt feeling smug right now. That's because Harvard is setting aside a $100-million endowment as reparations for its long list of sins toward Blacks. They shouldn't be smug at all, though. Aside from being a pathetic sum of money, it's just another example of leftist check-writing with no real sacrifice involved.

On Tuesday, Harvard proudly announced that it is setting aside $100 million as reparations for its historic abuse of American Blacks:

The email from Harvard President Lawrence Bacow included a link to a 100-page report by his university's 14-member Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery. [snip] The report laid out a history of slaves toiling on the campus and of the university benefiting from the slave trade and industries linked to slavery after slavery was outlawed in Massachusetts in 1783  147 years after Harvard's founding. The report also documents Harvard excluding Black students and its scholars advocating racism. [snip] The report's authors recommended offering descendants of people enslaved at Harvard educational and other support so they "can recover their histories, tell their stories, and pursue empowering knowledge." Other recommendations included that the Ivy League school fund summer programs to bring students and faculty from long underfunded historically Black colleges and universities to Harvard, and to send Harvard students and faculty to the institutions known as HBCUs, such as Howard University.

I'm sorry to have to say this, but Harvard's actions are so cheap and insincere that they're an insult to American Blacks. First, the amount sounds good  $100,000,000  but it is, in fact, a pathetic portion of Harvard's total endowment.

You see, Harvard's endowment was worth $53.2 billion as of October 2021. If my percentage calculator has led me right, Harvard is setting aside only 0.19% of its total endowment. If Harvard really has sinned as much as it boasts about sinning, setting aside less than 0.2% of its massive money pot is the stingiest remorse payment I've ever seen.

But what really strikes me is that, in addition to being some pretty tacky virtue-signaling, Harvard's action is also entirely consistent with the leftist approach to charity or any type of guilt-based repayment: it's someone else's money, with no personality, generosity, or remorse behind it.



Image: Harvard University (cropped) by EllenSeptember. CC BY 2.0.

Think about it this way: every White person currently connected with Harvard  every member of the administrative staff, every faculty member, and every student  is getting a huge benefit from Harvard. That benefit isn't an education, something the Ivy Leagues don't really bother with anymore.

Instead, that benefit is the cachet of Harvard. It's great salaries for the employees and great opportunities for the graduates  and that's true no matter how minimal the usable skills they've acquired from their Womyns, BIPOC, or Queer Studies majors.

The only way to really give back to descendants of slaves or of Black students refused admission to the college is to give those descendants the Harvard cachet. That's done by having the greedy, undeserving, privileged Whites (for that's how Harvard academics define Whites) leave, and turning Harvard over entirely to Blacks, with priority for those who can prove they are descendants of slaves.

You'll have noticed, though, the same pattern I have at academic institutions that gleefully wallow in and boast about their guilt: nobody ever offers to step aside so that a deserving Black person can have his or her (or, given that it's academia, xe, xir, and its) position at the institution.

So, before anyone applauds Harvard for its selfless reparations, remember that it's giving away less than 0.2% of its endowment and that no people are making a sacrifice of their ill-gotten benefits. These people are posers and undeserving of any admiration for their actions.
Al Capone was one of the early 20th century's most infamous gangsters, but that isn't why he ended up in Alcatraz. Instead, what the feds finally got him on was tax evasion. In Joe Biden's case, although the facts are a bit different because the problem isn't one of tax evasion, but one of mysteriously reported taxable income, it does appear that we may finally be getting proof that Joe was deeply involved in Hunter's overseas dealings and may have been doing influence-peddling from the White House.

It was a female assistant attorney general who, in the early 1920s, figured out that one way to capture wealthy criminals was to compare their lifestyles with the low incomes declared on their tax returns and then to accuse them of tax evasion. In 1927, in United States v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court put its imprimatur on this tactic, ruling that illegally earned income is subject to taxation.

So it was that, in 1931, Al Capone was formally charged with income tax evasion and, eventually, sentenced to 11 years in prison, plus fines, court costs, and back taxes. Capone, riddled with syphilis and gonorrhea, served only eight years. He was released early because he was suffering from tertiary syphilis. Ironically, the mass production of penicillin in 1942 allowed him to live until 1947, when a stroke and heart failure finally got him.

Fascinating, right? But why does Al Capone matter? Because sometimes it's a person's dealings with the IRS that reveal his sins.

In Biden's case, it appears that he reported all his income to the IRS. The problem, as the Daily Mail discovered, is that the origin of $5.2 million of that income is completely mysterious:

[T]he president's financial filings reveal that he declared almost $7 million more income on his tax returns than he did on his government transparency reports, an analysis by DailyMail.com of the president's financial records shows. Some of that difference can be accounted for with salaries earned by First Lady Jill Biden and other sums not required on his reports  but still leaves $5.2 million earned by Joe's company and not listed on his transparency reports. The 'missing millions'  combined with emails on Hunter's abandoned laptop suggesting Joe would have a 10% share in Hunter's blockbuster deal with the Chinese  raise a troubling question: did Joe Biden receive money from the foreign venture?

It's very clear that Biden was rolling in dough  so much so that, as some of the documents show, he was able to pay Hunter's legal bills in 2018, which totaled $737,130.61. Of that gigantic sum, $28,000 was attributed to "restructuring" Hunter's joint venture with the Bank of China, owned by the Chinese government (AKA the Chinese Communist Party).



Joe Biden image (edited) from a YouTube screen grab.

If that $5.2 million was from pay-to-play schemes, Joe was being very greedy, because he and Jill were raking in the money  although he didn't want the American people to know just how much it was. Again, from the Daily Mail:

While in office Joe had a relatively modest income, but he enjoyed a flood of millions of dollars soon after he left office, much of which came from his memoir book deal and eye-watering speaking fees. Between 2017 and 2019 he and First Lady Jill Biden reported $16.5 million in gross income on their federal tax returns, released by the Biden campaign. The vast majority came from their two companies, CelticCapri Corp and Giacoppa Corp, which they use for speaking and writing engagements. But in Office of Government Ethics (OGE) fillings for the same period, Joe only reported $9.6 million in income for himself and his wife.

What's also interesting is that another legal bill that Joe paid  an October 15, 2018, bill for $68,933.41 for a restructuring of another Chinese matter  was addressed to Eric D. Schwerin. If that name rings a bell, it's because Schwerin was a frequent White House visitor during Biden's veep run. Although reports originally said he'd been there 19 times during that era, new logs reveal another eight visits, all during 2016, when he met with Biden's chief of staff, Steve Ricchetti (now Biden's White House counselor).

In 2019, Joe Biden stated unequivocally that he knew nothing about his son's business dealings: "I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings." That was a lie. He added, "Here's what I know. Trump should be investigated." That was also a lie because every colonoscopic financial investigation of Trump has shown him to be clean as a whistle, and Durham's efforts are indicating that he was the victim of an attempted coup in 2016  and Biden surely knew this, too.

Warren G. Harding (undeservedly, perhaps) has been recognized as America's most corrupt president, but my bet is that he's going to be a piker compared to Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.
I have heard it asked why is it that we have two annual remembrances of the Holocaust. Often it is a question based on genuine curiosity. Sometimes it is a convenient expression of resentment of Jews by people who don't really need a reason anyway.

International Holocaust Day, established by the United Nations, is recognized worldwide as the date of the liberation of Auschwitz, which for many people has become the very symbol of evil and by extension the malevolence of the entire Holocaust itself.

Yom HaShoah is more complex. Established in Israel as the 27th of the Hebrew month of Nisan, it falls the week after Passover. It is, first, a Jewish commemoration, an opportunity for Jews to remember. Of course, we welcome, even honor, the participation of non-Jews, but the Holocaust was a loss that has to be felt deep inside each Jewish heart. The near annihilation of a civilization, the destruction of thousand-year-old communities, the murder of millions  shopkeepers, peddlers, teachers, mothers, scholars, musicians, tailors, rabbis, and of course the children, who are the future of any generation.

But there is something else, and it is found in the more complete name of the commemoration: Yom HaShoah v'Hagvurah. Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day.

Who then are these heroes? Of course, many readily come to mind, such as the fighters who revolted in the Warsaw Ghetto and the group, known as the Oneg Shabbat Archive, who recorded in minute detail the fate of the Jews of Warsaw. Another is Hannah Szenes, the Hungarian Zionist, just 22, who returned to Europe from then Palestine in an attempt to save her people, but was captured, tortured, and executed. The poetry she left is still read today.

It's not just Jews whom we think of as heroes of the Holocaust. Righteous Gentiles, from the now-famous to the nearly obscure, risked everything to protect children, hide families, and help Jews escape their likely fate.

Polish Catholics Franciszek and Genowefa Swiatek took in a little girl spirited out of the Bochnia Ghetto right before it was liquidated, then raised her as their own. Discovery meant certain death. Years later, when the child was an adult, they helped her escape the clutches of the communist authorities suspicious of her Jewish roots.

Some of you know the story of Chiune Sigihara, the Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who issued thousands of visas to Polish Jews fleeing the Nazis. Few may realize that he was openly defying his government, not a simple thing in a culture that prizes respect for authority and a nation that was an ally of Germany. Yet he continued, even until he boarded a train as he himself was compelled to depart. He was quoted as saying, "I did what we as human beings should do."

As the number of survivors dwindles, they become ever more treasured by us. With the perspective of years, we can see how inspirational they have been. The stories of how they survived is only one part of it. They came with only their memories  and sometimes each other  and made lives for themselves. And we, every one of us, are the beneficiaries.

As they recalled a world that no longer exists, they brought it to life again for us. A childhood friend, a favorite dish, a grandparent who spoiled them. Survivors have passed down the importance of the remembrance of tragedy of the Holocaust, first to their children, then later to what we call "three-G" and "four-G." These generations carry the survivors' pain on some level, but they also an added responsibility to create a world where evil cannot take root.

However, it is up to us who perhaps do not have a direct connection to the Holocaust to ultimately be the force for remembrance. Sheer numbers make that a reality. Let's hope we have learned what the survivors have taught us about the preciousness of life and the power of each of us to rise above obstacles, no matter how overwhelming the circumstances.

On Yom HaShoah, as we read the names of the murdered; light candles for the six million; and recite the special mourner's prayer, the kaddish, interspersed with the names of camps and other places of horror, lets also think of the survivors  heroes all  who have done their best to make sure that we will never forget.

Jeremy B. Kay is the executive director of the Library of the Holocaust Foundation. Holocaustlibrary.org.

Image: Zoltan Kruger.
Last week, the New York Post reported that Wikipedia had deleted its page dedicated to Rosemont Seneca Partners, claiming that it was "not notable."

A Wiki editor told the Post that Hunter's firm is mentioned only in relation to its famous founders, Hunter Biden; Christopher Heinz, stepson of John Kerry; and Devon Archer. But "keeping it around" would cause the page to be "a magnet for conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden."

The brief page was already scant in details.

It mentioned the names of the founders and states that Heinz ended his business relationship with the firm in 2014 after Biden and Archer joined the board of Burisma.

The article stated that in 2015, Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners led a $30 million Series A funding round for Metabiota.

The article concluded with a mention of Devon Archer being convicted on securities fraud and conspiracy charges in 2018.

Rosemont Seneca Partners, founded in 2009, is at the center of myriad questions surrounding Hunter's numerous shady overseas business dealings.

In his book, Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, Peter Schweizer exposed the Democrat Washington Establishment as a self-promoting, self-preserving, corrupt, and nepotistic cabal.

Schweizer's investigation revealed that thenvice president Biden and secretary of state Kerry negotiated sensitive and high-stakes deals with foreign governments while various entities of Rosemont secured a series of exclusive deals, often with those very foreign governments.

Often, those foreign entities gained favorable policy actions from the United States government just as the sons were securing favorable financial deals from those very entities.

Soon after the launch of Rosemont, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were in China, having secured access to the highest levels of China's largest financial players.

The meeting occurred just hours before thenvice president Biden met with Chinese president Hu in Washington as part of the Nuclear Security Summit.

Another consultancy called the Thornton Group, based in Massachusetts and headed by James Bulger, the nephew of the convicted mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, was also involved with Rosemont.

Schweizer wrote that in December 2013, Hunter joined his father, Vice President Biden, on Air Force Two for an official trip to China.

Here Hunter secured an exclusive deal for Rosemont with Chinese officials. Rosemont Seneca and the Bank of China created a $1-billion investment fund that enjoyed a special status in China. Since the Bank of China is government-owned, its function as a bank blurs into its role as a tool of the government. The deal was inked approximately ten days after their China visit.

For a small firm such as Rosemont Seneca with no track record, this was a miraculous feat; the miracle-makers here were Joe Biden and John Kerry.

To summarize, the Chinese government was literally funding a business that it co-owned along with the sons of two of the U.S.'s most powerful decision-makers.

Last Saturday, the New York Post reported that Eric Schwerin, president of the Rosemont Seneca firm, had an official sit-down with Vice President Biden in 2010. Schwerin is linked to a variety of Hunter's foreign business dealings, past and present. Visitor logs from the White House of former president Obama further cast doubts about Biden's claims that he knew nothing of his son's dealings.

If this isn't a case of corruption and conflict of interest, what is?

Yet Wikipedia didn't deem it necessary to cover any of this information. Instead, it chose to remove the page on Rosemont. The U.S. mainstream media ignored the N.Y. Post expose, as always.

The same Wikipedia covered the Trump Russia collusion hoax in great detail. If printed, the Trump Russia collusion entry on Wikipedia spans 35 pages. The corporate media were among those who concocted, amplified, and mainstreamed the Trump Russia collusion hoax.

The co-founder of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, who left the organization more than a decade ago, faulted the website's current leadership for its overwhelming bias and prejudiced editors. Sanger said the site can no longer be trusted and has devolved into propaganda.

This conquest of all sources of information is why the liberals are the drivers of narratives.

People seeking information usually rely on a quick Google search. The first result is usually the Wikipedia entry for that subject, which people consume without question. If not Wikipedia, they look up various news websites. Social media are also a source of information for some.

Liberals have managed to co-opt all these channels of news and information. Those who control the information control minds.

In recent times, especially after President Trump's election, their presentations have been so blatantly biased that their true motivations have been revealed. They no longer even pretend to be fair. This has awakened a significant number of consumers, who now see through the facade.

Information consumers seeking facts must discipline their minds. They must always remind themselves to presume that any information they see in the mainstream media, on Wikipedia, and in social media is false until proven true.

Persistent skepticism is essential to survive in this dense jungle of misinformation.
The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra is the companys brand new flagship that will launch soon. The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra will become official on May 9, and it will launch with a bezel-less display and an under-display camera.

Were talking about a China launch here, of course. The device will likely make its way to more markets after the fact, though. The design of this phone is quite interesting, for several reasons.

Some of you will remember that Ice Universe, a well-known tipster, teased a great-looking smartphone a couple of days ago. He said that this design will eclipse the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and every other phone that launched this year.

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The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra will launch soon with a bezel-less display, under-display camera

Well, it seems like he was talking about this device. He did mention that the device wont include a display camera hole or anything of the sort, that it will have thin bezels, and that it will launch in May.

ZTE did share a partial image of the device, which you can check out below this paragraph. As you can see, the bezels are almost non-existent, while the display camera hole / notch are nowhere to be found. We dont get to see the bottom of the phone, and if the bottom bezel is just as thin.

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The device will obviously have a curved display. The company did not share an image of the back side of this phone, though. What did surface, however, is the real-life image of the device. You can check that image below this paragraph.

This image basically confirms that the render is accurate, and that the bezels will be quite thin. It also shows us the physical buttons on the right side. Those include the power/lock button, in addition to volume up and down keys.

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A 120Hz display will be included, and the same goes for 65W charging

We dont know much about this phones specs, but some info did surface. The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra is tipped to feature a 6.67-inch fullHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It will likely have a really high touch sampling rate, and support for pixel-width modulation (PWM) dimming.

Android 12 will come pre-installed on the phone, while a 44-megapixel camera will sit under the display. A 64-megapixel main camera is tipped to be included on the back, in addition to an 8-megapixel unit, and a 5-megapixel camera.

In addition to all that, the rumors are saying the device will include up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of internal storage. 65W fast charging will also be included.
(ANSA) - BRUSSELS, APR 27 - A new European study has said that Lombardy and other highly urbanised areas - such as Berlin, le-de-France, Madrid and Zurich - should accelerate efforts to make better use of their trash.

The study by the Circter project, conducted as part of the ESPON European cooperation programme specializing in regional analysis, said these were the regions with the highest proportions of waste generated compared with material consumed.

"The presence of a dense socioeconomic fabric and the lack of primary raw materials might favour the deployment of circular economy strategies based on the valorisation of produced waste," it said.

Analysing the data for material consumption and waste generation, together with new indicators focusing on the sectoral aspects of a circular economy, the researchers identified several different territorial models of circular-economy development in the EU.

The characteristics of a region and the different combination of socioeconomic factors (such as the density of population and of businesses) along with the availability of natural resources, often determine the framework conditions of circular systems - the models of business and consumer behaviour and solutions to transform waste into resources, the researchers explained.

So it was shown that local economies with a greater availability of natural resources are assets for circular bioeconomy initiatives.

The cross-border area of central Scandinavia is an excellent example of this type of territory.

The Norwegian regions of Innlandet and Viken and the Swedish regions of Dalarna and Varmland, which are among the main suppliers of timber not only to Norway and Sweden but also to foreign markets, have set the ambitious goal of becoming the leading area for the forest bioeconomy.

As for Lombardy and other densely populated areas that do not have an abundance of raw materials, it is fundamentally important to implement initiatives aimed at waste prevention and modifying consumer behaviour.

Another case is that of Estonia.

The study shows that the high level of waste produced in this country, which can be considered a low-density region, is mostly explained by the nature of the national economy, as it is strongly reliant on oil shale.

Indeed, the researchers wrote that Estonia generates 35 times the EU average of hazardous waste per capita, 98% of which comes from oil shale combustion and refining.

As a result, the transition towards a circular system should focus on reducing the generation, and increasing the reuse, of such waste in order to improve environmental quality throughout country and particularly in the mining region of north-eastern Estonia. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, APR 27 - The flow of Russian gas to Italy is "regular" a spokesperson for gas-infrastructure company SNAM said Wednesday after Moscow cut supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.

Gazprom said Wednesday that it had followed through on a threat to cut gas supplies to the two Eastern European countries after they refused to make payments in roubles.

Italy has also said it will not pay for gas supplies in roubles, as demanded by Moscow following Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. (ANSA).


VALLETTA - British filmmaker Ridley Scott has returned to Malta to film Napoleon, the biopic that the nine-time Oscar winner (with Alien, Thelma&Louise, The Gladiator and Black Hawk Down) has decided to make giving the role of Bonaparte to Joaquim Phoenix and of his wife Josephine to Vanessa Kirby. The film, produced by Apple Studios, will be set in various locations in Malta, including the roads of Valletta, the historic Fort Ricasoli (which will be presented as Toulon, theater of Napoleon's first victory) and the ancient capital of Mdina.



This is the third time in Malta for Scott, 84, where he filmed White Squall in 1996 and the Gladiator in 2000. The idea of a war film on the story of Napoleon Bonaparte in the past was the dream of many filmmakers, including Stanley Kubrick who was unable to make his project, now resumed by Scott. "Napoleon was a man who has always fascinated me - the filmmaker told MaltaToday -. He came out of nothing to command everything, but at the same time he carried forth a romantic war with his adulterous wife Josephine. He conquered the world to try to conquer his love but he was unable to do it, he conquered it to destroy it. And in the meantime he destroyed himself".




TUNIS - Tunisian coast guards foiled - from April 17 to April 23 - 41 operations of irregular migration in different regions of the country and intercepted a total of 495 migrants, including 434 coming from several sub Saharan countries, according to a statement released by the spokesperson of the National guard of Tunis. The statement also mentioned seven illegal entries by land recorded in the country, with 58 people arrested.



Moreover, the Tunisian Navy yesterday rescued 15 Tunisian nationals who were aboard a rubber dinghy in difficulty off Bizerte, the defense ministry of Tunis said in a statement. The statement added that the rescue operation occurred some 7 km north-east of the island of Cani and that the people rescued, ranging in age between 20 and 31, had departed the previous night from the coast of Bizerte "with the intention of crossing undetected the maritime borders in the direction of European space". "The migrants were handed over to the National guard of Bizerte for the necessary legal actions against them", concluded the statement.
A painting that really is fresh manna as it is the first painting I have created in quite some time. Being inspired by the creative worship flow that was Shalom Music Festival in Murrayvilley this piece was made.

I painted this with two words from the Lord. The first was to take the one with the lions. A canvas that I had not touched for years, but it depicted a lion walking through the fires of the Lord and actually was painted during a live painting experience at a RAW artist event in Adelaide.

I remember God word was in that time was PURIFY and my prayer in that painting was that his holy fires would consume the darkness in that room.

Fast forward to the Shalom festival and at 3 am on Sunday Lord shows me 1 lion had turned into 5 and that's what I was going to paint. So fully prepared to paint that I went into the war room which was the chapel space at the venue and was ready to recreate my sketch.

The second word is to paint this on your knees in front of the fire that was in the room. I entered the room and people were well and truly into singing and God said set up near the fire.

I then went to my knees in an atmosphere of worship and got my colours mixed up. I had briefly done a quick paint over revealing a white figure in the fire which I thought was the basis of which the lions were to be created.

As I began to build a rhythm with the canvas I just found myself painting the fire as I was kneeling in front of a hot fire and bringing detail into the flames. In this moment God revealed the picture and all of sudden my mind saw Hebrew characters floating in the flames.

I then painted the characters into the flames and it revealed the word, Shalom. I also painted a strange symbol above the white figure that was I believed was the tongues of fire. I was taken into a trance like an experience and felt joy consume my spirit.

Keep painting

It was at this point that the meeting finished and God said to keep painting. The last part of my painting was centred on the figure and where I believe the true message of this piece became clear. I knew that it was Christ resurrected and that the detail of his features was that of Revelation Chapter 1.

to finish off the painting God took me deeper and revealed the cross of light as being the centre of the Jesus figure and with that God spoke the message to me so clearly.

It was reminiscent of Pauls reminder to the Philippians that it's about Christ being crucified and resurrected. As Paul pulled our focus in that letter back to the Gospel so did God whisper to me as I painted that cross.

He said the Church is so caught chasing after the signs and wonders and all the bells and whistles of the Holy Spirit. Especially the charismatic churches which have lost focus on the cross at the expense of trying to be powerful. He followed up this message in my heart with the following words.

If you want to access my power, my beautiful Holy Spirit you need to go back to me Yeshua and look at the centre of my ministry which was to reconcile you, my brothers and sisters, back into my Fathers heart. How did this happen my Son he said? My cross Son, My cross.

I will let you meditate and pray on this piece and allow the purifying fires to consume you to the place that the Father is calling you into deep deep wells of His life-giving water.

Check all my art at https://www.instagram.com/jrfaithcreations/
DAMASCUS - Five Syrian soldiers and four civilians were reportedly killed in an Israeli air raid last night near Damascus, a Syrian military source was quoted as saying by the State-owned Sana news agency on Wednesday. "The Israeli enemy carried out an attack at dawn. targeting several positions around Damascus", the military source was quoted as saying.



The UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was the deadliest attack of its kind since the beginning of the year. According to the NGO, Israel in particular targeted an arms deposit and several military positions tied to Iran, an enemy of the Jewish State.




BEIRUT - The Lebanese government on Tuesday tasked the armed forces with opening an investigation into an incident in the night between Saturday and Sunday which caused the death of six migrants off the coast of Tripoli, Nna government news agency reports. The agency said the cabinet charged top military officials with "conducting a transparent investigation, under the supervision of competent judicial authorities, on the circumstances of the incident".



Some survivors said that the military cutter voluntarily rammed the migrant boat, which was overcrowded and was attempting to reach Cyprus. The army responded saying that the tragedy was caused by bad weather, by overcrowding on the boat and by the "reckless" maneuvers of traffickers. The UN stated that there were 84 people on the boat, including Lebanese and Syrian nationals. The army claims that 48 passengers were rescued. So far, six lifeless bodies have been found, including that of an 18-month-old girl.



So far, 30 people still reportedly are missing. Search operations are ongoing at sea and along the coast.



The UN says that since the beginning of 2021, over 1,500 people have attempted to leave Lebanon - which has been hit by its worst financial crisis in decades - illegally and by sea.
TUNIS - The leader of the Al Amal party, experienced politician Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, has said that "Tunisia can be rescued only by a government of national salvation based on an emergency program and widespread national support, which must respond to current issues, first of all the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)". Chebbi was speaking to radio Express Fm, announcing his plan to form a "national salvation front" to counter actions by President Kais Saied and help the country get out of its crisis through dialogue.



The aim of the initiative, he explained, "is to unite the country's live forces that are able to fill the current political void, counterbalancing the power in place and pushing towards the organization of a national dialogue". Parliament - said Chebbi - could meet to approve the results of this national dialogue and vote the subsequent government. The politician stated that this national salvation front is open to "all those who oppose the 'coup' and support a peaceful way to exit the crisis". Chebbi's initiative should be officially presented to the public at a press conference.




The Duchess of Cornwall will visit the National Theatre for the first time since taking over as royal patron from The Duchess of Sussex.

Camilla was handed the prestigious role by the Queen last month after Meghan was stripped of the position as part of the post-Megxit review.

During Wednesdays visit to the London theatre, the duchess will meet staff and members of the National Theatres community programme, Public Acts, as well as the theatres executive director, Kate Varah, and director Rufus Norris.

She will also visit the Olivier Theatre and watch a 10-minute workshop on The Odyssey, by the Public Acts company, the National Theatres nationwide initiative to create extraordinary acts of theatre and community.

After the workshop, Mr Norris will give a short speech welcoming the duchess, before she meets representatives from departments across the National Theatre including the prop and costume teams, cast members and puppeteers from The Ocean At The End of the Lane and front of house staff.

Meghan was stripped of the prestigious role in February 2022 (PA Wire/ Aaron Chown)

The royal patronage of the National Theatre was the first of the Duchess of Sussexs former roles to be taken over.

The new duty for Camilla is another sign of the Queens faith in her daughter-in-law, who she endorsed as a future Queen Consort while marking her historic Platinum Jubilee last month.

The Queen has been associated with the National Theatre since its earliest days at the Old Vic in the 1960s, last visiting with the Duke of Edinburgh as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations in 2013.

In addition to a number of private visits, The Duchess of Cornwall most recently visited the Theatre Royal Drury Lane with The Prince of Wales in July and spoke about the importance and resilience of theatre at the virtual Olivier Awards in 2020.

Camilla has previously been described as an avid theatre-goer, whose existing patronages include The Royal Academy of Dance, Royal Society of Literature, Friends of The Royal Academy, London Chamber Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra, Theatre Royal Bath, Unicorn Theatre for Children and Georgian Theatre Royal.
P&O Ferries has resumed cross-Channel sailings for the first time since it sacked nearly 800 seafarers.

The vessel Spirit of Britain departed Dover for Calais shortly after 11pm on Tuesday carrying freight customers.

Passenger services are expected to resume early next week.

The Spirit of Britain departs from the Port of Dover, in Kent, as P&O Ferries resume Dover-Calais sailings for freight customers (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Earlier in the day another P&O Ferries ship, European Causeway, was adrift five miles off the coast of Northern Ireland for more than an hour on Tuesday afternoon after losing power.

The company was widely condemned after replacing 786 crew members with cheaper agency staff on March 17.

Chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite told a joint hearing of the Commons business and transport committees later that month that P&O Ferries broke the law by not consulting with trade unions before implementing the decision.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told MPs on Wednesday that Mr Hebblethwaites refusal to resign is completely unsustainable.

The P&O Ferries vessel Spirit of Britain (bottom) arrives back at the Port of Dover in Kent (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Mr Shapps said: He will have to go.

The Cabinet minister urged P&O Ferries to repay 11 million of furlough money claimed from the Government during the coronavirus pandemic.

He added that the company will have to pay the minimum wage when new legislation is introduced.

Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Lynch said: After yesterdays vessel ran adrift off the coast of Larne, no P&O ferry should set sail on safety grounds.

Staffing ferries with undertrained, ill-equipped, over-worked and grossly underpaid seafarers blatantly undermines maritime safety.

There will be more safety-related incidents on the P&O fleet under these intolerable owners and we can only hope that they do not escalate in seriousness.

Instead of taking that gamble with worker and passenger safety, the Government must step in now and take over the running of all P&O vessels.

On Tuesday, the Trade Unions Congress called for a public and commercial boycott of the firm, claiming it deserves pariah status for the way it treated its employees.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps (Gareth Fuller/PA)

P&O Ferries suspension of Dover-Calais sailings after the sackings led to a shortage of capacity on the key route, sparking long queues of lorries on coastbound roads in Kent in the run-up to Easter.

Spirit Of Britain was detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on April 12 after safety issues were found, but was cleared to sail on Friday.

European Causeway, which can carry up to 410 passengers, got into difficulty on Tuesday after losing power while sailing between Cairnryan, Scotland and Larne, Northern Ireland.

The Marine Traffic website stated the ferrys automatic identification system status had been set to not under command, which is reserved for use when a vessel is unable to manoeuvre as required by these rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel.

A spokesman for P&O Ferries said it had been a temporary issue and the European Causeway had travelled to Larne under its own propulsion.

He added that all the relevant authorities have been informed and a full independent investigation will be undertaken.

On Wednesday, the MCA said: Our surveyors are carrying out a full inspection of P&O Ferries vessel European Causeway. This follows the mechanical failure while it was at sea yesterday.

It is important to note that this does not mean the ferry is under detention but will be inspected before it returns to full service.

There are no further inspections of P&O Ferries at the moment but we will reinspect when requested by P&O Ferries.
Boris Johnson is uncomfortable with the idea of politicians summoning journalists to explain their stories, Downing Street said after the editor of The Mail On Sunday refused a meeting with the Commons Speaker to discuss an article in his newspaper about Angela Rayner.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle told MPs on Monday he had arranged a meeting with The Mail On Sundays David Dillon following an outcry over claims in the article that the deputy Labour leader crossed and uncrossed her legs to distract Boris Johnson in the Commons.

In his response to the Speaker, published in the Daily Mail, Mr Dillon said he and his political editor Glen Owen would not be attending as journalists should not take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be.

Downing Street issued a thinly veiled rebuke to the Speaker over his attempt to call in Mr Dillon.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said Mr Johnson  a former journalist  would not want any perception of politicians seeking to in any way curb or control what a free press seeks to report.

The spokesman added: The Prime Minister is uncomfortable at the idea of our free press being summoned by politicians.

We have a free press in this country and reporters must be free to report what they are told as they see fit.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail published comments made by Ms Rayner in a light-hearted political podcast in January in which she discussed comparisons between her attire and behaviour at Prime Ministers Questions and a scene in the movie Basic Instinct featuring Sharon Stone.

The Mail implies today that I somehow enjoy being subjected to sexist slurs. I dont. They are mortifying and deeply hurtful.  Angela Rayner  (@AngelaRayner) April 27, 2022

On comedian Matt Fordes The Political Party, Ms Rayner said she was mortified by an internet meme comparing her actions to the scene in which Stones character crosses and uncrosses her legs in front of detectives while not wearing underwear.

She said: There is a tint of misogyny in it. Every time I do a PMQs somebody has an opinion on what I wear.

Did you see the meme on Sharon Stone like I was doing it at the last PMQs? I was mortified.

Forde asked her if the suggestion was that she was doing that to distract Boris, to which she replied: It doesnt take much, does it? I dont need to do that.

After the comments were reported, Ms Rayner said on Wednesday: I said to (Forde) in January that the sexist film parody about me was misogynistic and it still is now.

As women we sometimes try to brush aside the sexism we face, but that doesnt make it ok.

The Mail implies today that I somehow enjoy being subjected to sexist slurs. I dont. They are mortifying and deeply hurtful.

She loves it really is a typical excuse so many women are familiar with. But it cant be womens responsibility to call it out every time. I dont need anyone to explain sexism to me  I experience it every day.

Boris Johnson gave assurances he would unleash the terrors of the earth on the Tory MPs spreading this vile sexism.

I hope to hear what hell be doing about it today.

In the report which triggered the row, The Mail On Sunday quoted an unnamed MP saying: She knows she cant compete with Boriss Oxford Union debating training, but she has other skills which he lacks.

She has admitted as much when enjoying drinks with us on the (Commons) terrace.

In his letter declining the meeting with the Speaker, Mr Dillon wrote that following investigations by the Conservative Party, three other MPs who were part of the group on the House of Commons terrace, one of them a woman, have come forward to corroborate the account of Angela Rayners remarks given to us by the MP who was the source of last Sundays story.

Angela Rayner said she urged the paper not to run the story (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Sir Lindsay said he wanted to use the meeting  which had been planned for Wednesday morning  to ask we are all a little kinder, issuing a plea to reporters to consider the feelings of MPs and their families when covering stories in Parliament.

He made the point that he had only recently rejected calls to remove the parliamentary pass from another journalist after some MPs called for Mr Owen, who wrote the report about Ms Rayner, to have his pass removed.

I firmly believe in the duty of reporters to cover Parliament, but I would also make a plea, nothing more, for the feelings of all MPs and their families to be considered, and the impact on their safety, when articles are written.

I would just ask that we are all a little kinder, Sir Lindsay said.
Nearly one in five (18%) people say they have no disposable income left to spend after their essential outgoings have been paid for, a survey has found.

This is up from 13% who had no leftover discretionary income before the coronavirus pandemic, according to HSBC UK.

Women (21%) are more likely to say they have no money left over once essentials have been paid for than men (15%).

The findings also indicate that women are particularly likely to have continued spending cuts initially made earlier on in the coronavirus pandemic in order to manage the cost-of-living crisis that has now emerged.

Among women who have changed their spending habits, nearly half (49%) are still spending less money on eating out compared with pre-pandemic, as are 40% of men.

Some 37% of women are still buying lower-cost alternatives for goods such as groceries, as are 26% of men.

More than one in 10 (12%) women have dipped into savings to cover everyday costs, as have 9% of men.

Chantelle Perkins, senior financial wellbeing consultant at HSBC UK, said: In the face of rising costs, its important for people to have full clarity on the current state of their finances and to know what resources are available to help them understand exactly how they are spending their money.

Budget calculators and features such as our financial fitness score tool can provide valuable support in helping people manage their day-to-day finances and plan for the future.

People with problem debts could consider contacting charities such as StepChange, the Money Advice Trust, Christians Against Poverty and Citizens Advice for help and support.

The UK Government-backed Money Helper service also provides general tips about finances and budgeting.

 More than 2,100 people were surveyed across Britain in April.
UK ports will be required to check whether ferry crews are paid at least the national minimum wage following the P&O Ferries sackings, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced.

The Cabinet minister told MPs that the Government will introduce new legislation in response to the companys decision to replace nearly 800 seafarers with cheaper agency workers.

The new crew are paid an average of just 5.50 per hour.

This is below the UKs national minimum wage of 9.50 per hour, but P&O Ferries insists it is in line with international maritime law.

The Spirit of Britain departs from the Port of Dover in Kent as sailings resume (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Giving evidence to the Commons Transport Select Committee, Mr Shapps said the Government will include amendments to the 1964 Harbours Act in the Queens Speech on May 10.

He said we wont be expecting ports to physically enforce the new minimum wage requirement on ferries.

What we will require them to do is ask for confirmation and clarification  in the same way as they ask, for example, that the relevant insurance has been paid  that the relevant pay was being made.

Mr Shapps said enforcement of minimum pay rules for ferry workers will be the responsibility of himself and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), but ports will have a check that they will do to ensure (a ship is) within the law.

He denied that P&O Ferries has got away with sacking 786 crew members, stating there are three things that P&O will need to do to get out of this mess.

Chief executive Peter Hebblethwaites refusal to resign despite admitting to MPs that the company broke the law by not consulting with trade unions is completely unsustainable and he will have to go, according to Mr Shapps.

The minister urged P&O Ferries to repay the 11 million of furlough money it claimed from the Government during the coronavirus pandemic.

And he added that the company will have to pay the minimum wage when new legislation is introduced.

P&O Ferries resumed cross-Channel sailings on Tuesday (Gareth Fuller/PA)

P&O Ferries resumed cross-Channel sailings on Tuesday night for the first time since the mass sackings on March 17.

The vessel Spirit Of Britain began operating between Dover and Calais for carrying freight customers.

Passenger services are expected to resume early next week.

Spirit Of Britain was detained by the MCA on April 12 after safety issues were found, but was cleared to sail on Friday.

Another P&O Ferries ship, European Causeway, was adrift five miles off the coast of Northern Ireland for more than an hour on Tuesday afternoon after losing power.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said UK ports will be required to check whether ferry crews are paid at least the national minimum wage (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Lynch said: After yesterdays vessel ran adrift off the coast of Larne, no P&O ferry should set sail on safety grounds.

Staffing ferries with undertrained, ill-equipped, overworked and grossly underpaid seafarers blatantly undermines maritime safety.

European Causeway, which can carry up to 410 passengers, got into difficulty after losing power while sailing between Cairnryan in Scotland and Larne in Northern Ireland.

A spokesman for P&O Ferries said it had been a temporary issue and the European Causeway had travelled to Larne under its own propulsion.

On Wednesday, the MCA said: Our surveyors are carrying out a full inspection of P&O Ferries vessel European Causeway.

This follows the mechanical failure while it was at sea yesterday.
"Chippy" the tortilla-making robot may soon have new friends in the back of Chipotle restaurants.

"There are other opportunities [to use robots]," Chipotle CFO Jack Hartung said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "Dishwashing is not a job our crews like to do either. It's hot and messy. Our crews say it would be great if I could spend less time or no time at all  on these tasks."

Chipotle said recently it has linked up with Miso Robotics to bring Chippy  an autonomous robot programmed to make Chipotle's tortilla chips  into its restaurants.

The robot is currently being tested at the company's innovation center in Irvine, California, and will be integrated into a Chipotle restaurant in Southern California later this year.

Chippy. (Chipotle)

"Our approach is to look at areas where it's a repetitive task, a task that our crew doesn't love doing, so we can automate that and really enhance the experience the crews have," Hartung said.

White Castle, the first major fast-food chain to work with Miso Robotics on a robot several years ago, announced in February it would bring "Flippy 2" to one-third of its restaurants nationwide to help make burgers and fries.

Other restaurant chains continue to explore their use of robots to tackle the labor shortage.

In 2021, Domino's Pizza struck a deal with self-driving delivery company Nuro to launch autonomous pizza delivery in parts of Houston.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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Elon Musk has several hurdles to clear before his $44 billion bid for Twitter (TWTR) makes it past the finish line. And the costs to acquire the social media company could escalate as shareholders weigh in.

On Monday, Twitters board unanimously approved the Tesla (TSLA) CEO's offer to buy the social media company for $54.20 a share to take it private, following an earlier attempt to block Musks hostile takeover.

Merger and acquisition lawyers describe the agreement as an end to the deal's beginning, rather than a sign that it will be completed. Shareholders and regulators, they say, can push back against the proposal. Shareholders, in large enough numbers, can press for a higher share price, or flat-out reject Musk's offer. U.S. regulators can also require transparency and object if they find antitrust concerns.

Twitter's bylaws require the company to give shareholders at least 10 days notice before a meeting to vote on the deal, which is expected to close in 2022.

John Livingstone, a research fellow for Case Western Reserve University School of Law, says shareholder approval is the most significant hurdle for Musk and noted the board's vote is simply a recommendation.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer media award in Berlin on Dec. 1, 2020. (Hannibal Hanschke/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Musk acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter earlier this month, initially planning to be a passive investor and then agreeing to join the board. He reversed both of those decisions before saying in an April 13 securities filing that he intended to buy Twitter. In a letter and text message to Twitter's board, he offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 a. share  a 54% premium over the last day of trading before he started acquiring shares.

Because Musk lacks a controlling stake, he needs a majority of its shareholders to vote in his favor, according to Livingstone.

The board cant do this without the shareholders' approval, Livingstone said. The shareholders can take it or leave it.

University of Chicago Law School professor Todd Henderson said a "no" vote by Twitter shareholders is the only factor that he anticipates could derail the deal, though that seems unlikely.

On the other hand, he points to Twitter's share price, trading at a wide arbitrage spread, around $49 on Tuesday, as an indication that there's some market hesitation about the deal going through.

"The market must think there is some risk of non-consummation," Henderson said, noting Musk's history of making unsubstantiated public statements. "It is unlikely this is regulatory."

Twitter agreed to file a preliminary proxy statement as soon as practicable, and to hold a special meeting for a stockholder vote.

University of Pennsylvania Law School Jill Fisch says the proxy statement is key to persuading Twitter's shareholders to vote yes because it will provide considerably more information than they have right now.

So thats really critical that the disclosure be complete and accurate, Fisch said.

The document will include details such as how Musk intends to finance the purchase, what background events led to the offer, and what will happen to shares held by Twitters employees and executives.

SEC will 'look carefully' at Twitter's proxy statement

Before shareholders receive the proxy, the Securities and Exchange Commission must approve it.

The SEC is going to be looking pretty carefully at the proxy statement, Fisch said.

The agency will want to ensure that Musks public statements about the offer have been complete, accurate, and overall, comply with securities laws, she said.

Even with the SEC's proxy approval, other sticking points could collapse or delay the deal. In large enough numbers, shareholders can sue in chancery court in Delaware, where Twitter is headquartered, to demand a higher share price from Musk. Livingston said the court would seriously consider such a move if 10% or more of Twitter's shareholders object.

And other regulators, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Department of Justice could ask Musk to address antitrust and other concerns.

According to Livingstone, objecting shareholders may have a compelling argument that Musk's offer is too low, considering that Twitter, at its peak in February 2021, traded north of $77 per share.

The argument is a difficult one to win, he said, given Delaware courts' tendency to defer to boards. However, concerned shareholders could overrule the board, and a decision in their favor could cost the billionaire more than he's currently slated to pay.

Legal experts say the deal must also satisfy antitrust regulators, though traditional competition concerns are less likely to stand in the way given that Musks other primary businesses  Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, The Boring Company, and Neuralink  don't involve social media.

Nonetheless, Fisch says the Biden administrations general concerns over corporate power are magnified by Musks potential control of Twitter, and therefore could attract special scrutiny.

One could imaginethe antitrust review possibly being more complicated, or taking longer, by subjecting the merger to additional scrutiny, Fisch said.

Anti-monopoly advocacy group Open Markets Institute disagreed in a statement published Tuesday, saying Musks ownership interest in the satellite communications system Starlink is reason for concern.

Mr. Musk already controls one of the most important internet platforms in the world, the group said about Starlink. This means that just as we would now expect the U.S. government to block a takeover of Twitter by Google, Facebook, Comcast, or Verizon, the same rules apply to the owners of Starlink.

In a regulatory document filed on April 20, Musk indicated he would complete the Twitter acquisition via X Holdings, a company he solely owns and which he founded earlier this month.

Twitter shares closed Tuesday at $49.68 per share, down 3.01% from Monday's close. Meanwhile, Tesla shares continued a decline on Tuesday, closing at $876.42  down 12.2% from the previous day's close.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.

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WARSAW/SOFIA/KYIV (Reuters) - Russian energy firm Gazprom said on Wednesday it had halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay for gas in roubles, the Kremlin's toughest retaliation yet to international sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

Poland confirmed that supplies had been cut, while Bulgaria said it would find out soon. Both accused Gazprom of breaching longstanding supply contracts.

"Because all trade and legal obligations are being observed, it is clear that at the moment the natural gas is being used more as a political and economic weapon in the current war," Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said.

Gazprom said in a statement it had "completely suspended gas supplies to Bulgargaz and PGNiG due to absence of payments in roubles," referring to the Polish and Bulgarian gas companies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that buyers from "unfriendly" countries pay for gas in roubles or be cut off, starting from the date payments are due for April. The European Union has rejected this demand as rewriting contracts that called for payment in euros.

Poland receives its Russian gas through the Yamal-Europe pipeline from Russia's huge gas fields in the Arctic far north, which continues west to supply Germany and other European countries. Bulgaria is supplied through pipes over Turkey.

Polish state-owned PGNiG confirmed its supplies from Gazprom had been cut but said it was still supplying its own clients as needed.

"Cutting gas supplies is a breach of contract and PGNiG reserves the right to seek compensation and will use all available contractual and legal means to do so," the company said.

Gazprom's Bovanenkovo gas field.

Supplies from Gazprom cover about 50% of Poland's consumption and about 90% of Bulgaria's. Poland said it did not need to draw on reserves and its gas storage was 76% full. Bulgaria has said it is in talks to try to import liquefied natural gas through Turkey and Greece.

Russia's energy exports had until now continued largely unhindered since the war began, the biggest loophole in sanctions that have otherwise cut off Moscow from much of its trade with the West.

Kyiv has called on Europe to stop funding Moscow's war effort by cutting off energy imports that bring Russia hundreds of millions of dollars a day.

Germany, the biggest buyer of Russian energy, said this week it is hoping to stop importing Russian oil within days. But weaning Europe off cheap and abundant Russian natural gas, which heats its houses, fuels its factories and drives its electric power plants, would be a far more disruptive prospect.

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was "beginning the gas blackmail of Europe".

"Russia is trying to shatter the unity of our allies," Yermak said.

RUSSIA MAKES GAINS IN EAST

Since the Russian invasion force was driven back at the outskirts of Kyiv last month, Moscow has refocused its operation on eastern Ukraine, starting a new offensive from several directions to fully capture two provinces known as the Donbas.

Ukraine's general staff acknowledged that Russia had made gains at a number of areas in the east, capturing outskirts of the towns of Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody on one front, and the Zarichne and Novoshtokivske settlements in Donetsk region.

Russia's defence ministry said its missiles had struck an arms depot in Zaporizhzhia region housing weapons from the United States and European countries.

An aide to the mayor of the port city of Mariupol said Russian forces had renewed their attacks on the Azovstal steel plant, where fighters and some civilians are holed up. No agreements had been reached on trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday, aide Petro Andryushchenko also said.

Ukraine said it had attacked Snake Island, a Black Sea outpost seized by Russia early in the war when defenders became heroes to Ukrainians for rejecting a Russian demand to surrender with an obscenity.

There has been increasing concern over the prospect of the conflict widening to neighbouring Moldova, where pro-Russian separatists in a small region occupied since the 1990s by Russian troops have reported several explosions in recent days.

The invasion of Ukraine has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble, and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad.

Moscow calls its actions a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West call this is a pretext for an unprovoked war to seize territory.

The United States and its allies have increasingly been supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons for the fight in the east. More than 40 countries met at a U.S. air base in Germany on Tuesday to discuss Ukraine's defence. Germany announced its first delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, including Gepard light tanks equipped with anti-aircraft guns.

AMMUNITION DUMP BURNS IN RUSSIA

Blasts were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine, authorities said, and an ammunition depot in the Belgorod province caught fire. The regional governor said the blaze near Staraya Nelidovka village had been put out and no civilians had been hurt.

Russia this month accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters and opening fire on several villages in the province. A massive fire also broke out this week at a fuel depot in nearby Bryansk. Ukraine does not confirm responsibility for reported incidents on Russian territory.

British military intelligence said Ukraine retained control over most of its air space and Russia had failed to effectively destroy Ukraine's air force or its air defences.
A juvenile suspect was arrested Tuesday in connection with the death of Lily Peters, a 10-year-old Wisconsin girl.

Police said only that the suspect knew Peters, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. They wouldnt release any other identifying information.

Peters father reported her missing Sunday night, when she didnt return from a trip to her aunts house in Chippewa Falls.

Stuffed animals are left at the altar during a prayer vigil for 10-year-old Iliana "Lily" Peters at Valley Vineyard Church in Chippewa Falls on Monday night.





Stuffed animals are left at the altar during a prayer vigil for 10-year-old Iliana "Lily" Peters at Valley Vineyard Church in Chippewa Falls on Monday night. (Jeff Wheeler/)

Her body was found Monday morning in woods near her aunts house. Peters bicycle was found nearby as well.

Prior to the arrest Tuesday, police had said Peters was probably last seen by family members. She was supposed to be on her way home but never made it.

The public school district in Chippewa Falls, a city of 14,000 people about 90 miles east of Minneapolis, increased its police presence on Tuesday. After the suspect was arrested, police said there was no danger to the community.

Officers were seen Tuesday searching Peters aunts home, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But police did not release any information about that search.
Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as secretary of state who died last month at the age of 84, was remembered as a tenacious defender of American ideals and freedom around the globe during a funeral service honoring her legacy on Wednesday.

More than 1,400 dignitaries, current and former U.S. officials and top lawmakers were in attendance for the ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral. President Biden, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed Albright's decades-long influence on U.S. foreign policy and trail-blazing career.

"Freedom endures against all odds in the face of every aggressor because there are always those who will fight for that freedom. In the 20th and 21st century, freedom had no greater champion than Madeleine Korbel Albright," Mr. Biden said, calling her a "truly proud American who made all of us prouder to be Americans."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA Director William Burns and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley were among the current U.S. officials in attendance. Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama were also on hand for the ceremony, as well as several foreign leaders.

Born Marie Jana Korbelova in Prague in 1937, Albright's family fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia for the U.K. just two years after her birth. The family returned after the war, but fled to the U.S. after a Communist coup in 1949. Albright would go on to attend Wellesley College and earn a PhD from Columbia University before serving as a staffer on Capitol Hill and the National Security Council under President Jimmy Carter.

Bill Clinton named Albright as his ambassador to the United Nations in 1993, a role she held until 1997. The Senate approved her nomination as secretary of state in a unanimous vote.

A fierce defender of human rights, Albright guided U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East, the Balkans and Latin America, and pushed to expand NATO to fill the vacuum left in central Europe by the fall of the Soviet Union. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic all joined the alliance during her tenure. In his remarks, Mr. Biden said Albright "was a big part of the reason NATO was still strong and galvanized as it is today."

"She was smart, tough-minded, talented. She had a great sense of humor. And a clear grasp of the post-Cold War world we were moving into," Bill Clinton said, remembering their early interactions.

Mr. Biden recalled his tenure as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during Albright's time as secretary of state, calling her an "incomparable ally and adviser" on foreign policy matters around the globe. He noted that she "made sure that young women know they belonged at every single table having to do with national security, without exception."

Mike Pont/Getty Images

"She didn't just help other women. She spent her entire life counseling and cajoling, inspiring and lifting up so many of us who are here today," Hillary Clinton said in her remarks. "Let us honor Madeleine's life and legacy by being the indispensable nation she loved and served, and let us live as she did, in a hurry to do the most good we can, with every season under heaven."

Upon leaving office, Albright returned to teach at Georgetown University and remained active in the Democratic politics, advising Hillary Clinton in her 2008 bid for the presidency. Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

Hillary Clinton at Madeleine Albright's funeral: "The angels better be wearing their best pins and putting on their dancing shoes because if, as Madeleine believed, there's a special place in hell for women who don't support other women, they haven't seen anyone like her yet." pic.twitter.com/ZR5fSN4qcx  CBS News (@CBSNews) April 27, 2022

Bill Clinton pays tribute to Madeleine Albright:



"We love you, Madeleine. We miss you. But I hope we never stop hearing you ... Just sit on our shoulder and nag us to death until we do the right thing." pic.twitter.com/uf0DAaMI3a  CBS News (@CBSNews) April 27, 2022

Pres. Biden honors Madeleine Albright: "She loved to speak about America as the 'indispensable nation.' ... It was a testament in her belief in the endless possibilities that only America could unlock around the world, and the understanding of what American power can achieve." pic.twitter.com/ZzqaiZIsYG  CBS News (@CBSNews) April 27, 2022

On Wednesday, Mr. Biden said Albright "understood that her story is America's story."

"She loved to speak about America as the 'indispensable nation.' To her, the phrase was never a statement of arrogance  it was about gratitude for all this country made possible for her," he said. "It was a testament in her belief in the endless possibilities that only America could unlock around the world, and the understanding of what American power can achieve."

Albright died on March 23 after a battle with cancer, her family said.

"We love you, Madeleine. We miss you. But I hope we never stop hearing you," Clinton said to conclude his remarks. "Just sit on our shoulder and nag us to death until we do the right thing."

This story was originally published by CBS News on April 27, 2022.

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A retired New York State Supreme Court justice has recommended a two-year suspension for trainer Bob Baffert, shown at Belmont Park in 2018. (Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)

A retired New York State Supreme Court justice, acting as a hearing officer, recommended that thoroughbred trainer Bob Baffert be banned from horse racing in the state for two years. The recommendation is not binding and will go to a three-person panel, which is expected to accept the punishment.

The 50-page report by O. Peter Sherwood was issued on Saturday, but not announced by the New York Racing Assn. until Wednesday.

Despite the fact that Bob has never had a single medication violation in New York, we expected this interim recommendation to the panel, which is not NYRAs final decision, Baffert attorney Clark Brewster said. We will contest this recommendation until we ultimately find a neutral, detached decision-maker that doesnt rubber stamp the NYRA lawyers demands.

The Hall of Fame trainer was charged in December with three counts: conduct detrimental to racing, and to the health and safety of horses and undermining the confidence of honest racing by the patrons of NYRA. An initial ban was issued by the racing association on May 17 of last year, after the Preakness but before the Belmont Stakes. After many legal proceedings that filled the remainder of the year, Sherwood was named to be the hearing officer and he conducted proceedings Jan. 24 to 28.

The ban came after Medina Spirit, then winner of the Kentucky Derby, tested positive for an anti-inflammatory that is legal except on race day. NYRA cited seven medication positives over a 14-month period. Two of them in Arkansas were later found to be the result of contamination. Baffert had what his attorneys called a reasonable explanation for each of the positives, but taken together, NYRA said it painted a different picture.

Bafferts attorneys argued that, given the concentration levels of the medications, they would not be performance enhancing, would not mask injuries and have no effect on the outcome of the races.

In his report, Sherwood said: NYRA proved that each time Baffert was charged with a violation he provided an implausible excuse, and blamed others for his conduct that he, as the trainer, was responsible for as a matter of law.

The judge was referring to a regulation, commonly known as the trainer insurer rule, which makes the trainer ultimately responsible for every horse and even actions taken by third parties without the trainers knowledge.

Brewster pointed out that NYRA was able to name its own hearing officer and chose Sherwood, who openly admitted he knew very little about horse racing.

On the third day of the hearing, the judge asked the witness to explain what a paddock was, Brewster said. The paddock is where horses are brought for schooling while in training and where they are saddled before racing.

The judge recommended that the ban start the first day Baffert applies for a license in New York, which can be no earlier than July 3. He is currently on a 90-day suspension from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission for the Medina Spirit positive. During that time he cannot race anywhere in the United States. He will not be able to run in any of the Triple Crown races this year and has moved two Kentucky Derby starters, Messier and Taiba, to the barn of Tim Yakteen.

Sherwood did say the panel could consider giving Baffert time served for the 59 days he was suspended last year.

Both sides have seven days to respond to the report and the panel will then have 14 days to make a decision. The panel is made up of John J. Carusone, Jr., an attorney who is a member of a city advisory board that communicates with Saratoga Race Course and NYRA, William Alempijevic, executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemens Assn., and Humberto Chavez, head of the New York Race Track Chaplaincy.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley is only three months younger than California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but age has not been a major campaign issue as the 88-year-old Iowan seeks reelection. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

When Chuck Grassley was first elected to public office, Dwight Eisenhower was president and Alaska and Hawaii were brand new states.

After more than 40 years in the Senate  following stints in the Iowa Legislature and three terms in the U.S. House  Grassley is now seeking another six years in office. He is 88 and would be 95 at the end of his term if reelected.

Still, Grassley faces nothing like the pressure being directed at Sen. Dianne Feinstein to stand aside, even though the Iowa Republican is only three months younger than the California Democrat. He seems certain to waltz past his 59-year-old primary opponent in June, and is a solid bet to win reelection in November.

Unlike Feinstein, Grassley also faces no clamor within his party to let someone younger take his place.

On Tuesday, the Senate Democratic leader, New York's Charles E. Schumer, conspicuously declined when asked by reporters to vouch for Feinstein's fitness to serve. "I've had a good number of discussions with Sen. Feinstein, but I'm keeping them to myself," said Schumer, who pressed her to surrender the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee when Democrats took control of the Senate last year.

Is Feinstein facing a double-standard because of her gender?

No. She isn't.

While Feinstein still seems capable of doing her job, her mental acuity has visibly declined in recent years. It is no secret the senator relies heavily on her staff  though the same can be said for many lawmakers  and suffers from memory lapses.

By contrast, Grassley "makes a point of seeming as active and vital as ever," said Dennis Goldford, a decades-long student of Iowa politics who teaches at Des Moines' Drake University. He recently chatted with Grassley at an Iowa event promoting support for Israel.

(Grassley announced his reelection bid last September in a tweet that read, Its 4 a.m. in Iowa so Im running. I do that 6 days a week." Included was an image of the senator jogging.)

Karen Kedrowski, an Iowa State expert on women and politics, agreed the elderly incumbent has given voters no obvious reason to question his physical well-being or mental capacity. "There's been no gossip," she said, "no whispering about him not being able to do the job."

On Capitol Hill, Grassley is constantly shadowed by an aide, but appears sharp and very much on top of Senate business.

More importantly, he has kept up a long-standing tradition back home, spending summers visiting each of Iowa's 99 counties.

"If you're out in the middle of rural Iowa in some county where the population is less than any one of Des Moines' suburbs, you still feel respected and paid attention to and appreciated because he shows up," Goldford said. "That means a lot in a state like this."

Tellingly, Grassley's opponents have not overtly sought to make age an issue.

His Republican rival, state Sen. Jim Carlin, has instead wrapped himself around former President Trump and echoed his lies about voter fraud and a stolen 2020 election. Democrats have split along their usual lines over which approach  rallying the party's liberal base or appealing to centrist and potential cross-over voters  offers the best chance of unseating Grassley.

His main Democratic challenger, former Rep. Abby Finkenauer, is 33. When she was born, Grassley was already serving his second term in the Senate.

Finkenauer, who served a single term in the House before narrowly losing her 2020 reelection bid, refers only glancingly to the senator's advanced age. Instead, she speaks of his many decades in Washington, suggesting  in the face of Grassley's assiduous courtship of even the smallest-town voter  that he has lost touch with Iowa.

That could fall under the category of not belaboring the obvious, though there is little evidence to suggest leaning into the age issue would do her, or any of Grassley's opponents, much good. If anything, Kedrowski said, it could backfire.

Democrats were heartened last year when a Des Moines Register poll showed 64% of those surveyed said it was "time for someone else to occupy Grassley's seat. Fewer than 3 in 10 said theyd support his bid for an eighth term.

However, those sort of surveys, measuring a candidate's appeal in the abstract, don't necessarily translate when real-life opponents are matched up. A subsequent poll showed Grassley leading Finkenauer 55% to 37%.

The circumstances were similar when Feinstein prepared to seek reelection in 2018.

An April 2017 poll found more than half of California's registered voters thought it would bebad thing for her to run again. When reminded of Feinstein's age, that sentiment grew to 62%.

The next year she was handily elected to a fifth six-year term.

Feinstein appears competent to keep serving in the Senate. Barring clear-cut evidence of incapacity, she deserves to serve out the remainder of her term and, if smart, won't run again in 2024.

Those pushing her to quit now may be politically pragmatic or ruthless, uncaring or merely unflinching, depending on your perspective. There's no reason to believe the main impetus is sexism.

The decline and fall of geriatric male senators such as South Carolina's Strom Thurmond, West Virginia's Robert Byrd and Mississippi's Thad Cochran were well-chronicled in their time.

Feinstein may be a target. But she's not a victim.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Disneys self-governing district, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, can only be dissolved if Florida pays off its debts, experts say.

Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis raised the stakes in the ongoing ideological battle over the ongoing Dont Say Gay debate by signing into law a bill that would no longer allow Disney to self-govern the areas around its theme parks in Central Florida.

According to its website, the Reedy Creek Improvement District is a progressive form of government whose purpose is to support and administer certain aspects of the economic development and tourism within [its] boundaries.

On Friday, DeSantis signed legislation to dissolve the district on June 1, 2023, as a way to retaliate against Disney over its criticism of the controversial Dont Say Gay law  legislation that forbids discussions about gender identity and sexual orientation in primary schools classrooms.

People visit Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, on April 22, 2022.





People visit Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, on April 22, 2022. (Ted Shaffrey/)

But according to one law expert, the unwinding of the district poses a contractual impossibility.

Jacob Schumer, an attorney specializing in local government from Maitland, Fl. said that a promise made to Reedy Creeks bondholders could complicate things for DeSantis.

In a document acquired by local television station WESH-TV, Reedy Creek officials recently reminded investors that the state has pledged to fulfill the terms of any agreement made with bondholders.

The Reedy Creek Improvement Act of 1967, the state law that created the district, states that Florida will not in any way impair the rights or remedies of the holders  until all such bonds together with interest thereon, and all costs and expenses in connection with any act or proceeding by or on behalf of such holders, are fully met and discharged.

That means that Florida simply cannot promise to prospective bondholders that it wont interfere with Reedy Creek, and then dissolve Reedy Creek, Schumer wrote in an analysis for Bloomberg Tax. If Reedy Creek is ever dissolved, it would be a monumental and complicated enterprise even on a years-long timeline, he said.

The district has a nine-figure annual budget for expenditures, and even ignoring its various debts, it has a plethora of other contracts that somehow would have to be assigned to and divided between Orange and Osceola counties. However, the dissolution will have to wait until all of its bonds are paid in full, he concluded.

According to the credit rating agency Fitch Ratings, Reedy Creek has about $1 billion in outstanding bond debt.
TheGrio asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki in Tuesdays press briefing about the realm of possibility as the virus continues to spread in Washington.

The majority of Americans, 60% to be exact, have contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As officials at the White House and on Capitol Hill have learned, Washington is not immune to the vulnerabilities of the virus.

(L-R) U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris walk back to the Oval Office after an event about gun violence in the Rose Garden of the White House April 11, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

As reported on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris was diagnosed with COVID-19 after undergoing routine testing following her trip to California last week.

Following the news of Vice President Harriss diagnosis, theGrio asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki during Tuesdays press briefing what would happen if President Joe Biden were to test positive and become seriously ill while Harris is also positive?

Psaki said that because of all the precautions and steps we have taken he would be able to continue his duties.

When asked about the plan for succession of power in the event that Biden, 78, was to contract and become seriously ill with COVID-19 and if Vice President Harris were also seriously ill, the Speaker of the House would be next in line. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently recovered from her bout with the virus earlier this month.

This hypothetical scenario is not beyond the realm of possibility, as President Biden will attend the White House Correspondents Association Dinner this Saturday. The dinner, known as the years biggest event in Washington, will hold about 2,600 people. After the dinner, the commander in chief will then travel Sunday to the funeral of former Vice President Walter Mondale, putting him more at risk for contracting COVID-19 than he would be in the confines of the 18-acre White House complex.

The presidents lead advisor on COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has declined his ticket to attend the correspondents dinner in fear of contracting the virus. The last big event of this magnitude in Washington was the Gridiron Dinner, which resulted in at least 72 people contracting COVID-19.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi, professor of medicine at George Washington Universitys Rodham Institute and a member of the Black Coalition Against Covid (BCAC), told theGrio, The numbers in our politicians reflect the trend of COVID infections in the public at large. We are beginning to see hospitalizations trending back up.



Although the numbers are not as dramatic as at the start of the pandemic, this underscores the importance of staying vigilant, getting vaccinated and continuing to wear masks. Although were all tired of these restrictions, it beats the alternative of seeing another strain develop which may not be as responsive to the new oral treatment.

She added, There is also the possibility that the widespread use of these medications might result in resistance to the medication, much like we see with antibiotics, rendering them less or not effective at all.

In recent weeks on the Hill, there have been serious concerns about the threat of positive cases, particularly in the U.S. Senate when it is time to take counts for votes like the confirmation tallies for Biden appointments to posts such as the Federal Reserve Board. Currently, several senators have tested positive for COVID-19.

At Tuesdays White House press briefing, Psaki acknowledged the administration still believes the Federal Reserve Board confirmation will pass with the Senate floor vote.

Reflecting on the past few weeks of Senate floor votes, COVID-19 cases were particularly a huge concern that was kept very quiet about making sure senators did not contract the virus to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. The vote was 53-47, with every member present.

In the House and Senate, those who have publicly acknowledged testing positive for COVID include Speaker Pelosi, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, Congressman Gregory Meeks, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Jen Psaki, White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, most recently, Vice President Harris, and many others Biden-Harris administration officials.

TheGrio also learned on Wednesday that there continues to be a high volume of positive cases amongst White House staff.

According to GovTrack, so far, 171 U.S. representatives and senators have been diagnosed with COVID-19, one of whom subsequently died of COVID-19. In total, the tracker found that 215 representatives and senators either were diagnosed with COVID-19, self-quarantined after exposure to someone with COVID-19, or reported exposure but took other action or no action  some multiple times.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post After Harris diagnosis, what if President Biden gets seriously ill with COVID-19? appeared first on TheGrio.
The general counsel of the Los Angeles Times wrote a letter of protest after the L.A. County sheriff launched a criminal leak probe into a reporter who exposed a jail cover-up. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

This letter was sent Tuesday to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva by the general counsel of the Los Angeles Times. It protests a criminal leak investigation of Times reporter Alene Tchekmedyian for her reporting on the departments cover-up of an incident in which a deputy kneeled on the head of a handcuffed inmate for three minutes.

On behalf of the Los Angeles Times and Alene Tchekmedyian (L.A. Times), I am writing in response to your remarks at todays press conference, in which you claimed the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department is criminally investigating a journalist, Ms. Tchekmedyian, for reporting on a security video showing a deputy kneeling on the head of a handcuffed inmate for three minutes. This outrageous assertion appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to intimidate Ms. Tchekmedyian for reporting unflattering (but entirely accurate) information about the conduct of individuals in your department and allegations of a cover-up by you and other officials. If the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department actually initiated an investigation of Ms. Tchekmedyian, it would contravene well-established constitutional law, which bars prosecutions of news reporters for publishing information from confidential official records, including leaked videos that involve matters of public interest. Although I would have assumed that someone in your position would be familiar with these longstanding legal principles, this letter should leave no doubt that any attempt to prosecute Ms. Tchekmedyian  or to threaten her with prosecution, as your announcement appeared intended to do today  is an abuse of your official position that risks subjecting you and the county to legal liability.

First, in Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514 (2001), the United States Supreme Court held that journalists could not be held liable for publishing a recording of an illegally intercepted phone conversation that they received from a source, even though disclosure was prohibited under federal and Pennsylvania wiretapping statutes, and the journalists did know  or at least had reason to know  that the interception was unlawful. Id. at 517-518, 535. The Supreme Court explained that a strangers illegal conduct does not suffice to remove the 1st Amendment shield from speech about a matter of public concern. Id. at 535.

The California Supreme Court adopted the reasoning of Bartnicki in Gates v. Discovery Communications, 34 Cal.4th 679 (2004). The United States Supreme Court began by assuming that the media defendants were aware the recordings were of illegally intercepted communications and that disclosing their content was illegal, but that merely knowing that the information had been illegally intercepted did not change the fact that the media defendants lawfully obtained tapes of the conversation., according to the California Supreme Court. Id. at 691 (citing Bartnicki, 532 U.S. at 524- 525). The allegation that a journalist knew that a third party had done something illegal in obtaining or disclosing information did not convert the journalists conduct to illegal conduct. Instead, as the California Supreme Court stated, the United States Supreme Court ruled that criminalizing disclosure of the conversations implicated the core purpose of the 1st Amendment because it punished the publication of truthful information of public concern. Id. at 692 (citing Bartnicki, 532 U.S. at 532-533).

Seven years ago, the Second Appellate District Court of Appeal followed Bartnicki in a case where several sheriffs deputies tried to restrain publication of a Los Angeles Times article on internal hiring files that showed the Sheriffs Department had hired some 280 employees with histories of serious misconduct. In Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, et al. v. Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, 239 Cal. App. 4th 808 (2015), the Court of Appeal held that criminal or civil liability may not be imposed upon the press for obtaining and publishing newsworthy information through routine reporting techniques, and stated that ordinary news-gathering techniques of course, include asking persons questions, including those with confidential or restricted information. Id. at 819 (citing Nicholson v. McClatchy Newspapers, 177 Cal. App. 3d 509, 519-520 (1986)).

The deputies and their union made assertions similar to your statements today about an L.A. Times journalist receiving stolen property; they also claimed that it was a crime for a reporter to possess confidential records showing the deputies histories of dishonesty and misconduct. ALADS, 239 Cal. App. 4th at 818-820. The Court of Appeal rejected those claims as contrary to the wealth of both State and Federal case law, discussing the protection journalists and the press enjoy under the 1st Amendment where there have been allegations that published or disclosed content had been illegally obtained. Id. at 820 (citing, e.g., Bartnicki, 532 U.S. at 517, 535; Landmark Communications, Inc. v. Virginia, 435 U.S. 829, 838, 841 (1978) (1st Amendment protected newspaper from criminal conviction for publishing confidential proceedings of judicial review commission); Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U.S. 469, 496 (1975) (1st Amendment defense applied to reporter who published rape victims name in violation of state criminal statute); Smith v. Daily Mail Publishing, 443 U.S. 97, 103 (1979) (invalidating state law that criminalized publication of juvenile suspects name without court permission); Florida Star v. B.J.F., 491 U.S. 524, 535-536 (1989) (1st Amendment protected newspaper that published rape victims name that was inadvertently disclosed in violation of Florida law)).

In sum, the Court of Appeal concluded, ALADS has cited no case permitting the kind of injunction it seeks here, to restrain a newspaper from publishing news articles on a matter of public concern: the qualifications of applicants for jobs as law enforcement officers. ALADS has cited no case because there is no such case. For more than 100 years, federal and state courts have refused to allow the subjects of potential news reports to stop journalists from publishing reports about them. Id. at 824.1

Here, as in these cases, the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department could not constitutionally punish Ms. Tchekmedyian or L.A. Times for publishing security video footage showing a deputy kneeling on a handcuffed inmate, which you described as an obstruction of justice. Likewise, the 1st Amendment would bar any criminal prosecution of an L.A. Times journalist for publishing information from internal Sheriffs Department records which indicated that officials in the Department, including you, attempted to cover up the kneeling incident because they feared the negative light it could shed on the Sheriffs Department. See here and here. It is a bedrock principle in the United States that we do not criminalize the receipt and publication of newsworthy information. Allegations of a cover-up by you, the Los Angeles County sheriff, and other officials, regarding a deputy caught on video kneeling on a handcuffed inmate easily qualify as matters of public interest subject to full 1st Amendment protection against any criminal investigation or prosecution.

Second, any attempt to search Ms. Tchekmedyians home, communications, or other property or data (or those of any other L.A. Times employee) in this matter would be illegal, and would subject you, the sheriff, and any other officials involved (as well as Los Angeles County) to significant legal liability.

California Penal Code  1524(g) unequivocally provides that [n]o [search] warrant shall issue for any item or items described in Section 1070 of the Evidence Code. (Emphasis added.) Evidence Code  1070 contains Californias statutory journalists Shield Law, which is virtually identical to the constitutional provision. See Evid. Code  1070; Cal. Const., art. I,  2(b). The Shield Law provides that a journalist shall not be adjudged in contempt ... for refusing to disclose any unpublished information obtained or prepared in gathering, receiving or processing of information for communication to the public. Cal. Const., art. I  2(b); Evid. Code  1070. The Shield Law provides Ms. Tchekmedyian and L.A. Times with absolute protection in this matter. Miller v. Superior Court, 21 Cal. 4th 883, 896-97 (1999)

Shield Law is absolute for a reporter subpoenaed by the People in a criminal case; the only competing interest that may be balanced against the journalists Shield Law rights is a criminal defendants right to a fair trial).

Consequently, Penal Code Section 1524(g) absolutely bars any search warrant directed against Ms. Tchekmedyian or any other L.A. Times employee in this matter, as well as any search warrant directed at any third-party custodian of their data or communications. See C.C.P.  1986.1.

Any attempt to conduct such a search also would violate the federal Privacy Protection Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C.  2000aa et seq. (the PPA). Like Californias Penal Code  1524(g), the PPA generally prohibits government officials from searching for and seizing documentary materials possessed by a person in connection with a purpose to disseminate information to the public. Morse v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal., 821 F. Supp. 2d 1112, 1120-21 (N.D. Cal. 2011) (quotation omitted). See also Smith v. Fair Employment & Hous. Commn, 12 Cal. 4th 1143, 1236 n.11 (1996) (recognizing the PPAs effect of restricting the ability of government investigators to obtain documents from the media).

The PPA broadly applies both to editorial work product and any other documentary materials, and it applies whenever the target of a search is reasonably believed to have a purpose to disseminate to the public information in a newspaper, book, broadcast, or other similar form of public communication. 42 U.S.C.  2000aa(a)-(b). The PPAs narrow exceptions for exigent circumstances or journalists suspected of personally committing criminal offenses are plainly inapplicable here. As discussed above, no legal basis exists for any criminal investigation of Ms. Tchekmedyian or any other L.A. Times employee in this matter; to the contrary, binding constitutional authorities hold that the 1st Amendment absolutely protects our journalists right to receive and publish newsworthy information, regardless of whether authorities might consider it confidential.

The PPA provides for a federal cause of action against state law enforcement officials who improperly target journalists. See Morse v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal., 821 F. Supp. 2d 1112, 1121 (N.D. Cal. 2011) (photojournalist whose camera was seized could bring PPA claim against the chief of the UC Berkeley police department); Citicasters v. McCaskill, 89 F.3d 1350, 1355 (8th Cir. 1996) (local prosecutor could be held liable under PPA based on seizure of videotape from television station).

You are on notice that if the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department attempts to search the property or data of Ms. Tchekmedyian or any other L.A. Times employee in this matter, the department will have directly violated the PPA and clearly established constitutional law, and L.A. Times will seek every available remedy against you, the department, and every individual official involved in any such unlawful conduct. Because your statements at todays press conference have created a concrete likelihood of such a legal claim, we demand that you and the department preserve all documents related to any investigation of Ms. Tchekmedyian or any other L.A. Times employee in this matter.

Sincerely,

Jeff Glasser,



General Counsel



Los Angeles Times



cc: George Gascon



Dawyn R. Harris



Kelli L. Sager



Dan Laidman



John Satterfield

1) The union and the Sheriffs deputies ended up having to reimburse L.A. Times for all its attorneys fees under Californias anti-SLAPP law. See Civ. Proc. Code  425.16(g).





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
BLY, Ore.  Darrell Jacobs has been cutting down dead trees for weeks, trying to salvage several hundred acres of forest that his family lost last summer. The Bootleg Fire  the third largest in state history  ripped through Jacobs property near this remote town in southern Oregon, sparing his house but torching a quarter of the timber and killing more than 40 cattle.

His family, which has ranched the same 3,000 acres since 1881, had never seen a fire so destructive.

I havent tried to figure out how much it cost, and I probably dont want to know, Jacobs said. Its an 80- to 100-year setback.

A logger by trade, Jacobs had long known that his familys property in the dry Klamath Basin was at high risk. For years before the Bootleg Fire he had tried to prepare for it  thinning the forest by removing small trees and underbrush that could turn a small fire into a roaring blaze.

Darrell Jacobs. (NBC News)

The problem, he said, was the price tag. To cut the risk on the whole property would have cost more than $1 million  something only the government could afford.

If wed done this thinning  and then possibly had the state come in and do underburns and stuff like that, it would have saved our ground, he said.

Clearing flammable brush and debris from privately owned forests like Jacobs is a key way to prevent major wildfire damage to homes, property and communities, especially in the parched West. Hundreds of millions of acres owned by more than 10 million families  nearly 40 percent of U.S. forestland  need this kind of management. But wildfire fuel reduction takes knowledge, labor and money. Small landowners need help to do it.

The federal government does risk reduction in national forests, parks and other federally owned land, and state governments protect state lands. Both try to help private landowners do the same, but the assistance programs aren't big or well-funded enough to meet the need. The main federal forest stewardship assistance program reaches less than 10 percent of the highest-risk land annually  and the largest grant program has to turn away most applicants.

Fire and forestry experts say even an expected influx of several billion dollars from state governments and the Biden administration wont be enough or come fast enough. As the climate warms and the number of people living in dense forests rises, a still-larger ramp-up is needed to prepare for future wildfires.

Tree thinning and salvage logging on the Jacobs property. (NBC News)

Its a huge money issue, said Jason Pettigrew, a stewardship forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry, whos advising Jacobs on how to prepare for the next fire. The level of intensity and equipment needed to do this kind of work is well beyond most landowners.  Were looking at $600, $800 or $1,500 per acre in some places.

But not making the investment could be disastrous. The risk of catastrophic wildfire in this area is increasing, he said. And without doing that work, youre faced with losing everything that you have.

Getting assistance

Roughly a century of federal policy to suppress all fires led to a huge buildup of brush, small trees and other fire fuels, making the landscape more prone to catastrophic wildfires. Climate change and drought have pushed it further into crisis.

Theres a recognition that fire needs to come back, said Scott Stephens, a University of California, Berkeley, professor of fire science. But to reintroduce it in a way where most trees survive is a complex process, he said. Landowners need to reduce both the surface fuel load, the amount of dead and down woody material on the ground  twigs, leaves, everything else  and then to reduce the number of trees per acre.

One of the most challenging parts of combating the crisis is doing the fuel reduction work on private land. While much of the forest in the West is publicly owned, families and individuals own more than 9 million acres in high fire-risk areas, according to an assessment by the American Forest Foundation, a conservation organization. A recent study found that in the past three decades far more severe wildfires have started on private land and moved into national forests than the other way around, further underscoring the need for private owners to take action.

But small-property owners rarely have the expertise to know how to manage their land without assistance, said Connecticut State Forester Christopher Martin, the president of the National Association of State Foresters. Thats understandable. They dont own the properties for the purpose of wildfire reduction. Its usually for privacy, because they enjoy the wildlife, for investment.

Risk reduction work is also expensive, and it rarely generates income, Martin said. Even landowners who are motivated to manage their forests need help.

Thats where stewardship foresters like Pettigrew come in. He does everything from enforcing fire and forest laws to educating landowners, connecting them to experts and helping them write management plans and apply for grants.

Jason Pettigrew (NBC News)

The work of foresters like Pettigrew is funded by a mix of federal and state money, with state forestry agencies matching U.S. Forest Service funding. But hes one of just two stewardship foresters in 6,000-square-mile Klamath County.

The main driver for our workload is the amount of funding available for landowners to do work, he said. He works with a few dozen landowners at any given time but estimates that his agency could be assisting as many as 1,500 landowners in Klamath County alone.

Oregon has about 75,000 family forest owners, and the whole country has more than 10 million. Few will do management work without government outreach and assistance. The most recent Forest Service survey of private landowners with more than 10 acres of forest found that about 25 percent dont do any management and that only 11 percent have written plans for their property. The report noted that few are even aware of assistance programs.

The budget for the federal Forest Stewardship program plunged from 2007 to 2014. The wildfire crisis has continued to worsen since then, but the programs budget stayed essentially flat. In that time, the cost of fighting fires ballooned, and needed funds were borrowed from Forest Stewardship and other programs. Congress put a stop to the borrowing starting with the 2020 budget, but even with that fix, the stewardship program still had just half as much money in 2020 as it did before its budget began to decrease.

While that budget languished, the amount of federal grant money available to help landowners has grown a lot in the past decade. The largest grant program, the Agriculture Departments Environmental Quality Incentives Program, gave nearly $150 million to small landowners for forest improvement in fiscal year 2021  more than triple what it gave in 2009.

The growth, an Agriculture Department spokesperson said in an email, is due to state outreach efforts and increased interest by forestry landowners/managers in accessing conservation assistance. Even with such an expansion, she said, demand still far outweighs available funds and, on average, the program has to turn away more than two-thirds of all applications it receives.

There are signs in Washington and the state capitals that officials recognize the problem and that the budget shortfalls will soon ease.

The Biden administration and various state governments are investing billions of dollars in programs to reduce risk, from community preparation to ecosystem restoration and fuel reduction.

The administrations new 10-year strategy seeks to massively increase the number of acres that are treated to reduce hazardous fuel and promises to pour money into fire prevention programs.

Combating wildfire risk and restoring forest health depends on engaging private landowners, said Jaelith Hall-Rivera, the Forest Services deputy chief of state and private forestry. Landowners provided with a management plan through the program are three times as likely to implement best management practices.

Increasing funding is a good start, experts say. But forest management is a slow process  most plans are designed to take 10 years  and the amount of land that needs treatment still far exceeds promised funds and workforce capacity.

Darrell Jacobs property (NBC News)

For now, while there are many sources of grants and assistance, they can be challenging for landowners to find and competitive to get. Jacobs applied unsuccessfully for two state grants this year and is now applying for a federal one. He has already started clearing brush and damaged trees himself, however, saying he doesnt want to wait for funding that might not appear.

Absolutely essential

When the funding does come, it can make all the difference. For Ken and Linda Dollinger, a stewardship plan was the reason their beloved family cabin survived the Bootleg Fire. Back in 1997, the couple purchased 40 acres of forestland and a log cabin just 10 miles from the Jacobs property. They have been driving the six hours from their home south of Portland to take their three-generation family to the cabin almost every summer weekend since.

When they bought the property, Ken said, they had no idea how to take care of the overgrown forest. We thought we were doing the best we could  but we accomplished almost nothing except restoring the cabin.

That changed in 2011, when the state Forestry Department began helping them create a stewardship plan.

Ken and Linda Dollinger (NBC News)

At that point, we were introduced to a whole lot of people and resources to give us help, he said. They met with stewardship foresters like Pettigrew, county soil and water experts, the state and federal fish and wildlife services, local nonprofit organizations and more. A forestry crew from the Klamath Tribe thinned, piled and burned hundreds of small trees and tree limbs, along with 60 percent of the brush on the property. The Dollingers put their own sweat in, as well  removing sick and damaged trees, restoring their creek and burning brush.

The money came from some matching grants that we were able to work out with I cant even recall how many different agencies, Ken said. We didnt know that any of these people existed.

By 2021, they had accomplished almost every goal in their plan. All that was left was a prescribed fire. The Forest Service had plans to do one that would have included their property.

But in July, the Dollingers got a call that theyd long feared  the Bootleg Fire was burning through their land. They went out to see the damage to their cabin a couple of months later.

After thinning the Dollingers' trees, a forestry crew burned slash piles across their property in 2014. (Dollinger family)

You cant imagine how surprised we were to find it standing the first time we came back up here, Linda said. We were hoping for the best, but we were prepared for the worst.

The property had fared well. Many trees burned, but the Dollingers expect most to survive. The cleared area immediately around the cabin, known as defensible space, had allowed firefighters to operate safely as they tried to save the cabin that mattered so much to the family.

The Bootleg was our test, and we passed it, Ken said. Saving this was absolutely essential.

Now theres more work to be done. Like Jacobs, the Dollingers need to clear away the trees that didnt survive so they dont become fuel for the next blaze. And as the forest grows back, other management work will follow. The Dollingers have a plan.

That work, they say, is a job for the grandkids. One even works for the U.S. Forest Service.
A spring heat wave is scorching parts of India and Pakistan, with record-breaking April temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit forecast along the border of the two countries in the coming days. The extreme heat threatens the health of millions of people as well as the harvest of wheat at a time when climate change and the war in Ukraine have sparked a global food crisis.

The Indian Meteorological Department warned this week that a heat dome, similar to the one that sent temperatures soaring over the Pacific Northwest last year, had formed over the region. Millions of people in the areas of India and Pakistan where temperatures have remained in the triple digits are now at risk of illness and death from the heat.

Its become impossible to work after 10 oclock in the morning, Sunil Das, who works as a rickshaw puller on the outskirts of Delhi, told Quartz India.

A man riding his bicycle in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)

Following an exceptionally dry month of March, which also set a new temperature record, cities and towns across Indias wheat-growing region have been reporting temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit this week. When April arrived, so did the heat wave, putting the wheat harvest at risk.

The heat spell occurred very fast and also matured the crop at a faster pace, which shriveled the grain size. This also resulted in a drop in yield, JDS Gill, the agriculture information officer in the state of Punjab, told India Today.

Meteorologists predicted that the temperature average for April would likely fall across large portions of India and Pakistan. Such severe heat waves arent normally registered in the region until May and June, but scientists have long warned that because of climate change they will become more common earlier and later in the coming decades.

Workers at the government grain market in Chandigarh, India. (Ravi Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

On Tuesday, the temperature hit 116F in the city of Dadu, Pakistan, tying a record for the warmest day in the Northern Hemisphere on that date. Temperatures are expected to keep rising this week.

India/Pakistan Heat Wave day #1:Today 26 April the Pakistani station of Dadu reached 47.0C,tying the 2022 highest temperature in the Northern Hemisphere (=Matam,Senegal). In India 45.1C at Barmer. Unfortunately this is just the beginning and it'll get hotter in the next few days. pic.twitter.com/RKq7Bp3T4I  Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) April 26, 2022

The formation of a heat dome over India, Nepal and the Himalayas also has potentially worrisome long-term consequences, according to climate researchers. The consensus among scientists is that climate change has sped up the melting of glacier ice in the Himalayas. That's significant because after Antarctica and the Arctic, the region holds the worlds third-largest amount of glacial ice. Its loss would dramatically impact the supply of water to people in the region.

Drought worsened by climate change and Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine have brought the Horn of Africa to the brink of famine. Many African nations import wheat from Ukraine, but the conflict has halted those shipments. Earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured President Biden that India was ready to supply food stock to the world, but that pronouncement came just as the current heat wave was beginning to take hold.

[Wheat] prices will be driven up, and if you look at what is happening in Ukraine, with many countries relying on wheat from India to compensate, the impact will be felt well beyond India, Harjeet Singh, an adviser with Climate Action Network International, told NBC News.

While the overall toll on the wheat harvest remains unclear, the next few days in India and Pakistan will provide a more immediate trial run for how human beings will cope with a hotter future. For now, schools have been closed in several cities in India, workers have been advised to avoid exposure to the sun and the governments of both countries have warned of blackouts as the demand for electricity is expected to surge.
Sen. Rand Paul got flak Tuesday for his comments on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with some people criticizing him for echoing one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's talking points.

During an exchange with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Paul pointed out that Russia's attacks, in the recent past, have been on countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.

Putin has publicly dismissed Ukraine's right to function as a sovereign nation separate from Russia.

The Kentucky Republican's comments came during a Senate hearing with Blinken, during which Paul raised concerns about U.S. displays of support for Ukraine potentially joining the NATO military alliance, including during former President George W. Bush and President Joe Biden's administrations.

He asked Blinken: "Knowing full well that Ukraine was unlikely to ever join NATO since it had already been 14 years since they said they were going to become members, why was it so important last fall  before this invasion  to continue agitating for Ukraine's admission to NATO?"

More: Sen. Rand Paul backs new Emmett Till Antilynching Act, after holding up the old one

Blinken pushes back when Rand Paul suggests Biden is responsible for Russia's invasion of Ukraine b/c he supported Ukraine's desire to join NATO, pointing out those are "sovereign decisions."



Paul then makes sure to point out he doesn't actually support Russia's invasion. But. pic.twitter.com/DL9iFlD4K7  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 26, 2022

Blinken responded: "It's a question of standing up for the basic principle, that we strongly adhere to, that there should be and will be an open-door policy when it comes to NATO membership."

Paul, who repeatedly has opposed U.S. military involvement in other countries during his political career, questioned the decision to push for "something that we knew our adversary (Russia) absolutely hated and said was a red line."

"Now, there is no justification to the invasion. I'm not saying that. But there are reasons for the invasion," said Paul, who later added he's "proud of how well the Ukrainians have fought" and is supportive of their cause.

Sen. Rand Paul.

When Blinken noted Russia has, in the recent past, attacked countries that weren't members of NATO  specifically Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova  Paul countered with: "You could also argue the countries they've attacked were part of Russia, or part of the Soviet Union, rather."

Blinken said he disagreed with that proposition, adding: "It is the fundamental right of these countries to decide their own future and their own destiny."

Simil: Rand Paul delayed the historic Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson vote, and people were not happy

"I'm not saying it's not," Paul responded. "But I'm saying that the countries that have been attacked, Georgia and Ukraine, were part of the Soviet Union..."

Blinken jumped in: "That does not give Russia the right to attack them..."

"No one's saying it does," Paul interjected.

Blinken continued: " When everything came to a head, it is abundantly clear, in President Putin's own words, that this was never about Ukraine being potentially part of NATO, and it was always about his belief that Ukraine does not deserve to be a sovereign, independent country."

Related: Only one lawmaker voted against all recent legislation aimed at Russia. He's from Kentucky

Blowback was swift on Paul's comments

Paul's exchange with Blinken was quickly met with disapproval online, including in a critical Rolling Stone article about his comments and tweets by figures like Alexander Vindman, a former National Security Council staffer whose testimony was a key part of former President Donald Trump's first impeachment.

"Paul implies that Russia is justified in attacking Ukraine because, UKR was once part of the USSR. By that logic Britain is justified in attacking the U.S. and colonial powers their former holdings. What century does he live in?" Vindman tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

A stunning exchange between @RandPaul & @SecBlinken

Paul implies that Russia is justified in attacking Ukraine because, UKR was once part of the USSR. By that logic Britain is justified in attacking the U.S. and colonial powers their former holdings. What century does he live in? https://t.co/3e36s2JHP9  Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) April 26, 2022

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., shared a video of Paul's exchange with Blinken and commented: "Rand Paul truly is ridiculous."

Rand Paul truly is ridiculous. He and @TuckerCarlson should bro out. https://t.co/4NgRoWVDft  Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) April 26, 2022

Charles Booker, a well-known Kentucky Democrat who hopes to defeat Paul in the fall election, also criticized the senator's statements Tuesday and asked for campaign donations to help boot him out of office.

"Rand Paul just attempted to justify Russias invasion of Ukraine. He is actively pushing Putins propaganda in the Senate, and I will remove him from office in November," Booker tweeted.

Rand Pauls actions are shameful. My name is Charles Booker, I am a lifelong Kentuckian, proud husband, father, and the person who is going to retire Rand Paul this November. Please help me win this race by chipping in today: https://t.co/ADC1y3APe4  Charles Booker (@Booker4KY) April 26, 2022

Paul's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Morgan Watkins is The Courier Journal's chief political reporter. Contact her at mwatkins@courierjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter: @morganwatkins26.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul criticized over Russian invasion comments
Dropping water levels leave a "bathtub ring" around Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet in June. On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California declared a water shortage emergency and moved to restrict outdoor watering to just once a week in parts of Ventura and Los Angeles counties, as well as certain areas of the Inland Empire. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Southern California officials on Tuesday took the unprecedented step of declaring a water shortage emergency and ordering outdoor usage be restricted to just one day a week for about 6 million people in parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties.

The outdoor watering restrictions will take effect June 1 under the decision by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and will apply to areas that depend on water from the drought-ravaged State Water Project.

We are seeing conditions unlike anything we have seen before, said Adel Hagekhalil, the districts general manager. We need serious demand reductions.

The MWDs board has never before taken such a step and the resolution adopted by the water wholesaler will bring the first widespread water restrictions imposed in Southern California during the current extreme drought.

California's drought, now in a third year, has become the driest on record and has been intensified by hotter temperatures unleashed by climate change. With the states major reservoirs at low levels, the MWD has been left without enough water in parts of Southern California.

"These areas rely on extremely limited supplies from Northern California, and there is not enough supply available to meet the normal demands in these areas for the remainder of the year," Hagekhalil said.

The MWD board voted unanimously to adopt the emergency measures to reduce non-essential water use in certain areas. Cities and smaller water suppliers that get water from the MWD are required to start restricting outdoor watering to one day a week, or to find other ways to cut usage to a new monthly allocation limit.

Any water suppliers that fail to comply could face large fines from the MWD for exceeding their monthly allocations.

The State Water Project delivers water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farmlands and cities to the south. The project includes canals, pipelines, reservoirs and pumping facilities, which transport water to approximately 27 million Californians.

After a record dry start to 2022, California water officials slashed the project's expected deliveries this year to just 5% of full allocations.

Areas that depend heavily or entirely on the State Water Project include northwestern L.A. and Ventura counties, parts of the San Gabriel Valley and parts of the Inland Empire.

The MWD imports water from the State Water Project and the Colorado River, serving 26 public water agencies across six counties that supply 19 million people, about half the states population.

The district's staff wrote that the measures are intended to conserve water supplies and "ensure that near-term human health and safety needs can be met."

"We're working together to solve what is a really, really tough and, quite frankly, unprecedented issue. None of us like what we're doing. But we're in a position where we've got to do it," said Steve Blois, an MWD board member who represents Calleguas Municipal Water District. "The issue is, how are we going to get through this current drought without running out of water to serve the health and safety needs of our population? That has to be our No. 1 priority."

Officials with Calleguas, which supplies water to a large portion of Ventura County, plan to meet to adopt measures in response to the emergency declaration. Anthony Goff, Calleguas' general manager, said the measures are needed as the climate is "changing faster and in unexpected ways in terms of hydrology and the effect of temperature on snowpack."

This year and the previous two have brought the region the lowest amount of water on record from the State Water Project, said Brad Coffey, the district's manager of water resources. As local water suppliers adopt their reduction plans, Coffey said, the MWD will provide nearly $4.5 million to help with the costs of enforcement and other related programs.

Some of the areas water suppliers have already been imposing restrictions. In western L.A. County, for example, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District has reduced its customers water budgets by 50%, with fines for violations.

Gov. Gavin Newsom in July called for Californians to voluntary reduce water use by 15%, but the state remains far from that goal. Last month, Newsom ordered urban water suppliers to implement more aggressive conservation measures, requiring them to activate Level 2 of their local drought contingency plans to prepare for shortages. The governor also directed the state water board to consider a ban on watering nonfunctional grass at businesses and other properties.

During Tuesday's meeting, managers of parks in Ventura County told the board they hoped the rules would not lead to a "one-size-fits-all" approach that would mean parks with dead grass. Hagekhalil responded that the district aims to implement the measures in a way that accommodates local cities' and agencies' ordinances and drought plans. But he also cautioned that more severe restrictions, including a possible total ban on outdoor irrigation, might be necessary if the drought persists.

"If these plans have exceptions to preserve public sports fields or parks ... we intend to accommodate that," Hagekhalil said. "The decision-making is at the local level. And we recognize that. However, it must be noted that if we have to drop to deeper stages, like a full outdoor irrigation ban, then local exceptions will understandably start to fall away."

Some who called in to speak said they were concerned the water restrictions could lead to many dead trees. Peter Kraut, a Calabasas City Council member, called the restrictions "insane but not unexpected."

"I'm appalled that a change this drastic is happening in such a short period of time," Kraut said. "This plan will result not just in brown grass but in killing countless trees. The damage to our environment will take decades to repair. It will cost ratepayers millions of dollars to remove the dead trees and plant new ones."

Others echoed the concerns about trees, saying as the water restrictions take effect, it will be important for local agencies and residents to have information about how to let grass go brown while keeping trees alive.

Tracy Quinn, an MWD board member who represents Los Angeles, said she hopes the district can provide information to member agencies and customers, as Las Vegas does, "to ensure that our trees are protected."

"This isn't just a dry period. There's also extreme heat that's going along with it, and we need to make sure that we can protect against heat island effect and heat-related illnesses," Quinn said.

Other board members said they support the restrictions but also stressed it was important to help areas that rely heavily or entirely on the State Water Project to get access to other sources of water, such as Colorado River water.

Map of areas that depend mostly or entirely on the State Water Project. (Courtesy of Metropolitan Water District of Southern California)

"Everyone's in a drought. But the fact that only some of us are impacted by the actual water shortage today is a grave concern," said Heather Repenning, a board member who represents Los Angeles. "And we really need to figure out a fix that is going to allow us to access storage in a way that is equitable."

Hagekhalil said the MWD is working on infrastructure projects "to diversify and provide the necessary plumbing to move Colorado water to these areas" and also create alternative water sources.

Officials with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power are considering their next steps based on the MWD's shortage emergency declaration.

"LADWP has been closely tracking the policy recommendations considered by the MWD Board today. We will continue to work closely with City officials and MWD over the coming weeks," Ellen Cheng, a DWP spokesperson, said in an email.

The city has had watering restrictions in place for more than a decade and currently allows outdoor watering three days a week.

"Additional water use restrictions should be balanced against the high level of conservation that has already been achieved by LADWP customers," Cheng said.

In addition to water from the state project, Los Angeles receives water from the Eastern Sierra and the Colorado River.

The Colorado River, which supplies water to seven states and Mexico, is in a first-ever shortage. Its major reservoirs have declined to record-low levels.

Quinn said that given the extreme shortage on the Colorado River, she thinks it might be time to consider expanding water restrictions to other parts of Southern California.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Russian ambassador to Ireland has denied lying over his countrys invasion of Ukraine.

Days before the war began, Yury Filatov branded the suggestion that Russia would invade Ukraine insane.

Mr Filatov admitted on Wednesday evening that he might not have been aware of the latest information, but said he had not been lying.

There might have been a chance I did not know every circumstance, he said.

As you might imagine, it is not necessarily that all the ambassadors are consulted in very difficult and changing situations.

But he denied he was also lied to.

What Im saying is, under circumstances, the only way to defend Donbas and our own strategic interests  ending suffering, which has been the fact of the matter for eight years  was through special military operations.

In a wide-ranging interview with RTE radio, Mr Filatov denied that Russia had invaded or inflicted war on Ukraine.

It is not a war in a military sense. War is an all-out attack, no holds barred.

He said what was going on in Ukraine was a surgical operation.

(PA Graphics)

He also denied reports of atrocities by Russian troops and said that his country had not been involved in the killing of civilians in Bucha.

He said he was aware of the anger of Irish people over the war, but added that the public were victims of propaganda.

I know that many, many people are angry, and I understand their feelings. Nobody would be happy with the images and news stories they receive on a daily basis. I understand them and they repeated them.

Theyre the objects of propaganda warfare. Lets put it bluntly and straightforwardly.

Mr Filatov was speaking after Russian energy company Gazprom cut off gas exports to Poland and Bulgaria, a move condemned as blackmail by some western leaders.

I dont think it should be any surprise, because we have warned all along that after we have been put into the situation where now gold and currency reserves have been essentially stolen.

We didnt have any choice than to inform our customers that the only option to continue the gas supplies is the pay for these supplies in roubles.
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS. A passerby who saved a 2-year-old child from drowning in the Debed River is hailed a hero for his selfless actions.

Road construction worker Zhirayr Poghosyan from the small town of Alaverdi was awarded with a medal by the Minister of Emergency Situation Armen Pambukchyan on April 27 in Yerevan.

It is very meaningful to award and say thank you to Zhirayr Poghosyan at this ceremony, Minister Pambukhchyan said at the official diploma awarding ceremony of the Crisis Management Academy graduates.

Today in attendance we have students of the academy who are graduating and who may choose to become rescuers. This is a bright example of a rescuer, of a mans consciousness in order to act that way.

An emotional Poghosyan then spoke about the day he saved the child. I got in to save the child. The only thing that was on my mind was to save her. When she was already in my arms I was shaking, I dont even know how I managed to drive the car. It was my duty, and I fulfilled it. Now I am waiting for good news from the hospital, I will definitely visit the child today or tomorrow, Poghosyan said.

Pambukhchyan said that hes been briefed that the child is recovering at the Holy Mother of God Medical Center and that she is in a non-life threatening condition.

Pambukhchyan awarded the Cooperation for Rescue Medal to Poghosyan for bravely and courageously fulfilling his civic duty while risking his own life." Poghosyan also received a financial reward.

Meanwhile, the childs 31-year old mother, who is suspected in intentionally throwing the child into the river, is under arrest on charges of attempted pre-meditated murder.
STEPANAKERT, 27 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. President of the Republic of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan on April 27 had a meeting with the officers of Prosecutors Office and the Investigative Committee.



As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the President of the Republic of Artsakh, highly appreciating the success in preservation of law, fights against crime, including detection of corruption phenomena, the President of Artsakh mentioned that with effective cooperation it is necessary to consistently continue the work for ensuring the goals of criminal justice, including the prevention of new crimes, by thoroughly investigating all the cases and with a punitive policy.

Referring to internal and external challenges Arayik Harutyunyan emphasized that irrespective of all speculations, the protection of the right of the people of Artsakh to peaceful and dignified life in their own homeland is a priority for the authorities of Artsakh.

Once again I reconfirm that we have chosen the peace agenda. But as I mentioned in my statement at the end of last year, the full recognition of the right to self-determination of the Armenians of Artsakh is not a subject to reservation and concession, and its the people of Artsakh who are exclusively responsible for that issue, the President of Artsakh said and added that the authorities of Artsakh are fully loyal to the adopted principles, on the basis of which statehood was built over the last 30 years.
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS. Taron Chakhoyan, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister, responded to a number of questions in the context of discussions on the April 26 accident at the Leo-Paronyan intersection, ARMENPRESS reports Taron Chakhoyan first answered the question why the Prime Minister's column did not stop to help the woman who was run over after the incident.

"At the time of the collision, the Prime Minister's car was about 100-150 meters away from the scene. The moment of the collision did not and could not be seen from his car. The Prime Minister's car passed the scene a few seconds after the incident. The Prime Minister was not aware and could not be informed what exactly happened. Noticing the woman when passing by the scene of the accident, the Prime Minister instructed to call an ambulance and find out what happened. The ambulance arrived minutes later. The Prime Minister was informed about the runover by the traffic police accompanying car as soon as he reached the National Assembly, after which he gave relevant instructions to the Minister of Health and law enforcement," Chakhoyan wrote on his Facebook page.

Taron Chakhoyan also responded to the question why the traffic police officers did not stop to provide first aid. Chakhoyan noted that if the car of the battalion accompanying the traffic police stopped, the whole column would stop, closing all the traffic on the street and causing additional traffic jams in the adjacent streets, thus preventing the ambulance from approaching the scene and the victim.

"Also taking into account such circumstances, according to the internationally accepted regulations, the vehicles accompanying the column of heads of state (in this case, the traffic police) do not have the right to stop in an unplanned place, even in case of accidents," Chakhoyan wrote.

Chakhoyan also said that the Prime Minister had a telephone conversation with Sona Mnatsakanyan's father, expressed his condolences to him and his family members, expressed his sorrow and regret over the incident, and assured that an objective investigation will be carried out.
Police official said that the incident occurred after the temple car came in contact with a high voltage power line and went up in flames

Ill-fated chariot which came in contact with high tension power line at Kalimedu village near Thanjavur on Wednesday morning. (DC)

Thanjavur: An FIR has been registered and an investigation has started in connection with deaths due to electrocution during the chariot procession in Appar Swami temple of Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur on Wednesday.

"A total of 11 people have died. Three people died on the spot and seven died in the hospital. 15 people are injured and have been taken to Thanjavur Medical College for treatment. FIR has been filed and an investigation into the matter has started," said V. Balakrishnan Inspector General of Police, Tiruchi Range.

The police official said that the incident occurred after the temple car came in contact with a high voltage power line and went up in flames.

"Prima facie it suggests that some high tension wire came in contact with the temple car (of chariot festival) during the annual chariot festival in the Kallimedu village," said Balakrishnan.

"The temple car was negotiating a turn and faced some obstacle before being reversed when it came in contact with the overhead line," he added.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday said that he will visit Thanjavur to inspect the ground situation and meet the injured and the families of the deceased in the electrocution incident.

"I will go to Thanjavur this afternoon to meet the injured people and family members of the victims," MK Stalin said in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

Stalin informed the assembly that he has instructed state minister for School Education, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, to oversee the relief operations.

"I have instructed my colleague minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamoezhi to reach the spot and oversee relief operations; have already announced Rs 5 lakh each financial assistance for people who passed away,' he said.

Tamil Nadu Assembly observed a 2-minute silence for the deceased.

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed their condolences and the PM announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased.

"Deeply pained by the mishap in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. I hope that the injured recover soon," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted.

"An amount of Rs 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the mishap in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The injured would be given Rs 50,000," PMO further said in a tweet.
Flags higher rates in TS, AP, Maharashtra, WB, TN, Kerala, Jharkhand

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged all state governments to reduce the Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel in the spirit of cooperative federalism during his video conference with state chief ministers on Wednesday, particularly targeting those run by the Opposition parties.

Quoting fuel prices in cities across India, Modi noted that all those states that had lowered VAT have lower fuel prices. This is the first time that the PM has spoken on the fuel price despite the Opposition demanding a statement from him during the recent Budget Session.

The Opposition rejected the PMs suggestions, saying it was the Centre that had raised fuel prices and the onus was on it to provide relief to citizens. The Congress even sought fuel subsidies as were given during Dr Manmohan Singhs UPA government.

Taking a dig at the Opposition-ruled states, Modi, during his online meeting with the CMs to review the Covid-19 situation, said that six states  Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Telangana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand  had not cut VAT on petrol and diesel.

The PM said that to reduce the load of high fuel prices, the Centre had cut excise duty and requested the states to reduce taxes. Some states cut taxes but some did not, leading to higher cost of petrol and diesel. This is not only injustice towards the people of the state but harms neighbouring states too, he said. The PM cited the example of Karnataka and Gujarat, both ruled by the BJP, saying they had suffered a revenue loss of nearly Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 3,500-4,000 crore respectively by reducing VAT but they did so to help people, while their neighbouring states had earned revenue by not reducing taxes. Modi said that in November a request was made to cut VAT but states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana, AP, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Jharkhand did not do so. The PM said 42 per cent of the revenue at the Centre goes to state governments. I would not go into how much revenue these states gained. But now I am urging you that in the interests of the nation, please undertake what should have been done six months back in November. Give consumers in your state the benefit by lowering VAT I urge all states to work as a team in this time of global crisis following the spirit of cooperative federalism, the PM said.

However, Kerala and West Bengal rejected the PM's suggestions. Kerala finance minister K.N. Balagopal said the state government had no intention of slashing sales tax on petrol and diesel. We have not increased sales tax for the last six years. Therefore, there is nothing to decrease, he said. Mr Balagopal termed the PMs statement highly misleading. He said: After coming to power, the LDF government had decreased the sales tax on fuel once, but we never increased it.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee accused Mr Modi of misleading the country with his one-sided speech. Attacking Mr Modi, Ms Banerjee alleged: The PM passed the buck of fuel price hikes on to the states. It implies that the states have to reduce it. But how will they do it? It is you who hiked it. Did you ever notice how much you earned? What you told the citizens of the country is one-sided and misleading. This is not right. You appreciated five BJP-ruled states. You provide them a lot of funds, much higher than what we get in several schemes.

It is almost 50 per cent more. So, a payment of Rs 4,000 crores is not a big deal for them because you send them Rs 40,000 crores in return. The Trinamul Congress supremo told Modi: You took the names of many other states. In the case of our state, you must know we have been providing a concession of Re 1 per litre of petrol for the last three years. Rs 1,500 crores alone was spent by our government on this account. You argued that all states should give it while you will only take it. We have Rs 97,000 crores as dues from the Centre. You are yet to pay it. If you pay even half of it, I will send you Rs 3,000 crores the next day.

She added: Right now the Government of India is taxing 25 per cent more than the West Bengal government on petrol. We always want the tax collection should be shared 50:50 between the states and the Centre. But the Centre did not agree with us. It takes away 75 per cent. You have been PM since 2014. Since September 2021 you have earned a revenue of Rs 17,31,242 crores on petrol and diesel.

Petrol-diesel prices were spoken about in the meeting (with the PM). But Maharashtra pays the highest tax. Prices of LPG have been slashed, said Maharashtra minister Rajesh Tope.

Mr Modi should first ask BJP governments in Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh to reduce taxes on petrol-diesel. He put highest excise duty and collected Rs 27 lakh crores. He must give subsidy. During UPA, Dr Manmohan Singh gave Rs 1 lakh crore of fuel subsidy every year, said Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray tried to shift the blame to the Centre for the sharp rise in petrol and diesel prices. Today, the diesel tax share on a litre of diesel in Mumbai is Rs 24.38 for the Centre and Rs 22.37 for the state. The petrol tax share is Rs 31.58 as Central tax and Rs 32.55 as state tax. Therefore, it is not a fact that the prices have become more expensive due to the states. To provide relief to the citizens of the state, the state government has already given tax relief in respect of natural gas. To promote the use of natural gas, the rate of VAT on this gas was reduced from 13.5 per cent to three per cent, a statement by the Maharashtra CMs Office said.
The Congress failure is its permanent leadership crisis

If todays actions end up as tomorrows regrets, economists would call this phenomenon time inconsistent preferences. Behavioural economists have done a lot of work on why people procrastinate and why they over indulge or binge.

Two economists at Yale University, Dean Karlan and Ian Ayres, have set up a company that forces customers to think about their future selves. Their outfit, called Stickk, sells Commitment Contracts that stipulate a deadline for competing tasks that have been put off endlessly. The Congress Party generally, and Sonia Gandhi specifically, would benefit immensely from signing up for such a contract.

The Congress failure is its permanent leadership crisis. Prashant Kishors disillusionment with the self-destructive Congress is all too obvious in his very polite tweet: In my humble opinion, more than me, the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep-rooted structural problems through transformational reforms.

Having worked with successful, charismatic leaders, many of whom founded new parties and won, PKs experience is confined to dealing with the boldest and the hungriest of politicians, including Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee, Jagan Mohan Reddy and now KCR. The Congress is an entirely different kettle of fish; it has its own rhythm. It has developed ambivalence and equivocation into lethal weapons. The Empowered Action Committee is an outstanding example; the name suggests it is empowered; in the end, all power in the Congress is concentrated in one person, Sonia Gandhi.

And she knows how to use her power and her image to serve the best interests of the family.

Announcing the appointment of an Empowered Action Committee, the Congress, with the usual horde of leaders, most of whom can neither win elections on their own nor help the party win in their home states, has run away from its fundamental problem. Its a move guaranteed to end up as tomorrows regrets.

This is the weapon of choice for the high command to perpetuate the paralysis that has prevented the Congress from fulfilling its role as the largest Opposition party in the ideological fight against the BJP, in defending the Constitution and protecting democracy, secularism and diversity. The offer of membership and a seat at the table to PK, as one more body on the Empowered Action Group, was a classic dodge.

It does reveal, however, that Sonia Gandhi is doing what she is adept at, procrastination. The several rounds of discussions with PK suggest that even though she has acknowledged there is a crisis and its magnitude threatens the existence of the Gandhi family and the Congress, Sonia Gandhi is refusing to do something about it. It doesnt mean she has an alternative plan; it means she is afraid her family may become redundant if PKs plan even half succeeds.

The Congress was ambivalent about the role and relationship it could construct with PK. The party knew, even when it agreed to give time to PK to unveil his strategy for its revival and transformation into a lean, election-fighting and perhaps winning machine, that it wouldnt make any drastic changes. The party is incompetent in managing itself, as PKs tweet points out. Its leadership, including the Gandhis, is arrogant. It believes Indias voters will eventually return to the fold, like sheep that have gone astray, because it is the Congress and helmed by the Gandhis.

That is nonsense.

In the theatre of the absurd thats playing in the Congress, its evident that the people who claim to work for the party are prepared to do things that work against the partys best interests. There are two problems that the Congress needs to address; first is the problem of leadership and the second is the problem of management. K.T. Rama Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, following the signing of the deal with his party and before the decision on the Congress, hit the nail on the head, when he said vis-a-vis the Congress, that PK was latching on to a sick and redundant unit.

The decision to part company is good for PK, who can continue to do what he does best: strategise to win elections for parties that are willing to follow his design, roadmap and detailed blueprint and who have the necessary leadership and drive to win. However successful PK has been as a brilliant, data-crunching analyst who can come up with election- winning political strategies, there is one thing he is not. Prashant Kishor is not a political leader. Hes not the person who can stir the dead embers of support among legions of Congress workers and voters into life. The inactive and the despairing in the Congress and among voters are not going to respond to PK as a leader.

Recommendations for displacing the Gandhis from the management of the Congress by PK are not deep insights or novel ideas. The rebels within the Congress who have constituted themselves as the Group of 23, or whatever be the number of participants, have tiptoed around this need to replace the management of the party. By proposing to set up the Empowered Action Committee, Sonia Gandhi has checkmated both PK and the rebels. Given the byzantine machinations of the Congress veterans and their infinite capacity to sabotage and voracious appetite for self-destructive actions, PK as a member of the party would have found himself at a dead end.

The Congress is a brand. This brand is a product of its 137-year history and its leadership of the national movement and post-Independence India. It is true that in every village and mohalla across India, there are torchbearers of the party, devoted to its history, loyal to the principles and values it embodied. Every Indian knows the Congress. It is, therefore, accountable to the people of India.

But todays Congress is not the party it was under Rajiv Gandhi or P.V. Narasimha Raos leadership. It is certainly nowhere near the party it was under Indira Gandhis leadership. It is nothing like the party was when stalwarts clashed and compromised and indulged in cut-throat rivalry that made the Congress a formidable force.

The party now bears the name and the legacy of the once upon a time great institution that was the Congress. Prashant Kishor may not be the only capable strategist; but by making it impossible for him to help the Congress rebuild itself, the Gandhis have ensured that no one will be permitted to help the party. They are heedless that the political capital amassed by the Congress has eroded. And now it seems they do not even want to replenish it.
by Shafique Khokhar

A primary school teacher is the likely suicide bomber. Since the start of the year, militants have carried out at least three major operations against Chinese targets and members of Pakistani security forces. China has urged Pakistans new government to take action.

Karachi (AsiaNews)  Three Chinese teachers and their Pakistani driver were killed yesterday in a suspected suicide attack claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).

The blast, which torched the minibus that was driving to the Confucius Institute at Karachi University, injured four other people. The Majeed Fidayeen Brigade, the BLAs suicide squad, claimed responsibility.

The attack marks a new chapter in the history of Baloch resistance, said the BLA in a statement, which came with a photo of Bramsh, nom de guerre of Shari Balush (pictured), the groups first female suicide bomber.

University CCTV footage shows a woman loitering near the Institutes entrance gate before the explosion.

A bomb disposal squad official told The Dawn newspaper that the suicide bomber must have been carrying five to 10kg of explosives.

Yesterday's blast was the first alleged suicide bombing involving a woman from a relatively well-off family.

Shari Balush taught at a primary school in Kech district. She completed a Bachelor of Education (2014) and Master in Education (2018). She earned a Master in Zoology from the University of Balochistan and Master of Philosophy from the Allama Iqbal Open University.

The mother of two (both under five) was the daughter of the director of a government agency, and her husband works as a dentist while her brother-in-law is also a teacher. Among analysts, her background raises several questions.

Since 2021 Balochi separatists have been able to recruit young and educated people; in view of yesterdays success, it is likely that they can also be expected to attract more women in the future, experts say.

Balochistan is Pakistans largest province, but also its poorest and least populated, bordering Iran and Afghanistan.

Balochi nationalists claim that their territory was forcibly incorporated into Pakistan in 1947, during the partition of British India.

Currently, the province is going through its fifth insurgency, which began in 2000. So far it has been the longest.

This year, separatist militants have carried out three other major attacks against civilians or Pakistani security forces.

On 25 January a group of terrorists attacked the town of Kech, killing a dozen soldiers. A week later clashes broke out in Noshki and Panjgur districts where the situation remained tense for more than two days. On such occasions, the main targets were connected to China.

The BLA has long opposed Chinese investments in Pakistan, arguing that they do not benefit the population but instead strip the province of its natural wealth.

Thousands of Chinese work in Pakistan, mostly involved in the Belt and Road Initiative projects.

One of China's main projects in the province is the Port of Gwadar, on the Arabian Sea, a transit point for Mideast oil destined for East Asia.

Last year, the BLA claimed responsibility for an operation against Chinese engineers working at the port.

China condemned yesterdays attack and urged the new Pakistani government to resolutely fight against terrorist organisations involved in the case.

These teachers left their country to teach our children, said Muhammad Fahim Saleem, a local activist speaking to AsiaNews.

Many Chinese in Pakistan have been victims of terrorism and yet the lack of interest in them is frightening, he added. We will not forget their sacrifice, which will further strengthen the friendship between Pakistan and China.
Imports have risen since 2018, when the US imposed sanctions on Chinese companies. Taiwan announced military exercises based on lessons learnt from the Russian-Ukrainian war. A US warship sails through the Taiwan Strait, the second time this year.

Taipei (AsiaNews)  China is increasingly dependent on Taiwans high-quality microchips, which complicates possible future plans to invade the island, deemed a rebel province by the Chinese.

A study published on Monday by the Federation of (South) Korean Industries (FKI) shows that China increased the purchase of Taiwanese semiconductors between 2018 and 2021 after the US sanctioned Chinese hi-tech giants Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation.

During the period considered, the share Chinas microchip market by Taiwanese companies rose by 4.4 per cent; above all, orders for memory chips produced on the island grew by 57 per cent.

China has never ruled out taking Taiwan by force. The island has been effectively independent since 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (nationalist) forces fled the mainland after losing the civil war against the Communists, retaining the name of the Republic of China founded in 1912.

According to several experts, taking over Taiwans semiconductor industry is one of the goals that could lead China to attack. In fact, if chip imports from the island continue to grow, Beijing might speed up its aggression plans.

However, as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict shows, a war in the Taiwan Strait risks disrupting supply chains while Chinese bombings could hit Taiwanese plants, damaging the production of irreplaceable microchips.

In view of Chinas military threat, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defence announced today that the annual Han Kuang military exercises, the countrys largest, would focus on lessons learnt from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Taiwans armed forces will test their asymmetric capabilities, vet their ability to engage in cognitive warfare, and see how well they can mobilise reserve forces as well as civilian militias.

Analysts note that in case of an invasion, Chinese troops could face serious obstacles, especially logistical, similar to those faced by the Russians in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, to disprove those who fear that the Ukrainian crisis had diverted US attention away from the western Pacific, the destroyer USS Sampson sailed through the Taiwan Strait yesterday, an operation that will certainly elicit an angry response by Chinas Foreign Ministry.

The US warship is part of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group currently operating in the Philippine Sea.

This is the second time this year that a US warship transits in the waterway that separates Taiwan from China. The first time was on 26 February with the USS Ralph Johnson.

Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States pledged to defend Taiwan, mainly with military supplies.

Adopted in 1979 after the formal diplomatic recognition of Communist China, the law does not specify the actual nature of the US commitment. Such strategic ambiguity continues to generate tensions with the Chinese government.
by Sumon Corraya

The authorities want to create an artificial lake in the Tangail area. For hundreds of years, we farmed our land, said Garo elder Ajoy Mree. We will not leave one inch of land. For the government, this is an opportunity for development.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - About 300 Christian Garo held a protest on Monday against a government plan to create an artificial lake on their farmland. The Combined Indigenous Peoples organised the rally in Dokla Chorasta, Tangail.

For hundreds of years we farmed our land, said Ajoy Mree, a Garo elder. The governments Forest Department wants to drive us out of our homeland. We will not leave a one inch of land as long as we live.

A few days ago, the Forest Department erected a signboard on Garo land that raid: People's Republic of Bangladesh, general entry into protected forests. Development work in progress. Ordered by authority.

Nobody can stop us with lawsuits and threats. We are not afraid, and we will not leave our land, said Alik Mree, a young Christian leader during the protest.

Our people grow and produce crops. They survive on crops and educate their children. If the government grabs this land, how will our people survive? he added.

The Garo have lived in the Tangail area, Mymensingh Division (province) for over a hundred years.

Originally from what is now India, they have no title deeds to the land because they have always lived and farmed in the forest. This is why they often face persecution by the Forest Department.

For his part, Mohammad Sajjadujjaman, a Forest Department official, believes that the Garo are misled in this protest because the government is trying to develop the area through ecotourism.

"Although this land is owned by the government, we wanted to give money instead of land where Garo farmers grow crops but they disagreed.
Countries should always keep their future in their own hands

09:18, April 27, 2022 By He Yin ( People's Daily

Chinese President Xi Jinping called on countries to continue developing and strengthening Asia, demonstrate Asias resilience, wisdom and strength, and make Asia an anchor for world peace, a powerhouse for global growth and a new pacesetter for international cooperation in his recent keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2022.

The CDA5B1 meter-gauge AC transmission diesel locomotives produced by CRRC Qishuyan Co., Ltd. for Thailand are loaded onto a ship at a wharf of Changzhou west port in Changzhou city, east Chinas Jiangsu province, Dec. 20, 2021. (Peoples Daily Online/Shi Kang)

Having been through hot and cold wars, hardships and tribulations, people in Asia deeply cherish the value of peace and understand that development gains do not come easily. Xis propositions put forward at the recently-concluded annual conference of the BFA charted directions for maintaining peace, promoting cooperation, and enhancing solidarity among Asian countries and pointed the way for their seizing historic opportunity to build a community with a shared future for Asia.

Over the past decades, Asia has enjoyed overall stability and rapid and continued economic growth, making possible the Asian Miracle.

Peace and stability in our region does not fall into our lap automatically or come as charity from any country. Rather, it is the result of the joint efforts of countries in the region, Xi pointed out in his speech.

Rising from the misery inflicted by colonialism, militarism, and hegemonism, Asia knows the Cold War mentality would only wreck the global peace framework, that hegemonism and power politics would only endanger world peace, and that bloc confrontation would only exacerbate security challenges in the 21st century.

The current European security crisis has made more and more Asian countries realize that they can only keep their future in their own hands when they honor such principles as mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence, and follow a policy of good-neighborliness and friendship.

The first special train running between Yichun city, east Chinas Jiangxi province, and the ASEAN countries via Ningbo city, east Chinas Zhejiang province, is being loaded at the section No. 370 of the Jiangxi provincial bureau of the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration at Yichunxi Railway Station, Jan. 27, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/Zhou Liang)

Against the backdrop of weak and faltering global economic recovery, Asia is an important powerhouse for global economic growth.

In 2021, the share of the Asian economy in the world economy rose to 47.4 percent at purchasing power parity, and the growth rate of the Asian economy is expected to reach 4.8 percent in 2022, higher than the global average, according to a report released during the BFA Annual Conference 2022.

Win-win cooperation is a sure path to Asian development and the key to Asias long-term steady development.

Asia-Pacific countries have always upheld globalization and multilateralism, said Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, member of Council of Advisors of the BFA, former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), and former Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP).

The first international freight train trip from Xian, capital of northwest Chinas Shaanxi province to Vientiane, capital of Laos, via the China-Laos Railway starts from Xian International Logistics and Trade Park, April 22, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/Liu Xiang)

Multilateral trade agreements signed in the Asia-Pacific region account for more than half of the total signed globally, according to Akhtar, who noted that multilateral mechanisms in the region will inject new impetus into the continuous recovery of the Asian economy and even the global economy.

The entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement and the opening to traffic of the China-Laos Railway has generated new opportunities for fostering a more open Asia-wide market. Countries on the continent are bound to make new strides in mutually beneficial cooperation.

The prosperity and stability in Asia is hard-won and couldnt be cherished too much. Choosing dialogue and cooperation over zero-sum games, openness and inclusiveness over a closed-door and exclusive approach, and exchanges and mutual learning over a sense of superiority: this is the only choice worthy of the broad-mindedness of Asians.

It is the heartfelt wish shared by people in Asia that countries follow the path of peace and development, seek win-win cooperation, and contribute to an Asian family of unity and progress together.

Asian countries are wise and capable enough to cement ASEAN centrality in the regional architecture, and uphold a regional order that balances the aspirations and accommodates the interests of all parties.

As Asia enjoys sound development momentum, countries both in and outside the region should all add splendor rather than trouble to the region, which should be the basic norm for their participation in Asian affairs.

Any attempt to stick to the Cold War mentality and deliberately provoke confrontation to undermine the development of Asia will find little support.

As a member of the Asian family, China will always be an active participant in and important contributor to the peaceful development and win-win cooperation in Asia, no matter how the world changes.

China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development, as well as openness and cooperation, actively advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative it proposed, thus continuously injecting positive energy into the peace, development and win-win cooperation in Asia and the world.

As Xi said, to break through the mist and embrace a bright future, the biggest strength comes from cooperation and the most effective way is through solidarity.

The open, inclusive, and confident China will stand with various countries in solidarity under the banner of true multilateralism. They will stay committed to the regionalism featuring lasting peace, common development, and openness, and jointly build a community with a shared future for Asia and a community with a shared future for mankind.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
by Mathias Hariyadi

President Joko Widodo announces a ban to ensure the availability of food in the country. However, the measure risks driving up the price of vegetable oils even more. Small local producers will be the main losers.

Jakarta (AsiaNews)  Starting tomorrow, Indonesia will no longer export palm oil to ensure the availability of food and cooking oil in the country, President Joko Widodo announced last week because of domestic shortages in raw materials.

I will continue to monitor and evaluate the implementation of this policy, so that the availability of cooking oil in the country is abundant at affordable prices, the president said in a statement.

The current lack of alternatives to palm oil, aggravated by the war in Ukraine, a major sunflower oil producer and exporter, has already driven up the prices of vegetable oils worldwide.

In recent months, the price of crude palm oil in Indonesia rose by about 40 per cent and the new ban, experts say, risks further worsening the situation.

Palm oil is not only used for frying and cooking, but goes into the production of biofuels and is found in a wide range of products, including food, cosmetics and detergents.

Earlier this year, Indonesia cut exports and limited the purchase of palm oil to two litres per person.

Among producers, the president's decision came as a shock. If the ban has a negative impact on the sustainability of the palm oil sector, we will ask the government to evaluate the policy, said Tofan Mahdi, spokesman for the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI[*]).

About 60 per cent of all palm oil exported worldwide comes from Indonesia, with India and China as the largest consumers.

In 2020-2021 India imported 8.5 million tonnes of palm oil, while China bought at least 6.8 million, which is expected to increase to 7.2 million in 2021-2022.

Total exports from Indonesia and Malaysia for the same period is expected to reach 50.6 million tonnes, up from 47.7 million.

Last year, 16.3 million tonnes were sold in Indonesia alone, while over 30 million tonnes were exported.

According to the Palm Oil Agribusiness Policy Institute (PASPI), palm oil farmers will be hit hard by Jokowi's export ban. As a result, fresh fruit bunch prices at home are expected to fall.

In some regions, prices have already dropped by 30 to 50 per cent since the crude palm oil export ban was announced, this according to Henry Saragih, chairman of the Indonesian Farmers Union (SPI[]).

In Riau and North Sumatra, local farmers said that prices have dropped to between 1,700 and 2,000 Indonesian rupees (between 11 and 14 cents US) per kilo.

It is obvious that, once the ban goes into effect, local producers will not benefit from the increased global demand for palm oil.

Speaking to AsiaNews, a local producer expressed resentment towards the presidents policy. I have nothing to say except that we are only small local producers and not large exporters, he said.

[*] Gabungan Pengusaha Kelapa Sawit Indonesia.

[] Serikat Petani Indonesia.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Russian patriarch criticised for his support of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. It would take a council of all the Churches or a decision of the Moscow synod to dismiss him. Kirill increasingly under scrutiny in the Orthodox and Christian world of the West.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill (Gundjaev) celebrated a service after Easter in the historic Cathedral of the Assumption within the walls of the Kremlin, inviting the population to gather around the "city of Moscow, center of all Russia" to defend itself from the "centers of power abroad." The Russian people need to rediscover their inner unity, the patriarch said, "because only in unity is our strength, and if we preserve in our hearts the faith of our fathers, then Russia will be invincible."

As Kirill explained, "victory is not always that of arms, but also the victory of the spirit, and many today would like this spirit to disappear." He listed the tactics of the enemy, who "spreads confusion, creates new idols, draws attention to new pseudo-values, in order to overthrow the dimensions of man's consciousness, from the vertical one that unites with God to the horizontal one, on which all the demands of human flesh are implanted."

Rumors are circulating of a possible meeting of the Council of Apostolic Patriarchs of the Ancient Oriental Churches, the four members of the ancient Pentarchy, from which Rome is excluded: Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch. The meeting had been planned for months, to evaluate Kirill's choice to establish a Russian exarchate in Africa, on the canonical territory of Alexandria, and now the question raised by more than 400 priests of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the judgment on Kirill's support for Putin's policy, arises.

The question was formally posed by protoierej Andrej Pincuk of the eparchy of Dnepropetrovsk, part of the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, asking to "deprive Kirill of the patriarchal see", and was then signed by 430 priests of the same Church. The same signatories also appealed to their Metropolitan Onufryj (Berezovsky) of Kiev to proclaim autocephaly independently, but so far the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox has not responded. It is known that several Russian priests and bishops are advising Kirill to proclaim from Moscow the autocephaly of the Ukrainian part, which is already independent at the administrative level.

The meeting of the patriarchs remains pending, also because two of the four, Theophilos III of Jerusalem and Ioannis X of Antioch are supporters of Kirill, or at least not willing to break relations with him, and it is no coincidence that Kirill's right-hand man, Metropolitan Ilarion (Alfeev), visited the two between late February and early March.

Andrej Siskov, a canonist of the University of Tartu in Estonia, says "the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew himself, an expert in canon law, realizes that this "supreme tribunal" has no real effectiveness in the Orthodox world, it would take a council of all the Churches to dismiss a patriarch, and this has never been able to convene".

The council of four patriarchs made sense in the period of the Ottoman Empire, but it never acted at the level of universal Orthodoxy. The great council of Moscow in 1666 dismissed Patriarch Nikon in the presence of the patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem, but there it was Tsar Aleksej who made the decisions.

Patriarch Kirill could be put on trial only by the Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow itself, which has not been able to meet for months, and recently its meeting was postponed to the end of 2022 because of the "international situation". The problem would be the participation of Metropolitan Onufryj and the Ukrainian bishops, who have the right to participate in the Synod of Moscow, but at this moment are in direct conflict with the patriarch.

Kirill is also being questioned in the Orthodox and Christian world of the West, and the question of his exclusion even from the World Council of Churches, the highest international ecumenical body, has been raised. In fact, what is seen as the "UN of the Churches" appears to be rather impotent, and the Russians would have no problem in definitively detaching themselves from it, accusing it of being subservient to the "centers of power abroad".
Today's headlines: Three Chinese teachers killed in terror attack in Pakistan; Hong Kong Catholic tycoon Jimmy Lai dismisses allegations of property fraud; Beijing will send soldiers to the Solomons; Australia says Bejing will send soldiers to Solomon Islands; Alleged missile attack by Israel against Syria: Russians want to send their own students to rebuild Ukraine's Donbass.

MYANMAR

A court controlled by the coup junta has handed down a new sentence to Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the civilian government overthrown by the military on Feb. 1, 2021. It is the first sentence in 11 corruption cases pending against her. In the closed-door trial, without the presence of journalists, judges sentenced the democratic icon to five years in prison.

CHINA-PAKISTAN

The Liberation Army of Balucistan claimed responsibility for the attack (most likely a suicide attack) that yesterday killed three Chinese teachers and their driver in Karachi. The minibus hit by the explosion had just left the premises of the Confucius Institute of a local university. The separatist group has long opposed Chinese investment in their province.

HONG KONG

Catholic media tycoon Jimmy Lai has dismissed fraud charges against him for managing the property that housed Next Digital's offices. His holding company, now in liquidation, owned the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, which was shut down after police investigations. Lai has been in jail for more than a year.

AUSTRALIA-CHINA

China will send military personnel to the Solomon Islands, part of the controversial security agreement concluded between the South Pacific archipelago and Beijing, according to Australia's home minister. The Solomon Islands premier has not revealed details of the arrangement, and so have the Chinese, raising concerns from Australia, New Zealand and the US.

SYRIA-ISRAEL

Four soldiers dead and three wounded: this is the bulletin of an alleged Israeli missile attack that took place this morning against military positions near Damascus. According to the Syrian government, Israel launched the missiles from the Tiberias area.

UKRAINE

Putin's "United Russia" party has proposed sending high school students to Ukraine's Donbass in the coming months for "compulsory work" in aid of the region's reconstruction. The brigades of "reconstructionists" will thus obtain several school credits, as stated by the deputy chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Youth Policy, Vladimir Kiselev.

RUSSIA

In the Church of the Holy Trinity in St. Petersburg, and in several other places of prayer, a pamphlet with special litanies for obtaining indulgences was distributed, with the (ironic) intention of supporting the "Furher Putin" and his military actions.
In his Wednesday general audience, continuing the cycle on old age, Francis spoke about the relationship between generations in the family, taking his cue from the biblical book of Ruth. "Faith and love can make it possible to overcome common sense prejudices, which generate insuperable fractures."

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The bond between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law as "an alliance between generations that opens the future." Pope Francis focused on this theme this morning at the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Square, where the pontiff met with groups of pilgrims and faithful from all over the world. The Pope, continuing the cycle of catechesis on old age, wanted to take inspiration from the book of Ruth, which he called "a jewel of the Bible."

"With regard to the Canticle of Canticles, the Book of Ruth is like the other panel in the diptych of nuptial love. Just as important, just as essential, it indeed celebrates the power and the poetry that must inhabit the bonds of generation, kinship, devotion and fidelity that involve the entire family constellation. And which even become capable, in the dramatic conjunctures in the life of a couple, of bringing an unimaginable power of love, able to relaunch hope and the future."

Francis spoke of the cliches about the bonds of kinship created by marriage, which see especially that between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law against this perspective. Only the inspiration of faith will be able to open a horizon of witness against the prejudices.

To explain his vision of the mother-in-law-daughter-in-law relationship, he took, in fact, the story of Noemi and her daughter-in-law Rut as an example. The elderly Noemi, in the grip of pessimism about her future, insists that her daughters-in-law - widows of her two children - abandon her. "Ruth resists this generous offer," Francis explained, "The bond that has been established between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law has been blessed by God. Thus Noemi, moved by Ruth's dedication, came out of her pessimism and encouraged her daughter-in-law to win a new husband in Israel. Noemi, who was in her old age, will know the joy of having a part in the generation of a new birth.

"See how many 'miracles' accompany the conversion of this elderly woman," the Pontiff emphasized, "She converts to the commitment to make herself available, with love, for the future of a generation wounded by loss and at risk of abandonment. Thus, faith and love can make it possible to overcome the prejudices of common sense, which generate insuperable fractures. "The mother-in-law overcomes her jealousy of her own son, who is a danger, by loving Rut's new bond; the women of Israel overcome their distrust of the stranger (and if the women do it, everyone will); the vulnerability of the lonely girl, faced with the power of the male, is reconciled with a bond full of love and respect." And it's all thanks to young Rut's faithfulness to a bond exposed to ethnic and religious prejudice.

"Today, the mother-in-law is a mythical character, who is always imagined as a bad figure, but she is the mother of your husband or wife," Francis said. "We think of when people say that the more distant the mother-in-law is, the better. But the mother-in-law is a mother, she is a grandmother." The pontiff recalled that the elderly, in fact, when they see their grandchildren, they regain vigor. "Review your relationship with your mothers-in-law: they have given motherhood to your spouse," the pope prayed and, addressing his mothers-in-law, then admonished, "And you mothers-in-law, be careful with your tongues."

For a tomorrow filled with blessings, it will be important for young people to open themselves to gratitude for what they have received and for old people to take the initiative to revive their future. "Let the young speak with the old and the old with the young: this bridge we must reestablish strong, because there is a current of happiness there," the pontiff concluded.

To Portuguese-speaking pilgrims he entrusted the renewed appeal for peace in Ukraine: "I ask you to persevere in unceasing prayer for peace. Let the weapons be silent, so that those who have the power to stop the war hear the cry of peace of all humanity".

Greeting the Polish faithful present in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis recalled that today marks the eighth anniversary of the canonization of St. John Paul II, proclaimed saint along with Pope John XXIII on April 27, 2014: "Through his intercession, we ask to be faithful witnesses of Christ and his merciful love in the world, in the family and in the workplace."
According to the USCIRF, the Islamic Republic engages in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. The latest case involves the arrest of a 49-year-old convert, Rahmat Rostamipour, on Easter Monday. Other countries of concern are Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Myanmar.

Tehran (AsiaNews)  Iran remains a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in terms of religious freedom because of systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, this according to the US International Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

In view of the situation, the commission wants the US State Department to keep the Islamic Republic on its list of countries that limit freedom of worship, including that of Christians even though the latter are recognised in Iranian law.

The list includes, among others, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, China, Syria, Vietnam and Myanmar.

In its latest annual report, released today, the independent, bipartisan group noted that religious freedom in Iran remained poor in 2021.

The study criticises the Iranian government and the ruling clergy for arresting, convicting, sentencing, and jailing scores of Christians on charges such as propaganda against the regime.

The list of the people whose rights were violated last year include three Christian converts convicted under article 500 of the penal code (amended in February 2021) for deviant activities that contradict the sacred law of Islam. The three were given five years in prison.

Another case involves the continued imprisonment of USCIRF Religious Prisoner of Conscience Yousef Nadarkhani for acting against national security and promoting Zionist Christianity.

One Christian convert, Sam Khosravi, who was convicted for propaganda against the state, saw his appeal rejected after he and his wife Maryam were told they must relinquish custody of their daughter on the basis of their religious beliefs.

The latest case concerns a 49-year-old Christian convert, Article 18, a group dedicated to human rights in Iran, reported.

On 18 April, a dozen plainclothes agents from the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) took Rahmat Rostamipour (pictured) from his home in Anzali, a town in northern Iran, and confiscated several Bibles, as well as personal documents and other items, including identity cards, familys phones, tablets and various books.

Although he has not yet been charged, he is being held for propaganda against the regime through involvement in house-church activities.

At the time of the raid, his 13-year-old son was present at the house; his wife was summoned to the MOIS office in Anzali but was later released.

In addition to Christians, other groups are victims of rights violations, such as Baha'is, Sufis, Sunnis, and atheists.

The USCRIF report calls on the US government and international agencies to exert multilateral pressure on Iran to improve religious-freedom conditions.
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kW

AMG

Powering it is the 2.0-liter inline-four, with mild-hybrid assistance and the aforementioned tech. This is the same recipe as in the new SL 43 that debuted earlier this month, yet quite surprisingly, the C 43 is punchier than its open-top sibling.You see, while the four-banger produces 376 hp (381 ps / 280) and 354 lb-ft (480 Nm) of torque in the roadster, with a short-term boost of 14 hp (14 ps / 10 kW) provided by the 48-volt system, the C 43s lump pushes out 402 hp (408 ps / 300 kW) and 369 lb-ft (500 Nm).Both models feature a nine-speed automatic transmission that directs the thrust to the rear wheels in the SL and the 4Matic rear-biased all-wheel drive system in the C 43 . The latter takes 4.6 seconds to hit 62 mph (100 kph) from a standstill, being 0.3 seconds quicker than the SL 43. Top speed is electronically limited to 155 mph (250 kph), though it can be increased to 165 mph (265 kph), and the roadster can keep pushing up to 170 mph (275 kph). The Estate variant, because the new C 43 also comes in this body style, albeit not in North America, is one tenth of a second slower to 62 mph.Telling it apart from the rest of the new-gen C-Class family is quite easy, as it features the Panamericana grille with vertical slats up front, and a mean-styled diffuser at the rear, with cutouts for the four exhaust pipes. C 43 and  logos decorate the body, and it has Turbo Electrified badges on the front fenders. The car rides on 18-inch wheels as standard, and customers will be able to order 19- or 20-inch sets as an option.Dressed in fake leather upholstery and microfiber and adorned by red accents, such as the stitching and seatbelts, the interior also features front bucket seats, a flat-bottom steering wheel, and AMG-specific functions in the MBUX infotainment system, dedicated drive mode selector, and several other things.The exclusive suspension setup and rear-wheel steering should make it a peach to drive on twisty roads, and the company can fit it with the AMG Real Performance Sound at an extra cost, which, despite the bold name, will fill the cabin with fake noise.U.S. pricing will be announced in due course, as the first units of the car, in the four-door body style solely, will arrive at dealers later in the year.
The last time this numbers-matching '66 MY BMW R50/2 had changed hands was all the way back in 1987. To put that into perspective, the current owners acquisition occurred when Ronald Reagan was still in charge at the White House, and two years before Germany became the unified state we know today.Having been gradually refurbished as time went by, the Bavarian artifact flaunts youthful paintwork, new ignition hardware and Continental tires with 2019 date codes. About a year ago, the valve clearances have been adjusted and the carbs were rebuilt to optimize performance.Additionally, the R50/2 saw all of its vital fluids flushed, while the battery was also replaced with a modern item during the restoration. As for the motorcycles fundamental specs and features, its power source is an air-cooled 494cc boxer-twin mill with dual Bings inhalers, two valves per cylinder head and a compression ratio of 6.8:1.In the region of 5,800 rpm, the four-stroke engine is capable of spawning up to 26 horses at the crankshaft. This force gets channeled to the bikes rear shaft-driven wheel by means of a four-speed transmission and a dry single-plate clutch. Ultimately, the whole ordeal can result in a modest top speed of 87 mph (140 kph).For stopping power, Motorrads vintage beauty relies on a duplex drum brake at the front and a simplex unit at the rear, both of which measure 200 mm (7.9 inches). The Beemer has a curb weight of 436 pounds (198 kg), and its supported by leading-link Earles forks and twin hydraulic shocks.This handsome 1966 R50/2 is now preparing to say goodbye to its long-term owner, so feel free to bid for it on Bring a Trailer if youre interested. Two days are currently separating us from the auctioning deadline (April 29), and one would need approximately $5,500 in order to get ahead of the top bidder.
The fiercest competition seems to take place in the helicopter realm. There, two major programs are currently ongoing, both at the hands of the U.S. Army and will likely result in some incredible new machines being constructed: the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft ( FLRAA ) program and the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) one.The latter sees Sikorsky pitting the S-97 Raider against Bells 360 Invictus, two machines that are still being put together, not only by the two giants, but also with help from other partner companies.Bell, for instance, announced this week it tapped Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) for help with the Invictus. SNC will be the mission systems integrator for the aircraft in Increment 1, meaning it will be in charge with providing mission equipment in a way that is compliant with the modular, open systems approach behind the project.Bell started putting the aircraft together in the summer of last year. When ready, it will be a beast powered by a General Electric engine as the main powerplant, and a Pratt & Whitney unit for extra power. The helicopter should be capable of reaching a speed of 210 mph (330 kph).FARA will be a significant increase in the Armys attack and reconnaissance mission capability, said in a statement Derek Hess, vice president of business development at SNC.SNC is committed to delivering the next-generation mission capabilities Army Aviation needs for the future fight. We are proud to join Team Invictus in the Army modernization effort.
Made by Boeing and based on the 707 commercial airliner, the Sentry became a worldwide icon thanks to its 30 feet (9 meters) in diameter dish mounted on top of its fuselage. Better known as the AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System), the plane is currently in the process of getting new capabilities, as proven by a recent electronic support measures test conducted earlier in April.That isnt stopping the Air Force from looking at the future though, and at a replacement for the AWACS. From 2023, part of the current fleet, which comprises in all a little over 30 airplanes, will have to be replaced.The plane chosen to do that is also of Boeing make, namely the E-7 Wedgetail. Based on the 737 , its lighter than the Sentry, and instead of the round dish up top, it features an elongated radar that runs parallel to the fuselage, hence its nickname.Known in the industry as the Boeing Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C), the Wedgetail comes with 360-degree sensor coverage ensured by the Northrop Grumman Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA), is packed with gear making it capable to detect and geolocate targets, a state of the art comms system, and, of course, aerial refueling capabilities.The planes gear makes it capable to identify friends and foes from a distance of 345 miles (555 km). It can fly for about 4,000 miles (6,400 km) on a single full of fuel, at altitudes of 41,000 feet (12,500 meters).The Air Force plans to replace about half of the current Sentry fleet with the Wedgetail. So far, the airplane has been deployed in the service of the Royal Australian Air Force, and by the militaries of Turkey, South Korea, and the UK.
EV

ICE

Since I've seen it mentioned, we're aware of a weekend incident near Bridgewater, MA involving a truck transporting a Lucid Air. Initial report suggests the fire originated in the engine compartment of the truck during transport. We await the formal report from local authorities.  Len Devanna (@LenDevanna) April 26, 2022

Lucid is a newer arrival on the EV market , but its extended range, impressive performance, and solid feedback have often positioned it as a Tesla killer. Lucid Motors never invited the rivalry, but it does welcome the comparison because both companies strive for the same goal, that of cleaner transportation, albeit on different segments of the market.Lucid Motors makes luxury EVs, and the most illustrative example is their most expensive and exclusive model in the lineup, the Air Dream Edition , which retails for $170,000. The performance matches the price: 1,080 hp, 9.9 seconds to run a quarter-mile (402 m), a 520 miles (837 km) EPA range, and only 520 units to be built worldwide, all spoken for.Make that 519 because one Air Dream burned down to the ground in a mysterious fire last weekend in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Were back to square one about howincidents, whatever their cause, tend to get more attention thanincidents. EV fires , in particular, do that, even though ICE fires are more common. With EVs, its not the frequency of the fires but the difficulty of putting them out that matters.Word of this particular fire first popped up on Facebook, with a report noting that it took first-responders four full hours to put it out because the Airs battery kept reigniting (hat tip to The Drive ). The wreck had to be towed away, placed into a container, and doused down. The Air wasnt traveling under its own power and was not charging, as far as we know. It was sitting in the bed of a carrier truck, which was also torched. Moreover, a nearby building was damaged by the flames, as well.Based on photos made available online, the Air was a rare Dream Edition, and it was completely destroyed. The towing truck was also damaged almost beyond recognition, so the most important aspect to note is that no one was injured.Because EVs tend to be politicized or, at the very least, divide opinion, Len Devanna, Lucids head of digital experience, addressed the incident on social media. He said an investigation is still underway to determine the cause, but the first clues point to the fact that the blaze started in the engine bay of the towing truck and was only made worse by the Airs battery pack.In the end, regardless of what caused the fire, a $170,000 luxury car, a truck, and a trailer were lost.
Electric Vehicle

Yes, there was an actual power outage during the #F150Lightning event today. But the show went on, with a little help from Lightning ?????? https://t.co/bLBsa2UdAd pic.twitter.com/UMT2bboxyj  Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) April 26, 2022

Phoebe Wall Howard, from the Detroit Free Press, tweeted about that and said it was caused by a problem with DTE Energy, the Michigan power company. Jim Farley confirmed that and said that the F-150 Lightning came to the rescue, supplying energy for the event. The apparent inconvenience was so convenient to show this side of the electric pickup truck that it is only fair to wonder if it was not a clever marketing stunt. Howard said it was definitely by chance.If other people in the same region where the RougeCenter had the same issue, it would be fair to say it was a real event and that DTE Energy would never cut supply just to help Ford demonstrate the bidirectional capability of the F-150 Lightning . If it was restricted to the plant, the possibility that it was staged increases. If you live around there and can tell us more about this power outage, wed be really grateful.Regardless of the cause, the possibility of using the F-150 Lightning to power a house for up to three days cannot be underestimated. Jim Farley even joked that it could help Tesla owners in need of charge if they have friends who own the electric pickup truck. In January, Jason Fenske demonstrated that it is a much better idea to buy an F-150 Lightning Pro than a Tesla Powerwall.We now wonder how many pickup trucks were necessary to keep things going and if they powered the entire factory or just the part that was hosting the event. Ford may tell us more about it in the future if we ask them. Well give it a thought.
According to Reuters, Nitin Gadkari said in a government press conference that Tesla was welcome to sell its cars in India and to make them there both for the local market and for exports. However, importing them from China would not be a good proposition.That entire prelude makes it clear that Gadkari and the Indian government are not concerned with safety  such as Chinese army facilities forbidding Tesla vehicles from entering its premises  or any ideological war. What India does not want is to buy cars that it could be building itself.Indias prime minister has already disclosed he wants to promote a Made in India strategy to attract companies and create jobs in the country. In that sense, Narendra Modi is doing what Joe Biden planned for the U.S. with the Invest in America Act : all countries want to manufacture stuff instead of only buying them from other ones. In February 2021, Karnatakas chief minister, Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa, even said Tesla would have a factory in his state, more specifically in Tumakuru. Tesla never confirmed that.For Modi, that is particularly important after Ford decided to close its factories in India. Attracting new companies is crucial to increasing the countrys per capita income. Ironically, that is precisely why Tesla is worried about opening a new factory there.India has a massive population. Unfortunately, it is also known as a poor country. According to the World Bank, it had a GDP per capita of $1,927.70 in 2020. In the same year, Americans had a GDP per capita of $63,593.44. The best-selling vehicles in India are cheap cars, not electric vehicles with premium prices like the ones Tesla sells. That said, an Indian factory would be dedicated to exports.From what Reuters reports, that makes perfect sense for the Indian government, but Tesla apparently disagrees. It may prefer to expand its Chinese factory, which is close to essential battery suppliers, instead of having to build everything it needs in India to sell most of these cars elsewhere. The developments in this discussion will be educational.
The British brand will kick things off by opening a first-of-its-kind innovation hub in the UK, together with corporate innovation platform and investor, Plug and Play. Meanwhile, two other partnerships (with Cubo Itau and Firjan) will provide JLR with access to Latin Americas start-up ecosystem  Brazil, for example, is a very important business hub and its also home to one of Jaguar Land Rovers production facilities.Cubo Itau (located in Sao Paulo) hosts hundreds of start-ups not just from the automotive sector, but also fintech, agribusiness, healthcare and retail. JLR plan on playing a key role in Cubos recently created Smart Mobility Hub, which will focus on car-related innovations Furthermore, Open Innovation should aid JLR in their quest to achieve net zero by 2039, while also creating new value chains for the business. As for the Plug and Play platform, it will also provide access to a vast ecosystem of potential partners, enabling the premium carmaker to test new technologies and business models.With the launch of the Open Innovation platform, Jaguar Land Rover is looking at the entire mobility and sustainability ecosystem to offer an unparalleled customer experience, shaping the future of our industry, and paving the way to the future. We will explore everything from second-life batteries and circular economy to new fintech, insurtech and digital services  all aligned with Jaguar Land Rover as the proud creators of Modern Luxury, said Jaguar Land Rover strategy and sustainability exec, Francois Dossa.In order to get Open Innovation going, JLR appointed more than 70 so-called champions from across key business areas, such as sustainability, engineering, design, research and manufacturing.
Two months ago, we were telling you about Lucids plans to build their first non-American plant in Saudi Arabia. They picked the Gulf country even though the U.S. government doesnt have the same good relationship with the Saudis they once had. Now things are starting to become clearer.According to a press release coming from the American automaker, the Saudi Arabia government promised to buy 50,000 EVs over the next 10 years. The same agreement includes the possibility of purchasing another 50,000 Lucid models until 2032.For now, even though Lucid wanted us to just read a headline and move on, the commitment taken by the public officials of Saudi Arabia includes just 50,000 EVs. The Lucid Air is part of this contract, but the company will deliver future models as well. The other 50,000 all-electric sedans and SUVs remain an option.Further details of the deal havent been made public yet, but Lucid confirms it will start delivering 1,000 to 2,000 models per year. The number will grow as Lucids production facilities expand. The first cars that are part of this contract will arrive in Saudi Arabia starting from April 2023. Production will be ramped from 2025. Lucid s CEO and CTO said that delivering up to 100,000 Lucid electric vehicles in Saudi Arabia represents another pivotal moment in our acceleration of sustainable transportation worldwide.The price paid by the Saudi Arabian government for the first 50,000 EVs hasnt been disclosed, but it will be determined by applying an interesting yet welcomed strategy. The automaker will use the lowest standard retail price for the Saudi Arabian market and the standard retail price applicable in the U.S., together with logistics, importation, and homologation costs to establish the value of the first 50,000 Lucid EVs that will be exported to the country or produced there after the factory will be built.Lucids stock (NASDAQ: LCID) jumped to the previous level of $19.33 per share after the news reached investors.
Surely this wasnt what everyone expected to hear from Rick Ross, who is currently busy promoting his upcoming self-titled car show . There, the rapper will display over one hundred cars, and he's already invited other famous people with exotic car collections. It also looks like Ross couldnt be prouder of the upcoming event.Anyone whos ever stumbled across Ross Instagram account knows he loves posting his cars on social media, and now hes doing that more than ever.In a new short video where he is giving his fans a tour of his fleet, he stumbled across his black Cadillac limousine, which he calls his Baby Lac. Which made him take a walk down memory lane and share something he never said before.The rapper and record executive didnt grow up rich and worked hard to get where he is now. And he explained that, as kids in elementary school, he and his friends used to steal Cadillac emblems from cars they saw on the street. He even gave everyone a sturdy demonstration of how he used to steal the hood ornaments and explained that he would end up wearing them on a chain around his neck.I just knew I wanted a Cadillac, Rick Ross explained, and a few decades later, he owns more than one. Hopefully, now he knows what he did was wrong.The Rick Ross Car and Bike Show will take place at his mansion in Georgia, Atlanta, called Promise Land. That is where he recently welcomed an armored vehicle to parade it around. Trina and DJ Khaled are among the first celebrities who promoted the show and who will possibly flaunt their rides there, too.
As the largest port in Scandinavia, Gothenburg has the ambitious goal of cutting shipping emissions in the port area by 70% before the end of the decade. But it also has another big plan, and that is to become the main bunkering and storage hub for renewable methanol in Northern Europe.Methanol is on the list of alternative fuels for the maritime industry, together with LNG (liquefied natural gas), hydrogen, and ammonia. It can be made from biomass (in which case its called bio-methanol) or from carbon dioxide and renewable electricity , resulting in eMethanol. This fuel is said to cut CO2 emissions by 95% and nitrogen oxide emissions by 80% while completely eliminating particulate matter and sulfur oxide.Several shipping companies have started using methanol on a wider scale, one of them being X-Press Feeders, which is operating eight new container ships that can run on methanol. We need the ports to be ready when we are to decide where to route our first line of methanol propelled vessels, said Sven Siemsen, Senior Manager Marketing Europe at X-Press Feeders. And Gothenburg will be one of the first. The port recently got the green light from the Swedish Transport Agency for ship-to-ship methanol bunkering, followed by the Gothenburg Port Authority publishing the related operating regulations. This is an important step that will encourage new methanol-fueled vessels to come to the area.The next step will be to also provide methanol for ships in the future. The Port is already working on establishing a supply chain that will allow it to store and provide eMethanol by 2024. Ultimately, it aims to become the largest hub for methanol operations in the region.
kWh

After several weeks of downtime, Mlada Boleslav has restarted Enyaq iV production to the tune of 1,000 examples per week. Skoda highlights that a shortage of cable harnesses from Ukraine stopped the assembly line in its tracks, but fails to mention where the replacement harnesses are produced.Controlled by the Volkswagen Group, the Czech automaker also notes that full production capacity is the long-term goal of Mlada Boleslav. Skoda further notes that its not possible to make predictions about supply chains right now, which is understandable considering the Russo-Ukrainian war.Capacity will gradually increase over a two-month period. In the long term, Skoda is targeting up to 370 Enyaq iV and Enyaq iV Coupe vehicles per day. Based on the MEB modular electric vehicle architecture of the Volkswagen ID.4 compact crossover, the Czech alternatives are offered with a choice of three battery capacities: 55, 62 kWh, and 82 kWh.The MEB can support rear- and all-wheel-drive applications. Back home in the Czech Republic, the Skoda Enyaq iV can be purchased for the princely sum of 1,124,900 koruny or $48,400 at current exchange rates. What do you get for your money? The list starts with the mid-range battery and rear-wheel drive, a configuration that offers up to 404 kilometers (251 miles).Even if were dealing with quite a heavy car, the Enyaq iV 60 is much obliged to reach 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) in 8.8 seconds with the standard low-resistance tires. At the other end of the spectrum, we have the Enyaq iV 80x with a dual-motor powertrain, the large battery, 509 kilometers (316 miles) of range, and 6.9 seconds to three-digit velocities.The first MEB vehicle produced outside Germany, the Enyaq iV is a great testament to our high level of engineering expertise and highlights the degree of trust the VW Group has in our workforce, said CEO Thomas Schafer.
Now, the idea with this is that Kia wants to launch its first dedicated PBV by 2025, and then it intends to become a market leader in the field by 2030. The company's goal is to have a dedicated platform that will allow it to build PBVs of different shapes and sizes, which will manage to seat anyone and everyone.This is just the first step in Kia's strategy of Purpose-Built Vehicles, and it will soon reach taxi operators in South Korea. The same model will also be offered to business owners looking for car-hailing vehicles with a zero-emission drivetrain.Earlier this year, the marque launched the Ray Van, which is the country's first single-seater van, and it is meant to help small cargo delivery services to have as much space available in a vehicle with a small footprint.The Ray Van is based on the Ray that dates back to 2011 and is related to the Picanto, while also complying with the country's light car category, which is Korea's equivalent of the kei car, with a length of less than 3.6 meters (ca. 141 inches) and a width of less than 1.6 meters (63 inches).Coming back to the Kia Niro PBV, the Korean brand wants to offer it for private owners, as well. The company has imagined a usage scenario that blends business use during the week, while personal use would take over during the weekend.The Kia Niro Plus comes with a few modifications over the standard model that it was based on . For example, there is a 10-millimeter (.39-inch) increase in length, as well as an 80 mm (about 3.15 in) increase in height, when compared to a first-generation Niro without a roof rack.The idea was to offer as much rear space in the cabin as possible, which is why thinner seats and door trims were installed.Moreover, the brand also added additional accessibility convenience features on board to help people get in and out of it easier. The driver gets an "All-in-One" display to help integrate all the functions of the vehicle in a single space, including support for taximeter apps, not just navigation or driving information.
ICE

EGR

If each country had its own car company and was more isolated, things could be different. They could follow local interests and legislation and keep business as usual. Thats the case only in North Korea, Iran, and soon in Russia. All others countries depend on massive automakers with headquarters in the U.S., Europe, Japan, China, and South Korea. They are the ones who call the shots on which vehicles will be sold in most of the world.The only exception may be India. With more than 1 billion people and its own carmakers (Tata and Mahindra), it may decide to keep combustion engines alive in its home market and expand to countries that cannot afford EVs. However, that depends on whether developing them makes financial sense. It only will if they sell enough of them. Affordability is the main argument to keep combustion engines afloat, and it is not enough. Well get there in a bit.Although we have these five major regions with the most powerful carmakers, only three of them really decide where the automotive world should head to: China, the U.S., and Europe. Japan and South Korea do have large carmakers  some of which are pretty reluctant about EVs at their current stage  but they do not have enough internal demand to keep their companies as big and strong as they currently are. Most of their focus is on export or local production in one of these three regions we mentioned.While people prefer to consider them as equals, the relevance between these three regions is pretty unbalanced. Some are still waiting for Chinese cars to invade the U.S. without realizing they do not have to: China is the country that buys more vehicles in the world, with a growth rate that the other two cannot match.The U.S. will eventually get Chinese cars, but that is not a priority for their manufacturers: they already have plenty of customers to please. Just check how BMW maximized the front grilles of its cars because Chinese customers love them that way. Americans or Europeans who are not that fond of this characteristic will just have to put up with it. That shows how crucial China now is for the automotive industry.Summing up, what these three massive markets decide to buy is what all others will end up getting sooner or later. All major carmakers are focused on selling well in them. For any fan of combustion engines, the bad news is that all three are focused on electric cars.EVs have become a priority for two reasons: GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and oil scarcity. Human activity emits massive loads of carbon, methane, and other gasses and pollutants that worsen the greenhouse effect. Most of these excessive emissions come from burning fossil fuels, which have limited reserves. Keep in mind that the automotive industry was already looking for alternatives because the oil will not last forever.To be fair, the risk of oil fields going dry merged with governments concerns about thein big cities, especially governments that champion universal healthcare systems. The pollution effects on their inhabitants increased health costs. China pursued NEVs (new energy vehicles) to clean the skies of its megalopolises and prevent respiratory issues in the population. CARB has more stringent rules than federal ones because of smog in California.Assuming that the issue with combustion engines is only related to carbon emissions is a big mistake that some of their advocates want to spread as an absolute truth. Just check what the VDMA (Mechanical Engineering Industry Association) said in Germany. According to its president, Karl Haeusgen, the problem is fossil fuels.What he failed to mention is that youll still have nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, ozone, and other pollutants with any engine. Its intrinsic to how they work, regardless of what they burn. We have already mentioned that when we discussed another desperate attempt to stick with combustion engines: making them burn hydrogen, which could only work for racing, as my friend Benny Kirk wrote a while ago.What governments needed was a minimally viable alternative. When Tesla started selling the Roadster, and Nissan took that concept to mass-production with the LEAF, they proved companies could sell vehicles powered by batteries. Before that, automakers were studying the idea of fuel cells because they did not believe people would accept low ranges, higher weight, and spending a lot of time charging. Yet, people did, hopeful that technological advances would improve things. Luckily, that has been the case until now.The hype around Tesla, the concerns about global warming, the pollution risks ICEs bring, and the outcry against traditional cars led politicians to create legislation that slowly turned the combustion engine into something impractical and highlighted how obsolete it is. You could only keep on selling it if it met increasingly more difficult and eventually impossible requirements. In some cities, even the cleanest combustion-engined vehicles cannot circulate in some areas. To do so, your car needed to be electric. Combustion engines are extremely expensive to conceive from the ground up, which explains why some engine families are decades old. Automakers have to recover that investment by using these mills for as long as possible. Emission rules make them more expensive.Carburetors had to die because of that: fuel injections made engines cleaner. They soon needed catalyzers,, sensors, particle filters, and a myriad of other components to meet legal requirements. We will not even mention the investments in mass reduction and aerodynamics to make vehicles more efficient. Thats all due to regulations. It will eventually be cheaper to just put an electric motor to move automobiles and feed them with electricity in a way that makes sense.While rich countries and regions already know they will kill the combustion engine by 2035, 2040, or a bit later, some ICE advocates had hopes that developing countries would keep them alive. Thats not what we are seeing. Some automakers are simply closing factories, and Ford is a good example after it decided to shut down its Indian and Brazilian plants.Those that do not want to get rid of their investments in these countries are trying to find alternatives to keep them open. In Brazil, most are betting on ethanol by developing hybrids that run on this renewable fuel. There are multiple reasons for that to be a temporary patch, not a solution.All carmakers are moving to dedicated electric architectures. That makes the challenge of local branches in emerging countries even more difficult than just developing new engines or convincing local governments to ease legal requirements on the current ones for them to survive. In short, they will need to develop platforms than can still use them.Some of these countries had engineering centers, but most of them have already been closed or transferred to China , the U.S., or Europe. The ones that remain active will have to justify the investments in places where market size may not be worth it and instabilities are constant.To make matters worse, these local branches cannot take care of everything on their own. To keep selling engines, they need strong suppliers. Most of these companies also have headquarters abroad and are already eyeing what to sell to electric cars. Spark plugs, cables, pistons, valves, belts, you name it: these things may vanish if the suppliers do not have enough customers. Either that or the price of these components will increase due to a lower production scale, making combustion engines more expensive. Thats when the affordability excuse implodes.This scenario shows how difficult it will be to stretch the life of current engine projects for as long as possible anywhere in the world. The last nail in the coffin of combustion engines is that most OEM local branches cannot count solely on the internal demand of emerging countries for these cars. Most of them, such as Mexico , are export platforms to rich markets, and the truth is that these developed countries do not want combustion engines anymore.The gymnastics engineers and executives are doing to keep them in production is amazing. However, there is nothing you can do to convince customers to remain interested and forgiving of all the downsides engines have. To make matters worse for combustion engines, any increase in fuel prices drives even more people toward electric vehicles. The sooner automotive professionals realize this worldwide, the earlier and better they can prepare for the inevitable. As long as cars are still around and personal transportation is ensured, we should just welcome the change and prepare for it. It will happen, regardless of personal preferences.
EV

kW

kWh





We had already warned our readers about this electric roadster on March 11, 2022. It took the company a bit more than a month to disclose that the Thunderball has some impressive characteristics.The first one is that it works at 800V . That allows the newto charge at a speed of up to 300, which is a bit more than the Porsche Taycan and its 270 kW speed. Wiesmann will offer two battery pack options: 83or 92 kWh, both supplied by Roding Automobile.When the 92-kWh battery pack provided by Roding Automobile is fully charged, Wiesmann stated the Thunderball could run up to 500 kilometers (311 miles). Thats not something big carmakers can claim for their EVs. The electric roadster weighs 1,775 kilograms (3,913 pounds), but it is not clear with which battery pack the scale hits that number.Regarding performance numbers, Wiesmann said it offers 680 ps (500 kW) and 1,100 Nm (811.3 pound-feet). Thats enough for the car to go from 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) in 2.9 seconds and from 0 to 200 kph (124 mph) in 8.9 a. Wiesmann did not disclose if it has a limited top speed.So far, the company is just calling the car Project Thunderball, its development codename. We suspect that Wiesmann will keep calling it Thunderball when it is ready for deliveries. The final name will be revealed by the end of 2022, so we suspect that is when the first customers will get their electric roadsters. What we know for sure is that orders are open for a starting price of 300,000 ($317,520 at the current exchange rate) and that it will be built in Dulmen, Germany. Wiesmann should let us know more soon, especially about the Project Gecko, which will use a regular combustion engine  while it can.
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Armenias two main opposition alliances launched the protests on Monday in advance of mass anti-government demonstrations planned by them. They say that Pashinians removal from power would prevent sweeping concessions to Azerbaijan planned by him.

Groups of opposition members and supporters staged awareness marches, blocked streets and entered university campuses in Yerevan for the third consecutive day.

Traffic through one of those streets was disrupted for several minutes. Riot police forcibly unblocked it, detaining several protesters in the process.

The Armenian police reported afterwards that 18 opposition activists were arrested in various parts of the city by early afternoon.

Eleven others were detained on Tuesday. Three of them remained in police custody the following day, risking hooliganism charges. The police did not clarify what exactly they could be prosecuted for.

Benik Galstian, a lawyer representing the detainees, said that he too does not know why they were not set free. He said he has petitioned a Yerevan court to order their release.

Gegham Manukian, an opposition lawmaker who visited the activists in custody in the morning, denounced the criminal proceedings as absurd.

One of the guys was arrested last night on the grounds of evading a criminal investigation, Manukian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service. In fact, he rushed to the Investigative Committee immediately after they phoned him during the protest.

Meanwhile, two groups of other oppositionists continued to march to Yerevan from southern Ararat and northern Tavush provinces. One of them was led by Anna Grigorian, another lawmaker affiliated with the opposition Hayastan alliance.

Grigorian said that she is encouraged by their reception in Ararat villages located along a highway leading to the Armenian capital. The spirits are high because we are fighting for an idea, and that unity will lead us to victory, she said.

Hayastan and the other opposition bloc, Pativ Unem, have scheduled their first rally for this Sunday. They already jointly rallied thousands of supporters in Yerevans Liberty Square on April 5 to warn Pashinian against agreeing to restore Azerbaijans control over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The prime minister met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels the following day for talks hosted by European Council President Charles Michel.

Speaking in the parliament on April 13, Pashinian said the international community is pressing Armenia to scale back its demands on Karabakhs status and recognize Azerbaijans territorial integrity. He signaled Yerevans intention to make such concessions to Baku.

Pro-government lawmakers maintain that Pashinian did not call for the restoration of Azerbaijani control of Karabakh. They have accused the opposition of exploiting the issue in a bid to seize power.
Pashinian on Wednesday remained silent about the incident that caused uproar on social media. He issued no statements offering his condolences to the family of the 28-year-old woman, Sona Mnatsakanian.

The Armenian police confirmed shortly after the unprecedented accident that the car which ran over Mnatsakanian was driven by one of their officers. He was arrested later on Tuesday.

A separate statement released by the Investigative Committee said that the officer did not stop to help the victim and came back to the scene of the accident only two hours later.

Maria Karapetian, a lawmaker from the ruling Civil Contract party, essentially confirmed that the police vehicle was part of the motorcade carrying Pashinian. She told RFE/RLs Armenian Service that the prime minister was on his way to a meeting with her and other pro-government parliamentarians.

Karapetian said that the meeting was cut short after news of the pedestrians death was reported by a Yerevan hospital. In those circumstances it was very hard to continue talking about the agenda for which we gathered, she said.

The accident was caught on street cameras, according to some media outlets. Videos circulated by them showed that the young woman was struck by a police SUV while crossing a street in downtown Yerevan. The cars carrying Pashinian and his bodyguards drove past her moments later.

Samvel Martirosian, a prominent Armenian blogger, witnessed the moment when the motorcade emerged from Pashinians private residence located several hundred meters away. He said that traffic police officers acted wildly as the vehicles moved to the scene of the fatal accident.

They yelled hysterically and nearly hit other cars while trying to force them to  clear the way, said Martirosian.

Pashinian famously boasted in May 2019 that unlike Armenias former leaders he has made sure that his motorcades stop at a red light. He listed that among purported achievements of his rule.

Sona Mnatsakanian, the victim, was one of the founders of Support Our Heroes, an Armenian charity. She coordinated a project which is currently implemented by it in Nagorno-Karabakh.
I've been very actively and directly engaged with leadership in both Armenia and Azerbaijan, trying to help advance prospects for a long-term political settlement in regard to Nagorno-Karabakh, Blinken told the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Senate during a hearing held on Tuesday.

We have been trying to push back on any unilateral actions, particularly by Azerbaijan, that would only inflame the situation, and we have a number of programs in place that are part of the budget to try to help advance more peaceful prospects, he said without elaborating.

Blinken pointed to his recent phone calls with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as well as the foreign ministers of the two South Caucasus states.

During his conversations with Aliyev and Pashinian, he called for restraint, de-escalation, and renewed diplomacy, according to the U.S. State Department.

Blinken phoned the two leaders on April 5 more than a week after Azerbaijani troops seized a village in eastern Karabakh and tried to push deeper into the territory, sparking deadly fighting with Karabakh Armenian forces.

The State Department deplored the Azerbaijani troop movements, calling them irresponsible and unnecessarily provocative. Baku rejected the criticism.

Speaking during Tuesdays hearing, Robert Menendez, the pro-Armenian chairman of the Senate committee, accused Baku of trying to eliminate the presence of Armenians living in Karabakh. Menendez also criticized the U.S. government for continuing to seek greater U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan than Armenia.
Highland Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Stephanie C. Read as President/CEO, Changes to Board of Directors
Leeward Renewable Energy Operations Announces the Posting of Q4 2021 Financial Results and May 2 Investor Call
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With the theme of New Nostalgia, the 24th annual Boston College Arts Festival will bring together University community members to explore tradition and innovation. More than 1,400 University artists will participate in the three-day showcase April 28-30, and some 50 events will display the expansive talents of BC students, faculty, and alumni in music, theater, dance, creative writing, film, painting, sculpture, and more.



A highlight will be appearances by special guest alumnus Jeff Augustin 08, an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose plays have been performed at high-profile festivals and venues across the country. Augustins television credits include The Morning Show (Apple TV+) and The Good Lord Bird (Showtime). During the festival, Augustin will be presented with the Boston College Arts Council Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement.

"We are thrilled to return to a vibrant live 2022 Arts Festival after two years of social distancing, said Arts Council Chair and Associate Professor of Theatre Crystal Tiala. This years alumni award recipient, Jeff Augustin, is a Haitian-American writing about how people heal, cope, and shape our own narratives. He is taking a short break from his movie in production in the Dominican Republic to participate in our festival.

This years theme was developed by Arts Festival student leaders thinking of how to "bring back" the Arts Festival to its pre-COVID presentation, organizers say: New Nostalgia "pays homage to tradition and innovation as we move forward in a new world, while we long for what we knew before. The 2022 Arts Festival shines a spotlight on what we haven't lostour drive to create, express, and contribute through the arts. The Boston College community is rich with writers, actors, musicians, artists, and creators of all kinds; we provide the stage and walls and the arts take over.
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Kenneth Tsang, a veteran Hong Kong actor who starred in pioneering martial arts movies, has died. He was 86.

Tsang (aka Tsang Kong) was staying in the Kowloon Hotel on Nathan Road, a venue used for passenger quarantine after overseas travel, and was found dead in the room on Wednesday. No immediate cause of death has been given by Hong Kong authorities.

Tsang had traveled home on Monday after a visit to Singapore. His rapid COVID test on Tuesday had tested negative for the disease.

With a career spanning some 65 years, Tsang had over 220 film credits, mostly as bad guys, as well as key roles in multiple TV series. He is best known for supporting roles in 1960s kung fu movies. He is reported to have appearedin 25 film in 1969.

In the 1980s and 1990s he appeared in several influential titles by John Woo including A Better Tomorrow and A Better Tomorrow 2 followed by The Killer and Once a Thief. His first Hollywood movie was the Antoine Fuqua-directed The Replacement Killers, alongside Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-fat.

Tsang was born (Oct. 5, 1935) in Shanghai, grew up in Hong Kong and was educated in the U.S.  Texas and UC Berkley, where he earned a degree in architecture. He was married three times, to circus performer Lan Di, columnist and model Barbara Tang, and to Taiwanese actress Chiao-Chiao, a contemporary from the early Shaw Bros. films.

He continued working until last year. Recent roles included one in thriller Overheard 3, for which he won the best supporting actor prize at the 2015 Hong Kong Film Awards. Another was in the currently on release Man on the Edge and in the Byron Mann-produced The Modelizer, which is in post-production.

Kenneth was not only a wonderfully gifted actor, but he was also a dear friend whom I respected and I could turn to for advise when needed. It was a joy and honor to watch him work and bring the many characters he played to life. Im saddened and I will miss him, Tsangs manager Andrew Ooi at Echelon Talent Management, told Variety.

Tsang was known for appearing in the long-running Hong Kong TV commercial for the Bigen brand of hair dye.

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HOUSTON (AP)  With Melissa Lucios execution put on indefinite hold by a Texas appeals court, her attorneys will now be focused on trying to convince a judge to recommend she get a new trial.

But thats expected to be a tough courtroom battle and even if they manage to get the trial judge on their side, the states top criminal court  which has the final say  might disagree and keep her conviction in place, legal experts said Tuesday.

Winning a favorable recommendation is not a done deal. ...There is still a long way to go before this case is resolved, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Lucio had been set for lethal injection on Wednesday for the 2007 death of her daughter Mariah in the South Texas city of Harlingen. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals delayed her execution on Monday. If ultimately put to death, Lucio would be the first Latina executed by Texas since 1863, and the first woman the state has put to death since 2014.

Prosecutors have maintained that the girl was the victim of abuse and noted that her body was covered in bruises when she died.

Lucios attorneys say her capital murder conviction was based on an unreliable and coerced confession and she wasnt allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession.

Her lawyers also contend unscientific and false evidence misled jurors into believing Mariahs injuries could have been caused only by abuse and not by medical complications from a severe fall down a steep staircase.

In granting the execution stay, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals asked that the Brownsville trial judge in charge of Lucios case  Gabriela Garcia  review four claims her lawyers have made: whether prosecutors used false evidence to convict her; whether previously unavailable scientific evidence would have prevented her conviction; whether she is actually innocent; and whether prosecutors suppressed evidence that would have been favorable to her defense.

Tivon Schardl, one of Lucios attorneys, said that before theres a hearing to consider new evidence in the case, rulings will have to be made on two defense motions to recuse Garcia and Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz over allegations of conflict of interest and due process violations. Lucios attorney at her 2008 trial is now a prosecutor in Saenzs office. Garcias court administrator is the wife of Lucios trial attorney, and also served as his paralegal.

We hope that going forward reason and science will carry the day and Melissa will get a recommendation from the trial court joined by the state of Texas to get a new trial, Schardl said.

No timetable has been set for when Garcia will begin reviewing Lucios case. But a final decision on whether she gets a new trial could be years away.

Saenz said Monday he welcomed the opportunity to have a courtroom review of the case. He has previously expressed doubts about claims by Lucios defense attorneys that new evidence will exonerate her.

On Wednesday, a rally was planned outside the courthouse in Brownsville to ask that Saenz drop the case against Lucio.

Shell never get another execution date. Shell be free. Its just a question of when, said Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group thats helping organize Thursdays rally.

Stanley Schneider, a Houston defense attorney not connected to the case and who has defended death row inmates, said the appeals court ordered review shows that there are real questions that challenge the validity of the conviction.

Letitia Quinones, a Houston defense attorney also not connected to the case, said Lucios lawyers still have a very difficult task ahead of them as its rare to overturn a conviction in Texas.

If (the evidence) exists in the fashion that her defense attorneys have spelled out ... she has a really good chance, Quinones said.

But Dunham said the case of Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed is a good example of the difficulties that might be ahead for Lucio.

Reed got an execution stay and an appeals court ordered review of his case in November 2019 days before he was to be executed for the 1996 killing of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. Like in Lucios case Reeds supporters say new evidence has raised serious doubt about his guilt and he garnered support from celebrities and lawmakers.

But last year, a judge declined to recommend a new trial for Reed. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by Reed over his efforts to test evidence in his case.

Like Lucio, Reed has extraordinarily strong evidence of innocence and yet the Bastrop County judge ignored it, said Dunham, whose group takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.

In the case of Texas death row inmate Rigoberto Avila Jr., who alleged his conviction was based on false and outdated scientific evidence, a judge recommended a new trial, but the appeals court in March 2020 rejected the recommendation, Dunham said.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
Lumberton native TJ Rodman has made his way to Poland.

Last month, The Enterprise reported that Rodman had applied to volunteer on-the-ground in Ukraine to aide in the humanitarian relief effort stemming from Russia's February invasion of the country.

Since then, Rodman has passed his exams, dealt with passport delays and, as of press time, made his way to Poland.

Working with a private group of volunteers from the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, Rodman will participate in a two-week excursion, hoping to return throughout the year.

The group works on the Polish border, transporting medical supplies into Lviv and refugees out of Medyka and Przemysl -- about 100 miles round trip, taking from three to five hours per trip.

RELATED: Lumberton native applies to volunteer in Ukraine

Rodman said there will be one run into Kyiv that he will take part in to check on family he's connected with.

"There are two runs to Kharkiv Oblast that I will be taking part in, but we are watching what the current offensive the Russians are undertaking will do to determine if it's safe enough for us to make that trip," he said. "Signs are currently pointing to 'No' on that particular run."

Though he managed to overcome them, the process has required much more than simply a sign up to assist.

"Initially, it was convincing both my friends and my employers that I was in fact serious," he said. "(The) initial article that was released got me into a little bit of good trouble with my employer, who then decided to help sponsor the trip and cover my travel to and from Warsaw."

RELATED: Local jewelry store forgoes Russian products

Rodman said he's completely at peace about the time he'll spend in Eastern Europe, though he said he doesn't know exactly where he'll sleep or eat for half the time he'll be there.

"The network of volunteers that have assembled in Medyka has been pretty awesome at making sure my fears of sleeping on the ground aren't founded in reality -- it's truly turning into a 'We're in this together' kind of situation," he said.

The 19.5-hour one-way flight, however, was one thing that Rodman said he was not looking forward to. But from the posts on his Facebook page, he seems to have made it OK.

Rodman plans on documenting much of his trip on Facebook Live whenever he's able, so friends and family members can keep up with his activities.

RELATED: Here are five charities you can donate to in order to help support Ukraine

"I will have access to Starlink and 4G networks in Poland and Ukraine as far as I know," he said. "There may be some times when I will lose connectivity, but it's not as much of a concern considering that I've been in constant contact with a few organizers with relative ease."

Rodman will also be able to meet up with his Ukrainian friend Ari, who told him in February about the invasion in her city that inspired him to look into ways to volunteer on-the-ground, in Warsaw.

She will join him on the seven-hour train ride to Medyka and provide translation and directional guidance while the group makes excursions to Kyiv and Kharkiv Oblast.

Rodman's feelings and mindset regarding the trip haven't changed since March, he said.

"There have been some developments as far as security concerns go, but we've got a good group of volunteers with a wide range of skills and abilities to make sure that we cover all areas of what we need," he said. "It's more of a keeping morale high and eyes on the goal of at least doing good for one person."

olivia.malick@hearst.com

twitter.com/OliviaMalick
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP)  Lafayettes old City Hall building will be renamed in honor of Phil Lank, co-founder of the Festival International de Louisiane.

The Lafayette City Council unanimously approved the move to recognize Lank, who was instrumental in the creation of what has since become the city's signature annual event, The Advertiser reported.

Lank died in January at 73.

The festival, which is known for bringing a variety of unique and emerging performers to Louisiana, began in Lafayette 35 years ago amid an oil industry downturn.

Its not just personal achievements, its his legacy for Lafayette, former Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Cathy Webre told the City Council last week.

He touched every facet of our community. So, its downtown revitalization, its neighborhood housing programs. It was the business support, the loans programs, the francophone relationships, she said. He worked really closely with neighborhood residents to start organizations that could carry all these things forward, and so therein lies the greatness of his. He had lots of vision, was passionate about it all.

Lank was Lafayettes Community Development Director from 1980 to 1992. He championed efforts to revive downtown Lafayette including Parc de Lafayette and to renovate Lafayettes first City Hall, which now houses the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana. Lafayette's second City Hall, known as the city's old City Hall, will now bear Lank's name. A third city hall currently houses and operates city-parish government.

Downtown Alive, Festival International, many things that folks in this community love about downtown, Phils fingerprints are all over, current Downtown Development Authority CEO Anita Begnaud said.

With Festival International right around the corner, it just feels like a really great recognition for someone who contributed a lot to the arts and culture of our city and our parish, she added.

Festival International began Wednesday and runs through Sunday, May 1. Headliners in this year's lineup i nclude The Wailers, Sonny Landreth, Zachary Richard, Lil Nathan and the Zydeco Big Timers, DakhaBrakha from Ukraine and Bombino from Niger.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Russia and the United States have carried out an unexpected prisoner exchange in a time of high tensions, trading on Wednesday a Marine veteran jailed by Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America.

The deal involving Trevor Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace but it was all the more surprising because it was done as Russia's war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

On the other end of the swap was Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot whod been serving a 20-year federal sentence for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.

Even as the Biden administration trumpeted the swap, it made clear the resolution did not herald a broader breakthrough between the countries. Russian forces remain determined in their assault on Ukraine, the U.S. and Western allies continue to impose punishing sanctions and other Americans, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, still remain jailed in Russia.

The swap, the culmination of longstanding requests by both countries as well as private diplomatic wrangling, took place in Turkey when the two planes pulled up side by side, essentially, and then they got out, said Reed's father, Joey.

I think its going to really hit home for him and for us when we finally get to see him and touch him, he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Reed, a 30-year-old former Marine from Texas, was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though the U.S. government has described him as unjustly detained and pressed for his release while his family has asserted his innocence and expressed concerns about his deteriorating health  which included coughing up blood and a hunger strike.

Even on Wednesday, his parents' joy was mitigated by the concern they said they felt about his physical appearance. They were struck by his unsteady gait and how thin he looked as TV footage captured him walking, flanked by guards, from a van to the jet.

He just didnt sound like himself, said Reed's mother, Paula, recounting their brief phone conversation while he was on the plane. We just asked him how he was doing and he said, Im fine. But he always says that even when he isnt. And he just didnt sound like his normal self.

Reed was en route back to the U.S., traveling with Roger Cartsens, the U.S. governments special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

President Joe Biden, who met in Washington with Reeds parents last month, hailed Reeds release and noted without elaboration that the negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly. The Russian government also confirmed the deal, with the foreign ministry describing the exchange as the result of a long negotiation process.

A senior Biden administration official cautioned that the negotiations centered on a discrete set of prisoner issues and did not represent a change to the U.S. governments condemnation of Russias violence against Ukraine.

Where we can have discussions on issues of mutual interest we will try to talk to the Russians and have a constructive conversation without any way changing our approach to the appalling violence in Ukraine, the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the administration.

Yaroshenko, for his part, was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S on drug trafficking charges. The Justice Department has described him as an experienced international drug trafficker who conspired to distribute thousands of kilograms of cocaine around the world.

A lawyer for Yaroshenko, who in 2020 unsuccessfully sought to have his client freed on compassionate release because of the coronavirus pandemic, did not return an email seeking comment Wednesday.

Russia had sought Yaroshenko's return for years while also rejecting entreaties by high-level U.S. officials to release Reed, who was approaching his 1,000th day in custody after being convicted on what one U.S. official, Ambassador John Sullivan, decried as laughable evidence.

The prisoner swap was the most prominent release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad and came even as families of detainees who have met over the last year with administration officials had described the officials as cool to the idea of an exchange.

The U.S. government does not typically embrace such exchanges. It fears doing so might encourage foreign governments to take additional Americans as prisoners as a way to extract concessions. And it is concerned about a potential false equivalency between an unjustly detained American  which U.S. officials believe Reed was  and a properly convicted criminal.

In this case, though, the U.S. decided the deal made sense in part because Yaroshenko had already served a long portion of his prison sentence, which has now been commuted, a senior official told the AP on condition of anonymity.

In a statement, the Reed family thanked Biden, for making the decision to bring Trevor home," other administration officials, and Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The family said Richardson traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reed's release.

Reed's release had no immediate impact on the cases of other Americans held by Russia. Griner, for one, was detained in February after Russian authorities said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis. Whelan is being held on espionage-related charges his family says are bogus.

Biden said Wednesday we wont stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends. U.S. officials have described Whelan as unjustly detained but as yet have not characterized Griners case in those terms. Whelan was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison; Griner is awaiting trial.

At home in Texas, the Reeds had been given a general sense of progress and had even begun cleaning Trevor's room in preparation for his return home, removing paperwork from his bed so he'd have a place to sleep.

It was a welcome turnabout from a month ago when they were demonstrating outside the White House for their son's release, then pressing their case in a private meeting with Biden.

Weve been saying for over a year if we could just speak to the president, that we felt like we could make this thing happen  and thats exactly what happened, Joey Reed said.
A 20-year-old Beaumont man has now been handed a second murder charge.

Terry Antonio Johnson III is now being charged in connection with a homicide that occurred March 12, according to the Beaumont Police Department.

Johnson already was in custody for a homicide that occurred in Lumberton on April 15.

In the Beaumont case, Johnson is accused of killing 42-year-old Juan Salazar. Salazar was found with multiple gunshot wounds in the 800 Block of Wall Street.

His body was discovered by police shortly before midnight after officers received reports of shots fired in the area.

Related: Police identify Beaumont man found shot to death on Wall Street

The additional murder charge was added Monday, and Johnson's bond was set at $1 million.

Related: Lumberton PD identifies driver killed in Good Friday shooting

"The warrant stems from multiple active investigations," police said. "The investigations are on-going and additional charges and arrests are expected."

Anyone with information related to these crimes can call Beaumont Police at 409-832-1234 or Southeast Texas Crime Stoppers at 409-833- 8477. Anonymous reports to Crime Stoppers also can be made through the P3 Tips smartphone application.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
The search for an 18-year-old teen accused of killing a former mayor's brother three months ago has ended.

Dastacy Rashad Lawrence surrendered himself on Monday to the Jefferson County Correctional Facility to face a murder charge in the death of 34-year-old Marcus Freeman, of Port Arthur, according to Port Arthur police.
A Beaumont teenager on Tuesday night turned himself in to police in connection with a fatal shooting that happened the day before.

Jayden Joseph Leonard, 17, was wanted in connection with the alleged murder of David Parkerson in the 3700 block of Usan Street.

"Detectives responded to the scene of the Homicide around 9 p.m. (Monday) night and have been working tirelessly for the last 24 hours to investigate this case," police said in a news release. "This evening, Leonard turned himself in to detectives."

Related: Beaumont Police ID man killed in Usan Street homicide

Leonard was taken to the Jefferson County Jail. He is being held on a bond of $950,000.

"The investigation is on-going and additional arrests are expected," police said.

Parkerson, 26, of Beaumont, was found dead on the scene following a call for a victim of a shooting around 8:35 p.m., according to the Beaumont Police Department.

When officers arrived, they located Parkerson inside of a vehicle in the driveway of a residence, police said.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call Beaumont Police at 409-832-1234 or Southeast Texas Crime Stoppers at 409-833-TIPS(8477) or download the P3 Tips app on your smartphone.

"All tips submitted to Crime Stoppers are anonymous and you may be eligible for a cash reward," police said.

This is the second teen to turn himself into area police for a homicide investigation this week.

Dastacy Rashad Lawrence, 18, surrendered himself on Monday to the Jefferson County Correctional Facility to face a murder charge in the death of 34-year-old Marcus Freeman, of Port Arthur, according to Port Arthur police.

A murder warrant was issued for Lawrence in late March following the fatal shooting of the former mayor's brother at the Normandy Apartments in January.

Lawrence is also being held on a $950,000 bond.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
picture alliance/dpa/picture alliance via Getty I

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was offered free land to move Twitters headquarters to Texas. As first reported by Austonia, Jim Schwertner, president and CEO of farming and ranching company Schwertner Farms, offered Musk 100 acres of land for free in Schwertner, Texas, which is in Williamson County north of Austin.

Elon Musk, move Twitter to Schwertner, TX, Schwertner wrote in the tweet on April 26. 38 miles North of Austin in Williamson County, and we will give you 100 Acres for FREE.
Christian K. Lee

Texans may never know whether Melissa Lucio killed her 2-year-old daughter Mariah or if the child died from injuries suffered in a fall down a staircase. Cases like this are often tragically complicated. But the stay of execution granted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals here was entirely appropriate.

This case has too many questions surrounding it, such as Lucios claim that her child died accidentally and her insistence that her confession was coerced. These issues must be thoroughly investigated, which is why the Court of Criminal Appeals ordered the trial court to review the case. Her legal team raised nine points in its petition for clemency, and the appeals court found merit in four of them. Thats significant, and it shows why the appeals court took this highly unusual action.
Mourners pay tribute to Malaysian national Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, who his family says was mentally disabled and who was executed for trafficking heroin into Singapore, during a memorial service in Singapore, April 27, 2022.

Singapore put to death a mentally disabled Malaysian man on Wednesday on a drug conviction, his former lawyer said, after unsuccessful court appeals and international requests for clemency from the city-state, which has some of the worlds toughest anti-narcotics laws.

Attorney M. Ravi was among many anti-death penalty activists who turned to social media to mourn Nagaenthran Dharmalingams execution at the gallows.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingam. April 27, 2022. Executed by hanging, this date, by the state, he posted on Twitter on a black-colored notice with white type.

Reprieve, a human rights group that intervenes against the death penalty, said Nagaenthrans name would go down in history as the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice.

Hanging an intellectually disabled man because he was coerced into carrying less than three tablespoons of diamorphine is clearly unjustifiable, the group said on Twitter.

On Tuesday, the Singapore Court of Appeal dismissed a last-minute legal challenge by Nagaenthrans mother, Panchalai Supermaniam. Her challenge was based on the fact that the judge who presided over and dismissed Nagaenthrans appeals was the attorney-general who had prosecuted him and secured his conviction.



Nagaenthrans remains are to be taken to his family home in Ipoh, in the state of Perak, Malaysia, for a funeral on Friday, his brother, Navin Kumar told news media in Singapore.

In a statement issued Wednesday evening, Malaysias foreign ministry said Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah had again sent letters this week to their counterparts in Singapore seeking a reduction in Nagaenthrans sentence.

In response to a similar letter in November, the Singapore government said Nagaenthran had been accorded full due process under the law.

In addition to sending the letter, Malaysias foreign ministry extended its condolences to Nagaenthrans family.

We will, through the Malaysian High Commission in Singapore, continue to extend the appropriate consular assistance to his family members, it said in a statement.

Panchalai Supermaniam, mother of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, weeps outside the Supreme Court in Singapore after her last-ditch challenge to his execution was dismissed, April 26, 2022. [Reuters]

Nagaenthrans case, meanwhile, reignited a debate on abolishing capital punishment in Malaysia, where there has been a stay on executions since 2018.

Despite the stay, according to statistics from 2019  the latest that are publicly available  1,281 people are languishing in 26 detention facilities across Malaysia waiting to be hanged.

Amnesty International, which conducted a study in 2019 on why Malaysia must abolish executions, reported that most people on death row had been sentenced for drug-related offenses.

In 2017, Malaysia amended the Dangerous Drug Act 1952. Under the amendment, if a case met certain conditions, such as no evidence of buying and selling drugs, the court was required to sentence a convict to life in prison, and whipping of not less than 15 strokes if such conditions are satisfied, lawyer and former prosecutor Samantha Chong told BenarNews in November.

Despite that amendment and the ongoing moratorium on executions, Malaysian courts continue to sentence people to death as there is no other recourse under the law.

Nagaenthrans case also shined a spotlight on Singapores use of the death penalty and its drug laws, which are among the harshest in the world.

Its Misuse of Drugs Act mandates the death penalty for any individual found smuggling drugs in excess of 15 grams (0.5 ounces) into the country. Nagaenthran was arrested for smuggling in 42.72 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin.

Nagaenthran was arrested by Singaporean authorities on April 22, 2009 when he was 21 for trafficking 44 grams of heroin into the city-state. He was sentenced to death on Nov. 22, 2010.

His lawyer appealed the sentence, saying his client had an IQ of 69  a level said to indicate an intellectual disability. A request for a presidential pardon was rejected on June 1, 2020.

The execution was delayed for months when Singapores highest court in November stayed the order after Nagaenthran tested positive for COVID-19.

Between 2014 and 2019, Singapore executed 35 people, most of them for drug offenses, according to official data.

In a statement earlier this week urging Singapore to delay Nagaenthrans hanging, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights said the city-state resumed executions on March 30 after a pause of more than two years.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed a law this month that sets up a board to compensate people who lost their homes in Marawi during a five-month battle after Islamic militants seized the southern Philippine city in 2017, his spokesman said Wednesday.

Street fighting between government forces and pro-Islamic State militants, combined with aerial bombardments by the military, left much of this once-picturesque lakeside city in ruins.

Nearly five years after the military ended the siege and killed top militants who led it, sections of Marawi  the only predominantly Muslim city in the majority-Catholic Philippines  remain uninhabitable. Thousands of families live in transitional shelters.

President Duterte has signed Republic Act 11696 which gives compensation to those who lost their property and those who lost lives in the 2017 Marawi siege, acting presidential spokesman Martin Andanar told reporters on Wednesday.

The law, which Duterte signed two weeks ago, allows the creation of a nine-member compensation board, but it does not state a figure for how much money Marawi residents could receive to compensate them for homes or properties destroyed during the fighting.

According to this law, an independent and quasi-judicial body called Marawi Compensation Board will be created and will have a chairman and eight members which will be appointed by the president, he said.

More than 1,200 militants, soldiers, police and civilians were killed when Islamic State militants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia joined Filipino fighters who took over Marawi in May 2017. Government forces reclaimed the city in late October that year.

In January, the Philippine Senate passed its version of the act after the House passed similar legislation that were reconciled and sent to Duterte. The reconciled act did not specify amounts to be awarded or the number of people who would benefit from it.

The president signed the law on April 13, barely two months before he will be required to leave office at the end of June. Voters are to go to the polls on May 9 to elect his successor along with 12 members of the Senate, all 316 members of the House of Representatives as well as thousands of officials, who range from governors and mayors to village chiefs and council members.

Law details

The law sets up compensation for any owner of a residential, cultural or commercial structure that was among other properties damaged or destroyed during the Marawi battle to file a claim with the board seeking compensation, according to a copy obtained by BenarNews.

The nine-member board is to include three lawyers, two representatives from the civil society organizations, a licensed physician, a certified public accountant, an educator and licensed civil engineer.

The board shall determine the monetary compensation and award to the lawful owner(s), whichever is the lower amount of either the fair market value of the residential, cultural, commercial structures, or other real properties or the value of its total area per story equivalent to an amount to be determined in the implementing rules and regulations of this Act, the law states.

In case of claims for loss or destruction of personal properties, the claimant shall present competent evidence of the loss or destruction, ownership, as well as the fair market value of the personal properties.

Drieza Lininding, chairman of the Moro Consensus Group, which includes displaced Marawi residents, welcomed the law.

Apart from the monetary compensation, we are thankful at least the people of Marawi were vindicated because there was speculation before that it happened because the people [of Marawi] supported the militants, Lininding told BenarNews by phone.

This will also serve as guidance for our security sectors that in the future, no life or properties will be destroyed in their operations, he said.

Our lives, rights and properties matter too, Lininding said.

The Marawi Reconstruction Conflict Watch, an NGO monitoring rebuilding efforts, thanked Duterte.

When we started the struggle and fight for the rights of Marawi siege victims and survivors, it was an uphill climb all the way. We never even thought we would witness this day, said Rolanisah Dipatuan-Dimaporo, a member of the NGO who works at the Ministry of Health.

With deep gratitude, we thank our representatives and our senators for standing up for us. Finally, we thank President Duterte. Today, we celebrate the passage of truly landmark legislation.

Jeoffrey Maitem and Mark Navales contributed to this report from Cotabato, Philippines.
Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte announced his intention to skip the U.S.-ASEAN summit in Washington next month, telling Filipinos he doesnt want to take a stance that could go against his successor who will be elected the same week.

Previously, Duterte had repeatedly said he would not travel to the United States, a country which he has not visited as president and with which hes had a stormy relationship because of Washingtons criticism of his administrations deadly war on drugs. As he prepares to leave office in June, Duterte faces an International Criminal Court investigation over the drug war, which has left thousands of Filipinos dead.

If it is a working conference, there might be some agreements or commitments that will be made and I might take a stand that will not be acceptable to the next administration, he said, without elaborating.

In his weekly televised speech to the nation late Tuesday, Duterte cited the May 9 General Election as the main reason for declining the invitation to attend the summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations scheduled for May 12-13.

By that time, the elections will be over and we will find out who the next president will be, Duterte said, according to transcripts released Wednesday. So I told them it would not look good if I attend and there will be a new president.

Dutertes six-year term will end when his successor takes office on June 30.

Duterte also cited personal reasons for declining President Bidens invitation, adding that U.S. officials had wanted him to attend but he refused as a matter of principle.

During the meeting with Southeast Asian leaders in the U.S. capital, Biden is expected to seek to strengthen relationships with ASEAN members to counter Chinas perceived aggression and military expansionism in the contested South China Sea.

Missed meetings

This is not the first time that Duterte will be missing an ASEAN-related meeting. Last year, he cited pressing domestic concerns in light of the surge of COVID-19 cases as an excuse to not attend an emergency summit of ASEAN leaders who met in Jakarta to discuss the post-coup crisis in Myanmar.

As president, Duterte pivoted the Philippines foreign policy closer to China and away from the United States, the countrys staunchest military ally for the past seven decades. He has traveled to China six times as president and called leader Xi Jinping a close friend while insisting that Manila cannot go to war with Beijing.

Duterte also banked on Chinese money to fund his infrastructure projects, and of late, he has profusely thanked Beijing for sending COVID-19 vaccines ahead of other nations.

In 2020, Duterte vowed to skip a U.S.-ASEAN summit  which was later postponed indefinitely because of the global pandemic  after the U.S. Embassy refused to issue a visa to Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, the former police chief who implemented his administrations brutal war on drugs. He also threatened to scrap an agreement that allowed American troops to hold large-scale joint military exercises here, but later reversed his stand.
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Cops and Courts Reporter

Amanda Burke is Cops and Courts Reporter for The Berkshire Eagle. An Ithaca, New York native, she previously worked at The Herald News of Fall River and the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise.
LEE  The body of a Lenox resident who went missing early Wednesday has been found, according to Lee Police Chief Craig DeSantis.

The remains were found in an area of October Mountain State Forest late Wednesday afternoon following an all-day, large-scale search.

The person was not identified, and DeSantis said he could not specify the cause of death. Foul play was not suspected, he said.

He deferred further questions to the Berkshire District Attorneys Office, which handles all unattended deaths.

As of early Wednesday night, the office of District Attorney Andrea Harrington had not issued a statement.

DeSantis said 30 to 40 people took part in the operation, which began around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

The search included Massachusetts State Police Special Emergency Response Team, Massachusetts Environmental Police, the Lenox Fire Department, the Berkshire County Sheriffs Office, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Lee Police Department. Officers from all three shifts of the Lenox Police Department were involved in the search, Lenox Police Chief Stephen OBrien said.

Officials noted that Wednesdays search was unrelated to the ongoing search in South Lee for Meghan Marohn, a high school teacher from Delmar, N.Y., who has been missing since late March.

Marohn had traveled to the Berkshires to go hiking, and her car was found at the head of the trail in Longcope Park off Church Street.

DeSantis says that case remains open.

I want to make it clear there is absolutely no way these two cases are connected, he told The Eagle.

Authorities also have ruled out foul play in Marohns disappearance.

Eagle correspondent Clarence Fanto contributed to this report.
A Boston Fire Department ladder truck on loan to Dalton came online just in time last week. The Dalton Fire Department used the ladder truck to assist the Pittsfield Fire Department in battling the blaze at 112 Lincoln St. on Friday evening.
Community News Editor / Librarian

Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989.
Hong Kong: Insurance growth opportunities eyed

Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Christopher Hui

It is a time for us to reflect on what we have learned from the fight against the pandemic, and to take a better look at what's in the new normal - the resilience of our insurance market and the enormous growth opportunities we are going to embrace.

Let me begin with resilience. Our insurance sector grew at an average rate of 5.9% in the past five years from 2017 to 2021. We also ranked the first in terms of insurance penetration globally in 2020 - more than 20%. A total of 13 of the world's top 20 insurers conduct their businesses in Hong Kong and a total of 17 insurance companies are currently listed on the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Limited, our stock exchange. By the end of 2021, their market value accounted for about 5.5% of the total market value of our stock market, with six of them being the world's top 20 insurers by market value. In view of the opportunities presented by our market and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, many international financial institutions, including insurance companies, banks and wealth management companies, will continue to expand their presence in Hong Kong.

The fifth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic indeed presented unprecedented challenges to all of us in the past few months, and all along the Government has been providing facilitative measures and regular guidance to the financial sector to ensure our operational resilience. I am pleased to see the rationalisation of travel restrictions announced earlier this month by the Chief Executive, including lifting the flight ban and early discharge of returning Hong Kong residents from designated quarantine hotels. The Government also announced last week that starting May 1, non-Hong Kong residents will be allowed to enter from overseas upon their compliance with some testing and quarantine requirements. Together with the suitable adjustment to the triggering thresholds for the route-specific flight suspension mechanism, those measures have received a warm welcome at home and abroad, of course including the business sector. As we bring the pandemic under control and gradually resume daily lives, opportunities are knocking on our doors and it is time for our economy and market to get prepared for a rebound.

Before looking into the future, let's review what has been done to further develop our insurance market. First of all, we have put in place a new regulatory framework for the issuance of insurance-linked securities (ILS) in Hong Kong in March last year, and shortly after we also launched a two-year pilot subsidy scheme to promote the development of Hong Kong as an ILS domicile. These efforts brought us encouraging results as the first ILS, which is in the form of a catastrophe bond offering protection against losses inflicted by typhoons in the Mainland, was then issued in Hong Kong in October last year.

Also, to provide financial incentives for new business development, half-rate profits tax concessions are provided to selected businesses, including marine and specialty insurance from March last year. They will enhance the competitiveness of our insurance industry in seizing new opportunities, including those arising from the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI).

At the same time, we have also expanded the scope of risks that could be underwritten by captive insurers formed in Hong Kong, in order to better meet the risk-management needs of multinationals, including Mainland enterprises that are seeking to go global. This allows Hong Kong to capture the opportunities presented by our country's 14th Five-Year Plan, which positions Hong Kong as a risk management centre.

Now it is time to look into the future. With our mature insurance market and established legal structure, we are well placed to embrace the enormous growth opportunities in the bay area market. A key focus is to work with the Insurance Authority (IA) to promote mutual access of the insurance market in the bay area.

Initiatives in the works include early establishment of after-sales service centres by our Hong Kong insurance industry in the Mainland cities of the bay area, with a view to providing bay area residents who are holders of Hong Kong policies with comprehensive support in different areas including enquiries, claims and renewal of policies for eligible insurance policy types.

We are also striving for the early implementation of the unilateral recognition policy for Hong Kong motor vehicles entering Guangdong through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge control point, so as to extend the coverage of third-party insurance policies issued by Hong Kong insurers for these cross-boundary motor vehicles to cover third-party liability in the Mainland, thereby deeming such policies as equivalent to the mandatory traffic accident liability insurance in the Mainland.

I am also excited to tell you that two new measures are coming up. Later this year, a draft bill will be introduced to our Legislative Council on a risk-based capital regime. This will align Hong Kong's regulatory regime with international standards and make capital requirements more sensitive to the level of risk borne by insurance companies. The IA has maintained close contact with the industry in undertaking preparatory work, including conducting three rounds of Quantitative Impact Studies to collect data for assessing the outcome on the solvency level of insurers and consulting the industry on the legislative proposals.

Another measure to come is the Policy Holders' Protection Scheme (PPS), which will more effectively protect insurance policyholders' interests and maintain market stability in the event of insurer insolvency. This scheme will serve as a safety net for policyholders by compensating policyholders or securing the continuity of insurance contracts in case an insurer becomes insolvent. At present, the IA is conducting a consultancy study to update the key parameters of the PPS, such as target fund sizes and lead time for accumulation. We plan to conduct a public consultation on the details of the proposed PPS this year and target to bring the bill to the Legislative Council in the subsequent legislative session.

The latest opportunities and developments in the international insurance markets have driven transformation in our local regime, and it is indispensable that regulation needs to keep pace with this ever-changing environment. To this end, the IA established a new group-wide supervision framework last year for insurance groups with a view to meeting international standards and establishing Hong Kong as a preferred base for large insurance groups in the Asia-Pacific region.

On the other hand, in advancing Hong Kong's role as a risk management centre under the 14th Five-Year Plan, the Government and the IA have several measures in place. Firstly, we have reached consensus with the China Banking & Insurance Regulatory Commission. Under the China Risk Oriented Solvency System, the capital requirement of Mainland insurers would be reduced when they cede business to eligible Hong Kong professional reinsurers. The consensus has been regularised since 2022 and this increases the competitiveness of Hong Kong reinsurers in obtaining insurance business ceded from Mainland insurers. A lower capital charge applicable to insurers will help lower insurance price and thereby better support Mainland enterprises in their investments in the Belt & Road countries.

Speaking of the Belt & Road, I would also like to mention the launch of the Belt & Road Insurance Exchange Facilitation (BRIEF). This pools together a cluster of key stakeholders and fosters synergies in exploring the business prospects arising from BRI. So far, 43 companies and organisations, including insurers, captive insurers, risk management experts, industry associations, etc, have joined BRIEF as members.

Last but not least, the IA also conceived the Specialty Risks Consortium to gather state-owned enterprises, captives, insurers, broker companies and risk advisers for deal matching and networking. Matching sessions have been arranged to probe into topics like political and credit risks, performance guarantee, employees' benefits, renewable energy, etc.

Ladies and gentlemen, just now I have shared with all of you the resilience of Hong Kong's insurance sector and the opportunities we have in the future. Despite the many challenges brought by COVID-19, which should be transitory, we are confident that the fundamentals underpinning Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre - our robust financial system and ample growth opportunities - remain strong and intact. With the staunch support from all of you, the actuarial and insurance industry professionals, the Government is committed to developing Hong Kong into an international insurance hub and risk management centre and I am more than confident we will work together to herald a better future.

Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Christopher Hui delivered this video speech at the International Actuarial Colloquium on April 27.

This story has been published on: 2022-04-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Sound ecology brings better life to people in Nyingchi, Tibet

09:25, April 27, 2022 By Shen Lin, Xian Gan ( People's Daily

Ecology is the most important resource in Nyingchi, southwest Chinas Tibet autonomous region. In recent years, the city has strengthened ecological protection and restoration, and continuously improved its ecological environment.

Photo shows peach blossoms in Bome county, Nyingchi city, southwest Chinas Tibet autonomous region. (Peoples Daily Online/Lu Wenkai)

Based on its advantages of sound ecology and natural beauty, Nyingchi has vigorously developed characteristic tourism and made ecotourism the most direct and effective channel for increasing the income of local farmers and herdspeople.

In Nyingchi, which hosts Chinas second largest forestry area, logging used to be a major source of income for local people. Over 20 years ago, Lulang township, Bayi district of Nyingchi, had long been a state-owned forest farm.

Since Tibet completely banned logging in natural forests for commercial purposes at the end of the 20th century, Lulang township has accelerated the transformation of its growth model and concentrated efforts on ecotourism development.

In 2017, Lulang International Tourism Town, a key tourism project in the township, opened for business, thanks to the assistance provided by south Chinas Guangdong province under Chinas pairing assistance program.

In Lulang International Tourism Town, a sewage treatment plant by the roadside is particularly eye-catching.

The plant, which cost more than 25 million yuan ($3.8 million), was built for achieving the goal of net zero emissions of greenhouse gases in the town, said Wangdu, director of the Lulang Scenic Area Management Committee.

Wangdu noted that other environmental protection facilities and projects, including household waste treatment facility and landscape project, have also been introduced for the realization of the goal.

Photo shows the scenery of Lulang township, Nyingchi city, southwest Chinas Tibet autonomous region. (Peoples Daily Online/Zhu Zhenqiang)

A good ecological environment represents the resources that Lulang people rely on to live a better life, noted Wangdu, who believes that only by building to high standards environmental protection facilities such as waste transfer station and sewage treatment plant and formulating strict rules and regulations on environmental protection can the local government ensure that the operation and maintenance of the town does not cause a burden to the environment.

Apart from Lulang township, environmental awareness has been integrated into the development of many other places in Nyingchi besides.

A high-standard sanitary landfill to the west of Bome county, Nyingchi, and in the south side of No. 318 National Highway is under construction. Bome countys decision to build high-standard waste treatment facilities was based on its full consideration of local economic growth and development prospects of tourism.

The landfill, built with assistance from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, under the pairing assistance program, will not pollute the soil and groundwater and can preliminarily ensure that it will emit no offensive odor, posing little threat to nearby residents' production or way of life.

Green is rarely seen in the Grand Canyon of Nujiang River, which seems to be dominated by taupe stones. Surprisingly, clusters of cactuses and pomegranate trees can be found on many hillsides of Tsawarong township, Zayu county, Nyingchi, in the Grand Canyon of Nujiang River, which inject vitality into the canyon.

The cactuses naturally grow in the region and turn into trees when they are old enough. Our cactus clusters marvelously form woods. Nowadays, more and more tourists from Yunnan province are attracted to the cactus woods, and many often stop to take pictures there, said secretary of the Communist Party of China branch of Zuobu village, Tsawarong township.

The pomegranate trees have been planted in recent years. Villagers only grew pomegranate trees near their houses in the past; since 2018, Tsawarong township has gradually built characteristic pomegranate tree planting bases based on its plan for poverty alleviation and ecological restoration, according to Wu Mingjun, secretary of the Party committee of Tsawarong township and deputy director of the standing committee of the peoples congress of Zayu county.

The township has planted 289,100 soft-seed pomegranate trees covering an area of over 6,400 mu (about 427 hectares), Wu said, adding that in a bumper year, these pomegranate trees are expected to produce a total of 3,000 tons of pomegranates with an output value of 36.9 million yuan, which can increase the per capita income of residents in the township by about 5,700 yuan.

In the past five years, Nyingchi has planted 360,000 mu of trees, brought under control 450,000 mu of desertification areas, tended 180,000 mu of forests, and built more than 10,000 mu of fine varieties of nursery stock.

Photo shows a Tibetan resident who runs a B&B hotel in Lulang township, Nyingchi city, southwest Chinas Tibet autonomous region. (Peoples Daily Online/Zhu Zhenqiang)

This year, it plans to green over 20,000 mu of land, including more than 15,500 mu of trees planted under key ecological restoration projects.

In the future, Nyingchi will continue to intensify efforts to restore ecosystems in key areas and carry out ecological restoration and afforestation projects, including ecological restoration at the confluence of rivers, to improve the quality and stability of its ecosystems.

While Nyingchis ecological environment improves, local people also enjoy a better life.

With the advancements of infrastructure projects in Nyingchi in recent years, including the expansion of Nyingchi Mainling Airport and the construction of Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway and High Grade Highway, the bottlenecks hindering Nyingchis ecotourism development have been removed, which allows the city to give full play to its ecological advantages.

Last year, various tourism entities in Nyingchi city drove 27,500 farmers and herdspeople to switch to a job in the tourism sector, a year-on-year increase of 4 percent. These farmers and herdspeople earned a total income of 96.36 million yuan, a rise of 16 percent from the previous year.

The number of farmers and herdspeople working in rural tourism reached 18,000 in 2021, up 0.65 percent year on year, while peoples income from jobs in the industry rose to 66.95 million yuan, an increase of 48 percent from a year before.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
BOSTON  For years, Vincent Gillespie waged a legal battle to try to gain control of hundreds of paintings by his father  renowned postwar American artist Gregory Gillespie.

On Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors say, Gillespie engaged in a very different kind of battle, joining rioters as they tried to wrest control of the U.S. Capitol from the federal government in one of the most violent confrontations of the riot.

Gillespie, who investigators say was identified by half a dozen sources from images taken that day, was among a mob trying to force its way through a tunnel at the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol  an assault that almost succeeded by his own description. And he was also wearing a sweatshirt bearing the Berkshire Nautilus logo.

"We were almost overpowering them," Gillespie, blood visible on his scalp from the clash, told an Associated Press journalist at the scene that day. "If you had like another 15, 20 guys behind us pushing I think we could have won it."

The AP video that captured a flushed Gillespie that day milling about outside the Capitol speaking defiantly about his role in the attack  and his lament that more like-minded individuals didn't join the fight  reveal both the depth of resolve of many of the rioters, and the uncertainty others felt about just what they would do once inside the building.

What is clear, federal investigators said, is that Gillespie participated in a violent struggle against law enforcement officials trying to prevent rioters from entering the building as a joint session of Congress was engaged in certifying Electoral College votes.

The Athol resident was spotted outside the Capitol pouring water into his eyes apparently to combat the effects of chemical spray used to try to control the crowd.

Gillespie told the AP at the scene that day that he was among those attempting to storm the building. Gillespie said he and others tried to burst through an opening.

"I was with some other guys. And then we were starting to push against them and they were beating us and putting that pepper spray stuff in your eyes. But there were a bunch of people pushing behind us," Gillespie told the AP.

"What you guys need to know, and no one is going to listen to this, we were very (expletive) close." If more people had been behind him, he said, "then there's that second set of doors we would have just burst through it."

What was apparently less clear to Gillespie that day was what he and the others with him would do if they had been able to take control of the Capitol.

"I would hope they would flood in so there's nothing they can do. That's what I would hope they would do. Take it over. Take it over. Own it for a few days. I'm not an anarchist, but you can't let stand what happened in this election," he said, an apparent reference to former President Donald Trump's claims of a stolen election.

Although he was quick to offer up his name when asked by the AP reporter, Gillespie hesitated before saying where he was from.

"They'll come after me, man," he said, hesitating before adding, "I'm in Massachusetts."

Gillespie ultimately faced seven criminal counts including civil disorder, assaulting officers and disorderly conduct in the Capitol. He has pleaded not guilty.

He's one of more than 775 people arrested in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia in connection with the Jan. 6 assault in which the pro-Trump mob sought to stop the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. Rioters smashed windows, broke through doors and beat and bloodied law enforcement officers who were vastly underprepared for the mob.

Vincent Gillespie is the son of Gregory Gillespie, the artist whose self-portraits, fantasy landscapes and geometric abstractions are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and other museums.

His paintings are also at the center of a long-running and so far unsuccessful legal battle waged by Gillespie against his stepmother and her lawyers in an effort to contest control of the paintings. In a court filing from 2020, Vincent Gillespie described his father as a renowned artist who left more than 400 valuable paintings when he died.

Gillespie's participation in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, appears well documented, including in photos and videos that helped tipsters identify him, investigators said.

Open-source video and security cameras captured multiple images of Gillespie participating in the riot, according to the Justice Department.

Investigators were tipped off by a former neighbor, the manager of a local hardware store and employees of the town of Athol, where Gillespie attends meetings and pays his tax bills at the town hall. In all, six witnesses independently identified him from images taken from the riot.

In the chaos of the insurrection, Gillespie shoved, yelled and pushed and fought with police, the FBI said. Images included in his court papers show him struggling through the crowd, eventually maneuvering through the rioters to the line of police officers and getting control of a police shield.

He's seen and heard on the body camera of a Metropolitan Police Department officer pushing his way through the crowd, using a police shield to ram officers and screaming "traitor" and "treason" as he points to a law enforcement officer, officials said.

After his arrest, Gillespie, 60, was ordered by a judge to stay away from Washington, except for court-related business. He was ordered not to possess a firearm or other weapons.

Gillespie's next court appearance is scheduled for April 29 before U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the District of Columbia.

Contacted by the AP following his arrest, Gillespie declined to comment.

"My attorney advised against it. He said there's only downsides to it," he told the AP. "I'd like to talk. There's a lot of stuff out there that's wrong."

It's not the first time Gillespie has been in court.

Years earlier, Gillespie made local headlines by contesting a $15 parking ticket  despite having to pay $250 in filing fees. He ended up fighting the filing fee, which was not refundable, all the way to the state's highest court in 2011.

He did not receive a refund.
Reporter

Heather Bellow, a member of the investigations team, joined The Eagle in 2017. She is based in the South Berkshire County bureau in Great Barrington. Her work has appeared in newspapers across the U.S.
Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.
We shouldnt need reminding, but sometimes they remind us anyway: Were lucky to have the local firefighters that protect us at all hours and in all corners of our communities. In fact, we in the Berkshires were reminded of that three times just in the last week.

Lincoln Street fire displaces more than 30 residents from 3 buildings in Pittsfield, with no injuries 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.

On Friday night, it was in Pittsfield, where firefighters responded to and knocked down a blaze on Lincoln Street that spread to three residential buildings. On Monday afternoon, it was in Hancock and on the Richmond-West Stockbridge town line, with separate crews attending to a burning and a brush fire, respectively. Fortunately, there were no injuries at any of these fires.

We ask a lot of firefighters, especially here in the Berkshires where rural and urban geography each pose unique challenges, sometimes just down the road from each other. While many were reading Saturday morning about the previous nights fire in the heart of Pittsfield, crews were still standing sentinel at the scene into Saturday afternoon to prevent any potential reignition in the heart of the city. Flames razed the barn in Hancock, but the firefighters response saved an adjacent building that caught fire. And in West Stockbridge, a permitted burn that went out of control could have been disastrous during Mondays windy weather if not for the quick and critical containment achieved by the responding crews.

This is hard work. This is dangerous work. And even when a fire only touches one city or town, squads from all around often come together to share the burden of that work. Factoring in the mutual aid response, these three fires in fewer than four days engaged well beyond a dozen departments throughout the greater Berkshire region. Whats more, Friday nights fire in Pittsfield that destroyed three residential buildings left about 30 people without a home. While many who read about the fire will simply be able to forget about it within a few weeks, thats impossible for those whose lives have been upended. Other first responders and community stakeholders  from the fire department and local police to the Red Cross and the Froio Senior Center  have done what they can to mitigate this unimaginable struggle, and that aid will be felt long after the headlines fade.

Firefighters battle spreading brush fire on Richmond, West Stockbridge line Multiple fire companies are fighting a spreading brush fire in the woods at the West Stockbridge/Richmond line on Monday afternoon. Gusty winds and dry weather created poor conditions for what was a permitted fire, the fire chief said.

It takes a village to respond to calamity. The silver lining to these sad stories of fire and loss is that it reminds us how lucky our villages are to have everyday heroes in red helmets and tanker trucks who spring into action whenever and wherever calamitous flames rise. It should also be noted that many Berkshire County fire departments are volunteer-based. Those crews respond to emergencies for little in return except the thought of fulfilling their duty to put themselves between danger and their neighbors. Many of those volunteer-driven squads are looking to grow their ranks so that they can continue fulfilling that duty in smaller, rural and underserved communities.

To those volunteers and all other brave men and women who run toward risk to help others when fiery crisis strikes, we ought to say this a lot more often:

Thank you.
Many of us have received letters from mentors, parents, or others we respect issuing words of praise and offering special advice on how we can live well. Often, we treasure these letters, tucking them into a memory box or inside a frame so we can read their words again and again.

What we might not realize is we also have these words of wisdom from our heavenly Father, preserved for eternity in the pages of the Holy Bible. Not only do we have the gospels and the Old Testament, but we also have 21 epistles filled with God-inspired instructions on how to do life as a Christian.

What is an Epistle?

The word epistle comes from the Greek word epistole, which means letter, message, or dispatch. In Hebrew, the word is iggerah, also meaning letter and mainly used for missiveslong, official, formal letters, usually from someone in an important capacity.

Its a distinctive kind of letter, one valued and worthy of honor.

Epistles differ from other letters primarily in their purpose. While letters can be about any topic and might be informal or even tritethink letters between friends catching up on lifeepistles are instructional in nature. The tone is typically one of teacher to student.

In short, epistles carry weight.

What is an Epistle in the Bible?

Epistles make up the majority of the Bibles New Testament. Of the 27 books, 21 are epistles. The epistles were written by apostles, who were key Christian teachers infused with the power of the Holy Spirit and inspired to tell people how they, too, can live, think, and behave as a Christian.

Some are written to churches in specific cities, such as Epistle to the Ephesians, often called Letter to the Ephesians or simply Ephesians. Others are written to the church universal. However, all contain authoritative directives designed to help other believers in their Christian walk, from encouragement in suffering to what holy, Christ-modeled living looks like.

Epistles dont just appear in the Bible, however. They are a distinct literary genre, a moral essay of sorts, with a standard format  a greeting at start, then the main content, and closing with blessings and well wishes. The letters of Roman statesman Cicero are considered to be epistles, and the Epistles of Roman lyric poet Horace had a major influence on Roman philosophy and poetry. The epistles that appear in the Bible are largely written in the style of Horace. Some consider them to be literary masterpieces in addition to holy teaching.

Who Wrote the Epistles in the Bible?

Most of the epistles were written by the apostle Paul, one of the fundamental leaders of early Christianity. Paul is thought to have written 13 of them, probably dictated to a scribe who would write the words on a scroll. Then, Paul would sign the letters as a way to verify authenticity before they would be ferried to the intended audience and read aloud many times over to the full church.

The rest were written by the apostles Peter, John, James, and Jude.

The author of Hebrews is unknown, though many believe Paul wrote it, or someone attempting to write in the style of Paul.

What Were the Epistles of Paul About?

The 13 epistles by Paul were written over the course of about 15 years. Scholars generally believe the earliest were 1 and 2 Thessalonians, two letters to the church in Thessalonica, written around 52-53 A.D. Their purpose was to encourage new believers about living in a Christian manner and growing in holiness, as well as to remind them of the coming rapture, for which they should be ready.

The other epistles vary in tone and purpose. Galatians exhorts believers to stay on the path of truth and embrace oneness in Jesus. It also contains one of the most forceful and influential arguments on unity, reminding the church, There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28).

Ephesians, written while Paul was in prison, focuses on salvation through Gods grace, as well as the importance of harmony within the Christian community. It offers practical advice on relationships between a husband and wife, parent and child, servant and master, and more.

Philippians, also a prison epistle, is on living in joy, while another, Colossians, centers on Christ as head of the church and on setting right a number of false teachings. The epistles to the church in Corinth also emphasize unity and encourage believers to reject the sinful practices in the culture around them.

Romans, Pauls longest epistle, not only serves to inspire and reassure new believers in Rome, but also to explain key components of Christianity, including salvation, grace, and sanctification. Pauls epistle to Philemon was his shortest and dealt largely with forgiveness over a single situation.

His last epistles, to his companion and mentee Timothy and to Titus, were written around 65-66 A.D., likely from a prison cell. The last, 2 Timothy, carried a tone of finality as he urged his young friend to stay strong in faith even in the midst of great suffering.

As Paul wrote, I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness  and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Peter's Epistles

Peters two epistles  1 and 2 Peter  are for a broader audience; the first is to groups of exiled Christians, while the second is to all who share the faith. At the time, Christians were experiencing great hardship as widespread persecution continued to plague followers of Jesus. In his missives, Peter urges them to cling to hope despite their suffering and to live godly, upstanding lives worthy of their savior. Because of this, they can rise above. As he writes, If you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:20-21).

Peter also urges them to live for God, to take care of each other, and to be on guard:

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings (1 Peter 5:8-9).

This preparation theme carries into Peters next letter, as he urges them to be ready and live in a holy manner, for no one knows how quickly the Lord will return (2 Peter 3:10-13).

John's Epistles

John, one of the first apostles called by Jesus and who wrote the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation, is also thought to have authored three epistles. The first addresses a broad audience, while two and three are to individuals.

While all three are different, the overarching theme of Johns epistles is love. As he urges, we are to love God above all, remain in perfect fellowship with God for eternal life, love others, and steer clear of loving the world. This was an important message for this time, as the epistle was written for Christians living in a hostile world, subject to arrest, torture, and execution because of their beliefs. They are to love even their enemies, John wrote, and especially their Christian neighbors:

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16).

Those themes  as with the need to beware deceivers, who are the antichrist (2 John 1:7)  are echoed in Johns second and third epistles, too.

The Brother Epistles: James and Jude

James, thought by many to be the brother of Jesus, wrote his five-chapter epistle to Jewish Christians. At the time of the writing, Christians were experiencing much injustice and poverty. James epistle offers wisdom on doing goodwill and walking the Christian path through peacemaking, mercy for the poor, kindness to strangers, and more.

One of its best-known verses is its wisdom on the importance of faith over works: Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, Go in peace; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead (James 2:15-17).

Jude, identifying himself as the brother of James, wrote a far shorter epistle, addressing it to those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ (Jude 1:1). His words also serve to build up the body of Christ by encouraging them in their faith and urging them to renounce worldly evils, as well as to watch out for ungodly deceivers who have slipped in among them.

Hebrews: The Unknown Epistle

The author of Hebrews is widely disputed. Many felt it was written by Paul, but given the more sophisticated language and style, scholars now believe it was written by someone else. The audience is Jewish Christians in Jerusalem well-versed in the Old Testament.

These men and women faced grave persecution, and possibly were tempted to return to their former Jewish ways and laws. But the epistle urges them to resist fear and instead cling to Jesus, the high priest of the new covenant (Hebrews 8).

Its complex use of Old Testament quotations to prove Jesuss divine nature and that He truly is the long-awaited Messiah is considered skillful, masterful literary exposition.

How Should Christians Read and Interpret the Epistles?

The Bible is the word of God, and we know the Holy Spirit entered the apostles on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), enabling them to speak with authority and wisdom in all tongues.

From this first Holy Spirit infusion began the church universal, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone. The apostles set about teaching the Gospel in every way they could; the epistles were one of those ways. They were called by God to write these epistles as a way to be a sort of instructional manual on how to live the Christian life.

As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

Why Do Epistles Make Up Such a Large Portion of the New Testament?

While the Gospels are helpful and important because they detail the life and death of Jesus Christ, the epistles are just as valuable, for they help us understand what it means to live as a Christian without our savior right in front of us.

Jesus himself said much the same: All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:25-26).

The Holy Spirit, which God poured into the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, set them ablaze with the Good News and got the church off and running. It enabled them to teach  and baptize  thousands upon thousands.

Through the epistles, they are now able to reach millions more on what it means to follow Jesus in practical, everyday, authentic ways.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Alvaro Serrano

Jessica Brodie is an award-winning Christian novelist, journalist, editor, blogger, and writing coach and the recipient of the 2018 American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis Award for her novel, The Memory Garden. She is also the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest newspaper in Methodism, and a member of the Wholly Loved Ministries team. Learn more at http://jessicabrodie.com.
BOISE - The Idaho Department of Finance has issued a warning about a series of fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes seen recently targeting Idaho investors. The companies purport to provide high returns with no risks to the investor.

These fraudulent schemes are operating under theses names and websites:

Crypto FX Direct d/b/a www.cryptofxdirect.com (CFXD)

Shield Investors LTD d/b/a www.shieldinvestors.com (Shield)

Quartz FX Trade d/b/a www.quartzfxtrade.com

FinVest Trading d/b/a https://finvesttrading.com

These scams advertise operation of online cryptocurrency investment companies. However, in reality they are offering and selling fraudulent securities to Idaho investors.

These websites make outrageous, demonstrably false statements and claims such as guaranteed returns on investment as high as 65% - 80% every 24 hours. They offer profitable investments with any plan, and purport the more invested, the greater the return. Idaho investors were provided with phony credentials by the companys investment advisor intended to support the legitimacy of the investment advisor as well as the companies they represent.

Idaho investors were asked to pay the investment advisor with cryptocurrency for a trading plan offered on the site. At the end of the agreed trading period the investment advisor would contact the investor and notify them they made a substantial return on their investment. In order to receive their investment returns, they had to pay for a fee which could not be taken from their trading profits. When the investor provided the trading fee, they were advised additional fees or penalties would be assessed which must be paid before they could receive their payment.

None of these entities are registered to sell securities in Idaho nor have they filed with the Idaho Secretary of State to conduct business in the Idaho.

The Department of Finance reminds Idahoans that persons and firms offering investments are required to be registered in Idaho. You may check the status of any investment professional, and the firms they represent by:

Contacting the Department for information regarding registration, background, and educational requirements of an investment professional and their firm.

Contacting the Idaho Secretary of State to determine if the company is registered to conduct business in Idaho.

Researching the business address provided on their website to determine if it is a reasonable location for business.

The Idaho Department of Finance encourages investors to come forward if they suspect they have been targeted by similar cryptocurrency investment schemes. If so, contact the Idaho Department of Finance at securities@finance.idaho.gov.
ATLANTA (AP)  Morris Brown College has regained full accreditation after a 20-year journey that its leaders hope will ultimately prompt higher enrollment.

Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools voted Tuesday to grant the liberal arts college full accreditation status, meaning its students can apply for federal loans and Pell grants, the association confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked Morris Browns accreditation in 2002 after a former college president and financial aid director were found to be misappropriating federal funds and rising debt.

Morris Brown College just made history, President Kevin James said in a telephone interview with the newspaper. Were excited about it. A lot of people had written us off. But due to a lot of hard work and dedication, we were able to regain our accreditation."

Morris Brown sought accreditation from TRACS, which also approved reaccreditation to another HBCU in Georgia  Paine College in Augusta.

James, the school's leader since 2019, called the process the hard reset. The historically black college planned Thursday to formally announce the reaccreditation.

TRACS president Timothy Eaton said the college met its requirements for having enough faculty members to teach coursework and the school demonstrated a sound fundraising strategy and had some successful fundraising.

Morris Brown has been very diligent in doing what we asked them to do during the process, Eaton said.

The association will conduct annual reviews of Morris Browns finances and audits as part of the post-accreditation process, he said.

Morris Brown was founded in 1881 by the Georgia Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and named for one of its bishops. It was the first institution of higher education in Georgia created by Black people for Black students. It costs about $4,250 a semester to attend the school, James has said.

The school was put in limbo, losing its federal funding in 2002 after financial mismanagement. Enrollment plummeted from about 2,500 students before the revocation to just a few dozen several years later. By 2012, Morris Brown had filed for bankruptcy.

Still, the college continued, enrolling about 50 students last year. It currently offers a handful of bachelors degrees in hospitality management, music and psychology. It also offers certificates in business entrepreneurship, eSports and nonprofit management.

TRACS, a Virginia-based agency, granted the college its candidacy last year.

Maurice Hobson, a civil rights and Atlanta scholar, previously told WXIA-TV that the school's journey to accreditation is another example of resilience.

It is going to take new and innovative ways of understanding college education and what Morris Brown College can be than what its been in the past, he said of its leadership and the colleges future.

Hobson added that there are advocates invested in and rooting for the school.

"We all want to see Morris Brown win, he said. If Morris Brown wins, then Atlanta ultimately wins.

There are 107 HBCUs in the U.S. recognized by the Department of Education. Of those, three are closed and two are at risk of losing their accreditation, records show. Morris Brown is no longer one of them.
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, don't know much about history.

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Principal Scientific Adviser to the government Prof Ajay Kumar Sood calls on Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh

Newly appointed Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government, Prof Ajay Kumar Sood, who is also one of the country's leading scientist cum academician, called on Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh.

Dr Jitendra Singh asked Prof Sood to come out with a draft policy to identify potential startups in the country to make them sustainable through appropriate funding and technological interventions.

The Minister called for proactive hunting of startups to meet their funding needs by organisations like Technology Development Board and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the Ministry of Science and Technology. He also mooted the idea of roping in industry for giving a big push to the startup ecosystem.

The Minister also discussed with the Principal Scientific Advisor, the roadmap for effective implementation of Integrated Approach in Science &Technology for Sustainable Future. He underlined that under the draft of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) issues like inviting public suggestions for adding words related to startup and innovation, adopting ways to put India among top 5 in terms of quality of research outcome by year 2030, targeting 30% participation of women in science by year 2030, taking India within top 3 global leaders in STI by year 2030 and how can India achieve Atma Nirbharta in technology by year 2030 need constant brainstorming.
The Childrens Heart Hospital is one-of-its-kind not only in Fiji but in the entire South Pacific region

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressed the opening of Shri Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital in Fiji via a video message. Modi thanked the Prime Minister of Fiji and the people of Fiji for the hospital and said that the hospital is a symbol of the relationship between the two countries, another chapter in the shared journey of India and Fiji.

The Childrens Heart Hospital is one-of-its-kind not only in Fiji but in the entire South Pacific region. He also expressed satisfaction that not only the children will get world-class treatment but all surgeries will be done free of cost and for that he appreciated Sai Prem Foundation, Fiji, Government of Fiji and Shri Sathya Sai Sanjivini Childrens Heart Hospital of India.
Indian biopharma industry HITS Rs 33K Cr WITH 13% GROWTH in 2020-21

Amidst the pandemic, the Indian Biopharma Industry, with over 300 companies, has witnessed a good growth of 13 percent, 2 percent less than the previous years 15 percent growth rate. This growth was largely driven by the performance of the Indian biopharma companies which have done very well as against multinational companies. As a result, the Indian Biopharma Industry has crossed the Rs 33,000 crore mark for the year 2020-21 over the previous years figure of Rs 29,176 crore. The Indian Biopharma industry, comprising hormones, insulin, blood products, and vaccines recorded a sales revenue of Rs 33,067 crore for the year 2020-21.
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When the Commonwealth Bank parachuted Catherine Livingstone into the top seat at the board table in 2017, she landed on a minefield that had been laid out over the previous five years. Within months, it exploded.

With her feet barely under the desk, Livingstone confronted an action by AUSTRAC into CBAs role in mismanagement of money laundering risks and the banks infamously scandalous customer mistreatment, headlined for all to see during the financial services royal commission.

Five years on, as Livingstone marks the end of her era as arguably the most important director in Australia, her overarching legacy is the peace pact she negotiated with regulators and a clean-up of Olympic proportions.

CBA chairman Catherine Livingstone with CEO Matt Comyn. Credit:

However, her most important decision was the appointment of the current chief executive Matt Comyn  a move that appeared bizarre at the time.
CRITICS VIEW: TRIBAL 

NITV, Thursday 8.30pm & SBS On Demand The second season of this Canadian First Nations police drama picked up from season ones cliffhanger and continues its unique storytelling drawing on real-life crimes and events. It was created by Ron E Scott (who also writes and directs), a member of the Metis Nation in Canada whose previous series Blackstone focused on Indigenous life on a fictional reserve, and who wrote Tribal as a way of exploring the polarisation between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures; Scott himself is of mixed heritage. Brian Markinson and Jessica Matten in Tribal. Rather than the kinds of sensationalised crimes that often feature in cop procedurals, Scott wanted to keep the crimes grounded in real issues affecting Indigenous Canadians, telling the stories through an Indigenous perspective. Season one opened with the mismatched cops partnered together trope, but its not your standard unlikely pairing. After the local Justice department takes over control of the tribal police of the Nehiyawak First Nation (which previously oversaw only the local native reserves on the outskirts of the city), officer Sam Woodburn (Jessica Matten) is appointed as the tribal polices interim chief; her predecessor, Daniel Crowchild (Julian Black Antelope), has been suspended amid allegations of corruption. In a bid to integrate the local and tribal police, shes partnered with old-school detective Chuck Bukansky (Brian Markinson, most recently seen in Fargo), a veteran of the metro polices major crimes detective unit, decorated for bravery, and recovering from a traumatic shooting incident. Bukansky is also sexist, racist and decidedly unhappy with the new extension of the tribal police forces powers.

Their partnership in which Woodburn is technically Bukanskys boss  and the integration of the tribal police into the metro force  might be just a cynical political move (Bukansky sees her as a token appointment to put a younger, prettier face at the head of a force accused of corruption), but Woodburn takes the job seriously and, eventually, Buke is forced to as well, especially once it comes to light theres corruption within the metro force. The crimes investigated in season 2 of Tribal are increasingly serious. The crimes they investigate echo real cases, among them violence at pipeline protests, murdered former gang members, healing lodges (correctional institutions designed specifically for Indigenous inmates), poaching and missing and murdered Indigenous women, culminating with the mass grave of Indigenous bodies that Buke discovered at the end of season one, which becomes an over-arching storyline this season. Other crimes in this second season are equally shocking, particularly one focused on starlight tours, based on real-life events between the 1970s and the early 2000s in which police officers would arrest Indigenous men, drive them to deserted rural areas in winter, and abandon them, often leading to the mens deaths from hypothermia. Alongside such confronting crimes, this season evolves into more character-led drama as well; we learn more of Bukes backstory, and of Woodburns struggle to deal with her two identities. Loading Filmed in and around Calgary and on the Tsuutina Nation (although the city in which the series is set is never explicitly named), Tribal isnt the most slickly produced series and is occasionally victim to some leaden dialogue and tired tropes (its hard to find a crime procedural that isnt, lets face it) but Scotts portrayal of Indigenous people is nuanced: Woodburn, for example, is of mixed Indigenous and European ancestry and doesnt come from a dysfunctional background. Shes from a well-off family, her father was a judge and she lives in a cool loft apartment with her lawyer boyfriend.
The family of former union official and Labor powerbroker Bill Ludwig has confirmed his death at 87.

According to a brief funeral notice, Ludwig passed away peacefully on April 11 and at Bills request, a private family service has been held.

Then-prime minister Julia Gillard with Bill Ludwig. Credit:Photo: Glenn Hunt

Ludwig held various roles in the labour movement, from state secretary of the Australian Workers Union (and head of the Labor Right faction in Queensland) to member of the ALP National Executive.

An often outspoken and combative figure, Ludwig was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to industrial relations in the 1997 Australia Day Honours.
Where to begin with our attempts to untangle the Gordian knot at the centre of the Minotaurs Labyrinth that the candidates election debates have become?

Forgive us if this item is now outdated in the hours since we filed it. We are doing our level best to keep up.

Yes, the Bayside Climate Crisis Action Group forum will be held at Brighton Town Hall on Thursday night at 7.30pm with incumbent Liberal MP Tim Wilson and independent challenger Zoe Daniel, as well as the Greens and ALP candidates, whose names we are having trouble recalling.

But no, Wilson wont participate in a forum proposed by The Age unless all candidates are invited and The Age wants to stick to the main players.
Warning: This story contains graphic content.

A man who repeatedly raped and bashed a woman he held captive across five days has failed to explain his crimes or show remorse, prompting a judge to raise concerns he will remain a risk when released from jail.

The home of Robert Wilson, who raped a woman 18 times after the pair met on dating app Badoo. Credit:Victoria Police

Robert William Wilson raped the woman 18 times during nine attacks at his home in Darley, near Bacchus Marsh, between March 25 and 29, 2019, after the pair met on dating app Badoo weeks earlier.

Despite the brutality of Wilsons crimes, his barrister told the County Court on Wednesday that the rapist deserved a reduced sentence because he had pleaded guilty and spared the victim the ordeal of giving evidence in a trial.
The Commonwealth will over-fund Western Australias private schools by hundreds of millions of dollars this decade with some of the most exclusive getting up to 140 per cent of what they need as well as state funding on top.

The Commonwealth agreed to reduce its private school funding by 2028 to represent 80 per cent of what the Schooling Resource Standard calculates each needs, with the states to fund the other 20 per cent.

Agreements are meant to address overfunding by 2028... but plenty of money can be spent before them. Credit:Graphic: Kathleen Adele

But an analysis of forward budget estimates by public school advocacy organisation Save Our Schools found the Commonwealth will still (between now and 2028) have given some WA private schools up to 140 per cent of what they needed, equalling in one case up to $13 million extra.

The over-funding amounts to $324 million this decade, $100 million of that going to just 14 of WAs most exclusive schools.
A Perth businessman at the centre of one of Western Australias largest child abuse investigations has pleaded guilty to 413 charges relating to the sexual abuse of 24 children aged between three and 13.

The 47-year-old man from the southern suburbs, whose name has been suppressed, admitted the offending when he appeared in Perth Magistrates Court via video link from Hakea Prison on Wednesday morning.

The 47-year-old man has pleaded guilty and will face the District Court in June. Credit:Istock

He was convicted of multiple charges of indecently dealing with, recording and sexually penetrating children, as well as producing child exploitation material between 2015 and 2021. His victims were known to him through family and friends.

The man only appeared briefly and entered his pleas, before he was remanded to the Perth District Court on June 24.
A new defence research agency to back cutting-edge projects and technologies such as next-generation jet fighters and robots would be created if Labor wins the federal election as national security continues to dominate the campaign.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese and his defence spokesman Brendan OConnor will on Thursday pledge to establish the Advanced Strategic Research Agency, which they say would bring Australia into line with the United States and Britain.

Anthony Albanese, watching a drone demonstration in Brisbane on Tuesday, wants to create a new agency to deliver cutting-edge defence technologies. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The announcement is a further sign that Labor is looking to take the Coalition on over its traditional domain of national security after a week of criticising Prime Minister Scott Morrison for not doing enough to stop the security deal between China and Solomon Islands.

Based on the USs Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Labors version would be established within Defence to fund pivotal research in breakthrough technologies for national security.
Victorias main public sector union has urged Treasurer Tim Pallas to relent on more than $1.7 billion in cuts to government departments over the next three years.

The Community and Public Sector Union says departments are already struggling to deliver services, with health the most high-profile problem area, and that child protection, justice and licensing and registration were stretched thin on their present budgets.

Treasurer Tim Pallas is due to hand down the budget next week. Credit:Joe Armao

The union believes that an effort to impose about $1.7 billion in cuts that were included in the budget before the pandemic struck would force departments to slash their operational spending and workforce, leading to reductions to services.

The treasurer will hand down his election year budget next week, with Victoria the most indebted of the states  net borrowings are set to surpass $162 billion by 2025  and with public finances forecast to remain in deficit for the foreseeable future.
Washington: America helped foil Moscows efforts to take Kyiv and repelled its advances elsewhere by sharing such detailed intelligence that Ukraine knew exactly when and where Russian bombs would fall, it has emerged.

In an unprecedented information-sharing operation, US spy agencies divulged the co-ordinates of Russian forces and aircraft to Ukrainian troops, allowing them to pre-empt attacks.

A man wearing the yellow armband of the civil defense crosses a deserted boulevard during an air raid alarm in Kyiv on March 1. Credit:AP

The intelligence led Ukraine to shoot down a Russian aircraft carrying troops to Hostomel airport in the Kyiv suburbs in the early days of the war, according to NBC News. The downing of the plane helped thwart Moscows hopes of flooding the area with troops and equipment.

Earlier reports suggested several Russian helicopters were hit by missiles before they reached the airport. An effort to take control of a military airbase in Vasylkiv, south of Kyiv, also met stiff resistance.
Russia and the United States have carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America, a senior US official and the Russian foreign ministry said.

The surprise deal on Wednesday would have been a notable diplomatic manoeuvre even in times of peace, but it was all the more extraordinary because it was done as Russias war with Ukraine has driven relations with the US to their lowest point in decades.

Joey and Paula Reed pose for a photo with a portrait of their son Marine veteran and Russian prisoner Trevor Reed at their home in Fort Worth, Texas. Credit:AP

As part of the exchange, Russia released Trevor Reed, a former Marine from Texas who was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. Reed was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though his family has maintained his innocence and the US government has described him as unjustly detained.

The US agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the US after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the US.
European major on Wednesday signed a pact with Tata STRIVE and the and Sector Skill Council to train youths for and jobs.

Under the agreement, Airbus, Tata STRIVE and AASSC, with the support of NSDC and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), will work together to build a pipeline of talent in the sector, focusing on providing opportunities to the youth, a release said.

The Aerospace and Aviation Sector Skill Council (AASSC) is an apex body working towards skill development in aerospace and aviation sector under the aegis of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), while Tata STRIVE is a skill development initiative of Tata Trust.

The pact was signed by Rmi Maillard, President and Managing Director, India & South Asia; Anita Rajan, CEO Tata STRIVE; and Rachit Bhatnagar, CEO, AASSC, the release said.

"India is looking at exponential growth in every facet of the aerospace and aviation ecosystem. This is fuelling the demand for aerospace jobs and with it the growing need for relevant skills.

"We believe that India's strength lies in its talent and we are deeply invested in nurturing the youth and equipping them with the right skills that will meet this growing demand, and also prepare them for the jobs that will shape the future of aerospace in the country. This collaboration is a step forward in achieving this ambition," said Maillard.

The three entities will form a joint working group to explore skilling in areas such as airport operations, flight training, engineering and maintenance as well as for workforce requirements for safety of aircraft and airports, said the statement.

The organisations will leverage their existing flagship centres to deliver available courses and also look at updating required curriculum.

In addition, the three partners will look for synergies with other aviation to explore their support on skilling in drone operation and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO), it said.

"The high growth of Indian aviation sector will witness demand for skilled personnel and Tata STRIVE is keen to be well positioned to leverage the opportunity to enable these jobs for the youth we work with, said Rajan.

"The partnership with and AASSC brings together complementary strengths of the organisations in a model that builds a talent pool for the sector while helping youth fulfil their aspirations and build careers in aviation," she said.

"India is already the third biggest domestic aviation market in the world and is progressing on the path to take a spot of third biggest aviation market overall. 'Make in India' and 'skill India' can be considered as two sides of the same coin.

"AASSC and aviation skill ecosystem formed under the NSDC and MSDE will enable the youth to get re-skilled and up-skilled in the aspiring areas of airport operations, airlines, ground handling, aerospace manufacturing and drone technology as well," said Rachit Bhatnagar.

(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.)
Net profit at for the March quarter rose 10 per cent year-on-year. A higher realisation of exports revenue which came on back of favourable currency movement bumped up profits.

An improved volume of the more profitable three-wheeler business also helped the company offset the decline in the domestic motorcycle business. A severe shortage of the semiconductors led to a steep decline in the domestic motorcycle business.

Revenue from operations at the Pune-based firm declined 7 per cent YoY to Rs 7,975 crore from Rs 8,596 crore a year ago. Net profit during the three month period rose to Rs 1,469 crore from Rs 1,332 crore last year.

The maker of Pulsar and Discover brands has guided for a 15-20 per cent impact on the motorcycle volumes in the June quarter due the semiconductor shortage. It has also cautioned that the increasing cell prices may retard the pace of transition to electric vehicles (EVs).

The supply chain issue is very serious, Rakesh Sharma, executive director, Bajaj Auto, told reporters in a post earnings call. The company has been working very closely with the suppliers but unfortunate outages at the suppliers end impacted production by 10-15 per cent in the March quarter.

With April being one of the worst months in terms of semiconductor availability, the June quarter is also likely to crimp the volumes by 15-20 per cent, said Sharma.

The chip shortage has also been impacting the ramp up plans of Chetak, Bajajs electric scooter model. The company has a backlog of 15,000 units. Bajaj retailed a total of 10,000 units of the model in the year that ended on 31 March. We havent been able to go to more cities with the Chetak because of supply related issues, said Sharma.

On whether the e-scooter fire incidents will impede electrification of the two wheeler segment Sharma said while the mishaps will change buyer behaviour its unlikely to impact the transition to EVs because of a favorable total cost of ownership that the latter commands over ICE.

According to Sharma, the costs of cells which havent come down as expected and instead gone back to the 2019 levels could be a bigger retardant in the transition to EVs. The thermal incident will change the buyer behaviour but the costs will determine the pace of transition, said Sharma.

Hit by the economic slowdown and semiconductor shortage, domestic motorcycle sales at Bajaj skidded by a third to 339,100 units in the March quarter over the year ago period. It however didnt have a similar impact on the exports. Exports of motorcycles dropped 7 per cent YoY to 519,991 units.

The motorcycle business has faced a strong headwind from the demand point of view, said Sharma. The two-wheeler segment, which saw sales plunging to a decade low in FY23, has been facing structural slowdown, he stated. Having said that, he expects sales to recover marginally in the next couple of months on the back of pent up demand, the ongoing marriage season and a forecast of a normal monsoon which is likely to revive rural sales.

Meanwhile, the companys international business recorded its highest ever sales of over 2.5 million units for FY22. With sales of over $2 billion, exports now contribute over 52 per cent of its net sales in value terms.

In a research note shortly after the earnings, Mitul Shahhead of research, wrote that the brokerage expects Bajajs export business to witness a healthy growth in FY23E on the back of positive traction in the African market. It also expects the domestic two wheeler industry to recover gradually going forward in FY23, while its domestic three wheeler business would bounce back strongly in FY23 respectively.

The Board of Directors has approved a dividend at the rate of Rs140 per share (1400 percent) of the face value of Rs10 each on equity shares for the financial year ended March 31, 2022.

The came after the market hours ended. Shares of ended at Rs3909 apiece, up by Rs18.60, or 0.48 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has deregistered Air India's four jumbo jets that were not in operation since February 2020, sources said on Wednesday.

It is not clear what will be done with these four planes now, they added.

Planes as old as these 747s consume a huge amount of fuel and require extensive maintenance, they said.

Tata Group took control of on January 27 after successfully winning the bid for the airline on October 8 last year.

The salt-to-software conglomerate is expected to put in a fresh order with either Boeing or Airbus for new wide-bodied aircraft for Air India, the sources said.

Till about two years ago, the aforementioned 747s were being used to operate international flights for top dignitaries such as president, prime minister and vice president.

When they were not in service of dignitaries, the four jumbo jets were being used for international commercial passenger flights.

(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.)
To further drive the inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) into the mainstream workforce, e-commerce firm has signed an agreement with the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE) and Skill Council for Persons with (SCPwD) in New Delhi.

As part of the tripartite agreement or MoU (memorandum of understanding), will work with DEPwD and SCPwD to jointly create structured skill development interventions and enabling mechanisms for bringing PwDs into the mainstream economy and e-commerce sector in particular over the next two years.

Divyangjan or Persons with Disabilities need support and not sympathy, said Virendra Kumar, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment. This MoU will open up opportunities for them and play a major role in equipping them with the right skill sets to enhance their employability.

The MoU (memorandum of understanding) was signed in the presence of Secretary of DEPwD Anjali Bhawra at Pt. Deendayal Antyodaya Bhawan in New Delhi.

will provide easy access to learning opportunities for PWDs to acquire relevant skills through the National Skill Qualification Committee and skills for supply chain operations through Flipkarts Supply Chain Operations Academy.

Walmart-owned Flipkart today employs over two lakh workforce with a structured diversity program that includes employing women and People with Disabilities (PwDs). With several initiatives to drive their inclusion and development, Flipkart said it has been recognised as a top fair work employer by Fairwork Foundation for several years.

We are proud of the fact that we have men, women and people with disabilities working together in our supply chain, helping break the stigma around their participation in the mainstream workforce and we are committed to increasing their participation, said Rajneesh Kumar, chief corporate affairs officer at Flipkart. Our MoU with the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and Skill Council for Persons with will enable Flipkart to use its expertise and learning over the years in upskilling PwDs and creating an ecosystem for their employment.

Through its initiative Ekartians with Disabilities (EDAB), which started in 2017, Flipkart has created job opportunities for thousands of people with disabilities (PwDs) for varied roles across its supply chain. It aims to provide career opportunities for PwDs in its supply chain for sustainable economic growth and contribute positively to society. In July last year, Flipkart established the first-ever PwD-run delivery hub in New Delhi, managed end-to-end by PwDs, working in various roles, including delivery executives, cashiers, and team leaders. Flipkart today employs close to 1,500 people with disabilities across its supply chain.

Employees are given training in workflows, including sensitization sessions, special classroom training and on-job training with the help of sign language interpreters. Employees in consumer-facing roles, such as wishmasters (delivery executives), are provided with customer interaction cards to help any hearing-impaired employees communicate with ease. While delivery executives have SOS-enabled smartphones and special badges and flashcards to communicate with customers, employees with disabilities on the warehouse floor are identified with a differentiated colour jacket as a security measure. Flipkart also provides sign language training to its existing employees to make the PwDs feel comfortable.
of India (LIC) is launching the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in the history of the Indian capital market at about Rs 21,000 crore. The share sale, which opens on May 4, will make the insurer the fifth-largest listed company in the country with a market capitalisation of Rs 6.02 trillion, assuming the upper price band of Rs 949 a share. has fixed the price band at Rs 902-949 per share for the .

will also become the fourth most valuable insurer globally  after Ping An Insurance of China, AIA Group, and China Life  and the fifth largest in terms of gross written premium.

Even after the reduced size of about Rs 21,000 crore, the is going to be the biggest ever in the country, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), said while addressing the media on Wednesday. The government has reduced the equity dilution size to 3.5 per cent from 5 per cent of its total holding.



ALSO READ: Should you take a slice of the LIC IPO pie?

Among Indian life insurance companies, LIC will be the fourth insurer to get listed, and its market cap will be nearly six times the number two firm, HDFC Life Insurance, whose valuation stood at Rs 1.16 trillion as of Wednesday.



The decision to list now has taken into account a combination of multiple factors, including market demand, which includes solid anchor book, stabilising market condition, reducing volatility, domestic flows, and corporations financial performance, Pandey said.

There is a fair amount of domestic demand and subdued demand from abroad. So, in this constrained environment that we have, it was important to take a call on the right size of the issue, he said while explaining the rationale behind reducing the size of the IPO. We have given our commitment that we are not bringing in any FPO in the next one year, he added.

Yet, there are questions on LICs valuation. Initially, according to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), the government had planned to sell 5 per cent of its stake in the insurer and was expected to mop up around Rs 65,000 crore at a valuation of more than Rs 10 trillion. However, now the stake dilution has been reduced to 3.5 per cent, with the government raising around Rs 21000 crore  which valued the insurer at 1.1 times its embedded value (Rs 5.39 trillion).





ALSO READ: LIC IPO will see record demat account openings in India: Paytm Money CEO

It's not fair to say that two months back there was a certain valuation, Pandey said when asked how the valuation of LIC dropped in two months. Those were guesstimates and people were speculating. The EV for LIC was discovered and revealed in the DRHP. Post the DRHP, analysts have gone into the numbers. There were hundreds of roadshows where the questions have been answered. The valuation process is essentially a discovering process because you dont know what we are comparing LIC with, he said.





Attractive valuation

Pandey said the valuation was fair and attractive. It's important to make it attractive because the goal is to enable millions of Indians to participate in this process and increase their value as LIC unlocks itself.

The initial plan for the government was to launch the IPO in March  before the end of the financial year 2021-22. However, the markets turned volatile following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Emerging economy markets continue to remain choppy amid geopolitical tensions.

Pandey was confident that, with the help of anchor investors, LIC will be able to pull it off.

We postponed the issue in March because we had this concern when volatility was very high The reason we went down from 5 per cent to 3.5 per cent is, even if we have a little bit of a constrained environment, we can still pull it off because thats the kind of demand scenario that exists. Also, there is an anchor book to support it, he said.

Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital, BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, and Goldman Sachs are some of the book-running lead managers for the issue.
Indian conglomerate Ltd and U.S. buyout firm Management are planning a joint bid for UK high street pharmacy chain Boots, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The joint bid for Walgreens Boots Alliance's UK-based business, if successful, would see Boots expand its presence into India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, the report said on Wednesday.

Both Reliance and Apollo would own stakes in Boots under the plan, although it is not clear whether the stakes would be of the same size, according to the report.

A spokesperson for Reliance declined to comment, while Apollo and Walgreens did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Walgreens put its Boots business up for sale after announcing a strategic review in January as the second-largest U.S. pharmacy chain renews its focus on domestic healthcare.

The company has set a deadline of May 16 for bids, the Financial Times reported.

But the sale, which could value the UK chain at between 5 billion pounds and 6 billion pounds ($6.27 billion and $7.52 billion), has been fraught with challenges, according to the report.

Prominent suitors Bain Capital and CVC Capital Partners have dropped out of the bidding process, the report said, adding that the owners of UK supermarket group Asda - brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa and private equity group TDR Capital - have also made an initial bid for Boots.

The Boots business spans across 2,200 stores in the United Kingdom, including pharmacies, health and beauty stores.

($1 = 0.7974 pounds)

(Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)

(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.)
Moglix, one of Asias largest B2B (business to business) commerce companies, has elevated three of its senior leaders: Mukund Vasudevan, Partha S Dash, and Sandeep Goel as the new Managing Directors of the company. The announcement comes as a boost to Moglixs senior leadership as it is poised for global expansion and growth.

 is in an exciting phase of growth as we expand our operations globally and deepen our expertise, reach, and impact, said Rahul Garg, founder & CEO, . Its great to have three very strong leaders play a larger role in fulfilling our vision of creating tremendous value for the customer as we scale. They are not only experienced, but extremely passionate leaders and their leadership is sure to steer us continuously in the right direction.

Mukund Vasudevan joined in July 2021 to lead strategic partnerships and will now be leading the Enterprise Solutions business vertical, working with our enterprise customers to transform their supply chain. An IIT Bombay and Chicago Booth School alumnus, Vasudevan started his career with Schlumberger in Brazil. He moved to McKinsey where he worked with CXOs of Fortune 500 and transitioned into leadership roles at Pentair and Ecolab. Prior to Moglix he was the Managing Director Ecolab, India & Southeast Asia.

Partha S Dash joined Moglix in 2015 and has been a part of the seed to scale journey for the MRO and Packaging verticals. Going forward, he will focus on growing the new business verticals and geographies. Partha is an NIT Rourkela and XIM alumnus, he has worked in leadership positions at manufacturing giants such as ITC, Tata Steel and Olam International across 15 countries globally. Before joining Moglix, Dash was heading the distribution business for Olam in entire South Africa.

Sandeep Goel joined Moglix in 2018 to lead product strategy and scale the human capital function, building processes and culture as the organisation scaled from 300 to 1400 employees during a global pandemic. In his new role, Sandeep will lead strategy and operations. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science, Sandeep has previously held CXO positions in software . Prior to Moglix, Goel had been the CEO at Acuvate, where he led digital transformation for many fortune 500 and grew Acuvate into a multi-million dollar business.

With end to end supply chain operations from strategic sourcing to financing, Moglix is a global digital supply chain solutions company. Its global sourcing and delivery footprint spans across over 1000 large enterprises, 500,000 MSMEs and 18,000 suppliers across India and the Middle East.
Twenty fours on, efforts to douse the fire at the site in north Delhi continue, and it will take at least another two days to put it out completely, officials said on Wednesday.

Eight firetenders are currently working to bring down the flames, they said.

A massive fire broke out at the on Tuesday evening. Several videos showed the blaze churning out dense plumes of smoke and turning the sky hazy grey. Fire officials had said they received the information at around 5.40 pm after which 13 fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

Residents on Wednesday evening said the plumes of thick smoke continue to choke them.

"The residents have started complaining of sore throat, itchy eyes and breathing problems. Currently, eight fire tenders are working on the site. It will take at least two more days to douse the fire. Our teams are working round-the-clock to put it out," a fire officer said.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. However, another official said rising temperature leads to formation of methane gas at the dumpyard sites and this is "extremely flammable".

Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday blamed "corruption" in the Municipal Corporation for the frequent fires at landfills in the city, saying the BJP-ruled municipal corporations should have used bulldozers to clear the mountains of garbage.

Gyan Sarovar School, a child resource centre for children of rag-pickers living near the site, has been closed for a week.

Three incidents of fire have been reported this year in east Delhi's Ghazipur landfill site, including the one on March 28 which was doused after over 50 hours.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the wake of a controversy over the use of loudspeakers at religious places, authorities of five in Pune and some other senior Muslim community members here have decided to shun DJ music during the upcoming Eid celebration and utilise funds collected for it to help the poor and needy people.

They also appealed to youth from the community not to play loud DJ music during the Eid al-Fitr celebration on May 2.

Everyone knows the ill-effects of such loud DJ music, which is not good for sick people and those with a weak heart, said Maulana Mohsin Raza, the imam of the Bhartiya Anjuman Qadariya Mosque in Lohiya Nagar area here in Maharashtra.

"So, we formed a core committee of five in the area and convened a meeting of their imams and functionaries along with other senior members of the community and decided not to have DJ music during the Eid celebration," he told PTI.

The funds usually collected to procure the DJ music system during the celebration will be used to provide aid to the needy and poor people in the area, he said.

Asked about the row over use of loudspeakers atop the mosques, he claimed all five in the locality here follow the Supreme Court's guidelines on noise pollution and the volume during 'azaan' is always kept low.

"The locality has a mixed population and so far, no one from the Hindu community has complained of any disturbance due to the playing of 'azaan'. In fact, the communities here celebrate all the festivals in harmony," Raza said.

Yunus Salim Shaikh, a local Urdu teacher who is part of this core committee, said the formation of such a panel is a good step towards dealing with social issues.

"After the formation of the core committee, a decision has been taken to ban DJ music during the Eid celebration. During the namaz sessions in mosques, we are informing people from the community about the decision and counselling them. Fortunately, we are getting a good response from everybody," he said.

Local resident and former corporator Yusuf Shaikh said the decision not to play DJ music during the Eid celebration has invoked a good response and they hope the same will be emulated in other parts of 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.)
Following Delhi High Court's order, nurses of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) called off the strike on Tuesday night.

"We are accepting the decision of the . We have been asked to appear in court on Wednesday. We will do so and based on the decision of the court, we will chalk our future course of action," said a representative of the nurses union.

The on Tuesday directed the nurses union to ensure that the employees including nurses who are on strike join duties immediately.

On Tuesday moved Delhi HC seeking direction to the Nurses Union and any staff of AIIMS to desist from resorting to strike or in any manner disrupting the general functioning of the petitioner's institute and hospital.

The bench of Justice Yashwant Varma on Tuesday directed Nurses Union to ensure that its workers including officers immediately start working and issued notice to the nurses union. The court listed the matter for a detailed hearing on Wednesday morning while hearing a petition moved by the AIIMS administration against the ongoing strike by nurses.

In response to the suspension of the President of AIIMS Nurses Union, Harish Kajila, the staff of the hospital on Tuesday went on an indefinite strike. The nurses union has demanded the immediate revocation of Kajla's suspension.

In a letter addressed to the AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria, the Union wrote, "In response to your unilateral decision to suspend Harish Kajila, president of AllMS Nurses Union, without even citing proper reasons, the union called an emergency executive meeting and took the decision to go on indefinite strike from 8 AM on April 26 demanding immediate revocation of suspension of Harish Kumar Kajla and stopping of all kinds of retaliative measures against union executives and Union members of main operation theatre (OT)."

"The union has always been receptive and open to expressing our genuine concerns and version throughout this issue. But unfortunately, we were neither called, nor contacted via any communication which forced us to go on an indefinite strike to safeguard the basic rights of our members. We would like to remind you that the undemocratic AllMS administration will be solely responsible for the consequences if any," the letter read.

On April 23, AIIMS witnessed a dispute between the officer Harish Kajila and the Resident Doctors Association. The nursing staff were protesting over the lack of manpower and late duty hours in the main operation theatre.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As Covid-19 cases rise in various parts of the country, Prime Minister met the state chief ministers to review the situation. The PM said that vaccinating all eligible children at the earliest is a priority for the government and specialised programmes needed to be conducted in schools to achieve this feat.

Modi asserted, It is clear that the Corona challenge is not fully over.

The PM said that Omicron and its sub-variants can create problems as evident by the case of many countries of Europe. The sub-variants are causing many surges in many countries. The PM said that India has been able to handle the situation better than many countries, but the increasing cases in some states in the last two weeks show that we need to stay alert.

Citing the rise in Covid-19 cases in some states in the last two weeks, he said there was a need to remain alert. He spoke about the need for states to regularly monitor and report data, maintain effective surveillance, upgrade infrastructure and utilise funds given by the Centre.

He added that, Our priority is to vaccinate all eligible children at the earliest. Special campaigns will also be needed in schools. Teachers and parents should be aware of this.

The Prime Minister mentioned that schools have opened after a long time and some parents are worried by the increased number of cases in some places.

On Tuesday, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved two vaccines Covaxin and Corbevax for use in children below 12 years.

However, India does not have any immediate plans to further expand its vaccination programme to include children below 12 years. Sources in the Union Ministry of Health said, There were no plans yet to include children below 12 years in the vaccination drive. There is no scientific evidence about their vulnerability.

"Our scientists and experts are continuously monitoring the national and global situation. We have to work on their suggestions with a pre-emptive, pro-active and collective approach," the PM said in the review meeting.

He stressed on the strategy of test, track and treat. In the current situation of coronavirus, it is necessary that we have a 100 per cent RT-PCR test for patients admitted in hospitals who are serious influenza cases.

Several chief ministers, including West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel, Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab's Bhagwant Mann, participated in the interaction.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that in recent days, Delhi has witnessed a high positivity rate. He also spoke about masks having been made mandatory again. Haryana Chief Minister said that a high number of cases in the state is mainly being seen around Delhi, in the cities of Gurugram and Faridabad.

India recorded 2,927 fresh infections in a day which pushed the case tally to 4,30,65,496 while the active caseload increased to 16,279, according to Union Health Ministry data on Wednesday.
Former non-executive chairman of Ravi Parthasarathy died at age 70 in Mumbai on Wednesday morning after a prolonged illness, said media reports.

He was suffering from cancer and had been hospitalised in Mumbai since last November.

Parthasarathy passed away at his home in Mumbai, a report said quoting his family.

An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, Parthasarathy joined as president in 1987 when the company was founded and became the CEO in 1989. He became the chairman of the company in 2006.

Parthasarathy resigned from his post in 2018, citing medical conditions.

He was alleged of being at the centre of a multicrore scam and was arrested last year by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW)-II for allegedly defrauding investors of a Rs 1 trillion scam.

The crisis surfaced in July 2018 after the company started defaulting on its debt repayments.

IL&FS, which started as a road construction financing company, collapsed in August 2018 after it failed to repay its loans to several Indian banks and insurance companies.

The government in October that year set up a panel led by Uday Kotak to start the resolution process for IL&FS.

The board in March this year said that it has resolved debt amounting to Rs 55,000 crore, which is almost 90 per cent of the total outstanding.

In March this year, Kotak said the resolution from IL&FS is expected at Rs 61,000 crore of the total debt of Rs 99,355 crore, which is almost 62 per cent.

Of the 347 entities under IL&FS Group as of October 2018, 246 entities stand resolved, leaving 101 for the next financial year.
New Delhi, April 27 (IANSlife) The Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), announced the signing of a new SeleQtions hotel in Udaipur, . The hotel is managed by Lalit Bagh Heritage Palace and Museum Private Limited.

Commenting on the signing, Suma Venkatesh, Executive Vice President - Real Estate & Development, IHCL, said, " is ranked amongst the world's top destinations to travel to and IHCL has had its presence in the city for over 50 years now. Fast evolving as the preferred venue for social events and conferences, it has a huge business potential. We are delighted to partner with Lalit Bagh Heritage Palace and Museum Private Limited to bring our sixth hotel to ."

The 151-room SeleQtions hotel is conveniently located in Nahar Mangra, close to the airport. The hotel is being built on eight acres in the style of Rajasthan's grand palaces. There will be an all-day diner, a specialty restaurant, and a bar. The hotel will have over 10,000 square feet of banquet space, meeting rooms, and sprawling lawns, making it ideal for elegant weddings and conferences. It is a Brownfield project that is scheduled to open in 2025.

Tikam Singh Rao, Director, Lalit Bagh Heritage Palace and Museum Private Limited, said, "We are delighted to partner with IHCL for this SeleQtions hotel. The company is renowned for putting on the global tourist map."

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)

--IANS

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Prime Minister on Wednesday said that the shared legacy of India- relations is based on the sense of service of humanity.

"India could fulfil its obligations during the pandemic based on these values as we could provide medicines to 150 countries and about 100 million vaccines to about 100 countries. has always been prioritised in such efforts," he said.

Prime Minister Modi addressed the opening of Shri Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital in via a video message.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minster thanked the Prime Minister and people of Fiji for the hospital and said that the hospital is a symbol of the relationship between the two countries, another chapter in the shared journey of India and Fiji.

The Children's Heart Hospital is one of its kind not only in Fiji but in the entire South Pacific region.

The Prime Minister said: "For region, where heart related diseases are major challenge, this hospital will be a way of giving new life to thousands of children."

He also expressed satisfaction that not only the children will get world-class treatment but all surgeries will be done free of cost and for that he appreciated Sai Prem Foundation, Fiji, Government of Fiji and Shri Sathya Sai Sanjivini Children's Heart Hospital of India.

The Prime Minister bowed to Sri Sathya Sai Baba whose sapling of human service has grown into a huge banyan tree, serving entire humanity.

He recalled that Sri Sathya Sai Baba freed spiritualism from rituals and linked it with people's welfare. His work in the areas of education, health, for poor and deprived inspires us even today.

Prime Minister Modi also remembered the services of the Sai devotees during the time of Gujarat earthquake.

"I consider it my great fortune that I got the constant blessings of Sahtya Sai Baba and am getting it even today," he said.

The Prime Minister continued to dwell on the depth of relationship between the two countries.

"Despite the vast ocean separating the two countries, our culture has kept us connected and our relations are based on mutual respect and strong people to people ties."

He acknowledged the privilege of India getting opportunities to contribute in the socio-economic development of Fiji.

Prime Minister Modi greeted the Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji on his birthday today and expressed the hope that under his leadership, the relationship between the two countries will continue to get stronger.

--IANS

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Millions of unused Covid-19 doses in the United States are set to go wasted as the country's vaccination rates continued to decline amid an uptick of new infections.

Since the emergency use authorisation of the first Covid-19 vaccines in the country last winter, federal data show that US states received a staggering 720 million Covid-19 doses, and more than 570 million of those shots have been administered, according to a report of ABC News.

However, state-provided data found that millions of those vaccine shots have not ended up in arms, largely due to a significant decline in the number of individuals willing to get vaccinated, Xinhua news agency reported.

Many vaccine doses now left unused in refrigerators or discarded in trash cans across the country.

Millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses have either gone to waste, remain unused, or will expire in the coming weeks and months, according to the ABC News report, citing officials from health departments in states and state-provided data.

"It is a tremendous loss of opportunity for these vaccines to not make it into the shoulders of those who need them," said C. Buddy Creech, Director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program and professor at the Department of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University.

"Not only is it a financial loss for the purchaser of vaccines -- the US government -- but also a significant health loss for those who are not yet protected from Covid and its complications," he added.

Nearly 66.1 per cent of the US population is fully vaccinated against Covid as of Monday, according to the latest data of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Covid-19 boosters have been authorised in the US for adults since November. However, CDC data show less than 50 per cent of eligible Americans have received their first booster.

Vaccination rates continued to drop in the country amid a declining demand for vaccines and hesitancy, leading to the waste of unused millions of doses currently in state stockpiles and at risk of expiring.

As of April 20, the seven-day average number of administered vaccine doses per day was 470,903, a 13.2 per cent decrease from the previous week, according to the latest CDC data.

The country is witnessing an increase of new Covid-19 infections recently again, with an average of about 44,000 new cases and 310 new deaths each day, CDC data show.

"The pool of people that are unvaccinated is likely to remain unconvinced of the importance of vaccine-induced protection," said John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor, adding that convincing those still hesitant to get the vaccine shot will be a difficult feat.

Some politicians and public health experts have raised concerns over the ethical implications of so many vaccine shots going to waste.

"The wastage of millions of doses is a stark reminder of the privilege we have had in accessing vaccines while the majority of the world had to wait months. Extraordinary resources and financial investment will ultimately go to waste," Brownstein added.

--IANS

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Member of Parliament from Maharashtra's Amravati, Navneet Rana has lodged a complaint with Commissioner against MP .

She lodged the complaint against Raut with the as her house is in New Delhi's North Avenue area.

"I belong to the Scheduled Caste. In 2014 I fought the elections against the leader on a reserved seat. Since then activists and leaders of the have been threatening me and spreading rumours that I have forged my caste certificate. They are after me because my caste is Chambhar," she has written in her complaint.

Rana has written that in 2019 she again contested the election and won against the Shiv Sena leader. She has alleged that soon after her victory Raut started targeting her on every platform. Raut also spoke against her on television.

"Raut called me and my husband 'Bunty and Babli'. He called us 420 with the intention to defame us in our community. On April 22 and 23, when I was at my home in Khar area, Raut sent his party workers to my home who not only created a ruckus but also threatened me with dire consequences. They had brought an ambulance and didn't let me go out of my home. Raut in fact went on saying that he would bury us 20 feet deep," read her complaint.

She has urged the to lodge an FIR against Raut and others for calling her and her husband Bunty and Babli, 420 and using derogatory caste related words.

The Delhi Police has not made any official statement in this matter so far. A copy of the complaint has been accessed by IANS.

--IANS

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Lavrov, Guterres agree on need to continue Russia-Ukraine peace talks

Xinhua) 09:40, April 27, 2022

MOSCOW, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and visiting United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday agreed on the need to continue the negotiation process and seek a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis.

"We stand in favor of a negotiated solution," Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Guterres after their talks in Moscow, noting that Russia agreed to begin negotiations in early March immediately after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had proposed.

Lavrov expressed "disappointment" with the Ukrainian side's attitude towards the peace talks, saying that "apparently, they are not particularly interested in these negotiations."

He urged Kiev to quickly respond to Russia's proposals, and warned that the negotiations will yield no results if the West continues to provide weapons to Ukraine.

"I came to Moscow as a messenger of peace. My objective and my agenda are strictly linked to saving lives and reducing suffering," Guterres said, calling his discussions with Lavrov "very frank."

"It is my deep conviction that the sooner we end this war the better for the people of Ukraine, for the people of Russia, and for those far beyond," he added.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has informed that a total of 58,843 Sri Lankan and 72,312 Tibetan refugees have been living in India.

In its recently submitted annual report for 2020-21, the MHA said that as on January 1,2021, there were 58,843 Sri Lankan refugees staying in 108 camps in Tamil Nadu and 54 in Odisha.

Besides, around 34,135 refugees are staying outside the camps, registered with the state authorities in Tamil Nadu.

Pending repatriation, certain essential relief facilities are provided to them on humanitarian grounds. These facilities include shelter in camps, cash doles, subsidised ration, clothing, utensils, medical care and educational assistance. The entire expenditure is incurred by the state government and is subsequently reimbursed by the Centre to the state. An amount of Rs 1,154 crore has been spent by the Centre for providing relief and accommodation to these refugees during the period between July, 1983 and December 31,2020.

The Ministry also said that around 3,04,269 Sri Lankan refugees have entered India in various phases between July, 1983 and August 2012. The Centre's approach is to grant relief on humanitarian grounds with the ultimate objective to repatriate them back to Sri Lanka. Relief is given pending such repatriation.

While 99,469 refugees have been repatriated to Sri Lanka up to March, 1995, there has been no organised repatriation after March,1995, some refugees have gone back to Sri Lanka or left for other countries on their own.

Similarly, as per the latest census 2019 conducted by Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC), the population of Tibetan refugees in India as on December 31,2020 was 72,312 wherein the majority of these refugees have settled themselves, either through self employment or with Government's assistance under agricultural and handicrafts' schemes in different states of the country.

Major concentration of the Tibetan refugees is in Karnataka-21,353, Himachal Pradesh-14,973, Arunachal Pradesh-4,759, Uttarakhand- 4,828, West Bengal-3,079, and Union Territory of Ladakh-6,987.

The MHA also said that the rehabilitation of Tibetan refugees is almost complete and only one residuary housing scheme is at various stages of implementation in the State of Uttarakhand.

In order to bring about uniformity with respect to extending various facilities by the Central Government and the state governments to the Tibetan refugees settled in different parts of the country, MHA has issued the Tibetan Rehabilitation Policy, 2014.

The Government of India has sanctioned a scheme of providing grant-in-aid of Rs 40 crore to His Holiness The Dalai Lama's CTRC over a period of five years commencing from 2015-16 to 2019-20 to meet the administrative and social welfare activities expenses of 36 Tibetan Settlement offices located in different States of the country and the entire amount of 40 crore has already been released, the Union said.

Tibetan refugees began pouring into India in the wake of the flight of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama in the year 1959 from Tibet. The Government of India decided to give them asylum as well as assistance towards temporary settlement. Care has been taken to retain their separate ethnic and cultural identity.

--IANS

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Prime Minister will be on a three-day visit to Germany, Denmark and France from May 2, aimed at further strengthening bilateral cooperation.

This will be the Prime Minister's first visit abroad in 2022.

In Berlin, the Prime Minister will hold bilateral talks with Olaf Scholz, Federal Chancellor of Germany, and the two leaders will co-chair the sixth edition of the India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC).

The biennial IGC is a unique dialogue format that also sees participation of several Ministers from both sides. This will be Prime Minister's first IGC with Chancellor Scholz, and also the first such Government-to-Government consultations of the new German government, which assumed office in December 2021. During his visit, Prime Minister and Chancellor Scholz would also jointly address a Business Event. He will address and interact with the Indian community in Germany.

In 2021, India and Germany commemorated 70 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations and have been strategic partners since 2000. This visit will be an opportunity to enhance and intensify cooperation in a broad range of areas and for the two governments to exchange views on regional and global matters of mutual interest.

Prime Minister Modi will, thereafter, travel to Copenhagen on an official visit at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen. He will also participate in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit being hosted by Denmark.

The bilateral component of the visit will include talks with PM Frederiksen as well as an audience with Queen Margrethe II. The Green Strategic Partnership was the first of its kind arrangement between India and Denmark. The visit would provide both sides an opportunity to review its progress, as well as examine ways to further expand our multifaceted cooperation.

During the visit, he will attend an India-Denmark Business Forum and also address members of the Indian diaspora.

Prime Minister Modi, during the second India-Nordic Summit, will also interact with other Nordic leaders - Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir of Iceland, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland.

The Summit will focus on subjects like post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, innovation and technology, renewable energy, the evolving global security scenario and India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic region. The 1st India-Nordic Summit took place in 2018 in Stockholm.

On his return journey on May 4, the Prime Minister will briefly stop over in Paris and meet Emmanuel Macron, President of France.

India and France are celebrating 75 years of their diplomatic relations this year and the meeting between the two leaders will set a more ambitious agenda of the Strategic Partnership.

--IANS

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The BJP-ruled South Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has started a survey of encroachment of government of land as its mayor Mukesh Suryan on Wednesday conducted inspections in Sarita Vihar, Jaitpur, and Madanpur Khadar wards.

He said that streets will be freed from illegal occupation.

The East Municipal Corporation (EDMC) too bulldozed a few allegedly illegal shops in Kalyanpuri area that were built on a roadside near Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, officials said.

These shops were constructed illegally in Kalyanpuri which were demolished today (Wednesday). Our action against encroachment will continue, mayor Shyam Sunder Agrawal said in a statement.

The SDMC mayor said that a month-long plan has been prepared to remove encroachment from government lands, roads, and footpaths in areas that include Okhla, Madanpur Khadar, Sarita Vihar, Jaitpur, Lajpat Nagar, Badarpur, Greater Kailash, Dwarka, Vasant Kunj, Vikas Puri, Shaheen Bagh etc.

Shaheen Bagh area had come to limelight in December 2019 for its protests and a huge sit-in against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. The massive gathering there was dispersed in March 2020 after riots in northeast and the COVID 19 pandemic that hit the city subsequently.

The mayor said that removing encroachment from government land is an obligatory function of the civic agencies and the SDMC will carry out its duty efficiently.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta had on April 20 written to mayors of South and East corporations seeking removal of encroachments by Rohingyas, Bangladeshis and anti-social elements in their areas.

Last week, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation came under fire from several civil rights groups and opposition parties after it bulldozed structures in Jahangirpuri area in an .

The demolition drive came immediately after the area witnessed violence between Hindus and Muslims on April 16. The action drew sharp criticism from several quarters, with many terming the exercise vengeful.

The drive was stopped only after the Supreme Court intervened.

The SDMC on Wednesday removed temporary encroachments in Lajpat Nagar central market and seized several illegal kiosks and carts.

On Tuesday too, the body had conducted anti-encroachment drives in many areas including Palam, Tilak Nagar, Hari Nagar, Ring Road near Sarai Kale Khan, CR Park, Greater Kailash, and Gurudwara Road.

The removed several temporary structures in Babarpur, Welcome, Durgapuri Chowk etc.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has also in last one week conducted in Rohini Sector-7 and removed encroachments.

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Do you know that before 2015, heat waves were not notified as a natural disaster at the national level, though between 1992 to 2015 as per official records nearly 24,223 lost their lives due to the same?

As Northern India prepares to face intense heat waves in the next few days as predicted by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) , the following is your guide to the weather event and what should be the preventive measures.

Whats the scare?

in a forecast made on Monday said that heat wave conditions are expected to start over Central and Northwest India from April 27.

As a prelude to the same, maximum temperatures were recorded between 40-42 degrees Celsius over most parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Vidarbha, Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal; in some parts of Haryana and Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and in isolated pockets over Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, Telangana and Rayalaseema on Sunday.

The weather office said a gradual rise in maximum temperatures by 2-3 degrees Celsius can be expected over most parts of Northwest during the next three days (starting from April 27)a situation that is expected to continue with no large change thereafter.

Also, a gradual rise in maximum temperatures by 2-4 degrees Celsius will also be seen over Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and in Gujarat by 2-3 degrees Celsius during the next four days.

So what exactly is a heat wave?

The qualitatively classifies a heat wave as one when the air temperature becomes fatal to the human body when exposed. And, quantitatively it is defined based on temperature thresholds over a region in terms of actual temperature or its departure from normal.

So what are those thresholds?

Heat wave is considered if the maximum temperature of a station (a meteorological centre) reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius or more in plains and 30 degrees Celsius or more in the hills.

Also, heat waves generally occur, in the months of March to June and in some rare cases even in July.

The peak month of the heat wave over India is May. But, this year, due to the advancement of summer, the peak heat wave month itself seems to have also advanced.

So, what are the heat wave prone states in India?

Heat waves generally occur over plains of northwest India, Central, East and north Peninsular India.

It covers the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, parts of Maharashtra & Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Sometimes it occurs over Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well.

Is the frequency of heat waves rising?

The and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chronicle that in 2015, around nine states were impacted by heat waves.

While in 2020, as many as 23 states have been impacted by heat waves, a 156 per cent jump.

The World Meteorological Organization's 2020 statement on global climate indicates that global temperatures will continue to increase.

The years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 have been confirmed as the five warmest years on record. In 2019, unlike in earlier years, even night temperatures were high.

Does India have a strategy to deal with heat waves?

Believe it or not, before 2015, there wasnt any national level comprehensive strategy to fight heat waves.

As per the NDMA, before 2015, the primary responsibility for disaster risk management rested with the state governments.

Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Kerala, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka had declared heat waves as a local disaster.

Heat waves were not notified as a disaster at the national level under the existing disaster relief policies.

But, state governments were authorised to spend up to 10 per cent of funds under certain heads for heat wave relief.

Surprisingly, this was despite the fact that the biggest casualties of heat wave conditions were mostly the poor and vulnerable in the unorganised sectors, such as daily-wage labourers, street hawkers, etc.

They are compelled to work outdoors out of economic necessity, to earn their livelihood. Being unable to avoid the outdoors, they are particularly vulnerable to the dangers of heat wave conditions.

So what changed after 2015?

After 2015, the natural disaster started figuring in the priority list of topmost officials in the country including the Prime Minister as chairman of the NDMA.

Following which in 2016, the NDMA drew up the first national guidelines for heat waves titled 'Preparation of Action PlanPrevention and Management of Heat Wave'.

The guidelines were twice revised, first in 2017 and then in 2019. They were enriched with recommendations for more specific actions, based on scientific inputs derived from various research papers, reports and best practices in heat wave assessment and mapping techniques.

The ward level Heat Action Plans have improved the capacities of cities and states in managing heat stress and meeting heat wave related emergencies.

The revisions in 2019 included a new section, 'Built Environment'; the revisions focused on short-term, medium-term and long-term measures for heat wave risk reduction.

So what do the guidelines have?

The National Guidelines on Heat Wave clearly mentions the roles and responsibilities of the central and state government agencies, district administrations, local self-governments, NGOs, civil society organisations and other stakeholders in a matrix format.

So what has been the progress in building a foolproof disaster management plan against heat waves?

A NDMA document says that between 2015 and 2019, 17 heat wave prone states prepared their Heat Wave Action Plans and more than 120 districts or cities from14 states have also prepared their own Action Plans.

These plans help the state governments to develop measures and strategies for heat wave assessment, forecast, preparedness and mitigation through coordinated efforts with multiple agencies.

In this way, states and local authorities are able to undertake long-term mitigation measures to reduce the negative impacts of heat-wave conditions, the NDMA document said.

The NDMA also conducted a preliminary study to estimate the temperature threshold for 103 cities in India for heat wave conditions, and the resulting report was released in September 2019.

The objective of this study was to determine preliminary thresholds of the lower level of the maximum temperature beyond which there was a noticeable increase in all-cause mortality.

Have some other measures also initiated for dealing with heat waves?

Over the years, the NDMA has also taken host of measures that include rescheduling of working hours for outdoor workers, creation of drinking water kiosks, supply of water through tankers, erection of special shelter homes, increase in health facilities, stocking of ORS packets at health centres and the nearest anganwadi centres, placement of cooling systems and construction of gaushalas with fodder banks, etc

Is violation of the guidelines punishable?

In normal circumstances, they arent unless implemented under any act.

Have the steps shown any result?

The government claims that because of the aggressive measures taken to deal with heat waves both by the Centre and states, deaths due to heat waves have dropped from from 2,040 in 2015 to just 4 in 2020.

So what are broad SOPs to deal with heat waves?

The NDMA lists some common steps on how to face heat waves but there are district specific and region-wise specific strategies as well. These include
In the latest round of flip-flops that could have a far reaching impact on the Indian markets and prices, on Wednesday once again widened the scope of its export ban on raw materials for cooking oil to include crude and refined palm oil, among other products, leaving global and Indian markets in a state of shock.

For India, which is one of the biggest consumers of Indonesian palm oil, the situation is back to square one barely days after it got some reprieve after it was clarified the ban would not include the widely consumer crude palm oil.

India imports around 13-13.5 million tonnes of edible oils, of which around 8-8.5 million tonnes (around 63 per cent) is palm oil.

Of this, 8-8.5 million tonnes of palm oil, almost 45 per cent comes from and the remaining from neighboring Malaysia.

After last weeks announcement, trade sources feared that if suddenly, monthly supplies of around 300,000-325,000 tonnes of palm oil stop from May onwards it will cause a sharp escalation in prices in India which have been already on the boil due to the ongoing Russia- Ukraine crisis.

Ever since the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Indias sunflower oil supplies have gone down from 200,00-250,000 per month to less than 100,000 tonnes per month causing a sharp spike in prices. On top of this if decides to suspend palm oil exports, then it will cause serious trouble for us, B.V. Mehta, Director General of Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) had warned.





Mehta wanted the Indian government to immediately activate its diplomatic channels to ward off this catastrophe.

Wednesdays announcement by the Indonesian Chief Economic Advisor flipped a statement that he made a day earlier, in which he had said the export ban would only cover refined, bleached, and deodorized palm olein.

The change was "in line with the president's decision and after taking into account the feedback and views from the people," agency Reuters reported quoting Airlangga Hartarto said in a short statement.

Reuters said President Joko Widodo said in a separate statement that people's need for affordable food trumped revenue concerns for now.

"Once domestic needs have been met, of course I will lift the export ban because I know the country needs taxes...foreign exchange, a trade balance surplus, but meeting the people's basic needs is a more important priority," he said.

Palm oil markets have been jittery ahead of the ban and Indonesia deployed navy ships and personnel in an effort to thwart illegal shipments.

The new rules were due to take effect at midnight local time (1700 GMT), and the navy and other agencies had been instructed to step up patrols of Indonesian waters to ensure compliance, said navy spokesperson Julius Widjojono.

Palm oil futures on the Malaysia exchange surged by 9.8 per cent on Wednesday, as some market participants feared exporters in Indonesia, the world's biggest palm oil producer, could not get their products onboard vessels in time before the ban starts.

US soyoil futures jumped more than 4% to a record high after Indonesia extended the ban to include CPO.

"This is crazy. We are paying a price for Indonesia policy flip-flops. Every vegetable oil is going through the roof. Securing supplies of any vegetable oil for May shipments is a challenge," said a New-Delhi based dealer with a global trading firm.

Indonesia's ban on palm oil exports is unlikely to last more than a month due to limited infrastructure to store the surplus oil and because of mounting pressure from buyers to resume shipments, industry officials said.

The ban would remain in place until prices of bulk cooking oil dropped to 14,000 rupiah ($0.9720) per litre, Airlangga said.

In Jakarta, bulk cooking oil prices were offered at around 19,000-20,000 rupiah ($1.32-$1.39) on Wednesday and in other regions prices could be higher, Reynaldi Sarijowan, a senior official at the traditional market traders' association, said.
Senior Congress leader has requested the Centre to exempt printing paper of newspapers from the purview of Goods and Services Taxes (GST), saying many regulatory policies have affected their operations and finances.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, I urge you to remove on printing paper, create differentiation between Registrar of the Newspapers of India (RNI) registered and unregistered agencies at the time of purchasing printing papers, and provide incentive to printing paper manufacturing units that make quality paper from cellulose fibres. According to Siddaramaiah, the tax on printing paper for RNI registered agencies before implementation was at three per cent, and it was increased to five per cent under system.

This is an increase of 68 per cent in taxes on printing paper. The GST for unregistered agencies is at 12 per cent. As there is no mechanism to differentiate between registered and unregistered agencies at purchasing point, the unregistered agencies are purchasing printing paper at five per cent instead of 12 per cent, creating shortage of papers for registered agencies. This shortage has also resulted in increase in the cost of printing papers as well. The government has to consider reducing the GST rates for registered agencies and create a differentiating mechanism to identify registered and unregistered agencies, the former CM said in the letter, a copy of which was shared with the media. Supply chain disruptions due to pandemic, labour shortage, raw material cost, shortage of shipping containers and fuel price hike have contributed to drastic increase in printing prices, he noted. The cost of one ton of imported printing paper was $300 or Rs 23,000 before the pandemic, and it has reached about Rs 55,000-Rs 60,000 now. Nearly 56 per cent of paper was imported and 44 per cent was manufactured domestically, Siddaramaiah, who is the leader of opposition in the Karnataka assembly said. Referring to the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, he said since most of the imports are from Russia and Europe, the disruption has increased drastically due to the war. also pointed out that the cost of printing paper having doubled in last two years and increase in GST have caused a huge burden on print media houses to sustainably continue the printing of newspapers.

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US watchdog Administration (FAA) has completed the audit of Indias regulator DGCA.

Sources said that the FAA team was satisfied with the work and changes in regulations by India and is likely to maintain a Category 1 status rating under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme.

A continuation of the highest standard by the FAA will be a relief for Indian airlines especially the Tata group which intends to increase Air India flights on the India-US routes. Its joint venture with Singapore Airlines- Vistara is also looking to launch its US operations.

In 2014, when the FAA had downgraded Indias safety ratings, Indian airlines like Air India and Jet Airways faced multiple restrictions including a bar on expanding flights while their existing flights were subjected to additional checks increasing turnaround time. The airlines were also not allowed to have any commercial tie ups like code-sharing arrangements with US airlines.

India did not get any adverse observations.On the contrary, in a number of cases- about 90 percent they got appreciation. FAA noted the regulatory and manual reforms carried out by DGCA and endorsed. In a few cases, FAA noted that it was work in progress and was likely to be completed in days ahead, said a senior DGCA official

A five-member team of FAA had audited safety guidelines, including the licensing of personnel and airworthiness, during their visit in October. The FAA team flagged off around 35 issues mainly related to documentation procedures followed by Indias aviation regulator.

Over the last few months, a team of DGCA worked on the deficiencies and took corrective measures on the FAA findings.

The audit is focused on areas such as aircraft airworthiness, flight operations and personnel among others.

The UN aviation body International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is also expected to conduct an audit of India's air safety readiness sometime later this year and will focus on aerodromes, air navigation services, certification, aircraft airworthiness, flight operations, airlines, among others.
The Canadian government has introduced legislation allowing it to seize and sell off assets of sanctioned Russians, the National Post reported on Tuesday.

The amendment to Canada's Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) was included in the budget implementation bill presented before the House of Commons.

The bill would expand Ottawa's sanction regime, which until now was limited to freezing assets and banning financial activity of the sanctioned individuals in .

On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help in defending themselves from intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops. Russia has said that the aim of the special operation is to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine and that it is targeting the country's military infrastructure only.

Western countries have responded with comprehensive sanctions on Moscow and lethal aid to Kiev.

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is paying a "reputational cost" for sitting on fence on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US Secretary of State Tony Blinken told lawmakers on Tuesday.

On February 24, Russia launched military offensive on Ukraine.

I think it's seeing that play out in its relationships with other countries, notably in Europe, Blinken said when lawmakers asked him about China's role in the Ukrainian and expressed concerns over Chinese behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.

is paying a reputational cost for -- to be charitable about it, sitting on the fence when it comes to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, never mind falling on - the Russian side of the fence, something that it has to factor in, Blinken said in his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was in Europe for a dialogue on .

She had a very, I think, productive session with the European Union (EU). You saw the results of the summit between the EU leaders and President Xi Jinping, which I think did not go to -- to China's benefit because of the increasingly deep scepticism about China in Europe, he said.

One of the things that it's focused on is Chinese investment that poses potentially a strategic challenge or threat to us. We have been going across the continent in urging countries to adopt investment screening tools. I've done that personally, he said in response to a question.

It's in virtually all of my engagements with countries that don't have them for the purposes of making sure that they can identify and as necessary do something about potential investments by China that could pose a security threat, Blinken said.

The purpose is not to cut off trade or investment from or with China. That's not the issue. The issue is focusing on specific areas of strategic importance including ports as well as telecommunications and other things that we have eyes on it and that we or they have the tools to do something about it, he said.

In response to a question, Blinken said that President Joe Biden made directly clear to President Xi Jinping that it would not be in China's interest to materially support Russia in this aggression or for that matter to undermine sanctions.

This is something we're looking at very, very carefully. I think you're seeing that China is having to deal with the significant reputational risk that it's already incurring by being seen as -- in the most charitable interpretation on the fence and more practically supportive of Russia, he said.

We can in a different session get into more detail. But for now, we're not seeing significant support by China for Russia's military actions, he said.

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Russia's Gazprom halted gas supplies to and Bulgaria on Wednesday over their failure to pay in roubles, cranking up an economic war with in response to Western sanctions imposed for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The state-controlled gas pipeline monopoly, which supplies with about 40% of its gas needs, said transit via and Bulgaria - whose pipelines supply Germany, Hungary and Serbia - would be cut if fuel was siphoned off illegally.

Fears more states could be hit, in particular Germany, Europe's industrial powerhouse which in 2021 relied on Russia for more than 50% of its gas, sent gas prices soaring. Russia's move also added to jitters about the war's global economic impact.

President Vladimir Putin's demand for rouble gas payments is the centrepiece of Russia's response to sanctions which include freezing hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian assets.

The European Commission has accused Moscow of blackmail but it has also said the bloc's gas buyers can engage with Russia's rouble-for-gas gambit provided certain conditions are met.

Uniper, Germany's main importer, said it could pay without violations.



The Kremlin, which casts sanctions by the United States and as acts of economic war, said on Tuesday that Gazprom was implementing Putin's decree on rouble payments.

"Payments for gas supplied from April 1 must be made in roubles using the new payments details," Gazprom said.

It said it was halting supplies to Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Poland's PGNiG "due to absence of payments in roubles." Warsaw, which has been at the forefront of efforts to keep Ukraine's military supplied with equipment to fight Russian forces, and Sofia said the halt was a breach of contract.

"We will not succumb to such blackmail," Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said of the Russian rouble demand.

WIGGLE ROOM

Russia's new gas payments system, involving opening accounts at Gazprombank where payments in euros or dollars would be converted to roubles, offers wiggle room that could see some countries continue to buy Russian gas, fraying the bloc's united front against Moscow.

In a note last week, the European Commission said that if buyers of Russian gas confirmed payment was complete once they had deposited euros, as opposed to later when the euros have been converted to roubles, that would not breach sanctions.

Germany's ministry said companies could still pay in euros or dollars under the system. Hungary, which has taken a similar line to Berlin, said this month that the EU authorities had "no role" to play in its gas deal.

Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia and others have said Russian gas supplies were still flowing.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Russia's action "unacceptable" and said the EU would seek alternatives to refill depleted stores for winter.

But Europe has few options given the global market for gas was tight as a drum before the crisis escalated.

Europe relies on pipelines for most of its gas, and European or North African producers connected to the grid cannot add much more output, while shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from further afield are usually booked up in long-term contracts.

The United States, which long criticised Europe for relying on Russia, has offered Europe more LNG but U.S. supplies are not adequate and even if Europe can secure more LNG, it does not have enough plants to regassify the super-cooled liquid.

Germany plans to build such plants but, for now, has none.





'UNFRIENDLY' STATES

One of the Kremlin's most loyal lawmakers suggested Moscow could expand action beyond and Bulgaria.

"The same should be done with regard to other countries that are unfriendly to us," said Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma.

Bulgaria and Poland are the only two European countries with Gazprom contracts due to expire at the end of this year, which meant their search for alternative supplies was well underway.

"They were therefore less likely to compromise on Russia's rouble payment request than others in Europe," said James Waddell, head of European gas at consultancy Energy Aspects.

But he said losing Russian supply meant that "at a certain point, rationing is unavoidable."

Germany has already activated the first stage of an emergency plan that could eventually lead to rationing gas to industry, which accounts for a quarter of demand.

Carmaker Mercedes-Benz said an abrupt halt in gas deliveries would impact production in Germany.

Poland, whose contract with Gazprom covers about 50% of its demand but which has been boosting capacity to receive LNG, has long lobbied the bloc to end reliance on Russian gas, which has been pumped to Europe since the 1970s during the Soviet era.

Bulgaria, which relies on Russia for about 90% of its gas imports, said it would not hold talks to renew its Gazprom deal.

Europe's benchmark front-month gas contract jumped as much as 20% to 118 euros ($125.14) per megawatt hour (MWh) in early trade. It was about 107 euros by about midday.

($1 = 0.9430 euros)

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux, Tsvetelia Tsolova, Marek Strzelecki, Anna Koper; additional reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo, Kate Abnett in Brussels and Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen; Writing by Nina Chestney; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Edmund Blair)

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Russia's Gazprom halted natural gas supplies to and Bulgaria on Wednesday as Moscow presses its demand for payment in roubles by countries it deems "unfriendly".

Here are key points regarding how the two countries are equipped to respond:

HOW ARE AND BULGARIA SUPPLIED?

Gazprom supplies almost half of Poland's annual needs - 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) versus total consumption of over 20 bcm. Less than 8% of gas is used to generate electricity, with nearly 80% powered by coal. Top industrial consumers of gas were not affected by the halt. The contingency measures that could affect them to shield households hopefully will not be used, the Polish premier said on Wednesday.

covers the rest of its needs with 6.2 bcm via liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries shipped to its terminal at Swinoujscie, about 4 bcm in local production and up to 3 bcm piped from the Czech Republic and Germany.

Bulgaria consumes about 3 bcm of gas per year, and about 90% of that comes from Gazprom imports via Turkey. The country also gets small quantities of gas from Azerbaijan.

HOW MUCH GAS IS IN STORAGE?

Poland's gas storage of 3.5 bcm is 76% full, double its level a year ago, operator data shows, giving it a comfortable cushion to keep supplying customers as requested with the heating season over and consumption usually down to about 1 bcm per month in the warm season.

Bulgaria's gas storage of 550 million cubic metres is only 17.6% full, according to operator data.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVE SUPPLY OPTIONS?

Poland can source gas via two links with Germany including reverse flows along the Yamal-Europe pipeline while an interconnector with the Czech Republic can supply up to 1.5 bcm annually.

Three further links are due to open this year - a link with Lithuania with an annual capacity of 2.5 bcm on May 1, one with Slovakia with a capacity of 5-6 bcm later in the year, and a 10 bcm pipeline with Norway in October.

Bulgaria will opt to import gas from Greece and Turkey, which can be topped up with imports from LNG terminals in these countries. It will also seek an option to tap common EU gas purchases, its energy minister said.

It plans to complete an interconnector with Greece in June that will allow it to import 1 bcm per year of Azeri gas. At present Bulgaria imports about of third of the quantities provided for under its contract for Azeri gas.

HOW LONG CAN POLAND AND BULGARIA LAST WITHOUT GAZPROM GAS?

Poland's current and pending alternative supply routes suggest Warsaw is safe without Gazprom supply for several months, minister in charge of energy security Piotr Naimski said.

The Bulgarian government said deliveries to consumers have been secured for at least a month ahead and it does not plan to restrict supply for the time being.

Analysts say Sofia should urgently sign deals with LNG suppliers Qatar, Algeria and the United States as well as work to increase Azeri deliveries.

Bulgaria should also seek to sign solidarity agreements with Romania and Greece to ensure it can use any spare gas they have, analysts said.

(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki and Tsvetelia Tsolova; editing by Jason Neely and David Evans)

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New York [US], April 27 (ANI): India at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday said a vocal minority of nay-sayers has held the entire process of UN Security Council (UNSC) reform hostage over the last four decades while calling for a more representative, credible and legitimate UNSC through the inclusion of more underrepresented voices.

was taking an action on the 'Resolution on standing mandate for GA meeting in case of use of Veto'. Explaining India's concern on the draft resolution informally called " initiative" aims to bring the requirement of a justification in case ' power' is used in the UNSC, India's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN R Ravindra called the resolution a 'piecemeal initiative'.

The draft was co-sponsored by dozens including the U.S. and the U.K. With it now adopted, any time one of the Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent members -- China, France, Russia, U.S. and U.K. -- use that power to block a resolution in the U.N.'s most powerful body it will require a meeting of the General Assembly, where all U.N. members will be able to voice their views on the .

It is therefore ironical that the same set of Member States who argue vociferously against 'piecemeal reform' in the IGN (Intergovernmental Negotiations framework), are today themselves supporting a piecemeal initiative, which ignores the root cause of the problem," Ravindra said.

"We, therefore, hope that other piecemeal efforts focusing on aspects of category of membership and working methods of the Council would be treated without any double standards and with a similar yardstick in future," he added.

Ravindra highlighted the above as the first of India's five concerns with the resolution.India also pointed out that "all five permanent members (of the UNSC) have used the veto over the last 75 years to achieve their respective political ends."

"The veto as a matter of principle should be abolished. However, as a matter of common justice, it should be extended to new permanent members so long as it continues to exist," the Indian representative said quoting the position of African nations at the IGN.

Ravindra also said that "the can do very little about it as effectively the P-5 have a veto over the veto."

"Either all nations are treated equally in the context of voting rights or else the new permanent members must also be given the veto." Ravindra said.

India also raised doubts about the efficacy of the resolution, saying that mechanisms are already in place enabling the members of the to convene on an "emergency basis" to discuss or even take action on issues that reach a stalemate in the UNSC.

"We regret the lack of inclusivity in the manner this resolution was put forth. We have serious concerns about such 'take it or leave it' initiatives which do not make a genuine effort to take into account the perspectives and concerns of the wider membership," Ravindra said. "My delegation was therefore left with no option but to abstain on this Resolution," he said.

"The UNGA resolution was eventually adopted with consensus, without the conduct of the voting procedure"

For years Russia has used its veto power to hinder Security Council resolutions -- which, unlike General Assembly resolutions, are enforceable under law -- against its military tactics in Ukraine and, before that, in Syria.

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on Wednesday banned 287 British members of parliament from entering the country and accused them of fuelling "Russophobic hysteria" in Britain, drawing a defiant response from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine Britain has, alongside allies, imposed far-reaching sanctions against Moscow's wealthy oligarchs and political elites, including President Vladimir Putin.

Russia's foreign ministry said the sanctions on members of the House of Commons were in response to Britain imposing similar restrictions on 386 members of its own lower house of parliament on March 11.

"These persons... took the most active part in the establishment of anti-Russian sanctions instruments in London, and contribute to the groundless whipping up of Russophobic hysteria in the UK," a foreign ministry statement said.

The list of 287 names included current and former ministers as well as several people who no longer serve as members of parliament. One former lawmaker, Dominic Grieve, appears twice.

"All those 287 should regard it as a badge of honour," Johnson, who was himself banned from on April 16, told parliament.

The Kremlin has previously singled out Johnson as "the most active participant in the race to be anti-Russian" and this week warned Britain of a "proportional response" if it continued to provoke Ukraine to strike targets in .

Member of parliament Chris Bryant, a long-time critic of Russia, raised a point of order in the debating chamber to complain: "I'm absolutely distressed that I'm not on the list."

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Alex Richardson and Jonathan Oatis)

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Even as tech billionaire took over Twitter, he slammed Indian-origin lawyer Vijaya Gadde over censoring exclusive stories related to US President Joe Biden's son Hunter's laptop in the wake of the Capitol Hill violence, early this year.

Gadde, who has been working with since 2011, has been a key executive charged with overseeing the microblogging platform's trust and safety, legal and public policy functions. She had also been involved in decisions to remove former US President Donald Trump and banning political advertising on the platform.

Musk on slammed the lawyer for suspending the account of the New York Post. During the run-up to the 2020 US presidential elections, the Post wrote an exclusive article about Hunter Biden's laptop. The article has since been verified by many outlets which had initially dismissed the report as misinformation.

"Suspending the account of a major news organisation for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate," Musk said in a tweet.

Musk said this in reply to podcast host Saagar Enjeti who shared a Politico report, stating that Gadde reportedly had a tearful virtual meeting with her teams, expressing concerns over the future of the platform, after Musk took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal.

"Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate at Twitter who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan's podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the takeover," Enjeti tweeted.

Musk had long been advocating free speech on the platform, creating apprehensions for many as they fear the site will be left without regulations.

"The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all," Musk wrote on Twitter.

"By 'free speech', I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people," he explained.

--IANS

rvt/arm

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has formally banned the import of cars and other luxurious goods, including whisky and tobacco and have introduced two public holidays, citing a liquidity crunch and declining foreign exchange reserves, despite government assurances that the will not go into a tailspin like Sri Lanka.

Since July 2021, has seen a decline in due to the surging imports, declining inflows of remittance and meagre earnings from tourism and exports.

By February 2022, the Himalayan country's gross had decreased 17 per cent to USD 9.75 billion from USD 11.75 billion in mid-July 2021, according to central bank figures.

The ban has come into effect starting Tuesday and will last until mid-July 2022, the end of the current fiscal year. A notice to this effect had been published in the Gazette, Deputy Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of the country, Bam Bahadur Mishra, told PTI.

"Import of luxury goods such as cars, motorbikes above 250 CC, Colour TV above 32 inches, tobacco and whisky have been halted for the time being to save foreign currency depletion," he said.

Only emergency vehicles can be imported as per the new provision. The ban also includes items such as the import of toys, diamonds and playing cards, the official said.

Earlier in March, the central bank had instructed the commercial banks not to import gold exceeding 10 kg per day, half the quantity compared to the previous provision.

Deputy Governor Bam said that the government has foreign currency reserves that are sufficient to support less than seven month of . It is because of growing of mainly food items and petroleum products that Nepal is facing a foreign currency crunch.

The dwindling foreign currency reserve is partly because of the considerable decline in foreign tourists due to the pandemic and the decrease in the inflow of remittance in recent times. The rising prices for oil in the market due to the Russia-Ukraine war have exerted extra pressure on the foreign currency reserves of the country.

The government has decided to introduce two public holidays - on Saturday and Sunday - every week, with effect from May 15. The decision has been taken in a bid to save consumption of petroleum products and thereby save foreign currency.

It has been decided to maintain office hours from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM with effect from May 15 as a trial.

Public holidays will be given two days a week on Saturday and Sunday, stated the cabinet decision made on Wednesday. As per the existing practice, the government offices operate from 10 am to 5 pm in the summer six days a week, except for Friday when the office remains open only for five hours.

Speaking at a programme to observe the 67th anniversary of the Nepal Rastra Bank on Wednesday Governor of the bank Maha Prasad Adhikari said that the economic situation has already started improving with the significant reduction in COVID-19 cases in the country and added that the import ban will be lifted as soon as the foreign currency reserve shows improvements with business activities returning to normal.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since gaining independence from the UK in 1948. People have been protesting for weeks over lengthy power cuts and shortage of gas, food and other basic goods.

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A Pakistani court on Wednesday extended pre-arrest bail to Prime Minister and his son, Punjab chief minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz till May 14 in a Rs14-billion case.

"The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) special court Lahore on Wednesday accepted Shehbaz's application seeking exemption from personal appearance for one day. However, the court directed the premier to file a reply in the case otherwise it will initiate indictment proceedings on the next hearing on May 14," a court official told PTI. However, Hamza Sharif appeared before the court.

The official said the court also directed Shehbaz's counsel Advocate Amjad Pervez to present arguments before the court on May 14 on his contention that his client can't be indicted in this case.

Shehbaz is also the President of the ruling Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party. Shehbaz and his sons Hamza and Suleman were booked by FIA in November 2020 under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Anti Act. Suleman is absconding and residing in the UK.

The FIA investigation has detected 28 benami accounts, allegedly of the Shehbaz family, through which an amount of 14 billion Pakistani Rupees (USD 75 million) was laundered from 2008 to 2018.

The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions. The amount was kept in hidden accounts and given to Shehbaz in his personal capacity, according to the charges.

Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed Punjab Governor Omer Sarfaraz Cheema to ensure the completion of the process of administering oath to Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz by April 28, either doing so himself or through a nominee.

Hamza was elected chief minister on April 16. Hamza and his party blamed ousted prime minister Imran Khan for the delay in oath-taking.

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Russian President has agreed in principle to the involvement of the and the Committee of the (ICRC) in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol of Ukraine, said a UN spokesman.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a tete-a-tete in Moscow with Putin, said Stephane Dujarric, Guterres' spokesman, in a release of the meeting, on Tuesday.

Guterres reiterated the position of the UN on Ukraine, and they discussed the proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians in relation to the situation in Mariupol, said the release.

"The President agreed, in principle, to the involvement of the and the Committee of the in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol," it added.

Follow-on discussions will be held with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Russian Defence Ministry, it said.

Dujarric was with the Secretary-General in Moscow, Xinhua news agency reported.

Before his talks with the Russian President, the UN chief held a working meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

At a press encounter after his meeting with Lavrov, Guterres said "it is my deep conviction that the sooner we end this war, the better -- for the people of Ukraine, for the people of the Russian Federation, and those far beyond."

The UN chief added that he had proposed the establishment of a Humanitarian Contact Group, bringing together Russia, Ukraine and the UN, to look for opportunities for the opening of safe corridors, with local cessations of hostilities, and to guarantee that they are actually effective.

On Mariupol, in particular, he proposed for coordinated work of the UN, the ICRC, and the Ukrainian and Russian forces to enable the safe evacuation of the civilians who want to leave, both inside the Azovstal plant and in the city, in any direction they would choose, and to deliver the humanitarian aid required, said Guterres.

The Ukraine conflict is sending shock waves around the world. The dramatic acceleration of the increases in the prices for food and energy is causing enormous suffering to hundreds of millions of the most vulnerable people worldwide. This comes on top of the shock of the continued Covid-19 pandemic and uneven access to resources for recovery, which particularly penalise developing countries around the world, he added.

Guterres will be flying to Rzeszow of Poland, in transit to Ukraine, where he will meet with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday.

--IANS

int/khz/

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New Delhi, April 27: Russian President said on Tuesday that Kyiv should take "political responsibility" for the Ukrainian servicemen and "militants of the nationalist battalions" blocked on the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, the strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine.

Discussing the situation in detail, and especially in and around the key port on the Sea of Azov, Putin told Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone conversation today that Mariupol has been liberated and there were no military operations there.

"As for the Ukrainian servicemen and militants of the nationalist battalions blocked on the territory of the Azovstal plant, the Kyiv authorities should take political responsibility and, guided by humane considerations, order them to lay down their arms. Prisoners of war are guaranteed life, medical care and treatment in accordance with legal standards," said the Kremlin.

Quoting Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Russian state-owned news agency Ria Novosti reported on Tuesday that the "militants" blocked at Azovstal are asking to be released with weapons to Turkey.

"They go out to our military, to the Russian military, they try to bargain on how it is better for them to surrender. They demand or ask, I don't know what word to choose... They don't trust Kyiv, that is, in their last requests, evacuation is not to Kyiv or not to the side controlled by Ukraine, but they want to go to Turkey, where they are ready to disarm. Of course, they are suggesting nonsense," said Pushilin.

Ankara, which had also been worried about the Turkish ships in the region, was assured by Moscow that a safe exit for them from the ports on the Black Sea along the maritime humanitarian corridor has been organised by the Russian Defence Ministry.

The Russian President's comments on Ukraine came just before he was due to meet the visiting UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Moscow.

The UN chief, who is scheduled to visit Kyiv, had also met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier in the day to "create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible".

With the hostilities intensifying, the UN has called for an immediate pause to fighting in Mariupol to allow trapped civilians to leave the city safely.

Guterres proposed the establishment of a Humanitarian Contact Group, bringing together Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations, to look for opportunities for the opening of safe corridors, with local cessations of hostilities, and to guarantee that they are actually effective.

"Thousands of civilians are in dire need of life-saving humanitarian assistance, and many, of evacuation. The is ready to fully mobilize its human and logistical resources to help save lives in Mariupol," he said in Moscow.

Lavrov, meanwhile, told Guterres that the "principle of multilateralism" has been violated by the West which has set a course to create and perpetuate a unipolar world.

"We promptly responded to your initiative to hold another contact in Moscow on a number of important issues, including the situation around Ukraine, which catalyzes the numerous problems that have accumulated over the past decades in the Euro-Atlantic area," he said.

He also labeled Kyiv's proposal to hold peace talks in Azovstal as a "theatrical gesture".

"A theatrical gesture. Ukrainians love to stage everything. Apparently, they wanted to stage another heartbreaking scene," the Russian Foreign Minister said after meeting Guterres.

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

--indianarrative

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Russia opened a new front in its war over Ukraine on Wednesday, deciding to shut off gas to two nations that staunchly back Kyiv, a dramatic escalation in a conflict that is increasingly becoming a wider battle with the West.

One day after the United States and other Western allies vowed to speed more and better military supplies to Ukraine, the Kremlin upped the ante, using its most essential export as leverage. European gas prices shot up on the news, which the commission's president called an attempt at blackmail.

The escalation came in a memo from state-controlled Russian giant Gazprom, which said it had cut natural gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria because they refused to pay in Russian rubles, as President Vladimir Putin had demanded. The company said it had not received any payment since the beginning of the month.

On the ground too, there were fears the war could spill over Ukraine's borders. For the second day, explosions rocked the separatist region of Trans-Dniester Tuesday in neighboring Moldova, knocking out two powerful radio antennas. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Ukraine all but blamed Russia.

And a Russian missile hit a strategic railroad bridge linking Ukraine's Odesa port region to neighboring Romania, a NATO member, Ukrainian authorities said.

Just across the border in Russia, an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region was burning early Wednesday after several explosions were heard, the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on the messaging app Telegram.

Gazprom's decision to cut gas to two European countries was another dark turn in the war, which has revived the geopolitical rifts of the Cold War and had an immediate impact. European gas prices spiked by as much as 24%.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the Paris-based Energy Agency, called the move a weaponization of energy supplies in a tweet.

Gazprom's move to completely shut off gas supplies to Poland is yet another sign of Russia's politicization of existing agreements & will only accelerate European efforts to move away from Russian energy supplies, he wrote.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the move yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail. This is unjustified and unacceptable.

On Tuesday, the U.S. defense chief urged Ukraine's allies to move at the speed of war to get more and heavier weapons to Kyiv as Russian forces rained fire on eastern and southern Ukraine.

Poland, a historical rival of Russia, has been a major gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and confirmed this week that it is sending the country tanks. It said it was well prepared for Wednesday's gas cutoff.

Poland also has ample natural gas in storage, and it will soon benefit from two pipelines coming online, analyst Emily McClain of Rystad Energy said.

Bulgaria gets over 90% of its gas from Russia, and officials said they were working to find other sources, such as from Azerbaijan.

Both countries had refused Russia's demands that they pay in rubles, as have almost all of Russia's gas customers in Europe.

Two months into the fighting, Western arms have helped Ukraine stall Russia's invasion, but the country's leaders have said they need more support fast.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin convened a meeting Tuesday of officials from about 40 countries at the U.S. air base at Ramstein, Germany, and said more help is on the way.

We've got to move at the speed of war, Austin said.

After unexpectedly fierce resistance by Ukrainian forces thwarted Russia's attempt to take Ukraine's capital, Moscow now says its focus is the capture of the Donbas, the mostly Russian-speaking industrial area in eastern Ukraine.

In the gutted southern port city of Mariupol, authorities said Russian forces hit the Azovstal steel plant with 35 airstrikes over 24 hours. The plant is the last known stronghold of Ukrainian fighters in the city. About 1,000 civilians were said to be taking shelter there with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders.

Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol's mayor, said Russia was using heavy bunker bombs. He also accused Russian forces of shelling a route they had offered as an escape corridor from the steel mill.

Ukraine also said Russian forces shelled Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, which lies outside the Donbas but is seen as key to Russia's apparent bid to encircle Ukrainian troops in that region.

Ukrainian forces struck back in the Kherson region in the south.

The attack Tuesday on the bridge near Odesa along with a series of strikes on key railroad stations a day earlier appeared to signal a major shift in Russia's approach. Until now, Moscow has spared strategic bridges, perhaps in hopes of keeping them for its own use in seizing Ukraine. But now it seems to be trying to thwart Ukraine's efforts to move troops and supplies.

The southern Ukraine coastline and Moldova have been on edge since a senior Russian military officer said last week that the Kremlin's goal is to secure not just eastern Ukraine but the entire south, so as to open the way to Trans-Dniester, a long, narrow strip of land with about 470,000 people along the Ukrainian border where about 1,500 Russian troops are based.

It was not clear who was behind the blasts in Trans-Dniester, but the attacks gave rise to fears that Russia is stirring up trouble so as to create a pretext to either invade Trans-Dniester or use the region as another launching point to attack Ukraine.

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Russia announced Wednesday it was withdrawing from the World Organisation just hours before the body's assembly voted to temporarily suspend the country's membership over the invasion of Ukraine, officials said.

UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili made the announcement on his official Twitter account. He said it was the first U.N. body to address Russia's membership.

The organization went ahead and approved the suspension at a special meeting in Madrid on Wednesday, where the organization has its headquarters.

(Russian President Vladimir) Putin's military offensive is an attack on the founding principles of the and on the values that represents, such as peace, prosperity and universal respect and the observance of human rights, Spanish Industry, Trade and Minister Reyes Maroto said in a statement following the decision.

The assembly resolution included a clause that said the suspension could be reversed if a change in the politics of the Russian Federation were noted.

Spain was one of 22 European nations that had promoted the motion.

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Sri Lanka's embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday convened a meeting of political parties on April 29 to discuss the possible formation of an all-party government to end the protracted political impasse in the country, amidst mounting pressure on Prime Minister to resign to and make way for an interim government.

A letter to all party leaders in the ruling coalition said the government was in agreement to form an all-party government comprising parties represented in Parliament, according to a statement.

The meeting has been fixed for April 29 to discuss the new arrangement after the resignation of prime minister Mahida Rajapaksa, it said.

This comes in the background of pressure mounted within the ruling coalition on the prime minister to resign to make way for an interim government.

However, the statement from the president is in contrast to the position taken by his elder brother and the country's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has said he will not resign and any interim government can be formed only under his leadership.

Both the President and the Prime Minister are under mounting pressure from fierce public protests demanding his resignation for mishandling the country's worst .

Debt-ridden is grappling with an unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948. The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.

Sri Lankan election commission on Tuesday urged all political parties to come together to form an all-party government or a similar body to end the political impasse prevailing in the country.

President Rajapaksa is coming under pressure to set up an interim administration as an immediate step to resolve the economic and political turmoil in the country. Mass anti-government protests demanding the resignation of the entire Rajapaksa family have been going on for more than two weeks.

The public is being made to wait in long lines for fuel and cooking gas amid power cuts.

In recent weeks, prominent businesses and other professional organisations have repeated the call for an interim government.

A senior Buddhist monk claimed on Monday that President Rajapaksa had agreed to form an interim government to tackle the unprecedented .

Rajapaksa has said his offer for the opposition parties to join him in a unity government did not yield any results and therefore he was compelled to form a cabinet of his own.

The ongoing street protest opposite the presidential secretariat entered its nineteenth day on Wednesday. The protests are now also being held opposite the residence-cum-office of the prime minister.

The country's trade unions threatened on Wednesday that they will boycott work from Thursday in solidarity with the protests that call for the resignation of the Rajapaksa family. The parliamentarians have also joined in, urging to resign as the prime minister.

The railway trade union has said the train services would be halted for 24 hours from Wednesday midnight.

Railway trade union spokesman SP Withanage told reporters if the government did not respond positively to the call for resignation, the union members would lead a strike with bus unions to cripple the transport services on May 6.

The ruling dispensation had reached out to the opposition parties and protesters for talks, but all efforts were rebuffed. The agitators say they want the government to resign.

A group of over 40 parliamentarians from the ruling coalition has declared independence and demanded the formation of an interim government comprising all political parties to tackle the .

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.

Sri Lankan officials were in Washington last week to negotiate with the Monetary Fund for a bailout.

India has agreed to extend an additional USD 500 million credit line to help import fuel. New Delhi has also already agreed to defer USD 1.5 billion in import payments that Sri Lanka needs to make to the Asian Clearing Union.

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.

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An independent ministerial ethics advisor to the UK government on Wednesday cleared Chancellor of any wrongdoing over his wife Akshata Murty's tax status and his possession of a US permanent resident's Green Card while in office.

The Indian-origin finance minister had referred himself to Lord Christopher Geidt to investigate any alleged ministerial conduct breaches after revelations that his wife, the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, did not pay UK tax on her Indian income under her legal non-domicile tax status.

The probe also covered further revelations around Sunak having a Green Card two years after being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK Cabinet.

I advise that the requirements of the Ministerial Code have been adhered to by the Chancellor, and that he has been assiduous in meeting his obligations and in engaging with this investigation, Lord Geidt's advise to Prime Minister Boris Johnson reads.

In reaching these judgements, I am confined to the question of conflicts of interest and the requirements of the Ministerial Code. My role does not touch on any wider question of the merits of such interests or arrangements, he adds.

There were no allegations of lawbreaking, but Sunak and his wife faced media and Opposition attacks with allegations of inappropriate conduct for the official in charge of taxation and the economy at a time when Britain is facing a cost-of-living crisis fuelled by soaring energy prices.

Geidt, the adviser on ministers' interests, found two instances where Murty's tax status could have given rise to a conflict of interest for Sunak, but said in both cases Sunak had dealt with them properly and openly. He also concluded that there was no inherent conflict of interest in Sunak holding a Green Card.

A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently in the US.

Earlier this month, it emerged that Murty owns a stake in Infosys. Geidt notes in his findings that the shareholding was properly declared and that the Indian software firm has held no UK Treasury contracts during Sunak's time in office.

Sunak, a 41-year-old former hedge fund manager, had been seen as a likely successor to Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, until the financial revelations raised questions about his judgment and damaged his sure-footed image.

He has also been fined by police, along with Johnson and some 50 others, for attending a party in the Prime Minister's office in 2020 that broke coronavirus lockdown rules at the time.

Geidt answers directly to the UK Prime Minister, and last year he cleared Johnson of breaking the ministerial code by failing to disclose that a Conservative party donor had funded a pricey refurbishment of the his official Downing Street residence.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has met with Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca to discuss Bucharest's support for Kiev, the presidential press service said.

During the talks on Tuesday, Zelensky thanked Romania's government for the assistance, including the defence aid it has provided for Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Your visit is an important, clear signal of Ukraine's support in the war against the Russian Federation," Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader praised Romania's position on sanctions policy against over the conflict with Ukraine and the assistance in organising the critical transit of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including energy resources.

During their talks, Zelensky and Ciuca also discussed the prospects for Ukraine's European integration, as well as the issues of regional and bilateral cooperation.

--IANS

int/sks/svn/

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UN Secretary-General has condemned the attack in the University of Karachi in Pakistan that led to multiple deaths, said his Deputy spokesman.

"I can tell you the Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack in Karachi today," said Farhan Haq, the Deputy spokesman.

The Secretary-General on Tuesday expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and wished those injured a quick recovery, he told a daily press briefing.

Haq said UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, Julien Harneis, also strongly condemned the attack and was deeply saddened by the loss of life, Xinhua news agency reported.

Harneis said attacks that deliberately target education, teachers, and places of learning are particularly condemnable and sent his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, both in Pakistan and in China, according to the UN Deputy spokesman.

An explosion ripped through a shuttle passenger van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi on Tuesday, leaving three Chinese teachers dead, one Chinese teacher injured and causing several Pakistani casualties, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

--IANS

int/khz/

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The US Department of State said in a statement that it has determined an "emergency" exists in Ukraine that becomes a "national security" concern of the United States, therefore the department bypassed Congress to approve the sale of ammunition to Kiev.

The decision to sell nearly $165 million worth of "non-standard" Soviet-era ammunition was made after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken "has determined and provided detailed justification that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to Ukraine" of ammunition, including grenade launchers, mortars and D-20 cannons, the statement said on Tuesday.

The sale, according to the statement, is "in the national security interests of the United States, thereby waiving the Congressional review requirements" under federal law, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The proposed sale will improve Ukraine's capability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of its forces," the statement added.

"Ukraine already has these items, or variants thereof, in its inventory and will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces."

The announcement came just after Blinken and US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin visited Kiev and held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Blinken notified of the arms sale.

--IANS

int/khz/

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US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in an interview said he does not believe the conflict in Ukraine is a proxy war between the and Russia.

Since Russia launched its military operation in February, the US has provided at least $3.7 billion to support Ukraine's defenses, with at least 30 other countries giving another $1.3 billion, the White House said earlier on Tuesday.

"We're not in a fight with Russia," Austin told Fox News in an interview that aired on Tuesday. "Ukraine is in a current struggle with Russia."

Despite the amount of security aide provided to Ukraine, Austin insisted that the conflict is not turning into a proxy war.

"It's not, this is clearly Ukraine's fight," Austin said when asked if the conflict in Ukraine might turn into a proxy war. "Ukraine's neighbors and allies and partners are stepping up to make sure that they have what they need in order to be successful."

On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Austin announced that the will provide $713 million in foreign military aid to Ukraine and over a dozen other countries to purchase new weapons or to compensate for the arms they provided to Ukraine. Some $322 million in military assistance will be allocated to Ukraine from this package.

This is on top of the assistance President Joe Biden announced last week that the is providing Ukraine with another $800 million security aid package. The Defense Department said the new US security aid package would include 72 Howitzers, 144,000 of artillery rounds, more than 121 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones as well as parts and other equipment.

Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 in response to calls from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics for protection against intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation, which targets Ukrainian military infrastructure, aims to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. Moscow has said it has no plans to occupy Ukraine. Western nations have imposed numerous sanctions on Russia.

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has come down heavily on its "Iron Brother" over the security of the ambitious Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and its citizens working in .



The Tuesday of a van carrying Chinese teachers in Karachi, which left three Chinese nationals dead follows a string of attacks targeting Chinese employees working on projects in the restive but resource rich Balochistan Province.

has been concerned about attacks which indicate that the militants' strategy was evolving as the attackers appeared ready to adopt "fidayeen" tactics. However, with the deployment of a woman suicide bomber, the BLA attack on the university premises has added an altogether new dimension.

Already, the state-run Chinese media has been critical and wary of the security provided by the Pakistani authorities. But now a new realisation is dawning that pure reliance on Pakistan for security may not be enough.

"We must point out that Pakistan has strengthened the protection of Chinese nationals in recent years but without addressing the root causes of the problem, there will always be loopholes," says the Global times, a Chinese affiliated media.

The daily underlines that while project sites are heavily fortified, its citizens are quite vulnerable.

"Hard targets" like projects or construction sites that are tightly protected are thought to be difficult to attack. For that reason, the terrorists sought "soft targets" such as school teachers. The China-Pakistan anti-terrorism cooperation needs to be further strengthened and resolutely strike related terrorist organization. We shouldn't allow terrorists' evil acts, says The Global Times, adding that Pakistani authorities must devise a full proof and aggressive strategy to deal with those militants who are a major threat to Chinese interests in the country.

"We strongly demand that the Pakistani side make more efforts to protect the safety of Chinese institutions, projects and personnel in Pakistan, and make those organisations understand that those who try to hurt the Chinese will only bring destruction on themselves."

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Islamabad, yet again warned its citizens "to increase security awareness, strengthen internal precautions, reduce trips outside as much as possible, and avoid crowded public spaces".

China is upgrading energy links and infrastructure as part of a $54 billion programme with both nations wary of security threats to the projects.

Last year, in April 2021, a suicide bomb attack at a luxury hotel hosting the Chinese ambassador in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, killed four and wounded dozens. The ambassador was unhurt.

In July last year, a bus carrying engineers to a construction site near a dam in north western Pakistan was hit by a bomb, killing 13 people including 9 Chinese engineers.

The attack frayed relations between Islamabad and Beijing, and Pakistan later paid millions in compensation to the families of the Chinese workers killed.

Beijing is becoming increasingly frustrated that Pakistan is failing to curb terrorism. It must be noted that although the Baloch's are struggling for a national independence movement, many of the terrorists responsible for attacks, particularly among the Pashtun, are groups with deep links and ties with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and have a Salafi ideology.

"The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack. The BLA will definitely be more resolutely annihilated. I support Chinese military to launch direct air strikes against this terrorist organization's camp after getting approval of the Pakistani government," wrote Hu Xijin, the former editor of Global Times.

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

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India should engage the world on the basis of its confidence in its identity rather than trying to please the global community as their "pale imitation", External Affairs Minister said on Wednesday amid increasing Western pressure on the country to oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In reflection of India's foreign policy approach, the external affairs minister said at the Raisina Dialogue that the country needs to put behind the idea that it needs the approval of other countries.

"We have to be confident about who we are. I think it is better to engage the world on the basis of who we are rather than try and please the world as a pale imitation of what they are. This idea that others define us, somehow we need to get the approval of other quarters, I think that is an era we need to put behind us," he said.

Speaking at a session on India's 75-year-long journey after Independence and the way ahead, Jaishankar said,"we should not be looking at the world with a sense of entitlement. We need to earn our place in the world and which to a certain extent, therefore, comes to the issue of how the world benefits from the growth of India. We need to demonstrate that."



Asked about what should be the priority for the country in the 25 years, Jaishankar said capability development in all possible areas should be the central focus.

Referring to the Ukraine crisis, the external affairs minister said the best way to deal with it would be to focus on "stopping the fighting and getting the talking" and added that India's position on the conflict is best placed to advance such an approach.

Jaishankar on Tuesday countered criticism of India's position on Russia's actions in Ukraine, saying the Western powers have been oblivious to the pressing challenges in Asia including last year's developments in Afghanistan.

"We spent a lot of time yesterday on Ukraine and I have tried to explain what our views are but also explained that in our minds the best way forward is to focus on stopping the fighting, getting the talking and finding ways of moving forward. We think our choices, our positions are best placed to advance that," he said.

India has not yet publicly condemned the Russian attack on Ukraine and has been calling for the resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.

In his address, Jaishankar also highlighted how the country played a key role in promoting democracy in South Asia.

"If I were to pick a single thing that we have done, the difference we have made to the world in the last 75 years, it is the fact that we have a democracy," he said.

Talking about the areas where India came up short, the external affairs minister listed a lack of adequate attention to human resources and manufacturing and mentioned that probably not much attention was given to hard security as part of foreign policy.

He hoped that India will be "deeply more international" in terms of its commitments, responsibilities and roles in the next 25 years.

"There was a time in this part of the world that we were pretty much the only democracy. If democracy is global today, we see it is global today, I think, in some measure, that credit is due to India," Jaishankar said.

He noted that it is also fair to look back on where the country came up short.

"One, clearly we did not pay the kind of attention to our social indicators, our human resources as we should have. Two, we did not concentrate on manufacturing and technology strengths as we should have. And three, in terms of foreign policy, probably, in the mix of various elements, we did not give as much importance, as much weight to hard security as we should have," he said.

At the same time, he said that it is not a "polemical criticism" of the past.

Other countries who were in similar situations did exactly this and this is one of the reasons why some of them today are ahead, he noted.

"It is something we are trying to do now. These are the areas we are trying to correct at this point in time. It's not that it cannot be done. It is being done even as we speak," he added.

Talking about India's successful democratic journey, Jaishankar said the choices made by India have had a larger influence globally and they contributed to the spreading of democracy in South Asia.

"We would like to see more prosperity in South Asia. If India has been in a sense an example of democracy or promoter of democracy in South Asia, we would now like to be part of a larger lifting tide so that the rest of South Asia grows along with us," Jaishankar said.

The external affairs minister said that India has to develop its stakes in its future.

"There is a lot of talk about reliable and resilient supply chains and people speak about transparency and trusted technologies. If India could do more and show the rest of the world that the world benefits by India being bigger," Jaishankar said.

"So we need to develop stakes in our future... I think some of that is happening for strategic reasons obviously, but we need to make more of it happen especially for economic reasons," he added.

Asked about the shortage of wheat in the wake of the war in Ukraine, and how India would like to contribute to address the issue, he said,"we have significant wheat production. We would obviously go into the global markets and try to compensate for the shortfalls as much as we can. It (Egypt) is one of the countries with whom we are talking.

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Amid the ongoing economic crisis, Sri Lanka's Prime Minister on Tuesday said he will not step down from his post.

He made these remarks during the meeting with the members of provincial councils and local government representatives at Temple Trees (the PM's official residence).

Rajapaksa said that he believes the problems arising in the island nation now can be resolved in a short time, according to Colombo Page.

Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Rajapaksa has called for an immediate end to disruptions to essential services, including fuel, gas, electricity and medicine, as well as the existing queues for them. "We have already implemented the necessary arrangements for that," he added.

He urged the people to keep in mind that he is behind every step taken to recover the country from this crisis, Colombo Page reported.

Speaking about the island-wide protests demanding the Prime Minister and the government's resignation, Rajapaksa said the issues should be resolved through negotiations.

"We are resolving the situation that has arisen in the country one by one. Organizations such as the Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and friendly countries have come forward to help us at this time," Rajapaksa said.

"...I urge you to have faith in us and play the necessary role in keeping the people with us in the country. You made one request that I do not resign. No, I will not resign. Do not be afraid," he further stated, according to Colombo Page.

is facing one of its worst economic crises resulting in widespread protests against the Rajapaksa family leaders, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister .

The recession is attributed to foreign exchange shortages caused by a fall in tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as reckless economic policies, which have resulted in the country being unable to buy enough fuel, and people facing an acute scarcity of food and basic necessities, heating fuel, and gas.

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The will extend $600 million in financial assistance to in two phases to address its economic crisis, according to a statement from the presidents office of the country. stocks rallied, marking their first day of gains since April 5.

The Colombo All-Share Index ended 6.8 per cent higher, after losing about 15 per cent in the past two days. The bluechip S&P 20 Index surged 14 per cent. Trading had to be suspended in the prior two sessions within minutes of the open as the S&P gauge fell by its daily set limit. The first instalment of $400 million from the will be released shortly to meet medicinal drugs and health needs, social security, agricultural and food security and gas needs, the statement said. In a meeting between representatives and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the multilateral institution pledged to continue providing assistance for overcoming the .




Q4 preview: Mumbai-based may report around 50 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in net profit, when it announces its January-March quarter (Q4Fy44) result on Thursday, April 28.



Brokerages said the lender could also see its net interest income (NII) improve over 20 per cent YoY amid a decent uptick in loan book.

"We continue to expect strong loan growth at 6 per cent quarter on quarter, led by high risk-adjusted return on capital (RAROC) business, which includes SME and certain retail segments. On a YoY basis, we expect growth at 15 per cent YoY versus 17 per cent YoY last quarter," said a report by Morgan Stanley.

had reported net profit of Rs 2,677.1 crore in the year-ago quarter (Q4FY21), and Rs 3,614.2 crore in the previous quarter (Q3FY22).

NII, meanwhile, was Rs 7,555 crore in Q4 of FY21, and Rs 8,652.5 crore in Q3FY22.

Here's what key brokerages expect from Axis Bank's Q4 numbers:

Jefferies

The brokerage pegs Axis Banks NII at Rs 9,300 crore for the quarter under review, up 23 per cent YoY.

Operationally, it expects the pre-provision profit, excluding treasury income, to climb just 5 per cent on year to Rs 6,400 crore. Profit before tax (PBT) on the other hand is seen at Rs 5,500 crore, up 53 per cent YoY.

Nomura

Almost in-line with Jefferies, analysts here see NII rising 21.4 per cent YoY and 6 per cent QoQ to Rs 9,169 crore in Q4FY22. It expects net profit growth of 53.4 per cent YoY, at Rs 4,107 crore, on the back of 15 per cent YoY growth in core pre-provision operating profit at Rs 6,959 crore.

Treasury income, the brokerage said, will likely be lower on rise in bond yields. Net interest margin (NIM), on the other hand, will likely remain flat sequentially.

"Loan growth will likely be driven all segments, but the commentary will likely focus in unsecured and retail loan growth. We expect slippages to decline, but provisions will be higher (at Rs 1,850 crore vs Rs 1,335 crore in Q3FY22) to reduce net NPLs," it said.



Morgan Stanley

According to the brokerage, Axis Bank has proactively built an aggressive provisioning buffer. Asset quality performance will likely be better-than-expected. Against this backdrop, it expects lower slippages of Rs 3,500 crore (2.3 per cent of trailing loans, annualized) relative to Rs 4,150 crore (3.9 per cent) last quarter and normalized credit cost of 105 basis points.

Moreover, it expects improvement in core PPoP with growth at 11 per cent YoY as against 8 per cent YoY last quarter. It also pegs NIM at 3.48 per cent as against 3.53 per cent last quarter, partly owing to one-off liquidity floats last quarter.

Kotak Institutional Equities

Analysts at the brokerage expect loan growth at 15 per cent YoY with greater focus on retail and SME loans. NIM, they said, would be stable or may report marginal improvement led by shift towards higher yielding loans.

Operating profit growth is pegged at 3 per cent YoY at Rs 7,085.1 crore primarily due to lower treasury income and normalisation of operating expenses. Treasury income is seen at Rs 61 crore, down from Rs 789 crore YoY and Rs 367 crore QoQ.

Moreover, it expects strong commentary on asset quality performance and sees an improvement in non-performing loan ratios aided by stronger recovery/upgradations.

Edelweiss Securities

Their Q4FY22 earnings and loan growth estimates for Axis Bank are higher than consensus with loan growth of 8 per cent QoQ/17 per cent YoY at Rs 7.18 trillion. The brokerage also assumes flat margins (3.52 per cent) versus a small decline estimated by Street.

It is building in PPoP growth of 8 per cent QoQ/-3 per cent YoY at Rs 6,669 crore. Net profit is pegged at Rs 3,974 crore, up 48 per cent YoY.
Shares of Industries continued at their northward movement, surging 7 per cent to Rs 1,115 on the BSE in Wednesday's trade, in otherwise a weak market on the back of heavy volumes. The stock of the edible oil company was trading higher for the sixth straight day, having surged 19 per cent during the period.

At 01:50 PM, was up 6.7 per cent at Rs 1,110, as compared to 0.71 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,377 on June 9, 2021. Trading volumes on the counter nearly doubled with a combined 10.98 million equity shares having changed hands on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.

With the recent rally, shares of the Patanjali Ayurved-promoted firm have zoomed 72 per cent as against their follow-on public offer (FPO) price of Rs 650. The company had raised Rs 4,300-crore to pare debt. The FPO was done to dilute the promoter holding in the company in order to comply with the 25 per cent minimum public shareholding norms. Following the FPO, the promoter shareholding in the company has reduced from 98.9 per cent to below 80.82 per cent.

The board of directors of Industries also changed the company's name to Patanjali Foods. "At its board meeting held on April 10, the directors also accorded their in-principle approval for evaluating the most efficient mode of enhancing synergies with Patanjali Ayurved Ltd's food portfolio in any manner on an arms-length basis," the company had said.

Ruchi Soya is recognized amongst the largest branded oil packaged food company. Its 'Ruchi Gold' brand has a market leadership position, on account of being India's highest selling palm oil brand and also the pioneers and largest manufacturers of soya foods in India under the brand name of Nutrela.

The Company is recognised amongst the largest branded oil packaged food company with a strong portfolio of brands in various types of cooking oils under categories such as palm, soybean, mustard, sunflower, cottonseed etc. with robust brands portfolio of Ruchi Gold, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Star and Ruchi Sunlight.

The Company has expanded its packaged food portfolio by acquiring the Patanjali product portfolio of biscuits, cookies, rusks, noodles, and breakfast cereals and is a part of the Patanjali group, one of Indias leading FMCG and health and wellness company.

"The edible oil industry in India is fragmented wherein 13 per cent of oil is sold as loose/unbranded and the consumers are shifting to branded oils, which presents a large market for its products. They believe that this enables them to manage costs more effectively than several of its competitors and also helps in scalability of its edible oil business. It also gives them the flexibility to alter mix of products in line with any changes in the demand for products or in the availability or the price of its key raw materials at any given time. Over the years, Company has developed relationships with some of the large oil suppliers in the world," HDFC Securities had said in an IPO note.

Their inland oilseed crushing plants generally process oilseeds harvested in India and are located in the key soybean and mustard seed producing states of India. Their refining plants primarily use crude edible oil as a raw material, and this is typically imported by sea. Their pan- India operations also mean that they have proximity to regional across India giving them the capability to service customers efficiently. The location of processing plants enables them to minimise inward and outward inland transportation costs, the brokerage firm had said.
The diversified NBFC's consolidated net profit surged 80% to Rs 2,419.51 crore on 25.90% increase in total income to Rs 8,630.28 crore in Q4 March 2022 over Q4 March 2021.

The company said it reported highest ever consolidated profit after tax in Q4 March 2022. Profit before tax (PBT) jumped 79.17% year-on-year to Rs 3,265.49 crore in Q4 March 2022.

The company's net interest income (NII) for the March quarter increased by 30% to Rs 6,068 crore from Rs 4,659 crore in the year ago quarter. New loans booked grew by 15% to 6.28 million as against 5.47 million in the same quarter last year.

The firm reported highest ever consolidated assets under management (AUM) as on 31 March 2022. The AUM grew by 29% to Rs 1,97,452 crore (including IPO financing receivables of Rs 5,365 crore) as of 31 March 2022 from Rs 1,52,947 crore as of 31 March 2021. Core AUM growth in Q4FY22 was Rs 10,837 crore.

Deposits book grew by 19% YoY to Rs 30,800 crore as of 31 March 2022. Its contribution to consolidated borrowings stood at 19% as of 31 March 2022. The company has created a deposits V2 plan to grow deposits book significantly over the next three years.

Loan losses and provisions for the quarter was Rs 702 crore as against Rs 1,231 crore in Q4 FY21, the company said. In Q4, loan loss to average receivables was 0.38%. On a quarterly basis this metric is now better than pre-covid levels. The company holds a management and macro-economic overlay of Rs 1,060 crore as of March-end.

Gross NPA (non-performing assets) and Net NPA stood at 1.60% and 0.68% respectively, as against 1.79% and 0.75% as of 31 March 2021. The company has provisioning coverage ratio of 58% on stage 3 assets and 134 bps on stage 1 and 2 assets as of 31 March 2022.

"Omnipresence agenda continued to accelerate in Q4. Overall, excited about FY23 prospects," it said in a release.

Overall stage 2 assets stood at Rs 3,861 crore as of 31 March 2022, as against Rs 5,299 crore as of 31 December 2021. Overall stage 3 assets stood at Rs 3,133 crore as of 31 March 2022, as against Rs 3,108 crore as of 31 December 2021. This includes one large B2B commercial account of Rs 393 crore which has moved to Stage 3 in Q4 FY22.

Capital adequacy remained strong at 27.22% as of 31 March 2022. Tier-1 capital was 24.75%.

The company's profit after tax for FY22 increased by 59% to Rs 7,028 crore from Rs 4,420 in FY21. Net interest income for FY22 increased by 27% to Rs 21,892 crore from Rs 17,269 crore in FY21.

The board recommended a dividend of Rs 20 per share. The record date for the payment of dividend is 1 July 2022.

Bajaj Finance, the lending arm of Bajaj Finserv, is a diversified NBFCs, catering to more than 50 million customers across the country. Headquartered in Pune, the company's product offering includes consumer durable loans. Lifestyle finance, digital product finance, personal loans, loan against property. Small business loans, wallet, co-branded credit cards, two-wheeler and three-wheeler loans, commercial lending/SME loans. Loan against securities and rural finance which includes gold loans and vehicle refinancing loans along with fixed deposits.

Shares of Bajaj Finance were down 4.39% at Rs 6922.85 on the BSE. The stock jumped 3.31% in the previous session.

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Lupin on Wednesday announced that it entered into a strategic partnership with Yabao Pharmaceutical Co. Inc to meet demand for quality drugs with pediatric formulations in the Chinese markets.

The demand for high quality pediatric medicines has been growing rapidly in China as a result of the government's support and policy measures. The latest Chinese pediatric pharmaceutical market report indicated that the market for pediatric drugs in China is expected to reach 210 billion CNY ($33 billion) in 2021, growing at a rate of 9.23%.

Dr. Fabrice Egros, president - corporate development and growth markets of Lupin said, We are excited about this partnership as it paves the way for us to bring quality pediatric formulations to the growing needs of patients in China. In addition to marketing our pediatric products in the Chinese market, we intend to expand our collaboration in other strategic therapeutics areas such as cardiometabolic, central nervous system and gastro-enterology.

Yabao Pharmaceutical Co is a leading China pharmaceutical company with fully integrated development, manufacturing, and commercialization in China. Yabao is recently pursuing strategic development of innovative pharmaceuticals in addition to its well-established business in modern traditional Chinese medicines and chemical generics.

Lupin is a transnational pharmaceutical company. The company develops and commercializes a wide range of branded and generic formulations, biotechnology products and APIs in over 100 markets in the U.S., India, South Africa and across Asia Pacific (APAC), Latin America (LATAM), Europe and Middle-East regions.

The company's consolidated net profit jumped 24.47% to Rs 545.52 crore on a 3.57% rise in total revenue from operations to Rs 4,160.93 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21.

Shares of Lupin were trading 1.91% lower at Rs 744 on BSE.

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Pfizer Ltd is quoting at Rs 4236, down 1.14% on the day as on 13:19 IST on the NSE. The stock tumbled 17.63% in last one year as compared to a 14.32% rally in NIFTY and a 0.29% spurt in the Nifty Pharma index.

Pfizer Ltd fell for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 4236, down 1.14% on the day as on 13:19 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is down around 1.21% on the day, quoting at 16993.1. The Sensex is at 56768.8, down 1.02%.Pfizer Ltd has eased around 2.52% in last one month.Meanwhile, Nifty Pharma index of which Pfizer Ltd is a constituent, has eased around 1.99% in last one month and is currently quoting at 13444.1, down 1.13% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 27743 shares today, compared to the daily average of 29103 shares in last one month.

The benchmark April futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 4226.3, down 1.35% on the day. Pfizer Ltd tumbled 17.63% in last one year as compared to a 14.32% rally in NIFTY and a 0.29% spurt in the Nifty Pharma index.

The PE of the stock is 33.35 based on TTM earnings ending December 21.

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The IT major has signed a definitive agreement to acquire US-based Rizing Intermediate Holdings, Inc. ("Rizing"), a global SAP consulting firm, for about $540 million.

Rizing is a global SAP consulting firm with industry expertise and consulting capabilities in enterprise asset management, consumer industries, and human experience management and has more than 1300 employees in 16 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Its consolidated net revenues in the year ending 31 December 2021 stood at $193.8 million.

"As one of the leading strategic partners in the world for SAP, Rizing will become a critical extension of Wipro's SAP Cloud practice and Wipro FullStride Cloud Services. The combined offering will help clients surface unique business opportunities and new competitive advantages through SAP cloud implementations. It will also help Wipro expand its leadership in oil & gas, utilities, manufacturing, and consumer industries," Wipro said in a statement.

The transaction is expected to be completed before quarter ending 30 June 2022. The deal will require anti-trust approvals under the competition laws of the United States of America, Germany and Canada.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Rizing will operate as Rizing, a Wipro company, under the leadership of Maiolo.

"We are thrilled to welcome the Rizing team to the Wipro family," said Thierry Delaporte, chief executive officer & managing director, Wipro. "Rizing's complementary consulting capabilities and strong client relationships will significantly boost our existing offering, creating one of the most differentiated SAP services in the marketplace. Together, we will be able to expand our presence in high-growth industry sectors."

"This is the next phase of growth for Rizing. With Wipro's backing, we will be able to enhance the value we deliver to our current clients and bring our differentiated offering to a broader universe of businesses, said Mike Maiolo, Chief Executive Officer, Rizing. Combining the two firms will allow us to scale our services and expand our footprint in the market. We are thrilled to join a company that shares our values and vision, enabling us to grow in new strategic areas."

Wipro is a leading global information technology, consulting, and business process services company.

The IT company will report its Q4 earnings on Friday, 29 April 2022. It reported a 1.3% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,970 crore on a 3.3% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 20,313.6 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q2 FY22.

Shares of Wipro ended flat at Rs 529.35 on Tuesday.

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West Bengal Chief Minister on Wednesday said that her government has spent Rs 1,500 crore in the last three years to subsidise petrol and diesel prices in the state.

Her retort came a few hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a virtual interaction with chief ministers, flagged higher prices in opposition-ruled states such as Maharashtra, Kerala and West Bengal and asked the state governments to reduce VAT for the benefit of the common man.

"Today's interaction with PM was completely one-sided and misleading. Facts shared by him were wrong. We have been providing a subsidy of Re 1 on every litre of petrol and diesel for the last three years. We've spent Rs 1,500 crore on this," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.

She claimed there was no scope for the chief ministers to speak at the meeting and hence, they could not counter the prime minister's statement.

"It would have been better had the PM not spoken on price hike in a COVID-19 review meeting, it was his agenda," she said, iterating her demand for a reduction in prices.

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Minister Vishwas Sarang rejected senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh's accusation that Bharatiya Janata Party "scripts stone-pelting incidents by paying Muslim boys".

Former Chief Minister Singh had previously claimed that he had received some complaints regarding the allegation of the "BJP scripting stone-pelting" though he has not verified them.

"I have received a few complaints, which I have not verified yet, but as per these complaints, some people from the BJP themselves pay poor Muslim boys to throw stones," Singh said during a press conference in Neemuch district of on Tuesday.

The Madhya Pradesh Minster for Medical Education Vishwas Sarang rubbished the accusation of by terming it baseless and false.

Sarang also questioned the intentions behind his statement, saying "how could you level such charges when you are saying that you do not have proof".

He further claimed that "the BJP is a party that stops riots, and not the one that promotes communal violence."

"These are political statements made for advancing the of appeasement. Congress has a history of fuelling riots to gain power," he added.

Singh's statement came days after violence erupted in the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh following a stone-pelting incident during a Ram-Navami procession on April 10.

Several people, including police personnel, were injured when groups of people pelted stones at each other during the procession. The stone-pelting started at the beginning of the procession leaving around four persons injured, including a police inspector.

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Maharashtra BJP leader on Tuesday released a Marathi book on Union Home Minister that chronicles his political journey.

Speaking after unveiling the book at a function here, Fadnavis praised Shah (57), a former BJP president, for his sharp political acumen and deep understanding of elections. The book, titled ' Ani Bhajapachi Vatchal', documents the life and journey of Shah and his contribution in building the BJP and making it the world's biggest political organisation, the former CM said on the occasion.



The book, originally written by Dr Anirban Ganguly and Shivanand Dwivedi, has been translated into Marathi by Dr Jyostna Kolhatkar. Bollywood actor Pallavi Joshi, who featured in the recently released Hindi film 'The Kashmir Files' , Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Pravin Darekar and other BJP leader were present at the event. Hard work, sacrifice and strong nationalism define the character of .



He comes with great capacity to personally travel to places, study and take decisions based on his experiences," said Fadnavis. It was Shah who studied Uttar Pradesh in detail and eventually, we (the BJP) won 73 (along with allies) out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats (in 2014 general elections), he said.

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New Delhi [India], April 27 (ANI/SRV): Founder and CEO of AG FinTax, USA, Anil Grandhi(AG) has been named as one of the 'Top 20 Dynamic CEOs of 2022 in USA' by The CEO Publication in recognition of his pioneering initiatives and innovative approaches in the world of Finance and Taxation.

His company, AG FinTax has helped small businesses sustain their revenues and gain new potential particularly during the Covid phase. The firm developed an innovative approach toward taxes that helped businesses save a significant amount of money and thereby increasing their cash flows.

Anil Grandhi has joined the list of top Indian-born CEOs in USA and that too within 40 years of age by showcasing his remarkable managerial skills. He also worked actively during the pandemic to ensure Covid relief benefits offered by the US Govt reached millions of small business owners.

AG FinTaxfacilitated the transfer of more than US $ 300 million from the US Govt to Small business owners. In 2021, he has also been accepted into the prestigious Forbes Finance Council, where he regularly provides his expertise on relevant topics across various sectors.

Adam Patrick, Managing Editor of The CEO Publication said, "The expertise and guidance displayed by Anil Grandhi to help small businesses and entrepreneurs on tax planning, CFO services, wealth management, and financial outlooks is noteworthy, which is why he is being featured as one of the Top 20 Dynamic CEOs of 2022. Anil is a true inspiration."

Anil Grandhi stated that he owes this award to his team and also his parents who motivated him to pursue his dreams. "A true entrepreneur can spot another entrepreneur because they share similar traits. Someone who is truly committed to succeeding will see the importance of patience, resilience, focus and a positive attitude", he said.

Sri Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao, Chairman, GMR Group said, "Anil has evolved into a highly ambitious and visionary leader who constantly inspires others and helps them turn their vision into reality."

Born and brought up in the small town of Rajam in Andhra Pradesh, Anil has always been a go-getter. From topping his high school to graduating in commerce with honours to becoming a Chartered Accountant, Anil has shown immense determination to reach the pinnacle of success.

After Chartered Accountancy with PwC in Hyderabad, Anil began his career in Chennai by working with corporates like Siva Group and Data Tracks. He went on to work for SunEdison, as a Financial Controller and was later relocated to the corporate office in Saint Louis, USA. After a few years with them, he moved to Amazon and then to Starbucks. Anil decided to become an entrepreneur in the year 2019 and started AG FinTax, a tax planning and advisory services company, heard quartered in Seattle, Washington and serving clients throughout in USA.

Today AG FinTax provides its services to thousands of clients ranging from large corporates to small business owners across the USA. The company has had amazing growth because of its innovative business solutions and has recorded a 2400% growth in the last 2 years.

Additionally, Anil also inspires aspiring entrepreneurs by addressing Webinars, Conferences, and Seminars across the USA around the year on various finance and tax-related topics.

For more information visit: (https://www.anilgrandhi.com)

(https://www.agfintax.com)

This story is provided by SRV Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)

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It will be the biggest IPO that India has seen so far. Apart from testing the appetite of investors, the LICs stake sale will also add Rs 21,000 crore to the government exchequer. After missing two deadlines, the IPO of Indias largest insurer may finally hit the primary market on May 4. Most experts believe that it will get a good response from both retail and institutional investors. Our next report tells about what the Street expects from the IPO and whether you should take a slice of this pie. Like the LICs price band, curiosity is surrounding Twitters future course too. After land and space, is all set to make his presence felt in the virtual world now. The worlds richest man -- known for taking risks and pulling off impossible -- is in all likelihood the next chief.

A free speech absolutist, he calls a digital Town Square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. Our next report tries to unravel his views to find how Musk may shape one of the worlds most influential social media platforms. Back home, India Inc is also witnessing aggressive merger and acquisitions. After PVR and Inox, the news of HDFCs merger with HDFC Bank took many by surprise. While experts believe that the trend underlines the desire of India Incs cash-rich companies for inorganic growth, they are also cautioning investors. Take a dive into this trend and how can investors benefit from them. After the markets, let us move on to a technology which is very crucial to the success of electronic vehicles. Advanced chemistry cell batteries may soon be manufactured in India too, thanks to the governments PLI scheme. These cells account for 80% of the cost of lithium-ion batteries. Listen to this episode of the podcast to know more.
Census Vintage 2021 Population Estimates by Age

Census recently released it Vintage 2021 estimates of the US resident population by single year of age for April 1, 2020 (Decennial Census results), July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021. Below is a table showing the estimates for selected age groups for July 1 of the past two years.The population changes by age from July 2020 to July 2021 would, if there had been no pandemic, no plunge in mortgage rates, and no ultra accommodative monetary and fiscal policy, not have suggested strong housing demand over that period. Stated another way,(for which, unfortunately, there are no timely data available, and Census has not yet released Census 2020 household data by age.)Census previously released 2021 total population estimates showing that the US population grew at the slowest pace in over a century late last year, with the reasons for the slow growth reflecting historically low births, historically high deaths, and historically low net international migration.It should be noted that Census has not yet released updated estimates of the US resident population for 2011 through 2019 that would reflect the results of Census 2020. These estimates will probably be higher than the currently available estimates, as Census 2020 showed a population that was about 1.8 million higher than the Vintage 2020 estimate for 4/1/2020.It should also be noted that Census has not updated its long-term population projections to reflect both recent trends in key demographic drivers and the Census 2020 results, and the last population projections were released in 2017. Over the last four years births were significantly lower, deaths were significantly higher, and net international migration was significantly lower than the assumptions in the Census 2017 projections. As such, those projections are of little or no value, and should not be used for any purposes.Below is a table showing Census Vintage 2021 estimates of the US resident population for July 1, 2021 compared to the Census 2017 projections by 5-year age groups.The Vintage 2021 estimate of the US resident population for July 1, 2021 was a whopping 3.1 million lower than the Census 2017 projection. While over half of this miss reflected massively lower than projected births, there were also significantly higher than projected deaths (even before Covid) and significantly lower net international migration. (I cant do a full reconciliation because the Census 2017 starting point will almost certainly be higher than was assumed.)The age distribution of the adult population in the latest population estimates is also substantially different from that projected in Census 2017 for July 1 of last year, as the table suggests, with substantially fewer 20 to 34 year olds, somewhat higher 35-59 year olds, and significantly fewer 65+ year olds. The gap between updated population estimates and the latest, extremely outdated population estimates will almost certainly widen significantly over the rest of this decade. Below are the Census 2017 assumptions for births, deaths, and net international migration for 2022 through 2030.Obviously these assumptions are way too optimistic, especially over the next several years.All of this, of course, is just a long-winded way of say that. Hopefully Census will release a new set of population projections sometime soon, so just trying to get a handle on likely deaths over the next few years is a daunting challenge.CR Note: I used the 2017 projections recently since those are the only ones available, although I added a caution. Hopefully Census will release better projections soon (and all the 2020 data!)
Anantapur: The government has blamed a Class 9 student for taking images of the SSC first language question paper and putting them on Whatsapp. The images began circulating on social media at about 11 am, one-and-a- half hours after the exam began on Wednesday.

Education department authorities found the photographs of the question paper were uploaded from Room No. 3 of the ZP High School in Ankireddypalli in Kolimigundla mandal of Nandyal district. Officials said a Class IX student was allowed to serve drinking water to students at the examination centre. He took pictures of the question paper on his mobile and circulated it outside, reportedly to get answers to help a girl taking the exam. The images quickly went viral.

When the images reached officials, S. Suresh Kumar, Commissioner, School Education, alerted authorities over the episode and directed the Nandyal DEO and other officials to take action. The Nandyal collector was sought a detailed report. Police from Kolim-igundla said that three teachers  Neelakanta Reddy, K. Nagaraju and C.R.P. Rajesh  of the examination centre were detained and questioned over how a student was permitted into the centre with a mobile phone. The chief supervisor and invigilator were suspended for negligence.

Commissioner Suresh Kumar denied that there was a question paper leakage and said initial reports were false.



We came to know that by around 11 am someone had started circulating photos of the Class class question paper, taken at an exam centre. Since the exam started at 9.30 am, it cannot be called a leak. It is clearly a mischief created by someone, Suresh Kumar said.

The commissioner directed all officials to ensure that no one took a mobile phone into the exam centres. The chief superintendent would be held responsible if any deviation was noticed.
After its global unveil in India last November and subsequent spy shots showing it landing at the Batangas Port and on its way to dealers...
SHE teams introduced here in 2014 are winning praise for their efforts at rescuing girls facing harassment on various social media platforms.

Hyderabad: The SHE teams introduced here in 2014 are winning praise for their efforts at rescuing girls facing harassment on various social media platforms. They have handled more than 10,000 cases so far.

Recently, an NRI victim who got trapped with a city-based businessman on a Facebook app was rescued within two days by a SHE team of cops.

She came in contact with the man and accidentally sent her pictures. He morphed the pictures and started to blackmail her, threatening her to post her morphed videos on social media, said ACP Sirisha Raghavandera.

The ACP received a call from the victims parents based in UK, who said the girl was mentally disturbed and showing suicidal tendency and hence they rushed here to meet her.

When I called, the accused said he was in Saudi Arabia. Initially, his parents used rough language but when I informed them about Anirudhs activities and sent them the video with abusive content, his parents felt very sorry and within an hour I received an apology video from Anirudh. A case will be filed against him, the ACP said.

Another victim, an MBBS doctor at a reputed hospital, had been having physical relations with a software engineer for the last two years. The engineer managed to take the video of the victim in compromising positions and started to insist that she marry him.

I wanted to marry him but my father approached the SHE team. I was shocked to find out that the man, Khalid, was already married and has two daughters. So I dropped the idea, the doctor told the police. A SHE team summoned him and warned him against any further offence.

Every month, we get more than 130 cases, the ACP said.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Aldo Group Inc. says its North American creditors have voted in favour of its restructuring plan and settlement, almost two years after the footwear company filed for creditor protection.

The Montreal-based company says the vote is a crucial step in its effort to exit protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

Some additional legal and administrative steps remain over the next few weeks, including the finalization and approval of an agreement in Switzerland, before the company can completely emerge from court proceedings.

Martin Rosenthal, of the court-appointed monitor E&Y, says it was pleased to find a fair settlement with creditors.

The restructuring proceedings allowed the company to stabilize the business as it underwent a transformation of the organization to focus on profitable core competencies.

CEO David Bensadoun, whose father, Aldo, founded the chain in 1972, has said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic put too much pressure on business and cash flows.

Today, after a thorough restructuring process out of which we are announcing our imminent exit, we know that the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act was the right path to take to solidify the Aldo Groups financial foundation and ensure the long-term sustainability of the business," he stated in a news release.

The retail fashion industry, already undergoing a sweeping shift amid the migration to online shopping, has been hit hard by a pandemic that has shuttered storefronts across the globe and sent apparel revenues plummeting.
Photo: The Canadian Press U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Canadian Foreign Minister Melaine Joly talk after a meeting with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Thursday.

Canada has imposed sanctions on more than 200 people who are loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

Global Affairs Canada says the new measures target 11 senior officials and 192 other members of the People's Councils of the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk for supporting Putin's attack on the area.

Russian forces have been backing separatist rebels in the Donbas area for eight years following Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

That Russian-backed separatist insurgency claimed 14,000 lives before the Feb. 24 start of Putin's full-scale war to take over the country, an attack that has faltered in the face of a determined Ukrainian resistance backed with Western weaponry.

Putin has now refocused his war on Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking eastern region, pulling back from an unsuccessful attempt to take the capital Kyiv and drive out the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Canadian sanctions are focused on the renewed Russian attempt to annex areas of the Donbas by targeting people attempting to support the next phase of the two-month-old Russian war on Ukraine.

"Canada will not stand idly by and watch President Putin and his accomplices attempt to redraw the borders of Ukraine with impunity. International law must be respected," Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement.

"Canada is using every tool at its disposal to ensure that the rules-based international order is upheld and that those complicit in violations of international law answer for their crimes."

Canada has sanctioned more than 1,000 people or entities from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus since the Feb. 24 invasion, bringing to 1,400 the total that have been sanctioned since the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

On Tuesday, Joly indicated the Liberal government is set to introduce legislation that would allow sanctioned and frozen assets to be repurposed to help support victims.

"We are seeking the capacity to not only seize but to allow for the forfeiture of the assets of sanctioned individuals and entities and to allow us to compensate victims with the proceeds. These changes would make Canada's sanctions regime the first in the G7 to allow these actions,'' Joly said in a statement.

"Already, sanctions are crippling Russia's economy and are depleting the resources Putin has to continue his illegal war. We will continue to apply maximum pressure on the Putin regime and impose severe costs for this war of choice.''

Sen. Ratna Omidvar has a bill with that goal that is currently at third reading in the Senate.

Joly spoke Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the pair reaffirmed their ongoing support of Ukraine.

Defence Minister Anita Anand will be in Washington later this week for in-person meetings with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon.

Last week, Canada added 14 more Russians to its sanctions list, including Putin's two adult daughters, Maria Vorontsova, 36, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35.
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to file an affidavit within two days clarifying whether or not Vattinagulapally in Ranga Reddy district was covered by GO 111, or not.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili told additional advocate-general J. Ramachandra Rao that instead of submitting oral submissions about the non-catchment area in Vattinagulapally, the government should furnish a sworn affidavit stating the position. That would facilitate the court pass orders on the petitions with regard to officials rejecting building permission.

The bench was dealing with a petition filed by Agni AgroTech Pvt Ltd, Nimbha Biotech Ltd, Scorpio Bio Solutions and Skanda Aerospace Pvt Ltd. Their grievance was that the government was applying the recent GO69, which is meant to modify GO 111, on their parcels of land though they were located outside the catchment area of Osmansagar and Himayatsagar and were therefore outside the purview of GO111.

Representing the petitioners, senior counsel Kondam Vivek Reddy also argued that GO69 does not completely replace GO111. The new GO relaxed certain conditions but brought in a new committee. We have no idea what this new GO says about the non-catchment areas. We only urge this court to completely remove us from this new GO and its restrictions, the senior counsel said.

When the court inquired about the matter, AAG Ramac-handra Rao admitted that a huge portion of Vattina-gulapally fell outside the catchment areas of the twin reservoirs and hence were not covered by GO 111.

The Bench opined that it was sloppy on part of the concerned authorities to not take a concrete decision on the land parcels and leaving it hanging in the air. The bench directed the government to file an affidavit with a clear picture of land parcels in survey numbers of the Vattinagulapally, specifying which fell in the non-catchment areas and which ones were in the catchment area. The hearing was adjourned to April 28.

Environmentalists petition to Chief Secretary against GO69

Three environmentalists have complained to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar against the process of repealing GO111 and issuing of GO69.

The three  Dr B.V. Subba Rao, Dr Narasimha Reddy Donthi and Prof K Purushottam Reddy said in a letter to the Chief Secretary that GO69 was issued without regard to the report of the expert committee that had been formed to protect the Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs.

Another committee of IAS officers has been asked to submit a report to the government without mentioning the deadline for the same, the three noted.

GO69, dated 12 April, 2022, does not clarify on the status of constructions and approvals in the interim period between 12 April, 2022 and the date on which the regulatory measures suggested by the committee are notified by the government, the environmentalists pointed out.

They said this grey area can lead to physical and temporal changes in the catchment area of the lakes.

The letter also notes that the two lakes are the first line of defence for Hyderabad against floods, as were seen in the city in 2020 and 2021.

The letter requested the CS to withdraw GO-69 until the committee formulates guidelines and their report is approved by the government after consultations with the public. Until then, GO-111 may be allowed to be in operation, they proposed.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the countrys former leader Aung San Suu Kyi of corruption and sentenced her to five years in prison Wednesday in the first of several corruption cases against her.

Suu Kyi, who was ousted by an army takeover last year, had denied the allegation that she had accepted gold and hundreds of thousands of dollars given her as a bribe by a top political colleague.

Her supporters and independent legal experts consider her prosecution an unjust move to discredit Suu Kyi and legitimize the militarys seizure of power while keeping the 76-year-old elected leader from returning to an active role in politics.

The daughter of Aung San, Myanmar's founding father, Suu Kyi became a public figure in 1988 during a failed uprising against a previous military government when she helped found the National League for Democracy party. She spent 15 of the next 21 years under house arrest for leading a nonviolent struggle for democracy that earned her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. When the army allowed an election in 2015, her party won a landslide victory and she became the de facto head of state. Her party won a greater majority in the 2020 polls.

Suu Kyi is widely revered at home for her role in the countrys pro-democracy movement  and was long viewed abroad as an icon of that struggle, epitomized by her years under house arrest.

But she also has been heavily criticized for showing deference to the military while ignoring and, at times, even defending rights violations  most notably a 2017 crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that rights groups have labeled genocide. While she has disputed allegations that army personnel killed Rohingya civilians, torched houses and raped women and she remains immensely popular at home, that stance has tarnished her reputation abroad.

She has already been sentenced to six years' imprisonment in other cases and faces 10 more corruption charges. The maximum punishment under the Anti-Corruption Act is 15 years in prison and a fine. Convictions in the other cases could bring sentences of more than 100 years in prison in total.

These charges will not have credibility other than in the eyes of the juntas stacked courts (and the militarys supporters)," said Moe Thuzar, a fellow at the Yusof Ishak Institute, a Southeast Asian studies center in Singapore. Even if there were any legitimate concerns or complaints about corruption by any member of an elected government, a coup and enforced military rule are certainly not the way to pursue such concerns."

News of Wednesdays verdict came from a legal official who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to release such information. Suu Kyis trial in the capital, Naypyitaw, was closed to the media, diplomats and spectators, and her lawyers were barred from speaking to the press.

Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in the 2020 general election, but lawmakers were not allowed to take their seats when the army seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, arresting Suu Kyi and many senior colleagues in her party and government. The army claimed it acted because there had been massive electoral fraud, but independent election observers didnt find any major irregularities.

The takeover was met with large nonviolent protests nationwide, which security forces quashed with lethal force that has so far led to the deaths of almost 1,800 civilians, according to a watchdog group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

As repression escalated, armed resistance against the military government grew, and some U.N. experts now characterize the country as being in a state of civil war.

Suu Kyi has not been seen or allowed to speak in public since she was detained and is being held in an undisclosed location. However, at last weeks final hearing in the case, she appeared to be in good health and asked her supporters to stay united, said a legal official familiar with the proceedings who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to release information.

In earlier cases, Suu Kyi was sentenced to six years imprisonment on convictions of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, violating coronavirus restrictions and sedition.

In the case decided Wednesday, she was accused of receiving $600,000 and seven gold bars in 2017-18 from Phyo Min Thein, the former chief minister of Yangon, the countrys biggest city and a senior member of her political party. Her lawyers, before they were served with gag orders late last year, said she rejected all his testimony against her as absurd.

The nine other cases currently being tried under the Anti-Corruption Act include several related to the purchase and rental of a helicopter by one of her former Cabinet ministers. Violations of the law carry a maximum penalty for each offense of 15 years in prison and a fine.

Suu Kyi is also charged with diverting money meant as charitable donations to build a residence, and with misusing her position to obtain rental properties at lower-than-market prices for a foundation named after her mother. The state Anti-Corruption Commission has declared that several of her alleged actions deprived the state of revenue it would otherwise have earned.

Another corruption charge alleging that she accepted a bribe has not yet gone to trial.

Suu Kyi is also being tried on a charge of violating the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, and on a charge alleging election fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of three years.

The days of Aung San Suu Kyi as a free woman are effectively over. Myanmars junta and the countrys kangaroo courts are walking in lockstep to put Aung San Suu Kyi away for what could ultimately be the equivalent of a life sentence, given her advanced age," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. Destroying popular democracy in Myanmar also means getting rid of Aung San Suu Kyi, and the junta is leaving nothing to chance.
Photo: Contributed

One of the most wanted men in the country hails from Trail, B.C. and authorities have offered a $100,000 reward for information that leads to his arrest.

Gene Karl Lahrkamp is now the most wanted man on the BOLO (be on the lookout) Top 25 most wanted list in Canada.

Lahrkamp was just behind Abilaziz Mohamed, who was the most wanted man in the nation for his role in the murder of 43-year-old Craig MacDonald in Toronto last October. But since the BOLO was issued on Tuesday, Mohamed has been apprehended. The reward for information on Mohamed was $250,000.

Lahrkamp is also wanted for the fatal shooting of former Abbotsford gangster Jimi Sandhu, who was shot and killed in Thailand on Feb. 5, 2022.

An investigation has determined that Sandhu was targeted by two Canadian men who left the country shortly after the shooting. One of the men was arrested in February.

Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers is offering the reward in an attempt to encourage tipsters to contact authorities.

The Top 25 BOLO list allows tipsters to anonymously share information and collect their rewards, without ever speaking to an investigator.

Community safety is a shared responsibility, in which we all play a role, said Toronto Crime Stoppers Chair Sean Sportun. If you know where any of these suspects are, and wish to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers and have confidence that your identity will be protected.

Information leading to Lahrkamp's arrest could pay up to $100,000, Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers said.

Lahrkamp was last known to reside in Trail B.C., where he has a residence and authorities believe he is still in the province.

The BOLO for the 36-year-old Lahrkamp indicates he is approximately 210 pounds and six-foot-four. He "may be travelling with an unknown number of dogs," investigators said.

Another British Columbian cracked the Top 25 most wanted list as well. John Norman Mackenzie, is ranked in the 21st spot for being unlawfully at large after escaping Mission Institution in 2018 where he was serving a life sentence for numerous convictions, including second-degree murder and armed robbery.

"These two fugitives, and the rest on the top 25 list, are accused of serious crimes, says Linda Annis, executive director of Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers, in a news release.

"By increasing awareness online, we and BOLO hope to attract extra attention. Crime Stoppers stands ready to take anonymous tips on any information that will help find them."

The public are advised not to approach either of these men because they are considered armed and dangerous.
Photo: Province of British Columbia This boring machine is in the mail and arriving in Vancouver.

They may be boring machines, but they had an exciting journey.

Well, half of them at least.

Like an Ikea order gone wrong, the first batch of parts has arrived in Vancouver for the gigantic pieces of machinery that'll be creating a tunnel beneath Broadway.

"The tunnel-boring machine components left Germany on Feb. 25, 2022, and sailed through the Panama Canal before arriving at Fraser Surrey Docks on April 15, 2022," says the province in a press release.

A second batch will be going on their own multi-week Atlantic/Caribbean/Pacific coast cruise shortly.

Once they arrive here they'll be assembled into the big cylinders and bore 15 m to 20 m under the city to create new tunnels for the Broadway Subway project.

"The two six-metre-wide machines, to be named later this spring, will be launched separately from the Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station and will bore new tunnels to Cypress Street near the lines terminus at Arbutus Station," says the province. "The tunnels will connect all six new stations along the new line."

The machines will be run by crews of eight to 12 and create 18 meters of new tunnel each day, moving 200,000 cubic meters of soil.

An official ceremony will mark the beginning of the two machines' year-long journey under the earth. The $2.83 billion project will add 5.7 km of rail to the Millennium line with six new stations
Photo: The Canadian Press The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg is shown in a Tuesday, May 19, 2009 photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

The federal Liberals are moving ahead on a special all-party, security-cleared committee to review documents related to the firing of two scientists from the national microbiology laboratory  even if the Conservatives continue to rebuff the plan.

Government House leader Mark Holland said Wednesday the NDP has agreed to the idea, and he hopes the Tories and Bloc Quebecois will also participate.

Members of the committee will be able to see unredacted documents, but an independent panel of three former judges, to be jointly chosen by the parties, will have final say on what material can be made public without jeopardizing national security.

The Conservatives rejected the proposal last December, preferring that the documents be turned over to a regular committee of MPs.

Under a House of Commons order passed by opposition parties last spring  over the objections of the Liberal government  the documents would be vetted by the parliamentary law clerk for potential national security issues but committee members would retain the right to release whatever material they chose.

In a January letter, Holland urged the Conservatives to reconsider the federal proposal, citing articles by several experts who backed the government view that national security would be endangered by complying with opposition demands.

Holland said Wednesday the government's planned all-party committee respects the Conservative desire to be able to see unredacted documents and to contest any redactions.

"If they don't budge from their position, then I have to question the authenticity of their request," he said in an interview.

"You can't, on the one hand, say that you want to see documents but then refuse to see them. You can't say you want to be able to challenge redactions, but refuse to participate in a process that would challenge redactions."

Holland said a Conservative refusal to take part would lead him to conclude the party wants to "keep this alive for political and partisan purposes, rather than having a genuine interest in seeing what is true."

Opposition parties believe the documents will shed light on why scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted out of Winnipegs National Microbiology Laboratory in July 2019 and subsequently fired in January 2021.

They also want to see documents related to the transfer, overseen by Qiu, of deadly Ebola and Henipah viruses to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology in March 2019.

Holland said the government wants the planned committee to begin its work "as rapidly as possible," but timing will depend on how soon the Conservatives and Bloc decide whether to participate.

Given that the Liberals and NDP account for a majority of members of the House of Commons, it would be "appropriate for us to proceed" without the other two parties, he said.

"It is my sincere hope, obviously, that we get broader participation."
Photo: Colin Dacre file photo

A Saskatchewan woman who stabbed her victim outside a mall where people robbed her as she lay dying has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for manslaughter.

Latisha Grumbo, who is 20, sat in the prisoners box with her head down as the decision was read out in Prince Albert Court of Queens Bench.

Court heard that Grumbo stabbed Kayla Aubichon once in the chest in July 2020, then walked away not realizing Aubichon would die hours later in hospital.

The 33-year-old mother of four lay on the sidewalk outside Prince Alberts Gateway Mall for more than an hour before 911 was called.

Video footage presented in court showed a dozen people passed by, and she was robbed of her purse and headphones.

Justice Naheed Bardai said people's actions were unconscionable.

We will never know if Miss Aubichon would have lived if she received timely medical attention," Bardai said Wednesday.

"What we know is if one of the bystanders had stopped and called for help, and if help had arrived sooner ... there is a chance that Miss Aubichon may have survived, he said.

A chance that a mother would not have to bury her daughter, and a chance that a seven-year-old little girl would continue to feel her mothers warm embrace.

"It is clear that more than one life was destroyed that day.

Bardai said manslaughter sentences vary depending on the circumstances that can include an accident as well as a death with no malice forethought.

He said Aubichon's stabbing could not "be described as mere accidental.

Victim impact statements read in court during Grumbos last appearance in March included one written by Aubichons seven-year-old daughter. The girl described how much she missed her mother and how hard she finds Mothers Day when all the other kids at school are making cards.

The girl also drew a picture of her last memory of her mother  lying in a coffin in a grave.

The motive for the stabbing remains unclear, although there was a suggestion in court that a debt was owed. Court also heard Grumbo was high at the time.

Bardai said he considered Grumbos guilty plea and expression of remorse in his sentencing decision. He said he also took into account her absence of a criminal record, the physical abuse she suffered while in foster care and exposure to drugs and alcohol in her home.

She was never given much of a chance, he said.

Aubichon's mother said outside court she didn't think the sentence was long enough. Sue Aubichon was also critical of the people who walked by her daughter without stopping to help.

They should be charged, too, for just leaving her like that."
Photo: The Canadian Press A helicopter dumps water on a fire outside Kelowna, B.C., on Monday, Aug. 28, 2017. Wildfires in Canadian and Alaskan boreal forests release large quantities of greenhouse gases that exacerbate climate change, a new study says. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Better wildfire management in Canadian and Alaskan forests could offer a cost-effective way to limit greenhouse gas emissions, a new study says.

Research published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday found wildfires in North American boreal forests could represent about three per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions under the Paris Climate Agreements budget to limit warming below 1.5 C.

But enhanced fire management could avoid the release of up to 3.87 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050, it said.

Carly Phillips, lead author of the study, said wildfires were a huge threat to climate change mitigation goals.

Phillips, who is a researcher-in-residence on the wildfire and carbon project at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions at the University of Victoria, said boreal forests are extremely dense and store massive amounts of carbon.

"When they burn, they end up actually releasing more carbon to the atmosphere than a ground fire."

These wildfires could emit up to 11.93 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by mid-century if fire suppression levels remained unchanged, she said.

"That's roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 2.6 billion fossil-fuel cars," she said.

The study said boreal forests cover about 16.6 million square kilometres, contain roughly two-thirds of global forest carbon, and have the potential to play an outsized role in future fire-related emissions.

The amount of Canadian boreal forest that is burned each year could increase by between 36 per cent and 150 per cent by 2050, if mitigation levels were unchanged, the paper suggested.

Such worsening of wildfires in northern coniferous forests threatened the feasibility of global carbon budgets that are needed to avert the harshest outcomes of climate change, it said.

Wildfires both drive climate change and are driven by it, said Brendan Rogers, who co-authored the study.

Fires also burn away organic matter that protects permafrost, leading to thaw and degradation, said Rogers, an associate scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center, Mass.

"The atmosphere doesn't care about our accounting loopholes," he said. "If we don't keep proper track of these things, then I'm not sure how we're going to get to our ultimate goals of eliminating warming to the degree that we want to."

The study said boreal fire suppression is usually undertaken to protect human lives and property, and limiting carbon emissions was not among the objectives.

"Our results demonstrate that increased resources for fire management could be a cost-effective strategy for limiting the release of globally meaningful amounts of carbon stored in boreal forests," the study said.

Rogers said what surprised him most about the findings was the "clear relationship" between fire management and climate mitigation.

The world has "lost the luxury" of just looking at fossil fuel emissions reductions decades ago and if governments were serious about limiting temperature increases then all options should be considered, he said.

"A lot of emissions are coming out of these fires, especially in Canada and we should be considering ways to limit those fires and keep carbon in the ground," Rogers said.

It would cost $12-$13 to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by one tonne using fire suppression, which he described as "quite competitive with other emissions reductions technologies," he said.

"I think this could be one of the pieces of the puzzle that we should be looking at seriously."
Beijing has urged Islamabad to increase efforts to protect Chinese projects and personnel in Pakistan and address the "root cause of the problem" of terrorism, after Tuesday's Karachi blast that claimed the lives of three Chinese nationals.

Three Chinese nationals were among the four persons killed in a car explosion inside the premises of the University of Pakistan in Karachi on Tuesday. The blast occurred in a van near Confucius Institute -- a Chinese language teaching centre at Karachi University.

The Chinese state media outlet condemned the blast and demanded the Pakistani side make more efforts to protect the safety of Chinese projects and personnel.

"We strongly demand that the Pakistani side make more efforts to protect the safety of Chinese institutions, projects and personnel in Pakistan, and make those organizations understand that those who try to hurt the Chinese will only bring destruction on themselves," the Global Times said in an editorial.

The English language newspaper argued that China must warn that forces targeting Chinese nationals in attacks will be stricken the hardest.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility for this incident, has repeatedly threatened to launch attacks on Chinese companies and citizens in Pakistan, the newspaper said.

The BLA attacked the Chinese consulate in Karachi in 2018 and staged a suicide attack near the Gwadar Port in August 2021, injuring a Chinese national. "It can be said that several serious terrorist attacks against Chinese citizens are linked to this group," the editorial said.

According to the Chinese Communist party-backed daily, Pakistan has strengthened the protection of Chinese nationals but failed to address the root causes of the problem.

"We must point out that Pakistan has strengthened the protection of Chinese nationals in recent years but without addressing the root causes of the problem, there will always be loopholes," it added.

(ANI)

Also Read: UN chief Antonio Guterres strongly condemns Karachi blast
Hyderabad: State Congress president A. Revanth Reddy demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquire into alleged irregularities at the Mamata Medical College in Khammam, owned by transport minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar. I am ready to prove the irregularities of Ajay Kumar and his medical college, the TPCC chief said.

Focusing his attack on Ajay Kumar, in the backdrop of the suicide of a youth due to harassment by the TRS leader, Revanth Reddy alleged: The minister has become a psycho and is harassing Opposition party leaders in Khammam.

Revanth Reddy demanded that the Kamma community should socially boycott Ajay Kumar as he had filed cases against youths from the community and harassed them. Now, he is trying to get a Kamma shield to protect himself, the Congress leader said.

He was speaking at a meeting in Khammam that was organised to review arrangements for Congress former president Rahul Gandhis meeting on May 6. Congress activists accorded him a rousing welcome on his maiden visit to Khammam as chief of the TS party unit.

He said Khammam would go down in history as the place where Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had farmers arrested and handcuffed.

The TPCC chief demanded that the government procure paddy at minimum support price. KCR is making irresponsible remarks against the farming community. The TRS government should implement Rs 1 lakh crop loan waiver immediately, he said.

Revanth Reddy said that the Congress would support the farmers in resolving their problems.

He asked party cadre to make a grand success of Rahul Gandhis meeting. The former party president will support distressed farmers, he explained. We will expose the anti-farmer policies of TRS government at Warangal.
Transatlantic rates drop after market volatility

ICR Newsroom By 27 April 2022

By Maria Vasyutenko, associate of Brannvoll ApS

The USG Supramax/Ultramax spot freight segment experienced a volatile month. At the beginning of the month, transatlantic routes were paying better than fronthaul routes, which was an unusual situation for the market. The reason for these upside-down tendencies was a combination of different factors: the Black Sea area being a risk for owners, uncertainty within the Atlantic basin and a strong Pacific segment. This made owners interested in fronthaul trades so that rates fell below transatlantic levels. However, this anomaly disappeared relatively quickly. In the second half of the month, the wide gap between transatlantic and fronthaul rates started narrowing slowly as the Mediterranean and European continental regions were looking healthier and corresponding rates started picking up. As a result, USG transatlantic rates started dropping very quickly.

Freight rates for transportation of a Supramax-lot of petcoke from Houston to ARA ports with spot laycans are at US$26/t (-US5$/t MoM) on average. Deals for delivery of 50,000t of petcoke from Houston to Iskenderun with spot laycans are discussed at around US$32/t on average.

Shipping costs for delivery of a Supramax-lot of petcoke from USG to EC India are at US$55/t on average (-US$3/t MoM).

Overall market sentiment shows signs of optimism for the second half of April and early May with new cargo offers (grains and petcoke) that have begun trickling in the USG for these dates. Transatlantic rates are likely to remain strong since the Mediterranean area will continue to be oversupplied with ships repositioned from the Black Sea.

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Holcim's "GO4Zero' project sees public inquiry open

27 April 2022

Holcim's new "GO4ZERO" kiln project in Obourg, Belgium, will undergoing a public inquiry, from 25 April to 25 May to give the inhabitants of the municipalities of Mons, Soignies, Le Roeulx and Jurbise the opportunity to express any observations about the project to construct a new 1.68Mta clinker kiln and its ancillary facilities on the Obourg site, as well as to the anticipated renovation of the cement grinding facilities.

The Walloon administration notified the cement manufacturer that its application for a single permit to build and operate the new clinker line was deemed complete and admissible.

The last phase of the town planning and environmental authorisation procedure should lead to the issuance of the permit and allow the start of construction at the end of summer 2022.

According to Holcim, the impact study carried out by Sertius "confirms the high environmental added value of the project and in particular its significant contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on the perimeter of the Obourg plant (-23 per cent by 2026)."

The "GO4ZERO" project is part Holcim's carbon neutrality target. It implements a dry-process kiln design where oxygen is used as fuel, allowing the CO 2 to be concentrated for its capture and subsequent sequestration or recovery.

The raw material used will be limestone, which will be transported by rail from a deposit located in Antoing. This new production system differs from the current wet-process technology. Key parts of the new plant will include a preheater, a rotary kiln, a clinker cooler, raw material storage and reception facilities.

Holcim plans to commission its new facilities in 2025.

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By the end of this week, either CHI Memorial-Georgia will receive approval for a certificate of need (CON) for the new hospital on Battlefield Parkway or Parkridge East Hospital, which filed a 106-page letter in opposition, will be successful in their attempt control who can and cannot compete against them.

So, what happens if the CON is approved?

It depends.

In an ideal situation, Parkridge would accept the decision and resolve to compete for patients and market share by providing excellent service at a great value.

However, Parkridge is owned by the biggest hospital chain in the country, HCA Healthcare. A quick look at their history in past CON challenges does not inspire hope for a smooth conclusion.

In 2014, an HCA owned hospital and two other hospitals in Augusta, GA filed competing CON applications seeking to build a new hospital in neighboring Columbia County. One of the other hospitals was granted the CON. The HCA owned hospital appealed the decision in court. Seven years later, the 150,000+ residents of Columbia County are still without a hospital. The new hospital was on hold until the appeal was resolved last year.

If the CON for CHI Memorial-Georgia is approved, a judicial appeal could be pursued by Parkridge. That, however, would be riskier than they realize.

NW Georgia residents are tired of waiting for a new hospital. They are excited for the new beginning offered by CHI Memorial. They are ready to put Tri-County/Hutcheson(old names still used by many) in the dustbin of local history for good.

Parkridge does not need to go down the litigious path. The good reputation Parkridge currently enjoys in Northwest Georgia would certainly suffer in the event of a lengthy judicial appeal. Further, in such a scenario, it is likely that the people of North Georgia would organize not only Georgia residents but others in the region to boycott Parkridge. But what would that look like?

A grassroots campaign could easily make use of existing ratings, rankings, and data to influence public opinion. Below are a few examples.

According to the full Lown Institute's hospital rating index, Parkridge Hospital has the worst ranking of hospital systems in the Chattanooga area, and it ranks among the bottom half of all hospitals in Tennessee and the nation.

As with every other HCA hospital, Parkridge has failed to comply with regulatory requirements. The standard charge file available on their website enables some comparisons with other providers. But the file is woefully inadequate. To find out more, I contacted a new healthcare tech startup, Turquoise Health.

Turquoise has taken on the challenging task of compiling price data and making it usable and useful for patients, insurers, employers, and providers. Their aim is to engage with well-intentioned providers and payers that want to work together to create price transparency for patients and employers. The image below uses price data from Turquoise.Health.

The good people of Northwest Georgia may consider another strategy in addition to a citizen-led boycott campaign against Parkridge. This would involve all government entities (schools, cities, counties etc.) in the area working together to exclude Parkridge Health System from employee health plans. As an alternative to full exclusion, employers could restructure their plans to create provider tiers and thus encourage their employees to use providers other than Parkridge Health System. Private businesses in Northwest Georgia could be lobbied and encouraged to join such an effort by adopting the same strategies.

Despite the seemingly unusual nature of such actions, citizens have few options when rent-seeking corporations are well-represented by very able lawyers and the courts remain overly deferential to the legislature's unconstitutional and ill-conceived whims that ignore and trample on economic freedom and liberty, as with Georgia's certificate of need system.

Elliott Pierce
An officer responded to a bomb threat call at Chattanooga Choo Choo, 1400 Market St. A man reported that a female caller said there was a bomb in the building. The man said the business was not treating the call as real. The number the call came from has been used to spoof other businesses in the past. The Aquarium also got a phone call from the phone number and also decided to treat the threat as not real.

* * *

A man called police and said his vehicle had been side-swiped while traveling north on the Market Street Bridge. The man said when he was approaching the center of the bridge, in the left most lane, a vehicle passed him in the right hand lane. He said the vehicle veered over close enough to swipe his passenger-side door, and take off the mirror on the passenger side. The man couldn't provide any description of the vehicle or the driver.

* * *

A man and woman at Sunshine Food Mart at 4510 Rossville Blvd. told police a black male approached him inside the convenience store asking about his ex-girlfriend who had died. He said the man was his ex-girlfriend's brother. He said they got into a verbal disorder and the man left the store with his girlfriend on their bikes to defuse the situation.

* * *

A woman on Chestnut Street told police her husband had recently passed away and she was trying to check on the camper that he was staying in. She said they have not been together in years and that he was homeless in the camper, however they were still legally married. The woman said while she and her son were there, several cars had pulled up making them feel worried for their safety. The ones that had pulled up were gone upon police arrival. After speaking with the woman and her son, they decided it would be best to wait until daylight hours to return. The camper was locked up by the woman.

* * *

Police were called to SunTrust Mortgage at 6 Cherokee Blvd. to check on an alarm. The officer observed damage to two windows. This damage did not appear to be an attempt to break into the building, as it resembled damage police had seen in the past when marbles or rocks have hit windows. When leaving, police spoke with a woman, a janitor for the bank, who said to her knowledge that damage could be new, but she was not sure. At this time it is uncertain if the damage was vandalism or accidental due to proximity to the roadway.

* * *

A woman told police her property was inside a residence on Montview Drive and she wanted it back. Police spoke with the property owner who handed police the woman's property and she left without incident.

* * *

A man called police and said his car was broken into while parked at the Riverpark at 4305 Amnicola Hwy. He said the driver's door lock was damaged and bank cards were taken. The cards were used at Target in Hixson.

* * *

An officer observed a 2020 white BMW 330 on Jasmine Street displaying a stolen tag from 2018. The BMW's VIN was unable to provide registration details when conducting an NCIC query. The car was not reported stolen, but this area is common for parking stolen vehicles. The tag was removed from NCIC as stolen and placed into the Chattanooga Police Property Division.

* * *

A man on Cain Avenue said a woman at his residence was causing a disorder. Police located the woman just down the road and transported her to the bus stop on West 40th Street per her request to get her away from the man. The man and woman are frequents for Adam South officers.

* * *

Police were dispatched to I-24 eastbound for a broken-down auto. Upon arrival, officers met with a man who said his tire came off and he did not have a jack to fix it. Officers also did not have a jack to help him. The vehicle was out of the roadway, and the man left his vehicle there and would come back to fix it later.

* * *

Officers responded to a burglar alarm at 151 Riverfront Pkwy. at the Southern Belle Riverboat. The manager said he forgot his phone on the boat and came to get it. He did have keys to the boat, but police were unable to verify that he works there. The officers did see the man was wearing a Chattanooga Riverboat shirt.

* * *

A woman called police and said vehicles were tailing her from her home towards downtown where she works. She said she believes this had been occurring for several years and may be connected to a former incident she had been involved with regarding a person who had stalked her. She wanted to notify police of the situation and make a report.
Whats this? Shootings are rampant in Americas biggest cities but according to District Attorney Neal Pinkston, citing Chattanooga Police Department facts, they are down 60 percent for the first four months of this year versus the same time last year. Thats because a lot of people are working really hard to keep Hamilton County safe.

It is also because Pinkston has the best staff hes had in the 19 years he has been in the district attorneys office. Neal is running for a second term against a youthful Coty Wamp, who has never prosecuted a case in Hamilton County. The two are dueling in the Republican primary next Tuesday and, when pressed, Pinkston said if Wamp was working with his 27 prosecutors, she would be the second least experienced in his office.

I think experience is vital. Ive prosecuted over 40 homicide cases that have resulted in sentences totaling over 2,800 years in jail. I manage 27 prosecutors and a total staff of 60 people, Pinkston explained. I joined the office in 2003 so, while I am ending my eight-year term, Ive actually been in the DAs office for 19 years.

While we were talking, word came the Silverdale jail was on lock down Its pretty bad out there, Neal acknowledged. I have already spoken to the U.S. Attorney for this district and the civil rights division at the Justice Department so both are aware a formal request (for an investigation) is coming. Our office has taken some complaints, which we take very seriously.

On Monday Pinkston said in a news release, Right now, it appears that Silverdale is one of the most dangerous places to be in our county, and that is unacceptable. Individuals at Silverdale have the right to be protected, and that right should be taken very seriously by every member of our justice system. Therefore, I will formally request that the DOJ investigate the conditions and operation of Silverdale."

Pinkston, aware there is a national outcry over lax sentencing that puts criminals back on the street, shakes his head. We dont have any of that woke nonsense. Our prosecutors ask for maximum sentencing. We have good judges in the county, too.

Is there a big backlog in the courts? Not really  the coronavirus was a problem for everybody but now the courthouse operates pretty smoothly. If there is a backlog we can handle it.

Pinkston is proud of the fact his office has solved 31 cold cases while he has been the district attorney but he estimates there are about 200 cases that have never been solved. I am tremendously proud of our cold case team and our investigators. We are actively working on closing some more."

Is gang activity still a problem? Its hard to say because it is hard to define what a gang is anymore. The Chattanooga Police Department has done a good job in the schools and Rob Philyaw is excellent in our Juvenile Court.

So, the question the Republicans must answer next Tuesday is whether they want a DA with 19 years experience who runs one of the best departments in the local government and has prosecuted 40 murder trials, or choose a promising young lady who has never prosecuted a case in Hamilton County. Common sense says Hamilton County should stick with Neal Pinkston.
U.S. State Department approves ammunition sale to Ukraine

Xinhua) 09:40, April 27, 2022

WASHINGTON, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of State said in a statement Tuesday that it has determined an "emergency" exists in Ukraine that becomes a "national security" concern of the United States, therefore the department bypassed Congress to approve the sale of ammunition to Kiev.

The decision to sell the approximately 165 million U.S. dollars' worth of "non-standard" Soviet-era ammunition was made after Secretary of State Antony Blinken "has determined and provided detailed justification that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to Ukraine" of ammunition including grenade launchers, mortars and D-20 cannons, the statement said.

The sale, according to the statement, is "in the national security interests of the United States, thereby waiving the Congressional review requirements" under federal law.

"The proposed sale will improve Ukraine's capability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of its forces," said the statement. "Ukraine already has these items, or variants thereof, in its inventory and will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces."

The announcement came just after Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Kiev and held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Blinken notified of the arms sale.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
With the recent purchase of the large McDonald Farm by Hamilton County government, the virtues of Sale Creek will be touted in the future by officials, if some of the land ends up being converted into an industrial park as discussed.

And the historic farm buildings and natural areas that are preserved for recreation and special events will also likely be praised.

But Curtis N.

Coulter has long been interested in promoting the entire and still-rural North Hamilton County community through researched stories about its history and as a lifelong resident who simply appreciates it.

The retired Hamilton County Schools teacher has already written about a half dozen books related to the community and its history, and now he has put together another one titled, This Is the Way I Heard It.

The author describes the book as a collection of Sale Creek stories and even tall tales regarding Sale Creek. Most of them he has heard, but a small number of them involve him, or at least he is one of the characters or observers.

Its a fun book, said Mr. Coulter, who considers himself a better storyteller as a writer than as a talker. I kind of stretch things a little bit for enjoyments sake.

Mr. Coulter said the idea for the current book came when he started posting some of these tales on Facebook, and he received such positive feedback that he realized he needed to compile them into a book.

Our country has been through two years of lockdowns, quarantines, and people staying in fear as well as being isolated and scared, he said. Therefore, I wanted to put together a book that would make people laugh and enjoy some of the country humor that I have accumulated over a lifetime.

Most are funny and humorous, such as one about a woman getting baptized in an outfit that ended up becoming inflatable, and another about a wasps nest that caused havoc during a church service. But a few are of a more serious nature, including two dog stories and a tribute to a former teacher.

And one chapter is downright scary. That involves the tales of Pitty Pat Hollow, the name given the area of Shipley Hollow Road stretching from Daugherty Ferry Road to Providence Road a mile or so off U.S. 27 in Sale Creek.

Dating back to the 1800s, people have claimed to hear a pit-a-pat sound  or the noise of some creature making a light but rapid noise with feet  while they are traveling down that secluded road at night. One legend even stated that a woman of yesteryear was traveling in a buggy with her baby, and the creature came up and spooked the horse, causing the carriage to overturn. The creature then left with the baby, who was never seen again.

With others, the simple presence of the sound has been the big scare.

While that story might make a reader look over his or her shoulder while having the book open, others might make a peruser look up with laughter. He tells of one woman getting ready to be baptized at a creek, and her outfit immediately began ballooning while taking in water, making her look like she had a giant innertube with her.

When the minister got her situated where he could lay her back into the water, the trapped air under her dress finally, as Mr. Coulter wrote, broached the surface like a submarine blowing ballast. He later added, The escaping air sounded like cow flatulence.

Needless to say, the formerly serious congregation could not keep from laughing so hard they produced tears.

Another story tells of some preachers rebellious kids putting coal soot on their fathers handkerchief before a Sunday service, knowing he was going to be wiping his brow a few times while getting worked up preaching the sermon.

Another light-hearted story involves some poetic license he takes in discussing some ospreys that summered near his home and have to deal with the hassles of the well-meaning power company.

There are about four pairs of them, and Ive kind of expanded on them, and I talk to the ospreys and they send me greetings from Peru during the wintertime and they get into fights, he said.

He also pays tribute to someone who soars in a figurative sense due to the respect she had  former English teacher Miss Annabel Aslinger. In his chapter on her, he says she was very tough but made all her Sale Creek pupils better students and people.

Annabel was tough and she did not take prisoners, Mr. Coulter writes of the woman who retired from Sale Creek High in 1966. No excuses for failure to complete assignments were accepted.

Mr. Coulter graduated from Sale Creek High in 1967 and has been a lifelong resident, and that has motivated his interest in the community and in documenting over the years such aspects as its military veterans and its brief time in the spotlight as a peach capital.

I live in an area where my grandfather farmed in the early part of the century, said Mr. Coulter, who was interviewed while selling books and giving tours of the former home of newspaper publisher Roy McDonald during the special McDonald Farm public gathering on April 16. My family has been here since 1819.

And while he knows development might eventually come to this area, especially with the sale of the McDonald Farm, he also likes how it is still mostly pastoral.

As a result, the noise in part still comes from tall country tales being passed around and enjoyed, and not from any heavy suburban traffic.

* * *

Those wanting to order or know more information about this book or Mr. Coulters others can go to www.coulterpublications.com.

* * *

Jcshearer2@comcast.net
Crista Resch, director of Ultrasound programs at Georgia Northwestern Technical College, instructor of Vascular Sonography and winner of the colleges 2022 Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year, advanced as a regional finalist for the state award.The Technical College System of Georgia named her one of nine regional winners on Tuesday at the GOAL and Rick Perkins State Conference in Atlanta. She will learn whether she takes home the state award on Wednesday, during the conference awards banquet.A panel of leaders from business, industry and government will choose one instructor to be the 2022 TCSGs Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year.The winner will receive a $2,500 cash prize. The Rick Perkins Award winner serves as an ambassador for technical education in Georgia and will make many public appearances throughout the year, including addressing both chambers of the Georgia General Assembly.Ms. Resch has been an instructor at GNTC since 2011. She directs all Sonography programs, which include Diagnostic Medical Sonography, Adult Echocardiography and Vascular Sonography. She is also GNTCs instructor of Vascular Sonography.Prior to joining Georgia Northwestern, she served as staff development coordinator and registered vascular technologist at Harbin Clinic. During nearly a decade at Harbin Clinic, Ms. Resch sat on the advisory board for the Ultrasound programs at Georgia Northwestern and acted as the primary clinical instructor for GNTCs Vascular Sonography students.Ms. Resch said that her career-long dedication to technical education stems from her experience as a student in college.We provide the best education and preparation that our graduates need to be successful. I know this first-hand because of my own personal experience as a graduate of GNTC, she said. I graduated from the very first Vascular Technology program at GNTC when it was named Coosa Valley Technical College.After earning her associate degree in Vascular Technology at GNTC, Ms. Resch attended Reinhardt University in Waleska and received her bachelors degree in Healthcare Administration.Even though I have been here over 10 years now, every December when a new class graduates, passes their national board exams and obtains employment, the overwhelming feeling of pride and excitement never fades, she said.Ms. Resch also said that her experience as a technical college student has given her a better understanding of what students go through in their studies and clinicals.I know that I had a hand in helping them be able to accomplish their achievements, Ms. Resch said. Their success is important to me because I know the struggles they have faced along the way. I have been there. I have been in their shoes.Ms. Resch was a previous nominee for Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year at GNTC in 2021. Her professional accomplishments include registered vascular technologist at the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonography, 2013 to present; organization member of Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography, 2001 to present; and Basic Life Support instructor at the American Heart Association, 2013 to present.The most recent state winners to represent GNTC were 2019 Rick Perkins Award winner Leyner Argueta, program director of Business Management, and 2013 Rick Perkins Award winner, Troy Peco, director of the Automotive Technology program.
Teachers are influencers far beyond the students they teach. They can change hearts, minds, and behavior. They touch lives every day. Every single day.



Bestselling writer Brene Brown describes vulnerability as the core of all emotions. She points out that being vulnerable connects us with others and makes us relatable. It opens us up to love, joy, creativity, and empathy. Forbes magazine says that according to research, empathy is the most important leadership skill. They point out, Empathy contributes to positive relationships and organizational cultures and it also drives results.



We all recognize that leadership is not about titles.

It is about leaders who take responsibility for their actions, recognize the potential in others, and have the courage to develop leadership in others. We need champions for educators and students.Too often we get caught up with the title game in organizations. Hierarchical bureaucracies often become unresponsive to the needs of those who they purport to serve. Teachers are the heartbeat of the school. Yet they sometimes fail to be vulnerable and ask for help because they fear judgment from leaders and others who lacked empathy. We have to create a new mindset in the ever-changing landscape of education.That is why this year at our annual Leader U conference we are featuring Ann Marie Taylor, as our keynote speaker. We recognized the incredible stress that educators have faced and so does she. This pandemic has turned our lives and our work inside out, and upside down. She addresses the topics of Vulnerability, School Leadership, and Systemic Change like no other educator in the nation. She is a former South Carolina Teacher of the Year and National Teacher of the Year nominee. As a follower of Brown, she recognizes that vulnerability is about sharing our feelings and our experiences with people. This is a critical trait that those who work with children should learn to cultivate.Some of the practices that leaders have deemed as best practices have turned out not to be best practices after all. Dr. Taylor is a systemic change leader. If we want to impact teacher retention, we must make relationships a critical priority at every school. Teacher leadership and shared leadership are the paths forward for authentic leadership.Taylor states, If you want to support teachers - lets change our system and develop teachers into leaders - rather than giving them a jeans pass and some chocolate treats. The problem is bigger than a treat can fix. We have put band-aids on education, rather than tackle the more difficult systemic change required in school leadership.We have to have the courage to be vulnerable while admitting that we cannot do this work alone. We need all stakeholders, parents, educators, and policymakers to embrace change. We need to recognize that no leader, no school, no organization is perfect. Give people, including yourself, permission to make mistakes and work to fix the problems.While we can work toward perfection, success is not always possible. It is time for some hard conversations. When we fail, we will fail together. When we win it will be because we were daring greatly. This is the year that we no longer fear being vulnerable. This is the year we embrace a new normal.

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JC Bowman is the executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association headquartered in Nashville.
A woman who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder took time to tell the judge that conditions at the Silverdale Detention Center are deplorable.

Joanna Alder, who has been at Silverdale for three and a half years, said the air conditioning was running full tilt and inmates were "all huddled up" trying to stay warm.

She also said water was coming over a wall, forming "a waterfall" that ran continuously.

She said the water was going over in the area of electrical outlets. She said that could lead to someone being electrocuted.

Judge Don Poole said, "No one should be treated like that."

Ms. Alder, who is now 38, pleaded guilty in the Jan. 23, 2019, bludgeoning death of a 60-year-old woman who had trespassed her from her home in the 100 block of Willie Way.
A State of the City event will be held on May 5.

Officials said, "Mayor Tim Kelly will reinvent the State of the City ceremony on May 5, transforming the annual tradition from a one-way monologue into a community conversation about the future of Chattanooga.



"This years state of the city will feature multiple speakers as part of a broader conversation about the mayors strategic vision for a more prosperous and equitable city, and the road that lies ahead.



"Among other guests, the mayor will be joined by former Salt Lake City County Mayor Ben McAdams, who also served as the U.S. Senator representing Utahs second district. As mayor, McAdams pioneered new tools to unlock opportunities and create shared prosperity for the residents of Salt Lake City County.



"McAdams will discuss the potential for Chattanooga to leverage assets ranging from dormant parking lots to empty land to uplift the community and drive economic revitalization."



All residents are invited to register to attend the summit, which will be held at the Tivoli Theatre on May 5 from 2-4:30 p.m. Doors open at 1:30 p.m., and food and drinks will be available in the lobby.

"Because of limited seating, please register in advance to secure your seat," officials said. "More information will be made available in the days to come."
EPB has promoted Ryan Keel to senior vice president, Technical Operations with responsibility for all business systems, technical operations and facilities for both EPB Energy and EPB Fiber Optics. In his role, he will lead efforts to more fully align EPBs technical expertise, information systems, fiber optic network and smart grid electric infrastructure with every aspect of EPBs effort to deliver world-class customer experiences, officials said.Were seeing the emergence of a new phase of rapid technical innovation and increasing convergence between the energy and connectivity industries, said David Wade, president & CEO of EPB.As part of EPBs mission to enhance quality of life, were focused on translating all these technical possibilities into products and solutions that substantially benefit the people we serve. Ryan Keel has proven his tremendous ability to lead our team of technology experts as we work to keep our community on the cutting-edge while delivering strong value for our customers."Keel played a critical role in the initial design and build out of EPBs Smart Grid, which is widely considered to be one of the most advanced and highly automated power distribution systems in the United States," officials said. "In 2014, he was promoted to VP of Technical Operations with responsibility for technical operations for both EPB Energy and EPB Fiber Optics. In addition to leading efforts to utilize Chattanoogas Smart Grid to reduce the incidence and duration of outages by as much as 55% each year, Keel is leading a major upgrade of EPBs fiber optic system to next-generation network technology."One of Ryans major strengths is that he sees the big picture without forgetting the details, Mr. Wade said. Hes a respected leader of people who has the ability to reduce complex projects to the most salient points in a way that aligns our expertise, procedures and technical systems, so that we can move forward rapidly.Im honored to have the opportunity to lead EPBs outstanding team of technology professionals, said Mr. Keel. Our goal is to apply our strengths as a technology and infrastructure company to meeting real needs in our community. At a time when people have so many new options when it comes to energy and technology, we want to make it easy for them to benefit by helping them bridge from the present to the future.Mr. Keel is a native Chattanoogan. He has earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Tennessee Tech University and an MBA from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He began working at EPB in 1997 and has held positions in engineering, operations and leadership. Mr. Keel is a member of the Rotary Club. He and his wife Keri are the parents of three children.
Cleveland City Schools announced that Dr. Joel Barnes will be returning to Blythe-Bower Elementary School as principal beginning Aug. 1. Dr. Barnes will replace Mrs. Prisavia Croft after she retires from the Blythe-Bower principal position at the end of July.

Dr. Barnes had previously served for five years as principal of Blythe-Bower Elementary School

before moving into the role of Supervisor of Federal Projects and Professional Development for

Cleveland City Schools during the past fours years.

He also has previous experience at both Cleveland High School and Cleveland Middle School in the assistant principal role. Prior to moving into administration for the district, Dr. Barnes spent time as a teacher at Cleveland Middle School.

In response to his appointment, Dr. Barnes said, I am honored to once again serve the Blythe-Bower community and look forward to working with the Blythe-Bower staff to continue making a difference in the lives of students.

Dr. Russell Dyer, director of Cleveland City Schools, also said about Dr. Barnes appointment, Dr. Barnes has the experience and qualifications that are needed to fill the important role of Principal at Blythe-Bower Elementary School. I am excited to see how he can impact both the school and school community in the upcoming year as principal. With the help of an outstanding staff, I am sure that great things are ahead for Blythe-Bower and Dr. Barnes.
Recommendations of what K-dramas to watch are part of the fun. After finishing one drama, it is on to the next but sometimes fan opinions matter in making the decisions. The globally famous K-pop group BTS has been vocal about their love for watching K-dramas and has given their recommendations here and there. BTSs favorites are classics or some of Netflixs newest hits.

BTS attends the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic via Getty Images

One of J-Hopes favorite K-dramas is Netflixs claim to fame Crash Landing on You

Fans have learned a lot about BTS from live streams on the bands VLives account, especially regarding what K-dramas they like watching. According to SKPop, J-Hope revealed his favorite K-drama was Crash Landing on You from 2019. It is no surprise as the K-drama is one of the most popular in TV history and a staple among fans.

It starred real-life married couple Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin in the leading roles. Yoon Se-ri (Son) is a chaebol heiress and self-made businesswoman. But she is seen as a threat by her family to take over the business. Wanting to escape the family turmoil, she goes paragliding and gets caught in a storm.

She lands in a Korean Demilitarized Zone in North Korea. Se-ri meets Captain Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin), who decides to help her get back home and evade punishment. Along the way, they develop a bond and begin a dangerous North-South Korean romance.

BTSs RM is a huge fan of the megahit K-drama Sky Castle

RELATED: Our Blues: BTSs Jimin to Sing His First OST Song for K-Drama

Just like their fans, BTS is on top of the latest and most-talked about K-dramas. According to Koreaboo, RM is a huge fan of the 2018 drama Sky Castle. He chatted with fans about his excitement about the K-dramas finale and rushed home to watch. Thankfully, he did not give away any spoilers.

Sky Castle is a gritty story of deceit, lies, broken families, and power. The highest-rated K-drama in cable television history took a closer look at the materialistic desires of the wealthy. The K-drama centered around a group of families in a luxurious residential building.

At the heart of the drama are the matriarchs who would stop at nothing to further their husbands careers and fame. They also pull the strings to make sure their children are elite and have every opportunity at their disposal.

BTSs Jungkook had a hard time picking between K-dramas Twenty-Five Twenty-One and Business Proposal

RELATED: Tomorrow and 4 K-Dramas About the Afterlife, Available on Netflix

The hottest and most-talked K-drama of the year goes to Netflix and tvNs Twenty-Five Twenty-One. Actor Kim Tae-ri starred as Na Hee-do, a gifted fencer who journeys from teenager to adulthood, experiencing triumph, friendship, and first loves. Hee-do meets Baek Yi-jin, played by Nam Joo-hyuk. Yi-jin tries to support his family while pursuing his own career and becoming Hee-dos friend.

BTS Jungkook has previously expressed his interest in the K-drama and fans same frustrations over the dramas questionable storyline. According to PinkVilla, Jungook could not decide between the K-drama and Business Proposal.

Business Proposal is a boss and employee love story starring Ahn Hyo-seop and Kim Se-jeong. Shin Ha-ri (Kim) poses as her best friend on a blind date and soon learns it is her CEO boss Kang Tae-moo (Ahn). They start a complex fake relationship that becomes genuine. Jungkook could not pick between both K-dramas and chose Business Five Proposal One.

RM recommended Song Kangs Sweet Home K-drama to fans

RELATED: How Happiness Parallels Netflixs Sweet Home Apocalyptic K-Drama

In a VLive, BTSs RM gave fans a few recommendations from K-dramas, books, and music. The idol revealed he watched Song Kangs earliest Netflix K-dramas Sweet Home and told fans it is worth watching. The 2020 K-drama was one of Netflixs earliest successes at an apocalyptic drama besides Kingdom.

The K-drama centers on the character Cha Hyun-soo (Song Kang), who lost his family and moved into a new residential building. Hyun-soo battles his dark inner demons, but it becomes his biggest strength. Overnight, the world descended into chaos as humans turned into horrid monsters based on desires.

The tenants are trapped inside and must find a way to stay alive as anyone can turn. Hyun-soo exhibits all the signs but does not become a monster. He fights to keep his humanity. When Sweet Home Season 2 is confirmed, RM will likely rejoice alongside fans.

RELATED: 5 K-Dramas That Deal With an Age-Gap Romance
Andrew Garfields new limited series Under the Banner of Heaven premieres April 28 on Hulu. Its based on the true story of the gruesome 1984 murders of Brenda Wright Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter.

Oscar-winning writer Dustin Lance Black admits that the subject matter makes it not an easy show to watch. And just days ahead of the premiere, the series is embroiled in controversy because of its portrayal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Andrew Garfield | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Andrew Garfields new limited series is based on a real-life murder case

Garfields new series Under the Banner of Heaven is based on the 2003 book of the same name by Jon Krakauer. It covers the murder of Brenda Lafferty  who was a member of the Mormon church  and her infant daughter Erica. They were killed by Brendas brothers-in-law Ron and Dan Lafferty, who were fundamentalists.

After Joseph Smith founded the Mormon religion in the 19th century, a group of fundamentalists broke away to form the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the FLDS. This is the group that still practices polygamy, and it has much more extreme religious views compared to those in the LDS church.

This rift between the LDS and the FLDS has been going on for decades. And its what led to Brenda and Ericas murders.

Under the Banner of Heaven is embroiled in controversy

The book and the series dive into the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the FLDS split. Many church members have spoken out against the book, including Mike Otterson, the churchs former director of media relations.

Krakauers portrayal of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is utterly at odds with what I  and millions like me  have come to know of the Church, its goodness, and the decency of its people, Otterson said back in 2003, per Utahs ABC4. This book is an attempt to tell the story of the so-called fundamentalist or polygamous groups in Utah and to tie their beliefs to the doctrines and the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The result is a full-frontal assault on the veracity of the modern Church.

Black  who left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in his teens  said hes not happy with how the Deseret News (a Utah newspaper owned by the church) negatively portrayed him in a recent opinion piece. It claimed he was angry and selling fear and resentment.

At a panel discussion in Salt Lake City after screening the first two episodes, Black said he feels a different emotion than anger.

You know, I grew up loving this church. I grew up loving my Mormon family. Most of my family still lives within a 20-mile radius of here. I still appreciate the warmth and love that I feel when Im here, Black said, per The Salt Lake Tribune.

Black says there are good Mormons on the show

Garfield stars as the main detective on the case: Jeb Pyre. Hes a fictional composite character who represents numerous law enforcement officers who worked the real case.

In response to the backlash about the series, both Black and Garfield noted that there are good Mormons featured  including Brendas family and the family of detective Pyre.

I think thats a really beautiful, sensitive portrayal of this  kind of everyman, modern Mormon family, Garfield said. And I cant imagine anyone being upset by that aspect of the show, personally.

Oh, get ready, Black warned.

Under the Banner of Heaven premieres Thursday, April 28 on Hulu.

RELATED: Under the Banner of Heaven Premiere Date and Episode Schedule Revealed
Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 3 introduced the name of an unknown character  Alvarez. If fans are confused about who Alvarez might be, theyre not alone. Nacho threw out this name without any explanation, but it might be important in the future.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 3.]

Michael Mando as Nacho Varga in Better Call Saul Season 6 | Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Nacho meets his end in Better Call Saul Season 6

Better Call Saul Season 6 had its first major character death with episode 3. Nacho chose to face the music and give himself up to the Salamancas. He agreed to make it clear that Gus was not involved with the attempt on Lalos life, in exchange for his fathers safety.

At the meeting with the Salamancas, Nacho tells Juan Bolsa that Alvarez and Los Odios out of Peru paid him to set up Lalo. However, Hector doesnt seem convinced that Gus wasnt involved. Nacho scoffs at the idea. Him? The Chicken Man? What a joke. Alvarez has been paying me for years. Nacho tells them.

But you know what? I would have done it for free because I hate every last one of you psycho sacks of s***. In his confession, Nacho also tells Hector that he switched out his heart medication, causing the stroke that left him wheelchair-bound.

Who is Alvarez in Better Call Saul?

Better Call Saul fans may have been wracking their brains for any mention of Alvarez in either the prequel series or Breaking Bad, but the name is new to the franchise. The AV Club wrote a theory that Alvarez may not be a real person at all.

After all, if Nacho gave Bolsa the name of a real person, that person would be dead. And if Bolsa admitted there was an enemy so dangerous, yet he didnt even know his name, he would rise to the top of Don Eladios hit list, the outlet wrote.

In front of Nacho there's actually a very small television that he's using to watch tonight's new #BetterCallSaul. pic.twitter.com/G30mhAHDBZ  Better Call Saul (@BetterCallSaul) April 25, 2022

A fan on Reddit suggested a potential explanation for who Alvarez is in Better Call Saul. Maybe someone will correct me but just some distant or rival people who could be easily framed as enemies. No real connection, they wrote.

A few other fans chimed in suggesting Alvarez and Los Odios are distant rivals to the cartel. Its possible that the significance of these names ends here, but they may be important in the future.

Michael Mando breaks down Nachos final confession

While speaking with The AV Club, Michael Mando discussed Nachos motivation in telling Hector that he switched his pills out. Theres a lot going on subtextually in that scene. For one, Nacho swears allegiance to the side of good and sort of revokes the privileges of the cartel, Mando said.

He turns down the highest position from Don Eladio, turns down the money and the power in order to protect the integrity and the virtue of his father. And theres a community element to that, too, where Nacho kind of stands up for what he aspires for, for his father and his community. So hes taking a stance, in that situation.

New episodes of Better Call Saul air Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on AMC.

RELATED: Better Call Saul Season 6: Julie Ann Emery Calls Playing Betsy Terrifying
Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly havent revealed any wedding plans. But the newly-engaged pair is still making headlines. Fox and Kelly got together in the spring of 2020. They developed their intense connection after working together on the movie Midnight in the Switchgrass. The pair quickly became media darlings, gaining attention for rocking daring outfits and never shying away from expressing their love for each other on red carpets.

One particular topic dominated the tabloids after they got engaged in January 2022. Fox admitted she and Kelly drank each others blood at the scene of their proposal. Recently, Fox opened up to Glamour about her relationship with Kelly, spilling all the tea about how much blood they actually drink and why.

Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly drank each others blood when he proposed

(L-R): Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox poses backstage for the 2021 Billboard Music Awards, broadcast on May 23, 2021 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. | Rich Fury/Getty Images for dcp

Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly each shared a post on Instagram after their January 2022 engagement. Fans found themselves captivated by their announcement, not least because of Foxs admission that the two decided to drink each others blood.

In her Instagram post, Fox wrote, Somehow a year and a half later, having walked through hell together, and having laughed more than I ever imagined possible, he asked me to marry him. And just as in every lifetime before this one, and as in every lifetime that will follow it, I said yes.and then we drank each others blood.

Megan Fox recently opened up about her ritual of drinking Machine Gun Kellys blood

#MeganFox is our April coverstar. Opening up in her most candid interview in years, Megan speaks to GLAMOUR about being a sex symbol, parenting, her feminist revival and rejection  and passionate blood-drinking rituals with her fiance, #MGK.

https://t.co/DyxeAP97ig pic.twitter.com/ejyvSOzKHL  British GLAMOUR (@GlamourMagUK) April 26, 2022

Foxs post raised questions amongst fans, specifically about the blood-drinking. In an April 2022 interview with Glamour, Fox clarified her controversial statement.

So, I guess to drink each others blood might mislead people or people are imagining us with goblets and were like Game of Thrones, drinking each others blood, she began.Its just a few drops, the actor explained. However, we do consume each others blood on occasion for ritual purposes only.

She described her interest in tarot, astrology, and metaphysical practices. The actor added she only involves Kelly in those rituals for a reason. And it is controlled, Fox added. Its like, Lets shed a few drops of blood and each drink it.'

However, her fiance is a bit more enthusiastic about the practice. Hes much more haphazard and hectic and chaotic, where hes willing to just cut his chest open with broken glass and be like, Take my soul.'

Can you get sick from drinking a few drops of blood?

Some fans might have justifiable health concerns about any rituals involving blood consumption. However, experts confirm that drinking a couple of drops of human blood isnt likely to cause any issues. According to Healthline, the body processes drinking blood the same as water. It goes into the stomach, the small intestine, and finally into the bloodstream.

Drinking large quantities of blood might lead to mild issues such as an upset stomach. It is probably safe to drink up to a couple of teaspoons of someone elses blood without experiencing any adverse side effects. Therefore, any small amount of blood that Fox and Kelly are consuming during their at-home rituals isnt likely to affect them negatively.

It is likely, however, to continue to cause intense interest amongst pop culture fans. Some havent seen anything like the romance between Fox and Kelly since Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie rocked vials of each others blood on the red carpet.

RELATED: Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly Mimic Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton With A Bloody Valentines Day Necklace
Edward Norton is a renowned actor and has been for decades. But hes not the only person in his family with a legacy of culturally relevant work. Nortons grandfather, James Rouse, was a real estate mogul who redesigned how American cities look in a way that is still recognizable today. That success gave Rouses descendants a privileged upbringing that is rare for most people, but more common among Hollywood circles.

Edward Norton | Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty Images

James Rouse is an unsung pioneer of American architecture

Actually, referring to James Rouse as merely a real estate tycoon minimizes his legacy. He had a specific vision of how American cities should be designed and how they can best serve the communities that live there.

He founded the Rouse company as a mortgage banking firm in the 1930s and co-founded the Citizens Planning and Housing Association to redevelop Baltimore after World War II. This led to Rouse becoming involved in President Dwight D. Eisenhowers National Housing Task Force, where he coined the term urban renewal to describe the task forces recommendations.

A film noir homage, a love letter to New York City, a tribute to his grandfather  #MotherlessBrooklyn is many things to @EdwardNorton. The end result is a passion project two decades in the making. My @washingtonpost profile: https://t.co/LWpuSRWfkZ  Thomas Floyd (@ThomasFloyd) October 25, 2019

After the Rouse Company began large commercial properties, Rouse decided to create his own version of a shopping center, Harundale Mall in Glen Burnie, Maryland in 1958. According to Smithsonian Magazine, it wasnt the first enclosed shopping mall in the US, but it did set an example for the rest of the world. Rouse wanted his malls to be pillars of the community, incorporating fountains, libraries, post offices, and even churches into his malls.

He went a step further by building the city of Columbia, Maryland before inventing festival marketplaces to revitalize downtown areas across the country, and founding the Enterprise Community Partners to provide affordable housing to the poor.

In 1995, Rouse was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He died a year later due to Lou Gehrigs Disease at the age of 81, according to the LA Times.

Norton grew up with a level of privilege common in Hollywood circles

Norton's grandfather was the developer James Rouse, who designed marketplaces in Faneuil Hall in Boston and Baltimore's Inner Harbor. "He was a big believer in community and culture and revitalization  as opposed to the wrecking ball."  Fresh Air (@nprfreshair) November 27, 2019

Rouses daughter, Lydia Robinson Rouse, married Edward Norton, Jr., and they had their first son, the eventually famous Edward Norton in 1969. The generational wealth left behind by his maternal grandfather gave Norton and his two younger siblings the opportunity to dream big.

After graduating from Wilde Lake High School in 1987, Norton attended Yale, where he earned a bachelors degree in history, learned Japanese, joined Yales rowing team, and acted in university plays. Nortons first job post-college was as a representative for his grandfathers Enterprise Community Partners in Osaka, Japan (he is now a trustee of the company) before moving to New York to pursue acting full time.

Go to an Ivy League school and then work at my famous grandfathers company in Japan is not an accessible plan to the vast majority of aspirant creatives. Thats not to say that Norton didnt put the work into his craft or that he only made it as an actor because of his resources. His performances throughout his career make that exceedingly clear.

His talent is undeniable, but Nortons attitude holds him back at times

There are few actors who have started their careers as brilliantly as Norton did. His first role was in 1996s Primal Fear as Aaron Stampler, an altar boy accused of murdering an archbishop. Nortons performance was praised to the point that he earned the first of his three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

Norton soon followed that up with the cult poker movie Rounders, American History X (which earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor), and Fight Club. A run that good is rare for actors at any stage of their life, but to have it so early made it clear that Norton was a special performer. Hes gone on to show his range by appearing in movies like 25th Hour, Birdman, and in four separate Wes Anderson movies.

Nortons ability has never been questioned, but his ability to work with others is a constant concern. Hes developed a reputation for being a controlling perfectionist who cant help but butt heads with anyone who gets in the way of his artistic vision. While he might have a questionable reputation, it hasnt stopped Norton from continuing an impressive career.

RELATED: Edward Norton Cant Stay in His Lane on a Film
Actors Johnny Depp and Jennifer Grey were engaged in the late 80s and the Dirty Dancing star said their romance was on fire at the beginning. Actually, she said it was a f***ing bonfire, and she believed he came into her life to compensate her for the pain in her past. Even though they were talking about marriage within weeks, things came to an end and Grey soon learned Depp had moved on with her neighbor.

(L) Jennifer Grey | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic (R) Johnny Depp | Samuel Corum/AFP/Getty Images

Jennifer Grey and Matthew Broderick broke up after a tragic accident

Before Depp, Grey was dating Matthew Broderick. They were both in a 1987 car accident in Ireland that killed two people, and she wrote in Out of the Corner: A Memoir that she experienced survivors guilt. Eventually, she put herself in a mode of automatic pilot to survive the trauma.

I was experiencing a dark night of the soul, she shared, but I couldnt figure out how to rescue myself except to keep functioning.

Her relationship with Broderick had grown toxic, according to her, but she pretended they could make things right. Then, he begged her not to fly to Los Angeles for her first major movie premiere for Dirty Dancing.

Flying home for the premiere of my first big movie meant only one thing: that I was not a good person, she noted. She went despite the guilt and she was soon back with Broderick in his hospital room. Eventually, she was getting an insane amount of coverage for her role as Baby and some really great reviews.

She hoped he would share in her excitement but recalled him saying, I really dont want to hear this.

Grey eventually ended the relationship. They later reconciled and became engaged, but it didnt work out that time, either.

Jennifer Grey thought Johnny Depp was so ridiculously beautiful when their romance began

Johnny Depp and Jennifer Grey | Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images

In Greys memoir, she wrote about the first time Depp took her out on a date. It was soon after her final split from Broderick. She said she wasnt in shape to go out with anyone, having just had her only serious relationship  go up like a flaming ball of s***.

But after seeing her as Baby in Dirty Dancing, the 21 Jump Street star supposedly confessed to having a massive crush on her to her agent, who set the two up on a blind date. That night, Grey said she opened the door to see the most beautiful man-boy shed possibly ever seen.

What exactly am I looking at? she wondered. They went out on a date, had an intense make-out session in his stepfathers car, and then he slept over with her on her moms daybed. Hed proposed within two weeks.

Grey told People her romance with Depp was passionate. There was some heat. It was a f***ing bonfire. It was literally like, Are you f***ing kidding me?  Ive never seen a guy like this,' she said.

And energetically, what it was like being with him, it was like, Oh, Im being totally, totally compensated for the s*** I just went through, she added.

But after nine months, Grey said Depp wasnt as present in the relationship. She explained as he grew frustrated with being a television heartthrob and lashed out at the world around him, their initial heat cooled.

Jennifer Grey ended her romance with Johnny Depp in a streak of destructive decision-making

stepping out of the corner and telling my story. can't wait to share it with you all in one week. get #OutOfTheCorner on the @nytimes bestseller list  preorder at https://t.co/S69qDS5fu0



thanks for fresh haircolor: @TraceyColorist, fresh trim: jerrod roberts & new specs: caddis pic.twitter.com/O2C8gR6BGH  Jennifer Grey (@JenniferGrey) April 26, 2022

In Greys memoir, she wrote breaking up with Depp and firing their shared publicist came as part of a self-imposed streak of impulsive, destructive decision-making.

To make matters worse, Grey soon learned Depp was dating her neighbor, Winona Ryder.  The classic nightmare of feeling replaced, like youd never happened, but on steroids, she wrote. She felt the high-profile rebound relationship nullified the nine months shed just spent wearing his motorcycle jacket.

After two failed engagements in the 80s, Grey married actor Clark Gregg in 2001. They split in 2020 and their divorce became final in 2021.

RELATED: Johnny Depp Describes Meeting Winona Ryder as Love at First Sight
The Pioneer Woman made a sweet treat with white chocolate. Heres how to make Ree Drummonds white chocolate pistachio truffles.

Ree Drummonds white chocolate pistachio truffles

Ree Drummond | Tyler Essary/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Drummond starts by making the truffle filling. She places chopped white chocolate into a non-stick saucepan. Next, she pours in a can of sweetened condensed milk and pistachio butter, which she says is just like peanut butter. Drummond asked her daughter, Alex, to explain why truffles were so prominent during her honeymoon in the Maldives.

Chocolate and dessert is really big in the Maldives and they have a little something sweet after every meal, says Alex on The Pioneer Woman show. So, during breakfast there was a huge truffle bar out for us to get truffles, so I had these white chocolate pistachio truffles every morning for breakfast, and they were the highlight of my breakfast, personally.

Alex says there were different types of truffles available, but she gravitated toward the white chocolate pistachio truffles every time. She says they were her favorite.

Preparing the white chocolate pistachio truffles

Drummond stirs the white chocolate pistachio mixture until its melted. Once the mixture is ready, she pours it in glass bowl, covers it with plastic wrap, and places it in the refrigerator. Drummond recommends chilling the mix for an hour. She says if you chill it for more than that, it will harden and then it becomes difficult to roll the mixture into balls.

Next, Drummond mixes melted white chocolate with coconut oil in a double boiler. She then drops the ball into the mixture. Drummond uses a scoop to get uniform portions. Just get it leveled off and roll it up into a neat little ball, she says.

The best tool for this is a fork, says Drummond. So, once its in there, just kind of pile on the white chocolate. She says you can use a second fork to place it on a sheet pan. Drummond tops the truffle with crushed pecans. Alex gave her seal of approval. Theyre so good, says Alex. Theyre so rich and creamy and dreamy. You can find the complete ingredients list and directions on the Food Network website.

Ree Drummonds chocolate cake

If youre looking for another chocolate recipe, try Drummonds chocolate cake (check out some of Drummonds best chocolate recipes). She refers to this as her top-secret chocolate cake because she doesnt tell anyone that she uses boxed cake mix. This is one of Drummonds superhero shortcuts. Its so delicious that no one would ever know, says Drummond.

Drummond starts by adding a box of dark chocolate cake mix to a bowl followed by one cup of milk,  cup of melted butter, three beaten eggs, one tablespoon of vanilla, and one cup of chocolate chips. After stirring the mixture, Drummond pours it into a Bundt pan. She bakes the cake for 40 minutes in a 350 -degree oven. She says the cake is done when you stick a toothpick inside of it and it comes out clean. You can find the complete ingredients list and directions on the Food Network website.

RELATED: The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond Shared Easter Dinner Pics and Fans Have Questions

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Per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) can have harmful effects on human health and the environment. They are still used in numerous everyday products. Together with an international team of researchers, scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon investigated water samples from German and Chinese rivers affected by industrial point sources. Using an innovative method, they identified almost 60 substances that are overlooked by conventional analysis of well-known PFAS. Eight substances were detected in the environment for the first time. The study has been published in Environmental Science & Technology today.

Per- and polyfluorinated chemicals, also called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, contain multiple carbon-fluorine bonds  the strongest bonds in organic chemistry. The compounds are not only extraordinary stable but also repellent to water, oil and dirt  a unique combination. Since the 1940s, PFAS have been used in numerous everyday products: in textiles, cookware, food packaging, cosmetics and medical devices. In addition, PFAS are widely used in industrial applications, for example in the production of fluoropolymers such as Teflon or Gore-Tex.

The very properties that make PFAS attractive for use in consumer products can be problematic for human health and the environment. PFAS can be released into the environment during manufacture, processing, use and disposal of the products, undergo transport to remote regions or bioaccumulate in organisms. The best-known PFAS representatives, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), can reduce the effects of vaccinations, increase susceptibility to infections and result in high cholesterol levels. A study published by the German Environment Agency in 2020 showed that in one fifth of the investigated blood samples from German children and adolescents, the PFOA concentration was above the HBM-I assessment value. Levels must remain below this value to rule out any health impairment. PFOS and PFOA were globally banned, but industrial firms switched to replacement chemicals that may pose similar health and environmental concerns  so-called regrettable substitutes, says Dr. Hanna Joerss from Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereons Institute of Coastal Environmental Chemistry. Using traditional analytical methods, researchers could only consider known compounds for which reference standards were available. Because the chemical industry does not regularly disclose formulations that are confidential business information, scientists often did not know which new PFAS had been introduced into the market.

Shedding light on PFAS dark matter

Before, we had to know which chemicals we were looking for, says Joerss, first author of the study. We now used an innovative method to also investigate the dark matter, the unknown chemicals in the samples. In collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the team applied high-resolution mass spectrometry to trace PFAS in water samples from German and Chinese rivers. The scientists took samples up- and downstream of the wastewater inlets of PFAS manufacturers, cooperating with the Yantai Institute for Coastal Zone Research in China.

Discovery of novel PFAS

Their result: We identified 86 PFAS  only about 30 of them are routinely analysed by specialized labs, eight substances have not been reported in the environment before, says environmental chemist Hanna Joerss. Our results show that environmental and human exposure to PFAS is underestimated  we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. The largest number of compounds was detected in the Chinese Xiaoqing River (63 PFAS) and the German Alz River (59 PFAS). In the Xiaoqing River, the globally banned substance PFOA and traditionally non-investigated PFAS, such as chlorinated PFOA, were the most prevalent compounds. In contrast, replacement chemicals, such as hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid (HFPO-DA), 4,8-dioxa-3H-perfluorononanoic acid (ADONA) und the degradation product perfluoromethoxypropanoic acid (PFMOPrA), were the predominant compounds in the Alz River. These compounds also belong to the PFAS family and should be assessed thoroughly.

It is a cat-and-mouse game involving industry, science and regulation: industry uses new chemicals, their potential adverse effects have to be scientifically proven, then it takes years to decades to ban the substances, says Joerss. Facing several thousands of PFAS, new replacements could be used again and again. Germany and other countries currently work on a restriction of the entire group of PFAS within the framework of the European Green Deal. The present study underlines the environmental importance of this approach.
Kim Teehee was named in 2019 as the Cherokee Nations non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives by Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. She is still awaiting her congressional committee hearing.
State Sen. Mary Daugherty Abrams announcement that she would not be seeking re-election has local party leaders huddling to find candidates who can win in what has become a swing district over the last decade.

Abrams, a two-term Democratic incumbent, has been absent from the legislative session due to an unspecified illness.

The 13th Senate district, which covers all of Meriden and Middlefield and parts of Middletown and Cheshire, has been represented by two Democrats and one Republican since 2011.

Republican Len Suzio won the seat in a special election in 2011. Democrat Dante Bartolomeo unseated him in 2012 then lost to him in 2016. Abrams unseated Suzio in 2018 with 52.4% of the vote and was re-elected in 2020 with 52.75%.

The 2020 election increased the Democratic majority in the Senate from 22-14 to 24-12 and it now stands at 23-13. All 36 seats are up for election in 2022.

Abrams is the sixth senate incumbent to opt against a re-election campaign. Four Republicans and two Democrats are not seeking re-election, most in districts that are competitive, according to TheConnecticut Mirror.

Before changing hands three times in the last decade, the 13th Senate seat had been a Democratic stronghold, with Republicans last holding the seat in the 1970s, prior to Suzios victory in 2011.

Suzio could not be reached for comment, but state and local party leaders said he was not expected to run in 2022. With both Abrams and Suzio out of the race, party leaders on both sides in four towns are screening and recruiting potential candidates before next months party conventions.

I think the opportunity is very good, said Republican state chairman Ben Proto. Its a seat that has swung back and forth over the years. I think the opportunities for the Republicans are excellent.

Candidates have traditionally come from Meriden, where the Democratic Party is interviewing candidates for not only the 13th Senate district but also the 83rd House seat being vacated by Democrat Cathy Abercrombie. The newly redistricted 83rd now includes part of Cheshire in addition to parts of Meriden and Berlin. Meriden Democrats may also have to fill the 84th House seat should state Rep. Hilda Santiago win the partys endorsement for Secretary of the State next month.

In my memory, the Democrats have not had three open seats, said Meriden Democratic Town Committee Secretary Jeff Freiser in an email.

After checking with former Democratic Speaker of the House Chris Donovan, Freiser said the last time the Meriden Democrats did not have incumbents in three races was 1994. Donovan was running for his second term. Thomas Gaffey ran and replaced retiring Democat Amelia Mustone in the Senate. Emil Buddy Altobello ran and replaced Tom Luby in the 82nd House district and James W. Abrams  Mary Daugherty Abrams husband  ran and defeated Republican incumbent Jim Tavegia in the 83rd House district.

The vacancies could mean the traditional four-member Meriden delegation could be made up of candidates from other towns. However, the city does have a weighted number of convention delegates to vote on candidates. In the 13th Senate district, Meriden has 28 delegates to Middlefields two, Middletowns 12 and Cheshires 12, according to Meriden Democratic Town Chair Millie Torres-Ferguson.

The party is not making official candidate announcements as discussions are ongoing, Torres-Ferguson said.

In Cheshire, the Democratic Town Committee met recently to discuss potential candidates for House and Senate races but made no announcements.

Cheshire Democratic Town Councilor Jim Jinks said there isnt an accepted belief that candidates from Meriden are favored to win. Jinks, who lost a close race in the 90th House district to Republican Rep. Craig Fishbein in 2020, said the 13th Senate district requires a strong candidate who can appeal to the electorate.

Its a district that has changed hands often, Jinks said. Its going to be someone focused on wanting to get things done and move these communities forward.

On the Republican side, Meriden resident and activist Gwen Samuel has filed papers with the Secretary of the State to begin an exploratory committee for the seat in the 13th Senate district. Samuel is known in the community as an advocate for education and parent rights.

For me, as an activist who is organizing, it always comes down to politics, Samuel said. We have a one-sided government. There needs to be more diversity.

Samuel said shes discussing issues and evaluating support with GOP leaders in the district. Samuel was a Democrat who became unaffiliated in 2016. She later became a Republican because Republicans at the state level were talking accountability, something desperately needed in the state, she said. She should have a final decision soon.

Proto called Samuel a well-known candidate for her work on parent and education issues statewide.

Gwen is at the forefront of education and parenting, Proto said. Across the state, it comes down to how the voters see Biden and Lamont have handled the economy, parent rights, violent crime. There are a lot of issues out there. 

Torres-Ferguson said Protos assertion that the GOP has an excellent opportunity to pick up the seat is premature given that a Democratic candidate has yet to be named.
There are two well-worn paths for discussing Black religiosity. You can center white evangelicals or Black trauma.

The first path emphasizes the recent large-scale white evangelical support for former President Donald Trump. That story chronicles Black disappointment and their slow but steady exodus from a variety of evangelical settings. The focus is not so much Black faith, but African American reaction to someone elses religious and political decisions.

The second path turns to Black and brown voices in the face of a particular racial trauma. One of our precious Black girls or boys, men or women is mistreated by the state. Writers, thinkers, and theologians do our duty by articulating our resistance to the latest atrocity. This is important work; part of the work of Black resistance is to make sure there is a historical record. People need to know that we see and understand exactly what is being done to us.

But these are all meals at tables set by others. The ingredients have already been predetermined. It is a credit to Black ingenuity that we have often added spices of our own, rearranged the proportions of flour, salt, butter, and vanilla extract to transform the bland cake of Black protest or trauma into something that often transcends the medium.

What happens when Black women in particular get tired of preparing this food for others and decide to make things that are life-giving to them instead? What happens when they want to step out of the spiritual binary of white evangelical or white progressive? Is there freedom for them to simply be Black, female, and Christian?

The desire to create a table of their own is being explored by three women: Michelle Higgins, Ekemini Uwan, and Christina Edmondson in the launch of their Truths Table podcast and now a book entitled Truths Table: Black Womens Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation. I sat down with two of the women from Truths Table to hear about their struggle to build a new space that is unapologetically Black, female, and Christian.

How did you all meet?

Uwan: We both grew up in Black spaces and found ourselves in white evangelicalism while never losing a sense of our own. We found ourselves in those spaces, not because we had an issue with the history of the Black church or the reality of the Black church.

Is it fair to say that sometimes when you are the only Black people in a room, you look for friendly faces?

Edmondson: Yes, you count the Negroes!

The three women formed an immediate bond and began a group text in which they shared the struggles of being Black, female, and Christian doing public ministry in a space dominated by white women and men.

These conversations were life-giving for them, and they thought other Black women might be encouraged by their conversations. Christina said, We took the group chat on our phones and put sound to it. I knew that would be unique. You got an activist, a public theologian, and a psychologist. I knew we could have a generative conversation.

In order for the conversation to be genuine, it had to be authentic and uncontrolled by the money of people who had not loved Black women well.

Edmondson: We made some decisions about funding. Youre going to be limited in radical truthful expression based on how youre financed. With much pay comes much say. We try to be in accord with the Word of God, but we did not want to be limited by other peoples money.

Christian publishing is a billion-dollar industry. Why would advertisers be hesitant?

Uwan: We arent safe. Our faith is central, and we are calling out systemic racism at the same time. Thats a hard sell for some. We talk about Jesus. We talk about holiness, righteousness, reparations, and justice because these are all Christian categories.

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Although the table was built for Black women and by Black women, the rest of the world began listening in. They now have over three million downloads, and it has spread beyond the world of Black women to the wider church. But this spread has not been without controversy.

Edmondson: White supremacy does not care if Black people are listening to Black people. But we started getting quoted by white pastors in their sermons. That is what made us threatening to that establishment.

This led to an actual movement online and in other places to discredit them and their work.

Uwan: I was called Jezebel. We would be called all kinds of names online. It was so crazy. This is no shade. I just dont concern myself with what white conservatives or white progressive are saying. I dont concern myself with that because from when I became a Christian, my home has always been in the Black church. Ive always had a home.

Im not saying anything different from Nannie Helen Burroughs. Im not saying anything different from Fannie [Lou Hamer]. Im not saying anything different from Ida B. Wells. These are the people I look to. You know what I mean?

Edmondson: We were dead set on providing a table of nourishment to Black women. We want to be clear because we know that well-meaning white people will pull what were doing to themselves.

Uwan: Thats how we came up with the tagline: By Black women for Black women. Black women are at the table and non-Black women are in the standing room section. You listen in, but you are not the center.

Enough people were gathered around the table to attract the attention of publishers, leading to the bookwhich, true to the themes of the podcast, centers the questions Black women of faith and others wrestle with.

What kinds of issues did you believe Black women really needed to talk about among themselves?

Uwan: Three themes that are important to me were colorism, singleness, and disentangling following Jesus from the white supremacy embedded in too much American Christianity.

Can you say more?

Uwan: Colorism has been a long-standing issue within our community and has impacted me in ways that are profoundly detrimental. Colorism is discrimination against dark-skinned people in preference for light-skinned people. It occurs among Black people, non-Black people of color, and is also perpetuated by white people.

It impacts everything from the criminal justice system, employment, dating, marital prospects, and perceptions of beauty. I look at the grave consequences of what happened to me when white supremacy was internalized from a theological, historical, sociological, and personal perspective.

I am a single Black woman. For years now, the high rate of singleness among Black women has been fodder for the media. They have used the statistics to stigmatize Black women and pathologize the Black community. I turn that racist argument on its head by exposing the systematic mechanism that cause the high rates of singleness among Black women by using my own dating history as an entry point into this issue.

Im fine with following Jesus. Its not the Christian faith that needs to be decolonized; its the white supremacy embedded in American Christianity. We think its just a problem with white conservative Christians, but I make the familial connections between white progressives and white evangelicals.

People of color become collateral damage in the midst of a family feud between white progressives and white evangelicalswhich results in racial trauma.

Edmondson: I talk about what it means for me to be a Black woman married to a Black man for over 20 years. The unique social strains we experience from racism and misogyny and the challenge to walk together in accountability and kindness in a world that dissects and devalues us.

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Although I trained as a marriage therapist, I wrote that chapter as a wife and not as a clinician. I wrote as someone who has grown, changed, and remains curious about how to love well and maturely within marriage.

Another topic I hope to start a conversation about is accountability within churches. I have a chapter on disciplining the church and how we must hold ourselves to loving correction and accountability or else suffer the judgment of those outside the church.

Bearing in mind the exodus many have taken from the local church over the years as a response to Trumpism, #MeToo/ChurchToo, and insensitivity around COVID-19, for example, there is a need to acknowledge and prepare those who might consider returning on how to do so with the right the questions.

People are owed answers to hard questions about the church in America. I try to offer questions that move the church community to better align with our calling to be a shelter from the storms of life versus a source of deep pain.

Readers will notice that the book is deeply honest about the joys and struggles of three Black women. It chronicles singleness, divorce, and married life, issues in the church and the world. But the authors are also clear that their faith has been crucial to their flourishing.

There will be some people who accept the sociological analysis about the problems facing Black women but reject the spiritual response. Others may share your faith commitments but not like so much talk about so-called controversial issues. Does that trouble you?

Edmondson: We have a lived faith, an embodied faith. I think theres a problem with some brands of Christianity that cannot touch on every aspect of life. We believe that God is concerned about the intimate details of our lived reality from the mundane to the miraculous.

We have people who went to church who were longing for someone to say something about Breonna [Taylor], and the pulpit was silent and it wrecked people from the inside out. If we dont address it, were saying its beyond Gods imagination and compassion. Im not willing to say that about God.

What do you hope Black women get from this book?

Edmondson: I hope they see themselves. I visualize Black women at brunch together passing those books to each other saying, Girl, this is what Ive been thinking aboutthe loneliness in the heart of Black women, the workplace dynamics for Black women. I want to inspire other Black women to write responses to this book.

I know this is for Black women and by Black women, but what can the rest of us who are listening in glean from your writing? What do you hope that we get from it?

Ekemini: My hope is that it would begin to help them desire to learn from people that are further in the margins so they can understand their plight and what they are going through.

Christina: Were not representative of all Black women by any means. But when Black men pick up this book, but they have an opportunity to have a mirror that comes up and to start searching themselves and work through their Black male identity.

You can learn from people that dont share the exact cultural identities. I didnt have to be Anne FrankI didnt have to be a Jewish little girl in a war-torn country to deeply empathize with what it would feel like to be afraid to know that my faith would cost me.

In the tension of that difference, people are going to have an opportunity to do some self-exploration and to see the commonality, the shared humanity, because Black women are fully humanjust as human as everybody else.

Ekemini Uwan and Christina Edmondson are coauthors, alongside Michelle Higgins, of Truths Table: Black Womens Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation, releasing April 26 from Convergent Books.

Esau McCaulley is an associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Illinois. He is the author of Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope and Josey Johnson's Hair and the Holy Spirit.
Jemar Tisby chides Grove City College for calling his invitation to speak in chapel 'a mistake'

Jemar Tisby, a well-known Christian author and president of The Witness, a multimedia platform about race, religion, politics and culture, chided leaders of Grove City College in Pennsylvania for calling a decision to allow him to speak in the schools chapel about race in 2020 a mistake.

A special GCC committee comprised mainly of board members of the unaffiliated Christian liberal arts college released a 23-page report on April 13. They defended the college from allegations of mission-drift. The move came after the college was accused in a petition launched by a group of parents and former students of promoting critical race theory.

Grove City College has not changed. It remains a Christ-centered, conservative institution. GCCs Board and president are firmly committed to its historic vision, mission, values, and character, the committee wrote.

In the report, the committee members highlighted the dangers of critical race theory and several reasons the theoretical framework is incompatible with a biblical worldview.

The report also cited what it considers to be several missteps that led to the theorys promotion on campus, including allowing Tisby, whose works include The Color of Compromise and How to Fight Racism, to speak at the chapel.

Most of those in GCC leadership with whom we spoke observed that the Jemar Tisby that we thought we invited in 2019 is not the Jemar Tisby that we heard in 2020 or that we now read about. They allow that, in hindsight, inviting Mr. Tisby to speak in chapel was a mistake, the committee wrote.

And they say that in the future, such speakers should be treated as one of the many guest lecturers that visit campus to teach a class or speak in a lecture hall; inviting anyone to speak in chapel appears to place the Colleges stamp of approval on the speakers message.

Critical race theory is a framework through which some scholars seek to understand how victims of systemic racism are affected by cultural perceptions of race and how they can represent themselves to counter prejudice. Scholarship on the theory, which is mainly taught in law schools, traces racism in America through the legacy of slavery, the civil rights movement and recent events.

In his speech at GCC in October 2020, Tisby urged his audience to join the racial justice movement. His speech came just months after an explosive racial reckoning was triggered worldwide by the killing of African American George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that May.

The morning of the chapel presentation, I made the settled determination not to douse the fire in my bones. Instead I drew inspiration from the Black church tradition and its hallmark of powerful, poetic, and prophetic preaching, Tisby wrote in op-ed on Substack last Friday.

I went on to explain the urgency of the racial justice movement happening in our midst, and the need to address anti-Black police brutality, he added. I spoke of the complicity and compromise with racism that many Christians had displayed in previous eras, and how we as followers of Christ had to make a decision about whether we would stand on the side of justice in our day.

He said that after his speech, students applauded and the majority of those with whom I spoke in the next few moments expressed support.

Tisby wrote that he was surprised that he was branded in the petition from parents and alumni as an outspoken apologist for CRT.

Im an outspoken apologist for CRT? No. I have studied history. Looking at the sordid acts of cowards who called the name of Christ and compromised with racism is what informs my views, he stressed. This group of parents and former students perpetuates the pernicious practice of labeling virtually any language or concept about race and justice as Critical Race Theory.

After reactions from GCC President Paul J. McNulty and faculty members of Grove City College writing a response decrying the college's handling of the outrage from parents, the schools board of trustees formed a committee to review the situation and produced the report released earlier this month.

The entire report reeks of fear and a reactionary posture inimical to the educational mission of a college or university, Tisby said.

The committee cited racial separatism as a bogeyman even as they paid no attention to the racism that Black people and other people of color experience on a daily basis. A level of prejudice that necessitates we form spaces of refreshing and flourishing (hence the entire existence of historically Black churches and denominations), he added.

In reaction to the claim that he had changed his views between 2019 and 2020, Tisby argued that it could be the leaders of the college who changed to appease their audience.

Perhaps it is not I who changed, but the leaders at Grove City College, he wrote. Perhaps the social and political climate of the nation has caused institutions to more clearly declare their allegiances and some, such as Grove City College, have chosen to side with the forces that conserve business-as-usual when it comes to race.
Christian group decries Turkeys life sentence for human rights advocate

A U.S.-based Christian group has criticized Turkey's sentencing of human rights activist Osman Kavala to life imprisonment on charges of purportedly attempting to overthrow the government.

Kavala, a 64-year-old philanthropist and human rights advocate, has called for the protection of non-Muslim cultural sites, the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and the protection of religious minorities, International Christian Concern said in a statement Tuesday.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on Monday after he was convicted of trying to overthrow the government by financing protests in a case that was seen by Western powers as being politically motivated, Reuters reported, adding that seven others got 18 years for aiding an attempt to overthrow the government.



The U.S. State Department called the sentencing deeply troubling and disappointing.

His sentence is being seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdogans defiance of warnings issued by Western countries last year.



We again call on Turkey to release Osman Kavala, in keeping with European Court of Human Rights rulings, as well as to free all others arbitrarily incarcerated, it said in a statement. We remain gravely concerned by the continued judicial harassment of civil society, media, political and business leaders in Turkey, including through prolonged pretrial detention, overly broad claims of support for terrorism, and criminal insult cases.



Authorities first detained Kavala in October 2017, accusing him of involvement in the 2013 Gezi Park protests. In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled for Kavalas release. He was acquitted in 2020 of those charges, but the ruling was later overturned and combined with other charges in the 2016 coup attempt.



And now, Kavalas sentencing comes one day after the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, which was committed in the early 1900s by Turkish authorities who remain in aggressive denial regarding these events, International Christian Concern noted.



Osman Kavala has endured multiple hardships because of his human rights activism which only seeks the betterment of Turkeys religious minorities, ICCs President Jeff King said.



His sentencing sends a warning to anyone who wishes to raise awareness about the human rights challenges experienced in Turkey. The timing of this announcement sends a particularly dire warning to the survivors of the Armenian genocide, who only just yesterday experienced multiple pressures from the authorities for commemorating the event, King added.



Kavala continually advocated for more dialogue surrounding the Armenian Genocide, an Ottoman-era genocide that killed and displaced an estimated 2 million Armenian Christians, ICC said. In 2007, following the murder of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink by a Turkish nationalist, Kavala pushed for greater reconciliation between Turks and Armenian Christians.



Last April, when President Joe Biden referred to the mass atrocity perpetuated by Ottoman-era Turkish authorities against Armenian Christians as a genocide, ICC had noted that designation was significant because the Turkish government has failed to take responsibility and has actively denied their role in this, allowing them to pursue genocidal policies against Armenians such as in Nagorno-Karabakh, a conflict that started in the 1980s when the Soviet Union began to fall apart.



The Nagorno-Karabakh region, a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, is recognized internationally as part of Muslim-majority Azerbaijan even though it has a majority Armenian population and is controlled by ethnic Armenians. Turkey supported Azerbaijans aggressions against Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, ICC said at the time.



Azerbaijani troops alongside Turkish-paid Syrian mercenaries invaded the region and took control after a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement in December, ICC added. Evidence of violence against Armenian civilians and destruction of religious sites during this conflict suggests some religious and ethnic hatred toward Armenian Christians still held by many, reminiscent of the genocide over a century ago.



ICCs Advocacy Director Matias Perttula explained that Armenian Christians continue to suffer because of the systematic Ottoman campaign of 1915, and the United States owes it to the Armenian community to stand with them in solidarity by recognizing their suffering.



As heirs to the oldest Christian nation, Armenians are an integral part of the global community of Christians and ought to enjoy freedom from persecution, Perttula added.




David Platt says churches must invest more in missions to evangelize 3 billion unreached worldwide

Megachurch Pastor David Platt stressed the importance of mission work among communities that have never heard the Gospel, especially the over 3 billion worldwide who are unreached.

Platt spoke about the need for missions during the Together for the Gospel Conference that was held last week at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville.

He opened his remarks by reading multiple biblical passages, including Matthew 28:18-20, which is commonly known as the Great Commission, in which Jesus tells His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Platt also read Romans 15:18-25, in which Paul of Tarsus wrote about how it has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known and that, in keeping with this, he was planning to travel to Spain to introduce the population to the Gospel.

After reading the passages and giving a prayer, Platt discussed a major problem, specifically that over 3 billion people are currently unreached by the Gospel, calling it a Romans 15 Spain-like ignorance of the Name and Gospel of Jesus.

Platt clarified that the term unreached did not simply mean being an unbeliever, but rather it meant that it was a community where the people had no access to the Gospel.

People are just as lost in Kentucky and the places where most all of us live as they are in Yemen, explained Platt. The difference is there are churches in Kentucky and all the places where most of us live. Gospel-preaching churches.

There are more Christians in this room right now than in all of Yemen. And Yemen has 30 million people ... which means that if youre one of those 30 million Yemenis, suffering and starving right now in the middle of civil war, the likelihood is you will be born, you will live, and you will die without ever even meeting a Christian or hearing the Gospel.

As evidence for his statistic, Platt referenced an evangelical research group known as the Joshua Project, which focuses on spreading awareness of the ethnic groups of the world with the smallest number of Christians.

Platt went on to argue that he believed too many churches were practically ignoring the people and places most unreached by the Gospel.

The Church, our churches, are practically ignoring the three billion people who need the Gospel most, he continued, noting that while American Christians give billions of dollars to missions, approximately 99% of missions giving goes to people and places in the world that already have access to the Gospel.

Is there work to be on those places? Absolutely there is  but open your eyes, brothers and sisters. In the name of missions, we are actually ignoring the Great Commission. The specific command Jesus has given us to make disciples among all the peoples of the world.

Platt stressed the need for churches to commit more resources to missions that go to unreached populations, declaring that the number of unreached people is higher today than ever before and will continue to increase until the church decides to change.

If we are not living and dying to make disciples of unreached nations, then we are disobeying the Great Commission and disregarding the goal of God, he declared.

Platt gave some caveats at this point, noting that while not everyone was meant to be a missionary to the unreached, all of us, every person in whom the Spirit of God dwells has been commissioned by God to live and give and work and pray and die with zeal to see disciples made and churches multiplied and the glory of God enjoyed and exalted among all the nations.

Platts remarks were part of the biennial T4G conference. The theme for this years conference was Last Word, as organizers said that this would be the final T4G gathering.

Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and one of the conference organizers, wrote in the official Conference Guide that it was a tremendous privilege to steward these gatherings for the last 16 years.

And we are excited to welcome you one more time to the mix of messages, singing, praying, panels, books, and fellowship that have marked these gatherings, wrote Dever.

Thanks for making this investment in the unity of the Spirit by uniting together in edification based around the truth. May God continue to make it bear fruit to his glory.

In addition to Platt, other speakers for the final conference included Ligon Duncan, chancellor and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary; John Piper, author and pastor who oversees the theology website DesiringGod.org; Afshin Ziafat, the pastor of Providence Church in Frisco, Texas; and Alistair Begg, senior pastor at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, among others.
Parents lawsuit claims school secretly helped kids adopt new gender identities

Two pairs of parents are suing the staff of a Massachusetts middle school for allegedly encouraging their children to adopt new gender identities without their knowledge or consent.

Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, alongside Jonathan Feliciano and Sandra Salmeron, filed the lawsuit on April 12 in a Massachusetts federal district court with the help of the Child and Parental Rights Campaign and the Massachusetts Family Institute. The organizations help parents navigate issues surrounding gender identity and parental rights.

Several school officials at Baird Middle School are named defendants in the lawsuit, including Interim Superintendent Lisa Nemeth, former Superintendent Todd Gazda, Baird Middle School Principal Stacy Monette, school counselor Marie-Claire Foley and former librarian Jordan Funke.

Ludlow Public Schools Interim Superintendent Lisa Nemeth did not immediately respond to The Christian Posts request for comment.

Foote and Silvestri claim that they were unaware of the transitioning of their young son and daughter, referred to as G.F. and B.F., respectively, in the filing. They say they became aware after their daughters teacher, Bonnie Manchester, told them in December 2020 that their daughter was struggling with her self-esteem. The teacher forwarded the parents an email in which their 11-year-old daughter claimed she was genderqueer," citing her new name and pronouns as he/him.

The parents contacted the school, requesting that the school refrain from discussing the issue with their children and allow them to direct the mental health care of their children.

The complaint states that Foote and Silvestri have sincerely held religious beliefs that human beings are created male or female and that the natural created order regarding human sexuality cannot be changed regardless of individual feelings, beliefs, or discomfort with ones identity, and biological reality, as either male or female.

The parents claim they made it clear they would provide their daughter with the help she needed from a mental health professional, but they believe the school disregarded their instructions.

Foote and Silvestri claim their daughter changed her preferred name at least twice since December 2020 without their knowledge and claim the school continues to address B.F. by whatever iteration of her name she has indicated she prefers despite their request not to do so.

The lawsuit also alleges that the couples son has identified as transgender and requested to be called by a female name, accusing the school of helping him hide this information from his parents.

The lawsuit also describes an assignment given to students in September 2019 by librarian Jordan Funke, which allegedly asked students to create videos of their preferred gender pronouns. B.F. and possibly G.F. participated in the assignment without their parents knowing or consenting to their kids participation.

The other set of parents, Feliciano and Salmeron, claim that they are deliberately hindered from ascertaining whether their children are being secretly counseled about and affirmed in discordant gender identities without their knowledge or consent.

[Efforts] to affirm a discordant student gender identity at school violates parents fundamental rights under the United States and Massachusetts constitutions and violates childrens reciprocal rights to the care and custody of their parents, familial privacy, and integrity, the filing states.

The parents also alleged that the school superintendent at the time, Todd Gazda, publicly referred to opposition to gender transitions as intolerance of LGBTQ people disguised as parental rights. Gazda also reportedly implied that school is the only safe pace for students struggling with gender identity. The plaintiffs pointed out that the School Committee did not refute Gazdas remarks.

The lawsuit accuses Ludlow Public Schools of having a protocol and practice of concealing from parents information related to their childrens gender identity.

Ludlow School Committee Chair James P. Harrington told MassLive that the school district's teachers and staff are looking out for their students' best interests.

Its a slippery slope, he was quoted as saying. We want to support our students the best we can. But we should bring parents to the table, and hope they respond in a loving and supportive way as well.

Bruce Hausknecht, a judicial analyst for the Christian organization Focus on the Family, told The Christian Post that "gender ideology in many of the nations public schools is premised upon secrecy and furthered by school policies that consider parents to be the problem, not the solution."

Hausknecht noted how the secrecy in schools regarding students gender identities has sparked pushback from parents in some states. He cited Floridas Parental Rights in Education Act as an example, a law that requires schools to inform parents about changes in services that could impact their childs well-being.

Hausknect asserted that the situation in Massachusetts is not unique and that parents everywhere must stay vigilant when it comes to protecting their children from the harmful ideologies their schools may be pushing.

It is our primary obligation as parents to 'train up a child in the way he should go...' (Proverbs 22:6 ESV), he wrote. School policies that set schools, not parents, as the final authority are in direct contradiction of that biblical imperative.
California church builds 6 cabins to house the homeless: 'We've never built anything like this'

A Southern California church is planning to house homeless people in six cabins on its property, an endeavor its pastor hopes will serve as a model for other churches looking to help people in need.

Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon is partnering with building group Amikas and social service provider Home Start to offer a safe environment to the local homeless community. The cabins are expected to be fully occupied by Memorial Day.

Pastor Rolland Slade told The Christian Post that the cabins will provide emergency housing for women and children, particularly veteran women with children. The plan is for residents to stay up to 90 days before rotating to permanent or transitional housing.

So in theory, within a year, we'd be able to have [about] 50 people go through ... maybe more, Slade said. The cabin platforms are 20 square feet, and inside living spaces [are] 96 square feet for each cabin, having kind of like a porch to it so they can sit outside in a chair and enjoy the breeze.

So far, the pastor said his church is the only one involved in the project.

But Slade, who became the first African American elected as chair of the Southern Baptist Conventions Executive committee in 2020, hopes what his church is doing will inspire other churches and faith communities to help homeless populations in similar ways.

You know, people have talked to me and said, 'You know, pastor, you're the only one doing this; why are you doing it?' Well, I'm just crazy enough to think about it and to test the waters, so to speak, he said. But we're writing the book. You know, we're documenting all that we've done so that the next church that wants to do this, we can help them.

Meridian Baptist has served the homeless for "a long time" by hosting weekly dinners. Slade said seeing an Amikas demonstration cabin in the City Heights area inspired him to ask the organization to help build one on his churchs property.

Initially, the church's locality did not permit residential use. City council members involvement became necessary, and staff members were assigned to research what parameters were needed for the church to obtain an administrative zoning permit. The case was then assigned to the planning commission, which came up with the administrative zoning permit.

The used cabins are being built on unused property that the church had nicknamed Tumbleweed Village because of the weeds. According to Slade, obtaining a permit and building the cabins has taken almost three years.

It's been interesting because weve never built anything like this; the city had never built anything like it, Slade said. Our insurance company had never seen anything like this. So everybodys kind of been learning, and thats the good part about it. We have been learning, and were doing it the right way.

The platform the sleeping cabins are being built on has been inspected and approved, and all six frames are up and awaiting inspection. Once the framing is done, Slade said the plan is to put in insulation and obtain an electrical permit so the cabins will have electricity.

While he did not detail the number of volunteers helping to construct the cabins, the pastor said phone calls come in every day from people wanting to know about volunteer opportunities to assist in the construction. When volunteers show up, the church has them sign a waiver.

Im hoping that well see a change in attitudes, Slade said. Its going to be baby steps because people definitely have their opinions on why a person is living unsheltered."

I believe that in the 90 days that people are in our cabins the best thing the church can do is love them, Slade added. That's what we're called to do. That's what we will do.

Slade stated that the church is not trying to become a "social service provider."

"We're not trying to say, 'Hey, you live in the village, you have to come to church, he continued. My hope is that because we are doing a good job of loving them, they'll want to be a part of the community, but they don't have to be.

Around the country, other churches and ministries have built tiny homes and structures to house the homeless, people recovering from addiction or even medical patients.
The pandemic killed us': Church running since 1848 to hold final service Sunday

After declining for years, the First Presbyterian Church of Des Moines in Iowa, which has been in operation since 1848, will gather for its final collective hallelujah on Sunday, unable to rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic.

We were declining and the pandemic killed us, Kathy Smith, who has been a member of the church since 1984, told the Des Moines Register.

Already, the nearly 170-year-old church is offering up things for sale such as hymnals, Bibles, communion sets, sanctuary furniture, choir music, tables, chairs, dishes, kitchen supplies that will be available at the end of Sundays service, according to a notice published by the church. Some items will be available for pick up earlier. The church property is also expected to be sold to another church, business or commercial developer according to KCCI.

It's really, really hard. As you can see, this is a beautiful place, the churchs pastor, the Rev. Doug Basler, told KCCI.

He explained that the church only has 40 members. And the last service they had amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, only 15 people showed up.

It was just hard for us to rebound and gain any momentum after the COVID year, Basler told KCCI.

The Christian Post called the church on Friday for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

The First Presbyterian Church, according to the Des Moines Register, was founded by John Stewart Dean in a log building next to the Des Moines River, where the Simon Estes Amphitheater now sits. When the congregation got too large for that space the church held services in the Supreme Court Room in Iowa's "Brick State House" which served as Iowa's Capitol Building from 1856 to 1882. In the early 1900s, it moved to a building at East 12th and Maple in the city.

Mary Lou Aspengren, 94, who is believed to be the churchs longest-serving member, told KCCI she attended her first Sunday school session at the church in 1938 at the East 12th and Maple location. In 1950, according to the Des Moines Register, a fire destroyed the interior of the church and it was rebuilt. The building of a freeway eventually forced the church to move to 31000 Easton Blvd., where they have been since July 1962.

Pastor Basler only joined the First Presbyterian Church of Des Moines a year ago. He had moved from Washington state to take care of his elderly father and had high hopes that the church would flourish again as it did in the past.

"This is where people on any given Sunday might meet God in a very particular way," he told the Des Moines Register.

"The hope was once we started gathering together again we'd reconnect with some of the people who scattered during the COVID year," Basler added. "We just found that didn't happen."

A Gallup poll released earlier this year suggested that just under half of American respondents (49%) have formal church membership, marking an 80-year low. In 1937, 70% of Americans had a formal church membership.

Data from the National Public Opinion Reference Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center from May 29 to Aug. 25, 2021, found that fewer than half (45%) of adults in the United States say they pray daily, a decrease of 13 percentage points from 2007. In 2014, 55% said they prayed daily.

Even though self-identified Christians are still the largest religious demographic in the U.S., they make up a collective 63% of the adult population. When the Pew Research Center began measuring religious identity in 2007, self-identified Christians outnumbered nones 78% to 16%.

The study noted the decline in Christians nationwide was mostly concentrated among respondents who identified as Protestant. Their numbers declined by 10% in the last decade and 4% in the last five years.

Last December, the 221-year-old First Presbyterian Church in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, permanently closed its doors on Christmas Eve due to declining membership and attendance.

The Potters House of Denver also announced plans in December to sell its $12.2 million megachurch in Arapahoe County, Colorado, and go completely virtual amid declining donations amid the pandemic.
Sarah Jakes Roberts encourages Christians to 'get more' out of life, says God is bigger than fear

Sarah Jakes Roberts preached a sermon encouraging believers to hold onto God's promises and plans for their life in the midst of depression, anxiety or fear.

Roberts, a New York Times bestselling author and the daughter of Bishop T.D. Jakes, preached a sermon Friday titled "Getting More Out of Life" at the Los Angeles-based nondenominational church, One: A Potter's House Church, that she co-pastors with her husband, Toure Roberts.

Some Christians have an unhealthy belief that their circumstances cannot be changed, but "you've got to believe there is more," she said, imploring congregants who have this mentality to alter their perspective.

The issue that most of us have is that we're in these circumstances, we're in our lives, we're in our communities, we're in our relationships, and we have given up on the belief that there is something more connected to the moment we are standing in, the 33-year-old pastor said.

We fall into the thinking that there is perhaps something random or coincidental about the experiences that we have possessed. But the reality is that there is always something more connected to it."

Some Christians, Roberts said, have the wrong mindset and display an attitude of staying where they are most comfortable to avoid failing in life.

Maybe my job at the moment at the grocery store is to be a light. Maybe my job when I'm at this facility that I work in is to make sure that I am helping them to create better strategies. What is the more connected to this moment? Roberts said.

You got to believe that there's more. Some of us do believe that there's more; we just think that the more is assigned to other people. That for us, we could just sit down and live in this trapped space because being trapped is better than failing at more."

Typically, in situations when Christians convince themselves that they do not have the potential to do something more with their lives, Roberts said, they convince themselves that they do not believe that they are able to do any better, which stops them from fulfilling their potential.

Christians often miss opportunities to be in relationships, apply for job promotions, write a book or start a ministry due to fear.

Believing in more is expensive. Believing in more requires vulnerability. Believing in more means I've got to be willing to take risks and to get it wrong, Roberts said.

I hear God saying that if you are ever going to discover the more that God placed in you, then you're going to have to believe that there is more. You're going to have to begin to pull levers that you would have never pulled, have relationships that you would have never had ... you're going to have conversations and communication that you would have never had before because you believe that there is more."

Roberts said she strives to apply to her own life the notion that there is always more.

Anytime I finish preaching a message, I go back through my head and I think to myself, What more could I have done? Because next time I get an opportunity to share the Gospel, I want to tap into the more," Roberts noted.

When I'm serving my children, when I'm serving my husband, I'm thinking to myself, What more can I add to your life? What more can I do to make you feel seen? What more can I do to make you feel valued? Because I recognize that part of my posture in life is to believe in more. I believe in more. I'm not able to give up."

Roberts explained that even before she began to pursue her dreams, she had a mindset that recognized her own self-worth and her potential.

Even when I was depressed, as a teenager ... when I dropped out of college, I still believed in more. I was waitressing at a strip club, still believing in more. I was going circling jobs in the newspaper because I still believed in more," said Roberts.

"God I don't believe that this is the end for my life. God, I don't believe that the statistics are right. God, I'm going through a divorce but the divorce can't go through me because I'm believing for more."

In order to believe that "more" lies ahead in the life of a Christian, Roberts stressed that believers must begin to think outside of their circumstances.

I'm trying to show you that there's more of God's Spirit in you than there is the spirit of grief, then there is the spirit of insecurity, then there is the spirit of doubt, then there is the spirit of worry. I'm not saying it's not there. I'm just saying that God's got more, Roberts preached.

I'm not saying that depression isn't real. I'm just saying that God's got more than depression. God's got more than anxiety. God's got more than fear. God's got more than ego. God's got more than pride. God's got more. I know you got a lot on you. I know you got a lot of shame. I know you've got a lot of worry. But I'm telling you that God's still got more grace. Gods still got more mercy. God's still got more anointing."

"I believe in God's more."

Earlier in the sermon, Roberts shared with the audience John 16:7, where Jesus tells His disciples that He is preparing to die. She noted that "Jesus had spent time with His disciples, He's performed miracles, He's healed the sick; the blind see, the lame walk," but it was time for Him to face his fate at Calvery on the cross.

"This is what we would call a modern colloquialism  a plot twist for the disciples," Roberts pointed out.

"The disciples thought they would be following Jesus and just being a part of Jesus' ministry. But, Jesus had come to the point where He allows them into an extra layer. And that extra layer means their job is done in following Him. It's time for Him to go to the cross. It's time for Him to go be with His Father."

The disciples, Roberts said, were left "holding exposure, experiences, but no leader as they had known it."

"The disciples have experienced more, but now they are living in the threat that the more that they have experienced is going to be taken away," Roberts said.

"Has anyone ever been there; where you finally are living in the more, but for some reason, you lose the job, you move to another city, someone passes away, and the more is being taken away?" Roberts inquired.

The disciples, Roberts said, were filled with grief after hearing that Jesus needed to die.

However, later in her sermon, Roberts noted that despite foreshadowing His departure through death, Jesus still leaves the disciples with "something powerful to marinate on."

"Jesus tells them that 'though I am leaving, I'm sending you help and when it's all said and done, you're going to be glad that I sent you the help,'" Roberts said, paraphrasing the Bible verses.

"The disciples are already living in more. And Jesus says that when it's all said and done, if you survive this sorrow, that even the more that you're experiencing right now, is not going to be anything compared to the more that's on the way," she added.
Andrew Garfield drawn to 'spiritual life': If I wasnt an actor, Id be doing theological study

Actor Andrew Garfield who gained international recognition for his superhero role in Spider-Man: No Way Home, revealed that he's drawn to films that deal with faith and spirituality.

Garfield has starred in films based on true stories or about people of faith throughout his career, from playing World War II Army medic Desmond T. Doss in Hacksaw Ridge to evangelist Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

Now he's starring in the true-crime series Under the Banner of Heaven, inspired by Jon Krakauer's bestseller of the same name. In the FX limited series, the actor plays a detective wrestling with matters of faith and murder.

Questions of faith and spirituality, and the mystery of a spiritual life, is what Im drawn to the most, Garfield said in an interview with Vanity Fair.

He continued, If I wasnt an actor, I think Id be doing some kind of theological study, and Dustins adaptation is that. He presents a study and a set of circumstances and unpicks the notion of fundamentalism and extremism, and how it undermines the virtues and the goodness that can come from having faith."

In the past, however, Garfield's views about religion were scattered and confused.

In 2016 Garfield told The Hollywood Reporter, Im not a Christian person. I consider myself pantheist, agnostic, occasionally atheist, and a little bit Jewish, but mostly confused.

It's not clear where Garfield now stands concerning his faith journey because, in 2017, he recalled falling in love with Jesus Christ while playing a priest, Father Sebastiao Rodrigues, in Martin Scorseses film, Silence.

What was really easy was falling in love with this person, was falling in love with Jesus Christ, that was the most surprising thing, the celebrity told America magazine at the time. That was the most remarkable thing  falling in love, and how easy it was to fall in love with Jesus.

In another recent interview with Collider, the 38-year-old revealed that his motivation for portraying characters with faith storylines comes from a fascination with life and death.

Life and death is everything, he noted. The finite nature of being here and then suddenly dying is what intrigues him.

For me, its a very fertile ground that is endlessly interesting, he added. Because if youre dealing with spirituality, youre dealing with faith, then youre really dealing with life and death. And whats more vital? Whats a greater question?
Satanic Temple sues school board for rejecting After School Satan Club

The Satanic Temple has filed a civil suit against a Pennsylvania elementary school only a few days after the district voted down a parents request to create an after-school Satan club for non-religious students.

The Dillsburg-based Northern York County School Board rejected the establishment of an After School Satan Club at the districts Northern Elementary School in an 8-1 vote on April 19. Samantha Groomer, the mother behind the proposal, said she suggested the club as a secular alternative to the Joy El Christian club, which operates in nine of 16 of the countys school districts and offers off-campus activities.

Parents and others gathered at the Pennsylvania school board meeting applauded after the idea for the club was denied, as seen in a clip of the meeting obtained by The York Daily Record. In response, Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves promised the group would pursue legal action.

Mathew Kezhaya, general counsel for The Satanic Temple, told The Christian Post that the issue being litigated is whether the school board discriminated against the Satan-worshipping group.

Kezhaya alleged that school officials told The Satanic Temple that removing the word Satan from the clubs name would improve its chance of approval. Another issue regarding the groups equal access to government property stems from the superintendent reportedly expressing concern about public backlash."

"This is direct evidence that the government improperly considered the popularity of the club's communicative activity when determining whether the club should be entitled to equal access to government property," Kezhaya told CP.



"The First Amendment prohibits a government from considering the popularity of communicative activity when determining whether to facilitate that communicative activity on equal terms with other, similarly situated, groups."

Some school districts have adopted extracurriculars sponsored by the Satanic Temple, such as the Jane Addams Elementary School in Moline, Illinois. In January, the school received criticism for passing out flyers promoting an After School Satan Club, defending the decision by claiming it does not discriminate against any groups looking to rent its facilities.

Similarly, the Lebanon City School District in Lebanon, Ohio, also faced pushback in January for allowing the Satanic Temple to host an after-school activity for elementary school children.

The After School Satan Club contends that U.S. Supreme Court precedent grants the club the right to hold meetings on public grounds after regular hours.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2001 in the case of Good News Club v. Milford Central School that schools operate a limited public forum and that, as such, they may not discriminate against religious speech should a religious organization choose to operate an After School Club on their premises.

In its handbook, the After School Satan Club claims to focus on free inquiry and rationalism, the scientific basis for which we know what we know about the world around us. The group also contends that it uses Satan in its title because, to them, the devil is not a supernatural being.

Instead, Satan is a literary figure that represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny over the human mind and spirit, the handbook reads.

It is our goal to provide a fun, intellectually stimulating, and non-proselytizing alternative to current religious after-school clubs being offered in our public schools, which aim to indoctrinate children into their religious view, the handbook continues.

We are not offering any materials or lectures to your child about Satanism; instead, our focus will be on free inquiry and rationalism, bolstering scientific understandings of the natural world, and nurturing your childs already awesome ability to be curious about the wonders around them.

The Satanic Temple and the Northern Elementary School did not immediately respond to The Christian Posts request for comment.
Federal judge temporarily blocks Biden admin. from ending Title 42 border policy

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Biden administration from ending Title 42 restrictions enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic aimed at limiting asylum seekers who can apply for protection at the U.S. and Mexico border.

Judge Robert Summerhays, a Trump appointee, granted a motion for a temporary restraining order preventing the Biden administration from lifting Title 42 rules issued under the Trump administration in March 2020. A lawsuit against the administration's plan was filed by Missouri, Louisiana and Arizona.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced the restraining order on Monday.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention implemented the measure to limit the number of asylum seekers applying for protection at the U.S. and Mexico border. But the CDC announced its decision to end the order on April 1, with the Biden administration intending to implement the termination on May 23.

"Today, the Court announced its intention to grant a temporary restraining order in Missouri, Louisiana, and Arizona's lawsuit against the Biden Administration over their planned suspension of Title 42," Schmitt wrote. "This temporary restraining order is expected to keep Title 42 in place until further court proceedings, a critical win for border security and the rule of law. My Office will continue to fight to secure the border and protect Missourians."

Former Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan, who now serves as a visiting fellow at the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, told The Christian Post the judge's ruling the right decision for health protection in this country."

Homan believes Title 42 has been very successful in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and improving border security.

The truth is we want to keep less infection from coming to the United States but also give border patrol more operational capability because when they close the borders, less people are coming, and that means border patrol ... can more than hold down the line, they're vigilant, to protect our national security, the former Trump administration official said.

Several Democrats voiced opposition to lifting the public health directive, including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly of Arizona. As Roll Call reported, the senators wrote in a March 24 letter to President Joe Biden that while Title 42 "should not be in effect indefinitely," it should remain in place until the administration implemented a better plan to process migrants' claims.

The senators warned that abruptly ending a policy without a clear plan for replacing it would "significantly increase the strain on [Department of Homeland Security], border communities, and local nonprofits that are already near or at capacity."

The senators also contend that the administration had not communicated with local government and community leaders in Arizona about changes to the policy.

Last month when talking to reporters, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., also voiced opposition to lifting Title 42.

"If anything we should be looking at permanency on Title 42," he said. "Maybe that would spur us to get a good immigration policy that works for Americans and secure our borders  the borders have to be secure," he said.

The progressive legal organization American Civil Liberties Union claimed in a March 29 statement that it believes Title 42 has been "misused as a border enforcement tool."

"Our government has the tools it needs to safely screen people at the border, as our laws require, to determine whether they qualify for asylum or other humanitarian protections," the group wrote. "The CDC should resist any political interference from the White House and end Title 42 in its entirety."

The CDC had voted to extend the Title 42 order in late January due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant. This past March, the CDC delayed implementing an order to rescind Title 42 until May 23 to allow Homeland Security to prepare for a dramatic increase in border crossings within the next few months.

According to federal statistics submitted to a federal court earlier this month, DHS reported 221,303 total encounters at the Southwest Border during March. As CBS News reported last month, the government carried out 1.7 million deportations under Title 42.
Black leaders criticize Papa Johns, Coca-Cola for supporting Black Lives Matter

African American leaders with a conservative-leaning community activist organization are calling for American corporations to repent of their public support for Black Lives Matter and other organizations that are intentionally hurting communities by supporting movements to defund police departments.

Pastor Marc Little, executive director for the conservative lobbying organization CURE America Action and board member of Concerned Communities for America (CCA), helped deliver a pledge last week to the headquarters of Papa Johns and Coca-Cola in Atlanta urging executives to signal support of police officers.

CCA, which spearheaded the pledge initiative, aims to "equip and empower minority communities to pursue political liberation by shifting the narrative on political and social agendas via the promotion of economic empowerment, education, and social equity." Meanwhile, CURE America "advocates for conservative principles based on Christianity, Capitalism, and the Constitution," according to its website.

The pledge argues that Papa John's vocal and financial support of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation and its affiliates was short-sighted and did not fully contemplate the ramifications of their words and actions."

Little told The Christian Post the agenda being pushed by corporations such as Papa Johns, Coca-Cola, Peloton and others is false and misleading.

The narrative that corporate media would have us believe is that the black community stands against law enforcement. Thats not true, said Little. The black community realizes the reason why law enforcement is more focused in the inner cities where black and brown people live is because thats where more of the crime is concentrated. Thats just a fact."

And to suggest that we want police taken out of our communities where most of the crime is committed just doesnt make any sense, he added.

Little, an ordained pastor and graduate of Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California, pointed to a 2020 Gallup poll that found roughly 81% of blacks want police to spend the same amount or more time in their area. Additionally, 20% of African Americans surveyed said they want more police in their areas.

The pastor said thats a narrative quite different from the one pushed by mainstream media networks, particularly during the George Floyd protests and riots in the summer of 2020.

The real community, the community you dont hear in Twitter, in Facebook, these platforms are controlling the narrative in our culture, theyre controlled by a whole bunch of bots  and its a narrative that drowns out truth, he argues.

Little called BLM leadership self-proclaimed Marxists and added that Marx himself eventually became a Satanist. He said corporate-led support for a group that has publicly espoused anti-Christian views needs to stop.

Corporate America first has to stop funding things that hurt our communities. ... Thats what the pledge says, Little said. That we now realize the error of our ways, and were going to stop funding organizations that are intentionally hurting our communities by increasing the lack of safety by defunding police departments.

He suggested companies instead pivot to efforts such as funding public-private partnerships, for instance, that help communities that cant afford police body cameras for officers and where funding either isnt available or city leaders don't have the willpower to stand against the forces of BLM.

Little voiced empathy for employees of corporations like Papa Johns and others promoting what he described as an agenda that in many respects [that] can be determined to be Satanic.

Its very real, people are dealing with it in real time, knowing the vaccine is not a vaccine, knowing the corporations they work for like Coke, Peloton, Papa Johns, who are behind an organization thats hurting our communities.

He advises Christians working in such environments to connect more deeply with their convictions.

What is your assignment? Are you really sold out for your assignment? he asked. Why does the Church exist? To glorify God (Matt. 5:13-16), and to make disciples of nations.

So, wherever you are in the marketplace, do you understand your assignment?

Little acknowledged the realities often faced by those employed in the medical profession and other sectors that often require some pretty difficult decisions.

If I were working at a hospital and I was required to assist in performing an abortion, that would be my red line. I wouldnt do that, he said. But there are other sorts of environments by which, as believers, we are called to change the atmosphere, where were called to be salt and light. And how we do that  really becomes the question.

And so in the workplace and the marketplace, thats how we convert one coworker at a time. And then ultimately, the environment now is opposed to what leadership is doing and then what happens? Leadership doesnt have any support.

Ultimately, Little believes corporate America is pushing an agenda that has little to do with capitalism or the free market and everything to do with ideological narrative-setting.

Whether we wanna recognize it or not, when we look at [Critical Race Theory], when we look at the defund the police movement, these things are birthed out of radical leftist ideology that is being pushed by people who are no longer ashamed to say that they are Marxists," he argues.

"We just gloss over that. Once upon a time, when you would say that, you would get a McCarthy-style hearing, once upon a time. We were running these people out of government. Now theyre allowed and theyre not ashamed. And we dont go after them anymore, why, I don't know. Probably because the people who believe as they do  these are the people who have taken hold of our government and theyre not ashamed of it.
Ed Young says fellowship, worship essential to Christian life

Pastor Ed Young of Fellowship Church said God loves all Christians right where they are, spiritually with Jesus and relationally and physically when it comes to serving others. Still, they should always be attempting to grow in worship.

The 61-year-old pastor told his Grapevine, Texas-based congregation Sunday that there are many forms of worship that are aspects of Christian fellowship. He stressed that all are needed to build the national and global Church.

The first aspect of fellowship in the Church, Young said, is having a foundation built on Jesus.

In Matthew 7, Jesus said we have a choice. We can either build our lives on the foundation of sand, [where] you will live in a sand trap, or you have an opportunity to build your life on the rock, Young preached in a sermon titled Heres The Church.

The Church is here to glorify God; the Church is here. And we'll be here forever and ever, Young continued.

The pastor emphasized that the Church has a lifelong purpose to allow Christians to live together in a community with the common goal of bringing glory to Jesus.

It's the only thing Jesus ever constructed, the Church. Our foundation is Jesus. There are over 2.2 billion believers worldwide. There are more believers worldwide than in India and China combined, Young said.

We have the juice  to truly go after the world's problems. Universities don't. Governments don't. Parachurch organizations don't. We don't. The Church does. The Church is the hope of the world. The Church has this energy, he added.

Learning and love are two parts of fellowship that the Church should strive to achieve, according to Young.

God's love from above. That's the solution to our pollution. For God so loved the world. Love is not God. God is love. He's the initiative taker. He saw us and did something about it because of His love, Young expressed.

God loves you. He loves you right where you are. But as we said around here, He loves you too much to allow you and me to remain where we are, he added.

Young emphasized that obedience is the secret to the Christian life, adding: "God has the best idea. He has an ideal idea for your life. And the way to discover it is to get involved in the Church."

"You have to know Jesus personally," he continued. "Then, you're a part of the family of God. You're born again into the family of God. You're part of the Church, and part of what's going to happen to you as you discover this ideal will be doing what the Lord Jesus wants you to."

Worship is glorifying God and expressing love to God, Young said. There are different ways and styles of worship that should transcend everything a Christian does.

Don't waste your worship. Realize it's all about Him. It's all about God. It's all about giving Him glory and honor, Young said.

Fellowship is incomplete if a Christian does not allow other believers into their lives through sharing, demonstrating transparency about difficult issues.

Some of us get into these groups or situations or friendships with fellowship and we're like, 'Man, I probably shouldn't share that because if I shared that, they might judge me. And they wouldn't.  Just the opposite is true, Young said.

Young encouraged his congregation to share what they are going through with others in small groups because, many times, support, empathy and sympathy can be the result.

When we share what we're going through, I bet you cash money, somebody in your group or team is going to be like, I struggle with the same situation. I've gone through the same pain or I'm in that same flow with my career, he said.

The Church should be hospitable and innovative to have fellowship that is pleasing to God, Young noted.

We are to be welcoming. We are to be understanding and I just love that about fellowship. People want to do life with one another [in] hospitality, Young said.

The pastor addressed those in the audience that are not regular church attendees. He advised them to make church a priority, as it's necessary for fellowship.

It should be a priority in your life. If not, you're not living for the Lord. We're part of God's family. That's why this is so important; it is God's family, Young said, pointing the congregation to 1 Timothy 3:15.

God is using the Church for His eternal purposes.  The Church will last forever; the school will not last forever, sorry. Your organization will not last forever, your legacy will not last forever. Those trust funds you're trying to give to your kids will not last forever. What's your building? I mean, it's not going to last forever. The only thing that lasts forever is the Body of Christ, he added.
'Finishing the task': Misconceptions about Christian missions to the unreached

In the aftermath of American missionary John Chau's controversial death, mission agencies and scholars are refuting misconceptions that have emerged about the way the Gospel is being brought to the worlds most unreached communities.

While Western missionaries are part of the effort to fulfill the Great Commission, the predominant manner in which unreached people groups and tribes worldwide are being presented with the Gospel is through people who have more culturally in common with them than your average foreign missionary.

To reach them, the Lord is using people like Greg Buckingham, a layperson who spearheaded a California megachurchs mission to bring the Good News to an ethnic minority group located in the mountainous terrain of Myanmar.

Buckingham is not a pastor or an evangelist with extensive biblical education who spent years in mission training to bring the Gospel to the lost. Rather, he's a businessman whose skills God used to bridge a gap between the biblically unengaged and unreached Rumai Palaung community in the Shan state with a local pastor hungry to show the predominantly Buddhist people group the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

A community that was once considered to be unengaged with Christianity, the Rumai Palaung in the Shan state now have their own vibrant church community thanks to the efforts of leaders and missionaries from Coast Hills Church in Aliso Viejo, California  an effort that began in 2008.

But the way in which Buckingham and the Coast Hills team went about bringing the Gospel to that community was not by going themselves to encounter the Rumai Palaung. Rather, it was centered on empowering the local Baptist church and pastor in that region to bring the Gospel to the ethnic community located in their own backyard.

Coast Hills method was in line with the way most global mission work is being done today to fulfill the Great Commission.

The one thing that Christian mission history has taught us is that the best evangelists are folks who belong to the same people as themselves, Arun Jones, the Dan and Lillian Hankey associate professor of world evangelism at Emory Universitys Candler School of Theology and a former Methodist missionary, told The Christian Post.

John Allen Chau really is quite unique. That is not how things work, even in evangelical circles, Jones added, suggesting that the era of solo-pioneer missionaries from the West is just about over.

The vast majority of evangelical groups are partnering with evangelicals around the world. It really needs to be a joint effort. Because there are resources we have that can be helpful but we do need the wisdom of the local people to help and guide us in terms of how we can work together to best proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The historical narrative of missionaries being white colonialists in pith helmets is "anachronistic," according to Jones, and it doesnt belong to the 21st century.

The way global missions is done today is different than the way it was done in the 19th or early 20th centuries as national churches in the undeveloped parts of the world have grown in strength over the last several decades and are now capable of leading their own efforts to reach the lost people groups in their regions.

'Finishing the Task'

Today, there are at least 343 people groups throughout the world with populations of 500 or more where there are no known church planting movements present. This is according to the nondenominational missionary coalition Finishing the Task.

Finishing the Task was first launched in the mid-2000s as a global network of churches, denominations, church planters and mission agencies that have committed to planting churches in communities that are considered to be unengaged, unreached people groups (UUPG).

Finishing the Task defines UUPGs as communities where no missionary agency or church has yet taken responsibility to start church planting efforts.

Although 343 UUPGs might seem like a lot, there were 4,000 people groups with no known Bible movements present over 13 years ago when Finishing the Task first began.

But since then, 382 churches, missionary agencies, and other organizations have committed to launching their own efforts to bring the Gospel to one or more of the groups highlighted on the networks UUPG list.

Finishing the Task Director Paul Eshleman told CP that the list was compiled by looking at research done by organizations like the Southern Baptist Conventions International Missions Board.

We just decided to start with every people group over 100,000, Eshleman explained. In 2005, there was about 639 groups with about 700 million population of the groups. We just began to challenge one another and have a meeting each year and everybody would report on which groups they got engaged. We try to work on common systems of measurement so that we were measuring the same thing.

The movement has grown rapidly in the decade-plus and has led to the placement of as many as 4,766 missionary teams (over 28,000 missionaries) worldwide, which have planted at least 136,556 churches in UUPG communities. As many as 2,800 people groups have been engaged with full-time workers.

We wanted to always have a major list in front of people. So we lowered it after we got most of the 100,000-plus groups engaged, Eshleman said. We lowered it to groups with 50,000 [population] then to 25,000, then to 10,000 and so we are down to 500 right now. Well keep dropping as people sign up to go there.

According to Finishing the Task, 80 percent of the missionaries that are sent to directly evangelize with these groups are local missionaries or those who have a closer cultural upbringing to that of the target people group.

It was through Finishing the Task that Buckingham and Coast Hills found out about the need to bring the Gospel to the Rumai Palaung people in Myanmar, an impoverished farming community of over 100,000 where there was believed to be no known church planting movement present.

Today, there are hundreds of Rumai Palaung believers in Christ. There are also at least two house churches and one physical church building within the Rumai Palaung community in the Shan state, according to Buckingham. This would not have been possible if it weren't for the partnership Coast Hills had with Campus Crusade and the Wa Baptist Church in Lashio.

The partnership formed thanks to an unexpected visit Buckingham made to a local orphanage.

"When we got up to Lashio [for the first time], which was our home base, we partnered with an elder board with the Wa church," Buckingham told CP. "We knew where we had to go to reach the people and then the thing was how to figure out the strategies to go. We used the Jesus film as one of our strategies and then we found a pastor up there. He was great. We trained him up and we equipped him with the Jesus film and different things. He kind of led the way. Some of the people he pastored were Rumai Palaung. That is how they planted that church up there.

Coast Hills offered financial support and strategic advice for the pastor and those who were on the front lines trying to spread the Gospel to the Rumai Palaung.

The first Jesus film that we had, they were just shotgunning it all over the place and they would have chiefs that would kick them out [of the village] and stuff like that. The education level was minimal. Its not like it is in the United States, Buckingham detailed. We asked, Do you have a friendly village? Why dont you make that your hub and then go out to the different villages to build relationships through people in those villages and start to work that way instead of the shotgun approach? We just helped them form those strategies and kept increasing.

Just as Coast Hills partnered with the Wa Bible Church, Matt Kirkas, the Southeast Asia director for Partners International, a nonprofit that partners with national churches and other local mission agencies to bring the Gospel to hundreds of unreached people groups across the 10/40 window, says the future of mission efforts to unreached groups will be through indigenous national churches.

An important shift has been in the area that the national church has begun to grow a mission vision of their own, Kirkas explained. So for example, when I first came to [Southeast Asia] there was very little information about unreached people groups, very little research data, as well as church leaders talking about it. That has changed considerably and now we have networks and meetings and consultations, which raise the profile of the remaining people groups in their countries that need to be reached with the Gospel.

Kirkas said the best illustration for the way global missions to the unreached is being carried out today is by comparing it to how the United States fought the war against the Islamic State.

The way we fight wars today is we come to Kurdistan and we collaborated with Kurdish fighters there. What do we do? We dont have American troops shooting the guns, we actually put special forces in there to help them plan a raid, to train their soldiers, to call in air support when you might need it, Kirkas said. That is a bit what we are seeing today in missions as well because the national church has grown and matured and has people now that are called to engage unreached people.

The unreached groups are categorically different than unengaged unreached people groups.

The common definition of an unreached people group and the one used by the Joshua Project is a community where less than 2 percent of the population are authentic Christ followers. This is not to be confused with Finishing the Tasks definition of UUPG, where there is absolutely no missionary agency or church organizing church planting efforts in that community.

According to the Joshua Project, there are over 7,000 unreached people groups (less than 2 percent Christian) worldwide today.

Bringing the Gospel to unreached populations is important because of the fact that there are as many as 2.1 billion unevangelized people in the world today, according to Greg Kelley, head of the U.S.-based nonprofit World Mission. World Mission is part of the Alliance for the Unreached.

The demographic trends and the lack of prioritizing these areas is causing the number of unevangelized to increase. If it is 2.1 billion unevangelized today, what they say is by 2025, there will be an additional 165 million, Kelley told CP. Meanwhile, the Church is sending out more Bibles and the church is sending out more missionaries and more money but that number is increasing. What does that tell you? We are prioritizing the wrong thing.

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Celebration Church report paints founders Stovall and Kerri Weems as abusive, mentally troubled Pastor claims report is 'character assassination without real basis'

An internal report recently released by the 12,000-member Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida, paints founding Pastor Stovall Weems and his wife, Kerri, as abusive, mentally troubled divas who constantly exploited church staff and finances until they were forced to resign from all their positions in the church earlier this month.

The Weemses and Celebration Church, which they founded in 1998, are currently locked in a legal battle seeking to settle dueling claims of financial fraud involving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The single word used most frequently to describe Stovall Weems was narcissist. Nearly every witness we interviewed used that specific word, states the 22-page report produced by the Nelson Mullins law firm.

The law firm was retained to conduct an investigation after the church's board of trustees voted in January to suspend the Weemses over "questionable financial practices and other pastoral issues under the Weemses leadership."

According to the report, the Weemses leadership has been inconsistent and unbiblical" since at least 2019. Investigators allege that Stovall Weems leadership was marked by rampant spiritual and emotional abuse, including manipulation, a profound sense of self-importance and selfishness, superiority and entitlement, overbearing and unreasonable demands on employees time, a lack of accountability or humility, and demands of absolute loyalty.

On behalf of Celebration Church, attorneys said they interviewed more than 20 current and former senior leadership members, staff, former trustees, other advisors and consultants. Some reflected trauma as they shared their experience working with the Weemses. The Weemses refused to be interviewed as part of the investigation, the report says.

In a statement to News4Jax, the Weems dismissed the report as concocted.

This report is completely concocted by the Trustees and their lawyer as a character assassination without real basis. The charges are as they always were  untrue and without a hard basis in fact, as a thoughtful investigation would show. Despite my numerous requests for the usual independent financial audit for 2021, as reflected in the board minutes, they have not done so, choosing instead to conduct their own misinformed investigation over months without input from those most informed, Weems' statement reads.

How can they claim they conducted an investigation into improper financial transactions without a financial audit? If this is now a board-led church where is their responsibility for the Churchs dismal financial performance since I allowed them to take over with a new Lead Pastor at the beginning of 2020? And where is the oversight? As I have said all along, I have nothing to hide. That has not changed. I shall continue a righteous path with a new ministry despite these shameful efforts."

One employee cited in the report alleged that Weems once made them drive to a liquor store to get a bottle of bourbon for his house late at night because he did not want to be seen purchasing liquor. Another employee claimed Weems had them buy a car and deliver it to his house, but never offered the employee transportation back to their own home.

After the employee delivered the car as demanded, Weems told him to find his own ride home, the report states.

The Weemses allegedly reveled in the comfort of private charter flights to exotic locations, a full house staff and personal assistants to respond to their exacting demands. The report claims that the "Weemses compensation, staff, travel and expense accounts comprised approximately 10% of the Churchs total revenue."

Despite these privileges, the Weemses treated people who attended to them as inferior, the report says. In 2020, Weems drafted a document that instructed the Weemses assistants on how they were to keep each of the three residences so the Weemses would not be bothered during their transitions between homes. This was so the Weemses could focus on their spiritual acuity at all times.

The report further claims that both Kerri and Stovall Weems began exhibiting mental instability following a Seder service on Passover in 2018, where Stovall Weems said he had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.

During the service, which The Christian Post previously reported, Weems told his congregation that he met Jesus Christ on Good Friday and was surprised by His personality.

"The first thing that I was taken back with is like Jesus' personality. This is how Jesus was when He was on the earth. I heard His voice ... the cadence of His voice. I can sense His mood. I can sense His presence, like He has a personality, Weems said at the time. I can't describe the closeness that I felt with Jesus. He didn't look at me. I never saw the front of his face. He was wearing a white garment. He had brown hair."

According to the report, Kerri Weems allegedly became suicidal after her husbands personal encounter with Jesus, and the couple didn't take time off from ministry to address her struggle.

Witnesses to the events at the Weems residence in the days following the Encounter describe Weems as visibly shaking and sobbing. They also confirmed that Kerri Weems was distraught and overwhelmed by her husbands behavior, the report reads. Kerri Weems has a history of clinical depression, a topic which she openly discussed. People close with Kerri Weems stated that she expressed being suicidal as a result of the Encounter and Weems behavior following it. Despite repeated requests by many, the Weemses refused to take any meaningful time off after the Encounter to process the event.

Investigators didn't take a position on whether Weems' claims of an encounter with Jesus were real, stating there is no way for them to "confirm or deny  legally or factually  what was going on inside Weems mind during that time."

"There is evidence that the Weemses were under a tremendous amount of

personal stress during this time that may have impacted Weems mindset that evening," the report says.

The church further detailed allegations of financial abuse previously alleged in a lawsuit earlier this year. 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," claiming they were in violation of Florida statute and church policies because "neither Stovall nor Kerri Weems perform[ed] 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.

Investigators for the church recommended seven actions against the Weemses. They include that the church "[a]ccept the resignation of Stovall and Kerri Weems as employees of Celebration effective April 15, 2022 without further compensation or benefits;" "pursue the removal of Stovall and Kerri Weems from any positions of authority relating to the church, Honey Lake Farms, Honey Lake Clinic and AWKNG;" and "require Stovall and Kerri Weems to account for and return to the church all funds misappropriated by them."
Virginia church leaving UMC over LGBT debate, joining theologically conservative network

A United Methodist Church congregation in Virginia plans to join a theologically conservative alternative to the mainline Protestant denomination due to issues with the UMC's ongoing debate over homosexuality.

Holston View UMC of Weber City, which has over 300 members, recently announced that it is pursuing affiliation with the Global Methodist Church and leaving the UMC.

Meant to be a denomination where theologically conservative United Methodists can join to leave their churchs seemingly endless debate over LGBT issues, the GMC is scheduled to officially launch this Sunday.

A significant issue was incidents of some UMC leaders refusing to enforce Book of Discipline rules banning the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.

Holston View Pastor Chuck Griffin told The Christian Post on Tuesday that his congregation had not yet left the UMC but rather it was planning to pursue separation once once a clear path develops.

Our church's top administrative board, the Church Leadership Council, voted 10-0 on March 24 to announce our intent, with one person abstaining and one absent, he explained.

We delayed the public announcement until we felt we had fully communicated the decision to church members.

Griffin spoke well of the GMC, referring to the denomination as the obvious continuation of traditional Methodism, which goes back to the 18th century.

The Methodist movement traditionally has treated Scripture as the inspired word of God, emphasizing specific biblical concepts like growing spiritually through regular engagement with God's abundant grace, Griffin told CP.

We expect the GMC will be a place where some lost or poorly practiced traditions of Methodism will be recovered.

The Rev. Tim Jones, director of communications for the Holston Conference, told CP that he was saddened to learn about the congregations plans. He noted that the regional body has a team working to create a fair and thoughtful process for churches to consider disaffiliation in a way that honors our relationships and complies with church law.

Jones also provided CP with a statement from Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett, acknowledging that some of our congregations and clergy are considering withdrawing from The United Methodist Church to become a part of another expression of Methodism such as the Global Methodist Church.

It will sadden us if these churches and clergy discern to withdraw. However, we will send them forth with our blessing to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, she continued.

Over the past few decades, the UMC has weathered increasingly divisive debate over its official stance labeling homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching, including a ban on clergy performing same-sex weddings or being in a same-sex romantic relationship.

Many conservatives within the denomination have taken issue with liberal leadership refusing to enforce the UMC Book of Discipline rules on LGBT issues, leading some to consider leaving the UMC over the debate.

Before the pandemic lockdowns began in early 2020, UMC leaders were planning to consider measures aimed at amicable separation for the denomination, to be voted on at that years General Conference.

However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the churchwide conference was postponed on multiple occasions, which only increased tensions among some liberals and conservatives.

In March, UMC leadership announced that they were once again postponing General Conference, this time to 2024, citing ongoing concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest postponement led organizers of the Global Methodist Church to decide to launch the new denomination on May 1, rather than their previous plan to launch after General Conference approved a separation plan.
Judge holds Trump in contempt of court, orders him to pay $10K each day until he complies

A New York judge has held former President Donald Trump in contempt of court for refusing to hand over documents as part of an investigation into financial dealings and will have to pay $10,000 every day until he complies.

Judge Arthur Engoron of the New York County State Supreme Court ruled Monday that Trump is in contempt of court by refusing to follow an earlier order surrounding the finances of the Trump Organization.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office has been investigating the Trump Organization over concerns about its financial practices, had subpoenaed Trump for various documents relating to the investigation.

James' office is investigating Trump and the Trump organization in an attempt to determine if they "improperly inflated" the value of Trumps assets on annual financial statements to secure loans and tax benefits.

Today, justice prevailed, James said in a statement. For years, Donald Trump has tried to evade the law and stop our lawful investigation into him and his companys financial dealings. Todays ruling makes clear: No one is above the law.

Trump's lawyers have argued that Trump doesn't possess any records that the attorney general's office is asking for. However, Engoron contends that Trump's legal team has not offered any details about how such a search was conducted. Trump's lawyers plan to appeal the judge's contempt of court ruling.

In February, Judge Engoron rejected Trump's attempt to challenge the attorney generals subpoena, instead stating that the former president had to comply in full.

After Trump refused to provide the documents by the end of March, James' office filed a motion for contempt on April 7 against Trump.

The New York Times reports that in a hearing on Monday, an attorney stated that the attorney general's office is preparing to file an action against Trump in the near future, likely a lawsuit.

Trump released a statement last week denouncing the investigation as a never-ending Witch Hunt that ignored more pressing problems in New York.

"[T]he racist and highly partisan Attorney General of New York State, failed Gubernatorial candidate Letitia James, should focus her efforts on saving the State of New York and ending its reputation as a Crime Capital of the World, instead of spending millions of dollars and utilizing a large portion of her office in going after Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization, stated Trump.

This never-ending Witch Hunt must stop. We dont need racist political hacks going after good, hardworking people for highly partisan political gain. The people of our Country see right through it all, and wont take this Radical Left sickness anymore. Make New York Great Again!
Orrin hatch, GOP senator who cosponsored Religious Freedom Restoration Act, dies at 88

Orrin Hatch, the long-serving conservative Republican senator from Utah who co-sponsored the Religious Freedom Restoration Act back in the 1990s, has died at age 88.

The Orrin Hatch Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for political civility and bipartisan policies, announced that Hatch had passed away on Saturday evening.

A. Scott Anderson, chairman of the Hatch Foundation, said in the announcement that he considered Hatch a man of wisdom, kindness, character, and compassion.

He exemplified a generation of lawmakers brought up on the principles of comity and compromise, and he embodied those principles better than anyone, stated Anderson.

In a nation divided, Orrin Hatch helped show us a better way by forging meaningful friendships on both sides of the aisle. Today, more than ever, we would do well to follow his example.

Democrat President Joe Biden, who served alongside Hatch in the U.S. Senate for several years, gave his condolences in an official statement released Sunday.

I saw that energetic, sharp-elbowed Orrin in the many battles we had over tax policy, the right of workers to join a union, and many others, said Biden.

At the same time, Senator Hatch was also a man of deep faith; a gentle soul who wrote songs and poems, and shared them with friends, colleagues, and the world. This was the Orrin who looked out for the people who often didnt have a voice in our laws and our country.

Biden also recalled working alongside Hatch on federal legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Childrens Health Insurance Program.

He was, quite simply, an American original, he continued. Jill and I send our deepest sympathies to Elaine, and all of the Hatch children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Born in 1934 and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hatch represented Utah in the Senate from 1976 to 2019, the longest in the states history.

In 1993, Hatch cosponsored the Religious Freedom Restoration Act alongside Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts; the legislation passed in a vote of 97-3 and President Bill Clinton signed it into law.

In the years since, RFRA has often been cited in religious liberty cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, including when charities and businesses have sought exemptions to controversial policies like being compelled to pay for birth control coverage or forced to work at or provide services for same-sex weddings.

In an interview with The Christian Post in 2014, Hatch explained that corporations were meant to also have legal protection under RFRA, and that it did not apply only to individuals.

"[RFRA was] meant to protect everybody and businesses are important as well. If we can impose corrupt or wrong rules on businesses, that would spread corrupt or wrong rules throughout the country," said Hatch. "Business should have to live up to these principles and we ought to respect businesses that do."

In addition to RFRA, Hatch also championed the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998 and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act in 2000.

For these and other efforts to advance religious freedom, Becket Fund, a law firm that has argued religious liberty cases at the Supreme Court, honored Hatch in 2021 with its Canterbury Medal.

I am proud to have preserved religious freedom for people of all faiths through legislation such as RFRA, which is needed today more than ever, said Hatch in remarks last year.

Religious freedom was sewn into the very fabric of this country from the beginning, and protecting the right of conscience for every American is essential to the future of our republic.
Jesus mural unscathed by fires at historic Chicago church may not survive demolition

A mural depicting Christs resurrection was left relatively unscathed by a series of fires at a 128-year-old Chicago church that the city determined to be unsalvageable. The church's pastor sees the murals survival as a comforting sign from God of better things to come.

The mural shows Jesus ascending to Heaven with angels around Him and the Bible verse Luke 24:51 that says, "While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven."

Antioch church. Heavy fire. Roof is in. Loss will be extensive pic.twitter.com/tXyOgs1k7G  Chicago Fire Media (@CFDMedia) April 15, 2022

A fire broke out at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Englewood shortly after a Good Friday service led by Pastor Gerald Dew, NBC's Chicago affiliate WMAQ reported, adding that the fire was accidentally caused by a worker using a propane torch to repair the church's roof.

Chicago Fire Department crews returned to the church over several days as they worked to put out the fire that continued to reignite.

Despite the heartache of seeing the church engulfed in flames, Dew said he found hope in the murals survival.

"I don't want to say dawn on me, but I'm beginning to really process, that's a better word, process the magnitude of the loss, the pastor told local news outlet WLS Tuesday as fire crews twice returned to the church that day to extinguish flames that reignited amid the rubble as crews knocked bricks done inside the church.

"He (Jesus) promised He would return. And so, just as He is risen, and has ascended, we believe we will rise from this.

"If we get the word that these walls that you see standing can be saved that would be an incredible blessing to us," Dew added, hopeful that part of the church could be salvaged and rebuilt.

However, Chicago's building department decided that the walls sustained too much damage to be saved. CBS Chicago reported that plans are underway to tear down the north, east, and south walls but leave the west wall, which holds a school. It is estimated that the demolition process will take at least a week or two.

Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, had also hoped the historic church could be saved.

"Antioch Church, in my opinion, was a landmark quality building  and unfortunately, the procedure never happened where it was taken into landmarks and reviewed," Miller said.

"Antioch could be rebuilt within its historic shell and it doesn't have to necessarily be rebuilt exactly like it was," Miller added. "I think that a reconstruction would bring about much more interest to the greater community than just the church itself."

The Jesus mural is now peeling off, and the city doesn't know if it can be saved amid the demolition.

"I'm going to miss that mural," said Antioch Missionary Baptist church trustee Darren Garrett to CBS Chicago. "Hopefully we can save part of it, but if not, I want to thank the Hicks brothers  because we had it retouched up maybe like 15 years ago. And that mural, everybody loved that mural.

The trustee not only worked at the church, but his familys connection to it extends back to his great-grandmother. Garrett said his family had been at the church all [their] lives ever since his great-grandmother left a different Antioch church to attend services at the one that recently burned. The church was built in 1894.

"All our members are hurt by it, but we're going to be here and rebuild and we're going to be even closer behind this, Garrett added. "I was still hoping and praying that we would be able to keep the walls  some parts of it  but God knows what's best.

"Our faith tells us that joy comes in the morning," Dew told CBS Chicago. "We did weep on Friday, and we wept last night. But joy came this morning. Hopes were dashed on that Friday. These are the emotions that we are so familiar with because we just experienced an awful Friday."

The Chicago Department of Buildings said in a statement that it "is committed to continuing to work closely with the leadership of the Antioch Missionary Baptist as they deal with the loss of this historic community pillar."

When the Antioch congregation started in 1925, worship services were initially held in Bronzeville and later Washington Park. The church relocated to Englewood in 1958, spending $200,000 to purchase the building and another $75,000 to remodel it. The building that housed the church was constructed in 1894.
Yale Divinity School holds first non-Christian service with 'black ecology,' 'pantheistic mysticism'

Two centuries after its founding, Yale Divinity School marked its first-ever non-Christian service in honor of Earth Day.

Around 80 students gathered on April 22 outside the universitys Marquand Chapel to mark the annual observance with singing and non-denominational prayers, according to The Yale Daily News.

A student organizer told the independent student newspaper it was the first time a non-Christian service was held at the Yale Divinity School in its nearly 200-year history.

Master of divinity student Tasha Brownfield led the event, which she described as Indigenous- and Black ecology-based with a sprinkle of cosmology and Pantheistic mysticism.

The event featured an opening speech from Brownfield that included a land acknowledgment and a call for those in attendance to honor and respect the enduring relationships that exist between Native peoples and their land.

There arent many spaces where people who fall outside a very particular Protestant lens can worship authentically at Yale Divinity School, Brownfield, who said she is trying to launch and curate "pantheistic mysticism" as a religious practice, told the newspaper.

So for my colleagues and myself, I decided to make a space where people could worship authentically and include black Theology, Indigenous ecology, some southern charm that separated from the elitism of the institution to something thats really embodied and grounded within this space.

Attendees took part in a chalice lighting ceremony under the Unitarian Universalist tradition, followed by a prayer to the Hindu fertility god Prithivi, which Brownfield described as the religions personification of Earth.

Another student, Nai Garard, gave a speech on Black Ecology, which reportedly spoke to how pushing back against racialized aspects of climate change can be a means toward black liberation, The Daily News reported.

Another 200-year-old theological institution, Harvard Divinity School, held a similar celebration Sunday for Earth Day called Gathering Light, which also featured musical and video performances.

Founded in 1822, Yale Divinity School has hosted Earth Day festivities for over a decade, but Sunday marked the first time a non-Christian service was held at the school.

The universitys website says training for Christian ministry was a main purpose in founding Yale College in 1701. But it wasnt until theology students asked to be recognized as a group distinct from the general student body that the divinity school was officially founded.

Today, Yale Divinity School professes an "enduring commitment to foster the knowledge and love of God through scholarly engagement with Christian traditions in a global, multifaith context."

"Participating in the vibrant life of Yale University, the Divinity School is uniquely positioned to train leaders for church and society given its ecumenical and international character, engagement with music and the arts, and commitment to social justice," the divinity school website reads. "Rigorous scholarly inquiry, corporate worship and spiritual formation, and practical engagement in a variety of ministries enable students to develop their knowledge and skills in a community that welcomes and affirms human diversity."

The school hasn't shied away from controversy when it comes to orthodox Christian teaching.

In 2008, Yale reportedly introduced a course called "Christian Theology and Harry Potter," which explored the popular series to examine Christian themes such as sin, evil and resurrection.

Yale Divinity School made headlines in 2016 when a spokesperson urged Christians not to vote for then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump but to follow Jesus' command to love him just like He teaches people to "love your enemies."

In a column published in USA Today, Yale Communications Director Tom Krattenmaker said that Jesus' command to "love your enemies" applies even in the American political context.
Youth pastor arrested for sending nude pictures to underage girl

Christopher Jaime Reyes, a former youth pastor at Wesley United Methodist Church on Marco Island, Florida, has been arrested for sending nudes pictures and lewd messages to an underage girl on social media.

Detective Lorenzo Smith of the Marco Island Police Department told Wink News that Reyes, 26, was sending nude photographs, some of himself to the victim.

Reyes was arrested on Friday and charged with transmission of material harmful to minors by electronic device or equipment and soliciting a child for unlawful sexual conduct using computer services or devices, Marco Eagle said.

The former youth pastor worked for Wesley United Methodist Church from 2016 to 2021.

Calls made by The Christian Post to the church seeking comment on Monday went unanswered. The police, however, are reportedly looking into whether or not Reyes preyed on any of the children from the church.

Investigators who began investigating Reyes in October 2021 explained that he did not meet his victim at church.

The relationship formed all on social media platforms, Instagram, Snapchat, Smith told Wink News.

Reyes reportedly started asking his victim for more sexts.

The victim provided us with screenshots of some of the lewd messaging, Smith said.

The detective said as he continued working on the case, the youth pastor even tried meeting up with an underage girl, but the meeting never materialized.

Its always an unfortunate thing when somebody who is a custodian of children, you know, aging from five to you know the teenage years are doing this kind of behavior, Smith noted.

According to a Cybersurvey by Youthworks, of more than 6,000 young people age 13 or older who sexted, 18% said they were pressured or blackmailed into doing it.

The study also showed that between the ages of 14 and 15, the more likely a child would sext. Boys were found to be slightly more likely than girls, 7% to 6%, to share images.

The top reasons researchers found children gave for sexting were because they were in a relationship and wanted to do it or wanted to try it for fun. Others felt they looked good and wanted to show off their body while others simply wanted to see a reaction from the person they sexted.

Children who were already vulnerable offline were found to be more likely to share sexual images. Children with mental health issues were also found to be twice as likely to send explicit images than those who had none.

Anyone with information or the case is being asked to contact the Marco Island Police Department at (239) 389-5050.
China: Police track down pastor, house church members after videos of ocean baptism posted on WeChat

Police in Shenzhen city in southeastern China quickly tracked down a pastor and members of a house church after seeing videos posted on WeChat of their ocean baptisms, according to a report.

Six members of Shenzhen Trinity Gospel Harvest Church and its Pastor Mao Zhibin drove two hours to a coastal city for the Easter baptisms held on April 16. According to China Aid, the baptisms were discretely planned and held without incident.

However, a person known to the church posted photos and videos of the baptisms on WeChat. Soon thereafter, an official called Mao, who was eating lunch with those who had been baptized and asked him to confirm his identity due to a COVID-19-related measure.

Minutes later, several police officers and the local deputy mayor arrived at the location where they were all having lunch. The official and police waited for the Christians to finish their lunch and then checked their identity cards and scanned their faces.

One of the officers had the baptism videos on his phone, the pastor said. Several more photos of the pastor appeared on the phone after they scanned his face.

The technology used by the government surpasses traditional authoritarian reign and should be called super authoritarianism, Pastor Mao was quoted as saying, as per the translation provided by the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern. However, I also believe that God still reigns over all. We just need to trust in Him, walk humbly with God.

The pastor added that it's worse than George Orwell's 1984, with the officials monitoring WeChat and hundreds of millions of surveillance cameras in the country monitoring the movements of every person in China.

He added, "big data artificial intelligence algorithms can be called The Matrix 1.0, which is a hyper-totalitarianism far exceeding the traditional totalitarian rule technology," according to China Aid.

Mao and his church have spoken out in the past for religious freedom and in support of Pastor Wang Yi, the founding pastor of one of Chinas most persecuted house churches, Early Rain Covenant Church.

Some activists also attend Shenzhen Trinity Gospel Harvest Church, which could be the reason why the communist government has targeted the house church.

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, estimates that there are about 97 million Christians in China. A large percentage of these Christians worship in what Chinas communist government considers to be illegal and unregistered underground house churches.

The group has also warned that many unregistered churches have been forced to split up into small groups and gather in different locations, keeping a low profile so as not to be detected by the sub-district officer or neighborhood committee.

As Beijing hosted the Winter Olympics earlier this year, many expressed outrage about Chinas treatment of religious minority communities. While China was accused of genocide for its detainment of Uyghur and other ethnic Muslims in western China, human rights activists had voiced concern for years about the Chinese governments longtime crackdown on unregistered churches and house church movements.

Since the Revised Regulations on Religious Affairs took effect in February 2018, the Chinese government has added more laws seeking to curb religious activities that are not state-sanctioned," said Gina Goh, ICC's regional manager for Southwest Asia, said in an earlier statement.

Goh added: Beijing is paranoid about Chinese Christians interaction with Christians overseas. As a result, they are penalizing Christians to deter them from receiving foreign influence. It is a shame that the Chinese government constantly manipulates laws to violate the religious freedom of its citizens.
Indonesian Christian politician sentenced to 5 months in prison for hate speech

An Indonesian politician has been sentenced to five months in prison on hate speech charges for criticizing Islam in remarks on social media.

Protestant Christian and Democrat Party politician Ferdinand Hutahaean was arrested in January after social backlash over a Twitter comment.

Hutahaean reportedly posted a tweet on Jan. 4 that read: Poor you, your Allah is evidently weak [and] must be defended. My Allah is amazing, [he] is everything. He is my defender, and my Allah does not need to be defended.

According to International Christian Concern (ICC), a panel of judges found Hutahaean guilty of intentionally spreading fake news causing a stir in society for the tweet. Last Tuesday, he was sentenced to five months in prison.

Prosecutors had initially suggested a seven-month term instead of the five-month sentence handed down by the judges, ICC reports.

While Hutahaen initially denied insulting Muslims by claiming he had converted to Islam in 2017, prosecutors rejected his argument and claimed a valid identification card describes him as a Christian, the Jakarta Globe reported.

In an indictment in February, prosecutors said Hutahaens words hurt the feeling of all Muslims across Indonesia and maybe around the world.

Hutahaean, who lost a bid for a national assembly seat in 2019, was the head of the Democratic Partys legal division until 2020.

In Muslim-majority Indonesia, non-Muslims are often prosecuted for speaking out against Islam.

Joseph Suyardi and YouTuber Muhammad Kace are other Christians who have recently been arrested and detained by Indonesian officials for insulting Islam. Kace was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for posting a video that allegedly insulted Islam's prophet, Muhammad.

"Following the verdict of Muhammed Kace, we are relieved to learn that the final sentence against Ferdinand Hutahaean was mild, but even still, it should never have happened," International Christian Concern spokesperson Addison Parker told The Christian Post in a statement.

"Hutahaean isnt the first Christian politician to be brought down by public outrage, but he is a reminder that Indonesias hypersensitivity to the public order has allowed these instances of viral outrage against misunderstandings, disagreements, and religious convictions to become a rhetorical minefield for Christians in the public eye. Religious harmony will struggle to take hold it if it comes only under threat of outrage and prosecution, as these laws only perpetuate a modern-day witch-hunt for violators of speech crimes."

In 2017, Jakarta's Christian Gov. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, also known as Ahok, was sentenced to two years in prison in Indonesia after being found guilty of insulting the Islamic faith.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended that the U.S. State Department place Indonesia on its special watch list of countries that engaged in or tolerated violations of religious freedom.

The bipartisan advisory body warns that the Indonesian national government led by President Joko Widodo has pursued a "policy of promoting its favored interpretation of Islam through state efforts that included attempting to revamp the state ideology of Pancasila, establishing a voluntary certification program for religious officials, and installing 'moderate' voices inside the quasi-governmental Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI)."

"However, these measures aimed to combat rising extremist or hardline Islamist trends and to promote tolerance exclusively among officially recognized religions; they did not promote greater religious freedom or expand recognition of other religious minorities," USCIRF stated in its 2021 annual report.

Open Doors USA, an organization that monitors persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Indonesia as the 28th-worst country globally when it comes to Christian persecution.

"There were three attacks on Christians within a six-month period between 2020 and 2021, killing eight believers, while Indonesian society has taken on a more conservative Islamic character, putting added pressure on Christians," an Open Doors factsheet states. "Churches that engage in evangelistic outreach are at risk of being targeted by Islamic extremist groups."

Extremist groups are especially strong in certain areas of Indonesia, such as West Java or Aceh, where anti-Christian views still heavily influence both the population and its politics.

"In some regions, church groups face difficulties getting permission to build churches," the factsheet states. "Even if they manage to fulfill all legal requirements (including winning court cases), the local authorities still often ignore them."
'We have to kill Macron': Priest stabbed multiple times, nun injured in attack by knife-wielding man

As news of French President Emmanuel Macrons reelection hit the headlines worldwide Sunday, newspapers also reported that a man attacked a Catholic priest and a nun with a knife in a church in the southern city of Nice while shouting, We have to kill Macron.

The priest, Father Christophe of Eglise Saint-Pierre-d'Arene de Nice, a Catholic Church along the French Riviera, was stabbed 20 times, mostly in the chest, and the nun, identified as Sister Marie-Claude, was stabbed in the arm as she sought to stop the attacker, The Independent reported.

The priest's and nun's injuries are not life-threatening and the suspect has been arrested, the countrys Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted.

The French newspaper Le Figaro reported that the attacker shouted, we have to kill Macron, as he stabbed the priest.

Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said in a tweet that the attacker might have been planning the assault for a few days.

Estrosi also told reporters that the suspect is a 31-year-old mentally unstable French national who was born in the port town of Frejus on the French Riviera in southeastern France.

The suspect was the subject of psychiatric monitoring with several stays in the Sainte- Marie psychiatric hospital in Nice.

I want to thank the emergency services and the police for their exemplary work, and I send all my thoughts to the faithful of the parish, Estrosi tweeted.

Eric Ciotti, a local French politician representing the 1st constituency of Alpes-Maritimes in the National Assembly, praised the extraordinary courage of Sister Marie-Claude, according to Fox News.

Police have said the suspect had no criminal record, he was not known to security agencies and they were not suspecting that terror was the motive.

Meanwhile, 44-year-old President Macron won the presidential election with 58% of the vote against his challenger, Marine Le Pen, who garnered 42% of the vote. He is set to become the first French president in modern times to be reelected while holding the office.

Last December, French authorities arrested two suspected terrorists who were planning a mass stabbing attack to kill disbelievers during the Christmas holidays in Paris.

One of the two men arrested in the greater Paris area had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terror group and told police he was plotting to kill non-Muslims and hoping to be shot dead to become a martyr, The French newspaper Le Figaro reported at the time.
Ugandan woman stabbed by husband for converting to Christianity

A 26-year-old mother of two in eastern Uganda is recovering from deep knife wounds after her Muslim husband stabbed her on Easter Sunday because she had put her faith in Christ two weeks earlier.

Zaina Gimbo, who is from Sirinya B Island in Mayuge Districts Lake Victoria area, sustained wounds to her face, head and back, and bruises on her hand, Morning Star News reported.

The young mother of a 4-year-old boy and a 5-year-old daughter, who had secretly put her faith in Jesus on April 2, was attacked after she got back from an Easter worship service on April 17.

Carrying her Bible, She left for the service after her husband, identified as Jamiru Mwima, left to catch fish. It was a wonderful celebration. At about 1 p.m., I went home not knowing that he had come back. I came back with a lot of joy, singing Christian songs that I had learned in the church, Gimbo was quoted as saying from her hospital bed.

As soon as she arrived home her husband came out very furious, Gimbo said. He grabbed her hand and asked her many questions about her faith, which she did not answer. My husband beat and cut me with a long knife. I made an alarm that brought many people who came and disarmed him. I fell down bleeding seriously and lost consciousness.

Her friends then took her to a hospital where she is still recovering.

Gimbo accepted Christ after interacting with a Christian businesswoman to whom she would sell fish caught by her husband.

I started sharing Christ with her and, after a week, on April 2, she embraced the Christian faith. Every time she brought fish, we were able to have a few hours sharing about Christianity, the businesswoman was quoted as saying.

In a separate incident earlier this month, a Muslim woman in Nawanjofu village of Butaleja District added poison to her husband's food after he converted to Christianity.

Hiire Sadiki, 56, a former Islamic teacher, was poisoned because he had declined to observe the Islamic rituals of Ramadan and his wife noticed him praying in the name of Christ.

While most people in Uganda are Christian, some regions in the country have higher concentrations of Muslims.

The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project estimates that about 11.5% of Ugandas population is Muslim, mostly Sunni. Armed attacks and murders of converts are not uncommon in the region.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP)  May 27, 2016, was the day that Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's marriage went from private misery to public, career-killing spectacle.

Heard, who had just filed for divorce, arrived at a Los Angeles courthouse that day to seek a temporary restraining order, showing up with a clear mark on her face, which she said Depp inflicted during a fight six days prior. Photographers captured the scene, and the allegations became tabloid fodder across the globe.

Depp says he never hit her, and now he's suing Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court. On Wednesday, jurors in the case heard from police officers who responded to the couple's penthouse immediately after the fight. None of the officers saw the red mark that was so prominent six days later.

Officer Tyler Hadden, one of the officers who responded to the couple's penthouse apartment on May 21, 2016, said Heard refused to talk to officers and had no signs of an injury, although he acknowledged she'd been crying and was red-faced.

Just because I see a female with pink cheeks and pink eyes doesn't mean something happened, he said in a recorded deposition played for jurors Wednesday.

Depp had already left the penthouse by the time officers arrived. Officers said they had no idea who Heard was, or that she was married to Depp. He said neither Heard nor anyone at the penthouse complex was willing to tell him or the other officers who Heard's husband was.

Jurors heard similar testimony Tuesday from an officer who accompanied Hadden to the penthouse.

An officer who made a follow-up visit that night, William Gatlin, testified Wednesday that he saw no injuries either, though he acknowledged that his visit was brief and he got no closer than 10 feet (3 meters) from Heard. He said his check was a perfunctory one because it appeared that the call was just a duplicate to the one that Hadden had already responded to.

The jury saw bodycam video of Gatlin's response, which was less than two minutes. Heard could only be seen at a distance.

Heard's lawyers, in their questions, have suggested that Heard could have covered her injuries with makeup, because at that point she still wanted to protect Depp. They also asked officers why they didn't investigate a potential case of domestic violence more thoroughly.

The officers' testimony is some of Depp's best evidence that Heard contrived the allegations against her ex-husband. It complements earlier testimony from witnesses who say they saw Heard and her sister practicing fake punches in the days after the attack.

It's far from definitive, though. Heard's lawyers have yet to put on their case, and some of her friends say they were at the penthouse when Depp allegedly attacked her.

And even if jurors were to conclude that Depp never assaulted his wife on May 21, they have heard evidence of other alleged assaults before and during the couple's brief marriage.

Depp sued Heard for libel after she wrote an op-ed piece piece in The Washington Post in 2018 referring to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. The article doesnt mention Depp by name, but his lawyers say the article defames him nevertheless because it's a clear reference to the highly publicized allegations Heard made when she filed for divorce in 2016 and obtained a temporary restraining order as well.

Jurors also heard recorded testimony Wednesday from Christian Carino, an agent who represented Depp and Heard and was friends with both. He said he believes the abuse allegations scuttled Depp's participation in a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film, but he did not pin the loss of that film specifically on Heard's 2018 op-ed piece.

Heard's lawyers told jurors in opening statements that there must be proof that the Post article specifically damaged Depp's reputation for him to prevail in a libel case.

Carino also testified that Heard twice tried to reconcile with Depp, even after she filed for divorce  once in 2016 and again in 2017. At one point in 2016 he brokered a meeting between Heard and a reluctant Depp that ended in a fight.

He also testified briefly about Heard's subsequent relationship with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. Heard texted Carino in 2017 professing sadness about her breakup with Musk. Carino seemed incredulous, and texted in response to Heard, You told me a thousand times you were just filling space.
A first-class passenger aboard a Friday Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Phoenix was arrested following a series of allegedly escalating homophobic remarks that a criminal complaint states ended in a physical assault on an airline attendant in mid-flight.

According to NBC News' Minyvonne Burke and Kurt Chirbas, Christopher Alexander Morgan failed to comply with basic airline instructions before the plane left the ground at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, refusing to buckle his seatbelt or raise his seatback to its upright position in the first-class cabin.

A criminal complaint states that a flight attendant was eventually compelled to manually adjust Morgan's seat for him so the plane could depart. Trouble between Morgan and the flight's staff continued to mount in the air, according to the complaint, which alleges Morgan threw his ice at a flight attendant after being refused a second alcoholic drink. The passenger then allegedly called a attendant a "queer" as well as another homophobic slur, at which time a second attendant accessed the cabin phone to alert the pilot of the developing situation.

According to the complaint obtained by Burke and Chirbas, it was at this point Morgan stood up from his seat and confronted the attendant on the phone, grabbing the receiver and hitting the employee in the chest with the object.

"Morgan said that he is homophobic and that it is possible he could have been intimidating the flight attendants," the complaint states. "[Morgan] said that his homophobia may have caused his temper towards the flight attendant to escalate."

Law enforcement was waiting at Phoenix Sky Harbor International when the plane touched down, and the criminal complaint states that after his arrest Morgan told FBI investigators "the flight was homosexual and that this made him uncomfortable."

Delta released a statement Wednesday condemning the incident.

"Delta has zero tolerance for unruly behavior and discrimination at our airports and aboard our aircraft and takes all reports of such behavior seriously, especially when directed at our employees," a Delta spokesperson stated. "Nothing is more important than the safety of our people and our customers."

Unruly passenger incidents aboard U.S. airlines skyrocketed following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority rooted in pushback from flyers against attendants attempting to enforce the recently curtailed federal mask mandate.

Major U.S. air carriers in March 2020 decided to suspend the sale of alcohol on flights temporarily in response to a profusion of passenger attacks on flight attendants. American Airlines was the last to renew the practice, returning wine, liquor and beer to beverage carts in March.
You probably breathed a deep sigh of relief when you heard that Emmanuel Macron trounced Marine Le Pen by a 17-point margin in Sundays French presidential election.

A Le Pen victory would have been a boon to Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban and Steve Bannon and a disaster for NATO, Europe and France.

The center held, thank God  because Macron governed from the center. He was hated by the far left and the far right and never entirely pleased those closer to the center.

But he also became the first president to be reelected in France in 20 years.

Theres a lesson in that for the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress, especially when it comes to immigration.

It has become an article of progressive faith in recent years that efforts to control immigration are presumptively racist.

A border wall is a monument to white supremacy, according to a piece published in Bloomberg. The remain in Mexico policy is racist, cruel and inhumane, according to the Justice Action Center. An essay published by the Brookings Institution calls U.S. immigration policy a classic, unappreciated example of structural racism.

It wasnt long ago that Bernie Sanders was an avowed restrictionist on the view that immigration depresses working-class wages. Did that position make him a racist?

The Wall Street Journals editorial board, where I once worked, used to make the case for open borders with Mexico. Were we left-wing progressives?

People of goodwill should be able to take different and nuanced views on immigration  and change their minds about it  without being tagged as morally deficient.

But thats no longer how it works in progressive circles. The results are policy choices that are bad for the country and worse for Democrats and are an unbidden gift to the far right.

The issue is now acute with the Biden administration simultaneously seeking to end the Trump administrations Remain in Mexico policy in a case before the Supreme Court while accepting a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to let the use of Title 42, which allowed border authorities to expel illegal immigrants as a public health measure, expire May 23.

Theres not much doubt as to what will happen if the administration gets its way: An already straining southern border will burst. In fiscal year 2020 there were 646,822 enforcement actions at the border. In 2021 the number was a little shy of 2 million. Without the authority of Title 42, under which 62 percent of expulsions took place in 2021, the number of migrants seeking entry in the United States will increase drastically.

You dont have to be opposed to immigration as a general matter to have serious doubts about the administrations course.

Is there a practical and available legal alternative to regulating immigration through Title 42 enforcement? Where is the logic of ending Title 42 even as the administration seeks to extend mask mandates because the pandemic is far from over?

Given housing shortages, how much capacity is there to absorb the next wave of migrants? Even if an overwhelming majority of migrants are merely seeking a better life, what system is there to find those with less honorable intentions?

More to the point: What does the administrations utter failure at effective control of the border say about its commitment to enforcing the rule of law?

To raise such questions should be an invitation to propose balanced and practical immigration legislation and try to win over moderate Republicans.

Instead it tends to invite cheap accusations of racism, along with policy paralysis in the White House.

As Politico reported last week, some think the administrations secret policy is to call for an end to Title 42 to satisfy progressives while crossing fingers that the courts continue it  which a federal judge did on Monday, at least temporarily.

Leading from behind Trump-appointed judges is probably not what Americans elected Joe Biden to do.

Which brings us back to the example of France. When Jean-Marie Le Pen made his first presidential bid on an anti-immigration platform in 1974, he took 0.75 percent of the ballot in the first round  fewer than 200,000 votes. When his daughter Marine ran on a similar platform this year, she took 41.5 percent in the second round, or more than 13 million. The Le Pens are thoroughgoing bigots.

But decades of pretending that only bigots had worries about immigration only made their brand of politics stronger.

As president, Macron tacked right on immigration  not to weaken Frances historic position as an open society, friendly to newcomers, but rather to save it. He has cracked down on some asylum-seekers, demanded that immigrants learn French and get jobs and taken a hard line against Islamic separatism.

But hes also tried to make France a more welcoming place for legal immigration.

The left thinks of him as Le Pen lite, the right as a feckless impostor. Maybe hes both. Then again, he also saved France for the free world.

Democrats could stand to brush up on their French.

Bret Stephens is a columnist for the New York Times.
PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP)  Authorities in Montenegro canceled classes at all schools in the Balkan country Wednesday due to widespread bomb threats.

A total of 41 schools received messages that explosive devices were planted in the buildings, according to the Montenegro Education Ministry. Amid the resulting panic and chaos, the ministry decided to cancel all classes, spokesperson Bojan Knezevic said.
Sunday, May 1

On this date in 1859, Father Joseph P. Machebeuf was named the first American Catholic priest in Arizona.

On this date in 1880, The Tombstone Epitaph was established by publisher John P. Clum, who said, every tombstone needs an epitaph.

On this date in 1914, the University of Arizona was the site for a demonstration of the new four-wheel drive truck which had been successfully tested by the National Guard.

On this date in 1914, the funeral of Sara Sorin took place. Sorin was the first woman to be admitted to the Arizona Bar Association and she had practiced before the U.S. Supreme Court. She specialized in mining law.

On this date in 1930, major copper companies throughout Arizona announced a 5% cut in wages because of a four-cent per pound reduction in copper prices.

Monday, May 2

On this date in 1872, two earthquake shocks were felt in Yuma at 5:45 p.m.

On this date in 1873, the first legal hanging in the state is said to have taken place across the street from a school in Yuma. The teacher, not wanting her students to witness the hanging, dismissed classes for the day.

On this date in 1878, the first issue of the Arizona Silver Belt was published at Globe City which contained an editorial suggesting the word city be dropped from the towns name.

On this date in 1913, a gold nugget weighing 29 ounces (822 grams) and worth over $500 was brought in to Tucson by a man who had found it on the ground after a hard rain.

On this date in 1932, John Clum, Apache Indian agent, mayor of Tombstone and editor of the Tombstone Epitaph, died at age 80.

Tuesday, May 3

On this date in 1882, President Chester A. Arthur warned Arizona that he would place it under martial law unless it showed more respect for law and order. The warning was directed chiefly at Cochise County.

On this date in 1910, Harold Steinfeld, born and educated in Tucson, was made assistant general manager of Macys Department Store in New York.

On this date in 1913, two motorcycles set a speed record for the Tucson-Nogales run. Their total time was three hours and five minutes.

Wednesday, May 4

On this date in 1887, a heavy earthquake hit most of the state at 2:12 p.m. In Tucson the few two-story buildings swayed threateningly, clocks were stopped and entire mountain sides in the Catalinas gave way with great clouds of dust visible for days afterward. Volcanoes were reported in the Dragoon Mountains and other mountain ranges.

On this date in 1897, the Tucson chief of police asked the city council for a horse and saddle or a buggy for patrolling the town, but his request was refused because it would cost $12 a month to feed the horse.

On this date in 1898, the Arizona Column of the Rough Riders left Prescott for Cuba amidst the greatest demonstration in that citys history.

On this date in 1919, Tucson boys from the 158th Infantry came home from France.

On this date in 1929, the largest single land deal in the history of Yuma County to that date was consummated with the sale of 30,000 acres of land in the San Christobal Valley to a California syndicate for the purpose of growing dates, citrus fruits and pecans.

Thursday, May 5

On this date in 1910, Tucson citizens celebrated the opening of the Tucson-West Coast of Mexico Railroad.

On this date in 1917, the state legislature appropriated funds to purchase the old governors mansion at Prescott with the provision that the property should be used as a museum.

On this date in 1929, a company with main offices is Tulsa, Okla., took over 79 mining claims in Chloride, Arizona. The combined mining claims had a shipping record of over $1 million in copper, silver, lead and gold.

Friday, May 6

On this date in 1896, the Bisbee Daily Review newspaper was established.

On this date in 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt made his first trip to the Grand Canyon.

On this date in 1908, the federal government ordered all river steamers to be equipped with fog bells, including those that travel on the Colorado River where there are no fogs. River Capt. Jack Mellon said the order would be followed, but said, its a good deal like ordering snow plows attached to all trains on the Yuma-Tucson division of the Southern Pacific.

On this date in 1909, Richard Sloan, Arizona Supreme Court Justice, became the last Territorial Governor.

Saturday, May 7

On this date in 1872, the first lawyers were admitted to practice law in Maricopa County.

On this date in 1913, Fred Maish, once a mayor of Tucson and wealthy cattleman of the Maish and Driscoll Cattle Co., died alone in an old adobe shack in Tucson at nearly 80 years of age.

On this date in 1916, the Yuma Game Warden reported that civil war in Mexico was scarring big game across the international line into the Yuma and Mohave Mountains.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  A senior Australian minister on Wednesday suggested that China had deliberately announced its security pact with the Solomon Islands during an election campaign to undermine her governments chances of reelection.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews accusation is consistent with her conservative Liberal Partys argument that Beijing wants the center-left Labor Party to win the May 21 election because Labor lawmakers were less likely to stand up to Chinese economic coercion.

Labor has described the governments inability to prevent the deal announced by the Chinese and Solomons governments last week as Australias biggest foreign policy failure in the Pacific since World War II.

Andrews  who is responsible for the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nations main domestic spy agency, and has access to classified secrets from other intelligence agencies  said Australians should be taking notice of and paying some attention to the timing of the Solomons' announcements.

Beijing is clearly very aware that were in a federal election campaign here at the moment. Why now? Why, right in the middle of a federal election campaign is all this coming to light? Andrews told Brisbane Radio 4BC.

"We talk about political interference and that has many forms, Andrews added.

Australia angered China in 2018 by passing national security laws that ban covert foreign interference in domestic politics. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said at the time the government was prejudiced against China and had poisoned the atmosphere of China-Australia relations.

Jim Chalmers, a senior Labor lawmaker, dismissed the possibility of China attempting to use its Solomons deal to influence the Australian election.

Even by the incredibly low standards of this government, I thought what Karen Andrews said was remarkably desperate and remarkably unhinged, Chalmers said. The Australian people will determine who wins this election.

John Blaxland, Australian National Universitys Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies, questioned whether Andrews was drawing on classified intelligence briefings in her comments on the Solomons.

It certainly is plausible that they timed it this way. They wouldve been mindful of whats happening in the elections, Blaxland said.

Id be very surprised if China wanted to go public on siding with one side or the other because thats basically a poison chalice youre handing to that side of politics, Blaxland added.

Blaxland suspected Beijing and Paris would both welcome a change of government in the hope of resetting their bilateral relationships with Australia.

Chinas Foreign Ministry welcomed Morrisons elevation to prime minister in 2018 after the Liberal Party dumped his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull, who had banned foreign interference.

China stands ready to work with the new Australian government to move forward bilateral ties along the right track, a ministry official said at the time.

But bilateral relations have continued to sour.

France was incensed in September when Australia dumped a $66 billion contract for French-build conventional submarines. The United States and Britain will instead provide Australia with a nuclear-powered fleet.

The government boasts the new submarine deal is evidence of its superiority over Labor on national security.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry attacked Defense Minister Peter Duttons warning this week that Australians must prepare for war because of the threat from China and global insecurity spurred by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Certain Australian politicians often seek selfish political gains by making wild remarks to smear China and clamor for war, Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said the United States had a fundamental concern with the lack of transparency in Chinese activities in the Pacific islands.

Only a handful of people in a very small circle in the Solomons had seen the detail of the Chinese pact, Kritenbrink said Tuesday.

Labor on Tuesday announced a range of measures that it would implement in government to increase Australias engagement in the Pacific.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that by blaming the government, Labor was siding with China in the dispute over the Solomons pact that has raised fears of a Chinese naval presence less than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) off the northeast Australian coast.

They are playing politics with the Pacific and the only ones who are benefitting from Labors attacks on the government is the Chinese government, Morrison said Tuesday.
Poultry owners and caretakers should watch for unusual deaths, drops in egg production and a significant decrease in water consumption, according to the Tuscola County Health Department.

Tuscola County is the most recent Michigan county with a confirmed case of the highly pathogenic avian influenza which has been spreading rapidly across the state and country.

"The first case of the HPAI has been confirmed in a tundra swan in Tuscola County," a Tuscola County Health Department press release reads.

The health department issued an advisory to warn people who work or own birds, including poultry, to be alert and take necessary precautions to avoid possible infection.

Avian influenza is spread in a variety of ways from bird to bird and flock to flock, impacting both wildfowl and poultry, along with domesticated birds. The Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development website states symptoms of birds with avian influenza, sometimes abbreviated HPAI, can include:

Sudden death

Significant drop in water consumption

Lack of appetite, energy, or vocalization

Drop in egg production

Diarrhea

Swollen comb, wattles, legs or head

Nasal discharge, sneezing, or coughing

Abnormal behavior like difficulty walking

According to the health department, the confirmation of the infected bird is the latest in a series across the state, with detection in either backyard birds or wild birds.

"To date, these include Bay, Clinton, Crawford, Gladwin, Hillsdale, Kalamazoo, Kent, Livingston, Macomb, Menominee, Monroe, Oakland, Otsego, Saginaw, Shiawassee, St. Clair, Tuscola and Washtenaw counties," the release read. "As migrating birds return to Michigan and other parts of the U.S., it is likely that many more detections of HPAI will occur. It has been detected in at least 27 states."

There have been scattered reports across social media of people finding dead birds. Michigan Department of Natural Resources is asking people to avoid dead birds and instead report them on the DNR's website at https://tinyurl.com/2p89m225 or by calling the DNR Wildlife Disease Laboratory at 517-336-5030. The reporting asks for general reporting information such as the reporter's name and contact information, where the bird or mammal was located, along with other information such as the health of the animal, and how many are involved.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is rare for avian influenza to spread to humans. There have been sporadic reports in Asia, Europe and the Middle East since 2003

"Most human infections with avian influenza viruses, including HPAI Asian H5N1 viruses, have occurred after prolonged and close contact with infected birds," the CDC report reads. "Rare human-to-human spread with this virus has occurred, but it has not been sustained and no community spread of this virus has ever been identified."

State Veterinarian Dr. Nora Wineland previously said that although it is difficult for pet birds to catch avian influenza, steps should still be taken to protect all birds.

A few steps the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development recommended were:

Prevent contact between domestic and wild birds by bringing them indoors or ensuring their outdoor area is fully enclosed.

Wash your hands before and after handling birds as well as when moving between different coops.

Disinfecting boots and other gear when moving between coops.

Do not share equipment or other supplies between coops or other farms.

Cleaning and disinfecting equipment and other supplies between uses. If it cannot be disinfected, discard it.

Using well or municipal water as drinking water for birds.

Keep poultry feed secure to ensure there is no contact between the feed/feed ingredients and wild birds or rodents.

The DNR is encouraging homeowners to temporarily remove bird feeders to reduce the spread of the bird flu.

"One easy way the public can help reduce the potential spread of HPAI is to remove outdoor bird feeders," a DNR press release read. "Though there isnt yet any widespread recommendation from state agencies to do so, temporary removal of these food sources could be helpful, especially for anyone who has highly susceptible species  domestic poultry, raptors or waterfowl  living nearby. Similarly, removal could be a wise choice for those who observe high-risk species like blue jays, crows or ravens hanging around backyard bird feeders. This temporary removal of bird feeders and baths may only last for the next couple months, or until the rate of HPAI spread in wild and domestic birds decreases."

If people choose to continue using their bird feeders, please keep this guidance in mind:

Thoroughly clean bird feeders with a diluted bleach solution (and rinse well) once per week. Regularly cleaning helps protect birds against other infections, including salmonella.

Clean up birdseed that has fallen below the feeders to discourage large numbers of birds and other wildlife from congregating in a concentrated area.

Dont feed wild birds, especially waterfowl, near domestic flocks.

For more information on the bird flu visit www.michigan.gov/birdflu.
DETROIT (AP)  A federal judge has rejected Elon Musks bid to throw out a securities fraud settlement over tweets claiming that Musk had the funding to take Tesla private in 2018.

Judge Lewis Liman on Wednesday also denied a motion to nullify a subpoena of Musk seeking information about possible violations of his settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Musk had asked the Manhattan federal court to scrap the settlement, which required that his tweets be approved by a Tesla attorney before being published. The SEC is investigating whether the Tesla CEO violated the settlement with tweets last November asking Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. Limon's ruling said that Musk made the tweets without getting pre-approval.

The whole dispute stems from an October 2018 agreement with the SEC that Musk signed. He and Tesla each agreed to pay $20 million in civil fines over Musks tweets about having the funding secured to take Tesla private at $420 per share.

The funding was far from locked up, and the electric vehicle company remains public, but Teslas stock price jumped. The settlement specified governance changes, including Musks ouster as board chairman, as well as pre-approval of his tweets.

Limon's ruling clears the way for the SEC to seek a court order enforcing the subpoena, and for an investigation into another possible violation of the settlement by Musk.

Musk attorney Alex Spiro contended the SEC is using the settlement and near limitless resources to chill Musks speech. He wrote in court documents that Musk signed the settlement when Tesla was a less mature company and SEC action jeopardized the companys financing at a critical time.

He also alleged that the subpoena from the SEC is illegal, and that the agency cant take action about Musks tweets without court authorization.

But in a 22-page ruling, Liman wrote that Musk's claim that economic duress caused him to sign the settlement is wholly unpersuasive.

Even if Musk was worried that litigation with the SEC would ruin Tesla financially, that does not establish a basis for him to get out of the judgment he voluntarily signed, Liman wrote.

The judge also said the argument that the SEC had used the settlement order to harass Musk and launch investigations was meritless.

Musk could hardly have thought that at the time he entered the decree (settlement) he would have been immune from non-public SEC investigations, Liman wrote. It is unsurprising that when Musk tweeted that he was thinking about selling 10% of his interest in Tesla ... that the SEC would have some questions."

Now the SEC could ask Liman to enforce the subpoena, which Liman wrote is the proper legal forum for Musk to challenge it. In the settlement, Musk also agreed not to deny the SECs allegations in the 2018 securities fraud complaint. The SEC also could investigate Musk's recent denials.

Musk has contended in a recent interview that he did indeed have the funding lined up in 2018. But a judge in a separate case ruled that his tweets about that were false.

An SEC spokesman didn't respond to a message asking whether it would try to enforce the subpoena. A message was left Wednesday seeking comment from Spiro about whether Musk will appeal Liman's order.

Liman wrote in his ruling that the funding secured tweet allegedly was false. Musk had not discussed specific deal terms with any potential financing partners, and he knew the potential transaction was uncertain and subject to numerous contingencies, Liman wrote.

He also agreed with the SEC that Congress gave it broad powers to investigate if someone has violated federal securities laws. Musk may wish it were otherwise, but he remains subject to the same enforcement authority - and has the same means to challenge the exercise of that authority - as any other citizen, Liman wrote.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Energy Department on Wednesday authorized additional exports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from planned terminals in Texas and Louisiana.

The orders allow Golden Pass LNG Terminal near Port Arthur, Texas, and Magnolia LNG Terminal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to export additional natural gas as LNG to any country not prohibited by U.S. law or policy.

The $10 billion Golden Pass LNG export project is expected be operational in 2024, with Magnolia coming online by 2026. The two terminals are expected to produce more than 3 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

The approvals come as the United States seeks to boost LNG exports to Europe amid Russia's war with Ukraine. The Energy Department approved expanded permits for two other LNG terminals in Texas and Louisiana last month.

Cheniere Energy Inc. said its Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana and its Corpus Christi plant in Texas have been improved and are making more gas than covered by previous export permits.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last month that the U.S. is exporting every molecule of liquefied natural gas that we can to help European buyers of Russian fuel.

U.S. LNG exports have reached new highs of about 12 billion cubic feet per day and are expected to grow to more than 13 billion cubic feet by the end of the year, with most going to Europe, the Energy Department said.

The U.S. and its allies also have released oil from their strategic reserves to counter Russia's aggression. The U.S. has banned imports of Russian oil.

The U.S. and other countries will act quickly to hedge against energy disruptions,'' Granholm said at the International Energy Agencys ministerial meeting in Paris. We will not allow Vladimir Putin to wedge our nations apart.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, hailed the new permits Wednesday as a tremendous victory for Texans, American jobs, trade and our European allies who will now have greater access to our clean natural gas exports.''

A source familiar with his thinking said Cruz planned to release a Senate hold on Brad Crabtree, President Joe Biden's nominee to be assistant Energy secretary for fossil energy and carbon management.

Golden Pass is jointly owned by ExxonMobil Corporation and Qatar Petroleum International Limited, while Magnolia is owned by the Glenfarne Group LLC.
ATLANTA (AP)  A Georgia man convicted of killing an 8-year-old girl and raping a 10-year-old girl more than 45 years ago is scheduled to be executed next month, state officials said.

Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Timothy Ward announced in a Wednesday news release that Virgil Delano Presnell Jr. is to be put to death at 7 p.m. on May 17 at the state prison in Jackson. Presnell, 68, is accused of abducting and attacking the two girls as they walked home from school in Cobb County, just outside Atlanta, on May 4, 1976.

He was convicted in August 1976 on charges including malice murder, kidnapping and rape and was sentenced to death. His death sentence was overturned in 1992 but was reinstated in March 1999.

Presnell staked out a Cobb County elementary school on May 3, 1976, and saw a 10-year-old girl walking home on a wooded trail. He returned the next day, and abducted the girl and her 8-year-old friend when they came walking down the trail, according to evidence at trial outlined in a Georgia Supreme Court ruling.

He drove the two girls to a secluded wooded area, made them undress and raped the older girl, the ruling says. The younger girl tried to run as he took her back to the car, but Presnell caught her, shoved her face underwater in a creek and drowned her.

Presnell then locked the older girl in his car trunk, began driving and dropped her in a wooded area when he got a flat tire. Throughout, Presnell had forced her to engage in sex acts multiple times, the ruling says.

Presnell had told the girl he'd return, but she heard sounds from a nearby gas station and walked there. She described Presnell and his car with a flat tire to police, who found him changing his tire at his apartment complex near where he'd left the older girl.

At first, Presnell denied everything but later he led police to the 8-year-old girl's body and confessed, the ruling says. Police found a handgun and child pornography showing young girls in his bedroom.

Attorneys for Presnell have said in court filings that Presnell was born to a teenage mother who drank and smoked heavily throughout her pregnancy. Presnell suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome that damaged his brain and kept him from ever developing into a functioning, responsible adult, his lawyers argued.

Coupled with a childhood marked by ongoing violence, alcoholism, and sexual and physical abuse, it is not at all difficult to see how he developed into an adult with serious disturbances which, left unchecked and untreated, could produce tragic results, his lawyers wrote in a filing arguing that his sentence was unconstitutional.

Presnell would be the first person executed by the state of Georgia since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The last person executed by Georgia was Donnie Cleveland Lance in January 2020. Georgia uses an injection of the sedative pentobarbital to carry out executions.
ATHENS, Greece (AP)  Greece made a formal protest to Turkey on Wednesday involving accusations that the fellow-NATO member conducted unauthorized military flights over inhabited Greek islands.

These actions constitute a violation of Greeces sovereignty, they are an unacceptable provocation and run contrary to fundamental principles of international law, Greece's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Turkeys ambassador to Athens was summoned to the ministry to receive the complaint in person. Turkey did not immediately respond publicly to Wednesdays complaint.

Neighbors Greece and Turkey have long-standing sea and air boundary disputes that intensified with moves to explore potential undersea natural gas reserves.

The disagreement has resulted in near-daily air force patrols and interception missions, mostly in disputed airspace around Greek islands that are near Turkeys coastline.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met in Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month after Russia's invasion of Ukraine became an urgent topic among NATO allies.

But Athens maintains that Turkey has stepped up hostile air force patrols in recent weeks to include overflights of the eastern islands.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  A Texas National Guard member who drowned on the U.S.-Mexico border while on duty was not equipped with a flotation device when he jumped in the Rio Grande to help a migrant who was struggling to swim across, state officials said Wednesday.

Spc. Bishop Evans, who was missing three days before search crews found his body Monday, was among the more than 6,100 guard members stationed on the border as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's massive border security mission known as Operation Lone Star. The mission has 43 flotation devices for guard members who are assigned to boat missions, Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer said. Evans was not a boat crew member.

Requests for more flotation devices were first made in February but have been delayed by supply chain issues, Suelzer told lawmakers in the Texas Capitol while facing questions about Evans' death, low morale and equipment shortages that have rattled the yearlong mission. Guard leaders defended not issuing all soldiers flotation devices because, they said, many are stationed on land.

Suelzer said that since Evans' death, guard members have been instructed not to go in the water unless they have special training.

(He) was a human being," Suelzer said. He saw a human being drowning and he jumped in the water to save them."

Fernando Llano/AP

Migrant rescues by Border Patrol are common along Texas' 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border with Mexico. Attempted crossings are sometimes deadly.

Brig. Gen. Monie Ulis said that guard members mostly stay on the banks to help migrants, and that he could recall only four or five instances where a guard member went into the water.

Evans is at least the fifth guard member who has died during the mission, a number that included suicides, said state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat has called for an inquest into the deaths. The mission includes thousands of state troopers, patrol boats on the Rio Grande and surveillance aircraft, and costs the state more than $2 million a day, said Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Abbott gave guard members unusual authority last year to detain and arrest migrants, but most on the mission are assigned to observation posts. Guard leaders acknowledged morale problems, including equipment shortages and sparse living conditions, but said improvements have been made in recent months.

Average morale would be about a seven," Ulis said. Far above when we first started."
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NEW DELHI (AP)  Acrid smoke hung over New Delhi for a second day on Wednesday after a massive landfill caught fire during a scorching heat wave, forcing informal waste workers to endure hazardous conditions.

The landfill in northern Delhis Bhalswa is taller than a 17-story building and covers an area bigger than 50 football fields. Waste workers who live in nearby homes had emptied onto the streets on Tuesday evening. But by Wednesday morning, the thousands of people who live and work at the landfill had begun the dangerous process of trying to salvage garbage from the fire.

Theres a fire every year. It is not new. There is risk to life and livelihood, but what do we do? asked Bhairo Raj, 31, an informal waste worker who lives next to the landfill. He said that his children studied there and he couldn't afford to leave.

The Indian capital, like the rest of South Asia, is in the midst of a record-shattering heat wave that experts said was a catalyst for the landfill fire. Three other landfills around the Indian capital have also caught fire in recent weeks.

The landfill in the latest fire was planned for closure more than a decade ago, but more than 2,300 tons of the city's garbage is still dumped there every day. The organic waste in the landfill decays, resulting in a build-up of highly combustible methane gas.

With high temperatures, this spontaneous combustion will take place, said Ravi Agarwal, the director of Toxics Link, a New Delhi-based advocacy group that focuses on waste management.

Several fire engines rushed to the landfill on Tuesday to try and douse the fire. At night, the landfill resembled a burning mountain and it smoldered until early morning.

March was the hottest month in India in over a century and April has been similarly scorching. Temperatures crossed 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 F) in several cities Tuesday and are forecasted to continue rising.

India's current heatwave has been made hotter by climate change, said Dr. Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute in Imperial College London.

She said that unless the world stops adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, such heat waves will become even more common.

___

AP journalist Rishi Lekhi contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Fifteen beds in the Transitional Care Unit at Jacksonville Memorial Hospital have been replaced with ones designed to prevent falls and provide increased comfort and safety.

The new beds  ProCuity models by Stryker  are 11.5 inches high and connect to a nurse call system. A dashboard at the nurses station tracks bed data and an alarm senses if a patient is out of position or has left the bed.
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NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A federal judge ordered a two-week halt Wednesday on the phasing out of pandemic-related restrictions on seeking asylum  and raised doubts about the Biden administration's plan to fully lift those restrictions on May 23.

For now, the decision is only a temporary setback for the administration. But the judge staked out a position that is highly sympathetic with Louisiana, Arizona and 19 other states that sued to preserve so-called Title 42 authority, which denies migrants a chance at asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

(The states) have established a substantial threat of immediate and irreparable injury resulting from the early implementation of Title 42, including unrecoverable costs on healthcare, law enforcement, detention, education, and other services for migrants," wrote U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Summerhays, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, said states were likely to succeed with their argument that the administration failed to adhere to federal procedures when it announced April 1 that it was ending Title 42 authority.

The judge has scheduled a critical hearing on May 13 in Lafayette to hear arguments on whether to block Title 42 from ending as planned 10 days later.

Texas filed a similar lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Victoria, Texas.

The decision to end Title 42 authority was made by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has come under growing criticism from elected officials in Biden's Democratic Party who contend the administration is unprepared for an anticipated increase in asylum-seekers.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the order but the administration has said it will comply, while contending it will hamper preparations for Title 42 to end on May 23.

About 14% of single adults from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were processed under immigration laws during a seven-day period ending last Thursday. That's up from only 5% in March, according to government figures.

Summerhays' order requires the Homeland Security Department to return to policies and practices in place before it announced plans to end Title 42 and to submit weekly reports that demonstrate it is acting in good faith.

Migrants have been expelled more than 1.8 million times under the rule invoked in March 2020 by the Trump administration. Migrants were stopped more than 221,000 times at the Mexico border in March, a 22-year-high that has raised concerns about the government's ability to handle even larger numbers when Title 42 is lifted.

Advocates for asylum-seekers say the restrictions endanger people fleeing persecution back home and violates rights to seek protection under U.S. law and international treaty. As the CDC acknowledged, the public health justification for the order has weakened as the threat of COVID-19 has waned.

At two often-contentious hearings Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sought to defend the administrations handling of an increase of migrants at the Southwest border and its plans to deal with the prospect of more with the potential end of Title 42.

Mayorkas sought to push back on Republican accusations that the Biden administration has encouraged irregular migration by allowing some people to seek asylum, blaming economic and political turmoil and violence throughout Latin America and the world.

Some of the causes of irregular migration have only been heightened by years of distress preceding this administration, he said.

Mayorkas testified one day after Homeland Security released a plan with more details about how it was preparing for the end of Title 42 authority.

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Associated Press reporter Ben Fox in Washington contributed to this story.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  Maine might move to a more open style of primary elections.

The Maine Legislature has voted in favor of semi-open primaries, which supporters said would allow unaffiliated voters more voice in elections. About a third of Maine registered voters are unenrolled in any party.

The bill approved by the Legislature would allow unenrolled voters to participate in either the Democratic or Republican primary each election cycle without changing their party affiliation. Voters who become unenrolled by withdrawing from a party may not participate in a primary for 15 days, unless they are also registering to vote at a new address.

The proposal also states that unenrolled voters who participate in a primary must be considered party members for the purpose of allocating delegates to the party's state convention or presidential nominating convention.

The Maine Senate voted to enact the bill on Monday. It will now go to Democratic Gov. Janet Mills for potential signature.

Democratic Sen. Chloe Maxmin of Nobleboro, who proposed the bill, said many Maine voters are locked out of primary elections that their tax dollars pay for" under the current system.
Lacy Atkins/AP

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  A man sentenced to death for fatally shooting a Tennessee sheriffs deputy in 2018 before setting fire to his patrol car with his body inside is now facing an additional federal sentence of life in prison.

The sentence was handed down Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville for Steven Wiggins. Last August, a jury sentenced Wiggins to death in state court in the May 2018 killing of Dickson County Sheriffs Sgt. Daniel Baker.
GRAND RAPIDS - Davenport University is reinstating its commencement ceremony this year at Van Andel Arena.

More than 1,540 students will graduate from Davenport this spring with bachelors and masters degrees in business, technology, health and urban education. The university's Midland campus has 54 graduates, who have been invited to the return of an in-person event.

This is a special event for us as it is a return to a long-standing tradition for the university to honor the hard work and talent of our students in a venue that will accommodate their family and friends together as an audience, said Dr. Richard J. Pappas, president of Davenport University, in a press release.

This is the first traditional ceremony the university has hosted in the arena-style format since the pandemic hit Michigan two years ago.

During the pandemic, the university hosted drive-through graduation ceremonies on its campus, with families driving through the universitys campus while students accepted their diplomas on stage. Now, graduates will walk at a ceremony held at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the downtown arena.

We were grateful to be able to recognize our students during the pandemic with a creative and safe event, said Jennifer Byron, Davenport University registrar. We learned a lot from that experience  especially how enthusiastically families celebrated their students with posters and decorations, and we have incorporated unique recognition opportunities to accommodate the enthusiasm we saw the last two years.

Graduates are asked to arrive by 1:30 p.m. and guests are asked to arrive before 2 p.m. For the first time, Davenport is asking families to submit congratulatory photos and messages to their students that will be incorporated into the ceremony.

Davenport programs offered at Midland campus Associates in Accounting

Associates in Business Administration

Associates in Networking Technology

Bachelor of Science in Health and Human Services Case Management

Bachelor of Science in Health Services Administration

Bachelor of Science in Network Management and Security

Bachelor of Science in Nursing: Completion / Concurrent

Bachelor's in Accounting

Bachelor's in Accounting Fraud Investigation

Bachelor's in Applied Business

Bachelor's in Business

Bachelor's in Health and Human Services Case Management: Completion

Bachelor's in Health Services Administration: Completion

Bachelor's in Management

Bachelor's in Nursing: Pre-Licensure

Business Essentials for Urban School Administrators

Business Principles Certificate

Health and Human Services Case Management / Occupational Therapy Program

Instructional Core Transformation for Urban School Administrators

Instructional Core Transformation for Urban School Administrators Master of Education in Urban Education

Master of Education in Urban Educational Leadership

Urban Education Graduate Certificate

Urban Educational Leadership Graduate Certificate

Urban Educational Leadership Principles

Veterans Bachelor of Science in Nursing See More Collapse

The Davenport graduation will feature Sara E. Armbruster, president and CEO of Steelcase Inc., as its keynote speaker this year. She assumed the helm of Steelcase in October 2021. She brings a wealth of experience to the role, having held several leadership positions within Steelcase including leading its work around strategy, research and digital transformation.

We are honored to have Sara speak to our students this year, as she serves as a pinnacle in our community for leadership and hard-work, traits that we strive to instill in each of our students during their academic journey, said Pappas.

The university plans to award an honorary doctorate in business to honor Armbruster's work and leadership in the community.

This years Davenport University graduates range in age between 18 and 63. They are from cities across Michigan and from 21 states across the U.S. as well as other countries.

Nearly 40% of this years students are the first in their families to graduate from college. Students will be earning degrees spanning from accounting to cybersecurity to occupational therapy and nursing with nearly 22% graduating with a masters degree and another 78% earning their bachelors.

A livestream video-feed is expected to be available at Davenport's website, with a search of "Commencement 2022."
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LONDON (AP)  A hands-off approach to moderating content at Elon Musks Twitter could clash with ambitious new laws in Europe meant to protect users from disinformation, hate speech and other harmful material.

Musk, who describes himself as a free speech absolutist," pledged to buy Twitter for $44 billion this week, with European Union officials and digital campaigners quick to say that any focus on free speech to the detriment of online safety would not fly after the 27-nation bloc solidified its status as a global leader in the effort to rein in the power of tech giants.

If his approach will be just stop moderating it, he will likely find himself in a lot of legal trouble in the EU," said Jan Penfrat, senior policy adviser at digital rights group EDRi.

Musk will soon be confronted with Europe's Digital Services Act, which will require big tech companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook parent Meta to police their platforms more strictly or face billions in fines.

Officials agreed just days ago on the landmark legislation, expected to take effect by 2024. Its unclear how soon it could spark a similar crackdown elsewhere, with U.S. lawmakers divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more.

That means the job of reining in a Musk-led Twitter could fall to Europe  something officials signaled theyre ready for.

Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules  regardless of their shareholding, Thierry Breton, the EUs internal market commissioner, tweeted Tuesday. Mr Musk knows this well. He is familiar with European rules on automotive, and will quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act.

Musk's plans for Twitter haven't been fleshed out beyond a few ideas for new features, opening its algorithm to public inspection and defeating bots posing as real users.

France's digital minister, Cedric O, said Musk has interesting things that he wants to push for Twitter, but lets remember that #DigitalServicesAct  and therefore the obligation to fight misinformation, online hate, etc.  will apply regardless of the ideology of its owner."

EU Green Party lawmaker Alexandra Geese, who was involved in negotiating the law, said, Elon Musks idea of free speech without content moderation would exclude large parts of the population from public discourse, such as women and people of color.

Twitter declined to comment. Musk tweeted that the extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all. He added that by free speech, he means that which matches the law and that hes against censorship going far beyond the law.

The United Kingdom also has an online safety law in the works that threatens senior managers at tech companies with prison if they dont comply. Users would get more power to block anonymous trolls, and tech companies would be forced to proactively take down illegal content.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office stressed the need for Twitter to remain responsible" and protect users.

Regardless of ownership, all social media platforms must be responsible, Johnson's spokesman Max Blain said Tuesday.

Damian Collins, a British lawmaker who led a parliamentary committee working on the bill, said that if Musk really wants to make Twitter a free speech haven, he will need to clean up the digital town square."

Collins said Twitter has become a place where users are drowned out by coordinated armies of bot" accounts spreading disinformation and division and that users refrain from expressing themselves because of the hate and abuse they will receive.

The laws in the U.K. and EU target such abuse. Under the EU's Digital Services Act, tech companies must put in place systems so illegal content can be easily flagged for swift removal.

Experts said Twitter will have to go beyond taking down clearly defined illegal content like hate speech, terrorism and child sexual abuse and grapple with material that falls into a gray zone.

The law includes requirements for big tech platforms to carry out annual risk assessments to determine how much their products and design choices contribute to the spread of divisive material that can affect issues like health or public debate.

This is all about assessing to what extent your users are seeing, for example, Russian propaganda in the context of the Ukraine war, online harassment or COVID-19 misinformation, said Mathias Vermeulen, public policy director at data rights agency AWO.

Violations would incur fines of up to 6% of a company's global annual revenue. Repeat offenders can be banned from the EU.

The Digital Services Act also requires tech companies to be more transparent by giving regulators and researchers access to data on how their systems recommend content to users.

Musk has similar thoughts, saying his plans include making the algorithms open source to increase trust.

Penfrat said it's a great idea that could pave the way to a new ecosystem of ranking and recommendation options.

But he panned another Musk idea  authenticating all humans  saying that taking away anonymity or pseudonyms from people, including society's most marginalized, was the dream of every autocrat.

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AP reporter Sam Petrequin in Brussels contributed to this report.

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See all of APs tech coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/technology.
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP)  A high school teacher in suburban New York was charged Wednesday with submitting a forged COVID-19 vaccination card in an effort to get around the school district's rule mandating either vaccination or weekly testing for the coronavirus.

Tricia Manno, a teacher at Sewanhaka High School on Long Island, was arraigned on charges including criminal possession of a forged instrument and offering a false instrument for filing, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced.

This defendant allegedly attempted to circumvent the school districts mandatory testing requirement by submitting a vaccine card with obvious forgeries, Donnelly said.

According to prosecutors, Manno, 47, submitted a digital copy of a vaccination card to the Sewanhaka Central High School District on Sept. 21, 2021.

District employees suspected forgery and asked Manno to submit the original card, prosecutors said.

Manno told the district staffers she had been vaccinated at the Northport VA Medical Center but had lost her original card, the prosecutors said. Manno then went to the medical center, showed staffers there a digital image of the forged vaccination card and asked for a replacement, prosecutors said.

A staff member issued a replacement card even though the Northport VA Medical Center had no record of administering a COVID-19 vaccine to Manno, Donnelly said.

Manno doubled down on the fraud by allegedly illegally obtaining a replacement card at the Northport VA Medical Center where she claimed to have been vaccinated, showing staff a digital fake as her proof," the district attorney, a Republican, said in a news release. "Submitting fraudulent documents is a crime, and in this case, one that put the health and safety of students and staff at risk.

Manno pleaded not guilty at her arraignment. Her attorney, Scott Limmer, said he was awaiting discovery from the district attorney's office.

If convicted of the charges against her, Manno faces a maximum of two and one-third to seven years in prison.

James Grossane, the superintendent of schools, said in a statement that the district will fully cooperate with the investigation but that it could not comment on private personnel matters.

The charges against Manno in Nassau County were filed days after several dozen public school teachers in neighboring New York City were placed on unpaid leave for allegedly submitting fraudulent proof of COVID-19 vaccination. The United Federation of Teachers is fighting the disciplinary action against the New York City teachers.
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. (AP)  Officials have identified a man who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with a state trooper and sheriffs deputy on Marylands Eastern Shore.

The man killed in the shootout Monday was identified as William Brink, 24, of Salisbury, the attorney generals office said in a news release Wednesday. The officers involved have been identified as Cpl. Jason Dykes, who has been with Maryland State Police for 17 years, and Sgt. Kevin Goepfert and Deputy 1st Class Anthony Jackson of the Somerset County Sheriffs Office.
SALEM, Ore. (AP)  In 1994, Kyle Hedquist led a teenager down a remote logging road, then shot her in the back of the head because he feared she might tell police about burglaries he'd committed.

This month, Oregon. Gov. Kate Brown granted clemency to Hedquist, who was serving a life sentence without parole after being convicted of murdering Nikki Thrasher when he was 18. Brown's act is unleashing a storm of criticism from prosecutors and law enforcement.

The executive clemency granted by Gov. Brown in this case is shocking and irresponsible, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said Tuesday in a statement. Hedquist, now 45, was convicted in Douglas County Circuit Court in 1995.

On Tuesday, Brown defended her clemencies, comparing them to President Joe Biden's granting of clemency Tuesday to 78 people, though those were all for nonviolent crimes.

Teenagers, even those who have committed terrible crimes, have a unique capacity for growth and change, Brown said in social media posts in which she applauded Biden's action, adding: We are a state and a nation of second chances.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 2012 ruling, said only the rare, irredeemable juvenile offender should serve life in prison, but that applies in federal cases.

Some two dozen states have banned sentencing juveniles to life without parole, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project, which advocates for humane responses to crime. The Democrat-dominated Oregon Legislature passed such a law in 2019, but the state Supreme Court has ruled it's not retroactive.

The clemency of Hedquist has fueled Republican complaints that Brown, a Democrat who is not running for reelection this year because of term limits, is soft on crime.

As with many others, the facts of this case are outrageous and brutal, Oregon Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp said Tuesday. The Governor continues to let violent criminals out of prison, and Democrats in the majority remain silent.

However, Brown said she has denied most clemency requests.

Clemency is an action I reserve for individuals who have demonstrated that they have made incredible changes in their lives to rehabilitate themselves, take accountability for their crimes, and dedicate themselves to making their communities a better place, Brown said.

While locked up in the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Hedquist spent over 20 years volunteering for hospice care services, said Liz Merah, Brown's spokeswoman.

Hedquist wrote about caring for the dying inmates in a piece that was awarded honorable mention in memoir in PEN America's 2019 Prison Writing Contest.

I couldnt have known all those years ago that death would bring my humanity back, Hedquist wrote. So I sat, I listened, their teary-eyed regurgitation of their crimes burned my ears, they left a bitter taste in my mouth as I consumed the confessions ... but somehow just being with them and listening lightened their burden before death stepped in to take them."

This month, Hedquist was released to the Salem home of a former prison chaplain after a suitable place could not be found for him in Douglas County, where Hedquist was from.

Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson and Sheriff Joe Kast, whose county includes Salem, issued a public safety notice Saturday in which they expressed significant safety concerns surrounding the sudden and ill-planned governors commutation.

Hedquist tricked the victim into driving him to a rural Douglas County location where he shot the victim execution-style in the back of the head and dumped her body along the road, Clarkson and Kast said. Hedquist admitted killing her to eliminate a witness in hope of preventing his own capture.

Brown accused several district attorneys of scoring political points by stoking public fears in these cases. Oregonians granted clemency have demonstrated they have turned their lives around and pose a low risk to the public, she said.

Merah, Browns spokeswoman, said Hedquist's conditions of sentence commutation include lifetime supervision and GPS ankle monitoring for at least six months.

If Mr. Hedquist violates any terms of his post-prison supervision, the governor can revoke his commutation, Merah said.

Since taking office in 2015, Brown has granted 1,148 sentence commutations  963 of them to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in prisons, Merah said. Also among the total were 41 commutations for inmates who fought wildfires and 72 who committed crimes as juveniles and were sentenced to more than 15 years. Brown also granted 63 pardons. Commutations reduce prison terms, while pardons forgive defendants of crimes.

The number of clemencies from governors varies widely across the nation.

 Democratic Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee, in office since 2013, has issued 1,266 clemency orders, including 422 because of the pandemic and 35 for marijuana convictions.

 California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat in office since 2019, has granted 112 pardons, 109 commutations and 34 reprieves.

 Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican who took office in 2019, has granted clemency to 17 people. The Republican governors of Mississippi, South Carolina and Idaho have issued zero clemencies during their terms.

 Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, has granted 293 clemency actions since 2020, including 275 pardons and 18 commutations. Parson said there was a backlog of clemency requests when he took office following the 2018 resignation of fellow GOP Gov. Eric Greitens.

 Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat in office since 2015, issued 159 pandemic-related temporary reprieves for inmates. Of that number, 62 were returned to custody and Wolf commuted the sentences of 97. His office said he has issued 1,996 pardons -- more than any other governor in more than 20 years.

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This story has been updated to correct Hedquist's age at the time to 18.

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Associated Press writers Donald Thompson in Sacramento, California; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; Emily Wagster in Jackson, Mississippi; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee; David Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri; and Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
JERUSALEM (AP)  Israeli forces on Wednesday shot and killed an 18-year-old Palestinian man and wounded three others during clashes near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The ministry said that the man died from a gunshot wound to the head. Three others, including a 16-year-old boy, were wounded by gunfire, it said in a statement. An earlier report by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the slain man was 21 years old.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Wednesday signed into law a bill that expands the number of dwellings that can be built on housing lots to help address the state's affordable housing crisis.

The new law allows accessory dwelling units and duplexes to be built in areas zoned for single-family housing. Up to four units would be allowed in designated growth areas.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  A report by watchdog groups says the state is running a secured juvenile justice facility in Tennessee like it's a dangerous jail," in violation of state and federal laws.

The report, released Wednesday by Disability Rights Tennessee and the Youth Law Center, says that monitoring of the Wilder Youth Development Center in Somerville since September 2020 has revealed serious issues. The report also flagged unsanitary, unsafe conditions, a dearth of rehabilitative and educational services, a disproportionately high number of Black youths and young people with disabilities confined there, and reliance on solitary confinement.

The report says the facility has a pattern and practice of abuse perpetrated by staff at Wilder, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, and staff orchestrating attacks on youth. Disability Rights Tennessee says it has filed child abuse reports related to more than 10 young people during its monitoring period at Wilder.

The report says about 1 in 4 youths there who spoke with Disability Rights Tennessee during its monitoring period  with the most recent visit taking place in March  said they were the victim of, witnessed, or helped staff in a bounty-style practice that provided snacks and other incentives to residents for attacking other youth disliked by the staff.

"The Wilder Youth Development Center is not what the name seems to describe; instead, it is a detention facility that is run more like a dangerous jail than a place where youth can get needed services, like training programs, mental health support, and basic life skills," the report says.

The unit where juveniles have been secluded has had mold, sewage smell, roaches, spiders, mosquitoes and lizards, the report says.

In 2021, state lawmakers enacted a new law that says juveniles at detention facilities can't be secluded for discipline, punishment, administrative convenience, retaliation, staffing shortages, or any reason other than a temporary response to behavior that threatens immediate harm to a youth or others. Among its provisions, the law prohibits more than six total hours of seclusion of a juvenile within a 24-hour period.

The report says it remains to be seen how these reforms will be overseen and implemented within facilities, raising concerns the law could contain a loophole that could result in extended seclusion for some.

Tennessee Department of Children's Services spokesperson Sandra Brandon said the 120-bed facility houses 32 males between 14 and 18 years of age, with four more awaiting placement. Brandon added that some concerns were addressed before the report, with certain employees who didn't follow policies terminated and facility renovations underway on outdated dorms, bathrooms and common areas. Brandon said the department disputes some findings and will address them with Disability Rights Tennessee, without mentioning specifics.

We will complete a full review of the report," Brandon said. "We are confident that with the support of our providers, community partners, legislators, and staff, we can work towards a resolution to any concern that may exist.

The facility houses youth up to the age of 19 who committed serious offenses as juveniles, but were not adjudicated to adult status in court, Brandon said. It's the last state-run youth development center in Tennessee.

The report says those housed at Wilder need to be evaluated for services and appropriate placement and protected from abuse and harm and given access to appropriate education. Medical professionals need to assess them to eliminate the over-prescription of psychotropic medications, as well, the groups recommended. They also recommended further investing in community-based services.

Disability Rights Tennessee is part of a network of 57 federally mandated legal advocacy agencies that advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, including through monitoring of facilities and investigations of alleged abuse and neglect.
CAIRO (AP)  Sudanese authorities released two outspoken former government officials from jail, lawyers said Wednesday, part of trust-building measures amid efforts to end the countrys political impasse.

Sudan has been plunged into turmoil since an October military coup upended its short-lived transition to democracy after three decades of repressive rule by former strongman Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir and his Islamist-backed government were removed in a popular uprising in April 2019.

Khalid Omar, a former minster of Cabinet affairs, was released late Tuesday and Mohammed al-Faki Suliman, a former member of the ruling Sovereign Council, walked free from a prison in the capital of Khartoum on Wednesday, their defense team said.

The Criminal Court in northern Khartoum rejected the prosecutors' request to renew their detention pending investigation into an array of vague charges, including betrayal of public trust, according to their lawyers. The court cited insufficient evidence to keep them in custodu, they said.

Both Omar and Suliman had been detained along with dozens of other officials during the Oct. 25 coup and were released a month later as part of a deal between the military and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. The premier resigned in January after failing to bridge the gap between the generals and the protest movement.

The two men were rearrested in February amid a crackdown by the generals on anti-coup groups. Dozens of activists were also detained amid relentless protests against the militarys takeover.

The crackdown on protesters killed more than 90 people, mostly young men, and injured thousands, according to a Sudanese medical group.

Suliman was also deputy head of a government-run agency tasked with dismantling the legacy of al-Bashirs regime. The agency is known as The Committee to Dismantle the Regime of June 30, 1989  a reference to the Islamist-backed coup that brought al-Bashir to power. It was created after the uprising and for two years worked to purge al-Bashirs loyalists from government institutions.

The generals, including coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, have long criticized the agency. It was dismantled after the October coup and the generals appointed another committee to review its decisions. Many of the agencys decision were reversed, measures seen by critics of the military as a way to enable Islamists allied with the generals.

Other detained members of agency, including Wagdy Saleh, Taha Osman and Babiker Faisal were also released Wednesday, their defense team said.

After a detention that lasted 78 days, we return to the streets  We wont forget that these streets have brought us to the positions of responsibility, Saleh said in a tweet, referring to the popular uprising.

Earlier this month, authorities freed over two dozen activists who were detained in recent weeks over the anti-coup protests.

The militarys takeover has plunged the country into turmoil and sent its already fragile economy into free fall, with living conditions rapidly deteriorating.

The U.N. envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, warned in March that Sudan was heading for an economic and security collapse unless it addresses the political paralysis. Perthes comments to the U.N. Security Council angered the generals and Burhan threatened to expel him.

Perthes is now leading joint efforts with the African Union and the eight-nation east African regional group called the Intergovernmental Authority in Development to facilitate Sudanese-led political talks. Perthes and the two organizations' envoys held a joint news conference Wednesday in Khartoum on their efforts.

Ismael Wais, the development authority's special envoy to Sudan, welcomed the releases as a very positive development. He urged Sudanese authorities to free all political prisoners and activists and lift the state of emergency as a necessary condition to help facilitate reaching an agreement on a way out of the crisis.

Mohamed Al Hacen Ould Lebatt, the AUs envoy for Sudan, said the trio will launch a political dialogue after the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan early in May. The meetings are expected to start May 10-12, he said.

He said the talks will include the military and other political parties and groups  except al-Bashirs now dissolved Congress Party  with the aim of agreeing on how the country will be ruled during the rest of transitional period and holding elections.

The situation in this country is highly sensitive if it is not extremely dangerous, Lebatt said, adding that the talks will eventually aim at achieving the aspiration of the Sudanese people expressed in their revolution.

There was no immediate comment from the two main protest groups, the Sudanese Professionals Association and the Resistance Committees, which have spearheaded the uprising against al-Bashir and the ongoing anti-coup protests. They have long demanded the removal of the military from power and the establishment of a fully civilian government.

The generals, however, have said they will only hand over power to an elected administration. They say elections will take place in July 2023, as planned in a constitutional document governing the transitional period.
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HOUSTON (AP)  Members of a Texas House committee on Tuesday repeatedly pressed a prosecutor to use his authority to stop the April 27 execution of a woman whose conviction is being questioned amid growing doubts about whether she fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter.

But during a sometimes contentious hearing, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz initially resisted calls from lawmakers that he ask a judge to recall the death warrant for Melissa Lucio, suggesting at first he didnt have the power to do so, then later saying there was no legal reason for him to act as various appeals court are still considering requests in her case. He later declared his belief the execution would be stopped.

I believe the (Texas Court of Criminal Appeals) will issue a stay and that is the way the system works, Saenz said.

But lawmakers on the Interim Study Committee on Criminal Justice Reform expressed frustration during the meeting in Austin that Saenz would not push the pause button himself.

Washing your hands to make this decision yourself to me is very shocking, said state Rep. Jeff Leach, the committees chair.

Saenz pushed back, saying he disagreed with claims by Lucios attorneys that there was new evidence that would exonerate her.

I am not washing my hands of this. I am dealing with it and there are hard decisions to make. You disagree with me but that doesnt mean I am washing my hands of it, Saenz said.

Saenz later said that if an appeals courts didnt take action to stop Lucios execution, he would work to delay it so the various legal claims pending in the case could be reviewed.

State Rep. Joe Moody said he believed if there are mistakes in a case, it is the duty and the moral responsibility of a prosecutor to right those wrongs.

But Saenz disagreed, saying courts call the errors, not me.

Tuesdays hearing was led by Leach and Moody, who are part of a bipartisan group of more than 80 Texas House members who are troubled by Lucios case and believe new evidence shows she did not fatally beat her daughter Mariah in 2007 in the South Texas city of Harlingen.

The lawmakers last month sent a letter to the states Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott asking them to grant an execution reprieve or commute her sentence.

Leach and Moody were among a group of seven lawmakers who last week visited Lucio on womens death row in Gatesville, Texas.

Prosecutors have maintained Mariah was the victim of child abuse as her body was covered in bruises. A medical examiner testified Mariah died from a blow to her head. Authorities say Lucio had a history of drug abuse and at times had lost custody of some of her 14 children.

But Lucios lawyers say jurors never heard forensic evidence that would have explained Mariahs various injuries were actually caused by a fall down a steep staircase. They also say Lucio wasnt allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession, which they allege was given under duress after hours of relentless questioning.

Several jurors from her trial have also expressed doubts about her conviction.

One of those jurors, Johnny Galvan Jr., appeared before the committee. In a statement that was read by his daughter, Galvan said he believed Lucios lawyers failed to present pertinent evidence in her case and he felt pressured by other jurors to sentence her to death.

I will be haunted by Ms. Lucios execution if it goes forward, Galvan said.

Earlier Tuesday, Lucios attorneys announced a fifth juror has questioned the conviction. An alternate juror has also expressed doubts.

I believe Ms. Lucio deserves a new trial and for a new jury to hear this evidence. Knowing what I know now, I dont think she should be executed, Melissa Quintanilla, the jury forewoman, said in an affidavit.

Saenz said his office had contacted the seven other jurors who sentenced Lucio and six of them had not changed their minds while the seventh had died.

After the committee meeting, Sonya Alvarez, one of Lucios sisters, said her family was encouraged after hearing Saenz say he would stop the execution if the courts didnt act.

Were just hopeful ... that hes going to do the right thing and allow this new evidence to be presented, Alvarez said.

Lucio, 52, would be the first Latina executed by Texas since 1863 and the first woman since 2014. Only 17 women have been executed in the U.S. since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on the death penalty in 1976, most recently in January 2021.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

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This story has been corrected to show that Lucio would have been the first Latina to be executed by Texas since 1863, not ever.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  Members of a U.S. House committee are seeking answers about a natural gas release at a ConocoPhillips Alaska drill site on Alaska's North Slope.

The company earlier this month reported it had identified and controlled the source of the gas release first detected on March 4.

Three Democrats on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee sent a letter Tuesday to ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Ryan Lance seeking information about the incident, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The letter, signed by Chair Raul Grijalva and Reps. Katie Porter and Alan Lowenthal, notes the committee has jurisdiction over oil and gas resources on public lands. It seeks responses by May 13.

"The ongoing leak and ConocoPhillips response raises a number of troubling questions, including how your company would respond to similar leaks at your proposed Willow project inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the letter states.

ConocoPhillips is pursuing the Willow oil project in the northeast portion of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, but it has faced legal challenges from environmental groups. Rebecca Boys, a ConocoPhillips spokesperson, said the Willow project has undergone extensive environmental and permitting reviews.

Boys, by email, said the company was reviewing the letter. She also said lessons learned from the incident will be incorporated into future projects.

Boys on Tuesday said intermittent, trace amounts of gas that were trapped beneath underground obstructions are still finding their way to the surface and are being detected near wellhouses, which are structures enclosing the tops of wells.

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which oversees oil and gas drilling in the state, in an update Tuesday said the company was continuing work to plug and abandon a waste disposal well that was being drilled when the leak occurred.

The lawmakers, among other things, want to know why it took the company a month to identify the source of the leak and how close the leak was to becoming something more severe.

ConocoPhillips continues investigating the cause and what happened at the field, where gas escaped at a drill site called CD1, according to the oil and gas commission.

The company has said it has not detected gas outside the gravel drill pad.
ORANGE, Calif. (AP)  Federal prosecutors announced a sweeping racketeering case Wednesday aimed at dismantling the leadership of the Mexican Mafia that controlled street gangs in part of Southern California.

The indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court against three members of the group and 28 associates includes allegations of two murders, six attempted killings, extortion and drug trafficking in Orange County.

Prosecutors said the case would not eradicate the organization, which mainly operates from behind bars to call shots on crimes in prison and on the streets. But the prosecution would disrupt the leadership that arose when the longtime kingpin who for decades controlled gang activity in Orange County was convicted of racketeering in 2016.

The message that this case sends is that if you rise to power in that vacuum, we will come for you, U.S. Attorney Tracy Wilkison said. No gang member is beyond our reach.

Twenty-one of those charged were already in custody and nine others were arrested in the past two days. One remained a fugitive.

The 106-page indictment charges members of the group with conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, committing violent crimes to aid racketeering, conspiring to traffic drugs, dealing methamphetamine and heroin, and firearms charges.

The Mexican Mafia, which was started in the 1950s at a juvenile jail and grew to an international criminal organization that controls smuggling, drug sales and extortion inside Californias penal system, is made up of leaders of different street gangs.

Leaders direct associates to collect taxes on drugs proceeds and order hits on enemies or people who betray them or violate their rules.

For decades, Peter Ojeda was the head of the Mexican Mafia in Orange County, calling shots from inside prison. After Ojeda's racketeering conviction and subsequent 2018 death in prison, Johnny Martinez, Robert Aguirre, and Dennis Ortiz filled the leadership void, prosecutors said.

The triumvirate of new leaders had expanded the Mexican Mafias control over the street gangs and Latino inmates in Orange County jails, Wilkison said. Those gang overseers stepped up punishment of those who violated their rules.

It wasnt immediately clear if Martinez, Aguirre and Ortiz had lawyers who could comment on their behalf.

The indictment describes a series of crimes carried out as part of the racketeering conspiracy that range from shaking people down for money or dealing drugs to murders plotted for showing disrespect or violating orders.

One man was shot to death in January 2017 during an armed robbery that had been ordered. Another was lured into a car in August that year and shot seven times for failing to pay a drug debt to Martinez, according to the indictment.

At least two of the defendants in the case were also targets of violence but managed to survive vicious attacks.

Gregory Munoz was shot seven times on the street in August 2017 after Martinez ordered him to be removed as a so-called shot caller, the indictment said. He survived and is among the defendants.

Another defendant, Michael Cooper, survived two hits  in January 2018 and another attack on New Year's Eve 2019. Martinez allegedly ordered the killing because Cooper had ordered a hit he hadn't sanctioned and was also suspected of causing a police raid on a gang.

Cooper was stabbed multiple times in the head and back area in the first attack in Calipatria State Prison and cut in the throat and face the second time.

At least four others survived attempted slayings for allegedly abusing their authority, warning others they were targets of violence and showing disrespect to Martinez. One man had his throat slit for allegedly talking about snitching on the Mexican Mafia.

Brian Gilhooly of the FBI said that one of the goals of bringing the case is to lock up leaders farther from their home turf in federal prisons, where it's harder to smuggle contraband.

Despite being locked in prisons where cellphones are banned and communications are monitored, the Mexican Mafia operates through a crude but elaborate communication network of speaking in code with smuggled phones, notes passed between inmates and instructions sent through girlfriends and confidantes who visit.

We are going to make sure that these individuals get lengthy sentences, and get sent to other prisons throughout the country, Gilhooly said.

___

Melley reported from Los Angeles.
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  Virginia House Democrats voted Wednesday to remove their caucus leader, months after an unsuccessful election cycle that saw the party lose full control of the state government.

The 48-member caucus voted by secret ballot to remove Minority Leader Eileen Filler-Corn, who previously served as Virginia's first female House speaker, according to lawmakers and staffers who spoke with reporters shortly after the vote.

The membership voted against removing caucus chair Charniele Herring, lawmakers said. No immediate vote was held on who would fill Filler-Corn's role.

The vote on whether to remove the two women came after a campaign led in part by Del. Don Scott, an attorney and two-term House member from Portsmouth. Scott resigned a caucus leadership post, vice-chair for outreach, on Sunday and called for the election to remove Herring and Filler-Corn. He nominated himself to take over Filler-Corn's role and nominated two young, progressive members to serve along with him.

Scott and delegates Sally Hudson and Dan Helmer, whom he had nominated, all refused to comment Wednesday.

Filler-Corn, who served as the first female and first Jewish speaker of the House of Delegates for two years after Democrats flipped the chamber in 2019, conceded her role immediately. She called leading the caucus the honor of my life.

Our caucus is made up of 48 talented and diverse individuals and I look forward to working with them to retake the majority, she said in a statement.

Filler-Corn, who represents part of Fairfax County, was first elected in 2010. A strong fundraiser, she led the Democratic caucus during the national scandal and party strife that exploded after the 2019 discovery of a racist photo on former Gov. Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook. She helped the party flip control of the House and Senate later that year and took over the speakership in 2020.

Herring, who has represented part of the city of Alexandria since 2009 and served as majority leader between 2019-2021  the first woman and African American to hold that role  declined comment after the vote.

Filler-Corn and Herring were elected to their roles Nov. 14, less than two weeks after Election Day, when Democrats lost control of the House and Republicans swept all three statewide offices. Since then, dissent had apparently simmered about the party's election strategy and its losses by small margins in several races.

Wednesday's vote was held during a caucus meeting that precedes daily floor sessions. Lawmakers convened at noon for a one-day session for the purpose of considering GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin's vetoes and proposed amendments to legislation.

As the caucus filed out of their closed-door meeting, nearly every member declined comment. No one offered comment on why Filler-Corn was removed.

Asked about the substance of the meeting, Del. Mark Sickles quipped, It's not out on the internet anywhere?

Sickles, who told reporters the vote was 25-22, said the caucus did not immediately elect another leader in order to give everyone with interest time to be considered. He said he expected the caucus to vote the next time lawmakers return to Richmond.

Scott quickly issued a news release about his candidacy for Democratic leader.

We need a leader who can win  not just on the House Floor, but in elections in every corner of the Commonwealth, he said in the news release.
This is an excerpt from Fighting crime or political battles? Crime Stoppers of Houston is drawing scrutiny with partisan voice. Read the entire article on HoustonChronicle.com.

If it seems like Crime Stoppers of Houston is everywhere these days, its because it is. In recent weeks its CEO warned Houstonians at a local Republicans lunch club about out-of-control crime. Its victims assistance director blasted a local judge on television. Its staff trained METRO police officers.
In the past six years alone, Houston has faced seven major disasters including multiple floods, a power grid failure, Hurricane Harvey and an international pandemic.

The frequency of these events has prompted Houston Community College to invest in an ambitious new training program for first responders, construction workers and business employees to lessen the deadly toil these disasters bring.

On Tuesday, HCC leaders unveiled their plans for the program that includes a $30 million resiliency operations center equipped with a 39-foot-wide swift water rescue channel, a 15-foot-deep dive area, and a 100-foot-long rocky gorge of boulders that are above and below the water surface to provide additional obstacle training.

Our vision for this important initiative is to build a stronger, more resilient Houston where every Houstonian can be plan aware and response ready, HCC Chancellor Cesar Maldonado said at a news conference announcing the center. Every business can prepare for the future.

The disaster simulations part of the resiliency operations center is at the heart of this new program, which will train first responders and residents in how to tackle flooded residential streets that include obstacles like floating debris, underwater vehicles and downed power lines.

The center will include training in rescue vehicles and will be used year round to replicate various emergency situations.

What a firefighter would go through with the coursework to get certification would be much different from a citizen, Maldonado said. But certainly citizens are going to be using that facility to have a better understanding of what flooding means, what could be in the water, what kind of contaminants, what kind of hidden drains can cause a problem for children. So its not going to be just for the high-level first responders.

HCC will offer its first classes this summer for large employers and small businesses. The program is in response to a call from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner that 500,000 city workers become certified in resilience efforts. As the effects of climate change provide additional threats, cities and states across the country have begun to think about how to prepare and mitigate for catastrophic events.

A total price tag to build and operate the new program has not been released. Cost of the courses range from a few hundred dollars to just over $1,000 depending on the level of training involved. Program organizers say they anticipate federal workforce training dollars and employers to cover much of the cost for first responders and business employees that enroll.

The Texas Legislature approved nearly $5 million to design the training center. Another $10 million has come to HCC in private donations, Maldonado said. So far, the two-year community college has developed a 20-hour non-credit basic preparedness and recovery program that includes public rescue, medical triage, debris removal or facility construction.

The course will also help students understand supply chain challenges, construction and facility needs, disaster communications and coordination.

Students can take classes in risk assessment for their homes, how to support neighbors during an emergency, and the role and value of insurance.

Maldonado said students will take an assessment to measure their skills and pinpoint areas of training they want or need. The program will start out with non-credit courses that are open to all residents.

The pathway that a student takes will be a function of where they are today, he said. Whether they want to do this professionally or whether theyre after this as a community supporter and want to help take care of their community. 

Eventually, Maldonado said, the school hopes to develop associate degree programs.

The new resiliency center design is expected to be completed by 2024.

Disclosure: Houston Community College has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/26/houston-community-college-resiliency-center-disasters/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Russia and the United States carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange on Wednesday, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America, a senior U.S. official and the Russian foreign ministry said.

The surprise deal would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace, but it was all the more extraordinary because it was done as Russia's war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

As part of the exchange, Russia released Trevor Reed, a former Marine from Texas who was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. Reed was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though his family has maintained his innocence and the U.S. government has described him as unjustly detained.

The U.S. agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S.

Russia had sought his return for years while also rejecting entreaties by high-level U.S. officials to release Reed, who was nearing his 1,000th day in custody and whose health had recently been worsening, according to his family.

A senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, described Reed's case as one of utmost priority" for the Biden administration, including because of his health. The official noted that Yaroshenko, whose sentence has now been commuted, had already served the majority of his sentence.

It was a difficult decision but one that we thought was worth it, the official said.

The Russian foreign ministry said the exchange of Reed and Yaroshenko was a result of a long negotiation process.

The two prisoners were swapped in a European country. Though officials would not say where the transfer took place, in the hours before it happened commercial flight trackers identified a plane belonging to Russias federal security service as flying to Ankara, Turkey. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons also updated its website overnight to reflect that Yaroshenko was no longer in custody.

Reed was en route back to the U.S., traveling with Roger Cartsens, the U.S. government's special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

The prisoner swap marks the highest-profile release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad and comes even as families of detainees who have met over the last year with administration officials had described them as cool to the idea of an exchange.

In a statement, the Reed family thanked President Joe Biden for making the decision to bring Trevor home as well as other administration officials and Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations whom the family said traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reed's release.

Reed was one of several Americans known to be held by Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was detained in February after authorities said a search of her bag revealed a cannabis derivative, and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, who is being held on espionage-related charges his family says are bogus. It was unclear what if any impact Wednesday's action might have on their cases.

Reed's parents scored a rare private meeting with Biden and administration officials last month. They had stood weeks earlier along his motorcade route during a presidential visit to Texas in hopes of attracting his attention, then later demonstrated outside the White House to ask for a meeting.
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
Facts about Russia-Ukraine conflict: Russia's missile strike damages key bridge in Ukraine's south

Xinhua) 09:41, April 27, 2022

KIEV -- A missile strike carried out by Russian forces has damaged a key road-railway bridge over the Dniester Estuary in Ukraine's southern Odesa region, the Odesa City Council said Tuesday.

The bridge connects the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district with other districts of the Odesa region, local authorities said in a statement on Telegram.

The circumstances and information about the victims are being clarified, the statement said.

- - - -

MOSCOW -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and visiting United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday agreed on the need to continue the negotiation process and seek a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis.

"We stand in favor of a negotiated solution," Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Guterres after their talks in Moscow, noting that Russia agreed to begin negotiations in early March immediately after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had proposed.

- - - -

MOSCOW -- Russia said Tuesday that it is expelling three Swedish diplomats in response to the "unjustified" expulsion of three Russian diplomats in Stockholm and Sweden's military support for Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador to Russia on Tuesday and declared three diplomats of the Swedish Embassy in Russia "persona non grata," said the ministry in a statement.

- - - -

ANKARA -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday once again urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to hold a summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

During a phone talk, Erdogan told Putin that the "continuation of the positive momentum achieved in the Istanbul talks" to reach peace in Ukraine is in the interest of everyone, the Turkish presidential press service said in a statement.

The president reiterated his proposal to increase the level of the "Istanbul process, which is a very important threshold in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, to the level of leaders," said the statement.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
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Raspunsul la criza refugiatilor: Apel de propuneri, lansat de MAD-Aid in parteneriat cu Camera de Comert Britanica din Moldova
Since 2015, AJ+, Al Jazeeras digital video news network, has been one of the most popular news video publishers on Facebook. It took advantage of an emerging digital landscape, producing videos with social media in mind from the start. Dena Takruri, a senior presenter, hosts one of the networks most popular series, Direct From. Last year, it brought in more than two million views on Facebook.

The show is geared toward a globally minded, young, American audience, Takruri said. She got her start at Al Jazeera Arabic, and moved to AJ+ in the fall of 2013. At the time, the San Francisco native said, I believed the future of news was in the digital space. Known for her confrontational interview style and people-centered investigations, Takruri has reported on North Korea, Palestine, Flint, and beyond.

I spoke with the Palestinian-American journalist about why she believes her show resonates with such a large audience, how journalism might work in the age of social platforms, and what the future holds in store. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How has AJ+ influenced the landscape for digital media using social media platforms?

Dena Takruri: AJ+ pioneered the genre that were in today, in terms of the quick, concise text [in its videos]. Al Jazeera was one of the first news organizations that recognized social media platforms are used for social interactions and can be used for news dissemination, but it had to be packaged in a way that fit the social media platforms.

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Why do you think it has such a large reach?

The success of that largely had to do with being based in San Francisco, since Facebook was in our backyard. We had people from AJ+ meeting with their product people, and at the time they gave us insights about how people are going to consume video with audio turned off, so then, naturally, what do you do? You put text on-screen for them to read. We were talking to a digitally native young audience in their language, on their terms. We saw early on that theres an appetite for giving context as basic and straightforward.

Also, AJ+ has a social justice approach to the news. Its something were unapologetic about. Our social justice approach resonated with social movements around the world.

What were some of your early videos like, and what did it teach you?

One of the first videos I put out was a three-minute explainer on a green screen breaking down what settlements [in Palestine] are. We broke it down in a way that I was surprised to see how far and wide it spread on Facebook, because these are things that people just dont know: what a settlement is, why its illegal under international law. It showed us theres an appetite for global news with context in a way thats presented refreshingly.

What about your show, Direct From? Why do you think its been so successful?

Theres an approach to how I can be tough when Im challenging power, whether Im sitting across from the US Navy or a spokesperson from Nestle or Monsanto. Theres also the empathy, humanity, and respect I give to the people that I interview who have been hurt by these institutions and powerful players.

Some say AJ+ is one sided or has a leftist slant in its reporting. Why do you think that is? How does this rhetoric speak to how social movements and civil liberties are covered by the media?

I would first ask: Who is saying that? Who is uncomfortable by our work and why? At AJ+ we dont see ourselves as operating within the leftright spectrum of news, because its one thats heavily skewed in favor of reporting things from the perspective of those in power, and the center implies the status quo. The status quo is interested in maintaining the current structures of power. What were doing at AJ+ is were offering an alternative, so we dont put forth an ideological conviction to our stories or angles; we say that we choose to make the world knowable to our audience through the lens of justice. We approach things from a global perspective.

Do you think your Palestinian background shapes your work?

I was born and raised in the US, but our summer vacations werent Disneyland, summer camp, or Florida, they were to visit relatives in the occupied West Bank. Thats where all our family was. I spent a good amount of time witnessing life under a military occupation as a Palestinian. I had a firsthand experience of what it means to be from a community thats criminalized and dehumanized.

And Im also Muslim American, who came of age post-9/11. So theres that lived experience of being from a community thats viewed through a lens of suspicion. And that sense of injustice, on many fronts, propelled me and enabled me to draw parallels to other struggles and other communities.

Being Palestinian has served as a passport into different communities. Its been an asset. You know, when I report on Indigenous communities, Im approaching stories with an understanding and a lived experience of what it means to be dispossessed from your land by settler colonialism. What it is to be stateless, and what it means to have a painful relationship to your homeland. The people that Im reporting on are from those communities. They trust me for that reason, and thats been a huge asset.

Theres the challenge [in the field of journalism at large] of speaking up in a newsroom when youre the only person from that background with that perspective. It takes a lot of courage, and its very daunting, and it can be punished. People will always come at you with what-about-ism, and you have to be more knowledgeable than the average person. You have to be smarter, sharper, wittier. Theres a lot of pressure there. You have to tolerate your humanity being debated and denied, and thats not easy.

What advice would you give early-career Palestinian journalists?

If you are in fact trying to get into journalism, then make sure everything that you post and tweet is couched in truth and fact and well sourced. I would ask any young journalist to question and remind yourself why you wanted to go into this in the first place. And the odds are its because you had an experience like mine, where you saw your people, your communities, misrepresented, and you wanted to do something about that.

I dont want to discount the very real challenges that Palestinian journalists face in US newsrooms, but I think that things are shifting, I think newsrooms are realizing that diversity is an asset. There are Palestinians on camera doing amazing things publicly in the American mainstream media, but also behind the scenes, as producers, assignment editors, managing editors. And so let that be a source of hope for you, and motivation. Go into this with your eyes open, but also know that things are changing.

This post has been updated for clarity.

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Dalya Al Masri is a journalist and writer based in Vancouver, whose work centers on media critique around Western news coverage on the Middle East and North Africa. She is the audience engagement editor at the Prison Journalism Project.
If an insurer wants confirmation by a court that an appraisal is inappropriate, it needs to file a request for declaratory judgment before denying the appraisal request, an Illinois appellate panel ruled Monday.

A panel with the 3rd District of the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed a county judges decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Travelers Indemnity Co. that sought a declaration that the appraisal provision in a policy issued to the Townes of Cedar Ridge Condominium Association did not apply. Travelers filed the action after refusing the condo associations request for an appraisal.

A declaratory judgment action is not the proper vehicle to review past conduct, the appellate courts opinion says. Travelers denial effectively terminated Cedar Ridges opportunity to have its claim resolved through the appraisal process.

The use of appraisals to resolve insurance disputes has been a frequent source of litigation in recent years. The controversy stems in part from skepticism among insurers that appraisers chosen by policyholders will give disinterested opinions about value. Insurers also often object when an appraisal is requested to decide whether coverage exists rather than to determine the cost of repairing the damage.

Travelers and Cedar Ridge disagreed over the extent of damage after a March 2019 hailstorm. Travelers said that the vast majority of the alleged damage was ordinary wear and tear and issued a check for $17,140.88 to repair hail damage to gutters, downspouts, air conditioning units and one shingle on one roof.

The condo association submitted a repair estimate for $2,078,657.08 and demanded an appraisal. Travelers denied the request, saying there was no wind or hail damage to appraise.

The insurer filed a lawsuit in the 12th Judicial Circuit in Will County seeking a declaratory judgment that the appraisal provision in the policy did not apply to the coverage dispute. Judge John C. Anderson granted a motion for summary judgment by Cedar Ridge dismissed the lawsuit. Travelers appealed.

Chicago attorney Christina Phillips, with the Merlin Law Group, represented Cedar Ridge. She said she intends to file a breach of contract lawsuit against the insurer.

Phillips said insurers often try to avoid appraisals, but they have lost several cases at the US District Court for Northern Illinois and now try to avoid litigation before federal judges on appraisal questions.

Its kind of a rush to the courthouse on the insurer side because theyd rather be in state court than federal court, Phillips said.

She said multiple insurers have sought declaratory judgment to avoid the appraisal process and failed, but the Cedar Ridge case is the first she is aware of that reached a state appellate court. She said the appellate panels decision in Cedar Ridge shouldnt come as a surprise.

Declaratory judgment is to learn the consequences of your actions before they occur, she said.

The appellate panel said as much in its judgment affirming dismissal of Travelers lawsuit. While the insurer argued that Cedar Ridge never withdrew its request for an appraisal, leaving a controversy in place, the court said Travelers had eliminated any opportunity to change the outcome when it denied the associations request for appraisal.
U.S. labor officials are asking a federal court to force Starbucks Corp. to reinstate a group of activists, escalating the legal battle over the companys response to the union campaign sweeping through its stores.

In a filing Friday, the National Labor Relations Boards Phoenix regional director sought an injunction requiring the coffee chain to bring back three employees who the agency alleged had illegally been fired, forced out, or placed on leave.

Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union thats petitioning to represent staff at hundreds of Starbucks cafes, has filed dozens of allegations against the company with the labor board, most of which are still pending. The agencys prosecutors have found merit in some of those claims, and issued complaints accusing the Seattle-based retailer of illegally firing activists in Arizona and Tennessee.

Starbucks said it disagrees with the labor boards claims. A partners interest in union representation does not exempt them from the standards weve put in place to protect partners, customers, and the communities that we serve, a spokesperson said in an email Saturday. We respect our partners right to organize but will also take the necessary steps to ensure every partner and customer has a welcoming and safe environment in our stores.

The company has said that any claims of anti-union activity are categorically false.

Starbucks retaliated against the three employees because of their involvement with the union and their participation in the NLRBs own investigations, the agencys filing alleged. The companys actions have irreparably harmed, and are continuing to harm, employees, the agency said, including by creating an atmosphere wherein employees fear retaliation and discharge on a daily basis if they show support for the union.

The filing asked that Starbucks, along with being forced to offer the three employees reinstatement, also be required to participate in a video recording of a high-level company official reading the courts order out loud, or listening to the order being read, and to share that video with its employees across the country.

Starbucks treatment of the partners in Arizona mirrors its treatment of union supporters at stores across the country, the unions organizing committee said in an emailed statement. As such, we fully expect that this is the first of many future petitions the NLRB will pursue against Starbucks, until the company is held accountable for its violations of partners right to self-determination.

U.S. labor law prohibits companies from retaliating against workers for taking collective action to improve their working conditions, including union organizing. But the labor board, which prosecutes alleged violations of that law, has no authority to make companies pay punitive damages, and disputes over alleged retaliatory firings can drag on for years, hampering organizing efforts even if the employee eventually prevails.

NLRB regional offices investigate claims and, if they find merit in them and cant reach a settlement, issue complaints which are then considered by agency judges. The judges rulings can be appealed to NLRB members in Washington and from there to federal court. The NLRBs top prosecutor, General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, has said she plans to aggressively seek federal court injunctions to get wrongly fired employees back to work more quickly.

Workers United has prevailed in votes at a couple dozen Starbucks stores, including Colorado and Virginia sites where ballot victories were announced Friday.

About the photo: A barista pours frothed milk into a drink inside a Starbucks Corp. coffee shop in New York, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016 Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  Firefighters across the country are battling multiple wildfires as tinder-dry conditions and high winds whip up flames from Arizona to Florida  including a prairie fire in rural southwestern Nebraska that has killed one person, injured at least 15 firefighters and destroyed at least six homes.

A break in the weather in parts of the Midwest and West allowed crews to make progress Monday on some of the nearly dozen new large fires that were reported in recent days across the nation  four in New Mexico, three in Colorado and one each in Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas.

With more than 1,350 square miles (3,496 square kilometers) burned so far this year, officials at the National Interagency Fire Center said the amount of land singed to date is outpacing the 10-year average by about 30%.

Hotter, drier weather has combined with a persistent drought to worsen fire danger across many parts of the West, where decades of fire suppression have resulted in overgrown and unhealthy forests and increasing development have put more communities at risk.

In northern New Mexico, evacuations remained in place for several communities Monday and conditions were still too volatile for authorities to assess the damage caused Friday and Saturday. The blaze has has grown into the largest wildfire burning in the U.S., charring more than 88 square miles (228 square kilometers).

Members of New Mexicos congressional delegation joined Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on a call Monday with officials from the White House and federal agencies to appeal for more federal ground resources ahead of another blast of strong fire-fueling winds expected later in the week.

Thanks to lighter winds in the Midwest on Monday, firefighters made significant progress on the fire thats burned about 70 square miles (181 square km) of mostly grasslands and farmland near the Nebraska-Kansas state line. Its now estimated to be about 47% contained.

They made the most of the opportunity Monday to dump water in dry creeks and draws filled with cottonwoods where dense fuels and brush has built up ahead of the return of more dangerous conditions expected on Tuesday, said Jonathan Ashford, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team.

Its supposed to be about 20 degrees warmer tomorrow, lower humidity and increased wind, he said Monday night.

In Arizona, firefighters also took advantage of lighter winds to boost containment of a more than 33-square-mile (85 square-kilometer) blaze that has been burning outside of Flagstaff for more than a week. Strong winds that had fueled the fire are expected to return later this week. Meanwhile, hundreds of evacuated residents were given the go-ahead on Sunday to return home.

About 160 firefighters, emergency management personnel and others  twice as many as the day before  were helping fight the fire in Nebraska by Monday evening.

Known as the Road 702 Fire, it has destroyed at least six homes and threatened 660 others, along with 50 commercial or farm buildings, Ashford said.

A retired Cambridge, Nebraska, fire chief who was helping as a fire spotter in Red Willow County died Friday night after his truck went off the road in a blinding haze of smoke and dust. The body of John Trumble, 66, of Arapahoe, was recovered around early Saturday.

Trumble was the second person in a month to die while fighting a wildfire in southwest Nebraska. Elwood Volunteer Fire Chief Darren Krull, 54, was killed in a collision with a water tanker on April 7 in Furnas County as smoke cut visibility to zero.

Nebraska remains critically dry, said Ashford, who urged residents to use caution when doing anything that could spark a fire.

The last thing we need is to have another fire started that we have to then fight, he said.

Susan Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Associated Press writer Scott Sonner contributed to this report from Reno, Nevada.

About the photo: The burned and twisted frame of a bicycle that once belonged to Trisha Peralta lies in the rubble of a burned shed on her familys property Monday, April 25, 2022 after the Tunnel Fire destroyed the property, including the house, the week before. (Rachel Gibbons/Arizona Daily Sun via AP)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)  The mother of a 14-year-old Missouri boy who was killed while riding a 430-foot (131-meter) drop-tower ride at a Florida amusement park says her sons death was preventable.

This couldve been prevented  it shouldve been prevented, Nekia Dodd, the mother of Tyre Sampson, told ABCs Good Morning America in an interview aired Tuesday morning. So as an operator, you have a job to check those rides, you know. The video I saw, that was not done. And if it was done, it shouldve been done more than once, you know.

Dodd and the boys father filed a lawsuit in state court in Orlando on Monday against the rides owner, manufacturer and landlord, claiming they were negligent and failed to provide a safe amusement ride.

The lawsuit claims the defendants failed to warn Sampson, who was 6-foot-2-inches (188 centimeters) tall and weighed 380 pounds (172-kilograms), about the risks of someone of his size going on the ride. It also claims they did not provide an appropriate restraint system on the ride.

Tyres father, Yarnell Sampson, told NBCs Today show Tuesday the family is dealing with the boys death day-by-day, second-by-second, minute-by-minute. He said he hopes legal action can create change in the industry so no other parent suffers.

While most free-fall rides have a shoulder harness and a seatbelt, the Orlando Free Fall ride had only an over-the-shoulder harness. Adding seatbelts to the rides 30 seats would have cost $660, the lawsuit said.

At the time of the accident March 24, Sampson was on spring break, visiting from the St. Louis area.

Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the teens family, said the defendants in the case showed negligence in a multitude of ways.

From the ride and seat manufacturers and the installer to the owners and operators, the defendants had more than enough chances to enact safeguards, such as seatbelts, that could have prevented Tyres death, Crump said.

An attorney for the rides owner, Orlando Slingshot, said the company was continuing to cooperate with state investigators into what happened. We reiterate that all protocols, procedures and safety measures provided by the manufacturer of the ride were followed, attorney Trevor Arnold said in an emailed statement.

A spokesperson for the landlord, ICON Park, did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

Last week, an initial report by outside engineers hired by the Florida Department of Agriculture said sensors on the ride had been adjusted manually to double the size of the opening for restraints on two seats, resulting in Sampson not being properly secured before he slipped out and fell to his death.

The Orlando Free Fall ride, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty, did not experience any electrical or mechanical failures, the report said.

The report said there were many other potential contributions to the accident and that a full review of the rides design and operations was needed.

About the photo: The Orlando Free Fall drop tower in ICON Park in Orlando is pictured on Monday, March 28, 2022. The parents of a 14-year-old boy who fell to his death from a 430-foot drop-tower ride in central Floridas tourist district have sued its owner, manufacturer and landlord, claiming they were negligent and failed to provide a safe amusement ride. The lawsuit was filed Monday, April 25, 2022, in state court in Orlando. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel via AP, File)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Coloradans may soon be eligible for in-state college tuition after only one year of residency, thanks to new legislation approved by the state legislature on Wednesday.

If signed into law, House Bill 1155 would shorten Colorados residency requirement for in-state tuition from the current three years to one year prior to enrollment. Students would also need to have graduated from a high school or completed a high school equivalency exam in Colorado.

An educated workforce is a strong workforce, said bill sponsor Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver. We are really, through this policy, seeking to help employers as much as we are seeking to help students and college administrators.

More than 200 additional students would be eligible for in-state tuition each year under the bill, according to state estimates.

This comes as Colorado's annual college enrollment has decreased each year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, falling by 5.2% from 2019 to 2020 alone, according to data from the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

The bipartisan-sponsored bill passed the Senate in a 25-9 vote Wednesday, after the House approved the bill in a 41-19 vote earlier this month. In both chambers, only Republicans voted against the bill.

Some opposed the bill because it would build off of the ASSET Bill passed in 2013, which allowed undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition. The new bill would remove ASSETs requirement that undocumented students be admitted to college within one year of graduating high school in order to receive in-state tuition.

During the pandemic, we had a number of people who wanted to or were unable to enroll  particularly for ASSET students who did not enroll within that one-year time period after graduating in either 2020 or 2021, Gonzales said. They lost their ability to pursue higher education.

In the House, bill sponsor Rep. Perry Will, R-New Castle, urged his Republican colleagues to put aside their opinions on immigration to support the bill, saying it would bolster the states workforce to make sure local businesses can find and retain employees who already live in their communities.

We truly need this, Will said. Having a workforce in these mountain communities is critical and this really helps with serving our businesses.

Besides Will, a total of seven Republican lawmakers voted in support of the bill in the House and Senate, while 38 voted in opposition.

Other Republican opponents argued that expanding in-state tuition could push the cost difference onto other Coloradans. However, the state's nonpartisan analysts estimate the bill would increase the number of students enrolled in higher education, actually increasing the amount of tuition revenue collected and spent by schools.

The bill will now be sent to Gov. Jared Polis for final consideration in the coming weeks.
The Colorado Senate unanimously approved a bipartisan proposal Wednesday to fund $30.5 million in grant programs for state law enforcement, sending it to the House for consideration.

If enacted, Senate Bill 145 would establish three grant programs to fund: crime prevention and crisis intervention in high-crime areas; law enforcement recruitment, retention, tuition and training; and, improving law enforcement diversity.

The grant programs intend to address rising crime and increase public trust in law enforcement, said bill co-sponsors Sen. Janet Buckner, D-Aurora, and Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley.

Every Coloradan deserves to feel safe in their community, but like the rest of the country, crime has been on the rise here in Colorado, which is why were taking action, Buckner said. I am proud to champion this common-sense legislation, and I look forward to reducing crime and creating a safer Colorado for us all.

Under the bill, the funds would be distributed over two years with $15 million going to the crime prevention program and $7.5 million going to each of the workforce programs. Another $400,000 would pay for oversight from the Department of Public Safety and $100,000 would fund a statewide forum to solicit suggestions on crime prevention measures.

Of the $15 million for crime prevention, at least $5 million would be reserved for community-based organizations and another $5 million for law enforcement and local governments.

At least 20% of the grant funds would be required to go to rural communities if they apply, Cooke said. The $30.5 million would come from the general fund and is already included in Gov. Jared Poliss budget, Buckner said.

Though the bill united lawmakers in the Senate, many activists have raised concerns, saying providing more funding for law enforcement will not address issues like brutality and misconduct by police officers.

This bill, and other similar ones around the nation, is window dressing for a deeper issue regarding the real training officers should receive, said Dr. Robert Davis, co-lead of Denver's task force to reimagine policing. We need a stronger collective will to overhaul how we approach policing and policing training.

Public perception of law enforcement has taken a hit in recent years. In 2020, only 48% of U.S. adults said they had confidence in the police, according to a Gallup poll. That is an all-time low, and down from the historical high of 64% in 2004. In 2021, confidence slightly increased to 51%, but for Black adults, it was only 27%.

This change came in the wake of several high-profile incidents in which unarmed Black people were killed by police officers, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Colorado resident Elijah McClain. During the resulting protests, calls to defund the police spread throughout the country and state, contrary to the additional funding the bill would provide.

Cooke, the former sheriff of Weld County, said most people dont want to decrease police funding, pointing to a 2021 Pew Research survey which found that 47% of Americans want police funding to increase and 37% want it to stay the same.

Cooke is also sponsoring another law enforcement funding bill, Senate Bill 5, that the Senate passed on Wednesday. If enacted, that bill would spend $5 million to expand mental health support for law enforcement.

For members of law enforcement, serving on the frontlines of traumatic situations can have devastating effects on their mental health, said Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village, who is also sponsoring SB-5. Well ensure they are well equipped to continue to show up for our communities whenever and wherever needed.

Last year in Colorado, 2,400 law enforcement officers quit or were fired, while just over 1,700 officers were hired, Buckner said, citing data reported by Colorado Public Radio.

This comes as violent crime has increased in Colorado over the years. In 2021, there were 30,282 reports of murder, assault and robbery, compared to 21,743 reports five years prior, according to state data. This is part of a national trend  the nation's murder rate rose 30% between 2019 and 2020, the largest single-year increase in more than a century, according to the Pew Research Center.

Concern over crime has similarly increased, hitting a four-year high late last year, according to a national Washington Post-ABC News poll. Of respondents, 59% said crime is an extremely or very serious problem in the U.S., the highest level since 2017.
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Microsoft posted strong results across the board for its third quarter of 2022, with total revenue increasing by 18% year-over-year to $49.4 billion, thanks in large part to continued growth of its cloud products. Net income for the quarter was $16.7 billion.

Microsoft bundles its Azure public cloud services, SQL Server, Windows Server and enterprise services together as Intelligent Cloud, which drove revenue of $19.1 billion in the quarter, increasing by 26% year-on-year. Azure and other cloud services alone jumped 46% in the quarter.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts that it was a record third quarter, thanks in large part to the continued strength of the Microsoft Cloud.

Nadella also said that enterprises are adopting Windows 11 at a higher pace than any previous release of the operating system, as illustrated by the 11% growth for its personal computing division, which generated $14.5 billion in revenue.

Revenue driven by enterprise productivity software, including Office 365, was up 12% for the quarter and the number of Office 365 consumer subscribers reached 58.4 million, which is 8 million more than this time last year.

Despite the strong results, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said the company was anticipating the ongoing war in Ukraine to continue to impact business towards the end of the financial year, with a roughly $110 million impact on revenue but minimal impact on operating expenses.
04/27/2022

Photo (c) fhm - Getty Images COVID-19 tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Previous numbers in parentheses.)

Total U.S. confirmed cases: 81,106,584 (81,045,532)

Total U.S. deaths: 992,009 (991,629)

Total global cases: 511,142,131 (510,331,384)

Total global deaths: 6,226,008 (6,221,415)

Fauci says pandemic is over

Dr. Antony Fauci, the Biden administrations top medical adviser, says the U.S. is out of the pandemic phase when it comes to COVID-19. He made the comments in an interview with PBS.

Namely, we don't have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths, Fauci said. We are at a low level right now.

However, Fauci predicted that the U.S. would not eradicate the virus that has killed nearly 1 million people in the U.S. since 2020. He said the U.S. could keep cases at a very low level and intermittently vaccinate the population. That might be every year, that might be longer, in order to keep that level low, Fauci said.

More than half of U.S. population may have had COVID-19

A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may provide a clue as to why there is a lower number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. The report suggests that 58% of the U.S. population has already had the virus and, thus, has built up some immunity.

Many of the cases were likely caused by the Omicron variants. The CDC report found that the estimate of the percentage of the population that had been infected rose from 34% in December to 58% in February.

We do believe that there is a lot of protection in the community both from vaccination, as well as from boosting and from prior infection, said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

How good are rapid tests at detecting Omicron variants?

With state after state shutting down mass testing centers, a growing number of COVID-19 tests are now administered at home using over-the-counter rapid tests. But just how effective are these tests at detecting the highly-transmissible strains?

According to NPR, there is no evidence that these tests are any less effective at detecting the Omicron variant and its subvariants. However, the tests might take longer to yield a positive result.

"There's usually a day or two delay between when you might test positive on a PCR versus when you might test positive on one of these at-home rapid antigen tests," Dr. Celine Gounder, a senior fellow and editor-at-large for public health at Kaiser Health News, told the network. "But they do work to pick up an infection, and they should be used frequently."

Around the nation
Turkmen president, Chinese defense minister agree to deepen military cooperation

Xinhua) 09:42, April 27, 2022

ASHGABAT, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov and visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe voiced common willingness on Tuesday to promote bilateral cooperation.

At a meeting with Wei in Ashgabat, Berdimuhamedov said that Turkmenistan attaches great importance to its relations with China, and the two countries have carried out high-level cooperation in the fields of politics, diplomacy, trade, culture, humanitarian and people-to-people exchanges, and established a strategic partnership.

China is one of Turkmenistan's largest trading partners, the president said, adding that there are more than 1,400 Turkmen students studying in China, and students can major in the Chinese language in many Turkmen universities.

Berdimuhamedov expressed the hope that the two militaries will strengthen practical cooperation in equipment technology, personnel training and other fields, and continuously push foward bilateral relations with new development.

For his part, Wei said that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China-Turkmenistan relations have achieved leap-forward development and are in their best period in history.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties, China stands ready to cement solidarity with Turkmenistan and jointly build an even closer community with a shared future for the two countries, he said.

China firmly supports Turkmenistan's permanent neutral status, firmly supports its pursuit of a development path suited to its national conditions, and firmly opposes external interference in Turkmenistan's internal affairs, Wei stressed.

In recent years, military-to-military relations between the two countries have been developing steadily and their pragmatic cooperation has been deepening day by day, he noted.

The Chinese military is willing to further expand areas of cooperation with Turkmenistan, enhance the effectiveness of cooperation and strive to elevate military-to-military relations to a higher level, Wei said.

On the same day, Turkmen Defense Minister Begench Gundogdyev held a welcome ceremony for Wei and had formal talks with him.

The two officials exchanged in-depth views on the international and regional security situations as well as the Ukrainian and the Afghan issues, and both agreed that the two militaries will continue strategic communication, conduct personnel training, and strengthen anti-terrorist and equipment technology cooperation.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
SecurityGen transforms telecom security with industrys first automated Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) platform for operators

April 2022 by Marc Jacob

SecurityGen has raised the bar for the security of mobile networks with the launch of its new ACE (Artificial Cybersecurity Expert) breach and attack simulation platform.

The ACE platform is a telecoms industry first: the first completely automated breach and attack simulation platform that is purpose-built for securing mobile networks.

ACE provides an automated approach to assess and improve the security posture of mobile operators by continuously testing the strength of their network defences against simulated attacks and techniques.

ACE works by identifying and reporting potential gaps and vulnerabilities within the operators network. It then carries out simulations of real-world attacks on these vulnerabilities to assess their seriousness and the potential damage that an actual attack could cause.

Finally, ACE generates a detailed security posture report that includes remediation guidance to help the operator address the vulnerabilities and prevent future security breaches before they happen.

The ACE platform is the centrepiece of SecurityGens range of products and services. It draws on the vast knowledge and experience of SecurityGens core team who have between them conducted a combined total of more than 300 telecom network security assessments during their careers. Importantly, its in-built AI module enables it to constantly learn and enhance its performance by incorporating actual, real-life scenarios and attack vectors that have been identified in the field.

The ACE platform is cloud based, which means operators dont need to install it directly, or even reconfigure their network. ACE provides critical assessment of signalling network security and GSMA compliance tests. It covers everything from 5G networks to legacy platforms like HTTP/2, Diameter and SS7 signalling, and the GTP protocol.

ACEs flexibility along with its ease of use enables different teams within the same operator to use the platform to test the network according to their particular requirements - including how frequently they need to carry out inspections. The core network teams security needs will be different to those of the RAN team, which will in turn be different to the customer experience team and the fraud team.
The "genocide" does not include the practice of large-scale killings against an ethnic group only, but there are other measures that fall within the framework of "genocide" if committed intentionally by one of the parties.

It falls within the framework of what is known as genocide working to destroy society, the country and sovereignty, in addition to committing systematic killings.

Turkey..a long history of genocide

Researchers in history believe that the Ottoman Empire, on whose ruins current Turkey was founded, was based on bloodshed and massacres of the peoples of Mesopotamia and the Anatolian plateau.

Perhaps the most prominent historical stations of the Ottoman-Turkish bloody approach were the Armenian massacres (1914-1916), which figures say that one and a half million Armenians perished as a result.

In addition to the Sayfo massacres against the Assyrians (1915-1920), which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, and the massacres of Christian Greeks, which claimed the lives of about half a million Greeks during World War I and a few years later.

It is clearly noted that the Ottomans, before the collapse of their state, liquidated millions of non-Turks in the geographical spot that is now known as Turkey, and the Greeks and Armenians were the most prominent victims.

After the establishment of the modern Turkish state following the Lausanne Agreement (1923), Turkey - the heir of the Ottomans - began systematic killing operations against the Kurds, who constitute a large proportion in Turkey.

Dersim district in Bakur (Northern Kurdistan) was the scene of a new massacre at the hands of the neo-Ottomans, between 1937-1938, which according to some statistics killed 40,000 Kurds and displaced thousands of others.

The massacre was neither the first nor the last, but it was one of the most heinous crimes committed by the neo-Ottomans against the Kurds, as it was followed by a policy of extermination against the Kurds at home and abroad.

On this, Kurdish writer and political activist Buzan Karao says that "Turkish hostility to the peoples of the region, especially the Kurds, is not limited to Erdogan. Rather, it is a historical hostility to humanity that is not new to today, as it targets the history of the peoples of the region."

He adds: "Their crimes are countless, for example, the execution of Jamal Pasha, the Ottoman-Turkish butcher of a group of Arab resisters on May 6, 1916, the Armenian massacre between 1915-1916, the Zilan massacre in which more than 15,000 Kurds were martyred. Some of the survivors of this tragedy conveyed horrific testimonies about the massacre committed by Turkish forces in Zilan. They spoke of the Turks using machine guns and bayonets during the executions of the Kurds, and their slashing the stomachs of many pregnant women, in addition to hundreds of massacres.

North and East Syria, a new Turkish arena for a new genocide!

The Turkish military and political dealings with northern and eastern Syria show that the Turkish authorities are moving steadily towards committing a new genocide, to be added to the Turkish/Ottoman record of massacres.

The Turkish occupation attack on Afrin, Serekaniye/Ras al-Ain, Gire Spi/Tal Abyad and other occupied Syrian areas brought Turkey back, displacing the Kurds from it and harassing those who remained of them, bringing to mind the history of Turkey and its ancestors.

Turkey has worked systematically to displace the Kurds from the occupied Syrian areas, as it has killed hundreds during its attacks.

This coincides with Turkey targeting everything that reaches the Kurds; Historically, culture, and existence, through Turkification campaigns, and in the targeted areas, it seeks by various means to destroy the social structure by supporting groups that promote drugs from the occupied Syrian areas. It also bears full responsibility for blocking the waters of the Euphrates River and exposing Syria to the risk of food and water insecurity.

In addition to contributing to the tightening of the economic and political siege on the Autonomous Administration areas, with the aim of restricting the population to push them to emigrate, and preparing the ground for new occupation attacks.

On the 20th of this April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came out in a speech before his party's deputies meeting in Parliament and threatened to launch new attacks on NES.

'An enmity as old as history before the emergence of the Kurdistan Workers' Party'

The writer Buzan Karao says that "there are those who are trying to link Turkey's hostility to the Kurds in northeastern Syria with its fight against the PKK, but in fact the reader of history is well aware that this hostility is as old as history before the emergence of the PKK and the birth of the party's leader, Mr. Abdullah Ocalan, Therefore, Turkey's goal in its bombing of northeastern Syria is to strike the Autonomous Administration and eliminate the Kurdish dream in Western Kurdistan (northeastern Syria)."

The political activist and writer residing in the Austrian capital Vienna added that "Erdogan himself stated in one of his speeches: "We will not allow the establishment of a swamp-like (terrorist corridor) in northern Iraq on our southern border in northern Syria." To make way for al-Nusra and al-Qaeda networks, to revive the role of Muslim Brotherhood groups and al-Qaeda offshoots, and to enable the dissemination and distribution of what are known as notorious lone wolves, to carry out bombings and assassinations not only throughout Syria, but also abroad.

Looking to the future, the Kurdish writer said, "It seems that the government of Ankara insists on pursuing this direction, and does not care much about the positions of Arab and non-Arab neighboring countries, not even the five permanent members of the Security Council."

Confrontation options

Member of the Leadership Committee of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, Murat Karayilan, says in his last statements, which he made after Turkey launched new genocidal attacks on the legitimate defense areas in Basur (Southern Kurdistan) on the 17th of this April, that the ongoing war there is based on a strategy whose first goal is to eliminate The PKK and then the achievements of the Kurdish people, and then the control of the Arab peoples, as they aim to put the two capitals, Erbil and Baghdad under their rule.

In fact, this strategy applies to the Turkish war in Syria. It is true that Turkey targets the Kurds in the first place, but if it succeeds in eliminating them, the next role will be on the Arabs, and history shows the great Turkish/Ottoman hostility to non-Turkish nationalities.

From this point of view, writer and political activist Bozan Karao says that "the peoples of the region must unite to confront the new Ottoman goals and intentions led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who established a new Janissary army from the terrorist Syrian opposition represented by the Syrian National Coalition opposition to thwart his plans aimed at planting the seeds of division and dispersal and hostility.

In practice, the Syrian Democratic Forces, whose banner includes Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs and others, is the only force facing Turkish expansion inside Syria.

A

ANHA
We are still in an on-premises world, as Microsoft has recently acknowledged. The company announced an increase in its security bug bounty for on-premises Exchange, SharePoint, and other Office servers. Some of the most concerning recent attacks to on-premises servers have not been against Windows or web servers but rather SharePoint and especially Exchange servers.

Security researchers have long complained that Exchange on-premises servers received too little financial award to find security issues. This came to a head in March 2021 when the Hafnium attack targeted Exchange on-premises servers. The attack was so impactful that even the U.S. federal government reached out and patched impacted Exchange servers.

ProxyLogon and ProxyShell were discovered by Orange Tsai, who presented on the Exchange bugs at BlackHat. He said that Microsoft was not incentivizing researchers to look into these important legacy products. Clearly, Microsoft got the message as they are now including these products in their bug bounty program.

Many legacy servers are still in the mix, including Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016. They may not be all physical machines. If you are like me, most of your servers are HyperV servers of various roles and ages. For Server 2012 R2, you need to be planning now for its ultimate demise on October 10, 2023. Plan now for upgrading to either a newer operating system or converting the services and roles on that server to something on a cloud platform. Always keep in mind that a platforms services and roles may make sense in a location other than where its at now.

On-premises features of Microsoft Defender for Servers

Microsoft also knows that we still have quite a few resources still on traditional servers and not in Azure or other cloud services. Case in point is Microsoft Defender for Servers, which just went to general availability as of April 11, 2022. It brings the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Windows Server 2019 down to these older platforms of Server 2012 R2 and Server 2016. The deployment allows you to use Group Policy, PowerShell commands and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager to manage the deployment.

If you use Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, you may already have seen alerts in its console that those machines that are not protected.

Susan Bradley

Defender for Servers identifies those areas that may be at risk for attack. It is designed to identify the following risks and improve recommendations:

Initial access: Servers are often the first point of entry for motivated attackers. The ability to monitor signs of entry via publicly facing, vulnerable services is critical.

Servers are often the first point of entry for motivated attackers. The ability to monitor signs of entry via publicly facing, vulnerable services is critical. Credential access: Servers often contain sensitive credentials in memory from administrator maintenance or other activities. Enhanced memory protections help identify potential credential theft activities.

Servers often contain sensitive credentials in memory from administrator maintenance or other activities. Enhanced memory protections help identify potential credential theft activities. Lateral movement: Improved user logon activity allows better mapping of attempted movement across the network to or from servers.

Improved user logon activity allows better mapping of attempted movement across the network to or from servers. Defense evasion: Improved hardening via tampering protection provides security controls the best chance of preventing ransomwares most harmful effects on high value assets, such as servers.

If you currently use a third-party antivirus solution, you may need to take additional actions to integrate Defender for Servers. Defender is typically disabled when a third-party antivirus is installed.

Two new licenses are offered for Defender for Servers. Microsoft Defender for Servers Plan 2, formerly Defender for Servers, and Microsoft Defender for Servers Plan 1, including support for Defender for Endpoint only. As Microsoft notes, Microsoft Defender for Servers Plan 2 continues to provide, complete protections from threats and vulnerabilities to your cloud and on-premises workloads, Microsoft Defender for Servers Plan 1 provides endpoint protection only, powered by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and natively integrated with Defender for Cloud.

One thing you will note when you onboard servers to the service is that servers are often just as chatty as workstations. One of the features of Defender is a timeline that showcases what is going on with the system. Often it can showcase unusual actions before they start.

Susan Bradley

Microsoft Defender for Servers on AWS and GCP

If you deploy servers in Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), you can use Defender for Servers to protect and analyze servers anywhere and monitor the servers from the same console. It also provides recommendations to better harden and and defend servers. For example, in the recommendations section it identifies recommendations that each platform can support.

The recommendations are often ones that we overlook on older devicesfor example, setting Remote Desktop security level to TLS. This provides more protection to the remote connection. To follow the recommended changes, set the following adjustments in the registry:

Option 1

Set the following Group Policy to the value: SSL (TLS 1.0):

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Security\Require use of specific security layer for remote (RDP) connections

Option 2

Set the following registry value to the REG_DWORD value of "2":

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\SecurityLayer

Another Defender recommendation is a setting to Enable Local Security Authority protection. Set the following registry value to "1":

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\RunAsPPL

Server message block (SMB) file sharing is an older platform that exposes the network to attackers using known collision attacks to gain access. Defender for Servers flags those servers that are still using insecure and legacy communication profiles.

The recommendation is to disable SMBv1 support, which may prevent access to file or print sharing resources with systems or devices that only support SMBv1. SMBv1 is a legacy protocol that uses the MD5 algorithm as part of SMB. MD5 is known to be vulnerable to attacks such as collision and pre-image attacks as well as not being FIPS compliant.

We will have on-premises for quite a few years in the future. Use these resources to better protect yourself and your network to ensure you are protected from attackers that know we have these servers as well.
The 2022 RSA Security Conference is just weeks away, and the security diaspora is boosted and ready to meet in person at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

While weve certainly accomplished a lot working remotely over the past 2 years, cybersecurity remains in a precarious position in 2022, so an industry huddle is in order. We are at a point where the scale and complexity of historical security defenses either arent working or are stretched to their limits. This means CISOs need to think about security transformation, and as they do, every process and layer of the security technology stack is in play.

Now, there will be plenty of hype at the conference around security platforms like extended detection and response (XDR), cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPPs), secure access service edge (SASE), and zero trustall important topics but also strewn with industry hype and associated user confusion. My good friend Candy Alexander, president of ISSA International, and I will be discussing these trends during our RSA session on Tuesday morning (6/7). But when Im not presenting with Candy, Ill be learning everything I can about security operations center (SOC) modernization.

Allow me to further describe just what I mean by SOC modernization. SOCs are where the proverbial rubber meets the road in cybersecurity. SOC analysts are tasked with detecting threats in a timely manner, investigating these threats to determine their scope and blast radius, disrupting cyberattacks to prevent or minimize damages, work with IT operations to fully restore business/IT operations, and then use these teachable moments to further reinforce their defenses.

Unfortunately, these processes have become cumbersome over the years. SOC personnel face a constant tsunami of alerts, forcing them to react using disconnected point tools and manual processes. And lets not forget the global cybersecurity skills shortage. According to ESG research, The Life and Times of Cybersecurity Professionals 2021, 57% of organizations are impacted by the cybersecurity skills shortage, leading to increased staff workloads, high burnout rates, and an inability for security professionals to learn and use cybersecurity technologies to their full potential.

Considerations for SOC modernization planning

These issues should have sirens blaring in the CISOs office, leading them toward strategies for SOC modernization. As they build these plans, they need to consider:

The SOC architecture. Todays disconnected tools have become tomorrows interoperable technology architecture. Whether you call this a security operations and analytics platform architecture (SOAPA, ESGs term) or a cybersecurity mesh (Gartners term), disparate technologies like EDR, NDR, SIEM, TIP, and SOAR need tight integration. Some organizations refer to a modern SOC as a fusion center, combining threat researchers, SOC analysts, and incident responders. This mashup can only work if it is anchored with an open, customizable SOC architecture. Scale and performance. As the saying goes, all data is security data. In other words, SOC teams are collecting, processing, and analyzing terabytes of data from security tools, IT infrastructure components, applications, CSPs, SaaS vendors, identity stores, threat intelligence feeds, and more to figure out whether they are under attack. This requires a highly scalable cloud backend that can ingest real-time data feeds and deliver acceptable response times for complex queries. Detection engineering. While technology vendors have gotten better at producing detection rules content, SOC teams need better tools for developing, modifying, and sharing custom rule sets easily. This means developing expertise with Yara rules (and Yara-L for Google Chronicle), Sigma rules, and Kestrel rules, while also participating in open-source projects like SNORT, BRO/Zeek, Suricata, etc. Specialist vendors like Anvilogic can help here. MITRE ATT&CK affinity. The MITRE ATT&CK framework has become a lingua franca of security operations, but many organizations havent gotten beyond using it as a reference source. SOC modernization takes this a step further by operationalizing MITRE ATT&CK for use cases like threat detection, controls assessment/engineering, tracking adversary behavior, and continuous testing. Yes, security tools should support MITRE ATT&CK, but this must go beyond simply relating alerts to tactics and techniques in the matrix. Rather, they should contribute to and participate in these more complete use cases. Risk-based context. When an asset is under attack, security analysts need to understand if it is a test/development server or a cloud-based workload hosting a business-critical application. To get this perspective, SOC modernization combines threat, vulnerability, and business context data for analysts. A quick look at the industry confirms this mixture is already happening. Cisco purchased Kenna Security for risk-based vulnerability management, Mandiant grabbed Intrigue for attack surface management, and Palo Alto gobbled up Expanse Networks for ASM as well. Meanwhile, SIEM leader Splunk provides risk-based alerting to help analysts prioritize response and remediation actions. SOC modernization makes this blend a requirement. Continuous testing. SOC modernization includes a commitment to constant improvement. This means understanding threat actor behavior, validating that security defenses can counteract modern attacks, and then reinforcing any defensive gaps that arise. CISOs are moving toward continuous red teaming and purple teaming for this very purpose. In this way, SOC modernization will drive demand for continuous testing and attack path management tools from vendors like AttackIQ, Cymulate, Randori, SafeBreach, and XMCyber. Deception technology. Okay, this one may be a bit controversial as most cybersecurity professionals think deception technology is only appropriate for elite practitionersthe infosec equivalent of Dumbledore. That was true 10 years ago but no longer. Modern deception technology can understand an organizations assets, identities, and data and then emulate them by creating authentic lures and decoys. The best deception systems, like those from ZScaler/Smokescreen, do a good bit of the work themselves. Facing threats like ransomware that could take down all business operations, I believe its time that deception technology is added as a layer of defense (and more) for SOC modernization. Process automation. Weve been at this for a number of years now, but I believe that SOC modernization will be a force multiplier for security operations process automation. Why? Technology integration makes things easier, low code/no code SOAR tools like those from Torq have alleviated the need for Python gurus, and many SOC technologies provide canned automation templates and workflows. Finally, SOC modernization gives CISOs the opportunity to assess and reengineer processes, making them more automation friendly.

SOC modernization extends beyond technology alone, providing organizations the opportunity to reassess skills and roles, while supporting a distributed workforce. More about that soon. Meanwhile, Ill be combing the hallways, ballrooms, and meeting rooms at RSA, soaking in as much SOC modernization knowledge as I can.
Whether theyre working remotely or on-site, workers have come to expect frictionless, collaborative experiences. Multiple logins and authentications slow them down and can be frustrating.

Yet, the risks associated with user access across the hybrid workforce have increased. Outside the traditional four walls, employees might log into the corporate network from personal devices at home  ie., their roommates, partners or childs computer. They might take their laptop out for lunch and work on tasks via an unsecured WiFi connection at the restaurant. Or, they could access work files 1-2 days per week at the office, then work remotely the other days.

Another issue: A users login can last not just hours but days. Even timed sessions, where an individual stays logged in for 8 or 12 hours, create long exposure periods for potential exploitation by hackers. And yet, users dont want to have to keep authenticating just to gain access to their primary work applications.

What does and doesnt work

As organizations are learning, its possible to achieve a balance. That starts with incorporating zero trust (ZT) principles of never trust, always verify. Yet, even some of the basic ZT technologies  such as multifactor authentication (MFA) and identity access management tools  can add friction for users.

Thats why the concept of continuous trusted access is gaining ground. It builds on and extends ZT concepts of risk-based authentication by adding context and trust analysis.

Continuous trusted access is about dynamically reacting to risks, said Ted Kietzman, Product Marketing Manager for Duo Security at Cisco. For example, if you have the same device and same user regularly logging in from the same place, the access rights dynamically take place in the background, without adding steps for the user whos logging in.

The dynamics are based on evaluation of user behaviors to analyze risk over time. For example, if a worker based in Chicago logs into a productivity suite in the morning and two hours later downloads a file from an IP address in Singapore, that abnormal behavior would cause a session time-out.

Trust is built over time and is based on each companys risk tolerance threshold, Kietzman said. Right after initial authentication, trust is high. But that trust might be eroded by actions such as the worker joining a public WiFi network, or turning off the firewall. When that happens, the risk would be broadcasted as a security alert including relevant remediation steps.

On the other hand, if the users actions dont fall below the risk threshold, their access session can be extended. Its about continuously evaluating the context around the users access.

This all runs in the background so that users have a frictionless experience, while the organization gains layered security or defense in depth, Kietzman said. Continuous trusted access fulfills the security of zero trust without the friction.

Click here to read more about continuous trusted access.
Ankara and its defense deal with Russia in 2017 brought down arbitrary sanctions from former US President Trump, who tried to twist Turkey's not to buy the missile system.

President Tayyip Erdogan called out the double standard of US policy when the S-400 missile battery was still purchased.

It resulted in the ejection of Turkey from the F-35 program it invested in the middle of 2019 and more sanctions on the Turk defense industry in late 2020.

US Imposes Sanctions on Russian Arms Purchase

The ongoing sanction war on Russia has prompted the Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar to call the alleged hypocrisy and double standard when the US applies.

He then compared how Washington was selective in its policy as it dealt with India differently.

On Monday, Akar spoke to Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News, emphasizing how differently the US handled India's purchase of S-400 weapons.

Complaining that the actual relationship, power, and allied position meant nothing to the US administration, despite the difficulties posed by what he regards as Washington's expectations of how they should behave to placate.

However, it was highlighted that the S-400S is non-negotiable as a matter of national defense, which is a problem with a settlement similar to the F-35 issue.

Drew attention to the issue of US support for the YPG, or Syrian Kurdish people's defense units in northern and eastern Syria, which Turkey considers terrorists, reported Sputnik News.

Turkey, Russia Deal on Advanced Air Defense System

Progress in the discussion over a defense deal for F-16s offered by the US, according to Ankara; it should be done carefully because several approvals in the US congress and many lawmakers can stop the sale, but arbitrary sanctions are still on the table.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin Net Worth 2022: Does Anyone Know Russian President's Hidden Wealth?

He is not confident of the sale because the US can use the S-400 as a ploy to stop deliveries; if they want, it is underlined to serve US and NATO interests, noted Alabiriya News.

Another defense deal is underway to negotiate purchasing the Aster 30 SAMP-T mobile air defense system. The Turkish defense minister irons out everything with his counterparts from France and Italy.

Part of the deal is a technology transfer for the three nations to build it in Turkey. The official said the two-missile systems could be operated side by side.

Washington cannot accept the independence of its allies

Via the CAATSA sanctions in mid-2017, US lawmakers used a means to scare US allies that are considered out of line. These are like Turkey, which got the S-400 after getting strong-armed but still went on with the deal.

Washington is allegedly notorious for the non-uniform application of policies prohibiting buying advanced Russian arms. But as Mr. Akar said, how India was less affected is not acceptable; unless a double standard is there.

The US aggressively applied the CAATSA against Turkish defense industries in December 2020; when China bought the S-400 system, it was the same thing.

This time, China was getting it for buying the missiles and Su-35 jets in 2018; Washington has been ready to slap sanctions on anyone not on board with them.

Washington has attempted to impose restrictions on Russia's European partners in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, including Indonesia.

Ankara called the arbitrary sanction on it compared to India is unfair in its application because the US decides how to deal with its allies.

Related Article: Turkish President Refuses To Cancel Russian Missile System Deal Despite Backlash From Other NATO Members

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BRIDGEPORT  Fairfield University and the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp. are moving ahead Thursday with information sessions on their proposed North End college, despite a recent decision by the citys municipal law department that threatens the project.

Attorney Raymond Rizio, who represents the diocese, said Tuesday the partner religious and academic institutions still want to try and give accurate information to the neighbors, as we do not feel their program has been property represented by the opponents.

One of the most vocal of those critics, neighborhood City Councilwoman Michelle Lyons, said she will attend one of the two previously scheduled sessions  one at 10:30 a.m., the second at 6:30 p.m.  at diocese headquarters, 238 Jewett Ave. That is also the site of the planned, 200-student, nonresidential college Fairfield University wants to launch in unused space.

Ill be there, Lyons said Tuesday. But she did not expect any new information or revelations that would sway the opposition.

Its (the proposal) no different than Ive been telling people. I havent lied, Lyons said.

Lyons and some of her constituents have argued the college, which would offer an associates degree to lower-income students who cannot afford Fairfields pricey tuition, will be too much for the mostly residential neighborhood, causing traffic headaches and hurting real estate values.

If this doesnt go forward the city residents lose because this is going to be mostly available to city residents, Rizio said.

He said the diocese is evaluating whether to challenge a legal opinion, issued late last Friday by R. Christopher Meyer, head of the municipal law department, that stated zoning regulations do not allow a college on the dioceses property. Meyer negated a prior decision by one of the lawyers working for him, Russell Liskov, that had paved the way for the project to proceed without a special permit from the planning and zoning commission or a public hearing.

We have the right to appeal to the zoning board of appeals, Rizio said. He added, Were just trying to sort it all out. This overnight reversal was very troubling.

In late March, Liskov determined that since the 238 Jewett Ave. building had housed Notre Dame Girls Catholic High School in the 1960s, the diocese did not need to come before the planning and zoning commission for a special permit for an educational use. The diocese had already submitted a pending application late last year. So Zoning Director Dennis Buckley via email informed Lyons that would be withdrawn.

Liskovs legal opinion was questioned by Lyons and her allies, retired state Superior Court Judge Carmen Lopez and former state Rep. Christopher Caruso, who last week filed their own appeal with the zoning board of appeals. They claimed in part Liskov lacked the appropriate historic documentation to arrive at his conclusion.

Last Thursday, Liskov acknowledged more research was being done to support his findings.

What youre seeing is its a more complex question than what was asked of us originally, Liskov had said, adding, I was not asked whether or not a university was allowed to go there. Educational purposes are permitted. So I think people jumped to the conclusion as to what is permitted. My opinion doesnt say a university was allowed to go there.

About 24 hours later, just after 5 p.m. Friday, Mayor Joe Ganim announced Meyer had determined a college is not a legal use in that particular neighborhood. And while that did not make it impossible for the diocese and university to proceed  Rizio said they could apply for a variance from the zoning board of appeals  it made it much more challenging.

Ganim in a statement at the time echoed Lyons view that the college would be a too intense use for the neighborhood and suggested Fairfield look for a site in another section of town, such as part of the University of Bridgeports South End campus.

But Rizio on Tuesday emphasized the college will not cause North End traffic issues.

There will be no buses, he said. Its 100 students in the morning, 100 in the afternoon. Thats it. We dont believe it will create any traffic problems or any other kind of problems.

Lyons for similar reasons five years ago successfully fought an attempt by her council colleagues and the school board to purchase 238 Jewett Ave. to relocate Classic Studies Academy Magnet School there.

Rizio has also pointed out that if the college is rejected, the North End neighborhood could face worse development headaches. Specifically the land is zoned as mixed residential, which Bridgeports regulations define as intended for ... a wide mix of multi-unit housing types, including multi-unit houses, row houses, small apartment buildings, and larger apartment buildings.

Lyons is proposing senior housing for the property.

They dont all drive (and) have a car, she said, calling that concept like apples and oranges to a college scenario.

But some who support Fairfield Universitys effort have suggested the North End is not the ideal spot for other reasons. Earlier this month, Rev. Stanley Lord, head of the Greater Bridgeport NAACP, whom university administrators consulted on their proposal, said the program has a lot of potential.

Lord, however, said, If you were trying to get a community of color, thats not really where they are. We havent taken a real stand on whether its a good idea or not. Our question is, how are we gonna get our kids there?

Asked if, given Meyers opinion and Ganims statement, she would like the diocese and Fairfield University to abandon their effort in the North End, Lyons declined to comment. She said she will continue to consult with Lopez and others on how to proceed.

Were gonna be diligent on this, she said.
HARTFORD  Gov. Ned Lamont and the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate on Wednesday announced a nearly complete deal for a $24.2-billion budget that starts July 1 and includes nearly $500 million in tax cuts.

The tax-and-spending package, reflecting a flood of robust sales and income-tax revenue, will include $300 property tax credits for most residents and a one-year child tax credit of $250 per child to cover about 600,000 kids, worth about $125 million.

A new statewide 32.46 mill rate for personal vehicles will lower those taxes for residents of 75 higher-taxed towns and cities, saving them $100 million. Lamont praised the phasing out of income taxes on pensions and 401(k) plans, which will cost $40 million. It will also extend the states gas-tax holiday, scheduled to end June 30, through Dec. 1, at a cost of $150 million.

During a news briefing, Democratic leaders and Lamont admitted there are still issues to resolve the amount to be invested in the states Unemployment Trust, which is $493 million in debt, and how much federal pandemic-related bonus relief will go to essential workers.

Three-and-a-half years ago when we inherited the deficit, for me it was important that we get a timely budget, on-time, with no increase in taxes, Lamont said. Here we are three-plus years later, weve got a budget on-time with significant tax cuts and investments in important social programs that were doubling down on.

There was no schedule on when the proposal might reach the Senate and House, but leaders were confident that it will get done in time for the midnight May 4 adjournment deadline.

But Republican lawmakers said state residents need more tax relief. House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said there is very little permanent relief in the Democrats plan.

I think we could have done more to provide broad, immediate and even structural tax relief such as an income tax reduction, but Democrats chose to go at it alone and ignore our concepts that would have a more substantial impact on our economy and household budgets, Candelora said, noting that GOP lawmakers proposed an immediate reduction in the sales tax.

In the Capitol briefing, which was not attended by Republicans, Jeffrey Beckham, who as secretary of the Office of Policy and Management is Lamonts budget chief, said the new budget is 2.5 percent higher than the second year of the biennium approved last year. The budget that ends June 30 is nearly $4 billion in surplus.

Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, co-chairwoman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, said there is a plan to invest $2 billion in state teacher and employee pension plans, on top of the $1.6 billion put into the plans last year.

Lamont said the $100 million increase in childrens day care programming is unprecedented. I know what it means to families, Lamont said. I know what it means to small business as well.

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said the recent years of fiscal constraints have created a pent-up need to invest in social services, child care, mental health, assistance to cities and targeted tax relief for under-served communities.

This was a time when we were actually excited about this process rather than dreading it because we saw that there were opportunities here to do things that needed to be done, rather than which of our beloved things would take a hit, Looney told reporters.

Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said looking ahead, the investments should pay off in future years. Were not sacrificing fiscal discipline while we make these investments in early childhood or mental health, Ritter said.

This is a budget that meets the moment, said House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, a former Finance Committee chairman. We are all aware of the moment that were in, coming out of a pandemic and knowing the significant and enormous need that is out there.

What were talking about here on the tax side, is a half-a-billion dollar tax cut for the people of Connecticut, said Rep. Sean Scanlon, D-Guilford, co-chairman of the tax-writing Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee. He said with the recent expiration of the federal child tax credit, the $250 per-child state credit will help many families.

Scanlon noted the current $200 property tax credit is limited to older adults and families with children, so the expansion  a variation on the governors February budget proposal  will dramatically change the amount of people who qualify for that credit when it rises to $300.

In addition, there will be $10 million in student-loan assistance and a $40 million increase in the states Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income families.

State Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, longtime co-chair of the Finance Committee, said Lamont reminded him of the obligation to reduce unfunded liabilities that amount to more than 50 cents on every dollar raised in revenue.

If you dont have committed dollars for day care, you cant work, said Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, co-chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee. Education is huge for parents to know that their children are going to excel, especially children who have special needs. She stressed the importance of social workers in under-served communities as well as summer programs and other initiatives totaling $25 million.

We are focusing on the trauma of children so that they can be successful when they move out, so that we can address that trauma in the best and most-appropriate way, Osten added.

Another top Republican in the General Assembly, Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, of Stratford, said the state is overtaxing residents, while GOP lawmakers recently proposed cutting taxes by $1.2 billion.

I am disappointed and underwhelmed by the delayed and limited tax relief proposed by Connecticut Democrats today, Kelly said in a statement. The Democrats offer tax credits  meaning families have to pay more taxes before they get anything back over a year from now. This is not immediate relief. It's not permanent relief, either. Inflation is crushing Connecticut families now. They deserve far greater relief than Democrats are willing to give."

Gian Carl Casa, president & CEO of the Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance, said he was pleased with the amount reserved for social service providers.

"The funding increase for community nonprofits in the budget agreement reached today will improve the lives of thousands of people across Connecticut who are served by nonprofits and the staff who deliver those services, he said. Connecticuts nonprofits struggled for more than a decade without funding increases that we estimate left the sector $460 million behind in funding. Todays agreement to further increase funding for community profits brings us closer to that goal, and we thank legislative leaders and Governor Lamont for their support."

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo

STRATFORD  Local and state police were combing Short Beach Tuesday as part of what authorities described as a larger investigation into suspicious or hazardous materials.

Stratford police said they were assisted by Connecticut State Police, and the police activity at the beach was part of a larger in-progress investigation.
Thursday is Yom Ha Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. It may be the last time there are Holocaust survivors participating in the March of the Living at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the German death camp in Poland. Only eight survivors are expected to attend this week, compared with the 70 survivors who participated in the event in 2019.

The annual Holocaust memorial program is taking place again this year after a two-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Ninety percent of the more than 1 million people killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau were Jews. Russian troops liberated the death camp 77 years ago, in 1945.

Many Holocaust survivors have now died, or are too old and frail to travel to Poland for the ceremony that involves a march from Auschwitz to the adjacent camp of Birkenau where the gas chambers and crematories worked non-stop.

The passing of this generation leaves an enormous void at a time when anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are on the rise. The testimony of these Holocaust survivors has played an important role in countering anti-Semitism and Holocaust disinformation.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sees the need for education as more urgent than ever, given the rise of far-right extremism in the United States and globally, including an increase in efforts to deny, to diminish, or to mock the Holocaust.

The ADL Global 100 survey of attitudes toward Jews in more than 100 countries consists of an index of 11 statements such as Jews are more loyal to Israel than to (whatever country they are living in/ citizens of) or Jews have too much power in the business world.

Familiar anti-Semitic tropes such as dual loyalty and Jewish power and control are especially widespread in Central and Eastern European countries. For instance, the ADLs survey, most recently updated in 2019, finds that Poland has a 48 percent anti-Semitic Index Score, with 74 percent of respondents agreeing with the statement that Jews talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust.

The degree of ignorance about the Holocaust should be concerning to us all. The Claims Conference, which consists of 23 international Jewish organizations that negotiate claims and distribute compensation to Holocaust survivors, found in a 2020 survey of young Americans that 63 percent did not know that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and were generally ignorant about the Holocaust.

In an interview I did a little more than two years ago, Holocaust survivor Peter Somogyi, now 89, told his story about how he and his twin brother Thomas were taken from Hungary to Auschwitz, separated from their parents, and seized at Auschwitz by Dr. Joseph Mengele, notorious for his experiments with twins.

Somogyi said that, wanting to know what happened to his mother, he asked an older twin who had been assigned to care for him and Thomas. The older boy pointed to the smoke and flames coming from a crematory chimney. That was how he learned how his mother was killed.

For a long time Somogyi was unable to speak about Auschwitz. But in his later years he devoted himself to telling his story and teaching about the Holocaust. His message for future generations: Never Forget.

He, like so many survivors, taught us the importance of remembering. But Somogyi, like most of his generation, is now no longer able to engage in this educational mission.

On this Yom Ha Shoah, with the number of survivors rapidly dwindling, it becomes imperative, all the more so in the face of the killing in Ukraine, that we carry on the mission to Never Forget. It is our moral imperative to remember in order to prevent such a thing from ever happening again.

Donald Snyder, a Greenwich resident, is a former foreign correspondent and a retired producer for NBC News.
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BILOXI, Miss. (AP)  The possible suspect in the fatal shooting of the owner and two employees of a Mississippi Gulf Coast motel and subsequent death of a person shot during a carjacking was found dead after a standoff with police Wednesday, authorities said.

Harrison County Coroner Brian Switzer identified the possible suspect as 32-year-old Jeremy Alesunder Reynolds.
LONDON (AP)  A British court ruled Wednesday that the Conservative government acted illegally when it discharged hospital patients into nursing homes without testing them for COVID-19 or isolating them  a policy that led to thousands of deaths early in the pandemic.

Two High Court judges said the policy in March and April 2020 was unlawful because it failed to take into account the infection risk that non-symptomatic carriers of the virus posed to older or vulnerable people.

The judges said U.K. officials did not take into account the growing awareness that the virus could be spread by people who had no symptoms, which had been identified as a risk as far back as late January 2020.

They said the U.K. government should have advised that discharged hospital patients be kept separate from other nursing home residents for 14 days  something that didn't happen in the first weeks of the country's outbreak.

Around 20,000 people died with the virus in British nursing homes during the initial months of the countrys first outbreak in 2020.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by two women whose fathers died when the virus swept through the homes where they lived. Their lawyers said the decision  which allowed COVID-19 to spread among the elderly and vulnerable  was one of the most egregious and devastating policy failures in the modern era.

The judges backed some parts of the lawsuit's arguments but rejected claims made under human rights legislation and against the National Health Service.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government would study the ruling and respond in due course. He said officials had to make difficult decisions at an incredibly difficult time when we didnt know very much about the disease.

The thing we didnt know in particular was that COVID could be transmitted asymptomatically in the way that it was, and that was something that I wish we had known more about at the time, Johnson said in the House of Commons.

Of course, I want to renew my apologies and sympathies for all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic, people who lost loved ones in care homes," he added.

Like many countries, the U.K. had little capacity to test for coronavirus when the pandemic began, and many asymptomatic patients were quickly released from hospitals back into care homes, where COVID-19 soon ran riot.

The health secretary at the time, Matt Hancock, has said the government did all it could to keep people safe during the biggest public health crisis in decades.

Hancocks office said in a statement that the court ruling cleared him of wrongdoing and found he "acted reasonably on all counts. It said Hancock  who quit the government last year for breaching pandemic social-distancing rules by having an affair while living with his wife  wished health officials had told him sooner all they knew about asymptomatic transmission.

Claimant Cathy Gardner, whose father died in April 2020, said my father and other residents of care homes were neglected and let down by the government.

Matt Hancocks claim that the government threw a protective ring round care homes in the first wave of the pandemic was nothing more than a despicable lie of which he ought to be ashamed and for which he ought to apologize, Gardner said.

Johnson has set up an independent public inquiry into Britains handling of the pandemic, though it has yet to begin. More than 174,000 people have died in Britain after testing positive for the virus, the highest toll in Europe after Russia.

Helen Wildbore, director of the Relatives and Residents Association charity, said the ruling confirms what people living in care and their families have known all along  the protective ring was non-existent.

The ruling is very welcome as a first step to justice but bereaved families will be left asking why more wasnt done to protect their loved ones and how many lives could have been saved," she said.

___

Follow all AP stories on the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
Gov. Ned Lamont is calling on state lawmakers to pass a bipartisan plan that seeks to resolve a long-simmering debate over how to address a pandemic-driven spike in car thefts and other juvenile crimes.

Lamont, joined by law enforcement officials in East Hartford Tuesday, cast the proposal as a compromise that strikes a balance between giving police tools to address serious, repeat offenders and increasing services to keep juveniles out of trouble.

The measure is part of a larger strategy, the governor said, that includes mental health legislation that would increase funding for social workers in schools, among other proposed investments in community programs and services.

Crime is just a symptom of a lot of other things going on two-years-plus after COVID, Lamont said.

But several Democrats and criminal justice advocates say the bill is too heavy handed in some areas including a provision that would allow courts to mandate electronic monitoring of juveniles charged with a second or subsequent car theft offense.

Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, was among four Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to vote against the proposal over concerns that GPS monitoring broadens and deepens contact with law enforcement and can lead to greater court control for longer periods of time and additional criminal charges.

But Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chair of the judiciary committee, said electronic monitoring gives judges an alternative to incarceration, which is what were most trying to avoid. Concerns that the practice will be overused are not unwarranted, Stafstrom said, adding the committee and legislature are going to have to keep eye on that.

The wide-ranging bill, which passed out of the judiciary committee with bipartisan support, would require juveniles to be brought before a judge within five days of an arrest and allow police to hold juveniles for eight hours, instead of six, while awaiting a judges detention order or trying to locate a parent or guardian to release them to. Police would also have access to juvenile records for criminal investigations in their municipalities.

The bill would also increase the amount of time a juvenile could be sentenced for a serious homicide, firearm, or sexual offense from the current 30-month maximum to up to 60 months.

A provision that is likely to draw support from progressives would change the states larceny statutes. Currently, someone who steals a higher end car faces stiffer penalties than someone who steals a lower end vehicle. Under the bill, all car thefts would be treated the same with the first offense resulting in a misdemeanor and the second offense resulting in a felony.

A Republican proposal that wouldve enabled 13- and 14-year-olds to be automatically sent to adult court if they are charged with certain violent crimes was stripped from the bill before it passed out of the judiciary committee.

We didnt get everything we were looking for, said Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, the top Republican on the judiciary committee. Its a compromise in very good direction for the state.

Republicans spent much of last summer criticizing Democrats for being lax on crime amid a rash of car thefts, which in some cases turned deadly. Democrats said broad reforms were not needed and that much of the increase in crime was due to the pandemic and was part of a national trend.

Lamont acknowledged Tuesday that in an election year, both parties are willing to get something done.

I dont think anybody wants to say we didnt act on this, the governor said.

julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  During the height of pandemic restrictions, thousands of New Zealanders desperate to return home essentially had to roll the dice month after month as they tried to secure a coveted bed in a quarantine hotel run by the military.

On Wednesday, a New Zealand court ruled that the government had breached the rights of its own citizens by imposing the lottery-style system on them.

A group called Grounded Kiwis had used crowdsourcing to help fund their case against the government.

But while they were celebrating their victory, the case may have little impact going forward as New Zealand has since abandoned its zero-tolerance approach to the virus and largely dismantled its contentious quarantine system.

Central to the case was New Zealand's Bill of Rights Act, which guarantees every citizen the right to return home.

High Court Justice Jillian Mallon ruled that forcing people to stay in quarantine hotels for two weeks initially, and later for one week, was reasonable given the circumstances of the pandemic.

But she found that operating a lottery-style system for the beds was unreasonable, and did not take into account how long people had been waiting abroad, or whether they had a compelling need to return home.

New Zealanders right to enter their country could be infringed in some instances in a manner that was not demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society, the judge concluded.

The flaws in the system were highlighted earlier this year by the case of Charlotte Bellis, a pregnant New Zealand journalist who was temporarily stranded in Afghanistan due to New Zealand's strict border policies.

The case quickly became an embarrassment to the New Zealand government, which backed down and offered Bellis a pathway home, which she accepted.

Paul Radich, a lawyer representing Grounded Kiwis, said he was delighted with the decision, which came as vindication for people who had faced huge difficulties returning home.

Opposition lawmaker Chris Bishop said the government's Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) system had inflicted enormous suffering.

We now have judicial confirmation of state-sponsored cruelty that was the MIQ lottery," Bishop said.

Pregnant women like journalist Charlotte Bellis were denied MIQ vouchers to enter New Zealand," Bishop said. People couldnt return to be with loved ones in the final stages of their lives."

But COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the court had confirmed that the MIQ system was lawful and justified. He said he acknowledged the court found that the rights of some citizens may have been breached by the lottery-type system for beds.

We have long acknowledged the difficult trade-offs weve had to make in our COVID-19 response to save lives and the effects of those decisions on all New Zealanders, particularly those living abroad," Hipkins said.

The court case specifically examined the so-called virtual lobby system, which was essentially a government-run lottery for quarantine spots, as it operated between early September and mid-December 2021.

New Zealand's approach to the pandemic has changed markedly over time, which this year has led to the quarantine system being dismantled.

Until last October, the nation of 5 million pursued a zero-tolerance approach as the government led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tried to eliminate the virus completely.

That gave way to a suppression strategy during an outbreak of the delta variant and then finally to something approaching acceptance as an outbreak of the omicron variant proved impossible to contain.
Amber Heard is among the most successful Hollywood actresses today, as well as a controversial one. She started as a model but eventually, she landed opportunities to star in various television shows and movies.

Aside from acting, Amber is also an advocate of LGBTQ rights.

Born on April 22, 1986, in Austin, Texas, Amber Laura Heard was raised outside Texas with her one sibling. She grew up having the skills of horse riding, hunting, and fishing.

Heres to yet another year of memories, adventures, laughs, screams and everything in between. I have walked my entire life with you at my side and I at yours. I cant imagine taking a single one of those steps without you. pic.twitter.com/bl2SpnOVdk  Amber Heard (@realamberheard) September 18, 2021

In high school, Amber studied in a Catholic school and joined beauty pageants as a teen. However, she eventually became disillusioned with religion and the Texan lifestyle around her. Subsequently, Heard dropped out of school and moved to New York City at the age of 17. She initially landed a job as a model in the Big Apple, but she focused more on acting and moved to Los Angeles later on.

Impressive Career

Amber's first starring part was in 2006's All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, and she followed up with roles in Never Back Down and Pineapple Express in 2008, while his subsequent work mixed successful films with flops and negative reviews.

After parts in films such as ExTerminators, The River Why, and And Soon the Darkness, Heard starred in The Rum Diary in 2011, her first collaboration with ex-husband Johnny Depp. It was preceded by roles in Drive Angry, Paranoia, Machete 3 Days to Kill, and Syrup.

The year 2015 is considered one of the best years in Amber Heard's career as she landed roles in commercially successful movies such as Magic Mike XXL, The Danish Girl, The Adderall Diaries, London Fields, and One More Time, as per Marca story.

In 2017, she played the role of Queen Mera of Atlantis in the superhero movie Justice League and in Aquaman the following year.

Read Also: Meghan Markle's Father Announces Plan To Gatecrash Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, Reiterates His Right To Meet His Grandchildren

What is Amber Heard's Net Worth?

Amber Heard's Net Worth in 2022 is $8 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

Her fortune is said to be a fraction of that of her former husband, Johnny Depp, who has a net worth of $100 million.

Depp and Heard began dating in 2012 and married in 2015 without a prenuptial agreement. In 2016, Heard filed for divorce from Depp and secured a temporary restraining order against him, stating that he had abused her verbally and physically when intoxicated, per Style Caster.

In the same year, Heard and Depp signed an agreement. Depp and Amber Heard's divorce was finalized in 2017. Heard allegedly demanded Depp $50,000 per month in spousal support depending on her "marital lifestyle," but her lawyer later withdrew the request.

Heard further declared that she would donate the remaining portion of her settlement to the ACLU and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

Depp requested proof from the court in 2021 that Heard had donated her settlement to the institutions. Heard's lawyers responded by saying she had done "nothing dishonest" with her payments to the ACLU and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, and that she had "pledged to pay over 10 years," which the charities had agreed on.

Related Article: Johnny Depp Net Worth 2022: How Much Is The Actor's Remaining Wealth After Losing $650 Million?

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TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) _ Benchmark Electronics Inc. (BHE) on Tuesday reported first-quarter earnings of $11 million.

The Tempe, Arizona-based company said it had net income of 31 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 44 cents per share.

The electronic manufacturing services company posted revenue of $636.1 million in the period.

For the current quarter ending in July, Benchmark expects its per-share earnings to range from 39 cents to 45 cents.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $615 million to $655 million for the fiscal second quarter.

Benchmark shares have decreased 14% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $23.43, a decline of 23% in the last 12 months.

_____

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BHE at https://www.zacks.com/ap/BHE
RIDGELAND, Miss. (AP) _ EastGroup Properties Inc. (EGP) on Tuesday reported a key measure of profitability in its first quarter. The results beat Wall Street expectations.

The Ridgeland, Mississippi-based real estate investment trust said it had funds from operations of $69.6 million, or $1.68 per share, in the period.
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CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (AP)  A 14-year-old boy accused of killing a 10-year-old Wisconsin girl knew the girl and planned the attack, knocking her down and choking her before sexually assaulting her, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The body of Illiana Lily Peters was found Monday along a walking trail just a day after she went missing while returning home from an aunt's house a few blocks away, sparking anxiety in her small western Wisconsin community before the teenager's arrest Tuesday.

The boy, identified only by his initials, appeared in adult court in Chippewa County by video from a juvenile detention center. Judge Benjamin Lane agreed to District Attorney Wade Newell's request for $1 million cash bond.

Lane said the high bond was necessary to protect the community given the teen's "statements regarding his intentions and his statements regarding that when he did get off the trail, he punched the victim in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, essentially strangled her, hit her with a stick, before strangling her to the point of death -- before he then sexually assaulted her, Newell told the judge at the bond hearing.

The teen made statements that his intention was to rape and kill the victim from the get-go, Newell said.

The defense had argued for $100,000 cash bond.

The judge sealed the criminal complaint, but Newell said after the hearing that the boy is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault and first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13 resulting in great bodily harm.

Wisconsin law generally calls for juveniles age 10 and up to be prosecuted as adults when they are charged with first-degree intentional homicide. The judge set a May 5 status hearing in the case.

Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matthew Kelm announced the arrest of the suspect Tuesday evening, after police earlier executed a search warrant at the home of Lily's aunt and the last place the girl was seen before she disappeared. Kelm said police got more than 200 tips, calling them critical to the investigation.

"While nothing will bring Lily Peters back or change what happened, we are very grateful to be able to deliver this news for the family and for the community, Kelm said.

People in the town of about 13,000 left drawings, flowers, candles and stuffed animals at Lily's elementary school and on a downtown bridge to remember the girl, with some residents dressing in purple to honor her. Chelsea Torgerson said she kept her daughter home from school Tuesday, before the arrest was announced, just for my own peace of mind.

I know these things happen in the world every day, but this is just so close," she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Chippewa Falls is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) east of the Twin Cities.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Former U.S. President Donald Trump cast himself as a master of The Art of the Deal, but his old buddy, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, may be taking over that title.

Last week, Lopez Obrador pressured a U.S. gravel company into agreeing to operate a tourist resort and cruise ship dock at a quarry it owns on the Caribbean coast.

The Alabama-based aggregates company Vulcan Materials  once known as Birmingham Slag Co.  has no experience at doing either, and would just like to continue mining gravel.

But Lopez Obrador has used pressure and threats in a bid to get private and foreign companies to shore up his infrastructure plans and pet projects  state-run ports, terminals and rail lines that could become white elephants unless the private sector boosts them with real traffic.

For a leader once depicted as a leftist, Lopez Obrador is in fact more of a populist and nationalist, and is quite conservative on some social issues. And he and Trump share an essentially transactional view of politics: two old-style bosses who like making deals.

On Monday, Lopez Obrador became one of the few foreign leaders to say he genuinely liked Trump.

We understood each other, and it was good for both countries, Lopez Obrador said of Trumps time in office.

The examples of Lopez Obradors pressure are many.

In 2020, he called a referendum that stopped a partly built, $1.5 billion U.S.-owned brewery in the border city of Mexicali, which had received all the needed permits but brought complaints from some residents that it would use too much water.

The Victor, N.Y.-based Constellation Brands, the company that brews Corona beer, wanted to be on the border in order to export Corona to the U.S. market. But Lopez Obrador has a long-range goal of promoting investment in southern Mexico. Thats the region where he grew up, and where poverty is greater and water is more plentiful.

So last week, Lopez Obrador said the governor of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, who belongs to the presidents Morena party, smoothed the way with all necessary permits for Constellation to build a brewery there.

Some say the president may be scaring off foreign investment with such heavy-handed tactics.

The critics and the pundits are complaining ... because he chases away investments. He doesnt give a damn, said Federico Estevez, a political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. Thats what they havent understood. Hes not after growth. Hes not after investment. Hes not a normal politician.

In March, Lopez Obrador issued an ultimatum to the U.S. energy company Sempra saying it had one month to sign an agreement to build a liquified natural gas export terminal in the Pacific coast port of Salina Cruz. Industry insiders say the project isnt attractive for foreign investors, since it involves building pipelines to the port.

Lopez Obrador has renovated the port as part of a plan to revive a 150-year-old dream of a rail line linking ports on the Pacific to the Gulf over Mexicos narrow Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and he desperately needs commercial customers for the ports. Sempra hasn't yet responded to the demand.

Similar thinking  and practices  went into the presidents most surprising deal yet, the tentative agreement with Vulcan Materials to run a resort and port.

Vulcan wound up with a series of crushed-limestone quarries on Mexicos Caribbean coast near the resort of Playa del Carmen in the 1990s, when the area wasnt as popular as it now.

Vulcan would like to keep exporting gravel, but its export permits have been blocked since late 2018, leading the company to file a trade dispute arbitration case under NAFTA, which has yet to be resolved.

The quarries are near XCaret, a lagoon that private investors turned into a high-end theme park that charges $100 a day in admission. The Mexican president loves state-owned businesses and hates pricey private ones.

One of Vulcans gravel quarries was dug out to below the water table, and it filled with turquoise water. Lopez Obrador wants to turn it into an artificial swimming and snorkeling lagoon.

His other pet project in the area is the Maya Train, a 950-mile (1,500- kilometer) rail line that will run in a rough loop around the Yucatan peninsula, connecting Caribbean coast resorts with archaeological sites inland.

Controversially, and with no environmental studies, the president decided to cut down a swath of low jungle between Cancun and Tulum, near the quarries, to build the train line.

The project needs huge amounts of gravel spread between rail ties to stabilize them, and it needs a seaport to get rails, cars and other train-building materials into the jungle.

Vulcan Materials has crushed limestone and it has a deep-water port, Punta Venado, that it uses to export shiploads of gravel to Florida for road projects. Lopez Obrador also wants Vulcan to operate a cruise ship dock just across from Cozumel  the worlds busiest port of call for cruise ships.

So the president offered a deal to the company  run a water park and a cruise ship dock, or the government will shut down the quarries. And he threatened further action.

I am waiting for an answer to the offer we made to them, because otherwise, we will take legal action, Lopez Obrador said April 19, sounding a lot like Trump.

On Monday, Vulcan Materials issued a statement saying it had told Mexican officials "of its openness to supply construction materials needed for the construction of the Maya Train and other infrastructure projects and to make port capacity available for transfer of train-related construction materials.

The company said it also told the government it was open to developing a large-scale ecotourism project  suggested by the Government of Mexico  on land owned by the Company, as long as the Company can continue supplying its customers.

Vulcan added that it is "also prepared to explore an expansion of the Punta Venado maritime terminal to receive passenger, freight and naval vessels in the coming years.

A person privy to disputes with private firms during this administration, but not authorized to be quoted by name, said Lopez Obrador often seeks to pile rhetorical pressure on companies, but doesnt really appear to step over the line.

You get the rhetoric, but you dont get the strongarm, said the insider. Its a lot more bark than bite.

One company was asked to do something they didnt want to do, and they started getting calls from government agencies, saying weve been asked to review every contract we have with you  but nothing was cancelled, he said. Is that pressure? Sure, but is it illegal?
BANGKOK (AP)  A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted former leader Aung San Suu Kyi of corruption and sentenced her to five years in prison Wednesday in the first of several corruption cases against her.

Suu Kyi, 76, who was ousted by an army takeover last year, has denied the allegation that she accepted gold and hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bribe from a top political colleague.

Her supporters and independent legal experts consider Suu Kyi's prosecution an unjust attempt to discredit her and legitimize the militarys seizure of power while preventing her from returning to an active role in politics.

The daughter of Aung San, Myanmar's founding father, Suu Kyi became a public figure in 1988 during a failed uprising against a previous military government when she helped found the National League for Democracy party. She spent 15 of the next 21 years under house arrest for leading a nonviolent struggle for democracy that earned her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. When the army allowed an election in 2015, her party won a landslide victory and she became the de facto head of state. Her party won a greater majority in the 2020 polls.

Suu Kyi is widely revered at home for her role in the countrys pro-democracy movement  and was long viewed abroad as an icon of that struggle, epitomized by her years under house arrest.

But she also has been heavily criticized for showing deference to the military while ignoring and, at times, even defending rights violations  most notably a 2017 crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that rights groups have labeled genocide. While she has disputed allegations that army personnel killed Rohingya civilians, torched houses and raped women and she remains immensely popular at home, that stance has tarnished her reputation abroad.

She has already been sentenced to six years' imprisonment in other cases and faces 10 more corruption charges. The maximum punishment under the Anti-Corruption Act is 15 years in prison and a fine for each charge. Convictions in the other cases could bring sentences of more than 100 years in prison in total.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his appeal Tuesday for Myanmars military to release all political prisoners including Suu Kyi and his condemnation of the military takeover of the country on Feb. 1, 2021, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The U.N. chief also repeated his call for an immediate end to violence and repression in Myanmar and for respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines the principles of equality before the law, the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, and all the guarantees necessary for a persons defense," Haq said.

These are trumped-up charges, politically motivated, to keep her inside prison for such a long time and also are designed to keep her away from the political limelight," said Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, a Geneva-based activist with the pro-democracy group Burma Campaign UK. And Im sure the military is also thinking, by sentencing her, they are grabbing the hope away from people but, in reality, its doing completely the opposite because people havent lost hope. They are still standing up against the military.

Suu Kyis trial in the capital, Naypyitaw, was closed to the media, diplomats and spectators, and her lawyers were barred from speaking to the media. The evening newscast on state television confirmed the sentence.

Following the victory of Suu Kyis party in the 2020 general election, lawmakers were not allowed to take their seats when the army seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, arresting Suu Kyi and many senior colleagues in her party and government. The army said it acted because there had been massive electoral fraud, but independent election observers didnt find any major irregularities.

The takeover was met with large nonviolent protests nationwide which security forces quashed with lethal force, killing almost 1,800 civilians, according to a watchdog group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

As repression escalated, armed resistance against the military government grew, and some U.N. experts now characterize the country as being in a state of civil war.

Suu Kyi has not been seen or allowed to speak in public since she was detained and is being held in an undisclosed location. However, at last weeks final hearing in the case, she appeared to be in good health and asked her supporters to stay united, said a legal official familiar with the proceedings who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to release information.

In earlier cases, Suu Kyi was sentenced to six years imprisonment on charges of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, violating coronavirus restrictions and sedition.

In the case decided Wednesday, she was accused of receiving $600,000 and seven gold bars in 2017-18 from Phyo Min Thein, the former chief minister of Yangon, the countrys biggest city, and a senior member of her political party. Her lawyers, before they were served with gag orders late last year, said she rejected all his testimony against her as absurd.

The nine other cases currently being tried under the Anti-Corruption Act include several related to the purchase and rental of a helicopter by one of her former Cabinet ministers.

Suu Kyi is also charged with diverting money meant as charitable donations to build a residence, and with misusing her position to obtain rental properties at lower-than-market prices for a foundation named after her mother. The state Anti-Corruption Commission has declared that several of her alleged actions deprived the state of revenue it would otherwise have earned.

Another corruption charge alleging that she accepted a bribe has not yet gone to trial.

Suu Kyi is also being tried on a charge of violating the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, and on a charge alleging election fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of three years.

The days of Aung San Suu Kyi as a free woman are effectively over. Myanmars junta and the countrys kangaroo courts are walking in lockstep to put Aung San Suu Kyi away for what could ultimately be the equivalent of a life sentence, given her advanced age," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. Destroying popular democracy in Myanmar also means getting rid of Aung San Suu Kyi, and the junta is leaving nothing to chance.
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WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Polish and Bulgarian leaders accused Moscow of using natural gas to blackmail their countries after Russia's state-controlled energy company stopped supplying them with gas Wednesday. European Union leaders echoed those comments and were holding an emergency meeting on the Russian move.

The gas cutoff to Poland and Bulgaria came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that unfriendly countries would need to start paying for gas in rubles, Russia's currency, which Bulgaria and Poland refused to do.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said in a statement that it hadnt received any payments from Poland and Bulgaria since April 1 and was suspending their deliveries starting Wednesday. And if those countries siphon off Russian gas intended for other European customers, Gazprom said deliveries to Europe will be reduced by that amount.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the announcement by Gazprom is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail.

Europe is not without some leverage in the dispute, since it pays Russia $400 million a day for gas, money Putin would lose with a complete cutoff.

Russia, however, rejected the idea that it was using blackmail while warning it may halt gas supplies to other European customers if they also refuse to switch to paying in rubles.

Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, argued that the Russian demand to switch to paying for gas in rubles resulted from Western actions that froze Russian hard currency assets. He said those were effectively stolen by the West in an unprecedented unfriendly action.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told Poland's parliament that he thinks the suspension was revenge for new sanctions against Russia that Warsaw imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Morawiecki called it an attack on Poland and an example of gas imperialism while vowing that Poland would not be cowed by the cutoff. He said the country was safe from an energy crisis thanks to years of efforts to secure gas from other countries.

We will not succumb to Russia's gas blackmail, he told lawmakers, to applause. He also sought to assure citizens that the gas cutoff would not affect Polish households.

Some Poles and Bulgarians welcomed the cutoff for moving them closer to independence from Russian energy.

"I dont know what the results will be for regular citizens like myself, said Nina Rudnicka, a lecturer at Poznan University. But I believe that one should not bow to Russias blackmail. It was the right decision not to change to payment in rubles.

Dobrin Todorov, a resident of Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, said given a choice between freedom and dignity or gas, the answer is clear, in favor of freedom and dignity."

"So we will go through this ordeal. It cannot be compared to the hardship and tribulations that the Ukrainian people are currently suffering, Todorov added.

The new Polish sanctions against Russia, announced Tuesday, targeted 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom. Hours later, Poland said it had received notice that Gazprom was cutting off its gas supplies for failing to pay in Russian rubles. Polands gas company, PGNiG, said the gas supplies from the Yamal pipeline stopped early Wednesday.

Russian gas supplies to both Poland and Bulgaria already were expected to end later this year anyway.

Poland relies on coal for 70% of its energy needs, with gas only making up around 7% of its energy mix. Several years ago, the country opened its first terminal for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, in Swinoujscie, on the Baltic Sea coast. A pipeline from Norway is to due to start operating this year.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, whose government has been cutting many of the country's old ties with Russia, called Gazproms suspension of gas deliveries a gross violation of their contract and blackmail. He vowed to defend the country's interests and support military-technical assistance to Ukraine.

Unfortunately, in the recent past we were treated as Russias fifth column. And there are many political and economic circles that protect Russias interests," he said. We and our party will protect only Bulgarian interests.

In Bulgaria, the main consumers of gas are district heating companies. Bulgarias energy minister said his country can meet the needs of users for at least one month.

Alternative supplies are available, and Bulgaria hopes that alternative routes and supplies will also be secured at the EU level, Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said.

Russia's move raised wider concerns that other countries could be targeted next as Western countries increase their support for Ukraine amid a war now in its third month.

The Greek government held an emergency meeting Wednesday in Athens. Greece's next scheduled payment to Gazprom is due on May 25, and the government must decide whether it will comply with the demand to pay in rubles.

Greece is ramping up its liquefied natural gas storage capacity, and has contingency plans to switch several industry sectors from gas to diesel as an emergency energy source. It has also reversed a program to reduce domestic coal production.

It appears there is some posturing by Gazprom, said Gianna Bern a University of Notre Dame finance professor. There are probably fewer consequences to turning off natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria than larger countries in Europe. Russia is definitely sending a message.

If European nations decide not to pay in rubles, Russia can sell its oil elsewhere, such as to India and China, because oil primarily moves by ship.

It has less options with natural gas, because the pipeline network that carries gas from Russias huge deposits in northwestern Siberias Yamal Peninsula does not connect with pipelines that run to China. And Russia only has limited facilities to export super-chilled liquefied gas by ship.

___

Toshkov reported from Bulgaria. Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jon Gambrell in Lviv, Ukraine, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Derek Gatopoulos in Athens and Fred Monyak in Washington contributed.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
BRIDGEPORT - A former Stamford school gym teacher, who has already cost the city of Stamford nearly $4 million to settle lawsuits claiming he sexually abused students in the 1970s and 80s, is accused in a new lawsuit of molesting a child at another school.

In the lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Bridgeport on Tuesday against the City of Stamford and the Stamford Board of Education, Robert Martinez is accused of molesting a young boy at the Toquam Elementary School between 1999 and 2004.

According to the lawsuit, Martinez worked as a gym teacher at that school from 1999 until his retirement at age 55 in 2005.

In 2018, the City of Stamford agreed to pay $3.25 million to five men who claimed in lawsuits they had been sexually abused by Martinez at Rogers Elementary School in the 1970s and 80s. Last year, the city paid out another $440,000 to a sixth man who alleged he had been abused by Martinez at the same school.

We always worried that the sexual abuse of students by Martinez did not end when he left Rogers School, said Attorney Cindy Robinson, who with Douglas Mahoney also represented the previous alleged victims. It takes years for victims to find the courage to come forward with these traumatic claims.

Robinson said that years before their latest client was allegedly abused, a student had made reports to school staff at the Rogers School, including the principal, that Martinez had sexually assaulted a student there.

Although the Stamford Police Department in 2010 confirmed it was investigating the allegations against Martinez, he has not been arrested and is now living in Florida. He could not be reached for comment.

Stamford officials previously stated that they were unaware of the allegations against Martinez at the time. Contacted Tuesday, they did not immediately respond with a comment on the new lawsuit.

The suit states that the alleged assaults at Toquam School took place in the schools gym during class and in the gym teachers private office during the school day. It claims that staff and administration officials allowed Martinez to routinely call boys out of class and permitted him to keep boys after class where he had alone time.
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP)  In her 9th-grade essay, Yeardley Love wrote about what she wanted to do with her life: to attend the University of Virginia, to play lacrosse there, to become a lawyer and to maintain her close relationship with her family.

Many of her dreams came true, but ended abruptly and violently when she was brutally beaten by her boyfriend, a lawyer for Love's family told a jury Tuesday in the civil trial of the man convicted in her killing.

George Huguely V was convicted of second-degree murder and is serving a 23-year prison sentence in Love's slaying. Yeardley and Hugely both played lacrosse at UVA and were weeks away from graduation when Yeardley was found dead in her off-campus apartment in 2010.

A wrongful death lawsuit brought by Love's mother, Sharon Love, seeks to hold him civilly liable for her daughter's death. The lawsuit is seeking $29.5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.

As the civil trial got underway, Paul Bekman, a lawyer for Love's family, showed the jury happy photos of Love with her mother and sister. He described a kind, thoughtful and caring young woman who played lacrosse, joined a sorority and kept up with a rigorous academic schedule at UVA while making sure to speak with her family almost every day.

Bekman told the jury that Love and Huguely had dated for two years, but had a rocky relationship that was marred by Huguely's excessive drinking. He said fellow students will testify about earlier violent episodes when Huguely was drunk, including one that happened about a month or two before Yeardley was killed, when visiting lacrosse players from North Carolina heard Love yell, Help, I can't breathe, and walked in to Huguely's bedroom to find Huguely with his hands around her neck.

Bekman showed the jury graphic crime scene photos of Love as she lay dead on her bedroom floor, with her right eye bashed in, her face bloody, and marks on her shoulder and neck. Love's mother and sister left the courtroom just before the photos were shown and cried softly during several other portions of the opening statements.

A medical examiner determined that Love died from blunt-force injuries to her head.

She died as a result of a vicious and brutal beating, Bekman said.

Huguely's attorney, Matthew Green, told jurors that Huguely admits he assaulted Love and that her family is entitled to compensatory damages in an amount to be determined by the jury. But he said the defense will argue that Huguely's actions did not amount to the willful and wanton conduct that is required to award punitive damages. In fact, Green said, Huguely did not intend to cause Love's death.

Green urged the jury to focus on the approximately eight to 10 minutes Huguely spent in Love's apartment the night she was killed. He said Huguely was a party animal who began drinking right after the UVA men's lacrosse team played its final game on May 1, 2010. Huguely's family was in town for senior day, and he spent the next 30 hours consuming 45 to 50 drinks, using a conservative estimate, Green said.

The following day, Love and Huguely exchanged angry, immature emails, but had patched things up by that night and were seen on video holding hands as they spent time with Huguely's family at a bar, Green said. Then, about 11:45 p.m., a drunken Huguely went to Love's apartment, where he kicked in her bedroom door.

During questioning by police early the next morning, Huguely said he only went to Love's apartment to talk to her, but their argument quickly turned physical. Huguely said Love's head hit the wall and they wrestled on the floor, but that when he left, she only had a bloody nose. Her roommates found her dead about two hours later.

Green said Love's visible injuries were limited to the right side of her face, which he said is consistent with a single impact, some kind of a fall where her face impacts the floor.

Green said that when police told Huguely that Love was dead, his videotaped interview shows that he just doesn't believe it.

It's clear he had no understanding a fatal event had happened, Green said.

Green said the jury in Huguely's criminal trial rejected a first-degree murder charge and instead found him guilty of second-degree murder. He is about halfway through his 23-year prison sentence.

Justice has been done, Green said.

The lawsuit was initially filed in 2012, but was later voluntarily dismissed and then refiled in 2018.
We have more than 65 years of experience practicing and teaching the art and science of medicine and have been following and contesting the relentless pursuit of legislation to legalize physician-assisted death in our state for many years.

Recently, Senate Bill 88, known as the aid-in-dying bill, was sent to our states Judiciary Committee in the Legislature, where it was defeated. Here are four reasons why that legislation concerned us.

1. Our ability as physicians to determine the timing of death in the setting of illness is imperfect, and our experience suggests that our patients do not typically question what we tell them to be the outcome of their illness. Many of us have cared for patients diagnosed with terminal illnesses who left inpatient hospice units to live many fulfilling years with their families. The case of Jeanette Hall of Oregon has been well-publicized. She considered assisted suicide when diagnosed with advanced colon cancer in Oregon in 2000. Eleven years later, after receiving chemotherapy and radiation, she wrote, I am so happy to be alive! If my doctor had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead ... Assisted suicide should not be legal.

2. Safeguards do not work. If we look at the long-standing Dutch example, which allows access to both physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, 60% of cases were not reported truthfully to public health authorities; 50% of cases not have the required consultations, wrote Dr. Robert D. Orr in The Hospitalist. A paper published last year in JAMA Internal Medicine titled Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in patients with multiple geriatric syndromes described 53 people in the Netherlands who were put to death for non-life-threatening conditions including visual impairment, hearing loss, chronic fatigue, incontinence or recurrent falls.

3. Medical care has improved dramatically. With advances in expert diagnosis and palliative, psychiatric and hospice care both in the hospital and at home, we simply do not see patients who die in intractable pain or without dignity when given the appropriate medical and supportive care. In our entire careers caring for tens of thousands of patients, only one of us (Dr. Sofair) had a patient ask him to prescribe medications to help him take his own life. He was in his mid-60s, had metastatic lung cancer and was concerned over having pain that he could not tolerate. When Dr. Sofair sat with the patient and assured him that he would be with his patient through the process to help alleviate his pain, his request to end his life went away.

4. The qualifications of a responsible attending physician are not clearly specified in the legislation. Practitioners with limited experience in the bedside practice of medicine will be able to give patients access to life-ending medication.

In our opinion, legalizing physician-assisted death is simply the wrong first step in a perilous direction and will make patients suspicious of our intentions at the exact time they need us most. If this bill returns and is ever passed, will we then be obligated to legalize euthanasia to protect those who are so debilitated that they cannot take the medications offered under its guidance? Our work as physicians is to walk with our patients and their families, both when the patient is well and when they are ill, not to give them medications with the sole purpose of ending their lives.

Andre N. Sofair, M.D., M.P.H., is a professor of medicine, epidemiology and public health at the Yale University School of Medicine. Barry J. Wu, MD, is professor of clinical medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine.
During the ongoing defamation trial between the former couple, a psychologist appointed by Johnny Depp's legal team informed the court Amber Heard had two personality problems.

Dr. Shannon Curry testified in the court on Tuesday (April 26) after visiting with Amber Heard on two distinct times to complete her exam - December 10 and 17, 2021.

Psychologist Claims Amber Heard Has PTSD

To form her evaluation, the psychologist told the court she spent 12 hours with Amber Heard and reviewed case documents, medical records, mental health treatments, and audio and video footage. Curry testified in court that the evaluation resulted in two diagnoses: borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder.

A personality is characterized by the features and characteristics that make up how we feel, think, and act, according to the doctor, whereas a personality disorder is a malfunction of those characteristics.

The doctor said Amber Heard externalizes responsibility and may be self-righteous, judgmental, and angry, which supports her diagnosis. She also stated that people with borderline personality disorder have a terrible fear of abandonment, which leads to excessive behavior in an attempt to keep a significant another close, according to LAD Bible.

She went on to say that handsome people may exploit their excellent looks to get attention and respect. Curry stated that there was evidence that Amber Heard was grossly exaggerating PTSD symptoms and that there was no indication that she was suffering from the disorder.

Amber Heard claimed to be suffering from 19 of the 20 key symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Curry said she was not board-certified and had never testified on domestic violence before during cross-examination by Heard's defense team.

Curry said she was interrogated by Johnny Depp's legal team at his home, that Johnny Depp was there at the time, and that she was provided food and beverages. Elaine Bredehoft, Heard's attorney, questioned Curry about her views and how they differed from those of a therapist who treated Heard.

Bredehoft also inquired about another doctor's opinion that Heard had been the victim of Depp's domestic abuse. Other physicians' papers, according to Curry, state that Heard reported Depp's aggression, as per Independent.

Read Also: Donald Trump Suggests Queen Elizabeth To Strip All Prince Harry, Meghan Markle's Royal Titles, Predicts Couple Will Split

Other Testimonies During Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Trial

Late Tuesday, Depp's lawyer began interrogating LAPD Officer Melissa Saenz in the trial. Saenz said she saw or heard nothing at the LA penthouse in May 2016 that suggested a crime or incident of domestic abuse.

Saenz stated once more that she saw no signs of injuries on Heard or any damage to the penthouse property. Amber Heard did not ask Saenz to make a report that night, and Saenz stated she did not need to do so because she assessed that no crime had occurred, as per LAPD practice. If she discovers an incident of domestic abuse, she must file a report according to protocol.

During her testimony, Tara Roberts mentioned instances when Johnny Depp and Amber Heard visited their island home in the Bahamas. She stated Depp visited the island two or three times a year, and she was present throughout Depp's detox and Depp and Heard's 2015 wedding.

Roberts said she was given a planned itinerary for the rehearsal dinner and wedding ceremony, which included food, dancing, drugs, and music, and that everyone was drinking during the wedding, except Depp, who was only drinking Dr. Pepper and sugar-free Red Bull at the time.

Roberts described an altercation between Depp and Heard during a vacation to the island in December 2015. Robert claimed that they heard shouting when they arrived at the residence. She said she overheard Heard telling Depp he was a washed-up actor who would die a lonely, obese old guy and then heard Depp respond, "you struck me with a can."

Then Depp and Heard, who was holding a bottle, descended the stairs. They were both surprised to see her, she remarked. Heard urged Depp to return inside after he walked outside.

Roberts stated Depp had a mark on the bridge of his nose at the cafe. She went to the cafe and purchased a bag of ice for him to put on it to minimize swelling, then she left Depp to sleep on the sofa. Robert started the next morning that she had not noticed any injuries on Heard. She reported the pair left after their guests had left in the afternoon. After a day of questioning, the court reconvened Tuesday morning with additional witness evidence.

Depp's estate manager, Tara Roberts, testified remotely from his Bahamas island on Tuesday. For almost 15 years, Roberts was the island's manager. She's shown in the courtroom via video connection, recounting Depp's encounters with Amber Heard on the island, Newsweek via MSN reported.

Related Article: Amber Heard Net Worth 2022: How Much Did 'Aquaman' Actress Make in Divorce Settlement With Johnny Depp?

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The door of a music practice room at Lane Community College has a piece of paper taped to it with names scrawled across it. Students are signing up for specific times to have exclusive access to these coveted spaces for musicians. As the term trudges on, students lug their instruments and materials into their practice rooms, do what they can for their allotted hour and then return to the world outside of that sound-proofed room.

One of the great things about music school is that there are designated practice rooms, LCC student Martin King said. You go in there, lock yourself in and do your thing until you get better, and then you can get out.

For King and University of Oregon transfer student Thomas Guastavino, these practice rooms have become an integral part of their educational experiences. Both identify as non-traditional students, share a passion for music and hope to become music educators after completing their journeys through undergraduate and graduate schools. While neither got their musical or educational starts at LCC, both King and Guastavino credit the colleges robust music department for providing them with tools to further their learning.

King, a current LCC student in the music program, has been playing trumpet for 15 years. His educational journey has included attending the University of Nevada in Reno for a year, dropping out to attend community college, moving to Oregon, starting classes at LCC after an almost 10-year hiatus and, most recently, being accepted into the UO College of Music and Dance. King said he leans toward the jazz studies major but isnt positive about what hell commit to once he starts at UO in the fall. He said all he knows is that hes doing what hes meant to do.

King said studying in the music program at LCC has provided him with the skills to continue his education at UO. He auditioned for and earned an Ensemble Talent Grant, which paid for 13 credits of courses for the winter term at LCC. King said his time at LCC has encouraged him to keep practicing.

Its been a great experience, King said. The music department is awesome. Its got a great faculty, very knowledgeable instructors and just very helpful, friendly people.

Lanes music program hosts resources like a recording studio that can fit 24 musicians; an isolation booth and a control room; the Music Technology Lab, which offers state of the art technology for students to utilize for music engineering, and the Performing Arts Resource Center, which houses reference materials.

King said he puts in at least an hour of trumpet practice every day. That doesnt include time he spends rehearsing for ensemble performances or class times where hes practicing music.

For King, sticking with the trumpet for over a decade has felt natural, even with the obstacles he faces such as finding the time to practice between classes and work. He said that although he loves practicing and rehearsing, performing is truly magical for me.

Pretty much once you start playing, you dont want to stop, King said. Thats what Ive found because music is like magic  it feels so good.

In another practice room across town on the UO campus, Guastavino, a music education major, is belting his heart out, practicing a choral ensemble piece. Like King, he said his educational journey has been a long and winding road. Guastavino is a post-baccalaureate student. He received a degree in theater and found himself re-enrolling in classes when he found out about LCCs Performing Arts department years after joining the workforce as a physical therapist assistant.

Guastavino said he decided to leave the health care sector and begin a journey in the direction of his passion for music. Through his time at LCC, he learned about the UOs choral track for music education as a pathway to teaching. From there, Guastavino set his sights on the university.

Guastavino said his passion for singing has been an ever-present part of his life. Some of his earliest memories are of him singing, and he said that years of vocal lessons and choir performances have solidified his passion.

Ive always sung. Its just always been part of my life, Guastavino said. I think the best choices Ive made have been to get deeper into that passion. Ive done a lot of singing since then in a lot of different contexts.

Guastavino said music has become very personal to him, acting as an identifying factor in his life. He said his love for music motivates him to become a music educator so he can share his passion with students who might benefit from the experience.

What Id really like to do is teach high school, Guastavino said. Thats the time when I remember that arts programs really helped me personally in school.

Guastavino said his time at LCC gave him access to diverse resources that allowed him to try out things like using digital software to score music and working in a recording studio. He said that when he transferred to UO, he felt like he had many tools to utilize. Part of what inspires him to become a music educator is the creative nature of composing music.

There are so many things people can do that are destructive, Guastavino said. Music is something that is purely an act of creation.

For both King and Guastavino, their music comes to life on stage, but it takes its first steps in school practice rooms.

Guastavino said he hopes to pick up a few more instruments in his time at UO, where hes already learned how to play a bit of clarinet and flute. Afterward, he hopes to become a music educator for high schoolers.

King said he hopes to have a career as a freelance musician after earning his bachelors and graduate degrees. Long term, he sees himself teaching private trumpet lessons. He credits his time at LCC for providing him with the space, time and tools he needs to be successful at the university.

Great things can happen at Lane, King said. It gives me so many feelings to hear great music. Being involved in it is kind of next-level, too.
According to emails, Joe Biden agreed to cover his son Hunter's legal bills in exchange for his contract with a Chinese government-controlled corporation.

The news brings the president further closer to Hunter Biden's international business operations and casts doubt on his prior assertions that he never addressed them with his son.

Joe Biden Could Have 10% Share in Son's Chinese Business

Joe Biden was able to pay his expenses after leaving government as vice president and has made millions of dollars via his and his wife's businesses. Their book sales and speaking engagements contributed to the influx of wealth. However, according to a review of the president's financial records by DailyMail.com, he disclosed over $7 million more income on his tax returns than he did on his government transparency reports.

Some of the gaps can be explained by First Lady Jill Biden's pay and other sums not needed to be shown on his reports, but there is still $5.2 million made by Joe's firm that is not included on his transparency reports.

The president's son is being investigated by the FBI for tax evasion, money laundering, and unlawful lobbying on behalf of foreign clients. Joe's financial reports reveal that he had more than enough money to cover Hunter's mounting expenses.

While in office, Joe Biden had a relatively modest income; but he enjoyed a flood of millions of dollars soon after he left office, much of which came from his memoir book deal and speaking engagement fees.

The Biden campaign published his federal tax filings, which showed he and First Lady Jill Biden earned $16.5 million in gross income between 2017 and 2019. The majority of the money came from their two businesses, CelticCapri Corp and Giacoppa Corp, which they utilize for speaking and writing engagements, Daily Mail reported.

White House Denies Joe Biden's Ties With Hunter's Foreign Dealings

Jen Psaki, the White Mansion press secretary, avoided the subject when questioned about Hunter Biden's business associate Eric Schwerin's 19 visits to the White House complex and vice president's house while Joe Biden was vice president. These excursions during Obama's administration cast doubt on Biden's claim that he was uninvolved with his son's business operations, which are currently being probed by the US attorney's office in Delaware.

Joe Biden continued strolling on the White House grounds, dismissing a reporter from The Washington Post who enquired about his son's business associates.

A visitor to the White House complex is frequently recorded as seeing a certain individual although they may chat with several people throughout their visit, implying that Joe Biden may have spoken with Schwerin on many occasions, New York Post reported.

Psaki's latest brush-off of questions concerning the first son's business connections was the response. Such inquiries have become in frequency after the Washington Post and the New York Times last month confirmed papers from a former Hunter Biden laptop that were originally published by The Post in October 2020.

Read Also: Republicans Want Elon Musk To Free Donald Trump After Twitter Takeover

Garland Refuses To Update About Hunter Biden Probe

Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland declined to give an update on the federal tax and financial investigation into Hunter Biden on Tuesday, defending the inquiry and dismissing the necessity for a special counsel.

Garland assured lawmakers during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee that the Hunter Biden inquiry will be free of political or unlawful involvement.

Garland refused to say whether he had been briefed on the Hunter Biden investigation, which is being overseen by David Weiss, the US attorney for the District of Delaware, during questioning by Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., who expressed concern about the fairness of the investigation, which has caused Americans to question their "confidence" in the Justice Department.

Hagerty pressed Garland on how Americans might have faith in the department's "serious inquiry," citing public remarks made in support of the Biden family by high administration officials, as per Fox News.

Related Article: Emails Reveal Hunter Biden's Disturbing Plea to Brother Beau's Widow During Affair, Brands Hallie an "Over Botoxed Flat A-Loser"

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Tesla's stock collapsed on Tuesday as investors continue to grow fearful of the implications that the company's CEO, Elon Musk, caused after the world's richest man bought social media giant Twitter.

The sudden drop in share price left many people wondering, is Musk still the richest person on the planet? To answer the question, yes, the billionaire entrepreneur still holds his place at the top of wealthy individuals despite losing roughly $29 billion on his estimated net worth.

Tesla Stocks Drop

The electric vehicle company's shares fell by as much as 11% on Tuesday to $890, pushing the stock down more than 28% from its all-time high observed in November. The situation removed a massive amount of the Tesla CEO's fortune and $114 billion from the company's market capitalization, pushing it down to $920 billion.

An analyst, Edward Moya, wrote in emailed comments that Tesla shareholders are not happy that Musk will have to divert even more attention away from winning the electric-vehicle race. The remarks echoed concerns from Vital Knowledge Media's Adam Crisafulli, who attributed the downtrend of Tesla's stocks to the purchase of Twitter, as per Forbes.

Musk previously announced that he was planning to buy Twitter using $21 billion from his own wealth and that he had help from banks that would finance the other half. The question now is how the Tesla CEO will come up with the money he promised. This could come via selling some of the shares he owns from the electric vehicle company, borrowing against them, bringing in additional investors, or a combination of the three.

Read Also: Elon Musk Promises $0 Salary for Board Members If He Buys Twitter

Furthermore, many people are concerned about whether or not Twitter would bring him into conflict over free speech with the government in China. The Asian nation is a key market for Tesla, where it has significant production operations.

According to NPR, the billionaire entrepreneur is already associated with Tesla and SpaceX and has other business ventures, including Neuralink, which develops brain implant technology, and The Boring Company, which makes tunnels.

Twitter's Future

Musk made his offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion with the stated aim of turning the social media platform into a haven for "free speech." However, the platform has already gone down that road, and it did not end in success.

Roughly a decade ago, one Twitter executive dubbed the company "the free speech wing of the free-speech party" to underscore its commitment to untrammeled freedom of expression. Subsequent events tested that perspective as repressive regimes cracked down on Twitter users, particularly after the short-lived "Arab Spring" demonstrations.

In the United States, a visceral 2014 article written by journalist Amanda Hess exposed the incessant, vile harassment that many women faced just for posting on social media platforms or other online forums.

In the following years, Twitter grew to adapt to the ever-changing environment and learned the consequences of running a largely unmoderated social platform. One of the most crucial reasons is that companies typically do not want ads running against violent threats, hate speech that bleeds into incitement, and misinformation that aims to tip elections or undermine public health. This leaves the question of what Musk could do to alleviate these problems in the future, the Associated Press reported.

Related Article: Elon Musk Takes $46.5 Billion Step to Buy Twitter: What's Next for World's Richest Man?

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Who's afraid of free speech? The answer, if it wasn't already abundantly clear, is all of the painfully woke liberal elite and cancel-culture obsessives who treat Twitter as their private echo chamber.

That was, at least, until earlier this week when Elon Musk secured a deal to buy the social network for 35 billion and pledged to open up the site to permit more freedom of speech.

Now these keyboard warriors have gone into meltdown.

Left-wing pundits, academics and right-on celebrities have declared themselves terrified that the richest man in the world might dare to do the unthinkable: allow those with even a slightly different opinion from their own to exercise freedom of expression online.

Earlier this week Elon Musk (pictured) secured a deal to buy Twitterfor 35 billion and pledged to open up the site to permit more freedom of speech

Above: Musk's TWitter profile. A few days ago, one particularly exercised journalism professor from New York University went so far as to warn: 'Today on Twitter feels like the last evening in a Berlin nightclub at the twilight of Weimar Germany'

Above: Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey. Musk, who describes himself as a 'free speech absolutist', has merely committed himself to overhauling Twitter's controversial content-moderation policies and allowing a broader spread of opinion

Frightened

A few days ago, one particularly exercised journalism professor from New York University went so far as to warn: 'Today on Twitter feels like the last evening in a Berlin nightclub at the twilight of Weimar Germany.'

A quivering Washington Post columnist declared himself 'frightened' because Musk 'seems to believe that on social media, anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.' (For 'content moderation' read 'PC censorship'.)

But amid all this wailing from snowflakes, I can't help but raise a smile because, for any of us who believe in the inalienable and unfettered right to free speech, this takeover is surely something to celebrate with at least two cheers.

The truth is the hysterical warnings of a descent into unregulated 'fascism' are certain to prove baseless. Musk, who describes himself as a 'free speech absolutist', has merely committed himself to overhauling Twitter's controversial content-moderation policies and allowing a broader spread of opinion.

There's no suggestion whatsoever that incitements to commit violent atrocities or other such dangerous content won't continue to be regulated in the appropriate manner.

To the 'Twitterati', though, such clarifications don't matter  to them, the walls of their citadel are falling in and Musk, as the driver of such change, represents an abhorrent threat to their world view.

Jameela Jamil was among a clutch of left-wing twitterati who declared that they would abandon the social media platform upon learning that Elon Musk was to buy it

A quivering Washington Post columnist declared himself 'frightened'. For 'content moderation' read 'PC censorship'

One particularly exercised journalism professor from New York University making historical comparisons

To the 'Twitterati' the walls of their citadel are falling in and Musk, as the driver of such change, represents an abhorrent threat to their world view

Indeed, for too long a loud minority have treated real freedom of speech with contempt, championing Left-wing views almost to the complete exclusion of other beliefs.

Egging each other on in their cossetted Twitter bubble  fuelled by powerful digital algorithms that feed users a continual steam of similar content  they've deluded themselves that different views held by countless others are akin to 'hate crimes', that anyone who doesn't agree with them is tantamount to being an enemy of the people, deserving of social 'cancellation'.

Twitter's Silicon Valley-based overlords, meanwhile, have tightened their regulatory grip in recent years on what they deem to be acceptable content.

'Free expression is a human right  we believe that everyone has a voice, and the right to use it,' Twitter's 'Hateful Conduct Policy' proudly states.

But it strikes me that, back at Twitter HQ, it would be difficult to find much commitment to such a belief.

For there in sunny California, one of the bastions of the fashionably Left-wing, free speech has morphed into something quite foreign  no longer a universal right, but a privilege to be granted only to those who express the correct opinion.

Left-biased programming slaps any non-conformist tweet  almost always of a more Right-wing sentiment  with warning labels about 'abuse' or 'misinformation' and even blocks users from the site as a last resort.

Most famously, in January 2021 the site banned Donald Trump  then the sitting President of the United States  following the violent Capitol riots that he was accused of inciting.

Many might think that Trump should be banned from Twitter, but I disagree  you have to remember that more than 74 million Americans had recently voted for him.

Trump is currently banned from Twitter, but you have to remember that more than 74 million Americans had recently voted for him

But so ingrained has this groupthink become that Musk's critics can't see the irony of their opposition to his takeover.

Their claim that Musk's ownership will cause Twitter to descend into facism is the deepest irony.

Because it is only through the free speech Musk espouses that democracy can flourish  if in doubt, just take a look at the censorship of social media that Vladimir Putin has imposed to whitewash his barbaric and criminal activities in Ukraine.

In truth, those on the Left are up in arms about the takeover because they risk losing control of the global conversation on Twitter, perhaps the most powerfully vocal social media outlet in the world.

The Twitterati are always astonished and outraged whenever the actual public don't agree with their opinions. For them, the 2016 EU referendum and the 2019 General Election are glaring examples of the 'wrong' sort of democracy in action.

Pushback

But now someone has dared to challenge all that.

Yet, far from being a hard-Right monster, in reality Musk is a complex political character: part green, part libertarian.

It is only through the free speech Musk espouses that democracy can flourish  if in doubt, just take a look at the censorship of social media that Vladimir Putin has imposed to whitewash his barbaric and criminal activities in Ukraine

At his core he is an engineer  and a shrewd businessman, having made billions from his Tesla electric cars and his spacecraft manufact- urer, SpaceX.

The acquisition of Twitter represents another commercial venture, but it seems he also wants to use it to enhance the global conversation.

'Twitter has become a sort of de facto town square,' he said recently, 'so it's really important that people have both the reality and perception that they are able to speak freely, in the bounds of the law.'

Not much sign of fascism there, if you ask me. Just simple common-sense  and good business-sense, too.

Indeed, Musk's takeover comes at a time when there is a possible pushback against the woke domination of social discourse. Last year's launch of Right-wing GB News, and this week TalkTV, attests to that.

Of course, there are caveats we should bear in mind.

It really should not be up to any single billionaire-controlled Big Tech company to decide what we are and are not allowed to say, hear and see  whether that's Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook or Elon Musk's Twitter.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is a similar tech billionaire to Elon Musk

Hopeful

But at least on face value, Musk's promises of increased 'transparency' at the top of the social network seem genuine.

Legitimate questions should also be raised about his corporate relationship with Communist China and how that might skew his attitude to free speech.

China is the world's second biggest market for Tesla cars after the U.S. It is also where the cars' batteries are made.

Time will tell if Musk can remain impervious to the influence of the Red Dragon. But let's judge him on what he does, not just what he says  or what others might say about him.

For what it's worth, as a fellow free-speech fundamentalist, I for one am hopeful. In the end, the hard truth about free speech is that not everybody who chooses to post, pontificate, rant or rage on Twitter will share the same views as you. But that should never mean that their rights to freedom of expression are any less.

Our democracy and liberties rely on that  and that's something Elon Musk seems to get.

Mick Hume is author of Trigger Warning: Is The Fear Of Being Offensive Killing Free Speech? published by William Collins.
More than two months have passed since Vladimir Putin shocked the world by sending Russian troops into Ukraine. Thanks to the extraordinary bravery of journalists on the spot, we've seen, and read about, a lot of death and destruction since then.

Fatigue inevitably begins to creep in after a while. There's talk of the war grinding on for months  ministers have even contemplated that it could last five years. Our minds are almost bound to seek diversion and relief elsewhere.

And yet, even as we are tempted to relax, the outlook has never been so bleak  not only for Ukraine but for the West. Events are unfolding that would have seemed utterly incredible three months ago.

Late on Monday evening, Sergei Lavrov  Vladimir Putin's untrustworthy Foreign Minister  issued a spine-chilling threat. He said that if Nato continues to provide military aid to Ukraine, there will be a 'considerable' risk of nuclear conflict.

Vladimir Putin has vowed to use nuclear weapons against any country that dares to 'interfere' with Russia's war in Ukraine in his latest chilling threat to the West

Boris Johnson was asked on TalkTV whether he shared analysts' concerns about nuclear war. He replied breezily: 'No, I don't'

Lavrov is Putin's mouthpiece. Putin himself yesterday vowed to use missiles, presumably nuclear, in a 'lightning-fast' response against any country that dares 'meddle in ongoing events and create unacceptable strategic threats for Russia'.

Although Lavrov's remarks were widely reported, they don't seem to have been taken seriously by Western governments. The following day, Boris Johnson was asked on TalkTV whether he shared analysts' concerns about nuclear war. He replied breezily: 'No, I don't.'

This is a surprising response. The veteran foreign minister of the world's second most powerful nuclear state threatens the West with nuclear retaliation of an unspecified nature. How does Boris react? With disbelief.

Was Lavrov thinking of tactical nuclear weapons that could be deployed in Ukraine, whose effects would be terrible but relatively localised? Or had he in mind strategic nuclear weapons, which could destroy London, Berlin or Paris? Probably the former, but we can't be sure.

Either way, the Prime Minister thinks Lavrov  and doubtless Putin  are bluffing. He and other Western statesmen apparently believe the Russians are invoking nuclear war to scare Nato, so that it doesn't supply Ukraine with more deadly military hardware.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was due to double-down last night by calling for Nato to send warplanes to help the Ukrainians. Even the hitherto windy German government has agreed to send tanks to help Kyiv. Nato is now arming Ukraine to the teeth.

This is my question. How can Mr Johnson and his advisers be so certain that Moscow is bluffing? Let me turn that question the other way around. If there were only a 5 per cent chance that the nuclear threat is genuine, shouldn't we be in a state of high anxiety?

The fact is that it is extremely rare for a major power, even an autocratic one such as Russia, to speak in the bellicose terms employed by Sergei Lavrov. That is why it is rash to dismiss his comments as posturing.

Putin was almost certainly referring to Russia's new Sarmat 2 nuclear missile which was tested for the first time just days ago and that he boasted is unlike any other weapon in the world

During the 1956 Suez Crisis, Soviet number two Nikolai Bulganin made a reference in an open letter to 'rocket weapons', which he implied might be used against Britain and France, which had jointly invaded Egypt.

The threat was less menacing than those just issued by Lavrov and Putin. Moreover, in 1956 the Soviet Union's destructive nuclear capability was a fraction of Russia's today. Nonetheless, the British government didn't airily dismiss Bulganin's letter, which was one cause of our capitulation a few days later.

I don't suppose Boris Johnson or most senior officials know about the 1956 incident. As the Cold War ended more than 30 years ago, I doubt that many of them are clued up about nuclear deterrence. They may not have grasped how exceptional public warnings of nuclear retaliation are.

How did we arrive at the position, so soon after the invasion of Ukraine, where Russia can issue such alarming threats, and Mr Johnson sweep them aside without any sign of disquiet?

As we have seen evidence of Russian war crimes and barbarity almost nightly on our television screens, so reluctance to provide Ukraine with deadly weaponry has gradually dissolved in the West.

The Prime Minister was, of course, in the vanguard of those pressing for more military aid for Kyiv, which was in some ways to his credit. That is why Britain has been the favourite country of the brilliantly persuasive President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Boris his favourite leader.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, left. Sergei Lavrov  Vladimir Putin's untrustworthy Foreign Minister  said that if Nato continues to provide military aid to Ukraine, there will be a 'considerable' risk of nuclear conflict

Yet despite the PM's robust approach, the British Government still hoped in the early weeks of the war that there might be a ladder down which Putin could climb, or a so-called 'off-ramp'. No longer.

What has happened is that, as the Russians have demonstrated their merciless tactics in cities such as Mariupol, so increasingly outraged Nato governments have set aside their former reservations.

The changed policy of Britain and other Western countries was summarised by Mr Johnson in an answer to a question in the Commons on April 19. Because he was in the process of apologising innumerable times about Partygate, very few people noticed.

This is what he said: 'I am afraid there is now no easy way to find a diplomatic or negotiated solution. It will be difficult to construct an off-ramp for Vladimir Putin. We are now in a logic where we must simply do everything we can collectively to ensure that Vladimir Putin fails, and fails comprehensively, in Ukraine.'

In other words, the Government believes there is no realistic possibility of a negotiated settlement, nor will it make any attempt to find one. There will be a fight to the death between Russia and Ukraine, and Britain will do whatever it can to ensure that Ukraine wins.

Russia today tested its deadly new hypersonic 208-ton 15,880 'Satan-2' intercontinental ballistic missile. Taking time off from the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin threatened that it would ensure Russia's security and make 'those fierce people who are trying to threaten it' think twice

There is another way of putting this. Ukraine's war aims have become virtually indistinguishable from British war aims, which puts this country in potential peril. We are committed to Russia's defeat, though officially  so the Prime Minister told the Commons on April 19  not to Putin's removal.

As Nato piles more heavy weaponry into Ukraine to help President Zelensky's forces, Putin may grow increasingly frustrated  and therefore increasingly dangerous. It is in these unstable conditions that the Russians could deploy tactical nuclear weapons.

Once that threshold has been crossed, there is no knowing what might happen. The philosophy of deterrence, which prevented nuclear war between the West and the Soviet Union, would have been jettisoned.

I am not advocating deserting President Zelensky and immediately stopping the shipment of all weapons, so that Russia is left to choose which bits of Ukraine to seize.

But we should recognise that the present policy of ramping up the conflict by pouring heavy weapons into Ukraine, and explicitly orchestrating the defeat of Russia, could lead to disaster.

Before the invasion, I suggested that Nato's aggressive expansion eastwards over the past two decades  and specifically its offer to Ukraine in 2008 to join the organisation at some future date  had set it on a collision course with Russia.

That is now water under the bridge. But if Nato insists on bringing about the defeat of Russia on the most humiliating terms, it risks making a second error that could be calamitous for the West.

If only Boris Johnson were giving as much thought to preventing a third world war as he is to arming Ukraine. In threatening nuclear retaliation, Putin and Lavrov almost certainly mean what they say.
Stop the presses! Yesterday, somehow, we managed to get through an entire PMQs without so much as a mention of Partygate. Yup, you read that correctly. A whole blissful 40 minutes in the Commons devoid of citrus-sucking outrage about cheap birthday cake and plastic cups of Tescos finest Chateau Mouthwash.

The Greens Caroline Lucas made a brief sally about the Governments habit for breaking the law, but otherwise we heard not a sausage. Nada. Zero, zip, zilch.

The local elections are upon us and the message may finally have slotted home with Opposition MPs that there are more pressing issues facing voters than events that took place several moons ago. Namely the cost of living crisis.

Outspoken Labour housing spokesman Lisa Nandy apparently dared to say as much during a Shadow Cabinet meeting last week. Poor Nandy. Siberias salt mines beckon!

Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not have to answer a question about Partygate at today's PMQs (pictured)

Sir Kier Starmer (pictured) spoke to Boris Johnson about Angela Rayner and the living cost crisis during the PMQs

Predictably, Sir Keir Starmer went in on the Angela Rayner business. He trotted out a prepared line on how he knew the PM had whipped his backbenchers to scream and shout at him as he started speaking. Given that he was heard in near silence, it rather backfired.

Mrs Rayner sat beside Sir Keir in all black, her mood uncharacteristically subdued. Hopefully this is just a temporary measure. Shes a rare livewire in Labours joyless ranks.

As for the Governments front bench, it was looking decidedly lightweight. No Rishi, no Liz Truss, no Priti Patel. At first I thought Sajid Javid was washing his hair until I spotted him hiding behind the Speakers chair.

Considering the Rayner hoo-ha, Boris was short on women too. Surrounding him were the heaving hams of Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi and Leader of the House Mark Spencer, neither of whom are exactly Mumsnet material.

Its a point Starmer would have done well to make. Except hes about as nimble on his feet as Giant Haystacks would have been in a pair of concrete clogs.

Deputy leader Angela Rayner (pictured next to Sir Kier Starmer) has been the focus of a large amount of media attention this week

Starmer and Boris proceeded to go back and forth on the economy. Sir Keir accused the PM of being the Comical Ali of the cost of living crisis  and compared him to an ostrich who was perfectly happy keeping his head in the sand.

He also attacked the proposal to scrap annual MoTs, which he compared to John Majors much-mocked traffic cones hotline. Speaking of Sir John, the former PMs ex-paramour Edwina Currie was among the visitors in the Strangers Gallery.

The one-time health minister was having a whale of a time, flinging her head back with laughter whenever Boris found himself in schtuck.

The PM got in some early local election campaigning by declaring most Labour councils bankrupt. He made mocking reference to Sir Keirs local council of Islington or Camden, or somewhere like that. Hes very down on north London, Boris. Even though he used to call it home.

As usual, he saved his best moment for the end when Sir Keir couldnt respond. He described Starmer as a guy doomed to be a permanent spectator. The Tory benches roared their approval. Chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris gave a Gollum-like rub of the hands.

The remark hit home because it played on Labours insecurities. There is a lingering sense that behind all the halo-polishing, Sir Keir is destined to be one of politics runners-up. An also-ran. And its an image that can be hard to shake. Just ask Gordon Brown.

There was little else to report other than towards the end, Ben Everitt (Con, Milton Keynes N) made mention of the fact that Moscow had just announced 287 British MPs were now banned from entering Russia. Their alleged crime? Whipping up of Russophobic hysteria amid the war in Ukraine. Among those sanctioned were clueless vaccines minister Maggie Throup and Lichfields ludicrously maned pin-up Michael Fabricant. Blimey! No wonder the Kremlin crockery was rattling...
Australian fashion designer, Camilla Franks, is an international sensation.

The former model is most known for her line of luxury bohemian fashions consisting of stunning kaftans and colorful resort-wear, handmade with custom-crafted silk prints inspired by her travels around the world.

Just ahead of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee taking place on June 5, Camilla reveals her top spots to tour and shop in one of her favorite countries in the United Kingdom, Wales.

Australian fashion designer, Camilla Franks, is an international sensation, most known for her line of luxury bohemian fashions consisting of stunning kaftans and colorful resort-wear, handmade with custom-crafted silk prints inspired by her travels around the world

SIGHTSEEING:

Camilla spent a significant amount of time during lockdown in Wales, the hometown of her fiance Welsh artist and musician JP Jones.

Fully immersing herself in the beauty and culture, the celeb-beloved designer curated a list of her favorite places, starting with a spot that's most near and dear to her heart - where JP proposed.

'Walking is one of my favorite pastimes when I am in Wales,' shared Camilla.

'If I had to pick my favorite walk it would be Pen y Fan, which is the highest peak in South Wales. It is in the Brecon Beacons National Park.

'It was after we had climbed this that JP proposed to me in a beautiful forest at the bottom of the mountain.'

Celebrity and editorial photographer, Tom Jackson, photographed Camilla in all her favorite spots in Wales

Camillas favorites castles include St. Quentins Castle and the Ogmore Castle that dates back to the 12th century

There are more castles per square mile in Wales than any other place in the world.

Of the 600, two of Camillas favorites include St. Quentins Castle and the Ogmore Castle that dates back to the 12th century.

The castle is situated on the banks of River Ewenny and accessed by crossing the stepping stones of the river - famously known for its (drunk) crossing competition.

The castle is situated on the banks of River Ewenny and accessed by crossing the stepping stones of the river - famously known for its (drunk) crossing competition

WHERE TO EAT:

Hare & Hounds in Aberthin consists of a bakery, restaurant, and pub.

The establishment was born out of the adversity of the first pandemic lockdown and has become a cozy, rustic hub in the heart of the village.

'The owners borrowed a food trailer from a friend, and started selling their breads, pastries and sandwiches in the local area,' shared Camilla.

'Now they have moved into their new home where the beloved Grandma Anna of Tom who owns the once served food in time gone by.'

The bakery is Camillas go-to for her morning coffee and where she can connect with the local community, and her friend, Hare & Hounds' Head Chef Patron, Tom Watts-Jones

Food at Hare & Hounds is a celebration of Britain's best fresh produce and nose-to-tail dining

The bakery is Camillas go-to for her morning coffee and where she can connect with the local community, and her friend, Hare & Hounds' Head Chef Patron, Tom Watts-Jones.

Tom's food has graced the tables of Michelin-starred restaurants, and his meals at the Hare & Hound are a celebration of Britain's best fresh produce and nose-to-tail dining.

The pub has been the local watering hole and keeping thirst at bay for over 300 years with its great range of ales, wines and seasonal drinks.

For one-of-a-kind pieces, Camilla visits Happy Days Vintage Home store, a treasure trove packed with stalls full of eclectic, retro, vintage furniture and decorative items

Looking to pedal the city? Camilla favors Simons Cycles, located in Cowbridge

WHAT TO DO:

When in town, Camilla loves to attend a rugby match at Cardiff's Principality Stadium, saying, 'there is nothing quite like hearing thousands of Welsh voices filled with passion singing their national anthem.'

She added: 'One thing that will strike you about Wales are the beautiful singing voicesit is a really important part of the Welsh National identity. It truly is the Land of Song.'

For one-of-a-kind pieces and inspiration, Camilla visits Happy Days Vintage Home store, a treasure trove packed with stalls full of eclectic, retro, vintage furniture and decorative items.

'I am in heaven in Happy Days, and can easily lose track of time. I have picked up some amazing pieces here: repurposed antique lamps, vinyl albums, stamps, textiles, all inspiration for my creative process.

'I love to immerse myself in these places, it triggers my imagination and creativity.'

If you are looking for a souvenir from Wales, Camilla recommends a vintage Welsh Love Spoon as a perfect keepsake.

Looking to pedal the city? Camilla favors Simons Cycles, located in Cowbridge.

'My partner JP was brought up in the seaside town of Porthcawl, in South Wales. 'His family are associated with the famous fairground there, Coney Beach'

'My partner JP was brought up in the seaside town of Porthcawl, in South Wales.

'His family are associated with the famous fairground there, Coney Beach. As an artist JP draws so much inspiration from his childhood here and the bright colors of the fairground which you can find reflected in his art.'

Camilla and her children love visiting the fairground and the Hi Tide Amusements.

Camilla and her children love visiting the fairground and the Hi Tide Amusements

'As an artist JP draws so much inspiration from his childhood here and the bright colors of the fairground which you can find reflected in his art'

WHERE TO STAY:

When friends come to visit Camilla in Wales, she recommends they stay at The White Lion Hotel or The Bunny Farm; both popular with locals and travelers, alike.

According to the designer, the rooms are stunning.

'On Saturday you can find me enjoying lunch beside the fire in the newly opened White Lion pub which is in the next village, Ystradowen.

'The French cuisine is to die forI feel like I am back in France.'

WHERE TO SHOP:

Jon Ian: 'You can often find me browsing in Jon Ian on the high street. It is my go to place for autumn and winter pieces, they stock the most incredible raincoat brand Brgn which I love and cosy knitwear by 360 Cashmere  perfect for the Welsh winter weather.'

Arthur John: 'You do need a pair of wellington boots in Wales, there are some rainy days, but they are great for traipsing around the countryside and walking on the beach. You cant go wrong with a pair of Hunter Wellies and a Barbour coat for keeping warm and dry.'

No 39: 'No39 Cowbridge is packed full of an ever-changing and evolving selection of home decor from far and wide. They have some really unique pieces But my favorite thing about this homeware mecca is their passion for everything candles. You will often find me mixing scents out in the workshop of this little candle haven.'

Alicat Jewellery: 'An exquisite, vintage, jewelery brand based just outside Cowbridge. Founded by Alexandra Joseph (affectionately known to her friends as Ali), Alicat Jewellery sources and handpicks incredible, antique, investment pieces from all over the world.'
Washington, D.C. residents have candidly revealed how much money they earn in a viral new TikTok series - from a government employee who rakes in $120,000 a year to a medical scribe on a $15 an hour salary.

Hannah Williams, 25, who works as a data analyst for a government contractor, wants people to be more open about how much money they make.

She decided to take to the streets of D.C. and asked complete strangers about what they do for work and their salaries, in an attempt to end the secrecy around earnings.

She posted the results to TikTok under the username Salary Transparent Street, where the videos quickly went viral - gaining millions of views, likes, and comments, and sparking a major conversation about jobs across America.

D.C. residents revealed how much they earn in a viral new TikTok series - from a government employee who rakes in $120,000 (left) to a medical scribe on a $15 an hour salary (right)

Hannah Williams (pictured), 25, who works as a data analyst for a government contractor, wants people to be more open about how much money they make

She decided to take to the streets of D.C. and asked complete strangers about what they do for work and their salaries, in an attempt to end the secrecy around earnings

She posted the results to TikTok, where the videos quickly went viral - gaining millions of views, and sparking a major conversation about jobs across America

Hannah spoke to numerous people in the Georgetown area of D.C., and documented the entire thing for her TikTok account.

The jobs and salaries that strangers in D.C. told Hannah during her Salary Transparent Street series IT job - $70,000 a year

Unnamed government job - $76,000 a year

Lifeguard - $15 an hour

Contractor - $96,000 a year

Research scientist - $52,000 a year

Teacher - $83,000 a year

Software developer - $90,000 a year

Editor - $60,000 a year

Unnamed government job - $120,000 a year

Economic development job - $100,000 a year

Medical scribe - $15.25 an hour

Research assistant - $40,000 a year

Rocket scientist - $96,500 a year

HIV prevention researcher - between $80,000 and $90,000 a year

Refrigeration and air conditioning technician - $60,000 a year

Budget analyst - $93,000 a year

Police officer - $120,000 a year

Nurse practitioner - $120,000 a year Advertisement

'Today, we're going to ask people what they do and how much they make,' she began in her first video, which has now been viewed more than five million times.

A man named Chris revealed that he works in IT and makes $70,000 a year, while a woman named Morgan told Hannah that she works for the government and makes $76,000 a year.

A lifeguard said she earned $15 an hour. While a contractor, named Max, revealed that he had a salary of $96,000.

Other people that Hannah spoke to in her videos included a research scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center who makes $52,000, a teacher who earns $83,000 and 'loves' her job, a software developer who rakes in $90,000, and an editor who has a salary of $60,000 a year.

Hannah herself makes $115,000 a year, but she first began her career as a telemarketer with a $40,000 salary.

She then quit that job to become a junior data analyst for a small government contracting firm, which paid her $55,000 a year.

She quickly went through two more positions that weren't right for her - which made Hannah worried that 'no one was going to hire her' due to the amount of jobs that she went through in such a small amount of time.

The Northern Virginia Community College and Georgetown University graduate then took some time off to research pay ranges in her desired field, and learned how to highlight her strengths on her resume and in interviews - and she has now landed her dream job.

Before starting Salary Transparent Street, Hannah began earning a following online for posting about her experiences in the work force and sharing advice with others.

A man named Chris revealed he works in IT and makes $70,000 a year (pictured), while a woman named Morgan told Hannah she works for the government and makes $76,000 a year

A lifeguard said she earned $15 an hour (left), while a contractor, named Max, revealed that he had a salary of $96,000 (right)

Other people that Hannah spoke to in her videos included a research scientist who makes $52,000 (left) and a teacher who earns $83,000 and said she 'loves' her job (right)

Now, she is determined to use her platform to end the stigma around sharing your salary with others.

'If the Great Resignation has taught us anything, it is that there is power in numbers,' she told Washington Post recently, while discussing her new TikTok series.

'When workers are empowered, they can actually influence change. I figured, what better way to get open salaries out there on the internet than by asking strangers on the street?

'I thought that it was going to be successful, but I had no idea it would go as viral as it did.'

Since posting her first video, she has racked in more than 330,000 followers.

She went on to post four more videos from around D.C. She also shared four that were taken in Arlington, Virginia, and two from Alexandria, Virginia.

Hannah, who works as a data analyst for a government contractor, is determined to use her platform to end the stigma around sharing your salary with others

'So many of us equate our salaries and pay with our worth. We need to disconnect from that notion,' she said. 'Its literally just a number, and its highly likely that youre underpaid'

The TikToker, who makes $115,000 a year, believes that the lack of transparency about pay has negatively impacted how minorities are treated in the workplace

Hannah is happy that she has started an open conversation about income - something that she thinks is still considered taboo to talk about.

She believes that the lack of transparency about pay has negatively impacted how minorities are treated in the workplace.

'Not having those salaries and those open transparent conversations is really a disadvantage for women and people of color because they are the ones that are more likely to be taken advantage of,' she explained.

'So having these conversations is really important for closing the pay gap and increasing diversity in companies.'

Many people have taken to the comment section of Hannah's videos to share their support for the series, with one writing, 'I love how Millennials and Gen-Z are way more open to talking about salaries.'

Many people have taken to the comment section of Hannah's videos to share their support for the series

Another added: 'It's refreshing to hear that not everybody is making $200,000 because [that] is typically what pops up on TikTok.'

'Thank you for making this account,' gushed someone else. 'Salary transparency is important.'

'Yes! Salary transparency is literally the best way to demand equal pay,' agreed a different user.

'Don't let companies fool you into thinking sharing your salary is bad.'

'Love this idea. I used to work in human resources, our society needs much better transparency on pay overall,' read a fifth comment.

Despite being nervous about how people would react to her questions at first, Hannah revealed that she has yet to encounter anyone who got angry when she asked them about their salary.

However, she sometimes talks to people who aren't comfortable sharing their pay - which is totally OK with Hannah.

'Were not trying to change peoples minds overnight. But even the ones who dont want to say it, they leave with something to think about,' she added.

Other people interviewed included someone working in HIV prevention research, who makes between $80,000 and $90,000 (left), and a budget analyst who is paid $93,000 a year (right)

Hannah also spoke to a police officer who makes $120,000 (left), and a nurse practitioner, who joked she doesn't make 'enough' with her $120,000 salary (right)

'So many of us equate our salaries and pay with our worth. We need to disconnect from that notion.

'Its literally just a number, and its highly likely that youre underpaid.'

In another TikTok, a contractor for the navy revealed that he makes $75,000 a year, but admitted that he doesn't like his job.

A man with a 'quasi' government job said he makes in the $120,000 area, while someone who works in economic development told Hannah that he earns a little over $100,000 a year.

A grad student at George Washington University, who also works as a medical scribe, said he makes $15.25 an hour. While a research assistant at GW said she rakes in $40,000 a year.

Other people interviewed for the series included a rocket scientist making $96,500, someone working in HIV prevention research, who makes between $80,000 and $90,000, a refrigeration and air conditioning technician, who earns about $60,000, a budget analyst who has five years of experience and is paid $93,000 a year, a police officer who makes $120,000, and a nurse practitioner, who joked she doesn't make 'enough' with her $120,000 salary.
Resplendent in my white gown, my face glowing with happiness as the camera flashed, you'd think my wedding day was the most wonderful of my life.

Yet if you'd seen me just hours after the ceremony, weeping in my new husband's embrace, you'd have realised that away from the camera it was a very different story.

The reason for my anguish? That day was the very last time I saw three of my bridesmaids, women who should have been my best friends in all the world.

After more than a decade of cruel jokes, perceived slights, frosty silences and hurtful comments on both sides  something familiar to all women  the friends I'd first met aged 11 were gone from my life, never to return, despite my heartfelt attempts to reconnect.

Rebecca Wilcox in her Surrey home. Her wedding day was the very last time she saw three of her bridesmaids, women who should have been her best friends in all the world

When she got engaged a few years later, she grappled with the decision not to have those old schoolfriends as bridesmaids. After all, she already had six: her husband's sister, her sister, two other genuinely good friends and two adorable flower girls. It was becoming ridiculous  was she a royal bride?

We're always being told about the power of female friendships. And I agree, a good girlfriend is invaluable  essential to happiness, according to a recent Harvard study.

Yet the reality is so often the opposite. That gut-wrenching feeling when you discover a betrayal, 'frenemies' who pull you down as much as they build you up, the lack of support from someone whose emotions you're constantly bolstering. In many ways, I think female friendships can be harder than romantic relationships. And it's far more devastating when they go wrong.

I have a small group of valued friends now, yet always at the back of my mind lurk memories of my many toxic friendship experiences.

From dealing with vicious school bullies to betrayals by unreliable university friends and falling out with those bridesmaids, my life has been chequered by distressing experiences with other women.

So was I just unlucky? Not quite. It was after a good talking to from my mother, the broadcaster Esther Rantzen, that I began to appreciate my own behaviour was contributing to attracting toxic girlfriends.

Mum's intervention came while I was studying at Oxford University. After dating a boy for a few months, a girlfriend had taken me to a cafe and, surrounded by lunchtime diners, proceeded to tell me she was having an affair with him.

Apparently, everyone knew about it. I was astonished. Not by his behaviour  I didn't give two hoots about him. But she was one of my dearest friends. I would have done anything for her, including breaking it off with this boyfriend. If only she had told me first.

Her sneaking around felt like the worst betrayal. The fact our group knew about it was like a physical punch to the stomach.

'I have a few very close friends who I trust,' Esther told her daughter. 'You don't need more than that. Sisterhood works on the presumption that we will all get along just because we are women, but that's not the case. You need to find women who genuinely support and enjoy your happiness and success.'

Later, when I wept on the phone while telling my mother my heart had been broken, yet again, by a close female friend, she sighed heavily.

'I have a few very close friends who I trust,' she told me. 'You don't need more than that. Sisterhood works on the presumption that we will all get along just because we are women, but that's not the case. You need to find women who genuinely support and enjoy your happiness and success.'

She was right, as usual. I began to realise how few happy, healthy friendships I had; and how much jealousy, on both sides, played a part in the others. I began to see I was not always an easy person to be friends with, warped as I was by my own insecurities and need for approval from my peers.

I was often in a self-destructive spiral that was hard to tolerate and did not make me the most reliable person. Maybe I was the problem?

But it was to take several more heartbreaks before I truly changed my ways. It wasn't until my wedding day, and that disastrous fallout with those three bridesmaids, that I finally turned my back on the sort of toxic friendships which were breaking my heart more than any man had ever done.

The seeds of the fallout with my bridesmaids came in 2000, after my father, the award-winning TV producer Desmond Wilcox, had a fatal heart attack. His death was an event that, as well as causing me profound sorrow, caused my education in female friendship to take a backwards step.

While we hadn't been in touch for three years, after leaving school on a sour note thanks to several spats and jealousies (of which more later), the unofficial leader of my small group of school friends called.

Rebecca Wilcox (far right) at seven months old, pictured with her mother Esther Rantzen, her father Desmond Wilcox and sister Emily (two-and-a-half)

Rebecca Wilxcox (far right) aged 20 attends the funeral of her father, Desmond Wilcox, along with her mother Esther Rantzen (centre right) and sister Emily, aged 22, and brother Joshua, aged 19, in September 2000

In my grief, I chose to forget all that had happened and was touched by her efforts to reach out. I jumped at the chance when she suggested meeting up with the others, grateful for any sympathy while I struggled with losing my adored father.

When I got engaged a few years later, I grappled with the decision not to have those old schoolfriends as bridesmaids.

After all, I already had six: my husband's sister, my sister, two other genuinely good friends and two adorable flower girls. It was becoming ridiculous  did I think I was a royal bride?

So I plucked up the courage to ask the girls if they minded being honoured guests instead. The ringleader soon interrupted: 'You'd better not be suggesting we aren't your bridesmaids, Becca, because if you are I will not come to the wedding.'

Was she serious or being funny? I couldn't be sure. All I know is I immediately plastered on a smile and raised my glass to toast their new status, as if that had been the plan all along.

So that was how I ended up with nine bridesmaids.

The last time Rebecca saw her three bridesmaids was after her husband's speech, when they handed out personalised thank you gifts: custom-made silver charm bracelets wrapped in beautiful blue paper with white raffia bows (file photo)

It was not a success. Those three never seemed happy with any of the plans; for the hen do, the dresses, the shoes, the hairdresser . . .

Perhaps they would tell you about the times they thought I was a Bridezilla, or treated them badly, but I began to dread talking to them. The last time I saw them was after my husband's speech, when we handed out personalised thank you gifts: custom-made silver charm bracelets wrapped in beautiful blue paper with white raffia bows.

I hugged them close, thanking them for being my friends, although already starting to wonder if they truly were, if we hadn't become too different or grown too far apart.

The band struck up. After our first dance, the MC called for the bridesmaids to join us on the dance floor. They didn't come.

I looked over to their table and saw it was empty. They had gone. I never saw them again.

They jokingly became known by my family as the Evil Bridesmaids, though I am sure there were faults on both sides. But I had loved them, we'd grown up together and it broke my heart to lose them.

I found out later, through a mutual friend, that they believed themselves to be second best to the other bridesmaids. They thought I never wanted them there, which hurt them. So, they hurt me  and we've never spoken since.

I tried calling and texting, messaging them on social media, but it was only when one of them got married and didn't invite me that I finally realised it was truly over between us. I blocked them from my Facebook feed and my life.

In my experience, men rarely behave in this way towards each other. So why do women?

Esther Rantzen with her daughter Rebecca Wilcox after she made a Dame by the Princess Royal at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on June 25, 2015 in London

I hate the idea that we can't be friends because there will always be an underlying sense of competition between us. But perhaps there is a kernel of truth in that.

Indeed, I've always found large groups of women intimidating because there seems to be a game of comparisons simmering below the surface, in which I never fare well.

Looking back, the beginning of my trouble with those three friends began when I started at my all-girls secondary school, aged 11.

Perhaps because it was a single-sex school, or that we were entering puberty when peer approval is everything, but friendships suddenly became much harder to navigate.

I learned fast that Mean Girls existed in real life as well as in the movies.

I recall spending breaktimes at the edge of the 'cool girls' clique, smiling painfully as they made fun of the way I dressed, my bushy fringe and dental braces. They said I had no idea about 'real' life thanks to having parents in the public eye. Eventually, I became friends with three other girls also rejected by the clique, my future ex-bridesmaids.

We did everything together. It was sometimes intense. As is common with friendships at this age, we bickered a lot. As we neared the end of school, the fabric of our friendship began to fray.

I had started to flourish academically and was rewarded with prizes and special Oxbridge-focused classes. Around this time, it seemed my friends began treating me differently, teasing me for using words they thought pompous or for being too enthusiastic in class.

Without me knowing, they submitted a fake profile of me to our yearbook committee, filled with insulting descriptions about me being a swot and a geek. I only discovered this when I handed in my real profile  and the organiser told me they already had one.

'Well, it's true, isn't it?' one friend said when I confronted them.

I should have walked away from the friendship then, but didn't want to give up on our years together.

Later, I got an offer to study English at Oxford. I remember trying to tell them at school. But when I called out, they ignored me and walked away, arm in arm. We all went to different universities, and in Freshers' Week I quickly made a new group of girlfriends.

Only when 'friends' exhibited terrible behaviour, did Rebecca finally manage to make the break. In an extreme example, she remembers one of them going into her dorm room and trashing it not long before finals. She walked in to find all her notes and essays ripped up and thrown about. When she asked what happened, she simply shrugged and said: 'I had a meltdown. You were too organised.' (file photo)

We bonded through the craziness of those pressure-filled early days, and were either found in each other's rooms, studying together in the library or drinking as a group in the bar.

I remember feeling lucky to have met them. My confidence had grown and I no longer felt like a loner.

Yet fallouts continued  like the one over a boyfriend, which saw Mum give me those sage words.

With her advice in mind, I tried to seek out kinder friends. But I am a hoarder of all things, including relationships, and it was hard to completely ditch the girls who had so dazzled me in those early university days.

Only when those 'friends' exhibited terrible behaviour, did I finally manage to make the break. In an extreme example, I remember one of them going into my dorm room and trashing it not long before finals. I walked in to find all my notes and essays ripped up and thrown about. When I asked what happened, she simply shrugged and said: 'I had a meltdown. You were too organised.'

As well as Mum's pep talk, it was marriage, children and the stability a happy home life brings  not to mention the confidence that comes with age  which has brought me a healthier approach to friendships.

It's become clear that as a younger woman I would just bond with the nearest available person, probably out of loneliness and insecurity.

Finally, in my 40s, I've got to a place where my relationships are genuine and supportive. Yes, there's a handful of true friends from school and university, but the majority came into my life after I had children. A gang of mums who had values in common. They are like my sisters; we are supportive and not competitive. I would do anything for them.

But the main difference between these friendships and the ones before? Me.

I am happier, more relaxed now, no longer on the self-destructive path of my adolescence and early 20s. Back then, I couldn't see how my behaviour pushed generous people away and encouraged contempt from others. These days I'm more able to give back and support the women in my life. There's no competition between us, no bitterness.

Finding someone who can be honestly happy for you when you succeed is rare.

Jealousy, on both sides, seems to have destroyed many of my friendships. Those with females are different to those with men. They take more effort, but are worth it when it goes right.

I am just thankful to have finally learned that quality, not quantity, counts.
A bottle at bedtime really could help babies sleep better.

Infants fed just before they fall asleep slumber for an extra hour before waking up during the night, a study has found.

But parents be warned  taking a baby back to your own bed after they wake up could cut the amount of time they sleep by almost 20 minutes.

The better option may be to check in on them without picking them up, which is linked to babies sleeping for an extra 15 minutes at night.

Good sleep in babies is linked to a healthier weight and better behaviour.

Dr Mirja Quante, from the University of Tuebingen in Germany, said their research of 313 US parents found that a bottle before bed helps babies sleep for longer.

Infants fed just before they fall asleep slumber for an extra hour before waking up during the night, a study has found (stock image)

When the infants were six months old, they were fitted with tiny, ankle-worn sleep trackers for a week to see how well they slept through the night.

Dr Quante said: The findings suggest that a bottle before bed will provide a longer stretch of sleep before a baby wakes up hungry.

The best advice for parents may also be to give their baby space to self-soothe, rather than taking them back to bed or picking them up if they wake.

If babies can learn to fall back to sleep without any external help, like rocking, cuddling or feeding, then they may become better at sleeping through the night independently.

The study, published in the journal Sleep Medicine, involved US parents who were asked whether they gave their baby a bottle of breast milk or formula before bed at the age of one month old.

Five months later, those babies given a bottle at bedtime, compared to those that were not, slept for 62 extra minutes at a time during the night before waking up.

But parents be warned  taking a baby back to your own bed after they wake up could cut the amount of time they sleep by almost 20 minutes (stock image)

Babies whose parents said they always slept in a completely dark room, compared to those where this was not always the case, slept for a total of 28 minutes longer between the nighttime hours of 7pm and 8am.

That may be because light disrupts babies body clocks.

The parents in the study were asked what they usually did to put their baby back to sleep when the child woke up at night.

Those that said they checked on their baby, without picking them up or touching them, had six-month-old infants that slept for a total of 15 minutes longer at night.

These babies also slept for 25 minutes longer in one stretch without waking up.

But babies slept for a total of 18 minutes less if their parents had taken them to their own bed at least one night a week.

This was compared to people who never took a baby back to their bed after he or she woke up at night.

Good sleep in babies is linked to a healthier weight and better behaviour, while significantly reducing the stress of overtired new parents.

The study also suggests babies who are exclusively breastfed sleep for longer and wake up less often than those given formula milk, although the evidence on this is mixed and more research is needed.

Dr Quante said: The first weeks of life act as a formative period for infant sleep development - our results show that simple adjustments, such as light levels and feeding time, may significantly affect nocturnal sleep.
A medical helicopter crashed during a training exercise in western New York on Tuesday afternoon, killing both individuals on board, according to state police.

The aircraft crashed at 1:00 pm in Genesee County, according to Maj. Eugene Staniszewski. The two victims were the sole passengers on the plane.

Medical Helicopter Crashes in New York

Mercy Flight is a Buffalo-based non-profit that transports people to regional hospitals in emergency and non-emergency situations. Its Bell 429 helicopter is based at Genesee County Airport in Batavia, roughly three miles away from the disaster scene.

The inquiry is being assisted by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, Fox News reported. The flight allegedly took off from Mercy Flight's airbase in Batavia, which is about 3.5 miles distant, and was on a training mission, according to the trooper. It is said to have collided with electricity wires on its way down.

The wrecked airplane is shown in photos taken immediately after the incident, only meters from Norton Road. As first responders swarm the scene, smoke billows from the wrecked aircraft, a Bell 429 helicopter. Officers, according to Staniszewski, had no idea what the flight plan for the designated Mercy chopper was or where the air ambulance was headed when it crashed.

A witness to the tragedy told local news station News 4 that she saw the helicopter flying overhead and that the plane didn't sound right before it crashed. According to the witness, the air ambulance was having engine issues prior to the incident. Police said troopers and other first responders would likely stay at the scene overnight as they investigate the cause of the incident, which may take more than a month, according to Staniszewski.

Officers are interrogating several witnesses to the accident, as well as other residents, according to Staniszewski. Police did not say if anybody else was hurt in the collision or if there was a patient on board.

Mercy Flight is a non-profit air and ground medical transport organization based in Western New York that serves both emergency and non-emergency patients. The company also has operations in Canada and sections of northwest Pennsylvania, as per Daily Mail.

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Mercy Flight Helicopter Crash Kills Pilot James Sauer

Mercy Flight operations will be temporarily halted to allow workers to digest the tragedy, according to Executive Vice President Scott Wooton. One of the victims was named James Sauer, a former New York State Police pilot who began working with Mercy Flight in October 2020. Mercy Flying did not reveal the identity of the other person who died, who was a Bell helicopter flight instructor.

Sauer was born and raised in Churchville, New York. He joined the National Guard in 1979 and has served since. In September 2020, he left the military. In Rochester, Sauer was honored with a ceremonial "final flight."

Between his military and civilian jobs, Sauer logged over 6,100 hours in the air. A helicopter crash in Western New York has been reported to Mercy Flight Central. All Mercy Flight Central planes and staff are safe and sound at this time, according to The Sun.

"Our thoughts are with all those involved," the company said in a statement to 13WHAM.

Related Article: Biden Administration Wants More COVID-19 Patients Be Treated With Pfizer's Paxlovid As Hundreds Die Daily

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eBay Australia has partnered with the founder of astrology.com.au Dadhichi Toth to create the ultimate astrology-inspired Mother's Day gift guide to help Australians find the perfect gift for mums based on their zodiac sign.

From fitness watches for active Aries mums to travel books for adventure-seeking Taureans, this guide will help Australians give their mums a gift they will be starry-eyed for.

'Gift-giving can seem like an impossible task, especially for mum but astrology can help you find the perfect gift this Mother's Day,' Dadhichi Toth said.

'From air fryers, handbags to candles, I've created the ultimate Mother's Day gift guide to help you find something your mum will adore. Astrology is primarily personality-focused so understanding the qualities and traits of your mum's Zodiac sign can give you great insight into which gifts will make her feel loved and appreciated.'

Aries March 21 - April 19

Mars is the ruler of Aries, a fiery and active planet. This could explain her competitive nature.

Astrology suggests purchasing a work-appropriate blouse or accessories for the home office. Consider a gift that is fitness-oriented for her if she enjoys exercising.

Toth recommends the Louis Vuitton Stellar Sneaker ($1,150.00), GUESS Medium Canvas Logo Duffle Gym Bag ($58.95) and the FitSmart Multi-Function Smartwatch ($56.95).

Taurus April 20 - May 20

Taurus mothers love learning and adventure.

If she is a Taurus, you can give her a gift that speaks to the depths of her sensuality - or even a planner that tracks her happy travels and prepare her for the next year.

A Taurus mother would appreciate fine jewellery and any other gift that shows you care like Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2022 ($21.50), a Tony Bianco Harper Weekender Bag ($74.36) or Peter's of Kensington: Halcyon Days Torque Bangle Ivory & Gold ($65.00).

Gemini May 21 - June 21

Gemini is an intellectual air sign, so anything to stimulate your Gemini mother's mind will be greatly appreciated.

Books, subscriptions to exciting topics and anything related to travel can pique her interest.

Gemini is always on the go, so sporting and fashion accessories also make great gifts like the Apple Watch Series 4 GPS + Cellular ($285), Nike Air Jordan 1 Retro High 'Seafoam' ($480) or the Avanti Capri 600ml Double Wall French Coffee Plunger ($29.95).

Cancer June 22 - July 22

Cancer women love the kitchen and anything to do with cooking.

Utensils and appliances that make her life easier around the home are excellent gift ideas. Of course, chocolate, flowers and other sentimental knick-knacks will touch her heart.

Opt for a KitchenAid 4.8L Artisan Stand Mixer KSM160 ($739), Louis Vuitton Monogram Petit Sac ($2,685) or Chocolate Bar Mold Silicon Ice Tray ($6.99).

Leo July 23 - August 22

Leo is a proud star sign, so she will appreciate gifts that help her look and feel her best.

Fashion, fabrics, make-up, and sporting gear that she can use to keep fit and look great are lovely ideas.

Toth suggest the Microplush Bath Robe Blush ($60), Nude By Nature Essentials Makeup Brush Collection ($23.97) and Yeezy Boost 350 V2 'Dazzling Blue' Sneaker ($550).

Virgo August 23 - September 22

Virgo is an organised and health-conscious sign.

A practical gift that enhances this part of your mother's life will be appreciated.

Cleanliness is also an essential part of the Virgo star sign signature. Consider gifts that will help her keep her space spotlessly clean like the Dyson V8 Animal ($649.00), Maxim Kitchen Pro 3.5L 240W Slow Cooker ($39.98) and the New Wahl Mini Massage Gun ($249.95).

Libra September 23 - October 23

Venus, the planet of beauty, rules Libra women.

They are attracted to feminine and pretty things. You might consider buying her a luxury candle, jewellery or perfume to help her connect with her inner goddess. A spiritual theme would be appreciated.

Toth recommended Vesuvius 400g Luxury Candle by Apsley Australia ($44.95), Estee Lauder Pleasures 50ml ($66.95) and Swarovski Millenia Drop Earrings ($175).

Scorpio October 24 - November 21

'Scorpio is a sensual sign so look for gifts that show your mother's determination and strong willpower. For her, a spice rack would be ideal.

You can also buy her a Polaroid instant camera or mobile phone with good selfie resolution for scrapbooking.

Try the Polaroid Go Instant Camera ($199.00), Aromatherapy Diffuser Humidifier ($31.95) and Tier Lazy Susan Spice Rack ($43.50).

Sagittarius November 22 - December 21

Sagittarius is the travel sign, so gifting your mother a holiday somewhere exotic or even a weekend away in a comfortable hotel in a nice setting would thrill her.

Sports gear such as fitness watches or hair styling appliances also won't go to waste on a Sagittarius mum.

Try out a Cabello Hair Dryer PRO 3900 + Chic Curling Tong ($94.95), Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 40mm Rose Gold with Pink Leather Strap ($749.00) and Waterproof and Sandproof Picnic Blanket ($78.99)

Capricorn December 22 - January 19

It's never too late to get some R&R! A soothing massage is a great way to let your mind relax if you haven't had the chance.

Your Capricorn mother deserves some pampering and downtime. No matter what you choose, she will be grateful for your thoughtfulness.

Toth opts for Roborock S5 Max Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner ($704.00), Electric Massage Recliner Chair ($1,458.95), Living Space Tuscan Sun 60cm Round Mirror by Spotlight ($35.00).

Aquarius January 20 - February 18

Aquarian mothers love flowers that reflect their personalities.

For example, peonies are a symbol of their individuality and maternal instincts. A crystal is an excellent Aquarius gift idea for Mother's Day as this star sign rules the new age.

Mum might love a Himalayan Salt Lamp ($29.99), Bevilles Miracle Link Bracelet with 1/4ct of Diamonds in Sterling Silver ($299.99) or a Devanti 7L Air Fryer ($76.07).

Pisces February 19 - March 20

Pisces mothers love to create. Creative gifts will delight her, whether you give her flowers in a lovely bouquet or an essential oil candle made by hand.

You can also create a playlist with her favourite songs.

A Pisces mum would enjoy the Breville BFP800BAL the Kitchen Wizz Pro Food Processor 2000 Watt ($598), Adult Colouring Books De-stress A4 Size Birds ($9.95) or the DeLonghi EC885M Dedica Arte Coffee Machine ($359)
Princess Eugenie has pipped Meghan Markle to the post and launched the first episode of her weekly podcast.

The Queen's granddaughter, 33, announced on Instagram that the first episode of her podcast, Floodlight, is available to download today.

The podcast is designed to promote her charity the Anti-Slavery Collective, which she founded with her best-friend Julia de Boinville in 2017, and will feature the pair's interviews with figures involved in the fight against modern slavery, including Dame Emma Thompson.

The first guest is Caroline Haughey QC, who prosecuted the largest modern slavery trial case in the UK's history.

This comes as her cousin-in-law Meghan Markle is preparing to release her own much-anticipated podcast Archetypes later this summer, almost two years after she and Harry signed their Spotify deal.

Princess Eugenie, 33, has followed into the footsteps of Meghan Markle and launched her own podcast with her best-friend and co-founder of the Anti-Slavery Collective, Julia de Boinville, right

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit a radio station in Brixton, South London, in January 2018. Meghan Markle's podcast Archetypes is set to be released later this summer

The royal invited fans to listen to the podcast on all available platforms, revealing a new episode will be available each Wednesday

Writing on Instagram today, Eugenie proudly announced the Anti-Slavery Collective's new venture.

'My charity, the Anti-Slavery Collective, is delighted to announce its new podcast, Floodlight,' she wrote on the platform.

'Join me, and my co-founder, Julia de Boinville each week as we sit down with guests from all walks of life who are helping to combat modern slavery in a variety of ways.

'From lawmakers and company leaders to famous activists, survivors and journalists, Floodlight shows you just how prominent modern slavery is and that we can all do something about it.'

Dame Emma Thompson will appear on the show to talk about her experience working with victims of sex trafficking.

Caroline Haughey QC, who took part in Operation Fort and prosecuted the biggest modern-day slavery network ever exposed in UK, will also be among the select guest list.

Rather than a multi-million-dollar deal with Spotify, the charity has partnered with award-winning independent podcast network Stakpod to produce the episodes.

Eugenie founded the Anti-Slavery Collective with Julia in 2017, and their podcast will raise awareness about the work of activists to fight modern slavery

Eugenie, who founded the Collective in 2017, as been a fervent supporter of the charity's mission to raise awareness about modern slavery in order to eradicate it and offer help to the 40 million people it affects around the world.

Speaking on the podcast, Eugenie recalled first learning about the extent of modern slavery during a trip to Kolkata with Julia in 2012.

During the visit the pair were introduced to 'incredible young women' who had been rescued from being trafficked and had been taught to print on fabrics, which they sold to gain their independence.

'They gave themselves independence and freedom and right to sort of live again and it meant suddenly, this is what the could do to be free', she said.

Julia, who admitted she had no idea modern slavery existed when they embarked o the trip aged 21, said the pair could 'not unsee' what they had seen in Kolkata, and began doing research into the subject.

As they embarked on research in the UK, the pair were shown around a safehouse for women who had escaped modern slavery, something Eugenie called 'so eye-opening'.

'It was our first experience of trafficking in England and we learned the fact there is someone being trafficked within a mile of where you live', said Eugenie.

This comes as Meghan Markle has confirmed her much-anticipated Spotify podcast is due to be released later this summer.

The Duchess of Sussex has unveiled her first Spotify series - a podcast about female stereotypes in which she vows to investigate 'labels that try to hold women back'.

A trailer of the Archewell Audio project was released in late Match.

In the trailer, Meghan said: 'This is how we talk about women: the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us. But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up and defining our lives?'

The duchess, previewing the type of guests who will feature, adds: 'This is Archetypes - the podcast where we dissect, explore and subvert the labels that try to hold women back

'I'll have conversations with women who know all too well how these typecasts shape our narratives.

'And I'll talk to historians to understand how we even got here in the first place.'

Meghan and Harry signed a lucrative deal with the audio streaming giant to host and produce podcasts, estimated to be worth around 18million, in late 2020.

But they had only released one show so far - a holiday special featuring their son Archie and celebrity guests.
The Duchess of Cornwall has visited the National Theatre for the first time since taking over from Meghan Markle as royal patron.

Camilla, 74, was handed the position in March after the Duchess of Sussex was stripped of the patronage when she and Prince Harry stepped back as senior members of the royal family in 2020.

The coveted position was one of two patronages handed to Meghan, 40, in 2019. The role had belonged to Her Majesty for 45 years.

The move could be seen as a marker of Her Majesty's faith in Camilla after she endorse her as the future Queen Consort in her Platinum Jubilee message in February.

The Duchess of Cornwall has visited the National Theatre for the first time since taking over from Meghan Markle as royal patron

The Duchess met with patrons of the National Theatre's Public Acts company as she visited the theatre for the first time since taking over as patron

During her time as patron of the National Theatre, Meghan made just one public appearance at the theatre, shortly after her appointment, and visited privately in March 2020

Camilla kept her look simple with a black skirt suit, adding a pop of colour with a blue scarf and a touch of glamour with a navy Chanel bag, pearl earrings and a statement silver brooch.

The Duchess appeared in good spirits as she was introduced to the National Theatre's Executive Director, Kate Varah and Director, Rufus Norris.

She then visited the Olivier Theatre where the Duchess watched a 10-minute workshop on The Odyssey, by members of the National Theatre's Public Acts company.

Following the workshop Camilla heard Norris deliver a short speech welcoming hr to the National Theatre before making introductions to participants of the Public Acts community company.

The Duchess is seen looking at costumes as she pays her first in-person visit to the National Theatre as royal patron

Camilla was seen shaking hands with staff members as she took a look at costumes during her visit to the National Theatre this afternoon

The Duchess also met with director Emily Lim and Sharon Wilson from the Doncaster-based community organisation, Changing Lives.

Camilla later met with representatives from departments across the National Theatre including the prop and costume teams, cast members and puppeteers from The Ocean at the End of the Lane and front of house staff.

Meghan was given the patronage in 2019 - with royal insiders claiming her career as an actress made her a 'natural fit' for the position, after she starred in the US legal drama Suits for seven years.

The esteemed role was among the patronages Meghan lost after the Sussexes confirmed they would not be returning as working members of the Royal Family last February.

Camilla gets involved with actors as she pays her first visit to the National Theatre after being handed the patronage in March

The Duchess was seen throwing a plate as she got stuck in with performers during her visit to the National Theatre in London

An amused Camilla was seen meeting puppeteers as she pays her first visit to National Theatre as royal patron

A delighted Camilla is seen taking a look at some of the costumes as she visits the National Theatre for the first time as patron

An avid supporter of theatre and literature, Camilla was said to be 'delighted' after taking over the patronage and is keen to support an industry which greatly suffered during the pandemic.

During her time as patron Meghan made just one public appearance at the theatre, shortly after her appointment, and visited privately in March 2020.

Pictures of the visit were released on the same day Camilla delivered a speech on domestic violence at the Southbank Centre in London - a move said to have angered the Duchess of Cornwall.

Buckingham Palace had reportedly urged royal correspondents to focus on the Duchess of Cornwall's long-planned engagement, which came on a day when there were no other major Royal engagements.

Camilla was said to be 'very upset' at the release of the images, insiders told the Mirror.

In October 2020 the Duchess presented lyricist Don Black, known for his collaborations with Lloyd-Webber, with the Special Olivier Award at the virtual Olivier Awards ceremony.

The Duchess appeared in high spirits as staff showed off a selection of the theatre's costumes during her first visit as royal patron

The Duchess chatted with staff as she took a look at the selection of costumes during her visit this afternoon

The Duchess was appeared to be in high spirits as she chatted with Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive of the National Theatre Rufus Norris during her visit today

During the show, which was pre-recorded at the London Palladium, The Duchess said: 'I believe in the theatre. Perhaps most importantly, those of us who believe in the theatre also believe in its resilience.

'I should like to thank those of you whose profession is in the theatre for your determination and your flexibility. Please remain resilient  we need you and we have missed you.'

While at the theatre, The Duchess was joined by Lloyd-Webber and the co-founders of the Theatre Artists Fund, director Sam Mendes and chief executive of the Society of London Theatre Julian Bird, as well as three beneficiaries of the fund.

The fund has raised almost 4 million to date and helped more than 2,600 people in the industry.

Other patronages of Camilla's include The Royal Academy of Dance, Royal Society of Literature, Friends of The Royal Academy, London Chamber Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra, Theatre Royal Bath, Unicorn Theatre for Children and Georgian Theatre Royal.
Delia Smith said she had 'nothing left to give' before retiring and 'couldn't see any point' in spending the rest of her life trying to drum up new recipes.

The legendary British chef began her career working at a small London restaurant at the age of 21 and her first television appearance came in the early 1970s on BBC East's Look East.

The 80-year-old chef announced her retirement from television in 2013 and says that while she won't rule out another appearance, she feels 'a bit too old' to make more TV.

In an interview with Platinum magazine, Delia said that although she wasn't bored of her career, she felt that after 50 years in the industry all of her recipe ideas had been spent.

Delia Smith, 80, has enjoyed a television career spanning four decades before retiring from television for good in 2013. The chef is pictured in 1971

The 80-year-old chef announced her retirement from television in 2013 and says that while she won't rule out another appearance, she feels 'a bit too old' to make more TV

'It wasn't that I was bored with it, but I did have a sense that there was nothing more to give,' she said. 'Quite honestly, when you've produced recipes for that many years, it's all there.

'Recipes are ten a penny and I couldn't see any point in spending my life trying to think of more.'

The chef, who rose to fame thanks to her simple no-nonsense recipes, says that while she admires the likes of Mary Berry, 87, she feels she has 'enough on her plate' and won't be on TV anytime soon.

Delia released her first cookbook How to Cheat at Cooking in 1971 and became a household name with her TV cookery shows.

The legendary British chef began her career working at a small London restaurant at the age of 21 and her first television appearance came in the early 1970s on BBC East's Look East. She is pictured in 1982

She has since sold over 21 million copies of her recipe books and has seen her name become synonymous with home cooking  with 'Delia' entering the Collins English Dictionary in 2001.

The devout catholic and Norwich City shareholder was once deemed so influential on the nation's tastebuds that the term 'the Delia effect' entered the Collins English Dictionary in 2001 after sales of cranberries quadrupled the day after she used them on television.

The chef's comments come in the latest edition of Platinum Magazine which is available now

She was honoured by the Queen in 2017, receiving the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to cookery.

Upon being bestowed the honour at Buckingham Palace, she used the opportunity to bemoan modern cooking  declaring it 'very poncey, very cheffy'.

She said: 'Cooking has become very poncey, very cheffy  if I get one more plate put in front of me with six dots of sauce on it, I will go mad. I can't do it, I just can't do it.

'The joy, years ago, of going to a really special restaurant and having a really special meal, has gone. It is very hard to find one that isn't trying to be theatre on a plate... I don't like it at all.'

But despite her success, Delia still believes there are more successful chefs than herself, telling the publication she thinks Jamie Oliver and Nigella have surpassed her in terms of fame.

When asked what's next in the pipeline, the chef ruled out writing a novel or an autobiography but would consider penning another non-fiction book after her recent science book, titled You Matter.

Platinum Magazine's full May 2022 issue is available now
The Dutch royal family put on a very stylish display today to mark King Willem-Alexander's 55th birthday today.

Each year, the Netherlands marks the monarch's birthday with King's Day, which sees celebrations take place all around the country.

Today, Willem-Alexander stepped out in Maastricht with Queen Maxima, 50, and their very stylish three daughters, Princess Amelia, 18, Princess Alexia, 16 and Princess Ariana, who just turned 15.

As they stepped out to meet royal fans, the three young royals showed they inherited their mother's impeccable sense of style with three very trendy getups.

Maxima led the way in an elegant ankle-length cream cape she wore over an eye-catching pink dress, with nude stiletto.

The Dutch royal family put on a very stylish display today to mark King Willem-Alexander's 55th birthday. Pictured from left to right: Princess Ariane, 15, Princess Alexia, 16, Queen Maxima, 50, King Willem-Alexander, 55 and Princess Amelia, 18, in Maastricht

The King and his family were greeted by royal fans as they stepped out to mark King's Day, the official name of Willem-Alexander's birthday

Known for her love of accessories, the mother-of-three was wearing a cream sunhat which added some cachet to her overall look.

She was also wearing a pair of cream suede gloves, and a handy clutch bag, also in suede.

Shimmering pendant earrings and a statement ring on her left hand added some glamour to her look.

Her bond locks were styled into a neat bun which peeked from under her hat.

Bottoms up! Willem-Alexander started his day with a tipple at a local bar in Maastricht as Queen Maxima looked on

The Queen of the Netherlands tried her hand at graffiti during celebrations this morning. She wore a pink dress for the occasion

The Dutch Queen looked very stylish in a sunhat, which she wore with pendant earrings, a statement ring and bracelet

Family portrait! The Dutch royals beamed as they hit the town with their three teenage daughters

The royal family stood to attention during a parade for Willem-Alexander. Maxima and her daughters were handed flower bouquets

The mother-of-three sported a natural, sun-kissed makeup with a dash of bronzer to give her cheeks a healthy glow, and some mascara and eyeshadow highlighting the twinkle in her hazelnut eyes.

Her oldest daughter Amelia, who is currently on a gap year before she heads to university, chose an elegant look in earthy tone.

The Dutch heiress-to-the-throne picked a cream linen suit with mochas stripes, which she paired with a satin top in a warm coffee colour underneath.

Like her mother, she wore nude stilettos, but added a pop of colour with a green clutch bag.

The mother-of-three wrapped up in a stylish cream cape, and accessorised with cream suede gloves

As the family stepped out in Maastricht, Maxima spotted a group of children waiting to offer her and her family flowers

Princesses Amelia, Ariane and Alexia put on a very stylish display to mark their dad's birthday today

The 18-year-old sported a very glamourous makeup, with a coffee smokey eye bringing some drama to her look, and a pink lip complimenting her youthful glow.

Her blonde hair bounced on her shoulders, styled in a luscious blow-dry, with her natural highlights glinting in the light.

Her younger sister Alexia lived up to her stylish reputation in a green suit. The colour added some punch to the family portrait shared on Instagram before the royals headed out to meet their fans.

The 16-year-old wore the colour block outfit with white sandals and added some colour with a green and pink t-shirt she coordinated with a pink clutch bag.

The royal couple seemed in great spirits today. Maxima and Willem-Alexander seemed delighted to have their girls home

Huge crowds of fans gathered in Maastricht to watch the royal family and their aids go by as part of the celebrations

Her red hair was also styled in a bouncy blow-dry with a middle parting. Alexia, who currently lives in Wales for her studies, sported a very glowy makeup, with a dash of highlighter on the cheek, a voluminous mascara and a pink lip.

The youngest child of the family, Ariane, competed with her sisters for best dress in a navy blue dress with golden buttons that caught the sun beams.

Perhaps still too young for heels, the 15-year-old wore black ballerina flats for the outing.

Her hair were also styled stress, and she was sporting just a dash of mascara and a light pink lips.

Willem-Alexander, the man of the hour, waved at fans as Maxima walked by his side during the outing

The couple were visibly amused by some of the fans who were waiting to greet them in Maastricht

She accessorised with golden earrings, and a very cool neon yellow clutch bag which added some flair to the safe outfit.

Meanwhile, the man of the hour, King Willem-Alexander, looked dapper in a light grey suit, which he paired with a white shirt and black and white tie.

'The celebration of King's Day in Maastricht is about to start,' an enthusiastic captions shared on the Dutch royal family's official Instagram read.

'The Royal family is on their way to the Sint Servaasbrug, the starting point of the day. The route takes the family past the different 'lives' of Maastricht and the province of Limburg,' it continued.

The family were met with a crowd of fans when they stepped out for the day.

The whole country is marking King's Day, the official name of the Dutch King's birthday.

Games, concerts and street parties will take place all over the Netherlands, as Willem-Alexander turns 55 today.

As the sun shone on the Netherlands today, the royal family marked Willem-Alexander's birthday in style

Queen Maxima happily walked buy the elderly royal fans wearing orange fascinators and scarves
This Morning viewers were left in stitches over chef Michela Chiappa's pronunciation of Italian words during a cooking segment on the show today.

The Italo-English chef, who was born in Wales from two Italian parents, pronounced pasta and sauce names with an Italian twang as she prepared spinach and ricotta pancakes for Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on the show.

Viewers were left rolling their eyes as Michela alternated between her natural Welsh accent and a put-on Italian accent.

Many found the segment amusing, but some accused Michela of being a fake.

This Morning viewers were left in stitches over chef Michela Chiappa's pronunciation of Italian words during a cooking segment on the show today

Fans caught on the fact Michela was putting the accent on and said it make her sound like a fake, because she was born in Wales

The chef began to make the cannelloni, talking the two hosts through the steps.

As the chef explained how she made her pancake filling, she said she would be using three cheeses.

She then switched from her Welsh to her Italian accent to say 'ricotta, mascarpone,' rolling her 'r' and pronouncing 'e' as 'hey' - the Italian way.

However, she switched back to English to say 'parmesan'.

The chef explained she filled her pancakes with the three cheese blend, spinach and a dash of nutmeg to add some flavour.

She did this repeatedly throughout the cooking segment, and also made a point of pronouncing pasta names, like 'tortelli', with an Italian twang.

The chef explained she filled her pancakes with the three cheese blend, spinach and a dash of nutmeg to add some flavour. She pronounced 'ricotta' and 'mascarpone' with an Italian accent

Michela was talking Holly and Phil through her meals, and the presenters could not wait to tuck in

The chef talked Holly and Phil through out to make their own white sauce for the meal and moved on to the vegetarian filling.

She revealed that she spread the filling on the pancake before folding it to make the process easier.

Viewers were quick to catch on what Michela was doing.

'Riiiiicottta mascarpoooooni and motzzzzereeellllla,' one joked, mimicking Michela's pronunciation.

Viewers quickly caught on Michela's accent and some accused her of being fake. Others were amused by how she switched from English to Italian

'Shes off with the Italian accent again,' another wrote.

'Why do people on TV feel the need to put fake accents on when pronouncing things,' another said.

'Stop pronouncing things in a Italian accent. Youre Welsh,' another said.

'Oh god the welsh/Italian twang comes out,' another wrote.

Michela was born and raised in Wales, from a British mother of Italian descent and an Italian father from Bologna.

The chef is the eldest of three daughters who were all educated in the UK. Michela actually studied languages, including Italian, before launching her cooking career.

While her family lived in Wales, the chef has cultivated her Italian heritage, and has become a reference in English-Italian fusion cuisine.
Loose Women viewers blasted a Welsh government plan to introduce 'sex and gender' identity classes to children as young as three - as panellist Kelly Bryant argued parents should be able to opt out.

On today's programme, the panel of stars were debating a lawsuit filed by 5,000 parents to overturn a proposal by the Labour-led administration to make Religious and Sex Education (RSE) lessons compulsory in primary school pupils.

Ministers insists the new curriculum, which will also see themes of religion, sex and gender embedded in day-to-day teaching, was 'developmentally appropriate' for children, but campaigners say the topics are 'inappropriate' for primary pupils.

The plan has been met with fierce backlash from parents, who insist the lessons should not be mandatory for all students.

And speaking on the ITV panel show today, mother-of-two Kelly said she thinks it's a good thing to introduce sex education classes to children, but stressed parental consent is key.

And viewers agreed, stating that five was 'too young' to teach children about sex, body positivity and gender, with many arguing schools should 'let kids be kids.'

Loose Women viewers blasted a Welsh government plan to introduce 'sex and gender' identity classes to children as young as three - as panellist Kelly Bryant, pictured, argued parents should be able to opt out

Kelly was joined by Jane Moore, Denise Welsh and Katie Piper in discussing the Welsh' government's decision to teach kids as young as five about sex, body positivity and gender.

'It's far too young,' Kelly started. 'I think what's more concerning for me is taking way the parental rights to decide.

'Education is one thing, maths, English, all of that. We can see that, we can access that information, we can have an overview and we can decide if that's appropriate,' she went on.

'But what they're trying to do is take away my parental right to have a look at the content and decide whether it's what I want to do or not. Whether I want to expose my child to that or not.'

Kelly explained there are several factors - including religion and race - which determine when and how parents wish to discuss sex with their children.

Viewers agreed we should 'let kids be kids' as the show discussed the Welsh Government's decision to introduce sex education in its curriculum for pupils from age five

She added she considers herself a liberal and open parent who's already had 'age-appropriate' discussions about sex with her children.

'Who knows my children better than I do? Nobody? So for me, taking the parental control out of that situation, I think that's a slippery slope,' she said.

Jane Moore read the Welsh government's right of reply, which states that 'everything that they teach will be mentally appropriate, and they will make sure that learners aren't exposed to things that aren't appropriate to their age and development.'

However, the host noted that no one knows the content of the new sex education curriculum.

Jane Moore and Katie Piper, who were on today's panel, agreed five-year-old is too young to learn about sex

Kelly said she is a liberal parents but want to keep the right to opt in and out of certain sensitive subjects that could be taught at school, such as sex education

Kelly said she thought the decision to remove the parents' right to see the sex education curriculum before it is being taught is a 'slippery slope'

Katie Piper, who has a four-year-old and an eight-year-old said: 'It's such a broad world, "sex education".

'The Welsh government said it could cover body positivity, it could cover gender, it's not just about sex.'

She noted it was important to 'remove the shame around sex' and to give the children the right names to use to describe their anatomy so they can describe things if they happen to be victims of sexual abuse.

She added: 'I think it's so important that it stays clear that they are our children, not the state's children.'

Viewers agreed children should not be taught sex ed before a certain age, as some said they had other priorities anyways

Meanwhile, Denise Welsh said that people would disagreed about teaching sex ed in school would be vilified by the 'woke' crowd.

'The thing about what we are allowing and what things are changing has become really politicised. I find that if you don't agree with certain things these days, you are considered to be far right,' she said.

'I'm somebody that comes from the left but I found that in the last two years, things have changed so much, I hate the word 'woke'. But the fact is, I think five is too young to start talking about sex education.

'I'm completely liberal as to the acceptance of anybody so I wonder why it has to be in the school curriculum.'

Kelly added she believes introducing the conversation early on could reduce homophobia as children would be introduced to the different types of sexual attraction and identities.

'All I'm staying is, I would like to have the control and have the say as to when that's delivered to my child. I think it's a great thing but I just need to look at it,' she said.

Viewers agreed with the panel that the age of five is too young to be introduced to sex education.

'I'd take my children out of the school kids should be playing having fun. leave them Alone,' one said.

'Five is too young, next,' another said.

'Let kids be kid,' one wrote.

'Most five year olds want to be an astronaut or a dinosaur,' one said.
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Kate Middleton looked perfectly poised as she joined Princess Anne on their first joint royal engagement to visit maternity healthcare organisations today.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, and the Princess Royal, 71, arrived together at the headquarters of their respective patronages, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), in London.

Appearing typically stylish, mother-of-three Kate donned an elegant 400 Self Portrait oatmeal dress, which was cinched at the waist with a dainty belt and featured delicate floral details, while Princess Anne opted for a teal coat and matching scarf.

While the pair have appeared in public together at previous family engagements, this is the first time the Duchess and Princess have teamed up for an outing which sees just the two of them attending.

In 2018, the Duchess became the patron of the RCOG and the Princess Royal has been patron of the RCM for 20 years, with both their roles previously held by the Queen Mother.

During the outing, the Princess Royal left midwives and the Duchess of Cambridge in stitches when she recalled fearing one of her babies had become 'wedged' when she tripped over in a horse lorry while heavily pregnant.

Picture perfect! Kate Middleton (pictured) donned an elegant 400 Self Portrait oatmeal dress as she attended her first engagement with Princess Anne today

The royal duo (pictured right, departing the engagement) watch a demonstration of a mock emergency caesarean operation by Dr Katie Cornthwaite using a dummy, pictured left

The Princess Royal and the Duchess of Cambridge appear to be focused when watching a mock emergency caesarean

Kate looked perfectly poised as she joined Princess Anne on their first joint royal engagement to visit maternity healthcare organisations today (pictured)

Appearing typically stylish, mother-of-three Kate (pictured) donned an elegant 400 Self Portrait oatmeal dress, which was cinched at the waist with a dainty belt and featured delicate floral details

In 2018, the Duchess became the patron of the RCOG and the Princess Royal (pictured together) has been patron of the RCM for 20 years, with both their roles previously held by the Queen Mother

The Queen's daughter was chatting to maternity experts while being shown a demonstration of a new Intrapartum Foetal Surveillance tool, which monitors the safety of babies during labour in order to alert medical staff to start a delivery if the baby's head gets stuck in the mother's pelvis.

'Wedged?' asked Anne, to laughter.

The princess - who is a mother to Peter Phillips, 44, and Zara Tindall, 40 - then told the group how she feared that would happen to her during one of her pregnancies, adding: 'I thought, that's a bit interesting... ended up the right way up though.'

Professor Tim Draycott, vice president of RCOG and Professor of Obstetrics - who was helping to demonstrate the tool, said later: 'She said she had tripped over in a horse lorry while heavily pregnant and thought that had happened.'

The tool has been developed over the past five years by the Avoiding Brain Injury in Childbirth collaboration, which hopes to pilot it later this year and roll it out nationwide in 2023.

For her outing today, Kate kept her long locks loose and sported a smattering of glamorous makeup, as well as a 125 pearl necklace from Monica Vinader and a pair of dainty Annoushka pearl earrings.

Completing her look with a matching oatmeal Emmy London clutch and a pair of nude Gianvito Rossi heels, Kate's midi wrap dress featured a long sleeve bodice, a fitted waist and pleated midi skirt, as well as accentuated shoulder pads.

Looking equally sophisticated, Princess Anne opted for a long-sleeved coat, teamed with elegant black shoes for outing with the Duchess.

Completing her look with a matching oatmeal Emmy London clutch and a pair of nude Gianvito Rossi heels, Kate's (pictured) midi wrap dress featured a long sleeve bodice, a fitted waist and pleated midi skirt, as well as accentuated shoulder pads

Princess Anne (pictured right) opted for a long-sleeved coat, teamed with elegant black shoes for outing with the Duchess

The Princess Royal and the Duchess of Cambridge receive flowers as they leave the RCM and RCOG headquarters in London

For her outing today, Kate (pictured) kept her long locks loose and sported a smattering of glamorous makeup, as well as a 125 pearl necklace from Monica Vinader and a pair of dainty pearl earrings

When the princess and duchess arrived they were welcomed by RCM chief executive Gill Walton and RCOG president Dr Edward Morris.

The royal duo heard about the ways in which the RCM and the RCOG are working together to improve maternal health care, ensuring women are receiving the safest and best care possible at one of the most significant times in their lives.

Home to a collection of womens healthcare organisations, the headquarters has been designed by the RCOG to foster collaboration across the sector.

The royals met with representatives from Tommys National Centre for Maternity Improvement, and learnt about the innovative digital tools that are being developed to identify and support women with higher risk pregnancies.

The duchess and the princess watched Dr Katie Cornthwaite, an obstetrics and gynaecology registrar, give a demonstration of new training for health workers faced with delivering, via caesarean, an infant whose head is wedged in the pelvis - an issue that is a growing litigation problem for the NHS.

While the pair (pictured) have appeared in public together at previous family engagements, this is the first time the Duchess and Princess have teamed up for an outing which sees just the two of them attending

The Princess Royal and the Duchess of Cambridge's (pictured) rare joint engagement comes as Princess Anne remains one of the hardest working royals, taking on 148 official engagements in 2020

A beaming Princess Anne (pictured right, alongside the Duchess of Cambridge) opted for a teal coat and matching scarf

The royal duo (pictured) also share one of the same royal titles- The Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO), which was given to them by the Queen to highlight their service to the Royal Family

Every year, the Royal College of Midwives celebrates and rewards outstanding achievement and commitment with the RCM Awards, and the royal duo (pictured) will congratulate recent recipients on their inspiring work

The Duchess of Cambridge leaves the RCM and RCOG headquarters in London with several bouquets of flowers

Professor Draycott acted as the anaesthetist for the pretend mother, standing by her head, but was actually pushing the model of the baby through for his colleague. Anne made the medical staff laugh when she quipped: 'You do this with just an epidural?'

At one point, the duchess and princess leaned forward to peer into the caesarean opening as Dr Cornthwaite described in detail how she removed the dummy baby.

Anne, as the senior royal, appeared to take the lead during the rare joint engagement, asking most of the questions and sharing her knowledge about the midwifery sector.

When she sat down with Kate and the global health teams from RCOG and the RCM, Anne brought up the issue of how mothers are sometimes kept in the dark about their treatment by the medical profession.

She said: 'Pregnant women, they should know just as much as everybody else does but they're seen, as I've said before, "you're seen as a patient you don't need to be part of the answer".'

Before leaving the royal women (pictured left) unveiled a plaque to mark the opening of the building (pictured right)

Anne (pictured in an image shared by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Instagram account), as the senior royal, appeared to take the lead during the rare joint engagement, asking most of the questions and sharing her knowledge about the midwifery sector

The royal women also met groups of award-winning midwives recognised by the RCM for their outstanding achievement and commitment.

At one point, the Princess Royal asked one woman how long she had been working as a midwife, and when told '20 years' replied 'we need more like you'. Before leaving the royal women unveiled a plaque to mark the opening of the building.

The Princess Royal and the Duchess of Cambridge's rare joint engagement comes as Princess Anne remains one of the hardest working royals, taking on 148 official engagements in 2020.

The royal duo also share one of the same royal titles- The Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO), which was given to them by the Queen to highlight their service to the Royal Family.
Princess Beatrice was joined by her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in Stockholm today as they met with Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden to discuss dyslexia.

The Queen's granddaughter, 33, cut an elegant figure in a mid-length black and blue floral gown by designer Zimmermann as she met the Swedish royals at the Royal Palace for the The World Dyslexia Assembly earlier this morning.

Beatrice was herself diagnosed with the learning difficulty, which can affect reading, writing and spelling, when she was seven and has previously referred to the condition as a 'gift.'

The occasion marked a rare joint public outing for the royal's husband Edoardo, who also has the condition.



Princess Beatrice was joined by her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in Stockholm today as they met with Queen Silvia of Sweden as well as Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia to discuss dyslexia

Princess Beatrice (pictured) appeared in high spirits at the event, wearing her auburn locks in loose waves

The Queen's granddaughter, who welcomed her first daughter last year, wore a floor length black floral gown for the outing today

The Duke of York's daughter was among the speakers at the panel for the World Dyslexia Assembly at the Royal Palace earlier today

Princess Beatrice appeared in high spirits at the event, wearing her auburn locks in loose waves.

She opted for natural makeup for the outing, with a sweep of eyeliner and a touch of lip gloss.

Meanwhile she donned a black polkadot dress from Zimmermann for the occasion, which she had previously worn to the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2019.

The beloved Australian brand was founded in 1991 by sisters Nicky and Simone Zimmermann.

The Queen's granddaughter opted for a black floral gown for the outing in Sweden today, where she spoke about her experience with the condition

All smiles! The Queen's granddaughter couldn't help but smile while at the event

Nicky first started designing dresses and would sell them at Paddington markets before landing a two page editorial in Australian Vogue.

Beatrice joined a group which included Eric Adams Mayor of New York and Sir Richard Branson to call for systemic change to empower Dyslexic Thinking in every school and workplace.

It is the first World Dyslexia Assembly at the Swedish Royal Palace and came in partnership with the Prince Couple's Foundation, Prinsparet Stiftelse, and is supported by Microsoft.

The World Dyslexia Assembly aims to create systemic change in how the world perceives, defines and supports dyslexia by bringing together sovereign leaders, governments, iconic brands and the most powerful changemakers.

The royal wore her hair in loose auburn waves for the outing earlier today, where she could be seen beaming alongside her husband Edo

The Queen's granddaughter joined Princess Sofia and Queen Silvia for the outing earlier today (pictured)

The group posed for snaps after the World Dyslexia Assembly at the Royal Palace in Sweden earlier today

Made By Dyslexia's mission is to train every teacher and help every workplace to spot, support and empower every dyslexic mind. This mission is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and they aim to achieve this by 2030.

Princess Beatrice's 'gift': The common learning difficulty that impacts 1 in 10 people in the UK Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling. It's a specific learning difficulty, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing. Unlike a learning disability, intelligence isn't affected. It's estimated up to 1 in every 10 people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia. Dyslexia is a lifelong problem that can present challenges on a daily basis, but support is available to improve reading and writing skills and help those with the problem be successful at school and work. Signs of dyslexia usually become apparent when a child starts school and begins to focus more on learning how to read and write. A person with dyslexia may: read and write very slowly

confuse the order of letters in words

put letters the wrong way round (such as writing 'b' instead of 'd')

have poor or inconsistent spelling

understand information when told verbally, but have difficulty with information that's written down

find it hard to carry out a sequence of directions

struggle with planning and organisation But people with dyslexia often have good skills in other areas, such as creative thinking and problem solving. Advertisement

The Assembly was hosted by Robyn Curnow, CNN News Anchor, who is dyslexic herself.

She hosted the panel discussions on how to empower Dyslexic Thinking in the workplace and in education from global leaders including Microsoft, HSBC, Meta, Randstad Sourceright, International Dyslexia Association, Millfield School and many successful dyslexics including Space Scientist, Maggie Aderin-Pocock who explained how their Dyslexic Thinking has helped them to succeed.

The Assembly closed with the handing over of the Made By Dyslexia torch of global change to Eric Adams, Mayor of New York, who will host the next World Dyslexia Assembly in New York City in Spring 2023.

New York Mayor, Eric Adams, is dyslexic, and passionate about creating equality in all New York City schools.

HRH Prince Carl Philip of Sweden said: 'Through the Prince Couple's Foundation, Princess Sofia and I wish to do our part to contribute to an inclusive society; a society that enables each individual to reach their full potential.

'Our wish is that the Assembly contributes to new conversations, new collaborations and new solutions that contribute to supporting every child and youth in being themselves.'

Meanwhile Kate Griggs, CEO of Made By Dyslexia, said: 'The World Dyslexia Assembly is building the ultimate alliance of game-changers across the globe and includes sovereign leaders, governments, iconic brands and powerful changemakers, all who share our passion to create systemic change to level the playing field and help to create school systems where every dyslexic child thrives and to empower workplaces where every dyslexic adult can flourish.'

Sir Richard Branson said: 'Dyslexic Thinking Skills are the very skills that foster innovators and entrepreneurs.

'Imagination and innovation will help us find solutions to the big problems that we face.

'That's why we must help governments and organisations all around the world to realise this too, and why it's vital we all work together to empower Dyslexic Thinking in every school and every workplace

'The World Dyslexia Assembly is creating a global movement that will help us do just that.'

Princess Beatrice has previously spoken movingly about her experience of dyslexia.

Beatrice was joined by her husband Edo at the event, where she spoke alongside Prince Carl Philip and his wife Princess Sofia

Speaking to Hello! magazine, she referred to it as a 'gift' because she feels it has offered her different skills in life, saying: 'I think that having dyslexia and reflecting on where I am right now in my career path, and also as an older person looking back, it definitely has allowed me to look at things in a new way and come up with solutions.'

Her words echo the title of Ron Davis' 1994 book The Gift of Dyslexia, which became an immediate best-seller and became a bible for people with dyslexia and parents of children with dyslexia.

The princess also revealed in the interview that he also has the condition.

The Duke and Duchess of York's daughter said that 'if any child, any bonus son, or future babies that are on their way, are lucky enough to be diagnosed with dyslexia, I feel incredibly grateful to have tools such as the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity [that she's patron of] to be able to tap into, to give them that extra support.'

Beatrice said she considered herself lucky to have dyslexia, saying: 'I think that having dyslexia and reflecting on where I am right now in my career path, and also as an older person looking back, it definitely has allowed me to look at things in a new way and come up with solutions.

'I always describe it like being able to think in a circle. Yes, my spelling is appalling, and I wish that I could do something about that.

'But luckily, spellcheck has sorted that out for me.'

Beatrice added: 'I think life is about the moments, it's the challenges that make you. Of course, I would never want there to be any difficult situations.

'But I feel like if we're able to embrace some of the tools that we have from the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity and other organisations, then I feel very, very lucky that we can have this conversation.'
The clothing chain at the center of the documentary was established by David T. Abercrombie in New York City in 1892  and it looked quite different from what it would become, selling outdoor sporting equipment like fishing and hunting gear.

In 1904, lawyer Ezra Fitch bought into the company, officially giving it the name Abercrombie & Fitch.

The flagship expanded to a 12-story department store on Madison Avenue, where it sold clothing and sporting goods. It even had a shooting range and golf school, according to Business Insider, and did an impressive $6.3 million in sales in 1929.

Like all retailers, it struggled during the Great Depression but was doing well again after World War II. The brand attracted famous customers, including Ernest Hemingway, Charles Lindbergh, and Presidents John F. Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1992, Mike Jeffries was named CEO, and the brand began its shift toward attracting teen customers

Business went up and down through the decades, and after filing for bankruptcy, A&F was acquired by Limited Brands in 1988  where it would soon get new life.

Four years later, in 1992, Mike Jeffries was named CEO, and the brand began its shift toward attracting teen customers.

To that end, it soon started producing its famously sexy ads, featuring partially-clothed models, often in intimate poses. A magazine and catalog, A&F Quarterly, was launched in 1997 for $6 per issue.

The image shift worked, and the company steadily grew, expanding from 26 stores with $50 million in sales in 1992 to 125 stores and $335 in sales in 1996, when it went public, according to Bloomberg.

It continued to expand into the new millennium, with a clothing line for younger kids in 1998 and another brand, Hollister, in 2000.

By then, A&F was massively popular for teens, and its sexy ads were iconic.

Over the years, several stars modeled for the brand, with many posing for campaigns before making it big. Celebrity A&F models included January Jones (pictured)

Over the years, several stars modeled for the brand, with many posing for campaigns before making it big. Celebrity A&F models included Jennifer Lawrence, Karlie Kloss, Lindsay Lohan, Sienna Miller, Penn Badgley, Ashton Kutcher, Jamie Dornan, Taylor Swift, Channing Tatum, January Jones, and Olivia Wilde

Jennifer Lawrence remembered her 2006 shoot in an interview with Graham Norton.

'They wanted natural pictures, so they made us play football on the beach,' she said. 'The other models played football in a pretty way, but not me. My face was bright red, and I was sweaty with flaring nostrils.'

But while the brand was a massive success  particularly among middle- and upper-middle-class white suburbanites  it was not without controversy.

Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss modeled for Abercrombie early on in their careers

Some conservative groups founds its campaigns too racy, and in 2003, a holiday catalog was recalled in response to protests over content that included mentions of oral sex and masturbation.

Meanwhile, the company was coming under fire for racism from several minority groups, and in 2002, it was blasted for a line of T-shirts with Asian stereotypes and caricatures.

One of the offending shirts featured the slogan 'Wong Brothers Laundry Service  Two Wongs Can Make It White' with two caricatures of Chinese men.

Some conservative groups founds its campaigns too racy, and in 2003, a holiday catalog was recalled in response to protests over content that included mentions of oral sex and masturbation (pictured: Olivia Wilde)

'We personally thought Asians would love this T-shirt,' a spokesperson said at the time, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 'We never single out any one group to poke fun at. We poke fun at everybody, from women to flight attendants to baggage handlers, to football coaches, to Irish Americans to snow skiers. There's really no group we haven't teased.'

Years later, Jeffries would say that the company had a 'morals committee for T-shirts' but 'sometimes they're on vacation.'

'Listen, do we go too far sometimes? Absolutely. But we push the envelope, and we try to be funny, and we try to stay authentic and relevant to our target customer. I really don't care what anyone other than our target customer thinks,' he said.

The shirts were pulled from stores within days.

But poorly-thought-out T-shirts were hardly the only charge of racism the company was facing.

As A&F relied on sex appeal to sell clothes, sales associates at the stores were considered 'models,' and retail locations denied applicants who did not fit a certain 'look'  which allegedly often included minorities.

The company was coming under fire for racism from several minority groups, and in 2002, it was blasted for a line of T-shirts with Asian stereotypes and caricatures

The shirts were pulled from stores within days. Years later, Jeffries would say that the company had a 'morals committee for T-shirts' but 'sometimes they're on vacation'

In 2003, nine people of color filed a class-action suit against the brand for alleged discrimination against African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans.

Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores alleged that Abercrombie 'refused to hire qualified minority applicants as Brand Representatives working on the sales floor while discouraging applications from minority candidates,' according to the LDF.

In 2003, nine people of color filed a class-action suit against the brand for alleged discrimination against African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans

Legal papers said that store managers would often approach attractive white customers who had the Abercrombie 'look' and encourage them to apply for sales jobs.

Minorities weren't hired often, the suit alleged, and when they were they were given 'undesirable positions' which kept them 'out of the public eye'  and sometimes, when corporate officials visited, minority staff would be fired soon after.

According to the New York Times, former employee Jennifer Lu said that she and four other Asian sales clerks were fired from a store in Costa Mesa, California, after a corporate official visited and said there were 'too many Asian sales clerks.'

Juancarlos Gomez-Montejano had a similar story from his Santa Monica, California, store, from which he says he and four other minority sales clerks were fired after a corporate official visited. The official and allegedly said the staff was too large, but a few weeks later, five white UCLA frat brothers were hired.

The suit was settled in 2004. Though Abercrombie did not admit wrongdoing, it did pay out $40 million and agree to change its hiring guidelines.

Yet t he accusations and subsequent settlement appeared to have no impact on the company's success, and by 2012 it had 1,000 locations and $4.5 billion in sales. It would also launch two more brands, Ruehl 248 (in 2004) and Gilly Hicks (in 2008).

Minorities weren't hired often, the suit alleged, and when they were they were given 'undesirable positions' which kept them 'out of the public eye'

But in 2012, Abercrombie was sued once again, this time by Michael Bustin, a former pilot who alleged age discrimination and claimed that at age 68 he was fired and replaced by a 32-year-old man.

That suit was settled in 2012, with the company not admitting wrongdoing. While the terms of the settlement were not released, the suit did include information about an airplane manual with rules for flight crew that were considered shocking  including that CEO Jeffries required male crew to wear Abercrombie underwear.

According to Bloomberg, flight crew were required to wear a uniform that included Abercrombie & Fitch jeans, polo shirts, flip-flops, sweatshirts, and a winter coat that must be donned, with the collar flipped, when the temperature fell to 50 degrees or lower. Male crew members were also required to wear a belt, hat, gloves, boxer briefs, and cologne by the brand.

In 2006, then-CEO Jeffries (pictured right with fashion publicist Paul Wilmot) said: Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla'

The 'look' of those associated with Abercrombie remained incredibly important under Jeffries, and he unabashedly explained his preferences in a 2006 interview with Salon, in which he said that sexual attraction was 'almost everything.'

'Thats why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We dont market to anyone other than that,' he said.

'In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends.

'A lot of people dont belong [in our clothes], and they cant belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You dont alienate anybody, but you dont excite anybody, either.'

A&F was certainly exclusionary of people who wear bigger sizes, and for most of its history did not sell women's clothing above size 10 or large.

For years, it did well enough with slimmer customers, but sales began falling in 2008 and 2009. Though A&F fared better in 2010 and 2011, sales were dropping again in 2012 and 2013  and the company was forced to start closing several locations and shutter spinoffs Ruehl 248 in 2009 and Gilly Hicks in 2013.

The decline in sales was attributed to the rise of fast-fashion brands like H&M, Zara, and Forever 21.

Abercrombie tired to adapt in several ways, removing its logo from products and launching its first collection with black clothing, which had been banned by Jeffries for being too 'formal.'

A&F expanded over the years, including with spinoff Hollister - but after years of rising sales, in 2008, the chain started seeing sales decline

The brand also finally began carrying sizes XL and XXL and above size 10 in 2013.

That year, Jeffries' comments about being exclusionary resurfaced on social media, this timing earning the CEO quite a bit of backlash. He ultimately issued a half-apology on Facebook.

'While I believe this 7 year old, resurrected quote has been taken out of context, I sincerely regret that my choice of words was interpreted in a manner that has caused offense,' he wrote.

'A&F is an aspirational brand that, like most specialty apparel brands, targets its marketing at a particular segment of customers. However, we care about the broader communities in which we operate and are strongly committed to diversity and inclusion.

'We are completely opposed to any discrimination, bullying, derogatory characterizations or other anti-social behavior based on race, gender, body type or other individual characteristics.'

But employees continued to insist that discrimination was rampant, and despite announcements about changes in hiring policy, Abercrombie still faced allegations of racism and discrimination.

In 2015, a female staffer wrote a scathing essay for xoJane, in which she recounted instances of blatant racism just before visits from Jeffries.

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled against A&F after Samantha Elauf alleged that they refused to hire her because of her hijab

'When he did visit, managers went out of their way to ensure that the models on the floor were the cream of the crop,' she wrote. 'Unfortunately, this usually meant the thinnest, tallest, and whitest models.'

'On one particularly horrifying instance, most of the black models were sent home an hour early before their shifts ended and before Jeffries was scheduled to visit,' she recalled.

In December 2014, amid a continuing decline in sales, Jeffries, then 70, announced his retirement, both as CEO and from the retailer's board of directors.

'I believe now is the right time for new leadership to take the company forward in the next phase of its development,' he said in a statement at the time.

Following his departures, sales continued to fall by 14% in early 2015, and between 2010 and 2018, 450 stores were closed.

Abercrombie was also embroiled in another years-long lawsuit, which in 2015 made it to the Supreme Court.

Plaintiff Samantha Elauf claimed that Abercrombie would not hire her as a sales associate in 2008 because, they said, her hijab violated their 'look policy,' which banned headgear.

But her suit argued that companies legally have to provide 'reasonable accommodation without undue hardship' for an an employee's religious practices.

Though Abercrombie argued that Elauf didn't ask for accommodation, the Court found in favor of Elauf, with a majority opinion issued by Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia wrote that 'an applicant need only show that his need for an accommodation was a motivating factor in the employers decision' to show discrimination, according to Politico.

Abercrombie has since changed its 'look policy' to allow headgear, including hijabs.

The lawsuits kept coming, and in 2015, two more former employees, Alexander Brown and Arik Silva, alleged that they and other employees were 'forced' to buy the Abercrombie's clothing 'each time a new sales guide came out' as part of a 'uniform,' according to the Fashion Law.

However, California, Florida, New York, and Massachusetts labor law require employees to reimburse employees for work uniform costs  which Abercrombie did not.

Theirs turned into another class-action suit, joined by 250,000 other then-current and former employees, who settled with Abercrombie for $25 million in 2018.

The company has continued to try to adapt, shedding elements that formerly made it successful  including the shirtless male greeters who had long stood outside stores, enticing customers.

Fran Horowitz became CEO in 2017, and other changes to clothing and store layouts led to better sales in 2018 and 2019.

The brand also began introducing more inclusive ads, including a 2020 campaign that included women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe, Paralympian Scout Bassett, Los Angeles Lakers star Kyle Kuzma, freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, and transgender model Leyna Bloom.

In addition to photoshoots, the campaign included opportunities for these stars to share their experiences of body positivity, self-empowerment, determination, LGBTQ+ equality, gender equality, and overcoming obstacles.

'Were moving towards a world of belonging, rather than fitting in,' Joanna Ewing, Abercrombie & Fitchs head of creative, told the New York Post at the time.

In a company press release this month, Horowitz touted net sales of $3.7 billion in the fiscal year ending January 29, 2022, saying: '2021 is a testament to the fundamental changes we have made to strengthen our foundation and improve our profitability.'

Earlier this month, WWD reported that A&F is working to build up its store presence once again, and for the firs time since 2008, will open more stores (50) than it closes (30) this year.

'This company is transformed. Its at a much healthier place than it used to be. Its a different company,' Horowitz said.

Gilly Hicks, which had shuttered freestanding stores in 2013, is now opening again as well, with a location in Ohio last year and two in London and Germany this year.
Russian energy plant Gazprom announced that the country would no longer supply gas exports to Poland and Bulgaria after the two nations refused to pay for the products in rubles amid Western sanctions.

The Polish company said the Russian plant would "entirely suspend" its supply along the Yamal pipeline starting on Wednesday morning. Poland's state-run gas firm PGNiG said in a statement that on Apr. 26, Gazprom informed them of its intentions that would be effective on Apr. 27.

Suspension of Gas Imports

The announcement forced U.S. natural gas futures to increase by about 3% on Tuesday, a cause for concern among already struggling Americans. The Russian energy plant did not confirm that the supply of gas to Poland has been stopped, said the country's state news agency TASS, citing the company's spokesperson Sergey Kupriyanov.

However, the official emphasized that Poland is required to pay in rubles if it wants access to Russia's gas supply, which is a demand that Warsaw refused. Last month, Moscow authorities delivered an ultimatum that "unfriendly" nations will be required to pay for energy supply in rubles starting on Apr. 1 or risk being cut off completely, as per CNN.

Europe heavily relies on Russia for large amounts of gas imports to heat homes, generate electricity, and provide gas to the fuel industry. Despite Moscow's unprovoked war on Ukraine, its gas supplies continued to flow out to other countries.

Read Also: US Warns China of Possible Military Action if Beijing Establishes Base in Solomon Islands

Roughly 60% of all Russian gas imports are paid for in euros while the rest are bought using dollars. Despite the demand to pay in rubles, European leaders announced that they had no plans to comply with the payment method, arguing that the requirement for them to use rubles violated the terms of contracts and their sanctions against Russia.

According to CNBC, the Bulgarian government said that the "Russian proposal for a two-step payment procedure is in violation with the current contract and bears considerable risks for Bulgaria, including making payments without receiving any gas deliveries from Russia."

Effects of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

The plan for Gazprom to suspend gas supply to other countries could cause economic pain within Europe. The situation could result in gas prices rising higher than they already are and it could also lead to rationing of supply within the region.

Germany is particularly vulnerable because of its heavy reliance on Russian gas imports but the cutoffs would also affect the latter's economy. During Moscow's invasion, Poland has been a strong supporter of Ukraine. It has become a transit for weapons that the United States and other Western nations have provided to the country.

This week, the Polish government confirmed that it was planning to send tanks to support Ukraine's army in fighting against Russian forces. They also announced on Tuesday a sanctions list that targeted 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom.

On the other hand, Bulgaria was once one of Moscow's closest allies but has not cut many of its old ties with Russia after a new liberal government took control last fall. The situation happened when the Russian President's Military invaded the neighboring country of Ukraine. Bulgaria has supported sanctions against the aggressor and has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the Associated Press reported.



Related Article: Russia Fires Missiles On 5 Ukraine Railway Stations Hours After US Top Officials Blinken and Austin Ride Train to Kyiv

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TikTok conspiracists are circulating a wild theory that Amber Heard's lawyer is a secret Johnny Depp fan, after they spotted a lookalike woman in the crowd at his movie premiere in 2013.

Exes Heard, 35, and Depp, 58 - who tied the knot in 2015, and were married for one year before Heard filed for divorce in 2016 - have been battling it out in court in recent weeks.

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.

Some TikTok users now are convinced that Heard's lawyer Elaine Bredehoft is a secret supporter of the Pirates of the Caribbean star - after they noticed that someone who looked a lot like her was seen waiting outside of an event Depp attended in 2013, attempting to get a glimpse of the Hollywood leading man.

A woman with short brown hair - similar to Elaine's - could be seen eagerly waiting behind a barricade with a camera in hand as Depp made his way to the red carpet in a YouTube video that was filmed at the Lone Ranger premiere in London, England, on July 20, 2013.

TikTok conspiracy theorists think Amber Heard's lawyer (left) is a secret Johnny Depp fan after they spotted a lookalike woman in the crowd at his movie premiere in 2013 (right)

Some TikTok users are convinced that Heard's lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, is a secret supporter of the Pirates of the Caribbean star

They noticed that someone who looked a lot like her was seen waiting outside of an event Depp attended in 2013, while attempting to get a glimpse of the Hollywood leading man

A woman with short brown hair - similar to Elaine's - could be seen waiting behind a barricade with a camera in hand at the Lone Ranger premiere in London, England, on July 20, 2013

Due to their alike features, many people on the internet are convinced that the doting supporter is actually Bredehoft - who is now part of Heard's legal team amid her and Depp's $100 million defamation trial.

One person posted the clip to TikTok and wrote, 'Amber's lawyer is a Depp fan,' while the well-known TikTok sound that says, 'Oh my God, who is that?' played in the background.

The video quickly took the internet by storm, gaining more than 11 million views in a matter of days, and it left many people on the internet stunned over the woman's resemblance to Bredehoft.

It's unclear if the woman in question is actually Heard's lawyer, but numerous social media users are now convinced that it's her.

'She probably took the job just to see him all day long,' joked one viewer in the comment section of the viral video.

'What if she is purposely doing bad, so that Johnny can win and she actually likes him?' theorized another.

Someone else commented, 'I'm convinced she became her lawyer to see him.'

'Even Amber's team are on Johnny's side,' added a different user.

Due to their alike features, many people on the internet are convinced the doting supporter (left) is actually Bredehoft (right) - who is part of Heard's legal team

It's unclear if the woman in question is actually Heard's lawyer, but numerous social media users are now persuaded that it's her. Bredehoft is pictured with Heard on April 18

One person posted the clip to TikTok and wrote, 'Amber's lawyer is a Depp fan.' The video quickly took the internet by storm, gaining more than 11 million views in a matter of days

Other comments read, 'Wait a damn minute,' and, 'Oh Hell naw, I thought it couldn't get better.'

'I cannot tell you how hard I laughed seeing this,' wrote another person. 'I really hope Amber sees this.'

'[Whoever] noticed this is really a genius,' someone else said.

Depp has continuously denied Heard's allegations against him, and he is seeking at least $50 million in compensatory damages and a punitive award of at least $350,000, along with attorneys' fees and court costs.

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.

It left many people on the internet sure that Bredehoft is a secret Depp advocate, and they took to the comment section to share their thoughts

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 actor 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, he 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 last week.

He also stated 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.

Exes Heard, 35, and Depp (pictured on April 20), 58 - who were married from 2015 to 2016 - have been battling it out in court in recent weeks

The trial is attempting to determine if a 2018 Washington Post essay written by Heard (pictured with her lawyer on April 25), in which she accused the actor of domestic abuse, defamed Depp

Clinical and forensic psychologist Dr. Shannon Curry, who was called to the stand by Depp's legal team on Tuesday, told the court that she concluded Heard had traits consistent with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), as well as Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) - two conditions found in people with patterns of emotional instability and attention-seeking behavior.

Some TikTok users joked that if the woman in the video is Bredehoft (pictured on April 12) and she is a secret Depp fan, she 'probably took the job just to see him all day long'

While conducting her evaluation, Curry explained she reviewed various case materials including Heard's medical records, mental health treatment records, court exhibits, witness statements, and audio and video recordings.

She also met with the Aquaman star for several hours over the course of two separate dates in December 2021, before finally coming to a diagnosis.

She concluded that Heard 'grossly exaggerated' her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after her relationship with Depp ended.

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 is seeking $100 million in damages, and has alleged that Depp's legal team falsely accused her of fabricating the claims against her ex.
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden oozed elegance as she stepped out to attend an awards show this evening in Lund.

The 44-year-old royal opted for a mid-length dress for The Crafoord Prize ceremony, in partnership with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, at Lund University.

Looking typically stylish, mother-of-two Victoria sported a gown with an off the shoulder black top and white patterned skirt.

The 44-year-old royal (pictured left, and right, with a guest) opted for a mid-length dress as she arrived for The Crafoord Prize ceremony at Lund University

Victoria accessorised with a red clutch bag, gold hoops and glamorous makeup at the ceremony

Victoria completed the look with a sleek bun and patent black heels, while she accessorised with a red clutch bag, gold hoops and kept her makeup minimal.

The glamorous heir to the Swedish throne greeted guests and handed awards to this year's winners.

The Crafoord Prize is one of the major international science prizes and is awarded in partnership between the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Crafoord Foundation in Lund.

The Academy selects the laureates and the disciplines are chosen as a complement to the Nobel Prize.

These alternate every year, between mathematics and astronomy, geosciences, biosciences and polyarthritis.

Princess Victoria (pictured) greets other guests at this evening's awards in Lund

It comes after Victoria stepped out earlier this month in a stunning floor-length dress for an event held in Stockholm by The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, Sciences and Antiquities.

Mother-of-two Victoria opted for a dark blue tulle gown featuring mesh sleeves and subtle silver detailing, which she teamed with a white satin sash and ribbon-clad brooch.

The 44-year-old royal first debuted the 229.99 gown, from high street label H&M, in 2020 when she posed in the dress to mark her 10th wedding anniversary with her husband Prince Daniel.

The 44-year-old grins as she awards prizes to the winners on stage in Lund today

Victoria celebrated her name day earlier in March in the first full return to the celebrations since 2019 after the event was cancelled in 2020, and pared back in 2021 due to Covid.

According to Swedish tradition, various names are associated with certain dates, and Crown Princess Victoria's is celebrated on 12th March.

The Swedish royal was joined by her husband Prince Daniel, 48, and their children Princess Estelle, 10, and Prince Oscar, 6 at Stockholm's Royal Palace.
The team at Snickers have revealed the caramel 'veins' will remain on the chocolate bars after a photo of a completely smooth one went viral.

The swirls on the top of the bars were dubbed 'X-rated' by many who likened them to a male appendage - and when a photo of a smooth bar took the internet by storm many thought cancel culture had finally gone too far.

But Mars, the company behind the Snickers brand, say the rumours are completely false.

The team at Snickers have revealed the caramel 'veins' will remain on the chocolate bars after a photo of a smooth chocolate bar went viral

The swirls on the top of the bars were dubbed 'x-rated' by many who likened the bar to a male appendage - and when a photo of a smooth bar took the internet by storm many thought cancel culture had finally gone too far

'Good news, contrary to what's trending on Twitter, the veins remain,' it posted alongside a photo of a veiny chocolate bar.

The original Tweet may have gone unnoticed and the rumours could have fizzled out if it wasn't for a one-off photo showing a completely smooth bar.

'Who took the d*ck vein out of Snickers,' the original post read.

'I am disgusted, I am shocked, I need to be alone right now,' one man said.

Another man shared a picture of his 'basically smooth' Snickers.

'What is happening in the world that we have to take the veins out,' he said.

'What is happening in the world that we have to take the veins out,' one man said, holding a picture of a 'smooth Snickers'

People slammed cancel-culture and demanded the chocolate bar 'return to normal' almost boycotting the sweet treat entirely.

Poll Would you eat a Snickers if it was smooth? No, it needs the vein! Yes, it is still chocolate! Yes, but I would be sad! Would you eat a Snickers if it was smooth? No, it needs the vein! 53 votes

Yes, it is still chocolate! 7 votes

Yes, but I would be sad! 11 votes Now share your opinion





'Never thought I'd say this but I'm not eating a smooth Snickers candy bar. I want the veins on mine too,' one man wrote.

'What they took from us is unforgiveable,' said another.

'I will never buy another one if this is true, I love the vein,' said one woman.

Others complained the 'de-sexualisation' of 'the green M&M' kickstarted the trend to cancel other food products.

Some people were so angry they started petitions to keep the vein.

While others were amazed that Snickers would reference the veins on their main page, given their commonly used X-rated comparison.

The post was marked by the platform as 'nudity' or 'explicit' making some chocolate lovers laugh.

The Tweet clearing up the smooth vs veiny debate was put out on April 20 and already has 47k retweets.

The brand is known for walking the line with its posts across social media, even alluding to more chocolate bars being eaten at 4.20 than any other time of day.
Doctors will have a duty to respect a patient's wishes for face-to-face appointments under new guidance from the medical regulator.

It says medics should agree with a patient what type of appointment would best suit their 'needs and circumstances'.

And they should ensure care is 'safe and effective' whether delivered face to face or remotely, the General Medical Council says.

The new directive is included in a revised version of the GMC's core guidance for all doctors, known as 'Good medical practice'.

Doctors will have a duty to respect a patient's wishes for face-to-face appointments under new guidance from the General Medical Council

Graph shows: The percentage of GP appointments that were face-to-face in England from September 2019 to February 2022

NHS 'bumping along the bottom' of world healthcare league table The UK is the sick man of the world, with its healthcare system ranking second worst out of 19 similar countries, a report has warned. With NHS waiting lists now standing at a record 6.2million, the report found Britain is 'bumping along the bottom' of the league table for a range of major health outcomes  with only the United States faring worse overall. The Civitas think-tank analysed data from 2019 on 16 measures including life expectancy and survival rates for cancer, strokes and heart attacks. The UK came bottom more often than any of the other countries, which include France, Spain, Germany and Japan. But the US was ranked lower because it spends far more on health per capita, had the worst life expectancy and did not feature in all tables due to a lack of data. Researchers say 6,500 lives a year could be saved in the UK if its performance on preventable diseases matched the average rate in other nations. The only area the UK performs well in is helping diabetics avoid limb amputation, according to the first International Health Care Outcomes Index, which drew on data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The UK was ranked 17th out of 19 countries for life expectancy, worst for stroke and heart attack survival, and 16th out of 18 for five types of cancer. For example, stomach cancer five-year survival rates were 17th out of 19 at 20.7 per cent. Study author Tim Knox said: 'If what matters most to patients is the outcome of the treatment they will receive, then these findings should be of concern to all... Our uncritical worship of the NHS means that it is difficult to ask questions of our health service and how it ranks against those of other nations.' Advertisement

It is the modern day equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath, outlining the professional values, knowledge and behaviours expected of UK doctors.

The 16-page document is being updated for the first time since 2013 to reflect societal changes, including sexual harassment and the increased use of social media.

A draft update is published today as part of a 12-week public consultation. It says doctors must not use digital communications channels to harass or mislead, and they should 'make reasonable checks' to avoid doing so.

Some doctors have large followings on the likes of Twitter and TikTok and use the platforms to promote products, give advice or express political views.

The guidelines say: 'Whether you provide clinical care in a face-to-face setting, or through remote consultations via telephone, video-link, or online services, you must provide safe and effective care.

'Where possible, you should agree with the patient which mode of consultation is most suitable to their individual needs and circumstances.

'If you can't provide safe care through the mode of consultation you are using, you should offer an alternative if possible or signpost to other services.'

It adds: 'You must not abuse, discriminate against, bully, exploit, or harass anyone, or condone such behaviour by others.

'This applies to all interactions, including on social media and networking sites.'

Around 80 per cent of GP appointments were face to face prior to the pandemic but this plummeted to just 47 per cent in April 2020  it now stands at around 60 per cent.

Charities, politicians and patient groups expressed alarm about the decline, warning it risked life-threatening diseases being missed.

Charlie Massey, chief executive of the GMC, said: 'This update is intended to be relevant and helpful to medical professionals, and to benefit patients.

'It is important our guidance reflects the reality of what doctors face and the cultures many are working in, and that it supports them to be able to do the best for their patients and colleagues.'

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'Patients should be able to see their GP in a way that they choose... We have made 520million available to improve access and expand general practice capacity.'

It's also emerged GPs may follow dentists in cutting back on NHS work to charge more patients for private care.

Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, warned there is a 'real threat' general practice will go the way of dentistry.

Family doctors will vote next month on cutting their core opening hours from 8am-6.30pm to 9am-5pm and limit the number of appointments they fulfil.

The GP Worklife survey found more than half of family doctors worked for six sessions a week or less every week in 2021, with each session being four hours and 10 minutes. Nearly a fifth of the workforce saw patients for four sessions or less, while 12.4 per cent worked for five sessions and 27.9 per cent worked for six

The graph shows the number of GP appointments per day in January. Since 2019, GPs have been asked to work evenings and weekends. But just 22,000 patients were seen on the average Saturday in January, compared to around 1.2million per week day

Doctors could be reprimanded over fake news tweets Doctors could face regulatory action if they publish 'misleading' information on social media, according to proposed new guidance. Tik Toks, tweets and Instagram posts could be scrutinised by the medical regulator if a doctor is reported for a breach. The General Medical Council (GMC) is updating its Good Medical Practice guide  seen by some as a 'modern Hippocratic Oath'. The GMC document, which outlines professional values and behaviours expected of doctors working in the UK, has not been updated since 2013. The latest version states that in public communications doctors must 'be honest and trustworthy; make clear the limits of their knowledge; make reasonable checks to make sure any information given is not misleading; declare any conflicts of interest and maintain patient confidentiality'. The update to the guidance, which is being put out for consultation, also aims to tackle workplace bullying. Included in the guidance for the first time is a duty for doctors to act, or support others to act, if they become aware of workplace bullying, harassment or discrimination, as well as zero tolerance of sexual harassment. Charlie Massey, chief executive of the GMC, said: 'Good medical practice is the bedrock that helps guide ethical practice and supports doctors to provide the best possible care in a world of increasingly complex medicine. 'This update is intended to be relevant and helpful to medical professionals, and to benefit patients, now and for years ahead. 'There is a lot of evidence of the damage bad workplace cultures can do to patient safety and, ultimately, to the UK's ability to retain the healthcare professionals it needs. 'Toxic cultures can also spread online, undermining public trust in the medical profession. 'It is important our guidance reflects the reality of what doctors face and the cultures many are working in, and that it supports them to be able to do the best for their patients and for their colleagues. To achieve that we want to hear the views of as many people as possible on our proposed changes.' Advertisement

Professor Marshall said: 'The risk is we end up like the very worst of the US healthcare system where if you can pay, great, and if you can't, you have a very sub-optimal system.

'Or maybe like dentistry over the last 15 years, where a growing number have gone private.'

Speaking at a conference hosted by trade magazine Pulse, he added: 'That seems to be a very real threat that we need to address.'

Meanwhile, former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the same conference GPs should have personal assistants who do their paperwork so they can escape 'two hours' of admin each da.

He said it is going to be 'very difficult' to get more family doctors into the NHS in the short-term, which already has 1,500 fewer GPs than 2016.

So the health service needs to hire more staff to do doctors' paperwork after each appointment so they can focus on seeing patients, Mr Hunt told a GP conference.

It comes amid a huge row over the working hours and conditions of family doctors and the 'postcode lottery' of bagging an appointment.

Patients have for years complained over struggling to access their GP, and in-person appointments have failed to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.

But family doctors warn that the imbalance between the workload and workforce in the sector is only driving GPs  who earn 100,000 a year, on average  away from the profession.

Mr Hunt said 'it's going to be very difficult to get more GPs into the system in the short term' because it takes seven years to train a family doctor.

'We need to be looking at other people who can help GPs do their work, and GPs can leverage, who don't take quite so long to get into the system,' he said.

He pointed to the US where physicians, who are equivalent to family doctors, have a personal assistant (PA) 'who works with them full-time who deals with all their admin after every appointment'.

The PAs don't have a medical degree but may want to work in medicine or healthcare management in the future, Mr Hunt said.

'That way, a GP doesn't find at the end of a day of seeing 40 patients and then have two-hours of admin and that makes their job more rewarding,' he said.

'So we need to be a lot more innovative about ways to allow GPs to focus on their core work without having to be burdened by the admin,' Mr Hunt added.

He noted that more family doctors were shifting to part-time work because doctors say it is 'not possible to work at that level of intensity for five days a week' and they are worried about getting tired, making mistakes and harming patients.

He said the traditional model of general practice is 'broken' and if it is to be at the 'heart of the NHS' then we have to 'think about how we can reduce that pressure so that people don't do the job and say 'I can't actually do more than three days a week'.'

Mr Hunt, chair of the Health and Social Care committee, said there was a need to 'bring back the joy into the profession that a lot of older GPs remember' because the workforce problems are a 'retention issue rather than a recruitment issue'.

But he dismissed the idea that the new NHS England contract, which comes into effect in October and sets out that each group of GP practices must offer evening and weekend appointments, was infeasible.

Mr Hunt  rumoured to be making 'discrete preparations' in the event of a Tory leadership contest  also admitted he hasn't 'ruled out' going back into frontline politics.
The flagship public health quango launched by Matt Hancock during the pandemic is set to purge 40 per cent of its staff and scale back Covid tests amid budget cuts.

Whitehall sources claim 800 workers will be axed in the coming months from the taxpayer-funded UK Health Security Agency, which employs around 2,000 staff.

The agency has also proposed suspending routine testing for Covid in hospitals and care homes during summer to save money for a potential wave in winter.

Health chiefs say there is only enough cash to do asymptomatic testing in high risk areas for six months and it should be saved for later this year, The Guardian reports.

The UKHSA told MailOnline the job cuts only applied to temporary staff whose contracts were simply not being extended 'as was always planned'.

But morale at the UKHSA is said to be at rock bottom and there are fears it will not be able to respond to a fresh outbreak of the virus.

Set up as a replacement for Public Health England (PHE) last April, the UKHSA enjoyed billions of pounds of emergency pandemic funding in its first year.

But its funding has been stripped back as part of the Government's 'Living with Covid' plan, with the 2021 total Covid budget of 15billion slashed by about 90 per cent.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is axing 800 staff amid budget cuts. The quango is run by Dr Jenny Harries

Disgraced former Health Secretary Matt Hancock launched the UKHSA with great fanfare on April 1, 2021, with the aim of halting future pandemics

Disgraced ex-Health Secretary Mr Hancock launched the UKHSA with great fanfare on April 1, 2021, with the aim of halting future pandemics.

It took over from the beleaguered PHE which had been accused by Boris Johnson of being too 'sluggish' in the first year of Covid.

Dr Jenny Harries, who was a regular at Downing Street press conferences throughout the Covid pandemic, was put at the helm.

Announcing its replacement, Mr Hancock said the UKHSA's main objective was to 'plan, prevent and respond' to health threats.

But there are now concerns that it will be unable to deliver.

WHAT IS THE UKSA? The UK Health Security Agency launched on April 1, 2021. Its main objective was to focus on the fight against coronavirus. But the UKHSA is also responsible for preparing for, and responding to, future outbreaks of infectious diseases. The body also advises the Government on biochemical attacks on the UK. It brought together Public Health England, the Joint Biosecurity Centre and NHS Test and Trace. The agency was set up under the instruction of Boris Johnson, who accused PHE of being too 'sluggish' in the first year of Covid. The UKHSA is closely connected to local public health teams who have been carrying out their own contact tracing programmes. As well as infectious diseases, the agency is responsible for running public health campaigns - including putting up posters telling Britons to stop smoking. Advertisement

Professor Maggie Rae, chief of the Faculty of Public Health which represents 4,000 health professionals across the UK, said the move threatened 'the health of society'.

She told The Guardian: 'If the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us one thing, it is the importance of having a properly funded public health system that is able to prepare for, and respond to, threats to our health.

'Government has consistently underfunded public health services which are there to protect and improve health for all.

'To not only fail to bolster the public health system, but to continue to cut it so deeply, is irresponsible and threatens the health of all in society, particularly the most vulnerable.'

The UKHSA has been told to cut its workforce to around 1,200 with staff in local health protection teams who are on temporary contacts on the chopping block.

The Guardian reports that some other teams in the organisation have been told to get rid of 40 per cent of full-time staff.

One source said remaining employees were in a state of 'ever-increasing anger and despair at the organisation's leadership and approach to its staff and strategy'.

The job cuts are a mixture of ending fixed-term contracts and redeploying or giving notice to civil service payroll staff.

In response to the staff cuts, Paul Cain, director general for health protection operations, said: 'In line with the government's Living with Covid-19 plan we are adjusting the size of our workforce as was always planned.

'Temporary staff contracts are being brought to an end and those affected are being updated. At the same time, we will build new capability based on the lessons of Covid.

'Those that joined NHS Test & Trace and Public Health England to manage the pandemic response played a crucial role and we thank them for their efforts once again.'

Meanwhile, the UKHSA has proposed scaling back asymptomatic testing in hospitals and care homes from May to save money for winter.

The Government scrapped free tests for the vast majority of people at the start of this month but promised to keep swabs in high risk settings while infection rates were high.

Sources in the agency believe there is only enough funding to cover six months in a year and believe it would be better used in winter when Covid hospital and death rates are typically higher.

Ministers have not defined what high prevalence would look like but the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) report suggested one in 17 people had the virus in the week to April 16.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it has not received the submission from the UKHSA but it would be looked at in the context of No10's 'Living with Covid' plan.

But Labour has warned the potential move risks another deadly outbreak of the disease, especially if NHS and care home workers are not being tested regularly.

Shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: 'While the NHS is in a permanent state of crisis and patients are waiting longer than ever for care, the government can't seriously be considering stripping away support even further.

'Patients need to know that they will be safe when they go into hospital and care homes. These proposals risk leaving the NHS unprotected and unprepared.'

Patricia Marquis, the Royal College of Nursings England director, said: 'Reports of the potential scale of the job losses at the UKHSA are deeply concerning.

'We had been working closely with the UKHSA and other unions to try to minimise job losses and are dismayed that the announcement to end those fixed-term contracts was not discussed with the trade unions at a recent national meeting.

'Ending routine testing in hospitals and care homes must not lead to them becoming a breeding ground for COVID-19.

'If this change happens, for it to be effective its impact must be closely monitored and all relevant data published more frequently so changes can be made quickly to protect staff and patients.

'COVID-19 remains a safety risk and employers must continue to do all they can to protect staff at work and comply with health and safety law.'
Pace (pictured in the plastic bag) is now being looked after at the hospital in Bristol, where he is in an incubator

A premature baby boy born at just six months had to be placed inside a plastic drawstring bag to keep him alive, his mother has revealed.

Isabella Gailbraith, 33, from Stourport-on-Severn in Worcestershire, went into labour at 25 weeks  101 days early  and was rushed to hospital.

The mother-of-four gave birth to Pace, who weighed just 1lb 4oz and needed to be placed inside a special neonatal bag to keep him warm moments after birth because he did not have enough fat on his body yet.

Pace, who was so small he could almost fit in his parents' palms, has spent the first weeks of his life in Bristol Children's Hospital while his lungs develop.

His parents hope he will be well enough to come home by June 22  his original due date.

Ms Gailbraith, a GP receptionist, said: 'When he was born the doctors worked on him to get him breathing for five minutes.

'They then they popped him in a neonatal bag, which is basically a drawstring bag type thing that is used to keep him warm because Pace couldn't regulate his temperature.

'If he was born at home, even putting him in a plastic bag would have helped.'

Pace Gailbraith (pictured), was born 101 day earlier weighing just 1lb 4oz and was so small he had to be placed inside a plastic drawstring neonatal bag. The newborn, who fits in his parents' hands 'with a little leg hanging over', has spent the first weeks of his life in intensive care at Bristol Children's Hospital while his lungs develop

Isabella Gailbraith, a GP receptionist (pictured with Pace and his father Paul), said: 'When he was born the doctors worked on him to get him breathing for five minutes. 'They then they popped him in a neonatal bag, which is basically a drawstring bag type thing that is used to keep him warm because Pace couldn't regulate his temperature'

WHY ARE PRETERM BABIES PUT IN PLASTIC BAGS? One in every 13 babies are born preterm in the UK every year, which is classed as before 37 weeks of pregnancy. This equates to around 60,000 babies born too early in the UK. Doctors use plastic bags or wrapping in the first 10 minutes after a baby is born preterm to help them avoid hypothermia, as they are highly susceptible to losing body heat. Studies have shown pre-term babies wrapped in plastic significantly lowers the risk of death among newborns. However, not all preterm babies need specialist neonatal care. Advertisement

One in every 13 babies are born preterm in the UK every year, which is classed as before 37 weeks of pregnancy.

This equates to around 60,000 babies born too early in the UK.

Doctors use plastic bags or wrapping in the first 10 minutes after a baby is born preterm to help them avoid hypothermia, as they are highly susceptible to losing body heat due to not having enough fat yet.

Ms Gailbraith was rushed to Worcestershire Royal Hospital after her waters broke on March 7.

Her eldest, a 12-year-old, was born 10 weeks early, so Ms Gailbraith was aware that she could give birth early again.

She was transferred 72 miles away to Southmead Hospital in Bristol, which Ms Gailbraith said could provide a higher level of care than the Worcestershire hospital.

Doctors at that hospital tried to delay labour but were forced to perform an emergency caesarean four days later on March 11.

She said: 'When I went in, I was already 2cm dilated, so he was just desperate to come out.

'He was actually trying to be born at 24 weeks but we had some drugs to try and delay it. When he was at 25 weeks, he decided he had enough.'

Ms Gailbraith had been taking anti-clotting medication because she had been in bed for a week beforehand, as inactivity raises the risk of developing a clot.

But this meant she could not have an epidural for the procedure because it raises the risk of bleeding around the spine which can cause paralysis.

Pace is being looked after at the hospital in Bristol, where he is no longer in the plastic bag but is hooked up to a machine to help him breathe.

Ms Gailbraith and Pace's father Paul, a prison officer, visit him every day and are now able to hold him, despite his tiny size.

Ms Gailbraith said: 'We're getting there, slowly. It just hasn't really been my time.

She added: 'You can see how much he's developing into a normal looking baby.

'All that extra time you get with him that you normally wouldn't get. It's all the little things you take you for granted, like opening his eyes.

'The first time we had a cuddle was when he was a week old. We do have cuddles now.

'I think we've probably had him out about ten times. It's lovely but also stressful as you're constantly checking the monitors for heart levels.

'He was minute and his skin is quite delicate so you could not touch him.

'He just about fits in your hand, with a little leg hanging over.

'Progress is slow, the lungs aren't developed until 32 weeks. So he was on a ventilator at first and now he's on a different breathing machine.'

The couple have now set up a GoFundMe page for donations to help with the cost of travelling to visit Pace, as the cost of travelling between their home and the hospital is a 'very tight strain'.
Suspected cases of the mysterious hepatitis sweeping the world have now been detected in children in Japan and Canada.

Canada's Public Health Agency yesterday revealed it was 'aware of reports of severe acute hepatitis of unknown origin' in the country.

And Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced that a patient under the age of 16 was hospitalised with hepatitis on April 21.

Officials did not reveal their age, sex or location  but said they tested negative for adenovirus, believed to be the culprit of the global outbreak, and Covid.

The patient meets the working definition for a 'probable case' of the hepatitis cases already confirmed in countries like the UK, US and Spain officials said.

Nearly 200 children have been sickened by the condition across the world in up to 14 countries since last October. One has died and 17 have needed liver transplants.

Nearly 200 children have been sickened by hepatitis of unknown origin across the world in up to 14 countries so far. *cases in Canada, Japan and Illinois, US, are still yet to be confirmed

Three probable cases of hepatitis are being probed in Illinois Health officials are probing three probable cases of hepatitis among children in Illinois including one that required a liver transplant, according to officials. All the children were under ten years old the state's health department said, with two of the youngsters based in Chicago and the third in Western Illinois. Some 11 children sick with unexplained hepatitis have been confirmed in the U.S. in recent weeks, with nine cases in Alabama  including two that needed liver transplants  and two in North Carolina. If confirmed, the Illinois cases will take the total to 14. Advertisement

Public Health Agency of Canada said: 'These are being investigated further to determine if they are related to cases in the UK and the US.

'As the investigation evolves, we will keep the public updated accordingly.'

But the country did not reveal how many cases exactly have been spotted.

The condition  which was first spotted in Scotland at the end of March  has been detected 114 times in Britain and at least 11 times in the US.

Medics have been left puzzled by what is causing it  with the usual hepatitis A, B, C, D and E viruses excluded from laboratory test results.

Health chiefs believe the illness may be triggered by an adenovirus, which usually causes common colds.

Experts say lockdowns may have weakened the immunity of children and left them more susceptible to the virus, or it may be a mutated version.

Investigations are ongoing but officials have yet to rule out a new Covid variant being to blame.

Another theory is that children may have been battling the adenovirus at the same time as Covid.

UK health officials have ruled out the Covid vaccine as a possible cause, with none of the ill British children having been vaccinated because of their young age.

None of the cases in the US were jabbed either.

Liver experts described the spate of cases as 'concerning' but said parents should not worry about the illness affecting their children.

Professor Deirdre Kelly, a hepatologist at Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospital, told MailOnline children should follow normal hygiene protocols with good handwashing.

She said: 'The epidemic of acute hepatitis is concerning, but it has only affected a very small percentage of children under 10 years.

'90 per cent of affected children have recovered spontaneously. The few children who have developed severe liver damage have been successfully transplanted [in the UK].'

Covid lockdowns may be behind the mysterious spate of hepatitis cases in children because they reduced social mixing and weakened their immunity, experts claim

Dr Zania Stamataki, a liver immunologist at the University of Birmingham, told MailOnline: 'Currently the number of cases of sudden onset hepatitis in children are very low.

'As a mum, I am not concerned with the reported numbers because the incidence is very rare.

'However, as a viral immunologist with expertise in liver disease, I am intrigued because there are more cases than pre-pandemic levels, so it is worth monitoring the situation.'

Three probable new cases in Illinois, US, are also being probed by officials, including one that required a liver transplant.

All the children were under ten years old the state's health department said, with two of the youngsters based in Chicago and the third in Western Illinois.

Some 11 children sick with unexplained hepatitis have been confirmed in the U.S. in recent weeks, with nine cases in Alabama  including two that needed liver transplants  and two in North Carolina.

If confirmed, the Illinois cases will take the total to 14.
Woke medics are calling for a revamp of language used by doctors so it does not 'belittle' patients.

Common medical phrases like 'take' a test or 'send' someone home may potentially make patients feel 'childlike', they said.

Instead of saying things like the patient 'denies' chest pain, doctors should use the word 'reports' so it does not sound like the patient is being doubted.

Saying medication 'failed' to work implies it was the patient's fault so doctors should say a drug was 'not effective' instead.

The recommendations were made by consultant physician Dr Zoe Fritz and junior doctor Dr Catriona Cox, both from the University of Cambridge.

They laid out an argument for more empowering language in an editorial published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The changes are 'not a matter of political correctness', the medics argue.

Simple words or phrases, both verbally and in written notes, can 'insidiously' affect the relationship between doctors and their patients, they claim.

Woke doctors are calling for a revamp of the language used by medics at appointments so it does not belittle patients. Graphic shows: Phrases University of Cambridge doctors said medics should not use

Doctors were today told not to belittle patients by using childlike language such as saying they will 'send' them home

Words like 'send' a patient home or 'take' a patient's temperature emphasise the doctor's position of power and may seem patronising, they said.

To say that a patient presented with a 'complaint' also carries negative connotations, the medics argue. Words like 'problem' or 'concern' should be used instead because they are more sympathetic to patients.

Much of the language highlighted here is deeply ingrained in medical practice and is used unthinkingly by clinicians, Dr Fritz and Dr Cox write.

GPs have a duty to see patients face-to-face, medical regulator rules Doctors will have a duty to respect a patient's wishes for face-to-face appointments under new guidance from the medical regulator. It says medics should agree with a patient what type of appointment would best suit their 'needs and circumstances'. And they should ensure care is 'safe and effective' whether delivered face to face or remotely, the General Medical Council says. The new directive is included in a revised version of the GMC's core guidance for all doctors, known as 'Good medical practice'. It is the modern day equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath, outlining the professional values, knowledge and behaviours expected of UK doctors. The 16-page document is being updated for the first time since 2013 to reflect societal changes, including sexual harassment and the increased use of social media. Advertisement

Clinicians should consider how their language affects attitudes and choose language that facilitates trust, balances power, and supports shared decision making, they said.

It comes amid a huge row over the working hours of family doctors, the 'postcode lottery' of GP access and face-to-face appointments.

The General Medical Council  which regulates doctors  waded into the row yesterday, telling doctors they have a duty to respect a patient's wishes for face-to-face appointments in new guidance.

GPs should agree with a patient what type of appointment would best suit their 'needs and circumstances', the new guidance says.

In their editorial, Dr Cox and Dr Fritz suggested doctors should address patients with more respect.

Language that suggests a patient is childlike is particularly common with conditions like diabetes, they said, highlighting the term 'poorly-controlled diabetes' used to describe someone with consistently high blood-sugar levels.

'Patients do not like many of these commonly used phrases, and some are associated with problematic changes in the attitudes of healthcare workers.'

Terms like 'compliance' and 'non-compliance' with medication are authoritarian, the authors claimed.

They wrote: 'There is an authoritarianism, for example, in talking about patients not being "allowed" certain foods by their doctors.

'Although patients can find such language upsetting or frustrating, some also adopt a childlike narrative, describing the effect of being "naughty" or "good" on their blood sugars, or recounting being 'scolded' by healthcare professionals.'

Phrases such as 'denies chest pain' should be replaced with 'reports no chest pain', they said.

The authors said: 'Language that belittles, infantilises, or blames patients runs counter to the collaborative relationships we are trying to foster through initiatives such as shared decision making.

'We encourage all to reflect on the words and phrases currently used in practice, in particular considering whether they hamper or help to establish a genuinely collaborative therapeutic relationship.'
CDC and FDA officials 'altered' Covid guidance and even 'suppressed' findings related to the virus due to political pressure, a bombshell report suggests.

Investigators from the watchdog Government Accountability Office (GAO) spoke to more than a dozen directors and managers who worked at the agencies behind the country's pandemic guidance.

They unearthed allegations of 'political interference' in scientific reports, raising fears that research was tampered with.

In its 37-page report, the GAO warned that neither agency had a system in place for reporting allegations of political interference. It also said they had failed to train staff how to spot and report this.

Whistleblowers said they did not speak up at the time for fear of retaliation, because they were unsure how to report the issues or believed leaders were already aware.

This is just the latest in a growing patchwork of reports suggesting politicians influenced 'scientific' papers during the pandemic for their own ends.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration's top medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci declared the U.S. is now 'out of the pandemic phase' of Covid, citing low cases and hospitalizations.

But health experts were quick to question the claim  buried at the end of an interview with PBS' NewsHour  suggesting he may have bungled his words and should only have said the nation was in a phase of 'low hospitalizations'.

In the early phase the White House was accused of waging a war on science, with then-president Donald Trump repeatedly pushing for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports to be amended to support his views, as shown in emails made public by congressional investigators last April.

The CDC is facing allegations that it altered and suppressed Covid guidance that was meant to save lives. (Stock image of its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia)

The FDA is facing the same accusations, following its approval of a blood plasma treatment early in the pandemic. Hospitals are no longer offering blood plasma to most patients because it provided 'little benefit'. (Stock image of their headquarters in White Oak, Maryland)

The Biden administration's top medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has declared the United States is now 'out of the pandemic phase' of Covid-19 , as cases and hospitalizations associated with the disease remain low

'A few respondents from CDC and [Food and Drug Administration] FDA stated they felt that the potential political interference they observed resulted in the alteration or suppression of scientific findings,' GAO investigators wrote in the report.

'Some of these respondents believed that this potential political interference may have resulted in the politically motivated alteration of public health guidance or delayed publication of Covid-related scientific findings.'

The GAO report published last week looked into the two agencies, alongside the National Institutes of Health (NIH)  America's top research institution and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR)  in charge of natural disaster response.

All are part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which in February was branded as at 'high risk' for fraud, mismanagement and abuse by the GAO in a separate report.

U.S. Health Department at 'high risk' of fraud and mismanagement, report The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is at 'high risk' of fraud and mismanagement, a report published in February suggests. The Government Accountability Office (GAO)  which carried out the investigation  also said it was exposed to financial waste and abuse. They pointed to a lack of leadership at the agency during the Covid pandemic, Zika outbreak and when natural disasters like hurricanes and forest fires sweep the U.S. The Department is also responsible for the CDC and FDA which 'altered' findings during the pandemic due to political pressure, another report released this month suggests. It is based on interviews with top-ranking officials at the agencies. Advertisement

In the latest report, they defined 'political interference' as political influences seeking to 'undermine impartiality... and professional judgement'.

Investigators said they also set up an anonymous hotline for two months to allow employees to report instances, which received 'a few calls'.

No specific cases of altering advice were revealed for confidentiality reasons.

But the GAO mentioned in a footnote emails made public by congressional investigators last April that were sent between Trump officials and employees at the CDC.

They suggested the agency had bowed to political pressure over a study in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR)  a notice that documents current trends in U.S. health.

Former scientific advisor to the then-president Paul Alexander wrote in an email from 2020 that he had succeeded in getting the top line in one of its reports changed. He wrote: 'Small victory, but a victory nonetheless yippee!!!'

In the first year of the pandemic the FDA was also accused of 'grossly misrepresenting' the effectiveness of a blood plasma transfusion for hospitalized Covid patients, in a New York Times article that was also footnoted by the GAO.

Its press release thundered that the treatment was 35 percent effective against death, a figure which Trump branded 'tremendous'.

But scientists were taken aback by the figure, which was not mentioned in the official authorization letter or in the 17-page memo written by its scientist. It was also not in the analysis conducted by the Mayo clinic that was frequently cited.

Recently it has emerged that these transfusions actually provided little benefit to patients infected with Covid, and they are now no longer routinely offered by hospitals.

A state health official also alleged he had been reassigned after refusing to invest federal money in hydroxychloroquine, Stat News reported, which was previously touted by Trump as a possible Covid treatment.

Dr Fauci's comments yesterday were quickly blasted by other health officials, however, with Dr Louise Ivers, a global health expert at Harvard University, retorting 'there is a pandemic'.

The top medical adviser has doubled down on his personal policy of mask wearing and general isolation in spite of his comments yesterday.

He declined an invitation to the prestigious White House Correspondents Association Dinner this Saturday 'because of my individual assessment of my personal risk'.

The GAO report made seven recommendations to the four agencies it investigated for 'political interference'.

These included the agencies setting up a system for reporting potential interference, and training staff to notice and respond to it.

For the report they spoke to two former CDC directors, and four former FDA directors, as well as 17 employees.

The GAO pointed out it had not looked into the allegations to confirm whether political interference had led to changes to the science.

The HHS said in response: 'It is important to differentiate scientifically trained political officials engaging in the legitimate conduct, management, communication and use of science from political officials inappropriately breaching scientific integrity because of political motivations.'

They also 'concurred' with 'the recommendations that [HHS] should ensure that procedures for reporting and addressing potential political interference in scientific decision-making are developed and documented.'

It agreed that employees should be 'trained on how to report allegations of inappropriate political interference in scientific decision-making'.

It follows a report from the GAO in February which branded the HHS  that all four agencies sit under  as 'high risk'.

They warned of a 'lack of leadership and preparedness' in the department for dealing with either Covid or the zika virus outbreak, alongside natural disasters such as hurricanes and wild fires.

The HHS is at risk of financial waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement and other major shortcomings at times when it is required, they said.
Measles cases have jumped by 80 per cent in a year after vaccine uptake plunged during the pandemic and countries re-emerged from lockdowns.

There were 17,338 measles cases reported worldwide in January and February, up from 9,665 in the same period last year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Unicef executive director Catherine Russell said the immunisation gaps and return to social mixing in the wake of the pandemic was a 'perfect storm' for infection.

Ms Russell said: 'Measles is more than a dangerous and potentially deadly disease.

'It is also an early indication that there are gaps in our global immunisation coverage, gaps vulnerable children cannot afford.'

Measles cases have jumped by 80 per cent in a year, data from Unicef and the World Health Organization revealed today. Pictured: A child suffering with measles in Kabul, Afghanistan, last week

Child immunisation campaigns were knocked off course around the world during the coronavirus pandemic, and things have not fully recovered.

At the start of April, 58 campaigns in 43 countries were still postponed, impacting 212million people  mostly children.

Nineteen of those campaigns are for measles, putting 73million children at risk, Unicef and WHO said.

Top 5 countries with reported measles cases in the last 12 months Country Case rate per million Somalia Yemen Afghanistan Nigeria Ethiopia 554 119 91 58 26 Advertisement

Immunisation campaigns for diseases like typhoid and polio were also disrupted.

The five countries with the largest measles outbreaks in the last 12 months were Somalia, Liberia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Ivory Coast.

There have been 21 major outbreaks during that period.

Last month, Malawi reported its first polio case in decades while Pakistan, one of only two countries where polio remains endemic, recorded its first case for more than a year this month.

The WHO and Unicef said it was imperative to get the vaccination drives back on track.

Measles is a highly infectious respiratory virus, transmitted through coughs and touching surfaces covered with infected droplets.

Once it infects the lining of the nose and upper airways, the virus spreads into the blood and travels around the body.

This triggers its characteristic red-brown blotchy rash, which usually erupts around the head and neck first before spreading to the rest of the body.

The infection can lead to life threatening complications including pneumonia and swelling of the brain  or encephalitis.

Around one in 500 children who catch measles die from the infection. And one in five unvaccinated people who get infected are hospitalised.

Experts say children under five years, people over 20 years, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems are most at risk from measles.

Since the measles vaccine became available in 1968, it is estimated that 20million cases and 4,500 deaths have been prevented in the UK alone.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says 95 per cent of children need to be vaccinated to keep measles away.
Beijing theatre offers 18 consecutive shows Poetic dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting

People's Daily Online) 09:45, April 27, 2022

A stage photo of the dance show Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting. (Photo courtesy of the China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

Between April 8 and 24, a total of 18 performances of the dance show Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting were staged consecutively at the Poly Theater in Beijing, capital of China.

After making its debut at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing in August 2021, the show went on a nationwide tour, performing in 16 cities across the country, totaling 50 performances, winning wide praise from audiences.

According to the Poly Theater in Beijing, tickets for the dance show sold out instantly after being available for reservations, with the theatre eventually adding three more shows in order to meet audiences needs.

A stage photo of the dance show Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting. (Photo courtesy of the China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

A total of 19,000 people watched the 18 shows, with the seat occupancy rate for each show being as high as 98 percent, said Yao Rui, general manager of the Beijing Poly Theater Management Co., Ltd. The show broke the record for most consecutive performances of a Chinese dance show in one city.

Cultural and creative products related to the dance show, such as masks, thermals, post cards, notebooks, hair bands and bags, were popular purchases for audience members while waiting for the performances to begin at the Poly Theater in Beijing.

Jing Xiaoyong, head of the China Oriental Performing Arts Group, stated that the dance show has eyed diverse and mature partnerships with cultural and creative brands. This fully proves that dance shows have been integrated into daily life, and their influence can be found in every aspect of society, Jing said.

A stage photo of the dance show Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting. (Photo courtesy of the China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

A stage photo of the dance show Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting. (Photo courtesy of the China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un declared in a speech at a military parade Monday night that he will increase his nuclear arsenal at maximum speed and will use nuclear weapons if his country is provoked.

The parade commemorated the North Korean army's 90th anniversary. Kim displayed several weaponry, including missiles capable of reaching the United States and shorter-range missiles capable of being launched from land vehicles or submarines and capable of threatening South Korea and Japan.

North Korean Airs Footage of Military Parade

The Hwasong-17, the hermit nation's largest and newest intercontinental ballistic missile, was among the weapons widely displayed at the parade. The weapon is named after Kim's late grandfather, the founding father of the North Korean dictatorship.

Last month, North Korea claimed to have successfully test-fired the Hwasong-17 missile while South Korea claims that a smaller existing missile was used instead. Despite this, the missile launched on March 24 flew farther and higher than any other missile launched by North Korea.

North Korea has launched 13 nuclear tests so far this year. There are also indicators that the government is reopening elements of a nuclear testing plant that has been decommissioned since 2017. Nuclear talks between the US and North Korea have been on hold since 2019 because of disputes about the US's willingness to ease sanctions against the country, Fox News reported.

North Korea has put a halt to long-range missile and nuclear testing when Kim Jong Un met with former US President Donald Trump for a fruitless diplomatic effort that ended in 2019.

Pyongyang shot an ICBM at the full range for the first time since 2017, and satellite footage reveals activity at a nuclear testing facility that was allegedly dismantled in 2018 before the first Trump-Kim summit.

Read Also: Ukraine Faces Starvation as Russia Cuts Water Supplies; Vladimir Putin Warns of World War 3 After US Top Officials Visit Kyiv

Kim Jong Un's Message Could Be a Warning For South's New President

Analysts believe Kim Jong Un's nuclear weapons statement is a response to South Korea's new hardline, conservative President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who enters office on May 10.

According to Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute, Kim's white uniform with a marshal's star - North Korea's highest military rank - was also a signal for Seoul. As per Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, Kim's parade address suggests that the bar for North Korea's use of nuclear weapons can be lowered even further.

The miracle launch of the country's most sophisticated ICBM was celebrated by state media, which published dramatic photographs and videos of Kim personally overseeing the test. Analysts have found inconsistencies in Pyongyang's story, leading South Korean and US security services to believe that North Korea shot a Hwasong-15 ICBM, which it had previously tested in 2017, according to SBS News.

North Korea's economy has been driven to its worst-ever state by punishing international sanctions placed on the country over its nuclear weapons program, along with pandemic shocks during the previous two years.

Sung Kim, the US envoy for North Korea policy, stated during a visit to Seoul last week that Washington is prepared to engage Pyongyang anywhere without restrictions and that the US and South Korea will respond responsibly and forcefully to Pyongyang's provocative actions.

Analysts believe that, while Washington is distracted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, North Korea may perceive an opportunity to develop its nuclear weapons program, which is now hampered by US-led international sanctions.

"Russia's invasion may confirm Kim Jong Un's and his predecessors' idea that only nuclear weapons can safeguard his country from invasion and make nuclear adversaries think twice," said North Korea analyst Duyeon Kim, as per Washington Post.

Related Article: Switzerland Blocks German Request for Swiss Made Ammunition Destined for Ukraine, Cites Neutral Status in Hostile Conflicts

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More than 120,000 pounds of ground beef sold across the U.S. is being recalled over fears it is contaminated with E.coli.

The U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) urged people with Naturally Better, Nature's Reserve or Thomas Farms-labeled burgers and mince in their fridge to throw it out or take it back to the store.

There are no reports of people falling ill or suffering an 'adverse reaction' after accidentally eating the contaminated items to date.

E.coli  which can trigger bloody diarrhea and vomiting  was detected in the beef during routine testing by the agency.

Lakeside Refrigerated Services, in New Jersey, processed the meats before they were distributed between February and April.

It is the second time the company has been hit with a recall in recent years, after 40,000 pounds of ground beef products it handled were also recalled in June 2020.

The U.S. Food Safety and Inspection service said it was recalling the products over fears of E.coli contamination. It told Americans to throw them out or return them to the shop

Products affected are those carrying the Thomas Farms, Nature's Reserve or Naturally Better label which are sold in multiple supermarkets

The three ground meat brands being recalled are sold in major supermarkets across the country. Those with Marketside Butcher and Weis by Nature labels are also being recalled.

The FSIS warned people who eat E.coli-contaminated products would likely fall ill about three to four days later.

WHAT IS E. COLI AND WHY IS IT DANGEROUS? E. coli (Escherichia coli) are bacteria that generally live in the intestines of healthy people and animals. Infections can occur after coming into contact with the faeces of humans or animals, or by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water. Symptoms of an E.coli infection include bloody diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting. In rare cases, sufferers can develop a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). This is a condition in which there is an abnormal destruction of blood platelets and red blood cells. According to the Mayo Clinic, the damaged blood cells can clog the kidney's filtering system, resulting in life-threatening kidney failure. No treatment currently exists to treat these infections. They usually disappear within one week, but medical professionals recommend resting and drinking fluids to help prevent dehydration and fatigue. Advertisement

'Most people infected... develop diarrhea (often bloody and vomiting. But some illnesses last longer and can be more severe,' the agency wrote in its recall notice.

'Vigorous rehydration and other supportive care is the usual treatment: Antibiotics not generally recommended.

'Most people recover within a week but, rarely, some develop a more severe infection which can lead to kidney failure.'

It said affected products had the establishment number 'EST. 46841' inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) mark of inspection.

Symptoms of an E.coli infection include bloody diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting.

In serious cases of E. coli infection, patients may be given antibiotics to help ease the symptoms.

But in rare cases, sufferers can develop a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

This is a condition in which there is an abnormal destruction of blood platelets and red blood cells.

These can then clog the kidney's filtering system, leading the organ's to fail in a potentially life-threatening condition.

E.coli outbreaks are also often linked to lettuces and other greens.

In 2019, more than 160 people fell sick after eating contaminated romaine lettuces from a farm in California.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials warned at the time it was difficult to prevent E.coli contamination because of how greens are often grown.

In a report they labelled nearby cattle as a 'risk' for spreading the bacteria to the plants.

There were 18 E.coli outbreaks linked to lettuces between 2009 and 2019, along with 22 additional outbreaks of the illness in that same period.

It comes after Kinder chocolates were recalled in the U.S. over a salmonella contamination earlier this month.

Kinder Happy Moments Chocolate Assortments, Kinder Mix Chocolate Treats and Surprise Chocolate Eggs were found to contain the organism at a factory in Belgium.

Both products are marked as Easter treats.

The company said in a statement: 'Ferrero deeply regrets this situation. We take food safety extremely seriously and every step we have taken has been guided by our commitment to consumer care.'

Cases of salmonella linked to the eggs have been detected in Europe, although none were also spotted in America.
Use of cannabis has become a main-stay in the life of many young Americans, but one top expert is warning the drug could carry more risks than they believe.

Last week, on the colloquial 'weed day' in America, April 20th, or 4/20, Dr Yasmin Hurd, a top neuroscientist at Mount Sinai in New York City, warned that many younger users may be underestimating the potential long-term effects of the drug.

She warns that the 'high' produced by the drug alters a person's brain chemistry and could even potentially put them at risk of developing severe psychiatric issues down the line.

Sales of the drug in America has surged in recent years, as it slowly gains legalization from individual states, and pressure mounts on the federal government to lift restrictions.

Cannabis is slowly gaining legalization in America, with use being allowed in some form in all but six U.S. states

'Cannabis contains over 500 chemicals, including over 140 cannabinoids that have a greater or lesser degree of psycho-pharmacological activity,' Hurd explained at a Harvard neuroscience conference.

She explained that cannabinoids in tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC as it is often known as, the chemical in the drug that causes the high, interacts with endocannabinoids in the brain.

Dr Yasmin Hurd, a top neuroscientist at Mount Sinai, told a Harvard conference that if marijuana was benign, no one would be using it to get high

Endocannabinoids are responsible for determining the way that cells in the brain interact with one-another.

The cannabinoids in THC interact with, and alter, the receptors that configure those interactions, which is what creates the feeling people have when they consume the drug.

'If it feels intoxicating, it means it is binding to a receptor and changing your brain. The question is for how long  and does it increase your risk for psychiatric disorders?' she asked.

A common belief among many marijuana users, especially those who are younger, is that the drug causes little to no harm.

While cannabis is not considered to be as harmful or have the addictive properties as other drugs, like cocaine, heroin or even alcohol, there are potential dangers of frequently using it that experts may not have discovered yet.

'If it were benign, nobody would use it,' Hurd noted, explaining that the prevalence of the drug proves it has some sort of affect on a person's brain chemistry.

She notes that around 30 percent of people who regularly use the drug also have a psychiatric disorder.

Around half of U.S. adults report having used marijuana before, a record level. Many people who use the drug are not aware that there are potential long term side effects

One issue for researchers is that they can not tell whether the drug is causing the psychiatric issues, or if people who already suffer from these types of problems are more likely to reach for the drug to deal with the stress of it.

Another known issue is the use of the drug among pregnant women, who are often damaging the development of their fetus' brain.

'Placental programming is essential for neurodevelopment and aberrations linked to psychiatric risks,' she said.

Use of cannabis is legal in some way in all but six U.S. states. in 18 states, is if fully legal both medically and recreationally.

There is strong support for legalization of the drug in the U.S., with a recent CBS poll finding that two-thirds of Americans support it at both the state and the federal level.

Legalization had overwhelming support from Democrats (79 percent) and independents (67 percent), while even half of Republicans support it as well.

A Gallup Poll from last summer found that half of Americans adults have tried marijuana at least once, a record high.
The number of complaints about broadband, landline, mobile and pay-TV customers all hit a record low in the last three months of last year, official data shows.

There were nine complaints per 100,000 subscribers when it comes to broadband, according to Ofcom - down from 19 per 100,000 at the start of 2021, and is down more than three quarters in a decade.

That comes despite more people working from home, either full-time or partially, and reliance on broadband being stronger than ever.

Sky is the telecoms firm that came out best in the Ofcom data. It had the fewest complaints in all four categories.

Big drops: The number of complaints about broadband, mobile, landlines and paid-TV are all at record lows

Overall landline complaints have fallen drastically too, with now just four complaints per 100,000 subscribers, while mobile and pay-TV complaints at lower levels than that.

That suggests that telecoms giants seem to be provider better service and causing fewer reasons to complain.

However, some firms have well-above average complaints levels. Notably, Shell Energy, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Virgin Media customers are typically more than three times' more likely to complain than Sky ones.

Meanwhile, Sky, EE and Tesco Mobile came out on top of the mobile rankings, with just one complaint per 100,000 subscribers.

Overall, the industry average is just two mobile complaints per 100,000 subscribers, with Virgin Media the only company with double that figure.

There were three complaints per 100,000 subscribers when it comes to paid-TV, with Sky bottom with one and Virgin Media top with seven.

Dana Strong, Group Chief Executive Officer, Sky, said: 'For ten years in a row Sky has received fewer complaints to Ofcom than every other pay-TV provider in the UK.

'Were proud of our consistent performance  it is all thanks to the hard work of our exceptional customer service teams.'

Fergal Farragher, Ofcom's consumer protection director, said: 'It's encouraging that overall complaints remain at record lows, but that doesn't mean customer service is where it should be across the board.

'There are still big differences in performance between some providers. So it's definitely worth shopping around and voting with your feet, if you're not happy with the service you're getting.'

The telecom watchdog issues this quarterly review looking at number of complaints received by provider and service, to better understand customer dissatisfaction.

Between October and December 2021, complaints to Ofcom decreased from the previous quarter, which were at already historically low levels.

Nearly all providers saw fewer complaints or maintained the levels from the previous quarter.

However, Ofcom said there were still 96,000 calls, web forms, emails and letters sent to it in 2020/21, with figures heavily skewed by broadband complaints at the start of 2021.

Sky remains as the least complained about telecoms provider between October and December 2021, receiving fewer than four in 100,000 complaints across the board

How to fight back against poor service

If you are unhappy with your provider, for anything including regular faults with the service, the customer service is dismal or you're not getting good value for money you have the right to complain or you could switch, depending if you're out of contract.

You should contact your provider directly and outline your complaint, along with the steps you want to take to correct any issues.

If after eight weeks you've still not received a response, or you're not happy with the response you have received, you can escalate the problem by contacting CISAS or the Ombudsman Services: Communications.

It will look at your case independently and if it rules in your favour it could ask the provider to pay you for any money you've lost.

It may also tell the provider to pay you for extra costs, such as time spent on the phone or money spent accessing the internet through alternative means such as with a dongle.

You may also be able to leave the contract early, without penalty, if you've been left without a decent service for some time.

This should be detailed in your contract but if not keep a note of how long your service has been down and include this with your complaint and request to be able to leave.
My care-worker daughter had her identity stolen just after Christmas. She then received letters from four mobile phone providers welcoming her to new contracts, for which she had not signed up.

The letters came from O2, Three, Tesco Mobile and iD Mobile. We sent letters to inform each provider of the fraud.

Three and Tesco quickly confirmed a fraud had indeed occurred. But O2 has been sending default notices, disconnection notices, notice of enforcement letters and arrears notices.

Identity theft: Crooks were able to set up four mobile phone accounts using a reader's stolen financial details

We rang on January 29 and were told the case was being sent to the fraud department.

When we called two weeks later, we were informed this had not happened but it would be dealt with.

By March, and after several calls, we were told the case had not been sent to the fraud team until February 24, and that we should allow 30 days for investigation. Weve still heard nothing.

Meanwhile, iD Mobile sent a letter asking for details, which my daughter sent by email. But she has since received two letters from a debt collection agency.

We would be grateful for any help as this is causing a great deal of stress. I worry every time the post arrives. L. R., Swindon.

Sally Hamilton replies: It is not only shocking that a crook was able to set up so many contracts in your daughters name, but surprising that this kind of scam is still going on.

Its been a problem for years, often perpetrated in person by a fraudster brazenly visiting a shop armed with all the personal details required to pose as a genuine customer, setting up a contract and walking out with an expensive phone.

Scammers increasingly ply this trade online and arrange for devices to be redelivered to a different address. They typically do not use a victims bank details, but when the impostor fails to pay the bills, the provider chases the debt via the victims address.

Your daughter was not aware of having her personal details compromised, but it is likely they were stolen following an online data breach.

Three accounts were set up with O2 alone, including one for an Apple iPad Pro at a cost of 76.50 a month for 48 months.

The payments on all the scam accounts amounted to about 200 a month which, assuming all were set up for 48 months, would mean a total 10,000 fraud.

Scam Watch Beware fraudulent emails claiming that your TV Licence could not be automatically renewed. In one message doing the rounds, scammers posing as TV Licensing wrote that they had been unable to take the latest payment from a customers account and directed victims to click on a link to set up a new direct debit. But the link takes you to a fake website where you give crooks access to your personal details.

While two of the providers put your daughter out of her misery quickly, O2 and iD Mobile (part of Currys) were dragging their heels  until I got involved.

Money Mail has previously warned of a spate of complaints about fraud at O2, but the firm denies its processes are at fault, with a spokesman saying: We have thorough checks in place for signs of fraud at all points of sale, and in fact, UK mobile operators generally perform very similar checks to one another.

O2 says the correct fraud reporting process had not been followed by customer services in this case. It adds its agents have now had refresher briefings on how to deal with these situations.

A spokesman says: We apologise for the delay in resolving this issue. Weve closed the fraudulent accounts, wiped all debt, updated her credit file, and will be offering a goodwill gesture for the inconvenience caused. The goodwill gesture turned out to be a hamper, which left your daughter underwhelmed, but she was glad the ordeal was over.

Meanwhile, Currys says the rogue iD Mobile account was not actioned when reported as fraudulent, meaning your daughters name ended up in the hands of debt collectors.

A spokesman tells me her account will be cleared and her credit file updated  though there was no offer of a hamper.

John Webb, of credit reference agency Experian, says: Most victims of this type of fraud will be unaware of it until they check their credit report or receive a bill through the mail.

If it happens, its important to speak to the lender immediately or contact a credit reference agency to get these debts queried and removed from your credit report.

Straight to the point Please can you ask EDF Energy to reissue a refund cheque to my 90-year-old uncle? His late wife was the account holder, but he has paid the bills since she died. P. A., Gloucestershire. EDF has requested that the 46.66 cheque written out to the executor of her estate is cancelled and reissued in your uncles name. It has also cleared an outstanding balance of 7.49 and offered a 25 goodwill payment. *** I signed up to a free trial with video website Vimeo. But when I cancelled, I did not receive confirmation and have now been charged 1,008 for a one-year subscription. F. G., via email. Vimeo refused to answer my questions about the ease of its cancellation process, but a spokesman has agreed to refund you the full amount. *** My husband and I used to have our pensions paid into our Post Office Card Accounts. When we were told these were closing, we set up a bank account with the Co-op. So why has the Department for Work and Pensions sent me a card in the post? G. W., Stafford. You were sent a Payment Exception Service card by mistake. These are only supposed to go to people who do not have bank or building society accounts. A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman apologises for any distress caused. *** After my cruise was cancelled, I chose to leave my 411 deposit with Princess Cruises to benefit from Future Cruise Credit, which I can use on another trip. However, the money was mistakenly returned to my travel agent, Iglu Cruise, and now no one seems to know where it is. Please can you help track it down? C. Y., Sutton. Both firms agreed there had been a system error somewhere. The money has now been sent back to Princess Cruises and the Future Cruise Credit has been applied.

Too much noise at the inn

I stayed at the Broad Street Premier Inn in Birmingham for two nights in February.

During the second night, I was awoken in the early hours by excessive noise coming from people in the corridor above me. In the morning, the receptionist told me about Premier Inns Good Night Guarantee and suggested I make a claim. Immediately I did so. Yet my claim was rejected on the grounds that I didnt report it in good time.

I would like to say that the staff at the hotel were amazing and I have no complaints. It was the response of the customer relations team that put the company to shame.

J. M., by email.

Sally Hamilton replies: I looked up the guarantee, which says: At Premier Inn, were so confident youll have a great nights sleep that if you dont, well give you your money back.

It states that a guest has seven days after their stay to make a complaint and have the room payment refunded. So you hadnt dreamt it.

I asked Premier Inns parent company Whitbread why your claim was denied, as you had not only acted within hours of the incident taking place but on the suggestion of the receptionist.

I was told your claim did not meet the parameters of the guarantee as the disruption wasnt reported at the time, when staff would have been able to put things right by shushing the noisy guests staying above you.

Youd have had to read the small print to know this is an exclusion.

However, on my intervention, Whitbread has agreed to refund your second nights bill of 38, as a goodwill gesture.

A spokesman says: We are sorry for the confusion caused on this occasion and hope to welcome J.M. again soon.
WH Smith has returned to profit following a substantial resumption in trade at its travel stores, despite sales being slowed by the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The retailer reported pre-tax earnings of 18million in the six months ending 28 February, against a 38million loss during the same time last year when lockdown restrictions discouraged foreign holidays and office working.

Thanks to these rules being loosened, all three divisions within the company's travel arm saw their revenues more than double, although total sales in WH Smith's high street business remained flat.

Recovery: Retailer WH Smith reported pre-tax earnings of 18million in the six months ending 28 February, against a 38million loss during the same time last year

Within its UK travel segment, which encompasses shops in airports, railway stations and hospitals, sales shot up 139 per cent to 189million, with demand especially buoyant across the February half-term and school holiday periods.

Yet overall sales remained below pre-pandemic volumes as the recovery was blown off course by the emergence of the Omicron variant and the reimposition of restrictions by governments.

The division's revenues as a percentage of 2019 levels rose from 60 per cent in September to 78 per cent in November before starting to reduce the following month and eventually hitting 66 per cent in January.

But as restrictions were relaxed again thanks to the widespread rollout of a vaccine booster programme, the firm's UK travel sales in the eight weeks from the start of March were just 3 per cent below pre-Covid volumes.

This helped total revenues within its wider travel business exceed their 2019 levels by 14 per cent, as did a busy Easter holiday season, high visitor numbers to Las Vegas and increasing air passenger travel in the US.

Carl Cowling, chief executive, said: 'We have seen a recovery across all our travel markets despite the impact of the Omicron variant in Q2, and we are in a strong position to capture growth as the recovery continues.'

Quieter trade: WH Smith's revenues during the first-half period remained below pre-pandemic volumes as the Omicron variant led to renewed restrictions on travel

WH Smith currently has more than 125 stores in the pipeline, about half of which are in North America, while another 25 per cent are situated in Spain, where the group recently won a major tender.

The company is putting significant focus on expanding in the US as the country has the world's biggest retail travel market, with around $3.2billion in yearly sales prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

At the same time, the FTSE 250 retailer believes that 200 more UK hospitals could host a WH Smith establishment, or either a franchise outlet of M&S Simply Food or Costa Coffee.

Cowling added: 'Looking ahead, we continue to invest in the business where we see attractive growth opportunities and have positioned the group well to benefit from the return of passenger numbers.

'We have improved the scale and footprint of the business and are operationally stronger than prior to the pandemic. While there are some uncertainties in the broader global economy, the group is well-positioned to capitalise on the ongoing recovery in our key markets and take advantage of the many opportunities ahead.'

Despite the optimistic trading update, WH Smith shares fell 3.7 per cent to 14.55 on Wednesday, meaning they have declined by around a fifth over the past 12 months.
The proposed 35billion takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk looks set to trigger a 1billion fees bonanza for bankers working on the deal.

The biggest beneficiaries are likely to be the high flyers at Morgan Stanley who are advising Musk on the takeover having already helped him secure 20billion in funding for the deal.

They are likely to scoop a large portion of the fees - if the deal goes through.

Fees Bonanza: Elon Musk turned to Morgan Stanley for help in securing 20bn in funding for this takeover of Twitter

Last night Twitter shares closed at $48.64  some way below Musks $54.20 offer price in a sign that some investors believe the deal could collapse.

Other banks eyeing a bumper pay day include Bank of America and Barclays, who are also advising Musk, as well as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Allen & Co who are acting for Twitter.

Dan Ives, analyst at investment firm Wedbush, said: This is one of the biggest leveraged buyouts in history. Its complex, involves complicated financing and there are regulatory issues to navigate as well.

The prospect of a fees bonanza came as it emerged Musk has agreed to pay a break clause  or reverse termination fee  of 800million if he backs out of the deal. That is just a fraction of his 200billion fortune.

Investment banks usually get about a 1 per cent to 3 per cent cut of a merger deal.

Based on the 35billion deal that works out at between 350million and 1.05billion for the banks advising Musk  with Morgan Stanley set for the lions share.

Bankers working for Twitter are in line for between 70million and 100million. Morgan Stanley is a fiercely competitive US bank, ranking only behind Goldman Sachs in fees generated in the first quarter of this year.

The pay day for Morgan Stanley is even more important given that there has been a slowdown in stock market floats and corporate bond sales in 2022.

Musk has a long-standing relationship with the bank, going back more than a decade. Morgan Stanley was the main underwriter for the Tesla stock market listing in 2010, alongside Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank.

And four years ago, when Musk made his unsuccessful attempt to take Tesla private, he hired the bank to help him construct a deal.

Morgan Stanley is also expected to pick up more business from Musk in the coming years, including any possible share sales or equity raisings as he looks to fund Twitters expansion.

The deal for Twitter was one of the quickest ever put together from start to finish. Musk announced his intention to buy the company on April 14, tweeting I made an offer.

Bankers on both sides have been working around the clock for the past two weeks in order to make the deal happen.

But there are doubts over whether Musk can juggle being chief executive of Tesla while trying to transform Twitter.

Tesla shares tumbled on Tuesday, falling 12 per cent and wiping off 100billion of the companys value. They recovered 3 per cent to $905 yesterday. Twitter shares were down 2 per cent.

Ives said: The worry is around Musk being distracted and pulled in too many directions.
Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani has teamed up with private equity giant Apollo Global Management to launch a joint takeover bid for Boots.

Ambanis Reliance Industries is working with New York-based Apollo on a deal that could see the High Street chemist open in India and across Asia.

Sources told the Financial Times that 65-year-old Ambani, the worlds eighth richest man, would take a stake in Boots alongside Apollo, though it was unclear how the company would be split up.

Joint bid: Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, the worlds eighth richest man, is working on a deal that could see the UKs biggest chemist open sites in India and across Asia

The battle to buy the 173-year-old business rumbles on, with a winner unlikely to be announced before June.

Britains biggest chemist has been up for sale since January as its owner, US giant Walgreens, looks to increase its focus on US healthcare.

Other bidders who have made pitches include private equity giants TDR Capital and Sycamore, which is also interested in Ted Baker.

Boots chief executive Seb James stressed this month that there was a lot of interest in the business amid fears the 7billion sale was stalling.
The boss of M&G is stepping down after 22 years, including seven as the firms chief executive.

John Foley will leave the FTSE 100 savings and investments giant once a successor has been found, a process that could take up to a year.

The 65-year-old joined Prudential in 2000  a year after it bought M&G  and was made chief executive of M&G in 2015.

Privilege: John Foley joined Prudential in 2000  a year after it bought M&G  and was made chief executive of M&G in 2015

He oversaw the merger of M&G with Prudentials UK insurance business in 2017 and the 2019 demerger of the enlarged M&G from the rest of Prudential when it decided to focus on Asia and Africa.

Shares in M&G  which looks after 370billion of savers money and is one of the largest fund managers in Britain  are little changed since the time of the demerger.

The M&G board, led by chairman Edward Braham, is on the hunt for a successor who can boost the companys fortunes.

Foley, who earned 4.5million last year and has been paid almost 30million since taking the helm, said it was a privilege to spend 22 years at the firm and hailed its successful transition to becoming an independent company.

The married father, who has 15.7million of M&G shares, said: M&G has reached an inflection point and has strong momentum in its strategic progress.

It is now a good time to begin the search for a new chief executive to lead M&G during the next phase of its development.

I look forward to continuing to serve as chief executive until my successor is in place and I remain fully committed to our business delivery.

Braham said: John has led M&G through significant change and overseen a successful demerger, while steering the group through the unprecedented events of the pandemic.

The business has performed strongly, returning 1.8billion to shareholders since listing in October 2019.

In its most recent results M&G said it has generated 2.8billion of cash for investors since its split from Prudential.

It has delivered a total return for its investors of 30 per cent, or 1.8billion, since the demerger.

M&G last month announced a bumper 500million share buyback after its assets under management grew in 2021 by 0.8 per cent to 370billion.

It reported profits of 721million, which was lower than the 788million it earned in 2020.

It saw M&G shares rocket up 15 per cent on the day.

Yesterday they were up 0.5 per cent, or 1p, at 212.1p, leaving them a little below the 218p they started trading at following the demerger from the Pru.
The Serious Fraud Office has targeted several sites in the UK linked to the empire of industrialist Sanjeev Gupta.

As part of the probe into the tycoons GFG Alliance, investigators visited locations in England, Scotland and Wales.

The move marks an escalation of the SFO inquiry into Guptas metals empire launched in May last year.

Investigation: Steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta (pictured) has been under scrutiny ever since the companys largest lender Greensill Capital collapsed last year

Days ago French police targeted GFGs offices in Paris and an aluminium smelter in Dunkirk as part of an investigation into allegations of money laundering and misuse of corporate assets.

In an internal memo to employees, Jeff Kabel, the chief transformation officer at Liberty Steel, part of GFG, said the company would comply with the SFOs information request orders and continue to cooperate fully in all manners.

He added the company consistently rejected any wrongdoing. GFG declined to comment on the SFO visits.

The latest target is a further embarrassment for the Scottish government, which has been accused of risking nearly 600million of taxpayer cash in a deal to help 50-year-old Gupta purchase the Lochaber smelter in the West Highlands in 2016.

Guptas intervention helped secure 160 jobs at the site, which was facing closure when it was put up for sale by its previous owner Rio Tinto.

The deal with the Scottish government was designed to help raise funds for the acquisition.

But Guptas empire is now under investigation.

GFG Alliance owns a collection of businesses in the metals and energy sectors and employs over 30,000 people.

Gupta, who was once dubbed the saviour of steel, has been under scrutiny ever since the companys largest lender Greensill Capital collapsed last year.

GFG used supply chain financing offered by Greensill to accelerate payments for its products. Supply chain financing consists of loans made to companies waiting for invoices to be paid by customers. When these are paid the cash is used to pay back the loans with interest.

Such funding is a legal method of managing cash flow, but the SFO inquiry is examining the relationship between GFG and Greensill amid suspicions of fraud and money laundering.

Greensill went bust after the companys insurer refused to renew its cover for the loans the firm had made. The collapse ensnared former prime minister David Cameron, who was hired by the lender as an adviser after leaving Downing Street.

Since then, GFG has been grappling with investigations by the authorities while also trying to seek out a new source of funding as it teeters on the brink.

The company has overhauled its UK steel business and changed some of its management.

The international group, which was founded in 1992, also recently announced plans to cut 160 jobs from one of its main production sites at Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire.

Concerns about GFGs operation were raised by MPs last November when a report from Parliaments Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee highlighted that the firms structure had exhibited several red flags and systemic risks that should have alerted authorities to potential problems.
A mother brushtail possum has been shot in the eye with a rifle pellet gun by mystery thugs, as investigations are underway to find the culprits.

Bonnie had been rushed in the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital for a check-up on a skin issue, but after further analysis, staff noticed she had received extensive damage to her right eye.

X-rays revealed that she had been shot with three rifle pellets.

A mother brushtail possum (pictured) was shot in the eye with a rifle pellet gun in Queensland

The incident had taken place some time go, with the mother possum needing to undergo surgery.

Animal welfare experts are now concerned there has been a rising number of similar cases, with three recent incidents where animals were targeted and shot with a rifle pellet gun.

Wildlife Warriors has teamed up with Crime Stoppers Queensland and Australia Zoo to reward members of the public who come forward with information on crimes against wildlife.

The mother possum was brought into the hospital carrying a baby joey that has been named Jela (pictured)

An injured joey (pictured) has been one of many that the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital has taken care of

If you notice any suspicious activity or come across injured wildlife, make sure to contact Crime Stoppers Queensland on 1800 333 000 or Australia Zoo on (07) 5436 2000.

It comes after a group of native water dragons were shot with darts in a treasured wetland.

The lizards were found impaled with homemade darts in Warriewood on Sydney's Northern Beaches in January after locals noticed the injured reptiles lying by the water.

Officers managed to catch the creatures and remove the darts, measuring between two and three centimetres, from the hurt animals - with two requiring further treatment at a local vet.

The possum's injuries come just weeks after sick thugs shot native water dragons (pictured) with darts in a treasured wetland

Police said in a statement they were aided by volunteers as they attempted to catch the animals and remove the darts.

'The officer, assisted by volunteers, captured the water dragons and removed several darts  between 2cm and 3cm long  which were embedded in their bodies,' a NSW Police spokesperson said.

'The injuries were not life-threatening, with only one requiring further treatment at a local vet. All four water dragons have since been returned to the wetlands.

The police's Facebook post garnered nearly 1,000 comments, with people condemning the actions of the criminals.

'Throw the book at the depraved creeps - I hope you catch them soon,' one woman wrote.

'Poor things - hope they are caught and suitably punished,' another replied.
Vice President Kamala Harris's office confirmed Tuesday that she tested positive for COVID-19.

According to Harris's press secretary Kirsten Allen, Harris tested positive but displays no symptoms. She will work from the vice president's home and isolate herself. Harris is taking Pfizer's Paxlovid antiviral medications, which can lessen the chance of becoming very unwell, at the advice of her doctors, according to Allen.

White House: Kamala Harris Isn't a Close Contact to Biden

Because of their recent travel schedules, Harris has not been in direct communication with either President Biden or their first wife Dr. Jill Biden, according to the statement, but will return to the White House after she tests negative. She has had two booster injections after being immunized.

According to the White House, Biden and Harris spoke on the phone on Tuesday afternoon, and the president wanted to check in and make sure she has everything she needs while she quarantines at home. Her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, tested positive for COVID-19 less than a month ago, and the vice president's positive diagnosis arrives more than a month later.

Several other White House staff members, including Harris's communications director Jamal Simmons and Jill Biden's press secretary Michael LaRosa, as well as top Washington officials like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, all tested positive earlier this month.

The White House stated on Tuesday that Paxlovid would be made more widely available as part of its efforts to protect Americans against the virus and improve access to treatments. The tablets were initially in short supply after being approved by the Food and Drug Administration in December, but distribution has subsequently been increased.

The White House is also opening new 'test-to-treat' clinics, where Americans may be tested and may get free oral antiviral medicines in one visit if they are discovered to have the coronavirus, as per CBS News.

Former President Barack Obama tested positive for the virus just over a month ago while former President Donald Trump tested positive in October 2020.

Harris is one of a slew of politicians and celebrities who have been infected with coronavirus in recent months, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Illinois Representative Bobby Rush, and Lupita Nyong'o.

Read Also: Kevin McCarthy Warns Biden Administration of Impeachment Over Unsustainable Migrant Surge

COVID-19 Cases in the US

Vice President Harris tweeted earlier this month that she had had her second booster injection. Pfizer and Moderna were approved by the Food and Drug Administration a month ago for a second COVID-19 booster dose for persons 50 and older. A second booster injection is available for those aged 12 and above who have severely compromised immune systems.

The positive coronavirus tests of Vice President Harris come as vaccination and mask regulations are being dropped across the country, most notably in large areas like Chicago and New York City, The Root via MSN reported.

People who have been fully vaccinated and boosted are more likely to avoid major disease and death from COVID-19, especially the most frequent and highly transmissible Omicron strain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggested the additional dose as an option but did not urge individuals who were eligible to obtain it soon.

As reported by Republic World, in the United States, COVID-19 instances have begun to rise, with the Omicron subvariant BA.2 being responsible for virtually all of them. BA.2 was responsible for 86 percent of new Covid-19 infections countrywide, according to CDC statistics through the second week of April. The number of infections has increased by 24% just two weeks ago, with the US seeing over 38,000 cases each day on average.

Related Article: Nearly 60% of Americans Have Been Exposed to COVID-19, Says CDC Research

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Sen. Rand Paul clashed with Secretary of State Antony on Tuesday as he claimed the Biden administration had pushed Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine, by supporting its bid to join N.A.T.O., and that Moscow's aggression could be explained by the fact it was attacking former Soviet Union members.

His comments brought quick accusations that the Republican was parroting Kremlin talking points.

And during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee it brought heavy pushback from Blinken amid discussion of Ukraine's sovereignty.

Paul said the administration should not have publicly backed Ukraine's wish to join N.A.T.O. in September last year.

Blinken and other officials, he said, had 'been beating the drums to admit Ukraine" to the alliance.

'There could have been voices before this invasion instead of agitating for something that we knew our adversary absolutely hated and said was a red line, as recently as last September, before you signed the agreement once again agitating for N.A.T.O. Russia said that it was a red line,' said Paul.

'Now there is no justification for the invasion. I'm not saying that. But there are reasons for the invasion.'

Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday criticized the Biden administration for 'beating the drums' to admit Ukraine to N.A.T.O., suggesting it was the reason for Russia's invasion

Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed back on Paul's claims, saying Moscow invaded because Vladimir Putin did not believe in Ukraine's right to exist independently

Firefighters work extinguishing a fire on a commercial area following a rocket hit in Saltivka neighborhood, Kharkiv City, Ukraine

The Kremlin and its allies have frequently said they were concerned at N.A.T.O. expansion in eastern Europe and cited it as one of the reasons for the military buildup around Ukraine before the invasion.

Paul continued to say that N.A.T.O. membership could have meant U.S. soldiers fighting with Russia.

'Had they been or are they to become part of NATO. that means US soldiers will be fighting in Ukraine and that's something I very much oppose,' he said.

Blinken disputed his claims.

'My judgement is different,' he said.

'If you look at the countries that Russia has attacked over the last years - Georgia, leaving forces in Transnistria, Moldova, and then repeatedly Ukraine - these were countries that were not part of N.A.T.O.

'It has not attacked N.A.T.O. countries for probably a very good reason.'

Paul responded. 'You could also argue the countries they have attacked were part of Russia... ' he said before correcting himself: 'Part of the Soviet Union.'

Blinken said: 'I firmly disagree with with that proposition. It is the fundamental right of these countries to decide their own future and their own destiny.'

Paul again says the countries in question had been members of the Soviet Union for decades before its collapse.

'But that does not give Russia the right to attack them,' said Blinken. 'On the contrary.'

He said the U.S. had sought to engage Putin about Moscow's concerns but it came to nothing.

Ukrainian servicemen fire with a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Luhansk Region, Ukraine April 26

Western nations have upped the supply of heavy weapons in the past couple of weeks to counter the threat from Russia. Here pro-Russian troops are seen atop an armoured vehicle in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 21

'It is abundantly clear in President Putin's own words that this was never about Ukraine, being potentially part of N.A.T.O.,' he added.

'And it was always about his belief that Ukraine does not deserve to be a sovereign, independent country that it must be reassumed into Russia in one form or another.'

Several conservatives have criticized the Biden administration for supporting Ukraine's ambition to join N.A.T.O.

Earlier U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that 'saber rattling' rhetoric from Moscow and threats of nuclear war were 'very dangerous and unhelpful.'

During a visit to Germany he hit back at Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov who said that Western leaders risked a third world war by supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine.

'That kind of rhetoric is very dangerous and unhelpful,' Austin said.

'Nobody wants to see a nuclear war happen. It's a war where all sides lose.

'And so rattling of sabers and, you know, dangerous rhetoric is clearly unhelpful and something that we won't engage in.'

Austin spoke after hosting defense talks at Ramstein Air Base involving more than 40 countries seeking to speed and synchronize supply of weapons to Kyiv.

Several nations have stepped up the supply of long range weapons - such as howitzer artillery systems - as the war enters a crucial new phase and Russia focuses on the eastern Donbas region.

Austin was also asked about his recent controversial comments that the U.S. wanted to 'weaken' Russia, and he did not back down.

'We do want to make it harder for Russia to threaten its neighbours and leave them less able to do that,' he said.

Moscow's war machine had been badly degraded by 62 days of war, he continued.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin slammed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for spreading dangerous rhetoric on Tuesday. 'That kind of rhetoric is very dangerous and unhelpful,' he said during a visit to Germany, a day after Lavrov accused N.A.T.O. of waging a proxy war in Ukraine, bringing the 'very serious' risk of a nuclear confrontation

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 during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol

'They've lost a lot of a lot of equipment. They've used a lot of precision guided munitions,' he said.

'They've lost a major surface combatant [vessel], and so they are in fact, in terms of military capability, weaker than when it started.

'It'll be harder for them for them to replace some of this capability as they go forward because of the sanctions and the trade restrictions that have been placed on them.

'And so we would like to make sure again, that they don't have the same type of capability to bully their neighbours that we that we saw at the outset of this of this conflict.

Earlier Lavrov, claimed N.A.T.O. was now fighting a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, bring a 'very serious' risk the conflict could go nuclear.

Speaking on Russian state TV on Monday night, accused Western leaders of risking a third world war by supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine with the goal of 'wearing down the Russian army' - an aim he described as an 'illusion'.

Accusing NATO and its allies of attempting to bully Russia on the international stage, Lavrov said that tensions between east and west are now worse than during the Cuban missile crisis at the height of the Cold War.

Asked directly about the possibility of a nuclear war, he replied: 'The risks are very significant. I do not want the danger to be artificially inflated [but] it is serious, real. It cannot be underestimated.'
An active NYPD officer received a slap on the wrist from Commissioner Keechant Sewell following a drunken arrest in San Francisco that involved her trying to walk across a six-lane highway.

Officer Catherine Lamonica, 38, of the 28th Precinct in Harlem was taken into custody in April 2021 during a vacation with two pals in California.

Lamonica, of Long Island, was off-duty at the time.

She left her friends in a restaurant to head to a bar. An hour later, Lamonica decided to head back to her hotel, she told her friends.

NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, pictured, signed off on Officer Catherine Lamonica's cushy punishment citing the fact that the officer didn't do anything else wrong during her vacation and that Lamonica had never had issues with alcohol in the past

At that point, Lamonica switched off her cell phone because it was extremely low on battery, reports the New York Post.

An hour later, Lamonica resorted to turning her phone back on to look for directions to her lodgings. It's not clear how far the NYPD officer was from her hotel at this stage.

The directions sent Lamonica toward Interstate 80, according to the Post reporting.

That's when multiple 911 calls were made to report that someone was walking along the highway.

Keechant Sewell was appointed as the NYPD's 45th commissioner in December 2021. She is the first woman to serve as commissioner

Officers from the California Highway Patrol responded to the scene and found Lamonica 'standing in the median center divider looking over the railing by the concrete,' the Post reported citing police documents.

CHP officers put the cuffs on Lamonica and took her into custody.

The CHP officers allege that Lamonica was 'belligerent' and made accusations that she had been assaulted during her arrest.

The Post quotes a CHP report in which officers called Lamonica 'belligerent, argumentative and discourteous.'

Interstate 80, where Lamonica was found walking, stretches the breadth of California from San Francisco to the Nevada border just outside of Reno

Lamonica was afforded the opportunity to talk to her superior officer in the NYPD while in custody but wouldn't hand the phone over to the CHP officers when asked.

Later, Lamonica came clean and said that the CHP officers 'acted reasonably' while admitting that she created a 'dangerous situation' by being on the highway.

Charges of public intoxication, pedestrian prohibited on restricted freeways and failure to obey signs, were dropped by the San Francisco District Attorney's office.

Lamonica's punishment from the NYPD was cushy. The officer was docked the standard 30 vacation days, attended counseling for six weeks and did volunteer work with the NYPD's stress management unit, reports the Post. In addition, Lamonica also did yoga with fellow officers.

A signed letter from new NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell sealed Lamonica's cushy fate in a February 2022 letter.

Sewell wrote, 'After reviewing the facts and circumstances of this matter, I have determined that the limited scope of the misconduct in this matter calls for a penalty less than the presumptive penalty provide in the Departments Disciplinary System Penalty Guidelines.'

The new commissioner wrote that Lamonica said that she 'acknowledged being unfit for duty while on vacation in California.'

Lamonica is commended for cooperating with the NYPD investigation into the incident and for not doing anything else wrong during her trip.

Sewell continued, 'Officer Lamonica has received commendable reviews and has no prior or subsequent alcohol-related incidents and has no formal disciplinary history.'

The letter also says that Lamonica would also be treated to counseling as part of her punishment.

Online records show that Lamonica had a complaint against for alleged abuse of power in a seizure of property. The complaint was not substantiated because the complainant was not cooperative.

The investigation into that January 2020 allegation was closed in June 2020 with no disciplinary action for Lamonica.

According to Capstat, Lamonica began her career with the NYPD in October 2016.
A potential juror caused a scene in court after he mouthed threats at Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz and appeared ready to attack him, getting other jurors riled up.

On Tuesday, a 70-member pool of potential jurors was filing into a Fort Lauderdale courtroom when a man in his 30s, 'mouthed expletives' toward Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz, 23, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer said.

Bailiffs quickly removed the man, who shook his head vigorously and muttered 'that's horrible' repeatedly.

The juror who threatened Cruz started looking back over his shoulder toward him, leading deputies to surround Cruz, 23, to protect him over fears the juror and others might attack him.

Judge Elizabeth Scherer speaks to attorneys on Tuesday, the same day a potential juror, a man in his 30s, 'mouthed expletives' toward Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz

Deputies had to pull Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz (pictured) aside and surround him over fears jurors would launch an attack toward the 23-year-old

'One instigates and then there are many followers,' Broward Sheriff's Capt. Osvaldo Tianga said.

After he left the courtroom, the man told deputies that he wasn't trying to cause problems, but he got emotional and wanted to curse out Cruz, a reporter in the hallway told AP.

Inside the courtroom, Scherer and the attorneys quickly conferred and the judge dismissed the entire panel. She said they became 'belligerent' while waiting for the elevator to take them back to the lobby and 'got mouthy' toward deputies.

The juror who started it all told the deputies that they - or perhaps the system - had traumatized the potential jurors, according to the reporter.

Scherer said deputies followed the group out of the courthouse to make sure they didn't say anything to another group of prospective jurors waiting to be brought in.

This is the latest incident in the case against Cruz who is facing a possible death sentence for murdering 17 at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.

On April 12 Scherer (pictured) dismissed a panel of 60 jurors after eight became obviously emotional upon seeing Cruz, possibly influencing the others

Scherer, a registered Republican who lives in Broward County, has been on the case since 2019, when Cruz was charged

Cruz pleaded guilty in October and now a 12-member, eight-alternate jury is being selected to decide whether he receives a death sentence or life in prison without parole.

Cruz was a 19-year-old expelled student with a history of mental health and behavioral issues at the time of the killings, prosecutors said last year.

Under Florida law, a jury must be unanimous in its decision to recommend a death sentence. If any of the 12 jurors objects, Cruz will be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Among the mitigating factors the defense will ask the jury to consider are Cruz's brain damage from his mother's drug and alcohol abuse during pregnancy, his long history of mental-health disorders, and allegations he was sexually abused and bullied.

On Monday, Scherer announced she was dismissing 250 potential jurors who had passed initial screening because of a possible error she made, starting the selection process over.

More than 1,800 jurors have come through the courtroom, mostly without incident since the process began April 4.

On April 12, a panel of 60 had to be dismissed after eight became obviously emotional upon seeing Cruz, possibly influencing the others, and about a dozen others have been quietly removed from various panels because they started crying.

One woman was heard telling the judge: 'My son is a victim. He was shot at 15 year old. My spirit is so disturbed,' according to video obtained by WPLG. The judge interrupted the woman in an effort to keep her emotions from influencing the rest of the panel.

The panels are not told they are being brought up as potential Cruz jurors, although it is widely known throughout South Florida that the process has started.

At this point, the potential jurors are only being asked if they could serve from June through September, the trial's expected length. Those who can will be brought back next month for further questioning.

Jury selection resumed Wednesday.

Scherer, a registered Republican who lives in Broward County, has been on the case since 2019, when Cruz was charged.

She sparred with his attorneys during proceedings, labeling them 'disrespectful' at times.

Scherer has been on the bench for ten years and the Parkland case is by far her most high profile.

In 2018, she threatened to restrict reporting of the case after a local newspaper published information about Cruz that was not intended to be part of the public record.

Fort Lauderdale attorneys told The Sun Sentinel at the time that she had a reputation for showing up late to court and for being 'testy' and 'cranky.'

Scherer is a mother, wife and avid horseback rider who, according to social media profiles, belonged at one time to the Stanford Equestrian team.

Last week, footage from the courtroom showed Scherer, 46, asking whether anyone had concerns about juror requirements.

'Miss Bristol' piped up to say not only was the trial expected to take 'a whole entire month', it conflicted with her birthday and would interrupt her love life.

'First of all let me clarify myself, July second is my birthday, July Fourth is my son, and the 18th is my other son. And again, I need to figure out something. I have my sugar daddy that I see every day.'

The judge replied: 'I'm sorry?' Bristol replied: 'My sugar daddy.'

The judge, looking increasingly confused, said: 'I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about.'

'Well, I am married and I have my sugar daddy. I see him every day.'

Lost for words, Scherer replied: 'OK. All right. Ma'am, we'll come back to you, OK? Thank you.' She was later excused.

The axed juror and native New Yorker said she would've lost $8,000 a month throughout the case's six-month timeframe.

'If I do this case for six months, I have a hardship that means my sugar daddy cant support me,' Bristol told WPLG.

Bristol explained that the six-month time frame would put her in a financial bind.

'It's all day for six-months and whats my hardship? I need my sugar daddy money. I said to the judge, "I have a sugar daddy and Im married and I have a husband," just like that,' Bristol said.
One of Sydney's most elite private schools has banned male students from bringing their own laptops to class after several were caught on online gambling sites, social media or watching pornography.

Shore School - which charges $37,350 a year for Year 12 tuition - initially allowed students to bring their own devices to class for their education under a Bring Your Own Device policy.

But the prestigious, single-sex Anglican college has backflipped and introduced a ban after many boys became increasingly distracted by gambling, porn, social media and streaming sites instead of focusing on their teachers.

A school has banned male students from taking their laptops to class after several were caught on online gambling sites, social media or watching pornography

Shore School in North Sydney (pictured) initially permitted students to bring their own devices to class. But the prestigious, single-sex Anglican college has since implemented a ban after many became distracted by gambling, porn and social media

The school's principal Timothy Petterson listed classroom distraction as one of the main reasons for the policy change and told parents the BYO policy was only 'sub-optimal to the learning of students.'

Teachers conceded at an information night for students last month that issues had arisen since boys at the school started to bring their own devices to class.

Educators referred to behavioural problems in Year 9 specifically with three boys being asked to 'seek an education elsewhere' because they did not meet expectations, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

A former student who graduated from Shore School last year reportedly penned an article for the school's newsletter elaborating on just how frequent laptop misuse amongst his peers was.

'Students are gambling, gaming, scrolling through social media, watching Netflix, purchasing things on eBay, video conferencing with their friends and viewing pornography all while their teacher is addressing them,' he said.

'I am five weeks out from the trial HSC in one of the top classes and this is still happening every single day.'

The author wrote that 'fewer than half of the students in most of my classes are paying full attention to teachers, with most staring blankly at their laptops'.

He recalled how one teacher had to stop his class 'every 10 minutes' to tell students to look up and pay attention.

Teachers conceded at an information night for students last month that issues had arisen since boys at the school started to bring their own devices to class

Shore school is currently rolling out a new policy where boys will 'rent out' laptops with built-in controls instead of bringing their own devices. Teachers have also been trained to be aware of device misuse in class. (Pictured: A photo taken from the interior of the school)

The school is currently rolling out a new policy where boys will 'rent out' laptops with built-in controls instead of bringing their own devices.

Teachers have also been trained to be aware of device misuse in class.

A spokeswoman for Shore School told the Sydney Morning Herald that the policy to rent-out and use laptops, like many other schools do, was due to 'changing education and technology environments'.

She said the 'overwhelming majority of boys' at Shore adhered to the school's rules in regards to appropriate laptop use.

The spokeswoman added that any student not following the laptop guidelines would be subject to 'disciplinary action'.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Shore for comment,.

Bring Your Own Device policies, like the one that was initiated at Shore, are common as they allow institutions to wave technology levies that are usually lumped onto school fees.

Private schools usually add these levies as they rent out devices, while public schools often allow students to bring their own computers.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his allies complained about the rhetoric being used by fellow GOP lawmakers including Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks, Lauren Boebert and Barry Moore during a private phone call in the days following the January 6 Capitol attack.

On Tuesday, The New York Times released fresh audio clips of McCarthy on a call with Minority Whip Steve Scalise, then House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, Rep. Tim Emmer and a handful of Congressional aides, where he relayed his fears that the discourse could lead to violence.

'Tension is too high, the country is too crazy,' McCarthy warned on the January 10 call. 'I do not want to look back and think we caused something or we missed something and someone got hurt. I don't want to play politics with any of that.'

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his allies complained about the rhetoric being used by fellow GOP lawmakers including Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks, Lauren Boebert and Barry Moore during a private phone call in the days following the January 6 Capitol attack

McCarthy and GOP leaders discussed comments Rep. Mo Brooks (left) made at the 'Save America' rally in the hours before the January 6 Capitol attack and things Rep. Matt Gaetz (right) said about 'anti-Trump' Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney

In one clip from the call, McCarthy is heard discussing comments Gaetz made on Newsmax, where he went after fellow Republicans for being 'anti-Trump.'

One of the Republicans Gaetz was critical of was Cheney, who blasted the outgoing president after the January 6 insurrection.

'This is serious stuff people are doing that has to stop,' the top House Republican grumbled, mentioning briefings he was receiving from the FBI.

'I'm calling Gaetz, I'm explaining to him, I don't know if I have much to say, but I'm going to have some other people call him too,' McCarthy continued. 'This is serious s**t, to cut this out.'

Scalise pushed that 'it's potentially illegal what he's doing.'

'Well, he's putting people in jeopardy,' McCarthy said. 'And he doesn't need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.'

Scalise, the House's No. 2 Republican, also pointed to comments made by Brooks and Rep. Louie Gohmert, including how Brooks said at the 'Save America' rally before the Capitol Attack that 'today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.'

'You got the Maxine Waters and all that stuff too, I know the Dems are in a very strong positions to drive a lot of things, but our members have got to start paying attention to what they say too, we can't put up with that type of s**t,' McCarthy said.

In the past, Republicans have gone after Waters, a California Democrat, for some of her rhetoric.

'You think the president deserves to be impeached for his comments? That's almost something that goes further than what the president said,' McCarthy said of Brooks' 'kicking ass' line.

On the call, Rep. Liz Cheney brought up Rep. Lauren Boebert (pictured), pointing out that she had tweeted members' movements during the January 6 attack.

Recording of McCarthy talking about Gaetz pic.twitter.com/a2SmXgJCKt  Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2022

On the call, Cheney brought up Boebert, pointing out that she had tweeted members' movements during the January 6 attack.

McCarthy asked if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene - often linked to Boebert over their shared, now disavowed, interest in QAnon - had been a speaker at former President Donald Trump's 'Save America' rally.

McCarthy is also told about tweets made from Moore.

'Wow, we have more arrests for stealing a podium on January 6 than we do for stealing an election on November 3, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit would be places I'd reccomend you start,' Moore wrote before deleting his personal Twitter account.

On the death of capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt he commented, 'I understand it was a black police officer who shot the white female veteran.'

'You know that doesn't fit the narrative,' the Alabama Republican tweeted.

McCarthy was also told about tweets sent out by Rep. Barry Moore (pictured) including on the death of Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt. 'I understand it was a black police officer who shot the white female veteran. You know that doesn't fit the narrative,' Moore wrote

After Moore's tweets were read aloud on the call, both McCarthy and Cheney are heard murmuring, 'wow.'

'Can't they take their Twitter accounts away, too?' McCarthy then said.

The sound bites released Tuesday were from the same call in which McCarthy told GOP leadership he'd tell Trump to resign - comments he continues to deny, despite the recording being released publicly.

The January 10 call was revealed by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, in a preview of their new book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future.

The comments prompted January 6 House select committee Chairman Bennie Thompson to announce Tuesday that the panel would issue 'another invitation' to McCarthy to testify.

Then the Democrat-led committee - which includes Republicans Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger - will decide whether to subpoena McCarthy and other Republicans, Punchbowl News said.
Shocking police footage has shown the moment a 'heinous' paedophile was arrested in a motel room where he was waiting to rape an eight-year-old girl.

Jonathon David Henke, 46, placed an online ad 'looking for mother and very young daughter'.

Henke thought he had arranged to meet the mum and daughter at an Adelaide motel and sat on a bed waiting for their arrival one afternoon in late 2020.

Instead it was police barged through the door, as shown by footage released by the Adelaide District Court this week.

Jonathon David Henke (pictured) was waiting for the arrival of what he thought was a mother bringing her eight-year-old daughter to have sex with him. Instead, police came through the door and arrested him

The officers then handcuffed Henke while saying: 'Let go of your hand, let go your arm.'

Officers found stacks of $50 notes heaped on a desk in the room, which Henke thought he was going to use to pay to have sex with the child.

A pack of flavoured condoms was also seen on the desk and Henke also had lubricant with him.

In the footage, one of the police officers says 'Mr Henke, is it?' and two officers lift him onto the bed.

One of the officers introduces himself as being from the Child Exploitation team and tells Henke he is placing him under arrest.

Henke is then read his rights and asked if he understands. He says he does and is then told that 'the camera is running. Anything you say is being recorded.'

When he was caught, pathetic Henke tried to lie to police that he was actually just trying to help them out.

Henke had stacks of $50 notes (pictured) on a desk, ready to pay for sex with am eight-year-old child

Henke had a packet of flavoured condoms (pictured) on a desk in the motel room where he was waiting to abuse a child

The South Australian District Court heard that on October 2, 2020 Henke posted an online advertisement on a site called ChaosAds.

The ad said it was from a 'male looking for mother and very young daughter', Judge Adam Kimber said during sentencing.

Police saw the ad and contacted Henke on the phone number he gave.

'The undercover officer pretended to be a 37-year-old mother of two young girls, aged five and eight,' Judge Kimber said.

Henke sent a series of vile messages about the eight-year-old and offered $500 to have sex with her.

'You asked about the child's sexual experience  and asked whether the child had been shown the photograph you had sent of your penis,' Judge Kimber said.

Henke booked a motel room where he could have sex with the child and asked the person he thought was the mother to bring child exploitation material.

The judge said 'The condoms were flavoured and in the flavour you had been told the child liked.'

He added: 'You lied to the police and said you had gone along with the communications with the intention of reporting to the police the person with whom you are communicating.'

Henke (pictured) lied to police by saying he was trying to help them to catch a paedophile

Henke (pictured), a former truck driver, posted the online ad on the same day his wife asked for a divorce. He's seen being arrested by cops, in police vision above

Henke, from Nuriootpa, an hour north of Adelaide, was also found with child exploitation material.

He pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material and procuring a child for sexual activity.

The former truck driver posted the online ad on the same day his wife asked for a divorce.

Judge Kimber said Henke's offending was 'heinous' and his 'deviant' interest in children meant his chances of reoffending were 'very real'.

'You believed that you were contracting for a child to be sold for sex,' he said.

'You have only recently admitted having had a deviant sexual interest in prepubescent and pubescent females for about 15 years.

'You have also admitted having viewed child exploitation material over at least the last 15 years,' the judge said.

Henke was sentenced to five years and eight months jail, with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

The sentence was backdated to October 23, 2020, the day he was arrested.
Vets have issued an urgent warning to dog owners about the worrying rise of a rare but deadly bacterial disease found in at least two states.

A spate of leptospirosis infections has been detected across Sydney and in the NSW Lake Macquarie region, which claimed the lives of at least two dogs and left a 12-week-old puppy fighting for life.

The disease, transmitted from urine of infected animals such as rodents, has also been detected in the Northern Territory and can lead to permanent internal damage and, in some cases, death.

Emma Bagnall rushed her usually energetic and playful 12-week-old Storm to the vets suffering from vomiting and diarrhea after a sudden change in temperament.

The Swiss Shepherd had been struck down with leptospirosis, leaving him critically ill.

Emma Bagnall was told to expect for the worst after her puppy Storm became critically ill

Vets prepared the fitness trainer for the worst and warned her beloved pooch might not make it through the first night.

'They didn't want us to go through with treatment and really pushed the other option,' Ms Bagnall told NBN News.

'I couldn't bear it.'

One week on, Storm continues to defy the odds but remains in intensive care at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital in Sydney,

The puppy is battling kidney and liver failure, as well as jaundice, according to an online fundraiser set up by Ms Bagnall.

She's now speaking out to make other pet owners aware and stay vigilant for symptoms, including lethargy, vomiting, gastroenteritis, diarrhoea and jaundiced or yellow gums.

It's understood Storm likely picked up the disease from rats in a creek at the family property at Speers Point in the Lake Macquarie region.

Swiss Shepherd puppy Storm is lucky to be alive after being struck down with leptospirosis

The disease hasn't been prevalent in the area since the 1950s, according to Cardiff Veterinary Clinic's Andrew Cornwell.

Storm's harrowing ordeal has prompted the clinic to urge all pet owners to get their pooches vaccinated against the serious disease.

Puppies require two shots at six and nine months while adult dogs need a booster every 12 months.

Sydney Animal Hospital also recently issued an urgent warning after the tragic deaths of two dogs on the northern beaches and in the city's inner-west.

'With the risk of more rodents being around due to the current plague, dogs may come into contact with leptospirosis through contaminated stagnant water, such as in ponds or puddles, or through any direct contact with rodents,' the clinic warned on its website.

'Furthermore, the organism can survive for up to two months in stagnant water if conditions are favourable.'

Storm's harrowing ordeal (pictured with his owner) has sparked renewed warning for pet owners to get their dogs vaccinated against the disease

'If your dog lives in, or visits areas impacted by rats or mice, then they are at risk from leptospirosis and need to be vaccinated.

'It is important to keep your dog on a lead after rain to prevent drinking from puddles.'

NT Health Director of the Centre for Disease Control, Dr Vicki Krause recently warned of cases detected in animals and humans in the Top End.

An outbreak during last year's wet season of 13 cases, mostly among workers in the cattle industry.

At least six cases have already been in the territory so far in 2022.

'Infection may occur through exposure to an animal or contaminated water, mud, soil or vegetation  especially after heavy rains during the wet season,' Dr Krause said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has blasted Vladimir Putin for launching missiles over Ukraine's three nuclear power stations and said Russia's occupation of Chernobyl shows 'no one in the world can feel safe'.

Yesterday - the 36th anniversary of the world's worst civil nuclear power disaster at the plant when its fourth reactor caught fire and exploded on April 26, 1986 - Russia sent rockets over Chernobyl and two other functioning nuclear power stations - Zaporizhzhia and Khmelnytskyi - in Ukraine.

Zelensky denounced Russia's actions and said Moscow's total disregard for nuclear safety showed that 'no one in the world can feel safe'.

Russian troops moved into the highly contaminated 'exclusion zone' surrounding the Chernobyl plant days after launching their February 24 incursion before they withdrew late last month.

Russia treated the toxic site 'like a normal battleground, territory where they didn't even try to care about nuclear safety,' Zelensky said during a press conference with UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi.

Earlier, Grossi said Russia's temporary occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear power station was 'very, very dangerous' and offered to help Ukraine repair damage caused to the stricken plant.

'The situation was absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous,' Grossi told reporters outside the station 140 km (87 miles) north of Kyiv.

Zelensky, speaking in a late night address on Tuesday, said Russian troops had stolen equipment used to measure radiation, adding: 'I believe that after everything that Russian troops did in the Chernobyl zone and at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, no one in the world can feel safe knowing how many nuclear sites, nuclear weapons and relevant technologies Russia has.

'If Russia forgot what Chernobyl is, it means that total control over Russian nuclear sites and technologies is required.'

President Volodymyr Zelensky has blasted Vladimir Putin for launching missiles over Ukraine's three nuclear power stations

Russian tanks and armoured vehicles parked just in front of the destroyed reactor in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

A Ukrainian army soldier stands guard at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 2022 in Chernobyl

Ukrainian officials earlier complained that Russian troops had pulled heavy equipment through the zone, disturbing contaminated territory and sending up radioactive dust. The troops temporarily prevented staff from leaving the station, where they oversee large amounts of spent fuel and other radioactive materials.

Speaking later in Kyiv after talks with Zelensky, Grossi said the IAEA and Ukraine would take on 'special work' at Chernobyl to restore 'all the capacities there and the infrastructure that was damaged in the past few weeks'.

Zelensky, in his nightly video, said Russia's conduct after taking over the plant meant 'it appears they have no understanding what Chernobyl is at all'.

Zelensky said he visited Okhmatdyt Hospital on Tuesday to meet with orphaned children and hand out iPads.

There he spoke to two young girls - Ilya, 10 and Kira, 12 - who lived in Mariupol until the Russian invasion. He said Ilya's mother was killed by Russian bombing of the city, while Kira's father - the former captain of Ukraine's water polo team - was killed by a sniper.

Zelensky said the children of Mariupol were taken by Russian troops and 'it took a lot of effort to get them back'.

Zelensky said he visited Okhmatdyt Hospital on Tuesday to meet with orphaned children and hand out iPads

A statement released by Ukrainian state nuclear agency Energoatom on Tuesday morning said two cruise missiles flew at low altitude at 6:41am and 6:44am, soaring over the Zaporizhzhia power plant and impacting targets in Zaporizhzhia city centre a short distance away.

Zaporizhzhia is home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which contains six nuclear reactors besides other nuclear facilities.

But it was captured in the early days of the Russian invasion and has remained in occupied territory, serving as a military base for Putin's forces.

'The flight of missiles at low altitudes directly above the ZNPP site, where nuclear facilities with a huge amount of nuclear material are located, poses huge risks,' said Energoatom chief Petro Kotin.

'After all, missiles can hit one or more nuclear facilities, and this threatens a nuclear radiation catastrophe which will be felt around the world.'

Zaporizhzhia's Regional Military Administation reported at least one person was killed and one injured in the attack, which it said 'destroyed the infrastructure of an enterprise in the city'.

A third missile was shot down by Ukrainian air defences and landed in a field on the outskirts of the city.

Six power units generate 40-42 billion kWh of electricity, making the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant the largest nuclear power plant not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe

A view shows a damaged administrative building of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on March 4. Russian forces shelled the power plant as they attempted to wrest control of it from the defenders

Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko echoed a warning given by Energoatom chief Petro Konin about the dangers of continued missile strikes and fighting near the nuclear power plant

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at a press conference about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine in Vienna, Austria, Friday, March 4, 2022. Russian shelling caused a fire in an administrative building close to the reactors

Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko said of the incident: 'This morning two cruise missiles flew above #Zaporizhzhia atomic plant towards the city at a low height. Later explosions were heard in Zaporizhzhia.

'Rockets flying low directly above the plant which has [six] nuclear reactors and a lot of nuclear material is extremely risky,' he posted on Twitter.

Fears that a nuclear catastrophe could occur at the ZNPP were first sparked on March 3, when Russian forces attempting to wrest control of the plant from the Ukrainian defenders shelled the facility.

Video footage of the incident shows a training building located a stone's throw from the nuclear reactors catching fire while plant workers pleaded with the invaders over the loudspeaker to stop shelling the location.

Today's warning of the potential consequences of armed conflict in close proximity to the nuclear power plant comes on the 36th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident.

On April 26, 1986, a reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the north of what was then Soviet Ukraine went into meltdown and exploded.

Huge clouds of radioactive smoke and dust were spread from the reactor, prompting mass evacuations from the nearby town of Pripyat where families of the plant's staff lived and the creation of an exclusion zone which remains in place to this day.

A total of 28 staff members and emergency workers died from radiation poisoning in the days following the explosion, as well as two workers who were killed instantly in the blast.

But studies conducted in the years following the disaster discovered a considerable increase in incidences of thyroid cancer among the population who lived near the plant.

According to a United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) report, there had been almost 20,000 cases of thyroid cancer reported in children and adolescents who were exposed at the time of the accident between 1991-2015.

On April 26, 1986, a reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the north of what was then Soviet Ukraine went into meltdown and exploded. Huge clouds of radioactive smoke and dust were spread from the reactor, prompting mass evacuations from the nearby town of Pripyat where families of the plant's staff lived and the creation of an exclusion zone which remains in place to this day (a steel containment dome is seen above the remains of the reactor)

A total of 28 staff members and emergency workers died from radiation poisoning in the days following the explosion, as well as two workers who were killed instantly in the blast. But studies conducted in the years following the disaster discovered a considerable increase in incidences of thyroid cancer among the population who lived near the plant (exclusion zone in Chernobyl pictured)

Meanwhile, Energoatom said Russian troops, who have occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant since March 4, were keeping heavy equipment and ammunition on the site.

'Thirty-six years after the Chernobyl tragedy, Russia exposes the whole world to the danger of a repeat of the nuclear catastrophe!' it said.

Russia did not immediately comment on Energoatom's statement.

It has previously offered safety assurances about Ukraine's nuclear power facilities since launching what it says is a 'special military operation' on February 24.

Russian troops also occupied the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power station soon after invading Ukraine but withdrew in late March as Putin's forces geared up for redeployment in a new, targeted offensive in the eastern Donbas region.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), visited Chernobyl on Tuesday.
Some of Labor's most prominent MPs have been benched by Anthony Albanese during the election campaign because of their unpopularity with the Australian electorate.

The party's former deputy leader Tanya Plibersek and ex-leader Bill Shorten have been kept away from the media spotlight throughout the campaign so far - even while the Opposition Leader is sick at home with Covid.

Labor campaign HQ has only sent out one transcript of a press conference or media appearance by Ms Plibersek and none by Mr Shorten.

Some of Labor's most popular politicians such as Tanya Plibersek (pictured on Monday) have been side-lined by Anthony Albanese during the election campaign

Labor Party campaign spokesperson Jason Clare has made several official media appearances

This is despite the fact that both have featured on TV and radio shows such as Sky News, Sunrise, Today, Radio National and The Project.

An analysis by the Sydney Morning Herald shows Industry spokesman Ed Husic, Defence spokesman Brendan O'Connor and Aged Care spokeswoman Clare O'Neil have also been side-lined.

By contrast, Housing spokesman Jason Clare, Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong, Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers and deputy leader Richard Marles have each had between five and 13 transcripts sent to reporters.

Mr Shorten and Ms Plibersek are seen as good communicators but neither is considered close to Mr Albanese.

A poll in December found Ms Plibersek was Labor's most popular politician.

Aged Care spokeswoman Clare O'Neil (pictured) have also been side-lined

Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong has made official media appearances with transcripts sent out

Former leader Bill Shorten (pictured) and his deputy for six years Tanya Plibersek have been kept away from the media spotlight

It comes after a leaked internal Labor Party memo revealed Mr Albanese's secret strategy to 'censor' his frontbenchers and dominate media coverage during the election campaign.

The plot to keep shadow ministers out of the limelight was detailed in an email from Labor's campaign directors to press secretaries and candidates.

In what was called 'a very different way of operating', Labor HQ said transcripts of interviews, speeches and opinion pieces will be hidden from the media unless they involve the leader.

Labor politicians were told they will have to get advance permission to hold a press conference, send quotes to media or give a speech.

Who has had their transcripts released by Labor HQ? In the good books Jason Clare: 13 Jim Chalmers: 12 Katy Gallagher: 10 Penny Wong: 7 Richard Marles: 5 Side-lined Ed Husic: 1 Tanya Plibersek: 1 Bill Shorten: 0 Clare O'Neil: 0 Brendan O'Connor: 0 Advertisement

They were also told to cancel regular TV and radio interviews, with every appearance now 'subject to approval based on the media context on that day'.

The memo said the strict measures have been taken to 'keep our daily message clear'.

It came hot on the heels of a PR disaster when frontbencher Mark Dreyfus admitted on radio that Labor's flagship policy for 24/7 aged care nurses may not work, just four days after Mr Albanese announced it.

The plot to keep shadow ministers out of the limelight was detailed in this email from Labor's campaign directors to press secretaries and candidates. Scroll down for the full email

The memo said the strict measures have been taken to 'keep our daily message clear'. Pictured: Mr Albanese with his son and girlfriend Jodie Haydon

Labor did not release a transcript of the interview in which Mr Dreyfus said the policy may need to be 'paused' if there are not enough nurses.

'This new way of working is important to ensure Campaign HQ Comms is able to focus on the most important task  helping win the election  and that we are all focused on that goal,' the memo said.

'There will inevitably be some teething issues in our first weeks.'

The memo was leaked by a Labor operative furious about new rules which strip MPs of their independence.

The Coalition said the memo proved Labor is 'hiding' from voters to 'sneak' into Government.
A Greens councillor allegedly yelled 'f**k the LG family' after she allegedly bashed and abused a transgender woman outside a nightclub.

Anab Mohamud is accused of grabbing the woman by her throat outside Chaser's on Chapel Street in Melbourne's South Yarra on April 11 last year after the two began arguing in the smoking area.

She then allegedly assaulted the transgender woman, before she was pursued and attacked herself as the brawl spilled out on to Bray Street.

The Greens councillor was hospitalised with serous facial injuries including her left eye being swollen so badly it couldn't open.

'I swear to Allah if I lose my eye I will make sure all these f*****ts die',' the court heard she allegedly yelled after the fight.

Anab Mohamud (pictured) is accused of assaulting a trans woman before hurling abuse at her after the woman retaliated and attacked her when leaving a Melbourne nightclub

Ms Mohamud sustained severe facial and eye injuries as a result of the alleged assault at the hands of the trans woman

Mohamud, 35, who moved to Australia from Somalia 20 years ago, was mentioned in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday facing charges including assault, drunk and disorderly behaviour, and offensive language.

The court heard she claims it was the transgender woman, Al Shaba Bin Taha from St Kilda, who instead grabbed her throat, according to the Herald Sun.

Chaser's hosts a LGBTQI-themed night called Poof Doof, which is also held regularly in other nightclubs around Australia including on Sydney's Oxford Street.

Magistrate Rosemary Falla said on Tuesday it would be difficult to determine the offensive language charge.

'I don't know what the offensive words are that were uttered, but you're not going to be the most pleasant person in the world at the time you're being assaulted,' she said, according to the Herald Sun.

'The words may be offensive in a public place, but it's also in the context of being assaulted to the point that necessitated being treated in hospital.

'It's a matter for Victoria Police, I don't know how that's going to be made out.'

Ms Mohamud is accused of grabbing the woman by her throat outside Chaser's nightclub (pictured) near Chapel Street on April 11 last year

Ms Bin Taha was charged with affray and recklessly cause injury for the alleged assault on Mohamud's. She will face court in October.

Police told the court the two parties had conflicting statements on the series of events, with 14 witnesses including patrons of the nightclub to be called for Mohamud's three-day hearing.

She appeared via video link and was seen shaking her head as police detailed their case against her. At one stage she wiped tears away from her eyes.

She will face court for a contested hearing in October.
A New York judge found Donald Trump in contempt of court on Monday, declaring that he refused to cooperate with the state Attorney General's requests for financial data as part of an ongoing civil probe into his business operations.

Judge Arthur Engoron has ordered Trump to pay $10,000 every day until he obeys Attorney General Letitia James' request for records. The ruling comes after James, a Democrat, filed a contempt petition earlier this month, seeking for punishment for Trump's failure to comply with a court order by March 31 and provide the sought data.

Donald Trump Ordered To Pay New York's AG $10,000 Daily Fine

The decision is a win for James, who began her investigation into the Trump Organization more than three years ago and has accused Trump of a history of misrepresenting or fabricating his assets in his yearly financial statements. James scored another court victory when Engoron ordered that Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm, must cooperate with subpoenas related to its real estate activities for the firm and must submit the papers to the attorney general's office by May 27, according to Politico.

Earlier in the court, Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, claimed that her client was free of charges since whatever records he might have were already handed over to the AG's office through the Trump Organization.

Engoron, on the other hand, pushed Habba on why Trump had not provided a sworn document confirming that fact. Habba described the AG's investigation as a political crusade that continues to grow and extend and has cost the Trump Organization millions of dollars in legal bills during oral arguments.

Read Also: Russian Diplomat Warns US, NATO of World War III and Nuclear Conflict Amid Bullying

Trump's Legal Team To Appeal the Ruling

Trump's legal team wants to appeal the judgment, according to Habba outside of court. After Congressional evidence from Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen claimed Trump inflated firm assets to get an advantage on taxes, loan applications, and insurance reasons, James launched a probe in 2019, New York Post reported.

Ivanka Trump and Donald Jr., two of Trump's adult children, were also summoned and ordered to testify before the attorney general. The testimony is now on appeal. During the hearing, Andrew Amer, special litigation counsel for the attorney general's office, claimed that the $10,000-per-day fee was intended to push Trump into complying with the subpoena rather than penalize him.

Trump did cooperate with the subpoena, according to Habba, but he did not have any records that were pertinent to James' request. To comply with the subpoena, Engoron said she would have to provide a thorough affidavit regarding her examination of Trump's documents.

According to Halim Dhanidina, a former California judge who now practices law, such an affidavit would have to establish that Trump's staff had done a thorough search for materials.

The Trump Organization's property assessments are also under investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, who indicated the company's senior financial officer last year. Despite the resignation of two top lawyers, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg stated last month that the investigation is still proceeding, as per US News.

Related Article: Republicans Want Elon Musk To Free Donald Trump After Twitter Takeover

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Agency staff have 'gone on strike' on a P&O Ferry that lost power and drifted in the Irish Sea for two hours before lifeboats and a tug were sent to rescue it.

The European Causeway, which can carry 410 passengers, was adrift five miles off the coast of Northern Ireland for more than an hour on Tuesday afternoon, according to tracking website Marine Traffic, before being escorted to its planned destination at Port of Larne.

It was rescued by three lifeboats and a tugboat before it regained power shortly before 2.15pm, much to the relief of passengers on board who had endured blackouts.

After the ship got back to the port, a number of the new crew members asked maritime unions for advice about terminating their contracts, the Times reported.

Darren Procter, of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said Tuesday's incident was down to 'inexperienced crew' as seafarers 'familiar with the ship would have been able to keep it under power'. He also claimed P&O Ferries was holding staff to the end of their contracts and refusing to pay their travel expenses if they leave early.

A spokesperson for P&O Ferries said Tuesday's incident had been a temporary issue and the European Causeway had travelled to Larne 'under its own propulsion'.

It was yet another public relations disaster for the scandal-hit firm - just weeks after it sparked fury by firing 800 UK staff over zoom and replacing them with cheaper foreign crews.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced earlier this month that the Insolvency Service had started 'formal criminal and civil investigations' into the company, which he said he would be 'following closely' along with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

The probe came after P&O Ferries admitted to breaking the law in the manner in which it terminated staff on March 17 to hire cheaper agency workers, a move that has caused a major backlash from politicians and workers - compounded this week by claims it wanted to cut the wages of its new workers even further.

The European Causeway had already been detained last month 'based on concerns over its safety' and to 'prevent them going to sea', the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said. The Pride of Kent was also detained in Dover on March 28 after it failed inspections to see if it was 'safe to go to sea without passengers or cargo'.

Mr Procter said crew on board the European Causeway had claimed that engine parts were changed with the firm's European Highlander 'in order to pass its inspection', the Telegraph reported.

A spokesperson for P&O Ferries said: 'Following a temporary mechanical issue, the European Causeway is now continuing on its scheduled journey to the Port of Larne under its own propulsion, with local tugs on standby, where it will discharge its passengers and cargo as planned.

'There are no reported injuries on board and all the relevant authorities have been informed. Once in dock a full independent investigation will be undertaken.'

The Marine Traffic website said the European Causeway's automatic identification system status had been set to 'not under command'.

This setting is reserved for use when a vessel is 'unable to manoeuvre as required by these rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel'.

P&O Ferries operated European Highlander vessel in dock at the Port of Larne, Co Antrim, after it lost power off the Co Antrim coast

Agency staff are 'refusing to work' on a P&O Ferry that lost power and drifted in the Irish Sea for two hours before lifeboats and a tug were sent to rescue it

A route tracking map appeared to show it off course and bobbing around in the Irish Sea

The Marine Traffic website today said the European Causeway's (vessel pictured) automatic identification system status had been set to 'not under command', causing it to drift

The European Causeway (pictured today) had been detained at Larne after an initial inspection by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on March 25 uncovered 31 safety failings

The European Causeway, which can carry up to 410 passengers, is currently bobbing around

It left Cairnryan at midday - with an unknown number of people onboard - due in to Larne Harbour at 2pm

A timeline of the P&O Ferries fiasco March 17: A P&O Ferries executive is tells 800 staff in a Zoom call that they are being made redundant and replaced with agency workers. The firm also announces it has suspended sailings 'for the next few days.' March 18: Staff protests break out at ports in Dover, Liverpool and Hull. March 21: Foreign agency workers from India, the Philippines and Pakistan are pictured being transported to P&O Ferries' ships. March 24: P&O Ferries' millionaire chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite admits to MPs that his company 'chose' to break the law when it sacked its staff and says he would do the same again. March 25: P&O ferry the European Causeway is detained in Northern Ireland for being 'unfit to sail'. March 28: A second vessel, the Pride of Kent, is detained in Dover by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. March 30: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps vows to introduce new law to ban P&O Ferries from British ports if crew are not paid the minimum wage. April 1: Criminal and civil investigations are launched into P&O Ferries' mass sackings. April 7: P&O Ferries cancellations continue to cause gridlock on motorways Kent as queues of drivers waiting to cross the Channel build up. April 14: P&O Ferries suspends all of its passenger services across the Channel over Easter. April 19: Several P&O agency staff are fired after testing positive for alcohol. April 22: The Maritime and Coastguard Agency seizes a third vessel, the 700ft long Spirit of Britain. April 24: P&O Ferries are accused of trying to pay new staff even lower wages. April 26: A P&O boat comes adrift in the Irish Sea and has to be escorted back to safety. Advertisement

The company's suspension of its Dover-Calais route has caused travel chaos on roads in Kent this month as other ferry companies have been placed under immense pressure to cope with the Easter demand.

Dealing a further blow to its reputation, it was claimed this week that ships were prevented from sailing because their new poorly paid foreign crews had been trained so badly some did not even know where the liferafts were.

A RNLI spokesperson said that three lifeboats had been sent to the scene on Tuesday.

The spokesperson said: 'Three RNLI lifeboats were requested to launch this afternoon to assist a passenger ferry in difficulty one mile south east of The Maidens.

'Larne RNLI's all-weather lifeboat launched at 2.17pm while Red Bay's RNLI's all-weather lifeboat launched at 2.35pm followed by the inshore lifeboat at 3pm.

'The ferry gained power again and was escorted back into the Port of Larne by all three lifeboats which were then stood down.'

A shipping expert said the good weather in the Irish Sea on Tuesday helped avert a potential disaster, while other experts said such breakdowns of large ships are extremely rare.

P&O said that the vessel had been affected by a 'mechanical issue'.

The company tweeted: 'Due to a mechanical issue with the Causeway in the Irish Sea, tugs from Larne and Belfast were deployed to guide it back to port.

'Once the ship is back in Port a full inspection will take place.'

One passenger told UTV: 'The engine just collapsed. Stopped working. They managed to get it working again and we were sailing for another 10 minutes. Then it stopped and completely blacked out. All the electrics. Everything was down.'

The Rail, Maritime and Transport workers' Union (RMT) said the reports were 'deeply concerning, not least for the agency crew and passengers on board'.

The European Causeway had been detained at Larne after an initial inspection by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on March 25 uncovered 31 safety failings.

This was due to safety concerns after the company sacked nearly 800 seafarers and replaced them with cheaper agency workers.

The ship was cleared to resume serving the Larne-Cairnryan route a fortnight later following another examination.

The ferry company drew national outage last month when it illegally fired nearly 800 staff members without notice over Zoom and replaced them all immediately with cheaper foreign workers.

The agency workers who were hired to replace 786 staff say they were asked to sign new contracts on even lower pay.

The firm has not carried out a cross-Channel crossing since its mass sacking last month.

This has caused a lack of capacity on the crucial Dover-Calais route, contributing to large queues of lorries on coastbound roads in Kent.

One of its ships, the Spirit of Britain, was impounded by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on April 12 over a string of safety issues, but has now been cleared for sailing. Another ship on the Dover-to-Calais route, the Pride Of Kent, remains in detention.

Yesterday, travel expert Paul Charles said it was his understanding the ships had been impounded not due to actual physical deficiencies but because the new crews had not been trained well enough, with 'some not even knowing where the liferafts were'.

An official inspection the European Causeway, which went adrift today, listed an inability to deploy lifeboats or life rafts as one of 31 failures that had been identified. The ferry normally operates between Cairnryan, Scotland, and Larne, Northern Ireland.

P&O Ferries expects to restart sailings for freight customers by Wednesday, but does not anticipate carrying tourists until early next week, it is understood d

P&O boss 'should be jailed' over sackings: Union chief The chief executive of P&O Ferries should be 'behind bars' after sacking 800 seafarers, a trade union president has said. Peter Hebblethwaite replaced the workers with cheaper staff in order to protect the company, he said. However, Pat Rafferty, Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) president, said sacking the seafarers via Zoom last month was 'gutter' and 'inhumane'. Speaking at the annual conference in Aberdeen, Mr Rafferty said that the CEO should be put in jail to send a clear message to employers. Mr Hebblethwaite rejected a request from Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, to reverse the decision. He also admitted his company broke the law by failing to consult unions about the redundancies. It is understood the business needed to cut costs to avoid collapse as it was losing money at a rate of 100 million per year. Mr Hebblethwaite said re-employing the sacked staff on their previous wages would 'deliberately cause the company's collapse, resulting in the irreversible loss of an additional 2,000 jobs'. Mr Rafferty said: 'There is something seriously wrong with our society when a company CEO like P&O can swan into a Westminster parliamentary committee and openly state that he broke the law - and worse still, he'd do it again. What that clearly demonstrates is how useless the law is. There is no deterrent to companies like P&O who are getting away with destroying people's lives. 'The law needs to change. Peter Hebblethwaite should be struck off the directors register and put behind bars. That would send a clear message to employers, act irresponsibly towards workers and face the possibility that you will be jailed.' Mr Hebblethwaite was also accused of 'corporate terrorism' last month as he faced MSPs in Holyrood's Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee. He told MSPs he had not taken a cut to his 325,000 salary while replacing his staff with agency workers who receive less than minimum wage. Mr Rafferty, who is also Scottish Secretary of Unite the Union, urged trade union members to boycott P&O Ferries until the dispute had been resolved. Advertisement

P&O Ferries expects to restart sailings for freight customers between Dover and Calais by Wednesday but does not anticipate carrying tourists until early next week, it is understood.

On Monday morning the firm's website began selling passenger tickets for cross-Channel sailings on its ship Spirit Of Britain from Wednesday.

The website later said there were 'no sailings available for your selected dates'.

Spirit Of Britain was detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on April 12 after safety issues were found, but was cleared to sail on Friday.

Meanwhile, Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Lynch claimed P&O Ferries has been 'prevented from further cutting the pay of vulnerable agency crew' by 'pressure from RMT seafarers'.

The firm, owned by Dubai-based logistics giant DP World, insisted no agency workers were asked to take a pay cut.

It came after the RMT received reports of agency workers at Dover being asked to sign new contracts with reduced payments, according to the BBC.

Mr Lynch said: 'There are no depths to which P&O and their Dubai owners at DP World will not sink to extract the maximum profit from ferry crews operating our vital maritime supply chains.

'This is underlined by the fact that, despite this U-turn, P&O are still only paying barely half of the UK minimum wage of 9.50 per hour.

'Ultimately, staffing ships with super-exploited agency staff is not just morally wrong, it undercuts those remaining ferry operators who do abide by union rates of pay and conditions, and undermines passenger safety.

'The only way out of this latest crisis at the ferry operator is for the Government to take over the running of P&O vessels and reinstate directly employed staff on union rates of pay.'

A spokesman for P&O Ferries said: 'No agency seafarers were asked to accept reduced wages.'

He went on: 'There was an administrative misunderstanding around the contract presented to one individual who appears to have been unaware of an appendix which made clear that he would be entitled to an additional 195 a month, meaning that there was no change in his overall pay.

'There are no plans to change or reduce the wages of any of our agency seafarers and we have made clear that we will continue to comply fully with any national minimum wage obligations introduced by the UK Government.'

The company's chief executive, Peter Hebblethwaite, told MPs last month that the average pay of the agency crew is 5.50 per hour.

That is below the UK's minimum wage but Mr Hebblethwaite said it is permitted under international maritime laws.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps wants to create 'minimum wage corridors' on ferry routes between the UK and other countries.

In a letter to the Mr Hebblethwaite in March in the wake of the scandal, Mr Shapps wrote: 'The past week has left the reputation of P&O Ferries and, I'm afraid, you personally in tatters.

'Not only were your letters of 22 March to the Business Secretary and myself wholly unsatisfactory, your appearance at the Transport Select Committee, during which you brazenly admitted to breaking employment law, demonstrated beyond doubt your contempt for workers who have given years of service to your company.

'There is no excuse for this behaviour, and as I said publicly on Friday, I believe your position as chief executive, and indeed as a company director, has become untenable.'

Mr Shapps added: 'I will be bringing a comprehensive package of measures to Parliament to ensure that seafarers are protected against these types of actions in the way that Parliament and this Government already intended. Through that package, I intend to block the outcome that P&O Ferries has pursued, including paying workers less than the minimum wage.'

MailOnline contacted P&O Ferries for comment about the allegation some of its crew did not know where liferafts were kept. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency declined to comment.

It is claimed that if they refused to agree they faced being out of work and one agency worker emailed the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) , declaring: 'We are desperate.'

P&O's boss Peter Hebblethwaite, who earns 345,000 a year, admitted firing the workers over Zoom without notice was illegal in testimony to MPs

P&O Ferries reportedly offered some of the agency workers, who replaced the near 800 staff fired last month, new contracts with even lower wages

Some crew earn just 748 a month for a 40-hour week  barely 4.50 an hour.

In one example reported by The Mirror, workers say chefs paid 2,336 a month on temporary contracts were asked to sign new deals giving them 195 a month less.

Although it is not known who faced a cut in wages, or if staff on seven other ferries were targeted too.

Mr Procter, national secretary of the RMT says some of the new workers were brought in on just a month's contract, and when those contracts expired the staff were offered 'inferior terms'.

The RMT are campaigning for dismissed P&O staff to be reinstated, but 'irrespective of nationality' are concerned for the new staff members, Mr Procter added: 'they are just as much victims as our members.'
A woman was allegedly choked unconscious and sexually assaulted in her own home by a pair of masked men while two young children were in a nearby room

New details have emerged of the shocking attack on a woman in Singleton in the NSW Hunter region north of Sydney.

The incident has prompted local authorities to issue an urgent warning to residents to lock up their homes, as police work to track down the alleged attackers and determine if it was random or targeted.

The woman had been getting ready for bed shortly after midnight last Thursday night when she was confronted by the masked men allegedly armed with a knife.

It's understood she'd heard a sound in the kitchen and went to check what it was before she was confronted by the men, the Daily Telegraph reported.

She was allegedly attacked and sexually assaulted by the men while unconscious.

The men allegedly broke into the woman's home on this street in the town of Singleton, north-west of Sydney

The victim was later taken to John Hunter Hospital for treatment.

It's understood the woman is still traumatised and is yet to give a formal statement to police.

The alleged attack has rocked the close-knit community, including local leaders.

'We are very alarmed, disappointed that something like this would happen in Singleton,' mayor Sue Moore told the publication.

'We're cautioning people to make sure they've got their properties locked and made themselves as safe as possible until the offenders are captured.'

Police have established Strike Force Currikee to investigate the alleged incident and have spent recent days scouring the area for evidence and gathering CCTV.

'An extensive canvas has been conducted in the Singleton area, and strike force investigators continue to work with local police to obtain and review all forensic evidence gathered during the initial stages to identify those responsible,' Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty said.
A woke Amazon staffer worked himself to tears over the online retailer's decision to sell a children's book that likens being transgender to pretending to be a walrus.

The staffer's outburst occurred during a meeting allegedly held by Amazon leadership to address the 'trauma' some employees endured from the success of children's book Johnny the Walrus, written by conservative author Matt Walsh.

'Im sorry, I want to preface this...' the unidentified staffer says during an online meting the meeting as he wipes away his tears. 'This is really tough content.'

'Johnny the Walrus is a bit of a problematic book  not a bit  it is not a bit of a problem, it's one hell of a problem,' the employee stated, adding that the book has been a 'very traumatic experience for transgender Amazonians and our transgender customers.' Footage from the meeting was first obtained by Libs of TikTok.

Johnny the Walrus was written by conservative political commentator Matt Walsh. The book quickly became one of Amazon's Best Sellers in LGBTQ+ Books, before being removed from that categorization.

Workers at the meeting hinted they'd like to see it banned from the platform altogether.

A woke Amazon staffer worked himself to tears over the online retailer's decision to sell a children's book that allegorically compares being transgender to pretending to be a walrus

The undated meeting begins with the host warning employees that they are aware the content in the book is 'traumatic' for transgender individuals.

He explained that Amazon has received feedback from customers and staff about the Johnny the Walrus and asked employees to refrain from complaining about it as the appropriate departments are already aware of the issue and taking action.

He then shared feedback from a customer who alleged the book teaches children to 'kill transgenders' or 'bully them into committing suicide.'

'The story is about a kid who likes to pretend he's different things and one day he pretends he's a walrus and the community tells him he either has to be a human or he has to be a walrus or their going to kill him,' the customer, who identifies as a member of the LGBT community, said in her formal complaint to Amazon. 'He can't be both. He can't pretend anymore.'

During the meeting, which discussed Matt Walsh's Johnny the Walrus, Amazon shared a complaint from a customer who alleged the book teaches children to 'kill transgenders' or 'bully them into committing suicide'

Johnny the Walrus was written by conservative political commentator Matt Walsh (pictured in August 2021). The book was published last monthly and quickly became one of Amazon's Best Sellers in LGBTQ+ Books, before being removed from that categorization

She then cites a tweet from Matt Walsh where he claims has 'the number one anti-LGBT book in country' and criticizing him or his book would be 'homophobic'.

'You are a selling a manual of how to teach kids to bully other kids to commit suicide,' the woman accused. 'It is teaching kids to kill, well to bully transgenders, into committing suicide.

The customer also accused Walsh of bragging that he is 'glad' his book is 'going to make the LGBTQIA kids, especially transgenders, commit suicide.'

'If you're transgender, if you're gender non-binary  and this is super triggering, I would understand if you needed to leave. This is education for people who don't get it, who don't understand,' the meeting host said after sharing the complaint.

'I would understand if this was a lot, but equally I want folks to know that we're doing this because this really matters, to get this education out there.'

He then warned staff to 'brace yourself' as they were going to show a 30-second clip of Walsh reading the book.

Footage of the book reading and the staff's post-reading reaction was not immediately available for DailyMail.com's review.

Amazon leadership held a session for employees dealing with the trauma of Matt Walshs book becoming a best seller and dealing with his trolling. They strategize on how to demote it on their site and claim he will get people killed. @MattWalshBlog broke them. pic.twitter.com/AKH8ihO0iV  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 26, 2022

More from the Amazon therapy session for trauma from Matt Walshs books: They accuse Matt of hate speech and the host literally breaks down in tears. Attendees are warned brace yourself before a clip of Matt reading his book is played. We are living in different realities. pic.twitter.com/naxlcG7RvD  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 26, 2022

Walsh, who saw the clip, responded to the criticisms during an interview with Tucker Carlson on Tuesday.

I think their behavior to me is marginalizing me and invalidating my lived experience as children's author, but also the book is about true self acceptance, Walsh told the Fox News host.

Its about a boy who identifies as a walrus and his mother goes along with it. But they both learn at the end that you should accept yourself for who you truly are, who you biologically are.

A message of self-acceptance, when I was a kid that was the most common message in books that we read. It is just now on the left, with a force on kids is actually rejecting who you really are in favor of a delusion.

Ahead of the interview, he took to social media seemingly mocking Amazon's meeting in a series of sarcastic tweets.

'Amazon employees are traumatized by my children's book, meanwhile one of the top selling children's books on the site right now is from the American Academy of Pediatrics and it pushes puberty blockers and sterilization on nine year olds. But my book is the problem,' he tweeted.

He also denounced the customer's allegation that his book 'explicitly encourages kids to bully and kill trans people,' which he claims is 'not even remotely close to the vicinity of the truth.'

'I don't even mention trans people in the book,' Walsh stated.

He also noted that even though his book had 'traumatized Amazon's employees,' Americans still continued to purchase it.

'You all chose to buy it and now it's number three overall. You should be ashamed!' he mocked.

Walsh responded to the meeting footage with a series of seemingly sarcastic tweets

Amazon describes Johnny the Walrus as 'timely tale of innocence, identity, and imagination' in its online listing for the book.

'Johnny is a little boy with a big imagination. One day he pretends to be a big scary dinosaur, the next day he's a knight in shining armor or a playful puppy,' the book description reads.

'But when the internet people find out Johnny likes to make-believe, he's forced to make a decision between the little boy he is and the things he pretends to be  and he's not allowed to change his mind.'

The book, which has a publication date of Tuesday, appears to have been listed on Amazon in December 2021.

Walsh, tweeting at the time, said the children's book was ranked number 1 on Amazon's list of 'Best Sellers in LGBTQ+ Books' before being removed by the platform.

'Amazon has removed my bestselling LGBT childrens book from their LGBT book list,' he tweeted last year. 'This is an unconscionable attack on gay rights and a horrific example of homophobia and gay erasure.'

The author also revealed the book was removed entirely from Targets website.

'The canceling begins. Target has removed Johnny the Walrus from their website. No explanation has been given,' Walsh tweeted in December. 'I am beginning to feel deeply marginalized and unsafe as an LGBT author and thought leader.'

He added: 'Jussie Smollett is not the victim of an anti-gay hate crime but I am.'
The 14-year-old cousin of murdered 10-year-old Wisconsin girl Lily Peters has been charged with sexually assaulting and strangling her.

Lily, 10, vanished on Sunday evening in in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin after an afternoon spent with her aunt Lauri Davis, 45, and her boyfriend John Repetto, 50.

Her father, Alex Peters, 43, reported her missing when she failed to return home around 9pm.

Cops launched a desperate search for her, and found her bicycle in a hiking trail behind her aunt's house. Her body was found on Monday in a wooded area just off a footpath and less than half a mile from the home she shared with her parents father, mother, Jennifer Eyerly, 38, and her brother Dylan.

The boy, who was named in court as CP-B, appeared via a Zoom link from and appeared alongside his attorneys from juvenile detention. He has been charged with first-degree murder.

Dressed in a black sweater, he sat silently as the court heard how 'he [the boy] told police his intention was to break and kill the victim from the get go as he left the house and walked down the street with her.'

DA Wade Newell asked for bond to be set at $1 million as he described how the boy 'punched the victim in stomach, knocked her to the ground and strangled her to the point of death and then sexually assaulted her.'

Lily Peters, 10, visited her aunt's home in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, on Sunday night. Her house is only a few streets away

The body of Lily Peters was found in woodland near close to a walking trail in Chippewa Falls, northeast of Eau Claire, Wisconsin on Monday morning

Lily had been at her aunt Laurie's house in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin (pictured) when she failed to return home on Sunday night

The child's body was found on a hiking trail less than a mile from her aunt's house, near where her bike was discovered

Despite defense objections, Judge Benjamin Lane agreed to set bond at $1 million and banned him from any contact with minors.

Lily's disappearance and murder has shocked the small Chippewa Falls community of around 30,000 people with locals telling DailyMail.com that the 10-year-old was regularly seen riding her bike around town.

On a bridge near the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewery close to where Lily was found, a huge display of purple balloons and flowers was laid out.

A security guard watching the area said she instantly recognized Lily when she was declared missing - telling DailyMail.com she often saw her cycling along that path.

She added: 'This is a small town so everyone knows everyone. I never spoke to Lily but I saw her cycling all the time.'

On the street where the 10-year-old lived, every tree has been decorated with purple ribbons while some supportive signs were also seen on Davis's street.

The house that she shared with her son has been taped off and is currently guarded by police.

Fourth-grader had gone missing on Sunday night after being at an aunts house

The house where Lily's aunt lives has been taped off and is currently guarded by police. Toys can be seen in the yard

The house where Lily was visiting before she vanished is taped off, and a skeleton hanging can be seen in one window

After the boy's arrest on Tuesday, Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matt Kelm said: While nothing will bring Lily Peters back or change what happened, we are very grateful to deliver this news to the family and the community,' Kelm said of the arrest.

Kelm, himself, choked up during the news conference as he announced Peters' death.

'As you can imagine, our first responders are tremendously impacted by anything that impacts one of our children,' Kelm said, 'so it is very difficult for them, and the investigators.'

Lily's parents, Alexander and Jennifer, are yet to issue any kind of public comment.

A GoFundMe has been set up for the family which has already raised more than $20,000.

It was set up by a friend who said they were raising money for the family.

Signs reading 'Justice for Lily' are seen on the street where she lived with her parents and brother in Chippewa Falls

On the street where the 10-year-old lived, every tree has been decorated with purple ribbons
Norco Co-operative are raising the farmgate price of their milk twice this year to help dairy farmers who are struggling financially and recovering from the floods.

The dairy company will increase the price of their milk by 5 cents in May and June this year and consider further increases during the 2022/2023 financial year.

It is unknown whether these price raises will be passed onto the consumer.

Norco Co-operative are raising the farmgate price of their milk twice this year to help dairy farmers who are struggling financially and recovering from the floods

Norco Chief Executive Michael Hampson said the price increase had come at a critical point for dairy farmers doing it tough.

'We are constantly looking at ways to increase the milk price for our members and industry at large and given the devastating impact of recent weather events on the Norco supply base, there has never been a more important time to deliver this support to farmers,' Hampson told 9News.

'Following the floods, many of our farmer members have repair costs in the tens of millions. This follows periods of rising operating costs and decreased production due to the significant and prolonged weather conditions which has placed added cash flow pressures on our members.'

Hampton says that it's that it's imperative dairy farmers make a profit on selling milk to create a sustainable future for the industry.

He explained that if farmers are not making any money then then milk is being undervalued.

Norco Chief Executive Michael Hampson said the price increase had come at a critical point for dairy farmers doing it tough. (Pictured: A dairy farmer milking his cows on a farm in Rochester, Victoria)

The increase in the farmgate milk price will raise the average price per litre paid to farmers to 84 cents

Hampson added Norco will remain dedicated to 'doing everything we can to support our farmers'.

The increase in the farmgate milk price will raise the average price per litre paid to farmers to 84 cents from 79 cents.

That will put an additional $1.6million into the wallets of Norco's 281 farm members.

Farmers on average received 70 cents per litre of milk in the previous financial year.

Norco Co-operative was established in 1895 and is owned by suppliers operating dairy farms in New South Wales and Queensland.

The company produces around 219 litres of milk per year.
Heartwarming footage has captured the moment a young Ukrainian cried upon seeing the ocean for the first time after arriving in Australia - thanks to the efforts of one Sydney woman determined to help those flee the war-torn country.

Vlada Makushina, 21, and Maria Borysiak, 19, landed in Australia on Tuesday after a treacherous journey that involved crossing the Ukraine border into Poland and bussing across Europe for a flight to Sydney.

Touching video shows the moment Ms Makushina sees the Pacific Ocean in Sydney for the first time - exclaiming: 'Oh yes! This is the ocean!

'Oh my God! I'm crying,' she is heard saying in between tears.

Seeing the ocean had been a dream for Ms Makushina, who had been forced to sleep on the floor of her apartment to avoid damage from air raids in Ukraine.

Vlada Makushina, 21, is emotional after seeing the ocean for the first time. She landed in Australia this week from Ukraine

Jasmine Straga (pictured left with Ms Makushina) helped Ms Makushina and friend Maria Borysiak, 19, leave Ukraine for Australia

'I can't believe I'm here, it's like a fairytale,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'I've had a dream for more than five years to see the ocean and now I can have breakfast next to it - I'm so happy.'

Jasmine Straga, from Dee Why in Sydney's northern beaches, is the woman behind the refugees' arrival Down Under.

Ms Straga has been helping coordinate the relocation of students in Ukraine that were left stranded amid the conflict with Russia.

She works on the board of the World Circus Federation which has successfully helped relocate more than 260 Ukrainians studying at the Kyiv Academy of Variety Arts and Circus - including Ms Makushina and Ms Borysiak - aged between 14 and 21 around the world.

The academy was forced to close amid the violence with Russia, with many students now spending their days hiding in bunkers.

Ms Makushina and Ms Borysiak are seen at Singapore Airport on their way to Australia where they have a scholarship to attend a performing arts school

Ms Straga and First Deputy Director of the Kyiv Academy, Nina Araya, have started fundraising to help organise flights, accommodation and transport out of Kyiv for the students.

Many have had to leave their families behind and for some scholarships have been arranged for them to study at other performing arts schools across the globe.

Ms Makushina and Ms Borysiak are the first from Ukraine to touch down in Australia, with Ms Straga using her friends and colleagues in the preforming arts industry to help arrange their exit.

'I speak to my family and friends everyday because I need to know that everything's OK,' Ms Makushina said.

Ms Borysiak, whose family had a bunker to retreat to in Ukraine, said her mother was relieved she was finally in a safe place.

Ms Straga (right) is seen with the two Ukrainians after their journey to Australia. Ms Straga, who is on the board for the World Circus Federation, has helped relocate performing arts students from Kyiv

'Every minute it's like ''oh my gosh, we are here in Sydney'', we really are here,' she said.

Ms Straga said many of the Kyiv students had been offered places at other performing arts schools around Europe.

The families of students already attending have selflessly taken the refugees in. One family in Germany has housed five students.

'Vlada was sleeping on the floor of her apartment because she didn't have a safe bunker to go to,' Ms Straga said.

'She couldn't sleep in the bedrooms because the windows would shatter and we'd hear the sirens going when we spoke to her.'

The pair are now staying with a friend of Ms Straga's on the Central Coast and have been given scholarships to a performing arts academy in Tuggerah.

The pair were given free dance shoes by a Sydney store as local businesses help them settle into life in Australia

Ukrainians can only stay in Australia for three months under a visitor visa.

The Australian government announced in March it was introducing a temporary humanitarian visa which would allow refugees from Ukraine to live in Australia for three years where they can work, study and access Medicare.

Ms Straga said the pair will apply for the visa immediately, but they are hoping to return home to Ukraine in six months - if it is safe to do so.

'Vlada said when she hit the Poland border she was so emotional because she could never go back to the Ukraine she once knew,' Ms Straga said.

A GoFundMe has been started to raise money for her cause, meanwhile businesses around Sydney have donated to help Ms Makushina and Ms Borysiak settle in.

The pair will climb the Harbour Bridge on Wednesday and visit Madame Tussauds wax museum in Sydney. Local hairdressers and dance stores have also lent a helping hand.
The minimum marriage age in England and Wales will be raised to 18 in days in a bid to stop child brides being forced into wedlock.

People were previously able to get married at 16 or 17 if they had parental consent but ministers wanted to insert a clause clamping down on arranged marriages.

Under the new law, adults who facilitate marriage for anyone under the age of 18 could face up to seven years in prison as well as a fine, while the children involved will not face any penalties.

The bill also prevents parents taking children abroad to get married before turning 18.

It was introduced to parliament by Conservative MP Pauline Latham who claimed it would 'transform the life chances of many girls'.

Payzee Malika, who was forced into marriage when she was just 16, said tears of joy rolled down her face when the bill was approved, adding it was 'real life change'.

Payzee Malika (left), who was forced into marriage when she was just 16, said tears of joy rolled down her face when the bill was approved, adding it was 'real life change'

Having passed through parliament without much opposition, the bill is expected to become law later this week once it receives Royal Assent.

Campaigners claimed the previous law was not strong enough to prevent parents marrying their children off under duress.

Leading charity Karma Nirvana had warned children as young as seven risked being married off.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab previously said he backed Ms Latham's move, telling the Sun: 'Forced child marriage ruins lives.

'We back this Bill to keep vulnerable young people safe, by raising the legal age of marriage to 18, and closing gaps in the law which leave them at risk.'

There have been nearly 3,000 forced marriage protection orders in the last seven years despite the number of under 18s hoping to marry falling.

Ms Malika pictured alongside Baroness Liz Sugg after the bill was approved in the House of Lords. It is set to become law later this week when it receives Royal Assent

Ms Malika tweeted: 'Struggling to put in to words what this means. I feel so many emotions. This is real life change.'

She managed to escape her marriage but her sister Banaz was murdered.

'This is for me, for Banaz, for any child impacted by child marriage', Ms Malika added.

'This journey has been an incredible one. Ive worked with so many women who have supported me, one another and this campaign. There is no us without you all. This is for every girl.

'There has not been a single moment in this journey when Banaz was not at the forefront of my thoughts. Every day I thought of her. I fought for her. This law could have saved her.

'This morning my thoughts were clouded with the day I became a child bride. My day started today and that day very early. Anxious both days. Scared both days. Tears both days. But today today tears of joy roll down my face because I know what this means for girls like me.'

The new law does not affect marriages or civil partnerships that happened prior to this legislation coming in and does not apply in Northern Ireland or Scotland, where people can still marry at 16.
Jailed terrorists will be blocked from claiming a right to socialise under Britains new Bill of Rights.

Dangerous and influential fanatics will be separated in specialist units to thwart the spread of poisonous ideology  and also face a crackdown on complaints.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said: We are going to take a more decisive approach in our prisons, not allowing cultural and religious sensitivities to deter us from nipping in the bud early signs of terrorist risk.

Stressing that prisons will isolate more of the most radical terrorists, Mr Raab added: Our Bill of Rights will prevent [them] using the Human Rights Act to claim a right to socialise in prison.

Dangerous and influential fanatics will be separated in specialist units to thwart the spread of poisonous ideology  and also face a crackdown on complaints. Governors will be given greater autonomy for tackling and reducing terrorist behaviour in their prisons while new targets will be set for improving performance

The push to combat extremism  which will see 6million spent on expanding close supervision centres, which house the most violent offenders  comes as a landmark report from the Governments Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation warns that prison should not become a second opportunity for aspiring terrorists whose plans are thwarted by their incarceration.

Jonathan Hall QC stressed that a see you in court mentality can deter prison staff from putting jihadis into isolation.

It follows a series of high-profile cases, including the 2019 London Bridge attack when Usman Khan, a terrorist prisoner out on licence, stabbed two people to death.

In 2020 Brusthom Ziamani, who was serving a 19-year sentence for plotting to behead a soldier, was convicted of attempted murder for trying to hack an officer to death in the maximum-security Whitemoor jail.

Khairi Saadallah, who was given a whole life sentence last year for murdering three men in a terror attack in a Reading park, had been befriended by a radical preacher while serving an earlier prison term.

In line with Mr Hall's recommendations, Mr Raab said the process for referring prisoners to the separation centres will be strengthened against legal challenge to ensure they cannot frustrate a move on 'trivial grounds'.

The Ministry of Justice is also investing 6 million in expanding the Prison Service's close supervision centres where the most physically violent offenders - including terrorists - are held.

Jailed terrorists will be blocked from claiming a right to socialise under Britains new Bill of Rights. The Ministry of Justice is also investing 6 million in expanding the Prison Service's close supervision centres, including giving staff more training on spotting terrorist behaviour

Governors will be given greater autonomy for tackling and reducing terrorist behaviour in their prisons while new targets will be set for improving performance.

Prison staff will be given improved training to enable them to spot signs of terrorist activity in jails while ensuring they are given the most up-to-date information on evolving threats.

In his report, Mr Hall said the current threat in prisons was from Islamist terrorism and that there was 'no other comparable threat'.

'Prisons must not be allowed to become a second opportunity for committed terrorists whose attack plans are thwarted in the community,' he said.

'More fundamentally, public confidence in the criminal justice system is shaken if terrorism occurs in prison or if people enter prison only to more dangerous: and the ability of prisons to function is gravely degraded if prison officers fear imminent terrorist attack.'
A brazen beer robbery has left a racing club high and dry ahead of its biggest meet of the year.

Police have launched a desperate manhunt to track down the thieves who stole 1400 cans of beer from Warrnambool Racing Club over the Anzac Day long weekend in regional Victoria.

The venue was dubbed as the club with no beer after 60 slabs of Great Northern, Carlton Draught and Carlton Dry stored in three fully stocked shipping containers disappeared sometime between 5pm Friday and 9.30am Monday.

The brazen theft occurred days out from next week's Warrnambool May Racing Carnival.

Warrnambool Racing Club has been rocked by a brazen theft days out from the Warrnambool May Racing Carnival, its biggest event of the year (pictured is a previous event)

The event is regarded as one of Australias hallmark country racing meets and will mark the 150th anniversary of the Grand Annual Steeplechase at this year's event.

Police described the incident as a targeted theft.

'We are confident that there are people out there in the community who know those responsible,' Detective Senior Constable Richard Hughes said.

'It's hard to believe anyone can walk away with over 1400 cans of beer without spilling some information.'

Thousands of punters (pictured) will flock to Warrnambool May Racing Carnival this weekend

The racing club also made light of the theft in a public appeal and promised a reward to anyone who can help crack the mystery.

'WANTED: One or more beer thieves. Who knows, if you give us a lead that uncovers our missing grog we might even thrown in a slab or two (not 60 though),' the club posted online.

Anyone with information is urged to contact CrimeStoppers.

The famous three days mid-week racing carnival begins next Tuesday.

It features 23 flat and seven jumps races, including the internationally acclaimed Grand Annual Steeplechase. which remains the longest and most celebrated of its kind in Australia.
Logs show Eric Schwerin, former president of Hunter Biden's now-dissolved firm Rosemont Seneca, made 27 visits to the White House during the Obama-Biden administration

Hunter Biden's longtime business partner Eric Schwerin made at least eight visits to the White House in 2016, bringing his total number of visits to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. during the Obama-Biden administration to 27.

Fox News first reported on the additional visits Tuesday, saying that Schwerin met with then Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff Steve Ricchetti, currently a top adviser in the Biden White House.

Schwerin also met with an assistant in Biden's office, Anne Marie Person, who previously worked at the investment firm Schwerin and Hunter Biden managed, Fox said.

On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about a report in the New York Post over the weekend on the logs that showed 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.

'I don't have any information on that. I'm happy to check and see if we have any more comment,' Psaki said when asked why Schwerin had 'access.'

Psaki has been pressed multiple times on Hunter Biden's laptop, foreign business dealings and tax investigation in Delaware, but has referred reporters to the Department of Justice or said he doesn't work in the White House.

Visitor logs from the Obama administration revealed that Joe Biden (right) had met with his son Hunter's (left) top business partner in 2010

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that she 'didn't have any information' on visitor logs showing Hunter Biden's top business met with then-Vice President Joe during 19 visits between 2009 and 2015

Texas Sen. 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.

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 Wing on 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 previously called for Vladimir Putin to release dirt on Hunter.
Moscow alleged sabotage by the Azov Nazis, who have supposedly detained civilians by force that hamper Russian operations to subdue the Ukrainians.

The result is civilians trapped in the steel plant who cannot use the humanitarian corridor established by Russian forces.

Reports that Ukraine is blaming Russia for the failure of the corridor prompted the Kremlin to accuse Kyiv of sabotage.

Trying To Save Civilians From Neo-Nazis

Late Monday, the Russian military confirmed a new effort to establish a humanitarian passage to rescue the residents allegedly trapped at the barricaded Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol has stalled. Moscow and Kyiv are faulting one other for the evacuation attempt's disaster, reported the Daily Telegraph.

According to Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of Russia's National Defense Management Center remarked.

Today, the Kyiv officials shamelessly interrupted this humanitarian endeavor yet again.

No one had used the proposed humanitarian corridor as of April 25, 2022, at 8 p.m. (MSK), noted Far News.

He pinned the blame for the failure of the new evacuation attempt on the Kyiv authorities.

Despite repeatedly bemoaning the fate of the civilians said to be holed up alongside Ukrainian fighters at the plant, Kyiv has not taken any "practical steps" to facilitate their evacuation.

The official emphasizes that the Kyiv authorities' irrational and contradictory behavior demonstrates their obvious apathy for the welfare of individual people; Nazis discard citizens of their own country with no complaint, cited RT.

When the corridor was supposed to open at 2 pm MSK, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk called the failure of Moscow's fault in rescuing the civilians despite getting allegedly stopped by Azov nazis.

Read Also: Volodymyr Zelensky Children: Does the Ukraine President Have Kids?

She told the Ukrainian media that Kyiv would make it work with no interruption; she later heaped blame on that humanitarian corridor as a dismal failure and avoided mentioning the Neo-Nazis in the Azovstal plant.

According to a statement issued by a Ukrainian official, it is critical to recognize that the humanitarian corridor was established with the cooperation of both parties.

The unilaterally declared channel does not guarantee security and gives a mixed message.

Later, Kyiv disavowed that no deal about taking Ukrainians out through a humanitarian caught in the activities of Ukrainian forces would be able to save themselves from Avovstal.

Fighting in Mariupol

Mariupol has been raging with assaults for about two months, and the Russian with Donetsk forces are in control despite Kyiv's saying.

Losing the siege to subdue the city which the Neo-Nazis and Supremacists attacked initially; have been beaten badly and feel back into the steel plant.

They are composed of notorious neo-nazi Azov regiment and other units hiding in the large complex and pinned down in all directions.

Russia had previously promised the Ukrainian forces the opportunity to lay down their arms and surrender; however, they refused, rather pleading to be evacuated to an unspecified "third country."

On February 24, the Russian forces went via a special operation to stop an alleged attack on the Donbas by Ukrainian Neo-Nazis.

The refusal of Kyiv to push through with the Minsk agreement forced Vladimir Putin to recognize them if the Ukrainians won't.

To this day, denying it will attack the DPR and LPR and choose non-neutrality that led to the conflict.

Moscow is blocked by the actions of the Azov Nazis, who Volodymyr Zelensky has backed despite their actions to get the Ukrainians safely from the battle zone.

Related Article: Putin Says the Western Democracies Resorted to Terror Measures Against Russia, Manipulating Ukrainians in Proxy War

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A mentally disabled man has been executed in Singapore despite appeals for mercy from several high-profile celebrities.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, was arrested over a decade ago for trafficking about three tablespoons of heroin into Singapore in 2009.

The city-state, which has some of the toughest drug laws in the world, handed Nagaenthran a mandatory death sentence for his crime.

The 34-year-old prisoner was hanged at Singapore's Changi Prison at 6am (8am AEST) on Wednesday.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, (pictured) was arrested over a decade ago for trafficking about three tablespoons of heroin into Singapore in 2009

The 34-year-old prisoner was hanged at Singapore's Changi Prison (pictured in 2005) at 6am (8am AEST) on Wednesday

His case attracted international attention with supporters' petitioning on the basis his intellectual disability meant he struggled to make rational decisions.

They say Nagaenthran had an IQ of 69 - a level recognised as a disability.

Before his death, celebrities including Stephen Fry and Richard Branson spoke out against the 'devastating' execution.

'Executing Nagen would be a tragic injustice and a dark stain on Singapore's international reputation,' the Virgin founder said.

Just hours before his execution, Nagaenthran was given permission to hold the hands of his loved ones inside Singapore's Court of Appeal.

He was also granted two hours to spend time with family members in the basement of the court complex.

His mother Panchalai Supermaniam (pictured) launched an unsuccessful last-minute appeal against her son's execution, the last of a series of appeals rejected by the court

His case attracted international attention with supporters' petitioning on the basis his intellectual disability meant he struggled to make rational decisions

Nagaenthran (pictured, second left with his sister and cousins) was given permission by the court to hold the hands of his loved ones hours before his execution

'I'd like to make a last-minute request to spend some time with my family members,' the Malaysian man asked the judges using a translator.

'I'm placing this request so I can hold my family members' hands.'

His mother Panchalai Supermaniam launched an unsuccessful last-minute appeal against her son's execution, the last of a series of appeals rejected by the court.

She filed a joint application with her son to have the judgements rendered null and void due to Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon being the country's attorney-general when Nagaenthran was sentenced.

The Chief Justice had ruled on the judgements since 2016.

A panel of three judges on Tuesday rejected the suggestion Nagaenthran didn't receive a fair trial and slammed the notion as 'an abuse of the court's process' (pictured, Nagaenthran's mother weeps outside the court after her last-ditch challenge was dismissed)

A panel of three judges rejected the suggestion Nagaenthran didn't receive a fair trial and slammed the notion as 'an abuse of the court's process'.

Justice Andrew Phang said the prisoner's legal team had been given multiple opportunities to object to Mr Menon presiding over the case.

He described the last-minute bid as 'undermining the finality of the court process' and said Nagaenthran had exhausted his rights of appeal.

Public prosecutor Wong Woon Kwong said the court could confirm the Chief Justice had nothing to do with the case while in his previous role as attorney-general.

An online petition calling for Nagaenthran's death sentence to be commuted had almost 70,000 signatures (pictured, protesters in November, 2021)

In 2019, the European Union called for the sentence to be commuted with Malaysia's prime minister writing to his Singaporean counterpart asking for a delay.

An online petition calling for Nagaenthran's death sentence to be commuted previously had almost 70,000 signatures.

Singapore's home affairs ministry has repeatedly defended the execution, saying that legal rulings found he 'knew what he was doing' at the time of the offence.

The execution is the second this year in Singapore, which defends its use of capital punishment as an effective deterrent against crime.

Abdul Kahar bin Othman, 68, was hanged at Changi Prison on March 30 after being sentenced for drug importation.
Dog thefts in the UK have reached a seven-year high, with the equivalent of eight dogs being stolen every single day.

Last year alone 2,760 dogs were snatched from their owners, and the number of heart-breaking thefts has risen 16 per cent since 2015, according to new data.

The most likely breeds to be targeted are French Bulldogs, followed by Jack Russell Terriers and other small dogs like Chihuahuas and Pugs, figures revealed under the Freedom of Information Act and compiled by Direct Line Pet Insurance show.

Dog thefts have skyrocketed in recent years with 2760 canines taken last year (Pictured: Bandit, a three-year-old cocker spaniel, who was stolen last year)

Coronavirus restrictions over the last couple of years have led to a boom in the puppy market, with 3.8 million people getting a dog during the pandemic.

The demand has led to a rise in the cost of dogs, with pedigree French Bulldogs costing upwards of 3000, making them a lucrative target for criminals.

London was the worst hit area with 422 incidents reported to the Met police, followed by West Yorkshire and Kent.

West Yorkshire Police recorded 199 reports of stolen dogs last year, nearly two thirds more than in 2020. Kent Police received reports about 182 stolen dogs in the same year.

Norfolk Constabulary, however, had the greatest success at returning dogs  reuniting 25 out of the 29 reported stolen with their owners.

Its devastating to see the number of dogs stolen continues to increase across the country Madeline Pike, a Veterinary Nurse for Direct Line Pet Insurance said.

Unfortunately, the increase in dog ownership since the pandemic began and the subsequent rise in prices of these animals seems to make the crime even more appealing to thieves.

Ms Pike advised owners to take precautions such as seeing a puppy they plan to purchase with its mother to ensure theyre not buying from a criminal organisation, and once in possession of an animal not to leave it tied up outside a shop, or leave it inside an empty car.

Its also vital to keep microchipping contact details up to date in case your dog does go missing and is handed in she added.
Security cameras have captured the shocking moment a 90-year old great grandfather aided by a walking stick calmly cocks his handgun before opening fire on a tradie.

Paolo Mannici, now 90, had just watched the tradesman dump another load of dodgy soil on his Ravenhall industrial lot - west of Melbourne - when he took the law into his own hands.

Armed with a .22 calibre Beretta handgun, Mannici, of East Keilor, is seen wobbling over to his victim with the aid of a walking stick and priming the weapon.

Italian immigrant Paolo Mannici (pictured) had spent 70 years in Australia without a single brush with the law before taking it into his own hands.

Paolo Mannici had been gifted the Beretta from his grandfather

Paolo Mannici's victim had just dumped this pile of rubbish on his industrial lot when he took matters into his own hands

On Wednesday, the County Court of Victoria heard Mannici, then aged 89, fired two shots at his victim from near point blank range.

One bullet tore through the man's arm before he was able to take the elderly shooter down.

The Italian immigrant had spent 70 years in Australia without a single brush with the law before taking it into his own hands with the Gran Torino-style assault.

Mannici had just days earlier made a report to police about the tradie alleging he was not only dumping rubbish on his property, but had assaulted him.

He now faces anywhere up to 10 years in jail after pleading guilty to owning an illegal firearm and conduct endangering life.

Despite his guilty plea, Mannici's barrister, Dr Theo Alexander, told Judge Damian Murphy his client's victim was anything but an innocent one.

The court heard the tradie, whom Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to name, had a lengthy criminal history, including convictions for theft, obtaining property by deception, breaching a suspended sentence, breaching an intervention order, making threats to kill and drug trafficking.

'(He) has a history of dishonesty ... in my submission, one should be circumspect before accepting what (the victim) says,' Dr Alexander said.

Mannici had been in dispute with the tradie over an unpaid bill for clearing works on the lot he claimed had not been fulfilled.

The tradie had stopped work after allegedly finding contaminated soil on the site from tyres previously burnt and buried there.

'That's not true,' Dr Alexander said of the contaminated soil.

'What (he) says about there being oozing black material coming out of the ground, that justified him ceasing working, was untrue.'

Paolo Mannici locks and loads his grandfather's Beretta before firing two shots at his victim

Clint Eastwood played a grumpy old man who liked to pack heat in a 2008 film titled Gran Torino

Victorian Police officers are seen at a crime scene on a work site in Ravenhall where Mannici shot a man

Mannici, who had already paid $15,000 for the works and owned another $12,500, was told it would cost him another $1000 per truckload to move the contaminated soil.

When he refused to pay, the tradie reported Mannici to the Environment Protection Authority and local council.

Dr Alexander said his client had paid the tradie a large sum of cash up front and had no reason not to pay him unless the work had not been completed as agreed.

'There is rubbish everywhere. It's not true to say as (the victim) does that the site was cleaned and (he) was doing soil work. It's not true to say as (he) does that there were tyres buried and burnt. The EPA went out there,' Dr Alexander said.

The court heard there was no evidence that tyres had been burnt and left 'oozing black material' behind.

Dr Alexander said his client's victim had intimidated his grandson after downing tools and demanding the remainder of his payment.

The court was read a series of exchanges, one in which the victim told Mannici's grandson he would continue to pursue his elderly grandfather for the money.

'It is out of hand and I'll continue to attack him until it costs him one hundred thousand or more. I'll not sleep until this mess breaks his back,' the victim texted.

When offered an additional $5000 to finish the clean-up, the victim refused, telling the family he had been to court numerous times and 'won every time'.

Paolo Mannici (pictured) is seen at his home after being granted bail for a shooting at a work site in Melbourne

Mannici was seen wearing a black apron as he walked out the front to collect fruit from a tree

One of the bullets Paolo Mannici did not use

On the day of the shooting, the victim was captured on CCTV dumping another truckload of soil on Mannici's property.

'That vision that we saw was him dumping, on the day of the offence, dumping another truckload of material on the property of a man who he obviously believed was so old and so vulnerable that he could act with impunity,' Dr Alexander said.

When Mannici's actions were described as borderline vigilante, Dr Alexander did not take a step back.

'To the extent that this man felt frustrated, unassisted by authorities, unable to do anything to stop this person from continuing their contemptuous treatment - then yes, it would be described as vigilantism,' Dr Alexander said.

The court heard Mannici had not intended to actually shoot his victim.

'I just wanted to scare him with the gun to stop him dumping rubbish, not hurt him,' Mannici told a forensic psychiatrist.

'I went over to him and he grabbed me and the gun went off. I didn't want to hurt him, but I know I was wrong. I did the wrong thing.'

The court heard Mannici had filed a whopping 52 character witnesses attesting to his previous good character.

Police apprehended Mannici after witnesses tackled him to the ground

A disabled tag can be seen hanging from the rear view mirror of Paolo Mannici's van

In a lengthy victim impact statement, the court heard Mannici's victim now suffered impotence from the medications linked to his injury.

'This places a huge impact on my manhood and the way I feel about myself. I feel as though I am not a man,' he told the court.

The victim endured an eight-hour operation on the day he was shot and continues to suffer and range of mental and physical injuries.

'I don't go a single day without thinking of the gun and the man behind the trigger,' he said.

'There is no escape for me, not a moment of peace or relief. I don't feel safe anymore and the comfort I used to find in the presence of others is gone.'

Mannici will be sentenced on Thursday.
A 'lonely' female school cleaner who sexually abused a 13-year-old boy over four months faces 15 years in prison.

The 28-year-old woman got caught after the boy's father checked his phone, the Tasmanian Supreme Court heard this week.

The woman previously pleaded guilty to persistent sexual abuse of a child and appeared in court at Burnie for sentencing submissions on Tuesday, the ABC reported.

The accused woman also was friends with the boy's mother, and was seen as an 'aunt figure,' crown prosecutor Claire Flockhart told the court.

'When they spent time together, they would kiss and cuddle,' Ms Flockhart was quoted saying.

A 'lonely' female school cleaner who sexually abused a 13-year-old boy over four months faces 15 years in prison

Ms Flockhart told the court the cleaner and the young boy had sexual intercourse without a condom numerous times.

A 13-year-old friend of the boy witnessed them performing oral sex in a parked car, Ms Flockhart said.

The boy's father found photos of the pair together after looking through his son's phone, the court was reportedly told.

The phone also contained a note of dates when they 'held hands of the first time', 'said I love you' and had their 'first kiss'.

The cleaner created a fake social media account on Snapchat so she could continue talking to the young boy, the court heard.

The incident was reported to the police last September, and she was required to resign from her role as the school cleaner.

Her defence lawyer, Paul Sullivan, told the court the woman felt 'lonely and depressed' when the abuse occured

Her defence lawyer, Paul Sullivan told the court that 'not many' of the Crown's facts were in dispute, the ABC reported.

'She accepts she was the adult and he was the child,' he said. 'At the time she felt lonely and depressed.'

The woman reportedly accepts that she never should've let the relationship develop and believed she loved him.

The matter has been adjourned until May 18 for further sentencing submissions.

The young boy self-harmed after his parents found out about the abuse.
Home Affairs Minster Karen Andrews has dropped a bombshell claim that China is helping Labor win the election, without providing any evidence.

Ms Andrews suggested the Solomon Islands security deal with China was deliberately announced during the election campaign to cause a problem for Scott Morrison and the Coalition.

The Solomon Islands government announced the deal on Wednesday after a draft of the agreement was leaked last month.

Home Affairs Minster Karen Andrews has dropped a bombshell claim that China (pictured is president Xi Jinping) is helping Labor win the election, without providing any evidence

Ms Andrews is pictured with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in February

Speaking on Brisbane radio 4BC on Wednesday, Ms Andrews said: 'I think one of the things we should be at least taking notice of... is the timing of the announcement from deals in relation to the Solomon Islands.

'Beijing is clearly very aware we are in a federal election campaign here at the moment, and now we have a significant focus on what is happening in the Pacific islands and what China is doing.

She added: 'Why right in the middle of an election campaign is all of this coming to light?

'I mean we talk about political interference and that has many forms. So I think we need to beware of what Beijing is doing and what it is trying to achieve.'

Ms Andrews did not provide any evidence for her claims and was blasted by Labor Home Affairs spokesman Kristina Keneally for the lack of proof.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, left, and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in 2019

Senator Keneally wrote: 'Offered with no proof. We are in caretaker mode. If Karen Andrews has such intelligence, Labor should be briefed.

'Otherwise she should listen to ASIO: using fear of foreign interference is as corrosive as foreign interference itself.'

Since the announcement, Scott Morrison has defended his national security credentials.

Diplomacy in the Pacific region cannot be heavy-handed or impinge on the sovereignty of the nation, he insisted.

'I'm very conscious of how visits are perceived within the Pacific. This was the right calibrated way to address this issue with the prime minister,' Mr Morrison said last week.

'One of the things you don't do in the Pacific is you don't throw your weight around. They're a sovereign country and we have to respect their sovereignty.'

Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong says a Chinese security agreement with a nation 1600km from Cairns has made the region less secure under Mr Morrison's watch.

'The government should have acted sooner. What this deal signifies is that Australia is no longer for the Solomon Islands a nation to whom they turn to meet their challenges in every instance,' Senator Wong said.

The Solomon Islands government has insisted that it does not want a Chinese naval bases on its territory.

But Minister Andrews said 'it's very likely' that China would ask the Solomon Islands to station troops there.
A Queens prostitute was sentenced to 30 years for fatally drugging four men with fentanyl in 2019 so she could rob them, with victims including a Cipriani chef.

Angelina Barini, 43, cried in court on Tuesday as she admitted distributing fentanyl and 'date rape' drug GBL to three unnamed men and Italian-born chef Andrea Zamperoni, 33. She did so in the hopes of knocking the men out and robbing them, but ended up killing them.

Prosecutor Breon Peace praised the 30 year sentence and hoped it would serve as a warning to anyone trying to use drugs to commit 'there horrific crimes.

'The defendant drugged and killed multiple people for a few quick dollars,' Peace said in a statement. 'She stole their personal belongings while they lay unconscious dying from the lethal drugs she gave them.'

'The defendant's substantial prison sentence is warranted by her shocking disregard for human life.'

Prostitute Angelina Barini, 43 (above), cried in court on Tuesday as she was convicted of fatally distributing fentanyl and the 'date rape' drug GBL to four men in the summer of 2019

Italian-born chef Andrea Zamperoni, 33, of New York's Cipriani Dolci, was among the victims

His body was found inside a garbage bin at an Elmhurst motel in August 18, 2019

Barini (pictured) admitted distributing fentanyl and 'date rape' drug GBL to three unnamed men and Zamperoni, 33. She did so in the hopes of knocking the men out and robbing them, but ended up killing them

Prosecutors said Barini, while operating as a sex worker, had a habit of providing drugs to her clients in order to 'incapacitate and rob them,' according to court records.

The records show that on July 4, 2019, Barini met with one of the victims at a motel in Astoria and gave him fentanyl-laced drugs. He was found dead later that day.

Investigators said similar events happened on July 11 in Woodside, and to a 60 year-old victim on August 5, in College Point, with both men dying of an overdose from fentanyl-laced drugs.

Then on August 18, 2019, prosecutors said Barini met with Zamperoni at the Kemway Lodge motel in Elmhurst, where she drugged him with GBL, killing him almost immediately.

Barini had made repeated attempts to dispose of Zamperoni's body at the motel, which was found three days later at a garbage bin wrapped in bleach-stained sheets.

Surveillance video from outside the motel showed police taking Barini into custody after the Zamperoni's body was found inside a garbage bin

Prosecutors said the chef overdosed just minutes after stepping inside the motel with Barini

Barini allegedly orchestrated the crime with ex-boyfriend Leslie Lescano, 44, who was also arrested and charged with conspiring to distribute a controlled substance.

Prosecutors said Barini handed Lescano Zamperoni's American Express bank card and asked him to go to a pharmacy to pick up gift cards and toiletries for her, including shampoo and body wash.

She also allegedly instructed him to get her cheese, cold cuts and cigarettes, which Lescano purchased at a deli using the victim's bank card, according to court records.

Sally, Barini's older sister, told the New York Post that the court's sentence on Tuesday was 'a little harsh' and that she was planning on appealing the decision.

'I think what wasn't taken into account was that of course what happened was wrong but the victims put themselves in there,' Sally said. 'They weren't saints.

'They went with her. They wanted to party and they wanted to do drugs with her and have sex. It wasn't like she put a gun to somebody's head and forced them to go with her.'
A Liberal Party candidate has given a young activist a lesson in economics after she was accused of doing nothing to avert the 'climate emergency' - calling out the 17-year-old's dramatic claims as 'child abuse'.

Colleen Harkin, the candidate for the seat of Macnamara in Melbourne, was questioned by teenage climate activist Anjali Sharma during a forum on Sunday.

The 17-year-old high school student told Ms Harkin she many times 'can't sleep at night' due to her fears of a worsening climate emergency.

She asked why young people weren't being taught about the pressing issue and said she was fearful because she could 'see what's happening'.

Ms Harkin said the idea of teaching young children there was a climate emergency was 'nothing short of almost abuse'.

Colleen Harkin, the Liberal Party's candidate for the seat of Macnamara, was questioned by climate activist Anjali Sharma during a forum on Sunday

Anjali Sharma (pictured) told Ms Harkin she many times 'can't sleep at night' due to her fears of a worsening climate emergency

'The earth is not going to implode next week, next month, next year... We all want a clean environment  we all want that,' she said.

'But to teach children that there is an emergency is nothing short of almost abuse.

'We have eight-year-old children who are stressed about the environment. We've taught them to be stressed.'

Anjali is a Year 12 student at Melbourne's Huntingtower School and an outspoken activist who regularly attends climate change protests.

Last month the high school student, along with seven others, launched a class action court case against federal environment minister Sussan Ley.

Ms Ley successfully appealed against a court ruling that she had a legal duty of care to protect young people from the impacts of climate change.

Ms Sharma told the forum on Sunday her grandmother in India fainted from the intense heat as temperatures in Delhi and Karachi reach 49C in Spring.

Here's a small excerpt of my interaction with Colleen Harkin today. I told her that my family in India is suffering. She compared climate anxiety to abuse and told me the Libs were investing in recycling or something. pic.twitter.com/OurMAXSkiK  anjali sharma (@anjsharmaaa) April 24, 2022

Ms Sharma, 17, is a Year 12 student at Melbourne's Huntingtower School and an outspoken activist who regularly attends climate change protests

The high school student took to Twitter on Sunday to share her thoughts about the forum

'Even if Australia magically abided by the Greens 75 per cent reduction in the next six or seven years it would make zero difference,' Ms Harkin replied.

She said it would be impossible to pursue the reduction by 2030 because nations like China and India were burning fuels at increasing rates.

The high school student posted video from the forum to Twitter as well as a screenshot of an email she received from the candidate after the event.

'Colleen Harkin told children who have been informed about the extent of the climate crisis that they have been abused,' she tweeted on Tuesday.

'Child abuse is such a pressing issue, as is climate change. Dismissing BOTH issues by conflating them in such a heartless way - how is that okay?'

Anjali said she emailed Ms Harkin's office asking for an apology and received a reply that told the student she had missed the point.

Last month Ms Sharma, along with seven others, unsuccessfully launched a class action court case against federal environment minister Sussan Ley (pictured, outside a Sydney court)

Ms Sharma said she had emailed Ms Harkin's office asking for an apology and received a reply (pictured) that told the student she had missed the point

'You seem to have missed the point I was making - which was - that excessive and unreasonable activism around the issue of climate change is having an untold impact on children's and young people's mental state, health and well-being,' it read.

Ms Harkin released a statement on Tuesday describing her language as 'clumsy'.

'I accept my language was clumsy; the point I was seeking to make was that we should be teaching our children hope, not fear,' she said.

Ms Larkin also threw her support behind controversial fellow Liberal Party candidate Katherine Deves and said she shared the same concerns about transgender women competing in female sport.

Ms Deves has been widely condemned after transphobic deleted tweets were unearthed.

They included describing trans children as 'surgically mutilated and sterilised' and implied they only wanted to transition because they were on the autism spectrum.

Other tweets compared transgender activists to the Nazis and said she felt 'triggered' whenever she saw the LGBTQI+ rainbow flag.

Liberal Candidate Katherine Deves has come under fire for comparing her campaign to 'Save Women's Sports' to activism against the Holocaust

Ms Deves also once compared her campaigning for 'Save Women's Sports' to activism against the Holocaust.

Ms Larkin said the issue was 'sensitive and delicate', but fairness in women's sport had to be addressed, The Age reported.

'We've got situations where someone has dedicated their entire life to being the best swimmer in the world and at two minutes to midnight, somebody who has transitioned who's six foot four with shoulders this wide and feet this big can enter a female swimming race,' she said at the forum.

She also spoke out against gender-neutral language, saying: 'If you show me someone who chestfeeds a baby, Ill show you a hungry baby.'

Labor holds the Macnamara with a 6.25 per cent margin, but Greens candidate Steph Hodgins-May remains confident she can win the seat.

Ms Hodgins-May said the Liberals' comparison of climate anxiety to child abuse 'insulted survivors of traumatic violence and sexual assault'.
Jack Power should have been gone for just half an hour on an evening walk to the shops with his younger sister and their friend.

In August 2018 the three children got permission from their parents at a family party to walk to the supermarket to buy dinner supplies.

They made it to the shops, bought what they needed and were just minutes from home when a driver, not paying attention, ran a red light.

Zhou Hui Lu was on his way home from work and didn't see the lights on the pedestrian crossing outside Melbourne's Blackburn High School turn amber and then red.

The pedestrian light was green and the noise was sounding as the children crossed.

Jack Power (pictured) was walking across a pedestrian crossing with his sister and a friend when he was hit by a van which had run a red light

Jack, 10, was hit by the passenger side of the van and hit his head on the windscreen. He suffered catastrophic head injuries and died in hospital the following day.

His six-year-old sister was just steps in front of him, holding the hand of an older friend.

The other girl, 12 at the time, had pulled the younger girl along and yelled for her to run after hearing screeching tyres and seeing the van headed for the crossing.

Lu admitted dangerous driving causing Jack's death.

He braked before entering the crossing but skidded through as the children made their way across the road.

Because of his inattention he failed to react in time, prosecutor Melissa Mahady told a pre-sentence hearing in Victoria's Supreme Court on Wednesday.

He stopped straight away and rushed to Jack, carrying him off the road before calling triple zero.

Driver Zhou Hui Lu (pictured at a previous court appearance) will be assessed for a community corrections order as an alternative to a jail term

Witnesses nearby also rushed to help, including a couple who heard the crash inside their nearby home.

Jack's parents Bonnie and Matt, and their family and friends, want Jack's death to raise awareness about driver inattention in an effort to stop other families experiencing the devastating loss of a child.

It will also help keep Jack's legacy alive, they said.

Lu wanted to convey his respects to the Power family and his sorrow for the harm he has caused, psychologist Patrick Newton said.

He buys flowers on the anniversary of Jack's death and prays for Jack and his family as a way of expressing his regret.

Jack was walking across a pedestrian crossing with his younger sister and friend near Blackburn High School (pictured) almost four years ago when he was fatally struck

Lu said had something like this happened to his own son he would feel great devastation, so he could understand what the family must feel.

Justice Mandy Fox is having Lu assessed for a community corrections order, as an alternative to a prison.

She will hand down her sentence in the coming weeks.
An American writer who moved to Sydney has revealed he was struck by how common pokie rooms are across the nation.

Michael Miller, the Australian correspondent for the Washington Post, said: 'When I moved to Sydney a year ago and exited two weeks of hotel quarantine, I remember going to a pub for a schnitty (chicken schnitzel for non-Aussies) and a schoonie (glass of beer) and being struck by the sight of a room full of slot machines.

'In much of the world, slots are confined largely to casinos. But in Australia, pokies -- as the machines are called here -- are everywhere,' he explained on Twitter.

A leading American journalist has revealed how he was shocked by the large number of pokies in Australia after moving down under

He wrote an article titled: 'In Australia, slot machines are everywhere. So is gambling addiction,' exposing the nations addiction to pokies

'Theyre in thousands of hotels and pubs, in big cities & small towns. Theyve transformed neighborhood social clubs into gambling palaces.

'In many cities, its hard to walk more than a few blocks without encountering a VIP Room or VIP Lounge.

Mr Miller was so taken back by the nation's gambling problem that he wrote an article titled: 'In Australia, slot machines are everywhere. So is gambling addiction,' for the Washington Post.

It reveals that Australia is only home to 0.3 per cent of the world's population, but 20 per cent of its pokies.

Australia leads the planet with an average $1,000 in gambling losses per adult per year

He also highlights a damning statistic that Australia leads the planet with an average $1,000 in gambling losses per adult per year.

In his article, Mr Miller reveals there's little political will to do much about Australia's pokie problem because the gambling industry generates so much income for state governments.

'The gambling industry donates millions of dollars to the major political parties and pays billions in taxes to states and territories,' he explained.

However he warned that lack of action about the problem is causing horrific consequences for the nation's gambling addicts.

'Im not the first to write about the gambling industry Down Under, including political influence that opponents liken to the American gun lobby. The industry pays billions in taxes, and supporters say pokies are legal, regulated and enjoyed responsibly by millions of Australians.

'But I wanted to show the personal impact of having a de facto casino on your doorstep. I heard a burly man choke up as he recounted stealing from his kids piggy bank to fuel his habit. I saw a woman whod turned to pokies to escape trauma struggle to avoid catastrophe.'

'I watched a mother at wits end try to save her addicted son. And I saw a suicide go from a rallying cry for reform to another example of inaction.'

According to a recent study from Gambling Research, the number of Australians with a gambling problem has doubled over 10 years to more than 1 per cent.

There are more than 190,000 electronic gambling machines in Australia  more per capita than almost any other major jurisdiction, aside from Nevada, data from 2019 shows.

The spotlight on Australia's gambling problem comes after the NSW Government hinted at plans to drop a controversial cashless gaming card proposal that was supposed to help solve the issue.

The card policy was intended to stop problem gamblers and criminals using pokie machines to launder money.

Under the plan devised by former gaming minister Victor Dominello, gamblers would have to register and pre-load money to the card.

Mr Miller said in many Australian cities, its hard to walk more than a few blocks without encountering a pokie room

However current gaming minister Kevin Anderson, who tookover the portfolio in December is set to ditch the idea.

'I dont support the government controlling the card,' Mr Anderson told the Daily Telegraph.

Clubs NSW has opposed the cashless card, with claims it would cost the clubs industry $1.8bn in lost revenue.

Mr Anderson says still in favor of using digital payments to reduce problem gambling.

The industry is currently trialing an opt-in 'digital wallet' for pokies at a popular club in Newcastle.

Mr Anderson says he will await the trials results before pursuing discussions about gambling reforms, which he says would need to be industry-driven with government support.
The daughter of murdered ganglord Carl Williams will have her day in court after refusing to accept a fine over allegations she used her phone while driving.

Dhakota Lee Williams, 21, was charged with the minor offence after allegedly using her phone at the wheel just days after her lavish 21st birthday celebrations in March.

She appeared on a video link in the Melbourne's Magistrate Court on Wednesday where magistrate Graeme Keil pleaded with her to get the matter sorted.

Court documents allege Ms Williams was intercepted by police while driving a black BMW on Melbourne's Alexandra Avenue.

Dhakota Williams (pictured), the daughter of the late gangland figure Carl Williams, has been charged over allegedly using her phone while driving

Ms Williams had asked for the matter to be adjourned while her lawyer, Emma Turnbull, worked to obtain documents to help progress her case.

Ms Turnbull has long acted for Ms Williams' mum Roberta Williams, who is herself a convicted drug offender.

The court heard Ms Williams had only one previous blemish on her driving record, which was over a parking infringement.

'Maam, we're very keen, it's up to yourself ... I'll emphasis this, it's up to yourself,' Mr Keil said.

Keen not to provide the younger Williams with any legal advice, Mr Keil told her the matter could be dealt with on-the-spot.

'This is just a very straight forward matter,' he said.

The magistrate told Ms Williams he was prepared to give a sentence indication that would result in nothing more serious than a fine.

'Then it's over and done with. You don't have to take this sentencing indication,' Mr Keil said.

'We can deal with it now rather than adjourning it off for paperwork that you may or may not need, who knows, but I'm very keen to get these sort of matters over and done with.'

While Ms Williams was almost sold on the prospect, she changed her mind after being reminded she ought not plead guilty if she was innocent of the charge.

'You should only be pleading guilty if you've done it,' Mr Keil said.

'I think we'll go with the adjournment today,' Ms Williams responded.

When questioned by the magistrate about why the media had put in a request for court documents on her case, Ms Williams replied: 'I don't know'.

Carl Williams (pictured) leaves the Melbourne Magistrates Court on April 14, 2004

The matter has now been put off to mid-June.

Ms Williams refused to answer questions from the police, court documents reportedly state.

The charge came just days after Ms Williams held a lavish party for her 21st birthday.

Her mother Roberta and a crowd of extended family and friends gathered at the Emerson rooftop club in Melbourne's inner south-east.

Guests were given gold-flecked paddle pops and could choose from custom cocktails including a Birthday Baby, an espresso martini, or a Pisces SZN, a white chocolate and Chambord margarita.

Ms Williams, wearing a short white dress, gold body chain and a Louis Vuitton handbag, posed with her her mother for a social media photo on the venue's balcony as guests arrived.

'I wish your dad could see you today,' Roberta Williams said in her speech at the party.

'He would be so proud of you because you are exactly how he dreamt you would be.

'Every night before you were born your dad and I would sit in your nursery talking about you and what you'd be like, and everything he said, you have grown to be.

'He loved you beyond words. I'm glad you got to feel his love and I know he is with you every step of the way guiding you  your own personal angel.'

Dhakota Williams (left) and her mother Roberta (right) posed for a photo at the Emerson rooftop club in Melbourne as guests arrived for her 21st birthday bash

Carl Williams (pictured right) holding his daughter Dhakota in his arms during a prison visit

Dhakota Williams (pictured left with her mother Roberta) regularly posts glammed up snaps to Instagram where she has 37,000 followers

The Williams clan was thrust into the attention of mainstream Australia after the lead character in the original season of the crime series Underbelly, played by Gyton Grantley, was based on Carl Williams.

The series followed the bloody gangland wars which rocked Melbourne in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Ms Williams in an interview before her birthday said while her father was notorious, to her he was just a normal dad.

'For me going to visit him, I couldn't pick any difference between him and what society classes as a normal dad,' she told The Daily Telegraph.

'We would talk about school, being nice to my mum, brushing my teeth every day, literally the most normal things you can think of,' she said.

She also added she was determined not to let her family's notoriety define her.

Ms Williams had previously said she wanted to be a lawyer but is now focused on studying business management at university.

She regularly posts glammed up pictures to Instagram where she has 36,000 followers.
Harvard University has pledged to set aside $100 million for an endowment fund that will be used as reparations for the victims of slavery after a report found that the educational institution benefited from the vile act.

The fund is designed to be used with other measures to close the educational, social, and economic gaps that are legacies of slavery and racism. The announcement was made by the university's president in an email that was sent to all students, faculty, and staff on Tuesday.

Harvard's History of Slavery

Harvard President Lawrence Bacow sent the email and included a link to a 100-page report that was conducted by the institution's 14-member Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery. Legal historian and constitutional law expert Tomiko Brown-Nagin who is the dean of Harvard's interdisciplinary Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study chaired the panel.

The university's decision to set aside the massive $100 million fund for reparations comes amid a wider conversation regarding the impacts of centuries of slavery, discrimination, and racism in the United States. Many people have also called for financial reparations or other measures to compensate victims and their kin, as per Reuters.

While the report did not provide evidence that suggested the university itself owned slaves, it noted that prominent members of the Harvard community did. Furthermore, it was found that some of the enslaved individuals worked within the walls of the educational institution, serving and feeding generations of Harvard students.

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The committee also said that major early donations to the university came from men who built their wealth with slavery. In the first half of the 19th century, more than one-third of the funds donated or promised to Harvard came from five men who primarily benefitted from slavery or slave-produced commodities to amass their wealth.

According to the Boston Globe, the report also noted that professorships and campus buildings still bore the names of men involved in slavery and discrimination. An undergraduate dorm, Mather House, is named after Increase Mather, who was a former president of the institution in the 17th century and enslaved at least one person.

Reparations for the Vile Act

The institution was also home to intellectuals who promoted "race science" and eugenics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Their theories and research, one of which was a collection of photographs of enslaved people and nude students, gave critical support to people who wanted to justify white supremacy and other racist ideologies at the time.

The university's museum also has human remains believed to be from Indigenous people and enslaved people of African descent. Bacow said in a statement that many who read the details of the report will find it "disturbing and even shocking."

The Harvard president said that the institution benefited from and argued that it in some ways perpetuated practices that were profoundly immoral. He added that the current generation bore a moral responsibility to do what is possible to address the persistent corrosive effects of such historical practices on individuals, on Harvard, and on our society, the Washington Post reported.



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A furious pensioner who lost it at the Deputy Prime Minister on the side of a remote highway says he unleashed his tirade because a cop asked him to do a U-turn - as he's refused bail for allegedly threatening an officer.

Pedro De Pakas was arrested on Sunday and accused of threatening serious harm to a Commonwealth law officer on the New England Highway, in the NSW Northern Tablelands, on April 22.

The 52-year-old allegedly veered his SUV towards Barnaby Joyce's vehicle, which was pulled over, before he lashed out at a police security guard who jumped out of the car to protect the federal MP.

Mobile phone footage captured by a person travelling with Mr Joyce allegedly showed De Pakas yelling, 'Get out of the f***in' way you dog. Get the f*** out of my face you maggot c***,' at the officer.

Later that day, De Pakas uploaded a bizarre expletive-laden rant to Facebook claiming his temper only boiled over because an AFP officer jumped in the way of his car and asked him to turn around.

Pedro De Pakas (pictured) was was arrested on Sunday and accused of threatening serious harm to a commonwealth law officer

In an expletive-laden rant on Facebook (pictured), De Pakas said he only got angry when the police officer asked him to turn around

'Driving today, saw Barnaby and one of his d***heads thought he could stand in the way of my car in the middle of my drive line, telling me to turn around and go back the other way!' he wrote on Friday afternoon.

'What the useless c***sucking f***wit said was illegal and he certainly had no right to be telling me anything especially as he did not identify himself.'

'My daughter had to get out of the car as they were refusing to move! Like they own the world! C***sucking f***wits!'

De Pakas uploaded further footage of the alleged incident the following day, showing the AFP officer standing in front of his car.

'Get out of the way, d***head,' the 52-year-old shouted in the footage, along with a series of inappropriate and sexual slurs about Mr Joyce, as he drove past the officer.

'You're a f***ing piece of s***, Barnaby,' he screamed, as his daughter yelled for him to stop.

De Pakas (pictured) was refused bail on Monday. His case will be heard again on June 29

Barnaby Joyce's security fended off an abusive driver after he tried to confront the deputy prime minister on a busy highway

Along with the footage, he wrote: 'After getting back into my car, [the police officer] still got in front of my car escalating the situation instead of just letting me past as I was allowed to do without him obstructing my driving.'

'He was in the middle of the service lane.'

Initial reports stated Mr Joyce was heading to his electorate office in Armidale, along with three security cars.

The Deputy Prime Minister pulled his car over to the side of the road to take a call on his phone when De Pakas' SUV made a U-turn and headed for Mr Joyce's vehicle.

Following the verbal spray, De Pakas' daughter tried to pull him back into the SUV before, he allegedly hurled more abuse at the unmoving officer.

'C'mon, c'mon on ya c***. You piss weak c***,' he yells, according to the video.

Pictured: An AFP officer standing in front of De Pakas' SUV on the New England Highway

Mr Joyce praised the actions of the quick thinking security staff - labelling the outburst as 'sad' and 'unsavoury'

The pensioner pointed his finger in the face of the AFP officer, who remained silent as he stares him down.

The officer calmly watched the driver return to his SUV following the outburst.

Depakas was arrested on Sunday and charged with threatening to cause harm to a Commonwealth public official, and failure to comply with bail conditions.

Bail was denied during his mention in Tamworth Local Court on Monday.

He will appear again on June 29.

Following the alleged altercation, Mr Joyce praised the actions of the quick thinking security staff.

'This was a sad and unsavoury incident, which in no way reflects how the majority of Australians participate in our democracy,' he said.

'I thank my protective detail ... This will be dealt with through the appropriate processes.'
A BBC journalist on a work trip to the U.S. was mocked for sharing a shot of a BB gun for sale in Walmart after apparently mistaking it for a real firearm.

The journalist, Padraig Belton, whose work has appeared on the BBC and in The Guardian, sent out the unfortunate tweet on April 26.

According to Belton's Twitter feed, he arrived in the United States on April 25. Upon arrival, Belton realized that he didn't have a plug adaptor for this laptop.

Belton wrote in the message, 'Hi from America. Where Walmart doesnt have a plug adapter for my UK laptop. But on the other hand, I can buy a rifle and ammunition.'

The photo that started the storm. Belton tweeted this photo and wrote: 'Hi from America. Where Walmart doesnt have a plug adapter for my UK laptop. But on the other hand, I can buy a rifle and ammunition'

It's unclear if Belton was serious in his tweet, as he has covered numerous war zones in his journalistic career.

From there, the journalist went to a Walmart in Hallandale Beach, Florida, to seek out an adaptor. While in the store, he posted a photo of three different BB gun rifles.

The BB guns pictured by Belton were Daisy's Red Ryder Carbine and Powerline Model 880 as well as a Crosman 760 Pumpmaster. None are real firearms.

That tweet set off a Twitter storm as users roundly mocked Belton's error. One user, Mike the Mad Scientist, tweeted, 'My brother in Christ its no wonder you guys lost the war.'

Mike the Mad Scientist's message to Belton was among the most like tweets in the pile on

Conservative activist Benny Johnson was among those who joined in the mocking of Belton.

Johnson said, 'The last time British snobs marched into America and tried to control our economy we grabbed real rifles and ammunition and kicked their asses.

'American boys that grew up shooting these bb guns went on to save the UK in two world wars. Remember your adapter next time, Red Coat.'

The founder of The Federalist Sean Davis tweeted at Belton, 'Did you actually think you could buy a real gun for $28?'

Many responders pointed out that the Red Ryder toy is featured in the classic movie A Christmas Story. Some quoted the famous warning about BB guns from the movie, 'You'll shoot your eye out kid.'

The Washington Examiner's Jerry Dunleavy was one of the many to mock Belton using references to the classic holiday movie A Christmas Story

Twitter users began posting photos of toys sold in Walmart and began tagging Belton

It didn't take long before some Twitter users brought up the Revolutionary War

Turning Point USA's Benny Johnson articulated his feelings toward Belton with this message

Belton did say that a nice Walmart employee directed him to an Apple Store where he could purchase and adaptor

Walmart sells real firearms at around halve of their stores, usually in areas where hunting is popular

The only response that Belton made to the Twitter mob was a message to the Daily Wire's Ian Haworth. Haworth posted a link saying that Walmart did sell plug adaptors.

Belton told Haworth that Walmart only sell the adaptors online but that an employee directed him to a nearby Apple Store.

Haworth earlier told Belton, 'These are air rifles, which are legal in the United Kingdom.'

Radio host Larry O'Connor jokingly thanked Elon Musk following the billionaire's takeover of Twitter saying the site was '1000% better.'

Walmart sells guns and ammo at around half of the company's 4,700 stores. They are most common in areas where hunting is popular.

Belton told On London in a 2020 interview that he became a volunteer paramedic during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In that piece, Belton said he was in the process of joining the Army reserves when the pandemic began. Belton added, 'The virus halted my training.'
President Joe Biden is banning traditional incandescent lightbulbs in a push to be more energy efficient, but critics claim the switch to LED alternatives will prove costly for poorer Americans.

The Department of Energy (DOE) adopted two new rules Tuesday that strengthen energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs and will effectively phase out the sale of traditional bulbs by next year.

However, consumer analysts allege that not only are LED bulbs more expensive, costing nearly $4 each as opposed to $1 for an incandescent bulb, but are often not stocked in stores in lower-income communities.

Around 30 percent of the two billion bulbs sold in the US every year are incandescent.

The Democrat claims the changes will help conserve energy and reduce utility bills for families by approximately $100 each year, according to a DOE press release. Collectively, the measure is estimated to save Americans $3billion annually.

While dearer to buy, the new bulbs save an average of of $177 over the course of a 20 year-lifespan, compared to incandescent bulbs - but critics say many poorer families are not in a position to think of long-term finances.

The phaseout of incandescent bulbs was on track to begin in 2019 but was halted by then-President Donald Trump due to 'bowing pressure' from some of the world's largest lightbulb manufacturers, The New York Times reported.

The same firms had complied with similar phase-out rules in the EU without complaint, but are said to be happy about higher manufacturing costs, lower profit margins and increased competition in the LED market.

Trump's Administration, at the time, backed their decision by alleging it was made to 'protect consumer choice' and ensure Americans 'do not pay the price for unnecessary overregulation from the federal government'.

President Joe Biden is banning traditional incandescent lightbulbs (pictured) in a push to be more energy efficient, but critics claim the switch to LED alternatives will prove costly

Biden's Administration adopted two new rules Tuesday that strengthen energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs and will effectively phase out the sale of traditional bulbs by next year. President Joe Biden is pictured in DC on Monday

The DOE claims most of the country is already utilizing LED lights, which reportedly use a fraction of the electricity of incandescent bulbs and last 50 times longer.

The shift has decreased electricity demands in American homes, saved consumers funds and decreased greenhouse gas emissions, the agency alleged.

'The lighting industry is already embracing more energy efficient products, and this measure will accelerate progress to deliver the best products to American consumers and build a better and brighter future,' Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement Tuesday.

'By raising energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs, we're putting $3 billion back in the pockets of American consumers every year and substantially reducing domestic carbon emissions.'

The DOE estimates the new bulb standards will also cut planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next 30 years, an amount equivalent to emissions generated by 28 million American homes in just one year.

The Department of Energy claims switching to LED bulbs (pictured) will help conserve energy and reduce utility bills for families by approximately $100 each year. The measure is estimated to save Americans $3billion annually

The phaseout of incandescent bulbs was on track to begin in 2019 but was halted by then-President Donald Trump due to 'bowing pressure' from some of the world's largest lightbulb manufacturers. Trump is pictured at a rally on Saturday

This chart shows how LED bulbs are four times more expensive to buy than incandescent - although they do provide substantial energy saving costs in the long-run

But critics, including some bulb manufactures, allege the change is occurring too rapidly and would 'damage their bottom line'.

According to the Times, manufacturers could find themselves with an excess inventory of incandescent bulbs that would no longer be eligible for sale.

The bulbs would eventually be discarded and end up in landfills, unused, which arguably has a negative impact on the environment overall.

Others worry the American people would suffer the financial burden of the sudden switch, especially since lower-end retailers, like dollar stores, tend to stock their shelves with halogen and incandescent bulbs.

LED lightbulbs (right) have a lifespan of 25,000 hours, significantly longer than the 1,200 hours an incandescent bulb (second from left) will shine

PRESIDENT BIDEN'S ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA President Joe Biden's plan to fight global warming and other environmental concerns is multi-faceted. LANDMARK LAW: The administration plans to resurrect portions of the National Environmental Policy Act that will require federal agencies to evaluate climate risks when consider proposals for projects such as highways and pipelines. DRILLING: Biden plans to resume selling leases on public lands in an effort to increase the domestic gas and oil supply. LIGHT BULBS: Biden's administration has adopted two new rules that set stricter efficiency standards for lightbulbs. The first rule establishes a revised definition of general service lamps while the second implements the minimum standard of 45 lumens per watt for light bulbs that meet the revised definition. The rules will effectively phase out the sale of incandescent lightbulbs. Advertisement

In fact, an University of Michigan study published in 2018 revealed that none of the small retailers in America's poorest communities - where 40 percent or more of the households live below the federal poverty level - carried LED bulbs, while 92 percent carried traditional bulbs.

LED bulbs, when available, also tend to cost on average $2.50 more per bulb in lower-income communities, as compared to wealthier neighborhoods, according to researchers.

The study also noted that in America's poorest areas there was a $6.24 mean price difference between traditional bulbs and LEDs, meaning residents are met with a 'huge upfront cost'.

However, data published earlier this month by LED lighting company Viribright shows that while LED bulbs are more expensive per unit, the average American will spend significantly less over time.

The lighting company reported that on average an incandescent bulb costs $1 per bulb, whereas LED bulbs cost $4 each, or less.

The average lifespan of an incandescent bulb is 1,200 hours. An LED's lifespan is approximately 25,000 hours.

This means Americans would need to purchase 21 incandescent lightbulbs to light a room for 25,000 hours, compared to the one LED bulb needed to complete the task.

Viribright estimates that over 20 years incandescent bulb years will spend $21 on bulbs, whereas LED users will only spend $4  a $17 savings.

Environmental groups have applauded the new rules, which are part of Biden's push to restart the green energy program paused by his predecessor.

The energy-efficiency proponents allege the shift to LEDs was already underway at the manufacturing level and the old 'regulatory timeline gave manufacturers too much time to move away from a technology for which a replacement was already widely available.'

'LEDs have become so inexpensive that there's no good reason for manufacturers to keep selling 19th-century technology that just isn't very good at turning electrical energy into light,' Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, told the Times.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association said the shift to LED lighting has already proven to be an 'unqualified success,' adding it 'appreciates the administration's recognition of the challenges industry faces in complying with the rule and the adoption of a more manageable compliance time frame.'

Other supporters claim the move will also remove products falsely advertising energy efficiency from the marketplace.

'Many of the energy-guzzling bulbs have labels claiming they save energy, and it's infuriating,' argued Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. 'Responsible chains ought to get them off their shelves as soon as possible and certainly by the end of this year.'
An Australian man has become an overnight multi-millionaire after winning $20 million in a lotto draw - 20 times the amount he first thought he had won.

The Melbourne player held the only division one winning ticket in Oz Lotto's draw last night.

When officials called the Tullamarine resident on Wednesday morning, he joked that winning $1 million was the secret to a good night's sleep.

The Aussie man held the only winning division one ticket in the entire country

'I'm still in bed right now, but I checked my Oz Lotto ticket last night while getting dinner ready, so I think I know why you're calling,' he said.

Overwhelmed, the man said it felt 'like a dream' when officials told him that his true winnings totalled $20,034,283.20.

'But I thought I'd won one million dollars, not twenty million dollars, he said. 'I assumed multiple people won the prize, not just me.'

'I never thought I'd become an overnight multi-millionaire. It's so much money! This is very overwhelming.

'I know this is true, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like a dream!

The man said he was yet to celebrate his winnings and planned to have a 'nice sleep in' before calling his family to share the news of his overnight fortune.

When asked what he will do with the money, he said he can now 'live his best life' and plans to buy a home, help his family, and go travelling.

The man bought the winning ticket from the Tullamarine Authorised Newsagency, in Melbourne's north-west.

Newsagency owner, Sasha Kulincevic, said his entire team was celebrating the division one win.

The winning ticket was bought from a news agency in Tullamarine, Melbourne

'We've been sharing the news with all our customers, and they're all excited and hoping they're next,' Mr Kulincevic said.

'Hopefully this is the start of a winning streak.'

The Lottos division one winning tally has now reached 376 so far this financial year.

In 2021, 18 division one winning Oz Lotto entries across Australia collectively won more than $279.7 million - with the biggest jackpot of $50 million, which was shared by a Queensland and Victorian player in November.

Of the 18 winning entries, six landed in Victoria, five in NSW, three in Western Australian, two in Queensland and one each in South Australia and the Northern Territory.

The latest win had the numbers 4, 22, 30, 17, 5, 45, 34, with supplementary numbers 31 and 44.
A small gathering of Liberal party stalwarts has come together in Sydney to show their support in an odd new campaign video for controversial candidate Katherine Deves.

The group of eleven humans and two dogs required more than a little direction as they clustered around Ms Deves to 'recite' prepared lines.

Unfortunately for Ms Deves, who has come to prominence for her views on transgender people, they fluffed the lines.

The Liberal candidate for Warringah has been subjected to vile rape and death threats since she was announced and was keen to be seen with supporters.

A gathering of supporters for Liberal candidate Katherine Deves (pictured centre with dark jacket and scarf)

In the video, after a few mumbles of 'We love Katherine', one louder voice took over.

'She... we love Katherine. She is our candidate,' the woman said, sounding more robotic than enthusiastic.

'OK,' she continues, looking for more support, then counts her colleagues in. 'One, two, three. Go.'

Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves (pictured)

The ensembled voices only manage to raise a barely audible mutter of 'We love Katherine. She is our candidate.'

The louder voice returns, trying to gee up the others. 'She's our candidate,' she said in as full-throated a shout as she could manage.

'Yes. For Warringah,' a male voice mumbles.

'That's it,' the loud woman replies.

But Ms Deves, who went from unknown to national headlines when parts of her past resurfaced, is not lacking in name recognition.

She has been subjected to horrific abuse since she was hand-picked by Scott Morrison to run in the key seat of Warringah on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Warringah was a blue ribbon Liberal seat until independent Zali Steggall beat former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in the 2019 federal election.

Winning it back would help the Coalition to retain power as it is predicted to lose seats in other states.

The abuse Ms Deves has been subjected to has more to do with her campaigning to ban transgender athletes from women's sport and other comments on transgender people than her being a Liberal candidate, though.

She said athletes who are born male have biological advantages and should not be allowed to compete against biological women - a notion which has sparked heated debate across the world.

In a series of now-deleted tweets from April 2021 Ms Deves described transgender children as 'surgically mutilated and sterilised'.

And in a YouTube interview she compared her Protect Women's Sport movement to standing up against the Holocaust.

She also likened her stance on the issue as being akin to the French Resistance fighters who resisted German occupation during World War II.

She later apologised and said her language was 'not acceptable'. Ms Deves also restated her belief that transgender women should not compete in women's sports.

Liberal candidate Katherine Deves (pictured) has been subjected to vile rape and death threats

Pictured is some of the vile abuse Liberal candidate Katherine Deves has been subjected to

As her views were made public, Ms Deves was criticised by Ms Steggall, the Labor and Greens parties and from within her own Liberal Party.

But Mr Morrison, for whom she was a 'captain's pick', has stood by her.

Ms Deves has since been subjected to hundreds of vile rape and death threats and is now said to be staying at an undisclosed location for the safety of her and her family.

Liberal candidate Katherine Deves is pictured speaking on SBS television, where she spoke about the vile attacks she has been subjected to

One of the threats to Ms Deves said 'If you ever comment transphobic s*** on my feed again I'll burn you and stick my girl c*** down your neck.'

The same troll also called her a 'c***', a 'witch' and a 'TERF' - an acronym meaning trans-exclusionary radical feminist, which is used to describe feminists who reject the assertion that trans women are women.

Another troll took to Twitter under a pseudonym to say 'I have no qualms helping to set bigots on fire ... It's akin to killing vermin.'

Independent Warringah MP Zali Steggall (pictured) has criticised her Liberal opponent Katherine Deves over her comments on transgender people

Her opponent, Ms Steggall, is a former Olympic bronze medallist.

She criticised Ms Deves' views on transgender athletes, but did not say if she would have competed against trans athletes herself.

Ms Steggall said Ms Deves should be disendorsed over her comments.

'The fact that she deleted her previous social media accounts shows that she knew just how toxic, ill-informed and offensive her comments and views were,' she said.

'(Scott Morrison) either knew her views and selected her anyway, or he wasn't properly informed and made a flawed decision.'

Katherine Deves (pictured) said her family's 'safety has been threatened' since she became the Liberal candidate for Warringah on Sydney's Northern Beaches

Speaking on SBS television last weekend, Ms Deves said her husband and their three daughters had to flee Sydney due to threats to her and them.

'I have received death threats. I have had to have the police and the AFP involved. My safety has been threatened.

'My family are away out of Sydney because I don't want them to witness what I'm going through nor do I want their safety put at risk,' she said.

The SBS interview was the only one she has done since elements of her past started appearing in the media.

'I went from having a small platform in a certain demographic to suddenly being the political candidate who was second only to the prime minister in terms of the press coverage,' she said.

'We've wanted that to die down a little bit before I responded to the media inquiries.'
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Ukraine has hailed a suspected missile strike on Russian soil this morning as 'payback' and 'karma' for Putin's vicious attacks on its civilians.

An ammunition depot caught fire in Belgorod, sending flames and smoke rising into the skies over Staraya Nelidovka in the early hours of the morning, as anti-air defences in border regions opened fire in what is suspected to be more attacks by Ukraine.

Air defences were active over neighbouring Kursk and Voronezh regions as Russia said it had shot down Ukrainian drones that entered its territory.

Without directly admitting responsibility, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said it was 'karma' for Russia and said they deserved to learn about 'demilitarisation' in a pointed swipe at Putin's supposed war aims.

'If you decide to massively attack another country, massively kill everyone there, massively crush peaceful people with tanks, and use warehouses in your regions to enable the killings, then sooner or later the debts will have to be repaid,' Podolyak said.

He added: 'Therefore, the disarmament of the Belgorod and Voronezh killers' warehouses is an absolutely natural process. Karma is a cruel thing.'

Smoke and flames are seen silhouetted against the night sky in Russia's Belgorod region this morning after three explosions around 3.30am left an ammunition dump on fire

A Russian ammunition dump near the village of Staraya Nelidovka, in the Belgorod region, burns after what is widely thought to have been a Ukrainian air strike

Anti-air defences are filmed shooting a target out of the sky over the Belgorod region of Russia as Ukraine continues to target military facilities reinforcing Moscow's troops in the east

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said on Telegram: 'At approximately 3.35am I woke up from a loud bang that sounded like a blast.

'As I was writing this post, three more blasts were heard. According to preliminary information, an ammunition depot is on fire near the village of Staraya Nelidovka.'

No civilian casualties were reported.

Meanwhile residents of Voronezh, which is more than 100 miles from the Ukraine border, reported two explosions to the south-west of the city overnight.

Video taken in the dawn hours showed what appeared to be the white exhaust trail of an air defence missile crossing the sky, with an impact cloud hanging in the air.

RIA Novosti, Russia's main state news wire, later claimed that a reconnaissance drone had been shot down.

Explosions were also heard near the city of Kursk, around 60 miles from the border, with video seeming to show flames glowing against a darkened sky.

Unconfirmed reports suggested that more drones had been shot down over the town of Oboyan, to the south of Kursk city.

'There are no casualties or destruction,' Kursk governor Roman Starovoyt said.

The strikes come off the back of a series of explosions within Russia targeting military bases and infrastructure that are widely thought to be coming from Kyiv.

Belgorod has been the most heavily targeted, with missile strikes and a helicopter raid targeting fuel and ammunition dumps.

A railway bridge was also targeted in the same region in what is widely suspected to have been a sabotage attack by Ukrainian special forces.

Belgorod is a key staging point for Russian forces heading to join the fight in Ukraine's Donbas region, where a major offensive to seize the eastern part of Ukraine is currently underway.

The frequency of the attacks has caused fury within Russia, with the Kremlin threatening to step up attacks on 'decision-making centres' in Kyiv in retaliation - a thinly-veiled threat to target government and military headquarters.

Belgorod - a key staging post for Russian troops in Ukraine's Donbas region - has been repeatedly targeted with ammunition dumps, fuel depots, and railway lines all destroyed in recent days

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that he heard three blasts at 3.35am local time before confirming that an ammunition dump had been set alight (pictured)

Images also showed what appeared to be air defences active over the city of Voronezh, as Russian state media reported that a reconnaissance drone had been shot down

Russia has also suggested it could target foreign embassies in the Ukrainian capital if it is found that Western weapons have been used to strike its soil.

It came after British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said it would be 'completely legitimate' for Ukraine to use weapons donated by allies for the attacks - though stressed there is no evidence that Kyiv is already doing so.

A Kremlin spokesman said: 'We would like to underline that London's direct provocation of the Kyiv regime into such actions  if such actions are carried out  will immediately lead to our proportional response.

'As we have warned, the Russian armed forces are in round-the-clock readiness to launch retaliatory strikes with high-precision long-range weapons at decision-making centres in Kyiv.

'The presence of advisers from Western countries in the Ukrainian decision-making centres won't necessarily pose a problem for Russia in making a decision to launch retaliatory action.'

The UK and US are poised to re-open their embassies in Kyiv within the coming days in a show of defiance to Moscow, having closed the outposts when war broke out.

Russia is now more than two months into what was supposed to be a days-long 'special military operation' to topple the Ukrainian government and install a puppet regime loyal to Moscow.

Ahead of the war, most experts and observers predicted Ukraine's military would survive only a few days or weeks against the onslaught, but troops have defied the doubters and remain in control of most of the country 62 days later.

Having failed in its aim of taking Kyiv, Russia is now concentrating its forces in the east in the hopes of seizing control of the Donbas region and encircling a large part of Ukraine's ground forces.

Moscow's generals have also said their aim is to push out from Kherson - on the Black Sea coast and the only major city to fall to Putin's forces so far - and capture Mykolaiv and Odesa, cutting Ukraine off from the ocean.

The early stages of that plan seemed to be underway on Tuesday with a series of blasts in Transnistria - a breakaway region of Moldova close to Odesa where Russia has stationed troops - which were blamed on Ukraine.

Transnistria's government raised the terror alert level and said it would have to consider steps to shore up its security after the attacks, which are widely thought to have been false flags aimed at justifying Russian intervention.

This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows Russian tanks and armored vehicles near the Ukrainian border in the Belgorod region of Russia Monday, April 25, 2022
China has turned the cash tap off for Australia and slashed its big money buy-up of Aussie businesses and land - but vast tracts of the country are still Chinese-owned.

The communist superpower last year spent 28 times LESS in Australia than at its peak, investing just $815million in 2021, compared to the $22.5billion-plus it splurged in 2008.

Since the global financial crisis, China has pumped a staggering $153billion into Australia, splashing more cash here than anywhere else in the world except the USA.

The Chinese have snapped up a key port, mines, agricultural land, dairy processors, valuable real estate, state-sponsored schools, plus water and energy companies.

Almost every aspect of Australian life now has Chinese influence - even down to paying with Afterpay, which is part-owned by China's Tencent.

But deteriorating relations between China and Australia - which this week saw Defence Minister Peter Dutton warning of a possible war - has cut off the cash flow.

A map highlighting some of China's purchases and deals on Australian soil

Latest figures in a new study reveal Chinese investment in Australia in 2021 was down by almost 70 per cent on 2020, which was already the lowest since 2007.

Tougher scrutiny for overseas takeovers and tighter screening have been key factors for China's sliding interest in Australia, said international accountants KPMG in the new report.

Just two major Chinese acquisitions made it past Australian business regulators in the past year, after earlier Beijing bids for Lion Drinks and Alita Resources - worth a combined $670million - were blocked.

Both of the latest buys were in the mining sector, with 24 per cent of lithium miners AVZ Minerals bought by Suzhou CATH Energy-Technologies for $318million, and Balmoral Iron Pty Ltd bought by CITIC for $187million.

Overall, just 11 Chinese transactions got the green light in the last year, compared to 20 the year before.

'There are a number of administrative obstacles in more stringent regulations for Chinese companies investing in Australia now,' report co-author Dr Hans Hendrischke told Daily Mail Australia.

'And the political issues mean people would consider the long term commitment very carefully now before they decide to invest.'

Despite Covid, China still increased its overall overseas spending in 2021, with Beijing investments in Europe growing by a quarter, and a shift in strategy to see more cash for smaller, more local projects than the bigger acquisitions of the past.

But China's 15-year spending spree here means the superpower still owns huge chunks of Australia, despite the escalating tensions between the two nations.

The Northern Territory government decided to lease the Port of Darwin (pictured) - now known as Darwin Port - to Chinese-owned company Landbridge for 99 years

China's President Xi Jinping is pictured in December 2019 during a trip to Micronesia

The tense stand-off has called into question the 2015 decision to grant a 99-year lease on the Port of Darwin to Chinese-owned Landbridge, which has links to the People's Liberation Army of China.

The controversial $500million deal is said to be legally locked in and cannot be undone, which raised the ire of then-US President Barack Obama.

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison insisted last month the government could not have blocked the sale of the lease.

'There was no authority for the federal government to reject, approve anything in relation to the leasing of that asset,' he told Parliament.

The deal at the time was outside the remit of the Foreign Investment Review Board, which has since had its powers increased to become more of a watchdog body.

Northern Territory Labor MP Luke Gosling said the lease is a concern because all Chinese companies - even those privately owned - are 'still accountable to Beijing'.

He said the deal was less about business and more about Chinese strategic interests - and the superpower's notorious Belt and Road Initiative.

The global development plan is a key policy of President Xi Jinping and China aims to build and own infrastructure in as many countries throughout the world as possible to increase those nations' dependence on China.

The controversial $500million Darwin Port deal was called into question at the time by then US President Barack Obama (pictured, Port of Darwin)

Smaller Third World countries are often tempted to sell their land, and their sovereignty, in return for big money deals offered by Beijing.

'You won't hear the government say this openly for obvious reasons - it oversaw the sale - but the 2015 lease of Darwin Port was part of the Belt and Road Initiative,' Mr Gosling said.

Chinese companies are also the largest holders of Australian water, setting inflated prices that local farmers struggle to afford.

A report on foreign ownership on water entitlement found Chinese investors surged ahead of the US to own 1.9 per cent of our nation's water in 2020.

Around 10.5 per cent - or almost six Sydney Harbours of the nation's water - is now foreign owned, according to the report.

Chinese marines attend a military drill on the way to Port Darwin to attend Exercise Kakadu 2018 on August 30, 2018

China now owns 756 gigalitres of water after a three per cent boost of its share in 2018-19, putting it ahead of companies owned in the US (713GL) and the UK (394GL).

Increasing control of water assets came at a time that China was also boosting its ownership of agricultural land.

Mawallok Estate in Stockyard Hill, in western Victoria, changed hands for an undisclosed price after being marketed with a huge $25million asking figure.

Title documents also show the largest exporter of Australian wool, Chinese business tycoon Qingnan Wen, bought the heritage-listed sheep station.

Two months later in August 2020, a 5,071-hectare farm property located near Ballan, about 60km west of Melbourne, was snapped up for $60million by China's Guangxi Investment Co by their subsidiary Harvest Agriculture.

The energy sector is another area where Chinese investors have looked to buy big.

Despite its deceptive name, Energy Australia is owned by China's Light and Power Co, while Alinta Energy is a subsidiary of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises.

In 1993, China's biggest airline, state-owned China Southern Airlines, paid the Western Australian government $1 to lease Merredin Aerodrome (pictured) for 100 years

Mawallok Estate (pictured) in Stockyard Hill, in western Victoria, changed hands for an undisclosed price after being marketed with a huge $25million asking figure

How does the water market work? Government appointed bodies decide how much water from rivers can be given out each year. Once it is allocated, users can trade their water. There are two main types of water trade: temporary and permanent. A temporary transfer is a transfer of water specifically for the irrigation season. If one farmer does not have enough water for his crops, he can buy water from another. A permanent transfer is the transfer of the water entitlement. The purchaser buys rights to a yearly allocation of water from a river and receives the allocation until they sell. The Australian water market is not national but split into different sections within each state. The largest market is the Murray-Darling Basin in the south east. The largest water market in Australia is the Murray-Darling Basin (pictured) in the south-east Advertisement

Coalmines in the Hunter region (pictured) have been snapped up by a state-owned Chinese firm, Yancoal

Increasingly China's focus has been on snapping up Australian mining companies to feed its demand for mineral resources, especially lithium for technology products, and guarantee supply lines.

In 2020, Chinese companies made four major acquisitions, snapping up gold, copper, iron ore and coal mines in Western Australia and NSW for a combined total of close to $1billion.

Those takeovers followed Chinese mining group Yancoal purchasing BHP coal assets in NSW in 2017, including the Hunter Valley's Mt Thorley Warkworth site.

Prior to the strengthening of the FIRB's oversight powers, the $1.5billion sale of Tasmanian dairy processor Bellamy's to Mengniu Dairy Company was approved in 2019.

But a similar bid for Lion Drink and Dairy was rejected by the more powerful FIRB the following year.

Most of the land owned by foreigners in Australia is in Western Australia and the Northern Territory and is used for cattle farming (stock image)

In reaction to the rejection, Chinese property developer Poly Global pulled the pin on a $300million bid to buy Bingara Gorge residential development in southwestern Sydney from Lendlease, after a reported 'last-minute directive from Beijing'.

But in 2020, China-based Peakstone bought the 45 Clarence Street tower block in Sydney's CBD for $530million after they managed to get the deal greenlit by the FIRB.

Under changes to ownership laws in Australia, all foreign investments must now be approved by the review board, regardless of their value.

The government has also introduced stricter regulations for foreign firms investing in sensitive industries including telecommunications, the energy sector and military supply lines.

'China is now focusing on Australian commercial real estate and mining,' added Dr Hendrishke.

'But there is little sign of them disinvesting - they have sold Cubbie Station Cotton, but most other investments have remained in Chinese hands.

'These are seen as long-term investments - and they're holding on to them.'

The $1.5billion sale of Tasmanian dairy processor Bellamy's to Mengniu Dairy Company was approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board in 2019
The vile phone calls and chilling death threats levelled at a washing machine repair man over four months after he was falsely exposed by police as a William Tyrrell suspect have been released by a court.

A audio sample of 20 intimidating messages left by at least four different people including one that may have been from a woman were released on Wednesday by the NSW Supreme Court.

They are among hundreds received by NSW Mid North Coast tradie Bill Spedding between June and September 2016, after he was charged with historical child sexual assault charges later proved to be baseless.

In the messages strangers threaten to kill Mr Spedding, stab him, rip off his head and get others to murder him.

Messages on Mr Spedding's washing machine repair business contact number called him a 'dog', 'paedophile', 'maggot' and 'rock spider', a slang word for child sex offender, a murderer and a molester.

The messages were left as early as 5.37am and after 10pm, and include one man saying, Youre dead you f***ing paedophile c*** Ill f***ing kill you'.

Another male says in a message, 'You weak paedophile dog. Youre off. Youre f***ing gone, you maggot dog'.

A relatively young sounding male called at 9.41am one morning to say, 'Piece of sh**. What have you done with the kid,' while an older sounding male called at 4.27pm to say, Wheres William you dirty f***king paedophile c***.

Multiple abusive calls received on a single day included a man 'Paedophile, die' and another saying, 'Hey mate, you better return little f***ing Will because we all know you f***ing got him.

Bill Spedding's life as a popular NSW Mid North Coast repairman was destroyed when he was wrongly targeted as a William Tyrrell suspect and child sexual abuser

Detective Justin Moynihan in the yard of Bill Spedding's Bonny Hills home during a fruitless days long search for traces of missing toddler William Tyrrell in January 2015

Spedding was targeted by detectives investigating the William Tyrrell (above) disappearance who a court heard used a wrongful prosecution on child sex charges to paint him as an offender

The telephone messages were played in the NSW Supreme Court during hearings in which Mr Spedding is suing the State of NSW for malicious prosecution.

Mr Spedding is claiming his arrest over the historical sexual charges of which he was eventually cleared was a 'collateral attack' designed to expose him back then as a possible suspect in William Tyrrell's disappearance.

His barrister Adrian Canceri told the court that former top William Tyrrell cop Gary Jubelin decided to charge the repairman with historical sexual offences to try and nail him as William's abductor.

He said Mr Jubelin thought he might crack the plaintiff open and might 'make (his wife) Margaret think different about him' .

The court heard on Wednesday that Mr Jubelin later wrote in a book 'I Catch Killers' that after interviewing Mr Spedding about the sex assault allegations, he believed the repairman's world was falling apart.

He writes in the book about how he asked how 'he must be feeling the ground beneath his feet is much more uncertain and will soon be crumbling'.

Death threats and vile messages left on the mobile phone of Bill Spedding (above with his wife, Margaret) have been played in court during his malicious prosecution case against the state

Detectives interview Bill Spedding, who was later cleared of both historical sexual charges and of any suspicion over William Tyrrell, and who is now suing the State of NSW

Mr Canceri argued that although Mr Spedding is suing the state, Mr Jubelin was 'in effect' a defendant, and that passage in the book showed his state of mind at the time.

Barrrister Adrian Williams, for the NSW Government, told the court the book quote was 'hearsay'.

The court heard that the life of now 71-year-old Mr Spedding had been ruined by being wrongly targeted as a William Tyrrell suspect and that he had lost 20kg, didn't go out anymore, and had nightmares of being in a prison cell.

Asked by Mr Canceri if he was still frightened by the sound of metal doors slamming shut, Mr Spedding said it 'causes me to jump'.

Mr Canceri also told the court that Mr Spedding had been assaulted by a man in a public place, refused medical treatment and threatened by armoured guards in prison and taunted by other inmates.

He spent weeks in prison after being wrongly accused of historical sexual charges against children that Mr Canceri said police had used to 'portray him as a paedophile and the person responsible for William Tyrrell'.

'The public perception of Bill Spedding as a perpetrator was engineered.' Mr Canceri told the court.

Since-convicted cop Gary Jubelin was allegedly one of the detectives who threatened Mr Spedding and targeted him as a possible William Tyrrell suspect before proven innocent

The court heard that the lives of Bill and Margaret Spedding (above) were irrevocably changed as he was targeted and received vile threats and messages from strangers at all hours

The court heard Mr Jubelin threatened to destroy Mr Spedding while the boss of Strike Force Rosann.

Mr Canceri alleged in court Mr Jubelin told the then person of interest: 'Mr Nice Washing Machine Man, I'm going to ruin you'.

The 2015 exchange took place after Mr Jubelin placed his face in close to Mr Spedding, who found the encounter intimidating, the NSW Supreme Court heard.

Mr Spedding was later cleared of any involvement in the boy's disappearance, but has had to move with his wife at least three times and still panics in a public place and suffers anxiety.

In another alleged incident, one of Jubelin's co-detectives turned around in the car in which they were driving Mr Spedding and screamed at him: 'We know you did it. Were going to get you'.

Detective Justin Moynihan, who had 'increased his aggression' leaving Mr Spedding with his 'legs shaking, hot and sweaty and stressed', added 'Were going to come and arrest you, the court heard.

A court has heard ex-cop Gary Jubelin frightened an innocent tradie Bill Spedding during the William Tyrrell case by saying 'Mr Nice Washing Machine Man. I'm going to ruin you'

Bill Spedding is suing the State of NSW for malicious prosecution over historical sex assault charges laid against him during the William Tyrrell investigation

The verbal attack on Mr Spedding came after a gruelling six-hour police interview in which the detective told Spedding he believed he had 'grabbed William from the front yard' of a Kendall address.

Mr Spedding had made a service call to the Kendall home of William's foster grandmother on the NSW Mid North Coast days before the toddler vanished from the house in September 2014.

The confrontation occurred in January 2015, after detectives descended on Mr Spedding's Bonny Hills home to search the home for remains of William.

Mr Jubelin has since left the force and been convicted over illegally taping another Tyrrell suspect.

Bill Spedding (above) near his home in March 2015, as police continued to search for clues in the missing William Tyrrell case, over which the now 71-year-old is suing the State of NSW

Adrian Canceri, for Mr Spedding, told the court that sexual abuse allegations against Mr Spedding had previously been cleared by police and the courts, and that female children had been 'coaxed' during a bitter family dispute.

They said Strike Force Rosann which probed the Tyrrell case, knew by January 2015 that a Supreme Court justice had cleared Mr Spedding and had 'excoriated' a witness.

That witness had 'coaxed and tutored (children) to make claims of sexual assault against' Mr Spedding, and the Tyrrell detectives were well aware of this, Mr Canceri said.

A forensic psychiatrist had testified that one of the children could have been coerced into claiming sexual assault because a threat of 'potential death by AIDS could have frightened' her.

The court heard that Mr Spedding was acquitted of the historical charges in 2018 despite the Director of Public Prosecutions pursuing a case against him that was 'utterly hopeless and doomed to fail'.

Former washing machine repairman Bill Spedding (above) is suing the State of NSW for malicious prosecution after being targeted as a suspect in sexual allegations of which he was cleared

Mr Spedding claims ex-cop Gary Jubelin 'had it in for him' and used the false allegations to nobble him as a suspect in the disappearance of William Tyrrell

Mr Spedding's home was searched and media were tipped off five months after he visited the Kendall home from which William Tyrrell, aged three, vanished in September 2014

Justice Ian Harrison told the court in a pre-trial hearing last week that Mr Jubelin was a 'major player' in the events which sparked the proceedings, although he was not personally being sued by Mr Spedding.

Lawyers for the State of NSW have been granted permission to rely on a statement by Mr Jubelin and possibly call the ex-cop to give evidence at the malicious prosecution trial.

The judge said Mr Spedding will argue Mr Jubelin 'had it in for him' during the Tyrrell investigation by Strike Force Rosann, which the since convicted and retired detective ran for four years before being removed in 2019.

'Mr Spedding's anticipated contention (will be) that during the course of a series of interactions or interviews with Mr Jubelin, he was referred to pejoratively as 'Mr Washing Machine Man',' Justice Harrison said, the Daily Telegraph reported.

His Honour said Mr Spedding would rely on that 'associated comments to a similar effect' to contend 'that Mr Jubelin effectively had it in for him'.

Justice Harrison also said Mr Spedding would contend that 'his arrest and ultimate prosecution on the historical sexual assault matters was inspired or energised by Mr Jubelin's role as the lead investigator in relation to the William Tyrrell disappearance'.

Bill Spedding leaves his Bonny Hills home after he contends police tipped off the media when they searched for remains of William Tyrrell five months after the toddler vanished

Mr Spedding denied any involvement in William Tyrrell's disappearance and was never charged.

The court also heard that Mr Spedding was arrested at his home by Mr Jubelin while media crews were present 'in abundance'.

Mr Spedding will argue the media had been notified by someone on behalf of the police and that the situation was orchestrated in order to embarrass him or to cause him serious harm, the court was told.

Justice Harrison said Mr Jubelin would presumably deny that he or police under his command had notified media outlets that the arrest was to occur after reading a draft statement provided to the court.

All charges against Mr Spedding in the unrelated matter were later dropped or dismissed.

Mr Jubelin was convicted and sentenced of four breaches of the Surveillance Devices Act and lost his appeal in 2020.
A councillor has been found guilty of exposing his genitals three times in front of a Crown prosecutor and her son at a beach.

Tasmanian politician Darren Fairbrother, who has been elected to the Waratah-Wynyard council since the mid 1990s, pleaded not guilty to exposing himself last year.

The incident occurred at Boat Harbour beach in Tasmania's north-west in January 2021 when Mr Fairbrother was accused of exposing himself to a Crown prosecutor, Kate Brown, who is married to a Launceston magistrate, Simon Brown.

Local Tasmanian councillor Cr Darren Fairbrother (pictured) will be sentenced in May

Mr Fairbrother had told the court his shorts had become caught on a rock, causing them to fall down and uncovering the G-string he was wearing underneath, the ABC reported.

As a result he said his buttocks had become exposed, but 'not 100 per cent of it'.

He was questioned by prosecutor Phillipa Edwards as to why he didn't simply pull his shorts back up again.

'No, I didn't on this day,' he had replied.

Despite the incident occuring in Tasmania, a South Australian magistrate was brought in to oversee the case.

Magistrate Teresa Anderson handed down her decision via video-link in the Burnie Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

She said she was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Fairbrother was guilty of exposing himself at the beach.

The disturbing event occurred at the Boat Harbour beach (pictured) in north-west Tasmania in January last year

The magistrate also said Mr Fairbrother's account 'did not bear up to close scrutiny in cross-examination' and was told in a 'rehearsed manner'.

Mr Fairbrother repeatedly told the court he had not exposed his genitals to the family - yet the magistrate concluded he was not a 'credible witness'.

Magistrate Edwards said the defendant had not shown any remorse, and said an order restricting him from loitering on Boat Harbour beach should be considered.

'A young person was on the beach and saw it, and also it involved an exposed penis,' she said.

The court had earlier heard Mr Brown had approached Mr Fairbrother about the incident with his wife.

Magistrate Anderson adjourned the matter to sentence Mr Fairbrother in May.
An SAS soldier has told a court he crawled through a secret tunnel in Afghanistan where no men were found, backing up Ben Roberts-Smith's testimony.

The witness codenamed Person 35 from New Zealand in the Federal Court on Wednesday gave evidence about a 2009 mission to a Taliban compound dubbed Whiskey 108 in Uruzgan province.

At some point while his troop were clearing the ground he heard a radio call that a tunnel had been discovered, he said.

Ben Roberts-Smith (pictured) had his testimony backed up by an SAS soldier in the Federal Court on Wednesday in relation to a secret tunnel in Afghanistan

The tunnel (pictured) at the Afghan compound known as 'Whiskey 108 is at the centre of the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial

An SAS soldier has told a court he crawled through a secret tunnel in Afghanistan back in 2009 where no men were found, backing up Ben Roberts-Smith's testimony

He described the hidden opening close to an animal pen, with livestock feed piled on top of a mesh covering to hide the secret entrance.

While his team commander trained his rifle onto the opening, there was a discussion as to who would enter the tunnel.

'Ben volunteered to clear it and I laughed at him,' he said.

Mr Roberts-Smith 'wasn't going to fit' and Person 35 was more suitable, so removed his body armour and his long M4 gun to move into the rough-cut hole.

The initial entry was small, and difficult to manoeuvre through, he said, but once down and under the ground it opened up enough to 'shuffle on one knee forward' and into a larger room.

He poked his head around and with his pistol, cleared all sides of the enclosure, he said.

The soldier testified the initial entry to the tunnel was small, and difficult to manoeuvre through

The Taliban compound dubbed 'Whiskey 108' (pictured) was discovered on a mission in 2009

Arthur Moses SC on behalf of Mr Roberts-Smith asked if he located or observed any individuals in the tunnel.

'No.'

Person 35 did find a large cache of weaponry and communication devices, and took these back to the surface.

The incident remains a key point of contention.

Mr Roberts-Smith's former patrol commander Person Five also recently backed up his claims that 'no men' were found inside the tunnel.

But the media outlets being sued for defamation allege two Afghan men willingly emerged and surrendered to Australian troops.

Person Five who finished giving evidence on Tuesday denied ordering a 'rookie' to execute one of the prisoners to get his first kill in action.

His second-in-command Mr Roberts-Smith was allegedly left to facilitate this direction and is accused of executing the other prisoner with a prosthetic leg.

Ben Roberts-Smith (pictured leaving court) is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times for defamation

Roberts-Smith (pictured in battle) has his testimony backed by a witness codenamed Person 35 from New Zealand

Both men denied this and all accusations of wrongdoing.

Person 35 is appearing on behalf of his friend Mr Roberts-Smith who is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times for defamation.

The war veteran denies all reported claims he committed war crimes in Afghanistan including murder, and acts of bullying and domestic violence, while the mastheads are defending them as true.

Person Five testified his troop was clearing along the compound walls when he was called back to the tunnel entrance, and was present when Person 35 crawled inside.

Person 35 on Wednesday could only remember Person 29 and Mr Roberts-Smith there at the time.

It contradicts evidence of other SAS soldiers who appeared on behalf of the newspapers, who provided another version of events.

An elite serving soldier codenamed Person 42 said a group of agitated women alerted his squad to the entrance where at least two men came out - unarmed, freely and relatively quickly.

Person 42 said the discovery was made alongside Person 35.

The trial before Justice Anthony Besanko continues.

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Twitter employees went from hysterics to tantrums from the Elon Musk Buyout last Monday. They could not accept the big changes coming to Twitter that are not blocking or canceling.

Work Twitter Employees Explode

Twitter employees began expressing fury and amazement in secret chat rooms shortly after the $44 billion acquisition was announced. A New York Times writer described internal exchanges as totally bananas, reported The Blaze.

One of the employees in the company spoke to a reporter for the New York Times, stated that they would throw up, and were so disturbed at the thought of the new Twitter owner saying resigning will be the next option.

The same employee complained of feeling so confused (hysterics) and the phone was blowing, adding that the tech billionaire is trolling and does not care about their repressive policies.

Lastly, the employee cannot accept freedom of speech and did not want the algorithm changed, unlike the owner of the platform now. Another employee stated that they were "in need of a heavy drink" in a since-deleted tweet, noted Twitter.

The Daily Beast also reported one more woke employee writing on Blind, an anonymous social media platform, Saying that Elon is not telling the truth, is clueless, and is mentally disturbed. Even insulted fans in the company calling them braindead mouth breathers.

Even the board has expressed vitriol

Monday afternoon, the company's management attended an all-staff meeting with Twitter employees.

They could not accept the major source of frustration was the Elon Musk Buyout to turn Twitter into a platform that values free expression, not like before.

Read Also: Donald Trump Children: What You Need to Know About the 5 Trump Kids

The Washington Post says the hysterics from the employees is their new boss will remove the safeguards to prevent controlled free speech. If allowed to happen will make the freedom available on the platform.

Other employees are concerned about their permanent work-from-home condition, while others are worried about their business stock and whether layoffs are on the horizon, according to the New York Times.

Another said Elon did not tie up 20 percent of his net worth to destroy Twitter; the change like this may be what Twitter needs.

Musk's purchase was endorsed by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. He says that no one should own or operate Twitter; it is a protocol for the public benefit, not a business. However, when it comes to the issue of it being a firm, Elon is the only option I believe in.

The objective is to spread the light of consciousness, and everyone believed in him.Despite the outrage of several employees, Musk has not announced any changes to Twitter.He added after his purchase expressing the desire to improve Twitter, not destroy it.

Instead, Musk released a statement after his purchase expressing a desire to improve Twitter - not destroy it.

Bloomberg reported that angry employees are prevented from sabotaging the platform by locking them out.

Twitter employees felt the sting of the Elon Musk buyout and could not believe it happened; many are allegedly on the woke side, which sees it as the end for them.

Related Article: Elon Musk Takeover of Twitter Could Reshape the Tech Platform; Lawmakers Call Purchase as 'Dangerous for Democracy'

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One of Australia's 'worst paedophiles' has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two dozen children over more than six years and possessing millions of videos and images of children being sexually assaulted.

The 47-year-old man formally admitted to the horrific crimes during a court appearance on Wednesday, pleading guilty to charges included indecent dealing, indecent recording and sexual penetration of children under 13, The West Australian reports.

Western Australian Police (pictured making the announcement) revealed on Wednesday they kicked in the door of the 47-year-old's home and workplace after receiving a tip off in July last year. Pictured is Detective Inspector Hamish McKenzie who is investigating the alleged crimes

The man, whose name cannot be published for legal reasons, appeared via a video link from Hakea Prison, and spoke only to admit to hundreds of allegations against him.

These include 240 charges of indecent dealing with a child under 13, and 98 indecent recordings.

He will now face the District Court after a psychological report and a psychiatric report is prepared for the judge.

Western Australia Police will allege the man raped and indecently dealt with dozens of children aged between three and 13 from 2015 until his arrest in July last year.

Detectives previously said it was one of the worst and most serious they had come across in their careers.

Australia's 'worst paedophile ever' has plead guilty to more than 400 charges involving 24 children and millions of sickening images

Detectives from the Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team raided the man's home last year, kicking in the door after receiving a tip-off.

The man was arrested at the time and has been in prison ever since.

During the raid, investigators seized multiple computers and hard drives.

They will allege they found 3.8 million child abuse videos and images, including some that they say captured the man's offending against children.

The man will appear in court again in June.
Infamous Australian comedy group The Chaser have flown to the top of the charts with an obscene remix of Scott Morrison's speeches.

The satirical track titled 'Coal Makes Me C**' reached the number one slot on Tuesday night, just 24 days out from the federal election.

The Chaser team said the whole thing started as a 'silly joke' and that they had no idea the tune would become so popular.

Australian comedy group The Chaser has released a remix of Scott Morrison's speeches explicitly titled: 'Coal Makes Me C**'

The song saga started when the group shared a funny mash-up of Scott Morrison's words to their Reddit page and one fan saw the potential for a hit.

'The whole thing started out as just a silly joke video where we cut up Scott Morrison's words to make him say some dumb things,' explained one of the Chaser team Caz Smith.

'But when we uploaded that video to Reddit, one of the users on the site challenged us to remix that video into a song, and we stupidly took up the dare.'

The Chaser first shared the mash-up to their Reddit where one clued-in fan suggested adding music

The hit took off from there and the explicitly named song 'Coal Makes Me C**' was born.

'It took an all-nighter, but we got the track out by midday the next day before crashing in bed. By the time we woke up, it had already gathered almost a million plays. It was going completely wild.'

A viral social media campaign saw #C**ToNumberOne trending on Twitter and the song reached number one in the music charts by late Tuesday night.

The spoof song about Mr Morrison's love-affair with coal hit No. 1 on the Australian music charts just 24 days before the Federal Election. Pictured: Scott Morrison in 2017 as treasurer brings a piece of coal to Parliament House

'We did the maths and figured if we can get a million plays on Reddit, we can almost certainly get enough streams to enter the ARIA Top 40,' explained The Chaser's managing editor Charles Firth.

'However, we were thinking it would take at least a week to get to that point. Turns out thanks to our fans we only needed about 48 hours to top the charts. We don't know if that says more about how great our fans are or how useless the Australian music industry is.'

'It's amazing. At this rate, pretty soon we'll have enough Spotify streams to afford a loaf of bread.'

The eccentric single is now available to stream on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Liberal Party for comment.

The Chaser is a spoof news company that describes itself as a 'satirical media empire which rivals Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in all fields except power, influence, popularity and profitability'

Liberal Party leader Scott Morrison (pictured with Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce) will face off against Labor Party candidate Anthony Albanese in the May 21 Federal Election

However the brazen track is far from The Chaser's first political stunt.

Back in September of 2007 when important world leaders had gathered in Sydney for the APEC - Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation - and the NSW government was taking security seriously.

It had spent $170 million and passed a series of emergency laws to ensure the meeting would be safe but The Chaser crew took it as a challenge.

The Chaser made headlines in 2007 after one of their members dressed up as Osama bin Laden and attempted to enter the APEC meeting in Sydney

The group made a fake motorcade with one of their members dressed up as Osama bin Laden in the backseat.

The motorcade breezed past the first security checkpoint but stopped short of crossing the second after noting they'd 'made it further than we ever thought we would'.

The men were arrested and removed from the event a short time later after getting out of their vehicles and talking to security.

The comedy group describes itself as a 'satirical media empire which rivals Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in all fields except power, influence, popularity and profitability'.
Liz Truss will today urge the West to supply heavy weapons, tanks and warplanes to Ukraine as she pushes for higher defence spending.

In a speech this evening, the Foreign Secretary will call for arms production to be stepped up saying the battle against Vladimir Putin will be a 'long haul'.

She is to insist that the NATO target for spending 2 per cent of GDP on military should be a 'floor not a ceiling'

The tough line comes despite mounting threats of reprisals from Moscow, including claims that weapons coming from the West will be a 'legitimate target'.

At the Mansion House tonight, Ms Truss will say Ukraine must be a 'catalyst for wider change' to deter global aggression..

She will argue that the UK and its allies must now 'reboot, recast and remodel our approach to deterring aggressors'.

In a speech this evening, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will call for arms production to be stepped up saying the battle against Vladimir Putin will be a 'long haul'

Ukrainians fire rockets near the city of Popasna, not far from Luhansk, yesterday

'Our new approach will be based on three areas: military strength, economic security and deeper global alliances,' she will say.

'I want to live in a world where free nations are assertive and in the ascendant... where freedom and democracy are strengthened through a network of economic and security partnerships... where aggressors are contained and moving toward a better path.

'This is the long-term prize: a new era of peace, security and prosperity.'

Ms Truss will make clear that Western allies need to bolster economic sanctions to increase Russia's isolation, including cutting off oil and gas imports 'once and for all'.

'There must be nowhere for Putin to go to fund this appalling war,' she will say.

In a stark message to Western allies, she will say: 'We cannot be complacent - the fate of Ukraine remains in the balance.

'And let's be clear - if Putin succeeds there will be untold further misery across Europe and terrible consequences across the globe. We would never feel safe again.

'So we must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine.

'Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes - digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this.'

However, deputy PM Dominic Raab was non-committal when asked if Ms Truss was right to say that the West should supply warplanes to Ukraine.

He also dodged over whether defence spending needs to rise, insisting there had been a full review last year.

The Justice Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I certainly don't think we should be avoiding providing support to Ukraine at this critical moment in the war. And the Foreign Secretary is right about that.'

Pressed on whether she was right about providing the planes specifically, he said: 'We need to listen very carefully to what the Ukrainians need and help with our allies to provide them with the military support, so that they win and so that (Vladimir) Putin loses, and that's part of it, so is the sanctions.'

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that weapons supplied by Western countries 'will be a legitimate target' and Nato has effectively 'entered into a war with Russia through proxies'.

The UK was one of just eight Nato members to meet the alliance's goal of spending at least 2 per cent of GDP on defence in 2021.

Ms Truss, who visited Moscow in the lead up to the invasion, will argue that there has been a 'generation of under-investment' in the West and the target should be 'a floor, not a ceiling'.
A 'heinous' paedophile put up a vile ad on a classifieds website seeking a mother willing to sell her young daughter for sex before being busted by police.

Jonathon David Henke, 46, was arrested in an Adelaide motel room in October 2020 while waiting to rape an eight-year-old girl.

After placing an ad online 'looking for mother and very young daughter', he had arranged to meet the pair at the venue, bringing with him flavoured condoms, lubricant, and child exploitation material.

But instead, police who had been posing as the mother barged through the door, cuffing him as he sat on the bed.

The sickening message exchange and details about Henke's broken-down marriage to a sex worker leading up to the crime, were revealed after the predator was sentenced last month.

Jonathon David Henke (pictured) was waiting for the arrival of what he thought was a mother bringing her eight-year-old daughter to have sex with him. Instead, police came through the door and arrested him

The South Australian District Court heard that on October 2, 2020 Henke posted an online advertisement on a site called ChaosAds.

The ad said it was from a 'male looking for mother and very young daughter', Judge Adam Kimber said during sentencing.

'It went on to say: ''Hi, I am looking for a mother and daughter to have some fun with. I am very open-minded. I can travel and host and reward.'

'You provided your mobile phone number and the name ''Jack''.'

Police saw the ad and contacted Henke on the phone number he gave.

'The undercover officer pretended to be a 37-year-old mother of two young girls, aged five and eight,' Judge Kimber said.

Henke sent a series of vile messages about the eight-year-old and offered $500 to have sex with her.

The South Australian District Court heard that on October 2, 2020 Henke posted an online advertisement on a site called ChaosAds

'You asked about the child's sexual experience  and asked whether the child had been shown the photograph you had sent of your penis,' Judge Kimber said.

Henke booked a motel room where he could have sex with the child and asked the person he thought was the mother to bring child exploitation material.

The judge said 'The condoms were flavoured and in the flavour you had been told the child liked.'

He added: 'You lied to the police and said you had gone along with the communications with the intention of reporting to the police the person with whom you are communicating.'

The former truck driver posted the online ad on the same day his wife asked for a divorce.

Judge Kimber noted Henke had 'limited experience of sexual intimacy' and his estranged wife was his 'first ever partner'.

'She was a sex worker, and you a client,' he said.

'You commenced a relationship with her in late 2018, and married in December 2019. Despite being married, you never lived together.

'From the history you have given, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that she was using you. Nonetheless, you loved her and were devastated when she asked for a divorce.'

Henke had stacks of $50 notes (pictured) on a desk, ready to pay for sex with am eight-year-old child

Footage of the arrest released by the Adelaide District Court this week shows officers entering the room to find Henke sitting on one of the beds.

The officers then handcuffed Henke while saying: 'Let go of your hand, let go your arm.'

Officers found stacks of $50 notes heaped on a desk in the room, which Henke thought he was going to use to pay to have sex with the child.

A pack of flavoured condoms was also seen on the desk and Henke also had lubricant with him.

In the footage, one of the police officers says 'Mr Henke, is it?' and two officers lift him onto the bed.

Henke had a packet of flavoured condoms (pictured) on a desk in the motel room where he was waiting to abuse a child

Henke (pictured) lied to police by saying he was trying to help them to catch a paedophile

One of the officers introduces himself as being from the Child Exploitation team and tells Henke he is placing him under arrest.

Henke is then read his rights and asked if he understands. He says he does and is then told that 'the camera is running. Anything you say is being recorded.'

When he was caught, pathetic Henke tried to lie to police that he was actually just trying to help them out.

Henke (pictured), a former truck driver, posted the online ad on the same day his wife asked for a divorce. He's seen being arrested by cops, in police vision above

Henke, from Nuriootpa, an hour north of Adelaide, was also found with child exploitation material.

Judge Kimber said Henke's offending was 'heinous' and his 'deviant' interest in children meant his chances of reoffending were 'very real'.

'You believed that you were contracting for a child to be sold for sex,' he said.

'You have only recently admitted having had a deviant sexual interest in prepubescent and pubescent females for about 15 years.

'You have also admitted having viewed child exploitation material over at least the last 15 years,' the judge said.

Henke pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material and procuring a child for sexual activity.

He was sentenced to five years and eight months jail, with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

The sentence was backdated to October 23, 2020, the day he was arrested.
Eleven people including three children were electrocuted when a decorative wooden chariot came into contact with an overhead high-voltage cable.

Ten worshippers were killed instantly and a 13-year-old died in hospital during the Hindu procession in Tamil Nadu, southern India at around 2.45am today.

The wooden temple chariot used in the ceremony for Saint Appar had been below regulation height needed to turn off the power, local officials said.

But when a generator hit a snag round a corner and the chariot was lifted to adjust it, its metal fixtures touched the transmission wire.

The charred remains of the decorative procession piece were left in the street this morning

The 30-foot procession piece was covered in metal decorations and light bulbs.

A senior policeman told NDTV: 'It seems that decorations on it increased its height and it came into contact with the live wire.'

Shockwaves killed eleven festivalgoers and injured 15 more, with some in critical condition at Thanjavur Medical College Hospital.

Eyewitnesses said dozens more stepped away from a puddle in the moments before electrocution and spared their lives, the BBC reported.

Crowds were pictured at the site of tragedy hours after the appalling incident around 2.45am

The wheeled, 30-foot long procession piece was covered in metal fixtures and light bulbs

Graphic images show distraught family members crying next to slain villagers.

Other pictures show the mauled wooden chariot left in the street overnight while emergency services rushed people to hospital.

The procession had been on its way back to the temple as the night-long vigil ended.

The 13-year-old boy, named as Bharanitharan, died at around 7am. It's not known how old the other children electrocuted were.

It was thought two children died in the incident. This was updated to three shortly after 10.30am (UK) by AFP.

Ten died on the spot as the elaborate decoration struck an overhead high-transmission cable

A generator used to power the fixture's light bulbs hit a snag, forcing villagers to lift it up

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin will meet with bereaved families later today.

Regional chief minister MK Stalin (pictured in 2021) announced bereaving family payou

He announced compensation of 500,000 rupees (5,185) will be given to victims' next of kin. The regional assembly also observed a two-minute silence this morning.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Indian government will offer a further 200,000 rupees (2,000) via the national relief fund.

Injured victims will receive 50,000 (500).

Modi tweeted: 'Deeply pained by the mishap in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.

'My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. I hope those injured recover soon.'

Local ruling party the AIADMK promised a further 100,000 rupees (1,000) to victims' families and 25,000 rupees (250) to the injured.
Amid rumours about his poor health, a video showing Vladimir Putin's shaking hand as he greeted Belarus's leader resurfaced this week.

The clip, which was filmed just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, showed him gripping a chair and pressing his hand to his chest to stop it shaking as he greeted Alexander Lukashenko.

It fueled further speculation of the state of his health after footage and images appeared to show his bloated face and slouching posture.

But the scenes of Putin's apparent struggles are reminiscent of a clip that showed Adolf Hitler's own failing health as Germany faced total defeat in the Second World war.

In what was one of the last times the dictator was seen alive outside of his Berlin bunker, a propaganda video filmed in April 1945 showed him decorating members of the Hitler Youth who had been called up to defend Berlin.

The film was supposed to show how Hitler was still in command, even as the Soviet Union's troops closed on the capital.

But a telling part of the footage was cut from the final version and was supposed to have been destroyed.

The clip, which was discovered in an East German film laboratory in the 1970s, showed the Nazi leader's left hand shaking violently as he held it behind his back while greeting military officers during the same trip outside his bunker.

Many historians and experts believe that Hitler was suffering from Parkinson's disease at the time the video was filmed. The condition hampers muscle control and impairs mobility.

A resurfaced video showing Vladimir Putin's hand shaking as he greeted Belarus's leader Aleksander Lukashenko in February is reminiscent of a clip that revealed Adolf Hitler's own failing health as his country faced total defeat in the Second World War.

British historian Richard Evans previously told how Hitler began to show symptoms of Parkinson's disease earlier in the war.

He told the Smithsonian Channel in 2014 that symptoms of shaking in his left hand were 'for a time' cured after he was injured by the bomb that went off in the 1944 attempt on his life.

'He had a shake in his left hand and for a time that was cured as it were by the bomb that went off on July 20, 1944.

'As he said, that's not the way I would choose of curing it. But soon after that, the shaking came back in his right side.

'He began to drag his feet and shuffle. He began to speak in a more flat, less animated sort of way. Normally.'

Comparisons of footage filmed in 1940 and 1944 showed how Hitler's mobility had appeared to decline during the course of the war.

Surviving records show how Hitler's personal doctor Theodor Morell first noted Hitler's tremor in 1941 but put it down to stress.

Then, in the final days of the war, he concluded that Hitler was suffering from 'shaking palsy' - the original name for Parkinson's disease.

As well as impairing thought processes, Parkinson's can impair posture and muscle control.

Hitler killed himself inside his bunker, which was built near Berlin's Reich Chancellery, on April 30, 1945.

The mass murderer took his own life alongside his wife Eva Braun, who he had married the day before.

By then, Germany was on the brink of total defeat against Allied and Russian forces.

The Nazi dictator had launched a doomed invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 which saw Joseph Stalin's forces fight back and ultimately triumph against German troops.

Just a few days before his death, Hitler made a rare trip outside his bunker to decorate the teenager soldiers who had helped to defend Berlin

Hitler killed himself inside his bunker, which was built near Berlin's Reich Chancellery, on April 30, 1945.

Surviving records show how Hitler's personal doctor Theodor Morell (pictured left behind the dictator) first noted Hitler's tremor in 1941 but put it down to stress

Earlier this month human rights officials claimed that, just like in Nazi Germany, the Kremlin has resorted to recruiting children to boost its troop numbers in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow was said to be recruiting from youth clubs and conscripting 16-year-olds to replace the estimated 30,000 soldiers either killed, wounded or captured so far in the war.

So-called 'patriotic clubs' sprang up in Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine following its invasion in 2014 as part of a campaign to promote the country's culture in Luhansk and Donetsk.

The Ukrainian parliament commissioner on human rights Lyudmyla Denisova said: The occupation authorities [of Luhansk and Donetsk] are conducting the mobilisation of children who participated in the so-called patriotic clubs, to the levels of illegal weapons formations.

They have been doing military training and there have been deaths among these teenagers [in Ukraine].

Now they are promoting the entry into the army of civilians, including children in the temporarily occupied territories.

Later in the February clip, Putin is seen tapping his feet while he grips onto the arm of his chair for support as he sits next to Lukashenko

He alternates his right and left hand holding on to the chair as he continuously lifts his feet up and down

In doing so, the Russian Federation has violated the laws and customs of war provided by the 1949 Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and the rights of children.

The recruitment of children is a violation of international law.

In the video of Putin that was filmed in February, the Russian president is seen standing up awaiting his Belarusian ally as his hand starts to violently tremble.

He pulls it into his body in an attempt to quell the shakes, but then he almost stumbles as he unsteadily walks towards Lukashenko.

Later, Putin sits on a chair but is unable to remain still, constantly fidgeting and tapping his feet while he grips onto the arm for support.

A bloated Vladimir Putin was also 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 did not appear to have fared any better, 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

The resurfaced clip will do little to dampen the rumours about his potential illness, amid rumours he is battling Parkinson's, dementia or cancer.

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.

Last week, he made a rare live appearance with defence minister Sergei Shoigu where they discussed the 'liberation' of Mariupol.

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.

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.
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European gas prices surged 24 percent today after Russian energy giant Gazprom halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria for failing to pay for its gas in roubles, as President Vladimir Putin ordered last month.

The move is the Kremlin's toughest response yet to crippling Western sanctions imposed over Moscow's brutal on-going invasion of Ukraine, that have sent the Russian economy - and the value of the rouble - into a nosedive.

Moscow said that the 'unfriendly' countries had only themselves to blame, but denied the move was blackmail.

'The need for a new payment method was a result of unprecedented unfriendly steps in the economic sphere and the financial sector, which were taken against us by unfriendly countries,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. He warned that other European customers may see the taps turned off if they refuse to pay for gas in roubles by the time payment is due.

Peskov argued that refusing to switch to roubles reflects a Western desire to 'punish Russia at any cost to the detriment of their own consumers, taxpayers and producers.'

He rejected the EU's description of the Russian move to halt supplies to Bulgaria and Poland starting Wednesday as blackmail, insisting that 'Russia has remained a reliable supplier of energy resources' and stuck to its contractual obligations. Peskov argued that the demand for payment in roubles is purely technical and doesn't change price or other contract conditions for consumers.

In response to Russia's decision, the UK warned Putin that Russia's move will only add to its status as an economic and political pariah, while Poland, Bulgaria the EU and Ukraine all accused Moscow of blackmailing the two countries, which said they will end their dependencies on Russian gas.

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also called the move 'yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail. This is unjustified and unacceptable.'

The European Union could impose a crude oil embargo on Russia, with the two having been locked in a stand-off for weeks after the EU rejected Putin's demands for payment in roubles from so-called 'unfriendly' buyers.

The market reacted quickly to the decision by state-owned Gazprom. Benchmark European gas prices jumped by up to 24 per cent to 121 (102) per megawatt-hour today, to hit their highest level this month and almost seven times higher than they were a year ago. The UK equivalent increased by 14 per cent to 180 pence per therm.

The two EU countries are the first to have their gas cut off by Europe's main supplier since the Kremlin launched what it calls a 'special military operation' in Ukraine on February 24, and after it threatened to turn off the taps to the West in response to mounting sanctions.

The war - which is now entering its third month - has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and raised fears of a broader conflict with NATO, of which Poland and Bulgaria are members. It has also laid bare the extent of the EU's dependence on Russian gas, which accounts for around 40 percent of its gas imports.

Last month, Putin ordered European countries to pay Gazprom, the world's biggest natural gas company, in roubles after the West froze Russian assets and largely shut Moscow out of the West's economic system.

Other EU countries have also refused Putin's order, but so far Poland and Bulgaria are the only two nations to see their Russian gas supplies halted. The EU said it was 'prepared' for Moscow to suspend gas supplies to the 27-nation bloc and is planning a 'coordinated' response, and Greece offered to support Bulgaria.

Russia's move raised wider concerns that other countries could be targeted next as western countries, with analysts saying that it is now clearer than ever that the West must end its reliance on Russian gas.

Russian energy giant Gazprom on Wednesday halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay for gas in roubles. Pictured: Valves and pipelines are pictured at the Gaz-System gas distribution station in Gustorzyn, central Poland (file photo)

The market reacted quickly to the decision by state-owned Gazprom. Benchmark European gas prices jumped by up to 24 per cent to 121 (102) per megawatt-hour today, to hit their highest level this month and almost seven times higher than they were a year ago. The UK equivalent increased by 14 per cent to 180 pence per therm. Pictured: A view of a gas station of the Russian company Gazprom in Sofia, Bulgaria, 27 April 2022

EU, PAST WEEK: Benchmark European gas prices rose by up to 22 per cent on the day to 121 (102) per megawatt-hour today

EU, PAST DECADE: Benchmark European gas prices today hit their highest level so far this month following Gazprom's move

Energy exports by Russia have largely continued since the war began, in an exception to sanctions that have otherwise cut off Moscow from much of its trade with the West.

Ukraine has accused Russia of blackmailing Europe over energy in an attempt to break its allies' resolve. In addition to placing heavy sanctions on Russia, EU countries as well as the likes of the UK, the US and Australia have been supplying Ukraine with weapons to aid its fight against the Russian invasion.

'Gazprom has completely suspended gas supplies to Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and PGNiG (Poland) due to absence of payments in roubles,' Gazprom said in a statement.

Gazprom also warned that transit via Poland and Bulgaria - which host pipelines supplying Germany, Hungary and Serbia - would be cut if gas was taken illegally.

Polish state-controlled gas utility company PGNiG later confirmed that Gazprom had 'completely suspended' the supply of gas to Poland via the Yamal pipeline.

'Despite the fulfilment of all obligations under the Yamal contract by PGNiG, on April 27 this year, Gazprom has stopped delivering natural gas,' the Polish group said in a statement.

'The limitation of natural gas supplies is a breach of the Yamal contract. PGNiG reserves the right to pursue claims in connection with the suspension of deliveries and will use all contractual rights vested in the company and rights under the law.'

Putin had demanded countries he terms 'unfriendly' agree to a scheme under which they would open accounts at Gazprombank (a bank founded in 1990 specifically to serve Gazprom) and make payments for Russian gas imports in euros or dollars that would be converted into roubles.

Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab slammed Russia's decision, saying it will only serve to add to its status as an economic and political pariah.

'We have been warning about this for a while but we will stand shoulder to shoulder with our Polish friends and allies,' Raab told Sky News.

'It (halting gas supply) will have a ... very damaging effect on Russia as well because it is becoming further and further, more and more, not just a political pariah, but an economic pariah.'

While a small percentage of the UK's gas is imported directly from Russia (around 5 percent), 38 percent of Europe's gas comes from the country. When Russia restricts gas entering Europe, this can lead to a knock-on effect for Britain. After Putin's invasion, gas prices jumped in the both Europe and the UK - which is currently in the middle of an energy crisis of its own.

Some countries have alternative supply options and Europe's gas network is linked up so supplies can be shared, although the global gas market was tight even before the Ukraine crisis.

Germany, Europe's biggest consumer of Russian gas which has halted certification of the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia because of the Ukraine crisis, could import gas from Britain, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands via pipelines.

German gas lobby group Zukunft Gas (Future Gas) said on Wednesday Germany must immediately start stockpiling more gas now that Russia is using the energy source as a political tool. 'We need to save gas now so that we have enough in winter,' said the group's head Timm Kehler in a statement.

Pictured: A map showing gas pipelines that enter Europe from Russia. Polish state-controlled gas utility company PGNiG today confirmed that Gazprom had 'completely suspended' the supply of gas to Poland via the Yamal pipeline (dark green)

Pictured: Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks during a news conference near the gas installation at a Gaz-System gas compressor station in Rembelszczyzna, outside Warsaw, Poland, April 27, 2022. Speaking to the Polish parliament, Morawiecki vowed that Poland would not be cowed by the gas cutoff. He said Poland was safe thanks to years of efforts aimed at securing gas from other countries

How does Russia's decision impact the UK? In an attempt to force EU states to approve new gas pipelines - such as Nord Stream 2, which was eventually cancelled by Germany - Russia was accused of choking off gas supply to Europe in October. Russia's actions in October gave the world a preview of what it could do with harsher measures, as it tries to fight back against Western-imposed sanctions that have been put in place over its brutal invasion of Ukraine. Today, Russian energy giant Gazprom halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland - raising wider concerns that other countries could be targeted next as western countries increase their support for Ukraine amid a war now in its third month. Since then, countries have taken measures to reduce their reliance on Russian gas. However, Russian gas still accounts for around 40 percent of its gas imports. The market reacted quickly to the decision by state-owned Gazprom. Benchmark European gas prices jumped by up to 24 per cent to 121 (102) per megawatt-hour today, to hit their highest level this month and almost seven times higher than they were a year ago. The UK equivalent increased by 14 per cent to 180 pence per therm. The UK largely sources its gas from fields in the North Sea and Irish sea, which along with other reserves in British waters provide around 50 percent of the country's supply. Another significant portion is made up of European imports, with a pipeline across the North Sea from Norway to the UK being by far the largest source - 20 percent - from the continent, with both The Netherlands and Belgium also supplying the UK with some of its gas. Further afield, another 20 percent comes from Qatar and the wider Middle East. The US also supplies the UK with some Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). By contrast, gas imports from Russia make up only around five percent of the UK's total usage. However, Russia plays a far larger part in the global gas supply chain, and provides countries on the continent with a far larger portion of their resource. With its control over a huge amount of gas in Europe, the Kremlin can manipulate gas supplies and prices - including in the UK. The impact of this is felt by British gas companies, and ultimately by British families and businesses. Advertisement

Poland has repeatedly said it will not pay for Russian gas in roubles and has planned not to extend its gas contract with Gazprom after it expires in the end of this year.

'Payments for gas supplied from April 1 must be made in roubles using the new payments details, about which the counterparties were informed in a timely manner,' Gazprom said on Wednesday.

Prior to Russia cutting the country's supply, Poland's climate minister Anna Moskwa said the country was prepared for the situation as it had worked for years to reduce reliance on Russian energy.

'There will be no shortage of gas in Polish homes,' Ms Moskwa wrote on Twitter. 'Since the first day of the war we have declared that we are ready for full independence from Russian raw materials.

'Poland has the necessary gas reserves and sources of supply to protect our security. For years we have been successfully making ourselves independent from Russia,' she added.

Poland's prime minister lashed out at Russia for trying to 'blackmail' his country with the abrupt cutoff of gas supplies. He said he believes the move was revenge for new sanctions that Warsaw imposed this week against Russia.

The sanctions announced Tuesday targeted 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom. Hours later Poland said it had received notice that Gazprom was cutting off supplies to Poland for failing to comply with new demands to pay in Russian rubles.

Speaking to the Polish parliament, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki vowed that Poland would not be cowed by the gas cutoff. He said Poland was safe thanks to years of efforts aimed at securing gas from other countries.

Lawmakers stood and applauded when he said that Russia's 'gas blackmail' would have no effect on his country.

Russian made up some 45% of Poland's overall gas usage until the cutoff. But Poland is far more reliant on coal to heat homes and fuel industry, with gas accounting for only 9% of the country's overall energy mix.

Russian supplies were also due to end later this year in any case. Poland has made plans to get its supplies from other countries, including Norway. A new pipeline, 'Baltic Pipe,' is due to become operational in autumn.

ANALYSIS: How energy is increasingly weaponised By SUSANNAH STREETER Energy is being increasingly weaponised as the war in Ukraine looks set to enter the long haul and expectations grow that a crude oil embargo will end up being slapped on Russia by the EU. For now the tit for tat retaliation centres around gas supplies, with Russia turning off the taps to Poland and Bulgaria after both nations' refusal to pay in roubles. Sanctions isolating from Russia from the global financial systems have prompted this strategy to drive a rouble rebound, after the currency went into freefall following the invasion, and it's been working helped by the initial 20 per cent interest rate hike and currency controls. High incoming tax receipts expected have helped push up the currency this week. But if Russia's customers continue to refuse to sign contracts in roubles, and accelerate efforts to find other sources of energy as they have pledged to do, these revenue streams risk turning into a trickle putting fresh pressure on the rouble. This latest move by Russia is also expected to pile pressure on Germany to relent in its opposition to a crude embargo. The expectation of another supply squeeze on global markets if more consumers turn their back on Russian oil has pushed up Brent crude above $106 (84) a barrel. Susannah Streeter is a senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Advertisement

Furthermore, Warsaw's underground gas storage tanks are said to be 80 per cent full and, with summer approaching, demand will be lower. However, a long-term suspension could lead to restrictions on manufacturers, some of Poland's biggest gas consumers.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria's Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on Wednesday also described Russia's decision as 'blackmail'.

The move on the part of Russian energy giant Gazprom 'is a gross violation of the contract and blackmail... We won't give in to such racketeering,' Petkov said, calling it 'unacceptable'.

He added that Bulgaria for its part was reviewing all contracts with Gazprom, including the contract for transit through the Balkan country. He also ensured Bulgarians the government would not lower gas supply to consumers 'in any way'.

'Bulgaria's government is prepared for this scenario,' he told reporters ahead of a regular government meeting. 'The ministry of energy has a clear plan for deliveries, including a ready plan for alternative sources.'

Bulgaria's energy minister Alexander Nikolov told reporters earlier on Wednesday that his country had already paid Gazprom for Russian gas deliveries for April, and halting gas supplies would be a breach of its current contract.

He said Bulgaria would observe the European Commission's stance urging countries not to pay in roubles for Russian gas as demanded by Putin.

'Because all trade and legal obligations are being observed, it is clear that at the moment the natural gas is being used more as a political and economic weapon in the current war,' Nikolov said.

Bulgaria said it was working with state gas companies to find alternative sources and no restrictions on domestic consumption would be imposed for now, even though the Balkan country of 6.5 million people meets more than 90% of its gas needs with Russian imports.

Nikolov said Bulgaria can meet the needs of users for at least one month, and said that gas was still flowing as he spoke.

'Alternative supplies are available, and Bulgaria hopes that alternative routes and supplies will also be secured at EU level,' Nikolov said referring to an EU expert meeting due later Wednesday to plan the next steps. He added that Poland and Lithuania are in the same situation as Bulgaria.

'Obviously gas is used as a political tool,' he said. 'As long as I am Minister, Bulgaria will not negotiate under pressure, Bulgaria is not for sale and does not succumb to any trade counterpart.'

Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told his Bulgarian counterpart on Wednesday that his country would offer to help Bulgaria with its gas supply. The two leaders discussed the issue by phone.

'The prime minister said that Greece will help Bulgaria to deal with the new situation caused by the Russian decisions on energy,' Mitsotakis' office said in a statement, without providing further details.

The Greek government was to hold its own emergency meeting in Athens. Greece's next scheduled payment to Gazprom is due on May 25, and the government must decide whether it will comply with the demand to complete the transaction in roubles.

The spike in gas prices comes even as the weather turns warmer in the Europe, lessening the demand for the natural gas for heating homes and businesses.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered European countries to pay Gazprom, the world's biggest natural gas company, in roubles after the West froze Russian assets and largely cut Moscow out of the West's economic system. Pictured: A Gazprom logo seen in Russia

Putin demanded countries he terms 'unfriendly' agree to a scheme under which they would open accounts at Gazprombank and make payments for Russian gas imports in euros or dollars that would be converted into roubles

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the move 'yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail. This is unjustified and unacceptable'

Gazprom's decision to cut gas to two European countries was another dark turn in the war, which has revived the geopolitical rifts of the Cold War and had an immediate impact. European gas prices spiked by as much as 24 percent.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, called the move a 'weaponization of energy supplies' in a tweet.

'Gazprom's move to completely shut off gas supplies to Poland is yet another sign of Russia's politicization of existing agreements & will only accelerate European efforts to move away from Russian energy supplies,' he wrote. He said the Russia's decision 'makes it clearer than ever that Europe needs to move quickly to reduce its reliance on Russian energy.'

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the move 'yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail. This is unjustified and unacceptable.'

'The announcement by Gazprom that it is unilaterally stopping delivery of gas to customers in Europe is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail,' von der Leyen said in a statement.

'This is unjustified and unacceptable. And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier,' she said.

Von der Leyen said the EU was prepared for this scenario, and would continue its work to ensure alternative supplies of gas and ensure gas storage is filled. EU rules require all countries to have a contingency plan to cope with a gas supply shock.

Von der Leyen said the EU was working on a coordinated response to Russia's escalation, and its 'gas coordination group' of representatives from national governments and the gas industry was meeting on Wednesday morning.

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Russia was 'beginning the gas blackmail of Europe'. He added: 'Russia is trying to shatter the unity of our allies.'

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown in London, told MailOnline today: 'Energy is being increasingly weaponised as the war in Ukraine looks set to enter the long haul and expectations grow that a crude oil embargo will end up being slapped on Russia by the EU.

'Sanctions isolating from Russia from the global financial systems have prompted this strategy to drive a rouble rebound, after the currency went into freefall following the invasion, and it's been working helped by the initial 20 per cent interest rate hike and currency controls.

'High incoming tax receipts expected have helped push up the currency this week.

'But if Russia's customers continue to refuse to sign contracts in roubles, and accelerate efforts to find other sources of energy as they have pledged to do, these revenue streams risk turning into a trickle putting fresh pressure on the rouble.'

This handout picture released on April 26, 2022 by the Transnistrian Interior Ministry shows antennas of the 'Mayak' radio centre lying on the ground following the blasts in the village of Mayak in Grigoriopolsky district in Moldova's Russian-backed breakaway Transnistria region

Several explosions were heard in Belgorod early Wednesday morning. Pictured: An ammunition depot burns near the village of Staraya Nelidovka

Putin-linked Gazprombank vice president found dead alongside his family was ASSASSINATED, colleague claims A vice-president of the Putin-linked Gazprombank has sensationally claimed that his former colleague who was found dead alongside his family in an apparent murder-suicide was assassinated. Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official who also served as vice-president at the bank, appeared to have taken his own life after shooting dead his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter Maria, 13, on the 14th floor of his luxury Moscow penthouse this month. But Igor Volobuev, 50, who recently quit his top Moscow role at the prominent gas-for-rubles bank to fight against Russia in his native Ukraine, insists the executive's death was 'staged' as a suicide. Doubts have been cast over the 'murder-suicide' carried out by Gazprombank vice-president Vladislav Avayev (pictured) He also claimed the death several days later of multimillionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, by hanging in Spain, after his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter Maria were hacked to death by an axe, was an assassination. Two other recent high profile suicides of Kremlin-linked figures at Russian gas firms have also been deemed suspicious. Pro-Kremlin media reported that Avayev had 'tortured his wife for several hours before killing her - beating and shooting her in the legs and arms' - believing she was pregnant by another man. He suspected her of infidelity with his driver who had 'fled to Moldova', and tried to make her confess by shooting her in her limbs before killing her in their flat which was locked from the inside, it is claimed. But other sources have denied she was pregnant and a rage of jealousy does not explain why he killed their daughter. The trio were found dead by Avayev's daughter Anastasia, 26, who told officers that the gun had been in her father's hand. Volobuev denied that Avayev - who may have had FSB links and was found with an FSB gun after his death - had left his role as the senior vice-president at Gazprombank, as was widely reported. He was still at the bank and would have had access to accounts of its most elite clients, including Putin's circle and possibly the president himself, he said. Gazprombank is allegedly used by the president and his relatives and cronies, and was chosen by Putin to receive Western payments for gas in roubles. Advertisement

She added: 'This latest move by Russia is also expected to pile pressure on Germany to relent in its opposition to a crude embargo. The expectation of another supply squeeze on global markets if more consumers turn their back on Russian oil has pushed up Brent crude above $106 (84) a barrel.'

Moscow's move is its latest use of gas as a weapon in a conflict that has now dragged into its third month and claimed thousands of lives.

Explosions this week targeting the state security ministry, a radio tower and military unit in neighbouring Moldova's region of Transnistria - occupied by Moscow's forces for decades - followed a Kremlin commander's claims Russian speakers in the country were being oppressed.

That triggered alarm that Moldova could be Russia's next target in its push into Europe, with Moscow having exploited similar fears after launching its bloody invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

'Russia wants to destabilise the Transnistrian region,' Mykhaylo Podolyak, a Ukraine presidential aide, wrote on Twitter.

'If Ukraine falls, tomorrow Russian troops will be at Chisinau's gates,' he said, referring to Moldova's capital.

The United States echoed similar concerns - though stopped short of backing Kyiv's contention that Russia was responsible.

'We fully support Moldova's territorial integrity and sovereignty,' State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

Meanwhile, blasts were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine, authorities said, and an ammunition depot in the Belgorod province caught fire.

The regional governor said the blaze near Staraya Nelidovka village had been put out and no civilians had been hurt.

Russia this month accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters and opening fire on several villages in the province.

A massive fire also broke out this week at a fuel depot in nearby Bryansk. Ukraine does not confirm responsibility for reported incidents on Russian territory.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has been lobbying for heavier firepower to push back the Russian advance now focused on the eastern region of Donbas.

Western allies are wary of being drawn into an outright war with Russia, but Washington pledged Tuesday at a summit to move 'heaven and earth' to enable Ukraine to emerge victorious.

'Ukraine clearly believes that it can win and so does everyone here,' US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told 40 allies gathered at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

With arms flowing into Ukraine, Germany announced Tuesday it would send anti-aircraft tanks - a sharp U-turn dropping its much-criticised cautious stance.

Britain will also on Wednesday urge Kyiv's allies to 'ramp up' military production including tanks and planes to help Ukraine, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss set to call for a 'new approach' to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin.

'We must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine,' she is set to say, according to pre-released remarks.

'Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes - digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this,' she will add. 'There must be nowhere for Putin to go to fund this appalling war.'

Truss will also urge Europe to cut off Russian energy imports 'once and for all' - a move that would deprive Moscow of a key source of leverage over its dependent western neighbours.

Pictured: Two large fires and plumes of smoke are shown rising from an oil storage depot in Bryansk city, Russia

Teams work by a destroyed building in Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol where the Russian Army has taken control

The Kremlin 'suicides': Four gas chiefs and their suspicious deaths Vladislav Avayev: The Gazprombank vice-president, 51, was found dead in his penthouse Moscow apartment on April 18 alongside his wife Yelena and daughter Maria. They were found by Avayev's eldest daughter Anastasia with a gun in the father's hand in the locked apartment. Initial reports in Russia said Yelena was pregnant by their driver and Vladislav killed her in a fit of rage. Others have doubted this and questioned why an FSB gun was found inside the flat. Sergey Protosenya: The oligarch worth 350million was found dead in Spain with his wife Natalia and daughter Maria. He was found hanged outside their Costa Brava villa while the two others were hacked to death inside. But investigators found no blood on Sergey, no suicide note and no fingerprints on the weapon. Sergey's son Fedor said his father would never harm his family. Alexander Tyulakov: On February 25, the day after the Ukraine war started, the senior Gazprom official's body was discovered by his lover. His neck was in a noose in his 500,000 home in a luxury Leningrad housing development. Reports say he had been badly beaten shortly before he 'took his own life'. Leonid Shulman: In the same gated housing estate three weeks earlier, the head of transport at Gazprom Invest was found dead with multiple stab wounds on his bathroom floor. Investigators said a note was found but they have not released its contents. A knife was found on the bathtub, seemingly out of reach. Advertisement

Fighting continues to rage across Ukraine's east, Kyiv's defence ministry said, announcing Wednesday that Russian forces had pushed deeper into the east of the country and captured several villages as part of its offensive to take control of Donbas.

Russia said it had carried out high-precision missile strikes against 32 Ukrainian military targets including four ammunition depots on Tuesday.

It also launched air strikes against 33 targets, as well as 100 artillery and rocket strikes.

In the south, two Russian missiles struck the industrial city of Zaporizhzhia, which has welcomed many civilians fleeing Mariupol, regional authorities said.

Russian forces are expected to soon advance on the city, which is located near Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant.

And at the site of the world's world-ever atomic disaster, Chernobyl in northern Ukraine observed the 36th anniversary of the meltdown back under Kyiv's control.

The sprawling complex fell into Russian hands on the day Moscow's troops began their invasion in February, suffered a power and communications outage that raised alarm about a possible new calamity at the site.

That put the world 'on the brink of disaster', Zelensky said at a press conference with UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi, adding that Russian troops' conduct showed that 'no one in the world can feel safe.'

'For the Russian military, the Chernobyl zone and the plant was like a normal battleground, territory where they didn't even try to care about nuclear safety,' he said.

To the east, at the entrance to Barvinkove, six Ukrainian soldiers were ready at any moment to dive into their trench, which they dig every day with a shovel.

'Otherwise, we're dead,' said Vasyl, 51, who serves with his 22-year-old son Denys.

Ukraine officials said there was fighting all along the frontlines in the Donetsk region, and that resistance in the Azovstal factory in the besieged port city of Mariupol was still holding out.

The country's best-known singer Sviatoslav Vakarchuk made a morale-boosting visit to the eastern front, where a military press officer admitted the situation was difficult.

'It's far from rosy,' Iryna Rybakova, of the 93rd brigade, told AFP.

'Of course, we were prepared for this war, especially the professional army, but for those who've been recruited, it's more complicated.'

The UN's refugee agency said it now expects more than eight million Ukrainians to eventually flee their country, with nearly 5.3 million already out, and that $1.85 billion would be needed to host them in neighbouring countries.

In a meeting with Putin, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for Moscow and Kyiv to work together to set up aid and evacuation corridors in war-torn Ukraine.

He also called for an independent investigation into 'possible war crimes' in Ukraine.

'I am concerned about the repeated reports of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and possible war crimes,' Guterres said.

'And they require independent investigation for effective accountability.'
A new map has shown the UK's dog napping hot spots - as French Bulldogs and Jack Russell Terriers are revealed as the most at risk breeds for being stolen.

Dog thefts in the UK jumped to a seven-year high of 2,760 last year, the equivalent of eight pets being snatched every day and a 16 per cent rise from 2015.

A total of 45 French Bulldogs were stolen last year, up 29 per cent on the previous year, while a further 24 Jack Russells were also taken - a 140 per cent rise on the ten recorded in 2020.

Other smaller breeds such as Chihahuas, Pugs and American Bulldogs were also highly sought after among criminals, according to new figures revealed under a Freedom of Information request and compiled by Direct Line Pet Insurance.

Staffordshire Bull Terriers were previously the most popular target breed for thieves, but dropped to seventh last year following an 88 per cent fall.

London was the UK's hotspot for dog thefts, with 422 incidents reported to The Metropolitan Police last year, more than double the next highest areas of West Yorkshire and Kent.

West Yorkshire Police recorded 199 reports of stolen dogs last year, nearly two thirds more than in 2020, while Kent Police was alerted to 182 incidents in the same year.

Dog thefts have skyrocketed in recent years with 2,760 canines taken last year (Pictured: Bandit, a three-year-old cocker spaniel, who was stolen last year)

Norfolk Constabulary, however, had the greatest success at returning dogs  reuniting 25 out of the 29 reported stolen with their owners.

It comes after the Covid pandemic saw a boom in the puppy market, with 3.8 million people choosing to get a dog during lockdown.

However, the demand has led to a rise in the cost of pets, with pedigree French Bulldogs now fetching upwards of 3,000 - making them a lucrative target for criminals.

Madeline Pike, a Veterinary Nurse for Direct Line Pet Insurance said: Its devastating to see the number of dogs stolen continues to increase across the country.

Unfortunately, the increase in dog ownership since the pandemic began and the subsequent rise in prices of these animals seems to make the crime even more appealing to thieves.

'The law will soon recognise dogs as members of the family with feelings, not just owned property and we hope that this will deter criminals, especially if they can be punished more severely if prosecuted.'

Ms Pike advised owners to take precautions such as seeing a puppy they plan to purchase with its mother to ensure they are not buying from a criminal organisation, and once in possession of an animal not to leave it tied up outside a shop, or leave it inside an empty car.

Its also vital to keep microchipping contact details up to date in case your dog does go missing and is handed in, she added.

In November, BBC veteran journalist Rory Cellan-Jones' elderly Collie appealed for the public's help after thieves stole a dog-walker's van while his beloved pet Cabbage and five other pooches were inside.

Rory Cellan-Jones (pictured) tweeted out for help after Cabbage went missing along with his dog-walker's black van this morning

In a series of frantic tweets this morning, Mr Cellan-Jones appealed for the public's help and told how the black Transit van was taken from a road in East Acton, London.

Fortunateky, all six dogs were returned to their owners later the same day, with Mr Cellan-Jones sharing a sweet photograph of his 12-year-old dog by a food bowl with the caption 'Cabbage is home!'

It comes after figures last year revealed a staggering 98 per cent of dog thieves escape without charge.

Failure to tackle the crime leaves nearly 200 families devastated each month, according to the Kennel Club.

The Government launched a pet theft taskforce in May 2021  but hundreds of dogs have been stolen since.

Elaine Hardy (pictured), 50, said tips on the whereabouts of her fox red labrador Rosie (in picture) were not followed up by Greater Manchester Police last year because they didnt have the search powers for a dog

Tae Bennett, 22, had her Chihuahua, Ollie stolen from a park 10 years ago. She believed he had died, but they were fortunately reunited last month

In one case, an owner was left heartbroken when her 18-month-old dog was stolen from her back garden in Swinton, Salford, never to be seen again.

Elaine Hardy, 50, said tips on the whereabouts of her fox red labrador Rosie were not followed up by Greater Manchester Police, who told her they didnt have the search powers for a dog.

Mrs Hardy, who now backs tougher laws, said last year: A stolen mobile phone would probably get more attention than a dog.

'But they are not just a thing, a dog is a living being with feelings and the families are obviously left devastated.

Last month, though, one thrilled dog owner got her stolen pooch back  10 years after he was pinched.

Tae Bennett was 12-years-old when her Chihuahua, Ollie, was taken by thieves.

She had been walking him in a London park in August 2012, when the dog thieves cut Ollie's lead and bundled him in a car before speeding off.

Ms Bennett, now 22, had given up hope of ever seeing him again, and believed him to be dead.

At first, the travel company worker had offered a reward on missing posters, and eventually got a dachshund called Chilli to replace him.

But last month Ollie was found by children in a park in Hounslow, west London  20 miles from her home in Beckenham, south London.

Ms Bennett was stunned to be told he was alive and well after a decade apart, and they were reunited the same day.

Dog thefts soar to seven-year high in UK with eight pets being snatched by thieves every single day and French Bulldogs most likely to be stolen

Alice Wright for the Daily Mail

Dog thefts in the UK have reached a seven-year high, with the equivalent of eight dogs being stolen every single day.

Last year alone 2,760 dogs were snatched from their owners, and the number of heart-breaking thefts has risen 16 per cent since 2015, according to new data.

The most likely breeds to be targeted are French Bulldogs, followed by Jack Russell Terriers and other small dogs like Chihuahuas and Pugs, figures revealed under the Freedom of Information Act and compiled by Direct Line Pet Insurance show.

Dog thefts have skyrocketed in recent years with 2760 canines taken last year (Pictured: Bandit, a three-year-old cocker spaniel, who was stolen last year)

Coronavirus restrictions over the last couple of years have led to a boom in the puppy market, with 3.8 million people getting a dog during the pandemic.

The demand has led to a rise in the cost of dogs, with pedigree French Bulldogs costing upwards of 3000, making them a lucrative target for criminals.

London was the worst hit area with 422 incidents reported to the Met police, followed by West Yorkshire and Kent.

West Yorkshire Police recorded 199 reports of stolen dogs last year, nearly two thirds more than in 2020. Kent Police received reports about 182 stolen dogs in the same year.

Norfolk Constabulary, however, had the greatest success at returning dogs  reuniting 25 out of the 29 reported stolen with their owners.

Its devastating to see the number of dogs stolen continues to increase across the country Madeline Pike, a Veterinary Nurse for Direct Line Pet Insurance said.

Unfortunately, the increase in dog ownership since the pandemic began and the subsequent rise in prices of these animals seems to make the crime even more appealing to thieves.

Ms Pike advised owners to take precautions such as seeing a puppy they plan to purchase with its mother to ensure theyre not buying from a criminal organisation, and once in possession of an animal not to leave it tied up outside a shop, or leave it inside an empty car.

Its also vital to keep microchipping contact details up to date in case your dog does go missing and is handed in she added.
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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today declared it is 'completely unsustainable' that P&O Ferries chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite remains in his job after sacking 800 seafarers without notice.

Mr Shapps told the Commons' Transport Select Committee 'he will have to go' and also urged the Dubai-owned company Hebblethwaite works for to repay 11 million of furlough money.

The Tory minister also insisted 'they will have to pay the minimum wage' to crews as 'inexperienced' P&O agency staff paid 5.50-an-hour have been blamed for leaving one ship drifting in the Irish Sea as the underfire company restarted cross-Channel sailings under the cover of darkness last night and continued today.

The European Causeway, which can carry 410 passengers, lost power and drifted in the Irish Sea for two hours before lifeboats and a tug were sent to rescue it yesterday.

Lowly-paid staff were said to have 'gone on strike' and left the ship adrift five miles off the coast of Northern Ireland for more than an hour on Tuesday afternoon, according to tracking website Marine Traffic, before being escorted to its planned destination at Port of Larne.

Darren Procter, of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said Tuesday's incident was down to 'inexperienced crew' as seafarers 'familiar with the ship would have been able to keep it under power'. He also claimed P&O Ferries was holding staff to the end of their contracts and refusing to pay their travel expenses if they leave early.

The European Causeway was rescued by three lifeboats and a tugboat before it regained power shortly before 2.15pm, much to the relief of passengers on board who had endured blackouts.

After the ship got back to the port, a number of the new crew members asked maritime unions for advice about terminating their contracts, the Times reported.

A spokesperson for P&O Ferries said Tuesday's incident had been a temporary issue and the European Causeway had travelled to Larne 'under its own propulsion'.

Today P&O Ferries has resumed cross-Channel sailings for the first time since it sacked nearly 800 seafarers last month. The vessel Spirit of Britain departed Dover for Calais shortly after 11pm on Tuesday carrying freight customers with passenger services expected to resume early next week.

Spirit of Britain arrives at the Port of Dover, in Kent, today as P&O Ferries resume Dover-Calais sailings for freight customers

Mr Shapps (pictured today) has said he believes Mr Hebblethwaite's position as a chief executive 'and indeed as a company director' had become 'untenable'

P&O Ferries operated European Highlander vessel in dock at the Port of Larne, Co Antrim, after it lost power off the Co Antrim coast

A route tracking map appeared to show it off course and bobbing around in the Irish Sea

The drama in the Irish Sea was yet another public relations disaster for the scandal-hit firm - just weeks after it sparked fury by firing 800 UK staff over zoom and replacing them with cheaper foreign crews.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced earlier this month that the Insolvency Service had started 'formal criminal and civil investigations' into the company, which he said he would be 'following closely' along with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

The probe came after P&O Ferries admitted to breaking the law in the manner in which it terminated staff on March 17 to hire cheaper agency workers, a move that has caused a major backlash from politicians and workers - compounded this week by claims it wanted to cut the wages of its new workers even further.

A timeline of the P&O Ferries fiasco March 17: A P&O Ferries executive is tells 800 staff in a Zoom call that they are being made redundant and replaced with agency workers. The firm also announces it has suspended sailings 'for the next few days.' March 18: Staff protests break out at ports in Dover, Liverpool and Hull. March 21: Foreign agency workers from India, the Philippines and Pakistan are pictured being transported to P&O Ferries' ships. March 24: P&O Ferries' millionaire chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite admits to MPs that his company 'chose' to break the law when it sacked its staff and says he would do the same again. March 25: P&O ferry the European Causeway is detained in Northern Ireland for being 'unfit to sail'. March 28: A second vessel, the Pride of Kent, is detained in Dover by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. March 30: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps vows to introduce new law to ban P&O Ferries from British ports if crew are not paid the minimum wage. April 1: Criminal and civil investigations are launched into P&O Ferries' mass sackings. April 7: P&O Ferries cancellations continue to cause gridlock on motorways Kent as queues of drivers waiting to cross the Channel build up. April 14: P&O Ferries suspends all of its passenger services across the Channel over Easter. April 19: Several P&O agency staff are fired after testing positive for alcohol. April 22: The Maritime and Coastguard Agency seizes a third vessel, the 700ft long Spirit of Britain. April 24: P&O Ferries are accused of trying to pay new staff even lower wages. April 26: A P&O boat comes adrift in the Irish Sea and has to be escorted back to safety. Cross-Channel services resume for freight. Advertisement

The European Causeway had already been detained last month 'based on concerns over its safety' and to 'prevent them going to sea', the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said. The Pride of Kent was also detained in Dover on March 28 after it failed inspections to see if it was 'safe to go to sea without passengers or cargo'.

Mr Procter said crew on board the European Causeway had claimed that engine parts were changed with the firm's European Highlander 'in order to pass its inspection', the Telegraph reported.

A spokesperson for P&O Ferries said: 'Following a temporary mechanical issue, the European Causeway is now continuing on its scheduled journey to the Port of Larne under its own propulsion, with local tugs on standby, where it will discharge its passengers and cargo as planned.

'There are no reported injuries on board and all the relevant authorities have been informed. Once in dock a full independent investigation will be undertaken.'

The Marine Traffic website said the European Causeway's automatic identification system status had been set to 'not under command'.

This setting is reserved for use when a vessel is 'unable to manoeuvre as required by these rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel'.

The company's suspension of its Dover-Calais route has caused travel chaos on roads in Kent this month as other ferry companies have been placed under immense pressure to cope with the Easter demand.

Dealing a further blow to its reputation, it was claimed this week that ships were prevented from sailing because their new poorly paid foreign crews had been trained so badly some did not even know where the liferafts were.

A RNLI spokesperson said that three lifeboats had been sent to the scene on Tuesday.

The spokesperson said: 'Three RNLI lifeboats were requested to launch this afternoon to assist a passenger ferry in difficulty one mile south east of The Maidens.

'Larne RNLI's all-weather lifeboat launched at 2.17pm while Red Bay's RNLI's all-weather lifeboat launched at 2.35pm followed by the inshore lifeboat at 3pm.

'The ferry gained power again and was escorted back into the Port of Larne by all three lifeboats which were then stood down.'

A shipping expert said the good weather in the Irish Sea on Tuesday helped avert a potential disaster, while other experts said such breakdowns of large ships are extremely rare.

P&O said that the vessel had been affected by a 'mechanical issue'.

The company tweeted: 'Due to a mechanical issue with the Causeway in the Irish Sea, tugs from Larne and Belfast were deployed to guide it back to port.

'Once the ship is back in Port a full inspection will take place.'

The Spirit of Britain departs from the Port of Dover, in Kent, last night - the first cross-channel service since March 17

Freight queueing at The Port of Dover the 11pm P&O ferry from the Port of Dover to Calais last night

One passenger told UTV: 'The engine just collapsed. Stopped working. They managed to get it working again and we were sailing for another 10 minutes. Then it stopped and completely blacked out. All the electrics. Everything was down.'

The Rail, Maritime and Transport workers' Union (RMT) said the reports were 'deeply concerning, not least for the agency crew and passengers on board'.

The European Causeway had been detained at Larne after an initial inspection by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on March 25 uncovered 31 safety failings.

This was due to safety concerns after the company sacked nearly 800 seafarers and replaced them with cheaper agency workers.

The ship was cleared to resume serving the Larne-Cairnryan route a fortnight later following another examination.

The ferry company drew national outage last month when it illegally fired nearly 800 staff members without notice over Zoom and replaced them all immediately with cheaper foreign workers.

The agency workers who were hired to replace 786 staff say they were asked to sign new contracts on even lower pay.

The firm has not carried out a cross-Channel crossing since its mass sacking last month.

This has caused a lack of capacity on the crucial Dover-Calais route, contributing to large queues of lorries on coastbound roads in Kent.

One of its ships, the Spirit of Britain, was impounded by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on April 12 over a string of safety issues, but has now been cleared for sailing. Another ship on the Dover-to-Calais route, the Pride Of Kent, remains in detention.

Yesterday, travel expert Paul Charles said it was his understanding the ships had been impounded not due to actual physical deficiencies but because the new crews had not been trained well enough, with 'some not even knowing where the liferafts were'.

An official inspection the European Causeway, which went adrift today, listed an inability to deploy lifeboats or life rafts as one of 31 failures that had been identified. The ferry normally operates between Cairnryan, Scotland, and Larne, Northern Ireland.

P&O Ferries restarted sailings for freight customers by Wednesday, but does not anticipate carrying tourists until early next week

P&O boss 'should be jailed' over sackings: Union chief The chief executive of P&O Ferries should be 'behind bars' after sacking 800 seafarers, a trade union president has said. Peter Hebblethwaite replaced the workers with cheaper staff in order to protect the company, he said. However, Pat Rafferty, Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) president, said sacking the seafarers via Zoom last month was 'gutter' and 'inhumane'. Speaking at the annual conference in Aberdeen, Mr Rafferty said that the CEO should be put in jail to send a clear message to employers. Mr Hebblethwaite rejected a request from Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, to reverse the decision. He also admitted his company broke the law by failing to consult unions about the redundancies. It is understood the business needed to cut costs to avoid collapse as it was losing money at a rate of 100 million per year. Mr Hebblethwaite said re-employing the sacked staff on their previous wages would 'deliberately cause the company's collapse, resulting in the irreversible loss of an additional 2,000 jobs'. Mr Rafferty said: 'There is something seriously wrong with our society when a company CEO like P&O can swan into a Westminster parliamentary committee and openly state that he broke the law - and worse still, he'd do it again. What that clearly demonstrates is how useless the law is. There is no deterrent to companies like P&O who are getting away with destroying people's lives. 'The law needs to change. Peter Hebblethwaite should be struck off the directors register and put behind bars. That would send a clear message to employers, act irresponsibly towards workers and face the possibility that you will be jailed.' Mr Hebblethwaite was also accused of 'corporate terrorism' last month as he faced MSPs in Holyrood's Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee. He told MSPs he had not taken a cut to his 325,000 salary while replacing his staff with agency workers who receive less than minimum wage. Mr Rafferty, who is also Scottish Secretary of Unite the Union, urged trade union members to boycott P&O Ferries until the dispute had been resolved. Advertisement

P&O Ferries expects to restart sailings for freight customers between Dover and Calais by Wednesday but does not anticipate carrying tourists until early next week, it is understood.

On Monday morning the firm's website began selling passenger tickets for cross-Channel sailings on its ship Spirit Of Britain from Wednesday.

The website later said there were 'no sailings available for your selected dates'.

Spirit Of Britain was detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on April 12 after safety issues were found, but was cleared to sail on Friday.

Meanwhile, Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Lynch claimed P&O Ferries has been 'prevented from further cutting the pay of vulnerable agency crew' by 'pressure from RMT seafarers'.

The firm, owned by Dubai-based logistics giant DP World, insisted no agency workers were asked to take a pay cut.

It came after the RMT received reports of agency workers at Dover being asked to sign new contracts with reduced payments, according to the BBC.

Mr Lynch said: 'There are no depths to which P&O and their Dubai owners at DP World will not sink to extract the maximum profit from ferry crews operating our vital maritime supply chains.

'This is underlined by the fact that, despite this U-turn, P&O are still only paying barely half of the UK minimum wage of 9.50 per hour.

'Ultimately, staffing ships with super-exploited agency staff is not just morally wrong, it undercuts those remaining ferry operators who do abide by union rates of pay and conditions, and undermines passenger safety.

'The only way out of this latest crisis at the ferry operator is for the Government to take over the running of P&O vessels and reinstate directly employed staff on union rates of pay.'

A spokesman for P&O Ferries said: 'No agency seafarers were asked to accept reduced wages.'

He went on: 'There was an administrative misunderstanding around the contract presented to one individual who appears to have been unaware of an appendix which made clear that he would be entitled to an additional 195 a month, meaning that there was no change in his overall pay.

'There are no plans to change or reduce the wages of any of our agency seafarers and we have made clear that we will continue to comply fully with any national minimum wage obligations introduced by the UK Government.'

The company's chief executive, Peter Hebblethwaite, told MPs last month that the average pay of the agency crew is 5.50 per hour.

That is below the UK's minimum wage but Mr Hebblethwaite said it is permitted under international maritime laws.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps wants to create 'minimum wage corridors' on ferry routes between the UK and other countries.

In a letter to the Mr Hebblethwaite in March in the wake of the scandal, Mr Shapps wrote: 'The past week has left the reputation of P&O Ferries and, I'm afraid, you personally in tatters.

'Not only were your letters of 22 March to the Business Secretary and myself wholly unsatisfactory, your appearance at the Transport Select Committee, during which you brazenly admitted to breaking employment law, demonstrated beyond doubt your contempt for workers who have given years of service to your company.

'There is no excuse for this behaviour, and as I said publicly on Friday, I believe your position as chief executive, and indeed as a company director, has become untenable.'

Mr Shapps added: 'I will be bringing a comprehensive package of measures to Parliament to ensure that seafarers are protected against these types of actions in the way that Parliament and this Government already intended. Through that package, I intend to block the outcome that P&O Ferries has pursued, including paying workers less than the minimum wage.'

MailOnline contacted P&O Ferries for comment about the allegation some of its crew did not know where life rafts were kept. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency declined to comment.

It is claimed that if they refused to agree they faced being out of work and one agency worker emailed the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) , declaring: 'We are desperate.'

P&O's boss Peter Hebblethwaite, who earns 345,000 a year, admitted firing the workers over Zoom without notice was illegal in testimony to MPs

P&O Ferries reportedly offered some of the agency workers, who replaced the near 800 staff fired last month, new contracts with even lower wages

Some crew earn just 748 a month for a 40-hour week  barely 4.50 an hour.

In one example reported by The Mirror, workers say chefs paid 2,336 a month on temporary contracts were asked to sign new deals giving them 195 a month less.

Although it is not known who faced a cut in wages, or if staff on seven other ferries were targeted too.

Mr Procter, national secretary of the RMT says some of the new workers were brought in on just a month's contract, and when those contracts expired the staff were offered 'inferior terms'.

The RMT are campaigning for dismissed P&O staff to be reinstated, but 'irrespective of nationality' are concerned for the new staff members, Mr Procter added: 'they are just as much victims as our members.'
A Siamese cat who escaped from his owner's bathroom in North Wales was found a week later in Essex - more than 280 miles away.

Ashley, a two-year-old Siamese was last seen at her owner, Dan Worsley's house in Glan Conwy, North Wales on Good Friday.

Mr Worsley and his wife Val feared the worst after their pet vanished and hadn't been seen in a week.

Fortunately, the cat was recovered by an animal rescue charity in Thurrock, Essex.

Dan Worsley, pictured, drove from Glan Conwy in North Wales to Thurrock, Essex to collect his cat, Ashley who had vanished from home before emerging 280 miles away

Mr Worsley said he believed Ashley the cat, pictured, 'hitch hiked' her way to Essex

Ashley the cat managed to travel safely from Glan Conwy, in North Wales to Tilbury, Essex

Mr Worsley said: 'We had left the bathroom window open and Ashley got stuck in the bathroom by accident, so we believe she jumped out.

'When we noticed she was missing we launched a full scale search across our village

'The whole village, 4,000 people, were out looking for her, but not a trace.

'The longer it went the more distraught we got, we thought we would never see her again.

'After a week, myself and my wife feared for the worse. We were heartbroken and devastated.'

It is not known how Ashley managed to cross from Wales into England and then travel across to Essex.

Mr and Mrs Worsley had printed posters which were put up around the village, with several members of the local community involved in an extensive, but unsuccessful search of the surrounding area.

Mr Worsley said Ashley was an indoors cat and feared that she would not be able to survive for long in the open.

Amazingly, they received a phone call from Karen Keeves of the Pippa's Army animal rescue centre who said they had found Ashley.

He said: 'When my wife received the phone call from Karen, she literally burst into tears. It had been a worrying, sleepless week but now she is home.'

Mr Worsley said he went on a 590-mile round trip to collect Ashley from the animal refuge.

According to the BBC, Ashley was discovered in the home of Carol Monk and her partner Allan Baker by their dog, Bobby.

They were alerted when Bobby was scratching on the door.

Ms Monk contacted Pippa's Army who were able to scan Ashley and make contact with her relieved owners.

Mr Worsley believes Ashley may have hitch hiked across the country in a car.

Ashley, right, was discovered with Bobby the dog, pictured left. Carol Monk and her partner Allan Baker, centre, were alerted by Bobby's barking which enabled them to catch Ashley

He said he and his wife were 'elated' to have Ashley home, even though the cat 'complained all the way to New port Pagnell services'.

Mr Worsley said: 'The real hero of the story was Bobby, who twice located Ashley in her garage. The first time was on the Thursday. Carol rang Karen Keeves but by the time she arrived, Ashley had gone. They assumed she must be a local stray.

'But on the Sunday Bobby began barking again and this time Carol was able to retrieve Ashley from the garage. Karen came with her chip scanner and identified her as Ashley.'

For many years Mr Worsley, formerly from Cheshire, ran Worsleywear, a lingerie shop in Llandudno.

Ashley, pictured, jumped 15feet from a first floor window to escape from a bathroom in North Wales

Mr Worsley believes his cat may have sneaked into a car owned by people who were renting an AirBnB in North Wales over the Easter

He said: 'I would like to think it was an accident and not deliberate'

In 2013 he launched an online sales business that now operates from a warehouse in Abergele. Despite his age, hes busier than ever. 'We are now the biggest seller of bras and knickers on eBay!' he said proudly.

Just how Ashley managed to make her way across North Wales, and down to southern England, remains a mystery.

Mr Worsley has a theory. 'We live in a picturesque area with lots of Airbnbs,' he said.

'I cant say for certain, but I imagine that perhaps holidaymakers from Essex were loading the car when Ashley decided to hide in the boot.

'Its just speculation, of course. But I would like to think it was an accident and not deliberate.'

Ashley's ordeal was not quite over when she returned to Conwy. Yesterday she was taken to the vets for treatment to injuries received when she lept from the window.

It's thought she was left with multiple cuts when landing on the leylandii hedge. 'She's getting lots of fuss,' added Mr Worsley.
Singaporean authorities have moved forward with the execution of an intellectually-disabled Nigerian man arrested on drug charges after they rejected a long-running campaign for clemency.

The man, identified as Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, was a Malaysian individual who had learning disabilities. He was convicted of drug trafficking in 2010 and his case attracted international attention.

Execution of Intellectually-Disabled Malaysian Man

Officials executed the suspect in Singapore's Changi prison, years after he was arrested when police discovered a bundle of 42.7 grams of heroin strapped to his thigh. Dharmalingam was hanged just before dawn on Wednesday, his family said.

The brother of the suspect, Navin Kumar, said in an interview that the body of Dharmalingam will be sent back to Malaysia. He added that they plan to hold a funeral that will be held in the northern town of Ipoh.

The execution order came after Singapore's Court of Appeal immediately dismissed an effort by the 33-year-old's mother to stay the decision. In a statement, the judges said that her last-minute plea was "vexatious," as per Aljazeera.

Justifying the decision, the city-state's government said that its use of the death penalty for drug crimes is made very clear at the border. In a statement, the suspect's sister, Sarmila Dharmalingam, said that Malaysia was far more humane than Singapore because of the decision to execute her brother.

Supporters and lawyers of the man said that he had an IQ score of 69 and was considered to be intellectually disabled. They argued that the execution of a mentally ill individual was prohibited under international human rights law.

Read Also: Climate Activist Dies After Setting Himself on Fire in Front of Supreme Court on Earth Day

According to the Associated Press, Singapore courts cited psychiatrists' testimony that Dharmalingam was not mentally disabled and was able to understand his actions at the time of his crime. The director of the non-governmental organization Reprieve, Maya Foa, said that Dharmalingam will go down in history as the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice.

Refusal to Accept Clemency Appeal

The suspect's lawyer previously filed several appeals to try to overturn the execution that were rejected by the Singaporean court. Authorities said that there was "no admissible evidence showing any decline in the appellant's mental condition after the commission of the offense."

At the end of the last hearing, Dharmalingam and his family cried as they grasped each other's hands through a gap in a glass screen. People in the courtroom could hear the suspect's cries of "ma" which means "mother."

Foa's statement added that Dharmalingam was coerced to carry less than three tablespoons of diamorphine, calling his execution unjustifiable and a flagrant violation of international laws that Singapore has agreed to uphold. He added that the suspect's last days were spent in torturous isolation of solitary confinement.

Dharmalingam had to seek the court's permission to hold his family's hands one final time yesterday before his execution. The situation is a result of Singapore having one of the strictest drug laws in the world.

For example, trafficking 15 grams of heroin into the country mandates a death sentence under the Misuse of Drugs Act. it was only recently, and after the beginning of Dharmalingam's case, did the law get amended to allow for a convicted person to escape the death penalty in certain circumstances, CNN reported.



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A Rhode Island teacher has come under fire after he bragged about telling several of his classes that Elon Musk's buyout of social media giant Twitter was 'the worst thing that could have happened'.

Enrique Sanchez, who teaches at Central High School in Providence but is also running as a leftist candidate to become a Rhode Island State Representative, railed against the founder of SpaceX and Tesla in front of his students.

'Of course I explained to my students in all five of my classes today why Elon Musk buying off Twitter is the worse thing that could have happened,' Sanchez tweeted.

'No individual and especially wealthy elites should be given these types of opportunities to buy off social media platforms.'

He reportedly responded to his own tweet with: 'The Anti-Capitalist came out today,' but appeared to have later deleted that post.

Sanchez' tweets prompted a considerable backlash, with many users explaining that a whole host of social media platforms and media companies are owned by individual billionaires and urging him to keep his political beliefs to himself while in the classroom.

Twitter's board on Monday unanimously accepted a $44billion bid from Musk to buy out the company and own it outright.

Musk pledged to uphold free speech on the platform so it can fulfil its potential as the world's 'digital town square', while relaxing content restrictions and cracking down on spam posters and bots.

Twitter yesterday accepted a $44billion bid from SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk to buy out the company and own it outright

Enrique Sanchez, who teaches at Central High School in Providence but is also running as a leftist candidate to become a Rhode Island State Representative, railed against the founder of SpaceX and Tesla in front of his students

'Of course I explained to my students in all five of my classes today why Elon Musk buying off Twitter is the worse thing that could have happened,' Sanchez tweeted. 'No individual and especially wealthy elites should be given these types of opportunities to buy off social media platforms.' He reportedly responded to his own tweet with: 'The Anti-Capitalist came out today,' but appeared to have later deleted that post

Sanchez' twitter bio lists him as a teacher at Central High School in Providence, Rhode Island (pictured)

'Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,' Musk said in a statement following the announcement of his takeover.

But news of the buyout prompted many left-leaning users to announce their intentions to leave the platform, while others like Sanchez openly admitted to trying to convince others that Musk's takeover could only spell disaster.

Many users hit back at Sanchez, criticizing him for allowing his personal political beliefs to interfere with his profession of teaching children, while others accused him of 'proselytizing'.

'@EnriqueForRI needs to keep his political beliefs to himself when he's teaching. Public education will fall if teachers don't get back to doing their jobs, which is teaching, not proselytizing,' one user said.

Others pointed out that many other media organizations and social media platforms are owned wholly or partially by wealthy individuals, and questioned why Musk was receiving such a backlash.

'For anyone with a problem with billionaire Elon Musk buying Twitter... WHERE was your outrage at these other acquisitions?!' one user tweeted, sharing a graphic displaying Jeff Bezos' ownership of The Washington Post, and Laurene Powell Jobs' ownership of The Atlantic.

A second user said: 'Just to be clear: Facebook - owned/controlled by 1 billionaire. WA Post-owned by 1 Billionaire. The Atlantic - Billionaire. Bloomberg News - yep, another billionaire.'

'Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,' Musk said in a statement following the announcement of his Twitter takeover

Musk, who is worth $267 billion, has more than 84million followers on Twitter and tweets several times a day.

The site allows users to post and interact with messages known as 'tweets'. Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read those that are publicly available

He insists his takeover is not motivated by economic reasons, but rather out of a desire to safeguard Twitter as a venue for free speech rather than censorship.

'Having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don't care about the economics at all,' he said in a recent public talk.

The billionaire is a self-professed 'free speech absolutist' and believes Twitter has failed to live up to its free speech principles.

He has been critical of its content moderation policies, arguing it has censored some voices, particularly conservative ones.

The business tycoon, who is worth $267 billion, has more than 84million followers on Twitter and tweets several times a day

He slammed the site in a barrage of tweets last month.

'Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?' Musk asked via a Twitter poll.

He followed up with a series of tweets a day later, writing: 'Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?'

Musk's view that Twitter excessively censors some of its users is popular on the political right, with many conservatives, particularly in the United States, believing they are currently unfairly targeted by social media platforms.

Heavily left-leaning individuals and organisations meanwhile have lashed out at the deal and raised concerns that Musk's stout defence of free speech will allow 'hate to flourish'.
Elon Musk has agreed to pay Twitter a $1 billion 'breakup' fee if he pulls the plug on the $44 billion take-over deal  and the tech giant agrees to pay the same amount if they opt for a better offer, according to a securities filing.

Musk on Monday sealed a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion just three weeks after starting the process and later said he hopes to turn the platform into a haven of free speech where even his worst critics can have their say.

According to Tuesday's securities filing, if the deal between Musk and Twitter falls apart, either side may have to pay a $1 billion fee.

The deal also has a time limit attached, and if the merger isn't completed by October 24, either party would be able to walk away. There is a six-month extension to that deadline in the event of regulatory hurdles, which seem unlikely.

Meanwhile, shares of Twitter dropped 3 percent in morning trading on Wednesday, to around $48, in the second straight day of declines as investors assessed the mechanics of the deal's financing. Musk has agreed to pay $54.20 per share if and when the deal closes.

Musk on Monday sealed a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion just three weeks after starting the process and later said he hopes to turn the platform into a haven of free speech where even his worst critics can have their say

According to Tuesday's securities filing, if the deal between Musk and Twitter falls apart, either side may have to pay a $1 billion fee

Shares of Twitter dropped 3% in morning trading on Wednesday, to around $48, in the second straight day of declines as investors assessed the mechanics of the deal's financing

There has been speculation about how Musk will be able to afford to pay for the deal, new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission outline how he would fund the takeover.

Musk has committed $21 billion in equity, $13 billion from Morgan Stanley in traditional bank loans and another $12.5 billion from the bank and others in margin loans.

The margin loans require Musk to offer up Tesla shares worth five times the loan amount as collateral, meaning that at Tuesday's closing price of $876.42, he would have to use 71.3 million shares worth $62.5 billion to secure the loan.

In that scenario, if Twitter's share price dropped to roughly $500, it would trigger a requirement for additional collateral, also known as a margin call.

The terms of the margin loan forbid using additional Tesla shares as collateral in the event of a margin call, meaning that Musk would have to come up with billions in cash to reduce the loan amount within two days.

He could be forced to sell off Tesla shares to come up with cash in that scenario, sending the stock down and further devaluing the loan collateral in a vicious spiral.

Tesla has separate internal requirements for using its shares as collateral that would require Musk to inject more cash if shares of the company dropped below $700.

Presently Musk owns 172.6 million Tesla shares, or a 17 percent stake, worth about $151 billion at current prices.

The deal is not set to close for another three to six months, Twitter has told its employees. CEO Parag Agrawal and Bret Taylor, the chair of the board, addressed staff on Monday and told staff that their jobs are safe for at least six months, until Elon Musk takes over.

Since the announcement of Musk's bid to takeover Twitter, the tech giant's shares have gone down slightly. On Monday, the share price was at $51.70. This dropped to $49.68 on Tuesday

Lawyers say the deal's requirement of two parties to pay a 'termination fee' if a deal falls apart is not uncommon.

'It's actually a pretty plain vanilla merger agreements,' Steven Davidoff Solomon, a professor at the School of Law at the University of California, told The New York Times.

Key points in Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter Musk on Monday sealed a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion just three weeks after starting the process and later said he hopes to turn the platform into a haven of free speech where even his worst critics can have their say. According to Tuesday's securities filing, if the deal between Musk and Twitter falls apart, either side may have to pay a $1 billion fee. Either party is able to terminate the Merger under certain conditions, but Twitter will be required to pay Musk $1 billion if the company signed a deal with another person or company who have given a better offer. Other circumstances where Twitter will have to pay the fee includes if Musk terminates the Merger agreement because the tech giant's Board recommends that the company's shareholders vote against the deal or in favour of a competing acquisition proposal. Meanwhile, Musk will be required to pay Twitter the 'termination fee' of $1 billion if he is unable to pay the full $44 billion required to complete the deal. There has been speculation about how Musk will be able to afford to pay for the deal, but last week he filed new documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission today outlining how he would seize the social media giant. Musk has committed $21 billion in equity, $13 billion from Morgan Stanley in debt facilities and another $12.5 billion from the bank and others in margin loans. Advertisement

Tuesday's filing said Musk and Twitter are allowed to walk away if the deal if not completed by October 24 this year. If the deal was still waiting for regulatory approval by that time, the two parties would have another six months to complete it. DailyMail.com has contacted Musk and Twitter for comment.

The deal is not set to close for another three to six months, Twitter has told its employees.

It comes as more than $125 billion was wiped off the stock market value of electric car giant Tesla overnight amid concerns that Musk may have to sell down his stake to fund his takeover of Twitter.

Tesla shares tumbled 12.2 per cent on the technology-heavy Nasdaq index in America, with investors spooked by speculation that its multi-billionaire chief executive will sell off his stock to pay for the cash portion of his $44 billion mega deal.

The Tesla owner has personally pledged to pump in $21 billion of cash to help finance the deal.

But questions have been raised over how he will stump up the equity, with much of his fortune tied up in assets such as Tesla and space exploration firm SpaceX.

There are also concerns that the Twitter takeover may see the tech pioneer become distracted and less interested in running Tesla.

Since the announcement of Musk's bid to takeover Twitter, the tech giant's shares have gone down slightly. On Monday, the share price was at $51.70. This dropped by nearly 4 per cent to $49.68 on Tuesday - about 10% below the offer price of $54.20 dollars a share which was agreed on Monday.

Market analyst Neil Wilson, at Markets.com, said the decline 'underscores that investors are naturally anxious about what Musk is up to and whether he can pull it off.'

It is understood that Musk may seek to bring on board other investors to help fund the deal rather than risk destabilising the car maker's stock, which may also put the wider Twitter deal at risk.

Mr Musk's 17% shareholding in Tesla accounts for the biggest chunk of his huge $270 billion personal wealth and are also providing the bulk of the financing for the Twitter acquisition.

He has pledged some of his Tesla shares to back a $12.5 billion so-called margin loan for the deal and a big fall in the stock's value could pose problems.

Mr Wilson said there is a lot of uncertainty over how the takeover saga will play out.

'Could he still walk away? Certainly a 21 billion US dollar (17 billion) cheque is a lot even for him to write,' he said.

'A 1 billion US dollar (789 million) break fee might in the end seem less painful.'

Meanwhile, Twitter staff have been told that their jobs are safe for at least six months, until Elon Musk takes over.

CEO Parag Agrawal and Bret Taylor, the chair of the board, addressed staff at 5pm ET on Monday - dodging questions about whether Donald Trump would be allowed to rejoin, and saying instead that it was a question for Musk.

'It's important to acknowledge that all of you have many different feelings about what is happening,' Agrawal said, according to two people who attended the meeting and spoke to The New York Times.

'Some of you are concerned, some are you are excited, and some of you are waiting to see how this goes. I know this affects all of you personally.

'It is an emotional day, and I just want to acknowledge it.'

Concerns about immediate job losses were allayed, with employees told that business will operate as usual until a deal closes in next six months, Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner reported.

Staff were told there would be no layoffs 'at this time' - but no guarantees were provided when Musk takes over.

But in a sign of the possible internal unrest, new product launches were delayed amid fears, Bloomberg speculated, that employees could 'go rogue' and 'push something or mess with the product on the way out the door.'

Ahead of the meeting, staff were asked to submit questions, and many were asking about a possible forced return to the office for the all-remote workforce. Others fretted about their shares, journalist Yashar Ali reported.

Musk has said he wants to increase trust in Twitter, which he sees as a digital town square for free speech and debate.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey tweeted Monday that 'Elon's goal of creating a platform that is 'maximally trusted and broadly inclusive' is the right one.'

He thanked Musk and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal 'for getting the company out of an impossible situation.

'This is the right path...I believe it with all my heart.'

But Twitter executives are already turning on Musk. The Tesla CEO was accused of misogyny by a Twitter executive Tuesday after two of her female executives at Twitter were singled out for criticism from the new owner of the company and his supporters.

Lara Cohen, Twitter's global head of partners, reacted with anger to Musk and his followers' attacks on singling out of the firm's top lawyer Vijaya Gadde, and chief marketing officer Leslie Berland.

'Color me shocked SHOCKED that people are coming for two of our prominent female executives on day 1 of this thing,' she tweeted.

Musk himself took aim at Twitter's top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, for censoring stories about Hunter Biden's laptop after it was reported she'd sobbed at news he'd bought the firm.

And his supporters leaked to Project Veritas audio footage of an all-hands videolink meeting on Monday, with questions from staff asked by the chief marketing officer, Leslie Berland.

'I read real-time Qs that come in from our employees,' Berland later tweeted in explanation.

'It's always open and unfiltered. An audio clip of me reading was leaked, edited and misrepresented as my (and the company's) views.'

Lara Cohen, Twitter's global head of partners, on Tuesday accused Musk of misogyny

Yet Gadde and Berland were not the only ones in the spotlight: Musk himself also singled out Jim Baker, Twitter's lawyer, after conservative commentator Mike Cernovich called out Baker's work.

'Twitter lawyer Jim Baker, when general counsel of the FBI, personally arranged a meeting between the FBI and Michael Sussmann. In this meeting, Sussmann presented fabricated evidence in the Alfa bank matter,' Cernovich tweeted.

'@elonmusk, this is who is inside Twitter. He facilitated fraud.'

Musk then replied: 'Sounds pretty bad '

Musk continued his criticism of the platform he is buying, noting that more people were downloading Donald Trump's rival, Truth Social, than Twitter.

'Truth Social is currently beating Twitter & TikTok on the Apple Store,' he said.

Meanwhile, prominent right-wing tweeters have seen their follower counts shoot up since Musk took over, sparking claims their accounts had been suppressed by woke Twitter staffers.

Meanwhile, leading left-wing figures including Barack Obama as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have seen huge slumps since news of Musk's purchase.

Donald Trump Jr, who has 7.7 million followers, saw his followers surge by 87,296 on Tuesday and suggested the increase was due to an algorithm tweak targeting prominent conservative voices ahead of Musk's arrival.

He tweeted: 'While I'm awesome and totally deserving of 87,000 new followers a day it seems that someone took the shackles off my account. Wonder if they're burning the evidence before new management comes in.'

Don Jr's account had grown by between 5,000 and 10,000 tweets a day in recent weeks, with the spike in the wake of Musk's announcement immediately obvious.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also saw a huge 141,566 people on Tuesday, according to SocialBlade statistics. That is a vast increase on the 5,000-or-so followers the popular GOP governor generally gains in the average day.

He praised Musk's bid for Twitter, calling it 'a good deal for shareholders' and saying it 'raises the prospect that the platform will be a place where free speech can thrive, not a tool for narrative enforcement.'

Conservative talk show host Dana Loesch, who's long complained of account suppression, saw her followers surge by about 9,000 on Tuesday.

By comparison, she was gaining a few hundred new followers a day prior to Musk's acquisition.

Donald Trump Jr, pictured last week campaigning for Ohio senate candidate J.D. Vance, was among the biggest winners in the Twitter follower fluctuations

Ron DeSantis, pictured on Friday, saw a surge in follower numbers on Tuesday

Florida Governor Matt Gaetz enjoyed a 21,430 follower boost on Tuesday - multiple times higher than the approximately 500 new followers he gains every day.

Conversely, liberal politicos saw their follower numbers slump in the wake of the Musk announcement.

New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - who has 12.9 million followers - saw 20,725 people stop following her Tuesday.

Prior to Musk buying Twitter, she attracted around 1,000 new followers each day, and is widely-regarded as one of the most prominent progressive voices on the platform.
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The Kremlin has warned it could target military sites in NATO countries which are supporting Ukraine amid Russia's invasion.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, suggested that strikes could be authorized against NATO states who provide arms to Ukraine.

She warned: 'Do we understand correctly that for the sake of disrupting the logistics of military supplies, Russia can strike military targets on the territory of those NATO countries that supply arms to the Kyiv regime?

'After all, this directly leads to deaths and bloodshed on Ukrainian territory.'

Her words came after Britain's Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said that the UK backed Ukrainian air strikes on Russian infrastructure.

He added that it would be 'completely legitimate' for British weapons to be used in such attacks, even though none are currently thought to be.

But his remarks were seized upon by the Kremlin, with the defense ministry accusing him of 'provocation'.

In a significant escalation of tensions, Moscow also warned that it would be prepared to strike back at 'decision-making centers' in Kyiv in retaliation, even if Western diplomats were present.

The Kremlin's comments come after US Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin said yesterday that 'saber rattling' rhetoric from Moscow and threats of nuclear war were 'very dangerous and unhelpful.'

During a visit to Germany he hit back at Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov who said that Western leaders risked a third world war by supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine.

'That kind of rhetoric is very dangerous and unhelpful,' Austin said. 'Nobody wants to see a nuclear war happen. It's a war where all sides lose.

'And so rattling of sabers and, you know, dangerous rhetoric is clearly unhelpful and something that we won't engage in.'

Austin had also said on Monday that the US's 'goal' in Ukraine is to see Russia 'weakened' so it no longer has the capacity to invade its neighbors.

In a significant escalation of tensions, Moscow warned that it would be prepared to strike back at 'decision-making centers' in Kyiv in retaliation - and even strike NATO bases in other countries

Russia's defense ministry issued a threat to strike Western diplomats in Kyiv when they return to the Ukrainian capital city

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin slammed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for spreading dangerous rhetoric on Tuesday. 'That kind of rhetoric is very dangerous and unhelpful,' he said during a visit to Germany, a day after Lavrov accused N.A.T.O. of waging a proxy war in Ukraine, bringing the 'very serious' risk of a nuclear confrontation

A British military instructor trains Ukrainian service members to use the next generation light anti-tank weapon, NLAW. A British defense minister has suggested Western soldiers could re-start training Ukrainians

On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced during a visit to Kyiv that American diplomats would be returning to the Ukrainian capital 'within weeks', as its embassy is set to reopen provided the security situation is deemed to be acceptable.

At the meeting, Austin and Mr Blinken announced a total of $713million in foreign military financing for Ukraine and 15 allied and partner countries; some $322million of that is earmarked for Kyiv.

The remainder will be split among NATO members and other nations that have provided Ukraine with critical military supplies since the war with Russia began, officials said.

Such financing is different from previous US military assistance for Ukraine. It is not a donation of drawn-down US Defense Department stockpiles, but rather cash that countries can use to purchase supplies that they might need.

But a Kremlin spokesperson said yesterday: 'As we have warned, the Russian armed forces are in round-the-clock readiness to launch retaliatory strikes with high-precision long-range weapons at decision-making centers in Kyiv. The presence of advisers from Western countries in the Ukrainian decision-making centers won't necessarily pose a problem for Russia in making a decision to launch retaliatory action.'

UK armed forces minister James Heappey told British radio yesterda that the UK and its allies have a duty to support any Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure because these could prevent deaths of civilians.

This week a key restocking depot in Bryansk 95 miles inside Russia was hit, causing explosions at fuel tanks and a refinery. Ukraine has not admitted carrying out the attack.

Mr Heappey said: 'I think it is certainly the case that things [weapons] that the international community are now providing to Ukraine have the range to be used over the borders. But that's not necessarily a problem. It is completely legitimate for Ukraine to be targeting in Russia's depth in order to disrupt the logistics that if they weren't disrupted would directly contribute to death and carnage on Ukrainian soil.'

He also insisted that Ukraine can still win the war if the West continues to provide the necessary equipment.

Meanwhile, 40 Nato and EU defence ministers yesterday met in Germany to agree to send heavier weapon systems to Ukraine.

After weeks of dithering, Germany announced it would provide 50 Gepard anti-aircraft systems. It followed harsh criticism from the US and Europe that it had been far too hesitant to deliver heavy weaponry as it feared widening the conflict.

Austin revealed senior officials from the alliance would meet once a month to ensure they optimized opportunities to send military equipment. He stressed: 'We have no time to lose. We have to move at the speed of war.'

This week a key restocking depot in Bryansk 95 miles inside Russia was hit, causing explosions at fuel tanks and a refinery. Ukraine has not admitted carrying out the attack

'Considerable' risk of nuclear war, Putin's attack dog warns

By Mark Nichol Defence Editor for the Daily Mail

Vladimir Putin's attack-dog diplomat has accused the UK and other Western powers of risking nuclear war by supplying weapons to Ukraine.

Sergei Lavrov claimed Nato's support for Ukraine intended to weaken Russia and had pitched Moscow into a 'proxy war' with the security alliance.

In a chilling threat, he suggested the West's continued provision of military aid meant there was a 'considerable risk' of a nuclear conflict.

Speaking at the Kremlin, the foreign minister, known for his disdain of the West, said: 'Everyone is reciting incantations that in no case can we allow World War Three. The danger is serious. It is real. It should not be underestimated.

Speaking at the Kremlin, foreign minister Lavrov (right), known for his disdain of the West, said: 'Everyone is reciting incantations that in no case can we allow World War Three. The danger is serious. It is real. It should not be underestimated'

'Nato has entered into a war with Russia through proxies and is arming those proxies and pouring oil on the fire.

'Preventing nuclear war at all costs is our key position on which we base everything. But the risks are now considerable.

'[Russia] has a feeling the West wants Ukraine to continue to fight and, as it seems to them, wear out, exhaust the Russian army and the Russian military industrial complex. This is an illusion.'

Last night, however, Vladimir Putin raised some hopes of an end to the fighting. As he welcomed United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to the Kremlin, the Russian president said he hoped talks with Ukraine would yield 'a positive result'.

He told Mr Guterres: 'Despite the fact that the military operation is ongoing, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track. We are negotiating, we do not reject (talks).' Representatives of the warring parties are continuing to meet in virtual peace talks. But any summit between President Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky would require officials to first make significant progress in their online negotiations, the Kremlin leader said.

He claimed previous talks in Istanbul between the two sides had achieved 'a serious breakthrough' but negotiations stalled following the discovery of the slaughter of civilians in Bucha, which Russia claims was staged by the West.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said yesterday: 'I think that what needs to happen to cause the conflict to come to an end is Mr Putin needs to make a decision to end this conflict. He's the person that started it. It will be his decision to de-escalate and then go back to the negotiating table.' The two-month long campaign has unquestionably weakened Russia, with more than 20,000 of its soldiers feared dead, the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet sunk and thousands of its aircraft, tanks and other vehicles destroyed.

Ukraine seized upon Mr Lavrov's comments, as his opposite number in Kyiv, Dmytro Kuleba, said: 'This only means Moscow senses defeat in Ukraine.

'Therefore the world must double-down on supporting Ukraine so that we prevail and safeguard European and global security.' The UK's Armed Forces Minister James Heappey described the Kremlin claims as 'bravado' while Mr Austin condemned them as 'dangerous sabre-rattling'.

He said: 'Nobody can win a nuclear war and any bluster about using nuclear weapons is unhelpful. The US will do everything in its power, and Ukraine will do everything in its power, to ensure the conflict does not spin out of control. We are always mindful of having the right balance.'

But the West's military support for Ukraine, which was reiterated at a Nato defence ministers' meeting in Germany yesterday, could lead to the break-up of the country, Russia warned yesterday.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council and a key ally of President Putin, said: 'The result of the policy of the West and the regime in Kyiv can only be the disintegration of Ukraine into several states.

'The Americans have cynically chosen Ukraine in an attempt to suppress Russia and have tried to divide essentially a single people.'

President Zelensky condemned Mr Guterres' decision to visit Moscow first as Russia's bombardment of Ukrainian cities continued

His remarks may have revealed Russia's position in any future peace talks, with Ukraine's eastern regions either becoming an independent country or part of the Russian Federation, in return for a ceasefire. But any settlement appeared a distant prospect last night following the visit to Moscow by Mr Guterres.

After meetings with Mr Lavrov, the UN chief said it was clear there remained 'two different positions on what is happening in Ukraine', the position held by Russia and the position held by Ukraine and its allies. Mr Guterres is also due to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.

President Zelensky condemned Mr Guterres' decision to visit Moscow first as Russia's bombardment of Ukrainian cities continued.

Russia is trying to 'destabilise' breakaway Moldovan region that borders Ukraine, Kyiv warns, after two explosions prompt 'false flag' fears

Two explosions destroyed two radio antennas in the disputed Moldovan region of Transnistria yesterday

A Day earlier, explosions reportedly hit the Ministry of State Security in the breakaway region

Transnistria, a region on the border with Ukraine, is recognised internationally as part of Moldova

By Rachael Bunyan for the MailOnline

Kyiv today accused Russia of trying to 'destabilise' Moldova's breakaway region that borders Ukraine after two explosions there prompted fears of Russia launching 'false flag' attacks to justify invading the territory.

The explosions destroyed two powerful Soviet-era radio antennas that were re-broadcasting Russian stations in the region of Transnistria, an unrecognised Moscow-backed sliver of land bordering southwestern Ukraine, on Tuesday.

The blasts occurred in the small town of Maiac roughly 12 kilometers (7 miles) west of the border with Ukraine, just days after a Kremlin military chief warned that 'Russian-speakers' had been 'oppressed' there.

A day earlier, several explosions believed to be caused by rocket-propelled grenades were reported to hit the Ministry of State Security in the city of Tiraspol, the region's capital. No one was hurt in the explosions, officials said.

On Tuesday, a military unit in the village of Parcani was also targeted. Officials did not offer any details on the incident, but declared a 'red level of terrorist threat' and promised to impose additional security measures in the region.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak accused Russia of trying to destabilise Transnistria and warned that 'if Ukraine falls tomorrow, Russian troops will be at Chisinau', the Moldovan capital.

'Russia wants to destabilise the Transnistrian region and hints Moldova should wait for 'guests',' Podolyak said.

'Good news, Ukraine will definitely ensure strategic security of the region. But we need to work as a team.'

The United States has warned amid the war in Ukraine that Russia could launch 'false-flag' attacks in nearby nations as a pretext for sending in troops.

Last week, Kremlin military chief Rustam Minnekayev said Russia sought control of southern Ukraine, which could provide access to Transnistria, 'where there have been cases of oppression of the Russian-speaking population'.

The explosions destroyed two powerful Soviet-era radio antennas that were re-broadcasting Russian stations in the region of Transnistria, an unrecognised Moscow-backed sliver of land bordering southwestern Ukraine, on Tuesday

A day earlier, several explosions believed to be caused by rocket-propelled grenades were reported to hit the Ministry of State Security in the city of Tiraspol, the region's capital. No one was hurt in the explosions, officials said

The Transnistrian authorities said the offices of the state security ministry in Tiraspol were hit by what appeared to be a grenade-launcher attack on Monday evening

Transnistria, a strip of land with about 470,000 people between Moldova and Ukraine, is recognised internationally as part of Moldova but is effectively controlled by Russia, which has given citizenship to separatists

Minnekayev, the deputy commander of Russia's central military district, said Moscow planned to forge a corridor between Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014, and the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

Moldova's foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador over the comments, which it called 'unfounded and contradicting Russia's position in support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country within internationally recognised borders'.

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.

And today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is closely following events in Transnistria, adding that news from the region was a cause for serious concern.

Moldova's president Maia Sandu said the attacks in Transnistria were an attempt by factions within the territory to increase tensions, as she urged the country's citizens to remain calm.

Speaking after Moldova's Security Council held an urgent meeting, Sandu said: 'From the information we have at this moment, these escalation attempts stem from factions from within the Transnistrian region who are pro-war forces and interested in destabilising the situation in the region.'

She said the security council had recommended improving the combat readiness of security forces, increasing the number of patrols and checks near Moldova's border with Transnistria, and monitoring critical infrastructure more closely.

Sandu said: 'We urge citizens to keep calm and feel safe,' while urging authorities to tighten public safety measures and protection of critical infrastructure.

Transnistria's president, Vadim Krasnoselsky, also called on Tuesday for anti-terrorist security measures to be imposed at a 'red level' for 15 days, including setting up blockposts at the entrances to cities.

The Moldovan authorities are sensitive to any sign of growing tensions in Transnistria, especially since Russia invaded their neighbour Ukraine.

Transnistria, a strip of land with about 470,000 people between Moldova and Ukraine, is recognised internationally as part of Moldova but is effectively controlled by Russia, which has given citizenship to separatists.

An estimated 1,500 Russian troops are permanently stationed in the Transnistria, but concerns are high that the region could be used as a launch pad for new attacks on Ukraine.

Russia's military base still guards a stockpile of some 20,000 tonnes of munitions which were brought there when Soviet troops withdrew from Europe.

In the early hours of Tuesday, two explosions hit a radio tower re-broadcasting Russian stations near the Ukrainian border.

'Early on April 26, two explosions were heard in the village of Mayak in Grigoriopolsky district,'it said in a statement.

It said the blasts at 6:40 am and 7:05 am (0340 GMT and 0405 GMT) targeted the 'Mayak' radio centre, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the regional capital Tiraspol.

Antennas of the 'Mayak' radio centre are seen lying on the ground on Tuesday following the blasts in the village of Mayak in Grigoriopolsky district in Moldova's Russian-backed breakaway Transnistria region

A law enforcement officer is seen standing in front of the 'Mayak' radio centre antennas following the blasts in the village of Mayak on Tuesday

Kremlin military chief Rustam Minnekayev on Friday said Russia sought control of southern Ukraine, which could provide access to Transnistria, 'where there have been cases of oppression of the Russian-speaking population'. Pictured: Pro-Russian troops move along a road in Mariupol, southern Ukraine

The ministry said two 'powerful' antennae that were re-broadcasting Russian radio were out of order, and shared images of them lying on the ground. There were no injuries, it added.

This came after the Transnistrian authorities said the offices of the state security ministry in Tiraspol were hit by what appeared to be a grenade-launcher attack on Monday evening.

No one was injured in the incident, which happened at around 6:00 pm on a public holiday for the Orthodox Easter.

But windows were blown out in the state security ministry building and smoke was 'billowing out of the buildings', the Transnistria region's interior ministry said in a statement.

There was no immediate reason to suggest a link between the two incidents.

The conflict in Ukraine has provoked fears in Moldova that the country could become Russia's next target.

Moldovan President Sandu on Tuesday called for a meeting of the country's Supreme Security Council in response to the incidents.

'The Supreme Security Council will meet from 1300 (1000 GMT) at the Presidency. After the meeting, at 1500, President Maia Sandu will hold a press briefing', the president's press office said in a statement.

On Monday, the Moldovan government said the Tiraspol blasts were aimed at creating tensions in a region it had no control of.

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.

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.
The Archbishop of Canterbury reignited his row with the Government over its Rwanda migrant plan today, saying the church would not remain a 'passive observer' to a scheme it believes is morally wrong.

Justin Welby used a newspaper article to attack the 120million programme, saying it amounted to 'sending vulnerable and traumatised people more than 4,000 miles away without their consent'.

It marked a new front in the war of words that blew up at Easter between the head of the Church of England and Boris Johnson's administration.

It has seen ministers including Home Secretary Priti Patel accuse the archbishop of carping from the sidelines while not providing a better alternative.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph today, Welby said the global asylum system is 'broken' and backed action to 'destroy the deadly trade of people trafficking'.

He added: 'We need innovative solutions to stop the suffering of millions of people  and the devastating deaths in the English Channel, the Mediterranean and elsewhere. We agree on those common ends, which are urgent and compassionate, but we profoundly differ on the means to achieve them.'

Writing in the Daily Telegraph today, Welby said the global asylum system is 'broken' and backed action to 'destroy the deadly trade of people trafficking'.

He added: 'We need innovative solutions to stop the suffering of millions of people  and the devastating deaths in the English Channel, the Mediterranean and elsewhere. We agree on those common ends, which are urgent and compassionate, but we profoundly differ on the means to achieve them.'

Under the new policy, migrants who enter Britain illegally will be sent 4,000 miles away for processing.

'Like many, I oppose sending vulnerable and traumatised people more than 4,000 miles away without their consent, and paying another country to take them in.

'People who would have been offered refugee status in the UK will be shipped out without their case being heard  including those with family ties or other links with Britain. The vast majority (98 per cent) of those crossing the Channel apply for asylum and most (61 per cent) are granted it. These are people fleeing war, famine and persecution.'

Under the new policy, migrants who enter Britain illegally will be sent 4,000 miles away for processing.

The Prime Minister pledged to do 'whatever it takes' to push through his landmark scheme to tackle the small-boats crisis in the Channel and smash people trafficking gangs. Some 28,000 people made the perilous journey in 2021.

Revealing details of the dramatic strategy before Easter, Mr Johnson said 'tens of thousands' of Channel migrants would be sent with a one-way ticket.

The Daily Mail understands the first flight is expected to leave before the end of May  and a minister confirmed anyone who has arrived in Britain this year could be sent.

Migrants travelling to the UK on small boats will be put on jets and sent to Rwanda while their applications are processed. Pictured: A map detailing the plan proposed by the Prime Minister

But critics of the plan continue to attack it over the sheer cost - estimated at up to 30,000 per person - and Rwanda's human rights record.

As well as church leaders, critics include former home secretary Theresa May, who opposed it 'on the grounds of legality, practical and efficacy'.

Civil servants who complained about Priti Patel's Rwanda policy have been slapped down by their boss and told to get on with the job.

The Home Office's top civil servant has warned his staff that leaks which had attempted to undermine the policy had been a breach of the civil service code.

Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft addressed concerns about the Rwanda agreement in a group call with mutinous employees who had even threatened to refuse to work on implementing the policy.
A 'war' has erupted in an outback Aussie town forcing hundreds of residents to flee as 37 houses are burnt down amid violent clashes between feuding rival families.

Police have been evacuating vulnerable Indigenous Northern Territorians from Wadeye, 400km southwest of Darwin, as community unrest descends into lawlessness with groups roaming the streets armed with 'crossbows, manchettes and bowie knives'.

Tensions in the remote town escalated in late March and have continued rising since a 32-year-old man died last week from injuries sustained in a brawl.

Vehicles have been set alight and 37 homes have been extensively damaged, displacing hundreds of residents in the community of 3000.

Footage posted online shows more than a dozen people smashing the windows and walls of a building during the night as onlookers yell and scream.

Police are evacuating vulnerable Indigenous Northern Territorians from remote community Wadeye (pictured) amid an ongoing violent feud between rival families

Residents say the argument has turned into a full-scale conflict, with members of the warring families walking down streets carrying 'machetes and Bowie knives'.

'It's a full on war,' one local told NT News.

'Since that lad was killed its all picking up, it's all revenge.'

The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said there have been riots every night since February, including one during which six cars exploded after being set alight.

There have also been reports of people being injured with cross bows and axes as well as cars being run off the road.

Superintendent Bradley Fox said 'police have responded to numerous instances of violence within the community recently'.

'It is believed historical tensions between local families are the cause of the unrest,' he said on Wednesday.

Thamarrurr Development Corporation chief executive Scott McIntyre said residents have been living in fear and are unable to access vital services - including health centres, schools and aged care centres - due to the violence.

Footage posted online shows more than a dozen people smashing up a building in the community at night time

'People are scared. People are feeling unsafe. People are literally at their wits end because they cant sleep,' Mr McIntyre said.

'People are walking around the streets with machetes and Bowie knives  and its unclear if the police are removing the weapons.'

Territory Families and Urban Housing Minister Kate Worden said the destruction of homes was extremely disappointing.

'Not just for us as the asset managers but also for the community,' she said.

'It's really devastating for the families that are in those homes.'

An estimated 10 people live in each home in remote NT communities, with Mr McIntyre estimating between 400-500 people could now be homeless.

He said the exodus has sparked supply shortages and overcrowding issues as displaced residents flee to neighbouring communities.

'We ran out of fuel for a couple of days because there's just a massive run on fuel from people trying to get out of town,' he said.

Thamarrurr Development Corporation chief executive Scott McIntyre said the situation has sparked supply shortages as members of the community flee to neighbouring towns

Superintendent Bradley Fox said 'police have responded to numerous instances of violence within the community recently'

'People are taking their blankets out to the bush, people are heading out to Country and homelands.'

Minister for Territory Development Eva Lawler said historic issues were behind the violence.

'The large number of different language groups, a large number of clans were brought together into that community and there is conflict,' she said.

Police are working to move at-risk community members out of the area and mediate a settlement with Elders to bring the unrest to an end.

Wadeye resident Ezekiel Narndu, 18, was charged with manslaughter last Wednesday over the man's death.

His alleged victim sustained serious head injuries in a fight on April 16 and later died in Royal Darwin Hospital, triggering more violence.

Two other men were also injured.

Narndu has since appeared in the Darwin Local Court and his case was adjourned to Thursday when the teen is likely to apply for bail.
Ukraine has struck Russian troops occupying Snake Island, whose defenders told a battleship to 'go f*** yourself' during the opening days of the war.

Commanders from Ukraine's southern force said they had destroyed a Russian command post and an anti-aircraft missile system in a successful strike on Tuesday.

Russian forces in the region have been 'reduced', a post by Operation Command South said, but added that the exact number of troops killed is still being assessed.

Moscow's forces have occupied the island since the first day of the invasion, when guided missile destroyer Moskva - which has since been sunk - and patrol boat Vasily Bykov attacked the 13 border guards stationed there.

Ukraine yesterday struck a Russian command post on Snake Island, where Kyiv's men had told one of Moscow's warships to 'go f*** yourself', causing an unknown number of casualties (file)

Moskva had radioed the defenders ordering them to surrender or be bombed, to which one of the soldiers responded: 'Russian warship, go f*** yourself.'

It was initially thought the soldiers were killed after the iconic message was delivered, but it later emerged they had been captured alive.

Roman Hrybov, the solider who delivered the message, was subsequently handed back to Ukraine in a prisoner swap and awarded a medal for his actions.

The Moskva - flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet - was subsequently sunk after being hit by Ukrainian anti-ship missiles on April 14.

It is thought Ukraine used drones to distract the warship's defences before firing two Neptune cruise missiles which struck the Moskva to the port side.

Images and video of the warship that subsequently leaked online showed the boat heavily damaged and partially on fire, listing to port and sitting low in the water.

Russia has admitted the vessel was sunk after an explosion on board, but has not said what it believes caused the blast.

Mystery also remains over the fate of the crew, hundreds of whom are thought to have died and been injured in the attack.

Moscow has admitted just one dead and 27 missing among the estimated 510 people on board at the time the Moskva sunk.

Russia seized control of the tiny island - which is strategically located in the Black Sea close to Ukraine - on the first day of the war after bombing the defenders

Salvage operations now appear to be underway, with the task given to a 110-year-old ship named Kommuna that was originally designed to rescue stricken submarines.

The ancient vessel, which has a crane arrangement over a hole in its main deck for winching submarines into, was spotted near the suspected site of the Moskva wreck last week - likely deploying a smaller submarine on board to check it out.

Though it is not clear what exactly the Kommuna is trying to salvage, the Moskva is likely to have gone down carrying tons of high explosives mounted to its missiles along with important documents.

Rumours have also swirled that it could have been carrying two nuclear warheads at the time it sank, though there has been no confirmation of this.

Ukraine now claims to have killed more than 22,000 Russian troops in more than two months of fighting against Russia, as well as destroying military equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Putin ordered his forces into the country on February 24 to conduct what he hoped would be a days-long 'special military operation' to topple the government and install a puppet regime friendly to Moscow.

Moskva, the ship which ordered the Snake Island troops to surrender, has since been destroyed - sinking into the Black Sea after being hit by Ukrainian missiles

But, 62 days later, Ukraine remains in control of the vast majority of its territory having thwarted Russian attempts to storm into Kyiv.

Fighting is now at its most intense in the eastern Donbas region where Russian forces are attempting to capture the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk from Ukraine including the city of Mariupol.

Battles are also ongoing around Kherson, on the Black Sea coast, as Russia attempts to push east towards Mykolaiv and Odesa with the aim of cutting Ukraine off from its valuable sea trading routes.

Amid the renewed offensives, Kyiv's western allies have stepped up support with the US vowing to get the country's military whatever equipment it needs to 'win' the war.

On Tuesday, defence ministers from 40 nations met at Ramstein air base in Germany to pledge equipment - including from Germany itself, which had previously refused to hand over heavy arms.

Spelling out the mission ahead, US Defense Secreatary Lloyd Austin said the goal is to weaken Russia 'to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.'
The Russian brigade accused of carrying out heinous war crimes against helpless civilians in Bucha has reportedly been attacked by Ukrainian drones and suffered 'heavy losses' in the Donbas, amid claims Vladimir Putin wants them to 'disappear'.

Soldiers of the 64th Motorised Rifle Brigade of the 35th All-Russian Army, who Ukrainian authorities named as those responsible for torturing, raping and executing civilians on the outskirts of Kyiv, withdrew last month to Belarus and then Russia.

Vladimir Putin bestowed an honorary title on the brigade now known as the 'Butchers of Bucha', with a presidential decree honouring their 'mass heroism' in defending 'state interests', while the officer overseeing them was promoted.

The Russian brigade accused of carrying out heinous war crimes against helpless civilians in Bucha has reportedly been attacked by Ukrainian drones, pictures appear to show

Military intelligence said the brigade suffered 'heavy losses' in the Donbas, amid claims Vladimir Putin wants them to 'disappear', as pictures show destroyed military vehicles

A line of corpses is seen in Bucha after the Kyiv town was recaptured by Ukrainian forces, revealing the scale of Russian atrocities

Despite the honours, the unit was then redeployed to the Donbas front - one of the most dangerous fronts in the conflict - where deadly battles are taking place as Moscow's forces attempt to surround Ukrainian troops who are proving a determined line of defence against Russia's push from the east.

Analysts say that Putin has deliberately sent them to the front lines in order to make them disappear so they could not never be forced to testify over their alleged war crimes.

Ukraine had published the names of the officers responsible for the Bucha massacre, and Putin knew they could one day be made to stand trial and reveal the scale of their atrocities.

An intelligence report in early April said: 'Another goal of the rapid return of the 64th Brigade to Ukrainian territory is the quick disposal of unnecessary witnesses.

'That is, redeployment to a part of the war front where they will have no chance of surviving, thus making it impossible for them to testify in future courts.'

Commander Azatbek Omurbekov (pictured), identified as Putin's senior commander in Bucha when the barbarism was carried out, was then promoted

Images now purport to show destroyed T-80 battle tanks, Kamaz trucks and BTR-80 armoured personnel carriers (pictured)

Analysts say that Putin has deliberately sent them to the front lines in order to make them disappear, and drone footage shows corpses on the vehicles (pictured)

Ukraine had published the names of the officers responsible for the Bucha massacre, and Putin knew they could one day be made to stand trial. Now the unit has suffered heavy losses to personnel and equipment (pictured)

The main intelligence directorate of Ukraine's MoD said at the start of the month that Russian commanders were refusing to rotate their brigades, and the 64th were in Belgorod in Western Russia ready for redeployment.

Putin then sent them to the front between Kharkiv and Izyum where fierce Ukrainian fighters were stationed looking to exact revenge on the now infamous brigade.

Images now purport to show destroyed T-80 battle tanks, Kamaz trucks and BTR-80 armoured personnel carriers with corpses lying beside the vehicles after the Donbas drone attacks.

Most of the soldiers in the unit protested against their redeployment so soon after their campaign in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian news site Hromadske.

They were made to fight the 93rd Ukrainian brigade protecting Kharkiv who have a fearsome reputation, similar to the neo-Nazi Azov regiment in Mariupol.

Ukraine believes defeating the 64th brigade would be another huge symbolic victory following the successful strikes inside Russia and the sinking of the Moskva flagship.

It is believed the brigade was assisted by the feared Wagner mercenaries in their savage attacks on Bucha residents. Pictured: a Wagner Group mercenary in Ukraine this month

The 'butchers of Bucha' had left a trail of death and destruction in their wake, as Ukrainian authorities discovered several mass graves and scores of corpses once they recaptured the town north of Kyiv.

It is believed the brigade was assisted by the feared Wagner mercenaries in their savage attacks on Bucha residents.

The shadowy military company which has been linked to a string of killings, rapes and war crimes around the world is known as Putin's private army which carries out his dirty work at an arm's length from the state.

Russia has said that images and footage of hundreds of dead bodies strewn across Bucha were fake.

Commander Azatbek Omurbekov, identified as Putin's senior commander in Bucha when the barbarism was carried out, was then promoted from Lieutenant Colonel to full Colonel.

His elevation was acknowledged in a report from newspaper Red Star.

Forensic police officers exhume bodies from a mass grave discovered in Bucha earlier this month

Dead bodies wait to be identified outside a morgue in Bucha, where Russia is accused of committing war crimes

Vova, 10, looks at the body of his mother, Maryna, lying in a coffin as his father, Ivan Drahun, prays during her funeral in Bucha last week

The reason for this promotion to full colonel was not clear but the report hailed his perceived success in Ukraine.

'The separate motorised rifle brigade under the command of Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov carried out the task of occupying a defensive line,' said the newspaper.

'In the course of capturing the designated boundary, the enemy numbering up to a battalion was defeated, and more than 40 pieces of equipment destroyed.

'The Nationalist unit lost all combat capability and was no longer involved in combat operations.

'Within three weeks, under the leadership of Colonel Omurbekov, brigade units at the occupied line repelled more than 50 attacks by the enemy using tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and heavy artillery.'

Ukrainian officials say the bodies of more than 1,000 civilians have been retrieved from areas around Kyiv, and they are working with French investigators to document alleged war crimes.

Forensic tests carried out on civilian corpses dumped in mass graves show women were raped before being brutally killed, it was revealed on Monday.

APRIL 3: Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks and cars in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv

Dozens of autopsies have been carried out on mutilated corpses from Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka, with many showing signs of torture and multiple bullet holes in the back.

Some have been so badly disfigured or even decapitated that investigators have been unable to identify them.

Vladyslav Pirovskyi, a Ukrainian forensic doctor who carried out the autopsies, told The Guardian: 'We already have a few cases which suggest that these women had been raped before being shot to death.

'We can't give more details as my colleagues are still collecting the data and we still have hundreds of bodies to examine.'

His team has been analysing 15 bodies a day, with most killed by automatic gunfire.

He added: 'There are many burnt bodies, and heavily disfigured bodies that are just impossible to identify.

'The face could be smashed into pieces, you can't put it back together, sometimes there's no head at all.'

The evidence has been passed on to the region's senior prosecutor, Oleh Tkalenko, for further investigations.

One coroner north of Kyiv said it is difficult to find signs of rape and sexual abuse because the bodies 'are in such bad shape'.

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.

In the same town, 25 women aged 14 to 25 were kept in a basement and systematically raped, with nine of the women becoming pregnant in a case now recorded by human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova.
Katie Price - who today denied breaching a restraining order against her ex Kieran Hayler's fiancee - has been reported to the police by him over a video of their son.

Price, 43, attracted his attention again after posting a video showing their son Jett over the weekend riding in a moving car with apparently no seatbelt on.

A spokesperson for Kieran confirmed he had alerted the police as 'the safety of his children was his top priority'.

This morning Price was in court over a message she sent him on January 21 this year in which she branded his new partner, Michelle Penticost, a 'c***ing whore' and a 'gutter sl*g'.

Price was banned from contacting Penticost directly or indirectly on June 3 2019, under the terms of a five-year restraining order.

She was fined hundreds of pounds for hurling a foul-mouthed 'tirade of abuse' at her during a row in a school playground.

Price, wearing white trainers, a green tracksuit and a black gilet, appeared at Crawley Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, accused of contacting Penticost indirectly in breach of the restraining order.

She was supported by her reality TV star fiance Carl Woods, 33, who sat in the public gallery.

The court heard that her message to Hayler may have been triggered by an Instagram post by Penticost, which she denies was aimed at Price.

Price's message read: 'Tell your c***ing whore, piece of sh**, girlfriend not to start on me.

'She has a restraining order so shouldn't try antagonise me as she is in breach and I'm sure she doesn't want people knowing that she was having an affair with you behind my back. That gutter sl*g.'

Price, who became a household name around the turn of the millennium, stood in the dock to confirm her name, address and date of birth, before pleading not guilty to the single charge, which can be tried in either the magistrates' court or the Crown Court.

Joe Harrington, defending, said: 'The issues relate to her mental health and the triggers which led to sending that message.'

Asked where she wanted the trial to be heard, Price said: 'The Crown Court please.'

A wrapped-up Katie Price leaves Crawley Magistrates Court after pleading not guilty

Katie arrived by car and was wearing reflective sunglasses and a KP equestrian branded coat

The OnlyFans model, 43, was also donning some unusual-looking reflective sunglasses

Her partner Carl Woods was in court supporting Price as she made her appearance today

Katie, banned from driving herself, arrived by car as a passenger in the back of the motor

Katie is accused of allegedly breaching a restraining order against Michelle Penticost

Kieran and Michelle, who Katie is banned from contacting directly or indirectly under law

District Judge Amanda Kelly said the offence carries a maximum sentence of up to five years' imprisonment and warned Price: 'You are in really grave danger of going to prison.'

She said: 'This is a very serious allegation in which it is alleged you used indirectly vile and nasty language towards Ms Penticost, someone you were prohibited from contacting directly or indirectly by a restraining order.'

The judge granted Price bail ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing on May 25 at Lewes Crown Court on condition she does not contact Ms Penticost either directly or indirectly, except for handing over children.

'It seems to me, Ms Price, that all of the children caught up in your relationships past and present need their adults to behave like adults,' the judge said.

'Stop exposing them to very public squabbles.'

Mother of five Katie was banned from contacting Michelle, 39, 'directly or indirectly' after swearing at her in a school playground in 2019.

Katie Price, 43, is accused of harassing ex-husband's fiancee Michelle Penticost in a message

Katie and Carl Woods, her boyfriend, cuddle up in a recent social media picture on Instagram

Katie is under a suspended prison sentence for drink-driving after previous legal troubles

Michelle has grown close to Katie's two children she shares with Kieran, son Jett, eight, and daughter Bunny, seven.

She also has her own child with the ex-stripper, seven-month-old son Apollo, and a ten-year old son Valentino from a previous relationship.

The couple met in 2018 and got engaged the following year.

Former Loose Women host Katie travelled to the Far East with Carl for her latest bout of cosmetic surgery - a boob job and full body liposuction procedure - and has remained there for over two weeks.

The couple, who got engaged last April, have experienced a tumultuous 12 months.

Katie avoided jail in December when she was handed a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, as well as a two-year driving ban after admitting drink-driving while disqualified in December.

She also tested positive for cocaine after she rolled her BMW near her home in Horsham.

Last month, fiance Carl issued a public denial on Instagram over abuse claims, saying he 'didn't lay a finger' on Katie and said he had 'black and white proof' to clear his name after he was charged with using threatening and abusive behaviour towards her in an incident at their house in Essex.

Carl is Katie's first serious major relationship since her split from Kieran in 2019.

They were together for seven years, marrying in 2013 in the Bahamas, but their romance was marred by Kieran's two flings with two of Katie's close pals.

She was previously married to Peter Andre, father of her two children Junior, 16, and Princess, 14, for four years, before her ill-fated marriage to husband No2 Alex Reid, which lasted just 11 months.
This is the chilling moment Tim Westwood urged a fan to stay in her bra as he ogled her on stage during a new documentary where the DJ was accused of groping black women at gigs.

The 64-year-old son of the former Bishop of Peterborough was filmed cat-calling a woman as she scrambled to cover up as he shouted from the decks: 'Yo baby you don't have to put your top back on'.

The footage was unearthed for last night's BBC3 film Tim Westwood: Abuse of Power, where he is also caught clutching a woman while looking down her top and asking: 'I like your rack  is it real?'.

The documentary also shows him refusing to let go of a woman's arm after he apparently whispered something sexual in her ear while backstage at a festival.

And another clip shows Westwood interviewing rapper Cardi B during a 2017 interview for Capital FM.

The American artist asks him: 'Do you have sex with a lot of like, you know, black girls?' Westwood replied after a pause: 'Not as much as I'd like to' in an interview where he was accused of being inappropriate towards the star.

Westwood, who denies all claims made by seven women and described the allegations as false, is accused of using his position as a BBC DJ and MOBO winner to grope black women and even force some to have sex with them.

Tim Westwood urges a woman to keep her top off at an event filmed for his YouTube channel shown on the BBC's Tim Westwood: Abuse of Power documentary last night

On one occasion he also cuddled a woman while looking down her top and asking: 'I like your rack  is it real?'

On another occasion he held on to a woman's arm having told her she was beautiful while backstage at a festival

Rap star Cardi B asked him on one occasion: 'Do you have sex with a lot of black girls', to which he replied: Not as much as I'd like' in an interview where he was accused of being inappropriate

Veteran DJ Tim Westwood is facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct by women who claim he abused his position to take advantage of them. The DJ has strenuously denied all allegations

'Predatory' ex-BBC Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood, 64, steps down from his Capital Xtra show after being accused of groping women and pressuring them into sex Tim Westwood has stepped down from his Capital Xtra show after nine years following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. The 64-year-old was yesterday accused of initiating unwanted sex by three women, while four others allege he groped their bottoms or breasts at events, reports the Guardian and BBC. The earliest alleged incident dates back to 1992, while the most recent came in 2017. Three of the women, aged 17, 19 and 20 at the time, describe a pattern of alleged 'opportunist and predatory sexual behaviour' after agreeing to meet with him. Westwood was today removed from two of the bank holiday weekend events that he had been due to appear at in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations. The DJ, who is not married, has strenuously denied all claims. A spokesperson for Westwood told MailOnline: 'Tim Westwood strongly denies all allegations of inappropriate behaviour. 'In a career that has spanned 40 years, there have never been any complaints made against him officially or unofficially. Tim Westwood strongly rejects all allegations of wrongdoing.' Westwood became a household name after hosting shows on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra for 19 years, and had presented a weekly hip hop show on Capital Xtra since 2013. A spokesperson for Global, the firm which owns Capital Xtra, told MailOnline: 'Following the claims that have recently come to light, Tim Westwood has stepped down from his show until further notice.' Advertisement

Westwood has been accused of initiating unwanted sex by three women, while four others allege he groped their bottoms or breasts at events, reports the Guardian and BBC.

It is claimed the first alleged incident took place in 1992, while the most recent came in 2017. One woman who claims her breast was grabbed by the veteran DJ in 2000 said she was left feeling 'cold and dirty' after the alleged incident.

One of the women described how she 'froze' and felt 'very intimated' after Westwood allegedly said 'lemme grab some ass', before putting his hand down the back of her shorts after meeting the girl at a club in Ayia Napa, Cyprus in 2009.

Three others, aged 17, 19 and 20 at the time, describe a pattern of alleged 'opportunist and predatory sexual behaviour' after agreeing to meet with him.

Two of them, who had aspirations of working within the music industry, claim they agreed to meet Westwood in London to discuss music, before he 'initiated unwanted and unexpected sex' that left them feeling 'completely powerless' and 'scared'.

A further four women say Westwood groped them while posing for a picture with him after his nightclub performances.

The DJ, who is not married, has strenuously denied all claims. A spokesperson for the DJ told MailOnline: 'Tim Westwood strongly denies all allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

'In a career that has spanned 40 years, there have never been any complaints made against him officially or unofficially. Tim Westwood strongly rejects all allegations of wrongdoing.'

The women, who do not know one another, were aged in their late teens or early 20s when they claim they were set upon by the former Radio 1 star.

Each have provided their own claims in the wake of anonymous sexual misconduct allegations levelled against Westwood on social media two years ago.

One accuser claims Westwood drove her to a flat in central London and initiated unwanted sex when she was 19 and he was 53.

She told the BBC she felt 'completely powerless' and 'very, very scared' when he allegedly exposed his genitals to her in a car'.

Another woman, who was 17 at the time, alleges Westwood, then aged in his mid-thirties, also subjected her to unwanted sex.

Using the alias Tamara, she claimed the encounter took place after giving Westwood a demo of her own work while she was a member of an R&B group.

'Within the recording industry and the black community, despite him being a white man, he had absolute power. He could make or break your career', she said.

But once they arrived at a London flat, she claims Westwood, without saying anything, pulled down her trousers and underwear before performing oral sex on her.

One woman, using the pseudonym Isabel, alleges she was 19 and the DJ was 53 when he exposed his genitals to her in a car.

Isabel told the BBC that upon entering a flat in London, a naked Westwood entered the room with a drink in hand. He was allegedly holding a condom and initiated sex with her while she remained 'frozen'.

Westwood, pictured above in 2005, is at the centre of a sexual misconduct storm after allegations were levelled against him in recent years

One accuser claims Westwood drove her to a flat in central London and initiated unwanted sex when she was 19 and he was 53. He has denied all of the women's claims

Another woman was in her 20s when she told the BBC she met Westwood after reassuring her mother that it was work experience to help the DJ connect with a younger audience.

She claims when Westwood picked her up in a large American-style vehicle he started touching her inappropriately before his 'erratic driving' was picked up on by a police officer.

Later, in a London flat, she claims the DJ sat next to her and tried kissing her before they had sex. She claims the work experience he offered never materialised.

Other women claim Westwood groped them during photo shoots with the celebrity after his shows. One said she was aged 22, and Westwood 59, when he 'moved his hand up the back of her skirt' at a New Year's Day event in London in 2017.

The women, whose identities have been anonymised, will share their accounts in a new BBC Three documentary, Tim Westwood: Abuse of Power which airs at 9pm tonight.

'He offered work experience, then started kissing my neck' Pamela was 20 when she says Westwood invited her for work experience at Radio 1 after meeting her through her job in the music industry. She claims he told her he wanted to learn how to 'get a younger audience', and reassured her 'stern Jamaican mother' that she would be safe to travel to London from the Midlands. However, when he picked her up from the railway station in his car he started 'stroking her leg and touching her face', Pamela* claims. Westwood allegedly took her to his flat where he began trying to kiss her neck and remove her clothing. She says she thought: 'I'm in London alone with this man. Now if I try and get out of this, who's to say how he's going to react... so I just submitted to it.' She said the ordeal in 2000 was 'traumatic' and 'disgusting'. The promised work experience never materialised. Pamela hit out at the BBC for allowing Westwood to abuse his 'celebrity status', adding: 'Who are they going to believe? This little girl from the Midlands, or this big, shiny star from London?' * Names have been changed to protect identities Advertisement

A statement released by the BBC in response to Westwood's allegations said: 'The BBC is against all forms of inappropriate behaviour and we are shocked to hear of these allegations. The BBC has strict codes of conduct for all those engaged by the BBC, including on-air presenters.'

The allegations are likely to further rock the music industry after hundreds of musicians spoke out about their struggles with bullying and harassment in 2021.

X Factor star Rebecca Ferguson previously demanded a parliamentary inquiry into the music industry and called for greater regulation to protect artists from 'bullying' agents and managers.

She said that she had been sexually harassed by a music executive and, in a series of tweets, claimed she knew two women who had been raped and others who had been driven close to suicide by the industry.

Westwood, son of the former Bishop of Peterborough, is a well known figure on the hip hop scene.

He began his career with local radio before joining Capital Radio in London and was later given his own show by BBC Radio 1.

Westwood is considered among the most influential rap and hip hop DJ in Europe and is a winner of numerous radio industry awards, including best radio DJ in the Music of Black Origin ceremony.

In 1999 he was the victim of a drive by shooting in south London after leaving a concert.

Two men on a motorbike pulled up alongside his Range Rover and fired several shots. Westwood suffered an arm injury and later said the attack was part of an extortion attempt by a gang.

In 2020, Westwood was forced to deny involvement in similar allegations when the hashtag #survivingTimWestwood appeared on Twitter.

Westwood's name and the allegations began trending on Twitter after an unnamed woman posted messages describing a four year relationship.

Tim Westwood, son of the former Bishop of Peterborough, is a well known and award-winning figure in the UK hip hop scene

Using the Twitter name @survivingtimwestwood she admitted she was in love with the DJ and had not gone to police with any of her allegations.

Others responding to the Twitter messages called on bosses at Global Radio, where Westwood works for Capital Xtra, to investigate his behaviour towards young black women.

The renowned DJ vehemently denied sensational allegations on social media that he has behaved inappropriately with student fans.

In October 2013, Westwood was condemned by students for a 'vulgar and sexist' stage show he put on during a Fresher's event at the University of Leicester.

While performing as guest DJ at the O2 Academy he was heard shouting over the microphone: 'Girl in the front row with the black dress on, I will be f****** you later.'
Hundreds of thousands of Scots are being warned they face a fine of up to 1,000 if they fail to fill in their census form by the end of the month.

Officials figures released this week revealed 700,000 householders across Scotland have yet to submit their return, which is a legal requirement.

It has led to warnings the process could end with 'useless' data, in what threatens to be a major embarrassment for Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Her SNP ministers at Holyrood previously decided to delay the census by a year due to the impact of the Covid pandemic.

This was despite the audit continuing as planned in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland in 2021.

Scotland's census is expected to cost 21.6million more than originally planned. And there has also been some anger at 'politically-skewed' questions included in the once-a-decade survey.

Stephen Kerr, a Scottish Conservative MSP, has previously questioned how the Scottish Government will use data from a question that asks people to identify as 'Scottish' or 'Other British'.

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) this week urged people to complete their census by the 1st May deadline.

They also reminded households that failing to do so could result in prosecution and a fine of up to 1,000.

The NRS released figures that showed 700,000 of the 2.7 million households have yet to submit their response.

Scotland's census could end up with 'useless' data, in what is threatening to become a major embarrassment for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon

Officials figures released this week revealed 700,000 householders across Scotland have yet to submit their return, which is a legal requirement

SNP MSP Angus Robertson, the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, told Scots it was 'absolutely essential' they complete the census.

'For the census to be effective in delivering its many benefits for future public services, it is vital that we secure a higher response rate and one that reflects the diversity of our communities,' he said.

New questions for Scotland's 2022 census include use of British Sign Language (BSL), passports held, previous armed forces history and new voluntary questions on sexual orientation and trans status.

The NRS figures revealed that Glasgow City Council area has the lowest response rate, as of Monday morning, with just 65.5%, compared to 82.2% in Aberdeenshire.

Jamie Jenkins, a former head of health analysis at the Office for National Statistics, has warned a significant number of unreturned census forms could render the process 'useless'.

'A census with such a significant proportion missing is useless as its main purpose is to get an accurate assessment of how many live within the country which is used to allocate money for local services,' he told the Telegraph.

'Government policies over the pandemic, such as vaccine passes, may have damaged the relationship between the public and the Government, with people more likely to question the motivations for collecting their personal information.'

Scottish Conservative MSP Donald Cameron, the party's shadow secretary for constitution, culture and external affairs, said: 'The poor completion rates of the census are deeply concerning, given how important accurate and complete data is for the allocation of Scottish Government resources.

'The SNP have serious questions to answer over the disappointing level of public engagement, especially given the enormous number of communications staff they have amassed.

'It's almost certain that the uptake would have been higher had the Scottish Government aligned with the UK census timetable and enjoyed the benefits of its promotion campaign.

'But, as always, the SNP have to be seen to be different.

'I know some people have objected to the wording of some questions in the Scottish census too, which they viewed as politically skewed, and this may be a factor too.'
The 2022 primary season kicks off next month, with voters in a dozen states casting ballots in some of the year's most important nominating contests.

A lot of the primaries, particularly in states like Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, will be considered preliminary trials of former President Trump's clout among Republicans as he considers a 2024 presidential campaign.

Crucial Moment for Biden and Trump

Republicans seem to be the favorites to reclaim the Senate for two reasons the political climate has shifted in their favor with Biden's poor approval rating. Per The Vox, in the general election polls, the Republican Party has improved, and in November, the GOP captured the governorship in Virginia.

The Senate is presently 50-50, so simply a single-seat gain for Republicans would turn the chamber over to them.

Democrats could preserve their majority in the Senate if they can confine their losses to a low or make up for them by unseating Republicans in other areas. But if the situation continues to be so adverse to the party and the president, it will be a tough challenge.

Preliminary Battles To Watch For

According to The Hill, the seven races to watch in May are the following:

Ohio GOP Senate primary (May 3)

Trump's support for J.D. Vance rattled the GOP race to succeed retiring Senator Rob Portman (Ohio) earlier this month, but it hasn't cleared the field.

Former Ohio GOP Chair Jane Timken, former state Treasurer Josh Mandel, businessman Mike Gibbons, and state Sen. Matt Dolan are among the candidates still running in the May 3 primary.

In the meantime, the Democratic primary has been far more peaceful. Rep. Tim Ryan is widely considered the frontrunner to win the party's nomination, though he is up against attorney and community organizer Morgan Harper from the left.

North Carolina GOP Senate primary (May 17)

The Republican primary for Senate in North Carolina, like the Ohio primary, has emerged as a major test of Trump's supporting authority.

Last August, he endorsed Rep. Ted Budd (North Carolina). Despite that initial endorsement, Budd has only just begun to gain traction in the polls and will face a strong challenge from former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory.

Former state Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley, the front-runner Democrat in the campaign, is anticipated to easily win her party's nomination next month. In December, her main opponent, state Senator Jeff Jackson, withdrew his Senate bid.

Per WFAE, early voting kicks off in the North Carolina primaries on Thursday, April 28.

Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary (May 17)

Trump surprised several in his party when he endorsed celebrity physician Mehmet Oz in the GOP Senate race in Pennsylvania, including some of his closest allies voicing reservations about his decision.

Read Also: Kamala Harris Tests Positive for COVID-19; White House Claims VP Experiences No Symptoms

Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary (May 17)

On the Democratic ticket, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is widely considered the front-runner for the party's nomination, though he's still up against Rep. Conor Lamb, who claims Fetterman is too radical to win statewide in a year that's already been problematic for Democrats.

Fetterman has a significant lead in the primary based on a recent poll conducted by Franklin & Marshall College, wherein the lieutenant governor has a 41 percent to 17 percent edge over Lamb.

Georgia GOP gubernatorial primary (May 24)

Former Senator David Perdue is challenging Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in a primary election, relying on his links to the former president to win over the state's most conservative voters.

Despite Trump's support, Perdue has been unable to gain a foothold in the Republican primary. Kemp leads Perdue by 26 points in a new survey issued Tuesday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with 53 percent of probable primary voters supporting him.

Meanwhile, Democrat Stacey Abrams is unopposed in the Democratic primary.



Alabama GOP Senate primary (May 24)

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who received an early endorsement from Trump last year, was perceived as the early favorite to succeed retiring Sen. Richard Shelby (R). But Trump's support for Brooks rarely turned into real political support, compelling Trump to retract his support last month.

Former Army Pilot Mike Durant and Katie Britt, a former Shelby assistant, appear to be locked in a head-to-head battle in the primary. Trump hasn't backed a new contender in the contest, but recent polling indicates that Durant has the upper hand.

Nonetheless, 52 percent of primary voters said Trump's endorsement would possibly influence them to support a candidate.



Texas GOP attorney general runoff (May 24)

In the state's March 1 primary, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and state Land Commissioner George P. Bush defeated two other Republican contenders. But neither candidate failed to attain the 50% benchmark required to win the GOP nomination outright, forcing them to a runoff on May 24.

Paxton, who has Trump's backing, is widely regarded as the favorite in the runoff, having received about 20% more votes than Bush in the March 1 primary.

Consequently, Bush faces challenges in the runoff for the nomination.

Related Article: Judge Finds Donald Trump in Contempt; Ex-POTUS Faces $10,000 Fine Per Day Amid Subpoena Fight with NY AG Letitia James

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Russian state media has urged Vladimir Putin to wipe out the UK with nukes over its 'boorish' support for Ukraine.

Vladimir Solovyov, often referred to as Putin's propagandist, made the threat today as he spoke to the head of Russia's space agency about the country's new Sarmat 2 missile which is due to go into service later this year.

'As it turned out, one Sarmat means minus one Great Britain,' Solovyov boasted, saying the UK has become 'totally boorish' - evidently a reference to its vocal support for Ukraine since Putin gave the order to invade.

He was speaking just two days after Putin claimed to have uncovered a plot to assassinate Solovyov involving a 'neo-Nazi gang' taking orders from Kyiv. Ukraine has denied the existence of any such plot.

Putin's propagandist has threatened to wipe the UK out using one of Russia's new nuclear missiles - Sarmat 2 (pictured being tested last week) - over its support for Ukraine

Vladimir Solovyov issued the threat while talking on state TV about how the new missile will be deployed to Siberia later this year

The missile - dubbed 'Satan 2' in the West - is one of the world's largest and longest-ranged nuclear missiles, capable of carrying up to 15 warheads and decoys which Russia claims makes it unstoppable against all current defences.

Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Roscosmos space agency, told Solovyov that 46 of the missiles will be constructed with the first deployed to units in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, later this year.

'Everything is according to plan with us,' he said. 'It is all according to plan.'

Putin oversaw the first successful test launch of the missile last week, saying it marks a 'significant event in the development of advanced weapons of the Russian army.'

He boasted that the missile is 'unique in the world' and that nothing like it will exist 'for a long while'.

'The new complex has the highest performance characteristics, and can break through all modern anti-missile defences,' he said.

'It will reliably secure Russia from external threats, and will force those trying to threaten our country in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric.'

Solovyov's remarks are hardly the first time that Russia has threatened the West with nuclear weapons during the war, or the first threat against the UK.

Russia has been ramping up its rhetoric against the West in recent days after Ukraine's allies agreed to dramatically increase weapons supplies (pictured, a downed Russian jet)

The UK has led weapons supplies to Ukraine, sending state-of-the-art anti-aircraft missiles (pictured) as well as armoured anti-air vehicles

On Monday, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned that Russia is now fighting a proxy-war with the whole of NATO and the risk of it turning nuclear is 'real'.

Speaking to state TV, Lavrov said the current situation is worse than the Cuban missile crisis at the height of the Cold War because of a complete break-down in relations between the two sides.

Asked directly about the possibility of a nuclear war, he said: 'The risks are very significant. I do not want the danger to be artificially inflated [but] it is serious, real. It cannot be underestimated.'

Maria Zakharova, spokesman for the foreign ministry, then issued a threat to strike NATO countries supplying arms to Ukraine - with the UK among those leading weapons deliveries.

'Do we understand correctly that for the sake of disrupting the logistics of military supplies, Russia can strike military targets on the territory of those NATO countries that supply arms to the Kyiv regime,' she asked.

'After all, this directly leads to deaths and bloodshed on Ukrainian territory. As far as I understand, Britain is one of those countries.'

But armed forces minister James Heappey dismissed the comments as 'bravado', saying he sees no imminent threat of nuclear escalation.

'Lavrov's trademark over the course of 15 years or so that he has been the Russian foreign secretary has been that sort of bravado. I don't think that right now there is an imminent threat of escalation,' Heappey told BBC Television.

FSB agents yesterday raided the 'neo-Nazi gang' accused of plotting to kill Solovyov and uncovered this haul - which includes three copies of The Sims video game, leading to speculation they bungled an order to plant phone SIM cards at the scene

Russian state media said the plot had been orchestrated from Kyiv, as Putin accused Ukraine of threatening journalists (Putin pictured with Solovyov in 2013)

'What the West is doing to support its allies in Ukraine is very well calibrated ... Everything we do is calibrated to avoid direct confrontation with Russia.'

Amidst the nuclear threats, Putin on Monday claimed his secret service had uncovered a plot to assassinate Solovyov, who is one of Russia's best-known TV anchors who often chairs talk panels on its main news channel.

The FSB later released footage which it claimed showed agents raiding the hide-out of a neo-Nazi gang, alleging they had been given orders by Ukraine's secret service to kill Solovyov 'as soon as possible'.

Agents also released images taken inside the lair, which showed pistols, bullets, packets of meth, a sawn-off shotgun and Nazi paraphernalia.

But one strange inclusion was three copies of The Sims video game - sparking speculation that the 'lair' had in fact been staged by bungling agents who misinterpreted an instruction to plant phone SIM cars at the scene.

Illia Ponomarkenko - the Kyiv Independent's defence reporter - wrote: 'A Hitler portrait, a swastika flag, a Neo-Nazi publication, some meth, and Sims 3 discs are exactly what you would take with yourself for a high-profile mission to assassinate a top-ranking war propaganda pundit in Russia. Totally makes sense.'

Elliot Higgins, founder of investigative website Bellingcat, added: Classic saboteur checklist: Explosives, check. Guns, check. Mein Kampf, check. Nazi Flag, check.

'The Sims Expansions, check, check, check.'

For the avoidance of doubt, he then added: 'I genuinely believe this is a dumb FSB officer being told to get 3 SIMs.'

Russia considers western arms shipments to Ukraine legitimate targets for attack, Lavrov added, after the US pledged to send heavier weapons to the country this week (file image)

Matthew Champion, world news editor for VICE, also wrote: 'Russia produces world class trolls but terrible spies.

'The idea that someone somewhere misunderstood an order for three sim cards with three copies of the Sims 3 is actually eminently believable.'

Russia is now more than two months into what was supposed to be a days-long 'special military operation' in Ukraine aimed at toppling the government and installing a pro-Moscow puppet regime.

Despite 62 days of intense fighting, Ukraine's military remains in control of the majority of its territory and has forced the Russians to retreat from Kyiv after suffering heavy losses.

Ukraine estimates it has killed more than 22,000 Russian troops, with fighting still underway in the eastern Donbas region and the south near occupied Kherson.

Russian commanders say they are working to seize the whole of the Donbas region and create a 'land corridor' along the south of Ukraine - cutting it off from the Black Sea and connecting occupied Moldova and Crimea with the mainland.

But Ukraine's defences are largely holding firm, with the West pledging to keep up supplies of heavy arms until the war has been 'won'.

The UK has already supplied Ukraine with the latest anti-aircraft missiles and armoured vehicles, as well as thousand of older anti-tank rockets.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is expected to use a speech today to go one step further, calling on the West to supply Ukraine with aircraft.

She will also call for an increase in spending on the armed forces, warning that years of Western scrimping on defence budgets led to the invasion.
Russia will be unable to fight another war for years because of catastrophic kit losses in Ukraine, defence experts said.

'It will take years for Russia to rebuild its inventories', according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In fact, Putin will struggle in the Donbas because vital 'inventories are getting low', analyst Mark Cancian told The Times.

Wrecked Kremlin equipment now amounts to 939 tanks, 185 planes, 155 helicopters, 421 artillery units and eight ships, the Ukrainian army estimated this morning.

The Ukrainian Army updates its latest - and rising - estimates of Russian losses each morning

Kyiv estimates its forces have now killed 22,400 Russian soldiers, up from 22,100 yesterday.

Military analyst Henry Boyd from the International Institute for Strategic Studies said Putin could still draw on sizeable, Soviet-era reserve forces stationed across Russia.

But most Russian soldiers could be unable to use it, he added.

Mr Boyd told the newspaper: 'They kept a large number of Soviet-era tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery.

'You can probably compensate in terms of sheer numbers by reactivating older systems but there is a question mark over whether they will have the crews to man the vehicles and if they do, whether they have had sufficient training.'

Putin, pictured looking sheepish at a meeting yesterday with the UN Secretary-General, may be emasculated for years to come due to his military's costly failure in Ukraine

The bad news for Moscow comes as Russia continues its pivot to the east of Ukraine, where it has had more military success than elsewhere in the country.

But UK armed forces minister James Heappey warned yesterday 'the Donbas will be a difficult nut for the Russians to crack'.

Mr Heappey added Russian and Ukrainian forces are now 'evenly matched'.

He also hit headlines yesterday when he backed Ukraine's right to attack targets inside Russia using British-made equipment.

The Moskva battleship (pictured as it sunk two weeks ago) is Russia's highest-profile loss so far

He told Times Radio: 'It is completely legitimate for Ukraine to be targeting in Russia's depth in order to disrupt the logistics that if they weren't disrupted would directly contribute to death and carnage on Ukrainian soil.

'There are lots of countries around the world that operate kit that they have imported from other countries; when those bits of kit are used we tend not to blame the country that manufactured it, you blame the country that fired it.'

When Russian forces entered Ukraine on February 24, the invading Moscow military dwarfed Ukraine's, prompting many to believe the war would be swift and effective.

A man rides his bike next to a wrecked Russian tank in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine last week

Russia's land army consisted of 280,000 full-time active soldiers compared with Ukraine's 125,600.

But the amount of Russian soldiers needed to seize the whole country and control the entire population would be close to 1 million, according to Michael Clarke, a visiting professor at King's College London's Department of War Studies.

That suggests the Kremlin woefully underestimated the amount of force needed to pummel its neighbour into submission.

A flood of Ukrainian conscripts, high-tech weaponry sent by NATO countries and Russian strategic failures have all helped to turn the tide in Kyiv's favour.

Ukrainian sappers search for unexploded bombs at the burnt remains of a Russian helicopter destroyed during recent fighting at Antonov airport in Hostomel on the outskirts of Kyiv
A child who was mauled to death by his family's three rottweilers - which locals nicknamed 'the beasts' - has been named.

Two-year-old Lawson Bond was savaged at home in the village of Egdon, Worcestershire, on March 28.

His family began driving him to hospital but were told to stop at Worcester Woods Country Park on the advice of the ambulance service.

He was rushed on blue lights to Worcestershire Royal Hospital before being transferred to Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Lawson suffered a cardiac arrest as a result of his horrific injuries and died two days later on March 30.

The youngster has now been formally named following the opening of an inquest into the fatal attack.

West Mercia Police last week confirmed the three dogs, which were seized at the family home, have been destroyed.

Police say no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.

After being taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital (pictured), the boy was transferred to Birmingham Children's Hospital, where he died of his injuries two days later

Lawson Bond was savaged at the family home in the village of Egdon, Worcestershire, on March 28 (pictured: Rottweiler file photo)

Emotional tributes have been paid to Lawson in the days and weeks following his death.

Sue Hemming, of Worcester, said: 'Huge high five, beautiful Lawson, you are so loved by so many, fly high little man. Sue & Felix.'

Donna George, of Worcester, said: 'RIP Little man fly high with the angels. You will be sadly missed by all your family and friends.'

Malgorzata Jankowiak of Malvern said: 'Sleep easy little Angel, our thoughts are with the family. Sending love.'

'RIP little man, such a shame. Thinking about the family at this sad time,' said Jodie Peglar, of Worcester.

Villagers and dogwalkers told how some people felt scared of the dogs.

One said: 'Everyone keeps themselves pretty private around here and no one asks many questions. I think people are a bit intimidated by the family with those dogs. We call them 'the beasts' because they are always making such a racket.'

A pre-inquest review will take place at Worcestershire Coroner's Court on August 31.
Micro-dosing on magic mushrooms could be a cure for depression, according to Australian scientists who are set to test a radical new therapy.

Depression affects about one in seven Australians but there is promising research mounting that psilocybin - which is found naturally in some fungi - may be able to alleviate symptoms.

Danny Brock-Phillips knows all too well how debilitating the condition can be, with the 31-year-old revealing he's battled suicidal thoughts at various points in his life.

'It's usually a really heavy feeling on your chest. You don't want to get out of bed, he said. 'Life just doesn't feel worth it,' he told 9News.

Magic mushrooms have long been the domain of hippies but scientists are now studying their mental health benefits (stock image)

'Being on some (traditional) medication can help, but often it doesn't.

'I know a lot of people who unfortunately have depression - whether it's mild or major - so more research into emerging treatments is absolutely needed.'

Senior research fellow at Macquarie University in Sydney Vince Polito is leading the new study in which volunteers will be given a synthetic form of psilocybin in amounts far smaller than the typically studied dose.

Mr Polito said new approaches to treating depression were needed with current medications developed decades ago.

A Macquarie University study is looking at whether micro-dosing the active chemical in the mushrooms (pictured) can treat depression

Danny Brock-Phillips said more research on emerging depression treatments is needed

'As many as 50 per cent of people don't really get a mood benefit from traditional anti-depressant drugs,' he said on Wednesday.

'There's fairly compelling evidence from research that psilocybin in high doses when combined with psychotherapy can have a long lasting anti-depressant effects'.

The Macquarie University study will give patients one-fifth of the dose used in previous studies.

'People aren't going to be having hallucinations or dramatic shifts in consciousness, we want to find out if at these low doses we still see that positive effect.'

The trial is gearing up to begin later this year, with volunteers being recruited through doctor referrals.

The patients will undergo brain scans and blood tests as part of the program to scientifically back-up any perceived effects.

Lifeline: 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au

Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 or beyondblue.org.au
Iconic books designed to stimulate the imagination of millions of British children are being axed or amended for their 'insensitive' or 'racist' connotations decades after publication.

Widely-celebrated authors including J.K Rowling, Enid Blyton, Dr Seuss and Roald Dahl have all been hit with accusations of discrimination or cultural insensitivity.

Last year, Cambridge University's archive included 'trigger warnings' for harmful content in children's books for 'content relating to slavery, colonialism and racism'.

Researchers reviewed thousands of books and magazines to expose offensive authors after campaigners demanded teachers censor racial slurs when reading Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.

Six Dr Seuss classics were also pulled from the shelves in 2021 because they contained racist images of African 'natives' designed to look like monkeys.

The Royal Shakespeare Company even issued a warning that cancelling William Shakespeare's work for a politically correct audience would be 'the worst thing we can do'.

Just this week, the Biff, Chip and Kipper title 'The Blue Eye', which aims to help children learn to read, was panned for its 'Islamophobia' amid allegations from readers the story and its illustrations are racist.

Following the latest twist in this long-running row, MailOnline shares other high-profile examples of children's classics being edited for today's audience.

Six Dr Seuss classics - including 'If I Ran the Zoo' were pulled from the shelves in 2021 because they contained racist images of African 'natives' designed to look like monkeys

The black-faced golliwogs from Enid Blyton's 20th century Noddy classics were banished from modern editions of the children's tale and replaced with goblins

Hugh Lofting's Dr. Dolittle was first published in 1920 however in the late 1980s was altered to remove the racist content, including a reference to 'n*****'

Biff, Chip and Kipper - 'Islamophobic'

Oxford University publishers have apologised and pulled a Biff, Chip and Kipper children's book from shelves amid allegations the story and its illustrations are racist and Islamophobic.

The story - used in classrooms across the UK to help teach children to read - sees the protagonists magically transported to a generic Middle Eastern-looking country.

The Oxford Reading Tree book, entitled The Blue Eye, by Roderick Hunt, was deemed offensive after baddies in the children's book - perceived to be Muslim - were described as 'unfriendly' and 'scary'.

Social media commentators suggested it was teaching kids to be racist and Islamophobic.

The publishers - Oxford University Press - have since removed the book from publication and apologised for any offence caused.

A book called The Blue Eye has been pulled by publishers after social media users called out its portrayal of seemingly Muslim characters, saying it encouraged Islamophobia and racism

Dr Seuss classics - Racially insensitive imagery

Six books by the American children's author were withdrawn by the Dr Seuss Enterprises company in 2021.

The publisher said it would no longer print six of his works over racist and insensitive imagery.

The six books affected are: 'And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street', 'If I Ran the Zoo', 'McElligot's Pool', 'On Beyond Zebra!', 'Scrambled Eggs Super!', and 'The Cat's Quizzer'.

In 'And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,' an Asian person is portrayed wearing a conical hat, holding chopsticks, and eating from a bowl. Earlier editions of the book showed the same character with yellow skin and a long ponytail.

'If I Ran the Zoo' , published in 1950, includes a drawing of two dark-skinned characters wearing what appear to be grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads.

'Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises' catalog represents and supports all communities and families,' the company said.

The decision to cease publication and sales of the books was made after months of discussion, the company said.

In 'And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,' an Asian person is portrayed wearing a coned hat, holding chopsticks, and eating from a bowl. Earlier editions of the book (right) showed the same character with yellow skin and a long ponytail

'If I Ran the Zoo', which was published in 1950, includes a drawing of two dark-skinned characters wearing what appear to be grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads

Dr Dolittle - Altered to remove racist content

Hugh Lofting's Dr. Dolittle was first published in 1920 however in the late 1980s was altered to remove the racist content.

The original edition contains the N-word and other derogatory terms, as well as racial stereotypes in pictures of characters Prince Bumpo and his mother Queen Ermintrude, drawn by Lofting himself.

In one disturbing passage from the original book the protagonist bleaches the African prince's skin because he wants to marry a Caucasian princess.

Librarian Isabelle Suhl called the book 'chauvinistic' and dubbed the protagonist 'the personification of The Great White Father Nobly Bearing the White Man's Burden'

She added to the New York Times that his creator was a 'white racist and chauvinist, guilty of almost every prejudice known to modern white Western man.'

Hugh Lofting's 'Dr. Dolittle' was first published in 1920 however in the late '80s was altered to remove some of the offensive content

Enid Blyton - Edited to remove offence

Prolific children's writer Enid Blyton was linked to racism in updated English Heritage information about the blue plaque on the Chessington home where she wrote her first stories while working as a nursery governess between 1920 and 1924.

Her use of the term 'Golliwogs' in the beloved children's book series Noddy has now been changed to 'Goblins' in recent editions.

The original Noddy stories, penned by Ms Blyton between 1949 and 1963, featured black-faced golliwogs who lived in Golly Town.

Mr Golly, one of Noddys best friends, ran the town garage and looked after the popular characters car. His complexion was later changed to have whiter skin.

Miss Blyton also featured villainous golliwogs in the stories and in the 1951 book, Here Comes Noddy Again, the dolls were Noddys arch enemies, who were rude to his friends and stole his car.

Golliwog dolls were popular at the time the stories were written, but were later considered racist, prompting publishers to reissue the books and replace the golliwogs with other characters.

In 2009, Author Sophie Smallwood, Ms Blytons granddaughter, decided to banish golliwogs from any new Noddy tale in a bid to avoid controversy.

The original Noddy stories, penned by Enid Blyton between 1949 and 1963, featured black-faced golliwogs who lived in Golly Town. These were replaced in modern editions of the children's classic

Babar the Elephant - 'Celebrates colonialism'

The Babar the Elephant series by French novelist Jean De Brunhoff has come under fire for offensive, racist images of black people in both illustrations and text.

It tells the story of a young elephant who leaves Africa for Paris after his mother is killed by a cruel hunter and is taken in by a wealthy old woman who promptly begins to teach him how to live as a human.

Critics have argued that the book celebrations of colonialism because of how the title character leaves the jungle and later returns to 'civilize' his fellow animals.

Another book in the series, Babar's Travels, came under fire for exposing children to ethnic stereotypes when one of the elephant's adventures finds him faced with 'savage cannibals'.

It was removed from a library in East Sussex in 2012 after staff upheld a complaint that it contained offensive stereotypes of black Africans.
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New video has emerged of the moment a distraught and confused Alec Baldwin was told he had accidentally killed the cinematographer he shot on the set of his movie Rust last year.

The footage was taken inside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office in New Mexico on October 21, 2021, after Baldwin's prop gun fired a live round during a rehearsal for a scene.

He had just finished telling cops that he didn't pull the trigger, and was therefore stunned when he saw what looked like a live round fire from his weapon and pierce through director Joel Souza's shoulder before striking Hutchins in the armpit.

'I have some unfortunate news. She didn't make it,' the investigator told him.

He shot back in his seat, saying: 'No!' before asking if he can be excused to phone his wife, Hilaria. Baldwin left the room with his head in his hands. Seconds later, he was photographed in the parking lot of the sheriff's office, wailing as he spoke to Hilaria.

At the time and even now, six months later, no one knows how a live bullet made its way into Baldwin's gun.

In a phone call days after the shooting, Baldwin however badgered cops to explore one theory - that a box of dummy bullets went missing from the set then reappeared sometime later with live rounds in it.

He phoned Detective Alexandra Hancock and told her that he'd been informed by someone else that the box was where armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had taken the bullets from that were loaded into his gun that day.

'It reappeared. It materialized out of nowhere on top of a table in the truck, and she told me unequivocally that that box was the box the long colts were taken from to put into the gun. They went back to the box and there were multiple live rounds in the box. The point is, I have always maintained that this is an accident of negligence.

Video shows investigators telling the actor that Hutchins, 42, had succumbed to her injuries, with Baldwin instantly saying 'no' as he lurched back into his seat in shock. Baldwin, 64, is seen raising his hand to his mouth as he looks between the two investigators in stunned silence

Baldwin remains in the same position for 24 seconds before he puts his hand on his chest and then covers his face with his hands.

Baldwin sits in silence and with his hands raised to his face before he asked to call his wife Hilaria

Baldwin and his wife Hilaria are shown yesterday near their New York City home with two of their six children

'But every time I hear a little piece like this, it sounds like there's a chance - I'm sure it's slim - I'm not looking for conspiracy that someone tampered with this,' he said.

The actor then went on to complain about having to tell his eight-year-old daughter about Hutchins' death.

Baldwin was rehearsing a scene for the movie Rust on October 21, 2021, when he pulled his gun from his costume. It fired and shot Hutchins, 42, (pictured) in the armpit, fatally wounding her

'You know what's really tough for me, is I have six kids.

'We had to tell my older daughter yesterday what happened and she started to cry.

'She said "I'm going to go to school and everyone's going to make fun of me." My eight-year-old. Half the jobs I had lined up between now and the second half of the year they fired me.

'They didn't want me to come.'

He implored the detectives to speak with Gutierrez.

'I hope you know.... getting Hannah in your sights there and asking her to describe this box of colt... I'd love to hear all about that.

'Tracing the chain of title of that round that killed Halyna - what else matters but that?

'My gratitude to you for being so patient with me. People have said to me - who could have had something out for you?

'Who was anybody on the set who expressed to anybody some kind of malignant...never in a million of years did I assume someone could I still believe it was an accident...

BALDWIN BEGS COPS TO GRILL ARMORER OVER 'MISSING BOX OF BULLETS': 'I'M BEGGING YOU TO INDULGE ME' As the investigation into Halyna Hutchins' death intensified and media attention ballooned, Baldwin called sheriff's investigators and asked them to grill Hannah Reed, the armorer, about a box of bullets that he said went missing and then reappeared with live rounds mixed in with dummies. The box was filled with dummy bullets when it vanished, he said, but by the time it reappeared on the day of the shooting, it also contained live rounds. In a call with Detective Alexandra Hancock, Baldwin said no one knew how long the box had been gone. 'They were missing a single box of .45 long colts that were prop bullets. That box disappeared, reappeared.. I said "what was the length of time it was gone?" 'It reappeared. It materialized out of nowhere on top of a table in the truck, and she told me unequivocally that that box was the box the long colts were taken from to put into the gun. 'They went back to the box and there were multiple live rounds in the box. The point is, I have always maintained that this is an accident of negligence. 'But every time I hear a little piece like this, it sounds like there's a chance - I'm sure it's slim - I'm not looking for conspiracy that someone tampered with this. 'I'd be dying to find out from Hannah - I don't want to abuse Hannah or make her feel bad about what's happened but what happened to that box of bullets? What date did it disappear? How long did it disappear for? When it came back, how did you find it? The actor then went on to complain about having to tell his eight-year-old daughter about Hutchins' death. 'You know what's really tough for me, is I have six kids. 'We had to tell my older daughter yesterday what happened and she started to cry. 'She said "I'm going to go to school and everyone's going to make fun of me." My eight-year-old. Half the jobs I had lined up between now and the second half of the year they fired me. 'They didn't want me to come.' He implored the detectives to speak with Gutierrez. 'I hope you know.... getting Hannah in your sights there and asking her to describe this box of colt... I'd love to hear all about that. 'Tracing the chain of title of that round that killed Halyna - what else matters but that? 'My gratitude to you for being so patient with me. People have said to me - who could have had something out for you? 'Who was anybody on the set who expressed to anybody some kind of malignant...never in a million of years did I assume someone could I still believe it was an accident... 'I'll be in touch thanks,' he said. He also claimed on the call that Hutchins' husband Matthew - who is now suing him and the entire production - told him to 'manage his own thoughts for his mental health'. 'I talked to her husband about an hour ago. I told him about all this stuff, now I'm calling you. 'He said "Alec you need to better manage your thoughts for your own mental health." That's what he said, his wife his dead. He said "Alec learn to manage your thoughts for your own mental health." 'He is almost inconceivably generous man. An ascended man. It's almost unbelievable.' Advertisement

Baldwin was rehearsing a scene for the movie Rust on October 21, 2021, when he pulled his gun from his costume. It fired and shot Hutchins, 42, in the armpit, fatally wounding her.

The gun fired a live round which had been loaded into what Baldwin thought was an empty gun.

It comes after Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza on Tuesday suggested Baldwin may still face charges for accidentally killing Hutchins.

The Santa Fe Sheriff's Office this week released a trove of documents and videos from their investigation into the on-set accident.

More new footage has also emerged of Baldwin in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, with the actor telling police that he was 'the one holding the gun' and asking for a cigarette to calm himself down.

Video shows Baldwin sitting down outside the set smoking the cigarette that was handed to him. He then asks how Hutchins is doing before a police officer says that her status is 'questionable'.

It comes as Sheriff Mendoza said that Baldwin could still face charges because he was who was handling the weapon.

Appearing on Good Morning America on Tuesday, Sheriff Mendoza said 'He was the one that handled the weapon that fired the round that led to the fatality.

'We're going to work with the DA's office to determine if there is criminal neglect or criminal charges. We kind of know who didn't do their jobs here. That was one of the key questions.

Mendoza added that police are still waiting for forensics and ballistics reports into the shooting that happened more than six months ago.

'The key component is the analysis on the firearm and the FBI report. Once that's all corrected, [the DA] will make the determination of who's responsible, if anyone.'

Among the collection of material released by the Sheriff's department was footage of Baldwin being told that Hutchins had died from the gunshot wound.

'I have some very unfortunate news to tell you,' an investigator told Baldwin whilst they were sat at a table in the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office.

Baldwin quickly looks up from the table and asks: 'What?'

The investigator replied: 'She [Hutchins] didn't make it.' Baldwin quickly says 'no' before raising his hand to his face in shock.

The officer continued: 'Yes. So Joel's still at the hospital. But the other person involved didn't make it. Sorry. I didn't want you to hear it outside of here.'

Baldwin sits in silence and with his hands raised to his face before he asked to call his wife Hilaria.

Before the police interview, more footage emerged showing the actor seemingly on the phone to Hilaria.

The actor can be heard asking her to fly from their home in New York out to New Mexico to be with him.

'Can you hear me? Can you hear me? I'm at the police station. How is everyone at home? How are the kids?

'The kids are great,' she replies.

He asked her if she had told their daughter Carmen 'what was going on.'

'Are you convinced you don't want to come tomorrow?'

She replied: 'I don't think it's a good idea. Call me after you talk with the sheriff but I don't think it's a great idea.

He fired back: 'Just to be clear. They're going to make me stay here anyway.'

Then, bringing the phone to his ear, he said: 'I don't want to do this film anymore, I don't. I don't want to be a public person. I'm the one holding the gun in my hand that everyone was supposed to have taken care of.

'They always hand me a cold gun.'

He then seems to quiz his wife on her whereabouts, asking: 'Where are you now? Michelle who?

'And where are you? I'll call you back when I'm done, OK?'

During the 30 minute police interview, Baldwin told how he had always been handed a 'cold' weapon by the crew.

In new footage released by Sheriff's Office, Baldwin is seen drawing his gun in a rehearsal of the fatal Rust movie scene that saw him accidentally kill Hutchins.

The clip, filmed by the production's cameras, shows Baldwin in full costume sitting in a church pew, drawing his prop pistol from his waistcoat jacket.

Baldwin is seen minutes after being told Halyna had died, in the parking lot of the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office. He is on the phone to his wife Hilaria

Baldwin, buckled over in grief, after being told Halyna Hutchins had died as a result of the injuries he accidentally caused

New footage has emerged of Baldwin in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, with the actor telling police that he was 'the one holding the gun' and asking for a cigarette to calm himself down

Video shows Baldwin sitting down outside the set smoking the cigarette that was handed to him. He then asks how Hutchins is doing before a police officer says that her status is 'questionable'

Scattered, discarded tissues and gauze pads at the scene of the shooting on October 21

Bloody tissues and a script with a dirty foot print on it inside the church

Discarded medical materials inside the church after the fatal shooting

Crime scene photos show bloody gauze at the scene that was used by paramedics before Hutchins was taken away

Wearing a full beard of stubble, the actor looks sternly into the camera. He seems to be talking with Hutchins and director Joel Souza throughout, but there is no audio in the clip released on Monday.

The clip was filmed on October 21, hours before Baldwin's gun fired a live round, apparently spontaneously, as he drew it. It wounded Hutchins fatally.

No one has been criminally charged over the shooting but Baldwin is being sued by Hutchins family.

In another video released on Monday night, Hutchins is seen clinging to life while EMTs beg 'stay with us!'

The clip, filmed by the production's cameras, shows Baldwin in full costume sitting in a church pew, drawing his prop pistol from his waistcoat jacket.

Baldwin goes to draw his gun in the rehearsal of the movie scene on October 21 last year

Pictures taken by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office show the evidence left on the scene after paramedics departed

Data files released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's office included a video of investigators debriefing Baldwin within hours of the fatal shooting, talking with him inside a compact office

She appeared to be unconscious throughout, having been shot through her right armpit, with the bullet that struck her later emerging again through the top of her shoulder.

Not much can be heard other than encouragement for Hutchins and the paramedics barking instructions at one another.

In another video, the crew from Rust, including Baldwin, can be heard asking how Hutchins is doing.

Baldwin can be heard asking 'what's her story?' in reference to Hutchins and being told things are 'a little bit rougher.'

Someone can be heard asking if the condition is life-threatening and the response is: 'enough to get air-lifted.'

Dramatic police bodycam video shows medics battling to save Halyna Hutchins life after the Rust movie set shooting

At one point, Hutchins' top layer of clothing was taken off to help paramedics who were working to save her

Hutchins was also filmed being wheeled out of the church on a trolley while being given oxygen, before being put into a med-e-vac helicopter and airlifted away

One video showed him being approached by cops for the first time moments after the shooting, and being warned not to discuss what had happened with any colleagues before he'd been spoken to by cops.

Another clip showed Baldwin sitting on the back of a truck and asking for an update on Hutchins, only to be told by the cop that EMTs were still working on her.

A third set of footage showed him being grilled back at a police station afterwards.

The investigation files also include rehearsal clips that show Baldwin in costume as he practices a quick-draw maneuver with a gun.

The sheriff's office also released dozens of text messages and emails to and from Dave Halls, the assistant director of the movie, on Monday.

Those messages show how his friends and confidantes warned him that Baldwin's 'PR machine' was 'in overdrive' trying to blame him for the tragedy.

One message, written to Halls by a friend named Julie Burris, said: 'It looks as though everyone is going for their 15 minutes of fame and AB PR team is in overdrive trying to shift the blame away from himself on a worker bee who doesn't have the money or the power to refute any of it.

'I think you should thoroughly discuss this aspect with your attorney because the most important thing right now is to make sure there aren't any criminal charges brought against you - AND what the sheriff's office affadavit [sic] actually says.

'And then after the fact assess what person (s) and/or news outlets you can sue for libel/slander/defamation.'

Assistant Director Dave Halls gives fingerprints on October 21 after the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins

Assistant Director Dave Halls gives a DNA sample on October 21 after the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins

The first part of her message referred to claims of film industry insiders and people who previously worked with Halls that he flouted safety violations on other movie sets.

In another message that day, Burris told Halls: 'All of this says to me, in my opinion, is that the people with money and power are using you as a scapegoat knowing you can't afford to fight the press of legal bills and that they don't care about you at all.

'Notice I don't see much of AB in the press and haven't heard about any of the producing team. Not one thing.'

Halls is filmed giving investigators a swab of his DNA and his fingerprints in one of the interviews.

Of all of the people involved in the shooting, he has said the least in the six months since it happened.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the 24-year-old armorer, has repeatedly issued statements protesting her innocence. She said she was overworked on set.

In bodycam footage that emerged yesterday, she is seen telling police that she is worried her career is over as a result of the accident.

In her own police interview, she told the investigators: 'I check the guns and I load the guns and I hand the guns to the actor.'

'We went to set, we had the guns on set. I dummied the guns up with the dummy rounds. Nothing happened and then we came back from lunch and...'

In other interviews, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed told cops she is who 'loads the guns and hands them to the actors'

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said in a statement that the investigation by his agency remains open and ongoing as it awaits the results of ballistics and forensic analysis from the FBI as well as studies of fingerprint and DNA.

'The sheriff's office is releasing all files associated with our ongoing investigation,' he said in the statement. Those files also include photos of ammunition from the set and examination reports.

At a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on Oct. 21, 2021, Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when it went off, killing Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Souza. They had been inside a small church during setup for filming a scene.

In a video taken by police later that day, Baldwin makes a few frantic calls as he awaits a meeting with law enforcement officials.

'You have no idea how unbelievable this is and how strange this is,' he says over the phone.

New Mexico workplace safety regulators last week issued the maximum possible fine of nearly $137,000 against the 'Rust' film production company.

New Mexicos Occupational Health and Safety Bureau said Rust Movie Productions must pay $136,793, and distributed a scathing narrative of safety failures in violation of standard industry protocols, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires on set prior to the fatal shooting.

The bureau also documented gun safety complaints from crew members that went unheeded and said weapons specialists were not allowed to make decisions about additional safety training. Rust Movie Productions has indicated it will dispute the findings and sanction.

Baldwin said in a December interview with ABC News that he was on set pointing the gun at Hutchins at her instruction when it went off without his pulling the trigger.
An abusive boyfriend who terrorised the long-suffering mother of his three children into taking him back after she tried to end their toxic relationship was behind bars today.

Ryan Rochester, 27, had been banned from contacting Shannon Grace under the terms of a restraining order but he moved back in with her.

Miss Grace, 24, only 'acquiesced' to the arrangement as she was fearful of his drug-fuelled rages but she called in police when bricklayer Rochester vanished on an all-night bender only to do the 'walk of shame' the next morning.

Ryan Rochester, pictured, was jailed for 14 months by Bolton Crown Court after he admitted four counts of breaching a restraining order which prohibited from contacting Shannon Grace

He turned up on the school run and kept watch on Miss Grace as she dropped off the youngsters for lessons.

In a statement Miss Grace, of Wigan, Greater Manchester who has a fourth child from another relationship said: 'I am extremely depressed and I feel like I am stuck in a rut and I cannot get away from Ryan. I don't want a relationship with him - I allowed him back out of fear more than anything else.'

At Bolton Crown Court, Rochester, from the Scholes area of Wigan admitted four charges of breaching a restraining order and was jailed for 14 months.

The court heard the pair had been in a relationship for six years but split in 2020 over Rochester's abuse of cocaine and cannabis.

Miss Grace moved into a women's refuge after Rochester broke into her home and threatened to kill her over the split - but she later agreed to give their relationship another go.

In April last year she obtained a two year restraining order against him after he attacked her outside their home during a row.

Mr Craig MacGregor prosecuting said the latest offences occurred after Rochester moved back in with Miss Grace in breach of the order December last year.

He said: 'She says she was fearful of the defendant and was scared of him and did not want to argue with him and she said he could stay to avoid arguments.

'But from that point she said her relationship with him was horrible and awful. Even when he was not taking drugs he was constantly argumentative if she had not washed his clothes or cleaned up properly.

'She told him on numerous occasions she did not want him at the house if he had been taking drugs but he kept returning. Problems came to a head when he didn't come home because he was doing drugs, they had an argument on the morning and she went to school early with the children.

'Whilst at the school gates he was there some distance away but making sure she knew he was watching her. She then rang the police. Throughout this awful relationship he has been messaging her, living with her and texting her.

'She has perhaps been her own worst enemy in allowing him back into her life but this was a persistent breach of the restraining order and there was harm caused. Miss Grace was particularly vulnerable if someone has been in a women's refuge already so you can see how easy it was for her to be picked off.'

Rochester who had domestic issues with two other former partners had previous convictions for threatening behaviour towards Miss Grace and using violence to gain entry to her home and in 2020 was given a suspended sentence. The following year he was given 16 weeks jail for battery upon Miss Grace. He had a total of 21 offences on his record.

In mitigation defence counsel Mr Daniel Calder said: 'He grew up in a household where he was both the perpetrator and the victim of domestic violence and it is suggested there is unresolved trauma which in adulthood has manifested itself in this pattern of offending.

'He has never received professional assistance for his childhood experiences and has made a number of poor decisions to manage and regulate his emotions with alcohol and illegal drugs. A violent upbringing and long-standing substance abuse is a familiar and dangerous cocktail but perhaps gives an explanation for what has happened.

He added: 'There is not a particularly clear account about how they got back together but there was a degree of acquiescence and the defendant lived with the assent of the complainant for some time. He does not intend any further contact with her and looking for a fresh start.'

Sentencing Judge Tom Gilbart told Rochester: 'She acquiesced to living with you but she was scared of confronting you about it could not argue with you about it. You knew full well that contact with her was not allowed. It is quite mystifying that a father can behave like this towards the mother of his children.'
Council officers have been told they must return to the office amid claims their cushy work from home culture has prompted a series of administrative errors.

A pair of huge 60ft phone masts, initially refused by the Bournemouth and Poole planning authority, have been erected outside residents' homes in the last six months after council officers missed a two-month deadline to block them.

Furious residents blasted the blunder and fear a third unwanted mast could also be installed after officials again apparently failed to record their objections in time.

One Bournemouth and Poole councillor claims the errors could have been avoided had planning officials been working in the office rather than remotely.

Marcus Andrews told MailOnline it was a 'rarity' for him to see planning officers anywhere other than their 'kitchens or lounges' as the majority still work from home.

He repeated Jacob Rees-Mogg's calls for civil service staff to return to the workplace following the relaxing of Covid guidelines in January.

A pair of huge 60ft phone masts, initially refused by the Bournemouth and Poole planning authority, have been erected outside residents' homes in the last six months after council officers missed a two-month deadline to block them

One Bournemouth and Poole councillor claims the errors could have been avoided had planning officials been working in the office rather than remotely. Pictured: A quiet car park at Bournemouth Town Hall

Mr Andrews, a Liberal Democrat, explained: 'Any planning organisation should have systems in place where things that come in are tallied up at the end of the day to make sure everything is processed.

'An administrative mistake is unfortunate but I know the planning department is having issues with registering and processing applications.

'You are probably going to run things better if you can get people together in a room, rather than by a Zoom meeting.

'Jacob Rees-Mogg called on civil service workers to get back in the office, and I haven't asked the question how many planning officers are still working from home, but whenever I have a Zoom meeting with officers nine out of ten of them are in their living room or spare bedroom.

Lib Dem councillor Marcus Andrews said it was a 'rarity' for him to see planning officers anywhere other than their 'kitchens or lounges' as the majority still work from home

'White collar staff should return to the office - they are called officers, so they should be in the office. Otherwise, we would call them "third bedroom people".'

Mr Andrews said there was also a country-wide issue of local authorities 'haemorrhaging good planning staff to the private sector'.

With planning officers now leaving for better-paid jobs, councils across the country are replacing them with contracted agency staff - many of whom have never even visited the towns and cities whose future planning decisions they are determining.

In some instances, this has resulted in further headaches for locals hoping to get planning permission.

A resident was informed he could not extend his property because an agency-employed planning officer said a tree would have been uprooted.

The confused local had to point out that the tree had actually been cut down three years prior, with the planning officer out of the loop because the Google satellite image had not been updated.

Mr Andrews added: 'I'm not having a go at any individual officers or senior managers, but across the country getting good quality planning staff is a problem, and systematic of that is people still working from home.

'It is not just BCP - councils up and down the country are losing them as they can earn more in private practice.'

The blunder comes just days after a similar row broke out among Cambridgeshire County Council bosses who ordered WFH staff back into the office as their taxpayer-funded 18m headquarters remains less than full capacity.

Critics said the decision to continue limited use of the building despite the Government scrapping social distancing guidelines 'beggars belief' and said it was 'costing residents money'.

But Cambridgeshire County Council has defended its Covid policies, citing higher-than-average case numbers and the positive impact WFH arrangements have on staff well being as well as retention and recruitment.

Rage at remote-working has bubbled over in Whitehall after the Civil Service resisted attempts by ministers to force them to ditch working from home.

London ministries are said to be less than half-full despite the efforts of Jacob Rees-Mogg to pry them from their spare rooms and kitchen tables.

The new multi-million pound Cambridgeshire County Council headquarters (pictured) has been left virtually empty while staff continue to work from home, it has been claimed, as council bosses continue to enforce social distancing measures

Phone mast applications are submitted through the prior approval procedure, which does not require the same level of consultation as a typical planning application.

The council's planning department has 56 days to deliver a refusal decision for the proposal to be blocked.

Phone company Three say the council has therefore 'deemed consent' and has no legal power to stop them putting the mast up.

All they can do is advise Three to 'paint it green to better match the surroundings'.

On the latest application for a mast in Merley, Poole, a spokesperson for Three said: 'We carried out extensive searches and surveys to evaluate options before applying for planning permission on Sopwith Crescent.

'We followed the correct processes and made an application on November 25, 2021, and did not receive a response from the council within the 56-day timeframe - as a result, we have approval to build the mast.'

The first missed deadline was for an application submitted by Three's parent company Hutchinson 3G UK Holdings Limited for Castle Lane West in Bournemouth on August 19 last year.

Earlier this month, a second mast went up on Broadway Lane in Bournemouth after another missed deadline, prompting outrage among locals.

BCP Council said they are in talks with Three about the Merley 5G mast application as they disagree with them over 'deemed consent'.

But David Kelsey, chairman of the council's planning committee, said he did not believe there was an issue with working from home.

He said: 'The majority of planning applications are registered through an online portal.

'There has been a backlog but we are trying to clear it was quickly as we can and things have improved in the last six months to ensure applications are dealt with as quickly as possible.'

On working from home provision, a BCP Council spokesperson said: 'BCP Council is developing modern working practices that benefit both service provision and our colleagues.'

The council refused to provide figures on the number of staff working from home.
The Targa Tasmania road race has once again been rocked by the death of a driver - just a year after a horrific triple fatality in the same event.

On Wednesday night, Tasmania Police said emergency services were at the scene of a 'serious incident' on Olivers Road, Mount Roland.

'Around 3:30pm today, a vehicle participating in Targa Tasmania crashed over an embankment on a closed section of the event,' police said in a statement.

No other vehicles were believed to be involved.

Police later confirmed a Brisbane man, 59, died in the crash. A woman who was a front seat passenger has non-life-threatening injuries.

The Targa Tasmania car event has once again been marred by the death of a driver - just a year after a horrific triple fatality in the same race (pictured, a Porsche driver taking part in a recent race)

Police confirmed in a statement a Queensland man, 59, died when he crashed over an embankment (pictured, a testing section of the course)

A woman who was in the front passenger seat with the Queensland man was treated for non-life threatening injuries by paramedics (stock image)

In a statement, Targa Australia chief executive Mark Perry said the 'thoughts of our the entire TARGA community are with our fellow competitor's family and his loved ones at this extremely difficult time'.

'We feel deeply for them all.

'We will work with Tasmania Police and Motorsport Australia to understand the full circumstances of the accident.'

Last year, much loved NSW competitor Shane Navin died when his car crashed on a wet road at Mount Arrowsmith near Strahan.

The very next day, Leigh Mundy and his co-driver Dennis Neagle were killed when their car hit a dip in the road and crashed into trees at Cygnet, in southern Tasmania.

The most recent of the other previous deaths during the event came in 2013, when John Mansell, 71, crashed his 2009 Porsche Cayman sedan into a tree.

Much-loved racer and experienced car racer Shane Navin (pictured) died in a horror crash at the Targa Tasmania rally in 2021

The 68-year-old rally driver from NSW rolled his 1979 Mazda RX7 amid heavy rain and slippery conditions

An inquest heard he was driving at speeds of about 200km/h prior to the crash in north Tasmania near Deloraine.

Mr Mansell died at the scene while his navigator suffered serious injuries.

In 1996, a Melbourne man who was a co-driver was also killed during the Riana stage in Tasmania's north-west.

The 2022 event was in its second day of competition, with a record number of entrants taking part in the event's 30th year.

Competitors race on public roads, travelling 2,000km across six days.
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British Airways will continue cancelling flights for at least the next two months amid concerns over a 'summer of travel chaos' as the flagship carrier cuts around 100 daily services due to staff shortages.

BA has cancelled more than 1,000 flights over the last three weeks with travellers normally given several days' notice, and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has urged airlines to 'get reliability back into the system again'.

Acknowledging that many staff were off work due to the recent rise in Covid-19 cases, Mr Shapps said operators underestimated passenger demand and he has held urgent talks with BA chief Sean Doyle about the situation.

Mr Doyle told staff in a video message this week that airline would cut schedules until the end of June  a month longer than previously billed - to make them reliable, having previously said flights would be cut until May.

Appearing before the Transport Committee at Parliament today to answer questions about the recent chaos, Mr Shapps was asked by Labour MP Ben Bradshaw: 'BA is cancelling nearly 100 flights today in and out of Heathrow, so can you guarantee the British public are not going to face a summer of travel chaos, as they did at Easter?'

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps (left, at the Transport Committee hearing in Parliament today) has held urgent talks with British Airways chief Sean Doyle (right, file picture) about the situation with flight cancellations over the past month

Passengers queue to check in at London Heathrow Airport's Terminal Two on April 9 amid airport disruption this month

Mr Shapps replied: 'You'll be interested to know I had Sean Doyle into my office yesterday - the boss of British Airways - to ask him exactly this question. Obviously they're a private company. He told me that they were proactively, in advance now, slimming down their programme in order to be able to meet the demand.

'He also explained that the problems were actually growing pains in lots of different directions - very, very quickly.

Passport farce as fast-track site crashes The fiasco over passport delays descended further into farce this week as the fast-track service crashed. Millions are thought to have delayed renewing their documents during the pandemic and officials are struggling with a backlog of applications. The ten-week target for processing is repeatedly being breached, with applicants waiting up to five months. The Passport Office offers a fast-track service that offers a one-week turnaround at the higher price of 142 for an adult passport and 122 for a child. But holidaymakers desperately trying to use the service yesterday were greeted with a 'system busy' message. The webpage on gov.uk added: 'Sorry, we're experiencing high demand for this service at the moment and the system is busy. Please try again later.' It was displaying the message for most of yesterday morning and afternoon. Under post-Brexit travel rules, UK travellers must have at least three months' validity on documents, which threatens to put more strain on the system. Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye said: 'It's really disappointing to hear about delays. If it's not resolved, it is going to mean that people can't get away.' Advertisement

'So they are primarily OK with I think for example pilots, but those on the ground  baggage handling side of things, for example  had been much harder in a very, very tight employment market, where thankfully we have getting on for full employment, they found quite difficult to do.'

Airlines - also including easyJet - have had to cancel flights over the past month after becoming unable to cope with a surge in demand around the Easter holidays, and they are battling to rehire enough staff who were let go or left during the pandemic.

According to the Financial Times, Mr Doyle told staff that the airline has grown its schedule from 30 per cent of normal to 80 per cent in only a few months, adding: 'It's crucial that we do all we can to give our customers confidence about their upcoming trips.'

He did not confirm how many more flights would now be cancelled, but said: 'Everyone is recruiting for frontline roles and the referencing processes are taking too long for people to get clearance to work at airports.'

Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye yesterday called for ministers to slash red tape to make it quicker for operators to recruit new staff.

He said allowing operators access to HMRC records showing a new recruit's previous employers could speed up the process by two to four weeks.

This would allow operators to fill vacancies more quickly and help avoid disruption as passenger numbers ramp up for the summer.

Today, Mr Shapps said the issue of security clearance was something the Department of Transport had been considering as a way of assisting the aviation industry.

He told the Transport Committee today: 'I can't, and the Committee wouldn't expect me to, compromise in any way, shape or form with aviation security, but I have looked at the rules and have found an area where we can assist with bureaucracy particularly with regard to new people coming into the industry and then need to be security checked.

'We can begin the training without exposing them to parts of the training which are security-related, without having the security check complete, as long as it's complete before they start on the security-related stuff.

Passengers queue to enter airport security at Terminal Five of London Heathrow Airport on April 14

British Airways cancelled 100 European and domestic flights yesterday. Pictured: File image of a BA plane at Heathrow

'And I have a statutory instrument  I think it actually comes in front of the House today  to do exactly that. Actually, it's a small Brexit freedom that's enabled us to do it, and this is an example of how we'll try to work with the sector but in the end they will have to resolve these problems by getting people in the right places.'

Travellers urged to use 85m unspent vouchers Holidaymakers are being urged to use unspent vouchers worth 85 million before they lose financial protection. This is the total value of unused refund credit notes (RCNs) given to customers by travel firms for package holidays cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said. The vouchers can be put towards the cost of a new holiday or exchanged for cash. Any issued between March 10, 2020 and December 19, 2021 are covered by the Atol scheme, which means holders will not lose out if the company they booked with goes bust. That protection expires on September 30. Michael Budge, head of Atol, which is run by the CAA, said: 'Millions of holidaymakers have missed out on travel over the past two years, with many being offered refund credit notes during the pandemic. 'As demand for travel continues to grow again, we want to make sure consumers are making the most of the financial protection available to them. If you have a refund credit note, make an Atol-protected booking or request a refund well before September 30 to avoid putting your money at risk.' Consumers were legally entitled to cash refunds within 14 days for package holidays cancelled due to the virus crisis. But many travel firms offered RCNs as an alternative to help their cash flow during the disruption. Advertisement

It comes as the fiasco over passport delays descended further into farce this week as the fast-track service crashed. Millions are thought to have delayed renewing their documents during the pandemic and officials are struggling with a backlog of applications.

The ten-week target for processing is repeatedly being breached, with applicants waiting up to five months.

The Passport Office offers a fast-track service that offers a one-week turnaround at the higher price of 142 for an adult passport and 122 for a child.

But holidaymakers desperately trying to use the service yesterday were greeted with a 'system busy' message.

The webpage on gov.uk added: 'Sorry, we're experiencing high demand for this service at the moment and the system is busy. Please try again later.'

Meanwhile the board of BA's owners International Airlines Group are said to be concerned about a lack of investment in IT at the airline.

Last month BA had its third computer meltdown this year and 1,000 flights were cancelled or delayed over one weekend. More than 1,000 have been cancelled since, partly because of staff shortages after it cut thousands of jobs in the pandemic.

Passengers say that they have also been unable to get through to customer services or check in online. Others waited days to be sent luggage that could not be unloaded from planes.

Travellers have faced long queues at airports such as Birmingham, Heathrow and Manchester, and Mr Shapps said yesterday that airlines 'underestimated how much demand there will be', and a rise in coronavirus cases 'would have caused problems' with 'a lot of people' off work.

He told Times Radio: 'I am concerned and I'm going to be meeting with some of the airlines who have been routinely cancelling.

'I'm sure it's in their interest as is the travelling public to see them get their schedules back together, and I'm meeting with them this week to understand their plans to bring the schedules back together. We need to get reliability back into the system again.'

A BA spokesman told MailOnline today: 'The past few weeks have been challenging and so we're completely focused on three priorities: our customers, supporting the biggest recruitment drive in our history and increasing our operational resilience, to help provide certainty for our customers.

'We've taken the decision to reduce our schedule by merging some low occupancy flights and flights to destinations with multiple services each day and using larger aircraft, giving customers the maximum flexibility to either rebook with us or another airline as close to their original departure time as possible, or to receive a full refund.'
China is set to undertake a fresh infrastructure spending frenzy to help save its economy, which is on the verge of collapsing due to its COVID-19 lockdown measures.

In a Tuesday meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared to his senior economic officials that there must be "all-out efforts" to be made to increase construction in the country to boost economic growth and domestic demand.

According to a CNN report, the government-run Xinhua News Agency said that Xi Jinping noted that the country's infrastructure was still "incompatible" with the needs for economic growth and security. He pushed for more transportation, energy, and water conservation projects, as well as new supercomputing, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence facilities.

President Xi didn't say how much China intends to spend on the new infrastructure initiative. According to the most recent official figures available, infrastructure spending grew 8.5% in the first quarter of 2022 over the same period the previous year.

China's Economy Nears Breaking Point

Xi's comments suggest that Beijing is becoming deeply concerned about the country's declining economic prospects and is reverting to a policy it had downplayed in recent years to relieve strain on local government finances and foster consumption-driven growth.

However, China's COVID-19 lockdowns have pushed the world's second-largest economy near a snapping point, according to Societe Generale analysts. The latest setback has been the imposition of tight limitations in Shanghai and other major Chinese cities. A real estate recession and a crackdown on private corporations were already having an impact in China. In March, joblessness reached a 21-month high.

Several investment banks have downgraded their growth estimates for China in the last month. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted 4.4 percent GDP this year, down from 4.8 percent previously, citing risks posed by Beijing's stringent zero-COVID policy. This is significantly lower than China's official prediction of 5.5%.

According to Tommy Wu, a lead economist from Oxford Economics based in Hong Kong, the Chinese government's COVID-19 measures are significantly hurting the nation's domestic demand, "which has already been weak even before the recent Omicron outbreaks and lockdowns."

Read Also: US Warns China of Possible Military Action if Beijing Establishes Base in Solomon Islands

Wu added that such restrictions are also affecting China's industrial production and export activity, which can worsen the ongoing global supply disruptions, per Time.

The expert warned that if Shanghai fails to resume production by next month, all of the tech and industrial players with supply chains in the area will stop completely, ", especially the automotive industry."

"That will pose severe consequences and massive losses for the whole industry." Wu said in a WeChat post.

More Debt To Fund Infrastructure Projects

Analysts expect the government to employ more debt to finance new infrastructure projects, reversing recent attempts by the administration to reduce the government's heavy reliance on debt for growth, per CNBC.

Monica Li, director of equities at Fidelity International, said in an email that the net issuance of special local government bonds had exceeded 35 percent of the full-year objective, which is substantially higher than the 10% to 30%rate of the previous three years.

She said her team predicts more bond issuance in the first part of the year than in the second half to get infrastructure projects off to a head start. "In addition to increased fiscal spending, multiple funding sources, "including public-private partnerships," will be used to fund infrastructure.

Related Article: Xi Jinping: 5 Things To Know About China's President

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A Metropolitan Police officer has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for trying to meet what he thought was a 13-year-old girl for sex while on duty.

Francois Olwage, who worked as a Detective Constable for the force's counter terrorism unit, was found guilty of three child sex offences at Winchester Crown Court earlier this month.

The 52-year-old had been accused of 'grooming' what he believed was a teenage girl he had met online and was arrested by police at a McDonald's in Basingstoke while purchasing a McFlurry she had asked him to buy.

Officers found he was carrying condoms, erection pills, lubricant and a Ferrero Rocher 'gift' for the young girl, his trial heard.

Francois Olwage, who works as a Detective Constable for the force's specialist operations unit, has been found guilty of three child sex offences at Winchester Crown Court

Jailing him for five-and-a-half years today, Judge Jane Miller QC said: 'As a police officer your conduct should have been expected to be of impeccable standards.

'The public expects to have faith in police officers and their integrity.

'By intending to take sexual advantage of a child you showed total disregard for your office.'

The court heard Olwage had been 'on duty working from home' when he started talking to the 'girl', who actually turned out to be an undercover police officer.

The undercover officer went by the username Smile Bear on the Lycos chat forum, and the pair moved to talking on WhatsApp, where the girl's name was given as Caitlin.

The trial heard that after two weeks of explicit sexual conversations in October 2021, Olwage, of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, arranged to meet the 'girl', who had told him that she lived in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

He was subsequently arrested by police when he went to meet the 'girl' on October 28, a date when he was listed as 'on duty working from home'.

Judge Miller said: 'By the fifth day you told her that you wanted chat about sex. You told her what you wanted to do with her and how she would enjoy it.

He was found carrying condoms, erection pills and lubricant (pictured) ahead of his meeting with the 'girl'

'We saw over 130 images of over 130 texts and heard two phone calls between you and an undercover police officer pretending to be Caitlin.

'We saw you suggesting you go to Basingstoke and we know you had booked a hotel room for the night.

'You asked Caitlin to stay longer. You asked her for dinner and told her about being with her the next morning.

'You were in McDonald's when you were arrested and buying a McFlurry ice cream that Caitlin had requested.'When searched, the officers found in his bag two condoms, a bottle of lubricant and a packet of Tadalafil erectile disfunction tablets.

There was also a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates which prosecutor Peter Shaw suggested was a present for the 'girl'.

Mr Shaw previously said that Olwage had sent a message ahead of the meeting to the 'girl' stating: 'Because of your age, things can go very wrong for us, I could be breaking the law, lose my job, social services be called.

'I do not want any of that for us so we can't meet tomorrow for anything sexual so it can only be about us meeting to chat and spending time together.'

Giving evidence to the trial, the undercover officer who posed as Smile Bear, who can only be identified as Max, said he had stated the girl was aged 13 and the defendant had replied: 'Are you OK chatting with me, I could be your dad?'

Olwage had been listed as 'on duty working from home' for the Metropolitan Police on the day he was arrested (file photo)

Olwage told the court that he 'never believed' Smile Bear was a 13-year-old girl and that he thought it was an adult 'playing out a fantasy'.

He also denied any sexual interest in children.

Olwage was convicted of attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause/incite a girl aged 13 to engage in sexual activity, and attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 following grooming.

He also pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to an offence of improperly exercising his police powers and privileges in order to receive the 'benefit of sexual gratification'.

The judge ordered the jury to find him not guilty of arranging/facilitating the commission of a child sex offence.

Defence barrister Adrienne Knight told the court that at the time of the offences Olwage was under extreme stress as he had just been through a messy divorce after his wife became pregnant with another man's child.

She added: 'He was trying to find a relationship, he was trying to find love, that is why he was on that website. He stumbled across the 13-year-old because of the way the police were operating on the website.

'If the police had not been present on Lycos that day he would not have been before the court. When he was vulnerable and looking for things he should not have been looking for he stumbled across the police.

'It was not entrapment but it came very close indeed.'

She added that he had sought counselling while in prison.

Ms Knight said that Olwage's sister had provided a character reference describing the family's shock and said his actions had been 'out of character'.

The sister also described how he was a 'caring' and 'dedicated' father-of-three who became a police officer for his 'desire to serve'.

The court heard that Olwage had served as a police officer in South Africa before coming to the UK, where he worked his way up from Hertfordshire Police to the Metropolitan Police.

One of his fellow officers told the judge that he had even been through heavy vetting before he obtained his role in the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

Detective Chief Inspector Andrea Dalton of the Vulnerable Children's Unit, which is based within Hertfordshire's Safeguarding Command said: 'This is a shocking case involving a serving police officer.

He was convicted of attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause/incite a girl aged 13 to engage in sexual activity, and attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 following grooming after a trial at Winchester Crown Court (pictured)

'I hope his conviction serves to reassure the public that offenders who commit this kind of crime will be brought to justice regardless of the positions they hold. The actions of Olwage are appalling and he has no place as a police officer.

'I thank my team of exemplary detectives for the professionalism they have shown. Investigating those who seek to harm children is incredibly difficult and the results they achieve make me exceptionally proud.'

Senior crown Prosecutor Marc Thompson from the CPS said: 'Francois Olwage had every intention of grooming and meeting a 13-year-old girl.

'He denied any sexual interest in children, yet the evidence we presented was strong enough for the jury to be sure he was guilty.

'Olwage's messages made it clear he believed he was in contact with a child. Despite this belief, he exchanged messages about sexual acts, and was grooming her.

'On the day he planned to meet with his victim, he abandoned his police duties to pursue sexual gratification from someone he believed to be a child.

'No actual children were in danger, but it has given us a glimpse into what this man is capable of doing when he thinks he can rely on the anonymity of the internet.

'This is made all the more serious because he has broken the trust of the public he has sworn to protect.'
The number of anti-Semitic attacks rocketed around the world last year with the UK, US and Germany seeing a huge rise in violent assaults, arson and vandalism against Jews, a report has found.

A study by Tel Aviv University found a surge in online hate speech, financial hardship caused by Covid lockdowns, and the intensified Israel-Palestine conflict last year all contributed to an increase in attacks against Jewish people and communities.

The success of the far-right and far-left in both political and online spheres has also fuelled the surge, as well as anti-Semitic conspiracy theories related to Covid, with social media playing an 'exceptionally alarming role'.

In the UK, 2,255 incidents were recorded in 2021, a 34 per cent increase on 2020 and up 24 per cent from the 1,813 in 21019

The intensified Israel-Palestine conflict last year which sparked global protests fuelled anti-Semitic attacks, the report says. Pictured: protesters outside Downing Street

The study also said: #Another factor contributing to the negative trend of a rise in anti-Semitic attacks is that some human-right activists began to exclude Jews and Israel from their struggles consciously.

'Racism, they argue, concerns African-Americans and African-Europeans, Roma, LBGTQs, indigenous minorities, asylum seekers, and foreign workers, but not Jews.'

The 28th annual report was published by the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, based on national data.

It found a 'significant increase in various types of anti-Semitic incidents in most countries with large Jewish populations'.

All the world's largest Jewish communities around the world outside of Israel saw an increase in incidents other than Italy and Argentina, who saw a slight drop and no change respectively.

In the UK, 2,255 incidents were recorded in 2021, a 34 per cent increase on 2020 and up 24 per cent from the 1,813 in 2019.

Of these, 173 were assaults, up 78 per cent on the year prior, and 82 were attacks on Jewish property, up from 74 in 2020.

Three incidents of extreme violence were recorded by the Community Service Trust, which are defined as attacks 'with the potential or intention of causing death or grievous bodily harm'.

The highest month of anti-Semitic incidents ever recorded in the UK occurred in May last year during the height of the Israel-Palestine flare-up.

In Germany, 3,028 crimes with an anti-Semitic motive took place, the highest figure in its recent data

The report coincides with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah, which begins tonight.

The US, which has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel with six million, anti-Semitic hate crimes in LA and New York nearly doubled from 2020.

The two cities have the largest Jewish populations in the US, and the NYPD recorded 214 hate crimes, up from 126 the year before, while 79 were recorded by the LAPD, up from 40 in 2020.

According to the study, 28 violent physical attacks against Jews took place across the country last year, compared to 12 the year before.

The American Jewish Committee found 82 per cent of Jews believe anti-Semitism has increased in the past two years, with 24 per cent saying they had been targeted.

In Germany, 3,028 crimes with an anti-Semitic motive took place, the highest figure in its recent data.

Australia, which has a Jewish population of 118,000, suffered 447 anti-Semitic attacks last year, up 35 per cent on 2020, and 21.5 per cent on 2019

The number was a 29 per cent increase on 2020 and a 49 per cent increase on 2019, both of which were previous records.

Australia, which has a Jewish population of 118,000, suffered 447 anti-Semitic attacks last year, up 35 per cent on 2020, and 21.5 per cent on 2019.

In May last year, the 88 incidents were the highest ever monthly total on record.

The head of the study, Professor Uriya Shavit, said: 'These data result from the strengthening in some countries of the radical populist right and the anti-Zionist radical left.

'Covid-19 angsts, and the economic hardships that followed, unleashed voices of hatred and prejudice. So did the conflict in Gaza in May 2021.

'Social media, with the echo chambers it cultivates, popularizes destructive conspiracy theories on which antisemitism thrives.'

The professor added 'something has gone terribly wrong' despite vast resources being pumped into eradicating anti-Semitism.
Vladimir Putin today slapped sanctions on 287 British politicians in tit-for-tat punishment over the UK's decision to take action against hundreds of Russian politicians last month.

Moscow's foreign ministry announced it had banned '287 members of the House of Commons' from entering Russia as they had been 'most active' in supporting sanctions against the Kremlin.

It accused them of whipping up 'Russophobic hysteria' with 'hostile rhetoric and 'far-fetched accusations'.

However, the ministry faced immediate embarrassment as it was highlighted how many of the 287 on the list were no longer actually MPs and so do not sit in the Commons, while others had been listed twice in administrative blunders.

This included former Conservative attorney general Dominic Grieve, who lost his seat at the last general election, and ex-Cabinet ministers Justine Greening and Oliver Letwin, who both decided not to stand for re-election in 2019.

Also listed was Charlie Elphicke, who was released from prison last year after his sex assault conviction.

The Kremlin list actually included only 266 sitting MPs, with 18 of those on the list now no longer MPs. Two MPs were listed twice, while one former MP - Mr Grieve - was also duplicated.

There are a total of 650 MPs in the House of Commons.

In a show of defiance against Mr Putin's regime, a number of MPs mocked the Kremlin's action today.

Conservative MP Ben Everitt raised the Kremlin's action at Prime Minister's Questions and joked that many MPs would not be 'rushing to change their summer holiday plans' in the wake of the travel bans.

In his reply, Boris Johnson said - although he did not want to 'disrespect' those British politicians who hadn't been sanctioned - that 'all those 287 should regard it as a badge of honour'.

'What we will do is keep up our robust and principled support for the Ukrainian people and their right to protect their lives, their families and to defend themselves,' he added.

'That's what this country is doing and that has the overwhelming support, I think, of the whole House.'

Moscow said it had banned 287 MPs from entering Russia as it accused them of whipping up 'Russophobic hysteria' with 'hostile rhetoric and 'far-fetched accusations'

Vladimir Putin took the action in tit-for-tat punishment over the UK's decision to sanction hundreds of Russian politicians last month

Boris Johnson, speaking at PMQs, told those MPs sanctioned by Russia they should 'regard it as a badge of honour'

Russia's Foreign Ministry faced immediate embarrassment as it was highlighted how many of the 287 on the list were no longer actually MPs - such as Justine Greening and Dominic Grieve

Labour MP Chris Bryant said he was 'absolutely distressed' he was not on the list and 'slightly surprised'.

'I can only assume that the Russian Federation accepts that every single thing I have said about President Putin over the last few years is true.

'He is a barbarous villain and we must make sure that he fails.'

Former Brexit secretary David Davis said: 'I see I have been sanctioned by the Russian government alongside many of my colleagues in Parliament. How will I ever cope'

His fellow former Tory minister Shailesh Vara said: 'I wasn't planning a visit to Russia, but being put on their banned list will not deter me from speaking out against Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and its barbaric war crimes.'

Conservative backbencher Stephen McPartland vowed to 'continue my unrelenting support of our Ukrainian allies', adding: 'Putin must fail.'

And Harriet Baldwin noted how Mr Putin had 'taken time out from bombing babies in Ukraine to sanction me and many colleagues'.

Many others expressed their hope they had been included on the foreign ministry's list.

Conservative backbencher Michael Fabricant posted on Twitter: 'Hope Im on it!!!'

And his fellow Tory Chris Clarkson added: 'Hope I'm on the list! Glory to Ukraine!'

Labour's shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said: 'MPs from across the House have been united in their support for Ukraine and in opposition to Vladimir Putins barbaric war.

'Putins trivial attempt to deter us will not work.'

On 11th March, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss sanctioned 386 members of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

It followed their support for the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which Kremlin-backed rebels have declared as independent territories.

The Duma members were banned by Ms Truss from trevalling to Britain, accessing assets held within the UK or doing business here.

Britain has sanctioned around 1,500 individuals and businesses since Mr Putin began his brutal assault on Ukraine.

In an attempt to cripple Russia's war machine, the UK has also sanctioned over 900 billion of global assets from banks, and targeted Putin-friendly oligarchs and their families with a net worth of approximately 200 billion.
Thousands of teachers across Victoria could be stood down from today for failing to get a third Covid-19 jab.

Victoria and the Northern Territory are the only states to mandate a booster shot for teachers.

All staff were required to have three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine by April 28, unless they have a medical exemption.

Around 2500 teachers and support staff may lose their jobs due to the rule.

Principals say the permanent loss of thousands of teachers due to vaccination mandates is heightening staff shortages in schools across the state.

Thousands of teachers across Victoria will be stood down today for not getting a third Covid-19 jab mandated by Daniel Andrews' government

More than 1300 state school teachers and 1300 private teachers had not met the vaccination guidelines as of December 2021, a spokesperson for the Red Union told the Herald Sun.

'Although some were vaccinated over the holidays, the fact that there is now a requirement for three shots means more teachers are now not meeting the mandate,' the spokesman said.

The three dose mandate also applies to visitors and volunteers to school grounds, however parents were recently exempt from the requirement.

Remaining teachers have been forced to combine classes in larger spaces to work around staff absences and cancel school excursions.

The Red Union spokesman said there were 'no excuses' for a mandated third jab which he said was crippling the workforce.

Victoria's three dose mandate also applies to visitors and volunteers to school grounds, however parents were recently exempt from the requirement. Pictured: Prep teacher Rachel Gathercole speaks about sanitizer to students at a Melbourne Primary School on May 26, 2020

He said the state had already seen the 'worst of Omicron' and there was 'no evidence staff having a booster would make any difference'.

President of the Victorian Principals' Association Andrew Dalgleish said schools were left with little option but to let employees without a booster shot go.

However, he said the majority of teachers believe in the merits of vaccinations or took up a third jab because they cannot afford to be unemployed.

The Department of Education states 99.2 per cent of the state's government teachers had received three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

A teacher who only received one dose said she was 'completely devastated' by her termination.

She spent more than 20 years at a government school teaching VCE but lost her job after deciding not to complete the full vaccination course because she suffered a bad reaction.

The woman said she could not obtain a medical exemption past four weeks.

'My job is everything and I have so many emotions,' she said.

Mandated vaccines for teachers and other essential workers has caused staff shortages across Victoria (pictured, attendees of a Freedom Rally in December, 2021)
A protester has launched tomatoes at Emmanuel Macron during his first election victory walkabout in France.

The reelected president was meeting voters at a market in Cergy, northwest of Paris, when he was targeted.

The En Marche! leader was not directly hit but it sent his security team into a frenzy, shouting 'Projectile!' as they tried to shield the leader.

A protester has launched tomatoes at Emmanuel Macron during his first election victory walkabout in France

Security opened an umbrella and Macron lifted his hands above his head as they tried to stop the rain of cherry tomatoes landing on him

They opened an umbrella and Macron lifted his hands above his head as they tried to stop the rain of cherry tomatoes landing on him.

The president can be heard saying, 'it's not serious', before he was ushered away by his bodyguards.

Another angle shows the protester launching himself from a table into the crowd, starting a scuffle, before he was detained.

It was the first time Macron took to the streets since Sunday's vote and the visit was only announced by the Elysee Palace this morning.

He chose the region where he received fewer votes than left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round in his bid to heal a divided France.

The reelected president was meeting voters at a market in Cergy, northwest of Paris, when he was targeted

The 44-year-old told voters today: 'I have come to say that I have heard the voices of each and everyone, and that I will continue to be committed to the neighbourhoods that are most in difficulty, of all the territories of our Republic that are most in difficulty, every day.'

Tensions are running high in France after another fierce election battle which saw Marine Le Pen gaining on the centrist pro-European leader but failing to seize power.

On Monday morning, hours after the result was announced, a knifeman shouted 'we have to kill Macron' as he stabbed a priest and a nun multiple times in an unprovoked attack.

The president can be heard saying, 'it's not serious', before he was ushered away by his bodyguards

Father Krzysztof Rudzinski, 59, was stabbed 20 times with a 7cm knife before Sister Marie-Claude, 72, was cut in the hand as she reportedly snatched the knife from the attacker.

French police arrested a 31-year-old French man from Frejus, southeastern France, after the attack at 10am in the Saint Pierre d'Arene church, Nice.

Macron beat Le Pen 58.5 per cent to 41.5 per cent to win re-election on Sunday but Le Pen produced her highest-ever level of support in her three attempts to become France's leader.

His win will be made official today and he will then hold a Cabinet meeting before setting a date for his inauguration ceremony, which must be held by May 13.

Macron faces a new election battle to keep his Republique en Marche party in control of France's National Assembly.

The centrist leader will be under pressure in the June polls to convince a divided nation to push through his election manifesto.

His tighter winning margin than in 2017 shows the discontent in France with his domestic record.

Five years ago, Mr Macron's party won 308 out of 577 seats in the lower house of parliament.

Voters will have to choose between Mr Macron's pro-EU agenda, Marine Le Pen's populist National Rally and the radical-Left France Unbowed party led by Melenchon.

If they can steal seats from Mr Macron's party or form a coalition to vote down many of his plans, he will effectively be left as a lame-duck president for five years.

Eric Zemmour of the hard-Right Reconquest party has suggested forming a Right-wing alliance to block the leader's reforms.

Mr Melenchon, who won 22 per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election, has said he should become the next French PM in the June polls.

He said: 'Macron's election is the worst result of the Fifth Republic. He swims in an ocean of abstentions and spoiled ballots.'

Turnout in French parliamentary elections is usually lower than the presidential vote and was just 42 per cent of eligible voters in 2017.

French economist Christopher Dembik said: 'He [Mr Macron] risks being a lame duck faced with major social discontent if he wants to implement sensitive reforms such as for pensions.'
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The mother of a University of Virginia student who was imprisoned in North Korea for more than a year before he was returned home in a vegetative state and died just one week later has said she is 'ecstatic' for the family of a United States Marine veteran who was finally freed from a Russian penal colony on Thursday.

Speaking to DailyMail.com Wednesday afternoon, Cindy Warmbier said she had spoken with the parents of Trevor Reed following the news that he was finally returning home after three years in Russian captivity.

'I am ecstatic,' she said, before her husband Fred added that they are both happy by the news and marked it as a good day for America.

'We don't want any other families to go through what we went through,' he told DailyMail.com on Wednesday, as he and Cindy prepare to mark the fifth anniversary of their son, Otto's, passing at a University of Virginia panel.

Otto, 22, was in his third-year studying commerce at the university when he joined a guided tour group to North Korea on December 29, 2015. He was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport just a few days later, on January 2, 2016, as he prepared to leave the communist country - and he was accused of stealing a political banner from his hotel.

Otto's trial lasted only an hour and in March, he was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment with hard labor.

But shortly afterward, Warmbier suffered a severe neurological injury from an unconfirmed cause and fell into a coma. North Korean officials did not disclose his condition until June 2017 - saying he fell into a coma after contracting botulism and taking a sleeping pill.

He was freed later that month, still in a comatose state, and was immediately brought to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for evaluation and treatment upon his re-entry into the United States.

Unfortunately, though, Warmbier never regained consciousness and died on June 19, 2017, just six days after he returned, when his parents requested his feeding tube be removed. A coroner's report later stated that he died from an unknown injury causing a lack of oxygen to the brain.

Cindy and Fred Warmbier said told DailyMail.com on Wednesday they are 'ecstatic' for the family of US Marine vet Trevor Reed, who was released from Russian custody earlier in the day

The Warmbier's son, Otto, was arrested while trying to leave North Korea in 2016 and was accused of stealing a political banner from his hotel. He was sentenced in a one-hour trial to 15 years of imprisonment with hard labor

Shortly afterward, Otto, 22, suffered a severe neurological injury from an unconfirmed cause and fell into a coma, but North Korean officials did not disclose his condition for months. He was finally released back into American custody in June, and died one week later

Now, five years later, the Warmbiers are on their way to return to the University of Virginia, where Gerard Alexander, an associate professor of politics and the director of the school's Think Again program, invited them to speak about their son's legacy.

Otto had been involved in the school's Theta Chi fraternity and was an active member of the school's Hillel, a Jewish undergraduate student group.

He was granted a posthumous degree in 2017, but now none of his old colleagues remain on campus, and in October, a piece of artwork honoring Warmbier was stolen from the Theta Chi house.

At the time, third-year student Ray Ruhlmann called the act one of 'foolish compulsiveness' and urged the thief to 'rectify [their] mistake,' according to the Cavalier Daily. The artwork was returned a few weeks later with a note apologizing for the 'disrespectful and inconsiderate act.'

After that, Alexander said he wanted students to remember Warmbier, whom he described as 'a Wahoo who was an active member of the community.'

He said that Warmbier was 'on his way to a J-term study abroad' when he 'underwent this nightmare,' adding: 'It's appropriate to just appreciate and remember his presence among us and remember his story.'

The panel discussion is expected to include remarks not only from Otto's parents, but also from Billy Burgess, one of Otto's best friends at the school, and 2017 alumnus Yeonmi Park, a prominent North Korean defector currently living in the United States.

Cindy said she hopes the conversation will make students realize that 'as much flawed' as America is 'it's still so much better' than some other countries - noting that Otto 'had no rights' and Trevor Reed 'probably didn't feel like he had any rights' either as he was detained in Russia.

Trevor Reed, 30, has languished in a Russian prison since 2019 after he was accused of drunkenly grabbing an officer's arm as he was being arrested. He was finally released Wednesday morning

Questions have already arisen about Trevor Reed's health after footage taken by Russian state media of a historic prisoner exchange showed Russian forces in camouflage and neck garters escorting the 30-year-old out of a dark-colored van Wednesday morning.

They then led Reed, of North Texas, by his arms to a private plane nearby as he held a large, dark duffel bag.

In the video, Reed appeared to be much thinner in the video than he was in photos taken before his arrest, with family members reporting that he recently underwent a hunger strike to protest being put in solitary confinement.

Reed was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven to a police station following a night of heavy drinking.

He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though his family maintained his innocence - and the U.S. government has described him as being unjustly detained.

Reed was finally released on Wednesday as part of a prisoner exchange, in which US officials agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S.

His parents, Joey and Paula, now say their 'prayers have been answered,' telling CNN New Day host Brianna Keilar: 'Obviously, we're ecstatic.'

Footage posted online showed the moment Russian forces escorted Trevor Reed, 30, out of a dark-colored van Wednesday morning

Reed was bundled up in a large black coat and carried his large black duffel bag, but looked thin after his family said he underwent a hunger strike

Reed was finally able to board a private plane back to the United States on Wednesday

Joey and Paula Reed revealed that they first received a phone call from the State Department informing them of their son's imminent homecoming early Wednesday morning - and were actually on the phone with Trevor when the president called.

They said they were still expecting more information from the State Department about when they could see him again, but noted that he had been flown to Turkey from Moscow - where Joey Reed said officers walked him past Yaroshenko 'like you see in the movies.'

The Reeds also revealed in the interview that their son had been moved to another prison earlier this week in Moscow, and now 'sounds kind of subdued.'

He is being examined by a doctor on the plane - as his family fears he may have tuberculosis. When they finally can see him again, Paula Reed said she is 'going to try not to cry,' and his father said he plans 'to hug him and not let him go.'

They are scheduled to once again meet with President Joe Biden, who told the couple that he would like to have them at the White House upon Trevor's return - to which Joey Reed said when that happens he and his wife would like to give the president a big hug.

Biden said he would give them a hug, in turn.

Trevor now plans to spend time reacclimating to American society before he re-enrolls in school in the fall, his parents said.

Reed had been in Russia visiting his girlfriend and learning Russian at the time. He is pictured in 2018 in Red Square in Moscow

Trevor reportedly was celebrating with his girlfriend, Alina Tsybulnik, and some of her co-workers the night he was arrested

Reed's release comes after months of his parents petitioning the Biden administration, and even protesting outside the White House as Reed underwent his hunger strike.

They noted to the president that Reed had served in the Marine Presidential Guard during the Obama administration, protecting the then-president and the current president in his job capacity.

Finally, on Wednesday, the president announced that Reed was free from Russian detention - something he vowed to do for other Americans being held in Russian captivity.

'Today, we welcome home Trevor Reed, and celebrate his return to the family that missed him dearly,' the president announced. 'Trevor, a former U.S. Marine, is free from Russian detention.

'I heard in the voices of Trevor's parents how much they've worried about his health and missed his presence. And I was delighted to be able to share with them the good news about Trevors freedom.

'Im grateful for the tireless and dedicated work of Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation John Sullivan, and many others across our government to ensure that Trevor came home safely.

'The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly.

'His safe return is a testament to the priority my Administration places on bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad.

'We wont stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends,' the president said, referring to a Canadian-born American resident who was arrested in Russia in 2018 and was accused of spying.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also tweeted on Wednesday morning: 'I am pleased that after years of wrongful detention by the Russian government, Trevor Reed has finally been freed and reunited with his family.

'We thank our partners for their cooperation and help to free Trevor.'

Reed, left, served as a Marine Presidential Guard during the Obama administration

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Wednesday that Trevor Reed had been reunited with his family

Reed was arrested in the summer of 2019, when he was visiting his girlfriend, Alina Tsbulnik, and studying Russian to fulfill his foreign language requirement for college. He was in the process of getting an International Studies degree at the University of North Texas at the time, Spectrum News 1 reports.

But on August 16, just days before he was set to return home to the United States, Reed went out on the town in Moscow, and was arrested.

'On the night he was arrested, they were having a party for Lina, and some co-workers in her building,' Paula Reed previously told Spectrum News. 'They were toasting, lots of vodka, because they knew Trevor was leaving next week. So he became severely intoxicated.'

From there, she said, the friends got a ride home - but had to pull over once Reed became ill.

'Then they couldn't get him back in the car,' Paula Reed recounted. 'And one of the other people in the car called the police.'

Russian officials said he grabbed the arm of an officer, as he was being taken to the station to be booked, causing the vehicle to swerve and 'endangering the lives of officers.'

At the time, the U.S. ambassador dismissed the allegation as 'preposterous' and noted that video evidence showed no swerving.

Reed's father then spent 14 months trying to get him out of jail - but in July 2020, he was convicted of endangering the lives of two policemen while drunk.

'According to our attorneys, basically every rule, every legal procedure that is supposed to be followed was essentially broken,' Joey Reed said. 'In Trevor's case more than they had ever seen.'

Reed was finally released back into American custody early Wednesday morning. He is pictured in March 2020 standing inside a defendants' cage during a court hearing in Moscow

The Reed family previously provided this undated photo of Trevor Reed with his mother Paula when he was still serving in the US Marines

In exchange for his release, the United States released Konstantin Yaroshenko, a smuggler

Ever since that trial, Reed has been serving time at a penal colony in Mordovia, where his family members have said his cell lacked a toilet and he never received any items brought to him by US ambassador John Sullivan.

There, his parents have said, Reed has been continuously punished for small things like not making his bed properly, according to ABC News.

'During the day, because the room has no real heating and there's cracks in the windows, you see your breath all day long. He coils up on the floor next to a hot water pipe to stay warm and then he's given violations for laying on the floor during the daytime,' Joey Reed has said.

And in June 2021, Tsybulnik reported that he had contracted COVID-19 while in prison, and had to be brought to the hospital.

'We have no opportunity to pass medicines to him, and we also don't know what kind of aid he receives there,' she was quoted as saying to the Tass news agency, according to the Financial Times.

More recently, Reed went on a hunger strike to protest being placed in solitary confinement, after his parents said he caught tuberculosis behind bars and was denied 'meaningful medical care' for that and a broken rib.

His parents reported just last month that Reed had been coughing up blood. They said he was moved to a prison hospital for ten days but was then returned to his cell without 'meaningful medical care beyond an X-ray which was taken incorrectly', they said.

'Trevor's Mordovian lawyer was able to see him (on Tuesday) and confirmed that Trevor began a hunger strike... to protest being sent back to solitary while injured and having TB,' the parents said in a statement.

Speaking to CNN last month, Joey Reed said: 'When they brought him back to his prison he said, "I need to go back. I'm still hurt and sick." And they put him to solitary confinement again, where he had been for most of the last seven months. So he is protesting that. That's against all Russian regulations and European human rights.'

His girlfriend at the time, Alina Tsybulnik, left, and his father, Joey Reed, right, attended court hearings in Moscow last year

In the weeks that followed, Reed's parents sought a private meeting with Biden and administration officials.

On March 8, they demonstrated at a speech the president was giving in Fort Worth, Texas, about helping veterans access better health care.

That same day, a White House official said that the president had called the Reeds afterwards and reiterated 'his commitment to doing everything he can to bring their son home, to staying in close touch with them through his national security team, and to finding a time to meet in person.'

Then on March 30, they demonstrated outside the White House to ask for a meeting.

Their wishes finally came true that day, when the Reeds discussed their son's service with the president in a 30-minute meeting.

'He listened intently to everything we had to say until we were through talking. We couldn't have asked for more,' Joey Reed told CNN.

Paula Reed added: 'We got to get it off our chest, all the things that we've been wanting to say to him, and it's done. We got to say what we wanted to say. He listened intently, and we're grateful for that.'

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden 'reiterated his commitment to continue to work to secure the release of Trevor, Paul Whelan, and other Americans wrongfully held in Russia and elsewhere, and to provide all possible assistance until they and others are free and returned home to their families who are advocating so passionately for their release.'

Family spokesman Jonathan Franks tweeted that the president was 'incredibly gracious' during his Wednesday evening meeting with the Reeds, who said the meeting left them feeling 'optimistic.'

'We want to tell him about our son - a little bit that he hasn't gotten from a report from someone,' Joey Reed told ABC News before the meeting. 'Remind him that our son added time to his Marine Corps service so he could be a presidential guard.'

The meeting marked the first time US officials had responded to their pleas for a prisoner swap.

The Reeds, above as they demonstrate in Lafayette Park near the White House on March 30, had been protesting in DC and trying to get a meeting with the president

They finally met with President Joe Biden that evening to discuss securing their son's release from a Russian prison

Joey and Paula Reed pose for a photo with a portrait of their son Marine veteran and Russian prisoner Trevor Reed at their home in Fort Worth, Texas, in February 2022

A poster photo of Reed in Lafayette Park near the White House in March 2022

Russian officials, meanwhile, had petitioned for years for the release of Yaroshenko, who was arrested in Liberia in May 2010, after undercover agents with the Drug Enforcement Agency uncovered evidence he planned to transport a large batch of cocaine.

According to court records obtained by ABC News in 2019, Yaroshenko was struggling financially at the time, when a colleague - Paddy McKay - said he knew someone who needed help with a big transportation job, and could pay handsomely for it.

Yaroshenko then met with McKay, and the man who identified himself as Nabil Habi in Kyiv in March 2010, when Hagi told Yaroshenko he could make millions of dollars if he agreed to help transport a large shipment of cocaine that would be coming from South America into Liberia.

Most of the drugs would be going to other destinations in Africa or Europe, but some would be headed to the United States.

Two months later, ABC News reports, he traveled to Liberia and met with a now-convicted drug smuggler named Chigo Umeh, who wanted to make the capital city a new major transshipment hub for drugs from South America.

Yaroshenko then agreed to the deal - saying he would transport more than four tons of cocaine from Venezuela to Liberia for $4.5 million and would make an additional $1.2 million to transport more drugs to Ghana, where he was told Hagi would arrange to send them to suppliers in the United States.

He was unaware at the time that McKay and Hagi were undercover informants for the DEA, and they also had their sights on Umeh, and was arrested as he made his transport.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges, describing them as fake, according to Russian news agency TASS, with his attorneys arguing that the US violated international laws and had essentially entrapped Yaroshenko - claiming the DEA recruited him for illegal activity and purposely made mention of a portion of the drugs going to the US just so the involvement of American law enforcement and courts would be justified.

Prosecutors, though, countered that Yaroshenko agreed to participate in the drug smuggling operation, and was aware that some of the drugs were destined for the US - putting him in American legal jeopardy.

They wrote in the court documents obtained by ABC News: 'Yarashenko carried out these activities with reckless disregard for the individuals and communities that would be harmed by these drugs, with utter indifference to the amount of power and funding this activity was funneling to various dangerous groups in the Americas and elsewhere.'

Yaroshenko was ultimately convicted in April 2011, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He appealed the case, but lost that as well.

By 2017, Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova officially requested that then-President Donald Trump pardon him. She announced one year later that the US government refused.

Then in 2020, his lawyer, Alexei Tarasov, said he had pleaded with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to free him due to the threat of COVID-19.

He was scheduled to be released in October 2027, but overnight, the US Bureau of Prisons updated its website overnight to reflect that Yaroshenko was no longer in custody.

Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in May 2010 after undercover agents with the Drug Enforcement Agency uncovered evidence he planned to transport a large batch of cocaine

Wednesday's prisoner swap marks the highest-profile release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad and comes even as families of detainees who have met over the last year with administration officials had described them as cool to the idea of an exchange.

In a statement, the Reed family thanked President Joe Biden 'for making the decision to bring Trevor home' as well as other administration officials and Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations whom the family said traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reed's release.

Reed was one of several Americans known to be held by Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was detained in February after authorities said a search of her bag revealed a cannabis derivative, and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, who is being held on espionage-related charges his family says are bogus.

It was unclear what if any impact Wednesday's action might have on their cases.
Professor Martin Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, said he appreciated the distress it was causing but urged women not to mix and match prescriptions

Desperate women are putting themselves at risk of 'serious side effects' trying to source HRT on the black market amid an NHS shortage, Britain's top GP has warned.

Surging demand and supply issues have left many struggling to access hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs that soothe symptoms of the menopause.

The most desperate women have resorted to swapping drugs in car parks, buying from strangers online and even rationing their prescription.

Professor Martin Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, said he appreciated the distress it was causing but urged women not to mix and match prescriptions.

He told The Guardian: 'The college is concerned to see supply issues around the provision of HRT, and we understand the distress this is causing to so many women.

'It is really important that this is resolved as quickly as possible.'

Professor Marshall added: 'While we appreciate the seriousness of the current situation and the frustrations women are experiencing, we urge them not to share HRT medication as this could lead to serious side effects.'

HRT side effects  which usually pass within weeks of starting a new drug  include breast tenderness, headaches, nausea and vaginal bleeding. Some effects can be unbearable and lead to women to abandoning the drugs, which relieve the tell-tale symptoms of the menopause.

Prescriptions have doubled in just five years as women and GPs become increasingly aware of the excruciating and wide-ranging symptoms of the menopause.

Surging demand and supply issues have left many struggling to access hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs that soothe symptoms of the menopause (a gel shown)

There were about 512,000 NHS prescriptions written for 'female sex hormones and their modulators' in England in February, the latest official data shows, compared to 265,000 in March 2017. Many of these will be HRT medications but some may include other female hormone drugs such as contraceptives

About 512,000 scripts were written in England in February, compared to 265,000 in March 2017, data shows.

At the same time, women have struggled to get their hands on the medicines  with two in three pharmacists facing daily shortages.

Labour and campaigners have accused the Government of 'bad planning', in failing to scale up orders to match demand.

Shortage of HRT may force women to become drug mules The HRT crisis could turn women into drug mules as they are forced to travel abroad to bring back vital treatment amid shortages, experts have warned. In recent months desperate women have been unable to access their preferred hormone therapy treatment needed to help alleviate debilitating symptoms of the menopause. Some have turned to the black market or even meeting up in car parks to swap medication. And yesterday the Daily Mail reported on a postcode lottery in England for alternative treatments. Now it has emerged some have looked to Spain where similar medication is sold over-the-counter. Campaigners are warning that women may end up relying on strangers to bring back HRT from abroad or may even become drug mules themselves. While it is not illegal to bring HRT medication into the UK from overseas, campaigners have likened it to drug mules due to the large number of women who could be forced to bring it back for others. Katie Taylor, CEO and founder of the Latte Lounge menopause support group, said women are posting on Facebook asking others to bring back products from Spain. Every day women are desperate, she said. Ive seen women post messages asking people to get them an equivalent in Spain. Its worrying because its a personalised medication and you need to make sure youve got the right type. Many are on the hunt for an alternative to Oestrogel, a type of HRT used by 30,000 women in the UK. Some claim a medication called Oestraclin is a similar treatment available in Spain. Advertisement

But ministers have blamed Covid-related global supply issues.

Sajid Javid announced this week that he intends to appoint an HRT tsar after experts warned the crisis could drive some menopausal women to suicide.

The Health Secretary said ministers would use lessons learned from the Covid vaccine rollout to make sure supplies were meeting the high demand.

Kate Bingham was made head of a taskforce whose sole responsibility was to source and buy huge quantities of jabs months in advance.

The most popular HRT medicine, called Oestrogel, has been in critically short supply since the start of the year.

Besins, the firm that supplies it to the NHS, has admitted it is struggling to meet extraordinary demand, but has pledged to increase production.

In the meantime, GPs have been forced to prescribe alternative gels, which do not always work as well or require an adjustment period that sees symptoms return.

And women are reluctant to try alternative treatments, or even go back to taking HRT tablets, which are not as popular because they have a higher risk of blood clots and strokes.

Last night, experts warned the HRT crisis could turn women into drug mules as they are forced to travel abroad to bring back vital treatment if the issue is not resolved.

It has emerged some have looked to Spain where similar medication is sold over-the-counter.

Campaigners are warning that women may end up relying on strangers to bring back HRT from abroad or may even become drug mules themselves.

While it is not illegal to bring HRT medication into the UK from overseas, campaigners have likened it to drug mules due to the large number of women who could be forced to bring it back for others.

Katie Taylor, CEO and founder of the Latte Lounge menopause support group, said women are posting on Facebook asking others to bring back products from Spain.

Every day women are desperate, she said. Ive seen women post messages asking people to get them an equivalent in Spain. Its worrying because its a personalised medication and you need to make sure youve got the right type.

Many are on the hunt for an alternative to Oestrogel, a type of HRT used by 30,000 women in the UK.

Some claim a medication called Oestraclin is a similar treatment available in Spain.

One woman shared a picture of it on Facebook, saying: You can buy this over-the-counter in Spain. Apparently it does the same job, just slightly weaker.

Labour MP Carolyn Harris, co-chairman of the UK Menopause Taskforce, said she had not heard of this happening but warned: Well have women turning into drug mules if were not careful. Its terrifying.

Struggling to find your usual HRT amid a shortage of the drug? There may be alternatives that you can use instead

With reports of women left feeling suicidal, and others being so overwhelmed by their menopausal symptoms it's jeopardising relationships and their ability to work, the knock-on effects of shortages in HRT are, by any measure, significant.

Options you can be prescribed Types of formulations that are available Oestrogen is available as a tablet and spray, but it's most commonly taken via a patch or gel rubbed on the arm or thigh. There are also creams, tablets and rings which can be applied to the vagina to alleviate symptoms of dryness. (BODY IDENTICAL) ALTERNATIVES TO OESTROGEL AND SANDRENA Patch: Evorel, Estradot, Progynova and Femseven mono. Spray: Lenzetto. Pills: Progynova and Elleste Solo. Pessary: Gina  inserted into the vagina to treat dryness and thinning of the skin. One tablet daily for the first two weeks, then twice a week. For women who have gone through the menopause. Earlier this year, the UK medicines watchdog, the Medicines And Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), launched a consultation on changing the Gina pessary from a prescription-only medicine to one that is available to buy from pharmacies. Women would still be able to get it on prescription. A decision will be made following the consultation, which ended on February 23. However, while it can successfully treat one symptom of the menopause  vaginal dryness  it won't help with others, unlike other forms of HRT, which will treat vaginal dryness as well as other symptoms. Other forms of body-identical oestrogen-only pessaries: Vagifem, Ovestin, Vagirux, Blissel and Imvaggis. Advertisement

Yet the chances of a fast solution seem slim. The Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced over the weekend that he's appointing a hormone replacement therapy tsar to try to tackle the problem, and said he would be 'urgently convening a meeting with suppliers to look at ways we can work together to improve supply in the long and short term'.

But with the number of HRT prescriptions soaring  they have doubled in five years and now number 500,000 a month in England alone  some manufactures are struggling to meet that target.

Much of the increased demand is being put down to the 'Davina effect'. Following the Channel 4 documentary last May, Davina McCall: Sex, Myths And The Menopause, during which the TV presenter revealed she uses an HRT patch and gel, GPs reported being 'inundated' with new requests for prescriptions.

She joined others to celebrate outside Parliament following the announcement last October that, from April 2023, women will have to pay only a one-off prescription cost (18.70) each year for HRT, rather than paying for multiple prescriptions throughout the year.

HRT  in the form of oestrogen-only or combined with progesterone  is given to restore declining levels of these hormones and help with some of the 30 or so symptoms that can occur as women approach and go through the menopause. These can include sleeplessness, hot flushes, joint pain, palpitations and memory problems.

The current shortages are affecting some formulations of so-called 'body identical' oestrogen-only HRT (which most women take in combination with separate formulations of progesterone). These contain oestrogen derived from yams or other plant sources, rather than synthetic versions of the hormones made in a lab.

The oestrogen in body identical formulations is known as 17 beta oestradiol. Some women prefer these 'more natural' formulations because the hormones are identical to the ones in your body.

The formulations of these products  in a gel, cream or spray  are also regarded as safer than tablets. This is because the hormone goes directly into the bloodstream, rather than passing through the gut and liver, where it can have a systemic effect and increase the risk of blood clots.

Shortages first became an issue in the UK at the end of 2018, affecting mainly Evorel oestrogen-only and combined patches. This was partly down to increased demand worldwide, with the manufacturer selling the same amount in the first six months of 2019 as in the whole of 2018. As Evorel made up 40 per cent of the UK market at the time, this became a problem.

Currently, there are no reported shortages of Evorel  but now it's Oestrogel, a popular oestrogen-only (body identical) gel, that is affected. The product's maker, Besins Healthcare (UK) HRT, says it is doing 'everything we can to manage, increase and expedite supplies'.

Other HRT products started to run short, too. One was another gel, Sandrena, although the maker said it is confident it will meet demand by the end of April.

Meanwhile, women are going to extraordinary lengths to try to get their regular HRT products  with some meeting strangers in car parks to swap supplies and others paying over the odds online to source HRT from the black market.

But there are alternatives to Oestrogel and Sandrena  as Haitham Hamoda, clinical lead for the menopause service at King's College Hospital in London and chair of the British Menopause Society, told Good Health.

Oestrogel could be replaced with a body-identical patch such as Evorel or Estradot, or a spray, Lenzetto, 'which offer an equivalent amount of oestrogen, with a similar effect by delivering it through the skin'. Or daily tablets, Progynova and Elleste Solo, could be taken.

Some women quite rightly worry that their menopause symptoms may return when they switch medication.

Mr Hamoda says 'it may take some trial and error' to get the right HRT product for each woman.

Another problem is that some doctors may not be familiar with all the other preparations that available, says Mr Hamoda.

Here (above right), we look for some alternatives for the current shortages in oestrogen-only body identical HRT. For a comprehensive list, visit the British Menopause Society website and 'show it to your GP', suggests Mr Hamoda.
Rep. Matt Gaetz lambasted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his No. 2 Rep. Steve Scalise as 'weak men' on Tuesday night after leaked audio revealed them criticizing Gaetz and a coterie of other firebrand Republicans following the Capitol riot.

The Florida congressman tore into McCarthy and GOP Whip Scalise for holding 'sniveling calls with Liz Cheney' that took place before the anti-Donald Trump Wyoming lawmaker was booted from House Republican leadership.

On Tuesday, The New York Times released fresh audio clips of McCarthy on a call with Scalise, then-House Republican Conference Chair Cheney, Rep. Tim Emmer and a handful of Congressional aides, where he relayed his fears that remarks by a vocal fringe minority could lead to violence.

Gaetz in particular, McCarthy warned, was 'putting people in jeopardy' for labeling some lawmakers 'anti-Trump' in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 insurrection.

'This is the behavior of weak men, not leaders,' Gaetz said in a statement on Tuesday night.

'While I was protecting President Trump from impeachment, they were protecting Liz Cheney from criticism. They deemed it incendiary or illegal to call Cheney and [GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger] "Anti-Trump," a label both proudly advertise today.'

McCarthy will have to face his party en masse for the first time since the audio tapes were released during a Wednesday House GOP Conference meetings.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his allies complained about the rhetoric being used by fellow GOP lawmakers including Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks, Lauren Boebert and Barry Moore during a private phone call in the days following the January 6 Capitol attack

In a lengthy Tuesday night statement, Rep. Matt Gaetz blasted McCarthy and GOP Whip Steve Scalise (left) for not sharing their criticism with him and the other firebrand lawmakers the leaders were going after -- despite McCarthy stating on the leaked audio that he would be 'calling' Gaetz to discuss his rhetoric. He attacked them for going to Rep. Liz Cheney instead, who at the time was the third-most powerful House Republican

But in his Tuesday night statement Gaetz indicated he may not take any explanations from McCarthy seriously. He also suggested that it was the first time he heard the senior lawmakers' comments, despite McCarthy stating on the recording that he would be 'calling' Gaetz.

'Rep. McCarthy and Rep. Scalise held views about President Trump and me that they shared on sniveling calls with Liz Cheney, not us,' the Florida lawmaker said.

He continued, 'On the bright side, you no longer have to be a lobbyist with a $5,000 check to know what McCarthy and Scalise really think.'

'You just have to listen to their own words as they disparage Trump and the Republicans in Congress who fight for him.'

But aside from some vocal dissent, McCarthy by and large appears to have the support of his colleagues to lead them next year -- which, if Republicans take back Congress in November's midterms, would make him Speaker of the House.

Rep. Jim Jordan, who like Gaetz is among Trump's staunchest allies in Congress, vouched for the besieged leader.

'Im for Donald Trump being the next president and Kevin McCarthy being the next speaker,' Jordan told Politico.

Another Republican lawmaker, Rep. Rodney Davis, told the outlet that 'nobody's talking about' the leaked audio and that he was 'excited' for 'McCarthy being the next speaker.'

McCarthy and his allies had complained about the rhetoric being used by fellow GOP lawmakers including Gaetz, Mo Brooks, Lauren Boebert and Barry Moore during a private phone call on January 10.

'Tension is too high, the country is too crazy,' McCarthy warned.

'I do not want to look back and think we caused something or we missed something and someone got hurt. I don't want to play politics with any of that.'

McCarthy and GOP leaders discussed comments Rep. Mo Brooks (left) made at the 'Save America' rally in the hours before the January 6 Capitol attack and things Rep. Matt Gaetz (right) said about 'anti-Trump' Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney

In one clip from the call, McCarthy is heard discussing comments Gaetz made on Newsmax, where he went after fellow Republicans for being 'anti-Trump.'

One of the Republicans Gaetz was critical of was Cheney, who blasted the outgoing president after the January 6 insurrection.

'This is serious stuff people are doing that has to stop,' the top House Republican grumbled, mentioning briefings he was receiving from the FBI.

'I'm calling Gaetz, I'm explaining to him, I don't know if I have much to say, but I'm going to have some other people call him too,' McCarthy continued. 'This is serious s**t, to cut this out.'

Scalise pushed that 'it's potentially illegal what he's doing.'

'Well, he's putting people in jeopardy,' McCarthy said. 'And he doesn't need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.'

Scalise, the House's No. 2 Republican, also pointed to comments made by Brooks and Rep. Louie Gohmert, including how Brooks said at the 'Save America' rally before the Capitol Attack that 'today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.'

'You got the Maxine Waters and all that stuff too, I know the Dems are in a very strong positions to drive a lot of things, but our members have got to start paying attention to what they say too, we can't put up with that type of s**t,' McCarthy said.

In the past, Republicans have gone after Waters, a California Democrat, for some of her rhetoric.

'You think the president deserves to be impeached for his comments? That's almost something that goes further than what the president said,' McCarthy said of Brooks' 'kicking ass' line.

On the call, Rep. Liz Cheney brought up Rep. Lauren Boebert (pictured), pointing out that she had tweeted members' movements during the January 6 attack.

Recording of McCarthy talking about Gaetz pic.twitter.com/a2SmXgJCKt  Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2022

On the call, Cheney brought up Boebert, pointing out that she had tweeted members' movements during the January 6 attack.

McCarthy asked if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene - often linked to Boebert over their shared, now disavowed, interest in QAnon - had been a speaker at former President Donald Trump's 'Save America' rally.

McCarthy is also told about tweets made from Moore.

'Wow, we have more arrests for stealing a podium on January 6 than we do for stealing an election on November 3, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit would be places I'd reccomend you start,' Moore wrote before deleting his personal Twitter account.

On the death of capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt he commented, 'I understand it was a black police officer who shot the white female veteran.'

'You know that doesn't fit the narrative,' the Alabama Republican tweeted.

McCarthy was also told about tweets sent out by Rep. Barry Moore (pictured) including on the death of Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt. 'I understand it was a black police officer who shot the white female veteran. You know that doesn't fit the narrative,' Moore wrote

After Moore's tweets were read aloud on the call, both McCarthy and Cheney are heard murmuring, 'wow.'

'Can't they take their Twitter accounts away, too?' McCarthy then said.

The sound bites released Tuesday were from the same call in which McCarthy told GOP leadership he'd tell Trump to resign - comments he continues to deny, despite the recording being released publicly.

The January 10 call was revealed by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, in a preview of their new book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future.

The comments prompted January 6 House select committee Chairman Bennie Thompson to announce Tuesday that the panel would issue 'another invitation' to McCarthy to testify.

Then the Democrat-led committee - which includes Republicans Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger - will decide whether to subpoena McCarthy and other Republicans, Punchbowl News said.
Casey Anthony is planning to tell her story in an upcoming TV documentary, a source has revealed - 11 years after she was acquitted of murdering her two-year-old daughter.

The source, reportedly a friend of Anthony's, told People that the 36-year-old pariah is 'getting ready to tell her truth' about the case through the project, which will air on a major streaming service.

According to the insider, Anthony has already begun cooperating with producers.

'She's waited almost 14 years to really talk deeply about her experience,' the source said Tuesday. 'She's now getting ready to tell her truth. She feels like it's time.'

The production would serve as the second time Anthony has ever spoken about the highly publicized disappearance of her daughter, Caylee, whose remains were found in a garbage bag a half mile from the family's Orlando home in December 2008.

Casey Anthony is planning to tell her story in an upcoming TV documentary, a source has revealed - 11 years after she was acquitted of murdering her two-year-old daughter. Pictured is Anthony, now 36, during her 2011 trial in Orlando

The production would serve as just the second time Anthony has ever spoken about the highly publicized disappearance of her daughter, Caylee, in 2008. He body was found after a six month search of Greater Orlando, and Anthony was arrested and charged with her murder

Caylee was last seen alive on June 16, 2008, and was reported missing to the Orange County Sheriff's Office by Casey's mother, Cindy Anthony, nearly a month later, on July 15.

In a 911 call, the grandmother told dispatchers she had not seen Caylee for 31 days and that she had smelled a foul odor emanating from her daughter's car, as if a dead body had been inside it.

Cindy Anthony also revealed that Casey Anthony had given inconsistent explanations when asked about the child's whereabouts. Later, she told her mother that she had not seen her for weeks.

Casey Anthony was subsequently arrested on July 16, 2008, and questioned at Orange County Jail.

During questioning, Anthony lied to detectives, telling them Caylee had been kidnapped by a nanny on June 9, that she had been trying to find her and that she was too frazzled to tell cops.

She told investigators the nanny was named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez. However, it was soon determined Anthony had no nanny and that the woman, an acquaintance of Anthony's, had never met her daughter, or other family and friends.

Anthony was charged the next day with giving false statements to law enforcement, child neglect, and obstruction of a criminal investigation. She was initially denied bail by a judge.

Caylee's disappearance sparked a six month-search for the tot, as thousands of volunteers looked for the toddler, following up on hundreds of leads

Caylee's remains were eventually found in a trash bag on December 11, 2008, a half mile from Anthony's home. The remains were identified as belonging to the tot roughly a week later

Her bail was initially set at $500,000 at a bond hearing on July 22, 2008, and she was released a month later when the bond was posted by the nephew of a California bail bondsman.

Months later, in October, she was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and four counts of providing false information to police, and was arrested again.

All the while, cops and thousands of volunteers combed Orange County and Greater Orlando for the child, whose remains were eventually found in a trash bag on December 11, 2008, with more remains found in nearby woods near Anthony's home.

The remains were identified as belonging to Caylee roughly a week later.

Jury selection for the trial began on May 9, 2011, and ended on May 20, 2011, at the Pinellas County Criminal Justice Center in Clearwater, Florida.

During the ensuing six-week trial, jurors were sequestered in a nearby hotel to minimize influence in the case, which captivated and angered the general public.

Caylee was last seen alive on June 16, 2008, and was reported missing to the Orange County Sheriff's Office by Casey's mother, Cindy Anthony, nearly a month later, on July 15

The 12 jurors and five alternates sat through 33 days of testimony - examining more than 400 pieces of evidence while hearing from 91 witnesses - as 40 million Americans watched it all unfold in real time, on live television.

The verdict was announced July 5, 2011 - with jurors finding Anthony not guilty on the first-degree murder count, as well as the manslaughter and child abuse charges.

The jurors did, however, find Anthony guilty on four counts of providing false information to police - charges that saw the mom handed a four-year prison sentence.

Anthony was given credit for time served in prison and was released on July 17, 2011, 12 days after the trial's conclusion.

The verdict shocked Americans, with many assuming Anthony would be found guilty of murder.

Anthony was subsequently arrested on July 16, 2008, and questioned at Orange County Jail. During her questioning, Anthony lied to detectives by telling them Caylee had been kidnapped by a nanny on June 9, and that she had been trying to find her, too frazzled to tell cops

Months later, in October, she was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and four counts of providing false information to police, and was arrested again. Pictured is Anthony, then 22, smiling as she attends a court hearing at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Florida, in 2009

A month after the verdict was announced, a male juror told People that none of the jurors 'liked Casey Anthony at all.'

'She seems like a horrible person,' the juror said. 'But the prosecutors did not give us enough evidence to convict.'

He continued: 'My decision haunts me to this day. I think now if I were to do it over again, I'd push harder to convict her of one of the lesser charges like aggravated manslaughter. At least that. Or child abuse.'

'I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and I didn't stand up for what I believed in at the time,' the unnamed juror said.

'They gave us a lot of stuff that makes us think that she probably did something wrong, but not beyond a reasonable doubt.'

The jurors have since kept a low-profile and many were forced to move after they were publicly named.

Anthony, too, has tried to keep a low-profile since the trial, living a quiet life in South Florida where she has tried to avoid the spotlight and the general public, who still hold her in an unfavorable light, the source close to the former convict told People Tuesday.

'Since she got out of jail, she's kept to herself,' the insider said, 'and people are always talking s**t about her. Every few months, a story about what she's doing is published, and you guys [the media] just say whatever you want to say.

'But now she feels like it's time for her to set the record straight and say what she needs to say. She wants her voice to be heard.'

Anthony has only spoken out about the case once, in a non-televised 2017 interview to the Associated Press (pictured). During the interview, Anthony conceded that her reputation amongst the general public was still in shambles - but said that she did not care

Anthony has only spoken out about the case once, in a non-televised 2017 interview to the Associated Press. During the interview, Anthony conceded that her reputation amongst the general public was still in shambles - but said that she did not care.

'I don't give a s**t about what anyone thinks about me,' she told the outlet. 'I never will. Based off what was in the media, I understand the reasons people feel about me. I understand why people have the opinions that they do.

'I didn't do what I was accused of, but I fought for three years. Not just for me, but for my daughter.'

During the interview, Anthony also revealed that she has attempted to maintain a social life in her new surroundings in West Palm Beach, where she currently works as private investigator, by drinking with friends at local bars.

Anthony told the outlet that during these outings, men would often voice their attraction toward her and buy her drinks, and that she had several short-lived romances since the trial.

Anthony made headlines last year after getting into a bar fight with a woman over a man the pair had both dated.

Cops were called to the scene at O'Shea's Irish Pub in West Palm Beach on May 22, 2021, where Anthony told police that the woman, named Thelma Moya, had poured a drink on her leg.

During the interview, Anthony revealed that she has attempted to maintain a social life in her new surroundings in West Palm Beach, where she currently works as private investigator, by drinking with friends at local bars. Here she is pictured at a bar in the South Florida city in 2019

Anthony made headlines last year after getting a into a bar fight with a woman over a man the pair had both dated. She allegedly get a drink poured on her. Bodycam footage shows Anthony detailing the May 2021 encounter to cops

'I'm still wet,' Anthony told the responding officer in the footage. 'I got a drink thrown at me. This girl has been harassing me for a while. I have her cellphone.'

Anthony launches into an explanation of the altercation, captured on police body cam, saying the shared ex was a West Palm Beach Police sergeant.

'She verbally assaulted me, but physically assaulted me with witnesses,' Anthony says. 'I am still damp from the drink she threw at me.'

When pressed by the officer to elaborate on the circumstances of the dispute, Anthony revealed: 'We dated the same person for a couple of years, Malcolm Allison...who is one of your sergeants.'

'Whether they're together or not together, she got upset that he had texted me. I let her know that he had. And she came inside and threw a drink at me.'

Anthony did not press charges against Moya.

Apart from the partying, the source said, Anthony has tried to keep a low-profile since the trial, living a quiet life in McKenna's South Florida home where she has tried to avoid the spotlight and the general public, who she says still hold her in an unfavorable light

Anthony also was seen at the same West Palm Beach bar in 2018 and 2019.

But for the most part, both Anthony and the source close to her have said, she now maintains a life largely of solitude, wary of others.

She currently lives in the South Florida home of Patrick McKenna, the 71-year-old private detective who served as the lead investigator on her defense team.

For the past several years, Anthony has been learning the ropes from the veteran sleuth, doing online social media searches and other investigative work.

McKenna was also the lead investigator for the defense in the murder trial surrounding OJ Simpson, who was accused of killing his wife, Nicole Brown, in 1994. He too was acquitted.

Anthony told AP that shes since become fascinated with the case, saying there are 'a lot of parallels' to her own circumstances. 'I can empathize with his situation,' she said.

It is unclear whether Anthony already has given her interview for the planned TV documentary. A release date has not yet been set.
A father and his teenage daughter have tragically died in a horror motorbike crash after a car doing a U-turn pulled out in front of their Harley Davidson.

Alan, 60, and Hannah Atherton were out on a joyride for his birthday on April 18 when they collided with a silver sedan on the Bruce Highway, south of Mackay, about 10.30am.

Mr Atherton died at the scene while Ms Atherton, who had been his pillion passenger, was flown to Townsville Hospital in a critical condition.

After spending 10 days fighting for her life, she passed away on Wednesday.

Tributes have begun pouring in online for the beloved teenager who has been remembered for her 'beautiful soul' and bright smile.

Heartbroken loved ones have revealed her legacy will continue as her organs are donated to help save the lives of others.

Hannah Atherton, 19, (pictured) has died after a horror crash on the Bruce Highway, in Central Queensland

The teenager and her father Alan Atherton, 60, (pictured together) collided with a car while out on a motorbike for his birthday. He died at the scene

Acting Inspector Anthony Cowan said the Athertons had been out with a group of riders on Easter Monday when tragedy struck.

He said initial investigations suggested a car travelling in the same direction stopped on the side of the road near McNeil Road at Koumala and did a U-turn in front of the motorbike.

'I believe there was a group of motorcycles and (the car) has given way for most of the motorcycles and theyve conducted a U-turn and not seen the last one, is what it appears,' he said, the Courier Mail reports.

The 63-year-old female driver of the car was taken to Mackay Base Hospital with moderate injuries.

Her four passengers - a man, 40, woman,34, and two kids, aged five and seven - were not injured.

Devastated friend Shakira Bickley said Ms Atherton was so excited to visit her dad in Mackay for his birthday after moving away from the town five years ago.

A friend said Mr Atherton died 'doing what he loved'. Pictured is his blue Harley Davidson

Police say initial investigations indicate the father and daughter collided with a car doing a U-turn on Bruce Highway at Koumala (pictured)

According to her social media profiles, Ms Atherton had recently relocated to Sydney and was employed by marketing company Bua Group as a fund raiser for charities.

Ms Bickley said losing her 'beautiful' best friend was something she would never have to go through, recalled the precious final moments she spent with Ms Atherton hours before the tragedy.

'On the Sunday night before everything happened, Hannah and I drove and got ice-cream,' Ms Bickley wrote on Facebook.

'We drove around Mackay looking over a city we once called home. We pulled up to mine and said our goodbyes and that we will see each other very soon as she was planning to come visit me in Gold Coast.

'One last hug and one last "love you" as I closed the door.

'As hard as it is, Im glad this was our last conversation. Im glad you got to hear how much I love you.'

Ms Bickley said she hoped her friend's organs would go 'to a soul just as beautiful as hers' and it was a 'true blessing' being able to 'say one last goodbye at the hospital'.

Friends have remembered the teenager as a 'beautiful soul' and have revealed her organs will be donated to save other lives

'Getting to hold your hand and seeing you at peace is something Ill appreciate forever,' she continued.

'May you and your dad ride into the beautiful sunset together.

'Both loved each other so much and I couldnt think of a better person you could be leaving this world with.'

Friend Mekenna Bowman said Ms Atherton was 'one in a million with a smile that could've lit up the whole world'.

'My heart is shattered,' she said.

'You will be missed dearly, you put up a hell of a fight, a fight no one would ever go through. You made me proud no matter what you did and with every decision you made.

'I miss your cheeky laugh that we all knew was you the second we heard it, I miss your sarcasm and most of all I miss your smile.'

Bua Group issued a statement on Instagram saying it was 'difficult to comprehend' the death of their beloved worker.

'We Love You Hannah,' it read.

Ms Atherton had recently moved to Sydney and was working as a fundraiser for marketing company Bua Group

'Thank you for being such an important part of the Bua Family, you enriched us all with your enthusiasm, passion & resilience.

'We are better for knowing you, but the world is a little less bright with your passing.'

Kirrilea Smyth, a friend of Mr Atherton, said he died doing what he loved.

'Sending all the fighting strength to your beautiful daughter,' she wrote.

'You went out doing something you dearly loved, may you ride high in heaven.'

Police said initial reports indicated the impact of the collision caused the sedan to flip on its side, blocking the northbound lane, as members of the public rushed to render assistance.

Ms Atherton was airlifted to hospital in a rescue helicopter after suffering head injuries, while police closed the road in both directions to investigate the scene.

Pictured: A rescue helicopter at the scene of the crash, which airlifted Ms Atherton to hospital

The car's driver sustained pelvic and shoulder injuries and was treated at Mackay Base Hospital, where her passengers were also taken as a precaution.

Forensic Crash Unit investigations continue and anyone with relevant dashcam footage from that area or information that could help is urged to contact police.

Inspector Cowan described the desolate stretch of highway as a 'danger zone' as it is notorious for accidents due to driver fatigue.

He said authorities would up patrols and improve signage after there has been three deaths in the area so far this year.

'Theres a big fatigue zone there especially coming 10 hours north of Brisbane and theres not much around,' he said.

'People dont realise theyre tired until it is too late.'

The tragedy brings the death toll on the Bruce Highway near Koumala so far this year to four after a woman and man were killed in two separate crashes.

A 50-year-old man died north of Koumala in February after his car collided with a truck, while medical student Yi-Jing Zeng died in a similar crash just south of Sarina last month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a speech commemorating the 36th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in which he lambasted Russia's "completely irresponsible actions" towards nuclear power plants throughout its invasion and called for "global control" of the Moscow's nuclear capabilities.

"Every year on April 26, the world remembers the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear disaster in human history," Zelenskyy said. He went on to say that this year "it is not enough just to remember Chernobyl" as Russia generated new dangers that "could surpass even the worst accident."

The Ukrainian President recalled the night of March 4, when the biggest nuclear power facility in Europe, Zaporizhzhia, caught fire when Russian forces began pounding the complex during the invasion, as per a Fox News report.

"They knew exactly which object they were firing at but they had an order to seize the object at any cost," Zelensky said.

He claimed that the Russian forces "did not care about anything."

"They did not care that the Zaporizhzhia station was the largest in Europe. They didn't think about how many power units there are and how the shelling could end," President Zelensky said.

Zelenskyy discussed with world leaders that night, including US President Joe Biden.

Today marks 36 years since #ChNPP tragedy. It took the lives of tens of thousands of people and made the world realize the danger of careless handling of the "peaceful atom". Regretfully, not everyone realized. Now RF's actions at  NPPs threaten humanity with a new catastrophe.    (@ZelenskyyUa) April 26, 2022

Zelenskyy stated that Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency visited him in Kyiv to mourn the Chernobyl accident and promise his assistance.

They talked about all the threats generated by Russia and how to defend Europe and the rest of the globe from Russia's "completely irresponsible actions."

He also called for a global takeover of Moscow's nuclear capacities.

Russia Accuses Ukraine Of Developing Nuclear And Chemical Weapons

On Tuesday, Russia alleged that Kyiv is developing nuclear weapons to justify its attacks with US support.

"The need for demilitarization is due to the fact that Ukraine, saturated with weapons, poses a threat to Russia," Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said, as reported by government-owned news agencies per New York Post.

The Russian official also accused Ukraine of developing chemical and biological weapons.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, on the other hand, criticized Patrushev's remarks, calling them "very dangerous." for "Nobody wants to see a nuclear war."

"I think this any bluster about the use of nuclear possibility, of use of nuclear weapons, is very dangerous and unhelpful," Austin told members of the press.

In December 1994, Ukraine agreed to hand over its nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union in exchange for security assurances from Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Read Also: Old Vladimir Putin Video Threatening of Nuclear War if Russia Gets Attacked Goes Viral: Here's What He Said

Remembering The Chernobyl Tragedy

A Chernobyl nuclear power station reactor in what was then Soviet Ukraine melted down and exploded on April 26, 1986.

Massive clouds of radioactive smoke and dust erupted from the reactor, forcing mass evacuations from the neighboring town of Pripyat, where the plant's employees' families lived, and establishing a restricted zone still in effect today, per Daily Mail.

In the days after the explosion, 28 staff members and emergency workers perished from radiation poisoning, and also two workers died directly in the blast.

However, research conducted in the years following the incident found a significant rise in thyroid cancer cases among those residing near the nuclear plant.

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) documented about 20,000 cases of thyroid cancer in children and adolescents who were exposed at the time of the nuclear plant mishap between 1991 and 2015.

Related Article: Volodymyr Zelensky Wife: Who Is Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine?

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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Family members, foreign dignitaries and D.C. political elite poured into the Washington National Cathedral on Wednesday to mourn the loss of Madeleine Albright, the U.S.'s first female secretary of state.

President Biden delivered a eulogy and former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, who also served as secretary of state, offered remarks, along with Albright's three daughters, Alice, Anne and Katherine. The Clintons' daughter Chelsea attended with them.

Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and former secretaries Condoleezza Rice and John Kerry were all in attendance, as are Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA Director Bill Burns and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, along with a bipartisan delegation from Congress.

Albright died of cancer last month at 84.

Hillary Clinton, who said she was the one who nudged her husband to bring Albright into his administration, called for the U.S. to fight 'dictators and demagogues' in its own Capitol, in the spirit of Albright.

'We must heed the wisdom of her life and the cause of her public service. Stand up to dictators and demagogues, from the battlefields of Ukraine to the halls of our own Capitol. Defend democracy at home just as vigorously as we do abroad,' she said.

Clinton said that Albright 'continued to issue warnings about the dangers posed by authoritarianism and fascism,' alluding to Trump-aligned Republicans involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 'She knew better than most and she warned us in her book on fascism, that yes, it can happen here.'

'As Bill said during the last phone call, two weeks before she died, she talked about the importance of what President Biden is doing to rally the world against Putin's horrific invasion of Ukraine, and the urgent work of defending democracy at home and around the world.'

'In the 20th century freedom had no greater champion than Madeleine Korbel Albright,' Biden began his eulogy.

'She could go toe to toe with the toughest dictators then turn around and literally teach a fellow ambassador how to do the Macarena on the floor of the UN Security Council. Don't think I'm kidding, I'm not kidding,' Biden quipped.

'She thought it was too difficult to teach me how to dance. She was right,' he added.

'She made sure that young women knew they belonged in every single table, having to do with national security, without exception.'

Obama throws his arm around his former VP, President Biden, at the funeral for Madeleine Albright

The former No. 1 and No. 2 in command exchanged hushed words at Albright's service

Biden said that Albright kept his Foreign Affairs Committee 'really busy' in the 90s as she worked to halt genocide in the Balkans and prop up new democracies in eastern Europe and Colombia.

'She always on top of the latest developments, always speaking out for democracy and always the first to sound the alarm about fascism,' Biden said. 'It was not lost on me that Madeleine was a big part of the reason NATO was still strong and galvanized as it is today.'

World leaders have traveled across the globe to pay their respects, including the presidents of Georgia and Kosovo and senior officials from Colombia, Bosnia and the Czech Republic.

Born Marie Jana Korbelova in Prague on May 15, 1937, her family fled in 1939 to London when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia to escape Nazis and communists.

She attended school in Switzerland at age 10 and adopted the name Madeleine.

She was raised a Roman Catholic but after she became secretary of state, the Washington Post dug up documentation showing that her family was Jewish and relatives, including three grandparents, died in the Holocaust.

Three presidents and two first ladies sit front row at the funeral, missing Jill Biden

Biden pulls his mask down as Barack Obama looks to be explaining something and Hillary reads the program as she sits next to daughter Chelsea, with Al Gore on the other side

'She could go toe to toe with the toughest dictators then turn around and literally teach a fellow ambassador how to do the Macarena on the floor of the UN Security Council. Don't think I'm kidding, I'm not kidding,' Biden quipped

Biden shakes hands with Hillary Clinton after arriving at Madeleine Albright's funeral

Barack and Michelle Obama chat with Bill and Hillary Clinton at the funeral

Family members of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrive for her funeral at the Washington National Cathedral

Albright's family members console each other

The casket of former Secretary of State Madeleine Korbel Albright is carried into the Washington National Cathedral

Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell arrive at the funeral

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley (L), US Climate Envoy John Kerry (2nd L), former Defense Secretary William Cohen (2nd R) and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (R) arrive for the funeral service

Her parents likely converted to Catholicism from Judaism to avoid persecution as Nazism gained strength in Europe, the paper reported.

After the war, the family left London and returned to Czechoslovakia, then in the throes of a communist takeover.

Her father, a diplomat and academic who opposed communism, moved the family to the United States where he taught international studies at the University of Denver.

One of his favorite students was Condoleezza Rice, who would become the second female secretary of State in 2005 under Bush 43.

'It is quite remarkable that this Czech emigre professor has trained two secretaries of state,' Albright told the New York Times in 2006.

Albright attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and got a doctorate from Columbia University.

She became fluent or close to it in six languages including Czech, French, Polish and Russian as well as English.

In 1959, she married newspaper heir Joseph Medill Patterson Albright, whom she met while working at the Denver Post, and they had three daughters.

Clinton selected her as secretary of state in 1996 for his second term- she had been his United Nations ambassador before that.

Hillary Clinton delivers remarks on the passing of Albright

Bill Clinton said that after Albright's first four years in the administration, 'she continued to defy expectations, and sometimes raise eyebrows'

Clinton said that after Albright's first four years in the administration, 'she continued to defy expectations, and sometimes raise eyebrows.'

'She made us laugh she made us cry some of us she made mad,' the former president said. 'Today we see in Ukraine all too tragically what Madeleine always knew that the advance of freedom is not are inevitable or permanent.'

He said he spoke to Albright about two weeks before her death. Clinton said that when he asked Albright about her health, she said, 'Let's don't waste any time on that. The only thing that really matters is what kind of world we're going to leave to our grandchildren.'

'I'll never forget that conversation as long as I went, it was so perfectly Madeleine.'

'In her last memoir, she shared the urgency that she always felt she wrote, There is no shortage of worthwhile work to be done, and no surplus of seasons in which to do it,' Hillary Clinton added in her own address. 'That is the wisdom of a woman who learned too early in life that life is fragile. Freedom can't be taken for granted.'

'I was privileged to know Madeline through many seasons of our lives, and she was always in a hurry to do good.'

'When dictators dragged their feet or ambassadors filibustered Madeline never hesitated to speak up,' Hillary Clinton said.

'A dozen times a day she would ask her team what's next? Turning her boundless energy and intellect to yet another crucial global challenge. She was irrepressible, wickedly funny, very stylish, and always ready for a laugh. She brought the same energy to her friendships as she did to her diplomacy,' Clinton added. 'Yes, it's true. She did teach the foreign minister of Botswana, the Macarena at a UN Security Council meeting and snuck off early from an official event to do the tango in Buenos Aires.'

After assuming the role of secretary of state in 1997, Albright quickly made a name for herself as the Clinton administration's chief hawk. 'My mindset is Munich,' she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.

She championed the 78-day bombing of Serbian-led Yugoslavia over the persecution of Kosovo Albanians, which was dubbed 'Madeleine's War.'

Albright was also an architect behind the Clinton administration's expansion of NATO into former Soviet territory, almost up to Russia's borders, a move which some have argued spurred a feeling that the West was out to get Russia, a line Vladimir Putin has used to drum up support at home for his attack on Ukraine.

She also presided over the post-Gulf War sanctions on Iraq, on paper to compel Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait in the early 2000s. The maximum pressure campaign inflicted damage on Iraq in hopes of destabilizing Saddam Hussein's regime.

Albright drew controversy when in a 1996 interview with Leslie Stahl, she was asked: 'We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?'

Albright's daughter Alice described her as a devoted mother who called every day, sometimes twice.

'She was an optimist who worries a lot and we can all attest to her worries. She was incredibly protective,' Alice Albright said.

Alice said that her mother would call her every day at exactly 6:35 p.m., and ask, 'How are the boys? How was work? When is your next trip? Are you going running tonight? Don't forget it's dark out.'

She told of how her mother taught right up until the end of last year when her health took a turn for the worst. Alice said the dedicated professor even brought a binder full of students' papers to the hospital with her, reading and grading them from her hospital bed.

Madeleine Albright photographed in 2019 and in 1945

President of the Republic of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, left, together with Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, center and Former US president Bill Clinton walk through the main square of Pristina during the ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of ending the war in Pristina, Kosovo, in June 2019

Former US Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright listen to a speaker after Clinton received the 2013 Lantos Human Rights Prize during a ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington in December 2013

Albright replied 'I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it.'

The secretary later said that the 500,000 figure was highly inaccurate, but apologized. 'I had fallen into a trap and said something I did not mean,' she wrote in her 2006 book regretted coming 'across as cold-blooded and cruel.'

During Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016, Albright endorsed her introducing her with the phrase 'There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other!'

She later apologized for that remark too, after critics said it seemed like she was saying women who don't support Clinton belong in hell.

For years after leaving the Clinton administration, Albright remained a fixture in Washington - attending galas like the White House Correspondents' Dinner, book talks and other events. In 2012, she even took over the drum set at a Kennedy Center's Thelonious Monk jazz competition.

She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Barack Obama in 2012.

In 2009, she released the book, Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box, which detailed the ornate pins she wore with her outfits - and what they were meant to convey.

Balloons or flower pins would indicate she felt optimistic, while a crab or turtle would indicate frustration.

One favorite was a snake brooch, a reference to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein calling her an 'unparalleled serpent.'

One of her last public appearances was as a speaker at former Secretary of State Colin Powell's funeral in October.
The Russian pilot who was swapped for US Marine Trevor Reed on Wednesday had never set foot in the US before he was arrested for plotting to transport four tons of drugs he was told would eventually make their way to America.

Konstantin Yaroshenko, 53, was arrested in Monrovia, Liberia, in May 2010 for allegedly planning to move thousands of kilos of cocaine, hundreds of which were destined for the US.

A judge called it 'probably one of the largest conspiracies that this court has ever encountered,' according to court documents reviewed by DailyMail.com.

Struggling to make a living, he was offered up to $5.7million by a Nigerian drug kingpin to fly them from South America to cities in Africa, court documents state.

As the deal was finalized, a US Drug Enforcement Agency informant who facilitated the meetings between Yaroshenko and the kingpin repeatedly told him the drugs would later make it to the US, possibly on diplomatic baggage aboard a commercial flight.

But the DEA shut down the undercover operation before any drugs even left South America.

Defense lawyers for Yaroshenko - who served three years in the Russian military - accused US official of giving themselves 'manufactured jurisdiction' over the case by mentioning the US enough times to justify their involvement, according to ABC News. They also accused the US of acting like the 'world's police'.

The Russian Foreign Ministry even accused the US of 'kidnapping' a Russian citizen from a 'third country.'

But US officials argued the pilot knew what he was getting into when he accepted the money.

In April 2011, Yaroshenko was convicted by a jury of a single count of conspiracy in Manhattan federal court. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Until Wednesday, he was held at the low-security FCI Danbury in Connecticut, about 70 miles north of New York City.

Konstantin Yaroshenko, 53, was arrested in Monrovia, Liberia in 2010 and charged with one count of conspiring to manufacture and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine

Prosecutors say the pilot, who served in the Russian military, agreed to take millions of dollars to transport cocaine from South America to Africa knowing it would end up in the US

He was convicted by a jury in April 2011 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was held at FCI Danbury in Connecticut (above) until he was swapped in a prisoner exchange on Wednesday

The US exchanged Yaroshenko for US Marine Trevor Reed (pictured). Reed was convicted in a Russian court of endangering the lives of two policemen while drunk in Moscow in 2019

Yaroshenko was born in Rostov-on-don near the Ukrainian border in 1968.

His family was well known in the city for their work at a helicopter factory in the area, according to his attorneys.

He served in the Russian military for three years and went to civilian flight school. He went back to the helicopter factory, but it 'fell on hard times' after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, defense documents say.

He then began working with flight crews around Africa, sometimes going back home to Russia to drive a taxi.

US prosecutors have a different take on his back story.

According to them, he was 'an aircraft pilot and aviation transportation expert who transported thousand-kilogram quantities of cocaine throughout South America, Africa and Europe' using five different planes.

They noted that his shipments went from South America to Liberia, and from Liberia to other part sof West Africa.

Yaroshenko was offered a transportation job by a man he knew, Paddy McKay. He then flew to Kiev, Ukraine to meet with McKay and Hage in March 2010.

Hage explained that he would be transporting cocaine from South America to Africa, with some of it making it to the US from there, according to court documents reviewed by ABC News.

Mackay and Hage were both DEA informants who were already working on a case involving Chigbo Umeh, a Nigerian drug smuggler who was allegedly trying to turn Monrovia, Liberia's capital, into an international drug trafficking hub.

Yaroshenko flew to Monrovia and met Umeh, along with informant Hage, on May 13.

As they haggled over a price, Yaroshenko told Umeh: 'My friend, I know all prices from working from Latin America to here,' according to transcripts of recordings obtained by The Guardian. 'I know all prices.'

Yaroshenko was arrested in Monrovia, Liberia after meeting with a Nigerian drug kingpin who promised to pay him a combined $5.7 million to pilot planes carrying cocaine

Yaroshenko agreed to $1.2 million to transport 700 kg of cocaine to Accra, Ghana's capital.

The informant claimed that 200 kg of that would be put on 'diplomatic baggage' aboard a commercial Delta flight headed to the US.

Yaroshenko also agreed to $4.5 million for a future shipment of five tons from Venezuela to Liberia.

They waited for days for a plane to leave Venezuela with the drugs destined to Africa - and later, purportedly, the US.

An associated called and said the plane had been stopped by Venezuelan authorities at the airport.

DEA agents then swooped in and ended the operation, though no drugs ever made it to Africa, much less the US.

Yaroshenko was arrested in May 2010 and sentenced in April 2011 to 20 years in prison

He was held in Liberia before he was extradited to the US. He claimed Liberian authorities tortured him for hours by beating him 'in the stomach, head, genitals and legs,' according to court documents.

'During those moments between the torture and my unconsciousness, I cried and prayed for death so I would not have to feel the pain and the beatings could stop,' he said.

The next month, Yaroshenko, Umeh and two associates were on trial in the US.

Yaroshenko was charged with one count of conspiring to manufacture and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, which carried a minimum of 10 years in prison.

Chigbo Umeh, the Nigerian smuggler who cut a deal with Yaroshenko, was sentenced to 30 years

He was sentenced to 20 years. Umeh was sentenced to 30.

Yaroshenko appealed, but lost.

He asked for compassionate release in December 2020, citing health issues including hypertension, hemorrhoids, muscle spasms with panic attacks, PTSD and diarrhea, according to court documents reviewed by DailyMail.com.

He also cited the risk of COVID-19 as he slept in a bunk bed only '46 inches away from the next set of bunks.'

The request was denied in September 2021.

During his trial, defense lawyer argued that the US violated international law and trapped Yaroshenko. They said the US 'manufactured jurisdiction' by having their informant mention the US multiple times, though Yaroshenko had never been to the country and never agreed to fly drugs there.

'This man had never set foot in the US,' his attorney told ABC News.

'He doesn't know anything about the US. The only connection to the US is in this case [is] during the discussions the government agent mentioned the US a couple of times.'

Prosecutors admitted that Yaroshenko had never been charged or convicted of any crimes before the Liberia meetings.

'As in this case, the DEA agents travel across the globe to perform the function of the world's police, but in reality they act as a lawless gang,' the Russian pilot's defense lawyers said in a filing.

Russian officials decried the US's pursuit of their citizen.

'Effectively, we're talking about a kidnapping of a Russian citizen from a third country,' the Russian Foreign Ministry said in July 2010, a couple months after Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia.

He was held in FCI Danbury in Connecticut.

On Wednesday, US Marine Trevor Reed was released from a Russian jail in a prisoner exchange with the US.

Footage taken by Russian state media of a historic prisoner exchange showed Russian forces in camouflage and neck garters escorting 30-year-old Trevor Reed out of a dark-colored van Wednesday morning.

They then led Reed by his arms to a private plane located nearby as he held a large, dark duffel bag carrying his belongings.

Footage posted online showed the moment Russian forces escorted Trevor Reed, 30, out of a dark-colored van Wednesday morning

Reed was bundled up in a large black coat and carried his large black duffel bag, but looked unseemly thin after his family said he underwent a hunger strike

Reed was finally able to board a private plane back to the United States on Wednesday

Reed appeared to be much thinner in the video than he was in photos taken before his arrest, with family members reporting that he had recently underwent a hunger strike to protest being put in solitary confinement.

Reed was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven to a police station following a night of heavy drinking.

He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though his family maintained his innocence - and the US government has described him as being unjustly detained.

His parents have said that he was denied medical care and went on a hunger strike during his time in Russian jail.

Trevor had been spending the summer of 2019 in Russia, visiting his girlfriend and studying Russian. However, just days before his return to the US a night out in Moscow sent everything spinning into chaos.

Trevor Reed standing inside a defendants' cage during a court hearing in Moscow in July 30, 2020. His parents, Joey and Paula Reed, reported earlier in March that their son had been coughing up blood after possibly contracting tuberculosis from a cellmate

Trevor Reed standing inside a defendants' cage during a court hearing in Moscow on March 11, 2020. He was held in the IK-12 gulag in Mordovia, a penal colony

According to the Russian version of events, on the night of August 16, Reed was arrested after he got drunk and allegedly grabbed the arm of an officer as he was being taken to a station to be booked, causing the vehicle to swerve and 'endangering the lives of officers'.

At the time, the US ambassador dismissed the allegation as 'preposterous' and noted that video evidence showed no swerving.

Speaking to CNN last month, his father Joey Reed said: 'Trevor had some sort of injury where he thinks he might have a broken rib. Plus, he has all the symptoms of active tuberculosis. He went to a prison hospital for about 10 days. And then they didn't treat him. They took an X-ray that didn't work.

Reed's parents, Paula and Joey Reed, met with President Biden to secure Trevor's release in March

The Reeds had been protesting in DC and trying to get a meeting with the president

'And when they brought him back to his prison he said, 'I need to go back. I'm still hurt and sick.' And they put him to solitary confinement again, where he had been for most of the last seven months. So he is protesting that. That's against all Russian regulations and European human rights.'

He was also on his second hunger strike at the time, after going on one last year, motivated by his unjust incarceration and alleged human rights abuses he had suffered at the hands of the Russian penal system in his gulag.

He called it off almost a week later having lost weight. Russia's prison authority denied he had been refusing food or that his rights were being violated.

Reed's parents, Paula and Joey Reed, met with President Biden to secure Trevor's release in March.

'He listened intently to everything we had to say until we were through talking. We couldn't have asked for more,' Joey Reed told CNN.

Paula Reed added: 'We got to get it off our chest, all the things that we've been wanting to say to him, and it's done. We got to say what we wanted to say. He listened intently, and we're grateful for that.'
The Russian military is furious that Putin has downsized the invasion of Ukraine and called for a new escalation of the conflict.

As the Kremlin's war effort stumbles against a dogged Ukrainian resistance, leading figures in the Red Army have reportedly begged Putin to take the country for good.

Military and pro-war Telegram channels are now flooded with calls to commit greater resources to Ukraine and 'fight NATO', according to Russian news agency Agenta.

Special forces veteran Alexander Arutyunov pleaded with Putin to upscale the invasion in a viral post, asking: 'Vladimir Vladimirovich, are we fighting a war or masturbating?'

In a viral rant posted by YouTuber and Spetsnaz special forces veteran Alexander Arutyunov, whose channel Razvedos has almost 18million views, Arutyunov slammed the pivot to the eastern Donbas region.

He asked Putin directly: 'Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, please decide, are we fighting a war or are we masturbating?

'We need to stop this dry h***job.'

Meanwhile Russian Air Force Telegram FighterBomber wrote to members: 'Well further increase air defense units on the border with Ukraine in order to cover our territory from ballistic missile strikes, but it is also clear that NATO countries have far more weapons than Russia.'

Pro-war factions now believe Russia is fighting NATO, not just Ukraine. That means committing the nation's entire forces, they claim.

Deputy commander Rustam Minnekayev hinted at this when he suggested Russia forge a corridor from the Donbas to Moldova in striking comments last week.

A Ukrainian volunteer soldier is pictured repairing a tank in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine today

A wrecked museum in Irpin, a war-torn Kyiv suburb which was the scene of intense fighting

A man transports his mattress on a wheelbarrow, Irpin. The suburb reportedly has mass graves

He said: '[We must] establish full control over the Donbas and Southern Ukraine. This will provide a land corridor to the Crimea, as well as influence the vital objects of the Ukrainian economy.

'Control over the south of Ukraine is another way out to Transnistria [the pro-Russia breakaway region of Moldova], where there are also facts of oppression of the Russian-speaking population.'

It's not yet clear that control over Moldovan territory is a priority for Moscow - but Minnekayev's comments suggest it is something army leaders are pushing for.

Crowds queue for essential supplies in Zaporizhzhia, east of the Dnieper river, near the Donbas

An American painter surveys the scene at Irpin Bridge destroyed early in Russia's invasion

Agenta also stated leading spies had confirmed controversial reports that an FSB general is locked up in Russia's most notorious prison for 'intelligence failings'.

Colonel General Sergei Beseda is reportedly behind bars at Lefortovo for his role in the flagging war.

This has been strenuously denied by the Kremlin, which has even altered the name on Beseda's prison records.

A Spetsnaz contact told the agency: 'Well done!' A source at the Service of Economic Security of the FSB added: 'All true!'

The mutiny follows news that Russia will be unable to fight another war for 'years' due to mass equipment losses in Ukraine.

Putin will struggle in the Donbas because vital 'inventories are getting low', according to Washington analyst Mark Cancian.

Wrecked Kremlin equipment now amounts to 939 tanks, 185 planes, 155 helicopters, 421 artillery units and eight ships, the Ukrainian army estimated this morning.

When Russian forces entered Ukraine on February 24, the invading Moscow military dwarfed Ukraine's, prompting many to believe the war would be swift and effective.

The Ukrainian Army updates its latest - and rising - estimates of Russian losses each morning

Putin, pictured looking sheepish at a meeting yesterday with the UN Secretary-General yesterday, may be emasculated for years to come due to his military's costly failure in Ukraine

The Moskva battleship (pictured as it sunk two weeks ago) is Russia's highest-profile loss so far

Russia's land army consisted of 280,000 full-time active soldiers compared with Ukraine's 125,600.

But the amount of Russian soldiers needed to seize the whole country and control the entire population would be close to 1 million, according to Michael Clarke, a visiting professor at King's College London's Department of War Studies.

That suggests the Kremlin woefully underestimated the amount of force needed to pummel its neighbour into submission.

A flood of Ukrainian conscripts, high-tech weaponry sent by NATO countries and Russian strategic failures have all helped to turn the tide in Kyiv's favour.
A notorious underworld crime figure has been killed in a hail of bullets just days after it was revealed a million dollar bounty had been placed on him.

Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad, known as the 'Mr Big' of Sydney's crime world was shot outside a home on Narelle Crescent in Greenacre about 9.30pm Wednesday.

NSW Police had repeatedly warned Ahmad that a rival crime gang wanted him dead, but he defiantly chose to remain in Sydney.

Paramedics tried to treat Ahmad but he died at the scene. The gunman fled the scene with a Porsche four-wheel-drive and a black BMW found both found on fire a short time later.

Police have 'multiple' crime scenes.

Ahmad had only recently been released from prison after serving five years for the manslaughter of another underworld figure at a Sydney scrap yard in 2016.

Police had warned Ahmad (pictured left) of a million dollar contract on him before he was shot dead on Wednesday night

Multiple police vehicles attend the scene at Greenacre, Sydney (pictured) after a man was killed in a hail of bullets

A burnt-out Porsche 4WD was found in Greenacre shortly after the shooting (pictured)

Firefighters contained the blaze (pictured) and it is unconfirmed if the two incidents are linked

In a statement on Thursday morning, the NSW Police Force said they were investigating after 'reports of a public place shooting'

Police said the Homicide Squad, Criminal Groups and Raptor Squads were also in attendance and investigating.

'Inquiries are also underway to determine whether two vehicles which were located on fire in Greenacre and Belmore are related to this incident.'

Ahmad pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Safwan Charbaji in 2016 shortly after returning to Australia from Lebanon where he fled in the aftermath.

He served five years in prison and was only released six months ago.

The chaotic scene at Greenacre in southwest Sydney on Wednesday night (pictured)

NSW Police had previously warned Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmed there was a contract out on him (pictured: the scene at Narelle Cres Greenacre)

'Brownie' Ahmed refused to leave Sydney despite the danger he was facing

Bystanders gather in the street (pictured) after word of the shooting spread and hoards of police and emergency services vehicles arrived

Charbaji was shot in a gunfight outside a south-west Sydney smash repair business owned by Ahmed's brother Walid 'Wally' Ahmed.

Wally Ahmad was himself shot dead in a hail of bullets on the rooftop carpark of Bankstown Centro shopping centre weeks later - sparking a gangland war that would claim another four lives.

Mahmoud Ahmad narrowly avoided a broad daylight hit that was set to be carried out in front of families at Rushcutters Bay Park overlooking Sydney Harbour in October last year.

He had been tipped off by police about a $1million bounty placed on him by the rival Alameddine clan. Officers warned him not to risk going to the park because of the dangers posed to bystanders and so avoided the area.

Ahmed being arrested by police in 2016 after touching down in Sydney airport from Lebanon where he fled in the aftermath the gunfight at a smash repair business

Ahmad pleaded guilty to the manslughter of Safwan Charbaji (pictured), 32, who was shot outside a smash repairs business in southwest Sydney in 2016

Multiple police stand guard at the crime scene with the Criminal Groups and Raptor Squads also in attendance (pictured)

Afterwards he briefly left Sydney for the Middle East and when he returned had been surrounding himself with allies in a bid for protection.

Since 2020, NSW Police have focused considerable resources on a gangland war between the Alameddine and Hamzy groups which has seen at least seven people killed.

After a number of arrests and top-level Alameddine enforcer Masood Zakaria fleeing overseas the war appeared to have quietened.

But Ahmad's death could ignite a new blood-feud police will have to contend with.

Officers speak to bystanders after the shooting in Sydney's west on Wednesday (pictured)

Police sources previously told Daily Mail Australia the organisations target vulnerable teenagers from an early age, luring them into the underworld with the promise of cash, infamy and a sense of belonging.

'They get them young,' the source said.

'These kids are usually the ones stealing the cars, pushing the drugs. It's insidious.'

It's alleged the chosen youths have 'stealing cars down to an art' and hand them over to the senior members accused of carrying out or soliciting hits on their enemies.

Raptor detectives often find one - sometimes several - burnt out stolen cars when they arrive at a crime scene linked to the Hamzys or Alameddines.

NSW Police assistant commissioner Peter Thurtell previously said there was no doubt the ongoing gang wars on the streets of western Sydney are drug related.

'They are organised criminal groups targeting each other,' Asst Comm Thurtell said.
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Daily Covid hospitalisations have hit a two-month low and deaths have plunged 40 per cent in a week as pandemic pressure on the NHS subsides.

Latest Government dashboard data  which is becoming increasingly unreliable now that free testing has been scrapped  shows there were 1,186 admissions for the virus across the UK on April 23.

It marks a near-18 per cent decrease on the previous week and a 36 per cent fall in a fortnight. It is also the lowest number since February 27, when there were 1,101 admissions.

Separate NHS figures show more than half of patients with Covid in hospitals are not primarily sick with the virus, in another promising sign.

The drop-off comes just weeks after NHS leaders called for face masks and outdoor mixing to return to cut Covid rates and take pressure off the health service.

Meanwhile, the dashboard data shows there were 304 new deaths registered in the last 24 hours, down 40.2 per cent on last Wednesday.

Just 17,224 positive tests were logged, marking a 34 per cent drop in a week, although cases are being skewed the most by the scaling back of free swabbing.

It comes after the Government's policy of sending untested hospital patients to care homes in the early days of the pandemic was ruled 'unlawful' today by the High Court.

It came after Cathy Gardner, whose father Michael Gibson died, and Fay Harris, whose father Donald died, partially succeeded in their claims against the Health Secretary and Public Health England (PHE) at London's High Court on Wednesday.

They both called on the PM to resign over the ruling, while one accused former health secretary Matt Hancock of 'lying to the public' when he said the NHS was putting a 'protective ring' around care homes.

Their sentiments were echoed by campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, who said thousands of loved ones had been 'thrown to the wolves by the government.'

Meanwhile, Michelle Penn, partner and head of care and occupational disease claims at law firm BLM, said both family members and care providers could seek compensation.

Government data shows record numbers of youngsters are obese or morbidly overweight by the time they start Reception or leave primary school after an 'unprecedented' rise in childhood obesity during the pandemic

She told the Guardian: 'It means the government is now staring down the barrel of potentially very costly claims due to Dr Gardners win.'

Downing Street also hinted that it could expect to face a mass compensation payout should families of affected care home residents choose to sue on the back of the High Court decision.

Lockdowns made British children even fatter! Almost 30% of boys on going into secondary school are now obese Lockdowns and school closures have been linked to an 'unprecedented' rise in childhood obesity in England. Government data shows record numbers of youngsters were obese or morbidly overweight by the time they started Reception or left primary school in April 2021. Many experts warned at the time that locking down children, despite their low risk of Covid, could have long-lasting repercussions on their health. One in seven youngsters in Reception were obese last April after three national lockdowns  compared to one in 10 before the pandemic. The proportion that were too fat by the time they got to Year 6 rose to one in four, up from one in five pre-Covid. Almost one in three boys are now obese by the time they finish primary school. It marks the biggest increase in childhood obesity since records began in 2006, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities said. The pandemic has also widened health inequalities, with those from the poorest areas now twice as likely to be obese as those from the wealthiest parts on average The National Child Measurement Programme measured the height and weight of more than 300,000 children in Reception and Year 6. Results showed a record 14.4 per cent of Reception-aged children were obese during 2020/21, up from 9.9 per cent in 2019/20. Among Year 6 pupils, obesity prevalence increased from 21 per cent in 2019/20 to 25.5 per cent in 2020/21. Up to 30 per cent of children living in the most deprived areas of England were deemed obese, compared to as little as 8 per cent in the least deprived areas. A growing proportion of four and five-year-olds are now morbidly obese, which puts them at risk of deadly complications like strokes, heart attacks, and diabetes. Nearly one in 20 (4.7 per cent) were severely overweight during the 2020/21 school year, compared to 2.5 per cent pre-Covid. Some 6.3 per cent of those in their last year of primary school were morbidly obese during the most recent school year, compared to 4.7 per cent before the pandemic. Meanwhile, nearly 40 per cent of 10 to 11-year-olds living in the poorest areas of England were obese, compared to just 14.3 per cent in the most affluent parts. Like adults, children were subject to the Government's initial draconian stay at home order and were only allowed outside once a day for exercise. Many were also confined to their homes even when the lockdowns came to an end due to isolating protocols in schools. Experts have said that lots of children will have turned to comfort food to deal with boredom, isolation and anxiety during the pandemic. Today's NHS data shows boys had a higher prevalence of obesity than girls for both age groups. The proportion of children who were a healthy weight also dropped between 2020/21 and 2019/20. Among Year 6 pupils, 58 per cent were deemed to be a healthy weight, down from 63 per cent the year previously. Among reception children, seven in 10 were classed as having a healthy weight, down from 76 per cent the year previously. The proportion of all children who were either overweight or obese was 28 per cent in reception and 41 per cent in Year 6. Advertisement

Speaking on potential future legal claims, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'That would be entirely a matter for those families and not one for us.'

Asked specifically about a mass compensation payout, he added: 'I'm not going to get into speculating on what further action people may or may not take.

'The Department of Health is considering the judgment carefully... the court itself recognised the difficult and unique circumstances the Government faced in the early part of the pandemic.

'The Prime Minister talked about the lack of evidence on asymptomatic transmission at the time, or certainly the uncertainty around it during that period, balanced against the need to act quickly.'

In their ruling today, Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham concluded that policies contained in documents released in March and early April 2020 were unlawful because they failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission of the virus.

They said that, despite there being 'growing awareness' of the risk of asymptomatic transmission throughout March 2020, there was no evidence that then Health Secretary Hancock addressed the issue of the risk to care home residents of such transmission.

But a spokesman for Mr Hancock claimed the ruling actually cleared him of wrongdoing as it ruled that it was the now-defunct PHE who had 'failed to tell ministers what they knew about asymptomatic transmission'.

His statement was supported by Mr Johnson at Prime Minister's Questions today, when he claimed to not have known at the time 'that Covid could be transmitted asymptomatically in the way that it was.'

However, the risks of asymptomatic transmission had been highlighted by figures including Sir Patrick Vallance, who said this was 'quite likely' as early as March 13, the ruling said.

A PHE paper was presented to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) in late January, who concluded that 'asymptomatic transmission cannot be ruled out' in early February.

And a separate paper in early March suggested that 'pre-symptomatic transmission of Covid-19 constituted a very substantial proportion of all transmission', the High Court was told.

Liberal Democrat spokesperson for health and social care Daisy Cooper had raised the ruling in Parliament, asking Mr Johnson: 'Will the Prime Minister apologise to the families of the thousands and thousands of people who died in care homes in the first half of 2020, and will he also apologise to care workers for the shameful comment that he made in July 2020 when he said that too many care homes didn't follow procedures in the way that they could have?'

The PM replied: 'Of course I want to renew my apologies and sympathies for all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic, people who lost loved ones in care homes.

'And I want to remind the House of what an incredibly difficult time that was, and how difficult that decision was.

'And we didn't know very much about the disease, and the point I was trying to make to which she refers is the thing we didn't know in particular was that Covid could be transmitted asymptomatically in the way that it was and that was something that I wish we had known more about at the time.

'As for the ruling that she mentions. We will study it, and we will of course respond further in due course.'

But Charlie Williams, spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, accused Mr Hancock and the government of 'lying' about protecting care home residents.

He said following today's ruling: 'I lost my father in a care home back in April 2020.

'We kept him there because we had been told that no one in the care home had Covid, that he would be safe, but later we learned from the staff, who were fantastic, that 27 patients had in fact died from the virus there.

'For the thousands of families like mine who lost loved ones in care homes, the last two years of cover ups and denials have been unbelievably painful.

'We've always known that our loved ones were thrown to the wolves by the government, and the claims made by Matt Hancock that a 'protective ring' was made around care homes was a sickening lie.

'Now a court has found their decisions unlawful and it's clear the decisions taken led to people dying who may otherwise still be with their loved ones today.

'We now need to see those responsible for those dark days held accountable and lessons learned to save lives, ensuring the grim scenes of spring 2020 are never repeated again.'
Officials have launched an investigation into the mysterious deaths of three children at a North Carolina military base.

On April 16, three children, ages unknown, died in two unrelated incidents on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

Officials have not confirmed the unidentified children's causes of death but confirmed no shootings were involved and no arrests have been made.

The deaths are currently being investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Camp Lejeune spokesman Ace A. Padilla said.

On April 16 three children died in two separate incidents on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune

Officials have not confirmed the unidentified children's' cause of death but confirmed no shootings were involved and no arrests have been made

'We are aware of the tragic passing of three dependent children in two separate incidents on MCB Camp Lejeune April 16, and offer our deepest condolences to the families of those affected,' Padilla said in a statement. 'There was no shooting incident tied to either event.'

'Out of respect for the families and the investigative process, we are not providing additional information and NCIS does not comment on or confirm details relating to ongoing investigations,' Padilla added.

The incidents come months after two Marines were killed when their tactical vehicle flipped over just outside the North Carolina base.

In January, Lance Corporal Jonathan Gierke, 19, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, and Private First Class Zachary Riffle, 18, of Kingwood, West Virginia, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, which injured 17 other service members riding in the military truck.

Jonathan Gierke, 19, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, and Zachary Riffle, 18, of Kingwood, West Virginia, were identified as the two Marines killed when their military truck crashed in North Carolina

The North Carolina State Highway Patrol investigated last Wednesday's fatal crash after a seven-ton truck military truck flipped over, killing two and injuring 17 US Marines

The crash was at the intersection of US 17 and Highway 210 between Verona and Holly Ridge, about five miles from Camp Lejeune.

Louis Barrera was behind the wheel of the seven-ton truck carrying 19 fellow Marines, when he made a right turn onto US 17, lost control and overturned, causing the soldiers to be ejected.

Gierke and Riffle were both landing support specialists assigned to the 2nd Marine Logistics Group, based at Camp Lejeune, the second largest Marine base in the country behind California's Camp Pendleton.

The two entered active duty in March 2021 and were both past recipients of the National Defense and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
Doctors are predicting a 'twindemic' this winter, with influenza cases set to rise as Covid-19 continues to spread.

The worrying development has medical experts urging Australians to roll up their sleeves for both the flu shot and the Covid booster.

Previously, it was recommended the doses be separated by a minimum of 14 days. But it's now possible to be administered both vaccines at the same time.

Doctors are predicting a 'twindemic' this winter, with influenza cases set to rise as Covid-19 continues to spread. Pictured: A Covid patient at Footscray Hospital in Melbourne

The worrying development has medical experts urging Australians to roll up their sleeves for both the flu shot and the Covid booster (pictured, a woman wearing a face mask in Sydney)

'Over the Covid-19 period there has been lower exposure to the influenza virus and lower levels of influenza vaccine coverage compared to previous years,' the Australia's Department of Health said.

'With borders reopening, a possible resurgence of influenza may occur in 2022.'

Health experts say the best time to get an annual flu jab is by the end of April, before the temperature starts to cool down.

Over the past two years Covid-19 measures including lockdowns, social distancing and face masks has seen the spread of influenza dramatically reduced.

While Australia did not record a single flu-related death in 2021, it's now feared cases could explode in June and beyond as life gets back to normal.

Previously, it was recommended the doses be separated by a minimum of 14 days. But it's now possible to be administered both vaccines at the same time (pictured, a woman getting a Covid jab in Sydney)

Last month the Federal Government confirmed it has set aside $2.1billion to extend the current Covid-19 vaccination rollout and subsidised a rapid antigen test scheme until July 31.

At the announcement, deputy chief medical officer Sonya Bennett said researchers were attempting to create a tool to test for both Covid and the flu simultaneously.

It remains to be seen if a person can be infected with Covid and the flu at the same time - although rare undocumented cases across the globe indicate it is possible.

However many point to viral interference, where natural immune defences make it less likely a person will then be infected with another virus.

Over the past two years Covid-19 measures including lockdowns, social distancing and face masks has seen the spread of influenza dramatically reduced (pictured, health care workers administer Covid testing in Perth)

'My gut feeling, and my feeling based on our recent research, is that viral interference is real,' said Dr Ellen Foxman, an immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine, said.

'I don't think we're going to see the flu and the coronavirus peak at the same time.'

Vaccinations for flu strains cost around $25 at most pharmacies or GPs and are readily available.

There were 45,476 Covid cases reported across Australia in the past 24 hours, and a further 63 deaths.
Dominic Raab today defended the right of the Mail on Sunday to refuse to meet Speaker Lindsay Hoyle over the Angela Rayner 'Basic Instinct' article.

The Deputy PM said it was 'legitimate' for Sir Lindsay to ask for a meeting with the newspaper's editor amid criticism of the piece.

But he insisted it was the 'prerogative' of editors to decide how to respond to such invitations and he would not 'second guess' David Dillon opting to decline.

Meanwhile, Downing Street said Boris Johnson is 'uncomfortable' at the idea of the free press being summoned by politicians.

The article on Sunday included comments from an unnamed Tory MP suggesting that Ms Rayner had a tactic of crossing and uncrossing her legs in the chamber to distract Boris Johnson - something she has angrily denied.

Sir Lindsay announced on Monday that he had arranged a meeting with Mr Dillon and MoS political editor Glen Owen.

However, Mr Dillon today revealed they will not be attending as journalists should 'not take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be'.

Dominic Raab (left) today defended the right of the Mail on Sunday to refuse to meet Speaker Lindsay Hoyle over the Angela Rayner 'Basic Instinct' article. Meanwhile, Downing Street said Boris Johnson (right) is 'uncomfortable' at the idea of the free press being summoned by politicians

'The Mail On Sunday deplores sexism and misogyny in all its forms,' the editor said.

'However journalists must be free to report what they are told by MPs about conversations which take place in the House of Commons, however unpalatable some may find them.'

In a round of interviews this morning, Mr Raab said he was 'not going to second guess the decisions of editors'.

Pressed on whether the Commons Speaker should have extended the invitation, Mr Raab told Sky News: 'I think it was a legitimate thing for Lindsay Hoyle to do to invite him and, of course, it's the prerogative of any editor to decide how they treat that invitation.'

A Downing Street spokesman said this afternoon: 'The Prime Minister is uncomfortable at the idea of our free press being summoned by politicians.

'We have a free press in this country and reporters must be free to report what they are told as they see fit.'

The spokesman said Mr Johnson would not want 'any perception of politicians seeking to in any way curb or control what a free press seeks to report'.

Sir Lindsay did not make any further remarks in the Commons today. In a statement last night he said he had wanted to use the meeting to ask that 'we are all a little kinder'.

He made the point that he had only recently rejected calls to remove the parliamentary pass from another journalist, after some MPs called for Mr Owen to have his pass removed.

'I firmly believe in the duty of reporters to cover Parliament, but I would also make a plea, nothing more, for the feelings of all MPs and their families to be considered, and the impact on their safety, when articles are written.

'I would just ask that we are all a little kinder,' Sir Lindsay said.

At PMQs, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer - flanked by Ms Rayner, wearing a trouser suit - called on Mr Johnson to agree there was 'no place' for misogyny in modern Britain.

Sir Keir said: 'I know the Prime Minister will have whipped his backbenchers to scream and shout and that is fine. But I hope he has also sent a clear message that there is no place for sexism and misogyny or looking down on people because of where they come from in his party, in this House, or in modern Britain.'

Mr Johnson replied that he had 'exchanged messages' with Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner at the weekend after the MoS article.

He added: 'I repeat what I said to her, there can be absolutely no place for such behaviour or such expression in this House and we should treat each other frankly, with the respect that each other deserves.'

It comes after audio from a political podcast back in January revealed that Mrs Rayner herself had joked about being compared to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, while saying it was mortifying.

In the recording of a light-hearted question and answer session with comedian Matt Forde, she volunteered the fact that her appearance at PMQs that month had drawn comparisons with the infamous Sharon Stone character in the 1992 thriller.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has raised the alarm over safety fears at Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine, currently under Russian occupation.

Rafael Grossi, the director of the UN agency, said the level of safety at the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine is like a 'red light blinking' as his organization tries in vain to persuade Moscow to give it access for work, including repairs.

He said the IAEA must be allowed to, among other things, re-establish the plant's connections with the Vienna-based headquarters of the U.N. agency.

And for that, he warned, both Russia and Ukraine need to help.

The plant requires repairs, 'and all of this is not happening. So the situation as I have described it, and I would repeat it today, is not sustainable as it is,' Grossi said. 'So this is a pending issue. This is a red light blinking.'

He spoke in an interview Wednesday, a day after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the issue and after visiting Chernobyl.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has raised the alarm over safety levels at Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine - the Zaporizhzhia plant in the south of the country (pictured on Wednesday) - that is currently under Russian occupation

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi attends a press-conference following his meeting with Ukrainian President in Kyiv on April 26, 2022. He urged Russian on Wednesday to give his agency access to the Zaporizhzhia power plant

Zaporizhzhia is home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which contains six nuclear reactors besides other nuclear facilities.

But it was captured in the early days of the Russian invasion in March, and was the site of a fierce battle between Moscow and Ukraine's forces. Zaporizhzhia has since remained in occupied territory, serving as a military base for Putin's forces.

During the fighting, the plant was struck by Russian fire, raising fears Ukraine could trigger a second Chernobyl disaster if fighting in the area continues.

'Understandably, my Ukrainian counterparts do not want the IAEA inspectors to go to one of their own facilities under the authority of a third power,' Mr Grossi said.

'I had a long conversation about this with President Zelensky last night, and it's something that will still require consultations. We are not there yet.'

The IAEA chief continues to press Russia's government for access to the Zaporizhzhia plant. 'I don't see movement in that direction as we speak,' he said.

But he is meeting with the Russian side 'soon'.

'There are two units that are active, in active operation, as you know, others that are in repairs or in cool down. And there are some activities, technical activities and also inspection activities that need to be performed,' Mr Grossi said.

With 15 reactors and one of the largest nuclear power capacities in the world, the war has essentially turned parts of Ukraine into a nuclear minefield.

Again and again since the invasion, nuclear experts have watched in alarm as Russian forces have come uncomfortably close to multiple nuclear plants in Ukraine.

Fears of a nuclear disaster were stoked again on Tuesday morning when Russian forces fired two missiles close Zaporizhzhia.

A statement released by Ukrainian state nuclear agency Energoatom said the cruise missiles flew at low altitude at 6:41am and 6:44am on Tuesday, soaring over the power plant and impacting targets in Zaporizhzhia city centre a short distance away.

'The flight of missiles at low altitudes directly above the ZNPP site, where nuclear facilities with a huge amount of nuclear material are located, poses huge risks,' said Energoatom chief Petro Kotin.

'After all, missiles can hit one or more nuclear facilities, and this threatens a nuclear radiation catastrophe which will be felt around the world.'

Mr Grossi met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) about the issue of the nuclear power plant on Tuesday, the same day Russian missiles flew low over the plant

Six power units generate 40-42 billion kWh of electricity, making the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant the largest nuclear power plant not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe

Smoke rises from behind a row of houses during shelling in the frontline town of Hulyaipole, southeast of Zaporizhzhia on April 25, 2022

Zaporizhzhia's Regional Military Administration reported at least one person was killed and one injured in the attack, which it said 'destroyed the infrastructure of an enterprise in the city'.

A third missile was shot down by Ukrainian air defences and landed in a field on the outskirts of the city.

Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko said of the incident: 'This morning two cruise missiles flew above #Zaporizhzhia atomic plant towards the city at a low height. Later explosions were heard in Zaporizhzhia.

'Rockets flying low directly above the plant which has [six] nuclear reactors and a lot of nuclear material is extremely risky,' he posted on Twitter.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday that sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles hit the weapons stored on the grounds of an aluminum plant in Zaporizhzhia. He said the batch of weapons contained equipment from the U.S. and European countries.

Konashenkov also said that the Russian warplanes struck 59 Ukrainian targets, including areas of concentrations of troops and equipment. He said Russian artillery hit 573 Ukrainian targets.

'There cannot be any military action in or around a nuclear power plant,' Mr Grossi said, adding that he has appealed to Russia about this.

'This is unprecedented to have a war unfolding amidst one of the world's largest nuclear infrastructures, which, of course, makes for a number of fragile or weak points that could be, of course, exploited wittingly or unwittingly,' he added.

'So this requires a lot of activity on our side and co-operation. Co-operation from the Russian side. Understanding from the Ukrainian side so that we can avoid an accident.'

Chernobyl security workers have also said Russians flew aircraft over the damaged reactor site and dug trenches in highly radioactive dirt.

Aerial images have shown the trenches, with experts warning the Russian soldiers will likely face health problems as a result of their activity around the defunct plant.

Fears that a nuclear catastrophe could occur at the ZNPP were first sparked on March 3, when Russian forces attempting to wrest control of the plant from the Ukrainian defenders shelled the facility.

Video footage of the incident shows a training building located a stone's throw from the nuclear reactors catching fire while plant workers pleaded with the invaders over the loudspeaker to stop shelling the location.

A view shows a damaged administrative building of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on March 4. Russian forces shelled the power plant as they attempted to wrest control of it from the defenders

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at a press conference about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine in Vienna, Austria, Friday, March 4, 2022. Russian shelling caused a fire in an administrative building close to the reactors

Tuesday's warning of the potential consequences of armed conflict in close proximity to the nuclear power plant comes on the 36th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident.

On April 26, 1986, a reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the north of what was then Soviet Ukraine went into meltdown and exploded.

Huge clouds of radioactive smoke and dust were spread from the reactor, prompting mass evacuations from the nearby town of Pripyat where families of the plant's staff lived and the creation of an exclusion zone which remains in place to this day.

A total of 28 staff members and emergency workers died from radiation poisoning in the days following the explosion, as well as two workers who were killed instantly in the blast.

But studies conducted in the years following the disaster discovered a considerable increase in incidences of thyroid cancer among the population who lived nearby.

According to a United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) report, there had been almost 20,000 cases of thyroid cancer reported in children and adolescents who were exposed at the time of the accident between 1991-2015.

On April 26, 1986, a reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the north of what was then Soviet Ukraine went into meltdown and exploded. Huge clouds of radioactive smoke and dust were spread from the reactor, prompting mass evacuations from the nearby town of Pripyat where families of the plant's staff lived and the creation of an exclusion zone which remains in place to this day (a steel containment dome is seen above the remains of the reactor)

A total of 28 staff members and emergency workers died from radiation poisoning in the days following the explosion, as well as two workers who were killed instantly in the blast. But studies conducted in the years following the disaster discovered a considerable increase in incidences of thyroid cancer among the population who lived near the plant (exclusion zone in Chernobyl pictured)

Meanwhile, Energoatom said Russian troops, who have occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant since March 4, were keeping heavy equipment and ammunition on the site.

'Thirty-six years after the Chernobyl tragedy, Russia exposes the whole world to the danger of a repeat of the nuclear catastrophe!' it said.

Russia did not immediately comment on Energoatom's statement.

It has previously offered safety assurances about Ukraine's nuclear power facilities since launching what it says is a 'special military operation' on February 24.

Russian troops also occupied the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power station soon after invading Ukraine but withdrew in late March as Putin's forces geared up for redeployment in a new, targeted offensive in the eastern Donbas region.
Moldovans living under pro-Russian separatists in Moldova's breakaway region have been sent fake texts claiming they will be 'eliminated with no prior warning' by Ukrainian 'invaders'.

Residents in the region of Transnistria, an unrecognised Moscow-backed sliver of land bordering southwestern Ukraine, have said they have been sent the messages warning them that Kyiv will invade the territory.

One text message sent to a local resident, seen by The Telegraph, read: 'The Ukrainian Security Service highly recommends the evacuation of civilians to safer regions.

'We would like to assure you that the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not with harm on peaceful residents but those who stay in town will be considered members of sabotage groups and will be eliminated with no prior warning.'

But the text messages were sent from 'unknown people' and concerns have been raised that it is part of Russia's campaign of disinformation to spread fear in Moldova.

Russia has been accused of planning hybrid attacks to 'destabilise' the region and Moldova's pro-Western government after a series of explosions there prompted fears of Russia launching 'false flag' attacks to justify invading Transnistria.

A fake 'attack' by Ukrainian forces - or messages claiming Ukraine will launch an invasion - would help provide a pretext for sending in Russian forces.

Last week, Kremlin military chief Rustam Minnekayev said Russia sought control of southern Ukraine, which could provide access to Transnistria, 'where there have been cases of oppression of the Russian-speaking population'.

Russia has been accused of planning hybrid attacks to 'destabilise' the region and Moldova's pro-Western government after a series of explosions there prompted fears of Russia launching 'false flag' attacks to justify invading Transnistria. Pictured: The explosions destroyed two powerful Soviet-era radio antennas Transnistria on Tuesday

Moldovan authorities have increased the number of patrols and checks near Moldova's border with Transnistria following a series of attacks. Pictured: Vehicles queue at the Bendery checkpoint to enter the breakaway region of Transdniestria, in Moldova, on Wednesday

Transnistria, a strip of land with about 470,000 people between Moldova and Ukraine, is recognised internationally as part of Moldova but is effectively controlled by Russia, which has given citizenship to separatists

The local resident who received the fake message told the Telegraph: 'There can be many provocations, so I did not believe it. A message from unknown people is not the most reliable source of information.'

Speaking of their concerns of Transnistria being dragged into Russia's war, the resident said: 'We don't want this. We host refugees our homes, we help people. And we are afraid that war will come to our land.'

Ukrainian and Moldovan officials have warned that Russia is planning hybrid attacks in Moldova that would mix both conventional attacks and novel forms of warfare as well as terrorist acts including indiscriminate violence and criminal disorder.

It comes after Moldova's president Maia Sandu yesterday blamed 'pro-war forces' within Transnistria for a series of attacks in the region.

Two radio antennas were destroyed and a Moldovan military unit was targeted in an attack on Monday whilst several explosions hit the Ministry of State Security in the region on Tuesday.

Pro-Russian forces Transnistria also claimed shots were fired across the border towards a village housing a Russian arms depot after drones flew over from Ukraine, claims that have been slammed as a provocation by Kyiv.

Transnistria, a strip of land with about 470,000 people between Moldova and Ukraine, is recognised internationally as part of Moldova but is effectively controlled by Russia, which has given citizenship to separatists.

An estimated 1,500 Russian troops are permanently stationed in the Transnistria, but concerns are high that the region could be used as a launch pad for new attacks on Ukraine.

'They have a plan to destabilise Moldova,' a Ukrainian intelligence official, citing surveillance on agents of Russia's spy agency FSB operating in Moldova, told the Financial Times.

The official said that the destabilisation operation may be at its peak near May 9, when Vladimir Putin will commemorate Russia's victory over Germany in the Second World War.

'Russia can attack Moldova at any time. They have this option on the table,' the official warned, whilst the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the claims as 'fake'.

Russia's military base still guards a stockpile of some 20,000 tonnes of munitions which were brought there when Soviet troops withdrew from Europe.

Kremlin military chief Rustam Minnekayev on Friday said Russia sought control of southern Ukraine, which could provide access to Transnistria, 'where there have been cases of oppression of the Russian-speaking population'. Pictured: Pro-Russian troops move along a road in Mariupol, southern Ukraine

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar accused Russia on Wednesday of being ready to use the territory of Transdniestria as a bridgehead to move on Ukraine or the rest of Moldova.

It comes as Rustam Minnekayev, the deputy commander of Russia's central military district, said Moscow planned to forge a corridor between Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014, and the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

He said the move would provide access to Transnistria, 'where there have been cases of oppression of the Russian-speaking population'.

Moldova's foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador over the comments, which it called 'unfounded and contradicting Russia's position in support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country within internationally recognised borders'.

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.

And yesterday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is closely following events in Transnistria, adding that news from the region was a cause for serious concern.

'If Moldova were captured by Russians in a hybrid way, even military, they would immediately invade [Ukraine] in the south and create territory from which they could organise an offensive to Odesa,' a Ukrainian intelligence official told the FT.

'It's clear this is their plan: to occupy Odesa . . . They don't have enough troops. But from Transnistria they would have more.'

Antennas of the 'Mayak' radio centre are seen lying on the ground on Tuesday following the blasts in the village of Mayak in Grigoriopolsky district in Moldova's Russian-backed breakaway Transnistria region

A day earlier, several explosions believed to be caused by rocket-propelled grenades were reported to hit the Ministry of State Security in the city of Tiraspol, the region's capital. No one was hurt in the explosions, officials said

Concern has increased in recent days over the prospect of the conflict widening to neighbouring Moldova, after pro-Russian separatists have blamed Ukraine for reported attacks this week in Transnistria.

The separatists claimed shots were fired across the border towards a village housing a Russian arms depot after drones flew over from Ukraine.

Kyiv calls the accusations a provocation and Moldova's pro-Western government blames forces in the separatist region for trying to stir conflict.

The region has also reported a series of explosions in recent days that it called 'terrorist attacks'.

The explosions destroyed two powerful Soviet-era radio antennas that were re-broadcasting Russian stations in Transnistria on Tuesday. The blasts occurred in the small town of Maiac roughly 12 kilometers (7 miles) west of the border with Ukraine.

A day earlier, several explosions believed to be caused by rocket-propelled grenades were reported to hit the Ministry of State Security in the city of Tiraspol, the region's capital. No one was hurt in the explosions, officials said.

On Tuesday, a military unit in the village of Parcani was also targeted. Officials did not offer any details on the incident, but declared a 'red level of terrorist threat' and promised to impose additional security measures in the region.

The Transnistrian authorities said the offices of the state security ministry in Tiraspol were hit by what appeared to be a grenade-launcher attack on Monday evening

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak accused Russia of trying to destabilise Transnistria and warned that 'if Ukraine falls tomorrow, Russian troops will be at Chisinau', the Moldovan capital.

'Russia wants to destabilise the Transnistrian region and hints Moldova should wait for 'guests',' Podolyak said.

'Good news, Ukraine will definitely ensure strategic security of the region. But we need to work as a team.'

Moldova's president Maia Sandu said the attacks in Transnistria were an attempt by factions within the territory to increase tensions, as she urged the country's citizens to remain calm.

Speaking after Moldova's Security Council held an urgent meeting on Tuesday, Sandu said: 'From the information we have at this moment, these escalation attempts stem from factions from within the Transnistrian region who are pro-war forces and interested in destabilising the situation in the region.'

She said the security council had recommended improving the combat readiness of security forces, increasing the number of patrols and checks near Moldova's border with Transnistria, and monitoring critical infrastructure more closely.

Sandu said: 'We urge citizens to keep calm and feel safe,' while urging authorities to tighten public safety measures and protection of critical infrastructure.

Transnistria's president, Vadim Krasnoselsky, also called on Tuesday for anti-terrorist security measures to be imposed at a 'red level' for 15 days, including setting up blockposts at the entrances to cities.

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.

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.
Shanghai sees sharpest case drop since Omicron epidemic, yet far from time to let guard down: officials

(Global Times) 10:05, April 27, 2022

Positive signs flicker in Shanghai with the sharpest case drop recorded since the latest outbreak, and only a small proportion of cases found outside the quarantined areas. Yet municipal officials, believing it is far from time to let their guard down, kicked off another round of mass testing and doubled down on restrictions on leaving Shanghai, to prevent the infection from spilling over.

New infections dropped 13 percent in Shanghai to 16,980 on Monday, while confirmed cases declined by about one-third to 1,661 compared with Sunday and new fatalities reached 52, according to data released on Tuesday. This, according to city's officials, marks the sharpest drop of case numbers since the outbreak. Moreover, 90 percent of the new cases were found within the quarantined areas.

The city, with a population of 25 million, has recorded total infections exceeding 500,000 since the tail end of February, officials said.

Speaking at a Tuesday conference, Zhao Dandan, a deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, said that the curve of the outbreak has been flattened and is dropping, yet it is far from time for the city to let its guard down. Zhao said that Shanghai is strictly sticking to the policy of "not leaving Shanghai unless unnecessary" to prevent the infection from spilling over to other places.

The city kicked off another round of mass testing on Tuesday. Some districts set up tents under the eaves of shopping malls to evade the drizzling rain. Several residents told the Global Times that the bad weather has partly affected the government's plan. One Shanghai resident Li Cuihua told the Global Times that her community held off the test until the rain stopped.

This mass testing is likely to provide data for Shanghai to further relax its restrictive policies in certain areas after the Labor Day holidays in early May, as the city's lockdown has dragged into the fourth week, a Beijing-based immunologist, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times.

According to Zhao, Shanghai has been screening some 10 million people on a daily basis recently. Support from other provinces helped Shanghai complete this task. Medical workers in neighboring provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui have made 200,000 one-day trips to Shanghai to help testing, and a total of 25,000 medical workers from other provinces are also in Shanghai testing the city's residents.

Shanghai's strict measures to expand testing help stem viral infections within communities, and they go along with the city's goal of stamping out infection within all communities by early May, Chen Xi, an associate professor of public health at Yale University, told the Global Times. He also pointed out the hidden danger is to avoid infections during mass testing.

Epidemiologists said that the treatment of severe cases will be the major focus of Shanghai's upcoming COVID-19 battle, as the city has seen increasing numbers of severe cases and deaths in recent days.

Zhao said at the conference that 52 deaths were reported in Shanghai for Monday, which took the city's death tally during this wave to 190. So far, 86.32 percent of the deceased were aged above 70.

A 33-year-old male patient on Monday diedof sudden cardiac arrest in Shanghai, and he had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, according to Zhao.

Immunity varies greatly from person to person, the anonymous immunologist said, noting that even with the same vaccine, the amount of protection produced also varies greatly.

All residents including young people, or those with or without underlying diseases, should also ensure adequate nutrition and good mental health to maintain a healthy immune system and improve resistance to COVID-19 infection.

In battling COVID-19, Shanghai should also focus on guaranteeing people's daily lives, social stability and treatment for other diseases, Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist of China's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned.

Material supply has been a hot issue since Shanghai entered the latest lockdown, as many residents complained of shortages of food and other materials. Some Shanghai residents told the Global Times this has become less of a problem as the government doubled down on efforts to ensure ample supplies and smooth deliveries.

"More and more platforms have increased their supplies, and we can always get what we want via group-buying in our communities. It's probably not as convenient as the pre-outbreak era, but it's improving," Shanghai resident Catherine You told the Global Times.

Ensuring the smooth delivery of quality materials is very important as problems in this sector will sway the public's determination and cooperation with the government, thus delaying the government's goal of eliminating viral infections within communities, said Chen.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
To ensure that its products will not be used in combat, Chinese Drone Company DJI announced that it will temporarily suspend business activities in Russia and Ukraine.

DJI is the first major Chinese firm to suspend sales in Russia after the country started its invasion of Ukraine in February.

The drone giant already said that Ukrainian officials and citizens' allegations that they are leaking data on the Ukrainian military to Russia as "utterly false."

The move of DJI comes a month after Ukrainian politician Mykhailo Fedorov called on DJI to stop selling its products in Russia.

The country's Minister of Digital Transformation used Twitter to call the attention of DJI to say that Russia is using DJI products to navigate its missiles "to kill civilians." He also said that the superpower is using an extended form of DJI's AeroScope drone detection platform to collect flight combat information.

DJI's Decision To Halt Operations  a 'Statement About Principles'

A report from Reuters said that on Wednesday, a DJI spokesperson emphasized that the Chinese company's suspension of business in Russia and Ukraine was "not to make a statement about any country but to make a statement about our principles".

"DJI abhors any use of our drones to cause harm, and we are temporarily suspending sales in these countries in order to help ensure no-one uses our drones in combat," said the representative.

But before that, in line with Beijing's stance of refraining from criticism of Moscow over the conflict, DJI continued doing business with Russia in contrast to what many Western firms did. These Western firms have pulled out of Russia to protest its invasion of Ukraine

DJI was also made aware of footage online that suggested the Russian military was using its products.

However, the company said they had no control over who uses their products and they had not been able to confirm the footage online.

Read Also: DJI Mavic Pro Review: It's Still The Best Drone On The Market

DJI Caught Amidst Russia-Ukraine Conflict

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has put DJI in a bind. Continued operation in Russia has drawn international criticism, but withdrawing would risk a backlash from the Chinese public, according to Reuters.

As per Reuters' report, Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. On the other hand, Ukraine and the West say Russia's reason is only a false pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression.

According to Engadget, DJI already issued a statement to condemn the use of its products to cause harm.

DJI stated that it does not market or sell its products for military use and that its distributors have all agreed not to sell products to customers who'll clearly use them for military purposes.

"We will never accept any use of our products to cause harm, and we will continue striving to improve the world with our work," DJI said in defense of the allegations.

Meanwhile, other Chinese firms are also stuck with the same dilemma.

After domestic social media users accused ride-hailing giant Didi Global (DIDI.N) of succumbing to U.S. pressure, it reversed its decision to leave Russia and Kazakhstan in February.

Telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies (HWT.UL) is also under scrutiny over whether it plans to stay in Russia.

Related Article: New DJI Drone Set-Up Tips: How to Register Drone, Attachments, and More
Blac Chyna was never guaranteed a second season of E! reality series Rob & Chyna in her contract with the network, jurors in her defamation trial against the Kardashians have heard.

The reality star's former lawyer and manager testified in the Los Angeles trial Wednesday, telling the court that the network began filming season two of the series at the end of the show's first season before abruptly coming to a halt.

Under cross examination from Kardashian attorney Michael Rhodes, Walter Mosley acknowledged that Chyna, under her talent contract with E!, was never promised an additional season of the spinoff starring her and ex Rob Kardashian.

Mosley, who was also executive producer on the show, admitted that neither he nor Chyna, 33, had received written confirmation - a legal requirement in her original contract - from E! that there were plans for future production of the series.

E! never did greenlight a second season, said Mosley, who revealed he had negotiated a $100,000 'kill fee' for Chyna, plus another $370,000 contract for her to film four episodes of Keeping up with the Kardashians in a Rob and Chyna storyline within KUWTK.

Chyna has disputed signing such a contract and in an earlier declaration raised today by Rhodes - in which she was asked if she thought Mosely and an agent 'did something wrong' in getting her into the deal - she replied: 'Absolutely.'

Mosley also told the jury today that his observations of her relationship with Rob were that it was 'loving and wonderful.'

He attended the couple's engagement party where, he said, 'Rob told me he was happy.'

An LA judge on Tuesday ruled against Blac Chyna's motion demanding E! reveal how much it earned in profits from her short-lived reality show Rob & Chyna, after she 'failed to show good cause to seek trade secrets'. The 33-year-old is seen arriving at court in LA Wednesday morning as her defamation trial against the Kardashians continues

Chyna accuses the Kardashians of plotting to cancel her hit reality show Rob & Chyna

Mosley told the court he wasn't aware that Chyna 'is considering possible legal claims' against him.

The testimony comes after Chyna's request to subpoena the network to disclose the profits it earned from the spin-off series during its seven-episode run in 2016, was quashed by a judge.

Chyna's attorney, Lynne Ciani, had argued that details surrounding the profits E! reaped from the series is vital to her claim for damages against the billionaire family.

But E! attorney Rochelle Wilcox filed an opposing motion, telling Judge Gregory Alarcon Monday that such information is a 'privileged trade secret' that should not be disclosed in public.

Judge Alarcon granted the network's motion Tuesday in a written ruling after 'finding that plaintiff (Chyna) has failed to show good cause to seek trade secrets.'

Chyna, who shares a daughter with Rob Kardashian, 35, is suing members of the Kardashian family for $108million, accusing them of defamation and 'intentional interference with contract' that led to her show being canceled.

Wednesday marks the eighth day trial in which sisters Kim, 41, and Khloe Kardashian, 37, Kylie Jenner, 24, and their mother, family matriarch Kris Jenner, 66, are all named as defendants.

Kim was seen arriving for another day of trial Wednesday wearing a brown suit with white tennis shoes and styled her dark hair in two braids.

She scribbled notes on a yellow legal pad as she sat next to her mother, Kris, who wore a black pantsuit and black and white basketball shoes.

Across the courtroom, Chyna was equally fashionable in a cream knitted polo-neck sweater, leather pants and spike heels.

During the seventh day of proceedings Tuesday, Kim Kardashian admitted in court that she resented having to film episodes of Keeping up with the Kardashians with Chyna after she allegedly beat her brother with a metal rod.

The E! Network, which aired both reality series, paid Chyna $370,000 to film four episodes of KUWTK after season one of Rob & Chyna show ended.

But that deal was inked without consulting the Kardashians, said Kim, who protested in an email that at E!: 'Nobody listens to usNo one respects us', the court heard.

She then reportedly urged her sisters in a text to 'get on the phone today' with E! executives following the December 2016 fight.

'I was upset that Rob was so emotional and upset,' the reality star explained to jurors at Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday.

'I remember trying to be supportive of my brother - he was being so emotional.

'It's all such a blur,' she added, remembering that her brother, Rob, 'looked red and puffy and exhausted and drained.'

'It was our show and she's not a family member.'

Kim appeared in court in a gray pin-striped suit with her hair pulled back into a bun, looking very fresh despite a recent trip to Washington D.C. and Orlando, Florida that made her miss court the day before.

Court filings obtained by DailyMail.com reveal a judge granted E!'s motion to quash Chyna's bid

An LA judge on Tuesday ruled against Blac Chyna's motion demanding E! reveal how much it earned in profits from her short-lived reality show Rob & Chyna, after she 'failed to show good cause to seek trade secrets'. She is pictured leaving court Tuesday

The original premise for Rob & Chyna focused on the couple's 'newly blossoming relationship' with a light-hearted, romantic comedy feel to it, however, the pair's romance quickly deteriorated

In court on Tuesday, Chyna's attorney, Lynne Ciani, grilled Kim about the intent of the text message she sent to her sisters - and whether they ever had a family meeting about canceling the second season of Rob & Chyna.

The lawyer pointed to an email from Kim to the producers of KUWTK in which she talked of taking a break from the show and warning them that 'you'll lose the rest of the Kardashians and Jenners' if they continued filming with Chyna.

'You already got Chyna off her show (Rob & Chyna) and now you didn't want her on your show (KUWTK) either?,' Ciani asked the reality star.

'I'm just saying this is our show,' Kim responded. 'We have the discretion of what we're going to film content wise.

'Why would you want to put my brother in this situation if he's going to end up crying and she's (Chyna) just going to show up to film and not be with him?

'Why would we film with her on our show? It was our show and she's not a family member.'

Kim also told the lawyer at least four times that she did not remember why she sent the urgent text to her sisters.

Also on Tuesday, Kim's sister, Khloe, testified that she, too, was worried about 'something crazy happening down the line' if there were a second season of the KUWTK spin-off.

She confirmed Kim's comments about the metal rod, saying: 'I know it was a metal rod. I saw red indentations on my brother's neck.'

E! Network executives paid Chyna $370,000 to film four episodes of KUWTK after season one of Rob & Chyna ended. She is seen at right in one of those episodes with Kim Kardashian

Before things went south, Chyna had a friendly relationship with the Kardashian sisters and was seen attending social events with the family

But, she said, the family had 'no control' of whether E! would cancel Chyna's contract - a claim later confirmed by Adam Stotsky, the former president of the network.

'With all due respect to [the Kardashians], they do not have the authority to kill Rob & Chyna, only E! has the power to do that,' Stotsky said in court.

And when the Kardashians' attorney, Michael Rhodes asked him: 'Did the Kardashians do anything whatsoever to cause you to say, 'No season 2,' Stotsky replied: 'No.'

Instead, he said, the original premise for Rob & Chyna was the couple's 'newly blossoming relationship' with a light-hearted, romantic comedy feel to it.

But when that relationship started 'falling apart' - with Rob and Chyna first fighting, then not even speaking to one another, he said, 'it was kind of gross.'

Asked about the TV ratings for Rob & Chyna, Stotsky said: 'It was a top performer - it did very well.'

When Rhodes questioned Stotsky about the defamation part of Chyna's lawsuit in which she alleged that the Kardashians 'made false claims about her' to E!, he told the court the family told him nothing that 'influenced our decisions about Rob & Chyna.

And when Rhodes asked him about the part of Chyna's lawsuit in which she accuses the Kardashians of 'interfering' with her contract, Stotsky told him: 'There was nothing your clients did that affected our view of Chyna's contract.'

American Idol's Ryan Seacrest - an executive producer on both Keeping up with the Kardashians and and Rob & Chyna - was the next witness to be called upon.

Seacrest was not in court today so a video deposition he gave in May 2019 was played to the jury.

But as it turned out, the deposition shed no new light on the case since he answered 'I can't remember' or 'I don't recall' to most of the questions he was asked.

Chyna, 33, is seeking $108million in damages, charging the Kardashians with defamation and 'intentional interference with contracts' that led her to lose money on TV, personal appearances and social media 'influencing'

Khloe, 37, (far left) and Kim Kardashian, 41 (second from left), and younger sister Kylie Jenner, 24, (second from right) with their mother, family matriarch Kris Jenner, 66, (far right) are all named defendants in the case and are expected to be in court as they were last week

When the Rob & Chyna TV spinoff was pitched to him, he said he thought Chyna was 'bold and memorable' though he also admitted: 'I do not think I ever met Chyna.'

He said he couldn't recall ever speaking to any of the Kardashians about a second season of Rob & Chyna. Nor could he remember hearing from any of the Kardashians about Chyna being physically abusive to Rob or 'beating the s**t out of his face.'

'Did Rob ever talk to you about being physically abused by Chyna?' he was asked in the depo. 'I don't remember him saying that,' said Seacrest.

When he was asked if he ever had any discussions with the E! network about Chyna's contract, he answered, 'I'm not aware of one.'

A 2019 deposition of Ryan Seacrest - an executive producer on both Keeping up with the Kardashians and and Rob & Chyna - was played to the jury on Tuesday

Kris Jenner's boyfriend, Corey Gamble also took the stand Tuesday, telling the jury how he watched Chyna punch and hit her fiance Rob Kardashian in a drunken rage, screaming death threats and abuse at him.

Gamble, 41, said he and Kris were awoken just before daybreak the morning of December 15, 2016 by a phone call from Rob on the speaker phone.

As Rob was speaking, 'Chyna was screaming in the background, 'F**k you, you fat motherf***er', said Gamble.

'I could tell it was a hostile situation and needed to go there and help them.'

Gamble told the court he got dressed and drove the few blocks to Kylie Jenner's home where Rob and Chyna were living at the time.

But before he could even get through the front door, he said, 'I could hear her screaming at Rob. She was telling him she hated him, she would kill him, she didn't like him.'

When he got in the house, he recounted, Chyna was standing in the bedroom doorway with Rob about seven or eight feet away from her.

'When she saw me, she threw down whatever she had in her hand (he later said it was a rod a few feet long)..Then she ran toward Rob and she picked up a charger cord and started whipping it at him.

'When she got to him she started hitting him till I got in the middle of them. She also hit Rob when she was trying to hit Rob.

'I could smell the heavy alcohol on her..she was intoxicated. She was obviously very angry. She wanted to fight him, she wanted to hit him.'

Former E! Network president Adam Stotsky also testified on Tuesday that the spin-off show Rob & Chyna was supposed to be about their 'newly blossoming relationship' but when it started 'falling apart ... it was kind of gross'

E!'s Keeping up with the Kardashian ended its 20-season run in June 2021

Gamble said that he didn't know where the couple's young daughter Dream was in the house while the fight was happening.

But he added, 'The house was a mess. There was stuff everywhere. Obviously stuff had been thrown and smashed.'

After 'physically separating' the couple, he told the court that he told Rob to get his keys and wallet from the bedroom and to get in his car and leave.

As Rob was getting to his car, Chyna 'jumped on him again and was punching him and hitting him in the side of the head,' said Gamble, who added that she picked up a chair and threw it at Rob's car as he left.'

He stayed back at the house with Chyna, 'to make sure she didn't get in one of her cars and chase Rob,' he said. 'I put her keys somewhere so she could not get them.'

A female friend of Chyna was also in the house at the time and, said Gamble, 'She told me Chyna's been drinking all night and she's been fighting with Rob.she's been yelling the same stuff, 'I hate him I don't like him.I would not like this fat f*** if he was not part of this family'.

Asked by Chyna's lawyer, Lynne Ciani, if he had ever witnessed Chyna abusing Rob prior to December 15 2016, Gamble told the court: 'That was the first time I witnessed it.

'But it was not the first time I heard about it. I heard that when she drinks or allegedly does drugs, she gets volatile.

'I heard that she had been drinking and hit him before - I heard that from Rob and the nanny who worked for them.'

When he was asked how Rob looked when he got to the house that morning, Gamble said, 'He was scared. He was red around the neck. His face was red.'
Republicans tore into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, claiming the southern border is 'out of control' and urging him to resign as they warn of impeachment if the GOP retakes the House in 2022.

During two separate budget hearings before the House Appropriations DHS Subcommittee and House Homeland Security Committee, Mayorkas insisted that the situation at the southern border is being 'effectively managed' by the administration.

This claim was immediately denounced by Republicans both during the hearings and on social media.

Republican Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana told Mayorkas that he 'feels that America needs you to own' the failures at the southern border.

'Anyone that has two brain cells that can perhaps bump into each other would know that it's an abject failure down there,' the Homeland Security committee lawmaker said to Mayorkas.

'So if you would identify our border as effectively managed right now, how would you identify failure?' he posed. 'What would it be? Five million crossings in a year?'

'How would you identify failure if it's not what you've delivered thus far? By God, man  own the moment.'

Higgins mentioned that both himself and other have called on Mayorkas to resign.

'Next year if we have a majority in this committee  which we shall  if you're in office, you'll face impeachment,' the congressman warned. 'I ask you as a man, own this thing. Out of respect for you and the office, I ask you to reflect upon that.'

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insisted during two separate budget hearings on Wednesday that the southern border crisis is being 'effectively managed'

Republicans tore into President Joe Biden's DHS head, claiming the border is 'out of control' and calling for his resignation. Pictured: A caravan of migrants walk through Chiapas, Mexico on Tuesday, April 26, 2022 to cross into the U.S.

Mayorkas claims come despite decades-high border crossing figures  including 221,303 in March alone

Louisiana Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana urged Mayorkas to 'own' that he has 'failed' and resign before Republicans regain a majority in the House and moves forward with impeaching him

'We're losing our country down there. We need you to resign. Save the country the pain of your impeachment.'

Fellow panel member Michael McCaul said to Mayorkas on Wednesday: 'I've dealt with the border since 9/11 as a federal prosecutor, but also as a chairman of this very committee.'

'I've got to say,' he continued, 'I've never seen the border more broken.'

'It is not under operational control. It is out of control,' insisted McCaul, whose Texas congressional district encompasses much of the area between and included parts of Houston, Austin and San Antonio.

Mayorkas left it up to Congress to do something about the border, claiming it is lawmakers' job to fix the ongoing crisis and insisting the administration has managed it well.

'We inherited a broken and dismantled system that is already under strain,' Mayorkas said in opening remarks at both hearings on Wednesday. 'It was not built to manage the current levels of migration flow.'

'Only Congress can fix it,' he insisted.

'We have effectively managed an unprecedented number of noncitizens seeking to enter the United States.'

Homeland Committee Ranking Member Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas told Mayorkas: 'I've never seen the border more broken. It is not under operational control. It is out of control'

The claims come despite warnings and estimates that the already record-setting migration numbers could triple once Title 42 ends next month.

Mayorkas, who already said Congress should handle the problem, also solely blamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for repealing Title 42, claiming that the CDC has 'exclusive jurisdiction' of the public health measure.

He also said that stopping construction of former President Donald Trump's southern border wall has cost DHS $72 million  but the cost could be much higher considering much of the project falls under the purview of the Army Corps of Engineers, according to Mayorkas.

Mayorkas faced grilling from members of the House Appropriations DHS Subcommittee as he appeared for a hearing to justify the administration's Fiscal Year 2023 request for funds to secure the southern border.

Homeland Security committee Ranking Member John Katko tore into the budget request.

'This war between reality and this budget request is even more apparent in its response, or lack thereof, to the crisis at the southern border,' he said during Wednesday's hearing.

'March marked a 13th straight month of over 150,000 encounters  a trend never before recorded,' he added.

The administration saw its largest month of border crossings when Customs and Border Protection encountered 221,303 migrants in March alone. This is topped only by July 2021 figures that saw 213,593 encounters.

More than 2.4 million migrants have come in contact with Border Patrol agents since Biden took office in late January 2021.

Mayorkas is requesting $97.3 billion for DHS next year in order to invest in meeting 'the shifting filed landscape' at the border and other national security fronts  like from domestic and foreign terrorism and cyber attacks.

A poll released Wednesday reveals that most Americans want the administration to extend Title 42 to keep migration at bay in the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

Mayorkas defended the administration's actions on the southern border as he justified the request for a $97.3 billion budget for DHS for Fiscal Year 2023

Thousands of migrants from different nations caravan to the U.S. through Chiapas, Mexico on Tuesday, April 26, 2022 as estimates show migration could triple once Title 42 ends in May

Some Republican lawmakers pushed Mayorkas on Wednesday on the issues of Trump's infamous border wall, which was a main promise of his 2016 campaign.

'The wall projects  the majority of them  rest in the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers,' Mayorkas explained.

He added: 'Those that we ourselves control, I believe that the cost of discontinuing them is approximately $72 million.'

On Day One of Biden's presidency, he halted construction of the southern border wall. But money was already allocated for the project, meaning much went to waste.

The DHS head also claimed at the hearing that the administration has been working toward strategies to deal with surges once Title 42 is no longer in effect.

'Under this administration, our department has been executing a comprehensive strategy to secure our border and rebuild our immigration system,' Mayorkas told the House subcommittee panel.

'With the Title 42 public health order set to be lifted, we expect migration levels to increase as smugglers seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants,' he conceded.

'We will continue to enforce our immigration laws.'

Some internal projections show that migration could triple to 18,000 illegal crossers each day once Title 42 ends.

The policy was enacted under then-President Donald Trump in March 2020 and is a health-related protocol that allows for the instant expulsion of migrants without hearing asylum claims in the midst of a public health emergency.

Mayorkas' appearance on Capitol Hill comes just after Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came out against the Biden administration ending Title 42  and its handling of the policy overall.

'Title 42 was not working. We need a better plan. And I think that's what the secretary will be presenting tomorrow,' Pelosi told Punchbowl News on Tuesday evening.

A Morning Consult poll reveals that 60 percent of American voters are in favor of keeping the policy in place to allow the expulsion of migrants outside of the normal immigration laws that fall under Title 8.

A Louisiana judge indicated recently that he would block the White House efforts to wind down the program, which could ultimately be a win for Biden amid floundering polls and criticism over the handling of immigration.

Only 24 percent of voters want Title 42 repealed rather than extended.

When broken down by party, even Democrats are more likely to favor extension than repeal 43-38 percent. Independents were 58 percent for extending and 23 percent for ending it.

A massive 78 percent of Republican respondents want to see the program stay in place to allow immigration agencies to turn away asylum-seekers  and only 11 percent want to see Title 42 come to an end.

Mayorkas faced grilling from members of the House Appropriations DHS Subcommittee and Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday as he appeared for a hearing to justify the administration's Fiscal Year 2023 request for funds to secure the southern border. Comes after he released a plan Tuesday evening to send 600 CBP agents to the border for an anticipated influx of immigration

A new poll released Wednesday shows that three in five American voters want Title 42 extended rather than repealed  including 78% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats

Illegal immigrant population increased by ONE MILLION in Biden's first year in office and cost the taxpayer an extra $9.4billion, conservative group research reveals The number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. grew by one million during President Biden's first year in office, according to research by a conservative group. A study by Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which advocates for cracking down on immigration overall, found that the undocumented immigrant population in the U.S. grew from 14.5 million in 2020 to 15.5 million now and cost the American taxpayer an additional $9.4 billion. FAIR roughly estimates that the U.S. now spends $143.1 billion on public services for undocumented migrants, including on public schools, migrant schools, English language proficiency, uncompensated hospital stays, Medicaid, law enforcement and other welfare programs. A total of 1.9 million migrants were apprehended at the southern border in fiscal year 2021 and than 2.4 million migrants have come in contact with Border Patrol agents since Biden took office in late January 2021. FAIR attributed the rise in border apprehensions to both the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, where many businesses now need access to cheap labor, and new immigration policies under Biden. Since Biden took office, he says he's focused on a more 'humane' immigration policy. The report notes that reinstated a policy of catch-and-release, tried to do away with the Remain-in-Mexico policy for those seeking asylum and told Immigrations and Customs enforcement to focus their attention on arresting only criminal lawbreakers, ended border wall construction and campaigned for amnesty for unlawful migrants already in the country. A migrant stranded in Tapachula sits on the road while holding her child as they participate in a caravan to the United States after becoming impatient waiting for a humanitarian visa to cross the country, in Tapachula, Mexico April 26 A migrant caravan who grew impation of waiting for humanitarian visas marches toward the US border Ukrainian refugees wait at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Tijuana, Mexico Tracking the number of unlawful migrants residing in the U.S. is a difficult task, and FAIR admits that any figure is going to be 'inexact.' 'The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) only (loosely) counts foreign nationals who enter and leave the United States in a lawful manner. In truth, we do not know exactly how many people cross the border unlawfully and evade immigration authorities. We can only estimate these figures,' FAIR said in a statement on the report. FAIR's 1 million figure comes from estimates they made assuming that government data is an undercount. FAIR first found the total number of foreign-born residents living in the U.S. then subtracted the number of lawfully present migrants in the country. The group used data from the Census Bureau's 2020 American Community Survey and the Current Population Survey. They then noted that most research organizations consider the raw calculation based on Census data to be an undercount by 15-35 percent - Fair went with 30 percent - and added this number to Census data. Once they cross the border, most undocumented immigrants tend to settle in California, which has the highest undocumented population at 3.3 million, followed by Texas, 2.2 million, Florida, 1.2 million and New York 1.1 million. The new estimate comes as migration at the southern border is surging again and in March 221,000 migrants were apprehended, nearly a 20-year high. That number is expected to rise as weather gets warmer and many more are camped out on the border waiting for Title 42 to be lifted. The Biden administration had planned until this week to lift Title 42, the Centers for Disease Control CDC) public health order that allowed border agents to immediately expel migrants. But on Monday a Louisiana judge agreed to issue a temporary restraining order delaying the policy's end. The details of the restraining order are not yet clear, but a Biden administration official told Politico the White House plans to comply with the order. Internal DHS projections show that migration could triple to 18,000 illegal crossers each day once Title 42 ends - more than double the current rate of 7,000 and more than triple the DHS' operational capacity of 5,000 per day. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are warning that they could run out of funds as early as early July if migration skyrockets like projections predict once Title 42 is lifted. DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas testified before Congress Wednesday that the border crisis is being 'effectively managed' and said that the CDC has 'exclusive jurisdiction' over Title 42. Mayorkas faced grilling from members of the House Appropriations DHS Subcommittee as he appeared for a hearing to justify the administration's Fiscal Year 2023 request for funds to secure the southern border. He left it up to Congress, claiming it is lawmakers' job to fix the border crisis. 'We inherited a broken and dismantled system that is already under strain,' Mayorkas said. 'It was not built to manage the current levels of migration flow.' 'Only Congress can fix it,' he insisted. Mayorkas made the claim: 'We have effectively managed an unprecedented number of noncitizens seeking to enter the United States.' Advertisement

Republican lawmakers are likely to make any Ukraine aid package reliant on keeping Title 42 in place  at least until the public health emergency has ended in the U.S.  and Democrats worry they won't have the votes to defeat it.

Several House Democrats, according to Punchbowl, vented about Biden's handling of Title 42 in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday night.

Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has decision-making authority on invoking Title 42, the White House faces any political price or payoff for this situation.

A growing number of Democrats in Congress are breaking from the White House on this matter.

The Biden administration released a plan Tuesday to deal with an expected increase in already high numbers of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border due to the planned lifting of a public health order that has kept people from seeking asylum.

A memo from Mayorkas outlined a more robust effort to enforce U.S. immigration law without the use of Title 42, which was invoked at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

The plan is to add 600 members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. There would be additional transportation and medical support as well.

'When the Title 42 public health Order is lifted, we anticipate migration levels will increase, as smugglers will seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants,' Mayorkas warns in a memo that comes a day before he is to testify to Congress on an issue that has become a potent element in Republican political messaging.

Mayorkas said that 'discontinuing' border wall construction cost DHS $72 million. Pictured: People use a ladder to scale the border wall in Tecate, Mexico and use a rope to lower down on the U.S. side on Thursday, April 21, 2022

The plan includes increasing the number of personnel in the border region from Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies, expanding detention capacity with the use of temporary facilities and aggressively deploying a process known as expedited removal to deport migrants who do not qualify for asylum or some other relief under U.S. law.

The agency is planning for increased capacity by May 23, with 18,000 non-citizens in CBP custody.

That is an increase from 13,000 in early 2021.

The administration says it will comply with a court ruling if a judge issues a temporary restraining order, Axios reported.

It also relies on new Department of Homeland Security initiatives intended to streamline the evaluation of migrant claims, such as the deployment of asylum officers to the border to help determine whether someone should be granted temporary legal residency until an immigration court rules on their case.

Unmentioned is the fact that a court could soon order the government to reverse course and halt plans to lift Title 42 on May 23 because of lawsuits filed by Republican-led states.

Senate Republicans are acting to try to force the administration to keep the policy in place, likely by attaching it to a COVID relief package that the administration desperately wants.

Senate Minority Mitch McConnell told reporters, 'I think I'm safe to say Senate Republicans are going to insist on having an amendment to Title 42. This is extremely important. The border is already entirely too open. Pulling back the Title 42 authorities will only make it dramatically worse. And so I want to make it clear to you and to the majority leader that we'll need to have Title 42 vote at some point here, in all likelihood on the COVID package.'

The administration has said without the new funds, it won't be able to secure purchases of upcoming coronavirus drugs being developed.

A Mexican smuggler guides a Haitian family across the Morelos Dam over the Colorado River from Los Algodones, Mexico, on Feb. 4, 2022, to Yuma, Ariz., on the other side

Members of the Texas National Guard are stationed along the Rio Grande River where U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy leads a congressional delegation visit to the southern border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, U.S. April 25, 2022. The Biden administration is planning to send an additional 600 Border Patrol agents for a planned lifting of a public health order

U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy addresses media during a delegation visit to the southern border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, U.S. April 25, 2022. Republicans have pounded the Biden administration for the planned lifting of Title 42 in May

On Monday, a federal judge in Louisiana said he would issue an order limiting the administrations ability to prepare but left specifics of the settlement to the federal government and the states.

U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays, a Trump appointee, has scheduled a hearing on May 13 in the lawsuit by Louisiana and 20 other states seeking to keep Title 42 authority in place. Republicans and some Democrats in Congress have also urged the Biden administration to continue the order for now.

Migrants have been expelled more than 1.8 million times under the rule, which was issued by the CDC under Trump.

Advocates for asylum-seekers support the end to the rule, which they say endangers people fleeing persecution back home and violates rights to seek protection under U.S. law and international treaty. The states challenging the administration say the U.S. is not ready for a likely influx of migrants resulting from the rules end, straining public services.

It comes amid what the administration concedes are historic numbers of migrants attempting to cross the border due to factors that include economic and political turmoil in Latin America, as well as a backlog of people hoping to seek asylum.

The increase in migrant encounters is also due in part to Title 42 itself.

Immigration authorities stopped migrants 221,303 times along the Southwest border in March, a 33% increase from a month earlier, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

But many of those encounters were people coming back after being removed under the public health authority. CBP said the number of unique individuals encountered nationwide in March came to 159,900, still high but significantly below the total.

Biden administration officials argue that the use of expedited removal is more of a deterrent because people subjected to it are inadmissible for five years and can be charged with a felony if they attempt to return to the country. Under Title 42, there are no legal consequences and many people simply turn around and come back.
Half of Londoners now support Labour ahead of next week's local elections, a new poll has revealed - but Sir Keir Starmer has been warned his party could still struggle to make gains in councils in the capital and across the country.

A YouGov survey for Queen Mary University of London's Mile End Institute revealed Labour has built up a 27-point lead over the Conservatives in the capital.

The poll put Labour on 50 per cent, more than twice as high as the Tories on 23 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats on 12 per cent and Greens on nine per cent.

According to the survey, support for Labour was even greater in inner London, where Labour was on 63 per cent.

This was 50 points ahead of the Tories on 13 per cent.

But Sir Keir was warned Labour's huge support in London might not result in many electoral advances on 5th May.

This is due to 2018, when most of the English council seats being fought for next week were last contested, being a high water mark of Labour's recent performance.

Half of Londoners now support Labour ahead of next week's local elections, a new YouGov survey for Queen Mary University of London's Mile End Institute has revealed

According to the survey, support for Labour was even greater in inner London, where Sir Keir Starmer's party was on 63 per cent

Dr Patrick Diamond, director of the Mile End Institute, told the Evening Standard: 'Our new research shows that Labour is set to perform significantly better than the Conservatives in the forthcoming London borough elections.

'Support for the Conservatives across the city has fallen sharply since the local elections in 2018, however, Labours vote does not look set to advance beyond its successes that year, when it performed particularly strongly.'

Philip Cowley, a Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London, said that Labour could steal the London boroughs of Barnet and Wandsworth from the Tories next week.

'Any gains will not be massive, however  not least because Labour did well in London the last time these councils were contested in 2018, in what was then the best result since 1971, and it therefore has relatively limited scope to make further advances,' he added.

Other election gurus have also suggested it will be hard for Labour to make huge headway across the UK next week, despite the Conservatives' current woes over the Partygate scandal.

Tory MPs have expressed fears of an election trouncing on 5th May, as voters use the ballot box make their displeasure known at Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street.

But psesphologists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher have suggested it could be Sir Keir who will be under pressure for an 'underwhelming' performance once the votes are counted.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been warned his party could struggle to make gains at next week's local elections. This is due to Labour's strong showing in 2018, when many of the council seats were last contested

A number of Conservative MPs are said to be reserving their judgement on Boris Johnson's future in Number 10, following the Partygate scandal, until the local election results are known

In an article, the pair also highlighted the performance of Labour in 2018 - when the party were led by Jeremy Corbyn against Theresa May's Conservatives.

They described how, at the time, Labour were just one point behind the Conservatives in national polls and went on to give their best showing at local elections since 2012.

Writing for the Local Government Chronicle, Professor Rallings and Professor Thrasher said Sir Keir 'will do well to avoid making standing still, rather than picking up gains, seem rather underwhelming when the post-mortem takes place'.

They added: 'For the Conservatives, by contrast, the less dramatic the results, the more they can claim not to be suffering traditional "mid-term blues".'

If Boris Johnson does see the Tories avoid a miserable result next week, the pressure on the Prime Minister's position could ease.

A number of Conservatives are said to be reserving their judgement on Mr Johnson's future in Number 10, following the Partygate scandal, until the local election results are known.

A high point of Labour's success in 2018 was in London and Prof. Rallings and Prof. Thrasher wrote that, following the result in the capital four years ago, 'it may be hard for Labour to make much headway or for the Conservatives to fall much further'.

Outside of the capital, the pair said that Labour's troubles in its traditional heartlands had become clearer in the years after 2018.

'In 2019 and 2021... the partys "Red Wall" problems became more evident with both its vote share and seat haul falling sharply,' they wrote.

'In these and other areas, Labour will now be looking for signs that those voters who deserted the party in 2019 and after are being driven by more than their views on Brexit.

'It needs just two gains to secure a majority in Kirklees metropolitan borough council, for example, but improving on its performance of four years ago is a big ask.'

They added that Labour had also been suffering Red Wall 'issues' in Wales.

And, in Scotland, they said both Labour and the Tories will 'each now want to put a brake on the SNP in different parts of the country'.

'For example, in 2017 the Conservatives gained some 150 seats with Labour falling back by nearly the same margin,' they said.

'The Conservatives are probably in defensive mode following their success last time, but Labour really must look to make gains.'
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was given a standing ovation by fellow House Republicans Wednesday morning after he defended his comments on tapes released by The New York Times.

'He's widely supported. Will be speaker,' one source in the room told The Washington Post.

CNN's Melanie Zanona reported that McCarthy told colleagues that he was just floating scenarios when he told Republican leadership during a January 10 call that former President Donald Trump should resign.

McCarthy and his allies were also caught complaining about the rhetoric used by fellow GOP lawmakers including Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks, Lauren Boebert and Barry Moore during a private phone call in the days following the January 6 Capitol attack.

On Tuesday, The New York Times released fresh audio clips of McCarthy on the call with Scalise, then-House Republican Conference Chair Cheney, Rep. Tim Emmer and a handful of Congressional aides, where he relayed his fears that remarks by a vocal fringe minority could lead to violence.

'Tension is too high, the country is too crazy,' McCarthy warned on the January 10 call. 'I do not want to look back and think we caused something or we missed something and someone got hurt. I don't want to play politics with any of that.'

The Washington Post also reported that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was also briefly brought up on the call, said at the meeting Wednesday morning that Scalise needed to apologize for his remarks.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was given a standing ovation by House Republicans Wednesday after he defended his comments on tapes released by The New York Times. Here he's captured leaving the Republican National Committee where the meeting was held

McCarthy was caught on tape discussing former President Donald Trump's (left) future after the January 6 Capitol attack. In audio released by The New York Times, McCarthy suggests that Trump should resign

Both House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (left) and Rep. Liz Cheney (right), who at the time was the GOP Conference Chair, were on the call in question. Audio released Tuesday night caught them discussing some of their GOP colleagues' controversial rhetoric

In one clip from the call, McCarthy is heard discussing comments Gaetz made on Newsmax, where he went after fellow Republicans for being 'anti-Trump.'

One of the Republicans Gaetz was critical of was Cheney, who blasted the outgoing president after the January 6 insurrection.

'This is serious stuff people are doing that has to stop,' the top House Republican grumbled, mentioning briefings he was receiving from the FBI.

'I'm calling Gaetz, I'm explaining to him, I don't know if I have much to say, but I'm going to have some other people call him too,' McCarthy continued. 'This is serious s**t, to cut this out.'

Scalise pushed that 'it's potentially illegal what he's doing.'

'Well, he's putting people in jeopardy,' McCarthy said. 'And he doesn't need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.'

Scalise, the House's No. 2 Republican, also pointed to comments made by Brooks and Rep. Louie Gohmert, including how Brooks said at the 'Save America' rally before the Capitol Attack that 'today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.'

'You got the Maxine Waters and all that stuff too, I know the Dems are in a very strong positions to drive a lot of things, but our members have got to start paying attention to what they say too, we can't put up with that type of s**t,' McCarthy said.

In the past, Republicans have gone after Waters, a California Democrat, for some of her rhetoric.

'You think the president deserves to be impeached for his comments? That's almost something that goes further than what the president said,' McCarthy said of Brooks' 'kicking ass' line.

McCarthy and GOP leaders discussed comments Rep. Mo Brooks (left) made at the 'Save America' rally in the hours before the January 6 Capitol attack and things Rep. Matt Gaetz (right) said about 'anti-Trump' Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney

On the call, Rep. Liz Cheney brought up Rep. Lauren Boebert (pictured), pointing out that she had tweeted members' movements during the January 6 attack.

Recording of McCarthy talking about Gaetz pic.twitter.com/a2SmXgJCKt  Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2022

On the call, Cheney brought up Boebert, pointing out that she had tweeted members' movements during the January 6 attack.

McCarthy asked if Greene - often linked to Boebert over their shared, now disavowed, interest in QAnon - had been a speaker at former President Donald Trump's 'Save America' rally.

McCarthy is also told about tweets made from Moore.

'Wow, we have more arrests for stealing a podium on January 6 than we do for stealing an election on November 3, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit would be places I'd reccomend you start,' Moore wrote before deleting his personal Twitter account.

On the death of capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt he commented, 'I understand it was a black police officer who shot the white female veteran.'

'You know that doesn't fit the narrative,' the Alabama Republican tweeted.

McCarthy was also told about tweets sent out by Rep. Barry Moore (pictured) including on the death of Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt. 'I understand it was a black police officer who shot the white female veteran. You know that doesn't fit the narrative,' Moore wrote

After Moore's tweets were read aloud on the call, both McCarthy and Cheney are heard murmuring, 'wow.'

'Can't they take their Twitter accounts away, too?' McCarthy then said.

The sound bites released Tuesday were from the same call in which McCarthy told GOP leadership he'd tell Trump to resign - comments he continues to deny, despite the recording being released publicly.

The January 10 call was revealed by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, in a preview of their new book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future.

The comments prompted January 6 House select committee Chairman Bennie Thompson to announce Tuesday that the panel would issue 'another invitation' to McCarthy to testify.

Then the Democrat-led committee - which includes Republicans Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger - will decide whether to subpoena McCarthy and other Republicans, Punchbowl News said.

By Tuesday night Gaetz had already reacted to the new audio clips.

He lambasted McCarthy and Scalise as 'weak men' and blasted them for holding 'sniveling calls with Liz Cheney.'

Gaetz in particular, McCarthy warned, was 'putting people in jeopardy' for labeling some lawmakers 'anti-Trump' in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 insurrection.

'This is the behavior of weak men, not leaders,' Gaetz said in a statement on Tuesday night.

'While I was protecting President Trump from impeachment, they were protecting Liz Cheney from criticism. They deemed it incendiary or illegal to call Cheney and [GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger] "Anti-Trump," a label both proudly advertise today.'

But in his Tuesday night statement Gaetz indicated he may not take any explanations from McCarthy seriously. He also suggested that it was the first time he heard the senior lawmakers' comments, despite McCarthy stating on the recording that he would be 'calling' Gaetz.

'Rep. McCarthy and Rep. Scalise held views about President Trump and me that they shared on sniveling calls with Liz Cheney, not us,' the Florida lawmaker said.

He continued, 'On the bright side, you no longer have to be a lobbyist with a $5,000 check to know what McCarthy and Scalise really think.'

'You just have to listen to their own words as they disparage Trump and the Republicans in Congress who fight for him.'

But aside from some vocal dissent, McCarthy by and large appears to have the support of his colleagues to lead them next year - which, if Republicans take back Congress in November's midterms, would make him Speaker of the House.

Rep. Jim Jordan, who like Gaetz is among Trump's staunchest allies in Congress, vouched for the besieged leader.

'I'm for Donald Trump being the next president and Kevin McCarthy being the next speaker,' Jordan told Politico.

Another Republican lawmaker, Rep. Rodney Davis, told the outlet that 'nobody's talking about' the leaked audio and that he was 'excited' for 'McCarthy being the next speaker.'
The rescue of a blind man who fell off a London platform edge before he was struck by a train was delayed due to confusion over whether power to the tracks was off - as emergency services stood trackside unable to treat him.

Cleveland Gervais, 53, was hit by a train when he fell off the platform edge at Eden Park station in south east London at around 7pm on February 26, 2020.

He was still alive when emergency services arrived at the scene shortly after, but paramedics were unable to provide any clinical care for more than ten 'crucial' minutes as they were left awaiting confirmation that power to the tracks had been switched off.

By the time Mr Gervais was extricated from underneath the third carriage of the train and onto a stretcher at 7.28pm, he had suffered cardiac arrest and died.

His inquest has heard how the power had actually been turned off at 16 minutes earlier, but this vital information was not relayed to Mr Gallon.

Mr Gervais, a volunteer counsellor, was registered blind but regularly used public transport and had earlier that day spent the afternoon having lunch with friends.

The third day of an inquest into his death at South London Coroner's Court heard evidence from London Fire Brigade (LFB) officers who attended the scene.

Cleveland Gervais, 53, was hit by a train when he fell off the platform edge at Eden Park station in south east London at around 7pm on February 26, 2020

Rescue efforts were delayed for 16 minutes due to confusion among emergency service crews over whether power to the tracks had been switched off

The court heard that LFB followed a 'lack of clarity' from other emergency services when attempting to rescue Mr Gervais.

Firefighters arrived at the scene at 7.16pm and received information from their control room en route that power to the tracks had been 'isolated'.

Sub officer Sophie Wilcocks said: 'That information from control would have been part of my information gathering process.

I would seek to get to the scene of the incident and take in a wider situational report by information gathering from London Ambulance Service (LAS) emergency crews and any witnesses on the scene and to decide whether it was safe.

I would not commit crews to the track on the basis of that information from control because of the lack of detail in it in terms of isolation between two points or whether it is on one track and not another track.

I made initial contact with the LAS crews and British Transport Police (BTP) - both parties who said they had not had confirmation that power was isolated.

Ms Wilcocks said she was unable to get confirmation from a Rail Incident Officer or 'competent person' and so made the decision for firefighters not to access the tracks due to risk of electrocution.

She added: 'The information I had from control was thrown into doubt once I communicated with staff from LAS and BTP which then caused me to want to clarify that information.'

The firefighter said she wanted to confirm which area of the track had been isolated and wished to have 'a named person' to put against information that power had been turned off - as is now LFB policy.

But when a colleague radioed back to control to ask for the name of the person who had provided the information, none could be provided.

Instead, a Rail Incident Officer arrived at the scene with specialist equipment to confirm that power had been turned off.

The court heard yesterday that Mr Gervais was still breathing upon the arrival of emergency services and had been speaking to a member of the public following the incident.

But paramedics, firefighters and police officers were left waiting trackside after arriving at the scene because they had to wait for confirmation before they could treat him.

Mr Gervais was still breathing when emergency services arrived at the scene, but paramedics, firefighters and police officers all stood trackside awaiting confirmation that they could access the tracks to rescue him

Jude Bunting QC, representing Mr Gervais' family, told the court that LFB policy stated that crews could descend onto tracks with less rigorous checks if there was a threat to life.

He added: 'We know now that the power was turned off at 7.07pm. It was made clear to the driver.

It was made clear tothe 999 caller who told the LAS three times that the power was off.

Mr Bunting also referred to the incident log which recorded a conversation between the Network Rail and LFB control rooms, in which it was confirmed that power had been turned off on both the up and down lines.

He said: 'All the boxes have been ticked. All the confirmation is there. It couldnt be more clear, could it?

You arrived on the scene, you had all the information you needed to commit LFB [crew] onto the track.

Ms Wilcocks agreed, but when it was suggested she had no reason to doubt that information, she said she only had part of the details needed once she was on the scene.

She added: 'I felt I didnt have sufficient confidence without going to clarify the information I had heard.

If you get conflicting information when you get there it is not always the right decision to overrule.

Ms Wilcocks also denied an accusation that she 'chose to follow a lack of clarity from other emergency services'

The court heard that it took 12 minutes from the moment LFB arrived at the station to receive confirmation.

Do you agree you arrived with information you needed...that 12 minutes was 12 minutes you lost due to your indecision? Mr Bunting asked.

Ms Wilcocks replied: I would never arrive at any incident presuming to believe that I had all the information I needed to [make] a safe plan of action.

I would take the information I received on route together with the information I gathered from the scene. I would weigh that up before making a decision.

She also did not agree that the delays was 'avoidable'.

Mr Gervais regularly used public transport but was blind with light sensitivity only in his right eye and reduced acuity and tunnel vision in his left eye.

The inquest is also expected to probe whether his life may have been saved if 'safer paving' had been in place to warn of the platform edge.

The inquest continues.
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Vladimir Putin has vowed to use nuclear weapons against any country that dares to 'interfere' with Russia's war in Ukraine in his latest chilling threat to the West.

The despot, addressing legislators in St Petersburg today, said his response to anyone who 'threatens' Russia will be 'lightning-fast' and deadly.

'If someone intends to interfere in what is going on from the outside they must know that constitutes an unacceptable strategic threat to Russia. They must know that our response to counter strikes will be lightning fast. Fast,' he said.

'We have all the weapons we need for this. No one else can brag about these weapons, and we wont brag about them. But we will use them.'

Though Putin did not mention nuclear weapons directly, he was almost certainly referring to Russia's new Sarmat 2 nuclear missile which was tested for the first time just days ago and that he boasted is unlike any other weapon in the world.

Vladimir Putin warned today that any country that interferes in Ukraine will pose a threat to Russia, and that he will not hesitate to use nuke to counter that threat

Putin did not mention nukes directly, but spoke of weapons that 'no one else can brag about' - almost certainly a reference to the Sarmat 2 nuke Russia tested last week

Propagandist urges Putin to wipe out Great Britain with a nuclear missile Russian state media has urged Vladimir Putin to wipe out the UK with nukes over its 'boorish' support for Ukraine. Vladimir Solovyov, often referred to as Putin's propagandist, made the threat today as he spoke to the head of Russia's space agency about the country's new Sarmat 2 missile which is due to go into service later this year. 'As it turned out, one Sarmat means minus one Great Britain,' Solovyov boasted, saying the UK has become 'totally boorish' - evidently a reference to its vocal support for Ukraine since Putin gave the order to invade. He was speaking just two days after Putin claimed to have uncovered a plot to assassinate Solovyov involving a 'neo-Nazi gang' taking orders from Kyiv. Ukraine has denied the existence of any such plot. The missile - dubbed 'Satan 2' in the West - is one of the world's largest and longest-ranged nuclear missiles, capable of carrying up to 15 warheads and decoys which Russia claims makes it unstoppable against all current defences. Putin oversaw the first successful test launch of the missile last week, saying it marks a 'significant event in the development of advanced weapons of the Russian army.' He boasted that the missile is 'unique in the world' and that nothing like it will exist 'for a long while'. 'The new complex has the highest performance characteristics, and can break through all modern anti-missile defences,' he said. 'It will reliably secure Russia from external threats, and will force those trying to threaten our country in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric.' Advertisement

Putin made the threat during an address to lawmakers in which he spoke at length about the 'special military operation' in Ukraine - promising once again that 'all objectives will definitely be carried out' by his 'heroic' military.

He praised Russian troops, who he said were fighting to 'prevent a large-scale conflict' of exactly the kind he stands accused of causing.

He again repeated unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine was seeking to possess nuclear weapons itself or develop biological weapons, which he said posed 'a real threat [to] our motherland.'

'All that confirms our reaction was timely and correct,' he said.

Railing against Western 'fascists', he added: 'For years they turned our neighbouring Ukraine into an anti-Russia.

'Let me remind you that Russia was always sympathetic and acted as a friend and as a comrade and as a brother, it viewed the creation of the independent Ukrainian state - at the time we thought this would be a friendly state.

'We would develop together and strengthen each-other and create the best conditions for our competition and development and of course we didn't expect they would create anti-Russian on that territory. We cannot allow this.'

He said the West was trying to back the Russian 'bear' into a corner but had 'failed' in their attempts to divide the country.

It is hardly the first time that Putin has threatened the West with nukes over the war in Ukraine, though the threats have become more frequent as the tide of war has turned against Russia's military.

On Monday, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned that Russia is now fighting a proxy-war with the whole of NATO and the risk of it turning nuclear is 'real'.

Speaking to state TV, Lavrov said the current situation is worse than the Cuban missile crisis at the height of the Cold War because of a complete break-down in relations between the two sides.

Asked directly about the possibility of a nuclear war, he said: 'The risks are very significant. I do not want the danger to be artificially inflated [but] it is serious, real. It cannot be underestimated.'

A Russian ammunition dump near the village of Staraya Nelidovka, in the Belgorod region, burns after what is widely thought to have been a Ukrainian air strike

Anti-air defences are filmed shooting a target out of the sky over the Belgorod region of Russia as Ukraine continues to target military facilities reinforcing Moscow's troops in the east

Safety levels at Europe's largest nuclear plant are a 'red light blinking' The International Atomic Energy Agency has raised the alarm over safety fears at Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine, currently under Russian occupation. Rafael Grossi, the director of the UN agency, said the level of safety at the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine is like a 'red light blinking' as his organization tries in vain to persuade Moscow to give it access for work, including repairs. He said the IAEA must be allowed to, among other things, re-establish the plant's connections with the Vienna-based headquarters of the U.N. agency. And for that, he warned, both Russia and Ukraine need to help. The plant requires repairs, 'and all of this is not happening. So the situation as I have described it, and I would repeat it today, is not sustainable as it is,' Grossi said. 'So this is a pending issue. This is a red light blinking.' Advertisement

Maria Zakharova, spokesman for the foreign ministry, then issued a threat to strike NATO countries supplying arms to Ukraine - with the UK among those leading weapons deliveries.

'Do we understand correctly that for the sake of disrupting the logistics of military supplies, Russia can strike military targets on the territory of those NATO countries that supply arms to the Kyiv regime,' she asked.

'After all, this directly leads to deaths and bloodshed on Ukrainian territory. As far as I understand, Britain is one of those countries.'

Earlier today, Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov directly threatened the UK with nukes - saying that 'one Sarmat missile means minus one Great Britain.'

He appeared to suggest nukes should be used because Britain has become 'totally boorish' - evidently a reference to its vocal support for Ukraine.

But UK armed forces minister James Heappey dismissed the comments as 'bravado', saying he sees no imminent threat of nuclear escalation.

'Lavrov's trademark over the course of 15 years or so that he has been the Russian foreign secretary has been that sort of bravado. I don't think that right now there is an imminent threat of escalation,' Heappey told BBC Television.

'What the West is doing to support its allies in Ukraine is very well calibrated ... Everything we do is calibrated to avoid direct confrontation with Russia.'

Never-the-less, 40 nations met in Germany yesterday to agree increased arms supplies to Ukraine after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed to provide Kyiv with everything it needs to 'win' the war.

Hammering home the message, UK foreign secretary Liz Truss will today urge the West to supply heavy weapons, tanks and warplanes to Ukraine as she pushes for higher defence spending.

In a speech this evening, the Foreign Secretary will call for arms production to be stepped up saying the battle against Vladimir Putin will be a 'long haul'.

She is to insist that the NATO target for spending 2 per cent of GDP on military should be a 'floor not a ceiling'

Off the back of those calls, Russia today cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, two European nations that rely heavily on fossil fuels for energy, in one of its boldest moves yet against Western sanctions.

Moscow said the 'unfriendly' countries were cut off after refusing its demands to pay for the gas in rubles, but Poland and Bulgaria said Russia was in breach of contracts it signed which stated the bill should be paid in dollars.

The Kremlin also suggested that other European countries who fail to agree to its demands could also be cut off.

Pictured: A map showing gas pipelines that enter Europe from Russia. Polish state-controlled gas utility company PGNiG today confirmed that Gazprom had 'completely suspended' the supply of gas to Poland via the Yamal pipeline (dark green)

Pictured: Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks during a news conference near the gas installation at a Gaz-System gas compressor station in Rembelszczyzna, outside Warsaw, Poland, April 27, 2022. Speaking to the Polish parliament, Morawiecki vowed that Poland would not be cowed by the gas cutoff. He said Poland was safe thanks to years of efforts aimed at securing gas from other countries

Moldovans living under Russian separatists are sent fake texts claiming Ukrainian 'invaders' will kill them Moldovans living under pro-Russian separatists in Moldova's breakaway region have been sent fake texts claiming they will be 'eliminated with no prior warning' by Ukrainian 'invaders'. Residents in the region of Transnistria, an unrecognised Moscow-backed sliver of land bordering southwestern Ukraine, have said they have been sent the messages warning them that Kyiv will invade the territory. One text message sent to a local resident, seen by The Telegraph, read: 'The Ukrainian Security Service highly recommends the evacuation of civilians to safer regions. 'We would like to assure you that the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not with harm on peaceful residents but those who stay in town will be considered members of sabotage groups and will be eliminated with no prior warning.' But the text messages were sent from 'unknown people' and concerns have been raised that it is part of Russia's campaign of disinformation to spread fear in Moldova. Russia has been accused of planning hybrid attacks to 'destabilise' the region and Moldova's pro-Western government after a series of explosions there prompted fears of Russia launching 'false flag' attacks to justify invading Transnistria. A fake 'attack' by Ukrainian forces - or messages claiming Ukraine will launch an invasion - would help provide a pretext for sending in Russian forces. Last week, Kremlin military chief Rustam Minnekayev said Russia sought control of southern Ukraine, which could provide access to Transnistria, 'where there have been cases of oppression of the Russian-speaking population'. The local resident who received the fake message told the Telegraph: 'There can be many provocations, so I did not believe it. A message from unknown people is not the most reliable source of information.' Speaking of their concerns of Transnistria being dragged into Russia's war, the resident said: 'We don't want this. We host refugees our homes, we help people. And we are afraid that war will come to our land.' Advertisement

EU diplomats said the Kremlin was attempting to 'blackmail' Europe away from its support for Ukraine, and vowed not to give in to the threat.

Poland and Bulgaria have both been stockpiling gas since the start of the year in expectation that supplies could dry up, and today sought to reassure their populations that their energy is secure.

The European Union said it could impose a crude oil embargo on Russia, with the two having been locked in a stand-off for weeks .

The market reacted quickly to the decision by state-owned Gazprom. Benchmark European gas prices jumped by up to 24 per cent to 121 (102) per megawatt-hour today, to hit their highest level this month and almost seven times higher than they were a year ago. The UK equivalent increased by 14 per cent to 180 pence per therm.

Russia is now more than two months into what was supposed to be a days-long 'special military operation' to topple the Ukrainian government and install a puppet regime loyal to Moscow.

Ahead of the war, most experts and observers predicted Ukraine's military would survive only a few days or weeks against the onslaught, but troops have defied the doubters and remain in control of most of the country 62 days later.

Having failed in its aim of taking Kyiv, Russia is now concentrating its forces in the east in the hopes of seizing control of the Donbas region and encircling a large part of Ukraine's ground forces.

Moscow's generals have also said their aim is to push out from Kherson - on the Black Sea coast and the only major city to fall to Putin's forces so far - and capture Mykolaiv and Odesa, cutting Ukraine off from the ocean.

The early stages of that plan seemed to be underway on Tuesday with a series of blasts in Transnistria - a breakaway region of Moldova close to Odesa where Russia has stationed troops - which were blamed on Ukraine.

Transnistria's government raised the terror alert level and said it would have to consider steps to shore up its security after the attacks, which are widely thought to have been false flags aimed at justifying Russian intervention.

Forced on to the defensive during the early weeks, Ukraine has been increasingly going on the offensive - attacking targets inside Russia with some regularity.

Just this morning, an ammunition depot caught fire in Belgorod, sending flames and smoke rising into the skies over Staraya Nelidovka.

Air defences were active over neighbouring Kursk and Voronezh regions as Russia said it had shot down Ukrainian drones that entered its territory.

Without directly admitting responsibility, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said it was 'karma' for Russia and said they deserved to learn about 'demilitarisation' in a pointed swipe at Putin's supposed war aims.

An Ukrainian tank drives through obstacles on a road near Slovyansk, eastern Ukraine, today amid the Russian invasion

'If you decide to massively attack another country, massively kill everyone there, massively crush peaceful people with tanks, and use warehouses in your regions to enable the killings, then sooner or later the debts will have to be repaid,' Podolyak said.

He added: 'Therefore, the disarmament of the Belgorod and Voronezh killers' warehouses is an absolutely natural process. Karma is a cruel thing.'

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said on Telegram: 'At approximately 3.35am I woke up from a loud bang that sounded like a blast.

'As I was writing this post, three more blasts were heard. According to preliminary information, an ammunition depot is on fire near the village of Staraya Nelidovka.'

No civilian casualties were reported.

Meanwhile residents of Voronezh, which is more than 100 miles from the Ukraine border, reported two explosions to the south-west of the city overnight.

Video taken in the dawn hours showed what appeared to be the white exhaust trail of an air defence missile crossing the sky, with an impact cloud hanging in the air.

RIA Novosti, Russia's main state news wire, later claimed that a reconnaissance drone had been shot down.

Explosions were also heard near the city of Kursk, around 60 miles from the border, with video seeming to show flames glowing against a darkened sky.

Unconfirmed reports suggested that more drones had been shot down over the town of Oboyan, to the south of Kursk city.

'There are no casualties or destruction,' Kursk governor Roman Starovoyt said.

The strikes come off the back of a series of explosions within Russia targeting military bases and infrastructure that are widely thought to be coming from Kyiv.

Belgorod has been the most heavily targeted, with missile strikes and a helicopter raid targeting fuel and ammunition dumps.

A railway bridge was also targeted in the same region in what is widely suspected to have been a sabotage attack by Ukrainian special forces.

Belgorod is a key staging point for Russian forces heading to join the fight in Ukraine's Donbas region, where a major offensive to seize the eastern part of Ukraine is currently underway.
Melissa Lucio broke down in tears when she was told by a state lawmaker that she was not going to be executed this week and that she would be getting a new trial.

An appeals court in Texas on Monday halted the execution of the 53-year-old woman convicted of killing her two-year-old daughter Mariah in 2007, after pleas from celebrities and Republican lawmakers.

Lucio, 53, who had been due to be executed Wednesday, had told police at the time of Mariah's death that she had fallen down the stairs and then later died as a result of her injuries. But police ruled she was lying.

She then made a confession that lawyers and advocates now say was coerced and even the jury that convicted her is calling for a new trial in light of modern day medical evidence.

On Monday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals intervened, granting Lucio's lawyers' request for a stay of execution so a lower court can review claims that new evidence would show Mariah's injuries, including a blow to the head, were caused by a fall down a steep staircase.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had been set Monday to consider a request to either commute her death sentence to life imprisonment or grant her a 120-day execution reprieve, but that hearing was put off by the appeals court's order.

When Lucio got the call on Monday from state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican, with the news that she would not be executed this week, a grateful Lucio broke down crying.

'Oh my God. That is wonderful,' a shocked Lucio is heard exclaiming on the phone. 'Oh my God. What does that mean?'

Leach responded with a laugh, 'well, it means you're going to wake up on Thursday morning.'

An emotional Lucio is heard laughing and crying as she thanks God for her second chance.

'Oh my goodness! Oh thank you, God,' she tells Leach.

It was not immediately known when the lower court would begin reviewing her case. Tivon Schardl, one of Lucio's lawyers, said they hope to convince the trial judge to recommend that the appeals court grant her a new trial.

Melissa Lucio (pictured center) bows her head in prayer during a session with State Representative Jeff Leach in prison this month

Melissa Lucio, 53, broke down in tears when she was told by a state Rep. Jeff Leach (pictured) that she was not going to be executed this week for the 2007 death of her daughter

Moment Melissa Lucio breaks down as she is told that her execution has been halted Lucio: Hello. Leach: Melissa. Lucio: Yes. Leach: Hey, this is Jeff Leach. Lucio: Yes, sir. Leach: How are you today? Lucio: I'm doing fine. How are you? Leach: Good, have you heard the news? Lucio: No, what? Leach: You haven't heard the news yet? Lucio: No. What happened? Leach: The Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of your execution for Wednesday. Lucio: Are you serious!? Are you serious!? [Laughing and crying.] When did this happen?! Leach: We just got word about 15 minutes ago. Lucio: Oh my God. [Laughing and crying.] That is wonderful. Oh my God. What does that mean? Leach: [Laughing.] Well, it means you're going to wake up on Thursday morning. Lucio: Oh my goodness! [Laughing and crying.] Oh thank you, God. Leach: You're not making the trip to Huntsville on Wednesday, and the the order was very strong in that it appears that you're going to get a new trial at the very least, they  Lucio: Oh my goodness. That is so wonderful. Thank you so much! Advertisement

In a statement issued through her attorneys after the decision, Lucio said: 'I thank God for my life. I have always turned to Him. I am grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence.

'Mariah is in my heart today and always. I am grateful to have more days to be a mother to my children and a grandmother to my grandchildren. I will use my time to help bring them to Christ. I am deeply grateful to everyone who prayed for me and spoke out on my behalf.'

Lucio's elderly mother Esperanza appeared in an interview with CBS News to beg for her to be spared. Speaking in Spanish, she said: 'The DA's got children of his own. He wouldn't like this to happen to his kids.'

She added that she was optimistic her daughter's execution would not go ahead: 'I have children and they hurt. It hurts for me to lose one of my children She's coming home. I told her she was coming home.'

Lucio's son also told the network they would be executing an 'innocent woman' if they kill his mother.

Lawyers from the Innocence Project have filed a clemency application to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

They will make a recommendation to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott who has until Wednesday 6pm to intervene in what would be the first Latina ever executed by Texas and the first woman the state has put to death since 2014.

If they do not recommend clemency, all he can do is postpone the execution by 30 days, during which her legal team will have to reconsider their options.

Separately, Lucio's legal team are pursuing two last-ditch attempts to spare her life.

They filed several motions in the Texas Supreme Court of Appeals which could stop the death sentence at any point before Wednesday.

The Cameron County District Attorney's office is also yet to rule on a motion to withdraw the execution which had been filed in February.

Her lawyers say new evidence shows that Mariah's injuries, including a blow to the head, were caused by a fall down a steep staircase, and nearly half of the jurors who sentenced her have called for her execution to be halted and demanded a retrial.

Lawmakers and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, an advocate for criminal justice reform, and Amanda Knox - an American who was convicted of murdering a British student in Italy and whose conviction was overturned - have rallied to Lucio's cause.

A bipartisan group of 100 Texas lawmakers have been pushing for the parole board and governor to spare her life.

Last week, a few of them joined Lucio for a prayer session in prison.

Prosecutors, though, maintain that the girl was the victim of child abuse.

In addition to the blunt-force injury to her head that was determined to have killed her, Mariah's body was found to have bruises, scratches, and a bite mark on her back, leading investigators to believe that Mariah had been killed, and suspecting Lucio of the crime.

Lucio's attorneys say her capital murder conviction was based on an unreliable and coerced confession that was the result of relentless questioning and her long history of sexual, physical and emotional abuse.

Melissa Lucio, 53, had been due to be executed on April 27th for the 2007 death of her baby daughter Mariah. She told police at the time that Mariah fell down the stairs and died later as a result of her injuries, but police ruled she was lying.

Ahead of the parole board decision, Lucio's elderly mother appeared in an interview with CBS News to beg for her to be spared. Speaking in Spanish, she said: 'The DA's got children of his own. He wouldn't like this to happen to his kids.'

A wave of celebrities and politicians are now weighing in on the case, begging the parole board to reconsider Melissa's sentence

Esperanza bows her head during a vigil at the Basilica Of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine, Friday, April 22, 2022, in San Juan, Texas

State Reps. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, left to right, Brad Buckley, R-Killeen, and Jeff Leach, R-Plano, arrive for the Interim Study Committee on Criminal Justice Reform hearing about death row inmate Melissa Lucio at the Capitol. They are all calling for the execution to be stayed

In this 2007 video interview tape, Lucio is shown acting out how she 'beat' Mariah to death. Her attorneys say it was a coerced confession after five hours of interrogation. She was pregnant at the time with twins

Three hours into a late-night interrogation Lucio confessed to police that she had spanked and bitten her daughter - an admission that became the backbone of the case against her

She is set to be executed Wednesday for the death of Mariah (pictured on her lap alongside daughter Adriana)

'This new evidence shows that Ms. Lucio was convicted of a crime that never occurred,' the 242-page writ of habeas corpus says.

'Ms. Lucio asserted her innocence more than 100 times, but police refused to accept any response that was not an admission of guilt - suggesting to Ms. Lucio that the interrogation would not stop unless she told them what they wanted to hear,' the filing reads.

They say Lucio wasn't allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession.

Her lawyers also contend that unscientific and false evidence misled jurors into believing Mariah's injuries only could have been caused by physical abuse and not by medical complications from a severe fall.

'I knew that what I was accused of doing was not true.

'My children have always been my world and although my choices in life were not good I would have never hurt any of my children in such a way,' Lucio wrote in a letter to Texas lawmakers.

The Innocence Project say that Lucio's lifelong history as a victim of sexual and domestic abuse made her particularly susceptible to confessing to things she never did

Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, whose office prosecuted the case, has said he disagrees with Lucio's lawyers' claims that new evidence would exonerate her.

Prosecutors say Lucio had a history of drug abuse and at times had lost custody of some of her 14 children.

During her interrogation Lucio initially maintained that Mariah had fallen down the stairs a few days before she became unresponsive, but after about three hours she admitted to spanking and biting Mariah.

'What do you want me to say? I'm responsible for it,' Lucio told Texas Rangers when they pressed her on the bite mark.

Lucio, who has been in custody since 2007, maintains that Mariah died from injuries sustained during a fall down a flight of stairs even though she confessed to hurting Mariah at the time

The statement became the backbone of the state's case against Mariah, with prosecutors using what they characterized as an admission of child abuse to connect Lucio directly to her daughters death.

Though Lucio never admitted to actually killing Maria or causing fatal-harm, the Cameron County jury found the abuse admissions adequate to find Lucio guilty and deserving of the death penalty.

But advocates of Lucio say that the confession was clearly made and coerced under duress, and that Lucio's longtime history as a victim of sexual and domestic abuse made her especially susceptible to confessing to things she never did - a point which was not made at Lucio's trial because the judge did not allow a psychologist to testify on the subject.

During a sometimes contentious Texas House committee hearing on Lucio's case this month, Saenz initially pushed back on requests to use his power to stop the execution, before later saying he would intervene if the courts didn't act.

'I don't disagree with all the scrutiny this case is getting. I welcome that,' Saenz said.

Armando Villalobos was the county's district attorney when Lucio was convicted in 2008, and Lucio's lawyers allege that he pushed for a conviction to help his reelection bid.

In 2014, Villalobos was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for a bribery scheme related to offering favorable prosecutorial decisions.

More than half the members of the Texas House and Senate have asked that her execution be halted.

A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers traveled this month to Gatesville, where the state houses female death row inmates, and prayed with Lucio.

Five of the 12 jurors who sentenced Lucio and one alternate juror have questioned their decision and asked she get a new trial. And Lucio's cause also has the backing of faith leaders and was featured on HBO's 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.'

Lucio's family and supporters have been traveling throughout Texas and holding rallies and screenings of a 2020 documentary about her case, The State of Texas vs. Melissa.

Abbott has granted clemency to only one death row inmate since taking office in 2015.

Abbott commuted a death sentence to life without parole for Thomas 'Bart' Whitaker, who was convicted of fatally shooting his mother and brother. Whitaker's father was also shot but survived and led the effort to spare his son's life.

It's rare in the U.S. for a woman to be executed, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that opposes capital punishment.

Women have accounted for only 3.6 per cent of the more than 16,000 confirmed executions in the U.S. dating back to the colonial period in the 1600s, according to the group's data.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, there have been 17 women executed throughout the nation, according to the data.

Texas has put more women to death - six - than any other state. Oklahoma is next, with three, and Florida has executed two.

The federal government has executed one woman since 1976. Lisa Montgomery, of Kansas, received a lethal injection in January 2021 after the Trump administration resumed executions in the federal system following a 17-year hiatus.

The Justice Department has halted executions again under the Biden administration.

After reading about Lucio's case, Kardashian tweeted: '[Lucio] has been on death row for over 14 years for her daughter's death that was a tragic accident.

'Her 2-year-old daughter Mariah fell down a flight of stairs and two days later passed away while taking a nap.

'After she called for help, she was taken into custody by the police. [Lucio] is a survivor of abuse and domestic violence herself and after being interrogated for hours and falsely pleaded guilty.

'She wanted the interrogation to be stopped, but police made her words out to be a confession.'

'She is scheduled to be executed on April 27 in Texas,' the reality star added, as she urged the public to sign a petition by the Innocent Project in an effort to press Governor Abbott to stop Lucio's execution.
A mother was forced stabbed one of her grandmother's pit bulls to death as it mauled her one-year-old daughter on the floor of their Los Angeles home.

Baby Ruby Cervantes was set upon by both of her grandmother's dogs in Pico Rivera on Sunday night.

The family told NBC LA the three-year-old hounds, named Butch and Raider, had never exhibited aggressive behavior prior to the shocking incident, and had been let inside for a bath when one of the dogs suddenly went for Ruby.

'It was very scary, I thought my daughter was going to die,' mother Jamie Morales told CBS LA.

'I felt helpless. Me being helpless, and me not knowing what to do. The only thought in my mind was I had to kill him, I had to.'

Triggered by the baby's screams, the other dog quickly snarled into a frenzy and began tearing at the infant's limbs.

Several family members desperately tried to pry the dogs' jaws off the infant to no avail - leaving Jamie with no choice but to grab a knife and violently stab the animals.

Baby Ruby Cervantes was set upon by both of her grandmother's pit bulls in Pico Rivera on Sunday night

The family told NBC LA the two three-year-old hounds, named Butch and Raider, had never exhibited aggressive behavior prior to the shocking incident

Ruby sustained a broken hip and several lacerations to her shoulder and head in the attack, but underwent a successful operation at LAC+USC Medical Center and is expected to make a full recovery.

One pit bull died at the scene from the stab wounds, while the other was taken by Los Angeles County Animal Care to be put down.

Ruby's grandmother Margaret Morales said she was woken up by the screaming and hared downstairs to find the pit bulls tearing at the baby, as her adult children attempted to pull them away.

'I walked into the kitchen and that's when I (saw)... my two daughters and my son on the floor trying to get the dogs off,' she told ABC7.

'I (saw) the dog was latched on her left leg. That's when I had to actually get my hand into his jaws and open them up and that's when he released her.'

Several members of the family sustained injuries as they tried in vain to stop the attack, before Jamie resorted to using the blade.

Police are pictured outside the property on Sunday night following the incident

Jamie endured multiple facial injuries after one dog turned on her, savagely biting her cheek and lip.

Jamie's sister - Ruby's aunt - also suffered bite injuries, and grandmother Margaret had to have several stitches after one dog clamped down on her hand as she tried to force its jaws open and away from Ruby.

The family told local news crews they were shocked by the attack, as the dogs had come from the same litter, had been with the family since they were young puppies and had never been violent or aggressive.

More than 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year in the United States, with 800,000 of the victims requiring medical attention, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Across studies, 22.5 percent of reported dog bites - the highest percentage among breeds - were attributed to pit bulls, according to the American Animal Hospital Association.
A Ukrainian soldier holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol has pleaded for the West to rescue everyone trapped in the complex - as the allied forces did at Dunkirk in the famous Second World War operation.

Commander Serhiy Volyna, who is among Ukrainian marines defending the city from Russian advances, urged Western leaders to 'save the garrison of Mariupol' and 'carry out an extraction to rescue' hundreds of civilians and soldiers trapped in the steel plant.

Volyna compared the steps needed to save those in Mariupol to 'Operation Dynamo', where an estimated 338,000 Allied troops were rescued from beaches in Dunkirk, northern France, in 1940 after being bombarded by German troops.

Volyna said there are more than 600 injured Ukrainian soldiers and hundreds of civilians including children in the steel plant, the last Ukrainian pocket of resistance in the strategic port city.

He said the situation in the steel plant, which was under a renewed attack by Russian forces on Wednesday, is dire with no medicine to help the injured and not enough water and food for those trapped there.

Volyna, from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, urged world leaders to help the civilians - including women and children - and Ukrainian soldiers to flee and take them to safety.

The desperate plea comes as an aide to the mayor of Mariupol said Russian forces had renewed their attacks on the Azovstal steel plant. No agreements had been reached on trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday.

Commander Serhiy Volyna, who is among Ukrainian marines defending the city from Russian advances, urged Western leaders to 'save the garrison of Mariupol' and 'carry out an extraction to rescue' hundreds of civilians and soldiers trapped in the steel plant

The desperate plea comes as an aide to the mayor of Mariupol said Russian forces had renewed their attacks on the Azovstal steel plant. Pictured: Smoke rises above the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol on April 25

Volyna compared the steps needed to save those in Mariupol to 'Operation Dynamo', where an estimated 338,000 Allied troops were rescued from beaches in Dunkirk, northern France, in 1940 after being bombarded by German troops. Pictured: Thousands of soldiers line up to be evacuated from Dunkirk in May 1940

Volyna said in a video: 'There are more than 600 injured guys in our group in various conditions. They really need medical help. The conditions here are not adequate, and there are no medicines, nor personnel, who could help them.

'We also have injured civilians, who we're trying to help as best we can. There are also hundreds of civilians here and dozens of children. There are lots of handicapped people here, a lot of old people.

'It's a very difficult situation. There is a major problem with water food, various other obstacles, a lack of troops and ammunition.'

Volyna said he has previously pleaded with diplomats, leaders around the world and Pope Francis to help them evacuate from Mariupol.

He added: 'I shouted as loud as I could to have our cause heard and to get them to apply 'procedures'. Many say they don't understand what these procedures are.'

Volyna compared the desperately needed evacuation to the evacuation of around 340,000 Allied soldiers that were stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk between May 27 and June 4, 1940 after the Nazis pummelled them with artillery.

The daring rescue mission saw Navy personnel and civilians travel from Britain in boats of all kinds to rescue the soldiers. The little ships were meant to bring soldiers to the larger ships, but some ended up ferrying people all the way back to England

Volyna said: 'As an example, I want to point to the rescue operation in 1940 in WWII. The allies, Great Britain and France, ended up on the French coast surrounded by German troops, and Hitler personally commanded the attack to be halted to allow an allied evacuation operation to be prepared.

'More than 300,000 people were saved in this evacuation, which was carried out as quickly as possible with all manner of ships and civilian boats.

'They saved people  civilians and soldiers  and other people and organisations, to whom it really mattered.'

Wrecked cars are seen in the city of Mariupol on April 26 as Russia continues to bombard the city

He added: 'Today our main message is: Save the garrison of Mariupol, carry out an extraction to rescue us.

'Today is 1940  today is 2022. People here are going to die, the wounded will die and the living will die in battle.

'Civilians are dying here with us in bunkers, houses, high-rises, where they are just being shot and blown up by people who may or may not even know they are there.

'This is a huge problem. So many people died in this city. The city is basically wiped off the face of the earth. We are counting on you. Thank you.'

Russian forces were continuing to pound the steel works on Wednesday, with Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the city mayor, saying there had been no let-up in air strikes on the Azovstal plant despite Russian President Vladimir Putin saying there was no need to storm it after declaring victory in Mariupo

'Air attacks on Azovstal are not subsiding. No ceasefire, but attempts to storm again and again. Despite the statements (by Putin),' Andryushchenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

'At the same time, street fighting continues again in the sector between the Azovstal plant's management (buildings) to the street.'

Local officials say much of Mariupol has been destroyed in weeks of Russian bombardment and siege since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, and that about 100,000 civilians are still in the city.

Local officials say much of Mariupol has been destroyed in weeks of Russian bombardment and siege since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, and that about 100,000 civilians are still in the city. Pictured: A burnt tank of the Donetsk army is seen in the city of Mariupol on April 26

Ukrainian officials have described the situation in Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, as a 'humanitarian catastrophe'.

Andryushchenko said no agreements had been reached on trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday. Many previous efforts to arrange a ceasefire to allow residents to leave the city have broken down.

On Monday, Russia announced plans to open a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave the Azovstal plant but Kyiv denied reaching any agreement on this with Russia.

It comes as Ukraine's lead negotiator said on Wednesday no agreement had been reached for the Ukrainian and Russian presidents to discuss the war in Ukraine, despite efforts by Turkey to arrange such talks.

Mykhailo Podolyak said 'the time of a meeting of the two countries' presidents and the context of the meeting have not yet been determined.'

He drew attention also to increased hostilities in east Ukraine and Russian attempts to 'completely destroy' Mariupol.
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Johnny Depp appears to have a few quirks to keep him sane in the courtroom as he squares off against ex-wife Amber Heard in his $100million defamation trial.

Wednesday morning, the 10th day of his trial, Depp's black SUV was blaring 'Exodus' by Bob Marley as he pulled up and was greeted by adoring fans who held 'Justice for Johnny' signs and even brought pet alpacas.

Earlier this week Depp flashed a lucky $2 bill that he had in a plastic bag as he pulled up to court.

And while in the courtroom, the 58-year-old actor has been seen doodling between testimony with a purple marker and keeping a supply of jelly beans, gummy bears and mints on hand.

This morning he held a notebook close to him that read, 'Built To Last' with a drawing of a green figure with a crown on its head.

Always in front of him is a large silver tumbler filled with what is believed to be black coffee. He brought that tumbler to the stand each day during his dramatic four days of testimony.

The defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard is in its 10th day. This morning he held a notebook close to him that read, 'Built To Last' with a drawing of a green figure with a crown on its head

Throughout the trial Depp appears to have a few quirks to keep him sane, including carrying a lucky $2 bill

While in the courtroom, the 58-year-old actor has been seen doodling between testimony with a purple marker

Depp appears to keep a supply of jelly beans and mints on hand, next to his large tumbler filled with black coffee

Depp is seen holding his notebook up to his face as he entered court Wednesday. The notebook appears to be stuffed with papers

Johnny Depp was greeted by adoring fans who held 'Justice for Johnny' signs and even brought pet alpacas

Depp waved, prayed and blew a kiss to his adoring fans as he entered the courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia

Today in court the Los Angeles police officer who attended the final argument between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard before their divorce said she could have had a red face after 'crying because (her) dog died.'

Tyler Hadden said that because Heard was 'uncooperative' he had no idea why she was upset having called 911 at her West Hollywood penthouse.

Heard claimed that Depp smacked her with a mobile phone during the May 2016 argument but clammed up when officers arrived.

Officer Hadden told the former couple's $100m defamation trial he categorized the incident as a 'verbal dispute' only.

The cop told the jury he saw no evidence of injuries on Heard and that her red face was 'consistent with crying'.

He said that 'just because I see a female with pink cheeks and pink eyes doesn't mean something happened'.

Officer Hadden said the red face could be because the person 'started crying because their dog died'.

The question of Heard's injuries that night are crucial to the case as a week later she filed for divorce and obtained a restraining order against Depp, accusing him of domestic violence.

She arrived at court with a large bruise on her right cheek, a picture of which was entered into the court file.

A Los Angeles police officer who attended the final May 2016 argument between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard before their divorce said she could have had a red face after 'crying because (her) dog died'

Hadden said that because Heard was 'uncooperative' he had no idea why she was upset having called 911 at her West Hollywood penthouse

LAPD officer William Gatlin told the court that he and a colleague went to see Heard again at 10.24pm that night.

It appeared that a friend of Heard's had called the New York police department about the incident, and they wanted to return to check on her themselves.

The court was shown footage from officer Gatlin's body camera which showed them entering the building and walking down the corridor to the penthouse.

Heard's friend Josh Drew answered the door and tried to persuade the officers to leave by telling them that other cops had already come by, but they insisted on going in.

Officer Gatlin agreed that Drew was 'uncooperative'.

The footage showed the cops entering and asking if Heard was OK, and she confirmed she was.

Drew says that Depp is 'definitely' not there any more and had been gone a few hours and the officers left.

Officer Gatlin said that when they went inside 'it didn't seem like anybody was particularly eager to talk to us'.

The cop said that due to the 'dim lighting' he couldn't see if Heard had any bruises on her face or not.

The cop said that based on the LAPD's investigation it appeared Heard was not a victim of domestic violence.

He said: 'Based on her refusing to give any statement on what occurred and at the time we did not observe any visible or verifiable injuries to her'.

However officer Gatlin said he was 'not in a position' to say if Depp beat up Heard as he was not there when the incident occurred.

Officer Gatlin was asked about claims by Heard's former lawyer Adam Waldman in media interviews that Heard and her friends were 'attempting to concoct an abuse hoax.'

The cop said he could not recall seeing anything like that.

Officer Gatlin was asked if he saw Heard and her friends 'spilling wine and roughing the place up?'

He replied that he did not.

There was laughter in court when Bredehoft asked the officer if he was a 'fan' of Depp's at the time they went to the property.

Officer Gatlin said: 'I guess I liked a couple of his movies, not rush out to see them or anything'.

LAPD officer William Gatlin told the court that he and a colleague went to see Heard again at 10.24pm that night

The court was shown footage from officer Gatlin's body camera which showed them entering the building and walking down the corridor to the penthouse

Heard's friend Josh Drew answered the door and tried to persuade the officers to leave by telling them that other cops had already come by, but they insisted on going in

Officer Gatlin said that when they went inside 'it didn't seem like anybody was particularly eager to talk to us'. The cop said that due to the 'dim lighting' he couldn't see if Heard had any bruises on her face or not

The former flames are battling over a December 2018 op-ed Heard penned for the Washington Post declaring herself a domestic violence survivor.

The article did not mention Depp by name but the veteran actor sued for $50 million, claiming he was booted from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise because of the 'clear implication' he was the abuser.

Depp's suit claims Heard presented the world with a 'hoax' account of the infamous May 21, 2016 dust up that brought the couple's tumultuous marriage to an end, complete with faked injuries and crocodile tears.

He further alleges that his ex-wife was the actual 'perpetrator' of the violent bouts that scarred their relationship, including a notorious incident in Australia where she allegedly severed his finger with a vodka bottle.

Heard has countersued for $100 million, claiming vengeful Depp has waged a years-long smear campaign, using media allies and internet trolls to silence her and derail her acting career.

She stands by her claim that Depp hurled a phone in her face and viciously battered her during the fateful 2016 fight despite LAPD officers deciding there was no grounds to investigate.

Depp is fighting an uphill battle to salvage his reputation after Britain's High Court ruled against him last year when he sued The Sun newspaper for calling him a 'wife beater'.

After weeks of testimony, Mr Justice Nicol concluded that the outlet's 2018 article was 'substantially true' and that the father-of-two had attacked Heard a dozen times, causing her to fear for her life on three occasions.

Sources close to Depp say he never contemplated settling or dropping the US case and is desperate for a second bite of the cherry in Virginia where the London result will be kept from jurors.

Armed with a battery of highly-paid lawyers - including Kathleen Zellner of Making a Murderer fame - he's confident of tipping the balance with additional evidence that didn't feature in the 'wife beater' case.

The former flames are battling over a December 2018 op-ed Heard penned for the Washington Post declaring herself a domestic violence survivor

On Monday dog-bearing fans held a 'Yorkies 4 Johnny!' sign in support of Depp

'Boo Amber Turd' signs were held outside of court this week as many supporters of Johnny Depp have come out for his trial

Depp and Heard met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2011, married four years later  then split in a little over a year amid a slew of blood curdling domestic violence allegations and tabloid headlines.

After finalizing their divorce in early 2017 the feud appeared to have fizzled until Heard published her December 2018 op-ed, headed: 'I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture's wrath for women who speak out.'

The article prompted Depp to file for defamation in Virginia, where the Washington Post's servers and several of its offices are based, stating: 'Ms. Heard is not a victim of domestic abuse; she is a perpetrator.'

Heard's counterclaim argues that it's both true that she suffered years of abuse at the hands of her 'monster' ex and that it's her right to talk about it under the First Amendment.

If she succeeds, three-times Oscar-nominated Depp, the globally-famous star of more than 50 Hollywood movies grossing $10 billion, could lose his entire fortune as well as what's left of his reputation.

But there's no turning back now, according to his rep.

'This case being brought to trial is proof that the court acknowledges the notable amount of preliminary wins, evidence and witnesses in support of Johnny,' the spokeswoman said.

'To decline the opportunity to clear one's name and allow someone taking advantage of the system to walk away with zero repercussions would be careless and set a dangerous precedent for similar situations in the future.'
NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts successfully launched, embarking on a historic mission with Jessica Watkins as the first black woman to stay long term on the International Space Station.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft lifted off at 3:52 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 27, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida's Launch Complex 39A.

The fourth commercial crew rotation mission aboard the International Space Station will feature an international crew of astronauts.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 Launch

SpaceX successfully deployed its fourth astronaut trip to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, increasing the company's total number of crewed missions to seven so far.

The Dragon spacecraft was launched into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Bob Hines, and Mission Specialist Jessica Watkins, as well as ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

LIVE: NASA and @ESA leaders reflect on a successful launch of the #Crew4 astronauts.@SpaceX Dragon Freedom capsule lifted off from @NASAKennedy at 3:52am EDT (7:52 UTC) and is on its way to the @Space_Station. Tune in: https://t.co/z1RgZwQkWS pic.twitter.com/ksmmaxYH2I  NASA (@NASA) April 27, 2022

The space station's crew will conduct a science expedition in microgravity while onboard the station.

This Crew-4 mission marks the first launch for Hines and Watkins, as well as Lindgren and Cristoforetti's second voyage to the International Space Station.

As CNN reports, according to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 "will carry out research investigations that will help NASA prepare for longer duration stays on the Moon - and eventually Mars."

"These missions wouldn't be possible without the dedicated NASA and SpaceX teams here on Earth," Nelson added.

NASA associate administrator Kathryn Lueders stated, "NASA, SpaceX and our international partners have worked tirelessly to ensure that the International Space Station continues conducting important research in microgravity, and working on a whole host of activities that benefit humanity and opens up access to more people in space."

Read Also: China Embarks on an Asteroid-Deflecting Mission  What About NASA?

Additional, Luedres said, "Crew-4's launch, less than two days after the return of the first all-private mission to station, exemplifies the spirit and success of the Commercial Crew Program to help maximize use of low-Earth orbit for years to come, testing the technologies we need for the Artemis program and beyond."

It was launched aboard a new Dragon spacecraft, which the crew called Freedom and a Falcon 9 rocket. NASA astronauts will be on board for the sixth time on this mission, which is part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program.

Crew-4's launch date was originally set for a week earlier, but it was postponed due to Ax-1's delayed departure from the International Space Station. On top of that, NASA and SpaceX support workers required up to two days between Ax-1's return and Crew-4's launch in order to "perform data reviews and stage recovery assets," as reported by Space.com.

NASA's Jessica Watkins

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins will make history by becoming the first black woman to complete this prolonged mission on the ISS.

Although more than a dozen Black Americans have traveled to space since Guion Bluford became the first in 1983, no Black woman has had the opportunity to live and work in space for an extended period of time.

This must be a dream come true for Jessica Watkins, as she had been in a long-standing relationship with NASA.

Watkins, a geologist by training, was known for her research on Mars' surface. A long-time NASA employee, she began her professional career there as an intern and has previously held positions at the agency's Ames Research Center and has worked with the Curiosity Mars rover.

Related Article: #SpaceSnap: The Solar Orbiter's First Images of the Sun
US spies have been helping Ukraine's military with intelligence about the movements of its Kremlin invaders, and at least eight generals have been killed.

Officials reaveled to NBC News on Tuesday that American intelligence played a crucial role in the country's successful campaigns so far, and have helped the Ukranian government by repeatedly flagging the time and location of Putin's planned strikes.

'From the get-go, we leaned pretty heavily forward in sharing both strategic and actionable intelligence with Ukraine,' an unnamed US official who agreed to speak to the outlet under the condition of anonymity said.

'It's been impactful both at a tactical and strategic level. There are examples where you could tell a pretty clear story that this made a major difference.'

A former senior intelligence official also told NBC News of the de facto alliance: 'There has been a lot of real-time intelligence shared in terms of things that could be used for specific targeting of Russian forces.'

The ex-official revealed that much of the funneled information consists of commercial satellite images, 'but also a lot of other intelligence about, for example, where certain types of Russian units are active.'

On Tuesday, an analysis by independent Russian outlet MediaZona revealed that 317 officers of junior lieutenant rank and above have been killed in Putin's so-far failed invasion, in a little over two months of fighting. At least eight generals have been killed.

Almost a third of the casualties came from the most senior grades - major or above - including a slew of generals and the deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea fleet.

Mikhail Nagamov, 41 (left), and Alexander Chirva (right), are two of the most-recent officers Russia has admitted died in its war on Ukraine. US officials said Tuesday that it's been providing intelligence to Ukraine's government that has helped their military in several operations

Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, the deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea fleet, is one of the highest-ranking commanders that Russia has acknowledged were killed fighting in Ukraine. He was shot dead in February by a sniper. The US provided intel to Ukraine before the battle

Last week, in one of the most recent blows to the larger and better equipped Russian war machine, Moscow admitted yet another officer, Col. Mikhail Nagamov, had been killed in action, on April 13 - reportedly the 35th colonel to do so.

His death was announced just hours after the death of Alexander Chirva, captain of the Caesar Kunikov tank landing ship - which was blown up by a Ukrainian air strike in in the port of Berdyansk.

Major General Vladimir Frolov, meanwhile, the deputy commander of the 8th Combined Arms Army and one of Putin's most senior officers, was also killed earlier this month - the eighth general to die in the conflict.

The steady stream of high-ranking soldier deaths comes as it's been estimated that between 15,000 and 22,000 Russian troops have been slain in combat by Volodymyr Zelenskyy's army - with Moscow only owning up to a fraction of those deaths.

Major General Vladimir Frolov, the deputy commander of the 8th Combined Arms Army and one of Putin's most senior officers, was killed earlier this month - the eighth general to die in the conflict. Pictured is his grave in St. Petersburg

Days earlier, two other majors, Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev (left) and Major-General Oleg Mityaev (right) were killed during a battle in Mariupol

Putin lost another two of his highest-ranked men, in Major General Andrei Kolesnikov of the 29th Combined Arms Army and Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, in the same battle outside Kharkiv on March 11. Information provided by US spies and the CIA helped Ukraine in battle

The partnership between the US and Ukraine - which unprecedented due to Ukraine's status as a non-NATO nation - has led to a number of successful militarchy operations, the official told the outlet, including Ukraine's successful attack on a Russian IL-76 transport plane carrying hundreds of troops in Kiev in February.

The planned assault was successfully repelled thanks to the near-real-time intelligence provided by the US, the officials revealed to NBC, foiling Putin's planned strike on a key airport in capital.

The intelligence provided by the US has allowed Ukrainian forces to know where to strike, what Russian units are active and which are decoys, and where the invading forces plan to bomb, the officials said.

The officials told the outlet that the secret operations have saved countless Ukrainian lives and military equipment, and have caused Moscow to waste valuable time and ammunition in their ongoing assault.

'The Russian military has literally been cratering empty fields where air defenses were once set up,' the official said after Ukrainian forces were moved following a US tip. 'It has had an enormous impact on the Russian military's ability on the ground.'

The US Intelligence has allowed the Ukraine to predict where Russian forces are planning to attack as well as where the opposition is based, officials and the White House said

In February, Moscow lost General Magomed Tushaev - the first Russian general to fall in the invasion - who was killed when his Chechen special forces column of more than 56 tanks and thousands of infantry was destroyed by a Ukrainian air strike northeast of Hostomel. The US provided information that aided Ukraine in their military operations

The White House National Security Council confirmed the existence of the partnership in a statement Tuesday.

'We are regularly providing detailed, timely intelligence to the Ukrainians on the battlefield to help them defend their country against Russian aggression and will continue to do so,' a representative said.

Officials also told NBC that the stream of information detailing the Kremlin's planned missile, bomb, and infantry strikes enabled Ukrainian fighters to preemptively strike an airborne Russian transport plane heading to Hostomel airport, 30 miles outside Kyiv, in March.

The attack proved paramount in the battle to save then-under-siege Kiev, weakening and discouraging Putin's forces who again failed to secure a tactical position at the airfield.

Top Russian general Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky was subsequently shot dead in the ensuing battle by a Ukrainian sniper - a major blow to the morale and leadership of Moscow's military.

Another official added that the CIA has also been funneling information to Ukrainian forces, on how they can best protect and transport its leaders, including President Zelenskyy, currently a prime target for Russian invaders, NBC reported.

The official said the agency is currently consulting with Ukraine on 'how best to move him around, making sure that he's not co-located with his entire chain of command, things like that.'

Since the war began, Russia has lost a total of 873 tanks, 2,238 armored vehicles, 179 planes, 154 helicopters and 408 artillery systems due to Ukraine's assault

The official revealed that the CIA has been active in Ukraine since Russia seized Crimea in 2014, helping the Eastern European country oust Russian spies.

'There has been a very robust relationship between U.S. intel agencies and the Ukrainians for the last eight years,' the official said, noting it was this bond that allowed the US to readily share its information with Ukraine when Russia began its invasion.

The previously unreported operation, they said, has proved to be a crucial role in the success Zelenskyy's army has seen against Putin's markedly more powerful and technologically advanced army, and has seen a sizable portion of Putin's most senior men wiped out.

Kyiv claims to have killed more than 22,000 Russian troops fighting in Ukraine since Putin declared the start of a 'special military operation' on February 24 (file)

Last month, Putin lost its seventh general, Lieutenant-General Andrei Mordvichev, commander of the 8th Combined Arms Army, in combat in the city of Chornobaivka, near the southern city of Kherson on March 19.

Days earlier, two other majors, Major-General Oleg Mityaev and Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev, were killed during a battle in Mariupol.

The demoralizing deaths came just over a week after Putin lost another two of his highest-ranked men, in Major General Andrei Kolesnikov of the 29th Combined Arms Army and Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, who both perished in the same battle outside Kharkiv on March 11.

The month prior, Moscow lost General Magomed Tushaev - the first general to fall - who was killed when his Chechen special forces column of more than 56 tanks and thousands of infantry was destroyed by a Ukrainian air strike northeast of Hostomel.

Ukraine, meanwhile claims to have killed a total of 10 generals, including two who it says died over the weekend on a strike of a command post near the city of Kherson.

The country also claims another general was critically wounded in the strike, saying it believes a total of 50 officers were inside the post at the time it was attacked.

Since the war began, Russia has lost a total of 873 tanks, 2,238 armored vehicles, 179 planes, 154 helicopters and 408 artillery systems, according to data published by the Ukrainian Land Forces this week.

The organization estimated that about 21,000 Russian fighters have been killed in the war, with US and UK estimates at 15,000.

The US has provided Ukraine with $3.2 billion in aid, including anti-aircraft weaponry.

Ukraine also claims to have destroyed hundreds of Russian tanks and thousands of other vehicles, putting large parts of Putin's army out of action
The Northern Ireland Protocol has left the Good Friday Agreement 'on life support' and must be overhauled or scrapped, Lord Frost warned today.

Speaking a week before elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the former minister said the protocol had been the only way to deliver Brexit by the time Boris Johnson became PM in 2019.

Accusing the EU of treating his negotiating team as 'the supplicant representatives of a renegade province', Lord Frost said the Government had faced the choice of accepting the protocol or walking away.

He said: 'At that point we would have seen, at best, a second referendum, quite possibly Brexit taken off the agenda for good, and who knows what consequences in our domestic politics.'

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson insisted the 'balance and symmetry' of the Good Friday Agreement must be maintained, saying the protocol was a 'problem' economically and politically.

Speaking a week before elections to the NI Assembly, Lord Frost said the protocol had been the only way to deliver Brexit by the time Boris Johnson became PM in 2019

Boris Johnson (right) insisted the 'balance and symmetry' of the Good Friday Agreement must be maintained as he was grilled by MPs including Jeffrey Donaldson (left)

In an event hosted by the Policy Exchange think-tank, Lord Frost said the protocol was only ever intended to be temporary and he had assumed it would last only until Stormont voted on whether to keep the accord in 2024.

He said: 'I expected that we would do so much domestic reform and change within Great Britain between 2020 and 2024 that it would be self-evidently attractive to Northern Ireland to end the protocol and put some other arrangements in place.'

Lord Frost said the EU's 'ham-fisted' proposal to ban exports of vaccines across the border into Northern Ireland in January last year had 'destroyed' unionist consent and rendered the protocol unworkable.

He added: 'The strains it is causing are actively damaging the Belfast Agreement.

'It is therefore surely obvious, indeed it is an inescapable logical conclusion, that the protocol can't be operated as it stands. It has to be renegotiated or removed.'

The PM told the House of Commons the Northern Ireland Protocol needed to be 'rectified'.

Pressed by DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson to give the Northern Irish people 'hope' that the arrangements could be changed, Mr Johnson said the government was working on the issues.

Mr Johnson said: 'There is clearly an economic cost to the protocol. That is also now turning into a political problem and an imbalance in sentiment about it.

'We need to rectify that balance for the sake of the Good Friday Agreement on which this country depends.'

However, the Government has refused to be drawn on speculation that the Queen's Speech on May 10 would include legislation to unilaterally suspend the protocol if a negotiated solution did not emerge.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'We do want to move as quickly as possible. We recognise there is still a lot more work to do.

'It remains our view that negotiated settlement would be the right approach.'

But the spokesman added: 'We don't rule out taking further steps if solutions cannot be found.'
Labour reacted with fury tonight after Rishi Sunak was cleared of wrong-doing over his personal tax affairs and those of his non-dom wife.

The Chancellor faced criticism after it was revealed he had held a US Green Card - which carries American residency and tax requirements - while in office.

There was also uproar over Akshata Murty's tax status and her shareholding in Indian tech firm Infosys, while living in a grace-and-favour apartment in Downing Street.

But Lord Geidt, the adviser on ministerial standards cleared Mr Sunak of wrongdoing, after the Chancellor referred himself for investigation.

In advice to the Prime Minister, Lord Geidt wrote: 'I advise that the requirements of the ministerial code have been adhered to by the Chancellor and that he has been assiduous in meeting his obligations and in engaging with this investigation.

'In reaching these judgments, I am confined to the question of conflicts of interest and the requirements of the ministerial code.

'My role does not touch on any wider question of the merits of such interests or arrangements.'

Labour accused Lord Geidt of overseeing an 'utter whitewash' and claimed his report 'fails to answer the most basic questions and makes a mockery of our democracy'.

They pointed to how the Cabinet Office, even before Mr Sunak had referred himself for investigation, had declared that Lord Geidt was 'completely satisfied with the Chancellors propriety of arrangements'.

Angela Rayner, Labour's deputy leader, said: 'It was clear from the start that this report would be an utter whitewash  the Government announced the result of this inquiry before it had even started.

'This report fails to answer the most basic questions and makes a mockery of our democracy. Downing Street has lost all ethical credibility.

'Now we know that the Government was fully aware of the Chancellors tax-dodging tactics but failed to inform the public or take any action.

'Given Rishi Sunaks tax affairs appear to be an open secret in Whitehall, the crucial question is whether the Prime Minister was aware of these and allowed him to continue running the UK economy, hiking up taxes for working people while potentially benefitting from loopholes.

'The Prime Minister and Chancellor have spent the last few weeks entirely preoccupied with saving their own skins, failing to do anything to address the spiralling cost of living.'

The Chancellor faced criticism after it was revealed he had held a US Green Card while in office

There was also uproar over Akshata Murty's tax status and her shareholding in Indian tech firm Infosys, while living in Downing Street

But Lord Geidt, the advisor on ministerial standards today cleared him of wrongdoing, saying he had been 'has been assiduous in meeting his obligations'

Green cards allows foreign nationals to 'live and work permanently' in the US The Green Card system is a way the United States allows foreign nationals to live and word permanently in the country without becoming a full citizen. It is formally known as 'permanent resident status' but gained its common name because of the coloured card it was once printed on. People can gain one through several different routes. As well as relatives of full US citizens, foreign nationals wishing to live and work in the United States can also apply. The system is open to those who can demonstrate 'extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics, or ... are a multinational manager or executive who meets certain criteria'. Mr Sunak met his wife at University in California and they lived abroad before Mr Sunak was elected MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire in 2015. He worked in California, India and Britain for various investment firms including Goldman Sachs. He later set up his own business in the US, Theleme Partners, in 2010 with an initial fund of 536million. Once you get a card you are expected to make the US 'your permanent home'. Those with green card status are expected to pay full US taxes on their global earnings, irrespective of taxes he would pay in the UK or elsewhere. It means he would not have saved money, rather he would have had to pay tax twice on some of his income, in the US and the UK. Advertisement

Following his investigation, Lord Geidt found two instances where Ms Murty's tax status 'could have given rise to a conflict of interest' for the Chancellor.

But he found in the first instance the issue was properly declared, and in the second Mr Sunak assured a Treasury change for some non-dom individuals did not affect his wife.

The adviser said he does not believe Mr Sunak having held a US green card 'would constitute an inherent conflict of interest'.

Lord Geidt said he asked the Treasury to search for any policy that would have affected holders of the card and Mr Sunak's department responded with 'no such evidence'.

He was also satisfied there is no conflict of interest over Mr Sunak's blind investment trust after the Chancellor assured he does not have 'live knowledge' of the contents.

Lord Geidt was also satisfied Ms Murty's shareholding in Infosys, an Indian IT company founded by her father, was 'properly declared' and that it held no Treasury contracts during her husband's tenure.

Mr Sunak today insisted he does not believe allies of Boris Johnson were behind the leaks as he answered questions from users of the Mumsnet internet forum.

It has previously been speculated that Number 10 were behind the revelations about the Chancellor's family finances due to his position as a leadership rival to Mr Johnson, while others close to the PM were said not to have forgotten Mr Sunak's less-than-fulsome support for Mr Johnson over the Partygate scandal.

Mr Sunak was asked by one Mumsnet user how he can have the 'understanding and empathy about what it is like to struggle' by someone who said they 'couldn't imagine what it is like to live a life in your very privileged financial position'.

Mr Sunak said he hoped people 'can judge me on my actions', as he accepted he was in a 'fortunate position' but stressed his family history of emigrating to the UK 'with very little'.

Earlier this month senior Tories and Labour rounded on the Chancellor after it was revealed he held a US Green Card for a year into his term leading the Treasury.

While the status would not save him any money it carries a responsibility to make the United States 'your permanent home'.

The revelation came after Mr Sunak went on the attack over 'smears' against his heiress wife Ms Murty over her non-dom tax status.

Rishi Sunak was hit by a political backlash over the news that his heiress wife Akshata Murty is domiciled in India for tax purposes

This is the extraordinary web of homes and businesses with links to Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata, a heiress to a billion dollar fortune

Ms Murty has legally avoided paying a huge UK tax bill by paying 30,000 a year to register as based in India.

But the Chancellor insisted she hasn't 'done anything wrong' while accusing his critics of 'smearing her to get at him'.

The India-born 42-year-old later said she would give up her right to pay only 'international tax' on her foreign fortune.

The move, designed to save Mr Sunak's political career, is likely to cost Ms Murty millions of pounds a year in extra tax.

Allies of Mr Sunak had already suggested his situation had previously been cleared by the peer.

In his May 2021 annual statement the independent adviser on ministers interests said he had 'gone through the individual returns' of members of the Cabinet, including their tax affairs and the interested of their spouses.

He went on to say that 'any issues have been resolved to my satisfaction', suggesting he was happy with Akshata Murty's tax status, her shareholding in Indian tech firm Infosys, and the Green Card.

Rishi's non-dom wife's global empire: Billionaire heiress boasts properties worth 15m as well as 727m shares in her father's Bangalore-based IT firm - and has links to tax-reducing Mauritian company that owns Jamie's Italian and Wendy's in India

By Martin Robinson, Chief Reporter



The extraordinary 15million property portfolio and 700million-plus fortune Chancellor Rishi Sunak shares with his non-dom wife has been laid bare by MailOnline.

The bulk of Akshata' Murtys wealth comes from Infosys, the Bangalore-based IT firm founded by her now billionaire father.

It is reported she holds a 0.91 per cent stake, around 39million shares, worth about 727million. Experts say this is an increase of more than 200million compared to a year ago, due to a jump in the share price during the pandemic.

But her non-dom status meant she was not liable for tax on overseas earnings, including dividends from her father's company that reportedly came to 11.6million last year. That sum could have meant paying 4.4million to HMRC, according to The Times.

Akshata also owns other investments, including a business that funnels investments through Mauritius. International Market Management is funding the expansion of franchise restaurants in India, including Jamie Oliver's Italian chain that failed in the UK and US burger brand Wendys. This entirely legal structure allows them to reduce taxes paid in India.

The couple have at least four properties. A 1million flat in Kensington, a nearby mews house worth 7million and a 2million mansion in Rishi's Yorkshire constituency, where he is nicknamed the 'Maharaja of the Dales'. They also have a 5.5million penthouse in California, overlooking Santa Monica pier, which they use in the holidays.

Homes

Kensington Mews - worth 7million

Before into Downing Street, the family lived here in their 7m London mews. They paid 4.5m, reportedly cash, in 2010

Rishi and Akshatas five-bedroom West London property, tucked away in an exclusive corner of Kensington has been described as the couple's main home, although they have spent most of their time in the two-bed Downing Street flat that comes with the Chancellor's job.

An insider has said the family live above No 10 because his security people 'won't allow anything else'.

The couple have made a huge profit on their mews, having bought it for 4.5million, reportedly in cash, in 2010 - a year after they married in India.

The Kensington house has five bedrooms, four bathrooms and two reception rooms spread across four storeys, as well as access to a private garden.

Kensington flat - worth 1million

Richi Sunak has this crash pad in West London said to be used by family and friends when they need it

Rishi Sunak bought a first floor flat in the heart of Kensington, which is understood to be kept empty.

He and Akshata are reported to leave it free for friends and visiting relatives to use when visiting the capital.

It sits in a block on a busy road in West London road, close to a Tube station.

Rishi Sunaks Yorkshire home - 2million

The multi-millionaire Chancellor and his wife are to build a mini leisure complex in the grounds of their 2million manor house in Yorkshire

The family also own a remote country abode in a Yorkshire village.

Set on a 12-acre plot of land near Northallerton, the Georgian mansion is thought to cost around 1.5million, boasting an ornamental lake and a recently built pool on the property. It is now said to be worth 500,000 more than they paid for it.

The multi-millionaire Chancellor and his wife are to build a mini leisure complex in the grounds of their 2million manor house in Yorkshire.

Councillors have approved plans for a new building on farmland to house a swimming pool, gym and shower facilities, along with an adjoining outdoor tennis court.

No doubt the Chancellor will be keen to get value for money, but even at a conservative estimate the project is likely to cost more than 400,000.

But that won't trouble the former hedge fund financier, whose wife Akshata is a fashion designer and daughter of an Indian tech billionaire.

The couple, who have two daughters, often spend weekends at the Grade II-listed 19th century former vicarage in his North Yorkshire constituency.

And once the L-shaped building, complete with stone walls and Welsh slate roof, is completed there will be no shortage of healthy and fun activities for them to do.

Mr Sunak plans to build a 40ft by 16ft indoor pool. In the same building will be a gym which will contain a mirrored wall and ballet barre, perhaps for his daughters.

There's also going to be a television fixed to the wall nearby, enabling them to follow fitness or dance videos.

The Chancellor has previously admitted being a devotee of keeping fit on a Peloton bike  which costs 1,750, plus a monthly membership of 39  and a treadmill.

Santa Monica, California - 5.5million

Rishi and his wife lived together in this Santa Monica penthouse, which they use for holidays and trips to California

The penthouse flat, which the couple are reported to be visiting over the Easter holidays, is valued at 5.5million ($7.2m)

It boasts panoramic views of the world-famous Santa Monica pier and the Pacific ocean. Ms Murthy bought the apartment  one of four in the Waverly complex on Ocean Avenue  directly from the developer in June 2014 for an undisclosed fee. But it will be less than it's worth now.

The property is described as their holiday home, with his wife and two children believed to spend some of the school holidays there.

Business interests

Infosys  shares worth 727million

Akshata Murty, the Chancellors wife, owns 0.93pc or 39m shares in Infosys, the Indian technology company founded by her billionaire father.

Her stake is worth about 727m today, an increase of more than 200m compared to a year ago due to a jump in the share price.

The company is headquartered in Bangalore.

In the past year Infosys made two dividend payments that would have netted Ms Murthy around 11.7million through her 0.93 per cent holding in the company.

As per the Indian domestic income-tax laws, dividend income from shares of an Indian company is subject to tax at 20%.

Mauritius - 500,000 investment

According to the Guardian, Ms Murthy bought a 5 per cent share in International Market Management (IMM) for 500,000 in 2014.

IMM is said to funnel its investments through a letterbox in Mauritius - with no staff - to reduce the taxes paid in India. While this is not illegal, this system is controversial because it will reduce tax liability.

IMM was founded in 2014 by David Stewart with funding for the company raised from a group of wealthy friends including the Chancellor's wife, the newspaper said.

The company follows a structure where investments are funnelled through an intermediary company  called IMM Associates Mauritius.

They then invest in two Indian subsidiaries which operate restaurants in India. These include Jamie Olivers 11 Jamie's Italian restaurants there. IMM also funds nine Wendys burger restaurants in her home country.

Catamaran Ventures  $1bn fund used to store her and her familys vast personal wealth

Ms Murty is listed on LinkedIn as being director of capital and private equity firm Catamaran Ventures, which is headquartered in Bangalore. Any salary or shares would also be taxed at Indian rates. This was set up by her father in 2010. It has $1billion in assets. It also has an office in London and Boston.

Murthy is also a director of Catamaran Ventures UK, which she set up with her husband, who resigned as a director in 2015 and transferred his shares to his wife. In 2020 Catamaran listed the value of its investments as 3.5 million, up from 1.5 million in 2019.

But record a net liability position of 226,572 - the difference between its assets and debts  meaning it is reliant on Murthy to meet its financial obligations. She gave her start-up investment company a 4.3 million loan in 2020.

New and Lingwood - unknown value

Akshata, is the director of the holding company for New & Lingwood, an official outfitter to Eton which offers items such as 2,750 silk dressing gowns.

The London-based firm, owned by a private equity firm, New York based POP Capital, also received money under the Treasurys multi-billion-pound furlough scheme.

Rishi Sunak faced questions over his alleged failure to publicly declare the fact that his wife is a director.

Akshata Designs  Collapsed

After Stanford, she joined a Dutch clean technology incubator fund in San Francisco as marketing director in 2007, but left quickly to start her own fashion label, Akshata Designs, around the time she married Rishi in 2009.

The business, however, collapsed within three years.

Digme Fitness - collapsed

The high-end fitness chain backed by Rishi Sunak's millionaire wife collapsed during the pandemic after receiving taxpayer-backed furlough payments of up to 630,000.

Digme Fitness, which called in creditors last month, owes around 6.1million in what is understood to be unpaid VAT and PAYE, and counts Akshata Murthy, 41, among its directors.

Ms Murthy, the Chancellor's wife, owned less than five per cent of the company - which went bust after lockdown measures forced it to reinvent itself as an online-only business.
Police are facing demands to look again at an event where Keir Starmer was seen clutching a beer during lockdown.

Durham Constabulary previously rejected the idea an offence was committed in April 2021 when Sir Keir was pictured in the office of City of Durham MP Mary Foy in the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election.

However, Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, wrote to the force last week asking them to reconsider in light of the Metropolitan Police's decision to fine the Prime Minister and Chancellor for attending Boris Johnson's birthday bash in Downing Street.

Mr Holden shared a letter from the Durham force's deputy chief constable on social media, which contained the line: 'I will make inquiries with the investigation team and will update you at the point at which I have been able to conclude those inquiries.'

The MP tweeted that police had left the door open to 're-examining the case'.

Responding to Mr Holden, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said: Absolutely right. A lack of consistency in interpretation of the regulations needs examining - urgently.'

However, a spokesman for Durham Constabulary suggested that they had replied out of 'courtesy'.

Sir Keir Starmer was photographed enjoying a beer while mixing with party workers in a constituency office in Durham after a day on the campaign trail in April 2021

Richard Holden MP tweeted a picture of the letter he received from Durham Constabulary and claimed the door had been left open to 're-examining the case'

Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, wrote to Durham Constabulary last week asking them to reconsider in light of the Metropolitan Police's decision to fine the Prime Minister and Chancellor for attending Boris Johnson's birthday bash in Downing Street

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said a 'lack of consistency' in interpretation of the regulations needed an 'urgent' examination

'[We] were sent a letter by Richard Holden MP on April 22,' the spokesman said.

'As a courtesy, we have replied to Mr Holden to confirm we have received that letter and will consider its contents before responding in due course.'

A Labour spokesman said: 'I think some of the characterisation of the letter has been inaccurate.' He added that the gathering had been a 'work event'.

Put to him that the police were 're-examining' the investigation, he said: 'I wouldn't characterise the letter in that way.'

Mr Holden's original letter to Durham Constabulary, which he also shared on social media, said the pictures of Sir Keir came at a time when indoor mixing between households was banned, and the location 'was not the usual workplace of Sir Keir Starmer'.

The MP wrote: 'The Metropolitan Police has since issued a fixed penalty notice to a number of politicians in relation to an event inside the Downing Street Cabinet Room on June 19 2020, where individuals may have briefly celebrated a birthday at a work event.

'In light of that decision, and the tests applied by the Metropolitan Police for the level of a covid regulations breach, I believe there is a strong public interest in Durham Constabulary reviewing its decision not to investigate the Starmer incident further.'

Sir Keir insisted he did nothing wrong, despite comparisons by his opponents to the partygate allegations at 10 Downing Street

Sir Keir was in the City of Durham MP's office, working in the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election in April 2021.

He has insisted he did nothing wrong, despite comparisons by his opponents to the partygate allegations at 10 Downing Street.

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.

Durham police confirmed in February they did not believe any offence was committed and cleared Sir Keir of breaching any rules after watching footage from the event.

But the force was put 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.
President Joe Biden's top medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci is skipping Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner due to COVID concerns.

CNN reported Tuesday night that the 81-year-old Fauci informed ABC News, the news organization that invited him to the black-tie affair, that he would no longer attend due to his own personal risk of contracting COVID-19.

Fauci attended the April 2 Gridiron Dinner, which turned into a superspreader event, with at least 80 of the approximately 630 attendees testing positive for COVID in its aftermath.

President Joe Biden's top medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci is skipping Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner due to COVID concerns

President Joe Biden, seen Wednesday at Madeleine Albright's funeral, is still expected to attend the Correspondents' Dinner, after the last big media dinner, the Gridiron, became a superspreader event

A picture of the packed ballroom at the April 2 Gridiron Dinner at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. The Gridiron Dinner, which required guests to be vaccinated, turned into a superspreader event with 80 positive COVID cases reported in its aftermath

The White House Correspondents' Association is going a step further than the Gridiron Club and requiring that guests take a COVID-19 test 24 hours before the dinner.

All guests must also be vaccinated or have a doctor's excuse.

For the Gridiron Dinner, guests merely had to show their vaccination records.

Among the high-profile guests to catch COVID after Gridiron: Attorney General Merrick Garland, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo - who was one of the speakers - New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Reps. Adam Schiff, Julian Castro and Elaine Luria.

Fauci was seated on the dais with Raimondo and Garland, but sat several seats away.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that President Joe Biden was still planning to attend the Correspondents' Dinner, saying, 'just like many Americans, he makes risk assessments.'

'It's possible the president could test positive,' she added.

The White House Correspondents' Dinner last took place in 2019 (pictured), with thousands packed into the ballroom of the Washington Hilton

Biden also attended the funeral Wednesday of the late Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and will travel to Minnesota Sunday for the funeral of the late Vice President Walter Mondale.

Earlier in the day, Vice President Kamala Harris' office announced the vice president received a positive COVID test after her travels to California and is now in quarantine.

The White House Correspondents' Dinner was last held in 2019.

Thousands of attendees dine in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton.

Traditionally the president gives a comedy bit - and then is roasted by a comedian.

Former President Donald Trump never attended during his tenure - but was famously picked on by then President Barack Obama while in the audience as a private citizen in 2011.

This year's headliner is The Daily Show's Trevor Noah.
A federal judge has rejected Elon Musk's bid to overturn a deal with regulators requiring him to get his tweets about Tesla pre-approved, meaning the billionaire still won't be able to tweet freely even after his acquisition of Twitter closes.

Musk, who makes no secret of his hostility toward the Securities and Exchange Commission, has for years been battling his 2018 settlement with the regulator over his infamous 'funding secured' tweets.

The deal requires Musk to have all of his tweets about Tesla reviewed by company lawyers, after the SEC accused him of misleading investors by claiming to have financial backing to take the company private at $420 per share.

Musk claims the settlement infringes on his free speech rights -- but in a ruling on Wednesday, US District Judge Lewis J. Liman rejected his bid to scrap the requirement.

A federal judge has rejected Elon Musk's bid to overturn a deal with regulators requiring him to get his tweets about Tesla pre-approved

Judge Liman wrote that Musk had freely agreed to the settlement and its requirements, negating his claim that the SEC is harassing and oppressing him.

'He cannot now complain that this provision violates his First Amendment rights,' wrote Liman in the motion.

US District Judge Lewis J. Liman rejected Musk's attempt to overturn the settlement

'Musk's argument that the SEC has used the consent decree to harass him and to launch investigations of his speech is likewise meritless and, in this case, particularly ironic,' the judge added.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, Musk's attorney Alex Spiro insisted that the basis of the SEC's allegations about the 2018 tweets is false, and that Musk did in fact have funding secured to take Tesla private.

'Nothing will ever change the truth which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have - all that's left some half decade later is remnant litigation which will continue to make that truth clearer and clearer,' said Spiro.

As part of the SEC settlement, Musk also paid a $20million fine and stepped down as Tesla's chairman.

Musk has been battling his settlement with the SEC over his August 7, 2018 tweets, which caused the share price of Tesla to fluctuate wildly for several days

In Wednesday's motion, the judge also denied Musk's request to quash a SEC subpoena seeking documents related to tweets the Tesla CEO made on November 6, 2021.

The tweets asked his followers if they supported his selling 10 percent of Tesla stock to pay income taxes, and said that he would abide by the poll results.

The SEC is investigating whether those November tweets violated Musk's 2018 settlement.

Musk, who is the world's richest man with an estimated net worth of $219 billion according to Forbes, has repeatedly claimed that his 'funding secured' tweet was not misleading, as regulators allege.

He reiterated the claim earlier this month, telling the audience at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver, British Columbia: 'The SEC knew that funding was secured but they pursued an active, public investigation nonetheless at the time. Tesla was in a precarious financial situation.'

In the past, the billionaire entrepreneur has said he was in talks at the time with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and that he was confident he would reach a deal. But no agreement was ever announced.

During a TED Conference on Thursday, Musk said he felt forced into the deal with the SEC to save Tesla and called financial regulators in the SEC's San Francisco office 'bastards.' Musk (right) is pictured Thursday with head of TED Chris Anderson (left)

Musk has said he felt forced into the deal with the SEC to save Tesla.

'I was told by the banks that if I did not agree to settle with the SEC, that the banks would cease providing working capital and Tesla would go bankrupt immediately,' Musk said at the TED2022 conference.

'That's like having a gun to your child's head,' he said. 'So I was forced to concede to the SEC unlawfully  those bastards.'

Separately, Musk also faces a lawsuit from Tesla shareholders alleging that he defrauded them with the 'funding secured' tweets.

The trial date for the lawsuit has been set for May 31 in San Francisco federal court. However, the trial date could still change.

Meanwhile, Musk on Monday revealed that he does have 'funding secured' to acquire Twitter in a $44 billion deal that is expected to close by late October.

'Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,' Musk said in a statement announcing the deal.

'I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans,' he added.

'Twitter has tremendous potential  I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.'
A Ukrainian mum has become one of the first refugees to find work in the UK as she started her job as a beautician - and her boss is already singing her praises.

Valeriia Starkova, 37, fled the war-torn city of Kharkiv with her family to move into a house in Cambridgeshire last month.

The four generational family - ranging in age from ten to 90 - drove for three weeks through 13 countries to arrive in the UK at the end of March.

Now she has become one of the first Ukrainian refugees to find a job since arriving in the UK.

Valeriia, who has two kids called Alikhan, 10, and Kamila, 12, started her new position as a nail technician at a beauty salon in Cambridge yesterday.

Having previously worked the same role in Ukraine, she said: 'It feels fantastic.'

Valeriia Starkova (pictured), 37, escaped Kharkiv when Russia invaded Ukraine, and after after just over a month in the UK she has found a job in Cambridge as a nail technician

Valeriia was fully booked on her first day and has a busy week ahead of her at her new job (pictured giving a nail treatment to Rend Platings - who helped her family to settle in the UK)

Valeriia and her family spent three weeks driving to make it to the UK arriving on March 22 (pictured)

Valeriia's son Alikhan Yusupov (pictured alongside his mother), 10, has already started going to school at Caldecote Primary School in the village of Caldecote, Cambridgeshire

Valeriia Starkova at the beauty salon in Cambridge where she has started her new job (pictured with owner Charlotte Liddiard on the left and Rend Platings on the right)

She continued: 'I haven't been working for two months so I've been waiting for this day for quite a long time.

Mick Swinhoe: The kind-hearted businessman who is chair of an engineering firm Mick Swinhoe is chairman and co-founder of Cambridge-based engineering consultancy firm, Z-Tech Control Systems. He started the company more than two decades ago and boasts over 30 years' experience in industrial automation, electrical and mechanical systems. Before founding Z-Tech in 2000, Mr Swinhoe spent over of a decade with Northumbrian Water maintaining water and wastewater sites followed by four years as Operations Manager for a system integration company delivering automation projects to the UK water industry. He has also earned management qualifications from Durham University and holds a HNC in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Mr Swinhoe, 52, said he bought the house next to his own in Caldecote just before the war broke out, and he initially planned to use it as a 'project house'. The executive at an industrial automation company changed his plans, and after posting on Facebook groups he was connected with a family. Mr Swinhoe said he wants the house to be used for 'something more useful until I do something else with it'. 'It's a better use for it really,' he said. 'I can do what I want to do later when things get better.' Mr Swinhoe said his two daughters, aged 11 and 15, are 'really delighted' there are three children among the Ukrainian family of 10, and he said they will be able to help integrate them into school. Advertisement

'I was hoping that I would get the job I love.

'I was nervous that I wouldn't understand clients and what they want but after I finished the course here I saw that it's quite similar and the clients are actually really nice and they help me a lot.

'The hardest part was doing my CV. It took me two or three days but without a CV you can't find a job obviously.'

Valeriia is living with nine Ukrainian relatives at a house in Cambridgeshire that was offered to them rent-free by local businessman Mick Swinhoe, who sponsored the family's visa application.

Speaking through tears, Valeriia said today: 'Of course I miss my home. I miss everything I had there. I had all my life out there.

'I miss my husband as well. He's in another country right now and he's waiting for his visa to come. The kids haven't seen him for quite a long time.

'It's hard. All my life out there [in Ukraine] and I just left everything.'

Valeriia's new boss Charlotte Liddiard, who opened CSL salon in Cambridge last April, said that her new recruit's application 'stood out'.

The family were helped in their journey to the UK by relative Roman Starkov, who is a British citizen.

The 38-year-old, of Cambridge, has lived in the UK for 20 years since travelling to the country to study.

The software developer helped his family through the visa process which he described as 'pretty involved'.

'You have to fill out arcane forms, and for such a big group there's a lot of repetition, but once that was sorted we went to a visa application centre, they processed us very quickly, that was in Albania,' he said.

He said his 90-year-old grandmother Ludmila Starkova does not have a valid international passport and had wanted to stay in Ukraine.

'On every border that was a challenge,' he said.

'Fortunately every single border they figured something out and allowed her to pass.'

Eight of the family members took a flight from Albania to London Luton Airport, with Ms Starkova, who is Mr Starkov's sister, and father their Mykola Starkov, 59, travelling by car and ferry, arriving four days later.

This was so they could bring more of their belongings and their two dogs, Yorkshire terrier Mikki and mini Maltese Florie, both aged two.

Mick Swinhoe (right) talks to Valeriia Starkova and her family as they settle into their new home in Caldecote near Cambridge

Mick Swinhoe's property in Caldecote near Cambridge which is the new home of the Starkova family

Valeriia and her family received a welcome note from Mick Swinhoe's children Natalia and Ella

Valeriia's children Miroslava, Alikhan and Kamila have been settling into the new home and were able to bring their dogs Mikki and Florie with them from Ukraine

Valeriia is living with nine Ukrainian relatives at the house including Halyna (pictured), 89,

She added that Valeriia, who is the salon's only nail specialist, has a busy list of clients this week.

Charlotte said: 'Her application stood out. She sent a covering letter with her CV explaining her passion for the job.

'It just felt like the right thing. I saw her work on her Instagram page and it was fantastic.

Charlotte, who has five employees, including Valeriia, added: 'She's fully booked today on her first day. She's pretty fully booked for the week.

'Her colleagues and our customers are really excited for her to work here.'

Charlotte said that Valeriia's background - having fled bombarded Ukraine with her family - cemented the decision to hire her.

She said: 'Obviously it's nice to help. You have empathy with what's going on. It's just nice to be able to help and do something otherwise you feel pretty helpless.

'It might be a little thing for me but it's a big thing for her. She's got kids and a family - you imagine yourself in that position.'
A grieving mother whose son died on a rugby trip in France blasted organisers who had not even noticed he was absent from group photo taken after he disappeared.

The body of Harry Sykes, 16, was recovered by divers from Lake Cayavere near Carcassonne, in southern France during a trip with Halifax Elite Rugby Academy on September 5, 2018.

A furious Natasha Burton, a mum-of-two, said she blamed the organisers of the trip, brothers Lee and Gareth Greenwood, both former professional rugby players, for the 'loss of my baby'.

And now the senior coroner for the inquest into Harry's death, Martin Fleming, said that, among a litany of basic failings, no one had even noticed Harry was not in a group photograph taken before they left the lake.

Mr Fleming lambasted the organisation of the trip as 'inadequate' and 'slipshod'.

The boys spent the day at the idyllic Lac de la Cavayere. This picture was taken after the disappearance of Harry Sykes, 16, yet no one noticed his absence

Mum Natasha Burton with son Harry Sykes, who died on a French lake while on tour with Halifax Elite Rugby Academy in the south of France. 'It was their responsibility and duty to make sure they knew where everyone was and that they were safe,' Ms Burton said. 'They shouldn't be able to work with children again. They have no idea of the correct way to run an academy'

The boys spent the day at the idyllic Lac de la Cavayere, near the medieval town of Carcassonne, enjoying pedalos and water slides - but the alarm was raised when one of their number had gone missing at 8.30pm

After the hearing, which lasted the best part of two weeks, Mrs Burton told YorkshireLive: 'I, as a mother, hold them responsible for his death.

'It was their responsibility and duty to make sure they knew where everyone was and that they were safe.

'They shouldn't be able to work with children again. They have no idea of the correct way to run an academy.

'I can tell you that I blame the Greenwoods for the loss of my baby. We are astounded that yet again justice has not been served for Harry.

'This was a tragic and unnecessary death. Harry continues to be missed by all his family and this is felt every day.'

The coroner of the inquest into Harry's death Det Insp Tom Levitt, of West Yorkshire Police, who carried out an investigation into Harry's death, said that the Greenwood brothers, who both have previous criminal convictions for unrelated matters, were arrested and interviewed on suspicion of manslaughter by gross negligence.

However, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was insufficient evidence to pursue the matter.

Mr Fleming said on Monday the organisation and preparation of the visit to the lake was poor and that a 'cursory' check of the beach would have alerted them to the fact that Harry's bag and towel were still there.

He said: 'This resulted in confusion and uncertainty with respect to supervision, which was at best, sporadic.

'The lack of headcounts showed significant flaws in supervision and enabled Harry to disappear.'

Harry Sykes, who was travelling with the Halifax Rugby League Academy, was last seen alive entering the water at around 1.30pm.

The lads from Halifax Elite Rugby Academy had enjoyed a sunny day on the lake before Harry went missing

He said the Greenwood brothers were in breach of their duties, with failings including, 'taking insufficient supervisors to the lake, failing to supervise boys properly at times, failing to designate a supervisor when leaving the beach, failing to conduct headcounts while on the beach.'

But, he said, 'even if the ratio of supervision was as low as 1-10 or 1-6,' it remains unclear whether close supervision would have enabled anyone to save Harry, as the circumstances and time of his death are still a mystery.

He went on: 'There is no evidence he was at particular risk of drowning, no evidence he was in distress or called out for help.'

The inquest at Bradford Coroner's Court heard Harry was found in two metres of water, 20 metres away from the beach.

Harry Sykes from Bradford, West Yorkshire, who died at Lac de la Cavayere near Carcassonne, France, on September 5, 2018

The body of the 16-year-old was recovered after what had initially been an enjoyable day at the beach for more than 30 lads aged 16-plus.

Harry had swam with a small group to some rocks and then had been seen playing volleyball in the water.

The inquest previously heard how Harry, a strong swimmer, was reported missing only after his team got back to the hotel and realised he had been left behind.

One of the boys reported later that he had felt something 'squishy' under the water and it appeared that this was Harry's body.

But the boys thought it was perhaps a jellyfish and laughed off what would have been a grim discovery.

Mr Fleming recorded a narrative conclusion that 'Harry suffered a cardiac event of uncertain origins while swimming and drowned in unclear circumstances when he was not observed to be in difficulties.

'It remains unclear whether if he had been seen and retrieved, it would have made any difference to the outcome.'

The academy was connected to Loughborough College and a spokesman said: 'Our thoughts are with Harry's family and anyone who knew him, following the conclusion of the inquest.

'Whilst it was made clear throughout the process that Harry was not a Loughborough College student and the college had no responsibility or powers in relation to the trip, any loss of a young life is a tragedy and our hearts go out to all affected.'
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Johnny Depp cracked up with laughter as the doorman of his building described how Amber Heard asked him to investigate an intruder due to scratches on their front door - which were caused by the dog.

Alejandro Romero said that Heard and her friend Rocky Pennington told him that 'somebody tried to get into my unit' at the Eastern Columbia Building in West Hollywood.

Appearing in a pre-taped video deposition, Romero said he thought to himself: 'What? Four inches above the (floor)? The dog was scratching.'

He said: 'In my head (I'm thinking) you think someone is trying to get into your unit with scratches four inches above the floor?'

At this point Depp started laughing and there was laughter in the public gallery.

Romero said: 'They were so scared. They asked me to go inside the unit to check room by room. I did it, it's part of my job.'

At one point Romero, who was giving the deposition in his car on his cell phone, could be seen blowing smoke out his nose having apparently just taken a hit from a vaping device.

Losing patience he began to drive around, still talking to one of Heard's lawyers on his phone which was stuck on his dashboard.

Afterwards Bredehoft, Heard's lawyer, said it was 'the most bizarre deposition' she had ever done.

Judge Penney Azcarate added: 'I've never seen that before.'

Johnny Depp cracked up with laughter as the doorman of his building described how Amber Heard asked him to investigate an intruder due to scratches on their front door - which were caused by the dog

At one point Romero could be seen blowing smoke out his nose having apparently just taken a hit from a vaping device. Losing patience he began to drive around, still talking to one of Heard's lawyers on his phone which was stuck on his dashboard

At one point Romero lost his cool and spoke of his frustration at having to speak to the lawyers. He said: 'Ugh. I'm so stressed out because of this, I don't want to deal with this any more'

At one point Romero lost his cool and spoke of his frustration at having to speak to the lawyers.

He said: 'Ugh. I'm so stressed out because of this, I don't want to deal with this any more.'

Romero met Heard on May 25, 2016, four days after the final argument between Heard and Depp before the divorce.

She claims he hit her with a mobile phone at the apartment - he denies it.

Romero said that he didn't see any bruises and cuts on Heard's face at the time and she was 3ft away from him.

Asked if he would have seen anything, given they were so close and the light was good, he said: 'That's correct.'

Depp laughed again as an exasperated Romero said he wasn't checking if Heard's 'eyelashes are not even.'

There was laughter in court once more when Romero said in response to another question: 'I don't remember what I got for breakfast'.

Earlier in the day, a Los Angeles police officer who attended the final argument between Depp and Heard before their divorce said she could have had a red face after 'crying because (her) dog died.'

Tyler Hadden said that because Heard was 'uncooperative' he had no idea why she was upset having called 911 at her West Hollywood penthouse.

Heard claimed that Depp smacked her with a mobile phone during the May 2016 argument but clammed up when officers arrived.

Officer Hadden told the former couple's $100m defamation trial he categorized the incident as a 'verbal dispute' only.

The cop told the jury he saw no evidence of injuries on Heard and that her red face was 'consistent with crying'.

He said that 'just because I see a female with pink cheeks and pink eyes doesn't mean something happened'.

Officer Hadden said the red face could be because the person 'started crying because their dog died'.

The question of Heard's injuries that night are crucial to the case as a week later she filed for divorce and obtained a restraining order against Depp, accusing him of domestic violence.

She arrived at court with a large bruise on her right cheek, a picture of which was entered into the court file.

A Los Angeles police officer who attended the final May 2016 argument between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard before their divorce said she could have had a red face after 'crying because (her) dog died'

Hadden said that because Heard was 'uncooperative' he had no idea why she was upset having called 911 at her West Hollywood penthouse

LAPD officer William Gatlin told the court that he and a colleague went to see Heard again at 10.24pm that night.

It appeared that a friend of Heard's had called the New York police department about the incident, and they wanted to return to check on her themselves.

The court was shown footage from officer Gatlin's body camera which showed them entering the building and walking down the corridor to the penthouse.

Heard's friend Josh Drew answered the door and tried to persuade the officers to leave by telling them that other cops had already come by, but they insisted on going in.

Officer Gatlin agreed that Drew was 'uncooperative'.

The footage showed the cops entering and asking if Heard was OK, and she confirmed she was.

Drew says that Depp is 'definitely' not there any more and had been gone a few hours and the officers left.

Officer Gatlin said that when they went inside 'it didn't seem like anybody was particularly eager to talk to us'.

The cop said that due to the 'dim lighting' he couldn't see if Heard had any bruises on her face or not.

The cop said that based on the LAPD's investigation it appeared Heard was not a victim of domestic violence.

He said: 'Based on her refusing to give any statement on what occurred and at the time we did not observe any visible or verifiable injuries to her'.

However officer Gatlin said he was 'not in a position' to say if Depp beat up Heard as he was not there when the incident occurred.

Officer Gatlin was asked about claims by Heard's former lawyer Adam Waldman in media interviews that Heard and her friends were 'attempting to concoct an abuse hoax.'

The cop said he could not recall seeing anything like that.

Officer Gatlin was asked if he saw Heard and her friends 'spilling wine and roughing the place up?'

He replied that he did not.

There was laughter in court when Bredehoft asked the officer if he was a 'fan' of Depp's at the time they went to the property.

Officer Gatlin said: 'I guess I liked a couple of his movies, not rush out to see them or anything'.

LAPD officer William Gatlin told the court that he and a colleague went to see Heard again at 10.24pm that night

The court was shown footage from officer Gatlin's body camera which showed them entering the building and walking down the corridor to the penthouse

Heard's friend Josh Drew answered the door and tried to persuade the officers to leave by telling them that other cops had already come by, but they insisted on going in

Officer Gatlin said that when they went inside 'it didn't seem like anybody was particularly eager to talk to us'. The cop said that due to the 'dim lighting' he couldn't see if Heard had any bruises on her face or not

Officer Melissa Saenz appeared via a pre-taped video deposition on Tuesday. She was asked about the visit to the penthouse apartment that Depp and Heard shared on May 21, 2016.

Under questioning from Heard's lawyer Elaine Bredehoft, Saenz said, 'I did not identify her as a victim of domestic violence,' adding that she did not see any evidence of a crime, including broken glass or mess in the penthouse.

It was the last argument between Depp and Heard before she filed for a divorce and a restraining order, which she did a week later.

In request for the restraining order, Heard claimed that Depp hit her with a cell phone during that encounter, leaving her with a bruise on the right side of her face.

In the court file, Heard included an image of the bruise.

Bredehoft showed the photo photo of Amber's face to Saenz and asked ,'Do you perceive there to be an injury or evidence of injury on amber's face in this photo?'

Saenz responded, 'No I do not.'

Bredehoft asked, 'What is your perception of the redness on the cheek and the eyelid and above the eyebrow?'

Saenz responded, 'Its consistent with her crying - she's fair skin, her face is flushed.'

Bredehoft asked, 'You don't think it's consistent with a cell phone being thrown at her?'

Saenz responded, 'Correct, it does not look like an injury caused from a cell phone. It's consistent with someone crying.'

Bredehoft asked, 'If you saw any signs of injury on Amber Heard or even just damage to the property, would you have been duty bound to make a report?'

'Correct.'

Bredehoft asked, 'Now, your recollection is that there was damage to the flat, you searched the entire flat and there was no damage, no broken glass, or anything out of the ordinary, would you agree?'

'Correct'

Bredehoft asked, 'When you got back to the elevator is there anything you remember thinking?'

Saenz responded, 'I remember being impressed by the penthouse, how big and beautiful it was yes.'

Officer Melissa Saenz appeared via a pre-taped video deposition on Tuesday. She was asked about the visit to the penthouse apartment that Depp and Heard shared on May 21, 2016

These photos were shown in court from May 2016 of Amber Heard with an apparently bruised cheek. Saenz said, 'I did not identify her as a victim of domestic violence,' adding that she did not see any evidence of a crime, including broken glass or mess in the penthouse

Bredehoft asked, 'When you got back to the elevator is there anything you remember thinking?' Saenz responded, 'I remember being impressed by the penthouse, how big and beautiful it was, yes.' Depp's penthouse building in LA is pictured

Her testimony followed expert witness Dr. Shannon Curry to the stand. The clinical and forensic psychologist told the court she concluded Heard had traits consistent with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) - two conditions found in people with patterns of emotional instability and attention-seeking behavior.

Dr. Curry testified that she was initially hired by Depp's lawyers early last year to review files in the legal battle between the two feuding exes and identify behavior in their relationship that may be consistent with 'intimate partner violence'.

The psychology expert, however, revealed her role would shift several months later in October, when she was asked to provide a psychological evaluation of Heard, 36.

'The results of Ms. Heard's evaluation supported two diagnoses: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD),' Curry told the court.

She concluded that Heard 'grossly exaggerated' her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after her relationship with Depp and said that in the actress's eyes, the actor went from being 'idealized to the dumpster.'

Dr. Curry noted that Heard's BPD was marked by an 'underlying terror of abandonment' and somebody with the condition tends to make 'desperate attempts' to stop it from happening.

These could be 'very extreme behaviors', she said.

Curry added that as a result of these disorders, somebody like Heard could appear charming at the start of a friendship or relationship but could then turn dark easily.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a conference at an industrial cluster in Gwangju, located about 330 kilometers south of Seoul, April 20. Joint Press Corps-Yonhap



Lackluster stock market has little to do with short-selling: experts



By Lee Min-hyung



With President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol ready to reinforce the monitoring of short-selling shares, retail investors are stepping up their calls for the incoming administration to impose tighter regulations on the trading practice carried out by institutional and foreign investors.



These complaints reflect the effects of the months-long lackluster stock market performances here. The benchmark KOSPI and secondary KOSDAQ have been on a downward trajectory after reaching historic highs last year.



As the local stock market is faced with multiple external risk factors such as possibly drastic rate hikes from the U.S. Fed, the sentiment of fear has been escalating, particularly among retail investors, that the stock markets may lose further ground. They also reiterated the need for the incoming Yoon administration to keep a closer watch on any illegal and unfair short-selling by institutional and foreign investors.



Yoon has also pledged to introduce a series of measures to win back trust from the market in a way to strengthen surveillance and punishment against those showing signs of engaging in manipulative trading acts.



Market experts, however, said that any regulatory movement by the incoming administration would have a limited impact in helping rev up the sluggish stock market performances.



"The argument that the short-selling of shares has driven the decline of stocks is far from the truth," Hwang Sei-woon, a senior research fellow at the Korea Capital Market Institute, said. "A key factor determining the ups and downs of the stock market is the change in corporate fundamentals, so the ongoing stock market decline has little to do with the short-selling."



Yoon's pledges on the stock market include the introduction of a circuit breaker for short-selling. The plan was designed to protect more investors by halting the trading of shares when the stock market shows any dramatic drop. Even if this plan is feared to weaken investor sentiment on shorting here, the regulation is widely expected to play a role in safeguarding retail investors.



The incoming administration also shared its plans to establish a special organization solely dedicated to monitoring any suspicious short-selling acts in the local stock market.



"Most of these pledges are aimed at protecting the market from any illegal acts surrounding short-selling, thereby regaining trust from investors and the market," the expert said. "But the measures are not designed to boost the market. The stock market will be revitalized when listed firms enhance their earnings and improve fundamentals."





A member from the Korea Stockholders Alliance gives their request for the short-selling regulation to an official of the presidential transition committee in Seoul, April 4. Yonhap
A man has appeared in court charged after former Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith was allegedly hit on the back of the head with a traffic cone.

Elliot Bovill, 31, of no fixed address, is accused of common assault against the senior MP in Manchester during the time of last year's Conservative Party conference

Sir Iain told The Spectator magazine he was struck on the back of the head with a traffic cone as he headed to a fringe event at the Tory event in the city.

He said then he nearly 'lost my rag' and there was 'abusive language' shouted at him.

A friend of the MP said he was walking with his wife Betsy at the time of the incident on October 4 and escaped without injury.

Former leader of the Conservative party Iain Duncan-Smith, pictured, walking in central Manchester last October

No further details of the offence were read out at Manchester Magistrates Court (pictured) and no plea was taken

No further details of the offence were read out at Manchester Magistrates Court and no plea was taken.

Mr Bovill was told the case was being switched to Westminster Magistrates Court and was granted unconditional bail to next appear on 16 May.

Two other defendants have been charged in connection with the incident.

Radical Haslam, 28, of New Wakefield Street, Manchester, and Ruth Wood, 50, of Oak Tree Avenue, Cambridge, are accused of using threatening, abusive words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of or provoke unlawful violence.

Ms Wood appeared by videolink and was also bailed until May 16.

Mr Haslam did not attend court.
Two elderly brothers met for the first time in 15 years when - in a twist of fate - they were both hospitalized at the same medical facility in northeastern Brazil at the same time.

The meeting was made possible last Thursday after the staff at Taperoa General Hospital in Paraiba noticed the men shared the same last name.

Antonio Valentim da Costa, 76, was hospitalized at the medical facility to undergo several procedures. His older sibling, Jose Valentim da Costa, 86, was admitted after undergoing surgery.

Staffers assigned to the hospitals social assistance department did some research on the two and spoke to relatives before making the shocking discovery that they were indeed related.

Siblings Antonio Valentim da Costa and Jose Valentim da Costa saw each other for the first time in 15 years last Thursday while they were hospitalized at Taperoa General Hospital in Taperoa, Brazil

The hospital staff noticed that the men shared the same last name and did some research, including speaking to their families, before notifying both parties that the brothers were in the same medical facility

One of the siblings is taken in his hospital bed to a room where his brother was waiting to see him for the first time in 15 years

Video footage of the encounter recorded by the hospital workers showed one of the men being wheeled in his hospital bed to another room where the siblings met for an emotional handshake.

Its unknown why Antonio and Jose hadn't seen one another for so long despite living only about 30 minutes apart.

Antonio Valentim da Costa and Jose Valentim da Costa exchange a handshake upon seeing each other for the first time in 15 years despite living about 30 minutes apart in the northeastern Brazilian state of Paraiba

According to weekly news magazine Istoe, Antonio, is single, has several children and lives in the municipality of Livramento.

Jose, a widower, is father to 12 children and lives in Taperoa.

Antonio was transferred to the Campina Grande Trauma Hospital after the meeting with his brother, but said that he would be returning when he got out to spend more time with Jose.

Humanization actions are built with a lot of respect, empathy and love, focusing on the needs of users, going beyond mere pathological aspects, said Debora Cristina Farias, the director at Taperoa General Hospital.

We promoted this great and moving meeting of the two brothers who had not seen each other for more than 15 years, given the efforts of the assistance team and their families."
A 23-year-old who was allegedly in the United States illegally and is charged with murdering his elderly boyfriend and encasing his body in concrete is seen in a photo trying to escape from an LAPD interview room.

Juan Tejedor Baron, 23, was arrested in California early last month in connection with the gruesome murder of 73-year-old Gary Ruby, who had been found entombed in cement in a bathtub at his $2.2million gated Honolulu home.

Baron was caught trying to flee the country following the murder, making it as far as the Golden State before he was apprehended by Los Angeles police on March 9, who had found him 'hiding in a crawl space under an enclosed bench' of a Mexico-bound bus, police have said.

He was later taken into custody in California, where newly released court documents show he apparently tried to escape.

Photos taken from surveillance footage of police interview room where Baron was being held show him trying to push and pry the wall panels, according to KHON.

Juan Tejedor Baron, 23, was seen in surveillance footage apparently trying to escape LAPD custody after he was arrested last month in connection with the death of his elderly boyfriend

He could be seen in the footage prying at the wall panels in an apparent attempt to find a way out

Baron has since confessed to the killing - which authorities believe took place sometime in February - telling cops he murdered longtime Honolulu resident Ruby - with whom he had been in a romantic relationship - after learning the latter was HIV positive.

He was later extradited back to Honolulu, and was indicted by an Oahu grand jury on one count of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree identity theft, and two counts of first-degree theft.

Investigators have since discovered that Baron last entered the US on June 26, 2018 on a tourist visa, and was allowed to stay in the country until December 25, 2018.

But, prosecutors claim, he 'overstayed' his visa, and therefore remains in unlawful status.

That means that if he is ever released from the Oahu Community Correctional Center, he would be transferred to federal custody, according to KITV. It would then be within the federal government's purview to initiate deportation proceedings against him.

But for now he remains in custody without bail pending trial on June 5, Hawaii News Now reports. He is scheduled to attend a bail hearing next week.

If convicted, he faces life behind bars with the possibility of parole - as well as the possibility of deportation.

It remains unclear whether Baron has retained a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

Baron, 23, is now being held in jail without bond in connection with the grisly murder of Gary Ruby in Honolulu

The body of longtime Honolulu resident Gary Ruby, 73, was found by Hawaii police February 8 encased in concrete in a bathtub inside of his $2.2million home

Baron has previously confessed to killing Ruby after he told him he had HIV following a sexual encounter in February, spurring the suspect to strangle his much older lover with a belt, according to an arrest warrant.

'Baron stated that he had sex with Gary but became angry after Gary informed Baron that Gary was HIV-positive,' the warrant reads.

Baron stated that soon after, he noticed Gary choke slightly while eating, at which point he 'reacted by placing a belt around Garys neck and tightening the belt until Gary lost consciousness.'

He also allegedly told the cops he then dragged the elderly man's corpse to the bathtub, before using a 'kitchen knife to slit Garys wrists in an effort to stage a suicide.'

Cops said that Baron then confessed to attempting to cover up the killing, pouring cement he found inside Ruby's garage and coffee grounds over the victim's body in the tub - before realizing that he did not have enough to submerge the victim.

'Baron then drove to Lowes to purchase four additional bags of concrete and further filled the bathtub, covering Gary,' the filing states.

Baron further told detectives that he then added coffee grounds to the bathtub concoction, to better mask the smell of Ruby's decomposing body.

'Baron stated he used coffee grounds to cover the cement in an effort to conceal the smell of decomposition,' the affidavit states.

Recently released court documents allege Baron had tried to trade Ruby's Audi A6 at the Honolulu BMW and Audi showrooms, left and right

Court documents have also revealed that, following the murder, Baron made multiple attempts to trade Ruby's Audi A6 at the Honolulu Audi and BMW showrooms.

At both locations, he allegedly attempted to convince sales agents that Ruby was his uncle who lived in Texas and said his 'Uncle Gary' was willing to sign all the required documents electronically, according to the court documents obtained by KITV.

He then allegedly provided sales associates at both locations with Ruby's vehicle insurance, using Ruby's personal email to transmit a copy of Ruby's Hawaii drivers' license, and ultimately presented the Audi general sales manager a fraudulently-obtained certificate of title issued on February 7.

That title said it was issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles Kapalama Satellite City Hall and named Baron as the registered owner.

And, court documents also claim Baron purchased a sales deed for Ruby's home on HawaiiDeed.com, paying $478.53 for the transfer with Ruby's Mastercard and conducting the transaction with Ruby's personal email address.

He then allegedly tried passing off both the multi-million dollar home and the Audi A6 as his own when questioned by lawmen investigating Ruby's sudden disappearance - telling officers he had purchased both from the deceased.

But that claim ultimately led police to become suspicious of the 23-year-old.

According to the arrest warrant, Baron had told the officer that he had bought the house off of Ruby about five years prior. But when the officer relayed that the property records indicated that Ruby had purchased the home in 2020, he allegedly 'changed his story... saying he bought the residence two years ago and had the deed for it.'

That inconsistency served as enough grounds for suspicion for officers to enter the home the following day, where they found Ruby's remains inside the master bedroom tub. A medical examiner identified the remains as Ruby's by matching blood at the bottom of the tub to that of the senior's.

The death was promptly ruled a homicide, with a then-nowhere-to-be-found Baron named a prime suspect.

As police searched for leads, Rubys brother told officers that his brother had mentioned in an email 'a new love interest named Juan' who was 'significantly younger.'

The affidavit notes that neighbors and Ruby's own brother knew about the couple's relationship - noting that Baron was seen at the elderly man's house inside the gated community.

Surveillance footage later obtained by authorities also showed Baron purchasing several bags of cement, and court documents say he had a receipt from Lowe's on him for the purchase of Quikrete brand cement on February 7.

The murder took place at Ruby's home, situated in one of Hawaii's 'premier residential neighborhoods,' Hawaii Loa Ridge, where homes are currently on sale anywhere from $2.5million to $27million. Ruby's home reportedly cost $2.2million

Victim Gary Ruby, 73, lived on a corner of a 357 Lelekepue Place (pictured) in the exclusive 557 home community

Honolulu Police had first visited Ruby's home on Lelekepue Place in the gated community on Monday after a welfare call from his brother - who lives on the mainland. His brother said he hadn't heard from the 73-year-old since the beginning of February.

Officers then searched the three-bedroom-and-bath home for the homeowner who they were unable to locate. But police did notice the bathtub was filled with a concrete-like substance.

'The initial case was a missing person investigation. It was not a criminal case,' Lieutenant Deena Thoemmes told NBC News.

Still, police returned the following day to find Baron and Baron's boyfriend, 34-year-old Scott Hannon had fled.

When they investigated the bathtub, they were overwhelmed by the smell of coffee.

'When we entered the apartment, we smelled coffee, no doubt,' Thoemmes of the Honolulu Police Department told NBC News.

Once officers began to smell human decomposition, they started to chip away at the concrete.

'The body was in the standalone tub and it was in a state of decomposition once we chipped away at the concrete mixture.'

Baron and Hannon were later seen at the Waikiki Hotel before fleeing to California.

Security footage shows the two loved-up men holding hands and being affectionate toward each other on hotel surveillance footage. Baron appeared to be looking up directions on his phone before they walked down the sidewalk toward an unknown destination with Hannon's arm around the shorter man.

Both men were ultimately booked into the Los Angeles Police Department Metropolitan Detention Center, but Hannon was freed, with the authorities citing 'an insufficient complaint' as the reason for his release.
A council is preparing a legal challenge to Government plans to house asylum seekers at a former RAF base in a North Yorkshire village.

Ministers announced this month that a new reception centre would be opened in Linton-on-Ouse.

The plans would see up to 1,500 asylum seekers placed in the accommodation and processing centre.

Hambleton District Council says it has now asked lawyers to start mounting a legal challenge to the proposal.

Hambleton District Council is preparing a legal challenge to Government plans to house asylum seekers at a former RAF base in a North Yorkshire village

At the former RAF base, plans would see up to 1,500 asylum seekers placed in the accommodation and processing centre

The first 129 Villagers in the queue go inside to discuss the proposed asylum processing centre at former RAF base Linton-on-Ouse on April 23

Villagers watch the public meeting live streamed outside the hacked hall where discussion about the proposed asylum processing centre at former RAF base Linton-on-Ouse on April 23

Dr Justin Ives, the council's chief executive, said the decision had been made after the Government's decision to 'press ahead' with the plans despite a 'lack of consultation' with residents.

He said: 'We have been carefully listening to what local communities have been saying about the potential impact on Linton-on-Ouse, surrounding communities and our district in general.

'We now understand from subsequent conversations this week, that the Government has every intention of pressing ahead with the plans.

'In response to this, Hambleton District Council has instructed lawyers to start work on mounting a legal challenge of the Government's decision.'

Dr Ives added: 'As the local authority, we are extremely disappointed by the lack of consultation and involvement on this so far and have made this clear to Government during our discussions.'

The RAF base is pictured left with the village on the right. A government spokesperson said an asylum reception centre would help end reliance on expensive hotels which are costing the taxpayer 4.7 million a day

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'The New Plan for Immigration will fix this broken asylum system, allowing us to support those in genuine need while preventing abuse of the system and deterring illegal entry to the UK'

The area's MP Kevin Hollinrake previously said he would 'push for these plans to be stopped', later adding: 'This is not a secure facility and having such a large volume of young men being housed in Linton-on-Ouse is completely wrong.'

Dr Justin Ives, the council's chief executive, said the decision had been made after the Government's decision to 'press ahead' with the plans despite a 'lack of consultation' with residents

Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton, previously said he would 'push for these plans to be stopped'.

Following a community meeting over the weekend, Mr Hollinrake added: 'This is not a secure facility and having such a large volume of young men being housed in Linton-on-Ouse is completely wrong.'

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'The asylum reception centre at Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire, will help end our reliance on expensive hotels which are costing the taxpayer 4.7 million a day.

'We are consulting with local stakeholders about the use of the site.

'The New Plan for Immigration will fix this broken asylum system, allowing us to support those in genuine need while preventing abuse of the system and deterring illegal entry to the UK.'
Melissa Lucio has been spared from execution - for now - and a Texas court will review new evidence that her attorneys claim shows she did not kill her two-year-old daughter and that she gave a coerced confession due to years of abuse.

Lucio, 53, had been set to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday for the 2007 death of Mariah, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals delayed her execution Monday.

If put to death, Lucio would be the first Latina executed by Texas since 1863, and the first woman the state has put to death since 2014.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals intervened Monday, granting Lucio's lawyers' request for a stay of execution so a lower court can review claims new evidence would show Mariah's injuries, including a blow to the head, were caused by a fall down a steep staircase.

But prosecutors have maintained the girl was the victim of abuse and noted that child's body was covered in bruises when she died.

Lucio's attorneys say her capital murder conviction in 2008 was based on an unreliable and coerced confession and she wasnt allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession.

They also contend unscientific and false evidence misled jurors into believing Mariah's injuries could have been caused only by abuse and not by medical complications from a severe fall down a steep staircase.

In granting the execution stay, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals asked that the Brownsville trial judge in charge of Lucios case - Gabriela Garcia - review four claims her lawyers have made.

These claims are: whether prosecutors used false evidence to convict her; whether previously unavailable scientific evidence would have prevented her conviction; whether she is actually innocent; and whether prosecutors suppressed evidence that would have been favorable to her defense.

Melissa Lucio, 53, was set due to be executed on April 27 for the 2007 death of her baby daughter Mariah, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals delayed her execution Monday

Melissa Lucio cries in court in July of 2008 on the day she was sentenced to death for the 2007 death of her daughter Mariah

She was set to be executed Wednesday for the death of Mariah (pictured on her lap alongside daughter Adriana)

WHAT ISSUES ARE BEING DEBATED?

Lucio's attorneys say her capital murder conviction was based on an unreliable and coerced confession that was the result of relentless questioning and her long history of sexual, physical and emotional abuse.

They say Lucio wasnt allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession.

Her lawyers also contend that unscientific and false evidence misled jurors into believing Mariahs injuries only could have been caused by physical abuse and not by medical complications from a severe fall.

'I knew that what I was accused of doing was not true. My children have always been my world and although my choices in life were not good I would have never hurt any of my children in such a way,' Lucio wrote in a letter to Texas lawmakers.

Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, whose office prosecuted the case, has said he disagrees with Lucio's lawyers' claims that new evidence would exonerate her. Prosecutors say Lucio had a history of drug abuse and at times had lost custody of some of her 14 children.

Lucio, who has been in custody since 2007, maintains that Mariah died from injuries sustained during a fall down a flight of stairs even though she confessed to hurting Mariah at the time

During a sometimes contentious Texas House committee hearing on Lucios case this month, Saenz initially pushed back on requests to use his power to stop the execution, before later saying he would intervene if the courts didnt act.

'I dont disagree with all the scrutiny this case is getting. I welcome that,' Saenz said.

Armando Villalobos was the county's district attorney when Lucio was convicted in 2008, and Lucios lawyers allege that he pushed for a conviction to help his reelection bid to appear 'tough on crime.'

In 2014, Villalobos was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for a bribery scheme related to offering favorable prosecutorial decisions.

WHO IS CALLING FOR LUCIOS EXECUTION TO BE STOPPED?

More than half the members of the Texas Legislature have asked that her execution be halted. A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers traveled this month to Gatesville, where the state houses female death row inmates, and prayed with Lucio.

Five of the 12 jurors who sentenced Lucio and one alternate juror have questioned their decision and asked she get a new trial.

Lucio's cause also has the backing of faith leaders and was featured on HBOs 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.'

Lucio's family and supporters have been traveling throughout Texas and holding rallies and screenings of a 2020 documentary about her case, 'The State of Texas vs. Melissa.'

Before the court decision Monday, Lucio's supporters held a prayer vigil inside the state Capitol in Austin as they waited for word from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on her clemency application. On Saturday, supporters held rallies in 16 U.S. cities, including Houston, Boston, and Columbus, Ohio.

In this 2007 video interview tape, Lucio is shown acting out how she 'beat' Mariah to death. Her attorneys say it was a coerced confession after five hours of interrogation. She was pregnant at the time with twins

Three hours into a late-night interrogation Lucio confessed to police that she had spanked and bitten her daughter - an admission that became the backbone of the case against her

WHERE DO EFFORTS TO HALT HER EXECUTION STAND?

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had been set Monday to consider a request to either commute her death sentence to life imprisonment or grant her a 120-day execution reprieve, but that hearing was put off by the appeals courts order.

Lucio also had an appeal pending in federal court to stop her execution. The federal appeal and the clemency petition are now put aside as the case returns to the trial judge in Brownsville.

It was not immediately known when the lower court would begin reviewing her case. Tivon Schardl, one of Lucios lawyers, said they hope to convince the trial judge to recommend that the appeals court grant her a new trial.

If the board had taken up her case and decided to recommend commutation of her sentence or a reprieve, that would have needed Abbott's approval. The governor has granted clemency to only one death row inmate since taking office in 2015. Abbott commuted a death sentence to life without parole for Thomas 'Bart' Whitaker, who was convicted of fatally shooting his mother and brother. Whitaker's father was also shot but survived and led the effort to spare his son's life.

The Innocence Project say that Lucio's lifelong history as a victim of sexual and domestic abuse made her particularly susceptible to confessing to things she never did

HOW FREQUENTLY ARE WOMEN EXECUTED?

Its rare in the U.S., according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions. Women have accounted for only 3.6% of the more than 16,000 confirmed executions in the U.S. dating back to the colonial period in the 1600s, according to the group's data.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 17 women have been executed throughout the nation, according to the data. Texas has put more women to death - six - than any other state. Oklahoma is next, with three, and Florida has executed two.

The federal government has executed one woman since 1976. Lisa Montgomery, of Kansas, received a lethal injection in January 2021 after the Trump administration resumed executions in the federal system following a 17-year hiatus. The Justice Department has halted executions again under the Biden administration.

Tivon Schardl, one of Lucio's attorneys, said that before theres a hearing to consider new evidence in the case, rulings will have to be made on two defense motions to recuse Garcia and Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz over allegations of conflict of interest and due process violations.

Lucios attorney at her 2008 trial is now a prosecutor in Saenzs office. Garcias court administrator is the wife of Lucios trial attorney, and also served as his paralegal.

'We hope that going forward reason and science will carry the day and Melissa will get a recommendation from the trial court joined by the state of Texas to get a new trial,' Schardl said.

No timetable has been set for when Garcia will begin reviewing Lucios case. But a final decision on whether she gets a new trial could be years away.

Melissa Lucio (pictured center) bows her head in prayer during a session with State Representative Jeff Leach in prison this month

State Reps. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, left to right, Brad Buckley, R-Killeen, and Jeff Leach, R-Plano, arrive for the Interim Study Committee on Criminal Justice Reform hearing about death row inmate Melissa Lucio at the Capitol. They are all calling for the execution to be stayed

It's expected to be a tough courtroom battle and even if they manage to get the trial judge on their side, the states top criminal court - which has the final say - might disagree and keep her conviction in place, legal experts said Tuesday.

'Winning a favorable recommendation is not a done deal. ...There is still a long way to go before this case is resolved,' said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Saenz said Monday he welcomed the opportunity to have a courtroom review of the case. He has previously expressed doubts about claims by Lucios defense attorneys that new evidence will exonerate her.

On Wednesday, a rally was planned outside the courthouse in Brownsville to ask that Saenz drop the case against Lucio.

'Shell never get another execution date. Shell be free. Its just a question of when,' said Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group thats helping organize Thursdays rally.

Stanley Schneider, a Houston defense attorney not connected to the case and who has defended death row inmates, said the appeals court ordered review shows that 'there are real questions that challenge the validity of the conviction.'

Letitia Quinones, a Houston defense attorney also not connected to the case, said Lucios lawyers still have a 'very difficult task' ahead of them as its rare to overturn a conviction in Texas.

'If (the evidence) exists in the fashion that her defense attorneys have spelled out ... she has a really good chance,' Quinones said.

But Dunham said the case of Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed is a good example of the difficulties that might be ahead for Lucio.

Reed got an execution stay and an appeals court ordered review of his case in November 2019 days before he was to be executed for the 1996 killing of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. Like in Lucios case Reeds supporters say new evidence has raised serious doubt about his guilt and he garnered support from celebrities and lawmakers.

But last year, a judge declined to recommend a new trial for Reed. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by Reed over his efforts to test evidence in his case.

'Like Lucio, Reed has extraordinarily strong evidence of innocence and yet the Bastrop County judge ignored it,' said Dunham, whose group takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.

In the case of Texas death row inmate Rigoberto Avila Jr., who alleged his conviction was based on false and outdated scientific evidence, a judge recommended a new trial, but the appeals court in March 2020 rejected the recommendation, Dunham said.
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Alec Baldwin badgered Santa Fe detectives to grill the crew of Rust about a box of 'missing' bullets and complained about losing out on work and having to tell his kids about how he accidentally killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

In the week after the accident, Baldwin phoned Detective Alexandra Hancock to ask if the sheriff had interviewed the film's armorer about the bullets, and to ask when a press conference was being held. Sheriff Adan Mendoza held a briefing on October 27 - six days after the accident.

He was frantic, begging the detective to 'indulge' him by asking about the box of bullets that he felt could explain how a live round ended up in his gun.

He also told the detective about having to tell his eight-year-old daughter Carmen about the tragedy, and how she 'cried' afterwards.

Baldwin said he'd been 'fired' from the rest of his projects for the year as a result of the accident.

'You know what's really tough for me, is I have six kids. We had to tell my older daughter yesterday what happened and she started to cry.

'She said "I'm going to go to school and everyone's going to make fun of me." My eight-year-old. Half the jobs I had lined up between now and the second half of the year they fired me.

'They didn't want me to come,' he said.

He told the sheriffs that on the day of shooting, a box of dummy bullets that had gone missing suddenly reappeared. After the accident involving Hutchins, the crew went back to the box and discovered live rounds had been mixed in with the dummy rounds, he said.

Baldwin was adamant that the sheriff's investigators should question Hannah Gutierrez, the armorer, about the box.

Baldwin and his wife Hilaria are shown yesterday near their New York City home with two of their six children

'[The box] reappeared. It materialized out of nowhere on top of a table in the truck, and she told me unequivocally that that box was the box the long colts were taken from to put into the gun. They went back to the box and there were multiple live rounds in the box. The point is, I have always maintained that this is an accident of negligence.

'But every time I hear a little piece like this, it sounds like there's a chance - I'm sure it's slim - I'm not looking for conspiracy that someone tampered with this,' he said.

You know what's really tough for me, is I have six kids. We had to tell my older daughter yesterday what happened and she started to cry. 'She said "I'm going to go to school and everyone's going to make fun of me." My eight-year-old. Half the jobs I had lined up between now and the second half of the year they fired me. They didn't want me to come,'

'I'd be dying to find out from Hannah - I don't want to abuse Hannah or make her feel bad about what's happened but what happened to that box of bullets?

'What date did it disappear? How long did it disappear for? When it came back, how did you find it?

When the box reappeared and you loaded the gun with bullets and I went and shot this woman, and then you went back to that same box of bullets and found multiple rounds mingled with dummies... I'd love to verify all of that with Hannah.'

The call lasted around 34 minutes and ended with Baldwin saying he'd be 'in touch' again.

'My gratitude to you for being so patient with me. People have said to me - who could have had something out for you?

'Who was anybody on the set who expressed to anybody some kind of malignantNever in a million of years did I assume someone could...I still believe it was an accident,' he said.

Another video showed him being told that Hutchins had died.

The footage was taken inside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office in New Mexico on October 21, 2021, after Baldwin's prop gun fired a live round during a rehearsal for a scene.

He had just finished telling cops that he didn't pull the trigger, and was therefore stunned when he saw what looked like a live round fire from his weapon and pierce through director Joel Souza's shoulder before striking Hutchins in the armpit.

'I have some unfortunate news. She didn't make it,' the investigator told him.

He shot back in his seat, saying: 'No!' before asking if he can be excused to phone his wife, Hilaria. Baldwin left the room with his head in his hands. Seconds later, he was photographed in the parking lot of the sheriff's office, wailing as he spoke to Hilaria.

The actor then went on to complain about having to tell his eight-year-old daughter about Hutchins' death.

He implored the detectives to speak with Gutierrez.

'I hope you know.... getting Hannah in your sights there and asking her to describe this box of colt... I'd love to hear all about that.

'Tracing the chain of title of that round that killed Halyna - what else matters but that?'

Video shows investigators telling the actor that Hutchins, 42, had succumbed to her injuries, with Baldwin instantly saying 'no' as he lurched back into his seat in shock. Baldwin, 64, is seen raising his hand to his mouth as he looks between the two investigators in stunned silence

Baldwin remains in the same position for 24 seconds before he puts his hand on his chest and then covers his face with his hands.

Baldwin sits in silence and with his hands raised to his face before he asked to call his wife Hilaria

'My gratitude to you for being so patient with me. People have said to me - who could have had something out for you?

'Who was anybody on the set who expressed to anybody some kind of malignant...never in a million of years did I assume someone could I still believe it was an accident...

Baldwin was rehearsing a scene for the movie Rust on October 21, 2021, when he pulled his gun from his costume. It fired and shot Hutchins, 42, in the armpit, fatally wounding her.

Baldwin was rehearsing a scene for the movie Rust on October 21, 2021, when he pulled his gun from his costume. It fired and shot Hutchins, 42, (pictured) in the armpit, fatally wounding her

The gun fired a live round which had been loaded into what Baldwin thought was an empty gun.

It comes after Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza on Tuesday suggested Baldwin may still face charges for accidentally killing Hutchins.

The Santa Fe Sheriff's Office this week released a trove of documents and videos from their investigation into the on-set accident.

More new footage has also emerged of Baldwin in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, with the actor telling police that he was 'the one holding the gun' and asking for a cigarette to calm himself down.

Video shows Baldwin sitting down outside the set smoking the cigarette that was handed to him. He then asks how Hutchins is doing before a police officer says that her status is 'questionable'.

It comes as Sheriff Mendoza said that Baldwin could still face charges because he was who was handling the weapon.

Appearing on Good Morning America on Tuesday, Sheriff Mendoza said 'He was the one that handled the weapon that fired the round that led to the fatality.

'We're going to work with the DA's office to determine if there is criminal neglect or criminal charges. We kind of know who didn't do their jobs here. That was one of the key questions.

Mendoza added that police are still waiting for forensics and ballistics reports into the shooting that happened more than six months ago.

'The key component is the analysis on the firearm and the FBI report. Once that's all corrected, [the DA] will make the determination of who's responsible, if anyone.'

Among the collection of material released by the Sheriff's department was footage of Baldwin being told that Hutchins had died from the gunshot wound.

'I have some very unfortunate news to tell you,' an investigator told Baldwin whilst they were sat at a table in the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office.

Baldwin quickly looks up from the table and asks: 'What?'

The investigator replied: 'She [Hutchins] didn't make it.' Baldwin quickly says 'no' before raising his hand to his face in shock.

The officer continued: 'Yes. So Joel's still at the hospital. But the other person involved didn't make it. Sorry. I didn't want you to hear it outside of here.'

Baldwin sits in silence and with his hands raised to his face before he asked to call his wife Hilaria.

Before the police interview, more footage emerged showing the actor seemingly on the phone to Hilaria.

The actor can be heard asking her to fly from their home in New York out to New Mexico to be with him.

'Can you hear me? Can you hear me? I'm at the police station. How is everyone at home? How are the kids?

'The kids are great,' she replies.

He asked her if she had told their daughter Carmen 'what was going on.'

'Are you convinced you don't want to come tomorrow?'

She replied: 'I don't think it's a good idea. Call me after you talk with the sheriff but I don't think it's a great idea.

He fired back: 'Just to be clear. They're going to make me stay here anyway.'

Then, bringing the phone to his ear, he said: 'I don't want to do this film anymore, I don't. I don't want to be a public person. I'm the one holding the gun in my hand that everyone was supposed to have taken care of.

'They always hand me a cold gun.'

He then seems to quiz his wife on her whereabouts, asking: 'Where are you now? Michelle who?

'And where are you? I'll call you back when I'm done, OK?'

During the 30 minute police interview, Baldwin told how he had always been handed a 'cold' weapon by the crew.

In new footage released by Sheriff's Office, Baldwin is seen drawing his gun in a rehearsal of the fatal Rust movie scene that saw him accidentally kill Hutchins.

The clip, filmed by the production's cameras, shows Baldwin in full costume sitting in a church pew, drawing his prop pistol from his waistcoat jacket.

Baldwin is seen minutes after being told Halyna had died, in the parking lot of the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office. He is on the phone to his wife Hilaria

Baldwin, buckled over in grief, after being told Halyna Hutchins had died as a result of the injuries he accidentally caused

New footage has emerged of Baldwin in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, with the actor telling police that he was 'the one holding the gun' and asking for a cigarette to calm himself down

Video shows Baldwin sitting down outside the set smoking the cigarette that was handed to him. He then asks how Hutchins is doing before a police officer says that her status is 'questionable'

Scattered, discarded tissues and gauze pads at the scene of the shooting on October 21

Bloody tissues and a script with a dirty foot print on it inside the church

Discarded medical materials inside the church after the fatal shooting

Crime scene photos show bloody gauze at the scene that was used by paramedics before Hutchins was taken away

Wearing a full beard of stubble, the actor looks sternly into the camera. He seems to be talking with Hutchins and director Joel Souza throughout, but there is no audio in the clip released on Monday.

The clip was filmed on October 21, hours before Baldwin's gun fired a live round, apparently spontaneously, as he drew it. It wounded Hutchins fatally.

No one has been criminally charged over the shooting but Baldwin is being sued by Hutchins family.

In another video released on Monday night, Hutchins is seen clinging to life while EMTs beg 'stay with us!'

The clip, filmed by the production's cameras, shows Baldwin in full costume sitting in a church pew, drawing his prop pistol from his waistcoat jacket.

Baldwin goes to draw his gun in the rehearsal of the movie scene on October 21 last year

Pictures taken by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office show the evidence left on the scene after paramedics departed

Data files released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's office included a video of investigators debriefing Baldwin within hours of the fatal shooting, talking with him inside a compact office

She appeared to be unconscious throughout, having been shot through her right armpit, with the bullet that struck her later emerging again through the top of her shoulder.

Not much can be heard other than encouragement for Hutchins and the paramedics barking instructions at one another.

In another video, the crew from Rust, including Baldwin, can be heard asking how Hutchins is doing.

Baldwin can be heard asking 'what's her story?' in reference to Hutchins and being told things are 'a little bit rougher.'

Someone can be heard asking if the condition is life-threatening and the response is: 'enough to get air-lifted.'

Dramatic police bodycam video shows medics battling to save Halyna Hutchins life after the Rust movie set shooting

At one point, Hutchins' top layer of clothing was taken off to help paramedics who were working to save her

Hutchins was also filmed being wheeled out of the church on a trolley while being given oxygen, before being put into a med-e-vac helicopter and airlifted away

One video showed him being approached by cops for the first time moments after the shooting, and being warned not to discuss what had happened with any colleagues before he'd been spoken to by cops.

Another clip showed Baldwin sitting on the back of a truck and asking for an update on Hutchins, only to be told by the cop that EMTs were still working on her.

A third set of footage showed him being grilled back at a police station afterwards.

The investigation files also include rehearsal clips that show Baldwin in costume as he practices a quick-draw maneuver with a gun.

The sheriff's office also released dozens of text messages and emails to and from Dave Halls, the assistant director of the movie, on Monday.

Those messages show how his friends and confidantes warned him that Baldwin's 'PR machine' was 'in overdrive' trying to blame him for the tragedy.

One message, written to Halls by a friend named Julie Burris, said: 'It looks as though everyone is going for their 15 minutes of fame and AB PR team is in overdrive trying to shift the blame away from himself on a worker bee who doesn't have the money or the power to refute any of it.

'I think you should thoroughly discuss this aspect with your attorney because the most important thing right now is to make sure there aren't any criminal charges brought against you - AND what the sheriff's office affadavit [sic] actually says.

'And then after the fact assess what person (s) and/or news outlets you can sue for libel/slander/defamation.'

Assistant Director Dave Halls gives fingerprints on October 21 after the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins

Assistant Director Dave Halls gives a DNA sample on October 21 after the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins

The first part of her message referred to claims of film industry insiders and people who previously worked with Halls that he flouted safety violations on other movie sets.

In another message that day, Burris told Halls: 'All of this says to me, in my opinion, is that the people with money and power are using you as a scapegoat knowing you can't afford to fight the press of legal bills and that they don't care about you at all.

'Notice I don't see much of AB in the press and haven't heard about any of the producing team. Not one thing.'

Halls is filmed giving investigators a swab of his DNA and his fingerprints in one of the interviews.

Of all of the people involved in the shooting, he has said the least in the six months since it happened.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the 24-year-old armorer, has repeatedly issued statements protesting her innocence. She said she was overworked on set.

In bodycam footage that emerged yesterday, she is seen telling police that she is worried her career is over as a result of the accident.

In her own police interview, she told the investigators: 'I check the guns and I load the guns and I hand the guns to the actor.'

'We went to set, we had the guns on set. I dummied the guns up with the dummy rounds. Nothing happened and then we came back from lunch and...'

In other interviews, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed told cops she is who 'loads the guns and hands them to the actors'

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said in a statement that the investigation by his agency remains open and ongoing as it awaits the results of ballistics and forensic analysis from the FBI as well as studies of fingerprint and DNA.

'The sheriff's office is releasing all files associated with our ongoing investigation,' he said in the statement. Those files also include photos of ammunition from the set and examination reports.

At a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on Oct. 21, 2021, Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when it went off, killing Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Souza. They had been inside a small church during setup for filming a scene.

In a video taken by police later that day, Baldwin makes a few frantic calls as he awaits a meeting with law enforcement officials.

'You have no idea how unbelievable this is and how strange this is,' he says over the phone.

New Mexico workplace safety regulators last week issued the maximum possible fine of nearly $137,000 against the 'Rust' film production company.

New Mexicos Occupational Health and Safety Bureau said Rust Movie Productions must pay $136,793, and distributed a scathing narrative of safety failures in violation of standard industry protocols, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires on set prior to the fatal shooting.

The bureau also documented gun safety complaints from crew members that went unheeded and said weapons specialists were not allowed to make decisions about additional safety training. Rust Movie Productions has indicated it will dispute the findings and sanction.

Baldwin said in a December interview with ABC News that he was on set pointing the gun at Hutchins at her instruction when it went off without his pulling the trigger.
Three suspects have been arrested, accused of kidnapping a three-month-old while his grandmother unloaded groceries, including a female 'family friend' who drove the woman and baby to run errands the same day.

Brandon Cuellar was snatched from an apartment in San Jose, California, Monday during the day. The baby was recovered unharmed and healthy on Tuesday, according to the San Jose Police Department

'Baby Brandon has been located,' the Department tweeted Tuesday, adding that he would be 'taken to a local hospital as a precaution but he has been located alive.' They did not elaborate on where the boy was found or his condition.

'A million thank yous to all who assisted.'

A suspect walked into a home in the 1000 block of Elm Street at around 1 p.m. Monday and left with the young boy. Police released video that shows the man walking down the sidewalk holding a baby carrier covered by a white blanket.

Yesenia Guadalupe Ramirez of San Jose, 43, was detained Monday as a 'person of interest' after her statement to police changed several times when they interviewed her. She was present when the child was taken.

San Jose Police spokesman Sgt. Christian Camarillo told reporters Tuesday that she was with Brandon's grandmother when an unknown man snatched the infant.

'This was a person who was with the grandmother yesterday when they went shopping, she was present at the apartment complex when this happened,' he said. 'There have been some inconsistencies with what she has told us. Obviously, drawing our attention to what she knows about this.'

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Jose Roman Portillo, 28 (left), Yesenia Guadalupe Ramirez, 43 (center) and Baldomeo Sandoval, 37 (right), were arrested in connection to the kidnapping of 3-month-old Brandon Cuellar from inside a San Jose apartment while his grandmother was unloading groceries from her car outside

Brandon Cuellar (pictured) was snatched around 1 pm on Monday from an apartment in San Jose - he was recovered about 20 hours later

The three-month-old was found on Tuesday, police announced

He was taken to a local hospital out of precaution

Then, police said, Baldomeo Sandoval of San Jose, 37, was identified as another person of interest and interviewed. Both Ramirez and Sandoval were arrested Monday.

The next day, the San Jose Police Department Covert Response Unit, MERGE Unit and Robbery Unit Detectives carried out a search warrant at the home of the third suspect, Jose Roman Portillo, 28, of San Jose.

There, they found Brandon, 20 hours after he was reported missing.

'This incident is a parents worst nightmare, and we are fortunate that we have the best department in the nation that helped bring forward a positive outcome. This case yet again highlights the dedication and commitment of our women and men who go above and beyond every day to keep our community safe,' said Chief of Police Anthony Mata.

In a news conference on Wednesday morning, Camarillo said that Ramirez was a family friend, and that the kidnappers' motives are still under investigation.

'There is a human component aspect to this incident,' he said, according to ABC7. 'Mom is very traumatized right now. She needs her space.'

The San Jose Police Department did not return DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Camarillo said the baby's mother was at work at the time and his father is in jail.

'Dad right now is out of the picture. He is incarcerated. I don't know, you know, whether that is going to play into this, but obviously we are going to talk to him soon,' Camarillo said Monday. It's unclear why the father is in jail.

One of the suspects walked into a home in the 1000 block of Elm Street at around 1 p.m. Monday and left with the young boy

Police released a video clip that shows the man walking down the sidewalk holding a baby carrier covered by a white blanket

Authorities did not issue an Amber Alert because investigators did not have a vehicle description.

In the early hours of the investigation, officers and FBI agents went door-to-door in the neighborhood to appeal for witnesses or information.
A whistleblower who was reportedly working with the feds investigating the activities of Deutsche and its ties with former President Donald Trump was found dead by cleaning crew on the campus of a Los Angeles high school.

Valentin Broeksmit, 45, was found deceased on Monday around 7:05 a.m. at Woodrow Wilson High School located in the 4500 block of Multnomah Street, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office, ABC10 News San Diego reported.

Los Angeles County Police Department Public Information Officer Alba Mendez told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that Broeksmit's death is being investigated as an 'undetermined death.'

An autopsy is reportedly pending to determine Broeksmit's cause of death.

Broeksmit was a film producer and self-described 'comically terrible spy' who had reportedly struggled with drugs.

Many people said that the elusive Broeksmit was last seen in April 2021, but was still active on Twitter where friends and those in the media were able to correspond with him, sources told ABC10 News.

Valentin Broeksmit, 45, (pictured here in 2006 at the movie premiere of 'The Gravedancers') was found dead by a maintenance person at Woodrow Wilson High School in Los Angeles

Broeksmit was called a whistleblower, who was was reportedly working with the feds, investigating the activities of Deutsche and its ties with former President Donald Trump. He is pictured in sunglasses and a hat in this undated photo

The mysterious Broeksmit is pictured in an undated photo leaning against a blue-colored jeep

New York Times reporter David Enrich said Broeksmit provided the FBI with bank documents when the agency was doing a probe of Deutsche Bank in 2019. Broeksmit was also subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee during its probe of Trump's ties to the bank, ABC10 News reported.

Scott Stedman, an investigative journalist with the website Forensic News, wrote on Twitter that the last time he had spoken with Broeksmit was in January.

'He supplied me and other journalists with Deutsche Bank documents that highlighted the bank's deep Russian connection.'

Stedman, who said he is waiting to find our more information about his colleague's death, added: 'I don't suspect foul play. Val struggled with drugs on and off.'



Broeksmit's stepfather, William, was an executive with Deutsche Bank who took his own life in 2014, ABC10 News reported.

Stedman told the news outlet that Broeksmit never got over his stepfather's passing, saying 'it consumed Val in recent years.'

He added: 'To see his life end so short is incredibly depressing.'

The Twitter post that Scott Stedman, an investigative journalist with Forensic News posted when he learned the tragic news of his friend

An exterior photo of Woodrow Wilson High School located at 4500 Multonomah Street in Los Angles where Broeksmit's body was discovered by a cleaning person. It is not clear what Broeksmit was doing at the school during the morning hours of April 25

When news broke out of his death, many of his peers were stunned.

'This is terrible news,' New York Times reporter David Enrich told RawStory.

Enrich said Broeksmit had been a 'longtime source' and the 'main character' in a book he was writing: Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump and an Epic Trail of Destruction.

Enrich recognized that Broeksmit had issues with drug use, and would sometimes bend the truth and often times come up with far-fetched theories, ABC 10 News reported.

'We had a complicated relationship, but this is just devastating to hear,' Enrich said.
Despite Adams saying getting more cops on the train is a priority, multiple subway platforms have been recently photographed without an officer in sight

'If there's a problem with cops using the phone on duty, NYPD management should change the police and go back to pen and paper,' he said.

PBA President Patrick J. Lynch shot back at the idea, saying that officers are forced to use cellphones issued by the NYPD to document official duties

Adams encouraged straphangers to send him photos of cops seen using their cell phones while on duty guarding the city's crime-ridden transport network

On Tuesday the leader of an NYPD union slammed Mayor Adams for encouraging fellow New Yorkers to snitch on NYPD officers using their phones on subway

The leader of the largest New York City police union is slamming Mayor Eric Adams for ordering straphangers to report officers seen using their cell phones - despite the fact that cops are ordered to use them while on duty.

On Tuesday, the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, President Patrick Lynch shot back at the idea, saying that officers are forced to use smartphones issued by the police department to document official duties.

'New York City police officers did not ask for NYPD-issued smartphones- we were ordered to carry and use them,' Lynch said in a statement.

'We are now required to document every minute of our tours on these phones. Every form we are required to fill out and every alert we receive comes through the phone.

'If there's a problem with cops using the phone on duty, NYPD management should change the police, and go back to pen and paper,' he said.

Adams made the plea to rat on cops at a press conference on Tuesday when asked by a journalist about reports of multiple uniformed cops scrolling through phones while guarding the city's crime-ridden transport network.

The former NYPD captain warned: 'We are going to start taking very aggressive actions to make sure police are patrolling our subway system and not patrolling their iPhone.'

NYC Mayor Eric Adams has encouraged straphangers to send him photos of cops seen using their cell phones while on duty guarding the city's crime-ridden transport network

PBA President Patrick J. Lynch shot back at the idea of sending pictures of cops on their cellphones, saying that officers are forced to use the smartphones issued by the NYPD to document official duties

Adams struck a different note in March 2022 when he slammed members of the public who got too close to officers when they were making arrests

The mayor said that if New Yorkers send him photos of officers on their phones, he will be at that district the next day to 'see exactly what's happening' - despite cops needing their phones for work

Images of NYPD cops using their phones while on duty have infuriated New Yorkers as the city battles an exponential rise in violent crime

'If there's a problem with cops using the phone on duty, NYPD management should change the police and go back to pen and paper,' PBA President Patrick Lynch said in a statement

'If you see it, send me a picture. I'll go to that district the next day and see exactly what is happening.

'Send me a shot. New Yorkers, you see that, send me a photo and I will be at that station.'

Adams' spokesman told anyone with photos to send them to his press office, whose email address is pressoffice@cityhall.nyc.gov.

Adams promised Tuesday that New Yorkers can look forward to a 'visible difference in policing in the next couple of weeks.'

He spoke a fortnight after a gunman shot five people on a Brooklyn subway train, with numerous other horrifying crimes raising fears for commuters' safety.

Deloitte manager Michelle Go, who was killed by a vagrant after being shoved off a subway platform at Times Square station and into the path of a moving train January.

Taking photos or videos of officers could come with limitations. In March 2022, the mayor slammed members of the public who got too close when recording officers.

He said at the time, 'Stop being on top of my police officers while they carry on their jobs; not acceptable and wont be tolerated. If your iPhone cant catch that picture at a safe distance then you need to upgrade your iPhone.'

Despite Adams' pledge to put more cops on trains, multiple subway platforms have been recently photographed without an officer in sight.

Despite Adams saying getting more cops on the train is a priority, multiple subway platforms, including Nassau Ave in Brooklyn, have been recently photographed without an officer in sight

No cops were seen on duty at the Graham Avenue subway station in Brooklyn on Wednesday

Adams previously announced plans earlier this year to boost the number of police officers on subway platforms and trains

Critics contend that focusing just on beefing up police isn't a solution to making the city safe, but more investment is needed in mental health programs and other social services

No officers are seen at the Myrtle-Wyckoff subway station in Brooklyn on Wednesday, just weeks after a gunman shot multiple people on a subway train at the 36th Street station

Adams already announced plans earlier this year to boost the number of police officers on subway platforms and trains, and to address crime generally.

He has brought back a controversial police anti-gun unit, called for help from the federal government cracking down on ghost guns and pushed for changes to New Yorks bail laws.

Critics contend that focusing just on beefing up police isn't a solution, but more investment is needed in mental health programs and other social services.

The former New York City police captain took office in January with a central focus on making the city feel safe and trying to return it to some sense of normalcy post-pandemic.

But the latest figures show felony assaults are up 21 percent than at the same time in 2021, robbery is up nearly 47 percent, rape is up nearly 15 percent, and the percentage of shooting victims is up eight percent, according to the latest statistics from the city's police department. Murders are down 13 percent.

Adams took office this year with a central focus on making the city feel safe, but violent crime rates have climbed since the pandemic, according to crime stats (pictured)

Frank James, the 62-year-old suspect in the Brooklyn shooting at the 36th Street station, spoke of his own mental health struggles in a series of YouTube videos

The mayor has been among Democrats who've pushed back on calls from liberals to cut police budgets and instead route resources to social services, and he has sought to bring back some controversial policing tactics, saying they can be employed as useful tools without a return to past abuses.

Since Adams took office Jan. 1, he's been speaking about policing and crime frequently, as the list of frightening incidents piled up quickly.

The city saw a rash of random shootings, the killing of two police officers and attacks that included a woman - Michelle Go - shoved to her death in front of a train by a stranger.

Frantic commuters were seen trying to run for the exits after a gunman opened fire at a Brooklyn subway station on Tuesday morning

It also includes the terrifying subway shooing earlier this month in which 10 people were shot on a system that serves as the arteries of New York.

After the subway shooting earlier this month, Adams, in a series of interviews, discussed plans to increase the number of police officers patrolling the subways and suggested metal detectors could be installed in stations - a decision that ultimately would rest with the transit authority, which falls under state control.

Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the nonprofit Riders Alliance representing New York City bus and subway passengers, said that despite a high-profile incident like the shooting, the subway is still the safest way to get around the city, with traffic accidents and pedestrians being struck by cars a far more likely problem.

Rather than explore metal detectors and other ways to scrutinize passengers, he said New York needs a better transit system overall that gets more people on board and provides safety with strength in numbers.

'By having transit that is faster and more reliable and gets to more places that people want to go is a way to boost ridership,' he said.

De Blasio praised Adams attempts to address both crime and perceptions of crime, and said public safety experts recommend the best way to make the city feel safe is 'more normalcy, more recovery from COVID.'

Getting people back on trains and back in the city is not just a reminder of New York's resiliency, but also an added layer of eyes and ears to compliment the police, the former mayor said.

'The overall reality is NYPD has actually done a very good job over the years of making the subway safer and safer,' he said. 'Police can do so much, but they cant do it alone. They need eyes and ears - and cooperation of the public.'
Cops then engaged in a standoff with the suspect for two hours, police say

Cops caught up with the suspect on 28th street, who then ditched the car and ran inside a convenience store a few miles away from the hotel

Roughly 30 minutes later, police say they received a report of an armed car jacking involving the suspect, who assaulted another man, who has since died

Three people were shot and killed at a hotel in Biloxi around 9 am Wednesday morning. Police say the suspect fled the scene to Gulfport

Five people are dead following a shooting at a Mississippi hotel Wednesday morning, including the suspected gunman who had a two-hour standoff with local police.

Cops said around 9am CT at a Broadway Inn Express in Biloxi, 32-year-old Jeremy Alesunder Reynolds shot and killed the hotel's owner and two staffers, after reportedly getting in an argument with the hotel keeper.

Cops identified the victims as 51-year-old Mohammad Moeini, the proprietor of the hotel; 61-year-old Laura Lehman, an employee who was staying at the hotel; and 55-year-old Chad Green, who also lived and worked there.

Reynolds then fled to the neighboring town of Gulfport - about 13 miles west of Biloxi - cops said, where he reportedly carjacked and assaulted another man roughly 30 minutes later, near Rio Grande Street.

The man, a public works staffer contracted by the City of Gulfport identified as 52-year-old William Waltman, was hospitalized and has since died, police said Wednesday afternoon.

After receiving a call about the carjacking, cops caught up with Reynolds shortly after, near Canal and 28th street, according to local police.

Cops said on Wednesday, at Broadway Inn Express in Biloxi, 32-year-old Jeremy Alesunder Reynolds shot and killed the hotel's owner

Cops say the shooting transpired around 9 am CT at a Broadway Inn Express in Biloxi, where the unidentified, now-deceased suspect shot and killed the hotel's owner, a staffer, and a guest. The victims have yet to be named

The suspect then fled the scene, reportedly carjacking and assaulting another man roughly 30 minutes after the attack on the hotel. The man was hospitalized and has since died, police say

He ditched the car and ran inside a nearby convenience store, cops say.

A standoff between the suspect and Gulfport police ensued, with cops blocking off the area as they attempted contact the suspected gunman.

Roughly two hours later, after he failed to respond, police deployed tear gas inside the store, Canal Grocery, and entered the establishment, to find the suspect dead.

Outlets initially reported that the suspect had taken a hostage inside the store during the standoff - reports that police told DailyMail.com were incorrect.

A cause of death for the suspected gunman was not immediately apparent, police said.

After the initial shooting, WLOX News spoke with the daughter of the deceased hotel owner, who said the shootout started after an argument about money between the suspect and her father.

Police are currently investigating the incident.

This is a developing story; please check back for more updates.
Military aircraft performing a flyover during a military parade held to celebrate the 90th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army (KPRA), at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, in this photo released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Tuesday. EPA-Yonhap



North Korean state television began broadcasting footage of a military parade on Tuesday, opening with shots of skydivers landing in Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung square, and army trucks lined up in the streets.



The official KCTV's famous anchor Ri Chun-hi announced the start of the program, which will show edited footage of a parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army.



Highly edited footage showed thousands of uniformed soldiers marching into the square, some in full battle dress and carrying their weapons as if entering combat.



"This is really a new presentation," Jeongmin Kim, the lead correspondent of Seoul-based specialist site NK News said in a live stream commentary on the parade broadcast on YouTube.



She said the state media footage combined video of the parade with what appeared to be pre-recorded segments.






Donald Trump shared fears that protesters could hurl 'dangerous' fruits like 'pineapples, tomatoes, bananas' at him in a sworn deposition released on Tuesday night.

'You can get killed with one of those things,' he said according to Insider.

The former president had to sit down for a videotaped session with lawyers in October as part of an ongoing court case where he's accused of ordering his security to attack protesters outside of Trump Tower in New York City in September 2015.

Demonstrators were gathered to oppose his 2016 presidential campaign after the then-Republican candidate made a speech claiming Mexicans were 'rapists' and 'bringing crime' into the U.S.

Trump denied ordering his security to violently break up the protest, and according to one excerpt obtained by Insider, he attempted to excuse previous inflammatory statements with concerns that some activist could hurl a piece of fruit his way.

'It's very dangerous stuff,' the former president said.

As part of the deposition Trump was being grilled on past statements that could be seen as inciting violence, such as a remark at a 2016 rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he offered to pay the legal fees of anyone who assaulted a person that tried to hurl a tomato his way.

The Trump Tower protesters' lawyer asked, 'And you said that "if you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them, would you." That was your statement?'

Former President Donald Trump said his Secret Service had gotten tipped off that a protester was looking to throw tomatoes at an Iowa rally in 2016

'Oh yeah...it was very dangerous,' the former president reportedly replied.

Asked to clarify, he said: 'We were threatened.

He explained they received a 'threat' that someone was 'going to throw fruit.'

Trump suggested they got a tip-off that such a protest could occur.

'I thought Secret Service was involved in that, actually. But we were told. And you get hit with fruit, it's -- no, it's very violent stuff. We were on alert for that,' he said.

The deposition reportedly got side-tracked by attorneys discussing whether a tomato constituted a fruit or a vegetable.

Even the former president's attorney chimed in, pointing out that they did have seeds as most fruits do.

Trump cut in, 'It's worse than tomato. It's other things also.'

'But tomato, when they start doing that stuff, it's very dangerous. There was an alert out that day.'

The ex-president told the plaintiffs' attorney that he was speaking to the audience 'in jest' when he offered the legal funding.

He added, 'But maybe, you know, a little truth to it. It's very dangerous stuff. You can get killed with those things.'

'So you were trying to incentivize people to engage in violence?' Dictor asked.

He spoke for more than four hours in a videotaped deposition for a lawsuit claiming he had his security violently disperse protesters in 2015

It occurred about a year before the two protests pictured in New York City here, months after Trump declared his 2016 candidacy for president

Trump's lawyer objected, but the former president answered anyway.

'No, I wanted to have people be ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit. And some fruit is a lot worse than -- tomatoes are bad, by the way. But it's very dangerous,' he said.

'I wanted them to watch. They were on alert. I remember that specific event because everybody was on alert. They were going to hit -- they were going to hit hard.'

Trump did admit that no tomatoes were thrown, nor did he know if anybody who attended that Iowa rally brought any with them.

He gave a meandering answer when asked if he expected his personal security to take on any activists who aimed fruit in his direction.

'Well, a tomato, a pineapple, a lot of other things they throw,' Trump said.

'Yeah, if the security saw that, I would say you have to  and it's not just me, it's other people in the audience get badly hurt. Yeah, I think that they have to be aggressive in stopping that from happening.'

He added that he could be 'killed' by such a projectile.

Trump confirmed that getting 'aggressive' meant the use of 'physical force.'

'To stop somebody from throwing pineapples, tomatoes, bananas, stuff like that, yeah, it's dangerous stuff,' he said.

Trump had not given a spoken deposition since before entering the White House in 2017.

The Republican leader is currently embroiled in a court battle trying to delay or quash a subpoena to appear in person before New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

James is investigating him and the Trump Organizations over allegations the real estate company knowingly misrepresented financial documents in order to obtain more favorable loans and deals.

He's expected to be deposed again on June 16, as part of a lawsuit accusing him and his two eldest children of promoting a multi-level marketing scheme during his years on NBC's The Apprentice.

Trump was also ordered to give a deposition by June 21 in a case brought by musician Eddy Grant, who is suing the former president for using Grant's hit 'Electric Avenue' in a video criticizing then-candidate Joe Biden in 2020.
A pensioner, alleged to have been murdered by a burglar who tied him to a chair, suffered a 'stress-induced' heart attack after his ankles and wrists were bound, a jury has heard.

The body of 78-year-old David Varlow was found by police 12 days after he was bound to a chair in his home in Manor Lane, Halesowen, West Midlands last year.

Birmingham Crown Court was told DNA evidence linked Adris Mohammed to a length of telephone flex and a pair of scissors found near Mr Varlow.

Prosecutors allege Mr Varlow was tied up and forced to reveal his bank card PIN by Mohammed during the second of three burglaries at the pensioner's home, in October and November last year.

Mohammed, from Icknield Port Road, Birmingham, denies murder, manslaughter, attempted burglary, and two counts each of fraud and burglary.

Adris Mohammed, 44, is accused of murdering David Varlow (pictured), 78, to reveal the PIN to his bank card before leaving him tied to a chair in his living room

The alleged incident took place on November 3, but police did not arrive on the scene in Halesowen, West Midlands, until November 15

Opening the Crown's case, prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith alleged 44-year-old Mohammed left Mr Varlow, who was 5ft 6in, tied up on November 3 and returned to untie his body on November 11-12.

Addressing jurors on Wednesday, Mr Grieves-Smith said Mr Varlow's body was found on the floor with his arms - which were not bound together - 'almost crossed' behind his back.

Showing the jury computer-generated images of Mr Varlow's body and his living room, the barrister told the court: 'Around his ankles were bands of injuries consistent with ligatures.

'There were binding marks to both wrists and ankles. Indeed there was evidence of two separate wrappings around the wrist and forearm area.

'The critical point, that led to his death, was his heart. There was evidence of heart disease sufficient to put him at risk of a heart attack.'

Describing the findings of a post-mortem examination by forensic pathologist Dr Alexander Kolar, Mr Grieves-Smith added: 'The evidence is that they (the bindings) were applied in life.

'What you will hear from Dr Kolar is that the bindings were removed a significant time after he had died.

'What he (Dr Kolar) calls a conventional blunt force assault can be excluded.'

Birmingham Crown Court (pictured) heard how Mr Mohammed's actions allegedly caused Mr Varlow to suffer a 'stress-induced' heart attack

The court heard Dr Kolar believed a 'stress-induced cardiac event' was a potential explanation for the death - and that Mr Varlow's arms being tied behind his back may have affected his ability to breathe.

Mr Grieves-Smith added: 'The prosecution suggest David Varlow was tied to a chair with a telephone flex.

'We say he was forced to reveal his PIN by fear and force. The death from a heart attack was a consequence of Adris Mohammed's actions.'

The Crown alleges Mohammed was accompanied by co-defendant O'Shay Swan, who is accused of burglary and fraud, when he returned to Manor Lane late on November 11 or early on November 12.

Mr Grieves-Smith said of Mohammed: 'He returned with Mr Swan on the 11th to the 12th not fearing that David Varlow would recognise him, because he knew he would be dead.

'All they found to steal was a bank card which was out of date.'

Jurors have been told Mohammed accepts going to Manor Lane on November 3 and 11-12 but denies entering the property or tying up the victim.

Swan, 42, of Winson Green Road, Birmingham, denies burgling Mr Varlow's property on a day between November 10 and 13 and committing fraud in relation to the use of a bank card on November 12.

The trial continues.
A teenage college student claims to have made 'backup plans' to keep on tracking billionaire and new big-tech CEO Elon Musk's private jet in the event that his Twitter page is deleted from the social media platform after the Tesla CEO's $44billion acquisition was announced this week.

University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney, 19, created the automated Twitter bot @ElonJet in 2020, using public Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data to track when Musk's $70 million Gulfstream private jet lands and takes off.

However, in the aftermath of his purchase of Twitter this week, questions remain over the approach that the SpaceX founder will take to tackle the issues of free speech and moderation, and Sweeney fears Musk won't allow him to keep his page alive.

'It's hard to think that he wouldn't do something,' Sweeney told Business Insider on Monday.

'Elon at the recent ted talk 'A top priority I would have is eliminating the spam and scam bots and the armies that are on Twitter' Would he include my bot and others that are of actual use or just spambots?,' he also tweeted that day.

Jack Sweeney, 19, has been tracking new Twitter CEO Elon Musk's private Gulfstream jet since 2020 by obtaining public Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data. He has created a Twitter automated page called @ElonJet to keep his followers updated with Musk's whereabouts

Sweeney's jet tracking account, @ElonJet, tweeted 21 hours ago that Musk's most recent travel destination was Austin, Texas. The billionaire travelled 41 minutes in the air from Brownsville, where he operates a SpaceX facility

In a series of Tweets shared on Monday, Sweeney voiced his fears that his jet tracking page, which has 427,500-followers, would be removed from Twitter after Musk officialized the social media platform's $44 billion purchase earlier in the same day

New Twitter CEO Elon Musk walks off his Gulfstream G650ER business jet, valued at $70million, in February 2022

Sweeney's concerns stem from the online conversation he had with his idol last year when Musk asked him to stop tracking his jet.

In November, the South African-Canadian-American tycoon reportedly contacted Sweeney and offered the coder $5,000 to delete his jet tracking account, claiming security concerns were the main reason for his reluctance to have his location shared publicly at all times.

However, Sweeney rejected the four-digit offer and instead made his own demands: a $50,000 pay-out, and an internship or a Tesla Model 3, according to screenshots of their conversation shared online at the time.

Now that Musk broke the bank to become Twitter's CEO by buying every single one of the company's stock at $54.20 per share, Sweeney said that he might just spike his offer.

'It would definitely have to be a pretty good deal now, because it's gone on for so long,' Sweeney added. 'Definitely a Tesla, fully paid for and everything.'

If his increased counter offer is rejected, then Sweeney will have to rely on his Telegram, Facebook and other social media accounts to keep on tracking Musk - if he's kicked off Twitter.

Sweeney's concerns that his popular @ElonJet page might be removed are based on an online conversation he had with Musk in November 2021. The Tesla CEO asked the teen to take the account down as it poses as a 'security risk' for him and even offered him $5,000 to do it. The University of Central Florida student, however, countered Musk's offer and asked for $50k, an internship at Tesla or a brand new Tesla model 3

In 2016 Elon Musk purchased a $66.5 million Gulfstream G650ER, (model pictured) a favorite aircraft among the one percent - including Cristiano Ronaldo and Jeff Bezos

The Gulfstream G650ER jets (model pictured) feature fold up tables stowed at the side of the plane can be combined to form a large dining room table to feed any guest on board

The jet (model pictured) also features a spacious laboratory and four large living room spaces featuring cream-colored leather seats and wood furniture

The teen has also constantly faced online backlash for sharing Musk's travels. He once revealed how he received a flurry of 'really abusive' messages from Musk's fans questioning the morality of his page's activity since its creation two years ago.

'There are some on Twitter who don't like what I am doing,' Sweeney once told The Independent. 'I get rude direct messages, but the really bad ones I report and the accounts are eventually taken down.'

Musk, who proclaims to be a free speech advocate, released a statement on Monday saying that would like his 'worst critics' to remain on Twitter, providing hope to Sweeney that his 427,500-followers account will remain active in the long run.

'I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,' Musk wrote.

Sweeney shared a tweet in response to the billionaire, saying: 'His recent tweet seems to make it seem id stay, but if he considers @ElonJet a security risk rather than a critic then I'm probably gone.'

After Monday's big announcement, Musk shared on Twitter that he hoped that even his 'worst critics' remain on the social media platform, 'because that is what free speech means.' Many wonder how the billionaire will tackle moderation after the takeover

Musk's tweet gave Sweeney hope that he could continue to track the SpaceX founder's travel activity, but also said that 'if he considers @ElonJet a security risk rather than a critic then I'm probably gone'

Later, after the purchase was officially announced, Musk shared his vision of what there is to come through a company statement: 'Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.'

He also plan to improve Twitter by adding subscription deals, adding new features such as the 'edit' button, sharing more transparency on the platform's algorithms and removing spam bots.
Katie Price risked being in contempt of court today by filming inside a magistrate's court building and posting it on Instagram.

The 43-year-old former glamour model appeared at Crawley Magistrate's Court on Wednesday where she denied breaching a restraining order against her ex-husband's fiancee over a message in which she accused the pair of having an affair.

During her brief appearance, she filmed a five second video from inside the court building showing photographers outside, and posted it to her Instagram story for her 2.7million followers.

However, filming inside court and publishing such a video is illegal under section 41 of the Criminal Justice Act and could be regarded as contempt if it amounts to an interference with the administration of justice.

Punishment for contempt is at the judge's discretion but could result in fines up to 1,000 or a prison sentence.

A wrapped-up Katie Price leaves Crawley Magistrates Court after she denied breaching a restraining order against her ex-husband's fiancee

During her brief appearance at court, Price filmed a five second video from inside the court building showing dozens of photographers outside, and posted it to her Instagram story for her 2.7million followers

However, filming inside court and publishing such a video is illegal under section 41 of the Criminal Justice Act

Price (pictured in a follow up video also posted to her Instagram story) was at Crawley Magistrates Court on Wednesday

The law against filming in court buildings Parliament banned photography in courts in 1925 and case law meant the ban was extended to include filming in courts. Section 41 of the Criminal Justice Act 1925 makes it illegal to: take or try to take a photograph or film

make or try to make a portrait or sketch of a person in court, its building or within its precincts, or any person entering or leaving a court building

publish such a photo, film, portrait or sketch Section applies to all criminal and civil courts, as well as inquests. Breaches of section 41 can lead to fines of up to 1,000. A court may deem photography or filming in court to be a contempt of court in common law. The punishment for contempt is at the judge's discretion but could include a fine or prison sentence. Advertisement

In the video, Price could be heard saying 'that is my life today', referring to the dozens of photographers positioned outside who had taken pictures of her arriving at court.

The former glamour model is said to have sent Kieran Hayler a message on January 21 this year in which she branded his new partner, Michelle Penticost, a 'c***ing whore' and a 'gutter slag'.

Price, who was known professionally as Jordan, was banned from contacting Penticost directly or indirectly on June 3 2019, under the terms of a five-year restraining order.

She was fined hundreds of pounds for hurling a foul-mouthed 'tirade of abuse' at her during a row in a school playground.

Price, wearing white trainers, a green tracksuit and a black gilet, appeared at Crawley Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, accused of contacting Penticost indirectly in breach of the restraining order.

She was supported by her reality TV star fiance Carl Woods, 33, who sat in the public gallery.

The court heard that her message to Hayler may have been triggered by an Instagram post by Penticost, which she denies was aimed at Price.

Price's message read: 'Tell your c***ing whore, piece of shit, girlfriend not to start on me.

'She has a restraining order so shouldn't try antagonise me as she is in breach and I'm sure she doesn't want people knowing that she was having an affair with you behind my back. That gutter slag.'

Price, who became a household name around the turn of the millennium, stood in the dock to confirm her name, address and date of birth, before pleading not guilty to the single charge, which can be tried in either the magistrates' court or the Crown Court.

Joe Harrington, defending, said: 'The issues relate to her mental health and the triggers which led to sending that message.'

Asked where she wanted the trial to be heard, Price said: 'The Crown Court please.'

District Judge Amanda Kelly said the offence carries a maximum sentence of up to five years' imprisonment and warned Price: 'You are in really grave danger of going to prison.'

She said: 'This is a very serious allegation in which it is alleged you used indirectly vile and nasty language towards Ms Penticost, someone you were prohibited from contacting directly or indirectly by a restraining order.'

Katie arrived by car and was wearing reflective sunglasses and a KP equestrian branded coat

The OnlyFans model, 43, was also donning some unusual-looking reflective sunglasses

Her partner Carl Woods was in court supporting Price as she made her appearance today

The judge granted Price bail ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing on May 25 at Lewes Crown Court on condition she does not contact Ms Penticost either directly or indirectly, except for handing over children.

'It seems to me, Ms Price, that all of the children caught up in your relationships past and present need their adults to behave like adults,' the judge said.

'Stop exposing them to very public squabbles.'

Price avoided jail in December when she was handed a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, as well as a two-year driving ban after admitting drink-driving while disqualified in December.

She also tested positive for cocaine after she rolled her BMW near her home in Horsham.

Kieran and Michelle, who Katie is banned from contacting directly or indirectly under law

Last month, fiance Mr Woods issued a public denial on Instagram over abuse claims, saying he 'didn't lay a finger' on Price and said he had 'black and white proof' to clear his name after he was charged with using threatening and abusive behaviour towards her in an incident at their house in Essex.

Mr Woods is Price's first serious major relationship since her split from Mr Hayler in 2019.

They were together for seven years, marrying in 2013 in the Bahamas, but their romance was marred by Mr Hayler's two flings with two of Price's close pals.

She was previously married to Peter Andre, father of her two children Junior, 16, and Princess, 14, for four years, before her ill-fated marriage to husband number two Alex Reid, which lasted just 11 months.
Boeing should have refused President Donald Trump's terms for building two new Air Force One planes, the company's chief executive said on Wednesday.

Dave Calhoun discussed the issue on a call with analysts after the aircraft manufacturer announced that it had lost $660 million in the project to convert two 747 airliners into flying White Houses.

The deal involved a fixed price of $3.9 billion, leaving Boeing to foot the bill as costs spiraled.

'Air Force One I'm just going to call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation, a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably should not have taken,' Calhoun said, 'but we are where we are, and we're going to deliver great airplanes.'

The model of the new Air Force One design - with its red, white and blue livery - was displayed in President Donald Trump's Oval Office, seen here during the visit of Justin Trudeau

Boeing chief executive Dave Calhoun on Wednesday said his company should not have accepted then President Donald Trump's terms for building two new Air Force Ones

Air Force One is the call sign given to any plane operated by the U.S. Air Force when the president is aboard. Barack Obama is seen here arriving in Columbus, Ohio, in 2009

Air Force One's current livery originated in the 1960s and the two 747s currently used as Air Force One date back to the 1990s

Trump took a close interest in plans for the new presidential airliners. He was involved in contract negotiations as well as choosing the color scheme, and a model of the new design took pride of place in the Oval Office.

Modifications involve kitting out two 747-8 airliners with sleeping quarters and conference rooms, as well as the secure communications links that allow the president to conduct business at 40,000ft.

The work is taking place in San Antonio, Texas.

Soon after taking office, Trump publicly criticized 'out of control' costs of Boeing's then deal to build a new presidential plane.

'Cancel order,' he tweeted.

The result was that Dennis Muilenburg, then Boeing CEO, personally negotiated terms with the president at the White House and at Trump's Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago.

President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Bloomer disembark from the plane in Austria

History of Air Force One In 1943, officials became concerned about the president traveling on commercial airlines. A C-54 Skymaster was converted for presidential use, carrying Franklin D. Roosevelt to Yalta in 1945 before it was used by Harry Truman. The call sign was created in 1953 after a Lockheed Constellation, named Columbine II, was almost destroyed. Dwight Eisenhower was on board when air traffic controllers confused flight numbers of Eastern Airlines flight 8610 and the presidential craft, which at the time was called Air Force 8610. Officials thought it was wise to use the name 'Air Force One' to prevent an event like that happening in the future The first Lockheed Constellation was replaced by another, Columbine III, and then two Boeing 707s from the 1960s. Since 1990, two customized Boeing 747-200Bs have served in the presidential fleet. Advertisement

Trump trumpeted the fixed-price agreement in 2018.

'Boeing gave us a good deal,' he said. 'And we were able to take that.'

Boeing also spoke favorably about the deal at the time.

'Boeing is proud to build the next generation of Air Force One, providing American presidents with a flying White House at outstanding value to taxpayers,' the company tweeted.

'President Trump negotiated a good deal on behalf of the American people.'

But last year Boeing sued a subcontractor that it blamed for delays.

And on Wednesday, Boeing officials said the pandemic and supply-chain issues have also slowed the work.

It is unclear what the planes will look like. Mr Trump took a keen interest in the planes and even promoted his own paint job which is still displayed on Boeing's website.

However, many purists have called for keeping the current livery, which dates to the time of President John F Kennedy. Air Force officials said last autumn that no decision had been made.

Boeing promised to deliver the planes by December 2024.

Calhoun said he did not want any more fixed-price contracts.

Since the 1940s, seven different plane types have been specifically designed to carry the American president.

The current Boeing 747s used as Air Force One - a distinction only used when the president is flying - date back to the 1990s.
A French policeman was tonight charged with murder after he shot a car driver dead on one of the most famous bridges in Paris on the night Emmanuel Macron was re-elected as president.

The 24-year-old officer, who has not been named, also faces a criminal trial for wilful violence against two passengers in the Volkswagen Polo, one of whom also died from gunfire on the Pont Neuf.

He has admitted opening fire with a high-powered Heckler& Koch assault rifle after the driver failed to stop for a police patrol late on Sunday night.

Neither of the deceased victims have been named, but the driver was 25 and the dead passenger 31.

Both men, who were from Northern Paris, were declared dead on the spot after being riddled with bullets by the officer.

The Volkswagens rear passenger was aged 42, and was wounded in an arm before making a good recovery.

Police investigate the site of a shooting where two people were shot dead by police in Paris on Sunday night

Paris prosecutors indicted the officer for voluntary homicide in connection with the driver of the car, an investigating source said on Wednesday.

He is also charged with wilful violence against the two other men, aggravated by his position as someone holding public authority.

The police officer has been in custody since Monday, and was not granted bail following the charges.

The four other members of the police patrol  a woman and three men  have since been interviewed at length.

It is thought that the car was travelling away from the officers when the driver was shot dead, and the car swerved on to the pavement.

The front-seat passenger was seen getting out of the car and running away, before he too was killed on the bridge.

Police claimed at least two of the victim were involved in the Paris drugs trade.

The vehicle was driving against traffic on the Pont Neuf in Paris on Sunday night, and was trying to hit the officers, who then opened fire, according to a police source

A spokesman for the IGPN  the French police unit that investigates alleged crimes carried out by police  confirmed the charges.

A parallel enquiry has been opened into the attempted killing of public officials.

The bloodbath happened at around midnight on Sunday, soon after the re-election of French president Emmanuel Macron.

Crowds were in the Pont Neuf area, some of them on the way back from Mr Macrons victory speech by the Eiffel Tower.

The Pont Neuf dates back to 1578 and is always full of tourists, including many from Britain.
A man shot dead after he lunged at officers with a knife during a violent confrontation on Sydney's northern beaches was previously known to police.

Police were called to a home on Belinda Place, Newport shortly before 2am on Thursday following reports of a domestic dispute, believed to be between the man and his elderly parents.

Officers tried to speak with a 39-year-old man, who lunged at officers with a knife.

Two officers were forced to use their firearms and shoot the man during the confrontation.

Forensic officers remain at the Newport home on Thursday morning, where a man was shot dead by police

The man suffered critical injuries and died at the scene, despite desperate attempts by officers who performed CPR to try to revive him.

The home remains a crime scene on Thursday morning, where forensic officers are currently scouring the property.

A neighbour told Daily Mail Australia he was woken by repeated shots of 'short rapid response fire' from the middle of the street around 2am.

The man shot dead by police is believed to have been in a dispute with his elderly parents.

The neighbour rushed to check on his wife and children before dialling triple-0 and was told police were already in attendance at Belinda Place.

The man then had too much adrenalin going to go back to bed.

'It was definitely a hand gun,' he said.

'I was too alarmed to go back to sleep.

'It's a very quiet street normally, like a country town.'

A critical incident team has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident, which will also be subject to independent review.

Police were called to Belinda Place in Newport shortly before 2am on Thursday morning

Police say the domestic dispute involved the man and his parents, who weren't harmed in the incident.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker said the man was previously known to police and had mental health issues.

'This is a traumatic situation for everybody involved and also for the police involved,' she told reporters.

'I have spoken to those police officers this morning, and we have all the appropriate welfare support in place for those police following these circumstances.'

The man's family is assisting police with inquiries.

'Naturally we are ensuring that appropriate support is in place for those family members as well,' Assistant Commissioner McCusker said.

The incident unfolded on a street of multi-million dollar houses in the elite suburb, with one Belinda Place residence selling for $3.4m last year.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

A man was shot dead by police in the beachside suburb after he lunged at officers

It's been a horror night in Sydney with a notorious underworld figure also shot dead weeks after he was released from prison.

Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad, known as the 'Mr Big' of Sydney's crime world was shot outside a Greenacre home in the city's south-west on Wednesday night.

The gunman remains on the run.

Ahmad was recently released from jail after served five years for the manslaughter of another underworld figure at a Sydney scrap yard in 2016.
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The Ukraine war could last as long as ten years, Liz Truss believes, as she tells Western allies that Vladimir Putin's Russia is even less trustworthy than the former Soviet Union.

The Foreign Secretary said the Russian leader is a 'desperate rogue operator' who should not be rewarded for his aggression.

Government officials are concerned Putin could launch attacks on Moldova or Georgia if he is allowed to keep hold of Ukrainian territory, dragging the conflict on for years to come.

In a major foreign policy speech last night, Miss Truss warned if he 'succeeds there will be untold further misery across Europe and terrible consequences across the globe'.

She said Britain and its allies must 'keep going further and faster to push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine'.

And in an indication that the battle over Ukraine could drag on, she argued 'we must be prepared for the long haul'.

The shocking prediction came as the human cost of war was underlined by a heartbreaking triple funeral in Ukraine which showed the true human cost of the savagery that Russia's leader has unleashed on his neighbour.

Yuri Glodan was wrecked with the pain of loss and disbelief when he was forced to bury his beloved three-month-old daughter Kira, his wife Valeria and his mother-in-law Lyudmila after they were killed in a Russian rocket strike on their apartment building on Saturday.

Liz Truss warned Vladimir Putin must be completely driven out of Ukraine else he will seek to invade more European nations

The Foreign Secretary said the Russian leader is a 'desperate rogue operator' who should not be rewarded for his aggression

Valeria and her three-month-old daughter Kira were killed when a Russian rocket hit their residential building in Odesa

Yuri Glodan, 30, breaks down by his three month old daughter's coffin at a burial service held at the Avangard Cemetery, Odesa

It is understood ministers are concerned Putin could resort to using short range nuclear missiles or chemical weapons as he becomes increasingly desperate.

Miss Truss is firmly making the case behind closed doors that Russia should not be given any Ukrainian territory in any peace talks.

She argued the crisis in Ukraine must be the catalyst for an overhaul to the West's approach to international security.

In his latest chilling threat to the West, Putin vowed to use nuclear weapons against any country that dares to 'interfere' with Russia's war in Ukraine.

The despot, addressing legislators in St Petersburg, said his response to anyone who 'threatens' Russia will be 'lightning-fast' and deadly.

'If someone intends to interfere in what is going on from the outside they must know that constitutes an unacceptable strategic threat to Russia. They must know that our response to counter strikes will be lightning fast. Fast,' he said.

'We have all the weapons we need for this. No one else can brag about these weapons, and we won't brag about them. But we will use them.'

Though Putin did not mention nuclear weapons directly, he was almost certainly referring to Russia's new Sarmat 2 nuclear missile which was tested for the first time just days ago and that he boasted is unlike any other weapon in the world.

The dire threats came as Moscow claimed to have carried out a missile strike in southern Ukraine to destroy a 'large batch' of Western-supplied weapons.

Miss Truss said the UK needed to strengthen its military while building alliances with free nations around the world, using their economic power to deter aggressors who 'do not play by the rules'.

She said the G7 group of leading industrialised nations should act as an 'economic Nato' defending collective prosperity, while the Western military alliance must be prepared to open its doors to countries such as Finland and Sweden.

Yuri Godan with his 3 month daughter Kira, in Odesa, Ukraine.His wife Valeriya and their 3 month daughter Kira died when the Russian missile hit their apartment building

The burial service of Yuri Glodan's family held at the Avangard Cemetery in Odesa.Yuri's wife Valeria, 28, three month old daughter Kira and mother in law, Lyudmila Yavkina they were all killed when a Russian missile hit their apartment building last Saturday

Yuri Golden, 30, stands with his mother Nina Glodan, 50 and sister Anastacia, 21, at the funeral service of his family in Odesa

Friends console Yuri Glodan at the funeral service of family in Odesa on Wednesday following the deaths of his daughter, wife and mother-in-law

Speaking at the Mansion House in the City of London, Miss Truss singled out China, which has refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine, while increasing imports from Russia and commenting on 'who should or shouldn't be a Nato member'.

'China is not impervious. They will not continue to rise if they do not play by the rules,' she said.

'China needs trade with the G7. We represent around half of the global economy. And we have choices.

'We have shown with Russia the kind of choices that we're prepared to make when international rules are violated.' Miss Truss said the international architecture intended to guarantee peace and prosperity had failed Ukraine in the face of an attack by a 'desperate rogue operator', in the shape of Putin, with no interest in international norms.

'Russia is able to block any effective action in the UN Security Council. Putin sees his veto as a green light to barbarism,' she said.

In the short term, she said Western allies must 'double down' on support for the government in Kyiv, providing the heavy weaponry it needs 'to push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine'.

At the same time, she said the events of the past months must be 'a catalyst for wider change'.

'Now we need a new approach, one that melds hard security and economic security, one that builds stronger global alliances and where free nations are more assertive and self-confident, one that recognises geopolitics is back,' she said.

At home, she said that should mean an increase in defence spending with the Nato minimum of two per cent of national income a 'floor not a ceiling'.

The European Union warned Russia on Wednesday it would not bend to 'blackmail' over its support for Kyiv, after the Kremlin cut off gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland.

The warning came as UN chief Antonio Guterres arrived in Kyiv to meet president Zelensky following talks with Putin in Moscow to expand humanitarian support and secure civilian evacuations.

As the war, which has already claimed thousands of lives, entered its third month, Kyiv conceded that Russian forces had made gains in the east.

Russia's military offensive saw it capture a string of villages in the Donbas region, now the immediate target of its invasion force.

And in its economic standoff with the West, Moscow cut off gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland, two EU and NATO members backing Ukraine in the conflict.

However later Wednesday in Brussels, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said Poland and Bulgaria are now receiving gas from their EU neighbours.

She described the announcement by Russia's state energy giant Gazprom as 'another provocation from the Kremlin' that would be countered.

'It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us... Our response will be immediate, united and coordinated.

'Both Poland and Bulgaria are now receiving gas from their EU neighbours,' she said. 'The era of Russian fossil fuels in Europe will come to an end.'

A firefighter works extinguishing a fire on a civilian area following a rocket hit in Velyka Danylivka neighborhood, Kharkiv

A house destroyed by shelling is seen in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, on April 27, 2022, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Olexandr Chernenko, 54, shows his neighbour's destroyed house, who according to him was killed by shrapnel, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Lukashivka, Chernihiv region, Ukraine

Putin did not mention nukes directly, but spoke of weapons that 'no one else can brag about' - almost certainly a reference to the Sarmat 2 nuke Russia tested last week

EU officials said energy ministers from across the bloc will meet on Monday to discuss the situation.

European powers have imposed massive sanctions on Russia since Putin's decision to invade his neighbour, while shipping weapons to Ukraine's defenders.

But they have moved slowly on hitting Moscow's vast gas exports, with many EU members - notably industrial giant Germany - reliant on Russian energy to keep their lights on.

Putin has attempted to turn up the pressure by insisting that Russia will only accept payments for gas in rubles - hoping to force his foes to prop up his currency.

Gazprom announced the halt of gas to both Poland and highly dependent Bulgaria, saying it had not received payment in rubles from the two EU members.

But von der Leyen said that 'about 97 percent' of all EU contracts explicitly stipulate payments in euros or dollars - and warned importing firms off paying in rubles.

'This would be a breach of the sanctions,' she told reporters.

The European Commission on Wednesday sought to lend Kyiv economic support by proposing a suspension of import duties on Ukrainian goods, but the idea still needs to be approved in a vote by the bloc's 27 members.

The agony of the father who lost his entire family in 'Putin's Easter massacre': JAMES FRANEY witnesses a heartbreaking scene as devastated dad bids farewell to his wife, baby daughter and mother-in-law killed in Odesa apartment block attack

By James Franey and Mark Large for the Daily Mail

The moment he had to bid his final farewell  before the three coffins were borne away by pall bearers to the newly dug grave  was when Yuri Glodan at last gave himself up to an all-consuming grief.

His face racked with the pain of loss and of disbelief that on this sunny spring morning such a nightmare should be unfolding, he flung himself on each casket sobbing.

First that of his mother-in-law Lyudmila, then his wife Valerias  and finally the tiny, amber casket containing Kira, his beloved three-month-old daughter, with the smiling blue eyes shed inherited from her mother.

Clutching one of her favourite soft toys, Yuri asked over and over why this had to happen to them, to his precious little family killed when two Russian cruise missiles had slammed into the third and fourth floors of their apartment block at 2.30pm last Saturday afternoon.

Eight people died in what has been described as Putins Easter massacre.

Eight people died in what has been described as Putins Easter massacre, including the three month old daughter Yuri Glodan

The burial service of Yuri Glodan's family held at the Avangard Cemetery in Odesa.Yuri's wife Valeria, 28, three month old daughter Kira and mother in law, Lyudmila Yavkina they were all killed when a Russian missile hit their apartment building last Saturday

It had been such a happy day as Yuri, Valeria and Lyudmila prepared to mark Kiras first Orthodox Christian Easter Sunday, a reason to celebrate amid the gruelling misery of these past weeks of war.

A chef and talented baker, Yuri had been working 13-hour shifts making Easter cakes for others. Now it was time for his own loved ones. Hed just slipped out to the supermarket for more provisions when the missiles struck. At that instant, everything was taken from him and three generations of a family were obliterated.

The funeral yesterday was always going to be an ordeal, but the 30-yea-old had displayed incredible composure and dignity throughout the hour-long service at the magnificent Transfiguration Cathedral on Odesas central Soborna Square.

Despite the harsh wail of air raid sirens earlier, Odesa had gathered to pay its respects, the crowd watching in sombre silence as at 11am, two white hearses arrived. The only sound was birdsong  and the constant whirr of cameras from the assembled media.

Sixteen men, dressed in black, approached the hearses and opened the doors.

Three of them lined up facing the cathedral, holding before them Yuris favourite photographs of the women he loved. Another three carried wooden crosses etched with the names, birth dates  and that fatal day of April 23, 2022 when he lost them.

Yuri's wife Valeria, 28, pictured, his three month old daughter Kira and mother in law, Lyudmila Yavkina were all killed when a Russian missile hit their apartment building last Saturday

Then the coffins: four pall bearers each for Valeria and her mother  but just two for the little Kira. Ashen-faced, the pall bearers struggled to contain their emotions as they moved towards the ornate main doors of the cathedral. Behind them came Yuri, dressed in a navy-blue suit and tie, accompanied by his mother Nina, sister Anastasia, and his father, also Yuri.

Inside, were around 100 mourners  family, friends, and neighbours  many of them distressed. One young woman wept uncontrollably throughout the service. Orthodox tradition is that the coffins of the dead usually remain open.

But the injuries to Lyudmila, Valeria and Kira made this impossible. Yuri held his mothers hand as the mourners lined up to offer their condolences and place flowers in a steel basket next to the coffins. He described Valeria as perfect. She was a gift from God.

The outpouring of sympathy and love must help, but one wonders what comfort mere words can provide given the scale of Yuris loss.

He and Valeria were only starting out, Kira the first child of the family they planned to build together.

As the opening prayers began Anastasia, Yuris 21-year-old sister, tried to stem the tears streaming down her cheeks.

We are honouring the memory of a mother and daughter who tried to protect their child, Alexander Malichenko, the cathedrals archpriest said. We always need to remember that God is above us. He will punish those who committed these crimes.

These people, especially this child... he says, gesturing to Kiras tiny coffin, they will be forever in heaven as heroes. Yuris gaze never left the coffins throughout the service which concluded with mourners lining up to cover them in red carnations.

A Russian missile strike on an apartment building in a residential area of Odesa. Yuri had just slipped out to the supermarket when three generations of a family were obliterated

Then, as the congregation poured back out on to Soborna Square, with Yuri calmly walking behind the caskets, two explosions echoed from faraway, a reminder that, even if they pray to God, Ukrainians are never far away from the threat of war.

For the short, final journey to the cemetery Yuri Glodan travelled in the hearse carrying his wife and daughter, perhaps lost in memories of happier times.

He had fallen head over heels for the former journalism student when they met at a party in 2013. Friends say he loved her infectious laugh, her positive outlook, and trademark bright floral dresses. The shared a passion for travel, photography, good food and fine wines and had a joyful wedding in August 2019. Just one week before her death, Yuri hosted a barbecue at their home to mark his wifes 28th birthday. She celebrated with her two best friends, Alyona Syritka and Alexandra Ilyashenko.

Now, the young women were standing in front of her grave.

The eulogies they had written were read out by one of the funeral directors. Alexandra described a beautiful soul who had been stolen away from her.

Alyona wrote of dear Lera who discovered the secret of life after the birth of her baby girl, of how Valeria and Lyudmila were beside themselves with happiness when the little angel Kira appeared.And then the flower strewn coffins of grandmother, mother and baby were lowered into the ground.

Just one tragedy, among tens of thousands of stories of heartbreak and loss in Ukraine since Russias invasion began, but the brutal end to Kiras short life has touched millions across the world.
The moment he had to bid his final farewell  before the three coffins were borne away by pall bearers to the newly dug grave  was when Yuri Glodan at last gave himself up to an all-consuming grief.

His face racked with the pain of loss and of disbelief that on this sunny spring morning such a nightmare should be unfolding, he flung himself on each casket sobbing.

First that of his mother-in-law Lyudmila, then his wife Valeria's  and finally the tiny, amber casket containing Kira, his beloved three-month-old daughter, with the smiling blue eyes she'd inherited from her mother.

Clutching one of her favourite soft toys, Yuri asked over and over why this had to happen to them, to his precious little family killed when two Russian cruise missiles had slammed into the third and fourth floors of their apartment block at 2.30pm last Saturday afternoon.

Eight people died in what has been described as Putin's Easter massacre.

Yuri Glodan at the funeral of his wife, daughter and mother-in-law

Heartbreaking image shows Yuri at graves of his three lost loved ones

It had been such a happy day as Yuri, Valeria and Lyudmila prepared to mark Kira's first Orthodox Christian Easter Sunday, a reason to celebrate amid the gruelling misery of these past weeks of war.

A chef and talented baker, Yuri had been working 13-hour shifts making Easter cakes for others. Now it was time for his own loved ones. He'd just slipped out to the supermarket for more provisions when the missiles struck. At that instant, everything was taken from him and three generations of a family were obliterated.

The funeral yesterday was always going to be an ordeal, but the 30-yea-old had displayed incredible composure and dignity throughout the hour-long service at the magnificent Transfiguration Cathedral on Odesa's central Soborna Square.

Despite the harsh wail of air raid sirens earlier, Odesa had gathered to pay its respects, the crowd watching in sombre silence as at 11am, two white hearses arrived. The only sound was birdsong  and the constant whirr of cameras from the assembled media.

Sixteen men, dressed in black, approached the hearses and opened the doors.

Three of them lined up facing the cathedral, holding before them Yuri's favourite photographs of the women he loved. Another three carried wooden crosses etched with the names, birth dates  and that fatal day of April 23, 2022 when he lost them.

Coffin is lowered into grave during the funeral in Odesa

Eight people died in what has been described as Putin's Easter massacre, including the three month old daughter Yuri Glodan, 30, pictured breaking down by her coffin

Yuri's wife Valeria, 28, pictured, his three month old daughter Kira and mother in law, Lyudmila Yavkina they were all killed when a Russian missile hit their apartment building last Saturday

Yuri Godan is shown with his 3 month daughter Kira, in Odesa, Ukraine. His wife Valeriya and their 3 month daughter Kira died when the Russian missile hit their apartment building on Saturday

Then the coffins: four pall bearers each for Valeria and her mother  but just two for the little Kira. Ashen-faced, the pall bearers struggled to contain their emotions as they moved towards the ornate main doors of the cathedral. Behind them came Yuri, dressed in a navy-blue suit and tie, accompanied by his mother Nina, sister Anastasia, and his father, also Yuri.

Inside, were around 100 mourners  family, friends, and neighbours  many of them distressed. One young woman wept uncontrollably throughout the service. Orthodox tradition is that the coffins of the dead usually remain open.

But the injuries to Lyudmila, Valeria and Kira made this impossible. Yuri held his mother's hand as the mourners lined up to offer their condolences and place flowers in a steel basket next to the coffins. He described Valeria as 'perfect. She was a gift from God'.

The outpouring of sympathy and love must help, but one wonders what comfort mere words can provide given the scale of Yuri's loss.

He and Valeria were only starting out, Kira the first child of the family they planned to build together.

As the opening prayers began Anastasia, Yuri's 21-year-old sister, tried to stem the tears streaming down her cheeks.

'We are honouring the memory of a mother and daughter who tried to protect their child,' Alexander Malichenko, the cathedral's archpriest said. 'We always need to remember that God is above us. He will punish those who committed these crimes.

'These people, especially this child...' he says, gesturing to Kira's tiny coffin, 'they will be forever in heaven as heroes.' Yuri's gaze never left the coffins throughout the service which concluded with mourners lining up to cover them in red carnations.

A Russian missile strike on an apartment building in a residential area of Odesa. Yuri had just slipped out to the supermarket when three generations of a family were obliterated

Then, as the congregation poured back out on to Soborna Square, with Yuri calmly walking behind the caskets, two explosions echoed from faraway, a reminder that, even if they pray to God, Ukrainians are never far away from the threat of war.

For the short, final journey to the cemetery Yuri Glodan travelled in the hearse carrying his wife and daughter, perhaps lost in memories of happier times.

He had fallen head over heels for the former journalism student when they met at a party in 2013. Friends say he loved her infectious laugh, her positive outlook, and trademark bright floral dresses. The shared a passion for travel, photography, good food and fine wines and had a joyful wedding in August 2019. Just one week before her death, Yuri hosted a barbecue at their home to mark his wife's 28th birthday. She celebrated with her two best friends, Alyona Syritka and Alexandra Ilyashenko.

Now, the young women were standing in front of her grave.

The eulogies they had written were read out by one of the funeral directors. Alexandra described a beautiful soul who had been 'stolen away' from her.

Alyona wrote of 'dear Lera' who discovered 'the secret of life' after the birth of her baby girl, of how Valeria and Lyudmila 'were beside themselves with happiness when the little angel Kira appeared'.And then the flower strewn coffins of grandmother, mother and baby were lowered into the ground.

Just one tragedy, among tens of thousands of stories of heartbreak and loss in Ukraine since Russia's invasion began, but the brutal end to Kira's short life has touched millions across the world.
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Johnny Depp's former agent Christian Carino told the court about emails sent to him by Heard after she broke up with Elon Musk.

Heard began dating the Tesla founder around the time of her split with Depp in May 2016 and by August the following year they had broken up.

Carino, a talent agent with mega agency CAA and Lady Gaga's ex-fiance, appeared by a pre-recorded video deposition and confirmed that Heard and Musk were in a relationship for a time.

Asked if Heard moved on to dating Musk 'immediately after Johnny Depp', Carino said yes.

In an email on August 7, 2017, Heard told Carino: 'Dealing with breakup. I hate when things go public. See I'm so sad.'

Carino said that he believed Heard was 'referring to breaking up with Elon.'

Carino replied to Heard: 'You weren't in love with him. You told me 1,000 times you were just feeling space.'

Asked what he meant, Carino said: 'Why would you be sad if you weren't in love with him to begin with?'

One of Depp's lawyers asked: 'By him you're referring to who?'

Carino said: 'Elon.'

Heard's next email read: 'I know but I wanted time to grieve and recover in my own time.'

In another email in the same conversation she said: 'I hate that, yet again a man lets me fall on the spikes by myself.'

Carino said: 'How so?'

Heard emailed back: 'They're mad at me for leaving them and put things like this out there', apparently referring to the story going public.

Carino responded: 'You could avoid all this if you stop dating uber famous people.'

Asked what he meant in the email, Carino told the court he was trying to tell Heard: 'If you don't like being in the press about your personal life don't date people that are famous.'

Johnny Depp's former agent Christian Carino told the court about emails sent to him by Heard after she broke up with Elon Musk

Heard began dating the Tesla founder around the time of her split with Depp in May 2016 and by August the following year they had broken up

In another email in the same conversation she said: 'I hate that, yet again a man lets me fall on the spikes by myself.'

Carino told the court that Heard's feelings for Depp lingered after she filed for divorce in May 2016 and that he believed she wanted to reconcile with him, even though she was dating Musk.

Carino, a talent agent with mega agency CAA and Lady Gaga's ex-fiance, appeared by a pre-recorded video deposition and confirmed that Heard and Musk were in a relationship for a time

In an email on July 14 that year, Heard told Carino: 'It's so f**ked up I just want to tell him that what they're telling him isn't true.'

In an email sent to Carino around the same time, Heard said: 'Please tell him I love him,' referring to Depp.

The court heard that in the summer of 2016, Heard asked Carino to set up a meeting with Depp to talk things over.

At the time Depp was the subject of a temporary restraining order and Heard said she could 'never accuse him of violating the order' during their meeting, Carino said.

It took place in San Francisco where Depp was on tour with his band, The Hollywood Vampires, in the backyard of a friend's house.

Carino said they were there for 'several hours' chatting until the owner of the house said he was coming back.

To continue the conversation they rented a hotel room but once there Depp and Heard 'started arguing,' Carino testified.

Carino said that he left at 5am the following morning - it wasn't clear if the argument was still ongoing.

But the court has already heard chilling audio of Depp asking Heard to cut him with a knife, telling her: 'You f**king hate me!'

Despite that, Heard's feeling for Depp remained strong.

On August 16, 2017, Heard emailed Carino: 'I've written so many notes, can you give him one? I don't know how or where to start.

'Finally I am single, clear in my heart and mind. I just want him to know I loved him.'

In a message on June 9, 2018 - six months before Heard wrote the op-ed which is the subject of the case - she messaged Carino: 'God I miss him,' referring to Depp.

Johnny Depp cracked up with laughter as the doorman of his building described how Amber Heard asked him to investigate an intruder due to scratches on their front door - which were caused by the dog

Earlier in the day, Depp cracked up with laughter as the doorman of his building described how Amber Heard asked him to investigate an intruder due to scratches on their front door - which were caused by the dog.

Alejandro Romero said that Heard and her friend Rocky Pennington told him that 'somebody tried to get into my unit' at the Eastern Columbia Building in West Hollywood.

Appearing in a pre-taped video deposition, Romero said he thought to himself: 'What? Four inches above the (floor)? The dog was scratching.'

He said: 'In my head (I'm thinking) you think someone is trying to get into your unit with scratches four inches above the floor?'

At this point Depp started laughing and there was laughter in the public gallery.

Romero said: 'They were so scared. They asked me to go inside the unit to check room by room. I did it, it's part of my job.'

At one point Romero, who was giving the deposition in his car on his cell phone, could be seen blowing smoke out his nose having apparently just taken a hit from a vaping device.

Losing patience he began to drive around, still talking to one of Heard's lawyers on his phone which was stuck on his dashboard.

Afterwards Bredehoft, Heard's lawyer, said it was 'the most bizarre deposition' she had ever done.

Judge Penney Azcarate added: 'I've never seen that before.'

At one point Romero could be seen blowing smoke out his nose having apparently just taken a hit from a vaping device. Losing patience he began to drive around, still talking to one of Heard's lawyers on his phone which was stuck on his dashboard

At one point Romero lost his cool and spoke of his frustration at having to speak to the lawyers.

He said: 'Ugh. I'm so stressed out because of this, I don't want to deal with this any more'.

Romero met Heard on May 25, 2016, four days after the final argument between Heard and Depp before the divorce.

She claims he hit her with a mobile phone at the apartment - he denies it.

Romero said that he didn't see any bruises and cuts on Heard's face at the time and she was 3ft away from him.

Asked if he would have seen anything, given they were so close and the light was good, he said: 'That's correct'.

Depp laughed again as an exasperated Romero said he wasn't checking if Heard's 'eyelashes are not even'.

There was laughter in court once more when Romero said in response to another question: 'I don't remember what I got for breakfast'.

Earlier in the day, a Los Angeles police officer who attended the final argument between Depp and Heard before their divorce said she could have had a red face after 'crying because (her) dog died.'

Tyler Hadden said that because Heard was 'uncooperative' he had no idea why she was upset having called 911 at her West Hollywood penthouse.

Heard claimed that Depp smacked her with a mobile phone during the May 2016 argument but clammed up when officers arrived.

Officer Hadden told the former couple's $100m defamation trial he categorized the incident as a 'verbal dispute' only.

The cop told the jury he saw no evidence of injuries on Heard and that her red face was 'consistent with crying'.

He said that 'just because I see a female with pink cheeks and pink eyes doesn't mean something happened'.

Officer Hadden said the red face could be because the person 'started crying because their dog died'.

The question of Heard's injuries that night are crucial to the case as a week later she filed for divorce and obtained a restraining order against Depp, accusing him of domestic violence.

She arrived at court with a large bruise on her right cheek, a picture of which was entered into the court file.

A Los Angeles police officer who attended the final May 2016 argument between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard before their divorce said she could have had a red face after 'crying because (her) dog died'

Hadden said that because Heard was 'uncooperative' he had no idea why she was upset having called 911 at her West Hollywood penthouse

LAPD officer William Gatlin told the court that he and a colleague went to see Heard again at 10.24pm that night.

It appeared that a friend of Heard's had called the New York police department about the incident, and they wanted to return to check on her themselves.

The court was shown footage from officer Gatlin's body camera which showed them entering the building and walking down the corridor to the penthouse.

Heard's friend Josh Drew answered the door and tried to persuade the officers to leave by telling them that other cops had already come by, but they insisted on going in.

Officer Gatlin agreed that Drew was 'uncooperative'.

The footage showed the cops entering and asking if Heard was OK, and she confirmed she was.

Drew says that Depp is 'definitely' not there any more and had been gone a few hours and the officers left.

Officer Gatlin said that when they went inside 'it didn't seem like anybody was particularly eager to talk to us'.

The cop said that due to the 'dim lighting' he couldn't see if Heard had any bruises on her face or not.

The cop said that based on the LAPD's investigation it appeared Heard was not a victim of domestic violence.

He said: 'Based on her refusing to give any statement on what occurred and at the time we did not observe any visible or verifiable injuries to her'.

However officer Gatlin said he was 'not in a position' to say if Depp beat up Heard as he was not there when the incident occurred.

Officer Gatlin was asked about claims by Heard's former lawyer Adam Waldman in media interviews that Heard and her friends were 'attempting to concoct an abuse hoax.'

The cop said he could not recall seeing anything like that.

Officer Gatlin was asked if he saw Heard and her friends 'spilling wine and roughing the place up?'

He replied that he did not.

There was laughter in court when Bredehoft asked the officer if he was a 'fan' of Depp's at the time they went to the property.

Officer Gatlin said: 'I guess I liked a couple of his movies, not rush out to see them or anything'.

LAPD officer William Gatlin told the court that he and a colleague went to see Heard again at 10.24pm that night

The court was shown footage from officer Gatlin's body camera which showed them entering the building and walking down the corridor to the penthouse

Heard's friend Josh Drew answered the door and tried to persuade the officers to leave by telling them that other cops had already come by, but they insisted on going in

Officer Gatlin said that when they went inside 'it didn't seem like anybody was particularly eager to talk to us'. The cop said that due to the 'dim lighting' he couldn't see if Heard had any bruises on her face or not

Officer Melissa Saenz appeared via a pre-taped video deposition on Tuesday. She was asked about the visit to the penthouse apartment that Depp and Heard shared on May 21, 2016.

Under questioning from Heard's lawyer Elaine Bredehoft, Saenz said, 'I did not identify her as a victim of domestic violence,' adding that she did not see any evidence of a crime, including broken glass or mess in the penthouse.

It was the last argument between Depp and Heard before she filed for a divorce and a restraining order, which she did a week later.

In request for the restraining order, Heard claimed that Depp hit her with a cell phone during that encounter, leaving her with a bruise on the right side of her face.

In the court file, Heard included an image of the bruise.

Bredehoft showed the photo photo of Amber's face to Saenz and asked ,'Do you perceive there to be an injury or evidence of injury on amber's face in this photo?'

Saenz responded, 'No I do not.'

Bredehoft asked, 'What is your perception of the redness on the cheek and the eyelid and above the eyebrow?'

Saenz responded, 'Its consistent with her crying - she's fair skin, her face is flushed.'

Bredehoft asked, 'You don't think it's consistent with a cell phone being thrown at her?'

Saenz responded, 'Correct, it does not look like an injury caused from a cell phone. It's consistent with someone crying.'

Bredehoft asked, 'If you saw any signs of injury on Amber Heard or even just damage to the property, would you have been duty bound to make a report?'

'Correct.'

Bredehoft asked, 'Now, your recollection is that there was damage to the flat, you searched the entire flat and there was no damage, no broken glass, or anything out of the ordinary, would you agree?'

'Correct'

Bredehoft asked, 'When you got back to the elevator is there anything you remember thinking?'

Saenz responded, 'I remember being impressed by the penthouse, how big and beautiful it was yes.'

Officer Melissa Saenz appeared via a pre-taped video deposition on Tuesday. She was asked about the visit to the penthouse apartment that Depp and Heard shared on May 21, 2016

These photos were shown in court from May 2016 of Amber Heard with an apparently bruised cheek. Saenz said, 'I did not identify her as a victim of domestic violence,' adding that she did not see any evidence of a crime, including broken glass or mess in the penthouse

Bredehoft asked, 'When you got back to the elevator is there anything you remember thinking?' Saenz responded, 'I remember being impressed by the penthouse, how big and beautiful it was, yes.' Depp's penthouse building in LA is pictured

Her testimony followed expert witness Dr. Shannon Curry to the stand. The clinical and forensic psychologist told the court she concluded Heard had traits consistent with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) - two conditions found in people with patterns of emotional instability and attention-seeking behavior.

Dr. Curry testified that she was initially hired by Depp's lawyers early last year to review files in the legal battle between the two feuding exes and identify behavior in their relationship that may be consistent with 'intimate partner violence'.

The psychology expert, however, revealed her role would shift several months later in October, when she was asked to provide a psychological evaluation of Heard, 36.

'The results of Ms. Heard's evaluation supported two diagnoses: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD),' Curry told the court.

She concluded that Heard 'grossly exaggerated' her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after her relationship with Depp and said that in the actress's eyes, the actor went from being 'idealized to the dumpster.'

Dr. Curry noted that Heard's BPD was marked by an 'underlying terror of abandonment' and somebody with the condition tends to make 'desperate attempts' to stop it from happening.

These could be 'very extreme behaviors', she said.

Curry added that as a result of these disorders, somebody like Heard could appear charming at the start of a friendship or relationship but could then turn dark easily.




Korea reported fewer than 80,000 daily new COVID-19 cases for Tuesday, after most of the country's virus restrictions were lifted amid the slowdown of the Omicron wave.







The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) added 76,787 new infections, including 37 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,086,626.







Tuesday's tally is slightly down from the 80,361 reported for Monday. Daily counts tend to fall over the weekend due to fewer tests before rising toward the end of the week.







The Omicron wave has been declining since reaching a peak of 621,178 cases, March 17.







The death toll came to 22,466, up 141 from the previous day; while the number of critically ill patients came to 546, down 67, and the first time in 62 days for it to come under the 600 mark.







To reflect the weakening pandemic, health authorities downgraded COVID-19 to the second-highest level of its four-tier infectious disease control system Monday.







Of the locally transmitted infections, Gyeonggi Province added 18,415 and Seoul reported 11,517, the KDCA said.







As of midnight Tuesday, 44.54 million, or 86.8 percent of the 52 million population, had been fully vaccinated, and 33.08 million, or 64.5 percent, had received their first COVID-19 booster shots, the KDCA noted.







A total of 1.25 million people nationwide, or 2.4 percent of the population, have received second booster shots. (Yonhap)


The New York City prostitute sentenced to 30 years for fatally drugging four men has asked the judge to serve her time in a Minnesota prison so she could pursue a kinder, friendlier career  training dogs, the DailyMail.com has learned exclusively.

Angelina Barinis attorney made the special request Wednesday, just a day after she was sentenced in federal court in Brooklyn. He asked that she be sent to the low-security Federal women's prison in Waseca, Minnesota.

The defendant writes to request the Court recommend the defendant be designated to FCI Waseka, to the extent consistent with the Bureau of Prisons security and other administrative concerns, federal defender Michael Weil wrote to Judge Brian Cogan. He misspelled the name of the prison.

The facility is closer to the defendants family in Canada than many of those housing female inmates, and has various programs, including one involving dog training, in which she would like to participate.

The judge has not yet made a decision on the request.

Angelina Baarini, 38, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to killing two johns. Prosecutors say she also killed two more by drugging them

Barini's federal defender wrote to the judge in the case to ask if she could serve her time in a low-security prison in Minnesota because she wanted to participate in its dog-raining program

Can Do Canines claims on its website that its dog-training program inside prisons increase empathy, confidence and patience among prisoners

Barini, 43, was sentenced on Tuesday in federal court after pleading guilty to drugging and killing two men. Prosecutors say she also killed two others.

One of her victims was Italian-born chef Andrea Zamperoni, 33, who worked at New York's Cipriano Dolci.

She cried in court on Tuesday as she admitted distributing fentanyl and the 'date rape' drug GBL to two men who were unidentified in court.

She did so in the hopes of knocking the men out and robbing them but ended up killing them.

Prosecutor Breon Peace praised the 30 year sentence and hoped it would serve as a warning to anyone trying to use drugs to commit 'there horrific crimes.

Waseca's most notorious former inmate was Whitey Bulger's long-time girlfriend Catherine Greig

'The defendant drugged and killed multiple people for a few quick dollars,' Peace said in a statement. 'She stole their personal belongings while they lay unconscious dying from the lethal drugs she gave them.'

'The defendant's substantial prison sentence is warranted by her shocking disregard for human life.'

But Barini's older sister, Sally, told the New York Post that the court's sentence on Tuesday was 'a little harsh' and that she was planning to appeal.

'I think what wasn't taken into account was that of course what happened was wrong but the victims put themselves in there,' Sally said. 'They weren't saints.

'They went with her. They wanted to party and they wanted to do drugs with her and have sex. It wasn't like she put a gun to somebody's head and forced them to go with her.'

The prison in Waseca, 75 miles south of Minneapolis, is in a converted university campus. It opened in 1992 as a lock-up for men but changed to a women's prison in 2008.

Its most notorious inmate, mobster White Bulger's longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig, was released in 2020.

The Waseca Federal Correctional Institution is one of seven prisons in Minnesota and Wisconsin that participate in the Puppies in Prison program

Court records show that on July 4, 2019, Barini met with one of the victims at a motel in Astoria and gave him fentanyl-laced drugs. He was found dead later that day. Investigators said similar events happened on July 11 in Woodside, and to a 60 year-old victim on August 5, in College Point, with both men dying ofoverdoses

Italian-born chef Andrea Zamperoni, 33, of New York's Cipriani Dolci, was among Barini's victims

An organization called Can Do Canines partners with seven prisons in Minnesota and Wisconsin to operate prison puppy programs, each training between five and 20 puppies at a time, according to the groups website.

A Can Do Canines staff member teaches inmate handlers how to work with the canines, teaching them empathy, confidence and patience, the organization points out, while citing a warden who adds, It gives the handlers a purpose.

'At the same time, the dogs are well-cared for and receive round-the-clock attention and training,' the site says.

Barini, federal prisoner number 83762-053 is currently in the harsh Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where a fellow inmate is Jeffrey Epstein's sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell called her conditions 'a living hell, claiming she was served maggot-infested food and had rats in her cell.

A move to the Minnesota prison, which houses around 750 inmates, would be a considerable upgrade for Barini, who prosecutors said, regularly gave drugs to her clients in order to 'incapacitate and rob them.'

Prostitute Angelina Barini, 43, cried in court on Tuesday as she was convicted of fatally distributing fentanyl and the 'date rape' drug GBL to four men in the summer of 2019

The dogs also benefit from the Puppies in Prison program as they are 'well-cared for and receive round-the-clock attention and training,' Can Do Canines say

Court records show that on July 4, 2019, Barini met with one of the victims at a motel in Astoria and gave him fentanyl-laced drugs. He was found dead later that day.

Investigators said similar events happened on July 11 in Woodside, and to a 60 year-old victim on August 5, in College Point, with both men dying of an overdose from fentanyl-laced drugs.

Then on August 18, 2019, prosecutors said Barini met with Zamperoni at the Kemway Lodge motel in Elmhurst, where she drugged him with GBL, killing him almost immediately.

Barini had made repeated attempts to dispose of Zamperoni's body at the motel, which was found three days later at a garbage bin wrapped in bleach-stained sheets.

Surveillance video from outside the motel showed police taking Barini into custody after the Zamperoni's body was found inside a garbage bin

Prosecutors said the chef overdosed just minutes after stepping inside the motel with Barini

Barini allegedly orchestrated the crime with ex-boyfriend Leslie Lescano, 44, who was also arrested and charged with conspiring to distribute a controlled substance.

Prosecutors said Barini handed Lescano Zamperoni's American Express bank card and asked him to go to a pharmacy to pick up gift cards and toiletries for her, including shampoo and body wash.

She also allegedly instructed him to get her cheese, cold cuts and cigarettes, which Lescano purchased at a deli using the victim's bank card, according to court records.

Sally, Barini's older sister, told the New York Post that the court's sentence on Tuesday was 'a little harsh' and that she was planning on appealing the decision.

'I think what wasn't taken into account was that of course what happened was wrong but the victims put themselves in there,' Sally said. 'They weren't saints.

'They went with her. They wanted to party and they wanted to do drugs with her and have sex. It wasn't like she put a gun to somebody's head and forced them to go with her.'
White House press secretary Jen Psaki again insisted that President Biden 'does not get involved in his son Hunter's business dealings,' after it was reported that his son's business partner had dozens of meetings at the White House when Biden was VP.

'Nothing has changed about what I said yesterday, the president does not get involved in the business dealings of his son,' Psaki said. Repeatedly pressed, she continued to say 'nothing has changed.'

An exclusive DailyMail.com report on Hunter's emails recently revealed that Joe Biden agreed to pay son Hunter's legal fees for his deal with a Chinese government-controlled company.

The revelation ties the president even closer to Hunter's overseas business dealings  and makes his previous claims that he never discussed them with his son, even less plausible.

Joe was able to pay the bills after earning millions of dollars through his and his wife's companies after he left office as vice president.

Some of the wave of cash came from their book deals and speaking engagements.

But the president's financial filings reveal that he declared almost $7million more income on his tax returns than he did on his government transparency reports, an analysis by DailyMail.com of the president's financial records shows.

At the same time Hunter Biden's longtime business partner Eric Schwerin made at least eight visits to the White House in 2016, bringing his total number of visits to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. during the Obama-Biden administration to 27.

Fox News first reported on the additional visits Tuesday, saying that Schwerin met with then Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff Steve Ricchetti, currently a top adviser in the Biden White House.

Schwerin also met with an assistant in Biden's office, Anne Marie Person, who previously worked at the investment firm Schwerin and Hunter Biden managed, Fox said.

'Nothing has changed about what I said yesterday, the president does not get involved in the business dealings of his son,' Psaki said. Repeatedly pressed, she continued to say 'nothing has changed'

Amid the new revelations, GOP Rep. James Comer called Hunter a 'national security threat'

Amid the new revelations, GOP Rep. James Comer called Hunter a 'national security threat.'

Attorney General Merrick Garland dismissed the need to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter this week, but Comer said on Fox News Wednesday: 'I don't see any way other than having a special counsel.'

Comer, top Republican on the Oversight Commitee, added: 'I'm not a big fan of special counsels, but in this situation, the evidence continues to mount that not only is Hunter Biden unethical and..broke many laws, but also that Joe Biden could, these shady business dealings.'

Logs show Eric Schwerin, former president of Hunter Biden's now-dissolved firm Rosemont Seneca, made 27 visits to the White House during the Obama-Biden administration

On Monday, Psaki was asked about a report in the New York Post over the weekend on the logs that showed 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.

'I don't have any information on that. I'm happy to check and see if we have any more comment,' Psaki said when asked why Schwerin had 'access.'

Psaki has been pressed multiple times on Hunter Biden's laptop, foreign business dealings and tax investigation in Delaware, but has referred reporters to the Department of Justice or said he doesn't work in the White House.

Visitor logs from the Obama administration revealed that Joe Biden (right) had met with his son Hunter's (left) top business partner in 2010

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that she 'didn't have any information' on visitor logs showing Hunter Biden's top business met with then-Vice President Joe during 19 visits between 2009 and 2015

Texas Sen. 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.

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 Wing on 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 previously called for Vladimir Putin to release dirt on Hunter.
The Conservative Party's chief whip has ordered an official investigation into claims that an MP was watching porn on his mobile phone in the House of Commons Chamber.

A spokesman said the matter would be referred to Parliaments independent complaints and grievance scheme (ICGS).

Following allegations of inappropriate behaviour in the House of Commons the Chief Whip has asked that this matter be referred to the ICGS.

Upon the conclusion of any ICGS investigation the Chief Whip will take appropriate action.

Those reported to the body are given automatic anonymity, meaning the Tory MPs name will not be published while he is under investigation.

Only witnesses are able to make complaints to the scheme.

The body is said to be investigating at least 56 MPs - including three ministers and two shadow ministers - who have been accused of sexual misconduct.

Two female MPs say they witnessed their colleague looking at adult images more than once.

A statement from the Conservative whips office said: 'The chief whip (Chris Heaton-Harris, left) is looking into this matter.'

Tory MP Pauline Latham MP demanded the man responsible resign, telling GB News: 'They should go. That will mean their ministerial career is absolutely shot and their parliamentary career probably.'

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Tory chief whip, launched an investigation into the wholly unacceptable allegations, with his team vowing to take action. Furious female Tory MPs have demanded that their male colleague quit.

The claims about the MP, who has not been named and is not believed to be a minister, were aired during a meeting of backbench Tories. One female MP told the meeting on Tuesday they had sat behind the man on the Commons benches and seen him look at porn on his phone.

Another said she had seen the same MP looking at porn both in the chamber and in a committee hearing room.

Tuesdays meeting is understood to have been attended by between 40 and 50 Tory MPs, including Mr Heaton-Harris, party co-chairman Oliver Dowden and Commons leader Mark Spencer.

Theresa May attended the meeting but was understood not to have been present when the porn allegations were made.

One attendee said: We were having a discussion about being a woman in politics, particularly a woman in the governing party. Then a colleague dropped this bombshell. They said they had seen a male Tory MP watching porn on his phone a few weeks ago.

They said they were sat in the rows behind him. Then another colleague said that they had seen the same person watching porn in the chamber and at a committee hearing. It wasnt what any of us were expecting.

It certainly wasnt what the chief whip was expecting. The chief was shocked and concerned. He said he wanted to speak to the MP who had watched the porn. He said he would be investigating.

The Tory MP added of the claims: This shows a basic contempt and disrespect for parliament  and your colleagues.

Another female MP said at the meeting that when she wore a leather skirt she was asked: What do you do for your day job?

A second said a whip ushered MPs into a voting lobby recently by saying Come on, girls!

An MP was said to be left in tears by the allegations, according to one report, though others in the room could not verify this. The committee  known as the 2022  is a forum for Tory backbenchers to discuss ideas and policy.

The MP was said to have been watching pornography while sat in the Commons alongside colleagues

MPs' string of previous pornography woes Today's revelation is not the first time MPs have got into trouble over their porn-watching habits. In December 2017 Damian Green was sacked as de facto deputy prime minister for lying about claims that police found pornography on a computer in his office a decade earlier. The first secretary of state denied viewing inappropriate material on the computer, but a Cabinet Office investigation found Mr Green had issued two 'inaccurate and misleading' statements about the 2008 discovery. In 2014 Conservative MP Karl McCartney denied 'favouriting' an explicit image on Twitter after a photo of a naked woman tied to a bed appeared on his account. The Lincoln MP insisted he had never made use of the 'favourite' button on the cult website  used to endorse messages sent by other people. It came after the 'graphic' image showed up on his Twitter account, sparking ridicule online. Mr McCartney, who is married with two children, removed the image along with '50 other random tweets' that had been favourited on his Twitter feed. Mr McCartney said he was concerned that the site could be exploited by 'malicious and salacious attempts to embarrass the account holder' as the general election approaches. In 2009, then Labour home secretary Jacqui Smith resigned after she claimed two porn films on expenses. Her husband, Richard Timney, had to make a public apology after admitting he had ordered them. She lost her Redditch seat in the 2010 election and later said the attention she got was 'over the top'. Advertisement

Tory MP Pauline Latham demanded the man responsible resign, telling GB News: They should go. That will mean their ministerial career is absolutely shot and their parliamentary career probably. Its just not excusable in any way. Its totally shocking.

The MP for Mid Derbyshire called for a culture change, adding: Theres no place for it in any workplace. In parliament, we are supposed to be leaders, and we should be setting a really good example.

Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns told BBC Politics Live: Im not going to even attempt to defend it. If the facts are established then action should be taken decisively.

Asked about the claim, Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith told the same programme it was hard to even get a signal in the chamber, adding: Its unacceptable in any workplace really.

I dont think its necessarily unique to the House of Commons. If someone has done that then quite rightly I would expect there to be consequences.

Last night a spokesman for the Conservative chief whip said the matter would be referred to parliaments independent complaints and grievance scheme.

The porn claims came amid reports that 56 MPs, including three Cabinet ministers, are facing allegations of sexual misconduct that are also being referred to the complaints scheme.

The Prime Ministers press secretary said: You will have heard the PM address this explicitly in parliament today and over the last few days, saying there is absolutely no place for such behaviour and this cannot be tolerated.

Asked whether watching pornography at work was a sackable offence, she said: I am not aware of the disciplinary action. Obviously, it is wholly unacceptable behaviour and it is being looked into.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded the MP alleged to have watched porn is kicked out.

In December 2017 Damian Green was sacked as de facto deputy prime minister for lying about claims that police found pornography on a computer in his office.

Furious female Tory MPs demanded a male colleague quit today after he was accused of brazenly watching pornography on his phone while in the Commons.
An Army special forces task leader is under investigation over allegations that he demoted a soldier over a fight in Syria, then sexted that soldier's girlfriend.

Sgt. Maj. Chuck Ritter has been accused of sexting and sharing explicit images with Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Regeimbal's now-wife, Kate.

Ritter and Kate's interactions began in August 2021 after she confronted Ritter at a North Carolina bar.

She alleged he had been 'trashing her fiance in a group chat with other Special Forces soldiers,' Connecting Vets reported.

Regeimbal had been the subject of multiple investigations, amid allegations of steroid use and racist text messages.

Those claims were made after Ritter dismissed him from his post in Syria in 2019. The soldier allegedly had an altercation with a warrant officer and was sent back to Fort Bragg in North Carolina a few weeks earlier than his command.

Following the investigations, Regeimbal was stripped of his Special Forces tab. It remains unclear if the allegations against him were ever substantiated.

Shortly after his demotion, Kate and Ritter began communicating with each other.

Sgt. Maj. Chuck Ritter (left) is under investigation over allegations that he demoted Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Regeimbal (right) over a fight in Syria and then later sent sexual messages to the soldier's girlfriend

Ritter and Kate, who was now married to Regeimbal, were initially in communication to discuss her husband.

However, their conversations evolved and became sexual in nature, including the sharing of inappropriate images.

Chat logs between the pair, which were reviewed by Connecting Vets, revealed the messages appeared to be between 'two consenting adults'.

Kate also gave contradicting information about her relationship status, according to the chat logs, and in one conversation told Ritter that she and Regeimbal had separated.

In another conversation she revealed that they had wed and were living together.

Ritter - who declined to comment to the news outlet about the messages, citing an ongoing Army investigation - also alleged Kate told him she was single when they started their text relationship.

Regeimbal allegedly had an altercation with a warrant officer in Syria in 2019 and was sent back to Fort Bragg in North Carolina a few weeks earlier than his command

Regeimbal (third from left) became the subject of multiple investigations, amid allegations of steroid use and racist text messages. Following the investigations, Regeimbal was stripped of his Special Forces tab. It remains unclear if the allegations against him were ever substantiated

An investigation was launched into Ritter after Regeimbal reportedly discovered chat logs between the sergeant and his wife.

He reported the messages to his chain of command at 3rd Special Forces Group and to the Special Warfare Center Inspector General, prompting a probe into Ritter.

While under scrutiny from his superiors, Ritter allegedly contacted Kate, saying: 'I got a call from my CSM recently that Reggie was filing a complaint and opening an investigation on me.'

He instructed Kate to 'delete everything,' according to a recording of their phone call which was obtained by the news outlet.

'Facebook messages and all of that,' he added.

The sergeant also suggested that Kate delete their personal message and call logs.

Regeimbal discovered the messages between Ritter (second from left) and his wife and altered his superiors, prompting an investigation into the sergeant

Additionally, Ritter told Kate he felt that Regeimbal was retaliating against him for their sexts and over the belief that he played a role in the soldier's revocation.

Ritter asserts he was not involved with the disciplinary action against Regeimbal.

Special Warfare Center Janice Burton confirmed their command 'is looking into the allegations made against SGM Ritter' and declined to give the news outlet further details, noting: 'Following that process, I could give you more information.'

Although Ritter has not spoken about the allegations against him, he did tell Connecting Vets he welcomes the probe.

'I am open for the investigation, I am not above the law,' he said. 'If they think I need to be punished so be it. None of us are beyond reproach.'

None of the parties allegedly involved in the probe immediately responded to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki reconfirmed that President Joe Biden will be attending the White House Correspondents' Dinner after news broke that his top medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci would skip the Saturday night event over COVID concerns.

'He has made the decision that he wants to attend, in a safe way, the White House Correspondents' Dinner to show his support, showcase his support for a free press,' Psaki said Wednesday, noting the particular importance of reporters' coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

She continued that it was important to Biden to show, after former President Donald Trump skipped the media dinner during his one term.

'That does stand in stark constrast to his predecessor, who not only questioned the legitimacy of the press on a nearly daily basis, but also never attended the dinner, I don't believe,' the press secretary added. 'So he felt that was important and made a risk assessment to do that in consultation with his doctors and healthcare team.'

Psaki added that the president will take additional precautions including possibly wearing a mask when he wasn't talking. Psaki - who has twice contracted COVID - said she'd also likely wear a mask.

'And we also took steps, including the fact that he's not attending for the eating portion of the dinner,' Psaki said. 'And he'll be there for the program, which includes a number of speakers, the presentation of scholarships, as you know, and of course his speaking and his roasting - where he will be on the menu, as he likes to say - Trevor Noah is speaking.'

She added: 'Just like anything it's a risk assessment and decision he made on a personal basis.'

Psaki said Fauci's decision deserved some privacy, as the 81-year-old chief medical expert told ABC News, the news organization that invited him, that he would not longer take the ticket due to his own personal risk of contracting COVID-19, CNN first reported.

Fauci attended the April 2 Gridiron Dinner, which turned into a superspreader event, with at least 80 of the approximately 630 attendees testing positive for COVID in its aftermath.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki reconfirmed that President Joe Biden will be attending the White House Correspondents' Dinner after news broke that his top medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci would skip the Saturday night event

President Joe Biden's top medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci is skipping Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner due to COVID concerns

President Joe Biden, seen Wednesday at Madeleine Albright's funeral, is still expected to attend the Correspondents' Dinner, after the last big media dinner, the Gridiron, became a superspreader event

A picture of the packed ballroom at the April 2 Gridiron Dinner at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. The Gridiron Dinner, which required guests to be vaccinated, turned into a superspreader event with 80 positive COVID cases reported in its aftermath

The White House Correspondents' Association is going a step further than the Gridiron Club and requiring that guests take a COVID-19 test 24 hours before the dinner.

All guests must also be vaccinated or have a doctor's excuse.

For the Gridiron Dinner, guests merely had to show their vaccination records.

Among the high-profile guests to catch COVID after Gridiron: Attorney General Merrick Garland, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo - who was one of the speakers - New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Reps. Adam Schiff, Julian Castro and Elaine Luria.

Fauci was seated on the dais with Raimondo and Garland, but sat several seats away.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that President Joe Biden was still planning to attend the Correspondents' Dinner, saying, 'just like many Americans, he makes risk assessments.'

'It's possible the president could test positive,' she added.

Former President Barack Obama (right) sits on the dais during the dinner portion of the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2013

The White House Correspondents' Dinner last took place in 2019 (pictured), with thousands packed into the ballroom of the Washington Hilton

Biden also attended the funeral Wednesday of the late Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and will travel to Minnesota Sunday for the funeral of the late Vice President Walter Mondale.

Earlier in the day, Vice President Kamala Harris' office announced the vice president received a positive COVID test after her travels to California and is now in quarantine.

The White House Correspondents' Dinner was last held in 2019.

Thousands of attendees dine in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton.

Traditionally the president gives a comedy bit - and then is roasted by a comedian.

Former President Donald Trump never attended during his tenure - but was famously picked on by then President Barack Obama while in the audience as a private citizen in 2011.

This year's headliner is The Daily Show's Trevor Noah.
President Joe Biden has reignited the fire among already outraged parents after claiming their children don't belong to them 'when theyre in the classroom.'

'Theyre all our children,' he said Wednesday, addressing educators at the 2022 Teacher of the Year ceremony hosted by the White House. 'They are not somebody's else children. They're like yours when they're in the classroom.'

Biden also took aim at parents and Republican legislators who have spearheaded efforts to ban books and bar sexually explicit or overly politically correct curriculum.

'Today, there are too many politicians trying to score political points banning books, even math books,' the president said. 'Did you ever think when youd be teaching youre going to be worried about book burnings and banning books all because it doesnt fit somebodys political agenda?'

He added, speaking of teachers: 'We have got to stop making them the target of the culture wars.'

President Joe Biden defended teachers Wednesday, decrying Republican-led efforts in some states to ban books and bar sexually explicit or overly politically correct curriculum

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and 2022 National Teacher of the Year Kurt Russell applaud the 2022 National and State Teachers of the Year during an event Wednesday in the East Room

Biden's comments echoed the now-infamous declaration from former Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe who, while on the campaign trail last year, blasted the role parents were playing in his state's education system.

'Im not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions,' he said during a September debate. 'I dont think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.'

McAuliffe's opponent, now-Governor Glenn Youngkin, hit back, saying: 'You believe school systems should tell children what to do. I believe parents should be in charge of their kids education.'

Youngkin, who swept to victory in Virginia, had made parental rights in education a staple of his gubernatorial campaign, with his surprise victory largely-credited to his laser focus on Democrats' woke education policies.

Unlike Biden, who seemingly seeks less parent involvement in schools, the GOP is leaning on parental education rights as a wedge ahead of the midterm elections, hoping to mobilize Republicans and appeal to independent voters.

DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill into law on March 28. The bill bans any discussion pertaining to 'sexual orientation' or 'gender identity' in Florida schools for students in kindergarten through third grade

Critics of HB 1557 bill allege it teaches young kids to believe they are wrong for being different and that forcing schools to report students who are receiving mental health services is taking away a safe space for those students to be themselves

What is the Parental Rights in Education bill? HB 1557 was introduced by two Republican members of the Florida Legislature - Representative Joe Harding and Senator Dennis Baxley. They say the bill's aim is to 'empower parents' in their children's education, and make teachers recognize the distinction between 'instruction' and 'discussion.' 'What we're prohibiting is instructing them in a specific direction,' Baxley said about how teachers lead students in a classroom. 'Students can talk about whatever they want to bring up, but sometimes the right answer is, ''You really ought to talk to your parents about that.''' The bill applies to children in kindergarten through third grade. It states that 'classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur.' It also requires districts to 'adopt procedures for notifying a student's parent if there is a change in the student's services or monitoring related to the student's mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being,' something LGBTQ advocates argue could lead to students being outed to their parents without the student's knowledge or consent. It was passed on March 8 in a 22-17 vote. The state House had approved the bill late last month. DeSantis signed it into law on March 28 and it will come into effect on July 1. Advertisement

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has made education a priority in his state, passing numerous bills that spew the parental-choice rhetoric.

In March, Florida passed the controversial Parental Rights in Education Bill (HB 1557) - dubbed by critics as the Don't Say Gay bill.

The legislation bans any discussion pertaining to 'sexual orientation' or 'gender identity' in Florida schools for students in kindergarten through third grade.

It will become law on July 1 and teachers who breach its regulations can be sued by parents.

'In Florida, we not only know that parents have a right to be involved, we insist that parents have a right to be involved,' DeSantis said at a press conference on March 28 before he signed the bill in to law.

'We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination.'

Critics, however, say it teaches young kids to believe they are wrong for being different and that forcing schools to report students who are receiving mental health services is taking away a safe space for those students to be themselves.

They also claim that the vagueness of the wording could get a teacher in trouble if they make a passing reference to having a same-sex partner.

Even the White House weighed in on what has become the latest culture wars clash, with press secretary Jen Psaki claiming last week it was 'hateful' and 'misinformed'.

DeSantis, last week also signed the Stop WOKE Bill into law, banning critical race theory (CRT) as a component in Florida schools, which the governor claims promotes hatred among students and makes individuals feel guilty for racism of the past.

'We believe an important component of freedom in the state of Florida is the freedom from having oppressive ideologies imposed upon you without your consent,' DeSantis said at the bill's signing, WFTS reported.

'Whether it be in the classroom or in the workplace. And we decided to do something about it.'

Last week DeSantis signed the Stop WOKE Bill into law, banning critical race theory as a component in Florida schools. Children are pictured holding signs during the governor's bill signing on April 22

House Bill 7, also known as the Stop WOKE Bill, specifically outlaws teachings that assert certain individuals are 'inherently racist [or] sexist] - or 'morally superior' - or that characterize individuals' status as 'privileged' or 'oppressed' based on their race, sex or national origin.'

'What we will not allow is to be taught that members of one race, color, national origin or sex are somehow morally superior,' the governor said on Friday. 'We are not gonna allow teaching that a person simply by virtue of his/her race, color, national origin or sex is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, that's wrong.'

Under the legislation, which also goes into effect on July 1, teachers are allowed to address topics of sexism, racism, slavery, and racial segregation but are not permitted to persuade students to a particular point of view.

'We are not gonna use your tax dollars to teach our kids to hate this country or to hate each other,' DeSantis said.

Florida Sen. Manny Diaz, Jr., who pushed the bill through the senate, said the bill was not meant to cover up America's history with racism, but to not blame students for past wrongs.

'It's not about the feel. We can't control how a person feels about a topic,' Diaz told the Washington Post. 'But what we can control is to have a teacher not go to a student  and impose on a male student that they are sexist simply because they are a considered a male.'

The GOP is leaning on parental education rights as a wedge ahead of the midterm elections, hoping to mobilize Republicans and appeal to independent voters. Parents are pictured listening to DeSantis speak ahead of his public signing of the Stop WOKE Bill on April 22

In a move that seems to be sweeping the nation, the Florida Department of Education also rejected 54 math textbooks from its curriculum due to the inclusion of banned material.

The state DOE had garnered criticism for tossing out 41 percent of the 132 math textbooks submitted for the next school year last week without listing the rejected books, more than half of which the agency said referenced CRT, with the rest containing Common Core and Social Emotional Learning (SEL).

Last Thursday, the state released four examples of lessons considered unacceptable in the state, including the use of bar graphs that measures levels of racial prejudice based on age and political identity and asks students to solve equations based on the findings.

The graphs, which extrapolated data from the Project Implicit Discrimination website, show that those 65 and older and who lean towards the conservative end of the political spectrum have the most racial bias.

Another example of banned material included a lesson plan for polynomials, with one of the problems once again referencing the Implicit Association Test, claiming that the 2 million people who have taken the test have 'slight' or 'moderate' bias, which changes based on age and political identification.

The department said the 54 books banned from the curriculum are prohibited because they are not 'aligned with Florida standards or included prohibited topics and unsolicited strategies.'

One of the materials in the 54 math text books banned by Florida included bar graphs that measures levels of racial prejudice based on age and political identity. The graphs show that those 65 and older and who are more conservative have the most racial bias

Oklahoma library has banned displays promoting 'romance book club' and one on sexual assault awareness, pictured above

CRITICAL RACE THEORY: WHAT DOES IT MEAN? The fight over critical race theory in schools has escalated in the United States over the last year. The theory has sparked a fierce nationwide debate in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests around the country over the last year and the introduction of the 1619 Project. The 1619 Project, which was published by the New York Times in 2019 to mark 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived on American shores, reframes American history by 'placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the center of the US narrative'. The debate surrounding critical race theory regards concerns that some children are being indoctrinated into thinking that white people are inherently racist or sexist. Those against critical race theory have argued it reduces people to the categories of 'privileged' or 'oppressed' based on their skin color. Supporters, however, say the theory is vital to eliminating racism because it examines the ways in which race influence American politics, culture and the law. Advertisement

Similarly, an Oklahoma library banned a display that was showcasing sexual assault awareness and a proposed 'romance book club' after both were deemed inappropriate.

The Public Library of Enid and Garfield County's Board of Directors had initially said the book club and the sexual assault awareness book display could stay, but then the Enid Public Library's board voted narrowly 3-2 to ban both the display and program. The board reasoned that the display featured content about sexuality, while the book club would discuss sexual topics, and that neither was appropriate for the library.

Enid Public Library's interim director Theri Ray told CNN the projects were shelved 'in accordance with the adopted policy.'

The policy itself is extremely broad and requires the library's programs and exhibits to be 'non-partisan' and 'not make as their object the study of sex, sexual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual preferences, sexual identity, gender identity, or subjects that are of a sexual nature.'

Book bans have been at the heart of American controversy throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, which many alleging the bans violate the First Amendment. Communities and education systems often ban books due to sexual imagery, violence and any other content that is deemed obscene.

Harriet Beecher Stowes novel Uncle Tom's Cabin is widely recognized by historians as the first book in the U.S. to experience a ban on a national scale.

In 2020, the American Library Association published a list detailing the top 100 most banned or challenged books nationwide over the last decade. Topping the list was The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.

First lady Jill Biden hugs 2022 National Teacher of the Year Kurt Russell as President Joe Biden applauds during the 2022 National and State Teachers of the Year event on Wednesday

During his speech Wednesday, Biden also shared personal testimony detailing how the educators and loved ones in his life helped him overcome his stutter.

'I wonder how I got here. I got here because of my parents and my teachers,' Biden said in a long, heart-felt deviation from his prepared remarks. 'That idea is exemplified by the national teacher of the year.'

The president and First Lady Jill Biden, who continues to teach English at a community college in suburban Washington D.C., cheered for Ohio history teacher Kurt Russell, the 2022 national teacher of the year, and finalists for the award who gathered from each state.

'Teaching is not what Jill does, it's who she is, like most of you,' the president said, before telling the crowd about his problem as a child speaking - especially in class or otherwise publicly - 'when I stuttered, everyone thinks you're stupid. Totally incompetent.'

Biden has talked openly about battling a childhood stutter in the past, including while running for president in 2020. But he stressed on Wednesday the importance of teachers in helping him with that effort.

President Joe Biden (right) shakes hands with 2022 National Teacher of the Year Kurt Russell (left) during the 2022 National and State Teachers of the Year event in the East Room

'I have teachers, I can name the ones through grade school, high school, even college,' the president said. 'I didn't really beat my stutter - and still occasionally I do (stutter) - until I took a speech debate class in college just to force myself to be able to stand up.'

Russell summed up his profession by saying, 'Each student needs a champion, no matter what the circumstance are.'

That echoed the sentiments of the first lady, who said of great teachers, 'it's not the curriculum or the classroom tactics, it's that smile that tells students that they don't have to be afraid to answer out loud.'

'It's the calm in your voice that can still the wild horses running through their hearts,' she added. 'It's the way that you know that, sometimes, "I'm fine" means everything is wrong.'

When Jill Biden talked about teachers changing lives 'student by student,' her voice began to crack, before she laughed and said 'Now I'm getting emotional.'
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says her party will push its supporters to preference Labor over vulnerable moderate Liberal MPs in key seats.

Senator Hanson has accused the Liberals of a 'dirty deal with the devil' by recommending its voters give their preferences to the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN) ahead of One Nation in the Tasmanian Senate race.

The One Nation leader told The Australian her party would look to punish the Liberals with low placings on how-to-vote cards in selected marginal seats from Victoria to Queensland.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says her party will push its supporters to preference Labor over vulnerable moderate Liberal MPs in key seats

Bass MP Bridget Archer, who holds the Morrison government's most marginal seat, and Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, who faces pressure from the ALP, are understood to be at the top of a list of moderate Liberals Senator Hanson will target.

One Nation is also set to preference Labor over Liberal moderate MPs facing Climate 200 backed candidates such as Tim Wilson in Goldstein and Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney.

'We're not letting them get away with this dirty deal with the devil,' Senator Hanson told The Australian, referring to the Tasmanian senate race.

Senator Hanson has accused the Liberals of a 'dirty deal with the devil' by recommending its voters give their preferences to the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN) ahead of One Nation in the Tasmanian Senate race

'One Nation will now look at Liberal-held seats across the country.'

One Nation still plans to support Liberal conservatives and Nationals over ALP candidates.

'Labor is rotten to the core but the Liberals are just as bad because they only pretend to fight for conservative Australian values,' Senator Hanson said.

'Their hypocritical deal with JLN is the last nail in the Morrison government's coffin.'

One Nation polled at 3 per cent in the latest Newspoll.
Campaigners have warned of a HRT gold rush as women race to pharmacies to get their hands on dwindling stock.

Shortages have been so severe that some women have been forced to spend hours visiting different pharmacies in search of it.

The main issue is with Oestrogel, which is used by around 30,000 women in the UK. Alternatives have also taken a hit as women are switched to different medication until stocks are replenished.

Facebook menopause support groups have been flooded with women tipping each other off, with Quick, try here messages being shared.

Others have likened it to the home front in the Second World War, when families would tip each other off when rations were restocked.

Davina McCall is backing a campaign to bring forward the date for cheaper HRT medicine for women

(left to right) Dr Louise Newson, Mariella Frostrup, MP Carolyn Harris, Penny Lancaster and Davina McCall with protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in London demonstrating against ongoing prescription charges for HRT

File photo of a woman taking HRT. Shortages have been so severe that some women have been forced to spend hours visiting different pharmacies in search of it

Oestrogel, which is used by around 30,000 women in the UK, has been in short supply lately, leading to a HRT gold rush as women race to pharmacies to get their hands on dwindling stock

Its just a terrible situation to be in, almost like a gold rush, said Katie Taylor, of menopause support group Latte Lounge.

Women in our FB group are panic buying, tipping each other off when they hear of any pharmacies who have stock of Oestrogel in place.

Some are saying they feel like theyve won the lottery, others are offering to share their supplies. Jane Pangbourne of the HRT Truth Collective support group, said there is an HRT frenzy.

She said women were travelling across the country after ringing pharmacy after pharmacy or getting tipped off by friends about where stock is available.

Davina backs campaign Davina McCall is backing a campaign to bring forward the date for cheaper HRT medicine for women. Last year Labour MP Carolyn Harris, co-chairman of the UK menopause taskforce, managed to get costs cut in England, saving women up to 200 a year. But this will not come into effect until April 2023. Now, a petition by campaign group Menopause Mandate is calling for the Government to implement it sooner. Miss McCall, one of the groups founders, said that it is insane women are scrabbling about on the internet and easing HRT costs is needed urgently. Advertisement

She added: There was somebody in the group the other day who had travelled four or five hours to get her gel.

And even when women manage to get, lets say, a months supply of whatever it is they need, theyre then already starting to plan: What the hell do I do for next month?

So the stress doesnt end the moment they get their prescription  if they get their prescription at all.

Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, a menopause campaigner and blogger, said desperate women are relying on one another for support and advice.

Women in Facebook groups have turned into mini support centres, telling each other where theyve got Oestrogel from and if they had any left, she said.

It reminds me of my mum talking about the war  when women would pass on where the latest ration supplies had come in.

The Daily Mail this week revealed a postcode lottery in England for alternative treatments, following extensive coverage of supply chain issues going back years.

A spokesman for Well Pharmacy, which has nearly 800 branches, said: Some of our pharmacy teams have seen an increased number of requests from new patients looking for specific HRT products.

The UKs most senior GP has warned the HRT supply crisis must be resolved quickly because so many women are experiencing distress and some are risking side-effects by using medication prescribed to others.

Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, told the Guardian: While we appreciate the seriousness of the current situation and the frustrations women are experiencing, we urge them not to share HRT medication as this could lead to serious side-effects.
A harrowing picture shows Sydney underworld kingpin 'Mr Big' fighting for life after he was brazenly executed in a hail of bullets in the city's south-west last night.

Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad was gunned down while visiting an associate in a suburban street in Greenacre at 9.30pm on Wednesday night, after a $1million bounty was placed on his head.

Ahmad walked free from jail six months ago after serving a five-year jail sentence for killing a gangland rival - and his enemies were out to get him.

Just last October, Ahmad had dodged another attempt on his life when he was tipped off about a planned hit on him in broad daylight at a park at Rushcutters Bay.

Police say Ahmad was warned multiple times more recently that he was a marked man and that his life in imminent danger.

It comes as Ahmad's distraught family members arrived at the scene on Thursday morning where they were denied from entering the cordoned off vicinity, sparking angry scenes with police.

A harrowing picture shows Sydney underworld kingpin 'Mr Big' fighting for life after he was brazenly executed in a hail of bullets in the city's west last night

A series of bullet holes could be seen in the side of a white Toyota Hilux that was towed away in Greencare on Thursday morning

Distraught relatives of Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad arrived at the scene of the deadly shooting around 9am on Thursday and became furious as they were refused entry to the crime scene

Ahmad's grieving relatives were stopped by officers from entering the cordoned off scene with one shouting that his 'uncle' was the one shot dead

Narelle Crescent in Greenacre remained cordoned off by police on Thursday morning after underworld kingpin Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad was shot dead in a hail of bullets

Detectives fear Sydney's underworld is set to explode in a series of tit for tat reprisals after kingpin Mr Big Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad was gunned down in a suburban street

Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty revealed Ahmad was in the street visiting an associate and was gunned down by 'a large hail of bullets' while leaving.

He added a number of people were with Ahmad were in the street at the time, along with innocent bystanders and that it was 'an absolute miracle' no one was killed or injured.

Police are looking at a long list of 'persons of interest' and suspects who may have been involved in Ahmad's death but are keeping an open mind.

'The intention was to kill him and they were going to do that by firing as many bullets at him as they could,' Detective Superintendent Doherty said.

'He's been warned in the past he was a marked man but he didn't heed those warnings.'

'As a result of the consequences of him continuing on his normal business as if he didn't have a care in the world, he was in imminent danger. He didn't want to hide.

'His life was always going to be in danger. He was always going to end up on a slab in a morgue or end up back in jail.'

'Unfortunately for him, he's in the morgue as we speak.'

'We'd be here for a long time if we were to go through the history of everyone he was in conflict with.'

'He didn't care and didn't want to hide and he's borne the consequences of his actions.'

Ahmad's distressed relatives arrived at the cordoned off scene around 9am on Thursday where they were blocked from entering the crime scene.

Officers told Ahmad's relatives weren't allowed to pass the threshold under any circumstances.

'That's my uncle. When that's your family in there you'll do anything to get in,' one of the young men was heard saying.

Distressed associates of Ahmad were involved in a tense exchange with police when they arrived at the scene on Thursday morning

Ahmad's relatives were denied from entering the cordoned off vicinity in Greenacre

He got more agitated as the minutes dragged on, lashing out at bystanders and begging police to reconsider.

'We're going to get in there. We need to be in there,' he said again.

The two men took multiple phone and video calls throughout the tense stand-off.

'How do you think I feel?' the second man said.

The men returned about an hour later and again crossed the tape against police orders.

A plain clothes senior detective met them and allowed one of the men access to the crime scene.

Bullet holes were evident in the side of a white ute with tinted black windows which was removed from the home about 10.30am.

A white Hilux ute was peppered with bullets (pictured) on the passenger side of the vehicle

How the deadly shooting unfolded Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad went to Narelle Crescent, Greenacre on Wednesday night to visit an associate. Around 9.30pm, he was leaving when he was gunned down by 'a large hail of bullets' outside the home. More than one person 'lay in wait' outside the house before opening fire. Officers from Strike Force Raptor were in the area at the time and arrived to find a dying Ahmad lying in the street. 'The movements of Brownie Ahmed are being investigated,' Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said. 'He was at that address visiting an associate. 'He'd been there for a little bit and was leaving. 'What appears to be - whoever was in a car - as soon as he was out open in the street more than one person in that vehicle, someone's fired shots at Brownie Ahmed 'They've planned it. it's well executed and I suppose it was a meticulous assassination of a person they were going to kill.' 'They weren't going to muck around with this one, that's for sure.' Advertisement

The street, Narelle Crescent, has been blocked off from the public since Wednesday night, with police ushering neighbours in and out by foot.

A sniffer dog was on the scene going from door to door in the cul-de-sac looking for clues as police launch a major investigation into the assassination.

'I thought I heard something but I wasn't sure,' one neighbour, 34-year-old Zarif, told Daily Mail Australia.

'When I came out to check it was pandemonium. Police, all my neighbours, we were all on the street.

'I'd like to say I'm surprised but I don't know, I don't know if he was a very good person.

They told him the gang had put the price on his head and warned him to steer clear of the park because of the danger to bystanders.

Now police fear Ahmad's execution in Greenacre overnight will spark yet another escalation in the bloody gang war on Sydney's streets.

Ahmad was shot dead about 9.30pm Wednesday.

'It was four banging noises at 9.32pm,' one local resident told Nine's Today show. 'And then I heard a car drive off. It just drove off normally - it didn't drive off quickly.

'There's always things happening in Greenacre - that's just the way it is.'

Police have appealed for other people in the street at the time to come forward, particularly those with mobile phone or dashcam footage.

'My understanding is a lot of people were in the street at the time,' Detective Superintendent Doherty said.

Paramedics tried to treat Ahmad but he died at the scene. The gunman fled the scene with a Porsche four-wheel-drive and a black BMW found both found on fire a short time later. Police have 'multiple' crime scenes.

Ahmad had only recently been released from prison after serving five years for the manslaughter of another underworld figure at a Sydney scrap yard in 2016.

Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad died at the scene, despite desperate attempts to revive him

Police are scouring multiple crime scenes, including the street where Ahmad was gunned down on Wednesday night

Officers from Homicide Squad, Criminal Groups and Raptor Squads are at the crime scene

A Narelle Crescent home was cordoned off with police tape following the fatal shooting

Police are investigating the shooting death of a notorious gangster boss outside a Greenacre home in Sydney's south-west

Multiple police vehicles attend the scene at Greenacre, Sydney (pictured) after a man was killed in a hail of bullets

A burnt-out Porsche 4WD was found in Greenacre shortly after the shooting (pictured)

Firefighters contained the blaze (pictured) and it is unconfirmed if the two incidents are linked

In a statement on Thursday morning, the NSW Police Force said they were investigating after 'reports of a public place shooting'

Police said the Homicide Squad, Criminal Groups and Raptor Squads were also in attendance and investigating.

'Inquiries are also underway to determine whether two vehicles which were located on fire in Greenacre and Belmore are related to this incident.'

Ahmad pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Safwan Charbaji in 2016 shortly after returning to Australia from Lebanon where he fled in the aftermath.

He served five years in prison and was only released six months ago.

The chaotic scene at Greenacre in southwest Sydney on Wednesday night (pictured)

NSW Police had previously warned Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmed there was a contract out on him (pictured: the scene at Narelle Cres Greenacre)

'Brownie' Ahmed refused to leave Sydney despite the danger he was facing

Bystanders gather in the street (pictured) after word of the shooting spread and hoards of police and emergency services vehicles arrived

Charbaji was shot in a gunfight outside a south-west Sydney smash repair business owned by Ahmed's brother Walid 'Wally' Ahmed.

Wally Ahmad was himself shot dead in a hail of bullets on the rooftop carpark of Bankstown Centro shopping centre weeks later - sparking a gangland war that would claim another four lives.

Ahmed being arrested by police in 2016 after touching down in Sydney airport from Lebanon where he fled in the aftermath the gunfight at a smash repair business

Ahmad pleaded guilty to the manslughter of Safwan Charbaji (pictured), 32, who was shot outside a smash repairs business in southwest Sydney in 2016

Multiple police stand guard at the crime scene with the Criminal Groups and Raptor Squads also in attendance (pictured)

Afterwards he briefly left Sydney for the Middle East and when he returned had been surrounding himself with allies in a bid for protection.

Since 2020, NSW Police have focused considerable resources on a gangland war between the Alameddine and Hamzy groups which has seen at least seven people killed.

After a number of arrests and top-level Alameddine enforcer Masood Zakaria fleeing overseas the war appeared to have quietened.

But Ahmad's death could ignite a new blood-feud police will have to contend with.

Officers speak to bystanders after the shooting in Sydney's west on Wednesday (pictured)

Police sources previously told Daily Mail Australia the organisations target vulnerable teenagers from an early age, luring them into the underworld with the promise of cash, infamy and a sense of belonging.

'They get them young,' the source said.

'These kids are usually the ones stealing the cars, pushing the drugs. It's insidious.'

It's alleged the chosen youths have 'stealing cars down to an art' and hand them over to the senior members accused of carrying out or soliciting hits on their enemies.

Raptor detectives often find one - sometimes several - burnt out stolen cars when they arrive at a crime scene linked to the Hamzys or Alameddines.

NSW Police assistant commissioner Peter Thurtell previously said there was no doubt the ongoing gang wars on the streets of western Sydney are drug related.

'They are organised criminal groups targeting each other,' Asst Comm Thurtell said.
Boris Johnson slapped down the Commons Speaker yesterday over his extraordinary bid to summon the editor of The Mail on Sunday for a lecture.

Downing Street issued a thinly veiled rebuke to Sir Lindsay Hoyle after he demanded that David Dillon attend a meeting in Parliament to explain a controversial article about Labours deputy leader Angela Rayner.

Mr Dillon turned down the meeting, saying that while he had the greatest possible respect for Parliament, Britains free Press would not endure if journalists have to take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be.

Sir Lindsay appeared to be in retreat on the issue last night, with aides saying he had no intention of saying more on the matter.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said that Mr Johnson was uncomfortable with the idea of politicians summoning journalists to explain their stories.

Downing Street issued a thinly veiled rebuke to Sir Lindsay Hoyle after he demanded that David Dillon attend a meeting in Parliament to explain a controversial article about Labours deputy leader Angela Rayner. The row began when The Mail on Sunday reported that a Tory MP had heard Mrs Rayner telling a group of around eight MPs on the Commons terrace that she liked to put the Prime Minister off his stride by crossing and uncrossing her legs while sitting opposite him in the Commons

He said the PM would not want any perception of politicians seeking to in any way curb or control what a free Press seeks to report.

He added: We have a free Press in this country and reporters must be free to report what they are told as they see fit.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab backed Mr Dillons decision to boycott the meeting.

Mr Raab said it was legitimate for the Speaker to take an interest in coverage of MPs but added: Its the prerogative of any editor to decide how they treat that invitation.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith also questioned the Speakers conduct, saying that Parliament should not interfere with the contents of newspapers.

The former Conservative leader told the Daily Mail: Im not sure what on earth the Speaker thought he was going to achieve and I am glad hes seen sense. As a general rule Parliament should not interfere in editorial matters.

A former minister added: Its just insane. The Speaker... shouldnt be policing accuracy or offensive opinions.

Its bonkers  what the hell is he thinking? I havent found anyone who thinks he has handled this well.

Sir Lindsay appeared to be in retreat on the issue last night, with aides saying he had no intention of saying more on the matter. In a letter to the Speaker on Tuesday night, Mr Dillon said he and The Mail on Sundays political editor would no longer be attending the meeting with him after he had regrettably commented on the story in public

The row began when The Mail on Sunday reported that a Tory MP had heard Mrs Rayner telling a group of around eight MPs on the Commons terrace that she liked to put the Prime Minister off his stride by crossing and uncrossing her legs while sitting opposite him in the Commons.

Labours deputy leader categorically denied the claims, which she described as desperate, perverted smears.

But since then, three further MPs  including a woman  have come forward to say that they were present on the terrace and that they heard Mrs Rayner herself joke about her tactic.

In total, four MPs have all given the same account of what she said, including the use of a startling slang colloquialism.

The Daily Mail also revealed yesterday that Mrs Rayner laughed and joked about a comparison to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct at a comedy event earlier this year.

In a light-hearted interview with comedian Matt Forde in January, she volunteered the fact that an appearance at Prime Ministers Questions had drawn such comparisons, joking that it had sparked an internet meme of her crossing and uncrossing her legs.

She told his Political Party podcast: I wasnt aware I did it but apparently there was this whole meme about how my dress was a bit revealing, but I didnt think it was.

Mr Forde asked if the suggestion was that she was trying to distract the Prime Minister. Mrs Rayner, who said she had been mortified by the meme, laughed and replied: It dont take much does it? I dont need to do that.

Mrs Rayner yesterday insisted that the fact she had tried to brush aside the sexism she faces doesnt make it OK.

She rejected the idea that she enjoys being subjected to sexist slurs, adding: I dont. They are mortifying and deeply hurtful.

In a letter to the Speaker on Tuesday night, Mr Dillon said he and The Mail on Sundays political editor would no longer be attending the meeting with him after he had regrettably commented on the story in public.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said that Mr Johnson was uncomfortable with the idea of politicians summoning journalists to explain their stories. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab also backed Mr Dillons decision to boycott the meeting

In a statement on Monday, Sir Lindsay told MPs that he shares the views of many MPs that the story about Mrs Rayner was misogynistic and offensive.

Mr Dillon said he had judged the article without being in possession of the facts surrounding how it came to be reported.

A spokesman for Sir Lindsay said yesterday that he would not be making any comment on The Mail on Sundays response. In a statement on Tuesday, he insisted he was a staunch believer and protector of Press freedom, saying he had refused a request from a Labour MP last week to ban The Timess sketch writer for making allegedly sexist observations.

He added: I firmly believe in the duty of reporters to cover Parliament, but I would also make a plea  nothing more  for the feelings of all MPs and their families to be considered, and the impact on their safety, when articles are written.

I would just ask that we are all a little kinder. That is what I wanted to talk about.
Ahn Cheol-soo, the chairman of the presidential transition committee and its COVID-19 subcommittee, speaks during a press conference at the committee's office in Tongui-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, Wednesday. Joint Press Corps



Government expected to let new administration make decision



By Nam Hyun-woo



The presidential transition committee said Wednesday that it will decide whether to remove Korea's requirement for people to wear face masks outdoors late next month, adding that the requirement to wear masks indoors will continue for a while.



The incumbent Moon Jae-in administration had planned to announce whether it would maintain the requirement to wear face masks outdoors on Friday, but it is anticipated to follow the transition committee's policy direction to minimize public confusion.



"Regarding the requirement to wear face masks outdoors, we plan to make a decision in late May after monitoring how the circumstances unfold," Ahn said, Wednesday.



"Right now, the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients in Korea is still the highest in the world, so it is difficult to compare our situation with that of other countries where people can take their masks off outdoors. At that time, if it is possible, we may make a decision around the end of May, such as making it compulsory to wear a mask indoors when entering a building, while allowing people to take off the mask outdoors," he said.



Ahn made this statement while also announcing the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration's 100-day COVID-19 emergency response roadmap.



According to the roadmap, the Yoon government will make a decision on the outdoor face mask requirement within 30 days of its inauguration on May 10.



"Regarding its details, the transition committee will let the new government's health ministry and disease control agency set the standards," Ahn said. "We believe it will be possible when Korea's number of COVID-19 patients goes down to the level of other countries that no longer require people to wear face masks outdoors."



The number of new COVID-19 infections for Monday, stood at 76,787, down from the previous day's 80,361 cases. The daily infections peaked at 621,178 on March 17.









Also on Wednesday, Korea's Central Disaster Management Headquarters said in a press briefing that it would announce whether to ease the outdoor face mask requirement on Friday.



"We weren't able to catch up with the transition committee's announcement because this briefing was held at the same time," an official at the disaster management headquarters said.



"However, we don't think there will be a big difference in the overall direction of the measures.  During the decision making process, we will comprehensively review various ideas, including the one from the transition committee," the official said.



It had been reported that the current government has been contemplating whether to maintain the current requirement or to lift it potentially as early as next week.



Earlier this month, Korea eased most of its social distancing measures for COVID-19, such as limiting businesses' operating hours or eating snacks in public spaces such as movie theaters, planes, long-distance trains and inter-regional buses. Following these decisions, public expectations has been growing that they might no longer have to wear face masks outdoors at some point soon.



However, there are also voices calling for a cautious approach, citing experts' forecast that Korea may see another wave of COVID-19 infections this fall.



Ahn, who is a former medical doctor, also noted that there are chances of another wave of mass infections this fall or winter, thus requesting that the government reflect the committee's recommendation when making this week's decisions.



"This is a recommendation to the government," Ahn said. "So far, the incumbent administration has been cooperating as we recommended. Our recommendation is that it will be appropriate to watch progress for about 20 days and then make decision, rather than removing face masks next week."





President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol takes off his face mask during a meeting with officials of Airport Railroad at its headquarters in Incheon, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps
Germany fears that Russia could cut off its gas supplies unless it agrees to pay bills in roubles - after Putin suddenly stopped sales to Poland and Bulgaria.

Russia was accused of blackmailing governments and millions of families across Europe by turning off the gas taps yesterday.

The state-owned gas giant Gazprom blocked supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, which initially sent wholesale prices in Europe soaring by up to 20 per cent.

Now, there are fears the Kremlin could target countries like Italy, Germany and Austria amid Putin's insistence that 'unfriendly' states must pay their bills in roubles.

One expert told the Times that most European Union importers were 'extraordinarily' likely to give way to Russia.

The Kremlin's move represents a dangerous escalation in the economic war with the West, triggered by the Kremlin's illegal invasion of its neighbour.

Moscow claimed the halt of natural gas supplies via the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which runs through Belarus, was a result of 'unfriendly' actions towards Russia.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said both countries had refused Russian demands to pay in roubles, a move designed to prop up the heavily sanctioned currency.

He warned that other European customers may also see the taps turned off if they too refuse to pay in roubles next time payment is due.

Gazprom (pictured) has completely suspended gas supplies to the Bulgarian company Bulgargaz and the Polish PGNiG, due to their failure to pay in roubles in time

European leaders have condemned Russia actions, deeming it blackmail (pictured: Pipes at a gas transmission point near Warsaw)

As a result, a number of countries have drawn up plans to ration supplies, which could see major industry and manufacturers ordered to shut down to protect gas for homes and prevent blackouts.

The Russian move is forcing governments across Europe to speed up a switch to alternative supplies. Western officials say that this represents a major strategic failure for Moscow.

One UK official said: 'This will be one of the major strategic developments from this campaign and it will be a failure for Russia because it will reduce its income and also compromise its offensive capability.

'This is one of the costs we are inflicting on Russia. Long-term sanctions will have the same effect. The Prime Minister has said Russia must be seen to have failed.'

Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab slammed Russia's decision, saying it will add to its status as an 'economic and political pariah'.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Russia's decision to stop gas going to Poland and Bulgaria 'unacceptable'

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said Russia's attempts at 'blackmail' were doomed to fail. She called it 'unjustified and unacceptable' and said it pointed to Russia being an unreliable gas supplier.

The EU was prepared for this scenario and contingency plans are in place to get gas from alternative sources and maintain maximum gas storage levels. Poland and Bulgaria are already receiving gas via their EU neighbours, including Greece.

Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki was applauded by MPs in parliament when he said the 'blackmail' would have no effect. Bulgarian prime minister Kiril Petkov said that it was a 'gross violation'. And despite Bulgaria taking nearly 80 per cent of its gas from Russia, he added: 'We won't give in to such racketeering.'

While there was a 20 per cent price hike in European wholesale gas prices in early trading, much of this fell away later in the day.

But despite many countries in Europe rallying together, four major gas trading companies have bowed to pressure to pay for Russian supplies in roubles through back channels, a report by Bloomberg claimed yesterday.

The names of the buyers and countries have not been revealed. However Slovakia, which is heavily reliant on Russian gas, previously suggested it may be forced to comply with demands to pay in roubles.

But Mrs von der Leyen warned that this would breach sanctions and weaken the collective Western response.
Priti Patel 'will hire private jets to fly migrants to Rwanda' because airline bosses 'refuse to put on flights in fear of a backlash' from critics.

The Home Secretary was reportedly told that her plan to send migrants to the East African nation for processing could result in protesters targeting the firms involved in the flights.

As a result, charter flights may be used to take migrants to Rwanda, while the Sun reported claims from insiders that the Home Office may have to acquire its own plane for the 4,000 mile route.

That would considerably increase the price of the policy which is already understood to cost British taxpayers an initial 120million.

It comes as Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, reignited his row with the Government over the Rwanda migrant plan, saying the church would not remain a 'passive observer' to a scheme it believes is morally wrong.

Priti Patel 'will hire private jets to fly migrants to Rwanda' because airline bosses 'refuse to put on flights in fear of a backlash' from critics

Charter flights may be used to take migrants to Rwanda, while insiders claimed the Home Office may have to acquire its own plane for the route (stock image)

A Whitehall source told the Sun: 'Just like when we try to deport foreign national offenders, we know that some woke commercial airline executives will bend to the social justice warriors on Twitter.

'Because of this, we need to look at options of chartering flights.'

Ipswich MP Tom Hunt, who previously welcomed the Rwanda policy as the 'only truly effective way of tackling the channel crossings issue', said any airline that refuses to take part in the scheme should be 'named and shamed'.

Under the new policy, migrants who enter Britain illegally will be sent 4,000 miles away for processing.

The Prime Minister pledged to do 'whatever it takes' to push through his landmark scheme to tackle the small-boats crisis in the Channel and smash people trafficking gangs.

Some 28,000 people made the perilous journey in 2021.

Revealing details of the dramatic strategy before Easter, Mr Johnson said 'tens of thousands' of Channel migrants would be sent with a one-way ticket.

The Daily Mail understands the first flight is expected to leave before the end of May  and a minister confirmed anyone who has arrived in Britain this year could be sent to Rwanda.

The Prime Minister pledged to do 'whatever it takes' to push through his landmark scheme to tackle the small-boats crisis in the Channel and smash people trafficking gangs

But critics of the plan continue to attack it over the sheer cost - estimated at up to 30,000 per person - and Rwanda's human rights record.

As well as church leaders, critics include former home secretary Theresa May, who opposed it 'on the grounds of legality, practical and efficacy'.

Civil servants who complained about Priti Patel's Rwanda policy have been slapped down by their boss and told to get on with the job.

The Home Office's top civil servant has warned his staff that leaks which had attempted to undermine the policy had been a breach of the civil service code.

Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft addressed concerns about the Rwanda agreement in a group call with mutinous employees who had even threatened to refuse to work on implementing the policy.
A child has been rushed to hospital after consuming a deadly 'death cap' mushroom in Canberra.

The young person was rushed to hospital on Tuesday.

It's the second time in just weeks a child has been hospitalised after consuming the potentially fatal musthrooms.

The death cap mushroom, also known as amanita phalloides (pictured), is a deadly fungus that is often mistaken for edible mushrooms

Acting Chief Health Officer Vanessa Johnston says it's never safe to pick and eat wild mushrooms in the ACT.

'This is an unfortunate reminder that wild mushrooms can grow anywhere in our region, at anytime, including at private residences,' she said on Wednesday.

'As the name suggests, death cap mushrooms can be deadly and all parts of the mushroom are poisonous, whether they have been cooked or not.'

'Canberrans should remember that it is never safe to pick and eat wild mushrooms.'

It can be identified by its 40-160mm wide cap and is either white, or pale green and yellow in colour (pictured)

The poisonous mushrooms can cause liver failure after 48 hours and cooking or drying them doesn't make them edible.

Other symptoms include violent stomach pains, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea within 6-24 hours of ingestion.

Symptoms may disappear within one-to-two days giving a false impression of recovery which could then cause liver failure and eventually death.

The death cap is responsible for 90 per cent of all mushroom poisoning deaths.

The mushroom species is often found in Canberra during autumn, and often grow under oak trees, but have also been spotted elsewhere.

The government inspects known mushroom sites weekly from February to June.

It urges anyone who thinks they've seen a death cap not to touch it, and to report its location via Access Canberra on 13 22 81.
Vijaya Gadde, 48, was described in a 2020 Politico profile as 'the most important Silicon Valley executive you've never heard of.'

Managing a team of 350, in 2021 she earned $17 million: a base salary of $600,000, plus a bonus of $450,000 and almost $400,000 in personal security. The rest was from shares.

Born in India and moving to Beaumont, Texas, when she was two years old, she recalls her engineer father having to go to the KKK to ask permission to sell insurance door-to-door.

The family later moved to New Jersey, and Gadde graduated with a law degree from New York University in 2000. 'I felt very strongly that I needed to be in a position where I understood my rights, or my community's rights,' she told Politico. 'I didn't ever want to be taken advantage of.'

Gadde joined Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she worked for a decade before becoming Senior Director in the legal department of Juniper Networks in Silicon Valley.

She joined Twitter in 2011, and became co-founder and then-CEO Jack Dorsey's right-hand woman, sitting next to him and accompanying him on his meetings in Congress and at the White House.

In October 2019 she was the architect of the idea to stop political advertising on the platform, and shortly before the election she played a key role in the decision to suspend The New York Post's account when it reported on Hunter Biden's laptop. Twitter claimed it violated the company policy against promoting hacked material; critics were angered by the heavy-handedness, and Twitter later apologized.

In January 2021, it was Gadde who rang Dorsey - on vacation in Hawaii - to inform him they were banning Donald Trump, for violating policies against inciting violence.

Married to Ramsey Homsany, a lawyer and co-founder of Octant Bio, a synthetic biology company, the pair welcomed a child in 2020.

Gadde is also a co-founder of #Angels, an investment collective that backs start-ups and helps ensure that women receive equal compensation at successful companies. She is also on the board of medical charity Mercy Corps.
China will aim to crash a spaceship into an asteroid as part of plans for a planetary defence system that could one day stop a space rock smashing into Earth.

The deflection mission, which is intended to alter the orbit of an as yet unnamed asteroid, is similar to NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).

That spacecraft was launched in November last year on a year-long journey to crash into the small asteroid Dimorphos 6.8 million miles from Earth.

Beijing's version, which was laid out by the deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), is scheduled for launch sometime in the mid-2020s.

The destination for the mission has not yet been selected, but Wu Yanhua said the CNSA plans to target a potentially hazardous asteroid  an object that has a chance, even if it is slim, of colliding with our planet sometime in the future.

China will aim to crash a spaceship into an asteroid as part of plans for a planetary defence system that could one day stop a space rock smashing into Earth. They were laid out by the deputy director of the China National Space Administration, Wu Yanhua

WHAT ARE CHINA'S SPACE PLANS FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? In January this year, China revealed a 'white paper' which set out the plans for its space programme over the next five years. It included building a near-earth object defence system, along with an aim to 'increase the capacity of near-earth object monitoring, cataloguing, early warning, and response'. China also wants to complete its space station, probe comets, explore Jupiter and 'complete key technological research on Mars sampling and return'. In addition, Beijing is developing a combined asteroid sample-return and comet rendezvous mission. Expected to launch before 2025, it will target Earth's quasi-satellite Kamooalewa, deliver samples to Earth and then head for a rendezvous with main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS. Advertisement

CNSA also plans to establish an early warning system and develop software to simulate operations against near Earth objects and test and verify basic procedures.

Wu described the aims during a celebration of China's Space Day, which commemorates the launch of the nation's first satellite, Dongfanghong-1, on April 24, 1970.

The CNSA had already set out plans for building a near-earth object defence system in a space 'white paper' released in January, along with an aim to 'increase the capacity of near-earth object monitoring, cataloguing, early warning, and response'.

The white paper set out CNSA's plans over the 2021 to 2025 period.

China also wants to complete its space station, probe comets, explore Jupiter and 'complete key technological research on Mars sampling and return'.

Over the next five years Beijing vowed to 'continue studies and research on the plan for a human lunar landing', develop new-generation manned spacecraft, and further expand its launch vehicle family.

'In the next five years, China will integrate space science, technology and applications while pursuing the new development philosophy, building a new development model and meeting the requirements for high-quality development,' the white paper says.

'It will start a new journey towards a space power.

'The space industry will contribute more to China's growth as a whole, to global consensus and common effort with regard to outer space exploration and utilisation, and to human progress.'

China is also developing a combined asteroid sample-return and comet rendezvous mission.

Expected to launch before 2025, it will target Earth's quasi-satellite Kamooalewa, deliver samples to Earth and then head for a rendezvous with main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS.

The deflection mission, which is intended to alter the orbit of an as yet unnamed asteroid, is similar to NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)

DART will arrive at Dimorphos in September this year, where it will deliberately smash into the asteroid at speeds of 15,000mph. This collision will change the speed of Dimorphos in its orbit around Didymos by a fraction of one per cent, changing the orbital period by several minutes

WHAT IS THE NASA DART MISSION? DART will be the world's first planetary defence test mission. It is heading for the small moonlet asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger companion asteroid called Didymos. When it gets there it will be intentionally crashing into the asteroid to slightly change its orbit. While neither asteroid poses a threat to Earth, DART's kinetic impact will prove that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and kinetically impact it. Then, using Earth-based telescopes to measure the effects of the impact on the asteroid system, the mission will enhance modeling and predictive capabilities to help us better prepare for an actual asteroid threat should one ever be discovered. Advertisement

NASA's $325m (240m) DART mission launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a SpaceX Falcon 9 on November 24.

It is on a year-long journey to crash into the small asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos, at 15,000mph (24,100km/h) in September this year.

When the 1,210lb space probe hits Dimorphos, the plan is for it to change the speed of the 'moonlet' by a fraction of a per cent.

Although the 525ft-wide space rock doesn't pose a danger to Earth, NASA wants to measure the asteroid's altered orbit caused by the collision.

This demonstration of 'planetary defence' will inform future missions that could one day save Earth from a deadly asteroid impact.

'This isn't going to destroy the asteroid. It's just going to give it a small nudge,' said mission official Nancy Chabot of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which is managing the project.

Dimorphos completes an orbit around Didymos every 11 hours and 55 minutes 'just like clockwork', she added.

DART's goal is a crash that will slow Dimorphos down and cause it to fall closer toward the bigger asteroid, shaving 10 minutes off its orbit.

The European Space Agency will then send its Hera mission to Didymos and Dimorphos later in the decade to examine the after effects of the DART mission impact.
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SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.

It's the first NASA crew comprised equally of men and women, including the first black woman making a long-term spaceflight, Jessica Watkins.

'This is one of the most diversified, I think, crews that we've had in a really, really long time,' NASA's space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders said on the eve of launch.

The SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with a Crew Dragon capsule dubbed 'Freedom', blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 03:52 EST (08:52 BST).

It will arrive at the space station at 20:15 EST Wednesday (01:15 BST Thursday), with the hatch set to open at 21:45 EST.

The crew, including Americans Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, and Italian Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, will spend five months carrying out scientific experiments at the orbiting lab.

The Crew-4 mission blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:52 am (08:52 BST) and will arrive at the space station at 8:15 pm Wednesday (01:15 BST Thursday)

Crew of first private flight to ISS return to Earth Three wealthy businessmen and a former NASA astronaut splashed down Monday off the Florida coast after spending more than two weeks aboard the International Space Station, in a landmark mission for the commercial sector. After a dizzying descent, a SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the Axiom-1 gently floated down to the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville at 13:06 EST (18:06 BST) on four huge parachutes. The spaceship was affectionately referred to as a 'toasted marshmallow' because of the scorch marks on its heat shield from re-entering the atmosphere at 17,500 miles per hour. The crew was quickly retrieved by a waiting ship, marking the official end of the first fully private mission to the orbiting outpost  and a turning point in US space agency NASA's goal to commercialise the region of space called low Earth orbit (LEO). Advertisement

The rapid turnaround time for SpaceX  a little under 40 hours between recovering one crew and sending up another  is a sign of an increasingly busy human spaceflight calendar since Elon Musk's company became NASA's mainstay astronaut taxi in 2020.

Between 2011  when the Space Shuttle program ended  and 2020, NASA was reliant on Russian Soyuz rockets for the service.

'Think how the Cape has transformed, think about all of those abandoned launchpads on the Cape, and how they are roaring back to life,' NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a press call on Tuesday.

Crew-4 was originally due to launch last weekend, but had been delayed due to the Ax-1 commercial crew mission, carrying three wealthy businessmen who each paid $55 million (41 million) to take part in the trip.

The private flight was NASA's first dip into space tourism, after years of opposition.

Canadian investor Mark Pathy, US entrepreneur Larry Connor, ex-Israeli Air Force pilot Eytan Stibbe and retired astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria had been due to spend eight days carrying out scientific experiments on the space station.

But bad weather repeatedly delayed their departure, meaning they actually worked alongside the seven regular, government-paid crew for a total of 16 days.

Their SpaceX capsule eventually touched down off the coast of Florida at 5pm BST (12pm EST) on Monday, 25 April.

Ax-1 had to return to Earth before Crew-4 could launch, as its spacecraft was occupying the same docking port on the ISS that was needed for Freedom.

Crew-4 was originally due to launch last weekend, but had been delayed due to the Ax-1 commercial crew mission, which couldn't depart the ISS due to bad weather.

Crew-4 mission astronauts (from L) Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building en route to launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Crew-4 mission astronauts including Jessica Watkins (L) and Bob Hines (2nd L) have an impromptu cheer to the success of their mission

First black woman making a long-term spaceflight While two Black women visited the space station during the shuttle era, neither moved in for a lengthy stay. Jessica Watkins, a geologist who is on NASA's short list for a moon-landing mission in the years ahead, sees her mission as 'an important milestone, I think, both for the agency and for the country.' She credits supportive family and mentors  including Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space in 1992  for 'ultimately being able to live my dream.' Advertisement

On arrival, Crew-4 will join the Crew-3 quartet, who are approaching the end of their five-month rotation on the ISS, as well as three Russians on the Russian segment of the orbital outpost. A date for Crew-3's return will be set soon.

Crew-4 is due to carry out hundreds of scientific experiments, including ongoing research into growing plants without soil in space.

Another involves developing an artificial human retina, leveraging the microgravity environment of the ISS to help deposit layer after layer of thin films of protein.

The technology 'could eventually be used to replace damaged photoreceptor cells in the eyes and potentially restore meaningful vision to the millions of people who suffer from retinal degenerative disease,' said NASA scientist Heidi Parris.

Among the crewmates, Watkins is only the fifth Black woman to go to space, and the first to join the crew of the ISS on an extended mission.

She and Hanes are members of the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class, nicknamed 'The Turtles', and Watkins could be seen holding a small stuffed turtle ahead of take-off.

A video of the Crew-4 in orbit, tweeted by SpaceX shortly after launch, shows the stuffed turtle floating in mid-air  a sign that the crew had reached the microgravity environment of space.

A video of the Crew-4 in orbit, tweeted by SpaceX shortly after launch, shows the stuffed turtle floating in the air  a sign that the crew had reached the microgravity environment of space

This is the fifth crewed spaceflight SpaceX has operated for NASA  after test flight Demo-2 and the three operational missions to the ISS in a Crew Dragon.

Overall, this is the seventh Crew Dragon flight, with one taking the fully-private Inspiration4 crew into orbit for just short of three days last year, and the other taking the Axiom Space Ax-1 commercial crew to the ISS earlier this month.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon 'Freedom' capsule is the company's fourth to be named by its crew, with the others given the titles Endeavour, Resilience and Endurance, in order of launch.

'FREEDOM!! Crew-4 will fly to the International Space Station in a new Dragon capsule named 'Freedom,' said mission commander Lindgren when it was announced.

'The name celebrates a fundamental human right, and the industry and innovation that emanate from the unencumbered human spirit.

'Alan Shepard flew on Freedom 7 at the dawn of human spaceflight. We are honoured to bring Freedom to a new generation!'

Alan Shepard was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, and was the first American in space  launching on May 5, 1961.

He selected Freedom as his spacecraft name in light of the Cold War space race between the US and Soviet Union.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon 'Freedom' capsule will carry NASA's Kjell N. Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and ESA's Samantha Cristoforetti to the ISS from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida

'Alan Shepard flew on Freedom 7 at the dawn of human spaceflight. We are honored to bring Freedom to a new generation!' said Lindgren

Crew Dragon Freedom is the second to draw inspiration from NASA's past for a title, with the first given to the Demo-2 capsule  called Endeavour after the Shuttle.

'We both had our first flights on shuttle Endeavour, and it just meant so much to us to carry on that name. So that is what we decided to go with,' said Doug Hurley, who travelled to space with Demo-2 in May 2020.

Crew Dragon 'Freedom' was assembled at the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California, arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in March.
An asteroid twice the size of the Empire State Building will fly past the Earth tonight, according to NASA, but it won't get close enough to cause any problems.

The space rock, named 418135 (2008 AG33), will come about two million miles from the planet, which is roughly eight times further from the Earth than the moon.

As it comes within Earth's orbit, and reaches its closest point, the asteroid will be travelling at 23,300 miles per hour, or about 30 times the speed of sound.

Measuring up to 2,560 feet in diameter, the rock has been dubbed as potentially hazardous by NASA, reaching its close approach at 10:46pm ET tonight.

An asteroid twice the size of the Empire State Building will fly past the Earth tonight, according to NASA, but it won't get close enough to cause any problems. Stock image

While two million miles might sound like a huge distance, on cosmic scales it is extremely close, well within the Earth's orbit.

For this reason, NASA considers any asteroid that comes this close as potentially hazardous - a type of Near Earth Object that could pose a risk to life on Earth.

NASA considers any object within 120 million miles of the planet as a Near Earth Object (NEO), and any object within 4.65 million miles as 'potentially hazardous'.

These rocks are closely monitored by astronomers and planetary defense specialists, as any small deviation in its orbit could put it on a collision course with Earth.

The space rock, named 418135 (2008 AG33), will come about two million miles from the planet, which is roughly eight times further from the Earth than the moon. Stock image

Asteroid 418135 (2008 AG33) isn't a newcomer, it was first discovered in January 2008 by astronomers at the Mt Lemmon SkyCenter in Arizona, and last made a 'close approach' to the Earth in March 2015 - making a fly-by every seven years.

Its next close fly-by isn't expected to happen until May 2029, according to NASA, that is unless something acts to shift its orbit - but that is unlikely.

Explained: The difference between an asteroid, meteorite and other space rocks An asteroid is a large chunk of rock left over from collisions or the early solar system. Most are located between Mars and Jupiter in the Main Belt. A comet is a rock covered in ice, methane and other compounds. Their orbits take them much further out of the solar system. A meteor is what astronomers call a flash of light in the atmosphere when debris burns up. This debris itself is known as a meteoroid. Most are so small they are vapourised in the atmosphere. If any of this meteoroid makes it to Earth, it is called a meteorite. Meteors, meteoroids and meteorites normally originate from asteroids and comets. For example, if Earth passes through the tail of a comet, much of the debris burns up in the atmosphere, forming a meteor shower. Advertisement

This isn't the only close approach in the coming weeks, but is the largest object to venture within a few million miles of the planet.

An asteroid dubbed 2022 HX1 is due to come 1.5 million miles from the Earth on April 30, but it is just 82ft across.

Although that is still larger than the Chelyabinsk meteorite that exploded over Russia in 2013, producing a shock wave powerful enough to travel twice around the globe.

The asteroid 2008 AG33 isn't the largest to come 'close' to Earth in the next few weeks - that title will go to 467460 (2006 JF42), discovered in 2006, it is estimated to be up to 2,820ft in diameter. Although it will be 3.5 million miles away from Earth.

NASA, ESA, China and others are working on planetary defense solutions that are designed to prevent most asteroids from reaching Earth if on a direct course.

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a NASA space mission aimed at testing a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects - crashing into an asteroid to see if the method can be used to shift its orbit slightly. It will hit in September.

China also confirmed it aims to crash a spaceship into an asteroid as part of plans for a planetary defence system.

The destination for the mission has not yet been selected, but Wu Yanhua said the CNSA plans to target a potentially hazardous asteroid  an object that has a chance, even if it is slim, of colliding with our planet sometime in the future.

Other agencies, including the US Space Force, are working on better tracking, to monitor the more than 600,000 known asteroids, the 20,000 NEOs and countless undiscovered space rocks - which are the ones that pose the biggest threat.

Asteroid 2008 AG33 will make its closest approach, about two million miles from Earth, at just after 10:45pm tonight, although with an absolute magnitude of 19.41, it will only be visible to the largest telescopes, well outside naked eye range.
More than a fifth of the world's reptiles face imminent extinction, a new study has warned.

Crocodiles and turtles are among the most at-risk, with more than half of each species requiring urgent conservation efforts to ensure their survival.

The main threats reptiles face are agriculture, logging, urban development and invasive species, while the risk posed by climate change is uncertain, the international team of researchers said.

They assessed the conservation status of 10,196 reptile species, and found that at least 1,829 were threatened with extinction.

Under threat: More than a fifth of the world's reptiles face imminent extinction, a study has warned. The researchers said that crocodiles and turtles are among the most at-risk species

The main threats reptiles face are agriculture, logging, urban development and invasive species, while the risk posed by climate change is uncertain, the international team of researchers said

The experts said comprehensive extinction risk assessments are available for birds, mammals and amphibians, but have been lacking for reptiles. The graphic above shows the species that are extinct (EX), extinct in the wild (EW), critically endangered (CR), endangered (EN), vulnerable (VU), data deficient (DD), near threatened (NT) and least concern (LC)

The experts said comprehensive extinction risk assessments are available for birds, mammals and amphibians, but have been lacking for reptiles.

Conservation strategies for reptiles have so far relied on International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria and distributions of other animals to inform policy and priorities.

The research was carried out by Monash University, The University of Adelaide, The University of Sydney, Australian Museum, University of Tasmania, Charles Darwin University, University of Western Australia, and NatureServe in the US.

Lead author Dr Bruce Young, NatureServe's chief zoologist and senior conservation scientist, applied the IUCN Red List criteria to reptiles to examine extinction risks for reptiles globally.

Of more than 10,000 species assessed, over 21 per cent were threatened with extinction (categorised as being vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered).

Crocodiles and turtles are among the most at-risk species, with around 57.9 per cent and 50 per cent of those assessed being under threat, respectively.

Although previous predictions have proposed reptiles to be most at risk in arid environments (where they are highly diverse), Young and colleagues found that species inhabiting forests were more threatened  perhaps because of greater exposures to certain threats in forest environments.

The graphic above shows where in the world reptiles are most under threat (shown in red)

The main threats reptiles face are agriculture, logging, urban development and invasive species, while the risk posed by climate change is uncertain, the international team of researchers said

Experts assessed the conservation status of 10,196 reptile species, and found that at least 1,829 were threatened with extinction.

Of more than 10,000 species assessed, over 21 per cent were threatened with extinction (vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered). Pictured is an iguana in Jamaica

The authors highlight that many of the risks that reptiles face are similar to those faced by other animal groups

The authors highlight that many of the risks that reptiles face are similar to those faced by other animal groups, and suggest that conservation efforts to protect these groups  including habitat restoration and controlling invasive species  may have also benefited reptiles.

However, they caution that some reptiles do require urgent conservation efforts to prevent extinctions.

'Among the conservation strategies needed to prevent reptile extinction, land protection is critically important to buffer many threatened species from the dual threats of agricultural activities and urban development,' the researchers wrote in their paper.

'The hundreds of threatened reptiles that currently occur completely outside protected areas underscore the need for targeted safeguards of important sites.'

They added: 'Although efforts aimed at protecting other threatened tetrapods probably benefit many of the 1,829 threatened reptiles  especially forest-dwelling species  conservation investments targeted at uniquely occurring reptiles or those requiring tailored policies must also be implemented to prevent extinction.'

The research has been published in the journal Nature.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of employees were required to work from home and collaborate virtually using videoconferencing technologies such as Zoom.

But a new study suggests this shift away from in-person interactions could have a negative effect on people's ability to brainstorm effectively.

Researchers at Columbia University put almost 1,500 people into pairs over either a video call or in-person, and asked them to come up with new product ideas.

They found the face-to-face pairs produced more creative ideas compared to the virtual pairs.

However, when selecting which idea to pursue, video call pairs were no less effective.

The authors suggest that video calls focus communication on a screen, narrowing peoples focus and hindering the 'broad, expansive process of idea generation'.

Researchers found the face-to-face pairs produced more ideas, and more creative ideas, compared to the virtual pairs

At the beginning of the idea generation task, ideas generated by in-person and virtual pairs were similarly connected to past ideas generated by each pair. However, by the eleventh idea, ideas generated by in-person pairs began to exhibit significantly more forward flow (that is, the ideas were less semantically associated) compared to those of virtual pairs

To investigate how using video calls may affect the generation of collaborative ideas, the researchers recruited 1,490 people across five country sites of a telecoms infrastructure company (in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia).

The participants were randomly paired, either face-to-face or via video call, and asked to create product ideas for an hour, before choosing one to submit as a future product innovation for the company.

The engineers who worked on the task virtually generated an average of 7.43 in the hour, while those in in-person pairs generated an average of 8.58 ideas. This pattern was replicated at all five sites.

'There are many important advantages to working from home (WFH) and virtual interaction more generally, such as access to a larger talent pool, less commute time, and increased employee flexibility,' Professor Melanie Brucks, co-author of the paper, told MailOnline.

'There are also many potential disadvantages to WFH, perhaps most importantly, less community.

'This paper only documents a cognitive disadvantage of videoconferencing when it comes to idea generation, and our findings are just one additional factor for employers to consider when determining the extent to which their office will be remote.

'That being said, the future of work is hybrid, and we should be strategic about which tasks we do when working in-person vs. remotely.

'Our findings suggest that you should consider specifically prioritising idea generation during in-person time.'

In the experiment,half of the pairs worked together in person and the other half worked together in separate, identical rooms using videoconferencing. The pairs in the virtual condition interacted with a real-time video of their partners face displayed on a 15-inch retina-display screen with no self-view.

Working from home part-time could be BAD for the environment Working from home part-time could be bad for the environment because it encourages people to live further from the office, a new study claims. Researchers have found that people who work from home even just once a week live further away than those who work in the office full-time, Monday to Friday. Remote workers therefore have to travel more miles in a given week, even though they're making fewer trips, and so their vehicles release more carbon emissions. In addition, remote workers engage in more travel on the days when they work from home  for example, by making extra trips to shops and cafes, the experts found. A permanent post-pandemic switch to hybrid working following the Covid pandemic may do little to reduce carbon emissions, they suggest. Advertisement

The researchers suggest several possible explanations for the negative effect of virtual interaction on idea generation.

For example, they say that the ideas that were generated in-person were progressively more 'disconnected' than those generated by the virtual pairs; so rather than generating lots of similar ideas, the in-person pairs ended up with a broader spectrum.

They also said that the pairs' ability to generate creative ideas was significantly associated with their ability to make eye contact with their partner and gaze around the room.

When two individuals look at each others eyes on the screen, it appears to neither partner that the other is looking into their eyes. This can affect communication, resulting in fewer ideas overall.

Laboratory studies using eye-tracking data also showed that virtual partners spend more time looking directly at their partner, as opposed to gazing around the room, which also hinders idea generation.

'Even if video interaction could communicate the same information, there remains an inherent and overlooked physical difference in communicating through video that is not psychologically benign,' wrote Brucks and co-author Jonathan Levav in their paper.

'In-person teams operate in a fully shared physical space, whereas virtual teams inhabit a virtual space that is bounded by the screen in front of each member.

'Our data suggest that this physical difference in shared space compels virtual communicators to narrow their visual field by concentrating on the screen and filtering out peripheral visual stimuli that are not visible or relevant to their partner.'

Pairs interacting virtually spent more time looking at their partner and less time looking at the surrounding room . Importantly, the time spent looking around the room predicted creative idea generation

Previous research has show that visual and cognitive attention are inextricably linked.

As virtual communicators narrow their visual scope to the shared environment of a screen, their cognitive focus narrows in turn.

'This narrowed focus constrains the associative process underlying idea generation, whereby thoughts "branch out" and activate disparate information that is then combined to form new ideas,' the researchers explained.

Interestingly, the researchers found that when it came to choosing which idea to submit, decision quality was positively impacted by virtual interaction.

Virtual pairs selected a significantly higher scoring idea and had a significantly lower decision error score compared with in-person pairs.

However, the effect on decision quality balanced out when controlling for the number of ideas that each pair generated.

Commenting on the study in a Nature News & Views article, Emoke-Agnes Horvat and Brian Uzzi from Northwestern University said that conventional wisdom holds that innovation is driven by in-person interactions.

'Seminal research has shown that many great innovations in mathematics, science and the arts from the likes of Charles Darwin, the Funk Brothers and Marie Curie came about because of in-person interactions in teams or networks  a trend that still holds in many modern fields of endeavour,' they wrote.

'Indeed, the scarcity of in-person meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic has been blamed for permanently denting scientific innovation.

'With so much at stake, it is crucial to understand how computer-mediated interactions change creative thinking.'

The study suggests that creative work may benefit from in-person meetings, whereas other types of collaboration may not be affected

The findings suggest that creative work may benefit from in-person meetings, whereas other types of collaboration may not be affected.

However, Horvat and Uzzi point out that this may not be the only consideration for employers' flexible working policies.

'In the real world, the cost of creativity is of paramount concern,' they wrote.

'If, for arguments sake, virtual collaborations produce 20% fewer ideas than do in-person teams, but at 40% of the cost, then the cost per idea is greater for in-person teams than for virtual collaborations.

'From this perspective, virtual meetings would be more productive than in-person meetings.'

The study has been published in the journal Nature.
Thousands of disgruntled Twitter users have been flocking to rival social network Mastodon in response to Elon Musk's takeover announcement.

The platform, which is often seen as an alternative to Twitter, gained nearly 30,000 new users on the day the Tesla billionaire had his $44 billion (34.5 billion) offer for the microblogging site accepted.

It also led to a number of 'woke warriors', Left-wing organisations and Musk's business rivals threatening to quit Twitter, although the vast majority are yet to delete their accounts.

The influx of new users caused a problem for Mastodon, with the domain becoming unresponsive on Tuesday.

Thousands of disgruntled Twitter users have been flocking to rival social network Mastodon in response to Elon Musk's takeover announcement

MASTODON: TWITTER RIVAL NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD OF Off the back of the news Elon Musk is buying Twitter, tens of thousands of users have switched platforms. Many of them have found their way to Mastadon, but it isn't a straight switch. It launched In March 2016, and is a collection of self-hosted social services, not a single, central platform like Twitter or Facebook. When you sign up, you select a network to join, each with its own rules and guidelines. Although its appearance is similar to Twitter, the decentralised social network actually holds more similarities with Discord. Users have to find specific Mastodon instances to join, rather than everyone being in the same place. While each user is a member of the specific community, they can interoperate as a federal social network - so each group can interact with other groups. It was launched as a place for Twitter users to move to, after complaints of abuse and hatred on the platform. Each post has a 500 character limit and its Tweets are called Tools. Users can also set a post to private, visible to select people, which is a feature not available on Twitter. Mastadon is actually free open-source software, that groups can run and share to the main app and website - some have Twitter-like microblogging features, others don't. Advertisement

Eugen Rochko, Mastodon's German-born founder and CEO, later admitted that there were performance issues.

'I was working all day on fixing performance issues on the Mastodon servers I operate due to the influx of new and returning users following Twitter's acquisition by Elon Musk,' he told Motherboard.

Rochko said that Mastodon had seen an increase of 41,287 active users, including both returning users and new users.

When factoring in new users alone, 28,391 people have joined Mastodon in the past day.

Mastodon is not a single website like Twitter but a network of users in independent communities that can set up their own guidelines.

Although its appearance is similar to Twitter, the decentralised social network actually has more in common with Discord, in that users have to find specific Mastodon instances to join.

It was launched in 2017 for Twitter users sick of the abuse and hatred on the platform.

The network has a 500-character limit on 'toots'  its version of tweets  and allows users to set posts to private, which Twitter does not.

It also had a feed that is quite different from Musk's new acquisition, because Mastodon has a chronological, ad-free, and non-algorithmic approach.

The company is registered as a non-profit and development is supported entirely by donations, meaning there is no advertising.

Musk, who on Monday sealed a $44 billion (34.5 billion) deal for Twitter just three weeks after starting the process, tweeted: 'I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.'

In a statement, he said that he wanted to make 'Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans'.

Musk added: 'Twitter has tremendous potential  I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.'

But naysayers, most from the Left, were angry and have said they will quit, although most have not followed through with the threat.

Amnesty International tweeted: 'Two words: "toxic Twitter" while Rob Reiner, star of 1970s sitcom All In The Family, said he feared 'criminal' Donald Trump would now have his account reactivated, although the former president has ruled out a return and says he will stay on his own 'TRUTH Social' platform.

Rivals of Tesla have thrown their toys out of the pram, despite Musk insisting his acquisition is about free speech over profits.

Henrik Fisker, the Danish CEO of the electric vehicle maker Fisker, deleted his Twitter account shortly after the company confirmed that Elon Musk acquired 100 per cent of the company.

Mastodon, which is often seen as an alternative to Twitter, gained nearly 30,000 new users on the day Elon Musk had his $44 billion (34.5 billion) offer for the microblogging site accepted

He Henrik tweeted: 'Please follow me on IG (Instagram) from now on if you want any updates. Thanks', using the hashtag #love.

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos questioned whether his fellow billionaire Musk could be making Twitter vulnerable to pressure from China, as a result of Tesla's extensive business liabilities in the Asian nation.

Bezos and Musk are noted for their rivalry in space, with both men dedicating large chunks of their fortunes to exploration.

The former has dismissed his rival's plan to colonise Mars using his SpaceX rockets as unrealistic, while Musk has been scathing about the orbiting space station Blue Origin founder Bezos proposes.




By Kwon Mee-yoo







Former Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Song Young-gil received the French officier of the Legion of Honour medal for his effort to promote Korea-France relations and seek new opportunities for bilateral cooperation, Tuesday.







French ambassador to Korea Philippe Lefort bestowed the medal on behalf of France's President Emmanuel Macron at the country's embassy in central Seoul.







The Legion of Honour is the highest French order of merit and has five levels  chevalier, officier, commandeur, grand officier and grand-croix.







Song previously received the chevalier of the Legion of Honour medal back in 2009 in recognition of his efforts as the president of the Korea-France Parliamentary Friendship Association from 2004 to 2008 and has been promoted to the class of officier.







Song expressed gratitude over the opportunities to take part in forging the comprehensive partnership for the 21st century and developing Korea-France relations.







Song, who is currently running in the DPK's primary for Seoul mayor, promoted his pledge of attracting the fifth United Nations office to Seoul during the ceremony. Currently, the UN has offices in Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi in addition its headquarters in New York.







"(By hosting the UN's fifth office in Seoul) we can expect a wider usage of French, which is one of the official languages of the UN, and increase human resource exchanges between Korea and France," Song wrote on his Facebook account.







"I asked the ambassador for France's support in hosting the UN office in Seoul as a permanent member of the Security Council."


Characters in books are about four times more likely to be male than female, a new study of gender bias in literature has revealed.

Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering used artificial intelligence to examine more than 3,000 English-language books ranging from science fiction and adventure, to mystery and romance - across short stories, poetry and novels.

The team found male characters appeared four times as often as females across the books, although that reduced when the author of the work was female.

There were also more negative terms used in connection with the female characters such as 'weak' and 'stupid' compared to 'strong' and 'power' used for men.

'Gender bias is real, and when we see females four times less in literature, it has a subliminal impact on people consuming the culture,' said author Mayank Kejriwal.

Characters in books are about four times more likely to be male than female, a new study of gender bias in literature has revealed, such as F Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby

Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering used artificial intelligence to examine more than 3,000 English-language books ranging from science fiction and adventure, to mystery and romance - across short stories, poetry and novels

The study, run by the Information Sciences Institute at USC was inspired by other work looking at implicit gender biases, which only give a qualitive result.

The team, including Kejriwal, wanted to quantify the representation of males and females within literature and the wider media using AI techniques.

To produce these findings, Kejriwal and co-author, Akarsh Nagaraj, accessed data through the Gutenberg Project corpus - to create a set text to work from.

Nagaraj said the methods they used, as well as the findings, revealed a greater understand of biases in society, as well as its implications.

'Books are a window to the past, and the writing of these authors gives us a glimpse into how people perceive the world, and how it has changed,' he added.

The study produced a number of methods for working out how many females appeared in literature, including something known as Named Entity Recognition (NER), a prominent method used to extract gender-specific characters.

There were also more negative terms used in connection with the female characters such as 'weak' and 'stupid' compared to 'strong' and 'power' used for men, such as James Bond

The team found male characters appeared four times as often as females across the books, although that reduced when the author of the work was female

'One of the ways we define this is through looking at how many female pronouns are in a book compared to male pronouns,' said Kejriwal, adding 'the other technique is to quantify how many female characters are the main characters in it.'

This allowed the research team to determine whether the male characters were central to the story, in the 3,000 or so stories published from 1880 to 2000.

HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES LEARN USING NEURAL NETWORKS AI systems rely on artificial neural networks (ANNs), which try to simulate the way the brain works in order to learn. ANNs can be trained to recognise patterns in information - including speech, text data, or visual images - and are the basis for a large number of the developments in AI over recent years. Conventional AI uses input to 'teach' an algorithm about a particular subject by feeding it massive amounts of information. Practical applications include Google's language translation services, Facebook's facial recognition software and Snapchat's image altering live filters. The process of inputting this data can be extremely time consuming, and is limited to one type of knowledge. A new breed of ANNs called Adversarial Neural Networks pits the wits of two AI bots against each other, which allows them to learn from each other. This approach is designed to speed up the process of learning, as well as refining the output created by AI systems. Advertisement

The study's findings also showed that the discrepancy between male and female characters decreases under female authorship.

'It clearly showed us that women in those times would represent themselves much more than a male writer would,' said Nagaraj.

There were some limitations to the techniques used by the team, for example if the author was not clearly male or female, they were ignored.

'When we published the dataset paper, reviewers had this criticism that we were ignoring non-dichotomous genders,' said Kejriwal.

'But we agreed with them, in a way. We think it's completely suppressed, and we won't be able to find many [transgender individuals or non-binary individuals].'

Kejriwal acknowledged that AI tools for identifying plural words, such as 'they,' which may be referring to a non-binary individual, do not yet exist.

They hope the methods they've developed can be a framework for future studies, that address these social issues more effectively.

The study also provides a blueprint for future work on quantifying the qualitative findings they discovered through the study's methodologies.

Without the inherent bias in human-designed surveys, the AI was able to determine adjectives linked to gender-specific characters.

'Even with misattributions, the words associated with women were adjectives like 'weak,' 'amiable,' 'pretty,' and sometimes 'stupid,'' said Nagaraj. 'For male characters, the words describing them included 'leadership,' 'power,' 'strength' and 'politics.''

While the team didn't ultimately quantify this part of their study, this difference in descriptions between gender-specific characters should be addressed in future, the team said, adding there is merit in 'more comprehensive qualitative investigation on word associations with gender.'

'Our study shows us that the real world is complex but there are benefits to all different groups in our society participating in the cultural discourse,' said Kejriwal. 'When we do that, there tends to be a more realistic view of society.'

Kejriwal is hopeful that the study will serve to highlight the importance of interdisciplinary researchthat is, using AI technology to highlight pressing social issues and inequalities that can be addressed.

The findings have been published in the journal Data in Brief.
Former Tottenham and Watford midfielder is all too aware of Anfield challenge

Villarreal midfielder Etienne Capoue has warned his team-mates that they face 'hell' in the Champions League semi-finals tonight.

The Spanish side visit Anfield in the first leg of the last four showdown of Europe's top prize with Unai Emery's outfit very much seen as the underdogs.

Capoue is familiar with the Merseyside giants' home following stints at Tottenham and Watford before joining Villarreal last year and has opened up on what it's like to play at Anfield, saying 'they just want to kill everyone' for the entire match.

Villarreal midfielder Etienne Capoue has warned his team-mates that they face 'hell' tonight

The former Spurs and Watford midfielder opened up on what it's like to play at Anfield

'Anfield is hell, you have to say it how it is. It's hell,' Capoue told AFP.

'It's the worst stadium I've been to in England. Whether it's the atmosphere, the way they play... For 90 minutes, you live in hell.

'They have this ability to transcend themselves, to cause you nothing but problems, all the time, in any part of the field.

ETIENNE CAPOUE VS LIVERPOOL AT ANFIELD Team Opponent Venue Competition Date Team F Team A Watford Liverpool Anfield Premier League 14/12/2019 0 2 Watford Liverpool Anfield Premier League 27/02/2019 0 5 Watford Liverpool Anfield Premier League 17/03/2018 0 5 Watford Liverpool Anfield Premier League 06/11/2016 1 6

Capoue said Liverpool 'just want to kill everyone' for the entire match at their home ground

'They never stop, they rush you all the time, they only want to score goals, and even when they score, they carry on. They want to knock you out.

'They don't care what or who is in front of them. They just want to kill everyone and that's it.'

Villarreal have proved that they are no pushovers by beating Juventus and Bayern Munich to reach this stage of the competition and Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp vowed not the underestimate the LaLiga outfit.

Liverpool are bidding to win their seventh European Cup with their last triumph coming in 2019, following a sensational comeback win over Barcelona in the semi-finals.

Capoue celebrates after Villarreal beat Bayern Munich to reach Champions League semi-finals

The Reds looked to be heading out when trailing 3-0 to Barca from the first leg but, spurred on by an electric atmosphere at Anfield, they pulled off a remarkable 4-0 win to reach the final - and then went on to beat Tottenham.

Klopp promised to be at the 'top of his game' on the touchline as he called on fans to create a 'similar atmosphere' to that memorable night three years ago.

'We need a similar atmosphere and a big performance. I need to be on top of my game, so do the boys, that is fine,' he said in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.

'If a semi-final in this competition would be easy, something would be really wrong. I can't wait for it, to be honest.'
Happy: it is the word that is readily put forward by Luis Diazs new colleagues when they are asked to describe him.

Diaz, who Liverpool signed in January from Porto, is still very much in the acclimatisation period to a new life and career. The Colombian speaks barely a word of English and Jurgen Klopp has been so conscious not to overload him with too much information that instructions in training are kept brief.

Communication might not be easy but one thing that is clear to all is the joy with which he attacks each day, his enthusiasm and energy has been infectious and the squad have readily embraced a player who outstanding ability was evident from the first session he took part in at their Kirkby HQ.

Luis Diaz is visibly happy with life at Liverpool and was desperate to impress against Villarreal

There is no question that Diaz was one of the sparks that helped ignite Liverpool in the second half of this campaign and he has quickly established himself as not just a hit with team-mates and fans but as a member of Klopps A team.

Klopp unleashed his current strongest starting line-up, as you would expect, for the first leg of this Champions League semi-final and the inclusion of Diaz on the left wing, with Sadio Mane tucked inside, instantly caught the eye.

The intention was to blow Villarreal away with one of those starts that left the Manchester clubs seeing stars earlier this month but, with Unai Emery a canny and tactically astute operator, it was never going to be that straightforward.

Diaz was exasperated at times in the tie at Anfield, but parts of his play were treated to gasps

And for the first time in what many believe will be an outstanding Anfield career, we saw Diaz in a different light  the happiness and the big smile replaced by a frown and exasperated hand gestures, as the avenues he wanted to scuttle down were blocked.

It wasnt that his performance was bad  absolutely not. Diaz was his usual figure of perpetual motion, dashing and darting amongst yellow jerseys, keeping the ball flowing with intelligent passes and sensible decisions.

You could see, however, that he was desperate to entertain. His first contribution when coming on in the Merseyside derby last Sunday was a quite wonderful back-heeled cushioned control, the type of moment that was greeted by gasps.

Much of what he tried, though, was dealt with  a 31st minute shot was punched away by Geronimo Rulli, another effort on the stroke of half-time was blocked. In between, when he had been crudely brought down, he jumped up and admonished Polish referee Szymon Marciniak.

By the end, Diaz (top, right) was flying once again and was also treated to a standing ovation

Liverpool supporters know all about quality and in star forward Diaz, they see it in abundance

But half-time came at the right time and the interval allowed Diaz and his team-mates to regather their composure, to the point that efforts were able to propel them to the point of securing a place in next months final in Paris.

Had Jordan Hendersons deflected shot hit a post, Diaz was the man who was going to be on hand to tap in to an empty net. Instead, he watched the ball loop in and out came that big happy smile once more, as the tension been lanced.

By the end, Diaz was flying once again, tormenting right-back Pervis Estupinian at will. He deserved a goal but, character that he is, he was thrilled with the end result and was given a standing ovation as he left the field. No wonder. They know quality around here when they see it and Diaz, certainly, has it.
Writers facing deadlines go to Tokyo's 'Manuscript Writing Cafe' with an understanding - they can't leave until their work is done.

Oh, and there's prodding thrown in to make sure they buckle down and finish.

The clean, well-lit place in western Tokyo has 10 seats reserved for writers, editors, manga artists and anybody else grappling with the written word and deadlines. Coffee and tea are unlimited and self-serve, and high-speed Wi-Fi and docking ports are installed at every seat.

At Tokyo's 'Manuscript Writing Cafe', pictured, writers facing deadlines can't leave until their work is done

The cafe has 10 seats reserved for writers, editors, manga artists and anybody else grappling with the written word and deadlines

Once they arrive, customers write down their names, writing goals and the time they plan to finish

Customers enter, write down their names, writing goals and the time they plan to finish. They can also ask for progress checks as they work, with 'mild' just asking them if they have finished as they pay and 'normal' being a check-in every hour.

Those choosing 'hard' will feel silent pressure from staff standing frequently behind them.

Owner Takuya Kawai, 52, and a writer himself, said he hoped the strict rules would help people focus.

Customers can ask for progress checks as they work, with 'mild' just asking them if they have finished as they pay and 'normal' being a check-in every hour

Owner Takuya Kawai, 52, and a writer himself, said he hoped the strict rules would help people focus

'The cafe went viral on social media,' said the owner

'The cafe went viral on social media and people are saying the rules are scary or that it feels like being watched from behind,' the genial Kawai told Reuters, displaying a board with the names of customers who completed their tasks and left.

'But actually instead of monitoring, I'm here to support them... As a result what they thought would take a day actually was completed in three hours, or tasks that usually take three hours were done in one.'

The cafe charges 130 yen (81p / $1.01) for the first 30 minutes and then 300 yen (1.86 / $2.34) every successive hour. Though a few people have stayed past the official closing time, they have all eventually gotten their work done.

Above are customers' time slots in the cafe. The business charges 130 yen (81p / $1.01) for the first 30 minutes and then 300 yen (1.86 / $2.34) every successive hour

Coffee and tea are unlimited and self-serve from this tea station

There's high-speed Wi-Fi and docking ports are installed at every seat

Though a few people have stayed past the official closing time, they have all eventually gotten their work done

The cafe's website notes that the space is ideal for people who have tried to meet a writing deadline 'at home or in an ordinary cafe' with little luck.

'This unique sense of tension like studying for an exam in a library will really stimulate your creative work,' the website notes, adding: 'All the customers in the store are "writing manuscripts", so the atmosphere of the place is moderately tense and you can concentrate on your work.'

Emiko Sasaki, 37, and a blog writer, said she relished the chance to be free of pesky social media and phone calls.

'It's good to be able to concentrate on writing,' she said, completing her goal of three blog articles in three hours.

A board displays the names of customers who completed their tasks and left

'I don't know what kind of work might be born, but I'm proud to be able to offer my support so that things written here can be published to the whole world,' the owner said

Pictures suggest that customers hold their personal belongings in mesh shopping baskets underneath their chairs

Pictures suggest that customers hold their personal belongings in mesh shopping baskets underneath their chairs. Writers can bring their own food and drink to the cafe, and can even order their favourite takeaway to fuel them to meet their deadline.

The cafe, originally a livestreaming space, was hit badly by the coronavirus pandemic, but Kawai is now hopeful as word of mouth spreads about its new format.

'I don't know what kind of work might be born, but I'm proud to be able to offer my support so that things written here can be published to the whole world,' he said.

For more information visit koenji-sankakuchitai.blog.jp/ManuscriptWritingCafe.
Kelly Brook is confident she has the found the one, as she gushed that boyfriend Jeremy Parisi 'ticks all the boxes' and 'can keep up with her and the lifestyle she loves'.

A smitten Kelly may have been engaged four times before, but she could not be more complimentary of her Italian-and-French beau, who she considers the 'most romantic' out of them both.

The 42-year-old also sent tongues wagging by remarking she and model Jeremy, 37, who she began dating in 2015, are 'open' to marriage if 'all the stars align'.

'He ticks all the boxes': Kelly Brook has gushed she's found 'The One' with Jeremy Parisi and said they are 'open' to marriage (pictured August 2021)

Opening up about her romance with her 'best friend and soulmate', Kelly told The Mirror: 'I've found someone who can keep up with me and the lifestyle that I love. It's the combination of having a very exciting life but also having moments where it's nice to stay home, watch Netflix and walk the dog. It's getting that balance.'

The model - a lads' mag favourite in the noughties - has been engaged before to actor Jason Statham, Back To The Future's Billy Zane, rugby player - and Nicole Scherzinger's current man - Thom Evans and Gladiator David McIntosh.

She also dated lothario Danny Cipriani on and off from 2008 to 2010.

Love: The 42-year-old sent tongues wagging by remarking she and model Jeremy, 37, are 'open' to marriage if 'all the stars align'

Kelly's relationship with her first fiance Jason, now 54, lasted for seven years before they split up in 2004.

The action-thriller film star is now engaged to Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and the pair share two children.

Fiance number two Billy, 56, is an American actor and Kelly met him on the set of Survival Island, also known as Three, in 2005.

They called it time on their relationship in 2008.

Number one: Kelly's relationship with her first fiance Jason Statham, now 54, lasted for seven years before they split up in 2004 (pictured 1999)

Second go: Fiance number two Billy Zane, 56, is an American actor and Kelly met him on the set of Survival Island, also known as Three, in 2005 (pictured 2008)

Scottish international rugby union player Thom Evans, 37, was Kelly's third husband-to-be, and they dated from 2010 to 2013.

The pair sadly suffered two miscarriages during their time together.

The sportsman is now dating Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger.

In at fourth, Gladiator competitor David, now 36, and Kelly were together for less than a year before they split in January 2015.

David proposed after just 11 weeks of dating before they suffered an extremely acrimonious split six months later.

Past: Scottish international rugby union player Thom Evans, 37, was Kelly's third husband-to-be, and they dated from 2010 to 2013 (pictured 2012)

Short-lived romance: In at fourth, Gladiator competitor David McIntosh, now 36, and Kelly were together for less than a year before they split in January 2015

Kelly and Jeremy, who met via Instagram, recently celebrated their seventh anniversary - which marks the day he packed up his French abode and moved in with her in Kent.

Of their secret to long-lasting love, Kelly said: 'I just think I think being older and wiser. We have the same kind of goals. Jeremy's a family man. I love being with family. We just have a lot in common.'

The Heart FM was also drawn to Jeremy's lacking 'red flags', something she joked she used to 'chase' in a nod to her past.

Happy: Kelly and Jeremy, who met via Instagram, recently marked their seventh anniversary - which marks the day he packed up his French abode and moved in with her (pictured 2017)

Teasing: Even though Kelly hasn't ruled out the sound of wedding bells in the future, she joked that whilst people can speculate, 'if it hasnt happened on Instagram, it hasnt really happened!' (pictured August 2021)

Career: The media personality, who also boasts acting credentials, was crowned FHM's Sexiest Woman in the World in 2005 and appeared regularly in lads' mags (pictured August 2021)

Even though Kelly hasn't ruled out the sound of wedding bells in the future, she joked that whilst people can speculate, 'if it hasnt happened on Instagram, it hasnt really happened!'

The media personality, who also boasts acting credentials, was crowned FHM's Sexiest Woman in the World in 2005 and appeared regularly in lads' mags such as GQ, Loaded and FHM.

Considering how the modelling industry has changed, Kelly shared: 'Theres so much diversity now which is fantastic. But I was one of the first to work in fashion and be curvy and have boobs.'

A role model for many, the curvaceous star added that she was 'pleased' girls related to her and realised they didn't have to adhere to a certain appearance.
Married at First Sight has delivered plenty of reality TV villains over the years.

But groom Cody Bromley has said fans shouldn't be so quick to judge people for their edits because 'there were no heroes or villains' on this year's season.

He told Daily Mail Australia the feud between Domenica Calarco and Olivia Frazer could 'easily' have been edited to make Domenica the villain.

'There were no heroes': Married At First Sight's Cody Bromley (pictured) has said Domenica Calarco could have easily been portrayed as the villain and was lucky she got a glowing edit

'It's a shame. The edit could have gone either way with the whole Domenica and Olivia thing,' the 31-year-old said.

'[The edit] could have easily made Dom look like the villain and Liv look like the hero, but it didn't pan out like that.'

'It's just a shame to see that there is that divide and a lot of people being nasty.'

Hero or villain? Domenica (pictured) was given a sympathetic edit after Olivia outed her as an OnlyFans model, while her rival was portrayed as mean-spirited and vindictive

Perspective: '[The edit] could have easily made Dom look like the villain and Liv look like the hero, but it didn't pan out like that,' Cody said. (Pictured: Olivia Frazer)

Domenica was given a sympathetic edit after Olivia outed her as an OnlyFans model, while her rival was portrayed as mean-spirited and vindictive.

However, Cody said this didn't tell the full story.

'I'm not gonna sit here and say Liv didn't say those things, but Dom also said a lot of things like that,' he explained.

'She referred to the lot of us as "a pack of c**ts" for half of the experiment and said some nasty things as well. Like it sort of weighs up. It purely comes down to the edit.'

Other side of the story: '[Domenica] referred to the lot of us as "a pack of c**ts" for half of the experiment and said some nasty things as well,' Cody told Daily Mail Australia

Elsewhere, the Sydney-based personal trainer admitted he 'dug his own grave' the moment he dumped his bride Selina Chhaur at the reunion.

'I pretty much knew I dug by my own grave the moment I ended it up with Selina but to production's credit they did an amazing job with passion,' he said.

'Look, I wasn't completely pleased with my edit but... that's how Selina felt and fair enough, I can't sit here and say that's not how she was feeling.

'She was concerned about those things and that's what they chose to show.'

Regrets: Elsewhere, the Sydney-based personal trainer admitted he 'dug his own grave' the moment he dumped his bride Selina Chhaur at the reunion
Stanley Tucci dressed to impress as he attended the GQ Food & Drink Awards in London on Tuesday.

The actor, 61, cut a dapper figure as he rocked a three piece grey checked suit to the glam event.

Stanley ensured he finished his suave look with a crisp white shirt and a emerald green tie, rounding things off with shiny black shoes.

Dapper: Stanley Tucci dressed to impress as he attended the GQ Food & Drink Awards in London on Tuesday

The Devil Wears Prada star appeared in good sprits as he posed for snaps at the event.

Stanley took to the stage to present the Lifetime Achievement award to chef Angela Hartnett at the event presented by Veuve Clicquot.

Angela, 54, cut a stylish figure in a pair of navy trousers and a pale blue shirt as she beamed alongside the actor holding her award.

Smart: The actor, 61, cut a dapper figure as he rocked a three piece grey checked suit to the glam event

StylishL Stanley ensured he finished his suave look with a crisp white shirt and a emerald green tie, rounding things off with shiny black shoes

The star-studded event also saw TV and radio presenter Miquita Oliver in attendance.

The 38-year-old looked stunning in an extreme plunging black dress which had red detailing around the waist and around the sleeves.

The star swept her dark locks back in an up do and accessorised with several gold necklaces.

Hosting: Stanley took to the stage to present the Lifetime Achievement award to chef Angela Hartnett at the event presented by Veuve Clicquot

Winner: Angela, 54, cut a stylish figure in a pair of navy trousers and a pale blue shirt as she beamed alongside the actor holding her award

Congratulations: Stanley congratulated Angela as she collected her award on stage

The beauty looked incredible as she added some height to her frame in a pair of black heels.

Grace Dent, 48, posed up a storm in a pink and black floral jumpsuit which cinched her in at the waist with a matching belt.

The author opted for a pair of bright green earrings and added some height to her frame in a pair of nude heels.

Smile: The star-studded event also saw TV and radio presenter Miquita Oliver in attendance as she posed alongside The Devil Wears Prada actor

Incredible: The 38-year-old looked stunning in an extreme plunging black dress which had red detailing around the waist and around the sleeves

The event awards the finest names in the hospitality industry across the UK.

Lorraine Copes, achieved the Be Inclusive Hospitality award as she stunned in a plunding black lave V-neck dress.

The beauty accessorised with a large gold chocker and added a pop of colour wearing a bright red lipstick.

Fashionista: Grace Dent, 48, posed up a storm in a pink and black floral jumpsuit which cinched her in at the waist with a matching belt
OnlyFans star Anna Paul has revealed she was catfished on AirBnb and almost robbed on day one of her trip to Los Angeles.

The bombshell star, 22, who is travelling in the US with boyfriend Glenn Thompson, brother Atis and his girlfriend Mikaela Testa, detailed her nightmare on her Instagram account, which was relayed on the Outspoken podcast this week.

The group's trouble began when they hired a Lamborghini Urus, which couldn't fit all their luggage.

Near miss: OnlyFans star Anna Paul has revealed she was catfished on AirBnb and almost robbed on day one of her trip to Los Angeles

After their Uber ride took them to their $5000-a-night Airbnb, where they planned to stay for four nights, they were confronted with an apartment with barred windows in a 'dodgy part of LA'.

'When they finally pulled up to the apartment block everything was barricaded-off and the windows had bars on them,' podcaster Amy said.

Nightmare: The bombshell star, 22, who is travelling in the US with boyfriend Glenn Thompson, brother Atis and his girlfriend Mikaela Testa, detailed her nightmare on her Instagram account, which was relayed on the Outspoken podcast this week

Things went from bad to worse for the group when they drove into the apartment block's underground carpark and two men started circling their luxury car.

'One of the guys was holding onto his d**k to keep his pants up so they wouldn't fall down,' Anna said of the dangerous-looking men.

Despite the Uber driver starting to unload the luggage, Anna said the group was 'too scared' to get out of the vehicle and asked their chauffeur to take them somewhere else.

Scary: After their Uber ride took them to their $5000-a-night Airbnb, where they planned to stay for four nights, they were confronted with an apartment with barred windows in a 'dodgy part of LA'. Pictured: Anna with Glenn

After driving around the sprawling city, they found new accommodation at a cost of $6,000-per-night.

However, they soon realised there was only one-bedroom.

'They arrived at the hotel to find they only had one room available to them. Which was a corner room worth $6000,' Amy said.

More drama: After driving around the sprawling city, they found new accommodation at a cost of $6,000-per-night, only to realise there was only one-bedroom

'They then went upstairs to discover it was a one-bedroom room and super rundown.

'They ended-up leaving, getting a refund and finding somewhere else,' Amy added, saying they can't 'imagine' the Paul's staying in this type of accommodation.

Airbnb addresses this type of 'misrepresentation' of accommodation via its 'community standards' board, adding that it should be reported immediately.

'You should not provide inaccurate location information, have incorrect availability, mislead people about the type, nature or details of your listing, substitute one listing for another, set up fake or fraudulent listings, leave fraudulent reviews, engage in deceptive pricing or fail to disclose hazards and habitability issues,' it reads.

Any AirBnb can be reported to the company and the company also offers a help centre for users to address any security concerns.

Superstar: Anna is one of Australia's most successful Only Fans creators. She claimed to have earned $7,000 in her first week of joining the platform

Star family: Anna's brother Atis is the boyfriend of Only Fans star Mikaela Testa (right). She has claimed she earns $162,000 from the platform

Anna is one of Australia's most successful Only Fans creators and earned $7,000 in her first week of joining the platform.

The star also has a huge 1.5 million followers on Instagram.

Mikaela Testa, brother Atis's girlfriend, has claimed she earns $162,000 per month selling adult content via Only Fans.
Madeline Holtznagel was dripping in designer fashion as she enjoyed a solo pampering session in Sydney on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old model, who is dating billionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes, 49, made her way to several beauty appointments while wearing more than $14,000 worth of accessories.

She sported a black singlet, jeans and a blue jumper draped across her shoulders, and clutched a $7,000 Fendi handbag and Fendi scarf worth $330.

Hey, big spender! Justin Hemmes' girlfriend Madeline Holtznagel, 26, wore more than $14,000 worth of designer goods as she stepped out for a facial and manicure in Sydney on Tuesday

She shielded her makeup-free complexion behind a pair of $680 Fendi sunglasses and completed her ensemble with white Chanel sneakers worth $2,000.

Letting her expensive outfit do the talking, Madeline opted to wear understated sleeper earrings and slicked her blonde hair into a tight bun.

The socialite visited a nail salon for a manicure and pedicure, before later stopping by a skincare clinic for a facial.

Cha-ching! She sported a black singlet, jeans and a blue jumper draped across her shoulders, while clutching a $7,000 Fendi handbag and Fendi scarf worth $330

Expensive taste! Madeline shielded her makeup-free complexion behind a pair of $680 Fendi sunglasses and completed her ensemble with white Chanel sneakers worth $2,000

While at the nail salon, Madeline was seen scrolling through her phone and listening to music through her Apple AirPods.

She was not joined by her boyfriend Justin, whom she has been dating for about two years.

The couple spent lockdown together at his Vaucluse mansion in 2020, and Madeline now reportedly lives in a Coogee penthouse owned by the Merivale CEO.

Sleek: Letting her expensive outfit do the talking, Madeline opted to wear understated sleeper earrings and slicked her blonde hair into a tight bun

Nailed it! Madeline went for a classic French tip manicure at the nail salon

Last month, the pair flaunted their exorbitant wealth while holidaying at Justin's private island in Queensland.

They flew with a group of Madeline's friends, including model Montana Cox, to Haggerstone Island, of which Justin is a part owner.

The luxury location costs a whopping $7,000 a night to rent in its entirety.

Keeping busy: While at the nail salon, Madeline was seen scrolling through her phone and listening to music through her Apple AirPods

Solo outing: She was not joined by her boyfriend Justin Hemmes, whom she has been dating for about two years

'Justin and the girls flew up in his private jet then had the seaplane take them out to the island,' a source told The Daily Telegraph.

In February, Madeline received a stark warning over her relationship with Justin.

Agents reportedly warned her she could be missing important opportunities in the modelling industry because she was prioritising her relationship over her career.

Holiday time! Last month, Madeline and Justin (left) flaunted their exorbitant wealth while holidaying at Justin's private island in Queensland

'It's not like Madeline is going out with a Hemsworth,' an industry source told The Daily Telegraph.

'I don't think this relationship with Justin will have much of an impact on her career. If anything, she will be more known as a bit of a celebrity model as opposed to a fashion model.'

Another source said: 'It's all well and good now, but there might come a time when the relationship runs its course and she will need her modelling career, so she can support herself financially.'
She won fans all over the world as the delightfully over-the-top assassin Villanelle in Killing Eve.

Now Jodie Comer looks set to thrill theatre-goers with her West End debut in Prima Facie, a one-person legal drama.

The Emmy and Bafta-winning actress, 29, is pictured for the first time as Tessa, a criminal barrister who uses her legal skills to defend rapists.

Jodie Comer debuts in her first West End show as Tessa, the protagonist in Prima Facie, a one-person legal drama. Her character, a criminal barrister who uses her legal skills to defend rapists, vilifies the victims until she is sexually assaulted and forced to go up against the system she had taken advantage of during her career

She reportedly received a standing ovation after a preview performance of the play on Monday night.

Her character, who is described as thoroughbred, vilifies the victims until she is sexually assaulted and forced to go up against the system she had taken advantage of during her career.

Prima Facie, directed by Justin Martin, was written by Australian-British lawyer turned playwright Suzie Miller.

There are already rumours that it could head to Broadway. The play opens tonight and will run at the Harold Pinter Theatre until June 18.

James Bierman, the plays producer and general manager, told Deadline that Prima Facie has the potential to be something and revealed that he and the production would like to transfer to New York.

He added that Miss Comer would like to take the play to her hometown of Liverpool.

Comer won fans all over the world as the delightfully over-the-top assassin Villanelle in Killing Eve. Now, she looks set to thrill theatre-goers with Prima Facie, directed by Justin Martin and written by Australian-British lawyer turned playwright Suzie Miller

He said: It would be amazing to take it to Liverpool, schedules permitting, and Broadway deserves to see the piece.

Bierman confirmed he would like Prima Facie to have another limited season in London where it has played in front of a packed crowd during an 11-date preview run.

He added that the play feels like it can be a really powerful agent when discussing how sexual assault victims are treated by the police and the courts.

Every eight minutes a woman reports a rape in the UK, he said before pointing to the fact that just a fraction of those cases end up in a court.

Once Miss Comer was cast as Tessa, a decision was made to give the character a working-class Liverpudlian voice.




The defense chiefs of Korea and Malaysia held video talks Wednesday to discuss arms industry cooperation and bilateral relations, according to Seoul's defense ministry.







The talks between Defense Minister Suh Wook and his Malaysian counterpart, Dato' Seri Hishammuddin Bin Tun Hussein, came as Seoul seeks to deepen ties with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) under its signature New Southern Policy.







During the talks, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation. The signing concluded Seoul's bid to have such arrangements with all 10 ASEAN member countries.







The two ministers shared the view that bilateral cooperation in the defense industry can become a "symbol of mutual trust and a robust strategic partnership," the ministry said in a press release.







Suh used the meeting to promote Korea's FA-50 light attack aircraft, which is in competition to win Malaysia's fighter procurement project, according to the ministry.







As part of efforts to expand defense cooperation, the two sides agreed to hold a working-level meeting later to discuss people-to-people exchanges, military education and cooperation in the defense industry and logistics. (Yonhap)






Antonio Banderas looked in high spirits on Tuesday as he receives the Lifetime Achievement Award during the celebration of the RNE Sant Jordi Cinema Awards 2022 in Spain.

The Spanish actor, 61, beamed as he took to the stage and showcased the award at the event held in Barcelona.

He looked dapper in a black suit, teamed with a white unbuttoned shirt and shiny black shoes.

Beaming: Antonio Banderas looked in high spirits on Tuesday as he receives the Lifetime Achievement Award during the RNE Sant Jordi Cinema Awards 2022 in Spain

Antonio strut across the stage and shook the host of the events hand before going in for a hug.

The Sant Jordi Awards - established in 1957 - are film prizes awarded annually by the Catalan branch of the Spanish public radio network Radio Nacional de Espana.

He was awarded the prize for: 'His successful film career as an actor, producer and film director, developed both in Europe and in the United States'.

Well-deserved: The Spanish actor beamed as he took to the stage and showcased the award at the event held in Barcelona

Looking good: He looked dapper in a black suit, teamed with a white unbuttoned shirt and shiny black shoes

Antonia recently attended the Maria Santisima de Lagrimas y Favores procession at San Juan Bautista church during Malaga Holy Week.

The actor was joined by his investment banker girlfriend Nicole Kimpel, 40, before carrying a life-size model of Jesus Christ as returned to his home city to join the Catholic processions in the lead-up to Easter.

Now a resident of LA, he annually returns to his church brotherhood Tears and Favours to take part in the traditional marches that take place throughout Spanish towns and cities to mark the most important festival in the Catholic calendar.

In high spirits: Antonio strut across the stage and shook the host of the events hand before going in for a hug

Special occasion: The Sant Jordi Awards - established in 1957 - are film prizes awarded annually by the Catalan branch of the Spanish public radio network Radio Nacional de Espana

The processions takes place each Easter in Spain, with penitents wearing gowns and conical hoods - a tradition that was meant to maintain their anonymity.

They carry life-size effigies of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary through city streets accompanied by dramatic drum beats and mournful music.

While Malaga is a popular city to watch the processions - particularly due to its famous star - by far the most visited city for the Catholic celebration is Seville, in Andalucia, where the medieval centre is packed out with faithful penitents from different church brotherhoods.

Tourists line the streets as scheduled processions weave their way through the city from early morning until late at night.

Here he is! Antonio also attended the Maria Santisima de Lagrimas y Favores procession at San Juan Bautista church during Malaga Holy Week on Monday

Homecoming: He was joined by his investment banker girlfriend Nicole Kimpel, 40, (second from left) as returned to his home city to join the Catholic processions in the lead-up to Easter

Each cofradia (brotherhood) is represented with different coloured robes and the masks were historically to provide anonymity for those looking to pay penance.

Despite soaring temperatures - particularly in southern Spain - the faithful struggle under their heavy costumes, swaying as they carry huge floats between them and sometimes even walking barefoot.

There are more than 50 church brotherhoods in Seville, some dating as far back as the 13th century and each procession carries a statue of Christ, depicted from varying Bible scenes. The Virgin Mary is also always pictured in mourning for her son.
Jenni Falconer cut a stylish figure as she walked through Leicester Square after her Smooth radio show on Tuesday.

The television presenter, 46, showcased her bold style in a vibrant pink jacket as strolled through London.

The beauty cut a stylish figure in a button up denim jumpsuit which she paired with white and silver trainers.

Stunning: Jenni Falconer, 45, cut a stylish figure as she walked through Leicester Square after her Smooth radio show on Tuesday

The Smooth radio star coordinated her look perfectly by teaming her gorgeous jacket with a matching pink and white crossbody handbag.

Jenni styled her short blonde tresses in a side parting as they cascaded straight down to her shoulders.

She opted for a light makeup palette showcasing her natural beauty for the sunny outing.

Stylish: The television presenter showcased her bold style in a vibrant pink jacket as she seemed in high spirits after presenting Smooth radio

Coordinated: The beauty cut a stylish figure in a button up denim jumpsuit which she paired with white and silver trainers and teamed her gorgeous jacket with a matching pink handbag

Stylish: Jenni also shared a glimpse of her chic look on Instagram Stories

Jenni seemed in high spirits as she beamed as she spoke on the phone while holding a red rose in her hand.

Earlier this week, Jenni stood out from the crowd in a vibrant ensemble as she stepped on to the red carpet at the Downton Abbey: A New Era world premiere on Monday night.

The presenter showcased her bold style in a vibrant Roksanda pink midi dress, teamed with blue Gianvito Rossi heels, as she arrived at Cineworld in Leicester Square.

Looking good: Earlier this week Jenni stood out from the crowd in a vibrant ensemble as she stepped on to the red carpet at the Downton Abbey: A New Era world premiere

Beaming for the camera, Jenni wore her blonde locks in a sleek bob while looking radiant with a dewy makeup look.

Jenni looked in high spirits as she worked the red carpet and interviewed the stars of the historical drama at the world premiere.

The Smooth Radio presenter was spotted catching up with Joanne Froggatt and Laura Haddock who both looked stunning in their glamorous ensembles.

Taking to her Instagram after the premiere, she penned: 'And that's a wrap. Loved the new #DowntonMovie. It's out on the big screen this Friday and without doubt, well worth a watch.'

Stylish: The star showcased her bold style in a vibrant Roksanda pink midi dress, teamed with blue Gianvito Rossi heels
Below Deck Sailing Yacht has caused firestorm on social media after a controversial sexual encounter between two cast members.

This week, stewardess Ashley Marti had sex with the yacht's First Officer Gary King while he was highly intoxicated, which many viewers deemed 'inappropriate'.

Things kicked off after the entire crew went out for a boozy dinner during their night off.

Backlash: Below Deck Sailing Yacht has sparked outrage over an 'inappropriate' sexual encounter between stewardess Ashley Marti and Gary King (pictured together)

When they returned to the yacht, Ashley and Gary decided to strip down and get into the jacuzzi together.

They quickly started flirting, with Ashley giving Gary a foot massage as Chef Engineer Colin Macrae and 2nd stewardess Gabriela Barragan watched from a distance.

'Ashley is f***ing desperate for Gary,' commented Colin, while Gabby added: 'It's a game for her. She said that with her own mouth to me.'

Things then escalated, with the pair sharing a kiss before Ashley started straddling Gary in the hot tub.

Steamy: The pair shocked their co-stars by getting steamy in a jacuzzi after a drunken night out, before heading downstairs for what was supposed to be a 'massage'

'She's desperate': Chief Engineer Colin Macrae (right) observed Ashley's pursuit of Gary as he watched the pair from the sidelines

They then headed downstairs into a guest cabin, with Gary saying: 'Well, you said you were going to massage me. That's what I came down here for.'

'I am massaging you,' Ashley responded. 'I'm just so sorry I took my shirt off ... I want you to f**k me.'

Slurring his words, Gary responded: 'Oh yeah? Go on then. Go on then.'

Although the pair weren't on camera, the mics in the cabin picked up everything they said while a stationary camera filmed the closed door from the outside.

Racy: The pair went to a guest cabin for a massage, but Ashley soon made her intentions for something more extremely clear

Shocking: Although the pair weren't on camera, the mics in the cabin picked up everything they said while a stationary camera filmed the closed door from the outside

'I thought I was getting a friendly massage,' Gary said, before Ashley giggled: 'You're f***ing inside of me right now. We're way past that.'

At this point, Gary expressed that he wanted the encounter to end.

'Okay. Get it out,' he slurred. 'Okay we're not having sex, we're not having sex.'

'It's already in!' Ashley replied, as a drunken Gary continued to protest, 'no, no.'

'Get it out!' Once Gary realised that their pair were engaged in intercourse, he asked Ashley to end the encounter

Emergency exit! 'Okay. Get it out,' he slurred. 'Okay we're not having sex, we're not having sex'

The next scene showed a shirtless Gary stumbling out of the cabin to head back to his own bunk, which he shares with Colin and chef Marcos Spaziani.

'I was getting a massage, and then I turned around, and she's stark as,' he told the boys.

'I couldn't help myself either,' he continued. 'I'm like, "I thought I came down here for a massage!"

'She's like, "You're half naked." I'm like, "I've got my pants on."'

What happened? The next scene showed a shirtless Gary stumbling out of the cabin to head back to his own bunk, which he shares with Colin and chef Marcos Spaziani

'I don't remember': The next morning, Ashley came into Gary's bunk and he admitted that he couldn't recall what happened between them the previous night

Speaking to producers about the situation, Ashley said: 'I went down to give him a back massage. That was the intention. And other things might have happened, but I don't want to get into the details of it all.'

The next morning, Ashley came into Gary's bunk and he admitted that he couldn't recall what happened between them the previous night.

'I don't even remember getting back to the boat last night,' he moaned, clearly hungover.

'I came straight back to bed when I got back to the boat,' he said, as Ashley burst out laughing.

'You don't remember when she took you downstairs?' asked Marcos.

Boundaries: 'Let's try not be that drunk because I want to be able to remember it and enjoy it,' Gary told Ashley the next day

'I thought we fell asleep': Gary told producers that he couldn't remember having sex with Ashley

Speaking to producers, who asked him directly if he 'had sex with Ashley,' a confused Gary responded: 'I remember her giving me a massage and I thought we fell asleep.'

A few hours later, Gary pulled Ashley aside to discuss the incident properly.

'I think if this is gonna happen again, let's try not be that drunk because I want to be able to remember it and enjoy it,' he said.

Talking: Gary later discussed the events of the night with Chief Stewardess Daisy Kelliher

Oh my! Gary explained to Daisy that Ashley had told him she performed oral sex on him

Later that day, the crew spent their day off at a nearby private pool, where Ashley admitted to Gary that she had performed oral sex on him.

Speaking to producers, she then said: 'I don't understand how you can have no recollection whatsoever. Normally, everybody's just f***ing obsessed with me!'

Gary then discussed the events of the night with Chief Stewardess Daisy Kelliher.

'We were too drunk': Gary said that he was too intoxicated to remember having sex with Ashley

'I was white girl wasted': He went on to share that he had drank too much, going as far as to call himself 'paralytically f***ed'

'She said today that she gave me a blowjob,' he explained. 'And then we f***ed and I didn't remember because we were too drunk.

'I was white girl wasted last night. That's not nice. That's not attractive at all. Who would want to have sex with me on a normal basis, let alone when I'm paralytically f***ed?'

The incident sparked outrage on social media, with many viewers feeling like there was a double standard due around gender.

'His pants came off!' Ashley discussed her night with Gary with some of her other cast members by the pool

Not buying it? 'I don't understand how you can have no recollection whatsoever,' Ashley told producers

'If the situation was reversed with Ashley and Gary the internet would be screaming for justice,' tweeted one viewer.

'Imagine if Ashley said "we're not having sex, I came for a massage..." and Gary told her "oh well, it's already in." We'd be calling for his head,' said another.

'Im so annoyed and disgusted by Ashleys behavior. She is completely inappropriate with Gary,' fumed another.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht is currently streaming exclusive in Australia on hayu
She unveiled her blossoming baby bump for the first time at Monday evening's premiere for Downton Abbey: A New Era.

And whilst Tuppence Middleton, 35, attended the premiere with Swedish director Mans Marlind, 52 - she has denied she is dating her chosen plus one.

Just last month, Richard Eden revealed in his column for the Daily Mail that Tuppence had a Swedish beau - with fans desperate to find out his identity.

Denial: Pregnant Tuppence Middleton, 35, has denied that Mans Marlind, 53, is the father of her child after the pair appeared together at the Downton Abbey: A New Era premiere

But it seems they are still to be kept waiting, as she seemingly confirmed Mans - who is 17 years her senior - is not the father of her child.

The heavily pregnant actress declined to confirm that he is her partner to Richard Eden this week.

When asked, she simply explained: 'My partner lives in Stockholm and I travel between [the UK] and there.'

Congrats! She unveiled her blossoming baby bump for the first time at Monday evening's premiere

During the evening, an expectant Tuppence proudly cupped her stomach as she wowed in a gorgeous black Valentino dress from the Pre Fall 22 Promenade collection.

While her companion looked suave in a black suit, paired with a matching waistcoat and patterned tie.

It seems their relationship is strictly platonic, as It was revealed last week that Mans and Tuppence are set to join forces on a new project adapted from a Finnish book.

Red carpet: Despite appearing together on the red carpet, she seemingly confirmed Mans - who is 17 years her senior - is not the father of her child

According to literary agent Elina Ahlback, the pair have acquired the film and TV rights for the 2000 novel Troll, a Love Story (original title Tammi in Finnish).

Tuppence, who previously starred in Mans' international series Shadowplay, is set to direct.



Mans told Nordisk Film & TV Fond: 'We have been looking for something to do together for quite some time now and then suddenly Johanna's wonderful book came to mind.

Notorious for keeping her private life out of the limelight, the actress was previously in a relationship with figurative painter Robert Fry from 2016 to 2019 - with her relationship history since then remaining unknown.
Life After Life

Rating:

Noughts + Crosses

Rating:

Not so long ago, every genteel young lady in the celluloid world wore a straw boater and acres of petticoats.

Today, we refer to that sun-dappled, innocent era as 'the 1980s'. An entire genre of British films, adapted from Edwardian novels and required by law to feature Maggie Smith and Denholm Elliott, monopolised the Oscars.

Life After Life (BBC2) is based on a recent bestseller by Kate Atkinson, rather than a book by E.M. Forster or Edith Wharton.

But on first viewing, it fits neatly into that genre of Merchant-Ivory movies, coming-of-age stories peopled with irascible doctors, irritating big brothers and housemaids with provincial accents.

Then you look again and see something far darker under the surface. Everything about Life After Life is as richly layered as a poem, with new meanings revealed as the story is peeled away.

Even the title of this psychological thriller about reincarnation and deja vu has a double resonance: it's a pun on 'life after death', but it is also a summary of the plot, as fretful, daydreamy Ursula repeatedly dies and restarts her existence.

Last week's opening episode followed her through the numerous fatal disasters of her childhood. This time, she survived to adulthood (barring one catastrophe in an automobile)  but the older she grows, the more perilous her life becomes.

Sian Clifford as Sylvie and Eliza Riley as a young Ursula in Life After Life. Sarah Vine says it's the quintessential literary TV adaptation, the kind of thing the BBC still does so very well

Scaredy-cats of the night: For the first time, Lee Mack and Holly Willoughby tackled a challenge on Freeze The Fear (BBC1). They had to walk into a 'bone-chilling snowstorm', churned up by a wind machine. But unlike the celebs, they didn't have to do it in swimwear. Shirkers! Advertisement

New Zealand-born Thomasin McKenzie, who plays Ursula from age 16, captures her heartbreaking combination of trustfulness and cynicism.

She knows, from past experiences which she remembers only in dreams, that the world can be a horrible place . . . but she hasn't any idea what to do about it.

A scene in which she was casually raped in her home by an American house guest was horribly believable.

'You English girls, you really are something,' her attacker sneered as he turned away, leaving her somehow sure that she must have invited the assault. Ursula is an introverted girl and, though Life After Life revolves around her, she doesn't have that many lines.

McKenzie doesn't need dialogue: her face and her gestures poured out her emotions as she contemplated suicide and then suffered an illegal abortion.

When she sensed another death, as she lay in a hospital bed, she greeted it gladly.

For once, the ash-like flakes of snow that signalled the end of one life and the start of the next came as a relief to us, too.

And then we realised she wasn't going to die this time, because however awful the rape was, there was nothing she could have done to change or avoid it.

Pictured: Masali Baduza, left, and Jack Rowan, right, in first look of Noughts + Crosses

The subtle complexities that make Life After Life so moving are absent from Noughts + Crosses (BBC1).

This, too, is a four-part drama, adapted from a novel, about young lives adrift in a violent world. But there the similarities cease.

Masali Baduza and Jack Rowan play star-crossed lovers, Sephy and Callum, on the run. Her father (Paterson Joseph) is PM in an apartheid Britain where blacks hold power and white workers are an exploited underclass.

There's another stark division, between the adults (greedy, soulless, patriarchal and patronising) and the teenagers (misunderstood, visionary, motivated by love and kindness).

Joseph is an accomplished actor and he does his best with this tosh, but it's hopeless. All he can do is bark orders to his machinegun-toting henchmen.

The police finally caught up and opened fire, but Callum and Sephy were hiding in a wooden crate. The bullets just bounced off, so that was all right.

Noughts + Crosses does feature wonderful costumes, but that's about all you can say for it.
Kylie Minogue has celebrated the 20th anniversary of her iconic KylieFever2002 tour.

The Melbourne-born superstar, 53, took to Instagram to share a slew of rare photos of the jaw-dropping outfits she wore during the production.

The 49-date tour, in support of her Fever album that spawned hits like Can't Get You Out of My Head and Love At First Sight, was a triumph for the chart-topper.

Wow: Kylie Minogue has celebrated the 20th anniversary of her iconic KylieFever2002 tour by sharing slew of rare photos of the jaw-dropping outfits she wore during the production

Kylie's throwback photos highlighted her stunning outfits for the tour, including her famous hooded white jumpsuit with glittering bra and miniskirt.

'Fever Tour 2002. Happy Anniversary. Were you there?' she wrote to her 2.3 million followers on Instagram.

'I'm still in love with this show!'

Triumph: The 49-date tour, in support of her Fever album that spawned hits like Can't Get You Out of My Head and Love At First Sight, was a triumph for the chart-topper

The KylieFever2002 tour is now considered a benchmark for female artists.

The album itself reached No. 1 in Australia, Austria, Germany, Ireland and the UK.

Its lead single, Can't Get You Out of My Head, topped the charts in 40 countries and is still one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Many fans relived their memories of the incredible tour in the comments section.

Cyborg: 'Fever Tour 2002. Happy Anniversary. Were you there?' the star questioned her 2.3 million followers on Instagram. 'I'm still in love with this show!!'

'I came one night and was so blown away I paid 500 for more tickets the next night from some tout the best concert I have ever been too,' one fan wrote.

'My favourite tour. Thanks to this tour I became your fan. The fever album and this tour is unbelievable and they still look so current,' another wrote.

'The version of I Should Be So Lucky on this tour is tribal-ish and campy. My fave one,' a third commented.

Iconic: The lead single 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' topped the charts in 40 countries and is still one of the best selling singles of all time

Fans are waiting with bated breath for Kylie to announce a new stadium tour in support of her latest album, Disco.

But she has remained tight-lipped about any concert dates since moving back to Australia several months ago.

Despite arriving later in her career, Disco has become one of her most popular albums, spawning hits like Real Groove and Magic.

Superstar: Kylie's fifteenth studio LP, Disco, topped the charts in Australia and the UK

The release, Kylie's fifteenth studio LP, topped the charts in Australia and the UK.

Kylie has also released an 'extended remixes' version of the album filled with dancefloor-ready tracks.

She worked on Disco during Covid lockdown at her home studio in London.

Star: Despite arriving later in her career, Disco has become one of Kylie's most popular albums

The Can't Get You Out of My Head star previously told BBC2 the recording process was rather chaotic.

'If there was a kind of fly-on-the-wall camera, it would've been a comedy,' she said.

'I mean, me trying to wrangle the sound absorber, which bit goes where, lots of googling YouTube tutorials and calling a friend.'

Talented: Kylie worked on Disco during Covid lockdown at her home studio in London. Many commentators are praising the the optimistic, dance-ready tracks

At one point, she even questioned whether all of her efforts were worthwhile.

'There was a point during lockdown and during all of that where I guess maybe the album was kind of finished. And I did question, what does this mean? What's the point? There's so much happening in the world and there's no discos open,' she said.

'But the main question that kind of reassured me to keep going was, 'What will I achieve if I don't release it?' And the answer - that's really easy - was absolutely nothing. So we stuck with Disco.'
She was in New York City earlier in the week for her appearance on The Tonight Show.

And Chrissy Teigen was back for more on Tuesday as she walked the red carpet at the 2022 City Harvest Red Supper Club Gala with her husband John Legend, 43.

The 36-year-old model lit up the red carpet with her sequined dress as she was joined by Richard Gere, 72, and his wife Alejandra Silva, 39, Neil Patrick Harris and his husband David Burtka and one of the evening's co-hosts, Benjamin Bratt, who attended with his wife Talisa Soto.

Star power: Chrissy Teigen, 36, and her husband John Legend, 43, led the stars on Tuesday at the 2022 City Harvest Red Supper Club Gala in New York City

City Harvest bills itself as the 'largest food rescue organization' in New York City, according to its website.

The organization  which was founded in 1982  boasts that it feeds more than 1.5 million New Yorkers. The Red Supper Club Gala is its biggest charitable event of the year.

Chrissy looked glamorous on the red carpet in her pale green dress, which hugged her curves and reached down to the ground.

The look was decorated with irregular columns of silver sequins and spangles.

Sparkler: Chrissy looked glamorous on the red carpet in her pale green dress, which hugged her curves and reached down to the ground. The look was decorated with irregular columns of silver sequins and spangles

It featured a row of jewels emphasizing her trim midriff, and her bust was covered with a flourish of pale green feathers.

The top of Chrissy's chest was covered with sheer fabric and the same columns of sequins.

The Chrissy's Court star showed off her impeccably made-up face with her winning smile, which was highlighted by her lustrous brunette tresses.

She wore them in a side parted with wavy strands dangling on either side of her visage, while the rest of her locks were tied back in a bun.

She completed the look with dangling earrings and a sparkling pink clutch.

Her husband John looked dashing in a black double-breasted suit decorated with shimmering silver pinstripes, which he paired with a black shirt and matching bow tie.

Glamorous: The top of Chrissy's chest was covered with sheer fabric and the same columns of sequins

Back in black: Her husband John looked dashing in a black double-breasted suit decorated with shimmering silver pinstripes

Richard Gere looked youthful as he arrived at the event with his wife Alejandra Silva.

He kept his look fairly casual with a black suit and a white tie-free shirt that was unbuttoned at the collar.

Alejandra looked chic in a black-and-blue dress styled a leopard-like pattern and featuring a knit back and sleeves.

She paired the dress with black open-toe shoes and dangling gold tasseled earrings.

Age-defying: Richard Gere looked youthful as he arrived at the event with his wife Alejandra Silva. He kept his look fairly casual with a black suit and a white tie-free shirt that was unbuttoned at the collar

Blue mood: Alejandra looked chic in a black-and-blue dress styled a leopard-like pattern and featuring a knit back and sleeves

Stunner: She paired the dress with black open-toe shoes and dangling gold tasseled earrings

Neil Patrick Harris and his husband David Burtka both looked dapper as they arrived in complementary suits.

Neil rocked a classic black suit, which he paired with a gray striped tie, whereas David looked smart in a royal blue suit with peaked lapels and a slim navy tie.

Benjamin Bratt, who was co-hosting the gala with Tamron Hall, looked effortlessly cool in a black suit while sporting a salt-and-pepper goatee.

He matched his suit with his black satin shirt, and he spiced it up with a red pocket square.

His wife Talisa highlighted her trim figure in a classic little black dress, which she matched with black open-toe heels while carrying a red handbag.

Suited up: Neil Patrick Harris and his husband David Burtka both looked dapper as they arrived in complementary suits

Master of ceremonies: Benjamin Bratt, looked effortlessly cool in a black suit while sporting a salt-and-pepper goatee

Cute couple: His wife Talisa highlighted her trim figure in a classic little black dress, which she matched with black open-toe heels while carrying a red handbag

Contrast: He matched his suit with his black satin shirt, and he spiced it up with a red pocket square

Million Dollar Listing New York star Ryan Serhant and his wife Emilia Bechrakis Serhant both put on an elegant display at the charity event.

He looked chic in a grayblue suit with a slim tie, while she sizzled in a dark purple sequined mini dress with strappy open-toe heels.

The model Brooks Nader put on a busty display in a plunging sparkling gray dress, which featured a high slit to showcase her toned legs.

The chef Anne Burrell wore her peroxide blond hair spiked up and contrasted it with her sheer black floral-print dress and black heels.

Debonair: Million Dollar Listing New York star Ryan Serhant and his wife Emilia Bechrakis Serhant both put on an elegant display at the charity event

Model: Brooks Nader put on a busty display in a plunging sparkling gray dress, which featured a high slit to showcase her toned legs. Chef Anne Burrell contrasted her spiked hair with her sheer black floral-print dress and black heels

The rapper Slick Rick kept things casual with his loose-fitting black suit and a simple black shirt, along with his standard eye patch.

He spiced up the modest look with thick diamond-encrusted bracelets.

The celebrity chef Marc Murphy looked relaxed in a black suit and white shirt, which he paired with a thin gray scarf.

The gala was honoring French chef Eric Ripert and his wife Sandra, who were pictured on the red carpet with Chrissy and John and Richard and Alejandra.

Eric stuck to black tie, while Sandra shimmered in a lovely red sequined dress.

Wordsmith: The rapper Slick Rick kept things casual with his loose-fitting black suit and a simple black shirt, along with his standard eye patch

No fuss: The celebrity chef Marc Murphy looked relaxed in a black suit and white shirt, which he paired with a thin gray scarf

Guests of honor: The gala was honoring French chef Eric Ripert and his wife Sandra (center), who were pictured on the red carpet with Chrissy and John and Richard and Alejandra

Grand entrance: Chrissy Teigen and John Legend were pictured arriving at the gala earlier in the evening

Colorful: Chrissy contrasted her stunning dress with a pink sequined clutch

Standing tall: She elevated her 5ft9in stature with her silver open-toe heels

In good hands: Benjamin Bratt was co-hosting the gala with news anchor and talk show host Tamron Hall

Taking it easy: Slick Rick was pictured relaxing inside the venue

Sweet: The lovebirds looked affectionate while taking their seats inside the venue

Gorgeous: Chrissy wrapped her arms around John and beamed ear-to-ear for photos
Richard Gere and Alejandra Silva, looked stylishly elegant in New York Tuesday night.

The former Sexiest Man Alive, 72, looked quite sexy in a dark suit and white shirt at the 2022 City Harvest Red Supper Club Gala.

His wife, 39, was equally gorgeous in a dark blue and black body hugging gown with black high heels.

Date night: Richard Gere and Alejandra Silva, looked stylishly elegant in New York Tuesday night

The Chicago actor, who is well known for his activism has been a longtime supporter of the organization which raises money to provide meals for those in need.

Tuesday was the first time since the pandemic that the charitable organization has been able to hold an in-person gathering.

The 2019 event raised more than four million dollars, and organizers were hoping to top that, as the need in New York has increased 36 percent since the pandemic.

Glamorous couple: The former Sexiest Man Alive, 72, looked quite, sexy in a dark suit and white shirt. His wife, 39, was equally gorgeous in a dark blue and black body hugging gown with black high heels.

Growing family: The couple have been married since 2018 and have two sons together

The Arbitrage actor and his wife have been married since 2018 and are the parents to two young boys. Alexander was born in 2018 and his younger brother arrived in 2020.

The busy philanthropist has an older son, Homer, 22, from his marriage to actress Carey Lowell. Alejandra has a son, Albert, 9, from her first marriage.

The Dinner actor had been a friend of Alejandra's family for many years when the two reconnected in 2014.

Activism: Both Richard and Alejandra have a passion for activism. The Arbitrage actor has been a long time supporter of City Harvest, which hosted Tuesday's fundraiser

The Spanish beauty has a background in activism and as a publicist.

Richard has signed on to star in the upcoming romance film The Making Of.

He will star alongside Blake Lively and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Billionaire Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's daughter Sophia and her new fiancee Zara Zoe have been spotted for the first time since announcing their engagement.

The lovebirds, who revealed their engagement news on Saturday, were seen walking through Sydney Airport on Tuesday after catching a commercial flight from Perth together.

A smitten Sophia, 27, and her actress fiancee, 26, packed on the PDA as they cuddled up inside the bustling terminal.

Billionaire Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's daughter Sophia, 27, (left) and and her new fiancee Zara Zoe, 26, (right) were been spotted for the first time since announcing their engagement on Tuesday as the caught a commercial flight from Perth to Sydney

The pair smiled as they read from a greeting card - perhaps given to them by a friend or family member in celebration of their engagement.

Sophia looked stylish for the journey, sporting a chic white trench coat over ripped jeans and a black T-shirt.

The rising actress completed her look with black heeled boots, while throwing her long blonde locks into a ponytail.

Lovebirds: A smitten Sophia, 27, and her actress fiancee, 26, packed on the PDA as they cuddled up inside the bustling terminal

Chic: Sophia looked stylish for the jet-journey, sporting a chic white trench coat over ripped jeans and a black T-shirt

Zoe meanwhile wore a white T-shirt, denim jacket and black trousers.

While Sophia's parents could easily afford a private chauffeur to pick them up, the couple chose to jump into an Uber after pulling their own luggage down the street.

The couple's decision to travel via a commercial flight is in stark contrast to Sophia's parents, mining billionaires Andrew and Nicola Forrest, who usually fly via a private jet.

Not too posh to push! While Sophia's parents could easily afford a private chauffeur to pick them up, the couple chose to jump into an Uber after pulling their own luggage down the street

A message from someone special? The pair smiled as they read from a greeting card - perhaps given to them by a friend or family-member in celebration of their engagement

The sighting comes after Sophia broke the news of her engagement on Saturday by sharing a video on Instagram of Zara flashing a diamond ring.

'She makes heaven a place on earth,' Sophia wrote, alongside a ring emoji and the date '21.4.22'.

The clip showed the newly engaged couple then sharing dinner with friends, before celebrating by drinking champagne with Andrew and Nicola.

Cosy: Zoe lovingly wrapped her arms around Sophia's waist from behind, as they waited for their Uber to arrive

No special treatment: The couple's decision to travel via a commercial flight is in stark contrast to Sophia's parents, mining billionaires Andrew and Nicola Forrest, who usually fly via private jet.

Congratulations! The sighting comes after Sophia broke the news of her engagement on Saturday by sharing a video on Instagram of Zara flashing a diamond ring

On Monday, the Forrest family made headlines again after Andrew and Nicola appeared on ABC's Australian Story to discuss the devastating death of their stillborn third child Matilda, and how the tragedy drove their attitude toward money.

They also explained why neither of their three children will inherit their parents' $25billion fortune.

Nicola, who has largely remained in the shadow of her husband's high-profile career, took centre stage on ABC's Australian Story on Monday to offer insight into the women behind the nation's second richest family.

It's official! 'She makes heaven a place on earth,' Sophia wrote, alongside a ring emoji and the date '21.4.22'

Candid: On Monday, the Forrest family made headlines again after Andrew and Nicola appeared on ABC's Australian Story to discuss the devastating death of their stillborn third child Matilda, and how the tragedy drove their attitude toward money

The matriarch spoke about her passion for helping others, her role behind the scenes in her husband's work and why 'children don't benefit from thinking they're going to inherit a huge amount of money'.

She said she doesn't want their three children - Grace, Sophia, and Sydney to be burdened' by a handout.

Instead they will give the money away to charitable causes.

In 1998, the couple lost their daughter Matilda to stillbirth after a 'perfect pregnancy', inspiring their work to help other families and children through their organisation, Minderoo Foundation.

Dazzling: Zoe flaunted her new oval-cut diamond ring in the couple's engagement announcement video

Motivated by their personal loss, the Forrests fund research and programs aimed at helping 'all Australian children reach their full potential', with Nicola currently lobbying politicians to integrate early education reform into their federal election promise.

In 2013, the couple became the first Australian billionaires to sign up The Giving Pledge, a campaign where extremely wealthy people vow to contribute the majority of their riches to charitable causes.

Their children were told as kids they would not be left with their parent's fortune.
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Tommy Dorfman was among the stars in attendance for opening night of Broadway's A Strange Loop at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City on Tuesday.

The actress, 29, posed up a storm on the pre-show red carpet in a purple tweed jacket and matching mini skirt by Chanel.

Tommy layered a sexy black lace bodysuit with long-sleeves beneath her designer jacket.

Star power: Tommy Dorfman was among the stars in attendance for opening night of Broadway's A Strange Loop at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City. The actress, 29, posed up a storm on the pre-show red carpet in a purple tweed jacket and matching mini skirt by Chanel

She had two pearl chain necklaces - both by Chanel - fastened around her neck and she wore a gold bracelet.

The 13 Reasons Why star slipped her feet into a pair of black strappy heels and she toted her essentials in a pillowed Chanel purse with a chainlink strap.

Her brown jaw-length hair was styled straight and she highlighted her high cheekbones with a generous amount of peach blusher.

Tommy drenched her pout in a flattering nude shade of lipstick and she gave herself a sultry gaze with a blend of brown eyeshadows.

Decked out: She had two pearl chain necklaces - both by Chanel - fastened around her neck and she wore a gold bracelet

Kandi Burruss put her enviably curvaceous figure on display in a black vinyl jumpsuit with a gathered waist and a zipper up the front.

The producer, 45, left her jumpsuit slightly unzipped and added height to her petite 5foot3inch frame with a pair of ankle strap heels.

Kandi wore her voluminous brunette tresses in a high ponytail and she rocked a glam smokey eyeshadow look paired with faux lashes.

Vinyl vixen: Kandi Burruss put her enviably curvaceous figure on display in a black vinyl jumpsuit with a gathered waist and a zipper up the front

A little boost: The producer, 45, left her jumpsuit slightly unzipped and added height to her petite 5foot3inch frame with a pair of ankle strap heels

Bryan Cranston bundled up in a stylish black peacoat as he joined the stars attending opening night.

Ronan Farrow looked spiffy in a blue blazer styled with a green shirt and slender black pants.

Wilson Cruz suited up for the occasion in a black jacket, slacks, and a white dress shirt.

The My So Called Life actor showed off his quirky side with a thin, patterned tie and he placed a colorful handkerchief in his jacket pocket.

Spiffy: Ronan Farrow looked spiffy in a blue blazer styled with a green shirt and slender black slacks

Bundled up: Bryan Cranston bundled up in a stylish black peacoat as he joined the stars attending opening night

Suave: Wilson Cruz suited up for the occasion in a black jacket, slacks, and a white dress shirt

L Morgan Lee - who stars at 'Thought 1' - wowed in a black floor-length gown with straps that hung off the shoulders and a ruched bodice.

The Broadway star accessorized with a pair of dangling earrings, two large statement rings and and a bracelet.

She gathered for a group photo with co-stars John-Andrew Morrrison - who plays the role of 'Thought 4' - and John-Michael Lyles - who plays 'Thought 3.'

Jaquel Spivey - who is making his Broadway debut as the show's lead character 'Usher' - waved a 'Move I'm Gay' fan while posing for snaps on the red carpet.

Regal: L Morgan Lee - who stars at 'Thought 1' - wowed in a black floor-length gown with straps that hung off the shoulders and a ruched bodice

Co-stars: She gathered for a group photo with co-stars John-Andrew Morrrison - who plays the role of 'Thought 4' - and John-Michael Lyles - who plays 'Thought 3'

Big debut: Jaquel Spivey - who is making his Broadway debut as the show's lead character 'Usher' - waved a 'Move I'm Gay' fan while posing for snaps on the red carpet

The performer rocked an oversized abstract sweater styled with some tapered trousers and a pair of platform Dr. Martens shoes.

Mars Rucker - who is the designated understudy for the roles of 'Thought 1,' 'Thought 2' and 'Thought 3' - stunned in a daring muted orange cut-out dress with a floor-length skirt.

Tony Award-winning actress LaChanze wowed in a black gown with a high neckline and a black velvet accent.

Before heading inside the theater, A Strange Loops co-stars John-Michael Lyles, Jason Veasey, L Morgan Lee, John-Andrew Morrison, James Jackson Jr, Jaquel Spivey and Antwayn Hopper posed all together for a group photo.

Jaw-dropping: Mars Rucker - who is the designated understudy for the roles of 'Thought 1,' 'Thought 2' and 'Thought 3' - stunned in a daring muted orange cut-out dress with a floor-length skirt

Wow-worthy: Tony Award-winning actress LaChanze wowed in a black gown with a high neckline and a black velvet accent

All together now! Before heading inside the theater, A Strange Loops co-stars John-Michael Lyles, Jason Veasey, L Morgan Lee, John-Andrew Morrison, James Jackson Jr, Jaquel Spivey and Antwayn Hopper gathered to pose for a group photo

A Strange Loop is a Pulitzer Prize-winning new musical by playwright Michael R. Jackson.

The show follows 'black, queer writer' Usher (played by Jaquel Spivey), who is 'working a day job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical,' as per Playbill.

The audience watches as the young artist wages war with 'a host of demons  not least of which, the punishing thoughts in his own head  in an attempt to capture and understand his own strange loop.'

Following its Off-Broadway premiere in 2019, A Strange Loop earned the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Talk of the town: A Strange Loop is a Pulitzer Prize-winning new musical by playwright Michael R. Jackson
Seongnam City Hall / Courtesy of Seongnam City Hall





Two civil servants of the Seongnam city government were sentenced to suspended prison terms Wednesday for producing a list containing information of about 150 single female employees.







The Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Court sentenced the two civil servants to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and one year in prison, suspended for three years, respectively.







The two were indicted in January for producing the list containing the names, ages, photos, ranks and office information of some 150 single female employees in their 30s at the city government in 2019 by accessing the government's personnel management system.







The 12-page list was handed to a mayor's secretary, who later reported it with the state-run Anti-Corruption Civil Rights Commission.







The court said the accused misused their authority to illegally use personal information of fellow civil servants. It added the admission and repentance of their crimes were taken into consideration in the ruling. (Yonhap)


Kyle Sandilands and his pregnant fiancee Tegan Kynaston are currently enjoying a romantic getaway in their $1.3million holiday home in Port Douglas, Queensland.

And on Wednesday, the couple met up with long-time pal and self-proclaimed 'Mr Paparazzi' Darryn Lyons for a catch up over lunch in the seaside village.

Tegan, 34, looked sensational for the midday outing, dressing her growing baby bump in a pretty patterned minidress.

Lunch date: Kyle Sandilands (left) and his pregnant fiancee Tegan Kynaston (right) joined 'Mr Paparazzi' Darryn Lyons (centre) for lunch in Port Douglas on Tuesday

The ensemble emphasised her svelte frame and never-ending pins, while she teamed her look with a pair of $840 wedge mules from Chloe.

She also wore a Louis Vuitton handbag and a pair of oversized sunglasses, and styled her hair in a gentle beach wave.

Meanwhile Kyle, 50, kept things cool in a navy shirt, black shorts and black sneakers.

Glowing: Tegan, 34, looked sensational for the outing, dressing her growing baby bump in a pretty patterned minidress

Casual: Kyle, meanwhile, kept things cool in a navy shirt, black shorts and black sneakers

Isn't she lovely! Tegan also wore a Louis Vuitton handbag and a pair of oversized sunglasses, and styled her hair in a gentle beach wave

He and Tegan were seen sharing a sweet kiss as they stepped out of their car, before meeting up with media personality Darryn.

The photographer commanded attention in a floral shirt, denim jeans and flip-flops, while his statement pink hair was spiked up at the front.

Darryn shot to fame as a paparazzo, and was also the Mayor of Geelong between 2013 and 2016.

He also became a housemate in the UK version of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5, entering the house in August 2011.

Lovers: Kyle and Tegan were seen sharing a quick peck as they stepped out of their car, before meeting up with media personality Darryn

Cool: Darryn commanded attention in a floral shirt, denim jeans and flip-flops, while his statement pink hair was spiked up at the front

Well-known face: Darryn shot to fame as a paparazzo, and was also the Mayor of Geelong between 2013 and 2016

Kyle and Darryn have been close for a while, with the photographer even attending the radio star's 50th birthday party onboard a $3000-per-hour superyacht in Sydney last year.

Meanwhile, it was revealed in February 2021 that Kyle and Tegan had splashed $1.3million on their stunning tropical property in Port Douglas.

Kyle uses the 2.5-hectare property primarily as a holiday home, but also occasionally broadcast his KIIS FM breakfast show from there when he's not in Sydney.

Friends: Kyle and Darryn have been close for a while, with the photographer even attending the radio star's 50th birthday party onboard a $3000-per-hour superyacht in Sydney last year

Getaway: The couple are currently on holiday in Port Douglas

While no sale price was disclosed at the time, the house was listed for $1.3million and it's believed Kyle paid about that figure, The Cairns Post reported.

The home is an entertainer's dream for Kyle and his partner, and features a blue-tiled infinity pool which looks out to the hinterland.

There's three bedrooms and three bathrooms, meaning Kyle and Tegan have plenty of space for guests, as well as a breezy open-plan living and dining area.

Port Douglas is known for its exquisite beaches and proximity to the Great Barrier Reef, and is also near to Daintree National Park.

A holiday home fit for a king! In February 2021, it was revealed that Kyle and Tegan had splashed out a rumoured $1.3million on their Port Douglas holiday home (pictured)

The town itself, which is a one-hour drive north from Cairns, is filled with boutique shops and restaurants and is popular with tourists and backpackers.

Kyle and Tegan announced they were set to welcome their first child together live on The Kyle and Jackie O Show in February this year.

'We're having a baby!' he declared as the entire KIIS FM studio cheered.

His co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson said she was 'so happy' for the pair and told them their lives were about to change forever.
She has been soaking up the sun in Miami as of late, where she owns a coastal property.

And Kimberley Garner looked nothing short of sensational as she soaked up the sun on a trip to the beach on Tuesday.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 31, showcased her jaw-dropping figure as she donned a dark green bikini while working on her tan.

Wow: Kimberley Garner looked nothing short of sensational in a dark green bikini as she hit the beach in Miami on Tuesday

The swimwear designer's garment featured a string detail around the waist while she also donned a matching sarong.

Letting her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders, Kimberley added to her look with a pair of sunglasses.

Relaxing on a beach chair, the star completed her look for the outing with a pair of gold necklaces.

Despite now enjoying huge fame as a swimwear designer, Kimberley has previously revealed how she used to pretend to be an intern when she first started the business as nobody took her seriously.

Stunning: The swimwear designer's garment featured a string detail around the waist while she also donned a matching sarong

Career: Despite now enjoying huge fame as a swimwear designer, Kimberley has previously revealed how she used to pretend to be an intern when she first started the business as nobody took her seriously

However, the property heiress insisted she's more than just the face of her line Kimberley London and is involved with every aspect of creating her sell-out swimwear range.

She told MailOnline: 'I think people sometimes think that Im only the face, but I am responsible for every bit of the business.

'I was 18 when I started my first company - I came up with an idea, stayed up for days learning how to register the company and teaching myself. It became very successful overnight.'

Beauty: Kimberley her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders for the day

She explained: 'However, as I was only 18, no one ever imagined it was mine. I was a young blonde girl with a soft voice.

'No one would take me seriously or realise it was my company. So, I pretended to be the Intern!

'I handled all the meetings, phone calls, and emails for the company. When it became a success, I put all the revenues into starting Kimberley London.'
Courteney Cox rocked a casual chic ensemble as she left Nobu restaurant in Malibu, California on Tuesday, pairing a blazer with a pair of washed denim jeans.

The former Friends star, 57, cozied up next to beau Johnny McDaid, 45, as the pair waited for their car before leaving the celeb hotspot.

Courteney nailed an elegant-casual vibe with a black turtleneck underneath the unbuttoned blazer, paired with an obsidian satchel-style leather purse.

Back in black: Courteney Cox, 57, threw a blazer over a black turtleneck for a night at Nobu in Malibu, California with her Snow Patrol beau Johnny McDaid on Tuesday

Date night: The former Friends star snuggled up to beau Johnny, 45, as the pair waited for their car before leaving the celeb hotspot

She accesorised with a simple pair of small hoops and an elegant pendant necklace which could be seen peeking out.

The star kept her manicure clean and tidy with a nude coat and wore her stunning raven locks down in relaxed waves.

She kept her make-up look natural with strong brows, long lashes and a dewy complexion.

Slick ride: Courteney drove as her and Johnny left Nobu in a black Tesla, with the pair matching in black-and-denim outfits

Snow Patrol member Johnny matched Courteney with a simple pair of light-wash jeans, but added a little edge with a black leather jacket over a cornflower blue shirt.

The pair were snapped driving off, with Courteney at the wheel of a slick Tesla car.

Earlier this month she reunited with Friends bestie Jennifer Aniston, 53, to promote the final drop in their 'Cast Collection' clothing line.

The pair posted a blurry video of themselves wearing 'Friends Forever' T-shirts while Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer all shared snaps of themselves with the latest merchandise.

The clothing is all part of the 'Cast Collection' line, a range of Friends themed apparel curated by stars of the show featuring their favorite lines and unforgettable moments from the series.

The reunion special aired on HBO and featured appearances by the likes of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, who paid homage to their favorite moments from the beloved sitcom. Friends premiered its very first episode in September 1994 and ran for an impressive ten seasons on NBC.

Courteney returned to small screens as the star of the new Starz series Shining Vale, which follows the actress playing a writer confronted with a ghost living in her house.
My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star Paddy Doherty has revealed that he was rushed to hospital after having a heart attack - a year after suffering Covid complications.

The star, 63, shared a video to his social media on Wednesday in hospital as he updated fans on his condition before vowing to give up drinking and embark on a healthier lifestyle after turning to booze to cope with his mother's dementia.

He said in the clip: 'My heart I think... I had a heart attack last night. My breathing keeps being difficult. It's like a horse sitting on your chest.'

Unwell: My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star Paddy Doherty has revealed that he was rushed to hospital after suffering a heart attack - two months after suffering Covid complications

He also claimed that he had been stuck in a corridor at the hospital in Chester for two days as the unit didn't have the facilities to move him to a ward, before thanking NHS staff for looking after him.

He explained that he suspected the heart attack was caused by his drinking, saying: 'You know what it is? It's just all the stress with my brother Martin [McDonagh], and my mother with the dementia.

'Maybe I couldn't handle it. And then I went on the beer, I went to drink. It's no good. I was trapped in my own world. I couldn't deal with me and I couldn't deal with my mother in a home. I used to drink just to get drunk. Really my nerves are f***ed up.'

Paddy's mum Elizabeth, known as Queenie, died in April 2018 less than a year after her husband of 60 years Simon passed away.

Paddy was later quick to reassure fans he was doing alright in a separate hospital video, saying: 'I wouldn't say I'm great, but I'm getting there' before saying he would be 'be back' and was trying to stay positive.

'I will be back stronger,' the visibly breathless star added.

He explained: 'It wasn't just me, there's a lot of people there, and the sad thing is it's old gentlemen and old ladies, to see them stuck on a corridor.

Tough: The star, 63, shared a video to his social media on Wednesday lying on a hospital bed with a drip attached to his arm

Ouch: He said in the clip: 'My heart I think... I had a heart attack last night. My breathing keeps being difficult. It's like a horse sitting on your chest'

Mission: He vowed to give up drinking and embark on a healthier lifestyle after turning to booze to cope with his mother's dementia (pictured together before her death in 2018)

'One man was pulling the blankets off, God help him he didn't know. They said we've got to keep you covered up, we haven't got the facilities.'

He then vowed to embark on a healthier lifestyle after his health scare, saying he would stop drinking and start respecting his wife more.

Paddy explained: 'I've got to stop drinking, stop messing about, and enjoy my life the way I was enjoying my life.

'A lot of people do things in life they shouldn't do,' he explained, as he said he'd been drinking too much beer, and wasn't 'respecting' his wife and family.

Update: But he was later quick to reassure fans he doing alright in a separate video, saying: 'I wouldn't say I'm great, but I'm getting there' before saying he would be 'be back' and was trying to stay positive

He said he was 'selfish' and 'trapped' in his own world, and said he couldn't deal with the struggles he faced in his life, so began drinking 'just to get drunk'.

Paddy then urged his fans to speak to other people about their problems, and admitted he felt 'even better' just talking about the situation.

'Think positive, and God bless you,' he said, and laughed as he said he was grateful to be alive to 'say those words'.

Upset: Paddy's mum Elizabeth, known as Queenie, died in April 2018 less than a year after her husband of 60 years Simon passed away (her coffin is pictured at her funeral)

Paddy first revealed he had been hospitalised due to problems with his heart on April 25. He said medics were 'worried' about him in footage from the time.

A representative for Paddy and the hospital have been contacted for a comment.

It comes after last February Paddy was rushed back to hospital less than three weeks after he returned home following a battle with coronavirus.

He shared a video on Facebook at the time in which he told his followers he was back at the hospital after suffering from shortness of breath.

Promises: He then vowed to embark on a healthier lifestyle after his health scare, saying he would stop drinking and start respecting his wife more

Mr Doherty was seen struggling to breathe and coughing in the clip, as he said: 'I'll be out in the morning. Just be careful everyone.

'I'm worse than a cat. A cat's got seven lives, I've got 100 lives.'

He explained his previous Covid-19 infection had caused him to become 'short of breath', as he continues to take oxygen from a machine throughout the footage.

'Catch you all later. Be lucky,' he concluded.

Oh no: It comes after last February Paddy was rushed back to hospital less than three weeks after he returned home following a battle with coronavirus

The Celebrity Big Brother winner was rushed to hospital the month before when a mystery illness worsened, prompting his wife Roseanne Doherty to call 999.

He was later diagnosed with pneumonia and coronavirus and admitted to hospital.

Mr Doherty - who was previously given a 50 per cent chance of survival by medics - had suffered extreme exhaustion which left him stuck in bed for two days after he first fell ill.

Ill: He shared a video on Facebook at the time in which he told his followers he was back at the Countess of Chester Hospital after suffering from shortness of breath

As his condition worsened, his worried wife Roseanne alerted emergency services before he was taken to hospital in Chester.

He was placed on oxygen by doctors to help him fight the illnesses.

As he fought the conditions, Mr Doherty urged his fans not to underestimate the impact of coronavirus.

The reality TV star said although he was reluctant to go to hospital, paramedics told him he may not have woken up the following morning had he stayed at home.

Pictured: After this Covid battle Paddy shared a video from his home on the English Welsh border thanking his fans for their well wishes and praising doctors and nurses as 'true angels' who he says saved his life

In a video shared from his hospital bed, he warned fans the virus was 'not a joke' as he thanked them for their well wishes and added: 'Be lucky, be safe and God bless you all. Look after yourself.'

He returned home a week later on January 19, speaking in a video from his home on the English-Welsh border to praise the doctors and nurses who helped care for him as 'warriors of God'.

Mr Doherty said: 'Thank my god. They let me home about half an hour ago. I'm at home now. I've got a load of steroids I've got to take, just a bag of steroids.

'Just got to keep indoors now for 10 days and I'm a new man. So I want to thank you all for praying and just being concerned about me. But the most important people I've ever seen in my life is them nurses and doctors. They're a great team.

Support system: Doherty with his wife Rosanne at their home on the England/Wales border in March 2013

'Can I just say one thing? Listen - you're on about a front line, not being a c*** or anything, but you're on about a front line - imagine soldiers, they've got to go up front first before the back crew gets killed, they got to go up.

'And that's what it's like, they're going up. They know exactly what's happening, and they're wearing this [PPE], and they can catch it faster and they're putting their lives...

'I've never seen nothing like them. They are the true warriors of God, true angels.

'They've nerves of steel. I was afraid there. It was 50-50, it wasn't even 50-50 but I lived to tell the story.

'Them nurses and doctors - thumbs up - there's no words for them. They're just a different level. They're the greatest people on the planet.

'Without them, life wouldn't exist.'

As he signed off by saying 'I'm home, I'm home', he asked fans to pray for nurses and doctors and added: 'God be good to them all and their families.'

In March 2019, Doherty had a five-and-a-half-hour operation to treat his prostate cancer after suffering excruciating pains when he urinated and passing blood.

Wow: He won the eighth series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2011 after beating Kerry Katona in the final. Other housemates that series included Jedward and Amy Childs

He had his first operation at Manchester Royal Infirmary and said at the time how he had considered taking his own life because of the pain from the cancer.

Doherty is a British former bare-knuckle boxer who rose to national fame when he featured on My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, a Channel 4 documentary about travellers.

He then won the eighth series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2011 after beating Kerry Katona in the final. Other housemates that series included Jedward and Amy Childs.

Doherty also appeared with another housemate, Sally Bercow, on the Channel 5 documentary When Paddy Met Sally which saw them stay at each other's homes.
Kieran Hayler was seen celebrating his anniversary with fiancee Michelle Penticost hours before his ex-wife Katie Price arrived at court to face harassment charges.

Kieran, 35, and his wife to be, 39, kissed as they celebrated their four-year anniversary at The Ivy Asia in Guilford on Tuesday, a day before Katie appeared in court charged with breaking a restraining order enforced by Michelle.

Kieran, who was dressed in a tight-fitted black jumper and a pair of ripped skinny jeans, held hands with his partner as they arrived at their dinner date.

No drama here: Kieran Hayler was seen celebrating his anniversary with fiancee Michelle Penticost hours before his ex-wife Katie Price arrived at court to face harassment charges

Michelle, who looked glamorous in a pair of figure-hugging black leather trousers, has accused Katie breaching a restraining order against her.

Despite the legal drama, the couple appeared in high spirits as they smiled at each other during their romantic evening out ahead of the court date.

Hours later, Katie was pictured arriving at Crawley Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning, hiding behind a pair of reflective sunglasses and a face mask.

The troubled model, who was seen arriving in a Range Rover Evoque, was arrested on January 21 over claims she sent an abusive text to Michelle, where reportedly called her a 'gutter s**g'.

Katie spent the night in a cell after being quizzed by officers at Worthing Police station/ who had earlier picked her up from her home in Horsham.

Court charges: Katie was pictured arriving at Crawley Magistrates Court on Wednesday, hiding behind a pair of reflective sunglasses and a face mask

Katie allegedly branded flight attendant Michelle a 'c***ing w***e piece of s***' as well as 'gutter s**g', in texts to her ex's new partner.

MailOnline understands that Katie may have breached the order a second time when she sent an anonymous letter attacking Michelle to a relative just before flying out to Thailand.

A source said: 'Katie is playing a dangerous game and her actions have led her into deep trouble.

'Kieran and Michelle were deeply concerned after a relative received a letter, believing Katie is ignoring the rules of the restraining order as this is the second time it's happened in three months.

United: Kieran, who was dressed in a tight-fitted black jumper and a pair of ripped skinny jeans, held hands with his partner as they arrived at their dinner date

Claims: Michelle, who looked glamorous in a pair of figure-hugging black leather trousers, has accused Katie breaching a restraining order against her

Happy? Despite the legal drama, the couple appeared in high spirits as they smiled at each other during their romantic evening out ahead of the court date

'It was sent anonymously from Heathrow on the day she left for Thailand.

'They know it's her and are concerned by her unpredictable behaviour.'

A police source told MailOnline: 'Katie Price was arrested a few weeks ago for breaching a restraining order placed against her following an argument with the fiancee of her former partner, Kieran Hayler.

More legal woes: The troubled model was arrested on January 21 over claims she sent an abusive text to Michelle, where reportedly called her a 'gutter s**g'

Uh oh: Katie spent the night in a cell after being quizzed by officers at Worthing Police station who had earlier picked Katie up from her home in Horsham after a report was made

Reports: Katie allegedly branded flight attendant Michelle a 'c***ing w***e piece of s***' as well as 'gutter s**g', in texts to her ex's new partner

'Now she is believed to have written an anonymous note attacking Michelle Penticost via one of her family members.

'As such Katie has been charged with harassment and will appear before Crawley magistrates next month.'

Mother of five Katie was banned from contacting Michelle 'directly or indirectly' after swearing at her in a school playground in 2019.

Breaking the terms of the restraining order carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Katie also risks jail time for being arrested while still on licence for her drink-drive shame.

Claims: MailOnline understands that Katie may have breached the order a second time when she sent an anonymous letter attacking Michelle to a relative just before flying out to Thailand

Banned: Mother of five Katie was banned from contacting Michelle, 39, 'directly or indirectly' after swearing at her in a school playground in 2019

As well as enjoying an evening out together, Kieran also took to his Instagram to celebrate the couple's anniversary, by sharing a slew of loved-up snaps.

Alongside he penned a sweet message to his fiancee, writing: '4 years of loving you, my perfect match. Through hard times and the good we have each others back.

'Happy anniversary my gorgeous @michellepenti heres to the rest of our lives. I love you! This is the first picture we took together.'

Anniversary: Kieran took to his Instagram to celebrate the couple's anniversary, by sharing a slew of loved-up snaps
Miranda Kerr has given some handy parenting advice to Kyle Sandilands, as he prepares to welcome his first child with fiancee Tegan Kynaston later this year.

On Wednesday, the model, 39 - who is a proud mother to three boys - congratulated the host on The Kyle and Jackie O Show before handing out tips to the dad-to-be.

'There's no love like it, it is just the most incredible thing,' she said to Kyle, 50, who is also expecting a baby boy.

Words of wisdom: Miranda Kerr (pictured) has given some handy parenting advice to Kyle Sandilands, as he prepares to welcome his first child with fiancee Tegan Kynaston later this year

'Me being a mother, Evan [Spiegel, her husband] being a father, we feel so blessed.

'My advice is obviously sleep now while you can, and be very kind to Tegan!'

'I'm very kind! I think I've done very well in that area,' Kyle chimed in. 'I'm very kind, very attentive...

'I'm rubbing oils on her - how did you not get any stretch marks? As that's what we're discussing at the moment.'

'My advice is obviously sleep now while you can, be very kind to Tegan!' Miranda said. Pictured: Kyle Sandilands (left) and Tegan Kynaston (right) days after confirming their pregnancy news

Miranda responded by saying she used the Noni Glow Body Oil and Lotion from her brand Kora Organics, which helped prevent stretch marks during her pregnancies.

'The body oil, and the body lotion,' she said. 'Game changer. Helps prevent stretch marks as it your essential fatty acids in there and really nourishes the skin. That's what the skin needs when it's growing, it needs that nourishment.

'I'll send packs to her, with my pregnancy essentials. She's going to love it.'

Kyle laughed: 'That's fabulous. I'm going to rub it all over her like a Christmas turkey!'

Miranda shares sons Hart, three, and Myles, two, with her billionaire Snapchat founder husband Evan, 31.

Family: Miranda shares sons Hart, three, and Myles, two, with her billionaire Snapchat founder husband Evan Spiegel (right)

She is also mum to a 11-year-old son, Flynn, who she shares with ex-husband Orlando Bloom.

Kyle and Tegan announced they are expecting their first child together back in February, with the baby due in August.

'We're having a baby! We are having a friggin' baby. I couldn't be happier,' he said on KIIS FM's The Kyle & Jackie O Show.

Speaking on the radio show, Tegan said that Kyle had been 'very emotional' since finding out he was going to be a first-time father.

Congratulations! Kyle and Tegan announced they are expecting their first child together back in February, with the baby due in August

The expectant couple later found out the sex of their baby with an elaborate gender reveal party held later that same month.

They hired a superyacht for the occasion and arranged for planes flying overhead to release blue smoke, revealing they're having a baby boy.

'The best surprise we could have asked for. This was the most incredibly special, emotional and happy day for Kyle and I,' Tegan later wrote on Instagram.

Kyle and Tegan got engaged in Port Douglas over the Christmas holidays, just two months before they announced their baby news.
Shanina Shaik looked every inch the supermodel when she stepped out in New York City on Tuesday.

The 31-year-old Australian-born model looked stunning in a pair of black pants, which she paired with a matching black blazer, worn as a shirt.

She complemented her sleek ensemble with a pair of strappy sky-high black stilettos, and carried a small black handbag.

Strutting her stuff: Shanina Shaik looked every inch the supermodel when she stepped out in New York City on Tuesday

Shanina appeared heavily made up, highlighting her prominent cheekbones, while her long brunette hair was styled slicked back in a ponytail.

She literally stopped traffic as she stepped out in the bustling city, walking confidently down the street.

In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald earlier this month, Shanina spoke about her decision to move overseas for her modelling career.

Suits her: The 31-year-old Australian-born model looked stunning in a pair of black pants, which she paired with a matching black blazer

She said being mixed race - Shanina has Lithuanian, Saudi Arabian and Pakistani heritage - had meant she was never fully accepted by the Australian industry.

'I don't think I was embraced at the start of my career in Australia. I had to go overseas to find my look and find myself and feel accepted,' she explained.

'The industry wasn't quite the same in Australia compared to overseas. I think it's moving in the right direction now.'

Walking tall: She complemented her sleek ensemble with a pair of strappy sky-high black stilettos, and carried a small black handbag

Shanina was just 17 when she relocated to New York City to forge a modelling career for herself, and said her parents were 'supportive'.

'I think it's quite scary for any parent to see their kid move to the other side of the world, but I'm very grateful to have supportive parents who allowed me to go on my journey,' she added.

'My dad and mum always tell me to do what makes me happy, because that will make them happy. They know I am very hardworking and dedicated to my career.'
She enjoyed a fleeting romance with her boss Jason Oppenheim during the latest series of Selling Sunset, before breaking it off due to his reluctance to have children.

And Chrishell Stause admitted her relationship with the real estate broker is the first time she had 'felt fully like herself' with another person, making an unsubtle jibe at her ex-husband and This Is Us actor Justin Hartley, who she split from in 2019.

The actress, 40, made the admission in the first episode of the new series, before her sister Shonda admitted she felt that Justin was 'disrespectful' to her during their marriage and she would sometimes 'cover' for him.

Awks: Chrishell Stause admitted her relationship with Jason Oppenheim is the first time she had 'felt fully like herself' with another person, making an unsubtle jibe at her ex-husband and This Is Us actor Justin Hartley, who she split from in 2019 (pictured in October 2019)

During a chat with her friend and colleague Mary Fitzgerald while away in Greece on a group trip, Chrishell is seen discussing her new relationship.

While sipping on cocktails with their legs dangling in the pool, Chrishell says: I feel like it's the first time I've really been my full self and I don't have to change anything.

'It's kind of nice to just kind of be ourselves instead of hiding everything. We just wanted to figure out what it was before we opened it up to everyone else's opinions on it.

New love: The actress, 40, made the admission in the first episode of the new series, before her sister Shonda admitted she felt that Justin was 'disrespectful' to her during their marriage and she would sometimes 'cover' for him

'It's like backwards of any relationship I've ever been in. I've just been myself because of the way it started and it was nothing romantic. We didn't see each other that way for a long time.'

Chrishell touched on a time when she hired a private chef to cook a meal and ushered him away before her date arrive. Suggesting she would rely on false pretences before enjoying an honest relationship with Jason.

The reality personality did not mention the name of the person she hired a private chef for.

Pals: During a chat with her friend and colleague Mary Fitzgerald while away in Greece on a group trip, Chrishell is seen discussing her new relationship

Chrishell then continued: 'You know, he had a type before, so did I. I loved... I had a height thing, I'll be honest! I didn't even see him like that.

'It's so funny, it's so opposite of what I would've imagined. Just like the ultimate respect from both sides for each other, that is just something I've never had before,' she adds as Mary nods beside her.'

Chrishell and Justin's split aired during series three and the star claimed she was 'blindsided' when her then-husband text to say he had filed for divorce.

While sipping on cocktails with their legs dangling in the pool, Chrishell says: I feel like it's the first time I've really been my full self and I don't have to change anything'

Bookending the series with another chat about her ex-husband, Chrishell once again threw shade at the actor during a chat with her sisters on the series finale.

Shonda, who was also joined by another of their sisters Sabrina, admitted: 'I feel like with your last relationship, there was some criticism. A lot of what you did, I don't think that he took you seriously.

'A lot of your jobs, he acted like they were not real jobs. And this was your life. This was your job. You worked so hard for it.'

Chrishell said: 'It's like backwards of any relationship I've ever been in. I've just been myself because of the way it started and it was nothing romantic. We didn't see each other that way for a long time'

Sabrina added: 'There are just some instances in the past where it felt like you were covering for your partner at the time.

'Maybe they were doing something that was a little disrespectful and you were, like, standing up for them and trying to cover for them and it was just so sad that you felt like you had to kind of pretend to be something else.'

Chrishell agreed with her sisters, and added: 'I don't even, like, think about this anymore. But the second that you, like, my memory hits of what you're talking about, I'm like, 'Who was I?' I don't even know who that was.'

Not holding back: Bookending the series with another chat about her ex-husband, Chrishell once again threw shade at the actor during a chat with her sisters on the series finale

Sabrina (pictured) added: 'There are just some instances in the past where it felt like you were covering for your partner at the time'

Chrishell agreed with her sisters, and added: 'I don't even, like, think about this anymore. But the second that you, like, my memory hits of what you're talking about, I'm like, 'Who was I?' I don't even know who that was'

'And I really do respect and value your opinions. You know, I feel like I'm in a place where I'm so much different and I'm so much more grown than I was and I'm a fully realized person at this point.

'Not a version of what I think somebody wants me to be.

Since their divorce, Justin went public with and later married Sofia Pernas, 32, in March 2021. Chrishell's relationship with Jason came to an end in December 2021.

Speaking to The Mirror, Mary said that Chrishell and Jason's break-up 'wasn't fun' but the pair still care about each other.

'I mean there were times during that initial period when they first broke up, it wasn't fun to have to say, 'okay are we gonna have this group or this group', but they needed space for that short period of time. But they're mature, they worked it out and everything's fine.'
Charlotte Hawkins looked stunning in a backless eye-catching jungle-print ensemble as she arrived at Global Radio in London on Wednesday.

The Good Morning Britain presenter, 46, was the picture of summery elegance in a white-and-navy midi dress, which she paired with indigo wedge sandals.

Her dual-toned frock also featured puffed sleeves and a cinched waistband, creating a stunning silhouette on the radio host.

Welcome to the Jungle! Charlotte Hawkins, 46, looked stunning in her white-and-navy dress as she arrived at Global Radio in London on Wednesday

Effortless elegance: Her dual-toned midi dress also featured puffed sleeves and a cinched waistband, creating a stunning silhouette on the radio host

Charlotte showed off the dress's stunning backless detail, which included a turtleneck collar that tied together.

She accessorised the look with a large black leather tote to finish off the perfect late-spring outfit.

The media personality added a gentle pop of colour with coral nails and kept her jewellery minimal with some classy studs.

Simply chic: Charlotte accessorised the look with a large black leather tote and added a gentle pop of colour with rosy pink nails

Soft glam: The media personality kept her jewellery minimal with some classy studs and opted to style her platinum blonde hair in curls

She styled her platinum blonde tresses in bouncy curls and went for an easy glam look with her make-up, opting for smoky eyes, long inky lashes and a glossy baby-pink lip.

Meanwhile, GMB weather presenter Laura Tobin was left red-faced on Wednesday's Good Morning Britain after accidentally suggesting that she and her husband were in an open marriage.

The weather presenter's on-air blunder saw her blurt out that partner Dean Brown - who has never been pictured - will 'let me go with anyone' when discussing who will play Kate Middleton in the upcoming series of The Crown.

Her co-stars Susanna Reid and Ed Balls were left tickled by her remark, with Laura quickly forced to backtrack over what she said.

Whoops! Laura Tobin was left red-faced on Wednesday's Good Morning Britain after accidentally suggesting that she and her husband were in an open marriage

As they discussed the Netflix hit, Susanna noted that weather presenter Laura bared a resemblance for the Duchess of Cambridge and could audition for the role.

Laura responded: 'Well I actually have a (daughter) Charlotte so Im halfway there, I just need two more children.

'And a husband called William. So if you could work on that, while I do the weather.'

Susanna then asked: 'What will Dean say?' with Laura then nonchalantly replying: 'Hes fine, hell let me go with anyone.'

As everyone in the studio burst into fits of giggles, a mortified Laura declared: 'I don't mean it like that! Let's move on to the weather.'

After the break, the brunette beauty was quick to explain herself, stating: 'Just to clarify, because Kate Middleton wouldnt say that!

'He may happily palm me off. He might think I can be at times a slightly annoying wife, and he would send me off to the wife shop and trade me in for something less annoying.'

She then quipped: 'My audition isn't going well!'
James Bond actor Kenneth Tsang was found dead in a Hong Kong hotel room on Wednesday aged 87 while undergoing mandatory Covid quarantine, local media has reported.

Tsang - a stalwart of the Golden Age of Cantonese cinema - was discovered by staff at Kowloon Hotel two days after returning from Singapore.

In an incident report, police said they were informed a 'body' had been found by hotel staff around noon (4am GMT).

Star: James Bond actor Kenneth Tsang was found dead in a Hong Kong hotel room on Wednesday aged 87 while undergoing mandatory quarantine, local media reported (pictured in 2012)

The deceased was an 87-year-old male surnamed Tsang, the incident report said.

Tsang had tested negative for Covid earlier in the week and a cause of death has not yet been determined.

The star appeared in several blockbuster Hollywood films, including the James Bond film Die Another Day (2002) and Rush Hour 2 (2001).

He played General Moon in the 2002 spy thriller, alongside Pierce Brosnan in his fourth and final appearance as 007.

Popular: The star appeared in several blockbuster Hollywood films, including the James Bond film Die Another Day in 2002 (pictured)

In 2015, he won the best supporting actor award at the 34th Hong Kong Film Awards for his role Overheard 3, a Hong Kong-Chinese crime thriller.

For Hong Kongers and fans of Cantonese cinema, Tsang was a household name thanks to a career that spanned six decades with more than 200 acting credits listed on film database IMDB.

He was also the face of a Hong Kong hair dye brand for four decades.

While he began acting in earnest in the 1960s, many of his most memorable roles came during the golden period of Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s and 1990s with films like The Killer, Supercop, Peking Opera Blues and Once A Thief.

Sad: Tsang - a stalwart of the Golden Age of Cantonese cinema - was discovered by staff at Kowloon Hotel (pictured) two days after returning from Singapore

Big names: He played General Moon in the 2002 spy thriller, alongside Pierce Brosnan (pictured) in his fourth and final appearance as 007

He was also one of the few Hong Kong stars of that era to cross into Hollywood with supporting roles, mostly villains, in movies like The Replacement Killers, Die Another Day - a James Bond film - Anna and The King and Memoirs of A Geisha.

In one of his last ever interviews, Tsang told the Sin Chew Daily he had completed a two-week trip to Malaysia and had flown back to Hong Kong via Singapore.

He described relishing time spent solo travelling after being looked after by others for almost all previous trips in his life.

'I will quarantine if I must,' Tsang told the Chinese language Malaysian newspaper which ran a photo of the actor beaming as he held a piece of durian fruit.

Cinema: He also starred in Rush Hour 2 (pictured), opposite Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in 2001

Like China, Hong Kong has stuck to a strict zero-Covid strategy that has kept borders mostly closed throughout the pandemic with compulsory quarantine in designated hotels for returning residents.

For much of last year, people had to complete 21-days in quarantine although it has more recently been reduced to seven days.

Last week Hong Kong lifted a ban on non-residents flying to the city that had been in place for two years. However, the return of widespread tourism or frictionless business travel in the short term future is unlikely.

Airlines are only flying a handful of routes to Hong Kong compared to before the pandemic and carriers that bring in more than five coronavirus cases face a five-day ban on that route under current rules.

Roles: He also starred as Xiaodong Xo (pictured) in Strangers, the TV show which was released in 2018
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The number of babies born in Korea fell to another record low in February, data showed Wednesday, illustrating the country's gloomy demographic situation and chronically low birthrate.



A total of 20,654 babies were born in February, down 3.2 percent from the previous year, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.



It marked the lowest for any February since 1981, when the statistics agency began compiling related data.



Korea is struggling with a chronic decline in childbirths as many young people delay or give up on getting married or having babies amid a prolonged economic slowdown and skyrocketing housing prices.



The country's total fertility rate  the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime  hit an all-time low of 0.81 last year, down from 0.84 a year ago. It marked the fourth straight year the rate was below 1 percent.



The number of deaths rose for the 12th consecutive month in February amid rapid aging and the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said.






Candice Swanepoel was back to modeling her own line on Wednesday.

The blonde bombshell from South Africa was seen in a skimpy light orange swimsuit form her brand Tropic Of C, which claims to be eco-friendly.

This comes after the cover girl posed for Kim Kardashian's lingerie line SKIMS alongside Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks.

Beach babe: Candice Swanepoel was back to modeling her own line on Wednesday. The blond bombshell from South Africa was seen in a skimpy light orange swimsuit form her brand Tropic Of C, which claims to be eco-friendly

The 33-year-old blonde bombshell said she was in a new set from the spring collection as she was seen in two new Instagram photos.

'NEW. The C bralette and The C bottom are now available in a new shimmering papagayo color exclusively on @luisaviaroma,' wrote the leggy lady.

And in another post the star wrote: 'Inspired by a life on the beach, The C bralette and The C bottom are now available.'

Cute look: The 33-year-old blonde bombshell said she was in a new set from the spring collection as she was seen in two new Instagram photos

When modeling for Kim, the siren looked her very best.

The catwalk queen was wearing a black semi sheer one piece bodysuit with her long blonde hair down.

The looker was in a white studio in Los Angeles as she posed away for the top-selling brand which is worth $3.2billion.

Beach feel: And in another post the star wrote: 'Inspired by a life on the beach, The C bralette and The C bottom are now available'

Artsy: The toes up and pointed shot was put on a beach backdrop for an artsy feel

The SKIMS line has become so powerful that the Keeping Up With The Kardashians vet has been able to hire some of the most famous models in the supermodel game.

Last month the ex of Kanye West presented the new faces for the lingerie brand: Heidi Klum, 48, Alessandra Ambrosio, 40, Candice, 33, and Tyra Banks, 48, all made the cut.

Three of these models have already been working for over 20 years.

'It doesn't get more iconic than this,' the copy on the social media photos read.

Posed up: Swanepoel was seen in new images for Kim Kardashian's lingerie line SKIMS earlier this month

Kim selected all four household names to star in the campaign showcasing the models strength, energy, and everlasting allure with imagery that reflects the groups enduring legacies, it was shared in a press release.

After the first batch of photos were shared, more were seen with Kim included.

The TV siren was in a nude bra and panties as she was placed between the catwalk legends.

'OK so I wasnt supposed to be in this @SKIMS campaign but I stopped by and jumped in because it was too iconic. Introducing Tyra, Heidi, Alessandra and Candice wearing our signature SKIMS Fits Everybody collection,' wrote Kim in her Instagram caption.

All the ladies together: 'OK so I wasnt supposed to be in this @SKIMS campaign but I stopped by and jumped in because it was too iconic. Introducing Tyra, Heidi, Alessandra and Candice wearing our signature SKIMS Fits Everybody collection,' wrote Kim in her Instagram caption

They all were seen in nude colors as they posed in a group with a white background and some wore black and deep brown as well.

Other top models who have worked for SKIMS include Kate Moss, who was one of the most famous faces of the 1990s thanks to her work with Calvin Klein.

SKIMS has become a blockbuster since its inception. In April 2021, Skims was already valued at a whopping $1.6 billion.

But now the Kim's company has a valuation of $3.2billion after raising $240million in its latest round of funding in January, according to Forbes.
Chloe Brockett cosied up to her ex Jack Fincham as the duo embarked on a 'road trip' to Manchester on Wednesday.

The TOWIE star, 21, giggled whilst Jack, 30, fooled around reclining his car seat, sang a long to the radio and made three stops - blaming his 'weak bladder'.

Chloe put on a glamorous display as she took to her Instagram Story to give her followers a glimpse into their fun-filled trip.

Long drive: Chloe Brockett, 21, cosied up to her ex Jack Fincham, 30, as they sang in the car and made jokes about his 'weak bladder' during a road trip to Manchester on Wednesday

Former Love Island contestant, Jack, was previously linked to Chloe back in 2019 and later split in May 2021, only to spark romance rumor's once again in December after he sent the brunette beauty a Christmas card.

In a series of videos the television personality addressed her fans as she announced that her former flame would be joining her on the four hour drive.

'A nice four hours with JCF,' Jack confirmed.

Stunning: Chloe put on a glamorous display as she took to her Instagram Story to give her followers a glimpse into their fun-filled trip

Jack fooled around reclining his car seat, sang a long to the radio and made three stop off's as he blamed his 'weak bladder'

Chloe explained that he had already planned stopping off before they'd even managed to get going as he 'needed hairspray and Dairylea Dunkers.'

'This is our third stop off at the services, this is getting stupid,' Chloe laughed.

Jack explained: 'I've got a weak bladder, I don't know what you want me to do, I've had orange juice, I've had a massive red bull, I don't know what you want me to do.'

He then showcased his singing skills as he tried his hand at serenading Chloe whilst she laughed from the passengers seat.

Nightmare: 'This is our third stop off at the services, this is getting stupid,' Chloe laughed

Fun-filled: He then showcased his singing skills as he tried his hand at serenading Chloe whilst she laughed from the passengers seat

Long day! the pair finally arrived in Manchester with Chloe stopping to grab herself a huge caffeine fix

In December, the pair fuelled rumours that they had rekindled their romance after their split in May.

Chloe revealed on Christmas Eve that Jack had sent her a cheeky card joking he hopes that Santa 'misses her house,' hinting that their romance was stronger than ever.

Chloe's card featured heart shaped pictures of the couple cosying up together and was emblazoned with the message: 'To Chloe xx Hope Santa misses your house, jokes xx'

Chloe tagged Jack and wrote underneath: 'Award for the biggest card ever goes to @jack_charlesf'.
She's set to welcome her third child - her first with fiance Matt Poole - in a matter of weeks.

And on Wednesday, Tammy Hembrow gave fans another glimpse at her growing baby bump ahead of her due date.

The 27-year-old influencer posed in her bathroom mirror for the selfie, flaunting her bare stomach at the camera while wearing tiny sleepwear.

'Almost time to meet you!' On Wednesday, Tammy Hembrow gave fans another glimpse at her growing baby bump ahead of her due date

She captioned the photo: 'Almost time to meet you. Praying for a healthy and happy arrival.'

It comes days after Tammy - who shares daughter Saskia, five, and son Wolf, six, with ex-fiance Reece Hawkins - admitted she's scared she won't be able to love her newborn daughter as much as her eldest children.

In an emotional Instagram post, the expectant mother confessed: 'Crazy to think Ill be meeting her soon not gonna lie Ive been having some of the anxious weird feelings I remember having before I welcomed Sass.'

'Do any other mamas feel like this?' It comes days after Tammy admitted she's scared she won't be able to love her newborn daughter as much as her eldest children

'That feeling of how can you possibly love another soul as much as the little ones already here. Or the guilt that you will have to give your time and attention to another. Allllll the emotions,' she lamented.

Tammy went on to ask: 'Any other mamas feel like this?' before adding: 'I know all these feelings are just going to fade away as soon as shes here.'

She ended her caption on an optimistic note, writing: 'This little girl was meant for me & my heart just keeps growing.'

Growing brood: The influencer shares daughter Saskia, five, (left) and son Wolf, six, (Right) with ex-fiance Reece Hawkins

Fears: In an emotional Instagram post, the expectant mother admitted she was questioning 'how can you possibly love another soul as much as the little ones already here'. The activewear entrepreneur accompanied her caption with two photos of herself posing with her huge baby bump on display in tiny pink lingerie

The pot came after Tammy was forced to defend herself after she was criticised for jetting off to the Maldives for a babymoon while 32 weeks pregnant.

The businesswoman flew business class with Singapore Airlines last weekend, joined by her children and fiance.

While the airline permits women with an 'uncomplicated single pregnancy' to fly at 32 weeks with a medical certificate, some of Tammy's Instagram followers were quick to criticise her decision in the comments section of her holiday album.

Baby joy! Tammy is expecting a baby girl with fiance Matt Poole (left)

Case of the ex: Tammy's former fiance Reece is married to Texan influencer London Goheen. The pair share a son named Stone (all pictured)

'Wow, you're game to fly that pregnant... there was no way I would risk having a baby overseas or on a plane,' one follower wrote.

Tammy responded, 'I'm only 32 weeks haha not about to have this baby on a plane,' to which the fan replied: 'Problem is, it's not always planned.

'Mine came at 33 weeks without warning. It's so unpredictable with birth and we don't know how good the healthcare is overseas... your life your choice though, I'm more of a worry wort than most.'

Criticism: It comes after Tammy was forced to defend herself after she was criticised for jetting to the Maldives for a 'babymoon' while 32 weeks pregnant. (Pictured on the flight over)

'Flying this pregnant,' another critic wrote, adding: 'She could develop a blood clot, go into labour mid-flight, have labour complications and not have proper medical treatment, etc. There are tons of reasons not to fly in your third trimester.'

Tammy responded: 'Midwife said it's perfectly fine. Fit and healthy and so is bub.'

One follower commented: 'I personally wouldn't fly anywhere after 20 weeks into pregnancy because no one knows when the baby will be born.

Critique: While the airline permits women with an 'uncomplicated single pregnancy' to fly at 32 weeks with a medical certificate, some of Tammy's Instagram followers were quick to criticise her decision in the comments section of her holiday album

'And if you're overseas and your baby is born prematurely, you'll need a lot of money and not sure if travel insurance would cover things like that.'

'Travelling in third trimester is very risky,' another agreed.

Air travel is permitted on Singapore Airlines until 36 weeks for an uncomplicated single pregnancy, and until 32 weeks for an uncomplicated multiple pregnancy.

Babymoon in paradise: Tammy recently enjoyed a lavish babymoon in the Maldives (pictured at her villa with Saskia, Wolf and Matt)

No medical certificate is required for women who are in their 28th week of pregnancy or earlier.

For between 29 and 36 weeks, a medical certificate is required stating the woman is fit to travel, as well as the estimated date of delivery and number of weeks of pregnancy.

The 'certificate must be dated within ten days of the first flight after 28 weeks of pregnancy', the Singapore Airlines website states.

Not long now! Tammy showed off her huge baby bump while on holiday

An average flight time from Tammy's home in the Gold Coast to the Maldives is approximately 17 hours.

Tammy revealed her pregnancy back in December, just two weeks after she and Matt announced their engagement.

Her ex Reece meanwhile is married to Texan influencer London Goheen. The pair share a son named Stone.
Jack Whitehall has said that comedians need to be careful who they target with their jokes after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.

Appearing on Wednesday's Good Morning Britain, the comedian, 33, said that hosts of award shows would be 'checking their jokes going forward' and said he himself was once put in a headlock by a disgruntled fan when he was on stage.

The Oscars exchange between Smith and Rock took place after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head, saying, 'Jada, I love you, G.I. Jane 2, cant wait to see it,' in reference to the 1997 movie which featured Demi Moore with a shaved head. (Pinkett Smith, 50, has alopecia, which causes hair loss.)

Wary: Jack Whitehall has said that comedians need to be careful who they target with their jokes after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars

Smith then walked onstage and smacked Rock, then returned to his seat and shouted at him twice, 'Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth!' to a stunned audience.

Jack, who has previously hosted the BRIT Awards four years in a row, joked: 'I always thought I pushed it quite far on the BRITs but maybe I didn't push it far enough.

'I never got Olly Murs to snap and come up on the stage and slap me, I feel like it was a missed opportunity.'

He added: 'I think that hosts going forward are definitely going to be checking themselves every time they write a joke for their monologues.'

Infamous: The Oscars exchange between Smith and Rock took place after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head

He also explained that comedians very rarely receive help as people always assume that when things go wrong, it's part of the act.

He said: 'The only time anyone ever got up stage with me was quite scary. I was doing a Christmas show in in Bournemouth, there was a large party heckling me so I picked on one guy and he got up on stage and put me into a headlock.

'The problem with that and you sort of saw that happen, but most people think that it's part of the show and they don't do anything.

'I felt quite vulnerable but everyone was laughing in the room because they thought it was a bit, even the bouncers because they thought it was a set up, so they wouldn't have come to my aid.

Careful: Appearing on Wednesday's Good Morning Britain, the comedian, 33, said that hosts of award shows would be 'checking their jokes going forward'

'And that is the problem with comedians, is when stuff goes wrong on stage you always assume its part of a bit because no one takes comedians seriously. I guess that's why when the slap happen you had a great deal of people thinking it was a set up.'

He also advised hosts to select the target of their jokes carefully, saying: 'My piece of advice as well is be careful who you pick on.'

He quipped: 'If I'm ever in a room I always just throw Piers Morgan under the bus over and over because I know that's a very safe target, because he would never come up on the stage quick enough to slap me. I would be able to run away.'

Jack has previously expressed fear that he could be cancelled by Hollywood if some of his past jokes ever came back to haunt him.

Funny: Jack, who has previously hosted the BRIT Awards four years in a row, joked: 'I always thought I pushed it quite far on the BRITs but maybe I didn't push it far enough' (pictured hosting BRITs in 2021)

Speaking with fellow comedian Jarlath Regan on the An Irishman Abroad podcast in December, Jack said: 'I feel like I've definitely said jokes in the past that would be worthy of cancellation.'

Jack added: 'I guess it's how you weather that storm if it does ever come up.'

He explained that as a comedian, he feels historic jokes are easier to get away with, as opposed to tweets or 'comments in interviews', as the public know that it was a joke.

He explained: 'I've had it, sort of, occur a few times and I think, maybe, people are a little better now.

'We've had a few of these ridiculous cancellations of people because of historic jokes that  especially with a comedian because it was told in jest and the context of it was only ever intended as a joke  that you do tend to get away with it a little bit more.'
She rose to fame as a late arrival on the 2019 series of Love Island.

And Arabella Chi left little to the imagination as she posed for a series of sizzling bikini snaps she shared to Instagram on Wednesday.

The reality star, 31, displayed her jaw-dropping figure as she donned a gold two-piece while taking an outdoor shower in Ibiza.

Incredible: Arabella Chi left little to the imagination as she posed for a series of sizzling bikini snaps she shared to Instagram on Wednesday

Arabella let her locks fall loose down her shoulders in the snaps as she struck a sultry pose for the camera.

The influencer accentuated her natural beauty with a light pallet of makeup and a smokey eye.

Alongside the post, Arabella wrote: 'My preferred way of showering in the morning'.

Last month, Arabella stripped down to her birthday suit as she put on a steamy display in her recent Instagram post to celebrate her 31st birthday in Anguilla.

Sizzle: The reality star, 31, displayed her jaw-dropping figure as she donned a gold two-piece while taking an outdoor shower in Ibiza

She bared all as she posed completely naked in the sultry snap that she shared with her 668k followers.

The influencer contestant held onto a towel to cover her assets as she revealed her peachy behind while posing up a storm on the beach.

She captioned the sizzling Instagram snap: 'In my birthday suit'.

Wow! Last month, Arabella stripped down to her birthday suit as she put on a steamy display in her recent Instagram post to celebrate her 31st birthday in Anguilla

Fans rushed to the comments section to wish Arabella a 'Happy birthday', including fellow Love Island star Molly Smith.

To celebrate her special day, Arabella headed to Champney's spa resort over the weekend before heading out to dinner with friends.

She could be seen chowing down on huge plates of sushi as she and her pals put their champagne glasses together at a swanky restaurant.

On Tuesday she took to her Instagram story and posted a sizzling selfie which she captioned: 'The best weekend thank you for all the birthday wishes feeling so happy and grateful for the people in my life'
Viola Davis says Will Smith helped her confront her childhood trauma.

The actress explained how an on-set conversation with her co-star from the 2016 movie Suicide Squad gave her a fresh perspective on issues she had been dealing with for decades.

In an excerpt from her new memoir Finding Me - which was shared by USA Today - she revealed how he asked her who she really was and past trauma helped shape her.

Working through issues: Viola Davis says Will Smith helped her confront her childhood trauma (pictured 2022)

Smith asked: 'Viola, who are you?'

She wrote that he continued: 'Look, I'm always going to be that 15-year-old boy whose girlfriend broke up with him. That's always going to be me. So, who are you?'

Viola wrote: 'There I was, a working actress with steady gigs, Broadway credits, multiple industry awards, and a reputation of bringing professionalism and excellence to any project. Hell, Oprah knew who I was.

'Yet, sitting there conversing with Will Smith, I was still that little, terrified, third-grade Black girl.'

On-set chat: The Suicide Squad actress explained how an on-set conversation with Smith gave her a fresh perspective on issues she'd been dealing with for decades (pictured 2016)

A big question: In an excerpt from her new memoir Finding Me - which was shared by USA Today - she revealed how he asked: 'Viola, who are you?' (pictured 2016)

Thinking nothing of it: Viola wrote: 'There I was, a working actress with steady gigs, Broadway credits, multiple industry awards, and a reputation of bringing professionalism and excellence to any project. Hell, Oprah knew who I was

But actually...: She continued: 'Yet, sitting there conversing with Will Smith, I was still that little, terrified, third-grade Black girl'

Smith, 53, has had to do quite a bit of soul searching in the last month after slapping Chris Rock onstage during the Academy Awards.

Rock made a joke about the actor's wife, Jada, cracking wise about her close-shaved head. Jada suffers from alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss.

After the now infamous moment, Smith was banned from the award ceremony for a decade. He's reportedly on a spiritual retreat in India.

Now infamous moment: Smith, 53, has had to do quite a bit of soul searching in the last month after slapping Chris Rock onstage during the Academy Awards

Hitting back at critic: The 56-year-old actress recently insisted critics 'serve no purpose' as she responded to negative feedback about her portrayal of Michelle Obama in The First Lady

Not new information: Davis said of critics, ''They always feel like they're telling you something that you don't know. Somehow that you're living a life that you're surrounded by people who lie

Meanwhile, the 56-year-old actress recently insisted critics 'serve no purpose' as she responded to negative feedback about her portrayal of Michelle Obama in The First Lady.

She said: 'Critics absolutely serve no purpose. And I'm not saying that to be nasty, either.

'They always feel like they're telling you something that you don't know. Somehow that you're living a life that you're surrounded by people who lie to you and "I'm going to be the person that leans in and tells you the truth." So it gives them an opportunity to be cruel to you.'

Viola suggested she's in a no-win situation playing the former First Lady, while the Oscar-winning actress also sees criticism as an occupational hazard.

No win: Viola suggested she's in a no-win situation playing the former First Lady, while the Oscar-winning actress also sees criticism as an occupational hazard

She added: 'How do you move on from the hurt, from failure? But you have to. Not everything is going to be an awards-worthy performance.'

Earlier this month, Viola revealed she found playing Obama to be 'absolutely terrifying.'

She shared: 'You're terrified whenever you start a job because you are afraid you are going to be found out - that's big imposter syndrome. But with Michelle Obama, it's like everyone has ownership over Michelle Obama.

'I mean, her book came out and it was [on every] bestseller list, everyone knows what she looks like what she sounds like, what her hair [is like], you know?'
Sean Penn seemed ready to save lives during a night shoot in New York City for his new movie Black Flies on Tuesday night.

The actor, 61, wore newly dyed red hair as he donned a black jacket that read 'paramedic' over the right side of his chest and 'FDNY' over the left side.

Black Flies is a thriller that follows a young paramedic, played by Ready Player One star Tye Sheridan, as he works during his first year on the job.

Playing the role well: Sean Penn seemed ready to save lives during a night shoot in NYC for his new movie Black Flies on Tuesday night

Penn donned a pair of black pants and walked in work shoes as he headed toward an ambulance.

His dark brown hair was cut short and combed to the left with spots of gray hinting at the sides.

The Mystic River star seemed caught in a serious scene as he didn't crack any smiles while filming.

Heavy coat: The actor, 61, donned a black jacket that read 'paramedic' over the right side of his chest and 'FDNY' over the left side

Hopping in the ambulance: He donned a pair of black pants and walked in work shoes as he headed toward an ambulance

Working together: Penn has been busy with the movie recently, working at night just a day after he filmed a scene in New York City with Tye Sheridan (pictured 2021)

The movie is based on the novel by Shannon Burke, and it is directed by French filmmaker Jean-Stephane Sauvaire.

Penn has been busy with the movie recently, working at night just a day after he filmed a scene in New York City with Sheridan.

The Into the Wild director's time on set came after he finalized his divorce from his third wife Leila George.

The former couple previously started their relationship in 2016, and they tied the knot during a small wedding ceremony that took place at their home in 2020.

The Into the Wild director's time on set came after he finalized his divorce from his third wife Leila George

First wife: Penn was married to Madonna from 1985 to 1989 (pictured 1987)

The actor was previously married to both Madonna and Robin Wright, and he shares a daughter named Dylan and a son named Hopper, aged 31 and 29, with the latter.

He was also connected to figures such as Charlize Theron, Scarlett Johansson and Jewel.

Penn went on to begin an on-again-off-again relationship with George, 29, and they made their union official at the height of the pandemic.

The pair remained together for just over a year before the actress filed for divorce in October of last year.

A life with Robin: He was married to Robin Wright from 1996 to 2010, and he shares a daughter named Dylan and a son named Hopper, aged 31 and 29, with the latter (pictured 2009)

The actor discussed the end of his time with his former wife during an interview with the Hollywood Authentic, where he expressed that the dissolution of his union was entirely his fault.

Penn noted that he only saw George 'on a day-to-day basis now, because I f***** up the marriage.'

The performer then stated that his obsession with following the news contributed to his separation from his former wife.

He expressed that younger wives 'don't actually love it when they get up from their peaceful night's sleep and their new husband is on the couch, having been up since four, watching all of the crap that's going on in the world.'

Penn did remark, however, that George was his 'best friend in the world and definitely the most influential, inspiring person, outside of my own blood, that anybody could ask to have in their life.'

The finalization of the couple's divorce was revealed by TMZ last Friday, when a judge signed off on their papers.
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Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead looked as loved-up as ever as they stepped out in Downtown LA on Tuesday in their first outing since tying the knot in a low-key outdoor ceremony.

The Moulin Rouge! star, 51, and the actress, 37, put on a rare display of PDA as they shared a cuddle and a kiss while out for lunch at Bike Shed Motor Co restaurant with their friends.

Ewan's silver wedding band could be seen on full display as he cut a casual figure in white jeans and a simple grey T-shirt, which he paired with a knitted cardigan and brown boots.

Smitten: Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead looked as loved-up as ever as they stepped out in Downtown LA on Tuesday in their first outing since tying the knot in a low-key outdoor ceremony

Sweet: The couple appeared to be in excellent spirits after reports of their nuptials as they were seen sharing a kiss and laughing

Just married: The Moulin Rouge! star, 51, and the actress, 37, walked arm-in-arm while out for lunch at Bike Shed Motor Co restaurant with their friends

He tucked his grey locks underneath a checkered flat cap, while he wore a pair of brown sunglasses tucked into his T-shirt as he walked arm-in-arm with his new wife.

Mary looked effortlessly chic in a grey T-shirt dress and gave a flash of her toned pegs through the cut-out, while she kept comfortable in a pair of bright trainers.

She styled her brunette tresses swept back behind a black hairband and showed off her fresh-faced beauty as she enjoyed the lunch out with Ewan and their friends, including presenter Charley Boorman.

The newlyweds appeared to be in excellent spirits after their nuptials as they were seen sharing a kiss and laughing, while they walked arm-in-arm outside the venue.

Rings: Ewan's silver wedding band could be seen on full display, while Mary gave a flash of her stunning gold band

Grinning: The newlyweds were in excellent spirits as they were seen laughing while enjoying a lunch out

Couple: Ewan cut a casual figure in white jeans and a simple grey T-shirt, which he paired with a knitted cardigan and brown boots

Good spirits: Mary looked effortlessly chic in a grey T-shirt dress and gave a flash of her toned pegs through the cut-out, while she kept comfortable in a pair of bright trainers

The outing comes after sources told People that Ewan and Mary exchanged vows over the weekend in front of 'close friends and family,' after first meeting on the FX series Fargo in 2016.

An insider told the publication: 'It was a small wedding for family and close friends. They had an outdoor ceremony. It was lovely and joyful.'

'The menu was farm-to-table. They are an adorable couple. They are pretty low-key and like their canyon life. They often hike and go to the beach,' the source added.

Representatives for Ewan and Mary have been contacted for comment by MailOnline.

Look of love: Ewan gazed lovingly into his new wife's eyes as she stood with her arm wrapped around his waist

Newlyweds: The couple appeared to be in excellent spirits after their nuptials as they were seen sharing a kiss and laughing, while they walked arm-in-arm outside the venue

Cuddling: Ewan and Mary stood with their arms around each other at the restaurant in a rare smitten display

Smooch: The newlyweds gave a flash of their wedding rings as they shared a kiss and hugged during the outing

A source told Page Six: 'They are more in love than ever  and having their first child together last year just strengthened their bond.'

Ahead of their big day, the pair's eco-canyon hideaway was spotted being prepared for their big day, with the couple covering their pool with chairs for 60 guests, indicating an intimate affair.

Trucks and other vehicles could be seen in the drive while workmen are pictured carrying tables to the property.

A number of other tables were seen dotted around, while strings of fairy lights are hung up and outdoor heaters set up, suggesting the couple opted for an outdoor reception with celebrations heading into the night.

Closer than ever: Ewan was seen whispering in his new wife's ear as they celebrated their union with their friends

All smiles: Ewan appeared to be in excellent spirits as he stepped out of the restaurant with a huge grin on his face

Wedding: The outing comes after sources told People that Ewan and Mary exchanged vows over the weekend in front of 'close friends and family,' after first meeting on the FX series Fargo in 2016

Group outing: Ewan was joined by his pal, travel writer Charley Boorman, for the lunch outing

He shares daughters Clara, 26, Esther, 21, and Anouk, 11, with ex-wife Eve. They split in 2017 after 22 years of marriage and their divorce was finalised in August 2020.

The couple, who met on the set of the TV crime drama Kavanagh QC, first confirmed their split in 2017 amid claims Ewan had been seen kissing Mary in a London restaurant.

In 2020, Mary discussed her romance with Ewan after her own first marriage ended, telling Glamour UK: 'I got divorced a couple of years ago, which was a scary, crazy thing for me because I had been with the same person since I was 18 years old, and that was what I knew.

'I was really starting new as an adult for the first time in my life. For me that was a big turning point, being okay with changing, accepting that change is a good thing and that it's okay not to know where that change is going to take you.'

Casual: Ewan tucked his grey locks underneath a checkered flat cap, while he wore a pair of brown sunglasses tucked into his T-shirt

Friends: Ewan celebrated his wedding with his friends including presenter Charley Boorman, who is a motorbike enthusiast

Pals: The happy couple stepped out for lunch with their friends, including presenter Charley Boorman (pictured talking to Ewan centre back)

Eve was pictured without her wedding ring at around the same time.

The Star Wars actor  who blamed 'irreconcilable differences' for the split  then began dating Mary. The couple welcomed Laurie into the world in June.

In September, Ewan also paid tribute to Mary during his acceptance speech at the Emmy Awards, saying: 'Mary, I love you so much. I'm gonna take this home and show it to our new little boy, Laurie.

'And to my beautiful girls, who I know are watching, Clara, Esther, Jamyan and Anouk, hello to you too. Thank you very much everybody.'

Romantic: Their first outing as newlyweds comes after they tied the knot over the weekend in front of 'close friends and family,' after first meeting on the FX series Fargo in 2016

Congratulations! The couple have tied the knot and they share a son Laurie together, with their news being announced Ewan's daughter Clara on Instagram

The couple, who never revealed they were expecting, had their baby news announced by Ewan's daughter Clara on Instagram.

Clara, whose mother is Eve, shared a heartwarming snap of herself cradling her brother in her arms as she congratulated her father and Mary Elizabeth.

She wrote: 'Welcome to the world little brother  congratulations to my Dad & Mary - this is the greatest gift'.

Esther also shared pictures cradling the newborn as she gushed: 'Met my little brother looking like a pirate. I recommend! Welcome to the family little Laurie'.

Laughing: Ewan and Mary celebrated their marriage as they headed out for lunch with their friends

Smart: Ewan showed off his sense of style in his simple ensemble as he stepped out in downtown LA just days after his wedding

Celebrating: Their first outing as a married couple saw them joined by friends at Bike Shed Motor Co restaurant in LA

Jubilant: The couple were joined by a group of their friends who were all eager to celebrate their nuptials

Despite Clara's well-wishes for the couple, she previously slammed Mary amid her blossoming relationship with Ewan following his spit from Eve.

She described the actress as 'a piece of trash' on Instagram in 2018, which accompanied a photograph of her father and Mary kissing at the Vanity Fair Oscars party.

In the post's caption, the fan had referred to Mary as 'the most beautiful and talented woman on earth' - something Clara was more than ready to refute.

'Most beautiful and talented woman on earth??? Oh man y'all are delusional. The girl is a piece of trash :),' wrote Clara in the post's comment section.

Parents: The Star Wars actor began dating Mary after his split from his first wife Eve. The couple welcomed Laurie into the world in June

Sweet: The newlyweds appeared to be in excellent spirits after their nuptials as they were seen sharing a kiss and laughing

Taking a break: Mary was seen chatting with their friends as they stood outside the LA restaurant

Soon after her reply, another Winstead fan urged her to 'say it to [Mary Elizabeth's] face not [on] social media.'

They added: 'It took TWO to undo this marriage. If a man OR woman is happy w/ their marriage no outside interference can destroy that!'

To the fan's surprise, Clara firmly agrees with their assessment. 'Yup it took two!! Mary & my father :),' she wrote.

In an interview with The Times in August that year, Clara openly acknowledged the immaturity of her Instagram banter, but claimed that her rage was justified.

Smiling: Ewan and Mary appeared to be as smitten as ever after tying the knot

Partner: In 2020, Mary discussed her romance with Ewan after her own first marriage ended, saying: 'I got divorced a couple of years ago, which was a scary, crazy thing for me because I had been with the same person since I was 18 years old'

Husband and wife! Their outing comes after Ewan McGregor married Mary Elizabeth Winstead in a low-key outdoor ceremony

'It wasn't the most mature way to go about things, but I was angry and upset.'

According to Clara, there were things going on behind-the-scenes that became 'a lot to deal with' and eventually sent her over the edge.

'There had been a lot building up to it and a lot to deal with - not to make excuses or anything - but, yeah, it wasn't my finest moment,' she admitted.

She also explained that she kept 'being tagged in the photograph' and was 'seeing negative things about [her] mom.'

'I said how I felt and I didn't want to apologise for it. It wasn't the right way to go about things, but it's a hard thing to wrap your head around when you feel you had this idea of what the family unit is and then to have that shift. It's very weird.'
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Amal Clooney is a 44-year-old BritishLebanese barrister but on Wednesday she resembled a certain Hollywood movie star.

The 44-year-old wife of actor George Clooney bared a striking resemblance to 46-year-old Angelina Jolie in her cream dress and matching trench coat as was seen on a sidewalk in New York City.

Amal and Angelina have a close association: Jolie used to be wed to Clooney's good friend and Ocean's 11 co-star Brad Pitt. But the two beautiful brunettes don't seem to have ever been photographed together.

Similar: Amal Clooney is a 44-year-old BritishLebanese barrister but on Wednesday she resembled a certain Hollywood movie star. The 44-year-old wife of actor George Clooney bared a striking resemblance to 46-year-old Angelina Jolie

She loves the pale look: In 2019 Jolie wore a beige coat with cream colored dress, beige heels and a black purse

Clooney is two years younger than Jolie and two inches taller: Angelina is 5ft7in and Amal is ft9in.

Amal looked elegant during her day out in Manhattan in a cream colored mini dress which had a short hem that revealed her slender and tanned legs.

The coat did all the talking however as it was nicely tailored with fashionable dark buttons and an undone belt.

Clooney finished off her look with snakeskin heels that were a smart choice to add a pop of pizzazz to her ensemble.

In 2007: At the premiere of Ocean's Thirteen at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles

In 2009: Clooney, Jolie, and Pitt attend the UNICEF Ball held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in December 2009 in Beverly Hills,

In 2012: (L-R) The pals arrive at The 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in January 2012

The brainy lawyer wore her dark hair down in soft curls as she had on ruby red lipstick for an added touch of glamour. Her black oversized sunglasses nicely matched her black brief case.

Amal and Angie have a few things in common.

While Amal is a human rights lawyer, Angie is a human rights activist.

According to the UN website, Jolie focuses on major crises that result in mass population displacements, undertaking advocacy and representing UNHCR and the High Commissioner at the diplomatic level.

Polished to perfection: Amal looked elegant in the short cream dress which had a short hem that revealed her slender legs

On the go: The coat did all the talking however as it was nicely tailored with fashionable buttons

'She also engages with decision-makers on global displacement issues,' it read on the UN website.

'Through this work, she has helped contribute to the vital process of finding solutions for people forced to flee their homes,' it was stated.

Clooney is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London. She specializes in international law and human rights.

Despite the interest in her high-profile marriage to Clooney, Amal tends to be fairly private when it comes to their relationship, but she departed from her norm last month in an interview with Time.

In step with fashion: Clooney finished off her look with snakeskin heels that were a smart choice to add a pop of pizzazz to her ensemble

She gushed about her connection to the Oscar winner and raising their four-year-old twins Alexander and Ella.

'Marriage has been wonderful. I have in my husband a partner who is incredibly inspirational and supportive, and we have a home filled with love and laughter,' she said.

'It is a joy beyond anything I could ever have imagined. I feel so lucky to have found a great love in my life, and to be a mother  this is how I get my balance.'

The world-famous lawyer also opened up about what drove her to focus on human rights cases.

'Im responding to what I see happening in the world. A world where the guilty are free, and the innocent are imprisoned  where the human-rights abusers are free, and those who report on the abuses are locked up,' she said.

'As a lawyer, I can do something about that. Or I can at least try. So my work is focused on trying to help liberate victims and prosecute perpetrators  and by extension, our foundations work is trying to really do that at scale and globally.'
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Not that they've gone public with their relationship, Kate Bosworth, 39, and Justin Long, 43, couldn't keep their hands off one another while on a romantic Hawaiian vacation.

The newly minted couple were spotted positively enraptured with one another and packing on the PDA during a beach outing in Kauai over the weekend.

Kate and Justin - who are head over heels - were in the tropical locale for a short getaway to attend a friend's wedding.

In love: Not that they've gone public with their relationship, Kate Bosworth, 39, and Justin Long, 43, couldn't keep their hands off one another while on a romantic Hawaiian vacation

Blue Crush star Kate was back in Hawaii, where her famous 2002 surfer chic flick was set, but this time she was catching kisses instead of waves.

The blonde actress slipped into a skimpy aqua bikini with sun glasses and ripped jean shorts for a day of sun and sand.

She didn't appear to see much of the beach, however, as her gaze was firmly fixed on boyfriend Justin Long.

Long showed off his beach bod in a pair of Hawaiian printed board shorts with pink hibiscus flowers.

Smooch: Blue Crush star Kate was back in Hawaii, where her famous 2002 surfer chic flick was set, but this time she was catching kisses instead of waves

Looking good: The blonde actress slipped into a skimpy aqua bikini with sun glasses and ripped jean shorts for a day of sun and sand

Smitten: The newly minted couple were spotted positively enraptured with one another and packing on the PDA during a beach outing in Kauai over the weekend

The couple barely came up for air as cameras captured them passionately making out and walking arm-in-arm together.

Earlier this month the co-stars confirmed their blossoming new romance while holding hands after a romantic dinner at Giorgio Baldi in Los Angeles.

After months of romance rumors, the pair beamed as they exited the upscale Italian eatery together following their meal.

In a recent episode of The Viall Files, Long gushed to host Nick Viall about his love life after finally finding himself ready to meet his soul mate.

Tropical vibes: Long showed off his beach bod in a pair of Hawaiian printed board shorts with pink hibiscus flowers

Getting any ideas: Kate and Justin - who are head over heels - were in the tropical locale for a short getaway to attend a friend's wedding

It is official! Earlier this month the co-stars confirmed their blossoming new romance while holding hands after a romantic dinner at Giorgio Baldi in Los Angeles

Is she the one? In a recent episode of The Viall Files, Long gushed to host Nick Viall about his love life after finally finding himself ready to meet his soul mate

'I had gotten to a place where I was comfortable with myself, I was ready to be  I didn't know it at the time  but I was ready for the one,' he told the Bachelor alum, 41, who is happily dating Sarah Partain.

He continued: 'I want to [talk about it], but I also want to be protective. I want to scream it from the rooftops, but I also want to be protective. It's sacred.'

Still, Long did not mention Bosworth by name. That interview comes just four months after the He's Just Not That Into You actor revealed on a different podcast that he was off the market.

Shortly after, PageSix uncovered that the new lady in his life was actress Kate Bosworth, whom he made a movie with in 2021.

Earlier that year, the blonde beauty announced her split from 51-year-old husband Michael Polish.

Like teenagers! The couple barely came up for air as cameras captured them passionately making out and walking arm-in-arm together

'I had gotten to a place where I was comfortable with myself, I was ready to be  I didn't know it at the time  but I was ready for the one,' he told the Bachelor alum

'I want to [talk about it], but I also want to be protective. I want to scream it from the rooftops, but I also want to be protective. It's sacred.'

PageSix said that 'the two met while filming a movie in Fayetteville, Ark., [in 2021]'

In May she talked up Justin on Instagram when they wrapped the movie: 'Holy moly @justinlong you are a truly spectacular / fun / funny / kind / rare / thoughtful / totally. f*kn. rad human being.'

She added, 'THANK YOU for lifting us up you kept it light & full of laughter daily, even through the toughest moments. You gnome how much I love ya (sorry had to ;).'

And an insider told the site that this autumn he went with the beauty on her trip to Padaste Manor in Estonia. They reportedly had a 'romantic weekend.'

Justin then confirmed his relationship status during his podcast a in December while discussing the controversial pizza topping of pineapple with comic Fortune Feimster.

Speaking on his 'Life is Short with Justin Long' podcast, the 41-year-old actress said when asked to give her favorite topping: 'This is controversial: pineapple.'

So cute: PageSix said that 'the two met while filming a movie in Fayetteville, Ark., earlier this year.' In May she talked up Justin on Instagram when they wrapped the movie: 'Holy moly @justinlong you are a truly spectacular / fun / funny / kind / rare / thoughtful'

To which, Justin replied: 'People have been saying that lately. It's funny, my girlfriend said hers is  she loves the pineapple, too. I've never been with anyone who likes pineapple on pizza.'

A source later told Us Weekly: 'They've been dating for a few months now. They secretly have been on a few getaways together. They both love to travel.'

Adding that the couple is 'not hiding the fact that they're together', rather they're 'just staying low-key and private about their relationship.'

Kate and Justin moved quickly and are reportedly already living together.

Long has previously been linked to Amanda Seyfried, Kirsten Dunst and Drew Barrymore.

Kate and her ex Michael were last photographed together in January of 2021. The couple met in 2011 during the making of the adventure drama Big Sur, which she starred in and he directed.

Kate and Michael announced their engagement in August 2012 and married on August 31, 2013 at The Ranch at Rock Creek in Philipsburg, Montana.
China, African Francophone countries hold virtual seminar on democracy

Xinhua) 10:42, April 27, 2022

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday held a virtual seminar with 22 Francophone countries in Africa under the theme "Exploration and Practice of Democracy in the Legislatures of China and Africa."

Ding Zhongli, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), attended and addressed the two-day seminar's opening ceremony. He said that the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation has forged an unbreakable brotherhood and built a partnership of full coordination between China and Africa. It will also open up bright prospects for a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era, he said.

The NPC is willing to uphold the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation, communicate frankly with the African side, learn from each other, build consensus and gather strength, and jointly explore the road of democracy in line with their own national conditions, said Ding.

He added that the NPC is ready to work with African legislatures to contribute to realizing true democracy and good democracy in relevant countries, continuously improving the welfare of people of all countries and promoting the democratization of international relations.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Rep. Kang Eun-mi of the Justice Party, third from right, speaks during a press conference announcing the "murderous" company of 2022 in front of Hyundai Engineering & Construction's headquarters in central Seoul, Wednesday. Labor activists including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Solidarity for Worker's Health named the most murderous company which recorded the most deaths from industrial accidents last year in commemoration of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28. Yonhap
Oscar winner Halle Berry flaunted her God-given assets in an AMEN-brand plunging silver-sequin jumpsuit for a Malibu-set slideshow she posted on Wednesday.

The 55-year-old mother-of-two accessorized her daring look with a crucifix necklace and Mara Paris jewelry selected by her stylist and re.spin partner Lindsay Flores.

Halle (born Maria) also tagged her hairstylist Sara Seward and make-up artist Jorge Monroy in the eye-popping post.

Babe! Oscar winner Halle Berry flaunted her God-given assets in an AMEN-brand plunging silver-sequin jumpsuit for a Malibu-set slideshow she posted on Wednesday

Berry - who boasts 15M social media followers - captioned it: 'Life ain't always perfect but this damn jumpsuit is!'

Miss Ohio 1986's Instagram post received glowing comments from her evergreen celeb gal pals Gabrielle Union and Heidi Klum, as well as Oscar-winning documentarian Questlove.

Halle will soon make a teary-eyed appearance in the third season of the Property Brothers' makeover series Celebrity IOU, which airs Mondays on HGTV and Discovery+.

Berry enlisted twins Jonathan and Drew Scott to fix up the Cleveland home of her fifth grade teacher, and the waterworks flowed.

Seaside shoot: The 55-year-old mother-of-two accessorized her daring look with a crucifix necklace and Mara Paris jewelry selected by her stylist and re.spin partner Lindsay Flores

Berry - who boasts 15M social media followers - captioned it: 'Life ain't always perfect but this damn jumpsuit is!'

'Wow!' Halle's Instagram post received glowing comments from her evergreen celeb gal pals Gabrielle Union and Heidi Klum, as well as Oscar-winning documentarian Questlove

'As soon as they cry, we cry. We did get tears out of Halle Berry,' Drew told People on April 13.

'Actually we got tears out of Snoop [Dogg], which I was very surprised by. A lot of these celebrities are big teddy bears and as soon as push comes to shove, there are waterworks.'

Tiffany Haddish, Lisa Kudrow, Anthony Anderson, John C. Reilly, Howie Mandel, and Ali Wong will also appear in season three.

The biracial beauty has been hard at work in London co-starring with Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg in Julian Farino's action thriller Our Man from Jersey.

Renovation reality show: Miss Ohio 1986 will soon make a teary-eyed appearance in the third season of the Property Brothers' makeover series Celebrity IOU, which airs Mondays on HGTV and Discovery+

Cue the waterworks! Berry enlisted twins Jonathan and Drew Scott to fix up the Cleveland home of her fifth grade teacher (L)

Drew told People on April 13: 'As soon as they cry, we cry. We did get tears out of Halle Berry. Actually we got tears out of Snoop [Dogg], which I was very surprised by'

Production is reportedly expected to run through August 14 on the movie penned by David Guggenheim, and it will eventually stream on Netflix.

Halle also executive produced and stars as farmer/mother-of-two Sara Morse, who's searching for her missing husband, in Matt Charman's sci-fi alien drama The Mothership premiering later this year on Netflix.

Worryingly, Berry's last two films - Moonfall and Bruised - received dismal 38% and 51% critic approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.

'Blue collar James Bond': The biracial beauty has been hard at work in London co-starring with Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg (R, pictured April 19) in Julian Farino's action thriller Our Man from Jersey which will stream on Netflix
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Kimberley Garner showed off her incredible figure as she enjoyed some downtime on the beach with friends in Miami, Florida on Wednesday.

The swimwear designer, 31, wore a purple bikini with wrap around strings and a mini cover up to matcher her two-piece.

Former Made In Chelsea star Kimberley showed off her toned stomach as she walked on the white sand, with her bikini top leaving plenty of skin on show.

Fun in the sun: Kimberley Garner, 31, showed off her incredible figure in a purple bikini as she enjoyed some downtime on the beach with friends in Miami, Florida on Wednesday

She displayed a glowing tan after enjoying a number of days in the tropical sunshine this week.

The television personality opted for a pair of dark shades to shield her eyes from the bright daylight.

She accessorised with some delicate gold chains to match the rims of her sunglasses.

In style: The swimwear designer wore her swimwear with wrap around strings and a mini cover up in the same colour

Sun-kissed: She displayed a glowing tan after enjoying a number of days in the tropical sunshine this week

Kimberley was seen chatting to a friend as they walked across the beach towards a bar to get some refreshments.

Her pal wore a black bikini with a matching sarong which featured a gold trim and a split to the front.

The pair happily chatted away and smiled as they walked across the sand before placing their order at the beach bar.

Out and about: Kimberley was seen chatting to a friend as they walked across the beach towards a bar to get some refreshments

Chatterboxes: Her pal wore a black bikini with a matching sarong as they stood and chatted at the beach bar

Pet pooch: Her pal's dog was seen sniffing about at the pool bar as Kimberley and her friend waited for their drinks

In the detail: Kimberley accessorised with some delicate gold chains to match the rims of her sunglasses

After enjoying a cooling drink, the star took to the Atlantic Ocean for a dip with a hunky pal.

Kimberley looked content as she waded through the crystal clear water during her American break.

She was seen chatting to her friend as they stood in the water in the tropical heat.

Cooling off: The star picked up a cold drink from the bar in a bid to keep cool from the tropical heat in South Florida

Cooling off: After enjoying a cooling drink, the star took to the Atlantic Ocean for a dip with a hunky pal

Taking a dip: Kimberley looked content as she waded through the crystal clear water during her American break

Deep in conversation: The pair were seen chatting as they stood in the cool water close to the shore

Good friends: She was seen chatting to her friend as they stood in the water in the tropical heat before heading in

Her male friend wore a pair of black swimming shorts as the pair enjoyed a swim together.

Kimberley's female friend in the black bikini joined them at the water, bringing her cute dog along for a paddle in the shallow water.

The reality star and her male pal were also seen holding the pup as it paddled in the gentle waves.

Four legged friend: Kimberley's female friend in the black bikini joined them at the water, bringing her cute dog along for a paddle in the shallow water

Doggy paddle: The reality star and her male pal were also seen holding the pup as it paddled in the gentle waves

Looking back: Despite enjoying success as a swimwear designer, Kimberley revealed she used to pretend to be an intern when she first started the business as nobody took her seriously

Despite now enjoying huge fame as a swimwear designer, Kimberley has previously revealed how she used to pretend to be an intern when she first started the business as nobody took her seriously.

However, the property heiress insisted she's more than just the face of her line Kimberley London and is involved with every aspect of creating her sell-out swimwear range.

She told MailOnline: 'I think people sometimes think that Im only the face, but I am responsible for every bit of the business.

Speaking out: She told MailOnline: 'I think people sometimes think that Im only the face, but I am responsible for every bit of the business'

Winning: 'I was 18 when I started my first company - I came up with an idea, stayed up for days learning how to register the company and teaching myself,' she said

Sweeping by: Kimberley could be seen sweeping her hair off her face as she walked across the beach while carrying a small yellow handbag

'I was 18 when I started my first company - I came up with an idea, stayed up for days learning how to register the company and teaching myself. It became very successful overnight.'

She explained: 'However, as I was only 18, no one ever imagined it was mine. I was a young blonde girl with a soft voice.

'No one would take me seriously or realise it was my company. So, I pretended to be the Intern!

'I handled all the meetings, phone calls, and emails for the company. When it became a success, I put all the revenues into starting Kimberley London.'

Surprise: She explained: 'However, as I was only 18, no one ever imagined it was mine. I was a young blonde girl with a soft voice'

Undercover: 'No one would take me seriously or realise it was my company. So, I pretended to be the Intern!', she said

Cute: Kimberley was seen petting her friend's dog as she laid out on a towel on the beach after the pair had gone for a swim in the water

Cheeky: Kimberley showed off her pert behind as she enjoyed her time with her pals on the beach
She rose to prominence thanks to her business prowess on The Apprentice.

And Luisa Zissman put on another stylish display as she celebrated the launch of her Style Cheat fashion range at Ascot Racecourse on Wednesday.

The TV personality, 34, opted for a pretty pastle top and a matching skirt in an array of pale shades as she unveiled her new line specially designed for guests attending the races and weddings.

Sensational: Luisa Zissman, 34, put on another stylish display as she celebrated the launch of her Style Cheat fashion range at Ascot racecourse on Wednesday

Luisa showcased her svelte physique by sporting a simple coral sleeveless top with a polo neck, tucked into a colourful skirt.

The star's skirt boasted classy pleats and a pastel gradient effect as she posed up a storm at the launch event.

Teaming her outfit with a matching nude headpiece, Luisa completed her outfit with matching pointed-toe heels as she posed at the occasion.

Fashion favourite: The TV personality opted for a pretty pastle top and a matching skirt in an array of pale shades as she unveiled her new line

Looking lovely! Luisa showcased her svelte physique by sporting a simple coral sleeveless top with a polo neck, tucked into a colourful skirt

Elegant: The star's skirt boasted classy pleats and a pastel gradient effect as she posed up a storm at the launch event

Celebs Go Dating star Anna Williamson was also in attendance to support pal Luisa, donning a chic navy blue waistboat and a matching skirt.

Meanwhile TOWIE star Chloe Ross opted for an eye-catching gold midi dress with a dramatic thigh-split skirt.

It comes after Luisa launched a shocking attack on ITV 's daytime line-up, claiming the 500 fee for a Good Morning Britain appearance is 'not worth getting out of bed for' in a scathing interview in February.

Confident: Teaming her outfit with a matching nude headpiece, Luisa completed her outfit with matching pointed-toe heels as she posed at the occasion

Pals: Celebs Go Dating star Anna Williamson was also in attendance to support pal Luisa, donning a chic navy blue waistboat and a matching skirt

Having fun? The pair were in high spirits as they posed up a storm together

The businesswoman went on to dub Loose Women 'Boring Women' since it's 'so dull' before claiming This Morning is 'soul destroying' and 'awful', despite having featured as an interviewee in the past.

She even went on to slate the show that catapulted her to 'fame' in 2013, adding that Lord Sugar 's reality programme had a 'shelf life' and is 'not as good as it used to be'

She told The Sun: 'I don't really do TV any more  I can't be bothered. It's s*** money and I think that the whole industry is disingenuous. It's just bulls***.

'I'm too controversial for Loose Women. It should be called Boring Women, it's so dull.

'I don't watch This Morning either. I'm sure they're nice people, but I'd rather sit in silence. It's soul destroying and awful.'

Stunning: Meanwhile TOWIE star Chloe Ross opted for an eye-catching gold midi dress with a dramatic thigh-split skirt

Standing out: The reality star posed up a storm in her fun gold look at the launch event
Roxy Horner and Daisy Lowe put their modelling credentials to good use on Wednesday evening as they posed for a string of stunning snaps at the QV x Chucs launch bash, hosted at Chucs Westbourne Grove, London.

Blonde beauty Roxy looked radiant as ever as she rocked up wearing a white buttoned-up blazer over a red knit vest and black leather trousers.

Opting for comfort during the party, the Essex native, 30, wore a pair of white Nike Air Force to coordinate with her jacket.

Here come the girls: Roxy Horner (left) and Daisy Lowe (right) put their modelling credentials to good use on Wednesday evening at the QV x Chucs launch bash hosted at Chucs Westbourne Grove, London

On her arm was boyfriend, comedian Jack Whitehall, who scrubbed up well in a grey jacket, complementary trousers and a black polo.

Meanwhile, Daisy, 33, opted for double denim, donning a black jacket and jeans finished off with black Converse.

Holding a glass of wine, the fashion model looked in high spirits as she cosied up to boyfriend Jordan Saul.

Amber Le Bon was also among those in attendance, wowing in strapless maxi dress, which boasted khaki as its prominent hue, with a splash of pale pink.

Cute: On her 30-year-old Roxy's arm was boyfriend, comedian Jack Whitehall, who scrubbed up well in a grey jacket, complementary trousers and a black polo

Chic: Meanwhile, Daisy, 33, opted for double denim, donning a black jacket and jeans finished off with black Converse

Love: Holding a glass of wine, the fashion model looked in high spirits as she cosied up to boyfriend Jordan Saul

Stunning: Amber Le Bon was also among those in attendance, wowing in strapless maxi dress, which boasted khaki as its prominent hue, with a splash of pale pink

Quatre Vin hosted the star-studded event to celebrate the brands signature Rose launching into numerous Chucs branches, including St John's Wood, Westbourne Grove, Chelsea Kensington, Belgravia and Dover Street.

The wine brand was created by Oliver Proudlock and his wife Emma Louise Connolly, with Elliot Awin and his fiancee Paula Anton, who describe themselves as ' four friends with passion for food, wine and good times'.

The pals were all in attendance, with former Made In Chelsea star Proudlock proudly planting a kiss on his pregnant wife's cheek.

Here they are: Quatre Vin hosted the star-studded event to celebrate the brands signature Rose launching into numerous Chucs branches (From L-R: Founders Oliver Proudlock and his wife Emma Louise Connolly, Paula Anton and her fiance Elliot Awin)

Founders: The wine brand was created by the group, who describe themselves as ' four friends with passion for food, wine and good times'

Big night: Former Made In Chelsea star Oliver Proudlock proudly planted a kiss on his pregnant wife's cheek

Not missing out: Proudlock's long-time pal Jamie Laing also turned up to show his support

Glowing in green: Someone unafraid to make a striking entrance was former Saturdays songstress Vanessa White

Someone unafraid to make a striking entrance was former Saturdays songstress Vanessa White.

Donning a vibrant green furry jacket, the singer, 32, was bound to stand out from the crowd as she coordinated with a crossbody bag.

She was joined by boyfriend Emmanuel Lawal, who she went Instagram official with in December 2020.
Andrew Garfield has decided to take a break from his busy career, following reports he and his girlfriend Alyssa Miller called it quits on their romance last month due to their hectic work schedules.

In a new interview with Variety, the actor, 38, announced that he will be stepping back from acting in order to 'rest for a little bit' and 'be a bit ordinary.'

The actor - who had several high-profile projects in 2021 - confessed: 'I need to recalibrate and reconsider what I want to do next and who I want to be, and just be a bit of a person for a while.'

Taking a break: Andrew Garfield has QUIT acting to be 'ordinary for a while' and says he 'needs to rest and reconsider who he wants to be'... after 'split' from model girlfriend Alyssa Miller (pictured on Wednesday in NYC)

The The Eyes of Tammy Faye star also compared the awards season to a churning 'washing machine' saying, 'That is a washing machine, that awards season.'

It comes after Andrew allegedly split with his girlfriend Alyssa since their work schedules made it 'hard to see each other'.

The Spider-Man star was first linked to the American model last November.

Exes: The Spider-Man star was first linked to the American model last November (the pair pictured at the SAG Awards in February)

While Sports Illustrated beauty Alyssa, 32, accompanied the accoladed film star at February's Screen Actors Guild Awards, Andrew attended last month's Oscars solo, where he lost out on the Best Actor award to Will Smith.

A source told The Sun: 'Andrew and Alyssa were a really beautiful couple and things were going great at first.

'They were together for quite some time before they went public, but work schedules mean it has been really hard to see each other.

'On top of that it became clear that there were some differences between them and it was decided they are better off apart, for now at least.'

On his own: While Sports Illustrated beauty Alyssa, 32, accompanied the accoladed film star at February's Screen Actors Guild Awards, Andrew attended last month's Oscars solo

The source added that it has been 'disappointing' for Andrew, who would've loved to share the awards season with 'someone he loved,' but it has been said he is taking time for himself and keeping his chin up.

MailOnline contacted Andrew and Alyssa's representatives for comment at the time.

The couple were first linked in November of last year when they were spotting holding hands in New York City.

The Los Angeles native was seen stepping out in New York on Wednesday, and looked dapper as ever in a dark navy shirt, matching slacks and white sneakers.

The Spider-Man: No Way Home actor had his hair meticulously styled with gel and sported a pair of brown-tinted sunglasses.

Tired: The Eyes of Tammy Faye star, 38, announced that he will be stepping back from acting in order to 'be a bit ordinary' and compared the awards season to a churning 'washing machine'

Recalibrating: The actor added: 'I need to recalibrate and reconsider what I want to do next and who I want to be, and just be a bit of a person for a while'

Garfield has had quite a busy schedule in the past year and most recently received his second Oscars nomination for his work in Tick, Tick... Boom!

He also recently reprised his superhero role in Spider-Man No Way Home, and got much acclaim for his portrayal of controversial American televangelist Jim Bakker alongside Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

The actor will now be the star of the upcoming true crime drama Under the Banner of Heaven, an FX series adaptation of Jon Krakauers 2003 book of the same name.

Out and about: The Los Angeles native looked dapper as ever in a dark navy shirt, matching slacks and white sneakers

Sighting: Andrew's UTBOH co-star Daisy Edgar Jones was seen stepping out in NYC on Thursday

In the series, Garfield plays Mormon detective Jeb Pyre, who is investigating a double murder committed by followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

During his investigation he begins to question his faith after learning about the murders ties to the LDS church.

The series was written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, directed by David Mackenzie, and also stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sam Worthington.

Long year: It's been a busy year for Garfield, who received much acclaim for his recent portrayal of American televangelist Jim Bakker, alongside Jessica Chastain, in The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Garfield touched on having to take breaks from the heavy subject of the show during the filming.

'I think it was actually a necessity for us to have game nights and go into nature and hike and you know, swim and dive and lakes and dance and eat good food so that we could really come back and fully give ourselves [to the work]. We had to keep on taking care of ourselves so that we can take care of the story.

Under the Banner of Heaven is set to premiere on Hulu with the first two episodes on Thursday, April 28, and new episodes available to stream every Thursday.

Garfield was next set to star in a BBC adaptation of Brideshead Revisited with Cate Blanchett, Ralph Fiennes, and Rooney Mara, but series director Luca Guadagnino revealed earlier this week that the project was 'shelved.'
As the old saying goes, 'Living well is the best revenge.'

And Olivia Frazer is embodying that positive spirit as she moves on from her traumatic experience on Married At First Sight Australia.

The teaching student, 28, who was unfairly portrayed as the villain on this year's season, shared a post on Instagram on Wednesday about putting bitterness aside.

Classy: Olivia Frazer, who was unfairly portrayed as the villain on this year's season of Married At First Sight, shared a post on Instagram on Wednesday about putting bitterness aside

Survivor: She posed with a cocktail in hand while enjoying an afternoon drink in a courtyard, and wrote, 'Cheers to getting better and not staying bitter'

She posed with a cocktail in hand while enjoying an afternoon drink in a courtyard, and wrote: 'Cheers to getting better and not staying bitter.'

Olivia also shared a video on her Stories of herself and boyfriend Jackson Lonie smiling at a harbourside venue overlooking the city.

Confirming they are still together despite their sometimes rocky journey on MAFS, she captioned the clip: 'Happy honeys @jacklonie1.'

Couple goals: Olivia also shared a video on her Stories of herself and boyfriend Jackson Lonie smiling at a harbourside venue overlooking the city. Confirming they are still together despite their sometimes rocky journey on MAFS, she captioned the clip: 'Happy honeys @jacklonie1'

Olivia, from the Central Coast, was labelled public enemy No. 1 on this year's season of MAFS after her feud with rival bride Domenica Calarco.

Domenica was given a sympathetic edit after being outed as an OnlyFans model by Olivia, who in turn was portrayed as mean-spirited and vindictive.

However, sources have confirmed to Daily Mail Australia this did not tell the full story.

Hung out to dry: Olivia, from the Central Coast, was labelled public enemy No. 1 on this year's season of MAFS after her feud with rival bride Domenica Calarco

Earlier this week, one of the show's participants broke ranks to reveal Domenica's behaviour during filming was just as bad as Olivia's.

Cody Bromley said the feud between the warring brides could 'easily' have been edited to make Domenica the villain, adding: 'There were no heroes or villains.'

'It's a shame. The edit could have gone either way with the whole Domenica and Olivia thing,' he said.

'[The edit] could have easily made Dom look like the villain and Liv look like the hero, but it didn't pan out like that.

'It's just a shame to see that there is that divide and a lot of people being nasty.'

Luck of the draw: Domenica (pictured) was given a sympathetic edit after being outed as an OnlyFans model by Olivia, who in turn was portrayed as mean-spirited and vindictive

'I'm not gonna sit here and say Liv didn't say those things [about Domenica], but Dom also said a lot of things like that,' he added.

'She referred to the lot of us as "a pack of c**ts" for half of the experiment and said some nasty things as well. Like it sort of weighs up. It purely comes down to the edit.'

The MAFS stars are expected to share more behind-the-scenes details about the show in the coming weeks after producers returned their Instagram accounts, which had been strictly monitored for the last few months.
Booby Tape co-founders Bianca and Bridgett Roccisano are self-made millionaires thanks to their genius 'breast lift in a box' invention.

And on Tuesday, the glamorous sisters enjoyed a well-deserved shopping trip along one of Milan's most expensive and exclusive streets, Via Monte Napoleone.

Bianca, 34, and Bridgett, 30, who also have their own clothing brand, cut stylish figures as they stepped out in the Italian city.

Booby Tape's millionaire co-founders Bianca and Bridgett Roccisano cut VERY stylish figures as they shopped in one of Milan's most exclusive streets, Via Monte Napoleone, on Tuesday

Bianca looked chic in a black long sleeve top and high-waisted jeans, which she teamed with a long leather-look jacket.

The brunette beauty teamed the look with a pair of combat boots and a black Hermes Kelly bag and dark oversized sunglasses.

Meanwhile, Bridgett, who recently got engaged to partner Joshua Cavallaro, was edgy in a pair of black jeans, Nike sneakers and an oversized emblazoned jacket.

Stylish: Bianca looked chic in a black long sleeve top and high-waisted jeans, which she teamed with a long leather-look jacket

Designer details: The brunette beauty teamed the look with a pair of combat boots, a black Hermes Kelly bag and dark oversized sunglasses

Edgy: Bridgett, who recently got engaged to partner Joshua Cavallaro, looked edgy in a pair of black jeans, Nike sneakers and an oversized emblazoned jacket

The blonde carried a gorgeous black Chanel bag and wore oversized black aviator sunglasses.

They also stepped out with an assistant and Joshua, with Bridgett and her beau sweetly linking arms as they strolled the streets.

The girls are in Italy for the 2022 Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna event, a trade fair for the beauty industry which runs from April 28 - May 2.

Strolling around: They also stepped out with an assistant and Joshua

Business savvy: The girls are seen at the Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna event this week

The pair will be showcasing their latest Booby Tape products at the exhibit.

Bianca and Bridgett are co-founders of the eponymous clothing label Bianca and Bridgett and beauty brand Booby Tape - which has been described as a 'breast lift in a box'.

The Victorian sisters now sell Booby Tape products in more than 50 countries.

Their standard breast tape, which launched in 2018, retails for $21.95. One of their latest products sold out in just 24 hours.

The women previously told Daily Mail Australia they'd noticed there was a gap in the market for products focusing on supporting women's breasts.

Boss ladies! The girls are in Italy for the 2022 Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna event, a trade fair for the beauty industry which runs from April 28 - May 2

Success: Bianca and Bridgett are co-founders of the eponymous clothing label Bianca and Bridgett and beauty brand Booby Tape - which has been described as a 'breast lift in a box'. The Victorian sisters now sell Booby Tape products in more than 50 countries

'We've been overwhelmed with the global response': The women previously told Daily Mail Australia they'd noticed there was a gap in the market for products focusing on supporting women's breasts

'It's been crazy; we have been overwhelmed with the global response and support we have received from customers,' Bianca said.

'We believed the business had potential from the start, but we didn't expect the growth to be so rapid.'

The brand has more than 5,000 stockists worldwide.

Speaking to Forbes about creating their multimillion-dollar business, Bianca said they started with just $15,000, which came from their fashion line.

'We started the business with $15,000  $1,000 of which we spent on a photo shoot,' she said.

'Even though we only had a little bit of product at the time, our philosophy was that if we wanted to be a global, multimillion-dollar brand, we needed to like one.

'It's an Australian-born company and we started this. And due to the branding and the marketing - which we're very hands-on with - it looks like a global brand.'
Prima Facie (Harold Pinter Theatre, London)

Rating:

We've grown used to Jodie Comer wearing a cheeky grin and fabulous frocks as she gruesomely butchers people in glamorous locations all over the world as Villanelle.

But the star of the BBCs Killing Eve couldnt have looked more different or more shocking in her gale-force West End debut last night.

Its a one-woman show by Australian-British writer Suzie Miller in which Comer plays an idealistic young barrister who specialises in defending rape suspects.

Role: Prima Facie is a one-woman show by Australian-British writer Suzie Miller in which Comer plays an idealistic young barrister who specialises in defending rape suspects

In a whirlwind opening, she runs through her generic routine of discrediting victims to get clients off the hook. Blink and you miss it as she fits wig and gown, rearranges her chamberss furniture into a courtroom and rattles off her glib technique.

The plays title means at first glance, and quite soon we realise that her characters hard partying and sexual flirtation with colleagues mirrors that of the victims she routinely picks apart.

Then, one night, shes out on the razzle with seemingly gentle Julian and the fun turns to embarrassment when she finds herself retching into her loo. He gallantly rescues her from the indignity, but then brutally rapes her in a sickening assault related in pitiless detail. Beware. A little over two years later, her case against Julian comes to court and now shes the one in the witness box who finds herself in a fog of shock and shame.

Premise: The plays title means at first glance, and quite soon we realise that her characters hard partying and sexual flirtation with colleagues mirrors that of the victims she routinely picks apart

Emotional: In a whirlwind opening, she runs through her generic routine of discrediting victims to get clients off the hook. Blink and you miss it as she fits wig and gown, rearranges her chamberss furniture into a courtroom and rattles off her glib technique

The dissociation she experienced during the assault continues, and she discovers that being confused doesnt make her dishonest. Nor does being raped lend itself to giving clear or logical evidence.

Comer blows us away in a ferocious yet forensic performance thats related in a blizzard of quickly shifting perspectives. She gets us onside as the high-flying barrister with her native Liverpool accent and anti-Establishment attitude  at one point tossing rubbish into the audience. But her abrupt disintegration into fevered, ashen-faced confusion is seriously distressing.

Although her performance runs a stunning gamut from cocky joy to despair and humiliation, its the subject matter that dominates the evening.

Press night: On Wednesday, Jodie layered up in all black as she exited the Harold Pinter Theatre in Piccadilly Circus

Low-key: Jodie wore a floor-length wrap coat, which allowed a peek of her comfortable black Converse

Low-key: Jodie was greeted by a flurry of fans on her departure

In the end, however, Millers play is kicking down an open door. Its a rightly furious polemic designed to ignite anger and outrage.

But questions remain. Is it really more important to give plaintiffs the benefit of a doubt, or to carefully examine their evidence? And what does a male-defined system of truth really mean? How we break the deadlock of claim and counter-claim isnt considered.

That said, this is a stunning and chastening production directed with harrowing purpose by Justin Martin. Miriam Buethers set of walls filled with white box files of cases starts out looking like a cool facade of legal authority. But it eventually becomes an edifice of shameful indictment as spotlights pick out individual files, one after another.
Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett has issued a dire warning about the consequences of tech billionaire Elon Musk's recent Twitter takeover.

Musk, 50, acquired the social media giant for $61billion last week and has pledged to boost the platform so it can fulfil its potential as the world's 'digital town square'.

'It's dangerous,' Blanchett, 52, told Variety of Musk's Twitter acquisition while attending the Chaplin Award Gala in New York City on Monday.

'Very, very dangerous': Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett (left) has issued a dire warning about the consequences of tech billionaire Elon Musk's (right) recent Twitter takeover

'That's all I have to say. It's very, very dangerous,' the Don't Look Up star added.

Blanchett isn't the only Hollywood star to criticise Musk's takeover, with several 'woke' celebrities including Jameela Jamil threatening to abandon Twitter in protest.

The Good Life actress tweeted on Monday that Musk's 'free speech' promise would lead to 'lawless hate, bigotry and misogyny' on the platform.

Criticism: 'It's dangerous. That's all I have to say. It's very, very dangerous', Blanchett said of Musk's Twitter acquisition while attending the Chaplin Award Gala in New York City on Monday

Pledging never to tweet again, Jamil added: 'Ah he got Twitter. I would like this to be my what lies here as my last tweet.'

Actress-turned-activist Mia Farrow also tweeted: 'Well if Twitter becomes even more toxic... it will be taken less seriously, and people like me will quit - for peace of mind.'

British television host Phillip Schofield said on Wednesday he'd deleted the Twitter app from his phone because he wanted 'no part of it' in his life - although his account remains active.

'My last tweet': Blanchett isn't the only Hollywood star to criticise Musk's takeover, with several 'woke' celebrities including Jameela Jamil (pictured) threatening to abandon Twitter in protest

Deleted: British TV host Phillip Schofield said on Wednesday he'd deleted the Twitter app from his phone because he wanted 'no part of it' in his life - although his account remains active

The This Morning presenter called the platform 'a cesspit' of 'vile, disgusting' trolls.

Star Trek actor George Takei also voiced his concerns about Musk's takeover, but has so far refused to quit the platform on moral grounds.

The 85-year-old has instead vowed to redouble his efforts to make Twitter a place of civilised debate.

Sticking around: Star Trek actor George Takei (pictured) also voiced his concerns about Musk's takeover, but has so far refused to quit the platform on moral grounds

'I'm not going anywhere. Should this place become more toxic, I pledge to strive even harder to lift up reason, science, compassion and the rule of law. The struggle against fascism, misinformation, and hate requires tough fighters,' Takei tweeted.

Musk, the world's wealthiest person and a prolific Twitter user, has a controversial past with the app, and his decision to take the company private is likely to have substantial ramifications for a service used by more than 300 million people, including many world leaders.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss insists his takeover isn't motivated by economic gain, but rather out of a desire to safeguard Twitter as a venue for free speech rather than censorship.

Elon's plan: In recent weeks, Musk has proposed relaxing Twitter content restrictions, while ridding the platform of fake 'spambot' accounts and shifting away from advertising as its primary revenue model

New boss: Meanwhile, Twitter has guaranteed its staff their jobs for the next six months and has confirmed that 'no layoffs are planned'. However, once the Tesla boss takes over, any HR decisions will be up to him

'Having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilisation. I don't care about the economics at all,' he said in a recent public talk.

In recent weeks, Musk has proposed relaxing Twitter content restrictions, while ridding the platform of fake 'spambot' accounts and shifting away from advertising as its primary revenue model.

Musk believes he can increase revenue through subscriptions that give paying customers a better experience - possibly even an ad-free version of Twitter.

Meanwhile, Twitter has guaranteed its staff their jobs for the next six months and has confirmed that 'no layoffs are planned'.

However, once the Tesla boss takes over, any HR decisions will be up to him.
Hailey Bieber has revealed how she underwent a procedure to fix a hole in her heart after suffering a 'mini-stroke' last month, while she was having breakfast with her husband Justin Bieber.

In a new video, posted to her YouTube Channel on Wednesday afternoon, the 25-year-old supermodel recalled feeling a 'weird sensation' in her right arm and numbness in her fingertips before she was admitted to hospital.

After explaining to her fans that she wanted them to hear about terrifying incident in 'own words,' the Vogue cover girl said her spouse noticed that something was off and repeatedly asked if she was okay.

Scary: Hailey Bieber opened up about being hospitalized for the first time, last month, after suffering a 'mini-stroke' at breakfast with her husband, Justin

When she tried to respond, Hailey revealed she 'couldn't speak' but was thinking she must be 'having a stroke.'

'The right side of my face started drooping, I couldn't get a sentence out,' she said.

Quickly, Justin had someone call 911 and a medic nearby came to examine her as she struggled to formulate words as he asked if he knew her name and other basic questions.

Scary: In a new video, posted to her YouTube Channel on Wednesday afternoon, the 25-year-old supermodel recalled feeling a 'weird sensation' in her right arm and numbness in her fingertips

Alarming: After explaining to her fans that she wanted them to hear about terrifying incident in 'own words,' the Vogue cover girl said her spouse noticed that something was off and repeatedly asked if she was okay

She also noted that her anxiety made 'everything worse' but by the time she made it to the emergency room she 'was pretty much back to normal.'

Ultimately, she was kept overnight at the hospital to be tested for the cause of her blood clot in her brain.

Thankfully, she scored a 0 on the stroke checklist in the ER and her scary symptoms stopped.

'Perfect storm': Hailey, who has a history of migraines, says she was told by doctors that the combination of her new birth control, a recent battle with COVID and traveling 'from Paris and back in a really short amount of time' likely caused the blood clot

The hospital confirmed that she suffered a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), more commonly referred to as a mini-stroke

The hospital confirmed that she suffered a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), more commonly referred to as a mini-stroke.

Hailey, who has a history of migraines, says she was told by doctors that the combination of her new birth control, a recent battle with COVID and traveling 'from Paris and back in a really short amount of time' likely caused the blood clot.

While medical professionals were unable to determine how the blood clot had traveled to her brain, they believe that she had a small opening, known as a PFO, in the heart that usually closes after birth.

Her rock: It was reported last month that Justin would not leave Hailey's side during her traumatic ordeal

Her PFO, which measured between 12 and 13 millimeters, was 'Grade 5' which is the 'highest grade' possible. The small hole measured between 12 and 13 millimeters.

As she reflected on her diagnosis, Hailey said she was 'grateful' to know the cause and how the blood clot 'escaped' through the hole in heart to her brain.

Upon her doctor's recommendation, she had to PFO closed and has since fully recovered.

Distraught: Sources told People Justin 'is probably more traumatized than even she is'

Ahead of the repair, she suffered a lot of anxiety, which has mostly passed.

'The biggest thing I feel is I just feel really relieved that we were able to figure everything out, that we were able to get it closed, that I will be able to move on from this really scary situation and just live my life,' she said.

Out of an abundance of caution, she takes aspirin and blood thinners every day.

She also explained her desire to wait until 'everything had gone smoothly' to talk publicly about her health scare.

'When it happened, there was a lot of panic. Justin was crying, because you don't expect your young wife to have symptoms that resemble a stroke. Justin texted everyone he knew and asked everyone to pray for her, and he never left her side,' the insider said; seen in February 2020

It was reported last month that Justin would not leave Hailey's side during her traumatic ordeal.

Sources told People Justin 'is probably more traumatized than even she is.'

'When it happened, there was a lot of panic. Justin was crying, because you don't expect your young wife to have symptoms that resemble a stroke. Justin texted everyone he knew and asked everyone to pray for her, and he never left her side,' the insider said.
An activist from Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) in a wheelchair participates in a protest for mobility rights at City Hall Station on Seoul Metro Line 2, April 21. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



By Lee Hae-rin



A civic group that has launched daily protests for the mobility rights of people with disabilities has faced a massive harassment campaign from people espousing hate while pretending to apply for membership in the organization.



Activists of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) told The Korea Times, Wednesday, that over 240 people joined the group en masse as new official members on April 22, all within an hour starting around 8 p.m.



SADD executive director Kim Phill-soon said that many of the new members filled out their membership applications with hate speech in place of personal details. For example, some filled out the name field with words like "Eugenics," used phrases like "Bank of a society with no disabled people" as the names of their banks for paying membership fees and "chemical castration" for the account holders' names.



One fake new member even wrote, "People with disabilities should all go to gas chambers. Thank you for making me study eugenics and stop helping innocent disabled people who don't disturb people on their morning way to work," Kim said.



She added that some people also included hate speech regarding gender equality and the former presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, Lee Jae-myung, in lieu of their personal information. "Their hatred is clearly targeted towards specific groups of people," Kim said.



However, they didn't donate any actual money, as the website's donation deposit system is manually operated and the new members' banking information was all random and false, the SADD official in charge of membership donations confirmed.



"In the past, we encountered several people who expressed their hatred through donations  for instance, depositing 18 won ($0.01) 18 times," Kim said. The number 18 sounds similar to a Korean swear word and thus a donation of 18 won given 18 times shows opposition rather than support.



"But we've never been harassed at this scale through our membership's cash management service, so we were very shocked," said Kim.



The activists stopped reading the hate comments left by the fake members, instead archiving them for future use to investigate the people who created them. According to Kim, the group needs media attention but worries that publicizing the harassment campaign might trigger copycat hate crimes against other socially vulnerable groups.



As the activist group's protests continue, its members face increasing hate speech, as well as violent physical attacks in real life as well.



"They are mostly young men in their 20s, targeting female activists," Kim said. She gave an example of a man who broke into their office to yell abusive and hateful words, and also mentioned that some people have been following the activists with menacing stares after their protests.



The group asked the police to increase patrols near its headquarters in downtown Seoul and conducted an internal survey among activists on any psychological trauma they have faced as well as their needs for mental health counseling.



SADD has been holding daily morning protests in Seoul's subway since last December, including head-shaving ceremonies this month, demanding government approval for a budget related to their rights to move around equitably.


From left: Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae, Justice Minister Park Beom-kye, and Interior Minister Jeon Hae-cheol / Yonhap and Korea Times file





Seven politician-turned-ministers in the outgoing Moon Jae-in administration are likely to step down May 9, a day before incoming President Yoon Suk-yeol is inaugurated, a political source said Wednesday.







The seven ministers, including Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae, Justice Minister Park Beom-kye and Interior Minister Jeon Hae-cheol, have agreed to resign the day that Moon's term ends, according to the source.







The four other ministers are Unification Minister Lee In-young, Environment Minister Han Jeoung-ae, SMEs and Startups Minister Kwon Chil-seung and Culture Minister Hwang Hee.







However, some ministers are likely to keep their posts for the time being, even after Yoon's administration is inaugurated, due to uncertainties over National Assembly confirmation hearings for the incoming president's picks for Cabinet members, including prime minister nominee Han Duck-soo.







Cabinet appointments are subject to hearings but do not need Assembly approval to take their posts, while the prime minister is the only Cabinet post that does.







The minimum number of ministers required for a Cabinet meeting is more than half of 19 ministers and an agenda will be approved if more than two-thirds of the ministers in attendance vote for it. (Yonhap)






The Hyderabad police officials said that there is no scope for refund for anyone falling prey to this racket and advised investors not to transfer assets into unreliable virtual wallets. (Representational Photo: AFP)

Hyderabad: Cyber Crime officials are checking whether more persons were cheated by a website that has allegedly swindled a 39-year-old to the tune of Rs 80 lakh in the guise of crypto investments, as was reported on Monday.

The Hyderabad police officials said that there is no scope for refund for anyone falling prey to this racket and advised investors not to transfer assets into unreliable virtual wallets.

ACP Cyber Crimes, KVM Prasad said since the victim A Mahesh, a resident of Srinagar colony, transferred the funds to the virtual wallet, there exists no scope for refund.

The website, which is now defunct, had been active for months, suggesting that more people might have accessed it and were conned in a similar way, he said.

Police said that with more and more people investing in crypto currencies, huge amounts of money are being transferred, and this is attracting cybercriminals.

Cryptocurrency investors are to be very cautious while dealing with such a digital market and should refrain from transferring assets into reliable and unauthorized wallets, officials said.

Until last year, as many as 16 cryptocurrency fraud cases were reported, wherein victims have collectively lost Rs 3.45 crore. They invested in the hope of high returns.

In the recent case, businessman Mahesh, who had invested in cryptocurrency, was duped Rs 80 lakh by unidentified fraudsters.

The victim approached the cybercrime wing of the Hyderabad city police, who registered a case and are now investigating.

The victim had initially invested Rs 30,000 in cryptos through a website and received double returns. He started putting in more and invested a total of Rs 80 lakh. When he tried to withdraw the returns, he lost access to his virtual account on the website. He tried contacting the organisers but in vain, police said.
A man carries his 10-year old son's body on a motorcycle arranged by a Good Samaritan, even as an ambulance stands in the background, in Tirupati. (DC)

Tirupati: A mourning father was forced to carry the body of his son away from the SVR Ruia Government General Hospital here on a motorbike that was arranged by a Good Samaritan in the pre-dawn darkness of Tuesday, as he was unable to pay the hefty fee demanded by private ambulance operators.

Ten-year-old Jesava from Penagalur in Annamaiah district died during treatment for a liver disorder. Penagulur is about 100 km from Tirupati.

Jesava, son of Narasimhulu, orchard worker and native of Konduru ST Colony in Penagulur, was admitted to the hospital on Sunday. He died at about 11 pm on Monday and the hospital handed over the body to his father at around 2 am on Tuesday.

Narasimhulu reportedly waited for the government hearse from the Mahaprasthanam service to take the body home but it never arrived. He approached a private ambulance driver who demanded Rs 20,000 for the 100 km trip.

The ambulance operators formed a syndicate and did not heed the pleas of Narasimhulu, who earns Rs 4,000 a month, for a lower fee. Narasimhulu in desperation called his orchard owner Shrikant Yadav, who organised an ambulance through his friend Nand Kishore who runs a fleet of 10 vehicles.

When Kishores ambulance went to pick up the body, the private operators chased away the driver and reportedly manhandled Narasimhulu.

Kishores driver then arranged for a two-wheeler to shift the body. Narsimhulu carried the body of his son in his arms and went on the motorbike to the outskirts, from where he boarded Nand Kishores ambulance.

Speaking to reporters over phone, Srikanth Yadav said Narasimhulu had an acre of mango orchard sanctioned by the Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy government but it was not enough to feed his family of four. Narasimhulu used to work his his orchard to earn some money.

He said Narasimhulu was told the government-run Mahaprasthanam hearse service would be available from 7 am to 7 pm.

Kishore, who videotaped the episode, said he tried to highlight the role of the ambulance mafia. "There are several ambulances that provide services at a low cost. The syndicate stationed at the Ruia Hospital does not allow anyone inside the hospital, he said.
The petitioner said that despite the orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), no action had been taken to comply with the solid waste management rules. (File Image)

Hyderabad: A public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the Telangana High Court alleged that the GHMC, Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd and Hyderabad Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Ltd had failed to control the contamination of the lakes at Cherial and Edulabad and the irrigation channels leading to the river Musi by leachate leaking from the Jawaharnagar dump yard.

However, the court declined to admit the PIL because the issue was pending before the NGT. The High Court suggested that the petitioner implead before the NGT. The petitioner said that despite the orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), no action had been taken to comply with the solid waste management rules. Despite capping being done on the legacy garbage, the stink from the dump yard spread to a radius of 6 km during the rainy season, counsel for the petitioner said.
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the exit of some global brands from India, and said "Hate-in-India" and Make-in-India cannot coexist.

He also talked about unemployment in the country and urged the prime minister to focus on the "devastating unemployment crisis" instead.

"The ease of driving business out of India. 7 Global Brands. 9 Factories. 649 Dealerships. 84,000 Jobs," he said on Twitter.

Gandhi shared a picture on Twitter showing seven global brands -- Chevrolet in 2017, Man Trucks in 2018, Fiat and United Motors in 2019, Harley Davidson in 2020, Ford in 2021 and Datsun in 2022-- which have exited the country.

"Modi ji, Hate-in-India and Make-in-India can't coexist! Time to focus on India's devastating unemployment crisis instead," Gandhi said.

Gandhi and the Congress have been attacking the government over the issue of unemployment.
HYDERABAD: India needs a visionary, not a divisionary. This was how TRS's working president and minister KT Rama Rao launched the political resolution of the ruling party at its plenary here on Wednesday.

The TRS needs to play a crucial role in national politics in view of the countrys needs, the resolution declared and added that what the country needed today was a leader like KCR.

It was amid loud cheers from the party delegates and leaders that Rama Rao got on to the podium to introduce the resolution, reinforcing his popularity among the partys rank and file. Party president and Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao tried to calm the suddenly boisterous crowd at HICC, the venue of the party plenary.

KTR took aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he pitched for a greater role for the TRS at the national level. Some of his barbs aimed at Modi included, It is not Modi hai to mumkin hai, but Modi hai to mushkil hai (its not that Modi makes it possible, but Modi makes it impossible). He also said Modi is a Rythu Virodhi (against farmers).

It is not the slogans like Make In India that fit India, but Becho India (sell India), the minister said to repeated cheers from his partymen.

Rattling off on everything that was wrong with the Modi government, KTR spoke about how the decisions by the PM, be it demonetization or opening the Jan Dhan accounts with a promise to the poor to win Rs 15 lakh each in their accounts as dhana dhan, fell flat.

Rama Rao said Modi led the country from one disaster to another. Even on the foreign policy front, Modi failed, a prime example of it being his support to Donald Trump in the American elections, only to end up in the former US presidents defeat.

KTR declared: What the country needs today is a leader like KCR, who can turn the country into a Golden India, just as he turned this state into a Bangaru Telangana.
Education Minister nominee Kim In-chul / Yonhap





Education minister nominee Kim In-chul and his three family members received scholarships from a nonprofit organization jointly supported by the United States and Korean governments, a Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) lawmaker said Wednesday, raising allegations of possible favoritism.







Kim, a former president of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, was nominated by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol as education minister and deputy prime minister for social affairs, April 13, apparently due to his expertise in higher education.







Kim received a Fulbright scholarship and served as a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. from 1996 to 1997. He then served as president of the Korea Fulbright Alumni Association from 2012 to 2015.







The Fulbright scholarship program is run by the Korean-American Educational Commission, a nonprofit institution jointly sponsored by Seoul and Washington to promote bilateral cultural and educational exchanges.







Rep. Kang Min-jung of the DPK revealed that Kim's wife, son and daughter also received Fulbright scholarships, raising questions about whether any preferential treatment was offered to his family.







In particular, the time when Kim's two children were given Fulbright scholarships roughly coincides with his presidency at the Korea Fulbright Alumni Association, the lawmaker said, calling for a thorough investigation into all suspicions.







Kim's daughter received a Fulbright scholarship and attended a master's program at Cornell University from 2014 to 2016, while his son attended Columbia University's master's program from 2016 to 2018 on a Fulbright scholarship, Kang said.







The minister nominee's wife received support from the Fulbright program from 2004 to 2005 when she was a professor at Soongsil University in Seoul and went to Temple University in the U.S. as an exchange professor.







The Fulbright scholarship program provides benefits of several tens of millions of won annually, including up to $40,000 (about 50 million won) in tuition per year and living expenses of $1,300 to $2,410 per month.







The DPK lawmaker estimated that the total value of the Fulbright scholarships awarded to Kim's family may amount to between 300 million won and 400 million won.







"Only a limited number of Koreans are selected for the Fulbright scholarship program every year but all of Kim's family members benefited from the program. A thorough investigation is needed to find out whether any irregularities were involved," the lawmaker said.







Kim denied allegations of favoritism, saying all beneficiaries of Fulbright scholarships were fairly selected.







"Continuing to raise questions about the process by which the minister nominee's family members were selected as beneficiaries of (Fulbright) scholarships simply because he headed the Korea Fulbright Alumni Association is tantamount to inflating groundless allegations," Kim said in a statement released by his confirmation hearing preparation team.







"Raising groundless suspicions about the international education and exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government for about 60 years since 1960 undermines the fairness and trust of the scholarship program operating in about 160 countries worldwide, including Korea," he said, insisting his family members were "very fairly" selected as scholarship beneficiaries according to due procedure. (Yonhap)






Apparently, hundreds of posts are currently vacant in various ministries and departments at various levels, impeding the efficient functioning of the government. (Representational Image/ PTI)

The recent protests by Central Secretariat Service (CSS) officers about promotion and career prospects have prodded the government into action. And the action stems from the very top, triggered probably by Prime Minister Narendra Modis recent interaction with Union secretaries, where he, too, had expressed concern over the growing number of vacancies in various ministries and departments.

Sources have informed DKB that Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba has shot off letters to heads of various ministries and departments directing them to immediately fill the existing vacancies against sanctioned posts.

Apparently, hundreds of posts are currently vacant in various ministries and departments at various levels, impeding the efficient functioning of the government. Most of these posts are staffed by CSS service officers, and the vacancies have left the existing CSS officers doubling duty and working long hours. A few weeks ago, the representatives of CSS officers had met with the minister of state for personnel and PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh, seeking his intervention in the matter.

With the Prime Minister stepping in, it appears that there is a new urgency in the government to fill the vacancies and also take a measured look at the promotion issues of these babus.

Will Manoj Soni defy the Cassandras?

An inspiring story of struggle and hard work or the result of proximity to the reigning political ideology? The appointment of Manoj Soni as chairperson of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has cleaved opinion among civil servants, public commentators and the public. It matters little that Mr Soni is not new to the institution  he has been a UPSC member since 2017  and no rules have been bent for his appointment, as far as we know.

Yet, there are dissenting voices who fear that the former vice-chancellor of Vadodaras MS University and a former speechwriter for Prime Minister Narendra Modi poses a threat to the civil service system. To make him responsible for the recruitment of officers of the All-India Services, given his saffron background, is a recipe for trouble, they argue.

The liberals may have their concerns, but for the Centre, Mr Soni seems to tick all the right boxes. Humble origins like Mr Modis, self-made scholar-monk with ties to the hugely influential Swaminarayan sect, staunch defender of then-CM Modis government in Gujarat, etc. Whats not to like? But perhaps the bigger fear that has not been voiced is that in the past UPSC chairpersons were renowned academics with excellent records, and more significantly, career babus from the IAS. It is this last bit that perhaps rankles the most. Will Mr Soni defy the Cassandras? Well see.

Reshuffle of Delhi babus sets off speculation

In a recent reshuffle of UT cadre officers, it is the appointment of former NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Council) chairman Naresh Kumar as the new chief secretary of Delhi that has drawn the most attention. A 1987-batch IAS officer, Mr Kumar has replaced his batchmate Vijay Kumar Dev, who is now the chief election commissioner of Delhi.

Babu-watchers consider Mr Kumars appointment as significant in the context of the unification of Delhis three municipal corporations that is underway. In a unified municipal corporation, the special officer of the civic body will have considerably more power and privileges than the chief secretary! Apparently, this is already so in Maharashtra, where the BMC commissioner enjoys more power than the senior-most bureaucrat in the state.

On the other hand, the present NDMC chairman, Dharmendra, has been posted out as chief secretary of Arunachal Pradesh, which many babus strangely seem to consider a demotion. But Mr Dharmendra, sources have informed DKB, stands a good chance to hold a prime posting before retirement since age is on his side.

For now, however, the big question is about the future of Satya Gopal, who Mr Dharmendra is replacing. Will the former Arunachal chief secretary return to Delhi as NDMC chairman or get some other prime post?
In a week of frenzied activity, a strange truth prevailed amidst a couple of outcomes: while Elon Musk could take complete charge of Twitter, Inc., for a larger cause of free speech, Prashant Kishor tried, but failed, to take similar control of running the Congress affairs for a larger cause of uniting the Opposition ranks to challenge the BJP juggernaut in 2024  you must put your money where your presentation is.

The biggest contribution of PK, as Mr Kishor is known as, in the last few weeks to Indian politics has been to nip the BJP narrative after the win in the Assembly elections to four states, especially Uttar Pradesh, that post this win, the 2024 elections would be a foregone conclusion.

PK quickly and single-handedly rose to speak for the entire Opposition of the country  when all other parties were focussed on either nursing their wounds, or walloping in self-victimhood  to strongly argue that the 2024 elections could be won, provided, those opposed to the BJP could understand and accept certain ground realities, and come around to a common purpose and plan.

PK was emphatic to understand, and argue, that as much as Uttar Pradesh with its 80 seats, it was the cluster of states where predominantly the two national parties face off  Gujarat (26), Rajasthan (25), Madhya Pradesh (29), Chhattisgarh (11), Haryana (10), Karnataka (28), Uttarakhand (5), Himachal Pradesh (4), Assam (14), and all the smaller Northeastern states (11) and various Union Territories  totalling 170 seats, or twice the representation of UP, where the Congress was conceding almost all seats to the Modi-led BJP, leaving little chance of a battle for the rest of the Opposition parties.

Even if the Opposition were to perform spectacularly in West Bengal (42), exploit the weakness of the BJP in states like Tamil Nadu (39), Punjab (13) and Kerala (20), put up a unified Opposition in big states of UP (80), Maharashtra (48) and Bihar (40)  all well within the schema for Mr Kishor  the BJP almost invariably reaches the threshold of a simple majority.

It would still leave a lot to do for PK to take the numbers away from the BJP in Jharkhand (14), Delhi (7), Telangana (17), Kashmir (5); besides having to bring in two highly reluctant non-BJP leaders in Andhra Pradesh (25) and Odisha (21) to add their might to the anti-BJP side.

It was this realisation that the BJP must be first stopped in these seats where the Congress twice gave a near-complete walkover that pushed Mr Kishor to renew his parleys with the Grand Old Party, seeking a chance to strengthen the party in the most vulnerable 200-odd seats.

It did not work out, whatever be the reasons, either for the Congress, or PK, and thus, for the non-BJP Opposition. Maybe the offer of Mr Kishor was not as enticing as Mr Musk, maybe the Congress did not see the need to give up so much control to one man, unlike Twitter, given the potential benefits.

Either way, whatever be the reason for the breakdown of the Congress-PK talks, it is back to Advantage Modi, Circa 2024.
Nepal has formally banned the import of cars and other luxurious goods, including whisky and tobacco and have introduced two public holidays, citing a liquidity crunch and declining foreign exchange reserves, despite government assurances that the economy will not go into a tailspin like Sri Lanka.

Since July 2021, Nepal has seen a decline in forex reserves due to the surging imports, declining inflows of remittance and meagre earnings from tourism and exports.

By February 2022, the Himalayan countrys gross forex reserves had decreased 17 per cent to $9.75 billion from $11.75 billion in mid-July 2021, according to central bank figures.

The ban has come into effect starting Tuesday and will last until mid-July 2022, the end of the current fiscal year. A notice to this effect had been published in the Nepal Gazette, Deputy Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of the country, Bam Bahadur Mishra, told PTI.

"Import of luxury goods such as cars, motorbikes above 250 CC, Colour TV above 32 inches, tobacco and whisky have been halted for the time being to save foreign currency depletion," he said.

Only emergency vehicles can be imported as per the new provision. The ban also includes items such as the import of toys, diamonds and playing cards, the official said.

Earlier in March, the central bank had instructed the commercial banks not to import gold exceeding 10 kg per day, half the quantity compared to the previous provision.

Deputy Governor Bam said that the government has foreign currency reserves that are sufficient to support less than seven month of imports. It is because of growing imports of mainly food items and petroleum products that Nepal is facing a foreign currency crunch.

The dwindling foreign currency reserve is partly because of the considerable decline in foreign tourists due to the pandemic and the decrease in the inflow of remittance in recent times. The rising prices for oil in the international market due to the Russia-Ukraine war have exerted extra pressure on the foreign currency reserves of the country.

The government has decided to introduce two public holidays - on Saturday and Sunday - every week, with effect from May 15. The decision has been taken in a bid to save consumption of petroleum products and thereby save foreign currency.

It has been decided to maintain office hours from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM with effect from May 15 as a trial.

Public holidays will be given two days a week on Saturday and Sunday, stated the cabinet decision made on Wednesday. As per the existing practice, the government offices operate from 10 am to 5 pm in the summer six days a week, except for Friday when the office remains open only for five hours.

Speaking at a programme to observe the 67th anniversary of the Nepal Rastra Bank on Wednesday Governor of the bank Maha Prasad Adhikari said that the economic situation has already started improving with the significant reduction in Covid-19 cases in the country and added that the import ban will be lifted as soon as the foreign currency reserve shows improvements with business activities returning to normal.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since gaining independence from the UK in 1948. People have been protesting for weeks over lengthy power cuts and shortage of gas, food and other basic goods.

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Bangladesh and India have been enjoying a "sweet" bilateral relationship and during External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's visit on Thursday both sides would discuss all major bilateral issues, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen has said.

Without giving details, Momen said Jaishankar, who will arrive in Dhaka on a half-day official visit, might bring some "good news" and he was expected to give us some surprise".

Momen said on Tuesday that he is happy about his Indian counterpart's visit as Bangladesh and India have been enjoying a "sweet" relation and during his visit both sides would discuss all our major bilateral issues."

He said the two countries were also expected to fix the date of the 7th Bangladesh-India Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting, which is scheduled to take place in New Delhi.

During his visit, Jaishankar will call on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and handover an invitation to her on her counterpart Narendra Modis behalf to visit New Delhi, officials here said.

He is scheduled to call on Prime Minister Hasina at her Ganabhaban official residence at 4 pm to handover the invitation letter, an event which will be followed by a meeting with his Bangladesh counterpart Momen at Foreign Service academy at 5 pm, the official said.

It is learnt that Jaishankar's trip to Bangladesh is aimed at preparing the grounds for a visit to India by Hasina.

Momen would also host an Iftar followed by dinner in Jaishankars honour at the academy.

The last visit by Jaishankar to Bangladesh was in March last year. In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a statement said the forthcoming visit of the external affairs minister to Bangladesh may be seen in the context of frequent bilateral high-level visits and exchanges particularly as both sides commemorate 50 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Hasina last visited New Delhi in 2019 to attend the Indian Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) when she also had bilateral talks with her Indian counterpart.

Modi, on the other hand, visited Bangladesh on March 26-27 last year at Hasinas invitation to join golden jubilee celebration of the country's independence, birth centenary of Bangladeshs Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the 50th years of establishment of Bangladesh-India diplomatic relations.

President Ram Nath Kovind also paid a state visit to Dhaka from December 15-17 last year at the invitation of his Bangladesh counterpart Abdul Hamid to attend the 50th victory day celebration of Bangladesh.

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China on Wednesday asked Pakistan to scale-up security for its nationals working in the country and demanded a thorough investigation and punishment to the perpetrators behind the suicide attack at the Karachi University which killed three Chinese teachers and injured another.

The blood of the Chinese cannot be shed in vain, and those behind this incident will surely pay the price, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said while strongly condemning the latest attack on Chinese nationals working in Pakistan.

"Once again, we mourn the passing of the Chinese and Pakistani victims and extend our sincere sympathies to the victims and to the injured and the bereaved families," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here responding to questions on the Karachi blast.

Also Read: 4 killed by woman suicide bomber at Chinese institute in University of Karachi

"This is a premeditated suicide terrorist attack targeting Chinese citizens and the target is teachers they carry on human civilization and promote cultural exchange. It is an egregious and heinous attack," he said.

"China expresses strong condemnation and indignation. People and life come first. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions overseas," he said.

On Tuesday, an explosion triggered by a burqa-clad woman suicide bomber from Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) ripped through a shuttle passenger van of the Confucius Institute at the prestigious University of Karachi, leaving three Chinese teachers dead and one injured, in the latest targeted attack against Chinese citizens in Pakistan.

A spokesperson for the BLA, the separatist outfit which is banned in Pakistan, the UK and the US, said that the attack was carried out by Shari Baloch alias Bramsh - the "first female suicide bomber of the brigade".

The attack that too by a woman suicide bomber from Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which is vocally opposing the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), sent shock waves here as it highlights deep rooted opposition to Chinese projects.

"Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao has made an urgent phone call to the Pakistani Ambassador to China to express extremely grave concern," a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.

"Wu demanded that the Pakistani side should immediately conduct a thorough investigation into the incident, apprehend and punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law, and take all possible measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in Pakistan and prevent such incidents from happening again," it added.

Multiple channels of China asked the Pakistani side to take proper efforts to trace the injured and handle the follow up matter and conduct a thorough investigation, apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice and also take stronger measures to keep Chinese citizens and institutions safe and make sure such incidents won't happen again, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

The Pakistan government has promised to give assistance in follow up matters and take further measures to keep strengthening security for Chinese people, projects, institutions will not allow any enforcement to undermine the two countries friendship and cooperation, he said.

Asked whether such attacks will affect the CPEC connecting China's Xinjiang province with Pakistan's Balochistan where the locals opposed Chinese presence, Wang said, "I also want to stress that the iron-clad friendship between China and Pakistan is unbreakable and any attempt to undermine China-Pakistan mutual trust and cooperation and the building of the CPEC will never succeed. The terrorists will pay a heavy price for their crimes.

"I would like to stress that terrorism is the common enemy of mankind. The blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain. China firmly supports Pakistans counter-terrorism efforts. We will work with Pakistan to hunt down the perpetrators, bring them to justice and make them pay a heavy price," he said.

To another question, he said China has taken note of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's visit to the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad to convey condolences besides the Chief Minister of Sindh and other political parties.

State-run Global Times in its editorial said, "we must point out that Pakistan has strengthened the protection of Chinese nationals in recent years but without addressing the root causes of the problem, there will always be loopholes".

"This time, the attack targeted the Confucius Institute. 'Hard targets' like projects or construction sites that are tightly protected are thought to be difficult to attack. For that reason, the terrorists sought 'soft targets' such as schoolteachers. The China-Pakistan anti-terrorism cooperation needs to be further strengthened and resolutely strike related terrorist organization. We shouldn't allow terrorists' evil acts," it said.

Expressing its condolences to the victims and their families, the Chinese International Education Foundation, which is in charge of running the Confucius Institutes, on Tuesday strongly condemned the terror attack. It called on all Confucius Institutes to ensure the safety of staff amid current complicated international situations, the paper reported.

Quoting experts, the report said given the capability and willingness, the BLA is the biggest suspect but the Pakistan Taliban, Islamic State or the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement" could also be involved.

The BLA is one of the largest terror groups currently active in Pakistan's Balochistan province and has carried out repeated attacks against Chinese targets, the report quoted Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, as saying.

"Karachi, where the attack took place, is the largest city in Pakistan, and it would be easy for the BLA to infiltrate the city," said Qian, noting that it is extremely difficult to prevent terror attacks launched by this organisation, especially those against individuals.

Qian believes the terrorist attack on Chinese citizens is unlikely to be connected to the recent political changes in Pakistan. While there have been some protests since the change of leadership, the situation has not gotten out of hand.

The root cause of this terrorist attack is that the soil for the growth of terrorism and religious extremism in Pakistan has not been removed, and the environment in which terrorism thrives has always existed, Qian said.

Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running violent insurgency. Baloch insurgent groups have previously carried out several attacks targeting the USD 60 billion CPEC projects.

This is not the first-time Chinese nationals have been the target of terror attacks in Karachi, which is Pakistan's biggest city and economic hub.

Thirteen people including nine Chinese were killed in a bomb attack on a bus carrying Chinese engineers at Dasu hydropower project in Pakistan last year. Pakistan had paid USD 11.6 billion compensation to nine Chinese engineers who were killed in the blast.

Thousands of Chinese personnel are working in Pakistan on a host of projects being carried out under the aegis of the CPEC.

China State Construction has invested in a number of flagship projects under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, including the Peshawar-Karachi Motorway, the largest transportation infrastructure project under CPEC.

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Russia on Monday warned the Ukraine conflict risked escalating into a third world war and accused Kyiv of playing at peace talks a day after visiting US officials said Ukrainian forces could beat back Moscow's invasion.

The conflict has triggered an outburst of support from Western nations that has seen weapons pour into Ukraine to help them wage war against Russian troops.

Speaking to Russian news agencies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticised Kyiv's approach to floundering peace talks, saying the risk of a World War III "is serious".

Also Read | Putin accuses West of plotting to kill Russian journalists

"It is real, you can't underestimate it."

While he said talks with Kyiv would continue, Lavrov accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of "pretending" to negotiate, adding: "You'll find a thousand contradictions."

For months, Zelenskyy has been asking Ukraine's western allies for heavy weapons -- including artillery and fighter jets -- vowing his forces could turn the tide of the war with more firepower.

The calls appear to be resonating now, with a host of NATO countries pledging to provide a range of heavy weapons and equipment, despite protests from Moscow.

Also Read | US steps up military aid for Ukraine during first official visit since Russia invasion

"The first step in winning is believing that you can win," Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin told a group of journalists after he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

"We believe that we can win -- they can win -- if they have the right equipment, the right support."

The highly sensitive US trip by two of President Joe Biden's top cabinet members came as fighting continued across Ukraine, casting a long shadow over Easter celebrations in the largely Orthodox country.

"Thanks to the courage, the wisdom of our defenders, thanks to the courage of all Ukrainians -- our state is a true symbol of the struggle for freedom," Zelenskyy said in his evening address vowing victory.

Following a weekend full of fighting, at least five people were killed and another 18 injured on Monday after a Russia rocket attack targeted railway infrastructure in the central Ukraine region of Vinnytsia.

On Monday, the governor of a Russian region bordering Ukraine accused Kyiv of bombing one of its villages, injuring two civilians and damaging several houses.

"A village was targeted... It is already clear that there are injured civilians," Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.

Russia in recent weeks has accused Ukrainian forces of striking targets on Russian soil, including two villages in Belgorod and another in the region of Bryansk.

The governor of the Kursk region near Ukraine also said Russian forces had shot down two Ukrainian drones in the early hours of the morning.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced Monday that Britain would send Ukraine armoured vehicles able to fire missiles against Russian warplanes.

"These Stormer vehicles will give Ukraine forces enhanced short-range anti-air capabilities both day and night," he said.

The United States has been a leading donor of finance and weaponry to Ukraine, and a key sponsor of sanctions targeting Russia.

But it had not previously sent top officials to Kyiv. Several European leaders have already travelled there to underscore their support.

"Many countries are going to come forward and provide additional munitions and howitzers. So we're going to push as hard as we can, as quickly as we can, to get them what they need," Austin said.

Blinken and Austin also said US diplomats would begin a gradual return to Ukraine this week and announced $700 million (653 million euros) in additional military aid.

Forty German diplomats will meanwhile be heading home from Russia after Moscow announced their expulsion, following Berlin's decision to kick out 40 Russian diplomats earlier this month.

From The Hague, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor is to join an EU investigations team to probe "alleged core international crimes committed in Ukraine", officials said.

Russia's air force targeted 82 Ukrainian military sites, including four command posts and two fuel depots, and the army fired high-precision missiles at 27 targets in their latest attacks, the Russian defence ministry said on Monday.

The Ukrainian defence ministry said Russia was continuing to hit infrastructure and supply lines bringing military assistance from Ukraine's partners.

Ukraine's second city Kharkiv remains partially surrounded and Moscow's forces are regrouping in the south, but a Russian attempt to break through towards Zaporizhzhia in the east failed, the ministry added.

Russia on Monday accused Kyiv of preventing civilians trapped with Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks from leaving the besieged industrial centre despite a ceasefire announcement.

The defence ministry had said it would allow a civilian evacuation from Mariupol's sprawling steel plant, which has been sheltering the remaining Ukrainian resistance in the southeastern port city.

But the Russian army on Monday evening said no one used the proposed humanitarian corridor.

A video posted by the far-right Azov Regiment, whose fighters are based in Azovstal, showed war-weary women and children sheltering in the plant's underground bunkers, pleading for relief.

"There are 600 people here. No water, no food. What are we going to do here? How long will we stay here?" asked one woman.

"We haven't been out for two months now. I don't even know what the weather is like there. It feels like it's still February 28," said another woman.

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.

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Air India on Sunday said it will reduce its India-Sri Lanka services from 16 flights per week currently to 13 flights per week from April 9 due to poor demand.

Sri Lanka is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in history. With long lines for fuel, cooking gas, essentials in short supply and long hours of power cuts, the public has been suffering for weeks.

"Currently AI is operating 16 flights a week -- daily flights from Delhi and nine flights a week from Chennai," an Air India spokesperson told PTI.

In the new schedule, AI will be operating a total of 13 flights per week, the spokesperson noted.

Also read: Sri Lanka's Opposition protests government decision to impose state of emergency

In the new schedule, while the frequency from Chennai will remain untouched, flights from Delhi will reduce from seven to four per week, the spokesperson said.

"Four flights from Delhi instead of seven effective April 9 due to poor loads," the spokesperson noted.

AI 283 on the Delhi-Colombo sector will now operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from April 8 to May 30.

AI 284 on the Colombo-Delhi sector will operate on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from April 9 to May 31.

The Sri Lankan government on Sunday blocked social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram after declaring a nationwide public emergency and imposing a 36-hour curfew ahead of a planned anti-government rally over the worst economic crisis in the island nation.

The move is aimed at preventing masses from gathering in Colombo to protest the government's failure to provide relief to the public suffering from shortages of food, essentials, fuel and medicine amidst hours-long power cuts, the Colombo Page newspaper reported.

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Why your head hurts and how to deal with it
Hundreds of saints and seers led by Alwar MP Balaknath took out a protest march in Alwar district's Rajgarh on Wednesday against the demolition of two temples during a recent anti-encroachment drive.

The temples and some other structures were demolished last week, with officials describing the action as part of an anti-encroachment drive to widen a road in the municipal town.

Balaknath alleged that the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan is doing politics of appeasement to benefit a particular community.

He said the Congress government will face the "consequences" if the demolished temples are not rebuilt.

"The Rajasthan government should take cognisance of is matter at the earliest. If Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is not able to run the government then he should resign," he said.

The protest march started from Company Bagh Choraha in Rajgarh and seen participation of a large number of saints as well as BJP workers.

Saints from different districts of Rajasthan and from neighbouring states such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and the national capital Delhi also took part in the rally.

The demolition of two temples (one complete and one partially) and other structures under the anti-encroachment drive has triggered a controversy.

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Hindu activists on Wednesday staged a protest outside the ASI office here after an Ayodhya seer claimed in a video that he was denied entry to the monument because he wore saffron cloths and carried a Brhamdand.

The seers claim in the viral video triggering the protest prompted the Archaeological Survey of India officials to deny the allegation, saying the seer was denied entry not because he was wearing saffron robes.

Referred to the seers Brhamdand, a stick covered with saffron clothes and having a religious significance, the Agra ASI circle official Raj Kumar Patel told PTI that the security personnel denied Swami ji the entry because he refused to deposit an object in a locker near the entry gate.

Had the Swamiji explained the religious significance of the 'Brahmdand', the security staff would not have denied him the entry, he said.

The ASI even allowed a group of protesting activists to enter the monument later in saffron clothes with one of them also carrying the Brahmdand, Patel said.

Hindu activists staged the protest after a video surfaced on social media with the seer identifying himself as Jagad guru Paramhansacharya from Ayodhya district and alleging that he visited Taj Mahal with his two disciples on Tuesday but was denied entry to the monument.

In the video, he said the ASI and security personnel stopped him from entering the Taj Mahal premises due to his saffron clothes and also asked him to keep the 'Brahmdand' outside.

"I came here as it is Tejo Mahal and a temple of Lord Shiva. Students have been taught false history that it is Taj Mahal," he added in the video.

Denying the seers allegations, Patel said "We have the video footage of the Swamiji in which he is seen at the security point of the western gate of Taj Mahal."

"Swamiji was not stopped from entering the Taj Mahal premises due to his saffron attire. The ASI and security staffers had asked him to keep an object he was carrying with him at the locker room or outside the Taj Mahal premises," he added.

"We have to follow security procedures and for that everything is checked properly," he said, reiterating that had Swamiji explained the religious significance of Brahmdand he would have been allowed entry.

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Rep. Park Hong-keun, third from left, floor leader of the Democratic Party, speaks at a party meeting, April 27. Yonhap





The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) vowed to pass two controversial bills on prosecution reform through a plenary session of the National Assembly, Wednesday, despite strong objections from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP).







DPK floor leader Rep. Park Hong-keun said the party will convene the plenary session later in the day and pass the bills "without fail," after railroading the legislation through the judiciary committee earlier Wednesday.







The bills are aimed at reducing and ultimately removing the prosecution's investigative powers.







Park told a party meeting that the DPk "will not be swayed any more by the PPP and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol" over their objection to the bills that were originally agreed on by the two main parties.







The DPK has justified its move by claiming the PPP broke its promise when it demanded a review of the compromise deal that called for curtailing the prosecution's investigative right to two types of crime  corruption and economic  before removing it completely.







The agreement represented a breakthrough compromise between the rival parties that had sparred fiercely for weeks over the DPK's headlong push for legislation that would immediately deprive the prosecution of all investigative powers.







The deal, however, drew unexpectedly strong criticism from the public that lawmakers were colluding to shield themselves from prosecution investigations as the agreement calls for excluding crimes related to elections and public officials from prosecution probes.







Yoon, a former top prosecutor who is set to take office on May 10, voiced concerns about the bills, calling for the entire political community to reflect deeply on what is right in order to defend the Constitution and protect the people. (Yonhap)






The Congress and Prashant Kishor parted ways on Tuesday after hectic parleys for two weeks as the poll strategist declined to accept party chief Sonia Gandhi's invitation to join them.

While there were differences within the Congress over his induction, Kishor felt that the party needed "leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems more than him".

Kishor's second attempt in less than a year to join the Congress ended in a naught as both the parties were unable to iron out differences. Kishor reportedly wanted sweeping powers and a free hand in election management, but the party wanted a group of leaders to oversee the 2024 general elections.

Also Read  Why Prashant Kishor gave the Congress proposal a miss

The poll strategist also wanted structural reforms within the party including two different people as PM candidate and party chief. He wanted Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to lead Congress, but party leaders wanted Rahul Gandhi to become the chief again, according to a report by The Times of India.

After the Congress on Tuesday officially announced that Kishor will not be working for the party as he declined to be part of the empowered action group for the 2024 general elections, several party leaders toed the line.

Also Read: More than me Congress needs leadership, collective will to fix deep rooted problems: Prashant Kishor

KPCC president D K Shivakumar said that it is a decision taken at the national level and they are bound to abide by it. Prasant Kishore had made valuable suggestions to strengthen the party at the national and state levels, Shivakumar said.

However, former minister Priyank Kharge said that Kishor not joining will not hurt, but it would have been good to work with him. We strongly believe Kishors experience, though it would have helped the party, is not a loss as such. Congress has a history and its strengths to win an election with or without Kishore, Kharge was quoted as saying in a report.

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Sri Lankan politics since 1948 has taken many roads, with its Sinhala nationalism being intact. But for the first time in the post-independent history of Sri Lanka, it has chosen the arterial path - Sinhala nationalism as a potential cover for ethnic chauvinism and absolutism.

There is only one way the politics in Sri Lanka can move forward with little room for return. The only exit road in this one-way is the potential turnaround that Sinhala politicians are capable of delivering through a familiar call for restoring democracy.

Five fears have long gripped Sri Lanka: fear of survival for other communities, including the Tamils, Muslims and Christians, fear of excessive militarisation and ethnocentrism of the Sinhala polity, fear of authoritarianism combined with centralisation of power, and fear of economic collapse.

Also Read | Hunger and blackouts are just the start of an emerging economic crisis

It is essential to recognise that the people of Sri Lanka have not been able to address these fears due to ethnonationalism, and ultimately the debt crisis has revealed the extent of damage in the system. This is a systemic crisis, and the management of the present economic situation requires credible political leadership and an inclusive approach to governance. It is time we begin to evaluate the impact of corruption, authoritarianism, and ethnic chauvinism not only on the overall polity but also on the steady process of exclusion, denial and the complete disappearance of accountability mechanisms in the system.

Sri Lanka has been going through the revolving phases of authoritarianism, feudal elites rule with the majoritarian ethos of democracy, ethnic chauvinism in the name of Sinhala nationalism, ruthless fascism through enforcing oppressive fear and coercion among the Sinhalese, organised State violence against the Tamils and growing discrimination of Muslims.

This is the gamut of democracy that Sri Lanka revolves around, with little reflection on the consequences or impact on its fragile polity. Sri Lanka has been a rogue state with no respect for the rule of law or accountability towards its own people and the international community while drafting a new constitution and introducing amendments to empower the president or prime minister with more powers depending on the shifts in loyalties of power horses in the political spectrum remains a national pastime for over seven decades now.

Although Sri Lanka possesses a robust civil society, Sinhala chauvinism and mob psyche make up the core values of political culture and as the bedrock of Sinhala polity. The high and low tides of these eternal core values serve as a constant phenomenon in association with other overwhelming contemporary issues (like the Easter Sunday bombings on April 21, 2019), producing the electoral results as the Sinhala politicians manoeuvre the political arithmetic and compete in the name of democracy.

Also Read | Cash-strapped Sri Lanka to sell 'golden' visas

The role and authority of the Buddhist Order are critical to the political functions of either stirring or taming the eternal core values such as Sinhala chauvinism and the mob psyche. This is a function of mutual interest to the basis of the coalition and mutual patronage between the State and Buddhist Order in Sri Lanka.

What Adolf Hitler did alone, and as leader of the Nazi Party, the Rajapaksas as a family have done it collectively, complementing each other and their positions of power. A family of power clones like cloned phones with different quality components accompanied by the functions of hackers. Adolf Hitler rose to power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then as Fuhrer in 1934. He was the head of the government, head of the State and head of the party.

After consolidating the power and functions of the State, he converted the Weimer republic into Nazi Germany through his autocratic and totalitarian methods without wavering from his core aim of the elimination of Jews. Eelam-IV war is a revelation of the Sinhala-Tamil ethnic conflict prevailing in Sri Lanka and the brutal military solution forced upon the Tamils.

The genocide of Tamils, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Sri Lankan government and its leadership in May 2009 is a testimony to the core objectives of the Rajapaksas. Successive Sri Lankan governments from 1995 to 2009 have spent US$4 billion in pursuing a brutal military solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government continues to spend more money on the military without a political resolution to the ethnic situation and further aggravates the religious polarisation of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka.

The seeds of authoritarianism, feudal family ties in power and absolutism of power have taken deep roots and spread like cancer in Sri Lankan politics with more vindictive and narrow outcomes. The successive mandate for the Rajapaksas since 2005 and their unabashed demonstration of family rule combined with their dark bands of ruthless violence, criminalisation and absolutism are revelations of deeper malice and frustrations in the polity.

The genocide of Tamils, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Sri Lankan government and its leadership in May 2009 is a testimony to the core objectives of the Rajapaksas.

Also Read | Sri Lankans intensify anti-govt protests; set up camp outside PM office demanding Rajapaksa family's exit

The fascism of Mussolini and Nazism of Hitler had attributed certain unique functions and hollow supremacy to the State while they enjoyed all the powers as sovereign heads. Similarly, the criminalisation of politics by the Rajapaksas with functions like genocidal violence against the Tamils, disappearances of Sinhala dissent, white van culture, corruption, constitutional amendments, and ruthless absolutism generate fear and obedience from all.

There was only one Hitler in Germany, and also the fact that Hitler did not have any family or even children to claim his legacy. The phenomenon of Sinhala chauvinism combined with the absolutism of the Rajapaksas wrapped inside the mask of Sinhala nationalism informs the deep malaise in the system.

The refusal of Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign; the confidence of Mahinda Rajapaksa in asking the people to be more patient when people are wandering without food, medicine, fuel and educational kits, and the inability of the opposition to offer a credible alternative leadership at this critical stage are conditions familiar to Asian democracies. But the realities are close to home in India for us to neglect the lessons from the current economic situation. While India may be able to absorb the economic crisis because of its inherent and multiple qualities, it is important for us to develop and address the political, socio-religious, and ethnic conflicts in a more inclusive manner.

We are also faced with threats to our polity due to growing intolerance, majoritarianism, religious divide, lack of sufficient political empathy and understanding of the Kashmir dilemma beyond the Pakistan factor; disparities in income and development, marginalisation of the poor, the red corridor, State-sponsored corporate capitalists with control and power to define the course of the economy, centralisation of power, human rights violations in the Northeast, including the refusal to withdraw the AFSPA, authoritarian ethos, partisan media, corruption, lack of political accountability and the absence of minimal remorse to acknowledge the failure of public policies with the devastating impact upon the people and economy like the sudden demonetisation drive, the steady privatisation of public properties including ports, airports and railways and the gradual appropriation of public space and silencing of civil society in politics.

The fundamental difference between India and Sri Lanka is the nature, spirit, and the working of our respective constitutions. We, in India, are deeply indebted to the vision, commitment and integrity of the drafters of the Indian constitution towards the principles of pluralism, diversity and inclusiveness as our political culture. The preamble of the Indian Constitution is both the spirit and process of our polity. Therefore, it is more important now than ever before to uphold and defend the idea of India and the vision of the drafters of the constitution.

(Prof Ramu Manivannan is a scholar-social activist in the areas of education, human rights and sustainable development through an initiative called "Multiversity")

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Software and services provider Amdocs has been chosen by Vodafone to modernise its inventory management at some of its European units, to prepare for future customer demands.

In a statement, Amdocs said it will upgrade Vodafones mobile, fixed and cable offerings portfolio in: Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic and Albania. This marks the first-time Amdocs has penned an agreement with Vodafones Albanian unit.

Advanced inventory capabilities will provide the operator group with a data foundation to continue automating its networks and service operations across its footprint, smoothing the process to roll out 5G, explained Amdocs.

The company also added by aligning data models and business processes across its markets, Vodafone will be able to meet future customer demand, through the advantage of having a software-driven network.

Benefits highlighted for Vodafone include: increased data quality, planning process efficiency, reduced fallout rate in fulfilment and assurance processes.

The modernisation project provides next-generation inventory and operations support system (OSS) blueprint. This enables Vodafone to upgrade additional territories rapidly.

Vodafone stated that 70% of its core European network is already on its own on-premise cloud with plans to increase that to 100% by 2025.

Vodafone Group said: Providing excellent customer service is central to Vodafones business, and we look to provide a consistent customer experience across our different regions. As we extend our advanced gigabit networks, we are further harmonising our inventory systems in multiple territories, as well as modernising and improving efficiency, with the support of Amdocs, our strategic partner in this initiative.

Amdocs group president of technology and head of strategy Anthony Goonetilleke said: Service providers worldwide are embarking on an accelerated journey to transform their businesses. Vodafone is a world leader in our industry, and we are proud to have been chosen to support its vision for the cross-regional harmonisation of its inventory systems, and we look forward to continue working closely together.
Now Telecom gained approval from the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission to increase its authorised capital stock, a move to free up stock for foreign investors and finance expansion plans.

In a statement, Now Telecom president and COO says Rene Rosales said: This strategic initiative of Now Telecom is envisioned to support its growth plans. The three-step equity restructuring better positions Now Telecom for investors both domestic and foreign to participate in its equity."

The executive noted the government recently passed a law to allow foreign investors to acquire 100% of shares in a public utility company.

Coupling this and its stock increase Now Telecom can now proceed in its growth plans starting with its fundraising efforts including but not limited to tapping either the debt market or equity market, or both, said Rosales.

The operator increased the number of its authorised common shares from 14.59 million to 952.09 million and lowered its par value from PHP100.00 per share to PHP1.00 per share.

It also added the SEC approved an equity restructuring which wipe out the companys deficit as of December 31, 2020.

Rival operator Globe Telecom is hot on Now Telecoms heels and is currently awaiting approval to increase its own authorised capital stock.

With approval, Globe plans to expand from PHP10.25 billion (US$196m) to PHP11.25 billion, a move to possibly also raise cash for expansion plans.

In a stock exchange filing, the operator said the move is for business purposes with little detail, and that it will follow up with an update after securing approval from its board.
Minister Coveney to visit Washington, D.C. and Boston

Press release

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney, T.D., will travel to the United States from 27 to 29 April for a number of meetings and engagements in Washington, D.C. and Boston.

Ahead of the visit, Minister Coveney said;

Ireland and the United States have deep and warm relations built on a foundation of historic ties and shared values. Strengthening this relationship further is a priority for the Government.

"This visit to Washington, D.C. and Boston is an important opportunity to discuss shared approaches to confronting global challenges, and to re-engage with our diaspora community and other friends of Ireland in the United States as we emerge from the pandemic.

On Thursday morning, the Minister will participate in a discussion at the German Marshall Fund, providing the Irish perspective on the invasion of Ukraine and the Transatlantic relationship. He will then meet with senior members of the Biden administration, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, to discuss areas of continued cooperation in addressing global challenges. The Ministers programme will also include high level political engagement on Capitol Hill, including with US Senator Bob Menendez, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Minister will then travel to Boston to participate in a number of engagements on Friday, including events at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Harvard University, and Boston College. He will also meet with Governor Charlie Baker and members of the Massachusetts State House. Among other topics, he will discuss developments in Northern Ireland, Ukraine, and EU-US relations.

ENDS

Press Office

27 April 2022

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Helix Design Group

Burdett

McConnell

Druker

Behzad

Helix Design Group, Inc. welcomed four new team members, Ellie Behzad, Marlene Druker, Chelsea McConnell and Wendy Burdett. Behzad, is an architect with over 15 years of experience both in the US and abroad. She has dedicated six years of her professional life to K-12 designs. She is also an advocate of green building. This interest encouraged her to take a year certification degree at the University of Washington in integrated lighting and daylighting design.

Druker has over 20 years of experience and is a registered architect in the state of Washington. One of her first projects is the building that now houses Dunagan Irish Pub and Brewery. She brings to Helix her past experience of work on multiple custom homes, both remodels and new construction, including her own. Her interest in urban design has led her to volunteering on her local main street association's design committee and writing for the advocacy group Strong Towns. McConnell joined Helix with 5 years of experience in the graphic design field with a primary focus in the development of branded business collateral, wall wraps, signage, print/digital advertising, and a variety of many other supporting graphics. For Helix, she has recently completed work for the Pendleton Car Wash exterior elevations, as well as developed branded signage and design of the monument sign concepts for the same project. She is a graduate of the Cornish College of the Arts and received a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Graphic Design.

Burdett recently joined the Helix marketing team coming from the residential side of design and marketing. She worked in that area for over 20 years serving clients in the Home Building Industry all across the country. For Helix, she will work closely with the marketing Director to help coordinate and execute a broad range of marketing tasks including RFQ/RFP responses, identifying potential projects and supporting social media content and outreach.




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DALLAS (AP)  Is travel to Europe going to boom this summer? United Airlines is betting on it.

United said Tuesday that it will operate more flights across the Atlantic this summer than it did in 2019, the last summer before the pandemic. Patrick Quayle, United's senior vice president of international network, says it's the biggest single transatlantic increase in United's history.





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Port says it will open new Duwamish park in July

Port of Seattle image [enlarge] The park includes a habitat viewing platform.





The Port of Seattle recently announced that it will open Duwamish River People's Park on July 16 at Terminal 117, next to South Park Marina. It calls the park at 8700 Dallas Ave. S. one of the most significant habitat restoration projects on the Duwamish in a generation.

More than just a park and habitat area, the Duwamish River People's Park is a living testament to the power of community leadership and the value of public partnership, said port commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa in a news release. Starting this summer, the Duwamish River People's Park becomes a new learning lab, a critical piece of restored habitat, and much needed green space for the community.

The port is redeveloping the land with the help of the Duwamish River Community Coalition. The park will have 14 acres of critical fish and wildlife habitat, along with public access to the shoreline. The port says the large-scale restoration project will increase chinook salmon habitat, which will benefit endangered Southern Resident orcas.

The port's contractor, Scarsella Brothers, broke ground on the project in 2020. In addition to restoring 5.5 acres of marsh and native riparian shoreline, the project adds gathering and seating areas for humans, public art, a habitat viewing platform and a hand-carried boat launch.

The port designed and is managing the project in-house. Scarsella is doing the work under a $6.51 million contract, according to DJC records.

Total project cost is about $27 million. Funding is mostly coming from the Environmental Remediation Liability fund. About $11 million is coming from an insurance settlement.

The area has been the subject of several environmental cleanups, including a cleanup in 2015 of the shoreline uplands and in-water sediment by the port, and a 2016 cleanup of toxic contamination in the surrounding neighborhood by the city of Seattle. Sediments at T-117 were cleaned up between 2013 and 2015.




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TUKWILA  The King County Department of Community and Human Services has awarded the Low Income Housing Institute a $2.3 million contract to fund two tiny house villages in Tukwila.

The villages are at Miracle Temple Church of God in Christ (11005 36th Ave. Ct E.) and Riverton Park United Methodist Church (3118 S. 140th St.)





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President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, right, shakes hands with Edwin Feulner, founder of U.S. think tank, the Heritage Foundation, during their meeting at Yoon's office in Seoul, Wednesday. Joint Press Corps



President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to South Korea will serve as a good opportunity to comprehensively strengthen the alliance between the two nations.



Yoon made the remark in his meeting with Edwin Feulner, founder of U.S. think tank The Heritage Foundation, at his office in Seoul.



"I believe it (Biden's visit) will be a good opportunity for the South Korea-U.S. alliance to be comprehensively reinforced," Yoon said.



Yoon and Biden are expected to hold their first summit in Seoul around May 20-22 before the U.S. president travels to Japan to attend a meeting of the Quad, a U.S.-led anti-China security partnership which also involves Australia, India and Japan.



Yoon's remark suggests he could discuss with Biden over ways to bolster the comprehensive strategic alliance of the allies.



Feulner said it is meaningful that Biden's first Asia trip can be South Korea and that his visit comes in the year that marks the 140th anniversary of South Korea-U.S. diplomatic relations.





President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, right, talks with World Economic Forum (WEF) Chairman Klaus Schwab during their meeting at Yoon's office in Seoul, Wednesday. They discussed Korea's and the WEF's role in leading the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Joint Press Corps
Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), speaks at the National Assembly main hall, Wednesday. He took the floor to initiate a filibuster to prevent the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's push to vote on the prosecutorial reform bill. Joint Press Corps



DPK pushes to pass prosecutorial reform bill by May 3



By Kang Hyun-kyung



Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), took the floor at the National Assembly, Wednesday, as the first PPP lawmaker to initiate a filibuster to prevent the passage of the Prosecutors' Office Bill, one of two bills designed to scrap the prosecution's power to investigate criminal cases.



Calling the prosecutorial reform the product of fraudulent political maneuvering by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Kweon blasted the ruling party for attempting to pass the controversial legislation.



"I wonder why the ruling party members have wasted time for the past five years when President Moon Jae-in has been in power and why they have to push it through, just like they are on a military operation when the sitting president's tenure is about to expire," the PPP floor leader said.



His speech continued for hours. He was there to speak and intentionally prolong the National Assembly session to block the passage of the DPK's initiative aimed at overhauling the prosecution.



In response, the ruling party relied on salami tactics.



The National Assembly session was initially scheduled to continue until May 3. But the DPK cut it short and one-day sessions will be held three times until May 3. The National Assembly session held on Wednesday was to end midnight that day.



Once a session is over, so is the man opposition party's filibuster. The DPK, which holds 171 seats out of the 300-member National Assembly, had already taken all measures to convene another one-day parliamentary session on Saturday. The first bill will be passed that day without legislative interference from the PPP as the National Assembly Law stipulates that once a session is over in the middle of a filibuster, inter-party discussion of the bill in question is considered to have ended. As a result, the bill can be tabled immediately for voting at the next National Assembly plenary session.



Once the first bill is approved, then the DPK will try to table the second bill, the revision of Criminal Procedure Law, for a vote at the National Assembly plenary session to be held on Saturday, immediately after the first bill is passed.



It is apparent that the PPP will try again to interfere with the passage of the second bill through the filibuster. Like Wednesday, their legislative interference won't stop the passage of the second bill, either, as the one-day session will end midnight. The DPK will table the second bill on May 3 at the new National Assembly session and push for a vote.



There is nothing the PPP can do to prevent the passage of the second bill, either.





Placards are set up in front of seats occupied by main opposition People Power Party lawmakers at the National Assembly, Wednesday. Those placards contain slogans protesting the prosecutorial reform bill being pushed by the ruling party. Joint Press Corps
A plan to offer financial support to Irish householders taking in Ukrainian refugees could be in operation in the coming weeks.

The Government is looking at offering 400 euro payments to householders who provide accommodation.

Department of Social Protection officials are assessing the out-workings of the plan.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said on Wednesday that there are almost 27,000 Ukrainians who have been issued with PPS numbers.

About 14,000 Ukrainians in Ireland are of working age.

Asked about the plan to pay households 400each month to host refugees, she said: This is something that government is considering and myself and (Childrens Minister) Roderic OGorman and (Public Expenditure) Minister Michael McGrath, and our officials are working up some options there.

We hope to bring a memo to government very shortly. We now have a Cabinet sub-committee set up specifically to deal with the Ukrainian crisis and well be feeding everything in through that.

I think itll be shortly, it will very soon.

She said her officials are working through the details of the proposed policy.

There are a number of issues we need to be clear on before we announce it, Ms Humphreys added.

We are looking at it but to be honest, keep it simple, thats the best way to administer any assistance.
Allies should thwart North's threat to use nukes



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has declared his resolve to ramp up his country's nuclear capabilities and use such weapons for other purposes beyond war deterrence. "Though the basic mission of the nuclear forces is to deter war, we must carry out the second mission if any forces attempt to infringe on the fundamental interests of the state," Kim was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Tuesday.



Kim made the statement during a huge military parade to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army (KPRA) Monday night. The event showcased tanks, ammunitions, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), in the North's apparent bid to beef up its internal solidarity and flex its military muscle to the outside world.



Worse still, Kim's remarks indicated the possible "first use" of nuclear weapons in a major shift of the North's military tactics, posing a threat that could heighten tension on the Korean Peninsula. They are in stark contrast to his expression of hopes for better ties with the South in a letter he sent to President Moon Jae-in last Thursday. Kim should realize that his threat of using nuclear arms is nothing but self-destructive behavior.



North Korea has been escalating its nuclear threats since the 8th Congress of the Workers' Party held in January 2021, during which Kim ordered the buildup of the nuclear arsenal including short-range and tactical nuclear missiles. Kim vowed to continue fully upgrading the nuclear arsenal at a fast speed, indicating the possibility of launching another ICBM and even a seventh nuclear test. Kim's remark came apparently in response to President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's reference to "preemptive attacks." Russia's threat of using nuclear weapons in its war with Ukraine seems to have also emboldened Kim to flaunt his nuclear arsenal.



In a timely and proper manner Tuesday, Yoon's transition committee pledged to beef up South Korea's alliance with the United States and tackle the North's threats by using the "three-axis system" consisting of air missile defense, preemptive strike and massive retaliation plans. It also vowed to develop state-of-the-art military technologies and an advanced weapons system.



The United States also said the North's nuclear and missile programs were a serious threat to regional and international security. "We will focus on reducing the threat to the U.S. and our allies, as well as improving the lives of the North and South Korean people," Marty Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.



It is high time for South Korea and the U.S. to cement their alliance to cope effectively with the growing threats from North Korea. We hope President-elect Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden will reconfirm the bilateral alliance and strengthen it further during their summit scheduled for next month. The two allies should double down on enhancing deterrence against the North.




"Someone described it before as two lads in a pub telling each other stories over pints, says Jason Brennan, stand up comedian and one of the presenters of An Irish History Podcast, coming to Dundalk Gaol on Friday 13 May. For the past few years, comedians Kevin Larney and Jason Brennan have been hosting their podcast, Sh*te Talk  An Irish History Podcast, to give it its full name, and are now travelling the country with their live show, retelling the local stories of the places they visit.

They describe it themselves as a somewhat accurate retelling of Irish history stories, where they give their best accounts of some of Ireland's silly, strange, and downright stupid tales from the past. The Dundalk Democrat spoke to Kevin and Jason ahead of their live show in Dundalk Gaol on Friday 13 May, where they will chat about the 1922 jailbreak led by Frank Aiken, for the 100 year anniversary of the event.

Kevin, from outside Dundalk, and Jason, from Carlow, met through the Irish comedy scene. We wanted to do a podcast because that seemed to be a way to get a bigger audience, says Kevin. There was a show  The Dollop, it was an American show  I was going to say they do the same thing as us  we ripped them off basically, he jokes. The two comics thought it would be a good idea to do an Irish version of what they're doing.

The two have spent quite a bit of time in and out of the country over the past few years and have even recorded a lot of episodes of the podcast through Skype or Zoom. When I was over in Texas, says Jason, I was listening to a lot of Irish centric podcasts, like the Irishman Abroad, or just listening to friendly familiar voices, even if I don't know them.

You end up realising there's not too much stuff around Irish history. A lot of it is just conversations between people. I don't know how many people want to listen to two young comedians talk about what's going on in the news or politics or anything, it [history storytelling] was an easier route to go down.

They certainly have an impressive body of work built up over the past few years. A visit to their site, https://shitetalkhistory.libsyn.com/ reveals a trove of over 100 stories covering everything from the local myth to stories of national and even some international events,

The first one was the Boston Strongboy, about Jack L Sullivan, says Jason. If you ever see, you know, that photo of the boxer like that, he says, striking a boxer pose. That's a son of two Irish immigrants over in Boston, and he became a heavy weight champion, and the last bare knuckle heavy weight champion ever and actually the first ever Marquis of Queensbury rules champion. We just did him because he was on the back of a bottle of whiskey.

I think the longest one we did, says Kevin, we ended up doing a series on the 1690 Battle of the Boyne, that was about five or six parts. That was during lockdown where we were like, let's just do this. So that's an in depth history one. And last week we were in Mullingar and we did the life of Joe Dolan, he adds. So its anything in between those two, says Jason. I think the only criteria was that there had to be an Irish man, woman or child there somewhere, Kevin adds.

We have the diaspora of Irish people, explains Jason, and the second and third generations around the world, there are so many interesting stories there, that we're like, 'ah I want to do that person', 'we have to cover this'. I know they might be second or third generation, they might not even associate themselves with Ireland but if its a good story... The motivation to tell a good story rather than trying to teach people their history certainly seems to be the priority for both the podcast and the live show. Someone described it before as two lads in a pub telling each other stories over pints, says Jason, yeah, if we could just keep it like that.

The story of what happened here is fascinating, says Kevin, referring to the prison escape in 1922, where members of the 4th Northern Division, under divisional leader, Frank Aiken, detonated explosives and a hole was blown in the wall on the Ardee Road side of the prison, with 105 men escaping. "But maybe people are a bit put off by its a 100 years ago, or think maybe you need to know all the moving parts. We came at it from such a  I won't say an uneducated - we came at it from the ground up, we didn't know anything about it, or very little, so you're doing all the bits and you're kind of explaining it in a way that, anyone can go in there, on 13 May, and walk away with 'I understand what the story was and its fascinating'.

Its not that its important in a historical sense  it is important in a historical sense but its not just like that  it's jailbreaks! A lad blowing a hole in a wall! It's a movie worthy story, it's a really interesting story and it also happened  here, 100 years ago. And it's of historical significance. So its not just telling stories of old battles, just because of what happened afterwards, what impact they had on the country, just interesting stories to hear.

I guess its there for the listeners to go and do more research themselves if they want, adds Jason, realistically most episodes [of the podcast] are going to be about an hour and a half to two hours  some of the events in this country you could spend a week talking about.

Doors open at 8pm on Friday 13 May at the Oriel Centre in Dundalk Gaol, with the show starting at 8.30pm. Tickets are 12 and can be booked through the Oriel Centre website or directly on eventbrite here. You can also go to shitetalkhistory.libsyn.com/ to follow the podcast and find out about other upcoming shows.
Day two of the Punchestown Festival continues on Wednesday afternoon with an excellent eight-race card. The action gets underway at 3.40pm and concludes at 7.45pm.

The ground at the track is currently Good to Yielding and there is watering taking place at the track. The forecast is for scattered showers. We have previewed the action with our race by race guide and you can find the more tips at www.Irishracing.com

3.40pm Handicap Hurdle (2m 3f)

Life In The Park was a facile winner at Tramore and an opening mark of 119 looks fair. He has to be on the shortlist, along with Dads Lad who disappointed on his last two starts, but is a danger on the pick of his best form.

Selection: Life In The Park

4.15pm Hurdle Final (2m 3f)

An ultra-competitie event. I A Connect is a dual winner already this term and is respected off top-weight. However, preference is for Glengouly. A dual winner at Gowran Park and Leopardstown this season, there could be more to come going forward.

Selection: Glengouly

4.45pm Hurdle (2m 3f)

Classic Getaway is a potential danger having scored in good style at Punchestown in January. However, he did disappoint when pulled-up at Cheltenham in March. Nicky Henderson saddles Fils Doudairies who is respected following a good second at the track in Aintree. Ganapathi also merits inclusion, but this demands more following a third at Cork last time out. Gibraltar is another interesting contender following a second at Cork and looks open to more progress.

Selection: Gibraltar

5.20pm Grade One Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle (3m)

The Nice Guy is unbeaten in four starts and plundered the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle in fine style at the Cheltenham Festival, defeating Minella Cocooner in the process. Minella Crooner missed that race through injury, but does look a fascinating runner here having previously finished second to Minella Cocooner in Grade One company. Grade Two winner Bronn is another who commands respect. However, Journey With Me could relish the step up to three miles and can be forgiven when falling on testing ground in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival last time.

Selection: Journey With Me

5.55pm Grade One Punchestown Gold Cup (3m)

Allaho heads the market for this event and he was brilliant when successful for the second time running in the Ryanair Chase. However, he is yet to win in two starts over three miles and that has to be a slight concern. Clan Des Obeaux is the defending champion in the race and is clearly a leading player having won the Aintree Bowl. Fakir Doudairies also brings winning Grade One form having scored at Aintree last time out. Other contenders include this years Cheltenham Gold Cup second Minella Indo, fourth Galvin and the sixth Al Boum Photo. Galvin is interesting in this event given his winning course and distance form and he is taken to return to winning ways here.

Selection: Galvin

6.30pm Bumper (2m)

Facile Vega, the brilliant son of Quevega, puts his unbeaten record on the line here. He was simply awesome when powering to victory in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival and it is hard not to see the five-year-old retaining his unbeaten record here. American Mike was second in the Champion Bumper, but is respected along with Seabank Bistro who was fourth in the contest and Redemption Day who disappointed, but is capable of more progression.

7.05pm Handicap Chase (2m 5f)

Willie Mullins looks to hold a strong hand and preference is for Ciel De Neige. He has run a number of excellent races this term and was narrowly denied in Grade Three company last time out. Royal Rendezvous has also run a number of good races this season and can give his stablemate the most to think about.

Selection: Ciel De Neige

7.45pm Mares Bumper (2m)

Dorans Weir was a winner in Listed company at Fairyhouse in April and should go close here. She defeated Pink In The Park and they face off again here. However, preference is for Lily Du Berlais. The six-year-old is unbeaten in two starts and showed brilliant battling qualities when successful at Leopardstown in February. She is open to so much more progression and is taken to score here.

Selection: Lily Du Berlais
Ukrainians living in Dundalk are not able to travel to the North for sight-seeing or shopping unless they have a visa, Sinn Fein TD Ruairi O Murchu said.

The Dundalk deputy said he had the issue highlighted last week after a constituent, who is looking after Ukrainian refugees in her home, contacted him for advice.

Ukrainians who have come to the State following the outbreak of the war have been granted "temporary protection" but this does not cover them for travel into the North, Deputy O Murchu said.

He said: "When I was contacted by a constituent who was looking after Ukrainian refugees and who asked about taking them to the North for shopping and sight-seeing, I looked into the matter.

"Unfortunately, the Common Travel Area, which allows people who live on both sides of the border to travel freely between the two jurisdictions, does not apply to those who are under temporary protection.

"Ukrainians, and those looking after them, may think that they can travel into the North, to Newry or Belfast, but they run the risk of being detained if they do not have the correct visa."

He said that Ukrainians living in the South are able to apply for visas through the British government, but biometrics are required and each visa will cost 100.

Deputy O Murchu said: "Yet again, we see the effects of partition and how it impacts on peoples lives in so many ways.

"This has been amplified and complicated by Brexit, of course, and the British governments anti-immigration stance.

"We have seen in recent days the British governments continued push of the Nationality and Borders Bill through the Houses of Parliament, while also the threat of legislation to undermine the Irish Protocol, and tourism organisations here have rightly pointed out the massive damage that could be done".
Ten talented apprentices, including David Andrews from Louth, are going head-to-head in the national final of Screwfix Trade Apprentice 2022.

The aspiring plumber will be aiming to impress a panel of industry experts across a two-day virtual final today and tomorrow, April 27th and 28th.

The competition aims to shine a light on apprentices across the UK and Ireland, in search of the winning champion who receives a 10,000 package of tools, technology, and training.

David, 22, loves a challenge and thinks he could go all the way to the top spot. He hopes to stand out by demonstrating his dedication towards training new apprentices.

He said: When I entered the competition, I really hoped Id get to the final, but I cant believe I have done it! I can now hopefully one day pursue my dream of becoming a successful business owner and travel the world.

Ive been studying my apprenticeship for four years at LMETB Training Centre, Dundalk and working at Castle Plumbing and Heating.

"To get the recognition and be crowned the champion of Screwfix Trade Apprentice 2022 would be unreal on both a personal and a professional level.

"It would be an honour and would allow me to further champion apprenticeships within the trade. The amazing prize would also help me to get a head start in the future.

David was shortlisted as his desire to go the extra mile, start his own business, and expand his network of contacts shone through in the semi-finals and reflected his passion for the industry.

During the final, the apprentices will get the opportunity to share their expertise and ambitions with a panel of industry-leading judges.

The panel includes representatives from the Federation of Master Builders, the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering, the National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting and Dan Lloyd, a previous Screwfix Top Tradesperson winner.

Jack Wallace, marketing director at Screwfix, will also be joining the panel to meet the finalists and celebrate their success.

He said: Our applicants have shown a huge level of skill, ambition, and determination to succeed no matter what life throws at them.

"This year we have been overwhelmed by the standard of entries across the UK and Ireland - it's clear to see that the future of the industry is in safe hands.
The impact of Brexit has led a lot of people to consider the question of whether Northern Ireland should remain within the UK, Michelle ONeill has said.

The Sinn Fein vice president accused the Conservative Party and the DUP of causing chaos in Northern Ireland, but stressed that any decision on Irish unity would be for the people.

In an interview ahead of the Stormont Assembly elections, Ms ONeill also insisted that a new Executive should be formed immediately after next weeks poll.

During the election campaign, the DUP has repeatedly claimed that Sinn Fein would be emboldened to push for an Irish unity referendum if the republican party emerges with the most MLAs.

While Sinn Fein has concentrated on the cost-of-living and health service crises during its election events, Ms ONeill insisted that it was not hiding its desire for Irish unity.

She said: We are an Irish republican party, so we do believe in Irish unity. It is what we voted for the Good Friday Agreement for, it is an integral part of the Good Friday Agreement.

But it will only be the public that will ever change the constitutional question here. They will have their say in time on that question and I look forward to the day when we are having that conversation around constitutional change.

But I am not one-dimensional, I can think of more than one thing at a time. So I think I can articulate the view of constitutional change, try to convince the public and also work in the Assembly and Executive with others.

Ms ONeill added: There has been seismic change in society, particularly in the aftermath of Brexit, something that we didnt vote for, but which has been foisted upon us.

So I think a lot of people are now considering the constitutional position because Brexit has pulled us out of the EU, stolen our EU citizenship from us.

I think a lot of people are now thinking about where do they want to be in the future, where do they see themselves, do they value their European citizenship?

And the EU have said that in the event of a successful unity referendum that the whole of the country would be back within the EU, so I think that is a big question for a lot of people to ponder on and I think they are actively pondering on it.

I am certainly talking to people who are thinking about the future.

Ms ONeill insisted that the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol, which is bitterly opposed by unionist parties, must be protected.

She said that the new trading arrangements were a result of Brexit, which her party had opposed.

She said: We wouldnt be in the position we are today if it wasnt for the Tories and the DUP.

They collectively delivered us the hardest possible Brexit; we sought to achieve some mitigation against that.

That is the protocol which we wouldnt have if we didnt have Brexit.

So the DUP and the Tories have to shoulder responsibility for where we are today.

This was always about an English agenda, an English nationalist agenda, and it was never in our interests here.

We have to fight very hard for the protocol because that does give us some protection.

The British Government have created chaos along with the DUP, created chaos, instability, uncertainty.

Our local businesses cant plan for the future, they cant avail of the opportunities that the protocol presents because of the approach of the DUP and the Tories.

People have had enough of that.

The DUP collapsed the Stormont powersharing Executive earlier this year in protest at the protocol and have stated that they will not re-enter government after next weeks elections unless Westminster removes the so-called Irish Sea border.

Ms ONeill said the DUP tactics were madness.

She said: The DUP are fighting the election with a five point plan.

You cant deliver that plan unless you are in an Executive.

So it is madness to tell the public that you dont know what you will do the other side of the election whenever you are out telling them you are going to fix the health service and you are going to invest in X, Y and Z.

I dont think that washes with the public and I think it is intolerable to even conceive that someone wouldnt go into the Executive whenever the public are struggling with the cost-of-living rises and the public know their health service need major investment.

The rest of us will turn up on day one, I encourage the DUP to do likewise.

A series of opinion polls have predicted that Sinn Fein is on course to emerge from the election with the most seats, which would entitle the party to nominate for the first time for the position of first minister.

Sinn Fein is running 34 candidates in the election, more than any other party, but Ms ONeill refused to be drawn on how many seats she believed the party could win.

She said: We are seeking the largest possible mandate that we can.

The more votes we have, the more departments we have. I am very proud of the track record of the Sinn Fein ministers in Government, we want to do more of that.

The more departments we have, the more impact we can have.
LG Display's production base in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province / Courtesy of LG Display





LG Display said Wednesday its first-quarter net income fell nearly 80 percent from a year ago, driven by lower demand for IT products and falling TV panel prices.







Its net for the three months ending in March came to 54.3 billion won ($43 million), down 79.6 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.







LG Display posted 38.3 billion won in operating profit for the January to March period, compared with 523.4 billion won a year ago. Sales fell 6 percent to 6.47 trillion won.







The operating profit was 62.5 percent lower than the average estimate among analysts surveyed by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.







The company blamed the poor performance in the quarter on the traditionally low season for IT products, coupled with difficulties in securing parts and delivering set products, especially amid the prolonged lockdowns in China.







Prices of 55-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) panels for TVs have fallen about 47 percent from August last year.







The LCD panel business takes up around 60 percent of its total sales, while organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels account for around 30 percent.







But the company said it expected its profitability to begin improving in the second quarter with the increased adoption of its newest OLED TV technology, OLED.EX.







The company, the world's sole supplier of large OLED panels for TVs, said the new panels can deliver better picture quality by enhancing brightness up to 30 percent compared with conventional OLED displays.







"While overall demand is declining, there is a chance for us to grow further in the high-end TV market," the company said in the statement, adding it will continue to focus on its OLED business. (Yonhap)






 

EBRD boosts trade finance support for Ukraine by 100 million

Part of increase focuses on food security, helping avert global food crisis

Support is part of 1 billion EBRD activity in Ukraine this year, with donors and partners

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is substantially increasing its trade finance offer for Ukraine to support both general trade and food security as the country grapples with keeping its economy working following its invasion by Russia.

These measures are part of 1 billion of activity that the EBRD intends to undertake this year in Ukraine, in cooperation with donors and other partners.

The latest increase raises to 330 million the envelope for Ukraine under the EBRDs Trade Facilitation Programme, a rise of over 40 per cent since the war on Ukraine began on 24 February. Because this is a revolving facility, the facility will support at least 500 million of export and import transactions by Ukrainian companies via ten EBRD partner banks, on an annual basis.

Part of the increase is focused on food security, helping avert a global food crisis in the autumn and next year, with the EBRD deploying its strength across its agribusiness work. As well as the trade finance increase, a dedicated food security package is currently being finalised.

The war has disrupted Ukraines entire supply chain, closing import-export routes via the countrys southern coast and to the north and east by land, and making it difficult for businesses to function normally, for farmers to plan crop financing, and for food retailers to keep shop shelves stocked. Nevertheless, an estimated 60-70 per cent of Ukraines economy is functioning and quickly adjusting to operating in a war, and it is essential to maintain the flow of working capital financing through the banking system.

The EBRD is helping to provide such financing by adding its investment-grade guarantee to trade finance instruments issued by Ukrainian partner banks under the export-import contracts of their clients.

To address urgent needs resulting from the war, the EBRD is prioritising five areas within the Ukrainian economy: trade finance, energy security, vital infrastructure, food security (covering provision of liquidity to farmers via banks for the spring sowing campaign as well as to agribusiness companies and food retailers) and providing liquidity to pharmaceutical companies. Investments in all areas will involve risk-sharing with partners.

The EBRD was swift to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February and pledged to stand by Ukraine. In early April, the EBRDs Board of Governors voted to suspend open-endedly the access of Russia and Belarus to EBRD finance and expertise, and the Bank is closing its offices in Russia and Belarus.

As well as a resilience package for Ukraine and neighbouring countries affected by the war, the EBRD has pledged to help finance Ukraines reconstruction once conditions permit.
EBRD Vice President for Policy and Partnerships to visit North Macedonia on 28 and 29 April

Meetings with government, businesses and the private sector

Latest EBRD investments support renewables and electricity grid

The EBRD Vice President for Policy and Partnership, Mark Bowman, is to visit North Macedonia on the 28 and 29 April. He will meet the Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, government, and private sector banks and investors.

Together with EBRD Managing Director for Financial Institutions Francis Malige, Mark Bowman will participate at the conference dedicated to central banks, organised by the National Bank of North Macedonia and the European Investment Bank (EIB). He will also meet the Vice President of the EIB.

The EBRD is a major institutional investor in North Macedonia. To date, it has invested more than 2.2 billion in 159 projects across the country. Supporting green energy is a priority for the Bank, as it addresses one of the countrys most pressing challenges: decarbonisation of its economy.

With that goal in mind, the Bank has made a number of investments in the electricity grid and new energy sources, making the country less dependent on imported sources of fuel and more resilient.

The latest project to come on-stream is a 10 MW solar PV plant on the site of an old coal mine in Oslomej. It was financed by the EBRD, EU and other international donors, and will be followed by other solar power plants in the area and a 30 MW solar PV plant in Bitola.

The EBRD and EU are helping to strengthen the electricity grid and connect it to other regional grids. In Orhid, a new power substation is being built with EBRD and EU financing. Via the new interconnector, the grid of North Macedonia will have a more modern and reliable connection to Albania, and through Albania with Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Italy. The project is a final stage of the EUs initiative to establish an east-west electricity transmission corridor between these countries.

To improve the resilience of the private and financial sectors, new guidelines for companies to report on their environmental, social and governance performance have been developed with EBRD support and published by the Macedonian Stock Exchange in February.

Some of the investment projects in the country currently being considered are: constructing a section of a major European road network (a 4-lane motorway from Skopje to the border with Kosovo), improving solid waste management across the country, and a number of energy efficiency credit lines to local banks to be on-lent to local small and medium-sized enterprises. EBRD loans will be supplemented by grants from the EU, the Swiss government and other international donors.

Read about the upcoming investment projects in North Macedonia here.
Starbucks Korea CEO Song Ho-seop, third from right, poses for a picture with officials from The Patriot Maeheon Yun Bong-Gil Memorial Association and Woljin Association for Yun Bong-Gil, after donating 20 million won to charity, at the Patriot Yun Bong-Gil Memorial in Seoul, on April 26. Courtesy of Starbucks Korea



By Kim Jae-heun



Starbucks Korea has donated 20 million won ($15,834) and 1,932 tumblers to The Patriot Maeheon Yun Bong-Gil Memorial Association and Woljin Association for Yun Bong-Gil to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Yun Bong-gil's struggle for independence from Japanese colonialism, which culminated in him throwing a bomb that killed and injured several Japanese officials in Shanghai, the company said Wednesday.



Yun was a Korean independence activist who threw a bomb that killed several Japanese colonial officials at an event organized by the Imperial Japanese Army in Shanghai's Hongkew Park in 1932. Yun was posthumously awarded the Republic of Korea Cordon of the Order of Merit for National Foundation in 1962.



Yun died in 1932 so Starbucks Korea made 1,932 tumblers to commemorate his sacrifice printed with a phrase he wrote that reads, "a man who leaves home will not return alive"  in other words, independence fighters should be willing to lay down their own lives for liberation from colonialism.



"I hope this charity event will serve as an opportunity for many people, including Starbucks customers, to remember patriot Yun's dedication to Korea's independence. We will continue to contribute to the descendants of independence fighters and to preserve modern cultural relics," Starbucks Korea CEO Song Ho-seop said.



In 2009, Starbucks Korea signed an agreement with the Cultural Heritage Administration to support the preservation of Korean traditional culture, sponsor the restoration of the Old Korean Legation in Washington, D.C., make donations for independent cultural heritage and offer scholarships for college students.



Starting with the Seokjojeon Hall of Deoksugung Palace in January, Starbucks Korea has joined the "2022 Cultural Heritage Protector" activities with its partners to organize charity events around the country. So far, the company has visited Dongchundang in Daejeon, Hwaseong in Suwon, the Incheon Hyanggyo provincial school, Geumjeongsangseong Fortress in Busan, Muyangseowon Confucian Academy in Gwangju and Gyeongsang Gamyeong Park in Daegu to conduct volunteer cleaning activities of cultural heritage assets in different regions.


New funds to finance construction work on two sections

EU funds to finance construction work on two motorway sections

Support for Corridor Vc totals 850 million in EBRD finance and 223 million in EU grants

Corridor Vc to bring Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to the EU

The European Union (EU) is stepping up its support for Corridor Vc, the key transport infrastructure project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with additional grant funding of 45.2 million.

The funds will go towards ongoing construction work on two motorway sections financed with loans by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD): 36 million to the Poprikuse-Nemila section (financed with a 70 million EBRD loan and a 90 million European Investment Bank (EIB) loan) and 9.2 million to the Ivan Tunnel (financed with a 50 million EBRD loan).

Corridor Vc is a pan-European transport project. The section in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is 325 kilometres long, will cross the country from north to south, eventually connecting the Adriatic port of Ploce in Croatia with the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

The motorway, which will bring Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to the EU, is primarily co-financed by loans from the EBRD and European Investment Bank (EIB) and grant resources form the EU. To date, the EBRD has provided the project with loans worth 850 million from its own resources, while investment and technical assistance grants extended by the EU have totalled more than 223 million (for EBRD financed sections).

The signing of the grant agreements today was attended by representatives of the EBRD, the EU and the Minister of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vjekoslav Bevanda.

Manuela Naessl, EBRD Head of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said: Together with our European partners, we are pleased to continue to support Bosnia and Herzegovina in building modern transport infrastructure, which will connect it more closely to the people and trading partners of the EU.

Head of the EU Delegation and EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Ambassador Johann Sattler said: Corridor Vc is one of the flagship projects in the Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans designed to encourage long-term economic recovery, sustainable growth and jobs, and economic integration in the region. BiH needs to further accelerate works on Corridor Vc. To that end the European Union is granting more than half a billion euros through the WBIF to facilitate its completion.

Minister of Finance and Treasury Vjekoslav Bevanda said: Today's signing of these two contracts provided about 45 million euros in grants, which is of immeasurable importance in total investments in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project grants are provided by the European Union and the EBRD will manage the grants. On behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I would like to thank Ambassador Sattler for this great and important EU financial support.

The grant funds have been secured through the EU-supported Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF), which aims to improve the regions connectivity by building new transport links and upgrading outdated transport and environmental infrastructure. Other co-financiers of Corridor Vc include the Opec Fund for International Development (OFID) and the Kuwait Fund.

The development of Corridor Vc is a strategic priority for Bosnia and Herzegovina and is expected to contribute to faster economic and social development.
TELL us about yourself;

I am a bilingual writer whose first collection of poetry, Tonn Chliodhna, was published by Coisceim in 2015, followed by Eala Oiche in 2019.

I have won Duais Fhoras na Gaeilge (Listowel Writers Week) twice.

My poems in Irish and English have been published in literary journals including Cyphers, Cork Words 2, The Cormorant, The Honest Ulsterman, Southword and Comhar. I was awarded an Arts Council Literature Bursary (Irish) in 2021.

My poetry is inspired by the natural world, memories, relationships and folklore.

My poem Teorainn Nua / New Boundary is included in The Poetry in the Park |Poetry Day Ireland organised by Patricia Looney and Cork City Libraries.

Where do you live?

I live in St Lukes. Its a vibrant part of the city. We have wonderful neighbours. The trees on our road turn a beautiful gold in autumn.

And in spring the new leaves remind me of the Robert Frost line: Natures first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold.

Family

My husband Jay and our daughter Rosa, 15. Our son Liam (2005-2012) is always in our hearts.

Best friend?

Without a doubt my best friend is Jay. Im also lucky to have great friends.

Earliest childhood memory?

Being in a pram and hearing the sound of the sea.

Person you most admire?

The Holocaust survivor Edith Eger. Her courage and positivity inspire me.

Person who most irritates you?

Anyone who is cruel to people or animals. I find any form of cruelty hard to take.

And of course Putin. But hes in a category all of his own.

Who would you like to see as Minister for Finance and why?

Someone who believes in a fair and equitable society.

Someone who takes the climate crisis seriously.

Where was your most memorable holiday?

Sicily and New York.

Favourite TV programme?

Schitts Creek and The Handmaids Tale. Recently Ive also enjoyed An Costa Thiar on TG4.

Favourite radio show?

Marty in the Morning, Lyric FM, The John Creedon Show, RTE Radio 1, An Saol o Dheas and An Cuinne Dana, Radio na Gaeltachta.

Your signature dish if cooking?

Caramelised onion and goats cheese tarlets with some pan-fried purple-sprouting broccoli on the side.

Favourite restaurant?

Cafe Paradiso - Im lucky to be a vegetarian in Cork.

Last book you read?

My Cousin Rachel, By Daphne Du Maurier. Inni, a short story collection in Irish by Realtan Ni Leannain.

Her stories are timeless, heart-wrenching and unforgettable.

Ive just finished Victoria Kenneficks superb poetry collection Eat Or We Both Starve.

Best book you read?

Ive read so many great books. Thats a tough call, but these are three I keep going back to.

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, Scothscealta, by Padraic o Conaire, The Stairwell, by Michael Longley.

Last album/CD/download you bought?

Muireann Nic Amhlaoidh and The Irish Chamber Orchestras Roisin Reimagined. A wonderful journey through music and song.

Favourite song?

An Mhaighdean Mhara by Altan Marble Halls by Enya.

One person you would like to see in concert?

Go back in time and see Ella Fitzgerald at the Cork Jazz Festival

Do you have a pet?

We have two dogs: Bella the basset and Maddie the cocker spaniel.

They are my constant companions and my two bookends when Im writing.

Morning person or night owl?

I love the energy of the early morning and the bird song.

Your proudest moment?

The publication of my first poetry book.

Spendthrift or saver?

I spend and save in moderation. My tastes are simple.

Name one thing you would improve in your area in which you live?

Everyone should pick up after their dogs, and we always need more trees.

What makes you happy?

Reading and writing. Music and the Irish language. Being at home with Jay, Rosa and the dogs.

How would you like to be remembered?

As someone who was kind to others and true to herself and her craft.

What else are you up to at the moment?

Im completing my third collection of poetry in Irish and working on a few other writing projects.

I have new poems forthcoming in The Waxed Lemon and The Ogham Stone.

Two of my English poems were highly commended in this years Desmond OGrady International Poetry Competition.

MORE ABOUT POETRY DAY

Poetry Day Ireland 2022 takes place tomorrow, Thursday, April 28. This years theme is Written in the Stars. Among the events running in Cork are:

Poetry in the Park, presented by Cork City Council Libraries, all day. Poetry will be recited by established and award winning poets, as well as emerging poets, at parks including Clogheenmilcon Walkway, Gerry OSullivan Park, The Marina, Fitzgeralds Park, Tramore Valley Park and Ballincollig Regional Park. The programme brings poetry to people in their everyday lives, creating a sense of community, awareness and celebration of the vibrant literary life of Cork City.

Written in the Stars, presented by West Cork Literary Society tomorrow at 7.30pm in MacCarthys Bar, The Square, Castletownbere. Writers are invited to share and discuss poems of their own that reflect this years theme.

Painting Poetry Exhibition, by poet and artist Steph Sheahan, tomorrow, from 6.30pm to 9pm, 4 Tuckey Street, Cork City. A colourful showcase and graphic interpretation of a collection of Stephs poetry through painting.

Open Mic presented by 49, North Street, Skibbereen, tomorrow, 11am - 1pm. There will be a 10-card Menu of Poems to take home. Rita Ann Higgins (formerly the Peoples Pandemic Poet Laureate) curated the poems. Imelda May and others have made recordings of the poems, which will be featured at the event. A very special guest is Pol OColmain, poet and musician extraordinaire of the Working Artist Studios in Ballydehob.

Cork County Library also hosts events. Newmarket Librarian, Peter Keating, reads a selection of original poetry alongside works by other authors in Newmarket Library, today, Wednesday, while members of Mallow Librarys Creative Writing and Poetry Groups present poetry readings tomorrow, from 3pm-4.30pm.

See www.poetryday.ie for further information.
A company has been selected to ensure Dursey Island residents will have access to a temporary ferry service in the coming days.

In February, Cork County Council announced plans to carry out essential works to the Dursey cable car, which will result in the temporary closure of the service for several months. The cable car, which connects Dursey Island to the mainland in Beara, is the main form of transport for residents and landowners. A solution was required during the closure, particularly as there are farmers who have livestock to look after on the uninhabited island.

Fianna Fail TD for Cork South West Christopher OSullivan said the company should be ready by the middle of next week.

A service provider has been selected and contracts are expected to be sorted pending some final details and checks from Marine Safety Office. All going smoothly we should be good to go by the middle of next week, he said.

Mr OSullivan said the service will be a lifeline for farmers and residents. The tender will mean an average of three days service per week, which is not perfect but its certainly better than no service at all.

Frustration

Dursey Island farmer Joseph Sullivan said the whole situation has been very frustrating.

It is welcome news and realistically it is better than nothing. We would prefer a daily service, but we will have to take what is there now.

"The whole thing was communicated very poorly. It was just landed on us that they were going to be taking away our service and you will be fending for yourself, he said.

Independent TD for Cork South West Michael Collins Michael Collins criticised the Department of Rural and Community Development for not providing a seven-day ferry service.

It was expected that a full seven-day ferry service was the least the people of Dursey Island and the Beara Peninsula deserved, not scraps off the rich mans table.
A MOVING ceremony to mark the 36th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster took place in Cork city earlier this week.

The ceremony, organised by the Greater Chernobyl Cause, took place in Bishop Lucey Park to commemorate the worst nuclear disaster the world has ever experienced.

Fianna Fail councillor, Fergal Dennehy deputised for the Lord Mayor at the event which was also attended by other Cork city councillors, clergy members, Ukrainian nationals and Corkonians.

The Chernobyl commemorative service featured music, poetry and prayer and the Ukrainian national anthem was performed by children from Goggins Hill National School.

A moving ceremony to mark the 36th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster took place in Cork city. Picture: Mary O'Connor

Speaking to The Echo, Cllr Fergal Dennehy said he was particularly moved by this aspect of the commemorative event which took place against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

It was special to see the children here today because I was a child back in 1986 when the initial disaster happened and its like history is repeating itself only back then reactor number four was an accident, today it is deliberate. It is callous, it is murder, dressed up as war, he said.

In an address to the assembled crowd at yesterdays event, Green Party councillor Dan Boyle said the ongoing war in Ukraine could result in another such nuclear disaster and that every effort must be made to put a stop to it.

It just takes one stray weapon to fall on the wrong location, to hit the wrong facility to bring about another Chernobyl.

Not only are the Ukrainian people living with a crisis in relation to their own state of being, their own right to existence, their own right to live, because of the containment in Chernobyl itself, because of other nuclear stations, we are all threatened by what might happen and the emergence of a new Chernobyl.

The ceremony, organised by the Greater Chernobyl Cause, took place in Bishop Lucey Park to commemorate the worst nuclear disaster the world has ever experienced. Picture: Mary O'Connor

It gives us pause for thought but it also gives us an added willingness to make sure that the situation that pertains is something that we must make every effort to bring to an end, he said.

Meanwhile, Barbara Deasy, a teacher at Goggins Hill National School and a volunteer with the Greater Chernobyl Cause for 25 years, described the looming threat of a nuclear war as devastating.

Thirty-six years on, Ms Deasy said millions of people are still grappling with the effects of radiation and the ramifications of the disaster are still unfolding.

Greater Chernobyl Cause has worked in Ukraine for more than 25 years, assisting the poor and the ill, funding the construction of orphanages, care centres and hospices.

The charity continues to send aid to Ukraine with the next shipment going out on Thursday in coordination with the Cork Life Centre.
Tom Tuite

A German man has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting two young girls shopping in Dublin's Ikea furniture superstore with their families.

Christian Mayer (47), with an address at Johannes Strasse in Nuremberg, Germany, was extradited in January to be charged but had been granted bail at Dublin District Court.

The IT professional was accused of sexual assault on a girl on a date in August 2019 and sexually assaulting another young girl five days later at Ikea on St Margarets Road, Dublin 11.

They were aged 13 and 10.

Mr Mayer, who previously lived at Shanowen Road, Santry, Dublin, also faces two counts under section 45 of the 2017 Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act. These charges are for engaging in offensive conduct of a sexual nature.

The case resumed on Wednesday for him to indicate a plea, but he did not have to attend. His barrister John Griffin said there was a not guilty plea.

Judge Treasa Kelly noted he was contesting the charges, there were two child complainants, CCTV evidence and that the case will take a full day.

She ordered that it would be listed for mention in June for the date for the non-jury hearing to be allocated.

Earlier, Judge Kelly noted the Director of Public Prosecutions directed summary disposal in the district court, not in a trial in the circuit court, which has broader sentencing powers.

Allegations

Outlining the allegations, Garda Stephen Donnelly told Judge Kelly the mother of the 13-year-old contacted garda to report "her daughter had been sexually assaulted by a man that had grabbed and squeezed her breast area".

The second girl was allegedly touched in her breast area five days later.

Both kids were in the Ikea store with their parents shopping at the time, said Garda Donnelly.

The court heard the alleged touching was on the outside of their clothing.

Jurisdiction was accepted.

A security officer alerted gardai after the accused purportedly returned to the shop on November 16th, 2019.

He was arrested and detained for questioning that day.

Counsel John Griffin said there was substantial disclosure of prosecution evidence.

A previous bail hearing was told the accused had lived in Dublin for several years and worked in a city-centre firm.

The court set 15,000 bail.

He had to surrender his passport and not apply for any travel documentation to enable him to leave the EU. He provided gardai with a phone number and must remain contactable.
I CANT imagine how I would have coped if it wasnt for Bru Columbanus.

So says the mother of 14-month-old Robbie, who was born two and a half months prematurely.

Lisa OCallaghan and her husband Dan live in Clonakilty so being able to avail of the home from home close to Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) was a lifesaver.

Now, in gratitude for the facility where she stayed for six weeks after Robbies birth, Lisa has contributed to Not Just A Cookbook, which features heart-warming stories from families who have stayed in Bru Columbanus as well as from volunteers with their favourite recipes included in the book.

Bru Columbanus provides accommodation for the relatives of seriously ill patients in Cork hospitals and the hospice, especially parents of sick children. It has 26 en-suite family rooms with kitchens and lounges. Since the facility opened in October, 2005, it has accommodated over 9,500 families.

A bedroom at Bru Columbanus in Wilton, Cork

Bru Columbanus depends on donations and fund-raising initiatives to cover the running costs of the house.

Lisa recalls how, in level 5 lockdown, her waters broke at 25 weeks.

I was admitted to hospital and was there for five weeks before Robbie was born.

"Up until that point, there were no issues with the pregnancy. It was hard going because once I went into A&E at CUMH, I wasnt able to tell my husband what was going on, due to the restrictions.

While in the ante-natal ward, Lisa was monitored closely, with scans carried out every second day. At 30 weeks, she started to feel tightening one night so called the midwife.

I was taken down to the high dependency unit. It was thought Robbie might be on his way. I was having contractions which werent really progressing.

But the next morning, my infection marks were up so they said it would be safer for Robbie to be born. This was at 30 weeks and three days.

I had him naturally but they had to bring on the contractions with oxytocin. The labour was very quick because Robbie was so small. He got stuck in my pelvis on the way out so he was all bruised because of that. I was close to having a C-section.

Robbie was born weighing just 1.14kg (2lbs 8oz). A full team presented itself to Lisa.

There were consultants, doctors and nurses from the neo-natal unit.

"Robbie was taken away so that all the checks could be made on him.

"They tried to intubate him but he fought it off. So they gave him oxygen but he only needed that for a few hours. He was put in ICU A in the neo-natal unit.

Not Just a Cookbook, which is being sold to raise funds for Bru Columbanus. All the contributors have used the service.

Five hours after Robbie was born, Lisa and Dan were allowed to see him.

He was small even for his early gestation. There were two issues; one was the premature rupture of the membranes (the waters breaking). Also, there was intrauterine restricted growth which meant Robbie was very small.

At the hospital, a nurse advised Lisa to apply to stay in Bru Columbanus.

I got a room straight away. Leaving the hospital after five weeks in full lockdown meant that I was quite institutionalised.

"I had heard of Bru Columbanus before but you never expect to need to use it.

Robbie was in the neo-natal unit for six weeks. Lisa expressed breast milk every three hours.

I was back and forth to the hospital a lot. My days were very structured. I would take milk across to the hospital, stay for a while with the baby, get some lunch and go back to Bru where Id maybe get some rest. Expressing the milk, including at night time, was very tiring.

While this was a worrying time for Lisa and Dan, she says they were very lucky that Robbie didnt give them any scares.

He made progress every day. He only stayed in ICU A for about five days where there is one-to-one nursing. Then he was moved to ICU B where he spent most of his time with two to three babies per nurse. Its a small bit more relaxed.

We were home within six days of Robbie being take out of the incubator and into a cot.

On discharge from the hospital, Robbie weighed 2.32kg (5lbs 1oz).

Dan came to the hospital when he could.

He was training to be a Garda at the time. Because of Covid, the training was put on hold. Dan was stationed in Bandon.

I remember one night, he finished the night shift early and he went to see Robbie at four in the morning. He would come up when it suited him and he stayed with me.

Lisa only went home to Clonakilty on two occasions during Robbies stay in hospital.

I was putting too much pressure on myself to be home and not in Cork.

"Doing a bit of shopping in SuperValu, Id meet people I knew. It was very hard. They knew I had a baby but I didnt have him with me. That was stressful.

Lisa O'Callaghan's contribution to Not Just a Cookbook.

When babies are born prematurely, they dont develop their suck and swallow until at least 34 weeks.

Once Robbie was 34 weeks, we had to try and teach him, at every opportunity, how to suck and swallow the feed himself.

Up until then, he was being fed by a tube which was put into his stomach. He did really well.

Within the six days of being moved into a cot, he started to take a bottle. I tried some breast feeding as well.

The aim was to get him to feed solely on his own for 48 hours. He was discharged then.

Robbie is now doing really well.

Hes really catching up. He is crawling around the place, pulling himself up, and hell climb the stairs if he gets the chance.

After discharge, Robbie was referred to different services such as physiotherapy and ophthalmology.

He also had appointments with paediatrics and occupational therapy.

Weve been discharged from all of that because he is doing so well. There will be one more appointment with a paediatrician. But there are no issues.

Lisa works as a scientist for a biopharmaceutical company.

When you have a premature baby, the weeks theyre premature by are added on to maternity leave. I took the full paid leave and two and a half months unpaid leave. I was out from work for just over a year.

The whole experience of having a premature baby was hard, says Lisa, and it really hit her when she got home.

The week before Robbie came home from hospital, my husband was training. He had to go to Templemore for three months. I just kept going as much as I could.

The Atrium at Bru Columbanus in Wilton, Cork

As Lisa says, Bru Columbanus helped us to cope with a very hard situation and it kept me standing.

She adds: If it wasnt for Bru, my parents would probably have helped us pay to stay in a B&B.

Lisa was able to avail of what was basically like a double hotel room. There were four kitchens within one. Because of Covid, you were assigned to your specific kitchen and table so there was no crossover between families.

The front-of-house staff at Bru Columbanus were a great support to Lisa, contributing towards making the whole difficult experience as pleasant as possible.

Not Just A Cookbook retails at 20 and is available at www.brucolumbanus.com




Russia donates nearly 20,000 tonnes of wheat to Cuba

Russia donated about 20,000 tonnes of wheat to Cuba, its political ally as the island nation copes with rising global grain prices as a result of Russia's invasion into Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Andrei Guskov, Russian ambassador to Cuba, said Russia has agreed to ship wheat to Cuba last year. But the ship transporting the grains was stalled off the island because of Western sanctions for a month.

Guskov said due to sanctions imposed on Russia, it complicated payments to the shipper, which made it impossible for the boat to offload the wheat to Cuba.

On April 7, Cuba joined China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Vietnam in voting against a United Nations General Assembly motion suspending Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council over alleged human rights violations in Ukraine.

Since Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959, Cuba and Russia have had a long history of economic and military cooperation, though those relations have weakened in recent decades.

Despite Western sanctions that have affected logistics, Russia, one of the biggest wheat exporters in the world, continues to export grains to Cuba and other trading partners.

Increasing prices for wheat, other grains, and gasoline have exacerbated severe shortages in Cuba, forcing locals to queue for food, medication, and other essentials.

- Reuters




Research offers novel approach to controlling Africa's East Coast fever in cattle

Researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya and the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland have discovered a genetic marker that can predict accurately if an individual cattle can survive an East Coast fever infection, which could result in breeding programmes that may improve millions of African smallholder farmers' livelihoods, Phys.org reported.

East Coast fever is a serious problem in the African continent. It is caused by the parasite Theileria parva, which is spread by ticks. In the 13 African nations where it is prevalent, it kills a million animals annually, or one cow every 30 seconds. Smallholder farmers' livelihoods can be destroyed by these losses, which cost an estimated US$300 million each year.

Phil Toye from ILRI said because this disease does not affect wealthy nations, funding for East Coast fever research has been limited.

There is an East Coast fever vaccination that offers cattle lifetime immunity. But production takes a long time and costs 10 to 20 times more than other conventional animal vaccinations. Producing the vaccine involves crushing up hundreds of thousands of infected ticks in an industrial blender.

The second alternative is to dip livestock in acaricides on a regular basis, which are tick-killing pesticides. But this process is time-consuming, polluting, and in certain areas, farmers must dip their cows more than once a week.

David Wragg from Roslin, Annie Cook from ILRI, and other team members studied the DNA from this one resilient bovine family in the context of clinical data from field investigations and discovered a genetic signature that signals resistance for East Coast fever in a new research published in PLOS Genetics.

The allele they found may or may not be the gene that controls the development of the animal's cells when it is infected with the parasite, protecting it from disease.

Wragg said it doesn't matter for breeding, as all that is required is a mechanism to say, 'this animal an excellent to breed from because its kids will probably survive the sickness. Only one out of every 20 mice with two copies of the allele succumbed to the illness in tests, indicating that the marker is quite effective.

However, more studies into the particular gene (or genes) responsible and their mode of action might lead to scientists editing cattle's DNA to make them disease resistant. This opens the door to more readily raising highly productive European or cross-bred animals in regions of Africa where East Coast fever is prevalent, potentially increasing the quantity of milk and meat produced on the continent substantially.

More study is also needed to guarantee that tolerance to the illness has no unintended consequencesfor example, tolerance to malaria in people is linked to sickle-cell anaemia, which causes various health issues.

Toye said learning more about the genetic mechanism could aid in the advancement of human leukaemia research.

- Phys.org






Cargill to expand capabilities of Global Animal Nutrition Innovation Center in Minnesota, US

Cargill is expanding and renovating its Global Animal Nutrition Innovation Center in Elk River, Minnesota, the United States, located just 30 minutes from its global headquarters.

Along with a facility in Velddriel, the Netherlands, and the soon-to-be operating Changrong R&D center in China, the Elk River site serves as a hub of the company's global network of 15 animal nutrition research and technology application centers. These sites work around the clock to explore, innovate and think ahead of customers' challenges in navigating today's complex and ever-changing environment.

The nearly US$50 million investment will upgrade animal facilities including a new dairy innovation unit, construct a larger onsite feed mill, create a visitor's space and build a state-of-the-art laboratory for nutrient research and development.

Designed to serve dairy, poultry, swine and aqua nutrition customers and the testing needs of other Cargill businesses, the center hosts more than 2,000 visitors a year. In addition, new viewing corridors will allow visitors to view the animal R&D facilities conveniently.

April 19 marked the official groundbreaking for the upgraded facility that will open in spring 2023. The site has been operational for Cargill since 1958. There, teams develop new methods of nutrient measurement to deeply understand how ingredients feed animals and support their performance at all life stages. Animals are also cared for onsite to identify and validate scientific principles related to their health and understand how various nutrients support their wellbeing.

The laboratory renovation project's architect is Alliiance and the constructors are McGough and Weitz (feed mill).

Adriano Marcon, group leader of Cargill's animal nutrition business, said: "This is the largest investment Cargill's animal nutrition business has made in innovation. We are taking a significant step towards what is going to create state-of-the-art technologies for our world.

"We want to be the best animal nutrition partner globally, and our customers expect us to bring innovations that make them more competitive, efficient and sustainable. When they choose us as a trusted partner, they rely on us as a conduit to new technology. Therefore, we must be in the forefront and move faster to continue delivering on our promise to customers."

Mariano Berdegue, regional managing director (North America) of Cargill's animal nutrition business, said: "This investment showcases the importance of bringing sustainable growth to our business and is at the heart of the vision of being a nutrition company. This capability has never been more critical than now with what we are facing today regarding raw material prices, the cost of food, our ability to optimise nutrition and our ability to understand raw materials and convert them into protein. We feel proud about the options we are giving our customers so they can continue their livelihoods and thrive."

Arlene Fosmer, innovation director of Cargill's animal nutrition business, said: "Science drives our customer success. At this facility, we're unlocking the nutritional insights and analytics to innovate what matters most for our customers."

- Cargill






USDA expects higher corn output in 2021/22 even as global trade dips





The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its new monthly supply and demand reports for grains and oilseeds this month, in which significant cuts were again made for soybean crops in South America, while for corn the figures were presented without major changes.

Globally, the USDA estimates that corn production will reach 1,210.5 million tonnes (Mt) for the 2021/22 marketing year, which is 7.5% higher compared to 2020/21 (1,125.9Mt). This increase is explained by greater harvests in Brazil, the European Union, Indonesia and Pakistan.

On the other hand, global trade has decreased, mainly due to lower exports from Serbia and Ukraine, but this is partially offset by an increase in export activity from Brazil, Canada and India. Likewise, global imports have decreased due to lower demand from China.

For the US, production remains at around 383.9Mt, with a 7.1% increase compared to the previous crop (358.4Mt). China is expected to increase its domestic supply by 4.6%, reaching 272.6Mt. Brazil's production volume is expected to reach 116Mt, an increase of 33.3% compared to the 2020/21 season (87Mt). The EU and Argentina have expected volumes of 70.5Mt and 53Mt, which represent increases of 5% and 1.9% over the previous crop, respectively.

As for international trade, it is estimated that world grain exports will increase by 8.2%, from 182.1Mt in the 2020/21 season to 197Mt in the current cycle. This would be due to the increase in export volumes from Brazil (44.5Mt, +111.7%) and the EU (4.9Mt, +31.2%), which would offset the decline expected for the US, which is expected to reduce its shipments abroad by 9.2%, from 69.9Mt to 63.5Mt.

Finally, China is expected to decrease its corn imports by 22.1%, reaching 23Mt, offset by an increase in domestic production (272.6Mt +4.6%).

For soybean, global production is expected to decrease by 4.6% compared to the 2020/21 season, from 367.8Mt to 350.7Mt. This decrease is due to the drought which has going on for several months in the producing regions of South America, a situation which has greatly affected crop yields. World trade is also expected to decline due to lower soybean exports from Paraguay, Russia and Ukraine.

The US is expected to continue to be the country with the highest volume growth among the leading producers (+5.2%), increasing from 114.7Mt to 120.7Mt. On the other hand, the production estimates for Brazil and Argentina's crops were once again reduced by 10.4% and 5.8%, respectively, compared to the previous cycle, with volumes of around 125Mt and 43.5Mt, respectively.

Export activity will continue to be led by Brazil with 82.8Mt, up only 1.3% with respect to the previous season, while the US will reach an export volume of 57.6Mt, down 6.4% with respect to the previous crop. China will continue to be the world's main oilseed importer with 91Mt.

- 333 Latin America
China strongly condemns terrorist attack on shuttle van of Confucius Institute in Pakistan's Karachi

Xinhua) 10:47, April 27, 2022

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif (C, front) visits the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad to express his deepest condolences to the families of victims and the government and people of China after the terrorist attack inside a university, Islamabad, Pakistan, April 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

ISLAMABAD, April 26 (Xinhua) -- China strongly condemned the terrorist attack Tuesday afternoon inside a university in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan said in a statement.

An explosion ripped through a shuttle passenger van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi, leaving three Chinese teachers killed and one Chinese teacher injured so far, the statement said.

"The Embassy and Consulates General of China in Pakistan express deep condolences to the victims from both countries and sincere sympathy to the injured and the bereaved families, and will make every effort to handle the incident with the Pakistani side," the statement said.

The Chinese embassy and consulates general in Pakistan has launched an emergency plan immediately, requesting the Pakistani side to make every effort to treat the wounded, thoroughly investigate the attack, and severely punish the perpetrators, said the statement.

The Chinese embassy and consulates general in Pakistan require relevant departments at all levels in Pakistan to take practical and effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, institutions and projects in Pakistan, and to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again, according to the statement.

After the terrorist attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad Tuesday afternoon to express his deepest condolences to the families of victims and the government and people of China.

Strongly condemning the attack, Shahbaz said he is deeply grieved by the loss of precious lives of the Chinese friends in the heinous terrorist attack in Karachi.

The prime minister said he has instructed that the attack be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice, adding that the Pakistani side will provide all possible assistance to the injured.

Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, said Shahbaz, adding that such vicious acts against the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China will never dent the iron brotherhood between the two countries or hinder bilateral cooperation.

Security personnel inspect the blast site of the terrorist attack inside a university in Karachi, Pakistan, April 26, 2022. (Xinhua)

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan shipyard / Yonhap



Shipbuilder faces safety probe, soaring steel plate prices, labor strife



By Kim Hyun-bin



Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) is facing a range of daunting tasks as it tries to emerge from its years-long business slump, according to industry officials, Wednesday. The shipbuilder is grappling with government probes into its safety records following the recent death of a subcontracted worker at its plant in Ulsan. It is also expected to pay more for steel plates, which account for the largest portion of its production costs, in line with soaring prices of iron ore and other raw materials, while its unionized workers threaten to walk out unless their demands are met.



The Ministry of Employment and Labor conducted a search and seizure at HHI headquarters in Ulsan and the offices of its subcontractors, Tuesday, related to the April 2 death of a subcontractor at HHI's Ulsan Plant Panel 2 Factory. The worker lost consciousness in an explosion while cutting a metal sheet and was taken to a hospital, but eventually died.





Hyundai Heavy Industries Chairman Kwon Oh-gap




Dunamu, operator of crypto exchange Upbit, designated as conglomerate







By Kim Hyun-bin





SK Group has become Korea's second-largest business group in terms of assets, surpassing Hyundai Motor Group, thanks to its rapidly growing semiconductor and battery businesses, according to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), Wednesday.







In the "Status of Designation of Business Groups Subject to Disclosure in 2022" report released by the antitrust agency, SK's total assets stood at 291 trillion won as of the end of 2021, up about 52 trillion won from 2020.







The number of SK affiliates reached 186, an increase of 38 from last year. During the same period, Hyundai Motor Group's assets stood at 257.845 trillion won, up 11 trillion won, and the number of its affiliates stood at 57, up four.







"SK has risen to second place in terms of total assets for the first time due to increased semiconductor sales, new establishments following physical divisions and growth of the oil business," the FTC said.









SK hynix, a subsidiary of SK, acquired Intel's SSD business and Dalian NAND Flash manufacturing facility assets by splashing out 10 trillion won. In addition, the company's total assets increased by 20.9 trillion won as semiconductor sales surged.







Furthermore, sales increased due to the improvement of the oil business, and the assets of SK Innovation and its subsidiaries increased by 6.2 trillion won. SK On, SK Earth On and SK Multi Utility were established through spinoffs, and assets increased by 7.9 trillion won.







Last year, the number of SK affiliates increased by 38, with SK continuing its aggressive mergers and acquisitions (M&A).







In addition, Dunamu, which operates Upbit, a virtual asset exchange, was designated as the first in the virtual asset industry to be disclosed as a conglomerate subject to disclosure and restricted from mutual investment.







The FTC newly designated eight companies, including Dunamu, Krafton, Boseong, KG, Iljin, OK Financial Group, Shinyoung and Nongshim, as target companies for disclosure.


People are being encouraged to report diseased trees to help build a better picture of how they are affecting the Isle of Man's hedgerows, woodlands and forests.

Diseases, such as ash dieback (ADB), Phytophthora ramorum and Dutch elm disease are believed to have killed thousands of trees on the Island in the last 30 years.

It is currently estimated that around 80% of the Islands ash trees could be lost due to ADB and up to 20% of the commercial forests managed by DEFA will need to be felled and replanted as result of the Phytophthora ramorum infection.

The DEFA team can be contacted by calling 695701.
Old Nurses Home car park to close for two years

Manx Care is re-designating the visitor car parking surrounding the Community Health Centre on Westmoreland Road in Douglas.

This means that people using the Community Health Centre or Kensington Group Practice may need to change where they would typically park.

Manx Development Corporation will begin redevelopment work on the Old Nurses Home on Westmoreland Road next Tuesday, which means that the visitor car park beside the Old Nurses Home will close this Friday.

Visitors to both the Kensington Group Practice and the clinics held at the Community Health Centre will be able to use the car parking area to the immediate front of the Community Health Centre for up to two hours.

The designated disabled parking there will remain unchanged and available for use. Parking will also be available on Westmoreland Road and the surrounding streets which are two-hour disc zones patrolled by local parking wardens.

The car park closure will remain in place for at least two years.
Ballakermeen and Queen Elizabeth II head teachers appointed

Two secondary schools will have new head teachers from September after the successors to their longstanding leaders were appointed.

Graeme Corrin will take over from Adrienne Burnett at Ballakermeen High School in Douglas and Charlotte Clarke will replace Sue Moore at Queen Elizabeth II High School in Peel.

Both new heads are from the island and are well qualified for their new positions having held a variety of educational roles, locally and in the UK.

Most recently, Mr Corrin has been second in command at Ramsey Grammar School and Mrs Clarke, who has previously led a secondary school in North Yorkshire, has been teaching children with additional educational needs at Ballakermeen.

Mr Corrin, said: Its a privilege to be entrusted with the leadership of Ballakermeen. Im really looking forward to working with the many people, both within the school and the wider community, who clearly care so much about it and the futures of our young people.

Mrs Clarke, said: It is an honour to accept the role and I am delighted to be returning to the school, having attended as a student. I am aware how integral QEII is to the community and I am looking forward to developing positive relationships and building on its successes.

They will take up their roles after Mrs Burnett and Ms Moore step down in the summer after more than 20 years at the helm of their respective schools.
E-Land's Scofield clothing store in Shanghai / Korea Times file



By Kim Jae-heun



Concerns are growing over E-Land's business in China as more stores run by the fashion company are being forced to shut down by Chinese authorities amid the rapid spread of COVID-19 infections there, according to industry officials, Wednesday.



On April 26, the Chinese government revealed that Shanghai had seen 16,980 daily new infections and 52 more deaths.



COVID-19 has since gone on to spread in Beijing where 29 people were confirmed as infected as of April 25. This has led China to shut down Beijing's Chaoyang District.



E-Land operates some 10 stores in Chaoyang and they are temporarily closed under the current regulation.



Chaoyang is home to 3.5 million people, which is only 16 percent of Beijing's 22 million population. However, it has the largest population among the 16 districts of the capital city.



E-Land said it does not operate a big number of stores in Chaoyang, so the shutdown of the district won't affect the fashion company's business too harshly.



"We don't have big problems with the shutdown in Chaoyang as we operate only 10 stores in the district. Also, our production facility is in Vietnam, so we can continue to manufacture our products and deliver them to China," an E-Land official said.



However, if the Chinese government decides to regulate more districts in Beijing, the situation could turn worse for E-Land.



After the Chinese government shut down Shanghai on March 28, 230 E-Land clothing stores have been unable to open for a month.



The Chinese government originally said it would lift the ban in Shanghai by April 4. However, as the pandemic situation worsened in the city, the government decided to extend the restriction indefinitely.



"As the shutdown period continues in Shanghai and Beijing, local fashion firms will have to suffer more. There is nothing they can do about the Chinese government's decision," a local fashion firm official said.


Amazon has made a list for the most dangerous workplaces in the US for a third time. The advocacy group National COSH (Council for Occupational Safety and Health) has included Amazon in a "Dirty Dozen" list meant to shame what it sees as the least safe American workplaces of 2022. The internet retailer earned the less-than-flattering distinction for an injury rate more than double the industry average, including six deaths at a Bessemer, Alabama warehouse since it opened in 2020.

National COSH noted that one of the workers who died was reportedly forced to work while ill as he didn't have enough unpaid time off. It also pointed to worker Jennifer Bates' concerns that the "pace of work" and overall strain contributed to injuries. The advocates also pointed to Amazon firing Staten Island warehouse worker Gerald Bryson after a 2020 protest over a lack of COVID-19 safety measures. A judge recently ordered Amazon to reinstate Bryson after determining that he'd been fired in retaliation for his criticism.

We've asked Amazon for comment. It has historically denied putting workers at undue risk, and maintains that Bryson was fired for violating company language policies despite a lack of evidence. Amazon also made the list in 2019 and 2020. Other companies on the 2022 list include Dollar General, Hilton Hotels and Starbucks.

National COSH's list won't have any direct repercussions for Amazon. However, it's not a good look for the tech firm after a string of allegations and incidents beyond the ones that helped it reach the list. The company has been chastised for running an Illinois warehouse during a tornado that killed six staffers in December. Workers' rights proponents have also accused Amazon of misusing a charity work program to hide its true injury rates, and Bryson wasn't the first supposedly fired for criticizing labor practices. We wouldn't count on Amazon avoiding the 2023 list, even if it is trying to improve safety.
DJI has temporarily suspended sales and all business activities in both Russia and Ukraine "in light of current hostilities," the dronemaker has announced. As Reuters reports, that makes it the first major Chinese company to halt sales in Russia after the country started its invasion of Ukraine in February. Unlike their peers in the West, most Chinese companies have chosen to continue their operations in the country.

A DJI spokesperson told Reuters that it's not making a statement about any country by pulling out of Russia and Ukraine  it's making a statement about its principles. "DJI abhors any use of our drones to cause harm, and we are temporarily suspending sales in these countries in order to help ensure no-one uses our drones in combat," the spokesperson told the news organization.

This move comes a month after Ukrainian politician Mykhailo Fedorov called on DJI to stop selling its products in Russia. The country's Minister of Digital Transformation posted an open letter for the dronemaker on Twitter that says Russia is using DJI products to navigate its missiles "to kill civilians." It also says Russia is using an extended version of DJI's AeroScope drone detection platform to gather flight information.

In addition, MediaMarkt, a German chain of stores selling electronics across Europe, removed DJI's products from its shelves after receiving "information from various sources that the Russian army is using products and data from the Chinese drone supplier DJI for military activities in Ukraine." DJI denied that it was actively supporting the Russian military not just by providing hardware, but also by providing flight data and called the accusations "utterly false."

In 21 days of the war, russian troops has already killed 100 Ukrainian children. they are using DJI products in order to navigate their missile. @DJIGlobal are you sure you want to be a partner in these murders? Block your products that are helping russia to kill the Ukrainians! pic.twitter.com/4HJcTXFxoY  Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) March 16, 2022

A few days ago, DJI issued a statement to condemn the use of its products to cause harm. It said it does not market or sell its products for military use and that its distributors have all agreed not to sell products to customers who'll clearly use them for military purposes. "We will never accept any use of our products to cause harm, and we will continue striving to improve the world with our work," the company wrote.
Facebook is reportedly unable to account for much of the personal user data under its ownership, including what it is being used for and where its located, according to an internal report leaked to Motherboard.

Privacy engineers on Facebooks Ad and Business Product team wrote the report last year, intending it to be read by the companys leadership. It detailed how Facebook could address a growing number of data usage regulations, including new privacy laws in India, South Africa and elsewhere. The reports authors described a platform often in the dark about the personal data of its estimated 1.9 billion users .

The engineers warned that Facebook would have difficulty making promises to countries on how it would treat the data of its citizens. We do not have an adequate level of control and explainability over how our systems use data, and thus we cant confidently make controlled policy changes or external commitments such as we will not use X data for Y purpose," wrote the reports authors. "And yet, this is exactly what regulators expect us to do, increasing our risk of mistakes and misrepresentation.

Facebooks main obstacle to tracking down user data appears to be the companys lack of closed-form systems, the report states. In other words, the companys data systems have open borders that mix together first-party user data, third-party user data and sensitive data. To describe how difficult it is to track down specific Facebooks data, the reports authors came up with the metaphor of pouring a bottle of ink into a lake and then trying to get it back in the bottle:

This bottle of ink is a mixture of all kinds of user data (3PD, 1PD, SCD, Europe, etc.) You pour that ink into a lake of water (our open data systems; our open culture)  and it flows  everywhere. How do you put that ink back in the bottle? How do you organize it again, such that it only flows to the allowed places in the lake?

More succinctly, a former Facebook employee who spoke anonymously to Motherboard said the question of where data goes inside the company is "broadly speaking, a complete shitshow."

The authors state that Facebook previously had "the 'luxury' of addressing [new privacy regulations] one at a time," like the EUs GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act . But subsequent years brought more data protection legislation from all over the world, including India , Thailand , South Africa and South Korea . The document casts doubt on if Facebook has been able to comply with such legislation, and if it's equipped to weather the "tsunami" of new laws that make similar restrictions. (A Facebook spokesperson denied to Motherboard that the company is not currently complying with privacy regulations.)

Considering this document does not describe our extensive processes and controls to comply with privacy regulations, it's simply inaccurate to conclude that it demonstrates non-compliance," the spokesperson told Motherboard. New privacy regulations across the globe introduce different requirements and this document reflects the technical solutions we are building to scale the current measures we have in place to manage data and meet our obligations,
Robinhood is letting around nine percent of its full-time employees go, company CEO Vlad Tenev has announced. In a blog post, Tenev said the company grew rapidly throughout 2020 and in the first half of 2021, thanks to several factors that include COVID-19 lockdowns. Robinhood's revenue grew from $278 million in 2019 to over $1.8 billion in 2021, and it hired so many new employees to "meet customer and market demands" that its headcount grew from 700 to nearly 3,800.

Tenev explained that the rapid growth in headcount led to "some duplicate roles and job functions" and the the company decided that reducing its workforce is the right move to improve efficiency. "We will retain and continue to hire exceptional talent in key roles and provide additional learning and career growth opportunities for our employees," he said.

The CEO's announcement comes just as the company's stock hit its lowest closing price ($10) since it went public. As TechCrunch reports, it also comes just before Robinhood announces its first quarter results on April 28th and could be a measure meant to preempt investor disfavor in case its results fall short.

Robinhood is known for pioneering commission-free stock trades and, as Tenev said, skyrocketed in popularity in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, its practices had previously drawn criticism, as well. In late 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined the company $65 million for "misleading customers about revenue sources and failing to satisfy duty of best execution." It was also hit with a class action lawsuit after it restricted trading on GameStop and other "meme stocks." And in late 2021, the company was targeted by a cyberattack that exposed the data of as many as 7 million users.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Kremlin in Moscow, April 26. EPA-Yonhap





Russian President Vladimir Putin told the visiting U.N. chief Tuesday that he still had hope for negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine.







"Despite the fact that the military operation is ongoing, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track," Putin told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who was visiting Moscow, in televised remarks.







"We are negotiating, we do not reject (talks)."







Sitting across from Guterres at a long table at the Kremlin, Putin said efforts at talks with Ukraine had been derailed by claims of atrocities committed by Russian forces in the town of Bucha outside Kyiv.






It is completely legitimate for Ukraine to attack targets in Russia, the United Kingdom has said, as the United States and its 40 allies have vowed to move heaven and earth to help Ukraine win its battle against Russias invasion during defense talks in Germany.

UK armed forces minister, James Heappey, has described Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil that hit supplies and disrupt logistics as completely legitimate. Heappey stressed the fact that Ukraine was a sovereign country living peacefully within its own borders and then another country decided to violate those borders, adding that in war Ukraine needs to strike into its opponents depth to attack its logistics lines, its fuel supplies, its ammunition depots, and thats part of it. Meanwhile, speaking at the Ramstein airbase in southwestern Germany, the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, pledged to help Ukraine win the fight against Russias unjust invasion and to build up Ukraines defense for tomorrows challenges. Austin stressed that Ukraine clearly believes that it can win and so does everyone here. He also noted that while the US is already the biggest supplier of international military aid to Ukraine, Washington will keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet Kyivs needs.

The US-hosted international meeting at Ramstein airbase also heard the announcement by German defense minister, Christine Lambrecht, that her country will authorize the delivery of tanks to Ukraine, in what would be a clear shift in Berlins cautious policy on military backing for Kyiv. The government has agreed to sign off the delivery of used Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, which is designed at bolstering Ukraines defense capabilities. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has earlier been criticized for refusing to send heavy weapons directly to Ukraine, despite announcing a turning point in its defense policy in response to the war. The chancellor has justified his cautious approach by saying he wished to avoid a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, a nuclear power. However, the three coalition parties now reportedly plan to present a joint proposal in parliament calling for the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine. The document urges the government to continue and, where possible, accelerate the delivery of necessary equipment to Ukraine, including extending the delivery to heavy weapons and complex systems. It also proposes that Ukrainian soldiers be trained in Germany and other NATO countries to operate the weapons.

Ukraine has dismissed war comments by Russias foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who accused NATO of fighting a proxy war by supplying military aid to Ukraine. NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war, Lavrov told Russian state media, warning that the risks of nuclear conflict were now considerable. His claim, according to Ukraines foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, showed Moscow had lost its last hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine. When asked about the importance of avoiding a Third World War, Lavrov said: I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it. Western officials have voiced their mounting concerns about the increasing emphasis Moscow puts on its nuclear arsenal as its conventional forces have faltered in Ukraine, hampered by fierce resistance and its own logistical and technological problems.
Coming up with $44 billion to buy Twitter was the easy part for Elon Musk.

Next comes the real challenge for the worlds richest person: fulfilling his promise to make Twitter better than ever as a lightly regulated haven for free speech.

His vision for improving the 16-year-old company leans heavily on a pledge to make speech as free as reasonably possible on the platform -- a commitment thats been celebrated on the political right and among followers of former President Donald Trump, whose account last year was permanently banned. For others who worry that Musk will give free rein to agitators who spew hate, lies and other harmful content, making the platform too toxic for advertisers and average users, Musk has offered few assurances.

The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all, he tweeted Tuesday

Many of Musks proposed changes reflect his own experience as a high-profile and outspoken Twitter user with more than 85 million followers and a swarm of pesky impersonator accounts that use his name and photo to promote cryptocurrency schemes. The statement announcing his acquisition of Twitter on Monday highlighted the need to defeat spam bots that mimic real users.

But what about Twitters more than 200 million other users who arent getting banned or flooded with spam? Theres still a lot of uncertainty about whether his ideas are technologically feasible and whether these changes would benefit most regular users, or serve some other purpose.

Hes made it pretty clear hes not interested in making Twitter a profitable enterprise," said Joan Donovan, who studies misinformation at Harvard University. Its about the power and the influence of Twitter itself and its importance in our culture."

Experts who have studied content moderation and researched Twitter for years have expressed doubt that Musk knows exactly what he is getting into. And some of the problems he has identified aren't felt by most users.

The spam bots, for him, are highly visible and somewhat personal, said Donovan. Most people dont see a lot of these spammy accounts.

And for those unhappy with the company's crackdown on hate, harassment and misinformation, there are plenty of fledgling examples of free speech-focused social media platforms that have been launched in the past few years as Twitter antidotes, largely by conservatives. Many have struggled to deal with toxic content, and at least one has been cut off by its own technology providers in protest.

This move just shows how effective (moderation features) have been to annoy those in power, said Kirsten Martin, a professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame. I would be worried as to how this would change Twitters values.

The fact that no other bidders emerged in public before Musks deal was a sign that other would-be acquirers might find Twitter too difficult to improve, said Third Bridge analyst Scott Kessler.

This platform is pretty much the same one weve had over the last decade or so," Kessler said. "Youve had a lot of smart people trying to figure out what they should do, and theyve had trouble. Its probably going to be tough to make a lot of headway.

Musk received an effusive, if highly abstract, endorsement from Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who praised Musk's decision to take Twitter  back from Wall Street  and tweeted that he trusts Musk's mission to  extend the light of consciousness   a reference to Dorsey's notion that Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness.

But others familiar with Twitter say they're dismayed at Musk's successful bid for the company.

Twitter is going to let a man-child essentially take over their platform, said Leslie Miley, a former Twitter employee who has also worked for Google and Apple. Miley, who was the only Black engineer at Twitter in a leadership position when he left the company in 2015, echoed doubts about Musk's grasp of the platform's complexities.

I am not sure if Elon knows what he is getting, Miley said. He may just find that having Twitter is a lot different than wanting Twitter.

The more hands-off approach to content moderation that Musk envisions has many users concerned that the platform will reanimate accounts that propagated dangerous conspiracies and harassment.

Wall Street analysts said if he goes too far, it could also alienate advertisers  Twitter's chief revenue source. And it could make it harder to retain the San Francisco-based company's more than 7,500 employees, some of whom are already voicing concerns about the possibility of a backslide on content standards.

In Europe, officials reminded Musk about a new law, the Digital Services Act, that will force tech companies to step up policing of their online platforms.

Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules  regardless of their shareholding, tweeted Thierry Breton, the European Union commissioner in charge of the blocs internal market. Mr. Musk knows this well. He is familiar with European rules on automotive, and will quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act.

Musks takeover is not yet a done deal and still awaits the approval of a majority of Twitter's stockholders. Twitter previously scheduled its annual shareholders meeting for May 25, but a regulatory filing Tuesday said the company will be convening a special meeting as promptly as reasonably practicable."

While there are likely to be some bumps along the way, there don't appear to be serious enough obstacles to stop the deal, according to Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

Twitter or Musk can walk away from the deal if its not completed by Oct. 24, but if either Musk or Twitter is deemed responsible for the deal not going forward, they would have to pay a $1 billion termination fee, according to details of the transaction contained in a regulatory filing published Tuesday. The filing also showed that Twitter will drop a poison pill measure it had earlier adopted to defend against Musk's takeover by making it prohibitively expensive.

Normally when companies go private, dissenting shareholders are forcibly cashed out. Some could challenge the stock price in court, contending that Musk should pay more, but that probably wont hold up the sale, Elson said.

Its likely that Musk would dissolve the current board and replace it with a new one that would agree with his management direction. And once Twitter is private, Musk will face fewer gripes from shareholders that often bring lawsuits, Elson said. Private companies also dont face as much scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been a finger in Musks eye for years, often because of statements he's made on Twitter.

On Tuesday, shares of Twitter traded just under $50, below the $54.20 purchase price. Twitter will offer a glimpse into the health of its business when it reports its quarterly financial results Thursday.

Twitter's constituents aren't the only ones anxious about Musk's $44 billion investment.

Shares of Musk's electric car company, Tesla, have lost about 19% of their value since Musk announced his stake in Twitter, including about a 12% decline on Tuesday. Analysts say investors are fearful that Musk will be distracted by the social media company and less engaged in running Tesla.

Hes going to be spending more time with another venture, Edward Jones Senior Equity Analyst Jeff Windau said of Musk, who also runs SpaceX, The Boring Co., which digs tunnels, and Neuralink, a computer-brain interface company. Theres a potential limit on the amount of bandwidth that you can apply to each of these companies."

__

Krisher reported from Detroit. O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. AP writers Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California, Kelvin Chan in London and Sam Petrequin in Brussels contributed to this report.
Xinhua News Agency/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Ima

Sanitation workers loading and driving waste trucks in several rural Texas communities werent given overtime wages by their out-of-state employer, even though they often worked more than 40 hours per week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Piney Woods Sanitation, Inc., a Missouri-based company, was ordered by the federal agency to pay $731,492 in back wages for hundreds of workers employed near Huntington, Texas.
This spring, my top book recommendation is the zeitgeist-capturing financial thriller Undermoney by first-time novelist Jay Newman.

This has everything you want.

Sociopath billionaires. A beautiful adrenaline junkie with the fighting skills of a special forces assassin. Deep state operatives conspiring to steal billions of U.S. taxpayer money in order to buy an election and undo American malaise. Murderous Russian oligarchs deploying mercenary armies, serving Vladimir Putin, the puppet master. A Medici descendant who controls a financial fortune to rival his descendants. Conspiracies within conspiracies.

And in his mastery of military detail, Newman channels Tom Clancys Cold War novels of the 1980s. With his forays into spy craft and double-dealing among competing military-industrial complexes, Newman nods to John le Carre. Conspiracies hatch more intricate conspiracies, as baroque as anything in Dan Browns The Da Vinci Code.

If you enjoy financial/military/spy/conspiracy thrillers, you will love Undermoney.

Published in January, the fictional description of Putin and his use of mercenaries to do his dirty work seems ripped straight from current headlines. The dark money fueling U.S. hedge funds are equally nefarious. Newman understands how kleptocracy and oligarchic excess  both in Russia and in the West  repel and attract us in 2022. This is fun stuff and extremely of the moment.

Jay Newman is not just any first-time novelist. Newman describes the world of the ultra-rich and connected hedge funders because he worked, fought and emerged victorious from this world.

He holds a legendary place in the hedge fund world, having endured decades-long battles against countries unwilling to pay their debts. He writes about big money, international political intrigue and maniacally focused hedge funds managers; he has lived through it all.

In 1999, Newman managed to win a court case and change international bond-market precedent against countries that do not pay their debts to bondholders.

A brief financial history of sovereign debt: In the 1980s, many Latin American countries defaulted on their debt to U.S. and European lenders. In the 1990s, debtholders swapped their defaulted loans for Brady bonds, named for then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady. The settlements allowed much of Latin America to rejoin international financial markets, even though debtholders had to accept less than full value with the Brady bonds. I worked as a bond salesman at Goldman starting in 1997, focused on buying and selling Brady bonds, so I lived and breathed this stuff for a few years.

Newman, however, had purchased some Peruvian debt and withheld it from the Brady bond debt swap. He joined forces with a very patient hedge fund named Elliott Associates. With Elliott, Newman sued for full payment of the debt. After years of appeals, he got a New York court to agree that Peru could not pay its Brady bonds without settling Newmans debt in full as well. For a few weeks in 1999, he threw the entire country into default until he got paid.

Newman became known as is the ultimate hardball negotiator of sovereign debt.

When Argentina had the largest sovereign debt default of all time in 2001, Newman used the same playbook. When the vast majority of debtholders turned in their defaulted Argentine debt for new bonds and accepted huge losses, Newman and Elliott held out for full payment. He sued Argentina. He made an absolute nuisance of himself in U.S. and international courts.

Newman famously managed to seize an Argentine naval ship in Ghana with 200 sailors aboard, using a Ghanian court order. In this way he anticipated the current string of seizures of Russian oligarchs yachts across the globe this spring.

Fifteen years after Argentinas 2001 default, with many twists and turns along the way, Newman and Elliott prevailed.

Usually, when I watch a successful financier turn out to be a great writer, I turn pickle green with envy. I do not resent Newman, however, and maybe now is time for my own quick name-drop humble brag.

Newman was briefly a client of mine when I worked on the emerging market bond desk at Goldman. We followed along in real time as he engineered the Peruvian bond default.

I tried my darnedest to sell him really cheap defaulted Argentine bonds in 2001, anticipating what his eventual strategy would be. It took him and Elliott 15 years to succeed, but eventually Newman prevailed with a $2.4 billion settlement in 2016, an estimated tenfold return on investment.

The word I kept returning to while reading Undermoney is prescient. Newman published the book in January, before most of the Western world had to reckon with Putins murderous, kleptocratic regime. This guy sees the future.

Russian bonds will likely default in May because Western bondholders have frozen reserves or blocked payments.

I havent spoken to Newman in 20 years. Theres a high probability he would not remember me, as I wasnt a particularly good salesman and he barely needed Wall Street to do his thing.

I may send him this column, however, as a pretext  I need to find out what he is going to write about in his next novel. He clearly anticipates the future better than anyone. That might make me money some day.

Michael Taylor is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, author of The Financial Rules for New College Graduates and host of the podcast No Hill For A Climber.

michael@michaelthesmart

money.com | twitter.com/michael_taylor
Federal securities regulators have accused a San Antonio lawyer and investment adviser of using money raised from investors as his own piggy bank to pay personal expenses and those of his businesses  including for a pinball manufacturer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission alleges Robert Jeffrey Mueller spent more than $1.5 million of investor money to pay for his second and third weddings, engagement rings and wedding bands for both wives, a divorce, vacation cruises, his daughters private school tuition and a condo in Hawaii.

Mueller and his Deeproot Funds funneled more than $30 million in investor funds to businesses he controlled, including Deeproot Pinball, the SEC says. The pinball company last year was developing its debut game, Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland.

Mueller raised about $58 million from nearly 300 investors through Deeproot Funds over several years, the SEC alleges in a civil lawsuit filed in San Antonio federal court. The agency wants a court to order Mueller to turn over his allegedly ill-gotten gains.

Calls to Mueller, 46, and his attorney were not returned Wednesday.

Mueller asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when SEC counsel asked him about the use of assets of the funds he advised to pay personal expenses, according to the lawsuit.

The State Bar of Texas website shows Mueller has no disciplinary history and is eligible to practice law.

Mueller faces various securities fraud-related charges. The SEC seeks to prevent him from offering or selling securities and to prohibit him from serving as an officer or director of any securities issuer.

Mueller and Deeproot Funds were investment advisers to two pooled investment funds launched in 2014. They persuaded investors, many of them retirees, to cash out their annuities and individual retirement accounts to invest in the funds, the SECs lawsuit says.

Investors were told their funds would be invested in life insurance policies and Deeproot-related businesses to provide relatively safe returns, the complaint says. Mueller used a company called Policy Services Inc. to purchase life insurance policies for the funds. But the SEC says he used Policy Services bank accounts to pay personal expenses. Less than $10 million was spent on policies, the SEC adds.

The private placement memoranda given to investors did not uniformly describe how the funds would invest in the Deeproot-affiliated businesses, the suit says. A 2015 version of a PPM for one of the funds, though, described an investment in Deeproot Tech and its sole project, Deeproot Pinball, in exchange for Class B shares in the pinball company.

The lawsuit adds that the funds never actually received any ownership or other interests in return for the significant assets that went to the various Deeproot entities. Those Deeproot companies are listed as relief defendants in the lawsuit. Those companies are not accused of any wrongdoing, but their operations were funded with assets from the funds, the SEC says.

Mueller falsely informed investors and prospective investors that Deeproot and Policy Services were structured to minimize the opportunity for very kind of fraud that was actually then occurring, the SEC adds.

Since the first investors joined the funds in 2015, the SEC says, the various life insurance policies and Deeproot-affiliated business ventures yielded less than $1.9 million in revenue. Yet Mueller paid $2.8 million in monthly returns to certain investors.

Bank account records show that at least $820,000 in payments were made to some existing investors from money raised from new investor contributions to the funds in a Ponzi-like scheme, the SEC adds.

In an interview last year, Mueller said he chose San Antonio to launch Deeproot Pinball because hed spent most of his life here and because the Texas economy is favorable for pinball manufacturing and development.

pdanner@express-news.net
Opera San Antonios production of Rigoletto will have all the bells and whistles that operaphiles expect, something that hasnt been possible for more than two years because of the pandemic.

Full sets, full costumes, fully staged, full chorus, full orchestra, full hearts, said E. Loren Meeker, the companys general and artistic director and the stage director for the production. Its the first time since Tosca in 2019 that we are able to present this level of production.

To finally be back in a position where we can present grand opera, as is our mission as a company, is such a fulfilling experience. We cannot wait for opening night.

That comes May 5 at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, where Opera San Antonio is one of the resident companies. Rigoletto will be the first full-scale classical music production in the space, aside from performances by Youth Orchestras of San Antonio, since San Antonio Symphony musicians went on strike in September.

Opera San Antonio did present Don Giovanni in October, but it was a streamlined one-act because of the pandemic. An additional hurdle for that production was the strike, because the opera typically contracts with the symphony for productions.

Rehearsals for Don Giovanni began one week after the musicians went on strike. When the opera was unable to negotiate an agreement to hire 34 symphony musicians to play, the production went forward with a pianist and a harpsichord player playing the score.

More Information Rigoletto When: 7:30 p.m. May 5 and 7 Where: Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle Details: A pre-performance lecture will be at 6:30 p.m. each night. $40-$180, tobincenter.org See More Collapse

For Rigoletto, the company worked with an independent contractor to hire 52 musicians, some of whom play for the symphony.

We are really incredibly happy to be putting musicians to work here in San Antonio and taking their vision and their artistry and making it what true, grand opera is all about, Meeker said.

Giuseppe Verdis Rigoletto tells the story of a court jester who pays a steep price for his japes at the expense of other men when his daughter falls in love with the womanizing duke he serves.

It talks a lot about human flaws and a lot about society and corruption and politics and how we treat each other, Meeker said.

Rigoletto includes some of the best-known arias in all of opera, including La Donna E Mobile, Questo o Quella and Caro Nome.

For me, this is Verdi at the height of his powers, said Francesco Milioto, the companys music director, who will be conducting the orchestra. This is Verdi in an incredible period where you get LaTraviata, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto. He really came into his own voice.

Everyone always says La Boheme is a piece where no note is wasted  there isnt one note too much and there isnt one note too little. This is the same with Rigoletto.

The title role is played by baritone James Westman. It is his first outing with Opera San Antonio and his first full opera production since the start of the pandemic.

I think absence makes the heart grow fonder, said Westman, who began his career as a child, touring the globe with boys choirs. It really shows how important music is to your being, for performers and for the audience. Life is short, and we need to take the time to not only smell the roses, but to hear the opera.

Westman has been connected with this production since it was originally slated to be presented in May 2020. It was rescheduled and then canceled a second time. Hes pleased to finally be able to sing the role here in San Antonio.

Its due, he said.

Andriana Chuchman, who plays Rigolettos doomed daughter Gilda, also has been tied to the production since its original dates. It was supposed to be her first portrayal of the role, but because of the delay, its now her second. In January, she was asked to step into the Metropolitan Operas staging for a performance when the soprano originally cast as Gilda fell ill.

Its a very new role for me, Chuchman said. Im still making discoveries vocally and character-wise.

Like her fellow Canadian Westman, she is making her Opera San Antonio debut. She has worked with Westman, Meeker and Santiago Ballerini, who plays the Duke, in the past. And she knows Milioto socially, though theyve never worked together before.

Its so wonderful to do a production with people you know and enjoy being around as humans, never mind onstage, she said. Its a really great group, and so talented.

Milioto echoed that sentiment, noting that the production is coming together in an environment of camaraderie and kindness, as well as top-flight talent.

The entire team is eager to share what theyve been working on with audiences, he said.

The true day will be the be day we open the doors to the Tobin and we let everybody in and you hear the orchestra warming up, and you go backstage and theres not six people but 60 people warming up and singing and playing, he said. This is the day that we live for.

dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN
A huge Kendall County property just outside of the city of Boerne  or about five minutes from a George Strait-owned Hill Country resort  may soon change hands.

The Less Ranch, a 2,269-acre tract of land just off Texas 46 complete with creeks, springs and a dramatic cave, has hit the market this week for $54 million, according to a listing by Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales.

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The Less Ranch has been owned by Greli and John Less for nearly 70 years.

Among the ranchs neighbors is the Strait-owned Tapatio Springs Hill Country Resort. The propertys southwest boundary borders the Kronkosky State Natural Area.

Its so rare to find something this large with its proximity to San Antonio, Dullnig told the Express-News. The ranch is about 20 minutes from the Alamo City.

Its refreshing too to see one that is so untouched, Dullnig added. As impressive as it sits now, its unique to find a semi-blank canvas, where it could be turned into something more polished.

Courtesy of Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales

The propertys main 3,200-square-foot limestone home is believed to have been built in 1935, according to the listing. The living and dining rooms each have rock fireplaces and are complete with knotty pine boards and vaulted beamed ceilings.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Courtesy of Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy of Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Courtesy of Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales Show More Show Less





Theres also a 400-square-foot covered porch and a concrete-floored basement beneath the fully equipped kitchen. The adjoining garage and workshop are about 924-square-feet.

The 1,280-square-foot guest house is made of native rock veneer with a concrete beam foundation and concrete piers. It features four bedrooms and two baths.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas barbecue chain failed to pay employees nearly $900k in tips and overtime

The large living room and kitchen are positioned in the center, accented with a rock fireplace, and a loft above each set of bedrooms. There is a 336-square-foot porch offering views and access to the swimming pool.

There is also a 1,109-square-foot caretakers house. This building has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a foot porch. Theres also a barn and a shed on the property.

Courtesy of Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales

The property has both low perimeter fencing and high perimeter fencing. There is also a scenic paved road from the entrance to the house. Several dams are located on the creek.

Creek tributaries and lakes are found throughout the property. Over a mile of the Frederick Creek traverses the northeast side of the property. It provides two lakes and runs through the ranch for 4 miles, and includes 2 miles of other springs, seeps and drainages. Several stock ponds are also found on the property.

Courtesy of Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales

Courtesy of Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales

The ranch is also highlighted by a dramatic cave with an artesian-type water feature, discharging an estimated 19,000 gallons of water a day and captured for decades in a 40,000-gallon cistern. The water feature flows continuously into an old spring box from the top of the cave.

The water is captured and provides water to the home and lakes, which is supplemented by an electric well.

The property also boasts of light hunting opportunities for whitetail deer, Axis deer, turkeys, dove and hogs. The water features also provide plenty of opportunities for fishing and duck hunting, according to the listing.

Courtesy of Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales

Courtesy of Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales

Courtesy of Robert Dullnig of Dullnig Ranch Sales

timothy.fanning@express-news.net
SAN MARCOS  Former police Sgt. Ryan Hartman said he was unable to complete administrative tasks for his job due to trauma and depression resulting from an off-duty collision that killed one woman and wounded another, according to testimony he provided during his arbitration hearing Tuesday.

The fired sergeant gave several statements about his mental health struggles during the second day of the two-day hearing, in which he is trying to get his job back and receive back pay more than three months after he was fired.

Hartmans testimony closed out the hearing Tuesday. The fate of his job reinstatement and back pay is now in the hands of arbitrator Bill Detwiler, who presided over the courtroom-like arbitration hearing Monday and Tuesday. Detwiler is expected to come to a decision by July 10.

Hartman was suspended indefinitely in January after a series of missteps and history of poor decision making during his time as a supervisor in the department, said his former boss, police Chief Stan Standridge, who also testified Tuesday. Standridge testified that he was fired after he failed to complete several tasks required of him in his role as police sergeant, including employee evaluations, supplemental reports for murders and car wrecks, and other documents related to his duties.

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Hartman was employed with the San Marcos Police Department for 14 years before his indefinite suspension, the functional equivalent to termination, on Jan. 18. He has appealed his suspension under Chapter 143 of the Texas Local Government Code, which allows fired police officers and firefighters to appeal their terminations. He is seeking to be reinstated to the department and receive back pay.

During the hearing Monday and Tuesday, Hartmans attorney claimed that he was fired not for failing to complete administrative paperwork, but due to the negative media attention surrounding the June 2020 fatal wreck.

On June 10, 2020, Hartman admitted that while driving his personal truck in Lockhart, he ran a stop sign and hit a Honda Accord driven by Pam Watts, according to police reports. Watts passenger and partner, Jennifer Miller, was killed in the collision, and Watts was injured seriously.

A half-full beer can was found in Hartmans truck, but a blood test several hours after the wreck found no evidence of alcohol in his system. Hartman was uninjured in the wreck.

Hartman was suspended with pay for nearly six months following the wreck, but he was reinstated to the Police Department after a grand jury declined to indict him for criminally negligent homicide in November 2020. His attorney said that the crash amounts to a minor traffic violation on Hartmans official record.

Hartman on the wreck

In his first public comments about the collision, Hartman said while being questioned by his own attorney Tuesday afternoon that he was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after the wreck. He said he lost sleep and lacked focus following the crash, which caused him to not complete administrative paperwork on time.

Hartman testified that trauma, stress, anxiety, negative media attention, negative social media, and mental health struggles caused his delay in completing paperwork, along with his own failure of time management and organizing skills.

Standridge, the police chief, testified Tuesday morning that Hartman was more than a year late completing certain reports despite constant prodding from his superiors.

On ExpressNews.com: Pariah cop who killed woman in off-duty wreck fights for job back

Hartman became emotional at one point during his testimony, in which he was asked if he was the real victim in the crash by his attorney, Alyssa Urban, a staff attorney for Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas. Hartman said he wasnt the real victim.

Jennifer Miller and her family and friends, and Pam Watts and her family and friends are the true victims, he said. He also added that he had not apologized to either of the victims families due to criminal and civil law proceedings that got underway after the crash.

Hartman said he should have been disciplined for failing to complete paperwork on time, but he believes he was fired due to the off-duty crash and pressure from people at City Hall and within the Police Department following the crash.

What I did was wrong, I should have done better, completed things on time, but I believe they used this to terminate me rather than appropriately discipline me, he said.

Standridge on Hartman

Hartmans former boss, Standridge, testified for four and a half hours Tuesday morning, also providing his first public comments on the June 2020 collision, as well as other incidents that he said ultimately led to Hartmans dismissal.

Standridge testified that Hartman failed multiple times in his role as a supervisor in the department, notwithstanding the off-duty crash.

Standridge, who assumed the role of police chief in November 2020  five months after the fatal collision  said he was surprised that the Police Department had not conducted its own internal investigation into the crash, even as the criminal investigation was ongoing that ultimately determined Hartman was not criminally negligent for homicide.

Standridge called the failure to do an internal investigation a significant misstep.

Based on my years of experience, thats a huge mistake, he said.

On ExpressNews.com: After cop fired, wreck survivor still seeks justice for her late partner

Despite not having done an internal investigation, Standridge said he reinstated Hartman to the department in December 2020 after significant due process. He also testified that he called Millers mother in California and Watts, the survivor, to let them know personally he was putting Hartman back on the force.

He said Watts told him that she would not rest until he (Hartman) loses his job.

Standridge went on to testify that despite being in a supervisory position, Hartman failed to act like a supervisor. In an incident in January 2021, for instance, Hartman arrived at the scene of a high-speed car chase and instead of being a supervisor and supervising the scene, he pulled out his Taser and approached the suspect, despite it being department policy that police officers should never approach dangerous suspects in that manner.

This shocked me, Standridge said, adding that Hartmans actions during the Taser incident were poor tactics.

Internal documents later would show that Hartman deployed his Taser on the suspect even though he had his hands up and was complying fully with police commands. Hartman, testifying after Standridge on Tuesday, said that the suspects hands were in his pocket and he turned his back to officers.

On ExpressNews.com: Fired San Marcos cop who caused fatal wreck wants his job back

Standridge testified that he put Hartman on 40 hours of paid administrative leave and ordered him to undergo de-escalation training before returning to the field as a police sergeant.

Standridge also testified that even prior to the June 2020 fatal crash, Hartman had been reprimanded internally multiple times for insubordination, rudeness and failure to complete administrative tasks since as far back as 2017.

The arbitration hearing wrapped up at 7 p.m. Tuesday, after more than 16 hours of testimony spread out over the two days. Julia Gannaway, the attorney hired by the city of San Marcos for $35,000 in February, argued for the Police Department that Hartman should not be reinstated to his position or receive back pay.

Decision in months

Detwiler, the arbitrator, will now go over hundreds of documents, dozens of audio recordings, and the testimony provided Monday and Tuesday to decide whether Hartmans missteps as a sergeant in a supervisory role should have amounted to termination.

Detwilers decision is expected between June 10 and July 10.

If Hartman is successful in his appeal, he will resume his former job title and duties with the San Marcos Police Department and receive back pay for the time he was suspended indefinitely.

It isnt clear exactly how much back pay he will receive if hes successful in his appeal. Public records show that as of 2019, he was being paid $41.46 per hour as a police sergeant.

Testimony revealed Hartman was paid out a little more than $31,000 upon his termination, for accrued sick leave and vacation pay.

Annie Blanks writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. annie.blanks@express-news.net
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Engineers and stone specialists will remove the top panels of the Alamo Cenotaph this summer to visually inspect the historic 56-foot-tall structure.

Theyll also drop cameras inside to gauge damage to the 1930s monument. The location of the piece, titled The Spirit of Sacrifice and featuring the carvings of artist Pompeo Coppini, has been a source of controversy  at one point grinding to a halt plans for a $400 million, public-private makeover of the historic mission and battle site.

But Alamo officials emphasized during an update this week to the Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee that the memorial to the nearly 200 Alamo defenders will not be moved from its spot in the northern section of Alamo Plaza, as was once proposed.

For several years, officials have documented shifts and cracks in the Cenotaphs exterior marble panels. In August or September, crews will place scaffolding around the structure and remove the top to assess damage to the interior, including a concrete frame, possibly caused by rainwater penetration. Previous studies found that the damage, if left untreated, could result in a public safety hazard and fracturing of the sculpted images.

On ExpressNews.com: Alamo opens exhibits as battle anniversary approaches

The stones are shifting a little bit. We have to do something to help the Cenotaph without moving it, said Tom Butler, associate vice president of Broaddus & Associates, the projects program manager.

Previous plans to move the Cenotaph 500 feet south of its current location were met with strong opposition from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other Texans. The city and Alamo Trust had asked for a permit in 2020 to deconstruct, repair and reassemble the marble-exterior Cenotaph on a new frame near the Menger Hotel.

Proponents of the move said it would provide needed open space in the plaza for programming. But the Texas Historical Commission voted 12-2 against relocation of the monument, and several fundraisers backed out of the project.

Under new leadership and a reset announced in March 2021 by Mayor Ron Nirenberg, the project was reworked to keep the Cenotaph in place. Since then, the Alamo renovation has regained momentum.

Sam Owens, Staff Photographer / San Antonio Express-News

Alamo officials assured the committee the Cenotaph will be treated with care as they examine the damage.

Information gathered during an expected two-month inspection of the monument will guide the Alamo Trust and the city in developing a repair plan.

In other updates on the project:

Former Councilwoman Rebeca Viagran, tri-chair of the citizen panel, said the new reverent zone noise restrictions in place for this years Fiesta street parades had mixed results. While some bands and floats stopped playing live or amplified music when entering the historic mission-fort footprint, others didnt. It was a trial year under the new rules for the Battle of Flowers Parade on April 8 and Fiesta Flambeau Parade on April 9.

There were people that adhered to the reverent zone, and there were many more that did not, unfortunately, Viagran said.

Sam Owens, Staff Photographer / San Antonio Express-News

Leaders of the Alamo project will resume discussions on the matter with the Fiesta Commission and parade organizers.

A yearlong study of moisture movement inside the walls of the Alamo Church is near completion and will guide repairs and preservation of the fragile, nearly 300-year-old structure, Butler said. Experts have been injecting high-strength grout into voids inside historic walls at the complex.

Project leaders are about to enter a detailed design phase for the Plaza de Valero, the pedestrian area immediately south of Alamo Plaza. A planned exhibit re-creating the main gate of the mission-fort is in design. East Crockett Street has been converted to a paved and landscaped pedestrian area between the Alamo and Menger Hotel.

On ExpressNews.com: Alamo Church, Cenotaph to get critical repairs

A design team is working through challenges to preserve the historic Crockett and Woolworth buildings on the west side of Alamo Plaza as part of a 100,000-square-foot visitor center and museum. The museum is set to open in time for the 190th anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 2026.

Work is set to begin in the fall to convert Alamo Hall, a restored 1922 city fire station and the adjoining 1950 former library into an education center with classroom, studio and lecture space. A 24,000-square-foot exhibit hall and collections building is under construction on the grounds set for completion late this year.

Viagran hailed the Alamos recent inaugural Toribio Losoya Day on April 16 a success. The observance near the birthday of Jose Toribio Losoya, the only Alamo defender born at the former mission, on April 11, 1808, will continue annually as part of the Alamos commitment to diversity.

When we tell all of the stories, that means we get a better holistic story for all of us in the community to see themselves, said Viagran, a direct descendant of Domingo Losoya, Toribios uncle.

shuddleston@express-news.net
Historical markers, like history books, dont acknowledge the whole of history.

So much thats important gets left out. Too much.

Bexar County will chip away at that when a new Texas historical marker is erected in Padre Park near Mission San Jose.

It may be installed in 2023, earlier if work progresses quickly, though a spot for it hasnt been decided. The exact wording has yet to be approved.

The marker will acknowledge a Native American language spoken in this area thousands of years before the Spanish arrived. Pajalate, pronounced pa-ha-lat, was the common language of the Coahuiltecan peoples.

The Old River Heritage Group, a loosely knit group of neighbors near the mission, did the legwork to get an application in front of the Texas Historical Commission last November.

At its last meeting in February, the commission approved the marker along with 14 others statewide in its Undertold Markers Program. It looks for historical gaps and underrepresented people, places and stories.

Documents submitted to the THC say Pajalate is considered the only surviving language of what once were dozens and possibly hundreds of languages and dialects spoken by the indigenous Coahuiltecan and other peoples in the region that today includes San Antonio and Bexar County.

Groups of Coahuiltecans lived in an expansive area encompassing northeastern Mexico and South Texas.

Their descendants, perhaps more than 100,000, remain among us. Some know of their ancestral heritage and others are unaware of it, said Mickey Killian, a founder and elder of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, whos on the Bexar County Historical Commission and advised the Old River Heritage Group.

Pajalate wasnt a written language but was considered the lingua franca, or common language, used by Coahuiltecan groups.

Its being studied in San Antonio. Tap Pilams language preservation project has been teaching Pajalate for years, especially to children, and using it in ceremonial songs and prayers. Tap Pilam translates to people of the earth in Pajalate.

Its language director Miguel Acosta has studied at the University of Arizona under linguist Rudolph Troike, a Brownsville native considered a leading expert of Pajalate, said Ramon Vasquez, executive director of Tap Pilams nonprofit advocacy agency American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions.

Its a fascinating language, Vasquez said, noting that its considered a language isolate, thus unrelated to any other known language.

The THC application made note of this as well. This means Pajalate is an ancient language, developed and spoken for probably thousands of years before the Spanish arrived.

That it was the lingua franca also means Coahuiltecans were at least bilingual, engaging in multiple dialects, especially in trade and commerce, Vasquez said.

Recognizing a language in a visual manner can be difficult. Historical markers, by nature, point to architectural structures, or a specific site or event.

Virginia Rutledge, a member of the Old River Heritage Group, said our pitch included the fact that we dont have or need any particular place, because the Coahuiltecans inhabited all of this place.

The Spanish used it for about 50 years to evangelize, printing bilingual documents about Catholic sacraments in Spanish and Pajalate in Mexico City in 1760, she said. But shortly thereafter, historical records show the church administration ordering suppression of indigenous languages.

In 1732, another document handwritten by Fray Gabriel de Vergara contained a Spanish-Pajalate glossary.

When the historical marker project came before the Bexar County Historical Commission last fall, it got a unanimous endorsement.

In a prepared statement, Chairman Tim Draves celebrated the news, saying Bexar County will have the states only marker about a language.

He said, No community in Texas has a more fascinating cultural heritage than Bexar County.

Agreed.

But a city that uses cultural heritage and diversity to sell itself to tourists hasnt done enough, not nearly.

It has yet to properly acknowledge its on indigenous land.

The citys 10-day Fiesta showed us that in more than 100 years, San Antonio has failed to desegregate and extricate itself from an anti-Mexican past.

This historical marker is one more step toward harder, loftier goals.

Big leaps are critical, but so are smaller ones, as is supporting Tap Pilams ongoing work, which is funded in part by its annual Cactus Blossom Mission Heritage Dinner on May 21.

eayala@express-news.net
Former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte could barely move one toe after being hit by a car while she attempted to walk across a street in Florida three weeks ago.

As she was being discharged from the rehabilitation unit at University Hospital on Wednesday, Van de Putte, 67, reported shes now learning to walk again. Van de Putte is moving to the Remington Transitional Care Facility to continue her recovery.

In her first Facebook post since the incident, Van de Putte said she believes, Our Lord and the Holy Spirit, Our Blessed Mother were with me at the very instant the auto hit me.

I never felt any pain at impact or landing, Van de Putte posted. When I see any of you personally, I will tell you about my experiencebecause I am blessed beyond any words I can describe.

On ExpressNews.com: Witness: Van de Putte cartwheeled in the air, tossed like a ragdoll when hit by SUV in Florida

The accident happened on the afternoon of April 3 when Van de Putte was walking in a designated crosswalk while she had a pedestrian signal indicating it was time for her to cross. While she was in the crosswalk, she was struck by a 2017 Nissan Armada driven by an Illinois man, who was making a right turn.

Van de Putte was thrown at least 10 feet horizontally and landed on her head in a roadway, one witness told the San Antonio Express-News. She suffered fractures to her pelvic area, two broken ribs, compressed vertebrae in her lower back, a subdural hematoma of the brain and lacerations to her arms and legs.

Van de Putte, a well-known Democrat, served 24 years in the Texas Legislature, both as a state representative and a state senator. She ran for Texas lieutenant governor in 2014, but lost that election. She narrowly lost an election for San Antonio mayor in 2015.

pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: @Peggy_OHare
The debate over tree preservation continues as city staffers and concerned residents met for another public meeting about the contentious Brackenridge Park restoration project.

At the Witte Museum, the San Antonio Parks and Recreation and Public Works departments hosted a second community meeting Tuesday evening to gather input regarding the Brackenridge Park project, which is included in the 2017-22 bond package and calls for removing dozens of trees from the park. The city started the meeting by apologizing for its miscommunication about the projects objectives related to a rookery  or breeding ground  of egrets in the park, which has become one of the most contentious issues to arise from the project.

City staff has repeatedly told residents that the project has nothing to do with the birds, an assertion that residents challenged after one of them requested the official description from the city that was submitted to the Historic and Design Review Commission in February.

According to that description, the proposed tree removal plan had a dual purpose: to prevent further damage to the above ground historic structures and to prevent rookeries from developing and causing an unhealthy environment.

I want to validate what you said about the birds, Assistant City Manager David McCary said. We wrote [the project description] ourselves. It was our mistake. But we have to own it.

On ExpressNews.com: New Brackenridge Park renovation plan in the works to preserve more native trees

Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer

City staff has since said that they do not know who inserted the language about rookeries in the project description. They said it does not appropriately describe the project, which they reiterated has nothing to do with the birds.

Rather, they said, the project is meant to restore and preserve the northern side of the parks historic markers, such as the River Walls built in 1920 and the 1870 Pump House, which are listed on the National Register for Historic Places.

To complete the project, however, the city must remove 105 trees, including 10 heritage trees, which are deemed irreplaceable for their size and rarity  a detail that wasnt widely understood until earlier this year. Since then, residents have challenged the city and called for tree preservation and compromise on the park project.

Others have questioned the citys motives and have accused the city of attempting to destroy the egret rookery, which should be protected.

The project has since been delayed until later this year to allow for further public discourse. Four public meetings were scheduled.

Alesia Garlock, a San Antonio resident and wildlife advocate, played a video during Tuesdays meeting that showed U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services personnel, who are working with the city, banging blocks together to scare away birds nesting in the trees. She said the banging reaches 120 decibels and is harmful for park attendees and children. She said theyve been there every day for weeks.

Garlock and other advocates coined the phrase stop the chop and have visited the park frequently to keep an eye on the citys work.

Daniel Armstrong, an artist and fellow wildlife advocate, also spoke about the birds at the meeting and presented a painting he made of dead egrets hanging from trees at the San Antonio Zoo, which is next to the project site.

He is concerned that the birds  scared by the banging blocks  will flee to the zoo, where they are not welcomed either.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio residents score small victory in fight over heritage trees at Brackenridge Park

Rachel Wilkins, the project manager for the Brackenridge Park design team, said that while the project was never motivated by the birds, their presence was an issue to be dealt with.

If anything, we didnt want the birds to nest in the trees because we knew that we might be endangering their habitat, Wilkins said. The bird issue was never even brought up to the design team other than the fact that the Parks Department will need to figure out what to do with them if the trees need to come down.

She said the banging blocks are a means to get the birds to move so that if the trees are removed, they and their eggs wont be in danger. If the birds have nests there, they might try to defend them.

Other residents at the meeting expressed concerns that the 2017-22 bond package did not originally mention the removal of trees as part of the Brackenridge Park restoration project, which felt misleading to residents, and that the city did not consult the Indigenous community before beginning work on the park.

For members of the Indigenous community, the park is part of their creation story, where the San Antonio River  or yanaguana as Payaya people call it  and the Blue Hole at Incarnate Word are culturally significant elements of their identity.

These parks are really an ecosystem for all the residents, for the wildlife, for tourists, for everyone, said Grace Rose Gonzales, a San Antonio resident. Its an ecosystem that is very delicate, and it hasnt been maintained for a very, very long time. And I blame the past leadership for not taking care of it.

Gonzales and others have expressed intentions not to vote for the 2022 bond this coming election, stemming from their recently formed distrust in city government.

Im very skeptical of city bonds now, said Terry G, a San Antonio resident. Im not sure I can vote for another one.

In response, McCary said that if voters approve the upcoming bond, the staff will revisit all the parks projects and ensure the process is more inclusive.

On ExpressNews.com: Brackenridge Park split draws attention as San Antonio City Council looks at proposed map

Members of the Brackenridge Park Conservancy also attended the meeting to voice concerns about the project being further delayed.

Lewis Fisher, a board member at the conservancy and author of a book about the park, said that reversing the decline of Brackenridge  which was relatively well-maintained until the Great Depression  is an enormous task and that supporting the bond project is critical to its future.

Lukin Gilliland, vice president of the conservancy, said he supports the public process but that time is of the essence for the project.

Delaying the repairs on the walls can lead to collapse and impact the integrity of the river to safely convey floodwater and cause for erosion and mange to the trees and to the banks along the river, said Suzanne Scott, state director for The Nature Conservancy in Texas. It is critical that the plan achieve a balance between the safety of the people and the structures in the park and the health and well-being of the river and the habitat in the area.

Some have pushed to move the historic walls forward rather than cut down the trees, which Wilkins said may be under consideration, though there are concerns about how that course of action would affect the parks floodplain. She said an independent team of contractors was hired to evaluate whether its possible to move the trees.

The overall impression among most residents who attended the meeting was that it went better than the last one, at which residents didnt have a chance to speak. The next meeting will be May 24, at which time city staff and the project team will go over residents concerns and start crafting a plan. The last meeting will be in June.

Nevertheless, some remain frustrated.

Id like to know what theyre actually going to do with these comments, Garlock said. We want our questions answered.

Elena Bruess writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. elena.bruess@express-news.net

Editors note: A previous version of this article misspelled the last name of Lewis Fisher.
A man was found shot to death in a home on the East Side early Sunday morning was identified by the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office.

Castatroy Keith Barnett, 22, was found dead around 4:50 a.m. in the in the 1200 block of Paso Hondo Street, San Antonio police said.

On ExpressNews.com: Two teens charged with murder in deadly shooting near Ingram Mall

A friend of Barnetts found his body and alerted police. Officers arrived to find him on the floor with gunshot wounds.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. No new details were released in the case as of Tuesday.

jbeltran@express-news.net | @JBfromSA
The Southwest Independent School District board election has familiar faces, with two incumbents facing challengers who have made previous runs  and all of them are focused on the pandemics damage to budgets, enrollment and attendance.

The boards president, Sylvester Vasquez Jr., and Ida Sudolcan, the vice president, are seeking reelection May 7 to two at-large seats also sought by Raul Leonidas Nuques and Stefanie Salinas.

All the candidates said the board must grapple with the pandemics fallout, and that the districts financial challenges overlap with an increasing need to find ways to better support teachers and staff.

Salinas and Nuques both ran and lost in 2021. They are running independently and both cited a need for change. They want to see more communication between the board and the community, inclusive elections and maybe a switch to board seats representing single-member districts.

Vasquez, 63, was first elected to the board in 2000, and Sudolcan in 2003. They teamed up to run as a slate this year, citing a need to maintain stability on the board.

Photo courtesy of Southwest ISD

Our board has been so together for 22 years, until now, Vasquez said. Theres a little divisiveness now, which is OK on a board. But you need somebody to continue moving that board forward.

Vasquez said he likes to remind trustees that its not about liking each other, but respecting each other and the decisions of the majority. After beating cancer and receiving a kidney transplant, he had thought about not seeking another term but he wants to see completion of the districts 2018 bond projects and prepare for its future growth.

The pandemic put the brakes on enrollment at Southwest ISD. It peaked at 13,864 students in the 2019-2020 school year, but dropped in 2020-2021 to 13,474, and then to 13,325 this school year.

Now its time to make everyone feel comfortable again in the classroom, and thats including staff and our children, and letting them know that it is OK to come back, Vasquez said.

Although the district has changed, Vasquez and Sudolcan said it has worked to maintain its familia attitude, which helps retain teachers and staff.

Matthew Busch, Freelance Photographer / Matthew Busch

You have to support them, you have to give them the staff they need, Sudolcan said. Appreciation goes a long way. We also started doing a retention incentive we gave like $1,000 around December, so we are thinking of doing that again at the end of the summer.

Its not like its a ton of money but its to say, We appreciate you.

Photo Courtesy of Southwest ISD

Hiring additional support staff and offering better pay is always on their wish list but trustees need to prepare to do more with less, she said, as decreases in enrollment and attendance means less funding.

We have a challenge of really being wise with our money, Sudolcan said. Weve had the trust of the community to be able to pass bonds but with a climate like today where all the districts that went out for bonds last election, they all lost, so a big challenge is going to be to maintain that trust.

Sudolcan, 57, said she has never seen outside politics intruding so deeply on the board, both in its elections and decision-making, including city and county politicians endorsing candidates.

In the last couple of elections weve had more of that, Sudolcan said. And we just dont like it we just want to keep it about Southwest.

Salinas, 46, who works in customer service at Apple, lost her 2021 race by about 100 votes. She said raising children and now grandchildren in the district has pushed her to stay connected through volunteer work and she wants to make sure the district does everything it can to address the social and emotional wellbeing of students and even staff.

Through the pandemic I saw lots of room to get better, not only for our students but for our teachers, Salinas said.

The pandemic uncovered the true value of educators and now its time to enable them and arm them with everything they could possibly need, she said, especially now that kids are coming back into classrooms with a different set of needs and opportunities for improvement.

Part of the change Salinas would like to see is more community engagement, and she would push for quarterly community listening sessions so the board can hear feedback.

Courtesy Photo

I think we need to get back to the root of realizing that as a board we work for our community, Salinas said. So, we need to hear them and we need to meet them where they are at.

Raul Nuques, 45, has 14 years of experience in education administrative roles, including the past three years at the Windham School District run by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

After living in Southwest ISD for five years, he said he is also seeking to have a more transparent board, more specific information on its meeting agendas and perhaps a trustee who represents each region of the growing district.

And when it comes to discussions, the board of trustees, all they do is vote yes, and vote yes, on whatever the recommendation is and there are no questions, Nuques said. And thats where I come in. As an administrator I will question everything.

Feedback from teachers is key, he said, along with program consistency, especially when it comes to curriculum and instruction. This would allow the district to choose programs that can be backed by data or are better suited for the needs of their students and staff.

If the teachers are asking for a program, then show us the data that shows us their growth, Nuques said.

Early voting ends May 3. For voting locations and additional Southwest ISD election information visit the district website here.

Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Raul Nuques had lived five years in Somerset ISD.

danya.perez@express-news.net | @DanyaPHnnn
The owner of a San Antonio adult day care was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for her role in a scheme to steal millions from Texas Medicaid and Social Security, the Department of Justice said.

Scherry Lynn Moses, 54, pleaded guilty in March 2020 to one count of health care fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of theft of government funds. Moses owned and operated multiple Scherrys Adult Day Care centers in the San Antonio area, including properties used as boarding homes mainly for elderly people or people with disabilities.

Officials said many of the people Moses provided services to were receiving benefits under the Texas Medicaid program or the federal Supplemental Security Income program. Moses fraudulently billed the Texas Medicaid program for items and services that were never provided to the day care clients, a federal complaint said.

Moses eight-year scheme resulted in nearly $1.8 million in losses for the programs, the DOJ said.

On ExpressNews.com: Investors allege San Antonio-area woman  the Queen of Mobile Homes  is running a Ponzi scheme

In at least one instance, Moses billed Medicaid for services she claimed to provide to a recipient who was incarcerated in the Bexar County Jail at the time.

Moses also took Social Security benefits that were allocated for housing to use for personal gain, such as taking trips to Louisiana to visit casinos, leaving her residents without supervision or access to their money.

She rented properties for up to $2,500 but collected up to $7,000 from the Social Security beneficiaries for room and board. At her properties, called the New Creation Residential Care Homes, she was supposed to provide at least two meals per day, pay utilities and provide boarders with a monthly allowance, but she often failed to provide adequate and consistent care and often left residents to fend for themselves, the DOJ said.

Moses also placed up to seven boarders on one property, despite state laws prohibiting more than three elderly or disabled residents in an establishment, the federal complaint said.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas man sent to prison for $1.5 million Apple scheme

Many of the boarders were forcibly evicted because Moses stopped paying rent on their rooms and moved the beneficiaries to multiple motels around the city, failing to report the money received or the evictions to the Social Security Administration.

In 2011, the state denied Moses application to renew her license to operate her day care center on WW White Road as a day activity and health services facility due to violations of the Texas Life and Safety Code, but she ignored the denial and continued to offer and bill for DAHS services, the federal complaint said. In 2014, her Houston Street facility closed and she was evicted for not paying rent but used the DAHS license for that facility and passed it off as the license for the WW White facility.

taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
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An Austin businesswoman accused in a murder-for-hire plot told an undercover San Antonio police detective to do whatever to kill her boyfriends sister in 2017, according to testimony in a trial that began Tuesday.

Angelica Navarro-DePaz was 40 when she was arrested shortly afterward on a charge of solicitation of capital murder with remuneration.

The Docket: Local crime and courtroom news, delivered to your inbox weekly

The detective testified that he picked up Navarro-DePaz from a Mexican restaurant, posing as a hit man, and she told him she wanted him to kill Anayeli Mendoza Flores because of a betrayal.

The Express-News is not naming the detective to protect his cover. Questioned by prosecutor Nicole Phillips, he walked the jury through several recorded phone messages and a video shot from inside his vehicle on July 20, 2017, that recorded Navarro-DePaz talking to him in Spanish.

She said the woman was poor, didnt really have a lot, the detective said.

Robin Jerstad / Robin Jerstad

On ExpressNews.com: SAPD: S.A. businesswoman tried to hire undercover officer to kill relative for $1,700

Jurors followed an English transcript while the video played a few minutes at a time, with Phillips asking the detective to summarize what Navarro-DePaz said.

She said, I dont care how she dies or if she suffers or not. I just want her gone, whatever is easiest for us to do, the detective told the court.

While in his car, Navarro-DePaz asked the purported hit man about another possible job, wondering if he could kill a woman in Mexico who had raised her son since birth and stating that once she was out of the way, she could get her son back, the detective said.

Police have said their investigation began when a confidential informant contacted a drug task force at the San Antonio Police Department and told them that Navarro-DePaz was looking to hire someone to kill another woman in her family.

It led to a first meeting between the detective and Navarro-Paz at the Mexican restaurant on NW Loop 410, and a second meeting inside South Park Mall on Aug. 15, 2017. The two settled on a price of $1,700 to kill Anayeli Mendoza Flores, the detective testified.

Navarro-DePaz paid $850 up front, promising the remainder when the job was done, according to police. She was arrested shortly after she drove away.

Robin Jerstad / Robin Jerstad

Navarro-DePazs defense team established that she was married to another man but in a relationship with Brandon Mendoza Flores, who worked on some San Antonio rent properties she owned, and that his sister had lived in one of the houses rent-free, trashing it when she left.

The defense said DePaz provided a home, food and shelter and tried to help Anayeli Mendoza Flores but things went bad between the women, repeatedly suggesting while questioning police witnesses that maybe she didnt mean to kill her.

Shortly before the undercover officer testified, Det. Brian White, a member of the SAPD High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas detail who worked on the case, testified that he could not gauge Navarro-DePazs intent.

The words she said in the recordings are enough, he said.

The elements of the crime were met, White said. She told us how to do it, she told us when to do it.

The case is being heard before Judge Melisa Skinner in the 437th state District Court. If convicted, DePaz, now 44, faces up to life in prison.

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
Twenty Texans, including a San Antonio woman, were granted clemency by President Joe Biden in the first pardons and commutations issued during his administration.

In an announcement from the White House Tuesday, 78 people received clemency, including three pardons and 75 commutations. The decision came during Second Chance Month  an initiative aimed at providing opportunities for people with criminal records to earn a second chance.

The president commuted the sentences for those serving time for nonviolent drug offenses, plus the three pardons for individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to rehabilitation and are striving every day to give back and contribute to their communities, Biden said in a press release.

He said that many of the people would have received less severe punishments if they had been sentenced under todays guidelines.

On ExpressNews.com: Melissa Lucio gets stay of execution 2 days before scheduled killing by lethal injection

One of the three pardons was for Houston woman Betty Jo Bogans, who was convicted in 1998 of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine. She was attempting to transport drugs for her boyfriend and his accomplice, while neither of those two were detained or arrested, according to the White House.

At the time of the conviction, the now-51-year-old was a single mother with no prior record. She was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Catalina Davis, from San Antonio, was granted clemency from her conviction for conspiracy to distribute, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, and aiding and abetting the possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

On March 6, 2014, she was sentenced to 210 months in prison and five years of probation following her release. Her sentenced was later reduced to 151 months in prison.

Davis now-commuted sentenced is set to expire Tuesday, and she will serve the rest of her sentence in home confinement. She will still be on supervised release for five years following her sentence.

Like Davis, those who had their sentenced commuted Tuesday will serve the remainder of the sentences in home confinement.

These Texans were also granted clemency:

Sharon Louise Boatright from Richardson was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2016 for possession with intent to distribute.

Ramola Kaye Brown of Huntsville was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2015 for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

Mark Richard Burton of Odessa was sentenced 121 months in prison in 2016 for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distributing methamphetamine.

Nickolas Cano of Amarillo was sentenced to 140 months in prison in 2014 for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, and aiding and abetting.

Lori Jean Cross of North Richland Hills was sentenced to 120 months in prison in 2016 for conspiracy to possession with intent to distribute.

Deborah Ann Dodd of Forney was sentenced to 140 months in prison in 2015 for conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectible amount of meth.

Nova Neal Finau of Fort Worth was sentenced to 140 months in prison in 2016 for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute.

Julio Garza of Edinberg was sentenced to 240 months in prison in 2010 for possession with intent to distribute 10 kilograms of cocaine.

Stephanie Hernandez of Dallas was sentenced to 120 months in prison in 2017 for distribution of a controlled substance.

David Charles Jenkins of Beaumont was sentenced to 169 months in prison in 2011, 2012 and 2015 for charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, possession with intent to distribute, violation of supervised releas, and production of counterfeit access devices.

Brittany Krambeck of Fort Worth was sentenced to 220 months in prison in 2010 for maintaining drug involved premises.

Rosamaria Lucero of New Braunfels was sentenced to 120 months in prison in 2018 for possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and aiding and abetting.

Quang Nguyen of Houston was sentenced to 120 months in prison in 2017 for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 1,000 or more marijuana plants.

Aaron Ponce of Odessa was sentenced to 240 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distributing a controlled substance.

Rose Trujillo Rangel of Waco Texas was sentenced to 240 months in prison in 2008 for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Alejandro Reyna of Brownsville was sentenced to 210 months in prison in 2014 for importation of more than 50 grams of meth.

Fermin Serna of Rio Grande City was sentenced to 240 months in prison in 2007 for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 1,000 or more kilograms of marijuana.

James Darrell Walker of Lubbock was sentenced to 327 months in prison in 2006 for distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
Trevor Reed, a former Marine from Texas who has been detained in Russia for more than two years, was freed in a prisoner swap, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday morning.

"The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly. His safe return is a testament to the priority my Administration places on bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad," Biden said in a statement.

Reed traveled to Russia in the summer of 2019 with his Russian girlfriend to learn the language. That August, Russian police arrested him for intoxication and took him to a jail to sober up.

He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Texas Republicans have been fiercely critical of Biden for not engaging more with the Reed family. But on Wednesday, the states senior senator praised Biden.

Trevor has survived a real-life nightmare, held in a Russian prison for nearly 1000 days with little to no access to badly-needed health care or communication with his family, said U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in a statement. Im beyond relieved Trevor will return home to his family in Texas, who were relentless in the fight to secure his release and never gave up hope.

I applaud the President and the State Department officials who worked behind the scenes to secure Trevors release, as well as Congressmen [August] Pfluger and [Mike] McCaul for their efforts to keep pressure on the Administration, he added.

U.S. Rep. August Pfluger of San Angelo, who represents the Reed family, and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, who is the top Republican on foreign affairs issues, were at the center of the diplomatic fight to bring Reed home.

Biden made no mention on Wednesday of another recently arrested Texan, WNBA star Brittney Griner, who is still detained in Russia on charges of possession of hashish oil in her luggage.

This is a developing story; check back for details.

This story was originally published by the Texas Tribune.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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San Antonios police union overwhelmingly approved a new contract with the city, bringing the collective bargaining agreement one step closer to reality after a year of negotiations.

This contract approval is the result of the hard work of our Contract Negotiation Team and City leadership focusing on delivering a fair contract to police officers that protects their pay and benefits and recognizes the uniquely challenging job of law enforcement, Danny Diaz, president of the San Antonio Police Officers Association, said in a statement.

The contract still needs approval from City Council before it takes effect. A vote is scheduled for May 12. If given the green light, the agreement will run through September 2026.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio officials, police union reach tentative deal for new contract

Of the police union members who voted, 86 percent cast their ballot to approve the agreement. The other 13.6 percent voted against it, while one person abstained from voting.

In all, 1,573 members of the police union cast a vote.

Although the current agreement between the union and the city expired in September, it has remained in place under an evergreen clause. Both sides announced they had reached a tentative deal in early March.

Negotiations went notably smoother this time around than in previous years, when the dealmaking took more than two years of often contentious discussions, lawsuits and attack ads.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg, in a show of support, said the agreement meets the goals of both the city and the police union. He also referenced Diaz, the unions new leader, who is seen as having a smoother relationship with city officials than the past union president.

It is a fair contract that addresses concerns about disciplinary procedures and provides our officers with fair compensation and benefits, Nirenberg said in a statement. The officers approval is a vote of confidence in the new association leadership.

Deputy City Manager Maria Villagomez, who led the citys negotiating team, focused on bolstering disciplinary measures for officers accused of misconduct.

Police unions have garnered attention nationally since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. Activists pushing for police accountability have said unions have vast influence over the discipline process.

The city won some of the changes it sought in the tentative agreement.

I am pleased that the San Antonio Police Officers Association ratified a tentative collective bargaining agreement that not only compensates our officers for the great work they do, but ensures the disciplinary process is fair, balanced and reflects the communitys expectation that officers be held accountable for actions that undermine community trust, City Manager Erik Walsh said in a statement.

On ExpressNews.com: The making of a deal: How San Antonio officials, police union shaped new contract in roughly a year

Under the new contract, police officers must be informed 24 hours before being questioned by internal affairs  down from 48 hours in the previous contract. The internal affairs unit investigates allegations of misconduct against police officers.

Villagomez said that change allows us to schedule those interviews a lot quicker and be able to address that discipline in a more steady, fast manner.

During such an interview or interrogation, which is led by internal affairs staff, the officer involved is able to review statements, video recordings, audio recordings and photographs regarding the incident.

However, the officer wont be able to view statements or recordings from other officers being investigated  another key change from the last contract. Officers also arent able to take copies of evidence or home interrogatories  written questions that police officers used to be able to take home and return at a later date.

The deal also gives the city more power to appeal an arbitrators decision to district court.

On ExpressNews.com: Police oversight board in San Antonio lacks authority, investigative powers, researchers find

Despite smoother negotiations, the contract still faces some pushback before it reaches City Council. Leaders with ACT 4 SA, a nonprofit group focused on police reform, have said they still want to see other issues addressed.

That includes additional adjustments to the discipline process and changes to the review board to offer more civilian oversight.

I appreciate the San Antonio Police Officers Association for their willingness to work with us to set a new standard of what is possible when the City and the Union work together towards a greater goal, Walsh said.

Note: This story has been updated to correct the date for the end of the new contract.

Emilie Eaton contributed reporting.

megan.stringer@express-news.net
WASHINGTON  Staring down bipartisan outcry, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told members of Congress on Wednesday that his agency can handle the anticipated surge in migration this summer as the White House lifts a COVID-era public health order used to expel over a million immigrants at the border.

We inherited a broken and dismantled system that is already under strain. It is not built to manage the current levels and types of migratory flows. Only Congress can fix this, Mayorkas said. A significant increase in migrant encounters will strain our system even further, and we will address this challenge successfully.

President Joe Bidens DHS chief testified before two House committees Wednesday and was scheduled to appear before another on Thursday as the Biden administration responds to criticism from Republicans and a growing number of Democrats that it isnt prepared to roll back the public health order, known as Title 42, next month.

THIS WEEK: Top congressional Republicans tour border to pressure Biden over asylum rule

The administration has released a 20-page memo detailing its plans to handle a flood of up to 18,000 immigrants a day as Title 42 is lifted, adding to an already unprecedented number of people trying to enter the U.S.

The plan did little to calm the ire of Republicans, who have blamed President Joe Biden for an increase in border crossings and tore into Mayorkas, with some calling for his resignation.

I would have to say that Ive never seen the border more broken, said U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, an Austin Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. It is not under operational control. It is out of control.

Your responsibility by law is to protect the United States, McCaul said during a fiery hearing Wednesday afternoon. You have failed in this mission, when it comes to our land border. My state and our Texas guardsman that died saving two narco traffickers  you are complicit, the administration is complicit with that last leg of human trafficking, because you end that trip.

Yet the plan Mayorkas detailed for managing the influx of immigrants  most of them seeking asylum  appeared to appease at least one of the Democrats who has urged Biden to reconsider ending Title 42.

Your plan you laid out, actually, I think it could work, said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat who has warned since last March that the Biden administration was ill-prepared to respond to the surge.

U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of California, the top Democrat on the subcommittee, was sympathetic to Mayorkas claim that Congress had dropped the ball.

We have seen migration surges during Republican and Democratic administrations and Congresses, with no long-term correlation to policy trends, she said. Immigration reform would not solve all of our problems at the border, but without reform, we are knowingly accepting a status quo that has become increasingly untenable.

Plan includes fast-track for asylum seekers

The administrations plan includes surging resources to the border, more efficiently processing asylum seekers and bolstering nongovernmental organizations that provide food and shelter to migrants.

The memo says U.S. Customs and Border Protection currently has 23,000 agents and officers working on the southern border. By May 23, when the order lifts, the agency will be prepared to hold about 18,000 migrants in custody at any given time, up from 13,000 at the beginning of 2021, the memo says. It says the agency has encountered more than 7,800 migrants per day on average over the last three weeks and expects that figure to rise when the order lifts.

The administration has also proposed an overhaul of the asylum system that would allow officers to adjudicate cases on the border, rather than having asylum seekers wait years for their claims to be heard in courts. Mayorkas said the rule would be a game-changer. On average, he said, asylum claims take six to eight years to work through the courts. Under Bidens proposal, officers on the border could clear the cases in less than a year.

Bidens border plan also calls for more aggressive crackdowns on those without legitimate asylum claims, including expediting their removal from the U.S., and for working with nations south of the border to deter migration to the U.S.

The memo touts the largest surge of resources and disruptive activities against human smuggling networks in recent memory, including some 250 special agents and criminal analysts tasked with investigating criminal organizations along the border. It says Homeland Security agents made 12,920 criminal arrests and seized more than 2.4 million pounds of drugs, including 14,530 pounds of fentanyl, from October 2020 through October 2021, up from 1.4 million pounds the year before.

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Mayorkas is also set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The appearances come on the heels of a scathing letter signed by House Republicans that questioned whether Mayorkas was upholding his oath of office.

You have a constitutional obligation to use all means available to protect our nations border, said the letter, co-led by U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, a Woodville Republican. You continue to fail to do so. This raises serious questions about your commitment to securing our Homeland and the oath you took when taking office.

Mayorkas repeatedly stressed that Title 42 is not an immigration policy, but a public health effort to contain the coronavirus. He sought to put the current migration crisis in a global perspective, noting that the pandemic exacerbated the problems already plaguing Central and South American nations, including poverty, corruption and natural disasters, that have displaced millions in the Western hemisphere.

It is very important, I think, that everyone understands that an increase in migration flows is not something unique to the United States, Mayorkas said.

A significant increase in migrant encounters will strain our system even further, and we will address this challenge successfully, he said. But it will take time, and we need the partnership of Congress, state and local officials, NGOs and communities to do so.

Title 42 was issued by the Trump administration in 2020 to contain the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this month determined that the order was no longer necessary, given lower infection numbers and the increased availability of COVID vaccines and therapeutics.

Its future is unclear, however, after a federal judge in Louisiana on Wednesday issued an order halting the administrations efforts to wind it down for 14 days at the request of Republican states. Texas is not among those states, as Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a separate lawsuit last week.

ben.wermund@chron.com
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The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on the state of Texas' legal challenge to keep in place the Trump-era remain in Mexico policy, which forces asylum seekers to wait outside the country for their immigration hearings.

Some of the justices appeared reluctant to weigh in on foreign policy issues raised by the case, as the program relies on Mexicos cooperation.

Judges, this is above your pay grade, Justice Stephen Breyer said. Stay out of it as much as you can.

Immediately after taking office, President Joe Biden suspended new enrollments in the program, formally known as Migrant Protection Protocols, and within months, the administration formally shut it down. That prompted lawsuits from Texas and Missouri. So far, a Texas district judge and federal appellate court have sided with the states.

BACKGROUND: White House requests Supreme Court review decision to continue Trump-era border policy

Much is at stake for the Biden Administration, which was dealt a blow Monday when a federal judge temporarily blocked it from ending another Trump policy that allows border patrol officers to expel migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border because of public health concerns tied to the pandemic.

Federal law allows migrants to be released in the U.S. on parole while they await asylum hearings on a case-by-case basis and only for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.

The justices on Tuesday spent much of oral arguments debating what a public benefit means in these cases.

There's no real explanation of how the public is benefitted by more people coming into the United States who are not lawfully admitted into the United States rather than trying, if feasible, for some of those people to remain in Mexico, said Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The Biden Administration contends the public benefits by the U.S. releasing some migrants on parole because it saves bed space for higher priority detainees, such as those who have a criminal history or pose a flight risk.

The other options under the law  detention of migrants and offering parole until hearings  are no less complicated. There is nowhere near enough space in U.S. detention facilities to hold the full volume of immigrants crossing the Mexico border, data shows.

In March 2022, for example, the Department of Homeland Security arrested about 220,000 people at the border, yet Congress had only appropriated funds for a little under 32,000 detention beds, said Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general. She said no administration has ever attempted to detain every person who crosses the border.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked why the Biden Administration is so focused on the public benefit of releasing into the U.S. as opposed to the benefit of releasing in Mexico. Prelogar said it was a policy decision that took into account the costs of remain in Mexico and other factors. She said the rule was used sparingly even under the Trump Administration; only 6.5 percent of those encountered at the border were sent to Mexico.

Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

Judd E. Stone II, the solicitor general of Texas, argued when the detention capacity does not exist in the U.S., the administration has to do the best it can, and then resort to other lawful options, such as temporarily releasing to Mexico while migrants await trial. Stone also argued the program indirectly helps lower border crossings by acting as a deterrent.

Texas lawyers have said that eliminating the program will create a burden on states along the border, where many migrants would likely be released after being apprehended.

But Justice Elena Kagan said Texas was seeking to basically tell the executive how to implement its foreign and immigration policy.

It puts the United States essentially at the mercy of Mexico, Kagan said, raising concerns also about the possibility that Mexico, knowing the Biden Administration is under a court order to release to their country, might start implementing conditions.

This is not how our constitutional structure is supposed to operate, Prelogar said. So we'd ask the Court to reverse the flawed judgment.

taylor.goldenstein@chron.com
At the top of a wall inside The Jerk Shack are five words spelled out in big, bright letters: It was all a dream.

The words are from the song by Notorious B.I.G. but they also tell the story of the restaurants origin. Nicola Blaque, owner and founder of the Caribbean restaurant, said she was inspired to open it by a vision received after a 2017 visit to Jamaica for the funeral of her aunt. While there, she ate some of the best jerk chicken of my life.

I felt like, honestly, my aunt was talking to me from the grave, Blaque said. When I ate that jerk chicken, I was like, This is what I need to be doing in San Antonio. I need to be paying homage to my heritage and using my chefs skills to the best of my ability.

William Luther, Staff

Since opening in 2018, the restaurant has received accolades from publications such as Eater and GQ, both of which named it one of the best new restaurants in the U.S. for 2019 and 2020, respectively. Blaque went on to open Mi Roti in the Pearls Food Hall at Bottling Dept. shortly before the pandemic, and shes in talks to open another restaurant at Hemisfair.

On ExpressNews.com: Review: Jamaican heat sets The Jerk Shack ablaze

Born in Jamaica, Blaque grew up from the age of 5 in the U.S. She learned to cook Caribbean staples by helping her mother in the kitchen. Because her stepfather was in the U.S. Air Force, she spent her childhood moving between such places as New Hampshire, Hawaii and Washington State.

She went on to serve 10 years in the U.S. Army with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. After she left the military, her husband  who was then her boyfriend  encouraged her to pursue her passion for cooking. While attending the Culinary Institute of America, she began a career as a caterer. That led her to become a restaurateur.

Blaque designed the interior of the Jerk Shack to bring to mind a typical Caribbean jerk shack  a restaurant where jerk chicken is served  with wood tables and metal chairs. Many of the meals are served in baskets on top of imitation newspaper.

She recently sat with the Express-News to discuss what makes jerk chicken special, her efforts to modernize Caribbean cooking and the difficulties facing female restaurateurs in San Antonio. The following has been condensed and edited for clarity.

William Luther, Staff

Q: Did you enjoy your time in the military?

A: I learned a lot. I learned leadership, I learned camaraderie  things that I dont know that a lot of people pick up in life.

Q: Have the skills you gained in the military served you well as a restaurateur?

A: In the military they have a saying: You never leave your battle buddy. I look at that mentality the same way with my business. I try to do everything that I can, not just for my leadership employees but for all of my employees. I try to know their family situation if theyre in hard times. During the pandemic, I didnt let anyone go. I figured out a way to keep it going because I realized that these people are counting on me to make the best decision.

Q: I would imagine your experience as a logistics specialist has come in handy.

A: You kind of feel like youre micromanaging, but the military taught me to be organized in every step of the process. I feel like with restaurant owners, you have to know every part of that process and you have to be organized with it.

William Luther, Staff

Q: There used to be two Jerk Shacks, right? Did you have to close the other?

A: I did, just because of manpower and the situation there. I just didnt like it, so Im focusing on this location and the future contract that I have with Hemisfair.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonios favorite Jamaican restaurant The Jerk Shack reopening Friday near SeaWorld

Q: When do you hope to open your restaurant at Hemisfair?

A: Im hoping that by the end of this year I could start breaking ground. You know, the pandemic has put a little bit of financial strain on restaurants. Its harder to get loans. Even with this restaurant, our loan, we couldnt close on it. Because I closed for a few weeks and the banks were like, So many restaurants are closing and defaulting on their loans. How are you not going to let that happen? So I ended up having to go an untraditional route.

Q: You have a restaurant at the Pearl, and youre going to have one at Hemisfair  two of the most important places in the urban core.

A: People ask me, Did you plan for that? And Im like, No, I didnt. When the Pearl had reached out to me, I was eight months pregnant with my son. It was right before the pandemic kicked off. It happened so fast, and it was unexpected.

William Luther, Staff

Q: Has the location been successful?

A: You know, its been a learning experience, I can put it like that. A lot of factors can affect how your business goes there. Weather is a big one. When we have a lot of changes  during the pandemic tables in, tables out  all of that affects your sales. But for the most part, Im just happy to be there. The fact that Im spreading the word of Caribbean food.

Q: Even though you grew up in the U.S., I would imagine there was a lot of Jamaican culture in the house.

A: There was. My mom wanted to make sure we understood our heritage and our food and my grandparents would mail us care packages of Caribbean spices, because some of the places we lived you just couldnt get that stuff.

Q: When did you become interested in cooking?

A: Always, always. Just watching my mom cook in the kitchen, I dont know, since the minute I can hold a knife, probably 7 or 8, Ive just loved it. When I really found out that it was a part of me was probably when I was getting out of the military. The only thing that made me happy was cooking, you know. My husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, he was like, If thats what makes you happy, thats what you have to follow.

William Luther, Staff

Q: How is jerk chicken different from regular chicken?

A: Its super-spicy. Its not a spicy like the hot wing, where you taste it first. Its more savory, you know? Whats special about our jerk chicken is we grind it in spices so its got a nice, tender texture to it. Theres a little bit of sweetness and saltiness, and then you start to taste the spice and the thyme and the onion and the garlic and then boom! You feel the heat.

SA Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox

Q: You consider yourself to be modernizing Caribbean cooking. Could you explain how?

A: I feel like Caribbean food, its kind of a soulful comfort food, you know? People are used to making it one way. What I mean by modernizing is in techniques, like how to do it in high volume. And fusion, right? I live in San Antonio, Texas, where most people dont even know what Caribbean food is. So Ive had to take my culture in the way that I cook food and merge it with what the city is known for, i.e., tacos. Weve done things like burgers, and we do lamb. Its not so much that Im trying to take away what Caribbean food is, but bring more exposure to it. When you go to a city its very rare that youll find that they have a Carribbean restaurant. I feel like if we can kind of change the techniques, rather than keeping it more comfort and homey and soulful to where only a few of us can enjoy it, well be able to share with the world what Caribbean food is.

Q: I noticed you have jackfruit as an option, right? So you cater to vegans?

A: My best friend has been a vegan, I think, before anyone was vegan. Shes been a vegan close to 20 years. So I learned a lot about cooking vegan cuisine. I just said, Im going to do it, because I know for people like her it matters.

Q: Do you see this becoming a chain?

A: You know, I always like to revisit the story of Torchys (Tacos) and how it started out with just one, the trailer. If my story happened like Torchys, Id just know that I helped a lot of people. You know, I look at what hes done and the lives that hes impacted and how successful the brand is and I hope to even be half of what hes done.

Q: Is there anything else youd like to share about your business?

A: In this city, the community of female minority-owned businesses is so small. We all see each other at the same events. I dont know where the disconnect is for them to open up. When I decided that I was going to open the restaurant, you know, of course I was scared, but I didnt even think twice. I had a vision that was so strong and it was burning so hard inside of me nobody could have talked to me out of it. The hurdle, you know? I wish that more women did that jump. You know, were all here to support you.

Q: Do you think there are societal barriers?

A: I think there are! Because a lot of times when I walk into a room, if Im walking in with one of my meal chefs and my husband, they automatically assume that theyre the chef and theyre the owner and Im just tagging along for the ride. So many kinds of people, they just underestimate who I am. I do feel like this city has some hurdles for female chefs.
The rural economy is nearly one-fifth less productive than the UK average due to a host of issues, including poor broadband connections and lack of affordable housing, a new report says.

The report's release follows one of the most comprehensive inquiries ever to be conducted by a parliamentary body into the health of the rural economy.

Published by a cross-party group of MPs and peers, it says that no government in recent memory has had a program to unlock the economic and social potential of the countryside.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Rural Powerhouse took evidence from over 50 industry bodies, charities, campaign groups, companies, academics, and business leaders.

The report notes that the rural economy is 18% less productive than the national average, a gap that, if reduced, could add 43bn to the UK economy.

Findings include a broken planning system which has failed those who in rural areas. The report also criticises Defra for lacking the policy levers necessary to make a significant change to the rural economy.

A lack of skills provision is causing rapid brain drain in rural areas, and urgent action is required to address labour shortages and supermarkets price-setting powers.

In addition to this, the report says that the government is backing away from commitments to provide full-fibre and 4G to rural areas.

In response, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) said that the government could no longer afford to ignore the potential of the rural economy and the prospects of the millions of people who live within it.

Mark Tufnell, CLA President said: "For too long, successive governments have ignored the potential of the rural economy and the prospects of the millions of people who live within it. The time to act is now.

"Rural businesses are ready to expand, creating good jobs and opportunities for people from all walks of life  but a lack of interest from government is holding them back.

"Homes are often unaffordable for local families. Well-paid jobs can be scarce. And broadband can be painfully slow. All this means leads to an exodus of talented people who are too often forced to move to more urban areas.

The lack of ambition from the government is leaving them facing political consequences. A recent poll of the UKs five most rural counties commissioned by the CLA highlighted changing political voting patterns in rural areas.

In the previous general election, 46% of correspondents voted Conservative. Voter intention is now 36% Labour and 38% Conservative, representing a 7.5% swing.

The two parties are now neck and neck ahead of the local elections.

The poll also found that 66% of people did not believe that the government was doing enough to create prosperity in rural communities.

A majority (80%) said that a lack of affordable housing was driving young people out of the countryside, with almost half (42%) agreeing that their community was worse off economically, compared to five years ago.

With no concrete plan to support rural communities, the APPG report is intended to serve as an economic blueprint for the countryside.

Co-Chair of the APPG on the Rural Powerhouse and MP for York Outer, Julian Sturdy, stated that the report set out a comprehensive growth plan, one that will create jobs, spread opportunity and strengthen rural areas.

"We recognise the unique set of challenges that the Government is facing at the moment, but this makes the need to grow and strengthen the rural economy more, not less important.
British agri-food exports could grow by 30 percent by 2030, the NFU has said as part of its new export strategy unveiled today.

The union has outlined its vision to bring the total value of UK agri-food exports to over 30 billion in eight years time.

Called the 30, 30, 30+ ambition', the strategy is designed to showcase the British brand and put British food on plates across the world.

It contains a 10-point plan, including identifying and unlocking target markets by removing market access barriers through free trade negotiations.

The plan calls on more investment in technical expertise at home and abroad, such as match-funding farmer and processor levy contributions to the AHDB and ensuring the UKs new agricultural attaches have sufficient resources.

The strategy also urges the government to review current marketing and promotional activities for agri-food exports, particularly under the GREAT campaign.

Welcoming the report's launch, NFU President Minette Batters said that British food was recognised all around the world due to farmers' high production standards and sustainability.

She said: As we enter a new world where the UK aims to be a major player in global trade, and our farmers will be facing much more competition from imports, now is the time to drive our agri-food exports.

With an estimated 2 billion more middle class consumers by 2050, we know there will be appetite to buy British food around the world. Our farmers can offer the quality, innovative and premium products they demand.

We also shouldnt be afraid to take a leaf out of our competitors playbooks either. The likes of Australia, New Zealand and the USA are competitive exporters because they put the experts and resources into their target markets.

"Thats something our government should be looking to emulate and work with farmers to achieve.

Hybu Cig Cymru (Meat Promotion Wales) welcomed the new strategy, calling it 'important' in the face of growing concern over food security and sustainability.

Gwyn Howells, CEO of of the red meat organisation, said: In Wales were proud of our record on trade  with lamb and beef exports from Wales worth about 200m a year to the local economy.

"Our strategy for growth is focused both on mature markets in Europe and emerging markets such as the Middle East where we are well placed to offer a high-quality and environmentally-sustainable product.

Trade policy as a whole needs to take full account of sustainability and food security. We produce red meat to world-leading standards in terms of emissions."
The Oxford Sandy and Black Pig Group has recognised their independent producers and breeders in Scotland, where a couple are celebrating new life of the rare pig breed.

The Oxford Sandy and Black Pig Group is a registered charity seeking to boost the Oxford Sandy and Black pig breed.

They are congratulating Edward and Anita Withers of Clifton Lodge Smallholding, who are celebrating not only the first Lady bloodline (called Daisy), who arrived in September 2021, but also the first farrowing from the first Lady bloodline.

In addition to their conscientious efforts of bringing Daisy to Scotland, they also wanted to refresh their boar bloodline that would not only compliment their herd, but Scotland as a whole.

This research took them down to Oxfordshire in July 2021, where they found Amos, an Alexander boar from Ian Lawrence, of the Oldlands Herd.

Amos is the sire to Daisys litter, which is also Amos first litter. Daisy farrowed at the end of January to a litter of 12 piglets; 11 gilts and 1 boar.

Anyone following the Oxford Sandy and Black Pig Group on Facebook will know that they are into its third year of a research programme on sex ratio in seasonal farrowings.

Research is showing thus far that males are the dominate sex born in winter. But not so in Daisys case.

The charity said it is with thanks and recognition to Anita and Edward that the bloodlines and genetics will be creating a better future for the breed, its existence and its breeding potential in Scotland.

Anita said: The bloodlines were brought to Scotland with the generosity from the OSBPG Charity and their Genetic Spread Allowance.

To find out more about the Oxford Sandy and Black Pig Group Foundation Charity visit its website or follow the charity on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Podbean, or YouTube.
A campaign to help Ukraines farmers by planting sunflowers within UK spring crops has been launched by two farming companies.

Customers are being encouraged to purchase a small quantity of sunflower seed to plant among their maize and cover crops.

The initiative, by Bright Maize and its sister company Bright Seeds, seeks to give a visual reminder of the many struggling in Ukraine.

Proceeds from the seed sales will be donated to the country's farmers.

Food production is the backbone of Ukraines economy and its ability to export commodities such as wheat is important to many countries in Europe.

Similarly, the UK depends on a significant proportion of seed produced in Ukraine for planting in the agricultural and conservation sectors.

Chris Bright, managing director of Bright Seeds said: We were keen to show solidarity with the farmers of Ukraine, and the idea of planting sunflowers amidst spring-sown crops seemed an ideal way to catch the imagination.

"As well as the colour resonating with the Ukrainian flag, it will be easily visible to all and show the support of UK farmers for their Ukrainian counterparts.

"Apart from the current concerns about Ukraines future trading relationships, food producers in that country must be desperately worried about their own futures.

There is uncertainty about the extent to which this years spring-sowing will proceed and it is important Ukrainian farmers know others are thinking of them at this very challenging time.

"I hope it sends a signal that UK farmers support them and wish them well, added Mr Bright.

Proceeds from the seed sales will be distributed by the Ukrainian arm of Bright Seeds parent company, MAS Seeds.

Farmers wishing to purchase sunflowers should contact Bright Seeds on 01722 744494.
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It has been a month since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in an onstage altercation at the 2022 Oscars. Can we stop talking about it now? Nope, that was a trick question. The actor struck the comedian after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head (the actress suffers from alopecia). The incident sent shockwaves across the board. Will Smith, who won an award in the Best Actor category for King Richard has since been banned by the Academy.

In his first appearance since the Oscars 2022 controversy, Will Smith was spotted at Mumbai's Kalina airport. He was snapped as he made his way out of his car and interacted with a few fans. The actors sudden appearance in India sparked questions about the reason for his visit and whether the decision was owing to the controversy surrounding him. As per reports on a popular news portal, Smith's trip to India was a planned family vacation that his wife Jada Pinkett Smith insisted on. "There had been talk of cancelling the trip but Jada insisted," the portal's source noted.

Another report revealed that the star is visiting India for spiritual purposes including meditation and yoga. Smith's pictures also led to speculation of his meeting with spiritual leader Sadhguru amidst the Oscars slapgate but those reports turned out to be rumours. Sadhguru's team revealed in a statement that the actor did not meet him.
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Coquitlam, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 26, 2022) - Greenbriar Capital Corp. (TSXV: GRB) (OTC Pink: GEBRF) (the "Company" or "Greenbriar") is very pleased to announce the execution today of a USD $195 Million project financing mandate with Voya Investment Management, LLC ("Voya") for the Company's 146 to 300 MWdc, Montalva Solar Project ("Montalva Project"). This project financing takes place at the project level and does not involve the sale of the Company's shares.

The purpose of the Mandate is to structure, arrange, and provide key capital requirements for the Montalva Solar Project. Completion by Voya will be subject to their satisfaction of all usual and customary conditions for financings of this type.

About Voya Investment Management

Voya Investment Management, LLC is the asset management business of Voya Financial Inc., a Fortune 500 company that serves the financial needs of approximately 14 million individual and institutional customers in the United States. Voya reported USD $7.6 billion in revenue in 2020, and over $730 billion in total assets under management and administration as of June 30, 2020. Of that total, Voya Investment Management has approximately $200 billion in fixed income securities including investment grade, senior loans, and other private credit instruments, including investments in a various US infrastructure projects. With more than 40 years of history in asset management, Voya Investment Management provides clients with investment solutions with an emphasis on equities, fixed income, and multi-asset strategies and solutions.

When completed, the Montalva Solar Project will be the Caribbean's largest renewable energy facility, supplying enough power to energize over 48,000 homes. The benefits of the project will provide 1,000 plus construction jobs and over $200 Million to the Puerto Rican economy plus a savings over the life of the project of over USD $1 Billion in reduced energy costs. The experienced Greenbriar management team and its advisors have financed, developed and built over 50,000 MW of renewable energy projects since 1998.

About Greenbriar Capital Corp.

Greenbriar is a leading developer of renewable energy and sustainable real estate. With long-term, high impact, contracted sales agreements in key project locations and led by a successful, industry-recognized operating and development team, Greenbriar targets deep valued assets directed at accretive shareholder value.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Jeff Ciachurski"

Jeffrey J. Ciachurski

Chief Executive Officer and Director

Phone: 949.903.5906

Fax: 604.608.9572

www.greenbriarcapitalcorp.ca



The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release may contain forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" and include any information that addresses activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including the Company's strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance and other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future performance.

Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. These statements, however, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed, implied by or projected in the forward-looking information or statements.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: risks related to the development and potential development of the Company's projects, the ability of Voya to complete the Mandate, conclusions of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, the availability of tax incentives in connection with the development of renewable energy projects and the sale of electrical energy, as well as those factors discussed in the sections relating to risk factors discussed in the Company's continuous disclosure filings on SEDAR. There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date of this document or to revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121854
EL SEGUNDO (dpa-AFX) - Mattel Inc. (MAT) has held talks with private-equity firms about a potential sale, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter. The company has held informal talks with firms including Apollo Global Management Inc. and L Catterton. The talks are at an early stage and may not result in a deal, the report said. The talks on a possible sale come a few months after the toymaker declared its corporate turnaround complete. Mattel had a market capitalization of about $7.79 billion as of the close of the market Tuesday. MAT closed Tuesday regular trading at $22.11 down $1.09 or 4.70%. But in the after hours trading, the stock gained $2.48 or 11.22%. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
27 April 2022: Hexagon Agility signed in March 2021 a multi-year agreement with Certarus Ltd, North America's leading full-service provider of bulk gas transport, to supply distribution modules for (renewable) natural gas (RNG) and compressed natural gas applications.

Hexagon Agility has received an order for Mobile Pipeline TITAN 4 and TITAN 53 modules under this agreement. The order represents an estimated total value of USD 17.6 million (approx. NOK 162 million).

The new modules will be used primarily to deliver RNG to the market, support helium service, and provide critical utility support to regions lacking gas supply or infrastructure.

"There is an increasing need for mobile energy distribution as the demand for low carbon fuels outpaces the ability of existing pipeline infrastructure. Remote operations want access to cleaner-burning natural gas, local utility providers need extra capacity to meet peak demand periods, and producers of low and zero-emission fuels like hydrogen, RNG, and helium need cost-effective and reliable market access solutions," said Curtis Philippon, CEO of Certarus. "Our long-term partnership with Hexagon Agility has helped us to build North America's largest mobile energy distribution network and we are very excited to add our first Titan 53 units to our growing fleet.

Hexagon Agility's TITAN 53 modules are certified for transport of a variety of gas, including CNG, RNG, helium and hydrogen. TITAN 53 modules with helium capacity of 360,000 cubic feet allow operators like Certarus to significantly reduce the number of trips required to serve customers, reducing expenditures and emissions.

"We appreciate our long-standing partnership with Certarus and are excited to see them expand their world class service with our TITAN 53 modules. We're proud of to the work we are doing together" said Seung Baik, President of Hexagon Agility. "This order represents our continued diversification of Mobile Pipeline into new market segments and our commitment to driving energy transformation."

About the market

The recurring helium shortages in recent years have driven new helium exploration and production, especially in the southwestern United States and Canada. Then new producers typically provide crude helium that must be transported to distant helium refining facilities for final purification and liquefaction before the helium can be delivered to end users. Hexagon Agility's high-capacity Type IV composite trailers deliver large payloads to provide the most cost effective and reliable solution currently available for this long-haul transportation requirement.

RNG results in significant reduction of GHG emissions when compared to other clean energy solutions available today. Our Mobile Pipeline modules enable the capture and collection of RNG from multiple sources, which have some of the lowest carbon intensity of any renewable energy. RNG is fully interchangeable with existing pipeline infrastructure, so it is available for immediate use and decades to come. The rapid adoption of RNG is a very cost-effective solution to combat climate change.

Hexagon Agility's Mobile Pipeline product is vital to driving energy transformation away from fossil fuels to clean and renewable natural gas. Companies like Certarus are leaders in the industry, enabling customers without pipeline access to adopt natural gas and meet their environmental goals. Mobile Pipeline equipment is rapidly adopted to drive decarbonization of industrial and vehicle fleet operations where customers lack pipeline access. With more than 1,800 Mobile Pipeline modules now deployed around the world, Hexagon Agility continues to set the standard for safety, reliability, and performance.

Timing

Module deliveries are expected to commence in the second quarter of 2022.

For more information:

Karen Romer, SVP Communications, Hexagon Composites, Telephone: +47 950 74 950 |

karen.romer@hexagongroup.com

Ingrid Aarsnes, VP Investor Relations and ESG, Hexagon Composites ASA

Telephone: +47 950 38 364 | ingrid.aarsnes@hexagongroup.com

About Certarus

Certarus is the North American leader in providing on-road low carbon energy solutions through a fully integrated compressed natural gas (CNG), renewable natural gas (RNG), and hydrogen platform. Certarus safely delivers clean burning fuels to energy, utility, agricultural and industrial customers not connected to a pipeline. By displacing more carbon intensive fuels, Certarus is leading the energy transition and helping customers lower operating costs and improve environmental performance. With the largest fleet of mobile storage units in North America, Certarus is uniquely positioned to meet the growing demand for low and zero emission energy distribution. Learn more at www.certarus.com (http://www.certarus.com)

About Hexagon Agility

Hexagon Agility, a business of Hexagon Composites, is a leading global provider of clean fuel solutions for commercial vehicles and gas transportation solutions. Its product offerings include natural gas storage and delivery systems, Type 4 composite natural gas cylinders, propane, and natural gas fuel systems. These products transport clean gaseous fuels and enable vehicles to reduce emissions while saving operating costs. Learn more at www.hexagonagility.com and follow @HexagonAgility on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Hexagon Composites ASA

Hexagon delivers safe and innovative solutions for a cleaner energy future. Our solutions enable storage, transportation and conversion to clean energy in a wide range of mobility, industrial and consumer applications. Learn more at www.hexagongroup.com and follow @HexagonASA on Twitter and LinkedIn


Image 1: "Corporate Brand Identity System" images of materials and documents



Image 2: Corporate Brand Identity System

TOKYO, Apr 27, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu today announced that its Corporate Brand Identity System has been awarded the iF DESIGN AWARD 2022, one of the world's most prestigious design awards, in the discipline Communication, category Company Branding.Fujitsu's Corporate Brand Identity System includes a set of documents, design templates and material libraries that define and leverage the design elements which represent the corporate brand, such as logomarks, colors, fonts, and photos, to create a consistent image across advertising, the web, presentation materials, events, business cards, offices, and more.Fujitsu completely revamped its brand identity in October 2021 with the launch of Fujitsu Uvance, Fujitsu's new global business brand to create a sustainable world, deploying new creative brand assets globally across all customer touch points and within the Fujitsu organization.The iF judging panel recognized Fujitsu's objective to create a new brand identity as part of Fujitsu's corporate transformation efforts based on its purpose "To make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation," and its brand refresh activity. Fujitsu's Corporate Brand Identity System was also evaluated from the perspective of style, emotional appeal, and depth of design elements. The award was jointly awarded to Interbrand Corporation(1), which was responsible for the design of Fujitsu's new Corporate Brand Identity system. The award ceremony will be held in Berlin, Germany on May 16, 2022.Characteristics of Fujitsu's new Corporate Brand Identity System:- Fujitsu's iconic Infinity Supergraphic which symbolizes Fujitsu's commitment to the renewing force of transformation and the virtuous cycle of sustainability in 15 different color gradients- A color wheel of 8 primary colors and 6 functional colors that represent Fujitsu's diverse 360 degrees worldview- Fujitsu's unique corporate font, "Fujitsu Infinity Pro," that focuses on readability for millions of people- Standards for creating photos, illustrations, and videos that represent diversity and inclusionRoles and responsibilities:Fujitsu: Corporate Brand Identity System Strategy and PlanningInterbrand (London and Tokyo offices): Global Design Concept Development and Guidelines DevelopmentAbout the iF DESIGN AWARDOne of the most prestigious design awards in the world, awarded by the iF International Forum Design GmbH (Hanover, Germany) since 1953. Based on the five criteria "Idea," "Form," "Function," "Differentiation," and "Impact," a jury of world-class design experts evaluated a record of 10,776 applications submitted this year.About FujitsuFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Approximately 126,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.6 trillion yen (US$34 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. For more information, please see www.fujitsu.com.Source: Fujitsu LtdCopyright 2022 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
(2022-04-27) Kitron today reported first-quarter results showing very strong demand and record order backlog, but also revenue constraints due to a challenging component supply situation.

Kitron's revenue for the first quarter was NOK 1 429 million, compared to NOK 938 million last year. The revenue growth reflects the acquisition of the Danish EMS provider BB Electronics AS, which was consolidated effective 1 January. Adjusted for this, organic revenue growth was 4 per cent. Demand is very strong, but revenue growth was limited by ongoing component shortages. Nevertheless, there was strong growth within the Connectivity market sector, which partly reflects BB Electronics' strong position within this sector.

Profitability expressed as EBIT margin was 5.5 per cent in the first quarter, compared to 7.0 per cent in the same quarter last year. The EBIT margin in the quarter is mainly affected by revenue delays and inefficiencies caused by the component situation, but increased energy costs also have a negative effect.

The order backlog ended at NOK 4 222 million, an increase of 105 per cent compared to last year. This is a record and is impacted by the acquisition of BB Electronics. However, even excluding BB Electronics, the organic order backlog growth was 53 per cent. This reflects a strong total demand situation but also includes revenue delays due to the component shortages.

Peter Nilsson, Kitron's CEO, comments:

"Very strong demand and the acquisition of BB Electronics led to record revenue and order backlog in the first quarter, by a substantial margin. However, the material supply situation continues to limit revenue growth and cause operational inefficiencies. Given these challenges, I am pleased that Kitron delivered a solid first quarter, and I remain optimistic about the rest of 2022."

First-quarter operating profit (EBIT) was NOK 78.1 million, compared to 65.4 million last year. EBITDA was NOK 116.2 million, compared to 90.2 million last year.

Profit after tax amounted to NOK 44.4 million, compared to 44.7 million in the same quarter the previous year. This corresponds to earnings per share of NOK 0.23, down from 0.25 last year.

Ratios affected by constraints in supply chain

Operating cash flow was negative NOK 106.9 million, compared to positive NOK 78.3 million in the first quarter of 2021.

Net working capital was NOK 1 709 million, an increase of 65 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, partly reflecting the acquisition of BB Electronics. Net working capital as a percentage of revenue was 29.2 per cent compared to 27.9 per cent last year. Capital efficiency ratios are heavily affected by the supply situation, with material decommitments and new delivery dates. The material constraints continue to be difficult. Our focus going forward is on balancing demand with the constraints in supply, executing demand into deliveries and improving cash flow.

Outlook

For 2022, Kitron expects revenue between NOK 5 200 and 5 800 million, including BB Electronics. Operating profit (EBIT) is expected to be between NOK 330 and 430 million. Growth is driven by the Electrification, Connectivity and Industry market sectors. Currently, the growth is constrained by the material supply situation.

Enclosed in PDF are the quarterly report and the presentation. The interim report is presented today at 08:30 a.m. CEST. The presentation will be given in English by CEO Peter Nilsson and CFO Cathrin Nylander, and will be webcast at the following link: https://channel.royalcast.com/hegnarmedia/#!/hegnarmedia/20220427_5

For further information, please contact:

Peter Nilsson, President and CEO, tel. +47 94 84 08 50

Cathrin Nylander, CFO, tel. +47 900 43 284

E-mail: investorrelations@kitron.com

About Kitron

Kitron is a leading Scandinavian electronics manufacturing services company for the Connectivity, Electrification, Industry, Medical devices and Defence/Aerospace sectors. The group is located in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, China and the United States. Included the acquisition of BB Electronics in January 2022, Kitron has about 2 500 employees, and pro forma revenues were about NOK 5 billion in 2021.

www.kitron.com

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.



Attachments
BEIJING, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The winners of the 12th DBN Science and Technology Award will be conferred at a ceremony slated to be held on May 28 and 29 in Beijing. Inaugurated in 1999, DBN Science and Technology Award was established to recognize and reward individuals and organizations who have made extraordinary technological discoveries that have translated into real-world outcomes that reshape the future of the global agricultural industry.

Selected and reviewed by a panel of experts and scholars across a variety of industries, the Award has acknowledged the achievements made by a host of prestigious academicians and scientists whose technologies demonstrate next-level innovation with great impact on the agricultural industry. Those outstanding individuals include Professor Roger Beach, founding director of the World Food Center at UC Davis; Xie Hua'an, academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Qiao Shiyan, academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Parallel with the Zhongguancun Global Technological Innovation Forum, the event is hosted by Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University, Zhejiang University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Chinese Association of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Crop Science Society of China. The two-day event will invite over 1,000 top-notch scientists, researchers, corporate leaders and industry leaders as well as Nobel Prize laureates to shed light on the opportunities and challenges facing the agricultural industry, with an estimated one million viewers expected to join the sessions via the live-streaming channel.

Meanwhile, the Global Agricultural Technology Innovation platform (GAIN) will be announced, which is established for global industry players to strengthen cooperation, therefore enabling quick, efficient and cost-effective co-creation of breakthrough agricultural solutions that address pain points in farming and food production.

"Over the past 22 years, DBN Science and Technology Award has nominated 474 winners from the global agricultural communities whose 55 technological innovations and achievements have later been selected as China's national priority projects. Through the initiative that allows industry scientists to showcase their pioneering ideas and impactful scientific contributions, we are proud to support some of the most prominent individuals, companies and research institutions in their quest to explore the agricultural solutions that will benefit farmers, consumers as well as the crop production system for years to come," said Dr.Song Weiping, the CEO of DBN Group.

"This year, DBN Group aims to build on its previous milestones to further expand the extensive cooperation and communication space that the Award and the Forum offer, setting up GAIN to bolster businesses and scientific institutions that are pursuing industry partners, as part of our effort to drive forward the development of the industry" Dr.Song added.

The Group has secured its longtime place as one of the top recipients of China's patents with over 330 innovative inventions, ranking it as the number eight company in China by patent strength evaluated on value, utility, number and PCT applications of the patents.

GAIN website: https://www.gainnovation.org.cn/en/show-61.html

Video - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805652/video.mp4
Excluding US operations according to IFRS 5, Group's consolidated quarterly revenue at 2.3 million euros

Operating and net earnings excluding US operations according to IFRS 5 at the break-even point

Positive EBITDA at 0.2 million euros excluding US activities according to IFRS 5

Regulatory News:

MEMSCAP (NYSE Euronext: MEMS), the leading provider of innovative solutions based on MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) technology, today announced its earnings for the first quarter ending March 31, 2022.

Launch of the restructuring of the US operations Analysis of the consolidated income statement

As part of the progress of the Fablite plan, the MEMSCAP Group has initiated the restructuring phase of the US operations.

Several options are considered, including the possibility of the sale of the US industrial operations. In accordance with IFRS 5 "Non-current assets held for sale and discontinued operations", revenue from the US operations is excluded from revenue from continuing operations and included in the consolidated income statement via the loss after tax from discontinued operations.

Consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2022 excluding US operations amounted to 2.3 million euros (2.6 million US dollars) compared to 2.2 million euros (2.6 million US dollars) for the first quarter of 2021.

Consolidated revenue distribution by market segment, over the first quarter of 2022 and presented in accordance with IFRS 5, is as follows:

Market segments Revenue (In million euros) Non-audited Q1 21 Q1 22 Aerospace 0.9 42% 1.7 74% Medical 1.2 57% 0.6 25% Others 0.0 1% 0.0 1% Total revenue from continuing operations 2.2 100% 2.3 100% Revenue from US operations (Discontinued operations) IFRS 5 0.6 0.4

(Any apparent discrepancies in totals are due to rounding.)

MEMSCAP's consolidated earnings for the first quarter of 2022, and presented in accordance with IFRS 5, are given within the following table:

In million euros Non-audited Q1 21 Q1 22 Revenue from continuing operations 2.2 2.3 Cost of revenue (1.1) (1.4) Gross margin 1.0 0.8 % of revenue 49% 37% Operating expenses (0.8) (0.8) Operating profit (loss) 0.3 0.0 Financial profit (loss) (0.0) (0.1) Income tax expense (0.0) 0.0 Net profit (loss) from continuing operations 0.3 (0.0) Profit (loss) after tax from discontinued operations (0.4) (0.4) Net profit (loss) (0.1) (0.4)

(Any apparent discrepancies in totals are due to rounding.)

* Net of research development grants.

(The following financial data are restated according to IFRS 5 Excluding US operations)

Consolidated sales for the first quarter of 2022 confirmed the recovery of the avionics business, up +0.8 million euros (+87%) compared to the first quarter of 2021. The evolution of the business volumes relating to the medical business (down -0.7 million euros) resulted in particular from the annual delivery schedules marked by high delivery levels in the first quarter of 2021.

The Group's gross margin rate stood at 37% of consolidated sales compared to 49% for the first quarter of 2021, notably resulting from the change in the sales mix during the first quarter of 2022.

The amount of operating expenses at 0.8 million euros for the first quarter of 2022 was similar to the first quarter of 2021.

The Group therefore reported consolidated operating and net earnings from continuing operations at the breakeven point for the first quarter of 2022 compared to consolidated operating and net profit from continuing operations at 0.3 million euros for the first quarter of 2021.

EBITDA from continuing operations amounted to +0.2 million euros for the first quarter of 2022 compared to +0.5 million euros for the first quarter of 2021.

Analysis and perspectives

At the end of the restructuring phase of the US operations, the Norwegian entity, including the avionics and medical businesses of the Group, will become the operational core of the MEMSCAP Group. Its activities in the first quarter of 2022 posted the highest level of quarterly sales since the second quarter of 2018, i.e. 14 consecutive quarters, thanks to the momentum of the avionics business.

These ongoing restructuring operations should lead to a significant improvement in the Group's operating profitability.

MEMSCAP general shareholders' meeting: May 31, 2022.

Q2 2022 earnings: July 27, 2022.

About MEMSCAP

MEMSCAP is the leading provider of innovative micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)-based solutions.

MEMSCAP's products and solutions include components, component designs (IP), manufacturing and related services.

For more information, visit our website at:

www.memscap.com

MEMSCAP is listed on Euronext Paris Segment C ISIN: FR0010298620 - MEMS

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220426006176/en/

Contacts:

Yann Cousinet

Chief Financial Officer

Ph.: +33 (0) 4 76 92 85 00

yann.cousinet@memscap.com
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
April 26, 2022, Oslo, Norway: PGS leverages the multiyear frame agreement with Equinor, announced last year, to secure contracts for the 2022 summer season.



PGS is awarded 4D GeoStreamer monitoring surveys over the Visund field in the North Sea and the Snhvit field in the Barents Sea. Further, the Company was recently awarded a 3D exploration survey over the Prinsen and Hassel Ferdinand prospects in the Barents Sea.

Earlier this year PGS announced award of the Northern Lights CO2 storage acquisition contract. The Equinor 2022 acquisition campaign is scheduled to start in Q2 with an estimated duration of close to 5.5 vessel months.

"We are very pleased with the Equinor contract awards for the 2022 season, building on the frame agreement we entered into last year.We operate in a cyclical industry with low visibility, and longer-termagreements improve our order book in a recovering seismic market. An important part of our strategy is to maintain leadership in the production 4Dsegment. Equinor's continuedconfidence in ourreliable Ramform vessels and the superior GeoStreamer data quality supports our strategic ambition," says President & CEO in PGS, Rune Olav Pedersen.



FOR DETAILS, CONTACT: Bard Stenberg, VP IR & Corporate Communication

Mobile: +47 99 24 52 35



***

PGS ASA and its subsidiaries ("PGS" or "the Company") is a fully integrated marine geophysical company that provides a broad range of seismic and reservoir services, including data acquisition, imaging, interpretation, and field evaluation. Our services are provided to the oil and gas industry, as well as to the broader and emerging new energy industries, including carbon storage and offshore wind. The Company operates on a worldwide basis with headquarters in Oslo, Norway and the PGS share is listed on the Oslo stock exchange (OSE: PGS). For more information on PGS visit www.pgs.com.

***

The information included herein contains certain forward-looking statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, projects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future. These statements are based on various assumptions made by the Company, which are beyond its control and are subject to certain additional risks and uncertainties. The Company is subject to a large number of risk factors including but not limited to the demand for seismic services, the demand for data from our multi-client data library, the attractiveness of our technology, unpredictable changes in governmental regulations affecting our markets and extreme weather conditions. For a further description of other relevant risk factors we refer to our Annual Report for 2021. As a result of these and other risk factors, actual events and our actual results may differ materially from those indicated in or implied by such forward-looking statements. The reservation is also made that inaccuracies or mistakes may occur in the information given above about current status of the Company or its business. Any reliance on the information above is at the risk of the reader, and PGS disclaims any and all liability in this respect.

--END--




On 9 April, a group called Stand With Ukraine held a small demonstration in London. Despite receiving support from a number of trade unions, only a few hundred people took part. In true Orwellian fashion, this so-called anti-war solidarity demonstration was filled with hair-raising, warmongering rhetoric. Slogans included: arm, arm, arm Ukraine!, and participants were reportedly inviting NATO to call Putins bluff, i.e. to launch a full-blown military intervention and spark World War III.

At the head of this motley crew was self-described Marxist pundit, Paul Mason, who is a textbook case of how quickly self-styled lefts and pacifists can transform into some of the most vociferous warmongers and open advocates of imperialism.

Masons keynote speech at the end of the demonstration outside Whitehall explained that members of the labour movement are rightly wary of armed conflict. We are natural pacifists. However, in wars like this, we have to take a side. And Mason has fallen firmly on the side of NATO and US imperialism, which are in the process of funnelling huge quantities of weapons into Ukraine, with the stated goal (according to US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken) of giving Russia a bloody nose, and weakening its military capabilities. In other words, the imperialists are staging a proxy war on Ukrainian soil against one of their main enemies.

But for Mason, this is a fight for democracy and national sovereignty. Therefore, it is paramount that pacifists set aside their qualms, and give Ukraines brave freedom fighters (presumably including fascist units like the Azov Battalion) the means to fight. Unfortunately, the labour movement cant send them weapons  we dont have any. But the British government can. Thats why we should go on calling for, and supporting, arms to Ukraine. Here we have a left-winger  a Marxist, by his own account  calling on the Tory government of Boris Johnson to send weapons to Ukraine, helping to escalate and drag out this brutal inter-imperialist conflict. Quite the unedifying spectacle.

A slippery slope

The Ukraine conflict has served to ruthlessly expose these left-wingers and pacifists, who will at the first beat of the war drum abandon an internationalist class position and fall in with the deafening chorus of imperialist propaganda. A most repulsive role has been played by the right-wing reformist leaders of the social democracy and the trade unions in Europe, who have lost no time falling over themselves to join the capitalists and imperialists in their war drives and hysterical anti-Russian campaigns. They have revealed themselves as the most servile lackeys of the enemies of the working class in every country, banning dissent within their ranks and demanding utmost loyalty to NATO and all its works.

The Ukraine conflict has ruthlessly exposed these left-wingers and pacifists, who will at the first beat of the war drum abandon an internationalist class position and fall in with the deafening chorus of imperialist propaganda / Image: Steve Eason, Flickr

We expected nothing better from the likes of Sir Keir Starmer and the other leaders of European Social Democracy. But for their part, the conduct of the left reformists has been little better. To a greater or lesser extent, they have allowed themselves to be dragged behind the chorus of saving poor little Ukraine, without ever bothering to analyse the class interests that lie behind the present conflict. Some confine themselves to impotent pacifism, and appeal for the United Nations to broker a ceasefire, despite the fact that the UN has no independent policy outside of imperialist interests. Others, like Mason, have shifted sharply to the right, and, under the influence of the mood of war hysteria whipped up by the media, passed directly into the camp of imperialism.

We mention this case, not because of any intrinsic interest or importance. Masons name is familiar only to a relatively small layer on the left in his home country, while outside Britain it is hardly known at all. We are not concerned with the individual as such, but only with a political trend that, to a greater or lesser extent, is present in all countries at the present time, and which Mason expresses in an extreme form. While we naturally disagree fundamentally with every single one of his positions, we must at least thank Mason for his honesty in the way in which he defends his reactionary ideas.

Figleaves for class collaboration

Masons attitude about the war in Ukraine is summarised as follows:

Ukraines struggle is not just about national sovereignty and international law. Its the frontline of the defence of democracy in Europe. And no matter how flawed that democracy is, how corrupt, how unequal, it is worth defending  because there is no Universal Basic Income trial in a Finland under Russian occupation. (our emphasis)

Somehow, in Paul Masons head, the question of the Ukraine war has become entangled with the fate of Finland and Universal Basic Income. Presumably, Mason is anxious for Finland and Sweden to join NATO as soon as possible in order to prevent a Russian invasion  an invasion which nobody has seriously considered until now. Failure to forestall this dreamed up invasion plan would be dire, for it would surely mean the end of the Finnish governments Universal Basic Income experiment, whereby it pays 560 per month to some 2,000 people.

Mason wants to bury class divisions under a mountain of jingoistic propaganda about national unity against a common enemy. There is not an ounce of progressive content in such outrageous class collaboration  Image: Steve Eason Flickr

In his youth, Paul Mason used to stand for the overthrow of capitalism. With the wisdom that comes with age, he has today moderated his hopes for ameliorating the conditions of the working class to a few tinkering reforms to the benefits system. But he is prepared to defend these sops through the wholesale militarisation of the European continent. Who will pay for Europes extravagant militarism? The working class, of course, who will have to trade in much of the welfare state for which they have fought, nevermind Masons fantasies about UBI.

But let us deal with his points in order. Firstly, Ukraines sovereignty. As we have explained elsewhere, Marxists support the democratic right to self-determination. But this right is subordinated to the general interests of the world working class and the class struggle as a whole. It is clearly not to the benefit of either to support the continuation of a war that, in addition to inflicting great suffering on workers caught in the middle, condemns billions more to suffer the economic fallout all over the world. Let alone the prospect of escalating the conflict into a full-blown, nuclear confrontation between the major powers, which, as we shall see, Mason considers an inevitable and acceptable risk for the sake of defending Ukraine.

And moreover, whose self-determination are we talking about? Why does this inviolable principle not apply to the breakaway republics in the Donbas, who for eight years were shelled by the Ukrainian armed forces? It has been well publicised by the western media that the east of Ukraine has now become the main theatre of the war. But nothing is said by the same media outlets about why the centre of the war has moved to the east. The answer is: because the hardcore of the Ukrainian army is entrenched there as a result of the long war that the regime has been conducting against its own citizens.

This is not the first time the question of national self-determination has been exploited to justify an inter-imperialist war. For instance, the Allied powers cited the plight of poor little Belgium, following its invasion by Germany, as an excuse to enter the First World War. The social chauvinist leaders of the Second International sang the same song to justify support for their respective national war efforts. Just like Mason today, these warmongering lefts exploited the question of national self-determination to encourage a bloc between the labour movement and imperialism.

Mason wants to bury class divisions under a mountain of jingoistic propaganda about national unity against a common enemy. There is not an ounce of progressive content in such outrageous class collaboration. Dragging out the present slaughter is not in the interests of the workers of any country. And to advocate for it is a crime. But to go further even than this, and actually advocate for imperialist intervention, under the pretext of defending Ukraine is a cynical betrayal of every principle of socialist internationalism.

And regarding so-called international law, what is that supposed to mean? Presumably, Mason refers to the countless treaties and decisions of the UN. But everybody knows that these are mere scraps of paper without the slightest validity or importance in international affairs. Has international law prevented any of the numerous wars from taking place since 1945? We do not think so. And all the votes taken in the United Nations for the last half-century have done nothing to put an end to the brutal occupation of the Palestinian lands by the Israeli aggressors, for example. The great powers may invoke international law to disguise their cynical policies, but they have never at any time allowed it to interfere with their conduct in world affairs. In the words attributed to Solon the Great of Athens: the law is like a spiders web. The small are caught, and the great tear it up. To even mention international law in the present context of the Ukraine war is mere childishness.

Does the working class support the war?

At the aforementioned rally in London, Paul Mason had this to say:

I want to say to our guests from Ukraine. We the British labour and trade union movement are with you. Putin has support, in case you havent noticed, from parts of the financial elite, from the far-right  and sadly from a small fraction of the far left who have hailed Russian troops as peacekeepers and defenders.

Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky has the enthusiastic support of such 'peace-loving humanitarians' as Boris Johnson, Joe Biden, NATO and all the main imperialist powers / Image: Number10, Flickr

Regarding the latter, we should point out that Mason tends to dismiss anyone remotely critical of NATO as a Putin appeaser. But in any case, according to Mr Mason, Ukraine has the full support of British workers and trade unions. That may well be the case. It is always the natural instinct of the working class to sympathise with the plight of poor people suffering the horrors of war. No doubt, if the workers of Britain were asked for their opinion (which nobody has bothered to obtain), they would answer with a single voice that they want peace. But the purpose of Mr Mason, and the other organisers of this rally, was not at all peaceful. It was precisely to demand an intensification of the armed struggle and a continuation of the war until victory  that is to say, the victory of NATO and imperialism.

In case they havent noticed, Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky has the enthusiastic support of such peace-loving humanitarians as Boris Johnson (who has apparently had a street in Odessa named in his honour), Joe Biden, NATO and all the main imperialist powers. These are the characters that Mason wishes us to jump into bed with! People whose hands are stained with the blood of millions. And apparently, Mason feels they are not doing enough.

So what further support does he wish to see? He tells us, in an ideal world, he would like NATO to send troops to fight the Russians in Ukraine. Such a move has the slight inconvenience that it could provoke World War III and a direct clash with Russia, which possesses a formidable arsenal, including the worlds biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons, inherited from the USSR. This prospect naturally makes the US imperialists think twice. Our pacifist-warmonger is extremely irritated by such pusillanimity of the imperialists in defending their own interests. But, undaunted, he suggests a number of alternatives, for instance:

Because NATO has stated it will not participate in the war [it must provide] bigger, faster and unlimited supply of heavy weapons, intelligence, ammunition and training.

But one moment, Paul, isnt that what they are already doing? Didnt Biden just offer Ukraine a new tranche of weapons worth $800 million? This is still not enough, according to Mr Mason  the West must send even more arms to the Ukrainian army, as many as they need to facilitate a fight until victory. He writes:

For as long as they want to go on fighting, the international labour and progressive movements should go on supporting Ukraine; support the sending of arms; support tougher sanctions, even though they harm ordinary Russians.

We are sure this message will be gratefully received on the streets of Moscow. Curiously, Mason lavishes fulsome praise on the anti-war protestors languishing in Putins prisons for opposing the special military operation. Are these not ordinary Russians? Ultimately, the people best placed to combat Putin and put a stop to the Russian war effort are not NATO or the Ukrainian armed forces, but the Russian working class. Yet Mason regards economic misery for Russian workers as reasonable collateral damage in the Wests economic warfare against Putin. Mason succumbs to national chauvinism, making the entire Russian people an enemy, and legitimate targets for Western reprisals. Moreover, these sanctions are having no impact other than to temporarily rally the Russian population around the Putin regime, which was losing popularity prior to the invasion.

How Mason learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

And what about the danger of the Ukraine conflict escalating? Mason has given this some thought:

[If] with the increased flow of heavy weapons from the West, Ukraine manages to inflict an operational defeat on the Russian army, the question of Putins strategic response looms It could, in the worst-case scenario, lead to the escalate-to-de-escalate option - a tactical nuclear strike to bring the West to the negotiating table instead of Ukraine.

Faced with this scenario, Mason admits: there are only a limited number of responses the electorates of the West could adopt. He helpfully lays these out, ranging from:

Give in to Russias demands; Impose an oil and gas embargo, combined with the use of cyber and other non-lethal capabilities to aid Ukraine; Send in a limited task force of professional volunteer forces; Officially enter the war with conventional weapons only on Ukraines side; Retaliate with a nuclear counter-strike.

Regarding option 2, as we have previously explained, sanctions are a double-edged sword. German dependence on Russian oil and gas helps explain their vacillating commitment to providing Ukraine with arms. The sudden decision of the Germans to send weapons to Ukraine  something they had always rejected  was hailed as a particularly important step. But now the Bundestag has announced, with a heavy heart that, unfortunately, they are unable to supply any more weapons, as they are short of means of defending themselves in the event of World War III  which Zelensky seems rather eager to provoke!

Then there are the more belligerent scenarios. On option 3, does anyone seriously think the Russians would be fooled by such a stupid trick for even one moment? Such an action would be immediately seen as NATOs direct involvement in the war (i.e., option 4). This would lead inevitably to Mr Masons final option: the use of nuclear weapons. At this point, he clearly expects even the most fervent supporter of Ukraine to feel their enthusiasm cooling off, so he hastens to reassure the reader:

If this list of options shocks you, you need to understand that any Western leadership not discussing them would be derelict of their duty.

We are firmly of the opinion that the leaders of the western world, far from neglecting their duty, have thought long and hard about all the available options, and come to the conclusion that an all-out war with Russia is not at all in their best interests. Apart from anything else, they must take into account the reaction of their electorates. Generally speaking, the prospect of ushering in the destruction of human civilisation in a nuclear holocaust is not considered a vote winner. So, Mason concludes, regretfully: Of these, only #2 is palatable and would be currently supported by the electorates of Europe and America.

But Mason has drawn the conclusion that we have to face the possibility that even #2 might simply provoke another nuclear strike. Many years ago, they used to say: all roads lead to Rome. Nowadays, it seems, all roads lead to nuclear annihilation. For his own part, Paul is quick to assure us that: any form of nuclear retaliation is unthinkable. I support nuclear weapons only as a deterrent; once deterrence is ineffective, why gamble with the future of the world?

The peace-loving Paul Mason would never use nuclear weapons in retaliation. For him, it is unthinkable. So, we can all sleep soundly in our beds. There is only one snag. Mr Masons finger is not on the launch button and, as far as we know, nobody has ever asked his opinion as to if, when or how, nuclear weapons will be used. He says he supports nuclear weapons only as a deterrent. But one thing is absolutely clear. The possession of nuclear weapons is only of use as a deterrent precisely insofar as one is prepared to use them in retaliation. Far from being unthinkable, the threat of retaliation is the fundamental premise of every nuclear power in the world, including the United Kingdom. It is only in the imaginary Kingdom of the Pacifist Warmongers that such a contradiction could exist. And for that same reason, nobody except Mr Mason takes it seriously.

Guns before butter!

Marxists do not have one policy for peacetime and another for when war breaks out. But things are very different in the camp of the left reformists. In the past, all lefts, socialists, as well as pacifists, advocated a cut in wasteful arms spending as a means of increasing socially necessary spending on housing, schools and hospitals. But in an article published shortly before the invasion, Mr Mason tells us that this was all wrong. As a trained economist, he has done his sums. And they add up to the following conclusion: what we need is not a reduction in arms expenditure, but, on the contrary, a sudden and drastic change in the defence budget  e.g. going from 2% to 5% of GDP if faced with a sudden, unforeseen threat.

Are the British people prepared really to stand shoulder to shoulder with poor, beleaguered Ukraine? Then we must tighten our belts, empty our pockets, and accept the full burden of our responsibilities. Such is the iron logic of the pacifist warmongers. Coupled with the idea that, if Putin defeats Ukraine, he will eye up the rest of Europe for conquest. Never mind that nothing in Russias actions or stated war aims suggest this was ever on the cards: we all must prepare to defend ourselves against the Russian menace! One is reminded of the words of the late Hermann Goering, who declared: Guns before butter! Guns will make us great. Butter will only make us fat.

We are in the middle of the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades  what could the British government buy with the kind of money Mason proposes spending on guns? / Image: Alisdare Hickson, Wikimedia Commons

But, having drawn the necessary conclusions from his own sudden and drastic conversion to belligerent militarism, Mason is given pause, asking himself: Could the UK rapidly expand its defence spending from 2% to 5% of GDP (or higher) in a crisis? Are we prepared to conceive defence spending as an investment with socio-economic multipliers? An excellent question! But he does not furnish us with a suitably satisfying answer. So allow us to fill in the gaps for him.

We are in the middle of the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades, exacerbated by the economic dislocation caused by the Ukraine war. The working class is suffering greater and greater deprivations all over the world. In this context, what could the British government buy with the kind of money Mason proposes spending on guns? Currently, 2 percent of Britains GDP is spent on defence, totalling about 45 billion. Not an insignificant amount for a small country that can hardly be seen as a superpower in the world. Increasing that amount to 5 percent of GDP would come to a total of about 110 billion, a truly staggering figure.

What could be done with such a substantial amount of cash? Well, the National Health Service, which was already suffering from years of austerity, has been plunged into an existential crisis by the COVID-19 pandemic. God knows Britain is in crying need of beds, hospitals, doctors and nurses. What could Masons war chest buy the NHS? At the upper end, a 2013 plan to revamp the Royal Liverpool University Hospital was costed at 429m. We could cover that cost 250 times over with 110 billion. Or, on a more modest scale, a small, recently constructed hospital in Cornwall cost around 7 million. We could build 15,000 of them for the same amount.

Britain also faces a severe housing crisis, which is reaching the level of a national scandal. The average cost of building a four-bedroom house is 348,000. We could afford to build 300,000 with the money that Paul the Peacemaker wishes to donate to the generals. How about in the education sector? The average cost of a secondary school is 30 million. That means that 3,500 new schools could be built for the equivalent of 5 percent of GDP. We could go on. And let us note, Mr Mason considers that figure as the starting point  he would like to spend even more! A future Labour government, he says, should commission research showing where Britain needs to build new defence industrial capacity  both actual and latent  and how a mixture of state funding and private-sector investment can be mobilised to create it.

One would have thought that under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Party has moved quite far enough to the right. But not far enough for Paul Mason, who has now abandoned any pretence of standing for socialism in any shape or form. Instead of advocating for investment in services, infrastructure, and the means of life, Mason would like a Starmer-led Labour government to invest heavily in instruments of death. More heavily, in fact, than any other Western government, as a proportion of GDP.

Mr Mason has completely abandoned a class position, and consequently gone over, bag and baggage, to the side of the most reactionary wing of the bourgeoisie and imperialism. There is a terrible warning here. Once you abandon the class position, you enter onto a slippery slope that inevitably ends in the poisonous swamp of betrayal and reaction. There is no end to it.

No war between peoples, no peace between classes!

It goes without saying that wars are terrible. We do not require the services of the petty-bourgeois pacifists to enlighten us on that subject. Nevertheless, wars have the undoubted advantage of sharpening all the contradictions in society and in politics. They mercilessly tear off the veil that serves to conceal the reality behind hypocritical phrases, and expose all the weaknesses of the petty-bourgeois reformists and lefts, who hasten to join the warlike imperialist bandwagon. They have allowed their judgement to be clouded by the unprecedented campaign of propaganda, as well as the deafening and very effective information war, which is the most significant aspect of the present conflict.

This unprecedented avalanche of propaganda has been highly successful in conditioning the attitudes of people in the West. But Marxists cannot allow themselves to be influenced by official propaganda. Above all, we must stand firmly against all the attempts of the ruling class and its hired media to drag the working class into the camp of the imperialist warmongers or participate, directly or indirectly, in any kind of national unity bloc on the war issue. When Mason says we must choose a side, he means one imperialist bloc or the other. We stake our position firmly on the side of the international working class, whose interests are not in the least served by the continuation and escalation of this barbaric war.

The immediate prospect is one of austerity, rising prices, poverty and privation in every country. The future that capitalism offers the working class consists of constant wars, death and misery for millions of men, women and children. As Lenin said: a world of horror without end. The only way to avert such an outcome, and chart a course toward a decent existence for humanity, is for the working class in every country to wage a relentless struggle against their own warmongering capitalist class. Only on the basis of genuine international solidarity and socialist revolution, can we bring down the rotten system that makes war inevitable.
Patent pending space-technology invention generates Medical Oxygen on-demand and on-the-spot

LEIDEN, Netherlands, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dacelo, the Medical Technology Company that filed a patent application with the European Patent Office (EPO) for its cool gas oxygen generation process, announces that it is expecting a positive "International Preliminary Examination Report" on short notice. This positive report makes obtaining a European patent a formality. The patent application was filed May 2020. The patent concerns the way in which oxygen is generated with inert solids (granulate/powders) in a novel way. A generator device is under development. Dacelo is now looking for investors and business partners that provide seed funding and/or co-development, production and global distribution of the Premox Life Saver generator device.

Rob Eijsvogel, Founder and CEO, Dacelo: "I am always on the lookout for adapting space technology into new applications on earth. With some leading space scientists, I discussed new ways of generating oxygen by the use of solid material. I applied for a European patent for the technology to be used in a portable device for producing and storing high-quality oxygen in First Aid, Safety, and Medical applications on earth." Premox Life Saver is an easy to handle device that will help many end-users worldwide when they are in need of oxygen.

Oxygen made easy

Fast and easy access to Medical Pure Oxygen could be a matter of life and death. In first aid situations, during accidents and calamities, or on the battlefield. Providing oxygen on location is challenging, as the production of the vital gas is typically centralized in far away production plants. Therefore, logistics are complex and time-consuming. Oxygen is explosive matter, thus transport and handling of the typical clunky oxygen cylinders could be risky and difficult. "It would be so much better if Medical Pure Oxygen could be generated on the spot and at the time needed. With a device that is easy to use by anyone. And through a cool gas process that does not bring any hazards about. Enter Premox Life Saver. Oxygen made easy. For many users and in many cases," said Eijsvogel.

Go to market

The Premox innovation is beneficial for a mass market as well as for niche applications. Premox Life Saver standard products will be marketed and distributed through local distribution partners. Premox specialty products will be developed, marketed and distributed through specialized partners.

Dacelo is in the process of building its distribution network.

In the startup/scale-up stage, Dacelo will primarily focus on the following market areas:

First Aid

Safety, including EEBDs (Emergency Escape Breathing Devices)

Healthcare (Cluster Headache/COPD)

Mid 2023 the First Aid & EEBD solutions will be ready for production, at the beginning of 2024 a cluster headache specialized solution will follow and 2nd half of 2024 a COPD specialized solution.

About Dacelo BV

Dacelo, a private medical technology company based in The Netherlands, is in the process of making a revolutionary chemical oxygen generator. With a patent pending technology, oxygen will be readily available for many industries in the need of rapid and pure oxygen. Dacelo's mission: 'Make oxygen generators smaller, lightweight, more reliable and safer to operate, anywhere at any time for anyone."

Learn more about Premox Life Saver at https://premox.eu

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1804778/Rob_Eijsvogel.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1804782/PremoxLifeSaver.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1804781/Premox_Logo.jpg
LONDON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In the month following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Bitcoin rose 25% and Ethereum around 34%.

Following the sanctions imposed on Russia and its businesses the ruble collapsed and crypto exchanges saw a substantial rise in transactions from rubles into crypto.

These transactions weren't just from wealthy oligarchs trying to save assets from confiscation overseas, but also regular Russian citizens trying to save their cash assets from being devalued in early March when the ruble fell off a cliff.

The worry was that many Russian oligarchs would escape financial sanctions via crypto, but crypto entrepreneur Doctor Troller, aka Andew Brown says this isn't that easy to do.

He said: "Crypto transactions can all be tracked, so large movements of assets would be spotted by exchanges and authorities. Big exchanges will insist on doing KYC (Know Your Customer) due diligence on transactions and will have global watchlists for banned Russian oligarchs and can block transactions from IP addresses belonging to sanctioned individuals or entities.

"That's not to say that they can't get third-parties to attempt transactions for them but they would be wary of trusting others with their assets in such a way."

Brown thinks the surge in prices at the start of the war came from large numbers of regular Russians try to sell off their rubles for less volatile crypto-currrency like Tether, a stablecoin which is tied to the price of the US Dollar. At the time of going to press (19th April 2022) there were no laws preventing exchanges taking rubles from ordinary Russians trying to use crypto as a lifeline to protect their assets.

Brown said: "The volume of trade in Tether went up considerably in early March when sanctions started to bite and the ruble halved in value in a week."

Since the start of the war the huge increases on cryptocurrencies have levelled out and are now just above what they were at the start of the war, although the volume of trade in Tether is still up 12% on pre-war levels. There are still volatile movements in the market for other digital currencies, which means that crypto is still a risky investment even in times of war.

It's not just Russians that have been using cryptocurrency since the war started at the end of February. The Ukrainian government has received over 100 million in cryptocurrency donations for their war effort from well-wishers around the world.

Brown said: "Ukrainian officials posted addresses for two crypto wallets on their twitter account which attracted more than $10m in four days and now over 10 times that amount in the past month. The authorities in Ukraine have said it will be spent on daily rations and bullet-proof vests and helmets, and they are keen to use blockchain technology to help rebuild their country after the war is over. So hopefully crypto currencies can be instrumental in helping those who have lost so much in the past month."
Bilia has today reached an agreement to acquire Kokstad Autosenter AS, who conducts sale of used cars and a brand-independent service workshop. Operations are conducted in two facilities in Bergen, Norway.

The business acquired reported for 2021 a turnover of about SEK 110 M with an operating margin of 3 per cent. Number of employees is 12 and the current three owners will continue to work in the business. The operation's capital employed plus agreed surplus values amount to NOK 16 M, with the possibility of additional purchase price of a maximum of NOK 12 M in 2027.

The agreement is subject to approval by the Norwegian competition authority. Access is expected to take place no later than 1 June 2022.

Per Avander, Bilia's MD and CEO, comments:

"I'm happy that Bilia through Kokstad Autosenter AS gets access to a well-run business for the sale of used cars and a brand-independent service workshop in Bergen. Bergen is Norway's second largest city and strategically important for Bilia's future operations."

Frode Hebnes, MD Bilia Norge AS, comments:

"We are very pleased with the acquisition and future collaboration with Kokstad Autosenter AS, which means that we establish our fourth Bilia Outlet facility in Norway. Through the acquisition, we continue to get strategic expansion of sales of used cars and the Service Business. The business is very well managed and fits in well with Bilia."

Bjan Ullman, MD Kokstad Autosenter AS, comments:

"We were initially not interested in selling the business, but when Bilia contacted us we became convinced that this is the next step for us. Bilia shares our philosophy and culture regarding good customer service and the desire to create a really good customer experience, which we see as a confirmation of the work we put in at Kokstad Autosenter AS. With Bilia behind us, we look forward to continuing the work in the future."

Gothenburg, April 27, 2022

Bilia AB (publ)

For information please contact:

Per Avander, Managing Director and CEO, +46

Kristina Franzen, CFO, +46

Facts about the Bilia Group

Bilia is one of Europe's largest car dealers with a leading position within service and sales of cars, transport vehicles and trucks. Bilia has about 150 facilities in Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg and Belgium. Bilia sells cars of the brand Volvo, BMW, Toyota,

Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Lexus, MINI, Porsche, Nissan, Dacia, Smart and Alpine and transport vehicles of the brand Renault, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Dacia and trucks of the brand Mercedes-Benz.

Bilia has today a fully expanded business with sales of new cars, e-commerce, spare parts and store sales, service and repair workshops, tyres and car glass and financing, insurance, car washes, fuel stations and auto salvage under the same roof, which gives a unique offer.

Bilia reported a turnover of about SEK 35 bn in 2021 and had about 5,300 employees.

Attachment
Arga Medtech's next-generation non-thermal cardiac ablation system shows promise in improving precision, speed and flexibility in treating atrial fibrillation

cardiac ablation system shows promise in improving precision, speed and flexibility in treating atrial fibrillation Preliminary feasibility study results demonstrate the company's Coherent Sine-Burst Electroporation (CSE) Pulsed Field Ablation platform's ability to titrate lesion depth using sinusoidal waveforms

LAUSANNE, Switzerland and SAN DIEGO, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arga Medtech (https://argamedtech.com/), a company developing Coherent Sine-Burst Electroporation (CSE), a next-generation non-thermal cardiac ablation system for treating cardiac arrhythmias, announced a featured poster presentation on preliminary findings for its innovative technology at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society (https://www.hrsonline.org/) (HRS), April 29 to May 1 in San Francisco. The company's CSE Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA) offers unmatched flexibility in treating atrial fibrillation (AF) with its proprietary CSE generator and a multi-configurable catheter.

"AF affects 37.5 million people worldwide1, significantly raising their chances of a stroke or heart attack and greatly diminishing their quality of life," said David Neale, CEO and co-founder of Arga Medtech. "While the cardiac ablation field has achieved major progress in treating AF, outcomes have only marginally improved in the past 15 years, and costs have increased. It is imperative to develop new tools that improve success rates while lowering procedure costs."

Arga Medtech's unique CSE PFA platform offers several advantages over other PFA technologies, which are powered mostly by a square wave energy source. Arga's new CSE system allows physicians to select all bipolar, all unipolar or combinations of bipolar and unipolar energy delivery modes to titrate the lesion to the needs of the patient.

Arga Medtech's catheter also offers unmatched flexibility in its ability to perform any lesion type necessary for the patient's treatment of AF, eliminating the need to use additional ablation catheters. Its design enables the catheter to take different shapes allowing for the creation of circular, linear or focal lesions. These advantages offer the potential to improve precision, speed, safety and efficiency in cardiac ablation procedures while reducing procedure costs.

"Arga Medtech gives physicians an unparalleled ability to perform much more flexible, elegant ablation procedures, likely improving outcomes and reducing the need for repeat surgeries and saving costs for both hospitals and the healthcare system," said Neale. "We are very optimistic about our technology's promise and plan to launch our first in-human trial in 2022."

The HRS presentation reports findings from an animal feasibility study on using multi-programmable CSE waveform to achieve a titratable range of lesion depths that address the variability of tissue thickness within the atrium and ventricle.

Presentation Information

Multi-programmable Coherent Sine Burst Electroporation Waveform for Atrial and Ventricular Catheter Ablation

Date: Friday, April 29, 2022

Time: 1:30 - 1:45 p.m. PT

Location: Abstract Pavilion Podium 11

Authors: Micah Lee BS, Ricardo Roman BS, Ale Lopez BS, Mark Zurcher MS, Deborrah Hunt BS, Randy Werneth MS, Kurt S Hoffmayer MD.

About Arga Medtech

Arga Medtech SA (Arga) is a privately held medical device company based in Switzerland founded by a seasoned team of leaders in the medical device industry. Arga is developing an innovative non-thermal energy-based cardiac ablation system for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. With the use of Pulsed Electrical Fields to create irreversible electroporation of cardiomyocytes, Arga is developing a safer, faster, cheaper and more effective cardiac ablation treatment for the benefit of millions of people affected by cardiac rhythm disorders and atrial fibrillation. To learn more, visit https://argamedtech.com (https://argamedtech.com).

1Lippi G, Sanchis-Gomar F, Cervellin G. Global epidemiology of atrial fibrillation: An increasing epidemic and public health challenge (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31955707/#:~:text=The%20worldwide%20prevalence%20of%20atrial,middle%20socio%2Ddemographic%20index%20countries.). Int J Stroke. 2021 Feb;16(2):217-221. doi: 10.1177/1747493019897870. Epub 2020 Jan 19. Erratum in: Int J Stroke. 2020 Jan 28;1747493020905964. PMID: 31955707.
Quantum Genomics announces successful capital raising with a gross sum of approximately 15.6 M

Quantum Genomics has equipped itself with new financial means to pursue the development of firibastat and explore new therapeutic fields based on the patented technology platform built around BAPAIs

Quantum Genomics is taking this opportunity to strengthen and expand its shareholder structure

Quantum Genomics (Euronext Growth - FR0011648971 - ALQGC), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in developing a new drug class that directly targets the brain to treat difficult-to-treat/treatment-resistant hypertension and heart failure, announced today it has successfully increased its capital by removing subscription rights as part of a package to benefit a category of persons in the sense of article L.225-138 of the French code of commerce which allowed the Company to raise around 15.6 M (The "Deal").

For the purposes of this structuring operation involving a sum of 15.6 M, 6,408,779 new shares have been issued with a unit price of 2.44 , including share premium, with a discount of 15,0 % compared to the last stock market price, corresponding to a discount of 23.8% compared to the volume-weighted average price of the last 20 trading sessions.

In parallel, the pharmaceutical company Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries Julphar has agreed to a subscription of capital increase to the sum of 2.0 M$, or about 1.87 M, thus strengthening its partnership with Quantum Genomics as part of the marketing and production of Firibastat in the Middle East, Africa, certain member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Turkey.

Jean-Philippe Milon, CEO of Quantum Genomics, stated:

"We thank those shareholders who are renewing their confidence in us as well as new French and international institutional investors, and our partner Julphar who have purchased a stake in Quantum Genomics at the time of this capital increase. This operation will allow us to pursue the development of firibastat and to diversify our portfolio of products through an exploration of new therapeutic indications based on the BAPAI platform."

Raising capital for a major project

The company plans to use the proceeds of the Deal to fund: (i) the continued development of firibastat and (ii) the exploration of new therapeutic indications based on the BAPAI platform.

Main terms of the Deal

The Deal consisted of removing the subscriptions rights of the company's existing shareholders, through institutional investors both in France and internationally, as part of a new share offering (the "New Shares") to benefit a category of persons in the sense of articles L.225.138 of the French code of commerce, through an accelerated bookbuild.

The issue price of the New Shares was set at 2.44  per share, equating to a discount of 15.0 % in relation to the closing price of a Quantum Genomics share on April 26, 2022, and 23.8% in relation to the volume-weighted average price of a Quantum Genomics share on the Paris Euronext Growth market for the last 20 trading sessions of the stock market prior to being set (i.e. from March 28, 2022 to April 26, 2022 inclusive), in accordance with the 16th resolution as voted for at the mixed general assembly of the Company on June 24, 2021.

The New Shares will be submitted to all statutory requirements and will be assimilated into the original shares once the Deal is definitively completed. The New Shares will carry current rights and will be listed on the Paris Euronext Growth market under the same ISIN code FR0011648971 - ALQGC. The settlement and delivery of new common shares and their listing on the Paris Euronext Growth market are scheduled for April 29, 2022.

Subscription from the pharmaceutical company Julphar

In parallel with the Operation, the pharmaceutical company has today agreed to a subscription of capital increase of 2.0 M$, or about 1.87 M, at a price of 2.44 Euro per share, which equates to the subscription price of the New Shares issued for the purposes of the Operation. Julphar's subscribed shares are subject to a mandatory lock-up agreement of one year.

The settlement and delivery of Julphar's subscribed shares and their listing on the Paris Euronext Growth market are scheduled for April 29, 2022. They will be submitted to all statutory requirements and will be assimilated into the original shares. Julphar's subscribed shares will carry current rights and will be listed on the Paris Euronext Growth market under the same ISIN code FR0011648971 - ALQGC.

A strengthened shareholder structure

The share capital of the Company will then comprise 33,852,067shares.

Otium Capital becomes the first shareholder of Quantum Genomics, with 14.7% of the capital. This strong reinforcement from this historical shareholder is a true sign of confidence in the Company's potential, its development plan and its capabilities to reach its goals.

Therefore, following the capital increase, the Company's capital allocation has changed as follows:

Shareholding before operation Number of shares Percentage Shareholding after operation* Number of shares Percentage Tethys 993,161 3.6% Tethys 993,161 2.9% Otium Capital 888,888 3.3% Otium Capital 4,987,248 14.7% Institutional investors 5,405,810 19.7% Institutional investors 7,716,229 22.8% Management 1,740,983 6.3% Management 1,740,983 5.2% Public 18,414,446 67.1% Public 18,414,446 54.4% Total 27,443,288 100.0% Total 33,852,067 100.0%

*informations before Julphar's investment

As an example, a shareholder with 1.00% of the Company's capital before the Deal would henceforth hold a stake of 0.81% *.

Financing horizon and liquidity risk

The post-deal cash of 23.6 M million allows the Company to finance its operations until the 2nd quarter of 2023.

Abstention agreement

For the purposes of the Deal, Quantum Genomics has made an abstention agreement for a duration of 90 days from the settlement and payment date of the Operation, subject to the usual exceptions, thus preventing Quantum Genomics from issuing new shares during the above-mentioned period.

Lock-up agreement

For the purposes of the Deal, the Management of Quantum Genomics has entered into a lock-up agreement concerning their Quantum Genomics shares for a duration of 180 days from the settlement and payment date of the Deal, subject to the usual exceptions.

In addition, the pharmaceutical company Julphar made a commitment to retain the Quantum Genomics shares subscribed for one year from the settlement date of the Deal, subject to the usual exceptions.

Gilbert Dupont (Societe Generale Group ) is the sole lead arranger and bookrunner for this Deal.

The legal practice Orsay Avocats (Frederic Lerner - Pierre Hesnault) acted as legal counsel for this Private Placement.

WARNINGS

The offering of New Shares in Quantum Genomics as part of the Operation will not result in a prospectus being submitted for the approval of the Autorite des Marches Financiers.

This press release does not constitute an offer of stock market securities or any kind of invitation to purchase or subscribe for securities in the United States or any other country.

The Quantum Genomics securities that are the subject of this press release have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the "U.S. Securities Act"), and Quantum Genomics does not intend to pursue a public offer of its securities in the United States. Stock market securities can only be offered, subscribed for or sold in the United States further to registration in accordance with the U.S Securities Act or if there is an exemption to the mandatory registration.

Distribution of this press release may, in some countries, be subject to specific regulations. Persons in possession of this press release must inform themselves of any local restrictions and comply with them.

Any decision to subscribe for or purchase shares in Quantum Genomics should be made solely on the basis of public information about Quantum Genomics. Gilbert Dupont is not responsible for this information.

Detailed information about Quantum Genomics, in particular about its business, results and risk factors, are available in the annual financial report on the financial year ending 31 December 2020 published in 2021 and in the half-yearly financial report of 30 June 2021. These documents as well as other regulated information and press releases can be consulted on the Company's website (https://www.quantum-genomics.com).

About Quantum Genomics

Quantum Genomics is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of a new class cardiovascular drugs based on the Brain Aminopeptidase A Inhibition (BAPAI) mechanism. It is the only company in the world to pursue this innovative approach directly targeting the brain, founded upon more than twenty years of research work by Paris-Descartes University and the INSERM/CNRS laboratory led by Dr. Catherine Llorens-Cortes at the College de France. Quantum Genomics thus aims to develop innovative treatments for complicated or even treatment-resistant hypertension (in approximately 30% of patients it is poorly controlled or treatment failure occurs), and heart failure (one in two patients diagnosed dies within five years).

Based in Paris and New York, the company is listed on the Euronext Growth market in Paris (FR0011648971 - ALQGC) and is registered on the US OTCQX market (symbol: QNNTF).

Find out more at www.quantum-genomics.com, or on our Twitter and Linkedin accounts

Contacts

Quantum Genomics contact@quantum-genomics.com Edifice Communication (EUROPE) Financial and media communication

quantum-genomics@edifice-communication.com LifeSci (USA) Mike Tattory

Media communication

+1 (646) 751-4362 - mtattory@lifescipublicrelations.com

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SHENZHEN, China, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- April 27 marks the 7th anniversary of the inauguration of Qianhai Shekou Free Trade Zone, whose day-to-day changes are always fascinating. According to Authority of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, in 2021, the number of Hong Kong-funded enterprises registered in Qianhai has increased by 156% year-on-year, and the actual use of Hong Kong capital accounts for 93.8% of the total foreign investments. Its Q1 2022 actual use of Hong Kong capital amounted to US$1.272bn, accounting for 92.97% of its foreign investments, a rise of 148.01%.

At the junctures of the global economic recovery, China continues to renew the layout of Qianhai, incorporating the development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Institutional innovation turns to be the foundation for cultivating a first-class business environment in Qianhai, thus enticing many entrepreneurs from Hong Kong. Any sharp-eyed entrepreneur would lose no time in seizing the opportunities.

Xu Ziyan is among Hong Kong youth to start their business in Qianhai. This 90's girl has just registered her company here, believing that Qianhai is the first choice for Hong Kongers to do business in Chinese mainland. Previously, she has visited Qianhai many times for feasibility study.

Located in the west of Shenzhen and on the east bank of the Pearl River Estuary, Qianhai has been designated a "special area of the Special Economic Zone" since the State Council approved the Overall Development Plan for Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industrial Cooperation Area of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in 2010. Qianhai's institutional innovation is "avant-garde" and its soft services and support are "awesome". "Through various meetings, we can speak out our minds straight to the officials. Qianhai government can hear our voices directly," exclaimed Xu Ziyan.

Xu's company focuses on new media business, helping connect Hong Kong brands with the mainland through "live commerce". "By means of the Qianhai platform, not only can we dock to the supply chain, but also to the enterprises in need, which saves us from troubles, kind of like 'finding a needle in a haystack'," she said.

As the outside world sees it, Qianhai Cooperation Area is unswervingly forging a "Qianhai model" with institutional innovation in investment, trade, finance and rule of law as its core, making it an important "source" to be drawn upon by other places of China.

Sun Lecheng, partner of KPMG Intelligent Innovation Space, points out that Qianhai has set far-reaching goals of institutional innovation in the rules, systems, mechanisms and models. Not only is the standard high, but also "practicable and solid".

Qianhai is known to have been promoting institutional innovation in multiple sectors, including justice, finance, supply chain, integration of services and manufacturing industries, new technologies, new business models, and so on. For example, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Law Zone is opened; an International Talent Port created, a Multi-Country Consolidation (MCC) and Maritime Transit Hub and an Outbound Air Service Center set up, the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Financial City established, the World Intellectual Property Organization Technology and Innovation Support Center (WIPO-TISC) inaugurated, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao New R&D Institutions Support Program is being promoted.

Latest statistics show that, up to now, the Qianhai Shekou Free Trade Zone has launched 685 institutional innovations, and more than 80-billion-yuan (US$12.2bn) worth of goods are gathered from all over the world to Qianhai Comprehensive Bonded Zone and then transshipped worldwide.
The Annual General Meeting of Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC, one of the largest mining companies in Mongolia, was held on April 22, 2022, at the Tsankhi Town camp in Tsogttsetsii soum, Umnugovi province. In line with the ETT's transparency efforts, the meeting was streamed live to the public and received live feedback via the "1072" hotline and the company's official social media channels.

The meeting reviewed Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC's Operational and Financial report for 2021, implementation of the "A6-20" Business Plan, and the pressing issues of delivering the medium-term business plan and long-term strategy.

Erdenes Tavantolgoi's coal exports fell sharply due to the border closure caused by the global pandemic. However, due to the timely execution of the risk management plan, Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC concluded 2021 with sales of $385 mil (1.1 trillion MNT,) contributing $147 mil (420.6 billion MNT) in taxes and a total net profit of $38.5 mil (110.7 billion MNT.)

The Tavantolgoi-Zuunbayan and Tavantolgoi-Gashuunsukhait railway projects are set to be completed in the summer of 2022, which will provide ETT with direct access to markets in China and beyond. Further development of the "A6-20" Business Plan expedites infrastructure and development projects to enforce the business plan for 2021-2025, producing value-added products and improving competitiveness in the international coal market.

Prior to the shareholders' meeting, ETT organized a Job Fair, which provided more than 2,000 locals the opportunity to fill out job applications as part of the company's target to create at least 21,000 jobs for the local community by 2025.

Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi (ETT) is a Mongolian state-owned joint-stock company that operates the East Tsankhi section of the Tavan Tolgoi deposit. It is located near Mongolia's southern border with China and has estimated reserves of more than 7 billion tonnes of coal, more than one-third of which is high-grade hard coking coal. The company is unique in that some 3 billion of its shares are owned by over 2.5 million Mongolian citizens.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220426005605/en/

Contacts:

Company: Erdenes-TavanTolgoi JSC

Name: Enkhtur Sodnomtseren

Title: Communications Advisor

Email: enkhtur.s@erdenestt.mn

Website: http://www.ett.mn
Bank will accelerate its cloud strategy with Finastra's Fusion KTP in the cloud, enabling faster access to innovation and a proactive approach to global treasury management

LONDON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Finastra announced today that Orange Bank in France has selected Finastra's corporate treasury management solution, Fusion KTP in the cloud. The move will enable the bank to harness a fully integrated treasury management platform and gain faster access to innovation and time to market. Launched in France in November 2017, then in Spain in November 2019, Orange Bank provides banking services that are designed natively around customers' mobile uses, which are both highly innovative and synergetic with Orange Group's telecommunications business.

"Finastra's Fusion KTP cloud solution is a crucial step in our strategy to move to 'all cloud," explained Olivier Mougammadoussane, Head of Core Banking and Treasury Management System at Orange Bank. "Leveraging the benefits of the cloud enables us to future-proof the business with the added security, scalability and flexibility required in the industry. Having already relied on Fusion KTP we know the technology provides the treasury services we need, with a reliable and consolidated view of our liquidity and funding positions. Now, having the solution available on the cloud, via Microsoft Azure, delivers extra efficiency and resilience, while also providing us with easier access to innovation."

Orange Bank already benefitted from Fusion KTP for efficiency and control around liquidity management, compliance, risk, reporting and accounting requirements. Moving to the cloud will enable the bank to run its treasury operations with increased agility, supporting its ability to respond to the changing global market. It will allow the bank to concentrate on their treasury operations avoiding the management of complex IT infrastructure and the versioning of multiple systems.

"In bringing Fusion KTP to our customers via the cloud, banks can build on their transformation initiatives at an accelerated pace," said Riteesh Singh, Senior Vice President, Financial Messaging Marketplaces at Finastra. "We are pleased to continue our work with Orange Bank. This step forward into the cloud means that Orange Bank can now harness increased operational excellence and efficiency within their treasury operations, while also supporting their strategic initiatives."

Fusion KTP is used by banks and corporates - mainly in France, Benelux and North Africa. For further information click here .

Notes to editors

Local insight:

"We are excited to be continuing our collaboation with Orange Bank here in France," says Eric Aillet, Product Manager, Financial Messaging Marketplaces at Finastra, "This is a great opportunity to build on our relationship with the bank, and to continue to drive innovation and efficiency through their treasury operations. We are well placed to support the bank on its goal to move to all cloud, and are pleased to be part of this journey with them and our Fusion KTP solution."

For further information please contact:

Sofia Romano

EMEA PR Manager

T +44 (0)7552 865009

E sofia.romano@finastra.com

finastra.com

Caroline Duff

Global Head of PR

T +44 (0)7917 613586

E caroline.duff@finastra.com

finastra.com

About Finastra

Finastra is building an open platform that accelerates collaboration and innovation in financial services, creating better experiences for people, businesses and communities. Supported by the broadest and deepest portfolio of financial services software, Finastra delivers this vitally important technology to financial institutions of all sizes across the globe, including 90 of the world's top 100 banks. Our open architecture approach brings together a number of partners and innovators. Together we are leading the way in which applications are written, deployed and consumed in financial services to evolve with the changing needs of customers. Learn more at finastra.com

Corporate headquarters

4 Kingdom Street

Paddington

London W2 6BD

United Kingdom

T: +44 20 3320 5000

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/967510/Finastra_Logo.jpg
Collaborative efforts to begin with 2MW floating wind pilot plant at Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN)

Gazelle Wind Power (Gazelle), the developer of a breakthrough floating offshore wind platform, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Vienna Consulting Engineers ZT GmbH (VCE), an independent consulting firm based in Vienna, Austria, specializing in infrastructure design, construction phase management, environmental consulting, structural health monitoring, and offshore structures. VCE will provide design services-including load capacity determination, inspection planning, performance assessment, and more-as well as monitoring and analysis for Gazelle's initial 2MW pilot plant at the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN).

"As we continue our journey to bring our floating offshore wind technology to commercialization, having the expertise of those familiar with designing and monitoring these structures will be vital," said Gazelle Wind Power CEO Jon Salazar. "With their project development acumen and firm reputation as an authority in structural engineering and plant health monitoring, environmental consulting, structural inspection, and much more, VCE will provide valuable input and insight into making our initial pilot project a success."

Gazelle's unique hybrid floating wind platform is lighter and more agile than current designs and also boasts the advantage of faster deployment out in deeper waters.

Founded in 1986, VCE operates in four principal lines of business: the transportation sector, the building and industrial sector, the development sector, and structural health identification and life cycle engineering. The firm also has experience providing consulting, monitoring, and design analysis on existing offshore wind structures, providing motion analysis and concept design for two separate offshore wind platform projects. To date, VCE has successfully completed more than 7,000 contracts in 71 countries. The company also has extensive experience in the monitoring, design, and analysis of several offshore structures.

"Gazelle is providing a unique solution to a widespread problem, namely, how society can take advantage of stronger winds and accelerate renewable energy generation," said VCE Exec. Robert Schedler. "We believe that Gazelle's innovative floating offshore wind technology will be a key enabler to the offshore wind market and look forward to taking it to the next stage of development."

Having raised more than $14 million in initial funding in 2021, Gazelle has already made progress toward its goal of unlocking the massive offshore wind market with recent deals with Maersk Supply Service and Bridon-Bekaert Ropes Group to utilize their respective services at the PLOCAN pilot project. The company was recently named a Global Winner at the Uniting Water Energy Food Finals, being selected out of more than 1,800 companies. Gazelle was also named a finalist for two S&P Global Platts Global Energy Awards: Emerging Technology of the Year Award and Rising Star Company Award.

About Gazelle Wind Power

Gazelle Wind Power Limited is unlocking the massive deep-water offshore wind market to achieve global decarbonisation. The company's durable, disruptive hybrid floating platform with a high stability attenuated pitch surmounts the current barriers of buoyancy and geographic limitations while reducing costs and preserving fragile marine environments. The company is based in Dublin and has a presence in Dubai, London, Madrid, Paris, and Texas. For more information, visit www.gazellewindpower.com.

About Vienna Consulting Engineers ZT GmbH

Vienna Consulting Engineers ZT GmbH (VCE) is an independent, high-tech-oriented consulting firm with its head office in Austria. The company operates in four principal lines of business: the TRANSPORTATION SECTOR (including bridges, tunnels, and railways); the BUILDING and INDUSTRIAL SECTOR (general design and management as well as specialized technological expertise); the DEVELOPMENT SECTOR (from research and development to feasibility and environmental studies, financial engineering, to development aid); and the STRUCTURAL HEALTH IDENTIFICATION (BRIMOS) and LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING (www.vce.at).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005073/en/

Contacts:

For Gazelle Wind Power:

Wendy Prabhu Mercom Communications

T: +1 512 215 4452

gazelle@mercomcapital.com
eLearning Africa Conference is the opportune moment for Africa to reflect on challenges facing African education systems and provide sustainable solutions by outstandingly stimulating African talents. According to Rwandas Education Minister, Dr Valentine Uwamariya.

Rwandas Minister of ICT and Innovation, Paula Ingabire, added we need even greater mobilisation of all levels of Government and private sector organisations to develop impactful solutions that will ensure equitable and affordable access to broadband connectivity, in order to achieve the targets, set for 2025.

Both ministers were speaking to eLearning Africa ahead of the conference as political leaders, education experts and investors from all over the world prepare to head to Rwanda for eLearning Africa, one of the continents first major global, in-person conferences since the start of the Covid pandemic, scheduled to take place in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, from May 11-13.

Rwandas Education Minister, Dr Valentine Uwamariya, said

Rwanda is a resilient, forward-looking country with a vision of becoming a globally competitive knowledge-based economy. Embracing competitive technology-assisted learning is one of the key enablers towards improving quality of education and promoting independent and lifelong learning at all levels of education. We have seen the vital significance of eLearning during Covid-19 pandemic as schools were forced to be temporarily closed. However, the pandemic has also revealed that science and technology provide sustainable solutions to mitigate its impacts not only in developing countries but the whole World. Therefore, eLearning Africa Conference is the opportune moment for Africa to reflect on challenges facing African education systems and provide sustainable solutions by outstandingly stimulating African talents.

We have seen tremendous collaborations during the pandemic to enable greater access to digital services. Moving forward we need even greater mobilization of all levels of Government and private sector organizations to develop impactful solutions that will ensure equitable and affordable access to broadband connectivity, in order to achieve the targets, set for 2025. said Rwandas Minister of ICT and Innovation, Paula Ingabire.

She added that she was delighted that the first eLearning Africa conference after the pandemic will be held in Rwanda.

eLearning Africa and the opportunity it brings for dialogue between key stakeholders is so important. This conference, and the ministerial roundtable taking place at it, will give us a chance to focus our attention on how we can all work together, as a continent and as a global community, to use technology-assisted learning to boost growth and bring lasting change and prosperity.

Conference founder Rebecca Stromeyer said that the conference is attracting huge levels of interest and support:

People are delighted that were going ahead again. For our network of experts and professionals from all over the world, its going to be like a giant family gathering! Theyre all looking forward to seeing each other and to making new friends and contacts. And weve had an enormous amount of interest from the corporate sector, including some of the biggest names in global edTech. Africa is the place to be right now for investors in education and technology.

Ms Stromeyer said that it had not been difficult to persuade people to come to the conference, in spite of their experience over the past two years.

There is a widespread awareness of the fact that Rwanda has coped really well with the pandemic. Our participants will be well looked after in a superb conference location and were looking forward to seeing them for what promises to be a very significant conference.

eLearning Africa is accompanied by an exhibition, featuring products, services and courses offered by some of the worlds leading producers and providers. The conference itself offers a wide variety of opportunities for discussion, knowledge sharing and networking, in the form of plenary sessions, workshops, seminars and debates. It also hosts a ministerial roundtable, at which ministers of ICT and education, together with officials and advisers, discuss emerging themes with experts, academics and representatives of companies and organisations from around the world. The theme for this years roundtable is A New Purpose for Education and it will consider the practical challenges facing African countries, the implications of a single market, and the contribution Africa can make to global learning and providing solutions to global problems.

Africa has so much to do and so much to give, says Ms Ingabire. We are looking to welcoming everyone to Rwanda for this historic conference.

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Netherlands-based company deploys MRI Strategic Planning and Analytix to manage fund and asset modelling within one solution to create value for investors

LONDON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MRI Software , a global leader in real estate solutions, announces a.s.r. real estate, a Dutch real estate investment management firm part of a.s.r., one of the largest listed and sustainable insurance companies in the Netherlands, has selected MRI Strategic Planning and Analytix to manage its asset and fund modelling processes.

a.s.r. real estate, which has more than 125 years' experience, manages portfolios in different sectors such as retail, residential, offices, science parks, agricultural land, renewables in the Netherlands and listed and non-listed real estate internationally. The firm is deploying MRI Strategic Planning, a real estate investment software solution, and Analytix Portal, a centralised and flexible business intelligence platform. The technology will drive scalable growth and maximise investment portfolio value by improving data visibility and analysis as well as supporting decision-making and long-term planning.

"Implementing MRI Strategic Planning and Analytix empowers us to focus on making buying and selling decisions at the fund level," said Jerry Smith, Fund Controller at a.s.r. real estate. "The deployment enables our company to mitigate risk and increase value for investors by seeing multiple tiers within a fund and modelling different areas of a fund within one solution, so we can make faster, informed decisions. In addition, using MRI's toolkit capability gives the company more control over the system, enabling us to configure reporting as our needs change - thus future-proofing the business."

a.s.r. real estate required a flexible, all-in-one solution that could handle complex investment structures and drill down to critical fund, asset, and unit-level information. The MRI deployment provides a.s.r. real estate with one central source of data, so it no longer needs to pull information from various sources, allowing everyone at the firm to collaborate more effectively.

"Putting information at people's fingertips is critical for companies like a.s.r. real estate, helping them manage the asset and fund modelling processes more effectively," said Dermot Briody, Senior Vice President and Executive Managing Director EMEA at MRI. "MRI Strategic Planning allows a.s.r. real estate to manage both within one solution, significantly improving efficiency, data accuracy and strategic decision making. Relying on spreadsheets for investment modelling and portfolio management can lead to mistakes in reporting, version control issues, and inconsistent data."

MRI Strategic Planning is a global solution that allows firms to strategically model their assets, funds, and debt in multiple currencies to make investment portfolio decisions that diminish risk and drive performance. It offers a flexible system that can be adapted and customised based on each client's unique needs.

About MRI Software

MRI Software is a leading provider of real estate software solutions that transform the way communities live, work and play. MRI's open and connected, AI-first platform empowers owners, operators and occupiers in commercial and residential property organisations to innovate in rapidly changing markets. MRI has been a trailblazer in the PropTech industry for over five decades, serving more than two million users worldwide. Through innovative solutions and a rich partner ecosystem, MRI gives real estate companies the freedom to realise their vision of building thriving communities and stronger businesses. For more information, please visit mrisoftware.com.

About a.s.r.

ASR Nederland N.V. (a.s.r.) ranks among the top 3 insurers in the Netherlands. a.s.r. offers products and services in the fields of insurance, pensions and mortgages for consumers, self-employed persons and companies. In addition, a.s.r. is active as an asset manager for third parties. a.s.r. is listed on Euronext Amsterdam and included in the AMX Index. For more information, please visit www.asrnl.com.



About a.s.r. real estate

As a real estate asset manager, a.s.r. real estate has managed and invested in residential, retail and office real estate, agricultural land and infrastructure for over 125 years on behalf of its customers. For professional investors it manages five Dutch real estate funds and individual asset management mandates for (inter)national real estate. a.s.r. real estate looks for long-term value development of real estate and is part of a.s.r., one of the largest insurers in the Netherlands.

Media Contacts:

(EMEA for MRI)

Platform Communications

Hugh Filman

hugh@platformcomms.com

+44 7905 044850

Katrina Trantau

Katrina@platformcomms.com

+44 7597 163076

(US for MRI)

Rachel Antman

+1 212-362-5837

rachel@saygency.com

(ANZ for MRI)

Heather Jones

+61 400 394 669

heather@hjconsulting.com.au

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LONDON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Chartered Management Consultant Award (ChMC) is celebrating a year since its official launch with significant growth achieved in its inaugural year and the number of consultants and firms involved doubling. Conceived, developed and founded by the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) in conjunction with the industry, it has:

Received the backing and commitment of the some of the largest firms in the industry who will roll it out to their entire graduate intake and put thousands of consultants through ChMC

Raised standards of training and development within the industry

Proved to reduce attrition in consulting firms below industry averages by investing in career pathways for individuals

Raised standards of training and development within the industry

Attracted record numbers of applicants from leading small, medium and large firms as well as the independent sector

Received significant backing from private and public sector clients including HM Government

To date, over 600 consultants have been awarded Chartered status with more than 3,000 currently on the journey. Sixteen firms have now had their training and development schemes accredited with a further 10 to be authorised to train and develop Chartered Consultants in the near future. Firms range in size from larger firms such as PwC, EY, KPMG and IBM Consulting, Arup and Moorhouse to smaller firms including PPL and Akeso and Co.

Recent figures collected by the MCA and CMI have shown that leading firms which have rolled out Chartered have benefited from reduced attrition rates and better retention of staff by offering their individuals a clear career path and marking their firm out as a leader in the market for the highest standards of training and development. For those firms that have offered ChMC to their people, some have experienced a 100% retention rate of people and others have experienced significantly lower attrition levels than industry averages.

In recognition of the popularity of ChMC and following demand from young consultants, the MCA and CMI is also launching an Associate Award for consultants to opt for earlier on during their career. This new award for young consultants is aimed to aid talent retention and maintain motivation of individuals on the journey towards Chartered status. The Associate award is for consultants who can demonstrate a minimum of 3 years' experience in management consulting and will provide added value and recognition of early achievement for individuals on an accredited programme which takes 5 years to complete.

Young MCA Chair and Senior Consultant at EY, Hassan Kamara said:

"For young consultants especially, a high-quality framework for learning, an accredited programme and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) are key drivers for developing a long-term career in consulting. The introduction of the Associate Chartered Management

Consultant accreditation and the commitment from some of the industry's leading firms to provide the Chartered opportunity to consulting graduates will play an important part in developing future skills and talent for the profession."

MCA Chief Executive, Tamzen Isacsson added:

"It has been a really encouraging launch year for Chartered with major announcements by some of the world's leading consulting brands who are committed to offering all their staff ChMC. Maintaining the highest of standards is vital to the future of the management consultancy industry which constantly needs to keep on the cutting edge of training and development and Chartered assures clients of those standards. Recent figures on attrition rates have shown ChMC has proved to be an important tool in attracting and retaining the most talented of staff to the profession. We are really encouraged that young consultants have helped shape the new Associate Award which will provide an opportunity for consultants early on in their career to get recognition of their talents and achievements. This will kick in after 3 years and help aid talent retention and keep individuals motivated on the journey to becoming fully Chartered."

CMI Chief Executive, Ann Francke OBE, said:

"What a great first year it has undoubtedly been for the Chartered Management Consultant award. We are delighted to see both the progress made in raising awareness of the award and the appetite to get Chartered amongst the management consultancy community. All of us at CMI are proud to work in partnership with the MCA in delivering ChMC and helping to drive up standards across the sector. We look forward to a bright future ahead for the award and its positive impact in creating recognised professional pathways for management consultants. "

Both MCA and CMI have worked closely with the UK's clients of management consultancy services, including the public sector. Government has been involved since ChMC's inception and are also impressed with the awards remarkable progress in such a short space of time.

Parliamentary Under Secretary for State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and responsible for Professional Services, Minister Lee Rowley MP, said:

"The Chartered Management Consultant Award is a major positive step for the industry of management consulting, where I began my own professional development. I am confident that this award will continue to nurture talent and provide recognition for the highest of standards in years to come."

Further information on the Award (ChMC) can be found at Chartered Management Consultant Award and to sign up for the ChMC monthly newsletter designed for both consultants and clients in all sectors, register here.

Notes to Editors

* MCA Annual Member Survey 2022

ChMC

The Chartered Management Consultant Award (ChMC), has been created in a joint partnership between the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), the trade association for the UK's leading consulting firms, and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), which was appointed by the Privy Council as the Awarding Body. The initiative has been developed for the purposes of setting and maintaining the highest standards in the management consulting profession and creating an award which recognises consistent and high levels of professional competency and achievement.

The benefits of Chartered status to individual consultants, firms and clients is invaluable. The award will showcase Chartered status and serve as a pillar of recognised excellence for clients. Chartered status helps attract and retain talent as well as Chartered individuals adding incremental value to their organisations and adding a positive impact on the reputation of their business. This shows a true commitment and regard to upholding the competencies required to achieve Chartered status to clients.

MCA firms that have accreditation and/or assessments are:

Akeso Arcadis Arup Atkins ATOS Consulting BAE Systems Applied Intelligence Baringa Cadence Innova EY Go Beyond (Webhelp) IBM Consulting Inner Circle Consulting KPMG Mason Advisory Moorhouse Consulting Mott MacDonald NECS Consulting NEL Healthcare Consulting North Highland PA Consulting Group PPL Propaganda PWC



The Management Consultancies Association (MCA):

The MCA is the representative body for the UK's leading management consulting firms. For over 65 years, the MCA has been the voice of the consulting industry, promoting the value of consulting to business, the public sector, media commentators and the general public. The MCA's mission is to promote the value of management consultancy for the economy and society as a whole. The MCA's member companies comprise over 50% of the UK consulting industry work with the vast majority of the top FTSE 100 companies and almost all parts of the public sector. The UK consulting industry is amongst the best in the world and a vital part of the business landscape. Click to see the full list of current MCA members see link.

Compliance with the MCA's tough entry criteria and adherence to the principles of Consulting Excellence means that MCA member companies are widely acknowledged to provide high quality services to their clients. Many of their achievements are recognised in the annual MCA Awards.

Chartered Management Institute (CMI)

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) works with business and education to inspire people to unleash their potential and become skilled, confident and successful managers and leaders.

With a wealth of practical qualifications, events and networking opportunities on offer throughout the UK and Asia-Pacific, CMI helps people boost their career prospects and connect them with other ambitious professionals in any industry and sector.

In fact, CMI has more than 79,000 people training to be better managers right now.

Backed by a unique Royal Charter, CMI is the only organisation allowed to award Chartered Manager status - the ultimate management accolade.

CMI's thought leadership, research and online resources provide practical insight on critical issues for a 132,000 plus membership community and anyone looking to improve their skills, nurture high-performing teams and help pave the way for the next generation of managers and leaders.

For more information, please visit www.managers.org.uk

Chartered Management Institute on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
BRUSSELS, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Euroclear today provides an update on its financial and operational performance in the first quarter of 2022.

Financial Summary

Euroclear delivered a strong financial and operational performance in Q1 2022. Net profit increased +11% to EUR 134 million.

Operating income was up +10% year-on-year to EUR 438 million driven by strong business income growth, up +9% to EUR 405 million and Interest, Banking and Other income up 39% to EUR 32 million.

We increased our investments in technology in line with our strategy. Operating expenses increased to EUR 260 million, up 11% compared to Q1 2021.

Sanctions related to the invasion of Ukraine have led to increased cash held on our balance sheet, which are explained further below.

Infographic - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805340/Euroclear_1.jpg

Note: 2021 figures have been restated to include MFEX pro forma, in order to allow for like-for-like comparison.

Operational highlights

Throughout the first quarter, Euroclear continued to make strategic progress, while remaining focused on our responsibilities as a critical financial market infrastructure. This is reflected in the key operating metrics shown below:



Q1 total % change vs Q1 2021 Assets under Custody EUR 37 trillion +8% Number of Transactions 80 million +5% Turnover EUR 270 trillion +13% Fund assets under custody EUR 3 trillion +12% Collateral Highway EUR 2 trillion +18%

The integration of MFEX is progressing to plan as we combine MFEX's established fund distribution platforms with Euroclear's post-trade expertise to create a new end-to-end funds offering.

We have also made two strategic investments during the first quarter.

Firstly, we have further advanced Euroclear's digital strategy through our investment in Fnality, an international consortium of global banks and financial market infrastructures focused on building regulated payment systems to support the adoption of tokenised assets and marketplaces.

Secondly, we have progressed our sustainable finance and ESG strategy through an investment in Greenomy, a Belgium based sustainable finance technology platform. Greenomy helps corporates, credit institutions and asset managers comply with new European Union sustainable finance legislation by digitalising the data capturing and reporting processes.

As part of our commitment to ESG, we are pleased to announce that Euroclear has taken the important step to reduce its global carbon footprint by committing to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). We will now set CO2 reduction actions with the commitment to achieve net-zero value chain Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by no later than 2050.

Implications from the invasion of Ukraine and Sanctions

Our thoughts are with those affected by the humanitarian crisis resulting from the invasion of Ukraine. We have focused on supporting our staff, especially those of Ukrainian and Russian origin, as well as those in bordering countries.

Euroclear is complying with the international sanctions imposed in response to the invasion of Ukraine and has suspended all transactions with sanctioned entities since 28 February. In addition to ensuring all the sanctions are applied immediately and completely, our teams are supporting clients diligently in managing the exceptional situation. We are working closely with clients to apply all new rules fully and according to the spirit of the sanctions.

A consequence of the sanctions is that assets owned by sanctioned parties are blocked in the respective financial market infrastructures, including Euroclear. As the assets mature through their lifecycle, cashflows (e.g. coupons and redemptions) that are normally transferred to the underlying parties accumulate on our balance sheet for as long as the sanctions remain in place. We do not expect these sanctions to affect our financial performance. During the first quarter, Euroclear Bank's balance sheet increased by 23 billion year-on-year, for which the company is working on the mitigation of potential regulatory capital requirements.

In light of these circumstances, the Board of Euroclear considers it to be prudent to wait until the second half of 2022 to formally decide on the dividend payment of EUR 88.5 per share (equating to a total of EUR 279 million) as announced in its full year results.

Commenting on the results, Lieve Mostrey, Chief Executive Officer, said:

"The invasion of Ukraine is deeply troubling and our thoughts are with all who are impacted. As a financial market infrastructure, we have an important role to play in a turbulent world. I am proud of the staff response as our people mobilised swiftly to apply the sanctions; to support clients during the exceptional circumstances; and to contribute to relief efforts for those affected. From a financial and operational perspective, Euroclear continues to perform very well, achieving another strong quarter as we continue to deliver on our strategy."

Appendix: Financial Statements for Euroclear Bank and Euroclear Investments

Infographic - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805341/Euroclear_2.jpg

About Euroclear

Euroclear Group is the financial industry's trusted provider of post trade services. Euroclear provides settlement and custody of domestic and cross-border securities for bonds, equities and derivatives to investment funds. Euroclear is a proven, resilient capital market infrastructure committed to delivering risk-mitigation, automation and efficiency at scale for its global client franchise.

The Euroclear Group comprises Euroclear Bank, the International CSD, as well as Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear Finland, Euroclear France, Euroclear Nederland, Euroclear Sweden and Euroclear UK & International. The Euroclear Group settled the equivalent of EUR 992 trillion in securities transactions in 2021, representing 295 million domestic and cross-border transactions, and held EUR 37.6 trillion in assets for clients by end 2021. For more information about Euroclear, please visit www.euroclear.com

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PALO ALTO, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Glooko, Inc., a leading provider of remote patient monitoring and data management solutions for diabetes and related chronic conditions, today announced the appointment of Alfonso "Chito" Zulueta to its Board of Directors.

Respected as a leader with a strong track record of success in the pharmaceutical industry and deep experience on corporate boards and industry associations, Mr. Zulueta comes to the Glooko Board having served as a senior executive leading a wide range of global business and commercial units over his more than 30-year career with Eli Lilly and Company. The Glooko leadership team and Board welcome the breadth and depth of experience he brings as the company continues its strategic growth as a digital health leader in chronic disease management.

"We are very excited for Chito to join our Board and particularly fortunate for his strong understanding of the impact that digital health solutions can have on managing chronic diseases," said Russ Johannesson, CEO of Glooko. "He brings a wealth of valuable experience and unique perspectives to our Board, having led successful global healthcare ventures focused on treating diabetes and other diseases. Chito's appointment comes at a critical time for Glooko, as we continue to broaden our digital therapeutics (DTx) and clinical research businesses."

Mr. Zulueta retired at the end of 2021 from his roles at Lilly as an executive committee member, corporate officer and president of the company's international business unit, where he was responsible for leading Lilly's business in all geographies outside of the U.S. and Canada. Prior to that, he served as Lilly's president of its Emerging Market business unit, president of Japan, president of Global Oncology and Critical Care product group, vice president in charge of U.S. sales and marketing for the neuroscience and diabetes/family health business unit, and vice president of global marketing.

"This is a compelling time to join the Glooko Board as the Company expands its offerings and commercial footprint," said Mr. Zulueta. "Glooko is rapidly increasing its market relevance and is driving real innovation through its digital health solutions, serving more patients and healthcare professionals globally. I'm excited to leverage my experience and insights to help Glooko accelerate this growth and evolution."

Mr. Zulueta also serves on the boards of directors of CTS Corporate, Syneos Health, and Calidi Biotherapeutics, Inc. He served previously on the boards of industry associations, including the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (chairman of the international committee), PhRMA (chairman of the Japan business executive committee), the American Chamber of Commerce of Japan (governor of the Kansai chapter), and the U.S.- Japan Business Council.

Mr. Zulueta earned an MBA from the Darden School of Business Administration of the University of Virginia and a bachelor's degree in economics from De La Salle University.

About Glooko

Glooko is transforming digital health by connecting people with diabetes and related chronic conditions with their healthcare teams, enabling collaborative telehealth, clinical research and improved health outcomes. The company's software platforms collect and analyze data from multiple devices in one highly secure place, allowing for easy remote upload via app or in-clinic, and producing easy-to-read analytics through actionable charts and graphs. The platform is compatible with over 95% of global diabetes and health monitoring devices, giving patients and their providers flexibility in how to manage their conditions. With over 35 billion data points, Glooko is the global leader in diabetes patient data. Glooko's solutions can be found in 31 countries across 22 languages. Learn more at glooko.com .

Media Inquiries:

Tanya Rodante

Director of Global Communication, Glooko

tanya.rodante@glooko.com

+1 415-608-5295

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DGAP-News: Multitude SE / Announcement of the Results of the General Meeting

Multitude SE: Decisions of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Multitude SE



27.04.2022 / 10:30

Announcement of the Results of the General Meeting, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Multitude SE: Decisions of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Multitude SE



Helsinki, 27 April 2022 - Multitude SE (ISIN: FI4000106299, WKN: A1W9NS) ("Multitude" or "Company"). DECISIONS OF MULTITUDE'S ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2022



Multitude held its Annual General Meeting today under special arrangements and the meeting made the following resolutions. ADOPTION OF THE ANNUAL ACCOUNTS AND DISCHARGE FROM LIABILITY



The Annual General Meeting adopted the Annual Accounts including the Consolidated Annual Accounts for the financial year 2021 and discharged the members of the Board of Directors and the CEO from liability for the financial year 2021. DIVIDENDS



The Annual General Meeting decided in accordance with the proposal of the Board of Directors that for the financial year ended 31 December 2021, no dividend will be distributed. REMUNERATION REPORT FOR THE GOVERNING BODIES



The Annual General Meeting approved the presented Remuneration Report for Governing Bodies. COMPOSITION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS



The Annual General Meeting confirmed the number of members of the Board of Directors as eight. The Annual General Meeting decided to re-elect Goutam Challagalla, Michael A. Cusumano, Jorma Jokela, Lea Liigus, Frederik Strange and Juhani Vanhala and elect Kristiina Leppanen and Jussi Mekkonen as new members, each one for a term ending at the end of the next Annual General Meeting. The Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors will be elected by the Board of Directors from amongst its members. REMUNERATION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS



The Annual General Meeting resolved that the remuneration of the Board of Directors remain the same and that each member of the Board of Directors be paid EUR 4,000 per month. Furthermore, it was resolved that no remuneration will be paid to the members who are employees or Managing Directors of the Company or a subsidiary of the Company. AUDITOR AND REMUNERATION OF THE AUDITOR



Audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy, which had stated that APA Jukka Karinen will act as the responsible auditor, was appointed as auditor of the Company for a term ending at the end of the next Annual General Meeting. It was decided that the auditor be paid reasonable remuneration in accordance with the auditor's invoice, which shall be approved by the Company. AUTHORISATION TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS TO DECIDE ON THE REPURCHASE OF THE COMPANY'S OWN SHARES



The Annual General Meeting approved the Board of Directors' proposal on authorisation to the Board of Directors to decide to repurchase a maximum of 2,172,396 shares in the Company, which corresponds approximately to 10 per cent of all the shares in the Company. By virtue of the authorisation, own shares may be repurchased by using the Company's unrestricted equity. Consequently, any repurchase will reduce the Company's funds available for distribution of profits. Own shares may be repurchased through public trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange at the prevailing market price on the date of repurchase. The authorisation entitles the Board of Directors to decide to repurchase shares also otherwise than in proportion to the shareholders' holding in the Company by way of a directed repurchase subject to the requirements set out in the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act. The Board can use the authorisation in one or several tranches to all purposes decided by the Board of Directors. The authorisation is in force until the earliest of: (i) the transfer of the registered office of Multitude SE from Helsinki, Finland to Hamburg, Germany in accordance with the Council Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 of 8 October 2001 on the Statute for a European Company (SE) (SE Regulation), (ii) the end of the next Annual General Meeting, or (iii) until 30 June 2023. AUTHORISATION TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS TO DECIDE ON THE ISSUANCE OF SHARES AND SPECIAL RIGHTS ENTITLING TO SHARES



The Annual General Meeting approved the Board of Directors' proposal on authorisation to the Board of Directors to decide to issue a maximum of 3,258,594 shares, which corresponds approximately to 15 per cent of the Company's total amount of shares. The Board of Directors may issue either new shares or transfer existing shares held by the Company. The authorisation also includes the right to issue special rights, in the meaning of chapter 10, section 1 of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act, which entitle to the Company's new shares or the Company's own shares held by the Company against consideration. Shares that may be subscribed for by virtue of the special rights entitling to shares are included in the aforesaid maximum number of shares. The authorisation entitles the Board of Directors to decide on a directed share issue and issue of special rights in deviation from the pre-emptive rights of shareholders subject to the requirements set out in the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act. The Board of Directors can use the authorisation in one or several tranches, and it may be used to all purposes decided by the Board of Directors, such as developing the Company's capital structure, financing or carrying out acquisitions or other arrangements, or as a part of the Company's incentive schemes. The authorisation is in force until the earliest of: (i) the transfer of the registered office of Multitude SE from Helsinki, Finland to Hamburg, Germany in accordance with the Council Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 of 8 October 2001 on the Statute for a European Company (SE) (SE Regulation), (ii) the end of the next Annual General Meeting, or (iii) until 30 June 2023. TRANSFER OF THE REGISTERED OFFICE FROM FINLAND TO GERMANY



The Company's Extraordinary General Meeting has approved on 16 September 2021 the transfer of the registered office of Multitude from Helsinki, Finland to Hamburg, Germany (Transfer) as well as the transfer of the shares in the Company to the securities depository system maintained by the German securities depository Clearstream Banking Aktiengesellschaft. Multitude has announced on 9 December 2021, that the Company's Board of Directors has resolved to postpone the relocation for a period currently expected to be up to a year. As a result of the postponement, the relocation is expected to take place at the latest on or about 31 December 2022. The Annual General Meeting noted the update. OTHER DECISIONS



The Annual General Meeting made also certain decisions related to the Transfer which are conditional on the registration of the Company in the commercial register in Germany. Those decisions include a decision to authorise the Board of Directors for a period until 30 June 2025, to acquire shares of the Company in an extent of up to 10 per cent of the capital stock existing at the point in time of this authorisation becoming effective or - if this value is lower - of the capital stock existing at the point in time of the exercise of the authorisation, a decision to authorise the Board of Directors to use treasury shares that were or are so acquired on the basis of the authorisation for all legally permissible purposes, and a decision to authorise the Company to acquire treasury shares also by using derivatives and to enter into corresponding derivative transactions so that the term of the individual derivatives may not be more than 18 months, has to end no later than on 30 June 2025, and has to be designed in such manner that the acquisition of the shares using the derivatives cannot occur after 30 June 2025. Moreover, subject to the condition precedent of the registration of the Company with the commercial register in Germany on or before 31 December 2022, the Annual General Meeting made a decision to elect PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprufungsgesellschaft as the auditor of the Company and Multitude Group for the financial year 2022. About Multitude SE:



Multitude is a fully regulated growth platform for financial technology. Its ambition is to become the most valued financial ecosystem. This vision is backed by +16 years of solid track record in building and scaling financial technology. Through its full European banking license, profound know-how in technology, regulation, cross-selling, and funding, Multitude enables a range of sustainable banking and financial services to grow and scale. Currently, it has three independent business units on this growth platform: Ferratum as consumer lender, CapitalBox as business lender, and SweepBank as shopping and financing app. Multitude and its independent units employ over 700 people in 19 countries, and they together generated EUR 214 million turnover in 2021. Multitude was founded in 2005 in Finland and is listed in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol 'FRU.' www.multitude.com

27.04.2022 The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


MassMutual Ventures (MMV) announced today that its Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Europe team has launched a new fund of $300 million to invest in early and growth-stage companies in digital health, financial technology, enterprise SaaS, and cybersecurity. With this launch, the team has widened its investment reach to include Europe and will continue to invest in companies in the APAC region.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005346/en/

MassMutual Ventures APAC Europe team. From left to right: Managing Director, Anvesh Ramineni; Senior Associate, Carlos Jo-Loo; Associate, Cheryl Teo; and Managing Director, Ryan Collins. (Photo: Business Wire)

"With this additional capital, we look forward to backing even more exceptional founders and supporting them as they scale over time," said Anvesh Ramineni, Managing Director, MassMutual Ventures. "Over the past three and a half years, we have led investments in companies fundamentally transforming the digital health, fintech and SaaS sectors in APAC, where we continue to see tremendous opportunity. Moreover, we are very excited about expanding our team and reach to Europe's thriving tech and startup ecosystem making MMV a truly global platform."

Ryan Collins, Managing Director, MassMutual Ventures added, "Through our team's presence in the U.S., Europe and Asia, we offer portfolio companies insights into global markets, and access to significant networks, expertise, and later stage, growth capital allowing us to support them over the long-term. We are particularly excited about the opportunity set in digital health, decentralized finance (DeFi), and AI/ML applications key sectors and technologies in which MMV invests."

Since its inception in 2014, MMV has backed over 60 startups across the U.S., Canada, Germany, Israel, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Australia. Some of the APAC team's portfolio companies include:

Biofourmis, a digital therapeutics company

Aspire, a SME-focused neobank

Qure.ai, an AI-powered diagnostics company

Zluri, a SaaS management company

Treehouse Finance, a DeFi portfolio management and analytics company

Microsec, an IoT security company

HelloBetter, a Berlin-based digital mental health company

"This fund reinforces MMV's commitment to the Asia-Pacific region and to building a global platform as we look to capitalize on attractive opportunities in Europe," said Doug Russell, Managing Director and Head of MassMutual Ventures. "MMV's overall investment capital has more than doubled in size in just two years, underscoring the significant opportunity we see in backing strong founders building great businesses. We look forward to continuing to back category-defining companies across the globe with this additional capital."

Ryan and Anvesh have led the APAC team since it was established in 2018. They are supported by Carlos Jo-Loo and Cheryl Teo. Reflecting the increased capital under management, geographic expansion and commitment to its portfolio companies, MMV plans to hire additional team members in both Asia and Europe.

About MassMutual Ventures

MassMutual Ventures (MMV) is a multistage global venture capital firm investing in digital health, financial technology, enterprise SaaS, and cybersecurity companies. We help accelerate the growth of the companies we partner with by providing capital, connections and advice. With our deep expertise and extensive Fortune 500 network, MMV helps entrepreneurs build compelling and scalable companies of value. For more information, visit www.massmutualventures.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005346/en/

Contacts:

Chelsea Haraty

chelseaharaty@massmutual.com
The "Greece: Data Centre Landscape 2021 to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Greek Data Centre market has become a hub site for Southern Europe and Balkan markets with a series of carrier-neutral Data Centre facilities including Lamda Hellix and Lancom with the cities of Athens and also Thessaloniki being the two main locations for Data Centres in Greece.

The Greek Data Centre market is seeing new investment from US-based Data Centre REIT Digital Realty subsidiary Lamda Helix with an Athens-3 facility and a planned Athens-4 facility. A new Data Centre facility is also being planned by Lancom. Space power and revenues are all forecast to grow by 40 per cent over the next four-year period from the end of 2021 to the end of 2025.

Microsoft has been given approval by Greece's state agency Enterprise Greece for an investment project for three data centres in the country.

The report considers the growth of Data Centre space, power, pricing for Greece. The report shows the Revenues for Cloud and Data Centre Market forecast over the period from the beginning of 2021 to the beginning of 2025 and provides profiles of the key Public Cloud and Data Centre providers for Greece.

Key Topics Covered:

Acquisitions/Mergers 2021 to 2022

New Data Centre Development in Europe 2021

A List of Figures Greek Data Centre Landscape

Methodology Greek Data Centre Landscape

Data Centre Summary Greek Data Centre Landscape

A simplified map of Greek

Greek sub-sea cable connectivity

The Key third-party Data Centre Providers Facilities in Greek

The key Greek Data Centre Provider Profiles

A Pie Chart showing the key Greek Data Centre Provider market share in per cent as the end of 2022

A Greek Data Centre raised space forecast in m2 per annum from the end of 2022 to the end of 2026

A Greek Data Centre Customer Power forecast in MW per annum from the end of 2022 to the end of 2026

Greek Data Centre power in Euro per kWH

The key Data Centre Clusters in Greece

A Data Centre Pricing Forecast in Greece in Euro per month per annum from the end of 2022 to the end of 2026

A Data Centre revenue forecast in millions of Euro in Greece per annum from the end of 2022 to the end of 2026

A Public Cloud revenue forecast in millions of Euro in Greece per annum from the end of 2022 to the end of 2026

The key trends for the Greek Data Centre market

The Greek Data Centre Outlook

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4ds242

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005491/en/

Contacts:

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Tevano Systems Holdings Inc's (CSE: TEVO) (FSE: 7RB) (OTC Pink: TEVNF) ("Tevano", or the "Company") wholly owned subsidiary illuria Security, Inc. ("illuria") announces the availability of its open source tool "manush", an Oberon 2-based Menu Shell.

illuria open sourced manush, a customizable menu shell, though nimble, is intuitive and secure because of its programming language, Oberon, which has a safe runtime. Due to its fast, secure and intuitive nature, manush will be the default shell in illuria's ProfilerX product line, which allows illuria to do rapid changes in its deployment menus, based on customers' needs.

Manush's lead developer Norayr Chilingarian states "We created this not only because we needed it, but because others will need it too! Manush reads the menu configuration file and presents those as a beautifully colored menu to the user. Users can also configure manush to call itself with another configuration file, allowing the user's menus to be with unlimited depth!"

illuria's CEO, Antranig Wartanian states "Most product vendors and open-source projects create their own menu shells from scratch. This seems very redundant work, hence we decided to create a customizable, open-source menu shell that would benefit all systems engineers and operators around the world. While this is the initial version, illuria plans to make major improvements in the coming months as feedback and ideas from the two-way communication with the community guides the roadmap of future releases".

illuria's open sourcing of manush provides a tool for anybody who wants to have their own menu shell. manush is available on illuria's GitHub account: https://github.com/illuria/manush

About Tevano

Tevano Systems Holdings Inc., through its operating subsidiaries, is a technology company with custom and proprietary hardware and software technologies. Its subsidiary, illuria Security, Inc. is an early-stage software development company whose technology involves active cyber deception to protect critical network systems of enterprise systems of all sizes. Using deception technology, illuria's software seeks to solve the challenge of cyber-attacks by detecting threats, systematically deceiving attackers, and actively deterring attacks. Its subsidiary Tevano Systems Inc. is the developer of Health Shield, an AI-driven, electronic tablet that video displays a user with their body temperature and other information. It provides detailed reports of all scans done throughout an enterprise.

For more information, please visit www.tevano.com

On behalf of the Board of:

TEVANO SYSTEMS HOLDINGS INC.

David Bajwa, Chief Executive Officer

davidb@tevano.com

778 388 4806

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements or information. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and matters. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by management of the Company. Although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements and information since no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct.

Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of the Company relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to several factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to raise further capital, the success of the Company's software and product initiatives and the Company's ability to obtain regulatory and exchange approvals. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Neither the CSE nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121855
London, Chicago, April 27, 2022, the specialist risk consultancy, today announced it is expanding its technology offering with Reveal, the global provider of the leading AI-powered eDiscovery and investigations platform. Reveal uses adaptive AI, behavioral analysis, and pre-trained AI model libraries to help uncover connections and patterns buried in large volumes of unstructured data.

"Corporate legal and compliance teams, and their outside counsel, are looking to technology to better understand data, reduce risks and costs, and extract key insights faster across an ever-increasing volume and variety of data. We look forward to leveraging Reveal's data visualization, AI and machine learning functionality to drive innovation with our clients," said Brad Kolacinski, Partner, Control Risks.

Control Risks will leverage the platform globally to unlock intelligence that will help clients mitigate risks across a range of areas including litigation, investigations, compliance, ethics, fraud, human resources, privacy and security.

"We work with clients and their counsel on large, complex, cross-border forensics and investigations engagements. It is no secret that AI, ML and analytics are now required tools in matters where we need to sift through enormous quantities of data and deliver insights to clients efficiently," says Torsten Duwenhorst, Partner, Control Risks. "Offering the full range of Reveal's capabilities globally will benefit our clients enormously."

"As we continue to expand the depth and breadth of Reveal's marketplace offerings, we are excited to partner with Control Risks, a demonstrated leader in security, compliance and organizational resilience - offerings that are more critical now than ever," said Wendell Jisa, Reveal's CEO. "By taking full advantage of Reveal's powerful platform, Control Risks now has access to the industry's leading SaaS-based, AI-powered technology stack, helping them and their clients solve their most complex problems with greater intelligence."

For more information about Reveal-Brainspace and its AI platform for legal, enterprise and government organizations, visit www.revealdata.com.

###

About Control Risks

Control Risks is a specialist global risk consultancy that helps to create secure, compliant and resilient organizations in an age of ever-changing risk. Working across disciplines, technologies and geographies, everything we do is based on our belief that taking risks is essential to our clients' success. We provide our clients with the insight to focus resources and ensure they are prepared to resolve the issues and crises that occur in any ambitious global organization. We go beyond problem-solving and provide the insights and intelligence needed to realize opportunities and grow. Control Risks will initially provide Reveal-Brainspace in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific. Visit us online at www.controlrisks.com.

About Reveal

Reveal, with Brainspace technology, is a global provider of the leading AI-powered eDiscovery platform. Fueled by powerful AI technology and backed by the most experienced team of data scientists in the industry, Reveal's cloud-based software offers a full suite of eDiscovery solutions all on one seamless platform. Users of Reveal include law firms, Fortune 500 corporations, legal service providers, government agencies and financial institutions in more than 40 countries across five continents. Featuring deployment options in the cloud or on-premise, an intuitive user design and multilingual user interfaces, Reveal is modernizing the practice of law, saving users time and money and offering them a competitive advantage. For more information, visit http://www.revealdata.com.
XPENG is participating in the eCar Expo in Stockholm from 29 April to 1 May, with the Flying Car XPENG X2 and intelligent EV XPENG P5 and P7 be on display

This is the first time XPENG X2 being showcased in an exhibition in Europe

The XPENG P5, an intelligent EV sedan, is now available for online reservation on XPENG Swedish website

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- XPENG, a leading electric vehicle manufacturer, will be attending eCar Expo in Stockholm from April 29 to May 1, 2022. During the exhibition, the Company's 5th generation flying car, XPENG X2, will be revealed to the Swedish public. This is the first time that XPENG X2 will be shown in Sweden. XPENG will also use the exhibition to showcase its first EV model for the Swedish market, XPENG P5.

Attending eCar Expo is the next step in XPENG's plans to make waves in Europe. Since establishing a presence in Sweden in November, 2021, the electric vehicle manufacturer has, among other things, opened an XPENG Experience Store, entered into a commercial agreement with Bilia, and announced XPENG P5 as its first model in Sweden.

Flying Cars a Viable Solution for the Future of Private Transport

Flying cars have long been used to describe what the future may hold. XPENG AEROHT is the largest flying car company in Asia and also an affiliate of Xpeng Inc. dedicated to producing the safest electric intelligent flying car for private use. At eCar Expo, Friends Arena in Stockholm, XPENG will display XPENG X2 for the first time at an exhibition in Europe.

- "Innovation and development in mobility are progressing rapidly. Ten years ago, the mass adoption of electric cars would have seemed a far-fetched idea, but today, we're working on producing commercially viable flying cars. If no one builds the future, it is still difficult to imagine. At XPENG, we have long worked with an intelligent electric flying car - and we are very happy to finally be able to show the X2 in Sweden and Europe", says Elvis Cheng, Managing Director of Nordic Region, XPENG.

- The X2 is a two-seater eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) flying car. It is equipped with an intelligent flight control system and autonomous flight capability. The X2, as the fifth generation flying car of the company, is the latest generation of flying car developed independently by XPENG AEROHT. But more excited product is the sixth generation flying car, which can travel on a road and fly in the sky. It can easily switch modes from drive to flight. It will go into mass production and delivery to customers in 2024", said by He Xiaopeng, the Chairman of XPENG.

- "As one of our strategic markets, we are willing to ensure Europe is aware of our latest developments and products. We're looking forward to carrying out our first test flight in Europe very shortly", said Zhao Deli, Founder & President of XPENG AEROHT.

That Sweden is one of the world's most innovative countries, according to the Global Innovation Index, makes it interesting for XPENG AEROHT to explore the possibility of testing XPENG X2 at Skelleftea Airport.

- "Initiatives like these are needed. The innovative spirit in which XPENG developed the X2 goes hand in hand with our idea of the future. If all goes well, we hope that Skelleftea Airport will be a gateway for flying electric cars. Not only in Sweden, but in the whole world", says Henrik Littorin, Project director ELIS program at Skelleftea airport.

XPENG P5 Specifications and Expected Starting Price

In addition to the unveiling of XPENG X2, both electric sedans, XPENG P5 and XPENG P7, will be on display at eCar Expo, Friends Arena in Stockholm. The online reservation and test drive booking of XPENG P5 are now available on the XPENG local website).

With LED headlights and full-width taillights, XPENG P5 boasts a modern look with brighter, more powerful lighting. XPENG P5 delivers up to 465 km of WLTP range on a single charge powered by its 66 kWh battery. With CCS2 charging capabilities, XPENG P5 can be charged in a vast number of locations across Europe.

The car has a spacious interior with soft materials for a premium look and feel, complemented by ergonomic seats that provide optimal comfort for the driver and passengers. XPENG P5 also has a large panoramic sunroof with an electric sunshade, an advanced surround sound system, noise reduction technology, and the Xfreebreath air purification system, making it the optimal choice for a comfortable and healthy trip.





XPENG P5 uses an Advanced Driver Assistance System, XPILOT 2.5, and the in-car operating system Xmart OS. Both systems can be improved with over-the-air (OTA) updates over time. XPILOT 2.5 uses 5 high-resolution millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic wave sensors, 4 driving cameras, and 9 high-definition cameras to support the XPILOT Driving, XPILOT Parking, and XPILOT Safety features.

Further information on XPENG P5 is available in the appendix "Specifications XPENG P5".

The expected starting price for XPENG P5 is SEK 550,000.

For more information please contact:

Liya Huang, EU PR Manager

Huangxl3@xiaopeng.com

About XPENG

XPENG is a leading technology company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets smart mobility solutions. We explore the diversity of mobility through our affiliates including electric vehicles (EVs), electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, and robotics. We are focused on creating a mobility future that uses thoughtful and empathetic intelligence to improve the experience for drivers everywhere.

XPENG is involved in R&D, where over 40% of our employees work in R&D-related areas that help develop our growing product portfolio. The company has created a "full-stack Advanced Driver Assistance System" (XPILOT), as well as a smart operating system (Xmart OS) for an improved in-car experience, and XPENG has developed a core vehicle system for improved driving characteristics, including powertrains and advanced electronic architecture.



XPENG is headquartered in Guangzhou, China with multiregional offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Silicon Valley and San Diego. In 2021, XPENG established its European headquarters in Amsterdam, together with other dedicated offices in Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden. XPENG's electric cars are manufactured in the wholly owned factory in Zhaoqing, China. To further expand our production capacity, two new self-weighted, smart manufacturing bases for electric cars in Guangzhou and Wuhan are under construction.

For more information about XPENG and our product availability in Sweden, visit our website: heyxpeng.com/se

About XPENG AEROHT

XPENG AEROHT was established by Zhao Deli in 2013. In 2020, He Xiaopeng and Xpeng Motors jointly invested and held the establishment of XPENG AEROHT, which is dedicated to produce the safest intelligent electric flying car. XPENG AEROHT is headquartered in Guangzhou and has set up R&D centers for flying cars in Shenzhen, Shanghai,etc., flight test bases in Guangzhou.



We have a team of high-tech R&D talents in multiple fields such as comprehensive avionics, flight test, airworthiness, safety, structural mechanics, industrial design, embedded system, etc. We have experience in developing and testing unmanned flight systems. Now we have nearly 700 staffs, where over 85% are R&D personnel (over half of them own master's degree or doctor's degree). By the end of 2022, our team members will exceed 1000.



XPENG AEROHT is the constitutor of the standards for China's new flying car. We have been implemented more than 15,000 flight tests. Furthermore, the refined appearance of our products won the highest level of industrial design awards such as Red Dot Award, IF Award and IDEA Design Award, etc.



In 2021, XPENG AEROHT raised US$500+ million in Series A financing, which is the largest single-tranche funding of low-altitude flying vehicle sector in Asia. At that time, it was selected in 2021 Global Unicorn list and won the title of Guangzhou Unicorn Enterprise. The valuation of XPENG AEROHT reached US$1.5 billion.

ELIS program at Skelleftea Airport

Skelleftea Airport, Skelleftea Kraft, Northvolt, Skelleftea Science City and EIT InnoEnergy have established the development programme ELIS. The vision is that Skelleftea, in broad cooperation with partners shall become a leading hub in the test, development and commercialization of electrified air transportation for people and goods in Sweden and beyond. A number of initiatives is now underway within the programme and one of the projects is to create a test track for eVTOLs between the airport and Northvolt One - it will be one of the first in the world.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e0c3352b-27cf-432b-8585-b2297248151c
China opposes U.S. interference in Tibet-related issues: FM spokesperson

Xinhua) 11:02, April 27, 2022

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that China firmly opposes U.S. interference in China's internal affairs on Tibet-related issues under the pretext of religious freedom.

Wang made the remarks at a regular press briefing in response to a statement put out by the U.S. State Department urging China to disclose the whereabouts and the well-being of the "reincarnation" of the Panchen Lama.

Wang said the Chinese government pursues policies of freedom of religious belief, including respecting and protecting the reincarnation of Living Buddhas, an institution of inheritance in Tibetan Buddhism.

"For the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama and other grand Living Buddhas, a complete set of methods and procedures have been established over the centuries, and the religious rituals and historical conventions, as well as the Chinese laws, need to be complied with in this process," Wang said.

Noting that the 14th Dalai Lama is an anti-China separatist under the cloak of religion, Wang said that 27 years ago, when he was abroad, the Dalai Lama took the liberty of declaring a child to be the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama in order to carry out anti-China separatist political hype to the detriment of religious rituals and in disregard of historical conventions.

"This is illegal and invalid," Wang stressed, adding that the so-called reincarnated child is just an ordinary Chinese citizen living a normal life. He and his family do not want their normal life to be disturbed by others.

Wang said the U.S. side should fully understand and respect their wishes, rather than taking the opportunity to engage in political manipulations and attack and discredit China.

"If the United States really cares about human rights and religious freedom, why did it carry out the all-round and systematic ethnic cleansing of Indian Americans, leading to their cultural genocide?" asked Wang. "The U.S. side should provide a convincing explanation," he added.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
LONDON , April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Modulaire Group ("Modulaire" or "Group"), Europe and Asia Pacific's leading business services company specialising in modular services and infrastructure, has today announced changes to its leadership team.

Oliver Tant an experienced finance consultant has been engaged by the Group to provide support to Group finance for an initial period of six months. Oliver brings a wealth of experience to the business with a distinguished career as a FTSE 30 CFO and Professional Services leader serving many large corporate clients around the world. Oliver was most recently Group CFO at Imperial Brands PLC.

Oliver's appointment follows the decision by Simon Gordon, Chief Financial Officer, to leave the business. Oliver and Simon have worked together on an orderly transition and Modulaire is conducting a search for a new CFO.

Modulaire also announces that it has made changes to its leadership structure with strategic business unit Managing Directors now reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer and the creation of new Group Commercial Director and Group Operations Director positions.

David Muntanola, the former Managing Director of Iberia and Group Business Solutions Director, has been promoted to Group Commercial Director with responsibility for developing pricing, VAPS solutions, product specifications, digital marketing and sales excellence.

Nick Pennell has been appointed as Group Operations Director. Nick joins Modulaire from Essentra, the FTSE 250 global manufacturer and distributor of various components, where he was most recently Group Programme Director, and Group Operations Director for four years prior to that. As Group Operations Director, Nick is responsible for health and safety, procurement, operational excellence and the Group's assembly facilities.

Modulaire has also announced today that Sunny Thakrar, the Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operations Officer, has decided to leave the business.

Sunny has been a key figure in the development of the Modulaire business, which has positioned the business well for the future under Brookfield's ownership. Sunny joined the Group as European Chief Financial Officer in 2016, later took on the role of Group Chief Financial Officer and was most recently Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operations Officer.

Mark Higson, Chief Executive Officer, said: "I am excited about collaborating with David and Nick in their new roles and to be working with Oliver. We are all grateful to Simon and Sunny for their contributions to the business and wish them both well for the future."

About Modulaire Group

Modulaire is a leader in European modular services and infrastructure. We create smart spaces for people to work, learn and live. Our business is designed to help customers find the right space solution, no matter what their requirements. Modulaire has operations in 25 countries with approximately 290,000 modular space and portable storage units and 4,400 remote accommodations rooms. The company operates as Algeco in Europe, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, Advante in the United Kingdom, BUKO Huisvesting, BUKO Bouw & Winkels and BUKO Bouwsystemen in The Netherlands, Tecnifor and Locabox in Italy, Ausco in Australia, Portacom in New Zealand, and Algeco Chengdong in China.

For further information:

Investor relations: Phil Vellacott

investorrelations@modulairegroup.com

07841 563541

Media enquiries: Tulchan Communications

modulairegroup@tulchangroup.com

0207 353 4200
Harvest Trading Cap's educational entity, Harvest Trading Cap Academy gave its masterclass on cryptocurrencies in El Salvador, a country where bitcoin is officially regulated.

MIAMI, April 27, 2022, Dominican leader in education on blockchain technologies, fintech and cryptocurrencies held an important meeting with government authorities, mayors of different municipalities and members of the congress of El Salvador, a Latin American country pioneer in regulating bitcoinin its territory due to the importance it represents for the current and future economy in the world.



As part of this approach Harvest Trading Cap Academy, academic extension of the Dominican financial group Harvest Trading Cap, successfully developed the event "Crypto MasterClass El Salvador" which was supported by the Jerusalem Foundation and was attended by financial technology experts Jairo Gonzalezand Lic. Luilly Guichardo, Product Manager of Harvest Trading Cap.

Jairo Gonzalez, who on occasions has called on Latin American countries to emulate the actions of Salvadoran President NayibBukele regarding the legalization of bitcoin, under well-defined criteria and established controls, took advantage of this scenario to congratulate the approval of the Salvadoran parliament.

In the same way Jairo Gonzalezexpressed feeling very grateful with the support they have been given since the first visits he and his team have made to the country, since then he has seen the revolution of new technologies and how they have been impacting all El Salvador and the world.

Since a decree in El Salvador authorized bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, the Dominican business group "joined this vision", with the aim of contributing to the advancement of that country in education, technology and finance.

Jairo Gonzaleztook the opportunity to thank the Jerusalem Foundation chaired by Dr. Laura Ventura for being the bridge that has allowed Harvest Trading Cap Academyto deliver thousands of scholarships to the people of El Salvador, and to enable them to take full advantage of new technologies, which since the pandemic crisis has opened opportunities for investment in international financial markets.

"We admire the initiative led by its president, Nayib Bukele, who through an economic crisis in the local system, took refuge in bitcoins to solve all those problems that the country has been going through for years, because they provide a new opportunity to generate new resources," said Jairo Gonzalez.

For his part, the mentor of Harvest Trading Cap Academy, Luilly Guichardo, explained that cryptocurrencies are digital assets created with encryption technologies and that "they can be used freely, in a decentralized manner and without the need to depend on a direct financial entity".

On his side, economist Gregorix Polanco referred to the adaptation of innovative technical resources to give way to a totally technological and secure era, which began with the means of payment through plastic or metal cards issued by a financial entity. He said that the birth of this financial instrument revolutionized the way people pay.

The Crypto Masterclass was broadcast live on the official YouTube channel of Harvest Trading Cap Academy and that of the Secretariat of Innovation of El Salvador, where thousands of Internet users accompanied these three experts for about an hour in an exhibition of knowledge and tools on cryptocurrencies and new technologies.

The transmission, which in less than 24 hours of being shared reached thousands of views organically, was published on the platform for the enjoyment of all.

The event held at the Santa Ana Theater, was attended by special guests such as: Fabrizio Mena, Undersecretary of the Secretariat of Innovation of the Presidency; Claudia De Darin, General Director of Training in Technology and Public Management; Carlos Marroquin, Director of Reconstruction of the Social Fabric and Jose Luis Safie, Deputy of the Legislative Assembly. Also, Janeth Gonzalez, Mayor of Tepecoyo; Samuel Rivera, Mayor of Colon; Juventino Mejia, Mayor of San Cayetano Istepeque; Alex Cabrera, Mayor of Talnique; Jose Amicat Gonzalez, Acting Mayor of Santa Ana; Ever Valles, Mayor of Comasagua; Jorge Orlando Moran Zorriga, Mayor of Chalchuapa; Cesar Godoy, Mayor of Zaragoza and Fernando Rivera, Mayor of Cuzcatacingo.

This call reflects the leadership of Harvest Trading Capand Harvest Trading Cap Academy, and the continued importance of cryptocurrencies as economic tools in the financial world.

A video accompanying this announcement is available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/af38cb67-0a71-462e-90ff-7f3548602112

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/122421d7-51ab-4cac-b1ce-da3c7f371ef3

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cfb8b43e-aa6f-43bb-a518-be8d3dd5fbed
Fire crews in Chandler, Arizona, sent robots into a building at the Salt River Project where a 10 MW battery was smoldering.From pv magazine USA The Salt River Project, a 10 MW energy storage project that uses lithium-ion batteries, was dealt a blow last week when a fire broke out. Firefighters were alerted to a fire at the facility last Monday. During a press conference on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Chandler Fire Department confirmed that there was a battery on fire in the building but that sprinkler systems had been able to control it. Three years ago firefighters in Peoria, Arizona, learned ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Property consists of 5 claims totalling 286.32 ha, approximately 10 km south of Saguenay, Quebec

Presence of ore grade Nickel - Copper samples at surface and in drill core

Historic grab sample returned up to 3.41% Ni, 1.14% Cu, 1.2 ppm Ag and 0.13% Co

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / Victory Resources Corporation (CSE:VR) (FWB:VR61) (OTC PINK:VRCFF) ("Victory" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company's has acquired 100% interest in the Saguenay Nickel Project in Quebec, a property with historic Nickel and Copper grab sample and drilling results.

"We are excited to add this property to the Victory portfolio, noting that our team has analyzed the historical grab sample and drill results, along with the overall Saguenay Gneiss Complex, and are very encouraged about the prospects for this acquisition," said Mr. Mark Ireton, Victory Resources President and CEO.

The claims are located approximately 10 km to the south of the town of Saguenay. The property is made up of 5 claims totalling 286.32 ha. It is underlain by mafic to ultramafic rocks enclosed in the Saguenay gneissic complex. A historic grab sample returned up to 3.41% Ni, 1.14% Cu, 1.2 ppm Ag and 0.13% Co. In 1959, 4 out of 7 holes drilled, on Victory Resources ground intersected gabbroic and peridotite rocks, hole number 4 returned 4 feet of 1.06% Nickel, and 0.21% copper, hole # 3intersected 10 feet averaging 0.49% Nickel and 0.03% copper, hole # 2 intersected 13 feet averaging 0.22% Nickel and 0.04% copper, and a fourth hole, the number 1 intersected 12 feet averaging 0.23% nickel and 0.06% copper and 3 feet averaging 0.38% nickel and 0.11% copper.

The four holes were drilled northwards to the outcrop area, with hole 4 intersecting zone as mapped in the historical report GM 08808.

The Saguenay Gneiss Complex has abundant mafic and ultramafic rocks and anorthosites, which are commonly associated with Ni-Cu-PGE sulfide deposits (e.g., Voisey's Bay, Labrador; Thompson, Manitoba). The presence of ore grade Ni-Cu samples at surface and in drill core on this property, and the absence of modern exploration is highly encouraging. A work plan for the 2022 field season will focus on detailed geological mapping, bedrock and till sampling across the property, to determine the scope of advanced exploration, and a potential drill program.

Terms of the Agreement for 100% are $10,000 and 2.5 million common shares payable on Regulatory and Exchange approval.

Donald Theberge, P.Eng., M.B.A., an independent qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed, and approved the technical contents of this news release on behalf of the Company.

For further information, please contact:

Mark Ireton, President

Telephone: +1 (236) 317 2822 or TOLL FREE 1 (855) 665-GOLD (4653)

E-mail: IR@victoryresourcescorp.com

About Victory Resources Corporation

VICTORY RESOURCES CORPORATION (CSE:VR) is a publicly traded diversified investment corporation with mineral interests in North America. The Company is also actively seeking other exploration opportunities.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

SOURCE: Victory Resources Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699045/Victory-Acquires-100-Interest-in-Saguenay-Nickel-Project
Strong start to the year across the business; continued investment in growth; LFL growth guidance raised to 5.5-6.5%

WPP (NYSE: WPP) today reported its 2022 First Quarter Trading Update.

 million % reported1 % LFL2 First Quarter Revenue 3,091 6.7% 8.1% Revenue less pass-through costs 2,574 10.3% 9.5%

Q1 revenue +6.7%; LFL revenue +8.1%

Q1 LFL revenue less pass-through costs +9.5%

Top five markets Q1 LFL revenue less pass-through costs: USA +8.9%, UK +8.1%, Germany +16.1%, China +11.9%, India +25.1%

LFL revenue less pass-through costs by business sector: Global Integrated Agencies +8.6% (GroupM +12.8%, ex GroupM +5.6%), Public Relations +14.1%, Specialist Agencies +13.0%

$1.8 billion net new business won, including Mars, JDE Peet's, Sky

Launch of Everymile, our commerce-as-a-service proposition; acquisition of Village Marketing; merger of Mediacom and Essence, and creation of GroupM Nexus

362 million of share buybacks in Q1

2022 guidance raised: LFL revenue less pass-through costs growth now expected to be 5.5-6.5%, up from around 5%

Mark Read, Chief Executive Officer of WPP, said:

"The year has started very well with continued momentum from 2021 resulting in strong growth across all businesses and regions. Demand is strong for our services, particularly in digital media, ecommerce, data and marketing technology.

"The war in Ukraine has created an appalling humanitarian crisis. We continue to support our people in Ukraine, many of whom are now displaced, with financial and practical assistance. Our partnership with the UNHCR on their emergency fundraising appeal has generated $150 million to date, including over $1.3 million from our employee match-funding programme. On 4 March, we announced that we would exit the Russian market, and we have now reached agreement to divest our businesses there.

"We continue to see strong demand for our services from our clients and to invest in the many opportunities for growth driven by the digital transition, including Choreograph and the recent launch of Everymile. As a result of a strong first quarter, we now expect our growth to be in the range of 5.5% to 6.5%, up from around 5% at the start of the year. We remain very mindful of the impact of the broader macroeconomic environment on our business and will respond quickly to any changes as the year progresses."

Overview

The year has started strongly, continuing the positive momentum built up through 2021. Revenue in the first quarter was up 6.7% at 3.1 billion. On a constant currency basis, revenue was up 6.4% year-on-year. Like-for-like growth, excluding the impact of currency, acquisitions and disposals, was 8.1%.

Revenue less pass-through costs in the first quarter was up 10.3% year-on-year to 2.6 billion, and up 10.0% on a constant currency basis. Excluding the positive net impact from acquisitions and disposals, like-for-like growth was 9.5%.

Ukraine

Our 200 people in Ukraine have shown extraordinary resilience and bravery in the face of the horrific attack on their country, and we continue to be inspired by their example and the outpouring of support from their colleagues in the region and worldwide. We are in constant contact with our leaders in Ukraine to provide financial and other forms of practical assistance for our employees.

WPP has partnered with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to run an emergency fundraising appeal to help people forced to flee their homes in search of safety in other parts of Ukraine or neighbouring countries, raising over $150 million so far, including over $1.3 million from our employee match-funding programme.

The Board of WPP concluded early in March that WPP's ongoing presence in Russia would be inconsistent with our values as a company and we have subsequently reached agreement to divest our businesses there. Russia represented approximately 0.6% of WPP's revenue less pass-through costs in 2021.

Operational and strategic progress

We saw strong growth across all business sectors and regions, as client demand for our integrated offer remained very positive. We are benefiting from our excellent new business performance in 2020 and 2021, with the onboarding of Coca-Cola being a significant focus. In new business reviews so far this year, we extended our relationship with Mars becoming their global media partner, added digital to our Sky media remit, won the global creative account for JDE Peet's and were appointed strategic communications partner by Migros, with a focus on commerce strategy, data and content. We also won new assignments with Samsung and Square.

Our agencies continue to be recognised in awards and accolades. In the 2022 WARC rankings, WPP topped the holding company rankings for media and effectiveness, and MediaCom, Mindshare and Ogilvy were all ranked top in their categories. MediaCom was also named Adweek's 2022 Global Media Agency of the Year for the second consecutive year. Grey won Gold at the International ANDY Awards for their Widen the Screen campaign for Procter Gamble, and was also recognised in Advertising Age's A List 2022 along with Cartwright and DAVID.

We further enhanced our offer to clients through continued investment in a number of new platforms. This week we announced the launch of Everymile, a new digital commerce managed service that will offer brands a fully outsourced direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce solution.

In February Hogarth, WPP's specialist global creative content production company, announced the launch of The Metaverse Foundry, a global team of over 700 people dedicated to delivering brand experiences for clients in the metaverse from design to execution.

We continue to transform GroupM, our media investment business, to accelerate innovation for clients and further simplify its operations. Yesterday we announced that Essence and MediaCom will merge to form EssenceMediacom, a new agency offering combining Essence's digital and data-driven model with MediaCom's scaled multichannel audience planning and strategic media expertise. We are also bringing together Finecast, Xaxis, and GroupM Services GroupM's global community of activation experts to form GroupM Nexus, the world's leading media performance organisation. In addition, Mindshare will complete its merger with global performance agency Neo.

During the first quarter we introduced GroupM Premium Marketplace, a unified programmatic marketplace supported by global partnership agreements with Magnite and PubMatic that will increase media buying transparency and efficiency. GroupM Premium Marketplace will provide clients with direct access to high-quality publisher inventory across connected TV, digital video and display, underpinned by new standards for performance measurement, further reducing opportunities for fraud and inventory misrepresentation in the media supply chain.

We recently strengthened our commitment to the creator economy through the acquisition of Village Marketing, the industry leader in influencer marketing in North America. Village Marketing has 150 employees and was specifically created with the vision of building brands in a social media and mobile first world. It has led creative campaigns for some of the foremost consumer brands of the last decade, including Equinox, Nike, Netflix and SoulCycle.

Regional review

Revenue less pass-through costs analysis

million Q1 2022 Q1 2021 +/(-)

reported %

LFL N. America 1,015 886 14.6% 8.7% United Kingdom 352 321 9.8% 8.1% W. Cont Europe 507 492 3.2% 8.9% AP, LA, AME, CEE 700 635 10.1% 11.9% Total Group 2,574 2,334 10.3% 9.5%

North America saw like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs up 8.7%. Growth in the USA was +8.9%, driven mainly by GroupM, Hogarth and Brand Consulting.

In the United Kingdom, like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs was up 8.1%, with Landor Fitch, H+K, AKQA Group and Hogarth being the strongest performers.

Western Continental Europe like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs grew by 8.9%. Germany, Denmark and Spain all performed strongly, while France, Italy and the Netherlands have been slower to recover.

Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa the Middle East and Central Eastern Europe like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs was up 11.9%. The strongest growth was in Latin America, driven by Brazil. Asia Pacific also grew double-digits, supported by good performances in China and India.

Business sector review

Revenue less pass-through costs analysis

million Q1 2022 Q1 2021 +/(-)

reported

LFL Global Integrated Agencies 2,106 1,947 8.2% 8.6% Public Relations 262 206 27.4% 14.1% Specialist Agencies 206 181 14.0% 13.0% Total Group 2,574 2,334 10.3% 9.5%

Prior year figures have been restated to reflect the reallocation of a number of businesses between Global Integrated Agencies and Specialist Agencies. This increases Global Integrated Agencies' Q1 2021 revenue less pass-through costs by 13 million and reduces Specialist Agencies' by the same amount.

Global Integrated Agencies like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs was up 8.6%, with GroupM (approximately 36% of WPP revenue less pass-through costs in Q1) up 12.8%. Excluding GroupM, Global Integrated Agencies was up 5.6%, with Hogarth the strongest performer. AKQA Group, Ogilvy and Wunderman Thompson all recorded good growth, and VMLY&R also continued to grow despite a strong prior period.

Public Relations like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs was up 14.1%, continuing its very strong momentum of the last 18 months. H+K, BCW and Finsbury Glover Hering, now merged with SVC, all achieved double-digit like-for-like growth.

Specialist Agencies like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs was up 13.0%, again showing sustained growth from 2021 and despite lapping a very strong prior period. Most of the larger agencies recorded double-digit like-for-like growth.

Balance sheet highlights

Average net debt in the first three months of 2022 was 1.6 billion, compared to 1.0 billion in the first quarter of 2021, at 2022 exchange rates, an increase of 0.6 billion. Net debt at 31 March 2022 was 2.6 billion, compared to 0.9 billion on 31 December 2021, at 2022 exchange rates, an increase of 1.7 billion, driven largely by seasonal net working capital movements and share purchases. We spent 405 million on share purchases in the first quarter, of which 362 million were share buybacks and 43 million were purchases into the employee benefit trust.

Outlook

The year has started strongly, with performance well ahead of our expectations in the first quarter, and client demand for our services remaining strong as we enter the second quarter. This underpins our confidence and supports our continued investment in expanding our offer to drive long-term growth through platforms such as Choreograph in data, Finecast in connected TV and Everymile in D2C commerce.

Our updated guidance takes into account the strong first quarter performance and the impact of the current outlook for the global economy on our business. Given the uncertain global environment, we remain ready to respond to any changes in the economy as the year progresses.

Like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs of 5.5-6.5% (previously around 5%)

Headline operating margin improvement targeted at around 50 bps, excluding the impacts of M&A and foreign exchange

Capex 350-400 million

Trade working capital expected to be flat year-on-year

Foreign exchange rate benefit of 2.0-2.5% on reported revenue less pass-through costs from the movement in sterling year-on-year

Mergers and acquisitions benefit of 0.5-1.0% to revenue less pass-through costs

Around 800 million of share buybacks in 2022, of which 362 million was completed in the first quarter

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements

This document contains statements that are, or may be deemed to be, "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements give the Company's current expectations or forecasts of future events. An investor can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts.

These forward-looking statements may include, among other things, plans, objectives, beliefs, intentions, strategies, projections and anticipated future economic performance based on assumptions and the like that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They use words such as 'anticipate', 'estimate', 'expect', 'intend', 'will', 'project', 'plan', 'believe', 'target', and other words and similar references to future periods but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. As such, all forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances that are beyond the control of the Company. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made, as a prediction of actual results or otherwise. Important factors which may cause actual results to differ include but are not limited to: the impact of outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing challenges and uncertainties posed by the Covid-19 pandemic for businesses and governments around the world; the unanticipated loss of a material client or key personnel; delays or reductions in client advertising budgets; shifts in industry rates of compensation; regulatory compliance costs or litigation; changes in competitive factors in the industries in which we operate and demand for our products and services; our inability to realise the future anticipated benefits of acquisitions; failure to realise our assumptions regarding goodwill and indefinite lived intangible assets; natural disasters or acts of terrorism; the Company's ability to attract new clients; the economic and geopolitical impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine; the risk of global economic downturn; technological changes and risks to the security of IT and operational infrastructure, systems, data and information resulting from increased threat of cyber and other attacks; the Company's exposure to changes in the values of other major currencies (because a substantial portion of its revenues are derived and costs incurred outside of the UK); and the overall level of economic activity in the Company's major markets (which varies depending on, among other things, regional, national and international political and economic conditions and government regulations in the world's advertising markets). In addition, you should consider the risks described under Item 3D 'Risk Factors' in the Group's Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2021, which could also cause actual results to differ from forward-looking information. Neither the Company, nor any of its directors, officers or employees, provides any representation, assurance or guarantee that the occurrence of any events anticipated, expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements will actually occur. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that any particular expectation will be met and investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements.

Other than in accordance with its legal or regulatory obligations (including under the Market Abuse Regulation, the UK Listing Rules and the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority), the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of the Group speak only as of the date they are made and are based upon the knowledge and information available to the Directors on the date of this document.

__________________________

1 Percentage change in reported sterling vs prior year from continuing operations.

2 Like-for-like. LFL comparisons are calculated as follows: current year, constant currency actual results (which include acquisitions from the relevant date of completion) are compared with prior year, constant currency actual results from continuing operations, adjusted to include the results of acquisitions and disposals for the commensurate period in the prior year. Both periods exclude results from Russia.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220426006261/en/

Contacts:

Investors and analysts

Peregrine Riviere +44 7909 907193

Anthony Hamilton +44 7464 532903

Caitlin Holt +44 7392 280178

Media

Chris Wade +44 20 7282 4600



Richard Oldworth +44 20 7466 5000

Buchanan Communications +44 7710 130 634

wpp.com/investors


SOFIA (dpa-AFX) - Russian has cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria over their refusal to pay in rubles.



Russian energy giant Gazprom said it has turned off gas supplies to the two countries Wednesday morning, and that exports will not be restored until payments are made in the Russian currency.



'At the close of business on April 26, Gazprom Export did not receive payments for the supply of gas in April from Bulgaria and Poland in rubles. Gazprom has notified Bulgaria and Poland about suspending the supply of gas starting from April 27 until payments are made according to the order established by the decree,' the company said in a statement.



In a legislation introduced in March, Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned that 'unfriendly' countries would need to pay for gas in rouble from April 1, or risk being cut off.



Although many European countries are heavily relying on gas from Russia, Hungary is the only country to offer to pay in rubles.



The EU is planning to slash the consumption of Russian natural gas this year as it prepares for a complete break with Russia, its single biggest energy supplier. But Europe would struggle to survive for long without Russian gas.



The European Commission president criticized the move saying Russia is using gas supplies to Europe as 'instrument of blackmail.'



'Gazprom's announcement is another attempt by Russia to blackmail us with gas. We are prepared for this scenario. We are mapping out our coordinated EU response,' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter Wednesday.



'Europeans can trust that we stand united and in solidarity with the Member States impacted,' she added.



von der Leyen said an emergency meeting of the European Union's gas coordination group will be held Wednesday to decide how to respond to the Russian action.



Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said '(Russian) natural gas is being used more as a political and economic weapon in the current war.'



Meanwhile, Ukraine has acknowledged the loss of several towns and villages in the eastern Donbas region as Russia intensified its ground offensive.



Civilians are fleeing the southern city of Kherson, which is almost completely under the control of the Russian forces.







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CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The euro dropped against its major rivals in the European session on Wednesday, as Russia's decision to halt gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria indicated a ratcheting up of tensions with Europe.



Russian energy giant Gazprom has informed Poland and Bulgaria that it will halt gas supplies from today following their refusal to make payments in roubles.



Poland said that it is monitoring the situation and is prepared for various scenarios, including securing gas from other sources.



Weak earnings reports from the likes of Alphabet and Texas Instruments also dampened risk sentiment.



Investors are worried that a series of rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve could derail growth and impact corporate profits.



Survey results from the market research group GfK showed that German consumer confidence is set to decline further to a new historic low in May.



The forward-looking consumer sentiment index declined more-than-expected to -26.5 in May from -15.7 in April. The expected score was -16.0.



The euro fell to 1.0585 against the greenback, its weakest level since April 2017. Next immediate support for the euro is seen around the 1.02 level.



The euro eased to 1.0218 against the franc and 0.8424 against the pound, off its early high of 1.0259 and near a 4-week high of 0.8467, respectively. The euro is likely to test support around 1.01 against the franc and 0.82 against the pound.



The euro slipped to a 5-day low of 1.4788 against the aussie and a 6-day low of 1.3587 against the loonie, from its early highs of 1.4942 and 1.3647, respectively. The euro is poised to find support around 1.45 against the aussie and 1.34 against the loonie.



The euro retreated to 1.6109 against the kiwi, from a 2-day high of 1.6228 seen in the Asian session. The euro may locate support around the 1.58 level.



The euro fell back to 135.30 against the yen, on track to pierce a multi-week low of 135.07 hit in the Asian session. On the downside, 133.00 is possibly seen as its next support level.



Looking ahead, U.S. wholesale inventories, advance goods trade balance and pending home sales, all for March, are scheduled for release in the New York session.







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WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - While reporting financial results for the first quarter on Wednesday, biopharmaceutical company Alkermes plc (ALKS) reiterated its earnings and revenue guidance for the full-year 2022.



For fiscal 2022, the company continues to project a loss in the range of $1.00 to $1.29 per share and adjusted loss in the range of $0.18 to flat per share on total revenues between $1.00 billion and $1.09 billion.



On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report a loss of $0.09 per share on revenues of $1.04 billion for the year. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.



For the first quarter, the company reported a net loss of $35.9 million or $0.22 per share, wider than $22.4 million or $0.14 per share in the prior-year quarter. Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.12 per share, compared to $0.11 per share in the year-ago quarter. Total revenues for the quarter grew to $278.5 million from $251.4 million in the same quarter last year.



The Street was looking for earnings of $0.01 per share on revenues of $252.59 million for the quarter.







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Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE: STVN), a leading global provider of drug containment, drug delivery, and diagnostic solutions to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and life sciences industries, today announced that it will issue financial results for the first quarter of 2022 on Tuesday, May 10, 2022, at 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time (12:30 Central European Time).

The Company will host a conference call to discuss the financial results at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time (14:30 Central European Time) on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Management will refer to a slide presentation during the call, which will be made available on the day of the call. To view the slide presentation, please visit the "Financial Results" page, under the Financial Information tab of the Company's Investor Relations section of its website.

To participate on the call please dial:

United States: +1 646 664 1960

United Kingdom: +44 020 3936 2999

Canada: +1 613 699 6539

Italy: +39 06 9450 1060

All other locations: +44 20 3936 2999

Access Code: 156733

Preregistration:

Listeners are encouraged to preregister for the call via the following link: https://www.incommglobalevents.com/registration/client/10540/stevanato-earnings-call/ whereupon you will be provided with a unique dial-in number and access code.

For Participants that do not preregister:

A live broadcast of the conference call will also be available online at the following link: http://www.incommuk.com/customers/online (access code: 156733).

Replay:

An online archive of the broadcast will be available at the website shortly after the live call and will be available through Tuesday, May 24, 2022. The recording will be accessible via the following link: https://www.incommglobalevents.com/replay/7741/stevanato-earnings-call/ (access code 998900).

About Stevanato Group

Founded in 1949, Stevanato Group is a leading global provider of drug containment, drug delivery and diagnostic solutions to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and life sciences industries. Stevanato Group delivers an integrated, end-to-end portfolio of products, processes and services that address customer needs across the entire drug life cycle at each of the development, clinical and commercial stages. Stevanato Group's core capabilities in scientific research and development, its commitment to technical innovation and its engineering excellence are central to its ability to offer value added solutions to clients.

For more information, please visit www.stevanatogroup.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005568/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations

Lisa Miles

lisa.miles@stevanatogroup.com

Media

Stevanato Group

media@stevanatogroup.com
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Viscount Mining Corp. (TSXV: VML) (OTCQX: VLMGF) ("Viscount" or "the Company") is pleased to announce our partner Centerra Gold Inc. (TSX: CG) (NYSE: CGAU) has signed an agreement with Alford Drilling of Spring Creek, Nevada to provide core drilling services. Drilling has begun on the 100% controlled Cherry Creek Project in eastern White Pine County, Nevada.

The initial drill program is anticipated to run until July 1 focusing on the Star target. The first phase of drilling is planned for 15 holes with an aggregate of footage of 14,000 feet (4,268 meters).

Many other targets are ready for drilling now, and will be announced in upcoming news releases.

Viscount CEO Jim MacKenzie stated: "After significant work by the Centerra team on the property over the past year very diligently defining targets we are now able to start unlocking the potential of the Cherry Creek district. Starting with the Star target which had a substantial history of gold and silver production with noteworthy grades including some of the ore shoots averaging 24,880 g/t silver, we look forward getting started with the first of the initial eleven targets identified by Centerra.





Star Target Area Location

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2736/121767_a6fe30bb54190b3a_002full.jpg

The Star Vein system is comprised of the subparallel South Star Vein and the North Star Vein emplaced about 9 m (30 ft) apart. Based on the Schrader report of 1931 both veins have a production history, with the South Star Vein having the greatest production. The larger South Star Vein had an average gold grade of 7.8 g/t gold and an average silver grade of 622 g/t silver; with 8% lead and 8% zinc. Some very rich ore shoots averaged 24,880 g/t silver. The vein system has been traced over 670m and extends over 260m at depth. The best ore shoot is 300m long. (Source: University of Nevada Bulletin 14a, Nevada State Bureau of Mines and Mackay School of Mines. Author: F. C. Schrader geologist of the U.S. Geological Survey 1931.) All of Schrader's estimates are deemed to be historical and not 43-101 compliant.

The maximum rock sample for gold was 61.4 g/t. Fourteen rock samples ran greater than or equal to 2.0 g/t gold. The high soil sample for gold 2,190 ppb, while eight samples ran greater than or equal to 200 ppb gold. The maximum rock sample silver for silver was 8,710 g/t, while the maximum silver value in soils was 221 ppm. Seventeen rock samples ran greater than or equal 100 g/t silver, while eight soil samples ran greater than or equal to 20 ppm silver.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control ("QA/QC") Measures, Chain of Custody

The Company has implemented a rigorous QA/QC program using best industry practices at the Cherry Creek Property. Rock and soil samples are placed in securely sealed bags for transportation to the Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratory in Elko, Nevada, for sample preparation and subsequent analysis at Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories Canada, in Vancouver. The insertion of standards, blanks and duplicates was conducted by Centerra personnel at the property site.

Analysis for rock samples is completed at Bureau Veritas using the following prep and analysis packages:

PRP 70-250 Crush, split and pulverize 250g rock to 200 mesh

FA450 50g Lead Collection Fire Assay Fusion - AAS Finish

AQ 201 1:1:1 Aqua Regia digestion ICP-MS analysis

Analysis for soil and sediment samples are completed at Bureau Veritas using the following soil and sediment prep and analysis packages:

DY060 Dry at 60C

SS80 Dry at 60C sieve 100g to -80 mesh

FA450 50g Lead Collection Fire Assay Fusion - AAS Finish

AQ 201 1:1:1 Aqua Regia digestion ICP-MS analysis

DISP2 Heat treatment of Soils and Sediments

Qualified Persons

This News Release was prepared by M.J. Abrams; BS and MS Geology, CPG #11451; Idaho PG #570; California PG#4138; Oregon RG#938. M.J. Abrams is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. The scientific and technical disclosure included in this news release was reviewed and approved by Harald Hoegberg PG, an independent consulting geologist who is a "Qualified Person" (QP) as such term is defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

About Viscount Mining (TSXV: VML) (OTCQX: VLMGF)

Viscount Mining is a project generator and an exploration company with a portfolio of silver and gold properties in the Western United States, including Silver Cliff in Colorado and Cherry Creek in Nevada.

The Silver Cliff property in Colorado lies within the historic Hardscrabble Silver District in the Wet Mountain Valley, Custer County, south-central Colorado. It is located 44 miles WSW of Pueblo, Colorado, and has year-around access by paved road. The property consists of 96 lode claims where high grade silver, gold and base metal production came from numerous mines during the period 1878 to the early 1900's. The property underwent substantial exploration between 1967 and 1984. The property is interpreted to encompass a portion of a large caldera and highly altered sequence of tertiary rhyolitic flows and fragmental units which offers potential to host deposits with both precious and base metals. This has been demonstrated in the mineralization historically extracted from the numerous underground and surface mining operations. Based on the accumulated data and feasibility study, Tenneco Minerals made the decision with silver at $5.00 USD an ounce to construct at that time a $35,000,000 USD milling operation for the extraction of the silver reserves at Silver Cliff. Shortly thereafter Tenneco's Mining Unit was sold, and the planned milling operation was abandoned.

The Cherry Creek exploration property is in an area commonly known as the Cherry Creek Mining District, located approximately 50 miles north of the town of Ely, White Pine County, Nevada. Cherry Creek consists of 578 unpatented and 17 patented claims as well as mill rights. Cherry Creek includes more than 20 past producing mines. In January 2021, Viscount entered an exploration earn - in agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of Centerra Gold Inc. Centerra is a Canadian-based gold mining company focused on operating, developing, exploring and acquiring gold properties in North America, Asia and other markets worldwide.

For additional information regarding the above noted property and other corporate information, please visit the Company's website at www.viscountmining.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Jim MacKenzie"

President, CEO and Director

For further information, please contact:

Viscount Investor Relations

Email: info@viscountmining.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to Viscount Mining's operations, exploration and development plans, expansion plans, estimates, expectations, forecasts, objectives, predictions and projections of the future. Specifically, this news release contains forward looking statements with respect to contemplated drill program and any correlation to any historical results. The Company cannot provide any assurances that the entire drill program described above will be completed. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "projects", "intends", "anticipates", or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or "variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "can", "could", "would", "might", or "will" be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Viscount Mining to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: risks related to the exploration and development and operation of Viscount Mining's projects, the actual results of current exploration, development activities, conclusions of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future precious metals prices, as well as those factors discussed in the sections relating to risk factors of our business filed in Viscount Mining's required securities filings on SEDAR. Although Viscount Mining has attempted to identify important factors that could cause results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results to be materially different from those anticipated, described, estimated, assessed or intended.

There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statements will prove accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Viscount Mining does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE INC. HAS NEITHER APPROVED NOR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENTS OF THIS PRESS RELEASE. NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121767
Visit us at Automate in Detroit from June 6 to 9, 2022, Booth #4715

Larger booth demonstrates increased involvement in the US market

Machine vision portfolio supports complete automation workflow

MVTec has had an office in the US since 2007

BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / MVTec Software GmbH (www.mvtec.com), a leading international provider of machine vision software, is further expanding its involvement in the US. The company is underscoring its intentions with a larger presence at this year's Automate show in Detroit. From June 6 to 9, 2022, MVTec will present its comprehensive machine vision software product portfolio at booth #4715. Dr. Olaf Munkelt, MVTec Managing Director, and Heiko Eisele, President of MVTec USA, will personally welcome visitors at the booth.

"We're excited to once again take part in Automate, the largest solution-based trade show for automation in North America. We've been at Automate since the very beginning. This year, a larger booth will enable us to present our comprehensive product portfolio to customers and partners with an even greater visual impact," says Eisele, commenting on the company's trade show exhibit.

MVTec presents state-of-the-art deep learning technologies at Automate

At the booth, MVTec will demonstrate how machine vision, acting as the "eye of production," optimizes and automates processes in Industry 4.0. With deep learning technology, for example, MVTec offers a wide range of capabilities with the flexibility and optimization features needed to help customers confidently and efficiently integrate deep learning into their own applications. In addition, MVTec's software can run on almost any embedded platform. Users of MVTec's machine vision software not only benefit from a rich feature set but also MVTec's services such as application evaluations, training documentation, and technical support. Last but not least, two new software versions, HALCON 22.05 and MERLIC 5.1, will also be presented at Automate.

Exciting live demos deliver transparent practical insights

MVTec experts will use live demos to deliver practical insights into efficiently solving many common types of machine vision applications. A showcase, for example, will vividly demonstrate how all common bar and data codes can be read using MVTec's software, regardless of orientation - even when the element width is less than one pixel or when the code is partially obscured. Another demo using the MERLIC software will show how easily and effectively deep-learning-based anomaly detection facilitates automated surface inspection. Only a small number of high-quality images are required for training because a wide variety of defects can be identified without prior knowledge or labeling effort.

MVTec represented in the US for 15 years

MVTec established its first global subsidiary in the US back in 2007. Since then, MVTec USA (Boston, Massachusetts), has grown steadily and positioned itself as a trusted leader in the North American machine vision industry. "Our goal is to provide customers with the best possible machine vision software experience at all times," says Martin Krumey, Vice President of Sales at MVTec Software GmbH. "For us, this means we offer outstanding products like HALCON, MERLIC, and the Deep Learning Tool, while establishing very close relationships with our customers through our local services and support. Besides boosting our presence at the Automate we are also actively increasing our footprint in the North American Market by hiring additional personnel for our Boston office."

About MVTec Software GmbH

MVTec is a leading manufacturer of standard software for machine vision. MVTec products are used in all demanding areas of imaging: semiconductor industry, surface inspection, automatic optical inspection systems, quality control, metrology, as well as medicine and surveillance. By providing modern technologies such as 3D vision, deep learning, and embedded vision, software by MVTec also enables new automation solutions for the Industrial Internet of Things aka Industry 4.0. With locations in Germany, the USA, and China, as well as an established network of international distributors, MVTec is represented in more than 35 countries worldwide. https://www.mvtec.com/

Press Contact MVTec Software:

MVTec Software GmbH

Press Requests

Arnulfstrae 205

D-80634 Munchen

Tel.: +49 (0)89-457695-0

E-Mail: press@mvtec.com

Web: www.mvtec.com

SOURCE: MVTec Software GmbH

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699038/Machine-Vision-MVTec-Underscores-Strong-US-Commitment-With-Even-Greater-Visibility-at-Automate
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / Big Tree Carbon Inc. ("Big Tree" or the "Company") (TSX.V:AGO) is pleased to recognize the beginning of a new era of business development for the resource sector and to announce the Company's intention to lead in its growth. Globally, public and private corporations in the mineral, forestry, petroleum, and food businesses have long been extracting elements of Nature for profit and for the benefit of humanity. The advent of technology has seen unprecedented consumption by 8 billion people through continuous natural resource extraction. From food harvesting and farming, building and manufacturing, education and technology, transportation to war, humans have been consuming planetary assets with an ever-increasing understanding of the damage this causes to the planet.

In seeking to bring balance to development, the banking and regulatory sectors have been working on financial and business assistance to clean and protect the planet from the damage done by industry and human expansion.

Building on the already groundbreaking business development of AurCrest in the management and corporate culture of Canadian business, Big Tree is developing an Indigenous-led approach to cleaning and protecting the natural world. As the only publicly traded company with a majority of Indigenous Directors and an Anishinaabe President & CEO, Big Tree strives to provide both access to the investing public in the Natural Asset Resource business and guidance between First Nations communities and capital markets.

As citizens to evolving social contracts, and as consumers of the world's Natural Assets, we are increasingly aware of the negative effects of our actions. The Pope recently issued an apology to First Nations and made mention of the Canadian journey of Reconciliation in his Easter Sunday Address to the world, demonstrating that we are updating our social contracts as well as our business contracts with the planet. The emergence of Big Tree Carbon Inc. as a First Nations-led TSX Venture-listed company in the Natural Asset Resource space is an important milestone in Canada. Climate as business must be a global priority and Big Tree is the first to apply an Indigenous worldview to protecting the biosphere and culture of the planet through Global Capital Markets in partnership with First Nations. Big Tree focuses on the business of sequestering Carbon ('C', element #6 on the periodic table) as a commodity along with other possible environmental attributes.

The Company currently has two projects under development: i) Lac Seul at 22,063 hectares (54,517 acres) on the Lac Seul reserve lands; and ii) Agoke at 974,000 hectares (2,406,754 acres) in agreement with the Agoke Development LP on the Ogoki Forest license area. Further assets are in negotiation.

WE ARE BIG TREE!

ABOUT BIG TREE CARBON INC.

Big Tree is a carbon sequestration natural resource developer and a mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of gold properties. Big Tree has a portfolio of Forest Carbon projects under development namely the Lac Seul and Agoke projects - and several mineral exploration assets in Ontario, which include the Richardson Lake, Ranger Lake, Dancing Man and Bridget Lake gold properties.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Big Tree Carbon Inc.

Christopher Angeconeb

President and C.E.O.

(807) 737-5353

christopherangeconeb@gmail.com

Ian Brodie-Brown

Director of Business Development

(416) 844-9969

bigtree007@icloud.com

Forward Looking Statement:

Some of the statements contained herein may be forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization and resources, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of the Company are forward looking statements that involve various risks. The following are important factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements: changes in the world-wide price of mineral commodities, general market conditions, risks inherent in mineral exploration, risks associated with development, construction and mining operations, the uncertainty of future profitability and the uncertainty of access to additional capital. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events may differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. AurCrest undertakes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Big Tree Carbon Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699046/Big-Tree-Carbon-Announces-Arrival
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / Group Ten Metals, Inc. (TSXV:PGE) (OTCQB:PGEZF) (FSE:5D32) (the "Company" or "Group Ten") is very pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Danie Grobler to the role of Vice-President, Exploration and Mr. Albie Brits to the role of Senior Geologist, as of May 1st, 2022. Dr. Grobler and Mr. Brits both have extensive senior level experience from more than two decades of advancing major deposits on the northern limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa including, most recently, at Ivanhoe Mines' Platreef PGE-Ni-Cu-Au mine, which is now in construction.

The addition of Dr. Grobler and Mr. Brits to the Group Ten Metals team is an important step in the advancement of the Company's Stillwater West project as a major U.S.-based source of critical minerals - nickel, palladium, copper, cobalt, platinum, and rhodium - in Montana's productive and famously metal-rich Stilllwater Igneous Complex. Their expertise in similar geologic models from the giant mines of South Africa's Bushveld Igneous Complex is expected to drive expansion of Group Ten's inaugural NI 43-101 resource estimates, announced October 2021, which delineated five deposits totaling 1.1 billion pounds of nickel, copper and cobalt and 2.4 million ounces of palladium, platinum, rhodium and gold in Platreef-style mineralization in the lower Stillwater Igneous Complex. All deposits are open for expansion at depth and along trend within the 12-kilometer core project area, and more broadly within earlier stage targets across the 32-kilometer span of the Stillwater West PGE-Ni-Cu-Co + Au project.

Dr. Danie Grobler has more than 25 years of industry experience as an exploration and mine geologist including most recently as Head of Geology and Exploration for Ivanplats Pty Ltd (an Ivanhoe Mines company) where since 2011 he led the delineation and advancement of Ivanhoe's world-class Platreef PGE-Ni-Cu mine on the northern limb of the Bushveld complex. Including previous experience as Project Manager at Platinum Group Metals' at their project on the Bushveld's northern limb, Dr. Grobler brings decades of senior level experience focused on the discovery and mining of battery and platinum group metals in ultramafic magmatic systems and has published numerous papers on Ivanhoe's Flatreef deposit.

Dr. Danie Grobler commented, "The geological parallels between Stillwater West and the Platreef/Flatreef-type mineralized ore bodies in South Africa are truly exceptional. I am very enthusiastic to be joining the highly experienced Group Ten Metals team and am excited to be able to apply my extensive Bushveld and Platreef experience at Stillwater West, with a focus on expanding the recently announced mineral resource. Utilizing the wealth of exploration data available, our immediate goal will be to continue to identify and grow shallow, continuous high-grade Platreef-style PGE-Ni-Cu mineralization within the lower part of the Stillwater Igneous Complex."

Mr. Albie Brits has more than 28 years focused on the advancement of projects from grassroots stage to advanced exploration and full-scale mining operations, starting at Gold Fields of South Africa and including, most recently, the role of Senior Geologist and Manager Project Geology for Ivanplats Pty Ltd (an Ivanhoe Mines company). Focused on exploration for platinum group and base metals on the northern limb of the Bushveld complex since 2001, Mr. Brits was part of the team that discovered Ivanhoe's Flatreef deposit. He has extensive experience in the exploration of mafic-ultramafic magmatic systems and has presented and co-authored numerous papers on the Flatreef deposit.

Mr. Brits commented, "I am very excited to be joining Group Ten's excellent Stillwater West team and looking forward to applying my experience developing geological and structural models for the feasibility study of the Platreef project to drive new success in Montana. The Stillwater district is truly world class and Stillwater West shows remarkable expansion potential based on the geologic similarities with the Bushveld complex."

Michael Rowley, President and CEO, commented, "Developments at the Stillwater Igneous Complex have generally paralleled those at the Bushveld Igneous Complex, highlighting their significant geologic similarities. For example, the discovery and large-scale production of platinum group metals from the high-grade Merensky reef deposit in the Bushveld preceded the discovery and mining of the high-grade J-M Reef deposit at Stillwater by many decades. The more recent development of the Platreef deposits, starting with Anglo American's bulk mineable PGE-Ni-Cu Mogalakwena mines in 1993 and continuing today with Ivanhoe's Platreef mine, have demonstrated the world-class nature of these bulk-tonnage, critical mineral systems within the Bushveld complex. Our recent discoveries of comparable bulk-tonnage Platreef-style systems at Stillwater West demonstrate the continuation of the geologic parallels between the systems and highlight the incredible potential value creation for Group Ten Metals."

Mr. Rowley continued "The addition of two such renowned experts, literally among the very top globally in large-scale critical mineral systems, is a watershed moment in the advancement of the Stillwater West project. Their unique expertise and perspective, earned from decades of work on world-class systems in the Bushveld, will directly complement the knowledge of our existing team which has decades of experience in the Stillwater district. We look forward to further announcements including our 2022 exploration plans and further assay results from our 2021 resource expansion drill campaign in the very near term."

Upcoming News and Events

Live Webinar with Q&A

Group Ten will be hosting a live webinar on Wednesday, May 4th at 10am PT (1PM ET). To register click here or the thumbnail.

OTC Markets Metals and Mining Conference Virtual Conference

Michael Rowley will present on Thursday, May 5 at 10:30am PT (1:30PM ET). To register, click here.

About Stillwater West

Group Ten is advancing the Stillwater West PGE-Ni-Cu-Co + Au project towards becoming a world-class source of low-carbon, sulphide-hosted nickel, copper, and cobalt, critical to the electrification movement, as well as platinum, palladium and rhodium used in catalytic converters, fuel cells, and the production of green hydrogen. Stillwater West positions Group Ten as the second-largest landholder in the Stillwater Complex, with a 100%-owned position adjoining and adjacent to Sibanye-Stillwater's PGE mines in south-central Montana, USA1. The Stillwater Complex is recognized as one of the top regions in the world for PGE-Ni-Cu-Co mineralization, alongside the Bushveld Complex and Great Dyke in southern Africa, which are similar layered intrusions. The J-M Reef, and other PGE-enriched sulphide horizons in the Stillwater Complex, share many similarities with the highly prolific Merensky and UG2 Reefs in the Bushveld Complex. Group Ten's work in the lower Stillwater Complex has demonstrated the presence of large-scale disseminated and high-sulphide battery metals and PGE mineralization, similar to the Platreef in the Bushveld Complex2. Drill campaigns by the Company, complemented by a substantial historic drill database, have delineated five deposits of Platreef-style mineralization across a core 12-kilometer span of the project, all of which are open for expansion into adjacent targets. Multiple earlier-stage Platreef-style and reef-type targets are also being advanced across the remainder of the 32-kilometer length of the project based on strong correlations seen in soil and rock geochemistry, geophysical surveys, geologic mapping, and drilling.

About Group Ten Metals Inc.

Group Ten Metals Inc. is a TSX-V-listed Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the development of high-quality platinum, palladium, nickel, copper, cobalt, and gold exploration assets in top North American mining jurisdictions. The Company's core asset is the Stillwater West PGE-Ni-Cu-Co + Au project adjacent to Sibanye-Stillwater's high-grade PGE mines in Montana, USA. Group Ten also holds the high-grade Black Lake-Drayton Gold project adjacent to Treasury Metals' development-stage Goliath Gold Complex in northwest Ontario, and the Kluane PGE-Ni-Cu-Co project on trend with Nickel Creek Platinum's Wellgreen deposit in Canada's Yukon Territory.

About the Metallic Group of Companies

The Metallic Group is a collaboration of leading precious and base metals exploration companies, with a portfolio of large, brownfield assets in established mining districts adjacent to some of the industry's highest-grade producers of silver and gold, platinum and palladium, and copper. Member companies include Metallic Minerals in the Yukon's high-grade Keno Hill silver district and La Plata silver-gold-copper district of Colorado, Group Ten Metals in the Stillwater PGM-nickel-copper district of Montana, and Granite Creek Copper in the Yukon's Minto copper district. The founders and team members of the Metallic Group include highly successful explorationists formerly with some of the industry's leading explorers/developers and major producers. With this expertise, the companies are undertaking a systematic approach to exploration using new models and technologies to facilitate discoveries in these proven, but under-explored, mining districts. The Metallic Group is headquartered in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and its member companies are listed on the Toronto Venture, US OTC, and Frankfurt stock exchanges.

Note 1: References to adjoining properties are for illustrative purposes only and are not necessarily indicative of the exploration potential, extent or nature of mineralization or potential future results of the Company's projects.

Note 2: Magmatic Ore Deposits in Layered Intrusions-Descriptive Model for Reef-Type PGE and Contact-Type Cu-Ni-PGE Deposits, Michael Zientek, USGS Open-File Report 2012-1010.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Michael Rowley, President, CEO & Director

Email: info@grouptenmetals.com Phone: (604) 357 4790

Web: http://grouptenmetals.com Toll Free: (888) 432 0075

Forward-Looking Statements

Forward Looking Statements: This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts including, without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization, historic production, estimation of mineral resources, the realization of mineral resource estimates, interpretation of prior exploration and potential exploration results, the timing and success of exploration activities generally, the timing and results of future resource estimates, permitting time lines, metal prices and currency exchange rates, availability of capital, government regulation of exploration operations, environmental risks, reclamation, title, and future plans and objectives of the company are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. Although Group Ten believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to obtain necessary approvals, unsuccessful exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, risks associated with regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, uninsured risks, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the companies with securities regulators. Readers are cautioned that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral exploration and development of mines is an inherently risky business. Accordingly, the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on Group Ten and the risks and challenges of their businesses, investors should review their annual filings that are available on the company's profile at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Group Ten Metals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699034/Group-Ten-Metals-Appoints-Danie-Grobler-as-Vice-President-Exploration-and-Albie-Brits-as-Senior-Geologist-to-Advance-the-Stillwater-West-Critical-Minerals-Project-in-Montana-USA
Brampton, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. (CSE: SNA) (CSE: SNA.CN) ("Star" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it recently attended what is considered to be Asia's largest Civil Aviation Airshow (WINGS INDIA 2022 - https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1809334 ) . The airshow was hosted by India's Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Airport Authority of India and the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry ("FICCI").

The Wings India 2022 airshow aimed to bring the key stakeholders of the Global Aviation market, State Governments, International regulators, and business associations together as a group representing airlines, in order to facilitate direct interaction with airport operators, various airlines, cargo operators and other players on a common platform.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation is the nodal ministry responsible for the formulation of national policies and programs for development and regulation of Civil Aviation in India and for devising and implementing schemes for the orderly growth and expansion of civil air transport. Its other functions also extend to overseeing airport facilities, air traffic services and the carriage of passengers & goods by air.

FICCI is the largest and oldest apex organization of Indian business and industry and is the rallying point for free enterprises in India. With a nationwide membership of over 1500 corporate companies and over 500 Chamber of Commerce and business associations, FICCI speaks directly and indirectly for over 250,000 business units. FICCI organizes a large number of events including Exhibitions, Conferences, Seminars and Business meetings for promoting Indian businesses.

Star met with several Commercial and Military organizations that were interested to know more about the STAR-ISMS (in-flight Safety Monitoring System) technology, particularly those that were looking to modernize their current and acquired fleets. Several Aviation Ministers from India, Bangladesh, and Jamaica had meetings with the Star team during the duration of the Airshow and evening conferences.

Numerous Commercial Aviation Delegates were introduced to the significance and importance of implementing the STAR-ISMS technology which allows for Optimization of Operations, Predictive Maintenance, Cockpit Health and Incident and Accident Preventions.

In an untapped market such as India which possesses a large potential for aviation growth, Star continues to provide a market ready solution to existing FlightPath airline customers to implement the mandatory International Civil Aviation Organization's ("ICAO") Global Aeronautical Distress Safety System program ("GADSS") before the January 2023 deadline.

Amir Bhatti, CEO of Star states that "Incredible efforts are being made in India and worldwide to showcase the Company's products and services. Star executives met with aviation regulators and prospective clients and have had discussions for potential sales. We are looking forward to working with all stakeholders in India to further our discussions in our follow up visits."

Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this news release may constitute "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that address or discuss activities, events or developments that Star expects or anticipates may occur in the future. When used in this news release, words such as "estimates", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "projects", "will", "believes", "intends" "should", "could", "may" and other similar terminology are intended to identify such forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations and beliefs of Star's management. Because forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, actual results, performance or achievements of Star or the industry may be materially different from those implied by such forward-looking statements.

Examples of such forward-looking information that may be contained in this news release include statements regarding; growth and future prospects of our business; our perceptions of the industry and markets in which we operate and anticipated trends in such markets; expectations regarding the operation of our app; and our future revenues.

Material factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making an estimate set out in the forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, our ability to execute on our business plan, increase visibility amongst consumers and convert users to revenue producing subscribers and the success of the business of our partners. Forward-looking statements involve significant uncertainties, should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be an accurate indication of whether or not such results will be achieved.

The risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to the airline industry are real and substantial but cannot be defined or measured in any meaningful way at this time.

Should one or more of these factors or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.

Accordingly, readers should exercise caution in relying upon forward-looking statements and Star undertakes no obligation to publicly revise them to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.

NEITHER CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Please visit www.star-navigation.com or contact

Mr. Amir Bhatti, CEO at 1-416-252-2889 #230

amir.bhatti@star-navigation.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121873


FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Shares of German banking major Deutsche Bank were losing around 5 percent in German trading despite reporting significantly higher profit in its first quarter reflecting growth across core businesses.



All businesses delivered results in line with or ahead of targets, and the company produced highest quarterly profit for nine years.



James von Moltke, Chief Financial Officer, said, 'In a challenging environment, we delivered both revenue and profit growth across all core businesses. Our first quarter revenues demonstrate clear momentum towards our 2022 objectives. We believe this momentum, combined with continued cost discipline and organic capital generation, positions us well for delivery on our 2022 targets.'



At its Investor Deep Dive on March 10, Deutsche Bank announced an acceleration of its targets for sustainable financing and investment volumes for the second time. The bank now aims to achieve cumulative volumes since January 2020 of over 200 billion euros by the end of 2022, a year earlier than previously, and a further 100 billion euros per year from 2023 to 2025, reaching a cumulative total of over 500 billion euros by the end of 2025.



The bank expects net revenues arising from the volumes categorized under Deutsche Bank's Sustainable Finance Framework to be in excess of 1.5 billion euros in 2025.



For the first quarter, profit attributable to shareholders rose 17 percent to 1.06 billion euros from 908 million euros in the same quarter last year.



Quarterly profit before tax was 1.7 billion euros, the highest quarterly post-tax profit since 2013, and 4 percent higher than last year. The result was achieved despite a 28 percent increase in Deutsche Bank's annual bank levies to 730 million euros, recognized in the first quarter.



Corporate Bank segment profit climbed 25 percent, and the growth was 1 percent in Investment Bank, 54 percent in Private Bank, and 12 percent in Asset Management segment. Further, Capital Release Unit cut loss before tax by 17 percent.



Net revenues for the first quarter were 7.33 billion euros, up 1 percent from prior year's 7.23 billion euros, and the highest since the first quarter of 2017. Revenue growth in Deutsche Bank's core businesses more than offset negative revenues in the Capital Release Unit.



Revenues from Corporate Bank grew 11 percent, Investment Bank went up 7 percent, Private Bank went up 2 percent, and Asset Management grew 7 percent.



In Germany, Deutsche Bank shares were trading at 9.60 euros, down 5.15 percent.







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WATSONVILLE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / Demand Brands, Inc. (OTC PINK:DMAN), ("Company" or "DB") http://dman.co, a leading vertically integrated cannabis company has released financials statements of its recently acquired key subsidiaries. The Company completed the acquisition of CF3 SPV I, LLC ("CF3"), a vertically integrated cannabis holding company, on February 22, 2022.

Viridi Farms, a California corporation ("Viridi"), and Zenith Land Management, a California limited liability company ("Zenith") are wholly owned subsidiaries of DB. As part of the acquisition of CF3, the unaudited financial statements (the "Financial Statements") of Viridi and Zenith were prepared and delivered to the Company. The Company has uploaded the Financial Statements under the Investor Relations section of its website. Please note that the Financial Statements are not audited and only detail the historical financial performance of Viridi and Zenith for the years 2020 and 2021.

Key Financial Highlights:

The highlights and other important information with respect to the Financial Statements are included in the Corporate Presentation of the Company and will provide further insights to the shareholders of the Company with the respect to the information published on the Financial Statements to date.

Additional releases to expect soon:

A shareholder letter detailing the Company's acquisition of CF3 and the Company's milestones will be released first week of the month of May. Please stay tuned in.

About Demand Brands

Demand Brands is a publicly-traded company that has vertical integration, optimization and innovation at the heart of its master plan. We strategically invest in, acquire & partner with synergistic cannabis companies to optimize and expand our vertically integrated platform with the goal of becoming a multi-state operation that captures value at every stage of the soil to sale process. Our capabilities include cultivation, processing, brand and supply management and real estate.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements. This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements labeled with the terms "believes", "belief", "expects", "intends", "anticipates", "projects" "will", or "plans" to be uncertain and forward-looking. The forward-looking statements contained herein are also subject generally to other risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

CONTACT:

ir@dman.co

+1 (415) 685-0317

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

SOURCE: Demand Brands, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699007/Demand-Brands-DMAN-Publishes-Financial-Statements-for-Its-Portfolio-Companies
Dating Group, a global social discovery company shaping the future of digital intimacy, issued the following statement on the war in Ukraine:

Dating Group is against the act of war and condemns the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We have now blocked access to our products from both Russia and Belarus. We have also closed our office in Belarus and are liquidating the company assets that are there. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by this war, including the people of Ukraine, the surrounding countries and all those with family, friends and loved ones in the region.

We are working hard to support all of our employees through this difficult situation, especially those with close ties to the region. We have launched an employee assistance program and are helping relocate willing staff to European countries that share our beliefs. We will continue to stand with the people of Ukraine and the global community in calling for an immediate end to this war and a swift return to peace.

Statement attribution: Dating Group Chief Strategy Officer, KJ Dhaliwal

About Dating Group

Dating Group is now the world's largest global dating company, with more than 140 million users, 45 dating apps in its portfolio and 100 countries covered by its products. Its diverse portfolio of popular relationship-based services includes Dating.com, Cupid Media, Once, XOXO, Tubit, DilMil, etc. To learn more, visit Datinggrp.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005091/en/

Contacts:

Brian Fitzgerald

brian@fitzmg.com

808-754-0437
Following the event, several business deals have already been initiated between European representatives and Israeli medical technology companies

IMPROVATE founder Irina Nevzlin: "IMPROVATE works across a diverse range of fields including cyber, HLS, and food and water-tech, but medical innovation is our favorite field because it gives us the privilege to be part of saving lives."

TEL AVIV, Israel, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IMPROVATE, a platform for connecting change-makers and decision-makers, held a two-day medical innovation conference and business meet-up in Budapest, Hungary, with the participation of speakers and representatives from countries across Central and Eastern Europe, including several former presidents and prime ministers.

Following the event, several business deals have already been initiated between European representatives and Israeli medical technology companies:

GMedical, which develops health monitoring systems, is in talks with a European network of hospitals that also participated in the conference. Synergy3dMed, which manufactures implants for surgeons using 3D printing, is in advanced talks with several hospitals to assimilate its solutions and is also in contact with a VC fund to which it was exposed at the conference. Medical device manufacturer IGIN Smart Technologies is in talks over establishing a production line in Eastern Europe. Appscent, which has developed an innovative medical device for sleep apnea, aroused significant interest among European hospital directors and is also in talks with IMPROVATE over a direct investment by the company. In addition, several other contacts between companies presenting at the conference and attending institutions are expected to mature into deals.

Leading medical professionals got together for a series of panel discussions and lectures on 'The Hospital of the Future,' 'Digital Medicine,' 'Innovative Medical Treatments,' and "Medicine in the Post-Pandemic Era.' The second day of the event was devoted to business networking between Israeli technology companies participating in the conference, and hospital directors, medical distributors, and buyers from across the region.

Opening the event, IMPROVATE Co-founder, Irina Nevzlin said that IMPROVATE had facilitated connections between over 200 businesses, held more than 20 conferences in less than two years since it was founded, and opened new markets for many of these businesses. "While IMPROVATE works across a diverse range of fields including cyber, HLS, and food and water-tech, medical innovation is our favorite field because it gives us the privilege to be part of saving lives."

Professor Ze'ev Rotstein, former head of both Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, and the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, who is a member of the IMPROVATE board and coordinates the company's activities in the med-tech field said: "We are standing at the beginning of a new era, a revolution driven by several trends: sensors, communications, data transfer, AI that enables quality insights in each and every field, robotics, and even 3D printing of tissues. These innovations will be routine in the near future and some of them already are. The IMPROVATE platform enables the spreading out of knowledge in the healthcare system and will help save lives".

Among those attending the forum were Professor Eyal Zimlichman, Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer at Sheba Medical Center; Ruth Ralbag, CEO of Clalit Health Services, the largest and leading HMO in Israel, Professor Ran Balicer, Clalit's Chief Innovation Officer; Dr. Andrei Baciu Secretary of State within the Romanian Ministry of health; Tibor Gulyas, Hungary's Deputy State Secretary for Innovation; Robert Kurucz, Managing Director of EuroMedic Trading, one of the largest wholesalers for hospitals and pharmacies in Hungary; Dr. Robert Mari, co-founder and CEO at Waberer Medical Center, the newest private Hospital In Hungary; Professor Ivo Petrov, head Of The Cardiology, Angiology, and Electrophysiology Department at Acibadem City Clinic Hospital, Sofia, Bulgaria; Dr. Istvan Komporaly, Managing Director Of Torus Pharma, which works in partnership with companies In Europe identifying business opportunities for them and providing support in launching on the Romanian market; and IMPROVATE board members, former Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev, former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, and former Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme.

Leading Israeli medical technology companies presented at the event: G-Medical, RenalSense, IGIN Smart, Appscent, Synergy 3d-Med, ALTA Medical, NeoPharm Israel, and Tuttenauer.

President Plevneliev told the forum that Central and Eastern Europe are a "region that is growing dynamically. It is here where we have a lot of dynamics, a lot of opportunities, and a lot of money available for projects that make sense... The solutions can be found in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. "

Speaking on a panel on the "Post-Pandemic Era," former Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme called "When you look at the response to Covid-19, there was no such thing as a global response ... We need strengthening investment in regional cooperation... and joint public-private sector initiatives to improve crisis readiness."

IMPROVATE CEO and co-founder Ronit Hassin Hochman said: "We are proud to bring groundbreaking technologies to Central and Eastern Europe and to be able to facilitate the transfer of life-saving technologies to the region."

Companies presenting at the forum included:

GMedical, a next-generation mobile health (mHealth) and e-health company that develops and markets clinical and consumer medical-grade health monitoring solutions, and offers end-to-end support for e-health projects.

RenalSense is dedicated to real-time renal diagnostics. The company's first product, Clarity RMS, is a critical care digital monitoring system for early detection of changes in renal function, acute kidney injury, and risk and treatment monitoring.

Tuttnauer specializes in sterilization and infection control solutions used and trusted in the healthcare and life-sciences industries in more than 140 countries.

Appscent Medical has developed an innovative medical device for sleep apnea and respiratory therapy based on breakthrough scientific research from the Weizmann Institute in Israel.

IGIN Smart Technologies from Singapore, which has an R&D center in Israel, is developing a revolutionary smart glove system that is changing hospital hygiene.

Synergy3DMed develops and manufactures patient-specific instruments (PSIs) for surgery, and manufactures implants, custom-made for surgeons, using 3D printing. Derived from the patient's imaging data, surgeons can use the PSIs to achieve more accurate and effective results.

ALTA has developed a simple-to-use, low-cost, seamless-to-install solution that allows on-demand remote collaboration between doctors, industry experts, and their patients. It provides healthcare affiliates and professionals the ability to remote proctor and consult on procedures in real-time, anytime, anywhere. The Alta Solution strengthens collaboration, streamlines workflow, improves efficiencies, and increases revenue.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805926/Irina_Nevzlin_IMPROVATE.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805927/Andrei_Baciu.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805928/Yacov_Geva_Rosen_Plevneliev.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805929/IMPROVATE.jpg
A proposal to build a 950 MW solar facility has been submitted to the Croatian authorities by El Sun Energy d.o.o. The solar park is planned to be located in the county of Sibenik-Knin in southern Croatia.Zagreb-based developer El Sun Energy d.o.o. is planning to build a 950 MW solar park in the county of Sibenik-Knin in southern Croatia. This emerges from a list of projects under review published this week by Croatia's Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development. The list includes 216 renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of 5.95 GW, most of which are for solar power plants. ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "a" (Excellent) of Oman Insurance Company P.S.C. (OIC) (United Arab Emirates). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect OIC's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

OIC's balance sheet strength is underpinned by its strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). AM Best expects prospective BCAR scores to remain comfortably in excess of the threshold required for a strongest assessment. The company's balance sheet strength is supported by prudent reserving practices, good financial flexibility and its conservative investment portfolio, relative to regional peers, which results in excellent liquidity. An offsetting factor is OIC's high level of reinsurance dependence, albeit not as significant as other regional peers, with low retention across some lines of business. This is partially mitigated by a panel of reinsurers of high credit quality.

OIC reported a profit after tax of AED 206.1 million in 2021, equivalent to a return-on-equity ratio (ROE) of 9.6%. Non-life technical earnings and investment returns remain the material drivers of OIC's profits. OIC reported a non-life combined ratio (as calculated by AM Best) of 94.2% for 2021. ROEs and combined ratios have shown a significant improvement since 2018, averaging 10.0% and 92.6%, respectively, over the three-year period 2019-2021. OIC's prospective performance is expected to benefit from the acquisition, subject to regulatory approvals, of Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A.'s UAE life insurance portfolio, providing the company with additional fee income and partially reducing the dependence on non-life earnings and investment returns. The transaction is also expected to benefit OIC's presence in the domestic life insurance market.

OIC has a market leading position in the UAE, where it ranks as the third-largest insurance company by gross written premium and the largest by net earned premium, reflecting its relatively high retention against peers. The company's underwriting portfolio remains concentrated in the domestic market, although the company continues to grow its international corporate lines book. Furthermore, OIC's recent launch of its Lloyd's syndicate-in-a-box is considered beneficial for its brand and profile as well as providing a source of geographic diversification over the longer term as the platform is scaled, although execution risk exists.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Performance Assessments, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright 2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005614/en/

Contacts:

Barnaby Unwin Hoskins

Financial Analyst

+44 20 7397 0327

barnaby.unwinhoskins@ambest.com

Christopher Sharkey

Manager, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

Jessica Botelho-Young, CA

Associate Director, Analytics

+44 20 7397 0310

jessica.botelho@ambest.com

Jeff Mango

Managing Director,

Strategy Communications

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5204

jeffrey.mango@ambest.com
Presentation will showcase successes from non-telco industries and demonstrate how a public cloud billing system can enable telcos to modernize existing services and generate recurring revenue from new adaptive offerings

Aria Systems, the leader in helping enterprises grow subscription and usage-based revenue, has been invited to speak at the ETIS Community Gathering 2022. The annual meeting, to be hosted in Rome, Italy, will feature 24 of Europe's largest telecommunications providers. Aria Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer Brendan O'Brien will offer perspective as to how telcos can leverage the modern capabilities of a public cloud/native SaaS billing platform to solve their billing and charging challenges, modernize existing services, and generate recurring revenue from new and personalized service bundles, as Aria customers in other industries have successfully done.

"Telcos today recognize the opportunity to introduce new services, forge new partnerships, and deepen relationships with subscribers, but they are hampered by the continued presence of their inflexible and outdated billing systems," said O'Brien. "We are proud and honored to have been invited to speak to the ETIS community and look forward to helping European telcos understand not only how a modern billing platform can help accelerate recurring revenue growth and improve business performance, but also how native SaaS solutions eliminate the persistent and costly burden of 'upgrade ineligibility' that has plagued them for decades."

ETIS is a nonprofit organization bringing together major telecommunications providers from 19 European countries to share knowledge and solve problems in a trusted environment. Aria is a supporting party of ETIS and a contributor to both the Smart Charging and Payments and Digital Telco Strategy working groups. In addition to illustrating the benefits of a cloud billing solution, Aria's presentation in Rome will feature examples taken from other industries, showcasing how the company's modern and agile platform has helped companies digitally transform their business models.

"With its multi-industry experience, Aria is well suited to help our telco partners address and solve billing and payments challenges and capitalize on new market opportunities," said Michele Lalic, Communications and Project Manager at ETIS. "We are pleased to have Aria join ETIS and are confident they will bring great value and insights to the discussions all of which we believe will greatly benefit our telco partners."

About Aria Systems:

Aria Systems' native public cloud monetization platform is the analysts' choice, top ranked by leading research firms. Innovative enterprises like Adobe, Allstate, Comcast, Subaru, and Telstra depend on Aria to accelerate time to market and increase flexibility, enabling them to maximize customer value, and grow recurring revenue through subscription, usage-based, and one-time offerings. For more information, visit: www.ariasystems.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005064/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Greg Kalish

GKC for Aria Systems

gkalish@ariasystems.com

516-665-3292
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / FALCON GOLD CORP. (TSXV:FG), (GR:3FA), (OTCQB:FGLDF); ("Falcon" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Glayton Dias as Exploration Manager for our British Columbia and South America portfolio.

Mr. Dias is a geologist with 12 years experience both domestically and internationally, developing managing and exploring mineral deposits from early-stage to mine development and 3D ore estimation. Most recently his work has been focused on the Spences Bridge Gold Belt, having been posted as a project manager for the Shovelnose Deposit currently developed by Westhaven Resources with a resource of 791,000 ounces of gold and 3,894,000 ounces of silver Indicated (Reference below). Prior to being a Project Manager for Westhaven he worked as a consulting geologist for Ximen Resources on its multi-metallic Treasure Mountain deposit, Exploration Manager for Avant and Gdgeo, leading projects in world-class deposits as Andrade (Arcelor Mittal), Germano (Samarco) and Serra das Eguas (Magnesita SA).

Mr. Dias knowledge and experience in precious and base metal projects on high-grade epithermal low sulfidation including porphyry copper-gold geology, will be value add as we start up operations again at both Spitfire-Sunny Boy, Gaspard projects in B.C., and our South America projects.

Reference: https://www.westhavengold.com/projects/shovelnose-gold/details/

About Falcon Gold Corp.

Falcon is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on generating, acquiring, and exploring opportunities in the Americas. Falcon's flagship project, the Central Canada Gold Mine, is approximately 20km southeast of Agnico Eagle's Hammond Reef Gold Deposit which has currently estimated 3.32 million ounces of gold (123.5 million tonnes grading 0.84 g/t gold) mineral reserves, and 2.3 million ounces of measured and indicated mineral resources (133.4 million tonnes grading 0.54 g/t gold). The Hammond Reef gold property lies on the Hammond shear zone, which is a northeast-trending splay off the Quetico Fault Zone ("QFZ") and may be the control for the gold deposit. The Central Gold property lies on a similar major northeast-trending splay of the QFZ.

The Company holds 8 additional projects. The Esperanza Gold/Silver/Copper mineral concessions located in La Rioja Province, Argentina. The Springpole West Property in the world-renowned Red Lake mining camp; a 49% interest in the Burton Gold property with Iamgold near Sudbury Ontario; and in B.C., the Spitfire-Sunny Boy, Gaspard Gold claims; and most recently the Great Burnt, Hope Brook, and Baie Verte acquisitions adjacent to First Mining, Matador, Benton-Sokoman's JV, and Marvel Discovery in Central Newfoundland.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Falcon Gold Corp.

"Karim Rayani"

Karim Rayani

Chief Executive Officer, Director

Email: info@falcongold.ca

Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, etc. Forward looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.

This news release may contain forward looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, etc. Forward looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Falcon Gold Corp

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699031/Falcon-Appoints-Glayton-Dias-Exploration-Manager-for-BC-South-America
State-of-the-art, vendor agnostic production client boosts productivity for operators, engineers, and data engineers at each analytics maturity level

'Advanced analytics for all' mission drives user-centric innovation to support a wider range of analytics use cases

New 'Secure by Default' backbone meets today's security requirements for every deployment type: on-premises, cloud, SaaS, or hybrid

HOUSTON, TEXAS, HASSELT, BELGIUM, and DARMSTADT, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / TrendMiner, a Software AG company, has launched the next generation production client for industrial analytics. TrendMiner NextGen, the 2022.R1 release, provides a seamless user experience. It enables an extended pool of operational experts to make data-driven decisions and optimizes the performance of their operations to meet business, environmental, and safety ambitions.

Many companies still use a historian (database) trend client or spreadsheets to visualize and analyze time-series data to understand production performance. TrendMiner NextGen brings operational insights to anyone in an organization, regardless of their level of analytics training. Users now can do anything from basic trend viewing to advanced diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics using machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Nick Van Damme, Director of Products at TrendMiner, said, "Thousands of users are working with TrendMiner every day. Their experiences, feedback, and requirements have led to this new production client for the process manufacturing industry. Every company around the world tasked with scaled production relies on (time-series) data to understand, manage, and optimize their operations. The challenge is harnessing the value of data without having to recruit and retain large and highly skilled IT and data science teams. TrendMiner NextGen makes insights from production data instantly available to ALL operational experts that need it, at the touch of a button. And that's a gamechanger for our customers."

TrendMiner enables production experts in process manufacturing industries to visualize and analyze production performance using sensor-generated, time-series data in combination with contextual event information. The 2022.R1 release distinguishes itself from other trend clients by its easy-to-use method of searching through thousands of sensor readings over years of data. TrendMiner gives instant answers to know what has happened, how often, and why. Searching, filtering, coloring, switching, and comparing trend views offers a quick production performance overview.

Today, engineers are not satisfied with trend viewing only. Operational experts like to know why certain process issues occurred. TrendMiner is a versatile trend client that provides statistical and machine learning capabilities under the hood to find potential root causes for process anomalies quickly and within their full operational context. Contextual data includes information generated by users, TrendMiner monitors, or third-party business applications (batch management systems, quality management systems, or maintenance management systems). For global operating process manufacturing companies, TrendMiner also meets security requirements with its "Secure by Default" and "Secure by Design" architecture.

Further information

For detailed information about the improvements in the TrendMiner 2022.R1 release, please visit www.trendminer.com. Software users will be informed in more detail via other communication channels. To see TrendMiner's functionality in-action and learn how analytics-empowered process and asset experts can help accelerate operational performance, click here to request a demo: "See it, Use it, Love it."

About TrendMiner

TrendMiner, of Software AG, delivers advanced analytics software to optimize process performance in industries such as chemical, petrochemical, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, food & beverages, metals & mining, water & wastewater, and other process manufacturing industries. TrendMiner unlocks the full advantage of their (IIoT) data infrastructure, regardless of vendor, and taps into the available human intelligence for making data-driven decisions. We offer standard integrations with a wide range of data sources such as OSIsoft PI, Yokogawa Exaquantum, AspenTech IP.21, Honeywell PHD, GE Proficy Historian and Wonderware InSQL, Cumulocity, OSIsoft OCS, AWS S3, SiteWise, Timestream, Microsoft ADL, ADX, TSI and SAP S/4 HANA DMC.

TrendMiner empowers everyone in manufacturing operations, across locations, with powerful yet intuitive capabilities to iteratively generate and validate real-time context-aware time-series insights, both as individual and as a collaborative team. Search, diagnostic, and predictive capabilities enable users to speed up root cause analysis, define optimal processes, and configure early warnings to monitor production 24/7. The outcome is an increased quality and velocity in decision making to help drive business outcomes and increasing overall profitability.

Media Contact

Dawn Fontaine

Ripple Effect Communications

dawn@rippleeffectpr.com

+1-617-536-8887

SOURCE: TrendMiner

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/698949/Software-AGs-TrendMiner-Launches-the-Next-Generation-Production-Client-for-Process-Manufacturing-Industries
Dieppe, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Colibri Resource Corporation (TSXV: CBI) ("Colibri" or the "Company") is pleased to report that the Company and its partner have received high-grade Au-Ag-Pb-Zn-Cu assay results from samples taken during its Phase 1 geological mapping program completed on the principal drilling target areas of the Diamante 1 and 2 concessions. Complete results are reported below.

The Diamante Gold & Silver Project is a partnership between Colibri and Silver Spruce Resources (TSXV: SSE). For details of the partnership please review Colibri's news release dated April 29th, 2021.

Silver Spruce Resources Reports : (April 27th, 2022)

"We are pleased to report Au values to 51.5 g/t from silicified breccias in the Calton target (see Figure 1), the highest Au grade yet reported from Diamante, and Ag values >1,000 g/t were recorded from base metal sulphide-bearing veins at Pillado, El Chon and El Cumbro, the latter returning 2,270 g/t Ag, accompanied in several target areas by high-grade primary and supergene Pb+Zn+Cu up to a combined grade of 50.9 wt.% from grab and channel sampling at surface and within historical trenches and artisanal workings" stated Greg Davison, Silver Spruce Vice-President Exploration and Director.





Figure 1. Silicified breccia grading 51.5 g/t Au from main Calton target. Diamante 2 SW location map of Calton, Calton Sur and Anomalia Sur on regional geology and graduated Au-Ag symbols.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/121876_fig%201.jpg.

"Significant zoned or multi-phase Au-Ag and/or base metal values from multiple targets spread across the concessions validated the historical data and contributed to drill target prioritization. The significant impact of the polymetallic base metals to the project value proposition is exemplified using Au-equivalent (AuEq) and/or Ag-equivalent (AgEq) grade determinations. With our drilling permit now in hand, Silver Spruce, along with our partner Colibri Resource Corp., look forward to awarding contracts for the initial 2,000 metres of reverse circulation (R/C) drilling on the first-priority targets at La Prieta, Calton, Pillado and Aguaje with El Chon- El Chon Oeste and Mezquite Raizudo next in line. Drilling quotations currently are under review for the May-June 2022 program," Mr. Davison added. "The targeted geological mapping verified moderate to intense silica, sericite, clay and propylitic alteration profiles within and peripheral to mineralized veins and breccias transecting the Tarahumara andesite tuff, overlying rhyolites and late granodiorite (see Figure 1). Intersecting and splaying vein patterns with steep to moderately-dipping northwest, northeast and north-striking orientations were confirmed and spatially coincident with parallel to oblique faults and shears which control and locally offset the mineralization (see Figure 2)."





Figure 2. Diamante 1 and 2 concessions and principal mapping targets with inset map for the southwest Calton - Mina Jacalon and Anomalia Sur targets showing branching arrays of veins and fault traces with strike and dip, sampling locations for 2022 Au geochemistry on regional geology. Grid spacing 1 km.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/121876_1f2c08c9b4b91875_003full.jpg.

Geological reports from the field team have corroborated and augmented the geological features of polymetallic sulphide-rich veins principally hosted within sheared and altered andesites of the Tarahumara Formation which dominates the geological exposure on Diamante (Figure 2). The Calton and Anomalia Sur veins and/or stockworks also transect the younger rhyolite and granodioritic intrusions. The veins commonly are 0.5 metres to 1 metre in apparent thickness and are traced up to 200 metres along strike. Surface trenches and subsurface workings parallel to and cutting the vein mineralization were measured up to 100 metres in length, with the latter showing shafts and short lateral drifts. Silicification with sericitic, argillic and propylitic alteration were accompanied by drusy to vuggy quartz, black tourmaline, multiple disseminated to vein sulphides with incipient to pervasive oxidation to carbonates, sulphates, hematite and iron hydroxide.

Table 1 provides geochemical results for select samples (n=20 of 70) sorted by Au g/t from surface and underground sampling of eight target areas on both Diamante 1 and 2 concessions. Precious metals (Au to 51.5 g/t, Ag to 2,270 g/t), base metals (Pb to 42.3 wt%, Zn to 22.9 wt% and Cu to 3.2 wt%) and pathfinders each exhibited weak to highly anomalous values commonly with high Ag;Au and low to high Pb:Zn. Elevated Cu, Cd, Sb, Hg, As and Bi are linked commonly to Pb and/or Zn.







Table 1. Diamante 1 and 2 Concessions - precious metal and multi-element geochemistry from twenty (20) rock samples (n=70) from eight target areas collected during the 2022 geological mapping program.

To view an enhanced version of Table 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/121876_table%201.jpg.

The current assays are consistent with historical surface and U/G channel samples reported up to 39.8 g/t Au, 3,460 g/t Ag, 18.2% Pb, 33.5% Zn and 1.47% Cu (see Press Releases of April 12, 2021 and January 24, 2022).

Most of the drill targets are polymetallic vein style with precious metal-dominant targets also identified at Calton, El Chon and Aguaje. Metal zoning or pulses of mineralization may be indicated at each of these three locations.

Our high-resolution LiDAR mapping and review of the historical reports supplemented by the 2022 geological mapping have identified abundant additional surface workings (see Press Release of January 24, 2022), mainly small exploratory pits, some with artisanal mining exhibiting individual adits with or without crosscuts following vein and shear structures. Figure 3 illustrates two of the high-grade targets recently sampled at El Chon and La Prieta.





Figure 3. Diamante 1 Concession - At left, copper-stained artisanal workings at El Chon and at right,0.45 m polymetallic vein cut by late fault on mining face in La Prieta, with recent samples collected. Sample #707449 and #707464 (Table 1) exhibit anomalous to high-grade values of Au (1.385 and 1.34 g/t), Ag (1,980 and 100 g/t), Pb to (11.10 and 5.67 %), Cu (3.2 % LP) and/or Zn (16.75% LP).

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/121876_1f2c08c9b4b91875_005full.jpg.

The targets now planned for Phase 1 drilling include La Prieta, Aguaje and Pillado (see Figure 4) and Calton (see Figure 1). El Chon-El Chon Oeste and Mezquite-Raizudo targets also are permitted for drilling and available as warranted.





Figure 4. Diamante 1 Concession Map with location of Phase 1 drilling targets at La Prieta, Aguaje and Pillado on regional geology, graduated Au-Ag values and fully permitted drill pads.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/121876_1f2c08c9b4b91875_006full.jpg.

Project Geology

The Property is located within the west-central portion of the Sierra Madre Occidental Volcanic Complex within the northwest-trending "Sonora Gold Belt" of northern Mexico. Diamante offers strong precious metal tenor with a polymetallic endowment, multiple quality targets, styles of mineralization, of particular significance for our exploration moving forward, no records of drilling.

Geological features of epithermal low to intermediate sulphidation Ag-Au (Pb-Zn), high sulphidation Au-Cu, and potential porphyry style Au-Cu occur as disseminated, stockwork and vein styles accompanied by phyllic, argillic, advanced argillic and propylitic zones, with near-surface overprinting by weathering with iron oxide and oxyhydroxide staining, jarosite and relict vuggy silica. Recent exploration verified pathfinder elements including As, Sb, Hg, Cd and Bi.

Structural lineaments with ENE, NE and NW orientations and branching, oblique vein sets to the N-S direction correspond to known vein systems. These include vein targets at La Prieta, El Cumbro, Mezquite Raizudo, El Chon, La Olla, Calton and Pillado. Disseminated and stockwork mineralization at Anomalia Sur and El Puerto offer bulk low-grade targets.

Mineralization is reported visually as pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, argentiferous galena, argentite, hematite and probable metal oxides, carbonates and sulphates, including copper carbonate (malachite), copper sulphates and plumbojarosite.

Project Background

The drill-ready Diamante gold-silver (Au-Ag) property ("Diamante" or the Property") is located 5 km northwest of the town of Tepoca, and 165 km southeast of the capital city of Hermosillo, eastern Sonora, Mexico (Figure 5).





Figure 5. Diamante 1 and 2 Concession Location Map. Note adjacent El Mezquite and Jackie. Nicho mine development by Minera Alamos located <10 km SE of the Properties.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 5, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/121876_fig%205.jpg.

Silver Spruce can acquire up to 50% interest in four Diamante concessions with a cumulative land position of 1,057 hectares (see Press Release of April 29, 2021). The Property is very well situated in terms of resource and logistics for exploration and is easily accessible from Mexican Highway #16 which transects Diamante 1 and on several ranch trails and dry river beds southward to Diamante 2.

Mining and exploration in the surrounding area is very active with adjacent and nearby properties held by Alamos Gold, Argonaut, Agnico Eagle, Evrim, Newmont, Garibaldi, Kootenay Silver and Penoles among others.

Geochemical Analysis, Quality Assurance and Quality Control

Rock and channel samples were delivered by the Project Geologist from the Property to the ALS sample preparation facility in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. ALS Global in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is a facility certified as ISO 9001:2008 and accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 from the Standards Council of Canada. Local chain of custody was monitored and maintained by the Project Geologist under the direction of the QP.

The samples were crushed to 70% passing 2mm (PREP-31) and a split of up to 250 grams pulverized to 85% passing 75 micrometres (-200 mesh). The sample pulps and crushed splits were transferred internally to ALS Global's North Vancouver, Canada or Lima, Peru analytical facility for gold and multi-element analysis. Pulps (50gram split) were submitted for Au analysis by Fire Assay with Atomic Absorption finish (Au-AA24).

The retained pulps also were analysed by Four Acid Digestion followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) multi-element analyses (ME-ICP61m) with Hg by Aqua Regia and ICP-MS (Hg-MS42).

Over-limit Au and Ag samples are analyzed by Fire Assay with Gravimetric Finish Ore Grade (Au-GRA21 or Au-GRA22, Ag-GRA21). Overlimit base metals are analyzed by Four Acid Digestion followed by Ore Grade Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) for Cu, Pb and Zn (Cu-OG62, Pb-OG62, Zn-OG62). High grade samples above the range of the Ore Grade OG62 analysis, specifically Pb samples, were digested, as above, and analyzed using Titration (Pb-Vol70).

In-house quality control samples (blanks, Rocklab Au standards 0.213ppm & 1.278ppm) were inserted into the sample set by the Project Geologist. ALS Global conducts its own internal QA/QC program of blanks, standards and duplicates, and the results are provided with the Company sample certificates. The results of the internal and ALS control samples were reviewed by the Company's QP and evaluated with acceptable tolerances for disclosure.

All sample and pulp rejects will be stored at ALS Global pending full review of the analytical data, and future selection of pulps for independent third-party check analyses, as requisite.

All metal values disclosed herein by Silver Spruce are reported from grab and channel samples which may not be representative of the metal grades. The Company's Qualified Person believes that the sampling documentation, analytical protocols and quantitative data will withstand scrutiny for inclusion.

Qualified Person

Greg Davison, PGeo, Silver Spruce VP Exploration and Director, is the Company's internal Qualified Person for the Diamante Project and is responsible for approval of the technical content of this press release within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), under TSX guidelines.

ABOUT COLIBRI RESOURCE CORPORATION:

Colibri is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSX-V (CBI) and is focused on acquiring and exploring prospective gold & silver properties in Mexico. The Company has six exploration projects of which five currently have exploration programs being executed in 2022. (1) The flagship Evelyn Gold Project is 100% owned and explored by Colibri, (2) the Pilar Gold & Silver Project (optioned to Tocvan Ventures) (CSE: TOC), (3) the El Mezquite Gold & Silver Project , (4) the Jackie Gold & Silver Project, and (5) the Diamante Gold & Silver Project. 3,4, and 5 are subject to earn-in agreements by Silver Spruce Resources) (TSXV:SSE).

For more information about all Company projects please visit: www.colibriresource.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains "forward-looking statements." Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that they will prove to be accurate.

For information contact: Ronald J. Goguen, President, Chairperson and Director, Tel: (506) 383-4274, rongoguen@colibriresource.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121876
MONACO, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Huawei held the Global Data Center Facility Forum 2022, with the theme of "Smart DC, Building the Future", on April 26 in Monaco to drive sustainability in the data center industry. The conference convened more than 200 business leaders, industry experts, clients, and partners from around the world to establish valuable connections and discuss key issues facing the rapidly changing industry, such as decarbonization and digitalization.

Charles Yang, Senior Vice President of Huawei and CEO of Huawei Data Center Facility Team, said in his opening remarks that as we enter the intelligent era and carbon neutrality has become the global shared mission, data centers will see changes in the service form, energy supply, and operation and maintenance models. Huawei Data Centre Facility Team will embrace the changes by optimizing organizational structure, continuously investing in innovation, and building a healthy business ecosystem to drive the sustainable development of the data center industry.

Green data centers play a critical role in achieving net-zero goals. In pursuit of green and low-carbon data centers, Huawei believes that data center facilities need to go green throughout the life cycle. It means the facility features a green construction with a prefabricated modular architecture, a green cooling solution to lower PUE, a green power supply with ultra-high power density, and AI-enabled green management.

When it comes to the role of green ICT playing in Europe's path to decarbonization, He Bo, President of Huawei Digital Power Western Europe, pointed out that low-carbon ICT infrastructure, such as data centers, will play an important role to support for Europe to achieve the goal of "Carbon Neutrality by 2050" in the future. By integrating digital and power electronics technologies, Huawei provides innovative solutions such as fast delivery, extreme PUE, and centralized energy storage to create low-carbon data centers and contribute to a greener world.

In his keynote on Next-Generation DC, Sanjay Kumar Sainani, Global Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Huawei Data Center Business noted that we envision the next generation center to be converged, low carbon, and smart. Four innovations - Bit innovation, Watt innovation, Heat innovation, and Architecture innovation - will support future-oriented, sustainable data centers.

Other industry experts also shared their insights into how to power the green and digital transition of the data center industry at the event. Simon McCormick, CTO of Echelon, introduced their digital transformation path towards carbon neutrality.

Kim Gunnelius, COO and Co-founder at Ficolo, talked about operating data centers with 100% green power and lower PUE, and enabling the industry to reduce its carbon footprint through data centers.

Xavier Matagne, CTO of Africa Data Centres, highlighted that modular and prefabricated construction excels at high quality, easy site management, low risk, and green site operation compared with traditional solutions.

Prescott Augustus GAYLORD, Senior Vice President and Head of Sustainability at DBS, shared practices in achieving decarbonization and digitalization from a financial institution perspective.

Highlights at Datacloud Global Congress 2022

Huawei Digital Power showcased low-carbon, smart data center solutions and joined conversations around the trends that will shape the data center industry at Datacloud Global Congress 2022, the leading event in the data center and ICT sectors that was held in Monaco from 25-27 April.

Huawei exhibited the low-carbon, smart data center solutions at the booth, including the PowerPod+Smart Li power supply system for improved energy efficiency, the indirect evaporative cooling solution for the minimized use of potable water, and the smart modular DC for fast deployment and flexible scalability.

Reducing the carbon footprint of power-consuming data centers holds the key to mitigating climate change. Huawei has officially joined the IMasons Climate Accord (ICA), a coalition designed to govern a methodology to measure and reduce the carbon in infrastructure through products, power, and materials, to highlight its commitment to a low carbon, smart society.

Moving forward, Huawei will cooperate closely with partners such as consulting, design, engineering companies, and suppliers, to build an open and win-win industrial ecosystem and promote the sustainable development of the data center industry.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805860/image_1.jpg
ELIZABETHTOWN, KY / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / Personal injury cases require quick, decisive action, which is exactly what Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers provides for each client. Recently, the experienced team of Hughes and Coleman lawyers in Elizabethtown, Ky., helped secure a $300,000 settlement for a car accident victim.

On September 20, 2021, Barbara Hamilton was hit by a driver who ran a red light and suffered life-changing injuries, including six pelvic fractures. Hamilton spent 17 days in in-patient rehabilitation and a physical therapy program in addition to the treatment she received in the hospital. Her medical bills were piling up, and Hamilton was experiencing physical pain and emotional distress.

The Hughes and Coleman team acted quickly in working with auto insurance adjusters, health insurance companies and medical providers on behalf of Ms. Hamilton. On January 11, 2022 - only 62 days later - Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers secured an auto accident settlement offer of $300,000 to help with extensive medical bills and car repairs, which was the entire policy limit for the at-fault driver. Learn more about Hamilton's case by clicking here.

When dealing with an insurance company or insurance adjuster, there are no guarantees for a fair settlement, so it is vital to have an experienced team of lawyers to help fight to get you what you deserve. The best course of action is to hire a law firm that regularly handles injury cases and has a proven track record of successful car accident settlements.

Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers provides individualized and compassionate service to all clients. They recognize that clients are going through a difficult time when they seek an attorney and that it is crucial to work with a trustworthy legal team. Hughes and Coleman lawyers take the time to explain legal options to clients and are available to answer questions at any time. They also make it a point to keep clients informed at every stage of their injury claim, so they don't feel lost or alone.

The Hughes and Coleman team is ready to help if someone needs a personal injury lawyer. Call 800-800-4600. For more information about Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers, visit http://www.hughesandcoleman.com/.

To learn more about Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers $713,000 Judgment for a Hamilton County Car Wreck Victim, see https://www.accesswire.com/697793/Hughes-Coleman-Injury-Lawyers-Secures-713000-Judgment-for-Hamilton-County-Car-Wreck-Victim

About Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers:

Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers was founded in 1985 and has recovered over a billion dollars for our clients in Kentucky and Tennessee injured from auto accidents, big truck wrecks, motorcycle accidents, defective medical products, nursing home abuse, slip and fall accidents, and wrongful death. Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers believes that Control Starts With A Call. Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers operates 10 offices in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Contact:

Lora Fisher, Client & Community Relations Core Leader

270-782-6003 ext. 147

lfisher@hughesandcoleman.com

SOURCE: Hughes & Coleman

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/698698/Hughes-Coleman-Injury-Lawyers-Secures-300000-Auto-Wreck-Settlement-for-Kentucky-Car-Accident-Victim
Companies Begin Mandate for One Additional E-190 Aircraft

ACIA Aero Leasing ("ACIA"), a leading provider of regional aircraft leasing and lease management services, today announced the delivery of an Embraer E-190 on lease to Bestfly Worldwide ("Bestfly"). The delivery, which took place at Embraer's re-delivery center in Macon, Georgia, marks the introduction of the aircraft type to both the lessor and airline's fleets.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005101/en/

Nuno Pereira, Chief Executive Officer of Bestfly, Alcinda Pereira, Executive Director of Bestfly, and Sameer Adam, Senior Vice President, Commercial of ACIA Aero Leasing, pictured in front of the first E-190 aircraft delivered to Bestfly at Embraer's re-delivery center in Macon, Georgia. (Photo: Business Wire)

With the lessor's three ATR 72-600s already in operation at Bestfly, the E-190 became the fourth aircraft on lease to the airline. Bestfly also mandated ACIA to source and deliver a second E-190 as a result of prior discussions held at Dubai Airshow in November 2021. The addition of this first E-190 marks a major milestone in Bestfly's portfolio growth, bringing the carrier's fleet to a total of 25 aircraft.

"Bestfly continues to grow its portfolio and operational capabilities, offering a great product and service to its customers in some challenging jurisdictions," said Mick Mooney, ACIA Aero Leasing's Chief Executive Officer, adding that "like ACIA, they have a targeted growth mindset. The E-190 is a critical part of both our companies' growth plans in Africa and beyond. We look forward to continuing our partnership with them, adding more aircraft and types as they continue to build the airline."

The E-190 bears Bestfly's Cabo Verde livery and will enter service shortly. Bestfly will leverage the E-Jet's versatility to establish much-needed connectivity from Cabo Verde into West Africa and the Azores.

Nuno Pereira, Bestfly's Chief Executive Officer, commented: "We have been working diligently with our partners at ACIA to expand our portfolio with this crossover jet. The delivery of this particular aircraft is very special for us since it is Bestfly's first E-190 and 25th aircraft delivery. It solidifies our entry into the scheduled service segment. This is a very important milestone for Bestfly as we will support the people of Cabo Verde with reliable and efficient connectivity that is much needed for their market. ACIA has been a fantastic partner throughout this process in coordinating with Embraer, GE, and the regulators for certification and entry into service activities to support Bestfly's acceptance of the E-190. It has truly been a team effort."

"The delivery of ACIA's first E-190 is a fantastic achievement for our team and what better way to celebrate this milestone than with a highly regarded customer, such as Bestfly," added Sameer Adam, ACIA Aero Leasing's Senior Vice President, Commercial. "We can expect much more growth from Bestfly through mandates for additional turboprop and regional jets in the very near future as both companies continue to implement their respective commercial strategies."

About ACIA Aero Leasing

ACIA Aero Leasing ("ACIA"), a subsidiary of ACIA Aero Capital, is a leading regional aircraft lessor with offices in Ireland, Mauritius, France, Canada, and South Africa. ACIA manages a current aircraft portfolio of nearly 70 regional passenger and freighter aircraft on lease to operators in more than 18 countries globally. Through our strategic partnerships, ACIA provides airlines with turn-key leasing solutions from dry leasing through to charter operations. www.aciaaeroleasing.com

About Bestfly

Founded in 2009, Bestfly Worldwide ("Bestfly") operates in both the business aviation and airline markets, operating three ATR-72 aircraft on multiple routes. Bestfly won a commercial support contract with ExxonMobil in 2020, and is in growth mode, expanding its operations, including providing contract airline services in Cabo Verde. www.bestfly.aero

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005101/en/

Contacts:

Sophie McAuley, Zeevo Group

+1 334 373 4611 // +44 7921 188870 // smcauley@zeevogroup.com
COPENHAGEN, DK / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / Linkfire (STO:LINKFI)

The annual general meeting of Linkfire A/S was held today at the company's headquarters Artillerivej 86, 3. th, 2300 Copenhagen. At the meeting, the shareholders approved;

the audited annual report and the consolidated financial statements for the financial year 2021;

the appropriation of the loss as recorded in the approved annual report;

discharge of liability to members of the board of directors and the executive management;

the remuneration report for the financial year 2021; and

issuance of warrants to the new board members, Petra von Rohr and Ole Larsen.

The shareholders approved the proposals from the nomination committee regarding;

re-election of Jesper Eigen Mller as chairman of the board of directors and Thomas Weilby Knudsen and Charlotte Klinge as members of the board of directors as well as the election of the new board members Petra von Rohr and Ole Larsen. Thomas Rudbeck has asked not to be re-elected.



Petra Von Rohr (Master of Science, Stockholm School of Economics), is the CEO of Biocool AB and is a member of the board of directors for Better Collective A/S and WeBrock Ventures. Further, Ole Larsen (Master of Science, Copenhagen Business School) is the CEO of nuso ApS and is the chairman of the board of directors for Rikke Gravengaard Copenhagen A/S.

The previous positions of the new board members include;



Ole Larsen

2018 - 2021, BioPorto CFO

2008 - 2018 Bavarian Nordic, Executive Vice President & CFO

2004 - 2008 Nordisk Film, CFO



Petra von Rohr

2015 - 2019 Com Hem AB, Head of Group Communications and IR, member of group management team

2012-2015 Kreab, Deputy Managing Partner and Head of Financial Communications

2009-2012 Burson-Marsteller, CEO Sweden, member of European leadership team

remuneration to the board of directors for the current financial year; and

re-appointment of Deloitte Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnersselskab and the remuneration to Deloitte Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnersselskab.

The shareholders further approved the proposals from the board of directors to:

authorize the board of directors to increase the company's share capital without pre-emption rights for the existing shareholders;

authorize the board of directors to acquire treasury shares; and

authorize the board of directors to issue warrants to the company's key employees, consultants and members of executive board.

Board of directors of Linkfire A/S

For further information, please contact:

Hans Christian Wenzelsen, General Counsel

Telephone: +45 51 98 48 09

E-mail: hcwenzelsen@linkfire.com

Certified Adviser

Aktieinvest FK AB

Telephone: +46 739 49 62 50

E-mail: rutger.ahlerup@aktieinvest.se

Attachments

Decisions of the annual general meeting of Linkfire A/S

SOURCE: Linkfire

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699088/Decisions-of-the-Annual-General-Meeting-of-Linkfire-AS
First CE Mark for Lunit AI-powered pathology solution

Lunit to focus on launching 'Lunit SCOPE PD-L1' in Europe within the second half of 2022

SEOUL, South Korea, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lunit, a leading medical AI provider, today announced it has received the CE-IVDD Mark for 'Lunit SCOPE PD-L1 TPS', an AI-based PD-L1 tumor proportion score (TPS) analyzer. While Lunit's INSIGHT product scored the CE Mark in 2019 and 2020, this is the first time for a Lunit SCOPE product to receive European approval.

Lunit SCOPE PD-L1 is an AI solution that performs PD-L1 TPS classification that enhances objective and accurate analysis compared to traditional method.

The product, trained with more than 1,000,000 cancer cell images, precisely analyzes PD-L1 biomarker expression and classifies PD-L1 TPS into three groups: 50% or more, 1-49%, and 0%. This digitized assistance substantially supports pathologists in diagnosing the status with high accuracy and consistency in analysis performance.

"This CE Mark certification is a meaningful milestone," said Brandon Suh, CEO of Lunit. "It demonstrates the expansion of Lunit's offerings to the cancer biopsy field beyond the scope of medical image analysis. As our AI technology gains reliability and recognition, we will do our utmost to pioneer the overseas market."

Lunit is working on launching Lunit SCOPE PD-L1 in Europe within the second half of 2022, paving the way for deployment and use in European pathology practices.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1806008/image_1.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1576401/Lunit_CI_Logo.jpg
Proxima CRO recognized with two platinum awards, two gold awards, and five honorable mentions for its creative branding, marketing, and videos

HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / Proxima Clinical Research ("Proxima CRO"), a contract research organization ("CRO") guiding emerging medical device and pharmaceutical companies from the earliest stages of product development through commercialization, announced today its creative work has been honored with two platinum, two gold, and five honorable mentions by Hermes Creative Awards, an international competition recognizing the work of creative professionals.

The big winner in this recognition is the entire marketing, branding, and communications team at Proxima CRO, which received the Platinum award for their Team Achievement and the ProximaCRO.com Homepage, in tandem with its agencies of choice, Aleberry Creative and Engagement PR & Marketing. The internal 5-person marketing team was hired in Q2 2021, and quickly breathed life into the Proxima CRO superhero brand. Within months, their work has been recognized consistently by international awards companies, like Hermes, AVA Awards, and MarComm Awards.

In addition to the two Platinum awards, Hermes honored the team's work with Gold Awards for its Breakthrough Device Designation Timeline video and Proxima CRO Sales Flyer, and with Honorable Mentions for its LinkedIn Page, Informational Talking Head Campaign, Classifying Your Medical Device video, the CEO eNewsletter, and Employee Spotlight video featuring Regulatory BizDev Strategist Chelsea Isaac.

"I am beyond proud of the entire team and brand that we have created together here at Proxima Clinical Research," says Kevin Coker, CEO. "Within weeks, the marketing team brought the vision of our brand to life which has elevated our presence as a best-in-class CRO for emerging life sciences companies."

Receiving accolades by Hermes Creative Awards is a tremendous achievement. Proxima CRO is pleased to join companies such as Dell Technologies, Deloitte Digital, Lockheed Martin, Paramount Pictures, PepsiCo, and USA TODAY, to name a few of the other honorees receiving Platinum and Gold awards from Hermes. A full list of Platinum and Gold Winners can be found at www.hermesawards.com.

About Hermes Creative Awards

Hermes Creative Awards is administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP). Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. There were roughly 6,500 entries from the United States and dozens of other countries in the Hermes Creative Awards 2022 competition. About 17 percent won Platinum-the top award, and around 20 percent won the Gold Award.

About Proxima Clinical Research

Proxima CRO provides regulatory and clinical research expertise to life sciences companies of all sizes and stages, including inventors, emerging companies, and Fortune 500. With headquarters in the Texas Medical Center ("TMC"), the largest medical center in the world, Proxima CRO brings its expertise to hundreds of medical device, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostic companies in 17 countries across five continents to further advance the $130 billion industry. Launched in November 2017, Proxima CRO is a registered Delaware C Corporation. For more on Proxima CRO and its growing team, visit ProximaCRO.com.

CONTACT:

Jennifer Horspool

(949)-933-4300

Jennifer.Horspool@proximacro.com

SOURCE: ProximaCRO

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699017/Proxima-Clinical-Research-Honored-by-Hermes-Creative-Awards
Regulatory News:

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) will host a live audio webcast of its 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. ET. The meeting will be held in a virtual format only, including closed captioning, and can be accessed at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PMI2022.

During the meeting, Andre Calantzopoulos, Executive Chairman of the Board, and Jacek Olczak, Chief Executive Officer, will address shareholders and answer questions. Only shareholders of record with a valid 16-digit control number will be allowed to ask a question or make a comment.

The audio webcast may also be accessed on iOS or Android devices by downloading PMI's free Investor Relations Mobile Application at www.pmi.com/irapp.

An archived copy of the webcast will be available for approximately one year from the date of the meeting at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PMI2022.

Presentation slides and script will also be available at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PMI2022.

Philip Morris International: Delivering a Smoke-Free Future

Philip Morris International (PMI) is a leading international tobacco company working to deliver a smoke-free future and evolving its portfolio for the long-term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. The company's current product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products, including heat-not-burn, vapor and oral nicotine products, which are sold in markets outside the U.S. Since 2008, PMI has invested more than USD 9 billion to develop, scientifically substantiate and commercialize innovative smoke-free products for adults who would otherwise continue to smoke, with the goal of completely ending the sale of cigarettes. This includes the building of world-class scientific assessment capabilities, notably in the areas of pre-clinical systems toxicology, clinical and behavioral research, as well as post-market studies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the marketing of versions of PMI's IQOS Platform 1 devices and consumables as Modified Risk Tobacco Products (MRTPs), finding that exposure modification orders for these products are appropriate to promote the public health. As of March 31, 2022, PMI's smoke-free products are available for sale in 71 markets, and PMI estimates that approximately 12.7 million adults around the world excluding Russia and Ukraine, have already switched to IQOS and stopped smoking. With a strong foundation and significant expertise in life-sciences, in February 2021 PMI announced its ambition to expand into wellness and healthcare areas and deliver innovative products and solutions that aim to address unmet consumer and patient needs. For more information, please visit www.pmi.com and www.pmiscience.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005512/en/

Contacts:

Philip Morris International

Investor Relations:

New York: +1 (917) 663 2233

Lausanne: +41 (0)58 242 4666

Email: InvestorRelations@pmi.com

Media: David Fraser

Lausanne: +41 (0)58 242 4500

Email: David.Fraser@pmi.com
LONDON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- J.P. Morgan Private Bank today expanded its award-winning advisor team by appointing Andres Cassinello Herrera as senior Concentrated Positions Specialist in London.

Mr. Cassinello Herrera will lead the Private Bank's Strategic Equity business across the UK, Europe, Middle East and North Africa (EMEA). With nearly two decades of experience across equity capital markets, he will bring an institutional approach to servicing Private Bank clients with large and complex equity positions. Specifically, Mr. Cassinello Herrera will deliver bespoke hedging, financing and monetization solutions, joining a team of experienced investment and lending advisors.

"We are pleased to welcome Andres to J.P. Morgan Private Bank supporting our global expansion of best-in-class strategic equity advice and execution capabilities," said Scott Schnipper, head of Private Bank Cross Asset Solutions. "Andres brings a wealth of expertise in investment banking and private-side structuring for J.P. Morgan's corporate clients and family offices, which will seamlessly benefit Private Bank clients."

Prior to joining the J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Mr. Cassinello Herrera was an Executive Director on the J.P. Morgan Corporate & Investment Bank's Strategic Equity Solutions Team since 2019 where he developed and executed equity derivatives for Corporate clients and family offices, including hedging, financing, stake-building and structured buybacks, and disposals. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, he spent the previous nine years with the UBS Investment Bank in a similar role, with specific responsibilities for Southern Europe and South America.

About J.P. Morgan Private Bank

J.P. Morgan Private Bank is a global financial leader providing advice and customized solutions to wealthy individuals and their families, and leading endowments and foundations. The firm leverages its broad capabilities in investing and estate planning, family office management, lending, philanthropy, credit, and special advisory services to help our clients advance toward their own particular goals. For more than 150 years, the Private Bank's comprehensive and integrated approach, commitment to innovation and integrity, and focus on client service have made J.P. Morgan the advisor of choice to those of significant wealth around the world. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument or service. J.P. Morgan Bank is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1806021/JP_Morgan_Private_Bank_Andres_Cassinello_Herrera.jpg
SEATTLE and MUMBAI, India, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Expedia Group and Qtech Software, a travel technology software provider, announced an expanded collaboration to deliver access to Expedia Group's travel supply to travel businesses globally, through Qtech's flagship technology platform, OTRAMS GO.

As a result of this collaboration, travel businesses of all sizes now have greater accessibility to premium hotel content and technology via the OTRAMS GO platform, helping generate higher revenue, grow their businesses, and improve efficiency in the travel ecosystem.

"This expansion of our relationship, as well as the combination of OTRAMS GO with our Rapid 3 API, will help bring more companies into the global ecosystem, creating more choice and access to travel for people everywhere," said Alfonso Paredes, senior vice president of Commercial Partnerships at Expedia Group. "Qtech is already a great technology partner to Expedia Group, and we're thrilled to bring our extensive supply to their platform."

Prior to this collaboration, small to mid-sized travel businesses were forced to integrate inventories from wholesalers, making it difficult to provide competitive pricing, maintain margins and provide a range of hotel options to their customers.

Investing in technology that powers online booking experiences is also challenge for many travel providers. Qtech's OTRAMS GO solves that problem, as it operates on a zero upfront cost model and charges a small per transaction fee. The addition of Expedia Group's vast hotel supply means Qtech's customers would be able to provide quality hotel content at a competitive cost to travellers.

"OTRAMS GO revolutionized technology adoption for travel businesses by making it more affordable and accessible," said Paresh Parihar, CEO and managing director, Qtech Software. "Access to Expedia Group's hotel supply will help further improve the profitability and scalability of our customers. We are working towards helping the travel industry bounce back stronger. This is a major step towards the realization of that vision."

OTRAMS GO is an end-to-end travel Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform that combines travel booking systems, supplier integrations, agent management, API redistribution, dynamic packaging and more into an intuitive, user-friendly interface.

Head of Product Development for OTRAMS GO Jignesh Modi added, "We are already operating with Expedia Group's Rapid 3 API, gaining access to the company's competitive accommodation rates and availability from a portfolio of more than 700,000 properties with 35 different property types in more than 25,000 destinations worldwide. This integration enables superfast search results and rich content that will enhance the overall booking experience as well."

Rapid 3, which is seamlessly upgraded on an ongoing basis, also gives travel businesses across the globe the ability to customize their travel offering end-to-end, from shopping to booking to payment. With a new evolving schema it is now even easier to offer diverse and competitive features to meet travelers' needs, without the need for an upgrade - so partners can save time and money while being at the forefront of innovation.

About Expedia Group

Expedia Group, Inc. companies power travel for everyone, everywhere through our global platform. Driven by the core belief that travel is a force for good, we help people experience the world in new ways and build lasting connections. We provide industry-leading technology solutions to fuel partner growth and success, while facilitating memorable experiences for travelers. Our organization is made up of four pillars: Expedia Services, focused on the group's platform and technical strategy; Expedia Marketplace, centered on product and technology offerings across the organization; Expedia Brands, housing all our consumer brands; and Expedia for Business, consisting of business-to-business solutions and relationships throughout the travel ecosystem. The Expedia Group family of brands includes: Expedia, Hotels.com, Expedia Partner Solutions, Vrbo, trivago, Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, Wotif, ebookers, CheapTickets, Expedia Group Media Solutions, CarRentals.com, and Expedia Cruises.

For more information, visit https://www.expediagroup.com/partner-with-us/default.aspx. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/EGPartnerships and check out our LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/expedia-group-partnerships/.

 2022 Expedia, Inc., an Expedia Group company. All rights reserved. Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. CST: 2029030-50

About Qtech Software

Qtech Software is a World Leading Travel ERP Technology provider that serves travel companies in over 50 countries and is renowned for its innovative solutions. For over 16 years, Qtech Software has been delivering industry leading solutions in Travel Portal Development, Travel Mobile Applications and Custom Travel Solutions.

Our deep expertise in travel technology has enabled us to create one of the best travel software solutions in the industry. Our customers and partners attest to the capability and performance of our travel software solutions, which is visible through our long-standing associations and continuous growth.

About OTRAMS GO

OTRAMS GO is the SaaS version of Qtech's flagship travel ERP Platform - OTRAMS. It is travel industry's first truly SaaS platform which enables businesses to build their own portal at virtually ZERO Technology Cost. Zero Set-up Fee, Zero Annual Charges and Zero Maintenance Fees. Travel Businesses can grow their business across multiple channels B2B, B2C, Mobile App, XML Out, White Label and GSA with OTRAMS GO and add unlimited Supplier Integrations and unlimited Agents in the system. 35+ Travel Businesses have gone live with the platform since December 2021 and have made bookings worth over $2.6 Million.

Contact

Qtech Software

Social@qtechsoftware.com

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AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "a-" (Excellent) of Qatar Islamic Insurance Group Q.P.S.C. (QIIG) (Qatar). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect QIIG's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

QIIG employs a hybrid takaful model, whereby the shareholders' fund charges the policyholders' fund (PHF) a Wakala fee based on gross written contributions (GWC) and a Mudaraba fee based on investment income. QIIG's ability to accumulate surpluses within the PHF, whilst regularly distributing surplus back to policyholders, supports the sustainability of its takaful model.

QIIG's balance sheet strength is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation, which was at the strongest level at year-end 2021, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), and is expected to remain at the strongest level over the medium term. Supporting the balance sheet strength assessment is QIIG's consistent demonstration of internal capital generation. Capital and surplus grew by 7.3% in 2021 to QAR 424.8 million (USD 117.5 million) (10.3% growth when including the policyholders' fund to QAR 652.3 million [USD 180.5 million]). While QIIG maintains sufficient liquidity to support its insurance operations, it has material holdings of illiquid assets in the form of real estate and investments in associates, which accounted for approximately 45% of its total investments as at year-end 2021. QIIG is moderately dependent on reinsurance, as the group cedes a high proportion of its large commercial risks.

QIIG reported a net profit of QAR 80.1 million (USD 22.2 million) in 2021, equivalent to a return on equity of 12.9%, demonstrating its ability to generate strong operating returns. Profitability is driven mainly by QIIG's strong and stable technical results, demonstrated by a five-year (2017-2021) weighted average combined ratio of 66.7%. QIIG's investment yields have been modest in recent years, driven by fair value losses arising on real estate and the impairment of investments in associates.

QIIG holds a niche position within its domestic insurance market, as an established provider of Shari'a-compliant products. In 2021, QIIG reported a 7% increase in contributions compared with 2020, writing GWC of QAR 428.6 million (USD 118.6 million). The group's operations are concentrated in Qatar, where it maintains a strong reputation benefiting from its track record of distributing surpluses back to its policyholders. Moreover, the group is a member of the National Insurance Consortium, which provides QIIG with access to large government infrastructure contracts.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Performance Assessments, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright 2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005754/en/

Contacts:

Emily Thompson

Financial Analyst

+44 20 7397 0291

emily.thompson@ambest.com

Christopher Sharkey

Manager, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

William Keen-Tomlinson

Associate Director, Analytics

+44 20 7397 4395

will.keen-tomlinson@ambest.com

Jeff Mango

Managing Director,

Strategy Communications

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5204

jeffrey.mango@ambest.com
Report Highlights Top U.S. Cities Where New Graduates Can Find Opportunity, Affordability, and Fun

CAMBRIDGE, MA / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / As the Class of 2022 celebrates their upcoming graduation from college, many graduates are also planning their next move. To help them evaluate their location options, ApartmentAdvisor ( www.apartmentadvisor.com ), the apartment rental search platform, today released its 2022 list of the Best Cities for College Grads. The list scores and ranks the 100 largest U.S. metro areas based on a range of economic and desirability indicators including rent prices, average salaries for degree-holders, and access to recreation and nightlife.

St. Louis, MO earned the #1 overall spot on the list with the best overall score among the cities analyzed. The "gateway to the west" city offers affordable rent prices and cost of living, along with relatively high average salaries for degree-holders, plus ease of mobility around the city and great access to parks, bars, and restaurants.

Below are the cities that ranked the highest in each of the nine regional divisions of the United States. The full ranked list of all 100 cities can be found in the ApartmentAdvisor 2022 Best Cities for College Grads report.

NORTHEAST:

Harrisburg, PA (Mid-Atlantic)

Boston, MA (New England)

MIDWEST:

St. Louis, MO (West North Central)

Cincinnati, OH (East North Central)

SOUTH:

Richmond, VA (South Atlantic)

New Orleans, LA (West South Central)

Knoxville, TN (South Central)

WEST:

Seattle, WA (Pacific)

Denver, CO (Mountain)

New grads looking for their first apartment can use ApartmentAdvisor to search for available listings in cities across the nation. The site analyzes and rates thousands of available apartment listings every day, then ranks renters' search results according to which offer the best deals. ApartmentAdvisor also offers many helpful resources for new renters including ApartmentAdvisor's Apartment Tour Checklist and Questions to Ask When Renting an Apartment.

Methodology

For the 2022 Best Cities for New College Grads list, ApartmentAdvisor analyzed the largest 100 cities in the U.S., calculating an Economic Indicators Score and Desirability Score. The Economic Indicators Score included average unemployment for bachelor's degree holders, median yearly earnings for bachelor's degree holders, median yearly rent for a one-bedroom apartment, and a cost-of-living index. The Desirability Indicators score included the gender wage gap in the given city, the percent of a city's residents that live within a 10-minute walk from a park, a "mobility score" indicating how easy it is to get around a city without a car, the size of the young adult population, and how many restaurants/bars per capita a city has.

These scores were averaged to determine the total score, with the lowest score being most desirable. Each city was then ranked based on these scores. The full methodology, including all data sources, can be found in the report:

About ApartmentAdvisor

ApartmentAdvisor (www.apartmentadvisor.com) helps renters find the right apartment. The platform combines rigorous rent price analytics and neighborhood insights, empowering renters with an easier way to compare prices, features, and locations of available apartments.

ApartmentAdvisor was founded in 2020 by a team of founders and engineers from TripAdvisor and CarGurus, including Langley Steinert (co-founder of TripAdvisor and founder and executive chairman at CarGurus); Oliver Chrzan (former chief technology officer at CarGurus); and Josh Arnold (engineering at TripAdvisor and director of data science for MineralTree). The company is based in Cambridge, MA.

Contact:

Amy Mueller

pr@apartmentadvisor.com

617-216-2900

SOURCE: ApartmentAdvisor

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/698909/ApartmentAdvisor-Releases-2022-Best-Cities-for-College-Grads
Ananda Developments Plc - Exercise of Warrants

27 April 2022

ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC

("Ananda" or the "Company")

EXERCISE OF WARRANTS

Ananda announces that 5,694 ordinary shares of 0.2p each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") have been issued following the exercise of warrants at 0.45p per share.

Application will be made for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on the Access segment of the AQSE Growth Market and admission is expected to become effective on Wednesday, 4 May 2022.

Following this issue, the Company has 799,021,096 Ordinary Shares in issue, each share carrying the right to one vote.

This figure of 799,021,096 Ordinary Shares may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

-Ends-

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC

Chief Executive Officer

Melissa Sturgess



Investor Relations

Jeremy Sturgess-Smith +44 (0) 7463 686 497

ir@anandadevelopments.com PETERHOUSE CAPITAL LIMITED

Corporate Finance

Mark Anwyl



Corporate Broking

Lucy Williams

Duncan Vasey +44 (0)20 7469 0930

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

About Ananda Developments

Ananda is an AQSE-listed medical cannabis company creating UK-based operations to grow and provide carbon zero, consistent, medical cannabis for the UK and international markets.

The UK medical cannabis market is predicted to be worth 450m by 2025 and the European market is predicted to be worth USD4.2bn by 2027.

Ananda, through its 50% owned subsidiary, DJT Plants Limited, was granted a Home Office licence in May 2021 to grow >0.2% THC cannabis in a new research facility to breed and stabilise 65 strains.

For more information, please visit: https://anandadevelopments.com/
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / CMC Metals Ltd. (TSX-V:CMB)(Frankfurt:ZM5N)(CMCXF:OTC PINKS) ("CMC" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Mr. Douglas Coleman has agreed to join the Board of Directors of CMC Metals Ltd. His skill sets will be particularly useful as the Company is advancing several significant exploration efforts in Yukon and British Columbia in geological environments similar to many areas previously worked by Mr. Coleman.

Mr. Coleman ("Douglas") is an experienced executive and geological engineer with over 30 years of experience in the mineral sector and in particular Mexico. Douglas holds a Bachelor of Science in Geological Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and has completed graduate studies in Geological Engineering from the University of Arizona. He is currently the co-founder, President and CEO of Mexico Mining Center, which is the largest digital media serving the Mexican mining community and which hosts the Annual Discoveries Mining Conference which is recognized as one of the best technical conferences in Latin America focussed on mining exploration, innovation and development. Douglas is also the Director of Business Development for Layne, a granite company, and is a Member of the Society of Economic Geologists Inc. ("SEG') where he also acts as the Regional Vice President for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Douglas has also held numerous senior geological, engineering, and operations management roles with Riverside Resources Inc., GlobeExplore Drilling S.A. de C.V., Tiger Drilling, Dateline Drilling, Newmont Exploration and Wharf Resources.

Mr. John Bossio, Chairman noted, "CMC is very fortunate to have someone of Douglas' experience and numerous industry connections to join our Board of Directors and help guide the Company as it advances its exploration efforts. His unique talents and field experience significantly strengthens our geological and engineering expertise. He is also well connected and very well respected within the Mexican and Canadian mining communities. We are honored and excited to have Douglas on our Board."

In connection with this appointment, the Company has grated a total of 300,000 stock options to Mr. Coleman. The options are exercisable at a price of $0.21 for a period of five years from the date of grant and subject to the vesting requirements set forth by the board of directors.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this release has been reviewed and approved by Kevin Brewer, P.Geo, President and CEO of CMC Metals Ltd and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About CMC Metals Ltd.

CMC Metals Ltd. is a growth stage exploration company focused on high grade polymetallic deposits in Yukon, British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador. Our silver-lead-zinc CRD prospects in the Rancheria Silver District include the Silver Hart Deposit and Blue Heaven claims (the "Silver Hart Project") in Yukon, and Rancheria South, Amy and Silverknife claims (the "Rancheria South Project") in British Columbia. Our polymetallic projects with potential for copper-silver-gold and other metals include Logjam (Yukon), Bridal Veil and Terra Nova (both in Newfoundland).

On behalf of the Board:

"John Bossio"_______

John Bossio, Chairman

CMC METALS LTD.

For Further Information and Investor Inquiries:

Kevin Brewer, P. Geo., MBA, B.Sc.(Hons), Dip. Mine Eng.

President, CEO and Director Tel: (604) 670-0019 kbrewer80@hotmail.com

Suite 615-800 Pender St.

Vancouver, BC

V6C 2V6

To be added to CMC's news distribution list, please send an email to info@cmcmetals.ca or contact Mr. Kevin Brewer at 604-670-0019.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

"This news release may contain certain statements that constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law, including without limitation, statements that address the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles and exploitation activities and developments. In this release disclosure regarding the potential to undertake future exploration work comprise forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks, including the ability of the Company to raise the funds necessary to fund its projects, to carry out the work and, accordingly, may not occur as described herein or at all. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, the timing and receipt of government and regulatory approvals, the impact of the constantly evolving COVID-19 pandemic crisis and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Readers are referred to the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators for information on these and other risk factors, available at www.sedar.com. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation."

SOURCE: CMC Metals Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699096/CMC-Metals-Ltd-Appoints-Douglas-Coleman-to-Board-of-Directors
The Canadian provincial government's Green Economy Plan, launched in November 2020, envisages a 37.5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions en route to net zero by mid century.The government of Quebec today published draft regulation related to a tender for 1.3 GW of renewable energy generation capacity. With the authority having pledged the tender a week ago - plus a separate procurement exercise dedicated to 1 GW of wind capacity - details of the proposed legislation were today published in the official gazette of the Canadian province. The Quebecois government, announcing the plans last Wednesday, ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
By Jeni Barton, University Communications and Marketing

Last October in Rome, Martin Hebel heard powerful, first-hand experiences of men and women who have fled war with their families.

From these interviews, the visiting faculty of Music at Miami University plans to weave their stories into a bilingual libretto and set it in a new vocal-orchestral symphony, "Uplifting Unheard Voices."

I will never forget these stories or the men and women who entrusted me with sharing their messages through my music, Hebel said.

With the generous support of the Presser Foundations Graduate Music Award, Hebel traveled to Rome to interview the recently displaced refugees fleeing conflicts in Africa and across the Middle East. In all, 20 individuals originating from 10 different countries chose to share their experiences in six different languages.

They came from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, as well as Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sierra Leone.

I met fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers who had been engineers, business owners, interpreters, and allied combat veterans before being displaced, he said.

The refugees shared in detail the impact of war on their homes and loved ones. Some described fighting alongside coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, enduring torture at the hands of ISIS, the Taliban, and human traffickers.

Others told of being sold into slavery in North Africa, surviving a U.S. airstrike on ISIS-held oil fields in Syria, and escaping from a prison on the island of Malta. Some refugees traversed deserts for months on foot and survived the treacherous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea.

Hebel was struck by the incredible similarities between the refugees stories despite their incredibly diverse backgrounds and countries of origin.

At the end of each interview, he asked the refugees if they had a message to share with the world. All responded with a variation of please do not treat us like we are invisible.

Hebel hopes his music will raise awareness about the struggles of refugees fleeing to Europe and other countries.

Transcribing the interviews

The interview stage of the project was facilitated by two refugee aid-and-advocacy organizations, the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center (JNRC) at St. Pauls Within the Walls and the Community of SantEgidios Humanitarian Corridors initiative. The Vaticans Migrants and Refugees Section also provided guidance.

All interviews were conducted anonymously, in-person at the JNRC in Rome and audio-recorded. The next step will be transcribing 17.5 hours of audio-recorded interviews in English and redacting any identifying information of interview participants and their families.

Hebel will then weave together these harrowing and inspiring stories into a bilingual libretto.

He will start writing the libretto in English, using parts and pieces of each of the experiences he heard in the interviews, seeking to make the resulting libretto representative of the experiences of the wider refugee community rather than a direct depiction of an individual story.

As I watch the coverage of the war in Ukraine and witness the inspiring bravery of its citizens, I find the harrowing images of this war heart-wrenching and unfortunately familiar, he said. I immediately think of the stories I heard in my recent interviews with refugees fleeing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East.

Once the English libretto is complete, Hebel will commission a poetic translation in Arabic, the first language of a majority of the refugees who were interviewed.

The libretto will be set to music, alternating between Arabic and English, allowing the composition to act as its own translation and enable any listener who understands either language to engage with the refugees words.

Once the composition is complete, Hebels vision is to collaborate with international partners to curate a multi-national event celebrating the vibrant creative output of the refugee community.

Hebel received his D.M.A in composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2021. Listen to his music here.
As Russian forces engage in a second offensive on the eastern border of Ukraine, Northwell Health is providing telemedicine support to aid these frontline regions.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005826/en/

Michael Dowling, Northwell Health's president and CEO stands in front of 28 pallets holding 18,000 pounds of medical supplies that Northwell sent to the Ukraine in March.

Northwell's Center for Global Health (CGH), in cooperation with the Ukrainian military, is launching telemedicine platforms to several undisclosed health centers where intense fighting has left millions displaced and thousands of civilians wounded and killed stressing already taxed medical resources and providers in those areas.

"Our main objective during this crisis has been to be thoughtful to our approach and to do what's sustainable and immediately needed," said Dr. Eric Cioe Pena, Northwell's director of the Center for Global Health. "What we don't want to do in this situation is to duplicate and compete with the sustainable efforts already in place."

In February, Northwell aligned with Doctors Without Borders, an organization with extensive experience in combat medicine and humanitarian relief across the globe. As part of the health system's humanitarian efforts for Ukraine, Northwell collected more than $210,000 earmarked for Doctors Without Borders and shipped 18,000 in medical supplies to the government.

"We've learned from our work in other parts of the world, sometimes sending personnel isn't always the most effective because of the limited number of people you can send and the logistics it takes to get them there. To be able to leverage the skills and talents of our entire health system at a moment's notice can make all the difference in saving lives," Dr. Eric Cioe Pena said.

Telemedicine is a unique area of opportunity for the health network to provide 24/7 consultations and a support mechanism that lends expertise to clinicians in the field caring for wounded soldiers and civilians. It offers training to newly enlisted providers and education to battlefield promoted physicians. The Northwell Centralized Transfer Center, which provides access to thousands of Northwell hospital-based specialists to patients in the New York region and beyond, will manage the day-to-day operation.

This initiative will roll out in two phases:

Northwell will mobilize its telemedicine call center to funnel incoming requests to providers on a variety of readily accessible mobile platforms, anything from laptops to mobile devices and tablets.

The second phase will bring medical grade/high fidelity telemedicine systems, ones routinely used in hospitals in the U.S., to these centers to collaborate on higher level cases in the operating room, to aid in combat trauma and other procedures.

These systems can be controlled remotely by physicians in the U.S. to change their desired field of view for better patient assessment. These systems can also be vital in post-operative care.

"Over the course the of the war, there's been an outpouring of support and relief from Northwell providers with a desire to help," said Michael Dowling, Northwell's president and CEO. "The Northwell Transfer Center, which played a significant role in load balancing of our hospitals during COVID, will develop this complex operation which will allow physicians in Ukraine to access the same world-renowned specialists that we offer to patients and physicians in the New York region."

Northwell's platform will allow seamless telemedicine, including telephonic and written translation, and provide support for a request for any specialist within the Northwell network.

Writing the telemedicine war theatre playbook

Rising to the occasion during the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine helped provide care to patients across New York State at home, allowing providers to focus their efforts in the hospital, to care for the sickest patients with coronavirus.

"We've leveraged the versatility of our team during COVID and we see many of the same opportunities it can provide in this fight," said Jonathan Berkowitz, MD, who serves as the medical director for Northwell's Center for Emergency Medicine. "This is a space where we've written the playbook. We're going to do it again and will adapt this platform to serve the greatest need in a variety of situations."

To contribute to the fund, visit Northwell's Center for Global Health.

About Northwell Health

Northwell Health is New York State's largest health care provider and private employer, with 21 hospitals, 850 outpatient facilities and more than 12,000 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 79,000 employees 18,900 nurses and 4,900 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners are working to change health care for the better. We're making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005826/en/

Contacts:

Christian Preston

347-489-3038

cpreston@northwell.edu
Massive approval of all resolutions submitted to vote

Dividend payment of 0.10 a share

Appointment of Brune Poirson and Lord Peter Ricketts, to the Board

Shareholders welcome the consultative resolution regarding the climate policy

Regulatory News:

The Getlink SE (Paris:GET) Combined General Meeting was held at La Cite des Echanges in Marcq-en-Baroeul on Wednesday 27 April 2022, under the chairmanship of Jacques Gounon.

The shareholder quorum present or represented, based on a total of 398,278,962 shares present or represented, this year reached the record level of 73.80% of the shares with voting rights.

All resolutions submitted to the vote by the Board of Directors were widely approved1. After having approved the company accounts and consolidated accounts for the 2021 financial year, the Meeting voted on the various elements of remuneration for executive officers with scores ranging from 98.7% to 99.89% and a dividend payment of 0.10 a share.

The meeting also approved the appointments of Brune Poirson and Lord Ricketts, to replace Patricia Hewitt and Jean-Pierre Trotignon, and approved the renewal of the terms of office as Directors of Corinne Bach, Elisabetta De Bernardi di Valserra, Carlo Bertazzo, Bertrand Badre and Jacques Gounon and Perrette Rey for one year. The board still has 15 members with a female participation rate of 50% (excluding the employee representatives) and an independence rate of 67%.

Following the general meeting, the board of directors renewed Jacques Gounon in his mandate as Chairman of the board.

Jacques Gounon, Chairman of the Board warmly thanked Patricia Hewitt and Jean-Pierre Trotignon for their invaluable contributions to work of the Board. Jacques Gounon also warmly thanked the shareholders for their almost unanimous support and commitment.

1 The detail of the votes resolution by resolution is available on the Group's website, on the page dedicated to Getlink's Combined General Meeting: https://www.getlinkgroup.com/en/shareholders-investors/2022-general-meeting/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005780/en/

Contacts:

Getlink Contacts

For UK media enquiriescontact

John Keefe on 44 (0) 1303 284491

Email: press@getlinkgroup.com

For other media enquiries contact

Romain Dufour on +33(0)1 4098 0464

For investor enquiries contact

Jean-Baptiste Roussille on +33 (0)1 40 98 04 81

Emailjean-baptiste.roussille@getlinkgroup.com

Michael Schuller on +44 (0) 1303 288749

Email:Michael.schuller@getlinkgroup.com
Regulatory News:

ACTICOR BIOTECH (ISIN: FR0014005OJ5 ALACT) (Paris:ALACT), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing an innovative drug for the treatment of cardiovascular emergencies, announces today the availability of its Universal Registration Document for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021, as well as the preparatory documents for its Combined General Meeting on May 12, 2022.

Availability of the 2021 Universal Registration Document

The Universal Registration Document 2021, filed with the French stock-market authority (Autorite des Marches Financiers) on April 26, 2022 under visa number R. 22-011, is available free of charge to the public under the conditions provided for by the regulations in force and can be consulted on the company's website (Investors Regulated Information Financial Information 2022), as well as on the AMF website (www.amf-france.org).

This Universal Registration Document includes in particular the annual financial report, the management report, the corporate governance report, the information relating to the fees paid to the statutory auditors and the reports of the Statutory Auditors.

Availability of the documents relating to the General Meeting

The combined general meeting of the Company will be held on May 12, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. at 27 rue du Faubourg Saint Jacques, 75014 Paris, Hopital Cochin, Pepiniere Entreprises Paris Cochin, Acticor Biotech, room 2nd floor.

The notice of meeting, including the agenda and the draft resolutions as well as the conditions and modalities of participation and voting at the meeting, were posted on the website of the Bulletin des Annonces legales Obligatoires "BALO" (www.journal-officiel.gouv.fr/balo) on April 6, 2022, bulletin number 41. The notice of meeting is posted on the website of the Bulletin des Annonces legales Obligatoires "BALO" (www.journal-officiel.gouv.fr/balo) on April 27, 2022, bulletin number 50 and published in a newspaper of legal announcements.

In the current health context, the Company recommends that shareholders prefer to vote by mail or by proxy. Shareholders wishing to attend the General Meeting are reminded that they are required to observe the barrier measures, and in particular to wear a mask and show their Vaccine Pass inside the hospital.

If they are unable to attend the meeting in person, shareholders may exercise their voting rights remotely, before the meeting:

either by sending a proxy to the Company

or by voting by mail,

by using the voting form available on https://fr.acticor-biotech.com/ in accordance with the procedures indicated in the prior notice published in the BALO on April 6, 2022.

The preparatory documents relating to this general meeting are available on request from the company, or can be consulted on the company's website in the Investors section. In accordance with applicable legal and regulatory provisions:

Any registered shareholder may, up to and including the fifth day before the General Meeting, request the Company to send him the documents provided for in Articles L. 225-115 and R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code. In the event of an express request, the documents may be sent by electronic means. For holders of bearer shares, the exercise of this right is subject to the provision by their authorized intermediary of a certificate of account registration;

Any shareholder may consult the documents referred to in Articles L. 225-115 and R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code at the company's registered office.

About ACTICOR BIOTECH

Acticor Biotech is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, a spin-off from INSERM (the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), which is aiming to develop an innovative treatment for cardiovascular emergencies, including ischemic stroke.

Acticor Biotech is developing glenzocimab (ACT017), a humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) fragment directed against a novel target of major interest, platelet glycoprotein VI (GPVI). Glenzocimab inhibits platelet binding to the thrombus without affecting physiological hemostasis, thereby limiting the bleeding risk, particularly in the brain.

Acticor Biotech is supported by a panel of European and international investors (Karista, Go Capital, Newton Biocapital, CMS Medical Venture Investment (HK) Limited, A&B (HK) Limited, Mirae Asset Capital, Anaxago, Primer Capital, Mediolanum farmaceutici and the Armesa foundation). Acticor Biotech is listed on Euronext Growth Paris since November 2021 (ISIN: FR0014005OJ5 ALACT).

For further information, please go to www.acticor-biotech.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005798/en/

Contacts:

ACTICOR BIOTECH

Gilles AVENARD, MD

CEO and Founder

gilles.avenard@acticor-biotech.com

T.: +33 (0)6 76 23 38 13

Sophie BINAY, PhD

General Manager and CSO

Sophie.binay@acticor-biotech.com

T.: +33 (0)6 76 23 38 13

NewCap

Mathilde BOHIN Olivier BRICAUD

Investor Relations

acticor@newcap.eu

T.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 95
27 April 2022

Rightmove plc

Share buy-back programme

Rightmove plc - Transaction in own shares

Rightmove plc ('Rightmove') announces that today it purchased 187,500 of its 0.1p ordinary shares at a volume weighted average price paid per share of 606.065p. The highest price paid per share was 612.600p and the lowest price paid per share was 601.000p. Rightmove purchased these shares through UBS AG London Branch.

The number of shares purchased represented 0.0223% of the voting rights attributable to the total ordinary shares in issue prior to such purchase. The purchased shares will be cancelled.

Since announcing a share buy-back programme on 28 December 2007, Rightmove has purchased in aggregate 465,616,229 ordinary shares.

The total number of ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury shares) following this announcement is 840,970,677. Rightmove holds 12,467,174 shares in treasury.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation) as amended by The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the "UK MAR"), the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by UBS AG London Branch on behalf of the Company as part of the buyback programme.

Contact Michelle Palmer, Assistant Company Secretary CompanySecretary@rightmove.co.uk

Schedule of Purchases - Individual Transactions
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR



Steinhausen, April 27, 2022 - Schweiter Technologies is strengthening its 3A Composites product portfolio in the Display business with a natural fibre board production in Sweden by simultaneously signing and closing an agreement to become a 25% shareholder of Swedboard International AB via a direct capital increase.

Swedboard International AB), based in Katrineholm, Sweden, is an innovative company, producing and marketing environmentally friendly boards for the graphic display business and currently generates annual sales of approx. CHF 6 Mio. The excellent environmentally friendly position of Swedboard fits perfectly to the range of 3A Composites' sustainable products.

The investment is in the low single-digit million EUR range. The capital injection will enable the company to accelerate its growth opportunities.

The minority stake in Swedboard forms the basis of a strategic partnership with a leading environmentally friendly paperboard producer, with the possibility of ultimately taking over the remaining 75% of the shares of the company from mid-2024 on.

For further information please contact:

Martin Kloti, CFO

Tel. +41 41 757 77 00, Fax +41 41 757 70 01, martin.kloeti@schweiter.com

Please find the Media release in the PDF attached:

Media release
Paris, 27 April 2022 - Altamir's combined General Shareholders' meeting was held on 26 April 2022. The shareholders represented at the meeting held in aggregate 84.36% of the outstanding shares. All resolutions were adopted with over 96% of the votes.

Shareholders approved a dividend of 1.13 per share, to be paid on 27 May 2022 (ex-dividend date: 25 May).

Shareholders also approved the increase in the age limit applicable to Maurice Tchenio, Chairman and CEO of Altamir Gerance, which will be extended to 85, as well as an amended, simplified method for calculating management fees and the Management Company's remuneration.

In addition, shareholders ratified the appointment of Dominique Cerutti and renewed his term, as well as those of Jean Estin and Anne Landon, as members of the Supervisory Board. As a reminder, the Supervisory Board is composed of four members, all independent, of whom two are women.

The results of the vote on each resolution are available on the Company's website (www.altamir.fr).

Forthcoming event:

NAV as of 31/03/2022 11 May 2022, after market close

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

About Altamir

Altamir is a listed private equity company (Euronext Paris-B, ticker: LTA) founded in 1995 and with a NAV of nearly 1.4bn. Its objective is to provide shareholders with long-term capital appreciation and regular dividends by investing in a diversified portfolio of private equity investments.

Altamir's investment policy is to invest principally via and with the funds managed or advised by Apax Partners SAS and Apax Partners LLP, two leading private equity firms that take majority or lead positions in buyouts and growth capital transactions and seek ambitious value creation objectives.

In this way, Altamir provides access to a diversified portfolio of fast-growing companies across Apax's sectors of specialisation (Tech & Telco, Consumer, Healthcare, Services) and in complementary market segments (mid-sized companies in continental Europe and large companies in Europe, North America and key emerging markets).

Altamir derives certain tax benefits from its status as a SCR ("Societe de Capital Risque"). As such, Altamir is exempt from corporate tax and the company's investors may benefit from tax exemptions, subject to specific holding-period and dividend-reinvestment conditions.

For more information: www.altamir.fr

Contact

Claire Peyssard Moses

Tel.: +33 1 53 65 01 74 / +33 6 34 32 38 97

E-mail: investors@altamir.fr

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PRESS RELEASE

27 APRIL 2021

SQLI GROUP CALLED UPON FOR ITS WIDE RANGE OF DIGITAL EXPERTISE INCLUDING DIGITAL STRATEGY, USER EXPERIENCE, CREATIVE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGICAL MASTERY.

The LYCRA ONE portal includes latest innovations, a fabric library, a knowledge center, certification services and merchandising assets, allowing garment producers and retailers to collaborate digitally.

What's new for the customers of The Lycra Company?

The LYCRA Company, a global leader in developing innovative solutions for the apparel and personal care industries today announced the continued expansion of their LYCRA ONE Online Network, developed hand in hand with SQLI's Teams in Switzerland and Morocco. Bearing in mind the continuous improvement of the global offering of the apparel brand, the new online customer portal empowers brands, retailers, and garment makers to connect to a global network of mills via one convenient platform focused on the science of comfort, fit and performance.

Covid-19: New needs have emerged from customers

Prior to the pandemic, there was already a need in the marketplace for a digital experience allowing brands and retailers to connect to mills and manufacturers in a virtual capacity without losing the inherent advantages of an in-person connection.

Thanks to this new portal, users can now:

Source innovative fiber solutions using the digital fabric library

Connect with mills to begin or expand on business relationships

Learn about capabilities

View product catalogs

"The LYCRA Company has one of the most powerful brand franchises in the Apparel world, and a rich legacy of innovation with a unique IP estate, so we are primed to capitalize on digital transformation. The launch of the LYCRA ONE portal leverages our connectivity across the global apparel and personal care value chains, showcases our wide range of products and services, and offers a one-stop solution to rapidly move our customers' ideas from concept to commercial execution" said CEO of the LYCRA Company, Julien Born.

Global architecture

A requirement was to define and build an overall digital eco-system, available 24/7 around the globe, including a presence in China. Drupal/Acquia, an agile Content Management System platform, had to be deeply integrated with LYCRA's Customer Relationship Management (SalesForce) and Digital Asset Management (Widen) systems. The new architecture allowed the company:

To integrate all LYCRA brands under one umbrella

To simplify its IT landscape and offload IT from system management and security tasks, thanks to the Acquia Cloud infrastructure and services

To ease the content integration and increase the velocity of the business teams

To have a solid and evolving foundation to develop its future digital services on

An international collaboration

By connecting the competences and proven experience of both SQLI and The LYCRA Company, it was agreed to work in close collaboration. An Agile method was put in place, with a client-side Product Owner, who defined priorities and a continuous delivery cycle.

By using this method, both teams benefited from great flexibility and reactivity.

With the initiatives of both teams, the LYCRA ONE portal now features a knowledge center where users can access exclusive content such as webinars, white papers, and videos covering new fiber technologies, industry trends, marketing, sustainability, and more. These resources help educate users on maximizing the value of The LYCRA Company and its innovative solutions to deliver products that meet their consumers' needs and provide inspiration for new ideas.

Thanks to this successful collaboration, customers will find innovative marketing and merchandising solutions, including brand assets and garment hang tags, through the LYCRA ONETM platform. Additionally, trademark license agreements and fiber certifications can be requested, which help to strengthen the quality of items guaranteed by the LYCRA brand.

To learn more and register for the LYCRA ONE portal, visit one.lycra.com and select the signup button.

About SQLI Digital Experience: Founded in 1990, SQLI Digital Experience is a European digital services company that defines, builds and grows the digital business value of international A-brands.

Technical and creative thinkers, their teams are committed to delivering meaningful and engaging experiences by leveraging technologies, methodologies, skills and creativity to get closer to the customer or user and capture their attention. They design, develop and deploy solid and high-performing architectures that improve business agility, increase efficiencies and facilitate business growth.

Their 2,100 employees are located in 13 countries: France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, The United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Morocco, Mauritius and Dubai. In 2021, the SQLI Group achieved revenue of 225m.

SQLI has been listed on Euronext Paris (SQI) since 21 July 2000.

www.sqli.com

Follow SQLI on LinkedIn

Follow SQLI on Facebook and Twitter

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EP Global Opportunities Trust plc (the "Company")

Director changes

Further to the announcement made on 14 March 2022, the Board confirms that Mr Tom Walker has retired as a Director of the Company at the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting held today. Tom's investment expertise and his experience within the investment trust industry has been of significant value to the Board and we have benefitted from his input during the time he has served as a Director of the Company.

The Board further confirms that Dr Sandy Nairn has been elected as a Director of the Company at the Annual General Meeting held today. When the Company becomes a self-managed investment trust, Dr Nairn will become an executive Director of the Company and will have day-to-day responsibility for investment management of the Company.

A detailed biography of Dr Nairn can be found on page 9 of the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2021. Dr Nairn is also Director of Edinburgh Partners Limited, FALS Property Limited, Lionhouse 1889 Limited, Nairn Capital Limited and The Fettes Foundation.

Dr Sandy Nairn holds 3,766,785 shares in the Company and his wife Mrs Siobhan Nairn holds 729,666 shares in the Company. There is no other information required to be disclosed pursuant to LR 9.6.13R of the Listing Rules in relation to his appointment.

27 April 2022

Legal Entity Identifier: 2138005T5CT5ITZ7ZX58

Enquiries:

Kenneth Greig

Franklin Templeton Investment Trust Management Limited

Tel: 0131 270 3800

The Company's registered office address is:

27-31 Melville Street

Edinburgh

EH3 7JF
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

For immediate release

27 April 2022

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announces that it has today purchased 48,500 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 826.79p per Ordinary Share. Such shares will be held in treasury by the Company.

The transaction was made pursuant to the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 9 February 2022.

Following this transaction, the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury is 2,073,607; the total number of Ordinary Shares that the Company has in issue, less the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury following such purchase, and therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 222,917,696.

The figure of 222,917,696 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for calculations of interests in the Company's voting rights in accordance with the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

For and on behalf of

Frostrow Capital LLP

Company Secretary

For further information, please contact:

Victoria Hale

Frostrow Capital LLP

Tel: 020 3 170 8732


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts are in orbit following their launch to the International Space Station on Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The international crew of astronauts will serve as the fourth commercial crew rotation mission aboard the space station.



A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying Mission Commander Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Bob Hines, and Mission Specialist Jessica Watkins, all NASA astronauts, and Mission Specialist Samantha Cristoforetti of European Space Agency. The crew will conduct a science expedition in microgravity aboard the space station.



NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, 'Aboard station, Kjell, Bob, Jessica, and Samantha will carry out research investigations that will help NASA prepare for longer duration stays on the Moon - and eventually Mars.



This Crew-4 mission is the first launch for Hines and Watkins, and the second flight to the station for Lindgren and Cristoforetti. It launched in a new Dragon spacecraft, named Freedom by the crew, and a Falcon 9 booster flying its fourth mission into space. This is the fifth SpaceX flight with NASA astronauts - including the Demo-2 test flight in 2020 to the space station - as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program.



During Dragon's flight, SpaceX will monitor a series of automatic spacecraft maneuvers from its mission control center in Hawthorne, California. NASA teams will monitor space station operations throughout the flight from the Mission Control Center at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.



Dragon will dock autonomously to the space-facing port of the station's Harmony module around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday. NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency's website are providing ongoing live coverage through docking, and hatch opening. NASA also will cover the ceremony to welcome the crew aboard the orbital outpost about 2:40 a.m. on Thursday, April 28.



'NASA, SpaceX and our international partners have worked tirelessly to ensure that the International Space Station continues conducting important research in microgravity, and working on a whole host of activities that benefit humanity and opens up access to more people in space,' said Kathryn Lueders, associate administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. 'Crew-4's launch, less than two days after the return of the first all-private mission to station, exemplifies the spirit and success of the Commercial Crew Program to help maximize use of low-Earth orbit for years to come, testing the technologies we need for the Artemis program and beyond,' she added.



Lindgren, Hines, Watkins, and Cristoforetti will join the Expedition 67 crew of Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron, Matthias Maurer, Oleg Artemyev, Sergey Korsakov, and Denis Matveev. Four crew members who are already aboard the space station will return to Earth a few days later.







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DGAP-News: Comcast Houston

State of Texas Selects Comcast Business to Offer High-Speed Networking Solutions Throughout the State



27.04.2022 / 21:23

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





The State of Texas' Department of Information Resources (DIR) has selected Comcast Business as one of its providers in delivering high-capacity, fiber and broadband services to state agencies and public sector entities throughout the state. This new agreement provides agencies an additional set of diverse network solutions statewide.

'We understand how critical it is for Texas' agencies and educational institutions to stay up-to-date on, and connected to, some of the latest network solutions, particularly as reliance on them has increased exponentially in recent years,' said David Cross, Vice President of Public Sector Sales for Comcast Business. 'We are proud to be able to offer a convenient and quick path to network connectivity for the State of Texas. We look forward to future partnerships, and to building the future of Texas' network.'

About Comcast Business:

Comcast Business offers a suite of Connectivity, Communications, Networking, Cybersecurity, Wireless, and Managed Solutions to help organizations of different sizes prepare for what's next. Comcast Business offers an expansive portfolio of services through the TEX-AN Program, including offerings such as Metro Ethernet, Dedicated Internet Access, SDN, software-defined wide-area-network (SD-WAN), network function virtualization, and network virtualization. Comcast Business has also been consistently recognized by industry analysts and associations as a leader and innovator, and one of the fastest-growing providers of Ethernet services.

Comcast Houston

Foti Kallergis

+1 832-986-0196

foti_kallergis@comcast.com

https://houston.comcast.com/

27.04.2022 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Northern Superior Resources Inc. ("Northern Superior" or the "Company") and Genesis Metals Corp. (TSXV: GIS) ("Genesis") are pleased to announce that they have entered into a definitive arrangement agreement dated April 27, 2022 (the "Definitive Agreement"), pursuant to which Northern Superior has agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares (the "Genesis Shares") of Genesis (the "Transaction") by way of a statutory plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia).

The pending Transaction will establish Northern Superior as a premier gold exploration company with six early-to-advanced staged gold exploration projects across major gold camps in Quebec and Ontario and create significant synergies and scale in the Chapais-Chibougamau Camp. The combined company will benefit from the following:

NI 43-101 compliant mineral resources: a) 643,000 oz gold in the inferred category at Croteau Est* (Northern Superior); and b) 652,000 oz gold in the inferred category and 260,000 oz gold in the indicated category at Chevrier**(Genesis);

material synergies from consolidating exploration activities at its Croteau Est and Chevrier gold projects, which are located only 25 km apart and are both near key infrastructure including highways, low-cost grid power, skilled labour, rail line and a regional airport;

exposure to the large and expanding Falcon gold discovery at the Lac Surprise property, which has been defined over 900m of strike length and 340m of vertical continuity with all 28 holes drilled to date intersecting gold mineralization, and is located just 27 km south of the Chevrier gold project;

having the largest property holdings, gold resources and market capitalization of all gold exploration companies that are active in the Chapais-Chibougamau Camp, a mining-friendly region that has produced over 6.7 million ounces of gold and is host to several major deposits including IAMGOLD Corporation and Vanstar Mining Resource's Nelligan deposit (hosts an NI 43-101 compliant inferred mineral resource estimate of 3.1 million ounces of gold at 1.02 g/t gold***); and

a strong balance sheet with approximately $12MM cash at year end 2021, improved trading liquidity and larger capital markets profile that will be better positioned to attract a broader base of institutional and retail investors.

Thomas Morris, President, CEO and Director of Northern Superior, stated, "Northern Superior is pleased to enter into this arrangement with Genesis. The acquisition of Genesis will create the dominant exploration company in the Chapais-Chibougamau Camp with the largest land position of over 56,000Ha, with NI 43-101 compliant gold inferred (Croteau Est and Chevrier) and indicated (Chevrier) mineral resources and three distinct discoveries and properties (Lac Surprise-Falcon Zone, Croteau Est and Chevrier), each within 50km of each other that all have significant exploration upside and will be aggressively drilled and explored over the next 12 months.

"The Chapais-Chibougamau Camp is one of the more active and prospective mining and exploration areas in Quebec, as highlighted by the Nelligan deposit controlled by the IAMGOLD/Vanstar joint venture, directly adjacent to our Lac Surprise property that hosts the recently discovered Falcon Gold Zone. The Falcon Gold Zone is thought to be the extension of the Nelligan gold deposit. As the new largest landholder and one of most dominant companies in a rapidly evolving and expanding mining camp, we feel we are ideally positioned to maximize the value of these assets for our combined shareholder base going forward.

"Northern Superior is in a strong financial position with approximately $12MM in cash at the end of 2021. It plans to aggressively advance exploration on this exciting and newly expanded portfolio in Ontario and Quebec for the benefit of the combined shareholders with a 2022 budget of close to $10MM. The Company has a highly experienced technical team that has demonstrated its acumen through multiple successes in making grassroot discoveries across Quebec and Ontario."

David Terry, President, CEO and Director of Genesis, stated, "The strong synergies between Genesis and Northern Superior on the project level, together with the benefits of a larger combined company with an enhanced gold resource base, high caliber exploration and management team, strong financial position, and greater liquidity should make this a success for Genesis shareholders and other stakeholders including local and First Nations communities in the areas of Genesis' projects. Management and the Board of Directors of Genesis look forward to working with Northern Superior to complete the Transaction."

Under the terms of the Definitive Agreement, each holder of Genesis Shares (a "Genesis Shareholder" and, collectively, the "Genesis Shareholders") will receive 0.2304 of a common share of Northern Superior (each whole common share, a "Northern Superior Share") for each Genesis Share held (the "Consideration"). The value of the Consideration was calculated on April 26, 2022, the last day of trading prior to announcement of the Transaction, as C$0.161 per Genesis Share or approximately C$10.2 million for all of the outstanding Genesis Shares. The Consideration represents an approximate 46.6% premium over the closing price of the Genesis Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") on April 26, 2022, and an approximate 43.0% premium over Genesis' volume weighted average share price ("VWAP") over the 20 trading days prior to the announcement of the Transaction. Following the completion of the Transaction, current Genesis Shareholders will hold approximately 14,500,053 shares of Northern Superior, or approximately 17.0% of the pro forma Northern Superior basic shares outstanding.

As part of the Transaction, all outstanding options of Genesis will be exchanged for economically equivalent options to purchase Northern Superior Shares (subject to an adjustment based on the Consideration) and holders of Genesis warrants will be entitled, in accordance with the terms of such warrants, to receive Northern Superior Shares on the exercise of such warrants (subject to adjustment based on the Consideration).

Benefits to Northern Superior Shareholders

Adds a second resource-stage project with a large current resource base (260,000 oz gold in the indicated category and 652,000 oz gold in the inferred category) and grows Northern Superior's NI 43-101 compliant gold resource base by 142%;

105% accretive to gold resources and 74% accretive to landholdings in the Chapais-Chibougamau Camp;

Excellent potential for material resource growth from known deposits/zones at Chevrier with regional discovery potential;

Significant cost and efficiency savings with Chevrier lying only 25 km away from Northern Superior's Croteau Est property; and

Upside from the 264 km2 October Property, which is on trend and 35 km west of IAMGOLD Corporation and Sumitomo Metal Mining's Cote Lake development stage gold project and 50 km southeast of Newmont's Borden gold mine.

Benefits to Genesis Shareholders

Immediate and substantial offer premium (43.0% to 20-day VWAP);

Exposure to the growing FGZ at the Lac Surprise Project;

Transaction that is the result of a comprehensive strategic review process;

Exposure to the Croteau Est Project, which hosts a sizable inferred resource (643,000 oz gold at 1.72 g/t gold) with considerable growth potential;

Exposure to the district-scale TPK gold property in Northern Ontario;

Northern Superior is well financed with approximately C$12 million in cash (as of December 31, 2021);

Northern Superior has demonstrated strong ability to access exploration capital;

has demonstrated strong ability to access exploration capital; Experience and expertise of Northern Superior's technical and leadership team; and

Ownership in a much larger gold exploration company with substantially greater liquidity.

Additional Details on the Transaction

Completion of the Transaction will, among other things, require the approval of: (i) at least two-thirds (662/3%) of the votes cast by the Genesis Shareholders; (ii) at least two-thirds (662/3%) of the votes cast by the Genesis Shareholders and the Genesis option holders voting as a single class, with both votes being recorded at Genesis' upcoming special meeting scheduled to take place in early June 2022; and (iii) a simple majority of the votes cast by Genesis Shareholders, excluding for this purpose the votes of "related parties" and "interested parties" and other votes required to be excluded under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions, with all votes to occur at a special meeting of Genesis security holders to be scheduled to take place in early June 2022 (the "Genesis Meeting"). No shareholder vote is required by Northern Superior shareholders. The board of directors of Northern Superior have unanimously approved the Transaction.

The Definitive Agreement includes covenants typical for transactions of this nature, including non-solicitation covenants.

The Transaction is expected to close in July 2022, subject to the satisfaction (or waiver) of a number of conditions precedent, including, but not limited to receipt of all regulatory approvals, including the approval of the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the acceptance of the TSXV.

The Transaction has the full endorsement of both the Boards of Genesis and Northern Superior. In late December 2021, Genesis retained Red Cloud Securities Inc. to initiate a strategic process to explore, review and evaluate a broad range of potential alternatives focused on maximizing shareholder value, including a potential sale or merger of Genesis. The board of directors of Genesis (the "Genesis Board") has formed a special committee (the "Special Committee") to oversee the process and have evaluated the Transaction with Northern Superior in the context of that process. The Special Committee, following a review of the terms and conditions of the agreement with Northern Superior and consideration of a number of factors, unanimously recommended that the Genesis Board approve the Transaction. After receiving the recommendation of the Special Committee and advice from its advisors, including a fairness opinion from Evans & Evans, Inc., the Genesis Board has unanimously determined that the Transaction is in the best interests of Genesis and will recommend that Genesis shareholders vote in favour of the Transaction.

Directors and officers of Genesis holding an aggregate number of Genesis Shares which represent approximately 5.6% of the currently outstanding Genesis Shares, have entered into customary support agreements with Northern Superior to vote their shares in favour of the Transaction.

Full details of the Transaction will be included in the management information circular of Genesis describing the matters to be considered at the Genesis Meeting, which is expected to be mailed to the Genesis Shareholders in early June 2022. Copies of the management information circular and the Definitive Agreement will be made available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under the profile of Genesis.

Advisors

Red Cloud Securities Inc. acted as the financial advisor to Genesis and Evans & Evans, Inc. has provided a fairness opinion to Genesis in connection with the Transaction. Cozen O'Connor LLP is acting as legal counsel to Genesis and Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP is acting as legal counsel to Northern Superior in connection with the Transaction.

* Reference for Northern Superior's 640,000 ounce Inferred Gold Resource: "Drabble, Mark (B. App. Sci. (Geology), MAIG, MAusIMM); Glacken, Ian (BSc Hons (Geology), FAusIMM (CP), MIMMM, CEng; Kahan, Cervoj (B. App. Sci., MAIG, MAusIMM); Morgan, Rebecca (BSc Hons (Geology), GDip (Mining), MAIG, MAusIMM). October 12, 2015. Technical Report on the Croteau Est Gold Project, Quebec September 2015, Mineral Resource Estimate."

** Reference for Genesis Metals Mineral Resources Estimation: "Lomas, Susan (P.Geo); Lavoie, Jonathan (Eng., M.Sc.); Liboiron, Andre (Geo). March 10, 2022.NI 43-101 Technical Report Mineral Resource Estimation for the Chevrier Main Deposit, Chevrier Project, Chibougamau, Quebec, Canada."

*** Reference for IAMGOLD/Vanstar's Nelligan 3.2MM Inferred Gold Resource: "Carrier, Alain (M.Sc., P.Geo); Nadeau-Benoit, Vincent (P.Geo); Fauvre, Stephane (PhD., P.Geo). October 22, 2019. NI 43-101 Technical Report and Initial Resource Estimate for the Nelligan Project, Quebec, Canada."

Qualified Person

Tom Morris (PhD., PGeo., FGAC, ICD.D) is a Qualified Person within the meaning of NI 43-101. Dr. Morris has reviewed and approved the information disclosed in this press release relating to Northern Superior. The Qualified Person within the meaning of NI 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the information disclosed in this press release relating to Genesis is Andre Liboiron, P. Geo., Project Manager for Genesis.

About Genesis

Genesis is a member of the Discovery Group of Companies, an alliance of public companies focused on the advancement of mineral exploration and mining projects with a proven track record of generating shareholder value through responsible, sustainable, and innovative development. Discovery Group companies have generated over $500 million in direct and indirect expenditures resulting in over three billion dollars in M&A activity, with notable recent successes being the sale of Northern Empire Resources Corp. to Coeur Mining Inc., the sale of Kaminak Gold Corp. to Goldcorp Inc. and the recent sale of Great Bear Resources Ltd. to Kinross Gold Corporation.

Genesis is a gold exploration company focused on advancing its Chevrier and October Gold project in the prolific Abitibi region of Ontario and Quebec, Canada. Chevrier is a 100% owned, +290 km2 property located near Chibougamau, Quebec. On January 24, 2022, Genesis announced a new NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate for the Main Zone at its Chevrier gold project**. Highlights include:

Main Zone Pit-Constrained Resource at a 0.30 g/t gold cut-off

Indicated Resource of 260,000 gold ounces (6.4 Mt at an average grade of 1.26 g/t gold)

Inferred Resource of 420,000 gold ounces (11.2 Mt at an average grade of 1.18 g/t gold)

Main Zone Underground Resource at a 1.0 g/t gold cut-off

Inferred Resource of 232,000 gold ounces (4.46 Mt at an average grade of 1.62 g/t gold)

Genesis also owns 100% of the October Gold Project, which is a 264 km2 property located 105 km southwest of Timmins in eastern Ontario and straddles a 15 km portion of the Ridout Deformation Zone, which hosts the nearby Cote Gold development project (7.19 M oz of Proven and Probable gold reserves within a larger resource; www.iamgold.com).

About Northern Superior

Northern Superior's TPK, Lac Surprise and Croteau Est Projects

The reader is encouraged to visit the Company's web site for more detailed information regarding each of these projects (www.nsuperior.com).

The Lac Surprise property is located within the Chapais-Chibougamau gold camp of Quebec and is large (approximately 20kms x 20 kms). The Company recently discovered the Falcon Gold Zone (FGZ), a gold zone consisting of gold assay grades and widths comparable to the neighboring including IAMGOLD Corporation and Vanstar Mining Resource's Nelligan deposit (hosts an NI 43-101 compliant inferred mineral resource estimate of 3.1 million ounces of gold at 1.02 g/t gold***). Highlighted assays associated with the FGZ include: LCS21-029 (1.36g/t Au over 40.0m; 273.00-313.00m); LCS19-005ext (1.54g/t Au over 44.9m; 293.50-338.40m); LCS21-43 (1.10g/t Au over 43.0m; 95.00-138.00m); and LCS21-032 (1.99g/t Au over 42.6m; 107.40-150.00m) (Table 1, Figure 4; see Northern Superior press releases, August 17, 2021; March 10, 2022).

The FGZ is thought to represent the westward extension of the Nelligan gold deposit. The robust, lateral continuity of the FGZ is highlighted by a 100% drill hole strike rate (29 of 29 holes), currently defined with a 900m long strike length (remaining open along strike to the west ) and defined to 343m, remaining open at depth along the 900m strike length.

The Lac Surprise property has many gold showings across the property including those to the west of the FGZ, and in the "Confluence" and "Amber" areas. Northern Superior is currently completing a 15-hole (6,650m) core drill program designed to test the western and vertical extensions of the FGZ. The Company is also in the process of planning a property scale bedrock mapping and prospecting program for the summer of 2022.

The Croteau Est property is also located within the Chapais-Chibougamau gold camp of Quebec and is large (approximately 30kms x 15kms). The property has a 43-101 compliant inferred gold resource defined and several gold showings discovered across the property. The inferred gold resource is defined as consisting of 11.6 million tonnes, grading 1.7g/t gold, yielding 640,000 ounces of gold. Assays associated with this deposit includes intersections of; 11.06g/t gold over 9.10m including 43.75g/t gold over 2.00m, 61.24g/t gold over 5.95m including 705g/t gold over 0.5 m, 7.50g/t gold over 7.95m including 56.40g/t gold over 1.00m, 1.99g/t gold over 34.65m including 9.46g/t gold over 2m). The resource is defined from only 64, shallow holes, most of which are only 350m deep. The system is open along strike in both directions and at depth. A core drill program and budget has been set for this project to expand the resource and test several of the regional showings.

The TPK property is located in northwestern Ontario and is large (approximately 20kms x 30kms), containing two regional scale mineralized systems. The first system is primarily gold bearing, stretching 35kms across the Big Dam and New Growth areas of the property. The Big Dam area contains the largest gold grain-in-till dispersal aprons in North America stretching 6kms by 11kms, with as many as 1262 gold grains, most of which are pristine (92%). Embedded within this apron are numerous high-grade gold mineralized boulders assaying as high as 94g/t gold. A discovery hole of 25.87g/t gold over 13.45m has already been intersected. The second system within the Annex area of the property is defined by a gold grain-in-till dispersal corridor 3.5kms x 13.5kms wide, with gold grain counts as high as 1263 gold grains, mostly pristine in shape. Embedded within this corridor are boulders assaying as high as 727g/t gold, 111g/t silver and 4.05% copper.

Northern Superior is a reporting issuer in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "SUP", and the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol "NSUPF".

None of the securities to be issued pursuant to the Definitive Agreement have been or will be registered under the United State Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and any securities issued in the Transaction are anticipated to be issued in reliance upon available exemptions from such registration requirements pursuant to Section 3(a)(10) of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable exemptions under state securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities.

Neither the TSXV nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

For further information contact:

Thomas F. Morris PhD., P.Geo., FGAC, ICD.D

President and CEO

Tel: (705) 525 -0992

Fax: (705) 525 -7701

e-mail: info@nsuperior.com

www.nsuperior.com

David A. Terry

President, CEO, and Director

Suite 1020, 800 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2V6

Telephone: 604-764-5944

Email: js@genesismetalscorp.com

Website: www.genesismetalscorp.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information under applicable Canadian, United States and other applicable securities laws, rules and regulations, including, without limitation, statements with respect to the completion of the Transaction, the conditions to the completion of the Transaction that must be fulfilled and the anticipated benefits and advantages of the Transaction, including establishing Northern Superior as a premier gold exploration company with five early-to-advanced staged gold exploration projects across major gold camps in Quebec and Ontario and creating significant synergies and scale in the Chapais-Chibougamau Camp. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on Northern Superior and Genesis' current beliefs or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as Northern Superior and Genesis' actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are set forth in the "Risk Factors" section in Northern Superior's latest management discussion and analysis dated April 12, 2022. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to Northern Superior and Genesis. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is made as of the date hereof and Northern Superior and Genesis undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121899
San Diego, California--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - HUMBL, Inc. (OTCQB: HMBL) today announced that Brian Foote will be attending The Q2 Investor Summit Group - In-Person. HUMBL's CEO, Brian Foote, will be providing an overview of the company, including descriptions of key products and services, as well as laying out the company's vision for the future of Web3 and blockchain and where HUMBL fits in that future.

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Lorne Park Capital Partners Inc. (TSXV: LPC) ("LPCP" or the "Company") today announced its results for the quarter ending March 31, 2022 ("Q1 2022") and also announced an update to a previously announced acquisition.

Results for the Quarter Ending March 31, 2022

Revenue for Q1 2022 was $6.6 million, an increase of $1.3 million or 26%, compared to $5.3 million for the quarter ending March 31, 2021 ("Q1 2021").

As previously announced, assets under management ("AUM") surpassed $2 billion, and was $2.06 billion on March 31, 2022. This was an increase of $98.8 million or 5.1% from the AUM at December 31, 2021, and an increase of $378.1 million or 22.5% from March 31, 2021. During Q1 2022, the Company added $95.1 million in net new assets and had market appreciation of $3.7 million.

"We continue to execute on our growth plans with advisor transitions and the addition of an experienced portfolio manager to the Bellwether team," said Robert Sewell, President and CEO. "We look forward to welcoming these and other established relationship managers and their clients to our growing firm."

Adjusted EBITDA1, a non-IFRS measure, for Q1 2022 was $1.5 million, an increase of $0.5 million or 51%, compared to $1.0 million for Q1 2021.

These results are not a comprehensive statement of the Company's financial results for Q1 2022. They should not be viewed as a substitute for financial statements prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and are not necessarily indicative of the Company's results for any future period.

Update to a Previously Announced Acquisition

On February 4, 2022, as previously announced, Bellwether agreed to the principal terms of an agreement to acquire 100% of the outstanding securities of W.H. Shutt & Associates Inc. The agreement was not finalized and efforts to conclude it have been deferred to a later date. There can be no assurance that the proposed transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

About Lorne Park Capital Partners Inc.

LPCP was created to bring together boutique investment management and wealth advisory firms in order to deliver robust, cost effective investment solutions to affluent investors, foundations, estates and trusts. LPCP's unique strategy creates better alignment between investment managers and wealth advisors while providing them with additional resources to accelerate their growth.

About Bellwether Investment Management Inc.

Bellwether is a boutique investment manager that offers tailored investment solutions for affluent investors, foundations, estates and trusts utilizing its proprietary "Disciplined Dividend Growth" Investment Process. Bellwether provides discretionary investment management focused on North American Dividend Growth investing and is dedicated to serving the distinct needs of affluent families. Bellwether's suite of investment solutions includes Canadian, US and global equity and fixed income strategies. Bellwether is a subsidiary of LPCP, and is registered as a portfolio manager in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan, an exempt market dealer in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, and an investment fund manager in Ontario and Quebec.

For further information, please contact:

Robert Sewell

Chief Executive Officer

Lorne Park Capital Partners Inc.

investor.relations@lpcp.ca

(905) 337-2227

Non-IFRS Measures

LPCP's annual consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with IFRS as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board. The information presented in this press release includes a non-IFRS financial measure, namely Adjusted EBITDA. This measure is not a recognized measure under IFRS and does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and is therefore unlikely to be comparable to a similar measure presented by other companies. Rather, this measure is provided as additional information to complement IFRS measures by providing further understanding of the Company's results of operations from management's perspective. Accordingly, this measure should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for analysis of the Company's financial information reported under IFRS. Adjusted EBITDA is used to provide investors with a supplemental measure of the Company's operating performance and thus highlight trends in LPCP's core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS measures. The Company's management also believes that securities analysts, investors and other interested parties frequently use non-IFRS measures in the evaluation of issuers. LPCP's management also uses non-IFRS measures in order to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period, to prepare annual operating budgets and forecasts and to determine components of management compensation. The Company's management believes Adjusted EBITDA is an important supplemental measure of LPCP's performance, primarily because it and similar measures are used widely among others in the investment management industry as a means of evaluating a company's underlying operating performance. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income (loss) before finance costs, depreciation and amortization, income taxes expense/recovery, acquisition, integration and severance costs, share-based payments, and other.

Cautionary Notes

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains statements which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", "plan", and other similar expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, without limitation, LPCP's objectives, goals and future plans. Forward-looking information addresses possible future events, conditions and financial performance based upon management's current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. In particular, the forward-looking information contained in this news release reflects assumptions about the timing and results of the amalgamation and regulatory approvals. Management of LPCP considers the assumptions on which the forward-looking information contained herein are based to be reasonable. However, by its very nature, forward-looking information inherently involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such information. Such risks include, without limitation, changes in economic conditions, applicable laws or regulations. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. LPCP disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES. ANY FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF U.S. SECURITIES LAW/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121205
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / The Power Play by The Market Herald has announced the release of new interviews with Empower Clinics, Metallic Minerals, Power Metals, Ucore Rare Metals, Big Ridge Gold Corp, and Sitka Gold on their latest news.

The Power Play by The Market Herald provides investors with a quick snapshot of what they need to know about the company's latest press release through exclusive insights and interviews with company executives.

Empower Clinics (CSE:CBDT) subsidiary Medisure launches Health Canada approved vitamin D testing kit

Empower Clinics (CBDT) subsidiary Medisure has announced the launch of the Vitamin D Rapid Testing Kit. The MediSure Vitamin D Rapid Test Kits will be available at local PharmaChoice pharmacies across the country beginning in May. Chairman & CEO Steven McAuley sat down with Shoran Devi to discuss the news.

For the full interview with Steven McAuley and to learn more about Empower Clinics' news, click here.

Metallic Minerals (TSXV:MMG) announces mineral resource estimate for the La Plata project

Metallic Minerals (MMG) has announced the first National Instrument 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the La Plata project in Colorado. The company acquired the project in 2019 and has generated a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate consisting of 115.7 million tonnes. The 2022 Resource Estimate is based on 56 diamond core drill holes, totalling 15,200 meters. President Scott Prestel sat down with Shoran Devi to discuss the news.

For the full interview with Scott Prestel and to learn more about Metallic Minerals' news, click here.

Power Metals (TSXV:PWM) prepares for advanced exploration permit for its Case Lake Property

Power Metals (PWM) is preparing to acquire an advanced exploration permit for its Case Lake Property in northeastern Ontario. The requirements will be completed concurrently with an upcoming 5,000-metre drill program at Case Lake. Johnathan More, Chairman and Director of Power Metals sat down with Shoran Devi to discuss the news.

For the full interview with Johnathan More and to learn more about Power Metals' news, click here.

Ucore Rare Metals (TSXV:UCU) announces independent evaluation of RapidSX Rare Earth Separation Technology

Ucore Rare Metals (UCU) has reported positive conclusions from a third-party technical review of RapidSX technology. The review was commissioned by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority to undertake a technical review of the RapidSX technology. The evaluation supports the economic benefits of RapidSX versus conventional solvent extraction. CEO Pat Ryan sat down with Shoran Devi to discuss the results of the evaluation.

For the full interview with Pat Ryan and to learn more about Ucore Rare Metals' news, click here.

Big Ridge Gold Corp. (TSXV:BRAU) announces additional results from the phase 1 drill program at Hope Brook

Big Ridge has announced additional diamond drill results from its 25,000-metre, Phase I exploration drill program at the Hope Brook Gold Project. 100 per cent of the drill results received to date have intersected gold mineralization. The Hope Brook Gold Project is an advanced stage, high-grade gold project located in Newfoundland. President & CEO Mike Bandrowski sat down with Shoran Devi to discuss the results.

For the full interview with Mike Bandrowski and to learn more about Big Ridge Gold's news, click here.

Sitka (CSE:SIG) intercepts elevated gold values in Yukon

Sitka (SIG) has released 2022 winter exploration results from the RC Gold Project in Yukon. Hole DDRCCC-22-022 intercepted 273 m of 0.52 g/t gold from 46 m to 319 m. Assays are pending for three drill holes. The company is planning an additional 9,000 m of drilling during its spring-summer program. President & director Don Penner sat down with Shoran Devi to discuss the results.

For the full interview Don Penner and to learn more about Sitka Gold's news, click here.

Interviews for The Power Play by The Market Herald are released daily. To learn more about the companies featured in The Power Play or to explore our other interviews visit The Power Play by The Market Herald.

About The Market Herald

The Market Herald Canada is the leading source of authoritative breaking stock market news for self-directed investors. Our team of Canadian markets reporters, editors and technologists covers the entire listed company universe in Canada. We cover over 3,985 businesses, their people, their investors, and their customers. We write the stories that move the Canadian capital markets.

DISCLAIMER: Report Card Canada Media Ltd. ("Report Card") is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market Herald Limited, an Australian company ("Market Herald"). Report Card is not an advisory service, and does not offer, buy, sell, or provide any other rating, analysis or opinion on the securities we discuss. We are retained and compensated by the companies that we provide information on to assist them with making information available to the public. All information available on themarketherald.ca and/or this press release should be considered as commercial advertisement and not an endorsement, offer or recommendation to buy or sell securities. Report Card is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority in any province or territory of Canada, will not be performing any registerable activity as defined by the applicable regulatory bodies and do not provide nor claim to provide investment advice or recommendations to any visitor of this site or readers of any content on or originating from themarketherald.ca. Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees may from time to time acquire, hold or sell securities and/or commodities and/or commodity futures contracts in certain underlying companies mentioned in this site and which may also be clients of Market Herald's affiliates. In such instances, Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees will use all reasonable efforts to avoid engaging in activities that would lead to conflicts of interest and Market Herald and/or its affiliates will use all reasonable efforts to comply with conflicts of interest disclosures and regulations to minimize any conflict. All the information on this document and/or the website - themarketherald.ca - is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. Report Card does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this document and/or website (themarketherald.ca) is strictly at your own risk. Report Card will not be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our website. From our website, you can visit other websites by following hyperlinks to such external sites. While we strive to provide only quality links to useful and ethical websites, we have no control over the content and nature of these sites. These links to other websites do not imply a recommendation for all the content found on these sites. Site owners and content may change without notice and may occur before we have the opportunity to remove a link which may have gone 'bad'. Please be also aware that when you leave our website, other sites may have different privacy policies and terms which are beyond our control. Please be sure to check the Privacy Policies of these sites as well as their "Terms of Service" before engaging in any business or uploading any information.

CONTACT:

The Market Herald

Brianna Anthony

brianna.anthony@themarketherald.ca

themarketherald.ca

SOURCE: The Market Herald

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699167/The-Power-Play-by-The-Market-Herald-Releases-New-Interviews-With-Empower-Clinics-Metallic-Minerals-Power-Metals-Ucore-Rare-Metals-Big-Ridge-Gold-Corp-and-Sitka-Gold
Jakarta, Indonesia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - After a successful partnership with Danamas - one of the leading FinTech Cooperations in Indonesia, NanoByte is ready to pave the way for Crypto Adoption in the Asia Pacific. They will be the first to provide instant fiat loans to the more than 270 million people in Indonesia.





Danamas x NanoByte Partnership



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8632/121709_2c9ef4996456cb48_001full.jpg

Three of the world's most populous countries (China, India, and the USA) are becoming more stringent about cryptocurrency, while crypto supporters have been touting Indonesia as a future emerging market for the industry. When it comes to cryptocurrency, Indonesia is way ahead of many nations. With a population of over 270 million and being one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, the future of this avenue seems promising. Its government is also open to crypto, with its President (Joko Widodo) actively encouraging Indonesians to learn more and improve their skill set around new tech, including crypto.

Despite huge opportunities in Indonesia, there are only around 7 million crypto investors in the country - or less than 3% of its total population. NanoByte Token (NBT) was launched last month, aiming to become a pioneer of crypto adoption in the fourth most populated country in the world. NanoByte is affiliated with Nanovest, an investment application to trade US stocks and cryptocurrency, based in Indonesia. It has already gained the support of more than 2 million people in Indonesia during its beta launch. Today, they finally announced their latest innovation: the first-ever instant fiat loan with NanoByte through a partnership with Danamas, a subsidiary of the Sinarmas Financial Service company.

Sinarmas Financial Service is a leading financial services provider in Indonesia that provides an integrated and comprehensive range of financial services, including Banking, Insurance, Financing, Capital Markets, Asset Management, Share Administration, Security, and Information Technology. Sinarmas Financial Service is also part of the conglomerate group Sinarmas whose presence in Indonesia dates back to the 1930s.

NanoByte's partnership with Danamas is one of the first maneuvers of making crypto assets accepted in the full suite of the traditional financial ecosystem in Indonesia.

As a crypto project, the Nanobyte Token (NBT) is now available through the centralized exchange platform Tokocrypto, Binance's portfolio in Indonesia. In the global market, it is accessible through Pancakeswap and Uniswap.

Nanovest's CEO, Hutama Pastika, said the partnership between Nanobyte and Danamas in providing NBT as an instant loan application service facility will be effective as of 19th April, 2022.

"The latest scheme in the crypto-asset-based instant lending services (NBT) is expected to encourage education and be a proof to crypto enthusiasts with all Indonesian people of what kind of amazing things a digital asset can provide. Hopefully, all of these efforts can foster people's trust that this new investment instrument is not that difficult and perfectly safe for everyone."

The NBT asset-based instant loan offered by Nanobyte and Danamas is an innovative project, claimed to be the first of its kind in the world. All Indonesians who are interested in applying for a loan can do so as long as they have NBT and are available to join this program.

"Danamas and Sinarmas Financial Service discover that today's young generation has begun to get more literate in investment and invest a lot through digital currency. Through this partnership, NanoByte token holders can get instant loans with up to 80% lower interest than what they normally get in the market," Danamas's CEO, Joyce Andries said.

To date, crypto-based projects are often seen as risky, scary, and unstable investments. Through this innovation, Danamas and Sinarmas Financial Service intend to boost the adoption of crypto assets by introducing a new channel that is more reliable and relatable to the novice. Hopefully, it can drive greater and faster growth of the crypto industry in Indonesia, the Asia Pacific region, and across the globe. The bases are formed, and the growth has begun. It can only get bigger and brighter from here.

About NanoByte Token (NBT)

NanoByte Token aims to bridge cryptocurrency to the traditional/conventional currency system; by creating utility for cryptocurrency in products such as e-money, credit cards, insurance, and other investments. NBT's home market is Indonesia, the 4th largest country in the world with 270 million lives. After its initial launch in Indonesia, NanoByte is exploring opportunities in more countries. NBT has a unique position to make crypto legitimate and mainstream because of the support that it gets from both traditional financial institutions and new-age crypto institutions. Some of the big names who are partnering with NBT include Sinar Mas Financial Services (one of the largest financial institutions and a diversified group in Southeast Asia), Tokocrypto (the largest crypto exchange in Indonesia), and Agate International (the largest game developer in Indonesia).

Nanobyte Website | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram | Medium | YouTube

About Danamas and Sinarmas Financial Service

Danamas is a company that was founded in 2000 under the name PT. Komunindo Arga Digital, the company later changed its name to PT Pasar Dana Loan which was established under the auspices of Sinarmas Financial Service, a leading financial services provider in Indonesia. Danamas is also a member of the Indonesian Fintech Association (AFPI). The company is committed to helping business people, especially MSME fighters to develop their businesses, as well as employees/workers to get loans by way of submission and easy.

Danamas Website | Instagram | YouTube

Contact:

Cindy Claudia

+6281372738935

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121709
SALT LAKE CITY, UT / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / Motos America Inc., a publicly-traded motorcycle dealership group, has closed its first round of financing, raising $5 Million from private investors. This offering was placed by the executive team of the Company, without commissions or other direct compensation. There were a total of 29 subscribers to this private placement of shares and other securities.

The Company plans to use the proceeds of this offering for working capital to expand its base of luxury brand motorcycle dealerships across the U.S., including the acquisition of 3 BMW motorcycle dealerships in Florida.

"We are well on our way to achieving our dealership acquisition target" said Vance Harrison, Chief Executive of the Company. "The Company sees a particular opportunity in BMW, Ducati and Triumph motorcycle dealerships" continued Vance. "These luxury brands, with their well-heeled customer base, are expected to continue to add to their aggregate market share in the coming years, and we expect to help that happen" he concluded.

BMW, Ducati and Triumph, each have a total of less than 160 dealers in the U.S. This is as opposed to the four Japanese motorcycle brands (Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki) and Harley-Davidson each having between 700-1,500 domestic dealers.

According to Kris Odwarka, President of Motos America Inc. "The low number of BMW, Ducati and Triumph motorcycle dealers nationally dampens intra-brand competition and supports margins".

The Company intends to parlay its increased financial strength as a result of this offering into a $12 Million "B-Round" in the near future.

About Motos America

Motos America Inc. (OTCPINK:WECT) is a premium European motorcycle dealership consolidation company. In Nov. 2021, the company changed its name from "Weconnect Tech International, Inc." to "Motos America Inc." When it changed its name, the company adopted a new business model. Motos America purchases and operates powersports dealerships, with an emphasis on European luxury motorcycle brands, including BMW Motorcycles, Triumph Motorcycles and Ducati Motorcycles. The company believes the motorcycle dealership industry is primed for consolidation, similar to what has occurred in the automotive industry. Motos America believes that consolidation in this niche will bring about the same advantages of scale associated with automotive dealer group consolidations. Namely, better operating results driven by professional management, branding and marketing opportunities, and volume purchasing. For more information, please contact:

Contact:

Motos America Inc.

Cal Jones, Investor Relations

510 So. 200 West #110

Salt Lake City, UT 84101

https://motosamerica.com

mailto:cal@motosamerica.com

(801) 386-3700

(801) 403-8609 - Cell

This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, among other things, statements regarding our business strategy, future revenues and anticipated costs and expenses. Such forward-looking statements include, among others, those statements including the words "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "believes" and similar language. Our actual results may differ significantly from those projected in the forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this report. We undertake no obligation to publicly release any revisions to the forward-looking statements or reflect events or circumstances after the date of this document. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: Motos America Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/699183/Motos-America-Inc-Closes-Round-A-of-Financing
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Eric Sprott announces that, today, 2176423 Ontario Ltd., a corporation which is beneficially owned by him, acquired 8,250,000 common shares (Shares) of New Found Gold Corp. at $8.35 per Share for consideration of $68,887,500 in connection with the first tranche closing of the private agreement transaction announced by him on April 12, 2022. A second tranche closing is expected to occur on or about August 5, 2022 for 6,750,000 Shares at $8.45 per Share for consideration of $57,037,500, being a total consideration of $125,925,000 for 15,000,000 Shares. As previously disclosed, the Shares were purchased by way of private agreement with a single vendor at a price, including commissions, of less than 115% of the "market price" of the Shares in reliance on the "private agreement exemption" in Section 4.2 of National Instrument 62-104 - Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids.

Concurrently on April 27, 2022, Mr. Sprott indirectly transferred 12,002,500 Shares to two persons, acting independently (including trusts they control), for no consideration, as a result of which Mr. Sprott now beneficially owns and controls 32,848,700 Shares, representing slightly less than 20% of the outstanding Shares. Prior to the above acquisition and concurrent transfer of Shares, Mr. Sprott beneficially owned and controlled 36,601,200 Shares, representing approximately 22.3% of the outstanding Shares,

The 32,848,700 Shares are being held by Mr. Sprott for investment purposes. Mr. Sprott has a long-term view of the investment and may acquire additional securities of New Found Gold including on the open market or through private acquisitions or sell securities of New Found Gold including on the open market or through private dispositions in the future depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans and/or other relevant factors.

New Found Gold Corp is located at Suite 1430 - 800 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2V6. A copy of Mr. Sprott's early warning report will appear on New Found Gold's profile on SEDAR and may also be obtained by calling (416) 945-3294 (200 Bay Street, Suite 2600, Royal Bank Plaza, South Tower, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2J1).

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121920
: kehao (keai), : WorldNews

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money, hate to blow into the world's only rich man.To this day, time has

given the only answer: Guo Wengui cheating money and wealth accumulation of

evil like a mountain, good and evil will eventually be rewarded, contempt of

court huge fines in the robbery. The only thing that I don't see is a fake

tycoon who used to show off his wealth and brag about it, but a fugitive

from the Wanted Red who was fined 134 million by a New York State court, a

huge fraud of the century.

Huge debts are just around the corner and the former "fake tycoon" is

showing his true form. The debt accumulated by the century's big crooks is

as high as the "Himalayas", and Guo Wengui, the "fake tycoon and real crook"

, has been revealed with the court investigation. If you do something

illegal, you will be exposed sooner or later! Today's Guo Wengui, is very

panic, apprehension, anxiety ...... According to the British newspaper The

Independent, on February 9, a judge in New York State ruled that Guo Wengui

concealed billions of dollars worth of assets, including a super yacht

called the "Lady May" luxury yacht. Judge Barry Ostrager found that Guo had

violated a previous court ruling by hiding the yacht in the Bahamas, outside

of U.S. jurisdiction. The court ruling turned Guo Wengui into the world's

most indebted and fined "fake tycoon" in seconds. According to the South

China Morning Post, Guo Wengui had borrowed $30 million from the Taiwans

Asia Opportunities Fund in 2008, but never repaid the loan. Cumulatively,

over the years, Guo Wengui owes US$116 million to TACF. To save face, do

things that are out of your reach.

As we all know, Guo Wengui also has part of the "stolen money" is full of

the world's advocacy investment platform, such as: GTV, GNEWS, G coin,

chicken turn over, bitcoin, selling ground stall clothing, Guo war clothing,

etc., until now launched Hpay ged...... So much.A very obvious scam,

extremely sinful. The court ruled as follows: Mr. Guo's civil contempt

judgment was upheld; Mr. Guo immediately paid $134 million to PAX as a fine

for Lady May's absence from New York from May 15, 2021 to February 7, 2022;

the fine of $500,000 per day will continue to accrue until Lady May returns

to New York. The cumulative fines will begin to accrue 10 days after the

judgment; Mr. Guo's payments to PAX must be made within 5 days of the

judgment; and if the payments to PAX are not made on time, the court will

proceed with enforcement action. So far, Guo liar this "fake rich real liar"

began to play poor and cheat, Sure enough, after the verdict took effect,

Wengui couldn't escape." Guo liars are not blown out of the water by

themselves, they are poked out by the people who exposed Guo's forgery in

cooperation with the U.S. judiciary." Guo Wengui has always been able to

cheat and flee to survive until today. But not now, the U.S. court ruling is

clear, there is no possibility of escape, in the face of multiple debts and

huge fines, Guo Liar using a variety of ways, want to launch Hpay ged cheat

money to relieve the siege is invisible hope.But not now, the U.S. court

ruling is clear, there is no possibility of evasion, in the face of multiple

debts and huge fines, Guo crooks use a variety of ways, want to launch Hpay

ged cheat money to relieve the siege is not to see the light of day.An

early report in the media, The Independent, said that Guo Wengui said in a

link with Michael Waller, a senior analyst for strategic policy at the

Center for Security Policy, a think tank, that he might go to Japan or the

United Kingdom, but would not return to China. Guo Wengui has been accused

in China of bribery, fraud, money laundering, kidnapping and rape, among

other wrongdoing. But he denies the charges.The legal loophole approach does

not work in the U.S. either, which Guo understands himself, always

trumpeting how robust the U.S. legal system is, how it protects private

legal property and how it safeguards personal interests.Once blind worship

would not have thought they would also have today's downfall. The U.S. law

is also serious about punishing Guo Wengui. Guo Wengui used to show off his

wealth in a frenzied attempt to cheat and enrich himself, and now those show

-offs are about to become incriminating evidence. The private jet, the

Pangaea, and especially the super luxury yacht "Lady May" will become the "

evidence" of today.Guo Wengui denied owning the yacht "Lady May," according

to a transcript of court documents. But the court found that Guo Wengui had

dominion and control over the yacht, and therefore made a decision to

restrict Guo from taking the yacht out of the court's jurisdiction. A

deadline to repay the money and a deadline to return to New York. The days

left for Guo Wengui are numbered and the only way Guo Wengui faces is to go

to prison.

There is no room for bad guys, and there is no place to hide when you break

the law. The "fake rich" have no money, and it is impossible to pay back the

money. It is also impossible to escape from the civil charges of debt in

the United States. Because, as Guo Wengui said, the U.S. legal system is

robust, and court decisions clearly indicate that enforcement action will be

taken.

--

 :WWW  mitbbs.com [FROM: 203.]


Global Fishing Watch commends the Republic of Marshall Islands' leadership toward fisheries transparency

KOROR, THE REPUBLIC OF PALAU, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KOROR, THE REPUBLIC OF PALAU - The Republic of the Marshall Islands has committed to sharing its vessel monitoring data on Global Fishing Watch's public map, bolstering ocean governance and promoting compliance throughout some of the world's richest fishing grounds. This momentous decision was announced on April 14, 2022 at the seventh Our Oceans Conference by the Honorable John M. Silk, Minister of Natural Resources and Commerce for the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The declaration marks the first Pacific island nation to make its fishing activity visible to the world.

The partnership agreement was signed between the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority (MIMRA) and Global Fishing Watch, symbolizing the two organizations' dedication to advancing transparency of fishing activities in the Pacific Islands region, home to the world's most productive tuna fisheries.

All vessels flying the Marshall Islands' flag and foreign vessels fishing in its fishery waters will appear on Global Fishing Watch's map through the integration of the government's vessel monitoring system (VMS) data. These vessels primarily target tropical tuna species of the Western and Central Pacific ocean, which hold environmental, economic and cultural significance across the region's island nations-around half of the world's tuna catch comes from these waters.

"There is real value in open data when it comes to monitoring the ocean," said Glen Joseph, Director of the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority. "By making its fishing activity visible on the Global Fishing Watch map, the Republic of the Marshall Islands is helping demonstrate compliance. We hope the data-led insights complement already existing monitoring, control and surveillance tools to validate what is being reported by flag States and strengthen the way fisheries are managed."

"Global Fishing Watch is honored to be partnering with the Marshall Islands to build greater transparency of fishing activity in the Pacific," said Tony Long, chief executive officer of Global Fishing Watch. "This progressive decision will help facilitate accountability and good behavior in the region and support a more sustainable future by strengthening fisheries monitoring."

"Our partnership with Global Fishing Watch is an important element of our regional commitment to combat IUU fishing," said the Honorable John Silk, Minister for Natural Resources and Commerce, Republic of the Marshall Islands. "In 2018, Marshall Islands' President Hilda Heine set out a bold vision of an IUU-free Pacific by 2023. Other Micronesian presidents signed onto that challenge the following year. To achieve this ambitious goal, we must harness innovative technologies to protect our marine resources and the livelihoods of Pacific people."

Global Fishing Watch uses publicly broadcast automatic identification system data to track close to 70,000 commercial fishing vessels operating globally. Adding VMS data, which is required by many governments, provides an even clearer view of global fishing activity. The data can assist fishers abiding by the rules through faster, more efficient port entry and provide opportunities to implement regulatory and market incentives to reward them.

A country of coral islands and atolls spread out over 750,000 square miles (1.94 million square kilometers) of ocean between Hawaii and the Philippines, the Marshall Islands relies heavily on revenue from the tuna industry-well over one-third of the government's domestic revenue comes from the tuna sector.

As a member of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, this independent small island developing State recognizes the importance of collaboration to secure sustainable fisheries. Enhanced monitoring and regional solidarity across FFA's 17 Members has led to a decrease in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing throughout the Pacific, according to a recent quantificationstudy which, in part, used Global Fishing Watch data to examine vessel activity throughout the region's waters.

MIMRA's fisheries MCS systems are state-of-the-art, and are backed by the resources of the FFA's Regional Fisheries Surveillance Centre. Their monitoring systems build on an innovative management approach used by the Parties to the Nauru Agreement that caps regional fishing activity to support conservation and economic goals. With Global Fishing Watch now available to support and complement existing efforts, the Marshall Islands is taking the next step toward embracing fisheries transparency.

"Transparency can help vessel operators publicly demonstrate compliance and show their commitment to implementing relevant conservation measures," added Tony Long. "We believe the Marshall Islands' pioneering leadership will encourage other Pacific nations, as well as industry stakeholders, to embrace transparency in support of enhanced ocean governance."

The Marshall Islands joins a growing group of countries that are already publicly sharing their VMS data through Global Fishing Watch, including Belize, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Peru. Transparency of its fishing activity demonstrates the Marshall Islands' steadfast commitment towards compliance and will help amplify management and coordination efforts undertaken by the FFA. Global Fishing Watch's international program to advance ocean governance through greater transparency is made possible with the generous support of Bloomberg Philanthropies.

###

Global Fishing Watch is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing ocean governance through increased transparency of human activity at sea. By creating and publicly sharing map visualizations, data and analysis tools, we aim to enable scientific research and transform the way our ocean is managed. We believe human activity at sea should be public knowledge in order to safeguard the global ocean for the common good of all.

globalfishingwatch.org

Attachments
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Zedcor Inc. (TSXV: ZDC) (the "Company" or "Zedcor") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an amended and restated Commitment Letter (the "Amended Commitment Letter") with its primary lender which provides for a total of $6.0 million in equipment financing.

The Company is also pleased to announce that it has entered into a contract with North America's largest equipment auction house (the "Customer") to provide fixed monitoring services at its Nisku, Alberta facility for 24 months. Zedcor has also received a verbal commitment from the Customer to use the Company's fixed monitoring services at its 13 remaining locations across Canada, including its location in Montreal, Quebec for which Zedcor is already providing fixed monitoring services with contract terms being negotiated.

Todd Ziniuk, President and CEO of Zedcor, stated: "This additional financing will help us execute our expansion plans for 2022. We are seeing nearly full utilization for our MobileyeZ security tower fleet and demand for our services continues to be robust. Our goal is to ensure we have equipment available to provide security solutions to our customers. Our expansion strategy remains on track with the recent hiring of our VP, National Accounts based in Ottawa, Ontario and we are starting to build demand for our MobileyeZ security towers in Eastern Canada. Our fixed monitoring services continue to gain traction as well, with our customers seeing the value of using technology-based security solutions over the traditional manpower based security model. The contract we signed to provide fixed monitoring services with our prominent Customer has already yielded positive results for them with two burglars arrested at their Montreal location in mid-April. The additional financing positions us well to meet our customer's demand and continue to grow our footprint across Canada."

Zedcor currently has $2.7 million drawn on its equipment financing facility and the Amended Commitment Letter will provide Zedcor with an additional $3.3 million which is immediately available to the Company. Zedcor anticipates it will draw down on the remaining availability prior to the end of 2022 to fund its capital program for the purchase of additional MobileyeZ security towers.

The Amended Commitment Letter did not alter any material terms of the Company's prior loan agreement other than an additional underwriting fee of $15,000, equivalent to 0.5% of the increase in the equipment financing facility. The Company's financing agreement remains secured by the existing general security agreement, which provides for a first charge security interest over the Company's present and future personal property. The Amended Commitment Letter also retains the same financial covenants and standard non-financial provisions under the previous financing agreement.

About Zedcor Inc.

Zedcor Inc. is a Canadian public corporation and parent company to Zedcor Security Solutions Corp. Driven by our guiding principles of being pioneers, innovators and honest, Zedcor is engaged in providing technology based security & surveillance services in Western and Central Canada. The Company is disrupting the security industry with its three main service offerings to customers across all market segments: 1) rental, service and remote monitoring of its proprietary MobileyeZ security towers; 2) live monitoring of fixed site locations; and 3) security personnel. The Company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "ZDC".

Forward-Looking Statements and Information

Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements or information can be identified by terminology such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "estimate", "propose", "budget", "should", "project", or similar words suggesting future outcomes or expectations. In particular, forward-looking statements and information contained in this press release, include, but are not limited to, the expansion of Zedcor's Security and Surveillance business, fleet expansion, marketing of security services and expansion of Zedcor's service offering to other geographic regions. Although the Company believes that the expectations implied in such forward-looking statements or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements or information because the Company can give no assurance that such statements or information will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements or information are based on current expectations, estimates and projections that involve a number of assumptions about the future and uncertainties, including current forecasts and utilization. Although management of the Company believes these expectations and assumptions reflected in these forward-looking statements or information to be reasonable, there can be no assurance that any forward-looking statements or information will be proved to be correct, and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. For this purpose, any statements or information contained herein that are not statements or information of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements or information and readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements or information. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new contrary information, future events or any other reason, unless the Company is required by any applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

For further information contact:

Todd Ziniuk

President & Chief Executive Officer

P: 403-930-5430

E: tziniuk@zedcor.ca

Amin Ladha

Chief Financial Officer

P: 403-930-5435

E: aladha@zedcor.ca

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121902
- The 'EndoRunner' is a mobile hub containing all the latest innovations in endoscopy from Fujifilm

- Fujifilm has today launched the EndoRunner Tour, with the EndoRunner set to visit hospitals and conferences across Europe to support endoscopists with training and education

- The mobile hub will be unveiled at ESGE Days as new research sets out endoscopists' priorities for tackling challenges in endoscopy, with 74% saying enhanced onsite training opportunities would benefit endoscopy services

PRAGUE, April 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fujifilm has today launched a first of its kind mobile training hub at ESGE Days to help tackle some of the biggest challenges in endoscopy, as new research shows concern among endoscopists about the impact of the pandemic on cancer services.

The survey of endoscopists and gastroenterology professionals from across Europe was undertaken by Sermo on behalf of Fujifilm. When asked about the biggest challenges in endoscopy, almost half of the respondents cited workforce pressures and almost a third cited the provision of training and education for healthcare professionals. Just under three quarters (73%) said there is likely to be a 'ticking timebomb' of cancer patients waiting for a diagnosis and treatment post COVID-19, while almost eight in ten (78%) said they were concerned that patients will have more progressed cancers that are more difficult to treat because of COVID-19.

When asked which technological developments would benefit endoscopy services, almost three quarters (74%) said enhanced onsite training opportunities and over two thirds (67%) said greater hands-on-support from manufacturers. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on learning, with over two thirds (67%) saying it had reduced opportunities for training and education.

Having heard the challenges faced by endoscopists, Fujifilm has developed the EndoRunner, a mobile hub with their complete endoscopic solutions portfolio which travels to clinicians to support their training. This helps the eight in ten (81%) who said they would value more in-person training and education opportunities run by manufacturers and the three quarters (75%) who said they would prefer if manufacturers came to their place of work to deliver training and education. The EndoRunner initially includes around twenty different flexible endoscopes and more than fifty different therapeutic devices for all kinds of applications.

Artificial intelligence (AI) also received support from clinicians, with 80% saying AI in endoscopy will improve diagnostic capability and 69% saying it will improve patient outcomes. The Fujifilm Eluxeo Ultra platform includes CAD EYE with AI technology, which will be included in the EndoRunner. It uses deep learning technology to assist healthcare professionals to make decisions efficiently, benefitting their workloads and their ability to deliver good patient care.

On the first day of ESGE Days 2022 at 10:30am, Fujifilm's Senior Vice President Mr Masaharu Fukumoto and Vice President Mr Takemasa Kojima will be joined by the President of ESGE Professor Helmut Messmann to officially launch the hub and kick off the Fujifilm EndoRunner Tour.

Clinicians across Europe are invited to request a visit from the EndoRunner at Fujifilm-endorunner.com.

Dominik Vollbach, European Marketing Manager at Fujifilm Europe, said:

"Our new research clearly illustrates the concern felt amongst endoscopists about the impact of the pandemic on healthcare services. At the same time, we are very aware that enhanced onsite training opportunities and greater hands-on support from manufacturers will continue to benefit endoscopy services in the future, which is why we have launched our latest state-of-the-art innovation - the EndoRunner.

"The EndoRunner will travel directly to hospitals and conferences to offer clinicians the opportunity to use our endoscopy solutions, helping to overcome the limitations of place and time-bound education and tackle some of the biggest challenges facing endoscopy services.

"Fujifilm provides diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, from devices to services and education, which help improve a patient's quality of life. We are a partner to all healthcare professionals in need of market leading products and services, and stand proudly by their side."

Helmut Messmann, President of ESGE, said:

"The European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy is proud that Fujifilm has chosen ESGE Days to launch the EndoRunner. Congratulations to Fujifilm for a fantastic innovation that will support clinicians as endoscopy services are recovered following the pandemic. After an extraordinary two years, ESGE Days in Prague is the first time endoscopists from across Europe can meet again in person for hands-on courses and face-to-face engagement. We look forward to seeing the EndoRunner in action at the conference before it embarks on its tour across Europe, supporting the aim of ESGE to teach and train endoscopists."

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from SERMO. The total sample size was 302 endoscopists, GI nurses, GI surgeons and GI specialists from across the United Kingdom (61), France (60), Spain (60), Italy (61) and Germany (60).

About FUJIFILM Europe GmbH

FUJIFILM Europe GmbH (Duesseldorf, Germany) acts as strategic headquarter for the region and supports its group companies in Europe by formulating marketing and corporate strategies. Fujifilm entities operate in over 50 group companies and branches in Europe and employ around 4,500 people engaged in R&D, manufacturing, sales, and service. Throughout Europe they serve a range of industries including medical technology, graphic systems, electronic materials, chemicals, optical devices, recording media, and photography. Over the last decade, the company has more intensively focused on healthcare, and now looks back on over 80 years of experience in medical imaging. Today, Fujifilm provides the entire spectrum of patient care, ranging from prevention to diagnostics and therapy solutions.

About SERMO

Sermo is the largest healthcare data collection company and social platform for physicians, reaching 1,3MM healthcare professionals across 150 countries. For more information, visit sermo.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1806341/Fujifilm.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1496681/Fujifilm_Logo.jpg
Agora Awards, a Barcelona, Spain-based digital art platform, raised $2.2M in funding.

The round was led by Chris Bouwer.



The company intends to use the funds to support further development of its marketplace and other initiatives, which aim to elevate the value given to NFTs not just as a financial investment detached of artistic merit, but as works of art whose value will grow over time, like fine art.

Led by CEO Octavi Royo, Agora started as an online platform where users could upload their creations  photographs, video, and audio  and participate in worldwide awards voted worldwide,. The company has recently launched a series of projects aimed to develop the NFT market with the best content of high artistic value. It currently features millions of photographs, graphic designs, music, and videos developed by people from all around the world from renowned artists to regular individuals.

The company will be launching new initiatives including:

 The World NFT Festival

 Agora NFT Marketplace

 Agoras Metaverse

 Agora TV

 Agora Token

 Agoras new project with the United Nations

The platform can be accessed through its app on iOS and Android, and through web.

FinSMEs

26/04/2022
Aviz Networks, a San Jose, CA-based provider of software solutions for Hybrid Cloud & Edge Networks leveraging Multi-Vendor SONiC, raised USD4M in Seed funding.

The round was led by Moment Ventures. Moment Ventures Founder & General Partner, Ammar Hanafi, and Rajiv Khemani, Founder of Innovium (now part of Marvell Technology), joined Avizs Board of Directors.

Moment Ventures Founder & General Partner, Ammar Hanafi, and industry luminary Rajiv Khemani, Founder of Innovium (now part of Marvell Technology), have joined Avizs Board of Directors.



The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth, expand operations and its business reach.



Led by Vishal Shukla, CEO, Chidambaram B, CTO, and Gautam Agrawal, CPO, Aviz Networks is enabling SONiC deployments in Data Center & Edge networks by creating platform agnostic applications for network Orchestration, Monitoring, and Support. The company is enabling a unified user experience across multi-vendor environments with its Aviz Certified SONiC program and an application-driven support model, backed by 24/7 availability of SONiC experts. Aviz has signed partnerships with all major Switch and ASIC vendors to enable customers for interoperable multi-vendor networks. Furthermore, the company is accelerating SONiC adoption by making the NOS application aware and bringing Cloud-Native and AI capabilities to hybrid networks.

FinSMEs

27/04/2022
BabyQuip, a Santa Fe, NM-based baby gear rental marketplace, closed a $3.4m seed funding round.

Backers included How Women Invest, Thorney Investment Group (an investor in prior rounds), and individual investors through the crowd-funding platform, SeedInvest, among others.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate:

international expansion plans, including capturing key travel markets in Mexico and the Caribbean, new hospitality partnerships, and expanding its network of independent contractors, called Quality Providers,

product and technology innovation, including a mobile app for customers,

expansion into new services, and

improvements to its proprietary technology platform.

Launched in 2016 by Fran Maier, BabyQuip is a national marketplace for baby gear rentals delivering clean, insured, and quality equipment to families on-the-go in over 900 locations in the U.S., Canada and beyond.

The platform is powered by its Quality Providers (mostly moms) who use their own inventory to build, launch, and grow their baby gear rental businesses, leveraging the proprietary platform, and drawing on BabyQuips branding and marketing expertise.

The company has formed strategic partnerships with hospitality companies including Destination by Hyatt, Vrbo, AvantStay, Blueground, Xplorie, Guesty, DACK, and more.

FinSMEs

27/04/2022
Many investors think their options are limited to stocks and bonds, either directly or via a 401(k) or IRA. There are, however, many alternative investment options available.

For some investors, startup companies are a good choice. Startups feature hungry entrepreneurs looking to build an idea into a profitable business.

Startups are an attractive consideration for alternative investments options. Investors, however, should do their homework and invest carefully. Knowing what to look for in an investment and the questions to ask are important steps. Learning how to protect your investment can make startups an enticing choice for investing your money.

Your Risk Tolerance Plays an Important Role

Startups can seem like an enticing possibility. Silicon Valley giants all started as small companies running out of garages and dorm rooms. It was investors who believed in the ideas and gave those fledgling companies a start.

Yet for every Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook, there are hundreds of other businesses that did not make it.

Theres a high-risk, high-reward element to alternative investments, especially startups. Federal regulations have relaxed when it comes to investing in these businesses. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission still places some restrictions on how much investors can invest in a 12-month period.

If your annual income or net worth is less than $107,000, the SEC guidelines allow you to invest up to the greater of $2,200 or 5 percent of the lesser of your net worth or annual income.

If it is greater than $107,000, you can invest up to 10 percent of your annual income or net worth, whichever is less, up to $107,000.

Alternative names for startup investing include venture capital and angel investing. For personal investors, the concept is enticing. Help an ambitious, young entrepreneur get over the funding hump and make a go at it. Just know that many companies do not make it.

Know how much youre willing to risk before you get involved in startup investing.

Smart investors think of startups like other investment categories. Instead of putting all their funds in one asset, wise investors diversify their portfolios. Taking the same approach with startups is a good choice.

Develop Your Investment Strategy

Build an investment strategy before you take the plunge into any alternative investments. Begin by deciding how much you are going to invest and how many deals you are going to invest in. Having 15-20 investments gives your startup portfolio the diversity needed to protect the financial commitment.

Do you want to give equal weight to all of your startup investments? Thats one approach to diversification. Another is to give yourself the latitude to invest more in companies you strongly believe in. Either way, its best to know you plan to allocate your funds prior to investing.

What are you interested in investing in? Consider the kinds of companies you want to commit to. Are you looking to support an idea that has a great team working on it? Would you rather invest in a more mature startup that has a working product or service and, perhaps, some revenue?

You can also specialize in a business sector and spread out your investments within that niche. You may want a mix of investment stages in your first foray.

Finding Your Sources for Deals

With the stock market, investors have access to all available publicly traded stocks. Such is not the case with startup companies. Finding companies looking for funding is not as obvious as alternative investments. Getting access to startups requires a bit of legwork.

Various crowdfunding platforms provide access to startups seeking angel investors. The platforms offer different levels of access and offer a modicum of due diligence. These sources offer access to multiple companies across sectors, while others focus on a niche investment area.

Joining an angel investing club is another option. There you will find like-minded investors interested in identifying strong potential investments. They also can be a good sounding board for making decisions about your investments or hunches about companies. Often, members pool the research responsibilities and make decisions on where to invest their funds.

Understand the Financial Instruments

Investments in startups come with various investment options. Convertible notes are one popular investing instrument today. Convertible equity is essentially a loan that gathers interest over time. Eventually, the note is converted into shares.

Conversion is typically tied to a major event, such as the first major financing round. Convertible investors get shares at the price offered for the financing round, for example.

For investors, the convertible approach can mean a substantial payoff when the company gains the right attention. For startups, these deals allow them to work and invest the money contributed without worrying about paying back debt. They are a straightforward way to raise money while fine-tuning the business.

Other options include debt financing, where you loan the company money. The contract pays a fixed or variable return, based on how the business performs.

If you invest in later-stage startups, you may be able to buy shares, like with a public company. You may need to hold onto the shares until the company goes public.

How to Research Startups

Looking at business plans and financials are important factors to use in choosing whether to invest. Also consider whether you have expertise in the startups field, allowing you to apply that knowledge to your decisions.

If you meet with the team, are they passionate about their work and seeing its success? Do they have the expertise to lead or are they learning as they build?

Also, get a sense of the size of the market. A large and growing market is essential for startups to be successful. Finally, ask whether the time is right for the idea  why this product or service right now?

Startups can be an exciting way to invest and see the possibilities. Learning about companies and being a part of their success has its unique rewards.
Outfund, a London, UK-based fintech company for online businesses to raise funds, closed a 115M Series A equity capital and debt funding.

The round was led by Force Over Mass, PostFinance, 1818 Venture Capital and Tribe Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its global growth, pledging to invest more than 500m of lending to over 5,000 businesses in the next 12 months, to make investments into new products, such as working capital and revolving credit, as well as in team growth.

Led by Daniel Lipinski, CEO, Outfund enables founders seeking capital to apply for finance using its online application. Given the proprietary technology and product, simple checks are required to access capital and there is no need for companies to provide business plans or go through risk assessments. Businesses connect their revenue accounts and, with access to this data, Outfund will build a funding offer and deploy the same day.

Outfund can deploy between 10,000 and 10m of funding, and is available to businesses that take online payments, have a minimum of 10,000 monthly turnover, and have been trading for at least six months.

The company ensures the time taken to repay is based on each businessess circumstances, with an agreed revenue share creating flexibility for founders.

It is set to loan over 500M in 2022 and expected to fund over 5,000 businesses across the globe.

Outfund has offices in Barcelona, Spain, Toronto, Canada and Bondi Junction, Australia.

FinSMEs

27/04/2022
SonarSource, a Geneva, Switzerland-based platform for clean code, raised $412m in funding, at a valuation of $4.7 billion.

The round was led by new investors Advent International and General Catalyst, with existing investor Insight Partners participating. Permiras Growth Opportunities Fund also participated in the round.

The company intends to use the funds to double its sales force in 2022 and grow its marketing team across existing offices in Geneva, Switzerland; Annecy, France; Bochum, Germany and Austin, Texas, as it drives toward $1 billion in revenue, and open a new regional headquarters in Singapore.

Led by Olivier Gaudin, CEO and co-founder, SonarSource provides a solution that enables developers and development teams to write clean code and remediate existing code organically, so they can focus on the work they love and maximize the value they generate for businesses. Its open source and commercial solutions  SonarLint, SonarCloud, and SonarQube  support 29 programming languages. It is used by more than 300,000 organizations globally.

FinSMEs

27/04/2022
Waltz Health, a Chicago, IL-based digital health company, raised $35.4M in Series A funding.

The round was led by GV with participation from Define Ventures, Echo Health Ventures, Blue Venture Fund, Byers Capital, and Twine Ventures.



The company intends to use the funds to invest in product development and growing its team across all business areas.



Founded in 2021 by Mark Thierer and Jonathon Thierer, Waltz Health is a digital health company developing consumer tools that support informed decisions on prescription care. Designed for consumers, payers and pharmacies, the company offers AI-driven marketplaces to lower costs, giving consumers access to pricing options and more information while helping payers take control of their pharmacy benefits.

The companys first application to launch is Marketplace Search, a white-labeled, online search engine that pharmacies make available to their customers. For retail pharmacies, Marketplace Search allows them to enhance their customer experience, build customer loyalty.

Waltz Health plans to announce several partnerships with major pharmacy chains this year.



FinSMEs

27/04/2022
INFORMATION, Media and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana on Tuesday said Zimbabweans facing hardships in neighbouring South Africa were free to come back home where they will be supported by the government.

Addressing a media briefing on International Multilateralism for Diplomacy and Peace in Bulawayo, Mangwana, however, said although government would never abandon its citizens, jobs were scarce.

So again in terms of their needs, it depends on their needs. We cant say they will come and get job priorities because already people here are looking for jobs. However, if they face any hardships or they have any needs, the government will support them as much as it can through the social service part, Mangwana said.

Mangwanas statement comes at a time Zimbabwean immigrants are facing increasing attacks from vigilante groups in South African townships for allegedly stealing jobs from locals there.

Reports indicate that Zimbabweans, fearing further xenophobic violence and facing an uncertain future after Pretoria announced plans to discontinue the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit, have started taking their valuables back home.

The xenophobia attacks recently claimed the life of a Zimbabwean national, Elvis Nyathi, who was beaten and burned alive by a mob outside his home in Diepsloot. Nyathi was buried recently in Bulawayo with the assistance of the Government of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwean immigrants accuse South African Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi of stoking xenophobic attacks after he was quoted saying he would only retire when undocumented foreigners were locked away.

Motsoaledi has also been quoted saying foreign nationals were engaging in criminal activities in that country. Newsday
Schools will reopen for the second term on Tuesday next week under strict compliance with Covid-19 prevention and management protocols to ensure a safe environment for learners.

In January, Government came up with a school calendar with 184 learning days following a long break from classes in 2021 owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw many outbreaks being reported in schools.

The second term is opening 26 days after schools closed on April 7 and will run for 69 days until August 4.

Speaking at a post-Cabinet briefing yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, said learning institutions will open on May 3 as scheduled.

The nation is further being informed that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is currently preparing for the safe reopening of schools on May 3, 2022 in full compliance with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the Prevention and Management of Covid-19 as well as other Influenza-like illnesses, she said.

She said the country had been registering a continued decline in Covid-19 cases due to the policies put in place by the Government and the compliance by citizens, making the reopening of schools on time possible.

The Standard Operating Procedures are minimum terms of operation set by the Government last year to ensure all schools operate in a safe environment without risking a spike in new infections.

They prohibit hugs, handshakes and sharing of desks in schools, while break and lunch times are staggered to prevent crowding.

Sporting activities were also banned and classrooms were only allowed to accommodate a maximum of 35 pupils to allow for social distancing.

Zimbabwe National Association of School Heads president Mr Munyaradzi Majoni said all systems were now in place for schools to receive learners.

On our side as heads, preparations are at an advanced stage for the reopening of schools. Before we closed, some schools had already received PPE from the Government while in other schools, parents were procuring PPE for their children.

Schools are doing a lot to make sure that we have a safe environment for the learners in terms of Covid-19. Schools are working with SDCs to ensure the provision of adequate protective clothing and equipment, he said.

Mr Majoni expressed hope that after the negotiations between the Government and teachers, there would not be a repeat of the industrial action which affected the learning process at the beginning of last term.

Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education spokesperson Mr Taungana Ndoro said all protocols for the safe reopening of schools were in place.

All Covid-19 protocols for the safe reopening of schools remain in place as we anticipate the second phase of the vaccination blitz by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

Parents and guardians are advised to prepare their children for returning to school next week so that we contribute to the socio-economic development of the nation, he said.

The opening of schools, however, will coincide with the winter season which is usually associated with a spike in Covid-19 cases as well as flu-like illnesses as evidenced by the rise in cases in the past two winters.

Zimbabwe entered the third and worst wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in July last year and the Government has been pushing to ensure that all eligible citizens get vaccinated against the disease.

The inclusion of the 14 to 15-year-old age group in the vaccination programme helped to ensure that most learners in secondary schools and some in Primary schools were protected.

Since the launch of the vaccination blitz last month, over two million vaccines have been administered bringing the cumulative numbers for vaccination to 5 835 047 for the first dose, 3 646 916 for the second jab and 588 440 for the third dose as of yesterday.

Up to yesterday, Zimbabwe has recorded 247 667 Covid-19 cases with 241 500 recoveries and 5 469 deaths. Herald
Plans to revive a long-abandoned Wells Fargo building in downtown Albany are dead, its prospective owner said Monday, April 25.

The news came at a meeting of the Albany Revitalization Agency, which oversees redevelopment in downtown.

The former downtown bank branch on 300 First Ave. W. has sat empty since 2019, stirring debate among agency officials about what to do with the vacant building.

A trio of local entrepreneurs, BGW Partners, envisioned a mixed-use project, complete with a restaurant on the first floor and apartments on the second, along with a new third floor.

In 2020, the trio saw Matt Bennett, owner of downtown Albany restaurant Sybaris; and Buzz Wheeler of Coastal Farm and Ranch leave the partnership.

As the last BGW partner standing, Tom Gerding, building developer and owner of Gerding Companies Inc., has spent months attempting to resuscitate the project amid ballooning costs.

BGW Partners offered $1.5 million plus an additional $25,000 down-payment for the property, beating out Linn County and two local developers for the building.

In February 2020, Gerding told ARA members the price of renovating the building would be about $10.6 million. Once finished, the building would be worth around $7.5 million.

The initial plan would have had Sybaris occupying the first floor of the building with apartments on the second floor and a third floor added. Sybaris' owners now plan to move to the Oregon Railway Electric station.

In September, Gerding revised the plan to include retail or office space on the first floor with market-rate apartments on the first and second floors.

In the seven months since, estimated costs for the project have soared by about 30%, according to a memo from Albany City Manager Peter Troedsson presented to the Albany Revitalization Agency on Monday, April 27.

"Despite several meetings with staff, exploring some creative paths forward, again, in the short term, there are no workable solutions," the memo reads.

On Monday, Gerding CEO Monte Smith agreed. With costs skyrocketing beyond its willingness to stomach, the company was abandoning the project.

"We tried everything. We went through a lot iterations, and we did what we could," Smith said.

Albany Revitalization Chair Bessie Johnson said it was unclear how much money the agency had on hand to assist with the Wells Fargo building, even if Gerding Companies were to move forward.

The agency already greenlit millions for a waterfront project along Water Avenue earlier this year.

"I'm not sure how much money we have, or what grants were given, the details just aren't there," Johnson said. "I'm not sure it would be appropriate to do anything at this time."

Still, Smith said the old bank building deserves to have a owner.

"It's historic," Smith said after the meeting. "I hope someone buys it before it's knocked down."

The Albany Revitalization Agency is scheduled to meet next on Wednesday, May 11 at Albany City Hall.

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RTHK: Russia cuts off two EU nations from its gas

Russia opened a new front in its war in Ukraine on Wednesday, cutting Nato members Poland and Bulgaria off from its gas, a dramatic escalation in the conflict that is increasingly becoming a wider battle with the West.

One day after the United States and other Western allies vowed to speed more and better military supplies to Ukraine, the Kremlin upped the ante, using its most essential export as leverage. It then went even further, saying Russia could halt gas supplies to other European customers.

European gas prices shot up on the news that Poland and Bulgaria were cut off, a move that European leaders denounced as blackmail.

In a memo, state-controlled Russian giant Gazprom said it was cutting Poland and Bulgaria off from its natural gas because they refused to pay in Russian roubles, as President Vladimir Putin had demanded. The company said it had not received any such payment since the beginning of the month.

The gas cuts do not immediately put the countries into dire trouble since they have worked on getting alternative sources for several years now and the continent is heading into summer, making gas not as essential for households.

Still, it sent shivers of worry through the 27-nation European Union, which immediately convened a special coordination group to limit the impact of the move. And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's ensuing warning was sure to worry them even more. He told reporters that other European customers may be cut off if they also refuse to pay in roubles.

On the ground too, the geopolitical fight intensified, with the Russian military claiming on Wednesday that its missiles hit a batch of weapons that the US and European nations delivered to Ukraine. (AP)

This story has been published on: 2022-04-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
China steps up weather protection for cultural heritage sites, artifacts

Xinhua) 11:17, April 27, 2022

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- China's National Cultural Heritage Administration on Tuesday urged extra protection against extreme weather for cultural artifacts and historical sites.

Cultural heritage authorities and museums across the country should keep track of extreme weather and respond in a timely manner, the administration said in an emergency notice.

Ancient constructions and affiliated museums, as well as heritage conservation and excavation sites, must be checked for potential risks, the notice said.

It also called for responsive measures and supplies to cope with damage to constructions and the falling of historically significant and ancient trees.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
THREE Zimbabweans have been sentenced to life in jail for killing a commercial farmer in South Africas Limpopo province.

Advocate Nketheni Munyai called for stiffer penalties on those who murder farmers before Ugenius Saga (31), Lloyd Mandumbu (30) and Tatenda Ngwenya (33) were convicted in connection with the murder of Alwyn Petrus van Zyl in 2020.

Ngwenya was also slapped with an additional 15 years for unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.

The trio was convicted on charges of housebreaking, unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition and common assault by the High Court of South Africa, Limpopo Division sitting in Polokwane.

In a statement, the South African Police Service (Saps) welcomed the trios life sentences.

Munyai also indicated to the court the gravity of the offences, and the economic impact, stating that there is a legitimate public outcry about farm murders, Saps said. This will have consequences on the food supply, as farmers who are constantly under attack will end up abandoning their farming activities and the result will be hunger in an already poverty-stricken country.

During the trial, the accused persons raised an alibi and maintained they were not responsible for the offences. They denied being in possession of a blue bag, with the deceaseds name, but the State produced evidence from a thorough investigation by the police.

The trio committed the offence on March 20, 2020 at Bad Se Loop Farm in Waterberg and were arrested on the same day. Newsday
By Britta DeVore | 2 weeks ago

A superhero show unlike the rest is biting the dust. The Michael B. Jordan produced series, Raising Dion will not be returning to Netflix for a third season. Despite a great first and second season run, the show wont be flying high anymore and will be coming in to land before the anticipated followup season. Series star Sammi Haney took to her Instagram on Tuesday to break the news to her followers.

JaSiah Young and Sammi Haney in Raising Dion

In the post, the 11-year old actress wrote that Raising Dion was CANCELED and gave a shout out to fans who binged the series. She went on to say that both seasons one and two of the Michael B. Jordan backed show were uber successful and that she knew countless fans wanted a Season 3, but just wouldnt be receiving it. The good news (at least for fans of Haney), is that with this door closing, another one will open. The young performer said that she will now be able to take on other projects adding that her signing with Netflix held her back from launching herself into other pieces in film and TV. So, even with Raising Dion canceled, fans can at least look forward to seeing their favorites in new and exciting roles. You can see Haneys post below.

The premise for Raising Dion comes from the comic book of the same name by Dennis Liu. It follows the story of a single mother named Nicole who lost her husband Mark and must raise the couples young son, Dion, on her own. As he begins to grow up, its clear that Dion isnt like the rest of the kids his own age. He has super powers that allow him to do things unimaginable to the rest of his community. The first season was all about Dion learning about his familys past and his budding powers with the followup second season focusing on the young man gaining better control over his special abilities. The second season also saw Dion and his mother face down some baddies threatening to cause chaos to their home city of Atlanta. Alisha Wainwright starred as Nicole with JaSiah Young as Dion and Michael B. Jordan as the deceased husband and father, Mark. The rest of the main cast was filled out by Jazmyn Simon, Jason Ritter, Griffin Robert Faulkner, Ali Ahn, and of course, Sammi Haney.

Michael B. Jordan, JaSiah Young, and Alisha Wainwright in Raising Dion

As for Michael B. Jordan, his social media accounts have been suspiciously quiet surrounding the cancelation of Raising Dion. While he made several speedy appearances on the show, giving a back story to where Dions powers came from, his role was mostly behind the scenes as a producer. His silence could be because hes a very busy man and, while were sure hes bummed to see the series go, he has both his acting and production hands in several other projects.

His company, Outlier Society, is currently involved with titles including an Amazon backed production called I Helped Destroy People which will feature The Matrix: Resurrections star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Theres also Thomas Crowne Affair for MGM in which Michael B. Jordan will also star, and another Amazon project (which is out now!) based on a Tom Clancy novel of the same name titled Without Remorse, along with several others. So, while were sad to see Raising Dion not return for a third season, were happy that we will be viewing more of Michael B. Jordans Outlier Societys work as they stand behind more creative ventures just around the corner.


PERSONS or companies engaged in the side marketing of tobacco will now be liable to imprisonment as the Government moves to protect one of the countrys major foreign currency earners and source of livelihood for millions of Zimbabweans.

Recently, the Government gazetted Statutory Instrument 77 of 2022 which was published on April 15, a move which will see those engaging in the side marketing of the golden leaf liable to prosecution.

Under SI 77, any side marketer may be required to compensate three times the loss suffered by any particular contractor.

According to the Gazette, any person who participates in side marketing shall be liable to a fine not exceeding Level five (5) or to imprisonment for a maximum of six (6) months or to both such a fine and imprisonment.

The move has been taken to protect the industry from unscrupulous dealers.

There have been reports of rampant side marketing in the industry which is threatening production.

Side-marketing is a form of contract default where a contracted tobacco grower sells his or her tobacco to a third party in breach of a legally binding contractual agreement which states that contracted tobacco shall only be sold to or bought by the licensed contractor who provided inputs to such a grower.

Side-marketing is also a form of breach of the law when auction tobacco is sold other than through auction floors in breach of S40 of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Act (Chapter 18:20).

It can also take place when a contracted farmer sells his or her tobacco to a licensed contractor other than the one who supplied him or her with inputs.

In a statement, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) announced the prohibition of side marketing and its consequences if the terms were breached.

Tobacco contractors are now required to obtain a contractors licence in terms of the regulations. All manner of side marketing is prohibited. We trust that all stakeholders will abide by the new regulations and join TIMB in creating a viable and orderly market, read the statement.

Farmers have since welcomed the move taken by Government to bring sanity to the tobacco industry.

Zimbabwe Farmers Union secretary general, Mr Paul Zakariya, said this was a welcome development that would bring sanity, order, and integrity to the market.

However, it takes two to tango. If the farmer is contracted and given adequate resources and they are paid on time, then it is a very welcome development. Contractors who do not pay must be arrested because they create opportunities for farmers to end up side marketing.

When the crop is ready for marketing, contractors must be ready to pay, he said.

Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive, Mr Meanwell Gudu, said the SI would discourage side marketing among farmers and contractors.

This is a welcome development because we have always discouraged side marketing. This move will have a positive impact because it will enhance our relationship with investors, he said.

Tobacco Association Zimbabwe president, Mr George Seremwe, said side marketing was a bad practice.

Side marketing is a bad thing and we dont encourage it.

Contractors should also offer attractive packages to stop side marketing. Contractual obligations should be thoroughly looked at before an arrest is done, he said.

TIMB introduced new regulations for contract tobacco farming to safeguard the integrity of the contract system so that tobacco growers would not be short-changed and contractors would be guaranteed their returns.

This was after a realisation that some fly-by-night contractors were underfunding farmers and overcharging for inputs while some growers were side-marketing the contracted crop.

The new regulations were designed to maintain, in decent order, what has become the major system of financing tobacco production by eliminating dubious contractors and ensuring farmers fulfil proper contracts.

Contractors are now required to provide proof of commitment or intent to the TIMB by June 30 of every year and failure to do so will lead to their suspension from contracting growers for that season.

All contractors are now required to submit to TIMB a complete schedule of inputs and their costs by June 30 and failure to do so will lead to suspension for that season.

Contractors are also supposed to submit copies of legally binding contracts by September 30 of every year and proof of inputs distributed, either through paid-up invoices or payment plans with suppliers.

All contracted growers without accompanying signed contracts will be de-contracted.

In addition, TIMB requires contractors to submit a list of all contracted growers including their contact details by November 30 of each year. Herald
English Dutch

Papendrecht, 24 March 2022

Boskalis has been awarded the contract for the protection and replenishment of more than 40 kilometers of coastline stretching from the eastern coastline of Togo to the western coastline of Benin in West Africa. The coastal protection project is part of the West African Coastal Areas Management (WACA) program. The award was made by the governments of Togo and Benin with the financing made available by the World Bank. The contract carries a value of approximately EUR 55 million.

The current coastline has suffered from significant erosion, resulting in coastal retreat that serves as a threat to vital infrastructure and the livelihoods of the local population. Under the project, fifteen new groins will be constructed and six existing groins will be refurbished. A beach replenishment program will also take place using more than one million cubic meters of sand. Furthermore, on the Benin side of the border, a 6.4 million cubic meter sand engine will be constructed. The sand engine concept was co-developed by Boskalis and has been successfully applied in the Netherlands over the past decade. A large volume of sand will be deposited at a strategic location and, over time, the natural motion of wind, waves and currents will spread it eastwards along the coastline. This principle of building with nature will reinforce the coastline in a robust and natural way. The project will start immediately and is expected to be completed late 2023.

The WACA program was developed in partnership with West African communities who live on the coast and depend on it for their livelihoods, nutrition, food security, and prosperity. The program supports several countries efforts to improve the management of their shared coastal resources and reduce the natural and man-made risks affecting coastal areas.

Along the west coast of Africa average rates of coastal retreat are between one and two meters per year. However, more serious rates of more than ten meters per year have been observed locally. Coastal erosion has devastating effects, inducing the loss of infrastructure such as roads. It also threatens local populations, who can no longer live close to the coastline which is often linked to their source of income. These challenges are expected to increase due to climate change and sea level rise.

Boskalis strategy is aimed at leveraging on the key macro-economic drivers that are fueling global demand in our selected markets: global trade, increasing energy consumption, expanding population pressures and the challenges of changing climate conditions. This coastal protection project is driven by population growth and climate change.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Investor relations:

Martijn L.D. Schuttevaer

ir@boskalis.com

Press:

Arno Schikker

press@boskalis.com

T +31 786969310



Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. is a leading global services provider operating in the dredging, maritime infrastructure and maritime services sectors. The company provides creative and innovative all-round solutions to infrastructural challenges in the maritime, coastal and delta regions of the world. With core activities such as coastal defense, riverbank protection and land reclamation Boskalis is able to provide adaptive and mitigating solutions to combat the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels, as well as delivering solutions for the increasing need for space in coastal and delta regions across the world. The company facilitates the development of offshore energy infrastructure, including renewable wind energy. Boskalis is furthermore active in the construction and maintenance of ports, waterways, access channels and civil infrastructure, thus helping to facilitate trade flows and regional socio-economic development. In addition, Boskalis is a global marine salvage expert and has a number of strategic partnerships in harbor towage and terminal services (Keppel Smit Towage and Smit Lamnalco). With a versatile fleet of over 600 vessels and floating equipment and more than 10,000 employees, including associates, Boskalis is creating new horizons around the world.

This press release can also be found on our website www.boskalis.com .

Attachments
WAIKOLOA, Hawaii, April 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Expanding its footprint on the island of Kauai, Hawaii Water Service (Hawaii Water) announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of Kukuiula South Shore Community Services (KSSCS). The acquisition by the California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT) subsidiary is subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including approval by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (HPUC).



Located in the Kukuiula Resort region of southeast Kauai, KSSCS is a collection-only wastewater utility also regulated by the HPUC. As part of the acquisition, Hawaii Water will own and manage the utility, which currently serves about 440 residential, commercial, and resort customers, but is expected to be able to serve up to 1,500 connections upon buildout of the resort over the next 20 years. Wastewater from KSSCS is discharged to the Poipu Water Reclamation Facility owned by HOH Utilities, which Hawaii Water is also in the process of acquiring.

At Hawaii Water, we are committed to providing quality, service, and value to all of our customers and operating in a manner that supports our communities and the environment, said Martin A. Kropelnicki, President and CEO of Hawaii Water Service. We appreciate the confidence KSSCS has in our team to provide the same to its customers, and we look forward to working together to complete the acquisition and welcome KSSCS customers to our ohana.

In addition to the new KSSCS customers, Hawaii Water currently provides water and/or wastewater utility services to 6,200 customersincluding a number of large resorts and condominium complexesin the communities of Kaanapali, Pukalani, and Kapalua on Maui; Kalaeloa on Oahu; along with Waikoloa and North Kona Coast on the Big Island. Hawaii Waters employees provide services including meter reading, water quality testing, water and wastewater treatment, water system design and construction, and customer service.

Hawaii Water is a wholly owned subsidiary of California Water Service Group, which also includes California Water Service, New Mexico Water Service, Washington Water Service, and Texas Water Service, a utility holding company. Together, these companies provide regulated water and wastewater utility service to more than 2 million people in over 100 California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington communities. Groups common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CWT. Additional information is available online at www.calwatergroup.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("Act"). The forward-looking statements are intended to qualify under provisions of the federal securities laws for "safe harbor" treatment established by the Act. Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information, expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections, and management's judgment about the Company, the water utility industry and general economic conditions. Such words as would, expects, intends, plans, believes, estimates, assumes, anticipates, projects, predicts, forecasts or variations of such words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. They are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from what is contained in a forward-looking statement. Factors that may cause a result different than expected or anticipated include, but are not limited to: ability to close the acquisition of KSSCS and the acquisition of the Poipu Water Reclamation Facility, integrate the business, and operate the KSSCS system in an effective and accretive manner; natural disasters, public health crises, pandemics, epidemics or outbreaks of a contagious disease, such as the outbreak of coronavirus (or COVID19); governmental and regulatory commissions' decisions, including decisions on proper disposition of property; consequences of eminent domain actions relating to our water systems; changes in regulatory commissions' policies and procedures; the timeliness of regulatory commissions' actions concerning rate relief and other actions; changes in water quality standards; changes in environmental compliance and water quality requirements; electric power interruptions; housing and customer growth trends; the impact of opposition to rate increases; our ability to recover costs; availability of water supplies; issues with the implementation, maintenance or security of our information technology systems; civil disturbances or terrorist threats or acts; the adequacy of our efforts to mitigate physical and cyber security risks and threats; the ability of our enterprise risk management processes to identify or address risks adequately; labor relations matters as we negotiate with unions; changes in customer water use patterns and the effects of conservation; the impact of weather, climate, natural disasters, and diseases on water quality, water availability, water sales and operating results, and the adequacy of our emergency preparedness; and, other risks and unforeseen events. When considering forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind the cautionary statements included in this paragraph, as well as the annual 10-K, Quarterly 10-Q, and other reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Company assumes no obligation to provide public updates of forward-looking statements.
BRISBANE, Australia, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pax8, the leading cloud commerce marketplace, today announced its expansion into Australia and New Zealand. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in the regions now have access to Pax8s award-winning cloud marketplace, support, education programs, and more.



As we continue to look for new ways to broaden our geographical reach, we are thrilled to announce that MSPs in Australia and New Zealand can now sign up to be a Pax8 partner, said Nick Heddy, Chief Revenue Officer at Pax8. Pax8 makes it easy for partners to cloud-enable businesses and efficiently capitalize on the growth opportunities. We are thrilled to introduce our leadership team in Australia and New Zealand and empower our expansion into the new regions with best of breed vendors.

The leadership team includes:

Chris Sharp, SVP, Pax8 Asia

In his role, Sharp will lead the Pax8 Australia and New Zealand team and manage the overall operations and corporate decision-making for the Pax8 Asia business.

Tracy Lacewell, Vice President of Sales, Pax8 Asia

In her role as VP of Sales, Lacewell will be responsible for leading sales in Australia and New Zealand, as well as strategic expansion into the regions.

James Bergl, Vice President of Business Development, Pax8 Asia

As VP of Business Development, Bergl will lead the companys pre-sales teams, consulting teams, and education programs.

Pax8 is bringing something special and unique to our market, and I am excited to lead our expansion into the Asian markets starting in the Australia and New Zealand markets, said Sharp. Our focus is on enabling our partners to create value-based offerings for their clients, and we look forward to helping our partners to increase their opportunity in the market.

Heddy continued: This team is highly regarded in the channel and well-positioned to expand Pax8 operations into Asia, starting with Australia and New Zealand.

Partners in Australia and New Zealand can now access the award-winning Pax8 cloud commerce marketplace to purchase products from the following vendors:

To become a Pax8 partner in Australia and New Zealand, please sign up at https://explore.pax8.com/anz.

About Pax8

Pax8 is modernizing how partners buy, sell, and manage cloud. As a born-in-the-cloud company, Pax8 simplifies the buying journey, empowering its partners to achieve more with cloud technology. The companys technology displaces legacy distribution by connecting the channel ecosystem to its award-winning transactional cloud marketplace. Through billing, provisioning, automation, industry-leading PSA integrations, and pre and post-sales support, and education, Pax8 is a proven disruptor in the market. Pax8 has ranked in the Inc. 5000 for four consecutive years  #68 in 2018, #60 in 2019, #111 in 2020, and #164 in 2021  as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the US. If you want to be successful with cloud, you want to work with Pax8. Get started today at pax8.com.

Follow Pax8 on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Media contact:



Amanda Lee

SVP, Global Communications at Pax8

alee@pax8.com
Chicago, April 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the latest report by Arizton, Belgium data center market will grow at a CAGR of 7.4% during 2022-2027. The Belgium market is also aided by industry 4.0 that will lead to establishment of smart factories and industries that will drive sectors such as manufacturing. The Belgium data center market by area is driven by construction from colocation operators such as EdgeConneX & Datacenter United and cloud operators such as Google & Microsoft that are establishing their data centers in the country.



Belgium Data Center Market Report Scope

REPORT ATTRIBUTES DETAILS MARKET SIZE (2021) $1.8 Billion MARKET SIZE $2.7 Billion (2027) CAGR (2022-2027) 7.40% MARKET SIZE (AREA) 648 thousand Sq. Feet (2027) MARKET SIZE (POWER CAPACITY) 130 MW (2027) COLOCATION MARKET SIZE (REVENUE) $700 Million (2027) BASE YEAR 2021 FORECAST YEAR 2022-2027

Click Here to Download the Free Sample

Belgium is a promising market for trade due to strong import trades from the US. The location is ideal for exporters for business because of its strategic location in Europe. Strong trade options offer ease in doing business to organizations, including data center operators.

Key Insights

The adoption of cloud computing & advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence, the deployment of 5G technology, and government support for data center construction such as tax subsidies are factors driving the data center market in Belgium.

Government initiatives such as the Wallonia government 20192024 that aims digital transformation and administration to offer 15% tax subsidies on renewable energy investments in the city will aid data center investments in the country.

The Belgian government is actively working towards bringing in digital investment, including initiatives such as Digital AmBEtion, the government has partnered with Microsoft for the digitalization of the public and private sector in the country.

Belgium is working toward green energy sources adoption and has taken initiatives for curbing carbon emissions in the country by adopting renewable energy initiatives such as Belgium's National Energy and Climate Plan 2030.

LCL Data Centers, one of the major data center operators in the country, is involved in hyperscale data center development to expand its portfolio to wholesale colocation services. The company plans to expand its Wallonia One data center campus to around 60 MW over the next 4-5 years.

Also, major colocation providers are entering the Belgium Market. In 2021, EdgeConneX announced the development of its data center in Brussels. With investment announcements from Google and Microsoft, the Belgium market is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period.

To know more: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/belgium-data-center-market

WHY SHOULD YOU BUY THIS RESEARCH?

Market size available in the investment, area, power capacity, and the Belgium colocation market revenue.

An assessment of the data center investment in Belgium by colocation, hyperscale, and enterprise operators.

Data center investments in the area (square feet) and power capacity (MW) across cities.

A detailed study of the existing Belgium market landscape, an in-depth industry analysis, and insightful predictions about the Belgium data center market size during the forecast period.

Snapshot of existing and upcoming third-party facilities in Belgium Facilities Covered (Existing): 19 Facilities Identified (Upcoming): 06 Coverage: 2+ Cities Existing vs Upcoming (Area) Existing vs Upcoming (IT Load Capacity)

Data center colocation market in Belgium Market Revenue & Forecast (2021-2027) Retail Colocation Pricing

The Belgium data center landscape market investments are classified as IT, power, cooling, and general construction services with sizing and forecasting.

A comprehensive analysis of the latest trends, growth rate, potential opportunities, growth restraints, and prospects for the industry.

Business overview and product offerings of prominent IT infrastructure providers, construction contractors, support infrastructure providers, and investors operating in the industry.

A transparent research methodology and the analysis of the demand and supply aspect of the market.



Trends and Drivers

Investments in submarine cables have increased considerably over the years. There are around four existing cables and one upcoming cable connecting in the country.

The Belgium data center market is growing in terms of investments. For example, in March 2021, Interxion announced its plans to develop its third data center in Brussels.

Investments and initiatives for artificial intelligence adoption in the country are growing. For instance, in January 2022, MolenGeek Owners announced expansion of its artificial intelligence initiatives in Brussels in support with Google.



Explore our data center knowledge base profile to know more about the industry.

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DKI Jakarta, Indonesia, April 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This is not an investment advice. Please conduct your own research when investing in any project.

Three of the most populated countries in the world (China, India, and the USA) are becoming more stringent on cryptocurrency, while crypto supporters have been touting Indonesia as the future emerging market. When it comes to cryptocurrency, Indonesia is way ahead of many nations. With more than 270 million population and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, the future of this avenue of trading is promising. Its government is also open to crypto, with the president (Joko Widodo) actively encouraging Indonesians to learn about new tech including crypto.

Despite huge opportunities in Indonesia, there are only around 7 million crypto investors in the country, or less than 3% of the total population. NanoByte Token (NBT) was launched last month aiming to become a pioneer of crypto adoption in the fourth most populous country in the world.

NanoByte is affiliated with Nanovest, an investment application to trade US stocks and cryptocurrency-based in Indonesia and already gained the support of more than 2 million people in Indonesia during its beta launch. Today, they finally announced the latest innovation: the first-ever instant fiat loan with NanoByte through a partnership with Danamas, a Sinarmas Financial Service company.

Sinarmas Financial Service is a leading financial services provider in Indonesia that provides an integrated and comprehensive range of financial services, including Banking, Insurance, Financing, Capital Markets, Asset Management, Share Administration, Security, and Information Technology. Sinarmas Financial Service is also part of the conglomerate group Sinarmas that has been in Indonesia since the 1930s. NanoBytes partnership with Danamas is the first maneuver of making crypto assets accepted in the full suite of the traditional financial ecosystem in Indonesia. As a crypto project, Nanobyte Token (NBT) is now available through the centralized exchange platform Tokocrypto, Binances portfolio in Indonesia. In the global market, it is accessible through Pancakeswap dan Uniswap.

Nanovests CEO, Hutama Pastika, said the partnership between Nanobyte and Danamas in providing NBT as an instant loan application service facility will be effective as of April 19th, 2022. "The latest scheme in the crypto-asset-based instant lending services (NBT) is expected to encourage education and be a proof to crypto enthusiasts with all Indonesian people of what kind of amazing things a digital asset can provide. Hopefully, all of these efforts can foster peoples trust that this new investment instrument is not that difficult and perfectly safe for everyone.

The NBT asset-based instant loan offered by Nanobyte and Danamas is such an innovative project and claimed as the first in the world. All Indonesians who are interested in applying for a loan can do so as long as they have NBT and are available to join this program. Danamas and Sinarmas Financial Service discover that today's young generation has begun to get more literate in investment and invest a lot through digital currency. Through this partnership, NanoByte token holders can get instant loans with up to 80% lower interest than what they normally get in the market," Danamass CEO, Joyce Andries said.

To date, crypto-based projects are often seen as risky, scary, and unstable investments. Through this innovation, Danamas and Sinarmas Financial Service intend to boost the adoption of crypto assets by introducing a new channel that is more reliable and relatable to the novice. Hopefully, it can drive greater and faster growth of the crypto industry in Indonesia and across the globe. The bases are formed, and the growth has begun. It can only get bigger and brighter from here.

About NanoByte Token (NBT)

NanoByte Token aims to bridge cryptocurrency to the traditional/conventional currency system; by creating utility for cryptocurrency in products such as e-money, credit cards, insurance, and other investments. NBTs home market is Indonesia, the 4th largest country in the world with 270 million lives. After its initial launch in Indonesia, NanoByte is exploring opportunities in more countries. NBT has a unique position to make crypto legitimate and mainstream because of the support that it gets from both traditional financial institutions and new-age crypto institutions. Some of the big names who are partnering with NBT include Sinar Mas Financial Services (one of the largest financial institutions and a diversified group in Southeast Asia), Tokocrypto (the largest crypto exchange in Indonesia), and Agate International (the largest game developer in Indonesia).

Nanobyte Website | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram | Medium | YouTube

About Danamas and Sinarmas Financial Service

Danamas is a company that was founded in 2000 under the name PT. Komunindo Arga Digital, the company later changed its name to PT Pasar Dana Loan which was established under the auspices of Sinarmas Financial Service, a leading financial services provider in Indonesia. Danamas is also a member of the Indonesian Fintech Association (AFPI). The company is committed to helping business people, especially MSME fighters to develop their businesses, as well as employees/workers to get loans by way of submission and easy.

Danamas Website | Instagram | YouTube

Media Contact

Company Name: Nanovest

Contact Person: Rani

Email: tfriskarani@gmail.com

Website URL: https://www.nanovest.io/

This is not an investment advice. Please conduct your own research when investing in any project.

Disclaimer: There is no offer to sell, no solicitation of an offer to buy, and no recommendation of any security or any other product or service in this article. Moreover, nothing contained in this PR should be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any investment or security, or to engage in any investment strategy or transaction. It is your responsibility to determine whether any investment, investment strategy, security, or related transaction is appropriate for you based on your investment objectives, financial circumstances, and risk tolerance. Consult your business advisor, attorney, or tax advisor regarding your specific business, legal, or tax situation. For more info, please contact brandnewsproject@gmail.com.





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Dallas, TX , April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As we are now in Q2 of 2022, Dallas SEO Expert Qamar Zaman interviewed Chagrin Falls, Ohio, SEO and Digital Marketing Expert and CEO of 38 Digital Markets to discuss what SEO holds in 2022.

The podcast covers:



What is SEO? Why does SEO still matter in 2022? Why MAP SEO is very important for local businesses How to build quality based SEO using the power of branding and PR Why Google native properties like YouTube and Google properties matter for holistic SEO to be effective.

To learn the details of how Randy ranks his clients on page 1 of Google for highly competitive 2022 search terms, within a few days, listen to the podcast on your favorite listening platform: Apple iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, Spotify



About Randy Rhode & 38 Digital Market

Immediately after graduation from university, Randy Rhode began working in retail operations at a large box shop and went up the ranks to multi-unit management and eventually managed all operations for two different national retail organizations.

It was tempting to start his own business, but he didn't know where to start. So he teamed up with some partners and started a nationwide service provider. It was successful, so he started another one. But this time, he decided to try it on his own. That's when 38 Digital Market was born. Now the Chagrin Falls SEO company offers:

Some of our services include:

SEO

Local SEO

Public Relations

Web Design

Video Marketing

Randy is a student of the famous Scotland-based SEO Craig Campbell and is also considered the most handsome SEO in Cleveland according to a local newspaper Carson Daily.

Randy is a firm believer in giving back to the community, and he is actively involved in several charities. He is also a member of the board of directors for the Better Business Bureau.

About Qamar Zaman - Host of Subject Matter Expert Podcast

About Qamar Zaman - Host of Subject Matter Expert Podcast

Qamar Zaman is a digital growth consultant and the host of the Subject Matter Expert Podcast Powered by KISS PR, a leading PR startup. Zaman is a Forbes agency council and you can read more about him on Forbes.

Tune in and listen to the podcast on your favorite listening platform.



Apple iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, Spotify



Ana Khan - subjectmatterexpertspodcast@gmail.com










LAS VEGAS and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TAAT GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES INC. (CSE: TAAT) (OTCQX: TOBAF) (FRANKFURT: 2TP) (the Company or TAAT) is pleased to announce that it has received the first batch of commercial samples for the TAAT heat-not-burn offering to be launched in the United States by the end of 2022. In a press release dated February 18, 2022 , the Company announced it had commenced the development of a TAAT heat-not-burn device and heatable sticks to complement its flagship combustible product (a tobacco-free and nicotine-free alternative to tobacco cigarettes), which is currently sold in over 2,500 U.S. stores. Following an initial assessment of the commercial samples of the heatable TAAT sticks, the Company is making minor adjustments to the base material used for this product category to optimally align with the latest flavour profile of TAAT combustible products.



The TAAT heat-not-burn offering will consist of a reusable device (pictured below) that is reverse-compatible with heated tobacco sticks offered by the Companys competitors, as well as TAAT heatable sticks in Original and Menthol flavours. The hardware and heatable sticks will be marketed and sold under the TAAT brand name in the United States starting in either Q3 or Q4 2022. By providing an additional nicotine-free and tobacco-free alternative to popular tobacco products, the Company believes it can further expand its existing market share in the global tobacco industry.

Based on the popularity of heat-not-burn tobacco products in international markets, TAAT has arranged to showcase its heat-not-burn offering as an exhibitor at the InterTabac trade show in Dortmund, Germany (September 15-17, 2022). During the 2019 InterTabac event, approximately 520 exhibitors from approximately 47 countries greeted an audience of over 13,000 attendees; approximately 42% of whom were attending from abroad1.

For more information about InterTabac, please visit the following web page: https://www.intertabac.de/en/portal/

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c24f92f4-07af-46a1-b512-9bbd773b20eb

Readers using news aggregation services may be unable to view the media above. Please access SEDAR or the Investor Relations section of the Companys website for a version of this press release containing all published media.

TAAT Chief Executive Officer Setti Coscarella commented, Tobacco companies have invested heavily into the development of heat-not-burn solutions for the simple reason that many adult smokers worldwide are on the lookout for something different. Although combustible products such as cigarettes remain dominant, heat-not-burn seems to have a relatively high user retention rate compared to other alternatives on the market. Based on this, we are building upon our existing footprint in the tobacco industry by creating a nicotine-free and tobacco-free offering in the heat-not-burn segment, which I believe can enhance our ability to capture market share globally. We look forward to finalizing the exact product formulation as well as its commercialization plan as we prepare to launch TAAT heat-not-burn in 2022.

Sources

1 - https://www.intertabac.de/en/start/

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company,

TAAT GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES INC.

Setti Coscarella

Setti Coscarella, CEO and Director

For further information, please contact:

TAAT Investor Relations

1-833-TAAT-USA (1-833-822-8872)

investor@taatglobal.com

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE (CSE) HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE, NOR HAS OR DOES THE CSES REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER.

About TAAT Global Alternatives Inc.

The Company has developed TAAT, which is a tobacco-free and nicotine-free alternative to traditional cigarettes offered in "Original", "Smooth", and "Menthol" varieties. TAAT's base material is Beyond Tobacco, a proprietary blend which undergoes a patent-pending refinement technique causing its scent and taste to resemble tobacco. Under executive leadership with "Big Tobacco" pedigree, TAAT was launched first in the United States in Q4 2020 as the Company seeks to position itself in the $812 billion1 global tobacco industry.

For more information, please visit http://taatglobal.com .

References

1 Statista: Consumer Markets - Tobacco Products

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Often, but not always, forward-looking information and information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, estimates, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur, or be achieved. Forward-looking information in this news release includes statements regarding the anticipated performance of TAAT in the tobacco industry, in addition to the following: Completion of further research and development work on the TAAT heat-not-burn offering, launch of TAAT heat-not-burn in the United States by the end of 2022, presence and potential performance of TAAT as an exhibitor showcasing its planned heat-not-burn offering at InterTabac trade show in Germany in September 2022. The forward-looking information reflects managements current expectations based on information currently available and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed timeframes or at all. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include: (i) adverse market conditions; (ii) changes to the growth and size of the tobacco markets; and (iii) other factors beyond the control of the Company. The Company operates in a rapidly evolving environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is impossible for the Companys management to predict all risk factors, nor can the Company assess the impact of all factors on Companys business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

The statements in this news release have not been evaluated by Health Canada or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As each individual is different, the benefits, if any, of taking the Companys products will vary from person to person. No claims or guarantees can be made as to the effects of the Companys products on an individuals health and well-being. The Companys products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

This news release may contain trademarked names of third-party entities (or their respective offerings with trademarked names) typically in reference to (i) relationships had by the Company with such third-party entities as referred to in this release and/or (ii) client/vendor/service provider parties whose relationship with the Company is/are referred to in this release. All rights to such trademarks are reserved by their respective owners or licensees.

Statement Regarding Third-Party Investor Relations Firms

Disclosures relating to investor relations firms retained by TAAT Global Alternatives Inc. can be found under the Company's profile on http://sedar.com .




XPENG is participating in the eCar Expo in Stockholm from 29 April to 1 May, with the Flying Car XPENG X2 and intelligent EV XPENG P5 and P7 be on display

This is the first time XPENG X2 being showcased in an exhibition in Europe

The XPENG P5, an intelligent EV sedan, is now available for online reservation on XPENG Swedish website

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- XPENG, a leading electric vehicle manufacturer, will be attending eCar Expo in Stockholm from April 29 to May 1, 2022. During the exhibition, the Company's 5th generation flying car, XPENG X2, will be revealed to the Swedish public. This is the first time that XPENG X2 will be shown in Sweden. XPENG will also use the exhibition to showcase its first EV model for the Swedish market, XPENG P5.

Attending eCar Expo is the next step in XPENG's plans to make waves in Europe. Since establishing a presence in Sweden in November, 2021, the electric vehicle manufacturer has, among other things, opened an XPENG Experience Store, entered into a commercial agreement with Bilia, and announced XPENG P5 as its first model in Sweden.

Flying Cars a Viable Solution for the Future of Private Transport

Flying cars have long been used to describe what the future may hold. XPENG AEROHT is the largest flying car company in Asia and also an affiliate of Xpeng Inc. dedicated to producing the safest electric intelligent flying car for private use. At eCar Expo, Friends Arena in Stockholm, XPENG will display XPENG X2 for the first time at an exhibition in Europe.

- "Innovation and development in mobility are progressing rapidly. Ten years ago, the mass adoption of electric cars would have seemed a far-fetched idea, but today, we're working on producing commercially viable flying cars. If no one builds the future, it is still difficult to imagine. At XPENG, we have long worked with an intelligent electric flying car - and we are very happy to finally be able to show the X2 in Sweden and Europe, says Elvis Cheng, Managing Director of Nordic Region, XPENG.

- The X2 is a two-seater eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) flying car. It is equipped with an intelligent flight control system and autonomous flight capability. The X2, as the fifth generation flying car of the company, is the latest generation of flying car developed independently by XPENG AEROHT. But more excited product is the sixth generation flying car, which can travel on a road and fly in the sky. It can easily switch modes from drive to flight. It will go into mass production and delivery to customers in 2024", said by He Xiaopeng, the Chairman of XPENG.

- "As one of our strategic markets, we are willing to ensure Europe is aware of our latest developments and products. We're looking forward to carrying out our first test flight in Europe very shortly", said Zhao Deli, Founder & President of XPENG AEROHT.

That Sweden is one of the world's most innovative countries, according to the Global Innovation Index, makes it interesting for XPENG AEROHT to explore the possibility of testing XPENG X2 at Skelleftea Airport.

- "Initiatives like these are needed. The innovative spirit in which XPENG developed the X2 goes hand in hand with our idea of the future. If all goes well, we hope that Skelleftea Airport will be a gateway for flying electric cars. Not only in Sweden, but in the whole world", says Henrik Littorin, Project director ELIS program at Skelleftea airport.

XPENG P5 Specifications and Expected Starting Price

In addition to the unveiling of XPENG X2, both electric sedans, XPENG P5 and XPENG P7, will be on display at eCar Expo, Friends Arena in Stockholm. The online reservation and test drive booking of XPENG P5 are now available on the XPENG local website (heyxpeng.com/se).

With LED headlights and full-width taillights, XPENG P5 boasts a modern look with brighter, more powerful lighting. XPENG P5 delivers up to 465 km of WLTP range on a single charge powered by its 66 kWh battery. With CCS2 charging capabilities, XPENG P5 can be charged in a vast number of locations across Europe.

The car has a spacious interior with soft materials for a premium look and feel, complemented by ergonomic seats that provide optimal comfort for the driver and passengers. XPENG P5 also has a large panoramic sunroof with an electric sunshade, an advanced surround sound system, noise reduction technology, and the Xfreebreath air purification system, making it the optimal choice for a comfortable and healthy trip.





XPENG P5 uses an Advanced Driver Assistance System, XPILOT 2.5, and the in-car operating system Xmart OS. Both systems can be improved with over-the-air (OTA) updates over time. XPILOT 2.5 uses 5 high-resolution millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic wave sensors, 4 driving cameras, and 9 high-definition cameras to support the XPILOT Driving, XPILOT Parking, and XPILOT Safety features.

Further information on XPENG P5 is available in the appendix "Specifications XPENG P5".

The expected starting price for XPENG P5 is SEK 550,000.

For more information please contact:

Liya Huang, EU PR Manager

Huangxl3@xiaopeng.com

About XPENG

XPENG is a leading technology company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets smart mobility solutions. We explore the diversity of mobility through our affiliates including electric vehicles (EVs), electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, and robotics. We are focused on creating a mobility future that uses thoughtful and empathetic intelligence to improve the experience for drivers everywhere.

XPENG is involved in R&D, where over 40% of our employees work in R&D-related areas that help develop our growing product portfolio. The company has created a "full-stack Advanced Driver Assistance System" (XPILOT), as well as a smart operating system (Xmart OS) for an improved in-car experience, and XPENG has developed a core vehicle system for improved driving characteristics, including powertrains and advanced electronic architecture.



XPENG is headquartered in Guangzhou, China with multiregional offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Silicon Valley and San Diego. In 2021, XPENG established its European headquarters in Amsterdam, together with other dedicated offices in Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden. XPENG's electric cars are manufactured in the wholly owned factory in Zhaoqing, China. To further expand our production capacity, two new self-weighted, smart manufacturing bases for electric cars in Guangzhou and Wuhan are under construction.

For more information about XPENG and our product availability in Sweden, visit our website: heyxpeng.com/se

About XPENG AEROHT

XPENG AEROHT was established by Zhao Deli in 2013. In 2020, He Xiaopeng and Xpeng Motors jointly invested and held the establishment of XPENG AEROHT, which is dedicated to produce the safest intelligent electric flying car. XPENG AEROHT is headquartered in Guangzhou and has set up R&D centers for flying cars in Shenzhen, Shanghai,etc., flight test bases in Guangzhou.



We have a team of high-tech R&D talents in multiple fields such as comprehensive avionics, flight test, airworthiness, safety, structural mechanics, industrial design, embedded system, etc. We have experience in developing and testing unmanned flight systems. Now we have nearly 700 staffs, where over 85% are R&D personnel (over half of them own master's degree or doctor's degree). By the end of 2022, our team members will exceed 1000.



XPENG AEROHT is the constitutor of the standards for China's new flying car. We have been implemented more than 15,000 flight tests. Furthermore, the refined appearance of our products won the highest level of industrial design awards such as Red Dot Award, IF Award and IDEA Design Award, etc.



In 2021, XPENG AEROHT raised US$500+ million in Series A financing, which is the largest single-tranche funding of low-altitude flying vehicle sector in Asia. At that time, it was selected in 2021 Global Unicorn list and won the title of Guangzhou Unicorn Enterprise. The valuation of XPENG AEROHT reached US$1.5 billion.

ELIS program at Skelleftea Airport

Skelleftea Airport, Skelleftea Kraft, Northvolt, Skelleftea Science City and EIT InnoEnergy have established the development programme ELIS. The vision is that Skelleftea, in broad cooperation with partners shall become a leading hub in the test, development and commercialization of electrified air transportation for people and goods in Sweden and beyond. A number of initiatives is now underway within the programme and one of the projects is to create a test track for eVTOLs between the airport and Northvolt One - it will be one of the first in the world.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e0c3352b-27cf-432b-8585-b2297248151c
Dublin, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "China Medical Supplies Market, By Type, By Application, By End User, Estimation & Forecast, 2017 - 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The China medical supplies market apprehended a market value of USD 53,963.2 million in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 73,228.7 million by the year 2027. The market is projected to list a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period.



The medical supplies business in China is expected to grow at an extensive rate owing to the increasing demand at the supply end for disposable medical products, as well as other supplies. Moreover, the rising preference rates and applications of medical products in management and treatment of several diseases fuels the growth rate of the market significantly.



On the other hand, the medical supplies business in China is projected to get hampered by the stringent regulations in the country. Also, the regulations are volatile in nature which is estimated to create a level of uncertainty in the marketspace.



Growth Influencers:

Growing Healthcare Expenditure coupled with Rising Geriatric Population



The increasing healthcare expenditure in China favors the growth rate of the medical supplies market. according to the World Bank statistics, in 2018, the healthcare expenditure as a percent of GDP was 5.35%, whereas in 2017, the rate was 5.15%.



Moreover, the increasing ageing population in China contributes towards the rise in the growth rate of the medical supplies market. For instance, China's seventh population census indicates that China's 2020 population stood at 1.4118 billion. in which there are 264 million people aged 60 Thus, such measures contribute towards the growth rate.



Effective Measures of Government to Ensure Crucial Medical Supplies to Hebei Province



Amidst the pandemic outbreak, in January 2021, the Chinese transport and public security authorities rolled out emergency measures to ensure steady transport of essential supplies to Beijing and North China's Hebei Province. The Ministry of Transport (MOT), the Ministry of Public Security and the State Post Bureau mentioned that all measures would be taken to safeguard smooth passage of trucks carrying supplies for anti-virus efforts in Hebei. Thus, such effective measures fuel the growth rate of the Chinese medical supplies market.



Segments Overview:

The sterilization consumables segment is expected to be the fastest growing segment with a growth rate of 7.2% during the anticipated period. The catheters segment held the largest market share of 14% in 2021. The diagnostic supplies segment is estimated to hold an opportunity of USD 2,017.6 million during the period of 2021 to 2027. Moreover, the radiology consumables segment is estimated to cross the market value of USD 2,000 million by 2024.



By Application

The respiratory segment is anticipated to grow at the highest rate of 6.9% during the forecast period. The cardiology segment held the largest market share of over 30% in 2021. The wound care segment is projected to cross the mark of USD 10,000 million by 2025.



By End User

The ambulatory surgical centres segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 6.6%, whereas the clinics segment is projected to hold an opportunity of USD 3,145.6 million during 2021-2027. The hospitals segment held the largest market share of more than 50% in 2021 owing to the extensive use of medical supplies in Chinese hospitals.



Country Overview

The China medical supplies market is expected to grow extensively during the forecast period owing to the mounting strategic developments by the firms operative in the marketspace. The cumulative research and development initiatives and investments, coupled with the rising geriatric population, huge pool of acute and chronic diseases. The high growth rate also contributes owing to the the rising adoption of medical supplies in China.

The China medical supplies market report answers questions such as:

What is the market size and forecast of the China medical supplies market?

What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 on the China medical supplies market during the assessment period?

Which are the types/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the assessment period in the China medical supplies market?

What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the China medical supplies market?

What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the China medical supplies market?

What is the market share of the leading players in the China medical supplies market?

What modes and strategic moves are considered favorable for entering the China medical supplies market?

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Research Framework



Chapter 2. Executive Summary: China Medical Supplies Market



Chapter 3.China Medical Supplies Market Overview



Chapter 4. Competition Dashboard



Chapter 5. China Medical Supplies Market Analysis- By Type



Chapter 6. China Medical Supplies Market Analysis, By Application



Chapter 7. China Medical Supplies Market Analysis, By End user



Chapter 8. Company Profiles

China Hua Mei Industrial Co., Ltd.

Guangzhou Maya Medical Equipment Co., Ltd.

Hangzhou Trifanz Medical Device Co., Ltd.

MEDHEALTH BIOTECHNOLOGY LTD

Qingdao Agna Medical Technology Co., Ltd.

SHANDONG LIKANG MEDICAL EQUIPMENT TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.

Shanxian Huayu Suture Materials Co., Ltd.

SHENZHEN CICD TECHNOLOGIES LTD.

Weifang Huaxing Medical Instruments Co., Ltd.

Yangzhou Super Union Medical Material Co., Ltd.

Nanjing Vedeng Medical Co., Ltd.

Hanchuan Fumo Plastics Co., Ltd.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/s1ea0g

Attachment
Includes a higher-grade section in this underground hole DSBU-06 (Azimuth 0 0 and dip -65 0 ) of 314.52 g Ag eq/t (192.18g Ag/t, 0.22 g Au/t, 0.07% Zn, 0.41% Pb, and 0.11% Sn) over 50.68m and an additional intersection of 110.57 g Ag eq/t (17.38 g Ag/t, 0.09 g Au/t, 0.30% Zn, 0.21% Pb and 0.11%Sn) over 128.44m further down the hole.





(Azimuth 0 and dip -65 of and an additional intersection of further down the hole. Overall, for DSBU-06, 86% of this 599.8m long hole had reportable intersections, which collectively average 129.70 g Ag eq/t.





Underground hole DSBU-05 on the same due north section as DSBU-06, but shallower at -40 0 , intersected 141.05 g Ag eq/t (22.99g Ag/t, 0.07g Au/t, 0.18% Zn, 0.16% Pb, 0.21% Cu and 0.12% Sn) over 153.25m.





on the same due north section as but shallower at , intersected Hole DSBU-05 has a second major intersection lower in the hole from 348.08m to 526.17m of 92.47 g Ag eq/t (23.86g Ag/t, 0.96% Zn, 0.21% Pb) over 178.09m. Overall, 65% of this 641.9m long hole had reportable intersections which collectively average 107.73 g Ag eq/t.

TORONTO, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eloro Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: ELO; OTCQX: ELRRF; FSE: P2QM) (Eloro, or the Company) is pleased to announce assay results from an additional six (6) diamond drill holes from its on-going drilling program at the Iska Iska silver-tin polymetallic project in the Potosi Department, southern Bolivia. Holes DSBU-05 and DSBU-06 are underground holes drilled from the Santa Barbara adit to test the northern extension of the higher-grade mineralized zone. Hole DSBS-01 was collared in the southern part of the Santa Barbara target zone and drilled at an azimuth of 300 and dip of -300 to test the same target. Holes DSB-24, DSB-14 and DSB-22 were drilled at azimuths of 2250 to test the northwest extension of the Santa Barbara mineralized zone approximately 100m, 200m, and 1,000m, respectively, northwest of the Santa Barbara adit underground drill bay. Drilling is continuing in the Porco area to test for a potential Sn porphyry as suggested by the 3D inverse magnetic model (see Eloro press release March 1, 2022). Thus far, 4,870 m in five (5) holes have been completed in the Porco target area with assays pending.

Overall, the Company has completed 52,384m in 89 drill holes to-date, including four holes in progress, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. Currently there are three (3) surface drills and one (1) underground drill operating at Iska Iska. Tables 1, 2 and 3 list significant assay results for the drill holes in the major target areas. Prices used for calculating Ag equivalent grades are as outlined in Eloros February 1, 2022, press release. Table 4 summarizes drill holes with assays pending. Highlights are as follows:

Santa Barbara Mineral Resource Definition Target Area  Underground Drilling

Underground holes DSBU-06 and DSBU-05 were both drilled on azimuth 00 and dips of -650 and -400, respectively, from the Santa Barbara adit to test the northern extent of higher-grade mineralization in the eastern part of the Santa Barbara target area.

Hole DSBU-06 intersected 169.11 g Ag eq/t (64.30 g Ag/t, 0.96% Zn, 0.37% Pb and 0.07% Sn) over 235.55m from 0.00m to 235.55m, including a higher-grade section of 314.52 g Ag eq/t (192.18 g Ag/t, 0.22 g Au/t, 0.07% Zn, 0.41% Pb, and 0.11% Sn) over 50.68m from 24.40m to 75.08m. This hole had a second major intersection of 110.57 g Ag eq/t (17.38 g Ag/t, 0.09 g Au/t, 0.30% Zn, 0.21% Pb and 0.11%Sn) over 128.44m from 264.14m to 392.58m. Overall, 86% of this 599.8m long hole had reportable intersections which collectively average 129.70 g Ag eq/t.

intersected from 0.00m to 235.55m, including a higher-grade section of from 24.40m to 75.08m. Hole DSBU-05 intersected 141.05 g Ag eq/t (22.99 g Ag/t, 0.07 g Au/t, 0.18% Zn, 0.16% Pb, 0.21% Cu and 0.12% Sn) over 153.25m from 0.00m to 153.25m which included high grade sections of: 201.23 g Ag eq/t (21.77 g Ag/t, 0.06 g Au/t, 0.36% Zn, 0.30 %Pb, 0.63 %Cu and 0.12% Sn) over 34.97m from 0.00m to 34.97m, 206.03 g Ag eq/t (24.52 g Ag/t, 0.18 g Au/t, 0.14% Zn, 0.16 %Pb, 0.11% Cu and 0.23% Sn) over 9.05m from 76.94m to 85.99m, and 242.83 g Ag eq/t (31.67 g Ag/t, 0.04 g Au/t, 0.23% Zn, 0.19% Pb, 0.17% Cu and 0.28% Sn) over 25.60m from 109.93m to 135.53m. Hole DSBU-05 has a second major intersection lower in the hole from 348.08m to 526.17m of 92.47 g Ag eq/t (23.86 g Ag/t, 0.96% Zn, 0.21% Pb) over 178.09m . Overall, 65% of this 641.9m long hole had reportable intersections which collectively average 107.73 g Ag eq/t.





from 0.00m to 153.25m which included high grade sections of:

Dr. Bill Pearson, P.Geo. Executive Vice President, Exploration commented: As shown in Figure 3, a N-S cross section looking east, holes DSBU-06 and DSBU-05 define a significant extension to the north of the major high grade mineralized area in the southern part of Santa Barbara. Further drilling, especially deeper, is in progress to define the full extent of this important high-grade zone. Analysis of borehole IP data and the 3D inverse magnetic model by Eloros geophysicists Dr. Chris Hale, P.Geo. and John Gilliatt, P.Geo. shows that the Mx Chargeability indicates stronger mineralization at greater depth as shown in Figure 4. The spatial agreement between the interpolated chargeability and the mineralization intersected in these holes also suggests that the mineralized zone may dip steeply to the south. Further deeper drilling will be carried out to test this highly prospective target. Drilling will also be carried out from the southwest to test the Northwest Extension target as the best mineralization intersected thus far is in the southern part of this target zone.

Dr. Pearson continued, The addition of a fourth drill and the more rapid turnaround from both our assay laboratories at ALS and AHK has allowed us to increase the pace of the exploration drill program considerably. In the next 2-3 weeks we expect to have the GeologicAI core scanner on site. We have worked closely with GeologicAI to build the database for the scanner from all our available geological and geochemical information. The scanner will allow us to better outline and track the mineral and metal zonation at Iska Iska, which is critical to efficiently explore this remarkable mineralizing system which remains open in all directions.

Dr. Osvaldo Arce, P.Geo., General Manager of Eloros Bolivian subsidiary Minera Tupiza S.R.L. (Minera Tupiza), further commented: The dacitic volcanic domes and breccia pipes at Iska Iska, which are the primary hosts of the epithermal polymetallic Ag-Zn-Pb-Sn mineralization, appear to extend to a depth of at least 1km. These intrude altered granodiorite and intrusion breccias that are the primary hosts of xenothermal tin and other higher temperature metals such as bismuth and tungsten. The mineralization is quite complex in detail with extensive breccias, veins, veinlets, stockworks and disseminations. The likely primary distribution of both epithermal and xenothermal mineralization is indicated by the metal zonation, alteration zonation and geophysical responses. This data indicates that the mineralized system strengthens with depth and may be much more extensive than indicated in shallower drill holes.

Santa Barbara Mineral Resource Definition Target Area  Surface Drilling

Hole DSBS-01 was collared in the southern part of the Santa Barbara target zone as shown in Figure 2. This hole was drilled at an azimuth of 300 with a dip of 300 to a length of 700.8m.

163.23 g Ag eq/t (2.07 g Ag/t and 0.27% Sn) over 33.23m from 58.66m to 90.94m including 560.74 g Ag eq/t (2.07 g Ag/t and 0.94% Sn) over 7.61m from 63.15m to 70.76m,

from 58.66m to 90.94m including from 63.15m to 70.76m, 54.95 g Ag eq/t (2.94 g Ag/t, 0.14% Pb, and 0.30% Cu) over 22.58m from 225.36m to 247.94m including 129.69 g Ag eq/t (3.00 g Ag/t and 0.88% Cu) over 3.04m from 225.36m to 228.40m.

from 225.36m to 247.94m including from 225.36m to 228.40m. 90.79 g Ag eq/t (5.36 g Ag/t, 0.85% Zn and 0.44% Pb) over 43.60m from 285.56m to 329.16m including 146.04 g Ag eq/t (2.01 g Ag/t, 1.36% Zn, 0.49% Pb and 0.09% Sn) over 4.59m from 294.43m to 299.02m and 200.55 g Ag eq/t (12.68 g Ag/t, 1.95% Zn, 0.93% Pb and 0.11% Sn) over 8.97m from 320.19m to 329.16m

from 285.56m to 329.16m including from 294.43m to 299.02m and from 320.19m to 329.16m 110.40 g Ag eq/t (6.66 g Ag/t, 1.80% Zn and 0.40% Pb) over 55.63m from 414.88m to 470.51m including 351.80 g Ag eq/t (28.05 g Ag/t, 0.19 g Au/t, 4.99% Zn, 1.26% Pb and 0.22% Cu) over 4.45m from 416.39m to 40.84m and 153.44 g Ag eq/t (4.34 g Ag/t, 2.95% Zn and 0.32% Pb) over 9.04m from 437.41m to 446.45m.

from 414.88m to 470.51m including from 416.39m to 40.84m from 437.41m to 446.45m. 108.55 g Ag eq/t (12.96 g Ag/t, 0.11 g Au/t, 1.43 % Zn and 0.43% Pb) over 31.71m from 491.56 to 523.27m including 192.64 g Ag eq/t (27.91 g Ag/t, 0.25 g Au/t, 2.29% Zn and 0.89% Pb) over 10.63m from 509.62m to 520.25m .

from 491.56 to 523.27m including from 509.62m to 520.25m 68.66 g Ag eq/t (8.94 g Ag/t, 1.02% Zn and 0.20% Pb) over 25.49m from 611.34m to 636.83m including 114.99 g Ag eq/t (19.98 g Ag/t, 1.65% Zn and 0.35% Pb) over 8.93m from 627.90 to 636.83m

from 611.34m to 636.83m including from 627.90 to 636.83m with further intervals of reportable mineralization continuing to near the terminus of the hole representing the furthest east and some of the deepest mineralization yet encountered at Santa Barbara.





Further drilling is planned south-southeast of this area to continue to trace the full extent of the Ag-Au-Zn-Pb-Cu-Sn polymetallic epithermal system.

Northwest Extension, Santa Barbara Mineral Resource Definition Target Area

Results for three (3) additional drillholes all drilled at an azimuth of 2250 in the Northwest Extension Target Area of Santa Barbara (see Figure 2) have been received. Holes DSB-24 (-650), DSB-14 (-650) and DSB-22 (650) were collared 100m, 200m and 1000m, respectively northwest of the Santa Barbara adit drill bay.

Hole DSB-24 intersected 22 reportable intersections as shown in Table 2 of which the best results were deeper in the hole as follows:

120.18 g Ag eq/t (41.22 g Ag/t, 0.34% Zn, 0.23% Pb, and 0.09% Sn) over 33.23m from 371.50m to 386.58m,





from 371.50m to 386.58m, 132.43 g Ag eq/t (16.72 g Ag/t, 0.30% Zn, 0.10% Pb, and 0.16% Sn) over 25.36m from 398.61m to 423.97m, and,





from 398.61m to 423.97m, and, 197.26 g Ag eq/t (5.25 g Ag/t, 0.73% Zn, 0.08% Pb, and 0.26% Sn) over 23.63m from 483.64m to 507.27m.





Hole DHK-14, which was collared 100m northwest of Hole DSB-24, intersected 29 reportable intersections of which the best results were as follows:

87.26 g Ag eq/t (17.05 g Ag/t, 0.06 g Au/t, 0.51% Pb and 0.28% Cu) over 37.57m from 120.36m to 157.93m

from 120.36m to 157.93m 58.63 g Ag eq/t (5.26 g Ag/t, 0.31%Zn and 0.21% Pb) over 33.11m from 314.33m to 347.44m, including a higher-grade section with 96.83 g Ag eq/t (7.83 g Ag/t, 0.57%Zn, 0.25% Pb and 0.09% Sn) over 10.54m from 314.33m to 324.87m





from 314.33m to 347.44m, including a higher-grade section with from 314.33m to 324.87m 87.26 g Ag eq/t (17.05 g Ag/t, 0.06 g Au/t, 0.51% Pb and 0.28% Cu) over 37.57m from 120.36m to 157.93m

from 120.36m to 157.93m 185.94 g Ag eq/t (10.38 g Ag/t, 0.09 g Au/t, 1.43% Zn, 0.20% Pb, 0.09% Cu and 0.14% Sn) over 16.86m from 597.64m to 614.50m

Hole DHK-22 is the most northwesterly drill hole completed thus far, approximately 1,000m (1km) northwest of the Santa Barbara Drill Bay (see Figure 2). There were 10 reportable intersections returned from this hole with the best results as follows:

70.09 g Ag eq/t (2.99 g Ag/t and 0.42% Cu over 28.73m from 38.77m to 67.50m i ncluding 110.81 g Ag eq/t (2.75 g Ag/t and 0.75% Cu) over 12.15m from 52.33m to 64.48m





from 38.77m to 67.50m i from 52.33m to 64.48m 107.19 g Ag eq/t (11.81 g Ag/t, 0.12 g Au/t, 0.23% Zn, 0.13% Cu and 0.10 %Sn) over 46.38m from 479.32m to 525.70m including 398.55 g Ag eq/t (39.32 g Ag/t, 0.18% Zn. 0.50% Cu and 0.46% Sn) over 7.50m from 479.32m to 486.82m

Table 1: Significant Results, Underground Diamond Drilling, Santa Barbara Resource Definition Target Area as at April 27, 2022.

SANTA BARBARA RESOURCE DEFINITION TARGET ZONE UNDERGROUND DRILL HOLES - SANTA BARBARA ADIT Hole No. From (m) To (m) Length (m) Ag Au Zn Pb Cu Sn Bi Cd Ag eq g/t g/t % % % % % % g/t DSBU-06 0.00 235.55 235.55 64.30 0.09 0.69 0.37 0.06 0.07 0.016 0.007 169.11 Incl. 24.40 75.08 50.68 192.18 0.22 0.07 0.41 0.09 0.11 0.059 0.005 314.52 264.14 392.58 128.44 17.38 0.09 0.30 0.21 0.01 0.11 0.002 0.001 110.57 Incl. 274.69 292.86 18.17 11.62 0.01 0.45 0.32 0.01 0.25 0.001 0.002 190.81 Incl. 319.04 331.03 11.99 14.87 0.01 0.28 0.25 0.02 0.26 0.001 0.001 193.82 401.61 415.13 13.52 47.18 0.09 0.58 0.09 0.01 0.03 0.003 0.002 101.67 421.19 434.67 13.48 12.23 0.01 0.40 0.11 0.01 0.02 0.002 0.002 50.62 445.18 482.80 37.62 19.38 0.04 0.84 0.16 0.01 0.06 0.002 0.002 104.11 497.86 520.48 22.62 22.32 0.04 0.51 0.11 0.01 0.03 0.013 0.001 71.31 528.92 592.30 63.38 9.91 0.21 0.54 0.14 0.01 0.04 0.002 0.002 80.81 DSBU-05 0.00 153.25 153.25 22.99 0.07 0.18 0.16 0.21 0.12 0.010 0.003 141.05 Incl. 0.00 34.97 34.97 21.77 0.06 0.36 0.30 0.63 0.11 0.007 0.003 201.23 Incl. 76.94 85.99 9.05 24.52 0.18 0.14 0.16 0.11 0.23 0.013 0.004 206.03 Incl. 109.93 135.53 25.60 31.67 0.04 0.23 0.19 0.17 0.28 0.014 0.001 242.83 190.40 212.94 22.54 6.06 0.04 0.42 0.41 0.02 0.04 0.013 0.012 73.74 229.48 235.54 6.06 6.19 0.02 0.43 0.10 0.05 0.05 0.004 0.003 67.75 249.08 261.10 12.02 18.11 0.27 0.07 0.23 0.02 0.01 0.005 0.011 62.92 285.03 306.00 20.97 57.04 0.06 0.06 0.14 0.04 0.03 0.008 0.007 94.58 249.08 261.10 12.02 18.11 0.27 0.07 0.23 0.02 0.01 0.005 0.011 62.92 348.08 526.17 178.09 23.86 0.03 0.96 0.21 0.01 0.02 0.013 0.004 92.47 535.29 541.40 6.11 6.68 0.09 0.84 0.12 0.00 0.05 0.004 0.002 85.49 551.91 553.44 1.53 26.00 0.09 2.56 0.08 0.01 0.05 0.038 0.007 189.67 583.55 585.04 1.49 2.00 0.03 1.44 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.001 0.004 84.03 605.90 610.32 4.42 4.61 0.05 2.00 0.04 0.01 0.01 0.001 0.007 111.87





Note: True width of the mineralization is not known at the present time, but based on the current understanding of the relationship between drill orientation/inclination and the mineralization within the breccia pipes and the host rocks such as sandstones and dacites, it is estimated that true width ranges between 70% and 90% of the down hole interval length but this will be confirmed by further drilling and geological modelling.

Chemical symbols: Ag= silver, Au = gold, Zn = zinc, Pb = lead, Cu = copper, Sn = tin, Bi = bismuth, Cd = cadmium and g Ag eq/t = grams silver equivalent per tonne. Quantities are given in percent (%) for Zn, Pb Cu, Sn, Bi and Cd and in grams per tonne (g/t) for Ag, Au and Ag eq.

Metal prices and conversion factors used for calculation of g Ag eq/t (grams Ag per grams x metal ratio) are as follows (Prices updated as of February 1, 2022, to more accurately reflect current metal prices):

Element Price $US (per kg) Ratio to Ag Ag $722.56 1.0000 Sn $42.56 0.0589 Zn $3.30 0.0046 Pb $2.33 0.0032 Au $57,604.00 79.7221 Cu $9.68 0.0134 Bi $12.76 0.0177 Cd $5.50 0.0076

In calculating the intersections reported in this press release a sample cutoff of 30 g Ag eq/t was used with generally a maximum dilution of 3 continuous samples below cutoff included within a mineralized section unless more dilution is justified geologically.

The equivalent grade calculations are based on the stated metal prices and are provided for comparative purposes only, due to the polymetallic nature of the deposit. Metallurgical tests are in progress by Blue Coast Ltd. to establish levels of recovery for each element reported but currently the potential recovery for each element has not yet been established. While there is no assurance that all or any of the reported concentrations of metals will be recoverable, Bolivia has a long history of successfully mining and processing similar polymetallic deposits which is well documented in the landmark volume Yacimientos Metaliferos de Bolivia by Dr. Osvaldo R. Arce Burgoa, P.Geo.



Table 2: Significant Results, Surface Diamond Drilling, Santa Barbara Resource Definition Target Area as at April 27, 2022.

SANTA BARBARA RESOURCE DEFINITION TARGET ZONE SURFACE DIAMOND DRILLING - SOUTH SANTA BARBARA AREA Hole No. From (m) To (m) Length (m) Ag Au Zn Pb Cu Sn Bi Cd Ag eq g/t g/t % % % % % % g/t DSBS-01 13.42 30.29 16.87 0.91 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.09 0.001 0.001 52.59 58.66 90.94 32.28 2.07 0.01 0.00 0.03 0.00 0.27 0.001 0.001 163.23 Incl. 63.15 70.76 7.61 3.73 0.02 0.00 0.04 0.01 0.94 0.001 0.001 560.74 98.94 100.45 1.51 4.00 0.01 0.00 0.03 0.01 0.09 0.001 0.001 61.61 225.36 247.94 22.58 2.94 0.01 0.03 0.14 0.30 0.01 0.001 0.001 54.95 Incl. 225.36 228.40 3.04 3.00 0.01 0.07 0.07 0.88 0.00 0.001 0.001 129.69 270.52 271.95 1.43 5.00 0.02 0.04 1.41 0.02 0.02 0.001 0.001 64.90 285.56 329.16 43.60 5.36 0.03 0.85 0.44 0.02 0.05 0.002 0.010 90.79 Incl. 294.43 299.02 4.59 2.01 0.07 1.36 0.49 0.05 0.09 0.004 0.012 146.04 Incl. 320.19 329.16 8.97 12.68 0.03 1.95 0.93 0.01 0.11 0.001 0.012 200.55 344.23 345.57 1.34 1.00 0.01 1.10 0.26 0.00 0.01 0.001 0.006 67.32 357.63 359.19 1.56 3.00 0.01 1.31 0.27 0.00 0.01 0.001 0.002 75.16 374.14 375.69 1.55 2.00 0.02 1.35 0.28 0.01 0.00 0.001 0.004 76.69 414.88 470.51 55.63 6.66 0.03 1.80 0.40 0.03 0.00 0.003 0.005 110.40 Incl. 416.39 420.84 4.45 28.05 0.19 4.99 1.26 0.22 0.01 0.032 0.019 351.80 Incl. 437.41 446.45 9.04 4.34 0.01 2.95 0.32 0.01 0.00 0.001 0.008 153.44 484.02 485.54 1.52 3.00 0.01 1.27 0.14 0.01 0.00 0.001 0.003 68.15 491.56 523.27 31.71 12.96 0.11 1.43 0.43 0.02 0.01 0.004 0.005 108.55 Incl. 509.62 520.25 10.63 27.91 0.25 2.29 0.89 0.03 0.01 0.008 0.009 192.64 541.79 549.58 7.79 2.69 0.01 1.38 0.10 0.00 0.00 0.001 0.005 72.22 591.69 594.70 3.01 3.51 0.02 1.24 0.13 0.01 0.00 0.001 0.003 68.82 599.26 600.79 1.53 13.00 0.13 4.03 0.32 0.01 0.01 0.003 0.018 224.85 611.34 636.83 25.49 8.94 0.03 1.02 0.20 0.01 0.00 0.001 0.003 68.66 Incl. 627.90 636.83 8.93 19.98 0.04 1.65 0.35 0.01 0.00 0.003 0.006 114.99 668.88 670.41 1.53 111.00 0.01 0.27 3.64 0.00 0.00 0.001 0.001 242.99 683.93 689.86 5.93 9.73 0.11 2.69 0.35 0.02 0.00 0.003 0.013 157.74

See Note Table 1.





Table 3: Significant Results, Surface Diamond Drilling, Santa Barbara Resource Definition Target Area  Northwest Extension as at April 27, 2022.

SANTA BARBARA RESOURCE DEFINITION TARGET ZONE SURFACE DIAMOND DRILLING - NORTHWEST EXTENSION Hole No. From (m) To (m) Length (m) Ag Au Zn Pb Cu Sn Bi Cd Ag eq g/t g/t % % % % % % g/t DSB-14 60.17 61.69 1.52 9.00 2.08 0.00 0.03 0.04 0.00 0.001 0.001 182.35 82.80 84.44 1.64 27.00 0.39 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.00 0.001 0.001 65.49 97.86 100.83 2.97 68.63 0.01 0.00 0.13 0.16 0.00 0.001 0.001 97.15 120.36 157.93 37.57 17.15 0.06 0.01 0.51 0.28 0.02 0.004 0.001 87.26 180.45 196.91 16.46 7.95 0.04 0.01 0.19 0.26 0.01 0.001 0.001 58.44 202.91 213.55 10.64 8.75 0.01 0.01 0.21 0.15 0.04 0.001 0.001 62.48 231.57 236.38 4.81 2.01 0.01 0.04 0.17 0.29 0.01 0.001 0.005 54.82 267.76 293.36 25.60 1.57 0.01 0.71 0.19 0.01 0.02 0.001 0.003 54.95 314.33 347.44 33.11 5.26 0.01 0.31 0.21 0.01 0.05 0.001 0.004 58.63 Incl. 314.33 324.87 10.54 7.83 0.02 0.57 0.25 0.01 0.09 0.001 0.003 96.83 367.01 368.54 1.53 8.00 0.01 0.26 0.58 0.01 0.09 0.004 0.005 91.01 382.18 389.59 7.41 23.89 0.01 0.32 0.12 0.01 0.07 0.003 0.001 87.18 398.65 410.68 12.03 26.58 0.06 0.14 0.05 0.01 0.04 0.003 0.001 65.02 430.28 431.78 1.50 6.00 0.60 0.15 0.19 0.02 0.03 0.008 0.001 85.91 448.25 454.20 5.95 3.98 0.03 0.68 0.20 0.02 0.02 0.001 0.002 58.96 464.72 467.78 3.06 18.83 0.01 1.24 0.99 0.02 0.04 0.001 0.006 137.60 475.27 478.20 2.93 5.47 0.01 0.58 1.12 0.00 0.01 0.001 0.041 76.07 481.22 482.72 1.50 9.00 0.02 0.01 0.19 0.00 0.02 0.001 0.010 77.26 518.20 521.07 2.87 29.09 0.10 0.40 1.19 0.01 0.45 0.003 0.008 360.91 528.61 530.10 1.49 8.00 0.03 0.16 0.25 0.02 0.10 0.001 0.011 89.86 549.27 555.12 5.85 6.62 0.01 0.27 0.21 0.02 0.06 0.001 0.001 67.81 567.11 570.11 3.00 7.82 0.02 0.64 0.16 0.02 0.07 0.001 0.003 86.20 597.64 614.50 16.86 10.38 0.09 1.43 0.20 0.09 0.14 0.007 0.005 185.94 632.50 633.92 1.42 7.00 0.05 1.27 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.002 0.001 118.00 650.26 654.83 4.57 4.90 0.05 1.41 0.09 0.11 0.03 0.002 0.001 112.37 841.10 842.60 1.50 4.00 0.02 0.18 0.04 0.45 0.02 0.002 0.001 85.19 884.56 886.05 1.49 1.00 0.05 0.49 0.03 0.14 0.02 0.023 0.002 64.76 889.06 890.56 1.50 4.00 0.02 0.76 0.14 0.15 0.03 0.007 0.002 81.53 893.59 895.06 1.47 5.00 0.02 0.73 0.19 0.23 0.02 0.005 0.003 89.45 955.14 959.62 4.48 2.33 0.06 0.09 0.02 0.17 0.00 0.153 0.001 63.84





SANTA BARBARA RESOURCE DEFINITION TARGET ZONE SURFACE DIAMOND DRILLING - NORTHWEST EXTENSION Hole No. From (m) To (m) Length (m) Ag Au Zn Pb Cu Sn Bi Cd Ag eq g/t g/t % % % % % % g/t DSB-24 0.00 8.79 8.79 4.48 0.21 0.01 0.12 0.01 0.06 0.005 0.001 60.86 75.19 106.48 31.29 14.70 0.03 0.02 0.15 0.10 0.01 0.001 0.001 44.47 137.98 142.43 4.45 0.83 0.45 0.20 0.16 0.01 0.01 0.001 0.016 61.21 162.03 163.57 1.54 3.00 0.02 0.94 0.41 0.08 0.09 0.002 0.026 126.97 171.08 198.08 27.00 6.75 0.03 0.34 0.23 0.03 0.03 0.001 0.032 56.40 213.00 225.06 12.06 17.98 0.09 0.64 0.37 0.04 0.02 0.005 0.002 86.19 231.20 232.61 1.41 10.00 0.04 0.16 0.08 0.06 0.05 0.002 0.001 61.51 240.13 244.64 4.51 7.00 0.13 0.40 0.17 0.03 0.03 0.006 0.004 63.72 255.14 258.14 3.00 15.45 0.12 0.40 0.14 0.01 0.02 0.014 0.003 62.14 262.59 264.08 1.49 24.00 0.01 0.18 0.11 0.00 0.03 0.056 0.001 62.66 280.53 295.46 14.93 9.51 0.03 0.48 0.08 0.02 0.02 0.009 0.002 49.93 340.05 344.53 4.48 8.76 0.01 0.48 0.43 0.01 0.02 0.004 0.015 59.13 371.50 386.58 33.23 41.22 0.03 0.34 0.23 0.01 0.09 0.001 0.002 120.18 Incl. 353.35 368.52 15.17 34.92 0.02 0.48 0.31 0.01 0.10 0.001 0.003 130.97 398.61 423.97 25.36 16.72 0.02 0.30 0.10 0.01 0.16 0.001 0.001 132.43 450.91 461.50 10.59 22.91 0.02 0.03 0.01 0.02 0.04 0.001 0.001 52.03 483.64 507.27 23.63 5.25 0.03 0.73 0.08 0.00 0.26 0.001 0.005 197.26 529.03 533.64 4.61 8.01 0.07 0.11 0.06 0.00 0.09 0.001 0.001 74.66 562.00 563.50 1.50 9.00 0.07 0.43 0.22 0.02 0.07 0.001 0.001 84.64 593.43 594.96 1.53 9.00 0.02 0.09 0.02 0.08 0.08 0.001 0.001 71.81 656.43 663.91 7.48 2.22 0.26 0.59 0.09 0.01 0.03 0.002 0.002 73.60 680.29 684.93 4.64 4.95 0.11 0.30 0.03 0.04 0.03 0.009 0.001 51.68 701.50 702.97 1.47 3.00 0.04 0.41 0.01 0.06 0.05 0.001 0.001 64.81 Hole No. From (m) To (m) Length (m) Ag Au Zn Pb Cu Sn Bi Cd Ag eq g/t g/t % % % % % % g/t DSB-22 38.77 67.50 28.73 2.99 0.01 0.00 0.08 0.42 0.01 0.001 0.001 70.09 Incl. 52.33 64.48 12.15 2.75 0.01 0.00 0.08 0.75 0.01 0.001 0.001 110.81 117.90 119.41 1.51 2.00 0.99 0.02 0.06 0.01 0.01 0.018 0.013 92.81 140.44 142.06 1.62 3.00 0.10 0.79 0.11 0.01 0.01 0.001 0.072 63.27 209.50 211.02 1.52 2.00 0.01 0.10 0.00 0.01 0.12 0.001 0.001 78.13 268.23 269.69 1.46 42.00 0.04 0.03 0.16 0.03 0.09 0.001 0.001 108.86 280.22 281.75 1.53 133.00 0.13 0.31 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.050 0.001 180.55 280.22 296.71 8.93 5.47 0.02 1.16 0.07 0.01 0.01 0.001 0.001 70.72 455.21 456.73 1.52 25.00 2.02 0.40 0.01 0.09 0.07 0.069 0.001 267.16 479.32 525.70 46.38 11.81 0.12 0.23 0.00 0.13 0.10 0.012 0.001 107.19 Incl. 479.32 486.82 7.50 39.32 0.09 0.18 0.01 0.50 0.46 0.030 0.001 398.55 593.08 609.64 16.56 7.42 0.18 0.76 0.03 0.13 0.02 0.002 0.001 84.87

See Note Table 1.





Figure 1  Geological Plan Map showing Major Drilling areas. Santa Barbara is shown in more detail in Figure 2.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/984e7eb9-89cc-4d12-af54-aeab0ffceac2



Figure 2: Geological Plan Map of the Santa Barbara Mineral Resource Target Area with Diamond Drill Holes

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c780052e-57da-4d04-9158-3c2958d0e26d









Figure 3: North-South Geological Section looking East across High Grade Target Area in Santa Barbara

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d07121ff-91b3-4145-9982-35fe7147ad31





Figure 4: Borehole Induced Polarization (IP) Mx Chargeability Section with Holes DSBU-05 and DSBU-06 looking east.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/76c9de76-9191-4af4-90de-8be1b4d8d5b5





Table 4: Summary of Diamond Drill Holes Completed with Assays Pending and Drill Holes in Progress at Iska Iska from April 27, 2022 press release.

SUMMARY DIAMOND DRILLING ISKA ISKA Hole No. Type Collar Easting Collar Northing Elev Azimuth Angle Hole length (m) Surface Drilling Santa Barbara Breccia DHK-24 S 205529.4 7656222.5 4153.4 225 -60 In Progress DHK-25 S 205526.9 7656384.7 4178.1 225 -55 In Progress Surface Drilling Northwest Extension Santa Barbara DSB-16 S 204973.9 7657053.1 4147.1 225 -65 862.0 DSB-17 S 205136.3 7656770.8 4168.1 225 -40 841.0 DSB-18 S 205209.3 7656683.3 4172.5 225 -40 890.4 DSB-19 S 205209.9 7656684.0 4172.5 225 -65 803.3 DSB-23 S 205343.3 7656534.4 4176.1 225 -40 863.2 DSB-26 S 205044.5 7656982.6 4150.0 225 -40 815.4 DSB-27 S 205044.5 7656982.6 4150.0 225 -65 800.4 Subtotal 5,875.7 Underground Drilling Santa Barbara Adit DSBU-04 UG 205283.7 7656071.6 4168.2 180 -20 570.0 DSBU-07 UG 205284.5 7656080.0 4167.1 235 -50 800.9 DSBU-08 UG 205284.5 7656080.0 4167.1 200 -50 866.8 DSBU-09 UG 205284.5 7656080.0 4167.1 90 -60 904.0 Subtotal 3,141.7 DSBU-10 UG 205284.5 7656080.0 4167.1 40 -60 In Progress Surface Drilling South Extension Santa Barbara DSBS-01 S 205300.0 7655563.0 4195.0 30 -30 700.8 DSBS-02 S 205300.0 7655563.0 4195.0 0 -45 1023.4 Subtotal 1,724.2 Porco Target Area - Surface Drill Program Testing Magnetic Inverse Model DPC-07 S 205090.1 7655340.9 4310.0 235 -60 791.4 DPC-08 S 205585.0 7655423.6 4089.0 235 -65 800.4 DPC-09 S 205456.7 7655516.6 4125.0 180 -75 1124.4 DPC-10 S 205396.5 7655701.2 4148.0 225 -60 1088.4 DPC-11 S 205456.7 7655516.6 4125.0 235 -70 1065.0 Subtotal 4,869.6 DPC-12 S 205650.0 7655200.0 4100.0 235 -70 In Progress Subtotal 15,611.2

S = Surface UG=Underground; collar coordinates in metres; azimuth and dip in degrees. Total drilling completed since the start of the program on September 13, 2020 to December 17, 2021 is 40,468 m in 73 holes (26 underground holes and 47 surface holes). From re-start of drilling on January 17, 2022, an additional 11,196m has been completed bringing the overall total to 52,384m in 89 drill holes (30 underground drill holes and 59 surface drill holes) including 4 holes in progress.

Qualified Person

Dr. Osvaldo Arce, P. Geo., General Manager of Minera Tupiza, and a Qualified Person in the context of NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release. Dr. Bill Pearson, P.Geo., Executive Vice President Exploration Eloro, and who has more than 45 years of worldwide mining exploration experience including extensive work in South America, manages the overall technical program working closely with Dr. Osvaldo Arce, P.Geo., Manager of Minera Tupiza. Dr. Quinton Hennigh, P.Geo., Senior Technical Advisor to Eloro and Independent Technical Advisor, Mr. Charley Murahwi P. Geo., FAusIMM of Micon International Limited are regularly consulted on technical aspects of the project.

The magnetic survey was carried out by MES Geophysics using a GEM Systems GSM-19W Overhauser magnetometer. Dr. Chris Hale, P.Geo. and Mr. John Gilliatt, P.Geo. of Intelligent Exploration provided the survey design, preparation of the maps and interpretation from data processed and quality reviewed by Rob McKeown, P. Geo. of MES Geophysics. Messrs. Hale, Gilliatt and McKeown are Qualified Persons as defined under NI 43-101. Mr. Joe Mihelcic, P.Eng., P.Geo., of Clearview Geophysics, a QP under NI 43-101, completed the 3D magnetic inversion model in consultation with Dr. Hale and Mr. Gilliatt. The Borehole IP surveys are being carried out by MES Geophysics under the supervision of Dr. Hale and Mr. Gilliatt.

Eloro is utilizing both ALS and AHK for drill core analysis, both of whom are major international accredited laboratories. Drill samples sent to ALS are prepared in both ALS Bolivia Ltdas preparation facility in Oruro, Bolivia and the preparation facility operated by AHK in Tupiza with pulps sent to the main ALS Global laboratory in Lima for analysis. More recently Eloro has had ALS send pulps to their laboratory at Galway in Ireland. Eloro employs an industry standard QA/QC program with standards, blanks and duplicates inserted into each batch of samples analyzed with selected check samples sent to a separate accredited laboratory.

Drill core samples sent to AHK Laboratories are prepared in a preparation facility installed and managed by AHK in Tupiza with pulps sent to the AHK laboratory in Lima, Peru. Au and Sn analysis on these samples is done by ALS Bolivia Ltda in Lima. Check samples between ALS and AHK are regularly done as a QA/QC check. AHK is following the same analytical protocols used as with ALS and with the same QA/QC protocols. Turnaround time continues to improve, as laboratories return to more normal staffing levels.

About Iska Iska

Iska Iska silver-tin polymetallic project is a road accessible, royalty-free property, wholly controlled by the Title Holder, Empresa Minera Villegas S.R.L. and is located 48 km north of Tupiza city, in the Sud Chichas Province of the Department of Potosi in southern Bolivia. Eloro has an option to earn a 99% interest in Iska Iska.

Iska Iska is a major silver-tin polymetallic porphyry-epithermal complex associated with a Miocene possibly collapsed/resurgent caldera, emplaced on Ordovician age rocks with major breccia pipes, dacitic domes and hydrothermal breccias. The caldera is 1.6km by 1.8km in dimension with a vertical extent of at least 1km. Mineralization age is similar to Cerro Rico de Potosi and other major deposits such as San Vicente, Chorolque, Tasna and Tatasi located in the same geological trend.

Eloro began underground diamond drilling from the Huayra Kasa underground workings at Iska Iska on September 13, 2020. On November 18, 2020, Eloro announced the discovery of a significant breccia pipe with extensive silver polymetallic mineralization just east of the Huayra Kasa underground workings and a high-grade gold-bismuth zone in the underground workings. On November 24, 2020, Eloro announced the discovery of the SBBP approximately 150m southwest of the Huayra Kasa underground workings.

Subsequently, on January 26, 2021, Eloro announced significant results from the first drilling at the SBBP including the discovery hole DHK-15 which returned 129.60 g Ag eq/t over 257.5m (29.53g Ag/t, 0.078g Au/t, 1.45%Zn, 0.59%Pb, 0.080%Cu, 0.056%Sn, 0.0022%In and 0.0064% Bi from 0.0m to 257.5m. Subsequent drilling has confirmed significant values of Ag-Sn polymetallic mineralization in the SBBP and the adjacent CBP. A substantive mineralized envelope which is open along strike and down-dip extends around both major breccia pipes. Continuous channel sampling of the Santa Barbara Adit located to the east of SBBP returned 442 g Ag eq/t (164.96 g Ag/t, 0.46%Sn, 3.46% Pb and 0.14% Cu) over 166m including 1,092 g Ag eq/t (446 g Ag/t, 9.03% Pb and 1.16% Sn) over 56.19m. The west end of the adit intersects the end of the SBBP.

Since the initial discovery hole, Eloro has released a number of significant drill results in the SBBP and the surrounding mineralized envelope which along with geophysical data has defined a target zone 1400m along strike, 500m wide and that extends to a depth of 600m. This zone is open along strike to the northwest and southeast as well as to the southwest. The Companys nearer term objective is to outline a maiden NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource within this large target area. This work is advancing well with the mineral resource targeted to be completed in Q3 2022. Exploration drilling is also planned on other major targets in the Iska Iska Caldera Complex, including the Porco and Mina 2 areas.

About Eloro Resources Ltd.

Eloro is an exploration and mine development company with a portfolio of gold and base-metal properties in Bolivia, Peru and Quebec. Eloro has an option to acquire a 99% interest in the highly prospective Iska Iska Property, which can be classified as a polymetallic epithermal-porphyry complex, a significant mineral deposit type in the Potosi Department, in southern Bolivia. Eloro commissioned a NI 43-101 Technical Report on Iska Iska, which was completed by Micon International Limited and is available on Eloros website and under its filings on SEDAR. Iska Iska is a road-accessible, royalty-free property. Eloro also owns an 82% interest in the La Victoria Gold/Silver Project, located in the North-Central Mineral Belt of Peru some 50 km south of Barricks Lagunas Norte Gold Mine and Pan American Silvers La Arena Gold Mine. La Victoria consists of eight mining concessions and eight mining claims encompassing approximately 89 square kilometres. La Victoria has good infrastructure with access to road, water and electricity and is located at an altitude that ranges from 3,150 m to 4,400 m above sea level.

For further information please contact either Thomas G. Larsen, Chairman and CEO or Jorge Estepa, Vice-President at (416) 868-9168.

Information in this news release may contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information express, as at the date of this news release, the Companys plans, estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations, or beliefs as to future events or results and are believed to be reasonable based on information currently available to the Company. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Dublin, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Generic Injectables Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Product Type, Container Type, Application and Route of Administration and Geography" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The generic injectables market is projected to reach US$ 150.65 billion by 2028 from US$ 74.73 billion in 2021; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.5% from 2021 to 2028.



Low R&D, marketing, and manufacturing costs and high demand for affordable drugs are driving the generic injectables market growth. However, the critical inspection system for prefilled injection is hampering the generic injectables market growth.



Generic injectables are as safe and effective as innovator molecules because they are bioequivalent to their branded counterparts, but they are not patented for many reasons. These medications can be produced for commercial usage only after the patent expiration of the branded drug.

As the drug molecules are similar in branded and generic formulation, no or minimal R&D cost is associated with generic injectables. The low upfront R&D costs allow drug manufacturers to sell generic injectables at lower prices. As stated by the US FDA, a single generic competitor can lead to price reductions of 30%, while five generics competing could lead to price drops of ~85%.

Additionally, generic injectables saved US$ 2.2 trillion for the US healthcare system during 2009-2019. As mentioned in a report by Congressional Budget Office, the pharmaceutical industry spent US$ 83 billion on R&D in 2019. However, with generic injectables, the repetition of clinical studies is not required to demonstrate their effectiveness and safety, which contributes to their low prices.



Further, the approval process of generic medicines is faster than branded ones. As reported by the USFDA, in 2019, 107 first generic drugs and 110 complex generic drugs were approved, totaling 11% of the generic drug product approvals. Overall, in 2019, the generic drug program approved or tentatively approved 1,014 generic drug applications.

Additionally, the development of a new chemical entity takes almost a decade on average, which is bypassed in the development of generic injectables. Thus, the low cost associated with generic injectables is one of the major factors attracting new players to enter the market and driving the generic injectables market.



Further, the patents of branded injectables in several regions are likely to expire in the upcoming years, offering numerous remunerative opportunities to the generic injectables manufacturers. As per a recent publication by Business Standard, patented drugs worth US$ 240 billion will lose patents globally in the coming years.

In India, the shortage of branded medicines and the expiry of branded drug patents have prompted generic injectable manufacturers to introduce advanced drug delivery systems, including self-injection devices. Biological E Limited, an Indian biotechnology and biopharmaceutical company based in Hyderabad, Telangana, is gaining recognition for broadening its portfolio with the addition of 20 routine and injectable products.

Thus, generic injectables companies are tapping regulated markets and exploring other markets to generate incomes and establish stable revenue streams. Additionally, manufacturers in the generic injectables market are becoming future-ready by maintaining adequate supply chains to prevent vulnerabilities, similar to those caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Zydus Cadila is significantly reducing the price of its generic version of remdesivir, namely Remdac. Thus, the nearing expiry of patent validity of branded drugs is likely to provide significant opportunities to generic drug manufacturers, including the companies offering generic injectables.



Based on product type, the generic injectables market is segmented into large molecule injectables and small molecule injectables. In 2021, the large molecule injectables segment accounted for a greater market share. The market position of this segment is credited to a surge in the adoption of biologics in the healthcare sector, and the progress of monoclonal antibody and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) into the drug development.



The global generic injectables market, based on container type, has been categorized into vials, premix, prefilled syringes, ampoules, and others. The vials segment is likely to dominate the market in 2021. The rise in health awareness on the back of the growth in the detection of new life-threatening diseases is driving the growth of vial market segment during the forecast period.



The global generic injectables market, based on application, has been categorized into oncology, infectious diseases, cardiology, diabetes, immunology, and others. The oncology segment is likely to hold the largest share of the market in 2021. With the increase in the cancer incidences and rise in the launches of drugs is anticipated to drive growth of the oncology market segment. Moreover, increasing initiatives taken by the leading players across the globe, are some of the factors which is driving the growth of the overall market segment.



Based on route of administration, the global generic injectables market has been categorized into intravenous, intramuscular, subcutaneous, and others. The intravenous route of administration holds the largest market share in 2021. The growing prevalence of chronic diseases and increasing number of product launches, have resulted in fueling the demand for intravenous route of administration market segment during the forecast period.

Key Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Low R&D, Marketing, and Manufacturing Costs

High Demand for Affordable Drugs

Market Restraints

Critical Inspection System for Prefilled Injection

Market Opportunities

Increasing Patent Expiry of Drugs

Future Trends

Government Support for Generic Injectables Production and Healthcare Cost Reduction

Company Profiles

Astrazeneca

Baxter International, Inc.

Biocon

Fresenius Se & Co. Kgaa

GlaxoSmithKline plc

Hikma Pharmaceuticals

Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.

Lupin, Ltd.

Merck & Co. Inc.

Mylan N.V.

Pfizer, Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7swsp6

Attachment
Dublin, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Carpet and Rugs Market (2022-2027) by Type, Material, Distribution Channel, Application, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global Carpet and Rugs Market is estimated to be USD 112.69 Bn in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 143.14 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.9%.



Market Dynamics

Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Carpet and Rugs Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals.



As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks.

Company Profiles

The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario. Some of the companies covered in this report are Abbey Carpet & Floor, Cormar Carpets, Avalanche Flooring, Inc., Axminster Carpets Ltd, Beaulieu International Group, Victoria PLC,, , etc.



Countries Studied

America (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, United States, Rest of - Americas)

Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Rest of - Europe)

Middle-East and Africa (Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Rest of MEA.

Asia-Pacific (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Carpet and Rugs Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach.



The analyst analyses Global Carpet and Rugs Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.



Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, the analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Carpet and Rugs Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Growing Consumer Interest in Interior Decoration

4.1.2 Increasing Demand for Environment-Friendly Carpets

4.1.3 Rapid Urbanization and Globalization

4.1.4 Rising in the Number of Renovation and Remodeling Activities

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 High Prices of Raw Materials

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Increases Number of Construction Activity in Emerging Countries

4.3.2 Upsurging Importance of Organized Retailing

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Disposal of Wastes



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Carpet and Rugs Market, By Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Tufted

6.3 Woven

6.4 Needle-punched

6.5 Knotted

6.6 Others



7 Global Carpet and Rugs Market, By Material

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Nylon

7.3 Polyester

7.4 Polypropylene (Olefin)

7.5 Wool

7.6 Others



8 Global Carpet and Rugs Market, By Distribution Channel

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Mass Merchandisers

8.3 Home Centers

8.4 Specialty Stores



9 Global Carpet and Rugs Market, By Application

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Residential

9.3 Commercial



10 Americas' Carpet and Rugs Market

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Argentina

10.3 Brazil

10.4 Canada

10.5 Chile

10.6 Colombia

10.7 Mexico

10.8 Peru

10.9 United States

10.10 Rest of Americas



11 Europe's Carpet and Rugs Market

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Austria

11.3 Belgium

11.4 Denmark

11.5 Finland

11.6 France

11.7 Germany

11.8 Italy

11.9 Netherlands

11.10 Norway

11.11 Poland

11.12 Russia

11.13 Spain

11.14 Sweden

11.15 Switzerland

11.16 United Kingdom

11.17 Rest of Europe



12 Middle East and Africa's Carpet and Rugs Market

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Egypt

12.3 Israel

12.4 Qatar

12.5 Saudi Arabia

12.6 South Africa

12.7 United Arab Emirates

12.8 Rest of MEA



13 APAC's Carpet and Rugs Market

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Australia

13.3 Bangladesh

13.4 China

13.5 India

13.6 Indonesia

13.7 Japan

13.8 Malaysia

13.9 Philippines

13.10 Singapore

13.11 South Korea

13.12 Sri Lanka

13.13 Thailand

13.14 Taiwan

13.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific



14 Competitive Landscape

14.1 Competitive Quadrant

14.2 Market Share Analysis

14.3 Strategic Initiatives

14.3.1 M&A and Investments

14.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

14.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



15 Company Profiles

15.1 Abbey Carpet & Floor

15.2 Cormar Carpets

15.3 Avalanche Flooring, Inc.

15.4 Axminster Carpets Ltd

15.5 Beaulieu International Group

15.6 Couristan, Inc.

15.7 Dixie Group, Inc.

15.8 Engineered Floors LLC

15.9 Floor Coverings International

15.10 Foamex International Inc

15.11 Ikea Group

15.12 Interface Inc.

15.13 Invista

15.14 Kraus Carpet Mills Ltd.

15.15 Lowe's Companies, Inc.

15.16 Mannington Mills, Inc.

15.17 Milliken & Company

15.18 Mohawk Industries Inc.

15.19 Oriental Weavers Company for Carpet

15.20 Shaw Industries Group, Inc.

15.21 Stark Carpet Corp.

15.22 Tai Ping Carpets International Limited

15.23 Tarkett S.A.

15.24 The Home Depot, Inc.

15.25 Victoria PLC



16 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/pl9pgz

Attachment
Dublin, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Hot Melt Adhesives Market (2021-2026) by Product, Application, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global Hot Melt Adhesives Market is estimated to be USD 8.84 Mn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 12.06 Mn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.4%.



Market Dynamics

Key factors such as growing awareness to preserve the environment, increasing the demand for advanced products from various industries, and rising cognizance of hygiene products boost the market growth. Growth in the pharmaceutical industry and increasing healthcare expenditure provide growth opportunities to the market.



However, limited thermal resistance and availability of alternatives are likely to restrain the market growth. Moreover, the complexity associated with the hard-to-bond substances and fluctuating raw materials prices is a major market challenge.

Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are Henkel, H.B. Fuller, 3M, Jowat, Delo Industrial Adhesives, Exxon Mobil, etc.



Countries Studied

America (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, United States, Rest of Americas)

Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Rest of Europe)

Middle-East and Africa (Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Rest of MEA)

Asia-Pacific (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes a Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Hot Melt Adhesives Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Influencers

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Wide Range of Applications

4.1.2 Increasing Replacement of Other Adhesive Technologies by HMAs

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Complexity Associated with the Hard-to-Bond Substances

4.2.2 Limited Thermal Resistance

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Demand for Sustainable Adhesives

4.3.2 Potential in Packaging and Nonwoven Applications

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Availability of Alternatives

4.4.2 Fluctuating Prices of Raw Materials



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Hot Melt Adhesives Market, By Product

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA)

6.3 Styrenic Block Copolymers

6.4 Amorphous Poly-alphaolefin (APAO)

6.5 Polyurethane

6.6 Rubber

6.7 Polyolefin

6.8 Metallocene Polyolefin



7 Global Hot Melt Adhesives Market, By Application

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Automotive & Transport

7.3 Consumer DIY

7.4 Packaging

7.5 Electronics

7.6 Footwear

7.7 Nonwoven Hygiene Products

7.8 Furniture & Woodwork

7.9 Bookbinding



8 Global Hot Melt Adhesives Market, By Geography

8.1 Introduction

8.2 America

8.2.1 Argentina

8.2.2 Brazil

8.2.3 Canada

8.2.4 Chile

8.2.5 Colombia

8.2.6 Mexico

8.2.7 Peru

8.2.8 United States

8.2.9 Rest of Americas

8.3 Europe

8.3.1 Austria

8.3.2 Belgium

8.3.3 Denmark

8.3.4 Finland

8.3.5 France

8.3.6 Germany

8.3.7 Italy

8.3.8 Netherlands

8.3.9 Norway

8.3.10 Poland

8.3.11 Russia

8.3.12 Spain

8.3.13 Sweden

8.3.14 Switzerland

8.3.15 United Kingdom

8.3.16 Rest of Europe

8.4 Middle East and Africa

8.4.1 Egypt

8.4.2 Israel

8.4.3 Qatar

8.4.4 Saudi Arabia

8.4.5 South Africa

8.4.6 United Arab Emirates

8.4.7 Rest of MEA

8.5 Asia-Pacific

8.5.1 Australia

8.5.2 Bangladesh

8.5.3 China

8.5.4 India

8.5.5 Indonesia

8.5.6 Japan

8.5.7 Malaysia

8.5.8 Philippines

8.5.9 Singapore

8.5.10 South Korea

8.5.11 Sri Lanka

8.5.12 Thailand

8.5.13 Taiwan

8.5.14 Rest of Asia-Pacific



9 Competitive Landscape

9.1 Competitive Quadrant

9.2 Market Share Analysis

9.3 Strategic Initiatives

9.3.1 M&A and Investments

9.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

9.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



10 Company Profiles

10.1 3M

10.2 Arkema

10.3 Ashland

10.4 Avery Dennison

10.5 BASF

10.6 Beardow & Adams

10.7 Bostik

10.8 Delo Industrial Adhesives

10.9 Dow Corning

10.10 Exxon Mobil

10.11 Focke Meler

10.12 H.B. Fuller

10.13 Henkel

10.14 Huntsman

10.15 Illinois Tool Works

10.16 Jowat

10.17 RPM International

10.18 Sika

10.19 Technical Adhesives

10.20 Wisdom Adhesives



11 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/udav5k

Attachment
LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GTX Corp (OTC: GTXO) (the Company), a pioneer in the field of location based wearable GPS human and asset tracking systems and ProteGear.com, a German IT/GPS tracking specialist company, announced their cooperation to launch the latest generation of the GPS SmartSole product based upon LTE Cat M1 technology.



We are excited to work with ProteGear, parent company Global SafeTrack Systems GmbH, to bring the latest generation of the GPS SmartSole technology to Germany, stated Andrew Duncan GTX Director. As the largest senior health care market in Europe, with a population of close to 84 million, it is very important for us to have a strong presence there

The German health system provides universal population coverage either through social health insurance (SHI), which covers almost 90% of the population, or VHI (Voluntary Health Insurance.) Health insurance coverage is mandatory for the entire population. Coverage is virtually universal and less than 1% of the population is not insured.

We have been looking forward to the launch of the next generation LTE Cat M1 SmartSole for some time. With the high-performance GPS tracking system and longer battery life of up to 5 days, we are excited to offer our customers this product, stated Markus Schlittenbauer. We have a lot of pent-up demand for the product from both families acting as caregivers for individuals with Alzheimers or Dementia, as well as the senior care organizations and homes. SmartSoles not only help family members feel safer about their loved ones, but also prevent patients from being institutionalized, thus reducing the cost of their care.

The SmartSole is GTXs most notable award-winning product which is a seamless GPS-enabled wearable device whose target market is people with cognitive disorders such as Autism, Dementia, Traumatic brain injury and Alzheimers. These groups tend to wander and need constant remote patient monitoring (RPM). Although this is a niche segment, these groups together represent approximately 3% of the worlds population, which is around 34 million in the 24 go-to market ready developed countries GTX has identified, and in several of these countries has already begun distribution.

GTX Corp's patented GPS SmartSoles , are the worlds first wearable yet invisible tracking technology. Placed in the wearers shoes they contain a state-of-the-art Nordic GPS module connected through cellular networks that send a GPS location to the GTX central monitoring website and app. The SmartSoles which were initially created as a wander guard solution for those at risk due to Alzheimers, dementia, autism, or traumatic brain injury and tend to wander or become lost or disoriented, can also be used by people at risk of kidnapping, such as government employees, journalists and corporate executives. SmartSoles come in 3 trim-to-fit sizes ranging from size 5 to 13, for men, women, and children, are water resistant, include an inductive charging pad, and are proudly manufactured in Rhode Island, U.S.A.

GTX Corp is a For-Profit with Purpose Company which has an extensive patent portfolio, is a proud U.S. military contractor and has multiple wearable tracking products sold through its online store , Amazon and authorized resellers and distributors servicing customers across the globe.

About GTX Corp GTX Corp (OTC: GTXO) is a pioneer in smart, mobile, and wearable GPS tracking and recovery location-based solutions, supported through a proprietary IoT enterprise monitoring platform and intellectual property portfolio. GTX offers a global end-to-end solution of hardware, software and connectivity and develops two-way GPS tracking technologies, which seamlessly integrate with consumer products and enterprise applications. GTX utilizes the latest in miniaturized, low power consumption GPS, Cellular, RF, NFC and BLE technology, enabling subscribers to track in real time the whereabouts of people or high value assets. GTX is known for its game-changing and award-winning patented GPS SmartSole  -- think Dr. Scholls meets LoJack, the worlds first invisible wearable technology tracking device created for those at risk of wandering due to Alzheimers, dementia, autism, and traumatic brain injury. GTXs business model is built around technology innovation and intellectual property protection, with many issued patents in GPS tracking and server communications. The company has international distributors servicing customers in over 35 countries and is a U.S. Military Government contractor. Other customers include public health authorities and municipalities, emergency and law enforcement, private schools, assisted living facilities, NGOs, small business enterprises, senior care homes, and consumers.

GTXCorp.com Track My Workforce GPS SmartSole.com

Social Media Hashtags - #withyou #smartsole #connectedandprotected #trackwhatyoulove #iot #smartproducts #nfc #ble #safety #healthcare #veritap #exceptionmonitoring #assettracking #coronavirus #face mask #covid19

GTX Blog https://gtxcorp.com/press/

https://www.facebook.com/gtxcorpcom

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gtxcorp

https://www.pinterest.com/GTXCorp/

https://instagram.com/gtxcorp

GTX Corp (@GTXCorp) / Twitter

https://twitter.com/smartsoleGPS

General information, investor relations, licensing, consumer purchase:

213.489.3019

Info@GTXCorp.com

IR@GTXCorp.com

Contact Us

About Protegear.com

ProteGear.com owned by parent company Global Safe Track Systems GmbH, operating since 2014, specializing in worldwide tracking and emergency communication solutions, both serving GSM/4G and satellite networks. Receiver of numerous awards including the iF Design Awards 2020, redDot Design Award 2020, ISPO Product of the Year award 2020.

ProteGear.com

info@protegear.com

Tel. +4980363013182

Filzenweg 14

83071 Stephanskichen

Germany



Disclaimer: GTX Corp does not warrant or represent that the unauthorized use of materials drawn from the content of this document will not infringe rights of third parties who are not owned or affiliated by GTX Corp. Further GTX Corp cannot be held responsible or liable for the unauthorized use of this documents content by third parties unknown to the company.

Forward Looking Statements
Reported as one of the largest Estonian Series A rounds.

Euroras unique AI-based solution was developed with 22 scientists from the worlds top 1% universities and backed with support from European Union (EU) Archimedes Fund.

Eurora already has over 200 paying clients worldwide that use its technology to process millions of parcels every day.



TALLINN, Estonia, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eurora Solutions, an Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning-backed (AI/ML) cross-border e-commerce compliance platform, is announcing the closure of its oversubscribed Series A round, raising $40 million/31 million. Amsterdam based Connected Capital led the round, with existing investors, including Change Ventures, Equity United and Euroras founder Marko Lastik also participating.

Eurora already has over 200 paying clients worldwide, including some of the biggest e-commerce players in Asia, such as JD.com, Yanwen and Topyou. These three companies alone process around billion parcels per year and deliver to more than 120 countries. The new funding will be used for geographical expansion in the UK, the US, and the Middle East, where rapid and high growth in the sector is expected, and product development and potential add-on acquisitions. In the past decade, global parcel shipping volume has tripled, and by 2026, this market is expected to reach over 260 billion parcels delivered.

In July last year, the EU ended the 22 import VAT exemption, and new trading regulations between the EU and the rest of the world gradually came into effect. This was intended to create a level playing field with local European manufacturers and retailers. Complying with this new regulation in the high volume, low value-per-package e-commerce market has been a challenge for merchants and logistics operators from the UK, the US, China and the rest of the world. These players are looking for software-based solutions that can help handle the billions of cross-border packages affected by this new EU regulation. Solutions with a high degree of accuracy, speed and at a low cost per package are required.

Euroras proprietary AI/ML-based platform automates tax, compliance and customs services. It assigns e-commerce products an appropriate HS code*, calculates the applicable VAT and duty amounts, and automatically creates electronic declarations for EU duties and taxes via simple API integration. The platform delivers more than 96% accuracy for e-commerce packages despite often patchy input data and it operates at a fraction of the time and price of hybrid or manual code allocation solutions commonly used today. Eurora was the first official VAT Intermediary and the first company to issue an IOSS number*.

The B2B platform can be used by online sellers, marketplaces, logistics and postal companies, as well as tax and customs authorities. Euroras compliance platform can automatically process 5,000 requests per second with up to 96% accuracy, the highest level of accuracy, speed, and automation available on the market. Marko Lastik has over 30 years of experience in logistics and is the founder and visionary of the platform, having created it together with 22 scientists from the worlds top 1% of universities, such as Tallinn University of Technology, StatLab (a spinoff company of the University of Tartu) and Software Technology and Applications Competence Centre in Estonia.

Marko Lastik, the founder and CEO of Eurora Solutions, said: The number of different declarations, codes, reports, records and tax calculations required in the international shipping business is ever increasing. Without the correct data sets and automated solutions for tax calculations and electronic declarations, cross-border trade has slowed down, resulting in severe delays, fines, increasing costs, loss of customers etc. Euroras AI uses 500+ million records of training data from actual transactions from the largest logistics providers in the world, giving Eurora the knowledge of actual market practices. By using Euroras platform, merchants can make deliveries faster and at lower costs, which results in increased customer satisfaction and trust.

Shaffy Roell, Investment Manager at Connected Capital, said: We are excited to lead the investment into Eurora and support the team in scaling the platform globally. The founder and the full management team have impressed us with their quality, domain expertise, and vision for the company. We have seen a clear push from regulators to improve transparency and reporting for the increasing number of goods that enter through customs. We believe that Eurora has built a truly unique AI/ML-based platform, significantly improving compliance while reducing package delays and lowering costs for e-commerce parcels shipped into Europe.

For more info:

Anneli Aljas

CFO

pr@eurora.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ba059a2d-0ca1-4f72-8211-637f86d74f09
KELOWNA, British Columbia, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allied Corp . ("Allied" or the Company) (OTCQB: ALID) is pleased to announce the signing of a forward purchase agreement with a distributor for a specialty medical care hospital (the Brazilian Group) based out of Sao Paulo, Brazil.



Under this agreement, the Brazilian Group will initially purchase US$147,000 worth of Allied products that will continue on a monthly basis. The products from the purchase order will focus on specialty medical care for tens of thousands of Brazilian oncology patients. The hospital that the products are intended for was founded in 1971 with the mission of providing quality health care, generating knowledge, and promoting social responsibility. The hospitals research and educational institute has already trained approximately 130,000 professionals and conducts hundreds of studies annually. Allieds products will specifically be offered to the hospitals complex oncology (cancer) and neurology patients undergoing therapies. This hospital was named in Forbes list of the 20 best hospitals in the world along with other world known hospitals such as Mayo Clinic in Rochester (Minnesota) and John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore (Maryland). (Source: click here).

This approval has taken four months of product review, manufacturing specifications and testing. With the completion of the lengthy review of the company and manufacturing certificates, Allied intends to make the first of the monthly shipments under this contract in May 2022.

With over 200 million people, Brazil is an obvious market for us at Allied. The quality, flavor profiles and supply chain integrity were all factored into the Brazilian partner and Allied coming together under this agreement. The stringent review process that Allied was put through in order to meet the standard for a customer of this caliber again shows our manufacturing competence and knowledge of international regulatory compliance. The revenue that this brings Allied on a monthly basis will only fuel our forward growth and continue to provide for accretive shareholder value, said Mr. Calum Hughes, CEO and Chairman of Allied Corp.

About Allied Corp.  CLICK HERE

Click here for Allied Inside business model website: CLICK HERE

Allied Corp. is an international cannabis company with its main production center in Colombia and is one of the few companies that has exported from Colombia internationally. In preparation for the possible legalization of cannabis by the US Federal Government, Allied also has the option to purchase a US cannabis license in the US (Nevada) exercisable if such were to happen. In addition to this, Allied has three CBD-brands to market with products selling in the United States. Lastly, Allied has both Cannabinoid and psilocybin products in the pharmaceutical development track seeking pharma drug indications for depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Investor Relations:

ir@allied.health

1-877-255-4337

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws in Canada or the United States ( forward-looking information). Forward-looking information may relate to the Companys future outlook and anticipated events, plans or results, and may include information regarding the Companys objectives, goals, strategies, future revenue or performance and capital expenditures, and other information that is not historical information. Forward-looking information can often be identified by the use of terminology such as believe, anticipate, plan, expect, pending, in process, intend, estimate, project, may, will, should, would, could, can, the negatives thereof, variations thereon and similar expressions. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is based on the Companys opinions, estimates and assumptions in light of managements experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that management currently believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. Forward looking statements in this press release include the following: that Allied is leveraging the conditions in its Colombia grow operation and future Kelowna location to support its Research and Development efforts; that Allied is making important strides forward to position itself as a leader in the medical cannabis space, that Allied intends to make a series of proposed trademark and other intellectual property protection filings, as part of the Companys Intellectual Property and Pharma Development (IP&PD) Strategy, statements respecting the joint development, manufacturing, and the introduction of TACTICAL RELIEF branded products.

There can be no assurance that the underlying opinions, estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information in this release include: the Companys exposure to legal and regulatory risk; the effect of the legalization of adult-use cannabis in Canada and Colombia on the medical cannabis industry is unknown and may significantly and negatively affect the Companys medical cannabis business; that the medical benefits, viability, safety, efficacy, dosing and social acceptance of cannabis are not as currently expected; that adverse changes or developments affecting the Companys main or planned facilities may have an adverse effect on the Company; that the medical cannabis industry and market may not continue to exist or develop as anticipated or the Company may not be able to succeed in this market; risks related to completion of the greenhouse construction in Colombia, risks related to market competition; risks related to the proposed adult-use cannabis industry and market in Canada and Colombia including the Companys ability to enter into or compete in such markets; that the Company has a limited operating history and a history of net losses and that it may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future; risks related to the Companys current or proposed international operations; risks related to future third party strategic alliances or the expansion of currently existing relationships with third parties; that the Company may not be able to successfully identify and execute future acquisitions or dispositions or successfully manage the impacts of such transactions on its operations; risks inherent to the operation of an agricultural business; that the Company may be unable to attract, develop and retain key personnel; risks resulting from significant interruptions to the Companys access to certain key inputs such as raw materials, electricity, water and other utilities; that the Company may be unable to transport its cannabis products to patients in a safe and efficient manner; risks related to recalls of the Companys cannabis products or product liability or regulatory claims or actions involving the Companys cannabis products; risks related to the Companys reliance on pharmaceutical distributors; that the Company, or the cannabis industry more generally, may receive unfavorable publicity or become subject to negative consumer or investor perception; that certain events or developments in the cannabis industry more generally may impact the Companys reputation or its relationships with customers or suppliers; that the Company may not be able to obtain adequate insurance coverage in respect of the risks that it faces, that the premiums for such insurance may not continue to be commercially justifiable or that there may be coverage limitations and other exclusions which may result in such insurance not being sufficient; that the Company may become subject to liability arising from fraudulent or illegal activity by its employees, contractors, consultants and others; that the Company may experience breaches of security at its facilities or losses as a result of the theft of its products; risks related to the Companys information technology systems; that the Company may be unable to sustain its revenue growth and development; that the Company may be unable to expand its operations quickly enough to meet demand or manage its operations beyond their current scale; that the Company may be unable to secure adequate or reliable sources of necessary funding; risks related to, or associated with, the Companys exposure to reporting requirements; risks related to conflicts of interest; risks related to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; risks related to the Companys potential exposure to greater-than-anticipated tax liabilities; risks related to the protection and enforcement of the Companys intellectual property rights, or the intellectual property that it licenses from others; that the Company may become subject to allegations that it or its licensors are in violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties; that the Company may not realize the full benefit of the clinical trials or studies that it participates in; that the Company may not realize the full benefit of its licenses if the licensed material has less market appeal than expected and the licenses may not be profitable; as well as any other risks that may be further described in and the risk factors discussed in the Company's continuous disclosure including its Management's Discussion and Analysis sections in its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Current Reports on Form 8-K filed under the Company's profile at www.sec.gov.

Although management has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information in this presentation, there may be other risk factors not presently known to the Company or that the Company presently believes are not material that could also cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking information in this presentation. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers and viewers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date made. The forward-looking information contained in this release represents the Companys expectations as of the date of this release or the date indicated, regardless of the time of delivery of the presentation. The Company disclaims any intention, obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws.




Portland, Oregon, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artificial intelligence solutions company, Synaptiq, and Quality and Patient Safety company, Volpini Solutions LLC, will present an overview of the upcoming Spring 2022 Machine Vision pilot program for Central Line Dressing Maintenance on Microsofts Voices of Healthcare webinar series on May 11.

The pilot program is designed to help reduce preventable injuries from hospital-acquired Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSIs) and improve speed of care and patient outcomes. It also helps providers standardize care for new and existing staff, identify educational opportunities, and decrease documentation time. It leverages the Machine Vision demo solution Synaptiq recently built with Microsoft.

According to the NIH, CLABSIs are largely preventable infections that occur in more than 400,000 patients annually in the United States alone, resulting in over 28,000 deaths and costing U.S. hospitals $2 billion. A key piece of preventing CLABSIs is keeping Central Line dressings as clean and intact as possible.

In the webinar on May 11, Synaptiq CEO Stephen Sklarew and Volpini Solutions Mariana Gattegno, will join Microsofts Shelly Avery, Director, Healthcare Specialist for Health & Life Sciences; Vasu Sharma, Senior Customer Service Manager for Microsoft 365 for Health and Life Sciences; and Joshua Thompson, Senior Account Executive for Healthcare to discuss the current status of Central Line dressing maintenance in hospitals today, review the pilot program details, and demo the solution. They will also answer questions and discuss how hospitals joining this effort will benefit

I am truly excited to provide our viewers with a first-look at this incredibly important pilot, said Microsofts Shelly Avery. I had the opportunity to assist in building the demo solution alongside Synaptiq and cannot wait to see how it helps save many, many lives in the years to come.

We are excited to have the opportunity to share this exciting pilot on the Microsoft Voices of Healthcare program, said Synaptiq CEO Stephen Sklarew. Our goal for this pilot is to leverage the extraordinary power of artificial intelligence, together with care teams and existing Microsoft applications, to help hospitals mitigate the CLABSI issue.

The innovative machine vision application works seamlessly with care teams to help provide superior patient experiences.

CLABSIs are a critical problem to solve for hospital systems across the nation. Bringing together evidence-based practices and machine vision gives us an incredible opportunity to help solve it, said Mariana Gattegno of Volpini Solutions.

For more information or to apply for the 2022 Machine Vision Pilot Program for Central Line Dressing Maintenance, visit the Synaptiq website.

###

About Synaptiq

With over 60 clients in 20 sectors worldwide, Synaptiq exists to build a brighter world for future generations through novel applications of machine learning and AI. We build human-centered AI solutions and products to solve some of the hardest problems in business while upholding our firm commitment to ethics and transparency. Our team of management consultants, AI researchers, data scientists, and product development experts is characterized by bold creativity, intellectual curiosity, passion for impact, and the audacity to innovate on problems previously thought impossible to solve. For more information about Synaptiq please visit www.synaptiq.ai.

Press Contact

Stephen Sklarew

Stephen.Sklarew@synaptiq.ai

About Volpini Solutions LLC

As a results and data-driven business, Volpini Solutions LLC strives to improve patient outcomes across the care continuum by developing data analytics and technology-based solutions that create a direct impact on organizational efficiency. Our company utilizes evidence-based practices and healthcare expertise to create standardized care pathways and improve all aspects of patient care. We pride ourselves on innovative solutions that drive quality, improve performance, and make healthcare safer for all. For more information and ways to connect with Volpini Solutions LLC, please visit us on LinkedIn.

Press Contact

Mariana V. Gattegno

VolpiniSolutionsLLC@gmail.com
HOUSTON, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A Houston-based legal and tax services provider is offering a digital platform to support business owners as they file form 2553 - the paperwork necessary to complete the S-Corp election. ElectSCorp - which has been serving business clients since 2010 - launched this online platform in response to a backlog in application processing at the IRS, something that is causing significant problems for business owners seeking to achieve S corporation status in a timely manner. Despite filing their S-Corp documentation on time, business owners are discovering that their election is being delayed by the backlog, and so a more modern solution is required.

Using this web-based filing platform, business owners achieve a streamlined, intuitive and wholly digital route to filing form 2553. What's more, the platform is powered by AI and human reviews, ensuring full regulatory compliance for business owners.

There are many factors that make S corporation status attractive to business owners. This status frees directors and shareholders from any personal liability regarding the company's finances or debts, effectively protecting personal assets. S corporation status also permits certain tax benefits, enables the cash method of accounting for business incomings and outgoings, and makes transfer of ownership easier to achieve.

In order to connect with these benefits, businesses must meet election criteria and submit the form 2553 document. This ensures that the process is handled in a manner that adheres completely to United States' tax laws and regulations.

Melissa Beck is the Director of Compliance at ElectSCorp. She has encountered a large number of business owners who are concerned about getting their forms in on time and delays affecting their operations. Ms. Beck had this to say:

"We're finding that modern business owners are really serious about compliance and about doing the right thing. These entrepreneurs understand what they need to do and are working hard to prepare, complete and submit all of their S-Corp election paperwork within the deadline."

Ms Beck continued: "It's such a shame that these business owners are being delayed by the high levels of demand at the IRS - high levels of demand that are causing significant delays in processing. This is leading to S-Corp applications missing key deadlines, even though business owners have remained aware of these deadlines throughout."

"With our solution, we want to make things easier. We want to provide a digital process for filing form 2553 - a digital process that avoids all of the delays, the hassle, the trouble and the anxiety of traditional filing methods. Business owners are focused on compliance and on realizing the benefits of S corporation status. We are here to make this simple and straightforward."

Since ElectSCorp's formation back in 2010, the company has assisted more than 10,000 business clients with filing key documents, achieving compliance, and structuring themselves in the appropriate way under United States tax law. With their digital platform, ElectSCorp hopes to be able to help even more business owners and entrepreneurs complete their objectives.

Business owners can access the digital filing platform via the ElectSCorp website.

About ElectSCorp.com

ElectSCorp provides tax compliance solutions for small businesses and startups. The company provides a cloud-based platform that helps businesses of all sizes comply with tax regulations in partnership with government agencies.

CONTACT

Name: Peter Vic

Phone: (888) 444-5260

Email: petervic@electscorp.com

Related Images











Image 1: File Form 2553 Online





ElectSCorp is a company that helps small businesses form S-Corp tax elections.









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

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DENVER and Jacksonville, Fla., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cologix, North Americas leading network-neutral interconnection and hyperscale edge data center company, announced today that IQ Fiber, Northeast Floridas only local residential fiber-optic internet service provider, has partnered with Cologix to support IQ Fibers network deployment in the Jacksonville area. IQ Fiber is currently contracted for space and power services in Cologixs JAX1 and JAX2 facilities, and is actively deploying its 100% fiber-optic network in the Jacksonville metropolitan area.

We are proud to work with partners such as IQ Fiber who are committed to help bridge the digital divide in underserved areas such as Jacksonville and Northeast Florida, said Cologix President and Chief Revenue Officer Laura Ortman. We believe in enabling an ecosystem of networks, cloud providers and interconnection so that everyone can benefit from the rapid digital transformation that is taking place in cities across the country.

Cologixs digital edge data centers and dense network and cloud interconnection hubs align with IQ Fibers vision of bringing the latest connectivity options to Jacksonville and Northeast Florida and aligns with the companys commitment to support the areas growing economy. Located in Jacksonvilles central business district, the Cologix JAX1 data center connects to JAX2 via dark fiber and offers colocation customers the fastest routes available in the region. For those clients looking to connect into the global digital economy, these data centers feature the most interconnected hubs in Florida, with direct access to subsea cables connecting to central and South America as well as fiber crossroads to Atlanta and Florida.

Fast, reliable internet service is a necessity in todays world, said Ted Schremp, CEO of IQ Fiber. IQ Fiber is headquartered in Jacksonville and is committed to bringing high-speed, high-capacity, reliable, 100% fiber-optic internet to Northeast Florida residents who currently lack access to modern, symmetrical broadband service that only fiber can provide.

IQ Fiber currently has two major construction projects underway for its fiber deployment in the Jacksonville metro area, which will serve 60,000 residential customers and create more than 100 new local jobs over the next three years. IQ Fiber allows for symmetrical speeds of up to 10 gigabits, with underground conduit and fiber-optic cables extending from the core internet backbone directly into individual customers homes, providing high speed internet while supporting explosive growth in internet usage and demand. IQ Fiber has $21 million in projects underway in San Marco and Atlantic Beach, Florida, and is the only Jacksonville-based, internet service provider to be building out a new 100% fiber-optic network. The new project will deliver modern infrastructure to Northeast Florida and enable this previously underserved area to participate fully in todays digital economy.

About Cologix Inc.

Cologix provides carrier and cloud neutral hyperscale edge data centers and services across North America. Cologix is the interconnection hub for cloud service providers, carriers and a rich ecosystem of partners who want to deploy applications at the very edge across Canada and the U.S. With a growing portfolio of next generation facilities that meet the unique requirements for hyperscale growth with deep connectivity, Cologix offers massive scale and tailor-made data center solutions to accelerate customers digital transformation. For on-demand connectivity for scale and control, Cologix Access Marketplace provides fast, reliable, self-service provisioning. For a tour of one of our data centers in Ashburn, Columbus, Dallas, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Minneapolis, Montreal, New Jersey, Silicon Valley, Toronto or Vancouver visit www.cologix.com or email sales@cologix.com. Follow Cologix on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About IQ Fiber

IQ Fiber is Northeast Florida's only local fiber-optic internet service provider. Headquartered in Jacksonville, IQ Fiber is transforming the residential broadband market by offering a 100% fiber-optic network with a stress-free guarantee: no contracts, hidden fees, or data caps. Its network is supported by live, local customer service. IQ Fiber is backed by strong capital funding partners focused on rapidly expanding its residential fiber network across Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns Counties. For more information, visit www.iqfiber.com.

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April 27, 2022, Oslo, Norway: PGS (or "the Company") held its Annual General Meeting today. The Annual General Meeting resolved to approve all matters as proposed in the Calling Notice. The minutes from the Annual General Meeting can be downloaded from www.newsweb.no and www.pgs.com.

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Climate First Bank, the worlds first community bank with a founding mission to make cutting-edge climate solutions financially achievable for everyone via incentivized loan offerings, today announces the appointment of President Lex Ford to its board of directors. He will help set strategy as the bank grows to become the largest values-based financial institution in the Southeast.



Ford joined Climate First Bank in October 2021, leading the banks day-to-day operations and building its book of business to grow the number of solar panels, EV charging stations, and energy-efficient buildings present in Central Florida. Since Ford assumed his role at the bank, it has grown from $92 million to $160 million in assets as of March 31, 2022, primarily in the Central Florida area. Ford was instrumental in the opening of Climate First Banks first Central Florida location in Winter Park, and his current efforts include supervising the branchs deep energy retrofit. Ford is also helming the opening of the banks third branch in Mount Dora and the relocation of the flagship office in St. Petersburg.

Ive known Lex for many years, and Im glad to have him as my right hand at the bank, said CEO and Founder of Climate First Bank Ken LaRoe. Lex has deep community ties, having spent his whole banking career in Central Florida. He knows the market, key players and individual small businesses personally. This expertise is invaluable to the board as the bank expands its influential mission across the whole state of Florida.

Additionally, Ford embraces community involvement as a major part of his life as the president of Climate First Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to promoting renewable energy, water conservation and community-supported agriculture. It has provided thousands of dollars in renewable energy grants to Florida residents for the installation of solar panels and solar hot water heaters. The foundation scaled enormously under Fords direction, donating thousands of dollars to multiple nonprofits in Central Florida. Ford hopes to increase funds raised each year, optimizing the foundations impact in tandem with the banks efforts.

Im honored to join the board and am ready to leverage my roles with the bank and foundation to enact lasting positive change in my hometown community, said Ford.

Stay tuned for the latest updates, and to learn more visit climatefirstbank.com.

About Climate First Bank

Climate First Bank is a values-based community bank offering a complete, full-service portfolio of simple and easy-to-use traditional banking products. These products are powered by high technology to meet the expectations of todays consumers. In addition to offering standard banking services, the company places a special emphasis on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and businesses committed to sustainability. Eco-conscious customers will find dedicated loan options for solar photovoltaic (PV), energy retrofits and infrastructure to help combat the climate crisis. Member FDIC.
ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vulcan Minerals Inc. (the Company - Vulcan TSX-V: VUL), provides the following exploration update.



Colchester Springdale Drilling Update

The Company is still waiting for drill assay results. A total of 1511 meters were drilled over 8 scout holes in late 2021 testing a variety of targets within mafic volcanic sequences at Colchester. Several stringer and disseminated sulfide zones were encountered containing chalcopyrite with variable associations of pyrite, pyrrhotite and sphalerite. The program was successful in intersecting copper sulphide zones visually similar to the stringer zones historically encountered in the Colchester area. A total of 621 samples were cut and submitted for assay. Backlogs in the laboratory are creating extraordinary delays in getting assay results. Results are expected in the next 2-3 weeks. They will be released after compilation and review.

The Colchester project is part of the larger Springdale property which hosts numerous historic copper and gold deposits and showings, none of which have been adequately explored with the benefit of modern digital geophysical and geological modelling. The Springdale property is road accessible and near significant mining services.

A review of the relevant data with maps is available in the corporate presentation at the companys website landing page, www.vulcanminerals.ca.

New Project Generation

The Company continues to generate and stake new gold and base metal projects as part of its ongoing strategy to leverage its geologic knowledge base in Newfoundland and Labrador. An impressive land package has been acquired and further evaluation and strategic work continues. Upon completion of this work, the Company will provide a description of these properties and the exploration strategy.

President Patrick Laracy noted Newfoundland and Labrador is one of the most exciting mineral exploration destinations in the world given its high geologic prospectivity coupled with recent discoveries. We believe that the province will be a significant player in the tremendous upside potential of the mineral exploration business as it responds to the increasing demand for minerals to facilitate a transition to cleaner energy solutions.

About Vulcan

Vulcan Minerals is a precious and base metals exploration company based in St. Johns Newfoundland. The company has strategic land positions in multiple active Newfoundland gold exploration and development belts. It also holds approximately 36% of the shares in Atlas Salt Inc. (TSXV: SALT). Atlas Salt is an industrial minerals company that is carrying out a feasibility analysis on its Great Atlantic Salt deposit. It also produces gypsum from its Ace Mine and owns the mineral rights to the Fischells Brook salt dome and other strategic salt claims. These Atlass projects are in western Newfoundland.

Patrick J. Laracy P.Geo, President is the qualified person responsible for the technical contents of this news release as defined in National Instrument 43-101.

We seek safe harbour.

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This release may contain certain forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ from the Companys expectations. Certain risk factors beyond the Companys control may affect the actual results achieved. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

For information please contact:

Patrick J. Laracy, P.Geo.

President

(709) 754-3186

laracy@vulcanminerals.ca

www.vulcanminerals.ca
Washington, DC, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Conservation efforts for other animals have likely helped protect many reptile species, according to a new study led by NatureServe, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Conservation International. The study, published in the journal Nature, presents an analysis of the first comprehensive extinction risk assessment for reptiles on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which found that at least 21% of all reptile species globally are threatened with extinction.

For the Nature study, a diverse research team, representing 24 countries across six continents, analyzed the conservation needs of 10,196 reptile species in comparison with mammals, birds, and amphibians. Reptiles in the study include turtles, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tuatara, the only living member of a lineage that evolved in the Triassic period approximately 200-250 million years ago.

The research revealed that efforts to conserve threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians are more likely than expected to co-benefit many threatened reptiles. Although reptiles are well known to inhabit arid habitats such as deserts and scrubland, most reptile species occur in forested habitats, where they and other vertebrate groups  suffer from threats such as logging and conversion of forest to agriculture. The study found that 30% of forest-dwelling reptiles are at risk of extinction, compared with 14% of reptiles in arid habitats.

I was surprised by the degree to which mammals, birds and amphibians, collectively, can serve as surrogates to reptiles, said Dr. Bruce Young, co-leader of the study and Chief Zoologist and Senior Conservation Scientist at NatureServe. This is good news because the extensive efforts to protect better known animals have also likely contributed to protecting many reptiles. Habitat protection is essential to buffer reptiles, as well as other vertebrates, from threats such as agricultural activities and urban development.

The study also highlighted what we stand to lose if we fail to protect reptiles. If each of the 1,829 threatened reptiles became extinct, we would lose a combined 15.6 billion years of evolutionary historyincluding countless adaptations for living in diverse environments.

The results of the Global Reptile Assessment signal the need to ramp up global efforts to conserve them, said Neil Cox, co-leader of the study and Manager of the IUCN-Conservation International Biodiversity Assessment Unit. Because reptiles are so diverse, they face a wide range of threats across a variety of habitats. A multifaceted action plan is necessary to protect these species, with all the evolutionary history they represent.

The authors note that urgent, targeted conservation measures are still necessary to protect some of the most threatened reptile species, especially island endemic lizards threatened by introduced predators and those that are more directly impacted by humans. For example, hunting, rather than habitat modification, is the main threat to turtles and crocodiles, half of which are at risk of extinction.

The findings of the Global Reptile Assessment serve as a baseline that can be used to measure changes in extinction risk and track species recovery progress over time. Results will also be valuable to help guide allocation of conservation resources through identification of Key Biodiversity Areas and other places where active management could prevent extinctions.

Reptiles are not often used to inspire conservation action, but they are fascinating creatures and serve indispensable roles in ecosystems across the planet. We all benefit from their role in controlling pest species and serving as prey to birds and other animals, stated Dr. Sean T. OBrien, President and CEO of NatureServe. The analysis of the first Global Reptile Assessment enable us to pinpoint where reptiles need the most help and serve as a major step to countering the global extinction crisis.

Over 900 scientists were recruited to contribute to the IUCN Red List assessments, the findings of which helped inform this analysis.

###

Editors notes

The global biodiversity crisis will take center stage this year as the UNs Convention on Biological Diversity convenes its Conference of the Parties  COP15  in Kunming, China with the goal of finalizing the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. This framework will have the potential to do for species what the Paris Climate Agreement has done for global warming: set the course of biodiversity conservation for the next decade.

Supporting quotes:

"The potential loss of one fifth of all reptile species reminds us how much of Earth's biodiversity is disappearing, a crisis that is threatening all species, including humans," said Maureen Kearney, a program director at the U.S National Science Foundation, which funded much of the study research conducted in Latin America and the Caribbean. "It is critical we understand extinction risk data for all species if society is to develop strategic, effective conservation efforts, and this study fills a gap in that understanding. These researchers and the knowledge theyve provided highlight how a global understanding of biodiversity can only be gained by large, international teams of field experts conducting difficult, time-consuming, and often underappreciated 'boots-on-the-ground' work.

"These study results show that reptile conservation research no longer needs to be overshadowed by that of amphibians, birds and mammals. It is concerning though that more than a fifth of all known reptile species are threatened, said Mark Auliya, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change. Findings from this work must now be channeled into concrete research activities to classify the degree of endangerment of certain species and thereof derive targeted conservation measures. However, for the sustainable conservation of reptile diversity and their ancestral ecosystems, an interdisciplinary approach involving responsible actors is an indispensable prerequisite to halt the increase in threatened species.

Its great to see this exceptional work of more than 900 experts come to fruition  assessments such as this form the basis for conservation planning and action, said Monika Bohm, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London. While we have likely already provided some conservation benefits to reptiles through protecting other species of mammals, birds and amphibians, we now need to take what we learned from this Global Reptile Assessment to instigate targeted conservation action on the ground, improve the conservation status of these magnificent creatures and reverse the red.

Australia is a global reptile hotspot, being home to around 10% of the worlds species. The vast majority of these species are endemic to Australia, said Professor David G. Chapple, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University. The Global Reptile Assessment revealed that the plight of Australias reptiles has deteriorated over the past 25 years, with a doubling of the number of threatened species, and the first recorded extinction of an Australian squamate reptile (Christmas Island forest skink, Emoia nativitatis), and two species becoming Extinct in the Wild (blue-tailed skink, Cryptoblepharus egeriae, and Listers gecko, Lepidodactylus listeri).

The recent IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services bases one of its conclusions on data for 1,500 reptile species. Our work provides a more complete picture of the status of an Essential Biodiversity Variable, the distribution and status of species, by providing an in-depth analysis, updated geographies, and extinction risk for more than 10,000 reptile species, said Miguel Fernandez, Post-doctoral Researcher at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Affiliate Faculty at the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University. On a personal level this publication helps me to remember an obvious truth, that our responsibility is to leave to future generations a planet equal or better than the one we are living on with respect to other living species.

Besides revealing general patterns of extinction risk, this study has identified hot spots of threatened reptile species, such as in the Caribbean islands, where we need to focus our efforts said Blair Hedges, Carnell Professor and Director of the Center for Biodiversity at Temple University. Extinctions are already occurring from deforestation alone, and climate change is now accelerating the process, especially in countries like Haiti where nearly all primary forest has been destroyed. We are quickly running out of time.

From turtles that breathe through their genitals to chameleons the size of a chickpea, reptiles are an eclectic bunch, said Mike Hoffmann, Head of Wildlife Recovery at the Zoological Society of London. Many reptiles, like the Tuatara or Pig-nosed Turtle, are like living fossils, whose loss would spell the end of not just species that play unique ecosystem roles, but also many billions of years of evolutionary history. Their future survival depends on us putting nature at the heart of all we do.

Reptiles from Christmas Island, an Australian island south of Sumatra, are highlighted in the study as they are examples of reptiles severely impacted by invasive predators, said Nicola J. Mitchell, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia. In this instance, an invasive Wolf Snake from Asia drove a recent collapse of the reptile community. Fortunately, captive breeding was initiated in time to save two of the species from extinction, and captive-bred blue-tailed skinks have now been introduced to snake-free islands in the Cocos-Keeling archipelago, more than 1000 km from Christmas Island. We may need many more actions such as this to secure our astounding reptile diversity, especially as many reptile habitats will be lost due to climate change.

In respect to conservation, the chelonians are very important, said Philipp Wagner, Curator at Allwetterzoo, Germany and responsible for the International Centre for the Conservation of Turtles. More than 50% of the species are threatened and many of the Asian species are assessed as critically endangered. Cuora zhoui for example is only known from captivity with less than 200 individuals.

This comprehensive global assessment increases our understanding of the conservation status of reptile species assessed to date. It highlights the importance of identifying Key Biodiversity Areas and providing protection for microendemics that occur outside of existing protected areas and the fragile ecosystem they inhabit before they are lost due to development, said Hana Saif Al Suwaidi, Chairperson of Environment and Protected Areas Authority, Sharjah. The diverse reptile species of arid regions, which are perfectly adapted to harsh environmental conditions and are often poorly represented in conservation actions, were not overlooked in this study.

The outcome of this study provides strong motivation for taking conservation forward in Africa, said Krystal Tolley of the South African National Biodiversity Institute in Cape Town, South Africa. Contrary to prior assumptions, our results showed there are elevated threat levels for forest reptiles. Given that the African continent is currently undergoing substantial habitat loss, especially for indigenous forests, we can now link forest loss to the high threat level of reptiles. Ultimately, conservation starts with recognition of what the impacts are, and from there, we can design solutions.

About NatureServe

For nearly 50 years, NatureServe has been the authoritative source for biodiversity data and the central coordinating organization for a network of over 60 member programs throughout North America. Together, NatureServe and the Network of member programs are dedicated to developing, collecting, and analyzing biodiversity information to support informed decisions about managing, protecting, restoring, and conserving natural resources. NatureServe and the Network develop and manage data for over 100,000 species and ecosystems, answering fundamental questions about what exists, where it is found, and how it is doing. www.natureserve.org.

About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organizations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. Created in 1948, IUCN is now the worlds largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,400 member organisations and some 18,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, the IUCN works to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems, and improve peoples well-being. www.iucn.org.

About Conservation International

Conservation International protects nature for the benefit of humanity. Through science, policy, fieldwork and finance, we spotlight and secure the most important places in nature for the climate, for biodiversity and for people. With offices in 30 countries and projects in more than 100 countries, Conservation International partners with governments, companies, civil society, Indigenous peoples and local communities to help people and nature thrive together. Go to Conservation.org for more, and follow our work on Conservation News, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

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Vancouver, BC, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vancouver, April 27, 2022  Creative Destruction Lab-Vancouver (CDL-Vancouver) is launching CDL Compute, a specialization that has evolved from learning on the Prime stream. CDL-Vancouver is based at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. The new stream will focus on scaling solutions for 5G and connectivity, edge, spatial compute, AV/VR and meta, as well as processing and decentralization, by bringing together world-renowned scientists, academics, visionary entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to provide mentorship, networking and investment opportunities to participating ventures.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for digital transformation, accelerating demand for faster and more efficient computing hardware and software technologies. Compounded by a global chip shortage, this need requires innovation and rapid development to fulfill. CDL saw this opportunity and will support pre-seed and seed-stage startups in commercializing their revolutionary computing solutions.

CDLs goal is to support the translation of science and technology into commercial impact for the betterment of humanity, says Darrell Kopke, director of CDL-Vancouver. Given British Columbias emerging expertise in advanced computing areas such as edge computing, iOT, decentralized finance, web3 and the metaverse, we felt the timing was right to support in driving these technologies forward.

Three factors overwhelmingly contributed to the decision to launch the stream at Sauder:

Proximity to TRIUMF, Canadas national particle accelerator centre, as well as UBCs computer science program (tied for the best comp sci department in Canada and in the top 25 worldwide), and the 150-member Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems for interdisciplinary research at UBC, allows Compute to engage world-class researchers and students.

CDL-Vancouvers experience catering to the niche needs of computing startups within the general Prime stream, including Synthiam, a software platform that makes programming robots autonomous capabilities more accessible, and Iris Dynamics, which creates fully-integrated electric linear motors that simplify robotic design.

The provinces expanding tech sector saw a staggering 316 percent growth in investment in 2021, the second largest investment increase in Canada.

The introduction of a CDL Compute stream in Vancouver will ensure that funding continues to flow, especially to early-stage ventures which remain under-funded in the province. In the last quarter of 2021, pre-seed companies received only 0.6 percent of funding and seed-stage 20.2 percent. Like CDLs other specialized tech streams  AI, Blockchain and Space  Compute will bring targeted investments, helping to close B.C.s early-stage funding gap.

We aim to support technology founders to massively scale their ventures, says Kopke. CDL-Vancouver will be accepting massively scalable, pre-seed and seed-stage startups working on new computing hardware and software with a focus on core enabling technologies, such as the development of drastically faster and more efficient computing through non-general-processing-unit-based systems; new localization or connectivity technologies, resulting in order-of-magnitude better wireless data transfer; and greater decentralization.

As the Internet is starting to evolve into Web 3.0, innovations here are exciting and timely. The CDL can serve pockets that are underserved, says Boris Wertz, founder of Version One Ventures and early-stage investor in mission-driven startups. I see crypto/web3, AR/VR, robotics as early technologies that have not yet been fully tapped for potential. I am personally very bullish on this area and hope that we see new projects through CDL thinking about where to take computing next.

Join a CDL-Vancouver Compute webinar to learn about how we can build something massive, together.

Companies and founders interested in applying to the Compute stream can contact cdl-vancouver_ventures@creativedestructionlab.com for more information. Applications will be accepted online until July 31, 2022.

About Creative Destruction Lab

Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a nonprofit organization that delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies. Its nine-month program allows founders to learn from experienced entrepreneurs, increasing their likelihood of success. Founded in 2012 by Professor Ajay Agrawal at the University of Torontos Rotman School of Management, the program has expanded to 11 sites across five countries. Participating ventures have created $19 billion (CAD) in equity value.

Media Contact

Amarpreet Kaur

Associate Director

Creative Destruction Lab

amarpreet.kaur@creativedestructionlab.com

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MANILA, Philippines, April 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inspiro, the outsourcing specialist, announced today that it was named winner in two award categories in the ninth annual Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards. Inspiro received honors in Innovation in Customer Service Management, Planning & Practice, and Innovative Management in Business Product & Service Industries categories.



The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are the only business awards program to recognize innovation in the workplace in all 29 nations of the Asia-Pacific region. The Stevie Awards are widely considered to be the world's premier business awards, conferring recognition for achievement in programs such as The International Business Awards for 20 years.

Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word for "crowned," the winners will be celebrated during a virtual (online) awards ceremony on Wednesday, 29 June.

Inspiro was awarded a Silver Stevie in the Innovation in Customer Service Management, Planning & Practice category for championing various CX improvement initiatives and spearheading automation programs for a key client. The company also won a Bronze Stevie in the Innovative Management in Business Product & Service Industries category for its best-in-class hybrid training solution.

President and CEO Yuji Hamamoto celebrates the wins: "We are honored to be part of this year's esteemed roster of winners. These awards are a testament to our culture of excellence and innovation and our global employees' unwavering dedication to providing excellent service. We share this recognition with our clients who trust us to bring new ideas that will elevate the service and experience for their customers."

Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 100 executives around the world acting as judges in March and April.

"The ninth edition of the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards attracted many remarkable nominations," said Stevie Awards president Maggie Miller. "The organizations that won this year have demonstrated that they have continued to innovate and succeed despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and we applaud them for their perseverance and creativity. We look forward to celebrating many of this year's winners during our virtual awards ceremony on 29 June."

Details about the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards and the 29 June awards ceremony, and the list of Stevie Award winners, are available at http://Asia.Stevieawards.com .

About Inspiro

Inspiro is the outsourcing specialist with a network of 32,000 customer champions across 51 strategic locations. We deliver multilingual, end-to-end, value-driven CX solutions to the world's leading brands, enabling our clients to optimize processes, exceed metrics, and surpass overall customer satisfaction.

Inspiro is owned by Relia Inc., a member of Japan's Mitsui Group.
Rapid City, SD, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In 2021, All Kids Bike, the nationwide movement on a mission to teach every child in America how to ride a bicycle in kindergarten PE class, received a $30,000 grant from Yamaha Motor Corp, USAs Outdoor Access Initiative. The goal of the grant was to get the All Kids Bike program into six schools near Yamahas corporate offices, including four in Georgia and two in California.

Fast forward to this Spring, with Yamaha volunteers and All Kids Bike ambassadors delivering the final of the six school programs to the Cara J. King Elementary School in Cypress, California, completing this past years grant, and setting the stage for more funding in 2022.

Were grateful for Yamahas support of All Kids Bike, for the funding required to land the program in six schools, for the volunteer efforts Yamaha employees and partners contributed to delivering bikes to schools, and mostly for the opportunity to get more kids on bikes, said Ryan McFarland, All Kids Bike Founder, who attended the first Yamaha-funded school delivery in Cypress last fall.

Volunteers from Yamaha Motor Corp., USAs offices in Marietta, Georgia, and Cypress, California, and from Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation of America in Newnan, Georgia, helped deliver the All Kids Bike programs to the schools over the past year.

The six schools receiving the program from Yamahas Outdoor Access Initiative grant include:

Elm Street Elementary in Newnan, Georgia

Western Elementary in Newnan, Georgia

A.L. Burruss Elementary School in Marietta, Georgia

Lockheed Elementary in Marietta, Georgia

Juliet Morris Elementary School in Cypress, California

Clara J. King Elementary in Cypress, California

The Yamaha Outdoor Access initiative is an inclusive program that supports and promotes outdoor recreation, and we provided this grant to get more kids outside learning valuable skills they can build on for the rest of their lives, said Steve Nessl, Yamahas Motorsports marketing manager. The All Kids Bike program offers the only chance some of these kids will get to develop the confidence and experience the freedom that comes from riding on two wheels.

All Kids Bike programs include 24 balance bikes, pedal conversion kits, helmets, and a teachers bike. It is a plug-and-play program for public schools that aligns with SHAPE America National Physical Education Standards and also includes an eight-lesson Kindergarten PE Learn-To-Ride Curriculum, teacher training and certification, and a five-year support plan.

To date, nearly 550 elementary schools in all 50 states have received and implemented the All Kids Bike program with an estimated 380,000 students benefiting from this program over the next five years.

Bike Riding Benefits for Kids:

Childhood development never stops. By continuing to expand the All Kids Bike program this year, more children across the country are learning life skills and getting much needed exercise while getting away from their computer screens and spending more time outdoors.

The Kindergarten PE Program supports critical health and safety needs, including:

Spatial awareness: Teaches the concept and understanding of safe distancing to a child. Limited touch points: Specifically-designated hand placement limits cross-class touch points. Fosters overall health: Core muscle development, cardio activity, and mental motivation.



Learning to ride a bike at a young age increases confidence while developing balance, mobility, safety, environmental awareness, and facilitating exercise. The bikes used in the All Kids Bike program allow children and teachers to progress through the riding process void of fear and full of encouragement. Kids develop their skills with each session, first learning to balance, then learning to pedal, all on the same bicycle.

The All Kids Bike school funding and waiting lists are online at https://www.allkidsbike.org/give

About the Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative

For more than a decade, the Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative has led the Powersports industry in guaranteeing responsible access to our nations land for outdoor enthusiasts. Through this program, Yamaha has directly and indirectly supported thousands of miles of motorized recreation trails, maintained and rehabilitated riding and hunting areas, improved staging areas, supplied agricultural organizations with essential OHV safety education, built bridges over fish-bearing streams and partnered with local outdoor enthusiast communities across the country to improve access to public lands. Updated guidelines, application form, information and news about the Outdoor Access Initiative are available at YamahaOAI.com.

About All Kids Bike

ALL KIDS BIKE is a national movement led by the Strider Education Foundation to place Kindergarten P.E. Learn-To-Ride Programs into public schools using donations from individuals, businesses, and organizations. The Strider Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, was formed in 2017. The Strider Education Foundation believes that learning to ride can help everyone lead a happier and healthier life. For more information, visit www.allkidsbike.org.

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PARIS, France, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- D/Bond is an innovative start-up that is bringing decentralized bonds to the blockchain using their pioneering ERC/3475 token standard. The decentralized bonds platform has just announced a major rebranding following its successful seed and series A funding round in which several industry leaders invested.

D/Bond is Born

Formerly known as Debond Protocol, the new-look company has changed not only its name but also its website design and logo as a part of the platform's international growth strategy. Alongside the unveiling of its newly-designed website, D/Bond's rebranding will broaden its appeal to investors in new markets.

Seed Funding Round Success

The recent expansion is in part due to a successful seed and series A funding round in which several prominent investors participated, elevating the value of D/Bond to an estimated $12.5 million USD. Bixin Ventures, Spark Digital Capital, Collinstar Capital, Exnetwork Capital, HOT DAO (Hotlabs), Waterdrip Capital, Lotus Capital, Crypto Dorm Fund, and Wave Capital all participated.

D/Bond CEO Yu Liu stated that:

"D/Bond is creating a system to securitize any digital asset. We believe D/Bond has the potential to be an important player in the decentralization of this market, hence the rebrand. We seek to partner with many more investors who believe in our multi-layered pool approach to reduce slippage and transaction fees. We are confident that, thanks to our offer, ERC/3475 D/Bonds that are also tradable on our secondary market, we are going to achieve our financing target."

The new investments cover efforts to tap into existing market opportunities and expand the D/Bond ecosystem within the broader decentralized finance (DeFi) and capital markets.

New Look Website

Those interested in exploring the new website, brand, and a demo of how the app enables users to convert digital assets to securities and derivatives (also turning them into assets tradable on the secondary market) can do so at www.debond.net. The front-end demo is available on GitHub, visitors just need to connect the wallet to Ropsten testnet.

About D/Bond

D/Bond is the Web 3.0 infrastructure pioneering the ERC/3475 token standard for decentralized bonds. The Paris-based start-up also provides the D/Wallet, the D/Exchange bonds and derivatives exchange, and an open market for securities as part of its ecosystem.

Media Contact Info

Contact Name: Mate Matyas

Contact Email: info@debond.org

D/Bond Links

Website | Pitch Deck | One-pager

D/Bond Socials

Twitter | Medium | Discord |

D/Bond is the source of this content. This Press Release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dominion Lending Centres Inc. (TSX:DLCG) (DLCG or the Corporation) is pleased to announce that it will release its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2022 on May 11, 2022, after the market close.



About Dominion Lending Centres Inc.

The DLC Group is Canadas leading network of mortgage professionals. The DLC Group operates through Dominion Lending Centres and its three main subsidiaries, MCC Mortgage Centre Canada Inc., MA Mortgage Architects Inc. and Newton Connectivity Systems Inc., and has operations across Canada. The DLC Groups extensive network includes ~7,750 agents and 530 locations. Headquartered in British Columbia, the DLC Group was founded in 2006 by Gary Mauris and Chris Kayat.

Contact information for the Corporation is as follows:
CALGARY, Alberta, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A limited number of premium walk-out lots are now pre-selling in Copperfield at Copperstone, a master-planned community by Vesta Properties. The award-winning builder/developer has more than 32 years of integrated building experience in Western Canada.



There are only 14 traditional walkouts in this newest phase of Copperfield, an established community in southeast Calgary. Each lot has been exclusively developed by Vesta Properties for luxury estate single-family homes.

Vestas Alberta sales manager, AJ van der Linden, says each lot backs onto green space.

These are large lots with the traditional setback that homeowners appreciate that are 36-feet to 38-feet wide, he says.

Vesta has designed three luxury estate models specifically for these walk-out lots, priced from the mid-$800,000s.

The Prestwick, with 2,508 square feet above grade, has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, an upstairs bonus room and main floor office.

The next model is The Prestige, a 2,262 square foot three-bedroom, three-bathroom home with main floor office, walk-in pantry and either an open-to-below feature or fourth bedroom option.

The largest luxury estate floor plan is the 2,665 square foot Canmore with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, main floor office, mudroom, and spacious primary bedroom ensuite.

One of the great features is that the secondary bedrooms have their own bathrooms. So, if the kids are getting a little bit older, they can have privacy, he says.

Each home has more than 1,000 square feet of developable space at the walk out level. Optional development presents an opportunity for more living space or as a mortgage helper as this phase of Copperstone is zoned for secondary suites. Its a bonus for multigenerational families, van der Linden notes.

These customizable homes come with standard luxury features like gourmet kitchen packages, quartz countertops and standard nine-foot ceilings on the main floor and basement/walk-out level.

Copperstone is one of the last phases to be built in Copperfield. The established community has schools, parks, walking trails, stores and restaurants, transit, and enviable access to Stoney Trail.

Theres no major construction and everything you need already exists, van der Linden says.

To be one of the first in line for a walkout lot in Copperstone, visit copperstoneliving.com or visit Vesta Properties sales centre at 1233 Copperfield Blvd. S.E.

For more information, please contact: Vesta Sales Team, via email at copperstone@vestaproperties.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8f354b4e-c221-4717-9122-5fbeb8e3f6c3




NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Guilin, a tourist city known for its picturesque karst mountains and beautiful rivers in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, launched its media convergence center in New York Monday, as part of the efforts to boost the exposure of the city to the world, according to Guilin City Government.

Guilin international media convergence center is the first of its kind that the Chinese city-level government has ever set up outside the country.

Han Liu, deputy minister of Publicity Department of the CPC Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region's Committee, said that the establishment of the center is an important step to improve Guilin's international communication capacity, as well as an innovative measure to forge Guilin into a world-class tourist city.

By building a city level media convergence command center and international media convergence center, Guilin aims to build up a media landscape with the support of national and provincial media resources, said Yang Yanyan, minister of Publicity Department of the CPC Guilin City Committee, adding that the city has started to integrate various media resources, and launched four accounts on major international social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

Such a media landscape will effectively integrate various media resources and production elements so to converge, connect and share the content and technological applications, said Yang.

Though a newcomer on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube, the accounts of Guilin have quickly attracted followers and fans with thousands of likes and comments. Topics about Guilin's mountains and waters and special rice noodles were followed by lots of remarks, helping the city to gain worldwide fame and popularity.

Contact person: Sasa Guan

Email: tongguan@xinhuanetus.com

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Atlanta, Denver, New York, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned the public of the risk of false results, inappropriate use, and inappropriate interpretation of results with non-invasive prenatal screening tests (NIPS), also called non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT), or cell-free DNA tests. These tests look for signs of genetic abnormalities in a fetus by testing a sample of blood from a pregnant patient.

For years, the nations three leading Down syndrome advocacy organizations  Global Down Syndrome Foundation (GLOBAL), the National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC), and the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS)  have expressed concerns over the use of, and misconceptions surrounding, these tests, due to their unregulated status. The potential for false positives, egregious mislabeling as diagnostic rather than screening tests, and the fact that some private testing companies are providing their own information about Down syndrome to pregnant women and families must be addressed.

Jeff Shuren, M.D., J.D., Director of the FDAs Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said, While genetic non-invasive prenatal screening tests are widely used today, these tests have not been reviewed by the FDA and may be making claims about their performance and use that are not based on sound science.

Together, GLOBAL, NDSC, and NDSS publish the Prenatal Testing and Information about Down Syndrome (PTP), the nations most widely distributed pamphlet about NIPS and Down syndrome.

An important updated version of the PTP will be released this summer to reflect the FDAs concerns and include information about and links to the 2022 Health Supervision for Children and Adolescents with Down Syndrome published by the American Academy of Pediatrics just last week.

We believe that it is important for parents to have, and physicians to provide, accurate, up-to-date information so that patients make decisions based on facts, not fear, said David Tolleson, Senior Advisor Strategic Alliances at GLOBAL.

It is very important that the public understands the limitations of these screening tests, added Jordan Kough, Executive Director of NDSC. In some cases, decisions are being made based on inaccurate information.

The FDA has warned that advertisements claiming these types of tests are reliable, highly accurate, and offer peace of mind, may not be supported with sound scientific evidence, concurred Kandi Pickard, President & CEO of NDSS. This warning proves that, now more than ever, it is important to get accurate information  like our joint PTP  into the hands of doctors and pregnant women and families.

Patients, healthcare providers, and the public may download the Prenatal Testing and Information about Down Syndrome pamphlet for free in English, Spanish, or Icelandic at each organizations website. Print copies are available upon request.

###

Global Down Syndrome Foundation (GLOBAL)

The Global Down Syndrome Foundation is the largest non-profit in the U.S. working to save lives and dramatically improve health outcomes for people with Down syndrome.

National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC)

The National Down Syndrome Congress is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to an improved world for individuals with Down syndrome.

National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS)

The National Down Syndrome Society is the leading human rights organization for all individuals with Down syndrome.

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New York, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Insight Partners published latest research study on  Data Center Generator Market Forecast to 2028  COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis  by Product Type (Diesel, Natural Gas, and Others), Capacity (Below 1 MW, 12 MW, and Greater than 2 MW), and Tier (Tier 1 and 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4), the global data center generator market growth is driven by the increase in number of data centers and in backup power supply requirements in data centers, increase in use of renewable energy in data centers. The less than 1MW segment led with a market share of 44.4% in 2020 and expected to account for 46.1% of the total market in 2028. North America dominated the market in 2020 with a share of 37.25%; it would continue to dominate the market during the forecast period and account for 31.67% share by 2028. The diesel segment led with a market share of 69.7% in 2020 and expected to account for 68.7% of the total market in 2028.





The Sample Pages Showcases Content Structure and Nature of Information Included in This Research Study Which Presents A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00012410/







Report Coverage Details Market Size Value in US$ 4.69 Billion in 2021 Market Size Value by US$ 6.72 Billion by 2028 Growth rate CAGR of 5.3% from 2021 to 2028. Forecast Period 2021- 2028 Base Year 2021 No. of Pages 189 No. Tables 98 No. of Charts & Figures 90 Historical data available Yes Segments covered Product Type, Capacity, and Tier Regional scope North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Latin America; MEA Country scope US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina Report coverage Revenue forecast, company ranking, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends





Data Center Generator Market: Competitive Landscape and Key Developments

ABB; Atlas Copco AB; Caterpillar; Cummins Inc.; DEUTZ AG; Generac Power Systems, Inc.; HITEC Power Protection; Kirloskar; Kohler Co.; and MITSUBISHI MOTORS CORPORATION are among the key players operating in the global data center generator market. Several players are analyzed to understand the data center generator market.





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The key stakeholders in the data center generator market are data center generator manufacturers; regulatory bodies and associations; distributors/traders and end users. The data center generators give reliable form of onsite power generation in case they are maintained regularly. These types of generators can be configured similarly like UPS systems using either N, N+1, 2N and 2N+1 redundancy. General Electric, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Kohler are some the prominent companies in the data center generators market.

In August 2021, DEUTZ AG and RheinEnergie AG joined forces to run a pilot project in which power is to be generated by a stationary hydrogen engine. DEUTZ is a leading global manufacturer of engines and drive technology, while RheinEnergie is a utility provider with a clear commitment to the green energy transition. RheinEnergie has formulated clear targets for the carbon-neutral generation of energy. Hydrogen will have an important role here as a long-term replacement for fossil fuels such as natural gas. The intention is to use a hydrogen engine to power a generator that will produce 170 kilovolt-ampere of electricity. RheinEnergie is procuring the hydrogen and has already secured its supply.

A rise in adoption of DRUPS and initiatives taken by key players in the development of data center generators have created lucrative data center generator market growth opportunities. A few of the investments made in the data center generators are mentioned below:





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Data center power systems supplier Kohler has launched its range of walk-in power-optimized design solutions (PODS) in response to the increased demand for high-power gensets. The company offers the highest performance standards, reliability, robustness, safety, modularity, and competitiveness. Importantly, their size allows for enough internal cooling power to accommodate Kohler's KD SERIES generators, giving customers the ability to utilize the most powerful generators on the market without compromising installation and maintenance.

A subsidiary of the Bhojsons GroupBhojsons PowerHub is the sole distributor for Kirloskar Green generating sets have unveiled the Kirloskar Remote Management System KRM in Nigeria. With the launch of the new technology, Kirloskar Green power generators with remote monitoring controls will become accessible to consumers. The Bhojsons PowerHub also stated that introducing the 1,000 KVA range of the generator was to meet the growing demand for higher-capacity generators. The new technology and 1,000 KVA range were launched at the Power Nigeria Exhibition at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. Rajneesh Gupta, the Business Unit Head of Bhojsons PowerHub, noted that the Kirloskar Remote Management (KRM) system offered a unique experience for users as it allowed them to monitor their generators in real-time. With the KRM, the end user or customer can monitor their generators across the country from "one room."





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Data Center Generator Market: by Product Type Overview

Based on product type, the data center generator market is segmented into diesel, natural gas, and others. In 2021, the diesel segment accounted for the largest share of the data center generator market. Diesel is an alternate source of electric energy for data center generators. Data centers that allow organizations and customers to access data fast consume a lot of electricity for normal operations and for cooling the rooms in which they are stored.

A diesel generator has special qualities, such as low maintenance, power output, and durability, these advantages offer by the data center generators. Thus, the adoption of data centers generators in IT(Information Technology) industry. Leading manufacturers of diesel engines are constantly engaging in developing diesel data center generators that improve the efficiency, productivity, security, and cost-effectiveness of their operations besides in order to be competitive in the market. . The procurement of diesel generators is high in various regions, such as the Americas, the Middle East & Africa, and Western Europe. These factors are propelling the data center generator market size.





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The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We specialize in industries such as Semiconductor and Electronics, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Biotechnology, Healthcare IT, Manufacturing and Construction, Medical Device, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Chemicals and Materials.

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English French

Combined General Meeting of May 18, 2022: Access to information

Paris, France, on April 27, 2022 The shareholders of Atos SE are invited to participate in the Combined General Meeting of the Company which will be held on May 18, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. (Paris time) at the Company registered office, in the auditorium, River Ouest - 80 quai Voltaire, 95870 Bezons.

In the ongoing context of the health crisis due the Covid-19 epidemic, the procedures for holding and participating in the General Meeting may have to change in order to comply with any new regulations relating to the health situation. Shareholders are therefore invited to regularly consult the updates to the section dedicated to the General Meeting on the Company's website: https://atos.net/en/investors/annual-general-meeting.

It is reminded that the General Meeting will also be broadcasted live on the above-mentioned website and the video recording will then be available for replay in the same section.

The notice of meeting including the agenda, the draft resolutions as well as the main terms and conditions of participation in the said meeting was published in the BALO (Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires) n41 dated April 6, 2022.

The convening notice will be published in the BALO dated May 2, 2022.

The documents provided for by Article R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code will be made available to the shareholders as from the date of the convening notice for the meeting in accordance with applicable regulations:

shareholders holding registered shares (actions au nominatif) may, up to and including the fifth day prior to the meeting, request that the Company sends these documents to them. For shareholders holding bearer shares, the exercize of this right is subject to the provision of a certificate of registration in the accounts of the bearer shares maintained by the authorized intermediary;

shareholders may consult these documents at the Companys registered office during the 15 days period preceding the meeting.

The documents referred to in Article R. 22-10-23 of the French Commercial Code may be consulted and downloaded on the Companys website, in the part dedicated to the General Meetings in the investors section: https://atos.net/en/investors/annual-general-meeting .

****

About Atos

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 111,000 employees and annual revenue of c.  11 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, the Group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 71 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos is an SE (Societas Europaea), listed on Euronext Paris and included in the CAC 40 ESG and Next 20 indexes.

The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.

Contacts:

Investor Relations: Thomas Guillois  thomas.guillois@atos.net - +33 6 21 34 36 62

Media: Anette Rey  anette.rey@atos.net - +33 69 79 84 88

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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, presents a new exhibition, Drawn from Life: Three Generations of Wyeth Figure Studies, on view May 7-Sept. 5, 2022. The exhibition explores three generations of the venerable Wyeth family, primarily N.C., Andrew, and Jamie, and provides a snapshot of them as young artists mastering the figure. Insightful selections from the family's collection of works examine the process of how each individually honed their expertise of rendering the human form through rigorous academic exercises. Exercises conducted both in the studio and in some cases, the morgue. Museum admission is free for visitors 19 and under.

With text by guest curator Victoria Browning Wyeth, the exhibition features many works never-before displayed, including Jamie's anatomical sketches and figure studies, Andrew's early studio sketches and later painting studies, and N.C.'s academic and studio sketches. Work by Carolyn Wyeth, who was trained by her father N.C. and instructed her nephew Jamie Wyeth, round out the exhibition.

Victoria Browning Wyeth provides a family perspective on the work, informed by interviews with her uncle Jamie Wyeth and father Nicholas Wyeth. Questions such as "What is it like to grow up in a family of artists?" and "How do you create your own approach to the figure and to art?" are all explored.

A catalog will accompany the exhibition, as well as a variety of public programs featuring Victoria Browning Wyethsome designed for children.

Sponsored in part by The Clark Foundation, C.J. Heilig Foundation, Mr. Tom Morgan and Ms. Erna J. Morgan McReynolds, The Tom Morgan and Erna J. McReynolds Charitable Foundation, NYCM Insurance, and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas O. Putnam.

This project is supported by a Market New York grant awarded to Fenimore Art Museum from I LOVE NY/New York State's Division of Tourism as part of the Regional Economic Development Council initiative.

Fenimore Art Museum presents a total of nine new exhibitions this year alongside its world-renowned collections which include The Thaw Collection of American Indian Art.

About Fenimore Art Museum

Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake in historic Cooperstown, N.Y., features a wide-ranging collection of American art, including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art. For more information, visit FenimoreArt.org.

Media contact:

Todd Kenyon

Director of Marketing and Communications

(607) 547-1472

pr@fenimoreart.org

Please contact us to request images.

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Image 1: Undercover Study, 1970, Andrew Wyeth.





Watercolor on paper. Collection of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art  2022 Andrew Wyeth/Artists Rights Society (ARS)









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New York, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzanias first woman to lead her nation, greeted more than 400 guests and celebrities at the Paramount Theater for the Los Angeles Premiere on Thursday April 21, of Emmy award-winning journalist and travel editor Peter Greenbergs global television special, Tanzania: The Royal Tour.

This followed President Samias week-long visit to the United States which started with a visit to the White House for a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris. President Samia was in New York on Monday April 18, for the World Premiere of Tanzania: The Royal Tour at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Her Excellency came to Los Angeles to attend the Los Angeles Premiere on Thursday, April 21, at Paramount Theater at Paramount Picture Studios.

"This is a very special, up close and personal journey to and through a country, seen through the eyes of its leader" says producer and host Peter Greenberg. "It's an all-access pass, a deep immersion into the history, culture and the environment at a critical time in Tanzania's history." And the President was Greenberg's tour guide as they crisscrossed the entire country, from her small fishing village in Zanzibar to soaring over Mt. Kilimanjaro; from the expanse of the Serengeti to the Tanzanite mines, from searching for the big five to investigating the country's anti poaching efforts.

Please find link to the trailer here: TANZANIA: THE ROYAL TOUR TRAILER

Since taking office in March of 2021, one year ago, President Samia has embraced an ambitious economic development plan, encouraging women-run business, and strengthening health care, most importantly reversing her predecessors Covid denial and making vaccines available to the public. Another principal objective is the promotion of tourism, with the goal of increasing the number of international travelers from the current 1.5 million to 5 million within the next 5 years, by showcasing Tanzania as a vibrant tourist destination and the many investment opportunities that are offered in her country. The Presidents visit to the US also affords her the opportunity to promote Tanzanias economic development and investment opportunities.

Tanzania is an extraordinary destination with 500 miles of coastline along the Indian Ocean dotted with the fabled spice islands and Zanzibar just off its mainland. The country's cultural and natural assets are incomparable, seven destination wonders are UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Kilimanjaro National Park, home to Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain; Serengeti National Park; Ngorongoro Conservation Area; Selous Game Reserve; Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara; Kondoa Rock-Art Sites and Stone Town of Zanzibar.

Tanzania: The Royal Tour, produced in partnership with Chicago PBS station WTTW, premiered on public television stations across the country on April 18, 2022 (Check local listings for times). Tanzania: The Royal Tour is now available on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.

Please find YouTube coverage of President Samia at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris.

PRESIDENT SAMIA VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/04/15/remarks-by-vicepresident-harris-and-president-samia-suluhu-hassan-of-tanzania-before-bilateral-meeting/

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/president-samia-travels-to-us-3782176

For more information contact:

Sally Fischer Public Relations sfpr@sallyfischerpr.com

The Bradford Group karenh@bradfordglobalmarketing.com

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Waterloo, Canada, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maplesoft today announced the latest release of its Maple Flow engineering calculation software. Maple Flow is a mathematics tool that makes it easy for engineers to brainstorm, develop, and document their design calculations. Productivity enhancements in the new 2022 release improve workflow when creating and using design worksheets, saving engineers time during their day-to-day calculation tasks.

Engineers spend considerable effort assembling requirements, reference sources and mathematical calculations into design worksheets, which require updating multiple times over the life of a project. With Maple Flow, it is simple to capture all this content into a single document, making it easy to understand, maintain, update, and reuse the calculations and the design. Maple Flow includes application examples across a variety of engineering fields, such as reinforced concrete design, worst-case circuit analysis, and pipeline fluid flow. The new release adds an easier way to use these examples to get started, with an updated help system that makes it quicker to find relevant examples and to copy them into your own document.

Other productivity improvements include even faster automatic updates when a parameter is changed, better alignment of matrices, arrays, and vectors around the canvas, and easier entry when using expression templates.

Mechanical, electrical, and civil engineers have told us they were looking for a fast way to collect and arrange design calculations, analysis, and assumptions in a single document. Maple Flow is an efficient tool that combines the live mathematics with design elements in a clean flexible layout, in ways that are impossible in many commonly used tools, such as spreadsheets, says Samir Khan, Product Manager at Maplesoft. In this latest release, the new productivity features make it faster for engineers to prepare design sheets using templates and examples, and easier to make changes. New users to Maple Flow can quickly learn to produce complex calculation documents that look professional, freeing them up for valuable design tasks.

Maple Flow serves as an important communication tool when sharing critical design knowledge across an engineering organization, and documents can easily be formatted for eventual printing or PDF export. The new release of Maple Flow enables engineers to draw more attention to important information or results with the ability to set background colors to highlight parts of the document.

Maple Flow is available in English, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese.

About Maplesoft

Maplesoft is the leading provider of high-performance software tools for engineering, science, and mathematics. Maplesoft Engineering Solutions provide advanced tools and services for system simulation, calculation management, and systems engineering, helping organizations maximize the power of their engineering knowledge so they can complete their projects quickly and successfully. The Maplesoft product suite includes Maple, the worlds most powerful math engine; Maple Flow, math software for engineering calculations; MapleSim, the advanced system-level modeling and simulation tool; and MapleMBSE, which supports a model-based systems engineering approach to requirements management. Maplesoft products and services are used in machine design, robotics, aerospace, automotive, industrial automation, and many other fields where engineers face complex challenges. Customers include Boeing, FLSmidth, Ford, Google, Intel, NASA, and Samsung.

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Newark, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New Jersey Institute of Technology is ranked No. 96 among institutions globally in the 2022 Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings that recognize institutions working to address global issues highlighted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). NJITs rise in this ranking, from 201-300 last year to top 100 this year, reflects the universitys commitment to leveraging its STEM focus in support of sustainability.

Now in its fourth year, the THE Impact Rankings are a global assessment of the commitments universities make in their communities and abroad in alignment with the U.N.s SDGs. The 17 different SDGs represent altruistic themes ranging from eliminating poverty and ensuring access to clean and reliable energy, to developing sustainable communities and supporting land ecosystems.

"Sustainability is one of NJITs core values and one of the guiding themes of our strategic plan, Building on a Strong Foundation--NJIT 2025. In alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, our students, faculty and staff are dedicated to addressing the challenges facing our planet and to creating a safer and more sustainable world for all, said Fadi P. Deek, provost and senior executive vice president. We are very proud that our commitment to sustainability, demonstrated through the research we conduct, the curriculum we deliver, and our engagement with the community, has earned NJIT a top spot in this prestigious ranking."

NJIT Ranks in Top 100 Worldwide on Nine of 17 SDGs

In addition to the overall rank of 96 this year, NJIT is ranked among the top 100 international institutions on nine of the 17 SDGs. The universitys strongest SDG is Life on Land (SDG 15) where it is ranked No. 24 globally. This SDG focuses on land ecosystems and land-sensitive waste disposal. The university offers degree programs in environmental engineering and environmental science, with research labs such as the Global Change and Urban Ecology Lab investigating urban biodiversity and technology for nature.

NJIT also ranked among the top 50 institutions worldwide (No. 45) on SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation. Here, THE recognized the universitys research on water ecosystems through labs including the Center for Natural Resources and the Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology Laboratory that develops water remediation techniques using microorganisms to biodegrade organic pollutants. Other metrics recognized NJITs commitment to water conservation through the installation of low-flow water systems in the new Warren Street residence hall and in other facilities across campus.

This ranking is consistent with NJITs upward trajectory and reflects the progress we have made in meeting our objectives for research and education across the university, said NJIT President Joel S. Bloom. Our performance in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings is evidence of our commitment to social issues that matter including sustainability.

NJIT also ranked among the top 100 institutions globally on the following SDGs: No. 56 Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12); No. 67 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG 16); No. 78 Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7); No. 84 Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11); No. 90 Partnership for the Goals (SDG 17); No. 93 Life below Water (SDG 14); and No. 99 Zero Hunger (SDG 2).

"We are very proud of NJIT's performance in the overall ranking, moving into the top 100 institutions worldwide despite a 26% increase in the number of universities participating, added Deek. As New Jersey's public STEM institution, we celebrate the recognition of our commitment to sustainability by this international ranking."

The THE Impact Rankings are the only global assessment of universities against the U.N.s SDGs. THE uses carefully calibrated indicators to provide comprehensive and balanced comparisons across four broad areas: research, stewardship, outreach and teaching. For more information on the rankings and methodology, visit https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings.

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GUELPH, ON and LONGUEUIL, QC, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grain Farmers of Ontario and Grain Farmers of Quebec (Producteurs de grains du Quebec), representing over 50,000 grains and oilseeds farmers, are calling for the federal government to take immediate action to eliminate the burden on farmers caused by fertilizer tariffs. Failure to act to alleviate the tariff burdens on farmers will impact grain availability and potentially impact food prices. Eastern Canadian grain farmers further call on the fertilizer industry to act with integrity, with fair and transparent pricing.

This is a critical time for farmers. The availability and cost of fertilizer is causing great concern for grain farmers who are ready to plant their crops. The grain planted today by farmers will have a direct impact on what grain is available at harvest time to feed people and livestock in Canada, as well as around the world. Farmers are ready to plant their crops to maximize their production, but policymakers, fertilizer companies, and others in the agriculture value chain need to work together to respond to the food crisis that is unfolding around the world as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The invasion of Ukraine continues to escalate and its impacts on the global food system are increasing. It is vital that the Canadian government offer tariff relief for farmers who cannot continue to bear the brunt of these costs, said Brendan Byrne, Chair, Grain Farmers of Ontario. One of the key areas of concern for grain farmers is the shortage and additional costs of fertilizer available to us for our planting season. This is a moment in history for our partners in the fertilizer industry to act with integrity in treating farmers fairly around pricing and contracts.

This is a global crisis and farmers are ready to plant the crops, but we cannot afford to pay additional inflated costs while doing so. We understand the reason behind tariffs, but the impact to our food system is not supportable and the government must act now to provide relief to farmers, who are paying the price. Fertilizer shortages coupled with increased costs are going to make this a difficult spring and potentially a compromised harvest, which could be devastating as the world is looking at grain and food shortages. Eastern Canadian grain farmers need access to the tools that will help them grow an abundant, healthy crop, said Christian Overbeek, Chairman of the Quebec Grain Farmers.

Quebec Grain Farmers and Grain Farmers of Ontario are united in stating that it is not acceptable for farmers to pay the additional costs for fertilizer created by the restrictions and tariffs. Grain farmers in Quebec and Ontario need the federal government to provide immediate relief from the tariffs and to help ensure that there is enough fertilizer in Canada for grain farmers in Quebec and Ontario.

Despite repeated meetings and assurances that the government is working on a solution, the federal government has not announced a tariff solution for farmers. Farmers are doing their part this year by going to fields to grow as much grain as possible. Farmers need action now.

About

Producteurs de Grains du Quebec/Grain Growers of Quebec and Grain Farmers of Ontario represent over 50,000 grain and oilseed farmers in Eastern Canada.

-30-

CONTACT:

Grain Farmers of Ontario:

Victoria Berry, Communications

226-820-6641

vberry@gfo.ca

Brendan Byrne,

Chair, Grain Farmers of Ontario

519-991-4027

gfobrendan@gmail.com

Producteurs de grains du Quebec

Julie Mercier

514-743-9410

com@pgq.ca

Martin Pichette

514 561-2746

martin.pichette@lorangebleue.biz

Attachments
CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- National investment fraud lawyers KlaymanToskes is investigating FINRA arbitration claims on behalf of customers of Shawn Good, who was a Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) broker at the firms Wilmington, NC branch location.



In April 2022, the SEC filed a Complaint alleging that North Carolina-based Morgan Stanley broker and investment adviser Shawn Edward Good defrauded clients and misappropriated millions of dollars of investor funds through a 10-year Ponzi scheme. From December 2012 to February 2022, Good allegedly told clients that he would use client funds invest in land development projects and tax-free North Carolina state or municipal bonds on their behalf. Good touted the investments as low-risk and told clients that it would pay returns of between 6% and 10% over three-month or six-month terms. Instead, Shawn Good used investor funds to repay former investors and pay his personal expenses.

According to securities attorney Lawrence L. Klayman, Esq., The SECs allegations that Shawn Good operated a Ponzi scheme for 10 years while registered with Morgan Stanley is extremely troubling. Brokerage firms like Morgan Stanley have a duty to supervise all of the activities of their financial advisors. Their failure to do so results in liability, and is a basis for a FINRA arbitration claim.

The sole purpose of this release is to investigate FINRA arbitration claims relating to Morgan Stanleys supervision of Shawn Good and his alleged Ponzi scheme. Customers of Shawn Good at Morgan Stanley who have information related to the handling of their investments are encouraged to contact securities attorney Lawrence L. Klayman, Esq. at 1-888-997-9956.

About Us

KlaymanToskes is a leading national securities law firm which practices exclusively in the field of securities arbitration on behalf of retail and institutional investors throughout the world in large and complex securities matters. The firm has recovered more than $230 million for investors in FINRA arbitrations. KlaymanToskes has office locations in California, Florida, New York, and Puerto Rico.

Destination: https://klaymantoskes.com/shawn-good-morgan-stanley-ponzi-scheme-recover-investment-losses-lawsuit/

Contacts

KlaymanToskes

Lawrence L. Klayman, Esq.

1-888-997-9956

lklayman@klaymantoskes.com

www.klaymantoskes.com
SAN DIEGO, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Class: Shareholder rights law firm Robbins LLP informs investors that a shareholder filed a class action on behalf of persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) securities between April 4, 2017 and October 20, 2021, for violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. IBM ranks among the world's largest information technology companies, providing a wide spectrum of hardware, software, and service offerings.



If you would like more information about International Business Machines Corporation's misconduct, click here .

What is this Case About: International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Misclassified Revenue to Address Market Expectations and Boost Executive Incentive Compensation

According to the complaint, prior to and during the class period, Defendants overstated IBM's revenues from its strategic side of the business, by misclassifying and/or shifting revenues from its non-strategic mainframe part of the business, to appease market expectations about the Company's future prospects and boost incentive compensation for its executives.

On October 20, 2021, IBM disclosed that it was going to suffer a revenue shortfall, with its Cognitive & Cloud Computing segment the main culprit. Unbeknownst to the investing public, the Company had stopped and/or curtailed its improper conduct, which caused Company results to suffer. On this news, IBM's common stock fell almost $13.00, to close at $121.07 per share on October 21, 2022.

Next Steps: If you acquired shares of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) between April 4, 2017 and October 20, 2021, you have until June 6, 2022, to ask the court to appoint you lead plaintiff for the class. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. You do not have to participate in the case to be eligible for a recovery.

All representation is on a contingency fee basis. Shareholders pay no fees or expenses.

Contact us to learn more:

Aaron Dumas

(800) 350-6003

adumas@robbinsllp.com

Shareholder Information Form

About Robbins LLP: A recognized leader in shareholder rights litigation, the attorneys and staff of Robbins LLP have been dedicated to helping shareholders recover losses, improve corporate governance structures, and hold company executives accountable for their wrongdoing since 2002. To be notified if a class action against International Business Machines Corporation settles or to receive free alerts when corporate executives engage in wrongdoing, sign up for Stock Watch today.

Attorney Advertising. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact:

Aaron Dumas

Robbins LLP

5040 Shoreham Place

San Diego, CA 92122

adumas@robbinsllp.com

(800) 350-6003

www.robbinsllp.com




Chicago, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to Ariztons latest research report, the Italy construction equipment market will grow at a CAGR of 6.6% during 2022-2027. The Italian government investment of $35.4 billion in public infrastructure to drive the demand for construction equipment.



According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), the Italian government is investing $35.4 billion in public infrastructure projects in Q12022. This investment will drive the demand for construction equipment in Italy over the forecast period.

Owing to the governments investments in highway, metro, construction projects, and renewable energy sectors, the earthmoving equipment market is expected to grow strongly over the forecast period.

Italy Construction Equipment Market Report Scope

REPORT ATTRIBUTES DETAILS MARKET SIZE (VOLUME - 2021) 77 thousand Units MARKET SIZE (VOLUME - 2028) 120 thousand Units CAGR 6.6% HISTORIC YEAR 2019-2020 BASE YEAR 2021 FORECAST YEAR 2022-2028 TYPE Earthmoving Equipment, Road Construction Equipment, Material Handling Equipment END USERS Construction, Manufacturing, Mining, and Others KEY VENDORS Caterpillar, Volvo, Liebherr, Komatsu, CNH Industrial, Hitachi, JCB, Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co., Ltd. (XCMG), Kubota, and SANY

Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

Key Highlights:

In 2020, demand for the new construction equipment in Italy declined by 8.3% as major infrastructure projects were pulled up because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

as major infrastructure projects were pulled up because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The material handling equipment segment in Italy is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.35% by 2028. Italy is experiencing a labor shortage in a variety of industries, including construction and manufacturing, which is driving the demand for high-capacity luffing tower cranes to speed up construction and reduce worker dependency.

by 2028. Italy is experiencing a labor shortage in a variety of industries, including construction and manufacturing, which is driving the demand for high-capacity luffing tower cranes to speed up construction and reduce worker dependency. Under the Italy Recovery and Resilience program, the government invested $35.5 billion in 2021 to improve public transport infrastructure which includes $31.5 billion for investment in high-speed network and road maintenance as well as ~$4 billion for investment in inter-modality and integrated logistics. Projects also include the coverage of access rail links such as the Turin-Lyon line , and the 55-kilometer-long Brenner Base Tunnel , which would be completed by 2025. This line will connect Fortezza in Italy with the Austrian city of Innsbruck.

in 2021 to improve public transport infrastructure which includes for investment in high-speed network and road maintenance as well as for investment in inter-modality and integrated logistics. Projects also include the coverage of access rail links such as the , and the , which would be completed by 2025. This line will In 2021, electricity and natural gas producer Edison SPA joined a consortium with energy infrastructure company, Snam SPA to implement the Puglia Green Hydrogen Valley project in Italy. The project will include the development of three green hydrogen production plants in Brindisi, Taranto, and Cerignola. Italy has also accelerated the electrification of construction machinery .

in Brindisi, Taranto, and Cerignola. Italy has also accelerated the . The construction equipment market is consolidated with Caterpillar emerging as the leader, followed by Volvo Construction Equipment Italia SPA, Liebherr Group, Komatsu Group, CNH Industrial and Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe). These companies have nearly 70% share of the total Italy construction equipment market.



Report Coverage:

Earthmoving Equipment:

Excavator

Backhoe Loaders

Motor Graders

Other Earthmoving Equipment (Others loaders, Bulldozers, Trenchers)

Road Construction Equipment

Road Rollers

Asphalt Pavers

Material Handling Equipment

Crane

Forklift & Telescopic Handlers

Aerial Platforms (Articulated Boom Lifts, Telescopic Boom lifts, Scissor lift



End Users

Construction

Manufacturing

Mining

Others

Vendors Analysis

Key Vendors

Caterpillar

Volvo Construction Equipment

Liebherr

Komatsu

CNH Industrial

Hitachi

JCB

Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co., Ltd. (XCMG)

Kubota

SANY

Other Prominent Vendors

John Dheere

Merlo SPA

Yanmar

Manitou

Kobelco



Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

Explore our industrial machinery profile to know more about the industry.

Read some of the top-selling reports:

About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

Mail: enquiry@arizton.com

Call: +1-312-235-2040

+1 302 469 0707
Washington DC, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dinant is marking Earth Month by committing to invest more in protecting and enhancing the environment, and ensuring that its operations are as sustainable as possible.

Roger Pineda Pinel, Dinants Director of Corporate Relations and Sustainability, commented, Dinant has a strong track record in environmental protection  as our recently-published Sustainability Report demonstrates  but we are constantly searching for ways to improve as our business expands.

Current environmental protection measures include:

Dinants high-tech biogas recovery unit at its oil extraction mill in the Aguan uses biomass from the waste of the palm fruit to produce clean energy and steam that is used to power its boilers. From 2020 through the first quarter of 2022, Dinant generated over 60 million KWs of clean energy of which 2.1 million KWs was provided to the National Electric Power Network Grid, helping to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels.

Dinant protects many hundreds of hectares of tropical rainforest at two Wildlife Conservation Centers in Honduras, and manages breeding, rearing and release programs of endangered indigenous species, including jaguar, tapir, red macaw and green iguana.

Dinants palm oil extraction mills and plantations in Honduras have been awarded two prestigious International Sustainability and Carbon Certifications  ISCC EU and ISCC Plus  for the sustainability of raw materials and products, supply chain traceability, and control of greenhouse gas emissions.

The ISCCs certification process has been expanded to Dinants independent fresh fruit palm oil suppliers, of which 15 small producers totaling 1,172 hectares of plantations have so far been certified.

Dinant invests heavily in using high-yield varieties of palm that require less land. Furthermore, numerous technical and agricultural innovations include the production of home-made organic compost fertilizers that have enabled the Company to reduce chemical fertilization.

Staff volunteers regularly participate in reforestation activities in Comayagua and San Pedro Sula.

All of Dinants operations have been awarded ISO 14001 since 2014 as a mark of their progress in environmental management.

Mr. Pineda continued, Improving the sustainability of Dinants operations is good for the environment, good for our business, and good for our neighbors. But Earth Month reminds us that theres more to do. We will continue to invest in minimizing our environmental footprint while finding more ways to enhance the beautiful natural environment of Honduras.

Dinants Sustainable Report 2019-20 can be read here:

https://www.dinant.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Sustainabilty-Report-2019-2020.pdf

About Corporacion Dinant

Dinants products are sold across Central America and the Dominican Republic. Its operations directly employ 7,600 people  who in turn support approximately 22,000 family members  as well as many thousands of contractors, vendors and suppliers.

This material is distributed by Tricuro LLC on behalf of Corporacion Dinant. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
The sprint race on Saturday is an opportunity for drivers who had a poor performance during qualifying to make up for it before the actual Grand prix. After four Grand Prix weekends with a Sprint, there are clearly some winners and losers of this new format.

Sprint in F1

In 2021, Formula 1 experimented with the sprint race format for the first time. Qualifying was shifted to the Friday, with the result forming the starting grid for the Sprint race on Saturday and the result of the sprint race forming the starting grid for the main race. So unlike a normal weekend, you have an extra race to gain or lose spots.

The biggest losers after three sprint races were Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly. Gasly lost no less than 18 positions compared to his qualifying result due to the introduction of the sprint race. If those sprint race had not been there on certain weekends Gasly would have been able to start much higher on the grid for Sunday's race. Perez lost a net of 12 positions over those weekends. He made up for his setback at Silverstone 2021 somewhat with his overtaking race at Imola this year.

Read more Here's why firing Latifi in 2022 is not a crazy idea for Williams

Winners and losers

The biggest winners of this format are Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon. Both gained a net eight spots from their starting position based on the qualifying result. Hamilton owes this +8 mainly to his overtaking race in Brazil in 2021 with which he won 15 spots.

Ocon's statistics are more striking, as he does not have a single mega difference that gave him a big advantage, but seems to have gained a few spots every sprint race weekend. This means either Ocon is a good racer or he is not fast enough in qualifying.

Max Verstappen hasn't won much with the sprint race format. He ended up with a +1, so at least he has not suffer from the new format. Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo did not benefit at all. They won and lost nothing with this new format.

Driver Net gained/lost positions Hamilton +8 Russell -1 Verstappen +1 Perez -12 Leclerc +1 Sainz +6 Norris 0 Ricciardo 0 Alonso -1 Ocon +8 Gasly -18 Tsunoda +2 Vettel -2 Stroll +4 Latifi +2 Albon +2 Bottas +2 Zhou -6 Schumacher +1 Magnussen -4 Mazepin +3 Raikkonen -1 Giovinazzi -7 Kubica +1

Read more Helmut Marko: 79 years of redefining expectations
The value of venture capital (VC) deals in advanced batteries shot up by 850% year-on-year (YoY) in 2021 with focus on lithium chemistries, according to GlobalData, a data and analytics company.

Big deals from VC investors are pushing forward the advanced batteries funding to a new high. The major focus of such deals is primarily to accelerate the commercialization of lithium-powered batteries that exhibit high energy density, superior performance, increased safety, and are cost-effective. Prasad Kakade, Senior Disruptive Tech Analyst at GlobalData





GlobalDatas latest FutureTech series report, Performance Meets Sustainability  Can Advanced Batteries Facilitate Energy Transition?, highlights various lithium-based battery startups looking to accelerate the adoption of EVs.

China-based SVOLT manufactures lithium-ion batteries for EVs and energy storage. In December 2021, it received $930 million from Sichuan Energy Investment, Hans Laser Technology, and others to expand the production facilities and R&D centers for its energy-dense and safe lithium iron phosphate batteries.

US-based SES (formerly SolidEnergy Systems) produces energy-dense and cost-efficient lithium-metal batteries to power the future of EVs and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOLs). In April 2021, the company raised $139 million in a Series D funding round with participation led by the VC arm of General Motors and other investors including Shanghai Auto, Temasek, Applied Ventures, and Vertex. In July 2021, the company went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Ivanhoe Capital.

US-based Solid Power develops all-solid-state cost-efficient rechargeable lithium batteries catering to various electromobility segments. In May 2021, the company raised $130 million in an investment round led by the VC arms of BMW and Ford along with Volta Energy Technologies. The financing was used to increase the production of its high-performance lithium-ion batteries and expand in-house manufacturing capabilities for future vehicle integration.
Toyota Motor Europes (TME) first quarter sales volume of 284,506 vehicles showed a marginal change of -1% year-on-year while outperforming the total market, which declined by -14%. Across the same period, TME achieved its best first-quarter market share of 7.6%, an increase of +1% point year-on-year. The strong demand for Toyota and Lexuss low CO 2 electrified line-up continued in a declining market, with TMEs electrified mix increasing to 78% in Western Europe and 69% across total Europe.

Total electrified sales were 196,473 units (+18% year-on-year). The top Toyota brand electrified sellers were Corolla Hybrid Range (46,537); Yaris Cross Hybrid (38,130): Toyota C-HR Hybrid (33,640): RAV4 Hybrid/Plug-in Hybrid (31,655); Yaris Hybrid (30,238). Top Lexus electrified sellers were UX Hybrid/BEV (4,648); NX Hybrid/Plug-in Hybrid (3,850); RX Hybrid (1,325).

The market was much weaker than we anticipated, but I am very happy with our first quarter performance. Our product power is stronger than ever, boosted by key new models such as the Yaris Cross, Aygo X and the bZ4X battery-electric SUV. Although our order bank remains at a record level, the economic and political turbulence in Europe, combined with the ongoing supply chain shortages, are significantly impacting the automotive market. Despite this, we still aim to deliver volume growth this year, but have been forced to revise downwards our original sales forecast for 2022. Matt Harrison, President & CEO of Toyota Motor Europe

Toyota brand sales marginally increased by +1% to 270,913 in the first quarter with 7.2% market share, up +0.8% year-on-year in passenger cars. The brands top sellers were Yaris, Yaris Cross, Corolla range and RAV4 which accounted for 75% of the total volume. Toyotas overall electrified mix increased by +21% year-on-year to 185,361 vehicles, accounting for 69% of the total sales mix.

Lexus sold 13,593 vehicles in the first three months, a volume decline of -29% year-on-year. This performance was largely a result of supply chain shortages. Lexus overall electrified mix was 69% and 98% in West Europe. Its SUV line-up of RX, NX, UX and LX represented 85% of total sales.
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A new exhibit curated by students of the Chapel Haven Schelifer Center's residential program for neurodiverse individuals will be hosted at the Yale Center for British Art starting Sunday, May 1.

The exhibit will showcase 11 art pieces chosen by CHSC students that are part of the "Out to Art" program. The program, run since 2009, is a collaboration between CHSC and the museum where students visit the museum once a week and become familiar with the art exhibited at the galleries.

"They are very seasoned museum goers and they've really honed their observational skills for art. I'm amazed... I can't tell you how proud I am of his group," said Tina Menchetti, art director at the Chapel Haven Schelifer Center.

After years of attending the museum every week and getting art zoom classes during the pandemic, the students curated the installation, Menchetti added.

The exhibit, titled "In Celebration of our Neurodiverse Community: Selections from the Collection," will open to the public at noon on Sunday and will be available until May 15. The art pieces chosen will range from landscapes to portraits created between the 18th and 20th centuries, according to the exhibit's program.

"The most important thing was to do something really special for these individuals to give them confidence in terms of what they had gained personally and socially," said Linda Friedlaender, Head of Education at the Yale Center for British Art. Back in 2009, Friedlaender approached CHSC to make the "Out to Art" class possible.

Along every art piece shown, there will be a label with who selected the piece and a quote of why the piece is significant, according to the museum.
NEW MILFORD  A 17-year-old student was charged Tuesday after a gun was found at New Milford High School, according to police.

Police were called to the school around 9:20 a.m after information regarding a gun on school property was obtained, the department said in a Facebook post. The information about the gun was discovered following a fight in the school bathroom, the post stated.

The school was immediately put into lockdown and officers swiftly moved to locate the involved parties, Chief Spencer Cerruto said in the statement.

Law enforcement then searched a juvenile suspects vehicle, finding a loaded 9mm pistol with no serial number.

The juvenile suspect, a 17 year old, received a juvenile referral and was charged with criminal possession of a firearm and possession of a ghost gun. The teen was not identified.

Two New Milford teens, 18-year-old Anthony Jack and 19-year-old Christian Acosta, were each charged with third-degree assault and breach of peace. Both were held on a $1,000 bond, police said.

Superintendent Alisha DiCorpo sent a message to parents and school community members around 10:30 a.m., saying police at the school had control of the situation and all students were safe but could not be released due to the lockdown. During the safety procedure, people were not allowed to leave or enter the school. Students and staff were also sheltered inside their classrooms.

After police detained the suspects and secured the scene, New Milford High Schools lockdown was lifted at 10:59 a.m.

The scene is secure, the school is safe and the investigation continues, Cerruto said Tuesday afternoon. I have zero tolerance for school related violence, or any violence for that matter, and these suspects and juvenile will be dealt with accordingly.

Staff writer Liz Hardaway contributed to this report.
Connecticut saw a rise in reports of antisemitic incidents last year, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League.

There were 34 reported incidents in Connecticut in 2021, a 42 percent jump from the 24 incidents recorded in 2020, the data shows. More than half of these incidents  18  were harassment, while the remainder were considered vandalism, the report stated. There were no assaults recorded in 2021, the ADL said.

Reports of antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high nationwide last year. Some 2,717 incidents were reported in the United States in 2021, or about seven incidents each day.

ADL Connecticut Regional Director Stacey Sobel said the data shows that antisemitism remains a serious concern not only in the United States, but also in Connecticut.

From white supremacist propaganda in the public square and on college campuses, to bomb threats against JCCs [Jewish community centers], antisemitism reared its ugly head in every facet of our society last year, Sobel said in a statement.

One of these included a bomb threat that was called into the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven in June 2021. A staffer at the center received a call from a person who made antisemitic comments and the threat, officials said.

More than 300 campers and staff had to evacuate the building while the FBI and state police investigated. The building was closed for the day.

Another one of these 34 reports included a Zoombombing incident during a college readiness meeting in Stamford in early 2021. During the call, an individual joined and wrote death to Jews and yelled the n-word, ADL Connecticut said.

The organization said 18 Connecticut municipalities had at least one antisemitic incident in 2021. Those incidents included schools, vandalism of Jewish institutions and white supremacist propaganda.

ADL Connecticut said the nation saw a surge in these incidents targeting Jewish communities after May 10, 2021 when fighting broke out between Israel and Hamas. For 11 days, more than 4,300 rockets and missiles were fired from Gaza toward Israeli civilian centers, according to the ADL.

This impacted Connecticut as well. The states ADL recorded a spike in antisemitic incidents during the month of May, most of which took place on college campuses.

In the past five years, ADL Connecticut has received 184 reports of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault  a remarkable figure that we hope will serve as a stark reminder of the hard work still ahead to tackle all forms of hate and antisemitism here in our state, Sobel added.

Though there was a jump in 2021, the state had seen more incidents in previous years. In 2018, Connecticut had 39 reported incidents  19 harassment, 19 vandalism and one reported assault. The next year, it had 37 reports  21 of harassment and 16 of vandalism.

In 2017, Connecticut saw 49 reported antisemitic incidents. Some 29 of these were considered harassment and 20 were vandalism, the ADL said.

If you have experienced or witnessed an incident of antisemitism, extremism, bias, bigotry or hate, visit ADL.org/ReportIncident. In an emergency, call 911.
PARIS (AP)  The Paris prosecutors office opened a preliminary investigation Wednesday into the suspected sabotage of fiber optic cables, which disrupted the internet in several regions around France, and said the country's domestic intelligence agency would help with the probe.

The outages occurred early Wednesday, hitting several  but not all  operators into the day. Authorities suggested the damage to the cables was intentional.
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MEXICO CITY (AP)  Two prosecution officials were fired Wednesday over omissions and errors in the search for a missing woman found dead last week in northern Mexico, authorities said.

Gustavo Guerrero, attorney general of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, did not describe what errors the two officials may have committed.

But the motel where the young womans body was found in an underground water holding tank had previously been searched several times before her body was finally found, only after a motel employees reported a foul odor coming from the cistern.

The case of Debanhi Escobar, 18, shocked Mexico, after a taxi driver took a photo of her standing alone on the side of a highway on the night she disappeared.

The two fired officials  the state anti-kidnapping prosecutor and the missing-persons prosecutor  were apparently involved in the search, which included taking sniffer dogs into the motel.

But almost a week after her body was finally found, far from being solved, the case has become more complicated.

Prosecutors showed video from the motel's security cameras suggesting Escobar had entered the motel and wandered around, eventually walking off camera in the direction where three cisterns are located near a swimming pool.

Some reports had suggested the woman may have fallen into one of the cisterns and died accidentally. But prosecutors said her body was found in one tank, her handbag in another, and her cellphone and keys were found in a third.

Eduardo Villagomez, the state's head medical examiner, said the woman died of a blow to the head. But he said that she was apparently alive when she entered the cistern and that there was no water in her lungs.

Asked how that was possible, he said: She stood up. The water was 90 centimeters (three feet) deep.

The case made headlines because of a haunting photo taken by a driver who was supposed to get her home that night. It was not clear why she got out of the car, but her father, Mario Escobar, has 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, and said she got of the car on her own decision. Mario Escobar said the driver may not have killed his daughter but he holds him responsible for her death.

The driver, who worked for a taxi app, took the photo to show Debanhi got out of his car alive April 9 on the outskirts of the city of Monterrey.

Nobody saw her until last Thursday, when investigators managed to pull her body from the cistern.

Critics are disturbed by the fact that even when Mexican 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 Escobar, her body was 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.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  With the states Republican-led Legislature still deadlocked on redistricting, Missouri now faces lawsuits in both federal and state court asking the judiciary to intervene and order a new U.S. House map before this summer's primary election.

Republican congressional candidate Paul Berry III, who filed the latest lawsuit in federal court, said Wednesday that the continued uncertainty over Missouri's U.S. House districts is affecting his ability to campaign.

Theres no way that I can do a poll on a district that doesnt have boundaries, Berry said. What door do I knock on? How do I take the limited amount of resources and campaign when I could be knocking on a door or targeting a voter thats not even in my district?

Though Republicans control the Missouri House, Senate and governors office, they have been unable to agree on a final plan to redraw the states eight U.S. House districts based on the 2020 census. Missouri is the only state not to have at least passed a redistricting plan, though uncertainties remain in several other states.

In New Hampshire, lawmakers are still trying to craft a map that will win over Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who plans to veto their first attempt. On Wednesday, a House committee recommended a new plan, though Sununu had said earlier he opposed it.

New York's highest court on Wednesday rejected new congressional districts that it said Democratic state lawmakers had drawn to favor their party, instead turning to a special court master to come up with a new map. A Kansas court on Monday struck down districts drawn by the state's GOP-led Legislature, though an appeal is expected.

Other states with pending court challenges include Florida, where GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed into law a map that could help GOP candidates win several additional seats.

The Missouri House and Senate each approved separate congressional redistricting plans earlier this year. But the House voted down the Senate plan, and the Senate has refused to convene a joint conference committee to formally negotiate a compromise.

Missouri Republicans are at odds over how aggressively to draw districts in the GOPs favor and over which communities to split while equalizing district populations. One sticking point is how to shape the 2nd District in suburban St. Louis, which is the state's most competitive seat. Berry is one of three Republicans challenging GOP Rep. Ann Wagner in that district. She also faces several Democratic opponents and a Libertarian candidate.

Republican state Sen. Andrew Koenig, who authored the Senate's redistricting plan, said Wednesday that he met with House Speaker Rob Vescovo regarding redistricting but that the two chambers remain pretty far apart.

I think its probably headed toward the direction of not getting a map passed," said Koenig, a Republican from St. Louis County.

Lawmakers face a May 13 deadline to pass legislation during their annual session.

Hearings on the redistricting lawsuits have been scheduled for May 9 in U.S. District Court in St. Louis and May 23 in the state's Cole County Circuit Court.

All the lawsuits contend it's unconstitutional for Missouri to hold its Aug. 2 primary using districts based on the 2010 census, because they no longer have equal populations. Berry's lawsuit ask a court to order a new map.

A state lawsuit backed by Democrats asks a judge to adopt a new U.S. House map while a rival state lawsuit by Republicans asks a judge to order the Legislature to adopt a new plan and to reopen candidate filing.

___

Associated Press writer Holly Ramer contributed from Concord, New Hampshire.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  Even the king cobra is vulnerable. More than 1 in 5 species of reptiles worldwide are threatened with extinction, according to a comprehensive new assessment of thousands of species published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Of 10,196 reptile species analyzed, 21% percent were classified as endangered, critically endangered or vulnerable to extinction  including the iconic hooded snakes of South and Southeast Asia.

This work is a very significant achievement  it adds to our knowledge of where threatened species are, and where we must work to protect them, said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, who was not involved in the study.

Similar prior assessments had been conducted for mammals, birds and amphibians, informing government decisions about how to draw boundaries of national parks and allocate environmental funds.

Work on the reptile study  which involved nearly 1,000 scientists and 52 co-authors  started in 2005. The project was slowed by challenges in fundraising, said co-author Bruce Young, a zoologist at the nonprofit science organization NatureServe.

Theres a lot more focus on furrier, feathery species of vertebrates for conservation, Young said, lamenting the perceived charisma gap. But reptiles are also fascinating and essential to ecosystems, he said.

The Galapagos marine iguana, the worlds only lizard adapted to marine life, is classified as vulnerable to extinction, said co-author Blair Hedges, a biologist at Temple University. It took 5 million years for the lizard to adapt to foraging in the sea, he said, lamenting how much evolutionary history can be lost if this single species goes extinct.

Six of the world's species of sea turtles are threatened. The seventh is likely also in trouble, but scientists lack data to make a classification.

Worldwide, the greatest threat to reptile life is habitat destruction. Hunting, invasive species and climate change also pose threats, said co-author Neil Cox, a manager at the International Union for the Conservation of Natures biodiversity assessment unit.

Reptiles that live in forest areas, such as the king cobra, are more likely to be threatened with extinction than desert-dwellers, in part because forests face greater human disruptions, the study found.

___

Follow Christina Larson on Twitter: @larsonchristina

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.

Its the first NASA crew comprised equally of men and women, including the first Black woman making a long-term spaceflight, Jessica Watkins.

This is one of the most diversified, I think, crews that weve had in a really, really long time," said NASA's space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders.

The astronauts arrived at the space station Wednesday night, just 16 hours after a predawn liftoff from Kennedy Space Center that thrilled spectators.

Anyone who saw it realized what a beautiful launch it was, Lueders told reporters. After an express flight comparable to traveling from New York to Singapore, the crew will move in for a five-month stay.

SpaceX has now launched five crews for NASA and two private trips in just under two years. Elon Musk's company is having an especially busy few weeks: It just finished taking three businessmen to and from the space station as NASAs first private guests.

A week after the new crew arrives, the three Americans and German theyre replacing will return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule. Three Russians also live at the space station.

Both SpaceX and NASA officials stressed they're taking it one step at a time to ensure safety. The private mission that concluded Monday encountered no major problems, they said, although high wind delayed the splashdown for a week.

SpaceX Launch Control wished the astronauts good luck and Godspeed moments before the Falcon rocket blasted off with the capsule, named Freedom by its crew.

Our heartfelt thank you to every one of you that made this possible. Now let Falcon roar and Freedom ring, radioed NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, the commander. Minutes later, their recycled booster had landed on an ocean platform and their capsule was safely orbiting Earth. It was a great ride, he said.

The SpaceX capsules are fully automated  which opens the space gates to a broader clientele  and they're designed to accommodate a wider range of body sizes. At the same time, NASA and the European Space Agency have been pushing for more female astronauts.

While two Black women visited the space station during the shuttle era, neither moved in for a lengthy stay. Watkins, a geologist who is on NASAs short list for a moon-landing mission in the years ahead, sees her mission as an important milestone, I think, both for the agency and for the country."

She credits supportive family and mentors  including Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space in 1992  for ultimately being able to live my dream.

Also cheering Watkins on was another geologist: Apollo 17's Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon in 1972. She invited the retired astronaut to the launch, along with his wife. We sort of consider ourselves the Jessica team," he said, chuckling.

Those of us who rode the Saturn V into space are a little bit jaded about the smaller rockets," Schmitt said after the SpaceX liftoff. But still, it really was something and on board was a geologist ... I hope it will stand her in good stead for being part of one of the Artemis crews that go to the moon."

Like Watkins, NASA astronaut and test pilot Bob Hines is making his first spaceflight. It's the second visit for Lindgren, a physician, and the European Space Agencys lone female astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti, a former Italian Air Force fighter pilot.

Cristoforetti turned 45 on Tuesday, so she really celebrates and is very happy with a big smile in the capsule, said the European Space Agency's director general, Josef Aschbacher. She's really a role model and she's doing an enormously fabulous job on doing exactly that.

The just-completed private flight was NASA's first dip into space tourism after years of opposition. The space agency said the three people who paid $55 million each to visit the space station blended in while doing experiments and educational outreach. They were accompanied by a former NASA astronaut employed by Houston-based Axiom Space, which arranged the flight.

The International Space Station is not a vacation spot. Its not an amusement park. It is an international laboratory, and they absolutely understood and respected that purpose, said NASA flight director Zeb Scoville.

NASA also hired Boeing to ferry astronauts after retiring the shuttles. The company will take another shot next month at getting an empty crew capsule to the space station, after software and other problems fouled a 2019 test flight and prevented a redo last summer.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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DANBURY  Among his friends, Danny Eljamal is known to stop into gas stations to analyze what they do well and what they could do better.

Hes an expert because hes helped with his familys deli and gas stations since his early teens and has spent summers managing his brothers gas station in Florida.

I learned at a young age, said the 17-year-old from Harrison, N.Y. It was built into my brain.

Now, Eljamal is the owner and manager of a Mobil gas station at 112 Newtown Road in Danbury. The senior at Harrison High School in New York juggles school work, serving as his schools president and the 45-minute commute to Danbury, where hes enjoying supporting customers and the evolving nature of the job.

Honestly I really like the business, he said I find it extremely interesting. Theres so many different components, and you always have something to do. Theres always something you could be improving. Theres always something you can change. Theres always new trends.

He picked up his entrepreneurial spirit from his family.

His father, Sammy Eljamal, bought his first gas station out of high school and for almost 30 years has operated Shell, BP, Mobil and Gulf service stations throughout the tri-state area.

His grandfather, who immigrated to the United States from Palestine, ran candy and potato chip routes in the Bronx, N.Y. before getting into the gas station business.

I learn from the people around me, said Eljamal, who is one of four siblings. Thats the way Im able to do this at a young age.

His parents got he and his siblings involved in the family business when they were around 12 or 13. They learn every aspect of the business, from making sure the store is clean, to working the register, to communicating with vendors, said his mother, Haifa Eljamal. So she said its not a surprise that her son is running this station.

Haifa Eljamal said her son is a hands-on person who is good at working with customers and employees.

Danny is a very people person, she said. Not only does he know how to communicate with people, but he honestly enjoys it, and Danny, God bless him, will always have a smile on his face, so people tend to love him.

While his 22-year-old brother Adam has the gas station in Miami Beach where he attended college, his 19-year-old sister Jeannine attends Forham University and runs her own store. He has a 13-year-old brother, Issa, too. Danny Eljamal plans to study accounting at Fairfield University in the fall.

Not only do they have a college degree, but they have something else to fall back on, his mom said.

Dream gas station

Danny Eljamal went from making sure products displayed properly at the deli when he was in seventh grade to helping manage his brothers gas station in Miami Beach during the summers while his brother was home in New York.

Running this particular gas station in Danbury was a dream of his father and his grandfather, who died in January, Danny Eljamal said.

Thats one thing that definitely motivates me a lot is my grandfather, he said. Hes always taught me since I was young so much about the business, I cant even explain.

The family had been working on purchasing the store from the former owner before his grandfather died. Danny Eljamal recalled checking out the station with his dad at 10 p.m. one day and having a vision for the store.

I fell in love with it, he said.

The gas station itself is technically owned by Global Partners LP, who are considered his landlord, but the family purchased the business itself, he said.

He has five employees, not including himself, who work at the store, and is supported by his familys business team. He plans to remodel and expand the store, with a new floor, ceiling and food services.

Inspired by his familys donations to local causes, he aims to get involved in the Danbury community, too.

Danny Eljamal took over the gas station March 9, amid surging gas prices in Connecticut and the country. Each day he reviews notifications from his suppliers about the latest price to see what he must charge. Hes relieved the governor paused the state gas tax, giving customers a 25 cent break at the pumps.

Im always praying it goes down, he said. The business obviously is similar, people need gas, but just being a citizen, a person, I dont want it to be sky high.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP)  A Vermont foundation is working with the state community college system to provide a free, two-year college degree over the next five years.

The J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation announced the Free Degree Promise through the Early College Program at CCV" on Tuesday for Vermont students in the high school classes of 2022-2026.

In addition to providing tuition and fees after any federal and state financial aid, the foundation will provide career and education counseling and stipends to help pay for books, transportation and other college costs.

The McClure foundation's plan builds upon the Community College of Vermonts Early College program that allows high school seniors to complete their last year of high school and first year of college at the same time.

Young people deserve a degree they can count on and afford, McClure Foundation President Barbara Benedict said in a statement. By guaranteeing this pathway through Early College to a free degree at CCV, we are telling Vermonts young people we believe in them and we believe in their futures.

Vermont officials have been working for years to help alleviate what has become an acute labor shortage caused by declines in the number of working age adults and the lack of trained workers.

There are programs in other states to help pay for community college. In Maine, the state budget passed earlier this month included $20 million to fund two years of free community college for eligible graduating high school students between 2020 and 2023.

Currently about 150 seniors from about 50 high schools in the state participate in the Community College of Vermonts Early College program, said CCV spokeswoman Katie Keszey.

McClure Foundation Executive Director Carolyn Weir said they don't know how many Vermont students will take advantage of their offer to help students earn associate degrees.

Were committed to covering costs no matter how many students enroll, Weir said in an email. If a lot of students enroll, and we can point to an improvement in the number of young people in Vermont from low-income and historically marginalized backgrounds benefiting from college and career training, well consider that a success  for enrolled students and for Vermont.

The McClure Foundation focuses its efforts on equitable access to postsecondary and career education. The foundation says that since 2008 it has awarded more than $5 million to help Vermonters prepare for secure and successful employment.

Early College in and of itself can be really beneficial, and taking that a step further and allowing people to finish a degree would be really, really helpful for some people," OJ Daring, who is participating in the Early Program at CCV's Winooski, said in a statement announcing the program. "To get those two years, and not be in debt, and get farther  it opens a lot of doors and opportunities if (students) are able to get an associate degree.
Motorola's Android 12 rollout took a long time to start, but seems to be finally picking up some speed over the past few weeks. The latest model to be graced with 2021's Android version is the Moto G100 launched back in April of last year with Android 11 on board.

The update to Android 12 is now rolling out to users in Brazil, and that's no coincidence as Brazil is one of Motorola's biggest markets, sales-wise. At the moment only the XT2125-4-DS version of the G100 is getting Android 12, and it involves a 1.5GB download. After installing the new software, the build number will be S1RT32.41-20-16. The March 2022 security patches are included, although someone should probably let Motorola know that we're almost in May now - and by the time this update makes it to other countries, we most surely will be.

Anyway, on that topic, note that this is likely to be a staged rollout as usual, so it might take a few days for all G100 units in Brazil to receive the update notification. Then the company will hopefully consider taking it to other places sooner rather than later. Either way, if you have a G100, no matter where you are, you'll be able to run Android 12 on it before Google releases Android 13.

Aside from all the goodies packed into Google's Android 12, this release should also come with Motorola's enhancements to its My UX Android skin, including new camera features and the Ready For experience.

Via
Although a bit late, Nokia's 8.3 5G handset is finally getting the latest Android 12 update. For the record, the Nokia 8.3 5G was released with Android 10 back in September 2020.

However, not everyone is getting the update just yet. The initial report of the OTA update comes from Finland, but other markets will soon follow as long as there aren't any major issues. The firmware comes with Google's April 2022 security patch.

As it's usually the case, Android 12 brings new animations, improved privacy control in the form of a Privacy Dashboard and a re-designed UI.

Via
Time passes slowly for Samsungs A0 series of phones, so you shouldnt be surprised that speculative renders of the Galaxy A04s dont look too much different from the previous model.

The dimensions given by @OnLeaks are 164.5 x 76.5 x 9.18 mm, fractions of a millimeter larger than the A03s. However, the display is expected to stay at 6.5, probably still an HD+ panel.



Samsung Galaxy A04s (speculative renders)

The back does show a redesign. There is a triple camera as before, though we dont have details about each module. There is no camera bump, however, only the lenses protrude from the back  just like on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Not that we expect the cameras to be anything like on the Ultra.

Anyway, this is a basic phone that offers the basics  there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the bottom, a fingerprint reader on the side (Power button) and what will probably be a SIM+microSD slot on the other side.



Samsung Galaxy A04s (speculative renders)

Well be on the lookout for specs for the Samsung Galaxy A04s. Heres a quick look at the A03s, so youd have an idea of what to expect: 6.5 HD+ LCD (60 Hz), Helio P35, 13+2+2 MP rear and 5 MP front cameras, 5,000 mAh battery with 15W charging. That one started at 11,500 ($155) in India when it launched, minus 2,000 for those that caught the early bird offer.



A look at the current Samsung Galaxy A03s

PS. if you go on the Pictures page in the Galaxy A03s, you can explore a 3D model of the phone. Turn it the right way and you'll see that its camera bump sticks out slightly from the back.

Source
Sony is ready to bring its next generation of Xperia phones. The companys mobile division announced it will hold an event on May 11 where well see the next chapter in the Xperia lineup. The accompanying teaser video linked below makes it pretty clear were in for an Xperia 1 IV (mark four) though we could also get new Xperia 5 and Xperia 10 phones.

Weve already seen renders of the Xperia 1 IV which show out a familiar design language with flatter sides than last years Xperia III. The phone is also expected to offer the very latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset alongside a 6.5-inch display and a quad-camera with what looks like a dedicated periscope module.

The rumored Xperia 5 IV on the other hand is also said to use a TSMC-sourced Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. Rumors also suggest a 6.1-inch OLED screen and a triple camera setup on the back.

Xperia 10 IV leaks suggest the phone will look mostly like the Xperia 10 III with a 6-inch OLED display upfront and a triple camera setup on the back.
Leadership of the Democratic Party of Guam voted Tuesday night to close their primary to nonparty members, but according to Guam Election Commission Director Maria Pangelinan, only around 4,000 of the islands registered voters are affiliated with any political party.

Thats less than 10% of the roughly 50,000 people registered to vote.

Guams primaries are normally open, meaning that voters of any party can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary elections. Democratic party chair Tony Babauta, the one time chief of staff for Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, said Wednesday that the party will make a strong push to get voters informed of the changes and to get more Democrats registered.

He said closing the primary was meant to preserve the meaningfulness of a vote from a registered Democrat  and not having that vote diluted by the casting of any other vote that comes from outside the party.

He said specific candidates in this years race were not discussed prior to the vote.

Republican candidates

Former Gov. Felix Camacho is so far the only Republican gubernatorial candidate along with running mate Sen. Tony Ada. The local Republican party wants to unite behind Camacho and Ada and, if no other team enters the race, they will be unopposed in their respective primary.

Would-be Republican voters and independents would normally be freed up to instead vote for whichever Democrat candidate they preferred to advance to the general election. But with Democrats closing the primary, crossover voters will be barred from voting for either Democratic candidate for governor: Incumbents Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov Joshua Tenorio, or the team of Del. Mike San Nicolas for governor and journalist Sabrina Salas Matanane for lieutenant governor.

Delegates

The field in the governors race is mirrored in the race for Guams delegate to Washington D.C. right now. Democrat Sen. Telena Nelson is campaigning for the seat and would face off in a primary with former senator and Democrat Judi Won Pat, who also wants to run for congressional delegate. Across the aisle, Republican Sen. Jim Moylan is the only other D.C. hopeful so far.

A majority of the Democratic partys Central Executive Committee voted to amend their bylaws to close the primary, with the option of reopening it later. Out of 51 potential voters, 30 voted yes, five voted no, one abstained and the remainder were absent.

Babauta became chairman of the Democratic party in October 2021. A letter from the Guam Election Commission was sent to the party on March 10 of this year, informing them of the option to hold a closed primary, which he said was discussed between the partys executive committee before a decision was made.

Following a court order issued in 2004, which found that Guams political parties could hold closed primaries, the election commission must send a letter out every election year asking party leadership what kind of primary they want, Director Pangelinan said.

They always say  or they dont say  and when they dont say that means status quo, which is open primary.

Pangelinan was aware of the decision but said the party had not officially contacted her as of noon on Wednesday.

Primary election

The primary election is on Aug. 27 and early voting begins on July 28, so the Commission will have to quickly adjust to the change, Pangelinan said. Commission board members are set to meet next Thursday but cant discuss the matter because Guam law requires the public to be notified in advance of agenda items.

A closed primary will require a separate ballot for Democrats, which will only be available after party affiliation is confirmed. And its expensive paper, by the way Pangelinan said.

Guams political primaries are government funded, which means a request for additional money may have to be made. The Election Commission is already waiting on $609,000 in supplemental funding to be approved by the Legislature.

A final site for early voting isnt decided either. The Micronesia Mall, Guam Greyhound Park and the Westin Resort Guam are all bidding on the contract to host it, Pangelinan said and the bid will be decided on May 2.

Meanwhile, hundreds of voter registrations filed with the Department of Revenue and Taxation that werent transmitted to the Election Commission because of a glitch are still being processed. Some 400 registered voters were processed and added on in March, Pangelinan said.

Check party, register

Aug. 17 is the deadline to register or update your registration for the primary.

You can see if you are affiliated with any political party or if you are registered to vote by visiting gec.guam.gov online. Click on the link on the right-hand side of the home page under the heading Are you registered to vote? and enter your name and date of birth.

You also can register at the Guam Election Commission office at the Oka Building in Tamuning.

Online registration is available on the home page and will let you register with your chosen political party.

You also can update your party registration on the spot if you vote early, according to Pangelinan.

Cut off voters

Del. San Nicolas on Tuesday denounced the closing of the Democratic primary, in a statement made hours after the decision.

The attempts by the Democratic Party leadership in the Central Executive Committee (CEC)  made up of Lou and Josh supporters and employees  to cut off voters who dont register as Democrats from voting in the Democratic Primary election is a simple attempt to force people to get partisan, rather than to vote for what they feel is best for Guam, San Nicolas said.

Running mate Matanane added that the team was ready to make a run under an independent ticket, if Democrats were going to deny people the right to choose regardless of Party.

Democratic party Executive Director Chirag Bhojwani on Tuesday denied that the move had anything to do with San Nicolas, saying Its about strengthening the party.

San Nicolas statement also said that party chair Tony Babauta had clearly stated publicly his agenda is to help the incumbent Governor win.

I said at the beginning  I thought my role was going to be to keep incumbent Democrats in office when they seek reelection, and to fill any open seats with new Democratic candidates, Babauta said when asked about the alleged statement.

I also want to, to the extent that I can, provide as many resources available to candidates and campaigns, and to make the party a stronger one.

Babuata stressed that the party leadership had voted to close the primary, not him alone.
Senators on Wednesday advanced a bill that would delay an impending ban on paper bags until July 1, 2025.

Legislation passed in 2018 banned the sale and distribution of disposable plastic bags on island, and the law was amended again in 2020 to ban all disposable bags. But retailers and wholesalers were permitted to keep distributing paper bags until July 1, 2022.

Now Sen. Sabina Perez wants to give businesses another three years to comply with the ban, through her Bill 245. Perez said Wednesday that the extension is meant for those that wish to phase out and make use of their existing supplies, rather than going to waste landfill, and to provide more time to develop reusable options.

According to Perez, the University of Guam Centers for Island Sustainability had testified that manufacturing paper bags creates four times more pollution than manufacturing plastic bags does.

But businesses that were shuttered during the pandemic were still a concern, she added, especially with the rebound of the local tourism industry still uncertain.

The reason for the change in deadline was to accommodate those that were hit the hardest  the tourist retailers and wholesalers that were heavily impacted due to the shutdown for two years and who werent able to use up their large supply, she said.

Vice Speaker Tina Muna Barnes was in support of the extension.

I know that many businesses were asking for an extension, she said. If we allow them this time, it just shows that were listening. We want to make these accommodations but that doesnt mean it takes away from what we think that we need to do to protect our environment.

The measure moved to the voting file with no objections, and senators will vote on it at the close of the April session.

School day waivers

Also advanced on Wednesday were Bill 286, to waive Guam Department of Education students from the required 180 instructional days, and Bill 287, to waive the requirement for high school service-learning hours.

The instructional days waiver applies to elementary and high school students enrolled in academic years 2020 through 2021 and 2021 through 2022. The service-learning waiver applies to high school students in school years 2021 through 2022. Both were introduced by Sen. Telena Nelson at the request of GDOE.

Sen. Perez also amended measures that would require the education department to give the Legislature a report on learning loss in high school students during the pandemic by June 2023.

The measures moved to the voting file without objection.
President Harry S. Truman (seated) signs the Organic Guam Act in 1950. From left: Sen. Joseph C. OMahoney, Wyoming; Carlos Taitano, legislative representative of Guam; Harold Seidman, Bureau of the Budget; Secretary of the Navy Francis Matthews; Sen. Clinton P. Anderson, New Mexico; Secretary of the Interior Oscar Chapman; and Sen. Hugh Butler, Nebraska.
China urges U.S. to immediately lift illegal freeze on Afghan assets

Xinhua) 13:23, April 27, 2022

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The United States is simply not qualified to talk about democracy and human rights. What the United States should do is immediately lift its illegal freeze on the assets of the Afghan central bank, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a regular news briefing in response to a statement issued on Monday by 14 UN independent human rights experts. The statement blamed the U.S. government for making life worse for Afghan women by freezing billions of U.S. dollars of Afghan assets.

The 20-year U.S. invasion of Afghanistan claimed the lives of 174,000 Afghans, including more than 30,000 civilians. It turned nearly one-third of Afghans into refugees, and more than half of Afghans faced extreme hunger during the time, leading to a rare humanitarian disaster, Wang said.

The United States decimated a country and laid waste to the future of a generation. In the end, it not only walked away, but also took for itself the money that the Afghan people were depending upon for their survival. This fully exposed the barbarity and cruelty of the so-called rules-based international order of the United States, the spokesperson said.

"What the United States should do is immediately lift its illegal freeze on the assets of the Afghan central bank, apologize and compensate the Afghan people for their lost 20 years, and bring the murderers of the Afghan people to justice," Wang said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Published on 2022/04/27 | Source

Korean movies opening today 2022/04/27 in Korea: "I Want to Know Your Parents", "Spring Day", "Wolves" and "Urban Myths"

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"I Want to Know Your Parents" (2022)

Directed by Kim Ji-hoon

With Sol Kyung-gu, Chun Woo-hee, Moon So-ri, Oh Dal-soo, Ko Chang-seok, Kim Hong-pa,...

Started filming : 2017/05/29

Wrapped up filming : 2017/08/27

Synopsis

An eighth grade student kills himself but not before writing the names of the students who victimized him. Their parents are called into the school and a battle goes on regarding the will.

"Spring Day" (2021)

Directed by Lee Don-ku

With Son Hyun-joo, Park Hyuk-kwon, Jung Suk-yong, Park Sojin, Jung Ji-hwan, Son Sook,...

Synopsis

This film is a story about an uncontrollable incident that happened in their father's funeral where all the connections that he once knew of his older brother, 'Ho-seong' gathered together.

"Wolves" (2021)

Directed by Jeon Kyu-hwan

With Oh Jong-hyuk, Park Ki-deok, Jung Eui-wook, Lee Han-wi, Seo Myung-chan, Choon Sik,...

Synopsis

A war between those who protect, and those who take away

Brutal and bloody violence of the yakuza and the Koryo mafia

Women who feed the wolves

Detectives and gangs chasing serial killers

Hard-boiled action stained with wolves blood

"Urban Myths" (2021)

Directed by Hong Won-ki

With Kim Do-yoon-I, Bong Jae-hyun, Seo Ji-soo, SEOLA, Shownu, Arin,...

Synopsis

The fear of walking through a dark tunnel alone

The questionable sound from next door

The mystery of used furniture

The false jealousy towards others

A more terrifying reality than death that started from revenge, curses, and desire is coming!

Episodes

Episode 01

"Urban Myths: Tunnel" (, teo-neol)

In the dead of night as Gi-hoon returns from a fishing trip, he begins to see handprints all over his windshield. He tries to wash them off using the wipers but cannot remove them. He wipes the window from the inside and the handprints rub clean. He thinks he is alone? Discover the truth when he enters the tunnel looming ahead.

Episode 02

"Urban Myths: The Woman in Red" (, ppal-gan-ot)

At the funeral of Hyeon-joo, Soo-jin who used to bully her, hears that she committed suicide. Now, she is plagued by frequent visions of a woman in red. No matter how hard Su-jin tries to escape her, the woman in red may not allow it.

Episode 03

"Urban Myths: Necromancy" (, hon-sum)

Best friends, Ji-hyeon and Hye-yeon, were like any other teen girls, sharing dreams and interest and making promises they should not keep. When Hye-yeon dies, Ji-hyeon in her grief honors one such promise. To perform necromancy if the other ever died. Ji-hyeon successful brings back Hye-yeon's soul but soon after finds that there are somethings that should never come back...

Episode 04

"Urban Myths: Tooth Worms" (, chi-chung)

Jae-seong who is suffering due to a severe toothache visits his dentist, Choong-jae. However, his dentist couldn't find the cause and asks him to come back the next day. Soon after, Choong-jae finds something writhing in the sink. Upon examining the specimen, his instinct tells him that when Jae-seong returns, no one will be smiling.

Episode 05

"Urban Myths: Ghost Marriage" (, hon-in)

A desperate job seeker, Jae-hoon, gets the chance at an interview. During the interview he is asked unusual questions unrelated to the job. Feeling unsure after the interview, he is told about the CEO, the shaman whispering in his ear and his deceased daughter whom he adores. Jae-hoon wonders, what kind of company is he getting involved with?

Episode 06

"Urban Myths: The Closet" (, jung-go-ga-gu)

Ji-hye finds a high-quality second-hand closet from an online flea market. When she meets the seller, she is a little creeped out by him but really likes the closet. She decides to take it. But once the closet is delivered, horrible nightmares come with it. Is it because the closet is haunted?

Episode 07

"Urban Myths: The Girl in the Mirror" (, eol-gul-do-duk)

Influencer Hyeon-joo is nothing but shallow and greedy. She's obsessed with social media and gets jealous of anyone who looks better than her. One day she looks in the mirror and her reflection starts to speak to her. Now her superficial world begins to shake.

Episode 08

"Urban Myths: A Mannequin" (, ma-ne-king)

While Jong-chan is working at a mannequin warehouse, he hears strange rumors that some of the mannequins are more than they seem. That night, he bumps into a man that looks like a mannequin and things go horrifyingly wrong.

Episode 09

"Urban Myths: The Wall" (, chung-gan-so-eum)

Moving into a new apartment, Jeong-gyoon hears a knocking noise from the neighbor at night. Next morning, he runs into a beautiful woman who seems to live next door. He dares to communicate with her through the wall, not knowing the dire consequences he will encounter.

Episode 10

"Urban Myths: Escape Games" (, bang-tal-chul)

Three friends who enjoy going to famous escape rooms respond to an advert for a newly-opened escape room. Once they get there, they are told that there will be only one clue and no time limit. They start the escape game but realize that it's nothing like the usual, normal ones...
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News Release

April 27, 2022



Contact information

States laboratory professionals recognized with governors tour, proclamation at MDH

Public health, clinical labs play vital role in keeping people safe, healthy

The work of Minnesotas Public Health Laboratory and its many partner labs around the state earned praise and recognition from Gov. Tim Walz Monday as he toured the laboratory in St. Paul and presented a proclamation declaring April 24-30 as Lab Professionals Week in Minnesota.



Laboratory professionals play a critical but often unseen role in the overall health of Minnesotans, reads the proclamation issued by Gov. Walz. For over 150 years, laboratory professionals around the state have worked to make sure that medical conditions are identified and quickly reported, our food and water is safe to eat and drink; our lakes, rivers, soil, and air are safe for us to work and play; and community health threats are quickly identified and stopped, it continues. The State of Minnesota honors the tireless dedication, resilience, sacrifice, reliability, determinedness, and flexibility of these professionals in their desire and enduring sense of duty to keep Minnesotans safe and healthy.



The Public Health Laboratory (PHL) at the Minnesota Department of Health has been noted often for its pioneering work in developing new newborn screening methods and follow-up to ensure medical care delivery, the use of next-generation DNA sequencing to detect disease outbreaks, and in detecting low levels of chemical contaminants in the environment. It provides support to other state and national laboratories, serving as a response laboratory for chemical hazards, vaccine preventable diseases, antibiotic resistance, and radiation.



That status is the result of strong collaboration with laboratory partners in the state and region, said Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm.



The Public Health Laboratorys emphasis on quality partnerships with stakeholders is one of the many reasons Minnesota is considered a leader in public health, Commissioner Malcolm said. Each year we continue to nurture and build those partnerships as a way to strengthen public health across the state and the country.



During his tour, Governor Walz saw first-hand those areas of the lab where staff first used Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE), a kind of DNA fingerprinting, and later, whole genome sequencing, to help determine the source of foodborne outbreaks; where vitamin E acetate was found to be the source of severe lung injuries from adulterated vaping cartridges; and where Minnesota is on track to be the first state to screen all infants for congenital cytomegalovirus - the most common viral infection in newborns that can cause a range of health problems, from liver damage to hearing loss and intellectual disabilities.



How PHL Helps Keep Minnesotans Safe

The PHL is part of a network of labs throughout the state that provides answers to Minnesotans every day. Laboratory professionals are behind the scenes at all of these labs, identifying infectious diseases, rare genetic conditions, and toxic chemicals that can make people sick. Samples for testing come from a wide variety of collectors to the PHL to detect, investigate, monitor, prevent, and control public health threats. The COVID pandemic response is just one example of how critical laboratory professionals and their partnerships with each other are to the health of Minnesotans.



Environmental Risks: In collaboration with environmental health programs at county, state and federal agencies, the PHL analyzes samples of air, water, soil and vegetation as well as biological specimens such as urine and blood from people and animals for the presence of public health hazards radiation, chemical and bacterial contaminants.



Viruses, Bacteria and other Pathogens: In collaboration with acute disease epidemiology programs at MDH, as well as counties, other states and research institutions, the PHL monitors and responds to public health threats. Through the analysis of human specimens (stool, blood, serum, urine, etc.) for bacteria, parasites, fungi, viruses and other infectious disease agents, the PHL and acute disease epidemiology programs can detect a disease outbreak, focus a disease outbreak investigation and plan an effective public health intervention.



Emerging Threats: The PHL also collaborates with clinical labs and veterinary diagnostic labs to identify trends such as anti-microbial resistance, the emergence of new diseases such as West Nile Virus and the re-emergence of serious diseases such as tuberculosis. In some cases, when clinical labs submit specimens to the PHL for additional testing and characterization, this can help physicians solve a medical mystery for a single patient, but more often this sharing of information between labs helps epidemiologists and clinicians find connections between cases that helps them determine whats making people sick across the state.



Technical Support: In collaboration with hospitals, clinics and diagnostic labs in the state, the PHL provides reference and confirmatory testing of specimens, and employs both classic bench and state-of-the-art techniques not available in most labs. This technical assistance extends and increases the testing capability of Minnesota hospitals, clinics and diagnostic labs. For example, the PHL is the only facility in the state that does rabies testing and serves as a referral center for specimens sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further testing.



The PHL also regularly provides training for laboratorians in clinical labs around the state to help them identify rare pathogens of concern that may have public health implications.



More information can be found at: About the Public Health Laboratory.

-MDH-

Doug Schultz

MDH Communications

651-201-4993

doug.schultz@state.mn.us
Would you like me to sweeten that for you? Out came a finger to stir your cup of coffee or
NE China speeds up work resumption as epidemic abates

Xinhua) 13:31, April 27, 2022

SHENYANG, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Work has gradually resumed in the three northeast Chinese provinces following a resurgence of COVID-19 infections since March.

Jilin Province, which has seen over 60,000 cases reported in the latest outbreak, previously imposed measures such as traffic control and closed management in the cities of Changchun and Jilin to effectively curb the transmission of COVID-19.

Leading Chinese automaker FAW Group Co., Ltd. has now reopened its five machine factories in Changchun, capital of Jilin, since local authorities have cut off all COVID-19 transmission chains out of the city's quarantine areas.

The company's work resumption plays a positive role in guaranteeing the stable operation of the auto industry, said Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association.

As the pillar enterprise of Jilin and an important part of domestic and global automotive industrial chains, FAW Group's production resumption helps bring its subsidiaries and auto parts suppliers back to work.

Fawer Hanon Automotive Components (Changchun) Co., Ltd. is one of the suppliers that are welcoming their employees back to their posts.

Li Huan with the company said that their intelligent production lines of electric compressors and refrigerant valves have returned to 80 percent of normal production capacity.

Boasting China's top automobile manufacturing and R&D centers, as well as a large number of auto parts suppliers and vehicle manufacturers, the northeast China region plays an important role in both the auto industry and the country's economy, said Cui.

Amid the battle against COVID-19, there were as many as 2,175 enterprises that suspended production in the coastal province of Liaoning.

Local authorities have vowed to bring the economy back on track, encouraging enterprises to resume work and production in an orderly manner, as the number of COVID-19 infections is receding, thanks to fine-tuned virus control measures remaining in place.

The government has set up a special task force to minimize the impact on the economy and stabilize economic performance, and has opened up a "green channel" for enterprises to resume work, said Wang Danqun, deputy director of the Liaoning provincial department of industrial and information technology.

China Railway Shenyang Group Co., Ltd. has restarted a batch of high-speed railway construction projects, including the construction of a high-speed railway linking Shenyang with the Changbai Mountains in Jilin, which will form an important link in the high-speed railway network in northeast China.

Meanwhile, the railway authority launched Liaoning's first international freight train that runs via the China-Laos Railway on Friday, which marked the beginning of trade via railway between northeast China and ASEAN countries.

As of April 22, of the 8,604 sizeable industrial enterprises in Liaoning, 98.7 percent had resumed work and production. Construction of the second phase of BMW Brilliance Automobile's new Tiexi manufacturing factory has also resumed.

On April 12, the number of drivers who logged on to on-demand delivery service provider Lalamove, known as Huolala in Chinese, to check freight transport orders started to increase significantly in Shenyang. The demand for freight transport on the platform nearly quadrupled from April 13 to 14.

Heilongjiang Province, known as China's "grain barn," is seeing spring farming proceeding at full throttle.

In the provincial capital of Harbin, the province's largest vegetable wholesale market resumed business last week. The market has set a daily capacity limit of 1,500 vehicles, while customers were asked to order online before pickup to minimize contact.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Zachari Dunes on Mandalay Beach, Curio Collection by Hilton, Southern California's only all-suite oceanfront resort nestled between Malibu and Santa Barbara in Oxnard, California, will debut this fall following a multi-million-dollar renovation.

The Spanish Hacienda-style resort will be reimagined as part of Curio Collection by Hilton, a global portfolio of more than 100 one-of-a-kind hotels and resorts handpicked for their independent and unique character. The 250-all-suite beachfront resort, formerly the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort will be newly named Zachari Dunes on Mandalay Beach and is now accepting reservations for stays starting October 1, 2022.

"Our hotel's transformation embraces comfort, ignites senses and harmonizes with nature, offering a welcoming oasis of unexpected experiences, said Ben Ly, general manager, Zachari Dunes on Mandalay Beach, Curio Collection by Hilton. "Zachari Dunes truly reflects SoCal effortless sophistication with Spanish-inspired architecture, sugary dunes and the glow of the California sun."

Zachari Dunes on Mandalay Beach is a short, picturesque drive up the scenic California Gold Coast from Los Angeles. Inspired by the essence of the ocean and the natural beauty that surrounds it, the reimagined resort will feature spacious accommodations, exhilarating adventures, and divine culinary delights, perfect for an effortless California getaway.

From poolside breakfast to beachside brews, elevated culinary experiences will be on the menu at Zachari Dunes on Mandalay Beach, Curio Collection by Hilton. Inspired by the bounty of the Oxnard Plain and its pristine coastal waters, Ox & Ocean offers refined cuisine and unique craft cocktails in true So-Cal fashion. For those on the go, Sugar Beats, a converted Airstream trailer, offers locally roasted coffee and on-the-go offerings to start the day, and locally crafted beers and canned cocktails each afternoon to accompany fresh-caught seafood and Cali-inspired handhelds.

For those seeking adventure and fun, the hotel offers guests the opportunity to fully indulge in everything that Zachari Dunes and Mandalay Beach have to offer. Henry's Sundries and Gear Rental, a one-stop shop, has been designed with comfort in mind so guests can leave their beach gear at home. From bicycles and boogie boards, to GoPros, longboards, Hoverboards, gaming systems and more, Henry's allows guests to pack light, borrow equipment and enjoy all experiences the resort has to offer.

Boasting over 23,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space, Zachari Dunes offers endless opportunities with one-of-a-kind venues. With indoor spaces ideal for team meetings, corporate retreats, or large conferences to oceanfront spaces such as the resort's 3,000 square-foot Playa Vista Lawn. Sitting steps above the beach, Playa Vista Lawn makes the perfect backdrop for the most elegant weddings, beachside bashes, networking gatherings and more. Zachari Dunes on Mandalay Beach is the ideal setting for any occasion from 15 to 400 attendees.

Zachari Dunes on Mandalay Beach, Curio Collection by Hilton is part of Hilton Honors, the award-winning guest loyalty program for Hilton's 18 world-class brands. Hilton Honors members who book directly through preferred Hilton channels have access to instant benefits, including a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of Points and money to book a stay, an exclusive member discount that can't be found anywhere else and free standard Wi-Fi. Members also have access to contactless technology exclusively through the industry-leading Hilton Honors mobile app, where Hilton Honors members can check-in, choose their room and access their room using Digital Key.

Zachari Dunes on Mandalay Beach, Curio Collection by Hilton is located at 2101 Mandalay Beach Road, Oxnard, CA. To make a reservation for Zachari Dunes on Mandalay Beach, Curio Collection by Hilton, please visit zacharidunes.com.

Hotel website
Hotel Crescent Court - situated in the heart of Dallas' vibrant Uptown - proudly announces the appointment of Shah Adil as its Area Managing Director. In this role, Shah will be responsible for managing the hotel's day-to-day success, overseeing all operational aspects of the 226-room property and private club, including everything from sales and marketing to food and beverage, while maximizing company revenue.

A seasoned leader, Shah joins Hotel Crescent Court following five years as Area Managing Director at The Whitley Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel, in Atlanta, Ga., and 22 years in senior leadership positions at Hyatt Hotels with stops in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Greenwich and Washington, D.C. He studied hospitality at The Ecole Polytechnique Federale (EPFL) in Switzerland and at the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, where he earned his MBA in management, and did his post-graduate work in hospitality real estate and asset management at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University.

Shah returns to the Dallas market after previously being General Manager at Hyatt Regency DFW in 2016-2017. In 2018, he was named 'General Manager of the Year' by Marriott International while at Westin Atlanta Perimeter North, and in 2019, he was named 'General Manager of the Year' by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA).

View Shah Adil's LinkedIn Profile

Shah Adil is a graduate of Cornell Execed in Ithaca, New York - United States
Renaissance Pattaya Resort & Spa welcomes Mr. Bruno Rotschaedl as the premium lifestyle property's new General Manager. He will be responsible for looking after the overall operations and business strategy of the resort, ensuring that initiatives undertaken are in positive alignment with the Renaissance brand and that progress continues at an efficient and coordinated pace toward the goals.

Bringing an enormous amount of experience to the table, Mr. Bruno has acquired the sharpened acumen and strong operational skills to see overall results achieved, having worked in hospitality all of his adult life, a period of 30 years, and held numerous leadership positions in top-rung hotels around the world.

Starting in Food & Beverage service after graduating from hotel management school in Austria, it wasn't long before Bruno set out on a 30-year journey that has revealed his talents and passion in hotel management, in 13 interesting destinations across 3 continents. The majority were among the best hotels under the Marriott umbrella, in such diverse locales as Austria, Germany, Poland, the US, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand.

His last position before joining Renaissance Pattaya Resort & Spa was General Manager of the respected Swissotel Bangkok Ratchada, where his intuitive leadership proved immeasurably valuable to the business, as well as the complete renovation, of such a large property. He was twice awarded Thailand's Best General Manager in 2019 and 2020 by CMO GLOBAL during his time there.
Revisit. Reboot. Recharge. Restore.

Any other year, you would find this space devoted to discovery, knowledge-sharing, networking, innovation, craft, inspiration, and a hundred more reasons to attend HD in August 2021.

But this not a normal year. Nor was 2020.

Like you, since the pandemic took hold, we have experienced extreme uncertainty, unforeseen challenges, and a range of emotions, along with extreme gratitude for family, friends, essential workers, health, kindness, mindfulness, and any sense of normalcy.

There is no playbook. But we are certain about two things: community matters in good times and bad, and from bitter challenges come new ideas, innovation, and inspiration.

In support of our amazing hospitality design industry that we all love, you are cordially invited to HD Expo + Conference 2021 in Las Vegas, August 24+25. We pledge to share the best of hospitality, with your safety as our first priority. (If that sounds like an airline takeoff safety speech, fine, we're sticking to it.)

There's never been a more important time to come together. All in, we're stronger as a community.

See you soon

Team HD

#hospitalitystrong

This event is organized by Emerald Expositions, Inc.
SAN DIEGO  Cloudbeds, the hospitality industrys fastest-growing technology provider, announced it has been selected by Forbes as one of Americas Best Startup Employers of 2022. The annual list recognizes the top 500 companies in the United States based on employer reputation, employee satisfaction and growth. This is the remote-first companys second consecutive year on the list.

Our number one responsibility as leaders is to build environments where people can be successful, said Adam Harris, CEO and co-founder of Cloudbeds. Our journey has been fueled by very happy and driven employees whove been put front and center by our leadership. If our people are prioritized every step of the way, the company and our customers benefit tremendously.

Founded in 2012, the remote-first company employs nearly 700 employees across 40 countries. In the past year, the company grew its global workforce by 70% with more than 300 new hires across all departments. This recognition adds to the companys expanding list of awards for its emphasis on its employee experience and company culture, including Built Ins Best Remote-First Companies to Work for in 2022 and Deloittes 2021 Technology Fast 500, among others.

The list was determined through a partnership with leading market research firm Statista to identify and evaluate 2,500 U.S. businesses with at least 50 employees founded between 2012 and 2019. Each company was evaluated based on three key factors: employee satisfaction, employer reputation and company growth. The final list ranked the top 500 companies based on over eight million data points.

Cloudbeds is currently working to fill more than 90 roles across all departments. Interested candidates can meet the team at San Diegos first annual Innovation Day at Petco Park on April 28 from 4 - 8 p.m. PT.

Learn more about Cloudbeds open positions around the globe at cloudbeds.com/careers.

About Cloudbeds

Founded in 2012, Cloudbeds is the hospitality industry's fastest-growing technology provider, serving global customers of 22,000+ independent properties across 157 countries. Its award-winning Cloudbeds Hospitality Platform seamlessly combines operations, revenue, distribution, and growth marketing tools with a marketplace of third-party integrations to help hoteliers and hosts grow revenue, streamline operations, and deliver memorable guest experiences. Cloudbeds was named No. 1 PMS, No. 1 Booking Engine, and Hoteliers Choice by Hotel Tech Report in 2021, and has been recognized by Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 in 2021 and Inc. 500 in 2019. For more information, visit www.cloudbeds.com.
PKF hospitality group announces five new partners from April. The following team members have taken over shares in PKF hospitality holding GmbH, Vienna, from Michael Widmann, Global CEO:

Nils Heckscher , PKF hospitality group, Cape Town

, PKF hospitality group, Cape Town Christopher Hinteregger , PKF hospitality group, Vienna

, PKF hospitality group, Vienna Ulrike Schuler , PKF hospitality group, Munich

, PKF hospitality group, Munich Ulf Templin , PKF hospitality group, Munich

, PKF hospitality group, Munich Robin Wattinger, PKF hospitality group, Hong Kong

Widmann: "I am very pleased to welcome our colleagues, who each have a high level of specialist expertise, to our circle of shareholders. This step also clearly illustrates our globally oriented structure." Christian Walter, Global CEO of PKF hospitality group, added: "Last year, we already did justice to the growing importance and increasingly complex international structures of the industry with our realignment, and we are pleased to now also express this through these personnel changes."

Under the umbrella of PKF hospitality group are the following units:

PKF hotelexperts  hotel consulting

PKF livingexperts  serviced living consulting

PKF tourismexperts  tourism consulting

PKF leisureexperts  leisure consulting

PKF hospitality research  data analytics for hotel, living, tourism & leisure

PKF hospitality technology  digitalisation & innovation for hotel, living, tourism & leisure

Future of Hospitality Institute  think tank

196+ events  events & networking for hotel, living, tourism & leisure

about PKF hotelexperts

PKF hospitality group is an internationally recognised leader in hospitality and tourism consulting. With a team of 100 consultants in 20 offices (including Kyiv) on all continents and an experience of almost 100 years, PKF hospitality group offers focused consulting services in the environment of the hotel, serviced living, tourism, and leisure investments - including feasibility studies, valuations, operator search, project development, financing and investment consulting, asset management, research & benchmarking as well as strategic consulting. www.pkfhospitality.com

Martina Rozok

+49 30 40044681

PKF hospitality group
In todays globalised world, more and more hotel firms are expanding their business overseas. Yet success in the international arena may not translate into success at home, warn Dr Alice H. Y. Hon and Mr Emmanuel Gamor of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. With skilled managers from overseas paid 10 times more than local employees, frontline and service-oriented hotel workers are feeling increasingly disillusioned. With service standards falling, how can multinational hotel corporations build harmony between their local and overseas employees? The answer lies in trust, say the researchers, whose study offers timely and important insights for the Chinese hospitality industry.

The last four decades of globalisation have seen radical changes in the organisational management and human resource composition of hotel firms in China. To compete in the international service market, firms are increasingly filling key strategic positions with skilled workers from abroad. In the modern hospitality industry, multinational hotel corporations rely on expatriate managers to succeed, say the researchers.

To attract, motivate and retain these valuable employees from overseas, it is standard practice to set their wages to the market conditions in their home country. Their salaries can be an astounding 10 times higher than those of local workers, whose pay is calculated according to local labour market conditions. Unsurprisingly, note the authors, this can lead to perceived injustice among employees, especially given that compensation goes beyond moneyit can represent an employees worth, status and power.

The problem of disgruntled local employees is not trivial, and multinational hospitality corporations should not underestimate the extent to which this might threaten their own survival. Local employees who resent their expatriate superiors and the organisation are less satisfied, motivated and committed. They may engage in deviant behaviours, service sabotage, or antisocial behaviours affecting service quality, report the researchers. Faced with this problem, multinational hotel companies must find ways to mitigate the negative effects of the compensation gap on local employees work-related outcomes.

In multicultural environments with a vast chasm in pay grades between local and overseas employees, it can be challenging to develop and maintain local employees trust in their expatriate superiors  and even in the organisation as a whole. Companies must satisfy the salary expectations of highly skilled expatriate managers while addressing any potential bitterness felt by local employees. Successfully fostering trust can reduce the negative outcomes associated with a sense of inequity. High levels of trust can positively influence several work outcomes, such as job performance, organisational citizenship behaviour, and productiveness, say the authors.

Referring to well-established theories of the different forms of trust, the researchers surmised that trust in expatriate supervisors and the organisation can be knowledge-driven or emotion-driven. Knowledge-driven cognitive trust is based on a track record of competence, reliability and fair treatment, and might allow local employees to see beyond the pay gap. The researchers reasoned that instilling cognitive trust gives the impression that expatriate managers have the competency, key knowledge, and ability to work at a high level, and so it is right that they receive more compensation than local employees.

Emotion-driven affective trust is born from an interpersonal connectedness, through which local employees feel cared for by their expatriate managers. Affective trust in expatriate managers can be formed via friendly interactions and expressions of personal concern in local employees well-being, which weakens uncertainty and increases psychological safety among employees, explain the authors. Recognising the potential for these two dimensions of trust to curtail the negative effects resulting from compensation gaps, the researchers set out to define their influence on various work-related outcomes.

To capture real-world experiences and attitudes, the authors approached team members of multinational hotel corporations in Xian, China. They included 286 front-line or low-level local employees and 32 of their expatriate supervisors, who were middle- or upper-level managers. Most of the local employees interviewed had been supervised by an expatriate manager for 1 to 5 years. The expatriate supervisors were primarily from Hong Kong or Taiwan, Europe, and North America, and 68.1% of them had lived in China for at least 6 years.

The local employees completed a comprehensive questionnaire that measured their perceptions of the compensation gap between local and expatriate employees, as well as their cognitive and affective trust in their expatriate superiors, their satisfaction with their expatriate supervisors, general work satisfaction, and commitment to their organisation.

As well as collecting these valuable data from local employees, the authors asked the expatriate supervisors to give scores for the local employees altruism, by reporting their willingness to offer help in the workplace. A sample item was This individual is inclined to help me find solutions to work-related problems.

The next step was to conduct a thorough statistical analysis of the interview data to measure the precise connections between compensation, work attitudes and trust among local and expatriate employees.

As expected, when the local employees perceived the compensation gap to be larger, they were more dissatisfied with their expatriate supervisors and less willing to help them. They were also less satisfied with their jobs and  most strikingly  less committed to their organisations. This, report the researchers, confirms the previous finding that the compensation gap is one of the main contributors to counterproductive work outcomes among employees in the hospitality industry. Interestingly, however, local employees resentment was mostly directed towards the organisation, rather than towards their expatriate managers.

This may cause local employees to leave organizations with a greater perceived unjust compensation gap, warn the authors, contributing to high labour turnover in the hospitality industry. This finding underlines the urgent need for multinational hospitality corporations to generate a sense of fairness that counteracts the negative effects of substantial pay gaps. One possibility is the introduction of non-financial perks for local employees, such as additional training and insurance.

The researchers also found that stronger cognitive trust weakened the negative effect of a wide compensation gap on the local employees job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Clearly, multinational hotel corporations need to develop strategies to boost local employees faith in the abilities of expatriate managers. Management must ensure that expatriates maintain high levels of competence, reliability, skills, professionalism, and honesty, say the authors, by enforcing checks and balances through staff feedback and evaluation.

Affective trust also moderated the negative effects of a compensation gap. Local employees who felt more cared for by their expatriate managers reported greater satisfaction and showed more altruistic behaviour. The management of multinational hotel corporations should encourage expatriates to show a genuinely welcoming, kind, and caring attitude towards the local employees they supervise, suggest the researchers. Expatriates should remind subordinates of their roles, celebrate their achievements, and show how much they care about them. This will help to foster affective trust and mitigate local employees sense of injustice.

In the modern hospitality industry, multinational hotel firms rely on expatriate managers to succeed. The findings of this novel study offer profound insights for Chinese hotel firms operating overseas, which must find effective ways to legitimise the pay gap between local workers and their expatriate superiors. This could come in the form of trust-building policies, especially those that capitalise on the distinct effects of cognitive and affective trust. Strategies for instilling cognitive trust can enhance task-related work outcomes, while promoting affective trust can improve personal work outcomes. Trust should be considered carefully in strategic planning and academic inquiry, conclude the researchers. This will become ever more important as Chinas hospitality firms continue to expand overseas.

Hon, Alice H.Y. and Gamor, Emmanuel (2021). When My Pay is Lower than My Expatriate Colleagues: Where Do the Hospitality Managers Go from Here? International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 95, 102953.

About PolyU's School of Hotel and Tourism Management

For over 40 years, PolyU's School of Hotel and Tourism Management has refined a distinctive vision of hospitality and tourism education and become a world-leading hotel and tourism school. Rated No. 1 in the world in the "Hospitality and Tourism Management" category according to ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2020, placed No. 1 globally in the "Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services" category in the University Ranking by Academic Performance in 2019/2020 and ranked No. 1 in the world in the "Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism" subject area by the CWUR Rankings by Subject 2017, the SHTM is a symbol of excellence in the field, exemplifying its motto of Leading Hospitality and Tourism.

The School is driven by the need to serve its industry and academic communities through the advancement of education and dissemination of knowledge. With a strong international team of over 70 faculty members with diverse cultural backgrounds, the SHTM offers programmes at levels ranging from undergraduate degrees to doctoral degrees. Through Hotel ICON, the School's groundbreaking teaching and research hotel and a vital aspect of its paradigm-shifting approach to hospitality and tourism education, the SHTM is advancing teaching, learning and research, inspiring a new generation of passionate, pioneering professionals to take their positions as leaders in the hospitality and tourism industry.

The School is driven by the need to serve its industry and academic communities through the advancement of education and dissemination of knowledge. With more than 70 academic staff drawing from 21 countries and regions, the SHTM offers programmes at levels ranging from undergraduate degrees to doctoral degrees. Through Hotel ICON, the School's groundbreaking teaching and research hotel and a vital aspect of its paradigm-shifting approach to hospitality and tourism education, the SHTM is advancing teaching, learning and research, inspiring a new generation of passionate, pioneering professionals to take their positions as leaders in the hospitality and tourism industry.
Customers have started to scratch their travel itch once again, but expectations arent being met. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Travel Study 2021-2022, satisfaction with airlines is flying in the wrong direction, hotels arent hosting happy guests, and car rentals cant get back on track. Online travel agencies are the only industry to improve customer satisfaction, but not by much.

Many folks ventured out to travel for the first time since the pandemic hit only to be met with lackluster service and dashed hopes, says Forrest Morgeson, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University and Director of Research Emeritus at the ACSI. We see this with hotels, where the quality of amenities and food services both dip below customer experience benchmarks of 70. Anyone who anticipated their travel experience would feel like the normal pre-pandemic days are likely coming away sorely disappointed. While the desire to travel may be up, it might be time to adjust your expectations.

This study provides customer satisfaction data across four travel industries  airlines, hotels, car rentals, and online travel agencies  based on surveys conducted from April 2021 to March 2022.

Source: The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

JetBlue soars into first place

After ascending to its best-ever score, the airline industry comes back down to earth, as passenger satisfaction slips 1.3% to an ACSI score of 75 (out of 100).

JetBlue flies into the top spot, up 3% to 79. American and United, both up 3% to 77, climb into a four-way tie for second with Delta and Southwest, which slide 3% apiece.

Alaska decreases 3% to an ACSI score of 75, followed by the smaller carriers (down 4% to 71) and Allegiant (down 3% to 70). The bottom of the industry belongs to ultra-low-cost carriers Frontier, which slumps 3% to 66, and Spirit, which tumbles 5% to 63.

Hotels hurt again by withering satisfaction

The hotel industry faces the ire of unsatisfied customers yet again.

Guest satisfaction overall falls 2.7% to a score of 71, with over half of the major hoteliers posting ACSI declines of 4% or greater.

Marriott becomes the industry satisfaction leader after improving 3% to 78. Last years leader, Hilton, finishes second after dropping 4% to an ACSI score of 76. Best Western is steady at 75, just ahead of IHG, which sinks 5% to 74. Choice and Hyatt each score 73, but the former increases 3% while the latter slides 4%.

Wyndham is stable at 69, followed by the large group of smaller hotels, which plummets 7% to 65. The bottom of the industry belongs to G6 Hospitality (Motel 6), plunging 15% to an ACSI score of 56.

Alamo captures top spot among car rentals

Satisfaction with the car rental industry dips 1.3% to an ACSI score of 75.

Alamo drives to the front of the pack, improving 4% to 79. Three brands tie at 76: Enterprise (down 3%), Hertz (up 1%), and National (up 1%).

Dollar drops 3% to 75, ahead of Avis (74) and Budget (72), down 1% each. The group of smaller car rental companies is next with a steady score of 71. Thrifty sits at the bottom of the industry, slumping 3% to 70.

Smaller online travel agencies take industry lead

User satisfaction with online travel agencies overall inches up 1.4% to an ACSI score of 75.

The group of smaller online travel sites takes the top spot after increasing 5% to 77. Orbitz is next, improving 1% to 76, followed by Tripadvisor, down 1% to 75.

Expedias namesake site and Travelocity both score 73, decreasing 1% and 4%, respectively. Priceline remains at the bottom of the industry after stumbling 1% to 72.

The ACSI Travel Study 2021-2022 on airlines, hotels, car rentals, and internet travel services is based on interviews with 6,285 customers. Respondents were chosen at random and contacted via email between April 5, 2021, and March 25, 2022. Download the study, and follow the ACSI on LinkedIn and Twitter at @theACSI.

No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the data and information in this release without the express prior written consent of ACSI LLC.

About the American Customer Satisfaction Index

The American Customer Satisfaction Index has been a national economic indicator for 25 years. It measures and analyzes customer satisfaction with more than 400 companies in 47 industries and 10 economic sectors, including various services of federal and local government agencies. Reported on a scale of 0 to 100, scores are based on data from interviews with roughly 500,000 customers annually. For more information, visit www.theacsi.org.

ACSI and its logo are Registered Marks of the University of Michigan, licensed worldwide exclusively to American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC with the right to sublicense.
In honor of the late Anthony (Tony) Aslanian, who passed away almost a year ago, Teneo Hospitality & the Aslanian family are offering a $5,000 scholarship to a current student participating in a 4-year hospitality program at any college or university within the United States.

About Tony

Tony Aslanian was a 38-year hospitality industry leader who had a deep passion for the industry. Tonys passion was unyielding, and he carried himself with such a level of friendliness and authenticity that those that met Tony would never forget. Over the course of his career, he touched the hearts of many people with his mentorship, and educating others was a huge part of who he was.

"Tony epitomized what it means to be a hospitality professional, and he dedicated himself to the industry, its growth and its advancement." shares Mike Schugt, Tony's close friend, colleague, and Teneo Hospitality Group's president.

Tony was a strong believer in education as an investment in the future, and he was always willing to invest his time supporting future industry leaders. "He was proud to guest lecture and mentor hospitality students []He saw grit, perseverance and passion for the hospitality industry as critical skills that were nurtured in hospitality schools." remembers Jessica, Tony's wife and mother of his two children.

Tony understood the value of education for the industry and did everything he could to support it. Tony was inspiring and remarkable, so, Teneo and the Aslanian family proudly celebrate this amazing man, his courage, and his conviction by offering a scholarship in his name to be awarded to a future industry leader.

The Scholarship

Teneo is proud to carry Tony's legacy by investing in the future of the industry he loved and cherished so deeply. All applications will be reviewed, and one participant will be selected by the Anthony P. Aslanian Scholarship committee.

For eligibility, requirements, and to submit applications, interested students should visit: https://teneohg.com/anthony-aslanian-scholarship/

All submissions are due by June 1st, 2022 & Teneo will announce the winner for the upcoming fall semester on July 1st, 2022.

About Teneo Hospitality Group

Teneo Hospitality Group is a Global Sales Organization for the Finest Collection of Hotels, Resorts & Destination Management Companies (DMCs) Worldwide. Its globa l team is based in key geographic source markets and is an extension of its members' local and regional sales teams. Teneo has wide-ranging knowledge of the hospitality industry and serves the meeting planning community by providing valuable expertise and acting as trusted advisors. Teneo is a Latin word meaning to know, understand and persevere. This term represents the company's mission and its successful track record of global expansion. Since being established in 2013, Teneo has become a top-notch independent GSO. The company continues to expand its staff of hospitality sales and marketing professionals, and the services it provides the MICE marketplace as authorized by its members. Visit teneohg.com
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Resilience is a quality we look for in people, communities and companies, but with global warming making weather more threatening, Houston Community College will soon offer certificates and degrees to individuals who demonstrate advanced skills in withstanding adversity.

The college also plans to build one of the most advanced training facilities in the nation, a Resiliency Operations Center, to train Texans from across the state to cope with whatever the climate crisis throws at us.

In the last six years, Texas has seen seven major disasters that have cost $1 trillion. Sadly, resiliency expert will be a solid career choice in the 21st century.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: Climate change bringing more Hurricane Harveys to Texas

HCC initially focused on teaching storm response following 2017s Hurricane Harvey, but that changed after the 2020 COVID pandemic and the 2021 February Freeze. Administrators broadened their goal to prepare Texans to respond to all kinds of disasters, mitigate the damage, and recover quickly and smartly, said HCC Chancellor Cesar Maldonado.

HCC already routinely updates the curriculum for police and firefighters. But the college will also offer resilience certificates in every field of study, hoping to develop a broad community of people who can contribute when disaster strikes.

It really is an area where integrated skill sets are needed to have a resilient community, Maldonado told me. You can't have it in silos where you teach welding in one department and then life rescue in another department and food services in another department. Because food services in the middle of a pandemic or an emergency is much different than food services under normal circumstances.

Classes will start with continuing professional education this fall, Maldonado said. But as the coursework expands, HCC will be one of the first colleges to offer certificates and a two-year degree in resilience.

Maldonado hopes to finalize the design of a Resiliency Operations Center soon for its Northeast Campus. More than 3,000 people a year will train for urban flooding and swift-water rescue in full-scale, life-like simulations. No similar facility currently exists in Texas.

Other programs are futuristic, such as drone training for rescue and law enforcement. I recently witnessed a demonstration by artificial intelligence company SparkCognition where an autonomous drone dropped sensors in a grid pattern while a second one circled overheard to feed a digital link to responding rescuers. Preparing, programming and recovering the equipment will become a highly-desired skillset.

Richard Seline, cofounder of the national Resilience Innovation Hub, serves as a subject matter expert for HCC and plans to share some of the new technologies the hub is helping develop. He said insurance companies and real estate developers recognize the need for new ways to deal with disaster.

This is going to be a chance to train people in these new technologies, or this is going to be a chance to test new technologies, Seline said. You can have all of the technology, equipment, data and science in the world, but if you don't have people who know how to install it, operate and maintain it, it wont make a bit of difference.

Medium and large companies can send risk managers and their teams to learn how to harden buildings and property against the new threats created by a changing climate. Whether its knowing what kind of storm doors to install or the number of sandbags to keep on hand, preparation is critical to protect lives and speed recovery, both in our homes and at work.

In addition to specialty training in public safety, drone operations and facility management, the college will offer advanced instruction in medical triage, disaster case management and debris removal and reuse.

We'll have classroom exercises on the things that can happen in logistics, in coordination within neighborhoods, within parts of the city, Maldonado said.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: Texas Blackout left scars on businesses, but other disasters lurk ahead

Mayor Sylvester Turner has called for 500,000 working Houstonians to undergo some form of resiliency and sustainability training. Rather than pitching in ad hoc, imagine a coordinated mobilization of volunteers in every neighborhood.

We will have a nursing faculty teaching our neighborhood citizens on some fundamentals of first aid, or how to assist a first responder, Maldonado said. It's to have people that can assist when they're called on, and also know how to take care of their nuclear family in a better way.

Every community should do the same, and every company should send employees for instruction because being #strong should be more than a social media platitude. We can be stronger if we train now.

Humans have learned that disasters are not isolated acts of God, but predictable parts of nature. Scientists have warned us how climate change will trigger more of them. The challenge now is how to cope with them.

Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and politics.

twitter.com/cltomlinson

chris.tomlinson@chron.com
WASHINGTON - Solar projects are being put on hold across Texas and the nation amid fears the Biden administration will place tariffs on projects built with solar panels from southeast Asia, the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group, said Wednesday.

Since the Commerce Department opened its investigation last month into whether manufacturers in southeast Asia are circumventing U.S. trade laws, more than 300 solar farm projects with a capacity of more than 50,000 megawatts have been delayed or cancelled, the group reported. The largest impact is in Texas, with developers reporting more 13,000 megawatts of projects - the equivalent of approximately five nuclear power plants - now on hold.

"Project developers in Texas are having to go back to their customers and say given the uncertainty we can't go forward until we have clarity," said Jeff Clark, president of the Austin-based trade group Advanced Power Alliance. "It's just the worst possible timing for this kind of uncertainty."

RELATED: President Biden takes heat over investigation into Asian solar panels

At issue is the possibility the Commerce Department will find manufacturers in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are covertly selling Chinese-made solar panels in a scheme to avoid U.S. tariffs, as claimed last month by California manufacturer Auxin Solar.

The four nations produce 80 percent of the panels expected to be installed in the United States this year, the American Clean Power Association, another industry group, said earlier this year.

Were the Commerce Department to confirm that claim, any solar projects built since the claim was made would be subject to retroactive tariffs, said Harry Godfrey, a managing director with Advanced Energy Economy, a trade group representing clean energy technology firms.

"It has dramatically elevated prices," he said. "A bunch of suppliers (in southeast Asia) are saying I'm not shipping to the U.S. anymore. If you want the panels, you need to come here and get them."

In a call with analysts last week, NextEra Energy Chief Financial Officer Kirk Crews said they were expecting to shift between 2,000 and 2,8000 megawatts of solar projects to next year because manufacturers in Asia had ceased shipping to the United States.

The trade case comes as the Biden administration seeks to expand the manufacturing of solar panels in the United States, as part of its bid to address climate change.

At present developers largely rely on cheap solar panels from Asia to make their projects viable, presenting the Biden administration with a conundrum on how to reduce emissions while protecting American jobs.

Since early February the importation of solar cells that are the building blocks of solar panels has fallen more than 50 percent, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

And solar companies are predicting that will only continue if the trade case goes against manufacturers southeast Asia. In that scenario, solar installations are expected to decline 48 percent this year to less than 13,000 megawatts, the Solar Energy Industries Association is forecasting.

In a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo last week, Clark, of the Advanced Power Alliance, urged the department make a decision on the case, "as soon as possible."

"To spare our solar industry, our country and our economy irreversible harm," he wrote.
Orleans Seafood Kitchen in Katy takes its birthday seriously. And after a couple of party-free years thanks to the pandemic, the restaurant serving authentic Louisiana fare at 20940 Katy Fwy. is ready to make up for that with a 14th anniversary bash on Thursday, April 28, with an all-day, crawfish-fueled party.

The restaurant is planning happy hour prices all day as well as a crawfish special (three pounds for $14) all day. Theres also live music beginning at 6 p.m. and a crawfish-eating contest at 6:30 p.m. (the winner will receive a $50 Visa gift card).
Houston Public Media has temporarily suspended some of its sponsored content for review after the nonprofit news organization faced criticism for a paid Chevron segment that some viewers said could be easily confused with independent news reporting.

The review will include all advertiser-sponsored content that runs on Houston Public Medias radio and television stations and website. The paid content have included features on local health care issues that were sponsored by nonprofits such as United Way.

Last week, Houston Public Media, the local public television and public radio affiliate, announced it had pulled the Chevron segment amid uproar over its lack of designation as paid, sponsored content. The six-minute segment, one of many paid, mostly digital spots that the nonprofit has called sponsored vignettes, featured Chevron officials touting their companys commitment to the energy transition to clean energy, sometimes combined with images of oil rigs, refineries, melting ice and other environmental disasters from climate change.

MORE: America faces a serious shortage of home health care workers. A new Houston co-op says they hae a fix.

The segment drew the ire of journalists and environmentalists, who said it could easily be confused as a news story, rather than commercial content by Chevron, which was not held to the same editorial standards that a typical news story would face.

One longtime media analyst, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton, called the segment really terrible. Science writer Brian Kahn said on Twitter that it was absolutely bonkers and a huge conflict of interest.

Houston Public media eventually deleted the webpage hosting the video.

In a Thursday email to Houston Public Media staff, General Manager Lisa Shumate again apologized for the Chevron segment, which she said was intended to share information about the energy transition.

ONLINE: After 1,600 days of purgatory, families of detained Citgo officials still pleading for help

Chevron sponsored the series but had no editorial oversight of the content, she wrote to staff. We acknowledge that this created confusion.

She also told staff that Houston Public Media would temporarily suspend similar content as it is reviewed. That includes the CounterAct series that was home to the Chevron segment, as well as all other community catalyst projects  the stations way of describing paid content.

These are not news programs, she wrote to staff. They air in programming breaks and appear on our digital platforms. We are reviewing our production process and are suspending the CounterAct series. We have also paused all other community catalysts projects.

This story has been updated to clarify the date of Lisa Shumate's email to staff announcing program reviews.

robert.downen@chron.com
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Harris County Commissioners Court voted along party lines Tuesday to hire an outside firm to provide security for County Judge Lina Hidalgo, replacing constable deputies on the judges security detail at an estimated cost of $120,000 over three months.

The new arrangement means Hidalgos security will no longer fall under the purview of Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen, one of the countys several elected law enforcement officials who have publicly sparred with the Democrat-controlled court over funding. Rosens chief of staff, Erica Davis, unsuccessfully tried to unseat Hidalgo in the March 1 Democratic primary.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Two aides to County Judge Lina Hidalgo, ex-staffer appear in court after COVID contract indictments

Approved over the objections of Republican Commissioners Jack Cagle and Tom Ramsey, the contract enlists XMi Protection to provide one armed close protection security agent for Hidalgo, with the option to increase team size based on identified need. Security personnel will be paid up to $60 an hour, for as many as 84 hours a week, with additional costs stemming from vehicle rental and gas.

Hidalgo, the first woman and first Latina to fill the countys top elected role, is also the first to maintain a dedicated security detail. She has said county law enforcement officials recommended the move after she began receiving a barrage of threats earlier in her term.

I cannot tell you the number of threats, comments, that go beyond the pale, beyond the standard of disgruntled community members, that my staff and myself have received  especially since issues became overly politicized in the recent months and years, Hidalgo said at a court meeting last August.

The move to an outside vendor is necessary in part because county officials are shifting security detail responsibilities to the Harris County Fire Marshals Office, Hidalgo said, under what she described as a long-running plan to permanently institutionalize the security detail.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Lawyers for Hidalgo, aides say records undercut allegations in vaccine contract probe

Its very clear that security, broadly speaking, particularly in the unfortunate political environment were in, is something thats necessary for the institution, as opposed to ad hoc for one elected official or the other, said Hidalgo, a Democrat who is seeking a second four-year term in November.

County officials settled on the Fire Marshals Office, Hidalgo said, after deciding the security detail would be best situated under an appointed official, instead of an elected one, for the sake of consistency and preventing conflicts of interest. The fire marshal reports to Commissioners Court, unlike other county law enforcement agencies.

For now, however, the Fire Marshals Office lacks the personnel to handle Hidalgos security detail, said deputy county administrator Perrye Turner.

Cagle, one of the two commissioners to oppose the contract, said he wanted every court member to be secure in our job, adding that they should be allowed to seek security protection from constables or the Sheriffs Office. But he joined Ramsey in criticizing the move to hire an outside firm, instead of continuing to employ in-house security.

Why is the fire marshal involved in security? That doesnt make sense to me, Cagle said.

Rosen, whose office previously oversaw Hidalgos security detail, said the judge was well protected under the watch of his deputies.

There is no information to indicate that the executive protection team of the county judge was removed from my command related to the service provided and was merely moved under the Harris County Fires Marshals Office, Rosen said in a statement.

Hidalgo did not specify the nature of the threats she has received, though the backlash has been particularly intense over her policies aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. Early in the pandemic, she clashed frequently with Gov. Greg Abbott, who overrode her efforts  and those of other county judges and mayors  to enact business restrictions and mask mandates.

DEEP DIVE: Lina Hidalgo refused vendor contributions  and still raised $1.8 million

Commissioner Rodney Ellis, joining Hidalgo and Commissioner Adrian Garcia in supporting the contract, said the toxic atmosphere of todays political climate means some elected officials need to be placed under heightened security.

Politics has gotten very vitriolic, Ellis said, invoking the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. If it can happen there ... it can happen anywhere.

Responding to an inquiry from Ellis, First Assistant County Attorney Jay Aiyer said the contract is broadly worded enough to hire security protection for other county officials if needed  though doing so would require Commissioners Court to approve additional funding, Aiyer said.

Also drawing scrutiny Tuesday was the move to hire XMi Protection without a public competitive bidding process. DeWight Dopslauf, the Harris County purchasing agent, said the three-month contract is intended to serve as a stopgap as his office goes through competitive bidding to hire a long-term security provider.

The purchasing department will publicly solicit bids through a request for proposal next week, Dopslauf said.

State law requires counties to undergo competitive bidding for most contracts worth more than $50,000, though commissioners courts may grant exemptions for certain deals  including, in this case, for a personal or professional service.

Still, Cagle inquired Tuesday about the selection process used to settle on XMi Protection, noting that the company appears to have been recently formed. Turner, the deputy county administrator, said he found that the company employs people with extensive experience in state and local law enforcement and the military.

The countys contracting process has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks after three of Hidalgos current and former aides were indicted on felony charges stemming from an investigation into a vaccine outreach contract.

Hidalgo has defended the aides, each identified in Texas Rangers search warrants amid accusations that Hidalgos staff steered a vaccine outreach contract to a politically connected vendor by giving her early access. Attorneys for the aides have maintained their innocence and denied any wrongdoing.

jasper.scherer@chron.com
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  Authorities on Tuesday identified a 29-year-old Billings man as the victim of a weekend shooting outside a bar in the eastern Montana city.

A single gunshot wound to the torso killed Domonic Shawn Dale Morgan, Yellowstone County Coroner Rich Hoffman told the Billings Gazette.
MESA, Ariz. (AP)  A a suspect has been arrested in connection with two cold cases that occurred more than three decades ago in the same Mesa apartment complex, police said Tuesday.

They said 58-year-old Thomas Davis Cox is being held on a $1 million cash bond after being indicted on 16 counts in the cases including suspicion of first-degree murder, sexual assault, burglary and kidnapping.
If you have criticisms of Crime Stoppers of Houston, or questions about the nonprofit organization, you must be playing politics-or, perhaps, you dont care about victims of violent crime.

That, at least, was the impression the organizations leaders gave Tuesday at commissioners court.

Feathers have evidently been ruffled by recent reports in the Houston Chronicle and elsewhere, examining the nonprofits finances as well as the role Crime Stoppers has played in the public square as Houstonians continue to grapple with, and mourn over, an ominous growth in violent crime.

Thats important context for the debate over a resolution introduced by Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle, seeking to honor Fox26 for its work with Crime Stoppers on the stations recent Breaking Bond series. It was delayed at the request of Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a Democrat, who said that hed like to see Crime Stoppers audited by the county auditor before the resolution is evaluated.

In no way am I discounting the great things that they do, Ellis said. But I dont think its appropriate when they dip into politics.

And that, he continued, has been happening of late: The current leadership has taken a great organization with great intent and turned it into something they can use as a political club.

Ellis is certainly not alone in feeling that way. Alex Bunin, the chief public defender for Harris County, said that hes seen a change in how Crime Stoppers operates over the years hes been working in Harris County.

I think its become a political advocacy organization-and thats fine, but I dont think the court should recognize it in that way, Bunin said.

Crime Stoppers leaders who spoke at court denied the claim that theyve politicized anything. In their telling, the politicization is something thats happening to them, rather than something they are perpetuating.

Sadly, community safety is no longer a common goal, said Andy Kahan, victim advocate for Houston Crime Stoppers, adding: Were in an election year; I get it.

The goal of this new political machine is not to heed the concerns of the community, but to target anyone in its way, he continued, echoing claims that the organization made in its lengthy response to the recent reporting.

It was unclear who helms or staffs the machine Kahan was describing. Democrats, was the implication. But at another point in his testimony he commended the courts three DemocratsEllis, Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia, and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgofor their leadership in insisting that bail bondsmen collect a 10 percent minimum fee from defendants charged with violent crimes.

Kahan also read comments from numerous Democratic elected officials in the Houston areaincluding Hidalgo, Garcia, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, among otherscommending Crime Stoppers for the work it does. If Democrats see Crime Stoppers as a foe to be trampled, in other words, they have a funny way of showing it.

Perhaps media is to blame? The reports were biased, and they were unfair, and they were wrong, asserted Rania Mankarious, the CEO of Crime Stoppers of Houston.

We agree that there has been no felony bail reform, she said in response to questioning from Garciaclarifying a point on which Crime Stoppers itself has muddied the water, of late.

More compelling testimony came from the family of Arlene Alvarez, a 9-year-old girl slain in February while en route to her favorite pizza place with her family after being caught in crossfire after an armed robbery at a nearby bank. The alleged shooter, Tony Earls, is charged with aggravated assault with severe bodily injury and has been released from jail after posting a $100,000 bond. The individual who robbed his wife at a drive-through ATM, triggering the conflict, has yet to be apprehended; Crime Stoppers has put up a reward, in case anyone has information about the tragedy.

Crime Stoppers have given a voice back to our darling Arlene, said April Aguirre, an aunt of Arlenes. Without the support of Crime Stoppers, we would be lost.

Arlenes grandparents stood at her side, holding an enlarged portrait of the little girl, happy and smiling. Aguirre produced a second photo, taken at the hospital, just before Arlenes family took her off life support; the two photos, she said, were taken less than a week apart.

Lets not get lost in this political argument, said Aguirre, who was visibly emotional. I cant help but wonder what would have happened if a single police officer was driving down that road.

The conversation will continue. Ellis was joined in his motion to delay a vote on the resolution by Garcia and Hidalgo, although the latter two were seemingly agnostic on the idea of an audit and have expressed support for the organization. Hidalgo, for her part, explained that she has a philosophical objection to singling out any news organization for praise-a reasonable stance, that-and would therefore be voting no on the resolution either way.

Most Houstonians would agree that Crime Stoppers has done important work in the community over the past 40 years, and that it continues to do so. Part of that work-a very important part, as Aguirres powerful testimony showed-lies in giving victims and bereaved families a sense that they have an advocate and a voice.

But the voice that Crime Stoppers of Houston has achieved will lose some of its moral weight if its used to silence others or to dissuade them from raising sincere and legitimate questions about the organizations operations, and its influence over policy debates.

Such questions are to be expected for any nonprofit that receives public funding, as Crime Stoppers doesno matter how worthy or popular its aims.

erica.grieder@chron.com
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It's become a fear many Houstonians have when they leave a vehicle unattended: Is a thief coming to crawl underneath and saw off the catalytic converter?

Catalytic converter thefts have soared in Houston and across the country since the pandemic started, leaving millions of car owners facing repairs that can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars - and resulting in deadly confrontations that have killed drivers and police officers.

The Chronicle spoke with the Houston Police Department and local scrap metal dealers to answer the most commonly asked questions about catalytic converter theft.

What is a catalytic converter?

Catalytic converters are tubular sections of a vehicle's exhaust system, located near the muffler. Hot engine gases pass through the converter before being emitted. Most vehicles have just one, but larger cars and trucks can have up to four.

Properly functioning converters react with the most dangerous pollutants in car exhaust, turning them into less toxic chemicals. They are required by law to be installed in most vehicles to control pollution.

Why are catalytic converters being stolen?

The answer lies inside the converters, where a honeycomb structure contains small amounts of three precious metals: platinum, palladium and rhodium.

Prices for the metals have soared during the pandemic due to supply shortages and increased global demand from car makers, said Houston Police Officer Oscar Gamez, who works in the metal thefts unit that investigates stolen converters.

"In recent years, more countries are requiring catalytic converters to reduce air pollution, so theres a high demand and low volume of these metals," Gamez said. "The thefts have occurred more often for at least the past 5 years."

Rhodium reached a high of $27,000 per ounce in April 2021 and now trades at $18,000 per ounce, according to precious metals firm Kitco. Meanwhile, palladium currently sells for $2,100 per ounce, while platinum commands $900 per ounce.

Convenience is another reason why thieves prefer to target catalytic converters, Gamez said. Working in pairs or small groups, thieves can quickly saw off dozens of converters from rows of delivery vehicles, church vans and school buses.

Cars left alone for long periods of time at hotels and corporate fleet yards are especially at risk, Gamez said. So are park and ride centers, including Metro's Fuqua Park and Ride in southeast Houston, where thieves reportedly stole 15 catalytic converters during the day on April 12, according to ABC13.

How much is a catalytic converter worth?

Catalytic converters can sell for anywhere from $10 to $750 each, said Dennis Laviage, owner of C&D Scrap Metal. The wide range in price is due to the varying quality of converters sold to scrap metal dealers, including those recovered from junk cars.

Some cars have after-market converters, which are cheaper, said Laviage, while other vehicles have two, three or even four converters that can be sold for higher prices.

As with credit card skimmers and other large-scale thefts, the "cutters" who crawl under vehicles and saw off converters often get the smallest share of the illicit proceeds with the highest risk of arrest, Gamez said. Many have no prior criminal record and are recruited by those further up the value chain that police have struggled to identify.

"The more we look into it, the more we see that theyre organized," he said. "There are several layers of people involved in purchasing and selling this material."

For car owners, the price to replace a stolen converter can be many times what thieves get for them, especially if the car requires the same replacement model rather than a universal model.

Most owners will have to pay $1,000 to $3,000 to repair their car, a cost not covered by basic liability insurance, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

How many catalytic converters are stolen in Houston?

In Houston, data shows catalytic converter thefts have multiplied every year since 2019. That year, 375 people reported thefts to Houston police. By 2020, theft cases had quadrupled to over 1,400 stolen converters before soaring fivefold to over 7,800 reported thefts in 2021.

This year, Houston police received 1,974 reports in January and February, compared to 925 during the same two months last year. If the trend were to continue, it would add up to nearly 16,700 Houstonians having catalytic converters stolen in 2022.

Theft cases can be difficult to solve because many converters police suspect as stolen can't be matched to specific vehicles and victims, Gamez said.

Instead, local officials have resorted to ordinances and rules to make it harder to sell stolen catalytic converters. In April 2021, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner ordered metal recyclers who purchase catalytic converters to enter the year, make, model, and VIN of the source vehicle into a real-time electronic database on the same day that the converter is purchased. Local rules also limit businesses to buying only one converter per person per day.

As thefts continue to rise, the City of Houston is preparing to impose a total ban on sales. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced on April 18 that he would propose an ordinance within 30 days to prohibit the resale of catalytic converters in the city.

But Laviage, whose scrap metal business is located in the Houston city limits, said Turner's gambit is an ineffective strategy because he thinks thieves will simply sell stolen converters elsewhere in Harris County or smuggle them to other cities and states.

"I know they're mostly not selling them in Houston," Laviage said. "Other than scrap cars, I buy very few (catalytic converters) because the amount of work that's required through the city and state, the ordinances and all the rules, it's not worth it for what we can get."

Which cars have the most catalytic converters stolen in Houston?

Though thieves look for any vehicles left in a vulnerable position, Gamez said Toyota Tundras are a top target for catalytic converter theft because the trucks have four large catalytic converters that command higher prices than those from most vehicles.

Four catalytic converters from a Toyota Tundra could get thieves over $1,000 at some metal recyclers, Laviage said.

Toyota Prius models from 2004 to 2009 are also targeted because their converters contain higher concentrations of precious metals to compensate for the reduced flow of hot gases from hybrid engines, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. A single catalytic converter from an older Toyota Prius can sell for $1,000 or more, the IIHS found.

Can you drive without a catalytic converter?

Aside from Texas laws making it illegal to drive vehicles without pollution control devices installed, driving without a catalytic converter is an unpleasant experience.

Although cars will still function, drivers can tell that their vehicle's converter is missing the moment they turn on the engine from the loud noise that erupts.

Can you prevent theft of catalytic converters by spray painting them?

Some car owners have resorted to spray painting their catalytic converters with heat-resistant neon colors or even engraving their vehicle identification number, hoping it will dissuade thieves.

Police and scrap metal dealers disagreed on whether this strategy is effective as a deterrent, but police said it could help them identify and solve cases as they review photos of resold converters uploaded by metal recyclers.

"If I was looking at a photograph of a catalytic converter and it was fluorescent pink, that would catch my attention," Gamez said. "If it was engraved with a number, we could identify the complainant."

Gamez said anything that makes thieves hesitate could work in favor of owners. But Laviage said the spray paint method has limitations once the precious metals are removed.

Do catalytic converter shield protectors work?

A growing trend among owners of larger cars and trucks is to bolt or weld on catalytic converter cages and protective shields that cover the vehicle's exhaust system.

As with spray painting, the main benefit is that it makes thieves have second thoughts about targeting a particular car, said Gamez.

For Laviage, the real solution to catalytic converter theft seems simple: arresting the thieves on the streets. "The only way they're going to stop this is going to be to catch them in the act," he said.

But confronting thieves can be deadly, even for experienced officers who work on the crime. Earlier this month, Darren Almendarez, an off-duty Harris County sheriff's deputy, died from gunshot wounds in a grocery store parking lot after fighting with two men police said were trying to steal a catalytic converter from his truck.

Days later, a New Caney police officer was injured while trying to arrest three men suspected of catalytic converter theft.

"It used to be, in the past, theyre just getting caught or running away, but now theyre arming themselves and willing to present a firearm or use firearms when confronted," Gamez said. "Itll keep going on until theres no more demand."

Laura Duclos and Sam Ketterer contributed to this report.

charlie.zong@chron.com
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A video that shows a principal forcefully shoving a student at a Brazoria County high school has circulated on social media and prompted an investigation by the school district.

William Jeffery, principal at Columbia High School, grabbed a student with both hands and pushed him away from a doorway, according to a short video clip shared widely on social media.

The student yells: "Get your f--ing hands off me," according to the video.

The principal replies: "You ain't going nowhere."

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Chris Miller, assistant superintendent at Columbia-Brazoria Independent School District, said the district is aware of the video and investigating the encounter. He confirmed that Jeffery was the man in the altercation with the student. Jeffery did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

There were events that led up to the incident, Miller said, but he could not describe them in detail due to student privacy.

The video shows the administrator staring at the student as he stands near a seating area, looking down at a mobile device. When the student attempts to leave the room, the administrator uses both hands to prevent him from leaving, then shoves him back down what appears to be a hallway and out of view.

The principal may have been acting to protect the student or other students, he said.

"We don't advocate having to do what you see in that video unless there's a reason to do that," he said.

The video was posted Monday in a Facebook group page called Brazoria County News, garnering hundreds of comments and reactions from concerned community members. The school is located more than an hour southwest of Houston in West Columbia.

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At first, administrators suspended a student who shared the video with inappropriate edits, Miller said.

However, the student was allowed to return to school after administrators realized the student's intent "wasn't what we thought it was," he said.

The investigation remains ongoing, Miller said. No disciplinary action has been taken against Jeffery.

"We're going to make sure that we turn over every stone, make sure weve talked to everyone involved," Miller said.

anna.bauman@chron.com
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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, nearly all Texas public universities responded by making the submission of an SAT or ACT score optional for college admission.

But although COVID infections are down and in-person standardized tests are widely available again, the majority of Texas public universities are keeping the SAT and ACT optional until the spring of 2023 or later.

Even before the pandemic, some universities considered themselves test-optional because of a state law that grants automatic admission to Texas students who graduate in the top 10% of their high school classes. But the COVID-19 pandemic pushed many more schools to become test-optional for all applicants.

It was an opportunity that a lot of schools are grateful theyve been able to take, said Chris Reed, executive director of admissions at Texas A&M University in College Station. The pandemic created an opportunity when it was the right thing to do.  Now we have a living, breathing dataset to evaluate some of those assumptions.

So far, Texas A&M has extended the policy through spring 2023. Stephen F. Austin State University in East Texas and the University of Texas at Dallas have already extended their test score policies through the fall of next year. Texas Tech University has extended its policy until 2025.

Other schools, including the University of Houston, Texas State University in San Marcos and the University of Texas at Tyler, say they will make decisions on test score requirements in the coming weeks or months.

Others, including Sam Houston State University, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Tarleton State University, have extended the test-optional policy indefinitely. Some private universities, including Baylor University and Rice University, have extended their test-optional policies through fall 2023 and say they will reevaluate afterward.

It remains unclear whether the most selective public university in the state  the University of Texas at Austin  will continue to remain test-optional for all students past this fall. The university declined to comment about its plans.

Meanwhile, the states two public historically Black universities continue to require standardized test scores. Texas Southern University in Houston requires test scores only for applicants with a 2.5 grade point average or below. Those with higher GPAs do not need to submit test scores. Prairie View A&M University reinstated its standardized test score requirement for fall 2021 applicants.

A Prairie View spokesperson said most students continued to submit scores but did not explain why the school switched back to a test score requirement. Texas Southern said there has been no discussion to shift to a test-optional policy for all applicants.

Even before the pandemic, there were discussions at some schools to make the SAT or ACT score optional. Some school leaders have argued that the tests are not predictive of student performance in college and are an additional barrier to enrollment for low-income students.

Universities that shifted to test-optional policies said they rely on a holistic approach to applications, giving weight to areas like a students grade point average, the high school transcript and where the student attended high school.

Reed cautions that its too early to definitively state the impact of the change to enrollment with test-optional policies. But he said early data shows that Texas A&M did not see retention rates dip from fall to spring during either of the last two years. Also, the average fall GPA for first-time students remained the same. These data points helped inform the universitys decision to continue the test-optional policy.

Many Texas universities said they saw an increase in applications once standardized test scores became optional for admission. But they havent seen a significant change in the makeup of their freshman classes. College counseling experts said that is likely because the states Top 10% Rule allowed schools to enroll those students year after year.

Many universities said they saw minimal changes in the diversity of students who enrolled.

But a few universities reported some remarkable differences.

The University of Texas at Arlington increased the number of Black students in its freshman class by almost 34%, from 519 to 694, in fall 2021. The number of Black freshmen at Texas State increased by 6%. Texas A&M International University in Laredo reported that it had accepted more students ranked in the top 40% of their graduation classes.

Some schools, including West Texas A&M University, accepted more students who qualify for need-based federal grants, known as Pell grants. The regional public university in Canyon accepts any student who has at least a 2.0 GPA and meets at least one other requirement, which can include test scores. For those who dont meet the qualifications, the school has adjusted its alternative admissions process to include two essay questions and a high school recommendation letter.

The test-optional trend has opened up a lot more opportunities for students who are low-income, who dont come from high schools that emphasize testing like more resourced counterparts, said Sara Urquidez with Academic Success Program Dallas, which helps low-income and first-generation college students apply for and enroll in college at 18 high schools in the Dallas area. But I dont think its changed the fundamental question of college affordability for low-income students.

Many Texas public universities say they still use test scores to determine merit scholarships, but they also take a more comprehensive look at applications from students who apply without SAT or ACT scores.

Yet Urquidez said she saw a stark reduction in the number of merit scholarships awarded to students who did not submit test scores, and many students and families are confused about what schools are using to determine merit scholarships.

Its a black box for students and families, she said. We cant talk about test-optional being a vehicle for change when the vast majority of institutions are still using it in this other way.

Urquidez said she sits on a few private scholarship committees and heard anecdotally from students that they were unaware that applying without a test score could negatively impact their chances of receiving aid from the university.

She said she still encourages students to submit good scores if they have them. Yet some universities across the state saw a majority of students apply without scores for fall 2020 and fall 2021.

At Texas A&M University-Kingsville, just 36% of applicants for admission last fall included standardized test scores. And at West Texas A&M University, which is keeping a test-optional policy permanently, nearly 80% of students did not submit scores. So far, about 35% of students applying to enroll next fall at the University of North Texas had submitted test scores.

In contrast, 75% of Rice University applicants submitted test scores with their applications for the fall 2021 semester. Reed, the executive director of admissions at Texas A&M University, said more than two-thirds of applicants to the College Station school submitted scores.

National experts say if schools want to make it clear they are truly test-optional, then they need to remain agnostic toward the exams. On some university websites, schools will say students wont be negatively impacted if they dont submit test scores but simultaneously encourage students to submit scores if they have them.

Once they start making recommendations, its going to be interpreted as we would prefer this, said Akil Bello with the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, an organization that works to [eliminate] the racial, class, gender, and cultural barriers to equal opportunity posed by standardized tests. You see the same thing with [Advanced Placement] testing.  AP classes are optional, but kinda not really.

The confusion that test-optional policies can create for families is one reason St. Marys University in San Antonio became the first university in Texas to become test-free, meaning it does not consider standardized test scores at all.

Rosalind Alderman, St. Marys vice president for enrollment management, said an analysis of student data determined that for the vast majority, the standardized test did not provide any additional information as to whether students would successfully make it to their sophomore year.

Everyones worried about putting your best foot forward, she said. Sometimes families ... they kind of want a yes or no, and so [we said], No, were not considering it.

While a majority of Texas universities have committed to continuing test-optional policies for the near future, some universities across the country have announced theyre beginning to require the scores again.

Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced it was bringing back the test requirement. The University of Georgia system recently reinstated its test-optional policies at all universities except at the University of Georgia, Georgia College and State University, and Georgia Tech.

Urquidez said shes worried MITs decision will give colleges permission to bring the exams back at their schools, even if their circumstances around selectivity are different than MITs.

Theres some institutions that are going to say we found ways to adjust, but higher ed is guilty of [saying], This is the way weve always done it. This is always a little bit easier.

Disclosure: Baylor University, Prairie View A&M University, Rice University, Sam Houston State University, Texas A&M International University, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston, the University of North Texas and West Texas A&M University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/26/texas-universities-sat-act-test/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
Earthea Nance was tapped in December by President Joe Biden to serve as a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency in a five-state region that includes Texas. At the time, Nance was an associate professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University in Houston. The 59-year-old has since moved to the EPA regional headquarters in Dallas, where her family is from, and has been traveling throughout the region she oversees, called Region 6, which also includes 66 tribal nations.

Nance views the appointment as an opportunity to make use of her wide-ranging experience: She was the first in her family to graduate from college. She holds undergraduate and Masters degrees in civil and environmental engineering from University of California, Davis. She received a PhD from Stanford, where she expanded her research to include Latin American studies and anthropology. Her dissertation focused on communities in Brazil that lacked water and sanitation.

MORE FROM EMILY FOXHALL: Companies must stick to cleanup schedule for San Jacinto waste pits, EPA says

Three months after she landed her first teaching job at Virginia Tech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology recruited her to teach in New England. Then Hurricane Katrina hit. The mother of two headed for New Orleans, where she was appointed as a city official to help with recovery. She launched the citys first hazard mitigation unit, prepared a sustainability plan and oversaw its first carbon report. In 2013, she made her way to Houston to teach at the one of the nations largest historically Black universities about how people, infrastructure and the environment are all linked.

At the EPA, Nance and her office quickly set a tone of advocating for previously ignored communities, pushing companies to move ahead on cleaning up hazardous waste under the San Jacinto River and asking Union Pacific to do more to address contamination in Fifth Ward. She spoke by phone this week with the Houston Chronicle about her background, her goals and her new job. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I hadnt realized you moved to Dallas. How has the job been going and where has your attention been focused?

It has been an amazing transition up to Dallas, meeting all the staff in Region 6 who have been working here all these years, getting to know the folks in headquarters. I have counterparts in the other regions. Were all in transition, so Ive had a chance to meet with them on several occasions. Its been a fantastic beginning. Ive become clear about my priorities.

Can you walk me through those priorities?

The first is delivering on both the President and EPA Administrators goals about embedding climate change and environmental justice into everything that we do. The next one has to do with delivering to Region 6 the great amount of resources that have been made available by the White House and by the administrator. Another priority is for many of the lessons learned here in the region to be brought back up to the national level and turn into changes in policy.

It seems like such a broad job that youve stepped into. Youre a regulator, but it also involves some politics, and I know you have a research background.

Everything that Ive ever done and all of the experiences that Ive had are brought to bear in this position, literally. Theres been moments in discussions with communities where I can bring an example of something that Ive experienced, or a piece of knowledge, that becomes useful in that moment. The environment is pretty much everything. So even in just a regional position this is a big job. Thats why we have so many people and we have a lot of expertise among the staff.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Decades later, hazardous sludge continues to leak in Fifth Ward. Will a state meeting bring change?

Tell me about where you grew up. Did anything about your childhood get you into environmental policy or was there a moment later that pointed you in this direction?

As a child, I was very curious and very geeky. I went to the library every weekend and read and read and read. It would be not unusual for me, in elementary school, to pick up a chemistry book and just start reading it. I also grew up in the late 60s and 70s during the environmental movement, and Im from San Francisco, so that was a really important cultural thing happening. It was a natural thing for me to be an environmentalist.

What you said about the environment encompassing so much, that rings true to me. Getting beyond the science of it and into the community part seems really interesting.

That is to me the most important part of it. Its true: As engineers, we dont usually talk about the people. I could say that from experience. Ive had my engineering license for 25 years. Im very interested in the impacts on people. I even tell my staff, if they show me a map, and the location of people is not on there, I ask them, Where are the people?

Why is that important?

When I was maybe 26 or 27, and I was working for a wonderful engineering company, a friend of mine had just come back from the Peace Corps, I believe it was Fiji, and he was talking about the people. He was an environmental engineer too but because he had been in Fiji he had to talk about how people lived and their culture in order for me to understand the water systems. That blew my mind. I stayed up thinking about that a couple of nights.

Why did you want to go to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina?

If you remember Katrina, it was the biggest disaster we had ever seen. It was on TV. Everyone saw it. You remember the people begging for help. Im sitting in Cambridge, Massachusetts, so comfortable, with every skill thats needed on the ground. I thought, How can I sit there? So I left and I found a way to make probably the biggest contribution Ive ever made in my career.

So you didnt even hesitate.

Thats who I am. It just is. It made sense to me. And it still does. If I hadnt moved to the Gulf Coast, I wouldnt have been able to participate in all these disasters and continue to build my relationships with folks. Now Im in a position where that really pays off.

Can you talk more about that intersection of disasters and community and environmental work?

The Gulf Coast is one of the most at-risk places on the planet. So we all know that Katrina was probably the beginning of everyone noticing that. When I was a city official in New Orleans, I earned my certificate in flood plain management. You cant really work in the environmental field in the Gulf Coast without having the disasters touch you in some way because theyre just so tremendous. We have disproportionate impacts to environmental justice communities, by that I mean communities that are overburdened with pollution, communities that are under-served, communities that might be low income.

With this Region 6 position, did you apply or were you nominated?

When the President on his first day issued executive orders for environmental justice and climate change, I went to the website  the White House has a website  and applied. It was another one of those moments where everything just made sense.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Companies must stick to cleanup schedule for San Jacinto waste pits, EPA says

Are you the kind of person whos working all the time?

I enjoy my work. I feel like Im making a difference.

How would your friends describe you?

Theyve literally said the word, relentless. (Laughs.)

Do you have any announcements coming regarding the Houston region, maybe with regard to concrete batch plants, ethylene oxide or the Union Pacific site?

You just named three things that were working diligently on. Those are incredibly important issues to the community. Were working on those and paying attention to those.

Has it been frustrating to you, having to let states lead the way on these projects?

When Congress wrote the laws that were implementing, they wrote that states lead in many of these areas, in terms of permits and other things. Thats not something that we decided. That is how it is. We usually have an oversight role. So that means we can object. We can make comments. So its frustrating, but everything is frustrating. You have to work with people. Youre not always going to get your way. People do sue each other. We have to work it out.

But I never forget our mission. The mission of EPA is to protect public health and the environment. Im working at the level within the EPA, within a region, and so I understand those limitations that I have, but within that I can still make a a lot of decisions. I can make a lot of things better than they are.

emily.foxhall@chron.com
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The body of an 88-year-old Chambers County fisherman was recovered Tuesday afternoon in Galveston Bay after his boat capsized in stormy waters, officials said.

Authorities found the body of W. F. Childress near the Texas City Dike following a day's search for the missing boater, according to Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne.

The sheriff's office on Monday night launched a search for the fisherman with help from the U.S. Coast Guard, Texas Parks and Wildlife and other local law enforcement agencies.

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Childress launched his vessel from Smith Point around 8:30 a.m. Monday and headed for the Anahuac Channel to "do some shrimping," the sheriff said. But he had not returned by nightfall.

Storms moved through the Houston region that afternoon and evening. Galveston got more than an inch of rain and the National Weather Service warned of dangerous swimming conditions, elevated surf along beaches and strong rip currents.

The search party found the fisherman's vessel  a 16-foot aluminum sportsman trawling rig  in the bay by midday Tuesday, and a few hours later located his body roughly 10 miles away, according to the sheriff.

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Childress was wearing a life jacket and had no visible signs of trauma, Hawthorne said, but the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office will conduct an autopsy.

Mr. Childress was an experienced boat handler and fisherman who obviously was unable to find safe harbor during yesterday's storm," the sheriff wrote in a Facebook post. " Prayers to him, his family and friends for this tragic loss."

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anna.bauman@chron.com
Several Houston emergency room doctors say representatives for their employer compelled them to work through illnesses and discouraged them from testing for COVID-19 during the most recent surge, according to a lawsuit filed last month in Harris County.

American Physician Partners, a Tennessee-based hospital management company, independently staffs and manages emergency room doctors at 15 Houston Methodist facilities through a contract with the hospital system. The petition in the 113th District Court centers on a financial dispute between APP and eight doctors, who allege the organization violated its contract, in part, by underpaying them to save money.

Text messages show APPs unethical practices of requiring doctors with COVID-19 to work, the lawsuit alleges. The messages, displayed in four screenshots, show exchanges between two ER doctors and Dr. Robert B. Saldana, an APP representative who serves as medical director of Houston Methodists emergency care centers.

Dr. Beau Briese, who is under contract to provide services at nine Methodist locations, voiced concerns during one exchange.

Ive been working ill but dont want to make others to have to come in when their (sic) already exhausted and the system is thin, Briese wrote in a group chat that included Saldana on Jan. 1, when Texas Medical Center hospitals were seeing a new record of more than 400 COVID patients per day amid the omicron surge. Will always take care of our people and get those patients the care they need.

Saldana replied, Yes I have been secretly texted from others with the same message that they dont want to burden others since (not feverish) and mild symptoms so they dont even test. Speaks to what a dedicated group we work with appreciate u.

The lawsuit does not explicitly say whether Briese had COVID but provided examples of another doctor being asked to work through symptoms consistent with the virus. Saldana declined to comment when reached by phone.

The plaintiffs argue that APPs protocol discourages testing and disregards physician, staff, and patient safety when a doctor does test positive for COVID-19. The pressure to work, the suit continues, conveys APPs corporate mindset of profit over patient because the organization is trying to maximize the revenue generated by doctors during their shifts.

APP filed a legal response Monday, largely denying its involvement in the alleged financial damages. In a statement to the Chronicle, the organization said it has been in active dialogue with the physicians since they raised their concerns in late December.

We advised them at that time that their concerns do not reflect the facts known to APP and otherwise appear to be based on misinformation, the statement said. Thus, we are disappointed these physicians - who represent a very small minority of the physicians APP partners with in the Houston area - have decided to move forward with this litigation. We remain open to continuing our dialogue with these physicians outside of the litigation, which, again, APP believes to be without merit.

The lawsuit does not involve Houston Methodist employees, a spokesperson said, adding that the hospital system cannot comment on the specifics of the allegations. Methodist was not named as a defendant.

Staffing strain

The text messages reflect the intense pressure on hospital staff during the most recent wave of infections, from mid-December 2021 through January 2022. The highly contagious omicron variant sickened hundreds of healthcare workers while sending a record number of COVID patients to hospitals throughout the United States.

The strain on staff became so severe that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance on Dec. 23 shortening the recommended isolation period for doctors from 10 days to a minimum of five, depending on staffing levels, from the time symptoms first appear. The agency said doctors and nurses could work though a COVID-19 infection if the hospital activates crisis standards  an official designation that maximizes resources during a disaster.

But Houston Methodist was never under crisis standards, according to hospital spokesperson Stefanie Asin, who said the hospitals quarantine and isolation policy aligns with CDC guidance. The CDC, which has kept its framework for healthcare worker infections, currently says healthcare personnel with even mild symptoms consistent with COVID-19 should either not report to work or stop working and notify their supervisor prior to leaving.

These individuals should be prioritized for testing, the guidance says.

Its unclear how many physicians are currently employed by APP, which has staffed and managed hospital staff throughout the United States since 2015. It partnered with Methodist in 2019 when it acquired Emergigroup Physician Associates, which for 18 years provided contract services to the Houston hospital system.

At the time, Emergigroup employed a team of 150 physicians and more than 50 advanced practice clinicians, such as registered nurses and physicians assistants, who collectively served about 365,000 emergency department patients annually, according to a press release.

Mask up

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs highlight a culture at APP that they say compromises patient safety. They contend that Dr. Scott Rivenes, an APP medical director, communicated a 4 Ms policy during the pandemic: 1. Motrin, 2. Mask, 3. Man-up, 4. Must not test.

Rivenes did not respond to a call for comment.

In a text message exchange on Dec. 8, Dr. Sonali Patel told Saldana, the emergency care director, that she woke up feeling like her eyes were burning up.

Checked my temperature and its not too bad  100.9, Patel wrote. Wondering what you want me to do about this  I can come in for a shift and just get the (COVID test) while Im there?

Mask up and come on in, Saldana replied.

Patel, who is immunocompromised, later tested herself and discovered she had the flu, according to the lawsuit.

Nearly a month later, during her Jan. 5 shift, Patel told Saldana that she had a worsening cough and fatigue and felt she needed to go home and rest for at least five days, according to the lawsuit.

We have no one its (sic) not right to leave your colleagues like this, Saldana said, adding that the hospital was in crisis mode.

At the time of the exchange, Texas Medical Center hospitals were seeing an average of 497 patient per day  a number that remains the all-time high. The hospital, however, had not declared a crisis.

Ur colleagues are working according to cdc crisis guidelines like u its the right thing to do plz hang in there, Saldana said.

The lawsuit says a third plaintiff, Dr. Prasanth Boyareddigari, experienced similar ridicule from Saldana when he stayed home with COVID. When there was in issue finding someone to cover for his shift, Saldana told colleagues that Boyareddigari decided to stay home with a sore throat, according to the lawsuit.

Doctor Patel and Doctor Boyareddigaris experiences are just two of many similar encounters, the lawsuit says.

julian.gill@chron.com
Chasity Maynard, MBR / Associated Press

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday sent whats left of the major challenge to Texas six-week abortion ban back to a district court, with instructions to dismiss all charges.

The order, a procedural step after the state high court ruled against providers in March, solidifies an end to the challenge over the once improbable law that has cut off most access to abortion in the state.
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Immigration attorneys are calling for an investigation into the Houston asylum office for its egregious record screening asylum seekers, according to an official complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

In the complaint, filed Wednesday by 10 state and national immigrant rights groups, the Houston asylum office is accused of denying some immigrants legal orientation, rare language interpreters and access to counsel during preliminary asylum screenings and treating the screenings in an unnecessarily adversarial way.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not respond to a request for comment from the Houston Chronicle.

A credible fear interview is a critical first step for migrants who arrive at the border and are pursuing an asylum case. Failing the credible fear interview with the asylum officer generally leads to the persons removal from the United States. If a migrant passes the interview, he or she is allowed to stay in the country until an immigration judge can hear the full asylum case at a later date.

The Houston asylum office performs a large share of these screenings - 67 percent of all credible fear interviews nationwide from 2014 to early 2019, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

The complaint says that while issues it raises occur in other asylum offices, "the Houston Asylum Office has a particularly egregious record of conducting these screenings and we therefore ask that you investigate the Houston Asylum Offices conduct."

John Moore, HO / TNS

Critically, the threshold for passing a credible fear interview is relatively low - a migrant must show significant possibility that they could establish eligibility for asylum, according to the Immigration and Nationality Act.

It's by design, a very lenient standard, said Victoria Neilson, attorney for the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, one of the organizations filing the complaint.

Houston immigration attorney Ruby Powers said credible fear interviews are asylum light.

It's supposed to screen out claims where there's clearly no merit, she said.

But the complaint argues that the Houston asylum officers have demonstrated a pattern of mishandling these initial asylum screenings, based on the experiences of 30 migrants.

They're (officers) asking for things like corroboration, external evidence to back up their claims, which is not something that's required at this stage of the hearing, said Neilson.

The complaint outlines the experience of a Venezuelan man who didnt pass his credible fear interview despite telling the asylum officer he was beaten and detained by the Venezuelan government because of his political beliefs. The Houston asylum officer told the man he could simply change his political activities to avoid persecution.

Another man from Burkina Faso was denied a request for an interpreter of his native language Bissa, which led to factual errors in his case, according to the complaint, and he failed his credible fear interview.

Jerry Lara / San Antonio Express-News

"People who are running for their lives to escape violence in their home countries deserve to share their story in their own language with someone who will listen and follow the law," said Edna Yang, co-executive director of American Gateways, an immigrant rights organization based in Austin.

The complaint drills down on just one aspect of an overwhelmed asylum system.

We're filing a complaint to deal with one specific and very important problem with the Houston asylum office and credible fear interview processes. There are many other problems, said Victoria Neilson.

The growing immigration court backlog has climbed to a monstrous 1.7 million cases, according to court data provided by Syracuse University. And pleading a final asylum case with a judge can take years because of immigration judges overwhelmed dockets.

Slammed Courts: The immigration court backlog is growing faster than ever

Additionally, Houstons asylum grant rates are low compared to other immigration courts in states like New York and California.

Complaints about the Houston asylum office are coming as the Biden administration is looking to shift the responsibility of making final asylum decisions to asylum officers  not immigration judges  in an effort to hasten lengthy wait times for asylum hearings.

Veronica G. Cardenas, STR / NYT

To improve credible fear interviews, the complaint recommends that the Houston asylum office wait until someone has been in the country for at least two days before they perform asylum screenings, as the migrant has likely faced significant trauma during their journey. They also ask officers to use trauma-informed techniques to interview migrants, among other recommendations like providing rare language interpreters.

I think they're all very actionable ideas, said Ruby Powers, who has represented various clients seeking asylum in the Houston area, but was not involved in this complaint.

(It) brought a lot of really good arguments to light, she said.

elizabeth.trovall@chron.com
OnScene.Tv

Houston firefighters rescued a woman Wednesday morning who became trapped inside of a donation box while seeking clothes for her family, according to authorities.

Houston police, along with HFD, responded around 3:40 a.m. to the 7800 block of West Tidwell Road, just east of the Northwest Freeway, and found the woman inside of the metal box, authorities said.
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Four astronauts launched to the International Space Station Wednesday morning in a brand-new Crew Dragon capsule, the last one SpaceX plans to build.

Dragon Freedom is the companys fourth and final reusable spacecraft designed to ferry astronauts to the station. With these capsules  and those built by Boeing  NASA says it can deliver astronauts to the ISS for the rest of its life.

SpaceX will continue building spare parts for its Crew Dragon vehicles. But moving forward, its focus will likely be on the Starship spacecraft that could lower astronauts to the moon as soon as 2025.

MORE ON STARSHIP: Elon Musk says SpaceX could emphasize Florida over South Texas for Starship launches

We are really in a golden era of space exploration, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Wednesdays liftoff at 2:52 a.m. CDT was the seventh crewed mission launched by SpaceX. Dragon Freedom traveled toward the International Space Station less than 39 hours after another SpaceX capsule, Dragon Endeavour, landed in the Atlantic Ocean with the stations first all-private crew.

Chris O'Meara, STF / Associated Press Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins, Robert Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren; and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy fist bump each other.

It's pretty wild, said Jessica Jensen, vice president of customer operations and integration at SpaceX. Crew-4 will be our seventh human spaceflight mission in just under two years.

The Crew-4 mission consists of NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. They will arrive at the International Space Station Wednesday evening and spend the next six months conducting science and helping maintain the orbiting platform.

During their visit, Boeing plans to launch an uncrewed CST-100 Starliner spacecraft that will dock with the space station. This is a test flight before the company sends people into space.

The Crew-4 astronauts also hope to see NASAs Artemis I mission that could launch this summer. The Space Launch System rocket will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon.

We're trying to figure out who we need to buy a six-pack for on the ground either to adjust our orbital track or the timing of the Artemis launch. It would be incredible to be able to see that, Lindgren said. It's hard to say that there's a regret about going to space, but one small regret that I have is that we're not going to be on the ground to watch the launch.

Crew-4 is the second ISS mission for Lindgren and Cristoforetti, who both previously flew to the station on Russias Soyuz spacecraft. Its the first mission for Hines and Watkins.

Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Watkins is the first Black woman to fly a long-duration mission on the International Space Station.

Cristoforetti is currently the European Space Agencys only female astronaut  a shortfall ESA plans to address with the astronaut selection process thats currently underway, said Frank De Winne, manager of the European Space Agencys International Space Station Program.

NEWSLETTERS Join the conversation with HouWeAre We want to foster conversation and highlight the intersection of race, identity and culture in one of America's most diverse cities. Sign up for the HouWeAre newsletter here.

She is a role model for Europe, and she has really played a great role in the new astronaut selection, he said. We had about 23,000 candidates, and we are currently trying to narrow this down to the four to six that will eventually be selected. But the great success already was that more than a quarter of the candidates today were female candidates. That was a great improvement from the last selection.

RECORD: NASA astronauts are Guinness World Record holders for all-female spacewalk

Their ride into space, Dragon Freedom, is similar to previous SpaceX capsules. But there is one new feature the crew gushed about  USB charging ports for their tablets that hold reference material. These chargers were wanted by the amateur astronauts SpaceX sent into space last year, and now NASA astronauts are benefiting.

Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

I think our favorite thing, though, is that we have USB charging ports, Lindgren said. This is something that goes to low-Earth orbit and is going to get us to the space station, and Im talking about USB ports.

Once the Crew-4 astronauts reach the space station, NASA will start preparations to bring home the Crew-3 astronauts. Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron with NASA and Matthias Maurer with the European Space Agency are slated to return next week.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder
Regarding Convicted killer Carl Wayne Buntion executed for 1990 slaying of HPD officer James Irby, (April 21): As Carl Buntion was executed in Huntsville on April 21, 2022, a mob of motorcyclists gathered in front of the prison and revved up their motorcycles to a deafening roar.

The roaring motorcycles during the execution reminded me of mobs that had gathered to celebrate lynchings earlier in Texas history.

Buntion was not innocent of Officer Irbys murder many years ago. But I believe he was a different man than the person who shot Irby. After 30 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, Buntion was a feeble man incapable of hurting anyone. He expressed remorse for the crime he had committed and the suffering he had caused the Irby family. His execution was totally unnecessary.

Do most Texans agree with this lynch mob mentality? Does Gov. Abbott? Does DA Kim Ogg, who was at the prison that day and didnt seem disturbed by what took place either inside or outside the prison?

David Atwood, founder, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Regarding What to know about Melissa Lucio, Texas mom on death row whose execution was halted by a Texas court, (April 25): I am not opposed to the death penalty in principle  there are some really evil criminals who deserve it for their crimes  if, in fact, they are guilty. In criminal cases in Texas, the state has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person is guilty as charged. I would propose that in death penalty cases the standard be guilt proven beyond any doubt. That means the state cant use eyewitness testimony, but must prove its case with cold, hard facts and forensic evidence. Eyewitness testimony is inherently faulty, or in some cases, an outright lie.

Tom Hix, Houston

Woke agenda

Regarding For Roy, principle anchors decisions, (April 25): Please! Principle anchors decisions? For U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, many of his votes are the result of sheer random cussedness and a desire to generate publicity for himself by standing out from the pack. One of the most egregious recent examples was his vote, joined by only two of his colleagues in the entire Congress, against the federal anti-lynching bill, which was finally passed on March 29 after over 100 years of effort.

Chips reasoning? He said he opposed the bill because it only served the woke agenda. Thousands of family members and descendants of lynching victims like young Emmett Till, who was viciously beaten and murdered in Mississippi in 1955, would disagree. Nona Baker of Waco would be happy to dispel any notion that a federal anti-lynching bill is just part of a frivolous woke agenda. In 1905, her great-uncle, 20-year-old Sank Majors was hanged by a mob from a bridge over the Brazos River. This terrible event, for which no one was punished, has stayed with the family as a deeply painful memory for over 100 years.

The anti-lynching bill was long, long overdue, and Roys excuses for voting against it are deeply offensive to anyone who values justice and the rule of law.

Patricia Bernstein, Bellaire

Regarding Hey, Netflix moochers! The days of sharing logins are almost over, (April 21): I am astounded that Netflix (and other streaming services) seems so flummoxed as to why their subscribers are dropping. The elephant in the room is one word: woke. When a provider goes from running content such as The Crown to Hes Expecting, I know its game over for me.

Carole Paul Vesely, Houston

Regarding Exxons ban on LGBTQ, Black Lives Matter flags at Houston headquarters sparks employee backlash, (April 22): There is no reason for Exxon to enter into cultural conflicts. Exxon has more interest in managing their national and global businesses than getting into the social issues of the USA. Exxon wouldnt promote religious issues, so why would they spend time and money promoting LGBTQ issues?

Robert Webb, Houston
About 40 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border along U.S. 277 in West Texas, you'll spot a memorial for the Arellano Family.

Unlike other roadside memorials, the Arellano family didnt die in a car crash on this rugged, isolated stretch of roadway.

You might also like: A woman was killed in her Terrell Hills home 46 years ago this month. Police are still looking for her killer

Five family members were killed in two places near the memorial on April 16, 1968. Fifty-eight years later, authorities still have no idea who did it.

The family was traveling from Mexico to visit a relative who had just given birth when their car broke down. Sometime afterward, the victims had been shot, beaten, stabbed, raped and robbed. The case is Texas "oldest unsolved mass slaying," according to the Associated Press.

Traveling with the family were Manuel Sr., 25, his wife Monica, 25, their children, Manuel Jr., 5, Leticia, 2, and Eduardo, 15 months; and Arellanos sister Rosa Elia, 19.

Stay informed: What to know about Melissa Lucio, Texas mom on death row whose execution was halted by a Texas court

After the car broke down, the family, who were familiar with the United States and spoke fluent English, relied on a Good Samaritan to take them to get the car repaired.

A ranch hand discovered their bodies the next day. According to the Associated Press, The elder Manuel's body was discovered not far from the highway.

His wifes body was in a ditch, about a mile south. Rosa Elia was discovered a few feet away from her.

The children were discovered near their father. Leticia was shot in the head and was still alive, but died days later. Manuel Jr. was also shot in the head and stabbed and survived. After multiple surgeries, the boy was taken to Mexico to live with his grandparents.

A witness told police a tall, sandy-haired man in his 30s wearing a straw cowboy hat accompanied the family in a pickup.

While authorities questioned several people, the witness could not identify any of them as the sandy-haired man. Authorities never recovered the .22-caliber gun used in the brutal slayings, and no charges were ever filed.

You might also like: Welcome to your nightmare: 38 years ago, feds raided a Kerr ranch where hitchhikers were tortured

The case had turned cold by 1982 and stayed that way until 1999, when, according to the Associated Press, a caller told the Texas Department of Public Safety that he knew who the killer was. This tip was later dismissed but revived interest among law enforcement in the case.

The brutal slaying of the Arellano family is one of 12 of the Texas Rangers top cold case investigations.

In 2018, Pete Gomez Sr., who in 1968 was working on a project to widen Highway 277, installed an engraved monument to remember the family, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times.

timothy.fanning@express-news.net
Clark Art Announces Research and Academic Program Fellowships

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program (RAP) announces the appointment of its 20222023 class of fellows for the upcoming academic year.

The Clark is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research. Through RAP, the Clark hosts a residential fellowship program that welcomes international scholars for periods ranging from two to nine months. To date, the community of Clark Fellows numbers more than 400 individuals hailing from thirty countries.

While in residency at the Clark, fellows pursue independent research projects that span a variety of topics and pursuits, including writing, conceptualizing exhibitions, and studying emerging trends and issues in art history.

In the past two years, RAP has introduced two new fellowships to support scholarship in art history, including a fellowship in Caribbean Art and its Diasporas and a fellowship in Critical Race Theory and Visual Practice.

Fall and Summer Fellows present a free public lecture related to their work during their tenure at the Clark.

The Clark's library collection serves as a central resource for researchers. Scholars live in apartments in a house close to the Clark's campus, providing a collegial environment that fosters collaboration, ongoing dialogue, and exchange of ideas.

In this year's cycle, the Clark initiates a new fellowship sponsored by The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation (KADF). The foundation is a feminist nonprofit organization dedicated to being a resource and strategic partner for social and environmental justice by protecting and advocating for women and girls for the purpose of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts and sciences.

The first fellowship begins in January 2023.

"We are thrilled to have the support of The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation to foster systemic change in art history, in particular, through focusing on projects and scholars that advance feminist agendas," said Caroline Fowler, Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program. "The work that The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation is undertaking is critical for creating a more equitable art history."

Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark, noted that "It is an honor to work with The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation to imagine new futures for art history and to break the glass ceiling that perpetuates inequalities in the arts despite years of activism. Through this fellowship, the foundation offers the possibility of real change in art history."

Bellow are the fellowships for the 20222023 academic year. Descriptions were included in a press release.

Short-term Clark Fellow: Olivier Bonfait, Universite de Bourgogne, Dijon, France (Fall 2022)

"From Rubens to Richter," Bonfait's project traces a history of the large-format painting as a visual organism, considering its important role in the formation of modern state nations, and the artistic challenges it constitutes to both painters and viewers.

Short-term Beinecke Fellow: Bridget Cooks, University of California, Irvine (Spring 2023)

In her project "Covers: Popular Art and Racial Black Thought" Cooks analyzes visual images used on the covers of jazz albums and Black-authored fiction whose sonic and literary contents address the need for racial equality. These objects express what poet/critical theorist Fred Moten calls a "freedom drive," that emerges from the "political, economic, and sexual objection of the radical materiality and syntax that animates black performances." The images at the core of this project express the tension between enslavement and a concomitant freedom drive that is the condition of Black being.

Clark/Oakley Humanities Fellow: Jonathan Flatley, Wayne State University, Detroit (Fall 2022/Spring 2023)

"Like Trees" is a book project about liking and being like trees. Spanning distinct media, genres, and national traditions, it constructs an arboreal counter-archive of images and texts addressing the similarities between humans and trees. It is a "counter-archive" because the open-ended, affirmative, non-instrumental affective attachment to trees we find in it offers a clear alternative to the dominant Christian, capitalist view in which trees are under human "dominion," there for our "use."

Clark Class of 1974 Fellow: Turry Flucker, Tougaloo College Art Collection, Jackson, Mississippi (Spring 2023)

In the spring of 1963, the New York Art Committee for Tougaloo College (conceived by art critic and art historian Dore Ashton) established Mississippi's first collection of modern art at Tougaloo, a historically Black liberal arts college located north of Jackson. As civil rights protests swirled across the fiercely segregated state, the College became an unlikely hub of European and New York School modernism and a place that the collection's founders envisioned as "an interracial oasis in which the fine arts are the focus and magnet." While in residence at the Clark, Flucker's research examines the interconnection between the Tougaloo College Art Collection, the New York School, the Civil Rights Movement of 19601969, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Caribbean Art and its Diasporas Fellow: Donette Francis, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida (Summer 2022)

Miami is a refugee city par excellence where 93 percent of the current foreign-born population are from the Caribbean and Latin America. Art produced by Miami-placed Caribbean artists addresses the intimate scale of the city's unique hemispheric orientation and its uneven racialized immigrant incorporation. This project theorizes Caribbean aesthetic practices of "Black refugee time" that situate the US in relation to the region, and account for differences in gender, generation, and linguistic repertoires

Florence Gould Foundation Fellow: Margaret Graves, Indiana University, Bloomington (Fall 2022/Spring 2023)

"Invisible Hands: Islamic Ceramic and the Colonial Art Market," is a book project that looks at the practice of creating fakes and forgeries and reconsiders the objects that result as skilled crafts. Usually portrayed as dying out in the nineteenth century, Middle Eastern craft skills were, in fact, redirected towards a new market generated by the colonial project: the faking, forging, and fictionalizing of antiquities, especially ceramics. By recognizing faking and forgery on the market for Middle Eastern ceramics as skilled forms of craft and as sites of Indigenous participation in global capitalism, this book reveals the challenges that colonial modernity presents to the discipline of art history, via the objects that moved through it and were remade in its image.

Beinecke Fellow: Kathryn Howley, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York City (Spring 2023)

The book project "The Bodily Aesthetics of Ancient Egyptian Art" argues that the proliferation of bodies in ancient Egyptian imagery was central to its function upon its audience. Egyptian art was corporeal not just in its many representations of the human body but in the way that it consciously appealed to the senses, engaging the body of the viewer in response. Scholars' own bodily understandings have, however, led to the reproduction of the modern body politics of racist, sexist, and colonial thought in Egyptian art's interpretation.

Futures Fellow: Tsedaye Makonnen, visual artist, Washington, D.C. (Fall 2022)

Research performance art confronts the effects of systemic forms of oppression on migration. Finding more narratives and visual accounts of displacements conveyed through performance, Makonnen asks: "How do performance artists contribute to awakening empathy towards marginalized people?" Since there is a current re-enactment of humans as cargo at the United States-Mexican border and in the Mediterranean region, Makonnen challenges audiences to examine how performance art can challenge how whiteness, colonialism, and hierarchies are contributing to this present conundrum.

Michael Ann Holly Fellow: Jeremy Melius, University of Oxford, England (Fall 2022)

Melius is developing a project on the Victorian critic John Ruskin and his fraught relationship with the discipline of art history, bringing into focus what remains living in Ruskin's thought and what historical models it still offers. Investigating the nature of Ruskin's descriptive attachments to key sites and artifacts, the project disinters the novel forms of history that he found there, as they emerged at the volatile interface between observer and observed.

Short-term Clark Fellow: Marta Ruiz del Arbol, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (Fall 2022)

"Gabriele Munter: A painter with a Photographic Gaze" is a research project linked to the first exhibition on the artist to be held in Spain (planned for summer 2023 at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid). The exhibition analyzes amateur photographs Munter took during a two-year journey through the United States around the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century as her first means of artistic expression and the origin and source of her practice.

Critical Race Theory and Visual Culture Fellow: Shawn Michelle Smith, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (Fall 2022/Spring 2023)

The book project "Environmental Double Consciousness" approaches environmental catastrophe through the lens of critical race studies. Inspired by Rob Nixon's concept "environmental double-consciousness," the project investigates the intersecting crises that have come so sharply into focus in recent years, namely climate change and anti-Black racism, through an interpretation of contemporary artworks that largely decenter a human point of view. In concert with the works it studies, the project seeks an answer to the query: "Can one decenter a human point of view but still keep the violent histories of empire and slavery in sight? The aim of the project is to bring the lens of critical race studies more fully into view in discussions of the environment, and to demonstrate how art can shift one's orientation to, and understanding of, a planet in crisis.

The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation Fellow: Shundana Yusaf, University of Utah, Salt Lake City (Spring 2023)

Inaugural KADF fellow Shundana Yusaf's project "The Resonant Tomb: A Feminist History of Sufi Shrines in Pakistan from Medieval to Postmodern Period" explores the role of women in the history of Sufi shrines and the role of Sufi shrines in the history of women through nine case studies in the two provinces of Punjab and Sindh in Pakistan. The project triangulates material culture, sensory studies, and women's histories, yielding the terms on which successive generations of women have bent the logic of this building typology to serve as the space of their self-production and narration. Yusaf's project makes audible, from within monuments to great men, the auditory and spatial agency of women, consuming and reproducing space through sensory engagement.
Simon's Rock Alum Awarded Fulbright to Teach English in Italy

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. Simon's Rock alum Chazlee Myers 12 was awarded an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) grant by the US-Italy Fulbright Commission to provide assistance to local English teachers in Italy and act as a cultural ambassador for the U.S from October 2022 to June 2023.

Myers is one of only ten ETA grant awardees for Italy.

Myers majored in German Studies and Photography at Simon's Rock and studied abroad in Germany at the University of Marburg. While there, she found that German schools already emphasize teaching English as a second language, whereas the emphasis is different in Italy, hence why she selected Italy for her Fulbright.

When Myers begins her position in southern Italy in October 2022, her focus will be on working with at-risk populations, especially young African women and young refugees. Two organizations that she plans to partner with are Donne di Benin City Palermo and Refugees Welcome Italia. At these organizations, Myers plans to lead events and workshops connected to her other major, photography, so that the people she works with will gain valuable skills for future events. She also plans to host language lessons in the town where she'll teach, as she feels language is one thing we can take with us wherever we go and it invites others to understand who we are and how we think. She is excited to work with these two organizations and help in these important ways.
Adams Youth Wins Statewide Award at Virtual Kick Butts Day

ADAMS, Mass.  Young people from Hoosac Valley High School's chapter of The 84 Movement recently attended Kick Butts Day: Youth Day of Action, a virtual event hosted by The 84 Movement, a statewide movement of youth fighting against the tobacco and vaping industries in Massachusetts.

During an awards ceremony, Tia Kareh of Adams, received the 2022 statewide Youth Leadership Award, given to one young person each year who goes above and beyond in promoting the work of The 84 Movement and embodying what it means to be a leader.

Tia, a junior at Hoosac Valley High School, was recognized for her passion in starting conversations on racial justice and as a leader in her chapter of The 84 Movement, educating her peers on the effects of tobacco use. Tia was recognized for herperseverance during the pandemic and for responding by getting involved in many school activities, including being class president and a member of the student council.

In her award acceptance speech, Tia concluded, "Each small step is leading to one big step for the future, and for a better world. My work may be small compared to a large scale but by each and every one of us putting forth what we have to offer, it will only become one big step for a better tomorrow. We may have had a rough past two years, but these do not define what the future years can hold, this is the time we all take action in what we stand by, to pave the way for the world we hope to see improvements inSo it's time to step up and take action."

Following Tia's award announcement at the event, Senator Adam Hinds congratulated Tia on her statewide Youth Leadership Award.

"I know it's not easy standing up and taking on issues in high school with peers. So all the more credit for you to be willing to do this work," he said.

The more than 200 youth and adults who attended Kick Butts Day from around the Commonwealth work to educate and mobilize young people in their communities about tobacco and vaping industry targeting and the conditions that affect youth tobacco and nicotine use.

Kick Butts Day took place at the Massachusetts State House in Boston before the pandemic; now The 84 Movement still offers a safe way to celebrate the annual event.

During another part of the Kick Butts Day event, the youth met virtually with Representative John Barrett. The group shared concerns about low public education funding and issues related to youth mental health and substance use. They also discussed how limited leisure-time activities in the community and discrimination influence youth mental health.
U.S. Marshals Arrest Fourth Suspect in Delacruz-Batista Homicide

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  A Pittsfield man wanted for murder was arrested in New York State by the U.S. Marshal's Service on Tuesday.

Anthony Robertson, 40, wanted in the killing of Reymon Delacruz-Batista in December, was arrested by U.S. Marshal's and Binghamton, N.Y., Police at an apartment in Binghamton.

The Berkshire District Attorney's Office began the rendition process and law enforcement will transport Robertson back to Berkshire County for arraignment at a future date.

Robertson faces charges of murder, kidnapping, and using a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Hunters discovered Delacruz-Batista's body in the Pittsfield State Forest at approximately 5:10 a.m. on Dec. 4, 2021.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that Delacruz-Batista died because of multiple gunshot wounds. During the investigation, the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the DA's Office obtained arrest warrants for Jamel Nicholson, 33, Naquan Miller, 42, Timothy McFadden, 34, and Robertson.

The Pittsfield Police Department located and took Nicholson into custody without incident on Feb. 20. The Berkshire Law Enforcement Task Force arrested Miller in North Adams on March 18. The U.S. Marshal's Service arrested McFadden on March 30 in Bronx, N.Y. The court ordered Nicholson, Miller, and McFadden held without the right to bail.

The State Police Detective Bureau's investigation remains ongoing, and the Berkshire District Attorney's Office is withholding further specific details about the homicide to preserve the ability to corroborate witness statements.

Robertson was also wanted for a supervised release violation issued by the U.S. District Court in Springfield. Robertson was previously convicted in federal court in 2019 for failing to register as a sex offender. Robertson is a level 3 sex offender in New York and Massachusetts.

Through a collaborative effort, investigators determined that Robertson had fled Massachusetts and was residing with associates in Binghamton. He was arrested without incident.

The State Police Detective Bureau requests that anyone with information about the shooting contact detectives at 413-499-1112.
Update: On Thursday, Estrella's family  his sister, Elina Estrella, and his mother, Marisol Estrell  released a statement that they would not be commenting on the Pittsfield Police report but that they "are eagerly awaiting the independent review being conducted by the Berkshire County District Attorney's Office and the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to it."

"We also remain eager to hear details that have not been released that are part of that investigation, including the 911 calls, witness interviews and police reports. Given that the investigation continues, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further," they wrote.

They asked the community and media to respect their privacy.

"Our family and loved ones continue to grieve over the tragic loss of our beloved Miguel, who was a kind, caring and compassionate man who loved his family, friends and community. We appreciate all of the many well-wishes and support we continue to receive in this troubling time."

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  A preliminary investigation by the Pittsfield Police Department has found the officers involved in the death of Miguel Estrella to have been in compliance with established guidelines for use of force.



The Force Investigation Team's report detailed the actions of Officers Christopher Coffey and Nicholas Sondrini on the evening of March 25 and their interactions with Estrella, who was shot and killed by Sondrini after repeated attempts to de-escalate the situation, including the use of TASERs.



The report describes Estrella as intoxicated, threatening a woman with a knife, and refusing to follow the orders of the responding offices.



"Based on a review of the evidence and information available to the Department during the initial call for service to 279 Onota Street, Mr. Estrella did not meet the criteria of a 'person in crisis,'" according to the FIT report.



The preliminary FIT report was released on Wednesday afternoon by Police Chief Michael Wynn. A separate independent criminal investigation of the shooting is being conducted by the Berkshire District Attorney's Office. The results from an autopsy by the Chief Medical Examiner's Office has not been released yet.



Estrella's death has triggered a significant community response with many demanding better mental health resources for people in crisis. At Tuesday's City Council meeting, members of the community said Estrella's apparent mental health crisis was a "death sentence."



Community members have also called for body cameras on the Pittsfield Police Department.

The preliminary report states that the 22-year-old Estrella was not engaged in any self-harming behavior and made no threats and/or statements of self-harm during the initial call for service. It states that all parties reported that his visible existing injury had occurred earlier in the day.

A statement released shortly after the incident said Estrella had an apparent self-inflicted laceration to his face.

According to the report, Coffey arrived back at the scene to find Estrella in a "physical altercation" with a third party, was armed with a knife, and was within arm's length of a woman.

"Officer Coffey further observed that, at one point, Mr. Estrella moved towards the female with the knife raised in a threatening manner," the report reads. "Officer Coffey assessed the risk to both this female and himself (based on his proximity to Mr. Estrella) as a deadly threat."

Coffey reportedly tried to create some distance and calm Estrella but he did not drop the knife, so Coffey discharged a taser that had a minimal effect and did not incapacitate him.

The officer was described as "continuing to verbally engage, create distance, and deploy his taser."

Sondrini then arrived on the scene and both officers used their tasers, which were ineffective.

"Following Officer Sondrini's TASER [sic] deployment, Mr. Estrella took a fighting stance, raising his fists with a knife in one hand and advanced toward the Officers. Recognizing that Mr. Estrella's continued assaultive behavior, refusal to comply with any verbal commands and failure to respond to de-escalation techniques presented an imminent deadly threat to himself, Officer Coffey, and the female party, Officer Sondrini then transitioned from his TASER to his firearm," the report reads about the moment Estrella was shot.

"Both Officers continued to create distance and engage Mr. Estrella verbally, physically restraining the female party from approaching Mr. Estrella, and requesting additional less-lethal options to the scene. Mr. Estrella continued advancing on the Officers until they had reached the middle of Onota Street, and traffic traveled dangerously close to their position. At this point, Mr. Estrella turned and focused his attention on Officer Sondrini. He bladed his body, clenched his fists while still holding the knife, raised them upward, and moved toward Officer Sondrini at a fast pace. Recognizing this eminent deadly threat within a few feet of his position, Officer Sondrini fired 2 rounds from his firearm, striking Mr. Estrella with both rounds. The Officers immediately disarmed Mr. Estrella and rendered medical treatment."

According to the preliminary FIT report, Coffey's taser deployment was within use of force guidelines, and Sondrini's taser deployment and subsequent use of his firearm were also in compliance.

Initial estimates of the distance officers had retreated between the taser deployments and the shots fired is 120 feet.

Wynn convened the FIT on March 26, the day after the shooting, to conduct an administrative inquiry and determine if the uses of force complied with relevant policies and training guidelines.

FIT submitted its preliminary report on April 8 and Wynn sent it back on April 14 for additional evaluation requirements contained in the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2020 and the state's Use of Force Regulations.

On April 21, the FIT re-submitted its revised preliminary report.

Both Coffey and Sondrini had been on administrative leave since March 25; on Wednesday, their status was modified to limited duty.

Coffey has been on the force for four years and Sondrini for nine. Both have received previous commendations for their work.

"This outcome is tragic," the report reads. "The Pittsfield Police Department extends sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Estrella. The Department also recognizes the impact on the Pittsfield community, and extends great effort in: Following established protocols, Navigating unexpected factors, and Complying with new/changing state/national requirements."




iciHaiti - PNH : 2 members of 400 mawozo and an allied gang leader killed





Tuesday, April 26 in Bon-Repos not far from the "Se Radot" market, 4 individuals were killed during exchanges of fire with the police.



These are named : Wadson, Jeams 2 active members of "400 Mawozo" and Efendy, an allied gang leader of "400 Mawozo" operating in Carrefour St-Marc, involved in assassinations and armed robberies.



In addition, that same day, the National Police of Haiti fatally injured a dangerous criminal known as "Ti Pasteur" in exchanges of fire with the police at the level of Croix-des-Bouquets.



Read also about the actions of the PNH (Partial) :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36521-icihaiti-pnh-arrest-of-one-of-the-arms-and-ammunition-suppliers-of-the-400-mawozo-gang.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36505-icihaiti-pnh-1-gang-member-killed-2-criminals-arrested.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36500-icihaiti-pnh-2-racketeers-arrested.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36498-icihaiti-croix-des-bouquets-a-gang-leader-killed-by-the-pnh.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36490-icihaiti-pnh-3-members-of-the-400-marozo-gang-mortally-wounded.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36458-icihaiti-pnh-2-new-members-of-the-5-secondes-gang-arrested.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36446-icihaiti-pnh-in-action-2-members-of-the-5-seconds-gang-killed-several-others-injured.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36442-icihaiti-security-2-other-bandits-fall-under-the-bullets-of-the-pnh.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36416-icihaiti-pnh-a-terrifying-bandit-and-one-of-the-trusted-men-of-gang-leader-zian-killed.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36389-haiti-pnh-10-bandits-killed-a-policewoman-injured.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36380-haiti-security-the-pnh-scores-points-against-bandits-and-gangs.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36372-ici-haiti-pnh-kidnapping-defeated-a-kidnapper-killed.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36276-icihaiti-insecurity-panic-at-saint-boniface-hospital.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36264-icihaiti-pnh-kidnapping-attempt-foiled.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36256-icihaiti-pnh-arrest-of-2-members-of-the-400-mawozo-gang.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36219-haiti-flash-the-police-in-action.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36216-icihaiti-security-positive-results-for-the-pnh.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36201-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36195-icihaiti-cap-haitien-7-arrests-seizure-of-weapons-and-ammunition.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36110-icihaiti-turgeau-6-individuals-arrested-8-weapons-seized.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36098-icihaiti-center-department-4-bandits-arrested-in-24-hours.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-35987-icihaiti-justice-2-haitians-arrested-for-drug-trafficking.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-35651-icihaiti-security-seizure-of-more-than-10kg-of-marijuana-2-haitians-and-a-jamaican-arrested.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-35637-icihaiti-security-the-border-police-increase-its-staff.html



IH/ iciHaiti


















The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) has been awarded the 2022 UNESCO Guillermo Cano Prize. The Award Ceremony will take place on 2 May in Punta Del Este in Uruguay, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) congratulate their Belarusian member for the well-deserved international recognition of its work for journalists and media freedom in Belarus.

The IFJ and EFJ nominated their affiliate BAJ for the award, together with 46 Unesco ambassadors. An international jury of media professionals eventually awarded the journalists' association with one of the most prestigious prizes for press freedom.

"By awarding the prize to the BAJ, we are standing by all journalists around the world who criticise, oppose and expose authoritarian politicians and regimes by transmitting truthful information and promoting freedom of expression. Today we salute and praise them; we find a way to say: we are with you and we value your courage," said Alfred Lela, the President of the international jury of the Prize.

BAJ was established in 1995 as a non-governmental association of media workers with the aim of promoting freedom of expression and independent journalism in Belarus. It brings together more than 1300 journalists and media workers. As part of the crackdown following Lukashenko's fraudulent election, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the association in August 2021, forcing it to cease its activities in the country and relocate offices abroad.

The $25,000 Prize recognises outstanding contributions to the defence or promotion of press freedom, especially in the face of danger. It is named after Guillermo Cano Isaza, the Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogota, Colombia, on 17 December 1986. It is funded by the Guillermo Cano Isaza Foundation (Colombia), the Helsingin Sanoma Foundation (Finland), the Namibia Media Trust, Democracy & Media Foundation Stichting Democratie & Media (The Netherlands), and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"This recognition of BAJ's work by UNESCO, directly supported by 46 states, but also by the IFJ, EFJ and OCCRP, is a snook to the dictatorial regime of Mr. Lukashenko, who ordered the liquidation of our Belarussian affiliate," said EFJ General Secretary, Ricardo Gutierrez. "BAJ continues to operate in exile. We are not impressed by the repression of the Belarusian authorities".

"We welcome UNESCO's decision to recognize the relentless and courageous fight for press freedom our friends at BAJ have been pursuing despite Lukashenko's constant attacks and pressure. BAJ 's victory is also a victory for all those unions that continue to resist pressure and oppression to defend media workers' rights. Today is a very important day for journalists' unions", said IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger.
The spotlight was turned on increasing attacks on media freedom across Europe as the Council of Europe Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and the Safety of Journalists, together with the International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) and other partner organisations, launched the 2021 report "Defending Press Freedom in Times of Tension and Conflict" at the Brussels Press Club in Belgium on Wednesday 27 April 2022.

The report lists the alerts posted by member organisations on the Council's Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists, provides legislative and political context and identifies the measures needed to improve the effective protection of journalists.

The report indicates that "red lights are flashing". In 2021, 282 alerts from 35 countries were submitted to the CoE monitoring platform, compared to 200 in 2020, an increase of 41%. Six journalists have been killed in Europe in 2021 in the course of their work, including four who were deliberately targeted.

Some of these alerts may reflect recurrent failures in so-called "imperfect democracies", the report says. Others are in response to measures taken to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and are supposedly transitory.

In terms of online abuse, the report states that a total of 110 alerts of harassment and intimidation of journalists were published on the Platform in 2021, compared to 70 in 2020. The highest number of cases were recorded in Poland, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. Jessica Ni Mhainin from Index on Censorship said: "The report indicates that women continue to be subjected to online threats and abuse. This is something that, again, falls to the responsibilities of social media, which must take responsibility for enforcing standards around hate speech.

The report also suggests recommendations to adopt in the future to improve journalists safety. In particular, it calls on governments and civil society stakeholders to ensure every alert is replied to and followed up with the necessary actions. The Council of Europe partners have also called for concrete action to protect journalists covering public events, ensure public service media independence and introduce measures against SLAPPs, by offering adequate financial and legal resources to threatened media workers.

The report adds an analysis of the impact of the invasion of Ukraine on press freedom. Attacks on the media and the press have resulted in widespread draconian censorship, not only of Russian media, but also of foreign media. The report points in particular at Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor which demanded media outlets only publish official government reports on the invasion of Ukraine and the course of the war, and threatened to block them and their websites if they failed to do so.

Ricardo Gutierrez, EFJ General Secretary said: "The safety of journalists is seriously deteriorating in Europe. There were six journalists killed on assignment in 2021. Three times more than in 2020. And already 11 have been killed this year. The number of cases of attacks on the physical integrity of journalists has increased by 60% in one year. States cannot be complicit in this situation by remaining passive. We expect governments to take the necessary protective measures by implementing the measures set out in the Council of Europe's Recommendation 2016/4 on the Protection of Journalism and the Safety of Journalists. All governments signed this commitment in 2016, but almost none of them have put it into practice. The hypocrisy must stop. If states really want to guarantee press freedom, there are plenty of concrete measures that need to be implemented. The real question is: why don't governments do what is necessary to better protect journalists? Why are they afraid to give proper protection to the watchdogs of democracy?"

Ernest Sagaga, IFJ head of Human Rights and Safety said: "Journalism is based on the quality of objective information, but unfortunately misinformation does not come from the traditional media. The way to fight misinformation is on the one hand for publishers, whether they are traditional media or social media platforms, to take due care and make sure that the content that is posted on the platforms is actually accurate, but also for consumers to seek out the right sources of information to be informed".

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
Journalists Hala Fahmy and Safaa Al-Korbaji have been targeted by security services after launching a campaign against its interference in the work of National Media Commission (NMC).

On the left journalist Safaa Al-Korbeji (Credits: Albawaba Media) and on the right journalist Hala Fahmy (Credits: Middle East Eye).

Egyptian security forces arrested Al-Korbaji and are searching for Fahmy. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls for the immediate release of the detained journalist and for the security services to end the hunt for Fahmy.

Broadcaster Fahmy posted a video during the week of 7 March which she recorded during a live broadcast outside the Maspero Building, the headquarters of the NMC (previously known as the Egyptian Radio and Television Union - the public broadcaster), in which she warned of a "hell" ahead. She also complained about attempted aggression by the building's security officers.

A week earlier, Al-Korbaji released another video in which she lambasted Egyptian intelligence attempts to control the NMC, which is the heart of Egypt's state media.

In this video, she called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to save the journalists of the national broadcaster from attacks by the building's security, which she said uses thugs to target them. The clip became popular on social media.

On 21 April, Al-Korbaji was arrested after she posted another video criticising the invasion of Israeli forces into Sinai.

Egyptian media admitted that security forces arrested Al-Korbaji on the morning of 21 April, but were unable to arrest Hala Fahmy because she was not at home at the time of the raid.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: "The Egyptian authorities have turned the country into the biggest prison for journalists in the region. We call for an end to all threats, harassment and intimidation against independent journalists and the media in Egypt and for the authorities to free all jailed journalists".

The IFJ welcomed the release on Sunday 24 April of 41 political prisoners held in pre-trial detention, including journalist Mohamed Salah who already spent almost two and a half years in pre-trial detention. According to the IFJ records, there are currently 23 journalists in jail in Egypt.
Legal submissions alleging that Israels systematic targeting of journalists working in Palestine and its failure to properly investigate killings of media workers amount to war crimes, have been submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) and the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) working with leading human rights lawyers from Bindmans LLP and Doughty Street Chambers submitted the formal complaint to the ICC in early April 2022.

The ICCs Prosecutors Office (OPT) formally acknowledged receipt of the complaint on 25 April 2022. The complaint which alleges war crimes against journalists by Israels security forces will now be considered by the OPT and could lead to a formal investigation and prosecution.

The complaint details the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists on behalf of four named victims  Ahmed Abu Hussein, Yaser Murtaja, Muath Amarneh and Nedal Eshtayeh  who were killed or maimed by Israeli snipers while covering demonstrations in Gaza. All were wearing clearly marked PRESS vests at the time they were shot.

The complaint also details the targeting of media and bombing of the Al-Shorouk and Al-Jawhara Towersin Gaza City in May 2021 including the cases of Alam News, Al Hayat Newspapers, Mayadeen Media, Al Bawaba 24 and others.

The IFJ has repeatedly condemned the deliberate targeting of journalists and media facilities by Israel. At least 46 journalists have been killed since 2000 and no one has been held to account.

In December 2020, the IFJ and PJS submitted complaints to the UN Special Rapporteurs (UNSR) setting out how the systematic targeting of journalists working in Palestine and its failure to properly investigate killings of media workers violates the right to life and freedom of expression, is in breach of international humanitarian law, and may amount to war crimes.

The UNSR complaint also detailed the discrimination, violations of freedom of movement and restrictions on press accreditation suffered by Palestinian journalists.

With ongoing impunity, the targeting has continued. In May 2021, Israel bombed media facilities in Gaza. At least two journalists were killed and another 100 injured in separate incidents.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said:

The targeting of journalists and media organisations in Palestine violates the right to life and freedom of expression. These crimes must be fully investigated. This systematic targeting must stop. We are proud to work with PJS, ICJP, Bindmans and Doughty Street Chambers to seek to ensure those responsible for crimes against journalists are held accountable.

Legal Counsel for the group, Jennifer Robinson, and Tatyana Eatwell, of Doughty Street Chambers said:

The cases communicated to the ICC Prosecutor are emblematic of the ongoing, systematic attacks and use of lethal force against journalists and media organisations in Palestine by the Israeli security services.

These journalists and media organisations were targeted and attacked in circumstances that give rise to strong grounds to suspect that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed.

In the light of the continuing impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of these attacks, the victims now call upon the ICC Prosecutor to exercise his jurisdiction and authority to investigate and to act against impunity, and in doing so, to communicate to the international community at large that journalists working on the frontline in situations of armed conflict, crisis and political upheaval are not fair game. 

Tayab Ali, Director at ICJP and Partner at Bindmans LLP said:

A free press is the cornerstone of a democracy. The targeting of journalists in conflict zones anywhere in the world is unacceptable and must bring severe consequences for those that try to hide their crimes and violations by killing or maiming journalists.

On 5 February 2021 the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber accepted that it has jurisdiction over the situation in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem. We are confident that the ICC will investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of the crimes alleged in our complaint.

There could not be a more important time than now for the ICC and international community to send a clear signal to States, that further their own interests through war crimes, that they will not have impunity but will instead be swiftly held to account for their violations.

For more information contact:

Bindmans: press@bindmans.com - +44 (0)20 7833 4433

International Federation of Journalists: communications@ifj.org - +32 2 235 22 16 /00 @IFJglobal
Apple and Facebook don't have much in common aside from both being very large tech companies based in Silicon Valley. One is the world's most valuable company and the maker of the world's most popular product. The other is the world's largest social media company, and one of the two largest advertising platforms (along with Google).

They have different philosophies about almost everything it seems, especially when it comes to privacy. The companies have been at odds over the past year as Apple has made it harder for Facebook to track users and collect data to feed its advertising machine. Last year, Apple rolled out an update to iOS that required developers to ask permission before tracking users. That change has been devastating to Facebook's business.

Now, Facebook has a new plan, and it looks--at least on the surface--a lot like something Apple would do. It looks that way because Facebook is taking a page directly out of Apple's playbook. The thing is, I don't think this is going to end well. I don't think Facebook is going to beat Apple by trying to copy one of its most effective plays. That's true for every business, by the way.

We'll get to Facebook's announcement in a minute, but first, let's look at how we got here.

You might remember Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse infomercial from last October. "I believe the metaverse is the next chapter for the internet," Zuckerberg said as he explained the company was changing its name to Meta to reflect its focus on building a virtual world where people might go to work or school, or just hang out and watch movies while wearing virtual reality (VR) headsets.

The announcement was mostly met with the exact response you might expect, which is to say, no one is particularly excited about spending all of their time in an even more immersive virtual world controlled by Facebook. "If only people could see how amazing the metaverse will be, they'd be excited about the possibilities" you might argue. Maybe. Or perhaps it's more likely that people just don't want to wear VR headsets all day.

Sure, there are plenty of people who think it's fun to play VR video games. And, to its credit, Oculus, which is owned by Meta, makes some of the best consumer VR headsets available today.

Still, playing a video game for a few hours is different from wearing a headset so that your work Zoom meeting can feel even more immersive, or so that you can sit in a room full of avatars watching a stream of a concert. Most people would rather just do those things in person.

That means Facebook has a problem. The company has bet everything on the metaverse because it represents the only way it can break away from the restrictions placed on it by platform owners like Apple and Google. It has to get people to actually spend lots of time in the metaverse, something that hasn't proved easy.

So, it's trying something that has worked for Apple. Facebook announced on Monday that it was opening a retail store in Burlingame, California, on May 9, where customers can try out things like the Facebook Portal videoconference device and its VR headsets. The idea, apparently, is that people will be more likely to buy into the company's vision for building the virtual world if they can try it out in a physical store.

"Once people experience the technology, they can gain a better appreciation for it. If we did our job right, people should leave and tell their friends, 'You've got to go check out the Meta Store,'" said Martin Gilliard, head of the Meta Store, in a statement.

I see two obvious problems:

The first is that Facebook isn't Apple. For one, Facebook isn't a hardware company. Sure, it makes a few devices, but that's not its primary business. As a result, I don't think people will be more likely to buy into the metaverse if there's a Facebook Store on the corner. You can already try out an Oculus headset in basically every Best Buy store.

Second, Apple's success in retail is unique among tech companies. The things that make people want to shop at an Apple Store aren't things you can just lift and copy into your own strategy.

I predict Facebook Store will probably do as well as [insert every other tech company that isn't Apple but tried to copy its retail strategy]. Anyone who has been paying attention to similar efforts could tell you that it's probably a bad idea.

If Microsoft, for example, which makes actual physical products that lots of people like and spend money on, can't make a physical retail business work, why does Facebook think it can? Microsoft isn't even the only one. Google has a few retail locations, but no one actually shops there.

Look, there's no question Meta has to do something. Zuckerberg has literally bet the entire company on his metaverse strategy. If he can't get people to buy in, it's only a matter of time before Facebook is in even bigger trouble.
The used-furniture marketplace AptDeco began with a simple rule: Safety first.

In 2012, after graduating from business school, AptDeco's co-founder Reham Fagiri saw the dark side of selling furniture online. She was moving from Philadelphia to New York City and had put an ad on Craigslist.

"I had this guy who came to look at my TV, and he got really frustrated with me in my apartment. I was a single woman at the time. I didn't have a doorman, and I was alone," Fagiri said in a recent interview streamed onInc.with Beatrice Dixon, co-founder and CEO of Atlanta-based feminine-hygiene business the Honey Pot Company. "And he's like, 'I came from like the suburbs of Philly and I'm really frustrated, and, you know, I'm just gonna take it.' "

The moment triggered something inside of her. She felt unsafe in her own home and knew there had to be a better way to sell her furniture. So, in 2013, she co-founded AptDeco with the goal of making the buying and selling of used furniture online simple and safe. Here are three things Fagiri did to build and grow her business.

1. Walk the talk.

Fagiri was an engineer by training and had climbed the career ladder at the investment firm Goldman Sachs before heading to graduate school to earn an MBA. She says it was important to learn every aspect of the business as much as she could. When AptDeco first launched, she made many of the pickups and deliveries herself. Now, she says, "we have our own trucks and drivers and a lot of amazing team members who do the heavy lifting, literally and figuratively, every day."

But this doesn't keep her from getting her hands dirty. She still goes on ride-alongs with her delivery team and is at her operations facility all the time. "I'm on the ground, learning and seeing, and also getting to know the team," she says. "No matter how big we get, it's important to really learn firsthand, versus hearing it from a lot of different sources."

2. Follow the data.

One way AptDeco has been able to drive growth, Fagiri says, is by listening to what its data says. When the company began to study its customer data, it found that certain brands were very popular.

Fast-forward to today, and now AptDeco has partnerships with several large retailers, ensuring it always has the brands that people are looking for. Fagiri says she is constantly examining customer data. "What we see is people who use AptDeco usually come back a lot more frequently than the average furniture buyer," she says.

3. Focus on what you can control.

You're likely to face a myriad of distractions, ranging from competitors' strategic moves or news about startup fundraising trends. Don't let them take your eye off the ball, says Fagiri.
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(Trigger Warning: The story contains details of sexual assault and harassment, which could be triggering for some readers.)



Malayalam producer-actor Vijay Babu has been booked for allegedly sexually assaulting a female actor and disclosing the survivor's identity through a Facebook live session.



Babu, reportedly absconding since the police charged him with rape following the woman's complaint, appeared in a Facebook live session and claimed innocence, saying he is the real victim.

Twitter

As the producer, the founder of the production company Friday Film House, disclosed the survivor's name and identity, which is an offense, another case was also slapped on him.



Twitter

"A rape case was registered against him first. As he disclosed the victim's identity, another case was also filed. It seems that he is out of the station and absconding now," a senior police officer told PTI.



After Babu's live session on Facebook, people slammed him for revealing the survivor's identity. Calling him an example of 'toxic masculinity, people wrote:

I hope Vijay Babu can back up his claims of hime being the victim. As of now he's opened a whole can of worms just by mentioning the women's name. Let the truth prevail   Abhijith (@ITSABHITWEETING) April 27, 2022

I'm not sure if Vijay Babu is the actual perpetrator of the multiple rape allegation levelled against him. Proper legal investigation reveals that. But it's clear that the manner he responded to allegation was unethical & illegal, a manifestation of toxic male machismo culture. pic.twitter.com/cjoMEBKHFU  Ashish Jose Ambat (@ashishjoseambat) April 27, 2022

Accused rapist Vijay Babu has defined the new low for dirtbags by throwing the name of his victim for his crony lowlifes to gnaw at. What an asshole  Mohammed (@flesh_prison_) April 27, 2022

#VijayBabu goes on FB live and reveals the name of the actress who has accused him of #sexualassault. Why would you go on record to reveal the name of the victim here? Even if you are not guilty in this matter, why would you simply ruin things for you and for the victim?  Vineeta Kumar (@vineeta_ktiwari) April 27, 2022

Vijay Babu broke the law by naming the actor who filed the complaint against him. "Let this be a break to Me Too," he says, referring to the movement that enabled many women to come out and speak about the abuses they suffered at the hands of powerful men.https://t.co/IkDSEW7kCk  Lakshmi Priya (@lakshmimanoj95) April 27, 2022

Vijay Babu is one of the best examples of toxic masculinity. What a piece of shit!  Lakshmi (@tsundoker) April 27, 2022

The woman, who appeared in movies produced by Vijay Babu's production house, complained to the police on April 22.

In an elaborate Facebook post, she wrote about the physical assault and sexual exploitation she had allegedly suffered at the hands of the producer-actor in the past one and half months.

Representational Image

"He behaved like my savior for my personal and professional problems but under the guise of sexually exploiting me," the female actor alleged in the FB post. She further alleged that his modus operandi was trapping her with the role of a "savior cum friend cum lover," and she was intoxicated and sexually abusing her several times in the past one and a half months.



representational image only

Besides rape and physical assault, she was also forced to consume alcohol and the 'happy pill,' a drug. She expressed fear over discussing the assault and exploitation to others because of his clout in the film industry.

"I got to know that several other women have been subjected to this trap by Vijay Babu. He has recorded a nude video of mine, threatened me with its consequences, and threatened my life," the victim alleged.

However, in a Facebook live on Tuesday, Babu denied the charges but admitted that he had known the female actor for the past five years.

Representational Image

Besides denying the charges, Babu claimed that he would file a defamation suit against the complainant for tarnishing his image. He mentioned the survivor's name several times during the FB live, saying that he was doing it deliberately as she was not the victim and he was the real victim in the case.



(With PTI inputs)

(To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.)
Vivek Agnihotri's The Kashmir Files became a rage in India. The story of the pain, suffering, struggle & trauma of the Kashmiri Pandits became a blockbuster in India.

It also stirred controversies and debate in India. After working for four years and finally releasing the movie, the director recently shared a video from his visit to the Holocaust museum in Washington DC.

DNA

The director, who delivered a keynote speech to Congressmen, senators, and policymakers of the US at The Capitol in Washington, D.C. on the topic India, Kashmir & Humanism', shared the old video with an important message.



Twitter

Apart from giving a tour of the Holocaust museum in DC, he also explained that India also needs one since several unheard and untold stories need a platform to be conveyed across the globe.

In the video, Agnihotri pans the camera to showcase all the pictures of the survivors being pinned on the walls. He shares how the holocaust museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.

Vivek Agnihotri is currently working on his dram along with MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has acquired land in the state to construct a Genocide Museum.

The concept of a #GenocideMuseum came to my mind here in almost dark @HolocaustMuseum while talking to @surinderkauldr. Thanks to CM @ChouhanShivraj this will be a reality soon and it will be Indias first monument of love, peace and humanity. #Oneness is our motto. pic.twitter.com/g2NZj3rILS  Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) April 26, 2022

Talking about the need for such a museum in India, he says, "I am here at the holocaust museum at the Washinton DC, and you can see the pictures of the most tragic incident of human history. We don't have museums like this, but I hope a new dialogue will begin."



The director thanked Chouhan while captioning the video and wrote,

"The concept of a #GenocideMuseum came to my mind here in almost dark @HolocaustMuseum while talking to @surinderkauldr. Thanks to CM @ChouhanShivraj, this will be a reality soon, and it will be Indias first monument of love, peace, and humanity. #Oneness is our motto."



(To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.)


China calls for efforts to mitigate Syria's security, economic, humanitarian situation

Xinhua) 13:36, April 27, 2022

UNITED NATIONS, April 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Tuesday called for efforts to mitigate Syria's security, economic and humanitarian situation.

Last month, the seventh meeting of the Syrian Constitutional Committee core group was held in Geneva. China calls on all parties in Syria to maintain communications with UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen, strengthen consultations on specific texts, and continue to advance the Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process, said Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.

It is worth noting that Syria still faces a complex security situation. Progress made in resolving major national security issues, such as foreign occupation and terrorism, can help create necessary conditions for the political process, he said.

"China stands ready to work with the United Nations, the guarantor states of the Astana process, and relevant countries in the region to make greater efforts to resolve the above-mentioned two outstanding issues," Dai told the Security Council.

The economic and humanitarian situation in Syria is bleak. It is the responsibility of the international community to help the Syrian people overcome difficulties and move forward with reconstruction, he said.

The international community should earnestly implement the Security Council Resolution 2585 by providing humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to the Syrian people without precondition, and help them obtain sustainable basic services, he said.

"China welcomes the UN move to allocate 26 percent of the resources for the Syrian humanitarian response plan to carry out 570 early-recovery projects, and hopes that these projects can truly improve people's livelihoods, reduce humanitarian needs, and save more lives in Syria," said Dai.

China welcomes the third cross-line aid operation recently launched by the United Nations in Northwest Syria, he said. "We appreciate the Syrian government's active cooperation in the operation, and urge relevant parties in the Northwest to provide access and security guarantee for the cross-line operation to facilitate the distribution of assistance."

The cross-border humanitarian aid mechanism is controversial. The United Nations should strengthen the monitoring of cross-border aid operations to ensure their humanitarian nature and at the same time strive to promote the gradual transition of cross-border operation to cross-line operation, said the envoy.

He once again called on the countries concerned to lift the unilateral coercive measures against Syria to restore the rights of the Syrian people to develop their economy, conduct trade, and rebuild their country.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
The personal details that are emerging about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's volatile relationship are no less than a battle of mudslinging. The public is in utter shock. Most people are in utter shock to read what's happening during the high-profile trial that began after Deep filed a defamation case against Amber's article in The Washington Post in which she claimed that she was a victim of domestic violence.

As the lawsuit continues to intensify, the couple's personal issues have become the subject of discussion all over. While many people believe Johnny Depp, there are others who support Amber Heard saying - what happened to #believeawoman?

Twitter

Here's what people on Twitter are saying:

what happened to #believeallwomen ? Everyone under #IStandWithJohnnyDepp is a fucking hypocrite. Let me remind you this, Johnny is an alcoholic and a drug addict. Those two are the most common problem found in abusers. #IStandWithAmberHeard #SupportAmberHeard #AmberHeard  1984 (@mihaishaa) April 26, 2022

Amber Heard's lawyers just made Johnny Depp listen to a recording of himself expressing the desire to self harm. This was the point she drove him to, and he's reliving it all now. He deserved so much better.



Hold him in your heart today, with all those who've suffered abuse. pic.twitter.com/kSozQj8ZLU  Dee (@tasteofsanity) April 21, 2022

#supportAmberHeard #ListenToWomen #AmberHeard

I support the most nastiest women in the world, because behind her is a man in her life torturing the utter crap out of her. #feminist  Glitter Markers (@glitter_markers) April 25, 2022

My brain just cannot comprehend how Amber Heard is on multiple tapes gaslighting & screaming at Johnny Depp, admitting to violence, but STILL gets to play the victim and have people believe her because of a few distasteful TEXTS, as if he wasn't going through hell at the time.  epiphany (@jacxpearl) April 23, 2022

Theres a reason all domestic violence charities are #supportamberheard



We recognize the abuse #JohnnyDepp continues to inflict on #amberheard



Hes not charming. Hes a liar and abuser.



His stories dont even make sense. #IStandWithAmberHeard  Bunmi (@Bunmicheshire) April 20, 2022

Amber: Tell them Johnny. Tell them i Johnny Depp is a victim of domestic abuse



Thats exactly what he did. He told the world his story, he told the world men can be victims of domestic violence too. We are proud of you Johnny!  #JusticeForJohnnyDepp pic.twitter.com/sGTh4tJXri  Mina (@94ilsann) April 25, 2022

No excuse for domestic abuse #supportAmberHeard  Ya Boy Porg   #ToriesOut #JohnsonOut (@Simonhooper) May 27, 2016

Its incredibly triggering to hear Amber Heard having the cheek to say calm down to Johnny Depp when he reacts to her bullshit as if he is the problem. The gaslighting and emotional manipulation is hard to listen to even more so for Johnny #JusticeForJohhnyDepp #AmberTurd pic.twitter.com/3L4bRVqyxw  Jessica Errington (@Jess_Errington) April 26, 2022

One of the things from the audios that stayed in my head is the fact that Amber Heard was actually telling Johnny Depp that she was going to DIE because he just wanted to leave for a bit to so that things would calm down. This, is what manipulation and emotional abuse sound like.  KeepRocking (@truthhurts06) April 25, 2022

It is always absolutely inexcusable to support Roman Polanski. Johnny Depp is so exceptionally ignorant & sexist with this quote. https://t.co/SHK86NH9DB  tu sei maledetta  (@witchuprising) April 20, 2022

What happened to Johnny Depp was awful but I hate how people are using this opportunity to be sexist  If he were a woman this wouldve been different! As if we as a society care about women or something  laura (@mangopython) April 21, 2022

There are people who will still defend Amber Heard and be blatantly sexist because Johnny Depp is a man. pic.twitter.com/0N0ZNypyYl  Knight on a bike (@KnightBikeson) April 26, 2022

I can't believe there are people, specifically women, who are actually supporting Amber Heard with #IStandWithAmberHeard over Johnny Depp. Hey, your sexist feminism is showing.



I also find it funny how a lot of folks closed off their tweets for replies. What a joke.  Bryce Jurkovac (@Jurky88) April 22, 2022

I'm gonna be real honest here: the only people who don't believe that Johnny Depp was abused are people who can't wrap their heads around the idea of a man being the victim of abuse. These folks are small, narrow-minded, and kinda sexist. #JusticeForJohnnyDepp   (@PitchBlackVoid_) April 21, 2022

On Tuesday, Depp took the stand at Fairfax County Courthouse, and though he admitted to developing an addiction to pain medication following an injury on the set of 'Pirates of the Caribbean 4', taking his mother's "nerve pills" from the age of just 11, and indulging in various substances over the years to "numb myself of the ghosts, the wraiths that were still with me from my youth", he insisted the Aquaman star had made some "plainly false" allegations relating to his use of drugs and alcohol.



Highlighting various long periods of sobriety over the years and explaining how he had detoxed from the prescription drugs, he told the court, "The characterisation of my 'substance abuse' that's been delivered by Heard is grossly embellished.



"And I'm sorry to say, but a lot of it is just plainly false. I think that it was an easy target for her to hit. Because once you've trusted somebody for a certain amount of years, and you've told them all the secrets of your life, that information can of course be used against you," reports femalefirst.co.uk.

The actor also looked back on the early days of his relationship with Amber and admitted she seemed "too good to be true", though he was aware of things that "might be a bit of a dilemma at some point".

He said, "In the beginning of my relationship with Ms Heard, from what I recall, it was as if she was too good to be true. She was attentive, she was loving, she was smart, she was kind, she was funny, she was understanding and we had many things in common.

"For that year or year and a half it was amazing, there were a couple of things that stuck in my head that I noticed that I thought might be a little bit of a dilemma at some point." He recalled how Amber developed a "routine" when he came home from work, in which she would give him a glass of wine and take his boots off, but when he once disrupted the ritual by removing his own footwear, the 'Danish Girl' star became "visibly shaken" and upset. He said, "Once you notice something like that then you start to notice other little tidbits and things that come out. Then within a year or year and a half she had become another person almost."

If you don't what's happening, here's all you need to know.



(With inputs from IANS)



(For more news and updates from the world of celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment, and let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments below.)
Smoking is a dangerous habit, not just for smokers, but also for those around them and the environment at large. One of the evilest, yet less talked about sides of smoking is what the smokers leave behind - cigarette butts.

AFP

Cigarette butts - a silent killer

Many people including smokers are not aware of what cigarette butts are made of. Since it is wrapped in paper, many assume that the entire thing is biodegradable.

But it is not - cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate, a plastic material that will in fact disintegrate over the years but will discharge toxic chemicals into the environment and water bodies.

Animals and birds eating them mistake it for food can also have disastrous consequences.

Basic Shit

One cigarette butt in a liter of water kills half the fish, Tom Novotny, an epidemiologist at San Diego State University, told National Geographic. Novotny was one of the first people to research the environmental impacts of cigarettes.

Cigarette butts are the most abundant form of plastic waste in the world, with about 4.5 trillion individual pieces are polluting our environment.

The small sizes and lack of value make the collection of cigarette butts a difficult task and more often than not, they end up on the streets.

Reuters

Butt it campaign

Butt it is a campaign aimed to end littering from cigarette butts and use them to make value-added products.

It is the brainchild of Ashwani Aggarwal, a Fine Arts graduate from Delhi College of Arts and Commerce.

Aggarwal along with his friends has been running a social enterprise called Basic Shit since 2014.

Basic Shit has been involved in several eco-friendly initiatives including making public urinals and toiles from recycled materials.

"We started this in 2014, as part of my college project, when I had to do a thesis on sanitation. After the project was over we decided to make more public toilets. The 'Butt It' campaign is also part of the same project, in which we try to address two problems at the same time - sanitation and waste management," Aggarwal told Indiatimes.

Basic Shit

According to Aggarwal, it was a trip to Goa that made him think about a solution for the less addressed problem of cigarette butts.

"Once I was in Goa and I saw a lot of people smoking and drinking. I realised that no many people know what cigarette butts are made of, many were under the impression that it was paper, but it is not, it is plastic. In fact, if you look at the carbon footprint of cigarette butts it is much more than that of plastic bottles and straws. So we wanted to do something," Aggarwal said.

Turn cigarette butts into value-added products

Aggarwal and his team then conducted some research and came up with a set of products that can be made out of recycled cigarette butts.

Basic Shit

"We have installed collection boxes in smoking zones across several locations in Delhi and once these boxes are filled we collect them. The box contains both cigarette ash and butts, which we then segregate. First, we wash the butts to remove the paper and then, it is put into a pressing machine which turns them into a sheet. The sheet then becomes the raw material for different products," Aggarwal explained.

The products made from these sheets include ashtray units, which are made of 2kgs of plastic trash, which is the equivalent of 100 bottles.

Basic Shit aims to install 50 ashtrays in the first phase which will be expanded to 200 more in phase II.





For more on news, sports and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
Amid the growing communal tensions across several states in India, 108 former bureaucrats have written an open letter to Narendra Modi, urging the Prime Minister to end the politics of hate in the country.

Former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, former National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, ex-Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, former Home Secretary G.K. Pillai and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Principal Secretary TKA. Nair were among the prominent names who signed the letter.

File Photo

Compelled to speak out

"As former civil servants, it is not normally our want to express ourselves in such extreme terms, but the relentless pace at which the constitutional edifice created by our founding fathers is being destroyed compels us to speak out and express our anger and anguish," the letter read.

The signatories said the country is witnessing a frenzy of hate-filled destructions where at the sacrificial altar are not just Muslims and members of the other minority communities, but the Constitution itself.

They also said that the escalation of hate violence against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, in the last few years in many BJP-ruled states such as Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand has acquired a scary new dimension.

AP/Representational image

End politics of hate

Urging the Prime Minister, the letter said, "We appeal to your conscience, taking heart from your promise of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas'.

"It is our fond hope that in this year of 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav', rising above partisan considerations, you will call for an end to the politics of hate that governments under your party's control are so assiduously practising."

Several states in India including the national capital had witnessed communally charged incidents in the past few weeks during the Hanuman Jayanti and Ram Navami celebrations.

BCCL

Houses and other buildings owned by Muslims were also targeted in states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi in the name of anti-encroachment drives.

In Karnataka, several fringe groups have been pushing for an economic boycott of Muslims.

There have also been several instances in the recent past where communally charged calls were made against Muslims.

SC pulls up Uttarakhand

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday voiced concern that incidents of hate speeches keep occurring in the country despite its guidelines on preventive measures to be taken by government authorities.

PTI

Following this, prohibitory orders under CRPC section 144 have been enforced in Dada Jalalpur village near Uttarakhand's Roorkee where a 'Hindu Mahapanchayat' was scheduled to be held on Wednesday and 33 people associated with the event have been detained.

For more on news, sports and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
In a courageous act, a woman cop was seen carrying an elderly woman on her shoulders in Gujarat's Rann of Kutch desert. The newly recruited constable did not think twice before picking up an 86-year-old woman and carrying her on her back for five kilometres straight to safety.

Twitter

Who is she and what happened?

27-year-old Varsha Parmar from Rapar police station in the Kutch district of Gujarat has won hearts on the internet, with her presence of mind and a kind heart.

Rapar police station marks Parmars first posting as a cop. While on duty, she came across a woman lying unconscious in the unforgiving arid white desert of Kutch. She volunteered to carry the old woman to safety as no vehicle was available and she chose not to wait for help to arrive, as it could cost precious time.

The woman had gone to offer prayer along with two elderly women at a nearby temple, but she fainted while they were returning. A passerby informed Parmar and she immediately rushed to the location with a water bottle and decided to carry the woman on her back.



Video is now viral

A video of Parmar carrying the woman on her back went viral on social media. The video has even prompted senior officials in the Gujarat police force to recommend her name for an award. Watch the video here:

Lady cop carries an old ailing woman on shoulder in Rann of Kutch; Video goes viral https://t.co/1JPuK6eTj7 pic.twitter.com/mJr0JRquZ1  DeshGujarat (@DeshGujarat) April 22, 2022





Netizens' hearts are full

Ever since the video caught the attention of netizens, they cannot stop applauding the sheer empathy that the cop showed toward the elderly lady. Here are some of the tweets:

Huge appreciation for the lady.  Manish Sharma (@immanish82) April 23, 2022





Great salute   Vinita Saxena (@VinitaSaxena2) April 22, 2022

      NARESH SHARMA (@nareshlavania) April 22, 2022

This brave lady deserves highest recognition @gujratpolice555  kunal mahajan (@mahajankunal1) April 23, 2022

The incident that has made her popular for her integrity took place in late March this year. At that time she was assigned bandobast duty from March 19 to 27 at the Ramkatha by Morari Bapu in Dholavira village of Bhachau taluka. The venue lies atop a small hill in the desert.



For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News.


Facebook is clueless about what happens to user data, a leaked document shows. While regulators in countries around the world are attempting to rein in Meta-owned Facebook for how it handles user data, the company seems to have no idea about what happens to user data and where it goes.

In the leaked document from 2021 obtained by Motherboard, Facebook's privacy engineers wrote about the process dictating all user data on its platforms. Referring to Facebook as a series of "systems with open borders," the document explains the situation using an analogy about an ink bottle.

"Imagine you hold a bottle of ink in your hand. This bottle of ink is a mixture of all kinds of user data (3PD, 1PD, SCD, Europe, etc.) You pour that ink into a lake of water (our open data systems; our open culture)  and it flows  everywhere, the document read. How do you put that ink back in the bottle? How do you organize it again, such that it only flows to the allowed places in the lake?," the document reads. For the uninitiated 3PD means third-party data, 1PD refers to first-party data, and SCD stands for sensitive categories data.

Reuters

What happens to our data on Facebook?

The document, written by privacy engineers on Facebook's Ad and Business Product team is responsible for making "meaningful connections between people and business," a recent job listing seen by Vice stated.

What this means is that Facebook is having trouble understanding what happens to user data after it is absorbed into the Facebook ecosystem. This problem is referred to as "data lineage."

Reuters

Also read: How Hackers Fooled Tech Giants Like Apple, Meta Into Giving Personal Data Of Minors

Currently, regulators in the US, EU, India, and other countries are attempting to exert more control over social media companies like Meta, Twitter, and Google. India's new IT rules require companies to be more responsive to complaints about content on their platforms.

Reuters

The government can also seek information about the point of origination of any piece of content. As part of these rules, social media companies also need to maintain grievance officers to ensure compliance with these new laws, among many things.

Also read: Zuckerberg's Meta Is Now Giving Creators A Chance To Make Money In His Metaverse



The Verge

If you wish to read the complete document, you may click here.



What do you think about Facebook's acceptance of data chaos? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

References

Franceschi-Bicchierai, L. (2022, April 26). Facebook Doesnt Know What It Does With Your Data, Or Where It Goes: Leaked Document. Vice.
On March 19, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban inaugurated a section of Belgrade-Budapest railway.

The 75-kilometre section, which links Belgrade and Novi Sad, the capital and second-largest city of Serbia, is part of the 341-kilometer Belgrade-Budapest railway, which will bring the Balkans closer to central Europe.



Screengrab/Twitter

However, a video from the inauguration went viral which purportedly shows the Serbian President making most of the photo op by giving a wave to a crowd... that was nowhere to be seen.



As Vucic sat in the new trains with Orban, both were seen waving out of the window as though they were interacting with fans, but as the camera panned around, the station was completely empty and rather dark.

Serbian President waving at nobody pretending there's a crowd gathered there to celebrate the new railway line is one of the best metaphors for politican-voter interactions I've seen in a long while pic.twitter.com/oYOvmkb1R9  Yugopnik (@yugopnik) March 28, 2022

The video was shared on Twitter by a user @yugopnik, with the caption: "Serbian President waving at nobody pretending there's a crowd gathered there to celebrate the new railway line is one of the best metaphors for politician-voter interactions I've seen in a long while."

Since being shared, the video has garnered over 2 million views and more than 6,000 retweets.



At the inauguration, the Serbian president said the 75-kilometre-long railway section was built by Chinese and Russian companies, while German companies installed surveillance, and the trains were manufactured in Switzerland.



Orban congratulated the Serbians on the newly built railway, saying that the two countries have historical good ties.

"In the past 70 years, we have been connecting countries in the east-west direction and forgot the importance of north-south connections. This resulted in an inappropriate situation that it took too many hours to arrive from Belgrade to Budapest," Orban said.

Xinhua News Agency

"So we made an alliance with President Vucic aiming to change this, and we will succeed in this effort," Orban added.



Once finished, trains will run at a speed up to 200 km/h between Belgrade and Budapest, bringing the Balkans closer to central Europe.

The newly-inaugurated Belgrade-Novi Sad section is composed of two parts, and one of them was built by China Communications Construction as well as China Railway International in the form of engineering, procurement, and construction contracts.



Apart from China, Russian companies participated in the railway's construction. German companies installed surveillance equipment, while the trains were manufactured in Switzerland, the Xinhua News Agency reported.



For more trending stories, click here.


Like machine learning engineers, machine learning scientists are in high demand in todays job market. Thats because organizations are eager to adopt machine learning-powered tools to enhance the value of their data and analytics and add automation to processes.

IDG Amy Steier, principal machine learning scientist at the developer tools provider, Gretel.ai.

Demand for machine learning technologies is on the rise, according to market research. Potential applications include customer segmentation and investment prediction in the financial services sector; image analytics, drug discovery and personalized treatment in healthcare; and inventory planning and cross-channel marketing in retail. But machine learning can be used to enhance processes in virtually every industry.

Naturally, there is a need for people who are experts in machine learning and related disciplines, and who understand how to use the technology for practical applications. Machine learning scientists certainly fit that description.

What a machine learning scientist does

Machine learning scientists share many of the same responsibilities as data scientists, including data analysis and model building. Machine learning scientists also work closing with machine learning engineers. A machine learning scientist focuses on researching complex algorithms and building models. Machine learning engineers turn those models into products.

To find out whats involved in becoming a machine learning scientist, we spoke with Amy Steier, principal machine learning scientist at the developer tools provider, Gretel.ai.

Data science has always been a very fast-moving field, and to remain good in it requires constant learning."

Becoming a machine learning scientist

Steier received a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). She then went on to earn a PhD in computer science from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), with an emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

[ Keep up with the latest developments in data analytics and machine learning. Subscribe to InfoWorld's First Look newsletter ]

A career in technology was not a certainty during college years, however. I was originally a bit torn between psychology and computer science," Steier says. But since I leaned a bit more towards computers, I decided to major in that. I massively enjoyed it and never looked back.

Math had long held an interest for Steier. In my early school days, I was good at and very much enjoyed math, she says. It felt like a game to me. In high school, I was encouraged by my teachers to join the math club, so eventually I did. All of my friends found this hysterical.

Steier started to grasp the idea that people must have an inherent tendency to enjoy what they're good at. This belief was later a big motivator in my decision to go to grad school, she says. I reasoned that if I was going to devote so much of my life to my career I should try and enjoy it as much as possible, and one way to do that was to get very good at something.

During graduate school, Steier became passionate about data science and specifically about the power and potential of data. Data science has always been a very fast-moving field, and to remain good in it requires constant learning, she says. My passion for the field makes me constantly want to learn and experience more.

Early education and employment

After graduating from UCSB, Steiers first job was as a programmer analyst at Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) in 1986. At the time the company was building a large financial system for the US Navy. The work was satisfying, but it felt as if I was learning so much more about Navy finance than I did about computers, she says.

With the goal of refining her expertise, and thus enjoying her work more, Steier went to graduate school in 1990. After exploring different topics, she focused on UCSD's Artificial Intelligence Group, and was able to work part time at CSC for the first two years.

Following that, Steier took a position as a consultant to Encyclopedia Britannica in 1992, and was able to use the Encyclopedia's data in her PhD research. The data they had was stunning in its richness and untapped potential, she says. Thus began my enduring, passionate love affair with data that would last my entire career. The power of it, the mystery, the intrigue, the potential has always fascinated me.

After Steier earned a PhD, she became a director of research and development and then eventually vice president of research and development at La Jolla Research Lab.

On following her passion for data

In 2000, Steier took about a year and a half off for the birth of her son. She eventually started back up part time as a consultant for ContentScan, doing intelligent bibliographic analysis. From there, she took a job in 2003 working part time at Websense. She worked in and eventually ran the CTO office, exploring new technology and product directions.

At that point in my career I was faced with a big decision, Steier says. Do I stay on a path of management or redirect myself to focus more on hands-on work? I loved being able to set a vision for a group and to help team members flourish in their careers. But I was passionate about hands-on work. I followed my passion and have never regretted it. Even today, when asked for advice from someone on what career path to follow, I still advise to follow your passion.

Steier took on a role at Websense as lead researcher on a classification system for the web. We primarily used large support vector machines to classify content into more than 80 topics and a dozen different languages, she says. That system is still in use today.

My career has always been driven by my passion for data, and now I am able to focus on helping everyone harness its power and potential."

When cyber security became a hot topic and Websenseeventually bought by Raytheon and now called Forcepointtransformed into a security company, Steier took a role in the cyber security group. I became involved in a plethora of innovative projects focused on both web and data security, she says. I worked on automatic classification of malware, detection of outbound malware communication, automated detection of malicious web sites, visualization of the threat landscape and other innovative projects.

In 2019, Steier had lunch with a former colleague who was on his second successful startup venture. When he explained the mission and vision of Gretel.ai, I was instantly hooked, she says. The mission was to remove the privacy barrier to sharing data for everyone. Easy access to data had been the thorn in my side for as long as I could remember.

Joining Gretel.ai was like coming home, Steier says. My career has always been driven by my passion for data, and now I am able to focus on helping everyone harness its power and potential.

A day in the life of a machine learning scientist

I like to start my workday by looking over my reading queue and seeing what's either interesting or relevant to read that morning, Steier says. Then I usually have a couple meetings each dayeither on company or research team related topics. I try to keep my meetings grouped together so I can have focused time on whatever research project I'm currently on.

Sometimes that work involves more reading to explore what has been done so far or searching for technology innovations that might inspire some new angle to a project. Steier spends a good deal of the day building various proofs of concept, each connected to a vision in the companys product roadmap.

We're currently hiring, so once a week I'll have a phone screen or interview, Steier says. We write a lot of blogs, give interviews, do podcasts and talks, so I might spend some time on one of those items. Maybe once a month I'll get involved with a specific company's use case and help [plan] a solution. We chat a ton on Slack on both work-related topics and random interesting or amusing topics.

Career defining moments

We asked Steier about her most memorable career moments. What really stands out was the aha moment at Encyclopedia Britannica, when I realized my profound love and fascination for data, Steier says. I can remember the exact moment I was explaining it to a colleague at a conference. Saying it out loud made it really sink in. I've carried that passion with me throughout my career.

More recently, joining Gretel has caused me to become re-energized about my passion for data and what it is enabling in the machine learning and AI spaces, Steier says. When I first started working within the world of data, a lot of what companies were doing was hindered by the inability to access or share data due to privacy concerns. But Ive been watching this change in real time thanks to synthetic data. Tools, like what we are building at Gretel, remove barriers and allow data to become ever more democratized. I see this as enabling tech communities across the world to utilize more datasets and harness the power they provide.

Getting a PhD also opened a lot of doors, Steier says. After that, continued learning became just a natural and necessary part of my career, she says. This has always meant lots of reading, communication with colleagues and being open to trying out new ideas.

Inspirations and advice for others

Her parents were her biggest inspiration, Steier says. During most of my life, my father was a professor of electrical engineering at USC [University of Southern California], and my mother owned several clothing stores. It was always clear they enjoyed their work. Going to college was never a question, just a natural part of growing up. Having the courage to push forward and go to grad school was solidly based on my parents unwavering faith that I could accomplish that.

No life is without hardship, but I believe my passion in my work has helped me to be resilient," she says. "Through every loss of a loved one, my work provided a refuge that helped me to regain my footing.

For others seeking a path similar to her own, Steier's advice is simple: Get educated, follow your heart, and embrace continuous learning," she says.
Google Cloud is losing its most senior sales executive, Rob Enslin, at a time when it is investing heavily to close the gap between itself and public cloud rivals Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Enslin joined Google Cloud as president of cloud sales from German software company SAP in April 2019. He was one of the first major hires of the new CEO of Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian, as the cloud division set itself ambitious goals to close the market share gap with Microsoft and AWS.

In that role he oversaw the tripling of Googles customer-facing workforce, including aggressive global expansion. He has also been credited with growing Google Clouds SAP business by convincing enterprise customers to migrate their SAP workloads onto its infrastructure. His departure is part of a broader reorganization of the sales and customer success structure at Google Cloud, according to reporting by Protocol.

Enslin is leaving to join the robotic process automation vendor UiPath as co-CEO alongside founder Daniel Dines from May 16.

Im bringing Rob on as my partner as we focus on growth at scale and building a company that reimagines how business is done, Dines said in a statement. Rob brings the right balance of experience and skills to scale our operations, allowing me to focus on our company culture, vision, and product innovation, areas I am passionate aboutand that bring considerable value to our employees and customers.

Google Cloud announced strong quarterly results yesterday, with revenue up 44% to $5.8 billion to start the financial year, at an operating loss of $931 million. The vendor also stated that it would continue to invest heavily in data centers, real estate, and engineering and sales headcount within its cloud division.
A Maryland police lieutenant wont be prosecuted in the death of a Black man he shot in the back during an exchange of gunfire in October, officials said Monday.

The shooting happened about 2 a.m. on Oct. 11 after Baltimore County police officers responded to a report of an armed robbery at a Woodlawn-area convenience store, according to a report from the Independent Investigations Division of the attorney generals office.

The report said the robber fled, crashed about a mile away and ran. Lt. Gregory Mead, who is white and has been with the department since 1996, responded to the area of the crash and saw Jovan Singleton, who was Black and resembled the description of the robbery suspect, the report states.

In a written statement, Mead said he asked Singleton to sit on the curb, but he took off and Mead followed. Seconds later, Mead said Singleton turned and Mead saw a muzzle flash, heard a gunshot and with a second muzzle flash, Mead fell to the ground in pain, feeling like a crow bar hit his knee cap. He said Singleton moved toward him and he fired.

About five hours later, Singletons body was found about 173 feet (53 meters) from the shooting scene and 50 feet (15 meters) from a firearm under a car, according to the report. Mead suffered an incapacitating knee injury, but was not shot, the report states.

An autopsy found that Singleton was shot in the back, indicating that he had turned away when Mead fired the shot that struck him and contradicting Meads account that Singleton was advancing, according to the report.

Mead had a body-worn camera, but did not activate it, the report states. In a written statement Mead said only that he left the precinct while trying to plug the body camera cord into the battery.

States Attorney Scott Shellenberger said in a release Monday that his office determined that the shooting was justified based upon all of the facts and statements provided in the interview and the investigation, The Baltimore Sun reported.

The investigative report is the first on a police-related death released since the division took over such investigations in the state on Oct. 1, according to Raquel Coombs, a spokeswoman for the attorney general.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Maryland
Generalis shareholders will decide the future of the Italian insurers CEO Philippe Donnet in a vote on Friday, after a rebel investor locked in a bitter power struggle proposed a rival.

Donnet, chief executive of Generali since 2016, has been put forward for a third term by its board and enjoys the backing of top shareholder Mediobanca.

Generali Shareholders Urged to Back Reappointment of CEO Donnet

But he faces opposition from billionaire investors Leonardo Del Vecchio and Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, who has come up with his own slate of board nominees.

Caltagirones pick for CEO is Luciano Cirina, who ran Generalis Austria and CEE business until March when he jumped ship and has since been fired.

Fridays shareholder meeting, to be held remotely because of lingering COVID-19 curbs, is finely balanced, with the two main camps both able to count on around 20% of the vote.

It will be narrow, it depends on how the retail and institutional investors vote, said Reiner Kloecker, a portfolio manager at Generali shareholder Union Investment, which backs the Generali board list.

Attendance at the Generali AGM is expected to be high, with at least 70% of Generalis capital represented, a person close to the matter said.

With leading proxy advisers ISS and Glass Lewis recommending a vote in favor of Donnet, a higher-than-average attendance by institutional investors should favor the status quo.

However, Caltagirones prospects have been boosted by news that the Benetton family, who own around 4% of Generali, plan to back his slate.

Different Visions

Donnet has made a strong defense of his record and argues that the rebels are trying to call the shots despite owning a minority of the shares.

Its about two very different visions of what Generalis governance should look like, he told Reuters.

Cirina and Claudio Costamagna, the rebel candidate for chairman, have dubbed their program Awakening the Lion, a reference to Generalis nickname The Lion of Trieste.

They want to spend as much as 7 billion euros on M&A, compared with the existing boards plan for 3 billion euros, and have also targeted annual earnings growth of over 14% with heavy cost-cuts and acquisitions to help outperform the existing plan.

The voting rules for Fridays meeting mean uncertainty could linger. The losing camp is still likely to get a number of board seats, based in part on their share of the vote.

Construction and media entrepreneur Caltagirone has put himself top of his own list, meaning he will likely regain the board seat he resigned in January, even if his wider ambitions are thwarted.

At first the battle around Generali had boosted the appeal of a stock traditionally seen as very solid but possibly a bit lazy, Roberto Lottici, fund manager at Banca Ifigest, said.

But as the fight escalated, weve taken a step back and liquidated the positions wed built. Even if the boards list is victorious, internal tensions cant be ruled out, Milan-based Lottici added.

(Additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn in London; writing by Keith Weir; editing by Alexander Smith)

Topics Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) Plc.
This edition of International People Moves details appointments at the London-based broker Miller and the insurer HDI Global in France.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Miller Appoints RKHs Malin, Marshs Gil Ramirez for Renewables Team

Miller, the London-based independent specialist reinsurance broker, announced the appointment of Hayley Malin as head of Infrastructure in its Construction team, and Laura Gil Ramirez as account executive in its Renewable Energy and Environmental Technology team (REET).

Malin will report to Pauline Goreham, head of Construction, and Gil Ramirez will report into Rhys Newland, Head of Renewable Energy & Environmental Technology.

With 25 years experience in the insurance industry, including 10 years specializing in the renewable energy sector, Malin joins from RKH Speciality. Over the course of her career, she has also held positions at Willis and A J Gallagher. Alongside her infrastructure team responsibility, she will also take a dual role in Millers REET team, deploying her renewable energy expertise across Millers infrastructure and REET client base.

Gil Ramirez joins Miller from Marsh where she was a client executive in its Renewable Energy team for five years covering advisory, construction and operational risks for a variety of renewable clients. Gil Ramirez was also at GCube, the specialist renewable energy insurer, prior to Marsh and has previous experience in financial services compliance and a legal background, bringing a wealth of experience to the REET team.

Miller appointed Rhys Newland as head of Renewable Energy and Environmental Technology in July 2021, and has already expanded the team through a number of hires as it continues to target the space as an important growth driver.

***

Chubbs Haquette to Lead French Branch Office at HDI Global

Jean-Marie Haquette will take over the executive management of the HDI Global SE branch office in France, effective Sept. 1, 2022.

Etienne de Varax is responsible for interim management of the branch until the new managing director takes up the position.

Subject to approval by the responsible regulatory authorities, Haquette will take over as the successor to Florence Louppe, who left the company on March 31, 2022. Haquette will continue the development and service strategy of HDI Global in France in order to ensure that customers and brokers derive maximum benefit from the great expertise of the industrial insurer in the French market.

With more than 30 years working for several international industrial insurers, Haquette contributes a wealth of experience to his future function at HDI in France. Most recently, he was a member of the executive committee of Chubb France. As its underwriting director, he was responsible for claims, engineering risks, marine, liability and specialty.

Previously, he was the head of the French branch office of Mapfre Global Risks. Prior to that, Haquette spent 10 years working in various positions for Zurich Corporate Insurance, including posts as country CFO and COO, and as head of First Party Underwriting. Formerly, he had a stint with the AXA Group in primary and in reinsurance business. There he held posts as casualty and property underwriter, as risk engineer and as underwriting manager property. Haquette was born in France.

Topics Chubb France
Wealthy individuals including Russian oligarchs, states and corporations that abuse the legal system to gag journalists and dodge oversight face a European Union-wide crackdown including potential fines.

A proposed law on so-called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPPs, targets groundless or exaggerated lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate and silence journalists and others, the European Commission announced on Wednesday.

We promised to defend better journalists and human rights defenders against those that try to silence them, Vera Jourova, the commissions vice president for values and transparency, said in a statement. The new law does that.

The move follows UK plans to accelerate legal reforms against such strategic lawsuits  dubbed lawfare  in part to curb Russian influence in the country. The EU proposal seeks to avoid situations where journalists become targets of legal threats and abusive litigation, as was the case for Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese journalist who investigated political corruption and faced 47 lawsuits when she was assassinated with a car bomb.

The new rules, which still need the backing of the European Parliament and EU nations, would apply in cross-border cases, so where a journalist based in one EU nation is targeted by a lawsuit in another EU nation. The law would also protect people in the EU against abusive lawsuits outside the bloc, by allowing member states to refuse recognizing the validity of such judgments.

Photograph: European Union (EU) flags outside the Berlaymont building in Brussels, Belgium, on Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020. Photo credit: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Bloomberg

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Lawsuits Europe
combination of ugly weather has left at least 19,000 people in western North Dakota facing days without power and thousands of residents along the Red River that separates that state from Minnesota dealing with flash flooding.

A blizzard over the weekend that included a mixture of snow, rain, ice and strong winds snapped hundreds or thousands of power poles in the western part of the state, leaving damage that a spokesman for a 100-year-old utility company called the worst ever in its system.

At the same time, Minnesota sent National Guard members to help sandbag in Crookston, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the North Dakota border, due to heavy rains. The National Weather Service originally warned of a record crest on the Red Lake River but the river peaked Monday at about 27 feet. The record high water mark was 28.4 feet in 1997.

North Dakota Emergency Services spokesman Eric Jensen estimated that more than 19,000 people were without power and it could be even more that, noting that tracking the outages is a complicated process.

Mark Hanson, spokesman for Bismarck-based Montana-Dakota Utilities, said the northwestern communities of Grenora, Zahl, Crosby, Powers Lake, McGregor and Wildrose likely will not have power restored until the end of the week. Ambrose could be out for up to two weeks.

The damage we have assessed so far is unprecedented, Hanson said. We have hundreds of crossarms broken and miles of poles down.

Montana-Dakota Utilities will have at least 15 crews in northwestern North Dakota this week, possibly more if aerial surveys Monday show even more damage than anticipated, The Bismarck Tribune reported.

The blizzard dropped as much as 11/2 feet of snow on western North Dakota and also brought widespread freezing rain that coated trees and power lines. Wind gusts up to 50 mph were recorded in several places.

In the Red River Valley, volunteers and National Guard members spent two days sandbagging to fortify the city of Crookston. About 50 of the 100 National Guard members authorized by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz assisted with the flood fight. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

The Red Lake River flows into the Red River at East Grand Forks and Grand Forks, North Dakota, where officials from the two cities have started to activate some of their permanent flood protection measures put into place after a 1997 flood that devastated the two cities.

Forecasters expect a crest of 48 feet (14.63 meters) later this week on the Red River in Grand Forks, but the cities have protection to 57 feet (17.37 meters) and more. Built-in floodwalls were being activated on both sides of the river. Officials on Monday planned to close one of the bridges that connects the two cities.

The southeastern North Dakota town of Valley City, which sits along another Red River tributary, has been sandbagging to protect against the rising Sheyenne River. Fargo officials donated 29,000 sandbags to help.

Valley City Mayor Dave Carlsrud said the community pride was evident in the number of people, including students from Valley City State University, who volunteered.

People are just, thats why I like living in North Dakota. Last week, when it was blowing snow in my face, I wasnt too sure. But today, I am again, Carlsrud said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Chubb said first quarter 2022 net income fell to $1.97 billion compared with $2.3 billion during the same time a year ago but property/casualty underwriting income during the period shot up 106% to a record $1.3 billion.

The P/C combined ratio for the first quarter was 84.3 compared with 91.8 the prior year. The P/C underwriting income and combined ratio results were each records, Chubb said.

CEO Evan Greenberg said Chubb achieved double digit commercial premium growth accompanied by rate increases in excess of loss cost, and growing momentum in our consumer businesses globally. Commercial premiums increased 10.5% in North America and 13.6% in international operations. Results excluded the agriculture business, which returned $161 million of premium to the federal government under a profit-sharing agreement, Chubb said.

Net premiums written in global P/C went up 8.8% versus the first quarter 2021.

In our international consumer lines, growth is steadily recovering, with personal lines premiums up 10% and personal accident and supplemental health premiums up 8.6% in constant dollars. Our U.S. high net worth personal lines business had an excellent quarter, with growth of 7.4%, Greenberg added in a statement.

Net investment income was $822 million, a drop from $863 million during the first quarter the prior year.

First quarter pretax P/C catastrophe losses were $333 million compared with $700 million for the first quarter 2021. Catastrophe losses included $138 million from storms in Australia and $65 million from Colorado wildfires.

During a conference call with financial analysts, Greenberg said Chubbs incurred losses from the Russian-Ukraine war are de minimis, adding that the conflict is a human tragedy of epic proportions with profound geopolitical implications. The CEO said losses may develop over time but the war will not represent a meaningful event for Chubb.

CFO Peter Enns said the companys Russian entities have been separated operationally and deconsolidated; therefore, Chubbs financial results during the first quarter include a realized loss of $87 million.

Asked if Chubb has seen any cyber claims tied to the conflict, Greenberg said Russia has for a number of years been a threat to the U.S., especially when it comes to ransomware. The risk hasnt abated and it hasnt increased from what we see, he said.

There are certain changes of patterns that I wont go into but, overall, it was a hostile environment and it continues to be, Greenberg said. We havent seen anything systemic.

Topics Profit Loss Underwriting Property Casualty Chubb
Michael Chang, former CEO of Sompo Internationals Global Risk Solutions business, has been hired by WTW as head of Corporate Risk and Broking (CRB) North America.

Chang was at Sompo for six years, where he was also co-leader of Global Insurance. Prior to Sompo, he spent nearly 20 years at Chubb in various senior roles, primarily in the large account space, including the leadership of Chubbs Commercial Insurance Global Risk Management Group and Global Real Estate Unit.

He has a formidable reputation and a global perspective across the spectrum of both underwriting and distribution that will be of immense value to us said Adam Garrard, head of CRB, in a statement on Changs hiring. In particular, his experience of developing both industry and product specialization will help accelerate our strategy across North America, driving better outcomes for our clients. Michaels background in technology, specialization, and data and analytics, combined with strong client connections, aligns perfectly with WTWs client advisory proposition. Michaels arrival is just another example of WTW being a magnet for talent, especially those who embrace innovation and forward-thinking.

WTW said Chang, who will also become a member of the companys Global Leadership Team, has been a pioneer of industry specialization in many lines of business, and an early adopter of the data and analytics-based approach that WTW uses. Chang began his career as a financial analyst and holds a degree in Multinational Business Management from Wharton. He is also a long-time advocate of developing meaningful and impactful Inclusion and Diversity programs and his work in this area is recognized throughout the insurance sector.

Current head of CRB North America, Mike Liss, announced his intention to retire in mid-2023 after 16 years with WTW as part of a four-decade-old career, the company said. He led and developed WTWs Midwest region from Chicago before taking on the head of CRB North America role in 2016. CRB North America today is comprised of more than 3,000 people in 63 offices across the U.S., Canada, and Bermuda.

Mikes leadership during the last few years  particularly during the tremendous challenges that COVID-19 posed across North America  has been nothing short of outstanding. He will be handing over leadership of a strong performing business which Michael can now lead on the next stage of our journey, Garrard said. Liss will stay with WTW until his retirement is official.

Chang said it is an exciting time to join WTW as the risk landscape continues to evolve at a seemingly ever faster pace and one in which traditional insurance solutions are no longer the only answer.

WTW is a unique player in the industry. Its focused first and foremost on people, technology, data and analytics, and client advisory, then solutions, and all underpinned by deep industry specialization and technical knowledge, he said. This is the future of broking and what clients are looking for. Im looking forward to joining WTW as it looks to redefine our industry.
Specialty Comp Insurance Solutions Promotes Steve Math to President & CEO

Specialty Comp Insurance Solutions (SCIS), a division of Specialty Program Group, LLC (SPG), promoted Steve Math, FCAS, to president and chief executive officer of SCIS, reporting to Chris Treanor, president of SPG. Math takes the leadership helm from Jay Chase, who will be joining the SPG leadership team as executive vice president and consultant assisting SPG in its strategic growth planning.

Steve joined SCIS in 2019 as executive vice president and chief underwriting officer, bringing over 35 years of experience in the industry and in executive level positions in both underwriting and actuarial. Prior to SCIS, Steve served as senior vice president of underwriting & field operations with Texas Mutual Insurance Company, the leading provider of workers compensation in Texas. At Texas Mutual, Steve was responsible for all underwriting, actuarial, and agency-related operations. Steve has also served as chief actuary at Argo Group, ACE USA, CNAStandard Lines, and TIG Insurance Group.

SCIS is a national workers compensation facility specializing in underwriting for middle market, hard to place, high hazard risks. SCIS is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

TWIA GM John Polak to Retire at End of 2022

Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) General Manager John Polak will retire at the end of 2022 after 11 years of leading the wind and hail insurer of last resort for the Texas coast. The Board of Directors will immediately begin a candidate search to find a well-qualified and capable leader to fill this role.

TWIAs executive leadership team is preparing for the transition to new leadership. TWIA has key staff and effective processes in place to efficiently maintain all compliance obligations and operational services to policyholders and other stakeholders. TWIA expects a new general manager to be in place well before Polaks departure.

Before coming to TWIA in 2011, Polak held the positions of CEO, COO, CIO, and CUO in insurance companies ranging from large national and international carriers to midsized regional carriers. During a career spanning five decades, he oversaw the development and growth of profitable specialty books of business in both personal and commercial lines. He has overseen catastrophe loss responses in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and other parts of the country. Polak served from 2018-2020 as the chair of the Property Insurance Plans Service Office (PIPSO) Board of Directors, a nonprofit organization that oversees all 37 residual market property insurance plans.

Created by the Texas Legislature in 1971, TWIA provides windstorm and hail insurance to communities on the Texas coast when no one else will. The Association currently covers more than 190,000 homes and businesses in 14 coastal counties plus part of Harris County.

Topics Excess Surplus
All Property & Casualty insurers in Oklahoma will face a $150 assessment to fund the Oklahoma Market Assistance Program (OK-MAP) Plan of Operation, the Oklahoma Insurance Department announced this week.

The OK-MAP Plan of Operation and the Oklahoma Insurance Code allow the program to collect an assessment from all member insurers in the State of Oklahoma. The purpose of the assessment is to help fund the program so that it may continue its efforts in assisting Oklahoma consumers in finding homeowners insurance. The amount of the assessment is $150 and all member insurers will receive an invoice for that amount during the first week of May 2022.

Member means all property and casualty insurers licensed in the State of Oklahoma or writing homeowners or liability insurance in the state.

36 O.S.  6422 requires OK-MAP members to participate in all assessments and writings of the program. The statute also allows for imposition of a penalty against members who fail to pay the assessment, including revocation of an insurers certificate of authority and a fine of up to $5,000.

The assessment is due on September 1, 2022.

Source: OID

Topics Carriers Oklahoma
May 23 through May 27.

Those are the dates Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has set aside for a special session of the Florida Legislature to address a number of changes that could ameliorate what many have called a property insurance crisis in the state.

In a proclamation issued Tuesday afternoon, the governor listed seven reasons for convening lawmakers, including insurance industry losses, excessive claims litigation, rising homeowner premiums, insurer insolvencies and the rapdily expanding girth of the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

Whereas, the Florida insurance industry has seen two straight years of net underwriting losses exceeding $1 billion each year; and  whereas, it is necessary for the State of Florida to act to stabilize the insurance market for Florida policyholders before the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season, which begins on June 1st, it is prudent to call a special session, the proclamation reads.

Insurance industry insiders praised the move, but a few wondered how far some House of Representative members may go on reform measures. A statement by House Speaker Chris Sprowls, who has downplayed the need for further reforms, did not sound overly enthusiastic.

We look forward to working with our partners to evaluate whether there is more we can do to address the availability and affordability of property insurance, Sprowls said Tuesday, according to news reports. The Florida House will remain primarily focused on addressing the needs of the policyholders of Florida.

Others noted that DeSantis, fresh off a total victory in last weeks special session on redistricting and retaliation against the Disney Corp., appears to have the power to steer lawmakers toward significant changes.

I think it will really come down to what the governor wants to do, said Melissa Burt DeVriese, president of Security First Insurance, one of Floridas largest property-casualty insurers. If he wants to address some of the major cost drivers, such as litigation, I think the governor could get it done and it would be a huge help to the industry.

Floridas chief financial officer, whose office oversees insurance and agent regulation, applauded the proclamation.

The timing of this special session is especially prudent as it would convene before the start of the 2022 hurricane season in June, which is already predicted to be an extremely active storm season, Jimmy Patronis said in a statement. The sooner we tackle needed property insurance reforms, the sooner Florida consumers can reap the benefits of these policy changes.

The special session apparently will not include condominium reforms or condo insurance issues, despite an editorial in the Miami Herald this week. Insurance premiums on high-rise condominiums have spiked since the Champlain Towers South building collapsed near Miami Beach in June 2021 that killed 98 people. A number of insurers have declined to write condo insurance while others are demanding more extensive inspection records, the Herald noted.

Along with significant property insurance changes, Florida lawmakers also failed to adopt tougher condo inspection and cash-reserve laws during the regular session this year that ended in March.

The governors proclamation also raised some eyebrows for three items on the sessions agenda. In addition to property insurance and reinsurance, the session will also consider legislation related to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and appropriations.

Speculation among some industry analysts Tuesday was that DeSantis may want to see funding for more positions at the agency, perhaps to give it the ability to move more quickly on regulatory changes and rate reviews.

The agenda also will include changes to the Florida Building Code, the governor indicated. That also caught some off guard, since the state Building Commission already is scheduled to consider changes to the code, including revisions to the section that, in many cases, requires full roof replacement if just 25% of a roof section is damaged.

The announcement also updated some often-quoted figures that seem to sum up the state of the insurance market in Florida. The OIR last year said that data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners shows that while Florida accounted for about 8% of all homeowner insurance claims in the United States in 2019, Florida homeowner insurance lawsuits made up 76% of all litigation against insurers, nationwide.

DeSantis proclamation said those numbers have now grown to 9% and 79%. That could indicate that 2019 and 2021 legislative reforms designed to reduce claims litigation have had little effect.

The session is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on May 23, a Monday, and extend no later than midnight on Friday.

Top photo: The Tallahassee skyline, courtesy VisitTallahassee.com.

Topics Numbers
Relation Insurance Services has acquired North Carolina-based Rabon Insurance Agency, which was previously part of Nationwides exclusive distribution model.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Rabon, headquartered in Monroe, North Carolina, provides personal and commercial lines insurance across the state, the company said in a news release. Ashley Rabon will continue to lead the agency.

Relation Insurance Services said it is a fast-growing national brokerage with 1,200 employees.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions North Carolina
The California Labor Commissioners Office cited three temporary staffing agencies as well as joint employers Foster Farms, LLC and Foster Poultry Farms nearly $3.8 million for failure to inform 3,476 temporary workers of their available COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave.

The staff agencies were Viking Staffing CA LLC, Human Bees Inc. and Marcos Renteria Ag Services Inc.

The Labor Commissioners Office in 2020 opened an investigation into Foster Poultry Farms, a processing plant in Livingston, after COVID-19 outbreaks were reported at the worksite. The investigation included an audit of payroll records, which reportedly determined that the temporary staffing agencies named above hired staff to fill in for permanent workers affected by COVID-19 outbreaks at the processing plant, but failed to inform the temporary staff of their rights to supplemental paid sick leave.

The Labor Commissioners Office found the temporary staffing agencies, Foster Farms, LLC and Foster Poultry Farms jointly liable for these violations.

The 3,476 temporary workers are owed a total of $3.7 million in penalties. Human Bees, Inc. owes its 1,987 temporary workers $940,050; Viking Staffing CA, LLC owes its 341 temporary workers $377,850; and Marcos Renteria Ag Services Inc. owes its 1,148 temporary workers $2,465,900.

The 2022 supplemental paid sick leave law went into effect on Feb. 19, and is retroactive to Jan. 1. It provides covered employees up to 80 hours of COVID-19 related paid leave, with up to 40 of those hours for isolation and quarantine, receiving vaccines and caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed, and up to an additional 40 of those hours available only when an employee or family member for whom the employee provides care tests positive for COVID-19.

Topics California Agencies COVID-19 Agribusiness
Pharmacy chain Walgreens Boots Alliance WBA.O and other defendants on Tuesday said they were not to blame for the opioid crisis in San Francisco, and that they acted responsibly when providing legal medications to patients in pain.

Almost all of those prescriptions were written by good, well-meaning doctors, Walgreens attorney Kate Swift said during opening statements in a trial in San Francisco federal court. It was appropriate for good pharmacists to fill those prescriptions.

The trial, which kicked off Monday, is the first to target drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies over the addictive pain medicines.

San Francisco has accused Walgreens, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd TEVA.TA, AbbVie Incs ABBV.N Allergan unit, and drug distributor Anda Inc, which is owned by Teva, of creating a public nuisance by flooding the city with prescription opioids and failing to prevent the drugs from being diverted for illegal use.

A lawyer for San Francisco said during opening statements on Monday that the entire prescription drug industry was to blame for recklessly expanding the market for opioid drugs. Read full story

San Francisco has been hit hard by the opioid crisis, which has caused more than 500,000 overdose deaths nationwide in the past two decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Opioid-related health issues now account for 25% of emergency room visits at the citys largest public hospital, according to the lawsuit.

Drugmakers Teva and Allergan said on Tuesday that they were minor players in the crisis compared to companies like Purdue Pharma and the wealthy Sackler family that owns the now bankrupt company.

This crisis traces back to Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family and their pursuit of profits, said Collie James, an attorney for Teva and its affiliates.

By comparison, Tevas branded opioid drugs Actiq and Fentora, made by its Cephalon unit, were a barely perceptible blip on the opioid market in San Francisco, James said.

Allergan attorney Hariklia Karis made similar arguments about Allergans branded opioids, Kadian and Norco.

Kadian made no difference in this market, Karis said. Norco did not move the market.

The members of the Sackler family that own Purdue have said that they acted lawfully, but regret that its widely-prescribed OxyContin unexpectedly became part of an opioid crisis. Read full story

San Franciscos lawsuit, filed in 2018, initially included claims against drugmakers Purdue Pharma LP, Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N and Endo International Plc ENDP.O, and the three largest U.S. drug distributors  McKesson Corp MCK.N, Cardinal Health Inc CAH.N and AmerisourceBergen Corp ABC.N. The city previously settled with those defendants ahead of the trial.

The lawsuit was one of more than 3,000 cases filed by state and local governments over the U.S. opioid crisis.

J&J and the three large distributors agreed to a $26 billion nationwide settlement of opioid claims against them, which California and San Francisco joined. But many of the lawsuits are proceeding against other drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies.

(Reporting by Knauth; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Bill Berkrot)
Answers

Global early strength agent market trend 2025-2027 Concrete Early Strength Agent by Newsintegra927

The European Union recently approved sweeping new sanctions against Russia, including bans on imports of coal, timber, chemicals, and other early strength agent.

Overview of concrete early strength agent:

Concrete early-strength agent can greatly change the final setting time while ensuring the quality of concrete is reduced. It is changed to demoulding as soon as possible. The sleeve accelerates the turnover of the formwork, saves the amount of formwork, saves energy and saves cement, reduces production costs, and improves the output of concrete products.

Our early strength agent 31B can reduce the activation energy of the cement hydration reaction, increase the hydration reaction rate, promote the rapid development of the strength during the hardening period. And it can significantly improve the cement mortar products. Ultra-early strength within 12 hours. Abnormal, does not affect the durability of cement mortar products.





Data of concrete Early strength agent:





Item Unit Performance Required indicators Test results Appearance

Grey powder Grey powder Water content % 4.0 3.6 Density g/cm3

3.25 pH

7-9 8 Total alkali % 10 5.8 Compressive strength ratio 1d,% 135 160 3d,% 130 143 7d,% 110 120 28d,% 100 113





Application of concrete Early strength agent:

1) 31B does not contain chlorine ions and has no rusting effect on steel bars. It is suitable for all civil, industrial buildings and prestressed reinforced concrete members, mortar, etc.

(2) 31B is suitable for construction under low temperature in early winter and early spring;

(3) 31B is used for Portland cement, especially for the reinforcement and modification of slag cement.





The advantage of concrete Early strength agent:

1. Excellent super early strength performance, can greatly improve the strength development under normal temperature, low temperature or thermal curing temperature conditions

2. It can improve the durability of cement mortar and board, and won't shrink the strength of cement mortar and board.

3. Shorten demolding time and speed up mold turnover

4. Shorten or even eliminate steam curing process, save energy and reduce consumption

5.Reduce the amount of glue





Package of concrete Early strength agent:

25kg/bag





Suppliers of concrete Early strength agent:

TRUNNANO is the global leader of Low-Density Cellular Concrete (LDCC), Celluar Light Concrete (CLC) and advanced engineered foam solutions. Known globally for its commitment to research, innovation, and applied expertise, we have been providing engineered foam solutions since the early 2012's.





If you are looking for concrete Early strength agent, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry, email address: sales@cabr-concrete.com





Our early strength agent 31B can reduce the activation energy of the cement hydration reaction, increase the hydration reaction rate, promote the rapid development of the strength during the hardening period. And it can significantly improve the cement mortar products. Ultra-early strength within 12 hours. Abnormal, does not affect the durability of cement mortar products. Add amount2-4 kg/m3 Appearance: Grey powder Application: The main function of early strength agent is to accelerate the hydration speed of cement and promote the development of early strength of cement.

The development of the Russia-Ukraine conflict will continue to dominate the commodity prices such as the early strength agent in the future. If the conflict eases or cools, Russia and Ukraine go back to negotiate, commodity prices would fall. However, if the situation between Russia and Ukraine deteriorates further, or evolves into a full-scale war, the price of the early strength agent is predicted to see further improvement over the coming days.



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Answers

Global Hastelloy X Powder market trend 2024-2029 3D Printing Alloy Metal Materials GH3536 Hastelloy-X-Powder by Newsintegra927

U.S. natural gas futures rose about 5 percent to a near nine-week high as global energy prices surged on concerns over a pricing plan for energy exports, keeping U.S. LNG export demand near record highs. U.S. natural gas prices have risen despite forecasts of mild weather and lower-than-expected demand, which will allow utilities to fill up storage facilities next week. On Wednesday, Germany launched an emergency plan to manage gas supplies in Europe's largest economy. If natural gas supplies are interrupted or stopped, the German government could take unprecedented steps to limit electricity supply.

Affected by the increase in the price of natural gas, the price of the Hastelloy X Powder will also increase.



About 3D Printing Alloy GH3536 Hastelloy X Powder:

Powder characteristics: 3D Printing Powder Material, high powder sphericity, smooth surface, fewer satellite balls, low oxygen content, uniform particle size distribution, good fluidity, and high bulk density and tap density.

Applicable Process: Superalloy powder Widely used in laser/electron beam additive manufacturing (SLM/EBM), powder metallurgy (PM), direct laser deposition (DLD), powder hot isostatic pressing (HIP), metal injection molding (MIM), etc.

Applicable equipment: 3D metal printing powder can also used in various types of metal 3D printers, including Renishaw in the UK, EOS (EOSINT M series) in Germany, Concept Laser, 3D systems in the United States, laser melting equipment, and domestic research institutes and enterprises. Research and development of selected laser melting equipment, such as Huaying Hi-Tech, Platinum, and so on.

Powder application: We use the nickel-based metal powder 3D metal powder price in industrial and aviation steam turbines, petrochemicals, nuclear reactors, laser cladding, and other fields.

Product specifications: 0-45 m, 0-53 m, 15-45 m, 15-53 m, 45-105 m. (All kinds of granular metal powder can be customized according to customer requirements)

Chemical composition(weight %) of Hastelloy X Powder:

Type C Si Mn Ni Cr Co Mo W Al Cu Ti P S Fe GH3536 0.05-0.15 1.0 1.0 Bal. 20.5-23.0 0.5-2.5 8.0-10.0 0.2-1.0 0.5 0.5 0.15 0.025 0.015 17.0-22.0





Powder oxygen and nitrogen content:

Particle size O/ppm N/ppm 15-53 m 400 300 45-105 m 300 200

Storage Condition of 3D metal printing powder:

Damp reunion will affect 3D metal printing powder dispersion performance and using effects, therefore, 3D metal printing powder should be sealed in vacuum packing and stored in cool and dry room, the 3D metal printing powder can not be exposure to air. In addition, the 3D metal printing powder should be avoided under stress.

Packing & Shipping of 3D metal printing powder:

We have many different kinds of packing which depends on the 3D metal printing powder quantity.

3D metal printing powder packing:vacuum packing, 100g, 500g or 1kg/bag, 25kg/barrel, or as your request.

3D metal printing powder shipping:could be shipped out by sea , by air, by express?as soon as possible once payment receipt.

3D Printing Alloy Metal Materials GH3536 Hastelloy X Powder Properties Other Names GH3536 Powder CAS No. N/A Compound Formula N/A Molecular Weight N/A Appearance Gray metallic solid in various forms (ingot, tubing, pieces, powder) Melting Point N/A Solubility in water N/A Density NA Purity N/A Particle Size 0-20m, 15-45m, 15-53m, 53-105m, 53-150m, 105-250m Boling point N/A Specific Heat N/A Thermal Conductivity N/A Thermal Expansion N/A Young's Modulus N/A Exact Mass N/A Monoisotopic Mass N/A 3D Printing Alloy Metal Materials GH3536 Hastelloy X Powder Metal Health & Safety Information Safety Warning N/A Hazard Statements N/A Flashing point N/A Hazard Codes N/A Risk Codes N/A Safety Statements N/A RTECS Number N/A Transport Information N/A WGK Germany N/A

Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd. (TRUNNANO) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12-year-experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials, including boron powder, nitride powder, graphite powder, zinc sulfide, 3D printing powder, etc.





If you are looking for 3D printing metal powder, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry, email address: sales2@nanotrun.com

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected economies and chemical companies in many countries around the world. Measures such as extending holidays and resuming work were taken to control the development of the epidemic, and the normal operation of some chemical enterprises was also affected to some extent.

We provides high quality Hastelloy X Powder with reasonable price. In order to feedback to old customers, the company is still in full operations to provide Hastelloy X Powder with competitive price. said Olina, the sales manager.

Chemical Hastelloy X Powder, feel free to contact us.

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Products

Global InVar36 Powder market trend 2024-2027 3D Printing Alloy Metal Materials Iron Nickel Alloy InVar36 Metal Powder by Newsintegra927

The roble had hit a record low after the West imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia for its aggression in Ukraine. Russia's president recently ordered exports of Russian gas to "unfriendly" countries to be settled in robles. The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament said Moscow was prepared and could shift supplies to markets such as Asia if Europe refused to buy Russian energy.

European countries, which pay mostly in euros, say Russia has no right to reset contracts. The G7 rejected Russia's demand and urged companies not to agree to pay in robles, saying most contracts stipulated payment in euros or dollars. Wholesale gas prices in Europe have risen further recently on concerns about potential supply disruptions.

The Kremlin spokesman said, "According to the March 31 deadline set by Russia's president, we are developing all payment methods to get a simple, understandable, and feasible system for relevant European and international buyers,"

The markets and prices of more commodities like the InVar36 Powder would be affected because of the volatile international political situations.

About Iron Nickel Alloy InVar36 Metal Powder:

Powder characteristics: Iron-based 3D Printing Powderhigh powder sphericity, low oxygen content, uniform particle size distribution, good fluidity, high bulk density and tap density, and wide application in powder metallurgy and 3D printing.

Applicable Process: InVar36 Powder can be used in laser/electron beam additive manufacturing (SLM/EBM), laser direct deposition (DLD), powder hot isostatic pressing (HIP), metal injection molding (MIM) and other processes.

Applicable equipment: 3D Metal Powder can be used in various types of metal 3D printers, including Renishaw in the UK, EOS (EOSINT M series) in Germany, Concept Laser, 3D systems in the United States, laser melting equipment, and domestic research institutes and enterprises. Research and development of selected laser melting equipment, such as Huaying Hi-Tech, Platinum and so on.

Powder Applications: Iron-based metal powders are used in 3D printed thin-walled devices and complex parts, thermal spray, laser cladding, and

biomedical applications.

Product specifications: 0-45 m, 0-53 m, 15-45 m, 15-53 m, 45-105 m. (All kinds of granular metal powder can be customized according to customer requirements)

Chemical composition (wt %):

Type C Si Mn Ni Cr Co Al Mg Ti Zr P S Fe InVar36 0.05 0.4 0.6 36.0 0.25 0.5 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.015 0.015 Bal.

Powder oxygen and nitrogen content:

Particle size O/ppm N/ppm 15-53 m 800 600 45-105 m 500 600

Storage Condition of InVar36 Metal Powder:

Damp reunion will affect Iron-based 3D Printing Powder dispersion performance and using effects, therefore, Iron-based 3D Printing Powder should be sealed in vacuum packing and stored in cool and dry room, the Iron-based 3D Printing Powder can not be exposure to air. In addition, the Iron-based 3D Printing Powder should be avoided under stress.

Packing & Shipping of InVar36 Metal Powder:

We have many different kinds of packing which depends on the Iron-based 3D Printing Powder quantity.

Iron-based 3D Printing Powder packing:vacuum packing, 100g, 500g or 1kg/bag, 25kg/barrel, or as your request.

Iron-based 3D Printing Powder shipping:could be shipped out by sea , by air, by express?as soon as possible once payment receipt.





Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd. (TRUNNANO) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12-year-experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials, including boron powder, nitride powder, graphite powder, zinc sulfide, 3D printing powder, etc.





If you are looking for 3D printing metal powder, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry, email address: sales2@nanotrun.com





3D Printing Alloy Metal Materials Iron Nickel Alloy InVar36 Metal Powder Properties Other Names InVar36 Powder CAS No. N/A Compound Formula N/A Molecular Weight N/A Appearance Gray metallic solid in various forms (ingot, tubing, pieces, powder) Melting Point N/A Solubility in water N/A Density NA Purity N/A Particle Size 0-20m, 15-45m, 15-53m, 53-105m, 53-150m, 105-250m Boling point N/A Specific Heat N/A Thermal Conductivity N/A Thermal Expansion N/A Young's Modulus N/A Exact Mass N/A Monoisotopic Mass N/A 3D Printing Alloy Metal Materials Iron Nickel Alloy InVar36 Metal Powder Health & Safety Information Safety Warning N/A Hazard Statements N/A Flashing point N/A Hazard Codes N/A Risk Codes N/A Safety Statements N/A RTECS Number N/A Transport Information N/A WGK Germany N/A









The current international situation is highly uncertain, and its economic impact has not been able to be assessed properly. In addition, rising energy and commodity prices and supply chain disruptions are expected to push the price of the InVar36 Powder higher.



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Products

Global Tungsten Carbide market trend 2025-2026 What are the Properties and Uses of Spherical Tungsten Carbide by Newsintegra927

According to statistics from China Chemical and Physical Power Supply Industry Association China's export volume and export value of lithium-ion batteries have continued to increase. In 2021, China's exports of lithium-ion batteries were 3.428 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 54.34%. The export of lithium-ion batteries was 28.428 billion DOLLARS, up 78.34% year on year.

From the battery export destination, so far. China's lithium-ion batteries are mainly exported to the Asia Pacific and the United States and other places. In terms of price, the price of Tungsten Carbide, led by lithium-ion batteries, is expected to expand globally.

What is Tungsten Carbide?

As one of the main production raw materials of cemented carbide, the physical and chemical properties of tungsten carbide (WC) powder, such as particle shape, particle size, particle size distribution, oxygen content, carbon content, bulk density, etc., will directly affect the quality of alloy products. Nowadays, with the gradual optimization of the production process of cemented carbide, the market demand for spherical tungsten carbide powder is also increasing.





Tungsten carbide is mainly composed of refractory metal tungsten and non-metallic carbon, and contains a small amount of impurity elements such as Co, Cr, Ti, Ta, Nb, V, Mn, Ni, Mo, O, etc. According to the different particle size, it can be divided into the following grades, WC10 (1.01~1.40um), WC30 (3.01~4.00um), WC50 (5.01~7.00um), WC100 (10.01~14.00um) and so on.





Properties of spherical tungsten carbide

Appearance is black powder, high purity 99.9%, sphericity 95%, melting point is 2870, boiling point is 6000, density is 15.63g/cm, bulk density is greater than 7.0g/cm3, tap density is greater than 7.0. 5g/cm3, the flow performance is less than 10.0s/50g, and has the characteristics of high hardness, low thermal expansion coefficient, high compressive strength, large elastic modulus, and smooth surface. However, due to its high hardness, its processing performance is poor, so it is more suitable for 3D printing.





Production process of spherical tungsten carbide powder

Smelting method: The raw material powder (tungsten powder and carbon black or tungsten powder, carbon black and tungsten carbide) is melted into a liquid state, and droplets will form on the surface under the action of centrifugal rotation method, rotary atomization method or gas atomization method Spherical tungsten carbide.





Modified irregular tungsten carbide: The irregular WC is melted into a liquid state, and then the spherical tungsten carbide powder is made by the plasma spheroidization method or the resistance heat spheroidization method.





Uses of spherical tungsten carbide

Mainly used in the production of cemented carbide. According to different chemical compositions, cemented carbides can be divided into tungsten-cobalt, tungsten-titanium-cobalt and tungsten-titanium-tantalum (niobium) types.





About KMPASS

KMPASS is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12 years experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials. The company export to many countries, such as USA, Canada, Europe, UAE, South Africa, Tanzania,Kenya,Egypt,Nigeria,Cameroon,Uganda,Turkey,Mexico,Azerbaijan,Belgium,Cyprus,Czech Republic,Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Dubai, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia,Germany, France, Italy, Portugal etc. As a leading nanotechnology development manufacturer, KMPASS dominates the market. Our professional work team provides perfect solutions to help improve the efficiency of various industries, create value, and easily cope with various challenges. If you are looking for spherical tungsten carbide Powder, please send an email to: sales2@nanotrun.com

Affected by the present complex international situation and the epidemic, the future of global financial markets, futures markets, and stock markets is still highly uncertain. For this reason, I suppose the price of the Tungsten Carbide would continue to rise.



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Editorials are longer opinion pieces that are written by a group of community members recruited across campus who address relevant issues on a local, national and international level. Editorials are research-based. The purpose of the Editorial Board is to promote discussion concerning relevant issues in the community while advising on possible solutions. Topics are chosen via relevancy and interests of the members, which are then discussed by the Editorial Board in order to reach a general consensus concerning the topic or issue.

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Columns are hyper-specific to opinion and are written by only columnists employed by the Iowa State Daily. Columnists are unique because they have a specific writing day and only publish on those writing days. Each column undergoes a thorough editing process ensuring the integrity of the writer, and their claim is maintained while remaining research-based and respectful. Columns may be submitted from community members. These are labelled as Guest Columns. These contain similar research-based content and need to be at least 400 words in length. The following requirements should be met: first and last name, email and relation or position to Iowa State. Emails must be tied to the submitted guest column or it will not be accepted or published. Pseudonyms are prohibited and the writer will be banned from submissions.

Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020
Forestry has contributed to the decline of farm families in rural areas by falsely inflating the price of farmland, an awareness group has said.

According to the submission of the Save Groups to the Oireachtas, in some areas, there are very high cumulative levels of afforestation, felling and replanting which is not sustainable.

Ongoing inappropriate afforestation and forestry activity combined with forestry legacy issues is having an enormous detrimental impact on our areas and counties, the submission reads.

The current forestry policies and programmes and forestry model and its implementation by the forest service is compromising the social and ecological fabric of our counties and areas around the country.

Farmers in the save areas  namely Leitrim, west Cavan, Kerry, and Wicklow  are in the main, not investors, while they try to make a living from farming the land which has in many cases been in their families for generations.

The land is generally of high nature value and is farmed extensively and in many cases organically, the group said.

These farmers want to farm as they need an ongoing income and turnover of cash to continue with their lives and they do not want to plant all of their land, but unfortunately many come to the end of their careers and lives having little option but to sell their land to survive into retirement or through poor health.

The main model of forestry [based mainly on low-quality timber production] and the level of supports for farmer-led forestry is not [at] a level to attract farmers to plant up much of their land.

Read More Coillte unveils plan for 100,000 hectares of new forests by 2050

On the other hand, there are plenty of investors who are intensive commercial farmers [from other parts of the county] but who dont and never will farm in our areas and who are buying large blocks of land including whole farms to plant up with conifers.

Representing Save Groups at a meeting of the Oireachtas joint committee on agriculture, food and the marine, Francis Cassidy said that in many areas, forestry has a bad name.

It has resulted in a decline of farm families living in our area by falsely inflating the price of farmland, enabling investors to outbid local interests, he said. The subsequent reduction in population has further deprived our rural villages of services and users.

Our landscape has been irreparably blighted, not just by forestation itself, but by the clear-felling which leaves vast tracks of our hill sites barren in a manner similar to Armageddon.

Mr Cassidy said that although some of the forestry is privately owned, a very small part is owned by people residing in the area.

To the families of west Cavan, Leitrim, Kerry, Wicklow, it is no different whether the Sitka is owned by Coillte, a pension fund, or a farmer from Cork, Mr Cassidy continued.

The daylight is blocked; the neighbour is gone. Absentee landlords are no advantage to the local economy. They pay no road tax, no development levies on new builds or extensions, they employ no workers. Its a lose-lose.

A family which remains are often the last families on laneways, which were planted on both sides, creating a tunnel effect.

Isolation and light deprivation are well-known contributors to depression and social withdrawal.

State aid

Representative, Brian Smyth, said that the pressures seen on farm families from the state aid exemption is problematic, and that it is distorting the decisions farmers make, the entry of new farmers and the access to land both to lease and to purchase.

In their submission to the Oireachtas, the representatives said that the use of state aids  grants, premia payments, and tax breaks is favouring investor-led afforestation over more balanced and diverse forestry land uses which can equally tackle biodiversity and carbon issue and be socially sustainable.

The afforestation scheme is distorting the access to land. It is when the percentage of land reaches a certain limit acceptable to local people at least that the issues have arisen and the resistance to it has increased and is increasing all the time, Mr Smyth told the committee.

There are very different types of forestry: A farmer planting some space is very different than a corporate drive to produce timber, because farmers need a regular income over a long period of time rather than investing, sitting back and waiting for that to mature and return on the investment.

There is no real distinction in the afforestation programme between the goals of achieving quality net carbon sink or carbon sequestration as opposed to timber production.

There needs to be a distinction. The system of support for farmers needs to be different than that for timber production because farmers arent timber producers necessarily.

They want to farm, young people want to get into farming, and forestry is certainly a mix for many on the farm but it is not the be-all and end-all.

It should be possible for them to make decisions to plant that as part of a multi-income source and rather than focus necessarily on timber, they should have the option for biodiversity reasons or long-term carbon goals.

Demographic decline

Mr Smyth said that the drive to plant in areas like Leitrim, west Cavan, east Clare, north Kerry, Wicklow, is driving people out and creating demographic decline beyond what would be expected in these rural areas.

There is no consideration of the goals of local communities, he said.

If a parish wants to try to keep a school open, the goal is to limit the number of farms sold and planted so that people can actually live there. That goal is not accepted or reviewed in the process of afforestation licensing, which is problematic for many communities.

There are many other goals such as keeping the village alive and keeping the shop open.

As the drive to plant continues and increases, it is distorting the economy as well as the land market, Mr Smyth added.

It is good for everybody that land prices increase but it is when that creates other problems that it becomes a problem in itself, he said.

That is what we are concerned about. If 10 farms are planted, that is 10 families gone for two cycles  80 years minimum. There is no real land-use plan as to what level of afforestation is acceptable to keep communities viable.

Balance

Senator Victor Boyhan told the meeting that the committee must stand in solidarity with communities that wish to see their community develop in a sustainable manner.

We need a land-use plan and there must be a balance between forestry, agriculture, tourism, and other sustainable development, but there must also be support for the communities in the area, Mr Boyhan added.

Michael Fitzmaurice TD said that a balance must be struck in each county. We need a certain amount of forestry, and there is no point in saying we do not, he added.

The Department of Agriculture is currently preparing for the development of the next forestry programme.

Mr Cassidy told the meeting that this has to have the buy-in of local communities.

We want to see a better vision for rural Ireland, he said. Forestry has a role in that, but it is not the saviour of Ireland, no more than it is the saviour of the carbon budgets. It is only a small part of it. People and communities are the future.

A public consultation survey on the future of forests in Ireland closed this week. This was the latest step in developing a new forestry strategy for Ireland.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Pippa Hackett told the meeting that the department is doing everything we can to bring as many people on board, to help us as a State to decide what we as a nation want from forestry.

We are in the process of continuing to engage with different stakeholders; my department has had bilaterals with nearly every stakeholder who wants to engage with that process, Ms Hackett said.

We absolutely need a commercial forestry sector. It is essential, particularly when you look at why it was set up initially. It was for remote rural areas that needed jobs. It has served that end. We need to make sure that continues.
Megan Fox believes she manifested her fiance Machine Gun Kelly and says the couples infamous blood-drinking ceremonies are used for a reason.

Speaking to fashion magazine Glamour UK, the actress discussed her relationship with the US rapper and their friendship with fellow Hollywood power-couple Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker.

The couple announced their engagement in January this year with an intimate video showing Kelly, real name Colson Baker, getting down on one knee.

She told Glamour: (Kelly) is literally my exact physical type that Ive been manifesting since I was four.

Im also four years older than him. So, I think I made him.

My thoughts and intentions grew him into the person that he is, who knows what he wouldve looked like or been like if it wasnt for me.

Fox said the blood-drinking, referenced in her engagement video in Instagram, was controlled but that Kelly was more haphazard about the activity.

When I do it, its a passage or it is used for a reason, she said.

And it is controlled where its like, Lets shed a few drops of blood and each drink it.

Speaking to fashion magazine Glamour UK, the actress discussed her relationship with the US rapper (Glamour UK/PA)

(Kelly) is much more haphazard and hectic and chaotic, where hes willing to just cut his chest open with broken glass and be like, take my soul.

The actress has previously described herself as unusual and once said she went to Hell for eternity after taking a powerful hallucinogenic in Costa Rica with her fiance.

Together they consumed the psychoactive plant brew ayahuasca, administered by a shaman, which Fox said bound us together and confirmed a lot of things she needed to know and feel.

The couple recently appeared on the cover of British GQ Styles Autumn/Winter 2021 issue.

Fox also told Glamour that her friends Kardashian and Barker were magnetic but said the couples did not go on double dates.

Theyre magnetic, so nobodys really interacting with them too much, because theyre just stuck, she said.

Weve been to Vegas with them a couple of times and events and things like that.

But were not going on picnics or road trips, we dont have a lot of double dates. I mean, between all of us, theres 900 kids.

Kardashian and Barker, who are also engaged, recently revealed they had had a practice wedding in Las Vegas, where they were married by an Elvis Presley impersonator after this years Grammy awards.

Fox was previously married to 90210 star Brian Austin Green, with whom she has three children.

The full interview with Fox can be read in the Glamour UK April Digital Issue online.
The impact of Brexit has led a lot of people to consider the question of whether Northern Ireland should remain within the UK, Michelle ONeill has said.

The Sinn Fein vice president accused the Conservative Party and the DUP of causing chaos in Northern Ireland, but stressed that any decision on Irish unity would be for the people.

In an interview with the PA news agency ahead of the Stormont Assembly elections, Ms ONeill also insisted that a new Executive should be formed immediately after next weeks poll.

During the election campaign, the DUP has repeatedly claimed that Sinn Fein would be emboldened to push for an Irish unity referendum if the republican party emerges with the most MLAs.

There has been seismic change in society, particularly in the aftermath of Brexit

While Sinn Fein has concentrated on the cost-of-living and health service crises during its election events, Ms ONeill insisted that it was not hiding its desire for Irish unity.

She said: We are an Irish republican party, so we do believe in Irish unity. It is what we voted for the Good Friday Agreement for, it is an integral part of the Good Friday Agreement.

But it will only be the public that will ever change the constitutional question here. They will have their say in time on that question and I look forward to the day when we are having that conversation around constitutional change.

But I am not one-dimensional, I can think of more than one thing at a time. So I think I can articulate the view of constitutional change, try to convince the public and also work in the Assembly and Executive with others.

Michelle ONeill said the Conservative Party and the DUP had to shoulder the responsibility for Brexit (Liam McBurney/PA)

Ms ONeill added: There has been seismic change in society, particularly in the aftermath of Brexit, something that we didnt vote for, but which has been foisted upon us.

So I think a lot of people are now considering the constitutional position because Brexit has pulled us out of the EU, stolen our EU citizenship from us.

I think a lot of people are now thinking about where do they want to be in the future, where do they see themselves, do they value their European citizenship?

And the EU have said that in the event of a successful unity referendum that the whole of the country would be back within the EU, so I think that is a big question for a lot of people to ponder on and I think they are actively pondering on it.

I am certainly talking to people who are thinking about the future.

Conor Murphy, Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein Vice-President Michelle ONeill, and John Finucane MP with party colleagues and supporters during the Sinn Fein manifesto launch at the MAC, Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA)

Ms ONeill insisted that the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol, which is bitterly opposed by unionist parties, must be protected.

She said that the new trading arrangements were a result of Brexit, which her party had opposed.

She said: We wouldnt be in the position we are today if it wasnt for the Tories and the DUP.

They collectively delivered us the hardest possible Brexit; we sought to achieve some mitigation against that.

That is the protocol which we wouldnt have if we didnt have Brexit.

So the DUP and the Tories have to shoulder responsibility for where we are today.

This was always about an English agenda, an English nationalist agenda, and it was never in our interests here.

I think it is intolerable to even conceive that someone wouldn't go into the Executive whenever the public are struggling with the cost-of-living rises

We have to fight very hard for the protocol because that does give us some protection.

The British government have created chaos along with the DUP, created chaos, instability, uncertainty.

Our local businesses cant plan for the future, they cant avail of the opportunities that the protocol presents because of the approach of the DUP and the Tories.

People have had enough of that.

The DUP collapsed the Stormont powersharing Executive earlier this year in protest at the protocol and have stated that they will not re-enter government after next weeks elections unless Westminster removes the so-called Irish Sea border.

Ms ONeill said the DUP tactics were madness.

She said: The DUP are fighting the election with a five point plan.

You cant deliver that plan unless you are in an Executive.

So it is madness to tell the public that you dont know what you will do the other side of the election whenever you are out telling them you are going to fix the health service and you are going to invest in X, Y and Z.

I dont think that washes with the public and I think it is intolerable to even conceive that someone wouldnt go into the Executive whenever the public are struggling with the cost-of-living rises and the public know their health service need major investment.

The rest of us will turn up on day one, I encourage the DUP to do likewise.

Sinn Fein is running 34 candidates in the Assembly election (Liam McBurney/PA)

A series of opinion polls have predicted that Sinn Fein is on course to emerge from the election with the most seats, which would entitle the party to nominate for the first time for the position of first minister.

Sinn Fein is running 34 candidates in the election, more than any other party, but Ms ONeill refused to be drawn on how many seats she believed the party could win.

She said: We are seeking the largest possible mandate that we can.

The more votes we have, the more departments we have. I am very proud of the track record of the Sinn Fein ministers in Government, we want to do more of that.

The more departments we have, the more impact we can have.
Two American octogenarians charged with trespass and criminal damage in relation to an anti-war protest at Shannon Airport have asserted their actions were legal under international law.

Ken Mayers (85) of Monte Alte Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico and Tarak Kauff (80) of Arnold Drive, Woodstock, New York, have both pleaded not guilty to causing criminal damage to a perimeter fence at the airport on March 17, 2019.

They have also pleaded not guilty to trespassing the curtilage of a building with the intent to commit an offence or unlawfully damage property, and not guilty to interfering with the operation, safety or management of an airport, namely by entering a runway area, where they were arrested, and causing it to be closed.

On the third day of their trial on Wednesday, before Judge Patricia Ryan and a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Mr Kauff admitted to damaging the fence.

"Yes I did damage the fence, I was acting on my own moral beliefs," he told prosecuting counsel Tony McGillicuddy BL, to which Mr McGillicuddy added "and breaking the law in doing so".

Mr Kauff replied that the US government and the Irish government have been breaking the law. Irish people are sick and tired of their government cow-towing to the US. That is the issue here!"

He told the jury that some things were "mandated by God".

There was a higher purpose here than the law which says you can't trespass, that you can't cut a fence.

Mr Kauff said he had friends who had taken their own lives because of what they had done while in the US military. "That is the real damage," he told Mr McGillicuddy. "Damaging a fence is nothing. Nobody died and I should expect that you should understand that as well."

Giving evidence both accused stated that the Irish Government was in breach of international law and Ireland's neutrality by allowing US military planes, and civil aircraft contracted to it, to transition through Shannon Airport.

"If a belligerent country lands in a neutral country, that country has an obligation under international law to inspect [the plane]," Mr Mayers said in evidence. He told his defence counsel, Michael Hourigan BL, that the use of Shannon by the US military was part of the process of killing "many, many people".

"It is a great disservice to the Irish people what the United States government is doing," he said.

We understood that the Irish people are very conscious, as opposed to the Irish government, of the importance of Irish neutrality.

Both defendants said they wanted to inspect a plane, which they said was an Omni Air plane, used to transport US military and which was parked on the airport apron. Mr Mayers said he and Mr Kauff would be very happy if the Irish authorities inspected US planes, which they maintain was their own intention when they entered the airport.

In cross-examination by Mr McGillicuddy, Mr Mayers said he accepted that Ireland was a democracy. He said he had taken it upon himself to make an intervention that he knew would "violate some statute".

"I was violating that and I knew that I was violating that." He said this was to prevent something worse. He accepted that by being on the airport runway, he had prevented planes from landing and taking off. "I did that to save lives," he said.

Asked whether he had asked any garda, inside or outside the airport, any State official or any politician to have the plane inspected, he said he had not. He said he hoped that, by entering the airfield, he would persuade and encourage airport police and gardai to inspect the plane.

"At times it becomes necessary to go beyond the laws of a State to get a point across," said Mr Mayers.

I decided to take action in defence of people who are seriously being attacked. . . I decided to break the law in order to serve a higher purpose.

He said his authority for his actions was "the obligation to do what is right".

As a member, with Mr Kauff, of the US-based Veterans for Peace, he was a habitual protester, said Mr Mayers, adding: "I have dealt with a lot of law enforcement officials over the years and I have never been treated better [than by the gardai]."

The trial continues.
Among the sites of the former Soviet Unions frozen conflicts, a long and narrow strip of land in Moldova has been the most stable for three decades. Trans-Dniester hasnt seen fighting since the end of a separatist war in 1992.

But explosions in the past two days have raised concerns that Russias war in Ukraine could extend there.

About 1,500 Russian troops already are stationed in Trans-Dniester. Another outbreak of hostilities would pose a severe challenge to Moldova, one of Europes poorest countries.

WHAT IS TRANS-DNIESTER?

Trans-Dniester extends some 400km between the eastern bank of the Dniester River in Moldova and the countrys border with Ukraine. Most of the breakaway regions population of 470,000 speaks Russian, although residents identify themselves as ethnically Moldovan, Ukrainian or Russian.

Moves to make Moldovan Moldovas official language in 1989, when it still was part of the Soviet Union, alarmed people in Trans-Dniester. The region declared independence in 1990 and clashes broke out.

Fighting intensified in March 1992 and lasted until a July cease-fire; more than 700 people are estimated to have died in the conflict.

As part of the cease-fire agreement, a contingent of Russian troops stayed in Trans-Dniester as nominal peacekeepers. Since then, the region has insisted it is not part of Moldova, which declared independence in 1991.

Trans-Dniester has retained many Soviet ways and iconography, including using the hammer-and-sickle image on its flag. But it has remained generally peaceful, and some tourists come to relish the anachronisms.

WHAT HAPPENED THERE THIS WEEK?

A policeman stands by a radio station in Maiac, in the Moldovan separatist region of Trans-Dniester on Tuesday. Picture: Press Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic via AP, HO

Explosions rocked the headquarters of the regions state security ministry on Monday. The building reportedly was empty due to the Orthodox Easter holiday, and no casualties were reported. Officials said the attack was committed with rocket-propelled grenades. Local media showed what appeared to be firing tubes lying on a street.

On Tuesday morning, a pair of explosions at a broadcasting facility knocked two powerful antennas out of service. No claims of responsibility for the attacks have been made.

Trans-Dniesters president, Vadim Krasnoselsky, called on Tuesday for imposing anti-terrorist security measures at a red level for 15 days, including setting up blockposts at the entrances to cities.

The United States has warned amid the war in Ukraine that Russia could launch false-flag attacks in nearby nations as a pretext for sending in troops.

DOES RUSSIA HAVE AMBITIONS IN THE REGION?

Russia does not recognise Trans-Dniester as independent, as it does with other breakaway areas, such as South Ossetia, Abkhazia and the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Its recognition of those areas came either after Russia and Georgia fought a 2008 war or as justification for Moscows February invasion of Ukraine. An outburst of fighting in Trans-Dniester could change the Kremlins political calculus; Russias security policy states it has the right to protect ethnic Russian populations throughout the world.

A senior Russian military official, Rustam Minnekayev, said last week that Russian forces were aiming to take full control of southern Ukraine, saying such a move would also open a land corridor between Russia and Trans-Dniester.

Achieving that military objective would require significant battles to capture Ukraines Black Sea coast, including the major port city of Odesa. Russian soldiers would surely encounter enormous resistance.

People wait in vehicles to cross the border seen from the Moldovan side of the Varnita-Bender crossing between Moldova and the Moldovan separatist region of Trans-Dniester on Tuesday. Picture: AP /Aurel Obreja

Russia has problems in logistics. If they begin a military operation in Trans-Dniester, to create a corridor to Trans-Dniester, they have to solve the problem of Odesa, Moldovan analyst Anatol Taranu, a former ambassador to Russia, told The Associated Press.

The Russian contingent in Trans-Dniester is focused on guarding ammunition and warehouses, and its fitness for combat is uncertain. Trans-Dniester also has about 10,000 of its own soldiers.

Moldova is constitutionally neutral, so Russia could not cite the country seeking to join Nato to justify an invasion, as Russian president Vladimir Putin did with Ukraine. But expanding to Moldova would give Russia a presence next to Nato member Romania.

Taranu said from a strategic point of view, taking Trans-Dniester does not seem sensible.

But there is a political logic, he said, considering Russias failure to take control of Ukraines capital, Kyiv, and the intense resistance put up by Ukrainian forces.

Putin has to tell the public some success story, Taranu said, noting that the Russian leader may want to claim some achievement on Victory Day, the May 9 observance that is Russias major secular holiday.
SpaceX has launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for Nasa, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.

It is the first Nasa crew comprised equally of men and women, including the first black woman making a long-term spaceflight, Jessica Watkins.

This is one of the most diversified, I think, crews that weve had in a really, really long time, Nasas space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders said on the eve of launch.

The astronauts were due to arrive at the space station on Wednesday night, 16 hours after their pre-dawn lift-off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

In a slow camera exposure, SpaceX Falcon rocket launches from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Centre to the ISS (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)

Anyone who saw it realised what a beautiful launch it was, Ms Lueders told reporters.

After an express flight comparable to travelling from New York to Singapore, the crew will move in for a five-month stay.

SpaceX has now launched five crews for Nasa and two private trips in just under two years.

Elon Musks company is having an especially busy few weeks: it just finished taking three businessmen to and from the space station as Nasas first private guests.

A week after the new crew arrives, the three Americans and German they are replacing will return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule.

Three Russians also live at the space station.

Both SpaceX and Nasa officials stressed they are taking it one step at a time to ensure safety.

The private mission that concluded on Monday encountered no major problems, they said, although high wind delayed the splashdown for a week.

Nasa astronaut Kjell Lindgren (John Raoux/AP)

SpaceX Launch Control wished the astronauts good luck and Godspeed moments before the Falcon rocket blasted off with the capsule, named Freedom by its crew.

Our heartfelt thank you to every one of you that made this possible. Now let Falcon roar and Freedom ring, radioed Nasa astronaut Kjell Lindgren, the commander.

Minutes later, their recycled booster had landed on an ocean platform and their capsule was safely orbiting Earth.

It was a great ride, he said.

The SpaceX capsules are fully automated  which opens the space gates to a broader clientele  and they are designed to accommodate a wider range of body sizes.

At the same time, Nasa and the European Space Agency have been pushing for more female astronauts.

While two black women visited the space station during the shuttle era, neither moved in for a lengthy stay.

Nasa astronaut Jessica Watkins (John Raoux/AP)

Ms Watkins, a geologist who is on Nasas shortlist for a moon-landing mission in the years ahead, sees her mission as an important milestone, I think, both for the agency and for the country.

She credits supportive family and mentors  including Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space in 1992  for ultimately being able to live my dream.

Also cheering Ms Watkins on was another geologist, Apollo 17s Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon in 1972.

She invited the retired astronaut to the launch, along with his wife.

We sort of consider ourselves the Jessica team, he said, chuckling.

Those of us who rode the Saturn V into space are a little bit jaded about the smaller rockets, Mr Schmitt said after the SpaceX lift-off.

But still, it really was something and on board was a geologist  I hope it will stand her in good stead for being part of one of the Artemis crews that go to the moon.

Like Ms Watkins, Nasa astronaut and test pilot Bob Hines is making his first spaceflight.

Nasa astronaut Bob Hines (John Raoux/AP)

It is the second visit for Mr Lindgren, a physician, and the European Space Agencys lone female astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti, a former Italian air force fighter pilot.

Ms Cristoforetti turned 45 on Tuesday, so she really celebrates and is very happy with a big smile in the capsule, said the European Space Agencys director general Josef Aschbacher.

Shes really a role model and shes doing an enormously fabulous job on doing exactly that.

The just-completed private flight was Nasas first dip into space tourism after years of opposition.

The space agency said the three people who paid 55 million dollars (43.7 million) each to visit the space station blended in while doing experiments and educational outreach.

They were accompanied by a former Nasa astronaut employed by Houston-based Axiom Space, which arranged the flight.

The International Space Station is not a vacation spot. Its not an amusement park. It is an international laboratory, and they absolutely understood and respected that purpose, said Nasa flight director Zeb Scoville.

European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti (John Raoux/AP)

Nasa also hired Boeing to ferry astronauts after retiring the shuttles.

The company will take another shot next month at getting an empty crew capsule to the space station, after software and other problems fouled a 2019 test flight and prevented a redo last summer.
Elon Musks request to scrap a settlement with US securities regulators over 2018 tweets claiming he had the funding to take Tesla private has been denied by a federal judge in New York.

Judge Lewis Liman also denied a motion to nullify subpoenas of Mr Musk seeking information about possible violations of his settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Wednesday saw Russia halt gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for rejecting its demand for payment in roubles, taking direct aim at European economies in its toughest retaliation so far against international sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

The step was denounced by European leaders as "blackmail", and comes as European countries have joined the United States in ramping up arms shipments to help Ukraine fend off a new Russian assault in the east.

Gazprom, Russia's gas export monopoly, said it had "completely suspended gas supplies" to the Polish and Bulgarian gas companies "due to absence of payments in roubles", as stipulated in a decree from President Vladimir Putin that aims to soften the impact of sanctions on the Russian economy.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said the move violated "basic legal principles". Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said gas was being used as a "political and economic weapon".

A view of the business tower Lakhta Centre, the headquarters of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom in St. Petersburg, Russia. Picture: AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia remained a reliable energy supplier and denied it was engaging in blackmail. He declined to say how many countries had agreed to switch to paying for gas in roubles but other European customers said gas supplies were flowing normally.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the cut-off "yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail".

But the Commission has also said the EU's gas buyers can engage with Russias payment scheme provided certain conditions are met.

Germany's main importer, Uniper (UN01.DE), said it could pay without violations. Austria and Hungary, among others, have also indicated they will take this route.

Russia reports blasts in south that Ukraine calls payback for invasion

A Ukrainian serviceman repairs a tank after fighting against Russian forces in Donetsk region. Picture: AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

Russia reported a series of blasts in the south of the country and a fire at an ammunition depot on Wednesday, the latest in a spate incidents that a top Ukrainian official described as payback and "karma" for Moscow's invasion.

Without directly admitting that Ukraine was responsible, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said it was natural that Russian regions where fuel and weapons are stored were learning about "demilitarisation".

The use of that word was a pointed reference to Moscow's stated objective for the nine-week-old war in Ukraine, which it calls a special military operation to disarm and "denazify" its neighbour.

"If you (Russians) decide to massively attack another country, massively kill everyone there, massively crush peaceful people with tanks, and use warehouses in your regions to enable the killings, then sooner or later the debts will have to be repaid," Podolyak said.

The blasts on Wednesday followed a major fire this week at a Russian oil storage facility in the Bryansk region near the border.

UN chief and Russias Putin agree on key Ukraine evacuation

Nazar Tishchenko (L), Alexii(C) and Oleg Vadimovich (R) deliver humanitarian aid to a family in a district of Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine. Picture: DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin met one-on-one Tuesday for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the United Nations said they agreed on arranging evacuations from a besieged steel plant in the battered city of Mariupol.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the Russian leader and UN chief discussed proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians from conflict zones, namely in relation to the situation in Mariupol.

They also agreed in principle, he said, that the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross should be involved in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel complex where Ukrainian defenders in the southeastern city are making a dogged stand.

Discussions will be held with the U.N. humanitarian office and the Russian Defense Ministry on the evacuation, Dujarric said.

Goals of Ukraine military operation will be achieved - Putin

Putin said in an address on Wednesday to both houses of parliament: I want to emphasize again that all the tasks of the special military operation we are conducting in the Donbas and Ukraine, launched on February 24, will be unconditionally fulfilled. Picture: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to Russias parliament that the goals of the countrys military operation in Ukraine will be achieved.

Putin said in an address on Wednesday to both houses of parliament: I want to emphasize again that all the tasks of the special military operation we are conducting in the Donbas and Ukraine, launched on February 24, will be unconditionally fulfilled.

That, he said, will guarantee the security of the residents of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine that Russia recognized as independent shortly before launching its military action in Ukraine, as well as Crimea  which Russia annexed in 2014  and our entire country in the historical perspective.

Russia announce sanctions against 287 British lawmakers

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that those 287 should regard it as a badge of honor. Picture: House of Commons/PA Wire

The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced sanctions against 287 British lawmakers in response to the UK sanctioning 368 members of Russias lower house of parliament.

The ministry on Wednesday released a list of both government and opposition lawmakers and a few former lawmakers.

They are now barred from entering Russia because they took the most active part in the establishment of anti-Russian sanctions instruments in London (and) contribute to the groundless ramping-up of Russophobic hysteria in the UK.

The ministrys statement said that hostile rhetoric and far-fetched accusations coming from the mouths of British parliamentarians not only condone the hostile course of London aimed at demonizing our country and (at) its international isolation, but are also used by opponents of mutually respectful dialogue with Russia to undermine the foundation of bilateral cooperation.

Responding to the announcement, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that those 287 should regard it as a badge of honor.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government said Wednesday that it has imposed sanctions on more than 200 people who are loyal to Putin in Ukraines eastern Donbas region.

Russian forces have been backing separatist rebels in the Donbas area for eight years following Russias annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

The Canadian sanctions are focused on the renewed Russian attempt to annex areas of the Donbas by targeting people attempting to support the next phase of the two-month-old Russian war on Ukraine.

Canada will not stand idly by and watch President Putin and his accomplices attempt to redraw the borders of Ukraine with impunity, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement. International law must be respected.
Burma Around 300 Karen Troops Defect From Splinter Group to Fight Myanmar Regime

Former Democratic Karen Benevolent Army members who have joined the Karen National Defense Organization. / KNDO

Some 300 troops have left the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) to join the Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO) to fight Myanmars military regime, according to KNDO chief Major General Saw Nerdah Mya.

It is time all the Karen organizations fought the enemy together. Our goal is to crush the military regime, said Maj Gen Saw Nerdah Mya.

The DKBA troops will operate as the Commando Battalion 1 of the KNDO, he said. The KNDO is an armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), along with the Karen National Liberation Army.

A KNDO video on YouTube shows Maj Gen Saw Nerdah Mya welcoming hundreds of DKBA troops led by Major Bo Salone. The fighters left the DKBA with their weapons and ammunition.

In the video, Maj Bo Salone said they want to protect the people but the DKBA is not fighting the regime.

We have handed away our DKBA ranks. We no longer belong to the DKBA and are KNDO now, said Maj Bo Salone.

On Jan. 14, junta troops and the Karen State Border Guard Force attacked and occupied Bo Salones outpost in Palu Lay village in the south of Myawaddy in Karen State, after launching artillery and airstrikes.

Junta troops killed four peoples defense force (PDF) fighters captured in the clash and dumped their bodies into the Moei River and detained eight others, according to PDF sources.

Following the junta attacks, some 300 DKBA troops led by Bo Salone defected to the KNDO.

The DKBA headquarters in March sacked three commanders  a lieutenant colonel from Battalion 908 and a lieutenant colonel and a major from the Klo Htoo Baw headquarters who fought alongside the KNU to attack a junta outpost in Myawaddy Township.

Military tensions are high between the KNDO and junta troops in Karen State and clashes can erupt at any time, said the KNDO.

Maj Gen Saw Nerdah Mya said: The crisis will end when junta troops withdraw. The enemy outposts in our territory must be abandoned. Clashes are inevitable if they dont withdraw.

On Monday, KNDO Battalion 4 gave the regime two weeks to leave its two outposts in KNU territory in Taungoo District before they would be attacked.

KNDO Battalion 2 attacked a junta outpost in Bilin Township, Mon State, on April 22 after junta troops ignored a demand to withdraw.
Burma Interest in Regimes Planned Election Reveals China and Indias Disguised Support for Myanmar Junta

Vinya Kumar, Indias ambassador to Myanmar, holds a meeting with the junta's Union Election Commission head U Thein Soe on April 25. / UEC

A recent meeting of China and Indias ambassadors with Myanmars junta-appointed electoral body has raised concerns that the two neighboring countries are offering additional disguised support to the military regime.

Chen Hai, Chinas ambassador to Myanmar, and Vinya Kumar, Indias ambassador to Myanmar, held separate meetings with Union Election Commission (UEC) head U Thein Soe on April 19 and 25 respectively to discuss the military regimes planned new election, according to junta-controlled media.

During the meetings, the ambassadors revealed their interest in the electoral processes of the new election, which are said to have been overseen by coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

The Myanmar military staged last years coup on the pretext of massive electoral fraud in the 2020 general election won overwhelmingly by the National League for Democracy (NLD).

Army chief Min Aung Hlaings flimsy justification for the military takeover was condemned at home and abroad, and sparked nationwide peaceful protests against the coup that were put down brutally by the junta. Since then, a growing resistance movement has waged armed struggle against the regime.

Soon after the February 1, 2021 coup, Min Aung Hlaing annulled the 2020 general election results, and said that he would organize a free and fair election sometime in 2023 and hand over power to the winning party. However, the Myanmar people have rejected the offer of a new poll, seeing it as another excuse by the regime to hang onto power for as long as possible.

Junta-controlled newspapers stated that during his meeting with the UEC head, Indias ambassador asked about electoral processes and discussed further cooperation with the UEC on the upcoming election. The Chinese ambassador raised questions on the ongoing plans of the UEC, including inspections of political parties ahead of the planned 2023 election.

The meetings come amid repeated calls by the Myanmar people for neighboring countries and the international community to reject the junta, and respect the results of the 2020 election.

China and Indias meetings with the UEC cast more doubt on their attitude towards the regime, with neither country having condemned the coup outright and both continuing to maintain good ties with the junta that has killed over 1,700 people since the military takeover.

Political analyst U Than Soe Naing said that while Chinas engagement with the regime is not new, Indias interest in the juntas planned election is strange.

I would take it as a step forward [by India] in supporting the regime, he said.

New Delhi has steered clear of criticizing the Myanmar military and the coup. In fact, hours after the putsch, Indias Ministry of External Affairs said only that it had noted the developments in Myanmar with deep concern.

India was also one of eight countries that sent their military attaches to attend the Armed Forces Day parade in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw on March 27, 2021, less than two months after the coup. India has deep ties with the Myanmar military, as well as extensive strategic investment interests in western Myanmar.

China has been seriously denounced in Myanmar for its failure to condemn the coup and for vetoing United Nations Security Council action against the regime.

While the junta is treated as an outcast by most western democracies, China, like India, is still engaging with the junta and is one of the top investors in Myanmar with many strategic infrastructure projects, including energy pipelines and a proposed port in Rakhine State that would give China access to the Indian Ocean. China said recently that it was ready to work with Myanmar no matter how the situation changes. Following that affirmation, Beijing has faced threats of attacks from resistance forces on its copper mine projects in Myanmar.

Analyst U Than Soe Naing reminded China and India that the juntas planned new election wont be free and fair even if the regime makes it happen, as it is opposed by a majority of the Myanmar people.

It would just become a state-sponsored fabrication plotted by the junta and its allied parties who have never won in any free and fair elections in Myanmar, said U Than Soe Naing, referring to parties like the militarys proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party.

He suggested that neighboring countries should engage with the parallel National Unity Government (NUG), which the majority of Myanmar people have accepted as their legitimate government, adding that they [China and India] will go against the peoples will if they continue to collaborate with the regime.

The NUGs foreign minister Daw Zin Mar Aung told The Irrawaddy recently that some countries, like the worlds largest democracy India, are strong but are too focused on their interests and so fail to act decisively.

We record who our friends are and who is sitting on the fence, which will shape our future relations with them, said Daw Zin Mar Aung.

China and Indias embassies in Yangon did not respond to The Irrawaddys request for comment.

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Burma Military Tensions Grow in Southern Myanmar as Regime Forces Clash With Resistance Fighters

Pagayi Village. / CJ

Military tensions are growing between junta troops and local resistance groups along the Dawei-Htee Khee Road in southern Myanmars Tanintharyi Region, after resistance fighters attacked a police station in Pagayi Village along the road.

The Karen National Defense Organization Brigade 4 and Peoples Defense Forces (PDF) from Dawei and Launglon townships attacked Pagayi Police Station, some ten miles from the Tanintharyi capital Dawei, on Sunday. In response, junta forces have shelled Pagayi Village since Monday, according to locals.

One Pagayi villager told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday: A Dawei artillery unit fired shells on the evening of April 25. Junta troops also fired heavy guns from a nearby hill. We heard around 500 junta soldiers marched to Pagayi this morning through the forest and are in the village. The villagers have already fled to nearby villages.

Junta troops are deployed at a rubber processing plant near the village, according to locals. A resistance fighter was killed by a junta artillery strike on Monday.

Regime forces have warned resistance fighters to withdraw from the village or be attacked.

They told the PDF to withdraw and threatened them with an attack if they dont. It appears that the PDF will not withdraw. Clashes could erupt tonight or tomorrow, a source close to local resistance forces told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

Residents in and around the neighborhood of Pagayi Village have been warned by junta troops not to go outside from 2pm until dawn.

A local villager said: The regime imposes an 8pm-4am curfew in the urban areas of Dawei Township. But they have no control over Launglon and Pagayi.

Locals from Pagayi and a neighboring village have fled to nearby villages for fear of a possible clash. The regime closed the border with Thailand at Htee Khee on Monday following the PDFs attack on the Pagayi Police Station.

On Sunday, the Dawei Township Peoples Authority of the parallel National Unity Government urged people to avoid the Dawei-Htee Khee Road, as the regime is using it to bring in reinforcements and supplies and clashes could break out at any time with resistance groups.

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Burma Myanmar junta court convicts Suu Kyi of corruption: source

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as Myanmar State Counselor in September 2020. / The Irrawaddy

YANGON A Myanmar junta court on Wednesday found ousted civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of corruption and sentenced her to five years in prison, a source familiar with the matter said.

Since a military coup deposed her government in February last year, plunging the country into upheaval, Suu Kyi has faced a barrage of criminal cases that could see her jailed for decades.

In the latest case, the Nobel laureate  who has been in military custody since the night of the coup  was accused of accepting a bribe of $600,000 cash and gold bars.

After two days of delays, the special court in the military-built capital Naypyidaw handed down its verdict and sentence at 9:30 am, the source said.

She still faces a raft of other criminal charges, including violating the official secrets act, corruption and electoral fraud, and could be jailed for more than 100 years if convicted on all counts.

The 76-year-old had already been sentenced to six years in jail for incitement against the military, breaching COVID-19-19 rules and breaking a telecommunications law  although she will remain under house arrest while she fights other charges.

Journalists have been barred from attending the court hearings and Suu Kyis lawyers have been banned from speaking to the media.

More than 1,700 people have been killed and over 13,000 arrested in a crackdown on dissent since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.
Burma Myanmar Regime Charges Top Tycoon With Corruption

U Chit Khine, chairman of the Eden Group of companies, was arrested by the junta on April 25 in Yangon. / The Irrawaddy

Myanmars junta has filed corruption charges against one of the countrys top tycoons, U Chit Khine, his managing director and three ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) government ministers for allegedly causing the loss of state funds.

U Chit Khine is the chairman of the Eden Group of Companies, one of Myanmars largest conglomerates, with interests in construction, hospitality and oil and gas among other sectors. He was arrested on Monday evening in Yangon upon his return from an overseas trip. U Chit Khine also runs the Myanmar Apex Bank and Denko trading, which operates gas stations across Myanmar and an industrial oil storage facility in Yangon.

Many people believe that the reason for the tycoons arrest is his close relationship with detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD. U Chit Khine was a member of the NLD and spent time in prison in the 1990s during the former military dictatorship.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Myanmar in 2020, U Chit Khine was one of the top cronies who donated US$1.5 million to the then NLD government for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines.

His detention on Monday was celebrated by pro-regime accounts on the social media app Telegram, some of which threatened other business leaders who are close to the ousted NLD government.

On Tuesday, the military regime announced that U Chit Khine and six others had been charged under the Anti-Corruption Law for causing losses of around 15.9 billion kyats (US$8.57 million) of state funds in the Tigyit power plant joint venture for the Electric Power Generation Enterprise under the then NLD-run Ministry of Electricity and Energy.

Also charged with U Chit Khine are the former Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation U Ohn Win, former Minister for Electricity and Energy U Win Khaing and deputy minister Dr. Tun Naing, the former managing director of No. (1) Mining Enterprise U Kyaw San, the ex-managing director of the Electric Power Generation Enterprise U Than Naing Oo, and the Eden Groups managing director U Win Min Khine.

All of them face potential maximum prison sentences of 15 years each.

Last month, the junta also detained the crony U Khin Shwe and his son U Zay Thiha, following a conflict over a failed building project on military-owned land in Yangon. The pair have been in detention in Insein Prison since then.

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Analysis Myanmars Covid Crisis Needs Thai Cooperation for Cross-Border Vaccine Aid

Refugees from Myanmar carry food boxes donated by well-wishers in Thailand to share at a camp on the Moei River on the Thai border in January 2022. / The Irrawaddy

Since lasts years military coup, Myanmars campaign against COVID-19 has been in disarray.

The health system has all but collapsed with thousands of medical staff in hiding and others languishing behind bars for their involvement in the civil disobedience movement.

Thai epidemiologist Dr Vit Suwanvanichkij, who has long experience of regional health problems, is deeply worried by the chronic lack of information coming out of Myanmar. There is little or no reporting of the COVID-19 virus and its variants. Given the collapse of Burmas health system and its very limited capacity to test or do genomic surveillance, we have no idea and neither does anyone else know what is going on.

What we do know is that the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 inside the country has even worse implications for thousands huddled in displacement camps.

Half of Kayah State has been displaced since the coup with little or no access to official health services. Around 800,000 have been displaced nationwide.

The conditions for the displaced create a serious danger of viral replication on a massive scale and that means evolution and virus mutation, according to Dr Vit, who says there is an ongoing danger of Myanmar becoming a super-spreader.

The case for cross-border intervention

As long as the military regime remains in power, the enfeebled state-controlled health sector, now increasingly staffed by military personnel, will always lack the capacity and neutrality to carry out an effective vaccination and COVID-19 surveillance.

However, most western aid and vaccines are still dispatched to Yangon where distribution is at the mercy of military authorization and distribution permits.

The need for the international aid community to make a serious effort to diversify humanitarian aid corridors with alternative routes from Thailand and India is surely beyond dispute, whatever the practical and political constraints.

The predominant response from Thai military authorities to the war in Myanmar has been to tighten border controls and deny all NGOs and the UNHCR access to refugees. Officially there is no Thai approval of cross-border aid and thousands fleeing have been pushed back across the river.

The Thai government is so immersed in orthodox measures in tackling border security that it has failed to grasp that no amount of conventional security can stop a virus spreading across an international frontier.

UN rapporteur Tom Andrews said: Covid does not respect nationalities or borders or ideologies or political parties. Covid is an equal opportunities killer.

Beyond Myanmars borders, Thailand, China, India and Bangladesh could all be exposed to a super-spreader state unless there is decisive UN-endorsed cross-border humanitarian intervention.

So far Thailand has not made any specific preparation for a spillover from Myanmar. According to Dr Thira Wora Woratanarat, an epidemiologist at Chulalongkorn Universitys Faculty of Medicine: I do not think there is any focus from the Thai authorities to care about the lack of vaccination inside Myanmar.

If it is obvious the disease is going to be uncontrollable in the area, cross-border medical aid is essential. This may be a good opportunity for the Thai government if it decides to use this channel to provide benefits for both countries in respect of pandemic control. Education, as well as medical services and supplies, could be a good intervention.

China, which has a 2,000km border with Myanmar, has been proactive, dispatching Chinese Red Cross teams to administer free vaccinations in Kachin and Shan states.

The Kachin Independence Organisation said 10,000 people were vaccinated at its Laiza headquarters last year. China has also promised to supply half a million doses to the Taang National Liberation Army during 2022.

Would Thailand back cross-border vaccine distribution routes?

Thailands refusal to allow cross-border aid and restrictions on humanitarian aid distribution by NGOs is partly based on sovereignty and national security concerns.

However, Relief International, a US-based NGO, says international humanitarian law, which normally requires a countrys consent for cross-border assistance, does not apply in cases of humanitarian emergency.

The NGO said countries cannot arbitrarily withhold consent for aid where it is clearly necessary and where efforts are clearly humanitarian in nature.

The UN General Assembly has refused to recognize the junta as Myanmars legitimate government. Hence the Thai authorities have no legal obligation to seek consent from the military regime.

This indicates that the real obstacles and objections coming from the Thai side are not based on law but rather belong to the domain of diplomacy and politics.

Aseans abysmal failure to engage with the National Unity Government (NUG) and Thailands fears of further waves of refugees are the main factors governing current border governance.

International NGOs have stressed many times since the coup the need to upscale cross-border aid using mechanisms already in place which date back to previous refugee influxes in the 1990s.

There is already a credible aid partner inside Karen State. The Karen National Union (KNU) and NUGs task force is a joint effort between the civilian health ministry and the ethnic armed organizations health agency, formed in July 2021.

Padoh Mahn Mahn, a KNU spokesman, said: We have asked the Thai authorities for cross-border permission [for vaccinations]. But we still have to overcome many challenges.

The NUGs shadow health minister, Dr Zaw Wai Soe, led the ousted democratic governments coronavirus efforts and is doing the same job underground.

What needs to be done?

In the middle of a pandemic, advocates of cross-border aid argue health security should take priority over normal border-control regulations and sovereignty concerns for the sake of common good and mutual medical benefit.

Humanitarian aid worker Johny Adhikari of the charity Metta asked: If China can so easily deliver enough vaccines to Shan State, what is stopping Thailand facilitating a similar cross-border vaccination drive into vaccine-starved Karen State? His charity is a major aid distribution agency for migrant workers and refugees.

The KNUs Padah Mahn Mahn told The Irrawaddy: We carried out 1,500 vaccinations in March this year [of] over 100,000 people in Hpapun district of Karen State. We need many more vaccine donations. But many donors like the Gavi vaccine alliance have declined the NUGs request for help.

Covax and Gavi are linked to World Health Organization initiatives designed to support access to vaccines for the poorer countries and have miserably failed to provide equal access to COVID-19 vaccines. Western governments hoarded most of the vaccines produced in the US and Europe during 2021.

Phil Robertson from Human Rights Watch Asia is not surprised about donor reticence.

Without some willingness by Thailand to change its policy on cross-border assistance, its not surprising that both donor governments and INGOs are pessimistic about providing such assistance, he said.

There have been private talks between the Thai foreign minister and the UNHCR about preparing for a deepening crisis in Myanmar and a major influx of refugees in 2022 but there has been no information shared with NGOs on the border.

The clear pathway for a breakthrough with the Thai authorities is for Thai NGOs, medics and UN agencies to convince Thailand that a major shift in border policy is hugely in the interests of Thai society and an essential step in relieving the humanitarian disaster in Myanmar.

Adhikari said: The Thai government could help contain the COVID-19 threat and migrant problems by setting up one-stop offices at the border crossings. These multifunction offices could provide health checks and vaccinations and process visa renewals for migrant workers, helping to eliminate brokers and traffickers. This would benefit all sides and help the Thai economy.

The proposal offers the potential of a win-win humanitarian solution for Thailand and Myanmar. But it will require a huge amount of lobbying to make any kind of breakthrough and transform the frontier into a zone of international COVID-19 prevention and cooperation.

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Security firm Mandiant says it has not mentioned any zero-day exploit usage by Western government agencies in a report about incidents in 2021 because it did not find any exploits which it could identify with reasonable confidence as coming from these sources.

The report, issued on 21 April, named actors from China, Russia and North Korea, either as part of state-sponsored groups or individuals who were affiliated to a state, as being among the highest number who were involved in these attacks.

It is common for security firms to name the countries which the US has on its enemies list  usually Russia, China, North Korea and Iran  as being the main source of attacks.

Mandiant has a reputation for attributing attacks, be they mounted through the use of zero-days or not. The company was recently acquired by Google, but the transaction has yet to be finalised due to some concerns expressed by the Security and Exchange Commission.

The company became a standalone entity in 2021 when its owner, FireEye, was sold to a private entity known as the Symphony Technology Group for US$1.2 billion. FireEye had picked up Mandiant in December 2013.

The separation came after FireEye experienced losses every year after it went public in 2013; it took place in June last year, according to The Wall Street Journal. The sale included its network, email and cloud security software.

Mandiant made headlines in 2013 when it publicly attributed a network attack to a Chinese group, which it named APT1. Prior to that, security firms had always shied away from such definite statements.

Two questions were put to Mandiant about the 2021 report:

"Going by the lack of reference to any malicious activity on the part of Western security agencies, is one to then believe that they do not participate in such activity?

"The NSA is known to have a budget much bigger than any comparable body in any country worldwide. Going by your report, that budget is never used for malicious activity. Is this the case?"

Kelli Vanderlee, senior manager, Threat Intelligence Analysis, did not answer the questions separately.

She said: "Our blog does not refer to Western government-attributed operations because, in 2021, we did not identify an incident of zero-day exploitation that we could attribute with reasonable confidence to Western operators.

"The US and other Western governments have voluntarily disclosed information about offensive cyber operations. Additional activities have been reported in open sources. However, these disclosures rarely identify sources and methods, including use of any particular exploit."

Vanderlee did not specify either the operations about which information was voluntarily disclosed or the additional activities reported "in open sources".

Given that Google also issued a report about zero-days in 2021 recently, Mandiant was also asked whether it had used the same figures that Google utilised in its review which was issued on 20 April.



To this, Vanderlee responded: "There is significant overlap between Googles list of identified zero-days and ours. However, Mandiant ultimately identified 80 zero-days exploited in the wild, while Google reported 58.

"There are likely several factors that contribute to this discrepancy, including how Mandiant and Google define zero-days, and differences in the types of products each group is regularly covering and monitoring for updates. For example, I do not see the SonicWall or PulseSecure or Accellion vulnerabilities listed in Googles spreadsheet."
The new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, has given an indication as to how he would run the company, tweeting out that the suspension of the New York Post's Twitter account in 2020 over a story about Hunter Biden was "obviously incredibly inappropriate".

Musk sent the tweet in response to one from Saagar Enjeti, co-host of the Breaking Points podcast, in which the latter pointed to an article about the reaction of Twitter's top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, to the Musk takeover.

The Post article, about emails found on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, was published in October 2020. Twitter refused to allow the article to be posted and blocked anyone who tried to do so.

Facebook also reacted to the story by saying it would limit its distribution until it could verify the source material. To date, Facebook has not informed anyone about the result of its investigations into the emails.

Shortly thereafter, Twitter wasits policy on hacked materials due to a backlash.

Enjeti said in his tweet: "Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate at Twitter who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan's podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the @elonmuks takeover."

He linked to a story in Business Insider headlined Twitters top lawyer reassures staff, cries during meeting about Musk takeover.

In it, the authors pointed out that Gadde had advocated strongly for ensuring that Twitters policies protected its most vulnerable users while protecting free expression  a position that is at odds with Musks.

Appears deleted now but to be fair appears Connor does actually want to stay at Twitter under Elon pic.twitter.com/9LdOxF6TM3  Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) April 26, 2022

Campbell Connor, an engineer at Twitter, replied to Musk's tweet, saying: "That's not what happened. Twitter had a policy about hacked documents. We applied this policy equally. The merits of that policy are debatable, but it wasn't targeted censorship."

He later deleted this tweet, leading Enjeti to comment: "Appears deleted now but to be fair appears Connor does actually want to stay at Twitter under Elon."

Twitter's policy on posting hacked materials was questioned in January this year when a group of attackers who claimed to have hacked the Belarus Railway posted proof of their exploit on the social media platform.

While mainstream media did not say much about the New York Post story at the time of publication, recently The New York Times and the Washington Post have both come out and acknowledged that the story was correct.

Musk's successful bid for Twitter has led to prophesies of doom from many people who claim that he will not be good for the platform.

Others have pointed out that nothing he could do would be worse than the type of censorship that the platform has indulged in under its former owners.
Troops in eastern DR Congo have committed hundreds of abuses since the authorities declared a state of siege in the troubled region nearly a year ago, a UN document says.

Government forces are responsible for at least 231 violations of rights in one area of the region since the emergency measures were imposed last May 1, the UN Joint Human Right Office in DR Congo (UNJHRO) says.

The violations include attacks on protected people and places, abduction, recruitment and use of children, as well as sexual violence and torture, says the document seen by AFP.

They were carried out in the territory of Masisi in North Kivu province over the first nine months of the measure, it said.

The document comprises a diplomatic note called a note verbale that was sent to the DRCs ministry of defence.

It was handed over in February, along with a 25-page annex.

Some of the abuses are violations of international humanitarian law, constituting war crimes, UNJHRO said.

Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been in the grip of armed groups for more than a quarter of a century, many of them a legacy of two regional wars.

The government in Kinshasa imposed the state of siege in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province in a bid to strengthen a flagging military crackdown on these groups.

Under the measure, senior civilian officials have been replaced by military or police officers.

But violence in the two provinces remains unabated and rights activists fear important safety nets about accountability have been stripped away.

UNJHRO said the abuses were documented in Masisi territory, in North Kivu province, between May 6 last year and February 9, 2022.

It pointed the finger at members of the armys 3410th regiment, which was stationed in the area at the time.

The bureau said it regretted that no action has been undertaken to stop these violations and hand over the suspected perpetrators to justice.

Security sources in North Kivu told AFP that the 3410th regiment is currently deployed near the border with Uganda, where the armed forces are fighting M23 rebels.

The regions armed forces spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike, told AFP that he was not aware of any accusations against the regiment.

If necessary, they will respond (to any allegations) its not a problem. But at the time being, they are giving priority to carrying out orders from their superiors.
Russia said Wednesday it had destroyed a large quantity of Western-supplied weapons in Ukraine, while halting gas supplies to EU and NATO members Poland and Bulgaria in a move Brussels branded attempted blackmail.

With the conflict that has claimed thousands of lives entering its third month, Ukraine conceded Russian forces had pushed deeper into the countrys east and captured several villages, as Moscow intensifies a renewed offensive to take control of Donbas.

Russias defence ministry said its forces had destroyed the large batch of weapons and ammunition supplied by the United States and European countries using long-range missile strikes on southeastern Ukraine.

They targeted hangers at an aluminium plant near the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with high-precision long-range sea-based Kalibr missiles, the ministry said, without specifying the weapons destroyed.

It comes a day after a summit in Germany of 40 Western allies to discuss arms supplies to Ukraine where Washington pledged to move heaven and earth to enable Kyiv to emerge victorious.

Tensions are also rising in a breakaway region of Moldova bordering southwestern Ukraine, where the interior ministry said that shots had been fired at a village housing a Russian arms depot after drones flew over from Ukraine.

The unrecognised region has reported a series of explosions in recent days that it called terrorist attacks, leading Kyiv to accuse Moscow of seeking to expand the war further into Europe.

 Blackmail 

Russias energy giant Gazprom said it had stopped all gas supplies to Poland and highly dependent Bulgaria, after not receiving payment in rubles from the two EU and NATO members.

President Vladimir Putin last month warned Moscow will only accept payment for deliveries in its national currency, with buyers required to set up ruble accounts or have their taps turned off.

The Kremlin is grappling with the fallout from numerous rounds of European and US sanctions that have targeted various sectors and left it unable to utilise foreign currency, including its own reserves.

But the war has exposed the extent of the European Unions dependence on Russian gas, which accounts for 45 percent of its gas imports.

The 27-member bloc said it was prepared for the stoppage and was planning a coordinated response, labelling it another attempt by Russia to blackmail us with gas.

Europeans can trust that we stand united and in solidarity with the member states impacted, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter.

Bulgaria and Poland have both said they will be able to make up the shortfall from other sources.

 Long haul 

The targeting of Western-supplied arms came as the US and Europe appear to be heeding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys call for heavier firepower to push back the Russian advance now focused on Donbas.

Western allies remain wary of being drawn into an outright war with Russia, but have stepped up their support as Ukraine has maintained its fierce resistance.

Ukraine clearly believes that it can win and so does everyone here, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the summit on Tuesday, where Germany announced it would send anti-aircraft tanks in a sharp U-turn on its much-criticised cautious stance.

Britain will on Wednesday urge Kyivs allies to ramp up military production including tanks and planes to help Ukraine, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss set to call for a new approach to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin.

We must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine, she is set to say, according to pre-released remarks.

Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes  digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this, Truss will add.

She will also urge Europe to cut off Russian energy imports once and for all  a move that would deprive Moscow of a key source of leverage over its dependent western neighbours.

 Destabilise 

Fighting continues to rage across Ukraines east, Kyivs defence ministry said, as it confirmed Russian forces had seized several villages as part of Moscows offensive to take control of the Donbas region, which Russia has vowed to liberate.

The ministry said the villages of Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody in the northeastern Kharkiv region and Zarichne and Novotoshkivske in the Donetsk region had fallen.

Russia aims to create a land border between territory held by pro-Russian separatists in parts of the Donbas and the Russian-annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

Mykhaylo Podolyak, a Ukraine presidential aide, accused Moscow of grander ambitions and wanting to destabilise the Transnistrian region of Moldova, at the western end of the Black Sea, amid growing tensions there.

If Ukraine falls, tomorrow Russian troops will be at Chisinaus gates, Podolyak said, referring to Moldovas capital.

A Kremlin commander last week alleged Russian speakers in Transnistria, occupied by Moscows forces for decades, were being oppressed.

It raised similar fears to justify in part launching its bloody invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Before the latest claims on Wednesday of an incident at a Russian arms depot there, explosions had hit the state security ministry, a radio tower and military unit.

The United States has echoed Kyivs concerns  though stopped short of backing its contention that Russia was responsible.

We fully support Moldovas territorial integrity and sovereignty, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

Meanwhile, in a meeting with Putin Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for aid and evacuation corridors in war-torn Ukraine.

He also urged an independent investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine.

The UNs refugee agency said it now expects more than eight million Ukrainians to eventually flee their country, with nearly 5.3 million already out, and that $1.85 billion would be needed to host them in neighbouring countries.

burs-jj/spm

GAZPROM
At least 213 people were killed in three days of violence between Arab and non-Arab groups in Sudans West Darfur, the state governor said, giving the first official toll for recent clashes.

West Darfur has been gripped by days of deadly fighting largely centred in Krink, a locality of nearly 500,000 people and mostly inhabited by the African Massalit tribe.

This massive crime left around 201 killed and 103 wounded on Sunday alone, said West Darfur governor Khamees Abkar in a video published late Tuesday.

The violence first broke out on Friday and escalated when armed men attacked villages of the non-Arab Massalit in retaliation for the killing of two tribesmen, according to the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, an independent aid group.

At least eight people were killed on Friday, Abkar said, confirming a death toll for that day already reported by the aid group.

The state governor blamed government forces tasked with securing Krink and its environs for withdrawing without any justification as the main attacks began early Sunday.

Krink town was completely destroyed including government institutions, Abkar said. It is a crime against humanity.

The fighting on Monday spread to Geneina, the provincial capital of West Darfur.

Witnesses have accused the Janjaweed militia of orchestrating the violence.

The Janjaweed was an Arab militia which gained notoriety for its role in the repression of an ethnic minority rebellion in Darfur in the early 2000s under then autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

According to rights groups, many of its members were later integrated into the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, now de facto deputy leader of Sudan.

The General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur on Monday reported a combined death toll of 180 for the fighting around Krink and in Geneina, including four killed in the state capital on Monday.

Abkar on Wednesday confirmed to AFP that four were killed on Monday, taking the total toll to at least 213.

On Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, said several medical workers were killed in the fighting as hospitals were attacked.

Consequently, MSF teams have not been able to reach the health facilities we support nor conduct mobile clinic activities in Geneina and cannot return to Krink, the aid group said in a statement.

The conflict in Darfur that began in 2003 killed more than 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million, according to the UN.

The region remains awash with weapons and has seen a renewed spike in deadly violence in recent months triggered by disputes mainly over land, livestock and access to water and grazing.

The latest violence comes as Sudan grapples with fallout from a coup in October last year led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Several former Bosnian Muslim political and military leaders were charged Wednesday over their role in the killing of retreating Yugoslav army soldiers at the start of Bosnias 1990s war.

Sarajevo prosecutors charged 10 people over their involvement in the 1992 attack on a retreating Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA) convoy, escorted by the United Nations peacekeepers, in the capitals centre.

The suspects include Ejup Ganic, a Muslim wartime member of Bosnias presidency, two former interior ministers and several Bosnian army retired generals.

Eight soldiers, JNA civilian employees and members of military medical staff were killed and 24 wounded in the attack, according to the indictment.

The attack on May 3, 1992, in Dobrovoljacka street, occurred the day after a spate of violent shelling of central Sarajevo by JNA artillery and Bosnian Serb forces.

It was two months after Bosnia voted for independence from Yugoslavia in a referendum.

Ganic and the others are suspected of having planned, attacked and incited (others to attack) the undefended convoy  escorted by the UN peace forces as well as having failed to prevent the killings and punish the perpetrators, the prosecutors said.

In 2012, the same prosecutors suspended a probe against Ganic and 13 other former Muslim wartime leaders over the alleged crime.

Bosnias inter-ethnic war claimed nearly 100,000 lives including more than 11,500 people killed during the Sarajevo siege.
Erdogan urges Putin for leaders' summit to solve Ukrainian crisis

Xinhua) 13:53, April 27, 2022

ANKARA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday once again urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to hold a summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

During a phone talk, Erdogan told Putin that the "continuation of the positive momentum achieved in the Istanbul talks" to reach peace in Ukraine is in the interest of everyone, the Turkish presidential press service said in a statement.

The president reiterated his proposal to increase the level of the "Istanbul process, which is a very important threshold in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, to the level of leaders," said the statement.

Erdogan pointed out the importance of achieving a ceasefire, the effective operation of humanitarian corridors and safe evacuations, saying Turkey will continue to do its best to establish a lasting peace.

The phone talk came one day after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had met with the Turkish president in Ankara.

Guterres departed for Moscow, and then he will visit Kiev in a bid to mediate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Erdogan has long been engaging with both Putin and Zelensky, as Turkey, having close ties with both countries, has been playing a mediator role to end the conflict.

Previously, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met in a resort town of Turkey's southern province of Antalya on March 10, for the first high-level talks between Moscow and Kiev since Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The negotiation teams of Russia and Ukraine also had a face-to-face meeting in Istanbul on March 29.

Erdogan refers "Istanbul process" since Ankara wants to continue the dialogue between Kiev and Moscow with a leaders' summit in this city to reach a final peace deal.

Turkish authorities earlier said that Ankara welcomes the proposal of becoming a guarantor country in terms of the security of Ukraine.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
A Rwandan genocide suspect who has been living in Sweden for more than a decade was extradited Wednesday to his home country where he is expected to face trial over his alleged role in the 1994 massacres.

Jean Paul Micomyiza, who lost his fight against extradition in December, was in handcuffs as he disembarked from a RwandAir plane and was immediately taken away by two policemen.

Micomyiza, aka Mico, is accused of involvement in the slaughter of about 800,000 people  mostly members of Rwandas minority Tutsi population but also Hutus  when he was a university student.

The suspect, now aged about 50, was a member of a committee whose mission was to search and identify Tutsi civilians to be killed and thus played a big role in the genocide against the Tutsi, the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) said in a statement.

NPPA spokesman Faustin Nkusi told AFP that the authorities would start preparing an indictment for a trial for Micomyiza after various procedures were completed.

The prosecution said it commended Sweden, where Micomyiza had been living since 2007, for its cooperation and its contribution to the global effort to fight impunity.

Swedens justice ministry confirmed the decision to extradite Micomyiza, but refused to provide further details about his life in the country.

Three Swedes of Rwandan origin have been sentenced to life in prison for taking part in the genocide.
Ongoing fighting in Sudans troubled Darfur region has killed more than 200 people in recent days, with the UN human rights chief saying she was appalled at the spike in violence.

Members of the Massalit community and Arab fighters have clashed since Friday in and around the West Darfur state capital El Geneina, the latest ethnic violence in the vast, arid and impoverished region long awash with guns.

Heavy shooting was reported Wednesday evening in El Geneina, said Adam Regal from the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, an independent aid group.

Guns are being fired extensively, Regal said. The situation is very dangerous.

The fighting, which comes as Sudan grapples with the fallout from a coup six months ago led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has seen hospitals attacked, a police station destroyed and a market burned to the ground, according to the United Nations.

At least 213 people have been killed in three days of violence, according to the state governor.

The clashes have centred on Krink, a locality of nearly 500,000 people some 1,100 kilometres (685 miles) west of Sudans capital Khartoum.

West Darfur governor Khamees Abkar called the attacks a massive crime, noting that 201 people were killed and 103 wounded on Sunday alone.

It is the latest in several rounds of recent clashes pitting the Massalit  largely settled farmers  against semi-nomadic Arab pastoralist groups.

 Mass casualties 

I am appalled, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement Wednesday, demanding impartial and independent investigations into the attacks.

I am concerned that this region continues to see repeated, serious incidents of intercommunal violence, with mass casualties, she said.

The UN Security Council in New York held an urgent closed-door meeting about the crisis on Wednesday.

Heavy fighting initially erupted on Friday when at least eight people were killed in the Krink region, with gunmen reportedly attacking Massalit villages in retaliation for the killing of two comrades.

The UN said more than 1,000 armed members of the Arab Rizeigat community then swept into the town.

Many militia fighters in the region are heavily armed, often driving pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.

Krink town was completely destroyed including government institutions, state governor Abkar said. It is a crime against humanity.

The governor lashed out at government forces tasked with securing Krink and its environs for withdrawing without any justification as the main attacks began early Sunday.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA, quoting local sources, said that the police station in Krink was set on fire, the hospital attacked, and the market was looted and burned.

Food aid handouts for more than 60,000 people by the UNs World Food Programme have been suspended.

Nearby villages have also been attacked, the UN added.

Fighting on Monday spread to the state capital El Geneina, where more deaths were reported.

 Janjaweed militia accused 

Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, said Tuesday that several medical workers were killed in the fighting when hospitals were attacked.

MSF said their life-saving work had been restricted due to the violence, and that they were incredibly worried about the impact that would have on those in dire need.

Conflict in Darfur erupted in 2003, when ethnic minority rebels took up arms, complaining of discrimination by the Arab-dominated government of then-president Omar al-Bashir.

Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, who were blamed for atrocities including murder, rape, looting and burning villages, prompting the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for war crimes.

The scorched-earth campaign left 300,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million, according to the United Nations.

While key rebel groups signed a 2020 peace deal, deadly clashes still erupt over land and livestock, as well as access to water and grazing.

In the most recent fighting, witnesses have accused the Janjaweed militia of orchestrating the violence.

According to rights groups, many of the Janjaweeds members were integrated into the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, now de facto deputy leader of Sudan.

The Darfur Bar Association, a local civil society group, has called on the UN Security Council to help stem the violence, in a statement condemning the arbitrary killing of children, women and the elderly.

At the request of the Sudanese government, a joint UN and African Union mission, UNAMID, ended 13 years of peacekeeping operations in December 2020.
In celebration of her 10th debut anniversary, Kim Go Eun dropped a surprise news to her fans.

The "Goblin" star took to social media as she expressed her gratitude and teased her 5.1 million followers about her upcoming activities.

Kim Go Eun Celebrates 10th debut Anniversary With Heartfelt Message to Fans

On Kim Go Eun's Instagram, the 30-year-old South Korean beauty expressed her gratitude through a heartfelt message.

In the caption, the actress mentioned that she is grateful to do the things she has loved for ten years.

"Hello! I'm Kim Goeun. It's already been ten years since I debuted. I've had a lot of things to be thankful for. I was happy to receive a lot of love while doing what I liked. Please keep an eye on me, and I will always grow up and try to be an actor who gives comfort and empathy. Stay healthy and happy, everyone."

Moreover, "The King: Eternal Monarch" star also revealed surprising news announcing her offline fan meet, adding, "I'll work hard to prepare for it. See you then!!"

As noted by Xports News, Kim Go Eun's fan meet will be held in the second half of 2022.

Lee Min Ho Rumored To Make Special Appearance at Kim Go Eun's Fan Meet

Aside from meeting her lovely supporters, another highlight of Kim Go Eun's upcoming fan meet is her rumored special guest. According to the outlet, the actress has invited a male co-star whom she has worked in her previous drama.

Fans believe it might be Lee Min Ho, whom she has worked in the hit fantasy K-drama "The King: Eternal Monarch."

However, amid this speculation, there was no confirmation regarding her guests for the fan meet.

The upcoming get-together will be her second fan meet since she made her debut. To recall, Kim Go Eun had her first-ever fan meet back in 2017 following the release of her blockbuster series "Goblin."

Interestingly, the said K-drama, where she worked alongside Gong Yoo, is her big break in the industry.

Debuting in 2012, she first starred in the movie "A Muse," where she played the role of high school girl Eun Gyo alongside Park Hae Il and Kim Mu Yeol from Netflix's "Juvenile Justice."

From movies, Kim Go Eun wowed the audience with her impressive acting skills in portraying the character of overachiever college student Hong Seol in "Cheese in the Trap."

From one blockbuster K-drama to another, she landed her claim to fame in "Goblin," followed by "The King: Eternal Monarch."

Interestingly, Kim Go Eun returned to the small screen with a webtoon-based series, "Yumi's Cells," in 2020.

Kim Go Eun's New Drama this 2022

As the actress celebrates a remarkable milestone, Kim Go Eun proved her reign with multiple projects this year.

The 30-year-old actress will be reprising her role in "Yumi's Cells" season 2 and is set to headline the cast of the novel-based K-drama "Little Women."

She will portray the younger sister of Nam Ji Hyun and "All of Us Are Dead" star Park Ji Hoo and their family get caught up in a messy situation involving the country's wealthy family.

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
Wi Ha Joon set millions of hearts racing as he flaunted his oozing charm in Dazed Korea.

The rising star catapults to fame after portraying police officer Hwang Jun Ho in Netflix's "Squid Game."

Since then, the 30-year-old actor is constantly seen gracing interviews, becoming the new ambassador, or featured in countless fashion magazines.

Wi Ha Joon showed off his stunning visuals with his jaw-dropping physique as he spoke about being physically fit and his view on "sexiness."

From Skinny to Kdrama Hottie

During his interview with Dazed Korea, as noted by Newsen, the 30-year-old star was asked about his thoughts on being sexy.

Wi Ha Joon explained an interesting perception of sexiness. He says it's not about age but a feeling.

"I think people who look nicer as they get older have the same feeling when they are extremely immersed in their work and work hard. That's what sexiness is all about," he said.

Moreover, the actor also dishes out his transformation from being skinny before his debut and now that he is considered as one of the sexiest Kdrama actors.

Wi Ha Joon's workout routine started after he got out of the military.

He said that he used to weigh less than 60 kg when he was 22-years-old, but he managed to build muscles and toned his body thanks to persistence in working out.

To recall, the 30-year-old South Korean actor made it to People Magazine's 2021 List Of 25 Sexiest Men On TV, with Hollywood star Paul Rudd topping the list.

At number 25, Wi Ha Joon was described by the publication as "totally gorgeous and sweet as dalgona candy."

Wi Ha Joon Discusses New Role in 'Little Women' with Kim Go Eun

Aside from his totally drool-worthy physique, fans are also mesmerized by his acting skills.

Wi Ha Joon skyrocketed his career thanks to "Squid Game," but he also appeared in several K-dramas and movies like in Son Ye Jin and Jung Hae In's "Something in the Rain." He played the Hallyu actress' brother Yoon Seung Ho and his lead role in "Romance Is a Bonus Book" with Lee Na Young and Lee Jong Suk.

Following the hit series "Squid Game," Wi Ha Joon teamed up with Lee Dong Wook in the action thriller K-drama "Bad and Crazy," playing the mysterious character, K.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Wi Ha Joon Aims to Win Best Couple Award with Lee Dong Wook for Their 'Bad and Crazy' Bromance

Interestingly, this 2022, he will be joining the trio Kim Go Eun, Nam Ji Hyun, and Park Ji Hoo from "All of Us Are Dead" as he plays one of the lead stars in "Little Women."

As he continues his interview with Dazed Korea, Wi Ha Joon describes his character Choi Do Il. He is someone who is quite challenging to handle but is extremely intelligent.

His character also harbors a cold-blooded person who does not show any emotion, which raises curiosity about his connection with the trio.

In the upcoming novel-based series, Choi Do Il is a skilled consultant who graduated from a prestigious university in the United Kingdom.

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
Thanks to his natural handsome visage and undeniable charisma, Hwang In Yeop rose to the top as one of the most sought after stars in the industry today.

But did you know that his major acting roles give a glimpse of his life as a romantic? Here's what kind of boyfriend Hwang In Yeop is!

Hwang In Yeop in 'True Beauty,' '18 Again,' More

Hwang In Yeop received critical acclaim and popularity after appearing in "True Beauty" and "18 Again" as the second male lead.

With his icy yet charming visuals, he didn't only dominate South Korea but also other Asia Pacific countries.

Before venturing into acting, the rising actor lived a normal life as a student and a model, but stealing attention has always been his hobby.

Hwang In Yeop is currently diversifying his filmography and challenging himself with new genres that he's never tried before. He's very focused on his career growth, so he hasn't dated anyone since. Curious what he's like when in love? Keep on reading!

Hwang In Yeop Reveals Best Facial Feature

The "18 Again" star is aware that he's a handsome man. When asked about the most beautiful feature of him, he answered "eyes."

Indeed, even his fans agree that his eyes, which are filled with icy cold charisma, are his most charming feature.

Because of this, he mostly played characters with a cold image throughout his career. Even in real life, the actor revealed that people first see the coldness in him.

However, this isn't the true case. Hwang In Yeop, despite the coldness that surrounds him, is a guy with a heartwarming personality.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Hwang In Yeop Talks About His Reputation as a 'Cold City Guy,' His Upcoming Drama and More

"I'm not cold at all," Hwang In Yeop stated. "If you get to know me more, you'll realize that there's a lot about me than my looks."

Hwang In Yeop As A Romantic Partner

Although Hwang In Yeop looks stylishly rebellious and cold on the outside, he's a true sweetheart behind the cameras!

Especially when he's interested in a person, the actor exudes a colorful aura and irresistible charms that anyone will love.

As an actor, he's not new to dating rumors. Regarding his ideal type, Hwang In Yeop likes people with a great personality.

"Due to my looks, it makes it difficult for others to approach me," Hwang In Yeop shared. "But I'm a person who loves to talk and laugh. I'm also very playful, and I like people who are a lot like me."

However, Hwang In Yeop and his side never officially announced anything about his relationship status.

On the other hand, the actor is set to return to the small screen with Ji Chang Wook and Choi Sung Eun. The trio will lead the upcoming magical series "The Sound of Magic." Don't miss it this May 6 on Netflix!

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Jeon Jong Seo is returning to the big screen for the upcoming Netflix movie "Ballerina." The Baeksang Arts Award winner is confirmed to appear as the female lead in a Lee Chung Hyun-directed film.

Jeon Jong Seo Becomes the Revenge-Driven Woman in Netflix's 'Ballerina'

On Netflix's Instagram, the streaming giant announced the cast lineup for the upcoming film.

Jeon Jong Seo will portray former bodyguard Ok Joo. Driven by revenge, she takes vengeance and shows how ruthless she can be as she risked her life for her dear friend.

Joining the 27-year-old beauty is Park Yoo Rim as Min Hee and Kim Ji Hoon as Choi Pro.

As mentioned, "Ballerina" is a reunion project between Jeon Jong Seo and Lee Chung Hyun, who also helmed her movie "The Call," which gained the actress her first-ever Best Actress (Movie) award from the Baeksang Arts Awards in 2021.

Interestingly, he is also the actress' beau. To recall, in December 2021, Jeon Jong Seo's agency, My Company, confirmed that the two are in a relationship.

Jeon Jong Seo Confirms Relationship With 'The Call' Director

As noted by News 1 Korea, the label released a statement, saying the "Nothing Serious" star "is currently dating director Lee Choong Hyun," adding "the two of them had good feelings for each other and recently began a romantic relationship."

Their romance began while filming the award-winning movie "The Call," also starring Park Shin Hye.

Following the news regarding their new romance, director Lee Chung Hyun expressed his gratitude to the people who congratulated him on his relationship.

As noted by JTBC News, the director revealed that he and the actress "naturally fell in love while filming."

When asked about being public about his relationship with the actress, the award-winning director said, "Most of the people around me knew (the fact of the relationship). I didn't hide it from the people around me."

"The Call" is just among the notable projects of the 27-year-old actress. Her film debut was with the psychological thriller movie "Burning," which was based on the short story written by Haruki Murakami's "Barn Burning."

She is joined by A-listers Yoon Ah In and "The Walking Dead" star Steven Yeun.

Jeon Jong Seo's New Drama

While Jeon Jong Seo first starred in an award-winning film, she is set to make her K-drama debut with a highly anticipated Korean adaptation of Netflix's "Money Heist."

Set to premiere this 2022, "Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area" is helmed by Kim Hong Seon, the director behind the series "Voice," "Metamorphosis," and "L.U.C.A: The Beginning."

The 27-year-old actress will play the fearless and spunky Tokyo in the upcoming remake.

Jeon Jong Seo's new drama will also feature "Squid Game" star Park Hae Soo as Berlin and Yoo Ji Tae as The Professor, the man behind the greatest heist.

Meanwhile, she will also be reunited with "Ballerina" co-star Kim Ji Hoon as he takes the role of Denver.

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
The Takashi Miike film "Connect" starring huge stars like Jung Hae In, Go Kyung Pyo, and Kim Hye Jun wraps up filming, and confirms its release date!

Jung Hae In's Upcoming Film 'Connect' To Hit Silver Screen in 2023

The much anticipated Jung Hae In comeback film "Connect" finally finished its principal filming!

Directed by Japanese director Takashi Miike, "Connect" follows the mystery that surrounds a man. After getting his organs taken away by organ hunters, he feels a distinct "connection" with the person who received his organs through a transplant.

"Connect" stars Jung Hae In, who recently showed off his acting chops in "Snowdrop," Go Kyung Pyo, and Kim Hye Jun as the main leads.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Kim Hye Soo, Kim Tae Ri, Jung Hae In, More Nominated at the 58th Baeksang Arts Awards for Best Actor

On Wednesday, April 27, it was confirmed that the drama wrapped up its principal filming, and is currently in its post-production process.

In addition to that, the production unit of "Connect" confirmed that it will air in the summer of 2023 on legal streaming platform Disney+, which brought popular dramas "Snowdrop," "Rookie Cops," "Crazy Love" and "Soundtrack #1."

On the other hand, "Connect" is the first South Korean drama that is helmed by Japanese director Takashi Miike. He won several awards at Jeonju International Film, Rome International Film Festival, and more.

Jung Hae In, Go Kyung Pyo Future Dramas, Films, More

The main cast of "Connect" is booked and busy! Besides the film, multifaceted actor Jung Hae In is set to reprise his role as a Korean military police in the blockbuster dama "D.P." with Koo Kyo Han, Kim Sung Kyun and Seon Seok Koo.

The second season of "D.P." is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2023 with a bolder and braver storyline and additional cast.

On the other hand, Go Kyung Pyo is welcomed by a slew of multiple projects this 2022. The actor is busy with his upcoming films "Seoul Vibe" and "Decision to Leave."

"Seoul Vibe" follows the heart-stoppin car chase in the heart of Seoul as a crew of baby drivers initiates to unravel the corruption behind the slush funds in the middle of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Go Kyung Pyo decorates the screen with Yoo Ah In, Lee Kyu Hyung, Ong Seong Wu, and Jung Woong In. "Seoul Vibe" is scheduled to air on Netflix in the later part of 2022.

Meanwhile, "Decision to Leave" is a Park Chan Wook directed mystery film that was chosen to compete for the Palme d'Or, the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Following its screening, South Korean movie-goers will be able to enjoy the film about murder, supernatural entities, and more on theaters nationwide.





KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
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Are we in the habit of forgetting what great work the Nuns did for us? I knew I was, until I sat down with 96-year-old Sr Assumpta Saunders to hear about her lifes story.

I wanted to talk to her about the 70 years she had given to my former school of St Brigids College in Callan, and how she helped in shaping it to become one Irelands most respectable boarding secondary school for girls.

This June will mark the end of an era as St Brigids closes its doors as a secondary school for girls and joins forces with Colaiste Eamann to become a new school Colaiste Abhainn Ri, on the same grounds.

Yes, times are changing and as a former pupil of St Brigids I never thought Id see the day. When my old school asked me to write about it, I knew I needed to speak to Sr Assumpta, the lady who founded St. Brigids Boarding School and sister to the founder of the secondary school, the late Sr Marie Therese.

Three birth sisters from Co Clare - Sr Marie Therese, Sr Mona & Sr Assumpta

It was under inspired direction of the two sisters from Co Clare that St Brigids College, as a convent, became one of the most successful second level schools in Ireland.

Sr Assumpta was my English teacher, and she was also head of the boarding school where I spent six fun memorable years and made friends for life.

Here is Sr Assumpta Saunders story

Sr Assumpta left her home in Mullagh, Co Clare at the age of 18 to join the Mercy Sisters in Callan in 1944. She received her calling from God to become a nun when she was just 14 years of age.

I was in the chapel, I felt the Lord speaking to me,"she said. "I didnt hear anything, I just felt that he was calling me. I really fell in love with God, and I would have done anything that he would have asked me to do. I felt he wanted me to give my life to him."

"I waited until I had my leaving cert done, as I thought I wouldnt be of any use to anyone without it. After my leaving cert, I was qualified to teach in a primary school.

Sr Assumptas two birth sisters also joined the convent. The eldest sister, Sr Marie Therese had just finished her degree in UCD and was offered a lecturing job in Dublin, but she decided to follow God and put her teaching to good use in founding the secondary school as we know it today.

The third sister, Sr Mona moved to the convent in Callan after 40 years in the Missions. All three of them worked tirelessly for their faith.

Every family had a nun in it back then" recalled Sr. Assumpta.. In our village we had one family with five girls, and they all became nuns. You became either a teacher, a nurse, a social worker or worked in the Civil Service, because there werent many things open to women those days.

When Sr Assumpta first taught in Callan, it was a secondary top school, which meant it was a primary school that could take students as far as the Inter Cert.

Secondary schools were very rare in the country, especially for girls," she said. "We were all anxious to see girls getting a better education. The demand was there, so I was sent to college to do my degree in 1948 to 1952 in UCC, where I studied Irish, English, and Latin, even though I had no great love for Latin!

Sr Assumpta did not stop there in her desire to teach the girls more. She completed a Masters in 1972 and a Ph. D in 1977. She went on to teach for 40 years while opening the Boarding School for girls in 1959.

I was over the boarding school for over 30 years for my sins!" she joked. "I loved it, despite being up at night, dont you know Siobhan what went on at night sometimes?!

"I had to pretend I didnt know what you girls were up to, because Id have to get too cross, and I loved every single one of you.

It still gives me joy because so many of you girls come back to visit me" she added. "The boarders brought new life and interests into the school, as some were from outside Kilkenny. You were always so united, there was no going between you. You wouldnt squeal on another, I learnt that word from you girls!

It was tough too," she continued. "Sr Imelda and I spent our summers painting the boarding school and making up beds. Initially the boarders stayed for a month at the time, so there was never a day off.

The Nuns in St Brigids did work tirelessly, and they did not receive a pay packet like the lay teachers. Instead, it went into a Common Fund for the Convent and was put back into building the fine school that St Brigids became.

Sr Assumpta believes her late sister Sr Marie Therese would be so proud of the new amalgamation with the boys schools, I would say she would be delighted," Sr Assumpta said. "She considered it herself in the early days and she spoke to the Brothers about it, but at that time the Brothers werent allowed to teach girls, so that put a halt to it

The friends and past pupils of St. Brigids College are invited to a celebration of the school on Sunday. May 1, 2022, from 2pm-5pm. Mass will commence at 2pm, followed by lots of fun activities.
A new guide published by Lions Clubs in Ireland is designed to assist community groups and voluntary organisations to access grants and other funding for local environmental projects.

The Environmental Project Support Guide will be used extensively by almost 100 Lions Clubs in Ireland and is also available to other groups through a download from the Lions Clubs Ireland website. (www.lionsclubs.ie)

Launching the Guide at Kilkenny Castle, the Minister of State for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Malcolm Noonan TD, said:

"We are living through a time of unprecedented change and a time of great opportunity to shape that change rather than watch it happen. The publication of the Lions Club guide is both timely and vital as communities across Ireland respond to the great environmental challenges of our time by being the change they want to see.

"Importantly too Lions Clubs International once again has its finger on the pulse by wanting to help lead on the bigger picture and enabling change to happen. I welcome Lions commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and their desire to work towards a more just and safer planet for all living things."

In producing the Guide, the Lions District 133 Environmental Team considered ways to best support Lions to engage in Environment Projects. Lions serve their communities on a voluntary basis but the appropriate use of available funding serves to increase the effectiveness of environment projects and enhances the benefits to communities. The Guide summarises key elements of Local Authority and other Environmental, Climate Change and Biodiversity Community Grants. It details funding streams that are available for carrying out various types of community activities and projects in local communities.

Lions Clubs District Governor, Ann Ellis of Carrick-on-Suir Lions Club, said :

"An objective for me, during my year as District Governor, and in the context of the urgent need for increased action to protect and restore our environment, was to establish a new District Environment Team to assist Lions Clubs to develop and implement more Environmental projects in their communities. The Guide will provide invaluable assistance, to Lions Clubs and community groups, with their Environment Projects, and I am very proud of the achievements of the new Environment Team in such a short space of time."

Environment Team Chair, Dan McInerney of Carlow Lions Club said : "The Guide is an evolving guidance document and it will be updated regularly. I acknowledge the great work of Philip ONeill of Kilkenny Lions Club who led the production of the Guide, together with all the Environment Team members."

"The motto of Lions Clubs is 'We serve' and the Mission Statement of the District 133 Environment Team, which produced the Environment Project Support Guide, states that By harnessing the skills and experience of our members, we aim to sustainably protect and restore our environment to improve the well-being of the communities we serve."
Officials said the decline in cases across the country are representative of trends here in Missouri, which transitioned to an endemic earlier this month.
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National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug, center, poses with Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, left, floor leader of the main opposition conservative People Power Party and Rep. Park Hong-keun, right, floor leader of the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea, ahead of a meeting to discuss the ruling party's prosecutorial reform bills at the National Assembly on Seoul's Yeouido, Wednesday. Joint Press Corps



By Jung Da-min



The main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP) vowed to continue fighting in order to frustrate the ruling Democratic Party of Korea(DPK)'s push to pass the controversial prosecutorial bill, with the clock ticking for the vote in the National Assembly. On Wednesday, the PPP warned of the use of a filibuster to prevent the passage of the bill.



The floor leaders of the two parties sat down in a meeting arranged by National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug in hopes of narrowing their differences.



The DPK aims to pass the reform bill at the plenary session of the National Assembly before the last Cabinet meeting of the outgoing Moon Jae-in government, slated for May 3. The PPP, however, is strongly opposing the DPK's move, while trying to stop or at least delay the passage of the bill, so that the soon to be president, Yoon Suk-yeol, who will take office on May 10, will be able to exercise his veto against it.



Wednesday's meeting between floor leaders, Rep. Park Hong-keun of the DPK and Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the PPP, did not yield any progress, as the two sides continue to disagree.



Earlier in the day, Kweon started a sit-in protest in front of the plenary chamber together with other PPP lawmakers. "We have started a sit-in protest to let people know that the reform bills the DPK is trying to push ahead with, are unjust and harmful to the people," Kweon said. "If DPK heavyweights were confident about themselves, in that they are without any corruption allegations, they would not push for the prosecutorial reform bills when facing strong opposition from people."



DPK floor leader Park blamed Kweon for breaking their earlier agreement over Speaker Park's compromise made last Friday. "It is an unprecedented case that the PPP broke the agreement it signed in front of the people," Park said. "I make it clear that there will be no more dialogue nor compromise if PPP floor leader Kweon doesn't apologize to the people and vow to implement the compromise version."



The floor leaders' meeting came less than a week after they had initially signed a compromise version of the bill proposed by Speaker Park, last Friday. But the PPP side broke the agreement just three days later after receiving strong objections from within and outside of their party.



According to the compromise version of the reform bill, the prosecution will have the power to investigate crimes related to the economy and corruption only, while the police will investigate other crimes. Currently, the prosecution has the power to investigate crimes in six categories including corruption, the economy, public officials, elections, defense industry projects and major catastrophes.



As criticism grew over the issue of elections being excluded from prosecutorial investigation, due to the fact that it would give certain unfair privileges to the political class, the DPK decided on Tuesday to accept another proposal by the minor opposition liberal Justice Party to maintain the category until the end of this year. However, the liberal bloc, which has been pushing for prosecutorial reform over the past five years under the Moon government, is aiming to ultimately remove the prosecution's investigative powers.



The DPK unilaterally passed two related bills at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee early on Wednesday morning, as the committee meeting which was held Wednesday continued past midnight, with PPP members staging rallies to protest the bills.




By Martin Schram





The headline on the New York Times' dead-tree edition's front page reported this breaking news on April 20: "West Rushes to Give Ukraine Heavier Weapons."







And the lede packed the power and pop of a starter's gun: "The race is on."







But, of course, everyone who read that also knew that April 20  the day America's big weapons rush became big news  was Day 56 of Russia's war in Ukraine. Fifty-six days into the war, the breaking news was that the United States and its NATO allies were finally sending Ukraine "bigger and more advanced longer-range weapons like howitzers, antiaircraft systems, anti-ship missiles, armed drones, armored trucks, personnel carriers and even tanks."







In other words: America and NATO were now sending all the weapons Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been saying all along that his country desperately needed. Except the military jets, which still are not coming.







And that meant doing even more. Two days earlier, Reuters had reported: "The United States military expects to start training Ukrainians on using howitzer artillery in coming days, a senior U.S. defense official said on Monday  The United States is planning on teaching Ukrainian trainers on how to use some of the new batch of weapons such as howitzers and radars and then for the trainers to instruct their colleagues inside Ukraine."







So the real NEWSBREAK on Day 56 may have been that America was just getting around to training Ukraine's troop trainers, who will finally train their troops, on how to use all the big guns and vital radar systems. Then hopefully Ukraine's valiant fighters will be able to finally locate and knock out some of Russia's weapon launchers. And hopefully knock out many of Russia's rockets and projectiles that are demolishing cities and slaughtering innocent women, children and elderly.







Of course, the United States could have begun arming Ukraine with heavier weapons much earlier. But two months ago, when Vladimir Putin's military was massed at Ukraine's north, east and southern borders (and Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were calling the West's warnings of an invasion "hysterical"), U.S. military and intelligence experts thought Russia's military could quickly defeat the out-manned, out-armed Ukrainians. They didn't want to see all the powerful weapons they gave Ukraine end up in Russia's arsenals.







Also: U.S. and European officials worried that supplying Ukraine with heavier weapons, could provide Putin with provocation to use tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons.







President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, America's top generals and intelligence officials were painfully aware of the last time they had placed too much faith in a smaller ally's military. And when Afghanistan's corrupt and only semi-capable military collapsed (see also: quit), their military intelligence failure created a departure debacle.







Austin later conceded he never even considered the possibility of that worst-case scenario. It was a misjudgment seen 'round the world. Perhaps it contributed to an excessive caution as the West did not act boldly enough, early enough, to give Ukraine maximum help as we all watched Putin mount Europe's most abominable and cowardly mass slaughter since Adolf Hitler. Faced with that moral imperative, did we do enough, early enough?







To answer that, I reached for a telephone on midday Wednesday, to begin seeking the insights of a compendium of America's top ex-officials of national security and politics. Then I glanced at my TV screen  and there he was! The compendium I was about to phone was talking on MSNBC.







Leon Panetta, a friend from journalistic yesteryears  who served in almost every job (except POTUS) that is now involved in our Ukraine decision-making  was being interviewed about today's Ukraine policy decisions.







Andrea Mitchell was asking the ex-defense secretary, ex-CIA director, ex-White House chief of staff, ex-Office of Management and Budget director, ex-House Budget Committee chair and ex-Nixon administration Republican (yes, really) if the U.S. policy-making on Ukraine reflects sufficient urgency. And Panetta, being all the above, answered with decades of been-there authority: "This is not only a critical time in the war, it is a decisive moment. This will determine whether the Russians are stopped.  We have got to move very, very fast to avoid a defeat.  You cannot allow an aggressor to continue doing what Putin is doing.  We have to stop them in the Donbas region."







Is there a risk that Putin might use America's/NATO's weapons-providing and troop-training of Ukrainians as provocation to attack NATO nations or use nuclear weapons?







"War carries risks," Panetta answered."  This is a pivotal moment  for the United States and for our allies.







"Almost our whole hope for the future in terms of foreign policy and the fate of democracies in the world is riding with the Ukrainians."









Martin Schram (

), an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, is a veteran Washington journalist, author and TV documentary executive.


By Myra Dahgaypaw



My heart breaks as I watch Russian planes bombing civilian homes, displacing millions of refugees and committing crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Four thousand miles away from Ukraine, in my home country of Myanmar (also known as Burma), Russia has been complicit for decades in the violence of the Burmese military against its own citizens.



The military's violent campaign reached new levels in February 2021, when it staged a bloody attempted coup against the democratically elected government. Since then, the Myanmar military  equipped with deadly weapons from Russia  has tortured and killed thousands of civilians, especially the country's ethnic and religious minorities. One of the more shocking cases occurred on Christmas Eve, when more than 35 ethnic Karenni civilians were burned alive by the military.



These horrific events are not unprecedented. My aunt and uncle were among the Burmese military's victims in the late 1970s. My aunt was gang-raped and tortured in front of my uncle. My uncle's skin was sliced and rubbed with salt and chili. I was forced to leave my beautiful village to escape the state-sponsored violence on Jan. 28, 1995. That was the last time I saw my home.



Sadly, the military has faced no significant consequences for its crimes, which continue to this day, including genocide against the Rohingya people and other ethnic and religious minorities. Just as the failure to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Crimea helped lead to the crisis in Ukraine, the failure to hold the military in Myanmar accountable has emboldened it to escalate violence against the nation's people.



Since the coup, the Myanmar military has been conducting airstrikes almost every day, especially at night when people are sleeping, to maximize the number of deaths and injuries. Nearly 900,000 people have been forced from their homes. The military has deliberately targeted health care facilities and places where people have fled to for protection. And it is using Russian weapons to do it.



Thomas Andrews, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, recently documented the wide range of weapons Russia is selling to the military, including a shipload of military vehicles in January and two more SU-30 fighter jets in March. These are the same fighter jets Russia is using in Ukraine.



In exchange, the State Administration Council set up by the military in Myanmar is one of the few entities around the world to endorse Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.



U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has taken a historic step in March by officially declaring that the Myanmar military has committed acts of genocide against the Rohingya people. But this long overdue decision did not include any practical action in response to this genocide.



The U.S. government must take tangible action to hold the military in Myanmar accountable. Passing the BURMA Act, introduced in Congress last year, would ensure accountability for the junta and justice for its victims, as well as provide direct support to the nation's people. The Biden administration must also support The Gambia's case before the International Court of Justice, arguing that Myanmar violated the Genocide Convention.



The global community has taken swift action to sanction Putin and the cronies who support him, showing what can be done when political will is united against injustice. Just a fraction of the action taken against Russia and in support of Ukraine would be transformational in our struggle for democracy and human rights in Myanmar, and at much less economic cost to the United States.



I have lost half of my immediate family members to the military in Myanmar. President Joe Biden and the U.S. Congress can do much more to stop the flow of money and arms to the military in Myanmar. Every day that they fail to act, more mothers and fathers, more sisters and brothers will die at the hands of the military.





Myra Dahgaypaw is a human rights activist, a former internally displaced person and refugee from Karen State in eastern Myanmar. This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives and was distributed by Tribune News Service.


Steve Garbacz is executive editor of KPC Media Group and editor of The News Sun. He liked living in the Indy metro, but moved to northeast Indiana where his wife could be closer to her family. Email him at sgarbacz@kpcmedia.com.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

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Auburn, IN (46706)

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TXT will meet the fans in-person through their 2022 world tour, called "ACT:LOVE SICK"!

Continue reading to know the schedule and locations.

TXT World Tour 2022: Here are the Dates, Cities Included in First Batch

On April 26, Big Hit Music released an official teaser poster to announce TOMORROW X TOGETHER's first-ever world tour since their debut.

In October of last year, TXT held their first solo concert, "ACT: BOY," as an online event. But this year, the quintet will travel in different cities across the globe to meet the fans face-to-face through their "ACT:LOVE SICK" world tour.

According to the poster, TXT will kick off their world tour in Seoul, South Korea with two shows, which will take place on July 2 and 3.

The boy group will next head to the United States, particularly North America, where they will hold concerts in a total of seven cities from July 7 to 23.

In particular, TOMORROW X TOGETHER will meet fans in Chicago on July 7, New York on July 9, Atlanta on July 12, Dallas on July 14, Houston on July 17, San Francisco on July 21, and Los Angeles on July 23.

While this is the group's first world tour, this also marks their first time returning to North America for a tour since their first showcase tour "STAR in U.S" was held back in 2019.

According to Big Hit Music's official website, more cities and dates for TXT's 2022 world tour "ACT:LOVE SICK" are yet to be revealed, so stay tuned for updates.

Meanwhile, TXT is gearing up for their upcoming comeback with a new mini-album, titled "minisode 2: Thursday's Child." They recently dropped the "End" version concept films as they count down for the album's release on May 9.

For this comeback, the TXT members will deal with the conflicting emotions of going through one's first breakup. The "End" version concept films depict the pure feelings of heartbreak that youths suffer through the monotone colors and subdued sounds.

The group will demonstrate the different stages of this heartbreak through three unique concepts - "Mess," "End," and "Hate."

TXT's "minisode 2: Thursday's Child" is due out on May 9 at 6 p.m. KST.

TXT, Rich the Kid Hint at Possible Collab

In other news, TXT and Rich the Kid may have something special for the fans soon.

On April 21, TXT Taehyun shared a cryptic spoiler on Weverse. In his post, the idol wrote, "#Spoiler_for_MOA [TXT's fandom] TRACK 03," then added child and money bag emojis.

As fans tried to figure out the meaning of his post, some claimed that the emojis could mean "rich kid."

A few hours later, Rich the Kid retweeted a TXT translation account's tweet about Taehyun's Weverse post, and included some fire emojis and a pair of eyes in the caption. His post fueled speculation about a possible collaboration between him and TXT.

After his retweet, some eagle-eyed fans noticed that Rich the Kid had child and money bag emojis in his Twitter bio, which are the same emojis that Taehyun used in his Weverse post, appearing to prove that the emojis were indeed reference to the American rapper's name.

YOU DESERVE YOUR FLOWERS   BIGGEST CEO (@richthekid) April 17, 2022

Around the same time, Rich the Kid retweeted hsi past tweet that says, "YOU DESERVE YOUR FLOWERS." Some fans quickly linked the rose emoji in the post to the burning rose imagery in TXT's concept teaser for "minisode 2: Thursday's Child."

This convinced some fans that the American rapper's previous tweet was a reference to TXT's comeback in May.

Do you think TXT will collaborate with Rich the Kid for their upcoming comeback?

For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article

Written by Maria Scott
China could exercise leverage over Twitter through Tesla 'speculation without basis': spokesperson

By Zhang Jian (People's Daily App) 15:08, April 27, 2022

China said Tuesday that the claim that Beijing could exercise leverage over Twitter was "speculating, but without any basis."

Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks in response to a Reuters reporter seeking comment on Tesla CEO Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter.

The reporter said it had been suggested China could exercise leverage on Twitter given Tesla's manufacturing presence in the country.

"I can tell you are very good at speculating, but without any basis," Wang said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
The information presented here is subject to change. To have an event appear in this column, email us at newsroom@lakegenevanews.net.

9 things to do this week

1. Spring Fashion Week  Wednesday-Sunday, April 27-30, Downtown Lake Geneva. Check the Streets of Lake Geneva Facebook page or streetsoflakegeneva.com for updates.

Enjoy specials, sales, demos and more during at numerous Lake Geneva businesses. The shopping fun starts with a passport. On the passport are a list and map of the participating businesses. Shoppers can mark the locations they visit on the passport. At the end of the shopping excursion, turn the passport in at The Landmark Center, 772 Main St., for a chance to win a prize in the Spring Fashion Week drawing.

The drawing will be Saturday, April 30, at 1 p.m., at the Landmark Center lobby.

Numerous businesses also have special offers and activities going during Spring Fashion Week. Participating businesses include Bloomingbyrds, Clearwater Outdoor, Clear Waters Salon, Cornerstone Shop & Gallery, C.R. Goodfinds, Edie Boutique, evr dry gds, Gallery 223, Geneva Lakes Jewelry, Jayne, Lake Geneva Harley Davidson, Lolas, Pink Moon Bay, Soho Boutique, The Baker House, The Candle Mercantile, The Hive, The Opal Man, Twelfth and Brown, Marigold, Overland Sheepskin Co., Lucca Lifestyle and A Touch of Bling.

People can enjoy Spring Fashion Week at no charge other than what they purchase at the stores. The complimentary ticket allows one to obtain the passport, enter the drawing and attend demos, attend demos and specials at the various businesses and access the VIP Lounge Selfie Station.

The $25 VIP Fashion ticket adds a welcome giveaway glam bag to the complimentary-level amenities, plus allows one to attend a meet-and-greet with Midwest fashion bloggers.

The $40 Ultra VIP Fashion ticket not only covers the VIP-level features.

With the Ultra VIP ticket, people can attend the April 28 Edie Boutique Fashion Show, which includes complimentary wine, a live DJ and more fun. The show is from 6 to 9 p.m. Edie is located at 737 W. Main St. Only 50 tickets are available.

2. Restaurant Week  Saturday, April 23-Sunday, May 1, nearly 30 restaurants throughout Walworth County, visitlakegeneva.com.

Visit area eateries to experience breakfast, lunch and dinner specials, with a mix of dine-in and takeout options, and depending on the weather, customers will be able to take advantage of outdoor seating with great views to any one of the trio of lakes in the area  Geneva Lake, Lake Como and Delavan Lake.

Along with all that tastiness, diners will also receive a ballot at the end of their meal to vote for a local charity theyd like to see receive a cash award.

The top vote-getter will receive $5,000 and four runners-up will collect $1,000 each, thanks to a generous donation from this years Charity Check sponsor, Titos Handmade Vodka.

Descriptions of all the charity nominees can be accessed via the event website, www.visitlakegeneva.com/lake-geneva-restaurant-week.

3. Joe Diamond Mind Reading Show  Fridays, April 29 and May 6, 8 p.m., Tristan Crist Magic Theatre, 262-248-0505, lakegenevamagic.com/joe-diamond. Tickets: $35 per person.

Diamond will likely be interacting with audience members and picking up their thoughts in real time during this one-hour performance. In this week's Resorter is a Q&A with Diamond.

4. Master Magician Brett Daniels  Saturday, April 30, 8 p.m., Tristan Crist Magic Theatre, 262-248-0505, lakegenevamagic.com/brett-daniels. Tickets: $40 per person.

Daniels has been on TV in the U.S. and around the world, starring in multiple NBC, ABC and CBS specials. The shows at Tristan Crist Magic Theatre will be up-close performances filled with sleight of hand, magic and mind reading.

5. Lakeside Laughs Comedy Show  Saturday, April 30, 7:30-9:30 p.m., The Abbey Resort, 269 Fontana Blvd., Fontana, theabbeyresort.com. Tickets: $15.90.

Featuring five stand-up comedians: Anthony Fuentes, DJ Rybski, Jose Montero, Tyler Fowler and Zako Ryan. Must be at least 21 years old to attend. Cash bar and snacks available to purchase.

6. Mr. Lake Geneva Pageant  April 30, Badger High School, 220 E. South St., Lake Geneva. Tickets: $20. Visit the Lakes Area LifeWay page on eventbrite.com to purchase and for more details.

Ten well-known local business owners and community members will compete for the title in the first annual event. Competition consists of several rounds, including a group dance, talent portion, beach and evening wear, and interviews.

Contestants are Sean Payne, Daniel Derrick, Nick Nottestad, Mike Giovingo, Scot Hodkiewicz, Paul Denecke, Simon Schuessler, Jim Gaugert, Danny Zientek and David Scotney.

Each contestant is also competing to raise the most funds for Never Say Never Playland.

7. David Becker demo  Thursday, April 28, 7 p.m., Gallery 223, 223 Broad St., Lake Geneva, www.genevalakeartsfoundation.org. Free live painting demonstration. For more, see article in this week's Resorter.

8. Halfway to Halloween  April 30, 9 p.m.-2:30 a.m., Thumbs Up, 260 Broad St., Lake Geneva, thumbsuplakegeneva.com.

Can't wait for Oct. 31? Celebrate the halfway mark by wearing a costume and attending this party, with music provided by DJ Jones.

9. "The Busybody"  Tuesday-Friday, April 26-29, 7:30 p.m., Barnett Theatre in Greenhill Center of the Arts, 950 W. Main St., Whitewater; Saturday, April 30, 2 p.m., Frawley Family Amphitheater in Cravath Lakefront Park, 341 S. Fremont St., Whitewater; and Sunday, May 1, 2 p.m., Barnett Theatre. Tickets: $10 for those younger than 18, $14 for those over age 65; and $16 for adults. Purchase at tickets.uww.edu or call 262-472-2222.

By Susanna Centlivre, one of the most highly acclaimed female playwrights of the 18th century, the production marks the final show of the theater/dance season for UW-Whitewater. The April 30 outdoor performance is free to attend. Audience should bring its own chairs, snacks and beverages.

Event calendar

Petite Prom  Friday, April 29, 5:30 p.m., 303 E. Walworth Ave., Delavan, aramlibrary.org, 262-728-3111.

Parents, grandparents, families and friends can shake, wiggle and giggle in their finest attire at a fancy dance party for ages 10 and younger with their adults. Refreshments will be served. Registration encouraged.

Cinco De Mayo  Friday-Sunday, May 6-8, Phoenix Park Bandshell, 111 E. Wisconsin St., Delavan. Visit the event page on Facebook for updates.

Live music, dancing, food, a car show and more are scheduled for the three-day event. Schedule so far is:

Friday, May 6  DJ Rudy, 5 p.m.; Lizvette Duran, 6 p.m.; and Anejo Norteno, 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 7  DJ Rudy, 10 a.m.; car show 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; Cedric Square, noon; Comparsa Mexico 1 p.m.; jalapeno contest and car show 2 p.m.; DJ Rudy 3 p.m.; Tlaloc Huerta 4 p.m.; Selena tribute 5 p.m.; Alexandra Salgado 6 p.m.; and Los del 608 7 p.m.

Sunday, May 8  Mass 10 a.m.; DJ Rudy noon; Groupo Folclorico Regional Tercera Generacion 1 p.m.; Guadalupe Ibarra-Luna 2 p.m.; and Adrianna and the Boyz 3-5 p.m.

Taste of Fontana  Saturday, May 7, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Lake Home Living, 543 Valley View Drive, Fontana, 262-394-5658.

An open house with homemade European cooking. Also, on Sunday, May 8, free treats for moms on Mothers Day from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Maifest 2022  May 7, 1-5 p.m., East Troy Brewery, 2905 Main St., East Troy. Visit event page on Facebook for updates.

Celebrate spring with live music by The Biermen and the D'Oberlandler's German Dancers, with German food specials and the release of the brewery's Maibock beer.

Kentucky Derby Party  May 7, 1-6:30 p.m., The Bottle Shop, 617 W. Main St., Lake Geneva, thebottleshoplakegeneva.com, 262-348-9463. Tickets: $30 plus tax.

Celebrating the derby with a party to benefit The Horse Power in Eagle. Various fun activities leading up to the derby, including bags for $5 a team, a hat contest, horse race game, food, drink specials, door prize, silent auction and raffle, and a viewing of the Run for the Roses at 5:58 p.m.

Kentucky Derby Party  May 7, 1:30 p.m., Maxwell Mansion, 304 S. Wells St., Lake Geneva, staymaxwell.com, 262-248-9711.

Wear your biggest hats and bowties to enjoy an afternoon of watching the races. Prizes will be awarded to best couple, best best hat and two best dressed. Signature Derby cocktails perfect for the patio.

Live Comedy's Back  May 7, 6 and 8 p.m., The Bottle Shop, 617 W. Main St., Lake Geneva, thebottleshoplakegeneva.com, 262-348-9463. Tickets: $25 plus tax. Purchase at The Bottle Shop.

Featuring Will Eisenberg, Dan Docimo and Geoffrey Asmus. Strong language. Shows for ages 21 and older.

Toga Party  May 7, 9 p.m.-2:30 a.m., Thumbs Up, thumbsuplakegeneva.com.

Join DJ Hollywood and sport your best toga for drink specials.

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BURLINGTON  A now-former staff member at Dyer Elementary School has been arrested and is facing felony charges for alleged inappropriate contact with students. According to one parent, reports about the mans concerning behavior were made at least two months before he was suspended and investigations began.

The Burlington Area School District did not initially identify the staff member, but Tuesday afternoon Sheriff Christopher Schmaling identified him as Daniel D. Powers, a teachers aide who had worked for BASD for approximately 15 years. He is being held on a $50,000 cash bond and, if released, would be held under house arrest, according to online court records.

According to an alert from the Racine County Sheriffs Office Tuesday, Powers was placed on administrative leave on April 13 and was terminated from his post on April 19.

Kaitlynn Ropp is the mother of a 9-year-old old who said that Powers had talked to them (the 9-year-old and her classmates) inappropriately.

Ropp said she met with Dyer Principal Scott Schimmel in February after her daughter told her about Powers allegedly harassing behavior, including that he had repeatedly and forcefully told her daughter to smile and that she would be more beautiful if you would just smile, and that he once told her daughter she had nice long legs when she was wearing a skort.

According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, one girl told an investigator that Mr. Powers, during her first and second class of the day during the 2021-2022 school year, would touch her nearly every day in ways that made her uncomfortable. According to the investigator, the girl said Mr. Powers would reach under her shirt and touch her on her stomach and chest. (The girl) described the touching as like a tickle that she did not like. (The girl) also described how Mr. Powers would touch her legs, specifically that he would rub her thighs and put his hands under her pants leg and touch her calves and ankles.

Another girl reported that he tickled her back and that she would ask him to stop but he would not and that this happened more frequently when her teachers were not in the room.

During that February face-to-face meeting, Ropp said that Schimmel personally vouched for Powers and told Ropp that he (Powers) wasnt like that.

The school system failed me and my family, Ropp said during a Tuesday night interview with The Journal Times.

Ropp said her daughter has not been going to school this week, following the other allegations being made public. Ropp said she was told by the RCSO investigator leading the case that about a half-dozen students have come forward with allegations.

Dyer Elementary, located at 201 S. Kendrick Ave., serves students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

BASD response

A new statement from the Burlington Area School District, issued Wednesday after Powers was criminally charged, did not answer several of the questions asked by The Journal Times.

The statement opened by saying The Burlington Area School District recognizes that every day, parents and guardians entrust the district with their children. When there is a violation of this trust, we take it seriously as the safety and well-being of students will always be a top priority. We do not tolerate employee misconduct, and therefore we took swift action internally in the incident that has now been reported by the Racine County Sheriffs Office.

The statement did not address questions including if any other staff members are under investigation and did not mention the complaint raised by Ropp in February.

Instead, the statement said The district office received information on April 13, 2022 regarding a staff member making students uncomfortable. That day, the Burlington Area School District placed the staff member on leave pending the outcome of an investigation. Following protocol, the district worked with the Burlington Police Department, which had independently received the same complaint  The district substantiated the initial complaint and moved to terminate the employee on April 20, 2022. The next day, on April 21, 2022, the district communicated to Dyer Elementary School staff and families.

The statement concluded: The Burlington Area School District will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as they conduct their investigation.

Investigator To contact RCSO Investigator Andrew Willis, who is leading the investigation into allegations levied against Daniel Powers, email andrew.willis@racinecounty.com or call 262-636-3323.

Letter

Officials at the Burlington Area School District vaguely described the allegations in a letter sent to parents last week. It stated that the not-yet-unidentified Dyer staff member had been invading the personal space of a student, including hugging, rubbing a students back, touching hair and pushing on a swing.

Ropp said her daughters friend had been touched on the thigh and that her daughter was touched on the shoulder/arm by Powers. Ropp said her daughter told her teacher, who said it wasnt a big deal.

The letter, signed by School Superintendent Steve Plank and Schimmel, said the situation was reported by a student one week earlier, which Ropp said is inaccurate considering her February meeting with Schimmel.

During a meeting with school administration on Monday, Ropp asked what protocols the school had in place, to which she was told the school does routine background checks. You need to give me more than a (expletive) background check, she said during an interview Tuesday.

Adrianne Melby, the wife of 2022 school board candidate Aaron Melby, wrote in a Facebook comment The principal of DYER school in Burlington Area School District should be fired IMMEDIATELY. He was made aware of this issue previously and dismissed parental concerns. That comment received more than 140 likes in about 12 hours.

The letter from BASD to parents further stated that an investigation found that the staff employees behavior was not appropriate for an elementary school setting, officials said.

We take great pride in offering an environment that supports learning and is safe for everyone, the letter stated. Our school is a small, compassionate community with committed staff and students who care about each other.

Officials urged all families to talk with their children about protecting their personal space and preventing unwanted touching by adults they may not know well.

Criminal investigation

Powers was arrested Monday, according to the RCSO, and is being held at Racine County Jail. The Sheriffs Office has recommended charges including three counts of repeated sexual assault of a child and three counts of misconduct in office, all felonies.

The Racine County District Attorneys Office is charging Powers with just the three counts of repeated sexual assault of a child, although more charges could be coming. According to the criminal complaint filed Wednesday, At time of filing of this complaint  there are numerous additional girls from Dyer Elementary School awaiting forensic interviewing.

The Sheriffs Office reported that its investigation began Monday, April 18, when contacted by a parent; Ropp said she was not that parent, but she was contacted later by the investigator who said her daughters name had been mentioned by another student who came forward.

The parent, Tuesdays alert said, reported multiple instances of inappropriate conduct by a Teachers Aide  (including) physical contact with students  during the 2021-2022 school year.

In a statement, Schmaling said There is nothing more precious than the innocence of a child, and I pledge that I will bring the full force of the Sheriffs Office to investigate every and all allegations of inappropriate conduct with children so that the perpetrator, if guilty, can be brought to justice and duly held accountable.

Correction: The headline of this story initially misstated the grade that Kaitlynn Ropp's daughter is in. It is now correct.
BURLINGTON  A now-former staff member at Dyer Elementary School has been arrested and may soon face criminal charges for alleged inappropriate contact with students.

The Burlington Area School District did not initially identify the staff member, but Tuesday afternoon Sheriff Christopher Schmaling identified him as Daniel D. Powers, a teacher's aide who had worked for BASD "for approximately 15 years."

According to an alert from the Racine County Sheriff's Office, Powers was placed on administrative leave on April 13 and "terminated" from his post on April 19.

Officials at the Burlington Area School District wrote in a letter sent to parents last week vaguely describing the allegations, stating that the then-unidentified Dyer staff member had been "invading the personal space of a student," including hugging, rubbing a students back, touching hair and pushing on a swing.

The age and sex of the student or students involved was not disclosed.

The letter signed by School Superintendent Steve Plank and Dyer Principal Scott Schimmel said the situation was reported by a student one week earlier. An investigation found that the staff employee's behavior was "not appropriate for an elementary school setting," officials said.

"We take great pride in offering an environment that supports learning and is safe for everyone," the letter stated. "Our school is a small, compassionate community with committed staff and students who care about each other."

Dyer Elementary, located at 201 S. Kendrick Ave., serves students in pre-kindergarten through 5th grade.

Officials urged all families to talk with their children about protecting their personal space and preventing unwanted touching by adults they may not know well.

Powers was arrested Monday, according to the RCSO, and is being held at Racine County Jail. The Sheriff's Office has recommended charges including three counts of repeated sexual assault of a child and three counts of misconduct in office, all felonies.

The Sheriff's Office reported that its investigation began Monday, April 18, when contacted by a parent. "The parent reported multiple instances of inappropriate conduct by a Teachers Aide  included (sic) physical contact with students  during the 2021-2022 school year," Tuesday's alert said.

To contact RCSO Investigator Andrew Willis, who is leading the investigation, call 262-636-3323 or email andrew.willis@racinecounty.com.

In a statement, Schmaling said There is nothing more precious than the innocence of a child, and I pledge that I will bring the full force of the Sheriffs Office to investigate every and all allegations of inappropriate conduct with children so that the perpetrator, if guilty, can be brought to justice and duly held accountable.

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Earlier this month, the Lake Geneva City Council approved money to conduct a study to determine if the city should increase its impact fees for new development projects and what fees would be justified.

Normally, we would get a bit squeamish when new fees are suggested. But it makes sense to determine what fees should be implemented for new development. That is a one-time fee when something is first built.

Essentially the impact fees are fees that the city assesses to help fund future community needs. For every new development, there is a cost to the community. Those residents will need police and fire protection. Many will also want to utilize the citys parks and library and other recreation areas.

They will use streets and sidewalks.

The city currently collects a $1,865 waste water impact fee, $1,690 water impact fee and $230 park impact fee. However, the city could collect an impact fee for the police department, fire department, library and other city departments if a study determines that they are necessary.

The city previously had additional impact fees, but the City Council voted to eliminate those in 2013.

The consultant will look at the future needs of the citys various departments and quantify what facilities are needed and accurately determine what those impact fees will be and construct a fee structure, City Administrator Dave Nord said. To be clear, the State of Wisconsin has very specific laws regarding what type of facility needs are eligible to have an impact fee.

It makes sense for the city to study what is a reasonable one-time fee for these new developments.

As we say that, we stress that it should be a reasonable fee.

Having a developer pay an extra $1,000 before building a new house could be reasonable. But having a developer pay an extra $10,000 would not be reasonable.

Also its important to make sure these new funds would be properly allocated to help better the community going into the future, not just sucked into the general fund.

Right now developers are constantly knocking on the citys door, wanting to build. The city does have to keep its growth in check and that message was clear during the recent mayoral election with both candidates stressing the importance. But some growth and development is already in the works.

By increasing impact fees, maybe the city could turn to that bucket for some of its designated funding instead of tacking it on annual tax bills and instead of constantly upping the cost of downtown parking.

The Regional News editorial board consists of General Manager Robert Ireland, Editor Stephanie Jones, and community members Patrick Quinn and Elizabeth Lupo DiVito.
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 27 (ANI): Releasing the Marathi translated book 'Amit Shah and BJP's journey' at Rabindra Natyamandir in Mumbai's Dadar, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said that Shah's inspiring journey will guide the new generation.

Fadnavis said that Shah has a unique art of converting challenges into opportunities, adding that he always insists that the most backward people of the society should be the centrepiece of the party.

Also Read | LIC IPO To Launch on May 4: Price Band, Important Dates; All You Need To Know About LIC IPO.

Addressing the book launch event, Shah said, "Devendra Fadnavis said that the book 'Amit Shah and BJP's journey' written on Union Home Minister Amit Shah is an important graph of his journey. It tells how an ordinary worker grows in the Bharatiya Janata Party. Amit Shah's personality cannot be understood just by winning or losing elections. Many chapters have emerged from this book, such as the newly formed disciplined structure of the BJP, Sangh's values at the grassroots level, his journey across the country to expand the party, and his constant interactions with the party workers."

He further said, "Opponents often try to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi by targeting Amit Shah. However, the strong and sensitive Amit Bhai overpowered the opposition. His appreciation as a modern Chanakya is significant. He considers Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Chanakya and Savarkar as his inspiration. He has written a book in Gujarati after studying the history of Marathas and it will be published soon. Amit Shah, who looks strong from above, is a family man. Fadnavis said that he is well versed in Indian music."

Also Read | India Records 2,927 Fresh COVID-19 Cases, 32 Deaths in Last 24 Hours.

"In 2014, when it was decided to fight without an alliance with Shiv Sena, Amit Shah was in Mumbai for one and a half months observing the election. As a result, BJP got great success and this myth was changed changed the myth that Shiv Sena is the elder brother and the BJP is the younger brother. It was because of Amit Shah that Maharashtra understood who is the elder brother," he added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], April 27 (ANI): The Education Ministry has scrapped quotas in several categories including that of Member of Parliament (MP) and District Magistrate (DM) for admissions to Kendriya Vidyalayas, according to the latest circular issued by the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS).

Earlier, the KVS had put on hold all discretionary quotas, including the MP quota, for admissions to KV schools across the country, following a review.

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"In a revolutionary step to streamline admissions in Kendriya Vidyalas and improve the quality of education, it has been decided to discontinue several discretionary quotas which were beyond the approved students' strength," government sources told ANI.

Recently, a review of KVS functioning was carried out by the Education Minister and Chairman KVS Dharmendra Pradhan in which it was observed that these quotas crowd the classrooms, adversely affecting the Pupil-Teacher ratio and the quality of teaching-learning, sources said.

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The government official further informed that the discretionary quotas had also distorted the overall percentage of SC/ST/OBC reservations in the schools.

"Keeping all these factors in mind, the decision has been taken to discontinue discretionary quotas of the Ministry of Education, Sponsoring Agency, MPs, etc. There was a long practice of recommending students by the Minister of Education, but the same has been discontinued," the sources stated.

According to the official, it shall be noted that even in 2021-22, the education minister did not recommend a single admission under his quota and the provision of recommending up to ten cases by each MP is also discontinued.

Moreover, there were provisions of thousands of admissions under quotas of sponsoring agencies and Chairpersons Vidyala Management Committees, that is, District Collectors, which have now also been discontinued, sources said adding that it will free up about 40,000 seats in KVs across the country.

Meanwhile, a KV official also informed that the provision of admission under quota will still continue for some categories including single girl children, orphaned kids, etc.

"The provision of admissions will continue for a single girl child and those orphaned due to COVID under PM CARES Children scheme. A small number of discretionary quotas for wards of Kashmiri migrants, paramilitary forces, intelligence agencies, etc. still continue. Moreover, children of serving employees of KVs, meritorious children in fine arts, sports, recipients of bravery awards, etc. shall also continue to be provided admission under discretionary quota. Even these quotas will be implemented at the local level only, after careful examinations of relevant documents by school principals," the KV official told ANI.

The KV official also said these steps will ensure that KVs become the finest schools, which will impart quality education as per the mandate of the National Education Policy 2020. (ANI)

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Mumbai, Apr 27 (PTI) Amid a rise in coronavirus cases in parts of the country, wearing of masks at crowded places in Maharashtra could be made mandatory again, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Wednesday, a statement which comes over three weeks after lifting of all COVID-19 restrictions in the state.

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Tope, however, stressed that there was no need to panic as the count of active cases in the state still stood below 1,000, while the number of cases per million in the state was far less than other states.

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Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is expected to hold a meeting with the district collectors in the state to discuss the issue with them, he said.

Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 153 new coronavirus infections, including 102 in state capital Mumbai, which saw its highest one-day rise (on Tuesday) after February 27.

"I feel this decision (about making wearing of masks compulsory in public places) could be taken after the meeting," Tope told reporters here after a virtual meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with state chief ministers on the emerging COVID-19 situation in the country.

He said Delhi has made masks mandatory and is even imposing a fine of Rs 500. Even masks restrictions are back in district of Uttar Pradesh adjoining Delhi, he said.

"The general discussion in the health department is that masks be made compulsory at crowded places," he added.

Maharashtra had done away all the COVID-19 related restrictions on April 2 on the occasion of Gudhi Padwa, the Marathi New Year. However, Tope had then urged people to wear masks voluntarily to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Amid a rise in infections in some parts of the country, Tope said, "Maharashtra in a safe zone. No need to panic."

He said the active cases in the state stood at 929 as on Wednesday and the state has seen over 56,000-70,000 active cases at one point of time.

The minister said that currently 25,000 tests are being conducted in the state daily on an average and this number will be ramped up.

Tope said tracking of COVID-19 contacts will be intensified.

Maharashtra doesn't have any new variant of SARS-COV-2, but still genome sequencing will be ramped up in the state, he said.

The health minister said that on the vaccination front, Maharashtra ranks near the national average, but it is behind in the inoculation of children in the age group of 12-15 and 15-17 years.

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Hubli (Karnataka) [India], April 27 (ANI): As many as 146 people, including All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Corporator Nazeer Ahmed Honyal, were arrested in connection with the stone-pelting incident that took place at Old Hubli Police Station on April 16, the police informed on Wednesday.

On Saturday, the AIMIM leader and Hubli unit president Dadapeer Betgeri was arrested in connection with the incident.

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Earlier, the husband of AIMIM Corporator Irfan Nalvatwad was also arrested.

"Out of 146, 145 accused were sent to Hubli, Dharwad, Ballari, Mysore and Kalburgi jail for judicial custody till May 30. Accused number one Wasim Pathan is in police custody," said Police commissioner N Labhuram, Hubli Dharwad Commissionerate.

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The stone-pelting incident took place at Old Hubli Police Station on April 16 in which several policemen, including one inspector was injured. The mob which gathered outside the police station suddenly turned violent and started pelting stones at the police station and police vehicles.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has assured action against the perpetrators of the incident.

"Police will not hesitate to take stringent action against those who take the law into their hands. We will act against those who instigated it too. Let us not give political colours to it," Bommai said. (ANI)

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 27 (ANI): The judicial inquiry commission probing the Bhima Koregaon case summoned Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on May 5 and May 6, asking him to be present as a witness during the hearing in Mumbai.

In February, when the commission had summoned Pawar, he had sought more time from the commission to file the affidavit, and then the commission had given him more time.

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inquiry commission's lawyer Ashish Satpute told that the affidavit has now been filed before the commission on behalf of Sharad Pawar, so he has been summoned by the commission as a witness on May 5 and 6, these two dates.

Maharashtra government-appointed inquiry Commission is probing the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence.

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On January 2, 2018, violence erupted at an event to mark 100 years of the Bhima-Koregaon battle, leaving one dead and several injured, including 10 policemen.

The police had filed 58 cases against 162 people during a state-wide shutdown in January following clashes in Bheema-Koregaon. (ANI)

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Lucknow, Apr 27 (PTI) An Allahabad High court judge withdrew himself on Wednesday from a bench hearing the bail plea of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra Monu in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.

Justice Rajeev Singh of the Lucknow bench of the high court, who had granted bail to Ashish Mishra earlier, recused himself from hearing it again after the Supreme Court cancelled his bail order last week on April 18.

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While cancelling Mishra's bail, the Supreme Court had also asked the high court to decide his bail plea afresh and the plea came up for hearing before Justice Singh's bench. But he recused himself from hearing it afresh.

Justice Singh, however, gave no reason for withdrawing himself from the single-judge bench hearing the bail plea.

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The next hearing of the bail plea too was not scheduled and it would be fixed for the next hearing after the constitution of a new bench to hear it, a court official said.

Ashish Mishra had been arrested in the October 3 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case in which eight people, including four farmers and a journalist, were killed and several others were injured when a convoy of SUVs, including a Thar allegedly owned by Ajay Mishra, had run over a group of protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri.

In the violence that followed, two BJP workers and the driver of the Thar vehicle too were killed. The farmers were protesting against the then Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's visit to the area on October 3 last year.

According to the FIR lodged in the case, Ashish Mishra was sitting in one of the cars.

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had granted regular bail to Ashish Mishra, observing that the present case was one of "accident by hitting with the vehicle".

But the Supreme Court cancelled the bail, saying that the victims were denied "a fair and effective hearing" by the Allahabad High Court, which adopted a "myopic view of the evidence".

The top court had also Ashish Mishra to surrender before the court and asked the high court to hear Mishra's bail plea afresh.

Mishra had surrendered before the court of Lakhimpur Kheri's chief judicial magistrate on Sunday.

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Noida, Apr 27 (PTI) With the arrest of one person from Noida, the Cyber Cell of Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday claimed to have busted an online fraud nexus worth Rs 3,000 crore with links in China.

The gang duped people on the pretext of getting them part-time jobs in prominent firms or doubling the return on their invested money, Superintendent of Police, UP Cyber Cell, Triveni Singh said.

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"An accused, part of the gang, has been arrested from Noida by officials of the Noida Cyber police station. A case of online fraud worth over Rs 2 lakh was lodged in the case in Bareilly," Singh said.

The accused has been identified as 35-year-old Manzarul Islam, a native of West Bengal, he said.

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During the investigation of this case and other similar frauds, the police found that the amount of money cheated from the accounts of the victim was found transferred through UPI ids into crypto wallets which were being handled from China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, he said.

"For the part-time job fraud and investment fraud, the gang used to send bulk messages to people. These bulk messages were generated from servers located in China," Singh told PTI.

"The Cyber Cell has also traced that the money duped from gullible people was withdrawn in China," the senior IPS officer said.

Further investigation in the case in underway, he said.

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Jaipur, Apr 27 (PTI) As Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged higher fuel prices in many opposition-ruled states including Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Wednesday said the PM "by mistake instead of saying Bhopal, mentioned Jaipur" as petrol and diesel cost more in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress leader also said Rajasthan government reduced VATs on diesel and petrol on three occasions, which resulted an annual revenue loss of about Rs 6,300 crore "but the PM only mentioned the revenue loss of 6,000 crores of Karnataka and Rs 3500-4000 crores of Gujarat (both states ruled by BJP)".

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He claimed the Centre has earned about Rs 26 lakh crore from excise duty in eight years which, he said, is the highest amount earned by any dispensation in the history of the country by imposing tax on petrol and diesel.

The PM talked about VAT levied by states, but did not give information about the excise of the Central government, he said.

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The PM in a meeting with CMs earlier in the day had urged states to reduce VAT to benefit of the people. He mentioned names of cities including Jaipur and fuel price there.

After the review meeting, the CM said that Modi alleged that the excise duty was reduced by the Central government but many states did not reduce VAT, due to which the relief was not passed onto people.

"The PM took the name of Jaipur but wanted to give that message only to the BJP-ruled states because even today the prices of petrol and diesel in Bhopal are higher than that in Jaipur. Perhaps by mistake instead of saying Bhopal', he mentioned Jaipur'," he said in a statement.

Gehlot said the Rajasthan government had reduced VAT by two percent on petrol and diesel on January 29, 2021, while the Centre had not reduced the excise duty at that time.

"Two days later in the budget 2021-22, the Government of India imposed a new cess of Rs 4 on diesel and Rs 2.5 per liter on petrol in the name of Agriculture Infrastructure and Development due to which, the people of Rajasthan could not get the benefit of reduction in VAT by 2 percent.

"On 4 November 2021, the central government reduced the excise duty on petrol by Rs 5 and diesel by Rs 10 per liter whereas during the lockdown in May 2020, the government had increased the excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 and diesel by Rs 13 per liter, which means that the amount of excise duty increased in Covid was not even reduced completely, he said.

He said the VAT of the states is levied on the excise duty of the Centre, therefore, by reducing the excise duty, the VAT automatically gets reduced.

For this reason, due to reduction in excise duty on November 4, 2021, the Rajasthan government's VAT automatically reduced by Rs 1.80 per liter on petrol and Rs 2.60 per liter on diesel, he said.

"To give relief to the common man, the state government on November, 17, 2021 reduced VAT on petrol by 4.96 per cent and on diesel by 6.70 per cent. Due to the reduction made thrice by the state, there was a revenue loss of about Rs 6,300 crore per year, but the PM only mentioned the revenue loss of 6,000 crores of Karnataka and Rs 3500-4000 crores of Gujarat," said Gehlot.

He said that Modi probably mentioned these two states in view of the upcoming assembly elections there.

"In May 2014, when Modi became the Prime Minister, excise duty was Rs 9.20 per liter on petrol and Rs 3.46 per liter on diesel, but today excise duty is Rs 27.90 per liter on petrol and Rs 21.80 per liter on diesel. During the UPA government, the states used to get their share of excise duty, but now the share of the states has been continuously reduced to just a few paise per liter so the states are forced to increase their VAT, he said.

During the tenure of Modi government, the average prices of crude oil in the international market has been USD 61 per barrel, even then petrol is being sold at more than Rs 110 and diesel at more than Rs 100 per liter, he said.

During the tenure of the UPA government, the price of crude oil was USD 100 per barrel but, petrol was not allowed to be costlier, he added.

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New Delhi, Apr 27 (PTI)

The Supreme Court Wednesday said that Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) as a statutory corporation is bound by the mandate of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution as it directed fresh verification of the claim of absorption of temporary workers into a four-decades-old dispute.

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It said that as a public employer, the recruitment process of the corporation must meet the constitutional standard of a fair and open process, and allowing for back-door entries into service is anathema to public service.

The top court-appointed a committee consisting of former judge of Allahabad High Court Justice P K S Baghel and former district judge Rajiv Sharma of Uttar Pradesh Higher Judicial Services to carry out a fresh verification of the claims of workers who claim to have been employed for at least 70 days in Class IV posts over a period of three years or 85 days in Class III posts over two years.

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A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and Vikram Nath made the remarks while deciding a four-decades-old dispute of temporary/badli/ part-time workers who were engaged by the LIC to discharge its functions on a batch of pleas for their claims of absorption by the corporation.

LIC as a statutory corporation is bound by the mandate of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. As a public employer, the recruitment process of the corporation must meet the constitutional standard of a fair and open process. Allowing for back-door entries into service is anathema to public service, the bench said.

The bench in its 90-page verdict said that the remit of the Central Government Industrial Tribunal (CGIT) which resulted in the Dogra Report (named after its presiding officer) was confined to the process of verification, as distinct from an adjudication of rights and liabilities.

It held that the Dogra Report is flawed because the report failed to carry out an accurate verification of only those Class III workers who had put in at least 85 days of work in a period of two years and Class IV workers who had put in 70 days of work in a period of three years.

The bench said that the lists which are appended to the report contain patent inconsistencies and errors as a consequence of a failure to carry out an adequate verification.

The report accepted the claims for absorption of those workers who were specifically governed by the decision of this Court in E Prabavathy (earlier verdict), in spite of an express stipulation to the contrary in the order of this Court dated October 23, 1992, as well as inthe Srivastav Award, it said.

The bench said that a public employer such as LIC cannot be directed to carry out a mass absorption of over 11,000 workers on such flawed premises without following a recruitment process that is consistent with the principles of equality of opportunity governed by Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

Such an absorption would provide the very back-door entry, which negates the principle of equal opportunity and fairness in public employment, which has been specifically decried by this Court in Secretary, State of Karnataka v. Umadevi (2006 verdict), the bench said.

It added that the dispute is now of antiquity tracing back to nearly four decades and finality has to be wrung down on the dispute to avoid uncertainty and more litigation.

Nearly thirty-one years have elapsed since 1991. We have come to the conclusion that the claims of those workers who are duly found upon verification to meet the threshold conditions of eligibility should be resolved by the award of monetary compensation in lieu of absorption, and in full and final settlement of all claims and demands, it said.

It directed that a fresh verification of the claims of workers who claim to have been employed for at least 70 days in Class IV posts over a period of three years or 85 days in Class III posts over a period of two years shall be carried out.

The bench said that the verification shall be confined to persons who were working between May 20, 1985, and March 4, 1991.

All persons who are found to be eligible on the above norm shall be entitled to compensation computed at the rate of Rs 50,000 for every year of service or part thereof. The payment of compensation at the above rate shall be in lieu of reinstatement, and full and final settlement of all claims and demands of the workers in lieu of regularisation or absorption and notwithstanding the directions issued by this Court, it said.

The bench said that in carrying out the process of verification, the Committee appointed by this Court shall not be confined to the certified list before the CGIT and shall consider the claims of all workers who were engaged between May 20, 1985, and March 4, 1991.

It said that for verification, LIC shall make available all the records at the Divisional level to the Committee appointed by this Court.

It will be open to the workers concerned or, as the case may be, the Unions and Associations representing them, to make available such documentary material in their possession for the purpose of verification, it said.

The top court added that the process of verification shall be carried out independently without regard to the Dogra Report, which is held to be flawed.

The payment of compensation in lieu of reinstatement shall be effected by LIC within a period of three months from the date of receipt of the report of verification by the Committee, it said.

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Chandigarh, Apr 27 (PTI) Bus services of the state-owned undertakings up to the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi will resume soon, Punjab Transport Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar said on Wednesday.

After a discussion between the chief ministers of Punjab and Delhi, the issue has been taken up during the secretary-level meeting of the transport departments of both the states, Bhullar said.

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He said during a recent meeting with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, he apprised him about this long-pending issue, which was directly connected with an increase in the revenue of the transport department, according to an official release.

"I also informed the chief minister about the issue of looting of state's passengers by private bus operators due to non-availability of public bus service", the Punjab Transport Minister said.

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Mann had recently taken up the matter with his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal.

Bhullar said he had asked Transport Secretary Vikas Garg to hold a meeting with the Delhi government officials concerned.

A meeting between Garg with Delhi Principal Transport Secretary Ashish Kundra and officials of the IGI Airport was held on Wednesday.

The transport minister said the state-owned buses would be able to provide affordable service to passengers up to the Delhi airport from different cities of Punjab.

Transport Secretary Garg said during the meeting, Kundra assured that this issue would be resolved soon and state-owned buses would be able to ply up to the Delhi airport.

The previous Congress regime had accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi of not allowing state-owned buses to ply up to the Delhi international airport.

Congress legislator Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who was the transport minister in the previous Charanjit Singh Channi-led government, had even asked Kejriwal in Amritsar in December last year why his government was not letting Punjab's state-owned buses travel up to the Delhi airport.

Warring had then said that private buses that charge almost thrice the fare were being allowed to ply all the way to the IGI Airport but Volvo buses of the state transport undertaking had been barred from travelling to the Delhi airport.

In March this year, Congress legislator Partap Singh Bajwa had sought from Chief Minister Mann to raise with Kejriwal the issue of allowing state-owned buses to travel up to the international airport in the national capital.

Bajwa had said the state-owned transport undertakings -- Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) and Punbus -- were not allowed to ply all the way to the Delhi airport.

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Sao Paulo, Apr 28 (AP) Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro is once again at odds with the country's Supreme Court, pardoning a congressman who had just been convicted by high court justices for urging violence against one of them.

Justices may review the pardon, and the case threatens to become an institutional crisis as Bolsonaro is gearing up to seek a second term.

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In a nearly unanimous vote, Brazil's top court on April 20 sentenced freshman lawmaker Daniel Silveira to almost nine years in prison for inciting physical attacks against Supreme Court justices  particularly Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presides over a separate investigation into the dissemination of fake news that had already led to a conviction of Silveira.

May the people enter the Supreme Court, grab Alexandre de Moraes by his collar, shake his egghead and throw him in a garbage can, Silveira said in a broadcast on social media in February 2021.

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The day after Silveira's conviction, Bolsonaro issued a decree pardoning him, citing the right to free speech. Three opposition parties have challenged the decree, claiming Brazil's constitution doesn't allow pardons based on personal motives, such as protecting an ally.

Brazilian presidents traditionally issue year-end pardons based on studies by legal experts at the Justice Ministry. Those have been criticised for freeing corrupt politicians along with other people convicted of nonviolent crimes.

But it's almost unheard of to pardon a specific presidential ally in the way that US leaders have sometimes done in cases such as those of Richard Nixon (by Gerald Ford), Marc Rich (by Bill Clinton) or Steve Bannon (by Donald Trump).

And Bolsonaro's move was especially provocative, according to Francisco Caputo, a constitutional law expert and member of the national council of Brazil's bar association.

"The way this one was written, mentioning he was trying to correct the Supreme Court, is defiant. Bolsonaro's decree says he had better understanding of the case than the country's top court."

A commission of Brazil's bar association on Wednesday said that Bolsonaro's pardon is unconstitutional as it is not in the public interest. The commission also said it was biased and lacking in morality.

The far-right president has long accused court justices  most of whom were confirmed during past leftist administrations  of trying improperly to frustrate his policies, and he has tried to stir up public opposition to them.

He rallied nationwide demonstrations in September in which protesters shouting Let's invade! pushed past police containment barriers at the Supreme Court, prompting justices to beef up their personal security.

Bolsonaro has been especially resentful of de Moraes, who will assume the presidency of the nation's top electoral court later this year  overseeing the upcoming presidential election. Last September, he threatened to ignore rulings by the justice, though he never did so.

Four of the justices, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to avoid further inflaming tensions, said they worry Bolsonaro could incite more violent demonstrations against the judiciary if they annul his pardon of Silveira.

An annulment may be a possibility in a Brazilian system whose courts appear to be more willing to intervene in pardon decisions than US judges are.

So far, the Supreme Court's justices haven't publicly challenged the legality of Bolsonaro's pardon, though at least two have written that the pardon will be reviewed by the court, though no date for that has been set. One of them, Rosa Weber, ruled Monday that that Bolsonaro's administration must provide justification for the pardon within 10 days.

The other, de Moraes, wrote in a document sent to Silveira's defense team on Tuesday that the pardon, while wiping away his jail time, would not free him to run for another congressional term.

Further stoking tensions between the executive and the judiciary, Justice Luis Roberto Barroso said during an April 24 speech that the armed forces are being directed to attack the (electoral) process and try to discredit it. He was referring to military leaders who had publicly echoed Bolsonaro's doubts about the reliability of Brazil's voting system.

Brazil's Defense Ministry, which oversees the armed forces, issued a statement saying Barroso's comments were irresponsible and constitute a grave offense."

The issue of the military's role hangs over the conflict in part because Bolsonaro has often praised the 1964 coup that put Brazil under military control until 1985. Bolsonaro's hard-core supporters frequently call on him to use a constitutional clause that lets presidents deploy the armed forces to enforce law and order alongside police and other agencies.

Some have suggested troops should be used against the court in some way, though experts overwhelmingly say that would be unconstitutional.

With elections set for October, Bolsonaro has frequently attacked the reliability of the electronic voting machines and claimed the race will be rigged unless there are printed receipts for voters, though experts say there's no evidence for that. Brazil's electoral authority oversees the electronic system, and includes some Supreme Court justices among its members. (AP)

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Kyiv [Ukraine], April 27 (ANI/Sputnik): The delegation of the Bulgarian coalition cabinet headed by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov is traveling to Kiev to negotiate possible arms supplies to Ukraine, Bulgarian broadcaster NOVA reported on Wednesday.

According to reports, the delegation included the representatives of three out of four ruling parties, notably, We Continue the Change, There Is Such a People (ITN) and Democratic Bulgaria parties. The leftist Bulgarian Socialist Party that opposes arms deliveries to Ukraine refused to join the visit, saying it has sufficient information about the country.

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The visit is aimed at evaluating the needs of the Ukrainian people as well as handing over helmets and body armors promised earlier, according to Petkov. Meanwhile, NOVA said that the ruling coalition is seeking to clarify the partners' positions on whether Sofia should support Kiev with weaponry or not.

In Kiev, Petkov is expected to hold meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, with the delegation also visiting the devastated towns in the Kiev suburbs - Borodyanka, Bucha and Irpen.

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Following last week's visit to Sofia by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba who asked Bulgaria for military assistance, Petkov announced on Monday the launching of a public fund-raising campaign for purchasing weapons for Ukraine. This initiative spurred a heated debate in the country, with some senior officials speaking against it.

On Wednesday, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska from the ITN party told NOVA that Sofia was "already too late" to take a clear stance on rendering military support to Ukraine. As for the initiative urging citizens to donate money for purchasing military supplies, the minister called it odd.

Genchovska did not join the visit to Ukraine, saying it was organized belatedly and noting that earlier there had been plenty of chances to demonstrate Bulgaria's solidarity with the Ukrainian people. (ANI/Sputnik)

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Vienna [Austria], April 27 (ANI/Sputnik): The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will establish a working group to coordinate assistance and support for personnel at Ukrainian nuclear facilities, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday.

Grossi, heading the expert mission to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP), arrived in Ukraine on April 26.

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"IAEA to set up a working group to coordinate assistance and support staff who are working hard to keep Ukraine nuclear sites safe and secure," Grossi wrote on Twitter.

He noted that the experts have already brought the first batch of equipment to conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems.

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Grossi also honoured the memory of the victims of the incident at the Chernobyl NPP 36 years after the tragedy.

In March, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the plants are operating normally, the radiation background remains normal, which is confirmed by the IAEA.

The Chernobyl power plant was destroyed in a meltdown on April 26, 1986. Nearly 3,000 square miles of territory in northern Ukraine and parts of Belarus were depopulated, with 1,000 square miles considered an exclusion zone due to elevated levels of radiation. The Chernobyl disaster is widely considered the worst nuclear accident in history. (ANI/Sputnik)

(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 27 (ANI): External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar will visit Bangladesh and Bhutan from April 28 to 30, said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday.

As per an official statement from MEA, during the visit to Bangladesh, Jaishankar will call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and also hold discussions with Bangladeshi counterpart Dr AK Abdul Momen.

Also Read | Ad Group WPP Raises Outlook on Booming Digital Demand  Latest Tweet by Reuters.

The EAM's forthcoming visit to Bangladesh may be seen in the context of frequent bilateral high-level visits and exchanges particularly as both sides commemorate 50 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties, said the statement.

Notably, Jaishankar last visited Bangladesh in March 2021.

Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Energy Prices Expected To Rise More Than 50% in 2022, Says World Bank Report.

During his visit to Bhutan, the EAM will receive an audience with Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and also call on Bhutan Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering. He will also meet his counterpart Dr Tandi Dorji.

India and Bhutan share a unique and time tested bilateral relationship, characterized by utmost trust, goodwill and mutual understanding, said the statement.

Jaishankar will be Bhutan's first high-level visitor from abroad since March 2020. During the visit, the two sides will discuss all issues of mutual interest, including the upcoming high-level exchanges, economic development and hydro-power cooperation. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Male [Maldives], April 23 (ANI): Maldives and Sri Lanka-- two nations whose economies are heavily dependent on tourism-- suffered a big blow due to COVID-enforced regulations after the outbreak of the pandemic.

Two years after the pandemic, Maldives's economy bounced back and is doing extremely well in comparison with Sri Lanka which is battling its worst economic crisis in the last four decades.

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Both the nations indulged a lot in borrowing money from foreign nations, especially China. Sri Lanka was a step ahead when it came to rendezvousing with China as it borrowed billions of dollars to build ports and airways to revive the economy after the end of the civil war in 2009, reported the Maldives Voice.

If one was smart, he would acknowledge Sri Lanka's experience and take it as a lesson but former president Yameen wasn't so bright as he made a similar deal with China, took burdening debts to build bridges and airports and threw the Maldives under the bus.

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The after-effects of the small courtship he had back then in 2017, are felt by the Maldives today as the pressure to pay back loans stacks on, the report further stated.

After Yameen's defeat in the 2018 presidential election and with President Ibu Solih attaining office, things changed drastically for the Maldives as President Ibu did a very commendable job to stabilize the situation in the Maldives.

But, on the contrary, as Rajapaksa was eyeing to enter his 3rd term of presidentship, he succumbed to defeat as mismanagement of his political assets, no concern for the public or their opinion, violation of human rights as well as suppression of democracy, the report highlighted.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since independence with food and fuel shortages, soaring prices and power cuts affecting a large number of the people, resulting in massive protests over the government's handling of the situation.

The economic situation has led to huge protests with demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

More than half a million people are on the breadline as Sri Lanka's debt has risen to 119 per cent.

Meanwhile, Maldives did not feel the blow of the damage to its maximum, despite being a tourism-based nation because President Ibu acted quickly on its crisis response plan for the tropical nation.

The IMF and the ADB report state that the Maldives will be among the five economies in the world that are expected to grow at the fastest pace in 2022.

Sri Lanka's economy, which is closest to the Maldives, has fallen into a state of disrepair, according to economic experts. However, if the Maldives government do not become cautious, the same faith will not take long to bestow upon the Maldives as the debt is already on the red line, Maldives Voice reported. (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 27 (ANI): Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi will be on an official visit to Panama, Honduras and Chile from April 28 to May 5, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday.

This will be her first visit to these countries. Earlier she had visited Colombia in September last year.

Also Read | Nepal Govt Bans Import of Luxurious Items Until Mid-July 2022 as Economic Crisis Deepens.

"During her visit to Panama from 28 April-1 May 2022, MoS will meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama, Erika Mouynes and Minister of Culture, H Giselle Gonzalez Villarue. The two sides will also sign agreements on Cultural Exchange Programme and Gainful Employment for dependents of officials of diplomatic mission/post," the MEA said in a statement.

The visit will provide an opportunity to review progress in the bilateral relations between the two countries since the visit of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to Panama in May 2018.

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As per MEA, Lekhi will visit Honduras from May 1 to May 3, where she will call on the President of Honduras, Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento. She will also meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Honduras, Ambassador Eduardo Enrique Reina to discuss various bilateral, regional and international issues.

The Minister of State will also lay the foundation stone for the Jamastran Valley Irrigation project funded by the Government of India through Lines of Credit.

She will visit the IT Center National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) which was set up in 2008 with Government of India's assistance and currently has trained more than 20,000 students. In Santiago, Lekhi will meet with Chilean Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola Noguera and the Chilean Minister for Culture, Arts and Heritage, Julieta Brodsky Hernandez.

India-Chile total trade for the year 2021-22 was USD 2.35 billion, as compared to USD 1.47 billion in 2020-21.

The visit will add fresh momentum to India-Chile relations under the new government of President Gabriel Boric Font.

"MOS will address and interact with the Indian diaspora and participate in curtain-raiser events for IDY 2022 and celebration of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav in all the three countries. With about 15,000 Persons of Indian Origin, Panama is home to the largest Indian diaspora in Latin America," the MEA statement reads. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Lahore, Apr 27 (PTI) Pakistan's Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday instructed Punjab Governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema to ensure Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz's oath-taking process is completed on or before April 28.

The decision was announced in an open court on a petition filed by Hamza seeking the court's direction to the Senate chairman to administer oath to him, the Dawn News reported.

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Hamza, 48, the son of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was elected as the new chief minister of Punjab on April 16. However, due to political rivalry between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and ousted prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Hamza could not be sworn in as the chief minister.

In its three-page verdict, LHC Chief Justice Ameer Bhatti ruled that all provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan suggest prompt formation of governments, both federal and provincial.

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"For that matter, expeditious administration of oath either by President or by Governor or their nominee, as the case may be, is mandatory," he said, pointing out that there was no "vacuum" or "space" in the Constitution to delay the administration of oath.

Justice Bhatti underscored that Punjab was being operated without a functional government for the last 25 days since the acceptance of former Chief Minister Usman Buzdar's resignation.

"On the other hand, the oath of the newly elected Chief Minister Punjab Mr. Muhammad Hamza Shahbaz Sharif is being delayed on one pretext or the other, which is not only against democratic norms but also against the scheme of the Constitution," Justice Bhatti said.

The court directed Cheema to "ensure the completion of the process of administration of oath of Chief Minister Punjab, either himself or through his nominee, in terms of Article 255 of the Constitution, on or before 28.04.2022."

In his petition, Hamza had said the officials "inability and unwillingness" to perform the oath-taking was "sheer mala fide", adding that nomination of another person to perform the duty was also being "withheld for irrelevant political considerations".

Following the verdict, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, also President of the PML-N party said: Worst among [Imran Khan's] damaging legacy is blatant defiance [and] undermining of constitutional authority.

Hamza Shehbaz is on bail in the Rs 14 billion money-laundering case which is being probed by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). He served 20 months in jail before getting released on bail in Ramzan Sugar Mills and money laundering cases by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) last year.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Colombo, Apr 27 (PTI) A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of police officers involved in the death of a protester after the police opened fire at unarmed anti-government protestors demonstrating against the fuel price hike in southwestern region of Rambukkana.

A 41-year-old father of two was killed and 13 others were injured on April 19 when police opened fire on residents of Rambukkana - some 90 kilometers northeast of Colombo, who were protesting against the fuel price hike. It was the first death during the ongoing protests over the worst-ever economic crisis in the country's history. Fifteen police personnel also sustained injuries.

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Magistrate Vasana Navaratne in the southwestern town of Kegalle ordered the arrest of the police hierarchy who had ordered the firing.

The angry residents had lined up for refuelling at a local fuel station and were protesting over the non-availability of fuel. When the fuel did arrive many hours later, the protesters were accused of blocking the main railway line and attempting to set afire a bowser which carried fuel.

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The police had then used tear gas and opened fire at the protesters.

Wednesday's order from the magistrate came after the deceased's post-mortem report was submitted in the court which said the victim had died of gunshot injuries.

At least three senior local police officers were transferred out of the district following the incident where the police was accused of tampering evidence.

Following the shooting, a curfew was imposed in the area for several days with troops being deployed to maintain peace leading to the victim's funeral.

Mass anti-government protests demanding the resignation of the entire Rajapaksa family have been going on for more than two weeks.

Debt-ridden Sri Lanka is grappling with an unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948. The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New York [US], April 27 (ANI/Sputnik): The United Nations is currently holding talks with Moscow and Kyiv to develop a framework for the evacuation of civilians in Ukraine, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Wednesday.

"Following the agreement reached in principle between the UN Secretary-General [Antonio Guterres] and Russian President [Vladimir Putin], our Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is mobilizing a team on behalf of the UN system to coordinate the evacuation of civilians in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol," Haq said. "Today, we are having a follow-up discussion with the authorities in Moscow and in Kyiv to develop an operational framework for the timely evacuation of civilians."

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Haq said that the United Nations now is "moving stuff" to some areas in Ukraine to provide assistance.

"We are putting people on the ground and we are in talks with the sides. what we want is to make sure that a ceasefire would be respected and to move people safely," he added. (ANI/Sputnik)

Also Read | Nepal Govt Bans Import of Luxurious Items Until Mid-July 2022 as Economic Crisis Deepens.

(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, April 27: "A friend in need is a friend indeed" is the saying as it goes. The dictum is in full play as India has offered Sri Lanka an additional $500 million to help it to import fuel while it is in an advance stage of discussion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package.

Sri Lanka, which is grappling with one of the worst-ever foreign exchange crisis and shortage of essential commodities, was extremely disappointed when China declined to come forward in support of the country on flimsy grounds. Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Protestors in Colombo Raise Slogans Against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, PM Mahinda Rajapaksa (Watch Video).

The fresh $500 million additional support by India to Colombo is over and above $ 1.5 billion of credit line offered by India earlier. The economic situation in Sri Lanka is dire and it had requested both India and China for support in these difficult times.

India responded with an additional $500 million for the time being as against Colombo's request for $ 1 billion, but China cited difficulties in supporting the country. The RMB 200 million ($ 31 million) of Chinese humanitarian assistance to Colombo is a diplomatic way of denial rather than genuine support.

Sri Lanka had asked $ 1 billion loan and $ 1.5 billion buyer's credit from China and the so called "humanitarian assistance" is of no avail for a country which is facing difficulties in importing even essential commodities.

Sri Lanka needs at least $4 billion to meet its immediate debt service and import requirements. Ali Sabry, the new Finance Minister of Sri Lanka is presently holding talks with international institutions including the IMF, the World Bank, China and Japan.

He expressed hope that if the efforts are successful and an investment of $ 2 billion comes to Central Bank, it will help stop the depreciation of SLR and stabilise it.

After last week's announcement by Colombo about imminent default of $ 35.5 billion in foreign debt by it due to disruptions caused by Covid-19 pandemic and Ukraine war, it started pro-active deliberations with the IMF for a bailout package.

The IMF management met Sri Lankan delegation led by Finance Minister Ali Sabry and Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe in Washington DC. Sri Lankan delegation discussed policy actions to address economic challenges.

The discussion between Sri Lankan delegation and multilateral agencies revolved around recent economic and financial developments in Sri Lanka, the need for implementing a credible and coherent strategy to restore macro-economic stability and the importance of stronger safety nets to mitigate the adverse impact of the current economic crisis.

Sri Lanka has to repay about $ 7 billion this year in debt servicing and other obligations. It has sought $ 4 billion of multilateral assistance from the IMF.

India has also supported Sri Lanka's efforts in this regard. Many analysts view that had China come forward with a supporting hand, Colombo could have averted default and succeeded in tiding over its economic malaise till it could manage to get a bailout package from the IMF. Instead, China showed an indifference much to the dismay of Colombo.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan government is confronting widespread public protests which initially demanded resignation from the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and are now demanding to form an interim government to tackle the economic crisis. However, Mahinda Rajapaksa while rejecting the demand for an interim government noted that "people need to show patience to face the crisis".

However, the public is losing patience amid shortage of food fuel, power, medicine and other essential items. Meanwhile, the country continues to face the problem of fiscal and current account deficits along with foreign exchange crisis. It has been pushed to default on foreign debt servicing. Sri Lanka needs support and the countries which feign to be well-wishers of Colombo should ideally come forward. This is a moral obligation.

India has extended its support and is willing to help in all possible ways. But China, which invested in mega projects in the country and pushed it into debt-trap was now giving pretext of "difficulties" rather than providing support. No self respecting country could ever erase such bitter experiences from its memory.

Sri Lanka is not just a green pasture for investment and strategic leverage. It is a country of 2 crore human beings, grappling with the most difficult times of their life. It needs solidarity in the time of adversity and not kindness or alms like the Chinese "humanitarian assistance".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 27, 2022 04:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
New Delhi, April 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a three-day visit to Germany, Denmark and France from May 2, aimed at further strengthening bilateral cooperation.

This will be the Prime Minister's first visit abroad in 2022. In Berlin, the Prime Minister will hold bilateral talks with Olaf Scholz, Federal Chancellor of Germany, and the two leaders will co-chair the sixth edition of the India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC).

The biennial IGC is a unique dialogue format that also sees participation of several Ministers from both sides. This will be Prime Minister's first IGC with Chancellor Scholz, and also the first such Government-to-Government consultations of the new German government, which assumed office in December 2021. During his visit, Prime Minister and Chancellor Scholz would also jointly address a Business Event. He will address and interact with the Indian community in Germany. Tamil Nadu Electrocution: PM Narendra Modi Announces Rs 2 Lakh Each for Kin of Deceased.

In 2021, India and Germany commemorated 70 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations and have been strategic partners since 2000. This visit will be an opportunity to enhance and intensify cooperation in a broad range of areas and for the two governments to exchange views on regional and global matters of mutual interest.

Prime Minister Modi will, thereafter, travel to Copenhagen on an official visit at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen. He will also participate in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit being hosted by Denmark.

The bilateral component of the visit will include talks with PM Frederiksen as well as an audience with Queen Margrethe II. The Green Strategic Partnership was the first of its kind arrangement between India and Denmark. The visit would provide both sides an opportunity to review its progress, as well as examine ways to further expand our multifaceted cooperation.

During the visit, he will attend an India-Denmark Business Forum and also address members of the Indian diaspora. Prime Minister Modi, during the second India-Nordic Summit, will also interact with other Nordic leaders - Prime Minister Katrn Jakobsdttir of Iceland, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland. PM Narendra Modi Calls for New Goals, Vision to Ensure India's Global Footprints by 2047.

The Summit will focus on subjects like post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, innovation and technology, renewable energy, the evolving global security scenario and India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic region. The 1st India-Nordic Summit took place in 2018 in Stockholm.

On his return journey on May 4, the Prime Minister will briefly stop over in Paris and meet Emmanuel Macron, President of France. India and France are celebrating 75 years of their diplomatic relations this year and the meeting between the two leaders will set a more ambitious agenda of the Strategic Partnership.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 27, 2022 12:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
A major #fire broke out at Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (@OfficialSdmc) godown in #SouthDelhi's Triveni complex in Sheikh Sarai area.



The department said nearly 13 fire engines were rushed to the site to bring the fire under control. pic.twitter.com/KZMNlxN18h IANS (@ians_india) April 27, 2022

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
#Nepal government has imposed a total ban on the import of 10 luxurious goods until mid-July 2022 after the country's economic crisis deepened. pic.twitter.com/uv0BYADCcl IANS (@ians_india) April 27, 2022

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
Washington, April 27: The US Department of State said in a statement that it has determined an "emergency" exists in Ukraine that becomes a "national security" concern of the United States, therefore the department bypassed Congress to approve the sale of ammunition to Kiev.

The decision to sell nearly $165 million worth of "non-standard" Soviet-era ammunition was made after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken "has determined and provided detailed justification that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to Ukraine" of ammunition, including grenade launchers, mortars and D-20 cannons, the statement said on Tuesday.

The sale, according to the statement, is "in the national security interests of the United States, thereby waiving the Congressional review requirements" under federal law, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The proposed sale will improve Ukraine's capability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of its forces," the statement added. "Ukraine already has these items, or variants thereof, in its inventory and will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces."US Vice President Kamala Harris Tests Positive for COVID-19.

The announcement came just after Blinken and US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin visited Kiev and held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Blinken notified of the arms sale.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 27, 2022 08:29 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Tesla stocks plummeted after its CEO Elon Musk presented a $44 billion bid for the social media giant Twitter. Investors are still reviewing the implications of the bid.

Tesla stocks fell by 12 percent on Tuesday to $876, pushing the shares down more than 28 percent from their peak in November.

It removes $25 billion from Musk's fortune and $128 billion from Tesla's market capitalization, now at $906 billion, according to a Forbes report.

Oanda analyst Edward Moya noted that Tesla shareholders cannot be happy that Musk will have to redirect his attention from the electric-vehicle industry.

Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan warned Tesla shareholders that the risk of Musk selling even more shares could put pressure on the stock. Langan added that Musk's involvement with Twitter could be a distraction for Musk "who already has a full plate," citing recently opened factories in Berlin and Austin.

Much of Musk's wealth is tied up in Tesla stock, meaning he would likely have to borrow against his holdings to fund the Twitter bid.

READ NEXT: Elon Musk Buys Twitter for $44 Billion, Sends Message to His Haters After Takeover

Elon Musk Buys Twitter

Musk has reached a deal on Monday to buy Twitter for around $44 billion, which marks a victory by the world's richest man to take over the social media platform used by world leaders, celebrities, and cultural trendsetters.

Twitter has agreed to sell itself to Musk for $54.20 a share, a 38 percent premium over the company's share price this month before he revealed he was the firm's single largest shareholder, according to a New York Times report.

Musk said in a statement announcing the deal that free speech is the core of a functioning democracy, adding that Twitter is the "digital town square" where important matters to the "future of humanity" are discussed.

The deal is expected to close this year. It has been unanimously approved by Twitter's board.

Musk buying the social media company quickly raised questions about what he will do with the platform and how his actions will have an impact on "online speech" around the world.

Twitter Valuation

Twitter stock closed at $49.68 on Tuesday, which is about eight percent below the $54.20 price at which Musk has agreed to take the company private.

The deal would be one of the largest leveraged buyouts on records, according to a Financial Times report.

The EU on Tuesday warned that Musk must follow the bloc's rules on moderating harmful content.

Musk has previously criticized Twitter and has connected his acquisition of the social media platform to free speech.

Australian lobby group Digital Rights Watch raised concerns that while Musk claims the takeover is about free speech, the buyout is "actually about power," according to The Guardian report.

Chair Lizzie O'Shea said that they have to account for asymmetries of power and other barriers that stop people from speaking freely.

She added that what the Tesla CEO really seems to want is "freedom from accountability."

READ MORE: Twitter Net Worth 2022: How Much Is Twitter Valued After Elon Musk Made $43 Billion Offer?

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by Mary Webber

WATCH: Tesla Shares Down 21% Since Musk's Twitter Stake - from Bloomberg Technology






Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, following her week-long trip to California last week.

ABC News reported that Harris traveled to California on April 18 and returned to Washington on Monday.

Today I tested positive for COVID-19. I have no symptoms, and I will continue to isolate and follow CDC guidelines. Im grateful to be both vaccinated and boosted.  Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) April 26, 2022

Harris confirmed her condition on Tuesday through a statement on Twitter, claiming that she has no symptoms.

The vice president then noted that she will isolate herself and follow the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She then expressed her gratefulness to be vaccinated and boosted against the notorious disease.

Vice President Kamala Harris' press secretary, Kirsten Allen, claimed that the official's condition was discovered on rapid and PCR tests, per CNN.

Allen added that Harris will do her duties from the vice president's residence. The spokesperson of the vice president also noted that Harris will return to the White House once she receives a negative test result, according to NBC News.

Multiple sources claim that Harris tested positive shortly before she was due to join President Joe Biden for an intelligence review session of the chief executive's daily brief on Tuesday.

A White House official, which was unnamed, confirmed to CNN that Harris did not participate in any meetings or events at the White House on Tuesday.

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said he did not know if Harris is being treated with therapeutics.

CNN noted that Harris completed her Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in January last year. She then received her first booster in late October and a second booster on April 1.

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VP Kamala Harris COVID-19: Pres. Joe Biden Has No Contact With the Disease

On Tuesday, officials confirmed that President Joe Biden has no contact with Vice President Kamala Harris following her positive test result.

The press secretary of the vice president claimed that Biden and Harris were not able to meet because of their recent travel schedule. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that President Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday.

NBC News noted that the Harris and Biden last met during the White House Easter Egg Roll event on Monday last week. The vice president then reportedly left for California on the afternoon of that day and returned to Washington on Monday this week. A White House official noted that Biden and Harris spoke on Tuesday by phone, to make sure that the vice president has everything she needs while she spends time at home to quarantine.

Officials confirmed that a contact tracing is underway. Reports noted that authorities will notify the appropriate people. As of Tuesday, the White House had not identified close contacts among staff.

VP Kamala Harris COVID-19: Other Officials Who Tested Positive

Other officials tested positive for COVID-19 the same day Harris was confirmed to acquire the disease.

FYI after feeling mild symptoms overnight, I tested positive for COVID this morning. We've done the contact tracing and let people know. It's a bummer, but I'm sure if I wasn't fully vaccinated I would be feeling a lot worse. So remember to get your booster!  Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 26, 2022

Democratic Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy announced that he tested positive for the disease and that he felt mild symptoms overnight.

Democratic Oregon Senator Ron Wyden also tested positive and he is reportedly experiencing minor symptoms.

Meanwhile, Harris traveled to California with several staff members, including Deputy Chief Mike Fuchs and National Security Adviser Phil Gordon. However, it was unclear if the said officials stayed with Harris in California or if the said officials contacted COVID-19.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Vice President Kamala Harris Tests Positive for COVID-19 - From CBS News
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he believes that Ukraine is going to need long-range artillery, tanks, as well as armored vehicles to fight against Russia.

Austin said in an interview with Fox News National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin that he had a meeting with dozens of defense ministers, ensuring that they can continue to provide Ukraine "what it needs to be successful in the fight today," according to a Fox News report.

The defense secretary added that Ukraine's needs change a lot at the beginning as the war evolved. When asked if the fight would involve nuclear weapons, Austin answered that he believes it would not go there. However, he added that he did not want to speculate "on any kind of a response" that Russia would make when it comes to using a nuclear weapon.

Austin said that his job is to offer the president a range of options for anything that would ensue, adding that he feels confident that he can do that no matter what happens.

Austin denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine as "indefensible," adding that Ukraine's resistance has brought "inspiration to the free world," according to a Reuters report.

The defense secretary noted that Ukraine believes that it can win, "and so does everyone here," according to a Reuters report.

READ NEXT: U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Meet With Ukraine Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv

U.S. on Ukraine War

Austin noted that he hopes "Russian losses in Ukraine" will hinder its leadership from doing its actions again elsewhere. He added that Ukraine can still win the war "if given the right support," according to a BBC News report.

Austin announced that the United States would allocate an additional $713 million of military aid to Ukraine and other European nations.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of trying to divide Russian society and "destroy Russia from within." Putin's accusations were made during a speech on Monday, seemingly in response to Austin's comments.

U.S. security assistance provided to Ukraine since the invasion started has amounted to more than $3.7 billion.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded with Western leaders to increase the flow of military equipment for weeks. He noted that his forces can overcome Russia's military if provided with fighter jets and other vehicles.

The U.S. confirmed last week that it had supplied Ukrainian troops with howitzer artillery cannons and anti-artillery radars for the first time.

Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that the conflict in Ukraine risked escalating into a third world war, adding that NATO was "in essence" engaged in a proxy war with Moscow by supplying Kyiv with weapons.

Lavrov added in an interview broadcast that the risk of a nuclear conflict "must not be underestimated," according to an Aljazeera News report. Lavrov's interview was aired hours after Austin and State Secretary Antony Blinken visited Kyiv and promised more military assistance to Ukraine.

Austin noted that the U.S. wanted to see Russia "weakened" and pledged to supply arms to Ukraine to help it win against its country's invasion.

More than 40 countries for Ukraine-related talks will take place this week. It will be hosted by the United States, with the discussions focusing on more weapon deliveries.

READ MORE: Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky Says if Pres. Joe Biden Acted Sooner 'There Would Be No War'

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WATCH: Ukraine can win war with Russia according to Def. Sec. Lloyd Austin | USA TODAY - from USA TODAY






Former members of Colombia's military admitted to killing over 100 civilians during their active days in service.

Al Jazeera reported that the former military members publicly acknowledged their role in the 2007 to 2008 killings of at least 120 youths, that were later portrayed as members of an armed group killed during combat with the military.

The admissions were made on Tuesday during a public hearing of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) tribunal.

"I recognize and accept my responsibility as a co-perpetrator of these war crimes... We killed innocent people, peasants. I want to emphasize this: those we killed were simple peasants," former military member Nestor Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez was known to be the corporal of the 15th mobile brigade when the killings occurred.

Gutierrez claimed that they participated in the kidnapping of 120 youth from the town of Ocana and neighboring communities, that were later killed and labeled as members of the left-wing guerilla.

The former military member noted that the killings were driven by pressure from the higher-ups and the demands for the result.

France 24 noted that Gutierrez was among the ten retired members of Colombia's military who admitted their crimes to the victims' families.

The ex-military members who appeared on Tuesday were composed of a former military general, four colonels, and five other army officials. France 24 noted that it was the first time that former soldiers publicly admitted to their crimes

"After years of silence and fear, the time for truth has finally arrived, to put an end to decades of impunity," the JEP said in a video.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera claimed that one civilian also appeared before the tribunal on Tuesday.

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Colombia: The Plea of Family Members of Civilians Killed by Ex-Militaries

At least 50 family members of the civilian victims showed up at the public hearing held in the university theater in Ocana, near Colombia's northern border with Venezuela.

Eduvina Becerra, the partner of a murdered farmer, Jose Ortega, asked the former military members to clear the names of the victims of the killings.

"They were rural workers, not subversives, guerrillas and thugs as they were branded," Becerra noted.

Reports noted that sobbing family members of the civilians who were killed witnessed the former military members give details about how they murdered the victims.

Al Jazeera noted that the 120 civilian victims of the killings are just among the many cases JEP has been investigating. The tribunal determined that more than 6,400 people were killed by the military between 2002 and 2008 after they were lured out of the area of their homes.

Colombia's JEP

Colombia's JEP was established in 2016-2017 through a peace deal between the country's government and the demolished Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels.

JEP is meant to try former combatants, granting alternative punishments in exchange for full disclosure of incidents that took place during Colombia's decades-long internal armed conflict.

Since 2017, JEP has charged former FARC commanders with the kidnapping of at least 21,000 people and the recruitment of 18,000 minors, AFP reported, per Voice of America.

The tribunal has also opened a probe on guerillas, state agents, and paramilitaries that are into kidnapping, recruitment of minors, murder of civilians in 2016, as well as political violence.

On Friday a report from JEP determined that 4,600 members of the leftist party in Colombia were killed and another 1,100 went missing between 1984 and 2007.

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Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Spike in Killings Puts Colombia Peace Deal at Risk - From Al Jazeera English
Mexico announced on Tuesday that the COVID-19 situation in the country is now endemic, from being a pandemic stage, which means that authorities will treat it as a seasonally recurring disease.

Mexico's government never imposed face mask requirements, and lifted the few partial shutdowns of businesses and activities weeks ago, according to an ABC News Go report.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said COVID-19 is now retreating almost completely.

New COVID-19 cases in Mexico have declined. It may be attributed to Mexico now offering even fewer tests, with the country initially not doing much testing. In addition, daily death rates have also dropped sharply.

READ NEXT: Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Urged Latinos Not to Vote for U.S. Politicians Who 'Mistreated' Them

Mexico COVID-19 Pandemic

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has raised COVID-19 Level 3 in Mexico, meaning that the COVID-19 levels in the country is high.

The first COVID-19 cases in Mexico were confirmed by the government on February 28. Mexico had one of the highest numbers of confirmed cases and deaths in the Latin America region, according to a National Library of Medicine report.

The Mexican government's COVID-19 response has been criticized since the onset of the pandemic.

Mexico has enforced a sentinel epidemiological surveillance system, instead of a widespread testing strategy, to count and report cases.

In addition, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has minimized the pandemic's possible impact on the health of millions of Mexicans. He continued to hold massive gatherings across Mexico as part of a presidential tour at first, which was eventually stopped for some months.

Lopez Obrador then resumed the presidential tour in June 2020 as part of his plan to reopen Mexico's economy. He also scrutinized medical doctors and accused many of them of wanting to earn more money from practicing medicine rather than helping people.

Currently, about 90 percent of adult Mexicans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to an Associated Press News report.

COVID-19 in Latin America

The World Health Organization has declared Latin America as the epicenter of the pandemic in May 2020 after accounting for more than 40 percent of the world's COVID-19 deaths, according to an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report. The total infection rate exceeded 6.5 million cases and the loss of over 350,000 lives.

Many households do not have access to safe water, with 21 percent of the Latin American suburban population living in slums, informal settlements, and precarious housing.

Overcrowding and the lack of basic services are some of the factors that contribute to the spread of the disease.

In Bolivia, only 52.7 percent of households have access to basic sanitary services such as running water, electricity, and wastewater treatment.

Many Latin American countries imposed strict social distancing and sanitary measures. However, there is also the issue of "pandemic fatigue," referring to the "demotivation to follow recommended protective behaviors."

Lockdowns and other restrictive measures in Latin America have been extended for longer periods of time as compared to other regions.

There were also lower health expenditures, fewer hospital beds, and health professionals per 1,000 inhabitants.

READ MORE: Armed Men Stormed Cancun Resort As Tourists and Staff Take Shelter; Shooters Suspected Drug Dealers in Mexico

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WATCH: Mexico's challenges with fighting COVID-19 pandemic - from CBC News: The National






Kim Kardashian and her sister Khloe Kardashian took the stand Tuesday in the ongoing trial between Blac Chyna and the Kardashian-Jenner family in Los Angeles Superior Court.

According to People, Khloe was the first one to testify. The Good American founder opened up on several issues regarding the relationship between her brother, Rob Kardashian, and Blac Chyna and her alleged connection to the cancellation of the pairs' reality show.

Khloe was asked about the email she sent to her sister Kylie Jenner and E! Network's vice president of development programming, Jeff Olde, about Rob and Chyna's fight.

The fight between the former couple allegedly led to Chyna holding an unloaded gun near Rob, and she also reportedly tried to strangle him with an iPhone cord.

Chyna has since claimed in court that this moment was her "being funny." But Khloe told the jury that she was not comfortable with the abuse that was happening, adding that the family was concerned for her brother's safety and the credibility of the Kardashian-Jenner brand at the time.

Khloe Kardashian then said she has no connection to the cancellation of the "Rob & Chyna," adding that there was no season two planned for the reality show.

"I wasn't trying to cancel anything. I was considering not encouraging such volatile behavior between my brother and Chyna," Khloe noted.

She added that she does not have a say in the decisions E! makes, and their character of feeling strongly about a lot of things does not mean that everyone is going to listen to them.

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Kim Kardashian Took the Stand After Khloe Kardashian in the Trial Between Black Chyna and Their Family

After Khloe Kardashian, her sister Kim Kardashian took the stand to testify in the trial. According to Fox News, Kim told the jury that she has no recollection of attempting to kill the reality show of Rob and Chyna.

However, she acknowledged that she demanded that Blac Chyna be kept off the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" after hearing that his brother's former fiancee had abused her brother.

"I will not go into a toxic work environment... On my own show, I have the power to do that," Kim said.

The reality star also commented on a series of text messages from late 2016 and early 2017 sent between her, her sisters, and the production company, Bunim/Murray, after the former couple's fight.

Kim noted that she was not sending the texts to get "Rob & Chyna" canceled. The text exchange includes some seemingly incriminating demands surrounding Chyna being filmed for "her" show. However, Kim said the quirk of technology replaced "our" with "her," noting that she uses voice dictations when sending long messages.

"This is clearly voice dictated, as is everything I text that's so long, and it's sometimes rendering 'our' as 'her. I would never refer to her show as 'her' show, I would say 'Rob's show' since it's a spin-off of 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians'," she noted.

Kim Kardashian added that the text recipient, Amanda Weinstein, did not work on "Rob & Chyna," and she and her family had no control or power over what the producers and the network ultimately decided about the shows.

Kim noted that as a cast member of the show, she can only withhold her own participation in the case of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians."

The SKIMS founder also said she does not remember telling both shows' producers about Chyna attacking her brother. However, she acknowledged the possibility that it came up in meetings about "Keeping Up With the Kardashians."

The Kardashian-Jenner Family Called Blac Chyna's Claims Absurd

The Kardashian-Jenner family, through their attorney Michael Rhodes, urged the Los Angeles Superior Court to dismiss Blac Chyna's economic and emotional hardship claims in her lawsuit, according to PinkVilla.

Rhodes argued in their motion that Chyna, born Angela White, did not provide documentary evidence, economic analysis, or any expert testimony to back her claims.

"Before the trial began, these claims were absurd... Now that Plaintiff has testified in her entirety, and has no additional testimony or evidence to offer on her damages, Defendants respectfully submit that entering such an instruction would be a vastly inadequate remedy," Rhodes said.

Blac Chyna is suing Kris Jenner, Kylie Jenner, Khloe Kardashian, and Kim Kardashian for defamation and intentional interference with her contract at the E! network.

Chyna alleged that Kris and her three daughters defamed her and convinced producers and the E! network to cancel "Rob & Chyna." She is seeking $100 million in damages.

The model has been involved in a legal dispute with the Kardashians since 2017. That October, Chyna sued Rob, and his family, for allegedly tarnishing her brand and verbally and physically abusing her.

READ MORE: Kamala Harris Is COVID-19 Positive: Did VP Come Into Close Contact With Pres. Joe Biden?

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WATCH: Kim Kardashian Takes the Stand in Blac Chyna Trial - From FOX 11 Los Angeles
President Joe Biden has agreed to pay the bills of his youngest son, Hunter Biden, that include legal fees connected to his overseas business dealings before the 2020 election, according to an email.

The email, which surfaced Tuesday, had an attached spreadsheet detailing the debts. According to New York Post, it calls into question Biden's repeated statements that he has never discussed Hunter's business with him.

The message, dated January 17, 2019, was written by Hunter's former personal assistant, Katie Dodge. It was then sent to an accountant named Linda Shapero, the founder of the Global DEEZ firm in Leesburg, Virginia.

Dodge wrote that she has spoken with the younger Biden about his more than $800,000 in bills, adding that it was in her understanding that the president would cover the bills "in the short-term as Hunter transitions in his career."

Dodge's email was cc-ed to Hunter and Richard Ruffner, who was Joe Biden's personal aide while he was vice president. The spreadsheet showed that Hunter Biden's debts included legal fees amounting to more than $130,000 and were due "ASAP" to the law firm of Faegre Baker Daniels.

According to the spreadsheet, Hunter's bills from Faegre Baker included $82,239 for "Confidential Investi," $20,909 for "Burnham Restructu," and $28,832 for "BHR Restructuring."

BHR seemed to be a reference to the Chinese company Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management, in which Joe Biden's youngest son held a 10 percent stake through a company called Skaneateles LLC.

Hunter's other debts included payments and insurance for a Porsche, a Ford truck, and a boat; tuition for her daughters; $37,000 a month to his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle; and $157,033 for "CREDIT CARDS."

More than half of the $818,665 in debts listed on the spreadsheet went to various state and federal taxes, totaling $412,309.

First reported by the Daily Mail, the email and the spreadsheet were reportedly stored on Hunter's laptop left at a repair shop in the Biden family's hometown of Wilmington, Delaware in 2019.

READ NEXT: Hunter Biden Net Worth 2022: How Wealthy Is President Joe Biden's Youngest Son?

President Joe Biden on Hunter Biden's Business Dealings

Sen. Bill Hagerty on Tuesday asked Attorney General Merrick Garland about the president being seemingly involved with Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings.

In a Senate subcommittee hearing, Hagerty asked Garland if he had any reason to dispute the evidence that indicates that Joe Biden was involved with and using money from Hunter's business deals, the New York Post reported.

Hagerty cited Hunter's longtime business partner Eric Schwerin visiting the White House and the vice president's residence at least 19 times and met with Joe Biden or his staff.

Hagerty added that there were emails and photographs that showed that Joe Biden, while he was vice president, met some of Hunter's business associates, including a Burisma executive and a Russian billionaire who paid Hunter's firm $3.5 million.

The Ukrainian-operated Burisma energy company paid Hunter a million dollars per year to sit on its board. Garland has declined to provide details and insisted to both Hagerty and Sen. Mike Braun that a special counsel was not needed because a probe of Hunter Biden by the U.S. attorney's office in Delaware would continue without political interference.

According to Daily Mail, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday said she does not have any information about the White House visits.

Psaki was already asked multiple times about Hunter Biden's laptop and business dealings but referred the press to the Department of Justice or has noted that the president son does not work in the White House.

Hunter Biden Laptop

Jack Maxey, the source who distributed Hunter Biden's laptop to congressmen and media, has fled the United States to Switzerland, saying he is afraid of retaliation from the Biden administration, Daily Mail reported.

Maxey has also given copies and material of the laptop's contents to the Daily Mail, Washington Post, New York Times, and Sen. Chuck Grassley as ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Maxey has been hiding in Zurich while working with IT experts to find more data from Hunter Biden's laptop. He claimed that he and his colleagues found "450 gigabytes of deleted material." It includes 80,000 images and videos and more than 120,000 archived emails.

Maxey noted that he plans to post them all online in the coming weeks.

READ MORE: Pres. Joe Biden, a 'Direct Beneficiary' of His Son Hunter Biden's Foreign Deals, Says Head of Government Accountability Institute

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WATCH: Attorney General Merrick Garland Says President Joe Biden Not Interfering With Hunter Biden Investigation - From CBS News






The youngest son of Sinaloa cartel boss Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, Serafin Zambada Ortiz, reportedly got involved in a fatal car accident in Sonora, Mexico on Monday.

According to Daily Star, the tragic accident occurred at around 9 a.m. on the Sonoyta-Caborca road section in Sonora. Serafin was reportedly found in a mangled white Kia, which appeared to have collided with the rear of a tractor-trailer truck.

El Mayo's son and his 30-year-old girlfriend, Norma Lopez, were transferred to nearby hospitals. But local media reported that Lopez died while on the way to receive treatment. Serafin, who was taken to a private clinic in Hermosillo city, reportedly survived the collision but sustained serious injuries.

Sonora state police immediately guarded the site of the crash while a probe into the incident was being carried out to determine who was responsible for it.

According to Infobae, El Mayo's youngest son was released from prison in the U.S. in September 2018 after serving a 66-month prison sentence for importing cocaine and marijuana into the U.S.

Serafin was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Arizona in November 2013. He was handed a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence after cooperating with the DEA.

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Serafin Zambada Ortiz: The Youngest Son of Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Mayo

According to Business Insider, Serafin Zambada Ortiz is a U.S. citizen born in San Diego. In letters to the court, he detailed his upbringing among some of Mexico's most powerful drug traffickers, noting his nearness to the violence surrounding narco life.

Serafin's mother, Leticia Ortiz Hernandez, knew El Mayo from growing up outside the Culiacan. They met in 1988 in Mexicali city in Baja California state, and Leticia fell in love with El Mayo, who was 15 years older and already reaching prominence in the drug trade.

Drug lords Benjamin Arellano Felix and Amado Carillo Fuentes became Serafin's godfathers. However, war soon erupted between the Arellano Felix Organization and the Sinaloa Cartel over a power struggle for Tijuana.

Looking for safety, Serafin and his mom retreated to Culiacan, but the violence pursued them. When Serafin turned two years old, a car bomb detonated outside his birthday party.

When he was nine years old, his grandparents, uncle, and aunt were killed after gunmen stormed a Mazatlan hotel room that he and his mother had recently left.

Sinaloa Cartel rivals eventually killed his mom's family. With armed guards sent by El Mayo, Leticia started moving her children from home to home and kept Serafin out of school. They moved back and forth between Arizona and Sinaloa.

The war with the Arellano Felix Organization died out in the early 2000s as the cartel lost ground. Serafin later attended the Universidad Autonoma de Sinaloa, taking classes in agronomy. But his stint away from the drug business soon ended when he returned to Culiacan.

El Mayo's son said there was nothing more than the drug trade in that city. Serafin married a girl from another family involved in drug trafficking in 2010, and they eventually had two children.

Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada of Sinaloa Cartel

El Mayo and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman were among the people who established the Sinaloa Cartel from the remnants of the Guadalajara Cartel after its leader Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was arrested in 1989.

The U.S. State Department said El Mayo has wide real estate holdings and has invested in multiple businesses in Mexico. The department has already increased its offer from $5 million to $15 million for information that will result in the arrest of El Mayo.

El Mayo and El Chapo's four sons, known as "Los Chapitos," were reportedly left in command of the Sinaloa Cartel after El Chapo was arrested and extradited to the U.S. However, reports suggested that there's an internal dispute for total control of the powerful criminal organization.

The Los Chapitos is reportedly looking to assume supreme control of the Sinaloa Cartel and their father's former right-hand man, El Mayo, appears to be their internal enemy number one.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico's largest and most powerful drug trafficking organizations. The Mexican drug cartel has been known to carry out assassinations, murders, and torture to protect its turf.

READ MORE: El Chapo's Sons of Sinaloa Cartel Organized a 'Narco Fiesta' Ahead of Christmas Day in Mexico Town, Raffled off Brand New Cars

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WATCH: Son of El Chapo's Partner Gives Detailed Testimony About Sinaloa Cartel - From CBS News






A Florida man was criminally charged earlier this month for allegedly neglecting to care for his elderly dad and forcing the disabled man to live in substandard conditions.

According to Crime Online, a 55-year-old man called 911 on April 5, requesting medical attention as he suffered a wave of seizures, and his 22-year-old son, Jonathan Woods, did not help him.

The disabled man also said he had been locked in his room for around eight months. Palm Beach County police responded to the house as fire rescue removed the man from the residence.

At that time, the cops learned of the hazardous conditions in the home, especially the man's bathroom, which reportedly had feces on the walls, floors, and bed.

A police report noted that the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue said when they assisted the elderly man out of bed, cockroaches had come out from underneath him. They further noted that the victim was also covered in feces and had bedsores since he was bedridden.

The cops also said the bed and the flooring were unable to be seen due to trash and feces covering it. They have also observed plastic bottles filled with urine in the room.

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Elderly Dad in Florida Locked in the Room

Once in a hospital, a nurse reported that the victim had bedsores in his groin area. According to New York Daily News, the nurse described it as a "classic case of neglect."

The victim told police that his son had moved in with him two or three years earlier after he suffered from strokes. However, he said he could still get around with a motorized wheelchair.

Until eight months ago, Jonathan Woods would bring his elderly dad food and water into the bedroom while he and his girlfriend stayed in the main portion of the house The victim also told police that his son tied a string from the outside of his door to another door in the house so he could not go outside.

The elderly man further noted that he would give his son money to buy food. However, Woods and his girlfriend would often come home with dinner but not give him any.

He added that he had not eaten in four days, and the last thing he ate was a leftover hamburger that likely belonged to his son or his girlfriend.

Florida Man Charged

In the police report, the elderly man started crying and said he did not want to get his son in trouble, but he could not live the way he was living anymore.

The disabled man noted that he was afraid that he would die if he continued to live in the conditions that he was living in now, according to CBS 12 News.

While police were talking to the elderly man, the victim received a text message from his son, stating that he and his girlfriend were going to be arrested.

The text continued to say that the victim should have told Woods that he was going to call 911 so that he could have cleaned up before the authorities got there.

When police contacted Woods, he said he knew he had not been doing what he should have been doing for his father. The Florida man noted that they "did not know how bad things were" and that "the smell was not that bad."

Woods is now charged with false imprisonment and neglect of an elderly person/disabled adult. He will remain in jail on a $50,000 bond.

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WATCH: Are Nursing Homes Above the Law? Exposing Repeat Offenders (Marketplace) - From CBC News
The first aeroplane ever built and flown in the Republic of Ireland has returned home to roost in Portlaoise, and a home is now being actively sought to place it on permanent display for visitors.

The restored wooden Portlaoise Plane, built over a century ago in a Portlaoise garage, is back in the town after a circuitous route and a passionate mission led by Laois historian Teddy Fennelly.

It was the star of Laois County Council's recent first Festival of Flight. Read more below story.

Now the council has revealed their plan to put it on public show in a new permanent home, in the Granary that is inside the Fort Protector walls in the historic Portlaoise town centre.

The Granary itself will have to be renovated first. It is to also display other items showing the industrial heritage of Laois.

Cllr Willie Aird got the details, after tabling a motion to the April meeting of Laois County Council.

Simon Walton is the Director of Services.

"Laois County Council entered into an agreement with the Laois Heritage Society for the purposes of housing the Portlaoise Plane in The Granary.

"The Council is currently exploring options for both short term and longer term renovations to the Granary that will enable the ongoing accommodation of the Portlaoise Plane, provide suitable public access to view the Plane and also provide for a broader display/interpretative space depicting the industrial heritage of County Laois."

Cllr Aird welcomed the plans.

"You can see how successful the festival was. If they had this in Kerry there'd be busloads. The festival of Flight brought more awareness. I do honestly believe it will be in the curriculum of schools. I ask that it be accessible to schools, we want to promote this to the best of our ability," he said.

Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald seconded his motion.

"I congratulate everyone involved in the Festival of Flight, especially our Heritage Officer Catherine Casey. The concert was magnificent, a pleasure to be at. It will be interesting for schoolchildren to read about the history of the plane," she said.

Cllr Padraig Fleming said that Col James Fitzmaurice who lived in Portlaoise, was inspired by the Portlaoise Plane to study aviation, later co-piloting the Bremen in the first every east west transatlantic flight.

"It was the first plane ever flown in Ireland, a phenomonal story. He went into Aldritt's garage and asked what they were doing. In fairness to Teddy he has done great work, the plane was brought back and put together," he said.
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A compromise on allowing villages to burn turf but not towns is "unworkable" a Laois Offaly TD has said.

Fine Gael Deputy Charlie Flanagan is urging Minister for the Environment Eamonn Ryan to drop his proposal to end the sale and burning of turf.

Speaking to the Leinster Express this Wednesday, April 27, Dep Flanagan said that having grown up in Mountmellick, turf is "in my DNA".

"I reminded the Minister that my hometown of Mountmellick in Irish means the boghouse on the marsh. Turf and the bog are in my DNA. I did my bit of heavy lifting and got sunburnt like many others. I know how passionate people are on this issue.

"I was please to have an opportunity to meet Eamonn Ryan as part of a Fine Gael delegation and I outlined the serious concerns and fears of the people of Laois and Offaly. In particular there has been a lot of misinformation and rumour. I impressed on him the need to engage with local TDS.

"A proposed regime that allows for the sale and burning of turf in villages of less than 500 people is unworkable. I pointed out that that would mean its ok in Ballybrittas but not Ballyroan, you could sell and burn in Rosenallis but not in Clonaslee. In Offaly you could sell in Kinnitty with a population of 400 but not in nearby Kilcormac.

"These examples proved to be to be unworkable. It's also legally unenforceable. There are legal issues on turbery rights, licences to cut turf, issues where people own and cut their own bogs, and others where people lease from private bogs. It's a complex legal area and I don't think that Eamonn Ryan has sufficiently delved into.

"I asked about the issue of compensation and received no answer.

"I also asked why if we can't use it ourselves, the country is selling peat based briquettes from Germany and Lithuania with a higher carbon footprint.

"So with the rising fuel costs, Eamonn Ryan should think again. This is an unnecessary row that can be resolved and I'm working with Minister Ryan towards that," Dep Flanagan said.

He gave an answer to Laois Offaly Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley's question earlier today on whether Laois Offaly TDs will back a Sinn Fein Dail motion this Wednesday night April 27 that calls for the scrapping of the ban.

I will not be supporting the Sinn Fein Motion. It is a political stunt designed to destabilise and drive a wedge between government parties. Its more about party politics than turf," Dep Flanagan said.
The Laois-founded support network for those bereaved by, or who have survived, farm accidents has today launched a new one-to-one mentoring programme.

The Embrace FARM Encircle programme, which is funded by the European Innovation Partnership (EIP), through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, will offer one-to-one supports for individuals and families in the aftermath of a farm accident, suspected suicide, sudden trauma or fatal illness.



Embrace FARM say the Encircle programme will offer supports to farmers and farm families all over the country through a nationwide panel of professional mentors encompassing the full spectrum of legal, financial, Agri and emotional issues that individuals and families contend with in the aftermath of these sudden situations.

A statement said the programme has been developed by a dedicated operational group which is led by Embrace FARM, and the programme supports are informed by industry specialists including IFAC, Agricultural Solicitors, Agricultural Consultants Association, Rural Support, HSE National Office of Suicide Prevention. MORE BELOW PICTURE:



Caroline Redmond, Tom Canning, Veronica Morris, Ciaran Austin, Norma Rohan, Aisling Meehan, Eimear Kelly, Catherine Kenneally, Brian Rohan, Angela Hogan, and David Leydon launched the Embrace FARM Encircle programme, funded by the European Innovation Partnership (EIP), through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Since its inception in 2014 by husband and wife team Brian and Norma Rohan, Embrace FARM has supported more than 285 farm families in the aftermath of a serious farm accident or fatality. Having lost Brians father Liam, in a traumatic farm accident in 2012, the Rohans knew from first-hand experience that there was a growing need for support in this area.

Norma is now the General Manager and Co-Founder of Embrace FARM.

Our panel of mentors have been carefully selected in order to cater to the many complex issues facing families and individuals who have been impacted in the aftermath of a farm accident or suspected suicide. Once someone contacts us, we will work with them to figure out what they need, and in what order of priority, and from there we will match them with the right professional mentors who can support them where they need help the most, whether it be legal, emotional, financial or general support with the overall operation of a farming business.



Brian Rohan, Co-Founder of Embrace FARM, recalls: There were hundreds of people here over the weekend of the funeral and then they stopped calling and we were left to ourselves to run the farm. There was no mention of Dad. People kind of got back to their own lives and forgot about him so we wanted to find a way to remember our loved ones killed in farm accidents. We got calls and emails from other families all over the country, and some of them were in worse states than others with no wills in place, or mortgages on farms and no life cover, and that type of thing. We couldnt just sit by and do nothing.

Minister Martin Heydon, Kildare TD and Department of State says: As we continue to work on improving farm safety and reduce the number of serious and fatal incidents on Irish farms, it is equally important that families affected by sudden traumas are supported. EmbraceFARM has for many years played a crucial role for many Irish farm families in the aftermath of fatal or lifechanging incidents.



"This European Innovation Partnership (EIP), one of eight being funded by my Department in the area of farmer safety, health and wellbeing, will enable Embrace FARM to build on that work. As we are all unfortunately too aware, a farm tragedy can present a range of potential issues for families. That is why I have no doubt the one-to-one tailored support will be invaluable to those who need it, said the Minister in a statement. MORE BELOW PICTURE.



(L-R) Tom Canning, ACA, Aisling Meehan, Agricultural Solicitor, Norma Rohan, Embrace FARM, Eimear Kelly, Embrace FARM Counsellor and David Leydon, IFAC launched the new Embrace FARM Encircle programme.



Embrace FARM will continue to offer its peer-to-peer support services in conjunction with the Encircle Programme. Its annual ecumenical Remembrance Service takes place in Abbeyleix, Co. Laois on Sunday 26th June.

According to findings from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) there have been over 200 farm-related deaths in Ireland over the last ten years and many more accidents, with 113 serious accidents recorded in 2021 alone.



If you or anyone near you needs the help Embrace FARM can offer, please go to www.embracefarm.com or call 057-8510555 / 0857709966.
Intel Ireland are launching the latest Pride of Place competition to support projects in neighbouring communities in North Kildare.

The company is offering to support and fund a number of community based projects up to the value of 5,000 each.

Intel wants to hear ideas that can help improve your organisation, while also benefitting the local community.

An Intel spokesperson said: "Your idea could be anything from setting up a youth cafe that benefits the community, to restoring an old building in your town and converting it to a new meeting space for community groups.

"Perhaps you could add a new feature to your town to drive tourism in the area or pass on a skill from one generation to another? It could be an idea making use of technology to make your community more smart, developing apps to show traffic flow, for example. If your idea could benefit the community, we want to know about it."

Previous winners include Maynooth Educate Together who used their grant to support the creation of an Inspiration Zone in the school, a flexible student space with access to resources that will inspire young people to learn about topics beyond the curriculum.

St Marys Brass and Reed Band in Maynooth used the grant to purchase equipment for the Junior Band which consists of young and potential musicians between the ages of 8 and 18.

Celbridge Festival put their funds toward the purchase of specific lights to be used on the two main churches in Celbridge. These lights have the ability to change colour to mark specific days of celebration in the calendar.

Leixlip Community First Responders used Pride of Place funding to train a cohort of volunteers as well as run community open days to give adults and young people information about emergency community first response.

To find out more and to complete an online application form please visit www.intel.ie/pop.

The deadline for competition submissions is Friday, May 13, 2022. Winners will be announced in June.
A man has been jailed for three years for the rape of his 13-year-old girlfriend over three decades ago.

The Central Criminal Court heard that, in 2021, gardai received an anonymous letter alleging that Ian Ryan had raped the victim in 1986 when he was aged 18 and in a relationship with the child.

A garda investigation began and gardai were able to identify the victim and she made a formal complaint. The court heard that the pair had met in 1986 at a disco in a rugby club and began seeing each other and the girl's parents were supportive of the relationship.

Michael Delaney SC, prosecuting, told the court on a date in early 1986 the couple were in her family home when her parents were out and she was babysitting her siblings.

The couple were discussing condoms and the girl found one in the house. Ryan asked the girl if she wanted to use it and she said no. The court heard the man then began crying and became extremely distressed that she had declined to have sex with him.

The woman said she felt guilty and hugged Ryan and begged him to stop crying. She said she told him she loved him and said that if he wanted, they could make love, the court heard.

They then began sexual intercourse on the floor of the kitchen but the girl found it painful and asked Ryan to stop but he didn't. She later told gardai that she told Ryan stop, stop, you're hurting me and she tried to push him off her but he was too heavy.

She said he stopped a moment later after ejaculating and told her what they had done was natural and beautiful. The court heard the couple continued then to have a sexual relationship and that in August 1986 Ryan, who came from a violent family home, moved in with the girl and her family and in December she was pregnant.

The victim was aged 14 when her son was born and the couple later separated.

Ryan of Knockroe, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow pleaded guilty last December to rape at a place in Greystones, Co Wicklow on a date between January 1 and March 31, 1986.

The court heard that after his arrest in 2021 Ryan told gardai that all the sexual activity was consensual and claimed that he didn't know she was aged 13 when they met.

In her victim impact statement the woman, now aged 50, said that Ryan had manipulated her into having sex and convinced her it was an act of love and the most natural and most important part of their relationship.

She said she still got flashbacks to the rape and tried to take her own life when she was in her 20s. She said at the time she felt lost, empty and confused.

The court heard that Ryan is now a father of five with no previous convictions in Ireland but with some convictions for shoplifting and road traffic offences from the UK.

Justice Paul McDermott said the difference in age between the two at the time was significant but that the court also had to take into consideration the fact that Ryan had just turned 18 at the time.

He said that his age and his difficult background would have affected his level of maturity at the time of the offence. He said the court also had to consider how he would have been sentenced at the time.

He noted Ryan's violent and dysfunctional childhood, his later history of chronic alcohol abuse and his efforts to address the latter. He said he accepted as genuine Ryan's expressions of remorse and shame over his behaviour towards the victim.

He suspended the final year of a four year prison term on various conditions including that Ryan engaged with violent behaviour and alcohol abuse programmes and have no contact with the victim.

Mr Delaney told the court that the victim, who was not in court, wished to waive her anonymity.
An inquest into the death of Noah Donohoe should be heard in front of a jury, a lawyer for the schoolboys family has said.

The inquest into Noahs death is scheduled to begin on November 28 and to run for three weeks.

The 14-year-old pupil at St Malachys College in Co Belfast, was found dead in a storm drain in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after he went missing.

His mother Fiona is hoping to secure answers to some of the questions surrounding his death through the inquest process.

At a pre-inquest review hearing, Brenda Campbell QC, representing Ms Donohoe, raised concerns over the November date.

She said: We are very appreciative of the difficulties that the listing of this inquest has, we know the pressures on the court.

The date gives us three, three and a half weeks before the Christmas break and there are a very significant number of both complex and distressing issues to be considered and we are concerned that might not be enough time.

She added: We have not yet grappled with the issue of whether this is going to be a jury inquest.

In our submission it should be a matter that is considered by a jury.

If that is the case, and we have been working on the assumption that it will be, again that inevitably adds to time and the impact of any break.

Coroner Joe McCrisken said he would welcome written submissions from Noahs family on the issue of whether the inquest should be held with a jury.

The hearing was also told that an application from the PSNI to to prevent certain information being disclosed to the inquest would be sent to the Northern Ireland Office for approval by a minister imminently.

Counsel for the coroner, Sean Doran QC, said that the PSNI had completed their consideration of Public Interest Immunity (PII) certification on sensitive material.

He said: It remains a matter for the relevant government authority whether a PII certificate will be issued.

Barrister for the PSNI, Donal Lunny QC, told the hearing that the deputy chief constable Mark Hamilton had examined the PII applications in some detail and this had prompted a reconsideration of a number of proposed redactions.

He added: That work was resumed and completed yesterday and that material will be passed on to the NIO imminently. I would expect that to be done this week.

Once they have it they should be able to give an indication as to how long it will take for their minister to consider it and decide whether or not to grant a public interest immunity certificate.

Mr McCrisken said: I urge the NIO, once they receive the papers, to carry out this exercise as quickly as possible.

Ms Campbell said: The volume of material I understand is three folders, in the region of 188 pages, 120 pages and 200 pages.

The proposed redactions, as we understand it, are to the minimum possible.

The next pre-inquest review hearing will be held on July 1.
Sultan Al-Arada, a member of Yemen's new presidential council, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on April 7, 2022. FAYEZ NURELDINE / AFP

The truce in Yemen is holding up, three weeks after it came into effect on April 2. The Iranian-backed Houthi rebellion, which is at war with the internationally recognized government, refused to participate in the inter-Yemeni talks held in Saudi Arabia in March and early April. But the ceasefire is mostly respected. The Houthis from northern Yemen, who are members of the Zaidi minority, a branch of Shiite Islam, have regarded Saudi Arabia as enemy territory since the kingdom went to war with them in 2015.

Whether it is simply a respite or the beginning of longer-term appeasement, this period is being used by Saudi Arabia to try to reshape its military intervention  or at least to give the impression it is doing so. Riyadh is lacking options in the face of the Houthis' resilience, and is aware that this conflict is seriously damaging its image in Western public opinion. The Saudi crown, whose strongman is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, wants to reduce its involvement in Yemen.

"They say they have tried everything with the Houthis," confided a Yemeni observer, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. "They bombed them, tried to buy them, tried to negotiate. But nothing worked. As a result, the Saudis now want to stick to a security approach, focused on defending their borders, and no longer bother with ideological considerations  the fight against a movement of Shiite origin and close to their rival Iran. Perhaps this will create an opening that will bring the Houthis to the negotiating table."

Appear as a mediator

The keystone of this new strategy is the presidential council, which was created on April 7 at the instigation of Riyadh. This body is composed of eight personalities opposed to the Houthis and has taken over the powers of the head of state, President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was pushed to the sidelines by his Saudi protector.

By uniting an anti-Houthis front that it hopes will be credible, Riyadh wants to be able to begin a disengagement process from the country, or at least to stand back a little. "Saudi Arabia no longer wants to appear as a belligerent  and in particular as the main instigator of the conflict  but as a mediator seen as impartial and responsible," emphasized the Yemeni observer interviewed.

More on this topic Subscribers only Yemen's 'temporary capital' stuck in a tug-of-war between rival warlords

But the stalling of this process and the conquest of the capital, Sanaa, in early 2015 by the Houthis, initially allied with the deposed dictator Ali Abdallah Saleh, have dashed these hopes. Taking refuge in a palace provided to him in Riyadh, Mr. Hadi has gradually cut himself off from his country. Powerless, he has watched Yemen slowly disintegrate. By unconditionally supporting the deadly bombings carried out by the Saudi air force, he has ruined his credibility as a peacemaker with the rebels and the people living in the regions under their control. In 2017, he had also broken with the southern pro-independence movement, which was on the rise at the time.

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THE SHANNON group has been announced as a finalist at the National Property Awards under the property management company of the year category.

The group, which includes Shannon Airport, is being honoured for the space it offers its clients.

Since 2014, the firm has invested almost 146m across its campus in creating and upgrading office and advanced manufacturing space for clients.

Among its portfolio are a number of blue-chip firms incuding Jaguar Lang Rover, Edwards Lifesciences and Intel.

Group chief executive Mary Considine said: "It is a huge honour to be shortlisted for the prestigious Property Management Company of the Year category at the National Property Awards 2022. We are extremely fortunate to have such an innovative and committed team at Shannon Group, whose hard work is being recognised through awards like this. Throughout the pandemic our team continued to collaborate closely with our clients using innovative ways to keep overseas clients informed during travel restrictions. I am proud of our team and the contribution they have made and continue to make as we drive forward with our 2022 property development strategy."

The award winners will be announced at a black-tie gala dinner at Dublin;s Intercontinental Hotel tomorrow night.
GARDAI at Henry Street in Limerick city have issued a public appeal for information on the whereabouts of a suspect they wish to locate.

The appeal regarding Aaron Lysaght, also known as Aaron O'Shea, was broadcast on this month's Crime Call programme on RTE One television.

Making the appeal, Sergeant Noel Gibbons said the 26-year-old is known to travel in the south of the country and that his last known address is in Miltown Malbay, County Clare.

Mr Lysaght, whose photograph was broadcast on Monday's programme, is described as being around 6 foot in height, of medium build with blue eyes and brown hair.

Sergeant Gibbons added that he has a distinctive tattoo of swallow on the right hand side of his neck.

Gardai have not disclosed publicly why Aaron Lysaght is being sought.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact Henry Street garda station or any garda station.
TWO American octogenarians charged with trespass and criminal damage in relation to an anti-war protest at Shannon Airport have asserted their actions were legal under international law and were also mandated by God.

Ken Mayers, aged 85, of Monte Alte Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico and Tarak Kauff, aged 80, of Arnold Drive, Woodstock, New York, have both pleaded not guilty to causing criminal damage to a perimeter fence at the airport on March 17, 2019.

They have also pleaded not guilty to trespassing the curtilage of a building with the intent to commit an offence or unlawfully damage property, and not guilty to interfering with the operation, safety or management of an airport, namely by entering a runway area, where they were arrested, and causing it to be closed.

On the third day of their trial, before Judge Patricia Ryan and a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Mr Kauff admitted to damaging the fence.

"Yes I did damage the fence, I was acting on my own moral beliefs," he told prosecuting counsel Tony McGillicuddy BL, to which Mr McGillicuddy added "and breaking the law in doing so".

Mr Kauff replied that the US government and the Irish government have been breaking the law. Irish people are sick and tired of their government cow-towing to the US. That is the issue here!"

He told the jury that some things were "mandated by God".

"There was a higher purpose here than the law which says you can't trespass, that you can't cut a fence," he said.

Mr Kauff said he had friends who had taken their own lives because of what they had done while in the US military.

"That is the real damage," he told Mr McGillicuddy. "Damaging a fence is nothing. Nobody died and I should expect that you should understand that as well."

Giving evidence both accused stated that the Irish Government was in breach of international law and Ireland's neutrality by allowing US military planes, and civil aircraft contracted to it, to transition through Shannon Airport.

"If a belligerent country lands in a neutral country, that country has an obligation under international law to inspect [the plane]," Mr Mayers said in evidence.

He told his defence counsel, Michael Hourigan BL, that the use of Shannon by the US military was part of the process of killing "many, many people".

"It is a great disservice to the Irish people what the United States government is doing," he said. "We understood that the Irish people are very conscious, as opposed to the Irish government, of the importance of Irish neutrality."

Both defendants said they wanted to inspect a plane, which they said was an Omni Air plane, used to transport US military and which was parked on the airport apron.

Mr Mayers said he and Mr Kauff would be very happy if the Irish authorities inspected US planes, which they maintain was their own intention when they entered the airport.

Under cross examination by Mr McGillicuddy, Mr Mayers said he accepted that Ireland was a democracy. He said he had taken it upon himself to make an intervention that he knew would "violate some statute".

"I was violating that and I knew that I was violating that."

He said this was to prevent something worse. He accepted that by being on the airport runway, he had prevented planes landing and taking off.

"I did that to save lives," he said.

Asked whether he had asked any garda, inside or outside the airport, any State official or any politician to have the plane inspected, he said he had not. He said he hoped that, by entering the airfield, he would persuade and encourage airport police and gardai to inspect the plane.

"At times it becomes necessary to go beyond the laws of a State to get a point across," said Mr Mayers. "I decided to take action in defence of people who are seriously being attacked. . . I decided to break the law in order to serve a higher purpose."

He said his authority for his actions was "the obligation to do what is right".

As a member, with Mr Kauff, of the US-based Veterans for Peace, he was an habitual protester, said Mr Mayers, adding: "I have dealt with a lot of law enforcement officials over the years and I have never been treated better [than by the gardai]."

The trial continues.
DIRECTIONS are to be sought from the DPP in the case of two men who are charged in connection with a fatal assault in Limerick city centre earlier this month.

Alan Bourke, aged 48, who was originally from St Marys Park in the city, passed away at University Hospital Limerick a short time after he was assaulted at Parnell Street, near Colbert Station at around 10.30pm on Good Friday.

A major garda investigation was subsequently launched and a number of arrests were made last week.

Two men, who were among those arrested, appeared before separate sittings of Ennis District Court at the weekend and both appeared before Limerick District Court again this Tuesday.

Mark Ryan, aged 35, of Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick is charged with robbing a number of cans of alcohol and a bicycle from Alan Bourke at Parnell Street on April 15, 2022.

The second accused - Michael Casey, aged 38, of Cathedral Place, Limerick - is accused of assaulting Alan Bourke, causing him harm, at Parnell Street on the same date.

Mr Casey (pictured) has also been charged with robbing the same cans of alcohol and bicycle from Mr Bourke. During the special court sittings in Ennis, solicitors John Herbert and Darach McCarthy indicated their clients are currently unemployed and would not be applying for bail.

Mr Casey appeared before Judge Patricia Harney via video-link for this Tuesdays procedural hearing while Mr Ryan appeared, separately, in person.

Inspector Fiona McGrath told the court that investigations are ongoing and that directions are not yet available from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Judge Harney was told there was no objection to the defendants being remanded in continuing custody for two weeks.

Both men were granted legal aid at the weekend.

Having noted that no applications for bail have been made and that any applications will be opposed, the judge formally adjourned each case until May 10 next.

Each of Tuesdays procedural hearings lasted less than two minutes and Mr Casey and Mr Ryan only spoke to confirm their identity to the court.

The garda investigation into Alan Bourke's death is continuing and a file is to be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
THE critically acclaimed Decadent Theatre Company are returning to Limerick with their tense and thought-provoking play Blackbird.

The play has been produced around the world including in the West End, on Broadway starring Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams; and a feature film, Una, starring Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn.

This week it comes to the Belltable with performances from Thursday, April 28 to Saturday 30.

Blackbird follows 56 year-old Ray. After years in prison and subsequent hardships he has a new identity and has made a new life for himself, thinking that he cannot be found.

Una, age 27, has thought of nothing else. Upon seeing a photo of Ray in a magazine, she has arrived unannounced at his office.

Guilt, rage, and raw emotions run high as they recollect the passionate relationship they had fifteen years ago, when she was twelve and he was forty.

The dark drama never shies away from the brutal truth of this abandoned and unconventional love.

Star of stage and screen Declan Conlon takes on the role of Ray and says the play examines the psychology of the two characters and the situation they are in, without passing judgement.

"I am looking forward to presenting something like this to audiences around the country.

"It is a complicated piece and there is no guarantee of how people will receive it. I find that fascinating."

Tickets for Blackbird are on sale now.
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MINISTER of State Ossian Smyth TD has launched a University of Limerick competition that seeks to tackle climate challenges.

Minister Smyth, responsible for Public Procurement, eGovernment and Circular Economy was at the Bernal Institute at University of Limerick to launch the Sustainability Challenge.

He was attending an event in the Bernal Institute as part of UL Research Week 2022 to deliver a keynote address at AStruM 2022 - Towards a Circular Economy.

Speaking at the launch of the challenge at UL, Minister Smyth said:

Achieving a circular economy requires a radical break with our current take-make-waste model. New materials and products designed to maximise re-use within a close- loop system will play a vital role in this transition.

The concept of the Sustainability Challenge evolved from a partnership between the Bernal Institute, Kemmy Business School and Buildings and Estates department at UL to empower and encourage students to contribute to sustainable development.

The Challenge seeks ambitious proposals from undergraduate and postgraduate student teams at UL to tackle climate change, with ideas or proposals to be applicable to either the campus, the city or wider Mid-West region or even further afield.

It is also part of a programme of events taking place this year to mark the 50th Anniversary of the University of Limerick.

Submissions are expected to inspire and guide future investments in the Castletroy and city campuses or can be drawn on as ideas for further development.

Student teams are being asked to submit their ideas by 5pm Monday, August 1, 2022.

Five finalist teams will be selected by an independent expert panel comprising representatives from industry and academia.

The five most promising project proposals will be shortlisted, each will receive support, and up to 10,000 to prepare and deliver a working pilot or demonstration of their proposal by March 2023.

The outcome will be evaluated on the basis of targets, feasibility plan, societal impact and delivery.

The winning team will be announced in April 2023.
A woman suicide bomber from a Pakistan separatist group killed four people, including three Chinese nationals, in an attack on a vehicle carrying staff from the Confucious Institute affiliated with the Karachi University.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a militant group which operates mainly in Balochistan province, claimed responsibility for the "self-sacrificing attack on Chinese in Karachi".

This was confirmed by an official statement by the group's spokesman Jeeyand Baloch said in a statement published in English on Telegram

Jeeyand Baloch also said that the mission was the first to be carried out be a female militant.

See the video here

CCTV footage of woman suicide attacker targeting vehicle carrying Chinese nationals within Karachi University

(video h/t @ghulamabbasshah)pic.twitter.com/PDmEtZHugb  Rezaul Hasan Laskar (@Rezhasan) April 26, 2022

A blast outside a Chinese language institute at the University of Karachi wounded four people on Tuesday, provincial information minister Sharjeel Memon told Geo News. The police are trying to find out whether it was a suicide attack, Geo News added.

In the video a woman can be seen waiting near a turn, when a van, reportedly carrying lecturers to the institute crosses her. This is when she blows herself up.

Karachi police confirmed four people had died in the attack, including three Chinese nationals.

Chinese targets have regularly been attacked by separatists in Balochistan province, where Beijing is involved in huge infrastructure projects as part of its Belt and Road Intitiuative.

Karachi Police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon said the initial investigation suggests a suicide bomber was behind the attack. He said the footage from the site showed a person dressed in the woman burqa head-to-toe covering walking up to the van, followed by an instantaneous explosion.
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The union that represents film and TV directors in Vancouver issued a 72-hour strike notice on Tuesday, saying that a negotiating session with employers on Monday had not yielded any progress.

The notice gives the Directors Guild of Canada the power to call a strike in British Columbia as early as Friday. Under Canadian law, unions must provide 72 hours notice of labor actions.

Shows that are currently in production under safe harbor agreements would not be affected by a strike, but as of Tuesday no new safe harbor agreements will be issued. Any production that is not covered by such an agreement will be subject to strike, if the union chooses to call one.

The DGC represents about 1,700 workers in the Vancouver area, including directors, unit managers, location workers and production assistants. The membership overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization vote earlier this month, with 92.2% voting in favor.

Allan Harmon, chairman of the unions B.C. District Council, said in a statement that he had hoped that the vote would have resulted in some progress on the unions concerns. The union requested the meeting, which took place on Monday, but the employers refused to budge.

Their refusal to address these issues has left us with no other choice but to issue strike notice, Harmon said.

The union has been working for more than a year on a new contract with the studio employers, and are seeking wage increases particularly at the lower end of the pay scale. The union is also seeking to make increases retroactive to the expiration of the last contract, in March 2021, and is seeking compensation for COVID testing days.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Canadian Media Producers Association  which represent the employers  have warned that the unions actions send a message of labor uncertainly and that companies might be forced to consider shooting elsewhere.

Vancouver is a major hub for production thanks to provincial and national tax credits, and the city is often used to stand in for New York or other cities on screen.

The British Columbia Labour Relations Board has been working to mediate the dispute. The board imposed safe harbor agreements on the industry in 2008 as a way to protect the stability of the industry while contracts are being negotiated.

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What a whacked-out couple of weeks this has been!

When I began writing this editors letter about the onslaught of news, I wasnt even planning to mention Elon Musks pursuit of because a deal looked dead in the water. Then we got whiplashed this past weekend when suddenly the acquisition appeared imminent. Sure enough, it was announced Monday that the Twitter board had accepted his $44 billion takeover offer.

Now were trying to process what exactly that will mean. Heres our digital editor Todd Spanglers quick take: The question is whether Elon Musk looks like a white knight for Twitter  or more like an evil overlord, says Spangler. Hes talked about his desire to have Twitter take a more laissez-faire approach to regulating speech on the platform, but what that means in practice for Twitters business is unclear. For years, Twitter has faced ongoing concerns from advertisers and users over misinformation and hate speech on the platform. Musks personal preference for Twitter to be more lenient in policing tweets could undo the companys efforts to make it a cleaner, better-lighted place for marketers. This raises legit concerns that Donald Trump and other Republican operatives would be allowed to return to Twitter after being banned.

Will Elon turn Twitter into a horrible MAGA swamp? Spangler wonders.

Twitter isnt the only subject raising forward looking questions: Theres the sudden death of CNN+, the serious injury inflicted on Netflix stock and the sordid details of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial for starters. Were all waiting to hear what programming and people will survive the abrupt shutdown of CNN+ after barely more than one month. It wasnt totally unexpected that Warner Bros. Discoverys new sheriff David Zaslav would pull the plug, since he objected to the idea when then-Warner Media chief Jason Kilar greenlit it, but he couldnt do anything before the merger was complete.

Whats next for Netflix after the loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter and its expectation of losing another 2 million around the world in this quarter, which sent its stock plummeting more than 35%? Billionaire investor Bill Ackmans decision to sell his entire stake after his fund bought more than 3 million shares of Netflix in January is certainly not a vote of confidence in the streamers future.

Depps defamation trial against ex-wife Heard is playing out in a Virginia courthouse like a horror film with graphic, violent details that make you cringe. Depp has been on the stand for days alleging that Heard repeatedly attacked him and threw a bottle at him that severed the tip of his middle finger. Jurors were shown several text messages in which Depp used violent and obscene language about wanting to kill Heard, and she has accused him of violent attacks against her. This nightmare of a trial will get uglier when Heard testifies.

Speaking of bad conduct, were also awaiting specifics about the nature of Bill Murrays inappropriate behavior on the set of Being Mortal that caused the production to be halted last week.

I have the distinct feeling that news isnt going to wane in the coming weeks.

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Jesse Spencer is officially set to return to Chicago Fire for the Season 10 finale, Variety confirms. The actor exited the show last October, but will come back to the Windy City for Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Stellas (Miranda Rae Mayo) wedding.

Basically, we went to Jesse a month ago or so. We officially said, Severides getting married and theres no way that Severide can get married without his best friend and his best man at the wedding. So whatever we need to say to get you to come with us, please,' says co-showrunner Derek Haas. Jesse is the greatest and we were thrilled he agreed to do it.

When Spencer left the series, his character temporarily moved to Oregon. At the time, he and girlfriend Brett (Kara Killmer) decided to stay together and have a long-distance relationship. While she did go visit, things are still tough between the duo.

Long distance relationships are really hard. I mean, their relationship was a long time coming at the end. They are deeply in love, but I think that its a real challenge for them to be far apart, co-showrunner Andrea Newman tells Variety. They come back in after having been together for a week when Brett was visiting but they know that now they have to say goodbye again for an undetermined amount of time. Thats weighing heavily on them. When you go to a wedding with anybody, it brings up all those sorts of questions about your own future and your relationships. So theyre definitely going to be struggling with that.

As usual in the One Chicago world, expect the unexpected when it comes to the nuptials.

The wedding is not going to go as planned. Plus, therell be at least one surprise guest at the wedding besides Jesse. It became a matter of how many people could we get in one day availability-wise, so we put together a wish list, says Haas. Newman adds, We had kind of endless wish list that went on pages, but that being said, we also have all these twists and turns in the wedding itself. People that we wanted to get there might might not make it.

Haas also warns that despite past shocking storylines on Chicago Fire, this is the top finale theyve ever done.

Youre going to have all of your emotions. Have some tissues handy and not even in the end  in the first 10 minutes, its gonna get gnarly, Haas tells Variety. Theres a beloved character since episode one, Season 1 and that is Mouchs couch. I dont want to say the couch is in danger, but I think the fan-favorite couch may not make it through season.

Chicago Fire airs on NBC Wednesdays at 8 p.m.

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Netflix has acquired Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, the new film from Oscar-winner Alejandro G. Inarritu.

The highly-anticipated film is currently in post-production, and is expected to wrap by fall. There had been some mutterings that it might be ready in time for a Cannes debut, but that didnt come to pass (there were rumors that it was headed to Netflix a few months ago).

Despite the fact that the film has been purchased by the most famous streaming service in the world, Netflix says it is committed to a theatrical release on a global scale. That will include a run in cinemas in Mexico, its country of origin, as well as in the U.S., Canada, UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Japan and Korea. Netflix has backed robust theatrical rollouts for certain auteur filmmakers with whom it has worked such as Alfonso Cuaron (Roma), Martin Scorsese (The Irishman) and Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story).

Written by Inarritu and Nicolas Giacobone, who previously collaborated on Birdman, Bardo chronicles the story of a Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker, who returns home and works through an existential crisis as he grapples with his identity and family relationships.

Alejandro is one of the greatest modern filmmakers and one of the leading visionaries in our industry, said Netflix Head of Global Film Scott Stuber. Bardo is a cinematic experience that has inspired us to create a release strategy designed for the film to penetrate culture in the biggest and widest way. We will give film lovers everywhere the opportunity to experience the film through a global theatrical release and the films worldwide release on Netflix. Having known Alejandro for a long time, I am personally very excited to finally be able to work alongside him and to bring his film to a global audience.

The deeply personal film was shot in Inarritus hometown of Mexico City. Inarritu is a two-time Oscar winner for best director. He also won Oscars for producing and writing Birdman, as well as a special Oscar for his virtual-reality project Carne y Arena. His credits include The Revenant, Biutiful and Babel.

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Reservoir Docs has acquired world rights to The End of Innocence, director Pauline Beugnies documentary about a string of shocking crimes that rattled Belgium in the 1990s, ahead of its world premiere in the International Spectrum competition section at Hot Docs.

The End of Innocence recounts an infamous series of child abductions, rapes and murders by the serial predator Marc Dutroux and his accomplices  a tragedy compounded by the egregious judicial errors that hampered the investigation.

The Dutroux Affair, as it came to be known, shocked the nation, culminating in the White March of 1996, where more than 350,000 demonstrators marched in silent protest through the streets of Brussels after Dutrouxs arrest.

The story is told through the testimonies of the survivors, now fully grown, shedding light on how their memories are altered by time, distorted by media coverage and limited by their youth and inexperience. Together, they tell an intimate version of their story in what becomes a piece of collective memory.

Beugnies, who was just 13 years old when the tragic events unfolded, said that the Dutroux affair left an indelible mark on her family. Our life changed radically at that time. It is one of the stories that built the person I am today, she said in a statement. Its very hard to tackle the Dutroux case. Its a huge taboo. It took me a long time to find the right form.

The Age of Innocence uses a combination of home videos and archival news footage to reveal the ways in which TV news coverage shaped collective remembrance of the case, while also disrupting and intruding on private life at the time.

What interests me is the trace that the media narrative of the Dutroux affair has left on our generation, said Beugnies. The film is about how stories define us, how the stories we are told as children allow us to build the adults we are today. Its a story weve been told, re-told, but always in the same way, from the same point of view. I just want to try to tell the story differently.

The director said she was also determined to shift the narrative around how such crimes are talked about today.

In my daughters class one in five children is potentially sexually abused. How is this possible? For me, its unbearable, she said. We put a monster in prison, and the idea that Dutroux will be released one day drives us crazy, but pedocriminality continues to be ultra-taboo. The victims are still made to feel guilty.

Everything has been thrown in our faces, we watched TV reports with our families where they talked about sexual abuse in detail, but today the word of a victim is still inaudible, Beugnies continued. I want to participate in putting this in the public arena, to try to get people to take hold of the film, to make it a subject that can be talked about.

Anais Clanet, partner and head of sales and acquisitions for Reservoir Docs, said that The Age of Innocence also resonated with her on a deep personal level.

I was a young child [at the time of the Dutroux affair], oblivious to the horrors of pedophilia and sexual predators. Nobody explained anything to us kids, when we saw it all on TV, she said. The collective trauma the Dutroux affair caused resonates today. Its applicable to the damage social networks and the like do to young children who dont know better, and this reign of silence needs to stop. The film really shows how communication is the key here, and how we cannot take for granted everything the media say.

The Age of Innocence is produced by Laurence Buelens for Rayuela Productions, in co-production with Dipolodokus, with the support of the Cinema and Audiovisual Center of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the SCAM, the Belgian Journalism Funds and the Belgian Tax Shelter.

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Abacus Media Rights has acquired the Sky Original feature documentary The Ghost of Richard Harris, about the Hollywood star and notorious hell-raiser, for worldwide distribution. The release of the film, directed by Adrian Sibley, coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Irish actors death.

The film, produced by Bright Yellow Films, Samson Films and Groove Intl., tracks Harris career, which was overshadowed by a reputation for drinking and riotous behavior. Exploring this complex, flawed individual, the documentary features Harris three sons, BAFTA Award-winning actor Jared Harris (Chernobyl, The Crown), actor Jamie Harris (Carnival Row, West Side Story) and director Damian Harris (Brave the Dark, Wilde Wedding).

The film will air in the U.K. on Sky Arts and streaming service NOW later this year.

Sibley said: I had the pleasure of meeting Richard Harris through his son Damian at the Savoy to talk about making a documentary about his life and times. Hed seen my film with Anthony Hopkins where he talked about drinking and thought wed work well together. Richard took me out for supper and I had one of the best nights of my life. He was the ultimate storyteller and everyone in the restaurant stopped to listen to him, but I still felt that he was only talking to me.

I knew I could make a fascinating film about this unusual man, but unfortunately soon afterwards he became ill and died. Now on the 20th anniversary of his death, using hours of unheard audio tapes of interviews with Richard over many years, I have the opportunity to actually work with him from beyond the grave and make the film we discussed, with him unravelling the story of what he calls a turbulent journey of great highs and lows, in short, a life that few can even imagine.

Damian, Jared and Jamie Harris said: We have been approached several times over the years to participate in various documentaries about our father. We turned them all down, because Adrians was the one our father wanted to tell his tale.

As sons, we all saw Dad differently, through the lens he allowed us to see him by. As a man he resisted being discovered, jealously guarding his mystery, delighting in his ultimate creation, the character Richard Harris. This is a remarkable opportunity for us to re-engage with our father once more, beyond the memories we have, or the dreams in which he appears to us. Its a story told in hindsight, frankly, without sentiment, but always with affection. Like all good mysteries we dont know where the story will lead us, but we welcome the chance to embrace the complete man.

Jonathan Ford, managing director at AMR, said the film offers an intriguing and insightful look into the life of a person we all know from his global work and talent.

It is produced by Bright Yellow Films, David Collins of Samson Films and George Waud of Groove Intl., who most recently was a financier/co-producer of Cabaret, which just won seven Olivier Awards.

It is financed by Groove Intl. and Screen Ireland alongside Sky Arts. Executive producers are Celine Haddad for Screen Ireland, along with David Blake Knox and Mike Downey.

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SPOLER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched The Night Before the Wedding, the April 26 episode of This Is Us.

Another This Is Us mystery was solved during Tuesdays episode. In previous flash-forwards, Kevin (Justin Hartley) is wearing a wedding ring, but his wife was not yet identified  until now. At Kates (Chrissy Metz) wedding to Phillip (Chris Geere), Kevin reconnected with his ex-wife, Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge), whom he has loved since they met in grade school. Although she was hesitant at first since hed broken her heart many times and they had too much history, Rebecca (Mandy Moore), who thought she was talking to young Sophie due to her dementia, told her that while Kevin may not be ready now for her, he would be one day.

With that, Sophie agreed that now was the right time to give their romance another shot.

Breckenridge had a recurring role in the first season of This Is Us, and a main role in Season 2. Her part then moved to being a guest role in the remaining seasons  mostly because she landed the lead on Netflixs Virgin River.

Here, Hartley and Breckenridge talk to Variety about Sophie and Kevins highly anticipated reunion, why now was the right time for creator Dan Fogelman to get them together and the characters futures.

First things first: We didnt get the main flash-forward in this episode. Is it safe to assume that Sophie is Kevins wife in the future?

Justin Hartley: I think that you can safely assume that. Gosh, that would be a tragedy of epic proportions. No. 1, how many times is this guy going to mess up? And even worse, how many times is this woman going to let him back? So I think its safe to assume that they have found their peace and theyve found their partner and it was always the same person all along  and through a bunch of missteps and immaturity that played a huge role. Just being insecure and self-absorbed and all that, as far as Kevin is concerned, Sophie just got there a lot sooner than Kevin did and I think Kevin has been able to catch up and meet her exactly where she is.

Alexandra Breckenridge: I think it would be a very short time in which to partner him with someone else by the end of the show. Weve only got four more episodes! I think they really do a good job of saying that they have come together at the end of the episode.

When did the discussion start about bringing you back?

Breckenridge: A couple of years ago, I was trying to come back, but I was filming the second season of Virgin River. They came back and wanted me to come on the show. I was very excited, but I couldnt do it because of the shooting schedule. This time, we were supposed to start filming Season 5 of Virgin River in March, but we got we pushed until July. So if I was up there filming right now, I dont know that I would have been able to do This Is Us. I think it was always the plan for them. We had been talking about Kevin and Sophie coming back together for awhile, and it just kept not happening because of the filming schedule with COVID. I couldnt come back and forth from Canada because of the quarantine restrictions.

Did you think it always had to be Sophie in the end?

Hartley: I didnt think it always had to be Sophie. The reason the show is so successful is I think people relate to all of the characters, no matter if youre a man or a woman, if youre old or young, if youre Black or white, if youre gay or straight, if youre super religious or you dont really care, whatever it might be, I think people relate to all of the characters. You have a guy on the show who is, for all intents and purposes, a rich and famous man who seemingly has it all. And yet there are times on the show, quite a few times, where I think hes the most relatable of all of the characters and that is so bizarre. Its a testament to the writing. Thats part of the problem with writing Superman, right? Its hard to relate to him. But imagine writing a script where youve got this guy who is rich and famous and youve got every single thing you could possibly imagine. And then making him somehow relatable. Thats just great writing.

Long way around to your question, I didnt always think that it had to be Sophie. I had enough faith in the writers, and I knew that they had this one. And if it was someone else, they were going to build a story around this guys life that made sense for that character. I knew that whatever it was going to be was going to be the right decision. Youd have to ask Dan! Maybe Dan knew all along, but in building all of that stuff, all those relationships that you saw Kevin deal with  Cassidy and Madison and all the ones in between, the condom girl even  all of those relationships, they tell a story and it actually adds to the richness of and earns Kevin the right to go back to Sophie and earns Sophie the right to trust Kevin again. Its a really beautiful, full circle story.

Breckenridge: Ultimately, even though the characters didnt end up together sooner, what I like about it and I think is rather satisfying is that youve got two people that were able to develop as whole humans on their own. Its so much better when people can be fully formed when they enter back into a relationship, especially given their history, and given how many times Kevin has broken Sophies heart. He really needed that time to find himself. So, ultimately, I think its still very satisfying when they come together.

Jennifer Maas contributed to this interview, which has been edited and condensed.

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Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar hosted a ceremony Tuesday morning proclaiming the week as National Crime Victims Rights Week.

At the ceremony-- held at the Billy Hall Administrative Building at 1110 Washington Street -- the sheriff, various county and city leaders and also agency leaders spoke about the services offered locally to victims of all crimes, especially domestic violence.

"We are celebrating, honoring all the victims of domestic violence and of any crime for that matter," Cuellar said. "I think it is important for the community -- the law enforcement community and everyone -- to come together so we can be able to provide the best safety options for the victims. Thats what we are here for. We are here to support the victims."

The United States is commemorating National Crime Victims Rights Week this week from April 24-30. It observes the availability for victims of crimes by helping them understand the importance of crime survivors, what services exist for them to be assisted and how to ensure equity and inclusion for all.

Cuellar states that domestic violence continues to be a problem in Webb County due to the continued culture of machismo, as well as some aggression from women continuing to be less reported.

"It has always been a big problem, as you have the machismo person that is always saying you do what I say or I am going to force it upon you, and not only is it with the men, but it is also with the women as they get aggressive," Cuellar said. "Of course, there are more men than women that commit these types of crimes, but it is something that we are on the frontlines -- the police officers and the deputy officers -- as that is where everything starts."

According to the sheriff, as people were mostly at home during the main lockdowns of the pandemic, there was a local uptick in domestic violence in and around the county. Although those numbers lessened the months after the lockdowns were over, he states that domestic violence issues are starting to rise again.

"They went down for a little bit, but I know they are up again," Cuellar said. "I dont have the exact numbers, but I know that it has been happening, it is still going on and this thing is never going to stop."

Cuellar states that during the pandemic lockdowns, the fact that many families were stuck at home together caused more tension as there were also money issues and other things that caused stress in families.

During the ceremony, various county and city leaders were also part of the event to speak about how the different services in the community help victims find a way to stay safe and also find a way outside of the abuse they face.

Cuellar states that the district attorneys office, the county attorneys office, Casa de Misericordia and other agencies formed part of the proclamation to make sure the victims know that they offer assistance to all the victims of crimes.

"It is very important to us -- not only to the sheriff's office, to the police department and the DAs office -- so we can raise awareness so we can be able to get less calls out there, because we are beating this domestic violence issue," Cuellar said. "We have to, because the less calls we get, the better.

"Unfortunately, we have people who commit these types of crimes, and the victims need to know that we are here to support them. They are not alone, as we are here to help them out and offer them any type of counseling services or anything like that we need to provide or any place to stay, like Casa de Misericordia, that they provide a beautiful place for the kids and everyone.

The sheriff states that whenever a domestic violence incident happens, it does not only affect the people involved directly in the incident but also the whole family -- especially if they have children. He states that saving children from these types of incidents and households is important, as these incidents remain ingrained in their lives for years.

Throughout the week, the sheriffs office will be hosting various events to commemorate victims week. Included are a mass at St. Patricks Church to commemorate the rights of victims and a candlelight vigil at Lake Casa Blanca on Thursday from 6:30-7:30 p.m. to honor victims.

Cuellar states that any victims of domestic violence can call the sheriff's office at 956-523-4500 and to ask to speak with Esmeralda Melendez, who will direct the victim with the assistance needed.
Green lifestyle gains popularity in China

People's Daily Online) 16:53, April 27, 2022

A green and low-carbon way of life is gaining increasing popularity in China, thanks to the countrys various efforts in recent years.

The country has encouraged the use of energy-efficient appliances, with subsidies for purchasing energy-saving appliances, and programs of replacing old home appliances with new ones.

Statistics from an e-commerce platform show that sales volume of air conditioners with the highest energy-efficiency grade surged by 98 percent year on year in 2021, accounting for more than 60 percent of all the conditioners sold throughout the year, while those of energy-efficient fridges saw a year-on-year increase of 62 percent.

This is the latest air conditioner with the highest energy-efficiency grade, and saves much more energy than any other air conditioners of the same rated power with lower energy-efficiency grade. Indeed, its a little bit expensive, but it saves energy effectively, and can be bought at a lower price at shopping festivals, said Qu Jiliang, head of a home appliance store in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, adding that consumers can receive subsidies.

Energy-efficient appliances help us live a green life, said Chen Ailing, a customer in the store who was choosing an air conditioner.

In addition, the country has reduced the use of disposable tableware, while encouraging the use of recyclable alternatives. China has generally stopped production of disposable foam plastic dinnerware, with over 90 percent of plastic dinnerware made from polypropylene, according to Li Jinhui, secretary general of Solid Waste Treatment and Utilization Committee of China Association of Environmental Protection Industry (CAEPI), and professor at School of Environment, Tsinghua University. CAEPI data shows that about 885 million sets of disposable tableware were cut in the first half of 2021 in food delivery services across the country.

Zhao Guangyuan, executive vice president of the Shijiazhuang Catering Association in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, called on restaurants to use less disposable tableware, and encouraged relevant departments to vigorously support restaurants and create an environment of fair competition.

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Photo shows an intelligent seat in Fushan Jiaoye Park in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province.(Photo/Fuzhou Evening News)

Moreover, China has advocated green travel. Southeast China's Fujian Province, for example, has built many bike lanes, pedestrian walkways, and other facilities to support green transport in recent years. By the end of 2021, the province had over 6,600 kilometers of green pathways.

Lin Yifei, a citizen in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, often walks on a 20-km pedestrian walkway in the citys Fushan Jiaoye Park. The walkway is supported by an intelligent system he designed, which collects data from users of the walkway.

There are 20 checkpoints along the way. Users may check in at any of them, so their data will be recorded, introduced Lin. Lin, who often checks in at the checkpoint at the entrance of the walkway, added that he made the design because he wanted to equip the walkway with a real-time feedback system like the systems found in gyms.

Furthermore, users get extra bonus for checking in, which enables them to enjoy more services, including access to phone chargers on intelligent seats installed along the lane.

Slow transportation lanes are, in essence, green travel option for local residents. With these intelligent lanes, people will enjoy this low-carbon way of travel, remarked Chen Zhiliang, a designer of Fuzhou Planning & Design Research Institute Group Co. Ltd.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
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NEW DELHI (AP)  Eleven people were electrocuted when their truck, decorated as a temple chariot, touched an overhead power line during a Hindu festival procession in southern India on Wednesday, police said.

The New Delhi Television channel said the electrical spark also set fire to the truck, which was crowded with devotees.
A man said he fled the scene of a crash he caused because he panicked, according to Laredo police.

Benjamin Munoz Gonzalez, 20, was charged with accident involving injuries.

On April 25, police officers responded to a hit-and-run crash with injuries reported at about 1:01 a.m. in the intersection of North Malinche Avenue and Guadalupe Street. The suspect vehicle had fled the scene. It was described as a red sport utility vehicle with driver side damages.

First officers on scene encountered a man and woman inside a black Nissan Sentra with heavy front damage and passenger side damage. The woman was taken to Laredo Medical Center while the male refused transport.

The man stated he was driving west in the 2100 block of Guadalupe when he was attempting to cross the intersection. Then, the red SUV disregarded a red light and caused the crash, according to court documents.

Assisting officers located the suspect vehicle in the 2000 block of East Reynolds Street. Police described the suspect vehicle as a red Mitsubishi Endeavor. Authorities noticed the Mitsubishi had damages to the driver side.

Police would identify the driver as Munoz Gonzalez. He stated he was driving the vehicle at the time of the crash. Munoz Gonzalez further stated he fled the scene of the crash because he panicked, according to court documents.
A Mexican Mafia captain has pleaded guilty in a Laredo federal court to firearm charges, according to court documents.

On Wednesday, Rogelio Garza Jr., 49, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.

Garza has been identified as a captain of the Mexican Mafia, court documents state.

The case dates back to Oct. 28, when the Texas Department of Public Safety received information that Garza was distributing drugs out of the 3300 block of South Louisiana Avenue.

Garza allegedly carried a handgun during drug deliveries in a white 2010 Nissan Altima, Texas DPS special agents established surveillance at his apartment complex on South Louisiana.

DPS troopers and special agents pulled over the Altima for a window tint violation. Authorities knew the driver, Garza, had an active warrant for parole violation, states the arrest affidavit filed in federal court.

DPS special agents observed a 9mm Taurus PT111 G2A on the drivers side floorboard, next to Garzas feet. Authorities said the firearm was loaded with six rounds. State police also discovered about 2 grams of meth and approximately 1 gram of heroin on Garza.

A raid at Garzas residence resulted in the seizure of 15 grams of heroin, 48 grams of meth, 13 ounces of marijuana and 4 grams of cocaine. DPS charged Garza with five counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of possession of marijuana.

Then, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives took over the case. ATF special agents said Garzas criminal history had four felony convictions: three for drug possession and one for possession of a firearm by felon, states the affidavit.

In a post-arrest interview with authorities, Garza stated he was in possession of and using controlled substances. He also allegedly admitted to possessing the Taurus firearm.

Garza advised he purchased the firearm because of his status as a gang member. Garza told investigators he was a high-ranking gang member, a captain for the Mexican Mafia, also known as La EME, states the affidavit.

Garza will remain in custody pending his sentencing. He faces at least 15 years and up to life in prison. The ATF conducted the investigation with the assistance of Texas DPS. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul A. Harrison is prosecuting the case.
A trucker said he was to be paid a few thousand dollars for smuggling 124 migrants to San Antonio, according to an arrest affidavit.

David William McKeon was charged with transport, attempt to transport and conspire to transport the migrants.
Two Nuevo Laredo men were sentenced to prison for a human smuggling attempt that left several dead, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Fabian Hernandez, 29, and Emmanuel Ferral-Tonche, 20, pleaded guilty to transporting migrants on Dec. 30, 2021.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo sentenced each to 60 months. Both are expected to be deported following their sentencing.

"The tragic loss of life in this case is an example of the very real risks people face when they put their lives in the hands of smugglers," said Special Agent in Charge Shane Folden, Homeland Security Investigations-San Antonio. "Those responsible for illegally moving people through our country place personal profit ahead of public safety. Driven by greed, these criminals have little regard for the health and well-being of the individuals they smuggle, which can be a deadly combination.

The case occurred on June 9, when Hernandez and Ferral-Tonche guided a group of about 24 migrants through the hot South Texas weather. Some migrants could not keep through the hot South Texas brush.

At no time did Hernandez or Ferral-Tonche offer water or attempt to look for anyone who had fallen behind or gotten lost, said the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Authorities responded to multiple 911 calls coming from the Hachar Ranch in Webb County. Responding law enforcement officials encountered 24 migrants who were lost. They identified Hernandez and Ferral-Tonche as the smugglers, authorities said.

Authorities also discovered the remains of three people. Hernandez and Ferral-Tonche guided at least two of them before they died due to dehydration and hyperthermia.

Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducted the investigation with assistance from the Laredo Police Department.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Polands government has announced plans to drastically reduce flights at Warsaws two airports starting Sunday if talks with air traffic controllers demanding better working conditions fail.

Regulations published late Monday state the Frederic Chopin and Modlin airports would operate from 07:30 GMT until 15:00 GMT each day and only handle flights to and from key destinations.

The majority of air traffic controllers in Warsaw are threatening to quit their jobs May 1 after a drawn-out conflict with Polands air navigation authority over working hours, pay and the authoritys financial transparency.

The conflict is coming to a head at a time when world leaders have been coming to Warsaw for talks on supporting neighboring Ukraine in its fight against Russias invasion.

Due to the war across the border, Polands eastern skies have been dedicated to the needs of Polish and U.S. military forces stationed in the area with the goal of strengthening Polands security.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki suggested Tuesday that the controllers union should cede on some points. He said that controllers typically work 30 hours a week and earn up to 45,000 zlotys ($10,000) pre-tax a month, which are highly favorable terms by Polands standards.

The Trade Union of Air Traffic Controllers disputed the figures. It said earning are much lower, and that individuals with 30 years experience can earn about 33,000 zlotys ($7,600) a month before taxes.

The union claimed that in the past two years, controllers have been expected to work shifts single-handedly or sometimes put in 12-hours shifts, conditions it described as a flight safety threat.

The union also accused state air navigation authority PANSA of neglecting some international flight regulations.

The labor dispute started about two years ago with the appointment of a loyalist of Polands right-wing government as PANSAs chief. Janusz Janiszewski increased the working hours and reduced the pay of air traffic controllers, arguing that traffic was much smaller during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As some controllers quit and some flights were delayed at Warsaws airports, Janiszewski was fired March 31. A state auditing body found issues with his management, Polish media reported.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The fertile mind of Justice Stephen Breyer has conjured a stream of hypothetical questions through the years that have, in the words of a colleague, befuddled lawyers and justices alike.

Breyer, 83, seemed a bit subdued as he sat through the last of more than 2,000 arguments Wednesday in which he has taken part during 28 years on the high court. His wife, Joanna, also was in the courtroom.

But at the end of the case about Oklahoma's authority to prosecute people accused of crimes on Native American lands, an emotional Chief Justice John Roberts paid tribute to Breyer for his prowess during arguments.

For 28 years, this has been his arena for remarks profound and moving, questions challenging and insightful, and hypotheticals downright silly, Roberts said.

A day earlier, Breyer provided only the most recent example, inventing a prison inmate named John the Tigerman in a case involving transporting an inmate for a medical test. Breyer called him the most dangerous prisoner they have ever discovered.

Just since Breyer announced in late January that he was retiring, he has asked lawyers to answer questions involving spiders, muskrats and 4-foot-long cigars smoked through hookahs  none of which, it's fair to say, had any actual links to the cases at hand.

Breyer once granted an interview to The Associated Press in which he acknowledged that his questions sometimes stretch the bounds of credulity.

Thats by design.

The point is to try to focus on a matter that is worrying me. Sometimes its easier to do that with an example, he said in 2008.

He's also not above a joke at his own expense. I mean, we could stay here a long time, which we wont, listing things I dont know, he said in court last week.

On the bench, Breyer's questions will sometimes elicit a laugh from Clarence Thomas or a grin from Brett Kavanaugh. Other justices have affectionately needled Breyer about the queries, which can go on and on. I can never equal my colleagues evocative hypotheticals, Justice Samuel Alito said during arguments in February.

In that case, about the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to combat climate change, lawyer Beth Brinkmann actually thanked Breyer for the cigar question, which she said helped her.

Brinkmann's comment prompted Justice Elena Kagan to observe: You know, its not always the case, Ms. Brinkmann, that a lawyer responds to one of Justice Breyers hypotheticals by saying thats really helpful.

The topics range far and wide, but animals often play a featured role, as happened last week in a case involving a workers compensation law for federal contractors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state.

The new law applies to workers who work at any structure and its lands. So, when I read that, I think maybe there are several federal workers who are busy on a river at Hanford cleaning out muskrat nets  nests, OK, and they are nowhere near a structure where particular forms of waste are disposed of, expect  except by the muskrats, which have nothing to do with this, OK? he asked.

In March arguments about arbitration, Breyer said, Now suppose instead of saying you cant arbitrate it, what they do  and this is ridiculous, but youll see why I do it this way for simplification  they put a spider next to it, and theres a rule saying you cant ever arbitrate anything with a spider, OK?

Eventually Breyer told the lawyer, Scott Nelson, he was free to ignore the question because it's too weird.

Many lawyers would welcome the invitation, but Nelson was game. Im going to take a stab at it anyway because, you know, I dont think these cases are any fun without a little bit of zoology involved, he said.

___

MASKS ON, MASKS OFF

A plain black robe makes it easy to get dressed for court. But this term, amid a roller coaster of COVID-19 concerns, justices have weighed whether to add masks to their courtroom attire, with on again, off again results.

When they returned to the courtroom in October following more than a year and a half of pandemic-inspired arguments by phone, the justices were unmasked. The lone exception was Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a diabetic since childhood, who has consistently worn a mask in court. Everyone else in the courtroom was required to wear masks, but lawyers removed theirs when they made their arguments.

In January, as coronavirus cases were spiking, seven justices wore masks for the first time while hearing arguments in cases about the Biden administrations authority to require vaccines for health care workers and impose a vaccine-or-testing requirement on the nations large employers. Neil Gorsuch was the lone unmasked justice, while Sotomayor, his seatmate, stayed out of the courtroom altogether and took part in arguments from her office. They denied a media report that they were at odds over masks.

Sotomayor returned for February arguments, but everyone else was unmasked as the omicron surge waned. The court soon dropped the mask requirement for everyone else in the courtroom.

Then for the term's final arguments this week, Justice Elena Kagan showed up wearing a mask. The court said she had been exposed to someone with the virus and while repeatedly testing negative had decided to wear one out of an abundance of caution.

While masking was a choice, judicial modesty prevailed  only solid colors, white, black or dark blue.
A woman tried smuggling a teenage boy through a Laredo international bridge claiming he was a friend of the family, states the arrest affidavit.

Diana Ester Garcia-Rostro and a 14-year-old boy arrived at the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge at about 5:13 p.m. April 24. She presented a U.S. passport for her and a State of Maryland birth certificate for the boy.
Gov. Greg Abbott is inviting the public to help pay for buses transporting migrants from Texas border communities to the nation's capital. The Republican leader has added a donations page to his office's website under a "Border Transportation Funding" button on the site's "Border Crisis Update" page.

The page notes that any unused border transportation funding will be applied to the state's border wall funding.

Abbott promoted the donation page during a Sunday appearance on the Fox News program "Sunday Morning Futures" with host Maria Bartiromo. The Republican governor told Bartiromo that as soon as he announced the bus ride initiative, his office's "phone started ringing off the hook [with] people wanting to help."

Twice mentioning the site's address, Abbott said, "You can contribute to us busing those migrants to Washington, D.C., and make the Biden administration deal with it themselves." The web page says donations "as of April 13" are "TBD," so it's unclear when the fundraiser began.

Abbott's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when it started, how many donations have been made so far or information on other sources of funding.

His office also did not confirm how many migrants have traveled during each trip. Abbott told reporters during a roundtable with San Antonio law enforcement last Wednesday that he does not know how many migrants have been sent.

The governor announced the bus ride initiative on April 6 in response to the Biden administration announcing the end of Trump-era Title 42 pandemic restrictions, which allowed border officials to turn away migrants at the border because of the health crisis. The Republican governor warned of an upcoming influx of migrants if the measure is lifted next month.

"Maria, with the sheer number of people coming across the border, beginning in a month, we will continue these bus routes to Washington, D.C.," Abbott told Bartiromo.

Between April 13 and April 22, 10 of the buses have been sent to Washington, D.C., with migrants from the countries of Angola, Brazil, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, according to Abbott's office.

In a separate Fox News program last Wednesday, Abbott told host Sean Hannity, "If he will not come to the border, I'm going to take the border to President Biden. He will see by these daily flows of buses... what Texans are dealing with and he and members of Congress are going to have to deal with directly."
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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Its a long way from Longford to Ukraine and back - almost five and a half thousand kilometres according to Longford lads, Conor McLoughlin and Darren Clarke who made the journey to deliver humanitarian aid to refugees in Przemysl.

Filling a jeep and a horsebox full of donations from the people of Longford, Conor and Darren set off at the start of April.

I went around to a few people and asked them to bring in stuff and it kind of just escalated from there, Conor explained.

Nearly every day I was getting in boxes and bags of everything and anything - clothes, food, everything. And then after that we set up a GoFundMe to try and help with diesel costs, which was definitely needed. We went over in a jeep and horsebox.

With the jeep loaded full of clothing, food, medical supplies and sanitary items, Conor and Darren drove from Longford to Rosslare where they got the Stenaline ferry to Cherbourt, in France.

Stenaline, eager to help the kindhearted lads out, provided them with a free fare to France to ensure they made it to their destination.

We got the ferry over and back for nothing, which was great. That was nearly 700 saved, said Conor.

Without that we probably wouldnt have went, said Darren, noting the significant cost of fuel and travel in the current climate.

Oh god no, we couldnt have afforded it, Conor agreed. We drank nearly a grand in diesel. When youre pulling a nearly a tonne behind you as well, it uses a lot of fuel.

From Cherbourg, the lads drove for five days to Przemysl in Poland.

That was some trek, it was just under five and a half thousand kilometres from Longford the whole way there and the whole way back again, said Conor.

It was five days of driving - two and a half days over and two and a half days back, Darren agreed.

The lads took turns driving, sleeping at a German truck stop in the jeep on the first night - which they admitted was very cold - and staying at a hotel on the second night when they reached Poland.

On the third day, they arrived at the Przemysl refugee camp where they unloaded their supplies.

The amount of Irish volunteers over there is unbelievable - people who have gone over on their own back, said Darren.

Theres no Irish Red Cross or anything like that, so everybody out there is getting money donated to them to stay out there. Its tough on them as well I suppose.

Yeah it is, theyre taking it one day at a time but they dont know when theyre coming home. Theyre going to stay until its over, pretty much, Conor agreed.

We didnt really know what to expect when we got to Przemsyl, said Darren. We got there safe and the reception we received was really, really good.

Its horrid sad scenes though, said Conor.

Following their arrival, Conor and Darren received a tour of the facility where they saw refugees being processed so they could book flights to other countries.

Theres people in there in the same camp from day one, still waiting to get into England and it probably still hasnt happened, said Conor.

Its fairly slow-moving. Its grand if a bus turns up from Ireland. I know the lads from OHaires went over and they brought back 13 adults and eight kids or something like that. If youre going back to Ireland you can take them if your background check is cleared.

We met a Ukrainian family over there as well - a husband, wife, the wifes brother and their children - they were going to Limerick, Darren added.

The womans brother is driving his old Lada all the way from Poland to Limerick. It was a serious amount of driving though. I did nine hours straight from the German-Polish border to the Ukraine border.

Despite that, Conor and Darren said they would do it again in a heartbeat if they could. The experience itself was great, said Darren.

Being able to help out made it all worthwhile. Without the people who donated items and money for fuel, we couldnt have done it, Conor agreed.

The GoFundMe link is still live for anyone who would like to donate. The link can be found at https://gofund.me/873b22a5.
The cast of the Bee Masterson, Legan Amateur Drama Group taking a break from rehearsing the upcoming Widows Paradise play with Director Padraig Kelly Pictures: Frank McGrath

The Aurora Hall in Legan will play host to three nights of hilarious comedy this weekend as the Bea Masterson Drama Group returns with three stellar performances of Sam Crees Widows Paradise.

Performances will take place at 8pm nightly on Friday, April 29, Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1, with doors opening at 7.30pm. Booking is essential.

Bea Masterson drama group are delighted to be able to return to the stage after two tough and challenging years for everyone across the world. The group had to cancel a few shows due to Covid-19 restrictions just beginning and after two years theyre back to stage this play as they feel comedy is the best medicine for people right now with all thats going on in the world.

This play will be a great distraction with just two hours of fun-filled hilarious comedy and farce. It is great to be able to welcome new members to the cast and crew. John OBrien will be on stage for his debut and Breege Kenny will also be in the cast.

The group members are also delighted to see others return to the stage after their absence in the last few productions.

There are some changes from the last production but it will be no less entertaining. The group has expanded these past few years and it is great to be able to put on a show. Thanks to all our supporters for your generosity and support at every play and we hope that we will have a big attendance at the plays, especially with profits and proceeds going to Red Cross support for Ukrainian refugees and the Irish guide dogs association.

A reminder to people it is essential to book by contacting 0871124229.

Thanks to all who helped out with this production.
Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
Nearly 90 state-owned properties are almost ready to be used to house Ukrainian refugees.

Housing Minister Darragh OBrien, speaking after a Cabinet meeting, said that his department had identified 529 vacant or unused buildings that could be used to provide housing for arriving refugees from Ukraine.

Mr OBrien said that 89 would be usable within the coming weeks, creating around 5,000 beds for refugees.

These would require some work, but not extensive work, Mr OBrien said.

There is a spread right across the 26 counties, Mr OBrien told Newstalk.

Around 25,000 Ukrainian refugees have now arrived in the Republic of Ireland, putting pressure on the Government to find housing and accommodation.

Mass and emergency accommodation centres have already started to be used.

Mr OBrien said that the accommodation would be a little bit more long-term than the Millstreet Arena in Cork currently being used to house refugees.

It is about moving quickly on these ones, he said.

Earlier, Taoiseach Micheal Martin had said that his Government will do everything we possibly can to provide for Ukrainian refugees arriving in Ireland.

Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath told Cabinet on Tuesday that Ireland is preparing to spend around three billion euro (2.5 billion) in 2023 on welcoming and supporting those arriving from the war-torn country.

Mr Martin, speaking before Cabinet, said he had met refugees over the weekend.

Their gratitude to the kindness of the people of Ireland was heartfelt, he said.

This is a horrific war that is having a terrible toll on families and, in a shared humanity, we must do everything we possibly can within our energies and with our resources to do what we can.

We want this war to end; it should end, because too much life has been lost.

Mr McGrath said the primary focus of Cabinet discussions on Tuesday will be accommodation for refugees.

He said ministers will be looking at all of the options that are available to Government to find accommodation as quickly as possible.

The system is now under real strain and we are at the point of offering accommodation that is not at the standard we would like but is necessary because ultimately these refugees are fleeing war and our first duty is to provide safety and security for them and to meet their basic needs, he said.
Business & Finance

By Chris Boyle Published: April 27 2022

We are working to build back stronger than ever and this website will allow us to provide the resources needed to ensure our local small businesses thrive, said Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone.

Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced the launch of a new website, www.suffolkcountyny.gov/BusinessHub , dedicated to assisting local small businesses and startups. The website, which was developed after the Suffolk County Legislature unanimously passed a resolution sponsored by Legislator Anker, will serve as the county's center for business development needs and services by providing important information regarding how to start a business, what county, state and federal assistance and pandemic relief programs are available for businesses owners, and resources to help established businesses innovate and grow.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created incredible challenges for small business, and while large corporations have received substantial government support, our small businesses have not been given as many opportunities. This website hub will help to provide our local businesses with easy access to helpful resources including, grant and loan opportunities, potential funding sources, business administration information, small business related rules and regulations, relevant government department contacts, and COVID-19 related guidance information, said Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker. I would like to thank Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone for his support, and the Suffolk County Departments of Economic Development and Planning, and Information Technology for their work in developing and launching this much needed resource.

As we enter our new normal, we are working to build back stronger than ever and this website will allow us to provide the resources needed to ensure our local small businesses thrive, said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. The hub will create a more collaborative effort with local small businesses and will help raise awareness of the many resources available to them.

In addition to the website hub, the county is developing an Office of Business Development, which will serve to assist business owners with coordinating the various permitting processes required by the Suffolk County Departments of Health Services and Public Works, and if applicable, the New York State Department of Conservation and any other state, federal or local agencies.

"The Suffolk County Office of Business Development is truly a one-stop website that contains a wealth of information for individuals who are seeking to start or grow a business, said Holly Bottiglieri, President of the Mt. Sinai-Miller Place Chamber of Commerce. It provides valuable tools to aid in making educated decisions that include, choosing an industry to open a business, online workshops and all of the logistics to help new and seasoned businesses obtain accurate information to move forward in their business development process.

The site will also offer an opportunity for local businesses to participate in Suffolk Countys procurement of services and goods. Local businesses will have the ability to more easily access and sign up for county bids and requests for proposals. This includes an emphasis on Minority- and Women- owned Business Enterprises (MWBE), as well as Veteran-owned businesses.
Local News, Crime

By Long Island Published: April 27 2022

Paul P. Marchese and Robin S. Maynard Diverted Funds from a Clients Trust That Was Intended for Charity

New York Attorney General Letitia James today filed a civil complaint against two Long Island lawyers, Paul P. Marchese and Robin S. Maynard, of Manhasset, New York, who allegedly paid themselves more than $1 million in funds that were supposed to go to a charitable foundation created by their deceased client. The client established a trust for her assets, and when she died, those assets were supposed to be transferred to a foundation she created to support education, cultural activities, and provide food and shelter for people in need. The lawsuit alleges that after she died, Mr. Marchese  as the sole administrator of her trust  directed the trust to pay their law firm nearly $600,000 in fees, and both Mr. Marchese and Ms. Maynard  acting as the sole directors of the foundation  directed the charity to pay them more than $750,000 in salaries. Attorney General James suit seeks a court order to force Mr. Marchese and Ms. Maynard to repay the funds, along with interests and penalties.

Acting in their own interests, these lawyers allegedly failed to grant their clients dying wish and hurt a charitable cause in the process, said Attorney General James. New Yorkers must have trust in the individuals tasked with overseeing their affairs when they are no longer able to do so themselves. My office will continue to uphold the laws designed to protect the interests of our charitable organizations and hold accountable those who attempt to shirk their duties in order to line their pockets.

An inquiry by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that Mr. Marchese and Ms. Maynard abused their positions to enrich themselves and their law firm, Marchese & Maynard LLP. Mr. Marchese helped the client set up her foundation and a trust holding all of her assets  worth $2 million  the remainder of which would go to her foundation upon her death. She appointed Mr. Marchese to act as trustee upon her death and tasked him with transferring the funds to the foundation. Following the clients death in 2008, Mr. Marchese directed the trust to pay the law firm $598,931.42. The lawyers could provide no records showing that the client owed them any legal fees.

Attorney General James also alleges that Mr. Marchese and Ms. Maynard, acting as sole directors of their clients foundation, paid themselves salaries totaling $758,334. The governance of not-for-profit corporations must be overseen by a board with no fewer than three directors under New York law, and any compensation of directors must be approved by directors who have no conflicts of interest.

The complaint filed today also alleges that Mr. Marchese concealed the transfers from OAG by hiding the existence of the trust. Under New York law, fiduciaries of a trust holding charitable interests must register the trust with OAGs Charities Bureau, and provide the office with a report of funds transferred out of the trust. Mr. Marchese never registered the trust with OAG and did not provide a report until 2019, after OAG had begun its inquiry, had learned there was a trust, and asked for an accounting.

Attorney General James action today seeks a court order directing Mr. Marchese and Ms. Maynard to repay the funds they received from their clients estate and foundation, plus interest and financial penalties. Attorney General James also seeks to bar Mr. Marchese from serving as a fiduciary of an estate or a trust holding a charitable interest for a period of five years, and bar both individuals from serving as an officer, director, or trustee of a charitable organization for five years.
Hydrogen Utopia International PLC - London-based waste-to-hydrogen company - Says Tuesday it reached an agreement with Trifol Resources Ltd in the Republic of Ireland which it anticipates will lead to its first operational full scale waste plastic to hydrogen facility in Europe. Hydrogen Utopia to invest EUR500,000 in Trifol under terms of deal and will hold 3.3% stake following investment.

Current stock price: 7.875 pence

12-month change: up 5% since January 6

By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
LoopUp Group PLC - London-based software provider for remote meetings - Wins two-year contract with Spain's Telefonica SA with minimum value of EUR200,000 and potential for expansion and extension. Telefonica signs deal with company's recently-acquired Hybridium, which holds LoopUp's "hybrid auditorium & events technology".

Hybridium President and LoopUp Chief Technology Officer Victor Sanchez says: "Our ambition at Hybridium is to help organisations catapult engagement, learning and communications to the next level, allowing morale and competitiveness to thrive in the post pandemic workplace. We see this project with Telefonica as a major milestone on that journey."

Adds that it is on track to meet its full-year target of securing 50 additional contract wins in the 2022 financial year.

Current stock price: 13.75 pence, up 96% on Wednesday

12-month change: down 82%

By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
SIMEC Atlantis Energy Ltd - Edinburgh-based energy company - Enters into discussions with Abundance Investment Ltd to extend the timing of the repayment of its Atlantis Ocean Energy PLC debentures. Says it needs more time to make the repayment due to delays at its projects, in particular at its Uskmouth site. These debentures were issues in 2017 and totalled GBP5 million. They were due for repayment on June 30. Company adds it will formally request an extension and potentially a deferral of the upcoming interest payment "shortly".

Current stock price: 2.25 pence, down 9.0% in London

12-month change: down 73%

By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Tritax EuroBox PLC said Wednesday it has agreed to a speculative development scheme to acquire 95,000 square metres of development land in Sweden.

The deal, agreed alongside Nordic developer MIGS, will cost SEK223 million, about EUR21.4 million.

"The project is a brownfield redevelopment opportunity in a prime Swedish logistics market in the Fosie industrial area south of Malmo where there is a shortfall of available development land," Tritax explained. "Demand from tenants and occupiers in this highly sought-after area is strong, given its location between Malmo's two major ring roads that provide good links to the rest of Sweden and Denmark."

The site is being acquired from the current occupier, Scandinavian food processing group Atria Group. Atria will continue to occupy the existing site, paying a rent of EUR1.3 million per annum until their planned relocation, no later than February 2024.

"This is Tritax EuroBox's first development scheme and has a timeline to practical completion by February 2025 at the latest," the company added. "This transaction allows the company to access future development profits, whilst enjoying an attractive income yield during the planning and permitting phases."

Shares in Tritax EuroBox were down 0.2% in London on Wednesday morning at 104.40 pence each.

By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Staying active can be hard mahi, it can take time and energy that we don't always have in our busy lives, and let's be honest it's not always exactly 'fun'.

But one incredibly unique step class in the Wellington region is looking to change that perception by introducing some fun into fitness, accompanied by a playlist that we can definitely get down to.

John Mainuu became the first male in Aotearoa to be certified as a step class instructor under the banner of 'Xtreme Hip Hop', a program that was first created by American Phil Weeden back in 2014.

John's own website tells the story of his journey, saying that "Having a love for fitness and being a DJ on the weekends who has a love for Hip hop and Rnb music meant stumbling across this program was only a matter of time."

"Created in 2014 by Phil Weeden from Cleveland, Ohio - its become the only fitness journey any of my family have taken an interest in and why I decided this was something I wanted to be apart of so I could finally have those nearest and dearest to me participate."
The King and Queen of Spain were in Palma today to attend the Tour del Talento forum, organised by the Princess of Girona Foundation to promote the business and research projects of young scientists and technicians.

Shortly before midday, King Felipe and Queen Letizia arrived at the CaixaForum to take part in the second and final day of the event, during which Eleonora Viezzer was proclaimed the winner of the Princess of Girona Foundations annual prize for Scientific Research.

The King and Queen were received by the Balearic President, Francina Armengol, as well as the Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, and then greeted the promoters of two Majorcan projects presented at the forum.

Dona Letizia and Don Felipe chatted with other young participants in the Talent Tour, which before Palma, was staged in Malaga, Guadalajara and Logrono and is scheduled to hold a new session in Girona.

The King and Queen also attended a presentation on female leadership in science, technology and engineering companies, one of the central themes of the meeting.

Participants included the artificial intelligence and cybersecurity specialist Anne Morley, the telecommunications engineer Emma Fernandez, Arancha Martinez, winner of the 2018 Princess of Girona Foundation Award for her work in the field of cooperation, and Cristina Aleixendri, an engineer specialising in the design of auxiliary sails for boats.

Outside the entrance to the cultural centre several hundred people gathered and Don Felipe and Dona Letizia greeted some of them before leaving.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
MANISTEE  Being hit by a vehicle is one of the biggest threats to a bird of prey.

Issues that present disease in the birds are lead and rat poison  the lead is found in bullets from hunters, according to staff at the Skegemog Raptor Center in Traverse City.
At the start of the Amber Heard vs Johnny Depp trial, two of the actor's fans had to be ejected from the Fairfax County Courthouse for harassing the defendant. Amber Heard has been suffering constant threats from obsessed Johnny Depp fans that got too far, it got all the way to disturbing death threats.

This has obviously pushed the actress to hire a security detail that was initialy reported by the New York Post. Acording to this report, several guards have been posted outside the premises and they have been following Heard everywhere she goes. It is still unclear how many bodyguards are protecting her but the Post confirmed she is paying $120 per hour for each bodyguard.

According to the security company the actress hired, there are a series of 'lone-wolf' online threats they are keeping tabs on. Also, there have been a number of crazed fans who have attempted to approach the actress or yelled insults at her while she is either leaving or getting to court.

The detail is also keeping their eye out for people attempting to enter the premises, the parking lot and the entrance to the court. Arguably, the most concerning aspect are those online threats that can't be taken lightly by the authorities. Regardless of the case and who is guilty or not, no person has the right to harass any of the people involved in the trial.

Amber Heard hires elite security firm as threats during Johnny Depp trial rise https://t.co/DKoTvZtYjEpic.twitter.com/85VuB5Pmjb ? New York Post (@nypost) April 26, 2022

Amber Heard's legal team has also been threatened.

According to the report, Amber Heard's legal team has also been subject to threats that are quite disturbing to read online. Obsessed fans need to be taken seriously as we've seen many cases in which things got way out of hand.

In previous cases, there have been fans of major celebrities such as John Lennon, Giorgio Armani or Bjork that are too disturbing to describe here. We also won't reproduce any of the threats against Amber Heard. Anybody who wants to take a look can do it at their own risk. Nobody should encourage or endorse this type of behavior from fans, regardless of the situation.
Survivor is an extreme competition that takes the body to the limit.

The show experienced more than 40 seasons on the air and had 600 castaways. Nevertheless, tragedies happened.

Since its debut in 2000, Survivor never had fatal victims while filming. Accidents happened during the show, but no one ever died on air.

However, several participants died after leaving the island.

The 10 Survivors who passed away

-B.B. Andersen:

Andersen was one of the original Survivor castaways. Andersen was 64 when he participated in the show.

He passed away in 2013 after battling brain cancer. He was 77 years old.

-Caleb Bankston:

Caleb played Colton Colton Cumbie in 2013 when he was 26 years old.

Bankston was killed one year after his television appearance in a train accident.

Reports illustrated that Bankston died while working on a "coal train that derailed."

-Rudy Boesch:

Boesch was a Navy vereral. He is the oldest member to ever play a role in Survivor at age 72 and 75.

In November 2019, Boesch died at 91 years old from Alzheimer's complications.

-Sunday Burquest:

Burquest competed in "Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X". She was a cancer survivor when she appeared on the television show.

In 2020, Sunday Burquest had terminar cancer. She died at the age of 50 in April 2021.

-Angie Jakusz:

The last information about Jakusz aims to "a rare form of squamous cell colorectal cancer."

On her GoFundMe page, Jakusz described the need for money to pay medical bills.

She died in 2010 after losing her battle with breast cancer.

-Dan Kay:

The alumn of "Survivor: Gabon" died in 2016, leaving two young children, a daughter, and a son.

Dan Kay's wife didn't reveal his cause of death.

Other competitors

-Jenn Lyon

-Ashley Massaro

-Cliff Robinson
When your own back story is as interesting as the drink you make, you better believe youre making it onto the MoM blog. This week Inverroche Gins Lorna Scott tells us about her long and varied career, devotion to sustainable processes, and how to be the master of your own destiny.

Lorna Scott has been an air hostess, a marketing and sales manager of a food service corporation, and even a deputy mayor. At the age of 55, she went back to university to do an executive course on sustainable development, and that path led her to found her own gin brand. It began with a lightbulb moment in a world-renowned archaeological site, the Blombos cave while listening to professor Chris Henshilwood tell the story of how our ancestors survived in this place one-and-a-half millennia ago because of the abundance of the ocean and plant life called fynbos, unique to this area.

Scotts idea was to create a product that could tell a story of a place where humankind has lived for millennia in harmony with nature, using the very botanicals that sustained them. After living in Scotland for 20 years, she returned with her children to her home in Still Bay, South Africa, and began using a baby pot still bought on holiday in Italy to experiment with. Rohan and Lauren (son and daughter) were involved from the inception and helped develop Scott develop her own proprietary process.

Now the brand produces three distinctive spirits, its Classic Gin, Verdant Gin, and Amber Gin, a process that begins by charging a pot still with a base spirit and then layering the selected botanicals into specially designed steam baskets within the pot still, allowing the gently heated spirit vapour to extract the aromatic oils from the botanicals before collecting in the helm and traveling down the condenser. The result is a subtle, yet complex spirit that we very much enjoy. Wed sure love to pick the brains behind them. Luckily, Scott is right here to tell us more!

Master of Malt: What did you set out to do differently with Inverroche?

Lorna Scott: When I created the Inverroche gins, I wanted to create something that was unique yet recognisable through taste and presentation. I deliberately went looking for flavours and aromas that sat in the cosmos of the juniper berries where I clustered and grouped them into various categories. Taste and remarkable flavours have played a huge role in the innovation of the brand, it was through trial and error that the beautiful flavours birthed themselves into what we now know as Inverroche Amber, Verdant, and Classic.

MoM: How did your varied career path impact the formation of your own brand?

LS: I discovered my inner gin-making through a curious path. Following my career journey as the deputy mayor of the Hessequa Local Municipality in the Western Cape in South Africa (a small town I grew up in) in this role, part of my portfolio involved sustainable development. It was during this path that I realised the incredible potential our region had to bring people together and to create awareness around the need to protect the worlds smallest and richest floral kingdom.

Before I knew it, my son and I were experimenting with the botanicals found in the Cape Floral Kingdom, a local biome at the tip of the African continent  it was my love for this part of the world that led to the success of the Inverroche luxury spirit brand. My biggest driver has always been my love for a place I call home, Still Bay (the home of Inverroche).

MoM: How does having a family business affect your approach?

LS: Inverroche is first and foremost a family business, and family to us also means the community of Stilbaai at large. It is our belief that the creation of the gins themselves should have a social impact beyond the simple enjoyment of our products, and create opportunity. It is this belief that has kept us heavily involved and linked to our community  as Inverroche prospers, so should the people of Still Bay. We are extremely proud that just under 70% of our employees are indigenous women from the local area. The knock-on effect is dramatic, it means that at least 45 families are directly sharing in our success!

MoM: Tell us about your work in sustainable development and how you applied this to Inverroche.

LS: The brand philosophy is about the connection between our planet, people, place, partnerships, and profits collaboratively working together to achieve real-life and tangible sustainability. We support businesses with the same values towards sustainable development and social upliftment. Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. Every action we take is a link to circular making, our approach is essential for sustainable growth and employment which is key to our brand.

We have built our own nursery for some of our own Fynbos botanicals in the local Blombos area. That way our production process puts no real pressure on the natural environment as it is all done in a controlled environment. We burn Alien vegetation wood (Rooikrans which is on the red list here in South Africa) which is sourced from local area suppliers. We use a wind pump to move some of our water from the borehole on the distillery property for our gin distillation. And just recently we have teamed up with a local brick manufacturer to produce bricks using our water and botanical waste. This is truly innovative, and we are very excited about the opportunities here.

MoM: Youve spoken before about wanting to inspire other women into drinks, whats your advice to those who do want to lead their own brand?

LS: Be the master of your own destiny with the freedom to create products you know to fill the demand for something unique and delicious, the authority to ensure that every aspect of your business remains authentic, and the confidence that your personal ethics are reflected in everything you do. And always remember to remain flexible. The goal and vision always remain the same, but change is inevitable therefore be ready to adapt your strategies to get you closer to your vision. I believe when everyone sees and understands your vision, the rest comes naturally!

MoM: What is the ambition with Inverroche now and how has this developed from when you first started?

LS: The vision is to build a global brand that will remain authentic and retain its unique sense of place. We continue to achieve this ambition through our successful partnership with Pernod Ricard in Africa which has accelerated the growth of Inverroche throughout South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. On top of this, it has enabled us to tap into new global third party distributors with the help of Pernod Ricards Group resources and data.

MoM: Whats your go-to Inverroche drink?

LS: Our trio of flavours will always remain my go-to gins, they turn any moment into a special occasion! They are all different, soft and full of complex aromas and flavours.

Theres the Inverroche Classic  a crisp, refreshing, clear spirit with sweet citrus top notes; Inverroche Verdant  a silky smooth floral spirit with subtle liquorice and almond top notes, infused with late summer blooms which give it a green tinge; and Inverroche Amber  a luscious, full-bodied spirit with a dry spicy finish turned a soft amber colour by the infusion of tannin-rich coastal fynbos.

But, if I had to choose, it would be Inverroche Verdant in a Dry Martini with a lime zest! Yum!
China cracks down on cross-border crimes, illegal entries

Xinhua) 16:55, April 27, 2022

BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 16,700 individuals have been apprehended this year for suspected crimes involving obstruction of border control, China's National Immigration Administration (NIA) told a press conference on Wednesday.

Border control authorities nationwide have seized 1.85 tonnes of drugs and 41.47 tonnes of precursor chemicals since the beginning of 2022, along with 565 guns and more than 10,000 bullets.

According to figures released by the NIA, 13,400 foreigners have been found guilty of illegal entry, overstaying, or illegal employment in China this year, with 8,000 of them repatriated.

In the first quarter of 2022, Chinese border authorities inspected a total of over 30 million entries and exits, which included nearly 14.6 million departures of Chinese residents, the NIA said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
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New Microsimulation Model for Japan

How to Keep Aging Population Healthy

Better understanding where health gaps like this exist can help inform public health planning, to minimize future economic costs and support those most in need.Taking care of the older members of society is a common concern around the world.Japan is famous for its long-lived residents, the number of which continues to rise. In 2020, almost 30% of the Japanese population was aged 65 years or older, and this age group is not projected to peak until 2034.Caring for people with age-related ailments, such as dementia and frailty, poses a challenge both to individuals and public health care systems.Microsimulation models, which are computer models that can provide detailed analysis on an individual basis, are currently used to project future population health in some countries, such as the U.K. and the U.S. Professor Hideki Hashimoto and researchers at the University of Tokyo, along with researchers from Stanford University in the U.S., wanted to create a new microsimulation model for Japan, which would take into account more diverse conditions than had been considered before."We developed a new Japanese microsimulation model that accounts for 13 chronic conditions (including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression and dependency), as well as frailty and dementia," explained Hashimoto. "Using an ultra large data system, we were able to 'follow' a virtual cohort of more than 40 million people aged 60 and over from 2016 to 2043."According to Hashimoto, projections of aging in Japan usually rely on the "average" status of older people and so don't consider the diversity of the population. "I believe that problems of aging are a matter of health gaps over the course of people's lives," he said. "Our projection brings attention to a widening health gap among older people. It highlighted that women with a less than high school education aged 75 or over are more likely to be affected."Identifying where health gaps like this exist could be used to better inform public policy, not only about health care but other influential aspects of life."Japan's case may suggest that improvement in educational attainment, as well as population health, could be a key to making a healthier and more manageable aging society," said Hashimoto.Positively, this study shows hope for a future where many people live longer and more healthy lives."People might believe that an increase in cases of dementia is inescapable, given population aging. However, in this study we found that in Japan, despite an aging population, the number of people with dementia is expected to decrease over the next two decades," said Hashimoto."Population aging does not necessarily mean an increase of social burden for care, but it does bring a diversity of problems that require careful study and science-based policy attention, to close the health gap."Source: Eurekalert
A major fire broke out on Tuesday evening at a landfill site in the outer north area of the national capital, a Fire Department official said.

The official said the Fire Department received a call about the incident at around 5.48 p.m. at a dumping ground in Bhalswa after which as many as 10 fire tenders were immediately pressed into service.

As the fire was a major one, three more fire engines were sent to the spot.

"Currently, 13 fire tenders have been engaged to douse the flames," the official said.

The police have also reached the spot. So far, no casualty has been reported from the incident.

It is the second major incident of fire at a dumping yard in the past 30 days.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Officials, however, said the rising temperature these days allows the formation of methane gas at the dumpyard site which is extremely flammable.

"It could have triggered a spark that would have ultimately led to this massive blaze," said the official.

As per the visuals from the spot, the 'hill' of trash is currently under a massive blaze.

The clouds of thick smoke, billowing out of the burning garbage mountain, have enveloped the whole area.

Earlier on March 28, a similar incident was reported from east Delhi's Ghazipur landfill site.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris has become the highest-ranking official in the current Biden administration to be infected with Covid-19 despite vaccinations as the US tries desperately to bring a semblance of normalcy after two years of restrictions and nearly a million deaths.

The spokesperson Kirsten Allen said on Tuesday that Harris has tested positive for the disease but has shown no symptoms and will isolate herself in the Vice-President's official residence, the Naval Observatory.

She had the initial two doses of Covid-19 vaccine and followed it up with a booster dose.

Amid concerns for the 79-year-old US President Joe Biden, Allen added the reassurance that Harris, who has been travelling, has not been in direct contact with him or his wife Jill in recent days.

The report of the infection of Harris and several officials and lawmakers fueled by the Covid's Omicron variant and its subvariant BA.2 comes as a Federal court struck down the government mandate requiring mask on planes, other transportation and public places.

The Biden administration has been making a determined push for Covid vaccinations in a country where the preventive measure has been politicised.

The vaccination made compulsory in certain sectors of the federal, state and local governments is now accepted as not being able to completely stop infections, giving ammunition to anti-vaxers, but it prevents severe cases of the disease from developing, which has become the Biden administration's goal.

Former US President Donald Trump had contracted Covid-19 while in office and had to be hospitalised.

But with vaccinations available, none of the current top officials has had to be admitted to a hospital for treatment.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday that nearly 60 per cent of the country's population had been infected by the virus.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is 82-years-old and is next after Harris in the line of succession to the presidency, also tested positive earlier this April for the virus that is spreading through Washington.

Harris's husband, Dough Emhoff, was infected with Covid-19 in March, but she was not infected with the virus at that time.

She came to the White House, where she has an office, on Tuesday but after two tests, a rapid antigen test and PCR test, came positive she returned home.

Three cabinet members -- Attorney General Merrick Garland, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Commerce Secretary Gian Raimondo also have tested positive for Covid-19.

Garland and Raimondo were at a dinner for the nation's elite hosted by a journalists' group that turned out to be a super-spreader event infecting more than 70 people, including several members of US Congress and Harris's Communications Director Jamal Harrison.

Another such dinner hosted by the White House Correspondents Association is coming up this weekend and Biden is scheduled to attend it.
With an aim to bring back the focus on human values of peace, love and harmony in the midst of war and turmoil, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of The Art of Living Foundation, has launched the I Stand for Peace campaign from the UN office in Geneva.

Ravi Shankar himself travelled across Germany, Poland and Switzerland, where he was joined by thousands in this campaign. The campaign will now move to the US next month, an official release issued by the Art of Living stated on Wednesday.

As part of his Europe tour, Ravi Shankar met policymakers, diplomats and thousands of Art of Living volunteers who worked relentlessly to provide help during the Covid-19 pandemic and in rehabilitating Ukrainian refugees, helping them with trauma relief.

He also met and presented Easter gifts to the refugee children in the Art of Living centre in Warsaw, Poland. Thousands gathered at COS Torwar Stadium in Warsaw for a peace meditation and pledged to #IStandForPeace, an event graced by former VP of the European Parliament, Ryzard Charnecki; Indian Ambassadors to Poland and Ukraine, among several other dignitaries, the statement said.

Ravi Shankar has made a strong appeal for global forces of peace and sane voices to join hands in this hour of crisis and work towards building harmony, human values and dispel darkness and mistrust from the society.

The appeal was made in the backdrop of the post-pandemic world that is braving the consequences of global conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war, the release said.

"People come together when there is a crisis, when they feel threatened or when they are wise. I have a question -- can people not come together for something that is positive, something that can create harmony within the society," Ravi Shankar asked in his address at the UN in an event hosted by the International Association for Human Values and the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva on the topic Unity and Collaboration in a Post-Pandemic World'.

While talking about the root cause of conflict, he said, "In past so many years, conflicts have happened when trust is broken or the communication breaks down among people. I believe inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help."
BILOXI, Miss. (AP)  The possible suspect in the fatal shooting of the owner and two employees of a Mississippi Gulf Coast motel and subsequent death of a person shot during a carjacking was found dead after a standoff with police Wednesday, authorities said.

Harrison County Coroner Brian Switzer identified the possible suspect as 32-year-old Jeremy Alesunder Reynolds.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden's administration is taking steps to expand availability of the life-saving COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid, seeking to reassure doctors that there is ample supply for people at high risk of severe illness or death from the virus.

Paxlovid, produced by Pfizer, was first approved in December. Supply of the regimen was initially very limited, but COVID-19 cases across the country have fallen and manufacturing has increased. The White House is now moving to raise awareness of the pill and taking steps to make it easier to access.

The White House said Tuesday it is stepping up outreach to doctors, letting them know they shouldn't think twice about prescribing the pill to eligible patients. Also, the drug will now be distributed directly to pharmacies, in addition to existing distribution channels run by states. That is expected to boost the number of sites from 20,000 to more than 30,000 next week and eventually to 40,000 locations.

The administration used the pharmacy channel to boost availability of COVID-19 vaccines more than a year ago.

Paxlovid will be widely available everywhere in America," said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator. The drug and antivirals like it are the key essential tools that were going to need to get through the rest of this pandemic," he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, is taking Paxlovid after discussing it with her physicians.

Paxlovid, when administered within five days of symptoms appearing, has been proven to bring about a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease. About 300 Americans are now dying each day from the coronavirus, down from more than 2,600 during the height of the omicron wave earlier this year.

The U.S. has ordered enough supply of the pills for 20 million people, which is estimated to last for several more months. The administration has warned that subsequent deliveries are dependent on Congress approving additional COVID-19 response funding.

What we need to do is to help American physicians and nurse practitioners and others who can prescribe understand that we now have plenty available and anybody who is eligible, anybody who has high risk, should be getting Paxlovid, Jha said.

He also encouraged people who test positive to contact their doctors to determine their eligibility for the drug that might prevent severe outcomes.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizers drug for adults and children age 12 or older with a positive COVID-19 test and early symptoms who face the highest risk of severe outcomes. That includes older people and those with conditions like obesity and heart disease, though the drug is not recommended for patients with severe kidney or liver problems.

The administration is also working to expand the number of test-to-treat sites that provide a one-stop shop for those with COVID-19 to get tested for the virus, consult with a medical professional if they're positive and fill a prescription for Paxlovid on site. Currently there are 2,200 locations nationwide, and the administration hopes support from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and pharmacy companies will enable more sites to come online in the coming weeks.
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BIG RAPIDS  The city of Big Rapids was one of three communities recently recognized by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with Travel Michigan, as a Pure Michigan Trail Town.

The City of Big Rapids is thrilled to have received this prestigious honor, Mayor Fred Guenther said in a news release from the Mecosta County Visitors Bureau. This is another great example not only of how our community works collaboratively together on important community projects but also reflects the pride that we all have in our great city and the amazing resources we have to offer.

The application for Trail Town designation included numerous highlights relating to trails within the Big Rapids area, such as the 92-mile Fred Meijer White Pine Trail and the award-winning Riverwalk, which provides access to all with views of the Muskegon River, the news release said.

Big Rapids is also a short distance away from the Michigans Dragon Trail at Hardy Dam, which encompasses portions of Mecosta and Newaygo counties. It currently is under construction with about half completed. Once finished, the approximately 47-mile looped trail will be a true outdoor adventurers destination.

Jessie Black, Big Rapids community economic development specialist, told the Pioneer that the application process was extensive, as was the requirements for application.

The timeline of writing the application took only a month to compose, but the work to become a trail town started well before my time in Big Rapids, Black said. The city, the Mecosta County Visitors Bureau and outdoor recreation groups like The Friends of the White Pine Trail have been collaborating for over a decade to develop local parks like the Riverwalk, pave the 92-mile White Pine Trail in its entirety, develop bicycle lanes across the city and promote these exciting developments to put Big Rapids in the best position to receive the Pure Michigan Trail Town designation.

Working on this project has not only been a great learning experience but has also provided me with great insight on all that the city of Big Rapids has to offer, she said. I am excited to work on future projects that help promote this forward moving community.

Pure Michigan Trail Town criteria include providing a quality trail town experience, clear information for trail users, and a sustainable maintenance and marketing plan, according to information on the michigantrails.org website.

Trails should be easily accessible to users with convenient connections to residential and commercial neighborhoods, parks, scenic areas, other trail networks and significant destinations. There should be annual trail related events within the city, and trail-based educational opportunities. Support facilities including parking, restrooms and emergency phones accessible within the city should be provided.

The distinction of being a Pure Michigan Trail Town is a significant honor for our city and community, while also giving us a leg-up on marketing and promotion of our vibrant outdoor recreational offerings and resources, MCVB executive director Connie Koepke said in the news release. The Big Rapids region has a lot to be proud of, and we are looking forward to a strong summer tourism season this year.

The travel and tourism industry is one of Michigans largest industries and has also proven to be a positive financial driver in the Big Rapids region, Koepke said. Tourism creates numerous jobs in addition to benefiting area hotels, restaurants, shops and more.

A robust marketing plan through the MCVB and the wayfinding signage system ensures that the trails are a well-known part of the Big Rapids community, she said. Trail users in Big Rapids can also enjoy a number of public art installations, as well as trail events throughout the year.

Community development director Paula Priebe said, The City of Big Rapids will be proudly displaying this honor and are also looking forward to future collaborations that will help promote our amazing city.

There will be a presentation of the Pure Michigan Trail Town award during the city commission meeting at 6:30 p.m. May 9, at the Big Rapids City Hall. For more information about the meeting visit cityofbr.org.

Key committee members that worked together on this project include Black, Koepke and Paul Griffith with the Friends of the White Trail.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  A large fire erupted at a luxury Dubai hotel on Wednesday, forcing guests and staff to leave and sending smoke over the United Arab Emirates' tourism and trade hub.

Several fire engines and police cars were deployed at the five-star Swissotel Al Murooj hotel in downtown Dubai as dozens of people huddled outside. No injuries were reported.
A chaotic GOP convention in Grand Rapids this past weekend left Midland political party leaders with mixed feelings.

On Saturday, the Michigan GOP met in a party convention to pick its nominees for state attorney general and secretary of state. What transpired showed a party split on Donald Trump-influenced identity politics and debates over election integrity, both at the state and local level.

Two candidates who were endorsed by the former president won Michigan Republicans backing for attorney general and secretary of state at a convention Saturday. 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 the Nov. 8 general election.

Karamo won handily with two-thirds of the vote. DePerno was just shy of the majority needed in an initial vote. He won a runoff over Tom Leonard, a former member of the Michigan House of Representatives who served as Speaker of the House from 2017 to 2019. The runoff was paused and later restarted after the ballot order of races did not match what was shown on screens flanking the stage.

The Daily News contacted Cathy Leikhim, chairperson of the Midland County Republican Party, for comment on the convention. She would only respond by email and said that Republicans advocate for fair and accurate elections.

There is a lot of excitement among Republicans, and it really came through at the State convention, Leikim said. The real issues were debated such as how the incumbent Secretary of State selectively uses her office to recruit Democrat voters by her targeted absentee ballot application mailings, and her attempts to eliminate proof of identity before voting was also a hot topic among delegates.

The other big issue concerning Republican delegates is how the incumbent Attorney General decides which laws she will enforce, and those laws she will not enforce.

Leikhim did not respond to questions about her thoughts on DePerno and Karamo or Trumps influence over the GOP.

Jennifer Austin, chair of the Midland County Democrats, said she finds the general movement of the Republican Party towards Trump, culture wars, negativity and radicalism concerning.

I know a lot of very intelligent and conscientious Republicans and they are not particularly happy with the movement of the party, Austin said. I would really like to see more of them come forward and try to get the party to move in a different direction.

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 Chair 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.

Weiser was a primary contributor of a petition campaign to impose new voter ID requirements in Michigan. In 2021, Weiser, a fundraiser for Trump, was criticized for saying in a speech that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Nessel and Benson were "witches" to be "burned at the stake" in the next election. After he was asked how to defeat Republican congressmen Fred Upton and Peter Meijer, Weiser stated that "other than assassination" the only way to remove from the GOP was to vote them out.

The Detroit News reported that Weiser encouraged Leonard to end his attorney general campaign and run for Congress. 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.

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.
A team of researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland has described six new species of direct-developing frogs from the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Mexico, Guerrero, and Jalisco.

The newly-discovered species belong to the genus Craugastor in the family Craugastoridae.

They are known as direct-developing frogs. Rather than hatching from eggs into tadpoles like most frogs, they emerge from the eggs as perfect miniature frogs.

With millions of these frogs living in the leaf litter, we think theyre likely to play a hugely important role in the ecosystem as a source of food for everything else, from lizards to predatory birds, said lead author Dr. Tom Jameson, a researcher in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge and the University Museum of Zoology.

Their lifestyle is utterly fascinating. These frogs live in the dark, humid leaf litter of the forests, which is like a secret world  we dont really know anything about what goes on there. We dont understand their behavior, how they socialize, or how they breed.

The new species have been named Craugastor bitonium, Craugastor candelariensis, Craugastor cueyatl, Craugastor polaclavus, Craugastor portilloensis, and Craugastor rubinus.

All six are approximately 1.5 cm long when fully grown. Adult males of the tiniest of these species, Craugastor candelariensis, grow to only 1.3 cm, making it the smallest frog species in Mexico.

Frogs in the group known as Craugastor are very difficult to tell apart, so scientists have long suspected that more species may exist, Dr. Jameson said.

Were really excited to have discovered six new Craugastor species that are completely new to science.

Dr. Jameson and colleagues examined almost 500 Craugastor frog specimens from museums around the world.

Using DNA sequencing, they sorted the frogs into groups based on how similar their genes were.

Then CT-scanning was used to create 3D models of the frogs skeletons, so that physical details could be compared.

These two very different lines of evidence revealed six new species.

Known as micro-endemics, some of them may occur only in one small area, such as a hilltop in a certain part of Mexico. This makes them incredibly vulnerable.

These frogs potentially play a really important role in the forest ecosystem, Dr. Jameson said.

We need to make sure that they dont just get wiped off the map because no-one even knows theyre there.

The discovery is reported in a paper in the journal Herpetological Monographs.

_____

Tom J.M. Jameson et al. 2022. Miniaturization in Direct-Developing Frogs from Mexico with the Description of Six New Species. Herpetological Monographs 36 (1): 1-48; doi: 10.1655/0733-1347-36.1.1
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  A group opposing Donald Trumps endorsement of JD Vance in Ohios contentious Republican Senate primary is making the former president the target of a new ad campaign.

The ad from the conservative Club for Growth, which supports former Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel in the race, questions Trump's decision to endorse Vance, the Hillbilly Elegy author who has had to backtrack from previous criticism of the former president. The TV spot from the group's super PAC features audio of Vance bashing Trump back in 2016.

Has Trump seen this? asks a man in a flannel shirt. A woman labels Vance a fraud for once denouncing but now embracing Trump. The ad, which first aired Wednesday, also notes Trumps past endorsement of a man who is now one of his biggest rivals: Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.

Hes getting it wrong with JD Vance, too, the ad says.

The Vance campaign slammed the new ad, saying, Josh Mandel and his allies have declared war on President Trump and the entire MAGA movement."

The ad campaign only escalates the fight that has erupted in Ohios Republican Senate race over Trumps highly coveted endorsement, which came just three weeks before the states May 3 primary. The candidates competed with one another for months to earn the support of the former president, who remains widely popular among the GOP base.

The night before Trumps announcement, Vance opponents across the state, including supporters of fellow Republican Senate candidates Jane Timken and Mike Gibbons, mounted a failed last-ditch effort to stop the endorsement from happening.

The $1.7 million ad campaign heightens tensions between Trump and the Club for Growth, a major force in Republican politics that has spent millions to back its chosen candidates in this year's elections. While the group opposed Trump when he ran for the White House in 2016, it realigned itself after he became president. In the years since, the club's president, David McIntosh, has become a close confidant and trusted adviser of Trump.

Donald Trump Jr., the former president's son and a top Vance supporter, has taken particular umbrage to the club's efforts to defeat Vance.

The people that are funding Josh Mandel, they spent $10 million in 2016 to fight Donald Trump, he said at a recent campaign event.

In an interview, McIntosh said the organization continues to support Mandel as Ohio's best choice for the open Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Rob Portman.

The ad speaks for itself," he said. "We think Josh is the best Make America Great candidate and were going to continue to support him.

Just weeks ago, Trump and McIntosh appeared together at a rally in North Carolina for U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, who has the support of both Trump and the Club for Growth in North Carolina's Republican Senate primary.

Trump invited McIntosh to join him on stage and called him a very powerful man and very good friend of mine.

We are undefeated when we work together, Trump said. Hes a winner, thats who it is.

Before Trump's endorsement, the group's super PAC, Club for Growth Action, had spent $4.5 million in Ohio on Mandel's behalf, mostly to pillory his rivals.

The former president's endorsement of Vance disappointed many of the state's Trump loyalists. Some tea party Republicans protested at Trump's Ohio rally last Saturday, and one conservative group, Ohio Value Voters, urged its members to either boycott the event or boo Vance when he came on stage.

___

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report from New York.
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POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP)  Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, using its most essential export in what was seen as a bid to punish and divide the West over its support for Ukraine.

The move, condemned by European leaders as blackmail," marked a dramatic escalation in the economic war of sanctions and countersanctions that has unfolded in parallel to the fighting on the battlefield.

The tactic, coming a day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to rush more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, could eventually force targeted nations to ration gas and could deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.

Poland has been a major gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and confirmed this week that it is sending the country tanks. Just hours before Russia's state energy giant Gazprom acted, Poland announced a new set of sanctions against the company and other Russian businesses and oligarchs.

Bulgaria, under a new liberal government that took office last fall, has cut many of its old ties to Moscow and likewise supported punitive measures against the Kremlin. It has also hosted Western fighter jets at a new NATO outpost on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.

The gas cuts do not immediately put the two countries in any dire trouble. Poland, especially, has been working for many years to line up other suppliers, and the continent is heading into summer, making gas less essential for households.

Also, Russian gas deliveries to both Poland and Bulgaria were expected to end later this year anyway.

Still, the cutoff and the Kremlin warning that other countries could be next sent shivers of worry through the 27-nation European Union. Germany, the largest economy on the continent, and Italy are among Europes biggest consumers of Russian natural gas, though they, too, have been taking steps to reduce their dependence on Moscow.

It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us, said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Today, the Kremlin failed once again in his attempt to sow division amongst member states. The era of Russian fossil fuel in Europe is coming to an end.

Gazprom said it shut off the two countries because they refused to pay in rubles, as President Vladimir Putin has demanded of unfriendly" nations. The Kremlin said other countries may be cut off if they don't agree to the payment arrangement.

Most European countries have publicly balked at Russias demand for rubles, but it is not clear how many have actually faced the moment of decision so far. Greeces next scheduled payment to Gazprom is due on May 25, for example, and the government must decide then whether to comply.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told his country's parliament that he believes Polands support for Ukraine  and the new sanctions imposed by Warsaw on Tuesday  were the real reasons behind the gas cutoff.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov called the suspension blackmail, adding: We will not succumb to such a racket.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia views gas as a weapon for political blackmail and "sees a united Europe as a target.

On the battlefield, fighting continued in the country's east along a largely static front line some 300 miles (480 kilometers) long.

Russia claimed its missiles hit a batch of weapons that the U.S. and European nations had delivered to Ukraine. One person was killed and at least two were injured when rockets hit a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv.

Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence findings, said Russia has made slow progress in the eastern Donbas region, with minor gains, including the capture of villages and small towns south of Izyum and on the outskirts of Rubizhne.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, conceded that Russia has made minor progress in its advance on Rubizhne through its nearly constant bombardment, but that Ukrainian troops are fighting back and retreating only when there is nothing left to defend.

There is no point in staying on territory that has been fired on so often that every meter is well known, he said.

The Western officials said some Russian troops have been shifted from the gutted southern port city of Mariupol to other parts of the Donbas. But some remain in Mariupol to fight Ukrainian forces holed up at the Azovstal steel plant, the last stronghold in the city. About 1,000 civilians were said to be taking shelter there with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders.

The situation is very difficult. There are huge problems with water, food, Serhii Volynskyi, commander of the marine unit inside the plant, said in a Facebook video message. He said hundreds of fighters and civilians were wounded and in need of medical help, and those inside included children, older people and disabled people.

In the Black Sea port city of Kherson, which Russian forces have occupied since early in the war, a series of explosions boomed late Wednesday near the television tower and at least temporarily knocked Russian channels off the air, Ukrainian and Russian news organizations reported.

Just across the border in Russia, an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region burned after several explosions were heard, the governor said. Blasts were also reported in Russia's Kursk region near the border, and authorities in Russia's Voronezh region said an air defense system shot down a drone.

Earlier this week, an oil storage facility in the Russian city of Bryansk was engulfed by fire.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak hinted at the country's involvement in the fires, saying in a Telegram post that karma (is) a harsh thing.

In other developments:

 The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said the safety level at Europes largest nuclear plant, now under Russian occupation in Ukraine, is like a red light blinking as his organization tries in vain to get access to the Zaporizhzhia power station for repairs.

 Amid rising tensions over gas, Moscow and Washington carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in the U.S.

With the help of Western arms, Ukrainian forces managed to thwart Russian forces' attempt to storm Kyiv. Moscow now says its focus is the capture of the Donbas, Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland.

A defiant Putin vowed Russia will achieve its military goals, telling parliament, "All the tasks of the special military operation we are conducting in the Donbas and Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, will be unconditionally fulfilled.

Simone Tagliapietra, senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, said Russias goal in cutting off the flow of gas is to divide and rule  pit European countries against one another as they cast about for energy.

While Poland gets around 45% of its gas from Russia, it relies overwhelmingly on coal and said it was well prepared for the cutoff. It has ample gas in storage and will soon benefit from two pipelines coming on line, analyst Emily McClain of Rystad Energy said.

Bulgaria gets over 90% of its gas from Russia, but it could increase imports from Azerbaijan, and a pipeline connection to Greece is set to be completed later this year.

Dobrin Todorov, a resident of Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, said the suspension is not a big problem.

Ultimately, the choice between freedom and dignity or gas, the answer is clear, in favor of freedom and dignity, Todorov said, adding that a lack of gas "cannot be compared to the hardship and tribulations that the Ukrainian people are currently suffering.

Europe is not without its own leverage, since it is paying some $400 million a day to Russia for gas, money Putin would lose in a complete cutoff. Russia can, in theory, sell oil elsewhere  to India and China, for instance. But it doesn't have the necessary pipelines in some cases, and it has only limited capacity to export gas by ship.

The move that Russia did today is basically a move where Russia hurts itself," von der Leyen said.

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Gambrell reported from Lviv, Ukraine, and Gera reported from Warsaw, Poland. Associated Press journalists Jill Lawless in London, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, David Keyton in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi at Chernobyl, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.

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Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
HARTFORD  First the House of Representatives, then the Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved an eight-year, $75-million sales, use and corporate tax-credit deal for the Sikorsky Aircraft Division of Lockheed Martin that is predicated on the iconic helicopter maker winning one or two potential contracts.

The 130-14 and 34-1 votes send the bill to the governor one week from the adjournment of the General Assembly. If Sikorsky wins the contract for the U.S. Armys Defiant X, or/and the Raider X vertical lift helicopters, the companys headquarters would remain in Stratford until at least 2042, with as many as 7,500 full-time, high-paid jobs.

Sikorsky would spend about $470 million a year to its diverse Connecticut supply chain, and also expand its diversity and inclusion program to hire more women and people from disadvantaged communities.

Everything Sikorsky does reverberates through the economy, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said during the brief evening debate in the Senate.

I think its a smart agreement, said Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford. They build Marine One, the presidents helicopter. And I strongly believe that if the president rides, as commander-in-chief, in the worlds best helicopter, then its incumbent on us to make sure that every other military personnel, our men and women in the armed forces across the world, should also ride in a helicopter made in the world-class facilities of Sikorsky.

Most importantly, they will commit to stay in Connecticut, said Rep. Sean Scanlon, D-Guilford, co-chairman of the tax-writing legislative Finance Committee, during the earlier House debate. Not just for their headquarters, not just for these two helicopters if they win the contract, but for every single helicopter that they currently make in Connecticut will stay here under the terms of this deal for 20 years.

Sikorsky would commit to spending $70 million to $80 million in annual capital expenditures invested in the state.

Scanlon said it is estimated that the $75 million state investment could translate to $670 million in net new revenue over 20 years.

It is of paramount importance to them and Connecticut, and frankly, I think, to our country that they win one or two of these contracts, not just for the jobs, but for the importance of this industry to the entire state, of all the suppliers, of the guy who runs the deli, the dry cleaner, the real estate agent, all of those that have an ancillary effect, Scanlon said.

State Rep. Holly Cheeseman, of East Lyme, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, who engaged in a general question-and-answer discussion with Scanlon for about a half-hour, said the deal is important for the state.

Living in the eastern part of Connecticut, I saw only too-well at Electric Boat when those submarine contracts came to an end in the 90s and 2000s a company that is now, thanks to those new contracts, hiring aggressively, Cheeseman said. On a similar scale, this is what Sikorsky faces, once those Black Hawk and Scout helicopter contracts come to an end. This is the right step for Connecticut.

Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford, noted that Sikorsky is soon to observe its 100th anniversary. I cant stress enough what the establishment of this agreement and the existence of this company means to the town of Stratford and its surrounding municipalities, he said.

I cant go anywhere without running into a neighbor or somebody in my town who is not affiliated somehow with Sikorsky, whether they are making the pizza for them to have for lunch or giving them haircuts or working on their cars, everybody has a piece of the action there in Stratford, said Rep. Ben McGorty, R-Shelton.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
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KYIV, Ukraine  In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, a series of explosions boomed near the television tower late Wednesday and at least temporarily knocked Russian channels off the air, Ukrainian and Russian news organizations reported.

The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said missiles and rockets were fired at the city from the direction of the Ukrainian forces to the northwest.

Kherson has been occupied by Russian forces since early in the war.

Ukrayinska Pravda, an online newspaper, said the strikes set off a fire and knocked Russian television channels off the air.

RIA Novosti said the broadcast later resumed. It said Russian channels began broadcasting from Kherson last week.

Russia has been determined to strengthen its control over the city, but residents have continued to come out onto the streets to protest the occupation.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

 Russia cuts natural gas to 2 NATO nations in escalation

 European nations accuse Russia of natural gas blackmail

 The AP Interview: UN nuclear chief wants Ukraine plant access

 EXPLAINER: Whats behind Russias natural gas cutoff?

Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

BERLIN  An independent research group says Germany was the biggest buyer of Russian energy during the first two months since the start of the war in Ukraine.

A study published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air calculates that Russia earned $66.5 billion from fossil fuel exports since Russian troops attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Using data on ship movements, real-time tracking of gas flows through pipelines and estimates based on historical monthly trade, the researchers reckon Germany paid Russia about 9.1 billion euros for fossil fuel deliveries in the first two months of the war.

The German government says it cant comment on estimates and declines to provide any figures of its own.

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LONDON  Britains top diplomat says Western allies should send tanks, planes and other heavy weapons to Ukraine, saying inaction would be the greatest provocation.

NATO nations have supplied Ukraine with military supplies including missiles and armored vehicles. But so far they have been reluctant to send fighter planes for fear of escalating the conflict.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said this is a time for courage, not caution. Despite Truss call for jets, British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons spokesman said there were no plans for the U.K. to send planes to Ukraine.

Truss also said Russias attack on Ukraine must be a wake-up call for international institutions. She called for a new focus on military strength, economic security and deeper global alliances.

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BOSTON  Cyberattacks by state-backed Russian hackers have destroyed data across dozens of organizations in Ukraine and produced a chaotic information environment, Microsoft says in a report released Wednesday.

Nearly half the destructive attacks were against critical infrastructure, many times simultaneous to physical attacks, the report notes.

A top Ukrainian cybersecurity official, Victor Zhora, told reporters in a news briefing on Wednesday that cyberattacks on telecommunications have sometimes coincided with artillery and other physical attacks.

Microsoft assessed that Russia-aligned threat groups were pre-positioning for the conflict as early as March 2021, hacking into networks to obtain footholds they could later use to collect strategic and battlefield intelligence or to facilitate future destructive attacks.

During the war, Russias cyberattacks have at times not only degraded the functions of the targeted organizations but sought to disrupt citizens access to reliable information and critical life services, and to shake confidence in the countrys leadership, the companys Digital Security Unit says in the 20-page report.

Kremlin cyber operations have had an impact in terms of technical disruption of services and causing a chaotic information environment, but Microsoft is not able to evaluate their broader strategic impact, the report says.

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.  U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday that Russias war on Ukraine screams that the world needs to stop importing oil and gas from Russia and instead move toward other forms of energy.

At an international forum on offshore wind energy in Atlantic City, Granholm said the U.S. as well as its energy industries are on a war footing, and called for a rapid acceleration of renewable energy including offshore wind power.

Her comments were echoed by Kadri Simson, the European Commissioner for Energy, who noted that Europe recently committed itself to a large-scale move away from Russian fossil fuel imports, and considers wind energy an important part of that transition.

Their comments came as Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders decried the move as blackmail.

Germany and Italy are among Europes biggest consumers of Russian natural gas but have already been taking steps to reduce their dependence on Moscow.

Russia is waging a war in Ukraine and the imperative to move away from Russian oil and gas, for the world to move away from Russian oil and gas screams that there is an imperative that we electrify, said Granholm, the former Michigan governor. Offshore wind is just a huge component in that.

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UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. says its humanitarian office is mobilizing an experienced team from around the world to coordinate the complex evacuation of civilians from the besieged steel plant in the battered Ukrainian city of Mariupol with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle to U.N. and ICRC participation in the evacuation from the plant during a nearly two-hour, one-on-one meeting Tuesday. The sprawling Azovstal complex, which has been almost completely destroyed by Russian attacks, is the last pocket of organized Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol. An estimated 2,000 troops and 1,000 civilians are said to be holed up in bunkers underneath the wrecked structure.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Wednesday that the U.N. is trying to translate the Guterres-Putin agreement in principle into an agreement in detail and an agreement on the ground.

And ultimately what we want is to make sure that a cease-fire would be respected that would allow us to move people safely, he said.

Haq said U.N. officials are having follow-on discussions Wednesday with authorities in Moscow and Kyiv to develop the operational framework for the timely evacuation of civilians.

He said the exact timing depends on the outcome of discussions between the U.N. humanitarian office and Russias Ministry of Defense in Moscow as well as between the U.N. crisis coordinator for Ukraine, Amin Awad, and the authorities in Kyiv, where Guterres will be meeting Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday.

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OTTAWA, Ontario  The Canadian government said Wednesday that it has imposed sanctions on more than 200 people who are loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraines eastern Donbas region.

Russian forces have been backing separatist rebels in the Donbas area for eight years following Russias annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

The Canadian sanctions are focused on the renewed Russian attempt to annex areas of the Donbas by targeting people attempting to support the next phase of the two-month-old Russian war on Ukraine.

Canada will not stand idly by and watch President Putin and his accomplices attempt to redraw the borders of Ukraine with impunity, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement. International law must be respected.

Global Affairs Canada, the governmental department that manages the countrys diplomatic relations, said the new measures target 11 senior officials and 192 other members of the Peoples Councils of the self-proclaimed Peoples Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk for supporting Putins attack on the area.

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WASHINGTON  The White House says President Joe Biden will tour a Lockheed Martin facility that makes weapons systems, such as Javelin anti-tank missiles, that the administration is providing to Ukraine to defend itself against Russias 2-month-old invasion.

Biden plans to visit the facility in Alabama on May 3.

A Javelin is a long-range guided anti-tank missile that can be carried by one person. The United States says it has provided several thousand of the systems to Ukraine.

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MADRID  Russia announced Wednesday it was withdrawing from the United Nations World Tourism Organization just hours before the bodys assembly voted to temporarily suspend the countrys membership over the invasion of Ukraine, officials said.

UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili made the announcement on his official Twitter account. He said it was the first U.N. body to address Russias membership.

The organization went ahead and approved the suspension at a special meeting in Madrid on Wednesday, where the organization has its headquarters.

(Russian President Vladimir) Putins military offensive is an attack on the founding principles of the United Nations and on the values that tourism represents, such as peace, prosperity and universal respect and the observance of human rights, Spanish Industry, Trade and Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said in a statement following the decision.

The assembly resolution included a clause that said the suspension could be reversed if a change in the politics of the Russian Federation were noted.

Spain was one of 22 European nations that had promoted the motion.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark  Norways Energy Minister Terje Aasland said Wednesday that the Scandinavian countrys position as a stable, predictable and long-term supplier of energy to the European market is only becoming more important.

It is underlined by what is now happening on the part of Gazprom, Aasland told Norwegian news agency NTB.

The state-controlled Russian giant said it was shutting off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday because they refused to pay in Russian rubles, as President Vladimir Putin had demanded.

Russia threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders decried the move as blackmail.

Norway exports about 95% of its gas via an extensive subsea pipeline network linking it to terminals in Germany, Britain, France and Belgium. Last month, Denmark decided to resume the construction of the Danish part of Baltic Pipe, which will connect Poland to Norwegian gas fields.

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MOSCOW  Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to Russias parliament that the goals of the countrys military operation in Ukraine will be achieved.

Putin said in an address on Wednesday to both houses of parliament: I want to emphasize again that all the tasks of the special military operation we are conducting in the Donbas and Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, will be unconditionally fulfilled.

That, he said, will guarantee the security of the residents of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine that Russia recognized as independent shortly before launching its military action in Ukraine, as well as Crimea  which Russia annexed in 2014  and our entire country in the historical perspective.

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BERLIN  Germanys economy minister says the government is considering all scenarios for a Russian-owned oil refinery that supplies much of the petroleum used in and around Berlin.

Robert Habeck told reporters Wednesday that the German governments goal is to ensure the country becomes independent of Russian energy supplies, and companies established to procure fossil fuels from Russia are not helpful in that regard.

The refinery at Schwedt is controlled by Rosneft, a Russian state-controlled oil and gas company.

Asked whether Germany would go so far as to nationalize the refinery, an option foreseen in a regulatory change approved by Cabinet this week, Habeck said that we are in a situation where the government must expect and prepare for all scenarios.

There are likely to be some we havent thought of, he said. But we are considering everything conceivable and making political preparations.

Habeck said Russias decision to stop supplies of gas to Poland and Bulgaria was an example of the reality where energy is used as a weapon.

He acknowledged that Germany was and remains one of the biggest consumers of Russian fossil fuels worldwide, though it is making all efforts to diversify its supplies, reduce consumption and switch to renewable energy so that we are not defenseless.

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KYIV, Ukraine  A Ukrainian presidential adviser has hinted that his country might be involved in a series of fires in border regions of Russia in recent days.

On Wednesday, the governor of the Belgorod region said an ammunition depot was burning after several explosions were heard. Earlier this week, there was a blaze at an oil storage facility in Bryansk.

Ukraine hasnt officially taken responsibility for those and other incidents, and Russian officials havent publicly ascribed them to Ukrainian attacks.

But Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a Telegram post Wednesday that karma (is) a harsh thing.

He said that Russian regions where the incidents happened are now also actively studying the concept of demilitarization.

Without directly admitting any Ukrainian involvement, he said that sooner or later the debts will have to be repaid.

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ROME  Premier Mario Draghis office says the Italian leader will meet President Joe Biden in Washington on May 10.

Draghis office said in a statement on Wednesday that Ukraine will be at the center of discussions, including coordinated measures to support the Ukrainian population and to counter Russias unjustified aggression.

The leaders will also discuss energy security. Italy is among European countries that get a large proportion of their natural gas from Russia. Draghi and his ministers have been working to get alternative sources.

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WARSAW, Poland  Security authorities in Poland say that a Russian and a Belarusian man have been arrested on allegations that they spied for Russian intelligence.

A spokesman for Polands state security bodies, Stanislaw Zaryn, said Wednesday that material gathered by Polish military intelligence led to their arrest.

He said that they were gathering sensitive military information, including about Polish troops in the area near Polands border with Belarus.

The men were arrested separately last week.

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SOFIA, Bulgaria  The Bulgarian government says the prime minister and defense minister will go to Ukraine to meet with that countrys leaders.

The goverment press office said Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and Defense Minister Dragomir Zakov were being accompanied on Wednesday by members of Parliament.

In Kyiv, they will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, and with members of the 200,000-strong Bulgarian community in Ukraine.

They also will visit Borodyanka, Bucha and Irpin, in the Kyiv region, to see damage caused by the Russian invasion.

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BRUSSELS  The head of the European Unions executive Commission says energy companies in the 27-nation bloc that agree to Moscows demands to pay for gas deliveries in Russian rubles will be breaching the sanctions imposed over Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Ursula von der Leyen spoke after Polish and Bulgarian officials said Moscow was cutting off natural gas deliveries to their countries due to their refusal to pay in rubles, a demand made by President Vladimir Putin after sanctions were levied against his nation.

Von der Leyen said Wednesday that our guidance here is very clear.

She said that to pay in rubles, if this is not foreseen in the contract, is a breach of our sanctions. We have round about 97% of all contracts that explicitly stipulate payments in euros or dollars, so its very clear. And the request from the Russian side to pay in rubles is a unilateral decision and not according to the contracts.

Von der Leyen said Russias decision to cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria is another provocation from the Kremlin and an attempt to blackmail the EU.

She said that, following an urgent meeting of member states, both Poland and Bulgaria are now receiving gas from their EU neighbors.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark  Russia has expelled three Norwegian diplomats following the expulsion from Norway earlier this month of three Russian diplomats.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfelt said Wednesday that the Norwegians being kicked out were doing regular diplomatic work. She vowed that Norway will continue to stand with our close allies and partners against Russias aggression and in our support for Ukraine,

Huitfeld told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that like other European countries and allies, we have reduced contact with the Russian authorities to a minimum.

On Tuesday, Russia expelled four Swedish diplomats. The Foreign Ministry in Stockholm said they too were engaged in normal diplomatic activities.

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The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced sanctions against 287 British lawmakers in response to the U.K. sanctioning 368 members of Russias lower house of parliament.

The ministry on Wednesday released a list of both government and opposition lawmakers, and a few former lawmakers. They are now barred from entering Russia because they took the most active part in the establishment of anti-Russian sanctions instruments in London (and) contribute to the groundless ramping-up of Russophobic hysteria in the U.K.

The ministrys statement said that hostile rhetoric and far-fetched accusations coming from the mouths of British parliamentarians not only condone the hostile course of London aimed at demonizing our country and (at) its international isolation, but are also used by opponents of mutually respectful dialogue with Russia to undermine the foundation of bilateral cooperation.

Responding to the announcement, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that those 287 should regard it as a badge of honor.

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MOSCOW  The Kremlin has criticized a statement by a Ukrainian presidential adviser holding the door open to possible military action in the separatist Trans-Dniester region of Moldova.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday described the statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys adviser Oleksiy Arestovych as quite provocative. Asked in a video stream if Ukraine could send its forces into Trans-Dniester, Arestovych said it could do that but only if Moldova asks for it.

Trans-Dniester, a sliver of land with about 470,000 people, has been under the control of separatist authorities since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops in the breakaway region, nominally as peacekeepers. Tensions in the region have escalated in recent days with a series of explosions, for which no one claimed responsibility, raising fears of broader hostilities.

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BERLIN  The German government has rejected criticism that it has been slow to provide Ukraine with weapons requested by Kyiv.

Following domestic and international pressure, Germany announced this week that it would allow the delivery of self-propelled armored anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine to help it fend off Russias military attack, backing off earlier reluctance provide heavy weapons to the country.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said that the federal government and chancellor have looked with great seriousness at the difficult situation Ukraine, Europe and the entire world are in, and taken a very balanced decision."

He told reporters in Berlin: I dont see a change of position on the part of the government, but continuity.

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KYIV, Ukraine  The International Atomic Energy Agencys director-general says the level of safety at Europes largest nuclear plant, currently under Russian occupation in Ukraine, is like a red light blinking as his organization tries in vain to get access for work including repairs.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Rafael Grossi said that the IAEA needs access to the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine so its inspectors can, among other things, reestablish connections with the Vienna-based headquarters of the U.N. agency. And for that, both Russia and Ukraine need to help.

The plant requires repairs, and all of this is not happening. So the situation as I have described it, and I would repeat it today, is not sustainable as it is, Grossi said. So this is a pending issue. This is a red light blinking.

He spoke in an interview Wednesday, a day after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the issue.
The Balfour Beatty Communities military housing company told Congress on Tuesday that most residents are happy with its units and that it has no systemic failures, despite new testimony from residents who said unsafe conditions made them sick and a Senate investigation that found mold, asbestos and other problems.

The company, which manages more than 43,000 military homes in 26 states, was the subject of a newly released eight-month investigation by a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs panel. It found the poor living conditions have continued even after Balfour Beatty was caught up in a nationwide scandal over squalid family housing in 2019 and it pleaded guilty last year to falsifying maintenance records.

"Our performance metrics indicate the overwhelming majority of our residents are happy with their home and the service we provide," Richard Taylor, the Dallas-based company's president of facility operations, testified to the Senate panel on Tuesday.

Read Next: Air Force General Convicted in Historic Court-Martial Avoids Jail Time

But he rejected allegations of substandard conditions throughout the company's network of housing units, which serves 150,000 military personnel and family members. "Things go wrong. We don't always get it right the first time. We're not perfect. We've never testified that we are a perfect organization," he testified.

Military tenants were also called to testify at the Senate hearing and painted a different picture of the housing. Army Capt. Samuel Choe said his daughter has suffered skin problems as the result of living in Balfour Beatty housing at Fort Gordon, Georgia.

"My daughter's skin, once youthful and supple, is now reptilian in nature to where there are numerous times she will wake up in the middle of the night, hands covered in blood from scratching," Choe told lawmakers. "She was a very vibrant, social young lady and now she has withdrawn."

Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, released results Tuesday of the investigation into Balfour Beatty that coincided with the company's negotiations with the Justice Department on a plea deal for falsifying work orders and manipulating data in an effort to cover up complaints of maintenance issues and hazardous living conditions.

According to Ossoff, the investigation showed that the company did not prioritize the health and safety concerns of its residents or take steps to fix the problems. More troubling, he said, the subcommittee found that Balfour appeared to continue to engage in such misconduct while it was under investigation by the Justice Department and even after it pleaded guilty and was fined more than $65.4 million.

Ossoff described the investigation as "alarming and disturbing ... revealing injustice imposed on servicemembers and their families and grave risks to the health and safety of servicemembers and their families."

"[The results] reveal neglect by Balfour Beatty, which is responsible for housing tens of thousands of military families, and reveal not just neglect, but misconduct and abuse that persisted even after Balfour Beatty pled guilty to a scheme to defraud the United States between 2013 and 2019," Ossoff said at the start of the hearing.

The investigation found that families at Fort Gordon and Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, moved into Balfour homes that hadn't been cleaned between tenants and contained mold, filth, pet hair and trash, and were exposed to mold and asbestos from crumbling ceilings, broken floor tiles and previous water damage.

The families also reported a lack of concern -- and in some cases, retaliation from housing offices -- when they requested repairs and maintenance, according to the report.

Choe, a prior enlisted soldier who said he lived in military housing as a child, when it was run by the military services, said Balfour looked at the home and insisted that there was no mold present. He said he repeatedly reached out to Balfour supervisors to make repairs and remediate mold in the home but was ignored.

"I asked if we would be given the opportunity to relocate, at least at the very minimum be provided another home to reside in while they could at least mitigate the conditions of the current home that we were at. We were categorically denied both of those choices," Choe said.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Fe Torres, who lives in a Balfour Beatty home at Sheppard Air Force Base, said mold began growing in his home when a water heater broke, flooding portions of the house. After a family member's asthma flared, they asked about mold remediation, which was approved on a limited basis by an industrial hygienist who never visited the house.

The family moved out of the house while it was repaired, only to return a month later to mold in the house. In all of the work orders for Torres's house, there is no mention of mold, the investigation noted.

"We found many issues unrepaired. There was even visible mold underneath the can opener in the kitchen. Work was completed with 'Band-Aid' fixes or ignored altogether. We immediately reported the remaining issues via the residential portal and the work orders were marked 'Wet Enter,'" Torres testified, referring to the presence of moisture or water damage in the home. "[This] was later changed to the category 'Carpentry.'"

The Department of Defense entered into agreements with private companies to build and manage installation housing largely to get out of the leasing business and to improve the services' housing stock, much of which had been allowed to languish without significant repairs or renovations.

The idea was to build new homes and neighborhoods that would attract and retain service members and their families.

Balfour Beatty officials said the company has high satisfaction rates with tenants. But Taylor testified that more than a third of the houses it manages are older homes built by the U.S. military and have long-standing maintenance issues.

Taylor said Balfour Beatty, like other construction and repair businesses, has had supply chain challenges, home access issues and staff shortages as a result of the pandemic.

He also questioned whether there was a direct link between the living conditions in the Choe family home and the daughter's skin condition.

"To my knowledge, we've never seen any photographic evidence of mold in the home," Taylor testified. "To my knowledge, the medical doctor's letter that suggested the home might be the cause of the skin conditions, or her school, to my knowledge, that doctor never visited the home personally."

The hearing is the latest chapter in a scandal that erupted in 2019 over the poor condition of privatized military housing. The issues came to light in a series of reports by Reuters on the presence of mold, lead-based paint and other dangerous living conditions in base housing managed by private companies.

Military families have filed lawsuits and testified before Congress on their poor housing conditions, noting that the companies often ignored maintenance requests or took shortcuts in repairing their homes.

Following a series of congressional hearings, military leadership pledged to improve its oversight of these companies, which hold 50-year contracts. The Defense Department developed and rolled out an expanded tenant bill of rights last August that gave residents more leverage with their landlords and to negotiate disputes.

Still, advocates on Tuesday testified that more oversight is needed and service members must be educated on how to challenge housing companies and resolve issues.

Rachel Christian, founder of Armed Forces Housing Advocates, called for harsh penalties for Balfour Beatty, which she said has exploited service members in the name of profit.

"How many more cases of negligence, fraud and civil rights violations must be presented in this building before Balfour Beatty ... is banned from receiving further government contracts as well as removed from their current partnership with the Department of Defense?" Christian asked.

The private companies that manage military housing hold contracts of up to 50 years, many of which were signed in the late 1990s.

At the end of the hearing, Ossoff pledged additional oversight to provide safe housing for military personnel and said the company would be held accountable.

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the subcommittee's ranking Republican, agreed.

"These men and women should expect to live in conditions that will not damage the health and safety of themselves or their families," Johnson said. "The question that kept going through my mind throughout the investigation is the statement, 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' You had a settlement ... and two years later, it seems like it's still going on."

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

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A bipartisan group of lawmakers is looking to expand on military justice reforms enacted last year and take sexual harassment prosecutions outside the chain of command.

Last year's defense policy bill created independent prosecutors to handle sexual assault and some other related or serious crimes.

But a "massive oversight" kept sexual harassment within the chain of command even as the defense bill made it a stand-alone offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said in a statement last week as she and other lawmakers introduced a bill to fix that oversight.

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"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," Speier, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee's personnel subcommittee, said in a Friday press release.

Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who sponsored the bill with Speier, said the measure would bring work started in last year's defense bill "over the finish line."

In addition to Speier and Mullin, Reps. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas; Troy Balderson, R-Ohio; Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas; Tony Gonzales, R-Texas; and Anthony Brown, D-Md., introduced the bill alongside 39 bipartisan co-sponsors. A companion bill was also introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.

The bill, introduced Friday, came on the second anniversary of the death of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, who was sexually harassed by a supervisor before being killed in 2020, allegedly by another soldier at Fort Hood, Texas.

In a statement released by Speier's office, Guillen's sister, Mayra, said the bill "is vital to protecting soldiers and would have saved Vanessa's life."

Galvanized by Guillen's murder, Congress used last year's National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, to make a major change to the military justice system that some lawmakers had been pushing for nearly a decade.

Set to take effect in late 2023, the change will let special trial counsel, instead of commanders, make prosecutorial decisions over crimes including sexual assault, murder, kidnapping, domestic violence, stalking and child pornography.

While the NDAA also required the administration to make sexual harassment its own offense in the UCMJ, it didn't actually become a stand-alone crime until President Joe Biden issued an order to do so in January. Previously, sexual harassment could be prosecuted under other, broader articles of the UCMJ.

Last year's NDAA also stipulated that sexual harassment complaints receive an independent investigation. The bill introduced Friday seeks to ensure those investigations are indeed independent by requiring investigators to come from "outside the chain of command of the complainant and the subject of the investigation."

The Department of the Navy recently took steps in line with the NDAA's requirement for independent investigations. On Friday, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro issued a servicewide message saying unit commanders in the Navy and Marine Corps can no longer investigate sexual harassment complaints themselves.

Instead, commanding officers in those services will have to escalate complaints to the next higher-level commander, who will then appoint an investigating officer from outside the command who cannot be "familiar with the subject or the complainant." The policy is meant to be temporary until the Navy hires professionally trained independent investigators, according to the message.

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel.

Related: Biden Order Elevates Sexual Harassment as Separate Military Crime After Guillen Murder
BUCHAREST, Romania  Two explosions in a radio facility close to the Ukrainian border knocked a pair of powerful broadcast antennas out of service in Moldova's separatist region of Trans-Dniester, local police said Tuesday.

Trans-Dniester, a strip of land with about 470,000 people, has been under the control of separatist authorities since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops in the breakaway region, nominally as peacekeepers.

Ukrainian officials have expressed concern about Moscow using those forces to invade Ukraine, while the threat of renewed fighting over Trans-Dniester worries Moldovan authorities. The fear is that Russia will claim it needs to intervene to protect its troops or restore order.

Origin APNews

The explosions happened in the small town of Maiac, roughly 12 kilometers (7 miles) west of the Ukraine border, according to the regions Interior Ministry. No one was hurt, officials said.

The two antennas were used for broadcasting Russian radio shows. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

The United States has warned amid the war in Ukraine that Russia could launch false-flag attacks in nearby nations as a pretext for sending in troops.

On Monday, several explosions, believed to have been caused by rocket-propelled grenades, were reported to have hit the Ministry of State Security in Tiraspol, Trans-Dniesters capital.

The Security Council of Trans-Dniester reported Tuesday that there had been a total of three incidents in the region  explosions in Tiraspol on Monday, the ones in Maiac on Tuesday and damage to a military unit in the village of Parcani.

Officials did not offer any details on the military unit incident. But Trans-Dniesters president, Vadim Krasnoselsky, called Tuesday for imposing anti-terrorist security measures at a red level for 15 days, including setting up checkpoints at the entrances to cities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday that the situation in Trans-Dniester elicits concern in Moscow.

A Ukrainian presidential advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak warned in a tweet that Moldova might be attacked next,

Bad news: if Ukraine falls tomorrow Russian troops will be at Chisinaus gates," he tweeted, referring to Moldova's capital. "Good news: Ukraine will definitely ensure strategic security of the region. But we need to work as a team.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu convened the country's Supreme Security Council on Tuesday to discuss the incidents. After the meeting, she said a security analysis indicated that different forces within the region, interested in destabilizing the situation, carried out the blasts.

The Security Council recommended ramping up border and traffic patrols, and increasing the alert level of institutions responsible for ensuring public order and security.

We condemn any challenges and attempts to lure the Republic of Moldova into actions that could jeopardize peace in the country, Sandu said. Chisinau continues to insist on a peaceful settlement of the Transnistrian conflict.

We will take all necessary measures to prevent escalation, to strengthen the security of the state and to protect our citizens, Sandu added. We remain open to continue the dialogue for the settlement of the conflict in the region in a peaceful, diplomatically negotiated manner.

The U.N. said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was concerned about the reported incidents in Trans-Dniester and urges all concerned to refrain from any statements or actions that could escalate tensions.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the United Nations continues to fully support efforts by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to reach a political settlement over the separatist region's status. The aim is to create a special status for Trans-Dniester while strengthening Moldovas independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
TEHRAN, Iran  Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi expressed Wednesday his governments desire for closer cooperation with China in remarks made during a visit by the Chinese defense minister, state media reported.

According to the report, Raisi told Chinas Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe that Tehran sees its ties with Beijing as strategic. Closer cooperation would serve to confront what the Iranian president described as U.S. unilateralism as talks to revive Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers have stalled.

Confronting unilateralism and creating stability and order is possible through cooperation of independent and like-minded powers, Raisi was quoted as saying.

Wei in turn said improving ties between Iran and China would provide security, particularly in the current critical and tense situation.

Wei also met with his Iranian counterpart, Gen. Mohammad Reza Ashtinai, and reportedly invited him to visit China, as well as with other Iranian military officials.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Ashtiani as assailing U.S. military presence in the Middle East and elsewhere, claiming that wherever the U.S. has had military presence, it has created waves of insecurity, instability, rifts, pessimism, war, destruction and displacement.

Wei said his visit was aimed at improving the strategic defense cooperation between Iran and China  cooperation that he said would have a remarkable impact in defusing unilateralism and fighting terrorism.

Iran and China have increased their military ties in recent years, with their navies visiting each others ports and holding joint naval drills in the Indian Ocean.

In 2021, Iran and China signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement that covered a variety of economic activities from oil and mining to promoting industrial activity in Iran, as well as transportation and agricultural collaborations.

China is a signatory to the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, along with Russia, Britain, France and Germany.
WASHINGTON  Russia and the United States have carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America, both countries announced Wednesday.

The surprise deal involving Trevor Reed, an American jailed for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace, but it was all the more extraordinary because it was done as Russia's war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

Today, our prayers have been answered and Trevor is on his way back safely to the United States, Reeds family said in a statement.

President Joe Biden, who met in Washington with Reed's parents last month, trumpeted Reed's release and noted without elaboration that the negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly. The Russian foreign ministry described the exchange as the "result of a long negotiation process.

Origin APNews Russia and the U.S. carried out a dramatic prisoner swap on Wednesday, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America. (April 27) AP, Joey Reed

Multiple other Americans still remain jailed in Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan.

Reed, a former Marine from Texas, was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though his family has maintained his innocence and the U.S. government described him as unjustly detained and expressed concern about his declining health.

The U.S. agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S.

Russia had sought Yaroshenko's return for years while also rejecting entreaties by high-level U.S. officials to release Reed, who was nearing his 1,000th day in custody and whose health had recently been worsening, according to his family.

A senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, described Reed's case as one of utmost priority" for the Biden administration, including because of his health, which his family has said included a tuberculosis diagnosis.

It was a difficult decision but one that we thought was worth it, the official said.

The two prisoners were swapped in a European country. Though officials would not say where the transfer took place, in the hours before it happened commercial flight trackers identified a plane belonging to Russias federal security service as flying to Ankara, Turkey. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons also updated its website overnight to reflect that Yaroshenko was no longer in custody.

Reed was en route back to the U.S., traveling with Roger Cartsens, the U.S. government's special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

The prisoner swap marks the highest-profile release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad and comes even as families of detainees who have met over the last year with administration officials had described them as cool to the idea of an exchange.

The U.S. government does not typically embrace such exchanges for fear that it might encourage foreign governments to take additional Americans as prisoners as a way to extract concessions and to avoid a potential false equivalency between an unjustly detained American  which U.S. officials believe Reed was  and a properly convicted criminal.

In this case, though, the U.S. official said the deal made sense in part because Yaroshenko had already served a long portion of his prison sentence, which has now been commuted.

The Reed family thanked Biden for making the decision to bring Trevor home as well as other administration officials and Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, whom the family said traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reed's release.

The Reed family had also been working with a consultant, Jonathan Franks, who has been involved in other recent high-profile releases, including the case of Michael White, a Navy veteran freed from Iran in 2020.

The release had no immediate impact on the cases of other Americans held by Russia. Those include Griner, who was detained in February after authorities said a search of her bag revealed a cannabis derivative, and Whelan, who is being held on espionage-related charges his family says are bogus.

U.S. officials have described Whelan as unjustly detained, and Biden said Wednesday that we wont stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends.
The Tokyo Convention of 1963 in Article 1 lays down certain powers of the command pilot which may be relevant both in the case of pilotless aircraft or in the case of debilitation of the human command pilot with a computerized version of a first officer in the flight deck.

by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne in Montreal

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned upward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return. ~ Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Unbeknownst to many of us, International Pilots Day was marked on 26 April as it has been since 2014 when the Turkish Airline Pilots Association (TALPA) first recognized April 26 to highlight the inaugural flight of the first Turkish pilot, Mehmet Fesa Evrensev, who had played a significant role in the development of Turkish aviation since the early 1910s. This day has been formally recognized by the world body of pilots  International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations (IFALPA) which was formed in 1948 to merge various pilots associations into a single unit, and which currently comprises membership of more than 140,000 pilots worldwide. It was IFALPA which, in 2013 initiated thoughts on dedicating a day of the year to the pilot which TALPA followed through.

General Aviation News reports that 260,000 pilots will be needed over the next 10 years to keep the air transport industry afloat and meet the growing demand for air transport: According to the 2020-2029 CAE Pilot Demand Outlook, retirement and attrition are expected to continue to be a challenge for the civil aviation industry as air travel recovers progressively. This is expected to drive an acute demand for pilots, resulting in an estimated short-term need for approximately 27,000 new professional pilots starting in late 2021.

In this context, one could ask the question: in an era of exponential progress in artificial intelligence (AI) , and in the face of tis enormous demand for pilots which is a daunting prospect, could the pilot as we know him/her be replaced by a super computer and with a flight deck empty of humans?

In the non-aviation professional there could always be the misconception that the pilot of an aircraft just flies an aircraft from point A to point B following a standardized set of rules that could be done by a super computer, which could be more astute and reactive in aerial navigation than a human. Simplistically, and on a broad scale this is true. However, if this were to be taken as the limit of a pilots responsibility and authority, it would be doing a disservice to the noble profession and demote the pilot to the rank of a glorified bus driver or taxi driver.

Far from it. The pilot has authority under international treaty to protect the safety of the aircraft as well as persons and property on board.

The Pilots Authority

The Tokyo Convention of 1963 in Article 1 lays down certain powers of the command pilot which may be relevant both in the case of pilotless aircraft or in the case of debilitation of the human command pilot with a computerized version of a first officer in the flight deck. It applies in respect of: offences against penal law; and acts which, whether or not they are offences, may or do jeopardize the safety of the aircraft or of persons or property therein or which jeopardize good order and discipline on board. The Tokyo Convention also applies inter alia in respect of offences committed or acts done by a person on board any aircraft registered in a Contracting State, while that aircraft is in flight or on the surface of the high seas or of any other area outside the territory of any State. An aircraft is considered to be in flight from the moment when power is applied for the purpose of takeoff until the moment when the landing run ends.

Article 6 of the Convention is extremely relevant to the element of choice reposed in the pilot on the flight deck. It states that the aircraft commander may, when he has reasonable grounds (my quotation marks) to believe that a person has committed, or is about to commit, on board the aircraft, an offence or act contemplated in Article 1, impose upon such person reasonable measures including restraint which are necessary: (a) to protect the safety of the aircraft, or of persons or property therein; or (b) to maintain good order and discipline on board; or (c) to enable him to deliver such person to competent authorities or to disembark him in accordance with the provisions of the Convention.

Article 6.2 stipulates that the aircraft commander may require or authorize the assistance of other crew members and may request or authorize, but not require, the assistance of passengers to restrain any person whom he is entitled to restrain. Any crew member or passenger may also take reasonable preventive measures without such authorization when he has reasonable grounds to believe that such action is immediately necessary to protect the safety of the aircraft, or of persons or property therein.

The powers entrusted to the commander in order to suppress any unlawful act that threatens the safety of the aircraft go as far as requiring the disembarking of any person in the territory of any State in which he lands and delivering him to its competent authorities. The State is under an obligation to allow the disembarkation and to take delivery of the person so apprehended by the aircraft commander , but such custody may only be continued for such time as is reasonably necessary to enable the criminal extradition proceedings (if any) to be instituted. In the meantime, the State of landing should make a preliminary enquiry into the facts and notify the State of registration of the aircraft. The operative question in this context which would challenge artificial intelligence would be, how would it have reason to believe that there is a reasonable likelihood of harm being committed by a person who is unruly and disruptive in the aircraft?

Another challenge is posed by Article 7 of the Tokyo Convention which states that measures of restraint imposed upon a person in accordance with Article 6 shall not be continued beyond any point at which the aircraft lands unless: (a) such point is in the territory of a non-Contracting State and its authorities refuse to permit disembarkation of that person or those measures have been imposed in accordance with Article 6, paragraph 1(c) in order to enable his delivery to competent authorities; (b) the aircraft makes a forced landing and the aircraft commander is unable to deliver that person to competent authorities; or (c) that person agrees to onward carriage under restraint. The aircraft commander is required to, as soon as practicable, and if possible before landing in the territory of a State with a person on board who has been placed under restraint in accordance with the provisions of Article 6, notify the authorities of such State of the fact that a person on board is under restraint and of the reasons for such restraint.

Discretion and Artificial Intelligence

Article 8 of the Convention addresses discretionary powers of the aircraft commander when it says that he/she may, in so far as it is necessary for the purpose of Article 6, disembark in the territory of any State in which the aircraft lands any person who he has reasonable grounds to believe has committed, or is about to commit, on board the aircraft an act contemplated in Article 1, and the aircraft commander is required to report to the authorities of the State in which he disembarks any person pursuant to this Article, the fact of, and the reasons for, such disembarkation.

Furthermore, Article 9 gives the discretion to the aircraft commander to deliver to the competent authorities of any Contracting State in the territory of which the aircraft lands any person who he has reasonable grounds to believe has committed on board the aircraft an act which, in his opinion, is a serious offence according to the penal law of the State of registration of the aircraft. In such circumstances the aircraft commander is required as soon as practicable and if possible before landing in the territory of a Contracting State with a person on board whom the aircraft commander intends to deliver in accordance with the preceding paragraph, notify the authorities of such State of his intention to deliver such person and the reasons therefor.

The aircraft commander is also required to furnish the authorities to whom any suspected offender is delivered in accordance with the provisions of this Article with evidence and information which, under the law of the State of registration of the aircraft, are lawfully in his possession. Neither the aircraft commander, any other member of the crew, any passenger, the owner or operator of the aircraft, nor the person on whose behalf the flight was performed can be held responsible in any proceeding on account of the treatment undergone by the person against whom the actions were taken.

Article 11 of the Convention provides that when a person on board has unlawfully committed by force or threat thereof an act of interference, seizure, or other wrongful exercise of control of an aircraft in flight or when such an act is about to be committed, Contracting States shall take all appropriate measures to restore control of the aircraft to its lawful commander or to preserve his control of the aircraft. In the cases contemplated in the preceding circumstances, the Contracting State in which the aircraft lands is required to permit its passengers and crew to continue their journey as soon as practicable, and shall return the aircraft and its cargo to the persons lawfully entitled to possession.

Given the above, some have argued (plausibly) that the supercomputer could be used as a super co-pilot. This is seemingly acceptable except that if the commander in chief of a flight is rendered unable to perform his duties and there is a non-technical emergency on board the aircraft it is difficult to imagine a computer using discretion in a purely human situation. Would AI then be able to subdue unacceptable human conduct, look after the welfare of the persons on board and take control of the aircraft?

Maybe we should concentrate more on how to find the 260,000 pilots needed.

Dr. Abeyratne is former Senior Legal Officer at the International Civil Aviation Organization and is currently an aviation consultant in Montreal. He also teaches aviation law and policy at McGill University. Among his 36 books so far published are : Air Transport in the Digital World, Air Navigation Law, Aviation Security law, and Megatrends and Air Transport. He has also published over 450 journal articles in law journals worldwide during his 40-year career in aviation.
Bucha, a town whose name is headed toward a place in history alongside Srebrenica and Nanking, has been the site of mounting evidence of war crimes by Russian troops.

The details and images -- bodies found in the street with hands still secured behind their backs, having been left there for weeks -- are evidence of the Russians breaking one of the most fundamental tenets of the law of war: not to execute prisoners. Residents have also described beheadings, gang rapes and other atrocities, setting off a race to secure evidence and investigate the troops responsible.

But it's a far legal reach to verify that evidence in a war zone, gain custody of a defendant, find the proper court of jurisdiction, and prove a case, according to U.S. military law experts. And America's own hesitancy to engage with international legal bodies, such as the International Criminal Court, in light of past concerns about how American troops might be viewed during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, only complicate U.S. assistance in bringing potential Russian war criminals to justice.

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"It's not impossible, but it definitely is a challenge to get all these pieces lined up together," retired Army Col. Gary Corn, a former judge advocate general and general counsel to U.S. Cyber Command, said in an interview with Military.com.

All of the allegations have been unambiguously denounced by Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin on down as lies concocted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in cahoots with his ally, the U.S. And Russian officials have resorted to a version of whataboutism, pointing to civilian casualties during U.S. operations in the Middle East, to claim American officials lack any moral high ground.

The verified videos of the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians lying in the streets of Bucha and in the basements of blown-out buildings are nothing but propaganda theater, with crisis actors playing the parts of the dead, the Russians say.

Putin and his underlings have maintained that the invasion was justified to "de-Nazify" an illegitimate Ukrainian state, propped up by the U.S. and NATO, which posed a threat to Russia -- despite Russia's active shelling of the Babi Yar memorial, one of Ukraine's chief remembrances of the Holocaust.

In a sign of his contempt for the allegations against the Russian military, Putin issued a presidential decree April 18 honoring the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade for "mass heroism and valor, tenacity, and courage shown by the personnel in hostilities for the defense of the motherland and state interests during armed conflicts."

Ukraine's own charges of what happened when the Russians came to Bucha, northwest of the capital of Kyiv, have received initial validation from international investigative bodies and a report from on the ground in Bucha by the nonprofit Human Rights Watch research and advocacy group.

"The cases we documented amount to unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians," Hugh Williamson, HRW's Europe and Central Asia director, said in a statement issued with the report. "Rape, murder, and other violent acts against people in the Russian forces' custody should be investigated as war crimes."

Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the Hague, announced in February that his office is investigating allegations of war crimes in Ukraine; on an April 8 fact-finding visit to Bucha, he told reporters that "Ukraine is a crime scene."

"We're here because we have reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC are being committed," Khan said. But to make cases, "We have to pierce the fog of war to get to the truth," he added.

A serviceman stands at a building damaged during fighting in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)

Finding the Right Court for War Crimes

The International Criminal Court in the Hague exists to prosecute violations of the various laws of armed conflict and the Geneva Conventions, and the United Nations has occasionally set up special tribunals. But Ukraine may have to take the judicial lead in bringing cases to trial.

"In theory, Ukrainian courts could try them," said Corn, a professor at American University's Washington College of Law and director of the school's Technology, Law and Security Program.

Although various governments have offered to help assemble evidence, the fog appeared to thicken at the U.N. Security Council session on April 5, where Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya tossed off a few insults at Zelenskyy before getting to his main point, which was to accuse the U.S. of hypocrisy in leveling war crimes charges against the Kremlin.

In an Orwellian twist, Nebenzya charged Zelenskyy and his supporters with carrying out a "linguistic inquisition" to abolish the Russian language in Ukraine's Donbas region, where Russia has set up the rump People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

And anyway, Nebenzya added, "We're not acting like the Americans and their allies in Iraq and Syria, where they're razing entire cities to the ground."

He called on Security Council members not to be fooled by "the huge amount of lies against Russian soldiers and the military" drummed up by the U.S.

When it came his turn at the Security Council session, Ukraine Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said that he would not dignify the "diabolical script" read by the Russian ambassador with a detailed response, but said it amounted to Nebenzya's "rather detailed application for a seat in hell."

But expecting the ICC to take up charges might be optimistic. The court takes on war crimes prosecutions when the nation that has the main responsibility -- in this case Russia -- "is unwilling or unable genuinely to carry out the investigation or prosecution" as stated in Article 17 of the Rome Statute, said retired Army Lt. Col. Michael Newton, a West Point graduate and former judge advocate general.

The United Nations Security Council also could convene a special tribunal, as happened in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but Russia and China have a veto on the Security Council.

The U.S. is not a party to the treaty that created the ICC -- nor are Russia and Ukraine -- but the U.S. has the Uniform Code of Military Justice to deal with law of war violations by its troops, said Newton, who was part of a State Department team that helped to negotiate the 2002 Rome Statute.

"The idea is that the court [the ICC] is a last resort. If you have a functioning system that prosecutes your own, you don't need the ICC," said Newton, now a law professor at Vanderbilt University. "We bring them back for UCMJ trials, and that's what we do."

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova has said that Ukraine, with assistance from the U.S. State and Justice Departments, intends to prosecute war crimes cases against the Russians on its own, but she also has reserved the right to refer cases to the ICC.

Newton dismissed Russian attempts to assert a moral equivalence between how the U.S and Russian militaries conduct themselves on the battlefield as a "red herring."

"That's just not true," he said. "The U.S. has a duty to investigate and prosecute" war crimes and "it's non-negotiable."

Newton added that if the Russian allegations were true, then "why would you have seen, I don't know, Eddie Gallagher prosecuted?"

He referred to the controversial case of Navy SEAL and Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, who was court-martialed under the UCMJ for numerous offenses, including stabbing to death an injured 17-year-old ISIS prisoner.

Gallagher was convicted of posing for a photograph with the corpse but acquitted of all other charges. Then-President Donald Trump intervened to reverse Gallagher's demotion in rank and also restored his right to wear the coveted SEAL Trident insignia.

Trump also pardoned two service members who had been convicted or accused of war crimes -- 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Matthew Golsteyn -- but those cases should not be misconstrued as excuses for how the Russian military has operated in Ukraine, said retired Air Force Lt. Col Rachel VanLandingham, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

"Russia shouldn't escape from accountability for its systematic campaign of barbaric war crimes due to claims of hypocrisy," VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, said in interviews and statements to Milltary.com. "Case-by-case imperfections in the American commitment to the laws and customs of war don't excuse Russia's complete and utter disregard of this law, and shouldn't distract from clear, unequivocal condemnation."

Servicemen of the Donetsk People's Republic militia look at bodies of Ukrainian soldiers placed in plastic bags at the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)

Mounting Evidence of Russian Crimes

Currently, Ukrainian and international investigative teams are seeking to document cases for potential war crimes prosecutions from the trail of carnage left by Putin's "special military operation" through the towns of Bucha, Borodianka, Chernihiv, Kherson, Hostomel, Irpin, Kharkiv and elsewhere.

The besieged southeastern port of Mariupol, described by United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Griffiths as the "epicenter of horror," continues to face Russian attacks. Russian forces have put the city under relentless bombardment, while mostly preventing civilians from fleeing and blocking International Red Cross aid convoys from access. Schools and hospitals have been rocketed while apartment blocks have been obliterated, with tenants crushed beneath the rubble

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies also appeared to show new mass graves in the town of Manhush just outside of Mariupol, The Associated Press reported Friday.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko charged that the Russians are attempting to conceal "their military crimes" by taking the bodies of those killed in Mariupol and burying them in Manhush.

While stressing the need for investigations of atrocity allegations against the Russians and not making claims of equivalence, United Nations officials have also cautioned that Ukrainian soldiers may also have committed war crimes.

On April 5, Rosemary DiCarlo, a former State Department official and now under secretary general for political affairs at the U.N., addressed the Security Council on accountability for war crimes in Ukraine just before Ukrainian President Zelenskyy spoke virtually from Kyiv and showed a graphic video of dead and mutilated bodies in Bucha.

"Many credible allegations of serious violations" of international law and the laws of armed conflict in "areas recently retaken from Russia forces must not go unanswered," DiCarlo said.

"Ensuring accountability and justice for acts committed during the war will not be easy, but it is essential," she said, adding that "disturbing videos" had emerged showing "abuses of prisoners of war by both sides" -- the Ukrainians as well as the Russians.

She apparently referred to a video, verified by The New York Times and others, that surfaced in late March on a pro-Russian Telegram channel showing a group of soldiers wearing Ukrainian patches and blue arm bands standing over four troops wearing Russian uniforms and lying on a road.

Three of the four appear to have head wounds, and the fourth lies in a pool of blood gasping for air. "He's still alive. He's gasping," one of the standing soldiers says. Another soldier then points a rifle at the body and fires a total of three shots. The body stops moving, and someone off camera shouts "Slava Ukrayini!" -- "Glory to Ukraine!"

Ukrainian officials immediately said that the incident would be investigated. At an April 7 NATO news conference in Brussels, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said, "I want to reassure you that Ukrainian army observes the rules of warfare. There might be isolated incidents of the violation of these rules and they will be definitely investigated."

Three U.S. military law experts interviewed by Military.com warned against drawing a "false equivalence" between the conduct of the Ukrainian and Russian militaries. The big difference is that the Ukrainians have pledged to investigate and potentially prosecute allegations of war crimes by their own soldiers, while the Russians have dismissed even the suggestion that their troops might be liable, they said.

And although the exact means may be up in the air, President Joe Biden insisted from the White House last week that ways must be found "to hold Putin accountable for his brutal and bloody war."

Russian forces driven back from their failed mission to take the capital of Kyiv have "left behind evidence of their atrocities and war crimes against the Ukrainian people -- it's so clear to the whole world now," Biden said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct which program Corn is associated with.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Related: Austin Says Group of 40 Nations Focused on Sending More Weapons to Ukraine
You have to admit, troops from World War II, Korea and Vietnam looked pretty cool in those old photos. Our loved ones in combat zones, carrying their weapons on their shoulders and wearing their helmet with the chin strap hanging off the side looked pretty badass.

While it may look cool in movies, any modern-day soldier, sailor, airman or Marine knows that look just doesn't fly today. U.S. troops learn this very quickly in basic training. Trying to wear a brain bucket like their grandpa used to will only ensure they're swarmed by Smokey Bear hats who want to loudly remind them they aren't John Wayne.

Your grandpa and his awesome-looking battle buddies didn't wear their chin straps because they were afraid it might snap their necks. You don't wear the same helmet, yours is much lighter and, also, you know better. Basic training made sure of that.

The iconic helmet worn by veterans of generations past is the M1. It was first developed and mass-produced in 1941, before the United States entered World War II and was the standard helmet all the way through the mid-1980s. More than 22 million were made during World War II alone.

It might have slid down over their eyes while prone, but it could be used to make coffee, was an excellent shovel in a pinch and did a pretty good job of keeping flying Nazi bullets out of their brain. It's no wonder the U.S. government kept them in service for so long.

It was also useful against Viet Cong bullets and shrapnel. (U.S. Army/Spc. Frank R. Sullivan III)

So those unclasped chin straps dangling from helmets look so cool in both World War II and Vietnam, because they were the same helmet. John Wayne could have worn one in a movie about either war. Wayne, of course, didn't wear any helmet to any war. But keep in mind: You are not John Wayne.

Also Read: Why John Wayne Was Labeled a 'Draft Dodger' During World War II

In World War II, the United States wasn't fielding a professional, all-volunteer army. The soldiers who fought in North Africa, Europe and the Far East were largely drafted. Since the U.S. was also not the well-developed and well-connected country we know it as today, these conscripts were experiencing a lot for the very first time.

Since operational security was also paramount during the war, they weren't told a lot about what they were doing or why: They knew what they needed to know. Because they were all deployed American troops, the gaps in their knowledge were filled with -- you guessed it -- rumors.

The rumor mill was hard at work in World War II, because information was hard to get, enemy disinformation was rampant and sometimes they didn't know better. Rumors spread about women in Army service being property of Army officers and those officers could have their way with them, that no ships survived Pearl Harbor or that Japanese troops were mailing the eyes of the dead back to American homes. None of that was true.

Your grandpa wasn't unstrapping his helmet to look cool. He and other GIs heard that strapping their chins to their manganese-steel M1 helmet would make their head pop back and their neck snap amid artillery bursts or close, upward explosions. They thought the force combined with the weight of the helmet was enough to pop them right off.

In some cases, commands even made it an order.

An order no First Sergeant would argue over.

If you didn't know any better, you'd probably unstrap your chin strap, too. And so would your military training instructor (MTI), drill sergeant, drill instructor or whatever the Navy calls their Smokey Bear hat guys. You might notice that even the above command says not to let the chin strap hang on the sides of the helmet --so maybe there was a little bit of coolness factor involved.

It was, of course, just a rumor. The M1 helmet did a pretty good job of keeping many heads safe, even when exposed to artillery, explosions or small arms fire. They didn't have a 100% safety record, but what U.S. military-issued equipment does?

The woobie might be a candidate. (U.S. Army/Spc. Kristina Truluck)

American troops finally got a break from the longtime heavyweight standard-bearer of helmets in the late 1980s, when they were replaced with modern, lighter-weight kevlar ones. The new Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops (or PASGT) arrived in time to make an appearance in the U.S. invasion of Grenada and phased out the good ol' M1 in time for Operation Desert Storm.

In 2003, the standard-issue helmet was again upgraded to the Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH), which offered improved coverage, ballistic protection and a much lighter weight of about 2.4 pounds that would not snap a troop's neck in an explosion.

Even though the helmet technology is obsolete, your grandpa and his buddies did look really cool, even if they were really just afraid of breaking their necks. It virtually guarantees that future generations of veterans in basic training will still try to get away with unstrapping their helmets.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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Global silica fume market trend 2025-2026 What is micro silica fume for concrete by Newsmis-asia

Australian alumina ban disrupts Rusal silica fume prices for chemicals. Patel said. "One possible outcome could be Chinese buyers buying alumina and reselling it through eastern Russian ports." Rusal has a 20% stake in the Queensland Alumina Refinery, which has a capacity of 3.95 million tonnes a year, thus providing Rusal with 790,000 tonnes a year, Patel said. In addition, Rusal's Nikolaev refinery in Ukraine, which has an annual capacity of 1.75 million tonnes, has been suspended due to the conflict, he added. WoodMac said Rusal was also experiencing supply chain problems at its 2 million tonne a year Aughinish refinery in Ireland.





What is micro silica fume for concrete?

Micro silica fume is also well used in the concrete industry. Its physical characteristics include small particles, high purity, and pozzolanic solid activity. Adding micro silica fume to concrete can not only improve the properties of concrete in many aspects but also enhance. The adhesion and cohesion of concrete itself, can make the concrete play its role more and reduce the amount of rebound. The use of micro-silica fume has brought many advantages to the project; not only can the thickness of the concrete be formed at one time, but it also brings a lot of cost savings to the whole project and shorten the time required for the project.





Application of high-performance concrete proportioning design scheme

1) Compatibility: Micro silica fume has good compatibility with water-reducing agents, fly ash, mineral powder, and fiber;

2) Slump: Concrete has strong viscosity due to the phenomenon of gap filling, so the slump design scheme of concrete mixed with silica fume is 2~3cm higher than that of ordinary concrete;

3) The amount of mixing, production, and processing of high-strength concrete and shotcrete, the mixing amount of silica fume is 6~12% of the cement; the mixing amount of concrete for underwater engineering projects is slightly higher; the silica fume is used as a pump When the agent is used, the mixing amount is reduced to about 2%. Finally, the mixing ratio is confirmed by the mixing ratio test. The mixing of micro-silica fume mixed with cement and aggregate shall be constructed in strict accordance with the specifications, and at the same time, the maintenance shall be enhanced.





Ingredients and mixing

Generally speaking, the concrete industry usually uses densified silica fume, so manual or automatic feeding can be used.

2) Because of its unique ultra-fineness, the micro-silica fume must be put in immediately after feeding, and the micro-silica powder cannot be added to the concrete.

3) When the concrete is mixed with silica fume, the mixing time is 30~40s longer than ordinary concrete to obtain good uniformity.

4) There are no special requirements for the concrete of micro silica fume during transportation, just like ordinary concrete.

Watering and maintenance;

1) Vibration of micro-silica fume concrete requires high density, no vibration leakage, and no over-vibration. The vibration time is generally 10~30s;

2) Continuous supply of concrete is required to prevent cold stubble and cause hidden dangers. The stubble time cannot exceed 100 minutes;

3) It is essential to prevent the premature evaporation of water when protecting the concrete from silica fume. Therefore, after pouring, immediately cover the film, and lay sacks for watering and curing.

Use a woven bag for micro-silica fume in a plastic inner sealed bag, and pay attention to waterproof and moisture-proof during storage and transportation.





TRUNNANO is a concrete additives supplier with over 12 years experience in nano-building energy conservation and nanotechnology development. We accept payment via Credit Card, T/T, West Union and Paypal. Trunnano will ship the goods to customers overseas through FedEx, DHL, by air, or by sea.

If you are looking for high quality silica fume, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry.

sales@cabr-concrete.com









The technology and telecommunications industry is advancing at a rapid pace in a process of constant innovation and excitement. Tech devices and infrastructure are becoming smarter and more connected, powered by emerging technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) for the Internet of Things. Advances in IT service delivery, particularly the adoption of cloud computing and edge computing technologies, are supporting digital transformation in businesses and the wider economy.

Product name are widely used in technical equipment, the market demand for silica fume continues to expand, and a series of processes such as the management and sales of silica fume will continue to improve and develop. If you need a silica fume, please contact us.







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Global Concrete Additive market trend 2025-2026 Introduction to Concrete Additives (2) by Newsmis-asia

Russia's insistence on paying for Russian gas in rubles has rattled European countries: Greece held an emergency meeting of suppliers, the Dutch government would urge consumers to use less gas, and the French energy regulator told consumers not to panic. Russian gas meets one-third of Europe's annual energy needs.

Russia said they could expand their demand for ruble payments for other commodities, including oil, grain, fertilizer, coal, and metals, which raised the risk of recession in Europe and the US.

Moscow is expected to unveil its ruble payment plan in early April, but it said it would not immediately ask buyers to pay for gas in rubles.

Western countries have said paying in rubles would be a breach of contract, and renegotiation could take months or longer. This uncertainty has pushed commodity market prices higher.

The supply and prices of other commodities like the Concrete Additive could also be affected.

The concrete additive is a material that can improve the properties of the concrete mixture or hardened concrete by adding not more than 5% of the weight of cement in the process of mixing concrete (except for special circumstances).

Using concrete additives is one of the most effective ways to improve concrete strength, improve performance and save cement and energy.

There are various types of concrete additives. In the last article Introduction to Concrete Additives (1), we talked about concrete water reducers and early strength agents. In this article, the set retarder, the air-entraining agent, and the accelerating agent are going to be talked about.

Set retarder:

Set retarders are additives that slow the hydration rate and heat of cement and gypsum, and prolong the setting time. The purpose of adding retarder in commercial concrete is to prolong the hydration and hardening time of cement so that the new mixed concrete can maintain plasticity for a longer time, so as to adjust the setting time of the new mixed concrete.

Hardening effect:

1. The impact on strength: Excessive mixing will cause concrete 24 hours or even 72 hours is still not solidified, thus affecting the need for early strength of concrete and delaying the construction progress. There is no obvious influence on the concrete of proper age.

2. The impact on shrinkage: Moderate use has no obvious effect on shrinkage. When excessive use can cause coping concrete because moisture evaporates excessive generation dry crack contraction and contraction crack.

3. The impact on antifreeze durability: The antifreeze durability of concrete mixed with retarder is similar to that without retarder.

Air entraining agent:

The air entraining agent is a hydrophobic surface-active agent, dissolved in water after joining the concrete mixture, in the mixing process can produce a large number of tiny bubbles.

Air entraining agents can improve the workability, water retention, and cohesion of concrete mixture, improve the fluidity of concrete, and introduce a large number of admixtures evenly distributed, closed, and stable small bubbles in the mixing process of concrete mixture.

The main varieties of air entraining agents include rosin resin, alkyl and alkyl aromatic sulfonic acid, fatty alcohol sulfonic acid, saponin and protein salt, petroleum sulfonic acid, and so on. The commonly used dosage is cement weight 50 ~ 500ppm. Air entraining agent is mainly used for structures with high freezing resistance requirements, such as concrete dams, road surfaces, bridge decks, aircraft yard track surfaces, and other large areas vulnerable to freezing.

Accelerating agent:

The accelerating agent is a kind of additive that can make concrete quickly set and harden when added to concrete. The main types are inorganic salts and organic species. Powdery solid, its admixture dosage accounts for cement dosage in concrete only 2% ~ 3%, but can make concrete in 5min initial coagulation, accelerating agent in 12min condensation. In order to achieve the purpose of rush repair or fast condensation of concrete in the tunnel. It is an indispensable additive in the shotcrete construction method. Their function is to speed up the hydration and hardening of cement, forming sufficient strength in a very short period of time to ensure the requirements of special construction.

Suppliers of Concrete Additives

TRUNNANO is a reliable concrete additives supplier with over 12-year experience in nano-building energy conservation and nanotechnology development.

If you are looking for high-quality concrete additives, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. (sales@cabr-concrete.com)

We accept payment via Credit Card, T/T, West Union, and Paypal. Trunnano will ship the goods to customers overseas through FedEx, DHL, by air, or by sea.





The United States urges the U.N. Security Council to impose additional sanctions on North Korea in response to its latest ballistic missile launch, including a ban on tobacco and oil exports to North Korea and a blacklist of the Lazarus hacking group.

The United States circulated the draft to the 15 members of the Security Council this week. It was not immediately clear if or when a vote would take place. A resolution requires nine "yes" votes and no vetoes from Russia, China, France, Britain, or the United States.

Russia and China have already voiced opposition to tightening sanctions in response to Pyongyang's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile last month -- the first since 2017.

U.S. and South Korean officials and analysts also say there are growing indications that North Korea may soon conduct its first nuclear weapons test since 2017, too.

The U.S. -drafted U.N. resolution would expand the ban on ballistic missile launches to include cruise missiles or "any other delivery system capable of delivering a nuclear weapon."

The deal would halve crude oil exports to North Korea to 2 million barrels a year and refined oil exports to 250,000 barrels a year. The resolution also seeks to ban North Korea's export of "fossil fuels, mineral oils, and their distilled Concrete Additive are estimated to be influenced by international political situation changes.

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Global Hastelloy X Powder market trend 2024-2028 3D Printing Alloy Metal Materials GH3536 Hastelloy-X-Powder by Newsmis-asia

The purchasing pace at the demand end of the international thermal coal market continues to slow down and the international thermal coal price continues to decline. Prices for thermal coal at major international ports continued to fall last week as buyers in Europe slowed in recent days for April, coupled with weaker-than-expected import demand from End users in China. According to China Coal Market net monitoring: Australia Newcastle port thermal coal price index was 253 USD/ton, compared with 309.02 USD/ton, down 56.02 USD/ton, down 18.13%. South Africa's Port Richards thermal coal price Index was $264.5 / mt, down the US $62.72 / mt or 19.17% from US $327.22 / mt. The European ARA Tri-port thermal coal price Index was $281.8 / ton. Does the price of thermal coal in major international ports continue to decline to affect the price of the Hastelloy X Powder?



About 3D Printing Alloy GH3536 Hastelloy X Powder:

Powder characteristics: 3D Printing Powder Material, high powder sphericity, smooth surface, fewer satellite balls, low oxygen content, uniform particle size distribution, good fluidity, and high bulk density and tap density.

Applicable Process: Superalloy powder Widely used in laser/electron beam additive manufacturing (SLM/EBM), powder metallurgy (PM), direct laser deposition (DLD), powder hot isostatic pressing (HIP), metal injection molding (MIM), etc.

Applicable equipment: 3D metal printing powder can also used in various types of metal 3D printers, including Renishaw in the UK, EOS (EOSINT M series) in Germany, Concept Laser, 3D systems in the United States, laser melting equipment, and domestic research institutes and enterprises. Research and development of selected laser melting equipment, such as Huaying Hi-Tech, Platinum, and so on.

Powder application: We use the nickel-based metal powder 3D metal powder price in industrial and aviation steam turbines, petrochemicals, nuclear reactors, laser cladding, and other fields.

Product specifications: 0-45 m, 0-53 m, 15-45 m, 15-53 m, 45-105 m. (All kinds of granular metal powder can be customized according to customer requirements)

Chemical composition(weight %) of Hastelloy X Powder:

Type C Si Mn Ni Cr Co Mo W Al Cu Ti P S Fe GH3536 0.05-0.15 1.0 1.0 Bal. 20.5-23.0 0.5-2.5 8.0-10.0 0.2-1.0 0.5 0.5 0.15 0.025 0.015 17.0-22.0





Powder oxygen and nitrogen content:

Particle size O/ppm N/ppm 15-53 m 400 300 45-105 m 300 200

Storage Condition of 3D metal printing powder:

Damp reunion will affect 3D metal printing powder dispersion performance and using effects, therefore, 3D metal printing powder should be sealed in vacuum packing and stored in cool and dry room, the 3D metal printing powder can not be exposure to air. In addition, the 3D metal printing powder should be avoided under stress.

Packing & Shipping of 3D metal printing powder:

We have many different kinds of packing which depends on the 3D metal printing powder quantity.

3D metal printing powder packing:vacuum packing, 100g, 500g or 1kg/bag, 25kg/barrel, or as your request.

3D metal printing powder shipping:could be shipped out by sea , by air, by express?as soon as possible once payment receipt.

3D Printing Alloy Metal Materials GH3536 Hastelloy X Powder Properties Other Names GH3536 Powder CAS No. N/A Compound Formula N/A Molecular Weight N/A Appearance Gray metallic solid in various forms (ingot, tubing, pieces, powder) Melting Point N/A Solubility in water N/A Density NA Purity N/A Particle Size 0-20m, 15-45m, 15-53m, 53-105m, 53-150m, 105-250m Boling point N/A Specific Heat N/A Thermal Conductivity N/A Thermal Expansion N/A Young's Modulus N/A Exact Mass N/A Monoisotopic Mass N/A 3D Printing Alloy Metal Materials GH3536 Hastelloy X Powder Metal Health & Safety Information Safety Warning N/A Hazard Statements N/A Flashing point N/A Hazard Codes N/A Risk Codes N/A Safety Statements N/A RTECS Number N/A Transport Information N/A WGK Germany N/A

Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd. (TRUNNANO) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12-year-experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials, including boron powder, nitride powder, graphite powder, zinc sulfide, 3D printing powder, etc.





If you are looking for 3D printing metal powder, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry, email address: sales2@nanotrun.com

The development of the Russia-Ukraine conflict will continue to dominate the commodity prices such as the Hastelloy X Powder in the future. If the conflict eases or cools, Russia and Ukraine go back to negotiate, commodity prices would fall. However, if the situation between Russia and Ukraine deteriorates further, or evolves into a full-scale war, the price of the Hastelloy X Powder is predicted to see further improvement over the coming days.



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Frontrunner Vaccine Will Affact the Price of Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder - Market Trend

CEO of Pfizer partner BioNTech says coming winter will be hard but by April, 300 million immunization units should be ready, which will have an impact on the global pandemic.

If coronavirus vaccinations are rolled out widely, life could return to normal by next winter, one of the scientists behind the front-running coronavirus vaccine told British television on Sunday.

Ugur Sahin, the Turkish co-founder of the German firm BioNTech, told the BBCs The Andrew Marr Show that this winter will be hard, without any major impact from vaccinations.

Together with US giant Pfizer, BioNTech is developing the leading candidate in the worldwide chase for a vaccine. Israel has ordered millions of units of the vaccine, hoping that the first deliveries will arrive in the country by January.

Affected by the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder market is changing rapidly. These changes are indicators of market growth. This year-on-year upward trend in the market indicates that the next November 2020-2026 will show an oval but steady growth.

The price of Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder continues to be affected by factors such as market growth momentum, various opportunities and challenges. However, during the forecast period from 2020 to 2026, the global Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder sales market is expected to continue to be above average. The growth rate will continue to increase. It is expected that from today to next week, the price of Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder will increase to a certain extent.

Due to changes in consumer demand, import and export conditions, and various investigations on the development of Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder, the cost of Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder is constantly changing. Taking into account the current market macroeconomic parameters, value chain analysis, channel partners, demand and supply, the cost of Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder will also be affected to a certain extent. It is estimated that the cost of Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder will increase slightly from today to next week.

The market trend of Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder?

The global Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powdermarket is constantly changing. The latest Global Market Report provides clear and accurate statistics and market estimates of the global Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder target market. The report includes an analysis of the different factors driving the market growth. It includes market drivers, constraints, opportunities and trends. This report is written by experienced and knowledgeable market analysts and researchers. It is an amazing compilation of important research that explores the competitive landscape, segmentation, geographic expansion, and revenue, production and consumption growth of the global Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder target market. In addition, the report provides a series of different market segments and applications that can promote market development during the forecast period. In-depth information is based on historical milestones and current trends. In addition, the Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder market report also covers development policies and plans, manufacturing processes and cost structures, marketing strategies, and then analyzes top Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder producers, distributors, marketing channels of Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder, potential buyers and Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder History of development. The report also lists import and export, supply and consumption data as well as costs, prices, revenue and gross margins by region.

The market demand for Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder?

The world's leading Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder target market report contains research on competitive dynamics. It also has a specific awareness that can help you choose the right business execution and steps. Market reports systematically display information in the form of organizational charts, facts, charts, statistics and graphs, which represent the status of related transactions on global and regional platforms. In addition, the report also includes the entire business chain, through which the growth rate and decline rate of specific industries in the market can be analyzed. The report also describes the total cost of manufacturing the product and analyzing its assembly process. In addition, the report also includes major developments in the market. The report involves value chain analysis and represents the workflow in the market. In addition, the market is classified by category, process, end-use industry and region. The report divides the market based on geographic location.

TRUNNANO (aka. Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd.) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12 years experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials. As a leading nanotechnology development and Lutetium Nitrate (Lu(NO3)3)-Powder manufacturer, Luoyang Tongrun dominates the market. Our professional work team provides perfect solutions to help improve the efficiency of various industries, create value, and easily cope with various challenges. Please send an inquiry as needed.

Li3N is short for lithium nitride, which is a metal nitrogen compound that is a purple or red crystalline solid, showing a light green luster under reflected light and a ruby color in transmitted light. At room temperature, metallic lithium can partially generate lithium nitride when exposed to air, and lithium generates lithium nitride in a nitrogen stream 10 to 15 times faster than in air. At this time, all lithium is converted into lithium nitride. Learn more knowledge about Lithium nitride from nanotrun website.

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Global spherical quartz powder market trend 2024-2029 What is Spherical Quartz SiO2 Powder? by Newsmis-asia

The roble had hit a record low after the West imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia for its aggression in Ukraine. Russia's president recently ordered exports of Russian gas to "unfriendly" countries to be settled in robles. The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament said Moscow was prepared and could shift supplies to markets such as Asia if Europe refused to buy Russian energy.

European countries, which pay mostly in euros, say Russia has no right to reset contracts. The G7 rejected Russia's demand and urged companies not to agree to pay in robles, saying most contracts stipulated payment in euros or dollars. Wholesale gas prices in Europe have risen further recently on concerns about potential supply disruptions.

The Kremlin spokesman said, "According to the March 31 deadline set by Russia's president, we are developing all payment methods to get a simple, understandable, and feasible system for relevant European and international buyers,"

The markets and prices of more commodities like the spherical quartz powder would be affected because of the volatile international political situations.

Introduction to Spherical Quartz SiO2 Powder

Spherical quartz powder, also known as spherical silicon powder, refers to the amorphous quartz powder material whose individual particles are spherical and the main component is silica. It is white powder, has uniform particle size, good transparency, chemical stability, thermal stability, safety, and is insoluble in water.

Spherical quartz powder is mainly used for coppers and epoxy plastic packing in large-scale integrated circuit packaging. It is also used in high-tech fields such as aerospace, fine chemicals, and daily cosmetics.



Physicochemical Properties of Spherical Quartz SiO2 Powder

Spherical quartz powder has the advantages of a smooth surface, large specific surface area, high hardness, and stable chemical properties.

First of all, the spherical powder has good fluidity and can stir with resin to form a film evenly. The addition amount of the resin is small, and the filling amount of quartz powder is high. The mass fraction can reach up to 90.5%. The higher the filling amount of quartz powder, the lower the thermal conductivity, the smaller the thermal expansion coefficient of the plastic sealing material, the closer to the thermal expansion coefficient of monocrystal silicon, the better the performance of the electronic components produced.

Second, the stress of spherical powder is only 60% of that of angular powder, and the stress concentration of plastic sealing material made of spherical quartz powder is the lowest and the strength is the highest. Therefore, when the integrated circuit chip is encapsulated with spherical powder plastic packing material, the yield is high, and it is not easy to produce mechanical damage during transportation, installation, and use.

Third, the surface of the spherical powder is smooth, the friction coefficient is small, the wear of the mold is small, and the service life of the mold can be extended to more than 1 time.



Spherical Quartz SiO2 Powder Properties Other Names fused quartz, spherical quartz, spherical SiO2, silica CAS No. 7631-86-9 Compound Formula SiO2 Molecular Weight 60.09 Appearance white powder Melting Point 1,600 C (2,912 F) Boiling Point 2,230 C (4,046 F) Density 2533kg/m3 Solubility in H2O insoluble Exact Mass 59.9668

Spherical quartz powder Spherical SiO2





Preparation Methods of Spherical Quartz SiO2 Powder

The preparation methods of spherical quartz powder mainly include flame melting method, plasma heating furnace method, chemical synthesis method, and hydrolysis method.

1. Flame melting method: The principle of ball forming is that a high-temperature flame gun ejects 1600-2000 high-temperature flame, when the powder enters the high-temperature flame zone, its angular surface absorbs heat and is molten, heat is further transferred to the inside of the powder, powder particles are completely molten. Under the action of surface tension, the object always tends to the stable state, and the spherical state is the most stable state, so as to achieve the purpose of the product ball.

2. Plasma heating furnace method: Hot plasma is also known as local thermodynamic equilibrium plasma, whose main feature is the temperature of the local electron (Te), the ion (Ti), and the gas (Tg) in the plasma are almost the same. Arc plasma, high-frequency plasma, and induction plasma all belong to thermal plasma.

Using the high-frequency plasma melting method to prepare spherical quartz powder, moderate temperature range, stable control, and high yield can achieve a higher spheroidization rate, so it is a more suitable production method. Its principle and process and the principle and process of the flame melting method are similar, only with the difference that the high-temperature heat source is changed to a plasma generator.

3. Chemical synthesis: At a certain temperature, the silica sol emulsion was treated with ammonia or ammonium bicarbose to get spherical gel, and then the gel was treated with acid to get hydrated spherical silica, and then refined and heat-treated to get spherical silica powder to meet the needs. It is characterized by low uranium content and the disadvantage is that the product is easy to agglomerate.

4. Hydrolysis method: The liquid SiCl4 is added to the deionized water with different dispersants at a constant speed, and the hydrolysate is stirred at a high speed with a quartz rod at the same time. After aging, washing, and filtering, the hydrolysate is dried and dehydrated to constant weight in a constant temperature box of 100-200and transferred to the high-temperature sintering furnace. High purity spherical quartz powder with desired particle size can be obtained by high-temperature sintering dehydroxylation and crystal shape conversion at different temperatures.



Applications of Spherical Quartz SiO2 Powder

Because of the quartz powders high dielectric, heat resistance, moisture resistance, corrosion resistance, high filling rate, low stress, low impurities, low friction coefficient, low price, and other superior performance, it is widely used as substrate and packaging materials in large scale or very large-scale integrated circuit.

In addition, spherical quartz powder can also be widely used in electronic ink, optical fiber, high-grade cosmetics, high-grade precision ceramic manufacturing, optical devices, and electronic components of precision grinding, as well as used as special paint coating fillers.



Main Supplier of Spherical Quartz SiO2 Powder

Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd. (TRUNNANO) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12-year-experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials, including silicon powder, nitride powder, graphite powder, zinc sulfide, calcium nitride, 3D printing powder, etc.

If you are looking for high-quality spherical quartz SiO2 powder, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. ([email protected])



For Germany, the largest economy in Europe, the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the natural gas market is the most obvious. This also exposed the serious dependence of some German industrial enterprises on Russian natural gas. Some analysts pointed out that the instability of natural gas supply has had a big impact on the German economy and threatened its market competitiveness because alternative energy supplies will not be cheap and difficult to come quickly. Increased uncertainty over natural gas supplies is putting enormous pressure on German manufacturers in sectors ranging from steelmaking to chemical spherical quartz powder for the time being, but the market demand for spherical quartz powder in the future will also change with the influence of various external factors. If you need spherical quartz powder, please feel free to contact us.



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Many people felt that this verdict of the single judge was wrong and an appeal was filed in the High Court. Now, the High Court bench has decided that the verdict approving the take over of the Ayodhya Mandapam by Tamil Nadu government was wrong on several counts.

by N.S.Venkataraman

On April 11,2022, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department of Government of Tamil Nadu acted with great hurry to take over the administration of Ayodhya Mandapam in Chennai, where periodical Hindu religious discourses and similar other religious practices are conducted , following a favourable order from Madras High court.

Many people noted that when Tamil Nadu government has not cared to implement several orders of the High court immediately or even after long time, it has acted with great speed in the case of the Ayodhya Mandapam. This made many people suspect that Tamil Nadu government has a definite motive against Hindu temples or the places used by Hindus for the purpose of conducting their religious activities .

The fact is that Ayodhya Mandapam was constructed in 1964 and the HR&CE department of Tamil Nadu government took over the administration of Ayodhya Mandapam in January,2014 , stating that the administration of Ayodhya Mandapam has not maintained the accounts properly , on the basis of a complaint filed by an individual. The January, 2014 decision of Tamil Nadu government was stayed by the Madras High court immediately. After more than around 8 years, a single judge gave a verdict approving the take over of Ayodhya Mandapam by the Tamil Nadu government.

Many people felt that this verdict of the single judge was wrong and an appeal was filed in the High Court. Now, the High Court bench has decided that the verdict approving the take over of the Ayodhya Mandapam by Tamil Nadu government was wrong on several counts.

Certainly, Tamil Nadu government should learn the right lesson and stop interfering in the affairs of the temples and places being used by Hindus for carrying out religious practices. The Tamil Nadu government does not seem to care that millions of Hindus in Tamil Nadu and other parts in India and abroad are highly displeased that the Tamil Nadu government appears to act with vengeance for whatever reasons.

Ever since the present Tamil Nadu government took over ten months back, several controversial decisions have been taken with regard to Hindu temples, inspite of the loud protest by large section of Hindu community. The decision to take over the gold and silver ornaments from the temples and use them to earn interest to boost the income of Tamil Nadu government is wrong in principle, method and this act cause suspicion about the motives. Further, Tamil Nadu government has been interfering with the traditional practices followed in the Hindu temples by appointing people as priests , who are not trained as per the agama sastras. The new priests have been appointed after a few months of some training and in the process , many brahmin priests who have been serving for several decades and who are trained as per agama sastras have lost their positions and some of them have been reduced to daily wage earners. Land area belonging to Hindu temples are being used to set up colleges , though it is very clear as per the law that the government does not have the authority to use the temple property and possession as per its whims and fancies.

While more than 34,000 temples are under the control of Tamil Nadu government and many temples are badly maintained and in some of the temples even pujas are not being conducted regularly, Tamil Nadu government is using the temple funds to construct big administrative building in Chennai and buying cars for the officials working in the HR&CE department.

The present Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu would not greet the hindus on hindu festival days but would only greet christians and muslims on their festival days. This attitude towards Hindu religion is too glaring to be ignored.

Obviously, Tamil Nadu government is adopting carrot and stick policy in dealing with Hindu temples. On the one hand, it would claim that it is reclaiming the landed property of temples , collecting the rents and holding the conference of Heads of Adheenams ( that took place on 27.4.2022 ) to give an impression that it is not biased against Hindu temples. At the same time, the property of Hindu temples are being taken over, the properties are being misused and a few Hindu temples have been demolished.

The attempt to take over Ayodhya Mandapam is a clear case of vindictive action against Hindu religion deliberately , misinterpreting a prayer hall type building as temple. It is good that the Madras High Court has called the act of Tamil Nadu government as wrong and ordered that the Ayodhya Mandapam should be handed over back to the trustees.

Tamil Nadu government said that Ayodhya Mandapam is a temple since an idol is there and hundi is there. Many people wonder that but for the present High Court judgement, Tamil Nadu government may have even tried to take over other Hindu religious centres on similar pretext.

In the last ten months , the excessive focus of Tamil Nadu government on administration of temples is causing huge suspicion about the motives of the government and making people suspect whether it wants to dilute the hindu religious practices.

While churches and mosques and gurudwaras are managed by their religious people and they are left untouched by the government which is as it should be , why target Hindu temples alone? This trend is too serious to be ignored.
Ghanaian actor Anthony Woode has revealed how he had to prepare thoroughly for a movie in which he kissed actress Yvonne Nelson.

According to the actor, upon realizing that he was going to kiss the actress, he had to brush his teeth a couple of times to have a good breath.

He said his action was because he was going to kiss a big woman in the business and therefore the need to give a good impression.

I remember when we were shooting the film before we went on set, I read the script and realized I had to kiss Yvonne Nelson. I played the role but I had to brush my teeth a couple of times before I shot that scene, he said in an interview on Pluzz FM.

Anthony Woode has been featured as a lead character in the movie, Fifty Fifty, a YN production that premiers on May 21.

Yvonne Nelson is recalled to have expressed on live radio her distaste for men with bad odour.

She had earlier indicated how she turned down a kissing scene when she asked the director to edit the script because the character in question had bad breath.
According to reports, British DJ, Tim Westwood has stepped down from his media outfit, Capital Xtra radio following accusations of sexual misconduct by some ladies.

Social media came alive when scores of tweeps flooded Twitter with accounts of how the DJ had subjected them and their friends to sexual misconduct.

Some seven women have accused the DJ of predatory sexual behavior and harassment.

The women accused Westwood of predatory sexual behavior and touching, claiming he abused his position in the music industry to exploit them.

Two said he had initiated unwanted and unexpected sex, one claimed she was subjected to unwanted oral sex, and four accused the DJ of touching their bottoms or breasts.

The women who spoke to the BBC are all black and said they met Westwood through his work. They told their stories in a BBC Three documentary, Tim Westwood: Abuse of Power.

According to Capital Xtras parent company, the DJ will step down until further notice.

Following the claims that have recently come to light, Tim Westwood has stepped down from his show until further notice, a statement from Global said on Wednesday.

The DJ has however denied all the claims.

A joint investigation by BBC and The Guardian on Tuesday had the women give their accounts of the incidents which took place between 1992 and 2017.

Tim Westwood has been the host of the Saturday night slot on Capital Xtra for nine years and had hosted shows on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra from 1994 to 2013.

The 64-year-olds forthcoming events in Birmingham and Bognor Regis have been canceled in the wake of the allegations.
27.04.2022 LISTEN

Fetish priestess turned preacher, Nana Agradaa has revealed how pastors in the country visited her shrine for spiritual powers to grow their churches.

In an interview with Abeiku Santana earlier this week, the preacher disclosed that some of these pastors who were her close allies when she was a priestess have now turned against her.

According to her, they are unhappy and feel threatened by her newfound faith in God.

I was trained by a man of God who baptized me. I was under training for a whole year. Even when I was in my shrine, I was learning the things in the bible but I hadnt gone public. True Christians are the ones happy about my repentance.

"Some Ghanaian pastors who supported me as a fetish priestess are not happy because I have accepted Christ and they are still fighting me, she expressed.

She further stated that she is not willing to revisit the past or expose these popular preachers in question who came to her for spiritual backups.

A lot of pastors came to me when I was a fetish priestess for assistance, I just dont want to expose them since I am a new creation. There is no need to talk about peoples past. It doesnt matter if humans dont believe that I am indeed born again.

"I was called by God and He is the only one I look up to. I work for God, the goal is not to please man, if that was the case, I would have stayed in my shrine. I am doing my assignment, she stated.

Now known as Evangelist Mama Pat, the preacher started a church recently in Accra where she teaches the word of God and also prophecies to believers despite doubts by many.
The fractured French left  buoyed by strong polling by veteran progressive Jean-Luc Melenchon in the presidentials  was this week clambering to agree a coalition deal that would unite the Greens, Socialists and Communists under a common banner with the far-left France Unbowed party (LFI) in time for legislative elections in June.

LFI boss Melenchon has already appealed to voters to elect him prime minister" in the parliamentary polls after he was narrowly pipped to the post by Marine Le Pen for a spot in the presidential run-off. As one campaign ended, another quickly began.

The 70-year-old is now seeking to line up an "intergroup" of left-wing allies in the National Assembly that would allow him to force a power-sharing cohabitation government with President Emmanuel Macron's La Republic on the Move (LREM) party.

With nearly 22 percent of the first round vote, Melenchon feels he's in a strong position to build a so-called New Popular Union around himself and LFI.

So what alliances will the far-left kingmaker be able to forge with parties that declined to join forces with him in the presidential polls?

Conditions

As it courts potential allies, LFI  which is certain to build handsomely on its 17 National Assembly lawmakers  has laid out conditions for any future partnerships. Its main policies of lowering the retirement age to 60 years, raising the minimum wage, price freezes and the ushering in of a Sixth Republic are not negotiable.

LFI also wants its own candidates to be allowed to run in the number of constituencies that is proportional to its vote share in the presidentials. Then there's a tricky question of how bound the coalition would be to European treaties.

A handful of those are at odds with Melenchon's policy platform, which he says he wants to implement even if it means breaking EU rules.

European MP Yannick Jadot, who came third in the presidentials on the Europe-Ecologie Les Verts (EELV) greens party ticket, wants France to move towards more European integration.

Unnamed EELV sources told BMFTV that Melenchon's demands were too great and risked erasing the platforms of other leftist parties altogether.

Jadot himself told France Inter radio on Tuesday that he was broadly in favour of a left-wing coalition, but not with Melenchon as its leader.

"We have such a responsibility on the climate," he said  adding the left needed a very open" coalition that respected "the diversity and identity of its partners.

EELV's own internal divisions  notably between Jadot and the party's national secretary Julien Bayou  may also prove a stumbling block to any future alliance.

The latter has conceded that time is running out and the dice must be thrown this week on the matter.

Other players

Meanwhile LFI is to meet with Socialist Party officials on Wednesday. Despite the paltry 1.75 percent of the vote managed by presidential hopeful Anne Hidalgo, the Socialists still enjoy a well-established local power base, with 28 lawmakers in the National Assembly.

A representative of the Communist Party (PCF) told BFMTV that the disrespectful number of constituencies offered to them meant the jury was still out on their involvement in a possible coalition.

"There is still too much uncertainty to say whether the Communists will accept this agreement or slam the door," the PCF member said.

Elsewhere, LFI is also in talks with the New Anti-Capitalist Party, which has responded favourably and has been openly pushing LFI's notion that the June polls represent a "third round of the presidential contest.

All 577 deputy seats in the lower house will be up for grabs on 12 and 19 June, with LREM likely to meet stiff resistance. The centre-right Macron, whose party has 267 seats, will begin his second term on 13 May.

The legislative vote will be key to determining the shape of France's new government, and how much of Macron's agenda he'll be able to push through parliament.

When Macron beat Le Pen to win the presidency on Sunday, two independent polls found that two-thirds of French people do not want to give LREM a parliament majority for the next five years.
The US Department of State in its 2021 human rights practice in Ghana report has shown that violence against the media was rife in the year under review.

The report stated that, although the government generally respected the right of free press speech some security forces committed isolated acts of harassment against journalists.

According to the report, there were many isolated attacks on journalists by the security force and unknown assailants who propagated occasional threats and intimidated journalists.

Media arrests

It indicated that in April, authorities arrested online news editor David Tamakloe, allegedly working on corruption stories concerning prominent members of the government. Authorities released him without charge. Media advocates characterized the arrest as a preemptive move and a clear abuse of power as no story had been published at the time of the arrest.

The report also cited the harassment of Citi TVs Caleb Kudah who was accused of filming a fleet of vehicles which had allegedly been abandoned to rot at the Ministry of National Security facility; the facility was said to be restricted.

It added that On July 9, Assin central Region Member of Parliament Kennedy Ohene Agyapong called for Erastus Asare Donkor, a journalist with Luv FM to be beaten and whipped during a live television interview. The Media Foundation for West Africa and 642 professional journalists and supporters of press freedom presented a petition to the office of the speaker of parliament to request parliamentary debate on what they considered the deteriorating press freedom situation.

Subsequently, the report found out press censorship prevailed in the instance of the suspension of former morning show host on Angel TV, Godsbrain Smart, popularly known as Captain Smart. He was suspended for allegedly slandering government officials and accusing them of inaction on corruption.

Culture of silence

The report noted, media commentators and political observers suggested the station owner feared loss of no media business opportunities and the suspension contributed to a growing culture of silence among media outlets.

In 2021, numerous cases of press harassment were reported which sprung up conversations on the culture of silence after nothing was done by government to stop the attacks.

The culture of silence talks crossed over into 2022 when Power FM journalist and Accra FM journalist as well as pressure group leaders were arrested for allegedly disseminating false news.

Read excerpts of the US report here:

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, INCLUDING FOR MEMBERS OF THE PRESS AND OTHER MEDIA

The constitution and law provide for freedom of expression, including for the press and other media, and the government generally respected this right, although security forces committed isolated acts of violence and harassment against journalists.

Freedom of Expression for Members of the Press and Other Media, Including Online Media: Independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of views without restriction.

Violence and Harassment: There were isolated attacks on journalists by members of security forces as well as by unknown assailants and occasional threats and intimidation. In April authorities arrested online news editor David Tamakloe, allegedly working on corruption stories concerning prominent members of the government. Authorities released him without charge. Media advocates characterized the arrest as a preemptive move and a clear abuse of power as no story had been published at the time of the arrest.

On May 11, Ministry of National Security officers detained and allegedly brutalized Caleb Kudah, a journalist with Omni Media Limited (OML), operator of Accra-based Citi FM radio and Citi TV. Authorities accused Kudah of filming a fleet of vehicles that had allegedly fallen into despair as a result of neglect at the Ministry of National Security facility, a restricted site. The security officers who detained Kudah reportedly beat and abused him during interrogation. On the same day, a SWAT team reportedly entered the OML offices in an attempt to arrest Zoe Abu-Baido, Kudahs colleague. The Ministry of National Security accused Baido of possessing video files sent to her by Kudah immediately before his detention. Following public outrage the Ministry of National Security announced an internal probe into the incident which led to the suspension of the officers involved. Less than a week after his suspension, Ministry of National Security leadership re-assigned Lieutenant Colonel Acheampong, identified as the commander of the operation that apprehended and reportedly abused Kudah, to serve as commanding officer of a different unit of the Ghanaian Armed Forces.

On July 9, Assin Central Region Member of Parliament Kennedy Ohene Agyapong called for Erastus Asare Donkor, a journalist with Luv FM, to be beaten and whipped during a live television interview. The Media Foundation for West Africa and 642 professional journalists and supporters of press freedom presented a petition to the office of the speaker of parliament to request parliamentary debate on what they considered the deteriorating press freedom situation.

Censorship or Content Restrictions: The law provides for criminal penalties for those who post false or misleading information online, with penalties of up to five years in prison and substantial fines.

On May 5, radio station Angel FM suspended popular morning show host Godsbrain Smart for allegedly slandering senior government officials, in accusing them of inaction on corruption and calling them fools. Media commentators and political observers suggested the station owner feared loss of nonmedia business opportunities, and the suspension contributed to a growing culture of silence among media outlets.
The 2021 human rights practice on Ghana compiled by the US Department of State has reported corrupt practices and a lack of transparency in Akufo-Addo's government per its assessment.

It noted that although the law provided criminal penalties for corruption by government officials, the government did not implement the law effectively.

Per the report, government officials engage in corruption constantly with impunity.

According to the report, corruption practices were present in all sectors of government including security services.

Since the first special prosecutor took office in 2018, no corruption case undertaken by that office resulted in a conviction. When the new prosecutor took office in August, his staff included one investigator and one prosecutor, both seconded from other offices, it indicated in the report.

Furthermore, the report showed that even though government tried to foster transparency through the passage of the Right to Information Act (2020), sufficient progress has not been made in the implementation of the law.

The report found that the country continued use of the national anti-corruption online reporting dashboard, for the coordination of all anti-corruption efforts of various governmental bodies.

The report further revealed wastage of funds on corrupt practices. It noted that a June report by the auditor-general revealed widespread corruption and waste of public funds remained pervasive problems. For example, the honorary consul general and the Ghanaian consulate in Washington D.C could not account for visa fees totaling $335,000.

It also indicated that approximately one-half were confident in the governments ability to uphold the rule of law, 53 percent believed the government did not adequately protect financial resources and 62 percent doubted government efforts to address corruption and official impunity.

It continued Transparency Internationals Global Corruption Barometer published in 2019 found 59 percent of respondents claimed there was rampant corruption in the Ghana Police Service, more so than any other government institution.

Find below an excerpt of the report:

Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government

The law provides criminal penalties for corruption by government officials, but the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. There were numerous reports of government corruption. Corruption was present in all branches of government, according to media and NGOs, including recruitment into the security services. Since the first special prosecutor took office in 2018, no corruption case undertaken by that office resulted in a conviction. When the new special prosecutor took office in August, his staff included one investigator and one prosecutor, both seconded from other offices.

The government took steps to implement laws intended to foster more transparency and accountability in public affairs. In July 2020 authorities commissioned the Right to Information (RTI) secretariat to provide support to RTI personnel in the public sector; however, some civil society organizations stated the government had not made sufficient progress in implementing the law.

The country continued use of the national anti-corruption online reporting dashboard, for the coordination of all anti-corruption efforts of various governmental bodies.

Corruption: A June report by the auditor-general revealed widespread corruption and waste of public funds remained pervasive problems. For example, the honorary consul general and the Ghanaian consulate in Washington D.C. could not account for visa fees totaling $355,000. The Free Senior High School Secretariat misspent more than $3.16 million. A former minister of tourism retained three official vehicles for personal use after leaving office. The report concluded that corrupt practices resulted in $340 million of financial mismanagement, including misapplication and misappropriation of funds, theft, and procurement mismanagement.

On August 31, the Ghana Center for Democratic Development released highlights from a survey conducted between May 23 and June 3. Less than 30 percent of respondents were optimistic regarding the governments ability to fight corruption. Approximately one-half were confident in the governments ability to uphold the rule of law, 53 percent believed the government did not adequately protect financial resources and 62 percent doubted government efforts to address corruption and official impunity. Transparency Internationals Global Corruption Barometer published in 2019 found 59 percent of respondents claimed there was rampant corruption in the Ghana Police Service, more so than any other government institution.
The US Department of State has reported that rape and domestic violence offences are not well dealt with in Ghana.

In its 20221 human rights practices report on Ghana, it noted that even though there were laws that punished these acts, they were still prevailing and the laws surrounding them were not administered properly.

The report indicated that irrespective of the works and partnerships the Domestic Violence Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) made with other organizations as well as the domestic violence courses for police officers, rape and domestic violence were still not handled with the best tact.

It noted that most of the cases are left to go cold and in some stances, victims are told to return to their homes.

The report found that cultural beliefs and gender roles were roadblocks to combating domestic violence.

For example, media reported in 2020 that the central regional coordinator for DOVVSU stated that denying your spouse sex amounted to emotional abuse and suggested that men whose wives denied them sex could report them to the DOVVSU.

"This statement made news as the public wondered how the institution designated to fight such cases could have such a stance on the matter."

The report discovered that, unless called upon by DOVVSU, the police hardly mediated in domestic violence as a result of a lack of counselling skills and shelter facilities to assist survivors.

In the few instances police intervened, the cases went cold because witnesses were unavailable, inadequate training on investigatory techniques, police prosecutor case mismanagement and according to the DOVVSU, lack of resources on the part of the survivors and their families to pursue cases.

The report indicated that authorities reported officers occasionally had no alternative but to shelter survivors in the officers' own residences until other arrangements could be made.

Read below portion of the report:

Rape and Domestic Violence: The law criminalizes rape of women but not spousal rape. Sexual assault on a man may be charged as indecent assault. Prison sentences for rape range from five to 25 years, while indecent assault is a misdemeanor subject to a minimum term of imprisonment of six months. Domestic violence is punishable by a fine or a sentence of up to two years imprisonment. Rape and domestic violence remained serious problems. Authorities did not enforce the law effectively.

In July the Koforidua Circuit Court B sentenced a man to a nine-year, five-month term of incarceration for throwing acid on his girlfriend and her mother. The survivors sustained serious injuries that required hospitalization.

In August police in the Central Region arrested 14 men in connection with the alleged shooting and rape of a girl, age 13, who required hospitalization.

The Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service worked closely with the Department of Social Welfare, the Domestic Violence Secretariat, CHRAJ, the Legal Aid Commission, the Ark Foundation, UNICEF, the UN Population Fund, the national chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, and several other human rights NGOs to address rape and domestic violence.

In 2020 there were two government-run shelters for survivors of domestic violence, the Madina Social Welfare Center and the Center for Abused Children. On June 21, DOVVSU established a third shelter, the national One-Stop Center colocated with the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service. This new facility hosted ancillary agencies of the DOVVSU-Legal Aid office, a shelter for survivors of domestic violence, a social welfare unit, a holding cell for suspects, an interviewing room for minors, and two courts with seconded judges and prosecutors for domestic violence cases.

DOVVSU continued to teach a course on domestic violence case management for police officers assigned to the unit. It had one clinical psychologist to assist domestic violence survivors. DOVVSU tried to reach the public through various social media accounts. DOVVSU also addressed rape through public education efforts on radio and in communities, participation in efforts to prevent child marriage and gender-based violence, expansion of its online data management system to select police divisional headquarters, and data management training.

Pervasive cultural beliefs in gender roles, as well as sociocultural norms and stereotypes, posed additional challenges to combatting domestic violence. For example, media reported in 2020 that the central regional coordinator for DOVVSU stated that denying your spouse sex amounted to emotional abuse and suggested that men whose wives denied them sex could report them to the DOVVSU.

Unless specifically called upon by the DOVVSU, police seldom intervened in cases of domestic violence, in part due to a lack of counseling skills and shelter facilities to assist survivors. Few of the cases in which police identified and arrested suspects for rape or domestic abuse reached court or resulted in convictions due to witness unavailability, inadequate training on investigatory techniques, police prosecutor case mismanagement, and, according to the DOVVSU, lack of resources on the part of survivors and their families to pursue cases. Police could refer survivors to government or NGO-operated shelters. In cases deemed less severe, survivors were returned to their homes. Authorities reported officers occasionally had no alternative but to shelter survivors in the officers own residences until other arrangements could be made.
The Member of Parliament for the North Tongu constituency has described the issues raised in the US Department of State 2021 human rights on Ghana as depressing and grim.

In a tweet, the MP indicated that the report on human rights practices in Ghana must be of great worry to all Ghanaians.

The latest Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the United States Department of State a few days ago (April 12, 2022) on Ghana and some 197 other countries contain rather depressing and grim findings of our nation which must be of great worry to all Ghanaians, he shared on Twitter.

The US Department of State reported on finding on Ghanas prison system, human rights abuse, corruption and others.
The United States on Tuesday criticized Tunisian President Kais Saied for giving himself the power to name the next election chief, urging respect for democratic norms.

"The United States is deeply concerned by the Tunisian president's decision to unilaterally restructure Tunisia's Independent High Authority for Elections," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

Washington has "consistently communicated to Tunisian leaders the importance of upholding the independence of key democratic institutions and ensuring Tunisia returns to democratic governance," he said.

In a decree last week, Saied gave himself the authority to name three of the seven members of the commission, including its chief, ahead of a July referendum on constitutional reforms and legislative elections due in December.

Saied, who was elected in 2019, sacked the government last July.

President Joe Biden's administration, which has made democracy a key priority, had initially been cautious and held out hope for Saied.

But the Tunisian leader last month also dissolved parliament, dealing another blow to the political system in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
U.S. Ambassador Julie J. Chung visited Jaffna from April 24 to 27 in her initial trip to northern Sri Lanka as Ambassador.

It was essential to me to visit the North early in my tenure as Ambassador, said Ambassador Chung. During the visit, I explored the history of the region and heard from people first-hand about their challenges and opportunities. I gained a much better understanding of the impact of the war and the human rights concerns, as well as the current economic situation in the North.

While in Jaffna, Ambassador Chung had courtesy calls with the Northern Province governor and the Commander of Security Forces Headquarters Jaffna to discuss the political and security situation in the North during the current economic crisis. She engaged with civil society and met with families of missing and disappeared persons. The Ambassador underscored the importance of the ongoing efforts towards justice and accountability towards national reconciliation and unity. In a meeting with Tamil politicians, Ambassador Chung discussed human rights and governance challenges. Ambassador Chung also met with representatives of diverse religious communities and visited sites of worship to underscore the importance of religious pluralism in Sri Lanka.

Ambassador Chung also spoke with representatives of the business community to learn about their current challenges and efforts towards economic recovery. Ambassador noted the potential for Diaspora investment to develop local business. In addition, the Ambassador visited a U.S.-funded demining project that makes land viable for local communities. Ambassador Chung met with University of Jaffna faculty members to discuss their new peacebuilding degree program and the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation grants for the Archeological Museum Laboratory. Ambassador Chung also visited a U.S.-funded palm leaves manuscript conservation project at the Jaffna Library. Before she returned to Colombo, Ambassador Chung met with local youth leaders at the American Corner in Jaffna to learn about their perspectives on a path forward towards an inclusive and prosperous future for all Sri Lankans.

This was Ambassador Chungs second official trip outside the Colombo area. Her first trip was to the Kandy region. She looks forward to visiting many more parts of the country over the coming months.
27.04.2022 LISTEN

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has indicated that the country is winning the fight against Covid-19 as low cases are recorded.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, advised that despite the easing of restrictions and the low Covid-19 numbers recorded, Ghanaians should not let down their guard.

We have recorded very low cases. The average case per day is about less than 20, and we have a weekly average of less than 5. Currently, 12 regions out of the 16 have no cases at all. We do not have any severe or critical cases in the country. There has been a significant decline in the number of cases reported at the airport for those few people who are tested. The land borders are opened and a little over 14 million of our population have received at least a vaccine.

There has been a decline in the vaccination drive due to the low-risk perception. This should not be the case as we believe strongly that this is the best time to get vaccinated.

This was the Ghana Health Service's first briefing after the president eased Covid-19 restrictions in the country on March 28, 2022, prior to the Easter celebrations.

By Citi Newsroom
Renowned lawyer, Martin Kpebu has charged the government of Ghana to look at education if it wants to tackle its bad record on human rights abuses.

Ghana has been given a bad name in the latest US Report on Human Right abuses released on 12 April 2022.

READ: Ghana's judiciary subject to 'unlawful influence, corruption'; officials took bribes to 'lose' records  US Report reveals

Speaking about some human rights violations cited in the report, Lawyer Martin Kpebu has stressed that there is a lot to do to turn things around.

It means that we still have a lot of work to do in terms of improving our human rights record and seeing the report, the attack on media men and women, and Journalists. Attack on citizens, the people who died during the election, and all that. These are matters that tainted our human right record and so we have to redouble our efforts at improvement, the respected Ghanaian Lawyer told Starr FM in an interview.

He recommends, The first thing we have to do and what can be done is to improve a wide range of educational campaigns. We need a behavioral change, and how do you get a behavioral change? You need a lot of campaigns, tv, radio to appeal to citizens to stop the violence. Stop the vigilante and stop the attack by security personnel on the media and other citizens.

READ ALSO: Govt officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity; Special Prosecutor convicted none  US Report

You need to ramp up your education for those who are attacking Journalists, it means they dont understand. If you improve education everywhere you should flash our society everywhere to stop the violence against Journalists and other professionals.

Lawyer Kpebu also proposes that the government ensures all laws on human rights and its violations are enforced for people to be held accountable and punished when the right thing is not done.
The Director of Communications for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoah, believes that the NPP stands a better chance at winning the 2024 election, given its management of the economy amid current challenges.

Speaking on Face to Face on Citi TV , Mr. Buaben Asamoah said the NPP is better positioned to appreciate the present challenges and bring Ghanaians out of it.

He said the NDC from where it stands has little appreciation of the modern ways of economic management, and cannot be trusted to salvage the situation.

We believe we have done far better than the NDC in spite of the challenges, and that the NDC is not the solution. We believe strongly that we are better positioned to handle the current modern challenges of public finances and economics. If you sit to reflect on what is going on in the world, you will know that the old ideological ways of dealing with economics has been dumped.

The metrics for managing these situations are entirely different from the old-fashioned, orthodox ways, and we the NPP government are in a good place to appreciate those things and support the people to ride over the current challenges. Your refuge is not the NDC because the NDC cannot keep up with us, he added.

Mr. Buaben Asamoah also urged Ghanaians to desist from changing government's after every 8 years, as it is retrogressive.

We will break the 8. I sense a growing maturity among the Ghanaian voter population. We are heading into our 9th election, records show that anytime the NPP comes to power we bring forward innovative programs. The NDC is unable to sustain these when they take over.

It is time we put on hold the back and forth with the 8-year cycle. It has done us a great disservice and it is not making politics sustainable.

Citinewsroom
A group calling itself Concerned Citizens of the Atewa Landscape have described the governments uncompromising position on mining bauxite in the Atewa forest as unfortunate.

Despite several assurances from the government through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources that bauxite mining in the forest will be to the benefit of Ghanaians and the forest would not be harm in the process, the residents insist the reverse will be the fate of the Ghanaian.

No one can eat the cake and still have it. The minister must be told in no uncertain words that, he and the government have failed miserably with galamsey and its accompanying problems and which it ought to have resigned honorably. Whatever benefits the minister claims would inure to the benefit of the Ghanaian are only a fleeting illusion to be pursued but never attained, the residents said in a statement signed by their president, Oteng Adjei.

The statement said the singular loss of the three major rivers  Densu, Birim and Ayensu - cannot be compensated for whatsoever and wherein lies the perseveration of the integrity of the Atewa albeit the thin line?

What are the guarantees of the ministers assertion that bauxite mining in Atewa will be done in a manner that will not unreasonably compromise the ecological integrity of the forest, they quizzed.

According to the residents, the posture of the government on Atewa shows that myopically, it only sees bauxite and nothing else in Atewa as observed by concerned environmentalists.

The residents insist Atewa is a no go area for mining.

Background

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor in an interview with Aljazeera Media Network on Sunday, 24 April 2022, assured that the President Akufo-Addo-led government will not needlessly compromise the integrity of Atewa Forest but rather exploit it for the ultimate benefit of the Ghanaian people.

"Government and GIADEC continue to be fully committed to the preservation of the Atewa Forest and ensure that the exploitation of the bauxite in Atewa is in the ultimate interest of the Ghanaian people and is in the public interest. They are also working to ensure that the integrity of the forest is preserved," he said.

The Minister said Ghana Integrated Aluminum Development Corporation (GIADEC) has Atewa Forest as one of the key projects being relentlessly pursued by government together with Awaso, Nyinahin - Mpasaaso, Kyebi and Valco projects, all in efforts to build an integrated iron and Aluminium industry.

Mr Jinapor added that "government is, therefore, putting in place measures to ensure that particularly, bauxite and iron ore are built with the full value chain retained here in Ghana and we have created bureaucracies here like the GIADEC and GISDEC which are going to be responsible for building the full value chain of this bauxite and iron ore."

The Minister explained that the thin line between mining the bauxite and preserving the environment is striking a delicate balance to ensure that the country's industrialisation drive continues because these minerals he opined are the starting point for industrial development and prosperity of the country.

"We cannot progress and unleash the prosperity our people so dearly need without industrialisation and we cannot industrialise without building these integrated bauxite and iron industries," he stated.

The Minister maintained that government is also ensuring that the bauxite in Atewa are exploited in a manner that does not unreasonably compromise the ecological integrity of the forest.

Touching on the production of Gold, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources indicated that government intends to keep Ghana's position as the leading producer of Gold and the 6th on the world scale and even do more.

He added that the President of the Republic has plans of changing the equation of Ghana being a major resource rich country which only produces raw material to a country that builds and retains the full value chain of its Minerals.

"Government is, therefore, making efforts to ensure that refineries in Ghana acquire the London Bullion Market Association Certification (LBMA) and become fit for purpose to participate in the global refinery industry."


Ghanaian scholars can also write a paper that details all the human right abuses and negative happenings in USA, the Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs & Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPKTC), Professor Kwesi Aning has said while reacting to the 2021 Human Rights Report on Ghana issued by the United States Department.

Prof Aning told TV3 in interview that Ghana does not need the US State Department to tell the Ghanaian situation.

In his view, the report is rubbish and should be treated with the contempt that it deserves.

Were you to put 20 Ghanaian scholars and human right activists together we can write a worst report about the United States. So this report to me is rubbish and I think it should be treated with the contempt that it deserves. After almost 62 years of independence we can write our own report.

We have a vibrant Civil society, we have a Parliament irrespective of its problems or weaknesses, we have a judiciary that we can criticize. A whole Minister made suggestions about how judicial decisions can lead to certain problems.

We don't need the State Department to tell what we are doing right or wrong. So I think we should dismiss this report with the contempt that it deserves. I think after all these years of independence we should be bold and tell them that this not right, he said.

The report which was released on Tuesday April 26 said among other things that there were a few reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.

It stated that there were isolated attacks on journalists by members of security forces as well as by unknown assailants and occasional threats and intimidation.

In April authorities arrested online news editor David Tamakloe, allegedly working on corruption stories concerning prominent members of the government. Authorities released him without charge. Media advocates characterized the arrest as a preemptive move and a clear abuse of power as no story had been published at the time of the arrest.

On May 11, Ministry of National Security officers detained and allegedly brutalized Caleb Kudah, a journalist with Omni Media Limited (OML), operator of Accra-based Citi FM radio and Citi TV. Authorities accused Kudah of filming a fleet of vehicles that had allegedly fallen into despair as a result of neglect at the Ministry of National Security facility, a restricted site.

The security officers who detained Kudah reportedly beat and abused him during interrogation. On the same day, a SWAT team reportedly entered the OML offices in an attempt to arrest Zoe Abu-Baido, Kudah's colleague. The Ministry of National Security accused Baido of possessing video files sent to her by Kudah immediately before his detention.

Following public outrage the Ministry of National Security announced an internal probe into the incident which led to the suspension of the officers involved. Less than a week after his suspension, Ministry of National Security leadership reassigned Lieutenant Colonel Acheampong, identified as the commander of the operation that apprehended and reportedly abused Kudah, to serve as commanding officer of a different unit of the Ghanaian Armed Forces.

On July 9, Assin Central Region Member of Parliament Kennedy Ohene Agyapong called for Erastus Asare Donkor, a journalist with Luv FM, to be beaten and whipped during a live television interview. The Media Foundation for West Africa and 642 professional journalists and supporters of press freedom presented a petition to the office of the speaker of parliament to request parliamentary debate on what they considered the deteriorating press freedom situation.

---3news.com
When the African leaders formed the Organisation of African Union (OAU) in 1963 (now called the African Union), their vision was solid in driving an agenda of removing the shackles of bondage in our continent. They sought to promote unity and solidarity amongst African states. In the years to follow, we have seen country after country gaining their respective independence from the colonisers.

South Africa was one of the last countries to gain its freedom from the apartheid regime on 27 April 1994. Coincidentally, as we celebrate Freedom Month, five other African countries also gained their respective independence in April. In the southern region, South Africa celebrates with Tanzania that gained its independence from Britain on 26 April 1964; Zimbabwe celebrated its Independence Day, also from Britain, on 18 April 1980.

April will therefore reverberate in the history of the nation and some of these African countries. South Africa celebrates its freedom and constitutional democracy ushered in by the first non-racial, democratic elections held on 27 April 1994. It marked the dawn of a new era where the rights and dignity of all is paramount.

Through the ballot, millions of South Africans proudly proclaimed their freedom and brought an end to over 400 years of colonialism, segregation, racial and economic subjugation, and oppressive white minority rule.

Most people in South Africa endured the nightmare of the apartheid system. It was the system that undermined the fundamental human rights and sought to dehumanise the majority of South Africans. People were forced to live in racially divided communities, which served to enforce a culture of oppression that was characterised by the unequal distribution of resources.

As we commemorate this historic occasion through Freedom Month, we must remember that this freedom was not free. It was made possible by the sacrifices of thousands of patriots who confronted the tyranny of the apartheid government. Many people paid the ultimate price, and our leaders faced long prison sentences and constant police harassment for their defiance.

It was a time of immense pain and suffering, and many activists were forced to go into exile in neighbouring countries or abroad. Building and strengthening this democracy can never be achieved in isolation. We must never forget or downplay the unyielding support and solidarity we received from our fellow African countries during those darkest hours, which contributed to the democracy we enjoy today.

The liberation movements at the time survived through the critical material support and solidarity provided by the frontline states. The then OAU had resolved to support the freedom fighters still in the trenches fighting their respective colonial powers.

However, as we gear up to celebrate the birth of our democracy and freedom, a dark cloud hangs over our nation. We recently witnessed despicable acts of hatred and violence towards our fellow African brothers and sisters. Such unlawful acts seek to undermine the rule of law and the basic human rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996. This should be condemned by all of us and our law enforcement agencies should spare no one who conducts such barbaric acts.

As we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that the history and economic prosperity of South Africa is also anchored by the thousands of men who migrated from the neighbouring countries to work in the mines. They lived and mutually coexisted with fellow South African men, working in those mines under the most oppressive and exploitative conditions. They formed part of the formation of one of the progressive trade unions in 1982, the National Union of Mineworkers.

The so-called foreigners were part of the labour movement that contributed immensely to the Labour laws being enjoyed today. A considerable number of them subsequently married and built families here in South Africa. As such, South Africa is supposed to be a multicultural society that promotes interaction among people of different backgrounds. Its world-acclaimed Constitution protects the rights of all people living in the country  South Africans and foreigners alike.

One of the fundamental principles in South Africas foreign policy is its commitment to respect human rights. As we celebrate our freedom, we must never forget the journey we have travelled prior to 1994. The South African government has made strong inroads into correcting the imbalances of the past, and has worked to ensure an equal society with equal opportunities across all areas.

Today, children enjoy the same opportunities and can learn in the same schools, and study in the same universities and colleges.

Most prominent among its achievements has been the promotion of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa. Moreover, through its progressive Constitution, its citizens enjoy many rights, including the freedom of movement, the right to own property, the right not to be detained without trial, freedom of the press, religious freedom and freedom of sexual orientation and equal rights before the law.

Government has further made considerable progress in improving the material conditions of the citizens. Whilst we accept there have been missteps along the way, no one can dispute that millions of people across the country have houses, running water, sanitation and electricity.

These advances have brought hope to many South Africans, especially those still waiting to be served. Building on what has been achieved, the government needs to continue transforming and driving social cohesion so as to ensure all citizens can enjoy the fruits of our democracy. This can be realized if all of us play our part in building the country. No one should be left behind. The country requires all of us to work together to make our country and continent better.

South Africas economy is interlinked with the African continent. Using multilateral and bilateral agreements, South Africa seeks to work with other countries to promote economic development of the region and the continent as a whole.

This week His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa will be hosting the President of Guinea Bissau, His Excellency General Umaro Embalo, on a State Visit to Pretoria. Earlier in the year, President Ramaphosa visited a number of western countries in Africa to cement bilateral relations with them.

South Africas trade relations with Guinea Bissau, which is one of the western countries in Africa rich in energy resources, started in 2013 and continues to grow strong. South Africas exports to Guinea Bissau are mainly in vehicles, vessels, aircrafts, machinery, plastics and rubber. Guinea Bissau also exports to South Africa products such as coconuts, cashews and Brazil nuts.

Trade between the two countries has the potential to grow bigger and contribute to the growth of the economies of the two countries. It will continue towards achieving a better Africa that can be self-sufficient in years to come.

Happy Independence Month to the people of Senegal, Togo, Morocco, Tanzania and Zimbabwe! Let Africa continue to contribute toward a successful continent.

BY Ms Phumla Williams, Director General, Government Communication and Information System/ South Africa Spokesperson
As you read these lines, the most topical event in motherland Ghana today is the seven-year-long awaited funeral of the late King of Denkyira, Odeefuo Boa Amponsem.

According to history, the Denkyira Empire held sway in tropical West Africa, succeeding the Akwamu Empire, until their young 17-year-old King, Ntim Gyakari, succeeded Boa Amponsem I.

Ntim Gyakari recklessly led the ferocious Denkyira Army to collapse at Feyiase, and in their ruins emerged King Osei Tutu I, and the birth of the Asante nation.

Denkyira base at Dunkwa-On-Offin became a tributary state to Asante. The Denkyira Royal family scattered all over in the tropical rain forest belt, one of them, Serwaah, finally settled at Jinjini, later to become the birthplace of yours truly, writer of this article.

So, in Jinjini, the stool belongs to the Denkyiras.

After Ntim Gyakari, Denkyira never rose up again, in servitude to the Asante Empire. More than 30 chiefs ruled Denkyira until in the 1950s, a relatively young boy was enstooled as Odeefuo Boa Amponsem III. He ruled as Denkyirahene at his 'Abankesieso' in Dunkwa for more than 60 years, until he passed away in 2015.

Why on earth should somebody die and his corpse be preserved for seven long years before he is interred.

But reader, that is Akan royalty for you. It is more than the word Elaborate!!! Very detailed far-reaching arrangements had to be put in place, including, guess what, the foundation erection, and construction of a brand new state of the art traditional palace for Denkyirahene at the new traditional capital, Jukwa near Cape Coast.

And so, finally reader, after seven long years in the morgue, Odeefuo Boa Amponsem III, Denkyirahene, is going home, this week, from April 24, through to April 30, 2022, at both Dunkwa-On-Offin and finally to join his ancestors at Jukwa.

For the records, when he was enstooled as the Denkyirahene, I had not been born, and very late in life when I became a lawyer at age 36, I drove to court from Accra at dawn one morning to Dunkwa-On-Offin. The year was 1990.

It was my first time in Dunkwa-On-Offin. I did History at GCE A level in Achimota, so I was very familiar with Denkyira-Asante history, so I decided to take advantage after court hours to visit the Abankesiese Palace at Dunkwa.

I asked, and I was shown the Palace, and I entered, to see, fortunately, for the first time, Odeefuo Boa Amponsem III, King of Denkyira, one time President of the National House of Chiefs, and for several years President of the Central Regional House of Chiefs.

He was not a tall fellow, though I will not say he had a diminutive personality. I had heard and read so much about him that I hardly heard what he said on my very first meeting with him  I was just staring at the famous Denkyirahene, sitting there, cracking jokes, asking me questions about June 4th Revolution, my experiences as a lawyer and so on.

From there, several times I met him in the office of the Central Region House of Chiefs at Cape Coast, where he was President, anytime I attended court sittings at the Judicial Committee of the Central Regional House of Chiefs.

Odeefuo was very soft spoken, full of energy and disposed to be benign to all, most of the time always wearing smock at the House of Chiefs.

What baffles me about the man is the way he was forcibly kept in the morgue for seven years  why?

He once told me some experience I have never forgotten. I was in his office as President of the Central Regional House of Chiefs, where I was passing time, waiting for my case to be called.

He told me one of his elders stole a precious object in the palace, and tracing the culprit became a serious problem.

So, one night, he went to the stool room in the palace, poured libation, praying, as he was completely naked, screeched his buttocks on the bare floor, from stool to stool, asking the ancestors to give him justice.

According to him, early the next morning, the elder who stole the object came to Odeefuo, knelt down, confessing very shamefully that he took the object, and wanted pardon.

Odeefuo Boa Amponsem III King of Denkyira  farewell from your friend, Lawyer Captain.

BY Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey
A civil Servant with the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Owusu Sekyere, has been disqualified from contesting in the Manhyia South NPP chairmanship race.

Ashanti Regional NPP First Vice Chairman, Kwabena Nsenkyire, petitioned the NPP Vetting Committee that Owusu Sekyere is a civil servant and therefore, cannot contest.

The NPP vetting committee investigated the matter and disqualified Owusu Sekyere after its investigations affirmed the allegation.

This clears the way for Richard Adjei Mensah Ofori-Atta aka 'Tomtom', another aspirant, who was qualified, to solely contest for the seat.

Petition

According to Mr. Nsenkyire, Owusu Sekyere is a deputy estate officer at the KMA, adding, the aspirant, legally, should resign from KMA before picking NPP forms to contest.

That he is a civil servant, hence falls within the Civil Service personnel in the state, part of the Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman's petition, seen by DAILY GUIDE, stated.

That the neutrality principle of the Civil Service embedded in the laws of this state precludes any civil servant from partaking in partisan politics except he or she resigns.

That Owusu is still at post and currently on strike as a member of CLOGSSAG for non-payment of utility bills by the government.

That Owusu Sekyere per the assertions paragraphed Supra, is not fit to be before your committee let alone cleared to contest by your outfit.

I, thus, humbly pray that your committee disqualifies him on the grounds aforementioned, part of Nsenkyire's petition declared.

Committee Report

The Manhyia South NPP Vetting Committee, chaired by Dr. Oheneba Owusu-Danso, saw merit in Nsenkyire's petition, and consequently disqualified Owusu Sekyere.

The Applicant is a worker of the Kumasi Metropolitan Authority as a Technician Engineer. He is a civil servant. He is proscribed from contesting under Article 94 (3) of the 1992 Constitution.

See the case of Local Government Staff Association of Ghana v-Attorney General & 2 Others (Writ No:J1/16/2016) delivered on 14/6/2017, the vetting committee stated.

---Daily Guide
27.04.2022 LISTEN

Twenty-two years ago, the forty-year-old person who parades as 'seasoned' journalist was barely eighteen years old. As for the thirty-year-old braggart who is disturbing our minds with ugly noises on radio and TV, and trying to portray to us as a 'seasoned' journalist, he was barely twelve years old.

The Akans say if any animal says it has fat in its body, such an animal learnt how to grow fat in its body from the pig. Confused? Wait until I fill my fountain pen with more ink.

This column was born twenty two years ago. It used to appear two times a week until, my editor, the mercurial Iron Lady, Ambassador Gina Blay, felt it was tiresome for me, so I should write once a week. It has been very eventful, and so much water has passed under the bridge. I have a trenchant pen and a fountain pen, but for the sake of peace I have decided to always use the fountain pen.

It is not that I fear any Jupiter, but I am civil and well cultured. I can spit red saliva and fire, but I always spit the white one because I have been trained not to belittle the intelligence of anybody.

The media landscape today is a worry to some of us who know what over indulgence can do to the profession. You tune your television or radio set and what you hear makes you think we are living in a jungle. They call themselves journalists, but the best that they can do is to talk but not to write.

You see them swaggering and spewing out vitriolic invectives as if they too matter in the scheme of things. They profess to know everything from archaeology to rocket science, but in actual sense they know absolutely nothing. They are just hirelings who have been charged to unduly take on respectable ladies and gentlemen who have made it in life through the hard way.

I have had cause to write about the way these upstarts insult and bastardise persons who could be their fathers, and I still insist that such behaviour will be met with rough and hot iron.

Presenters like Randy Abbey, Omanhene Kwabena Asante, Nana Aba Anamoah etc. are a delight to watch and listen, but sadly, not so with these uncouth boys and girls who have no training in their various homes. Where I come from, respect of elders is a blessing. We were taught when we were children not to insult an elderly person, because we could be cursed and the future will be bleak for us.

Anytime we became wayward in public and played the buffoonery, any elder present could spank us very well, and later tell our parents what we did in public to warrant the spanking. If you are not lucky, your parents will also repeat the dose. All these upbringing has gone with the win. Empty barrels have taken control, polluting the air with nothing but stupidity laced with insults.

I want to serve notice, and notice is hereby served that from this day onwards, if any so-called journalist goes down the gutter, I, your Earth Angel Gabriel, will join the reckless fool in the gutter, and together we will besmear ourselves with dirt. I will don my solid armour of confrontational discourse, acidic, caustic, abrasive, rough, nasty and ready, and confront these nit-wits wherever they rear their ugly heads.

(Mote Brofo?) When my historic mission is accomplished, I will raise myself up and fly into the firmament where angels dwell. And when I delve into my arsenal of the Queen's language, they should better go for a standby dictionary, that is if they don't want to contract severe headache. When that comes to pass, nobody should say notice was not served before I descended into the gutter.

This country, our beloved country cannot afford to sit on the fence, while a few irresponsible charlatans distract our attention in our desire to move the nation forward. Every government welcomes constructive criticisms, but when destructive criticism takes centre stage and push comes to shove, something must be done to get the ship of state move forward.

The world today is sitting on tenterhooks. Wars, rumours of nuclear wars, and the threat of a Third World War are staring us in the face, and these are matters that journalists who wish the country well should focus on.

Just look at how the war in Ukraine has disturbed economies the world over, and juxtapose it with how some presenters on TV are falling over each other to catch public attention in the stupid Serwaa Broni balderdash. Is that how to build a nation? Much as they try to smear the president with dirt, it doesn't wash, but instead of recoiling into their shell, they continue to disturb our ears with this idiotic bunkum.

When I wrote a piece on Russia's war with Ukraine, colleague journalists called me from all over the country and admonished me to write more on the issue because the issue has bearing on the Ghanaian economy.

These are level-headed persons that we need in Ghana today. Not half-wits who sit on TV and radio stations making ugly noises. It is not for nothing that journalism is termed as the Fourth Estate of the scheme of things. We have a role to play in nation building, but the younger generation of journalists who were born too late to know how far we have come continue to muddy the waters through infantile analysis of issues they know absolutely nothing about.

They are too raw and bestial. They don't read, and not reading often makes you stupid and brutal. Everyone can be acquiescent and fearful of being insulted by these disrespectful idiots. Not yours sincerely.

Smoking cigar makes you feel like owning the world. That is why millionaires, presidents, and celebrities smoke cigar. Excuse me while I puff La Gloria Cubana, one of the top cigars in the world, and a favourite of Bill Clinton. Do you think I am a small boy? Try me and see!!!

[email protected]

From Eric Bawah
The Ejurahene Barimah Osei Hwedie II has called on the aspiring candidates vying for various positions in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to demonstrate political maturity and work together to consolidate the peace of the country by conducting peaceful elections in the upcoming constituency polls.

He made the call on Tuesday, April, 26, 2022 at a constituency stakeholders dialogue held at Ejura Palace which was organized by the Ejura Traditional Council and the Municipal security agencies for all aspirants of the ruling New Patriotic Party NPP to discuss ways to hold peaceful constituency elections.

Remember that this is internal elections, election is about competition of ideas and not hate speech. So, you must ensure the supporters continue to positively contribute to the peace of Ejura. Let's not Ejura emerge once again as the beacon of electoral violence, Barimah Osei Hwedie II appeals to aspirants.

Ejurahenes Peace Initiative

The programme which was initiated by Barimah Osei Hwedie II who doubles as the Protocol Director at the Office of the Vice President of Ghana in his address at the meeting called on the stakeholders to act within the laws of the country to ensure a peaceful atmosphere during and after the elections.

Barimah Osei Hwedie II noted with concern that the consistent acts of violence and lawlessness that have marred any landmark elections in Ejura constituency is one that needs urgent attention.

NPP's delegates conference in the Ejura constituency which has been slated for Sunday, May 1, 2022 has not been spared tension with some aspirants raising concerns over the election's album.

Barimah Osei Hwedie II as part of efforts to address the pending tension met stakeholders in the constituency to address any future violence.

Aspirants

A total of 43 persons who are vying for various positions in the constituency and all security heads were present at the meeting to agree on how to hold the elections devoid of violence.

He called on the party's executives, regional and national representatives and the electoral commission to ensure free, fair and transparent elections to avert any chaos.

While advising the NPP fraternity to be committed to promoting peaceful internal elections, he emphasized that it was imperative for security personnel to be firm and fair in the discharge of their mandated duties.

Appeal

He appealed to the National Security Minister to give police personnel in the area the necessary resources in order for them to work without fear or favour.

Some of the aspirants who were at the meeting said the engagement by the chief was the first of its kind in the history of the party.

They commended Barimah Osei Hwedie II in his effort to hold that peaceful talk with all stakeholders in the pending elections.

The incumbent Constituency Secretary for Ejura, Gifty Ndoma who is also going for another four year mandate in an interview with this reporter said discussions at the meeting was crucial, adding that she believes the engagement will help reduce any act of violence during and after the elections.
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A nutritionist with the Ghana Health Service, Maribel Asomboya says eggs are nutritious and have nothing to do with high cholesterol in the body.

She noted that the public must do away with the myth surrounding the consumption of eggs and rather propagate its benefit to the body.

Madam Asomboya said this when the Ghana National Egg Campaign Secretariat (GNECS) in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) organized a day's training for Egg Sellers and Producers in Ho, the Volta Regional Capital.

The training was aimed at sensitizing egg sellers on egg standards and the benefits of egg consumption.

About 50 participants drawn from various districts in the Volta Region took part in the training.

There are various researches to back facts about the Importance of eggs, our purpose is to propagate the good news and recent findings and doctrines around eggs that promote good health.

One of the myths surrounding egg consumption is that it boosts cholesterol levels so anyone who consumes eggs may get various cardiovascular diseases related to high cholesterol but rather egg has Polysaccharides and monosaccharides that are important and useful to the body, Maribel Asomboya stated.

The National Coordinator of GNECS, Madam Comfort Acheampong disclosed that the Association in collaboration with the Ghana Standard Authority (GSA) has produced an egg standard i.e. the Edible Egg in Shell Standard in a pictorial form for easy access to the information on Egg Standards.

Madam Comfort added that the training would enable stakeholders in the poultry value chain to match the benefits of eggs to the required standards for the edible and export market.

The GNECS have been able to produce an egg standard, Edible Egg in Shell, we did this with the GSA about 4years ago and it's now that the Pictoria part is ready.

We have to use the pictorial part to educate all stakeholders that have something to do with poultry in Ghana.

Our main aim is to train and introduce people to the pictorial including the GHS Nutrition Officers to match the benefits of eggs to the standards, Madam Comfort emphasised.

She advised that eggs are superfoods that have no limit hence they can be consumed at any time of the day.

Eggs are good for the old and young consumption of eggs has no time limit. Eggs can be a superfood, they can be consumed in the morning, afternoon, and night, she added.

Samuel Kwatia, an officer from the Ghana Standard Authority bemoaned the lack of education on eggs standards as one of the challenges confronting the poultry business.

He encouraged farmers and stakeholders in the poultry industry to take advantage of training to learn more about the specifications of their products.

Mr. Kwatia advised poultry farmers to align their products to meet the required standard for regional and international markets as well as local consumption.

He recommended that edible eggs should be collected, handled, sorted, and transported in accordance with the CAC/RCP 15 Hygienic Practices of egg and egg production.
1. It has been over 3-days since this incident is alleged to have occurred in the Wa municipal hospital.

2. Interestingly, the man [Mr Ahmed Mustapha] who threw the hospital out the window and called out its nurses for public vilification has since lost his mojo to lay a formal complaint for redress.

3. For me, as an advocate for better health care delivery systems across the region, I find it both painful and disturbing that this issue will be left to die naturally.

4. It does appear, that it will go down as one of those "watery" allegations thrown at the municipal hospitalthat only end up hurting the image of the institution for no cause.

5. Mr Mustapha only responded to an account of the incidence by the attending doctor on the eve of 23rd April 2022 but has not been able to specifically state how the negligence was caused by the nurse.

6. It is unfortunate that his first point of call was to rush to "Yirimanbo" Team page on WhatsApp to pour out his complaint without using the hospital structures.

7. Knowing that he holds a reputable public position, he could have resorted to getting his complaint against the staff on duty at the facility addressed through the appropriate structures.

8. But,he chose to cause public disaffection to the Wa municipal hospital through the media and I believe if he was treated in a similar manner by clients of NADMO he will be very livid.

9. It is in the same vein,the facts have to be laid bare for the public to be reassured that the municipal hospital will continue to be a place to visit for health care.

10. When I read the publication, I realized Mr Mustapha did three main things in his outburst: He told off the nurses what an emergency was, he was also angry because he was asked to pick a folder from the OPD and he finally compared Homeland paperless system to the semi-paperless system at Municipal Hospital.

11. On the first issue, I want to ask Mr Mustapha Ahmed what indicators he used to determine his wife's condition was an emergency?

12. He took it upon himself to instruct a doctor and his nurses on duty that he brought an emergency simply because his wife had headache. Is that what his definition of an emergency is?

13. As far as the public know, the municipal hospital emergency usually requests a folder whilst the patient is being assessed on a piece of paper. This is verifiable at the facility. I do not know why he was angry at this request.

14. In this instant, the nurses had attended to his wife and checked her vitals whilst waiting for the doctor who was seeing critical cases in the unit to complete her clerking.

15. When he returned after aggressively dishing the nurses because he was asked to go for a folder, he took his wife away after asking her whether she was given medication.

16. Further,the Municipal Hospital runs a semi-paperless system, that is all OPD cases and special clinics operate without folders. The inpatient wards, however ,operate with folders for the meantime,so when you move to any ward such as emergency, especially at night , a folder is required to complete the documentation.

17. The staffs do not often wait for the folder for you to be attended to. They assessed his wife when he finally walked to the OPD. Any of my readers here who has accessed services there can attest to this. This man is completely aware of these existing protocols.

18. If He[Mustapha] thinks it was "useless" for the nurse to ask for a folder, I am appealing to public officials like him to buy computers and ICT infrastructure to support the hospital to rollout a complete paperless system instead of using the media to tarnish the image of the facility.

19. We must as a people resort to appropriate structures in addressing concerns concerning public institutions like the municipal hospital and criticise them to improve instead of destroy them.

20. We must ask questions about things we do not understand. For those who hold positions, remember the hospital is not your institution and has its own hierarchy and operational structure. Nobody takes orders from external power except from the health service or those directed legally.

21. He must come forward to prove his allegations of negligence against the nurse or apologize through the same platform or this media war will not end any time soon on this matter.

22. For the Yirimanbo Team page, they must always make it a point to verify information before throwing it out in the media space. Whilst I do not intend to teach them journalism, I know it is not the duty of the media person to just carry through allegations on air without finding out the other side.

23. I do hope Mr Ahmed Mustapha finds it worthy to respond to these facts and do the needful. We're all duty-bound to raise the standards of our institution but we can't do so by dirtying them.

I wish his wife speedy recovery!

Thank you

Carl Asenye

Health Activist
27.04.2022 LISTEN

The president of the Spanish government Pedro Sanchez flew to Morocco on Thursday, April 7, to have a Ftour (Moroccan Iftar) with King Mohamed VI, and thus seal a reconciliation with his southern neighbor. It is more than likely that the Harira, the traditional soup that Moroccans eat to break their fast, must have had a bitter taste for the Spanish leader.

A few hours before he flew to Rabat, the Spanish Congress of Deputies voted a Proposicion no de ley, a Spanish parliamentary non-binding non-legislative motion, harshly reproaching the president for his reversal on the Western Sahara conflict.

Only 118 deputies of Sanchezs PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers Party) voted against the motion. The rest, a total of 168 deputies, some of whom are part of the government coalition or support the government without participating in it, and the conservative right-wing Popular Party MPs voted in favor of the motion. Sixty-one other deputies abstained, representing the far-right Vox and the center-liberals Ciudadanos (Citizens).

With the exception of the Socialists, everyone wanted to express their disagreement, if not anger, at the president for breaking a 46-year-old consensus, respected by all Spanish executivesright, center, and leftsince the death of General Franco.

As a former colonial power that is still considered by the UN as the administrative power of Western Sahara (Morocco being a de facto power), Spain was bound to a certain so-called active neutrality. It was not supposed to lean towards either Morocco or the Polisario Front independence fighters. However, in a letter to the King of Morocco, Sanchez stated that he favored the Moroccan proposal of autonomy offered to the Saharawis in 2007, dubbing it the most serious, realistic, and credible, thus dynamiting this old and very sensitive balance.

This was all the more so as the decision in favor of Morocco was taken by the president alone, without consulting his governmental allies from the left-wing party Podemos, and without warning, as is customary, the right-wing opposition Popular Party.

In Spain, the Western Sahara conflict is a sensitive and almost demotic matter. While taking care not to anger their Moroccan neighbor to the south, which often threatens to open its borders to allow a flood of Moroccan and sub-Saharan migrants into Spain, various parties that have governed Spain have felt sympathy for their former colonial subjects, the Saharawis.

Between 1958 and 1976, the Saharawi peoples territory was known as the Spanish province in Africa. When Morocco captured the Sahara after the Green March launched by King Hassan II in 1975, the Spaniards felt bitter about having to abandon the Saharawi.

This is why Sanchezs recent diplomatic and political update regarding the Western Sahara is perceived as a betrayal by many Spanish. It is now known that Spain has obtained nothing in exchange for the Sahara turnaround, except the return of the Moroccan ambassador to Madrid, who was recalled for consultation last year, and the reopening of land and sea borders.

Sanchez explained to the Spanish Congress of Deputies that the serious crisis with Spains southern neighbor, which started after Madrid allowed Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario Front independence movement, to be treated in Spain after contracting COVID19, was untenable, But other authoritative voices, such as that of Miquel Iceta, Minister of Culture and a close friend of Sanchez, have exposed another version of this reversal.

In a widely read tweet, Iceta shared an article from the daily El Periodico de Espana in which he explained that there had been a barter between Spain and Morocco. In exchange for Madrids acceptance of the Moroccan autonomy proposal for Western Sahara, Rabat is said to have committed itself to stop claiming the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands. The agreement obliges Morocco to give up Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands, the newspaper wrote peremptorily.

And this is where it all gets murky and incomprehensible. By negotiating its renunciation of the self-determination of the Saharawis, in violation of international law since it is the UN that manages this conflict, did Madrid obtain written assurances from the Moroccans? Nothing could be further from certain.

Morocco will never give up its claims on Ceuta and Melilla, which it has economically suffocated by closing its borders and putting an end to smuggling, which is one of the sources of the prosperity of these two free ports.

It is not for nothing that Morocco has built a huge port on the Strait of Gibraltar, Tangier-Med, in one of the most important maritime crossing points in the world. Tangier-Med, considered today one of the largest ports in Africa, competes directly with the port of Algeciras, located on the other side of the strait, but also with the port of Ceuta.

As for Melilla, the unilateral closure in 2018 of the only land custom crossing between Spain and Morocco, that of Beni Ensar, opened after the Treaty of Fes in 1912 and ratified after Moroccos independence in 1956, is another manifestation of the Moroccan will to strangle the economy of this city.

On the other hand, although Morocco does not formally claim the Canary Islands, in 2020, the House of Representatives (lower house of parliament) voted two bills extending Moroccan territorial waters to a point overlapping with those of the islands.

It is therefore hard to see Rabat giving up its historical claims to landlocked territories in Africa only to thank the Spanish government for saying that it found the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara to be the most serious, realistic, and credible.

Moreover, in the joint Spanish-Moroccan declaration at the end of the meeting with Sanchez in Rabat, there is no mention of Ceuta and Melilla. On the other hand, Article 3 of the document refers to the full normalization of the movement of persons and goods, which will be re-established in an orderly manner, including appropriate arrangements for land and maritime customs and control of persons. Does this mean that Morocco will reopen the old Beni Ensar land customs, which was abruptly closed in 2018? It is possible, but not yet certain.

What is certain, however, and is written in Article 6 of this declaration, is that Morocco seems to be backing down on its claims to the territorial waters of the Canary Islands, since it talks about the reactivation of a working group on the delimitation of the maritime spaces of the Atlantic seaboard () with the aim of making concrete progress. This seems to indicate that Morocco will review the two laws that allow Moroccan territorial waters to overlap with those of Spain.

If there is a winner in this reconciliation, it is Morocco. Before his departure for Rabat, sources from Moncloa Palace, the official residence of the Spanish prime minister, suggested that Sanchez could return to Madrid with the famous document written and signed by the Moroccan authorities certifying the abandonment of claims on Ceuta and Melilla.

This did not happen and it shows a very strange ignorance of Moroccan mentality on the part of Madrid. Despite the geographical proximity, Spain does not seem to understand the spirit and temperament of the Moroccans. It seems not to understand that the next Moroccan objective is indeed the recovery of Ceuta, Melilla, and all those islands, islets, and rocks scattered on the Moroccan Mediterranean coast.

So, some may ask: why did the Spaniards give in so easily? The answer is because the Americans encouraged them to do so in line with the U.S. policy of recognizing Western Sahara as part of Morocco. Unless the Spanish are swimming in a pond of unconsciousness and incomprehension, Madrid has not only broken the old consensus on the Western Sahara but has also taken the risk of permanently aggravating Algeria, the main supporter of the Sahrawi independence fighters and above all the main supplier of gas to the Iberian Peninsula.

After the Spanish volte-face on the Sahara, Algeria recalled its ambassador in Madrid for consultation. The gesture was described by Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Albares, as the expression of a small temporary rage.
For five consecutive weeks, Bliss GVS Pharma, a Global Pharmaceutical Company, known for the manufacturing, and marketing of high-quality pharmaceutical formulations at affordable prices, has donated antimalarial and other essential medicines to various hospitals, schools and colleges in five selected regions in Ghana.

These donations were also accompanied by health talks to help equip Ghanaians on Malaria and personal hygiene.

The activities are aimed to help reduce the Malaria burden in Africa, an objective that echoes the theme for World Malaria Day 2022.

World Malaria Day 2022 is focused on reducing Malaria mortality by identifying and implementing strategies and plans to lessen the disease burden. This years theme, Harness innovation to reduce the malaria disease burden and save lives, will help advance roles of various health stakeholders in accelerating initiative, interventions and policies in malaria cure and prevention.

Bliss GVS Pharma Ghana, under ACT FOR AFRICA, an initiative towards a Malaria free continent in Africa, is commemorating this years World Malaria Day to help create, engage, collaborate and identify solutions in malaria sensitization, prevention and cure.

This will be the companys strategic contribution to empowering the Ghanaian health ecosystem against malaria.

Beneficiary hospitals of the donation of Anti-malarials such as LONART, P-ALAXIN and other essential medications worth GHS 150,000 are the Koforidua Regional Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Manhyia hospital in Kumasi, Tamale teaching hospital, Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital, Takoradi and the Tema General Hospital.

BLISS GVS Ghana has been pioneering initiatives to help reduce the MALARIA burden for more than two decades, with a well-known antimalarial product basket.

Bliss GVS Ghana plans on making similar donations to other health facilities in the country under the ACT FOR AFRICA campaign to help facilities fight the battle against the deadly disease Malaria. A similar support was extended to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ridge Hospital, 37 Military Hospital and Police Hospital to mark last years World Malaria Day 2021. It is the companys wish that the donated medicines will be used for needy people to have easy access to health care.

More so, Bliss GVS ACT FOR AFRICA aims at empowering the doctors and other stakeholders through CME, Pharmacy meetings, training of nurses and creating awareness in society about malaria and other disease conditions.
Injuncted Assin North MP, James Gyakye Quayson, has filed an application for a review of the Supreme Courts judgement restraining him from holding himself as Member of Parliament or performing any parliamentary duty.

The embattled legislator through his lawyers on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, filed the application arguing among other things that the courts Wednesday, April 13, 2022 decision was in patent and fundamental error and violated article 129(3) of the Constitution.

He said the decision of the court failed to appreciate that the suit was in reality an attempt to enforce the decision of the High Court disguised as an invocation of the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

The majority decision was in patent and fundamental error in granting an order of interlocutory injunction pending the determination of the suit when what the Applicant was seeking by this application was for the execution of decisions in the courts below and this error occasioned a gross miscarriage of justice against the 1st defendant/respondent, he added.

The Supreme Court had said its judgement was to protect the constitution and the sovereign will of Ghanaians without subverting it.

The Court maintains that it would be failing in its duty to Ghanaians if it did not grant the injunction against the Assin North MP.

The Court in the 5-2 Majority decision restrained James Gyakye Quayson from carrying himself out as a Member of Parliament while directing the parties to file their memorandum of issues by April 25.

The Majority decision, held by Justices Jones Dotse, Mariama Owusu, Gertrude Torkornoo, Professor Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, and Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi, reasoned that the people of Assin North and Ghanaians as a whole would suffer greater hardship and irreparable damage and inconvenience if Mr. Quayson had not been restrained.

---citinewsroom
27.04.2022 LISTEN

Retired Court of Appeal judge, Justice Isaac Duose, has described as very unfair, the U.S. Department of States 2021 Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released on 12 April 2022, in which Ghanas judiciary is accused of being replete with so much corruption.

The report said while the constitution and laws of Ghana "provide for an independent judiciary, the judiciary was subject to unlawful influence and corruption".

Judicial officials reportedly accepted bribes to expedite or postpone cases, lose records, or issue favourable rulings for the payer of the bribe, the report said.

It said a judicial complaints unit within the Ministry of Justice headed by a retired Supreme Court justice addressed complaints from the public, such as unfair treatment by a court or judge, unlawful arrest or detention, missing trial dockets, delayed trials and rendering of judgments, and bribery of judges.

The report, however, noted that the government generally respected court orders.

Reacting to the findings, Justice Duose told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Class91.3FMs mid-day news, 12Live, on Wednesday, 27 April 2022 in an exclusive interview: Its a perception that has persisted over the years, recalling: Remember, a few years ago, the Anas expose on judges and the rest of it.

He, however, noted: Its not as pervasive as it seems to be and the US is still hanging on that perception, stressing: I dont think that that allegation is as pervasive as the US looked at it.

In his view, We operate in different social environments; the Americans have their own different ways of doing things and we also have our own different ways of doing things.

He argued: The perception of open corruption would be very easily accepted if the report can cite complaints which are either being dealt with or have been neglected but for them to just say barely that corruption persists in the system is not quite fair to our system.

The retired judge said: Its America who brought us the concept that a person is not guilty until proven guilty and that the person is presumed not guilty. Now, they are not giving us the chance of the presumption of not guilty until you are proven guilty.

In his view, there may be a few isolated cases, yes, but how many reports of missing files do they have on record?

Buttressing his argument, Justice Duose said: Our recordkeeping system is not like their recordkeeping system: we deal with physical [records] more than electronic recordkeeping, and in these cases, files can easily be misplaced but often when files are reported missing, after a while of tracing, it is found; the files go round and a file can go round and get stuck somewhere but not necessarily that it has been stolen or destroyed or something like that; that is why Im asking if they have evidence that these things have really happened, then they should let us know.

Asked if the report is making a mountain out of a molehill, Justice Duose said: Yes, seriously because even further, I think there is a popular programme in the judiciary known as Justice For All [where] an attempt is made by the judiciary to bend over backwards to trace the files of cases which have been hanging on remand for a long time. It is done every year.

At the close of the legal year, the judiciary takes steps to ensure that all the pending cases on remand are reviewed, he explained.

In some cases, Justice Duose said: Those whose detention has exceeded the minimum sentence for their [offence] are released unconditionally and those who need to be tried are given expedited trial.

During the legal vacation when judges are not supposed to work, some judges dedicate themselves to having those cases cleared, he pointed out.

He said: I was one of the people who coordinated the first few attempts to have that institution corrected and, sometimes, you find about 150, 200 people being released unconditionally because the remand period has exceeded the minimum sentence that they would have gotten if they were convicted but the report doesnt make any allusion to that at all, which means that it has put a blind eye on certain things that are good and exposing the bad ones.

In fact, he noted, DANIDA supports and funds the Justice For All programme and Im surprised that the people who are doing the research have not realised or were not told that this kind of thing exists in our system, which probably doesnt exist in their own system, too.

Its very very unfair, he said of the report on the judiciary, saying: I wish they had attached some real statistics.

He said: The only attempt they made to have a statistic is that about 15 per cent of the prison population is on remand but whether they have been granted bail and they were not able to fulfil the bail condition is not clear.

Source: Classfmonline.com
The President of the Ghana Journalists Association, (GJA), Dr. Affail Monney has urged journalists to scale up their creative works to benefit more from reprographic fees.

He said this financial oxygen is crucially necessary in view of the dwindling revenue stream and swinging expenditure cuts facing the media houses following the devastating Covid 19 pandemic.

President of the Ghana Journalists Association, Dr. Affail Monney was speaking to Journalists during the celebration of the World Intellectual Property Day Celebration in Accra.

He added that intellectual property laws to the media, in particular, can hardly be articulated as they seek to give the necessary protection to creative works by journalists.

However, technological advancement robs them of the opportunity to fully enjoy the fruit of their labour as media content is uploaded online and literally, works are copied offline and in the newspapers with unprecedented rapidity.

He urged the authorities to take a hard look at the phenomenon and expand the protective scope for the media, urging journalists to scale up their creative works in order to benefit more from reprographic fees.

On his part, the Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Hon Alfred Yeboah Tuah in his keynote address charged young people to take the mantle, confront global challenges and come up with solutions.

According to him, Africa, the world's youngest continent, thus, has a natural reservoir of talent, energy, and resources for the youth to leapfrog this continent and Ghana into its long-overdue greatness.

Hon Alfred Yeboah Tuah added that WIPO's role in supporting national and regional efforts to create legal and inventors, creators, and entrepreneurs to thrive. "We in Africa must take up these challenges most seriously because of our youth Potential, the key to Africa's sustainable development".

He, therefore, commented on the World Intellectual Property Organisation(WIPO) for recognizing and celebrating the youth in this year's theme " IP and Youth: Innovating for a better future".

Intellectual Property consultant, Dr Courage Besah also advised journalists to stay away from the haste breaking of news about artwork or intellectual property but rather make sure it is registered before and by so doing it becomes the person's intellectual property which can earn them reasonable money.

Mrs Grace Issahaque, Head of the IP office, explained that the WIPO has appropriately dedicated this day to the young people of the world whose drive, creativity, and innovation have made the world a better place for all.
The Tema Regional Police Command is looking for the killers of Felix Tetteh Batcha, a car dealer, who was shot by unknown assailants around Bamfo Hotel, Tema, on Monday April 25, 2022.

Police preliminary investigation indicates that on Monday at about 2pm, the deceased who was a car dealer at Community 9, Tema, received a call from a man who expressed interest in buying one of the cars he was selling.

The prospective buyer introduced himself as a doctor at Community 22 Polyclinic.

However when the car dealer arrived at the Polyclinic, the supposed prospective buyer claimed he was busy at theatre and sent one of his boys to go on a test drive with the deceased with his friend who had accompanied him.

When they arrived at a spot near Bamfo Hotel, the test driver stopped the vehicle and got down under the pretext of making a phone call.

Some minutes later, three men emerged ftom nowhere on a motorbike and attempted to forcibly collect the ignition key from the deceased and in ensuing struggle he shot him.

The vehicle was recovered and the police anti-robbery taskforce are on the heels of the perpetrators to get them arrested.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr. George Akuffo-Dampare has spoken with the family via phone and ordered investigations into the case.

He has offered the family clinical psychologist to offer psycho-social support to them.

DGN online
27.04.2022 LISTEN

The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has bemoaned how the government is unable to provide academic opportunities for Ghanaian students who have returned from war-torn Ukraine to complete their medical courses.

Due to the Russian attack on Ukraine, government through commendable efforts in March managed to bring home some Ghanaian students.

Unfortunately, the opportunities given to these students have been scarce, leaving many frustrated.

They continually indicated that they have regretted leaving Ukraine.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa says the current situation is heartbreaking and very depressing.

It is acutely heartbreaking and extremely depressing that after all these weeks since their evacuation from Ukraine, our country cannot guarantee academic opportunities for these medical students to complete their courses, the Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament wrote on his Facebook wall this afternoon.

The Minority MP adds, Leadership must be embarrassed that our students who fled the war are now publicly proclaiming that they regret leaving Ukraine  this is most ignominious seeing that the war which is far from over has been so devastating recording 2,435 civilian deaths as certified this week by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which also reports that over 11 million Ukrainians have left their country.

According to Mr. Ablakwa, the situation is unbelievable taking into consideration the fact that Ghana is in dire need of medical doctors due to the current precarious doctor-to-population ratio of 1:6,355 which is nowhere near the WHO prescribed standard of 1:1,000.

Read the full post on the MPs Facebook page below:

We must not become a country that crashes the noble dreams and aspirations of its young generation.

It is acutely heartbreaking and extremely depressing that after all these weeks since their evacuation from Ukraine, our country cannot guarantee academic opportunities for these medical students to complete their courses.

Leadership must be embarrassed that our students who fled the war are now publicly proclaiming that they regret leaving Ukraine  this is most ignominious seeing that the war which is far from over has been so devastating recording 2,435 civilian deaths as certified this week by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which also reports that over 11 million Ukrainians have left their country. I hope poor leadership isnt compelling our students to think that being in war-ravaged Ukraine is better than returning to their homeland?

This is a really unbelievable situation for Ghana which is in dire need of medical doctors considering that our current precarious doctor-to-population ratio of 1:6,355 is nowhere near the WHO prescribed standard of 1:1,000.

Only a couple of weeks ago, the World Bank reminded us that other African countries are doing much better than Ghana as we ranked 14th in sub-Saharan Africa on the doctor-to-population ranking.

Our country desperately needs more medical doctors  policymakers must exhibit the required creative awareness.

Since my Romanian visit to assist our young student compatriots fleeing the Ukrainian war and all the way to the 17th of March, 2022 statement I delivered in Parliament, I have consistently appealed to government to fashion out an arrangement with Ghanaian medical schools to absorb our returnees from Ukraine  most of whom were in the final year of studies.

As we today commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of our nations founder, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah in Bucharest, Romania (instructively, the same place I travelled to meet our traumatized students)  we ought to remember the Osagyefos legacy of how he inspired young black people by removing barriers and unleashing their full potential to conquer the world.

By introducing free tuition at all levels and establishing our first medical school, Kwame Nkrumah championed the dignity and dreams of young Ghanaians. He will be restlessly turning in his grave at how current leaders have gained notoriety for frustrating and killing the ambitions of the youth  this must stop, enough is enough!
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The Northern Regional Police Command has arrested one suspect in relation to killing of some herdsmen at Zacholi in the Yendi Municipality of the Northern Region through an intelligence-led operation.

The suspect, Danko Delabra, according to a police statement dated April 27, 2022, and signed by the Northern Regional Public Affairs Officer, is alleged to be among the gang that stormed the settlements of some herdsmen on April 13, 2022, killing eight persons, injuring five others, taking some livestock, and finally setting fire to their settlements.

The Northern Regional Police Command through intelligence-led operations has arrested Danko Delabra for his alleged involvement in an attack on a Fulani settlement in the Yendi municipality of the Northern Region.

The suspect has been remanded and is to reappear on May 5, 2022, after appearing in the Yendi Circuit Court, the statement from the police added

The police have assured that a joint team of intelligence and operations officers from both the National and Regional Police Headquarters are on a manhunt for the other culprits, and will bring them to book, saying it will not relent in its efforts to fight crime and keep the communities safe.

A joint team of intelligence and operations officers from the National and Regional Headquarters have been deployed to pursue and arrest the remaining culprits and bring them to face justice. We wish to assure the public that we will not relent in our effort in fighting crime and keep our communities safe.

citinewsroom
27.04.2022 LISTEN

The United States of America has no moral right to be issuing reports on human rights abuses in Ghana, a security analyst, Dr Adam Bonaa has said while reacting to the 2021 Human Rights Report on Ghana issued by the United States Department.

He stated that the US is noted for violating the rights of individuals especially when they locked up people in Guantanamo Bay for years without trial.

Speaking on the mid day news on TV3 Wednesday April 27, Dr Bonaa said The US arrested people from Afganisatan, locked them up in Guantanamo Bay for years without any trial. The US shouldnt be the one telling us about trial, unfair arrest and all those things. Yes, all of us have had the reason to ask the national security and the state security agencies especially when some online media personnel were arrested and their laptops taken from them, detained and and eventually released without any charge, questions.

We talk about virtually everything that comes in the media space and so for me, we have a very strong civil society that is acting as a check for the excesses we see in the governance space.

The Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs & Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPKTC), Professor Kwesi Aning has also said the report is rubbish and should be treated with the contempt that it deserves.

Were you to put 20 Ghanaian scholars and human right activists together we can write a worst report about the United States. So this report to me is rubbish and I think it should be treated with the contempt that it deserves. After almost 62 years of independence we can write our own report.

We have a vibrant Civil society, we have a Parliament irrespective of its problems or weaknesses, we have a judiciary that we can criticize. A whole Minister made suggestions about how judicial decisions can lead to certain problems.

We don't need the State Department to tell what we are doing right or wrong. So I think we should dismiss this report with the contempt that it deserves. I think after all these years of independence we should be bold and tell them that this not right, he said.

The report which was released on Tuesday April 26 said among other things that there were a few reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.

It stated that there were isolated attacks on journalists by members of security forces as well as by unknown assailants and occasional threats and intimidation.

In April authorities arrested online news editor David Tamakloe, allegedly working on corruption stories concerning prominent members of the government. Authorities released him without charge. Media advocates characterized the arrest as a 'preemptive move' and a 'clear abuse of power' as no story had been published at the time of the arrest.

On May 11, Ministry of National Security officers detained and allegedly brutalized Caleb Kudah, a journalist with Omni Media Limited (OML), operator of Accra-based Citi FM radio and Citi TV. Authorities accused Kudah of filming a fleet of vehicles that had allegedly fallen into despair as a result of neglect at the Ministry of National Security facility, a restricted site.

The security officers who detained Kudah reportedly beat and abused him during interrogation. On the same day, a SWAT team reportedly entered the OML offices in an attempt to arrest Zoe Abu-Baido, Kudah's colleague. The Ministry of National Security accused Baido of possessing video files sent to her by Kudah immediately before his detention.

Following public outrage the Ministry of National Security announced an internal probe into the incident which led to the suspension of the officers involved. Less than a week after his suspension, Ministry of National Security leadership reassigned Lieutenant Colonel Acheampong, identified as the commander of the operation that apprehended and reportedly abused Kudah, to serve as commanding officer of a different unit of the Ghanaian Armed Forces.

On July 9, Assin Central Region Member of Parliament Kennedy Ohene Agyapong called for Erastus Asare Donkor, a journalist with Luv FM, to be beaten and whipped during a live television interview. The Media Foundation for West Africa and 642 professional journalists and supporters of press freedom presented a petition to the office of the speaker of parliament to request parliamentary debate on what they considered the deteriorating press freedom situation.

3news.com
The Upper West Regional President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Mr Ubeidu Siddique, has advised persons desiring to pursue career opportunities in law not to allow the lust for money to be their motivation.

He said lawyers must exhibit high personal integrity and discipline to serve saying, If money is your motivation, you will be exiting just as you are entering.

Mr Siddique gave the advice at the Law Express Per-Season Forum at the SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) in Wa on Tuesday.

The event was organized by the Law Express in collaboration with the SDD-UBIDS to encourage people to consider taking up career prospects in the field of law as well as to create a platform for stakeholders to discuss the introduction of a law programme at the University,

It was on the theme: Educational and Career Prospects in the Law, and brought together legal persons in the region to share their experiences in the law profession with the participants.

Mr Siddique, who is also the Upper West Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice said As a lawyer you have to be diligent, skillful, ethical, honest and hardworking. If you want to become a lawyer and you are lazy, forget it.

Talking on the prospects in law, the Regional GBA President observed that there were many opportunities in the study of law saying, One thing good about law is that you can work in any setting. Every setting needs a lawyer.

He, therefore pledged the support of the association to the SDD-UBIDS in its quest to commence a law programme at the university to propel the growth of the faculty.

Professor Philip Duku Osei, the Vice Chancellor of the SDD-UBIDS, said plans were far advanced for the commencement of the law programme and urged for support of the stakeholders to let it come to fruition.

He commended the organisers of the forum for creating the platform for discussion on the introduction of the programme and said it was part of fulfilling their mandate as a university.

On her part, Madam Nuhela Seidu, the convener of the forum and host of the Law Express, said the initiative was among other objectives, aimed to educate the public on their rights and responsibilities to enable them seek justice when the need arose.

Madam Seidu, a legal practitioner, said the forum would transcend from supporting the introduction of the law programme at the SDD-UBIDS to ensuring that the department thrives to become one of the best in the country.

Some of the participants expressed the hope that a law faculty would be established in the northern part of the country in the near future to bring the study of the profession to the doorsteps of the people.

Mr Clement Eledi, the Supervising High Court Judge in Wa, and a former President of the Upper West Regional GBA, among other dignitaries attended the event.

GNA
Boampong Darlington Bill, a Bono NPP Regional Organiser hopeful, has repeated the call on the rank and file of the ruling party to stay focused and united in order to massively win the 2024 general election.

We will win if only we agree to work together as a team. It will all boil down to togetherness, he said in an exclusive interview with this reporter in Sunyani.

He said one of his priority deliverables if he is elected as the next Bono NPP Regional Organiser, would be to immediately set up a reconciliation team made up of men and women of substance to handle all internal conflicts and misunderstandings in the region.

Empowerment

When asked to share his vision for the party in the region when voted, Mr. Boampong said he would strike a partnership deal with interested tertiary institutions to run short-courses for constituency and polling station executives who do not have any academic certificates to prepare them for better job opportunities.

The Scholarship Secretariat is another key area that we can use to deliberately prepare our TESCON and other Young Patriots for future leadership roles. "Deliberate" means that we shouldn't wait for the young patriots to apply, but with the help of our database and data science, make an in-depth selection across the region for the facility to strengthen our base (at least 5 per Constituency) in each Constituency every year.

This means that we will deliberately push 60 into education every year (There is an implementation plan). Which can help refine our Party across the region, he further said.

The Regional Organiser hopeful also emphasised the need to improve vocational training with the involvement of volunteer groups and some State Agencies to develop jobs and sources of income for the grassroots.

Job opportunities

As a result, agencies, ministries, and non-profit organizations will be given a clear mandate to support this goal (An implementation Plan is also available). The vocational training will be linked to 1D1F to prepare our grassroots for greater career opportunities within the Constituency. If there is no 1D1F in that Constituency, training on the key source of livelihood in that Constituency might be provided to increase their source of livelihood.

In his view, training the young patriots to earn a career via social media management would help the digitalization goal while also providing a source of income.

Besides, Mr. Boampong added, the trained Patriots may be deployed to educate the populace about the digitalization drive across the country.

Touching on his chances in the upcoming regional elections, he stated that so far, so good all grounds are fertile for me and the entire team. We are winning hands down. Very sure of winning. At least I am likely to get about 82% of the total votes.

Brief background

Born on in 1983 at Badu in the Tain district of the Bono region, Mr. Boampong had his basic education in Asuafo SDA Primary School at Badu, St. Paul's International School, Dadieso, Aowim district, and Rapid International school in Sunyani.

He is also a product of the Twene Amanfo Secondary/Technical, Sunyani, the University of Cape Coast University, Sikkim Manipal University and the London School of Economics.

Political life

Boampong Darlington Bill, has always been a true family member of the NPP since ages. His family is rooted to the United Party and Progress Party, both offshoots of the NPP.

He started his active politics at Dadieso in the Western region where he joined the party as a grassroot mobilizer. It was there that he met Former President John Agyekum Kufuor one on one as a tent and canopy erector at the time the aspirant was touring the nation. This was in 1996. Kufuor put his hands on him and prayed for him to become a notable person in Ghana for his hard work.

In Sunyani, he worked closely with Late J.H Mensah and was an observer in the 2000 and 2004 limited registration exercises.

Career

Darlington has worked with many institutions and had achieved a lot both in politics and social life. He is currently the Deputy Director for Policy Planning, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at NADMO headquarters, Accra.
African Americans in the diaspora particularly in the United States have been urged to return to their roots and invest in their communities and towns.

This, according to an Africa American, Rashad McCrory, who has been installed Nsarahwehene of the Iture community in Elmina, is a way of ending the systematic oppression and racism being meted out to African Americans in the diaspora.

According to Rashad McCrory, who goes by the stool name Nana Kofi Kukudrufo I, there is a need for Africans to shift their focus on the west and rather focus on creating equal opportunities on the continent.

Some African Americans in the United States mostly suffer segregation, racial abuse, and in some cases oppression as a result of their color, but in Africa, they feel at home.

Black Americans in the United States are struggling with systematic oppression and racism, but coming to Africa and for that matter Ghana, we get to express freedom, brotherhood, sisterhood, and unity, and this helps build better cohesion. There are more opportunities here, and its about time we focus on our own. So I encourage black Americans and people from the diaspora to come home to Ghana and Africa and invest in the economyNana Kofi Kukudurfo said.

I agree that although the grass is greener in the west, there is the need for Africans to embrace what they have, the newly installed Iture chief told Citi News.

According to him, projects such as the year of return, the occasional Easter festivities in Kwahu, and visits to the various slave sites are some ways of convincing African Americans in the diaspora to come home and invest, particularly in the tourism sector.

In a colorful ceremony at Iture, Rashad McCrory swore an oath to the people of Iture as Nana Kofi kukudrufo I, and promised to convince other Africa Americans through tourism to return to their roots and invest in Ghana.

Now that I have been made tourism ambassador, I will connect with other Africans in the diaspora to convince them and ensure that they come home to invest, Nana Kofi Kukudurfo said.

Abusapanyin of the Iture community, Nana Adu, urged the government and the tourism ministry to provide the needed support for the newly installed Nsarahwehene to improve tourism in the area.

Now we have a tourism chief here in Iture who is ready to bring investors here to invest in the sector. This will create jobs for the youth of this area and sell our community to the world, so we must all support him to succeed, Abusaupanyin Nana Adu said.
The Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs & Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPKTC), Professor Kwesi Aning has asked Ghanaians to treat the report by the US State Department citing Ghana for many human rights abuse with contempt.

Speaking to TV3 in an interview, Prof. Aning described the report as rubbish.

Were you to put 20 Ghanaian scholars and human rights activists together we can write a worst report about the United States. So this report to me is rubbish and I think it should be treated with the contempt that it deserves. After almost 62 years of independence, we can write our own report.

We have a vibrant Civil society, we have a Parliament irrespective of its problems or weaknesses, we have a judiciary that we can criticize. A whole Minister made suggestions about how judicial decisions can lead to certain problems, Prof. Kwesi Aning argued.

According to him, Ghana does not need any report from the US State Department to know things are wrong in the country.

He said for a country that has survived over six decades since gaining independence, Ghana should be bold to tell the US that its report is unacceptable.

We dont need the State Department to tell what we are doing right or wrong. So I think we should dismiss this report with the contempt that it deserves. I think after all these years of independence we should be bold and tell them that this is not right, Prof. Kwesi Aning stressed.

Meanwhile, security analyst Adama Bonaa has also criticised the US for the latest report.

For him, it is baffling that a country that arrests Afghans and locks them up without trial can find fault in another country and cite it for human rights abuses but not address its shortcomings in the same area.

The US arrested people from Afghanistan, locked them up in Guantanamo Bay for years without any trial. The US shouldnt be the one telling us about trial, unfair arrests, and all those things.

Yes, all of us have had the reason to ask the national security and the state security agencies especially when some online media personnel was arrested and their laptops taken from them, detained and eventually released without any charge, questions.

We talk about virtually everything that comes in the media space and so for me, we have a very strong civil society that is acting as a check for the excesses we see in the governance space, Adam Bonaa told TV3.
Convenors of the #FixTheCountry Movement have hinted at taking legal action against the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) should it go ahead to implement the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) despite the Minoritys pending injunction against the rollout.

The Convenors argue that any attempt by the GRA to enforce the E-levy law on May 1, 2022, as planned will amount to contempt of court.

In a letter written to the Commissioner-General of the GRA, the Movement demanded that the Authority is estopped from implementing the E-levy Act 2022 (Act 1075) until a competent Court declares otherwise, adding that the GRA resiles from its intention to commence the implementation of the E-levy.

Some members of the Minority Caucus have gone to the Supreme Court to fight the passage of the E-levy by the Majority side of Parliament, despite the walkout by Minority MPs.

They subsequently filed an injunction on the implementation of the E-levy pending the final determination of the case.

However, the GRA has notified that the tax measure is coming into full force in May, a position the convenors who staged a protest against the E-levy even before its passage, find problematic.

They have thus vowed to use available legal means to stop the GRA.

We indicate our preparedness to take all law-based actions, including direct actions to prevent the violation of the Constitution, as required under Articles 3 and 42 of the 1992 Constitution; to the initiation of contempt proceedings against the Commissioner-General and the Authority should it fail to observe the law, parts of the letter read.

The apex court has scheduled the hearing of the case for May 4, 2022, three days after the planned date for the implementation of the levy.

The Majority Caucus in Parliament has downplayed the Minority's legal action over the passage of the levy.

According to the Majority Caucus, the appropriate parliamentary resolution processes were not followed through by the Minority before heading to court.

Addressing journalists, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, said it behoves the Minority to provide substantial evidence to their claim.

The burden of proof lies on the Minority to go to court and prove their case. No Supreme Court anywhere indulges in processes and procedures relating to Parliament. It is the reason why when they took a vote on the supposed rejection of the budget statement, they pushed for a division. They [Minority] pushed themselves into a labyrinth.

---citinewsroom
The Mpraeso Circuit Court has sentenced a 30-year-old fuel station manager, Ernest Boakye, to 120 months imprisonment in hard labour for stealing GHc398,545 belonging to the company, INFIN Ghana Limited, an oil marketing company.

Boakye, charged with stealing, pleaded not guilty.

The court, presided over by Mr Stephen Kumi, however, after nine months of trial, found him guilty.

The prosecution called four witnesses to make their case but the accused, however, did not call any witness during the trial.

Accused, now convict, in his defence, contended that he did not know how prosecution and the complainant's company arrived at the amount of money stolen.

He prayed the court to furnish him with copies of the audit report and the court obliged.

In sentencing the accused, the court took into consideration mitigating factors such as his age and the remorse displayed in the dock.

However the trial judge noted that it also took "a dim view of the act and conduct of the accused," adding that "there were more extenuating factors that worked against the accused."

He said the accused, instead of being a "responsible and honest employee, by showing exemplary behaviour, he rather, in most despicable and condemnable of circumstances, defrauded and made use of the company's money and staff whom he was to manage their sales.

"The convict has indeed shown to be plainly dishonest character. The court cannot gloss over the fact that the convict committed the act around the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, when most businesses in the country were in distress and had to fold up and many workers lost their jobs.

Through fraudulent acts and dishonest employees, some companies had collapsed, the court said, adding that the accused deserved a custodial sentence to serve as deterrent.

Prosecution said in May, 2021, an administrator of INFIN Ghana Limited detected some discrepancies in the pay-in-slips as against bank statements from the accused person.

Based on that on June 16, 2021, the complainant and other witnesses in the case arrived at Kwahu-Tafo to conduct a routine check and it was discovered that Boakye had dishonestly appropriated cash in the sum of GHC92,457.00, which led to his arrest, prosecution said.

It said Boakye declined to say anything in his caution statement, and on July 5, 2021 the complainant's company dispatched its internal auditor, Harry Gyamfi, to Boakye's station at Kwahu-Tafo to conduct a routine check of sales.

At the end of the auditing conducted in the presence of the accused, it came to light that he had embezzled GHc398,545.00.

GNA
Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye, former Speaker of Parliament, has called for reforms in the appointment and removal of judges in the 1992 Constitution to strengthen the country's judicial system.

Prof Oquaye recommended the appointment of two retired Supreme Court Judges nominated by the Roll of Retired Supreme Court Judges, two Senior Lawyers nominated by the Ghana Bar Association, three other persons nominated from the Christian Council, the Catholic Secretariat and the Muslim Council.

These appointments, he explained, would do a better neutral job than the current structure in the 1992 Constitution.

The former Speaker of Parliament was speaking at the launch of Professor Michael Oquaye Centre for Constitutional Studies in Accra organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs, Ghana.

The Centre, established within the Institute will help address the deficit in the country's Constitution.

The Centre will assist to bring constitutionalism in all the country does, translate the Constitution to the simplest terms and local languages with illustrations.

It will be taught in schools, churches, mosques and civil society generally, to live by the tenets of the Constitution.

Regarding the removal of Judges, Prof Oquaye said the case of Justice Amua Sekyi gave the country the lesson that where the Executive was bent on removing a Judge, it was easier to do so than meets the eye.

If under Article 146 of the Constitution, the President receives a petition for the removal of a Judge, the President should refer the matter to the Chief Justice (CJ).

If the CJ is of the view that there is a Prima Facie case, the CJ sets up a committee to investigate the complaint. Three Supreme Court Judges, two other persons (not Lawyers nor from Council of State or parliament), should make a recommendation to the Chief Justice for the suspension of the judge and forwarded to the President for action, "he said.

On decentralization, the former Speaker of Parliament recommended that one-third of appointments by the President should be left to women, and that political parties should operate at the local level.

He said all Chief Executives of Districts, Municipality and Metropolis should be elected to wean them off executive control and that District Assemblies' elections should be two years away from national elections.

On appointment of Council of State members, he suggested the need to introduce institutional and representation and not allow the President to choose his advisors, because the 1992 Constitution gave the President too much power in the appointment of the members.

We need to adopt the Recommendation of the Committee of Experts which provided that the Council of State shall aid and counsel the President, the Council of Ministers, Parliament and other organs of State in the performance of their functions under the Constitution or under any other law (Section 3(i)), he said.

GNA
The Ghana Police Service has uncovered that some Burkinabe nationals are involved in the violence in Bawku.

Report reaching Headquarters indicate that there is an involvement of some Burkinabe nationals from the Boulgou province in the ongoing conflict in Bawku, part of a Police letter dated April 6 has said.

In a letter from the Police cited by Modernghana News noted that a significant number of Burkinabe fighters were seen retreating to Burkina Faso following an operation by Ghanaian security forces to arrest the perpetrators of violence in the area.

The Police say although the Burkinabe nationals involved in the Bawku conflict may be motivated by tribal ties and financial gains, the security situation in the area could serve as a conduit for Jihadist and violent extremists to infiltrate and radicalize the local populace and advance their course.

As a result, the letter signed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Alex Kwame Safo-Adu, Chief Staff Officer has asked the Upper East Regional Police Command to heighten security in Bawku and along the borders.

Below is a copy of the letter:
China's social insurance system continues to improve

Xinhua) 16:59, April 27, 2022

BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- China has been improving its social insurance system to better support the development of the country.

The balance of the three social insurance funds for basic pension, unemployment and employment injury stood at 7.18 trillion yuan (about 1.09 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of March, said Lu Aihong, spokesperson of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, at a press conference on Wednesday.

The number of participants in the basic pension, unemployment and employment injury insurance schemes was 1.03 billion, 230 million and 280 million, respectively, Lu said.

By 2025, China's basic pension insurance coverage will reach 95 percent, according to a five-year plan released by the ministry last year.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Rio school to make QO-100 ham radio contact with Antarctica Students at Rio's Naval School will make contact via the QO-100 geostationary satellite transponder with the Neumayer III research station in Antarctica



A translation of the post on Brazil's LABRE website reads:



Amateur radio is not just about radio contact between two stations. This is only the crowning of several stages, which begin in technological curiosity, willingness to face challenges, exchange of experiences, experimentation, learning, creativity to overcome barriers and, finally, reach points never reached before. In this spirit, on May 20, the amateur radio station of the Naval School Communications Guild (GCEN), whose call sign is PY1BJN, will make for the first time a bilateral radio contact, through the QO-100 Satellite, with the German Antarctic Station Neumayer, whose call sign is DP0GVN.



This project started in 2020, with the enthusiasm of our friend Tony, PY1AX, Director of Education at LABRE-RJ, in coordination with DK3ZL, "Charly". The radio contact that will take place, where several students will present questions to the Antarctic researchers, is just "the tip of the iceberg", since there were several activities for the preparation and qualification of the Aspirants of the Naval School to get there.



In the search for the integration of radio amateurs with the academic area of that School, several subjects studied there have been interacting to provide subsidies to this activity, such as: languages, in order to improve the expression of each question; astronomy, in the study of the satellite orbit; electronics, with knowledge of satellite communications station components; hydrography and oceanography, to better guide the questions; meteorology, very important in that part of the planet; among others.



Our friend PY2UGO, Hugo, will come from Sao Paulo and will teach the radio amateurs of the Naval School how each unit of the satellite communication station works, as well as the principle of operation of the whole system. Also as a preparation, last year, also by GCEN, a webinar was organized with the Commander Ferraz Antarctic Station, our representative in the Frozen Continent, to deepen knowledge about that region and increase the vision of those who will talk to the Germans. The goal was to have contact via QO-100 last year, but due to a storm that devastated the DP0GNV station, destroying its antennas and seriously damaging the Antarctic base, we were forced to postpone this project. Fortunately, this year everything is reset and working,



The development of projects like this, at the Naval School, has been possible thanks to the synergy created by a group of radio amateurs who, voluntarily, contribute to the Communications Guild of the Naval School. They take knowledge to Aspirants through contests, activations, maintenance of equipment and antennas at the PY1BJN station, and especially the technical training of new radio amateurs, thus generating the opportunity for new young people to join this exciting and educational hobby.



Source LABRE https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Brazil



QO-100 info

https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/geo/eshail-2/
27.04.2022 LISTEN

The Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. Visit www.cdc.gov.

Many countries throughout the world followed the CDC to see how the United States responded to the coronavirus pandemic.

Does the CDC director Rochelle Walensky need to resign her position and find a job stocking shelves at a Walmart store? Did she allow the Teachers Union to influence her decisions? Did she put politics ahead of children? Many called for her resignation, but Walensky stood on a pile of excuses. Is she incompetent or a sellout to the global elites that are working towards the Great Reset? And now she is revamping the CDC  whatever that means.

According to a 2022 article in The New York Times, the CDC withheld critical data on boosters and hospitalizations.

The COVID bureaucracy preaches lies, censors anyone who challenges the lies, and eventually admits the same truths they previously denounced. The following CDC lies were reported by Elle Reynolds, assistant editor, in a 2022 article at The Federalist. The Vaccine Doesnt Prevent Transmission COVID Disproportionately Affects the Vulnerable Death from and

with COVID Arent the Same Thing. Visit www.thefederalist.com.

CDC held COVID data from public, according to a 2022 report on Fox by Laura Ingraham,

First, they both abuse their COVID powers. Now Biden's vaccine mandates which have been repeatedly blocked by our courts, it caused chaos across our economy and throughout the military even. These mandates have made the shortage of health care workers in the United States even worse, and our children have been harmed beyond measure by Biden and his party slavish devotion to the anti-science demands of teachers' unions.

The Vaccine Reaction is a free online subscription journal newspaper published by the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a 501(c)(3)H nonprofit organization. Visit www.thevaccinereaction.org.

The following excerpts were taken from the website about the CDC:

As the Biden administration took office in January 2021, four former CDC directors wrote an opinion piece for NBC News lamenting how the public trust in the CDC has eroded over recent years and optimistically called for changes.

Since the start of the pandemic, the publics trust in U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has waned. It is now widely accepted that the agency has lost a significant amount of credibility. An NBC News poll conducted in January 2022 showed that only 44 percent of Americans trust the CDC while 43 percent do not trust the agency. Another poll by Pew Research conducted in February showed that 60 percent of Americans were confused by the CDCs changing guidelines for COVID-19.

Studies Show Lockdowns Recommended by CDC Didnt Work. A Johns Hopkins University study found the lockdowns had little to no effect on COVID death rates. Why has the CDC failed to recognize natural immunity?

The CDC continued its run of failures as the pandemic proceeded. It promoted arbitrary guidelines based in shoddy science, like the rule calling for six feet of distance between people interacting indoors, which made it maddeningly difficult to reopen schools in the fall of 2020. The agency didn't update that guideline to three feet until March 2021, despite months of evidence indicating that three feet was safe enough, writes Peter Suderman, features editor at Reason, in a 2021 article. Visit www.reason.com.

Neither the CDC nor Biden followed the science saying children are not at risk for COVID. Yes, read that again. A few medial doctors said this from the beginning of the pandemic and many more are leaping off the Anthony Fauci COVID vaccine propaganda policy and jumping onboard the science truth train.

Countries that followed Americas CDC need to jump onboard the science truth train as well.

Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is a syndicated opinion-editorial columnist. She lives in USA.
Police in Kumasi say it has commenced investigations into circumstances that led to the death of a Taxi driver at Breman within the Suame Municipality.

The lifeless body of the 42-year-old was found in his car in the early hours of Monday, April 25. The deceased has been identified as Kwabena Fosu.

The horrible smell from the vehicle drew the attention of residents who later discovered the body in the back seat of the cab.

Residents say the taxi was parked in the neighbourhood since Friday, April 22.

There were drops of bloodstains underneath the Taxi with registration number AS-1808-20.

Crime scene officers from the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ashanti Regional Police Command carried out an assessment and conveyed the body to the morgue.

---3news.com
27.04.2022 LISTEN

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is meeting with health staff in Bawku this week to address problems facing health workers in the midst of the prolonged inter-tribal conflict in the Municipality.

The meeting seeks to get 'run-away' health workers to return to the post to save the gradual collapse of the health system in troubling Bawku.

Some health workers in the municipality have taken advantage of the conflict in the municipality to abandon work.

This has consequently taken a toll on the few available providing health services as they have reached a breakpoint.

As part of efforts to adapt to the ongoing crisis in the municipality to provide health services to the vulnerable especially children and pregnant women, a management decision was taken in a meeting held on the 22nd of April 2022 to meet all staff who are currently not at the post to find out the best way to assist them to work in facilities that are relatively safer for them to work.

The meeting started today and will continue tomorrow at the MHD Conference room.

It is expected that at the end of the two-day engagement, all recalcitrant health workers will be called to order.

Find below the Ghana Health Service letter plus the list of health workers who have vacated their posts:
27.04.2022 LISTEN

The pressure mounting on government to settle the debts of fertilizer suppliers keeps growing.

The recent major stakeholder to have added his voice to the call is the 2014 National Best Farmer, Mr. George Asamoah-Amankwaa. He is urging government to make provision of fertilizers to farmers since the farming season is already close.

In an exclusive interview with Samson Kwame Nyamekye of Hello FM, he said if this problem continues without any stringent measures the probability of experiencing famine in the country is high since the populace will be depending on the depleting stock on the markets.

For him, currently farmers are dire need of the fertilizers and contractors are also not providing due to the debts by government which he said has made many contractors gone bankrupt.

Mr. Asamoah recalled how the previous government from 2014 to 2016 made fertilizers available to the farmers without payments in view of increasing yield however the subsidy system introduced by the current government is making farmers not have access to fertilizer; a situation he said is affecting farming businesses.

In an interview on Hello FMs Boho Biom hosted by Sampson Kwame Nyamekye, the Member of Parliament for Manso Adubia in the Ashanti Region said currently Ghana government likewise any other government is facing financial challenges.

Government is aware, and much effort is being done to find fertilizers for our farmers, he told Sampson.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has openly admitted owing fertilizer suppliers after the contractors distributed fertilizers to farmers under the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme.

According to a Deputy Minister for Agric, Hon Yaw Frimpong Addo, he said government still has arrears to be cleared in 2020 after paying part of the money to these contractors but for 2021 nothing was paid to the suppliers.
The EU said Wednesday it was "prepared" for Moscow to suspend gas supplies to the 27-nation bloc and is planning a "coordinated" response after Russia's Gazprom turned off the taps to Poland and Bulgaria.

"Gazprom's announcement is another attempt by Russia to blackmail us with gas. We are prepared for this scenario. We are mapping out our coordinated EU response," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter.

"Europeans can trust that we stand united and in solidarity with the member states impacted."

Earlier, Gazprom had announced the halt of gas to both Poland and highly dependent Bulgaria after not receiving payment in rubles from the two EU members.

President Vladimir Putin had said last month that Russia would no longer accept payments in currencies other than the ruble in retaliation for the West's economic sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

The war, which is now entering its third month, has laid bare the extent of the EU's dependence on Russian gas, which accounts for 45 percent of its gas imports.

Bulgaria and Poland have both said they will be able to make up the shortfall from other sources.

"We have been working to ensure alternative deliveries and the best possible storage levels across the EU," von der Leyen said in a statement.

"Member states have put in place contingency plans for just such a scenario and we worked with them in coordination and solidarity," she continued.

"A meeting of the gas coordination group is taking place right now."

Von der Leyen slammed the unilateral move by Russia as "unjustified and unacceptable".

"And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier," she added.

"Blackmail"

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on Wednesday described as "blackmail" Russia's decision to halt gas supplies to the EU member.

The move on the part of Russian energy giant Gazprom "is a gross violation of the contract and blackmail... We won't give in to such racketeering," Petkov said, adding that Bulgaria for its part was reviewing all contracts with Gazprom, including the contract for transit through the Balkan country.

Hungary

Meanwhile, deliveries of Russian gas to Hungary, another EU memberstate, continue. The government of Hungary's strongman Viktor Orban agreed to provide for payment in rubles.

"Gas deliveries continue to flow to Hungary on schedule, without obstructions and according to the country's long-term contract with Russia," according to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, who was quoted in Hungary Today.

But other countries that border Russia or the Ukraine may be hit if they don't comply to Russia's demand to pay in Rubles.

Finland and the Baltic states

Gasgrid Finland CEO Olli Sipila told nation broadcaster YLE that "there will be no gas shortage in Finland even if the Russian pipeline is turned off."

Finland is only for 6 percent dependent on Russian gas, and supply from the Baltic states can easily compensate for the loss through the Balticonnector pipeline which connects Finland to supply from Latvia and Lithuania.

The Baltic States themselves already cut Russian gas to protest against Russia's invasion into Ukraine. Lithuania took the lead on 3 April after the discovery of a mass grave of people who appeared to have been tied up before being shot in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv.

"From now on, Lithuania won't be consuming a cubic cm of toxic Russian gas, Ingrida Simonyte, the country's prime minister, wrote on Twitter, hailing her country as the first EU member to refuse Russian gas imports.

"In these circumstances, Russia's demand to pay for gas in rubles is meaningless," added Minister of Energy Dainius Kreivys in a statement, as Lithuania no longer orders Russian gas and no longer plans to pay for it."

Lithuania, which started the process to switch to liquid gas some 14 years ago, currently sources much of its LNG from Norway, the US and Qatar, and says it can serve as an "example" for other EU countries willing to cut gas dependency on Russia.

Slovakia

Slovakia, which has indicated that it may pay rubles for Russian gas, is taking steps to reduce dependency.

We are restricting support for gas-fired condensing boilers in line with the European Commission's efforts to find ways of getting rid of dependence on Russian gas as quickly as possible, Czech Environment Minister Anna Hubackova said, quoted by Euractiv.

Moldova

Moldova is probably the most worried. "We are the most fragile neighbor of Ukraine because we are the country that is most affected and we are the country that has the fewest resources to deal with the situation and the fallout from the war, according to Moldovan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicu Popescu.

The landlocked country is for 100 percent dependent on Russian gas, which flows via Ukraine through Transnistria, a breakaway region that is occupied by elements of the Russian army.

100% of Moldova's gas supply comes from Russia while 80% of electricity comes from the Transnistria region.

The country, which is applying for EU membership, has been careful to avoid Moscow's wrath by not sending military assistance to Ukraine.

Europe's west

Further in the west of the continent, EU countries are less dependent on Russian gas. In France, the debate to become fully Russia-independent flared up after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

France's government spokesman Gabriel Attal said in March that the option "should stay on the table," but added that with France accessing less than 20 percent of its gas from Russia, it is in a better position to say this than other EU countries, such as Germany which has a dependency of around 55 percent).

His remarks coincided with a statement by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, which said it could "erase a huge share of its dependency on Russia by tapping new gas supplies, ramping up reserves for next winter and accelerating efforts to be more energy efficient."

"By the end of this year, we can replace 100 billion cubic metres of gas imports from Russia. That is two-thirds of what we import from them now," EU Commission vice president Frans Timmermans.

With Russia's latest actions, this agenda may need to be speeded up considerably.
27.04.2022 LISTEN

A police officer has allegedly committed suicide in Accra.

The officer allegedly shot himself while on duty on Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at Graphic Road, Abossey Okai, Accra.

The Ghana Police Service has said it is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of the officer.

According to a statement by the Police service, In line with our standard operating procedure, the name and further details of the deceased officer have been withheld and will be communicated after his family has been formally notified of the incident.
Ghanas leading telecommunications company, MTN on Wednesday, April 27, 2022, partnered with Mobile Web Ghana to empower young school girls on cyber security.

The important event is part of activities to mark this months Girls in ICT Day. The day is a day set aside to encourage more girls to do Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses, IT course to be more precise.

In all, 60 young girls drawn from the Ebenezer Methodist Junior High School (JHS) and the Kwabenya Senior High School (SHS) were taken through various processes to open their eyes to the importance of staying safe online.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the capacity building programme, Mrs. Cynthia Mills who is an Economic Empowerment Adviser at the MTN Ghana Foundation stressed that in the midst of the high use of social media by young people, it is crucial to tool school girls on how to protect themselves.

The reason for the girls in ICT is to empower the girls and this years theme is on Access and Safety. There are so many issues in cyberspace in terms of Facebook, WhatsApp, and other platforms. Girls are going through a lot of challenges and they are not aware of some of the Safety issues or where to report them, she said.

Mrs. Cynthia Mills added, So we decided to host this event with Mobile Web Ghana to enlighten the girls and empower them to know what they can do to take care of themselves when on the internet and also use the internet as a means of study because there is so much material that they can get apart from just learning in the classroom.

On her part, the Director of Mobile Web Ghana, Madam Florence Toffa noted that the Girls in ICT Day is important because while we want to make the internet accessible to young girls, we also want them to be safe online.

She advised young girls to stay protected online by using things like strong passwords, going through their settings, making sure the privacy settings are well done, and also using a two-factor authentication methodology to ensure they become safer online.

My advise is that with the internet you can have the good and bad. But we want to encourage them that look, staying safe online depends on you. Dont give out information, numbers, and personal details to people that you dont know. It will be very helpful for your development, Madam Florence Toffa urged the young girls.

Engaging the young school girls, Superintendent Sophia Eva Anim from the Former Police Unit [FPU]) charged beneficiaries of the event to always look out for red flags when interacting with people on social media.

She advised that anytime young girls feel threatened, scared, or feel someone has bad intentions about them, they should immediately walk away.

Superintendent Sophia Eva Anim further admonished girls to never advertise their bodies, especially private parts on social media.

Confidently report what you experience on social media and you dont like so that you receive help. At this age, your focus should be on your books. Control your lust and stay away from the bad things on social media.

We are not saying you shouldnt make friends but what you need are healthy friendships. Let us be careful. If you are feeling threatened by someone on social media please make sure you report it. Report to Police or DOVVSU, she told the young school girls.

For MTN Ghana, this is just one of many engagements with young girls this year as part of its empowerment programme for young girls.

In the coming months, there are plans to visit schools to speak to the larger groups to remind young girls of the benefit of ICT, what they can do, and the careers that they can also go into.
The senior national team, the Black Stars of Ghana will know their group opponents for the 2023 Africa Cup Of Nations [AFCON] qualifiers later tonight.

The draw is scheduled to take place today at 7:30 PM in Johannesburg, South Africa and will be aired on SuperSport.

Ghana, who are aiming to end its 40 years trophy drought have been seeded in Pot 1 with the likes of Senegal, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, DR Congo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and hosts, Cote dIvoire.

12 groups made of four countries will battle it out from Group A to L, with the top two countries securing a ticket to the 2023 Africa Cup Of Nations to be held next year in Ivory Coast.

Kenya and Zimbabwe will be part of this years draw despite the temporary ban imposed on them by FIFA but will be eliminated should the ban persist before the start of the qualifiers.

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations will be hosted in Ivory Coast.
Director-General of State Intelligence Service Major General Suresh Sallay has sent a letter to the Inspector General of Police requesting an impartial inquiry

by Our Defence Affairs Correspondent

Director-General of State Intelligence Service ( SIS) Major General Suresh Sallay has sent a letter to the IGP requesting him to conduct an impartial inquiry into the unfounded allegations made by Member of Parliament Manusha Nanayakkara in Parliament recently. Accordingly, he has informed the Speaker of Parliament to take the necessary action regarding the utterances of baseless and misleading allegations. The letter, as seen by Sri Lanka Guardian, states that the MP fervently abused his parliamentary privileges by personally targeting the head of the prime intelligence arm in Sri Lanka, the SIS.

Major General Suresh Sallay ( File Photo)

While denying all baseless allegations against him levelled by the MP, Major General Suresh Sallay reiterated in the letter that he had nothing to do with the Easter attacks or any form of terrorist activities. It has been 3 years since the attacks, and I have given evidence multiple times before parliamentary and presidential commissions as well as Criminal Investigation Department. There exists no evidence to indicate, imply nor any finding from any investigations to suggest that I am complicit in these attacks. Maj. Gen. Sallay reaffirmed.

He further stated that he was deeply concerned about the repercussions of such baseless allegations. These statements have created an environment where there are credible threats, serious consequences, that puts me and my family at great risk and jeopardizes our safety.

I believe everyone will benefit from an impartial and unbiased investigation into these claims made by Mr. Nanayakkara. I would be much grateful if you could take necessary steps to commence an investigation at your earliest, he added.
April 27, 2022

Politico: "Germany approves tank sales to Ukraine, bowing to pressure"

Did Germany really decide to deliver tanks to the Ukraine?

The German government said Tuesday it will deliver anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine after facing strong pressure at home and abroad to abandon its reluctance to supply heavy weapons to Kyiv. The decision to provide the Gepard tanks, which come from German defense industry stocks, was made at a closed-door government meeting on Monday, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht told reporters at a Ukraine security conference at a U.S. airbase in Ramstein, Germany. There was no immediate information on how many tanks Germany would deliver. The announcement marks a notable shift for Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who as recently as last week was still ruling out sending German tanks to Ukraine, insisting it would make more sense for Eastern NATO countries to give Kyiv old Soviet-era tanks already familiar to the Ukrainian military. Scholz promised Germany would then send those countries replacement German tanks.

I find it amusing how many misunderstand this move. First off - the Gepard (Cheetah) is not a tank as the turret has very little protective armor.

It is a short range (5 km / 3 miles) anti-air system on a tank chassis useful against helicopters, drones and low flying planes.

That Scholz decided to offer these, instead of real tanks or armored infantry carriers as the U.S. and the camouflage-Green party demanded, is a nice way out. It guarantees that the Ukrainians will not be able to use them before the war is over.

The Gepard system with its two 35mm cannons is more than 50 years old but has been upgraded two or three times. The Germany army retired their last one of these in 2010. They have since been held in storage.

I remember them well from my time in the Bundeswehr. While my primary training was as a gunner on a real tank, the Leopard 1A3, two people I knew were trained as gunners for the Gepard. There was a huge difference though. It took 6 months of training to become a reasonably good tank gunner. It took 12 month, including hundreds of hours in a simulator, to become a gunner on a Gepard. The commander role required even more training.

The system was excellent for its time but also really complicate. The two radars have various modes for different purposes. One would better use the right one or risk to attract explosive countermeasures. The startup of the turret systems and the handling of their various error modes that could occur were not easy to handle. The tank chassis is also more complicate than the original one. It has an additional motor which powers five electric generators, two Metadyne rotary transformers and a flywheel to handle the extraordinary fast movements of the turret (2.5 sec for a 360turn).

There are probably less than ten people in the current Bundeswehr who still know how to operate and maintain a Gepard. There is thus little chance to find German crews for them.

If the Ukrainians really want to use these outdated systems they will have to train fresh crews for at least a year. Otherwise those guns will be ineffective and of little use.

My hunch though is that none of these will ever be delivered. The Swiss, who manufactured the cannons and their ammunition, have seen to that:

Neutral Switzerland has vetoed the re-export of Swiss-made ammunition used in Gepard anti-aircraft tanks that Germany is sending to Ukraine, the government said on Tuesday. Germany earlier announced its first delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine to help it fend off Russian attacks following weeks of pressure at home and abroad to do so. The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) confirmed a report by broadcaster SRF that it had blocked Germany from sending munitions for the Gepard tank to Ukraine.

Chancellor Scholz likely knew all that. The offer of Gepards is a safe way to relieve the pressure put onto him to send arms to Ukraine. It is an offer of a system that can not be used within the timeframe of the war and for which he can not deliver the necessary specialized ammunition.

Are there still some Lockheed F-104 Starfighter in German storage? If so those flying coffins should be offered next.

Posted by b on April 27, 2022 at 10:24 UTC | Permalink

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NEW YORK (AP)  From joking on the Ozark set with Jason Bateman, to getting show notes from Stephen Sondheim, Katrina Lenks career has hit a sweet spot.

The actor is in the enviable position of starring in the popular Netflix show and the hit Broadway musical Company simultaneously. Lenk plays Clare Shaw, the head of a family-owned pharmaceutical company with some shady dealings on Ozark, which begins airing the last seven episodes of the series April 29.

Lenk said shooting the final season of Ozark took an entire year due to pandemic delays, but she was grateful to have a job when Broadway shut down. Once theater started up again, the Tony-winning actor returned to star in Company as Bobbie, a single woman surrounded by married friends and contemplating commitment on her 35th birthday. Before he died in 2021, Sondheim was on hand to help update the revival  changing the main character from male to female.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Lenk discusses the Ozark set mood, gratitude for Broadway's return and why she loves rehearsal. Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: What was it like joining the cast of "Ozark" for the last season?

LENK: I had been obsessed with the show before and was a big fan so then to get to step onto the casino set, or drive past Marty and Wendys house was super surreal. But it was a fantastic vibe on set and very professional. Everyone knows what theyre doing and its very friendly and open and relaxed, and celebratory as well, because everyone knew this was the last season, so nothing was being taken for granted. It was really wonderful.

AP: How was working with Ozark stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney?

LENK: Theyre wonderful and warm and generous, and you feel like instantly one of the family. Jasons cracking jokes and just keeping the feeling sort of light on set. And hes kind of how you would imagine he would be, just great.

AP: Describe the first preview show for Company after theater reopened post-lockdown?

LENK: Theres still that huge sense of gratitude, and definitely not taking it for granted that we get to do this thing that we love doing. Our first preview particularly was one of those moments that I dont think any of us will forget. The audience came in with such energy and seemed like they were super appreciative and excited to be there and share this moment with other people. And we were so happy to be there to get to share it with a live audience. And it was just this huge celebration of live theater and that sense of connection with other human beings, and that continues to happen.

AP: Stephen Sondheim came to the show opening less than two weeks before he died  how was that?

LENK: We got to hang out with him a little bit afterwards, and he was just smiling and so happy and pleased, and I think thrilled with the show and also just the response to his show. What a thing to be a part of, for us to share this with him and for him to hear all of the appreciation for his work in the audience. And he said to us afterwards something like, This is a kind of a once-in-a-lifetime night. This is an experience to cherish. When things are getting rough  and theyre not always going to be like this  when things are hard and you feel like, Why am I doing this? or just kind of feel downtrodden, remember this. Cherish this. Wise words.

AP: Did he ever give you notes on your performance?

LENK: During the process, he did come to rehearsals a couple of times and when he would give notes, he was very specific. Even a small little thing, then you would do the note and then, of course, he was right, and that just opened up all kinds of other things from just a tiny, detailed note. He was always so interested in improving whatever was there and his own work He was involved in the slight changes that we did in the script and the modifications. He was part of the whole production he was a collaborator in this revival, which is a really wonderful thing.

AP: Whats the biggest difference between working in theater and TV?

LENK: Something I still havent quite figured out how to master is the waiting that is required. When you are on set, you get there for your call and sometimes you might be there for five, six hours before you get to do the work. On stage, you get there at this time and youre going to be in rehearsal, so managing energy during the waiting and also managing the energy during takes  like knowing when to be fully there and when to ease up so that you can be there later.

AP: When do you feel most yourself?

LENK: In rehearsal, I think. I love rehearsal. I love exploring things and trying things out and getting inspired by other people who are in the scenes with you, or even just watching someone elses work and that sort of exploratory investigative stuff. I just I get a real kick out of it.
HONOLULU (AP)  Police charged a man with murder after finding a badly burned body in a car in a remote part of Hawaii's Big Island over the weekend.

Ammon Kaipo Spencer Stanley, 35, was being held on $1.01 million bail. Stanton Oshiro, the court-appointment attorney listed for Stanley in court records, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.
BEIJING (AP)  Drone company DJI Technology Co has temporarily suspended business activities in Russia and Ukraine to prevent use of its drones in combat, in a rare case of a Chinese company pulling out of Russia because of the war.

DJI is internally reassessing compliance requirements in various jurisdictions. Pending the current review, DJI will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine, the company said in a statement released Tuesday.

Many Western brands and companies have withdrawn from the Russian market due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, but Chinese firms have kept operating there. Beijing has refrained from publicly criticizing Russia over the war.

Both Ukraine and Russia are thought to be using DJI drones in combat, even though the company maintains that its products are intended for civilian use.

Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Federov wrote an open letter last month appealing to DJI to block sales of its drones in Russia, contending that Russian troops were using DJI products in Ukraine in order to navigate their missiles to kill civilians."

The AeroScope system installed in DJI drones allows the detection and monitoring of other drones and their operators in the vicinity via special receivers. The worry is that Russians might be using the AeroScope system to attack Ukraine drone pilots.

DJI has rejected claims that it leaked data on Ukraines military positions to Russia, after German retailer Mediamarkt cited Russias use of DJI drones in the war as a reason it removed the company's products from its shelves.

Last week, DJI said in a statement that its drones are not marketed or sold for military use. It said it unequivocally opposed attempts to attach weapons to its products.

We will never accept any use of our products to cause harm, and we will continue striving to improve the world with our work, the company said.

Another Chinese business, ride hailing company Didi Global, reversed a decision to withdraw from Russia after it was blasted by members of the Chinese public for bowing to pressure from the West.
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SAO PAULO (AP)  Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro is once again at odds with the country's Supreme Court, pardoning a congressman who had just been convicted by high court justices for urging violence against one of them.

Justices may review the pardon, and the case threatens to become an institutional crisis as Bolsonaro is gearing up to seek a second term.

CONVICTION AND PARDON

In a nearly unanimous vote, Brazils top court on April 20 sentenced freshman lawmaker Daniel Silveira to almost nine years in prison for inciting physical attacks against Supreme Court justices  particularly Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presides over a separate investigation into the dissemination of fake news that had already led to a conviction of Silveira.

May the people enter the Supreme Court, grab Alexandre de Moraes by his collar, shake his egghead and throw him in a garbage can, Silveira said in a broadcast on social media in February 2021.

The day after Silveira's conviction, Bolsonaro issued a decree pardoning him, citing the right to free speech. Three opposition parties have challenged the decree, claiming Brazils constitution doesn't allow pardons based on personal motives, such as protecting an ally.

Brazilian presidents traditionally issue year-end pardons based on studies by legal experts at the Justice Ministry. Those have been criticized for freeing corrupt politicians along with other people convicted of nonviolent crimes. But it's almost unheard of to pardon a specific presidential ally in the way that U.S. leaders have sometimes done in cases such as those of Richard Nixon (by Gerald Ford), Marc Rich (by Bill Clinton) or Steve Bannon (by Donald Trump).

And Bolsonaro's move was especially provocative, according to Francisco Caputo, a constitutional law expert and member of the national council of Brazils bar association. The way this one was written, mentioning he was trying to correct the Supreme Court, is defiant. Bolsonaros decree says he had better understanding of the case than the countrys top court.

A commission of Brazils bar association on Wednesday said that Bolsonaros pardon is unconstitutional as it is not in the public interest. The commission also said it was biased and lacking in morality.

WHY MIGHT THIS ESCALATE?

The far-right president has long accused court justices  most of whom were confirmed during past leftist administrations  of trying improperly to frustrate his policies, and he has tried to stir up public opposition to them.

He rallied nationwide demonstrations in September in which protesters shouting Let's invade! pushed past police containment barriers at the Supreme Court, prompting justices to beef up their personal security.

Bolsonaro has been especially resentful of de Moraes, who will assume the presidency of the nations top electoral court later this year  overseeing the upcoming presidential election. Last September, he threatened to ignore rulings by the justice, though he never did so.

Four of the justices, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to avoid further inflaming tensions, said they worry Bolsonaro could incite more violent demonstrations against the judiciary if they annul his pardon of Silveira.

An annulment may be a possibility in a Brazilian system whose courts appear to be more willing to intervene in pardon decisions than U.S. judges are.

HOW ARE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES RESPONDING?

So far, the Supreme Courts justices havent publicly challenged the legality of Bolsonaros pardon, though at least two have written that the pardon will be reviewed by the court, though no date for that has been set. One of them, Rosa Weber, ruled Monday that that Bolsonaro's administration must provide justification for the pardon within 10 days.

The other, de Moraes, wrote in a document sent to Silveira's defense team on Tuesday that the pardon, while wiping away his jail time, would not free him to run for another congressional term.

Further stoking tensions between the executive and the judiciary, Justice Luis Roberto Barroso said during an April 24 speech that the armed forces are being directed to attack the (electoral) process and try to discredit it. He was referring to military leaders who had publicly echoed Bolsonaro's doubts about the reliability of Brazil's voting system.

HOW IS BOLSONARO'S ADMINISTRATION REACTING?

Brazils Defense Ministry, which oversees the armed forces, issued a statement saying Barrosos comments were irresponsible and constitute a grave offense."

The issue of the military's role hangs over the conflict in part because Bolsonaro has often praised the 1964 coup that put Brazil under military control until 1985. Bolsonaros hard-core supporters frequently call on him to use a constitutional clause that lets presidents deploy the armed forces to enforce law and order alongside police and other agencies.

Some have suggested troops should be used against the court in some way, though experts overwhelmingly say that would be unconstitutional.

With elections set for October, Bolsonaro has frequently attacked the reliability of the electronic voting machines and claimed the race will be rigged unless there are printed receipts for voters, though experts say there's no evidence for that. Brazil's electoral authority oversees the electronic system, and includes some Supreme Court justices among its members.

Two of Bolsonaros Cabinet ministers as well as one close ally told the AP that the president has been privately discussing the possibility of invoking the constitutional clause to deploy the armed forces because of Supreme Court actions that have impeded or undermined his decisions, though it isnt clear what exactly the purpose would be. Two of them said they have relayed that information to Supreme Court justices. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they arent authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

___

Alvares reported from Brasilia.
Marilyn Nieves/Getty Image

A former Monahans businessman was ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution for failure to pay withholding taxes, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office Western District of Texas.

George Wayne Johnson, 74, of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, was the owner of Wayne Welding Services in Monahans, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office. From 2015-18, Waynes Welding Services withheld tax payments from its employees paychecks but failed to pay the $1.308 million in required payroll tax to the IRS, according to the news release.
Bjoern Wylezich / TNS

A Monahans man was sentenced to around 10 years for being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the United States Attorneys Office Western District of Texas.

Jacob Lyon, 29, was found guilty on Dec. 13, 2021, according to a news release. Lyon was previously convicted for prior felonies, including armed robbery, theft of a firearm and burglary of a habitation. On May 28, 2020, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted a consensual search of Lyons Monahans residence.
George P. Bush is a man with work to do if he is going to unseat Ken Paxton as the Republican nominee for attorney general.

On March 1, Bush claimed nearly half the votes of Paxton in the partys primary  823,199 to 439,240. However, Paxton reached 42.71 percent of the vote, well short of the threshold needed to avoid a May 24 runoff.

In Midland County, Bushs work is even greater. Paxton collected 49.5 percent of 14,721 votes from Republicans here. Bush finished a distant third.

But Bush did have his ticket to the runoff punched, and he has the 1-on-1 matchup versus Texas attorney general coming up. And just like the primary race, he will take his message to the people of Midland even if Paxton wont join the fray.

I kind of joke to Republican Party clubs that he's running a Joe Biden-style campaign and they're enjoying that line, Bush said prior to his meeting with Midlands chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly. But, you know, the way I'm running this campaign is running uncontested, basically throughout the state of Texas, whether it's with RNHA today or other grassroots clubs throughout Texas, we have yet to see him or his campaign emerge.

The same was true when Paxton no-showed the Ector County GOP debate prior to the primary at the Wagner Noel. Bush, Eva Guzman and Louie Gohmert took the stage, answering questions for nearly an hour. The most recent Paxton visits to Midland included welcoming President Trump during the presidents 2020 visit to the Permian Basin and then a tour of the migrant camp inside Midland County in 2021.

I think it's a really a sad statement that he literally believes that he's above the law, whether it's his court filings on his FBI investigation defense, or the three felony counts that he faces in Harris County, Bush said, but running a campaign that doesn't engage fellow conservatives and assumes that he has their vote. And I think it's going to come back and cost them on election night.

A New York Times article published prior to the primary election stated that Paxton has been facing state charges of felony securities fraud since 2015, stemming from his time as a member of the Texas House during which, prosecutors have said, he directed investments to a firm without disclosing he would be compensated for doing so.

Paxton has denied the charges and said the prosecution was politically motivated, the article added.

The article then mentioned that several of Mr. Paxtons top aides in 2020 accused the attorney general of bribery and abuse of power in connection with his actions on behalf of a real estate developer and campaign donor.

Paxtons legal issues was something Guzman addressed during a visit to Midland in September.

Would you hire someone who's indicted and facing a serious FBI investigation? Guzman said, although not mentioning Paxtons name.

Bush said there is an opportunity to rebuild the Attorney Generals Office with the type of talent that can help rebuild the lines of communication with local district attorneys around the state.

County DAs used to have a direct line to their AG to confront capital crimes, human trafficking cases, voting fraud, and that level of trust is gone, Bush said. Ken has managed to lose trust not only with county DAs, but with the people of Texas and with the legislature.

And so, when I've been campaigning, and as you saw in the (Wagner Noel) debate, people are really concerned about voting fraud, about critical race theory, about the future of education and border security, but none of these challenges can get done, because nobody will invest the authority necessary to take it on with the current occupants. So, he's abusing the office for his own personal gain, knowing that his advice from his lawyer probably is to stay in office for as long as you can to get the best plea agreement with federal attorneys, assuming an indictment flows after the political process.

Bush, the current land commissioner, has won statewide in Texas. And he campaigns for the runoff trying to collect as much of the 34.5 percent of the primary vote that went to Guzman or Gohmert. He also seeks to show himself as the face of GOP diversity as the lone Hispanic statewide officeholder.

He told the Reporter-Telegram the counties he carried were mostly south of San Antonio and along the border, counties that are Republicans are gaining strength as demonstrated by the 2020 presidential election. He said border security is a big part of his message.

I'm the son of a legal immigrant who honors the process, Bush said. But the criminality that we're seeing on the border is now creating a frustrating situation among Hispanics, whether they're Republican or Democrat. And we're seeing  folks are ready to vote, not only their values in a primary runoff as Republicans where we saw almost a (doubling of the) turnout in counties like Hidalgo County and Cameron County but also to do so in the general election.

So look, Hispanics will not gravitate toward Ken Paxton as the nominee. If anything, he's going to repel them and actually think maybe twice about coming over to the Republican Party.
Kantar Opens First Technology & Innovation Hub in Porto

Kantar is opening its first Global Technology & Innovation (GTI) Hub, in Porto in the north of Portugal, where it plans to fill 150 data and software engineering roles this year, extending this to 400 during the next four years.



The new GTI Hub will initially focus on recruiting data and software engineers to work on Kantar's Marketplace on-demand research platform, as well as in the Global Security and Infrastructure Transformation teams. In the medium term, capabilities will be expanded for Porto to serve as a centre of expertise for cloud and infrastructure engineering and application support; and Porto will also serve as the base for Kantar's 'digital nomad' community of senior technologists.



Commenting on the news, Chief Technology Officer Alex Cesar said: 'Advanced technology is core to Kantar's product roadmap and our growth ambitions, and I am dedicated to making Kantar the employer of choice for tech professionals. Our selection of Porto for our first Global Technology & Innovation Hub, is an important step in achieving that goal. It is a beautiful place to live and work, and it provides us access to a growing pool of tech talent close to the business they support.'



Web site: www.kantar.com .




U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer holds up a copy of the U.S. Constitution as he announces he will retire at the end of the court's current term, at the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 27, 2022.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attend a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on October 9, 2019.
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NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A 3-year-old girl was fatally shot inside a house in New Orleans' French Quarter on Tuesday afternoon, and investigators were questioning her teenage brothers, police said.

Detectives don't know whether the shooting was accidental, Capt. Hans Ganthier, commander of the 8th Police District, said during a brief news conference.
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It was an ag-ucational day Tuesday for fourth-graders of Morgan and Cass counties schools as they left the classroom and headed to the farm.

Though they weren't plowing fields or mucking stalls, the students learned about farming, farmers and some of the things they do on a daily basis.

Students who participate in the Ag in the Classroom program through their fourth-grade class took the trip to the farm, where they also learned about animals, equipment, seeds and crops.

Hadden Farm saw more than 100 kids visit on Tuesday, with another 300 or so set to visit before the week is done.

"Without farming, we wouldn't be able to survive," said Lisa Hadden, ag literacy coordinator with Cass-Scott Farm Bureau. "Farmers contribute to everything. Even a vegan needs farming, they need rubber tires to drive. When we process an animal, every single part is used."

For more than 25 years, Hadden Farm has been opened up as an educational opportunity for students.

Students rotated stations, learning about the animals and some of the products they produce, including milk, meat and leather. They also learned about seeds, grain bin safety and equipment used on a farm.

For many, the animals were a big hit.

A steer, a cow and her two calves, sheep, pigs and a donkey were all available for students to pet and learn about.

Lydia Stice, a fourth-grader at A-C Central Elementary School, said she felt she learned a lot about the animals.

"I think I liked the cow with the two calves; I really liked seeing the babies," Lydia said. "I learned that cows can have up to four babies at a time."

Kassie Sellers, also a fourth-grader at A-C, also liked the calves and their mom but said she also found the other stations educational.

"I like learning about agriculture," Kassie said. "I learned that straw can have alfalfa in it."

For some, this is the first opportunity they have to be around farm animals, Hadden said.

"We consider Jacksonville a rural community but, going into the classrooms, many of the kids have never seen these animals up close or in person," Hadden said.

This is the first year they've been able to hold the farm tour since 2019 because of COVID-19, and it wasn't clear until after mid-March whether they'd be able to have it this year, Hadden said.

"We had to wait until after spring break to make sure the numbers didn't go up," she said.

Even if they choose not to go into an ag-related field, it's important for students to learn the basics of agriculture, Hadden said.

And, while the students visited the farm Tuesday, Hadden said she wants to teach the kids that they don't have to work on a farm to work in the agriculture field.

"There are so many different careers related to agriculture," she said. "You don't have to grow up on a farm or be a farmer."

Updated April 28, 2022, to correct spelling of Rosalyn Rsheed's name in photo.
PhotoAlto/James Hardy/Getty Images/PhotoAlto

CHICAGO (AP)  A man has been charged with stealing a Chicago Fire Department ambulance and leading police on an 80-mile (128-kilometer) chase.

The 46-year-old Chicago man entered the ambulance as it sat empty and parked on the street outside a fire station around 4:40 p.m. Monday, police said.
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TOKYO (AP)  The head of the company that operated a tourist boat that sank off northern Japan with 26 people aboard said Wednesday he approved the trip despite a broken communication device and forecasts of rough weather, as officials investigated previous accidents involving the company.

The sightseeing boat Kazu 1 with two crew was taking 24 passengers, including two children, on a scenic tour of Shiretoko National Park on the northeastern side of Hokkaido, Japans northernmost main island, when it sent a distress call Saturday afternoon saying it was sinking.

The area, near Kashuni Waterfall, is a difficult place to maneuver because of its rocky coastline and strong tide.

Rescuers on Sunday located 11 bodies, including that of a 3-year-old girl, but have not found the boat. Experts say the missing people may have been trapped inside the vessel.

Seiichi Katsurada, president of the tour boat company, knelt on the floor at a news conference to apologize. We caused a disastrous accident, and Im very sorry, he said.

He said he approved the captains plan to proceed with the tour despite predictions of 3-meter (10-foot) waves in the afternoon, because waters at their home port were calm in the morning. He said the tour plan could be changed by the captain if the weather worsened.

Looking back, it was the wrong decision, he said.

Katsurada said a wireless device at the companys office was broken and the boat lacked a satellite phone, making communications between the vessel and the company difficult. But he said he thought the captain could use his cellphone and that staff of other boat operators could help with communications.

However, the boat was alone on Saturday afternoon because local fishermen canceled their operations because of the high wind and wave warnings, while the three other cruise companies hadn't started their season yet.

The Transport Ministry said the boats operator, Shiretoko Pleasure Cruiser, had two accidents last year, including one that involved the captain of the sunken boat, Noriyuki Toyoda. The ministry said it is looking into the company's safety standards and its decision to go ahead with the tour despite the expected rough weather.

The coast guard said it is gathering evidence of suspected professional negligence in the accident.

Witnesses say ownership of the company changed and most of its veteran crewmembers resigned. Katsurada said he took over the company from a relative five years ago and used to have up to a dozen crew, but now has only a few captains and deck crew including Toyoda, who was previously an amphibious vehicle driver and was still new to the tricky Shiretoko coast.

Koya Sugawara, head of Dolphin, another tour boat operator, said the Shiretoko waters require a difficult maneuver by boats as they approach the rocky coastline while avoiding salmon fish nets. He told NHK public television that Katsurada's company often ignored a cooperation agreement among the four local tour companies for safety and operated alone.

An employee of another tour boat company who communicated from his office by radio with the Kazu 1 as it began having trouble described growing panic.

At first, the captain, Toyoda, calmly said his boat was near the waterfall and his return to port would be delayed, the employee told the Asahi newspaper. About 10 minutes later, the captain desperately ordered the other crewmember to "Get everyone to put on a life jacket!

Toyoda then said the boat was taking on water and might sink and its engine had stalled, and the employee said he made an emergency call to the coast guard to request a rescue.
U.S. regulators are calling on Amazon to improve its procedures for dealing with severe weather like hurricanes and tornadoes that could threaten workers at its warehouses dotted across the country.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Tuesday sent a Hazard Alert Letter to the Seattle-based e-commerce giant on Tuesday following the agency's investigation into the deadly collapse of a company warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois in December. Six people died and another was critically injured in the tornado strike.

The investigation raised concerns about the potential risk to employees during severe weather emergencies, according to the letter sent to Amazon that OSHA made public.

The agency said its inspection found that, while the companys severe weather procedures had met minimal federal safety guidelines for storm sheltering, the company still needed to further protect its workers and contract employees. The letter requires Amazon to review its severe weather emergency procedures but the company wont face any fines or penalties.

In interviews with Amazon and contract workers, OSHA officials found some employees couldnt recall ever participating in severe weather drills, or the location of the facilitys shelter. Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, however, said employees receive emergency response training, which is reinforced throughout the year.

OSHAs investigation did not find any violations or causes for citations, but were constantly looking to innovate and improve our safety measures and have already begun conducting additional safety and emergency preparedness drills at our sites and will carefully consider any OSHA recommendation that we have not already, Nantel said.

Amazon has noted workers at the warehouse, known as a delivery station, had little time to prepare when the National Weather Service declared a tornado warning on December 10. About 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, the agency said managers directed workers to go to a restroom in response to tornado warnings and other weather alerts.

But some employees unaware of the designated tornado shelter  a restroom located in the northern portion of the building  went to a separate restroom in the hard-hit south end, the agency said. All the injured and killed had taken shelter in the south side bathroom.

John Felton, Amazons senior vice president of global delivery services, had said in December that most of the 46 people in the warehouse headed to a shelter on the north side while a smaller group went to the south end, where the loading docks were located and delivery vehicles were parked.

The tornado that hit our delivery station was extreme and very sudden, with winds that were much like the force of a category 4 hurricane, and we believe our team did the right thing, moving people to shelter as soon as the warning was issued, Nantel said.

In the inspection, the agency said it also reviewed contractor safety and training records as well as the facility's written Emergency Action Plan. Officials took issue with the plan, writing in the letter it was not customized with specific instructions for hazards expected at the Edwardsville site.

Though Amazon had posted evacuation maps at the facility showing the location of the designated shelter, officials found the written plan did not specifically identify the shelter's location in the warehouse. Nantel said the company's buildings have emergency plans that identify exit routes and shelter areas.

Separately, officials said a megaphone that was supposed to activate the sites shelter-in-place procedure was locked in a cage and not accessible, resulting in managers verbally telling workers on where to take shelter.

These tragic deaths have sparked discussions nationwide on the vital need for comprehensive workplace emergency plans, William Donovan, OSHAs regional administrator in Chicago, said in a statement. Employers should re-evaluate their emergency plans for the safest shelter-in-place locations and prepare before an emergency to ensure workers know where to go and how to keep themselves safe in the event of a disaster.

The agency has recommended Amazon makes its warning devices readily accessible, ensures all employees participate in drills for emergency weather events and include site-specific information in its emergency plans. It said it will also send hazard alert letters to three delivery service providers, who employed the injured worker and five of the employees who died.
A project providing saturated law enforcement efforts in nine locations statewide, including Cass County, has resulted in 85 arrests for such offenses as driving under to the influence and sexual abuse.

Illinois State Police said that since its start in October, the program Project Safe Neighborhood has conducted 27 details. State police worked with law enforcement agencies in Peoria and Champaign and in Hancock, Cass, Coles, Christian, Sangamon, Vermilion and Moultrie counties.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)  Syrian air defenses were active early Wednesday as Israel fired several surface-to-surface missiles at military positions near the capital, Damascus, state media reported. There was no immediate word on casualties.

State media quoted an unidentified Syrian military official as saying that the missiles were fired from northern Israel shortly after midnight and that most of them were shot down. It added that the military was still looking into the results of the aggression.
PITTSFIELD  Two people have been arrested on drug and other charges after a search of a Pittsfield residence.

A search warrant was executed Thursday at a house in the 500 block of North Dutton Street, Pittsfield Police Chief Michael Starman said.
Produce and Bakery Giveaway: 9 a.m., noon, Jacksonville Food Center, 316 E. State St. Free | For Morgan County residents.

Story Time: 10 a.m., Jacksonville Public Library, 201 W. College Ave. Free | Stories and a craft. For more information, call 217-243-5435 or email clangdon@jaxpl.org.

Flower Sale: 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Knights of Columbus, 320 E. State St. Prices vary. | Presented by Morgan County Right to Life. Variety of plants and planters. For pre-orders, call Evelyn Gonzalez at 217-243-4940 or 217-473-2234.

Boyd Healthcare Services Lunch and Learn: 11:30 a.m., Knights of Columbus Hall, U.S. 67, Carrollton. | Featured speaker R. Mapue, M.D., will present "COVID-19 the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

Free Noon Meal: 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., The Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. | Meals in to-go containers can be picked up at side door.

Walking for Wellness: 12:30-3 p.m., First Christian Church, 2106 S. Main St. Free | Indoor walking program offered year-round Monday-Thursday. For more information, call 217-243-6445.

Commodity Food Distribution: 1:15 p.m., The Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. Free | For income-eligible residents of Morgan County. Bring proof of residence and a box for food.

Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen: 3:30-4 p.m., Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen, 105 E. Dunlap St. Free | Serving meals to go for anyone in need.

County Line Dance Club Class: 6:30 p.m., The Hangout Bar & Grill, 901 W. Superior Ave. $5.

Thursday

Produce and Bakery Giveaway: 9 a.m.-noon, Jacksonville Food Center, 316 E. State St. Free | For Morgan County residents.

JACIL KIP Cafe: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living, 15 Permac Road. | Marilyn Webster, financial trainer from the National Disability Institute, discusses programs. Lunch at 11:30 a.m. Program at noon. For reservations, call Lisa at 217-245-8371 by April 26.

Free Noon Meal: 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., The Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. | Meals in to-go containers can be picked up at side door.

Walking for Wellness: 12:30-3 p.m., First Christian Church, 2106 S. Main St. Free | Indoor walking program offered year-round Monday-Thursday. For more information, call 217-243-6445.

Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen: 3:30-4 p.m., Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen, 105 E. Dunlap St. Free | Serving meals to go for anyone in need.

Chess Club: 6 p.m., Jacksonville Public Library, 201 W. College Ave. | For more information, go to jaxpl.org or call 217-243-5435.

White Lightnin': 7 p.m., Curve Inn, 3219 S. Sixth Street Road, Springfield. | Live music.

Comedian Ron White: 7:30 p.m., UIS Performing Arts Center, 1 University Plaza, Springfield. Tickets $49-$95 | For tickets and more information, go to uispac.com or call 217-206-6160. For mature audiences.

"You on the Moors Now": 7:30 p.m., Illinois College Sibert Theatre, 1101 W. College Ave. IC faculty and staff $5, IC students free. | For reservations, call 217-245-3471 or go to ic.edu/theatre.
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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 8-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 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 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 we're 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 the Romans tore down ancient Carthage, brick by brick, and sold its people into slavery in 146 B.C., 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.
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In this world, nothing can be said to be certain but death and taxes.

That quote is often attributed to Ben Franklin or Mark Twain, but whoever said it, no truer words have ever been spoken.

I filed my annual income tax extension on April 18, the last day of this year I was able to do so.

Every year, I vow to get my tax receipts in order and to my CPA by early March, and every year I dont and must file an extension.

To make the task easier for me, my CPA set up a Quicken account that allows me to record in real time every check that comes in and every expense that goes out.

But I dont use that convenient tool as I should, either  and I never know for certain how much money Ill receive back from the IRS or have to pay until October, when my 2021 return is finally due.

Taxes are on my mind all year long, regrettably, and it seems in one form or another they are always due.

I can always sense when its tax-paying time: Its when I start to save a little money and enjoy, wrongly, the exhilarating sense that I am finally getting financially ahead.

In the autumn I have to pay taxes on my house and the handful of rental properties Ive been able to scrape together  and the taxes are sizable.

Then when spring rolls around I have to write a massive check to the IRS and be reminded that my silent business partner, the federal government, always gets its cut of my income.

Most people agree that some taxes are necessary and some government is necessary  but Id be a lot happier if our federal government were half as big and my taxes were half as much.

The truth is, despite a record windfall in federal tax revenue  its up 26% over the first five months of fiscal 2022  Washington is currently spending $2 trillion more than its taking in.

The more revenue thats sucked into D.C., the more the politicians in charge there want to spend it  and the more they want to raise taxes to do so.

The Biden administration is proposing $2.5 trillion in tax increases over 10 years, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Our national debt already stands at an incomprehensible $30 trillion, yet we keep spending with abandon and ignore the advice of genuine leaders who worried about our spendthrift ways long ago.

As we peer into society's future, we  you and I, and our government  must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.  Dwight D. Eisenhower

Well, Ike, we sure could use more leaders like you today  both Democrat and Republican  who see reckless government spending for what it is: robbing future generations to subsidize the current generation.

All I know is that though I can extend filing my tax return until October, I still had to pay my estimated taxes by April 18, 2022  which meant, as usual, I had to dramatically downsize my savings account.

Thats why taxes are always on my mind.
Nigeria buries remains after illegal refinery blast View Photo

OHAJI-EGBEMA, Nigeria (AP)  Remains of more than 100 workers and traders who died after an illegal refinery exploded in southeast Nigeria were buried on Tuesday in an official ceremony after an incident that shocked the region.

Nigerias National Emergency Management Agency said at least 110 people had died in Fridays explosion though officials believe the casualty figure could be higher.

As the days go by, most people who think their siblings travelled will now realize maybe they are victims of this (explosion), said Marcel Amadioha, chairman of the Ohaji-Egbema local government area where the illegal refinery operated.

Nigeria is Africas largest producer of crude oil and illegal refineries and oil bunkering activities have plagued the continents most populous nation for years.

Illegal refineries are very widespread in the West African nation mainly as a result of the collapse of the system (with) poor security system and the lack of care for the pipelines, said Nnimo Bassey, director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation environmental group in Nigeria.

Nigerias security forces are still hunting for two suspects who have been blamed by authorities for the explosion. However, local officials, including chairman Amadioha, have accused security agencies of sabotage in the incident, saying they work with the operators of illegal refineries.

They were so loose that the illegal bunkers will come here in their numbers without any kind of threat, not feeling like the police or security agencies will come, the council chairman said of the security agencies. There are some of them who are collaborators, who are sabotaging the efforts of the real ones trying to make sure this illegal bunkering stops.

Nigerias police and military did not immediately respond to an inquiry for comments.

Tuesdays event was a hurried but solemn burial that had been delayed for four days since the explosion on Friday as local authorities made efforts to arrange for vital equipment such as excavators.

Many of the victims bodies had been carried away and buried by families with just about 50 left at the refinery site for Tuesdays mass burial, according to Bright Onyenwoke, a youth leader. My heart bleeds, he told The Associated Press.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the nations security forces to intensify the clampdown on such facilities being operated illegally in many parts of southern Nigeria, but there are concerns it would be a difficult task given insecurity in the area and a high rate of poverty.

In Imo state, many of those who worked at the refinery site did so out of frustration, according to youth leader Onyenwoke, who said the communities in the area are being marginalized despite having dozens of oil wells.

There is no good road, no good water, no electricity, he said, so, the means of survival here is hard, adding that sometimes taking part in illegal businesses becomes preferable.

Oramaru Kwintus with Nigerias disaster management agency said that authorities will embark on more sensitization of the youths on the dangers of these dangerous activities.

By CHINEDU ASADU

Associated Press
Sudan frees ex-officials in effort to end political impasse View Photo

CAIRO (AP)  Sudanese authorities released two outspoken former government officials from jail, lawyers said Wednesday, part of trust-building measures amid efforts to end the countrys political impasse.

Sudan has been plunged into turmoil since an October military coup upended its short-lived transition to democracy after three decades of repressive rule by former strongman Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir and his Islamist-backed government were removed in a popular uprising in April 2019.

Khalid Omar, a former minster of Cabinet affairs, was released late Tuesday and Mohammed al-Faki Suliman, a former member of the ruling Sovereign Council, walked free from a prison in the capital of Khartoum on Wednesday, their defense team said.

The Criminal Court in northern Khartoum rejected the prosecutors request to renew their detention pending investigation into an array of vague charges, including betrayal of public trust, according to their lawyers. The court cited insufficient evidence to keep them in custodu, they said.

Both Omar and Suliman had been detained along with dozens of other officials during the Oct. 25 coup and were released a month later as part of a deal between the military and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. The premier resigned in January after failing to bridge the gap between the generals and the protest movement.

The two men were rearrested in February amid a crackdown by the generals on anti-coup groups. Dozens of activists were also detained amid relentless protests against the militarys takeover.

The crackdown on protesters killed more than 90 people, mostly young men, and injured thousands, according to a Sudanese medical group.

Suliman was also deputy head of a government-run agency tasked with dismantling the legacy of al-Bashirs regime. The agency is known as The Committee to Dismantle the Regime of June 30, 1989  a reference to the Islamist-backed coup that brought al-Bashir to power. It was created after the uprising and for two years worked to purge al-Bashirs loyalists from government institutions.

The generals, including coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, have long criticized the agency. It was dismantled after the October coup and the generals appointed another committee to review its decisions. Many of the agencys decision were reversed, measures seen by critics of the military as a way to enable Islamists allied with the generals.

Other detained members of agency, including Wagdy Saleh, Taha Osman and Babiker Faisal were also released Wednesday, their defense team said.

After a detention that lasted 78 days, we return to the streets  We wont forget that these streets have brought us to the positions of responsibility, Saleh said in a tweet, referring to the popular uprising.

Earlier this month, authorities freed over two dozen activists who were detained in recent weeks over the anti-coup protests.

The militarys takeover has plunged the country into turmoil and sent its already fragile economy into free fall, with living conditions rapidly deteriorating.

The U.N. envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, warned in March that Sudan was heading for an economic and security collapse unless it addresses the political paralysis. Perthes comments to the U.N. Security Council angered the generals and Burhan threatened to expel him.

Perthes is now leading joint efforts with the African Union and the eight-nation east African regional group called the Intergovernmental Authority in Development to facilitate Sudanese-led political talks. Perthes and the two organizations envoys held a joint news conference Wednesday in Khartoum on their efforts.

Ismael Wais, the development authoritys special envoy to Sudan, welcomed the releases as a very positive development. He urged Sudanese authorities to free all political prisoners and activists and lift the state of emergency as a necessary condition to help facilitate reaching an agreement on a way out of the crisis.

Mohamed Al Hacen Ould Lebatt, the AUs envoy for Sudan, said the trio will launch a political dialogue after the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan early in May. The meetings are expected to start May 10-12, he said.

He said the talks will include the military and other political parties and groups  except al-Bashirs now dissolved Congress Party  with the aim of agreeing on how the country will be ruled during the rest of transitional period and holding elections.

The situation in this country is highly sensitive if it is not extremely dangerous, Lebatt said, adding that the talks will eventually aim at achieving the aspiration of the Sudanese people expressed in their revolution.

There was no immediate comment from the two main protest groups, the Sudanese Professionals Association and the Resistance Committees, which have spearheaded the uprising against al-Bashir and the ongoing anti-coup protests. They have long demanded the removal of the military from power and the establishment of a fully civilian government.

The generals, however, have said they will only hand over power to an elected administration. They say elections will take place in July 2023, as planned in a constitutional document governing the transitional period.

By SAMY MAGDY

Associated Press
New tests to decide Shanghai reopening as Beijing stocks up View Photo

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  Shanghai authorities said new COVID-19 testing over the next few days will determine which neighborhoods can safely start reopening, as residents in Beijing watched carefully for word for whether the capital will lock down.

On Wednesday, China reported 14,222 new cases of coronavirus infection, the vast majority in people not showing symptoms.

Shanghai residents will begin another round of testing over the next few days and areas that have achieved societal zero COVID could see some measure of limited freedom, the vice head of the city health committee, Zhao Dandan, said.

Chinas zero-COVID strategy is being tested by the countrys largest outbreak of the pandemic, which began in the central city of Wuhan in late December 2019. The phrase refers to new infections being detected only in people already under surveillance, such as those in a centralized quarantine facility or known close contacts of existing patients, and the virus is no longer being spread in the community.

Shanghais lockdown began a month ago, taking a toll on residents confined to their homes. While a small, lucky portion of people have been allowed to leave their homes in the past week, the vast majority of people remain confined.

The flow of industrial goods has also been disrupted by the suspension of access to Shanghai, home of the worlds busiest port, and other industrial cities including Changchun and Jilin in northeast China.

Officials reported 48 deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total to at least 238 in the city.

Meanwhile, the capital Beijing is in the middle of mass testing millions of residents after discovering a cluster of cases last week. The city reported 34 new cases Wednesday, three of them in people showing no symptoms.

In the last couple of days, nervous Beijing residents had started stockpiling food and supplies, following Shanghais troubles where residents struggled to get a continuous and reliable supply of food while under lockdown.

Beijing city officials were quick to promise that they were ensuring grocery stores would be well-stocked. They said they were monitoring the Xinfadi wholesale market, where the city gets the vast majority of its supplies.

Demand has soared, with city residents sharing online lists of what to stock. Farms on the outskirts of Beijing told the official Beijing Daily News that April and May are typically when demand peaks. Compared to the same period last year, the number of orders rose 20%, owing to the demand generated by the epidemic, according to one major farm the paper interviewed.

Another farm said it was even more. Starting from yesterday, the number of orders weve received have clearly increased, roughly double the amount at this time last year, supply chain manager Zhang Xinming told Beijing Daily News.

So far, officials have locked down only specific areas of Beijing where virus cases were found. On Wednesday, the Tongzhou district suspended classes for all its schools from kindergarten through high school.

Given that China for now remains committed to its zero-COVID approach, I do think we will continue to see the use of these lockdowns across the country, said Karen Grepin, a public health expert at the University of Hong Kong. If anything, the omicron variant has made it more challenging to control the virus and thus more stringent measures are needed if the goal is to continue to strive for local elimination.

The zero-COVID strategy has worked well against previous versions of the virus, keeping China mostly virus-free for two years as the pandemic spread around the world. Questions are being raised about its effectiveness now, with vaccines protecting most people from serious illness and the immense challenge of trying to contain the more transmissible omicron variant.

By HUIZHONG WU

Associated Press
Poland, Bulgaria say Russia suspending natural gas supplies View Photo

WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Polish and Bulgarian officials said Tuesday that Moscow is cutting off natural gas deliveries to their countries due to their refusal to pay in Russian rubles, a demand made by President Vladimir Putin after sanctions were levied against his nation over the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom informed the two EU and NATO member nations that gas supplies will be suspended starting Wednesday, their governments said.

The suspensions would be the first since Putins announcement last month that unfriendly foreign buyers would have to transact with Gazprom in rubles instead of dollars and euros. Only Hungary has agreed to do so, with other countries rejecting the demand as an unacceptable, one-sided breach of contracts and a violation of sanctions.

If deliveries are halted to other countries as well, it could cause economic pain in Europe, driving natural gas prices up and possibly leading to rationing  but it would also deal a blow to Russias own economy.

Wednesdays cutoffs will affect deliveries of Russian gas to Poland through the Yamal-Europe pipeline, according to Polish state gas company PGNiG, and to Bulgaria via the TurkStream pipeline, that countrys Energy Ministry aaid.

The Yamal-Europe line carries gas from Russia to Poland and Germany, via Belarus. Poland has been receiving some 9 billion cubic meters annually, fulfilling some 45% of the countrys need.

PGNiG said it was considering legal action over Moscows payment demand.

But Climate Minister Anna Moskwa said Poland is prepared to make do after having worked to reduce its reliance on Russian energy sources. Several years ago the country opened its first terminal for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, in Swinoujscie, on the Baltic Sea coast, and later this year a pipeline from Norway is to become operational.

There will be no shortage of gas in Polish homes, Moskwa tweeted.

Analyst Emily McClain of Rystad Energy concurred, saying that Poland has ample natural gas in storage and has the capacity to ramp up imports.

Bulgaria said it was working with state gas companies to find alternative sources and that no restrictions on domestic consumption would be imposed for now, even though the Balkan country of 6.5 million people meets over 90% of its gas needs with Russian imports.

One feasible and relatively immediate option available to the Bulgarian government would be to increase their imports of Azeri gas.

Poland has been a strong supporter of neighboring Ukraine during the Russian invasion and has acted as a transit point for weapons the United States and other Western nations have provided to Kyiv.

Warsaw said this week that it, too, was sending weaponry to Ukraines army, in the form of tanks. On Tuesday it announced sanctions targeting 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom.

Bulgaria, once one of Moscows closest allies, has cut many of its ties with Russia after a new, liberal government took the reins last fall and also in the wake of the invasion. It has supported sanctions against Russia and sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Bulgaria has been hesitant to provide military aid, but Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and members of his coalition government were expected in Kyiv on Wednesday for talks about further assistance.

Europe buys large amounts of Russian natural gas for residential heating, electrical generation and the fuel industry, with Germany particularly dependent on it. The imports have continued despite the war.

Around 60% of imports are paid in euros, and the rest in dollars. Putins demand was apparently intended to help bolster the Russian currency against Western sanctions.

In Washington, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. had been preparing for such a cutoff by Russia.

Some of that has been asking some countries in Asia who have excess supply to provide that to Europe, Psaki said. Weve done that in some cases, and its been an ongoing effort.

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Associated Press writers Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Zeke Miller and Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

By VANESSA GERA and MONIKA SCISLOWSKA

Associated Press
US: Ukraine war screams need to reject Russian energy View Photo

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday that Russias war on Ukraine screams that the world needs to stop importing oil and gas from Russia and instead move toward other forms of energy.

At an international forum on offshore wind energy in Atlantic City, Granholm said the U.S. as well as its energy industries are on a war footing, and called for a rapid acceleration of renewable energy including offshore wind power.

Her comments were echoed by Kadri Simson, the European Commissioner for Energy, who noted that Europe recently committed itself to a large-scale move away from Russian fossil fuel imports, and considers wind energy an important part of that transition.

Their comments came as Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders decried the move as blackmail.

Germany and Italy are among Europes biggest consumers of Russian natural gas, but have already been taking steps to reduce their dependence on Moscow.

Russia is waging a war in Ukraine and the imperative to move away from Russian oil and gas, for the world to move away from Russian oil and gas screams that there is an imperative that we electrify, said Granholm, the former Michigan governor. Offshore wind is just a huge component in that.

This is a time to accelerate because we are on a war footing, because you are the army we need, because this is the battle for our nations, she told a conference room filled with offshore wind developers and suppliers. This is a war of good against evil, and we are all enlisted.

Simson, the European energy commissioner, cited a plan adopted last month called REPowerEU that calls for more liquid natural gas and traditional pipeline imports from nations other than Russia; doubling sustainable production of biomethane; and increasing the production and import of renewable hydrogen. That policy is to work in tandem with existing renewable energy industries including solar and wind.

It aims to replace two-thirds of the amount of natural gas the European Union imports from Russia by the end of the year.

It is clear now more than ever that Europe needs to reshape our energy system and bring our dependence on Russian energy to an end as soon as possible, Simson said. Offshore wind is an important part of that plan.

The U.S. has set a goal of generating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes.

In February, six companies bid a combined $4.37 billion for the right to build wind energy projects on the ocean floor off New Jersey and New York in the U.S. governments largest such auction in history. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said that when fully developed, these sites could provide enough energy to power 2 million homes, and additional auctions are expected in the future.

Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Interior Department announced it is looking at areas for additional wind energy leases in the central Atlantic coast, and off the coast of Oregon totaling more than 4 million acres. A public comment period on the proposal will end June 28.

Wind power developers and energy regulators speaking at Wednesdays conference said much work remains to be done in order to accommodate the surging U.S. offshore wind industry. They particularly cited the need to expand and modernize an electrical grid that was built around fossil fuels.

Transmission projects will be crucial to the success and affordability of the wind power industry, and companies are already flooding regulators with proposals. Joseph Fiordaliso, president of New Jerseys Board of Public Utilities, said his agency has already received 80 proposals from 13 energy transmission developers.

The worst dream I have is that were generating energy in the ocean and we have no place to plug it in, he said. The grid has to be updated.

Companies and regulators also stressed that the rapidly growing industry has to be affordable to its end users: the electric customers.

There are real, working-class folks out there who pay these bills, said Clint Plummer, CEO of Rise Light & Power, which repurposes former fossil fuel facilities as clean energy hubs. We need to do this in a way thats affordable.

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Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC

By WAYNE PARRY

Associated Press
Singapore executes Malaysian despite pleas he was disabled View Photo

SINGAPORE (AP)  Singapore on Wednesday executed a Malaysian man convicted of drug smuggling after a court dismissed a last-minute challenge from his mother and international pleas to spare him on grounds he was mentally disabled.

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for over a decade after he was found guilty of trafficking about 43 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin into Singapore. The city-states government has said its use of the death penalty for drug crimes is made clear at the borders.

Nagaenthrans family and social activists confirmed the execution Wednesday.

On this score may I declare that Malaysia is far more humane, his sister, Sarmila Dharmalingam, said. Zero to Singapore on this.

Nagaenthrans supporters and lawyers said he had an IQ of 69 and was intellectually disabled, and that the execution of a mentally ill person was prohibited under international human rights law.

Singapore courts cited psychiatrists testimony that he was not mentally disabled and had understood his actions at the time of his crime.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingams name will go down in history as the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice, said Maya Foa, director of nongovernmental organization Reprieve.

Hanging an intellectually disabled, mentally unwell man because he was coerced into carrying less than three tablespoons of diamorphine is unjustifiable and a flagrant violation of international laws that Singapore has chosen to sign up to, she said.

Nagaenthran and his mother filed a motion Monday arguing that it was unconstitutional to proceed with his death sentence and that he may not have been given a fair trial because the chief justice who presided over his appeals had been the attorney general when Nagaenthran was convicted in 2010, which the filing alleged could be a conflict of interest.

The court dismissed the motion, describing it as frivolous.

His family said Nagaenthrans body will be brought to their hometown in Malaysias northern state of Perak for a funeral.

Singapore had halted executions for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming them with the execution of a drug trafficker in March.

Anyone found with over 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin faces the death sentence in Singapore, although it can be reduced to life in prison. Attempts to reduce Nagaenthrans sentence or obtain a presidential pardon failed.

Malaysias leader, European Union representatives and global figures such as British business magnate Richard Branson called for Nagaenthrans life to be spared and used the case to advocate for ending capital punishment.

Human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement that Nagaenthrans hanging highlights the deep flaws of the death penalty in Singapore and the horror of its continued use.

The execution of Nagaenthran is a disgraceful act by the Singapore government  ruthlessly carried out despite extensive protests in Singapore and Malaysia and an outcry across the world, said Amnesty Internationals Asia-Pacific regional director Erwin van der Borght.

According to activists, another Malaysian, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, is scheduled to be executed in Singapore on Friday. He was convicted of smuggling 45 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin from Malaysia. Singapore doesnt formally announce its hangings.

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Ng reported from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

By ZEN SOO and EILEEN NG

Associated Press
JetBlue sees return to profitability delayed by flight woes View Photo

DALLAS (AP)  JetBlue Airways said Tuesday that it lost $255 million in the first quarter, and widespread flight cancellations in April plus the need to hire and train more pilots will delay the companys return to profitability.

New York-based JetBlue said it would further reduce its schedule this summer to limit delays and cancellations.

The companys shares fell 11.4% to close at $11.57, barely above their 12-month low.

Like other airlines that have reported financial results this month, JetBlue said demand for tickets is strong and fares are rising  the average first-quarter fare was 31% higher than a year ago  as consumers continued to return to travel after two years of pandemic.

But JetBlue struggled in April, canceling 10% of its flights. The company blamed its problems on an increase in pilots leaving, bad weather in Florida and New York, air-traffic control delays and other factors.

The pilots union has heaped some of the blame on the airlines chief of systems operations. A union official said the airlines reputation has suffered as customers endure canceled flights and the airline mishandles pilot scheduling.

CEO Robin Hayes said JetBlue is a victim of a pilot shortage affecting the entire industry.

We continue to experience elevated levels of pilot attrition and training pressure, he told analysts.

Hayes said JetBlue will further trim planned growth in its summer schedule to get the operation back on track, and that will delay JetBlues return to profitability until the second half of this year. JetBlue previously said it would cut its May schedule by up to 10%.

On the call with management, analysts peppered JetBlue executives about the operational problems and rising costs.

While weve been willing to look through a quarter or two of operational strain in the past, our confidence in managements ability to wrestle (non-fuel costs) back under control is low, JPMorgan analyst Jamie Baker said in a note to clients. He lowered his rating on JetBlues stock from overweight, or buy, to underweight.

The airline said its adjusted loss was 80 cents per share, slightly better than the loss of 85 cents per share forecast by analysts in a FactSet survey. Revenue more than doubled from a year earlier, to $1.74 billion.

However, fuel spending nearly tripled, and labor costs rose by one-third from the same quarter last year.

JetBlue offered this month to buy Spirit Airlines for $3.6 billion to gain more heft, which it said it needed to better compete with American, Delta, United and Southwest. Hayes declined to answer questions Tuesday about the bid, which seeks to top an earlier offer by Frontier Airlines.

By DAVID KOENIG

AP Airlines Writer
Visas 2Q profits jump 21% as pandemic eases across globe View Photo

NEW YORK (AP)  Payment processing giant Visas profits rose 21% in the first three months of the year fueled by a large jump in spending on the companys namesake credit and debit card network.

The San Francisco-based company reported Tuesday that it earned $3.65 billion, or $1.70 a share, in its fiscal second quarter that ended March 31. That was up from $3.03 billion, or $1.38 a share, in the same period a year earlier.

Its earnings adjusted to exclude one-time items amounted to $1.79 a share. The results topped the expectations of analysts, who were looking for Visa to earn $1.65 a share on an adjusted basis, according to FactSet.

Visas results were driven largely by a significant jump in the amount of money and the number of transactions that went through its payment network. The company processed $3.384 trillion in payments on its network last quarter, up 17% from a year earlier. Visa earns a fee from every transactions that uses its network.

While Visa said it did see a slowdown in transactions at the beginning of the year due the spread of the omicron variant coronavirus, payments quickly recovered in the later part of the quarter.

While the geopolitical environment remains uncertain, we expect continued growth driven by a robust travel recovery and through the enablement of traditional and newer ways to pay globally, Al Kelly, Visas CEO and chairman, said in a statement.

Visas stock was up more than 5% in after-hours trading following the earnings report. Visa shares are down roughly 7% for 2022, compared to the 12.4% year-to-date drop of the S&P 500.

The company has benefitted in recent years by a global shift of consumer behavior toward digital payments, particularly during the pandemic. Consumers have been buying more goods and services online, which often requires using a credit or debit card. Because Visa and its biggest competitor Mastercard dominate credit and debit card spending, that has translated directly into their bottom lines.

In its earnings call with investors, Kelly noted more than half of all in-person transactions at Target stores were now using tap-to-pay at checkout.

Visa reported a $60 million charge to its bottom line related to winding down its operations in Russia. Like many global companies, Visa announced it was pulling out of Russia due to the Kremlins invasion of Ukraine.

By KEN SWEET

AP Business Writer
TSA: Airport security finds loaded gun in Cawthorns bag View Photo

A loaded gun was found in North Carolina U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorns carry-on bag at an airport security checkpoint Tuesday  the second time he has been stopped with a gun at an airport in the past 14 months, officials said.

When Cawthorn went through checkpoint D at Charlotte Douglas International Airport with the gun, a 9 mm Staccato C2, around 9 a.m., Transportation Security Administration officers notified Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers on standby in the area, TSA spokesperson R. Carter Langston said.

Responding officers identified the 26-year-old Republican as the owner of the bag where the gun was found, police said in a statement. Cawthorn acknowledged that the gun was his and cooperated with officers, authorities said. He was issued a citation for possession of a dangerous weapon on city property, a misdemeanor. Cawthorn was released but police held on to the firearm, as is routine.

The infraction is punishable by civil penalties, including a fine of up to $13,900 depending on certain factors, such as whether a firearm is loaded and multiple offenses, Langston said. In this case the firearm was loaded.

Langston said this was the second time in recent history that a gun was found in Cawthorns carry-on bag. The first was at an Asheville Regional Airport checkpoint in February 2021.

TSA officers have intercepted more than 1,800 firearms at checkpoints so far this year, Langston said.

A spokesperson for Cawthorns office and his campaign didnt immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

After winning a GOP congressional primary runoff in 2020 over then-President Donald Trumps pick, Cawthorn won the general election at age 25 and has became one of Trumps strongest supporters. Trump recently featured Cawthorn as a rally speaker and endorsed him for reelection.

Fellow Republicans in North Carolina have spoken out against his reelection, however, including U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who has endorsed a state legislator for the seat. Cawthorn has drawn criticism for recent incendiary comments, including one in which he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a thug.

The airport checkpoint incidents havent been Cawthorns only brushes with law enforcement. Last month, for the third time in five months, he was cited by state troopers for a traffic violation, including driving with a revoked license. He is scheduled to appear in court on May 6.

By SARAH BRUMFIELD

Associated Press
GMs $2.94B 1Q profit tops Street views, but revenue misses View Photo

LOS ANGELES (AP)  General Motors net income declined in the first quarter, as the automaker sold fewer cars and trucks worldwide, although higher prices helped boost revenue, especially in North America.

GM late Tuesday reported net income of $2.94 billion, or $1.35 per share, versus a profit of $3.02 billion, or $2.03 per share, in the same quarter last year.

Excluding one-time items, such as costs related to its Cruise autonomous vehicle subsidiary, GMs earnings amounted to $2.09 per share. Analysts consensus estimate was for $1.65 per share, according to FactSet.

Revenue jumped nearly 11% to $35.98 billion, but fell below the $36.89 billion analysts projected.

GMs sales in the U.S., its most profitable market, jumped 13.5% in the first quarter versus a year earlier to $29.46 billion. GM sold 1.43 million vehicles during the quarter, down from 1.75 million in the same period last year.

The Detroit-based companys worldwide market share slipped to 7.3% from 8.1%.

CEO Mary Barra said during a conference call with reporters that demand for the companys vehicles remains strong.

What were seeing from a GM perspective gives us confidence that we have the pricing power and we have the customer demand for our products, she said.

Global supply chain disruptions continue to make access to computer chips needed in automobile manufacturing volatile, but GM saw improvement on that front in the first quarter, Barra said.

We think well continue to see a stronger chip supply in the second half of the year versus the first half of the year, she said, adding: We still believe well be able to make 25%-30% more vehicles this year than we did last year, even with what were seeing in the market today.

GM is banking on strong demand for electric vehicles. The company has several models in the works, including electric variants of the Chevy Blazer, Equinox, Silverado pickup and Corvette.

Earlier this month, GM announced it will co-develop affordable electric vehicles with Honda. One of the vehicles that will come about from that venture is a crossover that GM plans to price below the Equinox electric variant, Barra said Tuesday.

GMs stock rose 1.2% in after-hours trading after having closed 4.5% lower.

By ALEX VEIGA

AP Business Writer
Lawmakers scrutinize McKinseys opioid, FDA consulting work View Photo

WASHINGTON (AP)  House Democrats vowed to continue investigating consulting giant McKinseys work with opioid drugmakers after a Wednesday hearing detailed how the firm had advised companies pushing painkillers as well as U.S. health regulators.

The hearing before a House committee is part of an ongoing probe into McKinseys role in the U.S. opioid crisis that has been linked to over 500,000 overdose deaths from both prescription pain medications and illicit drugs like fentanyl.

McKinseys top executive challenged some of the committees findings but said the company has overhauled how it does business and no longer works with opioid manufacturers, including OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma.

Ive apologized for our work for Purdue and other opioid manufacturers and we fully recognize it fell short of our standards, said Bob Sternfels in testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. He said the company would continue cooperating with investigators.

Last year the consulting powerhouse agreed to pay $600 million to settle lawsuits over its work advising opioid makers, though it admitted no wrongdoing.

Lawmakers questioned Sternfels for three hours about revelations that his company allowed consultants working for Purdue Pharma to simultaneously advise the Food and Drug Administration, the agency tasked with overseeing drug safety.

McKinsey was advising both the fox and the hen-house  and getting paid by both, said Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. Clearly, McKinsey should not be setting strategy for both drug companies and the FDA.

A preliminary report from the committee found 22 McKinsey consultants who worked for both the FDA and an opioid manufacturer over the span of a decade. The overlapping work included McKinsey staffers advising the FDA on overhauling its drug safety division, according to the committees review of thousands of company documents.

Meanwhile, McKinsey consultants recommended cash prizes and unrivaled recognition for top OxyContin sales reps to increase Purdues revenue, according to a 2013 strategy presentation released Wednesday.

Lawmakers heard conflicting accounts of whether McKinseys work helped Purdue avoid tighter FDA regulation.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, testifying remotely, said that her states own investigation into McKinsey uncovered emails recommending Purdue band together with other drugmakers in 2009 to defend against strict treatment by the FDA.

Sternfeld said McKinsey did not share FDA documents or intelligence with Purdue and said claims of information sharing were inaccurate.

He also testified that McKinsey was open with FDA about its pharmaceutical consulting work.

We made very clear that we were working both with the industry and with opioids in particular, Sternfeld said. FDA officials have previously stated they were aware of McKinseys pharmaceutical consulting.

Maloney and other Democrats repeatedly suggested McKinseys work may have violated federal contracting rules on disclosing potential conflicts of interest.

On Wednesday, Maloney introduced legislation that would bolster requirements for contractors to disclose potential conflicts. A bipartisan group of Senators previously introduced similar legislation in their chamber.

The committees Republicans spent most of their allotted time undercutting the relevance of the hearing, noting the vast majority of opioid overdoses are now caused by fentanyl and heroin, not prescription drugs. They urged tighter border security, noting nearly all illicit opioids enter the U.S. through the southern border.

We have a new opioid crisis, folks, and its not from big pharma in the United States its from the drug cartels who operate sites in Mexico, said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida.

House Democrats spotlighted several examples of McKinsey touting its FDA connections when soliciting consulting business from drugmakers. The company also submitted advice on dealing with the opioid epidemic to members of the Trump administration, according to the report. Its unclear if the information had any effect on federal policy.

For decades, McKinsey has been the preeminent corporate consulting firm, advising many of the worlds biggest companies on strategy and operations. The company has also made inroads into government consulting, receiving nearly $1 billion in federal contracts.

The Oversight Committee scrutinized McKinseys work on three dozen FDA contracts worth more than $65 million, stretching from 2008 to 2021.

At a separate Senate hearing Tuesday, the head of FDAs drug center told lawmakers McKinseys work dealt with organizational design and did not entail involvement in product regulation. The agency currently has no contracts with McKinsey, she noted, and no new awards are expected while Congress investigates the firm.

The House report did not conclude that McKinseys FDA consulting resulted in lighter regulation of OxyContin or any other opioids.

For years the FDA has attempted to discourage doctors from overprescribing the drugs, mainly by adding starker warnings to their labeling. Prescriptions have fallen from their peak in 2012, but mainly due to new prescribing limits imposed by state and local governments, insurers and hospital systems.

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AP Writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this story from Cherry Hill, N.J.

By MATTHEW PERRONE

AP Health Writer
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  The U.S. Interior Department has issued a decision to limit roughly half the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil and gas leasing, rolling back a Trump-era policy criticized by conservationists that would have vastly expanded lands available for potential development.

The plan would prevent oil and gas development in areas considered important for sensitive bird populations and the Teshekpuk and Western Arctic caribou herds, the decision dated Monday states.

Alaskas U.S. senators criticized the decision as shortsighted and as closing off millions of acres to potential oil and gas activity. Some conservation groups said they saw as positive the new decision but want more action from the Biden administration in moving away from fossil fuels.

The decision was signed by an Interior Department official and released following a recent visit to the state by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

The decision calls for management consistent with plans adopted during the Obama administration, while including certain more protective lease stipulations and operating procedures for threatened and endangered species from the Trump-era plan, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said.

The decision is in line with a position the land management agency earlier this year said it favored. The agency falls under the Interior Department.

The reserve covers about 36,000 square miles (92,000 square kilometers) on Alaskas North Slope. Under the decision, about 18,000 square miles (48,000 square kilometers) would be open to oil and gas leasing. That includes some lands closest to existing leases centered on the Greater Mooses Tooth and Bear Tooth units and the Umiat field, the decision states.

New infrastructure would be prohibited on about 13,000 square miles (34,000 square kilometers), it states.

Plans advanced during the Trump administration would have allowed for oil and gas leasing on about 29,000 square miles (75,000 square kilometers).

Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski called the new decision a bad one.

It is simply shocking that the Biden administration can look at the world and decide that Alaska is where keep it in the ground should apply, Murkowski said in a statement.

President Joe Biden at the start of his term last year directed officials to review and respond to agency actions under the prior administration that were deemed in conflict with policies Biden set out around the environment, public health and climate change. The decision is an extension of that process.

Conservationists had argued the plan advanced during the Trump administration was too extensive. Kristen Miller, conservation director with the Alaska Wilderness League, said the new decision is the right move in the near term. But Miller said theres more to be done.

World events have predictably led to industry lobbyists and the lawmakers they bankroll calling for new domestic oil and gas leasing and production, especially in Arctic Alaska, and in the name of energy security,' Miller said in a statement. In reality, the answer to energy security does not lie beneath the thawing Arctic permafrost but in accelerating the shift to clean, renewable sources of power generation.

By BECKY BOHRER

Associated Press
New hearing ordered over California ban on private prisons View Photo

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (AP)  A federal appeals court on Tuesday agreed to reconsider a ruling that rejected the states first-in-the-nation ban on for-profit private prisons and immigration detention facilities.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new hearing before an 11-judge panel, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Last October, a three-judge appellate panel kept in place a key piece of the worlds largest detention system for immigrants  despite a 2019 state law aimed at phasing out privately-run immigration jails in California by 2028. The law was passed as one of numerous efforts by California Democrats to limit the states cooperation with the federal government on immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.

However, the appellate panel ruled 2-1 that the state law interferes with the federal governments authority. Tuesdays decision set aside that ruling and ordered a new hearing before a larger panel that will include Chief Judge Mary Murguia.

Murguia cast the dissenting vote last year. She said the law was prompted by reports of substandard conditions, inadequate medical care, sexual assaults and deaths in for-profit facilities.

Murguia was appointed by President Barack Obama while the other two members of the appellate panel were appointed by President Donald Trump.

The administration of Democratic President Joe Biden also has opposed the law on constitutional grounds, although Biden signed an executive order last year to end the governments use of such prisons in the future.
US prosecutors indict Mexican Mafia leadership in California View Photo

ORANGE, Calif. (AP)  Federal prosecutors announced a sweeping racketeering case Wednesday aimed at dismantling the leadership of the Mexican Mafia that controlled street gangs in part of Southern California.

The indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court against three members of the group and 28 associates includes allegations of two murders, six attempted killings, extortion and drug trafficking in Orange County.

Prosecutors said the case would not eradicate the organization, which mainly operates from behind bars to call shots on crimes in prison and on the streets. But the prosecution would disrupt the leadership that arose when the longtime kingpin who for decades controlled gang activity in Orange County was convicted of racketeering in 2016.

The message that this case sends is that if you rise to power in that vacuum, we will come for you, U.S. Attorney Tracy Wilkison said. No gang member is beyond our reach.

Twenty-one of those charged were already in custody and nine others were arrested in the past two days. One remained a fugitive.

The 106-page indictment charges members of the group with conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, committing violent crimes to aid racketeering, conspiring to traffic drugs, dealing methamphetamine and heroin, and firearms charges.

The Mexican Mafia, which was started in the 1950s at a juvenile jail and grew to an international criminal organization that controls smuggling, drug sales and extortion inside Californias penal system, is made up of leaders of different street gangs.

Leaders direct associates to collect taxes on drugs proceeds and order hits on enemies or people who betray them or violate their rules.

For decades, Peter Ojeda was the head of the Mexican Mafia in Orange County, calling shots from inside prison. After Ojedas racketeering conviction and subsequent 2018 death in prison, Johnny Martinez, Robert Aguirre, and Dennis Ortiz filled the leadership void, prosecutors said.

The triumvirate of new leaders had expanded the Mexican Mafias control over the street gangs and Latino inmates in Orange County jails, Wilkison said. Those gang overseers stepped up punishment of those who violated their rules.

It wasnt immediately clear if Martinez, Aguirre and Ortiz had lawyers who could comment on their behalf.

The indictment describes a series of crimes carried out as part of the racketeering conspiracy that range from shaking people down for money or dealing drugs to murders plotted for showing disrespect or violating orders.

One man was shot to death in January 2017 during an armed robbery that had been ordered. Another was lured into a car in August that year and shot seven times for failing to pay a drug debt to Martinez, according to the indictment.

At least two of the defendants in the case were also targets of violence but managed to survive vicious attacks.

Gregory Munoz was shot seven times on the street in August 2017 after Martinez ordered him to be removed as a so-called shot caller, the indictment said. He survived and is among the defendants.

Another defendant, Michael Cooper, survived two hits  in January 2018 and another attack on New Years Eve 2019. Martinez allegedly ordered the killing because Cooper had ordered a hit he hadnt sanctioned and was also suspected of causing a police raid on a gang.

Cooper was stabbed multiple times in the head and back area in the first attack in Calipatria State Prison and cut in the throat and face the second time.

At least four others survived attempted slayings for allegedly abusing their authority, warning others they were targets of violence and showing disrespect to Martinez. One man had his throat slit for allegedly talking about snitching on the Mexican Mafia.

Brian Gilhooly of the FBI said that one of the goals of bringing the case is to lock up leaders farther from their home turf in federal prisons, where its harder to smuggle contraband.

Despite being locked in prisons where cellphones are banned and communications are monitored, the Mexican Mafia operates through a crude but elaborate communication network of speaking in code with smuggled phones, notes passed between inmates and instructions sent through girlfriends and confidantes who visit.

We are going to make sure that these individuals get lengthy sentences, and get sent to other prisons throughout the country, Gilhooly said.

___

Melley reported from Los Angeles.

By BRIAN MELLEY and AMY TAXIN

Associated Press
A convicted murderer is refusing to sign a waiver the district attorney says it needs to release the remains of an 8-year-old East Texas boy.

Without the waiver, the family of Chad Choice cannot hold a funeral, although the boy was killed more than a decade ago.

Patrick Horn's attorney has made repeated efforts over the past month to get the man now serving a life federal prison sentence in Georgia for unrelated crimes to sign the waiver.

But those efforts have been ignored, and state District Judge Diane DeVasto could use videoconferencing equipment installed this week to ask Horn if he objects to the release of his victim's remains.

Chad was shot in 1991, and buried in a shallow grave behind a house where Horn's family lived. Horn then tormented the Choice family for years, sending ransom notes and placing Chad's skull on the doorstep of the Choice's home on the fourth anniversary of the boy's disappearance.

The boy's fate wasn't revealed until 1996 while Horn was in Smith County Jail serving time for other crimes.

The waiver is necessary because the body parts were found five years after the boy's death, and those remains were crucial evidence used to convict Horn.

A jury sentenced him to death for Chad's murder.

Horn had signed a waiver, indicating he did not object to the release of Chad Choice's bones. But the document was lost somewhere between his attorney's office and the judge's office.

In what initially appeared to be a formality, DeVasto announced in a December hearing that she would order the release of 30 exhibits, including Chad's skull and other bones, to his family for burial after Horn signs another waiver.

Horn's appellate lawyer, Toby Wilkinson of Greenville, sent Horn the document via Federal Express and expected it back in a day with a signature.

But a month has gone by, and Horn has not answered several letters from his attorney and messages to him through officials at the Atlanta federal prison, court officials said.

Assistant District Attorney Ed Marty said if the remains are granted without the waiver, they may have to be exhumed sometime in the future.

Marty said Thursday he fears Horn, deemed a psychopath and sociopath by experts, realized the importance of the waiver after the first one was lost and is using it as a control factor.

"The last thing this family needs, or the district attorney's office needs, is to have him interfere with the release of those remains," Marty told the Tyler Morning Telegraph in Friday's editions. "We have found ourselves in a very, very strange position where the sociopath basically has all the cards."

Karen Choice has declined to make any public comments until after she buries her youngest child.

Information from: Tyler Morning Telegraph
Integration of culture, tourism gives impetus to Chinas rural vitalization

People's Daily Online) 15:48, April 27, 2022

Chinas Ministry of Culture and Tourism and five other departments recently issued a guideline on promoting the development of cultural industries in a bid to advance rural vitalization, with the integration of culture and tourism listed as one of the key fields that can help boost rural vitalization.

Photo shows B&B hotels in Zhuyangguan town, Lushi county, Sanmenxia city, central Chinas Henan Province. (Photo/Peoples Daily)

Rural tourism has offered people great options to spend their holidays and has enriched their choices for trips, becoming an increasingly popular choice for travelers.

To further propel the development of rural tourism, the ministry has continuously improved policies, measures and mechanisms. Grasping the new demands in tourism, local governments have better met the needs of tourists and have driven high-quality development of rural tourism.

By leveraging its geographic proximity to a resort in Yalong Bay, Bohou village in Jiyang district, Sanya city, south Chinas Hainan Province has vigorously developed its culture and tourism industry and embarked on a path toward prosperity, according to Su Shaohong, Party chief of the village.

Su stated that the village is now home to 55 B&B hotels with more than 1,700 rooms, which are always fully booked.

The booming culture and tourism industry in our village, which focuses on B&B hotel business, has boosted the development of other business forms such as retail and catering, Su explained, adding that more than half of villagers are engaged with the tourism industry.

A tourist picks cherries at Haiyang town, Haigang district, Qinhuangdao city, north Chinas Hebei Province. (Photo/Peoples Daily)

Despite the COVID-19 epidemic, the B&B hotel industry in Chinas rural areas has witnessed steady development by integrating both culture and tourism.

While green mountains and access to lakes, rivers, and the sea are favorable conditions for the development of rural B&B business, rural culture is also a key driving force for the industry , said Lu Fengying, an official with the culture, sports, radio, television and tourism bureau of Anji county, east Chinas Zhejiang Province.

Lu pointed out that the B&B industry in the county is becoming increasingly sophisticated, with distinctive B&B hotels attracting large numbers of tourists.

According to Lu, the county has a total of more than 1,300 B&B hotels, including over 120 quality hotels. Three villages in the county are known for their culture-themed B&B hotels.

Over 12 million visits were made to Anjis rural tourism destinations, generating a total revenue of about 3.2 billion yuan (about $488 million) in 2021.

Staying at a B&B hotel is not only about enjoying local food, but also about experiencing local culture, said Shi Weixia, a B&B hotel operator in a village in Anji county.

Li Dan, a tourist from Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang, who stayed at Shis hotel during this years Spring Festival holiday, was impressed by the strong cultural atmosphere in the village. Li explained that one can hardly experience the unique atmosphere of rural culture in cities.

Many visitors said that the village brings back lots of their childhood memories. Thats the charm of rural culture, Shi noted.

Shis view was echoed by Guo Zhong, a B&B hotel operator in Dayi county, southwest Chinas Sichuan Province.

Running B&B hotel business is more about enabling tourists to learn about local customs and culture, said Guo, adding that the hotel has rolled out a variety of cultural activities to attract tourists.

Experts believe that the culture and tourism industry in rural areas can effectively promote the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries and bolster rural development. By introducing more high quality cultural tourism products, the culture and tourism industry will inject more momentum into the process of rural vitalization.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Master Pancake Theater is performing in front of a live audience this week for the first time in more than two years. The popular event returned to the Alamo Drafthouse's Austin Village location at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27 and 7 p.m. on Friday, April 29.

Fans champed at the bit to see the live return of the Mystery Science Theater-inspired show, where local comedians riff on films at the Alamo Drafthouse, as both showings sold out in under an hour.

"I was pretty sure that after a two-year absence that they'd sell pretty quickly, but I didn't know that they're going to sell out that quickly," says John Erler, leader of Master Pancake Theater.

Over the last few years, Master Pancake has thought about coming back, but various coronavirus variants have foiled their plans. With numbers and hospitalizations down in Austin, though, they figured now would be a good time.

"John Smith at the Drafthouse contacted me and said they had some availability before Doctor Strange came in in a couple of weeks and then monopolized the space," Erler says. "It seemed like a good time to test the waters."

Both events are Choose Your Own Pancake (CYOP) screenings. Audience members submit films they'd like to see, and the group narrows that list down to 10 finalists.

On Wednesday night, ticket-holders who brought a DVD or Blu-Ray of a finalist pitched the film to the group, and the audience voted, after which, Master Pancake comedians made their own props and costumes on the spot and the film began. The audience picked The Rock, Michael Bay's 1996 Alcatraz-set thriller starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery.

Erler was joined onstage by Vanessa Gonzalez, Ralphie Hardesty, and Scott Chester. Master Pancaker Owen Egerton made a surprise appearance halfway through and remained for the rest of the movie.

Master Pancake switched, as much of live entertainment did, to Twitch streaming during the COVID-19 pandemic. The troupe will still livestream on the platform on Thursday, April 28, and Saturday, April 30. Master Pancake will continue to perform on Twitch beyond this week on Wednesdays through Saturdays, because Erler says it helps them reach a wider audience of folks either outside Austin or who can't make it out to the live shows.

Twitch has been a good format for the group, Erler says, since it gives them more time to be creative, but that the group has missed the energy of live shows.

"You don't hear the laughs on Twitch," he says, though he mentions that the group does get instant critiques of jokes in the chat. "I didn't miss some of that. But getting to hear the laughs and that instant feedback gratification, that was was pretty great."

Claudio Fox

Nothing in-person is planned beyond this week, Erler says. The group says that this is an experiment that was possible due to open dates on the Alamo Drafthouse's schedule, and if scheduling and lower infection numbers remain, there could be more live dates on the horizon.

"It's just a blessing, hopefully, to be able to do both those different kinds of shows," he says.

On Friday, the CYOP Trailer Pitch returns, and the audience will get to watch trailers of the great  or terrible  finalist films before voting on what Master Pancake will riff on.
Kody Melton

La Gloria will soon extend to the Southside. The San Antonio chain of Mexican street food restaurants by lauded Chef Johnny Hernandez is adding a restaurant at Brooks. Though an opening date has not been set, Hernandez says online that the third La Gloria is opening "soon."

Hernandez was hesitant about a giving a hard date, telling MySA the opening is still a "moving target," but shared multiple sets of photos showing the interior of the building on Facebook. In his latest post, the chef-owner says La Gloria at Brooks is opening "soon" and the restaurant is hiring. An online application is available here.
A suspected drunk driver was arrested after she allegedly assaulted a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and spat on him, according to an arrest affidavit.

Evelyn Briones, 19, was charged with assault on a public servant, resisting arrest, reckless driving, possession of marijuana and driving while intoxicated.
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BOSTON (AP)  Harvard University is vowing to spend $100 million to study and atone for its extensive ties with slavery, the schools president announced Tuesday, with plans to identify and support the descendants of enslaved people who labored at the Ivy League campus.

President Lawrence Bacow announced the funding as Harvard released a new report detailing the many ways the college benefited from slavery and perpetuated racial inequality. But the report stops short of recommending direct financial reparations, and officials have no immediate plans for that kind of support.

Harvard, the nations oldest and wealthiest college, is the latest among a growing number of U.S. schools attempting to confront their involvement with slavery and also make amends for it.

The report, commissioned by Bacow, found that Harvards faculty, staff and leaders enslaved more than 70 Black and Native American people from the schools founding in 1636 to 1783. It cautions that the figure is almost certainly an undercount. Using historical records, researchers were able to identify dozens of enslaved people by name, along with their connection to the university.

Most were identified only by a single name, such as Cesar, Dinah and Venus.

Enslaved men and women served Harvard presidents and professors and fed and cared for Harvard students, researchers found. Moreover, throughout this period and well into the 19th century, the University and its donors benefited from extensive financial ties to slavery.

The report says the university should make a significant monetary commitment, and it should invest in remedies of equal or greater breadth than other universities. Bacow said Harvard will attempt to redress its wrongs through teaching, research and service." He is creating a committee to implement the report's suggestions.

Building on earlier research at Harvard, the report details how the university depended on the slave trade in its early years and profited from it for decades.

Harvard invested directly in the sugar and rum trades in the Caribbean, along with the U.S. cotton and railroad industries. The college's early growth is credited to support from wealthy donors who accumulated their fortunes through the slave trade and industries that relied on it.

Along with the 70 people who were enslaved, the report also lists their enslavers  including several Harvard presidents and high-ranking officials  and the campus buildings, rooms and professorships that are still named after them.

Even after slavery was abolished, the report says, prominent scholars continued to promote concepts that fueled racist ideas.

It cites work by 19th century professor Louis Agassiz, who pushed discredited theories on race science and eugenics. Another scholar led a physical education program that collected students physical measurements to support research advancing eugenic theories.

In his message, Bacow called the findings disturbing and shocking, and he acknowledged that the school perpetuated practices that were profoundly immoral.

Consequently, I believe we bear a moral responsibility to do what we can to address the persistent corrosive effects of those historical practices on individuals, on Harvard, and on our society, he wrote.

The 130-page report included a series of recommendations that Bacow endorsed. The $100 million will be used to carry out the work, with some funding to be made available now and more to be held in an endowment. The university itself has an endowment of more than $50 billion, the largest in the nation.

The report says Harvard should identify the descendants of enslaved people and engage with them through dialogue, programming, information sharing, relationship building and educational support.

Through such efforts, these descendants can recover their histories, tell their stories and pursue empowering knowledge, the report said.

More broadly, it urges Harvard to fight racial inequality by expanding education options for descendants of enslaved people, especially in the South and the Caribbean. It calls on the university to work closely with historically Black colleges across the country, with new funding to bring students and scholars to Harvard for up to a year at a time.

And acknowledging the enslavement of Native Americans, it calls on Harvard to build closer ties with New England tribes. Harvard should recruit more students from tribal communities, the report says, and organize a national conference promoting research on the enslavement of Indigenous people.

In accepting the recommendations, Harvard joins an increasing number of colleges attempting to move from research to action as they reconcile with their histories.

Georgetown University in 2019 promised to raise $400,000 a year for the descendants of enslaved people sold by the school. The Princeton Theological Seminary created a $27.6 million reparative endowment. The University of Virginia established scholarships for the descendants of enslaved people.

Harvard formally began exploring its ties to slavery in 2016, when former President Drew Gilpin Faust acknowledged that the school was directly complicit in Americas system of racial bondage." Faust organized a committee to study the topic and had a plaque installed on campus honoring enslaved people who labored there.

Student activists had been shining a light on Harvard's darker histories for years. In 2015, students demanded that Harvard Law School abandon its official crest, which was tied to an 18th century donor whose family enslaved dozens of people. Months later, the school retired the symbol.

Soon after becoming president, Bacow established a new Presidential Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery to dig deeper into the university's role. That effort led to the new report.

The Harvard that I have known, while far from perfect, has always tried to be better  to bring our lived experience ever closer to our high ideals, Bacow wrote. In releasing this report and committing ourselves to following through on its recommendations, we continue a long tradition of embracing the challenges before us.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  A veritable who's who of Washington's political and foreign policy elite gathered Wednesday to pay their last respects to the late Madeleine Albright, a child of conflict-ravaged Europe who arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year old girl and became America's first female secretary of state.

The trailblazing diplomat and champion of her adopted country as the world's indispensable nation was joyously remembered by President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton as a no-nonsense, valued adviser who did not suffer fools or tyrants and was most concerned about Russia's war with Ukraine when she died last month of cancer at 84.

Biden said Albrights name was synonymous with the idea that America is a force for good in the world.

In the 20th and 21st century, freedom had no greater champion than Madeleine Korbel Albright, he said. Today we honor a truly proud American who made all of us prouder to be Americans.

He said he had learned of Albright's death while flying to Brussels for an emergency NATO summit on Ukraine and was struck by the memory of her key role in pressing for the expansion of the alliance in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union to protect Europe from a repeat of the carnage of World War II and the Cold War ideological battle between communism and democracy.

And Clinton, the man who appointed her first as his U.N. ambassador in 1993 and then as secretary of state in 1996, said his last conversation with Albright just weeks before her passing were dominated by the situation in Ukraine and her fears about the future of democracy at home and abroad.

He recalled that Albright didnt want to talk about her declining health at a moment when the West is on edge following Russias invasion of Ukraine. Albright, Clinton recalled, assured him that she was getting the best care she could, but didnt want to waste time talking about that.

The only thing that really matters is what kind of world were going to leave to our grandchildren, Clinton recalled Albright told him. He added, She made a decision with her last breath she would go out with her boots on.

Biden and Clinton, along with former President Barack Obama and several of Albright's successors as secretary of state, including Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, John Kerry and current office-holder Antony Blinken, were some 1,400 mourners who attended the funeral at Washington's National Cathedral.

The service was punctuated at points by tears, laughter and applause during reminiscences from Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Albright's three daughters, Anne, Alice and Katharine, who remembered her as a doting mom" and Granny Maddy to their own children even amid a hectic work schedule that often took her around the world.

That schedule didn't let up when she left government service in 2001 and returned to teaching at Georgetown University, started a successful international consulting company, served on the boards of numerous women's and human rights groups and became a best-selling author.

Hillary Clinton recalled stories that she had lobbied for Albright to serve as secretary of state, a role that Clinton would serve in herself during the Obama administration. Its been said that I urged my husband to nominate her as our first female secretary of state," she said. Unlike much thats said, this story was true.

The two developed a strong friendship over the years. and Hillary Clinton recalled a pair of stories about her and Albright on visits overseas during which they bonded.

Once on a walk in a drenching rainstorm in the Czech capital of Prague, Clinton said they laughed so hard they forgot they were wet. On another occasion in Beijing, Clinton recalled that she and Albright had marched through mud in a torrential downpour and confronted Chinese security forces to meet women's rights activists.

Clinton in her own tribute recalled some lighter memories of Albright, including the time she taught the foreign minister of Botswana the Macarena and danced the night away with a young, handsome man at her daughter Chelsea's wedding. She also remembered Albright as a fearless diplomat that broke barriers and then counseled, cajoled and inspired women to follow in her footsteps.

The angels better be wearing their best pins and putting on their dancing shoes, Clinton said. Because if as Madeleine believed theres a special place in hell for women who dont support other women, they havent seen anyone like her yet.

On the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and one month before her death, The New York Times printed what would be Albright's last published writing. She wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion would be a historic error that would cement his legacy as one of infamy. Until the end, she was still in a hurry to do good, Clinton said.

Other top current officials who attended the service included Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA Director Bill Burns, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Mark Milley and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The members of the VIP audience were masked, as Albright's family had requested.

Foreign dignitaries invited to the funeral included the presidents of Georgia and Kosovo and senior officials from Colombia, Bosnia and the Czech Republic.

Albright was born in what was then Czechoslovakia, but her family fled twice, first from the Nazis and then from Soviet rule. They ended up in the United States, where she studied at Wellesley College and rose through the ranks of Democratic Party foreign policy circles to become ambassador to the United Nations. Bill Clinton selected her as secretary of state in 1996 for his second term.

Although never in line for the presidency because of her foreign birth, Albright was near universally admired for breaking a glass ceiling, even by her political detractors. Several senior Republican lawmakers, including Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, attended the service.

As a Czech refugee who saw the horrors of both Nazi Germany and the Iron Curtain, she was not a dove. She played a leading role in pressing for the Clinton administration to get involved militarily in the conflict in Kosovo. My mindset is Munich, she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.

As secretary of state, Albright played a key role in persuading Clinton to go to war against the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic over his treatment of Kosovar Albanians in 1999. As U.N. ambassador, she advocated a tough U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the case of Milosevics treatment of Bosnia. NATOs intervention in Kosovo was eventually dubbed Madeleines War.

She also took a hard line on Cuba, famously saying at the United Nations that the 1996 Cuban shootdown of a civilian plane was not cojones but rather cowardice.

Bill Clinton recalled the moment in his tribute, remembering that Albright faced criticism at the time that the sharp barb was undiplomatic and unladylike." He absolutely loved it.

I called her and I said ... 'This is the best line developed and delivered by anybody in this administration," Clinton said.

In 2012, Obama awarded Albright the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, saying her life was an inspiration to all Americans.

Born Marie Jana Korbel in Prague on May 15, 1937, she was the daughter of a diplomat, Joseph Korbel. The family was Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism when she was 5. Three of her Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps.

Albright was an internationalist whose point of view was shaped in part by her background. Her family fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 as the Nazis took over their country, and she spent the war years in London.

After the war, as the Soviet Union took over vast chunks of Eastern Europe, her father brought the family to the United States. They settled in Denver, where her father taught at the University of Denver. One of Korbels best students was Condoleezza Rice, who would later succeed his daughter as secretary of state.

Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959. She worked as a journalist and later studied international relations at Columbia University, where she earned a masters degree in 1968 and a Ph.D. in 1976. She then entered politics and what was at the time the male-dominated world of foreign policy professionals.
Galveston Independent School District officials last week confirmed the uncovering of a network of cryptocurrency mining devices surreptitiously installed on six separate campuses.

According to The Daily News' John Wayne Ferguson, district IT employees found a number of Bobcat cryptocurrency mining hotspots installed on school networks. The devices were discovered after workers monitoring the district's systems noted aberrations in network traffic, according to Galveston ISD President Tony Brown.

"I can't describe it in any more details, because I'd be in way over my head, as far as what it was and what they did," Brown said, per Ferguson.

Brown stated the devices were installed by a former district employee who was placed on leave after the discovery and has since resigned. The devices were found on April 8, according to Superintendent Jerry Gibson, and an investigation is ongoing.

"Although the investigation related to the employee's misuse of district property is ongoing, it has been confirmed that there was no breach of data resulting from this incident," Gibson said. "We are pleased that the security measures put in place by the district were effective in detecting and preventing any potential issues."

Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are digital currencies traded between users as payment for goods and services. These transactions are authenticated by miners, who use devices like the ones discovered by Galveston ISD employees to provide processing power that helps verify these transactions. The process is highly energy-intensive and requires large amounts of electricity and computer processing power, and miners who provide this service receive new Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies in return.

In short, crypto mining is a lucrative, energy-heavy enterprise, and lawmakers across the United States are scrambling to craft legislation in the hopes of attracting or regulating mining in their states as the practice proliferates. New York state senators are poised to vote on a bill in the coming weeks that would ban energy-intensive crypto mining in the state for the next two years. Proponents of the bill say it will disincentivize the use of fossil fuels in the creation of Bitcoin and help keep New York on track to meet its carbon emissions goals.

In Texas, Republican lawmakers are courting large-scale cryptominers and hailing their arrival as enterprising businesses capable of fixing the state's infamously capricious power grid.

Last June, Gov. Greg Abbott touted the arrival of cryptocurrency payment kiosks in a number of H-E-B grocery stores, claiming the Lone Star State would be the nation's "crypto leader" moving forward.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz has repeatedly called for an influx of large crypto-mining concerns into the state to raise electricity demand in rural areas, a move he claims would help stabilize the grid by raising baseline demand and energy prices.

"A lot of the discussion around Bitcoin views Bitcoin as a consumer of energy," Cruz said in October. "The perspective I'm suggesting is very much the reverse."
Texas Innocent Project

Catholic leaders in Texas are sharing gratitude for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in response to the stay of execution for 53-year-old Melissa Lucio, who was set to die by lethal injection on Wednesday, April 27. The intervention was announced on Monday, April 25. The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops issued a statement soon after in response to the 11th-hour decision.

In the statement, the bishops say Lucio has "become a new person in Christ" since her imprisonment after she was convicted of capital murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, in 2007.
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A judge in Hidalgo County has sentenced a former H-E-B employee to two life sentences for a deadly mass shooting committed at a store in Palmview in 2016, according to KRGV. Raul Lopez, a 31-year-old Mission man, has been in police custody since November 28, 2016, when he fired 19 shots into a break room at the H-E-B he worked at in Palmview.

Lopez was convicted last month for killing his grocery store co-worker and injuring three other H-E-B employees at the San Antonio-based grocery chain. Mario Pulido, 48, died at the scene, while others recovered at a local hospital. Local Police at the time described Lopez as "paranoid," according to Valley Central.
Steven Santana | MySA

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg says the city is strong as it moves toward recovery from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the road to recovery is still long.

The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce held its first in-person State of the City address on Tuesday, April 26, ending two years of broadcasting the event virtually. This year, the chamber decided to go big, hosting the event in the Alamo City's newest state of the art event venue, the Tech Port Center + Arena at Port San Antonio.
Chambers County Sheriff's Office

The body of an 88-year-old fisherman was recovered in Galveston Bay on Tuesday, April 26 after his boat capsized during the storms the day prior, according to the Chambers County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office identified him as W.F. Childress of Smith Point.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, officials started searching for Childress after his wife called the Coast Guard on Monday, April 25 around 4:20 p.m. to tell them her husband did not return home after fishing.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  The Louisiana insurance commissioner is seeking a government takeover of two regional insurance companies that are facing insolvency due to losses from Hurricane Ida to ensure the companys policyholders are paid what they are owed, officials said.

The insolvency could cause thousands of Louisiana residents to get kicked off their insurance policies. However, policyholders whose insurers go out of business are guaranteed up to $500,000 in payments through a state program.

Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon filed injunctions in Baton Rouge's 19th Judicial District Court on Wednesday against two carriers who had their financial stability ratings withdrawn by industry watchdog Demotech in October. The carriers, State National Fire Insurance Company of Baton Rouge and Access Home Insurance Company of New Orleans, are responsible for 1% of the state's property insurance market. They take in a combined $20.5 million in direct premiums, according to state data.

Once he receives approval from the courts, he can sell off the insurer's assets to pay down claims.

Were going to put them in receivership and ultimately liquidate the companies as a result of their insolvency, Donelon said in an interview last week with The Advocate.

The commissioners lawsuit comes days after the state's fourth largest homeowners' insurer, FedNat Holding Company, announced it would stop renewing Louisiana policies in January. Another insurer, Americas Insurance Company, which receives nearly $27 million in direct premiums, lost its accreditation in October. Donelon cannot sue to take it over however, because the firm is not based in Louisiana.

Ratings agencies review insurers' financial information on a quarterly basis after major disasters to determine whether they have the resources to pay out claims to policyholders.

If a company does not meet our financial metrics, and it doesnt look like theyre going to be able to raise additional capital, well downgrade or withdraw their rating, President and founder of Demotech Joe Petrelli told The Advocate. These insurers are headed in the wrong direction financially."

Once the liquidation order is issued by the court, the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association will begin paying the policyholders where the companies cannot. The non-profit was created by the state to act as a safety net for consumers, providing up to $500,000 in payments for unpaid claims and $10,000 for premium refunds.

According to The Advocate, Louisiana has not liquidated a property insurer in more than two decades.
Jerri-Lynn here. Ive yet to wrap my head around the implications of Elon Musk acquiring Twitter. Nor have I spent any times studying the EUs new Digital Services Act.

But the all-too obvious first impression is that Musk and the rules are on a collision course. In fact, Thierry Bretons statement makes that conflict explicit. And we all know Musk is not known for his ability to adhere to rules  even long-settled ones. Just ask the SEC.

Musk and his press enablers are busily spinning his action as a victory for free speech. Hmm.

By Kenny Stancil. Originally published at Common Dreams

The European Union on Tuesday warned Elon Musk that Twitter, now owned by Teslas chief executive, must comply with the blocs new law that aims to halt the online spread of hate speech and other illicit content, or risk substantial fines or a continent-wide banpossibly foreshadowing a global regulatory fight over the social media platform.

If Twitter does not comply with our law, there are sanctions.

Less than 24 hours after Musk bought Twitter in a $44 billion deal, E.U. internal market commissioner Thierry Breton delivered a stark message to the worlds richest man via the Financial Times.

Bretons comments come just days after lawmakers in Brussels approved the Digital Services Act, a landmark piece of legislation that seeks to minimize the harmful effects associated with social media and e-commerce by requiring Big Tech firms to remove content and products deemed illegal by E.U. member states.

During a Tuesday news briefing, European Commission spokesperson Johannes Bahrke reminded Musk that our Digital Services Act applies to all major platforms, to ensure their power over public debate is subject to democratically validated rules to better protect fundamental rights online.

When Musk took control of Twitter on Monday, he called free speech the bedrock of a functioning democracy and described the Silicon Valley-based app on which hundreds of millions of people rely for news as the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.

Journalist Anand Giridharadas countered that Musk is doing is what plutocrats have been doing branding themselves the solution to the very problem they are.

In his pitch to take over Twitter, Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist who has used the app to attack regulators and critics, vowed to weaken content moderation on the site. Republican lawmakers are hopefulthat under Musks ownership, Twitter could reinstate former President Donald Trump, who was banned for repeatedly violating the platforms rules governing hate speech and misinformation, culminating in the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

Breton, meanwhile, said that he wanted to give Musk a reality check before he loosened any of the platforms content moderation policies. If Twitter fails to comply with the Digital Services Act, the E.U. commissioner warned, it could be prohibited in Europe.

Anyone who wants to benefit from this market will have to fulfill our rules, Breton told FT. The board [of Twitter] will have to make sure that if it operates in Europe it will have to fulfill the obligations, including moderation, open algorithms, freedom of speech, transparency in rules, obligations to comply with our own rules for hate speech, revenge porn, [and] harassment.

If [Twitter] does not comply with our law, he added, there are sanctions6% of the revenue and, if they continue, banned from operating in Europe.

As the newspaper reported:

The Digital Services Act forces the like of Twitter to disclose to regulators how they are tackling content such as disinformation and war propaganda. The groundbreaking rules are part of a bigger push by Brussels to curb the power of large online platforms, including Facebook and Google. Last month, the E.U. also unveiled the Digital Markets Act, aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech, including a ban on platforms promoting their own services ahead of rivals.

Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rulesregardless of their shareholding, Breton tweeted on Tuesday.

Mr. Musk knows this well, Breton added. He is familiar with European rules on automotive, and will quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act.
Jerri-Lynn here. This study looks at the importance of biodiversity in fostering ecotourism, and finds the factor to be key, provided it is paired with access to good infrastructure. Both factors are necessary to attract visitors.

Developing sustainable tourism is one way countries can encourage economic growth without signing up for the environmental destruction that comes with resource exploitation projects  e.g., fossil fuels, logging, mining.

By Alejandra Echeverri Ochoa, Postdoctoral Scholar in Biology, Stanford University and Jeffrey R. Smith Postdoctoral, Researcher in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University Originally published at The Conversation

After two years of pandemic lockdowns and border closures, global travel appears to be rebounding in much of the world in 2022. Wilderness is a big tourist attraction  but do countries that protect their natural environments earn a payoff in tourism revenues?

Surprisingly, little research has been done on this question. Some early studies in Africa demonstrated that people from across the world travel to find the big five  elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, lions and leopards. But it remains unclear whether people will travel to see a wide variety of plants and animals, or just a select few iconic species.

As scholars who study conservation and ecology, we wondered whether biodiversity  specifically, the number of species in a given place  influenced where people chose to travel for tourism. We analyzed that question in a recently published study focused on Costa Rica, a country that markets itself to the world as green and biodiverse, and derives almost 10% of its gross domestic product from tourism activities.

Our study assessed whether the opportunity to see many vertebrate animal species mattered to tourists visiting Costa Rica, and if so, how important it was compared with other features like hotels and beaches. We found that an abundance of animal species alone does not drive tourism; rather, in Costa Rica, our research shows that biodiversity needs to be paired with infrastructure like hotels and roads that enable access to nature. Costa Rica has shown other countries how to do this and is reaping benefits from it.

Biodiversity, Satellites and Social Media

For our study we used millions of sightings of animals in Costa Rica from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, a public repository of open-access data about all types of life on Earth. The GBIF shares reports from members  including governments, conservation groups, libraries and scientific societies  about observations of plants, animals and other living species, with geographic locations. Scholars and governments draw on this data to inform scientific research and policy decisions.

We paired these wildlife observations with satellite-derived maps of climate conditions, such as temperature and rainfall, and habitat elements, such as tree cover and impervious surfaces like roads. Using this data, we created distribution maps across Costa Rica for 699 birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles. We selected species that had more than 25 data points in the country.

We then used these maps to see how important species richness was in driving two types of tourism. First we considered general tourism, measured by where people go to take pictures and upload them to the Flickr photo sharing site. Second, we looked at checklists on eBird, a social media platform where people who identify as birders can share which species they see during nature walks.

Next we added other factors that are widely known to drive tourism, including the location of hotels, roads, national park boundaries and water features like lakes. This allowed us to consider how important biodiversity was compared with other key tourism drivers.

Our data came from NASAs Global Roads Open Access Database, a global map of roads; the GeoNames database, a global source with the coordinates of all registered hotels and lodges; and the Natural Earth database, which contains a map of the worlds lakes and oceans. We used those maps to predict where tourists were going by mapping where people were taking pictures that they would then upload to Flickr, or where they were bird-watching and uploading their lists to eBird.

Nature Plus Small-Scale Infrastructure

We found that tourism is highest in zones of Costa Rica where both biodiversity and infrastructure are present and accessible to tourists. One such area is Monteverde, a lush high-elevation forest that National Geographic calls the jewel in the crown of cloud forest reserves.

Here visitors can find the resplendent quetzal, a green bird with a red belly and long green-bluish tail that glistens in the sunlight. Considered sacred by Aztecs and Mayans, the quetzal is a major draw for bird-watchers and other tourists. Another species of high tourist interest is the red-fronted parrotlet, a small green parrot with a red forehead that is found only in Costa Rica and northern Panama.

Places like Monteverde are top tourist destinations in Costa Rica because they are replete with endemic and threatened species that visitors want to see, and that can only be found at those locations. Importantly, these areas also have enough ecolodges for people to spend the night.

Understandably, places that have high biodiversity but no infrastructure receive fewer visitors. For example, Amistad International Park, which is located in both Costa Rica and Panama, has a large tract of forest and many species. But very few people go there compared with other high-biodiversity areas. Our results indicate that this is because there arent enough roads to make the park accessible and see wild animals and birds.

Conversely, places with very high levels of infrastructure and very few species also are not desirable to tourists. Think of big-city hotels where tourists may stay for a day or two for convenience, but dont book longer stays because of the limited access to wild species.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Green Circle Experience (@the_green_circle_experience)

Our findings suggest that for countries like Costa Rica to continue deriving economic benefits from tourism, they need to invest in both infrastructure and biodiversity conservation. We believe that, rather than building large resorts or multilane roads, countries would be wise to adopt Costa Ricas model of tourism infrastructure, which is mainly small ecolodges and nature hostels. Sustainability is a central theme of the nations tourism policy, which emphasizes supporting small- and medium-sized businesses.DJust Enough development

Governments around the world will convene in the fall of 2022 for a critical conference on protecting the worlds wild species over the coming decade. One of the main goals for this meeting is to negotiate ways for humans to live in harmony with nature.

A key issue on the agenda is evaluating and managing trade-offs between protecting nature and promoting economic growth. Our results clearly indicate that these two things cannot be considered in isolation. In our view, the tourism sector should emphasize conserving species, because many people will pay to see wildlife and unspoiled places.

Today tourism employs some 700,000 people in Costa Rica. Our research shows that if other countries want to develop ecotourism industries modeled on Costa Ricas, they should increase access to nature-based tourism opportunities by building roads and hotels.

They also need to invest in protecting biodiversity, especially species that are endemic and threatened, which can serve as tourist draws. With careful planning and an inclusive perspective, we believe that nations can build sustainable tourism programs that benefit their economies and the environment.
By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans.

It seems each week  if not each day  brings us new headlines about the numerous and pressing disasters the world faces. What has been our collective response been to such risks?

Ha.

Not much im afraid.

Yesterday, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) issued a stark report on disaster risk reduction, Our World at Risk, which is embedded below. From the summary on the UNDRR website, Our World at Risk: (hereinafter OWR summary):

Despite commitments to build resilience, tackle climate change and create sustainable development pathways, current societal, political and economic choices are doing the reverse. This jeopardizes not only achievement of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 20152030, but also hinders progress towards the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out in the Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To change course, new approaches are needed. This will require transformations in what governance systems value and how systemic risk is understood and addressed. Doing more of the same will not be enough. Risk creation is outstripping risk reduction. Disasters, economic loss and the underlying vulnerabilities that drive risk, such as poverty and inequality, are increasing just as ecosystems and biospheres are at risk of collapse. Global systems are becoming more connected and therefore more vulnerable in an uncertain risk landscape. Local risks, like a new virus in Wuhan, China, can become global; global risks like climate change are having major impacts in every locality. Indirect, cascading impacts can be significant. Without increased action to build resilience to systemic risk, the SDGs cannot be achieved. Investment in understanding risk is the foundation for sustainable development. However, this needs to link to a reworking of financial and governance systems to account for the real costs of current inaction to address risks like climate change. Without this, financial balance sheets and governance decision-making will remain fragmented and be rendered increasingly inaccurate and ineffective. [Jerri-Lynn here: original emphasis.]

Alongside the dark and depressing report, UNDRR also went out a half-hopeful tweet:

Disasters can be prevented, but only if countries invest the time and resources to understand and reduce their risks.#StopTheSpiral Read the #GAR2022 report https://t.co/WeGIKrck6X pic.twitter.com/P7H69tCTe6  Mami Mizutori (@HeadUNDRR) April 26, 2022

This limited optimism was amplified and expanded on in the overview to the report, OWR summary:

It is not inevitable that risk continues to grow. The best defence against systemic risk is to transform systems to make them more resilient. Policy and personal action now can reverse this trend, but only if systemic risk is better understood and risk reduction action is accelerated. The fundamental equation that risk is a function of a hazard event combined with vulnerability and exposure has not changed. However, systemic risk occurs in todays globalized world through interconnected digital and physical infrastructures, globally integrated supply chains and factors such as urbanization and increased human mobility.

Ive elected not to reproduce any of the reportss charts. The one featured in the summary shows that If current trends continue, the number of disasters per year globally may increase from around 400 in 2015 to 560 per year by 2030  a projected increase of 40%.

Why do I omit this? Because even these grim graphics understate the true magnitude of the problems the world faces in that. Per OWR summary:

These trend lines do not take into account future climate change impacts, which are accelerating the pace and severity of hazard events, nor the fact that current choices mean the world is set to exceed the Paris Agreements global average maximum temperature increase target of 1.5C by the early 2030s (IPCC, 2021). [Jerri-Lynn here: my emphasis.]

So, to reproduce a report that fails to account for future climate change impacts would, or so I think, be an exercise in propagating misinformation. Even this depressing trend line Understates the actual risks faced.

What Can Be Done?

According to the OWR summary, humanity cannot eliminate systemic risk completely. but:

Systemic risk cannot be eliminated entirely, but it can be reduced and addressed more effectively. Addressing systemic risk requires building on existing risk reduction know-how, and also developing enhanced approaches to address the characteristics of systemic risk such as its cascading effects and inherent complexity and uncertainty.

Instead, a fundamental overhaul of risk governance system is necessary. Again,from the OWR summary::

In the face of global systemic risk, governance systems must quickly evolve and recognize that the challenges for the economy, environment and equality can no longer be separated. Conventional approaches to risk governance have tended to be based on linear or well- established cause-and-effect relationships. By contrast, systemic risk governance needs to recognize complex causal structures, dynamic evolutions and cascading or compound impacts. The recommendations of GAR2022 take the form of a call to action.

I will report the outlines of what the UNDRR recommends. These may be indeed be necessary and appropriate. But does anyone believe current political leaders are up to addressing these challenges?

Alas, I dont.

So as to keep this post of manageable length, Im going to confine this discussion to reproducing the bare bone categories of the UNs discussion; in other words, more or less the headlines. Interested readers can click on the summary link above  or go to the full report itself  for a fuller discussion.

UNDRR first recommends measuring what we value, and then. per the OWR summary:

1.1 Rework financial systems to account for the real costs of risk, particularly long-term risks, and rework investment and insurance systems to incentivize risk reduction

And further, from OWR summary:

1.2 Adapt national fiscal planning and risk financing to consider risk and uncertainty

The report recognises our current predicament stems from the current faulty way in which we make decisions about risk and therefore recommends, according to OWR summary:

Design systems to factor in how human minds make decisions about risk.

I agree, this provides a promising starting point, One thats much, much easier said than done. Recognising that at present human minds  and therefore our associated political and other decision-making systems misassess risk- would imply. Per OWR summary:

2.1 Recognize the role of peoples perceptions of risk and biases to close the gap between intention and action in reducing risk.

And, according to OWR summary:

2.2 Recognize the value of risk analytics as a tool but not a panacea.

The report makes sound recommendations, but Im afraid, in order to head off the problems we currently confrontt, these recommendations would have needed to have been implemented years if not decades ago.

Nonetheless, in the interests of completeness, let me close with the reports final recommendations. Per OWR summary::

Reconfigure governance and financial systems to work across silos and design in consultation with affected people.

Necessary, but not so simple, according to OWR summary:

3.1 Embrace a new risk language that cuts across multiple disciplines.

Followed by, which breaks down as, always talking the talk of participation, transparency, and inclusion. Per OWR summary:

3.2 Step up participation, transparency and citizen dialogue in risk decision-making to accelerate learning and necessary adjustments.

And then, according to OWR summary:

3.3 Enhance multi-scale risk management.

Lets drill down into the discussion under that last heading, from OWR summary:

Rifts can emerge between the national and local levels during major crises, as was the case in many jurisdictions during the COVID-19 crisis. Autonomy for local-level action is essential. More emphasis is required in scenario planning to manage extensive disasters and to handle governance issues resulting from cascading impacts. For example, adjustments made to health systems based on local knowledge and feedback were essential to building trust during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia (GAR2022, Chapter 7). In Canada, an InterSectoral Flood Network of Quebec presents modelling data and also explicitly facilitates co-training among members to promote a vision that is systemic and intersectoral, engaging universities and various socioeconomic partners and disciplines (GAR2022, Chapter 10) [Jerri-Lynn here: emphasis added].

Even this cursory discussion of this wee summary section has left me extremely depressed. As anyone whose paid even passing attention knows, the U.S. response to the covid crisis has been  and continues to be  a shambles. (To be sure, some other countries have done somewhat better, and others, much more so.)

Nonetheless, addressing other challenges requires global cooperation  and that includes the U.S.and other countries that have failed at coping with covid.

Does anyone really think the current cast of clowns  and their progeny  are up to coping with the climate change conundrum  or indeed any of the other problems the planet faces, such as the collapse in biodiversity.
(Natural News) The HighWire host Del Bigtree thinks the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) move to extend the public health emergency is intended to keep people under control by medical tyrants.

Investigative journalist and The HighWire co-host Jefferey Jaxen quoted an April 12 letter by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra that affirmed the continued public health emergency due to Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). He added that Becerras letter of renewal effectively extended the ongoing emergency by 90 days.

Lets look at his letter really quick. The renewal of a determination  so they made a determination that a public health emergency exists. Why does it exist? As a result of the continued consequence of the [COVID-19] pandemic, said Jaxen. Theyre not saying hospitals are overflowing, cases are spiking [and] people cant get treatment. Theyre saying the consequences.' (Related: President Biden to extend COVID-19 national emergency status.)

And Jaxen knows the reason why.

Theyre benefiting from this. People without insurance can get free vaccines [and] COVID tests. Hospitals are receiving, under the public health emergency, another 20 percent increase in Medicare payment rates [for] treatment of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Theres an incentive to keep this going.

Bigtree commented: If they pull the emergency, they now have to pay for those things. You know, all of these things that are killing people in hospitals, [they] definitely got to keep that going.

Jaxen also pointed out that the extension of the public health emergency would also extend the validity of the emergency use authorizations (EUAs) issued to the different COVID-19 vaccines.

The biggest one here for our audience is the EUA. It is under this public health emergency that these EUAs can exist. Right now, there are a handful of vaccines under EUA still. We have the two-dose series [for] just Pfizer alone: The two-dose series for [those aged] 12 and older, the [first] booster, the second booster for [those aged 15] and older and immunocompromised [individuals]. Thats just Pfizer, Moderna has their own.

If they removed the emergency, [theres] no need for [an] EUA. But again, it should be alarming that were not moving out of the emergency  even when they tell us the emergency is over. Its like they dont want to let go of this grip [on power], Bigtree said in agreement.

Jaxen and Bigtree criticize the WHOs medical tyranny

People are obsessed with pandemics. These people [are] like We know another pandemic is coming this fall, [so] Id be ready for the next one, said Bigtree. Jaxen interjected, citing World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as an example of someone obsessed with pandemic.

Jaxen also cited a report by Off-Guardian about the global health body planning a new pandemic treaty for 2024. It mentioned that the WHO plans to present a progress report on the so-called international treaty on pandemic prevention and preparedness to the 76th World Health Assembly in 2023. Following this, the WHO seeks to have the treaty ready for legal implementation by 2024.

The investigative journalist elaborated: Theyre planning on signing this treaty in 2024. This WHO pandemic treaty is really important because its a one-stop shop, its just like a lock and key. State sovereignty is over, country sovereignty is over. Top-down bio-surveillance, vaccine passports, turnkey everything for your country, essentially.

Lets do something here. I want to put two thoughts together, folks. Ask [yourselves]: Is there really an agenda going on? The WHO obviously is not an American organization. It really wants to be the World Health Order, [and] that is what it is turning into, Bigtree said.

It wants to dictate. It wants to supersede your president, your senators [and] your congresspeople. It wants to be the governing authority if there just happens to be another pandemic 365 days after the last one  which should be 100 times faster than any natural form of a pandemic before.

MedicalTyranny.com has more stories about health authorities seeking to extend the COVID-19 health emergency for their own benefits.

Watch the full conversation between Jaxen and Bigtree below.

This video is from The HighWire with Del Bigtree channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Covid is a global psy-op: There is no real medical emergency.

Senate passes bill to end COVID-19 state of National Emergency.

Attorney sues CDC and HHS over Covid-19 tyranny, urges Americans to resist.

Doctors and parents sue HHS to block approval of coronavirus vaccines for teens.

Americas Frontline Doctors sue HHS to revoke emergency use authorization for covid vaccines.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

ASPR.HHS.gov

Off-Guardian.org
(Natural News) Authorities have espoused surgical face masks as a way to address the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) since the pandemics onset in 2020. However, a study found that these masks possibly introduced microplastic materials into human lungs.

The study published on March 29 in Science of The Total Environment looked at the lung tissue of 11 patients undergoing thoracic surgery. Using spectroscopy, the study authors analyzed the different kinds of materials present in the samples and found 12 kinds of microplastics.

Of the 12 microplastics found in the samples, polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were the most prevalent substances. PP consisted of 23 percent of microplastics found in all lung tissue samples, while PET followed at 18 percent. Plastic resin was the third most prevalent at 15 percent.

Furthermore, tissue samples taken from patients lower lungs had the highest concentration of microplastics. Some of the microplastic fragments and fibers found measured two millimeters long.

Human lung tissue samples were typically comprised of PP, PET and resin  with fibers being more prevalent than fragments, the researchers wrote.

PP fabric, which is most commonly used to make surgical masks, is made from thermoplastic polymers that can be easily handled at high temperatures. Aside from PP, other materials derived from thermoplastic polymers such as polystyrene, polycarbonate, polyethylene or polyester are also used for face masks.

The abundance of [microplastics] within samples  supports human inhalation as a route of environmental exposure. [They] are designed to be resilient. It had previously been suggested that inhaled [microplastics] are likely to bio-persist and possibly accumulate within a lung environment, showing resilience to degradation, concluded the study authors.

The knowledge that [microplastics] are present in human lung tissues can now direct future cytotoxicity research to investigate any health implications associated with [microplastic] inhalation. (Related: Oxford professor: Face masks are largely pointless, wont stop the spread of omicron.)

Earlier study also outlines dangers of microplastics in face masks

Hull York Medical School researcher Laura Sadofsky, senior study author of the March 22 paper, said: We did not expect to find the highest number of particles in the lower regions of the lungs, or particles of the sizes we found. It is surprising, as the airways are smaller in the lower parts of the lungs and we would have expected particles of these sizes to be filtered out or trapped before getting this deep.

She said the data they found provides an important advance in the field of air pollution, microplastics and human health.

In 2021, a group of Chinese researchers looked at the risks of microplastic inhalation connected with wearing face masks. Their study was published in June 2021 in the Journal of Hazardous Materials. The study authors found that while wearing face masks poses a risk of inhaling microplastics, reusing them makes the risk higher.

Considering poverty and resource reuse behavior worldwide, reusing masks with or without applying a disinfection process is a common practice. Reusing masks after they underwent different disinfection pre-treatment processes can increase the risk of particle and fiber-like microplastic inhalation, they wrote.

The researchers also found that the type of mask worn and the duration of wear also played a role in how much microplastics were inhaled.

[Wearing] surgical, cotton, fashion and activated carbon masks pose higher fiber-like microplastic inhalation risk, which all masks generally reduced exposure when used under their supposed time [of less than four hours], they wrote.

The June 2021 study appeared to endorse N95 masks, with the researchers pointing out that this kind of face-covering poses less fiber-like microplastic inhalation risk and reduces the inhalation risk of spherical type microplastics by 25.5 times compared [to] not wearing a mask.

Watch this video showing the unsanitary manner surgical face masks are manufactured.

This video is from the Natural Nana channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Studies highlight the dangers of face masks for children.

Top 8 reasons young children are better off WITHOUT a Wuhan Virus mask on their face.

FINDING: Masks will silently deprive humans of oxygen for years to come through microplastic pollution.

Mask mouth, skin disease and breathing difficulties: Experts reveal the dangers of prolonged use of face masks.

Sources include:

DailyExpose.uk

ScienceDirect.com 1

ScienceDirect.com 2

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) New research published in the journal Nature Communications speculates that if geoengineering continues, at least one billion people will be put at risk by a new malaria resurgence in tropical countries.

Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center assessed how geoengineering impacts the spread of infectious diseases. Scientists from the United States, Bangladesh, South Africa and Germany used climate models to simulate malaria transmission under two future scenarios with and without geoengineering.

The study also included collaborators from the University of Maryland, College Park; the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh; the University of Florida, Gainesville; the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany; and Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Their models were designed to identify which temperatures are most conducive for transmission of malaria by the Anopheles mosquito, as well as how many people live in areas where heavy transmission is possible or likely.

In both scenarios, malaria was predicted to shift significantly between regions, with an additional one billion people being put at risk specifically by geoengineering interventions. Remember when geoengineering and chemtrails were called a conspiracy theory?

Compared to extreme warming  geoengineering would nullify a projected reduction of nearly one billion people at risk of malaria, the study revealed.

Bill Gates is trying to kill at least another one billion people by blocking the sun

In other words, the whole idea of cooling the planet in order to save lives is a complete misnomer. Blocking out the sun and trying to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air will only make infectious diseases more of a problem.

The implications of the study for decision-making are significant, said Colin Carlson, an assistant research professor at Georgetown University Medical Centers Center for Global Health Science and Security.

Carlson and the new studys senior author, Christopher Trisos, a senior researcher at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, published a commentary in the journal Nature Climate Change back in 2018 that hypothesized what has now been confirmed with their latest research.

They warned back then that malaria transmission peaks at 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit). Artificially cooling the planet, they found, increases that risk dramatically.

The potential for geoengineering to reduce risks from climate change remains poorly understood, and it could introduce a range of new risks to people and ecosystems, they said.

Billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates is one of the mad scientists who has been pushing to block the sun in order to stop global warming. His solar radiation management (SRM) plan involves shooting chemical aerosols into the stratosphere in order to reflect sunlight back into space.

The claim is that this pauses global warming and helps to fight climate injustice (whatever that means). This new study, however, tells a much different story.

Gates plan will actually kill more life than it could ever possibly save. This is par for the course as Gates has long pushed agendas that aim to depopulate the planet.

Keep in mind that Gates is also releasing genetically modified (GMO) mosquitoes in the United States right now, mosquitoes being a primary vector for the spread of malaria and other infectious diseases.

It sounds very much like the plot of one science fiction movie in particular  namely Bong Joon-hos 2013 film Snowpiercer, in which scientists release aerosols into the sky in a desperate bid to stop rampant warming, reported Tott News.

However, when the world freezes, the ultimate tyrannical system is established in its wake  It would seem this type of push is no longer science fiction.

More related news about climate change and global warming can be found at Climate.news.

Sources include:

TottNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Theres a very important question that we all need to be asking ourselves at this point in history, and that question is as follows: how much are we as a society willing to sacrifice so that the US government can win a propaganda war against Vladimir Putin?

(Article by Caitlin Johnstone republished from CaitlinJohnstone.Substack.com)

Let me explain.

One severely under-discussed aspect of the latest round of escalations in Silicon Valley censorship which began at the start of the Ukraine war is the fact that its an entirely unprecedented order of censorship protocol. While it might look similar to all the other waves of social media purges and new categories of banned content that weve been experiencing since it became mainstream doctrine after the 2016 US election that tech platforms need to strictly regulate online speech, the justifications for it have taken a drastic deviation from established patterns.

What sets this new censorship escalation apart from its predecessors is that this time nobodys pretending that its being done in the interests of the people. With the censorship of racists the argument was that they were inciting hate crimes and racial harassment. With the censorship of Alex Jones and QAnon the argument was that they were inciting violence. With the censorship of Covid skeptics the argument was that they were promoting misinformation that could be deadly. Even with the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story it was argued that there was a need to protect election integrity from disinformation of potentially foreign origin.

With censorship relating to the Ukraine war there is no argument that its being done to help the people. There is no case to be made that letting people say wrong things about this war kills Ukrainians, Americans, or anyone else. There is no case to be made that disputing claims about Russian war crimes will damage Americas democratic processes. Its just, Well we cant have people saying wrong things about a war, can we?

More Escalations In Online Censorship YouTube has been deleting videos disputing the US government narrative about Russian war crimes in Buchahttps://t.co/M7zupF8AMa  Caitlin Johnstone ? (@caitoz) April 15, 2022

Ask a properly brainwashed liberal why they support the censorship of someone who disputes US narratives about Russian war crimes in Bucha or Mariupol and theyll probably tell you something like Well, its disinformation! or Because its propaganda! or How much is Putin paying you?? But what they wont be able to do is articulate exactly what specific harm is being done by such speech in the same way that they could when defending the censorship of Covid skeptics or the factions responsible for last years riot in the Capitol building.

The one argument youll get, if you really press the issue, is that the United States is in a propaganda war with Russia, and it is in our societys interests for our media institutions to help the United States win that propaganda war. Cold wars are fought between nuclear powers because hot warfare would risk annihilating both nations, leaving only other forms of war like psychological warfare available. Theres no argument that this new escalation in censorship saves lives or protects elections, but there is an argument that it can help facilitate the long-term cold war agendas of the United States.

But what does that mean exactly? It means if we accept this argument were knowingly consenting to a situation where all the major news outlets, websites and apps that people look to for information about the world are geared not toward telling us true things about reality, but toward beating Vladimir Putin in some weird psywar. It means abandoning any ambitions of being a truth-based civilization that is guided by facts, and instead accepting an existence as a propaganda-based civilization geared toward making sure we all think thoughts that hurt Moscows long-term strategic interests.

And its just absolutely freakish that this is a decision that has already been made for us, without any public discussion as to whether or not thats the kind of society we want to live in. They jumped right from Were censoring speech to protect you from violence and viruses to Were censoring speech to help our government conduct information warfare against a foreign adversary. Without skipping a beat.

BBC Reporter Discourages Syria Questions Due To Information War With Russia You know youre in trouble when the military man tries to do the journalists job by asking questions and holding power to account and the journalist tries to stop him.https://t.co/DVxR3JQ6S2  Caitlin Johnstone ? (@caitoz) April 18, 2018

The consent-manufacturing class has helped pave the way for this smooth transition with their relentless and ongoing calls for more and more censorship, and for years weve been seeing signs that they view it as their duty to help facilitate an information war against Russia.

Back in 2018 we saw a BBC reporter admonish a former high-ranking British navy official for speculating that the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria was a false flag, a claim we now have mountains of evidence is likely true thanks to whistleblowers from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The reason the reporter gave for her objection to those comments was that were in an information war with Russia.

Given that were in an information war with Russia on so many fronts, do you think perhaps its inadvisable to be stating this so publicly given your position and your profile? Isnt there a danger that youre muddying the waters? the BBCs Annita McVeigh asked Admiral Alan West after his comments.

We saw a similar indication in the mass media a few weeks later in an interview with former Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who was admonished by CNNs Chris Cuomo for highlighting the completely uncontroversial fact that the US is an extremely egregious offender when it comes to interferences in foreign elections.

You know, that would be the case for Russia to make, not from the American perspective, Cuomo said in response to Steins entirely accurate remarks. Of course, theres hypocrisy involved, lots of different big state actors do lots of things that they may not want people to know about. But let Russia say that the United States did it to us, and heres how they did it, so this is fair play.

Which is the same as saying, Forget whats factually true. Dont say true things that might help Russian interests. Thats Russias job. Our job here on CNN is to say things that hurt Russian interests.

lol no. Again no journalist wants to be the but her emails journalist and branded a leper by their entire industry. Its that simple. https://t.co/NvNkcKKufo  Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 16, 2020

We can trace the mainstreaming of the idea that its the western medias job to manipulate information in the public interest, rather than simply tell the truth, back to Donald Trumps 2016 presidential win. In what was arguably the most significant political moment in the US since 9/11 and its aftermath, the consent-manufacturing class came to the decision that Trumps election wasnt a failure of status quo politics but a failure of information control.

In October 2020 during the Hunter Biden laptop scandal The Spectators Stephen L Miller described how the consensus formed among the mainstream press since Clintons 2016 loss that it was their moral duty to hide facts from the public which might lead to Trumps re-election.

For almost four years now, journalists have shamed their colleagues and themselves over what I will call the but her emails dilemma, Miller writes. Those who reported dutifully on the ill-timed federal investigation into Hillary Clintons private server and spillage of classified information have been cast out and shunted away from the journalist cool kids table. Focusing so much on what was, at the time, a considerable scandal, has been written off by many in the media as a blunder. They believe their friends and colleagues helped put Trump in the White House by focusing on a nothing-burger of a Clinton scandal when they should have been highlighting Trumps foibles. Its an error no journalist wants to repeat.

Once journalists accepted that their most important job is not to tell the truth but to keep people from thinking bad thoughts about the status quo political system, it was inevitable that theyd start enthusiastically cheerleading for more internet censorship. They see it as their duty, which is why now the leading proponents of online censorship are corporate media reporters.

Ratting out Radio Sputnik. Interesting task for a reporter. https://t.co/JP8NNFxvI1  Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) April 16, 2022

But it shouldnt be this way. Theres no legitimate reason for the Silicon Valley proxies of the most powerful government on earth to be censoring people for disagreeing with that government about a war, yet this is exactly whats happening and its happening more and more. It should alarm us all that its becoming increasingly acceptable to silence people not because theyre circulating dangerous disinfo, nor even because theyre saying things that are in any way false, but solely because they are saying things which undermine the US infowar.

People should absolutely be allowed to say things which disagree with the most powerful empire in history about a war. They should even be allowed to say brazenly false things about that war, because otherwise only the powerful will be allowed to say brazenly false things about it.

Free speech is important not because its nice to be able to say what you want, but because the free flow of ideas and information creates a check on the powerful. It gives people the ability to hold the powerful to account. Which is exactly why the powerful work to eliminate it.

We should see it as a huge, huge problem that so much of the world has been herded onto these giant monopolistic speech platforms that conduct censorship in complete alignment with the mightiest power structure in the world. This is the exact opposite of putting a check on power.

How much are we as a society willing to give up for the US government and its allies to win a propaganda war against Putin? Are we willing to commit to being a civilization for which the primary consideration with any piece of data is not whether or not its true, but whether it helps undermine Russia?

This is a conversation which should already have been going on in mainstream circles for some time now, but it never even started. Lets start it.

Read more at: CaitlinJohnstone.Substack.com
(Natural News) Well-known cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough told U.S. Freedom Flyers co-founder Joshua Yoder that many airline pilots would fail health screenings due to vaccine-induced heart conditions. Yoder, an airline pilot himself, shared his conversation with McCullough in an April 20 interview with Vaccine Safety Research Foundation founder and tech millionaire Steve Kirsch.

He [McCullough] said that if every vaccinated pilot were to be screened, there would be somewhere around a 30 percent loss in manpower, Yoder said. (Related: COVID-19 vaccine mandates for airline pilots increase the risks of flying)

McCullough, along with Idaho pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole, Robert Kennedy Jr., Lt. Col Teresa Long, Lt. Col. Peter Chambers, signed a letter addressed to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and major airlines on December 15, 2021, persuading them to flag all vaccinated pilots and conduct EKGs, D-dimer tests, troponin tests and cardiac MRIs to evaluate their health.

According to Yoder, the most prominent health issues being reported by pilots injected with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines include chest pains, myocarditis and pericarditis. He mentioned that three vaccinated pilots told him that they are currently flying with chest pains and another one said he is being treated by a cardiologist. The U.S. Freedom Flyers co-founder noted that the pilots want to remain anonymous because they dont want to lose their jobs.

Yoder said his group would like to find a solution for these pilots and collaborate with doctors, the FAA, airlines and unions to come up with a protocol that could give airline pilots some kind of immunity and allow them to speak openly about their conditions.

The U.S. Freedom Flyers, an all-volunteer group of Americas transportation professionals, was formed last fall to assist employees in the air transportation industry fight the federal laws about vaccinations.

Im afraid if we keep going down this path, at some point its going to end in catastrophe. If passengers actually knew what was going on at the airlines and the FAA, they would be livid, and everyone would be jumping on a class action suit against all of them, Yoder said.

Doctors give warning about adverse events from COVID-19 vaccine

Many doctors have warned that adverse events from the COVID-19 vaccination could cause a pilot (to lose) control of his aircraft and bring untold devastation.

As American Greatness reported, an American Airlines pilot suffered a cardiac arrest six minutes after landing his Airbus plane at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. Yoder said Captain Robert Snow nearly died when his heart stopped on April 9. They had to shock him three times with the AED [automated external defibrillator] to bring him back, Yoder related.

Snow was taken to Baylor, Scott and White Health Center, which is only ten minutes from both American Airlines and the union (the Allied Pilots Association), yet nobody from the airline or union contacted Snow while he was in the hospital, or stopped by to visit him. The only thing the airline did was fly his family to the hospital to meet with him.

Yoder said it is pretty clear that Snows cardiac arrest was caused by the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but the pilot has been going through a series of tests to confirm it.

Snow called the U.S. Freedom Flyers for assistance and the group put together a world-class team of doctors and lawyers to help him. Yoder said that Snow is now recuperating at home.

Apparently, Yoder said, the airline industry does not want to deal with the issue.

American Airlines is trying to create as much distance between themselves and this incident as humanely possible. So is the FAA, and so are the unions. We cant even get a response, Yoder said.

Yoder stated that Snow would be speaking out soon, and when he does youre going to hear some very interesting details that are going to be very damning for American Airlines, the Allied Pilots Association, the FAA and everyone else involved.

He also mentioned two other pilots who have come forward to speak about their vaccine injuries.

Pilot Greg Pierson has spoken out against the COVID vaccines ever since he suffered a stroke after getting the jab under pressure last year. Pierson stated during an interview last December that if he had the stroke while piloting a plane, he could have caused a crash.

Cody Flint, on the other hand, was an agricultural pilot up until he got the jab in February 2021. A few days after his vaccination, Flint said he suffered a mid-flight blackout before landing safely only by the grace of God. Flint was diagnosed with a neurological disorder that caused him his career. Hes suffering from harsh headaches and vertigo because of his condition and has had multiple surgeries and numerous doctor visits.

Follow VaccineInjuryNews.com for more news on pilots who suffered COVID-19 vaccine injuries.

Watch the video below to know about the radical increase in plane crashes that may have been caused by COVID-19 vaccines.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

California-based advocacy group says covid vaccine mandate for pilots violates federal law, puts passengers at risk.

US pilot deaths increase by 1,750% after covid vaccine rollout.

COVID-jabbed pilots are suffering cardiac arrest, but the media remains silent to avoid creating vaccine hesitancy.

Sources include:

AmGreatness.com

USFreedomFlyers.org

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Documents recently published regarding Pfizers Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine showed it had a death rate of at least 3.7 percent and an even higher rate of serious injury during its early trial.

This is according to Dr. Naomi Wolf, who discussed the data during an appearance on Steve Bannons program, War Room: Pandemic.

Since March, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been forced to release at least 55,000 pages worth of documents the agency has regarding Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine every month.

Wolf and her team have been going through the tens of thousands of pages worth of documents. On April 23, she went on Bannons program to discuss some of her findings, including the fact that initial Pfizer data showed a death rate of 3.7 percent and a significantly higher rate of serious injury. (Related: Pfizer recorded so many adverse events that it had to hire 2,400 more employees to handle paperwork and data processing.)

Of the total number of patients  over 42,000  that Pfizer looked at, 3.7 percent died, said Wolf. So, analysts point out that if we knew the number of doses that they had shipped, we would understand [what level of lethality] this figure represents.

The latest data show that around 219 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated. While exact numbers are hard to come by because Pfizer itself redacts information, one estimate suggests that Pfizer vaccines make up around 59 percent of all COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country.

What this indicates is that potentially over 100 million Americans received Pfizers experimental and deadly COVID-19 vaccine. Of those, there is no telling how many have died as a result of the complications caused by the vaccine.

But if the Pfizer vaccines death rate of 3.7 percent is accurate, that suggests that millions of people  perhaps as many as five million  could have already died or are about to die because of the Pfizer vaccine.

It is also possible that Pfizers initial death rate of 3.7 percent only accounts for the deaths that the Big Pharma company itself investigated in one of its studies. Meaning, the actual death rate for Pfizers vaccine could be much higher.

Pfizer refused to follow up on many patients who experienced adverse events

During her appearance on War Room: Pandemic, Wolf explained that Pfizer also failed to disclose tens of thousands of initial reports of severe adverse events, including deaths, and even went so far as to redact key information from the FDA.

Almost half of the cases are missing, said Wolf.

According to one Pfizer report, out of 42,086 relevant cases, it failed to follow up on 20,761 of these cases.

Theyre not followed up. And yet, they were identified as not recovered at the time of the report,' said Wolf. So we dont know what happened to them.

Wolf further explained that a great deal of data from the Pfizer documents is missing, and nearly half of follow-up reports regarding cases the Big Pharma company itself flagged as relevant are incomplete.

These are reports of people who are sick, theyre not recovered, somethings wrong, theyre suffering, said Wolf. But oops, Pfizer  you know, dog ate my homework  its gone, right? These reports are gone.

There are other anomalies that should lead the studies to be thrown out and not used as a basis for injecting you or your child with this experimental vaccine, continued Wolf. She noted that around 71 percent of the trial participants in one study were women, only 22 percent were male and seven percent did not even have a reported gender.

If youre really doing a randomized control study, youre not going to get  three-quarters of the study subjects being female, because 52 percent of the human beings in the world are female, she said. Theyre cherry-picking who the subjects are. Why would they leave out men?

Learn more about Pfizers experimental and dangerous COVID-19 vaccine at DangerousMedicine.com.

Watch this episode of The Ben Armstrong Show on The New American as host Ben Armstrong goes into detail regarding the disturbing and dangerous revelations from the latest Pfizer report.

This video is from the channel The New American on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

CLAIM: Pfizer is planning to ASSASSINATE doctors like Bryan Ardis and Zev Zelenko.

Recently released Pfizer document shows mRNA COVID-19 vaccine can cause 1,291 different adverse events.

Whistleblower: Pfizer FORGED signatures of trial participants, falsified and fabricated trial data.

Leaked top-secret Pfizer document shows COVID-19 vaccine is FAR MORE DANGEROUS than the world knows.

Pfizer admits in confidential document that COVID-19 vaccine causes Vaccine-Associated Enhanced Disease (same thing as Antibody Dependent Enhancement).

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

CreativeDestructionMedia.com

NPR.org

Statista.com
(Natural News) The Toronto Zoo absurdly claimed that animals under its care are voluntarily getting injected with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, implying that zoo animals are granting informed consent to be injected with experimental injections that come with the risk of serious side effects or death.

Toronto Zoo CEO Dolf DeJong told Canadian news outlet CP24: These are voluntary inoculations. The animals choose to come over and interact with the animal care staff, and then are delivered the vaccine. Some days, they participate; some days, they dont. He added that the zoo will keep working until all its 120 animals are vaccinated.

According to DeJong, zoo animals to be vaccinated include primates, weasels, ferrets, tigers and pigs. We are happy to report we have had no positive cases in any of our animals throughout this pandemic. Being able to add this extra layer of protection allows us to continue doing everything we can to provide them with the highest level of protection and medical care, the Toronto Zoo CEO said in a press release.

The same press release added that Toronto Zoo staff had been working on voluntary positive reinforcement training with their animals for many years. The training has been an integral step to ensure the COVID-19 vaccination for animals results in minimal stress and disruption to the animals routines. (Related: Shameless vaccine promoters now using zoo animals for propaganda: Baby gorilla gets his flu shot.)

Many of the animals willingly present an area of the body, such as an arm or tail, as part of their regular training exercises with their trusted keepers. Desirable treats [are] often used as a reward for their participation. A key component of these training sessions is that the animal always has the choice to participate in the training session, or walk away and try again another time.

The zoo used COVID-19 vaccines developed and donated by Zoetis, which was formerly known as Pfizer Animal Health. The company was completely spun off from its New York-based parent and became a fully independent firm in 2013.

It is not known if Zoetis COVID-19 vaccine is based on Pfizers BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. Nevertheless, Toronto Zoos press release reiterated that Zoetis has received no significant animal adverse event reports from zoo veterinarians following vaccination with its COVID-19 shot.

Humans cannot voluntarily decline the COVID-19 vaccine

While animals in the Toronto Zoo can choose to walk away from vaccination, human workers in the capital of Canadas Ontario province are not afforded the same privilege. (The humans are treated like imprisoned animals.)

A notice issued by the city government of Toronto said employees, volunteers and students working for the city must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

All city employees are required to be fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine series by Oct. 30, 2021. For a two-dose vaccine series, employees must receive once dose of [a] COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 30 and two doses of [the] COVID-19 vaccine by Oct. 30. For a single-dose vaccine series, employees must receive the dose by Sept. 30, stated the notice.

According to the notice, employees who do not comply with [the mandatory COVID-19] vaccination policy may be subject to discipline, up to and including dismissal. True enough, the Toronto Sun reported in January that 461 city workers were fired for non-compliance with the vaccine mandate.

A Jan. 5 statement released by the city said the almost 500 terminated workers either refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine or opted not to disclose their vaccination status. It added: The Jan. 2, 2022 deadline for city employees to be compliant with the COVID-19 vaccination policy was extended from last year in order to provide employees additional time to become educated and obtain a vaccine, as well as to allow greater time between first and second doses.

The statement from Toronto also mentioned that 248 workers were partially vaccinated with one shot of the two-dose vaccine. Those workers will have a vaccination status meeting with their manager and a union representative, it continued.

If, at that meeting, the employee is found to still not have two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine  employment could be terminated that day.

VaccineWars.com has more stories about COVID-19 vaccination for both animals and humans.

Watch the video below that talks about zoo animals being injected with the COVID-19 vaccine.

This video is from the Truth or Consequences channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

MIND-BLOWING: Oakland and Denver zoos giving COVID-19 spike protein vaccines to animals  including bears, gorillas, tigers and mountain lions.

INSANITY: Phoenix Zoo vaccinates 75 ANIMALS for COVID-19  all of them endangered species.

Now theyre vaccinating gorillas at the zoo for coronavirus.

Sources include:

WND.com

CP24.com

TorontoZoo.com

Toronto.ca

TorontoSun.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Ty and Charlene Bollinger are launching another truth project called Propaganda Exposed! that blows the lid on many of the government and media lies that we have all been told throughout our lives.

From May 4-11, 2022, the new eight-part docu-series will be free to watch for anyone who registers for the World Premiere. All you have to do is sign up through this affiliate link (please note this publisher may receive compensation for purchases made through this link, but the series is still free to watch during the World Premiere).

Following the success of their The Truth About Cancer series, the Bollingers saw a need to highlight other truths that many people have missed due to constant programming and brainwashing, including the truth about the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic.

For more than two years, the world was told that a virus escaped from bats was circulating, and that the only cure was to stay home and get vaccinated. It turns out that this was a lie.

To help expose the fraud and medical fascism that was perpetrated on the masses, the Bollingers brought together more than 20 health and freedom experts, including our own Mike Adams, the Health Ranger.

Other prominent names include Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., John & Alicia Schneider, Dr. Judy Mikovits, Roger Stone, Dr. Omar Hamada, MD, Angela Stanton-King, Del Bigtree, Karyn Turk, Greg Locke, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Zach Vorhies, Mikki Willis, Kristin Davis, John B. Wells, Dr. Edward Group, Leila Centner, Dr. Bill DeMoss, Robert Scott Bell, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, Scott McKay, Leigh Allyn Baker, Sayer Ji, Landon and Robby Starbuck, G. Edward Griffin, Dr. Alan Keyes, David Avocado Wolfe, Krystal Tini, Mel K., Jim Moody, Dr. Carrie Madej, DO, Dr. Daniel Nuzum, Sen. Mark Pody, Cherie Calbom, Dr. Patrick Quillin, Lourdes and Chris LaVoy, Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, Dr. Terry Harmon, Gary Humble, Jeffrey Smith, Dr. Matthias Rath, MD, Dr. Brian Hooker, Dr. Paul Thomas, MD, Dr. Gaston Cornu-Labat, MD, Dr. Irvin Sahni, MD, Dr. Aleksandra Niedzwiecki, PhD, and Jason Shurka.

A promotional video for the series can be viewed through the affiliate link.

Dont miss Propaganda Exposed! for FREE from May 4-11

Episode 1 of the Propaganda Exposed! series will dive deep into the history of pervasive propaganda in our country, which did not start with Tony Fauci. It goes all the way back to the days of the Founding Fathers, it turns out.

Episode 2 will cover the war on cannabis and other natural cures, fraudulent germ therapy, and medical experiments involving AIDS and other diseases.

Episode 3 is all about how fear has been weaponized and used to mandate compliance with tyranny. It also covers vaccine adverse events and government coverups.

Episode 4 discusses eugenics and medical apartheid, including top-secret programs that target certain races and ethnic groups with weaponized medicine.

Episode 5 is called Big Pharma-cide,' and it deals with government coercion, fraud at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and natural immunity.

Episode 6 links forced medicine to the central banking cartel, including the fraudulent Federal Reserve. It also discusses fluoridated water and other examples of scientific fraud.

Episode 7 is all about the modern-day robber barons that are peddling cancer-causing vaccines and other drugs for profit. It also deals with issues such as depopulation and the GMO (genetically modified organisms) and geoengineering genocide currently taking place.

Finally, Episode 8 talks all about how to defeat the deceit and triumph over victory, including how to overcome the Great Reset and global surveillance initiatives.

Check out the Propaganda Exposed! website to learn more about the series and be sure to sign up for it!

More related news can be found at Propaganda.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheTruthAboutCancer.us

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Virus and vaccine expert Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche believes the massive amount of complications caused by the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines can collapse the healthcare systems of entire nations.

Vanden Bossche formerly worked as a senior officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and then as a senior program manager for the Gates Foundation-funded Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.

He gave this warning on Nov. 20, 2021, in a video message titled Message to Austria, which was released to coincide with a large rally in Vienna opposing COVID-19 restrictions.

As his first warning, Vanden Bossche advised Austrians to never, ever  allow anything, or anybody, to interfere or suppress your innate immune system. He explained that a persons natural immune system is his or her first line of defense against infections. (Related: Vaccine expert warns the unvaccinated to never take COVID vaccines.)

Vanden Bossche further explained that the so-called antibodies provided by the COVID-19 vaccines suppress the bodys innate immune system and vaccines cannot substitute for it because the effectiveness of these so-called antibodies plummets quickly after injection and do not actually prevent infection or transmission of the virus.

If the COVID-19 vaccines are not helpful for adults, Vanden Bossche warns that this is especially true for children.

Vanden Bossche warned that the innate immunity of children can easily be suppressed by vaccinal antibodies because their antibodies are so young and so naive that they can easily be outcompeted by vaccinal antibodies.

He further warned that the continued vaccination of children could lead to a surge in autoimmune diseases in the worlds youth. Therefore, vaccinating children is an absolute no-go, he said. We cannot vaccinate our children with these vaccines.

Vanden Bossche later said those who have gotten themselves vaccinated should not get booster vaccine doses, calling it absolutely insane to do so.

What this will do is just further increase the immune pressure of the vaccinal antibodies on their innate immunity, he said. Absolute nonsense. It is dangerous and should not be done.

He also mentioned that when the fully vaccinated and boosted come up against different diseases, what little remains of their immune systems will have an extremely difficult time protecting the body.

Higher vaccination rates lead to higher likelihood of health system collapse

Vanden Bossche believes that the greatest weapon anti-vaccine protesters and health freedom advocates have against COVID-19 and the mandates is to not get vaccinated. He described this battle as a fight for your health, and if fewer people get vaccinated, the measures governments put in place will not be sustainable.

He also expressed great concern for the vaccinated, stating that health freedom advocates also need to treat them with compassion and understanding.

We need to help them as much as we can because they will need extensive treatment in many cases, he said. Vanden Bossche noted that he has observed that more and more fully vaccinated individuals are being hospitalized, and the rate at which they are ending up requiring treatment is now steadily increasing.

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, said Vanden Bossche. 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 said otherwise.

As a closing message, Vanden Bossche reiterated his point that COVID-19-related restrictions, such as lockdowns and mandates, are not sustainable no matter where they are put in place. He encouraged health freedom advocates fighting against restrictions to stay calm, and he shared a German saying that roughly translated to: Strength is found in serenity.

Watch this presentation by Vanden Bossche as he talks about the risks of mass vaccination programs.

This video is from the JoJoSpark channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

COVID vaccine complications will soon collapse our health system, warns renowned virologist.

Vaccine expert: Giving COVID-19 vaccines to children is an unforgivable sin because they destroy childrens innate immune systems.

Geert Vanden Bossche: Vaccinating people in the middle of a pandemic promotes spread of deadly variants.

Vaccine expert calls on WHO to immediately halt all coronavirus mass vaccinations.

Expert virologist urges WHO to halt mass vaccination for coronavirus, warns about deadly viral immune escape.

Sources include:

SHTFPlan.com

LifeSiteNews.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The United States proxy war against Russia is continuing unabated, as our government leaders once again engage in a conflict none of them voted on or were authorized to enter by the American people.

But this time, naked financial ambition is part of whats driving our involvement.

Joe Biden, who was installed as president by the deep state cabal by stealing President Donald Trumps reelection victory, is not really running his regime. Its being run in the shadows by point man Barack Obama who is essentially serving out a third term in violation of our Constitution. And while he has cashed in from his presidency, he is helping the Bidens cash in on Daddy Joes using taxpayer money to send aid to Ukraine, a country whose corrupt leaders have been known to send kickbacks to old man Joe via first son Hunter Biden.

CBS News reports:

Pres. Bidens new $800 million military aid package to Ukraine includes:

 Heavy artillery weapons

 Dozens of howitzers

 144,000 rounds of ammunition

 More tactical drones

Pres. Bidens new $800 million military aid package to Ukraine includes:  Heavy artillery weapons

 Dozens of howitzers

 144,000 rounds of ammunition

 More tactical drones pic.twitter.com/8WqFDZkWhg  CBS News (@CBSNews) April 21, 2022

The Associated Press adds:

Joe Biden pledged an additional $1.3 billion Thursday for new weapons and economic assistance to help Ukraine and he promised to seek additional funding from Congress to keep the guns, ammunition and cash flowing. The latest military aid, Biden said, will be sent directly to the front lines of freedom.

Putin is banking on us losing interest, Biden said. The Russian president is betting that Western unity will crack and once again were going to prove him wrong.

The new package  builds on roughly $2.6 billion in military assistance that Biden previously approved.

But heres the kicker  or shall we say kickback: Theres also a fresh $500 million in direct economic assistance to Ukraine for government salaries, pensions and other programs, the AP reported.

American voters did not authorize this. Americans by and large may side with Ukraine (wrongly  neither one of these countries is clean and corruption-free), but they did not grant our leaders permission to be sending over war materiel that we have paid for with our tax dollars to be used in a war that does not involve nor concern a single vital U.S. national security interest.

Worse, any member of Congress who speaks out about this unconstitutional Biden kickback scheme is being bullied into silence by being accused, like Trump falsely was, of being a dupe for Putin.

Mind you, not long ago Biden and Putin met and it was all smiles then; all of us a sudden, theyre mortal enemies with Biden suggesting stupid, illegal things like regime change in Russia when he claimed, My God, this man cannot remain in power.

Theres more. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also setting the Bidens up for further largess, this time on the dime of taxpayers all over the world. He has said that with scores of buildings in his country destroyed along with major swaths of infrastructure, Ukraine will need hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild. Keep the kickbacks coming, Joe and Hunter say, keep them coming.

We are in a critical window now of time when theyre going to set the stage for the next phase of war. Pres. Biden announces a new $800 million aid package to Ukraine as Russia presses offensive in the east. pic.twitter.com/uvKQ91ZTuD  CBS News (@CBSNews) April 21, 2022

American voters cannot continue to elect the same people over and over again, year after year, decade after decade  and expect a different result. Thats the clinical definition of insanity.

If our politicians refuse to voluntarily step aside and let others serve, we should retire them at the ballot box. While we still have a country to save.

Sources include:

CitizenFreePress.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The story of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is an object lesson in what happens to free people in a democracy when they attempt to pull back the curtain and expose the evil globalist deep state cabal that runs our world from the shadows instead of those we elect to represent us.

After being forced to hole up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for years on a bogus sexual assault charge following his exposure of the U.S. military-industrial complexs criminal behavior around the world, seething deep state globalists in D.C. were forced to wait him out as they were denied a quick opportunity to put him on [show] trial, see to it he was convicted, then put in some dark penitentiary hole somewhere to rot the rest of his life away. So much for our First Amendments freedom of the press protections; cant publish what the military-industrial/intelligence community deep state doesnt want to be exposed.

Exclusive Video: Julian Assanges Father Calls on America to Respect the First Amendment https://t.co/8CKzl4U3vg  Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 26, 2020

Now, the cabal is one step closer to getting its hooks into Assange, per The Associated Press:

A British judge on Wednesday formally approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States to face spying charges. The case will now go to Britains interior minister for a decision, though the WikiLeaks founder still has legal avenues of appeal.

The order, which brings an end to the years-long extradition battle closer, comes after the U.K. Supreme Court last month refused Assange permission to appeal against a lower courts ruling that he could be extradited.

The AP noted further that District Judge Paul Goldspring issued his order at a brief hearing at the Westminster Magistrates Court as Assange looked on via a video link from the Belmarsh Prison where hes been held, as his supporters rallied outside the courthouse and called for him to be released.

Following the ruling, Home Secretary Priti Patel will get to decide whether or not to allow Assange to be extradited to the U.S., where he likely faces a life sentence if convicted.

The move doesnt exhaust the legal options for Assange, who has sought for years to avoid a trial in the U.S. on charges related to WikiLeaks publication of a huge trove of classified documents more than a decade ago, the AP reported, adding that Assanges attorneys have a month to submit appeals to Patel while also appealing to the British High Court. One of Assanges attorneys, Mark Summers, told the district court that he and his legal team had serious submissions to make.

Meanwhile, the Washington Examiner reported that a coalition of press freedom and human rights organizations are urging Patel not to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the U.S.

The coalition [urges Patel] to act in the interest of press freedom and journalism by refusing extradition and immediately releasing Mr. Assange from prison, where he has remained on remand for three years despite the great risks posed to his mental and physical health, the groups noted in a Friday letter.

The outlet continued:

If Assange is extradited, he will face trial on 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The coalition argued that Assange would be most likely detained there in conditions of isolation or solitary confinement despite the US governments assurances and that this would increase his risk of suicide.

The coalition also said that Assange would be afforded a public defense because of the secretive nature of the Espionage Act and that his prosecution would set a dangerous precedent that could be applied to any media outlet that published stories based on leaked information, or indeed any journalist, publisher or source anywhere in the world.

Except that major American media outlets publish highly classified materials all the time  without retribution.

Assange did the world more of a service than nearly every other media outlet combined. He should be set free.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

WashingtonExaminer.com
(Natural News) Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday blasted the alleged foreign government-funded intimidation campaign that he said has been launched against the Libs of Tik Tok Twitter account through the doxing of its anonymous creator this week.

(Article by Ashley Sadler republished from LifeSiteNews.com)

At the top of his Tuesday night show, Carlson explained that the massively popular conservative Libs of Tik Tok Twitter account was started last year by a woman in Brooklyn, New York, and comprised almost solely of videos of liberals talking about themselves.

So the concept was very simple: Find interesting tape that had already been uploaded to the internet by the people who made it, and then re-post that tape, Carlson said. There was no editing of it, no special effects. There was very little editorial content. The idea was to let activist types describe in their own words what they believe, unfiltered.

Since its launch last year, Libs of Tik Tok has brought in over half a million followers, which Carlson quipped dwarfs the nightly viewership of CNN.

Viral videos uploaded by Libs of Tik Tok have included many recorded by far left activists and radical teachers explaining how they introduce young children into LGBTQ+ sexual ideology, sparking outrage among parents.

Heres a developmentally appropriate way to talk to toddlers about gender The parents guess the babys gender based on genitals and sometimes they make a mistake pic.twitter.com/NMJHmyuk0l  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 21, 2022

This is journalism, Carlson said. No news organization in America has done more to reveal the reality within American schools than Libs of Tik Tok.

Libs of Tik Toks massive reach and influence on public discourse, however, put it squarely in the crosshairs of the left-wing corporate media.

This week, days after sobbing on MSNBC while decrying online harassment, Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz drew massive backlash when she doxed Libs of Tik Toks anonymous creator in a hit piece in which she exposed her name, workplace, religious affiliations, and political views, after tracking down her family members.

Hi @TaylorLorenz! Which of my relatives did you enjoy harassing the most at their homes yesterday? pic.twitter.com/QehkBSgcmG  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 19, 2022

This is obviously an intimidation campaign designed to shut down a highly effective Twitter feed, Carlson said.

Accusing Lorenz of not being a journalist but merely a receptacle for information that other people gather for their own ends, Carlson questioned where Lorenz received the information she used to dox the accounts creator.

Well, actually, we dont have to guess, because todays Washington Post story answers that question, he said.

Carlson explained that, according to the Post article, the information on the account creator came from a man named Travis Brown, who runs the so-called Travis Brown Hate Speech Tracker, which Carlson said uses a variety of proprietary methods to reveal personally identifying information of private citizens who stray from the approved storyline.

The Fox News host explained that the Hate Speech Tracker is funded by the Prototype Fund, a project of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), according to the organizations website.

So again, whos paying for this? Carlson asked. Well, a foreign government is paying for it. The Prototype Fund gets its money not from private donors, but from the government of Germany. Germanys federal ministry of education. It says so right on the website.

Carlson argued that The Washington Posts hit piece against Libs of Tik Tok was therefore a foreign intelligence operation designed to silence and intimidate an American citizen.

Asking why the German government trying to shut down an American Twitter account posting about American teachers, Carlson suggested that since Lorenz allegedly received information from a foreign government, which was designed to destroy an American citizen, The Washington Post reporter should have at the very least registered under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FERA).

The Fox News host went on to point out that there has been quite a bit of talk about this over the last few years.

There was an impeachment trial over it, he said, challenging the fact that Lorenz can allegedly take information from a foreign government to crush an American citizen, and remain a journalist in good standing with Jeff Bezos newspaper.

Lots of questions here, Carlson said. We hope we can get to the bottom of all of it.

Libs of Tik Toks creator later joined Carlson on his show, saying that despite efforts to silence her, thats just never gonna happen.

They think doxxing me is going to intimidate me into silence. I can assure you, thats never going to happen. pic.twitter.com/Icxz7tg5yL  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 20, 2022

Read more at: LifeSiteNews.com
(Natural News) Many conservatives who have been shadow-banned, blocked or otherwise censored on the Twitter social media platform over the years are throwing a digital party now that Elon Musk is finalizing his purchase of the company with plans to take it private.

The self-described free speech absolutist from South Africa issued a statement about his successful purchase of Twitter for $44 billion, claiming that free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.

I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans, Musk added. (Related: Remember when Elon Musk named his gender-neutral baby a string of alien letters?)

Twitter has tremendous potential  I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.

First off, the United States is a constitutional republic, Elon, not a democracy. Secondly, how are you planning to authenticat[e] all humans, and what kind of Orwellian speech is that anyway?

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) was unphased by this strange and concerning use of language, tweeting that This is a great day to be conservative on Twitter in response to Musks statement.

The Daily Wires Michael Knowles tested the waters with even more controversy by tweeting about how The 2020 presidential election was obviously rigged.

Public health officials lied repeatedly about COVID-19, Knowles wrote in a separate tweet that prior to Musks takeover would have resulted in a misinformation label being affixed, or possibly even a ban.

You can now write that ivermectin is a wonder drug on Twitter without being censored

Knowles wrote a few other zingers that in times past would have created a firestorm of controversy on Twitter, including a post about how Ivermectin is a wonder drug.

Knowles also tweeted about how the experts agree that [t]ransgenderism isnt a real category of being.

Erick Aguilar, a Republican who is running for Congress in Floridas 4th District, also tweeted about how ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) both work to treat the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19), and that the vaccines are ineffective.

Aguilar further wrote that masks do not work to protect against the Fauci Flu; so-called booster shots are killing people; and his own personal opinion that Dr. Robert Malone and Joe Rogan are heroes, adding that he hopes Musk keeps his word concerning the allowance of free speech on Twitter.

Arizona Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers joined in the fun by simply tweeting TRUMP WON, as well as Only women can get pregnant.

When I see him, I think of the character OBrien in Orwells Nineteen Eight-Four, wrote a commenter at Natural News, offering a different take concerning Musk. He talks against the New World Order and AI while at the same time promoting Neuralink which will merge peoples brains with AI.

He also said you can turn someone into a butterfly with mRNA, and after that a huge butterfly was a part of the creepy light show at the Space Needle in Seattle on New Years Eve, Dec. 31, 2020.

Wernher von Brauns 1948 sci-fi novel Project Mars: A Technical Tale (English translation, 1953) projected that the Martian government was directed by ten men, the leader of whom was elected by universal suffrage for five years and entitled Elon. Revelation 17:12  The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but along with the Beast they will receive authority like kings for one hour. Im not saying Musk is the Antichrist, but its something to watch out for.

More related news about social media censorship can be found at Censorship.news.

Sources for this article include:

LifeSiteNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Technology company Foxconn suspended operations in two of its factories in mainland China due to rising Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. The Taiwanese firm is a major supplier for technology giant Apple.

Foxconn shut down its two factories located in the city of Kunshan in the coastal Jiangsu province. Kunshan officials said all operations at the Foxconn plants have reportedly been put on hold since April 20 after workers tested positive for COVID-19. They added that the tens of thousands of Foxconn workers staying in dormitories have been put under strict lockdown rules.

Workers at the Foxconn facilities in Kunshan were also taken by surprise by the shutdown as they were hoping that Foxconns closed-loop system  with employees being shuttled from their dormitories to the factory and back  would enable continued operations. The system was instrumental in Kunshan authorities granting the Taiwanese firm permission to resume manufacturing, alongside 60 other companies.

The city is home to 2.1 million residents and located 32 miles east of Shanghai, which is currently locked down due to Chinas zero-COVID policy. It is also home to many factories run by several Taiwanese electronic firms like Foxconn, whose factories are located in Dianfa and Fuhong at the northern part of the city. Two days after the shutdown of the Dianfa and Fuhong plants, Kunshan reported 23 new COVID-19 cases on April 22  a leap from single-digit counts the week prior. (Related: SUPPLY CHAIN NIGHTMARE: Taiwanese manufacturers operating in Shanghai forced to shut down operations due to Chinas lockdown.)

First established in 1993, Foxconns Kushan facilities have generated about $44.6 billion in revenue.

The shutdown of the Kushan factories also dealt a heavy blow to Apples supply chain. The Big Tech giant helmed by Tim Cook had been depending on Foxconn to make up for its supply of mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads. Apples supply chain problem stemmed from most of its key electronics suppliers, such as Pegatron and Compal Electronics, suspending operations due to COVID-19 lockdowns.

Operations continue in Foxconns Shenzhen campus

Aside from the two Kunshan factories, Foxconn also runs two factories in the southeastern Guangdong province  one in the city of Dongguan and another in Shenzhen, dubbed the Silicon Valley of China.

Foxconn managed to continue operations in its Foxconn City campus in Shenzhen two days after it initially shut down by following the closed-loop system, thereby isolating its workers from the outside. Employees were shuttled back and forth between the company-owned worker dormitories to the factory in order to avoid contact with non-workers. The company also provided regular COVID-19 tests to its workers. The closed loop system was later deployed to the Dongguan facility.

The companys acting spokesman Jimmy Huang confirmed to Al Jazeera on April 25 that manufacturing operations are proceeding as usual in the Shenzhen factory. A subsequent statement from the firm said that production has been shifted to other Foxconn facilities to address its weakened supply chains.

As production has previously been deployed to backup factories, [Foxconns] main products are located in overseas shipping [warehouses] and inventory levels are still sufficient; [thus], the impact on the companys business is limited, said the statement.

The forced shutdowns in factories owned by Foxconn and other technology firms came as the Chinese Communist Party adopted a zero-COVID policy across the country. The policy involved the imposition of stringent quarantine measures, including lockdowns, on areas with high COVID-19 cases. Millions of residents in the eastern part of China had been confined to their homes since the new wave spurred by the more infectious yet milder B11529 omicron variant hit in March. Omicron has caused the daily COVID-19 caseload to go beyond the 20,000 mark.

Following the central government in Beijings declaration of a zero-COVID policy in March, Shenzen quarantined its 17.5 million residents. Southern Guangdong followed suit, imposing a citywide lockdown during the same month.

SupplyChainWarning.com has more stories about how Chinas zero-COVID policy impacts supply chains.

Watch a Shenzhen factory worker complaining that the lockdowns prevented him from putting food on the table below.

This video is from the Chinese taking down EVIL CCP channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Supply chain problems continue as China locks down cities to fight COVID-19.

China shuts down more ports due to covid, global supply chain collapse imminent.

World braces for renewed supply chain crisis as COVID outbreaks shut down highly vaccinated China.

China implements strict lockdown, claiming they have to stop the spread of COVID the supply chain will be impacted.

Chinas perpetual lockdown of major port city Shanghai brings supply chain to brink of collapse, but that may be the plan.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

AlJazeera.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) A tidal wave of left-wing figures and personalities beclowned themselves online Monday following news that Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink billionaire founder Elon Musk managed to buy out big tech behemoth Twitter, the worlds second-largest platform.

For years, conservatives who post content have been throttled, shadow-banned and kicked off the platform because it was being run by anti-free speech Marxists triggered by anyone who disagrees with them and refuses to accept leftist groupthink without questioning.

Now, however, their iron grip on the platform will be loosened by Musk, who has pledged to turn Twitter back into the virtual townhall it was designed to be: Not a place for illegal threats and calls for violence, but a legitimate virtual forum where all views and ideas can be shared without fear of being canceled.

And it is instructive that left-wing figures are the ones who have the biggest problem with that concept, as evidenced by their meltdowns and threats to leave the platform (like many of them threatened to leave the U.S. for Canada after Donald Trump won the presidency  but they didnt), as leaving Twitter trended in the hours after the sale was announced.

Charles Blow, a racist columnist for The New York Times who has described supporters of President Donald Trump as angry white men (including, we suppose, Trumps legions of female supporters and Americans of color) said he would say goodbye to the platform if Musk takes control.

Looks like Im about to say goodbye to Twitter as well. Ive been pulling back a bit from social media anyway. This will be just the push I need to go all the way on this app, he wrote.

Looks like Im about to say goodbye to Twitter as well. Ive been pulling back a bit from social media anyway. This will be just the push I need to go all the way on this app. https://t.co/QkwIsYy6zS  Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) April 25, 2022

I will not stay on Twitter if Elon Musk owns it, added former New York Times editorial board member Mira Kamdar.

the willingness of Twitters board to engage with Mr. Musk, the worlds richest man, represents a step forward. And a step toward my leaving this platform. I will not stay on Twitter if Elon Musk owns it. https://t.co/ppmwLRe2wV  Mira Kamdar (@mirakamdar) April 25, 2022

Meanwhile, historian James Fell said he would leave if Musk un-bans Trump from the platform, who was banned by Twitter and other social media companies while he was still President over the lie that he incited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building.

Im only leaving Twitter if Musk allows Trump back on.  James Fell (@BodyForWife) April 25, 2022

Race hustler Shaun King suggested South African-born Musks move to buy the platform was all about white power.

At its root, [Elon Musk] wanting to purchase Twitter is not about left vs right, he wrote. Its about white power.

The man was raised in Apartheid by a white nationalist, King continued. Hes upset that Twitter wont allow white nationalists to target/harass people. Thats his definition of free speech.

Elon Musk has openly called himself a free speech absolutist and said that he wants to create a space where anything can be said about anyone, the activist claimed. Thats why white nationalists are giddy today. Here on Twitter and other platforms that I track daily. Its dangerous.

And listen, I dont even like the Democratic Party, he added. So for me, this isnt about left vs right. Not at all. Its about how the richest man in the world, a son of Apartheid, raised by a white nationalist, wants to be sure his speech, and that of other white men, isnt censored.

When leftists cant have a monopoly on speech and thought, they lash out because while they claim to be defending democracy, theyre really just tyrants at heart.

Sources include:

USAFeatures.news

Breitbart.com
(Natural News) Florida-based lawyer Jay Sanchez said a lot of doctors are slaves to the medical system.

A lot of doctors are kind of slaves to the system. They didnt know, but I understand a lot of these doctors for economical reasons have become part of these hospitals and now they are slaves to the hospitals, Sanchez told host Dr. Bryan Ardis during the April 20 episode of The Dr. Ardis Show on Brighteon.TV.

Sanchez cited as an example a New York-based doctor who wasnt able to provide a prescription for ivermectin for fear that he may lose his job for prescribing a medicine that is not approved by the federal health agencies. (Related: Japanese study finds that ivermectin is safe and effective for treating covid.)

The lawyer is part of a group called FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation (FFFF), which is headed by well-known cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough. The group intends to help doctors who are being punished by the medical system.

Sanchez is encouraging doctors to join the group, saying that it could provide a bit of protection for them.

FFFF is a New Jersey-based 501(c)(3) organization composed of former federal agents, prosecutors, lawyers, medical professionals, researchers and volunteers from the United States and all over the world.

Ardis mentioned that he had always wanted to defend the medical profession, especially the medical professionals who have been hammered, bullied, lied to, coerced and threatened with their livelihoods and licenses being taken away. He added that for the last two years he has been fighting non-stop and defensively for those medical doctors who are actually trying to preserve the lives of innocent people.

The host of the The Dr. Ardis Show added that he has no problem defending and supporting doctors who need help because they have been abused by the medical system.

Some doctors are not standing up because they need the money

Ardis pointed out that some doctors arent standing up against their administrators or the federal health agencies because they are living paycheck to paycheck.

These people are relying on the hospitals to pay them on Fridays, to give them their paychecks. So yes, they are actually employees, waiting for a check and theyre scared to death, Ardis explained. And its unfortunate. I dont think its a good reason. I just know they are slaves like you said of the system and thats unfortunate.

Sanchez pointed out that there are people who feel alone, especially those who are threatened. They need to be told that they are not alone, he said.

Ardis shared a story of a nurse who almost quit her job because she was not willing to get the shots. He added that the nurse and 27 other people working at the same hospital formed a group and told the administrators that they were not getting the shots. The hospital dropped its vaccine mandate.

Sanchez said America will be like China if people wont stand up. He added that people should not be blinded by money, but should instead look at things rationally.

Follow MedicalTyranny.com to know more about COVID mandates being enforced.

Watch the full April 20 episode of The Dr. Ardis Show below. The Dr. Ardis Show airs every Wednesday at 10-11 a.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related articles:

Medical fascism: Hospitals DENY TREATMENT to Pennsylvania woman unable to mask up due to childhood trauma

Americans are now having to sneak ivermectin into hospitals to save their loved ones

Tyrannical vaccine mandates continue even as COVID-19 subsides

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

Former Feds Group.org
(Natural News) Louisianas House of Representatives on April 20 passed legislation that bans state and local governments from requiring proof of a Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine to enter public areas and private businesses or to receive goods and services.

The bill advanced to the states Senate following a vote of 64-31 in the House.

However, House Bill 990 doesnt apply to any COVID-19 vaccination mandate required in accordance with federal law or regulation. (Related: German parliament REJECTS proposed COVID vaccine mandate after months of debate.)

According to State Rep. Thomas Pressly, a Republican who sponsored the bill, the measure doesnt interfere with businesses own decisions should they require proof of vaccination.

State Rep. Beryl Amedee offered an amendment to the bill to remove a provision that reads: Nothing in this Part shall be interpreted or construed to prohibit or otherwise impede the rights of a private business or other private entity wishing to implement any policy, procedure, or requirement regarding COVID-19 vaccinations.

Amedee explained that keeping that section is problematic because it can result in religious and medical discrimination in the private sector and that removing the section does not impact the overall intent of the bill. Amedees amendment failed by a vote of 21-71.

While Amedee voted against the bill, she said she was supportive of the overall measure. Her amendment would have also inserted the words valid and enforceable in referring to federal laws, in Section B of the bill. Amedee added that the federal government delegated enforcement of the vaccine mandates to private businesses and that the mandates are currently being overturned.

In 2021, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed legislation regarding vaccine mandates. It remains to be seen if he would veto Presslys bill if it passes the state Legislature.

CDC skeptical of fourth COVID-19 shots

Amid the clap back against vaccine mandates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also expressed doubts about the fourth COVID-19 dose.

Members of the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voiced their unwillingness to endorse fourth coronavirus shots for the broader U.S. population until the agency develops a clear strategy. The independent panel of vaccine experts discussed the countrys vaccination strategy ahead of an anticipated increase in infections during the fall.

During a five-hour meeting on April 20, the panel agreed that repeatedly deploying boosters to prevent infection isnt a realistic goal with the current generation of vaccines.

Dr. Sarah Long, a committee member, explained that public health agencies need to abandon the belief that vaccines can prevent coronavirus infections. The agencies should instead focus on educating the public that the main goal is to prevent severe illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths.

Medical tyranny remains in universities

The final weeks of the college school year have been disrupted again by COVID-19 as universities re-imposed mask mandates, switched to online classes and scaled back large gatherings due to skyrocketing cases of infections.

Colleges in Washington, D.C., New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Texas have brought back COVID-19 measures.

Meanwhile, Howard University has switched to remote learning because of a surge in cases in the nations capital and 2022 is the third straight academic year that has been stalled by the pandemic. Incoming seniors have yet to experience a normal college year.

Following spring break, mandates were ended as case numbers declined after a winter surge because of the omicron variant.

However, many Northeast cities have recorded an increase in cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks, particularly since the BA.2 subvariant of omicron continues to spread throughout America.

Coronavirus cases eased so much at Williams College, a private liberal arts school in Massachusetts, that professors were allowed to decide whether to require masks in their classes early in April. Several days later, cases rose and an indoor mask mandate was re-imposed, this time much stricter than what was enforced before.

Visit HealthFreedom.news to read more articles about people standing up against COVID-19 mandates.

Watch the video below to know more about a Louisiana nurse speaking up about dangerous COVID-19 vaccine side effects.

This video is from the Covid Times channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Coalition of Austrian clergymen denounces Viennas COVID vaccine mandate.

Biden extends COVID-19 vaccine mandate to cover illegal aliens crossing the border, but will it be enforced?

Canada expands COVID-19 vaccine mandate, violates basic human rights.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Legis.la.gov[PDF]

CNBC.com

USNews.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Lawyer Todd Callender recently warned the public of a looming disaster as the dreaded Marburg virus may have been released through the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines.

Now, we just need the actual disaster to happen. And theres actually worse parts to it than that, including the 1p36 gene deletion that effectively will turn those poor people into zombies. As odd as that sounds, our government is preparing for that, Callender told host Jeffrey Prather during the April 22 episode of The Prather Point on Brighteon.TV.

The Marburg virus disease (MVD), formerly known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever, is a severe and often fatal illness in humans with a fatality rate of up to 88 percent.

We know that Marburg is not particularly contagious, but it has an extraordinarily high rate of fatality. And we know the mechanism by which this will be released, and that is inside of these shots that people already received inside the lipid nanoparticles. The hydrogel there exists pathogens inside of the particles that have not yet opened. Those pathogens are chimeric: They include E. coli, Marburg, Ebola, staphylococcus and Brewers yeast, among others, Callender explained.

Callender said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has already invoked the Marburg provision, which means that it is already spending money to build Marburg quarantine camps among other things throughout the United States.

We know that when they broadcast an 18 gigahertz signal for one minute from the 5G system, three different times as a pulse, it will cause those lipid nanoparticles to swell and release these pathogenic contents  thereby causing a Marburg epidemic that they have already spent the money on. (Related: CLAIM: Covid vaccines installed Marburg payloads in human victims; 5G broadcast signal will activate the bioweapon, unleashing the next raging pandemic.)

The lead counsel in the ongoing federal litigation relating to the compulsory COVID-19 vaccination of members of the U.S. Armed Services said the lipid nanoparticles are like little fat bombers.

The various manufacturers of these shots have included three separate HIV proteins. The reason for that was to disable, to disarm peoples immune systems so that those little fat bombers could go inside of the cell and deliver their payloads in order to reprogram the persons body to produce synthetic DNA. In this case, they call it S proteins, Callender said. When they turn that Marburg switch on it will be M proteins, and it will cause people to produce the Marburg pathogen themselves.

Zombie apocalypse preparedness program already in place

Prather mentioned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had already put out zombie commercials and ConOps (Concept of Operations) before in case of a zombie apocalypse.

Callendar agreed and cited Complan 8888 Stratcom, which was put out in 2011. He said it was all about five different types of zombies and a zombie apocalypse. He added that every National Incident Management System-compliant state already had their zombie apocalypse preparedness training.

The Colorado-based lawyer noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a zombie apocalypse preparedness website up and running the past five years.

U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Pete Chambers, who was also one of the guests in the show along with Callender, talked about a recent incident where the police arrested a man suspected of shooting 10 commuters in a rush hour attack at a Brooklyn subway station.

The suspect allegedly donned a construction workers helmet, vest and a gas mask before throwing smoke grenades and opening fire. A massive 30-hour manhunt was launched in the wake of the attack. The search was complicated by malfunctioning cameras inside the subway station.

Chambers mentioned that he had received intel information a month ago that there was a plan to release some sort of a biological agent in New York. He added that the real suspect was a white male, fighting-age, wearing a gas mask and had some sort of settlement cylinder on his back with something sparking at the top. The man arrested by the police is an African American.

Follow Zombie.news to know more about the zombie apocalypse.

Watch the full April 22 episode of The Prather Point below. Catch new episodes of the program with Jeffrey Prather every Friday at 10-11 a.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Black Death and incurable Marburg Virus now spreading across Africas cities worlds medical system helpless to stop it.

Zombie apocalypse: The coronavirus is now known to alter brain function and make some victims AGGRESSIVE and disoriented (NOT satire).

Obama funded biolab in Ukraine that experimented on deadly pathogens like the plague, anthrax and Ebola.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

DRAdvocates.com

BBC.com
(Natural News) Story at a glance:

Implantable microchips are marketed as the ultimate in convenience, but the goal is to create the Internet of Bodies, described by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as an ecosystem of an unprecedented number of sensors, including emotional sensors, attached to, implanted within, or ingested into human bodies to monitor, analyze and even modify human bodies and behavior.

Sweden is one of the earliest adopters of implantable microchips. The chip is implanted just beneath the skin on the hand, and operates using either near-field communication  the same technology used in smartphones  or radio-frequency identification (RFID), which is used in contactless credit cards.

Implanted payment chips are an extension of the Internet of Things; theyre a way of connecting and exchanging data, and the benefits must be weighed against the potential risks.

Countries around the world are now working on a system for a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a fiat currency in digital form that is programmable so that you can spend your money only on certain things or in specific places, as desired by the issuer.

In the end, everything will be connected to a single implantable device that will hold your digital identity, health data and programmable CBDCs. Your digital identity, in turn, will include everything that can be known about you through surveillance via implanted biosensors, your computer, smartphone, GPS, social media, online searches, purchases and spending habits. Algorithms will then decide what you can and cannot do based on who you are.

(Article by Dr. Joseph Mercola republished from Articles.Mercola.com)

While implantable microchips are marketed as the ultimate in convenience, the goal of this trend goes far beyond allowing you to open doors without keys and buy things without your wallet.

The goal is to create whats known as the Internet of Bodies, described by the WEF as an ecosystem of an unprecedented number of sensors, including emotional sensors, attached to, implanted within, or ingested into human bodies to monitor, analyze and even modify human bodies and behavior.

Key words in that sentence that the PR machine skips right over is the stated goal to modify human bodies and behavior. And who will be in charge of those modifications?

They dont say, but we can safely assume that it will be those who have something to gain from the modification of your actions and behaviors.

Sweden paves the way for microchipping

As noted in the 2019 NBC News segment below, Sweden is one of the earliest adopters of implantable microchips.

The chip, about the size of a grain of rice, is implanted just beneath the skin on the hand, and operates using either near-field communication  the same technology used in smartphones  or RFID, which is used in contactless credit cards.

Already, Sweden has become more or less a cashless society. Now, this tiny implant will replace the need for debit and credit cards altogether, as well as identification and keys.

To pay for an item, all you have to do is place your left hand near the contactless card reader, and the payment is registered.

An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Swedes have been chipped so far, although Swedish authorities claim they dont know the exact number, as theres no central registry.

At present, its claimed that the chips cannot be tracked, but that doesnt mean theyll remain untrackable in the future.

And, while these early microchips contain only limited amounts of information, we know the WEF dreams of implementing a global digital identification system that would include everything imaginable about you, from your online search history and medical information to your personal banking data, social credit score and more.

Humans are becoming hackable

As noted by financial technology expert Theodora Lau, implanted payment chips are an extension of the Internet of Things; theyre a way of connecting and exchanging data, and the benefits must be weighed against the potential risks.

This is particularly true if and when more personal information begins to be migrated into them, leaving you vulnerable to hackers and surveillance. She told BBC News:

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?

A PBS NewsHour segment from 2019 also reviews some of the concerns surrounding implantable microchips.

Importantly, just about any smartphone can read the chip with the 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 ensure the implant procedure is carried out to a medical standard.

While many say they have no privacy fears around the current microchips, its reasonable to suspect that privacy concerns will rise in tandem with the amount of personal information held on the chips, and with the number of people who have the implants.

Credit card theft was rare in the beginning and typically involved physical loss of the card. Today, you cant seem to keep a credit card for more than a handful of years before its somehow stolen even though the card is still in your possession.

Identity theft is also rampant, and getting worse by the day, as millions of illegals in need of new identities flood across the southern border of the United States.

As noted by the Center for Immigration Studies, illegal immigrants are not undocumented, as most will obtain fraudulent documents through identity theft.

In other words, theyre stealing the legal identities of Americans. In 2020, the total cost for identity theft and identity fraud was $56 billion  the highest in recorded history  and affected 39 million Americans.

Theres no reason to believe theft and fraud wont happen as microchipping becomes more commonplace.

And that risk is in addition to the risks involved with the government spying on and controlling both your behavior and spending, once the microchips are connected to your personal finances and programmable digital currencies.

In a November 2019 interview with CNN, history professor and adviser to WEF founder Klaus Schwab, Yuval Noah Harari, warned that humans are now hackable animals, meaning, the technology exists by which a company or government can know you better than you know yourself, and that can be very dangerous if misused.

He predicted that algorithms will increasingly be used to make decisions that historically have been made by humans, either yourself or someone else, including whether or not youll be hired for a particular job, whether youll be granted a loan, what scholastic curriculum you will follow and even who you will marry.

The plan to control the useless masses

In another interview, Harari discussed what Schwab refers to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (read: transhumanism), noting that were now learning to produce bodies and minds (meaning augmented bodies, and cloud and artificial intelligence-connected minds) and that one of the greatest challenges we face will be what to do with all the people that have become obsolete in the process.

How will unaugmented people find meaning in life when theyre basically useless, meaningless? How will they spend their time when theres no work, no opportunity to move up in some kind of profession?

His guess is that the answer will be a combination of drugs and computer games. Ill let you decide if thats a vision of utopia or hell on earth.

Nothing will be private  not even your bodily functions

The WEFs plan for the Internet of Bodies even includes biosensors that measure and monitor your biological functioning and emotional states.

Already, the Pentagon and Profusa Inc. have collaborated on the development of a tiny implantable biosensor that detects disease by tracking chemical reactions inside your body.

For example, it would be able to determine whether youve been infected with a virus such as SARS-CoV-2 or influenza long before any symptoms emerge. As explained by Defense One, the biosensor consists of two parts:

One is a 3mm string of hydrogel, a material whose network of polymer chains is used in some contact lenses and other implants. Inserted under the skin with a syringe, the string includes a specially engineered molecule that sends a fluorescent signal outside of the body when the body begins to fight an infection. The other part is an electronic component attached to the skin. It sends light through the skin, detects the fluorescent signal and generates another signal that the wearer can send to a doctor, website, etc. Its like a blood lab on the skin that can pick up the bodys response to illness before the presence of other symptoms, like coughing.

Now, the sensor allows a persons biology to be examined at a distance via smartphone connectivity, and Profusa is backed by Google, the largest data mining company in the world.

Knowing that, its hard to imagine that your biological data wont be used to boost Googles profits and increase government control.

While Profusa was expecting to receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2021, it doesnt appear to have been approved yet.

Other monitoring and tracking devices in the pipeline

Another invention that stands poised to track your health is biocompatible near-infrared quantum dot microneedle arrays.

As explained in a 2019 Science Translational Medicine article, this novel vaccine delivery system is able to deliver patterns of near-infrared light-emitting microparticles to the skin that can then be imaged using modified smartphones.

In short, it would serve as an invisible tattoo of your vaccination record.

Bill Gates has also funded the development of a birth control microchip that can be turned on and off by remote control. The National Post writes:

The birth control microchip  would hold nearly two decades worth of a hormone commonly used in contraceptives and dispense 30 micrograms a day  The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given more than $4.5 million to MicroCHIPS, Inc., to develop personal system that enables women to regulate their fertility 

In November 2019, Dare Bioscience, a San Diego-based biopharma company, announced it had reached an agreement to acquire MicroCHIPS Biotech and would be adding the birth control microchip to its portfolio.

Interestingly, back in 2014, MicroCHIPS appeared confident it would be able to get the product to market in 2018, but as of 2022, its still in development.

Programmable digital currencies are next

Countries around the world are now working on a system for a CBDC, a fiat currency in digital form that is programmable so that you can spend your money on only certain things or in specific places, as desired by the issuer.

In the video below, WhatsHerFace comments on Canadas 2021 announcement of its plan for a CBDC that will be universally accessible, even if you dont have a bank account or a cell phone.

What kind of device might fulfill that? An implanted microchip, of course, that has your digital identity and digital wallet on it.

In 2007, American businessman and film producer Aaron Russo told Infowars that the goal of the New World Order was to create a one-world government, where everybody has an RFID chip implanted in them, and all money is to be in those chips.

There will be no more cash, and this [information] was given to me straight from Rockefeller himself, Russo said. So, they can take out any money they want, any time they want. They say, You owe us this much in taxes, and they just take it out of your chip. Total control. And  if youre protesting against what theyre doing, theyll turn off your chip and you have nothing  Its total control of the people.

Fast-forward to April, and Canada is now permanently enshrining its government-imposed sanctions against protesters in its new budget.

As you may recall, the Canadian government shut down the bank accounts of participants in the trucker protest against vaccine mandates, and even those who donated as little as $25 to the protest.

Crowdfunding platforms will now be more tightly regulated, and the government is also launching a legislative review of cryptocurrencies. Just imagine the control the Canadian government would have had with a programmable CBDC.

The government could have prevented the donations from occurring at all, and shut down the account of anyone who even tried to give a few dollars to the freedom movement.

A carefully crafted plan for world domination

All of this is happening at the same time that the World Health Organization, another deep state technocrat stronghold, is building a global vaccine passport system.

Once CBDCs and a global vaccine passport system are up and running, it wont be long before theyre combined into one  likely in the form of an implantable microchip.

We can predict this because theyve told us that this is the plan. Just look through the WEFs website descriptions of The Great Reset and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Read the Rockefeller Foundations April 2020 white paper, National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan  Strategic Steps to Reopen Our Workplaces and Our Communities, which spells out the direction of social control through the implementation of permanent COVID-19 tracking and tracing measures.

Look into the ID2020 Alliance, a public-private partnership founded by Bill Gates Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, The Rockefeller Foundation, Microsoft, Accenture and Ideo.org.

Members in the alliance include the Learning Economy Foundation, founded by the United Nations in 2018, Facebook, Mastercard, ShareRing, Simprints and others.

ID2020 began as a digital identity program for Bangladesh, and has since expanded to include the implementation of digital technologies which tie with the [Learning Economy] Foundations vision of a world in which learners can map their educational progress to achieve their academic, employment and life goals.

In the end, everything will be connected to a single implantable device.

Right now, its a toss-up as to whether a vaccine passport or a digital identity platform will be the foundation for whats to come, but what is certain is that whatever its called, it will include your digital identity, vaccination status and other health data and programmable CBDCs.

Your digital identity, in turn, will include everything else that can be known about you through surveillance via implanted biosensors, your computer, smartphone, GPS, social media, online searches, purchases and spending habits.

Imagine having an AI listening, watching and scoring every move you make and every heartbeat, and algorithms deciding what you can and cannot do based on your behavior, expression, social contacts and personal views.

Add to that technologies that can modify your behavior and emotional state with or without your knowledge, which is what the WEFs 2020 briefing document on the Internet of Bodies describes. It may sound like science fiction, but this is what they intend to do.

Every new technology, every new surveillance opportunity they bring forward is to further this aim.

For decades, weve embraced technologies with our mind set on convenience and/or safety. Thats always how they rope us in.

But we will lose everything worth living for if we continue down this path without foolproof privacy safeguards and personal autonomy rights in place.

Read more at: Articles.Mercola.com
(Natural News) Brannon Howse of the World View Report pointed out that under the Biden administration, the U.S. military is prioritizing wokeness in all its branches. He warned on the April 25 edition of his Brighteon.TV program that such a move will compromise Americas readiness against attacks by its enemies.

He quoted a news report by the Washington Free Beacon about the Airmens Time initiative in the U.S. Air Force. According to a memo obtained by the conservative news website, the initiative was created to advance the well-being and development of airmen. Under the program, recruits have a safe space wherein they can [partake in] healthy conversation [and] share perspectives.

The intent of Airmens Time is to create a safe space, be present and ensure that our Air Force culture invites healthy conversation for every airman anytime, anywhere, said the memo, which was originally sent to command teams and supervisors. It also called on airmen to share perspectives and life lessons [and] discuss what values guide us or what is our teams purpose.

According to the Free Beacon, Airmens Time appears to have already been incorporated into the Air Forces schedule and training programs. The eight-and-a-half-week basic training schedule is also included in Airmens Time, alongside more traditional activities such as physical training and flight drills. (Related: REPORT: The U.S. Navy can no longer defend America because its too focused on being woke.)

The Department of Defense refused to comment on the Airmens Time memo when asked by the Free Beacon. Meanwhile, Air Force Chief Master Sergeant JoAnne Bass said the program certainly isnt new [as] many units have been doing it for years. Bass, who penned the memo, added that her document is meant as a call to action for our leaders to ensure we are devoting the time needed to help deliberately develop our airmen.

Wokeness training does more harm than good

If these airmen dont know their purpose yet  which is to defend the nation against enemies, foreign and domestic  do they really need to be in the Air Force? Quoting the Free Beacons article, the program is part of an effort by the U.S. military under the Biden regime to change the culture of the military, Howse said.

Of course, communists love to destroy the culture of America. Thats exactly what Herbert Marcuse, one of the founders of the Frankfurt School, said. What were going to do is to attack the existing morality of the culture.'

Howse also questioned the choice to prioritize respecting the opinions and views of Americas enemies instead of being prepared for any potential attacks. He asked: Understanding each other and valuing differences is more important than preparing to go up against the Russians, the Chinese [and] the Iranians? Is our military being prepared to understand the war strategies of the Russians, the Chinese [and] the Iranians? Whats wrong with [their] world view? Are [military members] being trained to understand [and] value them [and] their differing opinions rather than fight them?

The Airmens Time initiative has its fair share of critics, with James Carafano of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation among them. Carafano, an Army veteran, told the Free Beacon: [Ive] never seen any analysis from the Pentagon which demonstrably proves the training has value that improves the readiness and capabilities of the armed forces.

According to Carafano, the federal government under President Joe Biden is spending millions of dollars on programs that somebody just thinks is a good idea. He continued: At the same time, we are taking service members away from their regular duties. This appears to be an initiative that is compromising on readiness for no commensurate benefit and indeed may risk hurting morale, unit cohesion, and individual performance.

The Army, according to the Free Beacons report, has mandated soldiers go through training on gender identity and pronouns. Republicans in Congress and some in the military have criticized these initiatives for pushing woke propaganda within the service, said Howse.

Howse also noted that those inside the military who spoke against the gender identity training found themselves disciplined and even relieved of their duties.

Wokies.news has more stories about woke propaganda in the different military branches.

Watch the full April 25 episode of World View Report below. Tune in to World View Report with Brannon Howse from Monday to Saturday at 9-9:30 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

This video is from the BrighteonTV channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Joe Bidens woke military prepares for war upon America as papers please becomes official policy in Washington DC  Weve seen this madness before and the road leads to destruction.

Woke Left moving to take over last functional, patriotic institution  the military: Whistleblowers detail hundreds of cases of anti-American indoctrination.

Woke U.S. Navy now naming ships after homosexual rapists as China builds bigger, modern fleet to challenge America and assert global dominance.

Woke ad for U.S. Army focuses on LGBTQ issues, lesbian mothers, while Russia focuses on recruiting manly men.

Bidens new woke military has a model in Maos China.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

FreeBeacon.com
(Natural News) In a new statement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for engaging in a proxy war with Russia via Ukraine.

Appearing on Russian state television, Lavrov reiterated Russias stance that it is fully legitimate for the country to target weapons in Ukraine that were put there by its Western allies. (Related: Evidence suggests that the Pentagon-run bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine were intended to attack Russia.)

While it may not have been the case previously, Lavrov now says that the risk of nuclear war is considerable because NATO just will not back down and stop the aggression.

If NATO essentially engages in war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy, war means war, Lavrov said. I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it.

Biden sends $800 million, drones and other military aid to Ukraine to escalate conflict

In response, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin turned Lavrovs statements around, insinuating that Russia is now threatening the United States and that this is very dangerous and unhelpful.

Nobody wants to see a nuclear war happen, Austin said. Its a war that all sides lose. And so, rattling of sabers and, you know, dangerous rhetoric is clearly unhelpful and something that we wont engage in.

What Austin failed to mention is that NATO members continue to flood Ukraine with increasingly deadlier weapons in order to confront Russia in both the east and the south, where the two countries have been involved in disputes for many years.

Germany, for instance, is sending Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine in a notable policy shift that suggests NATO is the one escalating the situation, not Russia.

Yesterday, we decided that Germany will make the delivery of Gepard anti-aircraft tanks possible to Ukraine, announced German Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht in a speech seen by Deutsche Welle.

Fake American president Joe Biden also announced on April 21 that another $800 million in American taxpayer dollars is being flushed straight into Ukraine as military aid for ongoing operations there.

Also listed in the package disclosed by Hunters dad were some heavy artillery weapons, including 72 155mm Howitzers and 144,000 rounds of ammunition, along with 72 tactical vehicles to tow the Howitzers.

More than 122 Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems, aka drones, are also being sent, along with other field equipment and spare parts.

Germany, Poland and the United States are also providing additional training to Ukraine to fight against Russia, which suggests that World War III is already in motion  it has just not yet seen the climax.

The Biden regime says its goal is to cripple Russia to the point that it will not ever again be able to launch the type of invasion it launched in Ukraine back in February.

Ukraine remains a sovereign country, a democratic country, able to protect its sovereign territory, Sec. Austin said when asked about the U.S.s goals for success amid the conflict, adding that he wants to see Russias military capacity greatly diminished.

It has already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops, quite frankly, and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability, Austin further claimed.

In the comment section at The Epoch Times, someone wrote that Russia has more nuclear weapons than any other country in the world, and that the U.S. could do a whole lot of nothing in response if a nuclear attack was actually launched.

More related news about the continued conflict in Ukraine can be found at WWIII.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheEpochTimes.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) never told Americans that spike proteins are pathogenic proteins that continue to be created forever, so everyone being inoculated with mRNA technology will have billions of toxins in their bloodstream their entire lives, according to viral immunologists.

Another myth spread by the CDC is that mRNA injections stay in the shoulder muscle, but scientific data reveals otherwise. In fact, the toxic spike pathogens circulate throughout the entire vascular system, accumulating in organs in high concentrations, according to Japanese researchers. That means that long after COVID-19 and all its variants are gone, the vaccinated victims body will be at war, battling the spike protein clones that are STILL being churned out because these peoples cells have new instructions to do so, and forever.

Antibodies target the entire mRNA spike proteins throughout the body, so the immune system is under ATTACK everywhere, all the time, possibly forever

If youve been vaccinated for Wuhan virus, then there is a Civil War going on constantly inside you, and your blood vessels and organs are the battlefield. Antibodies are targeting toxic spike proteins that clog the heart, the cleansing organs and even your brain. The immune system is being overworked, constantly, while chronic inflammation ensues, driving health issues through the roof, especially preexisting ones.

Spike proteins are like microscopic bioweapons. Your body is CLONING OUT all the copies of these bioweapons, from the inside, so theres a Clone War battlefield raging inside your own blood. Booster shots will pour gasoline on that fire, like dropping bombs in the middle of the battlefield during the fighting.

Scientific Fact: mRNA invades the cell nuclei and alters chromosomes during transfection

Many vaccinated patients have been lied to by their doctors and nurses, mostly by handed down and regurgitated CDC misinformation about how mRNA really works. People just cant fathom how much destruction is going on inside their blood due to the gene therapy injections. When transfection occurs, and it does happen, the mRNA invades the cell nuclei and alters chromosomes. Recent research is proving this is happening with liver cells.

A recent Swedish study, published just last year, revealed that the Pfizer mRNA vaccine goes into the LIVER cells and changes into DNA. This annihilates claims that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines do not change or interact with your DNA in any way. How many times have we all heard that?

All those so-called fact checkers have now been fact checked themselves, and theyre lying also. This means there is permanent chromosomal change happening that can drive new chronic diseases weve never seen before. In other words, the mRNA invades the nucleus of cell and transfection occurs, then it can churn out the toxic prion clones PERMANENTLY.

Spike proteins are pathogenic proteins that damage the body when they get into the blood circulation. Scientists have known this for years. Now we know for sure the Fauci Flu stabs dont stay in the muscle tissue, they travel throughout the body, invading organs, and altering human DNA, permanently, in the worst possible ways. In other words, Clone Wars from COVID-19 gene therapy injections are real, and nobody comes out on top except Big Pharma and Big Government. Got prion disease? Thats mRNA at work.

Being injected with COVID mRNA vaccines is like constantly creating armed BANK ROBBERS inside the bank that holds your money

The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are designed to enter your cells and instruct them to create spike proteins that resemble toxic virus coatings in order to trick your immune system into believing its under attack by a deadly virus. At no point does mRNA tell your cells to STOP producing these toxic virus-mimicking particles, so the invasion is relentless and never ceases, which means your body is under constant attack by these virus-looking clones, and possibly forever. This also means those spike proteins clog the vascular system, cleansing organs, and even the brain with microscopic blood clots that are under attack from your own immune system. Your body is stuck in fight or flight mode.

Now imagine if, inside a banks vault, a machine was creating robots that look like humans with weapons, and they just keep walking out into the banks lobby, scaring everyone inside to make them believe there is a violent robbery taking place, while crowding the bank so badly that it can no longer function properly, or even at all. The alarms are sounding, the people inside are panicking and none of the employees can do their job properly, as long as the fake robbery is underway.

To add to the chaos, this is happening throughout the body, as if every functioning organ is a bank, and they are all under siege. Thats why perfectly healthy athletes are dropping to their knees on the courts and fields and clutching their chests, saying they cant breathe. Thats why healthy pilots are crashing planes at rates like never before. Thats why so many military members object to being injected, as they are witnessing this carnage first hand among their peers, who are suffering from the internal spike protein Clone Wars.

Dont let your body become an experimental battlefield for the Clone Wars. Natural immunity is the strongest and longest lasting, and will serve you best. Look into supplements and superfoods that boost your natural immune function. Nobody needs billions of toxic clone particles floating around in their blood forever. Just say no to mRNA Clone War injections.

Bookmark Vaccines.news to your favorite independent websites for updates on experimental COVID vaccines that cause blood clots and other horrific side effects.

Sources include:

NaturalNews.com

En.ProtoThema.gr
(Natural News) A massive peer-reviewed study has concluded that getting vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) with one of the mRNA (messenger RNA) injections from either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna greatly increases ones risk of developing myocarditis.

The study included more than 23 million people from the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. It was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Researchers and health agencies from the aforementioned countries teamed up to look at the data, identifying 1,077 incident myocarditis events and 1,149 incident pericarditis events among 23,122,522 Nordic residents.

Eighty-one percent of this number was considered vaccinated by the end of the study, and 50.2 percent were female.

Within the 28-day period, for males and females 12 years or older combined who received a homologous schedule, the second dose was associated with higher risk of myocarditis, the study found. (Related: Earlier research confirmed much the same about mRNA myocarditis risk.)

The cohort study determined that higher rates of myocarditis and pericarditis were seen within 28 days post-injection with a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA injection compared to those who refused the jab.

The risks of myocarditis and pericarditis were highest within the first 7 days of being vaccinated, were increased for all combinations of mRNA vaccines, and were more pronounced after the second dose, the study explains.

A second dose of mRNA-1273 had the highest risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, with young males aged 16 to 24 years having the highest risk.

Getting jabbed with Moderna increases your risk of heart problems by 1,500 percent

According to Dr. Rickard Ljung from the Swedish Medical Products Agency  Ljung was also one of the researchers involved with the study  the extra cases of myocarditis and pericarditis seen in young men aged 16-24 corresponds to a 500 percent increased risk following Comirnaty (the Pfizer injection), and a 1,500 percent increased risk following Spikevax (Moderna).

This means that the Moderna injection is by far the most dangerous shot, though the Pfizer-BioNTech shot is not far behind it.

While the risk of developing myocarditis or pericarditis from covid itself is highest in older age groups, younger age groups are most susceptible to it from the injections  almost as if the jabs were designed to harm young people more so than older people.

The risk of myocarditis associated with vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 must be balanced against the benefits of these vaccines, the study concluded. Myocarditis after mRNA vaccination was rare in this study cohort and even among young males.

They always have to throw this caveat in, by the way, presumably to get the study published in the first place. If they did not pretend as though the benefits still outweigh the risks and claim that only a very small number of people end up getting harmed, the study probably would have gotten scrapped from publishing.

Dr. Peter McCullough, chief medical adviser at the Truth for Health Foundation, says that the benefits do not, in fact, outweigh the risks when it comes to getting jabbed for the Fauci Flu.

In cardiology we spend our entire career trying to save every bit of heart muscle. We put in stents, we do heart catheterization, we do stress tests, we do CT angiograms, McCullough is quoted as saying. The whole game of cardiology is to preserve heart muscle.

Under no circumstances would we accept a vaccine that causes even one person to sustain heart damage. Not one. And this idea that oh, were going to ask a large number of people to sustain heart damage for some other theoretical benefit for a viral infection, which for most is less than a common cold, is untenable. The benefits of the vaccines in no way outweigh the risks.

More related news about the dangers associated with Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

LifeSiteNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Its bad enough that the Biden regime and Congress have entered into a proxy war with Russia that voters did not approve and were never consulted about, but now our government is shipping so many weapons to Ukraine that our own stockpiles are becoming dangerously depleted.

Even worse, many of the weapons being sent to Kyiv are somehow disappearing into a black hole of sorts, leading many to suspect that the Ukrainians may be selling them off for hard currency or handing them out to forces that were never authorized to have them.

According to a U.S. intelligence official who spoke to CNN last week, the U.S. government only has a precious few ways it can track the massive amounts of anti-tank, anti-aircraft and other armaments that have been sent across the border into Ukraine, a blind spot thats due in large part to the lack of U.S. boots on the ground in the country  and the easy portability of many of the smaller systems now pouring across the border, the outlet reported.

But, CNN said, its a conscious risk the Biden administration is willing to take  again, without our permission.

The network added: In the short term, the U.S. sees the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment to be vital to the Ukrainians ability to hold off Moscows invasion. A senior defense official said Tuesday that it is certainly the largest recent supply to a partner country in a conflict. But the risk, both current U.S. officials and defense analysts say, is that in the long term, some of those weapons may wind up in the hands of other militaries and militias that the US did not intend to arm.

We have fidelity for a short time, but when it enters the fog of war, we have almost zero, said one source briefed on U.S. intelligence. It drops into a big black hole, and you have almost no sense of it at all after a short period of time.

In the past when the U.S. did stupid things like this, our weapons would end up in the hands of terrorists, who then used them to attack U.S. assets and our allies. Also, recall that this was the mentality behind Barack Obamas reckless Operation Fast And Furious  the running of guns from the U.S. to Mexican cartels, some of which were later recovered including one used to kill U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

And regarding the boots on the ground reasoning, that sure sounds like the regime wants badly to put American troops into the Ukraine meat grinder, again, against the will of the American people.

In any event, CNN claims that the Biden regime factored in the risk that some weapons shipments could eventually wind up in places they are not supposed to be when the decision was made to launch the proxy war against Russia. That said, the regime decided not arming Ukraine was more of a risk, though not one administration official has explained just which of Americas vital national security interests are being threatened by Russias invasion of its western neighbor. And that should have been the very first thing out of Bidens oft-confused mouth when he agreed to begin sending lethal aid to Kyiv.

The intelligence sources who spoke to CNN also noted that it is in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys best interests to understate the amount of assistance being provided because it bolsters his plea for more.

Its a war  everything they do and say publicly is designed to help them win the war. Every public statement is an information operation, every interview, every Zelensky appearance broadcast is an information operation, said another source familiar with Western intelligence. It doesnt mean theyre wrong to do it in any way.

The U.S. should not be involved in this war in any way, period.

Sources include:

CSIS.org

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The United Nations is on a mission to enslave the planet, and one way it seeks to achieve this is through the new Pandemic Treaty being pushed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

If adopted by WHO member nations, the Pandemic Treaty would remove all national sovereignty while granting the WHO the power and authority to mandate whatever it deems as necessary to treat a public health threat, whether real or imagined.

More than two years have passed since the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic was declared by the WHO, and the time is apparently ripe for a total transformation of the global medical paradigm.

If the UN gets its way, the WHO will soon be able to mandate covid vaccines and associated passports globally. The WHO would also be allowed to do the same for any future bioweapons that escape from Chinese or Ukrainian laboratories.

Negotiations for the Pandemic Treaty began on March 3, 2022, but they have received little attention due to Russias invasion of Ukraine, which has swept global headlines.

Coming off the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization is proposing a new pandemic treaty theyre hoping will be accepted by enough member countries to become a reality by 2024, reported The Pulse. (Related: Sign this petition to protect Americas sovereignty against this assault by the WHO.)

If our country gives up what little national sovereignty remains to the WHO, its game over for health freedom

As you may recall, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus infamously stated that upholding individual autonomy, or even national autonomy, when it comes public health policy and interventions is selfish and gets in the way of the WHOs global agenda.

This me-first approach, as he called it, stymie[s] the global solidarity needed to fight global health threats. The solution? Just give the WHO all power and call it a day.

There are a number of things in the treaty that the people of the world need to consider before going down this path, warned The Pulse.

In the featured video below, The Pulses Joe Martino interviews Shabnam Palesa Mohamed, a member of the steering committee for the World Council of Health, who points out that the Pandemic Treaty gives the WHO:

 an inordinate amount of power to make decisions in sovereign countries as to how people live and how they deal with pandemics, from lockdowns to mandates over treatment.

As explained by Dr. Joseph Mercola, the Pandemic Treaty basically gives the WHO total authority and power to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to disease, whether real or imagined, and without regard for all the varying situations found in individual countries.

The treaty is a direct threat to a nations sovereignty to make decisions for itself and its citizens, and would erode democracy everywhere, he adds.

Not only is it a threat, but the Pandemic Treaty is invalid and unlawful, Mohamed says. And there is a possibility that the WHO might try to implement it before 2024, which is not even all that far off in the first place.

All that has to happen is for the World Health Assembly to vote it in come 2023. If a majority passes it at that time, all member countries will be bound by its tenets, possibly immediately that same year.

The proposed WHO agreement is unnecessary, and is a threat to sovereignty and inalienable rights, Mohamed says.

It increases the WHOs suffocating power to declare unjustified pandemics, impose dehumanizing lockdowns, and enforce expensive, unsafe, and ineffective treatments against the will of the people.

The latest plandemic-related news can be found at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

DailyExpose.uk

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PERTH, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 23: Perth Zoo Keeper Lisa Fletcher interacts with Mirri the Dingo whilst on a walk at Perth Zoo on April 23, 2020 in Perth, Australia. The Perth Zoo has been temporarily closed to public since 24 March 2020 in response to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. It is the first time in the Zoo's 122-year history that it has closed its doors. Perth Zoo staff continue to work caring for the Zoo's 1300 animals and botanical garden grounds. To protect the animals from any risk of contracting coronavirus (COVID-19), keepers have implemented extra precautionary measures when caring for the animals, wearing face masks, gloves and surgical scrubs (where necessary), and close contact with animals is being kept to a minimum. (Photo : Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Numerous individuals are aware that contemporary canines descended from the grey wolf. Yet do you also know that the majority of the more than 340 current dog varieties we have today, have evolved in the last four centuries?

Dingos in the Dogs' Evolutionary Family Tree

As shown in recent update of ScienceAlert, Dogs were initially tamed approximately 29,000 and 14,000 years ago, and have remained inextricably tied to mankind since that. Dingoes, Australia's sole native dog, were regarded to symbolize a one-of-a-kind occurrence in dog history, which landed there 5,000-8,000 years ago.

However, the precise location of dingoes in the canine phylogenetic ladder was never determined. Researchers utilized cutting-edge DNA sampling innovations to determine where dingoes diverged from grey wolves on their adaptive sojourn, and researchers discovered that dingoes are profoundly distinct from residential pups, as per The Conversation.

Scientific investigations on additional dingo genetic sequences would investigate if the dingo was actually bred in captivity, as well as the extent and consequences of purebred dingo genetic recombination with household canines.

Researchers calculated the effects of biological variations among these genotypes and the dingo utilizing our new dog genetic sequences, as well as current genetic data of the Greenland wolf and those certain delegate lifeforms such as the Great Dane, boxer, and Labrador, to conclusively demonstrate where the dingo conforms in the adaptive chronology.

This reproduction in contemporary canines is most probably the outcome of a shift in nutrition for the first civilized canines, who were progressively given complex carbohydrates including grain.

Investigators discovered that dingoes are an archaic derivation of all current dog varieties, existing betwixt the wolf and today's modern tamed canines. Throughout ancient times, people continuously carefully crossbred canines for favorable attributes and qualities via genetic manipulation.

Furthermore, as mentioned in the article published by Smithsonian Magazine, understanding the origin and evolution of dingoes could assist scientists comprehend how and when domesticated animals lived differently with mankind, as well as find and attract prospective approaches to enhance their health and liveliness.

However, in order to acknowledge the dingo's position in dog heritage, researchers also required numerous high-quality dog genotypes. Investigators demonstrate that dingoes are an archaic outgrowth of contemporary canines, located among the grey wolf as well as today's domesticated dogs, in a report issued on Friday in Science Advances in partnership with 25 academics from four nationalities.

Also read: 23 Million-Year-Old Fossilized Spider Glows Under Ultraviolet Light

Further Study on Dingos Crossbreeding

Surprisingly, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the comparable epigenetic mechanisms have happened spontaneously in various newly tamed local breeds, demonstrating how mankind may influence the DNA of companion animals.

Canine, for instance, just gradually evolved the capacity to lift their brows - a feature that was most certainly created to help them converse better and properly with mankind.

Researchers may learn about how people have affected the cognitive and physiological qualities of canines, and also see alterations in their DNA, by researching them. Dingoes are remarkable in that they have spent generations geologically apart from wolves and tame canines. This research might have ramifications for the wellness of all contemporary mixed breeds.

Researchers don't know for sure if the dingo ever was tamed, however scientists certainly recognize that it was improbable to be tamed following its introduction in Australia.

Earlier experimental knowledge, for illustration, have demonstrated that canines need a specific gene (amylase 2B) to absorb carbohydrates.

Related article: Greyhound Racing 'Beyond Reform' in Scotland, Campaigners Call for Ban




Some female spiders tend to consume their partners after copulation, which has led to a widow-making reputation. However, some male orb weaver spiders have devised a spectacular survival strategy: they launch themselves to safety at incredible speeds.

Studying Spiders

Male orb-weaving Philoponella prominens spiders avoid being eaten by mates by catapulting away



Read more in @CurrentBiology: https://t.co/cjTP9qkeDN#HubeiUniversity Shichang Zhang, @NUSingapore Daiqin Li pic.twitter.com/ovGfBh7jh7  Cell Press (@CellPressNews) April 25, 2022



On Monday, a group of researchers led by ecologist Shichang Zhang of Hubei University in China released a paper in the journal Current Biology on the spiders' energetic escapes.

Male Philoponella prominens orb weaver spiders are the arachnid equivalent of kangaroos.

The male spiders use a joint in their first pair of legs to immediately engage in a split-second catapult action, flinging themselves away from their partners at impressive speeds of up to 88 centimeters per second (cm/s), according to Cell Press, the publisher of Current Biology, in a news release Monday.

Recording the Process

The researchers recorded footage of the catapulting process, demonstrating the males' fast escape strategy.

Males that didn't launch away after sex was captured and consumed "in the act of sexual cannibalism," the researchers discovered when studying sexual selection in orb weavers who live in vast colonies. They saw 155 successful matings, with 152 of them leading to freedom. The three who didn't catapult were destined to be dinner.

The researchers tested their theories by preventing 30 guys from catapulting away. Those men were also served as supper.

"Females may utilize this behavior to assess a male's quality during mating," Zhang speculated. "If a male is incapable of catapulting, kill it; if a male is capable of doing it several times, take his sperm."

Arachnid Sex Rituals

It may be a world where spiders devour spiders, but at least some arachnids have worked out how to survive. It takes strong legs and good timing, which is life counsel that many might benefit from.

Spiders have strange sexual preferences. But it's all in good humor... No, wait, it's rather dangerous. There's screaming wailing, blocked orifices, torn-off genitals, devoured body parts, and hallucinogenic ceremonies whether a female or a guy murders the other.

Also Read: Harmless Giant Spider Slowly Turning Invasive as Population Grows

Bizarre

And you thought humans had bizarre sexual preferences? There has been a growing body of information demonstrating how bizarre spider sex is in recent years.

For example, courting lasts 50 minutes for males contending head-to-head for mating rights and 4.5 hours for solitary, non-competing males in the case of redback spiders (Latrodectus hasselti). Although the larger male redbacks are usually preferred, scientists have discovered that the smaller ones are superior to their larger counterparts because they develop faster and are more agile.

Meanwhile, adult jumping spiders wear a racy outfits on their bodies to attract mates, as though they were going to a rave. Males have UV-reflecting scales that shine brilliant white and green, and females have UV-reflecting front appendages that light bright green.

Females and males, it turns out, will ignore each other if they are not viewed under full-spectrum light, implying that both partners must demonstrate their health by displaying their luminous bodies before courting can begin.

Spiders reproduce sexually; however, the male's sperm does not enter the female's body through the male's genitals. A stage in between is widespread. Males ejaculate onto little sperm webs that have already been prepared and then transport their sperm to palps, which are syringe-like structures on the ends of their front appendages. The male jumping spider will arch his body and slink on tiptoe toward the female as courting proceeds. If the wooing is successful, the male injects sperm from his palps into the female's genital hole on the bottom of her abdomen, known as the epigyne.

Related Article: Rapid Decline of Insect Population Causes Scientists to Worry About Earth's Future

For the most recent updates from the animal kingdom, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
A massive "potentially hazardous asteroid" possibly comparable to twice the size of the Empire State Building will fly by Earth on Thursday, April 28.

It is named 418135 (2008 AG33) and has an estimated diameter between 1,150 and 2,560 feet (350 to 870 meters).

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid

The space rock will be traveling at the speed of 23,300 miles per hour (37,400 kilometers per hour) and will have a distance of 2 million miles (3.2 million kilometers) when it passes through our planet, as per the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) - Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

The approaching asteroid was reportedly first detected in January 2008 by astronomers from the observatory Mt. Lemmon Sky Center in Arizona.

It last skimmed through Earth in March 2015 as part of its projected fly by every seven years, as per the NASA - CNEOS.

Also Read: Asteroid Alert: Potentially Hazardous Space Rock to Fly by Earth on April Fools' Day

Near-Earth Object

The said planetary-asteroid distance is relatively eight times the average distance between Earth and the moon.

Although this is a significantly great distance based on Earth's measurements, NASA considers such a space object with the said distance as a near-Earth object (NEO).

In NASA's book, a NEO is an asteroid or comet that flies by Earth and the Sun with a perihelion distance of less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU).

Relative to the rock's distance to Earth, it should be only within 0.3 AU or within 45 million kilometers from our planet for it to be considered a NEO.

Although not all space objects are being detected, NASA continuously monitors and flags any space objects that come within 120 million mi. (193 million km.) from Earth.

Moreover, any fast-moving objects within 4.65 million mi. (7.5 million km.) are labeled as potentially hazardous, as per Live Science.

Aside from NASA, astronomers from other space agencies also monitor these space rocks, determining ahead of time if their trajectory will hit Earth or not.

Holistic monitoring of these meteors is essential but astronomers prioritize space objects that are significantly large, enough to cause serious damage or pave the way for an extinction-level impact.

Asteroid Planetary Defense

Detecting an incoming asteroid is important, but deflecting it is a whole different matter.

Since the onset of advancements in space technology, including modern telescopes, and space exploration over recent decades, it has come to the realization that an imminent planet-killing asteroid will hit Earth.

The last one was called the Chicxulub asteroid which was responsible for wiping up the dinosaurs approximately 65 million years ago.

Although an asteroid strike of this magnitude is rare, space authorities are currently engaged in measures to prevent a gigantic space rock from hitting our planet again.

Established in January 2016, NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office spearheads planetary defense efforts along with other US-based space agencies and their international partners.

Currently, NASA is involved in the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).

The DART mission aims to deflect an incoming asteroid or any potentially life-threatening space rocks approaching Earth.

The first program of its kind, the DART involves hitting an asteroid with kinetic impact to change its motion in space.

The test was launched in November 2021 and its target subject will be the asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimophos, which is expected to be completed later this year.

Related Article: Massive Asteroid with a Size of a Stadium to Fly by Earth This Friday; NASA Classifies it as Potentially Hazardous
Heavy rain triggered widespread flash floods and lethal landslides in Cundinamarca Department and other municipalities, leaving multiple people dead and several others missing.

The death toll is expected to rise as emergency operations are underway.

State of Emergency Declaration

The latest reports on Tuesday, April 26, suggest that a renewed natural calamity swept through Colombia last week and its effect still emanates since then.

The natural disaster resulted in the death of at least eight people.

In Cundinamarca, Governor Nicolas Garcia, in his statement on Saturday, April 23, issued a declaration of the public calamity of state of emergency for the whole Department in response to the severe weather over recent days, as cited by the natural disaster monitoring site Floodlist.com.

Members of Colombia's Civil Defense agency have conducted search-and-rescue operations following the landslide in Cachipay, damaging homes and resulting in two fatalities.

These victims were among the said number total number of casualties from the recent natural calamity.

The emergency declaration will allow the local government to immediately provide financial and technical support for each municipality.

Governor Garcia also implied that it would also pave the way for the acquisition of government-mandated funds that will be used to repair more than 90 roads.

Also Read: Heavy Rain Triggers Massive Landslide in Colombia: Several Casualties Reported

Other Affected Areas

The adverse weather not only affected Cundinamarca but also other areas as well, causing large-scale disruption and damage, including in Facatativa, El Rosal, and Puerto Salgar.

In Viota, several mudslides hit the municipality overnight between April 21 and April 22, killing five people and leaving many families homeless after their houses were either completely destroyed or damaged.

In Arbalaez, the Cundinamarca government reported that four people are still missing after floodwaters in the municipality on Monday, April 25.

In Anapoima, the Civil Defense reported that floods in the municipality killed one person.

Colombia Rainy Season

Local authorities claim that the harsh weather since the start of the rainy season has affected more than 20,000 people across the country.

Garcia also added that the severe weather has affected 85 out of the 116 municipalities, as per Floodlist.com.

On Monday, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) reportedly stated that 33 people were killed, 45 others were injured, and 10 are still missing since the onset of the rainy season on March 15 this year.

Between March 16 and April 24, the UNGRD estimated there have been 369 weather events, including 196 landslides, 134 flash floods, strong winds, lightning strikes, and hailstorms throughout 210 municipalities in 22 departments of Colombia.

Additionally, the Colombian disaster preparedness agency said 21,524 people from 6,813 families were affected when these weather hazards destroyed 117 and damaged 3,025 homes.

Infrastructural damage also reveals that this year's wet season affected 371 roads were affected, 34 vehicular bridges, and eight pedestrian bridges.

UNGRD Director Eduardo urged the public to remain alert as the rainy season may last until June 15.

Weather alerts and warnings are possible in the coming days and several weeks.

Prior to the wet season, Colombia witnessed a massive mudslide in early February, killing at least 15 people, as per CNN.

Related Article: At Least 14 People Dead, 35 People Injured in Landslide in Colombia
The bodies of three female lions, including two cubs, were found attached to an electric fence at a safari lodge in Uganda, which borders the famous tourist attraction Queen Elizabeth National Park, following emerging reports on Tuesday, April 26.

Local authorities believed that the wild cats were electrocuted, ruling out the possibility of foul play.

However, the recent incident added to the myriad of lion killings in Uganda over the past years, which highlights the country's fragile laws concerning wild animals.

Electrocuted to Death

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) Spokesman Bashir Hangi described the deaths of the animals as a "big blow" to conservation efforts since there are only an estimated 400 lions left in the East African nation, as cited by BBC.

Located in the Western Region of Uganda, the Queen Elizabeth National Park is known for its diverse wildlife, which comprises the African lion, African elephant, African buffalo, Ugandan kob, Nile crocodile, leopard, and chimpanzee, among others.

Also Read: Sri Lanka's Hungry Elephants Die After Eating Plastic Waste in Open Landfill

Related Incidents in Uganda

For almost 20 years, related incidents of accidental lion deaths or intentional killings have occurred in Uganda, mostly due to human-wildlife conflict.

The incidents are as follows:

Earlier this April, unverified reports went viral on social media when a man in Eastern Uganda allegedly killed a male African lion with his bare hands during a brutal standoff when the latter went near his house.

The man sustained multiple wounds throughout his body.

Moreover, a lion was also shot dead in Uganda after injuring several locals during a feast in the Rwabaragi village in Kagadi District, as per allafrica.com.

In March 2021, six lions were killed with their bodies dismembered in the Ishasha sector of the Queen Elizabeth National Park, near the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UWA detained four suspects and are currently in Ugandan court over their alleged involvement in the incident, as per Reuters.

In April 2018, the highest number of lion killings were recorded when 11 lions, including eight cubs, which were poisoned in the same national park.

This came after the carcasses of the lions were found with no further details provided on prior circumstances that led to their poisoning.

In May 2010, five lions died in the same manner of suspected poisoning in the park.

Between May 2006 and July 2007, 15 lions were killed by suspected herdsmen who were defending their cattle.

Laws

There are reportedly no existing laws in Uganda pertaining to the regulation of land use in areas surrounding national parks, as per the BBC.

However, the country has a national law pertaining to animal rights and animal welfare.

According to the Global Animal Law (GAL) organization, Uganda adopted its Animals (Prevention of Cruelty) Act in 1957 and it was consolidated in 2000.

The said law generally prohibits the killing, injury, and unauthorized killing of animals unless the context otherwise requires.

Across the African continent, lion populations are reportedly in a continuous decline due to various factors, notably because of excessive hunting and human-wildlife conflict.

The African lion is currently classified as "vulnerable" under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Related Article: Human vs. Beast: Man Allegedly Kills a Lion With His Bare Hands in Uganda
Meteorites have been hurling the vastness of space since time memorial, wherein some hit Earth and other planets in the solar system.

It was long-speculated that life on our planet may have come from outer space.

However, a new study confirmed to have found this evidence that space rocks contained the necessary ingredients for the blueprint of life.

Scientists of the novel research claimed that previous studies have failed to discover that meteorites might have helped in delivering these vital ingredients to life.

Blueprint for Life

In the said paper published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday, April 26, scientists detected all five "genetic letters" of DNA and RNA from meteorites that were fundamentally crucial for life to kick in during the early years of Earth, as cited by Space.com.

Known as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), these are both essential molecules that carry genetic information that determines the physical, morphological, and biological structure of a living organism, from ancestors down to their descendants through evolution.

The DNA reportedly comprises four chemical bases such as adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T), which RNA also uses but also swaps T for uracil (U).

In the said study, the scientists were able to find these genetic chemical components inside space rocks that fell to Earth within the last century, as cited by Science News.

Also Read: Cyanide May Have Been a Primordial Soup to the Origin of Life on Earth: New Study

Mars: Related Case Study

In 1996, a research team led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) found evidence that primitive life on Mars may have existed 3.6 billion years ago.

The team consists of scientists from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, and Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

The NASA-funded team found the first organic molecules believed to be of Martian origin, possibly from microscopic fossils of ancient, bacteria-like organisms enclosed in a perceived Martian rock that struck Earth as a meteorite.

The findings will later on be published in the journal Science in August of that year.

Although the discovery was significant, scientists previously acknowledged that it would be tremendously difficult to prove that life once existed on Mars, as the scientific community is still in the process of discovering the origins of life back on Earth.

Earth: Origins of Life

Over the decades, studies have progressed regarding the source of life on Earth since it was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago when the solar system was in a violent state, theoretically characterized by scientists as a vacuum in space of colliding space rocks.

This violent cosmic process led to the formation of the planets that we know of today.

In spite of this knowledge, it is still unclear to scientists where the most fundamental components of life originated.

In a recent paper published in Science Advances on April 13, a Canada-based study led to the discovery of the oldest fossils beneath the icy waters of the North American country.

This led scientists to presume that life on Earth, even at the microscopic level, may have started already 4.2 billion years ago.

The fossils were in the form of seafloor-hydrothermal jasper which was found to contain primordial microbial communities.

The breakthrough study challenged the prevailing long-held notion that life has just emerged at least between 3.5 and 3.7 billion years ago.

Related Article: Starlight Origin of Building Blocks of Life
            
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Advances in technology look set to change the face of global health care as we know it. The idea of smart healthcare uses a new generation of information technologies including artificial intelligence and big data.

Smart healthcare. Image Credit: ra2 studio/Shutterstock.com

The future of healthcare looks set to be transformed in a positive way so that is more streamlined, personal and efficient.

A new generation of smart health technologies

The concept of smart healthcare originated from that of the Smart Planet first proposed in 2009 by IBM (Armonk, NY, USA). Smart Planet is an intelligent infrastructure that uses sensors to perceive information, transmits information through the internet of things (IoT), and processes the information using supercomputers and cloud computing (Tian, 2019).

Also, according to Tian (2019) smart healthcare is not just a simple technological advancement, but is an all-round, multi-level change. The transformation will move us away from disease-centred care and toward a more patient-centered approach. There will also be a shift away from a focus on treatment to a focus on preventative care.

Smart healthcare involves human and non-human participants doctors, patients, hospitals and research institutes. At its core, it comprises the following new technologies together with modern biotechnology: Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), the Medical Internet of Things (MIoT), edge computing, cloud computing, big data and next-generation wireless communication technology. Here we will take a brief look at AI and the IoT in turn:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence and related technologies are now beginning to be applied to healthcare. AI has already been demonstrated to perform just as well if not better than humans do at key tasks in healthcare. AI is just not one technology but rather a collection of technologies:

Machine learning neural networks and deep learning

Imitation of intelligent human behavior; computer algorithms improve through experience

This is the primary variety of AI required for precision medicine

A neural network is a complex form of machine learning used to decipher whether a patient will develop a particular disease based on the weighing inputs, outputs and variables or features that associate the two

Deep learning meanwhile is a neural network with many levels of variables for predicting outcomes

One application of deep learning is the detection of clinically relevant features in radiology images whereby algorithms are already outperforming radiologists in spotting incidences of cancer

Physical robots

Physical robots have been deployed in industry and are thus well established

Improvements in AI mean they are becoming more intelligent

They perform tasks such as lifting and welding

They deliver supplies in the healthcare setting

Surgical robots can perform tasks such as creating incisions and stitching wounds and performing surgical procedures in gynecologic, prostate and head and neck surgery

Natural language processing (NLP)

NLP concerns making sense of human language and comprises applications such as speech recognition, text analysis and goals

The two basic approaches to NLP are statistical and semantic

Statistical NLP is based on machine learning and deep learning (see above) techniques especially have increased accuracy of recognition

In the healthcare setting, NLP can be used in the creation classification and documentation of clinical information

NLP systems can analyze clinical notes and reports and provide transcription

Smart healthcare. Image Credit: Panchenko Vladimir/Shutterstock.com

The Internet of Things (IoT)



The IoT is a system of wireless, interrelated, and connected digital devices that can collect, send, and store data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction (Kelly, 2020). To be applicable to health care, IoT can be any device that can collect health-related data from individuals such as computing devices, mobile phones, smart bands and wearables, digital medications, implantable surgical devices, and any other kind of portable device that can measure health care data and is connectable to the internet.



More research is needed to determine the acceptability of using the IoT to assess the levels of digital literacy for both clinicians and consumers. Even so, it is anticipated the IoT will streamline healthcare delivery from diagnosis through treatment to the monitoring of patients inside and outside the hospital setting.



Smart healthcare in the future



What will the futuristic digital hospital look like? According to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, that future is not a not-so-distant prospect. In as little as a decade, digital hospitals are anticipated to have altered healthcare in a profound way.



Technology will come to underlie many aspects of hospital care though there will still be a vital place for human input: the need for hands-on human care and empathy will remain an essential and irreplaceable component of care. 



References



Alsheri, F. et al. (2020) A Comprehensive Survey of the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI-Based Smart Healthcare. Doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3047960.



Davenport, T. et al. (2019) The potential for artificial intelligence in healthcare. Future Healthc J. Doi: 10.7861/futurehosp.6-2-94.



Kelly, J. et al. (2020) The Internet of Things: Impact and Implications for Health Care Delivery. J Med Internet Res. Doi: 10.2196/20135.



Thomas, S. (n. d.) The digital hospital of the future. Deloitte. Online: https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/life-sciences-and-healthcare/articles/global-digital-hospital-of-the-future.html.



Tian, S. et al. (2019) Smart healthcare: making medical care more intelligent. Global Health Journal. Doi.org/10.1016/j.glohj.2019.07.001.

Further Reading




What is stuttering?

The medical sector defines stuttering as a speech disorder, in which a person often repeats some words or syllables, pronounces individual sounds drawly, or is unable to pronounce sounds or syllables fully. Many doctors and specialists define this speech disorder as "Logoneurosis or Logophobia.

According to the National Institute of Speech & Hearing (NISH) stuttering occurs in about 1% of all people in the world. In adults, stuttering occurs more commonly in men with a male-to-female ratio of 4 to 1.

Stuttering. Image Credit: J.K2507/Shutterstock.com

Phases of stuttering development

The development of long-term stuttering is often broken down into 4 phases:

The first phase takes place in preschool age: The disorder manifests itself sporadically, lasting weeks, months, followed by long periods of normal speech. After this period, a significant proportion of children recover.

The second phase relates to primary schooling. There are no periods of normal speech, or they are short. Children are aware of their stuttering and perceive themselves as a stutterer. Stuttering concerns the main parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs).

The third phase lasts from the age of 8 and ends in adolescence. At the same time, stuttering arises and intensifies in certain situations (they call at school for answers to the blackboard, in a conversation with strangers, on the phone, or when shopping).

The fourth phase continues from adolescence. Logoneurosis becomes apparent in the persons life  people become afraid of speaking in public and in high pressured situations.

Patients often substitute some words for others, avoid communication, prefer to remain silent more, do not want to draw attention to themselves, or become insecure, not only about speech.

Impact of genetics

According to the latest research in genetics, hereditary stuttering can occur in several generations in a family. In this case, congenital stuttering is observed in cases where the child's speech apparatus is weakened due to inherited genetic factors.

Usually, the first signs of stuttering appear in early childhood (up to 5 years), when the process of formation of speech skills occurs. If you take timely measures to normalize speech, then the child can completely get rid of speech defects. However, in adolescence, it is still possible to exacerbate stuttering in the event of uncomfortable circumstances - stressful conditions, mental trauma, family problems.

Scientists and members of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

believe that many stutterers inherit certain traits that put them at risk for developing this speech disorder. The exact nature of these traits is currently not fully understood, but they impair a person's ability to link muscle movements necessary for a smooth and free pronunciation of phrases into a single chain.

Gender analysis

Stuttering occurs four times more often in boys than in girls (NIDCD, 2017). Experts suggest that this phenomenon is associated with the peculiarities of the formation of motor functions. Statistically, girls begin to walk, talk, articulate, and develop fine motor skills faster than boys.

Due to the shorter terms of the formation of speech and motor mechanisms, girls are more resistant to external negative psychological influences - fear, fright, stress.

If there is at least one stuttering person in a family among close relatives, then the likelihood of speech disorders in representatives of subsequent generations increases significantly.

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), for men who stutter the probability of having sons with speech disorders is 22% and for daughters, it is 9%, while for women this probability is 36% for sons and 17% for daughters.

Further causes of stuttering

There are two main causes of stuttering: predisposing and provoking. Within the predisposing causes of stuttering, it is important to bring attention to:

Genetic factors

Diseases causing encephalopathic consequences

Intrauterine, birth trauma

Overwork and exhaustion of the nervous system

The genetic conditions contributing to stuttering include the impaired development of motor skills and a sense of rhythm, scarcity of emotional development, increased reactivity because of abnormal relationships with others, and hidden mental disorders.

The presence of one of the above conditions is enough for a nervous breakdown and stuttering to occur. The reasons that provoke the occurrence of stuttering include one-stage mental trauma (fear, fright), bilingualism, or multilingualism in the family.

Therapy for stuttering. Image Credit: Photographee.eu/Shutterstock.com

Pathogenesis

The pathogenesis of stuttering is like the mechanism of subcortical dysarthria and is often referred to as dysrhythmic dysarthria.

Representatives of the American Association for Speech, Language, and Hearing suggest that many people who have some speech impairment inherit certain traits, such as weak central speech mechanisms. However, this is not a reason for pessimism, because, despite the presence of certain links between stuttering and genetics, one must also remember that genetically inherited pathology manifests itself only in the presence of additional negative factors.

American scientists from the National Institute for Deafness and Speech Disorders conducted research in which they found substantial evidence that stuttering can be inherited.

In the process of studying the problem, the researchers found a strong connection on the long arm of the 12th chromosome. The results were obtained from a control group of Pakistani relatives who suffered from stuttering. Several unrelated families from Pakistan, North America, and the United Kingdom were also analyzed.

The twin method, carried out by the same group of scientists, showed that in identical twins, who passed on the same number of identical genes, both children will stutter in 20-63% of cases.

References:
The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Departments of Gynecology/Obstetrics, Neurosurgery and Pathology have been awarded more than $7.8 million for novel, multicenter projects designed to intercept and find cures for several deadly cancers, including pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, and the brain cancer known as glioblastoma.

The work is being funded by the cancer research foundation Break Through Cancer as part of a $50 million, three-year effort for teams across five cancer research centers. The other centers are Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Cambridge, Mass.; and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

We are grateful to Break Through Cancer for funding these innovative new avenues of research, which could help us find novel treatments or management approaches for some devastating cancers. Their model, combining forces across several leading comprehensive cancer centers, we hope will produce exciting results." William Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and chairman of the board for Break Through Cancer

One project will investigate how to intercept ovarian cancer before it occurs. Many high-grade, serous ovarian cancers  the most common and lethal type of ovarian cancer  have been found to originate in the fallopian tubes, explains Ie-Ming Shih, M.D., Ph.D., director of the TeLinde Gynecologic Pathology Laboratory in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics and co-director of the Women's Malignancies Research Group at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, and Rebecca Stone, M.D., director of the Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service, Department of Gyencology and Obstetrics. Data published last month show that prophylactic removal of the fallopian tubes may substantially decrease the general population risk for ovarian cancer.

As fallopian tubes have no known life-essential function after women have finished child-bearing, investigators will examine the safety and feasibility of expanding fallopian tube removal as a primary cancer prevention strategy to women beyond those having gynecologic surgery. There is tremendous opportunity to offer this to women at the time of other planned abdominal surgeries, such as hernia repair or gallbladder removal. Investigators then can advocate for health insurance coverage of preventive fallopian tube removal and create educational materials for surgeons and patients.

Researchers also will work to create noninvasive imaging methods to improve and streamline the detection and harvesting of early cancerous lesions in the fallopian tubes; identify new biomarkers that can be used to advance ovarian cancer screening; and apply new technologies for detecting and analyzing pre-cancers. These include "OvaSeek," a system to rapidly image fallopian tubes that have been surgically removed, and the "iCollector" to harvest living cells from fallopian tube lesions. Additionally, the group will look to compile an ovarian "precancer atlas" using molecular analyses of minuscle precancerous fallopian tube lesions obtained from participating cancer centers.

Other Johns Hopkins investigators on this project are Bert Vogelstein, M.D., Clayton Professor of Oncology; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics and Therapeutics, who will serve as a research advisor on this project, Nickolas Papadopoulos, Ph.D., Tian-Li Wang, Ph.D., director of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory (MOLGEN) of Female Reproductive Cancer; Leslie Cope, Ph.D., a bioinformatician; and members of MOLGEN lab.

The grant is funding three additional lines of research:

Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer  A key factor underlying poor ovarian cancer cure rates is the ability of cancer cells that are resistant to chemotherapy to persist after therapy. This minimal residual disease (MRD) is clinically undetectable and represents the "seed" that manifests as a cancer recurrence. The main approach to slow recurrence has been to place patients on so-called maintenance therapies  medications to try to prevent cancer from reappearing.

This project, led by Stephanie Gaillard, M.D., Ph.D., director of early phase clinical trials in gynecologic cancer, Elana Fertig, Ph.D., associate cancer center director and division director of Quantitative Sciences and co-director of the Convergence Institute; and Christopher VandenBussche, M.D., Ph.D., aims to develop new capabilities for understanding and targeting MRD. Researchers will study blood biopsies to detect minute levels of residual cancer DNA in the blood after surgery is complete, and use "second-look laparoscopies"  surgeries in which MRD cells can be harvested and studiedto study these cells' properties. These investigations could uncover novel immune and targeted therapies for MRD.

Additionally, the team will partner with drug companies developing new therapeutics, using MRD as a clinical endpoint to watch. Finally, the team will grow and treat laboratory models of disease that, may be used to help predict which patients will and will not respond to new therapies.

Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer (in partnership with the Lustgarten Foundation)  The key driver of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma are mutations in a gene called KRAS. Many cells in the body need KRAS to function; however, several promising new therapies in development target only the mutant form of KRAS.

In this project, researchers will integrate clinical and laboratory approaches to understand why tumor cells become resistant to KRAS inhibition, and how to use these new drugs in combination with other agents. The primary goal is to develop effective combination therapy strategies to target KRAS in pancreatic cancer through preclinical studies and human clinical trials. The team will develop pharmaceutical partnerships to accelerate the translation of new KRAS inhibitors into effective drugs.

Johns Hopkins investigators working on this project are Nilo Azad, M.D., co-director of cancer genetics and epigenetics; Jacquelyn Zimmerman, M.D., Ph.D.; Elizabeth Thompson, M.D., Ph.D.; Katrina Purtell, R.N., clinical research nurse manager; Elana Fertig, Ph.D.; associate cancer center director and division director of Quantitative Sciences and co-director of the Convergence Institute; and Hao Wang, Ph.D., associate director of the quantitative sciences division and director of the biostatistics shared resource.

Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies  New therapeutics for glioblastoma have been stunted after several large phase III clinical trials were unsuccessful. Most cancer therapeutics fail to penetrate the tumor due to the protective effect of the blood-brain barrier. Repeat biopsies have been used in evaluating promising oncology therapies for other types of cancer but have not been considered for brain tumors because of safety concerns.

Through this project, researchers will assess the safety and feasibility of a carefully performed series of biopsies. They also will work to evaluate blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples, so-called "liquid biopsies," for molecular or other markers to indicate a cancer treatment is working. In addition, investigators will try to understand how the immune response is blocked by glioblastoma tumor cells.

Johns Hopkins investigators working on this project are Chetan Bettegowda, M.D., Ph.D., the Jennison and Novak Families Professor of Neurosurgery and Vice Chair of Research for Department of Neurosurgery; Matthias Holdhoff, M.D., Ph.D.; Charles Eberhart, M.D., Ph.D., director of neuropathology and ophthalmic pathology; and Jessica Wollett, clinical trial manager.
Working with tiny bacteria, Michigan State University researchers led by Lee Kroos have made a discovery that could have big implications for biology.

The researchers revealed a new way that nature can inhibit or switch off important proteins known as intramembrane proteases -; pronounced "pro tea aces" -; which the team reported April 26th in the journal eLife.

Although the Spartans made this finding using a model organism, a microbe known as Bacillus subtilis, this type of protein is highly conserved, which is how evolutionary biologists say, "it's everywhere."

These types of proteases are found in organisms that span the kingdoms of life, from single-celled bacteria to people. In fact, the first intramembrane protease was discovered in humans in 1997 and perhaps the best-known member of this family, named gamma-secretase, is implicated in Alzheimer's disease.

"Our paper shows the first example of regulating an intramembrane protease with natural inhibitor proteins," said Kroos, a professor in the College of Natural Science's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. "That gives us some ideas on how we might be able to use and mimic that.

"Will it tell us how to modulate gamma-secretase? No," Kroos said. "But it could give folks some ideas on decorations they could put on inhibitors to try as therapeutics."

Using this information to design drugs to treat Alzheimer's will take years, Kroos said, but the findings could have more immediate impacts in fighting particularly nasty and stubborn bacterial pathogens. That includes Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium behind anthrax infections, and other bacteria responsible for tetanus, botulism and food poisoning.

"Many, many bacteria have intramembrane proteases that are pretty closely related to the one we studied," said Kroos, who has been a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 2014, thanks, in part, to his work furthering our understanding of biology with bacteria. "If we figure those out, we could figure out how to make bacteria less stress-resistant and more treatable with antibiotics."

A better understanding of these proteases could also help develop applications in other areas, including agriculture and environmental protection, eLife noted in a digest featuring the Spartans' work. Beyond that, it helps paint a more complete picture of how life works.

"This work should have a broad impact influencing our understanding of the regulation of this class of proteins across the tree of life," wrote Petra Anne Levin, an editor for eLife and a professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Scissors, spores and Corvettes

A protease is an enzyme, a type of protein machine, that nature uses to chop up other proteins. This is a fundamental biological process that cells use to achieve a variety of goals. An intramembrane protease is an enzyme that has its active site -; the spot where the enzyme does the snipping -; buried inside a cell membrane.

Sometimes you'll hear them called 'scissors in the membrane. These intramembrane proteases do really important things in cells." Lee Kroos, Researcher, Michigan State University

The protease studied by the Spartans, for example, is part of the biological system that B. subtilis uses to make spores when food is scarce. Spores are essentially dormant cells coated in a protein armor that can weather harsh conditions and then reactivate once things improve (other bacteria, including B. anthracis, also form spores, which is one reason these pathogens are so persistent).

Because intramembrane proteases do their work within the confines of a cell membrane, it's been challenging for researchers to determine exactly how they work. Adding to the complexity of the Spartan project, the researchers thought their protease might be working in a sophisticated way that had never been documented before.

"When you look at other related organisms, you see that this system has evolved a lot," Kroos said. "B. subtilis is like the Corvette. It has the high-end machinery."

Understanding this high-end machinery required extensive genetic and biochemical testing, which was led by Sandra Olenic, a doctoral student in Kroos's lab. Olenic earned her Ph.D. after completing this project and is now a postdoctoral scholar at Tufts University.

While Olenic designed and ran experiments, she and Kroos realized their results wouldn't provide all the answers they sought. They turned to one of Kroos's longtime collaborators, Michael Feig, an MSU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, to bring in computer modeling and help complete the expansive puzzle.

Lim Heo, a postdoctoral research associate in Feig's lab, had expertise in a computational technique that can predict protein structures. The technique has gained some broader attention recently thanks to Google and other big names in artificial intelligence developing software packages that make it more accessible to the scientific community.

Before such tools were available, however, Heo and Feig still had the know-how to help Kroos and Olenic start piecing together a model explaining how the intramembrane protease worked.

"I think this is a really cool story and a nice collaboration that took a lot of hard work and perseverance," Kroos said. "Sandra just had incredible persistence and dedication. It's a credit, too, to Lim and Michael that they did such a nice piece of work with the computational modeling."

Completing the puzzle

Taken altogether, the team's results imply that this B. subtilis intramembrane protease is kept inactive -; that is, not snipping its target protein or substrate -; with help from two other proteins. One of these inhibitor proteins works like a clamp, keeping the second protein lodged in the scissor enzyme's active site.

The researchers theorize that the bacteria can then activate the protease by releasing the clamp, letting the blocking protein slip out and allowing the target protein in.

"This was like putting together a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle without knowing what it looks like," Kroos said. Although the puzzle isn't completely solved, the team has enough data and results to be confident it has a reasonable model of how things look and work. But the researchers aren't stopping there.

Their next step is already in progress, which involves testing the predictions of the model -; such as where the clamp is attached to both the protease and inhibitor protein -; and seeing how well those match reality. Two undergraduate researchers in Kroos's lab are leading those experiments.

Another key step is determining the structures of the proteins involved using analytical techniques including X-ray crystallography and cryogenic electron microscopy. Kroos has been working on that part for about a decade with collaborators at MSU, but the proteins are in no hurry to give up their secrets.

Kroos suspects he may retire before the puzzle is totally finished, but that doesn't appear to bother him. For one, he confessed he might try to sneak back and help if his colleagues will let him. And he mostly seems excited to see how much of the puzzle he and his team can solve with the few years he has left.

When Kroos started at MSU in 1988, science didn't know about intramembrane proteases. But it wasn't long after their 1997 discovery that Kroos decided he needed to switch his research focus to include these proteins.

"That's not an easy thing to do," Kroos said, because not everyone -; funding agencies included -; believes you can make the switch. But he found support and willing collaborators at MSU.

"Our department is really strong in membrane proteins," he said. "I thought it would be a good chance to bloom where I was planted."

It's safe to say that hypothesis was confirmed.

Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 165 years. One of the world's leading research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
Establishing accurate gestational age with ultrasound early in pregnancy is essential to delivering high-quality care. Yet, the high cost for equipment and the need for trained sonographers limits its use in low-resource settings. A new study published in NEJM Evidence introduces a novel opportunity to democratize obstetric ultrasound.

UNC investigators from the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases (IGHID), UNC School of Medicine, and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health (GSPH), have developed a deep-learning artificial intelligence (AI) model that can accurately estimate gestational age using a point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) device. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the research is part of the Fetal Age Machine Learning Initiative (FAMLI), an ongoing project that is developing technologies to expand obstetrical ultrasound access to low-income settings where cost and logistics have traditionally prevented its use.

"Ultrasound is like a stethoscope to the modern obstetrician. We use it all day, every day," said IGHID Associate Director Jeff Stringer, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the UNC Division of Global Women's Health. Stringer came up with the idea for the project when he and his wife Elizabeth Stringer, MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, worked as obstetricians in Lusaka, Zambia.

"These results foretell a future where all pregnant people  not just those who live in rich countries  can access the diagnostic benefits of obstetric ultrasound."

The World Health Organization recommends an ultrasound scan before 24 weeks' gestation for all pregnancies. The average pregnant woman in the United States receives three ultrasounds during pregnancy. People with complicated pregnancies may receive many more. Yet, in the Lusaka public sector, which is typical of care systems across sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, few women have access to ultrasound at all.

Michael Kosorok, PhD, along with students and postdoctoral fellows from his lab, collaborated with Stringer on deep learning and data analysis for the study.

"I am particularly excited about the impact of this work on gestational age prediction," said Kosorok, the W.R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Biostatistics at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

"Because the needed hardware and training for implementing this prediction tool can be easily deployed in low-resourced settings, this has the potential to make a significant positive impact on maternal and child health globally."

The study, conducted from September 2018 through June 2021, recruited 4,695 pregnant volunteers in North Carolina and Zambia. The volunteers received blind ultrasound sweeps of the pregnant abdomen alongside standard fetal measurements, collected on both the commercial ultrasound machine and a low-cost, battery-powered device (Butterfly iQ). Researchers trained a neural network to estimate gestational age from the sweeps.

Three test data sets were used to assess the performance of the artificial intelligence (AI) model and standard measurements against previously established gestational age. These included a general test set comprising a random subset of study data, an IVF test set made up of women who conceived by in vitro fertilization, and a novice test set in which blind sweeps were collected by a midwife on the Butterfly iQtm battery-powered device. In each of the test sets, the AI model performed at least as well as a trained sonographer using a standard cart-based machine.

Butterfly Network, Inc (NYSE: BFLY) introduced the world's first handheld, single probe whole-body ultrasound system using semiconductor technology in 2018. Since then, the company has sold and shipped tens of thousands of Butterfly iQ/iQ+ devices. Butterfly's performance and lower cost model positions it as an alternative to traditional, costly cart-based ultrasound equipment and a number of other handheld devices currently on the market.

Prior to this important research, access to low-cost imaging devices and the expertise to perform scans presented challenging hurdles to overcome in low-resource care settings. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a unique scanning method coupled with artificial intelligence to determine gestational age by healthcare workers in Africa. The convergence of these advances offers hope to millions of mothers when it comes to determining risk and sequencing care. The findings of this study also reinforce our belief that mid-level practitioners, when armed with the right tools, can meaningfully improve outcomes and advance the standard of care." John Martin, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Butterfly Network

Separate from this study, and through the support of a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Butterfly recently announced that it will distribute 1,000 Butterfly iQ+ devices to healthcare workers in Sub-Saharan Africa, in part, to advance maternal and fetal health.

Joni Price, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UNC who lives full time in Zambia and led study implementation at the Lusaka site, recognizes the disruptive potential of this technology. "Armed with a pocket-sized Butterfly probe and a smartphone, a Zambian midwife with no prior training in sonography can assess gestational age as accurately as a certified sonographer using an expensive machine. This has the potential to revolutionize the delivery of obstetric care in settings like Zambia."

The team has miniaturized the AI model to run on an Android smartphone and fully integrated it into the Butterfly software. They will begin a prospective diagnostic accuracy study of the technology in Lusaka and Chapel Hill in April 2022. They are now working on other diagnostic features such as fetal presentation and amniotic fluid volume that they hope to incorporate in the future.
Cancer Research UK, the worlds largest independent funder of cancer research, today (Tuesday 26th), unveiled Cancer Research Horizons, its new and ambitious approach to driving innovation in the development of new treatments for patients, by combining the power of academia and industry.

Horizons will bring under one umbrella for the first time Cancer Research UKs established drug discovery laboratories, network of world-class biology, cutting-edge technology platforms and clinical expertise, offering a unique R&D portfolio to potential industry partners.

Horizons will also provide research commercialisation support, intellectual property advice, an entrepreneurial programme and 30m of seed funding* to help tackle the translational gap.

Under Horizons, industry partners will gain access to Cancer Research UKs extensive network of 4,000 world-leading cancer researchers and a discovery research portfolio investment of over 400 million annually.

This includes an end-to-end drug discovery offering from initial concept through to patient benefit, including state-of-the-art CRISPR technologies, hit discovery methods, and unique access to relevant disease models.

I am delighted to take the helm of Horizons where we can build on our strong track record of drug discovery and development, which includes abiraterone and rucaparib. As the second-largest out-licensor of cancer research globally we have an important role to play in the life science sector. Our ambitions for this new organisation are higher than ever, through Cancer Research UK we fund some of the best research in the world  we want our innovation outputs to match this both in terms of volume, diversity and quality. Horizons will work hand in hand with our biopharma partners to expand our drug discovery efforts and accelerate the pace at which new medicines reach patients. Dr Iain Foulkes, CEO of Cancer Research Horizons

Horizons will also receive a 220m investment from Cancer Research UK over the next 10 years in drug discovery, leveraging in a further 350m in third party investment over this period, aiming to attract 2 of leverage for every 1 deployed.

Horizons will also bring together 200 drug discovery experts who were previously working as independent groups, to collaborate as one in-house team. This will consolidate the expertise and network within a single organisation, allowing the development of differentiating capabilities, and the insight needed to take on challenging and high-value targets.

One aspect Horizons will focus on is the pursuit of tougher, relatively unexplored and more profound ideas that hold promise for true innovation. For example, Cancer Research UK backed the development of POL inhibitors, which were at the time deemed too risky by industry, resulting in the successful spin-out Artios, which is now testing these cutting-edge drugs in clinical trials.

We want to take cutting edge innovations out of the lab and transform them into cancer beating treatments, devices and diagnostics. But we cant do this alone, we will need to work with researchers, industry and investors to bring forward the day when all cancers are eliminated. Cancer Research Horizons will bring our innovation capabilities into one place, and our ambition over the coming years is to become the partner of choice for translating scientific breakthroughs that will bring maximum patient benefit. Hamish Ryder, CEO of Therapeutic Innovation for Cancer Research Horizons

Importantly, any surplus funds generated by Horizons innovations reaching the market will go back into funding the next bold steps in cancer research, which will in turn further speed up the next big breakthroughs.
A recent paper posted to the Public Library of Science (PLOS) ONE journal showed that plasma levels of chromogranin A (CgA) could predict death in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.

Study: Chromogranin A plasma levels predict mortality in COVID-19. Image Credit: jijomathaidesigners / Shutterstock

Background

CgA, a 439-residue-long protein, and its 76-residue long polypeptide fragment vasostatin I (VS-I) are released into the blood from the endocrine and neuroendocrine cells. CgA and VS-I control stress responses in the body. Prior reports demonstrated that elevated CgA levels were observed in patients with heart failure, neuroendocrine tumors, arterial hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM), rheumatoid arthritis, renal failure, and inflammatory bowel diseases and were associated with mortality risk.

Further, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection manifests in varying levels of severity. In certain COVID-19 patients, a weaker nonspecific immune response fails to stop virus replication, leading to metabolic derangements, multiorgan failure, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Existing studies have indicated severe COVID-19 was linked to pre-existing comorbidities (HTN, respiratory diseases, DM, and cardiovascular diseases) and age. They also noted that COVID-19-related neurological, cardiovascular, vascular, and renal complications were linked to a higher risk of death. Nevertheless, CgA and VS-I's role in COVID-19 has yet to be determined.

About the study

The present work aimed to determine if the release of CgA and VS-I in the circulation is part of the initial host response in SARS-CoV-2 infection and if these compounds, detected at the start of COVID-19, could portend adverse outcomes. Therefore, the investigators measured the plasma concentrations of CgA and VS-I in 190 COVID-19 patients upon hospital admission between March and May 2020. Study controls were 40 healthy volunteers who were sex and age-matched with the subjects.

The Spearman correlation test or the Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze the connection between CgA and VS-I levels with SARS-CoV-2 severity, patient demographics, and comorbidities. The effect of CgA and VS-I concentrations on COVID-19-linked in-hospital death was investigated using Kaplan Meier survival curves and Cox regression analysis.

Findings

The study results showed that COVID-19 patients had higher median CgA and VS-I levels than healthy controls, i.e., CgA: 0.558 nM versus 0.368 nM; VS-I: 0.357 nM against 0.144 nM, respectively. CgA concentrations were considerably higher in 47 patients who died (median 0.948 nM) than in 143 survivors (median 0.507 nM). The discovery that CgA accumulates in COVID-19 patients, with a preference for those who die, provides a tool for disentangling the immune/neuroendocrine relationship in the SARS-CoV-2 infection host response.

Panel A: CgA and VS-I plasma levels in age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) and COVID-19 patients at hospital admission. Panel B: CgA plasma levels in COVID-19 patients with favorable outcome (Alive) or who died (Dead). Panel C: VS-I in Alive or Dead patients. ** p<0.001.

The investigators discovered a link between plasma CgA concentrations and age and that CgA levels were high in COVID-19 patients with comorbidities. When controlled for the number of comorbidities, age, the degree of respiratory insufficiency, the time from SARS-CoV-2 symptom start to sampling, and C-reactive protein levels, CgA levels were found to be independent predictors of in-hospital death (hazard ratio 1.28). According to Kaplan Meier curves, COVID-19 patients with CgA concentrations over 0.558 nM had a considerably higher death rate.

Interestingly, VS-I plasma concentrations in SARS-CoV-2 patients were similar in non-survivors and survivors, although they were elevated than in healthy controls. In addition, the authors found that the amount of CgA released into the blood predicted clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients. In contrast, in individuals with the severe SARS-CoV-2 outcome, the proteolytic processing of CgA that yields VS-I was not altered, implying that the molecular machinery involved in VS-I generation was similarly controlled in COVID-19 patients irrespective of disease development.

Further, the results indicated that the CgA concentrations were linked with systemic inflammation and hypoxia. However, the authors failed to discover the mechanism and origin of CgA generation in SARS-CoV-2 patients.

Conclusions

According to the investigators, this was the first study on CgA and VS-1 concentrations in SARS-CoV-2 infection that demonstrated the link between these molecules and clinical outcomes of COVID-19, as measured by in-hospital death.

The study findings revealed that plasma VS-I and CgA levels rise in SARS-CoV-2 patients, indicating a neuroendocrine stimulation in these patients. The present data then implied that CgA and not VS-I could be an early independent predictor of death. CgA plasma concentration upon COVID-19-related hospital admission might thus serve as a tool for identifying patients who are at a higher risk of adverse disease progression and, as a result, require more intensive therapy. The investigators further stated that more research is needed to determine the role of CgA and the feasibility of using the signal to early stratify SARS-CoV-2 patients depending on their likelihood of negative consequences.
In a recent study posted to Research Square*, researchers showed that Google search data could be utilized for monitoring the spread of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) cases.

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has changed human lives. For more than two years, people adopted various measures like face masks, testing, and social distancing; dealt with academic or business closures and unemployment; and learned to accept vaccines made with new technologies, i.e., messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based vaccines.

People relied on Google to search about COVID-19 symptoms, policies, and vaccines, which generates an enormous amount of data about peoples fears, symptoms, concerns, and demand for information and could be exceptionally valuable to policymakers.

About the study

In the present study, researchers investigated if the Google search data could be used to anticipate the rise in COVID-19 cases. The team evaluated the socioeconomic impact of containment policies and examined the demand for information regarding vaccines and misinformation.

Search interest data from 207 countries and territories were queried from September 2018 to December 2021. Sixty-eight search terms about COVID-19 symptoms, socioeconomic consequences, mental health, and vaccines were queried. A correlation coefficient was computed between search interest and COVID-19 cases for each country using a seven-day moving average of cases and search interests. The impact of containment policies (business or school closures, movement restrictions, social distancing, etc.) on search interest was evaluated.

The team assessed how the impact of containment policies varied with the restrictiveness of the policies, income levels, and the level of economic support from governments. Vaccination data on a daily basis was retrieved from Our World in Data. Search interests were queried for terms across general vaccination terms, safety and side effects of vaccines, appointments, and misinformation. Finally, a case study of the United States (US) at a subnational level was conducted to analyze vaccination and search interests.

Results

The authors observed that search interest for COVID-19 symptoms strongly correlated with and preceding COVID-19 cases. In 2021, the median correlation was high but lower than in 2022 for search interest in terms like loss of smell or taste, indicating their relevance and usefulness even late in the pandemic. Search terms like coronavirus and how to treat coronavirus were negatively correlated with COVID-19 cases in 2020 across many countries but positively correlated in 2021.

The researchers believed that global news drove search interests in 2020, whereas personal experience about COVID-19 and country-specific information drove 2021 search interests. Fever and pneumonia had lower mean and median correlation values than COVID-19-specific terms. A negative optimal lag was found across many countries, implying that search interest trends preceded the trends in recorded/observed cases. Interest in searching for loss of smell was less predictive of cases with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, while interests in COVID-19 symptoms were predictive.

Containment measures increased the search interests for phrases like mental health, unemployment, and physical distancing while search interests for family and relationship planning terms decreased. In countries where economic support from the government was greater, higher searchers were recorded for unemployment and debt-related terms and lower search interests for suicide and anxiety.

Moreover, search interests for words like lonely, boredom, social isolation, and panic were significantly higher. In countries with more restrictive measures, search interests for keywords related to unemployment and mental health were higher, and lower interests were noted for wedding and divorce. In lower-income countries, search interests were lower for unemployment, panic, social distancing, or boredom-related terms but higher for insomnia, suicide, anxiety attacks, and family or relationship planning terms.

Higher-income countries exhibited a higher correlation between vaccination rate and interest in searching for vaccine appointments or reactions and vaccines. Search interests for misinformation-related terms were less correlated with the vaccination rate. Across the US, search interests for words like COVID-19 vaccine, vaccine appointment, safety, and side effects of COVID-19 were strongly correlated with vaccination rates.

In contrast, interest in Ivermectin was negatively correlated with the vaccination rate. Search interests for ivermectin, a popular misinformation term, were higher in states with lower vaccination rates. At the same time, other misinformation terms like COVID-19 infertility, vaccine microchip, and vaccine mercury, among others, were equally popular across states with high and low vaccination rates.

Conclusions

The present study demonstrated that search data from Google could be helpful in monitoring and understanding the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, search interests in symptoms specific to COVID-19 were strongly correlated with COVID-19 cases with a lag of 12 days in 2020 and two to six days in 2021, implying that search trends tend to precede observed COVID-19 cases.

These (correlation) results were equally predictive of new COVID-19 cases in high- and low-income countries. To conclude, Google search data could help monitor the spread and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, albeit with a few limitations, including that global rather than country-specific dynamics could influence search interests, which might be an imperfect proxy for the situation on the ground.

*Important notice

Research Square publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Thought Leaders Vicki Chan MD Ophthalmologist

In this interview, News-Medical talks to Vicki Chan MD about her background in ophthalmology and how the physicians social media success has helped contribute to a new era of online healthcare education.

Please can you introduce yourself, and tell us about your background in medicine and your career as an ophthalmologist?

My name is Vicki Chan and I am an ophthalmologist/glaucoma specialist in Southern California. I have always wanted to be a doctor, (I credit that to my father who is an anesthesiologist. I remember hanging out with him in the doctor's lounge when I was young) so much so I was part of the straight Bacc/MD program at USC (University of Southern California). It was one of the few programs that allowed students to apply out, so I took the opportunity to head east and attend Johns Hopkins for medical school and came back home to UCLA for residency and fellowship.

Since graduation, I've had a variety of jobs - at a university, as part of private practice, and currently working per diem in a managed care system. I love what I do, but also love the flexibility to support/spend time with my family as well as do the things I love - like online marketing and building a presence on social media to educate, inspire, and humanize the medical journey.

The role of an ophthalmologist is to treat and prevent disorders and diseases of the eye. Why did you choose to specialize in ophthalmology, and what is your favorite part of working within this field of healthcare?

To be completely honest, ophthalmology was not on my radar when I started medical school. My father is an anesthesiologist and the stories he would tell me about the surgeons make me believe that I could "never" be a surgeon - I thought I would go into cardiology. But when I rotated through surgery during my 3rd year in medical school, I fell in love with it - I loved the idea of working with my hands and "fixing" problems in real-time. However, I also enjoyed connecting and working with patients in the clinical setting as well.

So I began a search for a specialty that would give me a bit of both surgery/procedures and medicine/clinical care. My list was short (included specialties like ophtho, ENT, and ER), and I quickly set up sub-Is so I could experience them for myself. When I hit the ophthalmology department, I fell in love. The attendings were so brilliant - immersed in cutting-edge research and floating between clinic and ORs. And the best part? Many had families and lives outside of medicine! (Because one of the perks of ophthalmology is that there are few life-threatening emergencies, so their schedules were busy but quite flexible).

Image Credit: Buravleva stock/Shutterstock.com

In addition to your work in the medical field, your TikTok account currently sits at over 400 thousand followers, with over 20 million combined likes. What is the backstory behind posting your first TikTok, and what message surrounding healthcare do you hope to share through your videos?

I started posting on Tiktok on 11/2019, and it really started off as something just for fun (many of my early videos were silly dancing ones with my kids). But I quickly realized how many people were on the app - looking for encouragement (many people connected with stories from when I was still in school or meeting my husband), inspiration (some of my most popular videos were about my insecurities and/or obstacles I had to face during training and as physician/mother), and information (when the pandemic hit, people seemed to appreciate my videos about masking and COVID).

I really want people to realize that doctors are humans too - we go through difficulties, have struggles, and want this pandemic to end too. I also want young students and doctors to know that there IS life outside of medicine. Being a physician is a true calling, but it's not a be-all end-all (if you don't want it to be).

As well as posting content about your career as an ophthalmologist, you often post videos to your social media that separate medical truths from myths. Why is it important for specialists to call out medical misinformation online?

Like most of us in medicine, I wanted to become a doctor to help others. I spend time in the clinic with patients, answering questions and educating them about disease processes and treatment options. But, times are changing, and whether we like it or not, more and more people are getting their information online.

When the pandemic hit, I was shocked to see how much misinformation was online and on social media. I realized that if doctors and healthcare professionals didn't step to fight this misinformation and/or replace it with accurate information, who would? So I began leveraging my social media platforms to do just that.

Image Credit: valiantsin suprunovich/Shutterstock.com

In addition to correcting medical untruths, your content also focuses on your own specialization as an ophthalmologist. What is one misconception around ophthalmology that you hope to clarify through your TikTok?

I think one of the main things people get confused about are the different types of doctors and eye care professionals out there. As an ophthalmologist, I completed medical school, hold a medical degree, and treat diseases of the eyes with medications, procedures, and surgeries. There are other types of eye care specialists who have their own important roles in eye care - like optometrists to measure glasses/contact lenses and do eye screenings and opticians who help fit glasses.

How can individuals stay well-informed about medical knowledge and advancements? What red flags should people be aware of when seeking medical information online, especially when on social media?

Just like you would choose your own personal doctor carefully, I would choose who you follow and where you get information online wisely as well. Make sure what you are reading is up to date/current (science and situations are constantly evolving), from a trusted source (beware anonymous accounts or highly biased sites), and backed by evidence (can you other sources that back up the information?).

TikTok for Doctors is a guide you created for physicians wanting to grow their social media channels. In terms of the online medical community, what do you believe the benefits are of having medical professionals share their stories on social media?

I think having medical professionals share their stories online is extremely important. To make the most impact, we must go where people are. We can only help 1 patient at a time in our clinics, but online and on social media, we have the opportunity to help so many more. As I mentioned above, there is so much misinformation out there, we must meet it head-on. Moreover, in this climate of so much uncertainty and doubt, showing our human sides can help build connections and trust between healthcare professionals and patients.

With the rise in popularity of social media platforms like TikTok, how do you imagine the future of online healthcare education to evolve going forwards?

I definitely have seen the younger generation of residents and medical students rocking this area over the past 5 years or so. My generation is slowly catching up - I think the pandemic really gave some of us a big push - to become more comfortable educating and communicating virtually. TikTok has definitely made it clear that video content is here to stay - and whether a doctor's goal is to educate, build a brand, or market his/her practice - we need to embrace it.

You promote a healthy work-life balance between your career as an ophthalmologist and entrepreneur and your personal life. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen many healthcare professionals work even longer hours than pre-pandemic, and this has proved to be taxing on the mental and physical health of many. How do you personally balance your career as a physician with your home life, and why is it important to prioritize this balance?

I am fortunate that I am in a specialty that allows for flexibility (there are rarely any life-threatening emergencies in ophthalmology), so I am able to schedule my clinics and can avoid working late or on weekends if I have other plans. I am also lucky that my husband and I had our outside businesses in place pre-pandemic (I do direct sales and online marketing; he does real estate and online courses. We also have various investments.) so that when COVID got really bad, we could step back from medicine when we needed/had to (like when my son got COVID).

While I love being a doctor, I did not love it 24-7, nor did I love the feeling of HAVING to go to work. This was how I felt the first 5 years after graduation when I felt like my whole identity and security was wrapped up in being a full-time, productive physician. I honestly don't think anybody enjoys anything that they feel forced to do - or even worse, trapped in. Eventually, I hit a breaking point (a story for another time) and realized that medicine is "just" a job - not who I truly was (I'm a mom, wife, friend, educator, supporter, and so much more!). Being able to take that step back, build alternate sources of income, and embrace/balance my family, my personal life, and my interests, I believe has made me enjoy medicine even more!

Image Credit: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock.com

What advice would you give to people interested in pursuing a career in the medical field?

I would say, "Go for it!" Being able to help others with their health is truly a privilege, and I am so happy I chose this path myself.

Where can readers find more information?

https://www.instagram.com/vickichanmd/

https://www.tiktok.com/@vickichanmd/

About Dr. Vicki Chan

I currently work as an independent contractor at a large managed care facility in Southern California, seeing and treating general ophthalmology and glaucoma patients. I also do online marketing for various companies/organizations and have a passion for social media communication and education, especially combating medical misinformation.

I am currently working with multiple public health organizations to help disseminate accurate COVID-19 and vaccine information, including the United Nations/#TeamHalo, #ThisIsOurShot, and the Public Goods Project.
In a recent study posted to the Research Square* preprint server, researchers described coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection in technology-dependent children.

Technology-dependent children are defined as children who need a medical device to compensate for the loss of an essential bodily function and require ongoing nursing care to evade further disability or mortality. Various studies have reported that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected children with technology-dependence (TD) are at a higher risk of COVID-19 severity or related hospitalization.

Study: SARS-CoV-2 infection in technology-dependent children: a multicenter case series. Image Credit: Jsnow my world / Shutterstock

About the study

In the present study, the researchers characterized the clinical course and outcomes in TD children who are hospitalized due to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The team took into account 17 pediatric hospitals across Canada, Iran, and Costa Rica that had children aged up to 17 years admitted between 1 February 2020 and 31 May 2021 with a SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis. The team defined TD as the baseline requirement for either one or more of the following: (1) tube feeds; (2) supplemental oxygen; (3) tracheostomy; (4) non-invasive ventilation (NIV) with either bilevel or continuous airway pressure; (5) mechanical ventilation (MV); or (6) intravenous nutrition before admission.

The team also collected demographic data, hospital admission reasons, comorbidities including any type of TD, clinical courses including interventions for SARS-CoV-2 infection, and outcomes. For example, reasons for admission could include COVID-19 admission due to a non-COVID-19 indication while COVID-19 delayed the admission, or COVID-19 diagnosis, which did not lead to hospital admission.

Results

The study results showed that a total of 334 children were hospitalized due to COVID-19, while 23 were hospitalized for an indication other COVID-19, and 334 had an incidental COVID-19 infection. Approximately 42 children reported TD, among which 22 were dependent only on a feeding tube, nine needed only supplemental oxygen, three needed feeder tubes as well as supplemental oxygen, two had a tracheostomy but did not require ventilation, four required non-invasive ventilation, and two were mechanically ventilated before hospitalization.

Among the 42 TD children, three reported incidental SARS-CoV-2 infection. Two of the children having end-stage underlying conditions succumbed due to respiratory failure on the second day of hospitalization after being shifted to comfort care. For the rest of the 37 TD cases, 43% needed respiratory support higher than that of baseline due to COVID-19 while 5% did not. Out of the 43% that required support, 16% needed only supplemental oxygen, 22% needed new NIV, and 5% required new MV.

Conclusion

The study findings showed that children with TD are at a significantly higher risk of COVID-19 hospitalization. However, children who were not suffering from end-stage chronic conditions were discharged from the hospital. Therefore, the researchers believe that the medical community should recognize the susceptibility of TD individuals and ensure timely administration of COVID-19 vaccination among this population.

*Important notice

Research Square publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Hospital waste varies from site to site and the biggest challenge is to dispose of this wide range of waste streams using one solution. Incineration is still the preferred way to process Type I to Type IV waste without endangering the health of patients, staff or anyone else coming into contact with them.

Hospital waste types suitable for incineration

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Biohazards & Sharps

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Image Credit: Inciner8 Limited

Infectious waste: is waste contaminated with blood and bodily fluids (e.g. from discarded biopsy samples), bacteria and stocks of infectious agents from laboratory work (e.g. waste from autopsies and infected animals from laboratories), or waste from patients in isolation wards and the equipment used (e.g. swabs, bandages and disposable medical devices);

Pathological waste: human tissues, organs or fluids, body parts and contaminated consumables.

Sharps: syringes, needles, disposable scalpels and blades, etc.;

Image Credit: Inciner8 Limited

Chemicals: for example solvents used for laboratory preparations, disinfectants, and heavy metals contained in medical devices (e.g. mercury in broken thermometers) and batteries;

Pharmaceuticals: expired, unused and contaminated drugs and vaccines.

Genotoxicwaste: highly hazardous, mutagenic, teratogenic1 or carcinogenic, such as cytotoxic drugs used in cancer treatment and their metabolites.

Radioactive waste: such as products contaminated by radionuclides including radioactive diagnostic material or radiotherapeutic materials; and

Non-hazardous or general waste: waste that does not pose any particular biological, chemical, radioactive or physical hazard.

Years of experience

With decades of knowledge in this sector, our hospital range of medical incinerators are designed to cater for the specialized requirements of large hospitals and medical centers during the internal waste management processes.

Why choose a medical incinerator from Inciner8?

Inciner8 have provided solutions to hospitals and large health clinics around the globe for years - we understand the importance of total destruction at source - which is why our medical units reach high temperatures during the 2 second retention time. Our UK incinerator manufacturing facility ensures quality and performance are at the forefront of all our designs. We manufacture all our systems in the UK.

Where are our incinerators are being used?

You will see our range of medical incinerators located in hospitals and health clinics across the globe. We have installations from Iceland to New Zealand. Most recently we have built and supplied 26 medical incinerators to the Egyptian Army for use in military hospitals across Egypt. We are also in the process of installing 20+ medical units across the whole South Pacific region.

Image Credit: Inciner8 Limited

Medical waste streams
Hong Kong: 430 COVID-19 cases reported

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating 430 additional COVID-19 cases, of which 222 were detected by nucleic acid tests and 208 were identified via rapid antigen tests.

Among the new cases, 15 are imported while the rest are locally infected.



Since the onset of the fifth wave of the epidemic, 1,190,437 people have contracted the virus, involving 9,069 deaths.



Meanwhile, the Government made a restriction-testing declaration to cover Hong Yam House of On Yam Estate in Kwai Chung, requiring people in the restricted area to undergo compulsory testing before the specified deadline.



As there were positive sewage test results with relatively high viral loads in several areas of Islands District, Wong Tai Sin and Kwun Tong, the Housing Department and the respective district offices will distribute COVID-19 rapid test kits to relevant residents as well as cleaning workers and property management staff working there.



For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Government's dedicated webpage.

This story has been published on: 2022-04-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov (R) meets with the visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe (L) in Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan on April 26, 2022. (mod.gov.cn/Photo by Li Xiaowei)

ASHKHABAD, April 26 -- Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov met with the visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe in Ashkhabad, capital of Turkmenistan on Tuesday.

Serdar Berdimuhamedov said that Turkmenistan attaches great importance to relations with China and the two countries have carried out high-level cooperation in politics, diplomacy, trade, culture, humanities and other fields and established the Turkmenistan-China strategic partnership. China is one of Turkmenistan's largest trading partners. There are more than 1,400 Turkmen students studying in China, and many universities in Turkmenistan have set up Chinese majors. It is hoped that the two militaries will strengthen practical cooperation in equipment technology and personnel training and jointly push for new development of Turkmenistan-China relations.

General Wei Fenghe said that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China-Turkmenistan relations have achieved leapfrog development and are currently in the best period in history. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties, China stands ready to work with Turkmenistan to build an even closer China-Turkmenistan community with a shared future. China firmly supports Turkmenistan's permanent neutral status, supports Turkmenistan's pursuit of a development path suited to its national conditions, and firmly opposes external interference in Turkmenistan's internal affairs.

General Wei Fenghe pointed out that in recent years, the military-to-military relations between the two countries have been developing steadily and the pragmatic cooperation has been deepening day by day. The Chinese military is willing to further expand cooperation areas with Turkmenistan, enhance the cooperation effectiveness and strive to elevate China-Turkmenistan military relations to a higher level.

On the same day, Turkmenistan's Defense Minister Begench Gundogdyev held a welcome ceremony for General Wei Fenghe and had a formal talk with him. The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on the international and regional security situation, as well as the issues of the Ukraine and Afghanistan. Both sides agreed to maintain strategic communication, improve personnel training and strengthen cooperation in counter-terrorism and equipment technology.

Turkmen Defense Minister Begench Gundogdyev (L) holds a welcome ceremony for the visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe (R) prior to their talks. Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe holds formal talks with Turkmen Defense Minister Begench Gundogdyev in Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan on April 26, 2022. (mod.gov.cn/Photo by Li Xiaowei)

Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe (3rd R), who is paying visit to Turkmenistan, holds formal talks with Turkmen Defense Minister Begench Gundogdyev (3rd L) in Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan on April 26, 2022. (mod.gov.cn/Photo by Li Xiaowei)
(Newser)  South Korea's second-largest city will reportedly play host to the worlds first "floating city." The major port city of Busan has partnered with the United Nations' Human Settlements Program and sustainable design startup Oceanix to develop a 15.5-acre floating city made up of three connected platforms dedicated to housing, public spaces, and research and development, NBC News reports. And the "zero-waste" city will be entirely sustainable, built with lightweight materials like timber and bamboo and powered by solar panels erected on roofs and afloat on the sea, per Insider. All water used will be treated and recycled, CNBC reports, and there will be no traditional cars allowed.

"We live in a time when we cannot continue building cities the way New York or Nairobi were built," UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said in 2019, as the UN announced its effort to develop floating cities in response to climate change. "We must build cities knowing that they will be on the front lines of climate-related risksfrom rising sea levels to storms." In a program for Tuesday's Second UN Roundtable on Sustainable Floating Cities in New York, the UN noted "floating cities are buoyant and therefore flood-proof" and "give us a clean slate to design climate-neutral cities from the start," per Insider.

Busan's floating North Port city is expected to house 12,000 people at first, but may be expanded to eventually house 100,000, per CNBC. Platforms will include harvesting cages for seafood, as well as spaces for urban agriculture. They're to be coated in a buoyant material and anchored to the ocean floor with removable pile mooringswhich provides an interesting perk. Per Insider, the UN notes floating cities like Busan's could be towed to areas of need during humanitarian crises. Oceanixto begin at least two years of construction next yearexpects the project to cost $10,000 per square meter, or about $627 million, with costs for future models falling over time, per NBC. (Read more floating city stories.)
(Newser)  Police in Hueytown, Alabama say an Arby's manager has been charged with assault over an incident that left a customer with second-degree burns "covering a large potion of her body." In a Facebook post, police said officers called to the scene "determined that an employee threw hot grease on a customer in the drive-thru." Shea Denise Peoples, 50, was arrested after the Saturday afternoon incident, NBC reports. Police say the victim, a woman in her 30s, is still in the hospital recovering from burns to her neck, left arm, and back. Two children who were in the car with her were not harmed.

Hueytown Police Chief Mike Yarbrough says the incident started with a verbal dispute over service at the restaurant. "To our knowledge, these women have never met, dont know each other, Yarbrough tells AL.com. "Words were exchanged, and it went downhill." The chief says the manager apparently walked away from the drive-thru window and returned with the grease. In a statement, the fast-food chain described the manager's alleged actions as "reprehensible" and said she was immediately fired. (Read more Alabama stories.)
(Newser)  Deputies protecting Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz had to pull him aside and surround him Tuesday after a member of a jury pool mouthed possible threats toward him and caused others to become "excited," leading them to fear a potential brawl, officials said. A 70-member pool of potential jurors was filing into the courtroom and taking their seats when one of the first to enter, a man in his 30s, began "mouthing expletives" toward Cruz, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer said. Bailiffs moved in quickly to remove the man, who shook his head vigorously and muttered "that's horrible" repeatedly as he walked past reporters seated toward the back of the courtroom, the AP reports.

At this point, several other jurors became excited and were saying something that could not be heard, Scherer said. The first man then started looking back toward Cruz. The half-dozen armed deputies who always stand just behind Cruz then grabbed and surrounded him, fearing that the first juror was about to run toward them and would be joined by others. "The sheriffs office observed all of that and determined they needed to protect Mr. Cruz," Scherer said. "One instigates and then there are many followers," explained Broward Sheriff's Capt. Osvaldo Tianga, the head of courthouse security.

Cruz, 23, is facing a possible death sentence for murdering 17 people14 students and three staff membersat Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. He pleaded guilty in October. A 12-member, eight-alternate jury is being selected in a two-month, three-step process to decide whether he receives a death sentence or life in prison without parole. One panel of 60 had to be dismissed on April 12 after eight became obviously emotional upon seeing Cruz, possibly influencing the others.

On Monday, Scherer announced she was dismissing 250 potential jurors who had passed initial screening because of a possible error she made and starting the selection process over. After Tuesday's incident, the judge dismissed the entire panel of 70 potential jurors. She said they became "belligerent" as they waited for the elevator to take them back to the lobby and "got mouthy" toward deputies. Scherer said deputies followed the group out of the courthouse to make sure they didn't say anything to prospective jurors waiting to be brought to her courtroom.

(Read more Nikolas Cruz stories.)
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US Says It Will Move 'Heaven and Earth' to Supply Ukraine

Kyiv tears down Soviet-era monument to 'friendship' with Russia
(Newser)  Authorities in Iran have made arrests after the "horrible" killing Sunday of an endangered brown bear by villagers in Ardabil province, per the BBC. State news agencies reported that villagers chased the bear, beat it, and trapped it with a tractor, fracturing the animal's leg and pelvis and damaging its spine. Although wildlife officers arrived and took the bear to a clinic, the animal succumbed to its injuries. The Daily Mail, which posted disturbing video and photographs from the scene, sought comment from Alan Knight of International Animal Rescue. "It is heartbreaking to think of the agony suffered by this poor bear," he said. "Yes, the conflict between humans and wildlife is a serious problem, but there is no excuse for dealing with it by brutally torturing an animal to death."

According to Newsweek, Iran's brown bears are distributed in mountainous northern and western regions, but they're extremely threatened due to habitat loss from agriculture, logging, and road construction, among other things. Interactions with the bearswhich typically max out at less than 500 poundsand ambushes against livestock "have left locals with a less than sympathetic attitude towards the bears," per the magazine. A 2018 study showed there may be as few as 40 brown bears still alive in Iran.

The BBC concludes its report with another recent human-wildlife encounter in Iran, when "an endangered Persian leopard was shot dead after attacking and injuring a policeman" in Ghaemshahr, north of Tehran. Bizarre video shows the large cat pacing on the terrace of a bank building before it jumps down onto the street below. No video of the attack itself has emerged, and authorities haven't yet determined if the leopard came from the wild or escaped from illegal captivity. (Read more brown bear stories.)
(Newser)  An arrest has been made in the death of Illiana "Lily" Peters, and Police Chief Matthew Kelm said Tuesday the juvenile suspect "was not a stranger, the suspect was known to the victim." The 10-year-old Wisconsin girl went missing Sunday night during the brief trip home from her aunt's house in Chippewa Falls; a bike thought to be Lily's was found near a walking trail, and her body was found near that same trail Monday morning. CNN reports Kelm did not detail the relationship between Lily and the unnamed suspect, nor did he disclose the suspect's age or sex.

While "there is still much work to be done," Kelm did say that the more than 200 tips his department received were "critical to solving this case." The AP reports police executed a search warrant at an address located in the block where Lily went to visit her aunt. "We do not believe there is any danger to the community at this time," Kelm added. FOX9 has a map showing Lily's home and her aunt's home, as well as the location where her body was found. The two homes are about a quarter-mile apart, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "While nothing will bring Lily Peters back or change what happened, we are very grateful to be able to deliver this news for the family and for the community," Kelm said. (Read our initial report on Lily's disappearance.)
(Newser)  Two antennas that carried Russian radio broadcasts were destroyed in Transnistria, a sliver breakaway region of Moldova bordering southwestern Ukraine and controlled by pro-Russian separatists, on Tuesday. A day earlier, the region's state security ministry in Tiraspol was attacked with grenades, per the Guardian. While this might appear to be the work of anti-Russian groups, there is now talk of a false-flag operation by Russia. Here's what we know:



A 'concerned' Russia: Last week, a Russian commander said seizing control of southern Ukraine would improve access to Transnistria, also known as Transdniestria, where he alleged "the Russian-speaking population is being oppressed." And on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov and Russia's deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko both said Moscow was "concerned" by the string of explosions.

Blame on Ukraine: "The traces of these attacks lead to Ukraine," said Transnistria President Vadim Krasnoselsky, per Reuters. The leader of the pro-Russia republic in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, urged Moscow to "take into account what is happening in Transnistria" when planning its military's next moves, per the Guardian. While Rudenko said Russia "would like to avoid" drawing Transnistria into the ongoing conflict, he would not rule out that scenario.

"The traces of these attacks lead to Ukraine," said Transnistria President Vadim Krasnoselsky, per Reuters. The leader of the pro-Russia republic in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, urged Moscow to "take into account what is happening in Transnistria" when planning its military's next moves, per the Guardian. While Rudenko said Russia "would like to avoid" drawing Transnistria into the ongoing conflict, he would not rule out that scenario. Blame on Russia: Yet officials in Ukraine and Moldova blamed Russia. Ukraine's defense ministry called it a "planned provocation by the Russian special services," per Al Jazeera. Days after angering Russian officials by outlawing pro-war signs, Moldova President Maia Sandu added "these escalation attempts stem from factions within the Transdniestrian region that are pro-war forces and interested in destabilising the situation in the region," per Reuters.

Moldova prepares: Sandu said the Moldovan security council had recommended preparing for combat readiness and increasing border patrols, per Reuters. Meanwhile, Transnistrian officials announced the installation of military checkpoints at the entrances to cities and raised its terrorist threat level to red, increasing concerns of a possible escalation.

Sandu said the Moldovan security council had recommended preparing for combat readiness and increasing border patrols, per Reuters. Meanwhile, Transnistrian officials announced the installation of military checkpoints at the entrances to cities and raised its terrorist threat level to red, increasing concerns of a possible escalation. Deep ties: The region is home to 7,500 Transnistrian troops, 1,500 Russian troops, and a large arms depot. Though some experts believe there is little incentive for regional officials to join the war, Transnistria "has little leverage to refuse" Russian demands "as it remains economically dependent on Russia, including for free gas," per Al Jazeera.

The region is home to 7,500 Transnistrian troops, 1,500 Russian troops, and a large arms depot. Though some experts believe there is little incentive for regional officials to join the war, Transnistria "has little leverage to refuse" Russian demands "as it remains economically dependent on Russia, including for free gas," per Al Jazeera. Early target: Putin may have been eyeing Transnistria all along. A week into the war in Ukraine, he and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko were pictured next to a map "that appeared to indicate Transnistria as a potential target," per Al Jazeera. Though Belarusian officials later claimed it was a mistake, Ukraine now "fears the region could be used as a launch pad for new attacks," per Reuters.

Potential decoy: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested Tuesday that this effort "to destabilize the situation in the region" was punishment for Moldova's support of Kyiv, per Reuters. However, Moldova expert Bob Deen of the Clingendael Institute think tank tells the Guardian that there may be more to it. For instance, Moscow may be trying to push Ukraine's forces out of Donbas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested Tuesday that this effort "to destabilize the situation in the region" was punishment for Moldova's support of Kyiv, per Reuters. However, Moldova expert Bob Deen of the Clingendael Institute think tank tells the Guardian that there may be more to it. For instance, Moscow may be trying to push Ukraine's forces out of Donbas. Washington observes: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that Washington would investigate the cause of the explosions, per Reuters, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged "all concerned to refrain from any statements or actions that could escalate tensions," according to a spokesperson.

(Read more Moldova stories.)
(Newser)  During the 201617 school year, Christie Payne was promoted to cafeteria manager at a school in Chilton County, Alabama. She still works in that position today, but according to AL.com, someone in the district payroll department recently noticed a longstanding error: When Payne was promoted, she was wrongly credited with years of experience as an assistant, which put her in a higher pay bracket. As a result, she has been overpaid exactly $23,460.40 in the past six years, and the district wants every penny back.

An exasperated Payne shared the letter she received from Chilton County Schools on Facebook, along with the plea "Anyone have the answer?" It states she has one week to file an objection or agree to one of three options: She can repay it in a lump sum, have $326 deducted from every paycheck for six years, or make an annual payment for six years. If she fails to comply, she will be assessed an additional monthly penalty of $254. Payne insists its not her fault. I called payroll when I received the letter. They acted like I did it, she told AL.com. I work in the lunchroom. I only know about food and lunchroom duties. I dont know anything about the payroll department.

Apparently, Payne is not alone. AL.com separately reports a Chilton County Schools teacher received a similar letter a few days later, this one demanding almost $33,000 in overpayments made since she was hired in 2018; she had worked as a school nurse for the 12 years prior. While he would not comment on specific personnel matters, Chilton Superintendent Jason Griffin said the district is required by law to recoup the overpayments. Tracy LeSieur of the Alabama Education Associationwhich is arranging lawyers for the two overpaid employeessuggested these are highly rare cases, calling them "the first two of this type of overpayment that Ive worked with." (Read more Alabama stories.)
(Newser)  Myanmar's former elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday for corruption, in just one of many cases against the 76-year-old Nobel laureate, who was ousted from power by the military in a February 2021 coup. Human rights groups believe the junta that deposed her aims to keep her from running in future elections. A person sent to prison after a conviction is forbidden from holding high office or becoming a lawmaker under the constitution. She has already been sentenced to six years in prison for charges including incitement and violating coronavirus restrictions.

She is charged with at least another 18 offenses, which carry a combined term of almost 190 years, per Reuters. This was the first of 11 corruption cases, a source tells the outlet. It stemmed from accusations that Suu Kyi accepted $600,000 in gold and cash from protege-turned-accuser, former chief minister of the city of Yangon, Phyo Min Thein. Suu Kyi denied the charges and called the allegations "absurd." The judge in the capital Naypyidaw gave no explanation of the verdict, which was issued within moments of the court convening behind closed doors, per Reuters.

It's unclear if Suu Kyi will now be transferred to prison. After previous convictions, the junta chief Min Aung Hlaing allowed her to remain in an undisclosed location where she has been held since her arrest. She is thought to be among more than 10,000 people in detention in Myanmar, alongside members of her National League for Democracy party and military opponents, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, per the Guardian. There have also been reports of mass killings and torture, according to the UN. (Read more Myanmar stories.)
(Newser)  Over the past few weeks, the "People's Convoy" of protesters pushing back against COVID mandates has been making its way back from Washington, DC to California. And on Friday it found itself in Oakland, though the welcoming committee there likely wasn't what drivers expected. Per the Sacramento Bee, counterdemonstrators showed up to greet the big rigs and other vehicles, with some locals hurling eggs at them as they cruised down the street. SFGate notes that some trucks with their windows rolled down ended up with some of the mess inside their vehicles. A video shows the truckers blaring their horns in one neighborhood, with some of the residents gathered on the sidewalk shouting (sometimes profanely) and throwing eggs that someone had purchased at a nearby Safeway.

"We're fighting for your freedoms, too," one of the convoy participants yelled back at the irritated bystanders. One shouted back to the drivers: "Get out of our town!," per the Washington Post. SFGate notes that nearly all major COVID restrictions have been lifted in the weeks since the convoys in the US and abroad started, which has led the drivers to switch their grievances to "other conservative causes." One of the objects of their ire on Friday: State Assembly member Buffy Wicks, a Bay Area Democrat who recently proposed a bill advocating for vaccine mandates, as well as one that would keep coroners from investigating stillbirths and other lost pregnancies.

The convoy made its way to the street outside her home, honking their horns and demanding she come out, per the Mercury News. The assemblywoman "will not indulge any attempts to influence her legislative work through harassment and intimidation tacticsespecially when it's directed at her home and her family," her spokesperson told the paper. Local police and the California Highway Patrol told local media that no arrests were made or citations issued, per the Post. The convoy was reportedly next headed toward Sacramento. (Read more convoy stories.)
(Newser)  Russia says it remains a reliable energy supplierdespite its decision to cut off natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, a move that prompted EU chief Ursula von der Leyen to denounce Russia's "unreliability" on this front, reports the BBC. It's not the only word being thrown around on Wednesday: "Blackmail" is another being used by both Poland and Bulgaria, who refused Moscow's demand to pay in rubles instead of dollars or euros. Politico reports Von der Leyen used the same word Wednesday, swinging at Russia for using gas "as an instrument of blackmail." Moscow resisted the characterization. "This is not blackmail," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday, reports CNN.

This is the first time Russia has cut off any country's gas supply since it launched its invasion of Ukraine. Bulgaria gets 90% of its gas from state-controlled Russian giant Gazprom; 53% of Poland's gas imports were from Gazprom in the first quarter of the year. Some thoughts on the impact of the move:



Bulgaria's energy minister says it can keep supplying residents for at least one month and that no restrictions on gas consumption would be put in place at the moment. It is looking for alternative sources, such as from Azerbaijan, reports the AP.

Poland has been making moves for at least a decade to reduce its dependence on Russia, among them the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal that can receive imports from suppliers like the US and Qatar; by year's end a new pipeline supplying gas from Norway will be up and running.

Further, Poland's storage facilities are nearly 80% full; that's well ahead of what is typical right now in Europe.

The New York Times cites analysts who feel the move is less a major problem right now and more of a warning, as it "increases the risk of other early terminations for other European contracts," per a Jefferies analyst.

MarketWatch echoes that, citing analysts who say all is manageable for now, but the situation would quickly turn should the stoppage be extended to Germany.

The timing is fortuitous, the Times adds, in that the start of the warmer months means gas consumption will naturally decrease.

Speaking of timing, a source tells Bloomberg that four European gas buyers have moved forward with paying in rubles per Russia's demands, and that should others decline to do so, the next round of stoppages would likely not occur until the next payment due date, which is in the second half of May.

(Read more Russia stories.)
(Newser)  The Biden administration has just seen its highest-profile release of an American deemed wrongly detained abroadcourtesy of Russia. Russia and the US carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange on Wednesday, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in Connecticut, per the AP. Russia released Trevor Reed, a former Marine from Texas who was arrested in 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted a police officer while being driven to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. Reed was sentenced to nine years in prison, though his family has maintained his innocence and the US government described him as unjustly detained.

The US agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the US after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the US. Russia had sought his return for years while also rejecting entreaties to release Reed, who was nearing his 1,000th day in custody and whose health had recently been worsening, according to his family. A senior US official described Reed's case as one of "utmost priority" for the administration. The official noted Yaroshenko, whose sentence has now been commuted, had already served the majority of his sentence. "It was a difficult decision but one that we thought was worth it," the official said.

The Russian foreign ministry said the exchange was "a result of a long negotiation process." The two prisoners were swapped in an unnamed European country. In the hours before the exchange occurred, commercial flight trackers identified a plane belonging to Russia's federal security service as flying to Ankara, Turkey. Reed's parents scored a rare private meeting with President Biden and administration officials last month. In a statement, his family thanked Biden "for making the decision to bring Trevor home" and Bill Richardson, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, whom the family said traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reed's release. (Read more prisoner exchange stories.)
(Newser)  A local sheriff's deputy was in the right place at the right time when an apartment building in Orlando, Fla., went up in flames over the weekend. Per WKMG, William Puzynski of the Orange County Sheriff's Office was on patrol around 4am Saturday when a call was radioed in about a nearby two-alarm fire. Puzynski rushed over to the Isles at East Millenia complex, where the structure was already caught in a raging inferno. People were trapped inside their apartments, as well as on their balconies. "It was chaos everywhere," he says.

Amid all the other din, however, Puzynski heard something especially distressing: the cries of a baby. When he looked up, he could see a woman (who turned out to be the baby's mother) holding the wailing 1-year-old girl on a third-floor balcony. "At that moment I knew I had to save the baby," he says. CBS Miami and Facebook have video of the rescue, shot by Puzynski's own bodycam, attached to a vest he'd torn off and dropped to the sidewalk so he could scale the building. Footage shows Puzynski reaching up to take the baby after climbing high enough, then handing her down to other first responders.

Firefighters were able to get everyone else out of the building, including the baby's mom and grandmother, per CBS Miami. The Post notes that a dozen apartments were damaged, with more than 30 residents displaced. There were said to be no fatalities, though three people suffered minor injuries, including two firefighters and a child. One family also reported their pets had perished in the fire. "Some nights you go home, and you don't really know if you've made a difference, but in situations like this you feel it," Puzynski tells WKMG, adding that the baby's mother found him later to thank him and give him a hug for his efforts. The sheriff's office tells People the baby is "doing well." (Read more uplifting news stories.)
(Newser)  Florida's government has passed a law repealing the self-governing district Disney has had in the state for 55 yearsbut since the two-page law fails to address some very complicated issues, the Reedy Creek Improvement District says business will continue as usual for now. Reedy Creek has told investors that it believes the move to dissolve the district is illegal because the 1967 law that created the district included a pledge from the state that the agreement would not be changed before Reedy Creek's debt to bondholders, which currently stands at more than $1 billion, had been fully paid, the Miami Herald reports.

In a statement last week, Reedy Creek quoted the statute as saying Florida pledges "it will not limit or alter the rights of the District" until "all such bonds together with interest thereon ....are fully met and discharged." The district said that in light of the "pledge to the District's bondholders, Reedy Creek expects to explore its options while continuing its present operations, including levying and collecting its ad valorem taxes and collecting its utility revenues," per CNN.

At Bloomberg Tax, attorney Jacob Schumer describes unwinding the district as a "contractual impossibility." Should Florida pass additional legislation to address the bond-debt provision, Schumer notes that under state law, Orange and Osceola counties would inherit Reedy Creek's debt. The district had been paying it off with property taxes higher than those Florida counties are allowed to charge. "If Reedy Creek is ever dissolved, it would be a monumental and complicated enterprise even on a years-long timeline." (County officials say the new law could lead to huge tax hikes.)
(Newser)  A farmer in the Gaza Strip went to work on Monday and found himself the subject of international news stories days later, all thanks to what he found in the ground. Nidal Abu Eid was plowing his land when he turned up a 4,500-year-old limestone head thought to represent the Canaanite goddess Anat. She's the goddess of love, beauty, and war, and is topped with a snake crown, which NBC News describes as "a symbol of strength and invisibility." She's also the precursor of Athena, the Greek goddess of war who's also typically surrounded by snakes.

Jamal Abu Rida, a rep for the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities says it was found in an area that served as a key "overland trade route for several civilizations" that lived in the modern-day Gaza Strip, reports Arab News. Abu Eid shared his take on the meaningful nature of the stone statuette, saying it "documents the history of the Palestinian people on this land and that its origins are Canaanite," per NBC.

He donated it to the Qasr al-Basha museum. The AP notes that's a more secure fate than many antiquities encounter in the Gaza Strip, where such finds often vanish and where development projects often trump the preservation of archaeological sites in the densely populated territory. It calls out a life-size statue of the Greek god Apollo that was found in 2013, disappeared, and remains missing. (Read more discoveries stories.)
(Newser)  Weeks after a glitzy Washington, DC, dinner turned into a superspreader event, Dr. Anthony Fauci has decided he doesn't want to take his chances at another one. President Biden's top COVID adviser will not be at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday when the event returns for the first time since 2019, NBC reports. Fauci, 81, tells the New York Times that he is skipping the event "because of my individual assessment of my personal risk." President Biden, however, will be at the dinner, which will make the 79-year-old the first sitting president to attend the event since Barack Obama in 2016.

After the Gridiron Club dinner in early April, more than 70 guests tested positive for COVID, including Attorney General Merrick Garland. Former Fox host Greta van Susteren tells the Hill she is also skipping Saturday's event. "I had considered it, but having read about the Gridiron being a 'superspreader,' and it is much smaller than the WHCD, I decided to take the year off even though I am double vaxxed and double boosted," she says. Steven Portnoy, president of the correspondents' association, says guests will have to show proof of vaccination and a same-day negative test result.

Around 2,600 guests are expected at this year's WHCA, which will be hosted by Trevor Noah. Some medical experts support Biden's decision to attend, though others say it's still too early, especially since a more infectious omicron subvariant is spreading and Vice President Kamala Harris is infected. Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of NYU's Langones Division of Medical Ethics, tells the Times that he doesn't think Biden should attend. "He is high risk and occupies a very high office at a time of war," Caplan says. "He must be hypersafe. The correspondents dinner is highly optional. With the VP sick, he really needs to protect himself. His office imposes a duty of precaution." (Read more White House Correspondents Dinner stories.)
(Newser)  Children should not automatically be given the father's surname at birth, a court in Italy has ruled, calling the traditional practice "discriminatory and harmful to the identity" of the child. Newborns should receive the surnames of both parents, the court said in a statement, the Guardian reports. Parents should decide the order, or decide to give their child just one surname, the statement said. "Both parents should be able to share the choice of a surname, which is a fundamental element for ones personal identity," the court said.

Under the current law, Italian families have been unable to give a child the mother's surname unless the mother is single or the father refuses to be part of the child's life, the New York Times reports. The ruling requires legislation approved by Parliament to have the force of law. Elena Bonetti, Italy's family minister, posted online that the administration would support the move.

"We need to give substance [to the decision] ... and it is a high priority and urgent task of politics to do so," Bonetti said, per the Guardian. The parents should assume equal responsibility in raising their child, she added. Lawmaker Cecilia DElia, a leader on women's issues, also praised the decision, the Times reports. The top court's decision has "canceled the last patriarchal legacy in family law," D'Elia said. "The mothers name will have the same dignity as the fathers, a sign of civilization." (Read more surnames stories.)
(Newser)  The fertile mind of Justice Stephen Breyer has conjured a stream of hypothetical questions through the years that have, in the words of a colleague, "befuddled" lawyers and justices alike. Breyer, 83, was at it once again Tuesday, inventing a prison inmate named John the Tigerman in a case involving transporting an inmate for a medical test. Breyer called him "the most dangerous prisoner they have ever discovered." The justice had one more chance Wednesday, the last of more than 2,000 arguments in which he has taken part during 28 years on the high court, the AP reports.

Just since Breyer announced in late January that he was retiring, he has asked lawyers to answer questions involving spiders, muskrats, and "4-foot-long cigars smoked through hookahs" none of which, it's fair to say, had any actual links to the cases at hand. Breyer once granted an interview to the AP in which he acknowledged that his questions sometimes stretch the bounds of credulity. Thats by design. "The point is to try to focus on a matter that is worrying me. Sometimes its easier to do that with an example," he said in 2008. The Wednesday case was about Oklahoma's authority to prosecute people accused of crimes on Native American lands, following a 2020 Supreme Court decision.

Breyer asked some "sharp questions" and was praised by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts after arguments concluded, the Hill reports. "For 28 years, this has been his arena for remarks profound and moving, questions challenging and insightful, and hypotheticals downright silly," Roberts said. "For now, we leave the courtroom with deep appreciation for the privilege of sharing this bench with him." Breyer will remain on the court as it deliberates outstanding cases and issues opinions until its current term finishes in late June or early July, Forbes notes. (Read more Stephen Breyer stories.)
(Newser)  On Tuesday, Elon Musk agreed to all 95 pages of an agreement spelling out the terms of his purchase of Twitter. By Wednesday, he appeared to be no longer in compliance. A couple of tweets from commentators critical of his future employees drew agreeing responses from the billionaire, the Guardian reports. The agreement says Musk, who has 86 million followers on Twitter, is free to continue posting "so long as such tweets do not disparage the company or any of its representatives." His tweets sparked an onslaught of online criticism of the staff members.

His first tweet was an answer to podcast host Saagar Enjeti, referred to Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's legal chief, as the site's "top censorship advocate." The comment was an allusion to Twitter blocking the sharing of a New York Post article about Hunter Biden in 2020. Musk responded with "Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate." Users jumped on Musk's tweet, with some making racist references to Gadde, who was born in India. Musk didn't tag her or mention her name, but his comment was seen by 400,000 users.

On Wednesday, Musk tweeted a meme suggesting "left wing bias" affects Twitter's decisions, per the Washington Post. A tweet by Mike Cernovich critical of Jim Baker, another Twitter lawyer, about work he'd done in the FBI also drew a response from Musk. "Sounds pretty bad," he wrote. Twitter didn't comment on Musk's tweets, but other employees expressed support for Gadde. Lea Kissner, head of privacy engineering, tweeted, "@vijaya, fist bump of empathy." Other staff members have worried, inside and outside the company, that they could be harmed by Musk's tweets. "Twitter is a war zone," he told 60 Minutes in 2018. (Read more Elon Musk stories.)
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies with a few snow showers after midnight. Low around 30F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 30%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies with a few snow showers after midnight. Low around 30F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 30%.
By KOTA SRIRAJ

Climate change and pollution has changed the way world looks at transportation and commuting. Fossil fuel driven vehicles are rapidly becoming obsolete and electric vehicles (EV) are moving into the fast lane with many countries adopting robust EV policies. This is evident by the fact the EV sales has more than doubled in the first half of 2021 worldwide compared with the previous year, even with the pandemic impact on sales. This healthy interest in EV segment powered by environmentally conscious buyers will spur the car manufacturers to race and capture the market to produce new-generation electrical cars amidst the demand for zero carbon emissions.

As part of the Economic Vision 2030, Bahrain has been adapting fast to the changing scenario of environmentally responsible transportation by proactively building the required infrastructure to meet the requirements of EV industry and its fast growing demand.

As a part of the same, the first charging station for electric cars was opened in April 2021 at the Atrium Mall in Saar, with plans to set up similar stations across the country.

The push towards electric vehicles in Bahrain market is aimed at convincing the consumer, suppliers and investors to save the environment as well as financial resources by moving from conventional to electric vehicles.

In order to promote EV segment Bahrain National Insurance (BNI) also launched the first motor insurance policy in Bahrain developed specifically for electric vehicles, as part of its efforts to promote environmental sustainability.

But in spite of these efforts, any change will take time and the same is true for EVs as well. The fact that conventional fuels are cheaper in Bahrain, makes it challenging to bank only upon economic reasons to convince the stakeholders to opt for EVs.

Currently less than 1 per cent of Bahraini motorists own an EV and the growth of this segment is hampered by the unavailability of EV spares and service. However, the moment these initial teething troubles are sorted out Bahrain will present a huge opportunity for car manufacturers and consumers alike to experience a whole new world of green commuting. The fact that on a single charge the EV user can cover the length and breadth of Bahrain is an amazing feature of EV which is hard to ignore. Similarly, the silence of the EV motors mean that sound pollution too will see a remarkable reduction is an added bonus.

With excellent road network and ever increasing charging stations, Bahrain provides the ideal environment for electric and hybrid vehicle segment to grow and thrive. The new generation Bahrainis have always represented the latest trends in the world and in this regard too, the young consumers in Bahrain will protect the environment by increasingly opting for EVs in the coming years and set the trend.

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Daily Tribune).
US wants to reach nuclear deal with Iran but...

US wants to reach nuclear deal with Iran but...

Agencies | Washington

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The top US diplomat continues to believe that reaching a nuclear deal with Iran is in the best interest of Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers yesterday.

Speaking to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Blinken was pressed on the Biden administrations adamance on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

We continue to believe that getting back into compliance with the agreement would be the best way to address the nuclear challenge imposed by Iran, he said.

Blinken vowed to hold an open Iran hearing before Memorial Day, which falls at the end of May.

We will make sure that we get that done, he said. Blinken reiterated previous comments that the Biden administration inherited a very challenging situation, adding that there were ramped up Iranian escalations.

The secretary also claimed that Irans nuclear breakout time went from a year to a matter of weeks due to the US withdrawal from the deal. Iran is acting with more destabilising effect throughout the region, he said.

However, Blinken admitted that the deal would do nothing to address Irans ballistic missile program or its support for destabilising countries in the region. The top US diplomat also admitted that there was an ongoing Iranian threat against the lives of American officials, both present and past.
Netflix Inc on Tuesday announced a multi-film deal with Japan's Studio Colorido, as the streaming giant ramps up its anime offering and looks to Asia for growth.

Netflix is co-producing three feature films with Studio Colorido including "Drifting Home", which premieres in September, as it invests more deeply in original anime. The film will also premiere in cinemas domestically.

Anime has proven a draw for Netflix in both Japan, where almost 90% of its users watch it, and globally, where half of users tuned in last year, with rivals including Amazon and Disney also racing to offer such content.

"In order to ... win globally, we must win locally first," Kaata Sakamoto, vice president of content for Japan, told Reuters in an interview.

The Asia-Pacific region was the lone bright spot in Netflix's first-quarter earnings, in which the world's dominant streaming service reported it lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade. The company said it was seeing "nice growth" in the region, including in Japan, where it reported 5 million users in September 2020.
Factsopedia - May 05

Every culture is different. Every country is unique. As a result: Things are commonplace in one corner of the world might seem peculiar to people from another. These are 20 things that can be seen anywhere but in Japan!
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LOS ANGELES (AP)  The Los Angeles County sheriff on Tuesday disputed allegations he orchestrated a cover-up of an incident where a deputy knelt on a handcuffed inmates head and said a Los Angeles Times reporter who used leaked documents and video to first report on the case is part of his criminal investigation.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva's comments at a news conference Tuesday brought immediate criticism from the newspaper's leadership and First Amendment advocates. Hours later, the sheriff clarified in a series of tweets that his agency has no interest in pursuing, nor are we pursuing, criminal charges against any reporters.

The paper's general counsel sent a letter to the sheriff protesting the investigation and the top editor condemned Villanueva's remarks, calling it an illegal attempt to criminalize news reporting."

Sheriff Alex Villanuevas attack on Alene Tchekmedyians First Amendment rights for doing newsworthy reporting on a video that showed a deputy kneeling on a handcuffed inmates head is outrageous, Executive Editor Kevin Merida said in a statement. We will vigorously defend Tchekmedyians and the Los Angeles Times rights in any proceeding or investigation brought by authorities.

The incident with the inmate occurred in a county courthouse on March 10, 2021  two days after jury selection began for the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder for pressing his knee against George Floyds neck for up to 9 1/2 minutes.

The video shows Deputy Douglas Johnson directing inmate Enzo Escalante to move up against a wall in the courthouse. Escalante swings at Johnson and punches him repeatedly in the face. Three other deputies help Johnson wrestle Escalante to the ground and handcuff him.

The LA Times reported that Johnson had his knee on Escalante's head for more than three minutes, even after the inmate had been handcuffed, placed face-down and did not appear to be resisting. Escalante  who was awaiting trial on murder and other charges  was taken to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

Johnson was removed from duty months later and is under criminal investigation, Villanueva said during Tuesday's news conference. No charges have been filed against the deputy.

Escalante has pleaded not guilty to two counts of resisting an officer. He is being represented by the public defenders office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Escalante has filed a federal lawsuit against members of the sheriffs department, including Villanueva, that alleges his civil rights were violated.

On Monday, Commander Allen Castellano filed a legal claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, that accused Villanueva of first blocking and stalling the investigation into Johnson's use of force, and then working to cover up the incident and retaliating against whistleblowers.

Villanueva, who oversees the nations largest sheriffs department, is up for reelection and Castellano's claim states the sheriff was seeking to avoid bad publicity during his campaign.

The sheriff on Tuesday said he did not see the video until eight months after the incident, but Castellano wrote in his claim that Villanueva had viewed it within days.

Villanueva called Castellano a disgruntled employee who made false claims. The sheriff also said the video obtained by the Times was stolen property that was removed illegally and all parties" to the act are subject to his investigation of the leak.

She received the information and then she put it to her own use," he said, referring to Tchekmedyian. "What she receives legally and puts to her own use and what she receives illegally and the LA Times uses it, Im pretty sure thats a huge complex area of law and freedom of the press and all that. However, when its stolen material, at some point you have to become part of the story.

During his news conference Villanueva displayed photos of Tchekmedyian, LA County Inspector General Max Huntsman and former sheriff's Commander Eli Vera under the heading: WHAT DID THEY KNOW AND WHEN DID THEY KNOW IT?

In Tchekmedyian's original story, Vera said Villanueva viewed the video at an aides desk within days of the incident. Vera is running against Villanueva and also was commander overseeing court services where the incident occurred. Huntsman is investigating the allegations Villanueva lied about the incident and issued a subpoena ordering Villanueva to either testify or turn over records.

Tchekmedyian, who regularly covers the sheriff's department, attended the news conference and Villanueva ignored her questions.

The sheriff has previously targeted other reporters for their work, including when his deputies arrested a KPCC public radio reporter in 2020 while she was filming an arrest during a protest.

David Loy, legal director of the California-based First Amendment Coalition, said Villanueva's probe into Tchekmedyian was an assault on press freedoms.

The press has an absolute right to report on and publish information of public concern, even if that tape is otherwise confidential and leaked to them," Loy said. "This is bedrock First Amendment law.
Uncertainty over the safety of war-wracked Ukraines nuclear power plants has reignited concerns over a Russian-owned nuclear power station now being built in a quake-prone area on Turkeys southern coast, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot activists said Wednesday.

About 200 activists representing two dozen organizations from both sides of ethnically divided Cyprus converged inside the United Nations controlled buffer zone that cuts across the capital Nicosia. They sought to voice their unease over ongoing construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is only 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the island nations northern coast.
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BOISE, Idaho (AP)  A woman who reported she was raped by an Idaho lawmaker while serving as a legislative intern testified in the former lawmaker's trial on Wednesday, haltingly describing the moments the assault began before abruptly leaving the witness stand.

I can't do this, the woman said, quickly walking out of the courtroom.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, and has referred to the woman in this case as Jane Doe at her request.

Doe was a 19-year-old intern when she told her supervisors that then-Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger, a Republican from Lewiston, raped her at his Boise apartment after the two had dinner at a restaurant.

Von Ehlinger, 38, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of rape and sexual penetration with a foreign object, and maintains the two had consensual sex. He resigned from the House of Representatives last year after a legislative ethics committee recommended he be banned from the Statehouse.

During testimony Wednesday afternoon, Ada County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Katelyn Farley asked Doe to describe an article of clothing worn by von Ehlinger that day, presumably to identify him to the jury.

Blazer, Doe said, taking long looks around the room. When Farley asked her to describe the color of von Ehlinger's tie, Doe answered, I can't."

Most of Doe's answers were often one or two words long, and she frequently looked toward the jury or the exit door in the back of the courtroom. At other times her gaze landed on the defense table where von Ehlinger sat with his defense attorney, Jon Cox.

Behind the attorneys, the gallery of the courtroom was full. Journalists, representatives from victim services and other onlookers sat side-by-side. One of the benches was reserved for a woman with a service dog  the animals are sometimes used to provide a supportive presence for witnesses who are asked to give difficult testimony.

Doe's voice was quiet, and Cox repeatedly interrupted her answers to say that he couldn't hear her. That prompted the judge to repeatedly ask Doe to scoot closer to the microphone, and lean in.

I need you to look at me, Farley told Doe, again.

I can't, she responded, looking again toward the rear exit door.

In response to Farley's questions, Doe said she ate at a restaurant with von Ehlinger and that afterward he drove her to his apartment in his car. Inside, she sat down and had cookies. Oreos, she said.

Then, she said, von Ehlinger picked her up and carried her into his bedroom.

He laid me down ... he removed his clothes ... he climbed on top of me ... in just his boxers. White T-shirt, Doe said. He tried to put his fingers between my legs and I closed my knees.

At that, she stood up.

I can't do this anymore, she said, fleeing the courtroom.

The judge gave the prosecuting attorneys 10 minutes to find her and see if she would return. When she did not, Reardon told the jurors they had to strike (Doe's testimony) from your minds as if it never happened, because the defense could not cross-examine her.

It was the second day of the trial. On Tuesday, jurors heard from police detectives and the nurse who completed a rape examination on Doe roughly 48 hours after she said the assault occurred. The nurse testified that Doe told her that she tried to stop von Ehlinger's sexual advances by saying she hadn't shaved, that she wasn't on birth control and that she was menstruating. Doe also told her that von Ehlinger had placed the handgun he always carried on a dresser near the bed, and that he pinned Doe during the assault by climbing on top of her and kneeling on her upper arms.

The detectives and nurse also told jurors that Doe reported she told von Ehlinger no during the assault and said he was hurting her. The nurse said Doe reported arm pain during the exam, and that she had a swollen goose egg on the back of her head that she said happened when she tried to jerk her head away from von Ehlinger's crotch, hitting the wall or a headboard.

Jurors also heard from forensic scientists who said that DNA from bodily fluids collected during Doe's rape exam matched von Ehlinger.

After Doe left the courtroom, the prosecutor called Laura King, an associate criminal justice professor from Boise State University who is an expert in sexual violence victimization.

King told jurors that victims of a sexual assault often fight, flee or freeze during the assault, and that the hormones that trigger those responses can also cause a person to experience temporary paralysis or dissociation, a mental state where they feel disconnected from reality.

Those same physiological responses including dissociation can also happen when sexual assault survivors describe the assault, King said. Such behavior may seem strange, but it is a natural reaction to an assault, she said.

Cox asked King whether she knew anything about von Ehlinger's case. King said she did not.

You talk specifically about these conditions  fight, flight, freeze, dissociative events, tonic immobility  but you have no idea because you dont have any information about this case specifically, right?" Cox asked King.

King agreed, saying she was talking generally about the research on sexual assault victims.

After King's testimony, Farley said the prosecution's case was over.

Cox said he would let the judge know on Thursday morning if von Ehlinger will testify in his own defense.

If convicted, von Ehlinger could face a maximum penalty of life in prison on each charge.

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Jon Cox's first name.
OTTAWA, ON, April 27, 2022 /CNW/ - Effective regulations protect the health, safety, environment and economic well-being of Canadians. Modernizing our regulatory system improves Canada's ability to attract investment and growth-oriented businesses.

Today, the President of the Treasury Board, the Honourable Mona Fortier, launched Let's Talk Federal Regulations, a consultation platform that will strengthen transparency and participation in the regulatory system by inviting discussions with and among stakeholders in interactive and dynamic ways.

As part of the first consultation using the new platform, Canadians are being invited to provide input on regulatory barriers impeding trade such as duplicative requirements between jurisdictions or divergent standards like energy efficiency standards for appliances. They are also encouraged to share insights on new challenges or opportunities arising from a new post-pandemic reality. Input received on Let's Talk Federal Regulations will be visible to the public, enabling participants to view comments and engage in an open and transparent conversation.

Outcomes from Let's Talk Federal Regulations will help prioritize inter-jurisdictional regulatory issues and opportunities for alignment and help inform Canada's position for international regulatory cooperation forums.

Cooperation across borders within Canada and on the international scene has proven effective in reducing unnecessary regulatory differences, eliminating duplicative requirements, sharing information, fostering innovation and adopting international standards.

The Government of Canada anticipates launching additional consultations through the Let's Talk Federal Regulations platform in the coming months.

The initial consultation will be open until June 27, 2022.

Quote

"Modernizing the way we engage with Canadians on regulations will help us broaden the conversation. This will help us align regulations to the needs and priorities of Canadians and take advantage of arising economic opportunities."

- The Honourable Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board



Quick Facts

On March 31, 2022 , the Government introduced in the Senate Bill S-6, An Act respecting regulatory modernization , a recurring mechanism that helps keep regulations relevant and up to date.

, the Government introduced in the Senate Bill S-6, , a recurring mechanism that helps keep regulations relevant and up to date. Other modernization initiatives include the creation of the Centre for Regulatory Innovation, and the implementation of roadmaps stemming from targeted regulatory reviews.

Related Links

Associated Links

Stay connected

Twitter: @TBS_Canada

Facebook: www.facebook.com/YourGovernmentatWork/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tbs-sct/

Backgrounder

Canada launches new platform for consultations and seeks input on regulatory barriers to trade

Regulatory cooperation is one of many tools that the government uses to improve efficiency and competitiveness in the regulatory system.

The Government of Canada works across jurisdictions and with international governments to reduce unnecessary regulatory barriers to trade and competitiveness, while continuing to protect the health, safety, environment and economic well-being of Canadians. This includes working with other governments to:

Adopt international standards

Harmonize or align regulations

Share information and experiences

Reduce unnecessary regulatory differences

Eliminate duplicative requirements and processes

Canada is active in several regulatory cooperation tables where regulators identify opportunities for cooperation and commit to workplans that advance their cooperation goals:

Canadian Free Trade Agreement Regulatory Reconciliation and Cooperation Table

Canada-United States Regulatory Cooperation Council

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Regulatory Cooperation Forum

Agile Nations Regulatory Cooperation Network (consisting of Canada , the United Kingdom , Japan , Denmark , Singapore , Italy , and the United Arab Emirates )

Let's Talk Federal Regulations is a pilot project that provides the opportunity to test new digital approaches to gathering stakeholder input and help reach new stakeholders who may not have engaged in previous consultations that relied upon notices published in the Canada Gazette.

The platform is simple and easy to use. Beyond the increased ease for stakeholders to provide input, the platform will also result in greater transparency for stakeholder comments since feedback from participants will be visible. This provides stakeholders an opportunity to see and build off comments from other participants as they are received.

Over the coming months, the platform will help gather input on several topics related to improving Canada's regulatory system, including targeted regulatory reviews, and assessing needs regarding public reporting and educational materials.

A summary of the feedback received for each topic will be drafted and shared on the platform.

Other initiatives to improve federal regulations in Canada include:

Bill S-6, An Act respecting regulatory modernization , the second Annual Regulatory Modernization, which was introduced to Parliament in March 2022 . It makes common sense changes to 29 acts through 46 amendments to simplify regulatory processes, make exemptions from certain regulatory requirements to test new products, and make cross-border trade easier through more consistent and coherent rules across governments.

, the second Annual Regulatory Modernization, which was introduced to Parliament in . It makes common sense changes to 29 acts through 46 amendments to simplify regulatory processes, make exemptions from certain regulatory requirements to test new products, and make cross-border trade easier through more consistent and coherent rules across governments. Targeted regulatory reviews that examine regulations and regulatory practices to identify approaches to help test new products and uncover opportunities to address administrative burdens and simplify regulatory processes. The reviews outline approaches to address these challenges.

The Centre for Regulatory Innovation, that supports regulatory experimentation and flexibility, and enables innovative products to more easily come to market.

The Red Tape Reduction Act , which helps control the administrative burden that regulations impose on businesses.

, which helps control the administrative burden that regulations impose on businesses. The business, consumer and academic stakeholders on the External Advisory Committee on Regulatory Competitiveness, who provide advice about how to further enhance Canada's regulatory system.

SOURCE Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

For further information: Contacts (media): Isabella Brisson, Acting Director of Communications and Press Secretary, Office of the President of the Treasury Board, 579-337-5723; Media Relations, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Telephone: 613-369-9400; Toll-free: 1-855-TBS-9-SCT (1-855-827-9728), Teletypewriter (TTY): 613-369-9371, Email: [email protected]
Through a new two-year agreement, the company will support Canadian wildlife conservation initiatives and serve as NWC's official photography and videography partner.

BRAMPTON, ON, April 27, 2022 /CNW/ - Canon Canada Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is proud to announce a new partnership with the National Wildlife Centre (NWC). The NWC helps native wildlife through programs aimed at conservation goals to protect ecosystems, populations of wild animals and the health of individual animals. Canon Canada's partnership will support the caring for sick and injured wildlife at rehabilitation centres across the country and contribute to the establishment of the NWC Centre of Excellence.

"We are guided by our corporate philosophy, Kyosei  all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working into the future  and this partnership reflects our commitment to collaborate with organizations equally invested in initiating positive change at our local and national levels" says Nobuhiko Kitajima, President and CEO of Canon Canada. "Canon Canada is excited to work with NWC in support of protecting and preserving Canada's wildlife, and to educate not only our employees but also communities across the country about the positive impacts of wildlife conservation."

Canon Canada's financial support will help cover ongoing operational expenses, including medical and animal supplies, veterinary intern training and mobile clinics. The funding will also contribute to the construction of the NWC Centre of Excellence in Caledon, Ont. The centre will serve as a national headquarters and is projected to help more than 5,000 sick, injured and orphaned wild animals annually. It will also function as an education hub to support the next generation of wildlife specialists across Canada. "Canon's generous support will help thousands of sick, injured and orphaned wildlife in Canada, and will build capacity for education and training of more wildlife medical responders. We are excited and grateful for this new partnership," says Dr. Sherri Cox, President and Medical Director of the NWC.

In addition, Canon Canada becomes the official photography and videography partner of the NWC, providing professional services to document wildlife cases, signature events and partnership impacts.

To learn more about the National Wildlife Centre, visit www.nationalwildlifecentre.ca.

About Canon Canada Inc.

Headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, Canon Canada Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A. Inc., is a leading provider of consumer and business-to-business digital imaging solutions. Innovation and cutting-edge technology have been essential ingredients in Canon's success. Canon Canada Inc. is committed to the highest level of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 per cent Canadian-based service and support for all of the products it distributes. Canon Canada Inc. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility.

For more information, please visit canon.ca or follow the company on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using @CanonCanada.

SOURCE Canon Canada Inc.

For further information: Press/Media Contact, Corporate Communications, Canon Canada Inc., [email protected]
MONTREAL, April 27, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Cerro de Pasco Resources Inc. (CSE: CDPR) ("CDPR") is pleased to provide an update to its exploration and infill drilling programs as outlined in their NI 43-101 report "Cerro de Pasco Resources - NI 43-101 and Resource Estimate Update for Santander Mine Magistral and Pipe Deposits, Huaral, Department of Lima, Peru, effective date 31st December 2021."

The exploration drill program consists of 20,020 m (53 drill holes) along with an additional 10,730 m (81 holes) of underground resource infill drilling. The resource infill drilling program consists of 3,070 m in Magistral North, 3,990 m in Magistral Central and 3,670 m in Magistral South which is currently drilling.

CDPR have allocated $3.5 M for the 2022 exploration and infill drilling programs. The drilling programs are designed to increase Resource and Reserves in the existing Magistral deposit, drill test targets to the North and South of the known Magistral orebodies, and drill test new areas in Blanquita, Santander Pipe North and the Puajanca deposit.

To date, 4,247.60 m (10 drill holes) of surface exploration and 1,679.30 m (17 drill holes) of underground infill drilling have been completed.

All infill drilling samples are assayed at CDPR's onsite assay laboratory managed by SGS and all exploration samples are sent to ALS Lima for assay, both drilling programs are accompanied by QA/QC programs.

The initial results provide CDPR with confidence that following an extended period of little exploration activity at Santander, the company is now looking at the opportunity to enhance the resource, and the possibility to increase head grades into the mining production schedule in the near-term.

Guy Goulet CEO of CDPR commented: "This initial set of drill results from our 2022 drill program are well above current mining grades and highlight the potential for additional high-grade zinc mineralization at our Santander property. Part of our theory during our acquisition of Santander was that lack of exploration over the course of many years has created a great opportunity to significantly expand the resources and grade at the mine, and results like these continue to inspire this confidence."

Result Highlights

Surface exploration to date has targeted the Northern and Southern extents of the known Magistral mineralized bodies as Shown in Figure 1.

Extension Magistral North - Approximately 200m to the north of the Magistral orebody, CDPR has intersected high grade mineralisation in 2 of the 5 boreholes drilled to date.

SAN-0269-22 intersected:

2.55 m at 0.45% Zn, 0.88 % Pb, 0.01% Cu, 273.78 g/t Ag;

at 0.45% Zn, 0.88 % Pb, 0.01% Cu, 273.78 g/t Ag;

4.00 m at 1.83 % Zn, 1.44% Pb, 0.01% Cu, 68.13 g/t Ag;

at 1.83 % Zn, 1.44% Pb, 0.01% Cu, 68.13 g/t Ag;

5.00 m at 0.23 % Zn, 0.18% Pb, 0.01% Cu, 14.72 g/t Ag;

at 0.23 % Zn, 0.18% Pb, 0.01% Cu, 14.72 g/t Ag;

1.50 m at 4.14 % Zn, 2.12% Pb, 0.01% Cu, 443.83 g/t Ag .

SAN-0271-22 intersected 4.30 m at 6.87 % Zn, 2.68% Pb, 0.10 % Cu, 120.67 g/t Ag.

The site geologists consider the style of mineralisation intersected to be similar to that of the Rosa and Fatima bodies which are vein fault structures that crosscut the Magistral orebody. CDPR plan to continue drilling this target which is only a short distance from the Magistral North orebody (around 200 m).

Extension Magistral South - CDPR drilled four surface exploration boreholes targeting mineralisation to the immediate south of the Magistral South deposit. All boreholes successfully intersected mineralisation, but only one (SAN-0267-22) cut economic-grade mineralisation. CDPR are following up the SAN-0267-22 intersects with additional infill drilling which will be undertaken from within the underground mine.

SAN-0265-22 intersected 0.40 m at 1.87% Zn, 0.01 % Pb, 0.01% Cu, 2 g/t Ag.

at 1.87% Zn, 0.01 % Pb, 0.01% Cu, 2 g/t Ag. SAN-0266-22 intersected 0.70 m at 5.99 % Zn, 0.01% Pb, 0.05% Cu, 4.87 g/t Ag.

at 5.99 % Zn, 0.01% Pb, 0.05% Cu, 4.87 g/t Ag. SAN-0267-22 intersected:

4.25 m at 4.63 % Zn, 0.01% Pb, 0.06% Cu, 2.61 g/t Ag;

at 4.63 % Zn, 0.01% Pb, 0.06% Cu, 2.61 g/t Ag;

8.0 m at 2.26 % Zn, 0.01% Pb, 0.01% Cu, 2.78 g/t Ag.

at 2.26 % Zn, 0.01% Pb, 0.01% Cu, 2.78 g/t Ag. SAN-0268-22 intersected 0.35 m at 7.51% Zn, 0.01% Pb, 0.07% Cu, 2.0 g/t Ag.

Blanquita Target - The Blanquita target is located 0.7 km SE of Magistral South and 0.5 km NW of Santander Pipe. The mineralisation intersected to date lies directly under a spur coming out of the large project wide Magnetotelluric (MT) geophysical anomaly (Figure 2) and below an area of pervasive jasperoid silica alteration (470 m x 20 m) and As, Mn, Sb, Mo, Cs and Sr geochemical anomalies. Assay results returned to date include:

SAN-0261-21 Intersected:

14.90 m at 0.90% Zn, 0.82% Pb, 0.01% Cu, 121.64 g/t Ag, 0.16 g/t Au, of which 3.85 m returned assay results of 2.51 % Zn, 2.52% Pb, 0.04% Cu, 346.12 g/t Ag, 0.39 g/t Au . An additional intersect returned assay results of 3.15m at 0.18% Zn, 0.14% Pb, 0.02% Cu, 199.27 g/t Ag, 0.14 g/t Au.

at 0.90% Zn, 0.82% Pb, 0.01% Cu, 121.64 g/t Ag, 0.16 g/t Au, of which 3.85 m returned assay results of . An additional intersect returned assay results of at 0.18% Zn, 0.14% Pb, 0.02% Cu, 199.27 g/t Ag, 0.14 g/t Au. SAN-0271-22 Intersected - 5.25 m at 3.03% Zn, 2.12% Pb, 0.03% Cu, 214.38 g/t Ag.

The Blanquita target has been interpretated from the first boreholes to be a series of veins and faults with mineralisation style and texture that suggest CDPR intersected the upper part of an epithermal vein system. CDPR will continue to drill the Blanquita target whose location is close to both the Magistral and Santander Pipe deposits.

Resource Infill Drilling  The resource infill drilling program started in the Magistral South orebody and has targeted Magistral South (MS) and hanging wall structures T1 and T2. Drilling has successfully intersected the identified targets with results shown in Table 1. Some of the top intersects are:

MSD-0646-22 Intersected:

( MS ) 9.2 m at 3.16% Zn, 0.03% Pb, 6.32 g/t Ag;

9.2 m at 3.16% Zn, 0.03% Pb, 6.32 g/t Ag;

( MS1T ) 1.0 m at 4.76% Zn, 0.09% Pb, 21.62 g/t Ag;

1.0 m at 4.76% Zn, 0.09% Pb, 21.62 g/t Ag;

( MS-T2 ) 2.2 m at 2.24% Zn, 0.06% Pb, 15.89 g/t Ag.

2.2 m at 2.24% Zn, 0.06% Pb, 15.89 g/t Ag. MSD-0647-22 Intersected:

( MS ) 9.6 m at 4.94% Zn, 0.01% Pb, 2.21 g/t Ag;

9.6 m at 4.94% Zn, 0.01% Pb, 2.21 g/t Ag;

( MS-1T ) 0.8 m at 0.84% Zn, 0.35% Pb, 36.28 g/t Ag;

0.8 m at 0.84% Zn, 0.35% Pb, 36.28 g/t Ag;

( MS-2T ) 1.4 m at 2.43% Zn, 0.21% Pb, 19.93 g/t Ag.

1.4 m at 2.43% Zn, 0.21% Pb, 19.93 g/t Ag. MSD-0651-22 Intersected:

( MS ) 11.0 m at 4.45% Zn, 0.11% Pb, 17.69% Ag;

11.0 m at 4.45% Zn, 0.11% Pb, 17.69% Ag;

( MS-1T ) 1.1 m at 9.74% Zn, 0.04% Pb, 11.32 g/t Ag;

1.1 m at 9.74% Zn, 0.04% Pb, 11.32 g/t Ag;

(MS-1T) 3.7 m at 2.85% Zn, 0.02% Pb, 5.97 g/t Ag.

3.7 m at 2.85% Zn, 0.02% Pb, 5.97 g/t Ag. MSD-0652-22 Intersected  (MS) 8.4 m at 7.41% Zn, 0.01%.

Note: * MS  Magistral South, MS 1T  Magistral South hanging wall structure 1, MS 2T  Magistral South hanging wall structure 2.

To view Figure 1: Plan view of Magistral and Santander Pipe mineralized bodies and drilling program executed to date click here

To view Figure 2: Blanquita drill target within Magnetotelluric (MT) geophysical anomaly click here

To view Figure 3: Infill drill program with drilled and programed holes click here

To view Table 1: Magistral South Orebody Infill Drilling Results click here

Technical Information

Shane Whitty, CGeol and V.P. of Exploration and Technical Services for CDPR, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release. Mr. Whitty is a Qualified Person for the purposes of reporting in compliance with NI 43-101.

About Cerro de Pasco Resources

Cerro de Pasco Resources Inc. is a resource management company, founded in 2012 with the original purpose of developing the El Metalurgista mining concession comprising mineral tailings and stockpiles extracted from the Cerro de Pasco open-pit mine in central Peru. Our strategic strength lies in our extensive team experience and knowledge of the opportunities and challenges in and around Cerro de Pasco. The company is founded on clear objectives, to engender long-term economic sustainability and benefit for the local population, from an economic, social and health point of view. The company's approach at El Metalurgista entails the reprocessing and environmental remediation of mining waste and the creation of numerous opportunities in a circular economy.

Forward-Looking Statements and Disclaimer

Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified using forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "seeks", "expects", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "could", "might", "likely" or variations of such words, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "will", "could", "would", "might", "will be taken", "occur", "be achieved" or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements, including the expectations of CDPR's management regarding the completion of the Transaction as well as the business and the expansion and growth of CDPR's operations, are based on CDPR's estimates and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of CDPR to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are subject to business and economic factors and uncertainties and other factors, such as Covid-19, that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, including the relevant assumptions and risks factors set out in CDPR's public documents, available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Although CDPR believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements and forward-looking information. Except where required by applicable law, CDPR Disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Cerro de Pasco Resources Inc.

For further information: Cerro de Pasco Resources Inc., Guy Goulet, President and CEO, Tel.: 1 579 476-7000, Email: [email protected]
OTTAWA, ON , April 27, 2022 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is making targeted investments to create good jobs, grow our economy, and build towards a net-zero emissions future.

Today, Minister of Labour, Seamus O'Regan Jr., addressed the Canada's Building Trades Unions Annual Conference in Ottawa. In his address, the Minister spoke about the Government of Canada's support for workers in the skilled trades and construction industries, including new measures and funding under Budget 2022, creating sustainable jobs, and how the Government will move towards a low-carbon economy. The event brought together provincial leaders, industry leaders from the construction and energy sectors, and business managers to discuss the industry challenges and opportunities.

The Government is working to improve labour availability by supporting tradespeople to take up jobs across Canada. In Budget 2022 the Government committed to introducing the new Labour Mobility Deduction, which would provide tax recognition on up to $4,000 per year in eligible travel and temporary relocation expenses to eligible tradespersons and apprentices. This measure would apply to the 2022 and subsequent taxation years. Further details on the program will be announced at a later date.

The Government has also committed to increasing funding for the Union Training and Innovation Program (UTIP). Yesterday Irek Kusmierczyk, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, on behalf of Minister of Employment Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, made an announcement to provide over $7 million in funding for 29 projects under Stream 1 of the UTIP. These projects will help unions across Canada improve the quality of training through investments in equipment and materials leading to a more skilled, inclusive, certified and productive trades workforce.

Budget 2022 invests to help apprentices from underrepresented groupsincluding women, newcomers, persons with disabilities, Indigenous people, and racialized Canadiansbegin and succeed in careers in the skilled trades through mentorship, career services, and job-matching. It also proposes to launch a new union-led advisory table that brings together unions and trade associations to advise the Government on priority investments to help workers navigate the changing labour market with a particular focus on skilled mid-career workers in at-risk sectors and jobs.

To highlight the value of skilled trades workers and the wide range of supports available to build a successful and fulfilling career in the trades, the Government launched an advertising campaign earlier this year to promote the skilled trades as first-choice careers for young people and diverse populations. The campaign website (Canada.ca/skilled-trades) provides Canadians with information about what the skilled trades are, how to become a tradesperson, and what financial supports are available to them while in training.

Quotes



"The challenge before us is enormous, but so is the opportunity. Canada has a labour shortage, so we're making it more affordable for trades workers and their apprentices to go where the jobs are. If we're going to lower emissions, if we're going to build more affordable housingthese are the men and women who can do it."

Minister of Labour, Seamus O'Regan Jr.

"Canada's Building Trades Unions' applauds the Government of Canada for its support for skilled trades workers in Budget 2022. The Labour Mobility Tax Deduction for Tradespeople is something we have advocated for over two decades and will support working Canadians and families travel to where the work is, helping to address labour availability across the country. The doubling of UTIP  which has already been immensely helpful in its first few years of operations  further supports training and education, ensuring we are able to deliver the workforce of tomorrow. We are proud to celebrate these policies at our 'Stronger Together' conference which speaks to the challenges we've faced over the last several years and the strength of our workforce, who build Canada's infrastructure. CBTU knows that together, we're stronger now than we've ever been."

Executive Director of Canada's Building Trades Unions, Sean Strickland

Quick Facts

Measures in Budget 2022 to support tradespeople include:

$84.2 million over four years to double funding for the Union Training and Innovation Program to help apprentices from underrepresented groups begin and succeed in careers in the skilled trades through mentorship, career services, and job-matching.

over four years to double funding for the Union Training and Innovation Program to help apprentices from underrepresented groups begin and succeed in careers in the skilled trades through mentorship, career services, and job-matching.

$2.5 million in 2022-23 for Employment and Social Development Canada to launch a new union-led advisory table that brings together unions and trade associations. The table will advise the Government on how to help workers navigate the changing labour market, with a particular focus on skilled, mid-career workers in at-risk sectors and jobs.



On July 20, 2021 , the Government of Canada launched consultations with Canadians and stakeholders, such as labour, non-governmental organizations and industry, as well as provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners, asking for feedback on potential elements of proposed just transition legislation. The deadline for written submissions is April 30, 2022 .





, the Government of launched consultations with Canadians and stakeholders, such as labour, non-governmental organizations and industry, as well as provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners, asking for feedback on potential elements of proposed just transition legislation. The deadline for written submissions is . The Government of Canada is investing nearly $1 billion annually in apprenticeship supports through grants, loans, tax credits, Employment Insurance benefits during in-school training, project funding, and support for the Red Seal program. Announced in Budget 2019, the Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy will strengthen existing apprenticeship supports and programs by helping apprentices and key apprenticeship stakeholders, including employers, to participate and succeed in the skilled trades.





is investing nearly annually in apprenticeship supports through grants, loans, tax credits, Employment Insurance benefits during in-school training, project funding, and support for the Red Seal program. Announced in Budget 2019, the Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy will strengthen existing apprenticeship supports and programs by helping apprentices and key apprenticeship stakeholders, including employers, to participate and succeed in the skilled trades. According to the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, to meet the demand for skilled journeypersons in Red Seal trades, an average of around 75,000 new apprentices will need to be hired per year in the next five years. Top trades most at risk of not meeting the demand include welder, industrial mechanic (millwright), bricklayer, boilermaker, cook and hairstylist.





According to BuildForce Canada, the construction industry needs to recruit 309,000 new workers over the next decade (2021 to 2030), driven predominantly by the expected retirement of 259,100 workers (22% of the current labour force).





In Canada , young women continue to be less likely to express interest in a career in the skilled trades. According to a survey done by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, only 2% of 15-year-old female students indicated that they were definitely planning to pursue a career in the skilled trades.





, young women continue to be less likely to express interest in a career in the skilled trades. According to a survey done by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, only 2% of 15-year-old female students indicated that they were definitely planning to pursue a career in the skilled trades. Canada's Building Trades Unions are the national voice of over half a million Canadian construction workers who are members of 14 international unions and work in more than 60 different trades and occupations.

Associated Links

Budget 2022

Union Training and Innovation Program

Canada.ca/skilled-trades

Apprenticeship Service

Support for apprentices

Consultations: Just Transition Legislation

Follow us on Twitter

SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

For further information: For media enquiries, please contact: Daniel Pollak, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Labour, Seamus O'Regan Jr., [email protected], 343-551-7558; Kate Walsh, Director of Communications, Canada's Building Trades Unions, [email protected], 613-298-0652; Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected]
EXA's product and service offerings will complement OCR Canada's innovative portfolio of barcoding, telemetric, wireless networking, enterprise mobility, and RFID products and industry-leading services and repair capabilities. OCR Canada has locations across Canada and works in collaboration with an array of Global manufacturing partners to best serve small-to enterprise-sized customers, both locally and nationally.

Expanding our capabilities in automation solutions and Quebec has been a strategic priority to further our value proposition to our customers.

"We are excited to finalize the acquisition of EXA Systems as it solidifies and adds to OCR Canada's current presence in Quebec. With the talented EXA personnel's high level of industry expertise, it strengthens our teams, and adds automation solutions such as Vision, Print & Apply, and Weight Dimensioning, to our existing Mobility, Print, Data collection & Managed services. Together, we will continue serve the customers of EXA and welcome them into the OCR family. We are ecstatic in the solutions, services, people and future growth EXA adds to OCR Canada and most importantly to our client base," said Tony Mastrangeli, Senior VP and General Manager of OCR Canada.

Here is what customers can expect with the combination of Exa's product and service offerings with that of OCR's and it's over 40-year track record of providing enhanced automation capabilities to its customer's allowing them to digitally capture and act on data related to their assets, people, and transactions:

Starting today, Exa's customers will have access to an expanded suite of product and extended care service offerings and 80+ product and service experts ready to assist

Customers will now have access to an expanded national network of professional sales and support teams in 5 locations serving customers coast to coast, with offices in Quebec, Ontario , Manitoba , Alberta , and British Columbia

, , , and Following OCR Canada's three previous acquisitions, the combined entities will offer a broadened focus on customers in the Province of Quebec

Robert Cyr, President & CEO of EXA Systemes Inc. comments, "It is with great pleasure that I make this transaction. Among several purchase offers, my choice was with OCR the company best placed to ensure the continuity of the success acquired by EXA through all these years. By keeping the whole team and adding the one from OCR Quebec, our customers will be able to benefit from this larger family of experts to integrate and enhance your projects. I loved all these 34 years in an exciting field and with an exceptional clientele. It is certainly with a little emotion that I transfer the reins, but I do it above all with confidence to the next generation.

I thank you all, Customers, and Suppliers for allowing me to follow this path filled with joy and satisfaction. I also thank Odyssey Investment, Barcodes Group and OCR Canada for continuing this journey with their great team of professional and experienced people."

Lesley English, CFO & VP of Operations for OCR Canada notes, "We are all excited to add EXA's diversified products and knowledgeable team members to the OCR family and look forward to growing our collective businesses together."

Daniel Nettesheim, President & CEO of Barcodes Group, the parent company of OCR Canada, stated, "Expanding our capabilities in automation solutions and Quebec has been a strategic priority to further our value proposition to our customers. Robert and his team have been building EXA for 40 years. We are excited to welcome them to our global company and further invest in the talent and solutions they have built."

About OCR Canada: Headquartered in Markham, Ontario with offices across Canada, OCR Canada is a leading information technology solution provider of products and services to automate organizations and their processes. Founded in 1981, the Company provides end-to-end data capture, managed services and Wi-Fi solutions to its customers in the manufacturing, transportation, logistics, construction, utilities, warehousing and distribution, healthcare, government, hospitality and retail industries.

About Exa: Founded and located in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, has for over 35 years of specialized in the integration and optimization of logistics operations. With offices in Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto, Exa is the recipient of 2021 Alpha Award for excellence and dynamism in the Manufacturing  Electronic Products and Equipment, Information Technology category awarded annually by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Saint-Laurent  Mont-Royal, Quebec.

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Dharmalingam, 34, was executed this morning, and his body will be sent to Ipoh, a city in northern Peninsular Malaysia, according to Dharmalingam's brother Navin Kumar, as stated by Bernama News Agency.

In 2010, he was found guilty and had exhausted all legal options. Last November, he was supposed to be hanged, but he filed a last-ditch challenge. The court overturned his death sentence after his mothers application was denied.

Dharmalingam, 34, was hanged this morning, and his remains will be returned to Ipoh, a city in northern Peninsular Malaysia, according to Dharmalingams brother Navin Kumar.

He was convicted in 2010 and had exhausted all legal options at the time. He was supposed to be hanged on November 10 of last year, but he filed a last-ditch challenge. Following the dismissal of his mothers application, the court ruled against his death sentence.

Dharmalingam was convicted and sentenced to death in November 2010 for bringing 42.72 grammes of heroin into Singapore in 2009, when he was apprehended at the Woodlands Checkpoint (a causeway link with Peninsular Malaysia) with the bundle of drugs strapped to his thigh.

The mother, who travelled to Singapore from northern Malaysia, was unsuccessful in her last-minute appeal to save her son.
Asking what preventive and corrective steps had been taken in relation to a proposed dharam sansad in Roorkee on Wednesday, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Uttarakhand Chief Secretary to record the states position that no untoward situation or unacceptable statements would occur.

We will hold the Secretary (Home), Chief Secretary and the IG concerned responsible if something untoward happens despite your assurance. We are putting it on record now You know what are the preventive measures to be taken. Dont make us say again and again, Uttarakhand Deputy Advocate General Jatinder Kumar Sethi was told by a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Abhay S Oka, and C T Ravikumar.

The bench was hearing a petition seeking action against a dharam sansad held in Una (Himachal Pradesh) on April 17-19 when Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners, notified the court that a similar event was scheduled to take place in Roorkee on Wednesday.

Counsel for the state of Uttarakhand submits that all preventive measures have been taken as exposited in the decisions of this court and the concerned authorities are more than confident that no untoward situation or unacceptable statements are made during such event. And whatever is necessary in terms of the decisions of this court, all such steps will be taken by the concerned authority. We direct the Chief Secretary, Uttarakhand, to place the above position on record and also to state about the corrective measures taken by the concerned authorities as and when required before the next date of hearing, they said.

Despite the courts repeated pronouncements on the issue and precautionary and corrective measures to be taken, things are happening on the ground, according to the court.
China, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, is returning to the days of Mao Zedong's severe communism, reviving memories of Mao's famine

China, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, is returning to the days of Mao Zedongs severe communism, reviving memories of Maos famine.

According to Federico Giulianis report published in InsideOver, Xi Jinping has declared it is his mission to establish China as the worlds largest superpower, yet he is repeating the same mistakes made by Mao Zedong. The fundamental reason of the famine during Maos reign was an ill-conceived attempt, carried out with insufficient resources, to catch up with Britain in terms of industrialization.

Federico further stated Respected China analysts believe that Xi Jinping has reversed the economic policies of his predecessors, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao, policies that made China affluent.

He claims that Xi Jinpings attempt to follow in Maos footsteps in the twenty-first century would fail.

Between 2003 and 2017, Chinas food imports surged from USD 14 billion to USD 104.7 billion. Food exports climbed from USD 20.2 billion to USD 59.6 billion in the meantime.

However, the Covid-caused disruption has exacerbated an already dire food situation.

This situation arises at a time when Chinas push to industrialize has resulted in a lopsided development and a scarcity of fertile land.

Since 1959, at least 20% of Chinas arable land has been lost to industries, according to estimates. Only approximately 10% of Chinas land is arable, compared to 20% in the United States.

Meanwhile, Chinas food shortage is so severe that President Xi Jinping initiated Operation Clean Plate in August 2020, which requires diners in restaurants to finish everything they order.

There are even rumors that China is attempting to acquire land in Latin American countries in order to cultivate food for export.
A statement by the Baloch Liberation Army said that the female bomber, Shari Baloch, was a holder of a Masters degree in Zoology and an MPhil in education.

The husband of the female suicide bomber who blew herself up inside the Karachi University premises has expressed pride over her deceased wifes action. Afghan journalist Bashir Ahmad Gwakh on Tuesday took to Twitter to share a tweet by one Habitan Bashir Baloch who is believed to be the female suicide bombers husband. Habitan Baloch said in the tweet that his wife Shari Balochs selfless act has left him beaming with pride.

Habitans tweet stated, Shari Jan,your selfless act has left me speechless but I am also beaming with pride today. Mahroch and Meer Hassan will grow into very proud humans thinking what a great woman their mother was. You... will continue to remain an important part of our lives.

A statement by the Baloch Liberation Army said that the female bomber, Shari Baloch, was a holder of a Masters degree in Zoology and an MPhil in education. The BLA has claimed responsibility for the attack that killed at least four persons, including three Chinese nationals. BLA has referred to Shari Baloch as the first female suicide bomber of the group. The BLA in its statement warned China against exploitation projects in Balochistan.




Russian President Vladimir Putin met with visiting United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Kremlin on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian crisis originated after Kyivs unconstitutional coup in 2014, Putin told Guterres, and people in Donbas remained under restriction and military pressure even after reaching the Minsk agreements on a peaceful settlement. The Donbas republics, according to Putin, have the right to declare their sovereignty, and Russia has the right to recognize their independence and supply them with military aid in full compliance with the UN Charter.

Putin stated that Despite the ongoing military operation, we remain hopeful that we will be able to secure diplomatic arrangements. Were in the middle of a negotiation, and were not going to say no.

Guterres urged that the UN, Russia, and Ukraine form a contact group to discuss the situation and ensure that the humanitarian corridors are actually effective.

He further stated that the UN is prepared to fully mobilize its logistical and human resources to address the situation in Mariupol, Ukraine, in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as well as the Russian and Ukrainian military forces.

Guterres also stated that the UN, in collaboration with the ICRC, is prepared to examine the situation at the Azovstal plant in the next two or three days in order to evacuate civilians.

However, Putin responded by denying reports that Russian humanitarian corridors are not functioning and stating that 130,000 to 140,000 people have left Mariupol with Russias assistance and are free to go wherever they want.

Putin also invited representatives from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to observe how Russia treats Ukrainian war detainees.

Guterres met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Monday ahead of his travel to Moscow. Following his meeting with Putin, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will go to Ukraine.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban motorists from a popular road in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, making permanent a closure that started in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic when people needed space to exercise and distance socially.

After a 12-hour meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 for Mayor London Breed's proposal. The majority sided with supporters who said a car-free promenade was in keeping with the city's commitment to safer roads and cleaner climate.
House lawmakers on Wednesday approved their own package of childrens mental health care initiatives to supplement a $25 million expansion of pediatric, school-based and other mental health services passed by the Senate this week.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, House Speaker Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, said the House bill included even more money  as much as $35 million  to fund a bi-partisan list of health care priorities, spanning more than 90 pages.

The legislation passed the House by a unanimous vote of 149-0, sending it to the Senate.

Among the dozens of provision included in the bill are authorization to use federal COVID-19 relief funding to deliver mental health services at schools and colleges, new screening tools for school districts to determine when mental health is contributing to chronic absenteeism, support for peer-to-peer support programs and new funding for the suicide prevention hotline.

The bill would also establish a pilot program in Waterbury to open a federally qualified health clinic where youths can receive intensive outpatient treatment for mental health services.

It would also require the state Department of Public Health to develop a plan for establishing a license reciprocity program to attract behavioral health care providers who are licensed in other states to practice in Connecticut.

I can honestly say that I firmly believe that there has never been such transformative legislation that attempts to get to all those things at once, said state Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire, the co-chair of the legislatures Childrens Committee.

When combined with Senate legislation and a third bill to expand physical and mental health services in schools, lawmakers say their investments in childhood mental health care this session could reach $100 million.

The issue has been cited as a priority for members of both parties, who point to the surge in pediatric patients seeking treatment for mental and behavioral issues at Connecticut hospitals during the pandemic. In March 2021, for example, Yale New Haven Health reported that 42 percent of its pediatric patients had screened at high risk for suicide, up from 16 to 20 percent of patients the previous year, according to the CT Mirror.

While there were mental health issues prior to the pandemic, the issues have been exacerbated and the gaps have been highlighted as a result, said state Rep, Tammy Exum, D-West Hartford.

During several hours of debate over the legislation on Wednesday, Republicans sought to lay some of the blame for rising mental health needs among children with the COVID-19 mitigation strategies, such as requiring facemasks and shifting to remote learning early in the pandemic.

Our kids, in my opinion, have been done a tremendous disservice in the last 18 months, said state Rep. Greg Howard, R-Stonington. "I guess its water under the bridge now, but the problem is our kids are where they are and I think that we owe it to them as a state for what we have done to them.

State Rep. Kimberly Fiorello, R-Greenwich, also voted for the bill, but only after she expressed strong reservations about its scope and last-minute changes that were adopted as the House began its debate Wednesday.

I dont have any faith that all of these things in this bill will actually be accounted for and that we will sunset programs that dont work, Fiorello said. Rather, Im concerned that theyll just keep going and all the new people hired will keep going on, and we have just put in motion this machine of government on the topic of childrens mental health.

Exum, a mother of three who serves as deputy majority leader, ended the lengthy debate on Wednesday with a personal story of her experience taking a young family member for treatment for an eating disorder at Connecticut Childrens Hospital during the pandemic  only to find overcrowded with children seeking care for other mental health issues.

They dont have places to put them because theyre not stable, I saw it, Exum said. And when it was time for me to get my loved one out, we were supposed to have someone meet us at our home and put together a plan. No one showed up.

The reason for the delay, she said, was because of a lack of the kind of intensive outpatient treatment services in Connecticut similar to those that would be offered under the Waterbury pilot program.

That program, which would begin in October, would serve as an alternative to inpatient treatment for children with severe mental health issues, allowing them to go to school and participate in other daily activities.

Linehan said Waterbury was chosen due to its central location in the state. If successful, lawmakers said it could serve as the basis for the expansion of similar programs in other areas of the state.

Staff writer Ken Dixon contributed to this story.
BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Union's executive arm said Wednesday that it wants to see the EU adopt a law to protect journalists and civil rights activists from lawsuits aimed at censoring them.

The European Commission proposed safeguards to curb SLAPPS, or strategic lawsuits against public participation. It described such litigation as a serious threat to democracy and fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression and information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese investigative journalist who was killed in a 2017 car bombing, faced more than 40 lawsuits when she was killed, the commission said.

The proposed law would allow courts to dismiss cases early in the proceedings and puts the burden of proof on the parties bringing lawsuits "to prove that the case is not manifestly unfounded," the commission said.

The suing parties would bear all procedural costs, including the fees of defense lawyers, if a case is dismissed as abusive. Individuals targeted by SLAPPs would also be eligible for compensatory damages.

The anti-SLAPP directive proposed by the European Commission today is a major step forward in the fight against the use of 'gag suits' to intimidate and silence journalists, media freedom organization Reporters Without Borders said.

To take effect, the proposal needs approval from EU member countries and from lawmakers in the European Parliament.

The directive covers SLAPPs in civil matters with cross-borders implications since the EU is not empowered to legislate on strictly national matters. The commission is recommending that member countries apply the proposed rules at the national level.

According to the commission, 439 physical and legal attacks against journalists and media workers took place in 24 EU countries last year.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  The judge overseeing the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz reversed herself Wednesday and said she is not dismissing more than 200 potential jurors who survived a first round of screening earlier this month.

In the latest confusing turn since jury selection began three weeks ago, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer overturned her Monday decision to start jury selection anew because of a possible mistake she made. She had said then that she would throw out 243 potential jurors who said they could serve from June to September, the expected length of the trial.

Now, she said, she will order 11 potential jurors she dismissed on April 5 without questioning to be brought back to court this Monday to be queried by the attorneys. Referring to the 243 potential jurors that had faced dismissal, she said, the first 40 would now be brought back for the start of the second round.

The decision left attorneys from both sides confused, including the lead prosecutor Mike Satz, who served as the Broward County state attorney for 44 years before leaving office last year. He is now working for his successor on a special assignment to lead the Cruz prosecution team. At one point Satz interrupted Scherer to ask her what exactly her plan was.

Scherer has been a judge for 10 years, but is overseeing her first death penalty case. She was appointed shortly after Cruz, 23, murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. She was selected using the random method used in Florida.

Cruz pleaded guilty in October. Scherer, the prosecutors and defense attorneys are picking 12 jurors and eight alternates in a three-step process. Those selected will decide if the former Stoneman Douglas student is sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.

The issue at the core of the dispute arose April 5, the second day of jury selection, over Scherers handling of a group of 60 potential jurors. It was the fifth such panel to appear in court.

With every other group, Scherer only asked if the potential jurors had any hardships that would make it impossible for them to serve from June through September. Those who say they could serve are being told to return next month for further questioning.

With the fifth group, however, Scherer asked if any would not follow the law if chosen  a question that wasn't supposed to be asked until the second or third phase. Twelve hands went up.

Scherer dismissed them without further questioning, drawing an objection from both prosecutors and Cruzs attorneys. They wanted to make sure they were not simply trying to avoid jury service. Florida jury candidates are always questioned before dismissal.

Scherer tried to have the jurors returned, but all except one had left the courthouse. She said the Broward County Sheriffs Office would deliver summonses to the other 11 to come back to court this past Monday, but that was not done for unexplained reasons.

She originally said they would be told to return next week, but prosecutors convinced her over defense objections to start the process anew and dismiss all 243 jurors who had been selected to that point. The prosecution argued that Scherer's error was so great that if Cruz gets a death sentence, an appellate court could overturn it and order a retrial. The defense wanted her to suspend proceedings until the 11 could be brought in next week.

That led the defense to file a motion Wednesday alleging that Cruz's constitutional rights to due process and against double jeopardy had been violated. They accused Scherer and prosecutors of acting in bad faith and wanted her to immediately sentence Cruz to life, throwing out the death penalty. Prosecutors angrily called that accusation baseless.

Scherer called the defense's motion a stretch and dismissed it, but that's when she reversed herself.

Scherer then told both sides to work together over the next few days to devise how they want to proceed starting Monday. It remained unclear what will happen with 155 jurors who passed the first round this week and whether they will be brought back next month. If they are still in play, that would give the lawyers a pool of nearly 400 to winnow through.

The jurors eventually selected will decide whether aggravating factors  the multiple deaths, Cruzs planning and his cruelty  outweigh mitigating factors such as the defendants lifelong mental and emotional problems, possible sexual abuse and the death of his parents.

For Cruz to receive the death penalty, the jury must vote unanimously for that option. If one or more jurors vote against it, he will be sentenced to life without parole.
John Hinckley Jr., the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in Washington D.C. in 1981, was scheduled to perform his music at a show at the Space Ballroom in Hamden on July 16. But, the concert was marked as cancelled as of April 27.

Manic Presents, which promotes shows at the Space Ballroom, announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday that the show "has been cancelled." The show's event page has also been updated to reflect the cancellation.

The venue did not respond to requests for comment.

Last December, Hinckley announced on Twitter that he had started his own record label, Emporia Records. The following month, he tweeted that he was looking for a bass player, drummer and lead guitarist for his new band. The Hamden show was a scheduled stop on his "Redemption Tour," which will see him perform shows in Chicago and Brooklyn, the latter of which is sold out.

Hinckley would have been playing music that he has written and released in the past year. He released his first set of singles in October of 2021 to streaming services and released a single on April 25. According to the bio on the Space Ballroom's website, Hinckley now lives in Williamsburg, Va.

Hinckley is known for his assassination attempt on Reagan on March 30, 1981. The shooting left Reagan, a police officer and a secret service agent injured while also critically wounding Press Secretary James Brady, who became permanently disabled from the incident and later died from complications years later.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to institutional psychiatric care at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington. In 2016, Hinckley was released from St. Elizabeth's Hospital after it was determined that he "no longer presents a danger to himself or others," according to NPR.

Last year, a judge agreed to lift all remaining restrictions on Hinckley starting this June, according to the New York Times.

Before Hinckley's assassination attempt on Reagan, he was accused of going to New Haven to stalk actress Jodie Foster, who attended Yale University. Hinckley was said to be "obsessed" with the actress after watching her in "Taxi Driver" and confessed in a letter that the attempt was made to impress Foster, Rolling Stone reported.
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NEW YORK (AP)  People of Japanese descent are gearing up for their first-ever parade in New York City, taking their place among the lineup of groups that celebrate their heritage with marches through the United States' most populous city.

Set for May 14, the Japan Day parade comes amid activism following a wave of anti-Asian attacks during the coronavirus pandemic, and solidarity is part of the parade's message. But planning began well before the emergence of COVID-19.

Organizers initially aimed to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, but the virus postponed their plans.

That creates big momentum to make it better, to celebrate the recovery from the pandemic, as well as appreciation from the Japanese community to the city of New York," Ambassador Mikio Mori, the Japanese consul-general in New York, said at a press preview Wednesday.

The parade stands to boost visibility for the New York metropolitan areas Japanese and Japanese American community. At roughly 56,000, the New York area has the nation's fourth-largest Japanese population, behind those of Honolulu, Los Angeles and San Francisco, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.

There has been a Japan Day festival in Central Park for some years, but organizers felt they could reach more people by bringing it onto the streets.

Counting more than 1,700 participants, the parade of dance troupes, music ensembles, martial arts groups and more is set to proceed along Manhattan's Central Park West, a boulevard also used in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Actor, author and activist George Takei will be the grand marshal.

Tak Furumoto, for one, is looking forward to it all.

Born in a California camp where people of Japanese descent were incarcerated during World War II, Furumoto grew up partly in Hiroshima  where his grandparents had survived the United States' atom bomb in 1945  and partly in Los Angeles. He joined the U.S. Army, fought in Vietnam and dealt for years with post-traumatic stress disorder and the effects of exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange, he said.

We have overcome so many difficulties ... to bridge the gap between Japan and the United States," said Furumoto, who now runs a real estate agency. The parade brings out that us Asian Americans are a very vital and important part of New York.
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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)  A woman arrested in the kidnapping of a 3-month-old baby from his San Francisco Bay Area home is a friend of the family and was present when a man abducted the baby while his grandmother unloaded groceries, police said Wednesday.

Yesenia Ramirez, 43, had driven the child and his grandmother on a shopping trip and had been communicating with Jose Portillo before he entered the second floor San Jose apartment and took the baby Monday, San Jose Police Sgt. Christian Camarillo said.
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NEW HAVEN  Isidor Juda never thought he would see it again.

Juda, 100, escaped into Switzerland from his home in Vienna as the Nazis gained military and political power in the early years of the Holocaust. Juda, who arrived in the United States in 1940 to work a job lined up for him by paternal relatives in New Jersey after the arduous process of obtaining a travel visa, said he sees the same patterns repeating themselves in Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

This time he believes Germany is on the right side of history, having agreed recently to send heavy weapons to Ukraine  which Juda said is how western nations should be responding.

On Wednesday, the day of the Jewish Holocaust memorial day Yom HaShoah, Juda told his story to fifth- and sixth-graders at John C. Daniels School of International Communication  leaving out the most macabre details he remembers because of the age of his audience.

The kids have to know. Survivors are fading away very quickly, Juda said. If we dont tell the story to the young people its going to be forgotten.

Juda explained to the students that his childhood in Vienna generally was happy, with Jews such as his family being able to live a normal life despite antisemitism. He said it was in 1934, when Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated, that Austria had its first experience with Nazism. Four years later, he said, he was headed to the subway station when he encountered Adolf Hitlers motorcade after Germany annexed Austria. From then on, there was a dramatic change, he said, as he was made to drop out of business school for fear of his life and neighbors would sporadically be rounded up and disappeared by brownshirts.

In August 1938, Juda said, he made the decision to flee. Knowing his parents would not approve out of concern for his safety, he lied about going to the hospital to have a hand injury looked at before heading to Switzerland with the clothes on his back and some money his father had kept secretly stashed. He intended for his final destination before traveling to the U.S. would be Italy.

Juda lied his way past brownshirt guards onto a train, where he had only the money to go as far as Salzburg. While attempting to cross a bridge, he was stopped by brownshirt guards who said they were putting him on a train back to Vienna  although Juda soon would realize the train was headed to a concentration camp.

He said by a stroke of apparent luck that he cannot explain to this day, the train slowed for long enough that Juda took the chance to jump off. He said he recognized his location as a city where his family would ski in the wintertime. He climbed a mountain for two to three hours before coming across a herder who took him in for the night and took him to the border the next day, pointing him to a clearing where there were no guards or fences.

Juda arrived as a political immigrant in Switzerland, where he remained for about two years before receiving the travel paperwork he needed. When he arrived in the U.S., he was surprised to see his family had arrived  although he learned that the day after he left home that brownshirts had come to his familys apartment to apprehend him in retaliation for a skirmish with a non-Jewish classmate.

In 1942, Juda was drafted into the U.S. Army and fought Japanese forces in the Philippines; for his service, he was awarded a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and a presidential citation.

How did your journey affect you as a person? asked student Joshua Flores.

I had to take chances, Juda said. I was 16 years old but the only way Id survive was by taking chances.

Student Payton Erodici asked Juda how he managed to rebuild his life after fleeing Vienna. Juda said he only did what he had to do to survive.

Joshua, 11, said he liked hearing Judas story because it can encourage people to understand these issues.

Teacher Jody Perrilli said she has been teaching the historical nonfiction book Hanas Suitcase to her students for about 12 years as part of a Holocaust education unit. Having Juda speak to her students helps bring it to life, she said.

They dont know how lucky they are to meet a survivor, she said. It puts things into perspective for when they reach high school and learn about the Holocaust again.

Payton, 11, said she found Hanas Suitcase to be inspiring, and she appreciated hearing about the Holocaust from a survivor.

Kathy Barkin, a pre-K teacher at the school, has had a relationship with Juda to bring him to the school annually  a tradition that had been derailed for a few years because of the pandemic.

As a Jewish person, I feel compelled to do this, she said. As kids realize it happened to many peoples and it shouldnt happen again, its happening again in Ukraine.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
Contributed / Connecticut State Police

PROSPECT  Connecticut State Police said they have charged a Waterbury man in the robbery of a local bank last month after he was recognized by a Waterbury police detective.

Robert James Creighton, 34, was arrested Tuesday on a single count of second-degree robbery, according to state police. Court records indicate he is being held on $250,000 bond in the case. Creighton also has a number of cases pending, according to the states judiciary website.
Former Senate President and presidential aspirant, Anyim Pius Anyim, has stated that due to his experience in politics, he isnt going to ...

Former Senate President and presidential aspirant, Anyim Pius Anyim, has stated that due to his experience in politics, he isnt going to learn on the job if elected President.

The meeting which was held on Tuesday night in Abuja was in continuation of Anyims interface with critical stakeholders in the party regarding his presidential bid.

Anyim, who was also Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said this while meeting with former ministers who had served under the Peoples Democratic Party.

Speaking to the group under the auspices of Forum of Former PDP Ministers, Anyim stated that he has the singular advantage of not coming to learn on the job when he is elected President in 2023.

A statement made available on Wednesday quoted the former Senate President as saying, There is one thing that I have which many do not have. I have lived in Abuja for 33 years. And I have spent all my life working around the presidency. When I worked as a civil servant, it was in two parastatals in the presidency.

As President of the Senate, I worked along with the President of the country. When I worked as SGF, that was the engine room of the presidency where all of you served, providing the fire.

Anyim also reminded the former ministers that they have come a long way together.

There is one thing I have which other aspirants dont. There is no minister here who didnt serve in government with me. None! It is either you served with me when I was President of the Senate or SGF. So, for me, this is truly homecoming, he said.
Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, a special prayer is to be held on Thursday, April 28, for the National Leader of the All Progress...

Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, a special prayer is to be held on Thursday, April 28, for the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress and presidential aspirant, Bola Tinubu, in Mecca.

It was gathered that the session tagged Special Tawaf for Asiwaju would commence at 12 noon with participants wearing their ihram (sacred dress of Muslim pilgrims) attire.

In a copy of the invitation card obtained on Tuesday evening, participants are expected to converge on the King Abdulaziz Gate, Saudi Arabia.

Tawaf refers to encircling the Kaabah seven times in an anti-clockwise direction as part of Umrah or Hajj while supplicating.

The session is to commence by 12 noon and would be conducted around Kaabah at the centre of Islams most important mosque, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Participants are to wear the ihram attire and congregate at the King Abdulaziz Gate.

The Tawaf is expected to be attended by some Islamic scholars and political leaders from Nigeria, including the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, a statement from the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Eromosele Ebhomele, said.

The statement made available to our correspondent was titled, 2023 election: Special Tawaf to Hold in Mecca for Tinubu.

Obasa was quoted as saying the event was also to thank God for the former governor of Lagos ahead of the presidential election.

According to Obasa, all those expected to partake in the Tawaf have the faith that God would ensure peaceful electioneering and victory for Tinubu.

We have come to seek the favour of Allah and His blessings for Asiwaju in the coming election. We are not testing Allahs will and power but soliciting His blessings, support and anointing because Allah is sufficient for us.

We are doing this in support of Asiwajus presidential ambition.

Having consulted widely and across the country, we strongly believe that every other thing required for the success of the election and victory for Asiwaju are in the hand of Almighty Allah, the Speaker said while urging other Muslims and well-meaning Nigerians to join the session.
Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, has appointed Alhaji Muntari Lawal, his Chief of Staff, as acting Secretary to the State Government (S...





Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, has appointed Alhaji Muntari Lawal, his Chief of Staff, as acting Secretary to the State Government (SSG).





This was contained in a statement signed by the Director-General, New Media to the governor, Alhaji Al-Amin Isa on Wednesday in Katsina.





Isa said that Lawal would replace Alhaji Mustapha Inuwa, who resigned as the SSG to join the state governorship race.





Recall that Inuwa, had last week resigned his appointment as Secretary to the Government of Katsina State as part of the preparation to contest for the state governorship position.





He is hoping to be the governorship flag-bearer for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and by extension, the state Governor come 2023.
Benue State Governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, has denied borrowing money from his former Chief of Staff, Hon. Terwase Orbunde to prosecute his 201...





Benue State Governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, has denied borrowing money from his former Chief of Staff, Hon. Terwase Orbunde to prosecute his 2015 governorship elections.





Orbunde had in a letter dated 16th April, 2022, requested that the Governor reimbursed him to the tune of N160m, which he claimed he invested in Ortoms governorship campaign in All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014.





According to him, the amount was proceeds of his property in Wuye, Abuja which he allegedly sold at that time; adding that, he would be needing the money to move his family out of the official apartments given to him in Commissioners Quarters, Makurdi.





But Ortom, via his reply dated 23rd April, 2022, denied knowledge of any investment in his 2015 campaigns to the tune of N160m from his erstwhile Chief of Staff, even though he obliged to offer any kind of help to Orbunde, just as he has always been doing.





The fact that we worked together in 2014 to realize my Governorship ambition cannot be over-emphasised. However, as the Chief Visioner, I was always aware and in control of all the interventions from friends and associates aimed at prosecuting my elections and such were always acknowledged. I really cannot recall when we discussed and you made available or invested the sum of One Hundred and Sixty Million Naira (N160,000,000.00) in my campaign or election in 2015 or at any other time at all.





As my political ally, if this request is coming from you for assistance, it would be understood and I can always assist as usual to the best of my ability. I am rather surprised that this appeal for reimbursement is coming after seven (7) years of my becoming Governor of Benue State and therefore, I consider same as made in bad faith, to say the least, Ortom said in his reply.





It would be recalled that, Orbunde, a native of Kwande Local Government Area, after resigning his appointment as Ortoms Chief of Staff late last year, went into the contest for Benue State Governorship in the 2023 elections.





He was, however, not favoured in the just concluded consensus arrangements by the Tiv stakeholders, as the position was rather zoned to the neighbouring Vandeikya Local Government Area, with the Speaker of Benue House of Assembly, RT. Hon. Titus Uba emerging from the area.
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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Two homegrown Omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed by Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech have been approved for clinical trials by China's top drug regulator, the two companies said on Tuesday. If the trial proceeds successfully, the experimental vaccine from Sinopharm will likely be used as a third or fourth booster shot for fully vaccinated people age 18 and older, the company said. China National Biotech Group, a subsidiary of Sinopharm, said in a statement released on its website that the vaccine was already cleared for clinical trials in Hong Kong on April 13. CNBG is the developer behind two vaccines widely used in China and worldwide. It began research into a vaccine targeting the Omicron variant in early December. Preclinical studies and animal trials have shown the new vaccine can induce high levels of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron and several other variants, the company said. It added that clinical trials will be rolled out among people age 18 and older who have already been vaccinated with two or three doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Sinovac Biotech also said on Tuesday its upgraded vaccine was granted the greenlight to launch clinical trials in Hong Kong on April 14, and it got clearance on the Chinese mainland on Tuesday. The Omicron strain first emerged in late November and quickly became the dominant strain globally. Compared with the ancestral strain of the novel coronavirus, on which existing vaccines are based, scientists have found the highly mutated variant is better at evading immunity from past infections or vaccinations. The discovery prompted global vaccine makers to upgrade current vaccines and tailor them to tackle Omicron. Zheng Zhongwei, head of China's vaccine development task force, said during a forum last week that research into Omicron-specific vaccines must be accelerated in response to the high incidence of breakthrough infections, which are positive cases found in fully vaccinated people. He said three domestically developed vaccines targeting Omicron were on track to begin clinical trials. "We are confident that in the near future, such vaccines will be launched into the market," he said. CNBG has another Omicron-targeted vaccine under development that was also cleared for human trials in Hong Kong this month. Overseas, US pharmaceuticals Pfizer and Moderna have begun testing several Omicron-targeted vaccines and vaccines designed to ward off multiple strains. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said recently that the company hopes to have an updated vaccine ready by this fall, ABC News reported.


MANZINI  To better the salaries of textile and apparel industry workers, some of the employers in the industry are appealing for the reduction of corporate tax to 10 per cent, similarly to the sector in Lesotho.

The employers claim that the reduction of the corporate tax for their sector would assist them in redirecting the finances to the remuneration of their employees. Currently, the textile and apparel industry is marred by industrial action that has lasted over a fortnight in the Shiselweni Region. This follows salary negotiations which fell through, as employers and government supposedly voted for 7.25 per cent increment, much against a 15 per cent demand that was tabled by the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland (ATUSWA) on behalf of the workers.

In addition to this challenge, employers are in the process of seeking unpaid layoffs from the Office of the Labour Commissioner following unprecedented torrential rains in the KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, wherein raw materials were destroyed. The province is critical to the countrys economy as it has a major port used for exports and imports of items in and out of the Kingdom of Eswatini to international clients.

In light of these woes faced by the sector, the employers are appealing for the corporate tax to be reduced from 25 per cent to 10 per cent for the textile sector. This, they argue, would cushion them on the rising costs of the sector, while affording them an opportunity to improve the remuneration of their employees. Some of the employers argued that this was possible from government as it had been done in Lesotho against the backdrop of endless labour actions by workers in that kingdoms (Lesotho) textile sector. The employers said the industry had made strides in being the largest employer in the country.

The employers bemoan that the industry has experienced massive challenges in recent years, which include the introduction of multiple factories in Newcastle, South Africa, which are taking advantage of the new rebate policy in the neighbouring republic. Some of the employers further said due to the rebate policy introduced in South Africa, where the government is encouraging companies to support their local factories, it would be easy for their buyers to discard their services. They said the political environment in Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia could also make them to look for new factories there. It was claimed that the ongoing political challenges in Eswatini posed a great threat to the sector. The employers also raised a concern that the drastic fuel price increase had created a perfect storm that was sending them further into a downward spiral. Their argument was that the increment in the other factors essential to their supply chain meant that their pricing would skyrocket as well. This, they claimed, posed a threat to the sector as this caused them to increase their pricing against what competitors were offering their sectors.

Regime

According to the World Bank, Lesotho applies a favourable fiscal regime for firms engaged in manufacturing activities. These firms are subject to a corporate tax of 10 per cent, compared to 25 per cent for other activities. It is reported that there is also no withholding tax on dividends. Construction companies, as well as hotels and casinos, can also benefit from different tax incentives. Furthermore, other incentives said to be granted to the manufacturing sector are those administered by the Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC), which focuses mainly on investment. The textile and apparel sector is also one of the main beneficiaries of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) rebate 470.03.7.

Under this programme, registered companies are exempted from duties on imports of raw materials from outside SACU, as long as they use these inputs to produce goods destined for export outside the SACU area. If the final goods are exported to the SACU area, exporters must pay the import duties that were initially exempted, according to the LNDC website.

Meanwhile, 33 per cent of emaSwati are employed in the manufacturing sector, which is the same percentage of the working-age population, according to the Eswatini National Skills Audit. It is reported that the manufacturing sector consists of the textile, wearing apparel, beverages and food products subsectors.

The working age population, according to the Integrated Labour Force Survey 2021, is said to be 790 862 and this means about 260 984 people are employed by the manufacturing sector. The study also found that this sector was the only high priority sector that employed more females (82 per cent) than males. However, the majority of those females occupy low-income jobs such as embroiderer, sewing assistant, presser, line feeder, fabric layer, and factory line worker. The study was conducted by Eswatini Economic Policy Analysis and Research Centre (ESERPAC) and it was presented by the former in conjunction with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration said Tuesday it will relocate all remaining tenants of Oakmont Apartments, the 336-unit Algiers complex that is in bankruptcy and has fallen into grim disrepair, overtaken by squatters, vermin, raw sewage, mold and deadly gunfire.

Cantrell said the rare move begins this week. After all tenants leave, which City Hall said will take two weeks, the 16-acre complex will be vacated and secured until myriad code and safety violations are resolved.

The conditions of the Oakmont Apartments have become unsafe and unsanitary for residents due to the owners neglect and lack of concern for his tenants, Cantrell said. It is imperative that we address this problem head-on and relocate the tenants to safe, alternative housing immediately.

Oakmont is the largest of five New Orleans apartment complexes that landlord Joshua Bruno placed under bankruptcy protection in January to avert foreclosure. Bruno did not immediately return a message Tuesday seeking comment on the citys move.

City Hall said it plans to put tenants in hotels for as long as three months while housing navigators search for affordable apartments. The Housing Authority of New Orleans and the nonprofit Unity of Greater New Orleans are among those involved.

Hannah Adams, a Southeast Louisiana Legal Services staff attorney who represents several Oakmont tenants, said all of them want to leave Oakmont at this point. She called the administration's offer extraordinary, saying it provided a full wraparound cushion, including hotel stays, help finding a new home, a deposit and two months of rent to get started.

How much the evacuation plan will cost is uncertain. Cantrell called it not the ideal, but better than leaving tenants in Oakmont. City Hall said it aims to tap federal emergency rental assistance money.

Adams said 100 to 120 tenants who are attached to leases remain at Oakmont. In the meantime, she said, local homeless services organizations have been trying to draw squatters off the property.

The administration cited Bruno last summer for a slew of code violations at Oakmont and nearby Cypress Park, which is also in bankruptcy. Bruno has appealed.

Joined by tenants and advocates with the New Orleans Renters Rights Assembly, the Federal National Mortgage Association is urging U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill to wrest control of the properties from Bruno and appoint a trustee to manage them. Grabill has set a May 23 hearing date.

City Hall in February began offering relocation assistance to the remaining Oakmont tenants, many of whom complaint of rampant mold, rats and sewage that spewed for months from a broken pipe. But Tuesdays announcement marked a dramatic shift, from optional relocation to a forced exit.

People are being forced to leave because of Josh Bruno and Westbank Holdings history of negligence, not because of the city, Adams said.

Bruno asserts he spent millions of dollars fixing up moribund properties, only to see the conditions decline with the coronavirus pandemic beginning in 2020 and further from significant Hurricane Ida damage on Aug. 29. At Oakmont, a sewer line broke in December and was left unfixed for months. Bruno blamed Fannie Mae for stalling insurance payments amid a foreclosure fight.

Fannie Mae has argued that Bruno cant be trusted to manage Oakmont and needs to go fast. While tenants live in squalor, he has transferred millions of dollars from Oakmont and other properties over the past year to various entities he controls, the lender alleges. Attorneys for Fannie Mae argue that $7 million in suspect insider transfers from Brunos rental properties to other entities he controls reveal a severely conflicted judgment.
Few places offer the variety of vibrant city views that New Orleans balconies and terraces bestow. Just ask the lucky home dwellers who have one.

Ken and Lisa Pickering, for example, gaze at the New Orleans skyline from their Algiers Point balcony every morning and evening. Lisa Pickering, a registered nurse, even works on her computer overlooking the Mississippi River from a glass-enclosed room built on their balcony.

The view changes every few minutes, Ken Pickering said. Thats the beauty of it.

From their fourth-floor perch in a condo building, they watch 12-story cruise ships gliding by, tug boats moving barges and ferries toting passengers to and from Canal Street. At nightfall, they see lights glittering from the Crescent City Connection down to the Hibernia Tower building, the moon rising and stars gathering.

Most of the day, fog horns blow mournful blasts, the sounds of jazz drift across the river and people holler greetings from the walking path below. Even the laughing gulls get into the communal action.

Their deafening cries go on most of the day but become more frenzied if Ken Pickering feeds them.

They hear the sound of the patio door opening, Lisa Pickering said, and I swear, they are saying, 'Big Daddy is here.'

But when the suns rays disappear behind the skyline, the gulls stop their chatter. They fly away in unison, leaving a startling silence in their wake.

On the other side of the river, Ellis Anderson and Larry Jaubert see hawks and night herons from their third-floor balcony on Chartres Street. They also have a clear view of Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedrals steeples.

French Quarter sights and sounds differ from the Pickerings Algiers Point scenery. Instead of fathers jogging with baby strollers, Anderson and Jaubert witness a continual stream of weddings, parades and one-of-a-kind sights such as the World Naked Bike Ride. Instead of excitable seagulls, they hear cathedral bells and street music.

Second-lines go by, sometimes two or three a day, Anderson said. When I hear the brass bands, I drop everything to watch.

A more tranquil view keeps Ron and Trisha McAlear feeling at home on St. Charles Avenue. Their sixth-floor, room-sized terrace provides a panoramic view of the skyline from the Uptown side of the city. It encompasses most of downtown New Orleans, from the steel-latticed structure of The National WWII Museums Bollinger Canopy of Peace to the Caesars Superdome. At night, the skyline glows with Central Business District lights and the changing colors of the dome: purple, green and gold for Mardi Gras, green for St. Patricks Day and red, white and blue for the Fourth of July.

This is the wow feature, Ron McAlear said. When people come out here, they say, 'Wow.'

Not only do the three couples share the joys of living with a good view, they also share the grounding effect that their views bring.

The McAlears have owned 17 homes during their many years of marriage  in Gretna, Harvey, Uptown, Old Metairie, Mandeville and the CBD in the New Orleans area and others in Alabama, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Some of the moves were driven by Ron McAlears career as a marine architect, and some were driven by sheer restlessness.

Trisha McAlear said their daughter used to tell friends that her parents moved when the baseboards got dusty.

Not anymore.

But it took a panoramic view of New Orleans skyline to get them to stay put.

Now retired, they have lived in their St. Charles condo and its enviable terrace for nine years. And even though they decamp for the cooler climes of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the summer months, New Orleans remains close to their hearts.

We keep a footprint in New Orleans. This is our roots, Ron McAlear said. This is where our daughter was born.

They bought the two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,480-square-foot condo sight unseen because it had a terrace.

They had sold their 3,000-square-foot condo on Common Street in the CBD, and gone to Cape Cod to wait for the perfect condo to come along. Their real estate agent called about the one on St. Charles, and they said yes.

It was not love at first sight.

I opened the door and it was more like, oh, no, Trisha McAlear said. What came out of my mouth, I dont think could be put in print. It was, what were we thinking?

Nasty carpets everywhere. Columns of mirrors, mirrors wrapped around door jams. It was like we were in Marrakesh, she said.

We walked out to the terrace, she said, and forgot about the carpet. Ron said 'we can fix this,' and we did.

The only real problem was that a beloved, oversized china cabinet didnt fit in the elevator or in the twisting stairways. The mover offered suggestions: have a helicopter place the cabinet on the terrace, use a crane from St. Charles Avenue to take it up, or cut the cabinet in half and reconstruct it once inside. They chose the latter.

Now the cabinet displays its treasures just inside the terrace doors near the kitchen.

Ken Pickering had a similar dilemma when he bought his condo on Algiers Point 21 years ago with his first wife, the late Marguerite. The lawyer and former commissioner of Louisianas Office of Financial Institutions had built what he calls a country club home when his children were young, but when they became adults, he decided it was time to downsize.

He wanted the Algiers Point condo because of the view, but Marguerite had protested. Too many hallways. Not enough closet space. Scaling down to 1,800 square feet, including the balcony, was a challenge.

They had solved some of those problems by removing a hallway and bedroom to create a one-bedroom, two-and-half-bath home with a dining room and open kitchen. An extra closet was carved out of their storage space on a different floor.

A few years after Marguerites death, Ken Pickering married Lisa LeBlanc, and a new problem developed. She needed a home office. There was no room to spare, so he carved space out of the narrow balcony.

Andersons 700-square-foot apartment fulfilled every need when she saw it in 2018. At the time, she was writing a creative thesis for a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Orleans about her younger years working as a street musician in the French Quarter.

She and her husband own homes in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama, but she felt she needed to live part-time in the French Quarter to help reconstruct her youth for the memoir.

I had missed it, she said of her French Quarter days. She left the Quarter in the late 1990s to open an art gallery in Bay St. Louis. I had always wanted to come back, and the memoir was the perfect justification.

She found the apartment through Quarter-residing friends and fell in love with it right away. The 12-foot ceilings, fireplace mantels, floor-to-ceiling windows, and wood floors resemble something Tennessee Williams might have rented when he arrived in 1938.

We were delighted, especially since my husband is an architect, to live in an apartment with so many original features preserved, Anderson said.

Later, when she started publishing the digital magazine French Quarter Journal, the balcony became a business hub. She shoots videos of Quarter life from it.

We have this great vista of the sky over the quarter, Anderson said. Ive told my landlord I want to keep it until he has to drag me out by calling 911.
As locals rush to grab tickets and map out their days for the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in almost three years, health officials are preparing to measure what happens behind closed doors: specifically, the blue plastic doors of the portable toilets, where the sludge collected each night may act as an early warning sign of a COVID outbreak.

The 7-day festival, which starts Friday at the Fair Grounds, will be one of the first sites to be tested in a $19 million project to track coronavirus particles in wastewater. Public health officials plan to sample sewage at 100 different locations to better understand how waste can be used to track disease, according to officials at the Louisiana Department of Health.

While the focus of the testing during Jazz Fest is to determine how an influx of tourists might affect the rate of COVID in New Orleans, eventually the state hopes to use the system to track other things, including influenza, salmonella, hepatitis A, opioid use and drug-resistant superbugs like Candida Auris.

It has the potential to be used quite broadly across infectious disease surveillance and other non-infectious conditions or health concerns, said state epidemiologist Theresa Sokol.

Using wastewater to track disease

Louisiana joins a growing number of states implementing large wastewater surveillance networks. Though the scale of surveillance is novel, wastewater tracking is not a new technology. It was first used to measure cholera in the 1800s and later to detect diseases like polio and hepatitis A in the United States.

More and more institutions are now using it as an early indicator of the rise of COVID infections in a community, including colleges in Louisiana. An increase in virus particles found in wastewater has preceded every surge, said Tiong Gim Aw, an assistant professor at Tulane University who studies wastewater surveillance and is advising the state on the project.

Particles shed from feces, saliva and urine often show up before symptoms and may be a more accurate measure of the virus, since many people are now using at-home tests.

Its one of the useful public health tools to monitor the prevalence of infection within a community, especially now that we see less clinical testing and more in-home testing, which is not reported to the public database, Aw said.

How it will work

The state is about one-third of the way through a 12-week pilot program, which started in March. Officials have been collecting baseline samples of sewage from the neighborhoods surrounding the Fair Grounds, as well as a manhole in Armstrong Park, which captures sewage from the French Quarter. Ten sites in total are included in the pilot program, mostly concentrated in New Orleans, including Little Woods, Algiers, Central City and St. Roch.

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The state will use these samples to get a sense of how much virus has been circulating in the city prior to Jazz Fest. Samples collected during and after the festival will be compared to understand how tourism impacts the spread of coronavirus.

The samples are collected each hour over a 24-hour period using a water cooler-sized container suspended into the manhole. Those samples are then mixed together within the container, and a smaller sample is extracted from it and genetically tested for the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the wastewater. The samples will be take twice per week.

The project will help inform the bigger task at hand: selecting 100 sites across the state for ongoing surveillance.

The city has signed a contract for $19 million with CDM Smith, a Boston-based engineering and construction company, which will handle the collection and analysis from start to finish. The contract is just for COVID tracking and is through 2024, said Sokol. But funding the state receives to combat other diseases, such as the flu or addiction, could be used to continue surveillance for those issues in the future.

Challenges await

Setting up a large wastewater surveillance isnt like flipping a light switch, state officials said. Sokol estimates it will take until September to start getting information from the planned statewide network. Already, nursing homes, K-12 schools, prisons and homeless shelters are on the list of places the state would like to track.

Selecting the sites has to take practical considerations into account, said Lee Mendoza, director of health informatics at the Louisiana Department of Health. A manhole on a busy road without easy access for collection, for example, might exclude a site. The state is not taking applications from interested institutions, but is basing selection factors like whether they have an existing partnership in certain regions and in neighborhoods that were hit harder by COVID thus far.

We see this as a way to potentially address health disparities and health equity, said Sokol.

The number of storms that cause flooding are also a challenge the state will need to take into account, said Aw, because rainwater can dilute samples. Areas that rely mainly on septic systems, such as the Northshore, wont be able to participate, since that water does not flow through the sewer system.

While wastewater cannot entirely replace other monitoring systems, it is a valuable snapshot of communities on a smaller scale that might allow for recommendations better suited to the situation, such as masking for a nursing home with a spike in levels.

Eventually, the state envisions a dashboard similar to the one the state has set up to track COVID cases, where residents could read infection levels like a weather report.

A huge part of this is informing people of the risk and so that they can make the best decisions about how to protect themselves, Sokol said.
Elizabeth Privitera held up a black leather ball cap with a dime-sized hole in the back, the exact spot where a bullet penetrated Milton Womacks skull.

Moments earlier, during her closing argument in federal court in New Orleans, the prosecutor turned toward the four defendants, asking jurors to find the men guilty of conspiring and gunning down Womack on July 27, 2012, in Gentilly.

They are killers, Privitera said as she pointed to the defense table. They are not victims like their attorneys want you to believe. There is only one victim in this trial, and that is Milton Womack.

Jurors agreed. On Wednesday, after 2 days of deliberation, they found Louis Age Jr., Louis Age III, Ronald Wilson Jr. and Stanton Guillory guilty of murder for hire and conspiracy to commit murder, in addition to a bevy of other crimes connected to Womack's death. They face mandatory punishment of life in prison at their sentencing, which U.S. District Judge Barry Ashe scheduled for Aug. 4.

A tangled web

The government said Age. Jr. was the hub of a tangled web of greed and arrogance leading to Womacks death. In 2011, Age Jr. as well as several relatives and associates were accused of filing fraudulent home health care claims through his business, South Louisiana Home Care.

Hes the one this case begins and ends with, Privitera told jurors.

Womack, too, was part of the $17.1 million scheme, recruiting patients, prosecutors said. But Womack struck a plea deal with the government, making him a federal witness against Age and the others.

Age saw the deal as a threat, prosecutors said, and ordered a hit on the 60-year-old Womack, offering to pay for the slaying. To carry out his homicidal wishes, he relied on his son, Age III; a family friend, Ronald Wilson; and a member of the New Orleans Young Mafia Fellaz street gang, Stanton Guillory, prosecutors said. Age III contacted Wilson, who connected the younger Age to Guillory, who pulled the trigger.

Womacks killing, however, was for naught: Age Jr. was convicted in 2013 of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, among other crimes, and sentenced to 15 years behind bars. He and his accomplices stole $17.1 million from Medicare.

Witnesses connect the dots

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At the trial of Womack's accused killers, prosecutors showed evidence connecting the defendants: Call logs between Wilson and Age III, for example, and a transcript from a recorded jailhouse call Guillory made to a friend, in which the friend tells Guillory to ask Big Lou, or Age III, for the money that Age III owed Guillory.

But they also relied heavily on the testimony of several witnesses, including Age Jr.s daughter, Ayanna Age, who was implicated in the Medicare fraud case and accepted a plea deal that required her to testify in the trial against her family. She has yet to be sentenced for her role in the fraud.

Ayanna Age described how the plot to kill Womack unfolded slowly, as they at first tried to silence him through threats and cash payouts. When that didnt work and Womack accepted his plea deal, she said, their plans turned to murder.

Daughter is blamed

Defense attorneys tried to discredit Age and other witnesses, saying they fabricated their stories in hopes of leniency when it came to their own sentences. For example, Ayanna Age had hired Womack to participate in the Medicare fraud scheme, paying him to recruit patients, said Richard Bourke, Age Jr.s defense attorney.

All the evidence points to Ayanna, Bourke said.

And although Age testified that she had texted with Wilson about the killing, defense attorney Anna Friedberg highlighted that prosecutors did not present those texts as evidence. Thats because the messages would have proven Ronald Wilson didnt participate in the conspiracy, and prosecutors theory about this conspiracy is wrong, Friedberg told the jurors.

Steven Lemoine, defense attorney for Age III, pointed to another witness, a family relative, who had testified Ayanna Age was a liar with a history of mental health issues, before poking holes in other witnesses stories. If the jurors couldnt believe them, he asked, what do you have?

Defense attorney Kerry Cuccia, who represents Guillory, said some of those other witnesses - including two teens who were with Guillory when he shot Womack -benefited significantly by testifying against their friend, earning reduced sentences by cooperating.

Privitera asked jurors to look not at witnesses individually but at their stories holistically.

This trial is not about any one witness; its about all of them, she said. They each brought you bits and pieces of the evidence, and they each proved these four men were the killers.
Two men who were seen while allegedly masturbating in their vehicles while parked at shopping centers in the Covington area have been arrested, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office said.

A woman reported that a man parked next to her in a shopping center parking lot off U.S. 190 near Covington on April 12 and began masturbating as he watched her, the news release said. The Sheriff's Office was able to identify the suspect, Austin St. Cyr, 22, of Tangipahoa Parish, with the help of tips generated by a photo posted on social media.

The news release did not say where on U.S. 190 the lot was located.

St. Cyr turned himself in Wednesday after learning there was a warrant for his arrest. He was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail on one count of felony obscenity.

In the second incident, a woman called the Sheriff's Office Tuesday evening to report that she saw a man masturbating in his vehicle while parked at a shopping center off Louisiana 21 in the Covington area.

Deputies found Thomas Beall, 37, of Alexandria, naked in his vehicle, the news release said.

He initially refused to give his name, and was booked into the jail on obscenity, resisting arrest and having an open container.
MBABANE  The current confusion over the implementation of the bus fare hike is a cause for concern among commuters.

Commuters who were interviewed by this publication at the Mbabane Bus Rank yesterday raised numerous concerns and anger over the jumbled up bus fare hikes by the public transport operators. The commuters said some of the public transport workers were charging them different fares on the same route. They said when one took a kombi in the morning when going to work they paid a different amount to that paid in the afternoon when returning home. One of the commuters who travelled from Nkoyoyo, said in one kombi she would pay E12.50, but when bordering another she would be charged E12.80. The commuter said this often caused too much argument as to how much exactly they were supposed to pay.

Andile Maseko from Ezulwini said as commuters, they felt robbed as sometimes they fought with the conductors over change because they did not know exactly how much they had to pay. He said as he always commuted from Ezulwini to Manzini for work in the morning, he would sometimes pay E20 in other kombis, while others would charge him E26. He said it was even worse when he travelled from Manzini to Mbabane because sometimes he would pay E30 or E34. Maseko asked for the responsible stakeholders to regulated the fares because the jumbled up prices affected commuters when budgeting. Nomsa Lukhele, who travels from Bhunya to Siphocosini, said in her route they were sometimes charged E20 or E26, which was confusing to them as to how much was the actual cost to travel on the said route.

Concern

Lukhele said another concern was that the bus fare hike was implemented in the middle of the month, which made it difficult for them to adjust. She wished that the hike should have been implemented at least at the beginning of May in order to allow them to prepare themselves as commuters. During a visit to the bus rank, it was noted that some of the public transport workers were still charging the old fares. One of the routes where passengers were still paying the old fares was Mbabane to Maphalaleni, where it was E20 per trip. Another route that was still charging the old fares was Mbabane to Nhlangano, where buses were charging E60 or E70 for Muhle Tours alone. Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that buses were retaining their fares until their operators met today wherein they would all have an input on the next step, according to the President of the Buses Association, Duma Msibi.

Msibi said this followed that a meeting that was set to discuss the fares on Monday fell through due to rains. He said their meeting, which would have decided also on the grace period for commuters was postponed to today. He encouraged all bus owners countrywide to converge at Madoda Centre at 10am today for their meeting. This will help us take a decision and each bus owners input will help us have a collective voice on the way forward, he said. He was then asked which fares were they charging at this instance following that the Eswatini Government Extraordinary, No. 69 of 2022, titled The Maximum Bus and Taxi Fares (Amendment) Regulations 2022, was published on Friday (April 22, 2022). The publication of the gazette, according to the Director of Works in the Ministry Public Works and Transport, Mduduzi Lukhele, gives public transport owners the power to charge the new fares with immediate effect.

Notification

Lukhele said having a period to notify commuters of the new prices was a courtesy extended by the public transport operators to their clients in an effort to ensure that they did not get surprised by the new fares. On the other hand, the gazette states that it is an amendment of Legal Notice No.1 of 2020 as it offers a reviewed price list. It states that a charge for any journey that shall be up to eight kilometres (km) shall be E10, while an additional amount of E0.70 shall be accumulated per additional km. It further states that a charge of E0.66 for a journey in excess of 50km shall be added. In light of these new price adjustments, some public transport operators had already effected them without the publication of the gazette. This was much against the norm wherein the different public transport associations met and discussed the new fares before being implemented.

Swaziland Local Transport Association (SLTA) National Chairperson Ambrose Dlamini conceded to the anomaly. He said the introduction of the new bus fares had brought confusion.

Dlamini said their fear was that the untidiness of the implementation of the new fares could lead to challenges within the bus rank. Making an example, he said: The buses were supposed to meet on Monday to deliberate on the gazette and before this meeting; they are still charging the old fares. What happens now when one mode of transport is cheaper, while another is expensive yet they are at the same rank? Dlamini said the manner in which the prices were implemented was a challenge.

He said under normal circumstances, the public transport operators would agree among themselves on the grace period to be accorded commuters and also the minimum amounts to be charged. He was responding to a question on whether public transport operators had agreed on which date to implement the new fares, given that the new fares were announced mid-month when commuters had already prepared their budgets. Given the challenges Ive stated to you, I have no answer, he said.
The European Union and the United Kingdom both issued vague warnings to Tesla CEO Elon Musk on content moderation following his recent takeover of Twitter.

Regardless of ownership, all social media platforms must be responsible, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnsons office told the BBC, without elaborating.

Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules  regardless of their shareholding, Thierry Breton, commissioner for the internal market at the EU executive, wrote in a thinly veiled warning on Twitter.

It came about a month after the European Union in late March agreed to new Internet rules to overhaul the digital market, including regulating how Big Tech companies operate.

As Musk confirmed he would be purchasing Twitter for $44 billion, he wrote a statement saying free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. His statement was criticized by left-wing users, who alleged he would be opening up the platform to so-called extremist viewpoints.

Before the deal was officially confirmed Monday, Musk wrote that I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.

During a TED talk earlier this month, Musk said that if there is any doubt about the content, let the speech exist. If its a gray area, I would say, let the tweet exist. But obviously in the case where theres perhaps a lot of controversy, you would not necessarily want to promote that tweet, he said.

Previously, Musk has expressed alarm over Twitters content moderation policies, suggesting theyre tantamount to political censorship.

In recent years, Twitter has fielded criticism from conservatives and others who have said the company has engaged in censoring viewpoints that go against the mainstream.

Notably, former President Donald Trump was suspended from the social media site after the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, coming as Twitter spokespeople claimed he was using the platform to incite violence, although it did not provide evidence for its claims. Months later, skeptics of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, including prominent doctors, were suspended from Twitter as the company alleged they violated its content policies regarding the virus.

On Monday and Tuesday, Internet searches for delete Twitter surged as it was confirmed Elon Musk would purchase the site.

The global Google Trends search for the phrase, delete Twitter, appeared to spike starting on Monday, while several tech websites published articles about how to delete a Twitter account.

Also on Monday, Musk said he would be making Twitters algorithm open-source and enacting policies to curb what he described as automated spam accounts.

The SpaceX founder also said he wants to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features that includes authenticating all humans.

After Twitters board said Musk would purchase the site, its not clear what the next steps are, or if current CEO Parag Agrawal will remain with the company.

From The Epoch Times
MBABANE  Patients are dying due to the shortage of nurses. Please do something.

This was a plea made by nurses who claimed that patients were dying in hospitals while giving birth due to the shortage of health workers in the country. This was revealed by members of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) yesterday who were denied access to the Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Dlamini, as he was reported to be busy and could not have a face-to-face engagement with them. The nurses had gone to the Cabinet Offices to deliver a petition demanding the employment of more nurses. The Acting Cabinet Principal Secretary, Nokuthula Stewart, welcomed the SWADNU representatives and informed them that she would receive their petition on behalf of the PM because he was attending meetings at Cabinet yesterday. However, this seemingly did not go down well with the nurses, who said their aim was to engage the PM as the situation was dire in hospitals. They said they had delivered many petitions to government; to the ministries of Health and Public Service, but not much had been done.

Closed

The nurses told the acting PS that there were no health workers in hospitals, which had led to some facilities like the Isolation Department at the Mbabane Government Hospital being closed. They also informed the acting PS that Zindwendweni, Lundzi and Bulandzeni clinics were not operating due to the shortage of health workers. The nurses said they tried on several occasions to engage the Minister of Health, Lizzie Nkosi, the principal secretary in the ministry and the Ministry of Public Service to address the matter but their efforts were futile. They said it was because of that reason that they were demanding to meet the PM face-to-face other than delivering a written petition to him. When probed on the supposed deaths recorded in hospitals due to the shortage of nurses, SWADNU President Welcome Mdluli alleged that two women died at the Mbabane Government Hospital after giving birth recently. Mdluli alleged that the women died due to excessive bleeding as no healthcare workers were present to monitor them.

Those present were supposedly overstretched as they assisted other patients. Mdluli did not wish to give specifications of the matter, save to say that the situation on the ground was dire.

He said about 410 healthcare workers contracts expired at the end of March 2022 and the nurses were then told through WhatsApp messages not to report for duty the next day. He said they were surprised because no formal or legal procedure was followed in this regard. Mdluli said they spoke to the minister about the issue and she ordered all those nurses to report to their various workstations, but they got no assistance. He said what was frustrating the most was that the permanent nurses were forced to do work which was not part of their specialisation, posing a danger to patients.

Mdluli further said apart from the nurses who were out of contract, there was also a shortage of another 205 due to retirement and death. He said every month they were losing health workers due to various reasons. The president said because of that, the countrys health sector was crumbling. He said a department like the Mbabane Government Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Monday had about 12 workers on duty and things changed yesterday as there were only nine workers who reported for duty as some had to take their days off. The health sector is collapsing every day. As we speak, we have urged some of our colleagues, more especially from the Maternity Ward, not to go on leave in order to assist our mothers and sisters. If we say there are no nurses, we mean it but what can we say, after all nothing is being done?

Shortage

There is no midwife who can assist five women at the same time to give birth accordingly. That is why you will find some women giving birth in corridors because of the shortage of nurses. I cannot even touch on the medication side as it is now regarded as public knowledge, said Mdluli. When Mdluli was asked as to how many healthcare workers they would like the Ministry of Health to hire, he said 500 as a start would be better. He said that would minimise the workload on the nurses and other healthcare workers. The acting PS said the SWADNU representatives, who were about 20 in number, had to make an appointment for another day to see the PM. At first, the representatives said this was not what they wanted, especially because they had delivered many petitions to various stakeholders, with no positive results. Our coming here is a matter of life and death, they informed the acting PS.

Stewart then asked the representatives what would happen if he (PM) concluded his meetings very late.

In response, the nurses representatives said they had no problem waiting for him even if he finished at 10pm. One nurse, who preferred to remain anonymous, said healthcare workers under normal circumstances were supposed to render services to at least 30 patients daily. He, however, said things had changed because of not having enough healthcare workers. He said they found themselves attending to over 70 patients a day, which was draining and causing them fatigue. He said it was possible for any health worker to be found working at the dispensary.

SWADNU further highlighted the dangers faced by other healthcare workers who tried to assist their colleagues in times of emergency. They argued that someone who specialised in the brain could not help a woman to give birth. They said they were afraid of being taken to court because of such. They also stated that the management could find itself guilty for doing work which was not part of their job description. Meanwhile, Minister Nkosi said the process of hiring health workers was still ongoing. She said even though the ministry was hiring, that did not mean that they would not be understaffed. She said interviews were currently ongoing. When the minister was asked about other clinics such as Zindwendweni, Lundzi and Bulandzeni, that were closed due to being understaffed, she said more than 10 facilities were affected due to COVID-19. She said because of that, they had to close some of them.

Facilities

We have about six newly-built health facilities which are also in need of health workers. There is one that we have just finished at Nkomanzi. The exact number of staff needed was communicated on the ground level, said Nkosi. When asked about the supposed deaths at the Mbabane Government Hospital as highlighted by SWADNU, the minister did not wish to comment on that. SWADNU was later on the day told to submit their petition in written form and then wait for the response from the Prime Ministers Office in the form of an email. The SWADNU president told his colleagues to wait for the response from the PM and then decide on their next move. The representatives came from the four regions of the country. In the last update from government regarding the hiring of nurses, the ministry said they would hire 210 nurses with a budget of E70 million.
Purdue University is evaluating the feasibility of using nuclear energy to power its sprawling West Lafayette campus as part of an effort to minimize the school's fossil fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

University officials on Wednesday announced Purdue has partnered with Duke Energy Indiana to study whether installing a small modular nuclear reactor on or near campus is a potential fit for Purdue's current and future energy needs.

A small modular reactor (SMR) is significantly smaller than a traditional nuclear power plant. The SMR, theoretically, can be prefabricated at an off-site assembly line, saving construction costs and time, and installed in locations that already are home to coal- or natural gas-powered energy generating facilities.

"No other option holds as much potential to provide reliable, adequate electric power with zero carbon emissions," said Purdue President Mitch Daniels, a former Indiana governor.

"Innovation and new ideas are at the core of what we do at Purdue, and that includes searching for ways to minimize the use of fossil fuels while still providing carbon-free, reliable and affordable energy. We see enough promise in these new technologies to undertake an exploration of their practicality, and few places are better positioned to do it."

Daniels did not set out a timetable for potential SMR deployment at Purdue.

Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled General Assembly directed the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission in Senate Enrolled Act 271, sponsored by state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, to develop rules by July 1, 2023, detailing the procedures for SMR acquisition and construction in the Hoosier State.

"Small nuclear reactors show great promise as a reliable, clean and safe energy source that will significantly reduce carbon emissions and provide grid stability when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine," said Soliday, chairman of the House Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee.

"Purdue has a nationwide reputation as a leader in nuclear engineering, and I am greatly encouraged to see their commitment to work alongside a major utility company like Duke Energy for this project to explore nuclear solutions that could impact the future generation of Hoosiers."

Purdue professors and students already are involved in research on SMRs, including the development and verification of the steel-plate composite construction that's necessary for SMRs to be delivered on-time and on-budget. The first land-based SMR is due to be completed in China in 2026.

"We have the world's pre-eminent team and facilities to conduct the testing, analysis, design and construction demonstration to actualize the potential of this technology," said Amit Varma, Purdue professor of civil engineering and director of the Bowen Laboratory.

Records show Purdue currently relies on a combination of coal, natural gas and thermal energy sources for its electricity, heat and cooling  all of which potentially could be replaced by an SMR capable of generating up to 350 megawatts of energy.

"This effort provides a timely opportunity for Purdue to work with our partners to explore whether nuclear energy can be a practical and affordable option to meet our long-term needs," said Michael Cline, Purdue senior vice president for administrative operations.

Indiana is rare among Midwestern states for not having any nuclear power plants after high construction costs, environmental protests and safety concerns decades ago scuttled plans for nuclear generating facilities along Lake Michigan in Porter County and on the Ohio River in southeastern Indiana.

The latter facility, developed by a company now part of Duke Energy, was abandoned in 1984 after the Public Service Company of Indiana spent more than $2.5 billion on the never-finished Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant.

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Mashreq, one of the leading financial institutions in the UAE, today reported a robust growth in operating income and net profit for the quarter ending March 31.

The bank's net profit increased to AED606 million ($165 million) in Q1 2022 compared to AED43 million in Q1 2021. This was mainly as a result of a decrease in impairment allowance by 64.5% Y-o-Y, the bank said.

Operating income increased by 11% over the previous year to AED1.6 billion due to increased net interest income and income from Islamic financing, coupled with improvements in fees and commission. Operating profit at AED894 million is a 13.3% increase compared to Q1 2021 as a result of higher operating income.

Mashreqs non-interest income to operating income ratio continues to remain high at 47% (47.6% as of December 2021), the bank said.

The bank enjoys comfortable liquidity and capital position, it said

Other highlights of the results are:

* Growth of 2.7% YTD in customer deposits to reach AED104.2 billion

* Liquid assets ratio stood at 29% with cash and due from banks at AED48.9 billion as on March 31, 2022

* Capital adequacy ratio stood at 14%

* Healthy growth in the loan portfolio

* Total assets increased by 3.1% YTD to AED182.6 billion and loans and advances increased by 5.9% YTD to AED86.3 billion

* Loan-to-deposit ratio remained stable at 82.8% at the end of March 2022

* Impairment allowance reduced to AED252 million from AED711 million in Q1 2021

* Non-performing loans to gross loans ratio declined to 4.6% as of end of March 2022 (5.2% as of December 2021)

* Total provision for loans and advances reached AED6.4 billion and coverage ratio improved to 131.6% as on March 31, 2022 (128.2% in December 2021)

AbdulAziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of Mashreq, said: Mashreq has delivered a strong start to the new year, with Q1 2022 showing robust year-on-year growth across key metrics, significant risk cost reductions and increased operating income.

"The banks digital and operational strategies were also fundamental to our improved performance in Q1, with the launch of new services and platforms that reflect Mashreqs expertise in shaping the future of payments across the region and its commitment to unleashing the enormous benefits of the digital economy. As part of this journey, the Bank has entered new partnerships and investments in Q1 that advance our API and banking-as-a-service capabilities.

"As a result of its strategy, the bank recorded significant improvements in net profits, driven in part by the continuation of growth across the loan portfolio, higher net interest income and increased income from Islamic financing," he said.

Al Ghurair added: "As 2022 unfolds, we anticipate that Mashreq will continue to forge its leading role as a digital challenger, advisor and partner for our corporates and SME development across the global markets. Additionally, armed with a sharp focus on the creation of advanced digital solutions, Mashreq will continue to contribute to the UAE national economy, the nations businesses and all those who live and work here.

Ahmed Abdelaal, Group CEO, Mashreq Bank, said: As 2022 began, we set out to build upon the successes of 2021 by actioning a series of targeted investments in people, services and technologies. Our strategic approach delivered a year-to-date increase in loans and advances of 5.9%, which reached AED86.3 billion by March 31.

"Delivering innovations in customer channels and back-office operational platforms, the bank leveraged multiple digital solutions in Q1, including machine learning, artificial intelligence, OCR, and Blockchain. Looking ahead to the coming months, these capabilities will ensure that the Bank continues to serve as a one-stop-shop for all retail and corporate trade finance requirements with a full and always-evolving suite of products and services.

"The launch of NEOPAY in March represented yet another significant advance for the bank and its role as a digital-first enabler of business success. The new platform, which will help fuel the growth of Mashreqs payment business, leverages the latest technology and innovation, including card processing and merchant acquiring systems, processing switches and PoS inventory," he said. - TradeArabia News Service
MGT Consulting will manage the Gary Community School Corp. for a final two years, leading to the district exiting distressed unit status, according to a plan discussed Tuesday by the Distressed Unit Appeal Board.

We are at the beginning of the end, DUAB Chairman Justin McAdam said.

The board will host a meeting next month in Gary during which MGT will present plans for the next two years and give residents an opportunity to discuss what they would like to see from them.

We are at this position because of the progress students, families, staff and administrators have made together in recent years. We have eliminated the school districts $22 million deficit, invested in modernizing our school buildings, increased teachers salaries, and extended the school day. This work is paying off, emergency manager Paige McNulty wrote in an email to parents and guardians.

GCSC was originally taken over in 2017 following severe financial issues in the district. It was an unprecedented effort by the state to help save the schools.

Senate Bill 567 designated Gary as a distressed political subdivision, allowing DUAB to govern the schools. The district has been led by an emergency manager since the state takeover.

The school corporation will no longer be considered a distressed political subdivision if it maintains financial solvency for the two-year period. It also must have a fiscal plan to maintain financial solvency for the next five years, meet all other conditions defined by DUAB and have the board determine that it is financially stable.

GCSC regained local control of its special education services in September after nearly a decade of oversight from the Indiana Department of Education.

The district saw higher enrollment in the 2020-21 academic year, bringing the total number of students to 4,445 as of February 2021. For the 10 years prior to state control, GCSC lost 699 students a year, on average.

However, the Indiana Department of Educations fall 2020-21 transfer report shows that 6,990 students in Gary attended a school outside of GCSC that year. Of the 11,370 students who live in the district boundaries, 61% are at either a charter school or separate private school.

The exact dates for MGT Consulting and DUABs meeting have not yet been finalized.

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CROWN POINT  A special judge granted Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr.'s motion Wednesday to certify an interlocutory appeal of an earlier decision not to dismiss the sheriff's criminal indictment.

The Indiana Court of Appeals still must agree to accept jurisdiction of the case before conducting a review.

Martinez has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of resisting law enforcement and a misdemeanor count of reckless driving.

He's accused of driving at up to 50 mph over the speed limit in Crown Point and Merrillville in mid-September, while two Crown Point officers were chasing his unmarked Jeep TrackHawk with their lights and sirens activated.

The sheriff has denied the allegations and characterized the indictment as a "political witch hunt" by a "rival politician." His trial is set to begin Aug. 15.

His attorneys, Michael Woods and Paul Stracci, said Special Prosecutor Stanley Levco and an Indiana State Police commander unduly influenced "the neutral and detached atmosphere" of grand jury proceedings in January.

The imposition on the grand jurors' independent judgment was so "flagrant" a dismissal is required, they wrote in court filings.

Levco and his co-counsel, David Thomas, asked Special Judge Jeryl Leach to deny Martinez's motion to certify an interlocutory appeal, in part, because "there is virtually no chance an appellate court will agree" that the grand jury was conducted unfairly.

Even if an appellate court dismissed the sheriff's indictment, the most likely result would be an immediate refiling of the charges, the prosecutors wrote.

Woods told the judge Martinez's appeal should be permitted now for two reasons: the sheriff could face substantial harm if he were convicted at trial but later prevailed on appeal and case law on the issue is far from settled.

If convicted of a felony, Martinez could lose his elected office and his position as a merit officer, which he has held since before he was elected and hopes to continue to hold after leaving office, Woods said.

"It is his career," the defense attorney said.

In addition, a new state law slated to take effect July 1 repeals the existing licensing requirement to carry a handgun in public but also would prohibit Martinez from carrying a gun, Woods said.

The law is "generally a sea change in gun rights," but it also creates a new class of people prohibited from carrying guns that includes those under felony indictment, he said.

Martinez is currently allowed to carry a gun, because current state and federal law does not prohibit those under felony indictment from possessing firearms and includes exceptions for law enforcement officers engaged in their official duties, the defense attorney said.

Woods also took issue with Levco's argument that an appellate court is not likely to agree the grand jury was conducted unfairly.

"While I applaud their confidence, we believe we'll win on appeal, too," he said.

Woods said it was "not safe to presume" the state could simply refile the charges against Martinez if an appellate court dismissed the indictment.

Levco said he was confident the Court of Appeals would not accept jurisdiction.

Levco said he told the grand jurors the decision to return an indictment was their own and allowed Martinez's attorney to speak to the grand jury, which is not required.

If Martinez were granted permission to seek an appeal, he would be successful only in further delaying a case he originally said he wanted to resolve as soon as possible, Levco said.

After Leach agreed to certify the appeal, attorneys on both sides said they did not want to stay proceedings in Lake Criminal Court.

The parties have a number of tasks to accomplish, including depositions Levco wants to take, they said.

Leach declined to set another court date ahead of an Aug. 1 pretrial hearing, but he told the attorneys they could file a motion for a hearing if any new issues arise.

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CROWN POINT  A judge granted prosecutors' request Monday to show a jury statements made by a former Region public official, who had accused the man now charged in her homicide of stalking and sexually assaulting her.

Earl W. Shearer Sr., 67, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the Dec. 8 shooting death of 74-year-old Mary Felton, of Gary.

Lake Criminal Court Judge Gina Jones is scheduled to preside over Shearer's trial beginning May 16.

Lake County Supervisory Deputy Prosecutor Bernard Johnsen said the state showed by a preponderance of the evidence during hearings April 5 and 13 that Shearer was responsible for Felton's death.

Because his behavior caused Felton's unavailability, Shearer forfeited his 6th Amendment right to confront witnesses against him at trial, Johnsen said.

Defense attorney Adam Tavitas said prosecutors didn't meet the legal standard required to introduce Felton's statements to a jury.

The state played a video that showed someone who looked similar to Shearer entering Felton's Hummer while it was parked outside the Gary Police Department. However, the video showed only one side of the Hummer, so it was possible whomever entered the Hummer left out the other side undetected, Tavitas said.

No gun has been recovered that ties Shearer to Felton's homicide, he said.

Johnson said the Police Department video showed the man matching Shearer's description place his hand on the side of Felton's Hummer. Shearer's fingerprints were later found on the Hummer, he said.

Shearer's DNA matched a profile found in Felton's sex assault kit and under her fingernails during her autopsy, the prosecutor said.

"Do we really need a picture of Mr. Shearer?" Johnsen asked. "A lot of crimes have been solved beyond a reasonable doubt on DNA."

The allegations that Shearer stalked Felton and raped her before she was killed were all part of the same story, he said.

"They're all intrinsically entwined," he said.

Shearer, who previously served prison time in Illinois for murder, and Felton were each granted protective orders against one another Oct. 25 after a hearing in Lake Superior Court in Gary.

Shearer is accused of violating the protective order Dec. 5 by approaching Felton at the Ameristar Casino in East Chicago.

Later that same day, Shearer sneaked into Felton's Gary home and raped her at gunpoint, court records allege. Felton told a sexual assault nurse Shearer had raped her, Johnsen said.

Felton went to the Gary Police Department on Dec. 8 to report the alleged rape.

While she was inside, Shearer sneaked into her Hummer, according to documents.

After leaving the police station, Felton was found dead from a gunshot wound to her back while still seated in her Hummer, which was parked near West Eighth Avenue and Lincoln Street in Gary.

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GARY  A 41-year-old Hammond man was shot in the stomach on Saturday after he punched a woman during an argument in the city's Black Oak section, police said.

A witness told Gary police the man had stopped his vehicle near the intersection of West 25th Avenue and Sherman Street to talk to people in a second vehicle when two women came out of a residence, Cmdr. Jack Hamady said.

The women, both 27 years old, began to argue with the Hammond man, who got out of his vehicle, police said.

As the argument escalated, one of the women moved aggressively toward the man, and he punched her, the witness told police. The second woman fired a shot, striking the man in the stomach.

Police found the man on the ground after they were dispatched about 11:25 a.m. for a report of a gunshot victim.

The man was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, and the woman accused of shooting him was arrested.

Her identity was not released, pending formal charges.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Sgt. Mark Salazar at 219-881-1209. To remain anonymous, call 866-CRIME-GP.

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VALPARAISO  During the early morning hours of July 24, 2016, 6-month-old Braxson Jones was rushed from his Lakes of the Four Seasons home to the hospital unconscious, struggling to breathe and cold to the touch, jurors were told Wednesday morning.

After removing half his skull to make way for brain swelling, a team of doctors at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago determined Jones had suffered "abusive head trauma," Porter County Deputy Prosecutor Kristen Klink said.

Klink said evidence over the next week or more will show the injury was caused by the boy's father, Curtis Jones, who had been watching the infant at the time while his mother was away at work.

Defense attorney John Vouga countered that his client, Curtis, is not guilty of the offense, saying the child had prior medical problems and lacked associated signs of shaking abuse such as fractures, whiplash or torn ligaments in the neck.

Vouga warned jurors that prosecutors will be trying to paint his client as a monster and reminded them they had agreed to decide the fate of Jones based on facts and not sympathy.

Jones, 52, who is a former Porter County police officer now living in Florida, faces felony counts of battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person less than 14 years of age and two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious injury. Each of the felony counts carries a potential sentence of three to 16 years behind bars.

Braxson, who is now 6, survived, but is in need of constant care, Klink said. He is blind, needs diaper changing, is fed through a tube, must be moved by others and no longer communicates on his own, she said.

She said during opening statements Wednesday that Braxson was fine and playing with others when his mother, Susan Jones, left him in the care of a babysitter when leaving for her overnight nursing job.

When Curtis arrived home from his job around midnight, he found Braxson in good condition as he went on to study for a nursing exam, Klink said. After reporting to Susan throughout the night that all was well, Curtis called Susan shortly before 5 a.m. to report Braxson was breathing strange, was cold and would not wake up.

Susan had to direct him to call 911, and Klink told jurors they would later hear how Curtis carried on "chit chat" with the dispatcher and asked if she remembered him as a police officer before the dispatcher had to prompt Curtis nearly two minutes into the call to explain the problem with his son. While Braxson can be heard on the call struggling to breathe, Curtis tells the dispatcher there is no need for emergency responders to use sirens or lights, the prosecutor said.

Vouga told jurors that prosecutor's versions of events are just that  their version. What they won't reveal is that Curtis is a "caring, loving" father, who regularly checked on Braxson and had been raising alarm, along with Susan, about the child's health problems since birth.

Braxson has had preexisting problems with projectile vomiting and difficulties with breathing and sleeping, Vouga said.

"This is not just something that suddenly erupted on July 24," he said of the child's health problems.

Vouga said there are no claims that Curtis abused another child, who was also at home on the morning in question.

Witnesses in the case began testifying Wednesday morning, and Porter Superior Court Judge Mike Fish set aside nine days for the trial.

Curtis had worked as a county police officer from April 1996 through October 2005, Porter County Sheriff Dave Reynolds has said.

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CROWN POINT  Early voting is lively across Lake County for dozens of candidates running for federal, state, county township and municipal offices.

Michelle Fajman, Lake County elections director, said Friday more than 5,380 people have cast ballots in person, by mail or other means since early voting opened this month.

She said that is about 1,000 more than voted at the same time four years ago when the same offices were up for election.

In spite of the pandemic our numbers keep growing, which is great, Fajman said.

This year there are 80 Democratic and Republican candidates involved in 25 contested races in the county.

She said nearly 4,000 have voted in person at 11 venues around the county.

They include:

Lake County Government Center, 2293 N. Main St., Crown Point

East Chicago County Courthouse, 3711 Main St., East Chicago

Gary Public Library-Main, 220 W. Fifth Ave., Gary

Hammond County Courthouse, 232 Russell St., Hammond

Hobart Police/Community Center, 705 E. Fourth St., Hobart

Lowell Town Hall, 501 E. Main St., Lowell

Munster Town Hall, 1005 Ridge Road, Munster

St. John Township Assessors Office, 9157 Wicker Ave., St. John

Schererville Town Hall, 10 E. Joliet St., Schererville

Wicker Park Social Center, 8554 Indianapolis Blvd., Highland

Winfield Public Library, 10771 Randolph St., Winfield

Fajman said voters should be aware that early voting will take place 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in Crown Point at the Purdue Cooperative Extension office across the parking lot from the county government center.

Otherwise early voting hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and 8:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday April 30 at the county government center in Crown Point.

Early voting hours at the 10 other locations are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

Early voting ends noon May 2.

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VALPARAISO  With the primary election less than a week away, the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce has endorsed the renewal of a referendum that would increase the general fund operations for Valparaiso Community Schools.

The operating referendum, originally passed in 2015, will be on the May 3 ballot. If approved, the referendum tax rate would proceed at a lower maximum rate than previously, decreasing from $0.2042 as a result of the 2015 referendum to $0.1495 per $100 of net assessed value, according to a news release from Valparaiso Community Schools. The referendum would last eight years.

In 2015, voters passed two referendums for the school district. One was for construction of the new Heavilin Elementary School and renovations elsewhere, including a new pool at Valparaiso High School. The other was to increase general fund operations about $4.4 million annually over seven years. That money has gone toward items like teacher salaries, technology and mental health workers.

The Valpo Chamber also supported the referendums in 2015, chamber president Rex Richards said.

Valparaiso Superintendent Jim McCall has said that if the referendum fails, class sizes will likely increase at all levels.

"Where you have great school systems you have growing, thriving communities. The Chamber of Commerce does not support candidates, but we do support positions and important issues that come before the community," Richards said. "When it comes to maintaining a good quality of life and growing our community, schools are a tremendous asset."

In March the chamber formed a task force to learn more about the referendum. The team was comprised of five chamber members; Shire Kuch of the Boys and Girls Club of Northwest Indiana, Stephanie Domazet of General Insurance Services, Martin Sonnenberg of Pines Village, Wes Barns of Hightower Wealth Management and Kathy Ireland of Horizon Bank.

The task force met with McCall to discuss what the money would be used for. According to an executive study released by the task force, the levy is expected to bring in about $4.5 million annually. The task force also found that since 2016, when the original tax started, the maximum levy of 0.2042 has only been used three times.

McCall said the referendum currently supports the salary of 30 teachers and 70 staff overall. With the referendum, the district was also able to create a standalone alternative school, add social workers, a district wide behaviorist and STEM classes for K-5.

The task force unanimously approved supporting the referendum and the chamber's full board approved the endorsement during an April meeting.

The Valparaiso City Council also unanimously approved a resolution supporting the referendum in February.

"It is part of our public policy to take positions on issues we feel are very important for our community and for our business community," Richards said. "Remember, the products of our school system will become the future work force in our area."

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6. Texas is busing migrants to Washington, but the plan isnt having the intended effect.

Earlier this month, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas devised a plan to rattle the Biden administration by busing migrants from the southwest border to the nations capital during a period of record crossings.

The new arrivals were dropped off blocks from the U.S. Capitol, where they were greeted by volunteers who would help them reach their desired destinations to await their day in immigration court. The migrants were grateful for the lift.

I would like to say thank you to the governor of Texas, said Chadrack Mboyo-Bola, 26, of Brazil, after he stepped off one of the chartered buses paid for by the State of Texas.
International support to arm Ukraine

The U.S. has marshaled 40 allies to furnish Ukraine with long-term military aid in what could become a protracted battle against the Russian invasion. Defense officials from Australia, Belgium, Britain, Italy, Israel and other countries will meet monthly to ensure they strengthen Ukraines military for the long haul, said Lloyd Austin, the U.S. defense secretary. Follow the latest updates.

In a major policy shift, Germany said it would send up to 50 armored vehicles designed to shoot down aircraft but also fire at targets on the ground. The German government had previously cited a range of reasons to avoid shipping such heavy arms to Ukraine. It was among many signals yesterday pointing to further escalation in the war.

Russias foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said that the influx of heavy weapons from Western countries was effectively pushing Ukraine to sabotage peace talks with Moscow. He also reintroduced the specter of nuclear war, noting that the risks had increased because NATO had engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and arming that proxy.

Response: Ukraines foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, called Lavrovs remarks a sign that Moscow senses defeat in Ukraine. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said a nuclear war cannot be won and it shouldnt be fought. He added: Theres no reason for the current conflict in Ukraine to get to that level at all.
A high percentage of previous infections may also mean that there are now fewer cases of life-threatening illness or death relative to infections. We will see less and less severe disease, and more and more a shift toward clinically mild disease, said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

It will be more and more difficult for the virus to do serious damage, he added.

Administration officials, too, believe that the data augur a new phase of the pandemic in which infections may be common at times but cause less harm.

At a news briefing on Tuesday, Dr. Ashish Jha, the White Houses new Covid coordinator, said that stopping infections was not even a policy goal. The goal of our policy should be: obviously, minimize infections whenever possible, but to make sure people dont get seriously ill.

The average number of confirmed new cases a day in the United States  more than 49,000 as of Monday, according to a New York Times database  is comparable to levels last seen in late July, even as cases have risen by over 50 percent over the past two weeks, a trend infectious disease experts have attributed to new Omicron subvariants.

Dr. Jha and other officials warned against complacency, and urged Americans to continue receiving vaccinations and booster shots, saying that antibodies from prior infections did not guarantee protection from the virus.
Omans Bank Nizwa has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Oasis Trading and Equipment Company to extend financing to the companys customers for buying Caterpillar vehicles.

As per the agreement, Bank Nizwa will be providing structured Islamic financing facilities to customers of Oasis Trading and Equipment Company to enable them to buy CAT machines at subsidised rates.

As a company with over 60 years of experience in the Middle East, Oasis Trading and Equipment Company deals in various CAT machinery, heavy equipment, and power systems, which are used for a wide variety of applications, including earthmoving, building and construction, mining, road making, demolition, waste and scrap handling, electric power generation, and marine propulsion.

Forefront of financing

The agreement was signed by Khaled Al Kayed, CEO of Bank Nizwa and Bashar Ahmed Aref Al Barghouthi, General Manager of Oasis Trading and Equipment Company in the presence of R Narasimhan, General Manager of Wholesale Banking, Khalid Al Barwani, Deputy General Manager Wholesale Banking Group and other senior officials from both entities.

Al Kayed said: Bank Nizwas Wholesale Banking Group has been at the forefront of financing SMEs, corporates and specialised project financing and our multi-industry portfolio is a testament to the growing preference for Islamic banking. We are indeed delighted to have signed an MoU with Oasis Trading and Equipment Company as they mirror similar values of excellence, integrity, and sustainable development.

At Bank Nizwa, we are strongly aligned with the targets set in Oman Vision 2040 and we will continue to support the various industries major segments like construction, power system and material and many others with aim to contribute to achieving immediate economic objectives of Oman, through Sharia-compliant solutions that have, time and again, proven to be resilient despite the changing economic scenario.

Good financial partner

Al Barghouthi said: In business, it is quintessential to have a good financial partner that not only provides you with the needed advisory and assistance but also helps you support customers with their financing needs. More so, the Bank honours and resonates with our core values. Bank Nizwa has been that very partner for us, and we are certain that this MoU will further strengthen our position in the market, provide the needed boost to catalyse our operations, and help us achieve new milestones.

Bank Nizwa has always been invested in the socio-economic progress of the country. While it has joined hands with various companies to finance key national projects directly or indirectly, it has also supported SMEs that have shown the potential to make a positive, long-term impact.

Apart from catering to the financing needs of companies, Bank Nizwas wholesale banking group also offers expert advisory services and guidance in the fields of corporate banking, project finance, SME and commercial banking, global markets, government and investment banking, international banking, and trade finance.-- TradeArabia News Service
Ms. Harris was not at the dinner, but her communications director, Jamal Simmons, attended and tested positive afterward. The infections of both the vice president and House speaker mean that the first and second in line of succession to the presidency have now been hit by the virus in short order.

Ms. Harris, 57, received her second booster shot on April 1, three days after federal regulators authorized a second dose of the vaccine for people over age 50. It takes about a week for a shot to boost the immune system. Mr. Biden has also received a second booster shot. The last time the two were together was on April 18, according to a White House official.

Ms. Harris, who returned from a trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles on Monday, went to her office at the White House on Tuesday morning and took a rapid antigen test as part of the regular protocol for the president and vice president. When it came back positive, she took a P.C.R. test, which also came back positive. At that point, rather than attend the daily intelligence briefing with the president as scheduled, she returned home, where aides said she would remain until she tests negative. Mr. Biden later called to check in on her, aides said.

After consulting her doctors, Ms. Harris also started a course of Paxlovid, her press secretary said in a tweet. The antiviral pill made by Pfizer is intended for high-risk patients, and it was not immediately clear whether she qualified.

Doug Emhoff, Ms. Harriss husband, tested positive for the virus in mid-March. At the time, Ms. Harris was forced to back out of an event with the president, although she continued to test negative. Mr. Emhoff told McClatchy News last week that he had isolated from his wife for 10 days while infected, staying in an upstairs room and having food brought up to him.

The spate of infections in the upper reaches of Washington came amid the spread of the highly contagious Omicron subvariant known as BA.2, and served as a reminder that the pandemic endures even as officials seek to roll back restrictions.

Officials in the White House said they were contact tracing to determine who may have been near Ms. Harris in recent days. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a close contact as someone who spends at least 15 minutes within six feet of the infected person over a 24-hour period. Officials have repeatedly emphasized that the White House maintains stricter measures than the C.D.C. advises.
Her election-year shift demonstrates how even in the Deep South, Republicans whose loyalty to the party is unquestioned are tilting to the right and making red states even redder.

Politics is about doing what people like. Statesmanship is about doing whats right, said Mike Ball, a longtime Republican state representative who is retiring. But before you get to be a statesman, you have to be a politician.

I do think this campaign has moved her rhetoric too far  or a long way  to the right, he added, though he still believes that Ivey is the best choice in the May 24 primary, which will head to a runoff if no one receives more than 50 percent of the vote.

Iveys stepped-up ideological intensity goes beyond her ads. This year, she signed one of the most stringent laws in the country restricting transition care for transgender youths, threatening health care providers with time in prison. She also signed legislation limiting classroom discussions on gender and sexual orientation, similar to parts of the Florida law that critics call Dont Say Gay.

Iveys campaign says it is all a continuation of her record of conservatism, which has left her on solid footing for re-election. Asked about the change in her messaging from 2018 to 2022, her campaign said in a statement, Whats changed is that Alabama is now stronger than ever.
Not long after Donald J. Trump was elected president, the Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax group that had opposed his 2016 campaign, reinvented itself as a reliable supporter, with the groups president, David McIntosh, providing frequent counsel to Mr. Trump on important races nationwide.

But this spring, as Mr. Trump faces critical tests of the power of his endorsements, an ugly fight over the Ohio Senate primary is threatening what had been a significant alliance with one of the most influential groups in the country.

The dispute broke into plain view days ago when in support of Josh Mandel, the former Ohio state treasurer, for the Republican Senate race, the Club for Growth ran a television commercial showing the candidate Mr. Trump has endorsed, the Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance, repeatedly denouncing Mr. Trump in 2016.

Mr. Trumps response was brutish: He had an assistant send Mr. McIntosh a short text message telling him off in the most vulgar terms. The group, one of the few that actually spends heavily in primary races, responded by saying it would increase its spending on the ad.
A trio of positive coronavirus tests scrambled the Senate schedule on Tuesday, as Democrats lost the votes they needed to advance multiple nominees this week in an evenly divided Senate.

Back in Washington from a two-week recess, Democrats had aimed to approve multiple nominations this week, including Lisa D. Cook to be a governor of the Federal Reserve and Alvaro Bedoya to be a member of the Federal Trade Commission.

But with Vice President Kamala Harris and two senators, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, in isolation after positive tests, Democrats do not have the votes needed to approve either Ms. Cook or Mr. Bedoya.

The loss of just a few votes to illness underscored the perils for Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, and the Democratic caucus as they work to maneuver the remainder of President Bidens nominations and legislative priorities through an evenly divided Senate in which Ms. Harris is needed to break a tie.
LONDON  An anonymously sourced report by one of Britains freewheeling tabloid newspapers has sparked a debate over both tabloid journalistic ethics and sexism in Parliament, leading some to question whether the institution is capable of shedding its fusty reputation and becoming an inclusive workplace.

Over the weekend the tabloid, The Mail on Sunday, reported an anonymous claim by a Conservative lawmaker that Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, had tried distracting Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Parliament by crossing and uncrossing her legs, comparing her to Sharon Stones character in the film Basic Instinct.

Ms. Rayner said the article had left her crestfallen. It was dismissed by Mr. Johnson as sexist, misogynist, tripe, and prompted more than 5,500 complaints, according to the independent regulator of most of Britains newspapers and magazines. The Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, summoned the newspapers editor, David Dillon, and its political editor, Glen Owen, to a meeting on Wednesday.

The story is that there is misogyny alive and well and stalking the corridors of the House of Commons, said Harriet Harman, the longest-serving female lawmaker and a lifelong champion of womens rights. It was, she told LBC Radio, symptomatic of the backlash you always get when women are making progress, adding that there are some men that feel theyve got to put them back.
The American publics support for admitting Ukrainian refugees is higher than Gallup has found in any refugee situation since 1939, the firm said on Tuesday.

Gallup reported the record high after its new poll found that 78 percent of adults in the United States approve of allowing up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the country.

The results underscore stark differences in Americans view of various refugee crises, particularly given the number of Ukrainian refugees in question. When Americans were asked about admitting at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in 2015, for example, Gallup found that just 37 percent approved.

Racial bias plays an undeniable role in differing welcomes to refugees from different countries, migration experts have said. Since the start of Russias invasion, there have been several instances of white government officials and journalists expressing shock at the unthinkable happening in Europe, to people with blue eyes and blonde hair, who seem so like us.
They said, Were just looking for someone to believe in us enough, Maitland said. None of the films appear to have ever been made, he said, and the aspiring filmmakers, now all dead, left little other trace.

And then there were the sheer larks. Through a colleague, Maitland heard that the young Paul Stanley, the future guitarist of KISS, had written Brody a letter.

We never found it, he said. It could be at Columbia.

It remains to be seen how historians will use the vast trove  or how they will even know what to look for. For Jones, a scholar of the 60s, the letters illustrate the paradox of an era defined in popular memory by a countercultural ethos that didnt penetrate very deeply into society.

Brody, whom Jones described as hyper-privileged, had access to all the most beautiful things, including this beautiful shiny idea that you could use wealth to solve literally all the problems of the world, the curator said. But what he got back, and what I sense shocked him, is how little of that had touched the lives of the vast majority of people.

Donating the letters to an archive, the filmmakers said, was a goal from the beginning. Several archives were interested, but with a stipulation: If the letters were donated unopened, they would have to stay that way.

Jones said he could imagine getting interested parties together for a letter-opening party, to make a dent in the overwhelming pile. But in the day-to-day use of the reading room, he said, well need to take a more buttoned-down approach.
Our programming speaks to all New Yorkers, but at our core weve always been for the Bronx, about the Bronx and by the Bronx, said Mr. Rodriguez, who was born in Nicaragua and raised in Miami. We want to break the myth that museums are only for certain kinds of people, he said.

Mr. Rodriguez arrived in the Bronx after a decade at the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University in Miami and has been on the front lines of planning for the Bronx museums future while stabilizing its present.

While no staff members lost their jobs during the pandemic, the museum  which has been free to all since 2012  closed for six months, severing a vital cultural lifeline for a borough often overlooked by the citys larger arts establishment. With its strong focus on social justice and extensive programming for students and families, the museum immediately feels like it belongs to everyone who walks through its doors, Mr. Rodriguez said. We see it as a truly transformative place.
This article is part of our latest special section on Museums, which focuses on new artists, new audiences and new ways of thinking about exhibitions.

If you visit the Guggenheim Museum this summer, dont be surprised if some of the works you see are not paintings, sculptures, videos or any other expected forms of visual art. Starting in June, its Manhattan building will bloom with poetry, destined to sprout in places you would hardly consider lyrical: stairwells, the rotunda seating area, the columns in the cafe and eventually even the sidewalk outside.

Over time, they will be adorned with seven-line poems by authors including John Keene, Camonghne Felix, Marwa Helal and Ra/Malika Imhotep. These poem signs, along with workshops, panels, interactive experiences and pop-up readings, which will continue through December, signal a new direction in museum programming that is being shaped by Taylor Johnson, the Guggenheims first poet in residence.

When a poem is discovered there, it can either lead people to find out more about the poet or to definitely reconsider, and maybe even help guide, their experience in the space, Mr. Johnson, 30, said in a recent interview at the museum. That feels like a big thing, because museums can be overwhelming, just by the nature of their size and the amount of emotional energy that it takes to take in art.

Mr. Johnson will also develop programs connected to Cecilia Vicuna: Spin Spin Triangulene, a Guggenheim exhibition that opens on May 27. The three-month show devoted to Ms. Vicuna, a Chilean-born poet and artist, will reflect her belief that her artworks, which engage many mediums, are poems in space.
There is also a strong tradition among Ukrainians  and not just wealthy ones  of supporting artists. If you are an immigrant fleeing the country, what do you take with you, especially during a war? Ms. Shust said. Many bring artwork with them, she said, such as dozens of rare pysanky  Ukrainian Easter eggs  that were taken when their owner escaped during World War II, which are in the exhibition In Bloom: Nature and Art. Other shows include The Impact of Modernity, with rarely shown 19th- and early-20th-century works and avant-garde experimental art from 1910-30, and The Ceramic World of Slava Gerulak, an artist based in New York.

Two exhibitions are expected to open by early May. One will feature photographs of the war by Maks Levin, a Ukrainian photojournalist who was found dead on April 1 in a village outside Kyiv. Another will consist of rotating displays in the lobby about museums that have been bombed during the war, with photographs taken before and after the destruction.

A number of institutions across the country focus on Ukrainian culture and history through permanent and special exhibitions of archival material, traditional folk arts and fine art. Many offer workshops, lectures and other events. Here is a roundup:

California

The Ukrainian Art Center, a one-room museum and gallery nestled in the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Los Angeles, lacks the organization  and the space  of more established institutions, but its president, Daria Chaikovsky, is often on hand to share information with visitors. The collection, she said, includes works by the Ukrainian artists Alexis Gritchenko, Kateryna Krychevsky-Rosandich and Bohdan Borzemsky. It also houses large-scale contemporary pieces by Ola Rondiak, an Ohio-born artist who explores her Ukrainian heritage through vibrant painted portraits of women, as well as sculptures modeled after traditional Ukrainian motanka dolls.

Connecticut

About 20 percent of the Ukrainian Museum and Library of Stamfords extensive holdings  the book-and-periodical collection alone contains more than 60,000 items  is typically on view. Displays running through the summer include a selection of painted landscapes, Byzantine icons, wood carvings and rare books, some from the 15th and 16th centuries.
Saudi Arabia has reached a deal with Lucid Group, a US electric vehicle (EV) maker, to buy up to 100,000 EVs over a ten-year period, with an initial commitment to purchase 50,000 vehicles. The deal includes an option to purchase up to an additional 50,000 vehicles over the same period, Lucid Group announced.

Lucid Group, which is setting new standards with the longest-range, fastest-charging electric car on the market, said the purchase commitment was made by Saudi Arabias Ministry of Finance and includes the award-winning Lucid Air and future Lucid models.

Delivering up to 100,000 Lucid electric vehicles in Saudi Arabia represents another pivotal moment in our acceleration of sustainable transportation worldwide, said Peter Rawlinson, Lucids CEO and CTO.

Saudi Arabias sustainability goals

We are delighted to be supporting Saudi Arabia in achieving its sustainability goals and net zero ambitions, as outlined by Saudi Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative, by bringing our advanced luxury EVs to Saudi Arabia.

As part of the agreement, the Government of Saudi Arabia has pledged to purchase vehicles built and assembled at Lucids existing Arizona factory and its future international manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia.

The order quantity is expected to range from 1,000 and 2,000 vehicles annually and increase to between 4,000 and 7,000 vehicles annually starting in 2025, with the delivery of the vehicles required to commence no later than the second quarter of 2023.

Diversifying the economy

This will support the governments drive to diversify the economy, provide thousands of highly skilled job opportunities and provide economic benefit to the kingdom in line with Vision 2030.

The purchase price of the vehicles will be determined based on the lower of the standard retail price for the applicable vehicle in Saudi Arabia and the standard retail price for the applicable vehicle in the US, plus the logistics and importation costs and other costs of delivering and homologating vehicles to regulations of Saudi Arabia.-- TradeArabia News Service
This article is part of our latest special section on Museums, which focuses on new artists, new audiences and new ways of thinking about exhibitions.

NEW ORLEANS  A signature work at a recent exhibit at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art is a photograph of a cellphone showing on its screen the framed image of an antebellum mansion.

It is a photograph within a photograph. But what makes it an eye-catcher is that the pictured iPhone is clearly in the hand of a Black man, RaMell Ross.

Mr. Ross, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, artist and photographer, often documents the people and land of Hale County, Ala.

Over the decades, some of the giants of Southern photography  Walker Evans, William Eggleston and William Christenberry  have made Hale County their subject. They are, of course, white men. By featuring this particular image, Mr. Ross and the curators of the Ogden are demonstrating their determination to show this place in a new way.
This article is part of our latest special section on Museums, which focuses on new artists, new audiences and new ways of thinking about exhibitions.

Raphael Montanez Ortiz was a celebrated avant-garde artist in 1969 when he helped a group of East Harlem parents, teachers and students create El Museo del Barrio, a museum that he said he believed would be more welcoming to Latin artists than New Yorks established temples of fine art.

He left El Museo in 1971 and resumed his pathbreaking career as an artist while also taking a tenure-track teaching position at Rutgers University. Now the man and museum are coming together again in a comprehensive retrospective of Mr. Montanez Ortizs 60-year career.

The exhibition, Raphael Montanez Ortiz  A Contextual Retrospective, opened at El Museo del Barrio on April 14 and is scheduled to run through Sept. 11. It will then travel to Museo Tamayo in Mexico City.

Ideally, the show will reintroduce a widely respected Latino artist to a new generation in his hometown and raise the profile of the museum he founded to connect Latino students to art.
This article is part of our latest special section on Museums, which focuses on new artists, new audiences and new ways of thinking about exhibitions.

RALEIGH, N.C.  In March 2020, Wilson Murphy decamped from Manhattan, where he had lived for more than 30 years.

Covid hit, and everyone was scattering, said Mr. Murphy, who is the founder of a firm that represents photographers. So, I scattered. Down to Raleigh.

Though he had graduated from the University of North Carolina in nearby Chapel Hill, Mr. Murphy hadnt been back to Raleigh in years. So he unpacked his Trek mountain bike and decided to explore his new home via the citys extensive network of bike trails.

He meandered northwest of the downtown area, along paths emptied by the pandemic, until he came across an open expanse ringed with oaks and southern pines  and some unusual sights that werent from nature: a lone, towering brick smokestack; three large earthen rings; and, a little ways off the trail and tucked into a small courtyard surrounded by a rectangular building  was that a statue? Mr. Murphy pedaled closer, leaning over to examine what turned out to be three bronze figures. Then, it hit him.
This article is part of our latest special section on Museums, which focuses on new artists, new audiences and new ways of thinking about exhibitions.

BOSTON  At a time when so-called looted works of art and how to return them to their rightful owners has become a major challenge for museums, Victoria Reeds role at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston could not be more crucial.

As the museums curator for provenance, she is responsible for leading the effort to verify the history of an objects ownership and oversee restitution if it was deemed to have been obtained illegally  typically, stolen during warfare, plundered during conquests or colonization or purchased through forced sales.

The task at the Museum of Fine Arts is a tall one. The museum, founded in 1870, now holds more than 500,000 artworks in its collection. Since 1997, 14 claims involving 43 objects have been resolved either by returns or through financial settlements.

But the Boston museum is hardly alone. The issue of repatriation has roiled the museum world in recent years, generating headlines about museums reacting to claims from individuals and countries regarding objects that are said to have been stolen, illegally excavated, or improperly imported or exported.
This article is part of our latest special section on Museums, which focuses on new artists, new audiences and new ways of thinking about exhibitions.

CHADDS FORD, Pa.  In Andrew Wyeths prolific career, which lasted seven decades, he worked largely within a small radius of his rural family homes here and in Cushing, Maine. Making acutely observed sketches of the landscapes and people in these isolated communities, he later translated them into paintings in the studio, creating indelible images of American life.

Now, some 7,000 works by Wyeth, only 15 percent of which have been previously exhibited, will be made accessible for exhibition, scholarship and loans through an unusual partnership between the Wyeth Foundation for American Art  set up by the artist and his wife and business manager, Betsy, in 2002  and their two local museums, the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pa., and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine; each institution houses half of the foundations collection.

My mother was the mastermind of all this, said Jamie Wyeth, a third-generation painter in the Wyeth family. His grandfather, N.C. Wyeth, who bought land in Chadds Ford and Maine with earnings from his successful career as an illustrator, taught three of his five children to paint.

At 20, the precocious Andrew was received in the art world as the new Winslow Homer after a solo show of watercolors at the prestigious Macbeth Gallery in New York. In 1948, the Museum of Modern Art bought Christinas World, his painting of a disabled young woman lying in a field looking yearningly toward a distant farmhouse, today one of the most widely recognized works of American art.
Ms. Albritton died on April 21 at a care facility in Chicago. She was 74. Chris Kellner, a close friend, said the cause was cerebrovascular disease.

What became her claim to fame started as an assignment for an art class she was taking at the Chicago branch of the University of Illinois in 1966. The professor told students that their homework was to make a cast of something that could retain its shape, something solid, as Ms. Albritton put it in a 2012 video interview with Rock Scene Magazine.

Accounts have varied, but most say that her first subjects were two male friends. Soon, though, she had moved on to rockers, since she was, as she acknowledged, one of those fans who liked to chase the famous.

Originally I saw it as a great ruse to divert rock stars from the other girls, she told The Evening Standard. Only by accident did it become an art form. I take it seriously, though there is an absurd side. But Im laughing with them, not at them.

In the anything-goes era of the late 1960s, Ms. Albritton didnt have much trouble finding rockers willing to be immortalized, especially after Frank Zappa heard about what she was doing and promoted her efforts (though declining to be cast himself). She did, however, have trouble finding the right medium, trying a variety of substances and methods before hitting on dental mold.
At around the time of Raos birth, his family finds itself in the rare position of becoming owners of a coconut grove, which gives them the means to send the boy to school and then to college. When he is hired as a teaching assistant in the engineering department of a university in Seattle, a friends tells him that caste would be meaningless in the United States. So he joins the wave of Indian immigrants landing in America in the 1970s.

Imagining Raos childhood was initially difficult for Vara because growing up in North America  first in Saskatchewan, Canada, then in the suburbs of Oklahoma and Seattle  she didnt have personal experiences to draw from. That story is my familys story, but its not my story, she said. I dont have firsthand knowledge of what its like to grow up in rural India, what its like to be Dalit in India.

She approached the topic as a journalist: In 2010, she visited the rural town of Tottaramudi, in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, where her father was born, and interviewed the extended family she had there.

It is also why the story is not told from Raos perspective, but from his daughter Athenas, Vara said.

The result is a nuanced portrayal of a community that rarely appears in novels published by major presses in the West, said Karan Mahajan, the Indian American author of The Association of Small Bombs and a friend of Varas from college who gave her feedback on the manuscript. It brings people into the complexity of Dalit life, he said, while avoiding exploitative portrayals of poverty or seeing Dalits monochromatically through the lens of oppression.

In Varas book, Dalits are not victims, but entrepreneurs, innovators and geniuses.
WASHINGTON  The Office of the United States Trade Representative criticized China, Russia and other countries on Wednesday for continuing to fall short of promises to protect intellectual property in a report that cataloged various infringements by Americas trading partners.

The annual report placed 27 trading partners on so-called watch lists for intellectual property infringement, and labeled Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and Venezuela as being on a priority watch list of countries that had the most egregious practices or the biggest effect on U.S. businesses.

In a call with reporters on Wednesday, senior U.S.T.R. officials said the Biden administration continued to closely monitor Chinas progress in carrying out the commitments it had made to strengthen its protections for foreign copyrights, trade secrets and other forms of intellectual property in a 2020 trade deal signed with President Donald J. Trump.

The trade agreement included commitments to make reforms to Chinas treatment of trade secrets, technology transfer, patents and pharmaceutical intellectual property, among a variety of issues. It followed a 2018 investigation by U.S.T.R., which found that China had pressured companies into transferring technology and used other unfair means to gain key technologies that would give its companies a competitive edge. Those findings provided the rationale for the Trump administration to begin imposing tariffs on China.
The top executive at McKinsey & Company, appearing on Wednesday for the first time before Congress to answer for the consulting firms role in fanning the opioid crisis, came under sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers. One likened the firms earnings from advising Purdue Pharma and other pharmaceutical companies to blood money from drug traffickers.

Bob Sternfels, McKinseys managing partner, testifying remotely to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, apologized for McKinseys work in helping drive sales at opioid makers. He said the firm failed to recognize the broader context of what was going on in society around us.

But Mr. Sternfels did not cede ground on the main topic of the hearing: whether McKinseys simultaneously advising opioid makers and their regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, posed a conflict of interest. On that front, he insisted, McKinsey had been transparent.

McKinsey did not  did not  serve both the F.D.A. and Purdue on opioid-related matters, Mr. Sternfels told the committee. As both McKinsey and the F.D.A. have made clear, our work for the F.D.A. focused on administrative and operational topics including improvements to organizational structure, business processes and technology.
About 20 percent of reptile species risk extinction, mainly because people are taking away their habitats for agriculture, urban development and logging, according to the first global reptile assessment of its kind.

From inch-long geckos to the iconic king cobra, at least 1,829 species of reptiles, including lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodiles, are threatened, the study found.

The research, published Wednesday in Nature, adds another dimension to a substantial body of scientific evidence that points to a human-caused biodiversity crisis similar to climate change in the vast effect it could have on life on Earth. Its another drumbeat on the path to ecological catastrophe, said Bruce Young, co-leader of the study and a senior scientist at NatureServe, a nonprofit conservation research group. Such a collapse threatens humans because healthy ecosystems provide necessities like fertile soil, pollination and water supplies.

Among reptiles, particularly hard hit are turtles, with almost 60 percent of species at risk of extinction, and crocodiles, with half. In addition to habitat loss, both groups are depleted by hunting and fishing.
Everyone has one or two  or 20!  recipes that they know by heart. Perhaps, at first, you referred to the instructions every time you made it, but at some point, you memorized the measurements, how it should look and exactly how it should taste when its done. Eventually, it became a standby, your Old Faithful.

Memorize part or any one of these 18 recipes, beloved by readers and the Food staff alike  the sauce, the technique or the flavor combinations  and youll be able to recreate these dishes or amplify others. However you approach them, youll find these recipes are unforgettable.
Robert Petrosyants defended the mayor as a steadfast friend.

Ive been friends with Eric since a long, long time ago, and we stayed friends and then I had that issue, that financial issue, Robert Petrosyants said in an interview. As friends, he didnt turn his back on me.

The mayors emphasis on loyalty and redemption gives some political observers pause.

If he spends the vast majority of his time dealing with the fallout of people in his inner circle who have behaved or are behaving badly, then that means he cant do his job, said Christina Greer, a professor of political science at Fordham University. And he seems really excited to do this job.

More crucially, the mayor risks being compromised if he associates with people who may have connections or activities that would put him into a conflict of interest, said Ross Sandler, the director of the Center for New York City Law at New York Law School and a former assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan.

But Sid Davidoff, a veteran lobbyist and a former aide to Mayor John V. Lindsay, said the general public is not as concerned with Mr. Adamss appointments as they are with whether the garbage is picked up and the subways are safe.

He defended the mayors second-chance philosophy. I think he deserves the time to show that the people hes appointed are the right people for the job regardless of what has happened in their past, Mr. Davidoff said.

With questions arising so frequently about his hiring practices, Mr. Adams has adopted a pattern of political triage: Weigh the uproar, delay a decision and then make the hire  sometimes with lessened rank and responsibilities.

He followed that pattern with his brother, Bernard Adams, a retired Police Department sergeant and most recently, a parking administrator in Virginia. The mayor initially sought his brother for a position as a deputy police commissioner who would oversee security for the mayor and other dignitaries, despite his having little experience with that kind of work.
Grant became the nations first four-star general in 1866, after the Civil War. His supporters had hoped the posthumous promotion would come through in time for the 200th anniversary of Grants birth, which is today.

But such things take time. The Army did not make Washington a general of the armies until 1978, two years after Congress passed a resolution calling for the move  and 179 years after his death.

Grant was the first of the worlds modern generals, said Frank Scaturro, the president of the Grant Monument Association, which is involved in a commemorative ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. today at the General Grant National Memorial, on Riverside Drive at West 122nd Street. This promotion would be a recognition of what he meant to the modern U.S. Army and the survival of the republic and the broader cause he believed in, emancipation, which became the cause of the union in the Civil War.

A similar joint resolution on Grants behalf was introduced last fall with bipartisan support. Two sponsors in the House are infrequent allies: Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat from Harlem who voted for former President Donald Trumps impeachment in 2019 and 2021, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, who voted against impeachment both times and became the No. 3 Republican in the House with Trumps endorsement.

Last week three of the sponsors of the Grant resolution  Senator Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri; Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio; and Representative Ann Wagner, a Republican from Missouri  wrote to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, asking for a review of Grants record and a determination as to the merits of a posthumous promotion. They argued that Washingtons promotion in 1978 had the effect of lowering the grade to which Grant was appointed in 1866.
He resigned from M.I.T. earlier this month after three faculty members recommended that his tenure be revoked, according to a letter to faculty from L. Rafael Reif, M.I.T. president, and obtained by The Boston Globe.

In the letter, Dr. Reif wrote that the faculty members had reviewed the allegations and found that Dr. Sabatini had violated the schools policy on consensual romantic relationships in the workplace. They also had concerns about his unprofessional behavior with lab members.

At the protest, Megan Kirchgessner, a postdoctoral fellow at the medical school, said she was disappointed that the school would consider hiring a person facing accusations of sexual harassment when the role could have been offered to someone from an underrepresented background in science.

It was kind of a moment of a cynical reality check, Dr. Kirchgessner said.

Deborah DeLair, a professor at the medical school, said hiring Dr. Sabatini would contradict the schools policies on sexual misconduct.

The rules should apply to everyone regardless if youre a well-known researcher, she said. You cant say one thing and then do another.

Several faculty members wrote a letter to the dean and vice dean of the medical school urging them not to recruit Dr. Sabatini. The letter, which was obtained by The New York Times, said that such a move could have a profound impact on the reputation of the school. As of Wednesday, it had been signed by about 90 faculty members.

While we understand there are still legal proceedings in progress and that the public does not yet have all of the facts, we are worried that this hiring would signal a shift in policy that conflicts with our commitment to provide a respectful training environment, a culture of respect for women, and zero tolerance of misconduct, the letter stated.
Democrats were likewise expecting the State Senate maps they adopted in February to help safeguard the partys supermajority in Albany.

Wednesdays decision was a milestone in New York jurisprudence, the first time since the 1960s that the Court of Appeals has struck down district lines approved by lawmakers in their once-in-a-decade redistricting process.

But the ruling is part of a growing trend across the nation in which state courts have taken up more active stances against partisan gerrymandering as federal courts have been removed from these battles by the Supreme Court.

This year alone, state courts in Ohio, North Carolina, Kansas and Maryland have scrapped plans put in place by lawmakers because they ran afoul of state constitutional language outlawing partisan mapmaking, like that adopted by New York voters in 2014. The courts are widely expected to scrutinize new lines in Florida that overwhelmingly favor Republicans, as well.

States can be the laboratories of redistricting reforms, said Samuel Wang, the director of the Princeton Gerrymandering Project. And this just goes to show that if a state court is willing to look carefully to its constitution and laws, it will find principals that can restrict the most extreme partisan acts.

Unlike New York, though, some of those courts have indicated they will allow 2022 elections to take place on tainted maps, potentially putting Democrats at a greater disadvantage nationally.

The judges in New York were silent on whether to reschedule primary elections for other contested seats  including for governor, lieutenant governor and the State Assembly  leaving it to a trial court judge, Patrick F. McAllister, and the State Board of Elections to work out the details with all due haste. The board said Wednesday evening that it did not foresee moving those contests.
In December, I wrote a newsletter with the headline, Overturning Roe Will Make Miscarriage Care Worse. I pointed out that because the options that doctors have to end a miscarriage that doesnt happen on its own  medication or surgery  are the same ones involved in an abortion, outlawing abortion would have a chilling effect on medical providers, as evidenced by cases in countries such as Malta and Poland where abortion is severely restricted.

Doctors wind up being afraid to conduct any procedure that may be misconstrued as an illegal abortion, even when theyre treating patients who miscarry. Women can then wind up with little choice about how their miscarriages end, sometimes simply having to wait to miscarry naturally, which may take weeks and risk their health in the process.

But Roe v. Wade didnt have to fall for a slew of anti-abortion bills to make their way through state legislatures: Texas ban on abortion after six weeks was the first to become law, in September. As my Times colleagues Kate Zernike and Adam Liptak explained a few weeks ago, The Texas law, which several states are attempting to copy, puts enforcement in the hands of civilians. It offers the prospect of $10,000 rewards for successful lawsuits against anyone  from an Uber driver to a doctor  who aids or abets a woman who gets an abortion once fetal cardiac activity can be detected.

There are situations where fetal cardiac activity is detected, but the fetus would not survive outside the womb, or a continued pregnancy would put a womans life at risk. As I wrote last year, women in Ireland, Italy and Poland have died of sepsis in such situations. In the past few months, legislators in Florida, Idaho, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri and Wyoming have either introduced or passed laws severely restricting abortion. As Zernike points out in a March report about these laws, Most bills have provisions to allow abortion to save the life of the mother. But even on that, states are cracking down.
Last May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped indoor mask requirements for vaccinated people. Officials argued that this would give unvaccinated people an incentive to get vaccinated. Sociological indicators at the time suggested that the unvaccinated would simply ditch their masks, too, rather than somehow get motivated, suddenly, to follow the recommendations. We know how that one went.

The C.D.C. did not, until fairly recently, recommend the higher-quality N95 or KN95 masks. We learned that was at least partly because they were considered uncomfortable and officials thought people would be less likely to wear any mask if those were recommended. While I find many such masks very comfortable, even if they werent, arent people entitled to know how to best protect themselves? And wouldnt those who found those masks uncomfortable simply stick with the masks they had been using?

So why would rolling out vaccines one at a time dissuade people from getting their children vaccinated? Parents who are eager to vaccinate their children are going to be eager as soon as vaccines are available. What kind of a message does delaying the rollout of a vaccine send to parents who are not eager about vaccinating their children? Could vaccination really be that important if officials delay the vaccines availability in this manner?

It is possible to undermine vaccine confidence by, say, rolling out vaccines without releasing the supporting data. But we do have the data to show they are beneficial to children under 5.

Early in the pandemic, officials decided that no vaccine would be authorized for emergency use unless it could be shown to prevent infections with symptoms in at least 50 percent of recipients. That standard made sense early in the development of vaccines because symptoms, rather than severe illness or death, are far more common, which makes it statistically easier to figure out in trials if vaccines are making the difference between the vaccine and placebo groups. The 50 percent efficacy figure seems to have been derived from previous benchmarks for flu vaccines, and it was also adopted by the W.H.O.

Using that benchmark against infection as the key criterion for vaccine authorization makes less sense now, as new variants of the coronavirus have emerged. While vaccines have continued to provide excellent protection against severe or fatal illness, and additionally reduce incidence of many long-term complications from Covid, Omicron causes more breakthroughs. Vaccines are less protective against symptomatic infection by the Omicron variant for all age groups, often lower than the initial 50 percent benchmark, especially after a few months and without a booster. However, we still tell everyone to get vaccinated, because the vaccines are clearly still highly beneficial.

Pfizer had reported in December that for some age groups under 5, its vaccine reduced rates of symptomatic infection by less than 50 percent. Was authorization of the under-5 vaccine delayed because officials didnt update benchmarks to reflect current conditions and knowledge? Hopefully public health officials can clarify.
All of this is a moral and ethical case for keeping moderation policies in place, but whats more baffling about Mr. Musks crusade is its hard to see how eliminating them would be good for the business. Right now, Twitters demographics skew male. If Twitter wants to further scale up its business and increase profitability, which is ostensibly its goal, it needs to expand its reach. Making the platform a hostile environment for women and minorities isnt conducive to expansion, unless you believe your most valuable audience is white men who skew conservative and that they exist in ever larger numbers  and demographic trends indicate that they do not.

If anything, Twitters history indicates that when you make the platform more hospitable to a range of people, the user base grows. When the biggest Twitter troll of all, former President Donald Trump, was removed from the platform in January of 2021, research suggested that the percentage of adults on social media who said they used Twitter increased by 21 percent. (Mr. Trump has said that he has no plans to rejoin Twitter, but this column is not long enough to catalog all of the things he has said he would not do that he later did anyway, so some skepticism is in order.) If the former president is invited back, its entirely plausible that some of the newer post-Trump users would leave.

Mr. Musk has said he is not buying Twitter to make money, but as a successful entrepreneur, he presumably wants to make the company, which has long struggled with profitability, a success. The companys revenue is currently very advertising-dependent, and in my experience as a former media entrepreneur and newspaper editor in chief, advertisers generally dont like to promote their brands alongside provocative content; even everyday political news is sometimes too much. If Mr. Musk allows Twitter to become a cesspool of hate speech and disinformation, hell test the risk averseness of the platforms advertisers, and its likely that hell find himself with fewer brands that are willing to take the risk of appearing in peoples polluted feeds.

Theres also, of course, the risk  both moral and to the business  that allowing more harassment and disinformation on the platform will result in real-world physical harm. The 2016 Pizzagate conspiracy theory, a precursor to QAnon, spread largely over social media and resulted in a man firing an AR-15 rifle in a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor. When people feel entitled to harm others because hateful speech is normalized online, it increases the ease with which conspiracy theories metastasize into acts of violence. A platform that spreads that kind of speech and takes a laissez-faire approach to disinformation doesnt just create an unpleasant experience for users; it can get someone killed.

Its entirely possible that Mr. Musk hasnt thought about these things very thoroughly. His public bid for Twitter began only a few weeks ago, and since then his stated intentions have changed repeatedly, accompanied by a late and misleading securities filing and contradictory statements. He enjoys online trolling, and this may have started as a joke, which was then taken so seriously by the market, Twitter shareholders and the public that Mr. Musk himself began to consider it.

If thats what happened, he may be the dog that caught the car. Tesla stock fell in the wake of the purchase announcement, potentially a reflection of shareholder sentiment that Mr. Musk may not be able to effectively run yet another company in addition to the four (Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and the Boring Company) he already leads.

Sophisticated moderation policies are difficult to develop and enforce, and Twitter has already spent years tinkering and trying to come up with something that works. The current terms of service are not perfect, but if Mr. Musk chooses to partly or fully dismantle them, he may experience Twitter in a new way himself: The aspects of the platform that are weaponized against women and minorities may not be so friendly to him, either. And if the company cant expand its user base, his worst critics may be the only growth area of Twitter.
Total factor productivity growth is not exponential, Philippon writes in the paper. New ideas add to our stock of knowledge; they do not multiply it.

If this is true, its a big deal, because if know-how is merely additive, it will over time become increasingly small as a percentage of a growing economy. As my Opinion colleague Paul Krugman wrote in his book The Age of Diminished Expectations: Productivity isnt everything, but in the long run it is almost everything. A countrys ability to improve its standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker.

Philippon isnt arguing, unrealistically, that the rate of invention has been flat since prehistoric times. He spots three structural breaks in the data  times when the rate of invention shifted upward. The first was between 1650 and 1700, the second around 1830 and the third around 1930.

Among economists, adding structural breaks to your model sets off alarm bells. It can be an ad hoc way of massaging the model to match reality. But Philippon says the three breaks he found all have plausible explanations: In each case, the step changes seemed to have been caused by the widespread adoption of world-changing general-purpose technologies: advances in agriculture and cottage industries in the first transition; steam power and iron-making in the second; and electrification and the internal combustion engine in the third.

Philippon warmed to the subject during my interview with him. While we spoke he came up with the idea that the structural breaks were like shifting the gears on a car. Maybe think of it as shift to a higher gear? Lets try that metaphor, he said. The changes around 1930 were so big that they were like shifting twice, into third and then into fourth, he said. The question for the future is whether A.I. is going to be the fifth gear.

Philippon earned degrees in economics and physics in his native France before getting his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003. He has advised governments and central banks in the United States, Hong Kong and France. The Great Reversal, his 2019 book, argued that a new era of oligopoly was costing the average American household about $5,000 a year in higher prices.

David Weil, a Brown University economist, told me that he doesnt entirely buy Philippons argument that total factor productivity growth can only be linear: If I invent something it makes us 5 percent more productive. Next year when you invent something, you would be sitting down in a better lab thanks to my invention. And Weil said that while Philippons linear model may fit the data well, theres no reason to expect the rate of invention to be fixed. Technological progress depends on both the difficulty of the scientific terrain and the amount of R & D that gets done, both of which vary, he said.


Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has staked his companys future on an immersive online world known as the metaverse. On Wednesday, the company showed it was still navigating that transformation.

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, reported profit of $7.5 billion for the first quarter, down 21 percent from a year earlier. Revenue rose 7 percent to $27.9 billion. Wall Street analysts had predicted profits of $7.1 billion on revenue of $28.2 billion.

The results followed Metas dismal financial report in February, when the company also posted falling profits and slowing user growth. The next day, Metas stock plummeted 26 percent and its market value plunged more than $230 billion in the companys biggest one-day wipeout ever.

The two quarters were the companys first back-to-back profit declines in over a decade, a sign of the difficulties it is encountering as it changes course. While Meta is spending heavily on metaverse-related products like virtual-reality goggles, whether people want to buy such gadgets remains far from certain. At the same time, the companys core social networking apps  including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger  face challenges. New-user growth has slowed, and competition from rivals like TikTok, the Chinese-owned video site, is increasing.
UW Spring Faculty Meeting Friday

University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel invites all faculty members to the annual spring faculty meeting Friday, April 29, from 9-10:30 a.m. in the Wyoming Union Ballroom.

Its the first in-person spring faculty meeting since 2019. The meeting also will be livestreamed at https://wyolinks.uwyo.edu/springfac2022/.

Coffee/tea and doughnuts/pastries will be served. Additionally, door prizes will be given, including a weekend at the presidents cabin near Centennial and funding to be used for institutional excellence and student success in the winners academic departments.

This is a wonderful chance to come back together in person to celebrate what weve accomplished through a difficult time and look forward to the great opportunities ahead of us, Seidel says. We hope everyone will come and participate. Those teaching classes at that time might consider bringing them along; those who cant make it in person are welcome to join online.

The meeting will include updates from the Faculty Senate; Provost and Executive Vice President Kevin Carman; and Seidel. Retiring College of Health Sciences Dean David Jones will be recognized as well. A question-and-answer session will follow.

For questions and additional information, call the Office of the President at 766-4121.
Elon Musk could soon own Twitter, but his own use of the platform will remain constrained by a 2018 agreement he signed with securities regulators.

A federal judge in New York denied a request by Mr. Musk to end the agreement, which requires him to run his social media posts by a company lawyer if the statements contained material information about his electric car company, Tesla.

Mr. Musk had argued that the agreement to settle accusations of securities violations infringed on his right to freedom of speech and that the Securities and Exchange Commission had used the agreement as an excuse to launch endless, boundless investigations of his public statements. He claimed he accepted the settlement in the first place only because the litigation would have put too much financial pressure on Tesla.

None of the arguments hold water, Judge Lewis J. Liman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote in a ruling issued Wednesday that dismissed Mr. Musks claims.
Assessing a social media app  especially one this young  is not simple, especially in trying to see how much free speech it really permits. The app does do some moderation of posts. But because it does not have a set of community guidelines, its unclear what triggers the content decisions that get made. And while some posts that were prohibited on Twitter were available on Truth Social, other types of posts were hidden because of curse words.

To say I was underwhelmed would be an understatement. After a wait of two months to join the app, Truth Social seemed unfinished and the crowd felt thin. Heres what I found.

A Rocky Start

After choosing a user name and an avatar (I uploaded a picture of my Labrador), I began my Truth Social experience. The app looked like a clone of Twitter. Truth Social has a main news feed, a search tool, a messaging system and a button to compose a Truth, which is the equivalent of a tweet.

Truth Social immediately recommended a list of a few dozen accounts to follow, including Fox News, The Epoch Times and, of course, Mr. Trump himself. The former president has posted only one Truth, and that was back in February: Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon! To date, he has accrued 1.88 million followers.

After I followed all 80 accounts that the app recommended, no new suggestions appeared, so I manually searched for accounts to follow. Many accounts for large brands had already been taken over by impostors. The profile for @nytimes was labeled The Failing NY Times, and @CNN was named CNN (Parody). Another dubious-looking account claiming to be ABC News had posted only three times.

My timeline of posts consisted mostly of news articles and videos. I saw a Newsmax story about Washington State banning the use of the word marijuana and a clip mocking liberal Twitter employees who were upset about the takeover by Mr. Musk.

A large part of the app was broken. Trying to do a keyword search for a Truth was nonfunctional. Searching the words vaccine and Covid brought up the message that No matching Truths were found.
Michael Oberholtzer

Take Me Out

Are there any theater superstitions that you subscribe to?

I subscribe to most of them. I broke the cardinal one about a week ago, I said the name of the Scottish play. So I had to go outside. I had to do the whole thing.

Have you ever had an experience in the theater that felt out of the ordinary?

All the time. Some people get freaked out by that type of thing. I welcome it. Interestingly enough, we went out to Yankee Stadium a week or two ago. We went out to the bullpen in the outfield. There was so much energy there. So yeah, I absolutely believe in it. And I like to think Im attuned to it. I try to submit to it, embrace it.

Do you have a preshow ritual?

Before I go onstage, I find a place in the theater and I get down on my knees and just give over to the universe, just express gratitude for this opportunity.

A.J. Shively

Paradise Square

Have you ever had an experience in the theater that felt out of the ordinary?

Never in any kind of scary or frightening way. But whenever I go into an old Broadway house, I go onstage and look at the house and think about the incredible people who have seen this exact view before me. I went out on the stage here at the Barrymore, where the original Streetcar was. I said, Stella!

Do you have a preshow ritual?

I made my Broadway debut in La Cage Aux Folles. An actress, Christine Andreas, told me to go down to the stage when the audience is filing in to just feel their energy and send your energy out. Ive done that ever since.

What about a postshow ritual?

I reward myself with a pint of ice cream.
We first visited Shadow Lake in 2014, five months after Ella was born, when she was small enough to ride the trails in an infant carrier on my or Laurens back. But there had been a major change since that trip. In late 2019, the Brewsters, a prominent local family who had purchased the original lodge in 1938 and run it ever since, sold the entire operation to the Alpine Club of Canada, which is best known for its network of bare-bones communal mountain huts.

The decision to sell wasnt an easy one, according to the fifth-generation owner, Alison Brewster, whose daughters, Morgan and Joleen, worked as the chef and the manager of the lodge. But the operations future was uncertain because of its location within Banff National Park, where it operated on a 10-year renewable lease.

Parks Canada made it very clear to us that we would not be permitted to pass it down to my daughters, she said. Instead, the family decided to approach the A.C.C. about taking it over, since the nonprofit already worked closely with Parks Canada and shared their commitment to the Brewsters vision: that, as Alisons sister Cori put it, people should be able to access the backcountry without having to put on a 50-pound pack and carry their freeze-dried food.

On the surface, the new arrangement seems like an odd fit: The A.C.C.s usual spartan accommodations can seem like the antithesis of a luxury lodge. Its a little outside our normal experience, said Keith Sanford, the groups interim executive director. But Shadow Lake, along with one other hike-in retreat in Banff National Park called Skoki Lodge, occupies an underpopulated middle ground between those two extremes.
For generations, the Cherokee had gathered plants along the Buffalo River in Arkansas. The flora could be used to make a wide variety of things: blow guns, baskets, medicine and even ganatsi, a hickory nut soup.

Then, in 1972, the National Park Service took over the river and made it illegal to remove plants there without permission from the authorities.

The move cut off a valuable supply of river cane, bloodroot, sage and other plants, which can be difficult to find on the Cherokee Nations reservation in northeastern Oklahoma, on the border with Arkansas.

Last week, about 50 years after the river became federal land, the Cherokee received formal permission to gather those plants just as some of their ancestors did, thanks to an agreement between the tribe and the National Park Service.
The department did not have enough data to look at treatment of other racial and ethnic groups, Rebecca Lucero, the state human rights commissioner, said at a news conference.

Officers used covert social media accounts to observe and engage with elected officials, Black individuals and organizations, though the people and groups were not suspected of any crimes, with officers at times posing as community members to make comments. In one instance, the report said, an officer posed as a Black resident to send a message criticizing the N.A.A.C.P. In other cases, officers posed as residents to criticize elected officials.

Fake accounts are supposed to be used for investigative purposes only, approved by a supervisor and registered in a department inventory, though investigators found at least two dozen accounts in use that were not listed in the inventory. The department did not use covert accounts to similarly surveil white people or white supremacist groups for possible criminal activity, the report said.

Mr. Floyd was killed after two rookie officers responded to a call that he had used a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. Mr. Floyd declined to get into the squad car. A field training officer, Derek Chauvin, and his partner arrived to provide backup. Mr. Chauvin forced Mr. Floyd to the pavement and knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, while his partner stood guard and the two rookies helped pin Mr. Floyd down.

Mr. Chauvin was convicted of murder and pleaded guilty to federal civil rights violations. The three other officers have been convicted of failure to intervene or provide medical aid and still face state charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.

Although field training officers like Mr. Chauvin have tremendous sway over rookies, the department does not offer ongoing instruction for them, the investigation found  an oversight that it said furthers race-based policing. It cited a 2020 case in which a training officer allowed a trainee to search a Black woman who was unarmed, but said that searching an intoxicated white man who admitted to having a knife in his bag would be a waste of the trainees time.

The report suggested that the department still fails to empower officers to intervene when they see something wrong. On the first day of training in 2021, the report said, recruits were told that instant and unquestioned compliance is in order.
WASHINGTON  Richard G. Olson, a retired diplomat who recently served as ambassador to Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, said he would plead guilty to charges of illegally lobbying for the government of Qatar and failure to disclose gifts he received while he was an ambassador, according to court documents.

Mr. Olson, who worked as a Foreign Service officer for 34 years, was U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2015 until 2016, when he retired. In that role, he reported directly to Secretary of State John Kerry. From 2012 to 2015, he was the ambassador to Pakistan. His first tour as an ambassador was in the United Arab Emirates, from 2008 to 2011.

The Justice Department said in a filing that Mr. Olson had avoided disclosing in required ethics documents that he had received a first-class airplane ticket from New Mexico to London valued at more than $18,000 and a stay in a luxury hotel in London in January 2015.

The payments were made by a Pakistani American businessman whose name was not revealed in the documents. In London, the ambassador met with a businessman from Bahrain, who soon offered him a one-year contract with a salary of $300,000 that would start after he left the State Department.
In recent weeks, law enforcement officials have seized a growing roster of multimillion-dollar superyachts across Europe. In April, the F.B.I. worked in concert with Spanish authorities to take the 250-foot, $90 million Tango, said to be owned by the Russian energy tycoon Viktor F. Vekselberg. Unless the vessels are maintained, they risk becoming environmental blights, experts have warned.

Early attempts to quickly enact the bill were stymied after lawmakers on the Foreign Affairs Committee and lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union raised concerns that the legislation could run afoul of legal protections for individuals, by depriving the Russians who owned the seized items of the right to challenge such an action and potentially reclaim their property. Those concerns were reported earlier by The Washington Post.

The problem with the bill as introduced was that the complete absence of any due process protections would likely have resulted in a court handing Russia a propaganda win by having an American court invalidate both the sanctions law and the sanctions themselves, said Christopher Anders, the federal policy director at the A.C.L.U.

In response to those concerns, lawmakers watered down the bill substantially, making it a nonbinding resolution that would call on the administration to convene an interagency working group tasked with determining the constitutional mechanisms through which the president can take steps to seize and confiscate the assets of oligarchs who were punished with sanctions.

The Biden administration appeared to be warming to the idea. Jake Sullivan, Mr. Bidens national security adviser, said this month that as we seize these assets, our goal is not to give them back; our goal is to put them to a better use than that.

That would represent a fairly significant shift in the way that sanctions are structured, said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University. The current theory behind freezing the assets of malicious actors is to induce a change in behavior that results in those individuals regaining access to their property.

It really does create some real questions of precedent and how this will be applied in other cases, Mr. Nephew said.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who dissented in McGirt, asked Edwin S. Kneedler, a lawyer for the federal government, whether criminal laws in Oklahoma were being adequately enforced.

Is it a sustainable situation? Justice Alito asked. Is the federal government going to be able to provide enough federal agents, enough federal prosecutors, enough federal judges, enough federal courtrooms, enough federal probation officers, to handle the caseload that was previously handled by state law enforcement?

Mr. Kneedler, who argued in favor of Mr. Castro-Huertas position that the state could not prosecute his case given the identity of the victim, said, Im not here to minimize the challenge that has resulted from the decision in McGirt. He added that the federal government had shifted resources to the state and had asked Congress for $40 million for more prosecutors, F.B.I. agents and prison space.

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the author of the majority opinion in the McGirt decision, said there were good reasons to apply it to non-Indian offenders with Indian victims on reservations. For starters, he said, the Supreme Court had on some 10 occasions made statements in its decisions backing the idea.

Justice Gorsuch also cited the long history of state hostility to the interests of Native American tribes. We have the treaties, OK, which have been in existence and promising this tribe since before the Trail of Tears that they would not be subject to state jurisdiction precisely because the states were known to be their enemies, he said, referring to the forced relocation of some 100,000 Native Americans from their homes in the Southeast in the 1800s.

Justice Gorsuch seemed to urge his colleagues to stand behind the McGirt decision in the face of an outcry from some politicians and members of the public. Are we to wilt today because of a social media campaign? he asked.

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who dissented in McGirt, urged an approach that would allow both federal and state prosecutions. Indian victims right now are not being protected because the federal government doesnt have the resources to prosecute all these crimes, he said. And this would not be displacing the federal government.
The report indicated that Mr. Esper was not initially familiar with the status of Yellows certification. Before the call, aides prepared a summary of the analysis and recommendations of the departments career officials that concluded that the certification should be rejected.

Before those reached Mr. Esper, Ellen M. Lord, the departments under secretary for acquisition and sustainment who was appointed by Mr. Trump, intervened and requested a new set of talking points that argued that the company should receive the financial support to both support force readiness and national economic security. Ms. Lord could not immediately be reached for comment.

After the call with Mr. Mnuchin, Mr. Esper certified that the company was critical to national security, and a week later the approval of the loan was announced.

Mr. Mnuchin then sent an email to Mr. Meadows that included news reports praising the loan. He highlighted positive comments from James P. Hoffa, the longtime president of the Teamsters union, who according to documents in the report made a direct plea to President Donald J. Trump about the loan.

Mr. Esper and Mr. Mnuchin declined to comment.

A former Treasury official familiar with the process said the loan saved 25,000 union jobs during an economic crisis and prevented disruption to the national supply chain that the Defense Department, businesses and consumers had depended on. The former official said that because of the terms of the loan, taxpayers were profiting from the agreement.

A spokesman for Mr. Esper said that the company met the criteria to be eligible for the loan and emphasized that the report made clear that senior staff at the Defense Department recommended that he certify it. The Treasury Department made the final decision to issue the loan, the spokesman added.

At a congressional oversight hearing before leaving office in late 2020, Mr. Mnuchin said the loan was appropriate and necessary for saving jobs and maintaining trucking services to the Defense Department. Lawmakers from both parties, such as Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and Pat Roberts, the Republican former senator from Kansas, had sent letters to Mr. Mnuchin urging him to consider the loan application.
MONTERREY, Mexico  On the 13th day of searching for his missing daughter, Mario Escobar stood outside a gas station in the choking heat, clutching fliers with her photo and the vestiges of a desperate, lingering hope.

Hours later, in a wash of red and blue police lights, that hope was destroyed.

Debanhi Escobars body was found last Thursday night in an abandoned underground water tank on the grounds of a motel in northern Mexico, which authorities had already searched four different times.

Im shattered, Mr. Escobar said of his daughters disappearance. My life has changed completely.
Immediately after Beijing said it had detected a new coronavirus outbreak, officials hurried to assure residents there was no reason to panic. Food was plentiful, they said, and any lockdown measures would be smooth. But Evelyn Zheng, a freelance writer in the city, was not taking any chances.

Her relatives, who lived in Shanghai, were urging her to leave or stock up on food. She had spent weeks poring over social media posts from that city, which documented the chaos and anguish of the monthlong lockdown there. And when she went out to buy more food, it was clear many of her neighbors had the same idea: Some shelves were already cleaned out.

At first, I was worried about Shanghai, because my family is there, and there was no good news from any of my friends, Ms. Zheng said. Now, Beijing is starting, too, and I dont know when it will land on my head.
A court sentenced Myanmars ousted civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to five years in prison on Wednesday after finding her guilty of corruption for accepting about $1.3 million in gold bars and cash from a close political ally.

The conviction was based largely on the testimony of the former chief minister of Yangon, Myanmars largest city, who publicly confessed last year that he had delivered $600,000 in cash and about 25 pounds of gold to her in shopping bags.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose trial was closed to the public and the news media, has called the charge absurd. The court has prohibited her lawyers from speaking publicly about the case. Her ouster in Myanmar has rattled other Southeast Asian nations and is expected to be a major point of discussion during President Bidens meeting with leaders from the region in Washington next month.

Supporters of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi who are familiar with the legal proceedings said the prosecution had presented no evidence  aside from witness testimony  that she received the gold bars and currency.
A Malaysian man convicted of smuggling drugs into Singapore was executed Wednesday despite appeals from human rights advocates and global business leaders who said he should be spared because he suffered from a mental disability.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, was executed by hanging, according to his attorney, M. Ravi. He was caught in 2009 with about 1.5 ounces of heroin strapped to his thigh as he entered Singapore from Malaysia.

His lawyers and rights groups said that Mr. Nagaenthran suffered from an intellectual disability and was not fully capable of understanding his actions and that he was coerced into carrying the drugs.

Among those who urged Singapore to stay his execution were Malaysias prime minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob; the British billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson; and the Malaysian entrepreneur and chief executive of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes. More than 100,000 people signed a petition urging Singapores president, Halimah Yacob, to pardon him.
Two other workers, in white full-body hazardous-material suits, checked identity cards. Another 11 guards and other assistants stood nearby, wearing disposable blue hospital gowns over their clothing. The line moved quickly and the tests were free.

Richard Reithinger, vice president for global health at Research Triangle Institute, a nonprofit research group in North Carolina, said that the scale of Chinas testing program was impressive but that some of the resources might be better used to expand vaccination. China still lags well behind Western countries in the proportion of older residents in particular who have been vaccinated.

Beijing has now had 138 cases since last Friday scattered across half of its 16 districts. Three dozen of those cases were linked to a single junior high school in southeastern Beijing.

But most Beijing residents can still move freely around the capital. Residents of inland industrial cities are being treated much less gently.

Yiwu, a city of nearly two million in central China that is a trading and manufacturing center for everything from plastic toys to American election campaign merchandise, ordered on Wednesday that no residents could leave their apartment complexes until further notice after just three infections were found there. Baotou, a steel and rare earth metals hub of nearly three million people in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, locked down on Monday evening after just two cases were found, and subsequently detected one more case.

The CSI 300 Index of large companies share prices on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets rose 2.9 percent on Wednesday as investors appeared to conclude that the worst of the current outbreak might be past. The index dropped 4.9 percent on Monday amid alarm at the detection of dozens of infections in Beijing over the weekend.

Taking a mandatory nucleic acid test every other day is not the biggest nuisance from the continuing campaign against the coronavirus, Beijing residents said in interviews on Wednesday. Regular P.C.R. testing has already been a fact of life for many.
The British governments decision in the spring of 2020 to discharge hospital patients into nursing homes without testing them for the coronavirus was illegal, a British court ruled on Wednesday, weighing in on what has become a defining scandal for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

During the first wave of the pandemic in Britain, when widespread testing was not yet available, the government ordered that thousands of older hospital patients  some of whom were infected with the virus  be sent back to nursing homes in an effort to prevent a flood of virus cases from overwhelming National Health Service hospitals.

With protective equipment in short supply and the virus spreading asymptomatically, the early stages of the pandemic devastated Britains nursing homes, a fatal pattern also seen across Europe and in the United States.

In its judgment on Wednesday, the High Court in London said that policy decisions made by Matt Hancock, Britains health secretary at the time, in March and April 2020 were unlawful and failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from nonsymptomatic transmission.
The orange spot first appeared on the national risk map in early April, marking three counties in central New York as having high community levels of the coronavirus, the only such cluster in the country.

By mid-April, the orange had spread to include 10 upstate counties, with a penumbra of yellow around them. Now its up to two dozen orange counties, stretching across upstate New York and spilling into Pennsylvania and Vermont.

There are smatterings of orange and yellow counties elsewhere in the country now as well, but the hot spot that started in central New York is the biggest, darkest blotch on the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions mostly pristine national map, and it may grow bigger still when the map is updated on Thursday evening.

Health experts say that people in the hot spot, which includes cities like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Binghamton, should be increasing their precautions. These are areas where C.D.C. recommends people should wear a mask in public indoor settings due to an increasing level of severe disease and the potential for significant health care strain, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the C.D.C. director, told reporters on Tuesday.
In the end, enough voters aligned behind Macron to keep the far right out of the presidency. And it seems that many heeded the calls to hold their noses and vote for Macron, despite their aversion to him, in order to protect the country from the far right: According to one poll, about 45 percent of those who voted for him did so only to oppose Le Pen.

But the same poll found that the opposite was also true: About 45 percent of Le Pen voters were more interested in opposing Macron than in supporting the far right. Other data bears that out: The overseas French territories Martinique and Guadeloupe supported Melenchon in the first round, but then gave a majority to Le Pen in the second.

Others withdrew entirely. Abstentions and blank ballots hit record highs in this election  a notable development in France, where turnout has historically been around 80 percent.

A warning from history

Experts who study Frances history of revolutions and democratic collapse see signs of danger in a system that pushes a wide spectrum of voters into a binary choice between what some see as the lesser of two evils.

So how do you tell the difference between normal political anger that can work itself out through a series of elections without leading to serious instability, and something dangerous enough to require structural change to the system itself?
Italys top court ruled on Wednesday that children born in the country will be given their mothers and fathers surnames at birth, declaring the automatic practice of only giving children their fathers surname constitutionally illegitimate.

Parents will be able to choose the order of surnames or decide to use only one, a statement on the ruling from Italys Constitutional Court read, citing principles of equality and the childrens interest. Except in certain circumstances, Italian families have been unable to give their children their mothers surname alone.

Both parents should be able to share the choice of a surname, which is a fundamental element for ones personal identity, the court wrote.

Compared with other European countries where both surnames can be used for children, like France, Germany and Spain, Italy has been slow in embracing the recognition of the mothers family name.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for all-out efforts to strengthen infrastructure construction in the country's building of a modern infrastructure system. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the 11th meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, of which he is the head. Infrastructure serves as a pillar for economic and social development, Xi said, urging the country to coordinate development and security, and optimize the layout, structure, functions and development models of infrastructure. Other Chinese leaders, including Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng, attended the meeting. The meeting heard reports from relevant departments on ramping up infrastructure construction and their progress on policy implementation. While giving credit to China's achievements in major sci-tech facilities, water conservancy projects, transport hubs, information infrastructure and national strategic reserves, the meeting deemed the country's infrastructure still incompatible with the demand for national development and security. Strengthening infrastructure construction in an all-round way is of great significance to ensuring national security, smoothing domestic circulation, facilitating the "dual circulation" of domestic and overseas markets, expanding domestic demand and promoting high-quality development, according to the meeting. Toward this end, the country needs to bolster the construction of network-based infrastructure in fields such as transport, energy and water conservancy, with efforts made to improve efficiency, the meeting said. China should improve the planning of waterways and the building of coastal and inland ports, and upgrade water transport facilities nationwide, the meeting said, while a smart grid must be developed, a series of new green, low-carbon energy bases built, and the oil and gas pipeline network should be fine-tuned. Efforts should also go into strengthening the infrastructure construction for industrial upgrades in information, sci-tech and logistics, as well as building facilities for a new generation of supercomputing, cloud computing, AI platforms and broadband networks, said the meeting. A host of regional, general and freight transport airports will be constructed nationwide, the meeting said, calling for efforts to promote the transport integration of urban agglomerations, build convenient and efficient intercity railway networks, and develop urban railways and urban rail transit. The country needs to promote the modernization of agriculture and rural areas with infrastructure modernization, it said, also stressing the necessity to support national security infrastructure and improve the country's capability to cope with extreme situations. On increasing financial support for infrastructure construction, the meeting called for broadening the channels for financing and encouraged the participation of social capital in the investment and operation of urban infrastructure. The country should also adhere to its innovation-driven strategy, putting more efforts into the research and development of core technologies to shore up the technological independence of infrastructure construction, the meeting said. In addition, the meeting underscored the contributions made by the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, saying that it has profoundly studied a variety of major issues concerning the country's fundamental and long-term development, and has played a strategically leading role.




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Mr. Richardson said on CNN on Wednesday that he believed Mr. Biden was moved by the humanitarian need to secure Mr. Reeds release. Family members said he was suffering from active tuberculosis while in detention in Russia.

But Mr. Bidens decision to approve the prisoner swap also came after weeks of intense public pressure from Mr. Reeds parents, who initially criticized the president for refusing to meet with them about their sons case.

Mr. Biden called them on the phone in early March after the couple stood on the side of the road in Texas and waved as the presidential motorcade drove by on the way to an event about veterans. Three weeks later, in late March, Mr. Biden invited the couple into the White House for a brief conversation after they protested outside the building.

That public pressure gained momentum as the war in Ukraine intensified, raising concerns that the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Russia would make a breakthrough less likely. In fact, American officials and Mr. Richardson said the fighting in Ukraine did not appear to hamper Russias willingness to discuss the swap.

Mr. Reed was initially detained by Russian authorities in August 2019. His family had increasingly expressed concern about his health while he was in detention, and footage aired on Wednesday by Russian state-run television showed what appeared to be a gaunt Mr. Reed being escorted to a Russian plane at Moscows Vnukovo airport. Mr. Reeds father, Joey Reed, told CNN that his son had been flown to Turkey, where the exchange took place.

A native of Texas, Mr. Reed traveled to Russia in May 2019 to visit his Russian girlfriend, whom he had met on a dating website, and to take language lessons. One week before his planned return to the United States, he went to a party at a park outside Moscow, where he drank extensive amounts of vodka.

Mr. Reed then got agitated, prompting his girlfriend and friends to call the police. Officers who arrived at the scene decided to take him to a police station, where he was interviewed by Russian security agents. Shortly after, he was accused of assaulting and endangering the lives of the two police officers who had driven him there.
CAIRO  Ayman Hadhoud, a well-known liberal economist in Egypt, was researching some politically delicate topics like the militarys role in the economy before he disappeared into the custody of the countrys security forces in early February. He had regularly criticized the government and its economic policies on Facebook.

A month after he disappeared, he died suddenly under mysterious circumstances while in custody. But officials did not inform his family that he had died until more than a month after the March 5 date on his death certificate and claimed it was from natural causes, quickly clearing themselves of any wrongdoing.

These are lies, said Omar Hadhoud, Mr. Hadhouds elder brother, who collected his body from the morgue and said he saw signs of abuse. Its very clear his head was broken. Why else would they hide him?

Photographs of his brothers body, taken in the morgue of the psychiatric hospital where he died and obtained by The New York Times, showed injuries to his upper body, including what forensic experts said was possibly blunt force trauma, as well as burns on his face and head. Omar Hadhoud said his brothers skull appeared to be fractured.
IT was truly the end of an era in the Rahan and Killina areas last week with the passing of Sr Oliver Wrafter, in her 100th year.

Sr Oliver was a person of generosity of spirit, determination, sense of purpose but above all kindness and humility.

She was the recipient of the Offaly Person of the Year award in 2006 for a lifetime of achievements on many different fronts including education, religious life, community involvement and local history studies.

In a tribute to the deceased Killina Presentation Resource Centre, which is located in the former convent, said Sr Oliver was treasured by our entire parish and will be fondly remembered and renowned for the legacy she leaves behind.'

Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society, of which she was a committed member for many years, said Sr Oliver will long be remembered in Killina, Rahan and Tullamore for her remarkable life full of kindness and generosity.

It was matched only by an enthusiasm to ensure that Killina schools would be a fit memorial to Maria OBrien who founded the the Killina Convent and herself became a sister in what was the first post-Reformation convent in the diocese of Meath.

The tribute added that Sr Oliver carried on that tradition of absolute dedication from the time of her entry in the 1940s and persevered in ensuring that Killinas claim for second level status would succeed and flourish.

She and her friend Sr Patrick Deegan were regular in their attendance at Offaly History lectures. In Killina she saw to the publication of several books on the parish of Rahan and ensured the collection of folk items attached to the school. This small museum was opened in the 1980s.

Born in Dublin on February 5 1923, the then Ita Wrafter came to Tullamore in 1936 as a young girl following the death of her parents when she was just 13 years old.

Her father Joe took part in the famous Tullamore Incident in 1916, widely viewed as a prelude to the Easter Rising, something of which Sr Oliver was deeply proud.

She attended the Sacred Heart Secondary School and joined the Presentation Order in Killina in 1941, thus starting a lifetime of dedication to education and of service to the wider community in Rahan and beyond.

Sr Oliver trained as a primary teacher in Carysfort College and qualified in 1944.

For the next 34 years she taught at both primary and secondary level, carrying out the duties of principal at different stages, until her retirement as principal of Killina Secondary School in 1988.

Her teaching career encompassed the many great advances in education nationally, including the introduction of free secondary education.

However, the greatest challenge came in 1972 when the Department of Education announced its decision that Killina would no longer be allowed to prepare students for the Leaving Certificate as they had done since 1953.

The threat of closure was very real as a policy of centralisation was favoured at that time.

Over the next five years, Sr Oliver along with Sr Patrick, led a number of deputations to the Department of Education lobbying to have the decision reversed.

Their perseverance and commitment to education was successful when the Leaving Certificate was restored and secondary status was conferred on the school in 1977.

The triumph demanded personal sacrifice too, as Sr Oliver returned to college and qualified for an arts degree, followed by the Higher Diploma in Education in 1977.

Sr Oliver was always fully involved in all aspects of school life and provided opportunities for the holistic development of the students. In addition to ensuring the academic and spiritual training of pupils she accompanied students on school tours throughout continental Europe and encouraged young people to become involved in sports, music and other activities.

After her retirement, Sr Oliver continued her involvement in the secondary school for many years through her work on the Board of Management.

Away from the classroom, Sr Oliver made a huge contribution to the locality through her work as sacristan in Killina parish church for over 30 years, her lifelong commitment to the Pioneer Movement, her association with the Nano Nagle Guild of the ICA and her promotion of the work of the St Joseph's Young Priests Society.

Her love for local history led to the establishment of the heritage centre in Killina and the publication in 1989 of her book Rahan Looks Back

Sr Oliver passed to her heavenly reward peacefully on Tuesday last at Shalom Nursing Home in Kilcock Co. Kildare.

Her remains reposed in the Convent Chapel in Killina on Wednesday evening followed by removal to St Carthage's Church, Killina.

Burial was on Thursday in the church grounds following the celebration of Requiem Mass.,

Deepest sympathy is extended to the Presentation Sisters, her loving cousins Conor, Carmel, Alec, Peter, Adrian and Ben, their spouses and families, relatives and a wide circle of friends.

May she rest in peace.
A MAN told a trial today (Wednesday, April 27) how he lost half a finger as a result of an assault in Offaly nearly two years ago.

Keith Dunne said he was involved in construction work on a footpath in the centre of Edenderry town on June 18, 2020 when a man hit him from behind with what he later discovered was a Japanese pull saw.

Mr Dunne said on that day he was working with a digger driver who was breaking concrete and his own job was to stand and ensure no debris went out on the street when traffic was passing.

He said he was standing there holding a screen when he heard a shout and he turned around and saw a man he identified as Craig Connolly swinging a blade down towards his head.

He said the blade hit his hard hat, bounced off it and then hit his nose, resulting in Mr Dunne falling back.

Mr Dunne said the blade then came down with such force that it took half of a finger off and injured other fingers on his left hand.

The handle broke off the weapon and the attacker took off running.

Mr Dunne, a native of Athy, Co Kildare, who was living in Monasterevin at the time, said he was brought by ambulance to hospital in Tullamore before being transferred to St James's Hospital, Dublin.

His finger was reattached but because of repeated infections he decided to have it amputated a number of months later.

Mr Dunne said his attacker was wearing a hood and a black Covid mask but he recognised him as the man who was at the time going out with the mother of his young son.

The trial at Tullamore Circuit Court also heard evidence from Garda Damien Barron who took photographs at the scene which depicted what appeared to be blood spatters at a number of places on the footpath leading from the site of the alleged assault to a van nearby. Garda Barron took swabs from the spatters as evidence.

A blade was found in the van and the jury heard it had been brought there after the attack having been recovered by the victim.

The digger driver, Peter McCormack, employer of Mr Dunne, told the trial he saw a man running across the street and striking the victim.

After the assault Mr McCormack said he put a clean rag on Mr Dunne's hand while they waited in the van for the ambulance to arrive.

Craig Connolly (30), Kinnefad, Edenderry, has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Mr Dunne at JKL Street, Edenderry, causing him harm, and has also denied assaulting him, causing him serious harm.

He has further denied possessing an article, a pull saw, in a public place, intending to cause injury, incapacitate or intimidate another person.

A co-accused in the trial, Sean Dillon (42), St Brigid's Road, Edenderry, is accused of assaulting Mr Dunne, causing him harm, along with another charge of causing Mr Dunne serious harm.

Opening the trial yesterday Kevin White, BL, prosecuting (instructed by Offaly state solicitor Sandra Mahon), told the jury of eight men and four women that the State's case will be that Mr Dillon acted in concert with Mr Connolly in that they participated together in the assault by acting in common design. At the very least Mr Connolly was aided and abetted by Mr Dillon.

The trial continues before Judge Keenan Johnson.
Russia has been accused of dragging parts of Moldova into its war with Ukraine, and has said it will switch off its gas supply to Poland and Bulgaria.
Putin agreed "in principle" that the UN and Red Cross could help with evacuations from Mariupol's Azovstal plant. Meanwhile, Germany says it is 'very close' to abandoning Russian oil.
The Russian leader has said Ukraine must recognize separatist regions as part of a peace deal. Meanwhile, Ukraine's Zelenskyy has said Russia's war goals are to "dismember" Eastern Europe. Follow DW for the latest.
Washington said it would hold talks on a roughly monthly basis in Germany with allies inside and outside NATO. Berlin announced a major shift in policy at the event, saying it would send tanks to Ukraine.
Benedict Cumberbatch has told Sky News he is waiting for a Ukrainian family to arrive in the UK to live at his property after joining the scheme to rehouse refugees here.
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One of the world's largest fertiliser producers has warned that the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food security "will be dramatic".
The suspensions are the first since Russia insisted foreign buyers pay for gas in rubles. Both Poland and Bulgaria have said Gazprom are in breach of contact.
Ocean Views Mental Health Facility Receives New Electrocardiogram Machine

The Ocean Views Mental Health Facility has welcomed the introduction of a new Electrocardiogram (ECG) machine.

The initiative has been driven by Practice Development Facilitator, Darren Cerisola, and is an important milestone for the delivery of up-to date evidence-based practice.

The ECG training has been delivered by Charge Nurse, Juan Luque Guerrero, one of the Accident and Emergency Departments senior nurses with vast experience in EGC reading. The sessions covered the appropriate use of the ECG, the specific scenarios for its use and basic interpretation of findings.

This equipment and training will allow for early identification and appropriate intervention as many psychiatric medications interact with the heart conductivity, which may result in the patient presenting deranged ECG readings.

Director General of the GHA, Professor Patrick Geoghegan, said: I would like to thank Darren Cerisola for putting so much effort into meeting the physical needs of people with Mental Health problems. This is a great step forward for our patients and fulfils one of the Care Quality Improvements that were outlined in the Mental Health Strategy 2021-2026.
Polands gas storage facilities are 75 percent full, and it has been working for years to avoid being held to ransom by Moscow over energy.
During the height of pandemic restrictions, thousands of New Zealanders desperate to return home essentially had to roll the dice..

CTV News 27 Apr 2022
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More than 6,400 civilians were killed by the Colombian military and passed off as enemy combatants.
Karnataka Heath Minister K Sudhakar has said that the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to peak after June, as per experts.
New Zealand schools aren't required to report instances of students being accused of sexual assault to the Ministry of Education. Today the Ministry confirmed to the Herald schools did not have to report issues like this to the...
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Belfast Telegraph 27 Apr 2022
Russian has cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria over their refusal to pay in rubles. Russian energy giant Gazprom said it has turned off gas supplies to the two countries Wednesday morning, and that exports will not be restored until payments are made in the Russian currency. "At the close of business on April 26, Gazprom Export did not receive payments for the supply of gas in April from Bu
The World Customs Organization (WCO) joined forces with the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and other eTrade for All partners to contribute to the discussions in the 2022 edition of the eCommerce Week devoted to the theme of Data and Digitalization for Development.

On the first day of the eCommerce Week, 25 April 2022, the WCO and UPU organized a session themed Leveraging advance electronic data to scale up Customs performance and support safe, secure and sustainable cross-border e-commerce. During the session moderated by the WCO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Ricardo Trevino Chapa, valuable insights were shared by speakers from the UPU, the United States Customs and Border Protection (US CBP), the French La Poste, and the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), as well as by discussants from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Global Express Association (GEA).

The session examined some trends with regard to the cross-border movement of small and low-value parcels of e-commerce goods during the COVID-19 pandemic and outlined the associated challenges for Customs administrations and postal operators. The speakers from Customs and Post showcased best practices in using advance electronic data by Customs to facilitate and secure cross-border e-commerce and ensure fair and efficient revenue collection in line with the WCO E-Commerce Framework of Standards and the UPU Global Postal Model. Last but not least, the session discussed what needs to be done in order to improve the quality of the data on which Customs rely for risk assessment, facilitation and revenue collection. Measures for obtaining the right data, from the right source, at the right time were among the discussed future areas of work for the relevant international organizations and Members alike.

The WCO E-Commerce Framework of Standards that was developed in the period 2016  2018 following a multi-stakeholder approach, provides 15 baseline global standards. The standards focus on the exchange of advance electronic data for effective risk management and enhanced facilitation of the growing volumes of cross-border small and low-value Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) shipments, through simplified procedures with respect to areas such as clearance, revenue collection and return, in close partnership with e-commerce stakeholders. It also encourages the use of the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) concept, non-intrusive inspection (NII) equipment, data analytics, and other cutting-edge technologies to support safe, secure and sustainable cross-border e-commerce.

The recording of the WCO-UPU session is available to the eCommerce Week participants on the event web-site. The presentations delivered during the session can be accessed through the links below:

UPU, US CBP, La Poste, RRA, UNCTAD, GEA
Here's the latest for Wednesday August 27th: Russia cuts off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria; Putin meets with UN Secretary General; Juvenile suspect arrested in death of 10-year-old Wisconsin girl; SpaceX rocket with 4 astronauts launches.


U.S. diplomats are starting to return to Ukraine, the Department of State said, the latest sign pointing toward heightened American diplomacy. Latest.


The move was widely seen as an effort to prop up the ruble and strike back at Europe amid an onslaught of Western penalties levied against Russian banks.
Russia's state-run gas company has cut supplies to Poland and Bulgaria. At the heart of this move: the war in Ukraine, the sanctions imposed by the West, and Russia's attempts to wriggle free of them.
Opalesque Industry Update - Cypherpunk Holdings Inc, a blockchain, metaverse, privacy and cryptography focused investments firm, announced an investment of USD 500k in the AB Digital Strategies Fund managed by UK FCA-regulated Isla Capital. The investment was made in two tranches, USD $250k on February 24, 2022 and USD $250k on April 20, 2022. AB Digital Strategies is a Cayman Islands regulated hedge fund. The Fund implements a market neutral strategy targeting meaningful absolute return, with low volatility and minimal correlation to crypto markets and mainstream asset classes. Using a disciplined investment process, the Fund combines multiple independent trading strategies across a range of liquid crypto markets (spot and derivative) and decentralised finance ecosystems. Investment decisions are research-based and driven by fundamental, quantitative and market intelligence inputs. The investment team has multiple decades' experience in quantitative portfolio management, legal and financial structuring and trading, across both traditional finance as well as crypto markets since their early inception. Isla Capital is a London-based investment manager deploying in-house, liquid alternative strategies in digital assets. Isla Capital Ltd. is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom (FRN: 959846) as an Appointed Representative of Odin Capital Management Ltd. (FRN: 478321) which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Cypherpunk Holdings CEO, Jeff Gao, leads the move to diversify the company's treasury management away from passive storage and made the following comments in relation to the partnership with Isla Capital. "The time when publicly traded companies can get by as a vehicle for passively holding crypto is behind us. What will set Cypherpunk apart from the rest of the industry is our focus on surgically targeting pockets of excess returns and alpha opportunities in crypto markets and our focus on risk-adjusted returns as a metric for treasury management excellence. "Going forward, Cypherpunk's strategy will include operating a diversified portfolio of niche and highly technical strategies within the nascent cryptocurrency markets, some of which will be operated by third parties. Our engagement with Isla Capital serves to work towards our plan to engage partners with extensive trading experience who can perform crypto research for the purpose of profiting off directionally neutral strategies across exchanges, instruments and other protocols. "I've had great pleasure working with Ron Akram and William Beverley, co-founders of Isla Capital, both of whom bring considerable asset management and market experience to the table. I am looking forward to future collaborations between Cypherpunk and Isla as our company undergoes a pivotal transformation." Cypherpunk was established to invest in currencies, companies, technologies and protocols, which enhance or protect privacy. Its strategy is to make targeted investments in businesses and assets with strong privacy attributes, often within the blockchain ecosystem, including select cryptocurrencies. Current equity investments include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Samourai Wallet, Wasabi Wallet, Chia, NGRAVE, and Animoca Brands.
As of 1 May 2022, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry will become the 78th guaranteeing association member of the ATA international guarantee chain administered by the International Chamber of Commerce World Chambers Federation (ICC WCF).

The ATA is a system allowing for the free movement of goods across frontiers and their Temporary Admission into a Customs territory with relief from duties and taxes. The goods are covered by a single document known as the ATA carnet that is secured by an international guarantee system. The term "ATA" is a combination of the initial letters of the French words "Admission Temporaire" and the English words "Temporary Admission". The ATA system is an integral part of the Temporary Admission conventions of the WCO, namely the ATA Convention and the Convention on Temporary Admission (the Istanbul Convention).

ATA Carnets will be accepted by the Customs of Vietnam under the WCO Istanbul Convention and its Annexes A (Temporary Admission documents) and B1 (concerning goods for display or use at exhibitions, fairs, meetings or similar events). ATA carnets will not be accepted for transit nor postal traffic.

ATA Carnets issued by Contracting Parties to either the ATA Convention or Istanbul Convention, or to both Conventions, will be accepted.

Further practical details have been communicated to the national guaranteeing organization members of the WCF/ATA international guarantee chain on 29 November 2021.
MANSFIELD, La.  A longtime DeSoto Parish physician who also holds the elected position of parish coroner is under federal investigation.

Agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration met with Dr. Jeffrey Evans Thursday. Sources tell KTBS the investigation centers on the amount of controlled substances being dispensed through prescriptions. Other hospital employees also have been questioned.

DEA public information officer Debbie Webber confirmed in an email to KTBS that Evans is the subject of an ongoing federal investigation; however, she said no details could be released until the case had been adjudicated.

Likewise, Evans, in a brief telephone interview, confirmed the DEA investigation but said he could not comment beyond that, other than to say he still has his medical license.

His status with DeSoto Regional Health System and DeSoto Regional Family Medicine, where he has been on staff for decades, is unclear. Neither CEO Todd Eppler nor Evans would comment on whether hes still employed.

Its a legal case. I cant make a comment, Evans said.

Eppler said he could perhaps provide an update in the future, and suggested that timeline may be next week.

The hospitals board of directors is meeting tonight, KTBS has learned.

The Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners still lists Evans license as active with no discipline noted. The Louisiana Board of Pharmacy separately lists his status as current and without restriction or limitation.

Evans is in his third term as parish coroner. That position would not be affected by the DEA investigation unless Evans lost his license to practice medicine or was convicted of a crime.

Evans is a 1981 graduate of Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport.
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Boeings CEO is lamenting the deal that his company cut with former President Donald Trump to produce new Air Force One jets.

David Calhoun said it was a public negotiation and we took some risks in accepting a fixed-price contract that made Boeing responsible if it cost more than expected to convert two Boeing 747 jumbo jets into presidential planes.

Air Force One Im just going to call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation, a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably should not have taken, Calhoun said Wednesday, but we are where we are, and were going to deliver great airplanes.

Calhoun commented on the planes when an analyst asked him about the matter during a call to discuss Boeings first-quarter earnings results. The company lost $1.2 billion and took a $660 million write-down for Air Force One.

Calhoun was on the board but he was not CEO when Boeing agreed to the $3.9 billion deal with the White House in 2018, and when it took a fixed-cost contract to build a new military training jet, which Boeing just wrote down by $367 million.

Yes, they were written off the day we took them, knowing that we would be investing a fair amount of our own money in the planes, Calhoun said.

Back in 2018, Boeing tweeted that it was proud to build the next generation of Air Force One, providing American presidents with a flying White House at outstanding value to taxpayers. The Trump White House said the deal would save taxpayers more than $1.4 billion.

The jets are being outfitted with advanced communications equipment, work spaces, sleeping areas and other features that make it a flying office for the president. The work is taking place in San Antonio, Texas.

Boeing sued a subcontractor that it blamed for delays last year. On Wednesday, Boeing officials said the pandemic and supply-chain issues have also slowed the work.

It's unclear what the planes will look like. Trump took a keen interest in the planes and even promoted his own paint job which is still displayed on Boeing's website. However, many purists have called for keeping the current livery, which dates to the time of President John F. Kennedy. Air Force officials said last fall that no decision had been made.

Boeing promised to deliver the planes by December 2024 under a contract negotiated by then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who was fired in late 2019 in the fallout from two deadly crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets. Calhoun said he doesnt want any more fixed-price contracts.
The Huron County Board of Commissioners approved two millage proposals this week to be placed on the August primary election ballot.

One of them is a new millage that would support Huron Countys 911 emergency telephone and central dispatch services, which would levy a tax of 0.4 mills, or $0.40 per $1,000 of taxable value, over a five-year period from 2022 to 2026.

The millage is estimated to raise a first-year amount of $1.03 million, which would be used to provide equipment and support central dispatchs operations.

The commissioners have worked on coming up with such a millage for the past few months, starting with one that would have also covered ambulance services, police and firefighter training, and county building security before limiting it to just central dispatch. Eighteen other counties in Michigan have millages in place for public safety needs.

Other funding sources for central dispatch come from the countys general fund  this year $230,000  911 training funds from the state, 911 surcharge revenue from the state, and a surcharge on devices that call 911. Funding gaps for the service have been blamed on people switching from landline phones and regular cell phones, which charge 25 cents monthly for 911 services, to pre-paid phones that have a one-time 5-cent charge.

Commissioner John Bodis said that he campaigned for his seat on the commissioners on the basis of not raising taxes and new millages like what is being proposed, making it clear he would vote against it.

While Commissioner Steve Vaughan said he feels the first-year amount being brought in in excessive, he knows that 911 cannot support itself.

Let the voters make the final decision, Vaughan said. Thats all we can do.

The commissioners voted 4-2 to place the item on the August ballot, with Bodis and Mike Meissner voting against it. Mary Babcock was absent from the meeting.

The other millage is a renewal for the Huron Transit Corporation, also known as Thumb Area Transit. That millage would be renewed at 0.20 of one mill, or $0.20 per $1,000 of home taxable value for a period of six years, from 2023 to 2028.

The millage is estimated to raise a first-year amount of $515,424. A small portion of the millage may also be captured from the tax increment financing authority or downtown development authorities of the cities of Bad Axe and Caseville, the townships of Port Austin and Sebewaing, and the villages of Port Austin, Sebewaing, and Elkton.

These items will be on the Aug. 2 primary ballot, not next week's school election ballot.
Submitted photos/Manistee City Fire Department

MANISTEE  A driver of a dump truck was stuck in the vehicle on Monday after the vehicle became entangled in hanging power lines in Manistee.

The Manistee City Fire Department was called to the Washington-Third Avenue intersection at 10:22 a.m. for report of a vehicle striking low hanging wires, according to fire Chief Mark Cameron.
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REED CITY  Governor Gretchen Whitmer toured the General Mills-Yoplait facility in Reed City last week as part of a tour through Osceola County to promote rural economic development in rural communities.

Whitmer thanked Yoplait for their long-term commitment to the community.
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in Oklahomas ongoing battle with Native American tribes over the state's authority to prosecute people accused of crimes on Native American lands, following a 2020 Supreme Court decision.

The court agreed earlier this year to consider limiting its 2020 McGirt decision, a ruling that the state says has produced chaos in its courts.

The states appeal is in the case of Victor Castro-Huerta, who was charged with malnourishment of his 5-year-old stepdaughter and has since pleaded guilty to a federal child neglect charge and is awaiting sentencing.

He was initially convicted in state court but that conviction and his sentence were overturned because of the way the state courts interpreted the law in the aftermath of the McGirt ruling. The state appealed with the strong support of Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and is the latest strain on his relationship with tribal leaders in the state.

In the 2020 case, the Supreme Court ruled that a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation. The ruling applied to the Muscogee reservation, but led to similar lower court rulings upholding the historic reservations of several other Native American tribes in Oklahoma, including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Quapaw and Seminole nations that cover nearly the entire eastern half of the state.

The decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, meant that Oklahoma prosecutors lack the authority to pursue criminal cases against American Indian defendants in parts of Oklahoma that include most of Tulsa, the states second-largest city with a population of about 413,000.

Stitt said during his State of the State speech in February that Oklahoma has been robbed of the authority to prosecute crimes.

The Supreme Court does not typically reconsider its decisions so soon. But the state argued that crimes are going uninvestigated and unprosecuted because federal authorities  who can bring criminal cases on tribal land  are overwhelmed.

The state will argue that it has the right to protect Indian victims in front of the Supreme Court this week his spokesperson, Carly Atchison said.

Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. of the Cherokee Nation, the state's most populous tribe with about 261,000 citizens, believes Stitt is trying to take away tribal sovereignty after the Supreme Court in January rejected the state's request to overturn McGirt.

I think his goal now is to whittle away at McGirt, Hoskin said, calling it a 19th century mindset toward the treatment of Native Americans.

Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton agreed, calling the state's appeal and Stitt's support of the action an attack on tribal sovereignty.

"Its put a strain on our relationship ... I would like to think its a lack of education rather than a lack of understanding of treaties between two sovereign governments, the United States and the Choctaw Nation, Batton said.

Its becoming harder and harder the more hes not accepting history and what the United States agreed to do and who we are as a Choctaw Nation," Batton said.

The Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes, made up of leaders of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee and Seminole nations last fall rescinded a 2019 resolution commending and congratulating Stitt, a member of the Cherokee Nation, on his election as governor.

Stitt and tribal leaders previously clashed over Stitts desire to renegotiate tribal gambling compacts that he claimed were expiring. Federal and state courts ruled against Stitt in lawsuits over the gambling question.

Last year, Stitt decided to not renew hunting and fishing license compacts with the Cherokee and Choctaw nations as part of an ongoing dispute between the tribes and the Republican governor.

Stitt has lost support among Native American voters due to his actions, according to Hoskin.

He absolutely has, in my opinion hes the most anti-Native American governor in state history, Hoskin said. I think his defeat (for reelection) would be met with applause by many tribal leaders, certainly by me.

Donelle Harder, manager of Stitt's reelection campaign said Stitt has had disagreements with a small number of top officials of the tribes," but has good relations with tribal citizens he meets during his travels in the state.

I think every Oklahoman knows this is a critical conversation that must be had and no one group or organization should dictate the future of all 4 million Oklahomans, Harder said.
Midland County's administration and operations committee sent a resolution, which includes language urging state lawmakers to amend the 2019 Michigan Auto Insurance Act, back to the county board of commissioners for another opportunity for a vote.

The resolution will now be considered for action on Tuesday, May 3 during the commission's regular board meeting. The proposed document first appeared on April 12 before the committee.

The 2019 law, among other things, repealed Michigan's no-fault auto insurance law and eliminated the requirement that mandated coverage must include a Personal Injury Protection provision that pays unlimited personal injury costs.

Midland County resident Terri Lee, of Hope, who is her mother's caregiver, spoke before the committee members on Tuesday, April 26 and urged them to send the resolution back to the board for a vote.

"There's no reason that you guys don't have the decency to stand up and say, 'This is wrong.' ... Nobody wants to help us, nobody," said Lee, holding a photo of her mother before the committee members. "She has no care. I'm her caregiver, 24/7 (with) no pay."

Nick Long, CEO of NeuroCare Home Health, said the state government needs to find a solution to this issue. He said that he's been visiting lawmakers in Lansing to urge change.

In the meantime, he said negative impacts are being felt in all Michigan communities.

"We've beat our head against the wall in Lansing," Long said. "We have continually hit the state legislature, over and over again."

Commissioner James Geisler of District 5 suggested that Midland County should not be dealing with this resolution.

"You should be approaching the state people; this is a state problem," Geisler said. "You should deal with them."

Commissioner Scott Noesen of District 7 agreed with Geisler. However, he also said 20 out of 83 counties have signed off on a similar measure of support for reforming the 2019 law.

Before the item was returned to the committee again, the board cited "additional information" as to why the action item needed to be further reviewed.

On Tuesday, board members clarified that the added information was a 13-page packet titled "No-Fault Reform Update: How Data-Driven Reforms Have Lowered the Cost of Auto Insurance in Michigan" provided by the Insurance Alliance of Michigan as "information-only."

This item was not reviewed before attendees of the committee meeting on Tuesday.
PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Police arrested a Philadelphia man Wednesday who is accused of at least two sexual assaults, including one reported Sunday aboard a subway train.

A police spokesperson said late Tuesday in an email that officers were looking for 28-year-old Quintez Adams in relation to two assaults this month. Police announced Wednesday afternoon that Adams was taken into custody and had been taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Court records did not contain current charges or information on an attorney who could speak on Adams' behalf.

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority officials confirmed that its officers are reviewing surveillance video as part of a police investigation into Sunday's assault.

Police did not release many details of the assault, which came about six months after a much-publicized rape on a commuter train in October while other passengers were present. Fiston Ngoy, 35, is charged with rape and related offenses in that attack.

It was unclear whether other passengers were on the train Sunday.

Adams was wanted in relation to a reported sexual assault the afternoon of April 4 at 7th and Market streets and in the Sunday assault, which happened shortly after noon.

Only one of the sexual assaults happened on SEPTA property, spokesperson Andrew Busch said. A woman reported she was raped Sunday on the Broad Street Line subway in the area of the Girard Avenue station.

Busch said SEPTA police responded and assisted the victim. The Philadelphia special victims unit was called to investigate the attack shortly after. It is SEPTA's understanding that the suspect was known to the victim, he said, but he did not know what their relationship was.

After the October rape, SEPTA officials increased patrols in specific stations and highlighted a public service campaign to remind riders of call buttons on trains to report potential crimes. At the time, officials stressed that riders should call police even if something seems off instead of waiting until something seems criminal.

SEPTA officials said there would be no immediate change to patrols related to Sunday's alleged assault.

The authority hired supplemental security guards last year as part of its push to make the system safer, but those guards are unsworn security without arrest powers. Those guards are due to be replaced by what SEPTA called guides, ambassadors who remind riders of the rules and help call social service workers to address needs of homeless people or people in mental health crisis.

Some city officials and leaders of the SEPTA police union have pushed for funding from the guards program to be invested instead in attracting more full-time officers. The system was short about 60 officers as of this week.
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WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Polish and Bulgarian officials said Tuesday that Moscow is cutting off natural gas deliveries to their countries due to their refusal to pay in Russian rubles, a demand made by President Vladimir Putin after sanctions were levied against his nation over the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom informed the two EU and NATO member nations that gas supplies will be suspended starting Wednesday, their governments said.

The suspensions would be the first since Putin's announcement last month that unfriendly foreign buyers would have to transact with Gazprom in rubles instead of dollars and euros. Only Hungary has agreed to do so, with other countries rejecting the demand as an unacceptable, one-sided breach of contracts and a violation of sanctions.

If deliveries are halted to other countries as well, it could cause economic pain in Europe, driving natural gas prices up and possibly leading to rationing  but it would also deal a blow to Russia's own economy.

Wednesday's cutoffs will affect deliveries of Russian gas to Poland through the Yamal-Europe pipeline, according to Polish state gas company PGNiG, and to Bulgaria via the TurkStream pipeline, that country's Energy Ministry aaid.

The Yamal-Europe line carries gas from Russia to Poland and Germany, via Belarus. Poland has been receiving some 9 billion cubic meters annually, fulfilling some 45% of the countrys need.

PGNiG said it was considering legal action over Moscows payment demand.

But Climate Minister Anna Moskwa said Poland is prepared to make do after having worked to reduce its reliance on Russian energy sources. Several years ago the country opened its first terminal for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, in Swinoujscie, on the Baltic Sea coast, and later this year a pipeline from Norway is to become operational.

There will be no shortage of gas in Polish homes, Moskwa tweeted.

Analyst Emily McClain of Rystad Energy concurred, saying that Poland has ample natural gas in storage and has the capacity to ramp up imports.

Bulgaria said it was working with state gas companies to find alternative sources and that no restrictions on domestic consumption would be imposed for now, even though the Balkan country of 6.5 million people meets over 90% of its gas needs with Russian imports.

One feasible and relatively immediate option available to the Bulgarian government would be to increase their imports of Azeri gas.

Poland has been a strong supporter of neighboring Ukraine during the Russian invasion and has acted as a transit point for weapons the United States and other Western nations have provided to Kyiv.

Warsaw said this week that it, too, was sending weaponry to Ukraines army, in the form of tanks. On Tuesday it announced sanctions targeting 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom.

Bulgaria, once one of Moscows closest allies, has cut many of its ties with Russia after a new, liberal government took the reins last fall and also in the wake of the invasion. It has supported sanctions against Russia and sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Bulgaria has been hesitant to provide military aid, but Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and members of his coalition government were expected in Kyiv on Wednesday for talks about further assistance.

Europe buys large amounts of Russian natural gas for residential heating, electrical generation and the fuel industry, with Germany particularly dependent on it. The imports have continued despite the war.

Around 60% of imports are paid in euros, and the rest in dollars. Putin's demand was apparently intended to help bolster the Russian currency against Western sanctions.

In Washington, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. had been preparing for such a cutoff by Russia.

Some of that has been asking some countries in Asia who have excess supply to provide that to Europe, Psaki said. Weve done that in some cases, and its been an ongoing effort.

___

Associated Press writers Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Zeke Miller and Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
BOSTON (AP)  A purported member of a street gang who authorities say illegally sold weapons and drugs in Massachusetts has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison.

Jose Omar Hernandez-Aragones, 24, of Lawrence, was also sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation.
Jordan Klepper Exposes The Frightening Similarities Between Hungary And America

By Andrew Sanford | TV | April 22, 2022 |

People on the far right often accuse others of doing things they are guilty of themselves. They claim companies like Disney are indoctrinating their children. Meanwhile, they are attempting to ban books that teach subjects they dont like. They accuse Joe Biden of being some sort of power-mad dictator. This was before, during, and after their likely 2024 candidate attempted to overturn a free and fair election that he lost. Unfortunately, none of these tactics are going away anytime soon, and if we look to Hungary as an example, things could get worse before they get better.

Jordan Klepper, the man who subjects himself to all manner of far-right acolytes, traveled to Hungary. His goal was to explore the far-right influence in that country. What he found is a climate that is terrifyingly similar to the one we have here in America, albeit much worse. In Hungary, Prime Minister Victor Orban is in charge. As Klepper points out, Orban was once referred to by Steve Bannon as Trump before Trump. So, yeah, thats what were dealing with.

Orban may be a proto Trump, but hes more successful. The Prime Minister has been in power for 12 years, after losing two prior elections. He lost because the media portrayed him how he is. So what did he do when he gained power in 2010? He fundamentally changed the way Hungarian media operates. Now, news in Hungary is state-run. All Orban, all the time.

One of the most frustrating things about Hungarys far-right contingent is that some of them act as if they are toeing the line. When asked about LGBTQ+ rights, which have been all but stripped away in Hungary, a local citizen claims that it is a personal issue. They think people can be gay but should keep it to themselves. In other words, people in the LGBTQ+ community are not able to get married or adopt children or, essentially, be treated as equals.

In regards to Putins invasion of Ukraine, Orbans own representative admits that they acknowledge Putin as the aggressor. They have even accepted Ukrainian refugees with open arms, despite closing their borders to Syrian refugees. They also claim that they still dont know whose fault the whole thing is. The rep presents the idea as diplomatic, but when you look at how much Orban loves Putin, its pretty clear what is going on.

Members of Americas far-right feel inspired by Hungary. They were championing the country at CPAC of all places. Thats how this special was born. We may get lucky, and avoid a fate as dire as Hungarys. But it wont be for like of trying on the side of the far right. People who dont want every news outlet to be FOX News are just going to have to try a lot harder.

 Cry Valhalla: 'The Northman' Is Here To Whisper-Scream Us Tales Of Gore | 'Atlanta' Recap: 'White Fashion,' The Episode That Promises Racism Will Be Over By 2024 

Andrew lives in NYC. You can follow him on Twitter.

Header Image Source: Comedy Central
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - A total of 35 asylum-seekers, including eight women and 20 children, were released on Monday from the Ain Zara detention centre south of Tripoli with the help of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The first-ever celebration of the Women's Day in Libyan, under the slogan "My right", was held on Wednesday evening in Tripoli, under the auspices of the State Ministry of Women's Affairs of the National Unity Government
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity (GNU), Abdelhamid al-Dbaiba, announced on Tuesday the activation of the law on the treatment of the families of martyrs and missing persons, which recognises their sacrifices and grants them privileges in recognition of the acts of their family members
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libya's rival Prime Minister Fathi Bachagha has announced that on Tuesday he discussed with senior US officials in Washington efforts to hold "fair and transparent elections in a timely manner"
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - A wet 2022 rainy season is expected in the Sahel, the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) has announced at the end of a meeting of experts
Photo: (Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Jordan Solomon, a young dad from Canada, has spent the last two years searching for his real father after a DNA test revealed that the man he calls dad was not biologically related to him.

His quest to learn the truth led him to a man he already knew and it finally made sense to Solomon as to why he felt some validation from this man all those years ago.

Speaking exclusively with CBC, Solomon said that he was in the middle of his backpacking trip to Cambodia in early 2020 when he got a confirmation about his DNA test. His hunches were proven to be true about his paternity.

When the pandemic struck and everyone paused, Solomon, now back in Canada, decided to pursue his search for his real father. So, he spent the next two years charting his family tree and tracking his ancestry through genetic matches.

"It was nerve-racking, it was a lot of information," the young dad said. He balanced his time building his family while attending university and bonding with his son, who motivated him to continue with his search because the boy was curious about his grandfather as well.

Read Also: Mom Made Daughter Believe She Was Switched at Birth; Daughter Discovered She Lied

Dad Validated Jordan Solomon Before

Finally, one of his DNA test matches from an online ancestry site got in touch with him. She said that Solomon should speak with her daughter in Toronto as she had a more expansive knowledge of their family tree. After showing the daughter all the information he has collected, Solomon finally received what he was waiting for -- the information about his biological dad.

Solomon sent Roger Arsenault a message on Facebook and he agreed to a DNA test, which confirmed paternity. However, there was still one more surprise that both father and son eventually realized.

Somewhere between their conversations and photo exchanges, Solomon could not help but feel a familiarity with this man before. Then, it dawned on him that Arsenault used to own a store in a mall in New Brunswick years ago. Solomon worked there as a security guard.

Both father and son recalled their brief exchange one time when Arsenault unexpectedly gave Solomon a tap on the back and said he was doing a good job. That apparently stuck with Solomon all these years because he needed that validation, per 6ix Buzz.

Today, Solomon and Arsenault are regularly in touch and the latter has engaged in frequent video chats with his grandson, who fondly calls him Grampy. Arsenault said that the young boy lights up his life.

DNA Test Sought for Woman's Paternity Lawsuit

Meanwhile, in Texas, the woman who claimed that billionaire Jerry Jones is her biological father has dropped her paternity case. However, Alexandra Davis is still seeking a DNA test from the Dallas Cowboys owner to "remove any doubts" that Jones is biologically related to her, Dallas News reported.

Davis filed the lawsuit on March 3 amid reports that she is seeking more money from Jones, who has supported her and her mother financially since the 1990s. However, Davis said that she was still too young to agree to the previous terms her mother made with Jones, including the fact that she could never publicly identify her father. Davis' lawyers deny that this was an attempt to extort money from the billionaire.

Related Article: Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Hit With Paternity Lawsuit, Secret Daughter Claims Mom Paid to Keep Quiet
Photo: (Photo : Getty images )

Although many parents and caregivers choose cloth diapers because of concerns about sustainability and the environment, research does not support the option as the environmentally superior choice. More importantly, some people even claim that the cost of manufacturing cotton diapers and repeatedly washing them is worse for the environment than filling landfills with diapers.

However, it is good to note that scientific research that compares these diapers is very little and most of these are very outdated. With facts on the table, Mamanatural reported that parents and caregivers who choose reusable diapers might choose them for reasons other than environmental impact, including:

Cost savings depending on the type of diaper they desire and their laundering method.

Wanting to support local or small businesses that produce or clean reusable diapers.

Liking the appearance of reusable diapers.

Read Articles: COVID-19 Measures: Children in Shanghai Wearing Hazmats and Segregation from Parents Shock the World

However, cloth diapers do not work for everyone. The disadvantages of this choice include:

Cloth diapers are not a typical choice. This may mean that other caregivers, such as grandparents, staff at daycare centers, or babysitters, may be reluctant to use them or struggle to put them on an infant.

This may mean that other caregivers, such as grandparents, staff at daycare centers, or babysitters, may be reluctant to use them or struggle to put them on an infant. Using cloth diapers does not guarantee a lack of chemical exposure. Some cotton and other fabrics may contain dyes, bleaches, fragrances, or remnants of pesticides. Laundry detergent may also include perfume or other chemicals.

Some cotton and other fabrics may contain dyes, bleaches, fragrances, or remnants of pesticides. Laundry detergent may also include perfume or other chemicals. People do not permanently save money with cloth diapers. Buying high-end diapers or using a laundering service can be a significant investment and may even cost more than disposable options.

Buying high-end diapers or using a laundering service can be a significant investment and may even cost more than disposable options. Cloth diapers can be inconvenient. Washing cloth diapers can be an immense burden for new parents and caregivers who must juggle work, family obligations, other children, and self-care. Those who choose laundering services may still find reusable diapers inconvenient when out and about.

Other sustainable options

Aside from reusable diapers, there are many options to choose from that are still environmentally friendly. These are the following:

Reduce the need for diapers. Potty training early or elimination communication (EC) can help an infant use fewer diapers. EC is a technique that parents and caregivers can use to detect the signs that an infant needs to use the bathroom, Healthline suggests.

Potty training early or elimination communication (EC) can help an infant use fewer diapers. EC is a technique that parents and caregivers can use to detect the signs that an infant needs to use the bathroom, Healthline suggests. Choose recyclable or biodegradable diapers. Many companies now make diapers with a lower environmental impact, such as using biodegradable materials.

Related Article: Doctors Find 22 Rainbow Colored Magnetic Beads Inside Toddler Who Complained of Stomach Pains
Photo: (Photo : STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

More than 850,000 residents of Maine will be eligible to get a stimulus payment amounting to $850 per taxpayer by June 2022. Gov. Janet Mills approved the relief budget into law on Wednesday, April 20, in front of the lawmakers and cabinet members.

Kirsten Figueroa, Maine's Commissioner for the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, said via Maine.Gov that they have started working on getting the $850 stimulus payments out to "every Maine adult who qualifies" this summer. Distribution of the relief payment will be rolled out until the rest of the year and will be mainly based on the residents' 2021 income tax returns.

Aside from the most recent tax declaration, eligible individuals must also be full-time residents of the state and are not dependent on another taxpayer. They must also meet the Federal adjusted gross income of $100,000 for individual filers, $150,000 for the head of household filers, and $200,000 for joint filers or couples, who will get separate checks or $1,700 per two-income families.

Taxpayers who have yet to file their tax declaration, despite the end of tax season last Monday, April 18, have until Monday, Oct. 31, 2022, to submit their tax returns. They cannot expect the $850 relief check until this has been completed.

Read Also: Child Tax Credit Claims Extended Until 2025 With No Penalties; Who Are Eligible?

Interesting note re: $850 relief checks in #Maine @MaineDAFS spox says couples filing jointly are EACH eligible for a check. During 2021's relief program ($285), a wage requirement meant a stay-at-home parent/self-employed parent did not qualify. Now, they do. @newscentermaine pic.twitter.com/dd6MwGzNHn  Chris Costa (@ChrisCostaTV) April 22, 2022

Additional Eligible Recipients

Maine's governor, along with the state's lawmakers, agreed to use more than half of the state's budget surplus to help residents who are struggling with the soaring prices of basic goods. This one-off payment is different from last year's rollout, which was focused on people who still came to work in the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the wage requirement has been lowered this year, an additional 333,000 eligible recipients have qualified for the stimulus payment. This includes self-employed individuals or business owners, the elderly who are living on their retirement income or social security benefits, and both filers in a two-parent household where one works or runs a business while the other stays at home.

Mill's government said that an upcoming Maine Revenue Services website will soon be opened to expound and help the locals with their stimulus payment. Those who need help with the late filing of tax returns may for free assistance by calling 2-1-1 or getting in touch with 211Maine.Org. Late filers, however, should expect to pay penalty fees or interests thus they are advised to file as soon as possible so that the fees will not accumulate.

The relief checks will only be mailed to the address written on their 2021 tax return. There will be no direct deposits for this stimulus check. For Maine residents who have moved since their tax filing, or may encounter lost or stolen payments in the mail, they can report the incident to the Maine Revenue Services via (207) 624-9924.

Other Benefits for Maine Residents, Illinois Next

Apart from the relief check, Mills also approved a property tax relief for senior residents, low-income homeowners and tenants through the Homestead Exemption Program, Maine Earned Income Tax Credit, and the State Property Tax Fairness Credit. Maine has also secured enough funds to support two years of community college for eligible students.

Meanwhile, Illinois will be the next state to roll out its relief payment in the amount of $50 to $400, depending on the taxpayers' most recent filing. According to The State-Journal Register, Gov. JB Pritzker has approved the state's new budget and will soon come out with the directives for the stimulus payments or tax rebates. Illinois locals may look forward to more details about their relief checks by early July.

Related Article: Last Chance of Getting $1,400 Stimulus Check! Over 600,00 to Receive Benefits, What to Do If Deadline Has Lapsed?
Photo: (Photo : JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images)

The Guinness World Records made a sad announcement, reporting that the woman who held the record as the oldest living person in the world has died at the age of 119 years old. Guinness World Records revealed on Monday, April 25, that Kane Tanaka of Japan died last Tuesday, April 19.

The news of Tanaka's death has been confirmed by Senior Gerontology Consultant Robert Young. He was the one who also helped confirm Kane's record as the oldest person living and oldest person living female back in 2019.

Tanaka's family posted a message on social media platform Twitter on April 13, writing that Kane had recently been "hospitalized and discharged repeatedly." According to the family's tweet, Tanaka had said that she was able to come this far with the support of many people and that she hopes they will continue to have fun, [and be] cheerful and energetic.

Tanaka born prematurely on January 2, 1903

Tanaka was confirmed by the Guinness World Records as the oldest living person on the planet on March 9, 2019. A Guinness World Records profile of Tanaka at the time said that the Japanese was born prematurely on January 2, 1903 as the seventh child of Kumakichi and Kuma Ota.

We had the honour of meeting Kane Tanaka and awarding her the certificate for being the oldest living person back in 2019  pic.twitter.com/VHhV716jqu  Guinness World Records (@GWR) April 25, 2022

According to a report by NBC News, Tanaka raised five children in Japan and helped run a family business, which made and sold udon, sticky rice, and desserts. Guinness World Records said that Tanaka woke up at 6 a.m. and spent her days playing Othello and studying math. She also was known for having a sweet tooth, which Tanaka's family said persisted through her final days, with constant requests for cola and chocolate.

Tanaka had survived colorectal cancer before and was living in a rest home in the latter years of her life. Tanaka was supposed to be one of the torchbearers for the much anticipated Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay, but her participation was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read Also: Halifax Mom Stephanie Norman Shares Experience After 8-Month-Old Son River Gets Sick With COVID

Oldest persons in the world live in Japan

The previous oldest living person in the world was another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, who died at the age of 117 years old. The oldest person before Miyako was a Japanese as well.

Tanaka failed to claim the title of oldest person ever with the record still belonging to Jeanne Louise Calment, a French woman who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days old, according to NPR.

The oldest person ever (male) was Japanese citizen Jiroemon Kimura. He was born on April 19, 1897 and died aged 116 years 54 days, on June 12, 2013. Guinness World Records said it was investigating who has the titles of oldest person living and oldest person living (female) now. Guinness World Records issued a statement regarding Tanaka's death, with the group sending their deepest condolences to Kane's family.

Related Article: Indiana State Police Asks Public to Help Identify Boy Found Dead in Woods in Washington County
Photo: (Photo : ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP via Getty Images)

Since 2017, April 30 has been an emotional day of remembrance for mom, Vanessa Breaux, who gives a birthday cake to one special girl to honor Nonnie, her infant daughter who lived for three hours only.

Breaux, then 17 years old, unexpectedly gave birth to her daughter during the 22nd week of her pregnancy. Doctors told her that she went into premature labor due to a cervical insufficiency. The mom was also told that her baby won't have a chance.

So, for the next three hours after the delivery, Breaux cherished her small daughter and "showed her as much love" as she could muster. Deep down, however, the mom told The Advocate that the loss crushed her heart and she felt she would not survive this grief.

Read Also: COVID-19 Complications: Parents Remember 'Amazing' 7-Year-Old Girl Whose Brain Swelled from the Virus

A Long Recovery for Vanessa Breaux

It took nearly a year for Breaux to recover from the death of her daughter until she found Maddie's Footprints, a charity that helps out parents who have experienced child loss. Through this charity, Breaux learned to understand that true healing comes in the form of acknowledging her pain and loss. She chose to do this by celebrating her daughter's birth every April 30.

So, on this day, she gives a birthday cake to one special girl who is also the same age as Nonnie. Her family supported her choice and a tradition was born.

"Since I can't celebrate her birthday because she's in heaven I just like to celebrate other little girls' birthdays," Breaux said, per KATC.

The mother said that her pain will remain but bringing joy to another child will "fill the void" in her heart. This year, she has called Piece of Cake Lafayette in Louisiana to let them know that she will pay for a 5-year-old's birthday cake if they will find someone who was born on a specific date. Nonnie would have been 5 years old on April 30, 2022.

The bakery posted Breaux's gift to a little girl on Facebook and called this "Nonnie's Blessing." A few locals have enthusiastically responded to Breaux's beautiful tradition. The announcement has also attracted other businesses that would like to be involved in making one happy 5th birthday party, without any cost, for another girl in honor of Nonnie.

It's understood that Breaux will personally notify the family of the girl who will be the recipient of these gifts.

Family Remembers Kamille McKinney

In Alabama, the family of Kamille McKinney celebrated what would have been her 6th birthday Friday, April 22. She was kidnapped at a birthday party in October 2019 and her body was eventually found in a dumpster. The perpetrators responsible for the child's death have been imprisoned for capital murder.

McKinney's mom, April Thomas, told Fox10 that they have been celebrating her daughter's birthday since her death. The mom said her daughter continues to live in her family's memory.

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Photo: (Photo : ANNE-SOPHIE THILL/AFP via Getty Images)

The mother of two dead boys whose father is accused of murdering them is seeking $2 million from the Quebec government, alleging that its youth protection services failed her family.

emilie Arsenault accused Quebec's youth protection service in a lawyer's letter dated Friday, April 22, of failing to act despite the agency being allegedly contacted three times prior to her children's deaths, according to a report by the CBC.

The letter, which was addressed to the regional authority responsible for youth protection and the Health Department, said that the provincial agency had been alerted by the mother, a hospital worker, and provincial police between May 2018 and January 2020.

Youth protection system failed Olivier and Alex

Valerie Assouline, the lawyer who is representing Arsenault, said that youth protection workers did not visit the family at home after any of those calls. She added that the protection service decided to close the files involving the family without taking further action. According to Assouline, the system needs to be held responsible for its failures.

Assouline told Coast Reporter in a phone interview on Monday that she don't think the kids should have to pay with their lives because the system was not working. The bodies of five-year-old Olivier and two-year-old Alex were found dead in a home in Wendake, Quebec, on Oct. 13, 2020. The residence is located in a Huron-Wendat First Nation territory near Quebec City.

The two boys' father, Michael Chicoine, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Because of the ongoing court process, the details involving what led to the calls to youth protection about the two kids are subject to a publication ban.

The boys' mother said in the letter that the "willful blindness of the entire system cost Olivier and Alex their lives" and also caused irreparable harm to both the kids and their mom. The Health Department declined to comment on Monday, citing the ongoing legal process.

Read Also: Baton Rouge Girl China Record Dies After Grandmother Forces Her to Drink Bottle of Whiskey

Assouline represents other families in similar circumstances

Assouline is also representing other families in similar circumstances, including the mother of a seven-year-old girl from Granby, Quebec, whose death in 2019 triggered a widespread re-examination of the youth protection system in the province.

A 552-page report was released by a commission on children's rights and youth protection last May according to CTV News, with the findings showing that her death was a collective failure of Quebec society.

Assouline pinned the blame on junior health minister Lionel Carmant, saying he was "very aware" of the problems in the youth protection system, but still did not act quickly enough. Assouline pointed out the lack of training of the case workers, saying Carmant was aware of the delays that were unreasonable and he had to act immediately.

Assouline said she recognizes that the $2 million her client is asking for is a higher amount than is usually demanded in such cases, but she said an "exemplary" judgment is needed to ensure that a similar situation never happens again. She added that Arsenault is well aware that no amount of money can bring back her kids.

Related Article: Convicted 'Mom Killer' Ike Nicholas Souzer Recaptured By Police After Fleeing California Halfway House
Photo: (Photo : AMY OSBORNE/AFP via Getty Images)

Following his kidnapping on Monday, April 25, the police rescued Baby Brandon Cuellar, who is now in the local hospital as a precautionary measure. Authorities have three people in custody in relation to the San Jose 3-month-old kidnapping case.

The baby was left alone inside his grandmother's apartment while she was unloading the groceries. However, in that brief time, a man entered her house and then took the child, who was still strapped to his carrier.

Surveillance videos on the scene revealed a man walking with a covered carrier on the sidewalk near the apartment. The cops believed that this man had the 3-month-old baby. However, when they showed the video to the family, no one recognized the abductor.

Soon after the abduction, the California Highway Patrol issued an Endangered Missing Advisory but held off on the Amber Alert since they were not able to identify the license plate and vehicle of the kidnappers.

The grandmother was watching baby Brandon while his mother was at work. The baby's father, on the other hand, is in prison, according to CNN.

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A Positive Outcome

Police Chief Anthony Mata said that the San Jose 3-month-old kidnapping case is every parent's worst nightmare, but they were fortunate to have a positive outcome when Brandon was found alive barely 24 hours later.

According to NBC Bay Area, the police got a tip of the kidnappers' location from someone working in an adult care facility a few blocks away. The woman, identified only as Gloria, called 911 to say that there was a van outside with an empty baby carrier.

Gloria said that she did not feel right about what she saw, so she reported it to the police. Within a few minutes, the cops were in the area, and then an arrest was made. Gloria was relieved when she saw the police giving the baby to the first responders.

** Kidnapping Incident**



Officers are currently working this incident. The male you see in these images captured from a surveillance camera entered a residence in the 1000 block of Elm St.



He left with a 3 month old baby. The family does not recognize this suspect. pic.twitter.com/BJ0R44JOP2  San Jose Police Media Relations (@SJPD_PIO) April 26, 2022

SJPD Assistant Chief Paul Joseph said that the San Jose 3-month-old kidnapping case remains an active investigation even if Brandon has been rescued and checked by doctors. The police are confident that they have the right suspects in custody but refused to divulge more information, such as their identities, as it may impact the investigation.

Suffice it to say, the cops believe that the kidnappers have some connection to the family.

"We don't know exactly what that connection is," the assistant chief said. "That's something that will be determined during the course of the investigation."

Woman in Custody Has Inconsistencies

According to ABC 7, one of the individuals in custody was a woman accompanying Brandon and his grandmother while grocery shopping. She was also in the apartment when the kidnapping occurred.

The police said they had to detain and question the woman as she had some inconsistencies about what happened. The police also implied that they would question the baby's father in prison.

Meanwhile, the community around College Park, where the baby was abducted, rejoiced upon learning that baby Brandon was safe. Some of the residents said they were keeping track of the events unfolding on Twitter. They are relieved to know that the baby is now back with his mother.

Related Article: Police Arrest Declarence McGhee for Attempting to Kidnap Infant from Babysitter in Broad Daylight
Photo: (Photo : Wang He/Getty Images)

A juvenile suspect is now in custody with the Chippewa Falls Police Department in relation to its investigations into the killing of Lily Peters. The body of the 10-year-old was uncovered in the woods in Wisconsin after her father reported her missing.

Per CNN, the police have not yet released the name of the juvenile suspect, but Police Chief Matthew Kelm said that the person "was known to the victim." The chief also refused to elaborate if criminal charges were filed, pending further investigations.

It comes after the Chippewa Falls Police Department posted a notice to parents that patrols will be heightened at drop-off and pick-up points in schools across the county due to Peters' disappearance on Sunday, April 24. Kelm said that the girl did not come home, as expected, during dinner after she visited her aunt on North Grove Street, which was supposed to be just a six-minute walk from their house.

After a search, the police found a bicycle by the walking trail near a brewery parking lot. The cops went door-to-door in the hopes of locating Peters, while drones and K9 units were also used in tracking the missing girl. By Monday morning, April 25, the cops found Peters' body in a wooded section of the walking trail.

Read Also: Family Wants Answers for Delayed 911 Response That Could Have Saved Grandfather of 17

Community Reacts to Death of Lily Peters

Peters was a fourth-grade student from Parkview Elementary School, where students and staff alike have placed flowers, balloons, and stuffed animals as a memorial to the 10-year-old.

Neighbor Jeremy Machnik said it scares him to think they live just around the block from the crime scene and were likely having dinner when the incident happened. He said that he last saw Peters riding her bike up and down the street with her cousins and other kids a day before going missing.

He described the 10-year-old as a very kind girl as his kids played with her. The father said that he grew up in the neighborhood all his life, but he had "never heard of anything like this," per KSTP.

Erin McCarthy, a friend of the Peters family, set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe for the girl's funeral cost. After learning of Peters ' death, more than a hundred people also came by the Valley Vineyard Church in the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, the Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District said it would guide students, especially from Parkview Elementary School, to process this tragedy. The teachers have been advised to assure the kids that school safety is paramount to the community and the police.

The school district is also encouraging the students to write letters or draw art if it will help with understanding their grief. Individual support from Cardinal Care counselors will also be provided to students or even staff members who may need it.

The Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District will not make a formal announcement since they do not have the correct information. They will await the law enforcement's updates but suggested that parents talk to their children about what happened to Peters.

Petition for a "Lily Alert"

Meanwhile, Eric Henry, a concerned Chippewa Falls father, started a petition on Change.Org for authorities to create a "Lily Alert" for cases that do not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert. Henry said that, as a father, he could not imagine the emotions parents feel when the police cannot disseminate the information about their missing kids due to criteria.

The police issue an Amber Alert when they have the exact description of the child in danger, the suspect's descriptions, and the vehicle. The Chippewa Falls Police Department could not issue the alert since they still did not have a suspect in the early hours of the investigation.

As of press time, the Lily Alert petition has received nearly 40,000 signatures.

Related Article: Baby Eleanor Easey Case: Dad Who Fed Custard to 14-Week-Old Baby Guilty of Manslaughter
Giving its India growth story another boost, Apple shipped nearly 1 million 'make-in-India' iPhones in the country in the first quarter of 2022, a massive jump of 50 per cent (year-on-year) in iPhone shipments from within the country , data showed on Tuesday.

Prabhu Ram, Head- Industry Intelligence Group at CMR, told IANS: "Our insights point to the contribution of 'Make in India' iPhones in Q1 2022, increasing 50 per cent YoY. The contribution of newer generation iPhones, such as iPhone 13, is almost equal to iPhone 12."

In overall stats, beyond made in India iPhones, Apple's iPhone shipments grew 22%.

Ram added that "As Apple further diversifies its manufacturing base, the newer generation iPhone models will fuel Apple's India growth story."

In Q1 2022, iPhone 12 maintained a lead with 52% share, followed by iPhone 13 at 20% and iPhone 11 at 18% in India.

When it comes to iPads, Apple registered a 31% cent growth in India, led by iPad 9th generation (Wi-Fi) that garnered 45% market share. For more on this, read the full report by India's Business Standard.
Facebook is facing what it describes internally as a "tsunami" of privacy regulations all over the world, which will force the company to dramatically change how it deals with users personal data. And the "fundamental" problem, the company admits, is that Facebook has no idea where all of its user data goes, or what its doing with it, according to a leaked internal document obtained by Motherboard.

Facebook states that "Weve built systems with open borders. The result of these open systems and open culture is well described with an analogy: Imagine you hold a bottle of ink in your hand. This bottle of ink is a mixture of all kinds of user data (3PD, 1PD, SCD, Europe, etc.) You pour that ink into a lake of water (our open data systems; our open culture)  and it flows  everywhere, the document read. How do you put that ink back in the bottle? How do you organize it again, such that it only flows to the allowed places in the lake?"

In the document's Executive Summary Facebook states in-part:

We were surprised in 2021 with regulatory changes in the EU and India that will restrict 1P data [First-Party Data] use; setting the stage for a global regulatory push towards consent for 1P data use in ads.

We do not have an adequate level of control and explainability over how our systems use data, and thus we can't confidently make controlled policy changes or external commitments such as "we will not use X data for Y purpose." And yet, this is exactly what regulators expect us to do, increasing our risk of mistakes and misrepresentation.

Addressing these challenges will require additional multi-year investment in Ads and our infrastructure teams to gain control over how our systems ingest, process and egest data.

The document later revealed Facebook engineers stating: "Our short term response to these requirements is to build "Basic Ads." A new product initiative that needs to be launch-ready in Europe by January 2022.

A former Facebook employee, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation, reviewed the document for Motherboard, stated "It is a damning admission, but also offers Facebook legal cover because of how much it would cost Facebook to fix this mess, he added. It gives them the excuse for keeping that much private data simply because at their scale and with their business model and infrastructure design they can plausibly claim that they don't know what they have."

Privacy experts who have been fighting against Facebook in an attempt to limit how the company uses private data say they believe the document is an admission that it cannot comply with regulations.

Johnny Ryan, a privacy activist and senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, told Motherboard in an online chat: "This document admits what we long suspected: that there is a data free-for-all inside Facebook, and that the company has no control whatsoever over the data it holds. It is a black and white recognition of the absence of any data protection. Facebook details how it breaks each principle of data protection law. Everything it does to our data is illegal. Youre not allowed to have an internal data free-for-all." For more on this, read the full Motherboard report.

The new and complicated rules set out by the EU about ads is now compounded by yet another round of complexity about what the EU considers to be free speech and disinformation. This will affect Facebook but also Elon Musk's Twitter where "free speech" will reportedly allow all voices to express themselves (within reason).

The EU basically warned, if not threaten Elon Musk's view of free speech in Europe.

Yahoo reports that "Europe isnt convinced by Elon Musk pitch he will make Twitter (TWTR) a bastion for free speech as Brussels warns the worlds richest man that it must stick to EU rules.

EUs commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton, said Elon Musk knows that companies operating in Europe must stick to its rules, including new legislation which will force major technology firms to tackle illegal and harmful content online.

Breton said: We welcome everyone. We are open but on our conditions. At least we know what to tell him: Elon, there are rules. You are welcome but these are our rules. Its not your rules which will apply here."

The penalties are steep: "Not doing so could open up platforms to bans or sanctions of up to 6% of their global turnover."

Asked about a possible return of former US president Donald Trump to Twitter, Breton said that the DSA also regulates decisions on who to ban by setting conditions and possibilities for appeal.

You almost have to wonder if Twitter wanted Elon Musk to take over the company knowing full well that they couldn't comply with the new EU rules. It'll be interesting to see how both Facebook and Twitter will react to EU sanctions regarding non-approved content and banned personalities. Interesting times are ahead for social media to be sure.
At one point, Windows was an operating system that you could specifically buy, take home, and install on a PC. And it still is. But more and more, Microsoft sees Windows as a vehicle for its paid subscription services, which Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella rather elegantly spelled out Tuesday afternoon.

As part of the companys third fiscal quarter 2022 earnings call, Nadella was asked to comment on the strength of the PC market, and the durability of the PC business long term.

I think on the commercial side, I think its well understood is that Windows is the socket for Microsoft 365, Nadella responded, describing the relatively recent launch of Windows 11 and Microsoft 365, and the fact that both are resonating super well.

The socket metaphor seems particularly apt, given that Microsoft hasnt really seemed to care how consumers paid for Windows  Windows 10 and 11 are free upgrades if you already own a Windows license, and Microsoft has let this free upgrade loophole languish for years. Microsoft really hasnt seemed to care whether or not consumers actually bought Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, or just used a cheap loophole to take advantage, as long as people are using it.

get windows 10 for cheap, too Windows 10 Professional Best Prices Today:

The backstory here, though, is that Microsoft loves subscriptions, especially those that can be slotted into an enterprise budget as the cost of doing business. Its absolutely part of the modern Microsoft mentality to encourage business users to sign up for as many paid Microsoft subscriptions as they can. And no, this isnt new  Microsoft turned on the money spigot in 2017 with Microsoft 365, and its happily bashed its own standalone Office product to encourage customers to sign up for a subscription. Heck, Windows is even its own (business) subscription, too  very meta.

Microsofts Edge browser logo.

Microsoft also sees Windows as a vehicle for consumer PCs. But here, its slightly different. Nadella and Microsoft care about usage: growing browser share with Microsoft Edge, for example. Nadella highlighted the engagement with its Microsoft Start personalized news service  which now boasts 500 million monthly active users, Nadella said  as a way to encourage people to use Microsoft products (and presumably see ads) as well.

The idea, then, is for business users and everyday folks alike to simply use Windows as a gateway to Microsoft software and services. If that service is free, Microsoft will prioritize its use. If its paid, Microsoft will do everything to make that subscription service sticky, and invaluable. And its always looking for more.

[The] PC remains a very important category in peoples lives as what weve discovered during the pandemic, and if anything the intensity of usage has increased, Nadella said. There will be cyclical demand that well go through but the number of use cases is definitely I think structurally increased.

Note than Nadella said nothing about the number of PCs sold. All Microsoft cares about is selling subscriptions, and Windows will continue to be the socket theyll fit into.
Africas inclusive finance provider, Letshego Africa (Letshego Holdings Ltd / Letshego Group), is enabling instant digital access to wellness and affordable health solutions via its LetsGo Digital Mall, a multichannel digital platform, in partnership with healthcare Group, Brandmed.



BrandMed is a leading, digitally-savvy healthcare Group, that continuously reimagines health, using technology to empower a better quality of life for healthcare practitioners, patients and funders.



The Letshego-Brandmed partnership enables Letshego to offer digitised, world-class wellness, health facts and advice to its footprint communities across Africa. Digital wellness services will soon include virtual medical consultations for individuals wherever they may be located, all within a few clicks via Letshegos Digital Mall.



Letshegos Group Chief of Products, Chipiliro Katundu, commented, Our wellness offering in the LetsGo Digital Mall, in partnership with BrandMed, is the first in Letshegos LetsGo Lifestyle series of solutions and offerings that aligns with our brand purpose to improve lives. The LetsGo Digital Wellbeing programme provides instant digital access and affordable health solutions in various dimensions, supporting customers with better health, better fitness, better nutrition and wellbeing awareness. In line with our intent of being customer-led and moving beyond financial services the digital wellbeing offering is our response to the holistic lifestyle needs of Letshego customers.



BrandMeds vision is to create a virtual, people-centric, outcome-inspired health and wellbeing ecosystem, validated by medical science and extended in access through value-sharing partnerships, like that of Letshego. Thanks to BrandMeds intensive research and innovation, LetsGo Wellness will integrate and provide a combination of solutions for all visitors to the LetsGo Mall. These digital health solutions will soon include screening, in-practice clinical decision support, health management tools, telehealth, remote patient monitoring as well as a selection of diverse virtual wellbeing and patient engagement tools.



Regrettably, we live in a world where the gap between the demand and delivery of reliable and quality healthcare will continue to widen. The ongoing global pandemic has also highlighted the health inequity that exists across our communities. By partnering with Letshego Africa, we can leverage the Groups regional digitalisation strategy to promote equality in accessing wellness solutions that assist in closing the gap in broader communities being able to expert medical care. Digital access also enables those most at risk, or those who may be immobile, to seek help and support for their health and wellbeing wherever they may be located, added Dr Riaz Motara, cardiologist and founder of BrandMed Group.



The LetsGo Wellness program is well-placed to support Letshegos LetsGoNation, a regional community of followers and users of the LetsGo Digital Mall who wish to leverage the power of Digital so that communities can connect more and do more to improve their lives.



Arnold Parker, Letshego Ghanas CEO added, We are excited this has gone live in other subsidiaries and looking forward to introducing it in Ghana at the appropriate time. In line with our purpose to improve the lives of our customers, this new wellness platform increases access to more affordable, expert healthcare, wellness and nutritional advice as Letshego strives to provide more holistic support to members of the communities where we operate.



Customers in Letshegos regional footprint can access the digital wellness solution by simply registering on the LetsGo Digital Mall via the Mobile App or Web. In providing accessing to virtual wellbeing and health care support in just a few clicks, Letshego Africa is supporting its vision to be a digital-first organisation.





Letshego Holdings Ltd (Letshego Group) is a truly African multinational organisation, headquartered and listed in Botswana and focused on delivering inclusive finance solutions to underserved populations across its 11 sub Saharan Africa footprint.



With a staff compliment of over 3,000  including both direct and indirect sales agents - and more than four hundred thousand customers, Letshego is synonymous with leveraging innovation and technology to improve the lives of individuals who have limited access to traditional financial services.



In 2022, Letshego celebrates 23 years of supporting regional communities, making strong progress with the launch of its Transformational Strategy in September 2020, towards the Groups vision to be a world class retail financial services organisation, improving the lives of mass and middle market individuals and micro and small entrepreneurs.



Letshego Ghana is a licensed financial services provider in Ghana, providing loans to individuals across both the public and private sectors, as well as supporting Micro and Small Entrepreneurs. Letshego Ghana is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Letshego Group - an inclusive finance group with more than 20 years experience in Africa, and a current footprint of 11 Sub Saharan Markets.



Letshego Ghana first opened its doors in September 2010 and has since grown to a staff compliment of over 290 employees, spread across 26 outlets, enjoying an expanded customer reach through strategic partnerships, innovative technology and digital delivery channels.

For more info visit www.letshego.com





BrandMed (Pty) Limited, is a leading South African healthcare company. Founded in 2014, BrandMed is world first in developing a unique fully integrated end to end solution to address outcomes and value-based care for patients with chronic lifestyle and Non-Communicable-Diseases (NCDs), including hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.



KardioGroup was awarded the prestigious Frost & Sullivan South African Product Line Strategy Leadership, Internet of Medical Things South Africa, award in 2019.

www.brandgroup.com



Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt has backed the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) for requesting a neutrality allowance.



CLOGSAG is calling to be paid neutrality allowance as a compensation for them not directly participating in partisan politics or being allowed to pursue a political career.



The laws of Ghana ban the civil servants from engaging in active politics and as a result they demand this allowance.



Some Ghanaians have bashed CLOGSAG saying payment of such allowance is a waste of money; other critics also find it extremely ridiculous that the civil servants would made such a demand.



But Kwesi Pratt finds it wise that CLOGSAG would request a neutrality allowance, explaining their exclusion from active politics is possibly a bane on their life.



''When you look at the way things are going on in Ghana, there is some wisdom in the neutrality allowance. In today's Ghana, if you have no party card or party affiliation, what can you do in Ghana?'' he asked.



He expounded that, in Ghana, political actors make a lot of financial gains, hence the civil servants not having the opportunity to participate in politics suffer a grave deprivation.



Justifying the need for the payment of the neutrality allowance, Mr. Pratt, on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', argued that ''there is someone whose child has completed school for almost 10 years now but doesn't have employment. If the person had engaged in the party rallies and slapped someone for the party, all he/she needs to do is present his party card for opportunity. We've heard that if you are a delegate, you could be in a better condition for the next three or six months, just being a delegate and so on. But we have made laws that the civil servant cannot have all these benefits because of his/her civil service job''.







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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Electricity and water tariffs are likely to go up in July this year, the Institute for Energy Security (IES) has projected.



Nana Amoasi VIII, Energy Analyst and Executive Director of the Institute said from all indications, there will be an upward review of the current tariff.



He said: We must brace ourselves for electricity tariff increment so we can save both the distribution and transmission grid from collapsing and have some reliable power supply.



He added: Its quite unfortunate that it has become a pressing issue to bite at this time when Ghanaians are going through tough times, but its still necessary to pay a little more for the utilities to invest to save the grid from collapsing.



The Energy Analyst noted that Ghana had not seen any major tariff increases in the last seven years, yet the operational cost of electricity continued to rise, hampering the work of utilities.



He was of the view that if electricity consumers were not made to pay a little more to enable the service provider to invest, ... the power system may collapse...



He said: Between 2015 and now, electricity tariff has not seen any significant rise. Meanwhile, the operational cost of the utilities has been rising year on year partly due to foreign exchange losses through obsolete equipment and power lines, and increasing cost of borrowing to finance their operations.



The IES Executive Director called on the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) to be prepared to work more to stop the increasing commercial losses they incurred.



He said: They should make sure that the sacrifices that Ghanaians are being asked to make by paying more for electricity in such a challenging time reflect an increased reliability in power supply within the shortest possible time.



Dr Ishmeal Ackah, Executive Secretary of the Public Utilities Regulation Commission (PURC), told the Ghana News Agency that the Commission, together with key stakeholders were reviewing the countrys electricity and water tariffs.



He said as to the current tariff being increased, reduced or maintained: Were all asking the same question.







Source: GNA









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Management of the Ghana Institue of Journalism says it cannot be blamed for occurrence during its 1st session of its 15th congregation.



A session of its graduands during its 15th congregation blamed management of the school for its poor planning when the event which was expected to be their joyous moment was disrupted by heavy rains.



But in a statement signed by the Assistant Registrar of the Institute, Mr Daniel Machator, he explained that the institute did due diligence before the final day and that its events cannot be blamed on them.



The Congregation Planning Committee on the eve of the event, confirmed from the Ghana Meteorological Agency the weather forecast for the period of the event (10:00am - 12:00 noon) as clear. There was, however, a 40% chance of slight rains after 1:00pm.



The Committee despite this assurance planned to move the event to the Institutes ultra-modern auditorium, which is just about 20 metres from the event ground, in the event of forecast failure. The event, in such a circumstance, was to be held in two sessions: first, for Journalism and then, for Public Relations graduands, the statement added.



He noted that the second half of graduands, together with parents and acquaintances, were to move to four lecture halls on the 1st floor, where the event would be screened live for viewing as the auditorium had a maximum seating capacity of four hundred.





Read Full Statement Below





GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM



DETAILS OF OCCURRENCE DURING THE 1ST SESSION OF THE 15TH CONGREGATION AT GIJ



Following the minor occurrence during the 1st Session of the 15th Congregation of the Ghana Institute of Journalism held on the 21st of April 2022, Management wishes to dispel threads of wrong reportage in sections of the media and set the records straight as follows:



1. The Forecourt of the North Dzorwulu Campus has, until this year, hosted four successful Congregations beginning with one in 2018.



2. The Congregation Planning Committee on the eve of the event, confirmed from the Ghana Meteorological Agency the weather forecast for the period of the event (10:00am - 12:00 noon) as clear. There was, however, a 40% chance of slight rains after 1:00pm.



3. The Committee despite this assurance planned to move the event to the Institutes ultra-modern auditorium, which is just about 20 meters from the event ground, in the event of forecast failure. The event, in such a circumstance, was to be held in two sessions: first, for Journalism and then, for Public Relations graduands. The second half of graduands, together with parents and acquaintances, were to move to four lecture halls on the 1st floor, where the event would be screened live for viewing as the auditorium had a maximum seating capacity of four hundred.



4. About forty-five minutes into the event, it started raining. The Registrar announced that the programme had to be moved to the Auditorium due to the weather. She, additionally, announced the agreed location for parents and acquaintances of graduands.



5. The programme had barely resumed after the movements when a group of graduands entered from the rear of the auditorium amidst chanting and noise making disrupting the smooth flow of the event. The group, numbering about fifteen, insisted that their parents be allowed into the auditorium to witness the rest of the event, or the Rector and other dignitaries relocate to the outdoor event ground.



6. Calm was restored after about fifteen minutes of disturbances, allowing for continuation of the programme.



7. Any twisted reportage seeking to portray the Institute in a negative light is not only mischievous but shameful. The general public is assured that Management of the Institute will continue to work with our student body and the Institutes publics to deliver on its mandates as it has done over the years.





DANIEL MACHATOR



ASSISTANT REGISTRAR, PUBLIC AFFAIRS



25TH APRIL, 2022















Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









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The number of valid invention patents per 10,000 people reached 19.9 in Anhui province in 2021, according to a white paper released on Tuesday.

The white paper presents how the eastern Chinese province protected and developed intellectual property rights (IPR) in 2021.

The number of valid invention patents stood at 121,700 last year. Meanwhile, more than 1.01 million valid trademarks were registered in the province.

Anhuis patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT, skyrocketed 225.8 percent year-on-year to 2,007, the white paper said.

13 trademarks in the province were approved as geographical indications (GI) in 2021, bringing the provincial total to 84. In addition, the province ranked first in the country in terms of number of new GIs in 2021.

The province won two golds, two silvers and 26 third-class prizes of the 22nd China Patent Award, hitting an all-time record.

The province also issued its first local regulation on IPR protection last year. Courts across the province handled some 11,000 IPR cases, procuratorial organs approved the detention of 135 suspects involved in 65 IPR cases, and police investigated 639 IPR-related cases and arrested 1,088 suspects, the white paper showed.




The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration.

I hadn't thought of my time spent at intel school much in the five and half years I'd been out of the military, but soon after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, amid the pain and shock, my mind conjured the map-based war games from my time on active duty.

As I sit writing this on March 25, it's been 10 years since I graduated from the Army's intelligence officer course as a young second lieutenant and then headed off to the 1st Infantry Division, headquartered at Fort Riley, Kansas.

In 2013, my brigade spent 30 days at the National Training Center, a 134,000-acre compound in the Mojave Desert in California, for pre-deployment training. We were told we were the first unit to return to a conventional, force-on-force scenario. In plain terms, we were going to fight a near-peer enemy using all our traditional heavy brigade combat team equipment, such as tanks, Bradley M2/M3 Fighting Vehicles, and M109 Paladins, rather than a counterinsurgency fought with small-arms tactics in a mock town or city, which were the usual preparations for shipping off to Afghanistan.

Michael the Archangel, the protector of Kyiv, looks out from Liadsky Gate over Independence Square in 2018. (Photo courtesy of Nina Semczuk)

Our enemies were called the Donovians, a transparent moniker for Russians. Their equipment was the same as Soviet equipment; the military organized in battalion tactical groups; and the tactics, techniques, and procedures were ripped right from historic conflicts. During that NTC iteration, we fought a scenario that closely mimicked Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008.

At the time, I thought the change of mission poorly reflected our unit's reality.

My brigade had recently returned from one of the last Army deployments to Iraq, and we were supposedly gearing up for either Afghanistan or an alignment with Africa -- two regions where it was reasonable to not expect a conventional battle against our forces.

As an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platoon leader, I led soldiers who had two missions: general all-source intelligence and geospatial intelligence support. I was sent to brigade headquarters as the ISR manager, which meant I created spreadsheets ostensibly coordinating ISR coverage from various unmanned aerial surveillance systems. None of it seemed timely or relevant to me, an opinionated 23-year-old, or to my young soldiers, who, if they had a deployment under their belt, were used to staying on the forward operating base fighting an asymmetrical enemy -- the insurgents.

Capt. Scott Heal, a civil affairs officer, poses for a photo with the police chief of Nabran after a meeting at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California, in 2012. The scenario has the Atropians fighting against the Donovians. (U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Renae Pittman)

Mostly they were mad about the lack of amenities in the field. We had "wag bags" -- plastic human waste bags, like what you'd use to pick up dog s***, but for humans -- and no showers, phones, or internet.

I felt it was a waste of time and resources. All my peers were heading to Afghanistan, and learning about the Donovians felt antiquated and nonurgent.

Many of us denounced the scenario as not having any serious possibility for a future conflict. We felt we should train for real missions, rather than Cold War scenarios that seemed unlikely, if not impossible. At the time, it seemed like one more way for our commanders to get a good evaluation, for doing something different. Our suspicion only heightened after our brigade commander didn't pause our frantic pace, not even for a moment, when a soldier was killed, and a few more critically injured, in our first week at Fort Irwin.

The platoon leader of one of the soldiers who was critically injured later became my friend when I joined his battalion. He texted me last month soon after Russia invaded, knowing my ties to Ukraine.

All four of my grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to upstate New York in the 1950s, fleeing the USSR and further oppression. Each had met their spouse in German forced labor camps, where they had been displaced during World War II. I often cited my grandparents and their history as one of the reasons why I joined the Army: I wanted to serve the country that offered refuge to my family.

When the invasion in Ukraine happened, the first person to contact me was a woman I had met at Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute in 2009. We are both second-generation immigrants who've tried to connect with our heritage in many ways, from language school at Harvard to craft workshops at the Ukrainian Museum in New York City.

The war has shattered our sense of safety -- a feeling of family relief that the worst is over, passed down to us from our grandparents. The war against Ukraine feels like a destruction of our roots, our ancestral homeland, Ukraine's chance at an independent future.

"I'm glad your grandparents aren't alive to see this," my mother said soon after the invasion.

A few other Army friends messaged me. It seemed, in many military circles, that a full Russian invasion wasn't considered the probable scenario. My stomach seized -- then and now, as I write this -- thinking about my former peers sitting around tables and computers pushing around tactical symbols, analyzing possible routes for Russian destruction. At the time, maybe it would have felt how NTC felt to me: divorced from reality, a thought exercise.

Nina Semczuk at the National Training Center in California in 2013. (Photo courtesy of Nina Semczuk)

I continued to text my old buddies and learned that Ukraine was used for career course, the intelligence school midcareer officers attend -- the school I never attended because I had left the military shortly after pinning on my captain bars. Officer students war-gamed a Russian invasion of Lviv, Ukraine's major western city, and conducted intelligence preparation of the battlefield, a process that, when I was in, boiled complex scenarios into colorful slideshows to present to commanders to help guide mission planning.

I imagine myself in those clammy, muffled classrooms at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, debating different avenues of advance, drawing unit symbols on plastic overlays, presenting my best analysis for an evaluation.

I feel sick in both my heart and my guts.

I don't think I could have made it through that unit, divorcing myself from my family's past, to keep the exercise purely intellectual and analytical. When I was younger, maybe I could have, back when I thought fighting Russia was absurd, a leftover from Cold War-era scenario designers.

But now, almost 10 years after that NTC rotation, I understand my parents' fear and mistrust of Russia. I know why they instilled Ukrainian pride in me. And I see how those wargame scenario designers knew more than most of us young soldiers. How wise they were.

I follow the real-time updates on Twitter, I read the threads from armchair analysts, and I hope and pray and send money. Part of me wonders about the scenarios being crafted right now for future military students to consider, and how Russian tactics are being updated based on how they're performing in Ukraine. Ukraine may very well become the next NTC scenario for some brigade to play out, just as Georgia was for us.

Two weeks ago, a writing professor who knows my background asked me, over a drink, what I thought would happen to Ukraine. He wanted to know what I thought, given my experience in Army intelligence. Here was my chance to play dubious armchair analyst: So many former colleagues have shared their thoughts on social media or other platforms.

Instead, I stalled. I mentioned my ex, who deployed to Ukraine to help train soldiers in 2018, how I never realized that his mission was so important and how he knew the people fighting right now for their country, for their lives. I mentioned the text messages I received from my buddies still serving. And then, when it came to my family, my thoughts on Ukraine's future, what I think the United States should be doing -- I couldn't speak.

Heat invaded my face and tears flooded my eyes. I stood up and walked out into the night for air, for movement, for escape. I don't want to banter about Ukraine's future. I don't want to sit in a warm, cozy Brooklyn bar intellectualizing over the destruction of a sovereign nation.

I want to help.

Nina served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army for five years. Semczuk is an editor of the Writers Foundry Review and an associate teacher for Voices From War, a veterans writing workshop.
The Cyber Security Authority (CSA) and the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) led by their respective Director-Generals met on April 6, 2022, at the Head Office of NITA in Accra.



The meeting was aimed at discussing areas of collaboration in the implementation of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) which was assented into law on December 29, 2020.



The Director-Generals exchanged views on the benefits to be derived when they work together and agreed its prudent for them to learn best practices from each other to effectively strategize and implement their respective mandates whilst addressing issues of mutual concern.



They recognized the importance of securing critical information infrastructure (CII) and the fact that NITA, which is responsible for implementing Ghanas IT policies, has been designated as a CII pursuant to section 35 of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038).



Both highlighted NITAs role as a government ICT lead to work closely with the CSA to ensure the protection of government data and critical systems.



After successful deliberations, recommendations and suggestions, they agreed to collaborate more closely on some critical areas.



The two institutions further agreed to provide each other with all the necessary assistance for the execution of their respective mandates and functions.

The meeting concluded with the issuing of a joint statement between CSA and NITA which outlines the areas of cooperation namely protection of CII, Computer Emergency Response and capacity building.



The Cyber Security Authority and the National Information Technology Agency reaffirmed their commitment to work together and agreed to:



1. Partner to engage their common stakeholders to hold joint discussions with them on the areas of their respective mandates.



2. Collaborate in the development of a sectoral directive for the protection of CIIs in the government sector.



3. Collaborate in the area of capacity building and knowledge transfer through personnel exchanges.



4. Collaborate in the area of incident response as NITA is considered a Sectoral Computer Emergency Response Team (Sectoral CERT) lead pursuant to Section 44 of Act 1038.



5. Collaborate on standardisation, certification and accreditation activities as part of both institutions regulatory mandates.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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At the just ended Huawei ICT Competition regional finals held in South Africa, the all-girls team from Ghana placed 2nd amongst the 6 teams that contested for the competition under the Innovation track.



The girls, Esther Aboagyewaa Abankwa, Martha Esinam Kekele Demanya and Gladys Obuobi who are final year students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology came second with their AI project topic, WaterBits  An Artificial Intelligence-Based Water Quality Predictor, which automatically classifies the quality of water and determines its safety for drinking.



Speaking on their project, WaterBits, the team lead, Gladys Obuobi mentioned that, statistics from the United Nations (UN) report indicate that about 1.5 million people living at rural communities die each year from contaminated water-driven diseases hence their Artificial Intelligence solution, designed to help address the issue.



The Dean for Quality Assurance and Planning Unit at KNUST, Professor Jerry John Kponyo, praised the girls for making it to the global finals and making their institution proud. He assured them of KNUSTs unflinching support in the quest to ensure that the team make Ghana proud at the Global finals. He further encouraged the team to believe in themselves and work harder towards the winning of the ultimate prize.



Your innovation has the potential to impact a lot of lives in the rural communities and that should be your motivation, he said. He commended Huawei for giving the ladies the opportunity to explore their potentials and prove themselves through the Huawei Seeds for the Future Women in Tech Initiative.



Mrs. Jenny Zhou, Director for Public and Government Affairs at Huawei Ghana also commended the ladies for being the only girls team to make it to the global finals. She encouraged them to put in more effort to make Ghana proud at the global finals.



Coming this far means you are very capable and can do better if more effort is put into it. Personally, I am glad you are projecting Ghana as the only team with ladies competing at the global finals. I believe you have been well connected through this program and this will go a long way to shape your career path. She said.



Prof. Lidia Arthur Brito, the UNESCO Regional Director for Southern Africa, commended Huawei for building the capacity and skills of young talents in the Sub region, by giving them the opportunity to be a part of the digital world.



Technologies can indeed empower people, commodities, countries and continents but technologies can also discriminate and leave people out of this development. By raising the capacity and skills of young talents in different sphere, I say this is immensely appreciated.



According to her, participation of women in ICT is very low, however, she is glad more women are being trained by Huawei in various technologies like AI. She congratulated the various academic institutions for supporting Huawei to make the ICT Competition inclusive to all.



This year, 15 000 students from over 200 universities and colleges from Sub-Saharan Africa participated in the 2021-2022 Huawei ICT Competition. From the 48 competing teams, Nigerian and Kenyan teams won first prize in the regional final. Teams from Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania claimed second prize.



The South African team which reached the top ten of the 2021 Huawei Global Tech4Good Competition for designing an intrusion detection system that uses wireless and cloud technologies to curb rhino poaching was honored with a Top Performance Prize.



Over the past 5 years, 80 000 university students from Africa registered for the competition, and more than 20 teams entered the global finals.



The Huawei ICT competition has grown into the biggest competition of its kind in Africa and across the globe. It offers a global stage for students to showcase and practice their ICT knowledge and skills.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









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Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has lamented the increasing loss of moral values in political engagements.



According to him, it is surprising that people do not practice moral values such as honesty, sincerity and truthfulness which are high requirements in various workplaces when they get into politics.



He said such conduct has led to politicians being viewed by the general public as liars  a situation he finds disturbing.



Addressing participants at this years TEIN-KNUST Alumni Connect programme over the weekend, the legislator opined that in the absence of moral values in politics, it was no surprise that the country was not progressing as it should.



He stated that if care was not taken, politicians and Chief Executive Officers of state enterprises will be lynched and stoned to death as Ghanaians have become tired of deceptive politics.



How is it that in our institutions, in our churches, when we come to school, when we go for an interview for a job, even when we are in a job and it is time for a promotion, the interview panel is looking for some of these values that you have so beautifully ascribed to this great institution established in 1918 before all of us here were born.



But suddenly when we come into politics we say these values dont matter. See how people describe politicians out there. 'Oh as for politicians they are liars, they believe in deception, the one who can twist the facts the more, the one who has no respect for logic, for truth, the one who will not tell you as it is in an honest way'those are the people we celebrate.



Those are the people we call great politicians. Those are the people we give platforms to. Those are the people we cheer. Those are the people we clap for the loudest. Any wonder that this country is not developing? That we are not making the progress we should make.



If politics is about deception, If politics is about lies, if politics is about dishonesty, if politics is about looking people in the eye and telling them sweet words, making promises you never intended to fulfil, distorting the facts.then some of us dont want to be called politicianswe do not want to be part of that game.



These are very important fundamentals that as young people we must begin to reflect on, if not, very soon if it is said that that is a politician coming, that is a Chief Executive coming, we may be lynchedwe may be stoned to death. Ghanaians are fed up with deceptive politics, Mr. Ablakwa emphasized.















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The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision has dismissed a case filed by a private legal practitioner, Justice Abdulai.



The application sought to compel the apex court to review its earlier decision that Deputy Speakers presiding over proceedings in Parliament can vote.



Judgment



On March 9, 2022, in a unanimous decision, a seven-member panel of the apex court held that a Deputy Speaker of Parliament presiding over proceedings in the House has the right to vote on matters for determination, and also be counted as part of the quorum for decision-making.



Consequently, the highest court of the land has ruled as valid the passage of the 2022 budget by Parliament on November 30, 2021, during which the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, who was presiding, counted himself as part of the quorum that made that decision.



Also, the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional, Order 109 (3) of the Standing Orders of Parliament which barred a Deputy Speaker, who is presiding over proceedings, from voting on any issue for determination.



Grave Miscarriage of Justice Vs Abuse Of Court Process



Lawyer Abdulai who filed the matter headed back to the Supreme Court insisting the ruling contained errors of laws which have occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice on the people of Ghana.



In opposing the review application, Deputy Attorney General Diana Asonaba pointed out that it was an abuse of the court processes since it failed to show any exceptional circumstances that should have been considered.



The long reference to previous constitutions does not meet the criteria for a review application. The plaintiff has failed to show how a miscarriage of justice has occasioned or showed any new matter that should have been considered. Present application is unmeritorious and a clear abuse of the court process, she said.



The Court presiding over by Justice Jones Dotse ruled that the Deputy Speaker of Parliament's participation in voting was constitutional.



The application is accordingly dismissed, Justice Dotse said.



The review case was heard by a nine-member review panel comprising Justices Dotse, Nene Amegatcher, Prof Ashie Kotey, Lovelace Johnson, Mariama Owusu, Celemenfe Honyenuga, Gertrude Torkonoo, Prof. Mensah Bonsu and Emmanuel Kulendi.







Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Dr. Richard Amoako Baah, a senior political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has disclosed that it will be a mistake on the part of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to present John Mahama as its candidate in the 2024 elections.



He said Ghanaians have already seen the performance of the former President, therefore it wont be wise to present him again.



Speaking on Asaase Radio, he said the opposition party might lose in 2024 with Mahama.



It is true that it will be advisable for the National Democratic Congress to present a new candidate, because we know what Mahama has done, there is nothing new, Baah told the host of the programme, Beatrice Adu.



Except that people are looking up to him because what we expected from President Akufo-Addo is not what we have gotten, but then there is the need because he hasnt performed to your standard.



There are many people in the NDC, so why would you still present the same candidate? You dont know what he can do, is it going to be anything different from before? As a matter of fact, the economic situation is 10 times worse, so how is he going to be able to manage this worse situation? Baah asked.



According to Mr. Ephson, the former President cannot win the elections with the former Education Minister partnering him.



In an interview on Joy News, the former president must consider picking any of his political contenders for the flagbearership slot as his running mate.



Mahama would have to repackage himself because a Mahama with the same running mate is going to be difficult [to win 2024 general elections]. He may have to form an alliance or perhaps, pick one of the [NDC presidential contenders] as his running mate.



He explained further that, ...where Mahama is, he has the advantage of being marketed already. And Mahama with all his body language looks like he is retaining his running mate for 2020 [general elections]. If he does, I think he should forget 2024.

Source: Pulse Ghana









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Nana Akomea, Chief Executive Officer of the State Transport Corporation (STC), has expressed optimism over the chances of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) winning the 2024 elections.



According to him, he is undaunted by the report of the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) that casts doom on the NPP as it's projected victory for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on condition that the party presents a new Presidential candidate.



The next parliamentary and presidential elections are due in 2024. Under constitutionally mandated term limits, the incumbent president, Mr. Akufo-Addo, cannot run for a third term. The former president, John Mahama, is reportedly considering running again, but we expect the opposition NDC to try to revitalise its prospects with a fresh candidate.



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, parts of the EIU report read.



But Nana Akomea is confident in the NPP as he believes there is going to be a huge economic recovery under the incumbent government.



He stated that the EIU analysis was conducted in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and its concomitant effects on Ghana which meant the economy would sink if nothing was done to salvage it.



However, since the Akufo-Addo government is already putting pragmatic measures like the E-Levy in place, Nana Akomea believes "this thing about NPP will lose the elections doesn't scare me a bit".



He strongly held the NPP will do a better job with the two more years before President Akufo-Addo's term comes to an end.



"It will be strange for a government to be popular at this time. So, if you say the government won't win elections, I don't have a problem but we won't conduct elections in April, 2022. The elections will be conducted in December, 2024; more than two years."



He made these remarks on Peace FM's morning programme ''Kokrokoo''.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Nana Akomea's proposal for a ticket involving Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen to lead the New Patriotic Party (NPP) into election 2024 has been a topic for discussion within the ruling party recently.



Many including a former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani are not in support of his proposal  they want a contest [presidential primary] to happen.



Nonetheless, others also believe letting Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen lead the party will save the party its primary stress and rather focus on Breaking the 8.



But the big question as to who becomes the presidential candidate and vice-presidential candidate betweewn the supposed leading contenders remain unanswered.



Nana Akomea who is championing the Alan-Bawumia ticket is even unsure of who should lead the NPP in the 2024 presidential election.



When asked in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show, 'Ghana Montie' to pick his preferred presidential candidate among the two  he was taciturn on deciding.



"For me because they are the leading contenders and as well satisfy the North and South sector, they should both be on the ballot. As to who should be the flagbearer and vice, I cant tell, he said.



Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and the Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen are the two supposed frontrunners to succeed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Former NDC Central Regional Chairman, Bernard Allotey Jacobs has jabbed the NDC 2020 Presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama over his comments on the Akufo-Addo administration's usage of the COVID-19 relief funds meant for Ghanaians.



According to former President John Mahama, the current administration misappropriated the funds using GHC 33 billion of it to advance his (Nana Akufo-Addo) 2020 election bid.



Ghanas fate was easy to predict with the cavalier handling of the economy by the current administration. We went into the pandemic without adequate buffers, and have emerged with a terribly battered economy, Mr. Mahama said, alleging that to make matters worse, the pandemic windfall of over GH33 billion which could have cushioned the economy remains unaudited and is believed to have been used largely in the quest to win the 2020 elections at all cost.



He added before the pandemic, poverty reduction was already a major challenge. The pandemic is estimated to have dragged about 55 million more people into poverty in Africa and exposed another 46 million more to the risk of hunger, and malnourishment. Indeed 70% of hunger in Africa, which had already been on the rise since 2014 is directly attributable to this pandemic.



Reacting to Mr. Mahama's allegations on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Allotey Jacobs cried over what he believes is "dirty politics" practiced in Ghana where the masses are fed with lies instead of the truth.



He wondered why Mr. Mahama and his likes bastardize Ghana to appease the international community, stressing one powerful tool of the politician is deception.



" . . you go outside there to appease the international community but inside here, you bastardize the system . . . I say political leaders see our weaknesses all the time, so everything it makes us accept everything they say and work with it."



Allotey Jacobs cautioned the former President and all politicians to desist from the politics of lies.



"It will breed something. We are stoking the fire that, for 2024, if care is not taken, the utterances of the leaders will lead their followers to take actions that may cause mayhem in this country," he said.



Offering advice to the leaders and political actors, he said, "at least we are matured enough to let decency come into our politics, truth and honesty to come into our politics. It disturbs me because I've been part in those days polluting minds, character assassinating people, undermining people just because we think that it is all ingredients of politics; so we have to do something to win the hearts of the people so that we climb to power . . . Let's change our politics a little and let people know the truth".





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
After the traditional marriage on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, the white wedding of Maxwell Kofi Jumah's son, Kwabena Jumah and the daughter of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Edwina, was held on Saturday, April 23, 2022.



Sometime in October 2021, photos of the private family introduction started circulating on social media where it was established that son of the Managing Director of GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited has tied the knot with the last daughter of President Akufo-Addo.



But seven months down the line, the couple have been now pronounced husband and wife at their Holy Matrimony which took place at Peduase near Aburi in the Eastern Region before being preceded by a reception at the Jubilee House - the seat of government.



Photos of the Saturday event which hosts a plethora of notable personalities have started circulating on social media.



Aliko Dangote, Africas richest man and Nigeria business mogul, was among the VVIPs that attended the reception.



The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his wife, Samira Bawumia, some top government officials, some members of the diplomatic corps, some NPP bigwigs and other international guests were among the dignitaries that graced the occasion to support the first family.























Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
A video making the rounds on social media captures a man believed to be Afrobeats star, Kelvyn Boy being heckled by uniform men at the campus of the University of Cape Coast (UCC).



The incident reportedly took place on Saturday during a concert as part of the schools 60th Anniversary Celebration.



Kelvyn who was billed for the concert reportedly decided to perform early at about 8pm and leave for Accra to perform at another concert at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).



However, students allegedly wont let him leave. The #DownFlat hit makers car was allegedly blocked from moving out of the school.



The incident degenerated into him being attacked. A voice commentary in the background of the video kept mentioning Kelvyn Boys name while the uniform men push him and his men back.



The men in uniform according to earlier reports are also students from the schools cadet.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
  aillarionov



Embarrassing: US military aid to Ukraine in relative terms is hundreds times lower than Estonias



From the beginning of a new phase of Putin's war against Ukraine on February 24 to March 27, Ukraine's 23 allies have provided it with $2.8 billion in military aid. On average for these 23 countries, the military aid given in the first 32 days of the war was 0.008% of their combined GDP, 0.26% of their annual military spending, and $3.5 per capita.



The United States is the leader in terms of the absolute amount of military aid; it has sent more than half of the total amount of military aid  1 billion 465 million dollars. However, in terms of the relative size of military aid, the United States lags far behind other countries, being in 8th place (out of 23 countries) in terms of military aid per capita, in 11th place in terms of the share of military aid in GDP, and in 18th place by the share of aid in their own military spending.



In terms of the relative size of military aid, Estonia is the undisputed leader among Ukraine's allies. It sent military aid to the victim of aggression in the amount of 242 million dollars, that is, almost a third of its annual military budget, 0.8% of Estonia's GDP or 182 dollars per capita.







In terms of the relative size of assistance to Ukraine, Estonia is followed by other Ukraine's firm allies:

- in terms of military aid per capita  Sweden, Lithuania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Slovakia;

- in terms of military aid as a percentage of GDP  Lithuania, Slovakia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland;

- by the share of military aid in the military spending of the donor country  Slovakia, Lithuania, Sweden, Czech Republic, Croatia, Luxembourg.







In terms of relative indicators of military assistance to Ukraine, the sheer gap that the United States lagging behind Estonia is shocking:

- in terms of military aid per capita  the USA ($4.4) lags behind Estonia ($182) 41 times;

- in terms of military assistance as a percentage of GDP  the USA (0.007%) lags behind Estonia (0.79%) 113 times;

- in terms of the share of military aid in the military spending of the donor country, the United States (0.18%) lags behind Estonia (31.68%) 173 times.







Over the past 29 days since March 27, military assistance to Ukraine from the United States has been increased 2.6 times and as of April 25



The Kiel Institute for the World Economy has published the first report on the amount of aid to Ukraine since the beginning of a new stage of Russian aggression. The Institute's database includes three main types of aid  financial, humanitarian, and military. Below are data only on military assistance to Ukraine. The amount of military aid from the United States is corrected in accordance with official documents of the White House and the Pentagon From the beginning of a new phase of Putin's war against Ukraine on February 24 to March 27, Ukraine's 23 allies have provided it within military aid. On average for these 23 countries, the military aid given in the first 32 days of the war wasThe United States is the leader in terms of the absolute amount of military aid; it has sent more than half of the total amount of military aid . However, in terms of the relative size of military aid, the United States lags far behind other countries, being in 8th place (out of 23 countries) in terms of military aid per capita, in 11th place in terms of the share of military aid in GDP, and in 18th place by the share of aid in their own military spending.In terms of the relative size of military aid, Estonia is the undisputed leader among Ukraine's allies. It sent military aid to the victim of aggression in the amount of, that is, almost aorIn terms of the relative size of assistance to Ukraine, Estonia is followed by other Ukraine's firm allies: Sweden, Lithuania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Slovakia; Lithuania, Slovakia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland; Slovakia, Lithuania, Sweden, Czech Republic, Croatia, Luxembourg.In terms of relative indicators of military assistance to Ukraine, the sheer gap that the United States lagging behind Estonia is shocking: the USA ($4.4) lags behind Estonia ($182) the USA (0.007%) lags behind Estonia (0.79%), the United States (0.18%) lags behind Estonia (31.68%)Over the past 29 days since March 27, military assistance to Ukraine from the United States has been increased 2.6 times and as of April 25 reached 3.7 billion dollars. Tags: , ,    , , , 

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  ?     From: daily_madness Date: April 28th, 2022 03:11 pm (UTC) (Link) President Joe Biden will ask Congress for a $33 billion supplemental funding bill aimed at supporting Ukraine over the next several months as Russia's brutal and unrelenting war enters a new phase.

The $33 billion request includes $20.4 billion requested for military and security assistance, including $5 billion in additional drawdown authorities, $6 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and $4 billion for the State Department's Foreign Military Financing Program, a senior administration official told reporters.



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FILE - A Belarusian worker on duty at a gas compressor station of the Yamal-Europe pipeline near Nesvizh, some 130 km (81 miles) southwest of the capital Minsk, Belarus, Dec. 29, 2006. Officials in Poland and Bulgaria say Russia is suspending their countries natural gas deliveries starting on Wednesday. The governments of the two European countries said Tuesday April 26, 2022, that Russian energy giant Gazprom informed them it was halting gas supplies. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)
In this image from video released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, is the scene inside a small church on a movie set following a fatal shooting last year in Santa Fe, N.M. On Monday April, 25, 2022, law enforcement officials released a trove of video and photographic evidence in the investigation of a fatal October shooting of a cinematographer by actor and producer Alec Baldwin on the set of a Western movie. (Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office via AP)
A Quebec Provincial Police officer, wearing a gas mask and tear gas filter, looks on as authorities take action to put an end to a protest in Ottawa, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. Justice Paul S. Rouleau, newly appointed inquiry commissioner to probe the government's use of the Emergencies Act, is described by colleagues as thoughtful and decisive in his approach to the law. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Editor

Raissa Tetanish has been a journalist for the past 15 years, and has spent four years as editor of both The Light and Hub Now. She joined the Pictou Advocate in April 2021.
Benjamin Lieber solos Moose's Tooth in Alaska

27.04.2022 by by Planetmountain

On 14/04/2022 American alpinist Benjamin Lieber has made a solo ascent of Moose's Tooth in Alaska, via the classic Ham & Eggs Couloir

American alpinist Benjamin Lieber has made a fast solo ascent of Moose's Tooth, the stunning peak in Alaska's Denali National Park first ascended over a period of 12 days in 1964 via the West Ridge by the German mountaineers Klaus Bierl, Arnold Hasenkopf, Alfons Reichegger and Walter Welsch. Just five days after reaching base camp, on 14 April 27-year-old Lieber soloed the mountain via the classic Ham and Eggs route, established on the South Face in 1975 by Thomas Davies, Jon Krakauer and Nate Zinsser. Lieber needed a mere 3.5 hours to reach the 3150m summit, and descended in a further 2.5 hours.

Ben, tell us more about this mountain

The Mooses Tooth is an iconic and striking mountain. I first heard of it before Id ever visited Alaska. When I finally did in 2016 with my mother, it was the first big mountain I can remember seeing. At that time Id never seen anything like the Central Alaska Range before. It was a beautiful peak at first sight and special to have seen it while with my mother.

Before this solo, had you climbed the mountain before?

Id actually never been to the Mooses Tooth, no, but have been on many trips in the Alaska Range.

You grew up in New Hampshire, but now live in Alaska

Yes, I actually live a couple hours drive from Talkeetna where bush planes on skis offer quick access to the remote Central Alaska Range. So I packed in a couple hours and drove North, hopped in the plane shortly after arriving, and not long after I was standing on the Root Canal Glacier below the Couloir.

At Basecamp

Basecamp was a wonderful place. Towering granite walls, made up the immediate area and beyond views of the great peaks of the range lay out in a postcard landscape: the Ruth Gorge, Mt Huntington, Begguya (Mt Hunter), Sultana (Mt Foraker), and of course Denali. I had a really basic camp, just my one tent and dry foods. Very different from the common luxurious basecamps seen in the range. The weather was amazing every day and barely a cloud passed by for the 5 days I spent at the Root Canal.

The route you chose was Ham & Eggs Couloir

It's an ultra classic route that has seen many ascents and is a dream to climb for many North American climbers. Id heard of the route a long time ago but when I first saw it, it was out of my league at the time and something I aspired towards. Eventually I became experienced enough but I went on other trips in the Alaska Range and never actually visited the Mooses Tooth. The route has been soloed at least a few times before me, Im not sure how many, but that added some confidence it would be a pretty fun solo mission.

Have you done much big soloing before?

This was my first solo in the Alaska Range. Soloing in the big mountains is something I have been working towards. After a really productive winter of cragging, I felt the time was right and decided to fly in.

Tell us about the ascent

The climb was in about as good of condition as I could imagine. Previous parties had been turned back by deep snow a week earlier. The day before I climbed, two parties of two made it to the summit, this undoubtedly made it safer for me. Snow conditions were excellent and the ice climbing was good enough. The ice pitches werent overly difficult but the ice was airy and felt rotten and insecure, it took some good focus to get through them without the rope on. I thought the route was about what I had expected in difficulty and a comfortable level for me soloing.

Tell us about the experience on the top

The summit ridge is a long & rising cornice which hangs to the North, the route comes up from the South and meets the ridge at a col. Low wind, bright sun, a perfect morning - just one lone figure on the ridge. I had always dreamed of experiencing something like this in my life. My view was no longer looking upward, now I looked out to the East across waves of the corniced top which rose gently to the true summit. Walking along the final ridge, I followed the narrow track of the others from the previous day and placed one foot in front of the other as if walking on a tree over a creek. I looked out at the seemingly endless mountains of Alaska that surrounded me. Denali, Hunter, Huntington, Foraker to the west, Silverthrone to the north. I stepped onto the summit and below was the Ruth Gorge, in the distance the Sleeping Lady near Anchorage, behind me now the tracks from which I followed up. This wildly glaciated land surrounded me on all sides from my corniced perch and it was as if I was now a part of the wilderness too. For a moment I felt larger than the mountain itself, but ultimately I felt small and insignificant - just a single creature atop a lifeless tooth of granite & ice.

How did you descend?

I didnt stay on the summit long and descended the summit ridge by mostly downclimbing and some walking, with one or two rappels to get back to the Col. From there it was 15-18 rappels with the two 60m ropes I brought up.

How big is a step is this in your climbing compared to previous ascents? What led up to this?

I had a productive winter of cragging that set me up for the climb. This is a proud achievement for me because its a solo ascent of an ultra classic Alaska Range route. It opens the door for more solo opportunities in the Greater Ranges that are at a higher level than this one. This was a while coming for me and Im happy it worked out.



Info: alpinebenny.com/blog/2022/4/23/mooses-tooth-free-solo
POKROVSK, UKRAINE  Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders decried the move as "blackmail."

A day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to speed more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, the Kremlin used its most essential export as leverage against two of Kyiv's staunch backers. Gas prices in Europe shot up on the news.

The tactic could eventually force targeted nations to resort to gas rationing and could deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.

Western leaders and analysts portrayed the move by the Kremlin as a bid to both punish and divide the allies so as to undermine their united support for Ukraine.

Poland has been a major gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and confirmed this week that it is sending the country tanks. It has also been a vocal proponent of sanctions against the Kremlin.

Bulgaria, under a new liberal government that took office last fall, has cut many of its old ties to Moscow and likewise supported punitive measures against Russia. It has also hosted Western fighter jets at a new NATO outpost on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.

The gas cuts do not immediately put the two countries in any dire trouble. Poland, especially, has been working for many years to line up other suppliers, and the continent is heading into summer, making gas less essential for households.

Yet the cutoff and the Kremlin warning that other countries could be next sent shivers of worry through the 27-nation European Union. Germany, the largest economy on the continent, and Italy are among Europe's biggest consumers of Russian natural gas, though they have already been taking steps to reduce their dependence on Moscow.

"It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us," said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. "Today, the Kremlin failed once again in his attempt to sow division amongst member states. The era of Russian fossil fuel in Europe is coming to an end."

State-controlled Russian giant Gazprom said it was shutting off the two countries because they refused to pay in rubles, as President Vladimir Putin has demanded of "unfriendly" nations. The Kremlin said other countries may be cut off if they don't agree to the payment arrangement.

Most European countries have publicly balked at Russia's demand for rubles, but it is not clear how many have actually faced the moment of decision so far. Greece's next scheduled payment to Gazprom is due on May 25, for example, and the government must decide then whether to comply.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told the Polish parliament that he believes Poland's support for Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia were the real reasons behind the gas cutoff. Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov called the suspension blackmail, adding: "We will not succumb to such a racket."

On the battlefield, fighting continued in the country's east along a largely static front line some 300 miles long.

Russia claimed its missiles hit a batch of weapons that the U.S. and European nations had delivered to Ukraine. One person was killed and at least two were injured when rockets hit a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv.

Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence findings, said Russia has made slow progress in the Donbas region in the east, with "minor gains," including the capture of villages and small towns south of Izyum and on the outskirts of Rubizhne.

The offensive continues to suffer from poor command, losses of troops and equipment, bad weather and strong Ukrainian resistance, the officials said.

They said some Russian troops have been shifted from the gutted southern port city of Mariupol to other parts of the Donbas. But some remain in Mariupol to fight Ukrainian forces holed up at the Azovstal steel plant, the last stronghold in the city. About 1,000 civilians were said to be taking shelter there with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders.

Just across the border in Russia, an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region burned after several explosions were heard, the governor said. Explosions were also reported in Russia's Kursk region near the border, and authorities in Russia's Voronezh region said an air defense system shot down a drone.

Earlier this week, an oil storage facility in the Russian city of Bryansk was engulfed by fire.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak hinted at the country's involvement in the fires, saying in a Telegram post that "karma (is) a harsh thing."

In other developments:

 The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said the safety level at Europe's largest nuclear plant, now under Russian occupation in Ukraine, is like a "red light blinking" as his organization tries in vain to get access to the Zaporizhzhia power station for repairs.

 Amid rising tensions over gas, Moscow and Washington carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in the U.S.

With the help of Western arms, Ukrainian forces have been unexpectedly successful at bogging Russia's forces down and thwarted their attempt to take Kyiv. Moscow now says its focus is the capture of the Donbas, Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland.

A defiant Putin vowed Wednesday that Russia will achieve its military goals, telling parliament, "All the tasks of the special military operation we are conducting in the Donbas and Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, will be unconditionally fulfilled."

Simone Tagliapietra, senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, said Russia's goal in cutting off the flow of gas is to "divide and rule"  pit European countries against one another as they cast about for energy.

While Poland gets around 45 percent of its gas from Russia, it is overwhelmingly dependent on coal and said it was well prepared for the cutoff. It has ample gas in storage and will soon benefit from two pipelines coming on line, analyst Emily McClain of Rystad Energy said.

Bulgaria gets over 90 percent of its gas from Russia, but it could increase imports from Azerbaijan, and a pipeline connection to Greece is set to be completed later this year.

Europe is not without its own leverage since, at current prices, it is paying some $400 million a day to Russia for gas, money Putin would lose in a complete cutoff.

Russia can, in theory, sell oil elsewhere  to India and China, for instance. But it doesn't have the necessary pipeline network in some cases, and it has only limited capacity to export liquefied gas by ship.

"The move that Russia did today is basically a move where Russia hurts itself," von der Leyen said.

___

Gambrell reported from Lviv, Ukraine and Gera reported from Warsaw, Poland. Associated Press journalists Jill Lawless in London, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, David Keyton in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi at Chernobyl, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Mainly sunny. High 78F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 57F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.
Emily Williams is a business reporter at The Post and Courier, covering tourism and aerospace. She also writes the Business Headlines newsletter and co-hosts the weekly news podcast Understand SC.
NORTH CHARLESTON  In high school, Chaz Bear of psychedelia-meets-ambient electropop project Toro Y Moi played in a Columbia band called The Taxi Chaps before getting a degree in graphic design at the University of South Carolina.

Tyler Gordon of current Columbia rock group Hillmouse grew up down the street from him and remembers opening for his band and recording music together.

"He's why I started guitar," said Gordon. "Somewhere on my hard drive, I've got a bunch of his old music and the very first Toro stuff that he used to bring to school and pass around. He's always been a good dude."

Bear, now 35 and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, will be making a homecoming this month with two South Carolina shows.

Gordon has tickets to his concert at The Senate in Columbia on May 1, a few days before Bear heads to North Charleston to open for Khruangbin at Firefly Distillery on May 5. Tickets to the local performance are sold out, but Columbia tickets are still available for $30 at thesenatecolumbia.com/calendar/toro-y-moi.

The shows will complement his April 29 release of new album "MAHAL," which Bear told The Post and Courier is, in part, inspired by his half-Filipino and half-Black roots.

He described the new record as guitar-heavy and more soulful than "What For," his fourth studio album that dropped in 2015; lead single "Postman" is a fun and funky introduction to a record that touches on heavier themes while staying sonically lighthearted.

"2020 was a hard year for pretty much everyone in the whole world, even with topics about social justice," said Bear. "I didn't want to write a protest song, but I did want to write something that was my perspective on life in America as a Black American. ... You're just trying to make sense of it all."

Throughout the record are sprinkles of Americana, said Bear, everything from saying something in a Southern accent to the simple lyrics "red, white and blue, Black and Brown."

Bear said he tried to depict the current times while still allowing the music to live beyond this era. Instead of singing blatantly about the pandemic, he touches on introspection in general.

"Patience was a big one," he said. "I think a lot of artists can relate to feeling the hit of the pandemic and just trying to understand 'Am I doing this correctly? Or is this imposter syndrome? Or like, do I really feel that this is my path?' It did help that I got nominated for a Grammy. ... That sort of reminded me that yeah, you're on track, there's no need to worry. Just keep going."

"MAHAL" is also being accompanied by a short, retro concert film, "Goes By So Fast," in which Bear stars alongside comedian and TV writer Eric Andre. The movie trailer depicts the duo adventuring across the Golden Gate Bridge in a decked-out festival-flair Jeep with a silver horse hood ornament.

"Eric was doing the heavy lifting as far as adding charisma to the shots," said Bear. "I saw the lines and felt good about it. I was just being me."

Bear was featured on "The Eric Andre Show" in 2020, when he rode a mechanical bull while eating sushi.

He describes the vintage visuals for the combination fiction, documentary, animated and concert film directed by Henry Israelson as "Beatles-esque."

It's fitting, since one common thread throughout Bear's musical and visual vision is the undeniable grooviness.

Bear has always focused heavily on the visuals in addition to the music; it's the graphic designer in him. And he wants the connection between the two to be strong.

"It really comes down to making choices and decisions that fit the aesthetic parameters," he offered. "If it's a more '70s track, then most likely I'll approach the visuals in a similar way. The same thing with '80s or contemporary. I want that relationship to make sense and not catch people too off guard."

Though tinkering with the experimental is in his nature; just listen to his genre-bending sound that's been classified as chillwave, electronic, pop, techno, R&B, hip-hop, house and more.

Although Bear said he visits his family in Columbia a few times a year and still feels connected there, he's excited to come back to Charleston. He plans to take a dip in the ocean (the West Coast is just too cold for that, he notes) and eat some fried green tomatoes.
One thing that would distinguish an Interstate 73 from actual interstate highways is that it likely would never connect to a highway outside the state of South Carolina. For that matter, it likely would never extend beyond a junction with I-95, which means it would be more akin to a spur than an interstate. Think the I-385 spur from Clinton to Greenville, or a really long version of I-126 from I-26 into downtown Columbia.

The other thing that distinguishes the proposed highway, we were reminded recently, is that it was dreamed up not by federal transportation officials but by a guy in Bluefield, West Virginia, who was upset because the world seemed to be passing his tiny little town by.

Now its true that the particulars of interstate routes often come down to battles between communities that hope to strike it rich and fear being drawn off the map, but this is a case where the whole point, from the very start, was the possibility of creating jobs along its route. You know, as opposed to facilitating the movement of people and goods between destinations those people and goods need to reach.

Myrtle Beachs Sun News reports that the highways origin story alone makes I-73 unique among every other interstate highway project the United States has built since the Eisenhower administration.

As an April series of articles dubbed Frankensteins Highway reported: Rather than the federal government planning the road and footing 90% of the bill, as has been the case for almost all interstates since the 1950s, I-73 has been planned by an evolving cast of unlikely characters: (Department store owner K.A.) Ammar and an engineering professor from West Virginia; a gregarious business promoter; and a revolving door of rank-and-file congressmen, lobbyists, state lawmakers and government officials are all part of the story.

All the while, Washington has hardly touched the project.

Indeed, the work has been such a collection of independent efforts  that is, the opposite for an interstate effort  that, the paper reported, Virginias preferred route didnt jibe with North Carolinas and North Carolinas preferred route didnt jibe with South Carolinas.

Its against this backdrop that Horry County senators plan to try again this week to sell their colleagues on Gov. Henry McMasters proposal to spend $300 million on the project. Both the House and the Senate Finance Committee wisely ignored the governors proposal, but the expected effort during this weeks budget debate  the word filibuster has come up  reminds us that its as much a zombie highway as a mismatched Frankenstein.

Theres a reason federal transportation officials havent been the drivers of I-73, and that its found enthusiasm mostly among local officials who see it as key to their local economies: Its not a necessary part of an our nation's interstate network of highways to facilitate commerce and passenger traffic.

Thats not to say that Horry County doesnt need transportation improvements. It clearly does. It needs better roads to get people into the Grand Strand for vacation trips that are the chief driver of South Carolinas tourism economy. It needs better roads to get people off the Grand Strand in the event of hurricanes. And given the important role the beach plays in our economy and the speed with which Horry Countys population is growing, these needs might be among the most severe in our state.

But building a whole new major highway from scratch isnt the best way to get more tourists into Myrtle Beach or to get them out more quickly the next time a hurricane threatens the Grand Strand. It isnt the most cost-effective way. It isnt the most environmentally friendly way  just the opposite, actually. It isnt even the quickest way.

And the plan Grand Strand senators will pitch on the Senate floor this week isn't precisely what it seems: Theyll use the word interstate, and theyll talk about local commitments to help fund what they call a $1.6 billion proposal  which even under their most optimistic scenarios will still need another $495 million in state funding. But that $1.6 billion proposal only builds a highway 40 miles from I-95 toward Conway, where supporters hope to tie it in with a separate project to upgrade S.C. 22 from Aynor to the beach. Nobodys talking about the leg from I-95 to the N.C. line between Bennettsville and Rockingham that would be necessary to turn the Myrtle Beach spur into an actual interstate.

Since it hasnt gotten through so far, we hope the full Senate will send the same message to Horry County senators that the Senate Finance Committee and the House have sent, and reject their effort to reallocate $300 million in next years budget and obligate the state to another $495 million itll need to find in the future, when we dont have all this extra money to spend.

And we hope Gov. McMaster and Horry County officials will get over their fixation on cutting a shiny new interstate through wetlands, forests and people's homes and businesses and instead focus their attention on upgrading and expanding existing highways that will address the region's actual needs.
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Mainly sunny. High 74F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 53F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.
GREENVILLE  When Richard Wright bought a house on the shores of Bruce Lake along Poinsett Highway north of Greenville, he had a mind to protect the lake from future development. He owned land surrounding half the lake. The rest was owned by a Charleston-based developer who had attempted and failed to build on the site in the past.

As the din of traffic sweeps past along the five-lane thoroughfare nearby, the private lake sits just off the road tucked behind trees, a slice of nature in a rapidly developing corridor between Cherrydale and Furman University at the base of Paris Mountain.

Birds swooped overhead and a bullfrog croaked on a recent afternoon as rain pattered on the lakes surface. A neighbor recently spotted a family of deer on the edge of the 15-acre lake. Beavers have been spotted. Neighbors often fish or kayak around the lake.

Now, Bruce Lake Development, LLC, registered to Charleston developer Leigh Colyer, has submitted plans for preliminary approval for a townhouse development with 52 units that would drastically alter the lakefront by adding a stretch of townhouses 25 feet from the lakeshore, removing trees throughout the 13-acre property and reshaping the corridor.

Jay Martin, the projects engineer with Arbor Land Design, said the plans do address water quality in the lake and that new developments  unlike existing older neighborhoods  meet a higher standard of stormwater quality to protect against pollution from runoff.

This project is not detrimental to the environment, Martin said. This project does not impede or exacerbate current traffic flow. This project meets all codes and ordinances.

Its a project at least 18 years in the making and would add more density than a previously-approved plan for the site that never received the necessary permitting to build. The site was originally rezoned as a planned development in 2006 but the project was never built. It most recently came back to planners in 2016 as a plan with mostly Charleston-style houses, but that project didnt get built.

Steve McNair of Palmetto Alliance is listed as the projects developer. He couldnt be reached for comment.

Environmentalists and residents who live in about 25 houses on half-acre lots built in the 1950s in the Bruce Heights neighborhood near the lake have each raised concern about the development ahead of a Greenville County Planning Commission meeting where the project will seek preliminary subdivision approval on April 27.

Wright, who bought his home in 2016 and owns frontage around half of the lake, said most neighbors just want the land left as is  undeveloped and quiet.

Rebecca Carper is among them. She lives two houses up from Wright and her house overlooks the lake within earshot of busy Poinsett Highway.

The Carpers have lived in the neighborhood 10 years and said theyd prefer it to remain undeveloped, but understand something may go on that land due to the growth of Greenville.

You see a lot of wildlife coming through because its a wildlife corridor, she said. As it gets built up, that wildlife has to go somewhere and a lot of it comes right through here.

Pete Mattern, who lives nearby, said hes gathered nearly 450 signatures on a petition against the project from area residents and the broader communities of San Souci, Cherrydale and from those who live along the Reedy River.

In a letter to Greenville County officials, Frank Holleman, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the county should reject the development because of its proximity to the lake, which acts as a filter for water flowing through Langston Creek and into the Reedy River. It would undercut water quality improvements the county has worked to achieve for years in the river, according to Holleman.

The developers proposal says the project would utilize the lake for its stormwater detention. The preliminary plans dont show additional stormwater detention devices.

The impact of this runoff pollution will be magnified because Bruce Lake is a relatively confined body of water, with limited discharge to the downstream waterway, Holleman said.

The nonprofit group, Friends of the Reedy River, also sent a letter to the county expressing its concern over the development plans density, location close to the lake and use of the lake as stormwater control.

Allowing this use of the lake would allow pollutants in stormwater discharged from the construction site to be discharged directly into the lake, which flows to the Reedy River and eventually to Lake Greenwood, the letter said.

Both the Southern Environmental Law Center and Friends of the Reedy River cited restrictive covenants in place for the project site that they said forbid the lake to be used for stormwater management.

Martin said they were aware of the lake restrictions and had already read through them to confirm our compliance and sent them for review to the county. The restrictions dont prohibit a body of water from being used to control stormwater quantity, only water quality, and Martin said the project does address water quality by reducing the amount of total phosphorous before stormwater enters the lake.

These regulations will improve the lake ecology by removing total suspended solids and reducing total phosphorus, Martin said.

The lake isnt a detention pond, as Langston Creek flows into it from the north and a spring feeds it from between Wrights property and the proposed development site. That spring hasnt been adequately addressed in the development plans, Wright said.

Since Wright learned of the latest development proposal, he said he has worked to secure funding to put in his own offer to buy the property. He said his offer is being treated as a backup offer in case the development plan is rejected and the land sale falls through.

He said he would like to protect the property and possibly turn it into a park.
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Two Clarendon County schools are among six being added to the federal Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site under bipartisan legislation passed by Congress.

The law broadens the National Park Service's footprint in honoring the historic 1954 school desegregation case that helped overturn the notion of "separate but equal" in public education.

Until now, the park service's recognition was limited to the Monroe School in Topeka, Kan.

The South Carolina schools added include the Summerton School and the Scotts Branch School, both in Summerton. They were cited in five cases that were combined and considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education  named for the plaintiff and defendant in the Kansas case  declared that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," and thus violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The legislation expanding the number of sites included was crafted in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., led the effort in the House.

The integration of our nations public school system was a critical step toward making Americas greatness accessible to all of her citizens, Clyburn said in a statement.

In the Senate, the bipartisan bill was sponsored by Chris Coons, D-Del., and cosponsored by seven others, including South Carolina Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott.

South Carolina played a prominent role in one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions in the history of our nation, Graham said in a statement. It is important we protect and preserve these historical sites so future generations can learn from them.

The affiliated areas that now are part of the Brown v. Board historic site are:

Summerton School and Scotts Branch Schools in Summerton, representing the Briggs v. Elliott case.

Hockessin Colored School No. 107 and Howard High School in Wilmington, Del., representing the Belton v. Gebhart case.

The former Robert Russa Moton School, now a museum, in Farmville, Va., representing the Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County case.

The John Philip Sousa Junior High School in the District of Columbia, representing the Boiling v. Sharpe case.

The South Carolina case began in June 1947 with Levi Pearson, a Black cotton farmer who agreed to file suit against Clarendon County for its unequal busing policy. It was thrown out on a technicality when it was discovered that Pearsons property straddled district lines and he paid taxes elsewhere. But the groundwork for the Briggs case had been laid.

Soon after, a new suit was filed, this time by Harry and Eliza Briggs joined by 21 other families. They demanded a bus to take Black children to school. Superintendent Roderick Miles Elliott refused the request, arguing that Black residents didnt pay enough taxes to deserve public transportation.

In 1949 the NAACP, the Rev. Joseph DeLaine and Modjeska Monteith Simkins decided to expand the legal action, arguing not only for transportation but for equal treatment generally. To do so, they needed to find people willing to sign a petition. It would entail huge risk. More than 100 people added their names. Thurgood Marshall came to the state to represent the plaintiffs.

Their names were circulated throughout Clarendon County. They were blacklisted. They lost jobs. They were subjected to violent attacks and persecution. Whole families were imperiled.

When the case went before three judges of the U.S. District Court in Charleston, two of them (a majority) ruled against the Black plaintiffs. J. Waties Waring famously dissented, arguing that segregation is per se inequality. He did so knowing the case likely would be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court  and knowing that he would likely become persona non grata in Charleston.

The new legislation requires the National Park Service to devise a general management plan within two years of enactment, and possibly make boundary adjustments by acquiring land at the various new sites.

The Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site Expansion Act passed unanimously in the Senate on April 6. It passed in the House of Representatives on April 27. It now goes to President Joe Biden for his signature.

At least one open hearing will be scheduled near each of the new sites, and the public will be invited to submit comments regarding the proposed management plan.
The Post and Courier has received first-place honors in the prestigious National Headliner Awards for its collaborative series aimed at exposing government corruption and misconduct throughout South Carolina.

The Uncovered project received the top award for public service among newspapers in smaller media markets. The Post and Courier teamed with 18 community newspapers throughout the Palmetto State to examine questionable conduct among public officials, producing some 40 stories along the way. In doing so, the ongoing series also highlighted the vital role newspapers play as watchdogs of taxpayer dollars and democracy.

"Recognizing that the decline of the newspaper industry seemed coincident with the rise of local graft in South Carolina, The Post and Courier organized a statewide SWAT team of media outlets to support one another and lend muscle to investigative reporting on the micro level," the award judges wrote in their comments.

The National Headliner Awards were founded in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City. The annual contest is one of the oldest and largest in the country that recognizes journalistic merit in the communications industry.

Top finalists in the public service category included The Kingsport Times-News in Tennessee, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Madison Capital Times and Appleton-Post-Crescent. Other top winners included The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Uncovered previously received a special citation from the Selden Ring Award, whose judges said the series and its local partnership provides a model for news organizations in other communities with news deserts.

Uncovered also led the way in the S.C. Press Associations 2021 News Contest, claiming the prestigious Public Service award and first place for Investigative Reporting and Innovation.
When you come face-to-face with Charlestons two newest street cops, youve gotta ask yourself one question:

Can I get a picture?

Of course, you have to be pretty tall to actually face officers Watson and Holmes, because both stand well over 6 feet  seeing as how theyre horses.

On Friday, the Charleston Police Department launched its first mounted patrol in more than a decade. And if the attention and adoration these two equine officers attracted is any indication, this is going to be a ridiculously huge community relations win for the department.

Not to mention a serious crime deterrent. More on that in a bit.

As the patrol clopped from the Market up to the East Side on Friday afternoon, Sgt. Bill Gritzuk and Senior Officer Natasha Holland spent much of their time greeting tourists and locals, answering questions and posing for photos just about every block.

We get our picture taken more than Kim Kardashian, Gritzuk says.

None of the four seemed to mind; in fact, they encouraged it.

You want to pet them? Gritzuk asked one group. They wont bite  I promise.

Ill mosey on over, Holland said, in impressive cowboy vernacular.

Charleston police had regular horse patrols from 1978 through 2011, when budget cuts shuttered the Hampton Park barn. But Chief Luther Reynolds saw the need to bring the patrol back because of the size of downtown crowds; his cops needed a way to better monitor their surroundings.

The Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau volunteered to fund the program for a year, and Tommy Doyle Jr. of Palmetto Carriage Co. offered logistical support and housing. Its a good deal for the city, but no one was happier than Gritzuk.

Hed wanted to be a mounted police officer since he was a kid, watching cops trot through the streets of New York. It was Charlestons horse patrol that lured him here. He rode with the horse patrol for five years before the city shut it down.

Gritzuk is glad to be back in the saddle, so to speak.

He recruited Holland to the patrol because shes been riding, at times professionally, since she was 3. And for months theyve been training their new partners, a couple of half draft horses from Kentucky whove spent some time on the Charleston streets pulling carriages.

Weve got to teach them to trust us, so they know Im not going to let them get hurt, Gritzuk says. They have to trust you, like any partner.

There are several inherent advantages to having police officers on horseback. The higher vantage point  roughly 10 feet  gives them a better view of whats going on. It also makes the force much more visible to residents ... and criminals.

And the horses improve their odds of nabbing bad guys. See, horses can go places cars cant, theyve got more stamina than the most buff bike cop, and certainly run faster than any felon.

And horses are good at crowd control  people tend to behave around 1,600-pound animals. Despite their amicable dispositions, Watson and Holmes can be fairly intimidating.

Just having them on the street deters crime, Gritzuk says.

It makes sense to use horses in a city not originally built for cars, but frankly the biggest advantage may be community relations.

The horses drew crowds everywhere. Teachers at Second Presbyterian flagged them down to visit with their preschool students, and a group of women on an East Side porch came out just to pet their muzzles.

Sgt. Beth Wolfsen, spokesperson for the Charleston Police Department, says that sort of engagement is part of the idea.

People want a greater law enforcement presence in their neighborhoods, and, well, you cant miss these guys. But the police also want to build relationships with residents, get to know their neighbors  and the horses make that much easier.

Its more natural, and more likely, to talk to an officer riding by on horseback than it is to flag down a patrol car.

The patrol proved that a dozen times before heading back for supper and the promise of a long weekend rolling in the mud on a Johns Island farm. Like any cop, Gritzuk says, the horses need their down time.

The horse patrol will work days for a while, eventually shifting to nights with hotter weather. Friday was a good test run, allowing the horses to see new neighborhoods and get accustomed to peninsula traffic patterns.

What Watson and Holmes didnt see was any criminal activity. Well, other than the obvious.

It was clearly a crime to ever put the horse patrol out to pasture.
Goose Creek, SC (29445)

Today

A mainly sunny sky. High 78F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low around 55F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.
 The Ukrainian crisis may have reached a turning point with the announcement that Russia is cutting off oil and gas shipments to Poland and Bulgaria:

Moscow is making good on a threat to halt gas supplies to countries that refuse President Vladimir Putins new demand to pay for the fuel in rubles. The European Union has rejected the demand in principle but now payment deadlines are starting to fall due, governments across Europe need to decide whether to accept Putins terms or lose crucial supplies  and run the risk of energy rationing. European gas prices surged as much as 17% as traders calculated the risk of other European countries being hit next.

The refusal to pay in rubles is likely just a pretext to put the squeeze on Poland and Bulgaria for their support of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Germany is reversing course and will ship heavy weapons to Ukraine after all:

Germany has agreed to allow the export of heavy weaponry to Ukraine, a U-turn that follows weeks of pressure on Olaf Scholzs government  and which comes despite Russian warnings of the conflict escalating further.

 The New Republic is slowly starting to get a clue about how out of touch progressive elites are:

Too many idealistic progressives fail to appreciate the ways their politics reflect their worldview, and their worldview reflects their privilege. Close to half of college grads of all racial groups say they are liberal, but thats true of only one-quarter of white and Latino noncollege voters, and about one-third of Black and Asian American ones. . . The class culture gap extends to social issues. It takes self-discipline to show up, on time and without an attitude, to blue- and pink-collar jobs, so non-elites of all races highly value the traditional institutions that anchor self-discipline: religion, the military, and family values. My crowd in San Francisco scorns such institutions and stresses instead its sophistication, a.k.a. the way elites display their cultural capital to others in the elite class through artisanal spiritualities and teeny, tiny portions of labor-intensive food. While elites look down on non-elites as unsophisticated, non-elites look down on elites as insincere and place a higher value on their own unadorned straight talk.

 How nice for them:

Harvard Pledges $100 Million to Redress Ties to Slavery Harvard University has pledged $100 million to redress its historical ties to slavery. The announcement Tuesday coincides with the universitys release of a 134-page report detailing its connections to slavery, segregation and discrimination.

The Ivy League schools faculty and staff enslaved more than 70 Black people between its founding in 1636 and 1783, when slavery became outlawed in Massachusetts, according to the report. Alternative headline: Harvard To Spend $100 Million on Itself in Latest Virtue-Signaling Initiative.

 Finally! A stock market I like!
I think it is unfortunate that the phrase Hunter Bidens laptop is generally used to refer to the documents demonstrating Joe Bidens corruption that happened to be discovered on that device. What is relevant is the documents and what they show, not a particular device where they were housed. It is somewhat as though the Pentagon Papers had been referred to as Ellsbergs three-ring binder.

Documents on the Biden familys corrupt dealings continue to trickle out, including these, which show obligations of Hunter Biden that, in January 2019, Joe Biden undertook to pay in the short term. Click to enlarge:









This summary indicates that Hunter was paying his ex-wife $37,000 a month. They show that as of January 2019, he still had not paid his 2015 taxes, or portions, at least, of taxes due for 2016 and 2017. The email from Katie Dodge and the attached documents reflect that Hunter Bidens finances were a mess. He couldnt pay his bills, including old tax obligations. The influence peddling that we now know went on had little to do with Hunter Biden: he had no influence to peddle. It was Joe Biden who had a position to sell.

Perhaps most interesting of these bills is the fact that Hunter owed over $130,000 to the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels. Over $28,000 of that amount was for restructuring BHR. BHR is Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management Company, one of the Chinese entities in which Hunter (and perhaps Joe) had an interest. MSN reports:

An investment firm founded by Hunter Biden assisted a Chinese company in purchasing one of the worlds richest cobalt mines from an American company for $3.8 billion  helping the conglomerate gain a massive share of the key metal used to make electric car batteries. The presidents son was one of three Americans who joined Chinese partners in establishing the Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management Company, or BHR, in 2013. The Americans controlled 30 percent of the company and made successful investments that culminated in aiding China Molybdenum purchase the Tenke Fungurume cobalt mine in the Congo from the American company Freeport-McMoRan in 2016, the New York Times reported.

The largest Faegre bill, over $82,000, was for a Confidential Investi[gation]. It would be interesting to know what confidential investigation was worth $82,000 to Hunter Bidena bill that Joe Biden apparently paid ASAP.

I spent my entire legal career at Faegre & Benson; I believe I was lawyer number 70 when I started in 1974. Today, after two mergers, the firm Faegre Drinker has over 1,300 lawyers worldwide. I suppose it comes as a surprise to almost all of those 1,300 that Hunter Biden has been a client of the firm.

UPDATE: Last summer, a long series of texts between Hunter Biden and a partner in my former law firm became public. The lawyer appears to be a friend of Biden and something of a jack of all trades, working on Bidens divorce obligations as well as other legal and personal issues. When these texts first emerged, attention focused on Bidens use of the N-word, but they seem to me to have interest much beyond that:
United Bank for Africa (UBA) saw passable growth in its net income for the first quarter of the year, much as revenue enlarged by almost 18.3 per cent, the lenders unaudited financials obtained on Wednesday showed.

Largely boosted by income from interest, gross earnings came to N183.9 billion compared to the 155.4 billion of the corresponding period of last year, all the income sources of the pan-African bank recording increase.

Operating expenses leapt 20.5 per cent to N77.6 billion, leaving a great deal of bottom-line eroded.

That came as other operating expenses surged to N46.3 billion, driven by spikes in the spend on contract services as well as fuel, repairs and maintenance.

UBA set aside more than three times as much as the cash it provisioned a year earlier to cover credit whose possibility of repayment has been made doubtful by recurrent defaults by borrowers.

Profit before tax was up by 9.6 per cent, while post-tax profit jumped to N41.5 billion, accelerating by 8.8 per cent.

Total assets scaled up to N8.9 trillion from N8.5 trillion.

UBAs investment in the twenty markets where it has footprints across Africa as well as France, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates summed up to $105 million, CEO Kennedy Udoka told an investors and analysts call in Lagos in March.

Our records show a very well-diversified loan book across various critical sectors across the economies in which we operate and the diversification is in both industry sectors, across geographies and customer segments, Ugo Nwaghodoh, the banks chief finance officer said at the meeting.

We are reinforcing our digital banking and payment offerings as we continue to see a stronger proportion of non-interest income to total income in the days ahead.

Shares in UBA were quoted on the Nigerian Exchange at N8.10 per unit at 14:14 WAT on Wednesday, trading up 0.62 per cent.
Famous Nigerian actor and movie director Yul Edochie has welcomed a son with his second wife, Judy Austin.

The 40-year-old actor threw his fans, colleagues and social media into a frenzy on Wednesday after sharing pictures of himself and his baby boy on his Instagram page.

The actor said it was high time the world met his son, Star Dike Munachimso Yul Edochie, whom he loves much as his other children.

It is the first time the actor would be bringing to the public notice that he has a second wife.

First wifes reaction

As expected, the news wasnt well-received by his first wife, May.

In the comment, Yuls first wife, May, wrote: May God judge you both.

Yul married his first wife, May, at the young age of 22, in 2004, after they had both dated for six years.

The couple celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary in October 2021.

Yul and May have four children- Three boys and a daughter. Their names are: Danielle, Kambi, Karl, and Victory.

Yul, who graduated from the University of Port Harcourt, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Arts, followed in the footstep of his father, Pete Edochie, a veteran Nigerian actor.

Interestingly, May gave hints about troubles in her marriage in November 2021 after sharing a cryptic message on IG.

The mother-of- four took to her Instagram page, where she shared a post that had the photos of Barack and Michelle Obama in their early years and then when they became the U.S. First family.

Never forget a woman who helped you build yourself and stand by you when you had nothing if she was with you in hell, be with her in paradise, the post read.

She captioned the post with the quote Not for this generation.

Meet Yul Edochies second wife

The news of a second wife shocked fans who had no idea of the development.

Yuls new wife, Judy Moghalu, is a Nollywood actress and producer.

Moghalu is no new face in Nollywood as she has featured in several movies and even starred alongside Yul.

Until recently, Maghalu had maintained a hush profile, not until Yul revealed her as his second wife and the mother of his newborn son.

This, however, shocked many as the movie star has always been married to one wife.

Many Nigerians have taken to Judys Instagram page, calling her out for ruining Mays marriage.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc1GTrrtl9M/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
The Alake of Egbaland, Adedotun Gbadebo, says Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has paid his dues and deserves to be elected Nigerias president in 2023.

Mr Gbadebo spoke on Tuesday in Abeokuta, when he hosted the vice president who was on a courtesy visit.

Mr Osinbajo, accompanied by Governor Dapo Abiodun, was in Ogun as part of his consultations with stakeholders ahead of the 2023 presidential election in which he had declared interest to run.

The traditional ruler said that Mr Osinbajo had creditably acquitted himself in service to the nation and was eminently qualified to be the next president.

Every president from this part of the country that has passed through here has succeeded in becoming the president.

Every time the vice president has passed here and gone for something competitive, he has always won; this will not be an exception.

By the grace of God, our vice president has paid his dues; he has gone through serving others and has been winning colours all the way.

He had the same subjects in high school like I had and won laurels.

In the university, through his research work, and in the legal practice, he has been most outstanding.

Why should we not ask you for just one more position to the glory of God, and for the benefit of all Nigerians and you will say `no? Certainly, not here, the traditional ruler in Mr Osinbajos home-state said.

He prayed that Mr Osinbajos next visit to the palace would be a thank you visit after his victory at the poll.

Earlier, Mr Osinbajo said he was in the palace to brief the traditional ruler on the progress that he had made so far in the pursuit.

Of course, Kabiyesi knows that on April 11, I formally declared my intension to

Of course, Kabiyesi knows that on April 11, I formally declared my intension to run for the position of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

And after I did, I have consulted with our governors; consulted with our legislators and I have been in one or two states.

Today is very special; today, I am formally reporting progress to our Kabiyesi, the Alake of Egba Land, my own dear father, whom I know, has been behind several of the other journeys in this political terrain.

I want to say that our state has never been short of notable personalities in leadership, he said.

Mr Osinbajo said that when he was called upon to serve as vice-president of Nigeria, it was purely providential as he was not a politician then.

He said that President Muhammadu Buhari had been extremely fair to him in various ways and had exposed him to every aspect of governance.

He has kept no secret of governance away from me; he has made sure that I have seen everything that needs to be seen.

Again, I had the good fortune of serving as acting president on many occasions and on each of those occasions, he would tell me that as far he is concerned, I am the president of Nigeria; `do not refer anything to me.

Do not call me; just take the steps that you need to take, I will not question your discretion in any way and he never did.

The vice president said that in the past seven-and-a-half years of serving as vice-president, he had been able to see for himself and observe for himself what had been done right.

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He said he had observed what could have been done better and various other things.

I think that when the opportunity arose for me to decide whether or not to run as president of Nigeria, I had only one question to ask myself.

That question was whether I would be faithful to my oath to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and to the people of Nigeria to serve with all my heart and to serve with my entire mind.

That is the only question I had to ask myself because I have served previously; I have served others in various capacities and I have given everything.

I served under Prince Bola Ajibola, Judge of the World Court at The Hague; I served when he was the Attorney-General of the Federation; I was one of the only four advisers in the entire federation at the time.

I was his adviser for five years; when he went to the World Court, I was with him there for at least, a couple of years; I served as Attorney-General of Lagos State for eight years.

Of course, I served in United Nations; I have served for the past seven-and-half years as vice-president.

I want to say that every one of those people who I served in their most difficult moments did not regret it. I am not talking about when everything was going well because that is when you know your friends.

In their most difficult moments; in moments even when their jobs where threatened; in moments, sometimes when their lives were threatened, I was with them.

Sometimes, I was the only one standing with them; I cannot go into details for confidentiality reasons, but that is the truth, Mr Osinbajo said.

He urged the traditional ruler to support him in his quest to better the lives and fortunes of Nigerians.

The vice president also paid courtesy visits to the Akarigbo of Ijebu-Remo and the Olu of Ilaro, both traditional rulers in Ogun.

(NAN)
Transitional justice is a tried and tested approach to rebuilding post-conflict societies.

Its application in places affected by violent extremism such as Lake Chad Basin (LCB) presents challenges and opportunities which deserve attention from those working to stabilise the region.

After more than a decade of battling Boko Harams factions in the four countries that make up the LCB  Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria  the human cost of war is immeasurable.

Strategies to end the violence must help victims deal with its devastating impact.

Sustainable peace requires putting community needs first  and among these needs are truth-seeking and accountability for past and ongoing violations.

Reparations for these crimes should also be an integral part of rehabilitating societies after violent conflict. These are the building blocks of transitional justice.

The LCB is not yet a post-crisis setting due to the ongoing violent extremist insurgency. But that shouldnt stop national and regional actors from considering complementary strategies that cater to the scale and magnitude of human rights abuses.

Transitional justice is not only victim-centric but addresses the root causes that led to the emergence of violent extremism in the region.

New research by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) assessed stakeholders attitudes towards transitional justice in the LCB. It found varying levels of understanding in the four countries about the approachs scope, application, and possible outcomes.

Some community members conflate it with disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.

Others misconceive it as a way to reintegrate former Boko Haram members that allows them to evade criminal sanctions for their atrocities. Reintegration and reconciliation are both needed for peace, but victim-centric remedies are crucial in getting transitional justice right.

How such justice mechanisms are used in the LCB will depend on the nature and urgency of the conflict.

Communities across all four countries experience varying forms and frequencies of attacks that require different transitional justice tools.

Some already practise transitional justice in the form of traditional conflict resolution.

Cameroon

In Cameroon for example, certain religious adherents ask ex-combatants to take an oath of non-recidivism as part of the social reintegration process.

For these religious and traditional leaders, reintegration approaches are inspired by local traditions that are believed to establish trust and peace between offenders and victims.

These practices are interwoven with custom and history, and their organic links to communities are seen as timely, authentic and a cost-effective way of applying justice.

Chad

In Chad, the amnesty law of November 2021 was applied to free nearly 300 people sentenced for offences including crimes of opinion, terrorism and harming the states integrity.

This presents an opportunity for Chadians to envision a political climate that is favourable to reconciliation and transitional justice. This would have to be approached carefully however, considering that proper inclusive dialogue is still a long way off.

Niger, Nigeria

In Niger, peace agreements signed between traditional leaders in 2019 to prevent community conflicts in Diffa constitute alternative dispute mechanisms and are a form of transitional justice.

In Nigeria, local organisations have rolled out initiatives centred on religious doctrines such as Sulhu to restore and sustain peace in communities devastated by the insurgency.

Sulhu is derived from the Quran and is used to train Islamic clerics to promote repentance and forgiveness.

Although these approaches are often framed as counter-narratives to violent extremism, they represent local conflict resolution processes that can contribute to transitional justice.

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So in practice, the concept of transitional justice isnt new in the LCB. It would, however, be helpful to have more coherent and consolidated strategies for the region. And a balance between restorative and retributive justice would need to be found.

If well implemented, a transitional justice framework can help establish the rule of law while identifying victims and affording them justice for harms suffered. Determining the right balance between restorative, retributive, rehabilitative or reparative justice will depend on the countrys conflict dynamics.

While piecemeal initiatives have been carried out, a more concerted effort is needed to raise awareness of the utility and challenges of transitional justice in the region.

First step

The first step is inclusive, community-centred consultations that involve women and youth. Ongoing dialogue informed by traditional and faith-based institutions would enhance the authenticity of the process.

A society-wide campaign to inform people about transitional justice is also needed in the LCB.

Justice ministries should lead this in affected countries in collaboration with government departments responsible for humanitarian affairs, information, women and youth.

The media, civil society organisations, traditional and religious institutions and women and youth groups should be involved.

In line with the Regional Stabilisation Strategy of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, transitional justice mechanisms should be created at the national and regional levels.

They could be guided by the African Unions Transitional Justice Policy and good practices from the continent and the global community.

Akinola Olojo, Senior Researcher, ISS Regional Office for West Africa, the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin and Maram Mahdi, Research Officer, Executive Directors office, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Pretoria

This article is published with funding from the US Mission to the African Union.

(This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).
A retired Nigerian Army general, Haldu Hananiya, has detailed why President Muhammadu Buhari hurriedly enacted the infamous Public Officers Protection Against False Accusation law, popularly known as Decree 4 in 1984.

Mr Buhari, the then head of the military regime in 1984, had pencilled down Mr Hananiyas name and seven other top military officers for posting as ambassadors.

But in an exclusive report, the Guardian Newspaper of Nigeria exposed how the Buhari-led junta made efforts to reshuffle the ambassadorial lists  which angered the regime.

To punish the two Guardian journalists  Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson  who authored the story, the regime hurriedly packaged Decree 4 and applied it retroactively against the journalists.

The regime arrested the two men, tried and jailed them under the Draconian law.

Mr Hananiya, 80, in his new book, All Eyes on Me, says, There was indeed an attempt to replace my name with Harunas (another army General) as the High Commissioner to the UK.

But for the (Guardian) publication, I would probably have been posted to another country, with (IBM) Haruna sent to the UK as High Commissioner, Mr Hananiya said.

In the book, Mr Hananiya explained that the Buhari-led military regime was embarrassed that their plan (to make changes) leaked.

Though the military government denied making changes to the ambassadorial list, Mr Hananiya, 80, says, I later confirmed that the (Guardian) story was true.

Decree Four was hurriedly drafted and enacted to punish the two journalists (Messrs Irabor and Thompson) who broke the story, he said in the book.

This revelation comes nearly 40 years after the two journalists were convicted and incarcerated by the then military regime.

The retired military officer, who trained in both the United States and the UK, decried the retroactive application of the notorious Public Officers Protection Against False Accusation law known as Decree 4.

Mr Buhari on April 17, 1984, after toppling the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari in December 1983, hurriedly promulgated Decree 4, with the sole aim of jailing Messrs Irabor and Thompson for refusing to divulge the source of their information on the ambassadorial list.

Mr Hananiya, then a serving major general in the Nigerian Army, had been designated to proceed to the United Kingdom as the Nigerian High Commissioner by the military junta.

Reasons Buhari wanted to replace my name

Giving reasons for Mr Buharis attempt to substitute his name, Mr Hananiya, a Christian from Plateau State, North-central Nigeria says, While we were preparing to move to London, I began to hear murmurs that the UK was too strategic to send me because I am a Northern Christian.

He said some people within the military and their civilian collaborators conceived the idea for his replacement. He said they felt that only people of a certain disposition should occupy some positions.

The position of High Commissioner to the United Kingdom was considered one of those positions, the octogenarian said.

Mr Hananiya noted that Mr Buhari, being a Muslim, and his deputy, Tunde Idiagbon, also a Muslim, were uncomfortable with a Christian diplomat in a strategic country like Britain.

He listed the other top military brass who were for the ambassadorial postings to include Zamani Lekwot, a major-general; Abdullahi Shelleng, a major general; D.E Okujagu, a rear admiral; H. Eghagha, a brigadier, L. Uweyzor, an air commodore; R.A. Adegbite, a commodore, and A. Ajanaku, a commodore.

Mr Hananiya further disclosed that his initial ambassadorial posting was to Washington, but that they later discovered the U.S. would not accept a serving General as an ambassador.

Biggest masquerade behind 1983 coup

The erstwhile Nigerian envoy to the UK, detailed how Mr Buhari, who was the Commanding Officer of 3 Division in Jos, kept the coup away from him in December 1983.

Mr Hananiya recalled he was spending the Christmas holidays with his family at Yankari, Bauchi State, when Mr Buhari promised to join them.

Unknown to us, while Buhari was making a promise to join us in Yankari, he had other plans, Mr Hananiya said.

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On December 30, 1983, the Second Republic (Mr Shagaris government) was toppled by a coup initially announced by Sani Abacha (late head of state), he recalled.

Mr Hananiya enumerated the coup plotters to include Ibrahim Babangida, Tunde Idiagbon, Sambo Dasuki, Aliyu Gusau, Ibrahim Bako, Halilu Akilu, David Mark, Tunde Ogbeha, Abdulmumini Aminu, Lawan Gwadabe, and Mustapha Jakolo.

He described Mr Buhari as the biggest masquerade behind the putsch that ousted Mr Shagari.

Acrimonious relationship with Obasanjo

Reflecting on his military career, Mr Hananiya recalled the testy relationship with then Olusegun Obasanjo, whom he deputised as Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters.

Mr Obasanjo, who would later serve as Nigerias elected president from 1999 to 2007, was the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, which was the second-in-command position under the regime of the then head of state, Murtala Muhammed.

He served in the Chief of Staff position from July 29, 1975, until February 13, 1976, when Mr Muhammed was assassinated in a failed coup detat. Mr Obasanjo became the head of state following Mr Muhammeds death.

Mr Hananiya said the sour relationship between him and Obasanjo while he was Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters resulted in (him) being dragged before the Justice Belgore Tribunal of Integrity to defend his integrity.

According to Mr Hananiya, he was neither innocent nor guilty, but admitted that he was bruised.

Segun Adeniyi on Decree 4

While describing the Draconian Decree 4 issued by the Buhari regime, Segun Adeniyi, who wrote the foreword to the book, notes that the decree, empowered the federal military government to close any media house deemed to be acting in a manner detrimental to national interest, and to jail journalists for inaccurate reporting that bring government officials into ridicule or disrepute.

Mr Adeniyi, a former spokesperson to the late President Umar Yaradua and chairman of Thisday Newspapers editorial board, describes Mr Hananiyas book as highly revealing.

But despite being jailed by the administration of the then Head of State, Mr Thompson declared his support for Mr Buharis presidential bid in January 2015.

Mr Thompson said his support for Mr. Buhari was based on the belief that Nigeria needed a person of his character to fight corruption, and the impunity that had defined President Goodluck Jonathans administration, this newspaper had reported.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, Ibrahim Kana, has said the federal government had concluded plans to create a brand new Ministry of Defence, with a view to repositioning the sector.

Mr Kana gave the hint when he paid a familiarisation visit to the Army Headquarters on Wednesday, in Abuja.

He said his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari came with a mandate to implement the approved reform of the ministry and armed forces, to enhance efficiency.

Mr Kana added that when created, the new defence ministry would see the various services operating under the same roof in a Pentagon-like style, where both military and civilian staff would be working together.

He said his assignment was to ensure full implementation of the reform of the armed forces and the ministry.

He added that the new reform would bring an end to the existing dichotomy within the services and the ministry.

Mr Kana said he would also facilitate the repositioning of health and educational facilities owned by the armed forces for optimal performance.

He pledged to work with the army chief to develop ways to move the Nigerian army to greater heights.

On my appointment as the permanent secretary of this ministry, I was given a specific task of ensuring that I facilitate the work of the armed forces.

I was also given the task of implementing the reforms, which had been carried out and approved by Mr President.

The minister has decided to invite the major stakeholders to a meeting where we would look at the implementation strategy of the reforms documents, to see how we can commence the implementation.

One of the important aspects of the reform which I have to state here is the creation of a new Ministry of Defence which will be like the Pentagon in the USA.

If you enter the Pentagon, you see a mixture of military and civilians working together and that is going to be the nature of our new Ministry of Defence, he said.

Responding, the Chief of Army Staff, Faruk Yahaya, commended the permanent secretary for his efforts so far and pledged to ensure good and harmonious working relationship with the ministry, to move it forward.

Mr Yahaya said the issues of education and health were important to the military, adding that the army was committed to improving on the existing facilities to better standards.

He said the army had been doing a lot to ensure that its schools remained schools of choice, adding that the army was ready to collaborate with the ministry to address the challenges.

According to him, health was very important for members of the armed forces because military personnel must be physically and mentally fit to be able to perform assigned tasks.

We are already doing a lot in our medical facilities right from our hospitals, though we are ready to work towards improving and making them world class.

We are always willing to interface with you on the legal issues with a view to strengthening them, where they exist.

We are committed to tackling the security challenges headlong and our successes starting from the northeast are commendable, he said.

The COAS assured the permanent secretary of the determination of the Nigerian army to tackle all security challenges bedeviling the country, saying the military would not be deterred.

He called on all Nigerians to support the efforts of the military by availing them with the relevant information needed to address the prevailing security situation.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Kana, who was appointed recently as permanent secretary, had earlier visited the Defence Headquarters, where he interacted with the Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor, and principal staff officers.

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He also visited the Naval and Air Force Headquarters for a similar purpose.

(NAN)
Zamfara state government has deposed the Emir of Zurmi, Atiku Muhammadu, and the Emir of Dansadau, Hussaini Umar, over their alleged links with bandits.

The government also sacked the district head of Birnin Tsaba, Sulaiman Ibrahim, for the same alleged offence.

Babangida Zurmi, the press secretary to the deputy governor, told PREMIUM TIMES that the decision was taken Wednesday evening following the recommendations of a whitepaper by a committee on insecurity in the state.

In 2021, the government suspended two Emirs who were accused of frustrating efforts to arrest suspected bandits and aiding cattle rustlers.

Zamfara, like other areas in Nigerias north-west region, is convulsing under the attacks by gunmen locally called bandits who attack mostly rural communities and travellers.

These bandits have been blamed for killing thousands of people. They have also abducted many more in what is shaping to become one of the worst kidnap-for-ransom syndicates in the history of the country.

The news of the sack of the emirs came weeks after the governor came under criticism for distributing 260 luxury cars including 17 Cadillac escalades to the traditional rulers.

During a ceremony to distribute the cars to the traditional rulers, the governor said the car gifts were part of the efforts of the state government to solve the lingering security challenges in the state.

The traditional rulers were first suspended in June last year. They were charged to court this month but the judge refused to read the charges against them. He advised the state government to rewrite the charges against the emirs.

Following the court appearance, on Monday, the committee set up by the government to investigate allegations of aiding and abetting banditry submitted its report to the state government.

The government had set up two committees to investigate and provide recommendations on how to tackle the insecurity in the state.

The head of one of the committees, Mamman Tsafe, who is the states commissioner for security affairs, formally presented the report to Zamfara State Deputy Governor Hassan Nasiha.

The committees, however, did not make public the findings of their investigation.

Mr Tsafe said the committees had carefully complied with the laid down terms and references enshrined by the state government during the inauguration of the committees.

The committees exhausted all avenues of the probe before submitting their recommendations. The accused monarchs were also invited by the committees to defend themselves against the allegations against them, Mr Tsafe had told the deputy governor.

In his response, the deputy governor, Mr Nasiha, thanked members of the committee for their commitment to putting up the reports and assured them that the state government will do what is needed to implement the reports of the two committees.
Bulgaria and Poland said Russia was halting delivery of natural gas supplies, marking a major escalation in the face-off between Moscow and Europe over the war in Ukraine.

The Bulgarian Energy Ministry said late Tuesday that the Bulgarian natural gas supply company Bulgargaz had received a notification of the gas cut from Russias state-backed energy giant Gazprom.

Bulgaria has taken steps towards alternative gas supplies, said the ministry, adding that for the time being no limits on gas consumption was necessary.

The government had fully complied with its obligations and made all payments on time and strictly as required by the current contract, the ministry statement said.

Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said he would comment on the supply stop on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov had earlier announced that a Bulgarian government delegation would travel to Kiev on Wednesday.

The Polish natural gas company, PGNiG, said Tuesday afternoon that Gazprom was stopping gas flows as of Wednesday morning because Warsaw refused a demand by Moscow to pay for its supplies in roubles.

Polish officials said the country has been preparing for such a scenario and that gas storage facilities are currently 76 per cent full, compared to 39 per cent a year ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced in mid-March that in future he would only sell Russian gas to unfriendly states in exchange for roubles.

Mr Putin justified his rouble initiative with the fact that in violation of the norms of international law, the foreign exchange reserves of the Bank of Russia were frozen by the member states of the European Union (EU).

The group of G7 economic powers and the European Union as a whole have rejected payments in roubles and accused Russia of breach of contract.

Despite a slew of Western sanctions on Russia following its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, oil and gas exports remain untouched because many European countries rely heavily on Russian fuel.

But the other sanctions are punishing Russias economy and Mr Putins demand that payments come in roubles is seen as an attempt to prop up the local currency.

(dpa/NAN)
Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State has picked the expression of interest and nomination forms to contest for the Plateau South Senatorial District seat.

Yusuf Gagdi, the Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Navy, picked the forms on behalf of Mr Lalong, at the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mr Lalong, who is rounding off his second term as governor, will probably take over the district from Nora Daduut, who was elected in 2020 following the death of Ignatius Longjan.

Ms Daduut is the first female senator from Plateau State and one of the eight female members of the upper legislative chamber.

Mr Lalong was the Speaker of the State House of Assembly on the platform of the PDP.

He defected to the APC where he contested and won the governorship election in 2015.

Governors moving to the Senate at the end of their tenure has become a trend since 2007.

There are about 17 governors in the current assembly and more governors are expected to seek election to the Senate in 2023.

Meanwhile, Ita Enang, the Senior Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta, also bought the forms for Akwa-Ibom governorship race.

Mr Enang was at the party secretariat to buy the form on Tuesday.

He had earlier announced on Twitter that he paid the required N50 million for the nomination and expression of interests form.

Mr Enang was a member of the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2011 when he moved to the Senate where he spent four years from 2011 to 2015, all on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He was appointed as Senior Special Assistant to President on National Assembly (Senate) from 2015-2019 after he defected to the APC.

Mr Enang will have to contend with the division in the Akwa-Ibom state chapter, where there is an ongoing supremacy battle between ex-governor Godswill Akpabio and former Secretary of the APC Caretaker Committee, John Akpanudoedehe.

In October last year, two parallel executives emerged from two congresses conducted by the party in the state.

There are two executives, one headed by Austin Ekanem and loyal to Mr Akpanudoedehe and the other led by Stephen Ntukekpo is loyal to Mr Akpabio.

They have engaged in serious legal tussles to determine which controls the party in the state ahead of the 2023 elections.

This newspaper reported how the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, flouted a court order by swearing in Mr Ntukekpo as the chairman of the party in the state.

Speaking at the presentation of the forms, National Organising Secretary, Sulaiman Argungu, said the party is not hoarding forms and will give every aspirant a level playing field.

Messrs Lalong and Enang became the first to purchase the nomination and expression of interest forms of the APC for the 2023 elections.

The party started selling the forms on April 26 though it was initially scheduled for April 23.

The APC NEC at its recent meeting fixed the cost of the governorship nomination forms at N50 million while that of the Senatorial seat was pegged at N20 million.
Hadiza Bala Usman, the immediate past managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and founder of the #BringBackOurGirls, says she never stopped campaigning for the release of Chibok girls and other abducted Nigerians throughout her stay in office.

Ms Bala Usman was reacting to media reports suggesting that her removal from office inspired a recent tweet denouncing the spate of insecurity in the country and asking for the rescue of all Nigerians in captivity, including the Chibok girls who have remained with their abductors for the past eight years.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday, Ms Bala Usman noted that she never stopped campaigning for the release of Chibok girls and other abducted Nigerians.

This fact can, according to her, be verified through tweets made on her handle @hadizabalausman where she spoke about the Chibok girls, the Kangara boys, and other security issues in the country over the past four years.

The statement also noted that in the wake of her suspension in May last year, Nigerians dug up a February 27, 2021, tweet from her, which reads: the state of insecurity in the country that has led to the kidnap of Kagara boys Zamfara girls need to be addressed URGENTLY. We cant go on like this! Rescue our children and secure our country; thats all we ask, and ascribed that tweet to the reason for her suspension.

If I posted that tweet about the countrys security situation just a few weeks after the renewal of my appointment as managing director of the NPA in 2021, how then can anyone accuse me of just coming to speak up now? she asked. Or is it just another targeted attack on my person, sponsored by desperate people who have tried and failed to tarnish my image in the last one year? Because just a mere check on my Twitter handle would have revealed the truth but they decided to proceed with promoting falsehood.

Ms Bala Usman noted that her conviction about the Chibok girls and every Nigerian in captivity had remained the same since the unfortunate trend started.

It is such that my official picture at the NPA had my BBOG badge. I attended several meetings with the President wearing my badge. I spoke about the Chibok girls and other Nigerians in captivity at every opportunity I had, including with other colleagues in government and during media interviews, she said.
The police in Lagos have said a shooting incident involving its officer at a birthday party was an accident.

The commands spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, in a statement on Wednesday said the officer, Mohammed Hussini, is still on the run alongside the birthday celebrant identified as Ifeanyi, also known as Obama.

The shooting incident which resulted in the death of two people occurred on Sunday at a bar in Egbeda, Gowon Estate, around 9 p.m.

Shortly after the shooting, the officer fled the scene.

ALSO READ: Police deny causing death of three at checkpoint

While an investigation is ongoing, findings so far reveal that the shooting was accidental and involved an off-duty police officer, Inspr Mohammed Hussini, serving at the State Headquarters, Ikeja, the statement reads.

Findings equally reveal that the off-duty officer is a friend of the celebrant, Ifeanyi aka Obama and was not at the party in any official capacity.

Mr Hundeyin said the state commissioner of police has ordered an immediate investigation into the matter.

CP Alabi has given firm assurances that everyone found culpable in the sad and avoidable incident will be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the law, he said.

Backstory

According to the Cable newspaper, the celebrant, who is a businessman at the Ikeja Computer Village, had hired the service of the police officer for security cover at the party.

During the party, the police officer, who was reportedly drunk, attempted to shoot into the sky but accidentally shot at those dancing and spraying money.

Some persons who attended the birthday party also sustained injuries.
An apprentice tyre dealer, Cisse Abdullahi, who attempted absconding to the Republic of Benin following his wifes delivery of quadruplets, has solicited the support of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos and other philanthropists for the care of the babies.

Mr Abdullahi, 37, a native of Ilorin, who lives at Kumapaji Phase 3, Baale Bus Stop, Oko-Afo in Olorunda LCDA, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that only N3,500 was in his possession when he heard that his wife had delivered quadruplets.

I was coming from Apapa where I am learning how to sell tyres when I heard the news of my wifes delivery of the babies at the Badagry General Hospital.

It is a good thing, but I never expected quadruplets because the last scan indicated that it would be twins.

When I got home, I decided to escape to Benin Republic because I dont have money to take care of the quadruplets.

Getting to Seme border, I was about to cross when I saw my intimate friend who was surprised to see me at the border post around 9:00p.m.

I was forced to tell him why I wanted to travel out of the country, consequently, he appealed to me to go back to my family with the promise that he will assist, he said.

Mr Abdullahi said that since returning to his wife and children, the only help he has so far received was from the friend.

The new father said the room he and his wife had been living in before the birth of the quadruplets could no longer accommodate the family again.

I need the assistance of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, the chairmen of the three councils in Badagry, and well-meaning Nigeria to take care of my children.

At present, I owe the General Hospital a lot of money because the delivery was through Caesarean Section.

I dont have any means of livelihoods, I need the help of well-meaning Nigerian to raise my quadruplets up in a good environment, he said.

NAN correspondent who visited the Badagry General Hospital, reports that Sekinat Abdullahi and her quadruplets were in the Maternal, Childcare Centre (MCC) section.

Olatunde Bakare, the medical director of the hospital, said the quadruplets were born between 6:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Monday.

According to him, the quadruplets- two boys and two girls  are in good condition, but presently they are kept in an incubator at the MCC.

He said the last of the quadruplets was tiny, adding that they are taking special care of them.

Sekinat, 26, a fashion designer, appreciated God and the management of the hospital for the safe birth of her quadruplets.

This is my first birth; I never expected four children, but they have come to the world through me.

I want to appeal to the Lagos State government and residents of Badagry to come to our aid because we cannot take care of the quadruplets alone.

The burdens would be too much for my husband alone, she said.

(NAN)
The police in Ekiti say they have invited the pastor who allegedly preached rapture-for-money to followers for questioning.

Nuah Abraham of Christ High Commission Ministry, also known as Royal Christ Assembly, Kaduna State, had asked members to move to a camp in Araromi-Ugbesi in Omuo-Oke-Ekiti, Ekiti State, to prepare for the end of the world, according to the police.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Sunday Abutu, confirmed this to journalists in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday.

According to the police spokesperson, they invited Mr Abraham on the allegation of asking his members to part with N310,000 for them to prepare for the end of the world.

He said they invited the pastor to clarify the claim which had gone viral on social media.

Mr Abraham allegedly asked his church members to move to a camp in Omuo-Ekiti from Kaduna State, saying that is where rapture will take place.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a source, who is also one of Mr Abrahams congregants, confirmed to journalists that the pastor first moved to Ekiti in 2021 from his former base in Kaduna State.

He later returned to Kaduna State in April to ask each member of his church to pay him N310,000 before they will be allowed to follow him to Araromi-Ugbesi in Omuo-Oke-Ekiti in Ekiti East, the faithful said.

The source, who requested not to be named, added that the pastor preached that it was where the gate of heaven will open for all of them to fly to heaven. (NAN)
The Nigerian government has approved the engagement of transaction advisors for consultancy services for its concession of Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited.

The approval also includes the National Iron Ore Mining Complex in Itakpe, Kogi State.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this while speaking with the state house journalists after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday.

The Ajaokuta steel company in Kogi State was envisaged to serve as the bedrock of Nigerias industrialisation.

The idea of having a steel industry was conceived in 1958 by the federal government and the complex reportedly reached 98 per cent completion as far back as 1994, but it has since been largely abandoned with no steel produced.

Mr Mohammed said the contract for the consultancy services was awarded to CPCS Transform Consortium for N853 million.

Council approved the engagement of transaction advisors for consultancy services for the concession of Ajaokuta Steel Company limited and also the National Iron Ore Mining Complex in Itakpe in favor of mrses CPCS Transform Consortium in the sum of N853,266,644.4 inclusive of 7.5percent VAT, the minister said.

I am sure we are all familiar with the history of the Ajaokuta Steel complex.

The contract was awarded in 1979 to a Russian company called TPE. By the end of 1983, the contract had reached an advanced stage, regrettably, since then it has been suffering and by 1994, TPE demobilized from site and in 1996, the contract was determined. Subsequently, various administrations have tried to revive the Ajaokuta steel complex without much success.

However, you will recall that Mr President was on a state visit to Russia on the 22nd and 24th October 2019 and here it was resolved that Ajaokuta steel complex which the Federal Government has made massive investment must be resuscitated, Mr Mohammed said.

He said that COVID-19 has slowed down the efforts of the Ministry of Mines and Steel to bring this to fruition.

However, today, the council has approved the award of a contract not just for Ajaokuta but for the iron ore in Itakpe, he said.

We believe that with this development, we would have made significant steps in bringing back to life both the Ajaokuta and the iron ore company in Itakpe and moving forward the industrial revolution of Nigeria.

Because, when these two complexes begin to function, then, not only are we going to serve money in terms of foreign exchange, but we are going to see a lot of industrial development and also technology transfer, he said.
Traditional religion adherents, on the platform of the Ancient Religion Societies of African Descendants International Council (ARSADIC), say there are great lessons to learn from the life and times of the late Lamidi Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo.

Mourning the passing of Alaafin Adeyemi, who joined his ancestors last Friday at 83, at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti, they said he deserved to be celebrated.

In a statement by its President, Fagbenusola Atanda, and the Secretary, Fatah Toromade, described the 44th Alaafin as an extraordinary traditional ruler.

Messrs Atanda and Toromade said the late traditional ruler lived for the preservation and sustenance of the indigenous Yoruba tradition and culture.

They said the late Alaafin would be missed for his unequalled efforts in championing good causes that had proved the Yoruba peoples invaluable contributions to a peaceful and united Nigeria.

Oba Lamidi Adeyemis leadership style transcended a parochial interest in a particular religion.

He lived up to the name and traditional status of his stool by embracing all religious faiths of his people.

As traditional religion worshippers, we equally enjoyed a robust relationship that was devoid of deceit with him.

He was a strong pillar, who provided support for the promotion and advancement of Orisa principles and practices.

We are very proud for having him as one of our respected grand patrons.

His presence across Nigeria and beyond the shores of our great nation truly commanded respect and royalty.

As testimony to his fame and being a true ambassador of the Yoruba race, Oba Adeyemi, among his numerous awards, was a holder of the National Honour of Commander of the Federal Republic and Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri during his 52 years of glorious reign.

Baba lived for justice and never shied away from speaking truth to the power. He was bold, courageous, visionary, and energetic even till his last days.

He expanded and increased the fortune of Oyo Town, his immediate domain, and made it conform with modern civilisation without losing its true identity as an ancient kingdom.

In this trying period, we stand with the Oyo Mesi and the people of Oyo to mourn the loss of our revered Oba and at the same time celebrate his good deeds and legacies.

Also in our grief, we pray to the Olodumare to make the late Alaafin, our great father, find peace with his ancestors.

(NAN)
The former Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has asked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State to ensure a level playing ground for all aspirants in the partys forthcoming primary election.

Mr Ekweremadu, who is a governorship aspirant in the state, made the appeal in Enugu during a consultative meeting with the state PDP leaders on Tuesday.

He was received by the state chairman of the party, Augustine Nnamani, alongside other party executives in the state.

Today, I had a consultative session with the leadership of our great party, Peoples Democratic Party in Enugu State.

I sought their support and emphasised on the need for the state leadership of the party to ensure a level playing field for every aspirant, Mr Ekweremadu said in a post via his verified Facebook page.

The lawmaker said giving every aspirant a level playing ground in the partys governorship primaries would help the party emerge stronger in the 2023 general elections in the state.

He said there was a need for all stakeholders to toe the path of sportsmanship and democratic ideals of the party in the state.

The lawmaker, last month, indicated his intention to run for governor of the state in 2023 on the platform of the PDP.

He currently represents Enugu West District in the Nigerian Senate.

Elected in 2003, he has spent more than 19 years in the Senate.

Background

There has been controversy over zoning arrangement in Enugu State. The agreement was said to have been reached by PDP leaders in the state.

The PDP is the ruling party in the state.

Mr Ekweremadus request for a level playing field for governorship aspirants in the state is coming on the heels of the raging zoning debate in the state.

Many stakeholders in the party have thrown their weight behind the zoning arrangement.

But, the lawmaker has insisted that there was no zoning agreement in the state and that the contest should be thrown open to allow best candidates to emerge.

He had also described zoning as political treachery.

The party has not fixed a date for its governorship primaries.

PREMIUM TIMES, however, learnt that the party in the state has zoned the partys 2023 governorship ticket to Enugu East Senatorial District.

Mr Ekweremadu hails from Aninri, a local government area in Enugu West District.

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, who is said to favour the zoning arrangement, has reportedly picked a former Commissioner for Environment, Chijioke Edeoga, as his successor.

Mr Edeoga, last month, resigned his position as commissioner to pick the partys governorship form.

The former commissioner hails from Isi-Uzo, a local government area in Enugu East District.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday, said working under President Muhammadu Buhari has equipped him with the competence to run Nigeria.

Mr Osinbajo spoke during a visit to the Alake of Egbaland, Adedotun Gbadebo, at his palace in Abeokuta.

The visit was part of the vice presidents consultation with prominent persons and APC delegates to seek support for his presidential ambition ahead of 2023.

He arrived in Ogun, his home state, on Tuesday and met Governor Dapo Abiodun, with the governor declaring support for him ahead of the party primaries next month.

Mr Osinbajo said although he was not a politician when the party nominated him as Mr Buharis running mate in the run-up to the 2015 election; he is now immersed in politics and can lead Nigeria.

By providence I was nominated as Vice President, Mr Osinbajo said.

But I am now a politician who is qualified to be president. Buhari has been open to me. He had made me to see things. He never vetted my decision as acting president.

Mr Osinbajo said he is confident in his ability to perform as president.

When opportunity arose for me to run for presidency, I asked the question, how will I perform? Today all Im required is to offer loyalty for my country.

We are making progress in the journey. All our leaders are joining me in the journey. Come May 29, 2023, I will be sworn in as Nigerias next president, said Mr Osinbajo.

Mr Osinbajo said working with President Buhari has exposed him to governance at the highest level and placed him in a position to tackle serious issues concerning economy, security, among others.

The Vice President position is an opportunity to serve and I have served with utmost loyalty. I put everything into my work. I am a candidate who will hit the ground running when I am elected, he said.

I have the requisite knowledge to do the job and build on what others have put in place. My presidency will bring peace, unity, and development to the country. After all, I have learnt if called upon to serve the nation, should I say no?

I have decided that I will run for the office. I have sworn an oath to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is an oath to our people, our children, and the future of Nigeria. I owe nobody else any allegiance outside the oath.

Mr Osinbajo is one of over 10 aspirants seeking the APC presidential ticket. Others include ex-Lagos governor Bola Tinubu, Kogi governor Yahaya Bello and transportation minister Rotimi Amaechi.
Irans attempts to assassinate former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are real and ongoing, his successor, Antony Blinken, told Congress on Tuesday.

Testifying before a Senate panel, Blinken acknowledged details made public last month in a sensitive State Department report that outlined a security arrangement for the former secretary involving round-the-clock government protection.

Im not sure what I can say in an open setting, but let me say generically that there is an ongoing threat against American officials, both present and past, Blinken said.

We are making sure and we will make sure for as long as it takes that were protecting our people, present and former, if theyre under threat, he added.

Mr Pompeo, a former U.S. secretary of state and CIA director under President Donald Trump, was one of the architects of the Trump administrations hard-line approach to Tehran, reimplementing sanctions after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal and supporting the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general.

All former secretaries of state automatically receive protection from the State Departments Bureau of Diplomatic Security for 180 days after leaving office.

But Mr Blinken has repeatedly extended that protection for 60-day increments due to a serious and credible threat from a foreign power or agent of a foreign power arising from duties performed by former Secretary Pompeo while employed by the department, according to the sensitive State Department report to Congress last month.

The department is spending over $2 million per month to protect Mr Pompeo and one of his top former aides, Brian Hook, and have spent over $13 million to date, according to the report.

Mr Blinken was responding to questioning from Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who asked the secretary whether the Biden administration was requiring Iran to pledge not to murder a former secretary of state.

They know what theyd need to do to address this problem, and thats pretty straightforward, Mr Blinken said. Within the context of any engagements we have, directly or indirectly with Iranians, one of the strong messages we send to them is, they need to stop targeting our people  period.

The State Department did not respond to a request for additional comment. A representative of Mr Pompeo did not provide comment.

The Biden administration has been concerned with the threats against Messrs Pompeo and Hook since January.

Make no mistake: the United States of America will protect and defend its citizens, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said at the time.

As Americans, we have our disagreements on politics. We have our disagreements on Iran policy.

But we are united in our resolve against threats and provocations. We are united in the defense of our people, Mr Sullivan added.

(dpa/NAN)
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has invited the Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ahmed Liasu, to appear before it on April 27 in Osogbo to answer questions relating to allegations of misappropriation of funds at the hospital.

According to the letter of invitation by the ICPC obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Liasu is expected to report to the office of the agency with relevant documents to defend his actions and that of his management in the execution of projects.

Mr Liasu recently got the nod of the Federal Government for reappointment as the medical director of the centre for another four years, despite stiff opposition from medical doctors in the hospital.

He has been facing a litany of allegations from the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) since he assumed office as Acting Medical director in 2015. The government appointed him substantive MD in 2018.

The doctors had accused him of diverting the funds meant to cover the shortfall in their salaries in 2016 to another use.

According to them, the Federal Government had released N280,800,750.00 to cover the salary shortfall but the management of the hospital allegedly diverted the fund.

But Mr Liasu had denied the allegations, saying he properly administered the funds as contained in the relevant financial documents.

For them to say the money is meant to pay the shortfall of the salaries of the doctors is a lie. The money is for all the workers in the hospital. There is no way the money could be diverted, he had said.

The invitation

However, in the letter dated April 20, 2022, addressed to the Medical Director and signed by the Resident Anticorruption Commission, Baba Shuaib, the invitation was in continuation of the ongoing investigations of financial issues within the FMC Owo.

Furtherance to the investigation which the state office of the commission is carrying out on the allegations against the management of the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, in violation of the provisions of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000, a list of additional requirements as enclosed in the letter are being requested by the reviewer of the investigation report, the letter read.

Pursuant to section 28 of the Act 2000, you are therefore required to appear in the state office at 5, Olu Alabi Way, GRA, Osogbo, at 11.00 hours on 27th April, 2022 with the Head of Finance and Accounts and the attached documents.

The medical director is also required to come with evidence of how he spent N176,817,307 with approvals and relevant documents, as well as establish the purpose of the COVID-19 intervention funds and beneficiaries of the funds.

The ICPC is also asking him to refer to the approval from FEC, or other authorities and the details of the project executed with amounts, processes of awarding the contracts and the project valuation with pictures.

He will also provide store receipt vouchers for the COVID-19 material distributed and received such as facemasks, Veronica buckets and hand sanitisers

Mr Liasu is also required to show evidence that staff members who contacted COVID-19 were paid for or received free items from the intervention funds, treatment benefits to individuals(identity of such staff members, and what treatment they received).

He would present the salary pay-slips of Resident Doctors from 2017 to 2021.

On allegation of indebtedness, the ICPC expects him to show how much the previous administration owed, and why they are not paying the pharmaceutical suppliers of drugs as and when due.

Opposition

The medical doctors had opposed his reappointment because he was due for retirement and ought to proceed on his terminal leave, having clocked his official retirement age.

The doctors, under the auspices of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, FMC Owo chapter, also alleged that the visitation panel to the centre was shrouded in secrecy and its activities were not transparent.

The Chairman of the MDCAN at the hospital, Samuel Faturoti, who led the protest, also accused the MD of not providing vital consumables and drugs for the hospital, saying he showed no empathy to health workers, who infected at the COVID-19 Isolation Ward.

But Mr Liasu had consistently defended his reappointment and that it followed due process.

He noted that a six-man panel that was sent to the hospital by the Federal Government met all heads of departments and assessed his performance before recommending him for reappointment.

It is a political appointment, and that is why the salary I have been collecting for the past four years is on the Consolidated Salary Scale. We will continue to appeal to them, though I know they have ambition, he said in his response.

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The peace we have been enjoying is paramount and that has brought a lot of development here. The majority of workers are happy about it except the very few people who are saying they are the medical directors in waiting. There is no problem. We will continue to discuss with them and ensure that we do not lose our peace.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the ICPC, Ogugua Azuka, said he could not discuss the MDs invitation publicly as it borders on areas of the commissions operations.

I cannot confirm the investigations as investigations are not made public while they are ongoing, she said.

When they are concluded, the results will be made public.
The absence of the trial judge, Abubakar Kutigi stalled the pension fund fraud trial of the former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) Abdulrasheed Maina on Wednesday.

The matter was billed to come up at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in Jabi, Abuja, on Wednesday.

Earlier convicted by the Federal High Court in Abuja in November 2021 for embezzling N2 billion pension fund, Mr Maina is currently serving an eight-year jail term at a prison in Abuja.

While his jail term continues, Mr Maina faces a separate trial at the FCT High Court on charges of stealing N738million pension fund belonging to the federal government.

He faces nine counts along with a co-defendant, Ann Olachi, in the case brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

PREMIUM TIMES recalls that the trial judge had, on February 22, deferred the hearing because of the failure of the officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service in Abuja, where Mr Maina is serving a prison sentence, to produce him in court.

The judge, at the previous proceedings, cited a letter he received from the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja, concerning Mr Maina, but did not read out the content to provide clarity about Mr Mainas whereabouts.

PREMIUM TIMES would later exclusively obtain a copy of the letter dated February 18, 2022, showing various health conditions Mr Maina was battling with, and the medical appointments already scheduled for him by the hospital.

Mr Maina was present in court for the resumed hearing of his case on Wednesday. Our reporter saw him on the court premises in company with officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service in Abuja.

Ms Olachi, the second defendant, was also present in court.

However, the court postponed the case because the judge was absent.

Although no reason was offered for the judges absence, the courts cause list indicated that the case was rescheduled for July 7 for the continuation of the trial.

Background

The Federal High Court in Abuja had, in November last year, jailed Mr Maina for eight years for money laundering involving the diversion of N2 billion in pension funds.

The trial judge, Okon Abang, had convicted Mr Maina on all the 12 counts of money laundering filed against him by the EFCC.

The trial at the Federal High Court began just about a month before the ongoing trial at the FCT High Court started in November 2019. But repeated complaints of ill health stalled the latter.

Following his repeated absence from court, the judge, in November 2020, declared him to have jumped bail.

As a result, the judge imprisoned his surety, Ali Ndume, a serving senator, for some days.

Security agents later rearrested Mr Maina in Niger Republic and brought him back to Nigeria in December 2020 for him to continue his trial.

In the ongoing case at the FCT High Court, the EFCC charged him and his co-defendant, Ms Olachi, with nine counts of stealing various sums of money totalling N738 million belonging to the federal government.

The prosecution alleged that the defendants stole the funds under the guise of payments for the contract for biometric enrollment of pensioners and payments for allowances, among others.

Some offences were said to be punishable under Section 317 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, vol. 4, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, 2007.
The Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, has approved the appointment of Bashir Garba, a professor of Applied Chemistry, as the new vice-chancellor for Sokoto State University (SSU).

Mr Garba, 56, is to succeed Suleiman Dangoggo, a professor of Chemistry, whose five-year tenure ended this year. Mr Dangoggo was appointed the VC in 2017.

The governor also approved the appointment of Kuluwa Nuhu as the new registrar to replace Amina Garba who served twice in the same capacity.

Both appointments are with immediate effect, according to a statement by Muhammad Bello, the special adviser to Mr Tambuwa on media and publicity.

Mr Bello said both appointments followed the recommendation by the University Joint Council and the Senate Selection Board.

He added that Mr Garba was recommended following his performance above the two other candidates; Nasiru Ibrahim and Belewu Adewale, both professors.

The statement reads in part: This follows the stellar performance of the appointee during an interactive session with the University Joint Council and the Senate Selection Board which puts him far ahead of his fellow contestants: Prof. Nasiru Dole Ibrahim and Prof. Belewu Moshood Adewale.

As a result, the council and board recommended the appointee to the governor, who approved it.

Appointees

Mr Garba was a secretary to the Sokoto State Government (SSG) and immediate past commissioner for higher education in the state.

A holder of Ph.D in Applied Chemistry, M.Sc in Applied Organic Chemistry, PGD in Management and B.Sc in Applied Chemistry, Garba attended Magajin Rafi Primary School, Sokoto from 1973 to 1979, Government Secondary Technical School, Talata Mafara from 1979 to 1984, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto and University of Jos, Plateau State.

Prior to his appointment as SSG, he served as the director of Sokoto Energy Research Centre of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University between 1999 and 2005.

Between 2006 and 2010, he served as the director of Energy Management, Training and Manpower Development at the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN). He holds a national award of the Member of the Federal Republic (MFR).

Mrs Nuhu on her part is a seasoned university administrator and former commissioner for Women Affairs.

Before her appointment, she was a deputy registrar at the office of the vice-chancellor of Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
Four African countries were invited to the defence summit organised by the United States to push for more support for Ukraine against Russia.

The U.S. hosted the defence officials of several countries on Tuesday at the Ramstein U.S. air base in Germany for the conference.

The list of invited countries reported by Breaking Defence show that 43 countries, including non-NATO states, were invited. Among them are Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Tunisia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Qatar and Jordan, Sweden and Finland. It was not clear whether the African countries attended the meeting, or why they were invited.

African nations have been torn between supporting Russia and Ukraine, and many have tried to maintain neutrality at the official level. At the last United Nations general assembly vote on the expulsion of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, half of them, including Nigeria, abstained.

Although one of the first to condemn Russias invasion, Kenya stayed away from the vote, and so did Tunisia and Morocco. Liberia voted in favour of the suspension.

Ukraine had earlier recalled its ambassador in Morocco for failing to convince the Moroccan government to punish Russia. Morocco has chosen to remain neutral by not participating in UN votes on Russia, a move many suspect is as a result of Moroccos actions on Western Sahara.

Tuesdays conference secured pledges from allies to sustain military aid to Ukraine throughout the war. The meeting saw a major pledge from Germany, which said it would deliver tanks to Ukraine in a radical switch in policy on the supply of military equipment to the country.

ALSO READ: Blasts heard overnight in three Russian provinces along Ukraine border

We do want to make it harder for Russia to threaten its neighbours and make it less able to do that, Deutsche Welle quoted U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin as saying. Mr Austin added the conference would transform into a monthly contact group on Ukraines self-defence.

The German government at the conference confirmed reports it would approve a delivery of anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine. This was announced by German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht.

Under the plan, Berlin will grant weapons company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann permission to send Gepard anti-aircraft cannon tanks  the German word for cheetah  to Ukraine. Ms Lambrecht also said Ukrainian soldiers were being trained to use artillery systems in Germany.

We are working together with our American friends in training Ukrainian troops on artillery systems on German soil, DW quoted her as saying.

Other countries are also lending their support by donating various warfare equipment: the UK said it has distributed more than 200,000 items so far, including 4,800 NLAW anti-tank missiles, and a small number of Javelin missiles. It has also provided Starstreak anti-air missiles and tanks.

France is sending its Caesar mobile howitzer, and the Czech Republic is delivering its older self-propelled howitzers. As well as also sending howitzers, Canada is to deliver guided Excalibur shells that can travel more than 40 kilometres (25 miles) and deliver precisely targeted munitions.
Senator Ibikunle Amosun, representing Ogun Central, has informed the Senate of his decision to run for President in the 2023 election.

In a letter read out by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on Wednesday, Mr Amosun told the lawmakers that the official declaration ceremony will take place on May 5 at the Yar Adua Centre, Abuja.

This is even as he invited his colleagues to be present and sought their prayers and well wishes.

The lawmaker noted how he has served as a senator between 2003 and 2007, as a two-term governor of Ogun State between 2011 and 2019 and now as a senator for the second time.

He said his varied experience in private and public life has imbued him with requisite insights, experiences and network of relationships adequate to provide a leadership that will galvanize the country to achieve her manifest destiny as leader in Africa and of the black race.

PREMIUM TIMES exclusively reported, last week, that Mr Amosun would officially declare his intention to run for president on his return from Umrah.

He will contend for the APC presidential ticket with the partys chieftain, Bola Tinubu and the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo at the partys primary election.

Other aspirants in the party are Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State and his Kogi and Cross River State counterparts, Yahaya Bello and Ben Ayade.

Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani; former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha and a businessman, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, Ibrahim Dauda, Moses Ayom, Tein Jack-Rich, Ihechukwu Chima and Joy Dokubo.

Former Abia State governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, had on Tuesday said he may not contest because of the disrespect for the South-east zone. He argued that the position should have been zoned to the region for the sake of equity and fairness.
Residents of Sundimina, a community in Birnin Kudu Local Government Area of Jigawa, have accused operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), of killing Murtala Gambo, 25, during a night raid.

Residents said the incident occurred on Friday when an NDLEA patrol team arrived in the community at midnight and shot Mr Gambo in cold blood.

A witness, Musa Danburga, claimed Mr Gambo was shot in the back by the operatives because he called them robbers.

Mr Danburga said the deceased called the operatives robbers because he was startled from sleep and didnt immediately recognise them. He said Mr Gambo was shot as he was running towards him.

The NDLEA came around 3:00 a.m., I was praying close to my cows, suddenly, I saw a strange appearance, I cut off my prayer, and asked repeatedly who are those, but there was no response.

I was confused, I just heard the deceased person saying that they shot me. I later understood that they are personnel of the NDLEA when they hastily jumped into their vehicle and flee after committing the offence, Mr Danburga said.

We need justice but we are poor

The uncle of the deceased person, Salisu Gambo, told reporters, Tuesday, that they intend to seek justice for their slain relative but they cannot pursue a case against the NDLEA because they are financially incapacitated.

The uncle said after Mr Gambo was shot, some residents rushed him to a hospital at Birnin Kudu where emergency surgery was carried out on him, but he died on Sunday.

We are helpless, all the efforts previously done before going to the hospital were by the district head, police and the local government chairperson, Mr Salisu said.

The officials, including the district police officer, have vowed to ensure justice is done to the deceased person. Also, the lawmaker, representing us, (Birnin Kudu Buji Federal constituency) Magaji Dau, has promised to ensure that justice is done, he said.

Residents told PREMIUM TIMES that last Wednesday, the NDLEA operatives had raided a black spot at the Sundimina market, but were chased away by some of the locals.

Sudamina, a predominant Fulani community, is about 35 kilometres from Dutse, the state capital. Its the hometown of Sabo Muhammad, a senator, representing Jigawa South West.

The Deputy State Commander for the NDLEA, H. Ugwoke, told reporters that the information he has was sketchy as of Tuesday. He promised to get back as soon as he has more details.

Police commissioner orders investigation

The commissioner of police in the state, Aliyu Tafida said the command has resolved to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Gambo.

The commissioner said he has met with the state commandant of the N.D.L.E.A over the matter.

He assured the residents of Sundumina that an investigation into the matter has started, and he promised to make the outcome of the investigation public.

He, however, urged law enforcement personnel to act in accordance with the Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) of their agencies and other extant laws guiding their overall conduct.

He warned that any Officers found acting contrary to their oaths of office or behaving in a way and manner prejudicial to discipline will be strictly and personally held responsible.

Police is a lead agency as far as internal security is concerned, the CP called on Sister Security Agencies to always report to the Divisional Police Offices before embarking on any Operations, the commissioner said.
The acting National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Olu Agunloye, has resigned his position and assumed the position of acting national secretary of the party.

Mr Agunloye made the disclosure in a phone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Akure on Wednesday.

Mr Agunloye, who explained that his resignation was not due to his suspension by the party in the state, said it was to strengthen the partys chances ahead of the incoming general election in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Ondo State chapter of the SDP suspended Mr Agunloye, a former Minister of Power and Steel, in a letter dated March 28, over alleged anti-party activities.

In the suspension letter, Mr Agunloye was accused of bringing non-party members into the party to cause confusion and disturb the functions of the party executives at both state and local government levels.

The party stated that Mr Agunloye was suspended from his ward (ward 10) in Akoko North-West Local Government Area of the state, following a resolution of the ward executives.

According to him, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party met on March 22 and announced that all positions that are zoned to the South are now zoned to the North.

So, there is no big deal about swapping in the party because the presidential aspirant is coming from the South. In fact, one of the leading aspirants is coming from Ondo State.

It is not politically expedient to allow the presidential candidate to come from the South and the national chairman also from Ondo State, which is part of the South.

And for me, to do so without commotion is to resign my position as a national chairman of the party.

As I am speaking to you, Im sitting on my desk that I used when I was the acting national chairman but now, am the acting national secretary, he said.

Mr Agunloye, who described his suspension as mischievous and an action of some people that had no locus, said they were doing so because he was making waves in Nigeria.

According to him, as at the time they claimed I have been suspended, I was presiding over a National Working Committee (NWC) meeting of the party.

The suspension is just the action of some of the people that have no locus because if the party allows their suspension, nobody will be chairman anymore, because some people can just sit down and suspend the national chairman.

They are frustrated people and we will not provoke them the more but if they take it away from political rascality to crime, we would curtail them, he said.

(NAN)
The Nigerian government has extradited a suspect, Adedunmola Gbadegesin, to the United States to face fraud charges involving $148,000.

The spokesperson for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Wilson Uwujaren, who announced this in a statement on Wednesday, said they extradited the suspect on Tuesday.

This followed a February 11, 2022 decision of the Federal High Court in Lagos granting the request by the Attorney-General of the Federations office for Mr Gbadegesins extradition to the U.S.

His extradition was coordinated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, following a request from the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, pursuant to a February 11, 2022 order by Justice D.E Osiagor of the Federal High Court, Lagos, in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/765/21, which granted a request to extradite the suspect to the United States to answer to criminal charges bordering on romance scam, wire fraud and money laundering, the EFCC said in its statement on Wednesday.

The commission said Mr Gbadegesin, who was arrested on September 2, 2021, allegedly defrauded an American lady living in Kentucky, United States, of over $148,000.

Upon arriving in the United States, the suspect is billed to appear before a United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, where two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering have been filed against him, the statement added.

Extradition order

A lawyer from the Federal Ministry of Justice, Pius Akutah, filed the extradition suit marked FHC/L/CS/765/2021 on behalf of the AGF based on the Extradition Act, 2004.

He told the court that a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering was pending against the suspect in the U.S., The Nation had reported.

Each of the alleged offences, according to the lawyer, violates Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1343 and 1349, with the maximum penalty of 20 years in prison

The judge, Daniel Osiagor, after granted the application after hearing Mr Akutah and the counter-argument from Mr Gbadegesins legal team.

Original request order of Magistrate Court from the United States of America, original request letter duly signed by the Interpol and the Attorney-General of Nigeria application to release the defendant are all attached.

I am satisfied that the applicant has been able to establish a prima facie case against the respondents which warrant the prayers sought in motion papers to be considered.

Consequently, I hereby order that the respondent be remanded in the Interpol custody pending the approval of the Attorney-General of the Federation for his extradition to the United States of America, the court had ruled.
A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, Ayodele Oludiran, has petitioned the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, over the ineligibility of Governor Dapo Abiodun as the candidate of the party in 2023.

Mr Oludiran, in the petition signed on April 12, said Mr Abioduns candidacy would portend danger for the APC with the damning allegations against him.

According to an acknowledged copy of the petition sighted by our correspondent, Mr Oludiran maintained that Mr Abiodun was accused of concealing criminal offences he allegedly committed in the USA in the 1980s.

The petitioner told Mr Adamu that a former prominent member of the APC, who just defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, had boasted that he has damning evidence, such as the incident card and the mugshot of Mr Abiodun, in his possession.

This individual, also from the same Senatorial District as the subject matter, is confident that the incumbent will be disqualified by the courts to pave way for him to clinch the governorship seat.

Mr Oludiran noted that there are discrepancies in Forms CF001 the governor filled in 2015 and 2019 with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He said there are discrepancies in the educational qualifications Mr Abiodun submitted to INEC.

According to him, while contesting for governor in 2019, Mr Abiodun claimed he attended International Primary School Ayetoro in 1971. But four years earlier, while he was running for Senate, the governor submitted another primary school, Comprehensive High School Ayetoro State Primary School, in 1971.

All efforts to locate both schools, which would have been in the present Ekiti State or Ogun State  of the Old Western Region of Nigeria  proved impossible, Mr Oludiran said.

I submit that if he indeed had attended any of the above-stated schools, he would have been consistent while filling the INEC forms.

His claim to have attended non-existent schools in 1971 also amounts to lying on oath and presenting a false certificate to INEC which are very potent grounds for disqualification as enshrined in Section 182 (1) (j) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

ALSO READ: Abiodun signs controversial Ogun Chieftaincy Bill into law

The APC member informed Mr Adamu that Abioduns profile can only best be described as a bundle of consistent inconsistencies.

More inconsistencies

The petitioner referred the APC Chairman to Mr Abioduns Form CF001 submitted to INEC in 2015, where he indicated under oath that he attended the University of Ife (now known as Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1986.

He said in the Form CF001 submitted to INEC in 2019; he made no mention of the University.

My inquiries at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, revealed that HE, Prince Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun never even graduated from the University of Ife. It beggars belief why he would say he did in his form CF001 in 2015.

No person shall be qualified for election to the Senate or the House of Representatives if: (i) he has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Mr Oludiran said: Abiodun lied about his indictment and imprisonment in 1986.

He said the police arrested one Shawn Michael Davis in July 1986 at the American Express Travellers Office in Florida for forgery, altering a forged Travellers Cheque, grand theft and theft of a credit card belonging to John A. Moruay.

In November 1986, Mr Oludiran continued, security agents arrested one Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun, a male security guard, for forgery, altering forged instrument and resisting arrest with violence.

During investigations, the police found that Mr Abiodun was the same person as Michael Shawn Davis.

Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun was thereafter indicted for the offence of credit card fraud in Miami Dade, Florida, USA, and remanded in jail as a repeat offender with jail number: 860089436.

Mr Oludiran expressed concern that Mr Abiodun in 2015 and 2019 claimed in his INEC forms CF001, under oath, that he had never been under any sentence of imprisonment, fine for any offence of dishonesty or fraud or any offence imposed by a court. He said the claims are false.

I, therefore, make a call for his disqualification from any future elective position in the All Progressives Congress.

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Governor Abiodun reacts

Reacting through his lawyer, Afe Babalola and Co, Mr Abiodun insisted that his conviction was not sufficient for his disqualification from the coming election.

He argued that the Nigerian Constitution does not disqualify persons whose convictions occurred ten years before the election date.

In any event, assuming but not conceding that our client was even convicted in 1986, he would still not be affected or caught by Section 182 (1) (e) of the CFRN because the CFRN requires that the conviction which would disqualify a person from the position of the governor must have occurred ten years before the date of election to the office.
Ahmed Adeagbo, the medical director, Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owo in Ondo State, on Wednesday, appeared before the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in Osogbo, over alleged corruption.

Mr Adeagbos appearance at the commissions office followed a letter dated April 20, addressed to the facilitys Medical Director, inviting him, along with the Head of Finance and Accounts, to appear before it.

The commission, in the letter, directed him and the Head of Accounts, to show evidence of how the N176 million COVID-19 intervention fund and other monies were spent by the hospitals management.

It also asked him to show:

evidence of how the alleged amount of N186,817, 307 was spent with approvals and relevant documents, establish the purpose of the COVID-19 intervention funds and beneficiaries of the fund.

Show evidence that staff members, who contracted COVID-19, were paid for or received free items from the intervention funds, treatment benefits to individuals (identity of such staff members, what treatment received).

Request for salary payslips of Resident Doctors from 2017 -2021

Evidence of payments made to pharmaceutical supplies from 2017 till date, evidence of receipt with payment vouchers.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent gathered that Mr Adeagbo, with a female staffer of the hospital, arrived the ICPCs office in Osogbo, at exactly 11.20 a.m.

NAN reports that they were later led to the enforcement room of the commission at 11.35 a.m with a Ghana-Must-Go bag, suspected to be filled with documents.

A NAN correspondent, who was at the commissions office when the medical director arrived, was not allowed to enter the interrogatory room to talk to Mr Adeagbo.

The letter, which invited Mr Adeagbo and others for questioning, of read partly,  furtherance to the investigation, which the state office of the commission is carrying out on the allegations against the management of the Federal Medical Centre, Owo.

In violation of the Provision of th Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act, 2000, a list of additional requirements as enclosed in the letter are being requested by the reviewer of the investigation report.

Pursuant to Section 28 of the Act, 2000, you are, therefore, required to appear in the state office at 5 Ola Alabi way, GRA, Osogbo at 11.00 hours on April 27, Under the Head of Finance and Accounts and the attached documents.

An official of the commission, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told NAN that the medical director was invited for questioning and to make clarifications on some financial issues at the hospital.

The official said the commission would continue with its investigation of the allegations levelled against the medical director and his management.

(NAN)
A group, Project Nigeria, has reportedly procured the expression of Interest and nomination forms for the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajuiba, to contest for the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The group, according to Abubakar Usman, special assistant on new media to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, paid and picked the form on behalf of the minister at the APC Secretariat on Wednesday.

Mr Usman disclosed this in a tweet on his verified Twitter handle; @MrAbusidiq.

The Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajuiba becomes the first person to pick the APC Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms for the APC Presidential Primary as a group of Nigerians raised over N100m from where they purchased the forms for him, Mr Usman tweeted.

Mr Nwajuiba is yet to officially declare to contest for the position.

Efforts by PREMIUM TIMES to speak with the minister were unsuccessful as he did not pick the call placed to his phone nor reply to a message sent to him.

A copy of the receipt has been circulating on social media platforms.

It is not uncommon to see support groups operating by proxy on behalf of politicians.

A group, known as Green Alliance Movement, has been campaigning on behalf of the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and even procured campaign vehicles on his behalf.

Outrage

The purchase of the form for the minister has been generating negative reactions on social media because of the ongoing strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Many condemned the purchase of the form for the minister as well as his presidential ambition despite the fact that students of Nigerian universities have been at home since February 14 when the strike commenced.

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, whose ministry is statutorily charged to manage labour relations, has also declared interest to jostle for the APC ticket.

Alao Abiodun tweeted Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, Chris Ngige are both contesting for 2023 Presidency. They are not intentional with their approach(es) to end the lingering ASUU, NASU, SSANU strike but it seems they are rather interested in politicking. Very pathetic. #ASUUstrike.

This development is coming less than 24hours that Orji Uzor Kalu pulled out of the race because of the failure of the ruling party to zone the ticket to the South-east where he hails from.

Nwajuibas political journey

The Minister was a member of the House of Representatives in 1999 to 2003 under the defunct All Peoples Party (APP) and was re-elected into the House in 2019 on the platform of Accord Party before he was appointed minister by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He became a member of the House after the pronouncement by the FCT High Court Kubwa, which sacked Chike Okafor, Ehime Mbano/Ihitte Uboma/Obowo Federal Constituency of Imo State, and pronounced Mr Nwajuiba as the winner of the election.

However, the decision of the FCT High court was subsequently upturned by the Appeal Court and finally the Supreme Court. However, by then, Mr Nwajuiba was already a cabinet minister.

During his stint in the 9th House, he made a bid for the Speakership position but stepped down for the eventual winner, Femi Gbajabiamila.
Nigerias minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, has blamed the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for the prolonged industrial action by the union, which has kept public universities under lock and key for almost three months.

Mr Ngige, who spoke on Monday in an interview with Silverbird Television, described ASUU leaderships attitude to the conciliation efforts as uncooperative and anti-labour.

A statement issued by the head of press and public relations in Mr Ngiges ministry, Patience Onuobia, said the minister denied being responsible for the continued logjam and commended himself for the efforts made so far towards addressing the crisis.

The statement read in part: The Minister said he has successfully conciliated 1,683 industrial disputes since assumption of office in 2015 and has been taking extra measures beyond his statutory responsibilities, to forestall strike and ensure action is promptly suspended when workers unions make it inevitable.

Ngige also said the untiring efforts of his office towards a peaceful national industrial milieu, sleepless nights as a parent whose children are also in the public universities and who equally bear the brunt of ASUU strike, are being undermined by an erroneous impression by some Nigerians over his role as a conciliator, and by the uncooperative, anti-labour attitude of ASUU leadership.

Challenges

The minister listed two major areas of disagreement as to the reasons for the unending industrial crisis between the union and the government.

According to Mr Ngige, the refusal of the union to join the newly constituted Nimi Briggs-led agreement renegotiation committee for the review of the defunct Jubril Munzali-led committees recommendations, and its alleged refusal to consider the suggestions by the National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) in order to secure approval for use, as the major issues of discord.

Aggrieved by what it termed imposition of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) on the universities for the payment of staff salaries, ASUU developed UTAS as an alternative. It said the peculiarities of the university system are not captured by IPPIS.

But NITDA, the government agency in charge of approving relevant technology before deployment, has refused to approve UTAS.

The agency in its earlier reports said UTAS only passed the user acceptability criteria but failed vulnerability and integrity tests.

He said: Negotiation now is being made impossible by ASUU. For example, ASUU insists that NITDA should take UTAS that it developed and deploy it for payment in the universities whether it is good or bad, whether it failed the integrity and vulnerability test or not.

And ASUU members know that fraud committed on payment platforms can run into billions. If a hacker adds zeros to hundreds, it becomes billions. NITDA brought out the report of its test on UTAS  that it passed the user acceptability but failed vulnerability and integrity tests- the two critical tests that prevent fraud.

The minister said he went further to speak to ASUU and NITDA to continue the test and see whether they can make up the lapses and arrive at 100 per cent success because that is what NITDA insists on.

The minister noted that NITDA said it cannot even approve UTAS at 99.9 per cent of vulnerability and integrity. That it cant take that risk on a payment system, that it can be hacked into.

But ASUU has consistently accused NITDA of deliberately frustrating its efforts. It said the government agency was being vindictive over the unions refusal to accept the professorial award for the minister of communications and digital economy, Ibrahim Pantami.

Absolves self of culpability

The minister debunked the allegation that his style of handling the crisis has been responsible for the delay in resolution.

He said: So if you hear someone saying Ngige is responsible, it is wrong. Im not the one that implements. Im the conciliator. I conciliate so that there will be no more warfare and even in conciliation, once I apprehend, the parties go back to status quo ante, which means, you call off the strike.

Government to sue striking workers?

Though the minister did not say the government would sue the striking workers over the continued industrial action, he argued that in a situation like this, the law permits him to approach an industrial court for urgent intervention.

However, when conciliation fails, the minister is under obligation by sections 9 and 14 of Trade Disputes Act, Cap T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria to transmit the results of the negotiation to the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) or to National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), he said.

He said as a conciliator in the ongoing crisis, he has brought the stakeholders including the education and finance ministries and their agencies such as the National Universities Commission (NUC), IPPIS office, and office of the accountant general of the federation and the striking workers to the negotiation table.

The minister said at the end of every negotiation, we put down what everybody has agreed on in writing and add timelines for implementation.

He added: But let me tell you. There is nothing new about the ASUU strike. It has been a recurrent decimal. In the last 20 years, ASUU has gone on strike, sixteen times. So, there is nothing new as such.

What is new however is that I have done what Napoleon could not do. You can ask them, the ASUU leadership. Im sure that in the innermost part of their hearts, they cant sweep away my untiring efforts. Im the only conciliator lately, who has conciliated and put timelines on agreements and pushed all the parties, the government side to implement and stick to the timelines. Such fidelity wasnt there hitherto.

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Last year alone, based on the timelines I put on the 2020 agreement, they got N92.7 billion in terms of Revitalization and Earned Academic/Earned Allowances for the university system. I went out of the schedule of my office to ensure these monies were paid.

On no work, no pay policy

The minister said as part of his efforts to ensure harmony and trust, he had in the past pleaded with the government on behalf of the workers unions that their salaries be paid for the period they were on strike.

He said the government had implemented the policy in 2020 when the striking lecturers refused to resume, but that he pleaded with the government to rescind its decision.

Yes, I did it. I did the same for doctors and other health professionals operating under JOHESU. I promised in 2015 when the President appointed me that the era when agreements were left to gather dust was over and I have maintained it. I work even at odd hours, late night, at times far into morning hours, to ensure things work, he said.

Mr Ngige, who acknowledged bureaucracy in government, said he once suggested to ASUU to appoint a general secretary and an assistant who could be stationed in Abuja to pursue the statuses of agreements signed with different government agencies.

The minister said he regretted that the current ASUU strike is being prolonged because the university teachers have made negotiation difficult.

Strike by other unions?

The minister, however, failed to comment on the strike by other categories of university workers especially the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian University (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and other Allied Educational Institutions (NASU) which just announced the extension of its one-month-old strike by another month.

Resolution efforts

In March, the government constituted the Nimi Briggs-led committee to address the recommendations of the Munzalli Jibril-led committee. But ASUU kicked against it, insisting on the adoption of the draft document produced by the Jibril-led committee in May 2021.

Mr Ngige had said it was impossible for the government to work with the draft produced by the Jibril-led committee. He said the recommendations were not signed by anyone.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
The Central African Republic (CAR) has become the first African country and the second globally to approve Bitcoin as a legal tender.

This was disclosed in a statement released by the office of the countrys president Wednesday.

This move places the Central African Republic on the map of the worlds boldest and most visionary countries, the statement from the CAR presidency said.

Mr Namsio noted that President Faustin Touaderahad signed a bill into law to make Bitcoin a legal tender alongside the CFA franc, and that lawmakers voted unanimously to approve the move.

It said Calixte Nganongo, minister of finance and budget, and Gourna Zacko, minister of digital economy, postal services, and telecommunications, initiated and introduced the legislation establishing the legal framework for cryptocurrency regulation in the CAR, as well as bitcoin as an official currency.

The conflict-torn nation is one of the worlds poorest countries, but is rich in diamonds, gold and uranium.

The move by the country is coming nearly eight months after El Salvador, a country in Central America, announced that it had adopted the digital currency as a fiatthe first country in the world to officially adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender.

Within the past 12 months, the worlds most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has faced significant criticism and profound market sentiments across the globe that has greatly influenced its value.

Many countries are yet to come up with effective and efficient means of regulating the cryptocurrency space amid concerns over the possiblity of its being used for money laundering.

However, some financial experts have argued that the adoption and efficient regulation of cryptocurrency is capable of boosting financial inclusion in developing countries significantly.

On February 5, 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria directed banks in the country to close all cryptocurrency-related accounts.

The bank claimed it banned cryptocurrency-related transactions in the country because digital currency is used for money laundering and terrorism.

Meanwhile, Nigeria is the worlds second-biggest user of virtual currencies like Bitcoins.

The price of Bitcoin has increased by 1.46 per cent in the last 24-hour. The coin experienced a low of low $37,884.99 and oscillated to a high of $39,397.92 before settling at $38,932.20 on Wednesday at 07.57 p.m. Nigerian time.

Bitcoin touched an all-time-high record of $ $67,566.83 on November 9 last year, but has since dropped by nearly half, coinmarketcap.com data showed.

The sudden rise was attributed to the adoption of the currency by highly profiled individuals, investors, and large companies such as Tesla and Square buying bitcoin.
The family of Chikere Obieshi, popularly called JB, who was fatally shot by a police officer at a birthday party in Lagos has called for justice.

The incident which resulted in the death of Mr Obieshi and a yet-to-be identified person occurred on Sunday at a bar in Egbeda, Gowon Estate, around 9 p.m.

Some persons who attended the birthday party also sustained injuries.

Shortly after the shooting, the officer fled the scene.

Justice

Representatives of the family on Wednesday at a press conference held in front of the deceaseds shop in Computer Village said only justice will compensate for the void the killing of their son has caused.

According to the family, the late businessman was described as a legitimate phone dealer who was invited by one Ifeanyi Asiwaju Uchendu to his birthday celebration on Sunday, only to be shot dead by a police officer.

A representative of the family, Anayo Obieshi, told journalists that the police officer shot their sibling while he was dancing and spraying money on the celebrant.

The family called on the Inspector-General of Police and the state commissioner of police, to ensure justice for the deceased.

All the things he used to do in the house, who wants to do it (now)? the deceaseds younger brother, Osigwe Stanley, said in tears.

You that killed him, do you want to take his place, now that youve killed my elder brother, what do you want to do with his dead body? Come and take his responsibilities now, if you can take half of his responsibilities .

We need justice, We need justice, I am calling on President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu our honourable governor, Rochas Okorocha, Senator Ararume, we need justice.

Back story

The celebrant, also a businessman in Ikeja Computer Village, had hired the service of the police officer for security cover at the party.

During the party, the police officer, who was reportedly drunk, attempted to shoot into the sky but accidentally shot at those dancing and spraying money.

However, the police said the shooting was an accident.

The commands spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, in a statement on Wednesday said the officer, Mohammed Hussini, is still on the run alongside the birthday celebrant.
FMN launches first wholly made-in-Nigeria brown sugar

 Promises to revolutionise the sector with Sunti Brown Sugar

April 2022, Lagos Nigeria. To further strengthen its local production footprint in Nigeria and reaffirm its commitment to the backward integration strategy of the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan, and the overall growth vision of the Sugar industry in the country, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc (referred to as Flour Mills or FMN), Nigerias leading integrated food business and agro-allied group has announced the launch of its Sunti Brown

Sugar.

Sunti Brown Sugar is manufactured in Sunti, Niger State and it is fully indigenous, with sugarcane grown, harvested, and processed locally. The premium quality brown sugar is fortified with Vitamin A and other additional nutritional benefits which will create an affinity between consumers and made-in-Nigeria products whilst keeping with the brands message of at the heart of Nigeria.

FMN has established itself as a formidable player in the sugar sector through the success of the Golden Penny pure white refined sugar, which is renowned for its sweetness. The launch of the Sunti brown sugar aligns with the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan which aims to increase the domestic production of sugar to meet the 1.7 Million

Metric Tonnes (MMT) demand. Sunti Brown Sugar will enable Nigeria attain self-sufficiency in sugar production by growing the required local capacity to meet the demand for sugar which will stem the tide of unbridled importation of sugar and its by- products.

Speaking on the launch, Omoboyede Olusanya, the Group Managing Director of FMN Plc, disclosed that by investing in Nigerias sugar value chain, FMN empowers the local host communities, enriching the lives of natives through communal investments. In his words, Currently Nigerias sugar industry only meets about 2% of the nations demand.

FMNs commitment to improving the supply value chain through backward integration not only solves issues arising from food insecurity due to our sugar import dependence.

It also provides employment opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled labor. Our goal is to build a vibrant sugar sector, one the economy can derive immeasurable benefits from. he said.

Omoboyede further explained that restoring the nations self-sufficiency in the sugar sector requires a conducive policy environment which the Government has provided through the Backward Integration Programme as well as the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan.

Also speaking on the announcement, Devlin Hainsworth, Managing Director Food, FMN Plc revealed that the company has a history of creating innovate products loved by consumers. Although this is not our first foray into sugar production, the launch of Sunti Brown sugar diversifies our product portfolio catering to the unique needs of our consumers. The revolutionary product is a first of its kind, it is the only brown sugar fully made in Nigeria, Devlin explained.

FMN continues to demonstrate its commitment to the growth of the sugar sector through projects such as the N64 billion investment in the Sunti Golden Sugar estate which spans over 22,000 hectares of land.

About Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc

Incorporated in September 1960 and quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange since 1978, Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) Plc, owners of the iconic Golden Penny Food brand is one of Nigerias leading food and Agro-allied companies. With a broad basket of food products and robust pan- Nigerian production, distribution, and supply chain network, FMN is a fully integrated and diversified food and Agro-allied group.

FMN group strives in its purpose to Feed the Nation, Everyday through its five-core food value chains: Grains, Sweeteners, Oils and Fats, Proteins, and Starches. FMN creates value along the entire food chain with its farm-to-table model by providing inputs and know-how to farmers, aggregating and sourcing crops and raw materials to supply its world- class processing facilities across Nigeria and distributing its innovative food brands to its customers.
Residents on Ohanku Road and its environs in Aba, Abia State, have called on Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to save them from flooding.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that flooding in the hilly, flood-prone area has increased lately, following road construction in the area.

Emmanuel Nwaofo, a resident, said flood damaged property belonging to him and others on April 23.

He blamed the heightened flooding on shoddy job executed by the road contractor.

The storm water came from the leaking points under the drainage system being constructed by the construction workers who laid the concrete on sand, instead of digging deep before laying the concrete base, he said.

Continuing, Mr Nwaofo said: The construction company resumed work on Saturday and patched some holes, through which storm water enters our compounds.

We are calling on Governor Ikpeazu to come and inspect the work by the construction company and save us from more flooding.

Another resident, Monday Ama, said while the area is on a flood plain, the damage done would not have been of high magnitude if the contractor did a good job.

He urged the government to send its officials to the site to find out the quality of the job done.

Mr Ama claimed that a tricycle operator lost his life on April 23, at the construction site because of the alleged shoddy work by the contractor.

Another resident, Deo-Volente Orji, lamented the heightened level of flooding which he blamed on the refusal of the contractor to heed wise counsel of residents on the hilly terrain of the area.

He also claimed that some people had died from flooding which occurs perennially in the area, but which had yet to be addressed by any government in Abia.

Mr Orji urged the state government to treat flooding in the area as a serious matter. He advised the government to construct drainage systems with 12-feet pipes.

That size of the pipes, he explained, was used in the past to tackle flooding in other areas in a World Bank-assisted project.

Reacting to residents complaints, Nnamdi Ujoh, the site supervisor of the construction company, told NAN that the company was already fixing two culverts to channel water out of the area.

He said the problem of Ohanku Road was caused by storm water from an adjoining Akoli Road drainage project, a job that another contractor had abandoned.

We have already taken care of flooding in peoples homes; you need to understand that before we came, their houses used to be flooded.

As we are working now, the flood will gradually stop from entering their houses. It will not just stop at once, Mr Ujoh said.

(NAN)
The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday, welcomed Sunday Ajayi, the Chairman of Lagos4Lagos Movement, and Segun Aka-Basorun, former Vice Chairman of Kosofe Local Government Area, back to its fold.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the leaders of the group within the Lagos APC, which held parallel party congresses in 2021, defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in January.

Mr Ajayi, however, announced his withdrawal from the group along with his followers on April 20, citing an alleged lack of democratic practices by the Lead Visioner of the group, Olajide Adediran.

Cornelius Ojelabi, the Chairman of APC in Lagos State, received the defectors at the partys secretariat on Tuesday.

A statement by Lateef Ibirogba, Organising Secretary of the party in the South-West Zone, quoted Mr Ojelabi as recounting the contributions of the former aggrieved APC leaders to the party.

I welcome you back to our fold. Welcome to our great party and congratulations for taking the right decision.

As a progressive, we know its not likely for you to fit into the system of PDP, Mr Ojelabi said.

Mr Ojelabi urged them to be upright and continue to contribute their quota to the development of the party.

According to him, together they all can take the party to greater heights.

Speaking on behalf of the returnees, Mr Ajayi, who noted that he and his followers were happy to return to the APC, promised to work with the party leadership to achieve greatness.

He said his political family had retraced their step.

NAN also reports that Mr Ajayi was a former APC Chairman in Orile-Agege Local Council Development Area.

(NAN)
The Nigerian Senate has received an invitation from Senator Ibikunle Amosun, representing Ogun Central, to his formal declaration to contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The invitation was extended to the upper chamber in a letter dated April 25 and read at plenary by the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan.

According to Mr Amosun, the event, which is scheduled to take place on May 5, would hold at the Shehu Musa YarAdua Centre, Abuja, at 11 a.m.

The invitation letter addressed to the Senate President, reads in part, It is with great respect that I write to notify you and my Distinguished Colleagues of my intention to contest for the Office of the President of our dear country, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and to respectfully invite you and my Distinguished Colleagues to the formal declaration ceremony.

I have been blessed by God to serve as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 2003 and 2007 and as two-term Governor of Ogun State between 2011 and 2019. I have also had the privilege to be elected a second time to the Senate of the Federal Republic in 2019 where I currently serve the good people of Ogun Central Senatorial District.

My varied experience in private and public life has imbued me with requisite insights, experiences and network of relationships adequate to provide a leadership that will galvanize our dear country to achieve her manifest destiny as leader in Africa and of the black race.

SOURCE: Press Office of the President of the Senate.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin. [Photo/fmprc.gov.cn]

After signing a cooperation agreement with China last week, the Solomon Islands has faced mounting pressure from the United States and Australia. This reflects the hypocrisy of the two countries rather than the significance of the deal itself.

In a bid to exert pressure on the Pacific island country to scrap the deal, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is currently campaigning for re-election, grabbed the baton from US President Joe Biden's Indo-Pacific coordinator who fruitlessly visited the Solomon Islands on Thursday with that objective top of his agenda.

Although Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has repeatedly said the pact was guided by the country's national interests in response to its country's "internal security situation" and will not "undermine peace and harmony" in the region, the US and Australia are seeking to portray it otherwise.

They allege that the agreement between China and the Solomon Islands on security cooperation is not transparent and will in effect be the means for China to build a naval base in the region.

"We won't be having Chinese military naval bases in our region on our doorstep," Morrison was quoted as saying. "I share the same red line that the US has." This is nothing but a threat based on hyping up the tired old pig of a smear that China represents a threat.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made no bones about this, saying: "Speculation that China will build a military base in the Solomon Islands is pure disinformation fabricated by a handful of people who harbor ulterior motives."

Australia has no legal grounds for interfering in the cooperation between China and the Solomon Islands. In doing so, it is merely demonstrating its colonialist-infused arrogance.

If the Morrison administration really cares about the Solomon Islands people's well-being, it would not have looked at the island country's sufferings due to social unrest for years with folded arms. And if it really respects the sovereignty and autonomy of the Solomon Islands people, Morrison would not have implied that the Solomon Islands must effectively gain Australia's approval before developing relations with other countries.

As Wang Wenbin said, the South Pacific Islands countries are independent sovereign countries, rather than the "backyard" of the US or Australia, and any attempt to copy the Monroe Doctrine in the region will lead nowhere.

The China-Solomon Islands security cooperation agreement is in accordance with international law and practice and beyond the calumniating of Canberra and Washington. Morrison's call for transparency better applies to the intentions of Australia, the US and the United Kingdom in forming the AUKUS trilateral security pact, as well as Canberra' s black-box cooperation with Washington and London on nuclear-powered submarines.

And as for a country's military presence being cause for concern, the US has nearly 800 military bases in 80 countries and regions across the world that are truly troubling for many.
Bank will accelerate its cloud strategy with Finastra's Fusion KTP in the cloud, enabling faster access to innovation and a proactive approach to global treasury management

LONDON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Finastra announced today that Orange Bank in France has selected Finastra's corporate treasury management solution, Fusion KTP in the cloud. The move will enable the bank to harness a fully integrated treasury management platform and gain faster access to innovation and time to market. Launched in France in November 2017, then in Spain in November 2019, Orange Bank provides banking services that are designed natively around customers' mobile uses, which are both highly innovative and synergetic with Orange Group's telecommunications business.

"Finastra's Fusion KTP cloud solution is a crucial step in our strategy to move to 'all cloud," explained Olivier Mougammadoussane, Head of Core Banking and Treasury Management System at Orange Bank. "Leveraging the benefits of the cloud enables us to future-proof the business with the added security, scalability and flexibility required in the industry. Having already relied on Fusion KTP we know the technology provides the treasury services we need, with a reliable and consolidated view of our liquidity and funding positions. Now, having the solution available on the cloud, via Microsoft Azure, delivers extra efficiency and resilience, while also providing us with easier access to innovation."

Orange Bank already benefitted from Fusion KTP for efficiency and control around liquidity management, compliance, risk, reporting and accounting requirements. Moving to the cloud will enable the bank to run its treasury operations with increased agility, supporting its ability to respond to the changing global market. It will allow the bank to concentrate on their treasury operations avoiding the management of complex IT infrastructure and the versioning of multiple systems.

"In bringing Fusion KTP to our customers via the cloud, banks can build on their transformation initiatives at an accelerated pace," said Riteesh Singh, Senior Vice President, Financial Messaging Marketplaces at Finastra. "We are pleased to continue our work with Orange Bank. This step forward into the cloud means that Orange Bank can now harness increased operational excellence and efficiency within their treasury operations, while also supporting their strategic initiatives."

Fusion KTP is used by banks and corporates - mainly in France, Benelux and North Africa. For further information click here .

Notes to editors

Local insight:

"We are excited to be continuing our collaboation with Orange Bank here in France," says Eric Aillet, Product Manager, Financial Messaging Marketplaces at Finastra, "This is a great opportunity to build on our relationship with the bank, and to continue to drive innovation and efficiency through their treasury operations. We are well placed to support the bank on its goal to move to all cloud, and are pleased to be part of this journey with them and our Fusion KTP solution."

For further information please contact:

Sofia Romano

EMEA PR Manager

T +44 (0)7552 865009

E sofia.romano@finastra.com

finastra.com

Caroline Duff

Global Head of PR

T +44 (0)7917 613586

E caroline.duff@finastra.com

finastra.com

About Finastra

Finastra is building an open platform that accelerates collaboration and innovation in financial services, creating better experiences for people, businesses and communities. Supported by the broadest and deepest portfolio of financial services software, Finastra delivers this vitally important technology to financial institutions of all sizes across the globe, including 90 of the world's top 100 banks. Our open architecture approach brings together a number of partners and innovators. Together we are leading the way in which applications are written, deployed and consumed in financial services to evolve with the changing needs of customers. Learn more at finastra.com

Corporate headquarters

4 Kingdom Street

Paddington

London W2 6BD

United Kingdom

T: +44 20 3320 5000

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/967510/Finastra_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Finastra
Florida Power & Light to initially deploy 13 autonomous drones; Plans for hundreds more in coming years to monitor statewide power grid

AUSTIN, Texas, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Percepto , pioneering autonomous inspection by industrial robotics, today announced it will deploy autonomous drones to monitor Florida Power & Light's substations and power distribution grids across the state. The first electric utility to deploy drone-in-a-box (DIB) technology statewide, the arrangement represents the largest commercial autonomous drone project in the world. It's also the first operation using autonomous drones within an urban setting for infrastructure inspection to ensure quality service to FPL customers.

Serving more than 11 million people in Florida, FPL currently uses Percepto's Autonomous Inspection and Monitoring (AIM) solution powered by drones to perform routine infrastructure inspection and monitoring. Phase one of the project will see 13 DIBs introduced to the West Palm Beach area over the coming year. FPL's long-term plan is to introduce hundreds of Percepto drones to monitor the utility's distribution substations over approximately the next five years. The drone-in-a-box solution was the first to pass Level 5 hurricane testing at a wind speed of up to 155 mph, making it ideal for minimizing incident response times and power outages in Florida.

"We look forward to continuing our long and productive relationship with FPL to help ensure that Florida's electrical infrastructure is constantly monitored, providing residents with more reliable infrastructure, with power back online faster after outages," said Percepto Chief Commercial Officer Ariel Avitan. "FPL's visionary approach in adopting the latest drone technology will play a critical role in the electric grid of the future, and Percepto is thrilled its drones will help ensure vital infrastructure reliability to FPL's customers."

Percepto has served FPL since 2018, working closely to develop optimized drone monitoring solutions and build consensus and compliance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. The FAA had issued a nationwide waiver for FPL to fly Percepto drones for surveillance and inspection purposes at sites owned and serviced by FPL. As part of its ongoing work with the FAA, Percepto is a member of the Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) that has recently provided its regulatory recommendations to fully incorporate highly automated BVLOS operations flights in US national airspace.

The drones in operation across the state will be coordinated on a single platform through Percepto's Autonomous Inspection and Monitoring (AIM) solution. With Percepto AIM, drones can be operated remotely to ensure they work together in sync, providing maximum coverage at the sites they monitor.

About Percepto

Percepto is the leading autonomous inspection and monitoring solution provider, revolutionizing how industrial sites monitor and inspect their critical infrastructure and assets.

Listed in TIME magazine's 100 Best Inventions of 2021, Percepto's AIM platform fully automates visual data workflows from capture to insight, leveraging the Percepto Air drone-in-a-box portfolio, alongside other robots and visual sensors. Using advanced machine learning and AI, Percepto AIM provides an end-to-end autonomous inspection and monitoring solution, to assess risk, minimize downtime, drive efficiency, increase safety and reduce operational costs.

Percepto's solutions are trusted by Fortune 500 customers on six continents including Florida Power & Light, Delek US, Koch Fertilizer, ICL Dead Sea Works, and Verizon. The company is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards including Edison Gold Award and Frost & Sullivan Global Enabling Technology Leadership Award. For more information, visit www.percepto.co.

Media Contact

Josh Turner

Si14 Global Communications

[email protected]

US: +1-917-231-0550

Int'l: +972-54-949-6526

SOURCE Percepto
The digital platform is developed by Columbus, a global IT services and consulting company, specializing in digital transformation, in partnership with BYPL. It is funded by Nordic Innovation, an organization floated by Nordic countries to promote innovation-based projects. The platform will facilitate BYPL in the management of distributed energy resources in Delhi. The funding support was channelized through the Danish Embassy with the purpose of optimizing the storage and distribution of alternative energy sources.

Members of BYPL leadership team, Columbus Digital advisory team including its Director, Swamycharan Avunooru, industry leaders including a delegation from DK and India, were present at the launch function held today.

A number of environment conscious countries across the globe have started to move toward renewable energy alternatives. However, a major issue with the alternative energy sources, especially solar power, is the storage and efficient management. As the energy generation is not continuous, there is a challenge to store, predict both generation and usage and efficiently manage the distribution. In this context, the just deployed digital data solution will efficiently predict the energy generation and demand and help the utility to plan for storing the excess energy by considering the distribution congestion and commercial aspects.

The digital solution brings together advanced cloud based digital technologies to solve the real problems of the world. It combines:

AI and Data science techniques to predict the energy demand at consumption points like electric vehicle charging stations & energy generation capacity at solar roof tops

Constantly assesses the optimal energy storage requirements

Makes informed decisions on when to discharge and consume energy from the power grid

All these aspects are integrated among others and real time dashboard and automations are created to efficiently manage and monitor the energy distribution.

The implementation of the digital platform is based on a pilot collaborative project. Its success will show the way for other players in the renewable energy (especially solar) space to embrace it and contribute towards larger good of the world.

The objectives of the pilot project include:

Promoting collaboration among, Columbus, BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL), and the Danish Embassy under the Nordic Innovation project

under the Nordic Innovation project Bringing digital technology supported by data and AI to promote the path towards sustainable renewable energy

Providing funding assistance from Nordic Innovation

In his comments, his excellency the Danish Ambassador to India said,

"In 2021, India and Denmark signed a Green Strategic Partnership. Both the countries have ambitious goals within the climate agenda. India is the world's third largest CO2 emitter and by 2030, the country is expected to have doubled its carbon emissions. Denmark has an ambition to reduce CO2 emissions to 70% by 2030 and aims to undertake international leadership on SDG 7 on affordable and clean energy. Together, India and Denmark will demonstrate to the world that delivering on ambitious climate and sustainable energy goals is possible. Success of the solution and the pilot project means a lot for us. We could simulate the same or similar approach one step at a time to reach the goals of Carbon emission reduction. We believe, Columbus with its global presence, commitment to sustainability and excellent digital advisory and implementation skills can be a great game changer."

BSES is gearing up to play a major role in renewable energy space and is working closely with strategic partners to set up many more innovative solutions for consumers. The company welcomed the partnership with Nordic Innovation and Columbus, and added that the association will help BYPL to reiterate their commitment to energy efficiency and sustainable growth as they plan to install more such solutions in the future.

In his comments, Swamycharan Avunooru, Director, Columbus, said,

"We are happy to collaborate with BSES Yamuna Power Limited on the country's first of its digital solution pilot project to efficiently manage and store solar energy with the objectives of better customer experience, and reduced congestion. Our partnership has been transformational itself. With this experience and our global presence, we would be taking the learnings and solutions to our partners across the world in creating a better tomorrow for all of us."

About BYPL

BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) is a joint venture between Reliance Infrastructure Limited and Govt of NCT of Delhi with a 51%:49% shareholding. It has brought about a record reduction in AT & C losses - from 63.1% % in 2002 to 7.46% in FY21. BYPL supplies electricity to around 18 lakh consumers in East and Central Delhi. BYPL, along with its sister concern BRPL has a consumer base of around 47 lakh covering a population base of about 1.9 crore in Delhi.

About Columbus

Columbus is a global IT services and consulting company specialized in digital transformation. Our more than 1,550+ digital explorers collaborate with our customers in the manufacturing, retail & distribution, and food & process industries. We advise, implement, and manage business critical solutions within Strategy & Change, Customer Experience, Digital Commerce, Data & Analytics, Application Management and Cloud ERP. Headquartered in Denmark, we have offices and partners worldwide - delivering locally on a global scale. www.columbusglobal.com.

About Nordic Innovation Project & Denmark

Nordic Innovation provides support for projects and programs to stimulate innovation and works to improve framework conditions for Nordic markets and exports.

In order to address the rapid urbanization, Nordic Innovation and the Nordic Council of Ministers have launched several initiatives on how to tackle the concept of developing Sustainable Cities.

To promote Nordic solutions for sustainable, liveable and smart cities in India, the project aimed to:

Develop an ambitious branding effort

Build a joint Nordic export platform

Establish political partnerships and networks

The common label that places Swedes, Danes, Finns, Icelanders and Norwegians alongside adjectives such as quality, honesty, innovativeness and agility. By realizing and exploring this common background, and the possibilities and opportunities for joint actions it represents, the Nordic countries have opened more doors and created more impact together.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805842/Columbus.jpg

SOURCE Columbus
Riccio succeeds Zhengda "Z" Shen, who is retiring after 22 years with Merkle, five years with dentsu.

COLUMBIA, Md., April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Merkle ( www.merkleinc.com ), dentsu's leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company, has named John Riccio president of Merkle Asia Pacific (APAC), which includes Greater China, South East Asia, India, as well as Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). He replaces Zhengda "Z" Shen, who has announced his retirement, effective July 1, 2022.

As dentsu continues to pursue its ambition of being the most integrated agency network, this appointment is underpinned by multiple new hires, a clear marketing activation plan, and focused investment. The announcement comes after a year of significant simplification, capability integration, and investment across all key areas of the Merkle business in order to help solve its clients' complex, enterprise-scale experience challenges with a focus on technology and data.

With more than 25 years' experience leading major digital businesses and strategic programs, Riccio is recognized as a specialist in helping clients transform the way they respond to market change and engage consumers. He is an expert at leveraging emerging technologies that support sustainable growth and scale, and he will play a critical role in leading the growth and evolution of Merkle APAC. He will continue in his existing role as CEO of Merkle's ANZ region. Riccio has an extensive background leading customer experience consulting, most recently as experience consulting partner, APAC, for EY. Previously, he held partner positions at PwC in Australia and Asia, and at IBM in the United Kingdom.

"I am delighted to confirm John as president of Merkle APAC, as further proof of dentsu's commitment to accelerating the growth and performance of our customer experience consulting, data, digital transformation, and B2B services across the region," said Michael Komasinski, global CEO of Merkle. "John's extensive regional and global leadership experience will further enable and drive growth and success in this critical region for the business."

"Since joining Merkle, I have been impressed by the technical expertise and forward-thinking, agile approach the company takes in the experiences delivered to its clients and employees," said Riccio. "I am excited to expand my ANZ role across the broader APAC region, supporting our clients who have entrusted us to create distinctly better experiences and relationships with their customers across all key technology platforms."

Riccio's promotion coincides with the departure of Z Shen, who is retiring after more than two decades on Merkle's executive leadership team.

"Over the years, Z has played an integral role in the development of Merkle's data and analytics capabilities, as well as our global operations," said Komasinski. "In recent years, he was instrumental in driving Merkle's global transformation and expansion, particularly in the APAC region, where he grew the business from USD$5 million in one market to USD$150 million across ten markets, with more than 2,000 employees. It has been a pleasure working with and learning from Z, and I want to personally thank him for his steadfast commitment to Merkle's success and wish him much happiness in his retirement."

About Merkle

Merkle, a dentsu company, is a leading data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. The company's heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive hyper-personalized marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in consulting, creative, media, analytics, data, identity, CX/commerce, technology, and loyalty & promotions drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With more than 14,000 employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with 50+ additional offices throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1800292/Merkle_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Merkle
David Clark Cause, IBM, United Nations Human Rights, the Linux Foundation and IBM Ecosystem partners Arrow Electronics, EY, Ingram Micro, Intuit, New Relic and Persistent Systems to support Call for Code developers from 180 nations with open source-powered hybrid cloud and AI solutions

Call for Code selected as preferred innovation platform of Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, one of the largest public/private climate partnerships

NEW YORK, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Call for Code Creator David Clark Cause, in partnership with Founding Partner IBM, United Nations Human Rights and the Linux Foundation, today launched the 2022 Call for Code Global Challenge, the largest and most ambitious effort bringing together developers and problem solvers to use open innovation to help accelerate sustainability and combat climate change.

Now in its fifth year, Call for Code galvanized a community of more than a half million developers, students, and problem solvers from 180 nations who answered the call to use advanced technologies to design cutting-edge open source-powered hybrid cloud and AI solutions that can tackle the world's most pressing societal issues.

The 2022 Call for Code Global Challenge opens today, and solutions can be submitted any time before the deadline of October 31, 2022. The Grand Prize winner will receive $200,000 and solution implementation support from IBM Ecosystem partners.

Call for Code participants can identify the sustainability issue they want to solve, form a team, and start building by registering on the new Global Challenge resource site hosted by BeMyApp. Once registered, participants will be able to attend Challenge Accelerator events to help fast-track their projects, learn from subject matter experts, access exclusive skills-building materials, and use exclusive toolkits, APIs, and data sets from The Weather Company and participating IBM Ecosystem partners.

Call for Code has also been selected as the preferred innovation platform of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, one of the largest public/private climate partnerships in the world. The alliance and its global partner United Nations Human Rights are working to empower solutions and reframe climate change as a human rights crisis due to its disproportionate impact on women, people of color, and impoverished and marginalized communities. With a fast-growing alliance of policy-makers, NGOs, foundations, corporations, academics, scientists, and developers, Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance and United Nations Human Rights are supported by celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio, Quincy Jones, Ellen DeGeneres, Camila Cabello, Cher, Pitbull, LL Cool J, Cyndi Lauper, Jason Mraz, and Billie Porter, among others.

"On behalf of Call for Code, we're honored to be selected as the preferred innovation platform for the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance," said David Clark, CEO of David Clark Cause, and Creator of Call for Code. "As the Global Challenge opens today, we're excited to utilize our expansive platform to help people in need by calling on developers worldwide to innovate software that can mitigate and reverse the effects of climate change through sustainable solutions."

"From rising sea levels, extreme weather events, wildfires and droughts, to food insecurity, health impacts, mass migrations, and increasing global conflict, there is no denying that climate change is a humanitarian crisis. With its global reach and history of success over the years, we're excited to work with Call for Code, as it has proven to be the gold standard when it comes to engaging developers around the world to innovate for social good," said Bill Stark, Chief Impact Officer, Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance.

2022 Call for Code Global Challenge Open for Submissions

Call for Code, IBM, and IBM Ecosystem partners Arrow Electronics, EY, Ingram Micro, Intuit, New Relic, and Persistent Systems, are providing participants with access to technical resources and subject matter experts during themed accelerator sessions, which can help them pinpoint problems to solve. Applications can be built using open source-powered software including Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Cloud, IBM Watson, IBM LinuxOne Community Cloud from IBM zSystems and IBM Blockchain, as well as APIs from IBM's The Weather Company.

"We have a long and trusted partnership of 19+ years with IBM and we share a common vision to create solutions that help address some of the world's most important social challenges," said Sandeep Kalra, CEO and Executive Director, Persistent Systems. "We are eager to help address some of the many sustainability challenges through Call for Code with IBM and the developer community, employing open source-powered hybrid cloud and AI solutions that can scale."

"Technology is the catalyst for scaling solutions to global problems  from climate change to humanitarian issues, and even the global pandemic," said Ruth Davis, director, Call for Code, IBM. "IBM along with Call for Code and these ecosystem partners are dedicated to taking on the complex challenge of sustainability and encourage problem solvers around the world to take part."

Teams of developers and problem solvers are asked to innovate solutions that address the diverse challenges aligned to sustainability and the impacts of climate change. For example, solutions can include new ways to improve sustainable production, consumption, and management of resources, reduce pollution creation, and protect biodiversity to create a greener future, among others. Solutions may also address areas such as: how to improve the ability to measure, analyze, or take decisive action on carbon emissions; refine supply chain transparency and traceability to bring fast and accurate visibility to sustainability issues where they arise; reduce volume of and demand for materials that create the biggest waste footprint; and encourage reuse/recycle opportunities.

University students will have the opportunity to win the University Prize, a program created in partnership between IBM and Clinton Global Initiative University.[1] In 2021, more than 90,000 students across hundreds of universities around the world, surpassed the program goal by nine times.

2021 Call for Code Global Challenge winner, Saaf water, a team of India-based university students, recently completed a successful test of its accessible water quality sensor and analytics platform at a housing complex in Goa, India. The test helped Saaf water analyze the building's water quality and they were able to update their installation process for future tests.

About Call for Code Global Challenge

Developers have revolutionized the way people live and interact with virtually everyone and everything. Where most people see challenges, developers see possibilities. That's why David Clark, the CEO of David Clark Cause, created Call for Code in 2018, and launched it alongside Founding Partner IBM and global partners United Nations Human Rights, and the Linux Foundation.

This global initiative is a rallying cry to developers to use their mastery of the latest technologies to drive positive and long-lasting change across the world through code. Organizations supporting Call for Code this year are: Arrow Electronics, Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative University, Clemson University, Esri, EY, Ingram Micro, Intuit, the Linux Foundation, Manush Labs, Morgan Stanley, New Relic, Persistent Systems, Teach For All, United Nations Human Rights, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, and many more.

For more information visit:

www.callforcode.org

www.righthererightnow.global

Follow:

@CallforCode @rhrn_climate

@UNHumanRights

Contact:

Rebekah Alperin

Call for Code/Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance

[email protected]

SOURCE Call for Code Global Initiative
Increase in demand for premium vehicles, rise in awareness of automotive safety among consumers, and surge in automotive safety norms have boosted the growth of the active seat belt system market.

PORTLAND, Ore., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Active Seat Belt System Market by Component (Retractors, Pretensioners, Buckle Lifters), by Application (Passenger Cars, Light Commercial Vehicles, Heavy Commercial Vehicles), by Sales Channel (Oem, Aftermarket): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030." According to the report, the global active seat belt system industry was pegged at $11.9 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach $22.3 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.6% from 2021 to 2030.

Drivers, restraints, and opportunities-

Increase in consumer awareness of automotive safety, high demand for luxury vehicles and rise in automotive safety norms drive the growth of the global active seat belt system market. However, high cost of active seat belts impedes the global development of the active seat belt system market. Moreover, biosensors as an input source for future active seat belt systems and increase in passenger vehicle registration are expected to create a significant opportunity for market competitors in the coming years.

Download Report (155 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, Figures) at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2318

COVID-19 scenario-

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic affected the global active seat belt system market. The disruption of the supply chain across various parts of the world and continuous shutdown of manufacturing facilities hampered the vehicle production, which in turn impacted the growth of the active seat belt system market.

The majority of manufacturing factories were closed, towns were operating at a slower pace than in the past, and the automobile and semiconductor industries came to a halt, which has a negative influence on the market growth.

The decreased production of automotive components due to the temporary closure of manufacturing units negatively affected the market growth.

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The pretensioners segment to dominate by 2030-

By component, the pretensioners segment accounted for nearly half of the global active seat belt system market share in 2020, and is anticipated to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. This is owing to the fact that it increases passenger protection and reduced slack between the seat belt & passenger's body. The buckle lifters segment, however, would showcase the fastest CAGR of 8.7% by 2030. This is attributed to the fact that it eases buckling and reaching up to the buckles boosted the adoption of these components, thus driving the growth of the segment.

The passenger cars segment held the lion's share in 2020-

Based on application, the passenger cars segment held the lion's share in 2020, contributing to more than three-fifths of the global active seat belt system market, and is expected to continue its lead during the forecast period. This is attributed tothe increased application of active seat belt systems in passenger cars. Moreover, this segment is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 7.5% by 2030. The report also includes an analysis of the light commercial vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles segment.

Interested to Procure the Data with Actionable Strategy & Insights? Inquire here at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/2318

Asia-Pacific, followed by North America, to lead the trail in terms of revenue-

By region, Asia-Pacific, followed by North America, garnered the major share in 2020, contributing to nearly half of the global active seat belt system market, and is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. This is owing to the increased production & sales of vehicles across the region. However, the LAMEA region is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 9.0% by 2030. This is attributed to the increased demand for advanced safety systems in vehicles sold across the region.

Key players in the industry-

Continental AG

Autoliv Inc.

DENSO Corporation

GWR Safety Systems Inc

Far Europe Inc.

ITW Safety Components Mexico

Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd

TOKAI RIKA, CO, LTD

Joyson Group

ZF Friedrichshafen AG

Buy Complete Report Now! https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/checkout-final/cd55181a6ca3003ba8c937143049f46c

Similar Reports We Have on Automotive Safety Industry:

Smart Seat Belt Technology Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2030.

Seat Belt Retractor Market by Type (Belt-in-seat, Six-point belt, Five-point belt, Four-point belt, Three-point belt, and Two-point belt), by Technology (Emergency locking Retractor, Automatic locking Retractor, and Switchable Retractor), by Seat (Front and Rear), and Vehicle Type (Passenger Vehicle, Commercial Vehicle, and Electric Vehicle): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202030.

Automotive Safety System Market by Type (Active safety system and Passive safety system) and Application (Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Vehicles, Electric Vehicles and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030.

Safety Restraint Systems Market by Solution (Red Light & Speed Enforcement, Incident Detection & Response, ANPR/ALPR, and Others), Services (Professional Services, and Managed Services: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030.

Automotive Passive Safety System Market by Product Type (Airbag, Seat Belt, Electronic Control Unit, Steering Wheels, and Others), Vehicle Type (Passenger and Commercial) Sales Channel (OEM and Aftermarket): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030.

Automotive Safety Electronics Market by Component (Electronic Control Unit, Sensors, Current Carrying Devices, and Other), Sales Channel (Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), and Aftermarket), and Application (ADAS, Infotainment, Body Electronics, Safety Systems, and Powertrain Electronics): Glob al Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030.

About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

Pawan Kumar, the CEO of Allied Market Research, is leading the organization toward providing high-quality data and insights. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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SOURCE Allied Market Research
Strong performance in Q1, with continued price increases while maintaining volume growth, significant increase in net profit

First Quarter 2022 Highlights:

Sales up 28% to an all-time quarterly record-high of $1,420 million (RMB: +25%), driven by 18% higher prices and 14% volume growth

(RMB: +25%), driven by 18% higher prices and 14% volume growth Improvement of Opex/Sales ratio of 19.8% vs. 20.1% in Q1 2021

Adjusted EBITDA up 28% to $201 million (RMB: +25%)

(RMB: +25%) Adjusted net income up 44% to $75 million ; Reported net income nearly tripled to $67 million (RMB: +187%)

BEIJING and TEL AVIV, Israel, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ADAMA Ltd. (the "Company") (SZSE 000553), today reported its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.

Ignacio Dominguez, President and CEO of ADAMA, said, "The first quarter has seen us deliver an extremely strong start to the year, with a combination of higher prices and continued volume growth. Indeed, over the past two years, we have seen robust demand for crop protection products as a result of high agricultural commodity prices and strong farmer profitability. Now in the first quarter, we are reminded once again that crop protection is a vital component in ensuring global food security. Uncertainties in the supply from Ukraine and Russia of agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers, as well as agricultural produce like wheat, barley and sunflowers, have increased concerns regarding food security. This encourages agricultural production in other geographies and exacerbates an already tight global supply of all agricultural inputs. We hope that the terrible situation in Eastern Europe reaches a peaceful resolution as fast as possible, and ADAMA is committed to play its role in ensuring food security, in this region and globally, while continuing to provide support to our people and our customers as they navigate through this very difficult time."

Table 1. Financial Performance Summary

USD (m) As Reported Adjustments Adjusted Q1 2022 Q1 2021 % Change Q1 2022 Q1 2021 Q1 2022 Q1 2021 % Change Revenues 1,420 1,109 +28% - - 1,420 1,109 +28% Gross profit 360 305 +18% 54 17 414 322 +29% % of sales 25.4% 27.5%





29.2% 29.0%

Operating income (EBIT) 124 65 +90% 9 33 133 98 +35% % of sales 8.8% 5.9%





9.4% 8.9%

Income before taxes 71 29 +148% 9 33 80 62 +30% % of sales 5.0% 2.6%





5.7% 5.6%

Net income 67 23 +193% 8 29 75 52 +44% % of sales 4.7% 2.1%





5.3% 4.7%

EPS















- USD 0.0289 0.0099





0.0322 0.0223

- RMB 0.1836 0.0639





0.2045 0.1447

EBITDA 203 138 +48% (2) 19 201 157 +28% % of sales 14.3% 12.4%





14.2% 14.2%























Notes:

"As Reported" denotes the Company's financial statements according to the Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises and the implementation guidance, interpretations and other relevant provisions issued or revised subsequently by the Chinese Ministry of Finance (the "MoF) (collectively referred to as "ASBE"). Note that in the reported financial statements, as a result of recent changes in the ASBE guidelines [IAS 37], certain items as of Q4 2021 (specifically certain transportation costs and certain idleness charges) have been reclassified from Operating Expenses to COGS. Please see the appendix to this release for further information.

Relevant income statement items contained in this release are also presented on an "Adjusted" basis, which exclude items that are of a transitory or non-cash/non-operational nature that do not impact the ongoing performance of the business, and reflect the way the Company's management and the Board of Directors view the performance of the Company internally. The Company believes that excluding the effects of these items from its operating results allows management and investors to effectively compare the true underlying financial performance of its business from period to period and against its global peers. A detailed summary of these adjustments appears in the appendix below.

The number of shares used to calculate both basic and diluted earnings per share in Q1 of both 2021 and 2022 is 2,329.8 million shares.

The general crop protection market environment

Crop prices increased sharply during Q1 2022 as a result of concerns regarding supply, due mainly to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and also due to persistent dryness in parts of South America. Prices are generally expected to remain high throughout 2022, incentivizing another year of increases in global planted areas. As a result, crop protection demand remains strong globally as farmers strive to maximize yields in this high crop price environment. Farmers continue to face elevated production costs, mainly from higher fertilizer prices resulting from disruption to supply and tight availability caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, yet their farming activities are nevertheless still very profitable in most regions.

The challenging cost environment of 2021 has extended into 2022. Global energy prices further increased during the quarter, impacted by Russia's strong share of global gas exports. In addition, global freight and logistics costs have recently increased again due to oil prices going up, while the availability of shipping resources continues to be limited. Despite some easing in procurement prices for raw materials, intermediates and active ingredients in China during the quarter, prices are expected to remain generally elevated and could increase further due to production disruptions and tight supply in China as COVID-19 impacts the country. Strong global crop protection demand, as well as the high energy prices, may exert additional upward pressure on such procurement prices. Additionally, the availability of certain intermediates, such as co-formulants, has become uncertain as higher energy prices have decreased the economic viability of their production, causing a spike in their prices.

Portfolio Development Update

In line with ADAMA's efforts to differentiate its product portfolio through unique formulations, during the first quarter of 2022, ADAMA registered and launched multiple new products in markets across the globe. Among these were:

Launch in Canada of SORADUO, a broad-spectrum, long-lasting fungicide against Fusarium in wheat and barley that includes ADAMA's unique formulation of Prothioconazole and Tebuconazole. ADAMA is one of the first companies to produce in-house the recently off-patent Prothioconazole;

of SORADUO, a broad-spectrum, long-lasting fungicide against Fusarium in wheat and barley that includes ADAMA's unique formulation of Prothioconazole and Tebuconazole. ADAMA is one of the first companies to produce in-house the recently off-patent Prothioconazole; Continued rollout in Europe of TIMELINE  FX, a three-way herbicide mixture in an advanced formulation for a wide range of weeds in cereals;

of TIMELINE FX, a three-way herbicide mixture in an advanced formulation for a wide range of weeds in cereals; Launch in Canada of ZIVATA, a broad-spectrum insecticide with an advanced, renewably sourced formulation using sustainable plant-based materials;

of ZIVATA, a broad-spectrum insecticide with an advanced, renewably sourced formulation using sustainable plant-based materials; Registration in the USA of CORMORAN  , a broad range, dual mode, long-lasting insecticide for use in tree nuts;

of CORMORAN , a broad range, dual mode, long-lasting insecticide for use in tree nuts; Registration in Australia of FIGHTBACK  , a dual mode herbicide for use in fallow land, pastures and others;

of FIGHTBACK , a dual mode herbicide for use in fallow land, pastures and others; Registration in Mexico , Peru , Ecuador and other countries in Central America of MATTOK a dual mode systematic broad-spectrum, long-lasting fungicide with unique anti-stress technology formulation for rice and corn.

Financial Highlights

Revenues in the first quarter grew by 28% (+25% in RMB terms) to $1,420 million, driven by a significant 18% increase in prices, a trend which started in the third quarter of 2021. The markedly higher prices were complemented by continued strong volume growth (+14%), including the contribution of newly acquired companies, achieved despite supply challenges in the market, which were only slightly moderated by the adverse impact of exchange rate movements.

Table 2. Regional Sales Performance





Q1 2022 $m Q1 2021 $m Change USD Change CER

Europe

357 344 +3.6% +5.7%

North America

284 189 +50.4% +49.9%

Latin America

234 177 +32.5% +31.5%

Asia Pacific

388 241 +60.8% +62.8%

Of which China

237 124 +90.6% +87.7%

India, Middle East & Africa

157 158 -0.5% +15.8%

Total

1,420 1,109 +28.0% +31.2%



CER: Constant Exchange Rates

Europe: A strong performance in France, Romania and Poland, bolstered by good demand and high prices, more than offset a decline in sales in Ukraine, drought conditions in parts of southern Europe, and the adverse impact of exchange rates. The Company benefited from the sales in various countries of recently launched products POLEPOSITION and TIMELINE FX.

North America: The remarkably strong growth in sales in the first quarter was driven by the Consumer & Professional business, which experienced robust demand, allowing for price increases in light of concerns regarding potential shortages. This was further complemented by continued growth in US crop protection, driven both by higher volumes as well as higher prices, reflecting generally strong demand, especially in corn, soybeans, cereals and rice.

Latin America: Strong growth was achieved in Brazil due to early demand from farmers and higher prices, supported by good soybean and corn planting seasons, and despite drought conditions in the south of the country. This was complemented by demand for the Company's differentiated products, including the fungicides ARMERO, ACROSS and the herbicide ARADDO, which are part of ADAMA's leading soybean protection offering.

Sales also grew in most of the countries of the wider region, driven by price increases, as the Company continues to strengthen its positioning throughout the region.

Asia-Pacific: The Company's rapid growth in Asia Pacific during the first quarter was led by the particularly strong increase in sales in China. The growth in China was led firstly by the sales of raw materials and intermediates, which continued to benefit from strong demand and high prices in light of ongoing tight supply following shutdowns in competing facilities due to environmental inspections and COVID-19, which has also disrupted and slowed down transportation. In addition, sales of ADAMA's branded, formulated portfolio in China also grew significantly, and were supported by a pleasing performance from the commercial activities and portfolio acquired from Huifeng at the end of 2020.

In the wider APAC region, strong sales were delivered in the Pacific region and in certain countries in the Far East, benefiting from favorable seasonal conditions, and despite the impact of the weakening of the Australian dollar.

India, Middle East & Africa: Sales in the region grew in constant exchange rate terms, mainly led by India, and despite the cold and rainy season in the Middle East and Africa which brought low insect and disease pressure. This growth is particularly noteworthy in light of a very strong first quarter in 2021 and was offset by the adverse impact of the depreciation of the Turkish Lira on the USD denominated sales.

Gross Profit reported in the first quarter was up 18% to $360 million (gross margin of 25.4%) compared to $305 million (gross margin of 27.5%) in the same quarter last year.

Adjustments to reported results : The adjusted gross profit includes all idleness costs and excludes transportation costs to third parties and its marketing subsidiaries (classified under operating expenses).

In the reported results, as of Q4 2021, following recent changes in the guidelines in China, the aforementioned transportations costs and opex idleness have been reclassified from operating expenses to costs of goods (not impacting the operating results), while these expenses were not recorded in the cost of goods in Q1 2021, but rather in the operating expenses.

Additionally, certain extraordinary charges related largely to a temporary disruption of the production of certain products, were adjusted in Q1 2021. These charges have significantly declined in Q1 2022, as the relocation and upgrade of the manufacturing Jingzhou site in China has been completed and is now almost fully operational.

Excluding the impact of the abovementioned extraordinary items, adjusted gross profit in the first quarter was up 29% to $414 million (gross margin of 29.2%) compared to $322 million (gross margin of 29.0%) in the same quarter last year.

In the quarter, the significantly higher gross profit and improvement in the adjusted gross margin were mainly driven by the markedly higher prices, complemented by continued volume growth, all of which more than offset higher logistics, procurement and production costs as well as the negative FX impact.

Operating expenses reported in the first quarter were $236 million (16.6% of sales) compared to $239 million (21.6% of sales) in the same quarter last year.

Adjustments to reported results : please refer to the explanation regarding adjustments to the gross profit in respect to certain transportation costs and idleness.

Additionally, the Company recorded certain non-operational, mostly non-cash, charges within its reported operating expenses amounting to $5.7 million in Q1 2022 in comparison to $16.0 million in Q1 2021. These charges include mainly (i) non-cash amortization charges in respect of Transfer assets received from Syngenta related to the 2017 ChemChina-Syngenta acquisition, (ii) charges related mainly to the non-cash amortization of intangible assets created as part of the Purchase Price Allocation (PPA) on acquisitions, with no impact on the ongoing performance of the companies acquired, as well as other M&A-related costs and (iii) non-cash, share-based compensation (incentive plans). For further details on these non-operational charges, please see the appendix to this release.

Excluding the impact of the abovementioned non-operational charges, adjusted operating expenses in the quarter were $281 million (19.8% of sales), compared to $223 million (20.1% of sales) in the corresponding period last year.

The higher operating expenses in the quarter primarily reflect a doubtful debt provision for trade receivables in Ukraine, higher transportation and logistics costs driven by both volumes being transported and an increase in freight costs, as well as the inclusion of recent acquisitions.

Operating income reported in the first quarter was up 90% to $124 million (8.8% of sales) compared to $65 million (5.9% of sales) in the same quarter last year.

Excluding the impact of the abovementioned non-operational, mostly non-cash items, adjusted operating income in the first quarter was up 35% to $133 million (9.4% of sales) compared to $98 million (8.9% of sales) in the same quarter last year.

EBITDA reported in the first quarter was up 48% to $203 million (14.3% of sales) compared to $138 million (12.4% of sales) in the same quarter last year.

Excluding the impact of the abovementioned non-operational, mostly non-cash items, adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter was up 28% to $201 million (14.2% of sales) compared to $157 million (14.2% of sales) in the same quarter last year.

Financial expenses and investment income were $53 million in the first quarter, compared to $36 million in the corresponding period last year. The higher financial expenses in the quarter were mainly driven by the net effect of the increase in the Israeli CPI on the ILS-denominated, CPI-linked bonds, and higher non-cash charges related to put options in respect of minority interests on recent acquisitions.

Taxes on income in the first quarter were $5 million, compared to $9 million in the corresponding period last year. The first quarter is generally characterized by a low effective tax rate compared to the effective tax rate of the Company over the full year. This is mainly due to the generation of profits by subsidiary companies within ADAMA whose tax rates are lower relative to the Company's aggregate effective tax rate, as well as to the method of calculation of tax assets related to unrealized profits. In the first quarter of 2022, the low effective tax rate also reflects the tax income due to non-cash impact on the value of non-monetary tax assets of the significant strengthening of the BRL, while in the first quarter of 2021, the Company recorded tax expenses due to the impact of the weakening of the BRL.

Net income attributable to the shareholders of the Company reported in the first quarter was $67 million (4.7% of sales), up 193% compared to $23 million (2.1% of sales) in the corresponding period last year.

Excluding the impact of the abovementioned extraordinary and non-operational charges, adjusted net income in the first quarter was $75 million (5.3% of sales), up 44% compared to $52 million (4.7% of sales) in the corresponding period last year.

Trade working capital at March 31, 2022 was $2,695 million compared to $2,604 million at the same point last year. The slight increase in working capital was due to an increase in trade receivables, driven largely by its strong sales growth as well as the inclusion of a recently acquired company. The Company is holding higher inventory levels due mainly to the expectation of further volume growth in coming quarters as well as anticipated supply shortages and inventory costs increases. This increase in inventory levels was offset by higher trade payables. The trade capital/last twelve months sales ratio of 53% at March 31, 2022 in comparison to 61%, at March 31, 2021 demonstrates the improved efficiency in the Company's management of its working capital.

Cash Flow: Operating cash flow of $286 million was consumed in the quarter, compared to $129 million consumed in the corresponding period last year. The negative operating cash flow, which is seasonally typical for ADAMA in the first quarter, also reflects the higher build-up of working capital in the first quarter compared to the parallel quarter last year for supporting the growth of the business.

Net cash used in investing activities was $90 million in the quarter, compared to $109 million in the corresponding period last year. The cash used in investing activities in the first quarter of 2022 is largely related to investments in our differentiated portfolio (Core Leap) in Israel and Brazil as well as in China relocations. In the first quarter of 2021, the Company also recorded such investments in addition to the completion of the payment related to the acquisition of Jiangsu Huifeng's domestic commercial crop protection business.

Free cash flow of $386 million was consumed in the first quarter compared to $248 million consumed in the corresponding period last year, reflecting the aforementioned operating and investing cash flow dynamics.

Table 3. Revenues by operating segment

First quarter sales by segment



Q1 2022 USD (m) % Q1 2021 USD (m) % Crop Protection 1,271 89.5% 1,007 90.8% Intermediates and Ingredients 149 10.5% 102 9.2% Total 1,420 100% 1,109 100.0%

First quarter sales by product category



Q1 2022 USD (m) % Q1 2021 USD (m) % Herbicides 659 46.4% 477 43.0% Insecticides 351 24.7% 314 28.3% Fungicides 261 18.4% 216 19.5% Intermediates and Ingredients 149 10.5% 102 9.2% Total 1,420 100% 1,109 100.0%

Note: the sales split by product category is provided for convenience purposes only and is not representative of the way the Company is managed or in which it makes its operational decisions.

Further Information

All filings of the Company, together with a presentation of the key financial highlights of the period, can be accessed through the Company website at www.adama.com.

About ADAMA

ADAMA Ltd. is a global leader in crop protection, providing solutions to farmers across the world to combat weeds, insects and disease. ADAMA has one of the widest and most diverse portfolios of active ingredients in the world, state-of-the art R&D, manufacturing and formulation facilities, together with a culture that empowers our people in markets around the world to listen to farmers and ideate from the field. This uniquely positions ADAMA to offer a vast array of distinctive mixtures, formulations and high-quality differentiated products, delivering solutions that meet local farmer and customer needs in over 100 countries globally. For more information, visit us at www.ADAMA.com and follow us on Twitter at @ADAMAAgri.

Contact

Rivka Neufeld

Global Investor Relations

Email: [email protected]

Zhujun Wang

China Investor Relations

Email: [email protected]

Abridged Adjusted Consolidated Financial Statements

The following abridged consolidated financial statements and notes have been prepared as described in Note 1 in this appendix. While prepared based on the principles of Chinese Accounting Standards (ASBE), they do not contain all of the information which either ASBE or IFRS would require for a complete set of financial statements, and should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements of both ADAMA Ltd. and Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd. as filed with the Shenzhen and Tel Aviv Stock Exchanges, respectively.

Relevant income statement items contained in this release are also presented on an "Adjusted" basis, which exclude items that are of a one-time or non-cash/non-operational nature that do not impact the ongoing performance of the business, and reflect the way the Company's management and the Board of Directors view the performance of the Company internally. The Company believes that excluding the effects of these items from its operating results allows management and investors to effectively compare the true underlying financial performance of its business from period to period and against its global peers.

Abridged Consolidated Income Statement for the First Quarter

Adjusted1 Q1 2022 USD (m) Q12021 USD (m) Q1 2022 RMB (m) Q1 2021 RMB (m) Revenues 1,420 1,109 9,016 7,187 Cost of Sales 989 782 6,282 5,069 Other costs 16 5 105 34 Gross profit 414 322 2,630 2,085 % of revenue 29.2% 29.0% 29.2% 29.0% Selling & Distribution expenses 199 178 1,263 1,156 General & Administrative expenses 47 32 296 208 Research & Development expenses 21 17 130 110 Other operating expenses 15 -4 95 -26 Total operating expenses 281 223 1,785 1,448 % of revenue 19.8% 20.1% 19.8% 20.1% Operating income (EBIT) 133 98 844 637 % of revenue 9.4% 8.9% 9.4% 8.9% Financial expenses and investment income 53 36 335 236 Income before taxes 80 62 509 401 Taxes on Income 5 9 33 58 Net Income 75 53 477 342 Attributable to:







Non-controlling interest 0 1 0 5 Shareholders of the Company 75 52 477 337 % of revenue 5.3% 4.7% 5.3% 4.7% Adjustments 8 29 49 188 Reported Net income attributable to the shareholders of the Company 67 23 428 149 % of revenue 4.7% 2.1% 4.7% 2.1% Adjusted EBITDA 201 157 1,277 1,018 % of revenue 14.2% 14.2% 14.2% 14.2% Adjusted EPS2  Basic 0.0322 0.0223 0.2045 0.1447  Diluted 0.0322 0.0223 0.2045 0.1447 Reported EPS2  Basic 0.0289 0.0099 0.1836 0.0639  Diluted 0.0289 0.0099 0.1836 0.0639

Abridged Consolidated Balance Sheet



March 31 2022 USD (m) March 31 2021 USD (m) March 31 2022 RMB (m) March 31 2021 RMB (m) Assets







Current assets:







Cash at bank and on hand 598 596 3,796 3,915 Bills and accounts receivable 1,857 1,707 11,789 11,220 Inventories 2,151 1,663 13,657 10,931 Other current assets, receivables and prepaid expenses 333 383 2,117 2,516 Total current assets 4,940 4,349 31,359 28,582 Non-current assets:







Fixed assets, net 1,651 1,235 10,480 8,115 Rights of use assets 74 80 467 528 Intangible assets, net 1,506 1,490 9,560 9,790 Deferred tax assets 157 133 994 874 Other non-current assets 114 83 725 542 Total non-current assets 3,501 3,021 22,227 19,849 Total assets 8,441 7,370 53,587 48,431









Liabilities







Current liabilities:







Loans and credit from banks and other lenders 438 618 2,781 4,063 Bills and accounts payable 1,324 781 8,404 5,131 Other current liabilities 905 760 5,745 4,995 Total current liabilities 2,667 2,159 16,931 14,190 Long-term liabilities:







Loans and credit from banks and other lenders 655 368 4,156 2,416 Debentures 1,211 1,195 7,690 7,851 Deferred tax liabilities 52 59 330 387 Employee benefits 121 100 770 657 Other long-term liabilities 371 170 2,357 1,120 Total long-term liabilities 2,411 1,892 15,303 12,431 Total liabilities 5,078 4,051 32,234 26,620









Equity







Total equity 3,364 3,319 21,352 21,811









Total liabilities and equity 8,441 7,370 53,587 48,431

Abridged Consolidated Cash Flow Statement for the First Quarter



Q1 2022 USD (m) Q1 2021 USD (m) Q1 2022 RMB (m) Q1 2021 RMB (m) Cash flow from operating activities:







Cash flow from operating activities -286 -129 -1,814 -838 Cash flow from operating activities -286 -129 -1,814 -838









Investing activities:







Acquisitions of fixed and intangible assets -92 -91 -584 -588 Proceeds from disposal of fixed and intangible assets 1 1 3 9 Acquisition of subsidiaries 0 -8 - -55 Other investing activities 1 -11 7 -71 Cash flow used for investing activities -90 -109 -574 -704









Financing activities:







Receipt of loans from banks and other lenders 153 287 969 1,862 Repayment of loans from banks and other lenders -27 -38 -172 -244 Interest payment and other -10 -10 -61 -63 Dividends to shareholders - - - - Other financing activities -65 5 -410 26 Cash flow from (used for) financing activities 51 244 327 1,581 Effects of exchange rate movement on cash and cash equivalents 0 -2 -24 18 Net change in cash and cash equivalents -325 4 -2,085 57 Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the period 903 588 5,759 3,835 Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period 579 592 3,674 3,892









Free Cash Flow -386 -248 -2,448 -1,605

Notes to Abridged Consolidated Financial Statements

Note 1: Basis of preparation

Basis of presentation and accounting policies: The abridged consolidated financial statements for the quarters ended March 31, 2022 and 2021 incorporate the financial statements of ADAMA Ltd. and of all of its subsidiaries (the "Company"), including Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd. ("Solutions") and its subsidiaries.

The Company has adopted the Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (ASBE) issued by the Ministry of Finance (the "MoF") and the implementation guidance, interpretations and other relevant provisions issued or revised subsequently by the MoF (collectively referred to as "ASBE"). Note that in the reported financial statements, as a result of recent changes in the ASBE guidelines (IAS 37), certain items as of Q4 2021 (specifically certain transportation costs and certain idleness charges) have been reclassified from Operating Expenses to COGS. See the notes to the financial statements for more details in this regard.

The abridged consolidated financial statements contained in this release are presented in both Chinese Renminbi (RMB), as the Company's shares are traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, as well as in United States dollars ($) as this is the major currency in which the Company's business is conducted. For the purposes of this release, a customary convenience translation has been used for the translation from RMB to US dollars, with Income Statement and Cash Flow items being translated using the quarterly average exchange rate, and Balance Sheet items being translated using the exchange rate at the end of the period.

The preparation of financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimated.

Note 2: Abridged Financial Statements

For ease of use, the financial statements shown in this release have been abridged as follows:

Abridged Consolidated Income Statement:

"Gross profit" in this release is revenue less costs of goods sold, taxes and surcharges, inventory impairment and other idleness charges (in addition to those already included in costs of goods sold); part of the idleness charges is removed in the Adjusted financial statements

"Other operating expenses" includes impairment losses (not including inventory impairment); gain (loss) from disposal of assets and non-operating income and expenses

"Operating expenses" in this release differ from those in the formally reported financial statements in that in the reported financial statements, as a result of recent changes in the ASBE guidelines (IAS 37), certain items as of Q4 2021 (specifically certain transportation costs and certain idleness charges) have been reclassified from Operating Expenses to COGS.

"Financial expenses and investment income" includes net financing expenses; gains from changes in fair value; and investment income (including share of income of equity accounted investees)

Abridged Consolidated Balance Sheet:

"Other current assets, receivables and prepaid expenses" includes financial assets held for trading; financial assets in respect of derivatives; prepayments; other receivables; and other current assets

"Fixed assets, net" includes fixed assets and construction in progress

"Intangible assets, net" includes intangible assets and goodwill

"Other non-current assets" includes other equity investments; long-term equity investments; long-term receivables; investment property; and other non-current assets

"Loans and credit from banks and other lenders" includes short-term loans and non-current liabilities due within one year

"Other current liabilities" includes financial liabilities in respect of derivatives; payables for employee benefits, taxes, interest, dividends and others; advances from customers and other current liabilities

"Other long-term liabilities" includes long-term payables, provisions, deferred income and other non-current liabilities

Income Statement Adjustments



Q1 2022 USD (m) Q1 2021 USD (m) Q1 2022 RMB (m) Q1 2021 RMB (m) Net Income (Reported) 67.3 23.3 427.7 150.8 Adjustments to COGS & Operating Expenses:







1. Amortization of Legacy PPA of 2011 acquisition of Solutions (non-cash) 0.3 0.3 1.6 1.6 2. Amortization of Transfer assets received and written-up due to 2017 ChemChina-Syngenta transaction (non-cash) 5.6 7.8 35.6 50.8 3. Upgrade & Relocation related costs 1.9 15.4 12.0 99.8 4. Incentive plans (non-cash) (4.1) 4.1 (26.2) 26.8 5. Amortization of acquisition-related PPA (non-cash), other acquisition-related costs 5.1 3.7 32.4 24.3 6. Transportation classification COGS impact 50.9 - 323.2 - 7. Transportation classification OPEX impact (50.9) - (323.2) - 8. Provisions in respect of prior years' legal- and tax-related costs - 1.6 - 10.3 Total Adjustments to Operating Income (EBIT) 8.7 33.0 55.5 213.6 Total Adjustments to EBITDA (2.4) 19.4 (15.3) 125.6 Adjustments to Taxes







1. Tax shield on Legacy PPA of 2011 acquisition of Solutions 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.3 3. Taxes related to Upgrade & Relocation related costs 0.1 2.4 0.4 15.6 5. Deferred tax on amortization of acquisition-related PPA, other acquisition-related costs 0.9 0.6 5.9 3.9 8. Provisions in tax expenses in respect of prior years' legal- and tax-related costs - 0.4 - 2.5 Total adjustments to Net Income 7.7 29.5 48.9 191.5 Net Income (Adjusted) 75.0 52.8 476.5 342.3 Total adjustments to Net Income attributable to the shareholders of the Company 7.7 29.1 48.9 188.4

Notes:

1. Amortization of Legacy PPA of 2011 acquisition of Solutions (non-cash): Under ASBE, since the first combined reporting for Q3 2017, the Company has inherited the historical "legacy" amortization charge that ChemChina previously was incurring in respect of its acquisition of Solutions in 2011. This amortization is done in a linear manner on a quarterly basis, most of which will have been completed by the end of 2020.

2. Amortization of Transfer assets received and written-up due to 2017 ChemChina-Syngenta transaction (non-cash): The proceeds from the Divestment of crop protection products in connection with the approval by the EU Commission of the acquisition of Syngenta by ChemChina, net of taxes and transaction expenses, were paid to Syngenta in return for the transfer of a portfolio of products in Europe of similar nature and economic value. Since the products acquired from Syngenta are of the same nature and with the same net economic value as those divested, and since in 2018 the Company adjusted for the one-time gain that it made on the divested products, the additional amortization charge incurred due to the written-up value of the acquired assets is also adjusted to present a consistent view of Divestment and Transfer transactions, which had no net impact on the underlying economic performance of the Company. These additional amortization charges will continue until 2032 but at a reducing rate, yet will still be at a meaningful level until 2028.

3. Upgrade & Relocation-related costs: These charges all relate to the multi-year Upgrade & Relocation program in China. As part of this program, production assets located in the old production sites in Jingzhou and Huai'An are being relocated to the new sites, both in 2020 and in the coming years. Since some of the older production assets may not be able to be relocated, some of these assets which are no longer operational are being written off (or impaired), while for others, their economic life has been shortened and therefore will be depreciated over a shorter period. Since these are older assets that were built many years ago and will be replaced by newer production facilities at the new sites, and since the ongoing operations of the business will not be impacted thereby, the Company adjusts for the impact of all charges related to the China Upgrade & Relocated program, which include mainly: (i) excess procurement costs incurred as the Company continued to fulfill demand for its products, in order to protect its market position, through replacement sourcing at significantly higher costs from third-party suppliers (ii) elevated idleness charges largely related to suspensions at the facilities being relocated as well as to the temporary suspensions of the Jingzhou site in Q1 2020 (at the outbreak of COVID-19 in Hubei Province).

4. Incentive plans (non-cash): The Company granted its employees, who are mainly non-Chinese residents, a long-term incentive (LTI) in the form of 'phantom' options, due to the complexity of granting Chinese-listed, equity-settled options to non-Chinese employees. As such, the Company records an expense, or recognizes income, depending on the fluctuation in the Company's share price, even though the Company will not incur any cash impact prior to exercise of the phantom options. To neutralize the impact of such share price movements on the measurement of the Company's performance and expected employee compensation and to reflect the existing phantom options, in the Company's adjusted financial performance, the LTI is presented on an equity-settled basis in accordance with the value of the existing plan at the grant date.

5. Amortization of acquisition-related PPA (non-cash) and other acquisition-related costs: Related mainly to the non-cash amortization of intangible assets created as part of the Purchase Price Allocation (PPA) on acquisitions, with no impact on the ongoing performance of the companies acquired, as well as other M&A-related costs.

6. Transportation classification COGS impact  as a result of recent changes in the ASBE guidelines [IAS 37], certain items as of Q4 2021 (specifically certain transportation costs and certain idleness charges) have been reclassified from Operating Expenses to COGS.

7. Transportation classification OPEX impact  as a result of recent changes in the ASBE guidelines [IAS 37], certain items as of Q42021 (specifically certain transportation costs and certain idleness charges) have been reclassified from Operating Expenses to COGS.

8. Provisions in tax expenses related to prior years' activities: Provisions in respect of tax expenses related to activities of prior years.

Exchange Rate Data for the Company's Principal Functional Currencies



March 31

Q1 Average

2022 2021 Change

2022 2021 Change

EUR/USD 1.109 1.174 (5.5%)

1.122 1.206 (7.0%)

USD/BRL 4.738 5.697 16.8%

5.233 5.473 4.4%

USD/PLN 4.180 3.968 (5.4%)

4.180 3.772 (10.8%)

USD/ZAR 14.51 14.93 2.8%

15.249 14.970 (1.9%)

AUD/USD 0.749 0.761 (1.7%)

0.724 0.773 (6.4%)

GBP/USD 1.312 1.376 (4.6%)

1.342 1.380 (2.7%)

USD/ILS 3.176 3.334 4.7%

3.198 3.270 2.2%

USD LIBOR 3M 0.96% 0.20% 380.5%

0.53% 0.20% 164.4%





March 31

Q1 Average

2022 2021 Change

2022 2021 Change

USD/RMB 6.348 6.571 (3.4%)

6.351 6.481 (2.0%)

EUR/RMB 7.043 7.712 (8.7%)

7.126 6.481 10.0%

RMB/BRL 0.746 0.867 13.9%

0.824 0.844 2.4%

RMB/PLN 0.658 0.604 (9.1%)

0.649 0.604 (7.5%)

RMB/ZAR 2.286 2.271 (0.7%)

2.401 2.271 (5.7%)

AUD/RMB 4.752 5.003 (5.0%)

4.595 5.012 (8.3%)

GBP/RMB 8.332 9.041 (7.8%)

8.520 9.041 (5.8%)

RMB/ILS 0.500 0.507 1.4%

0.504 0.507 0.7%

RMB LIBOR 3M 2.37% 2.64% (9.9%)

2.42% 2.71% (10.8%)



[1] For an analysis of the differences between the adjusted income statement items and the income statement items as reported in the financial statements, see below "Analysis of Gaps between Adjusted Income Statement and Income Statement in Financial Statements".

[2] The number of shares used to calculate both basic and diluted earnings per share in in Q1 of both 2021 and 2022 is 2,329.8 million shares.

SOURCE ADAMA Ltd.
Experienced biotech CEO will advance novel neural exosome to the clinic for neuro-inflammatory and neuro-degenerative diseases

ATHENS, Ga. and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Aruna Bio, a leader in the development of neural exosomes for the treatment of neuro-inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of Stephen From as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Mr. From succeeds Skip Irving who served as interim CEO and who will continue to serve on the Aruna Bio Board of Directors.

"I am very excited to welcome Stephen From as our next CEO. Stephen brings to Aruna extensive experience in building biopharma companies, establishing collaborations and advancing promising products from the research stage and into the clinic," said Mr. Bill Griffin, Chairman of the Aruna Bio Board of Directors. "Having established the unique therapeutic activity of our neural stem cell-derived exosomes, Stephen is the perfect person to exploit these therapeutic properties and guide the development of innovative products for patients with CNS disorders."

"The inherent ability of NEUR-EX neural exosomes to reduce neuro-inflammation, provide neuro-protection and stimulate neuro-regeneration when administered portends a valuable therapeutic role in a potentially wide range of inflammatory and degenerative diseases in the brain," said Mr. From. "Aruna Bio's top priority moving forward is to complete IND enabling studies and file the first ever IND for neural exosomes and establish clinical safety and potentially proof-of-concept for a CNS condition. I look forward to working with Dr. Steven Stice and the Aruna Bio team to achieve this objective."

Prior to joining Aruna Bio, Mr. From served as CEO and Chairman of EyeGate Pharmaceuticals, where he led the company from an early technology platform to a publicly financed product development company. He has experience in drug delivery, clinical development, and working with the FDA. Prior to EyeGate, he worked in investment banking for Bank of America and Robertson Stephens.

"The Aruna Bio Board of Directors would also like to thank Dr. Mark Sirgo for his leadership of the company over the last three years," said Skip Irving, Interim CEO and Director. "Mark provided valuable leadership to the company during his tenure."

About Aruna Bio's NEUR-EX Neural Stem-cell Derived Exosomes

Exosomes are naturally derived particles involved in the essential communication between different cells in the body. Dr. Steven Stice, a leading expert in stem cells, is Professor and Director of the University of Georgia's Regenerative Bioscience Center and discovered the neural stem cell platform and the highly-differentiated properties of these neural exosomes. As Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Aruna Bio, Dr. Stice and his team have further elucidated and proven the inherent therapeutic properties of neural-derived exosomes, their ability to cross the blood-brain-barrier and to incorporate other therapeutic moieties such as proteins and oligonucleotides.

About Aruna Bio

Aruna Bio is a leader in the development of neural exosomes for the treatment of neuro-inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. A spin-out of the University of Georgia and privately financed, the company recently commissioned a state-of-the-art GMP manufacturing facility to ensure product consistency. The company is rapidly advancing its proprietary NEUR-EX neural stem cell-derived exosome platform to an IND and first-in-man clinical studies in selective CNS therapeutic development programs. The company intends to pursue, selective CNS programs by leveraging the special properties inherent in neural exosomes, as the exosome alone or in combination with other therapeutic moieties.

SOURCE Aruna Bio, Inc.
ALPHARETTA, Ga., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Avanos Medical, Inc. (NYSE: AVNS) will webcast its conference call discussing financial results and business highlights for the first quarter 2021 on Wednesday, May 4 at 9 a.m., ET. The company will issue a news release detailing its results before the market opens that same day.

The conference call will be hosted by Joe Woody, chief executive officer, and Michael Greiner, senior vice president and chief financial officer.

To join the live conference call, dial 877-240-5772 in the United States. A simultaneous webcast of the call and a related presentation will be accessible via the Investors section of the Avanos Medical website, https://avanos.investorroom.com/.

A replay of the conference call will be available May 4 at noon ET by dialing 877-344-7529 in the United States and entering passcode 3937658. It will be available for one week. A replay of the webcast also will be accessible in the Investors section of the website, approximately one hour following the completion of the conference call.

About Avanos Medical, Inc. Avanos Medical (NYSE: AVNS) is a medical device company focused on delivering clinically superior breakthrough solutions that will help patients get back to the things that matter. Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, Avanos is committed to addressing some of today's most important healthcare needs, such as reducing the use of opioids while helping patients move from surgery to recovery. Avanos develops, manufactures and markets its recognized brands in more than 90 countries. For more information, visit www.avanos.com and follow Avanos Medical on Twitter (@AvanosMedical), LinkedIn and Facebook.

SOURCE Avanos Medical, Inc.
NEW YORK and SHENZEN, China, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Azoya, an award-winning social commerce solution provider and full-service agency based in China, today announced the release of the whitepaper Capitalize on WeChat Private Domain: Best Practice 2022 to help international retailers and brands seize new opportunities to grow sales in China's booming social commerce market. Among numerous China e-commerce options, WeChat has emerged as retailers' must-have growth engine for their social commerce strategies in China. WeChat social commerce benefits retailers by helping them engage digital-savvy customers, build interpersonal, trusted, personalized, value-driven relationships via the private domain theories & practices.

WeChat social commerce helps retailers engage digital-savvy customers, build interpersonal, trusted, personalized, value-driven relationships via the private domain theories & practices. This whitepaper decodes the success formula of WeChat Social Commerce: Revenue = Customer Base x Conversion Rate x Repeat Purchase x Average Order Value. Includes case studies from international retailers like Helena Rubinstein, Sephora, Kiehl's, M.A.C, COS, Lacoste and Florasis.

However, many international retailers have yet to realize the potential of social commerce, and lack guidance to act on the opportunities of social commerce on WeChat, and they are increasingly outperformed by more agile competitors.

In response, Azoya started to create a social commerce series of four thought leadership whitepapers in early 2019 to educate retailers and brands about this new retail channel. Now Azoya's new whitepaper decodes the success formula of WeChat Social Commerce: Revenue = Customer Base x Conversion Rate x Repeat Purchase x Average Order Value. In parallel, Azoya analyzed successful social commerce operations and digital marketing best practices in detail to help global merchants amplify their exposure and earn customer loyalty among digital-savvy Chinese customers on WeChat. The analysis includes case studies of how private domain strategy improved performance for brands like Helena Rubinstein, Sephora, Kiehl's, M.A.C, COS, Lacoste and Florasis, and deep dive into the impact of those actions.

WeChat and private domain have been a popular term in the Chinese market, and the total industry revenue of private domain in 2021 was more than 3.7 trillion RMB ($569 billion US). WeChat e-commerce GMV accounted for about 11% of China's total e-commerce GMV (2 trillion RMB/$312.3 billion US) in 2020 and is expected to exceed 10 trillion RMB ($1561 billion US) in the next three years. As such, the golden age of private domain in China is now. As the WeChat Ecosystem continuously matures, WeChat's private domain empowers brands and retailers to expand their business boundaries as omnichannel evolves. For example, Azoya has observed merchants broadening their businesses from online to offline, from offline to online, from online marketplaces to a WeChat presence. As such, the penetration rate of private domain touchpoints in China is as high as 96%, according to Tencent Marketing Insight data.

As WeChat's social commerce business surges, adapting to Chinese online shoppers' expectations gives global retailers new growth opportunities. "Customers want to form a closer relationship with brands in WeChat, according to our study and practice. Our data shows over 34% of customers that participated in group chats have made at least one purchase in the past year, and we think the number will continue to increase," says Davy Huang, director of business development at Azoya, "We add value for brands and retailers in expanding their business in China using WeChat. Our solution continues to help them quickly establish a presence within the WeChat ecosystem and marketplaces, and solve practical challenges of operating WeChat ads, content, livestream campaigns, and various other WeChat Ecosystem activities."

To fuel new e-commerce growth, the Capitalize on WeChat Private Domain: Best Practice 2022 whitepaper gives retailers and brands specific tips and best practices on how to tailor their marketing strategies to strengthen their connections with customers. It also offers retailers and merchants valuable insights to help them operate more effectively in the private domain to achieve faster growth.

For more information, download the whitepaper Capitalize on WeChat Private Domain: Best Practice 2022.

About Azoya:

Azoya is a leading China e-commerce enabler, which endeavors to help overseas brands and retailers break into China via e-commerce. The company prides itself on being the e-commerce leader that has signed exclusive agreements with the largest number of overseas retailers in China, including Miinto, K11 Hong Kong, Feelunique, Pharmacy Online, and FragranceNet. With its all-encompassing services and dedicated specialist team, the company has won the trust of more than 50 overseas retailers in 12 countries.

Learn more: https://www.azoyagroup.com

Press Contacts:

U.S. China Dan Dyer

513-478-7818

[email protected] Queenie Yao

+86 188 2026 3929

[email protected]

SOURCE Azoya Group
Back to class? Really? "Yes, really! Our students and teachers acknowledge their hard work, even celebrate it! But they always keep working," said BASIS Charter Schools co-founder Olga Block. "That's where the rankings success comes from  plus the individual student achievement that each family can celebrate, too."

The national rankings, national STEM rankings, national charter school rankings, and state rankings published each spring by U.S. News & World Report are traditionally an indicator of the BASIS Charter School network's priority of college preparation and advanced-level curricula across grade levels. They are among a number of such indicators, of course. But since US News changed its rankings methodology several years ago to not focus solely on college prep schools, the publication's STEM rankings, in particular, are what the educators at BASIS have particularly noted.

"For a college prep-oriented network like ours, with 100% of our graduates in our 24-year history accepted to four-year colleges and universities, overall rankings aren't as meaningful as STEM rankings," Mrs. Block says. "The STEM rankings are a useful gauge, as they are the closest to recognizing high-level college prep that US News now gets."

NATIONAL STEM RANKINGS

No other district or network in the nation comes close to BASIS, when it comes to assessing schools in science, technology, engineering, and math.

BASIS has three of the top five schools in the 2022 national STEM rankings, seven of the top 20 STEM schools in the U.S., and eight of the top 25  including the network's only school in Texas that's eligible for rankings, BASIS San Antonio Shavano, coming in at #25 in STEM.

"Our BASIS Shavano Campus was not a top STEM campus last year, and even rose in the overall rankings from top one or two hundred to #77 nationally," said BASIS.ed Texas CEO Dr. Peter Bezanson. "That is a rapid rise, well earned  and as we grow in Texas, we expect more of our Texas campuses will land near the top of US News' STEM ranks."

Instead of ranking 3,000 American schools for college readiness, US News now assesses 24,000 American schools, and ranks nearly 18,000. Nevertheless, college prep BASIS still had 11 of the nation's top 81 schools overall -- out of 17,843 ranked campuses.

"It's true that readying students for college success is what we do, and U.S. News & World Report's best pure measure of college readiness is its STEM ranks," agreed BASIS co-founder Dr. Michael Block. "Our teachers were quite pleased to see our high STEM ranks, and I was happy to see several of our schools make marked improvement in them."

NATIONAL CHARTER SCHOOL RANKINGS

Three of the top five charters nationally, seven of the top ten, and eleven of the top 20, are BASIS Charter Schools.

BASIS has the ten best charter schools in Arizona , the best charter school in the state of Texas , and the best charter school in metro Washington, D.C.

"As a network of public charter schools completing our 24th academic year, we look at national charter school rankings," said BASIS Educational Group CEO Carolyn McGarvey. "More than half of the top ten charter schools in the United States are BASIS Charter Schools!

"Even though we've said this before, it's worth saying again: that's incredible, and it's a testament to our teachers and school leaders, and the student themselves."

STATE RANKINGS

Arizona BASIS Chandler is the #1 school in Arizona for the third consecutive year -- charter or otherwise. BASIS Charter Schools comprise four of Arizona's top five campuses of any type, and ten of the top twelve schools in the state.

Texas BASIS San Antonio Shavano is the #8 school of any type in Texas , the #1 charter school in Texas , and the #1 school of any type in San Antonio .

Washington, D.C. BASIS DC, the network's only school in the nation's capital, is the #3 school in the city of Washington, D.C. , the #10 school in the metro Washington area, and the #1 charter school in the District.



"We're a national network, but we were born in Arizona, so we're always pleased to have the top campuses in our home state," McGarvey said. "But ten of the top twelve is quite something!"

Of note: one BASIS Charter School  BASIS Goodyear  was not eligible for these 2022 rankings because it did not have enough 12th grade students in one of the academic years assessed.

About BASIS Charter Schools

The BASIS Charter Schools network is among the best in the United States, whether assessed by national rankings across myriad publications, OECD/PISA scores, AP Exam scores, college admissions, merit aid earned, or any other measure. Our passionate and knowledgeable Subject Expert Teachers serve students in kindergarten through grade 12 using the STEM-inspired, liberal arts-focused BASIS Charter School Curriculum. Our acclaimed programfounded in 1998 and cultivating excellence every school year sinceeducates students at the highest international levels, preparing them to be participants, not spectators, in the 21st century global workforce. In the 2022-23 academic year, the BASIS Charter Schools network will have 37 public charter schools serving more than 22,000 students in Arizona, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

For more information, please visit basised.com, basisedtx.com, or basisschools.org.

SOURCE BASIS Charter Schools
Peterson Santos named COO and Sanjay Sood named CFO of expanding express wash brand

ATLANTA, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Caliber Car Wash announced the naming of Peterson Santos as Chief Operating Officer and Sanjay Sood as Chief Financial Officer in April of 2022. Both Sood and Santos bring years of experience in the automotive field while specializing in company scaling.

Caliber Car Wash is rapidly expanding throughout the U.S. Peterson Santos (L) and Sanjay Sood (R), were recently named as COO and CFO of Caliber Car Wash respectively.

The news comes at a time of sustained, rapid growth for the Atlanta-based company. Having over 40 announced sites and over 50 additional locations under development, Caliber is one of the fastest growth express car wash companies in the country as it expands throughout the east coast and into the Midwest.

Sood joins the company as CFO with an extensive background in senior finance positions at Jacent Strategic Merchandising, Pep Boys, Locals 8 Restaurant Group and Danka Office Imaging. A Philadelphia native, Sood has a history of growing financial teams and joins Caliber with an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from American International College and an MBA from Drexel University.

"One of Caliber's core strengths is building and creating quick, quality wash experiences for customers, and to do so means having the right team in place," said Danny York, Caliber CEO. "We're happy to announce new leadership to guide our teams through their career paths as we expand nationally."

Santos, who joined the company as COO in April, began his career in the automotive industry over 20 years ago. Starting as a parts manager at ABRA Auto Body & Glass, he worked his way to Vice President of Operations after only six years. Santos maintained his senior leadership position in the automotive industry for 15 years at companies like Caliber Collison before accepting a position as COO for Caliber. He received his undergraduate degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix and an MBA from Georgia State University.

"Caliber's core values include building career paths and leadership skills, so we are excited to have senior leaders who understand what it is like to work throughout a company with those paths in mind," York said. "Both Peterson and Sanjay will be able to relate to our employee's needs while they continue to provide the best customer service experience in the car wash industry as we grow."

Caliber Car Wash expanded to 15 locations in the Southeast since opening its first wash in Ocala, FL in 2019. With washes in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, the company is quickly opening new markets, including Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina. The company is projected to have over 150 operating washes by 2024.

About Caliber Car Wash

As one of the country's fastest growing express car wash companies, Caliber provides high quality and convenient washes while delivering best-in-class customer service. The Atlanta-based company opened its first wash in 2019 and quickly grew to over 14 operating locations in 2021 in Florida, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. With expansion plans in over six additional states, the company has become a customer favorite due to its complementary detailing tools and its monthly Limitless wash plan.

Contact:

Baylee Campbell

470-219-8658

[email protected]

SOURCE Caliber Car Wash
Inpatient Virtual Engagement offers providers transformative telehealth program and device fleet management to support hybrid care delivery at every patient bedside.

EATONTOWN, N.J., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Caregility, an enterprise telehealth market leader dedicated to connecting care for patients and clinicians everywhere, will launch new offerings to enable system-wide telehealth across all inpatient acuity settings at the 2022 American Telemedicine Association conference in Boston, May 1-3. Caregility's Inpatient Virtual Engagement (IVE) solution bundles:

Caregility APS100

Purpose-Built Devices  Secure, medical-grade telehealth Access Point-of-Care Systems (APS) for all patient acuities APS Fleet Management  Cloud-based fleet management to proactively monitor and remotely support multiple telehealth systems quickly and easily Telehealth Administration Portal  Centralized management, support, and analytics on all telehealth program operations Solution-as-a-Service  Subscription-based pricing to reduce capital investment with flexible, all-inclusive, pay-as-you-go models

"Inpatient Virtual Engagement offers health systems the industry's first cost-effective option for bedside hybrid care delivery at scale  every room, every bed, every patient," explains Caregility President and COO Mike Brandofino. "The key is our Caregility Cloud platform and full range of hospital-grade endpoints for all patient acuity levels. Cloud-based fleet management allows us to remotely monitor systems and proactively notify customers on issues to avoid care disruptions."

IVE extends virtual bedside access across the continuum of care to enhance in-person encounters and elevate the patient and clinician experience. This hybrid care approach enhances clinical collaboration at the bedside, improves patient coverage and safety, and accelerates the speed of clinical intervention.

Enterprise-wide telehealth solutions like IVE create the foundation required to support telenursing models, including but not limited to virtual rounding, virtual observation, and virtual specialty coverage. This maximizes the remote reach of experienced staff, reducing the burden on care teams amid staffing challenges. Patients benefit from improved engagement with their care team, interpreters, and loved ones during their inpatient stay, promoting patient wellbeing and outcomes.

"The use of a single bedside system for multiple virtual care programs maximizes resources, drives efficiency, and keeps things simple for remote clinicians," said Caregility Chief Strategy Officer Pete McLain. "As health systems prepare for the Hospital Room of the Future, innovations like IVE offer a flexible platform to build on."

Caregility is also formally launching the APS100 system as a cost-effective solution ideally suited for lower-acuity environments. Originally previewed at HIMSS22, the APS100 joins a fleet of other Caregility APS wall and cart systems that can be matched to the clinical requirements for virtual care delivery at any bedside throughout a health system.

The APS100 will be available for order at ATA2022. The cost-effective, lower-acuity device is currently being piloted at several prominent health systems with initial commercial shipments expected later this summer.

Attending ATA2022? Book your meeting to learn more about the award-winning Caregility Cloud virtual care platform at booth 1402.

Don't miss these additional events at ATA:

Mon., May 2 , 12:50-1:00 PM , Room 153 (Press Room)  Press members are invited to join Caregility President and COO Mike Brandofino for a press briefing on Inpatient Virtual Engagement.

Press members are invited to join Caregility President and COO for a press briefing on Inpatient Virtual Engagement. Mon., May 2 , 2:403:20 PM, Room 157  Caregility SVP of Clinical Solutions Wendy Deibert joins leaders from Massachusetts General Hospital, Mayo Clinic, St. Luke's Health System, and Houston Methodist for an ATA panel discussion on Inpatient Virtual Care in a Post-COVID World.

 Caregility SVP of Clinical Solutions Wendy Deibert joins leaders from Massachusetts General Hospital, Mayo Clinic, St. Luke's Health System, and Houston Methodist for an ATA panel discussion on Inpatient Virtual Care in a Post-COVID World. Booth 1402, each hour of the exhibit throughout the week  Attend our in-booth presentation on Inpatient Virtual Engagement benefits and use cases.

To learn more about Caregility, visit www.caregility.com.

About Caregility

Caregility Corporation is dedicated to connecting patients and clinicians everywhere with its Caregility Cloud virtual care platform. Designated as the Best in KLAS Virtual Care Platform (non-EMR) in 2021 and 2022, Caregility Cloud powers a purpose-built ecosystem of enterprise telehealth solutions across the care continuum. Caregility provides secure, reliable, and HIPAA compliant audio and video communication designed for any device and clinical workflow, in both acute and ambulatory settings. Caregility supports more than 1,300 hospitals across dozens of health systems with millions of virtual care sessions hosted annually. From critical and acute, to urgent and emergent, to post-acute and ambulatory, as well as hospital-to-home, Caregility is connecting care everywhere. Follow Caregility on LinkedIn and Twitter at @caregility.

Media Contact

Bryan Schnepf

VP of Marketing

[email protected]

203-500-4659

SOURCE Caregility
DUBLIN, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "China In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) Market, Impact of COVID-19, Size, Share, Regulations, Reimbursement, Major Deals, Key Players Analysis, Trends & Recent Developments - Forecast to 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

China In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) market is predicted to reach US$ 21 Billion by 2028

China represents one of the largest clinical laboratory markets in the Asia-Pacific region, and the fastest growing among the top ten IVD country markets. Historically, large multinational companies have dominated IVD market in China; today, domestic companies such as Shanghai Kehua Bio-Engineering (KHB) being one of the largest - are now gaining market share.



China is a large and fast-growing in vitro diagnostics (IVD) market - in fact, only second to the United States in terms of value. China's quickly aging population means the country is experiencing an explosion of chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. All of these conditions can be diagnosed and monitored using IVD products.

Moreover, The State Council issued a guideline to implement the country's Healthy China initiative to diminish the incidence of disability among elderly people aged between 65 and 74 years by 2022 by offering medical and health services. Such initiatives by the government are expected to boost market growth during the forecast period.



Impact of COVID-19 on China In-Vitro Diagnostics Market



The COVID-19 outbreak has become a global stress test. As the number of people infected with the virus continues to rise around the world, uncertainties about global economic growth increases.

The COVID-19 disease has infected around 486 Million people worldwide. Globally the death toll has reached 6,157,201 according to the latest statistics from the Worldometers (as of March 30, 2022). In China, COVID-19 disease has infected around 147,437 people (as of March 30, 2022), and the death toll has reached 4,638. The clouds of the new coronavirus threat loom over the world and continue to create havoc in the lives of millions of people.

Maximum testing and quick hospitalization are key components for flattening the curve. In this scenario, the in-vitro diagnostics forms the crux of increased testing. Manufacturers in the in-vitro diagnostic market are focusing on developing novel technologies for maximum testing within a minimum period.

For instance, in April 2021, Sysmex Corporation obtained in vitro diagnostic approval for the manufacturing and marketing of the DetectAmp SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Kit, a SARS coronavirus nucleic acid kit that detects the RNA of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

The novel coronavirus has accelerated the research and development activities in the in-vitro diagnostics market. Development and production in maximum numbers is the need of the hour. Therefore, quick approvals are proving to be the cherry on the cake for the growth of the in-vitro diagnostic market.



China IVD Market Segment Wise Analysis

Immunoassay captures maximum share of the China IVD market, being followed by Clinical Chemistry segment

Molecular Testing stands at the 3rd spot and its market share is expected to rise throughout the forecast period, due to steady demand of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products in China IVD market

IVD market China SMBG market is dominated by foreign IVD companies such as Roche

Microbiology and Hematology segments are competing closely with each other to grab maximum share of the pie

Point of Care Testing accounts for least share of the China IVD market

China IVD Market Company Analysis

Roche captures maximum share of the China IVD market, followed by Sysmex Corporation.

Shanghai Kehua Bio-Engineering Co. Ltd. and Abbott Laboratories are the other top two players in the China IVD market.

Sysmex has built a robust infrastructure in China , working with more than 400 sales distributors to provide products and services throughout the country

, working with more than 400 sales distributors to provide products and services throughout the country In Abbott's worldwide diagnostics business, sales growth over the last four years reflected the acquisition of Alere in October of 2017

In March 2022 , Mindray, a global leading medical solution provider, has launched the new BC-700 Series, a revolutionary hematology analyzer series that incorporates both complete blood count (CBC) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) tests

, Mindray, a global leading medical solution provider, has launched the new BC-700 Series, a revolutionary hematology analyzer series that incorporates both complete blood count (CBC) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) tests In February 2022 , Sysmex Corporation formed a capital and business tie-up with KAINOS Laboratories, Inc. with a view toward strengthening capabilities to develop and produce diagnostic reagents in the immunochemistry field

Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Impact of COVID-19 on China IVD Market



3. China IVD Market and Market Share Analysis (2010 - 2028)

3.1 China IVD Market and Forecast

3.2 China IVD Market Share and Forecast

3.3 China IVD Company Share and Forecast



4. China IVD - Segments Wise Market and Forecast (2010 - 2028)

4.1 China Clinical Chemistry Market and Forecast

4.2 China Immunoassay Market and Forecast

4.3 China Hematology Market and Forecast

4.4 China Coagulation Market and Forecast

4.5 China Microbiology Market and Forecast

4.6 China Molecular Testing Market and Forecast

4.7 China Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose (SMBG) Market and Forecast

4.8 China Point of Care Testing (POCT) Market and Forecast



5. Development Environment of Chinese IVD Industry

5.1 State Healthcare Reforms

5.2 State Citizen-Benefiting Policies

5.3 Requirements of Hospital Upgrading

5.4 Healthy China 2030



6. Profile of In-vitro Diagnostic Reagents Registration Control

6.1 Classification of In-vitro Diagnostic Reagents in China

6.1.1 Class III: Highest Risk

6.1.2 Class II: Medium Risk

6.1.3 Class I: Lower Risk

6.2 Regulatory History in China IVD Market

6.3 Regulatory Status in China IVD Market

6.3.1 Blood Screening Reagents - Drug Administration

6.3.2 Varieties of Blood Screening Reagents

6.3.3 Blood Screening Reagent Test

6.3.4 Nucleic Acid Detection Kits for Blood Screening

6.3.5 Radioactive reagents - Drug Administration

6.3.6 Diagnostic Reagents - Medical Devices Management

6.4 Regulatory Trend in China IVD Market

6.4.1 Blood Screening Reagents Belonging

6.4.2 Quality Improvement

6.4.3 Pre-Evaluation of Registration Standards



7. Registration for In Vitro Diagnostic Reagents in China

7.1 Registration and Filing

7.2 Filing Obligation for Clinical Trials

7.3 Clinical Trial Institutions

7.4 Elimination of IVD Loophole for Research

7.5 Change of Manufacturing Address

7.6 Change of Main Supplier of An Antigen or Antibody

7.7 China In Vitro Diagnostics Registration Update

7.7.1 IVD Product Registration in China

7.7.2 China IVD Type Testing Process

7.7.3 Clinical Trials for IVD Products in China



8. Reimbursement of IVD Products in China



9. China IVD Market - Key Players Sales Analysis (2010 - 2027)

9.1 Roche Diagnostics

9.2 Abbott Laboratories

9.3 Sysmex Corporation

9.4 Mindray Medical International Limited

9.5 Shanghai Kehua Bio-Engineering Co. Ltd.

9.6 Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc

9.7 Danaher Corporation

9.8 Biomerieux



10. Profiles of Select Private Clinical Labs and Diagnostic Services Companies

10.1 Dian Diagnostics Group Co. Ltd. (Formerly Zhejiang Di'an Diagnostics Technology Co., Ltd.)

10.2 ADICON Clinical Laboratories (Privately held)

10.3 Guangzhou KingMed Diagnostics Center Co. Ltd.

10.4 Kindstar Global (Privately held)

10.5 BGI-Shenzhen

10.6 OriGene Technologies



11. IVD Market - Recent Developments



12. IVD Market - Major Deals

12.1 2022

12.2 2021

12.3 2020

12.4 2019

12.5 2018

12.6 2017

12.7 2016



13. China IVD Market - Driving Factors

13.1 Government Efforts to Regulate Laboratory testing

13.2 Healthy China 2030 Initiatives to Fuel China IVD Market

13.3 Increasing Number of Private Hospitals & Independent Testing Laboratories

13.4 Chinese Government Policies Encourage Investment in IVD

13.5 Technology Advancement Spurring the IVD Market

13.6 High Prevalence of Chronic and Infectious Diseases



14. China IVD Market - Challenges

14.1 Lack of Expertise in Advanced Technology in the Local Companies

14.2 Price Pressures Limits Participation of Multinational IVD Companies in China IVD Market

14.3 Reimbursement Rates of Different Products Varies in Different Provinces

14.4 Operational Barriers Faced in Conducting Diagnostic Tests

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9r0qi9

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
STOCKHOLM, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- An annual general meeting was held in Mentice AB on 27 April 2022. Below follows a summary of the resolutions made at the meeting.

Adoption of the income statement and the balance sheet, the consolidated income statement and the consolidated balance sheet and discharge from liability

At the annual general meeting the income statement and the balance sheet, the consolidated income statement and the consolidated balance sheet for 2021 were adopted. The meeting resolved to discharge each member of the board of directors alongside with the CEO from liability for the financial year of 2021.

Resolution on allocation of the company profit

The meeting resolved not to issue any dividend to the shareholders for the financial year of 2021 and to instead add the profit to the retained earnings of the company.

Election of board members, chairman of the board and accountant

The annual general meeting resolved that the board of directors shall consist of seven ordinary members with no alternate board members. The meeting resolved, to the board of directors, elect Lawrence D. Howell, David Ballard, Denis Gestin, Gosta Johannesson, Johann Koss and Eola Anggard Runsten and Magnus Nilsson as ordinary board members. More information regarding the members of the board of directors is presented on the company website, www.mentice.com.

Lawrence D. Howell was re-elected as chairman of the board up and until 30 December 2022 and Magnus Nilsson was elected as chairman of the board from 30 December 2022 up and until the annual general meeting of 2023.

The meeting resolved that the company shall have one accountant with no deputy accountant. The meeting elected KPMG AB as accountant for the company until the annual general meeting of 2023. It was noted that the certified auditor Johan Kratz shall be the main responsible auditor.

Resolution on remuneration to the members of the board of directors and accountant alongside with remuneration to the audit- and remuneration committees

The annual general meeting resolved on remuneration for the board members consisting of a fixed amount of in total SEK 1,300,000 to be paid to the members of board of directors, of which SEK 100,000 shall be paid to Johann Koss, SEK 170,000 shall be paid each to Gosta Johannesson, Eola Anggard Runsten and David Ballard and SEK 360,000 shall be paid each to Denis Gestin and Magnus Nilsson.

The meeting resolved that remuneration to the audit committee shall be SEK 40,000 for the chairman and SEK 20,000 for each other member. Remuneration to the remuneration committee was resolved to be SEK 40,000 for the chairman and SEK 20,000 to each other member.

Furthermore, the meeting resolved that the remuneration to the company's accountant shall be paid in accordance with each approved invoice.

Resolution on the adoption of guidelines for remuneration to senior executives

The annual general meeting resolved to adopt guidelines for remuneration and other terms of employment for senior executives. The guidelines also apply to board members to the extent that they receive remuneration for services performed for the company or subsidiaries outside the board assignment.

Resolution to authorise the board of directors to issue new shares

The annual general meeting resolved to authorise the board of directors, until the next annual general meeting, on one or several occasions, with or without deviation from the shareholders' preferential rights, to resolve on new issues of shares and/or issues of warrants, entitling the holders to subscribe for new shares and/or issues of convertibles, entitling the holders to convert the convertibles to new shares. The purpose of the authorisation is to provide the board of directors with flexibility with regards to financing of the company and its accelerated expansion of the group, its markets and products. The maximum number of shares to be issued under this authorisation shall not exceed 2,476,885 shares, implying a maximum dilution of equity of approximately 10 per cent of all outstanding shares in Mentice AB at the time of this resolution proposal.

The resolutions in their entirety

The resolutions in their entirety are available at the company's webpage, www. mentice.com .

About Mentice AB

Mentice (www.mentice.com) is the world leader in software and hardware simulation solutions for endovascular therapies. Our solutions help healthcare professionals acquire, retain, and enhance their procedural skills driving improved productivity and outcome.

For additional information

Contact: Goran Malmberg, CEO Mentice AB

e-mail: [email protected], tel: +46 (0) 703 09 22 22.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/mentice-ab/r/communique-from-annual-general-meeting-in-mentice-ab,c3554945

SOURCE Mentice AB
NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DailyPay, a leading technology company on a mission to create a new financial system that works for everyone, proudly joined the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program and a diverse coalition of almost 40 other mission-driven organizations and businesses in a letter to call for the establishment of a Presidential Commission on financial inclusion.

The goal of the letter released today is to create a Presidential Commission that will bring together public and private sector experts to establish a shared vision for an inclusive and sustainable economy.

"We are proud to stand with the Aspen Institute and forward-thinking financial services companies for this incredibly critical endeavor that will support an inclusive financial system for all Americans," said Matthew Kopko, Vice President, Public Policy, DailyPay. "Financial inclusion is baked into the DNA at DailyPay, a mission-driven company focused on helping American workers break free from the cycles of debt caused by predatory lenders and overdraft fees with our proprietary on-demand payroll technology platform."

Partnering with America's leading employers, DailyPay is working to support the financial wellness of millions of workers with the benefit of on-demand pay. With the power of choice and control over their already earned wages, workers may be able to avoid payday loans and overdraft fees and gain more control over their finances. With the DailyPay Balance, workers have transparency into how much they earn each day. This clarity may help people plan their financial lives.

"We are grateful to the leadership of the dozens of organizations who have signed the letter calling for the creation of a Presidential Commission to develop a U.S. Financial Inclusion Strategy," said Ida Rademacher, Vice President at the Aspen Institute and Executive Director of the Financial Security Program. "Profound gaps in access to and take-up of key financial services must be addressed for families to access the wealth and prosperity generated by the U.S. economy. A national strategy would help federal agencies and the financial services industry understand their roles in these persisting inequities, develop coordinated strategies, and create the tools necessary to build a more inclusive financial system."

A Presidential Commission would aim to create a national and interagency financial inclusion strategy. The letter calls for an approach to "Making sure that every person in America has easy access to safe and affordable bank accounts, payment tools, saving and retirement accounts, credit, insurance, and safety net programs when needed."

"We believe a Presidential Commission will help us translate our values of financial equity and justice for all working Americans," added Kopko.

About DailyPay

DailyPay, Inc., powered by its industry-leading technology platform, is on a mission to build a new financial system. Partnering with America's best-in-class employers, including Dollar Tree, Berkshire Hathaway, and Adecco. DailyPay is the recognized gold standard in on-demand pay. Through its massive data network, proprietary funding model, and connections into over 6,000 endpoints in the banking system, DailyPay works to ensure that money is always in the right place at the right time for employers, merchants, and financial institutions. DailyPay is building technology and the mindset to reimagine the way money moves, from the moment work starts. DailyPay is headquartered in New York City, with operations based in Minneapolis. For more information, visit www.dailypay.com/press.

Media Contacts

David Schwarz

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE DailyPay
NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Vault Holdings Inc., the emerging leader in metaverse data visualization, valuation and monetization, today is honored to announce the management team consultancy appointment of Dr. Darrell Scott, co-founder of New Spirit Revival Center, radio show owner and host, and former advisor to President Donald Trump. Dr. Scott's appointment will provide a new foundation to access and provide diverse populations and communities with affordable, profitable, and human-centric data solutions. Dr. Scott offers a grassroots sensibility to connect Datavault's crypto technology to new opportunities in untapped markets such as religious and non-profit organizations.

"I am personally delighted to welcome such a strong candidate as consultant to the Datavault management team. Dr. Scott has illustrated exceptional commitment to his community, congregation, and faith, and understands the key role technology plays in building engagement. We are excited to channel the immense talents and expertise of Dr. Scott to further our mission of helping both nonprofit and for-profit organizations unlock intelligence and revenue-generating capabilities within their derivative data," said co-founder and CEO of Data Vault Holdings Nathaniel Bradley.

As Pastor of New Spirit Revival Center, Dr. Scott has served his congregation as an anointed teacher of God's Word. His Biblical knowledge and interpretation coupled with a tireless work ethic and business ingenuity have allowed his church to thrive for 22 years and positively impact numerous souls. Dr. Scott inspires a message of hope and restoration.

Dr. Scott also brings to the consultant role transferable media experience as radio host and owner of Cleveland Gospel radio station WCCD AM 1000. Radio 1000 has a listenership of more than 2.5 million people each month globally through primarily Christian programming daily. The station is also the recipient of a Stellar Award for Large Market Gospel Radio Station of the Year. Additionally, he has exercised entrepreneurial acumen through the launch of Urgency Records, which distributes chart-topping gospel music and merchandise. As a servant leader, Dr. Scott and his wife, Belinda Scott, have also renovated homes acquired from the city of Cleveland, Ohio to grant home ownership opportunities to church members. Dr. Scott will bring to the Datavault management team expertise in leadership, service, entrepreneurship, and relationship-building within the religious market, also applicable to the overall non-profit sector.

Furthermore, Dr. Scott brings a genuine interest, passion, and skill set for the technology sector, in utilizing technological channels to scale the New Spirit Revival Center from four members to serving thousands upon thousands. The church boasts an engaged presence on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Additionally, New Spirit Revival Center streams live and recorded sermons through its YouTube channel.

Pastor Scott brings leadership and community-building experience as Executive Member of The Presidential Transition Team, where he served as one of approximately 100 aides, governmental affairs officials, policy experts, and former government officials who helped to vet, interview, and recommend individuals for high-ranking cabinet and staff roles in the Trump administration. Dr. Scott also served as CEO of Donald Trump's National Diversity Coalition. In this role, he and respected leaders of the African American community met with the President to address social concerns and provide solutions through improved quality of life, employment opportunities, minority entrepreneurship, crime suppression and prevention, and urban redevelopment.

Dr. Scott offers a singular perspective and track record for cultivating the fortitude of his congregation through strength in God, and serving his community through adoption of technology and socially conscious initiatives. With unique assets including a deep commitment to service, as well as access to diverse data, Dr. Scott will provide new dimension and direction to the Datavault management team.

About Data Vault Holdings Inc.

Data Vault Holdings Inc. is a technology holding company that provides a proprietary, cloud-based platform for the delivery of branded data-backed cryptocurrencies. Data Vault Holdings Inc. provides businesses with the tools to monetize data assets securely over its Information Data Exchange (IDE). The company is in the process of finalizing the consolidation of its affiliates Data Donate Technologies, Inc., ADIO LLC and Datavault Inc. as wholly owned subsidiaries under one corporate structure. Learn more about Data Vault Holdings Inc. here .

Company Contact:

Data Vault Holdings Inc.

48 Wall Street, Floor 11

New York, NY 10005

1-844-DATA-400

Media Contact:

Angry Apples Marketing

1-844-GO-ANGRY

[email protected]

www.goangry.com

SOURCE Data Vault Holdings Inc.
Euroclear delivered a strong financial and operational performance in Q1 2022. Net profit increased +11% to EUR 134 million.

Operating income was up +10% year-on-year to EUR 438 million driven by strong business income growth, up +9% to EUR 405 million and Interest, Banking and Other income up 39% to EUR 32 million.

We increased our investments in technology in line with our strategy. Operating expenses increased to EUR 260 million, up 11% compared to Q1 2021.

Sanctions related to the invasion of Ukraine have led to increased cash held on our balance sheet, which are explained further below.

Infographic - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805340/Euroclear_1.jpg

Note: 2021 figures have been restated to include MFEX pro forma, in order to allow for like-for-like comparison.

Operational highlights

Throughout the first quarter, Euroclear continued to make strategic progress, while remaining focused on our responsibilities as a critical financial market infrastructure. This is reflected in the key operating metrics shown below:



Q1 total % change vs Q1 2021 Assets under Custody EUR 37 trillion +8% Number of Transactions 80 million +5% Turnover EUR 270 trillion +13% Fund assets under custody EUR 3 trillion +12% Collateral Highway EUR 2 trillion +18%

The integration of MFEX is progressing to plan as we combine MFEX's established fund distribution platforms with Euroclear's post-trade expertise to create a new end-to-end funds offering.

We have also made two strategic investments during the first quarter.

Firstly, we have further advanced Euroclear's digital strategy through our investment in Fnality, an international consortium of global banks and financial market infrastructures focused on building regulated payment systems to support the adoption of tokenised assets and marketplaces.

Secondly, we have progressed our sustainable finance and ESG strategy through an investment in Greenomy, a Belgium based sustainable finance technology platform. Greenomy helps corporates, credit institutions and asset managers comply with new European Union sustainable finance legislation by digitalising the data capturing and reporting processes.

As part of our commitment to ESG, we are pleased to announce that Euroclear has taken the important step to reduce its global carbon footprint by committing to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). We will now set CO2 reduction actions with the commitment to achieve net-zero value chain Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by no later than 2050.

Implications from the invasion of Ukraine and Sanctions

Our thoughts are with those affected by the humanitarian crisis resulting from the invasion of Ukraine. We have focused on supporting our staff, especially those of Ukrainian and Russian origin, as well as those in bordering countries.

Euroclear is complying with the international sanctions imposed in response to the invasion of Ukraine and has suspended all transactions with sanctioned entities since 28 February. In addition to ensuring all the sanctions are applied immediately and completely, our teams are supporting clients diligently in managing the exceptional situation. We are working closely with clients to apply all new rules fully and according to the spirit of the sanctions.

A consequence of the sanctions is that assets owned by sanctioned parties are blocked in the respective financial market infrastructures, including Euroclear. As the assets mature through their lifecycle, cashflows (e.g. coupons and redemptions) that are normally transferred to the underlying parties accumulate on our balance sheet for as long as the sanctions remain in place. We do not expect these sanctions to affect our financial performance. During the first quarter, Euroclear Bank's balance sheet increased by 23 billion year-on-year, for which the company is working on the mitigation of potential regulatory capital requirements.

In light of these circumstances, the Board of Euroclear considers it to be prudent to wait until the second half of 2022 to formally decide on the dividend payment of EUR 88.5 per share (equating to a total of EUR 279 million) as announced in its full year results.

Commenting on the results, Lieve Mostrey, Chief Executive Officer, said:

"The invasion of Ukraine is deeply troubling and our thoughts are with all who are impacted. As a financial market infrastructure, we have an important role to play in a turbulent world. I am proud of the staff response as our people mobilised swiftly to apply the sanctions; to support clients during the exceptional circumstances; and to contribute to relief efforts for those affected. From a financial and operational perspective, Euroclear continues to perform very well, achieving another strong quarter as we continue to deliver on our strategy."

Appendix: Financial Statements for Euroclear Bank and Euroclear Investments

Infographic - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805341/Euroclear_2.jpg

About Euroclear

Euroclear Group is the financial industry's trusted provider of post trade services. Euroclear provides settlement and custody of domestic and cross-border securities for bonds, equities and derivatives to investment funds. Euroclear is a proven, resilient capital market infrastructure committed to delivering risk-mitigation, automation and efficiency at scale for its global client franchise.

The Euroclear Group comprises Euroclear Bank, the International CSD, as well as Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear Finland, Euroclear France, Euroclear Nederland, Euroclear Sweden and Euroclear UK & International. The Euroclear Group settled the equivalent of EUR 992 trillion in securities transactions in 2021, representing 295 million domestic and cross-border transactions, and held EUR 37.6 trillion in assets for clients by end 2021. For more information about Euroclear, please visit www.euroclear.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/832898/Euroclear_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Euroclear
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With the changes in the STEM education landscape in their sights, Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto turned to Evodyne Robotics to help supercharge their school's curriculum.

Originally started as a company making extremely complex robots to help people in wheelchairs, Evodyne entered the educational robotics segment when the pandemic started by hosting an advanced summer robotics program for locked-down high-school students. With massive growth year over year, Evodyne's summer robotics program now sells out every summer.

Evodyne Robotics EvoDog Evodyne Robotics EvoArm

Gideon Hausner marks yet another successful collaboration of Evodyne with high schools and middle schools both public and private looking for well-designed robotics programs to improve student engagement. It joins Palo Alto High School, Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, Antelope High School, Graham Middle School, Grey's Creek High School in North Carolina, Sacramento County Office of Education among others in equipping their students with Evodyne robots and instruction since the pandemic began.

"Learning robotics is increasingly important for careers in STEM, and we are excited to bring Evodyne's unique style of robots and curriculum to our students to fulfill that need." - said Liat Baranoff, Science Department Chair at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto, CA.

"When Gideon Hausner reached out to us, we quickly worked with them to create a program that precisely matches their students' and instructor's needs. The specific robots were delivered swiftly and integrated into their current semester's curriculum" - said Raghav Gupta, Founder and CEO at Evodyne Robotics.

Evodyne Robotics designs and manufactures advanced educational and personal robots in Mountain View, California. Its robots and curriculum are deployed at several high schools across the nation.

Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School is a TK8 school in Palo Alto, CA, fostering academic excellence, community responsibility, and vibrant Jewish living.

Media contact:

Raghav Gupta

[email protected]

650-318-1534

SOURCE Evodyne Robotics
With over 800 investors considered, awardees, were determined based on feedback from portfolio company CEOs, firm colleagues and peers in the industry as well as our own proprietary research. The 2022 awardees represent a diverse set of individuals with backgrounds in medicine, science, and technology in addition to finance and investing. Across growth equity and growth buyouts in addition to emerging growth and venture, what these investors all have in common is demonstrated exceptional performance in the areas of investment selection, value creation, and ESG engagement.

"Capital is the least valuable asset that Ezra and HEP bring to the table; an informed perspective, an effective network and supporting leadership are what Ezra offers to his portfolio companies in spades, which drives accelerated growth," said Jon Elwell, CEO of Kno2.

Ezra is currently on the board of directors of Wildflower Health, Kno2, and Jvion. He previously served on the board of directors of AxiaMed (acquired by Bank of America), Applied Pathways (acquired by AIM Specialty Health, a division of Anthem, Inc), Centerpointe Behavioral Health System (acquired by Acadia Healthcare), InDemand Interpreting (acquired by Stratus Video/AMN Healthcare), and Twistle (acquired by Health Catalyst). He sits on the Harvard School of Public Health's Health Policy and Management Executive Council. He is on the faculty of Columbia Business School.

Ezra joined HEP in 2010, while completing his M.B.A. at Columbia Business School. Prior to joining the team, Ezra was a Senior Analyst at the Advisory Board Company, providing best practice consulting and research services to hospitals and health systems. After leaving the Advisory Board Company, Ezra served as a Senior Consultant in the healthcare practice of Booz Allen Hamilton focusing on engagements in the provider space.

Ezra holds a B.A. cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

View full list of awardees here: https://growthcapadvisory.com/the-top-25-healthcare-investors-of-2022/

SOURCE Health Enterprise Partners
Hyperspectral satellite technologies enable environmentally responsible decision-making

ESPOO, Finland, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Humankind faces tough challenges: we need to improve food security and productivity while reducing the associated climate risks. This is possible with the right adaptations, but the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights a gap between regional needs and actions taken  partly due to a lack of reliable information. Finnish space tech startup Kuva Space aims to bridge that gap with its constellation of satellites and Green Data platform so industries, governments and research institutions can make financially smarter and environmentally responsible decisions.

Kuva Space plans to build the world's most extensive hyperspectral constellation of 100 nanosatellites to capture the molecular composition of materials at scale. The company will transform this intricate space-borne data into actionable insights that customers can access via an AI-driven data platform. The company will play a critical role in land and water management, monitoring carbon emissions and measurement of carbon sequestration, and have a noticable impact in the field of climate action.

"The commercial use of nanosatellites will prove a pivotal moment in our global fight against climate change", says Jarkko Antila, CEO of Kuva Space. "We're all aware that urgent action is needed. However, it can be difficult for markets, organisations and other stakeholders to know which actions have the most positive long-term impact. Hyperspectral technologies complement field testing with highly detailed and extensive insights from space. What's more, they can unlock new applications that were previously unthinkable due to the cost of manual labour required. It's not surprising the sector is seeing rapid growth, and we're proud to say that Kuva Space is part of this growth journey."

"We've completed three successful satellite missions and are on track to launch our first commercial hyperspectral satellite in early 2023," explains Antila. "We're committed to transforming how industries respond to the urgency of climate change with data that was previously out of reach. Via our Green Data platform, companies can soon take a spaceborne data-driven approach to decision-making to reduce their impact on the climate and safeguard their financial interests. It's a win-win situation."

Industry applications

Hyperspectral nanosatellite technology solutions open up opportunities for various industry verticals, including carbon sequestration and environmental, safety and security, insurance and finance, precision agriculture and aquaculture.

Carbon management will deliver economic benefits worth 26 trillion US dollars by 2030, with the carbon credit market alone worth more than 50 billion US dollars. Organisations can compensate for their residual CO2 emissions by buying carbon credits on Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM) but reliable, verifiable and environmentally-robust data is currently lacking. Hyperspectral imaging from space will play a vital role in its development.

"For VCMs to thrive, we must help the market to develop beyond forestry to include other areas, such as agriculture where it's currently very hard to measure changes in carbon emissions accurately," adds Antila. "Spaceborne hyperspectral technologies enable the independent supervision of carbon sequestration across forests, oceans and agricultural sectors. More importantly, they will bring much-needed accountability, trust and pricing transparency to the entire market, fuelling its growth."

"The team at Kuva Space has the knowledge, experience and ambition to build the largest hyperspectral nanosatellite constellation in a relatively short period. It's exciting to see our market intelligence from space encouraging industries to take more action and implement climate-friendly policies while boosting our collective efforts to create a sustainable and prosperous future for all," adds Inka Mero, Chairman of the Board at Kuva Space.

CONTACT:

Ilonka Waterdrinker, Well PR

[email protected]

+447946682614

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE Kuva Space
The brand is offering free samples and limited-edition items at Smorgasburgs in NY & LA

HUNT VALLEY, Md., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- French's has flipped the world of Classic Yellow mustard  and its iconic bottle  upside down with the launch of its all-new line of Creamy Mustard Spreads. The new products offer mustard lovers that tang that they know and love with a new smooth finish in three mouthwatering, extra spreadable flavors: Creamy Yellow, Sweet Applewood and Honey Chipotle.

To celebrate the launch of the new creamy product line, French's has partnered with Smorgasburg, operator of the largest open-air food markets in the US, to let mustard lovers try the Creamy Yellow Mustard Spread flavor for free. On Sunday, May 1, 2022, French's will collaborate with Paper Plate at Smorgasburg Prospect Park, NY and Picnic Sandwich in Los Angeles, CA to allow attendees to sample the thick spread on favorite local fare. At the event, fans also have a chance to get a limited-edition Creamy Mustard Spread Picnic Kit with one-of-a-kind French's items and three creamy spread flavors*.

"We're so excited to 'spread' the love of mustard across the country by partnering with Smorgasburg. The new Creamy Mustard Spreads perfectly complement any sandwich and are so versatile. Top off burgers, whisk into dressings, add to deviled eggs, or stir into potato, tuna, shrimp or egg salad." said Jill Pratt, Chief Marketing Officer for McCormick. "They work well as condiments and ingredients."

For mustard lovers unable to stop by the in-person events, limited Creamy Mustard Spreads Picnic Kits are available at Frenchs.com. Look for the upside-down French's icon! The kit celebrates the launch of the new product line and will be shipped directly to French's fans from coast to coast free of charge*. Follow @Frenchs and @Smorgasburg to see fans enjoying the latest addition to the French's lineup. The Creamy Mustard Spreads are available in stores across the country starting at $2.99. Photos are available here.

*While supplies last.

About French's

French's was first introduced to the hot dog  and the public  at the World's Fair in 1904. It was love at first bite. Through the years, French's has become an all-American staple from the ballpark to the backyard to the holiday table. French's family of products includes Classic Yellow Mustard, Tomato Ketchup, Worcestershire Sauce, Crispy Fried Onions and more. Visit Frenchs.com for more information and recipes.

French's is one of McCormick & Company's (MKC) brands. As a Fortune 500 company with over $6 billion in annual sales across 170 countries and territories, McCormick is a global leader in flavor. Founded in 1889 and headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland USA, McCormick is guided by our principles and committed to our Purpose  To Stand Together for the Future of Flavor. McCormick envisions A World United by Flavor where healthy, sustainable, and delicious go hand in hand. To learn more, visit www.mccormickcorporation.com or follow McCormick & Company on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

CONTACT: Sunshine Sachs, [email protected]

SOURCE French's
Latest release enables control and flexibility with next-gen tools to rapidly modernize legacy data strategies in support of the multi-channel hybrid workplace.

- Single-platform solution starts with Global Relay's proprietary Extractor and Open Connector Network, allowing companies to import and connect any conversation on any channel

- Advanced AI tags and organizes multi-channel digital communications, significantly improving search efficiency and regulatory compliance

- For investigation and legal holds, Global Relay Customers now have 24/7 Discovery-as-a-Service data analytics support for rapid response

VANCOUVER, BC, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Relay, a leading provider of intelligent archiving and electronic communication compliance solutions, today announced the latest release of its Archive platform to help customers quickly upgrade their legacy data strategy in response to the permanent shift to multi-channel hybrid work.

The newest release of the cloud-first platform comes as a distributed workforce becomes the norm, spurring a proliferation of digital communication and collaboration channels. According to Gartner, the need for cloud-native digital workplace initiatives will continue to escalate, doubling in the next three years as companies seek to meet employee and consumer needs.

By unifying business communications, regardless of channel, companies can begin to mitigate the operational, reputational, and financial burden this rate of change places on legacy data strategies. With security and flexibility across the data lifecycle  import, tag, find, fine tune, export, discover  companies can fully embrace digital initiatives with a single, integrated archive platform.

"A company's archive is often seen as a Pandora's box of historical secrets tied to the past with little context for the future. We're changing that belief with our open archive," said Warren Roy, Global Relay CEO. "In this mission-critical, post-pandemic landscape companies should have clarity into their most important black box. We're making it easier to connect any conversation on any channel anywhere and retrieve that data, if needed, at a moment's notice."

"It's about making your archive work for you by engineering business intelligence and actionable insights from your business communications tools. You can't know where you're going if you haven't assessed where you've been," Roy said.

What's New at Global Relay

Easily migrate historic data from legacy archives to Global Relay's secure and flexible intelligent archive with the latest Global Relay Extractor.

Upgrade to Global Relay from Dell EMC SourceOne and Veritas Enterprise Vault on-premise archives with our new Global Relay Extractor for S1 (SOX) and EV (EVX)

Leverage Global Relay's Data Services expertise or certified technology partners throughout the upgrade process

Global Relay's exclusive Open Connector Network can rapidly connect digital communication channels across the continuum of traditional and emerging workplace collaboration and social apps.

Record traditional data types such as email and corporate texting

Capture channels such as Teams, Slack, Zoom, Symphony, Google Workspace, WhatsApp, text messages, and voice

Be risk-ready for emerging channels with an extensive API library ready to connect new data sources to the archive

Customers can now gain intelligent, actionable insights with Global Relay's advanced AI that not only stores information, but also tags and organizes it through a range of classifications that make searching easier and faster so companies always know what's in the archive.

Reduce false-positives for regulatory supervision with natural language processing, text analysis, and computational linguistics to measure sentiment in text and voice communications

Support for more than 100 languages in text/voice communication, enabling efficient supervision workflow management

Record and analyze metadata from employee conversations  the way they communicate, frequency, channels, and topics  to identify bad actors and policy violations





Customers can now identify, collect and present data at a moment's notice with the Global Relay Discovery-as-a-Service offering:

Get defendable search results for litigation, subpoena or investigation in seconds versus days

Manage risk and save money by bringing eDiscovery in-house with support from a dedicated Global Relay data services representative

Access managed service 24/7/365 days

"After two years of companies navigating constant business triage and rapid onboarding of new technologies, we're now at the birth of a new era that involves persistent connection, across new digital channels in a distributed business enterprise," Roy said. "With this latest release, we are galvanizing firms to fully realize the benefits of upgrading their data strategy."

In January, Global Relay was named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Information Archiving for the ninth consecutive time and also scored highest among vendors in all four use cases in the Gartner Critical Capabilities Report; Compliance, Archive, e-Discovery and Analytics.

About Global Relay

Global Relay is a leading provider of fully compliant, cloud-first message archiving, supervision, and eDiscovery solutions for the global financial sector and other highly regulated industries. The privately owned company delivers services to over 20,000 customers in 90 countries, including 22 of the top 25 banks. Global Relay Archive ensures support for email, instant messaging, Bloomberg, Refinitiv, social media, mobile messaging, and more for users of mobile, Microsoft Outlook and web-based platforms. For more information, please visit globalrelay.com. We're hiring! Learn more about life at Global Relay at globalrelay.com/careers.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1735049/Global_Relay_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Global Relay
Surge in geriatric population that is susceptible to hearing disorders, rise in prevalence of hearing loss, and increase in binaural fitting rate drive the growth of the global hearing care devices market.

PORTLAND, Ore., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Hearing Care Devices Market by Product (Hearing Aids, Hearing Implants), by Type of hearing loss (Sensorineural Hearing Loss, Conductive Hearing Loss), by End User (Hospitals & Clinics, Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs), Home-use): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030." According to the report, the global hearing care devices industry was estimated at $7.53 billion in 2021, and is anticipated to hit $12.5 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 5.8% from 2021 to 2030.

Download Sample PDF at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2130

Drivers, restraints, and opportunities-

Surge in geriatric population that is susceptible to hearing disorders, rise in prevalence of hearing loss, and increase in binaural fitting rate drive the growth of the global hearing care devices market. On the other hand, high cost of the devices and increase in drop-out rates of the patients from the treatment of hearing loss impede the growth to some extent. However, rise in adoption of technically advanced hearing care devices, such as cochlear implants is expected to create lucrative opportunities in the industry.

Covid-19 Scenario-

Millions of elective surgeries were either postponed or canceled so to reallocate the resources to manage COVID-19 patients. This, in turn, decreased the demand for hearing care devices market, thereby impacting the market negatively.

However, the market has already started recovering and is anticipated to get back on track soon.

The hearing aids segment to dominate by 2030-

On the basis of product, the hearing aids segment accounted for the highest market share in 2021, generating more than two-thirds of the global hearing care devices market. Growing awareness, rising burden of hearing loss, and technological advancements in hearing aids drive the segment growth. The hearing implants segment, on the other hand, is anticipated to cite the fastest CAGR of 8.13% from 2021 to 2030.

Specific Requirement on COVID-19? Ask to Our Industry Expert: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/2130

The home-use segment to lead the trail-

On the basis of end user, the home-use segment generated the highest share in 2020, holding more than two-thirds of the global hearing care devices market. This is due to rise in demand for home hearing test and hearing aids across the world. The Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs) segment, however, is expected to cite the fastest CAGR of 9.29% from 2021 to 2030.

North America, garnered the highest share in 2020-

On the basis of region, North America contributed to the major market share in terms of revenue 2020, holding nearly two-fifths of the global hearing care devices market. The Asia-Pacific region, simultaneously, is projected to cite the fastest CAGR of 6.01% from 2021 to 2030. This is owing to growing demand for sophisticated hearing care devices, large number of healthcare reforms, high prevalence of hearing disorders, and increased focus of key players for developing technologically advanced cost-effective devices.

Prominent market players-

American Hearing Aids

Cochlear Ltd

IntriCon Corporation

GN Store Nord A/S

amplifon

SONOVA.

WS Audiology

med-electronics, inc.

William Demant Holding A/S

starkey hearing technologies

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SOURCE Allied Market Research
"We are incredibly proud to be sponsoring our first Hyundai team in the Rebelle Rally," said Dana White, chief communications officer, Hyundai Motor North America. "Rebelle Rally is not only about the competition. It is also about empowering women and allowing them to showcase their strengths and skills. We are thrilled to be partnering with Jill and Kristin on this adventure and can't wait to see them in action in the Santa Cruz."

The Rally

Rebelle Rally blends the love of off-road driving with the ultimate challenge of precise navigation skills. It is not a race for speed, but a unique and demanding event based on the elements of headings, hidden checkpoints, and time. Distances and directions are calculated using maps and a compass. No cellphones or GPS navigations systems are permitted. In fact, cellphones are collected at the start of the event to ensure no cheating.

"When Jill and I decided to travel down the path to becoming competitors in the Rebelle Rally, we knew we wanted a vehicle that was both supremely capable and fun," said Kristin Shaw. "We're thrilled to be driving the unique Santa Cruz in this 1,500-mile rally and representing Hyundai, a brand that has been knocking it out of the park and establishing itself as a major player. I've been watching Hyundai evolve over the last several years and have been impressed by its innovative, intelligent approach to the market."

"Kristin and I decided more than a year ago that we wanted to travel this path together, and when we talked about who we wanted to work with, we immediately thought of Hyundai because of its progressive line of vehicles," said Jill Ciminillo. "More specifically, we loved the idea of taking the Santa Cruz, a new vehicle in an emerging segment, and showing the world what it can really do."

The Training at Rebelle University

To compete in the Rebelle Rally, Shaw and Ciminillo must complete a two-day navigation school and a two-day off-road driving school at Rebelle University. Training highlights include:

Sand driving and basic recovery techniques

Tires and vehicle trouble shooting

Map reading and interpretation

Plotting latitude and longitude

Route planning

The Drivers

Jill Ciminillo is a Chicago-based automotive writer, YouTube personality, podcast host, and the managing editor of Pickup Truck+SUV Talk. Her articles and videos appear in outlets throughout the U.S. Additionally, she co-hosts a weekly radio show on car stuff for a local Chicago station. Previously, Jill has been the automotive editor for both the Chicago Sun-Times News Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group. She is also a past president for the Midwest Automotive Media Association and has the distinction of being the first female president for that organization. Find her on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube at @jillciminillo.

Kristin Shaw has had a fascination with cars since her parents started taking her to classic car shows when she was a kid. Now she is a freelance journalist covering automotive and aviation for outlets like The Drive, Car and Driver, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, A Girls Guide to Cars, AutoWise, GearJunkie, Airport Improvement magazine, and more. She is the immediate past president of the Texas Auto Writers Association and a current member of the TAWA board. Find her on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @DriveModeShow and Twitter @KristinVShaw.

The Sport Adventure Vehicle: Santa Cruz

Multi-utility, secure open bed provides diverse gear-carrying flexibility

Powerful and efficient 2.5L turbo powertrain with HTRAC AWD capability

Compact footprint provides superior maneuverability in an open-bed configuration

Proudly built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) in Montgomery

Skid plate and off-road tires have been added for the desert driving

8.6 inches of ground clearance

Santa Cruz Limited offers a 2.5L direct-injected turbocharged engine with an estimated 275+ horsepower and 310+ lb.-ft. of torque linked to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission (DCT). All Santa Cruz models offer HTRAC all-wheel drive capability for complete confidence when pursuing adventures of all kinds or for that extra peace of mind when driving in an unexpected snowfall. The HTRAC AWD system was developed as a multi-mode system, providing an electronic, variable-torque-split clutch with active torque control between the front and rear axles. The Sport setting gives a more agile feel by sending more torque to the rear wheels, for a sporty, dynamic experience. This system has a wide range of torque distribution variability, tuned for conditions such as straight-line acceleration, medium- and high-speed cornering, and hill starts.

Hyundai Motor America

Hyundai Motor America focuses on 'Progress for Humanity' and smart mobility solutions. Hyundai offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs and electrified vehicles. Our 820 dealers sold more than 738,000 vehicles in the U.S. in 2021, and nearly half were built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. For more information, visit www.HyundaiNews.com.

Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

SOURCE Hyundai Motor America
RESTON, Va., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- iGov Technologies, Inc., provider of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat Systems, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) systems, products and support programs was awarded the Samsung Breakout Partner of the Year for 2022 at the Samsung Visual Experience partner awards dinner in Las Vegas. In 2021 iGov sold nearly 25,000 Samsung Tactical Edition devices.

"This award recognizes iGov's growth as a channel partner within the US Federal, DoD and International military and first responder markets," says Senior Vice President Chuck Reiche, "iGov stood up our Mobility Business in 2020 to service the tactical dismounted user community and has since become the world-wide market leader in sales and support of the Samsung S20 Tactical Edition End User Devices."

About iGov

iGov is an C5ISR systems integrator and Value-Added Reseller specializing in delivering specialized mission-centric solutions to its government customers. iGov is an industry leader delivering full lifecycle enterprise services, for mission-centric, Department of Defense programs in these areas: Tactical Networking, Software Development, Systems Engineering, Communications Systems, and C5ISR Products and Integration. For more information, visit www.igov.com.

Media Contact:

Chuck Reiche

[email protected]

SOURCE iGov
GMedical, which develops health monitoring systems, is in talks with a European network of hospitals that also participated in the conference. Synergy3dMed, which manufactures implants for surgeons using 3D printing, is in advanced talks with several hospitals to assimilate its solutions and is also in contact with a VC fund to which it was exposed at the conference. Medical device manufacturer IGIN Smart Technologies is in talks over establishing a production line in Eastern Europe. Appscent, which has developed an innovative medical device for sleep apnea, aroused significant interest among European hospital directors and is also in talks with IMPROVATE over a direct investment by the company. In addition, several other contacts between companies presenting at the conference and attending institutions are expected to mature into deals.

Leading medical professionals got together for a series of panel discussions and lectures on 'The Hospital of the Future,' 'Digital Medicine,' 'Innovative Medical Treatments,' and "Medicine in the Post-Pandemic Era.' The second day of the event was devoted to business networking between Israeli technology companies participating in the conference, and hospital directors, medical distributors, and buyers from across the region.

Opening the event, IMPROVATE Co-founder, Irina Nevzlin said that IMPROVATE had facilitated connections between over 200 businesses, held more than 20 conferences in less than two years since it was founded, and opened new markets for many of these businesses. "While IMPROVATE works across a diverse range of fields including cyber, HLS, and food and water-tech, medical innovation is our favorite field because it gives us the privilege to be part of saving lives."

Professor Ze'ev Rotstein, former head of both Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, and the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, who is a member of the IMPROVATE board and coordinates the company's activities in the med-tech field said: "We are standing at the beginning of a new era, a revolution driven by several trends: sensors, communications, data transfer, AI that enables quality insights in each and every field, robotics, and even 3D printing of tissues. These innovations will be routine in the near future and some of them already are. The IMPROVATE platform enables the spreading out of knowledge in the healthcare system and will help save lives".

Among those attending the forum were Professor Eyal Zimlichman, Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer at Sheba Medical Center; Ruth Ralbag, CEO of Clalit Health Services, the largest and leading HMO in Israel, Professor Ran Balicer, Clalit's Chief Innovation Officer; Dr. Andrei Baciu Secretary of State within the Romanian Ministry of health; Tibor Gulyas, Hungary's Deputy State Secretary for Innovation; Robert Kurucz, Managing Director of EuroMedic Trading, one of the largest wholesalers for hospitals and pharmacies in Hungary; Dr. Robert Mari, co-founder and CEO at Waberer Medical Center, the newest private Hospital In Hungary; Professor Ivo Petrov, head Of The Cardiology, Angiology, and Electrophysiology Department at Acibadem City Clinic Hospital, Sofia, Bulgaria; Dr. Istvan Komporaly, Managing Director Of Torus Pharma, which works in partnership with companies In Europe identifying business opportunities for them and providing support in launching on the Romanian market; and IMPROVATE board members, former Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev, former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, and former Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme.

Leading Israeli medical technology companies presented at the event: G-Medical, RenalSense, IGIN Smart, Appscent, Synergy 3d-Med, ALTA Medical, NeoPharm Israel, and Tuttenauer.

President Plevneliev told the forum that Central and Eastern Europe are a "region that is growing dynamically. It is here where we have a lot of dynamics, a lot of opportunities, and a lot of money available for projects that make sense... The solutions can be found in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. "

Speaking on a panel on the "Post-Pandemic Era," former Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme called "When you look at the response to Covid-19, there was no such thing as a global response ... We need strengthening investment in regional cooperation... and joint public-private sector initiatives to improve crisis readiness."

IMPROVATE CEO and co-founder Ronit Hassin Hochman said: "We are proud to bring groundbreaking technologies to Central and Eastern Europe and to be able to facilitate the transfer of life-saving technologies to the region."

Companies presenting at the forum included:

GMedical, a next-generation mobile health (mHealth) and e-health company that develops and markets clinical and consumer medical-grade health monitoring solutions, and offers end-to-end support for e-health projects.

RenalSense is dedicated to real-time renal diagnostics. The company's first product, Clarity RMS, is a critical care digital monitoring system for early detection of changes in renal function, acute kidney injury, and risk and treatment monitoring.

Tuttnauer specializes in sterilization and infection control solutions used and trusted in the healthcare and life-sciences industries in more than 140 countries.

Appscent Medical has developed an innovative medical device for sleep apnea and respiratory therapy based on breakthrough scientific research from the Weizmann Institute in Israel.

IGIN Smart Technologies from Singapore, which has an R&D center in Israel, is developing a revolutionary smart glove system that is changing hospital hygiene.

Synergy3DMed develops and manufactures patient-specific instruments (PSIs) for surgery, and manufactures implants, custom-made for surgeons, using 3D printing. Derived from the patient's imaging data, surgeons can use the PSIs to achieve more accurate and effective results.

ALTA has developed a simple-to-use, low-cost, seamless-to-install solution that allows on-demand remote collaboration between doctors, industry experts, and their patients. It provides healthcare affiliates and professionals the ability to remote proctor and consult on procedures in real-time, anytime, anywhere. The Alta Solution strengthens collaboration, streamlines workflow, improves efficiencies, and increases revenue.

SOURCE IMPROVATE
Acquisition further expands service offerings of Ingenovis Health, a leading diversified healthcare workforce solutions company backed by Cornell Capital and Trilantic North America

CINCINNATI and COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ingenovis Health, Inc. ("Ingenovis" or the "Company"), a leading healthcare workforce solutions company backed by private investment firms Cornell Capital and Trilantic North America, today announced that it has acquired VISTA Staffing Solutions ("VISTA") from Envision Physician Services. VISTA is a leading locum tenens healthcare staffing company with an extensive network of physicians and advanced practitioners nationwide serving hospitals, clinics, medical practices, and government agencies.

Formed in early 2021 by the combination of trustaff, Fastaff Travel Nursing, U.S. Nursing Corporation and CardioSolution, Ingenovis Health is one of the fastest-growing providers of healthcare workforce solutions in North America. The Company uses a holistic approach that combines shared service capabilities with enhanced technology to staff critical talent shortages within healthcare facilities and systems nationwide.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, VISTA has established itself as a valued staffing partner to healthcare service providers by optimizing physician staffing and ensuring quality and continuity of patient care. The acquisition of VISTA further diversifies Ingenovis' service offerings and significantly extends the Company's ability to solve complex staffing challenges in the physician and advanced practitioner category.

"One of the most critical nationwide challenges we will face in the coming years will be the shortage of experienced healthcare providers, and we are doing everything we can to be part of the solution," said Bart Valdez, CEO of Ingenovis Health. "By adding VISTA to the Ingenovis Health family, we expand our ability to offer comprehensive solutions and provide critically needed physicians and advanced practitioners to a broader market of clients nationwide. We are excited to collaborate with VISTA's talented management team and benefit from their deep network of talented providers."

The VISTA brand will become part of the Ingenovis Physician Services division, led by President Sean Ebner. Specializing in the placement of locum tenens as well as permanent placement providers, VISTA complements the Company's physician services offerings which currently include highly specialized physician outsourced talent solutions by the CardioSolution brand.

"Adding on the industry-leading locum tenens expertise of the VISTA brand significantly increases our capabilities to serve our customers' physician and advanced practitioner talent needs," said Ebner. "The VISTA team brings extensive expertise to recruit and deploy highly qualified providers to virtually all types of clinical environments."

"Against the backdrop of a turbulent healthcare market, the healthcare systems are in strong need of locum tenens solutions," said Andrea Nelson, Chief Operating Officer of VISTA. "We are excited to join Ingenovis as we work to meet this growing demand, ensure continuity of care, and provide the support and resources necessary to reduce burnout among healthcare workers. Ingenovis, with the unwavering support of Cornell Capital and Trilantic North America, has an industry-leading management team, and we look forward to partnering with them to add new capabilities, expand geographic reach, and deliver additional services while ensuring high quality patient care."

"Today's acquisition of VISTA marks the next milestone in Ingenovis' accelerated growth strategy to address the staffing challenges in the healthcare industry," said Stephen Trevor, Partner at Cornell Capital. "VISTA's established base of commercial and government clients is complementary to Ingenovis' client profile, and their direct relationships with leading healthcare systems will broaden and strengthen the Ingenovis platform. Together, Ingenovis and VISTA are well positioned to grow market share and continue providing solutions for clients across the healthcare industry."

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is acting as legal advisor to Ingenovis, Cornell Capital and Trilantic North America. William Blair is acting as financial advisor to Envision Physician Services, and Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC is acting as legal advisor.

About Ingenovis Health

Ingenovis Health is an ingenious new force in healthcare combining the power of industry-leading staffing firms and enhanced technology to advance delivery of critical healthcare clinicians to systems nationwide. Brands in the portfolio currently include trustaff, Fastaff Travel Nursing, U.S. Nursing Corporation, CardioSolution and HealthCare Support. For more information, visit www.ingenovishealth.com.

About VISTA Staffing Solutions

VISTA Staffing Solutions has over thirty years of experience providing award-winning customer service to clients and providers alike. Headquartered in Salt Lake City with additional offices in Atlanta and Houston, employs approximately 1,000 people between corporate staff and field clinicians and contracts with over 2,500 physicians across 60+ specialties and subspecialties annually. VISTA helps U.S. hospitals, medical practices, and government agencies optimize their physician staffing, ensure quality and continuity of care for patients, and maintain financial stability. As a leading provider of U.S. Locum Tenens and Permanent Physician Search Services, VISTA also operates, VISTA Select, a first-of-its-kind technology and services solution utilizing advanced data and analytics to provide healthcare organizations with customizable workforce optimization solutions.

About Cornell Capital

Cornell Capital LLC is a U.S.-based private investment firm with ~$6 billion of AUM and offices in New York and Hong Kong. Leveraging decades of global investment experience, the firm takes a disciplined approach to investing across the consumer, financial services, and industrials/business services sectors, often in companies that can benefit from the firm's Asia presence and cross-border expertise. Founded in 2013 by Senior Partner Henry Cornell, the former Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs' Merchant Banking Division, the firm is led by a highly seasoned team with significant shared investment experience. For more information, visit www.cornellcapllc.com.

About Trilantic North America

Trilantic Capital Management L.P. ("Trilantic North America") is a leading, growth-focused middle market private equity firm focused on control and significant minority investments in North America. Trilantic North America's primary investment focus is in the business services, consumer, and energy sectors. Trilantic North America has managed six private equity fund families with aggregate capital commitments of $9.7 billion. Trilantic North America has been recognized by Inc. Magazine's 2021 list of Top Founder-Friendly Investors and has been named one of Growthcap's 2021 Top 25 Private Equity Firms for Growth Companies. For more information, visit www.trilanticnorthamerica.com.

About Envision Physician Services

Envision Physician Services is a leading multispecialty medical group and healthcare service team specializing in anesthesia, emergency medicine, hospital medicine, radiology, surgical services and women's and children's health services. Its clinical leadership guides evidence-based practices to deliver integrated, cost-effective care and improve patient outcomes. Envision Physician Services partners with facilities in 45 states and the District of Columbia and employs or contracts more than 25,000 clinicians. To learn more about Envision Physician Services, a division of Envision Healthcare Corporation, visit www.EnvisionPhysicianServices.com.

Media Contacts

Ingenovis Health

Lauren Pasquale Bartlett

719-641-4838

[email protected]

Cornell Capital

Woomi Yun / Kate Thompson / Erik Carlson

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

212-355-4449

Trilantic North America

Claire Walsh / Allison Devaney

646-818-9177

[email protected]

SOURCE Ingenovis Health, Inc.
Employing the use of digital art tools including Photoshop, Unity, and Cinema 4D to reimagine the works of modernist art through the lens of cutting-edge technology, Mamiye's ambition of reframing authorship has allowed her to push the limits of her art and creativity to new levels across the mediums of photography, sculpture, and video.

Mamiye noted the significant meaning she expects the partnership to bring to her work, commenting: "Doodle Labs has allowed me to immortalize my work within the world of digital art, adding a new level of importance and meaning to my previous multi-dimensional work. The platform acts as a conduit in connecting artists like myself with the crypto community, opening new doors for collectors and art enthusiasts alike to discover my work."

The DeCiphers collection continues the conversation of nuance and authorship within the digital age and will be available in a limited quantity and drop of 1,000 NFT minted pieces at www.deciphers.doodlelabs.io .

Press Assets: HERE

Doodle Labs Social Media: Twitter / Discord / Telegram

About Doodle Labs Doodle Labs is dedicated to bringing established IRL artists and brands to the blockchain in an authentic manner. The platform is powered by Art Blocks generative minting technology, producing high quality one-of-one-of-x NFTS written on chain. For more information, please visit doodlelabs.io

About Irene Mamiye Irene Mamiye is a New York-based artist whose work incorporates photography, video, and digital imaging techniques. With light, color and movement, Mamiye blurs the distinctions between physical and virtual reality. Influenced by her own personal history and artists as diverse as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Gerard Richter, Mamiye employs intricate and labor-intensive processes to challenge what is expected of the photographic medium. Culling photographs from social media, Mamiye transforms the plentitude of public images into richly layered works that hint at a life lived between screens. With a playful yet mordant humor, Mamiye creates pieces packed with art historical depth and pop cultural abundance. Mamiye's extensive body of work, including digital images, videos and furniture designs has been widely exhibited across the United States, including in the Aperture Foundation's Photography is Magic, curated by Charlotte Cotton, and in the landmark show The Edge of Vision (2009). Mamiye's work was part of the Museum of Art and Design's Multiple Exposures: Jewelry and Photography (2014), and exhibited at SCOPE Art Fair, SELECT Fair (NYC), and Art Hamptons. Her work has been featured in the following publications: Architectural Digest, Interior Design Magazine, Vanity Fair, People Magazine, Elle Decor and InStyle. Irene Mamiye was born in Marseille, France and immigrated to the US as an adolescent. For more information, please visit www.irenemamiye.com

SOURCE Doodle Labs Corp
SKANES FAGERHULT, Sweden, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Concentric's Interim Report January-March 2022, will be published on 4 May 2022, at 08.00 CET. At 10.00 CET media, investors and analysts are invited to Stockholm City Conference Center Drottninggatan 71b, Stockholm, for a presentation of the report. There will also be an opportunity to participate via telephone conference/audio cast.

President & CEO Martin Kunz and CFO Marcus Whitehouse will host the presentation, which will be held in English and is followed by Q&A sessions. We look forward to your participation. See below detailed information:

WEBCAST LINK

Dial in numbers for the participants

Sweden: +46 (0)8 5051 0031

United Kingdom: +44 (0) 207 107 06 13

United States: +1 (1) 631 570 56 13

Reporting dates 2022

Interim Report JanuaryJune 2022 26 July, 2022

Interim Report JanuarySeptember 2022 2 November, 2022

For further information, please contact Lennart Lindell, +46 (0)766 104 004

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/concentric-ab/r/invitation-to-concentrics--presentation-of-the-interim-report-for-the-first-quarter-2022,c3553549

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE Concentric AB
Company highlights strong year over year growth in loan originations, return to profitability on an annual basis, and provides update on Post-Pandemic Growth Plan.

Total loan originations reached US$161.5 million in 2021, representing an increase of more than 90.3% over 2020 and surpassing all previous annual loan origination figures in the history of the Company.

in 2021, representing an increase of more than 90.3% over 2020 and surpassing all previous annual loan origination figures in the history of the Company. Total loans under management increased 72.5% in 2021 to $119.5 million over 2020 ( $69.3 million ) driven primarily by an increase of 109.4% in the servicing portfolio over 2020.

over 2020 ( ) driven primarily by an increase of 109.4% in the servicing portfolio over 2020. Servicing and fee revenue increased 89.8% to $10.1 million in 2021 from $5.3 million in 2020.

in 2021 from in 2020. Continued to support the future growth in loan originations as evidenced by an increase in adjusted operating expenses of 15.9% to $11.0 million in 2021 compared to $9.5 million in 2020.

in 2021 compared to in 2020. Achieved net earnings of $3.7 million on an IFRS basis in the year.

MONTREAL, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - IOU FINANCIAL INC. ("IOU" or "the Company") (TSXV: IOU), a leading online lender to small businesses (IOUFinancial.com), announced today its results for the year ended December 31, 2021.

"IOU Financial delivered on its 3 main goals for 2021: growing loan origination volumes to pre-pandemic levels, achieving a return to profitability on an annual basis, and laying the groundwork for scalable growth for years to come," said Robert Gloer, President and CEO. "We are proud of the team's performance in 2021 and even more excited about the opportunities ahead."

IOU Financial originated a total of US$161.5 million in loans in 2021, representing an increase of 90.3% over the previous year, surpassing pre-pandemic levels and establishing a new high-water mark in its 12-year history. The Company attributes a significant portion of its strong growth in loan originations to its successful transition from a balance sheet strategy (under which the Company traditionally funded loans to its balance sheet) to a marketplace strategy under which new loan originations are primarily being sold to institutional purchasers.

"IOU's marketplace strategy allowed the Company to originate significantly more volume in 2021 than would have previously been possible under the financial limitations of a balance sheet strategy," added Gloer. "This has proven to be a win-win that has in turn given us the financial latitude to repurchase approximately $3.7 million in convertible debentures in 2021 and invest in strategic growth initiatives as part of our Post-Pandemic Growth Plan."

Operating expenses, on an adjusted basis, increased 15.9% to $11.0 million in 2021 vs. 2020 by investing in innovation and resources as part of its Post-Pandemic Growth Plan.

"Our investments in strategic growth areas were designed to lay the groundwork for future growth and scalability, and we already started to see the initial benefits of these investments in 2021.", added Gloer.

The Company's Post-Pandemic Growth Plan, first announced as part of its Q1 2021 Financial Results, is based on 3 strategic pillars that lay the groundwork for future scalability and growth:

Technology innovation: The company announced major developments for its proprietary IOU360 platform including the introduction of new service portals for internal reporting and legal services in 2021 as well as the upcoming development of new service portals for Brokers, Product Development, Merchants and Investors, all designed to support greater efficiencies and the long-term scalability of the business.

The company announced major developments for its proprietary IOU360 platform including the introduction of new service portals for internal reporting and legal services in 2021 as well as the upcoming development of new service portals for Brokers, Product Development, Merchants and Investors, all designed to support greater efficiencies and the long-term scalability of the business. Product expansion: The Company launched its first new lending product, the IOU Financial Cash-Back Loan, in August 2021  an industry first resulting in increased brand awareness and demand; the IOU Financial 24-Month Loan  launched in November 2021  further supports these goals. Additional product innovations are planned and will be enabled by further development of the IOU360 platform in 2022.

The Company launched its first new lending product, the IOU Financial Cash-Back Loan, in  an industry first resulting in increased brand awareness and demand; the IOU Financial 24-Month Loan  launched in  further supports these goals. Additional product innovations are planned and will be enabled by further development of the IOU360 platform in 2022. Product distribution: The Company continues to expand its wholesale (IOU Financial) and retail (ZING Funding) distribution strategies to maximize its exposure to the economic recovery through both channels. ZING Funding was launched in June of 2020 and contributed $1.1 million in referral fee revenue in 2021.

IOU Financial's strong 2021 loan originations and progress towards its strategic goals demonstrate the Company's ability to continue capitalizing on the economic recovery and create value for investors by capitalizing on its marketplace strategy and investing in areas that support scalable growth.

OUTLOOK

In the first quarter ending March 31, 2022, IOU originated US$59.6 million in loans and set a new quarterly loan origination record in its history. For all of 2022, the Company is targeting loan originations in the range of US$220M to US$260M while continuing to invest in growth and scalability.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

The Company continues to focus on its marketplace strategy allowing it to accelerate loan origination growth. This strategy has the impact of placing more emphasis on servicing and fee revenue over interest revenue and cost of revenue associated with holding loans as part of a loan portfolio. Interest revenue decreased as the principal loan portfolio balance continues to wind down while servicing and fee revenue increased consistent with the increase in loan origination volume as well as the increase in the servicing portfolio.

Due to the wind down of the loan portfolio, there is nominal interest expense associated with the financing credit facilities in 2021 as IOU's two financing credit facilities were terminated in December 2020 and October 2021, respectively. Interest expense has decreased in 2021 as the Company was able to use its financial resources to repurchase approximately $3.7 million its convertible debentures in 2021.

In addition, the marketplace strategy will render the provision for loan losses irrelevant and IOU will continue to focus on cash collections on the remaining portfolio which may give rise to reversals in the provision for loan losses and recoveries of loans previously written off.

Please refer to the table below for adjustments made to IFRS gross revenue and operating expenses in order to better reflect the actual operating performance of the business.

Loan Originations: In 2021, the Company funded US$161.5 million in loans (2020: US $84.9 million), representing an increase of 90.3% over the same period last year.

Interest Revenue: Interest revenue decreased 91.7% to $1.0 million in 2021 from $11.8 million in 2020. The principal balance of the loan portfolio decreased 82.2% to $2.6 million in 2021 from $13.5 million in 2020 consistent with the transition to the marketplace strategy.

Servicing and fee revenue: Servicing and fee revenue increased 89.8% to $10.1 million in 2021 from $5.3 million in 2020. More specifically, servicing and fee revenue growth in 2021 over 2020 is attributable to the following:

Service fees earned on the servicing portfolio increased $2.3 million or 61.4% over 2020 as the average servicing portfolio increased by 47.3% over 2020.

or 61.4% over 2020 as the average servicing portfolio increased by 47.3% over 2020. Referral fee revenue earned by IOU's retail distribution operation (ZING Funding) increased to $1.1 million in 2021 from $0.5 million in 2020 as it facilitated approximately US$15.3 million in loan origination volume in 2021, representing an increase of 34.2% over 2020 ( US$11.4 million ).

in 2021 from in 2020 as it facilitated approximately in loan origination volume in 2021, representing an increase of 34.2% over 2020 ( ). Administrative and other fees earned on the servicing portfolio increased $0.5 million to $0.9 million in 2021 over 2020.

to in 2021 over 2020. Accelerated recognition of transaction costs on loans sold. This represents income earned on loans after taking into consideration loan origination sales costs. This income category increased by $1.4 million or 202.5% over 2020 as loan origination volume increased to US$161.5 million in 2021 from US$84.9 million in 2020.

Adjusted gross revenue: Adjusted gross revenue decreased to $11.1 million (2020: $17.1 million), representing a decrease of 35.3% for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.

Adjusted Net Revenue: Increased 68.9% to $10.7 million in 2021 compared to $6.3 million in 2020 due mainly to an increase in servicing and fee revenue of 89.8% and to decreases in interest expense of 54.3% to $1.3 million (2020: $2.8 million) and net recovery for loan losses of $0.9 million in 2021 compared to a net provision for loan losses in 2020 of $8.0 million. These decreases are attributable to the transition to a marketplace strategy which led to the discontinued use of financing credit facilities and a reduction of convertible debentures.

Adjusted Operating Expenses: Increased 15.9% to $11.0 million in 2021 compared to $9.5 million in 2020 mainly due to an increase in wages and salaries and data and IT costs as the Company continues to support the future growth in loan originations by investing in innovation and resources as part of its 2021 Post-Pandemic Growth Plan .

Adjusted Net Loss: IOU closed on its year ended December 31, 2021 with an adjusted net loss of $0.3 million compared to adjusted net loss of $3.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2020.

IFRS Net Earnings (Loss): IOU closed on its year ended December 31, 2021 with IFRS net earnings of $3.7 million, or $0.04 per share, compared to IFRS net loss of $(2.8) million or $(0.03) per share for the same period in 2020.

Adjusted and IFRS net earnings (loss)





For the year ended December 31 2021 $ 2020 $ Interest revenue 986,092 11,815,590 Servicing fees 6,048,422 3,746,601 Referral fee revenue 1,069,145 520,432 Administrative and other fees 895,769 362,772 Accelerated recognition of transaction costs on loans sold 2,078,030 686,937 Adjusted Gross Revenue 11,077,458 17,132,332





Interest expense 1,278,677 2,800,963 Net provision (Recovery of) for loan losses (925,548) 7,983,173 Cost of Revenue 353,129 10,784,136





Adjusted Net Revenue 10,724,329 6,348,196 Adjusted operating expense 11,033,325 9,523,257 Income tax expense 17,912 - Adjusted Net Loss (326,908) (3,175,061) Adjusted Net Loss per Share (0.00) (0.03)





Adjusted Net Loss (326,908) (3,175,061) Non-cash gain on sales of loans 7,018,006 2,857,268 Non-cash amortization of servicing asset (5,177,397) (3,004,811) Non-cash stock-based compensation (150,213) (137,345) Non-recurring gain -net 2,358,580 640,474 Net Earnings (Loss) per IFRS 3,722,068 (2,819,475) Net Earnings (Loss) per Share 0.04 (0.03)

IOU's financial statements and management discussion & analysis for the year ended December 31, 2021 have been filed on SEDAR and are available at www.sedar.com.

About IOU Financial Inc.

IOU Financial Inc. is a wholesale lender that provides quick and easy access to growth capital to small businesses through a network of preferred brokers across the US and Canada. Built on its proprietary IOU360 technology platform that connects underwriters, merchants and brokers in real time, IOU Financial has become a trusted alternative to banks by originating in excess of US$1 billion in loans to fund small business growth since 2009. IOU trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol IOU (TSXV: IOU), and on the US OTC markets as IOUFF. To learn more about IOU Financial's corporate history, financial products, or to join our broker network please visit www.IOUFinancial.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of IOU including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, dependence upon regulatory and shareholder approvals, the execution of definitive documentation and the uncertainty of obtaining additional financing. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. IOU does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

The Company uses certain non-IFRS financial measures as an alternative method to evaluate performance. These measures include adjusted gross revenue, adjusted net revenue, adjusted operating expenses, non- recurring gains and losses, adjusted net earnings (loss), adjusted net earnings (loss) per share. These financial measures may not be comparable to similar measures used by other issuers. The definitions for certain non-IFRS financial measures are provided below

Definitions

Adjusted gross revenue is defined as gross revenue prepared in accordance with IFRS for the period, plus amortization of servicing assets less gain on sale of loans. The Company uses adjusted gross revenue as another measure of financial performance. Specifically, it eliminates the non-cash gain on sale of loans and the non-cash amortization of servicing assets which influence operating results depending on the timing and amount of the loan sales.

Adjusted net revenue is defined as adjusted gross revenue less cost of revenue.

Adjusted operating expenses is calculated as follows: total operating expenses prepared in accordance with IFRS for the period less: stock-based compensation and non-recurring costs, plus non-recurring gains. The Company uses adjusted operating expenses as another measure of financial performance. Specifically, it eliminates non-cash stock-based compensation which is given at different times and prices and non-recurring costs and gains which affects operating results only periodically.

Non-Recurring Gain-net refers to adjustments to remove the impacts on operating expenses which are not incurred in the normal course of business and can fluctuate at different times and at various amounts.

The calculation of adjusted net (loss) earnings is defined as net (loss) earnings for the period prepared in accordance with IFRS less: non-cash gain on sale of loans and non-recurring gains, plus: non-cash amortization of servicing assets, stock-based compensation and non-recurring costs.

SOURCE IOU Financial Inc.
DENVER, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jewish National Fund-USA mourns the passing of Dr. Morton "Mort" Mower, a legendary member of the organization's King Solomon Society and World Chairman's Council, who was also the inventor of the Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD) and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) for congestive heart failure.

Drs. Toby and Mort Mower Drs. Toby and Mort Mower

"Dr. Mower loved Israel with a passion beyond words," said Jewish National Fund-USA President, Dr. Sol Lizerbram. "He even made it his mission last month to travel back to Israel with Jewish National Fund-USA to see the land and its people that he cherished so dearly. Because of Dr. Mower and his dear wife, Dr. Toby Mower, their philanthropic footprint is felt and seen throughout our Jewish homeland."

Dr. Lizerbram continued: "when Israel was on the brink of a water catastrophe 25 years ago, as the National Chair of our Parson's Water Fund, Dr. Mower worked with Ronald Lauder and Jewish National Fund-USA to do what the world's greatest civilizations had failed to achieve. Through his vision and support of our philanthropic investments in water infrastructure, Israel became the first civilization to overcome its water challenges and today recycles more water than any other country on earth."

"As a medical inventor, his innovations restarted the hearts of millions, yet he also gave a heartbeat to an entire nation  the land and people of Israel," said Jewish National Fund-USA Chief Executive Officer, Russell F. Robinson. "The world has lost a philanthropic luminary and I have lost a friend. While small in stature, Dr. Mower leaves behind a giant legacy."

One of the Mower's major commitments was in support of Jewish National Fund-USA's affiliate, Nefesh B'Nefesh, through the creation of the Toby & Mort Mower Pavilion at the organization's new Jerusalem campus, which has already seen thousands of Ukrainian refugees pass through its doors.

"Dr. Mower was one half of a philanthropic powerhouse couple," explained Robinson. "Together with Toby, they made numerous commitments that touched the lives of so many. I will never forget how Dr. Mower would look out over the hills of the Galilee from the Mower Observatory all the way towards the Negev Desert and watch his vision for Israel come alive."

The Mowers were also recipients of Jewish National Fund-USA's highest honors, including the Tree of Life and Heritage awards.

Robinson continued: "From gifting kindergartens and community centers to building water infrastructure and driving environmental initiatives in Israel, the life of every single Israeli has been made richer because of them. When I think of our people's great Zionist leaders, in the same breath as I say Herzl, Ben Gurion, and Meir, I also say Dr. Mort Mower. He accomplished more than most will achieve in a million lifetimes and his legacy will be perpetuated through our work for the land and people of Israel for generations to come."

Dr. Mower is survived by his wife, Toby, children Robin and Mark, Daughter-in-law Kathleen, and grandsons Mason, Luca and Zeke Mower

About Jewish National Fund-USA

JNF-USA is the leading philanthropic organization for Israel that supports critical environmental and nation-building activities in Israel's north and south. Through its One Billion Dollar Roadmap for the Next Decade, JNF-USA is developing new communities in the Galilee and Negev, connecting the next generation to Israel, and creating infrastructure and programs that support ecology, individuals with special needs, and heritage site preservation.

MEDIA CONTACT

Stefan Oberman

E: [email protected].com

P: +1.212.879.9305 x222

SOURCE Jewish National Fund-USA
Mavrck secures $135 million investment from Summit Partners to build a platform that drives revenue for brands and creators

BOSTON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mavrck , the leading influencer marketing platform for enterprise consumer brands, today announced it will join forces with Later, the leading social media marketing and commerce platform for small business owners and creators. The combination was funded with a $135 million strategic investment by global growth equity investor Summit Partners and represents a follow-on to the firm's December 2021 $120 million investment in Mavrck . Later will continue to operate as a standalone product and business unit, while working together with Mavrck to solve creator measurement and monetization at scale, to better serve both sides of the ecosystem  brands and creators. The Mavrck and Later technologies are positioned to capitalize on significant opportunities including social commerce and creator-based marketing through relationship management with brands of all sizes and creators of all types.

Mavrck and Later unite to solve social marketing measurement and monetization for the creator economy. Tweet this Later Co-Founder and President, Roger Patterson (left) and Mavrck Co-Founder and CEO, Lyle Stevens (right). Photo credit: Eric Wong

Providing More Meaningful Measurement of Business Impact

The influencer marketing industry is growing quickly  at an estimated CAGR of 30%  and is expected to reach $85 billion in spend by 2028, according to Research and Markets; however, the lack of sophisticated social analytics remains a critical pain point within the global creator economy. Meaningful measurement is frequently cited as one of the most pressing challenges for enterprise brand influencer marketers, who have largely relied on metrics such as views and engagements as a proxy for success. More meaningful bottom-of-the-funnel metrics tied to business outcomes and ROI remain elusive, but are critical to proving the value of creator partnerships in a brand's marketing mix. The benefit extends to creators as well; with the support of data-driven insights, creators can improve their monetization and collaboration opportunities with leading global brands.

"Creators add tremendous value to brands, but the ability to measure that value remains a challenge  creating tension between brands and the creators with whom they collaborate. Together, Mavrck and Later are committed to building an ecosystem of trust between marketers and creators  powered by proprietary data and designed to add transparency to the compensation process and fuel the growth of the creator middle class," said Lyle Stevens, Co-Founder and CEO of Mavrck. "Specifically, incorporating Later's social insights into the Mavrck platform will help brands search for creators based on historic traffic generated by Later's link-in-bio solution and, in turn, help drive a better brand fit. Creators become more desirable to brands when they've demonstrated an ability to convert consumers to action, improving their likelihood to monetize and collaborate with leading global brands."

Since its launch in 2016, Later's link-in-bio feature, one of the first Instagram bio link tools of its kind, has generated over 2 billion pageviews for users worldwide, capturing valuable insights on the social profiles and content that drive traffic. Almost 7 million creators and small business owners use Later's suite of social media tools to visually plan and schedule social content, drive traffic, and increase their sales. With this unique technology, coupled with providing free educational resources and content to their customer base, Later has helped millions of small business owners and creators grow their brands and businesses online. This investment follows a period of substantial revenue growth for Later and will help to further accelerate growth by expanding its business solutions for small businesses and creators.

"We've built a phenomenal platform designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs to manage their digital marketing, commerce, and customer relationships all in one place. Our notable scale is a result of the commitment we've placed on our role within that ecosystem," said Roger Patterson, Co-Founder and CEO of Later. "Later's leading technology paired with Mavrck's enterprise social proof platform will expand on that value even further. Together we'll nurture a symbiotic relationship between creators and brands, helping both to drive meaningful results to grow their businesses."

Reaching Consumers, Driving Revenue for Enterprise Brands

Since 2020, the average brand spend on the Mavrck platform has increased by 114 percent, a testament to the explosive growth of the influencer marketing industry, as people have turned to content creation as a secondary or primary source of income. Mavrck aims to help that rapidly growing creator class  an estimated 50 million people worldwide according to eMarketer  to better monetize their creative passions by connecting them with brands to deliver content people trust. Today, more than 5,000 marketing professionals at more than 500 global consumer brands rely on Mavrck's technology to more effectively access and manage relationships with content creators. Since 2014, Mavrck has activated more than 3 million creators and paid more than $200 million in incentives. Mavrck's petabytes of historical data from years of creator activations coupled with Later's proprietary data will support and accelerate the platforms' machine learning advancements and other product innovations.

"Together, we believe Later and Mavrck can empower both sides of this ecosystem  content creators and the brands that seek to harness their influence  with solutions and at a scale not yet seen in the creator economy," said Michael Medici, Managing Director at Summit Partners. "We look forward to working with Lyle, Roger and the entire team in their mission to solve a significant industry pain point for creators and marketers  and ultimately drive better business outcomes for both."

Stevens will lead a new senior leadership team comprised of leaders from both companies: Patterson will oversee the Later business unit as President and join the Board of Directors; Smith Anderson, Mavrck's Chief Customer Officer will become President of Mavrck's enterprise-focused business unit; and Robin de Pelham, Later's VP of People and Places is joining as Chief People Officer. Also joining the senior leadership team is Ian MacKinnon, Later's Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer and Sean Naegeli, Mavrck's Co-Founder and Chief Creator Officer.

The transaction closed in April 2022. Later was represented by Aqua Mergers & Acquisitions, and Mavrck was represented by Goodwin.

ABOUT MAVRCK

Mavrck is the all-in-one, advanced influencer marketing platform enabling global consumer brands to harness the power of social proof that consumers trust today. Marketers use Mavrck to discover and collaborate with influencers, advocates, referrers, and loyalists to create trusted content and insights for customer journey touchpoints at scale. Using its self-service influencer manager, Mavrck allows marketers to take an automated and performance-based approach to influencer marketing.

Founded in 2014, Mavrck has offices in Boston and Denver. Mavrck's platform has been recognized for its superior offering by the Shorty Awards and Retail TouchPoints' Retail Innovator Awards, honored as "Best Influencer Marketing Platform" by Digiday, is the #1 influencer marketing platform for the enterprise on software review site G2, and was named to the 2019 and 2020 Inc. 5000. Mavrck was also named a "Leader" among the top influencer marketing platforms in Forrester's evaluation, The Forrester New Wave: Influencer Marketing Solutions, Q2 2020.

ABOUT LATER

Later is the leading social media marketing and commerce platform that helps small business owners and creators grow their brands and businesses online. With a unique combination of tools, machine-learning-based recommendations, and education, Later makes it easy to visually plan & schedule social content, drive traffic, and increase sales  empowering customers to turn their passions into possibilities.

Proudly based in Vancouver, BC, Later started at a hackathon in late 2013. Six months later, Latergramme launched to almost 20,000 people waiting to use the first version. The Later web and iOS mobile app were launched in May of 2014. Shortly after, Later launched an Android mobile app and continued the journey into the visual content marketing space. Profitable and debt-free, Later has become the pioneer for visual marketing in the social and digital age, operating at the intersection of content, social, and commerce. Maintaining its market lead and independence, the company is now the leading visual marketing platform for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest in the world with over six million users, and in 2021 was ranked #18 in Canada in Deloitte's Fast 50 list, #119 in North America, and placed 51st in the Globe and Mail's Fastest Growing Companies list.

Media Contact:

Erin Dorr

VP, Marketing, Mavrck

740-274-0947

[email protected]

SOURCE Mavrck
Get the best sequencing results for all sample types and qualities

VIENNA, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lexogen, a transcriptomics and Next-Generation Sequencing company today announced the release of the new CORALL RNA-Seq V2 whole transcriptome library prep kit.

Whole-transcriptome analysis with RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) is at the cutting edge of NGS capabilities and allows to determine RNA molecules in a sample at the moment of sampling. The transcriptome is a highly dynamic cellular feature and RNA-Seq opens up a world of discovery potential. Among the most common applications of RNA-Seq are gene expression studies, for example transcriptional changes in response to drug treatment or during various states of development, as well as alternative splicing studies and analysis of transcript isoforms in different tissues or in health and disease.

CORALL RNA-Seq V2 builds on the proprietary Displacement/Stop and Ligation technologies introduced previously. It is a fast and flexible kit for whole transcriptome sequencing with a wide input range and exceptional performance even for low input (down to 1 ng total RNA) and compromised samples. In contrast to conventional WTS RNA-Seq, CORALL library preparation requires only 6 steps and can be completed in 4.5 hours. CORALL does not require RNA fragmentation and is thus perfectly suited for processing of highly degraded RNA or FFPE material.

CORALL RNA-Seq V2 adds several improvements to the well-established technology, enhancing the performance and robustness of the kit and introducing the possibility to adjust the library size without using RNA fragmentation! This new feature makes CORALL RNA-Seq V2 ideal for challenging RNA-Seq applications, such as isoform detection, transcript (re)-annotation or the study of fusion transcripts. The kit is available as standalone, as mRNA-Seq bundle including poly(A) selection and as Total RNA-Seq bundle including RiboCop rRNA depletion for highest quality in performance.

"We can support our researchers very well using Lexogen's CORALL RNA-Seq Library preparation." says Dr. Pamela Nicholson, Manager of the Next Generation Sequencing Platform at the University of Bern in Switzerland. "We find the protocol to be straight-forward and can generate very consistent libraries perfect for standard RNA-Seq projectsWith CORALL RNA-Seq V2 we now have the choice to generate libraries with longer insert sizes []. This is very useful, for example, for RNA-Seq for non-model organisms, for improved mapping for demanding projects, and for projects characterizing isoforms."

Learn more about the benefits of the CORALL RNA-Seq V2 Library Prep Kit.

About Lexogen

Established in 2007, Lexogen is a leading company in transcriptomics, next-generation sequencing, and RNA analysis. The mission of the Lexogen team is to empower their customers with innovative top quality RNA analysis solutions and support, in order to improve health and well-being for everyone and our planet. Lexogen is the leader in 3' RNA sequencing, a technology proven for its efficiency, its robustness, and its sensitivity. Lexogen's portfolio includes innovative kits for true single-cell as well as bulk RNA Sequencing, RNA purification and ribosomal RNA depletion, spike-in RNA variant controls, and metabolic RNA labeling. Lexogen also provides first-class, fully integrated RNA analysis services from experimental design to analytical reporting.

Lexogen is a privately held company, headquartered in Vienna, Austria with a subsidiary in New Hampshire, USA.

To learn more, visit www.lexogen.com and follow @lexogen.

Contact person:

Amra Dedic

Communication and Event Manager

Tel.: +43 660 69 66 045

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Lexogen
Liberty University Retaliated and Discriminated Against Student Rape Survivor Tweet this

According to the lawsuit, despite their knowledge of the incident, Liberty failed to take any action or protective measures in response. Instead, Liberty systematically demonstrated deliberate indifference, retaliated against Jane Doe, and perpetuated the sexually hostile and dangerous environment on and around campus.

As a result of Liberty's conduct, Jane Doe was deeply harmed, suffering significant damages. Her academic standing suffered, she was ostracized from the university community, accused by the administration of violating the "Liberty Way" (Liberty's code of student conduct), lived in regular fear of encountering her assailant on and around campus, and dealt with daily mental, emotional, and psychological trauma. Ultimately, Jane Doe was forced out of Liberty University.

Erika Jacobsen White, Principal at Joseph Greenwald & Laake and counsel for Jane Doe explained, "Liberty's treatment of Jane Doe is emblematic of the kinds of institutional barriers that sexual assault survivors regularly face in getting justice. Rather than immediately taking steps to protect our client, Liberty engaged in a pattern of retaliation that included failing to provide her with any reasonable accommodations at all in order as she was recovering from the trauma that she endured from being raped. Instead of ensuring Jane Doe's safety, Liberty engaged in classic victim-blaming, compounding her trauma,"

Ms. Jacobsen White continued: "Following her complaints, Liberty failed to take any meaningful steps to keep Jane Doe's assailant away from her, allowed him to continue to harass her on campus  even being assigned to the same housing as Jane Doe where she was raped - and then systematically targeted our client for allegedly violating the "Liberty Way" for associating with other students who were allegedly drinking. This kind of institutional discrimination, harassment, and retaliation is designed to silence victims and perpetuates a toxic culture of oppression."

As noted by Drew LaFramboise, Senior Counsel at Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, "Today's action unfortunately follows a number of other lawsuits alleging Liberty's Title IX violations in handling sexual assault and harassment claims by students or former students. Liberty has knowingly created and fostered a culture where sexual violence is ignored or swept under the rug, and far too many students have suffered as a result. Students should not be afraid for their safety or fear their school's response to reports of sexual assault. This suit seeks justice for our client, and we hope it will compel Liberty to make institutional changes to protect survivors of sexual assault."

The Complaint outlines the details of the case and the Title IX claims, negligence claims, and disability discrimination claims against the defendants: Liberty University, the student assailant, and the companies that owned and operated the off-campus housing where the attack occurred.

To learn more about Joseph, Greenwald & Laake's Title IX practice, click here.

About Joseph, Greenwald & Laake

Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A., is one of the most trusted law firms serving Washington, D.C., and the suburban Maryland area. For more than 50 years, our law firm has represented a variety of clients, including individuals, small businesses and multimillion-dollar corporations. From simple to complex legal needs, our law firm is prepared to deliver strategic solutions with high standards. Call or e-mail us at Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A. to schedule a consultation with an experienced attorney. We offer reliable counsel on how best to proceed and what your rights and responsibilities are.

Media Contact:

Lauren Smith, MBA

[email protected]

(240) 498-8123

SOURCE Joseph Greenwald and Laake
MTX developed the structured environment and solution that The Unquiet Professional needed. The tailored solution supports day-to-day operational requirements such as contact database management, donor intake process, event management and website updates. This work ultimately enables The Unquiet Professional to spend more time helping families in need and less on administrative functions. In addition, the platform tracks and streamlines any support requests efficiently and thoughtfully. MTX recently became a member of the Salesforce.org Partner community, whose focus is on building powerful technology for and with our community of nonprofits, schools and philanthropic organizations. MTX will continue to tailor solutions and maximize social impact by helping nonprofits like The Unquiet Professional operate effectively, raise funds and connect with their communities.

"The impact that The Unquiet Professional has on our military community is extraordinary," said MTX Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer Nipa Nobel. "This partnership is another example of our MTX family directly contributing to community impact. Giving back to the military men and women who have served and sacrificed is a great honor. MTX will continue to use our platform to create meaningful outcomes and carry on the legacy of Michael H. Simpson."

Krista Simpson Anderson co-founded The Unquiet Professional after receiving support in the wake of her husband's death, U.S. Army Green Beret Staff Sergeant Michael H. Simpson. In honor of his heroic sacrifice, The Unquiet Professional is dedicated to all military families who have served and sacrificed at home and abroad. MTX and The Unquiet Professional aim to support those who serve through awareness programs and services.

"It takes a village. I know firsthand how important community is when you've experienced trauma or simply navigating military life," said The Unquiet Professional Co-Founder Krista Simpson Anderson. "I was blessed with the support for our family in the wake of Mike's death. The Unquiet Professional was founded out of grief and gratitude, making it a gift to serve in this capacity today. We want to be that village for others which, thanks to the MTX Group and their incredible team, we will have the capability to do so more thoughtfully and efficiently. I am so grateful MTX Group is a part of our village, allowing us to evolve our programs and services to better support our community. Nine years ago today, our family was notified of Mike's accident in Afghanistan, and I feel it is so special to share such a meaningful partnership with the world as we honor and remember Mike and the life he so vibrantly lived."

Salesforce, .org and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.

ABOUT MTX GROUP

MTX Group Inc. (MTX) is a global technology consulting firm that enables organizations to modernize through digital transformation. With data as the new currency, MTX helps transform long-term strategy with outcomes in mind around happiness, health and the economy. MTX improves decision-making with speed and quality by leveraging the mavQ AI platform and partnering with leading cloud technologies.

ABOUT THE UNQUIET PROFESSIONAL

The Unquiet Professional is a registered 501(c)3 charitable organization committed to recognizing, honoring, and empowering our nation's Gold Star & Surviving Families, Veterans, and military families by providing purposeful opportunities to heal from the wounds of war. Through awareness initiatives and empowering support programs, The Unquiet Professional is committed to making noise for those who serve. Founded by Krista Simpson Anderson and Andrea Rinaldi, The Unquiet Professional is in honor of Michael H. Simpson, the loudest Green Beret they ever knew. SSG Simpson succumbed to wounds from an improvised explosive device attack in Afghanistan while serving with 1st Special Forces Group. He is laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

SOURCE MTX Group
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA has selected three investigation teams to join the agency's Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC) mission science team in studying Earth's upper atmosphere, as well as five additional investigations that will be under consideration for inclusion in the mission.

GDC is a coordinated group of satellites that will provide the first direct global measurements of the dynamic and complex region of space enveloping Earth  known as the ionosphere and thermosphere (I-T) region. The constellation's ability to simultaneously study processes operating across a range of temporal and spatial scales will provide an unprecedented level of understanding of this region. GDC will fundamentally advance scientists' understanding of this interface to Earth's space environment much like early weather satellites did for global weather systems. The three GDC investigations selected for flight have a combined budget of $149 million to design and deliver their instruments to the mission.

"GDC will greatly increase our understanding of and ability to mitigate the effects of space weather," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "What we learn from GDC about I-T is both critical for missions in low-Earth orbit, and a critical ingredient for understanding orbital debris in that domain."

Planned for launch no earlier than September 2027, GDC will orbit in the same altitude range as the International Space Station, approximately 215 to 250 miles above Earth. This region is where Earth's I-T system strongly responds to energy inputs from the Sun and space environment above, and from the lower atmosphere below  and where it internally redistributes this energy throughout near-Earth space. The processes and dynamics active in this region can lead to many of the space weather effects we experience on Earth, such as disrupted communications and navigation signals, satellite orbit disruptions, and certain triggered power outages. GDC will provide the scientific foundation necessary to understand space weather processes, leading to the ability to better prepare for and mitigate its effects.

The newly selected investigators will join the GDC Interdisciplinary Scientists selected in November 2021: Rebecca Bishop at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, Yue Deng at the University of Texas in Arlington, and Jeffrey Thayer at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The three selected investigations are:

The Comprehensive Auroral Precipitation Experiment (CAPE)

CAPE will measure high-energy charged particles entering the upper atmosphere from Earth's space environment. These particles deposit energy into the upper atmosphere, powering processes that cause large-scale redistributions of mass and energy. CAPE's instrument uses electrostatic analyzers, which are able to precisely measure these charged particles. CAPE is led by Daniel Gershman at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Atmospheric Electrodynamics probe for THERmal plasma (AETHER)

AETHER will describe the complex nature and structure of the ionosphere focusing on understanding phenomena that contribute to space weather. AETHER's instrument is a Langmuir probe, which measures electron temperature and density, as well as other features, of the near-Earth plasma. AETHER is led by Laila Andersson at University of Colorado, Boulder.

Modular Spectrometer for Atmosphere and Ionosphere Characterization (MoSAIC)

MoSAIC will measure thermospheric winds and the composition of the thermosphere-ionosphere by observing the charged and non-charged particles within near-Earth space. MoSAIC's instrument is a quadrupole mass spectrometer, which filters these particles by mass for detailed analysis. MoSAIC is led by Mehdi Benna at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in Baltimore.

The five investigations selected by NASA for further consideration will each receive $250,000 to conduct an approximately four-month study. At the end of this period, NASA will select up to two investigations to join the GDC mission.

The following three investigations are being considered for delivery of magnetometers to the GDC spacecraft:

Magnetic Field Investigation for Currents and Energy Flow in Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Coupling (MAG) , led by Guan Le at NASA Goddard

, led by Guan Le at NASA Goddard Near Earth Magnetometer Instrument in a Small Integrated System (NEMISIS) , led by Mark Moldwin at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor

, led by at MAGnetometers to Advance GDC (MAG), led by David Miles at University of Iowa in Iowa City

The following two investigations are being considered for delivery of thermal plasma instruments to the GDC spacecraft:

Thermal Plasma Sensor for the Geospace Dynamics Constellation (TPS) , led by Philip Anderson at University of Texas in Dallas

, led by at 3-Dimensional ion velocity and composition Imager (3DI), led by Keiichi Ogasawara at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio

As part of GDC's continuing formulation activities, NASA will release a draft Request for Proposals for the mission spacecraft. For more information see the Contract Opportunity notice.

The GDC mission is managed by the Heliophysics Division's Living with a Star Program at NASA Goddard.

For more information about the GDC mission, visit:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/gdc/

SOURCE NASA
WASHINGTON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A new analysis by Ernst & Young (EY) finds that employee-owners of privately held businesses called "S corporations" (S ESOPs) benefit from far better retirement savings and job security compared with other U.S. workers.

The analysis  which EY conducted on behalf of the Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA)  examines trends in S ESOP retirement plans from 2002 through 2019, including S ESOP plans' net asset value, number of participants, average account balances, and distributions to participants.

EY's key findings include:

S ESOP assets and participants grew significantly since the beginning of the millennium, and assets grew faster than participants, leading to higher assets per participant .

since the beginning of the millennium, and . S ESOP employee-owners saw returns at rates higher than the stock market .

. S ESOPs distributions to employee-owners, typically when they retire, totaled more than $77 billion from 2002-2019.

An individual employee-owner participating in an S ESOP gets nearly $26,000 each year as an added benefit. This figure takes into account firm contributions, increased job security, and growth in S ESOP assets.

"Time and again, data show that the S ESOP model provides substantial added benefits to hardworking Americans who are able to be owners of their businesses," said Stephanie Silverman, President and CEO of ESCA. "From amassing significant retirement savings to enjoying outstanding job security and more, employee ownership of private businesses has a proven track record of helping American workers and businesses thrive, even in the most challenging of climates."

At a time when financial stability and retirement security are at the top of Americans' minds, Silverman added, "our elected leaders should seize the opportunity to encourage the creation of more S ESOP companies. The U.S. House took a helpful step in this direction by including a partial incentive for business owners to transition to employee ownership in the bipartisan SECURE Act, aimed at increasing retirement savings, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support last month. We are hopeful that the U.S. Senate will include a similar incentive in their own bipartisan retirement savings legislation."

EY's findings build on a growing body of data and research demonstrating the valuable benefits of employee ownership to American workers and businesses.

A recent study by the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) found that employee ownership of private businesses through employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) provided exceptional resiliency and financial security in the face of pandemic-driven economic challenges. In reporting on the study, NBC News noted that while record numbers of Americans have quit their jobs in what has been dubbed the "Great Resignation," workers at employee-owned private businesses are "staying put and reaping rewards" in a sharp contrast with the "deep disaffection among workers" at many traditional companies.

A 2021 survey by John Zogby Strategies also found that workers at employee-owned S corporations (S ESOPs) reported being on significantly more stable financial ground than other U.S. workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To read EY's full findings, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about the Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA), CLICK HERE.

SOURCE Employee-Owned S Corporations of America
Last year, the ASPCA assisted the Animal Rescue League of Iowa (ARL) with the rescue of more than 500 dogs who were living in horrific conditions at a USDA-licensed dog breeding facility in Iowa. Despite observing over 200 violations of the AWA at this facility  including dogs who were sick and dying from injuries and disease, dogs housed in cages that were too small to turnaround, and dogs standing in waste  the USDA continued to permit the licensee to operate, never confiscating any dogs who were suffering and never issuing any penalties against the breeder.

This case is part of an ongoing pattern of the USDA failing to enforce the AWA, even when conditions are extremely poor, and dogs are dying. In response to this disturbing case, the ASPCA worked with a bipartisan group of federal lawmakers including U.S. Reps. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Susan Wild (D-Pa.) and Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), to introduce Goldie's Act (H.R. 6100), named in honor of a Golden Retriever who suffered extreme neglect and died before she could be rescued from this USDA-licensed facility in Iowa. USDA inspectors did not intervene but instead documented Goldie's deteriorating condition for months and though they had the authority to save her, they did nothing.

"For decades, the USDA has failed to enforce the law intended to protect dogs in puppy mills, and this research confirms that Americans overwhelmingly support stronger enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act to protect dogs and hold puppy mills accountable," said Nancy Perry, senior vice president of ASPCA Government Relations. "Goldie's Act will require the USDA to do its job to protect dogs in federally licensed facilities and we are grateful to have influential advocates like Eric McCormack and Edie Falco using their voices to speak out against puppy mill cruelty. We thank Representatives Axne, Fitzpatrick, Quigley, Malliotakis, Wild, and Buchanan for introducing this lifesaving bill and we urge Congress to pass Goldie's Act to ensure dogs receive the protection they deserve."

Goldie's Act would require the USDA to conduct more frequent and meaningful inspections, confiscate dogs who are suffering, and impose deterring monetary penalties against licensees who violate the law. It will also require the USDA to share information about suspected cruelty and neglect with law enforcement agencies.

In honor of National Animal Advocacy Day (April 30), the ASPCA is hosting a week of action from April 25-30 to urge the public to contact their members of Congress and ask them to pass Goldie's Act. To raise awareness about the bill, the ASPCA released a new video and has enlisted the support of award-winning actors Eric McCormack and Edie Falco to encourage the public to get involved. Last week, McCormack and his rescue dog, Wallace, participated in an Instagram Live discussion hosted by the ASPCA, and Falco, whose dog Sami was rescued from a puppy mill, is lending her voice in a recorded message and sending an email message to animal advocates.

"As an animal lover, it's unconscionable to me that the USDA's failed policies have allowed horrific cruelty to proliferate at federally licensed puppy mills for decades," said McCormack. "The shocking inhumanity at the USDA-licensed facility in Iowa that led to the death of Goldie cannot be tolerated, and I encourage everyone to speak out against this abhorrence to hold puppy mills accountable."

"My dog Sami spent two years living in a box, in the dark, without a name. She was forced to have puppies who were sold to pet stores, and that was her life," said Falco. "I'm grateful that my dog Sami was rescued, but thousands of other dogs like Goldie aren't as lucky and these dogs will continue to suffer in puppy mills across the country if the USDA doesn't do its job. Goldie's story is tragic, but we can prevent other dogs from meeting her fate by urging Congress to pass Goldie's Act."

For more information about the ASPCA's efforts to protect dogs in commercial breeding facilities or to support Goldie's Act, please visit www.aspca.org/goldiesactweek.

About the ASPCA

Founded in 1866, the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) was the first animal welfare organization to be established in North America and today serves as the nation's leading voice for vulnerable and victimized animals. As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation with more than two million supporters nationwide, the ASPCA is committed to preventing cruelty to dogs, cats, equines, and farm animals throughout the United States. The ASPCA assists animals in need through on-the-ground disaster and cruelty interventions, behavioral rehabilitation, animal placement, legal and legislative advocacy, and the advancement of the sheltering and veterinary community through research, training, and resources. For more information, visit www.ASPCA.org, and follow the ASPCA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

SOURCE ASPCA
HUNTINGTON, Ind., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Northeast Indiana Bancorp, Inc., (OTCQB: NIDB), the parent company of First Federal Savings Bank, has announced that the Corporation will pay a cash dividend of $0.30 per common share. The dividend will be payable on May 26, 2022 to shareholders of record on May 12, 2022.

Northeast Indiana Bancorp, Inc. held its twenty-seventh annual shareholders' meeting on April 26, 2022. The shareholders elected Stephen E. Zahn and Christopher D. Cook as directors of the company for terms to expire in 2025. The shareholders approved the Northeast Indiana Bancorp, Inc. 2022 Equity Incentive Plan.

The book value of NIDB's stock was $37.60 per common share as of March 31, 2022. At the close of business on April 25, 2022, the stock price was $46.40 per common share and the number of outstanding shares was 1,205,435. The annualized dividend yield at the current stock price is 2.6%.

Northeast Indiana Bancorp, Inc. is headquartered at 648 N. Jefferson Street, Huntington, Indiana. The company offers a full array of banking and financial brokerage services to its customers through its main office in Huntington and five full-service Indiana offices in Huntington (2), Warsaw and Fort Wayne(2). The Company is traded on the OTC Markets Group, Inc. (www.otcmarkets.com) utilizing the OTCQB platform under the symbol "NIDB". Our web site address is www.firstfedindiana.bank.

SOURCE Northeast Indiana Bancorp, Inc.
LOS ANGELES, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The California families harmed by medical negligence who launched the Patients for Fairness coalition (http://www.patientsforfairness.org) responded favorably to news of a potential legislative deal to raise the 47 year old cap on medical malpractice damages. The families said the legislation would eliminate the need for the Fairness for Injured Patients Act to go before voters in November 2022.

Families are available for on-camera and phone interviews in communities across California.

Scott Olsen, a board member for Consumer Watchdog, became a proponent of the Fairness for Injured Patients Act after the cap reduced a $7 million verdict for his son's lifetime of blindness and disability to $250,000. Only the official proponents of the ballot measure  Olsen and Bree and Nelson Moreno, whose daughter was also permanently injured by medical negligence  have the power to withdraw the measure from the ballot.

"If the legislature fully enacts the meaningful reforms in this proposed comprise before June 29th, I will agree to withdraw the Fairness for Injured Patients Act from the ballot," Olsen said. "Although it is too late for our family to benefit from this change, other families should not have to endure the same suffering ours has over the last three decades. It's high time that the California legislature and all parties recognize that there should not be a fixed, one size fits all cap on human suffering and that survivors of medical negligence, regardless of their income level, deserve legal representation and accountability."

Learn Steven Olsen's story: https://www.patientsforfairness.org/stevenolsen/

Charles Johnson's 39-year old wife Kira died during childbirth at Cedars Sinai when her bladder was lacerated during a C-section and her symptoms negligently ignored for 10 hours while she bled out. Johnson is the Chair of the Fairness for Injured Patients Act.

"This ballot measure is about justice for families, especially women of color who experience more medical negligence in a biased health care system and then are denied accountability because of California's outdated, one-size-fits-all cap. If the legislature approves this compromise, families will finally be able to find an attorney and have their day in court. That's what I wanted for Kira. If lawmakers pass this deal, I can tell my sons we restored Californians' access to justice," said Charles Johnson.

Learn more about Kira Johnson: https://www.patientsforfairness.org/kirajohnson/

Tammy and Tim Smick learned of the cap when they lost their 20-year-old son Alex, who was administered a toxic overdose of medications in the hospital.

"The outdated cap prevented my family from getting justice for Alex. The only thing we could do was turn our grief into a fight to prevent the same thing from happening to another family. If the legislature approves this compromise, families will finally have their day in court. It will restore Californians' access to justice and that is an historic win," said Tammy Smick.

Learn Alex Smick's story: https://www.patientsforfairness.org/alexsmick/

Annette Ramirez lost all four of her limbs after a routine hysterectomy when a cut bowel and raging infection burned her skin from the inside out.

"Since the day I learned the cap meant the most I could receive for my two years in the hospital, many surgeries, the loss of all four limbs, and all my other trauma was $250,000, I have been fighting to prevent other Californians from facing the same outdated cap. This deal will help level the playing field for patients with catastrophic injuries such as my own, and that is a step towards justice," said Annette Ramirez.

Learn Annette Ramirez's story: https://www.patientsforfairness.org/annetteramirez/

Among the provisions of the proposed legislative compromise are a scaling up of the cap to $1 million in wrongful death cases and $750,000 in personal injury cases after ten years, as well as allowing survivors to sue both the provider and institutions for up to three separate caps, depending upon the circumstances.

Medical negligence survivors would see an increase of the cap to $350,000 in personal injury cases and $500,000 in wrongful death cases next year, with increases of $40,000 and $50,000 respectively every year for ten years, and a 2% cost of living increase annually after 10 years.

Injured patients and their families could receive the cap up to three times if an institution was involved in the medical negligence, and if an unaffiliated institution or provider committed a separate act of negligence. In total a survivor could receive up to $1,050,000 next year in an injury case and $1,500,000 in a wrongful death case, and up to $2,250,000 after 10 years for injuries and up to $3,000,000 after 10 years for death.

Attorney fee caps are also reset, based on whether a case is settled before or after it is filed or if it goes to court. And doctors will be free to apologize to patients and even acknowledge mistakes without their apology being held against them in court.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog
DUBLIN, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Perrigo Company plc (NYSE: PRGO), a leading provider of Consumer Self-Care Products, today announced that it will release its first quarter 2022 financial results on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. The Company will also host a conference call beginning at 8:30 A.M. (EDT).

The conference call will be available live via webcast to interested parties in the investor relations section of the Perrigo website at http://perrigo.investorroom.com/events-webcasts or by phone at 888-317-6003, International 412-317-6061, and reference ID # 7280612. A taped replay of the call will be available beginning at approximately 12:00 P.M. (EDT) Wednesday, March 11, until midnight Wednesday, May 18, 2022. To listen to the replay, dial 877-344-7529, International 412-317-0088, and use access code 8916166.

About Perrigo

Perrigo Company plc (NYSE: PRGO) is a leading provider of Consumer Self-Care Products and over-the-counter (OTC) health and wellness solutions that enhance individual well-being by empowering consumers to proactively prevent or treat conditions that can be self-managed. Led by its consumer self-care strategy, Perrigo is the largest store brand OTC player in the U.S. in the categories in which it competes through more than 9,000 SKUs under customer 'own brand' labels. Additionally, Perrigo is a Top 10 OTC company by revenue in Europe, where it markets more than 200 branded OTC products throughout 28 countries. Visit Perrigo online at www.perrigo.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements." These statements relate to future events or the Company's future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements of the Company or its industry to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "forecast," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or the negative of those terms or other comparable terminology. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While the Company believes these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, including: the effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its variants and the associated supply chain impacts on the Company's business; general economic, credit, and market conditions; the impact of the war in Ukraine, including the effects of economic and political sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union, and other countries related thereto, and/or the outbreak or escalation of conflict in other regions where we do business; future impairment charges; customer acceptance of new products; competition from other industry participants, some of whom have greater marketing resources or larger market shares in certain product categories than the Company does; pricing pressures from customers and consumers; resolution of uncertain tax positions, including the Company's appeal of the draft and final Notices of Proposed Assessment ("NOPAs") issued by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the impact that an adverse result in any such proceedings would have on operating results, cash flows, and liquidity; pending and potential third-party claims and litigation, including litigation relating to the Company's restatement of previously-filed financial information and litigation relating to uncertain tax positions, including the NOPAs; potential impacts of ongoing or future government investigations and regulatory initiatives; potential costs and reputational impact of product recalls or sales halts; the impact of tax reform legislation and healthcare policy; the timing, amount and cost of any share repurchases; fluctuations in currency exchange rates and interest rates; the Company's ability to achieve the benefits expected from the sale of its Rx business and the risk that potential costs or liabilities incurred or retained in connection with that transaction may exceed the Company's estimates or adversely affect the Company's business or operations; the consummation and success of the proposed acquisition of HRA Pharma and the ability to achieve the expected benefits thereof, including the risk that the parties fail to obtain the required regulatory approvals or to fulfill the other conditions to closing on the expected timeframe or at all, the occurrence of any other event, change or circumstance that could delay the transaction or result in the termination of the securities sale agreement or the risks that the Company's synergy estimates are inaccurate or that the Company faces higher than anticipated integration or other costs in connection with the proposed acquisition; the consummation and success of other announced and unannounced acquisitions or dispositions, and the Company's ability to realize the desired benefits thereof; and the Company's ability to execute and achieve the desired benefits of announced cost-reduction efforts and strategic and other initiatives. An adverse result with respect to the Company's appeal of any material outstanding tax assessments or pending litigation, including securities or drug pricing matters, could ultimately require the use of corporate assets to pay such assessments, damages from third-party claims, and related interest and/or penalties, and any such use of corporate assets would limit the assets available for other corporate purposes. These and other important factors, including those discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, as well as the Company's subsequent filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made only as of the date hereof, and unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Perrigo Company plc
"Collaborating on this campaign was a great experience. We had a lot of fun creating the photos and content. The clothes are comfortable and feel great to wear which is what I love about H&M," says Pete Davidson.

"We are thrilled that Pete Davidson is the face of our new menswearcampaign. Pete encapsulates everything H&M loves about the new menswear mood, with his self-confidence and play with personal style. He is so relatable, inspiring guys around the world to create the moment with their look themselves," says Henrik Nordvall, Global Business Unit Director for Menswear at H&M.

H&M's new campaign celebrates the new menswear movement that puts personal style to the front of stage. As traditional codes break down and a new generation finds its own language, men's fashion becomes a place where every moment counts. The campaign shows the power of clothes to express who we are, no matter what the occasion.

The campaign features a cast wearing the new season of H&M pieces mixed with favorites from past H&M menswear collections, reflecting the new mood in fashion inspired by evolution. The campaign encourages men around the world to enjoy what they already own, buy vintage, and add new pieces that matter from H&M's menswear collections. It's a holistic approach that moves beyond complete seasonal changes to a new way of fashion for all of us.

Pete Davidson is a stand-up comedian, actor and writer, one of the world's biggest stars thanks to his humor, talent and approachability. Pete has been on the cast of Saturday Night Live since he was 20 years old, and has also co-wrote, executive produced and starred in the film King of Staten Island. His personal style is as individual as his humor, recognized for his experimentation and play with fashion.

Download campaign images: here

View the campaign video: here

Contact Information:

[email protected]

SOURCE H&M
Bloombox Club's new online platform comes under a new domain, https://bloomboxfrance.fr/, which integrates PlantX's signature e-commerce and innovative digital infrastructure that was designed to improve online user experience and boost customer satisfaction. All online purchases made via the French Bloombox Club platform will be fulfilled through the same centralized distribution system originating in the Netherlands that is used for the other Bloombox Club e-commerce activities in Europe.

"Market research positions France as a major player in the lucrative indoor plants market,1 which is why we are confident that Bloombox Club's latest expansion achievement will have multifaceted impacts that will accelerate PlantX's business goals," said PlantX CEO, Lorne Rapkin.

"Bloombox Club's e-commerce presence has been expanding at a rapid pace, as demonstrated by the launch of its operations in different European countries on an almost monthly basis," said PlantX Founder, Sean Dollinger. "This is a significant marker of PlantX's scalability potential due to its established e-commerce technology. We expect this innovative digital ecosystem to attract even more opportunities for e-commerce success, and we are more than ready to make the most of this strong growth momentum."

About PlantX Life Inc.

As the digital face of the plant-based community, PlantX's platform is the one-stop-shop for everything plant-based. With its fast-growing category verticals, the Company offers customers across North America more than 5,000 plant-based products. In addition to offering meal and indoor plant deliveries, the Company currently has plans underway to expand its product lines to include cosmetics, clothing and its own water brand  but the business is not limited to an e-commerce platform. The Company uses its digital platform to build a community of like-minded consumers and, most importantly, provide education. Its successful enterprise is being built and fortified on partnerships with top nutritionists, chefs and brands. The Company eliminates the barriers to entry for anyone interested in living a plant-based lifestyle and thriving in a longer, healthier and happier life.

About Bloombox Club

Bloomboxclub Limited is a UK-based indoor plant and natural product shop and subscription company that brings indoors the great outdoors to boost its customers' health and well-being. Bloombox sources, curates, and tells the story of its indoor plants and superior natural products for the home and delivers them to its customers' doors. Bloombox has created an active community loyal to its brand by curating its products and educating its customers on the plants' genus and benefits.

The Company website is http://investor.PlantX.com/.

To visit the Company's YouTube channel, click here .

Forward Looking-Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "likely," "should," "would," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "potential," "proposed," "estimate," "believe" or the negative of these terms, or other similar words, expressions and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy. The forward-looking information contained herein includes, without limitation, statements relating to Bloombox Club's operations in France and the business and strategic plans of the Company.

By its nature, forward-looking information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and that give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate; that assumptions may not be correct; and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. A variety of factors, including known and unknown risks, many of which are beyond our control, could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information in this press release including, without limitation: the Company's ability to comply with all applicable governmental regulations including all applicable food safety laws and regulations; impacts to the business and operations of the Company due to the COVID-19 epidemic; the conflict in Eastern Europe; a limited operating history; the ability of the Company to access capital to meet future financing needs; the Company's reliance on management and key personnel; competition; changes in consumer trends; foreign currency fluctuations; and general economic, market or business conditions.

Additional risk factors can also be found in the Company's continuous disclosure documents, which have been filed on SEDAR and can be accessed at www.sedar.com . Readers are cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. The forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this press release and is based on the beliefs, estimates, expectations and opinions of management on the date such forward-looking information is made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE PlantX Life Inc.
Polymer redacts and remediates employee exposure of sensitive data in near real-time via Google Drive, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other SaaS platforms

NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Polymer ( www.polymerhq.io ), a no-code SaaS DLP solution, announced today that its platform can redact and remediate employee exposure of sensitive data in near real-time via Google Drive, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft OneDrive, Github, Box, and other SaaS platforms without slowing your business.

"The data shows that humans, not technology hacks, remain the biggest security threat to organizations," says Yasir Ali, Founder and CEO of Polymer and former investment banker. "In fact, less than 10% of employees are responsible for 71% of risk from data breaches or accidental exfiltration. This is especially true in the aftermath of the Great Resignation where some employees are misusing or stealing company data."

The most widespread risks in our remote work culture is the unintentional exposure of sensitive data, whether it be patient, financial, or other data via the ubiquitous tools we use every day such as Google Drive, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. "When employees share links in public forums or via remote tools such as Slack, Google Drive, and Microsoft Teams, they are unwittingly creating multiple copies of that link," says Ali. "This becomes very unmanageable and makes the company vulnerable to cybersecurity hacks."

"Polymer intelligently redacts and remediates employee exposure of sensitive data in context using natural language processing (NLP)," says Luke Page, VP Operations of Polymer. "This ensures that we don't just remediate information with a blunt, 'blanket-style' approach like other DLP tools do, which often further slows down operations and frustrates employees.

"Security awareness and training are important, but often fall short in influencing all behavior. Polymer DEP nudges users when sensitive data is shared insecurely to make employees better data stewards while also redacting or removing the infraction preventing sensitive data exposure. The combination of training and enforcement is key."

Polymer offers complimentary scans or free trials to new customers. Learn more about Polymer at www.polymerhq.io .

About Polymer

Established in 2020, Polymer is a no-code data exposure prevention (DEP) solution based in New York City. Polymer prevents sensitive data loss across SaaS platforms such as Google Drive, Slack, and Microsoft Teams without slowing down an organization's business. With Polymer, organizations can redact and remediate HIPAA, PCI, GDPR, CCPA, PHI and other data in near real-time. Learn more about Polymer at www.polymerhq.io .

Contact: Luke Page, [email protected]

SOURCE Polymer
PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Prospero Winery & Grapes is very proud and honored to announce that 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of our family owned & operated business. Since our initial start in 1972, Prospero Winery & Grapes has established and relished in the rich tradition of home-based, local winemaking; we believe locals, businesses, and visitors to the Mid-Hudson region deserve to have access to the finest, highest-quality wine and grapes available in the industry. Prospero Winery & Grapes and our Pleasantville, NY winery sources continue to supply expertly-grown grapes and juices for home production, commercial use, and local consumption. As our organization celebrates our 50th anniversary, we're reaffirming our rooted traditions and sharing an inside look at our generational commitment to quality.

Prospero Winery & Grapes' origins date back to 1972, when our founder, Tony Prospero, started selling California wine grapes from a fruit stand, in order to help home winemakers produce their own hand crafted wine. From there, he quickly moved into supplying winemaking equipment as well, creating multi-generational relationships with clients and establishing his own reputable branding. Over 25 years later, in 1999, Prospero established his own bonded winery operation, growing his platform and continuing to provide affordable wines to local residents. Our commitment to offering well-known California-sourced grapes, combined with our rich family heritage, has allowed us to launch more community-friendly and environment-conscious projects, including:

In 2001, we introduced a yearly Home Winemaker Competition for passionate winemakers and enthusiasts in our local area.

In 2018, we installed solar panels at our Pleasantville, NY facility and organized a perpetual "Refill Your Own Wine" program, all in an effort to be more environmentally-friendly.

facility and organized a perpetual "Refill Your Own Wine" program, all in an effort to be more environmentally-friendly. In 2020, we launched a Home Winemaker Competition Dinner fundraiser to support the Blythedale & Maria Fareri Children's Hospitals. Prospero Winery & Grapes is dedicated to helping these hospitals for years to come. More information about this annual competition dinner can be found at https://www.prosperowinery.com/dinner/ .

As we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2022, we are proud to share our Prospero family hobby, winemaking, with local home winemakers. At Prospero winery, we strive to create new, expressive wines for everyday enjoyment. We're proud to welcome more individuals, families, and commercial businesses in the Westchester County and Mid-Hudson region into our family legacy and to share our traditions with you!

Learn more about Prospero Winery at https://www.prosperowinery.com .

About Prospero Winery & Grapes:

Prospero Winery & Grapes is a winery and grape supplier for local winemakers and wine enthusiasts in Pleasantville, NY. With a rich family tradition in winemaking, its world-class winemakers continue to bring the quality and taste of the Gold Coast to the Mid-Hudson region. Prospero is trusted by wineries throughout the U.S. and Canada as a provider of everything needed to make fine wine. From freshly-harvested grapes and juices to commercial winemaking equipment, Prospero has it all.

Contact: Melissa Prospero

(914)769-6252

[email protected]

SOURCE Prospero Grapes
The experienced executive will help drive the bank's digital operations and scale Quontic's growing suite of digital products and services.

NEW YORK, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Quontic Bank announced today that Adriana Ramon will join the adaptive digital bank as Senior Vice President, Digital Bank Operations to provide strategic leadership and oversight to the bank operations team.

"Adriana brings a long track record of innovating and improving outdated processes in the banking industry," said Steve Schnall, CEO and Founder of Quontic. "I'm pleased to welcome her to the team and look forward to working alongside her as we reinvent what a digital bank can do for its customers."

With more than 25 years of financial services experience, Adriana will be responsible for developing, enhancing, and redesigning Quontic's customer experience journey. She will also focus on enhancing all deposit operations in support of Quontic's mission to further streamline its digital operations.

"I'm thrilled to join a mission-driven bank like Quontic and help drive this adaptive digital bank's strategy and product development," said Adriana. "Quontic has a fantastic reputation and I'm so proud to be working alongside such a talented team, all while creating some of the most innovative digital products and services in the industry."

Prior to joining Quontic, Adriana served as First Vice President, Digital Bank Operations for Safra National Bank of New York, where she helped launch its digital bank offerings and created the operational infrastructure to support the bank's products. Before that, she served as Senior Vice President at Zero Financial, which was acquired by Avant, where she built the Operations and Customer Support Center infrastructure and led the teams aimed at supporting disruptive products in the banking industry. She held a variety of roles at The Bancorp, FleetCor, First Data Corporation and Scotiabank, where she began her career.

For an image of Adriana, please go here .

About Quontic

Quontic is the adaptive digital bank that empowers its customers financially while embracing their diverse circumstances. Quontic's disruptive banking platform reimagines traditional banking with adaptive lending and innovative deposit products that transcend legacy banking inequities. Quontic's mission to break the system for financial empowerment stands in the face of big banks and proves there is a better and more equitable way to put the customer first. The bank focuses on truly understanding and serving the underdogs, entrepreneurs, gig-economy workers, immigrants, and more with a curated banking experience as opposed to a one-size-fits-all banking approach. Quontic is a privately held company based in New York, New York. Learn more at QuonticBank.com. Follow and connect with Quontic on Facebook and Instagram.

Media contact:

Danny O'Keefe

3109069374

[email protected]

SOURCE Quontic
NEW YORK, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of the securities of IronNet, Inc. (NYSE: IRNT) between September 15, 2021 and December 15, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than June 21, 2022.

SO WHAT: If you purchased IronNet 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 IronNet class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=5641 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than June 21, 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. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the Company had materially overstated its business and financial prospects; (2) the Company was unable to predict the timing of significant customer opportunities which constituted a substantial portion of its publicly-issued FY 2022 financial guidance; (3) the Company had not established effective disclosure controls and procedures to reasonably ensure its public disclosures were timely, accurate, complete, and not otherwise misleading; and (4) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false, misleading, and/or lacked any reasonable basis in fact at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the IronNet class action, go too https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=5641 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

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

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
The company's disc-shaped monitor is about the size of an adult hand and powered by electrodes that can record a patient's activity and collect data on how hard their muscles are working. The data provides patients with a better understanding of how therapy is working their muscles, which activities are helping the most, measuring progress.

"I deeply believe in the technology we're developing," Randhawa said. "I know it's going to be helpful to people."

A junior at the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in bio neuroscience, Randhawa is also minoring in entrepreneurship at Rutgers Business SchoolNew Brunswick. He is an example of a generation of student entrepreneurs Rutgers is producing in an ecosystem of instruction, networking, and mentorship.

As a student, he is applying his classroom lessons almost instantly. As a chief executive officer, he is leading his team through the challenging real-world experience of founding a business.

"Akash is an amazing guy," said Rutgers Business School's Assistant Director of Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Programs Alfred Blake who invited Randhawa to join the inaugural cohort of the Entrepreneurship Living and Learning Community. "He's extremely disciplined, poised and relentless," Blake said. "He doesn't waste any opportunity."

Randhawa's determination comes through when he describes the reiteration of refining a pitch, learning what resonates with investors or navigating through the chip shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. "If you put a brick wall in front of me," he said, "I'll figure out a way through it."

After nearly two years and 15 pitch competitions, Randhawa and his team recently won two, including first place at the regional round of the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards. Members of the Smart MS3 team recently faced off against other students and alumni in Rutgers Business School's annual Business Plan Competition, winning a prize of $10,000.

The spring brought another exciting development when Randhawa learned that Smart MS3 was selected to be one of 12 startups selected for the TechStars NYC Accelerator Program.

Randhawa started his study of entrepreneurship serendipitously. In a conversation with Blake during his first days at Rutgers, he learned about the Entrepreneurship Living and Learning Community (LLC), which Blake had just started on the Livingston Campus.

The LLC brings together cohorts of freshman students from across the university who have an interest in entrepreneurship. During freshman year, they live together in dormitory, supporting and inspiring one another. For many it's the springboard into an ecosystem that fosters inventiveness and ingenuity. After speaking with Blake, Randhawa quickly moved from his dorm on the Cook Campus to join the LLC. "The business side was not something I expected," Randhawa said. "I was thinking I have this awesome idea. Why not join a group of like-minded people."

Blake introduced him to entrepreneurship instructor Mukesh Patel, who brings the experience of entrepreneur, lawyer, investor, and advisor to his teaching. With that introduction Randhawa gained entry to the Honor College's Innovation Lab where he connected with other student entrepreneurs. Three students from the Honors College are now part of his team. Patel also leads Road to Silicon V/alley, a student organization that Randhawa joined to network with other entrepreneur-minded students.

In addition to Blake and Patel, he counts RBS instructors Gary Minkoff and Kristy Fall among his mentors. One of his classes with Minkoff was a practicum that allowed him to focus on building his company and getting academic credit for it. The combination of science and business have "fed into each other," Randhawa said.

"I go to neuroscience class, and it teaches me more about the brain interfacing with the body and that gets directly applied to what I'm working on," he said. "On the business side, I go into entrepreneurship classes, and they tell me how to present, how to prepare a pitch deck, how to incorporate a company.

"I have such a short feedback loop of learning and implementation that the second I learn, a couple of days later, I'm already implementing the ideas," he said.

When Randhawa's team won the pitch competition in January, the accomplishment was a testament to practice and determination, but what mattered even more than the prizes was getting the company noticed by New Jersey's angel investment community.

"This win got us on the radar," he said. "It takes away the image of us being a group of college students to us being a team of founders working on something to change the world."

The Smart MS3 team consists of Randhawa's high school friend Varun Kota, a biology student at Nova Southeastern; Fahad Karim, a 2019 graduate from the University of Michigan, Rutgers alumnus Hammad Farooqui (SOE, '19); and Rutgers student Manu Sankaran (SAS, '23). The newest additions to the team are Rutgers Honors College students, Anna Zhang, (SAS '22), Iris Zhorov (SAS '24) and Rehan Yadav (RBS '24).

Even before the pitch win, Smart MS3's device was gaining validation in pilots run by a network of physical therapy clinics. The pilots are also helping to attract investors, including former Mr. Olympian bodybuilder Shenru Aangrish. To date, the team has raised $250,000 in financing. Within months, they expect to finish a second round that is expected to generate another $250,000.

Randhawa's grandmother, who inspired Smart MS3, has gone from bedridden to walking with assistance and a cane. Her progress has helped to sustain Randhawa through the rollercoaster of being a student CEO.

"For anyone trying to build something like this, for every step forward you take, you have 30 rejections before you take another step forward," he said. "It's hard, but at the end of the day, I remember what I'm working for and that's the compass that's guiding me."

SOURCE Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SafeGuard Cyber, the leading provider of security and compliance solutions for today's communication-based threats, today announced the appointment of Paul von Autenried as Board Advisor. As the former Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Bristol Myers Squibb, von Autenried brings a wealth of experience and expertise in security operations, strategy, and technology development.

"Paul is a well-respected leader with an incredible background in enterprise technology innovation and cybersecurity, and we are delighted to have him join us as a new Board Advisor," said Chris Lehman, CEO of SafeGuard Cyber. "Paul knows better than anyone how important it is that enterprises evolve to meet the new security and compliance challenges posed by digital communications channels, and we look forward to his strategic insight and guidance as we continue to drive growth, as the leading provider of these solutions."

"I am very impressed with SafeGuard Cyber's leadership team and its unique technology platform, which is the first to provide uniform security and compliance solutions which go far beyond email by protecting the many diverse communications channels that employees and executives now use on a regular basis," said von Autenried. "I look forward to working with them to position the company for a leading role in this digital transformation."

Von Autenried is a seasoned technology executive with over three decades of experience in information technology and cybersecurity at Fortune 500 companies. As a former member of the senior executive leadership team of Bristol Myers Squibb, von Autenried led the company's Information Technology function, where he focused on leveraging information technology and digital innovation to accelerate the company's strategy and business model transformation. Additionally, he is a member of the board of directors of Quickbase, a Boston, Mass.-based software company held by Vista Equity Partners, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Penn Medicine Princeton Healthcare System, a member of the President's Leadership Council at Stevens Institute of Technology, and an advisor to IntelePeer.

Throughout his experiences in domestic and international high-tech, consumer packaged goods, and biopharmaceuticals companies, von Autenried's career has been focused on strategically leveraging information technology and digital innovation to drive superior performance. Prior to his role at Bristol Myers Squibb, von Autenried held positions with Kraft General Foods, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM.

SafeGuard Cyber provides the only comprehensive technology solution for addressing cybersecurity threats and compliance risks across the modern cloud workplace. The company's patented and award-winning Natural Language Understanding technology analyzes and correlates conversations across 30 communication channels and 52 languages, including collaboration, social, chat, messaging, and conference platforms, in order to detect and prevent communication-based threats like social engineering, and avoid compliance problems. SafeGuard Cyber adds a vital layer of cybersecurity protection by thwarting attacks early in the kill chain before they can impact a company's network. By stopping attacks at the social engineering stage, companies can prevent data breaches, ransomware, invoice fraud, and many other threats.

SafeGuard Cyber has been recognized by several industry groups and publications and was named one of Cybercrime Magazine's "10 Hot Cybersecurity Channels to Watch in 2021." The company also received eight 2022 Cybersecurity Excellence awards by Cybersecurity Insiders and the "SaaS Security Solution of the Year" award in 2021 from the Cybersecurity Breakthrough Awards.

About SafeGuard Cyber

SafeGuard Cyber provides security and compliance for human connections so enterprises can trust modern communications. With patented Natural Language Understanding technology, our security solutions deliver comprehensive visibility, detection, and response to threats across the disparate communication methods used by today's digitally enabled businesses. In addition, cloud-based machine learning provides compliance solutions for governance and policy enforcement that empower customers to communicate through modern apps and social networking. Learn more at www.safeguardcyber.com .

SOURCE SafeGuard Cyber
World's Largest Smoothie Brand Boasts AUV of More Than $609,000 with Top 25% Exceeding $907,000

DALLAS , April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Smoothie King , the world's largest smoothie chain and the first health and fitness QSR brand of its kind, announced today a record average unit volume (AUV) of $609,753, with the brand's top 25% of stores reporting an AUV of over $907,000. Following the brand's recent news of signing 51 new store commitments in key growth markets in Q1 2022, Smoothie King also reported today over $602 million in systemwide sales in 2021, a 25% increase over 2020.

"Over the last few years, Smoothie King's momentum has been building as the brand continues to focus on offering fresh, whole-fruit smoothies and being the go-to product for consumers' health and fitness routines," said Wan Kim, CEO and Chairman of the Board. "It's a combination of our mission to inspire people to live a healthy lifestyle and our commitment to minimizing costs for our operators that has resulted in such an impressive AUV, reaching close to a 17% increase since 2020. With these impressive numbers and a strong development pipeline for the year, we're confident Smoothie King will have yet another successful year."

In 2021, Smoothie King opened over 100 stores, growing to more than 1,300 locations worldwide. The fast-growing brand has aggressive growth plans for this year and is currently seeking experienced operators interested in growing their portfolio with a brand that is committed to providing products that are healthy, purpose-driven, and taste amazing. Smoothie King is targeting growth in markets such as Phoenix, Denver, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Boston, Milwaukee, and Puerto Rico, among others.

Single- and multi-unit development opportunities are available, as well as incentives for active-duty U.S. military or veterans and for first responders, including law enforcement, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians. Smoothie King also recently launched an incentive program for existing franchisees and a new program for qualified store team members who are looking for the opportunity to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams with Smoothie King.

Smoothie King repeatedly has been recognized as a top franchise opportunity. Smoothie King was named the "Top Brand to Buy" in the beverage category of Franchise Times' 2022 Zor Awards and named to its "Top 400 Franchises" list. Additionally, Smoothie King received the Top Franchises Satisfaction Award for 2022 from Franchise Business Review based on the brand's high franchisee satisfaction. Smoothie King was recently listed as the 76th largest chain restaurant and 63rd limited-service chain in the Technomic and Restaurant Business 2022 Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. Moving up 20 spots from its 2020 96th ranking, the brand continues to climb the Top 500 ranks.

For more information about franchise opportunities with Smoothie King, please visit www.smoothiekingfranchise.com .

About Smoothie King Franchises, Inc.

Smoothie King Franchises, Inc., the original U.S. smoothie franchise, is a privately held, Dallas-based franchise company with over 1,300 locations worldwide, including in the United States, Korea, Grand Cayman, and Trinidad. Founded in 1973, Smoothie King has made it its mission to inspire people to live a healthy and active lifestyle. By blending each smoothie with a purpose, Smoothie King makes it simple and enjoyable for guests to achieve their individual health and fitness goals. Smoothie King has been recognized No. 13 overall on Entrepreneur's prestigious Franchise 500 list in 2022 and ranked one of the "Fastest Growing Franchises." For more information about franchising with Smoothie King, visit SmoothieKingFranchise.com or follow the brand on social media @SmoothieKing.

Contact:

Ashley Bennett

Fish Consulting

954-893-9150

[email protected]

SOURCE Smoothie King
NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- South Street Securities Holdings, Inc. ("SSSHI") is partnering with Digital Prime Technologies ("Digital Prime"), an innovative provider of turnkey, prime brokerage solutions for financial institutions.

Digital Prime's platform for digital assets provides traditional securities-based prime brokers a technology solution to offer their clients the ability to execute, leverage, and finance digital asset trading strategies in one platform. This will allow SSSHI to expand into the digital asset trading and lending space efficiently with institutional clients.

James Tabacchi, President and Chief Executive Officer of SSSHI, said, "South Street has always been focused on financial technology via our affiliate Matrix Applications. South Street operates multiple complementary businesses in the fixed income, mortgage, equity, asset management, and banking sectors. A partnership with Digital Prime expands our FinTech footprint and provides growth opportunities for our finance and trading businesses in a new asset class. This will add further diversification to our portfolio of complementary businesses."

"We are excited to partner with the Digital Prime management team and appreciate their vision on how existing prime brokers can efficiently onboard clients with minimal friction," commented Anthony Venditti, Managing Director and Head of Equity Finance.

Digital Prime was founded in 2019 by James A. Runnels, an industry veteran in the prime brokerage space. He commented on the partnership with South Street, "The investment by South Street alongside other institutional investors is a testament to our progress to date. The investment funds will be used to expand our platform and further accelerate our customized product delivery. We look forward to a mutually beneficial partnership."

David P. Luci, Chairman of Digital Prime, added, "As we continue to roll out our first-in-class software solution for digital prime brokerage, we look forward to adding more traditional Wall Street firms to our stable of investors and clients which now includes Cowen Digital and South Street."

For additional information, please go to: www.digitalprimetechnologies.com and www.southstreetsecurities.com, respectively.

About South Street Securities Holdings, Inc.

South Street Securities Holdings, Inc. operates, through its wholly owned broker dealer subsidiaries, a leading repo dealer financing US Treasuries, Agency MBS, TBA mortgage origination hedging, and equity finance. Affiliates of South Street include technology company, Matrix Applications, LLC, asset management company, South Street Capital Management, LLC, and service-disabled veteran and minority owned broker dealer AmeriVet Securities, Inc.

About Digital Prime Technologies

Digital Prime Technologies enables its clients to quickly and easily deploy a full suite of prime brokerage solutions. While the digital assets sector is complicated and evolving rapidly, Digital Prime Technologies' product suite allows traditional Wall Street firms, as well as other clients, to seamlessly enter the digital asset space with a robust and fully customizable prime services suite suited to their business and compliance needs. Clients of Digital Prime Technologies have the ability to fully customize all aspects of their prime offering for digital assets including custody provider(s), risk management, margin requirements, and liquidity partners.

Contact

Colleen Judge

[email protected]

SOURCE South Street Securities Holdings, Inc.
Together Striveworks and Figure Eight Federal Enhance the AI Capabilities for the Department of Defense and Federal Law Enforcement

AUSTIN, Texas and ARLINGTON, Va., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Striveworks and Figure Eight Federal are excited to announce their strategic alliance to jointly support the government's emerging capabilities in AI technologies.

David Poirier, President of Figure Eight Federal, said "Our efforts to assist federal customers parallels that of Striveworks and therefore we are excited to work with Striveworks to achieve our common goals."

Figure Eight Federal has more than 15 years of experience assisting its federal customers with their advanced annotation needs. Data annotation is the process of labeling data to enable a model to make decisions and take action. To take action, a model must be trained to understand specific information. With Figure Eight Federal this is done with training data that is annotated and properly categorized giving you confidence for each specific use case.

Data annotated by Figure Eight can be directly integrated with Striveworks' Chariot MLOps platform for model development, training, and deployment within operational timelines. Striveworks has an extensive record of positive performance in delivering software and data science products and services within DoD operational environments. Earlier this year, Striveworks was awarded a basic ordering agreement for the The Data Readiness for Artificial Intelligence Development (DRAID) by U.S. Contracting Command on behalf of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC).

The strategic alliance of these companies will help customers in Defense and Federal law enforcement to step into using artificial intelligence solutions across their wide data landscapes.

Striveworks Executive Vice President Quay Barnett said, "The Striveworks and Figure Eight partnership brings our customers a scalable impact for accurate and rapid decision advantage from their data. Figure Eight's low code annotation platform integrates with our low code Chariot MLOps platform to accelerate AI solutions for our joint customers."

About Striveworks

Striveworks is a pioneer in operational data science for national security and other highly regulated spaces. Striveworks' flagship MLOps platform is Chariot , purpose-built to enable engineers and business professionals to transform their data into actionable insights. Founded in 2018, Striveworks was highlighted as an exemplar in the National Security Commission for AI 2020 Final Report.

About Figure Eight Federal

Figure Eight Federal's AI & data enrichment platform includes multiple toolsets and algorithms that have been used by some of the world's largest tech companies and Government Agencies. Our data scientists and AI/ML experts have deep knowledge and understanding of many types of data and their use cases including Natural Language Process and Computer Vision. We have the skills and technology required to make AI/ML testing and evaluation more systematic and scalable allowing analysts to easily make comparisons, determine accuracy, bias and vulnerability.

Contact: [email protected]

Media Contact: Janet Waring

Website: F8Federal.com

Address: 1735 N Lynn St, #730

Arlington, VA 22209

SOURCE Figure Eight Federal
PHOENIX, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Televerde Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides personal and professional development opportunities to women impacted by incarceration so they can attain meaningful and rewarding careers upon release, is pleased to announce that Amy Hillman, former dean at Arizona State University - W. P. Carey School of Business, and Karen Hellman, former division director of Inmate Programs and Reentry at Arizona Department of Corrections, has joined the Televerde Foundation board of directors.

"I am pleased to welcome Amy and Karen as new board members," said Michelle Cirocco, executive director, Televerde Foundation. "These individuals bring a wealth of experience and expertise in their fields and will be tremendous assets to our foundation as we further our mission of helping women impacted by incarceration find success in the global workforce. The work we are doing truly is making a tangible difference in the lives of the women we support and their families, as evidenced by our 2021 Impact Report. Now with Amy and Karen on board, we are more strongly positioned to accelerate our progress for even greater gains in 2022."

Amy Hillman joined ASU in June 2001 and served as its Dean from 2013 to 2020. An award-winning undergraduate and MBA teacher, Hillman previously taught at the Ivey Business School at The University of Western Ontario, the Broad Business School at Michigan State University, and the Mays College of Business at Texas A&M University. In addition, she has spent several summers as a guest professor at the Institute for International Management at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. Prior to joining academia, Hillman was general manager of a retailing and manufacturing organization in the Southwest United States. "The W. P. Carey School of Business believes in business as a force for good for all--regardless of background or circumstance," said Hillman. "I'm thrilled to now be part of the Televerde Foundation board of directors to help expand their mission for their vision of a world of opportunity where all can be successful. "

Karen Hellman worked for the Arizona Department of Corrections for more than 20 years, most recently as Division Director of Inmate Programs and Reentry for the Arizona Department of Corrections. Karen is an Arizona State-Licensed Independent Substance Abuse Counselor and earned certifications from the Management and Leadership Institute. Hellman also attended the Bob Ramsey Executive Education program and has received certifications as a Master Addiction Counselor and NCCAP Counselor. In addition, Karen served as Commissioner on the Parents' Commissioner for Drug Education & Prevention Board of Directors, from 2007 to 2014. "For more than two decades I have watched the positive impact that Televerde has had on the women at Perryville," said Hellman, "I am very excited to finally be able to contribute directly to this important work."

Televerde Foundation's board of directors is comprised of individuals from the business, academic, and volunteer communities. It is the board's purpose to provide counsel and guidance that helps further the foundation's mission to help women impacted by incarceration join and succeed in the global workforce.

Televerde Foundation

Televerde Foundation's mission is to provide women impacted by incarceration with the personal and professional development programs necessary to successfully join and advance in the global workforce. We seek to enable women to break the cycle of poverty and recidivism by becoming financially independent, positive role models for their children and families, thereby changing the lives of future generations and building stronger communities.

Media Contact:

Dawn Coppens, Televerde Foundation

[email protected]

480-771-6670

SOURCE Televerde Foundation
Tinuiti's decade plus partnership with Microsoft Advertising is rooted in high-level collaboration, creative troubleshooting and both the transparency and communication necessary to drive high performance results. As a result, Tinuiti solidifies its position at the forefront of the ever-evolving world of digital advertising where it continues to solve clients' complex business issues.

Obele Brown-West, Chief Solution Officer at Tinuiti, said: "It's an incredible honor to be named the Microsoft Global Agency of the Year an accolade that underscores Tinuiti's commitment to excellence, efficiency and accelerating brand performance for our client partners. As the largest independent brand performance marketing agency, we've got the unique ability to call our own shots, move quickly, and continuously reinvest in the two most critical resources we need to grow our clients' brands  people and technology. For as long as Tinuiti has been an agency, Microsoft has been there every step of the way. This award is testament to our deep-rooted and truly collaborative relationship, a partnership that remains instrumental to Tinuiti's ongoing growth, innovation and success."

Heidi Coffer, Director of Global Partner Marketing, Microsoft Advertising, said: "Microsoft Advertising is honored to present Tinuiti with the Global Agency of the Year award. The quality of nominations from this year's partners was extraordinary, inspiring us with their incredible contributions to the industry, dedication to their clients' growth and an untiring commitment to partnership. We are proud to celebrate our global winners for their extraordinary work in 2021, and look forward to the impactful work we will do together in the year ahead."

Specifically, Tinuiti's long-term partnership with Microsoft serves as a powerful expansion tool for clients looking to become global brands and international players. Market insights tailored to each country, translation services with a localized approach, plus operational and logistical consultations focused on demographic preferences, all set the stage for international expansion. Because of the integrated nature of the partnership, Tinuiti also gains invaluable line of sight on key industry insights including determining which countries and international markets should be targeted next. One notable success case is Tinuiti client partner Etsy, an American ecommerce company and household name, which has successfully expanded into five international markets (Australia, Canada, Germany, France and United Kingdom) and counting.

The performance of Smart Shopping ad campaigns also illuminate what's possible with Microsoft Advertising. Tinuiti's Smart Shopping ads far outperform traditional shopping ads and specifically, leverage automation for both high-impact efficiencies and incredibly nimble strategy shifts.

Key to the success of the partnership is Tinuiti's proprietary, award-winning technology, Mobius . This suite of AI-enabled marketing intelligence and media activation technology unifies data sources into an ecosystem where data is interconnected, providing the Tinuiti and Microsoft Teams with the ability to leverage a truly integrated marketing strategy.

Earlier this month, Tinuiti celebrated being named PacSun's Paid Media Agency of Record. The appointment marked the first time PacSun will formally focus on full-funnel marketing  charging Tinuiti with creatively enhancing the brand's presence through a full-funnel media approach that unites sequential, customer-centric journeys across every digital touchpoint.

Tinuiti's recent accolades come on the heels of two high-profile acquisitions last year. In 2021, Tinuiti acquired Amazon-specialist agency, Ortega Group, to create the industry's most robust full-service Amazon and marketplace program, and digital streaming agency, Bliss Point Media , which transformed Tinuiti into the largest independent purchaser of streaming/OTT media in the U.S.

Since 2017 Tinuiti has experienced rapid expansion, growing seven-fold and welcoming nearly 700 new employees in the last 12 months alone. With an employee headcount nearing 1,100, the agency has experienced an unprecedented 59% year-over-year increase and is continuing to hire for multiple roles across divisions to keep pace with growth. For a closer look at Tinuiti's culture, please visit https://tinuiti.com/culture/ .

About Tinuiti

Tinuiti is the largest independent performance marketing firm across Streaming TV and the Triopoly of Google, Meta, Amazon, with more than $3 billion in digital media under management and over 1,000 employees. With industry-leading expertise in search, social, Amazon and marketplaces, addressable TV and mobile apps, CRM and email marketing, and more, Tinuiti understands that success requires both strategy and channel expertise. Each solution is delivered through Tinuiti's performance planning framework, GAMMA, and is enabled by a proprietary suite of marketing intelligence and media activation technology  Mobius . For more information visit http://www.tinuiti.com .

SOURCE Tinuiti
Vala Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency that specializes in building and driving brands online. After celebrating the company's 6-year anniversary, Vala Marketing commemorated the 5-year anniversary of three of their team members with keepsakes.



ELKHART, Ind., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 20th, 2022, Vala Marketing celebrated its 6-year anniversary with a party and networking event at their headquarters in Elkhart. The event included catering from Mad Bull BBQ, dessert from Chips n' Doodles, along with a ribbon-cutting hosted by the area's four Chambers of Commerce; Greater South Bend, Elkhart, Goshen, and Kosciusko.

At the event, three team members were recognized. Jake Neece, Ashley Siery, and Cori Miller were all given keepsakes in honor of their hard work and dedication to Vala over the last five years. Vala's Founders, Grant and Heidi Mielke, gifted each team member with a commemorative glass keepsake that captured their significant contributions to the company.

The Vala Marketing team is composed of highly skilled and experienced professionals who are passionate about their work, which has resulted in numerous awards & accolades across Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan. These include awards such as the South Bend Reader's Choice Award for Best Marketing Agency, the Havilah Beardsley Young Entrepreneur Award, NWIBQ's Greater Michiana Best Marketing Agency and Best Website Designers, and two ACCE Excellence in Communication awards.

Contact: Heidi Mielke

Founder / Owner Vala Marketing

[email protected]

574-202-3010

SOURCE Vala Marketing Inc.
PONTE VEDRA, Fla., April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- VTrips, one of the fastest-growing vacation rental management companies in the United States, announced the acquisition of Southern Vacation Rentals on April 1.

With operations stretching from the Florida Panhandle to the Alabama Gulf Coast, Southern Vacation Rentals adds 1,120 vacation rental properties and 123 team members to the VTrips portfolio.

VTrips Chief Growth Officer Sandra Brahn said the addition of Southern Vacation Rentals complements more than 20 acquisitions made in 2021 and brings the total number of vacation rentals VTrips manages to more than 5,000.

"The Southern Vacation Rentals acquisition follows other key acquisitions last year, including Ryson Vacation Rentals in Galveston, Texas; Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations & Sales in Maryland; Resort Collection in Panama City Beach and Distinctive Beach Rentals in Fort Myers Beach, Fla.; and Resort Property Management in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.," Brahn said. "VTrips offers its new partners the strength of a large corporate infrastructure while retaining the companies' brand integrity and local presence in their respective markets."

Southern Vacation Rentals CEO Scott Seay, who will transition to VTrips as chief strategy officer, said Southern has positioned itself as a market leader for vacation rentals, residential leasing and real estate utilizing an innovative high-tech, high-touch approach to set itself apart from competitors.

"After 27 years in the vacation rental business, our four founders have created an incredible business here in the Florida Panhandle, and we have been growing exponentially over the last several years," Seay said. "It just so happens there was another great company in the same industry looking to expand its overall business, and a great match was made. Very quickly, these two companies joined forces to bring the two teams together."

Seay and VTrips CEO Steve Milo report that owners and guests will see no change in the exemplary service level they have come to expect from the Southern team.

"VTrips believes that employees are the lifeblood of these companies, and we are doing everything possible to create a positive environment for them," Milo said.

ABOUT VTRIPS

Founded in 2006 by visionary Steve Milo as a management solution for his own Florida rental properties, VTrips is one of the fastest-growing vacation rental management companies in the United States. Now with more than 5,000 private vacation villas, condominiums, and homes in resort destinations throughout Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, VTrips believes in staffing its nationwide offices with local experts dedicated to exceeding the expectations of both property owners and vacationers. More information at VTrips.com.

Media Contact:

Kristen Mcintosh

[email protected]

SOURCE VTrips
LegalZoom's substantial legal and compliance solutions combined with Wix's comprehensive online platform will provide SMBs with all the necessary tools needed to start, manage and grow their business. Once available, business owners will have an option to gain access to LegalZoom's legal, tax and compliance solutions and services and immediate access to a website built specifically for their business type at the time of formation. This unique partnership removes the barrier of entry for individuals looking to start a business, create an online presence, and ultimately generate revenue.

"Our goal at LegalZoom is to support existing business owners as well as the next generation of entrepreneurs," said Kathy Tsitovich, Chief Partnerships Officer, LegalZoom. "Having a simple way to build a beautiful website is almost universal for small business owners, and our integration with Wix in the U.S. provides a seamless way for our users to form their business and build their online presence. As a champion for small businesses, we are thrilled to see how our integration with Wix empowers entrepreneurs and supports their ongoing growth."

The collaboration will soon enable existing and future entrepreneurs interacting on the Wix or LegalZoom platforms to benefit from customized recommendations and solutions tailored to their needs at different stages in their formation and management cycle. Businesses coming to LegalZoom in their formative stage will be able to seamlessly start their business and create an online presence. The process begins with a business categorization mechanism within the platform identifying the registered business users' intent, which allows them to ultimately have a ready-made site created by Wix to serve their business needs. They will have access to Wix's robust product offering including advanced customization capabilities, enterprise-grade performance, security and a reliable infrastructure as well as commerce and business solutions, advanced SEO and marketing tools. For example, they will be able to establish their own online store using Wix Stores and allow their customers to book services online using Wix Bookings. Wix users will be offered relevant LegalZoom services including new business formation, registered agent services, and trademark registration services, based on their specific needs.

"Wix shares LegalZoom's goal of supporting SMBs and bringing entrepreneurs' visions to life," said Yaniv Vakrat, Chief Business Officer at Wix. "We are excited that LegalZoom, the leader of online small business formation, chose us to help equip business owners in the U.S. with everything they need for their business, from inception to managing it on a day-to-day basis. We are excited to continue to enter strategic partnerships, such as this one, to help SMBs grow through every touchpoint of their business."

The cross-platform product offering will be available in the second half of this year to users seeking to register their business in the U.S.

About Wix.com Ltd.

Wix is a leading platform to create, manage and grow a digital presence. What began as a website builder in 2006 is now a complete platform providing users with enterprise-grade performance, security and a reliable infrastructure. Offering a wide range of commerce and business solutions, advanced SEO and marketing tools, Wix enables users to have full ownership of their brand, their data and their relationships with their customers. With a focus on continuous innovation and delivery of new features and products, anyone can build a powerful digital presence to fulfill their dreams on Wix.

For more about Wix, please visit our Press Room

Media Relations Contact: [email protected]

About LegalZoom.com, Inc.

LegalZoom is the number one brand in online business formation according to small business owners and is a leading online platform for legal and compliance solutions in the United States. With its mission to democratize law, LegalZoom operates across all 50 states and over 3,000 counties in the United States and has more than 20 years of experience navigating complex regulations and simplifying the legal and compliance process for its customers. Driven by its core value that every business deserves the full protection of the legal system and a simple way to stay compliant with it, LegalZoom helps its customers form and protect their businesses, their ideas and families. In 2020, 10 percent of all new LLCs and 5 percent of all new corporations in the United States were formed through LegalZoom, enabling small business owners to apply their energy and passion to their businesses instead of the legal and regulatory complexity required to operate them. In addition to business formations, LegalZoom offers ongoing compliance and tax advice, trademark and copyright filings and estate planning documents to protect small businesses and the families that create them.

To learn more about LegalZoom.com, please visit us at www.legalzoom.com

Media relations contact: Cortney Kerans, [email protected]

SOURCE Wix.com Ltd.
Selected and reviewed by a panel of experts and scholars across a variety of industries, the Award has acknowledged the achievements made by a host of prestigious academicians and scientists whose technologies demonstrate next-level innovation with great impact on the agricultural industry. Those outstanding individuals include Professor Roger Beach, founding director of the World Food Center at UC Davis; Xie Hua'an, academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Qiao Shiyan, academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Parallel with the Zhongguancun Global Technological Innovation Forum, the event is hosted by Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University, Zhejiang University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Chinese Association of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Crop Science Society of China. The two-day event will invite over 1,000 top-notch scientists, researchers, corporate leaders and industry leaders as well as Nobel Prize laureates to shed light on the opportunities and challenges facing the agricultural industry, with an estimated one million viewers expected to join the sessions via the live-streaming channel.

Meanwhile, the Global Agricultural Technology Innovation platform (GAIN) will be announced, which is established for global industry players to strengthen cooperation, therefore enabling quick, efficient and cost-effective co-creation of breakthrough agricultural solutions that address pain points in farming and food production.

"Over the past 22 years, DBN Science and Technology Award has nominated 474 winners from the global agricultural communities whose 55 technological innovations and achievements have later been selected as China's national priority projects. Through the initiative that allows industry scientists to showcase their pioneering ideas and impactful scientific contributions, we are proud to support some of the most prominent individuals, companies and research institutions in their quest to explore the agricultural solutions that will benefit farmers, consumers as well as the crop production system for years to come," said Dr.Song Weiping, the CEO of DBN Group.

"This year, DBN Group aims to build on its previous milestones to further expand the extensive cooperation and communication space that the Award and the Forum offer, setting up GAIN to bolster businesses and scientific institutions that are pursuing industry partners, as part of our effort to drive forward the development of the industry" Dr.Song added.

The Group has secured its longtime place as one of the top recipients of China's patents with over 330 innovative inventions, ranking it as the number eight company in China by patent strength evaluated on value, utility, number and PCT applications of the patents.

GAIN website: https://www.gainnovation.org.cn/en/show-61.html

SOURCE Global Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Platform (GAIN)
Aldous \ Walker LLP Partners Charla Aldous and Brent Walker were selected for inclusion the 2022 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers guide.

DALLAS, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Charla Aldous and Brent Walker, Partners at the renowned Dallas-based trial firm Aldous \ Walker LLP, have been named to the 2022 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers guide.

First published in 2007 and annually since 2019, the Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers guide shines a spotlight on attorneys who stand on the front lines of individual lawsuits and class actions that seek justice for plaintiffs.

Because selection is weighted heavily on peer assessment, lawyers named to the guide have demonstrated exceptional skill and expertise while garnering the respect of their colleagues. Both Aldous and Walker have been selected to Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers in years past, and Aldous has been previously named to the Lawdragon Leading Lawyers and Lawdragon Legends lists.

Top-Rated Dallas Trial Lawyers

As partners of Aldous \ Walker LLP, Charla Aldous and Brent Walker have devoted themselves to fighting on behalf of plaintiffs who've been injured and wronged.

Among their many successes are high-profile victories against some of the world's largest corporations and millions in recoveries in complex civil claims involving defective products, sexual assault and abuse, serious personal injury, and wrongful death. Some of their most notable recent results include a $37.6 million verdict against Honda over a poorly designed seatbelt system, a $32 million verdict on behalf of a North Texas woman sexually assaulted at the age of 14, and a $20 million verdict against Greyhound over a fatal bus stop accident.

For Aldous and Walker, helping clients prevail in challenging cases is ultimate reward, but they've also garnered numerous accolades of their own. This includes selections to Super Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in America, and other prestigious listings that recognize their achievements in civil litigation. For years, they've led Aldous \ Walker to a Tier 1 selection in the annual U.S. News' "Best Law Firms" rankings.

For more information about Charla Aldous and Brent Walker, visit www.AldousLaw.com.

Media Contact:

Charla Aldous

[email protected]

SOURCE Aldous Walker LLP
Twigger's research, published in Nature Communications and titled "Transcriptional Changes in the Mammary Gland During Lactation Revealed by Single Cell Sequencing of Cells From Human Milk," was selected by an independent panel of expert judges. Twigger's research found over 110,000 viable or living cells from human milk and breast tissue, which may offer clues to the interplay between pregnancy, lactation, and breast cancer.

"As we continue to advance the scientific and clinical innovations of human milk, we rely on research such as Alecia-Jane Twigger's and are looking forward to how her findings will further our goal of raising awareness on the scientific potential and benefits of human milk," Lawrence said.

Twigger's findings may have significant implications for the industry, with her study demonstrating the power demographic factors such as age and parity have on the composition of the adult mammary gland and how this might influence long-term breast cancer risk.

"I have always been fascinated by cells in milk and think they hold the key to helping us understand human milk production," Twigger said. "This work has taken over four years to complete, but it was well worth it. I hope the findings will advance our understanding of how to optimize milk products to support long-term maternal and infant health outcomes."

Twigger will accept the award and present her research at the eighth-annual International Conference on Human Milk Science and Innovation in Vienna on June 10-11, 2022. She will also receive a $10,000 award and travel expenses to attend the event.

Twigger is currently a research associate in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge, Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. She received her bachelor's degree from The University of Western Australia and received her Ph.D. in cell biology, biochemistry, and human nutrition from the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The University of Western Australia. Throughout her career, Twigger has been awarded several prestigious recognitions, including the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Junior Investigator Award, the Seed Funding grant of the UHU collaborative network, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, to name a few. The current research that has earned the Ruth A. Lawrence Award has also been covered in several prominent media outlets, including Medical News Today, SciTechDaily, and ScienceDaily.

About the Ruth A. Lawrence Investigator Award for Research in Human Milk Science

Award applicants must be trainees (students, postgraduate trainees, residents, fellows) or physician/academic researchers who are within the first five years of completion of their postgraduate training. Research must be original and related to, but not limited to, one or more of the following topics:

Biologic activities of human milk or its components Applications of human milk or its derivatives to clinical medicine The impact of environment (broadly speaking) on breast milk production, lactation, or breast milk content

For complete award details, visit http://humanmilkscience.org/award.

The award was created by ICHMSI to pay tribute to Ruth A. Lawrence, MD. Dr. Lawrence received her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry at a time when few women pursued degrees in medicine. Lawrence is a founder of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) and founder and first editor-in-chief of the ABM official journal, Breastfeeding Medicine. She helped establish the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital and served as the distinguished professor of neonatology, obstetrics, and gynecology at the University of Rochester Medical Center School of Medicine and Dentistry and as the medical director of the Breastfeeding and Human Lactation Study Center.

About the International Conference on Human Milk Science and Innovation

The International Conference on Human Milk Science and Innovation, sponsored by Prolacta Bioscience, is the premier forum covering the latest in scientific and clinical research related to human milk. Renowned scientists and clinicians from around the world attend this annual event to present and discuss the scientific potential of human milk and raise awareness of its clinical applicability.

www.humanmilkscience.org

Media Contact:

Loren Kosmont

[email protected]

310.721.9444

SOURCE International Conference on Human Milk Science and Innovation
The all-new 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe  the first-ever electrified Grand Cherokee  dominated the field at the 27th annual Mudfest competition, hosted by the Northwest Automotive Press Association (NWAPA). The Jeep brand won three of the eight vehicle categories, with the all-new 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe taking home top honors, being voted Northwest Outdoor Activity Vehicle of the Year by automotive journalist members of NWAPA.

"The 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe marks a new era in the SUV market," says NWAPA President John Vincent of U.S. News & World Report. "It's a no-compromise vehicle that blends Jeep's legendary off-road capability with outstanding on-road manners, impressive fuel economy and the ability to travel on electricity alone."

In addition to taking overall top honors, the 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe earned wins in the Electrified Utility Vehicle and Mid- and Full-Size Family categories. This is the first time in the event's 27-year history that a vehicle has captured the Overall, Electrified Utility Vehicle and Mid- and Full-Size Family categories at once.

"The 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, along with the first-ever three-row Grand Cherokee L and all-new two-row Grand Cherokee, make up the best lineup ever for Grand Cherokee, a nameplate that holds the distinction of being the most awarded SUV of all time," said Jim Morrison, vice president and head of Jeep brand North America. "Winning the 2022 Northwest Outdoor Vehicle of the Year, the Grand Cherokee, now with electrified 4xe technology, leads the Jeep brand toward its vision of Zero Emission Freedom."

Members of NWAPA spent two days testing vehicles on paved and off-road routes. Testing took place at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington. Journalists tested 20 vehicles from 17 manufacturers to select winners in eight categories: Subcompact and Compact Family, Mid- and Full-Size Family, Compact and Midsize Luxury, Full-Size Luxury, Pickup Trucks, Extreme Capability, Electrified Utility Vehicle and Outdoor Activity Vehicle of the Year. The overall winner, the all-new 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, was selected from the category winners to be named the 2022 Northwest Outdoor Activity Vehicle of the Year.

All-new 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe

The all-new 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe is the first Grand Cherokee to offer a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) variant. Its introduction signals the continued growth of the Jeep brand's electrified mission of Zero Emission Freedom, as the brand explores future mobility. The 4xe PHEV technology enhances the fun, freedom and adventure that the Jeep brand is known for, while providing unprecedented performance, fuel economy and environmental friendliness. The 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe offers 25 miles of all-electric range and 56 MPGe from a PHEV system that delivers 375 hp, 470 lb.-ft. of torque, 0-60 miles per hour (MPH) in 6.0 seconds and max towing of 6,000 lbs. The Grand Cherokee 4xe comes standard with a two-speed transfer case, 2.72:1 low-range gear ratio and 47.4:1 crawl ratio. When equipped with the Quadra-Lift air suspension, the Grand Cherokee 4xe delivers up to 10.9 inches of ground clearance and 24 inches of water fording capability.

NWAPA

NWAPA (www.nwapa.org) is a professional organization of automotive journalists and media members from throughout the Pacific Northwest and Southwest Canada. Founded in 1991, NWAPA includes 45 voting members representing newspapers, magazines, radio stations, media groups, and the internet. Members of the organization have been testing SUVs and crossovers since the advent of the modern sport-utility vehicle in the mid-1990s. Non-voting NWAPA members include representatives from automotive manufacturers and related industry professionals.

Jeep Brand

Built on 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV brand that brings capability, craftsmanship and versatility to people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles that continues to provide owners with a sense of safety and security to handle any journey with confidence. The Jeep vehicle range consists of the Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee 4xe, Renegade and Wrangler and Wrangler 4xe. Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep 4x4 lineup, is filled with benefits and exclusive perks to deliver Jeep brand owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support. The legendary Jeep brand's off-road capability is enhanced by a global electrification initiative that is transforming 4xe into new 4x4 in pursuit of the brand's vision of accomplishing Zero Emission Freedom. All Jeep brand SUVs will offer an electrified variant by 2025.

Follow Jeep and company news and video on:

Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Jeep brand: www.jeep.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeep

Instagram: www.instagram.com/jeep

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeep

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/jeep

YouTube: www.youtube.com/thejeepchannel or https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA

For more information, please visit the Stellantis media site for North America at https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com.

SOURCE Stellantis
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- What happens in Vegas starts at Americas Cardroom. The US-facing online poker site is running a WSOP Takedown promo from May 5th to 22nd, guaranteeing 20 packages to the WSOP Main Event. Players can go to Sin City or keep the cash.

"The WSOP Main Event is on the bucket list of every poker player and fits in with our other land-based promos we've run this year in Uruguay and Texas," stated Chris Moneymaker, Team Pro for Americas Cardroom. "We can't wait to see our players in Vegas, donning the ACR gear."

Each package is valued at $12,500 with the cash deposited in their ACR account. Those who wish to compete in the world's most prestigious poker tournament will have $10,000 for the Main Event buy-in, plus another $2,500 for travel and accommodations.

Americas Cardroom is hosting three Main Satellites to award the packages. The first two are on Sunday, May 8th and 15th and guarantee 5-packages each. They have a $109 buy-in. The third on Sunday, May 22nd guarantees 10 packages. It has a $215 buy-in.

Players can qualify for any of the three Main Satellites every day for $0 by climbing the ladder (Freeroll > Super Satellite > Mega Satellite).

The World Series of Poker Main Event starts July 3rd and is moving this year to a combined location of Bally's and Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.

For more information on the WSOP Takedown promotion, visit AmericasCardroom.eu.

About Americas Cardroom

Americas Cardroom joined the Winning Poker Network in 2011. The Winning Poker Network has one of the longest and trusted online names in the industry and has been in existence since 2001. Americas Cardroom accepts players from the US market and the rest of the world. Rated first place for payment processing and cashout reliability repeatedly over the last few years, Americas Cardroom offers outstanding customer service and a friendly environment for all poker players around the world.

Media Contact:

Dylana Reyes

[email protected]

1-877-314-4195

SOURCE Americas Cardroom
Inspired by Terminal

Terminal is the control window into the virtual world, and has been widely used in numerous sci-fi film and television works. Unique elements such as the blinking underscore in command-line interfaces, the digital rain and the black and green dynamic lighting effects are all deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

CYBERBOARD Terminal uses custom made semi-transparent black PC material that doesn't require painting. This improved production process is not only more eco-friendly, but also ensures higher stability and greater durability.

In terms of dynamic lighting effects, CYBERBOARD Terminal incorporates Digital Rain, which symbolizes the command-line. It flies across the LED panel like it's on an endless search for information, and with a special afterimage effect visible with each keystroke, it symbolizes a geeky atmosphere.

By combining the custom PC material and its black background with green characters together with its unique LED panel and in-switch LED lighting, CYBERBOARD Terminal thrillingly immerses users into retro futuristic hacker world.

Advanced translucent gasket with integrated design

When it comes to improved feel, Angry Miao makes a bold move by implementing a translucent gasket structure with integrated design. The Gasket Mount is directly integrated into the PC material keyboard. Besides ensuring a good typing experience, the materials and appearance on the inside are also further refined.

Different from previous iterations of Angry Miao's Gasket Mount, level 10 silicone hardness is used. The silicone is integrated with the plate through in-mould injection, which not only looks more transparent by blending in with the keyboard's overall design, but also makes it sound less hollow and gives it a more solid feel.

Mirror PVD stainless steel weight plate

Unlike metal, semi-transparent PC material brings an extremely cool RGB lighting effect experience. To achieve the same substantial feel as when using metal, a counterweight is used.

The counterweight used in CYBERBOARD Terminal features a radical design, with the weight plate being visible from the outside. Its mirror PVD stainless steel surface occupies most of the bottom area. Exposed reflective stainless steel forms a stark yet dazzling contrast with the matte PC material.

Exclusive black keyboard case

In addition to a redesign of the keyboard itself, Angry Miao also designed a black on green keyboard case for CYBERBOARD Terminal, to achieve a full hacker experience.

Community co-creation

It's worth mentioning that CYBERBOARD Terminal product photography has been carried out in collaboration between Angry Miao and its community. Through Angry Miao's DAO platform, community users who are interested in creating high-quality content are invited to participate.

DAO is an organizational form derived from the core idea of blockchain. It's built upon the principles of co-creation, co-construction, co-governance and collaboration. Angry Miao users can participate in the co-creation of products at all stages of the product process, and get actively involved in product optimization, iteration and innovation.

Based on the "Future Art Community" brand concept, Angry Miao drives the development of their brand forward together with their users. Based on the contribution of each user, "MIAO COIN" rewards will be issued in the future, which will also be voted on through Angry Miao's DAO platform. This is to let their valuable users grow together with the brand and become more than just "spiritual shareholders".

About Angry Miao

Established in 2019, Angry Miao is committed to bringing future technology to consumers through close community interaction, while at the same time providing advanced futuristic product designs. This towards building a Future Art Community.

Products include TWS and revolutionary wireless desktop products, as well as IP-centric products, in order to enhance the emotional brand connection.

Angry Miao founder Li Nan believes that through the Community Driven and D2C sales model, Angry Miao is capable of creating a high-end trendy hi-tech brand widely recognized by global consumers.

SOURCE Angry Miao
Expands National Presence with Addition of Nine Leading Practices across Three States

IRVINE, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Animal Dermatology Group, Inc. ("ADG"), the largest group of veterinary specialist dermatologists in the U.S., today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Southeast Veterinary Dermatology & Ear Clinic ("SVDEC"), a leading veterinary specialty dermatology business serving North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

SVDEC's high-quality care and specialty services will expand ADG's footprint to 14 states across the country and adds nine exceptional doctors to its growing, industry-leading network, underscoring ADG's commitment to developing a significant national presence to support its veterinary dermatology clients.

Founded in 2005 by Dr. Randy Thomas, Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology, SVDEC provides high-quality specialized care to its patients in the Southeast. Dr. Thomas and his team of eight board-certified veterinarians will continue to provide unmatched care at SVDEC's existing locations under the ADG brand. SVDEC currently has four primary locations in Mount Pleasant, Greenville, and Columbia, South Carolina, as well as Charlotte, North Carolina, with additional satellite practices in Asheville, Denver and Hickory, North Carolina, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia.

"We are very excited to welcome the Southeast Veterinary Dermatology team to the ADG family," said Steven Mrha, Chief Executive Officer of ADG. "The demand for specialty dermatology care for pets continues to grow and we look forward to partnering with Dr. Thomas and his talented team to deliver high-quality care to our valued customers. We are committed to identifying new expansion and acquisition opportunities in key markets, to partner with and expand our team of best-in-class specialists and provide the most advanced, personalized, and high-quality pet patient care."

"This partnership with ADG will allow us to continue to develop practices in underserved markets, support the training of new veterinary dermatology residents, and leverage the extensive resources of the ADG platform to continue delivering unsurpassed veterinary dermatology services," said Dr. Thomas. "Our shared views and deep commitment to superior patient care made for a natural partnership."

About Animal Dermatology Group

Animal Dermatology Group ("ADG") is the largest veterinary dermatology business in the U.S., providing the highest quality care to pets with acute and chronic skin conditions. ADG currently has 57 doctors supporting over 40 primary and satellite locations where its specialists are actively involved in providing clinical care, research and academic training. For more information, please visit www.animaldermatology.com.

SOURCE Animal Dermatology Clinic Management Group, Inc.
NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Atento S.A. (NYSE: ATTO, "Atento" or the "Company"), one of the world's five largest providers of customer relationship and business process outsourcing (CRM / BPO) services and sector leader in Latin America, announced today that it has rescheduled the release of its fiscal first quarter 2022 financial and operating results to after the market close of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Accordingly, Atento's senior management team will now host a conference call and webcast to discuss the Company's fiscal first quarter financial and operating results on Thursday, May 12, 2022 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Dial In Info:

USA: +1-866-807-9684

Brazil: +55 11 4933-0682

Spain: +34 80 030-0687

UK: +44 20 3514-3188

International: +1-412-317-5415

Webcast: click here

A replay of the webcast will be available in the Events & Presentations section of Atento's website at http://investors.atento.com.

About Atento

Atento is one of the five largest global providers for client relationship management and business process outsourcing services nearshoring for companies that carry out their activities in the United States. Since 1999, the company has developed its business model in 13 countries with a workforce of 150,000 employees. Atento has over 400 clients for which it provides a wide range of CRM/BPO services through multiple channels. Its clients are leading multinational companies in the technology, digital, telecommunications, finance, health, consumer and public administration sectors, amongst others. Atento trades under ATTO on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2019 Atento was recognized by Great Place to Work as one of the 25 World's Best Multinational Workplaces and as one of the Best Places to Work in Latin America. For more information www.atento.com

Media Relations

[email protected]

Investor and analyst inquiries

Hernan van Waveren

+1 979-633-9539

[email protected]

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "intends," "continue" or similar terminology. These statements reflect only Atento's current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance or results. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic, and governments' extraordinary measures to limit the spread of the virus, are disrupting the global economy and Atento's industry, and consequently adversely affecting the Company's business, results of operation and cash flows and, as conditions are recent, uncertain and changing rapidly, it is difficult to predict the full extent of the impact that the pandemic will have. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, competition in Atento's highly competitive industries; increases in the cost of voice and data services or significant interruptions in these services; Atento's ability to keep pace with its clients' needs for rapid technological change and systems availability; the continued deployment and adoption of emerging technologies; the loss, financial difficulties or bankruptcy of any key clients; the effects of global economic trends on the businesses of Atento's clients; the non-exclusive nature of Atento's client contracts and the absence of revenue commitments; security and privacy breaches of the systems Atento uses to protect personal data; the cost of pending and future litigation; the cost of defending Atento against intellectual property infringement claims; extensive regulation affecting many of Atento's businesses; Atento's ability to protect its proprietary information or technology; service interruptions to Atento's data and operation centers; Atento's ability to retain key personnel and attract a sufficient number of qualified employees; increases in labor costs and turnover rates; the political, economic and other conditions in the countries where Atento operates; changes in foreign exchange rates; Atento's ability to complete future acquisitions and integrate or achieve the objectives of its recent and future acquisitions; future impairments of our substantial goodwill, intangible assets, or other long-lived assets; and Atento's ability to recover consumer receivables on behalf of its clients. In addition, Atento is subject to risks related to its level of indebtedness. Such risks include Atento's ability to generate sufficient cash to service its indebtedness and fund its other liquidity needs; Atento's ability to comply with covenants contained in its debt instruments; the ability to obtain additional financing; the incurrence of significant additional indebtedness by Atento and its subsidiaries; and the ability of Atento's lenders to fulfill their lending commitments. Atento is also subject to other risk factors described in documents filed by the company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which the statements were made. Atento undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Atento S.A.
Luxe-adventure Cruise Line Expands Atlas Assurance to Provide Travelers Greater Peace of Mind

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In another industry first, Atlas Ocean Voyages announced today that the luxe-adventure cruise line will include Covid trip interruption and isolation insurance for all guests on all future voyages. The new Covid insurance coverage for all guests augments Atlas' expansive list of inclusions, among which are emergency medical evacuation insurance, repatriation insurance, and emergency medical and travel assistance, known as Atlas Assurance. Atlas Assurance provides guests greater peace-of-mind when they are aboard a once-in-a-lifetime, luxe-adventure journey with Atlas Ocean Voyages. For more information about Atlas Ocean Voyages, please visit www.AtlasOceanVoyages.com

"Covid is an unfortunate fact of life, and our precautions and strict health protocols minimize risk and help assure our guests and crew," said Alberto Aliberti, President of Atlas Ocean Voyages. "The health and safety of our guests and crew continues to be our top priority, and Atlas' new Covid-related, trip interruption-insurance inclusion in Atlas Assurance will provide guests an array of protections should the unforeseeable happen."

Atlas Ocean Voyages is a luxe-adventure, expedition cruise line designed for discerning, fun-seeking travelers to immerse in unique and awe-inspiring moments in remote and captivating destinations. World Navigator, launched in August 2021, and World Traveller, launching October 2022, both feature 98 suites, solo suites with no single supplements, and staterooms, and is the line's first two small expedition ship, bringing travelers to smaller, authentic and exclusive locales.

World Navigator will cruise England, Holland, France, the Norwegian Fjords, Iceland, Greenland, and The Arctic in summer 2022; Central and South America in the autumn; and return to Antarctica for her winter 2022-23 season. In winter 2023, World Traveller will sail her inaugural season in Antarctica. Three additional sister ships, World Seeker, World Adventurer and World Discoverer, will join the fleet through 2024.

For more information, please visit www.AtlasOceanVoyages.com. Please also follow Atlas Ocean Voyages on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AtlasOceanVoyages), Twitter (www.twitter.com/atlascruises), Instagram (www.instagram.com/AtlasOceanVoyages), and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/atlascruises). Travel Advisors can call 1.844.44.ATLAS (1.844.442.8527) to book their clients on an unforgettable luxe-adventure expedition.

SOURCE Atlas Ocean Voyages
Founder Trishna Saigal is on a mission to make plant-based protein more accessiblelearn more about this fast-growing company.

OAKLAND, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ICA is thrilled to announce our newest Impact Note investment in award-winning, plant-based protein company, Down to Cook. Founded in 2019 by Trishna Saigal, Down to Cook makes meal starters that are designed to be mixed with fresh vegetables to create delicious plant-based meals. She is committed to hiring locally and providing comprehensive benefits and equity ownership to employees. Their flagship line Adda Veggiea protein mix that transforms vegetables into a high-protein, vegan meat alternativeand it is now available at grocery stores throughout the Bay Area and recently launched in 40+ Northern California Whole Foods locations.

Down to Cook founder, Trishna Saigal Their flagship line Adda Veggie-a protein mix that transforms vegetables into a high-protein, vegan meat alternative-and it is now available at grocery stores throughout the Bay Area

We made this investment using the new ICA Impact Note , an innovative investment structure that helps entrepreneurs prioritize social impacts as they grow their businesses. Down to Cook commits to providing full benefits, equity ownership, and distributing 10% of profits to employees on an annual basis. As Trishna meets these impact milestones, ICA returns equity ownership percentages back to the company. The $300K investment comes from the ICA Growth Fund, which provides investments to entrepreneurs of color and women building companies that are committed to our shared mission of wealth creation and distribution to a diverse workforce. ICA's investment kicks off Trishna's $1.5M Seed round, which will also include a crowdfunding campaign.

With this catalyzing investment from ICA, Trishna will be able to expand her team. First on the list will be a marketing hire and another product developer, so they can keep launching new product lines and new flavors. Another initiative this funding will kickstart is moving to even more eco-friendly packaging, which Down to Cook customers have been requesting. Beyond expanding the reach and diversity of products, Down to Cook has been entering into restaurant service and, starting this fall, universities. Trishna says the flexibility of the product has been a perfect solution for chefs working with vegan and vegetarian populations looking for healthier, more diverse meal options.

ICA provides coaching, connections, and capital to grow Bay Area businesses and close the gender and racial wealth gap. Learn more at: www.ica.fund

Contact: Erica Dixon, Marketing & Communications Manager, [email protected], 970-379-9395

SOURCE ICA
The Advanced Keyboard uses innovative proximity sensing technology to rapidly sense user absence. Once a PC user is absent, the Advanced Keyboard instantly puts the PC to sleep, in as little as 30 seconds, much faster than the traditional method of sensing user keyboard and mouse input.

The research analysed 417,000 workplace desktop computers in operation and determined the following energy savings and carbon reductions:

Region Hardware Energy Savings

per year Average

Energy

Saving % CO2e Reduction /

Year USA 1 PC and 1 Display 105 kWh 43% 105 lbs 1 PC and 2 Displays 148 kWh 147lbs Global 1 PC and 1 Display 105 kWh 85 lbs 1 PC and 2 Displays 148 kWh 121 lbs Europe 1 PC and 1 Display 105 kWh 73 lbs 1 PC and 2 Displays 148 kWh 104 lbs

Carbon reduction potential is greatest in the USA due to the high amount of fossil fuels in the national energy mix. Annual worldwide carbon abatement of 16bn lbs CO2e / year is achievable if the Advanced Keyboard was universally adopted. Such a reduction in pollution would free the sequestration capability of 8.9m acres of mature forest covering a land mass greater than the Netherlands.

"This is a game changing solution that is so simple and easy to implement across organizations. Organizations can progress their ESG and Net Zero agenda with minimal effort. Many organizations have completed the obvious improvements to lighting and HVAC, but boards and sustainability champions are pushing aggressively for further carbon reductions", said Bernard Emby, CEO of TrickleStar. "Advanced Keyboards are one of the most easily implemented carbon reduction opportunities in buildings.

Copies of the research studies are available on the TrickleStar website here. For commercial enquiries, please contact Jon Lanning, VP of Sales: [email protected]

About TrickleStar

TrickleStar manufactures affordable, award winning, simple and easy-to-use products, which help everyday people reduce energy consumption in their homes and workplaces. We lead in the design and manufacture of products that conserve energy, improve people's lives and minimize environmental impact.

For more information on TrickleStar visit www.tricklestar.com

More Information: Bernard Emby

CEO [email protected]

SOURCE TrickleStar
CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America Corporation today announced the Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend on Bank of America common stock of $0.21 per share, payable on June 24, 2022 to shareholders of record as of June 3, 2022.

The Board also declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $1.75 per share on the 7% Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock, Series B. The dividend is payable on July 25, 2022 to shareholders of record as of July 8, 2022.

Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 67 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,100 retail financial centers, approximately 16,000 ATMs, and award-winning digital banking with approximately 54 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements and other important information, visit the Bank of America newsroom and register for email news alerts.

www.bankofamerica.com

Investors May Contact:

Lee McEntire, Bank of America

Phone: 1.980.388.6780

[email protected]

Jonathan G. Blum, Bank of America (Fixed Income)

Phone: 1.212.449.3112

[email protected]

Reporters May Contact:

Christopher P. Feeney, Bank of America

Phone: 1.980.386.6794

[email protected]

SOURCE Bank of America Corporation
IRVINE, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bascom Group, LLC ("Bascom") has continued their acquisition run in Texas acquiring a 150-unit apartment community in Houston, marking their fourth Houston acquisition in nearly 12 months. Windwater at Windmill Lakes is a 150-unit community, built in 1999 and located in the southeast Houston submarket. The acquisition marks Bascom's 39th multifamily property closed in Texas.

Windwater Windwater

John Carr with Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller in the transaction. Huntington National Bank provided the debt financing for the acquisition and was arranged by Jason Pumpelly with Cushman & Wakefield. SD Cap Construction Management will provide construction management services and Cushman & Wakefield will provide property management. James D'Argenio and Chang Liu sourced and managed the acquisition for Bascom.

The apartment community is very well-maintained, offering functional, spacious interior floorplans with original construction features ideal for upgrades. The existing amenity space offers sufficient opportunities for enhancement to better serves the needs of existing and future residents. With 100% of the units in original condition, this acquisition presents an attractive opportunity to physically reposition the asset.

Demand for Houston multifamily accelerated dramatically in the second half of 2021. Houston is expected to have the third largest employment growth in the US from 2021-2026 and is expected to have the largest population gain in the US from 2021-2026.

Chang Liu, Acquisitions Director for Bascom, adds "We are very pleased with this acquisition as it aligns well with our Texas strategy of acquiring newer vintage assets with minimal deferred maintenance and major value-add potential." Jason Hanna, Senior Vice President of Operations, comments "We are excited to acquire a property that offers characteristics, like large floorplans and ample community space, that are desired by today's renters. We can elevate the interior design to match current modern standards and offer a boutique rental product for the submarket."

About Bascom:

The Bascom Group, LLC (bascomgroup.com) is a private equity firm specializing in value-added multifamily, commercial, and non-performing loans and real estate related investments and operating companies. Bascom sources value-added and distressed properties including many through foreclosure, bankruptcy, or short sales and repositions them by adding extensive capital improvements, improving revenue and reducing expenses by realizing operational efficiencies through implementation of institutional-quality property management. Bascom, founded by principals Jerry Fink, David Kim and Derek Chen, is one of the most active and seasoned buyers and operators of apartment communities in the U.S. Since 1996, Bascom has completed over $20.73 billion in multifamily and commercial value-added transactions including more than 350 multifamily properties containing over 90,000 units. Bascom has ranked among the top 50 multifamily owners in the U.S. Bascom's subsidiaries and joint ventures include the Bascom Value Added Apartment Investors, Shubin Nadal Associates, Spirit Bascom Ventures, REDA Bascom Ventures, Bascom Northwest Ventures, Bascom Arizona Ventures, Harbor Associates, Village Partners Ventures, and the Realm Group. Bascom's subsidiaries also include Premier Workspaces, one of the largest privately held executive suite, coworking and shared workspace companies in the U.S. For additional information, please visit www.bascomgroup.com.

If you would like further information, please call James D'Argenio at 949-955-0888 ext. 119 or e-mail at [email protected]

SOURCE The Bascom Group
Cannabis Multi-State House of Brands Executes Upon Growth Strategy in New and Existing Markets

DENVER, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - BellRock Brands Inc. ("BellRock" or the "Company") (CSE: BRCK.U), an industry-leading cannabis multi-state house of brands ("MSHB"), today announced that the Company has expanded its presence in Michigan with the introduction of two new Dixie Elixirs flavors and will enter the Ohio market though a licensing partnership with BeneLeaves, one of Ohio's leading cannabis processors. Both moves exemplify BellRock's focus on driving organic growth of existing brands and expanding its reach through new markets. The addition of the Ohio market brings BellRock's North American footprint to 10 U.S. THC markets and Canada.

Mary's Medicinals, BellRock's cannabis wellness brand, will be the first to be manufactured and distributed in Ohio, and the Company has plans to expand the BeneLeaves partnership to include other brands within the BellRock portfolio in the future. The Company anticipates that Mary's acclaimed products, including its patches, topicals and tinctures, will be available through BeneLeaves later this year.

BellRock CEO Brian Jansen said, "I have known the BeneLeaves team for three years and have always been impressed with their level of commitment to Ohio's patients and customers. We are excited to enter the Ohio market with a partner that shares our core values. BeneLeaves' production facility is one of the best in the country. Their team is committed to expanding access to patients and delivering high quality cannabis products."

"We are very excited to roll out the complete line of industry leading brands in the BellRock portfolio. Brian and the BellRock team have built an amazing following, and we are so proud to bring these trusted, high-quality products to the patients of Ohio," said Bill Williams, President and CEO of BeneLeaves.

BellRock's focus on the Ohio market coincides with the Company's expanded brand presence in Michigan. Next month, Dixie Brands, in collaboration with its partner, JRMI27, LLC, will add two additional Dixie Elixirs beverage flavors. Dixie Elixirs are the first 100 mg beverage products to launch in Michigan.

"Increasing the Dixie Elixirs beverage portfolio in Michigan is an important milestone for BellRock," said Jansen. "We are pleased to work with JRMI27 to pave the way for new delivery methods in the state, and plan to continue delighting consumers with innovative form factors and high-quality cannabis products."

Looking ahead, BellRock will continue to pursue growth in its existing markets through product innovation and the expansion of its entire product offering. The Company will continue to enter new markets through both strategic partnerships and license acquisitions.

Additionally, BellRock has been thoroughly re-assessing all of the Company's relationships as it drives towards free cashflow positive. As part of this strategic evaluation, it has been decided that the previously announced agreement between AriZona Tea and Dixie Brands to launch Sun Brew THC gummies has been terminated.

ABOUT BELLROCK BRANDS:

BellRock Brands is a cannabis multi-state house of brands and intellectual property focused CPG operator that possesses one of the industry's broadest branded product portfolios. BellRock consists of two iconic cannabis brands, Mary's Medicinals (a pioneer in the Health & Wellness segment since 2013) and Dixie (a market-leading cannabis-infused edibles brand since 2010). BellRock also includes two growing California-based brands, Rebel Coast and Defonce. BellRock's CBD portfolio includes the brands Mary's Nutritionals and Mary's Tails. With 7 brands and over 200 SKUs, BellRock reaches nearly every key consumer group and addresses the needs of a diverse cannabis consumer base. The BellRock manufacturing and distribution footprint continues to expand and currently spans nine states, and the Company owns or manages production facilities in its largest markets. For more information, visit www.bellrockbrands.com.

ABOUT BENELEAVES

BeneLeaves is a family, minority, and women owned medical cannabis processor based in Columbus, Ohio. BeneLeaves creates deep connections with its patients, inspiring them towards new levels of wellness and happiness. We are patient focused and Ohio proud.

We are rapidly rising and taking the cannabis industry to the next level with our personal innovations and expertise. We focus on quality efficiency and most importantly the patients of Ohio. We've built our business from the ground up both structurally and operationally with much success due to generations of past business experience. BeneLeaves produces infused vape pens, lotions, capsules, gummies, chocolate bars, and gluten and sugar free cookies.

For more information, visit beneleaves.com and follow our social media handle: @BeneLeaves.

Here is a brief video we created to help share our facility and capabilities:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45PbnXpm8SI&t=14s

SOURCE BellRock Brands Inc.
RIEHEN, Switzerland, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bionter AG, experts in sub-visible particle testing, announced the completion of a $3 million Series Seed financing from Dynamk Capital. Bionter revolutionizes analytical testing of subvisible particles in the biopharmaceutical industry in respect to economy, process time and safety.

Proceeds from this round will help the company to expand their committed team, launch their first solution in 2022 ,and fuel their pipeline with new innovative developments.

Bionter System

"Bionter technology is a game changer in subvisible particle counting, one of the most important quality attributes of administered liquid biologics," said Reinhard Vogt, chair of the Board of Bionter and Venture Partner at Dynamk Capital"

The financing accelerates the already exceptional momentum for Bionter's initial offering. Bionter's complete solution includes a particle counter supported with single-use consumables, maintenance and training, applicable for biotech's drug product sector and based on a new combination light obscuration technology and smart automation.

A challenge faced by the biopharmaceutical industry is how to minimize the amount of costly sample required to determine particle count. Bionter's device reduces the overall sample volume required, saving material for other analytical endpoints, hence reducing costs. Its smart automated workflow drives efficiency, minimizes human interaction and therefore improving reliability, data integrity and in turn patient safety. Bionter's particle counter is also compliant to current USP/EP/JP regulations familiar with manufacturers.

The company has completed development of its patented technology and will launch it end of May 2022.

"This financing enables us to bring our first product to our customers while driving the development of new innovations," said Dr. Tobias Werk, CEO of Bionter. "We are thrilled to have Dynamk Capital join our team, as they provide a wealth of experience growing life science tools companies and help position Bionter and help us to make our vision a reality."

About Bionter AG

Bionter (www.bionter.com) is a recently founded Switzerland based company with the purpose of revolutionizing analytical testing for the benefit of people's health. Bionter is driving patient safety, cost efficiency and sustainability through disruptive innovations in particle testing that are increasing the quality of drug product testing. Bionter`s first product is a particle counter that is not only fully automated but also allows non-destructive sample testing.

About Dynamk Capital

Dynamk Capital is a growth equity and venture capital firm focused on life sciences industrials. Dynamk's investment strategy is centered on identifying companies developing disruptive technologies, tools, and services that enable the full biopharma continuum across discovery, development, and manufacturing of biotherapeutics, including cell & gene therapies and vaccines. Please visit www.dynamk.vc for more information.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Bionter
MEXICO CITY, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitcoin ATM manufacturer ChainBytes in cooperation with Mexican based Bitcoin ATM operator Axolotl Bitcoin deployed a Bitcoin ATM on the floor of the Mexican Senate (SENADO DE LA REPUBLICA) located in Mexico City in support of the efforts of Mexican Senator Indira Kempis on making Bitcoin a legal tender in Mexico.

Eric Grill, Indira Kempis Martinez, Jose Rodriguez unveiling Bitcoin ATM in Mexican senate building (SENADO DE LA REPUBLICA) Bitcoin ATM manufactured by ChainBytes deployed at Mexican senate building (SENADO DE LA REPUBLICA)

In an effort to get Mexico's lawmakers on board, Senator Kempis in cooperation with ChainBytes, an enterprise Bitcoin ATM manufacturer and Axolotl Bitcoin a Mexican-based Bitcoin ATM operator has revealed and put in the operation first Bitcoin ATM at the Mexican Senate building.

For many of these lawmakers, this will be the first time they will experience Bitcoin transactions first hand. Senator Kempis hopes that by deploying this ATM, lawmakers will now have a chance to get familiar with Bitcoin transactions and become more educated about Bitcoin and the benefits that mass adoption could potentially bring to their country.

ChainBytes CEO Eric Grill stated: "We are thrilled to be a part of such a historical moment for Mexico. We hope that by placing our ChainBytes ATM in the senate building we will help lawmakers get familiar with the technology and hopefully aid their decision to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender in Mexico. We are excited and honored to be here and we are doing our best to help these lawmakers understand the advantages of Bitcoin."

"We are excited with the current openness in the Mexican Senate, and with Senator Indira Kempis' effort to bring this Bitcoin ATM and help towards a Bitcoin Regulation that could detonate the Bitcoin and Fintech industry in Mexico as it has happened in other countries. I have been meeting with Regulators and Central Banks for the last 10 years, finally we are seeing interest, will, curiosity and participation with Regulators and lawmakers in Mexico." Jose Rodriguez, Director of Blockchain Land and CEO of Axolotl Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin ATM will remain operational in the senate building allowing lawmakers to get familiar with Bitcoin in the coming months before they have a chance to discuss and vote on Senator Kempis petition of making bitcoin a legal tender in Mexico.

On the first week the Bitcoin ATM will be available on the first floor of the Mexican Senate, afterwards it will be available for future workshops and events in the Senate and in Senator Indira Kempis' offices.

ChainBytes is a US veteran-owned Bitcoin ATM software and hardware provider, focused on providing Bitcoin ATMs to enterprise operators.

Media contact:

Jose Rodriguez

[email protected]

+1(415) 529-5777

SOURCE ChainBytes
Blexr, which has its headquarters in Malta, plans to make the website the most comprehensive casino resource for Kiwi players.

Blexr acquired https://www.casinoreviews.net.nz/ for a seven-figure sum, demonstrating its commitment to owning properties that will further enhance its offerings to its customer base.

Koen Bongers, Blexr's Head of Marketing, said: "We believe this acquisition will blend very well into our existing product portfolio while increasing our presence in our target markets.

"New Zealand has a high interest in slot machines  called 'pokies' locally  and our bespoke free casino games technology allows us to create a highly localised offering in the market that will stand out from the competition.

"We have big plans for this website and are excited to see how it will grow in the coming months."

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1805246/Blexr_Casino_Reviews.jpg

SOURCE Blexr
Certification with U.S. Hemp Authority involves a rigorous audit of manufacturing practices and product quality concerning hemp ingredients. NFI completed this third party audit successfully, showing their selected hemp seed oil and manufacturing protocols meet the high standards of the U.S. Hemp Authority and reflect the best manufacturing practices that Blue-Emu is so well known for.

"Satisfying our consumers is the most important aspect of our business. This certification demonstrates our products continue to meet their high standards of quality. "  CEO, Susan Gregory

The U.S. Hemp Authority logo will appear on the Blue-Emu Ultra Pain Relief Cream packaging in the very near future. The logo will show prominently on both the external and internal product packages, adding yet another incentive for consumers to choose Blue-Emu for their pain relief needs both at the retail shelf and at home.

"We deeply value Blue-Emu consumers' product experience and loyal support. With this U.S. Hemp Authority certification, we proudly reinforce confidence in our products and innovations as pain relief consumers can trust."  SVP of Sales, Jim Richmond

For more information, please contact NFI Consumer Products via email at [email protected] or visit the Blue-Emu website at www.blue-emu.com.

About NFI Consumer Products, Blue-Emu

NFI Consumer Products (NFI) is an innovative consumer products company that manufactures, markets, and distributes the Blue-Emu line of products for muscles and joints. Blue-Emu products are made with real emu oil. In January of 2014, Gregory Pharmaceutical Holdings, Inc. purchased NFI and quickly capitalized on the Blue-Emu following amongst consumers, expanding advertising efforts and accelerating the growth of the Blue-Emu brand and product line. In June 2014, Original Blue-Emu Super Strength cream was recognized as the #1 selling over-the-counter muscle and joint cream in the United States. Under the leadership of CEO, Susan Gregory and guidance from EVP of Sales and Marketing, Benjamin Blessing, NFI has expanded the Blue-Emu product line to include Blue-Emu Continuous Pain Relief Spray, Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief Cream, Blue-Emu Ultra Pain Relief Cream, Blue-Emu Pain Relief Micro-Foam, Blue-Emu Lidocaine Pain Relief Cream, Blue-Emu Recovery Bath Pods, and Blue-Emu Foot Therapy. Today, NFI distributes Blue-Emu products, in over 50,000 locations throughout the US, primarily across the Mass, Food, Chain Drugstore and Independent Drug Store channels, as well as via wholesalers and numerous e-commerce platforms.

About U.S. Hemp Authority

The U.S. Hemp Authority Certification Program is the hemp industry's initiative to provide high standards, best practices, and self-regulation, giving consumers and retailers confidence in hemp and CBD products. Started in 2016 from the Kentucky Hemp Industry Coalition as the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, the organization has continued to update their Guidance Plan to ensure the highest quality hemp processing and products in the United States. They have partnered with FoodChain ID to be the exclusive certifying body for its Certification Program. For more information, visit https://ushempauthority.org/.

SOURCE NFI Consumer Products
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) generated net sales of $3.026 billion during the first quarter of 2022, growing 10.0 percent on a reported basis, 12.6 percent on an operational1 basis and 9.7 percent on an organic2 basis, all compared to the prior year period. The company reported GAAP net income available to common stockholders of $97 million or $0.07 per share (EPS), compared to $327 million or $0.23 per share a year ago, and achieved adjusted EPS of $0.39 for the period, compared to $0.37 a year ago.

"Our growth this quarter was fueled by strong execution from our global team, our innovative portfolio and improved procedure volume," said Mike Mahoney, chairman and chief executive officer, Boston Scientific. "We are pleased with our first quarter performance and outlook for the full year, despite the impact of macroeconomic headwinds, and we look forward to bringing meaningful innovation to customers and the patients we serve together."

First quarter financial results and recent developments:

Reported net sales of $3.026 billion , representing an increase of 10.0 percent on a reported basis, compared to the company's guidance range of 5 to 8 percent; 12.6 percent on an operational basis; and 9.7 percent on an organic basis, compared to the company's guidance range of 5 to 8 percent, all compared to the prior year period.





, representing an increase of 10.0 percent on a reported basis, compared to the company's guidance range of 5 to 8 percent; 12.6 percent on an operational basis; and 9.7 percent on an organic basis, compared to the company's guidance range of 5 to 8 percent, all compared to the prior year period. Reported GAAP net income available to common stockholders of $0.07 per share, compared to the company's guidance range of $0.16 to $0.20 per share, and achieved adjusted EPS of $0.39 per share, compared to the guidance range of $0.38 to $0.40 per share.





per share, compared to the company's guidance range of to per share, and achieved adjusted EPS of per share, compared to the guidance range of to per share. Achieved net sales growth in each reportable segment 4 , compared to the prior year period:

, compared to the prior year period: MedSurg : 9.1 percent reported, 11.1 percent operational and 8.0 percent organic



Cardiovascular: 11.4 percent reported, 14.5 percent operational and 10.8 percent organic





Achieved the following regional 5 net sales growth, compared to the prior year period:

U.S.: 12.8 percent reported and operational



EMEA ( Europe , Middle East and Africa ): 3.3 percent reported and 12.0 percent operational



APAC ( Asia-Pacific ): 9.3 percent reported and 13.6 percent operational



Emerging Markets 3 : 22.8 percent reported and 28.7 percent operational





Announced real-world data from the SURPASS 45-day analysis of more than 16,000 patients with the WATCHMAN FLX Left Atrial Appendage Closure Device from the National Cardiovascular Data ( NCDR ) Registry Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion ( LAAO ) Registry, as well as final one-year results from the FLXibility post-approval study with the device in Europe , both demonstrating low rates of adverse events and high rates of LAA closure in everyday clinical practice. Also received approval for the WATCHMAN FLX device in China by the National Medical Products Administration ( NMPA ) and will begin a limited market release in the coming months.





NCDR LAAO FLXibility LAA FLX NMPA Announced at the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA ) annual meeting acute, real-world outcomes from the POLAR ICE study, which demonstrated that the POLARx Cryoablation System met safety and efficacy endpoints when used to perform pulmonary vein isolation ( PVI ) for the ablation treatment of atrial fibrillation. A low rate of procedure-related complications, a high rate of acute PVI , and short procedure and left-atrial dwell times was also observed.

Received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for the EMBOLD Fibered Coil , a fully retractable coil indicated for arterial and venous embolization in the peripheral vasculature. The EMBOLD Fibered Coil enhances the existing Boston Scientific embolization portfolio.





, a fully retractable coil indicated for arterial and venous embolization in the peripheral vasculature. The EMBOLD Fibered Coil enhances the existing Boston Scientific embolization portfolio. Received FDA investigational device exemption (IDE) to commence the FRONTIER study, a clinical trial assessing TheraSphere Y-90 Glass Microspheres as a treatment option for patients with recurrent glioblastoma, an aggressive type of cancer that can occur in the brain.





as a treatment option for patients with recurrent glioblastoma, an aggressive type of cancer that can occur in the brain. Received FDA approval for next-generation Image Guided Programming Software for Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy. Vercise Neural Navigator with STIMVIEW XT enables clinicians to both visualize real-time lead placement and stimulation modeling of the brain anatomy in patients with Parkinson's disease or essential tremor.





enables clinicians to both visualize real-time lead placement and stimulation modeling of the brain anatomy in patients with Parkinson's disease or essential tremor. Received National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approval in China for Rezum Water Vapor Therapy . The Rezum System is a minimally invasive treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), which affects up to 62 percent of men globally who have a prostate and are over 50 years of age.





for . The Rezum System is a minimally invasive treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), which affects up to 62 percent of men globally who have a prostate and are over 50 years of age. Received Health Canada approval for the first-of-its kind LithoVue Elite Single-Use Digital Flexible Ureteroscope with pressure monitoring and StoneSmart Connect Console . The LithoVue Elite System is designed to allow physicians to monitor intrarenal pressure during ureteroscopy procedures to make pressure-related decisions in real time.





with pressure monitoring and . The LithoVue Elite System is designed to allow physicians to monitor intrarenal pressure during ureteroscopy procedures to make pressure-related decisions in real time. Completed in mid-February the acquisition of Baylis Medical Company Inc., a company that offers advanced transseptal access solutions as well as guidewires, sheaths and dilators used to support catheter-based left-heart procedures.





Completed a public offering of 3 billion ( $3.3 billion ) aggregate principal amount of EUR-denominated Senior Notes, and tender offer and early redemption of $3.3 billion aggregate principal amount of certain outstanding USD-denominated Senior Notes.

1. Operational net sales growth excludes the impact of foreign currency fluctuations. 2. Organic net sales growth excludes the impact of foreign currency fluctuations and net sales attributable to acquisitions and divestitures for which there are less than a full period of comparable net sales. 3 We define Emerging Markets as the 20 countries that we believe have strong growth potential based on their economic conditions, healthcare sectors and our global capabilities. 4. In the first quarter of 2022, we reorganized our operational structure and have aggregated our core businesses, each of which generate revenues from the sale of medical devices (Medical Devices), into two reportable segments comprised of MedSurg and Cardiovascular. Within the Cardiovascular segment, the newly formed Cardiology division represents the combined former Rhythm Management and Interventional Cardiology businesses. We have revised prior period amounts to conform to the current year presentation. 5. On March 1, 2021, we completed the sale of the Specialty Pharmaceuticals business. Our consolidated net sales include Specialty Pharmaceuticals up to the date of the closing of the transaction. Specialty Pharmaceuticals net sales were substantially U.S. based and presented as a stand-alone operating segment alongside our Medical Device reportable segments.



Net sales for the first quarter by business and region:













Increase/(Decrease)



Three Months Ended

March 31,

Reported

Basis

Less: Impact

of Foreign

Currency

Fluctuations

Operational

Basis

Less:

Impact of

Recent

Acquisitions

/ Divestitures

Organic

Basis (in millions) 2022 2021











Endoscopy $ 531 $ 499

6.4 %

(2.4) %

8.8 %

 %

8.8 %

Urology and Pelvic Health 413 361

14.4 %

(1.6) %

16.1 %

9.1 %

6.9 %

Neuromodulation 209 198

5.8 %

(1.8) %

7.6 %

 %

7.6 %

MedSurg4 1,153 1,058

9.1 %

(2.0) %

11.1 %

3.1 %

8.0 %

Cardiology 1,407 1,248

12.7 %

(3.3) %

16.0 %

5.0 %

11.1 %

Peripheral Interventions 465 433

7.5 %

(2.6) %

10.1 %

 %

10.1 %

Cardiovascular4 1,873 1,681

11.4 %

(3.1) %

14.5 %

3.7 %

10.8 %

Medical Devices4 3,026 2,739

10.5 %

(2.7) %

13.2 %

3.5 %

9.7 %

Specialty Pharmaceuticals5  13

(100.0) %

 %

(100.0) %

 %

(100.0) % Net Sales $ 3,026 $ 2,752

10.0 %

(2.7) %

12.6 %

2.9 %

9.7 %







































Increase/(Decrease)



Three Months

Ended March 31,

Reported

Basis

Less: Impact

of Foreign

Currency

Fluctuations

Operational

Basis (in millions) 2022 2021







U.S. $ 1,778 $ 1,577

12.8 %

 %

12.8 %

EMEA 624 604

3.3 %

(8.7) %

12.0 %

APAC 517 473

9.3 %

(4.4) %

13.6 %

Latin America and Canada 107 85

25.7 %

(0.6) %

26.3 %

Medical Devices4 3,026 2,739

10.5 %

(2.7) %

13.2 %

Specialty Pharmaceuticals5  13

(100.0) %

 %

(100.0) %

Net Sales $ 3,026 $ 2,752

10.0 %

(2.7) %

12.6 %





















Emerging Markets3 $ 390 $ 317

22.8 %

(5.8) %

28.7 %





















Amounts may not add due to rounding. Growth rates are based on actual, non-rounded amounts and may not recalculate precisely.





Growth rates that exclude the impact of foreign currency fluctuations and/or the impact of acquisitions / divestitures are not prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Guidance for Full Year and Second Quarter 2022

The company now estimates net sales growth for the full year 2022, versus the prior year period, to be in a range of approximately 7 to 9 percent on a reported basis, and approximately 6.5 to 8.5 percent on an organic basis. Full year organic net sales guidance excludes the impact of foreign currency fluctuations and net sales attributable to acquisitions and divestitures for which there are less than a full period of comparable net sales. The company now estimates EPS on a GAAP basis in a range of $0.78 to $0.88 and estimates adjusted EPS, excluding certain charges (credits), of $1.74 to $1.79.

The company estimates net sales growth for the second quarter of 2022, versus the prior year period, to be in a range of approximately 3 to 6 percent on a reported basis and organic basis. Second quarter organic net sales guidance excludes the impact of foreign currency fluctuations and net sales attributable to acquisitions and divestitures for which there are less than a full period of comparable net sales. The company estimates EPS on a GAAP basis in a range of $0.19 to $0.23 and adjusted EPS, excluding certain charges (credits), of $0.41 to $0.43.

Conference Call Information

Boston Scientific management will be discussing these results with analysts on a conference call today at 8:00 a.m. ET. The company will webcast the call to interested parties through its website: www.bostonscientific.com. Please see the website for details on how to access the webcast. The webcast will be available for approximately one year on the Boston Scientific website.

About Boston Scientific

Boston Scientific transforms lives through innovative medical solutions that improve the health of patients around the world. As a global medical technology leader for more than 40 years, we advance science for life by providing a broad range of high performance solutions that address unmet patient needs and reduce the cost of healthcare. For more information, visit www.bostonscientific.com and connect on Twitter and Facebook.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words like "anticipate," "expect," "project," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "may," "intend" and similar words. These forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs, assumptions and estimates using information available to us at the time and are not intended to be guarantees of future events or performance. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding our expected net sales; reported, operational and organic revenue growth rates; reported and adjusted EPS for the second quarter and full year 2022; our financial performance; our business plans and product performance; and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company's results of operations. If our underlying assumptions turn out to be incorrect, or if certain risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. These factors, in some cases, have affected and in the future (together with other factors) could affect our ability to implement our business strategy and may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the statements expressed in this press release. As a result, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of our forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties that may cause such differences include, among other things: the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on our operations and financial results; future U.S. and global economic, political, competitive, reimbursement and regulatory conditions; manufacturing, distribution and supply chain disruptions and cost increases; disruptions caused by cybersecurity events; disruptions caused by extreme weather or other climate change-related events; labor shortages and increases in labor costs; new product introductions; expected procedural volumes; the closing and integration of acquisitions; demographic trends; intellectual property rights; litigation; financial market conditions; the execution and effect of our business strategy, including our cost-savings and growth initiatives; and future business decisions made by us and our competitors. New risks and uncertainties may arise from time to time and are difficult to predict, including those that have emerged or have increased in significance or likelihood as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. All of these factors are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many of them are beyond our control. For a further list and description of these and other important risks and uncertainties that may affect our future operations, see Part I, Item 1A - Risk Factors in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which we may update in Part II, Item 1A - Risk Factors in Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q we have filed or will file hereafter. We disclaim any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations or in events, conditions, or circumstances on which those expectations may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. This cautionary statement is applicable to all forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

Note: Amounts reported in millions within this press release are computed based on the amounts in thousands. As a result, the sum of the components reported in millions may not equal the total amount reported in millions due to rounding. Certain columns and rows within tables may not add due to the use of rounded numbers. Percentages presented are calculated from the underlying numbers in dollars.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information

A reconciliation of the company's non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP measures, and an explanation of the company's use of these non-GAAP financial measures, is included in the exhibits attached to this press release.

CONTACT:







Media: Kate Haranis

Investors: Lauren Tengler

508-683-6585 (office)



508-683-4479 (office)

Media Relations



Investor Relations

Boston Scientific Corporation



Boston Scientific Corporation

[email protected]



[email protected]

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited)



Three Months Ended

March 31, in millions, except per share data 2022 2021





Net sales $ 3,026 $ 2,752 Cost of products sold 955 894 Gross profit 2,071 1,858





Operating expenses:



Selling, general and administrative expenses 1,060 1,019 Research and development expenses 319 276 Royalty expense 12 12 Amortization expense 198 185 Contingent consideration net expense (benefit) 12 (6) Restructuring net charges (credits) 4 5 Litigation-related net charges (credits)  4 Gain on disposal of businesses and assets  (6)

1,605 1,488 Operating income (loss) 466 370





Other income (expense):



Interest expense (279) (82) Other, net (31) 37 Income (loss) before income taxes 156 325 Income tax expense (benefit) 45 (16) Net income (loss) $ 110 $ 341 Preferred stock dividends (14) (14) Net income (loss) available to common stockholders $ 97 $ 327





Net income (loss) per common share - basic $ 0.07 $ 0.23 Net income (loss) per common share - assuming dilution $ 0.07 $ 0.23





Weighted-average shares outstanding



Basic 1,427.8 1,418.7 Assuming dilution 1,438.4 1,430.8

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC CORPORATION NON-GAAP NET INCOME AND NET INCOME PER SHARE RECONCILIATIONS (Unaudited)



Three Months Ended March 31, 2022

(in millions, except per share data) Gross

Profit Operating

Expenses Operating

Income

(Loss) Other

Income

(Expense) Income

(Loss)

Before

Income

Taxes Net

Income

(Loss) Preferred

Stock

Dividends Net Income

(Loss)

Available to

Common

Stockholders Impact

per

Share (1)

Reported $ 2,071 $ 1,605 $ 466 $ (310) $ 156 $ 110 $ (14) $ 97 $ 0.07

Non-GAAP adjustments:



















Amortization expense  (198) 198  198 170  170 0.12

Acquisition / divestiture-related net

charges (credits) 27 (45) 72  72 72  72 0.05

Restructuring and restructuring-related

net charges (credits) 18 (11) 29  29 25  25 0.02

Investment portfolio net losses (gains)    7 7 5  5 0.00

EU MDR implementation costs 10 (6) 16  16 14  14 0.01

Debt extinguishment charges    194 194 149  149 0.10

Deferred tax expenses (benefits)      30  30 0.02

Discrete tax items         0.00

Adjusted $ 2,127 $ 1,346 $ 781 $ (110) $ 671 $ 575 $ (14) $ 562 $ 0.39























(1) For the three months ended March 31, 2022, the effect of assuming the conversion of Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock (MCPS) into shares of common stock was anti-dilutive, and therefore excluded from the calculation of EPS. Accordingly, GAAP net income and adjusted net income were reduced by cumulative Preferred stock dividends, as presented in our unaudited consolidated statements of operations, for purposes of calculating net income available to common stockholders.



























Three Months Ended March 31, 2021

(in millions, except per share data) Gross

Profit Operating

Expenses Operating

Income

(Loss) Other

Income

(Expense) Income

(Loss)

Before

Income

Taxes Net

Income

(Loss) Preferred

Stock

Dividends Net Income

(Loss)

Available to

Common

Stockholders Impact

per

Share (1)

Reported $ 1,858 $ 1,488 $ 370 $ (45) $ 325 $ 341 $ (14) $ 327 $ 0.23

Non-GAAP adjustments:



















Amortization expense  (185) 185  185 167  167 0.12

Acquisition / divestiture-related net

charges (credits) 14 (37) 50 (198) (148) (153)  (153) (0.11)

Restructuring and restructuring-related

net charges (credits) 18 (31) 49  49 44  44 0.03

Litigation-related net charges (credits)  (4) 4  4 4  4 0.00

Investment portfolio net losses (gains)    146 146 112  112 0.08

EU MDR implementation costs 7 (3) 11  11 10  10 0.01

Deferred tax expenses (benefits)      17  17 0.01

Discrete tax items      (3)  (3) (0.00)

Adjusted $ 1,897 $ 1,228 $ 669 $ (97) $ 572 $ 538 $ (14) $ 524 $ 0.37























(1) For the three months ended March 31, 2021, the effect of assuming the conversion of Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock (MCPS) into shares of common stock was anti-dilutive, and therefore excluded from the calculation of EPS. Accordingly, GAAP net income and adjusted net income were reduced by cumulative Preferred stock dividends, as presented in our unaudited consolidated statements of operations, for purposes of calculating net income available to common stockholders.

























An explanation of the company's use of these non-GAAP financial measures is provided at the end of this document.



BOSTON SCIENTIFIC CORPORATION Q2 and FY 2022 GUIDANCE RECONCILIATIONS (Unaudited)

Net Sales



Q2 2022 Estimate

Full Year 2022 Estimate

(Low) (High)

(Low) (High) Reported growth 3.0 % 6.0 %

7.0 % 9.0 % Less: Impact of foreign currency fluctuations (3.0) % (3.0) %

(2.0) % (2.0) % Operational growth 6.0 % 9.0 %

9.0 % 11.0 % Less: Impact of certain acquisitions / divestitures 3.0 % 3.0 %

2.5 % 2.5 % Organic growth 3.0 % 6.0 %

6.5 % 8.5 %

Earnings per Share



Q2 2022 Estimate

Full Year 2022 Estimate

(Low) (High)

(Low) (High) GAAP results $ 0.19 $ 0.23

$ 0.78 $ 0.88











Amortization expense 0.12 0.12

0.48 0.48 Acquisition / divestiture-related net charges (credits) 0.04 0.03

0.14 0.12 Restructuring and restructuring-related net charges (credits) 0.03 0.02

0.09 0.07 Debt extinguishment charges  

0.10 0.10 Other adjustments 0.03 0.03

0.15 0.14 Adjusted results $ 0.41 $ 0.43

$ 1.74 $ 1.79

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement our unaudited consolidated financial statements presented on a GAAP basis, we disclose certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted net income (loss), adjusted net income (loss) available to common stockholders and adjusted net income (loss) per share (EPS) that exclude certain amounts; operational net sales, which exclude the impact of foreign currency fluctuations; and organic net sales, which exclude the impact of foreign currency fluctuations as well as the impact of certain acquisitions and divestitures with less than a full period of comparable net sales. These non-GAAP financial measures are not in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States and should not be considered in isolation from or as a replacement for the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. Further, other companies may calculate these non-GAAP financial measures differently than we do, which may limit the usefulness of those measures for comparative purposes.

To calculate adjusted net income (loss), adjusted net income (loss) available to common stockholders and adjusted net income (loss) per share we exclude certain charges (credits) from GAAP net income (loss) and GAAP net income (loss) available to common stockholders. Amounts are presented after-tax at the company's effective tax rate, unless the amount is a significant unusual or infrequently occurring item in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification Topic 740-270-30, "General Methodology and Use of Estimated Annual Effective Tax Rate." Please refer to Part II, Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in our most recent Annual Report filed on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission or any Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q that we file thereafter for an explanation of each of these adjustments and the reasons for excluding each item.

The GAAP financial measures most directly comparable to adjusted net income (loss), adjusted net income (loss) available to common stockholders and adjusted net income (loss) per share are GAAP net income (loss), GAAP net income (loss) available to common stockholders and GAAP net income (loss) per common share - assuming dilution, respectively.

To calculate operational net sales growth rates, which exclude the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, we convert actual net sales from local currency to U.S. dollars using constant foreign currency exchange rates in the current and prior periods. To calculate organic net sales growth rates, we also remove the impact of acquisitions and divestitures with less than a full period of comparable net sales. The GAAP financial measure most directly comparable to operational net sales and organic net sales is net sales on a GAAP basis.

Reconciliations of each of these non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP financial measure are included in the accompanying schedules.

Management uses these supplemental non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate performance period over period, to analyze the underlying trends in our business, to assess our performance relative to our competitors and to establish operational goals and forecasts that are used in allocating resources. In addition, management uses these non-GAAP financial measures to further its understanding of the performance of our operating segments. The adjustments excluded from our non-GAAP financial measures are consistent with those excluded from our operating segments' measures of net sales and profit or loss. These adjustments are excluded from the segment measures reported to our chief operating decision maker that are used to make operating decisions and assess performance.

We believe that presenting adjusted net income (loss), adjusted net income (loss) available to common stockholders, adjusted net income (loss) per share, operational net sales growth rates and organic net sales growth rates, in addition to the corresponding GAAP financial measures, provides investors greater transparency to the information used by management for its operational decision-making and allows investors to see our results "through the eyes" of management. We further believe that providing this information assists our investors in understanding our operating performance and the methodology used by management to evaluate and measure such performance.

SOURCE Boston Scientific Corporation
Revolutionary, Medication-Free Treatment for a Variety of Mental Health Disorders Now Available in Greenwich

GREENWICH, Conn., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Gray Matters, a pioneer in the mental health industry, has opened a new office in Greenwich, CT, in order to provide the community and surrounding areas with highly effective, medication-free treatment for a range of mental health conditions.

For over 14 years, Gray Matters has effectively treated thousands of patients for an array of conditions, including ADHD, autism, anxiety, concussions, depression, sleep disorders, and more. Gray Matters uses qEEG brain mapping and neurofeedback therapy to deliver effective, safe, and medication-free treatment.

qEEG is an imaging technique to measure brain function. Used by the military, NFL, and research centers around the world, qEEG has emerged as a primary tool in neuroscience. Once the brain patterns are mapped, neurofeedback is used to train the brain back to a more optimal level of functioning. For the patient, the process is as easy as watching a movie.

Gray Matters also uses qEEG to proactively map normal brain functions for athletes. In the case of a concussion, the individual's baseline brain map is used to treat and assess the healing process so the athlete knows when they can safely resume play.

"We have had remarkable success treating thousands of patients over the years with this therapy," said Anthony Silver, Founder and Executive Director at Gray Matters. "Over the last two years, in particular, we have experienced an increased demand for this type of treatment. Among other things, it is an excellent treatment for anxiety, depression, and other negative behaviors resulting from the effects of the pandemic. We are pleased to expand the practice to Greenwich."

Gray Matters is currently offering free phone consultations.

Gray Matters is located at 1455 East Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, and in Westport, CT. To learn more about qEEG and neurofeedback therapy, please visit www.graymattersct.com.

About Gray Matters

Gray Matters is the leading expert in qEEG brain mapping and neurofeedback therapy in the Northeast. For over a decade, researchers and practitioners at Gray Matters have used this approach to treat thousands of patients with a variety of mental health disorders, including ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression, concussion recovery, and more. Gray Matters has clinics in Westport and Greenwich, CT, and offers its therapy to patients anywhere in the comfort of their own homes using an at-home kit with guidance from a therapist via a video session. For more information, visit www.graymattersct.com or call +1 203-291-0880.

Press Inquiries:

Tracy Venters

Town Crier Marketing Group

214-732-7770

[email protected]

SOURCE Gray Matters
NEW YORK , April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a BBB National Programs National Advertising Division (NAD) challenge, Brilliant Earth Group, Inc. voluntarily discontinued claims made in connection with the sale of its diamonds and jewelry. These claims were challenged by competitor Blue Nile.

Brilliant Earth is an online jeweler that sells jewelry made from both natural and lab-grown gemstones. The challenged advertising consisted of a promotional offer for free diamond earrings which ran on the Brilliant Earth website and other digital marketing.

Blue Nile challenged the express claims "Free Diamond Earrings" and "One Day Only!" as well as the implied claims that:

The "free" diamond earrings are natural diamonds, not lab-grown.

The "free" offer is only available for a very limited time.

During the proceeding, Brilliant Earth informed NAD that it had permanently discontinued both the offer at issue and the challenged express and implied claims. Therefore, NAD did not review the claims on their merits.

In its advertiser statement, Brilliant Earth stated that it "agrees to comply with NAD's decision." The advertiser further stated that while it "believes that the challenged advertising claims were substantiated, the company informed NAD that it no longer plans to run the challenged claims in any medium, and therefore agreed to voluntarily and permanently discontinue them."

All BBB National Programs case decision summaries can be found in the case decision library. For the full text of NAD, NARB, and CARU decisions, subscribe to the online archive.

About BBB National Programs: BBB National Programs is where businesses turn to enhance consumer trust and consumers are heard. The non-profit organization creates a fairer playing field for businesses and a better experience for consumers through the development and delivery of effective third-party accountability and dispute resolution programs. Embracing its role as an independent organization since the restructuring of the Council of Better Business Bureaus in June 2019, BBB National Programs today oversees more than a dozen leading national industry self-regulation programs, and continues to evolve its work and grow its impact by providing business guidance and fostering best practices in arenas such as advertising, child-directed marketing, and privacy. To learn more, visit bbbprograms.org.

About the National Advertising Division: The National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs provides independent self-regulation and dispute resolution services, guiding the truthfulness of advertising across the U.S. NAD reviews national advertising in all media and its decisions set consistent standards for advertising truth and accuracy, delivering meaningful protection to consumers and leveling the playing field for business.

SOURCE BBB National Programs
Lionel Dotson to call on City to finally release his sisters' remains after 37 years

PHILADELPHIA, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lionell Dotson, the brother of 1985 MOVE bombing victims Katricia and Zanetta Dotson, will hold a news conference tomorrow (Thursday, April 28) in front of City Hall in Philadelphia to call on the Mayor Jim Kenney to release the sisters' remains and finally do the right thing in a story of deception, denial, disrespect and outright racism that reaches back nearly 37 years. Dotson will be joined by renowned civil rights attorney, Bakari Sellers, with Strom Law Firm, and Daniel Hartstein.

Outrage over the MOVE bombing reignited in April 2021 when it was dicovered that the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Museum still held remains of Katricia Dotson and that they had been used in anthropology demonstrations and classes without the family's knowledge or consent.

Weeks later, the City revealed the Medical Examiner's Office also had remains of both Katricia and Zanetta Dotson though former Health Commissioner Thomas Farley had ordered them destroyed in 2017.

Tomorrow's news conference will begin at 11:00 AM outside in front of City Hall (North Side) at 1400 John F Kennedy Blvd. Media are asked to arrive no later than 10:45 AM.

WHO

Lionell Dotson

Attorney Bakari Sellers

Attorney Daniel Hartstein

WHEN

11:00 AM on Thursday, April 28, 2022

WHERE

Philadelphia City Hall (North Side)

1400 John F Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia, PA

SOURCE Strom Law Firm, LLC
19th Annual What's Next Longevity Venture Summit features top investors in aging

LAFAYETTE, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mary Furlong & Associates (MFA) announced its call for applications to entrepreneurs and startup companies for the 19th Annual What's Next Longevity Venture Summit $10,000 Business Plan Competition. The application deadline is May 6.

"After 19 years, we have showcased some of the top innovators in age-tech worldwide with many of our Business Plan Competition winners going on to win other large competitions such as the AARP 'Disrupt Aging' national competition," said Mary Furlong, creator of the What's Next Longevity events. "This is not just winning $10,000 to fuel your idea. Finalists present to the top investors in this space as well as our virtual audience of potential distribution partners that offer invaluable strategic networking opportunities."

Leading in Longevity Business Deals

For nearly two decades the What's Next Longevity Venture Summit has focused on the longevity economy attracting a worldwide audience of more than 300 investors, entrepreneurs, senior living, home care, government agencies, nonprofits and other experts at the intersection of aging and technology. The event offers both learning and networking on the future trends to support an aging population with an economy based on people over age 50 that represents $8.3 trillion in spending today but will be $12.6 trillion by 2030 and will more than double in 2050 to $26.6 trillion.

Two thought leaders in investing and aging will keynote the event: Tom Kalil, chief innovation officer of Schmidt Ventures and former advisor to Presidents Obama and Clinton, and Sonia Arrison, founder of 100 Plus Capital and best-selling author and associate founder of Singularity University. The keynotes headline the hybrid three-day event with virtual programming June 6-7 and invitation-only in-person education and networking activities on June 7-8.

The top three finalists will pitch their business plans to a virtual audience and expert judges on June 7. In addition to winning $10,000 to support their innovation, the winner will also be invited to present at the THRIVE Center in Louisville, Ky., and will have the opportunity to present and exhibit at the next CABHI Summit in 2023.

The 2020 Business Plan Competition winner, Steve Xu, CEO and Founder of Sonica said, "This competition was a huge and motivating event for us since we are a small company working on advanced technology that doesn't always get recognized. It was valuable for my team to get this recognition from an outside perspective from all these judges who are all-stars. To us it is not about the prize money, it is about the recognition and acknowledgment that our company ideas are meaningful and have a purpose."

Judges for the Business Plan Competition include: Abby Levy, Primetime Partners, John Hopper, Ziegler LinkAge Longevity Fund, Christine Brocato, CommonSpirit, Richard Deulofeut, Trust Ventures, Jennifer Stybel, Pivotal Ventures, Rick Robinson, AgeTech Collaborative from AARP.

MFA is accepting applications through May 6 for this year's What's Next Longevity Venture Business Plan Competition. Learn more and apply online here:

www.boomerventuresummit.com .

The What's Next Longevity Venture Summit event sponsors include: AgeTech Collaborative from AARP, GetSetUp, Ageless Innovation, iN2L, CareLinx, Posit Science, Home Instead, Ziegler LinkAge, LifeBio, WAHVE, CDW, Nationwide and Sodexo.

Media Contact:

Maysen Folsom

805-405-3370

[email protected]

SOURCE Mary Furlong and Associates
"In the world of graphene biosensors and bioelectronics, most of the sensors and instruments are made to measure one or a few biological elements. However, our liquid-gated graphene Field Effect Transistors (gFET) - what we call a Biosignal Processing Unit (BPU) - is an extremely versatile platform that allows all kinds of biosignals to be measured on the sensor, so we can electronically translate different types of biological signals to digital information  even in near real-time," states Brett Goldsmith, PhD, Chief Technology Officer at Cardea.

Goldsmith continues, "Through our scientific papers and commercial partnerships, we have demonstrated that we are the world leader in the graphene bioelectronics and biosensor industry. As we invented the state-of-the-art graphene biosensor designs and many of the fundamental graphene mass manufacturing processes, we're proud to now have secured multiple international patents needed to commercially make and use our graphene Field Effect Transistors and biosensor technologies. We want to ensure that everybody can get access to these innovations and IP, by being open to licensing our inventions. In addition, we also offer easy commercial access to our BPU platform  a platform that can enable the entire field to move forward and set us all up for future success."

As quoted on January 10, 2022, Senior Vice President and Head of the Center for Innovation in Diagnostics at Siemens Healthineers, Dr. Rangarajan Sampath said, "My team was impressed by Cardea's scientific and technical teams with world-class experience and a significant number of peer-reviewed publications, giving us every confidence that Cardea can realize desired products across multiple markets."

"Over the past two years, we have successfully demonstrated our capability to scale our chip production, plus we have built a world class team and entered into multiple global partnerships. This all is built on our ability to invent proprietary technologies, as well as protected processes and design IP that positions us perfectly to propel our business forward for the next 20 years," states CEO of Cardea, Michael Heltzen, and continues, "Our soon-to-be-announced flagship application on our own BPU platform, has the potential to initiate a paradigm shift in global medical management, with the ability to make a substantial positive impact on a healthcare challenge where millions of people die every year, currently."

Cardea's program for Innovation Partnerships has enabled them to partner with several global leaders in their respective markets, including Siemens as well as other Fortune 150 companies and leading innovation-focused foundations, currently under embargo. Through these product development partnerships, Cardea has been able to gain a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities and business opportunities of their BPU Platform.

Examples of measurement that have already been validated through partnerships and papers in leading scientific publications, include electronic IL-6 detection, advanced viral protein detection, amplification-free SNP detection, detecting Leptin in blood, kinetic analysis, CRISPR gRNA-to-Cas-protein quality control, and using the CRISPR-chip for amplification-free DNA testing - often referred to as a genome search engine. Cardea is well positioned to anchor the strategy around a multiomics flagship application while also leveraging the broad capabilities of the BPU across several other high impact markets through partnerships and license agreements.

As of now Cardea has patent protection in 44 countries globally:

Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

About Cardea Bio

Cardea Bio is the world's first mass producer of a biocompatible semiconductor, the BPU (Biosignal Processing Unit). The BPU is the first and only commercially available graphene biosensor capable of translating real-time streams of multiomics signals into digital information.

Through the BPU platform, Cardea's long-term vision is to democratize access to all the biosignals and insights behind the most advanced technology on our planet: Nature and biology. The Internet of Biology is that way becoming possible.

Cardea is headquartered in San Diego and has additional activity in Los Angeles. Cardea is a 100% American developed and built biocompatible semiconductor technology for applications across a variety of sectors including human health, agriculture, molecular diagnostics, biotechnology, environmental monitoring, and animal health.

Contact Cardea

Lasse Gorlitz, VP of Communications

US phone: +1 858 319 7135

EU phone: +45 2758 2601

[email protected]

SOURCE Cardea Bio
In an effort to get Mexico's lawmakers on board, Senator Kempis in cooperation with ChainBytes, an enterprise Bitcoin ATM manufacturer and Axolotl Bitcoin a Mexican-based Bitcoin ATM operator has revealed and put in the operation first Bitcoin ATM at the Mexican Senate building.

For many of these lawmakers, this will be the first time they will experience Bitcoin transactions first hand. Senator Kempis hopes that by deploying this ATM, lawmakers will now have a chance to get familiar with Bitcoin transactions and become more educated about Bitcoin and the benefits that mass adoption could potentially bring to their country.

ChainBytes CEO Eric Grill stated: "We are thrilled to be a part of such a historical moment for Mexico. We hope that by placing our ChainBytes ATM in the senate building we will help lawmakers get familiar with the technology and hopefully aid their decision to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender in Mexico. We are excited and honored to be here and we are doing our best to help these lawmakers understand the advantages of Bitcoin."

"We are excited with the current openness in the Mexican Senate, and with Senator Indira Kempis' effort to bring this Bitcoin ATM and help towards a Bitcoin Regulation that could detonate the Bitcoin and Fintech industry in Mexico as it has happened in other countries. I have been meeting with Regulators and Central Banks for the last 10 years, finally we are seeing interest, will, curiosity and participation with Regulators and lawmakers in Mexico." Jose Rodriguez, Director of Blockchain Land and CEO of Axolotl Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin ATM will remain operational in the senate building allowing lawmakers to get familiar with Bitcoin in the coming months before they have a chance to discuss and vote on Senator Kempis petition of making bitcoin a legal tender in Mexico.

On the first week the Bitcoin ATM will be available on the first floor of the Mexican Senate, afterwards it will be available for future workshops and events in the Senate and in Senator Indira Kempis' offices.

ChainBytes is a US veteran-owned Bitcoin ATM software and hardware provider, focused on providing Bitcoin ATMs to enterprise operators.

For more information and exclusive interviews, you can contact their Director of Global Marketing, Jane Jovi at [email protected] or call Chainbytes HQ at +1 (415) 529-5777

SOURCE Chainbytes LLC
McCament succeeds Lee Bussell, who was the agency's CEO and chairman since 1998.

"Our 50 years of success has been built upon the diversity of services we offer, which allows us to focus on clients' strategic goals, not just solving a short-term demand," said Bussell. "As we look to expand further across the nation, Carrie will help us achieve this vision. Her national mindset, customer-centric approach and keen intuition drew us to her and will be key in propelling our growth of services and footprint."

McCament has 30+ years of marketing and business development experience with mid-sized and major agencies and holding companies IPG, Omnicron and Publicis. She has led business-building strategies for some of the world's largest and most recognizable brands including Samsung, Bank of America, General Motors, M&M Mars and Hanes.

McCament was chief marketing officer for Brownstein Group, leading the Philadelphia-based agency's brand positioning, marketing and strategic growth initiatives. While at MullenLowe, she directed the country's leading marketing-to-women communications company, Frank About Women/Mullen/IPG. And at Wray Ward, McCament led the client engagement team and helped to deliver year-over-year record-breaking growth in annual client billings and incremental net new revenue.

McCament will also become an equity owner in Chernoff Newman, joining five other shareholders in who serve in executive roles, along with Prolific, an Indianapolis-based growth capital and management consulting firm.

About Chernoff Newman

Chernoff Newman is a fully integrated marketing communications firm, specializing in food and beverage, health care, energy, financial services, insurance, real estate, education, public infrastructure and workforce development. The agency provides advertising, marketing, public relations and crisis management strategies and services across multiple platforms. Offices are in Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Orlando, Florida. Visit us at www.chernoffnewman.com , like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/chernoffnewman and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @chernoffnewman .

SOURCE CHERNOFF NEWMAN
ATLANTA, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ClassOne Equipment (classoneequipment.com), has just introduced two new high-performance Takano particle inspection systems for 200mm and 300mm unpatterned wafers. ClassOne was recently selected to be Takano's exclusive inspection tool representative for North America, Europe, and Israel. The announcement was made by ClassOne's CEO, Byron Exarcos, and Takano of America's General Manager, Roy Izai.

Takano Wafer Particle Inspection Systems from ClassOne Equipment

The first new system is the Takano WM-7SR, which is designed for particle inspection of 50mm to 200mm unpatterned silicon wafers with open-cassette handling. The second new system is the Takano WM-10, which inspects 150mm to 300mm bare wafers with single and dual open-cassette, or single and dual FOUP handler configurations.

"These are two very important new tools," said Exarcos. "Because for over 20 years the industry has had to make do with used and outdated legacy equipment for inspecting 200mm and 300mm wafers. And today those old systems are hard to find and difficult to maintain. Fortunately, with these new Takano tools we can give our customers brand-new particle inspection systems with leading-edge specifications and performance  and at a very attractive price, only marginally higher than refurbished legacy systems!"

"It's also significant that these tools have a proven track record," said Izai. "Because although the WM-7 and WM-10 series are just now being introduced into North America and Europe, hundreds of these tools are already in daily use throughout Japan and Asia."

Takano's state-of-the-art design and technology ultimately translate into industry-leading capabilities: The WM-7SR is able to provide 0.079m defect sensitivity, and the WM-10 delivers 0.048m defect sensitivity. A broad suite of display outputs is available, including Map Overlays, Haze Measurements, XY Coordinates and more. Equipment performance and throughputs are enhanced by advanced components such as high-power Intel i7 processing, Windows 10 operating system, a 3-year, long-life laser diode source, and much more. All Takano inspection systems come with a one-year warranty; and OEM parts and support are available long term, all through ClassOne Equipment. For additional information, contact: [email protected].

About ClassOne Equipment

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, ClassOne Equipment has long been known as the industry's premier provider of professionally-refurbished name-brand semiconductor processing equipment  delivering like-new performance at a fraction of new-tool cost. Now, in addition, ClassOne sells and supports the all-new Takano line of high-performance wafer particle inspection systems. ClassOne Equipment has been selected as Takano's exclusive representative for North America, Europe, and Israel. ClassOne Equipment supplies turnkey equipment solutions that include installation, service, support, spare parts, and warranty.

About Takano

Established in 1941, and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Takano Co., Ltd., designs and manufactures a very diverse array of advanced products including state-of-the-art optical inspection and measurement systems, image processing, electromagnetic actuators, laser machining and marking, precision springs, medical and healthcare equipment, and much more. Additional information can be found at https://www.takano-net.co.jp/portal/en/

For more information, contact:

Byron Exarcos

ClassOne Equipment

5302 Snapfinger Woods Drive

Atlanta, GA 30035

tel: +1 (678) 772-9086

email: [email protected]

SOURCE ClassOne Equipment
THUNDER BAY, ON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Clean Air Metals Inc. ("Clean Air Metals" or the "Company") (TSXV: AIR) (FRA: CKU) (OTCQB: CLRMF) is pleased to announce new assay results from the 2022 drill campaign from the Escape PGE-Cu-Ni Deposit at the Company's Thunder Bay North Project near Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada (the "Project").

New assay highlights from the Escape South deposit area includes (Table 1):

Hole ELR22-129 which intersected 90.0m grading 1.04g/t Platinum (Pt), 1.33g/t Palladium (Pd), 0.49% Copper (Cu) and 0.28% Nickel (Ni) from 308.0m - 398.0m downhole including 5.0m grading 2.38 g/t Platinum (Pt), 2.99g/t Palladium (Pd), 1.12% Copper (Cu) and 0.62% Nickel (Ni) from 382.0- 387.0m downhole (Figure 1). This intercept hit a structural corridor termed the "Sail Zone" which transects the eastern edge of the Escape South High Grade Zone ("HGZ") and trends in a northwest orientation along the mineralized Escape Deposit trend.

from - downhole including from 382.0- downhole (Figure 1). This intercept hit a structural corridor termed the "Sail Zone" which transects the eastern edge of the Escape South High Grade Zone ("HGZ") and trends in a northwest orientation along the mineralized Escape Deposit trend. Hole ELR22-131 which intersected 29.0m grading 1.00g/t Platinum (Pt), 1.25g/t Palladium (Pd), 0.44% Copper (Cu) and 0.32% Nickel (Ni) from 334.0m - 363.0m downhole.

from - downhole. Hole ELR22-133 which intersected 47.30m grading 1.02g/t Platinum (Pt), 1.24g/t Palladium (Pd), 0.43% Copper (Cu) and 0.27% Nickel (Ni) from 325.7m - 373.0m downhole.

The Escape Deposit also underwent an additional 37,000m of expansion drilling in 2021, which has established continuity between the Escape South HGZ and the Escape North Zone and may add materially to the total Thunder Bay North Project Indicated insitu mineral resource (effective November 1, 2021) of 8.12 g/t PtEq in 14,553,324 million tonnes (reported December 1, 2021).

Mineral resource endowment and platinum-equivalents are quoted pursuant to the Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate for the Thunder Bay North Project, Thunder Bay, Ontario, with an effective date of January 20, 2021 (the "Technical Report"). The Technical Report was posted to SEDAR on March 4, 2021 and prepared by Nordmin Engineering Ltd.- QP Glen Kuntz, P.Geo. Ontario. Nordmin as QP utilized 2-year trailing average metal price assumptions[1] for the updated mineral resource as a basis for the Preliminary Economic Assessment reported on December 1, 2021 and filed January 12, 2022.

____________________ 1 CRU 2-year metal price assumptions can be viewed in the following Link (Click Here)

Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA)

The Company announced a comprehensive mine plan and cashflow model for both the Escape Deposit and Current Deposit as part of a PEA for the Current and Escape PGE-Cu-Ni Deposits of the Thunder Bay North Project on December 1, 2021. The related Technical Report was filed on SEDAR on January 12, 2022 https://cleanairmetals.ca/site/assets/files/5750/21015-01-pfs-0000_ni_43_101_pea_12jan2022.pdf

Table 1: New Insitu Assay Results Update  Escape South Sail-Zone Extension (Figure 1)

Hole ID Company From,

m To, m Length,

m Pt+Pd

(ppm) Cu+Ni

(%) Pt

(ppm) Pd

(ppm) Cu

(%) Ni

(%) ELR22-

127A AIR 242.0 244.0 2.00 1.23 0.37 0.53 0.69 0.22 0.15 ELR22-128 AIR 151.5 153.1 1.60 1.43 0.14 0.69 0.75 0.08 0.06 ELR22-129 AIR 308.0 398.0 90.00 2.37 0.77 1.04 1.33 0.49 0.28 ELR22-129 **incl. 382.0 387.0 5.00 5.37 1.74 2.38 2.99 1.12 0.62 ELR22-129 AIR 406.0 417.0 11.00 2.82 1.02 1.30 1.52 0.69 0.32 ELR22-129 AIR 461.0 462.8 1.80 1.63 0.52 0.92 0.71 0.37 0.14 ELR22-130 AIR 321.8 327.7 5.95 1.42 0.46 0.66 0.77 0.25 0.21 ELR22-130 AIR 343.8 347.7 3.95 1.60 0.54 0.73 0.88 0.31 0.22 ELR22-131 AIR 290.5 293.3 2.80 1.95 0.21 0.91 1.04 0.13 0.08 ELR22-131 AIR 301.0 318.0 17.00 2.10 0.61 0.95 1.14 0.43 0.19 ELR22-131 AIR 334.0 363.0 29.00 2.25 0.76 1.00 1.25 0.44 0.32 ELR22-131 AIR 373.0 375.0 2.00 1.69 0.53 0.78 0.91 0.32 0.21 ELR22-131 AIR 381.0 385.0 4.00 2.96 0.94 1.38 1.59 0.64 0.31 ELR22-132 AIR 379.5 393.5 14.00 2.61 0.66 1.20 1.41 0.48 0.18 ELR22-133 AIR 325.7 373.0 47.30 2.25 0.70 1.02 1.24 0.43 0.27

Note:

1) All intercepts are estimated to be >95% of true width based on drill hole inclination

2) Mineralized intervals calculated at 1 ppm Pt+Pd cutoff

3) Metallurgical recoveries estimated at 95% Copper; 90% Sulphide Nickel (52% total Ni); 87% Palladium; 82% Platinum

Abraham Drost, CEO of Clean Air Metals stated that "recent infill drilling on the margins of the Escape South HGZ continues to deliver impressive assay results. Under the results of the recent PEA press release, the Escape South HGZ (>5g/t Pt+Pd) is identified as a high value potential mining area at the base of the Escape Deposit in years commencing in Year 4 of the PEA mine plan, pursuant to the recently delivered PEA technical report (filed January 12, 2022).

The approximately 37,000m of previously reported drilling results from the Escape Deposit in 2021 and infill drilling on the PEA mine plan in 2022 will form part of an updated mineral resource for the Thunder Bay North Project to support prefeasibility studies. Assay results to date suggest good continuity of mineralization between sections along the 900m trend of mineralization between the Escape South HGZ and Escape North Zone where the PEA Escape deposit underground ramp development encounters the Escape Deposit pay zone at approximately 200m vertical depth." (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Drill Hole Intercepts in the Escape Deposit Area

https://cleanairmetals.ca/site/assets/files/5790/figure-1-april-27-2022.jpg

COVID Policy

Clean Air Metals continued to apply COVID-19 avoidance and personal protection measures for its geological staff, drilling contractor and service suppliers. Personnel are required to self-monitor and self-isolate or elect to work from home. The Company closely follows Provincial Government COVID guidelines.

Qualified Person

Dr. Geoff Heggie, Ph.D., P.Geo., a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 and Vice President - Exploration for the Company, has reviewed and approved all technical information in this press release.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control

Clean Air Metals uses ALS Global ("ALS"), a well-established and recognized mineral assay and geochemical analytical services company. The Thunder Bay laboratory holds ISO-9000 accreditation; the Vancouver facility holds ISO-17025 registration.

All NQ-sized drill core is cut with a diamond-tipped saw blade with half of the core submitted to ALS for sample preparation and analysis. Core samples from selected intervals are individually bagged and tagged, gathered up in larger sealed poly bags and shipped to the sample prep facility in Thunder Bay, ON under custody of Clean Air Metals' personnel at all times. Sample preparation is completed at the ALS sample preparation facility located in Thunder Bay, ON and analysis is completed at the primary ALS assay laboratory located in Vancouver, B.C.

Clean Air Metals follows a documented quality control procedure for its core assay sampling program consisting of the insertion of blind blanks, duplicates, and certified Palladium-Platinum and Copper-Nickel standards into the sample stream. The insertion procedure results in a minimum of 11% to 12% control sample frequency depending on the length of the sampled interval.

Gold, platinum, and palladium are analyzed using fire assay (FA) with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) finish. Samples with grades above the optimal ICP-MS detection limits are analyzed using an optical emission spectroscopy method (ICP-OES).

Also, thirty-three (33) elements of each sample, including copper, nickel, silver, chromium, cobalt, and sulphur, are analyzed by a multi-element analytical method using the atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) technique following four-acid digestion of the sample. When samples have grades above the optimal detection limits for this analytical method, they are re-analyzed using a high-grade method consisting of either ICP-AES or atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) techniques.

Social Engagement

Clean Air Metals Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Panoramic PGMs (Canada) Ltd. acknowledge that the Thunder Bay North Project is on the traditional territories of the Fort William First Nation, Red Rock First Nation and Biinjitiwabik Zaaging Anishinabek. The parties together are the Cooperating Participants in a Memorandum of Agreement dated January 9, 2021 (press release January 11, 2021) and Exploration Agreement signed April 13, 2022 (press release April 14, 2022).

The Company appreciates the opportunity to work in these territories and remains committed to the recognition and respect of those who have lived, traveled, and gathered on the lands since time immemorial. Clean Air Metals is committed to stewarding Indigenous heritage and remains committed to building, fostering and encouraging a respectful relationship with First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples based upon principles of mutual trust, respect, reciprocity and collaboration in the spirit of reconciliation

About Clean Air Metals Inc.

Clean Air Metals' flagship asset is the 100% owned, high grade Thunder Bay North Project, a platinum, palladium, copper, nickel project located near the City of Thunder Bay, Ontario and the Lac des Iles Mine owned by Impala Platinum. The Thunder Bay North Project hosts the twin magma conduit bodies which host the Current and Escape deposits forming the basis for a robust preliminary economic assessment around a ramp access underground mine and on-site milling complex, filed January 12, 2022.

Executive Chair Jim Gallagher and CEO Abraham Drost lead an experienced technical team who are using the Norilsk magma conduit stratigraphic and mineral deposit model to guide ongoing exploration and development feasibility studies for a low-carbon, sustainable mining operation at Thunder Bay North. As the former CEO of North American Palladium Ltd. which owned the Lac des Iles Mine prior to the sale to Impala Platinum in December 2019, Jim Gallagher and team are credited with the mine turnaround and creation of significant value for shareholders.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Abraham Drost"

Abraham Drost, Chief Executive Officer of Clean Air Metals Inc.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, including statements regarding the potential of the Thunder Bay North Project and the Escape and Current deposits and timing of technical studies including prefeasibility studies and updated mineral resource estimates. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projection.

SOURCE Clean Air Metals Inc.
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Eileen P. Drake (Aerojet Rocketdyne's CEO), a member of the Committee for Aerojet Rocketdyne (NYSE: AJRD) Shareholders and Value Maximization issued the following statement to set the record straight on a myriad of misleading and irresponsible statements set forth in a recent communication issued by Executive Chairman Warren Lichtenstein.

Fellow Shareholders,

Yesterday Warren Lichtenstein, Executive Chairman of Aerojet Rocketdyne, released another letter designed to obscure the reasons underpinning a proxy fight he launched  his failures as a chairman and a desire to preclude Aerojet Rocketdyne's shareholders and the investing public from ever understanding the results of an independent investigation authorized by the board of directors, including his hand-picked directors.

Adopting his scorched-earth playbook that he typically employs, he then proceeded to launch a series of baseless, personal attacks against me. While I do not intend to dignify each of his defamatory statements against me with a response, there are two irrefutable facts that our shareholders need to know.

Since November 2015 , when I was appointed CEO, the Company has delivered 186% TSR, outperforming the S&P 500 and peers by 43% and 39%, respectively.

, when I was appointed CEO, the Company has delivered 186% TSR, outperforming the S&P 500 and peers by 43% and 39%, respectively. Shareholders deserve to vote with full knowledge of all the facts. The Executive Chairman has given lip service to this concept, but he draws the line at you knowing the results of an independent investigation approved by the Company's six independent directors that focused on his alleged misconduct. What is he hiding? Shareholders should understand the full results of the independent investigation today.

It is truly ironic that Mr. Lichtenstein laments how terrible I am now after he hired me and I worked as the CEO for almost seven years while he was Executive Chairman. The fact is that I haven't changed, but rather I am now in the way of Mr. Lichtenstein's power play seeking full control of the Company and its board of directors.

I will leave the name calling to Mr. Lichtenstein, but I will not be bullied by him. The decision as to who leads this Company into the future is ultimately up to you, the shareholders. We believe you should have the right to make that decision with full knowledge of the facts, but also in the near term. We did not ask for a proxy contest, but we now have one. The lines have been drawn. The needs of our customers, suppliers, employees, and, most importantly, the shareholders of Aerojet Rocketdyne should come first.

I urge you to call on Mr. Lichtenstein to permit the release of the results of the internal investigation and to demand a prompt meeting in June, without restrictions or conditions, to approve a new board so that Aerojet Rocketdyne can refocus on its future and move ahead.

Thank you for your support.

Eileen P. Drake

Chief Executive Officer

Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc.

Important Information



This communication is being sent in our individual capacity, and not on or behalf of Aerojet Rocketdyne, Inc (the "Company"). No Company resources were used in connection with these materials. Eileen P. Drake, General Kevin Chilton, USAF (Ret.), General Lance Lord, USAF (Ret.) and Thomas Corcoran (the "Incumbent Directors") filed on April 22, 2022 a preliminary solicitation statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") in connection with the solicitation of agent designations to call a special meeting of stockholders of the Company (the "Preliminary Solicitation Statement"), and will also file a definitive solicitation statement. The Incumbent Directors will furnish the definitive solicitation statement to stockholders, together with a WHITE agent designation card. STOCKHOLDERS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO READ THE SOLICITATION STATEMENT BECAUSE IT WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Stockholders may obtain a free copy of the Preliminary Solicitation Statement, the definitive solicitation statement, any amendments or supplements to the solicitation statement and other documents that the Incumbent Directors file with the SEC from the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. The Incumbent Directors together with Gail Baker, Marion Blakey, Charles Bolden and Deborah Lee James may be deemed participants in the solicitation of agent designations from stockholders. Information about the participants is set forth in the Preliminary Solicitation Statement filed with the SEC on April 22, 2022.

Contact :

D.F. King & Co., Inc.

Edward T. McCarthy / Tom Germinario

[email protected]

SOURCE Committee for Aerojet Rocketdyne Shareholders and Value Maximization
AUSTIN, Texas, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CareFlash and Community Medical Centers announced today that the organizations have entered into a collaborative agreement that leverages togetherness, empathy and nostalgia in enhancing healing and aging journeys. This agreement provides patients, families and communities access to CareFlash's signature platform, "The Careopolis, a Metropolis of Love and Empathy."

Community Medical Centers Offers The Careopolis, "A Metropolis of Love & Empathy" CareFlash, Community when it Matters Most Careopolis, A Metropolis of Love & Empathy

As described in the brief video on Community Medical Centers' website (https://www.communitymedical.org/services/cancer/careopolis), a Careopolis is an online "caring community," created and operated by a patient and/or a family caretaker and invited loved ones. It contains components and content that enhance the quality and durability of how loved ones engage throughout a healing or aging journey, chronic or cognitive illness, or even on celebrating a loved one's memory. These include: an interactive (recorded, voice-driven) storytelling tool, collaboration calendar, community blog, photo-sharing capabilities and more. Each Careopolis is invitation-only, multilingual and mobile-friendly. It enhances how loved ones become and remain:

Engaged as a supportive fabric of connectedness

Empowered with empathy, more than just sympathies or well-wishes

More along for the journey, and less part of the landscape

"Beyond enhancing connectedness and quality of life, CareFlash's solution (The Careopolis) exemplifies Community Medical Centers' mission, core values and commitment to innovation by strengthening resilience and peace-of-mind," adds Lynn Smiley, Vice President, Clovis Community Medical Center and Community Regional Medical Center. "This is especially important throughout the lengthy health journeys that tend to accompany cancer care. Quality patient care comes first at Community Medical Centers and our collaboration with CareFlash elevates this commitment even higher."

Smiley continued, "Community Medical Centers has worked with CareFlash since September 2021. We have been pleasantly surprised by the growing numbers of families adopting and using the Careopolis tool. In these days of social separation, people living through involved illnesses need to steer clear of compromising their wellness. Seeing the impressive growth curve of families using the Careopolis Communities, we know people find this helpful and even needed. We appreciate empowering families, loved ones and friends to stay connected and support each other throughout some of life's most challenging circumstances."

"CareFlash was founded in 2005 out of a lengthy caretaking journey surrounding a family member," adds Jay Drayer, CareFlash founder/CEO. "Throughout that experience, I learned that loved ones sincerely want to engage throughout healing and aging journeys. However, engagement is commonly complicated by people's busy lives, emotional barriers and concerns about intrusiveness. When this happens, the quality and durability of supportive engagement instead comes through as lots of well-wishes and sympathies. The Careopolis enhances the depth and durability of togetherness, empathy and quality-of-life."

About Community Medical Centers

Community Medical Centers is a private, not-for-profit healthcare network based in Fresno, California. Community operates four hospitals, a cancer institute along with several long-term care, outpatient and other healthcare facilities. The system is led by local leaders and physicians focused on addressing the diverse needs and issues of central California. As the leading healthcare provider in the Central San Joaquin Valley, Community cares for more people in the region than any other. https://www.communitymedical.org/

About CareFlash

Now into its 18th year, CareFlash empowers organizations that place value on enhancing socialization, resilience and peace-of-mind. Likewise in strengthening community education/outreach, industry relations and competitive advantage. CareFlash's partners range broadly throughout acute, post-acute, chronic, cognitive, hospice/palliative, senior living, payer, home-care, faith-based, funeral and professional services organizations as in this small sample: Texas Oncology, Austin Regional Clinic, Halcyon Home Care, Rogue Prosthetics, Snowline Hospice, Butler Funeral Homes and Pariveda Solutions. https://careflash.com

On Behalf of CareFlash

Jay Drayer

512-368-5421

[email protected]

On behalf of Community Medical Centers

Lynn Smiley

[email protected]

SOURCE CareFlash LLC
JACKSON, Mich., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers Energy proposed a $272 million investment in Michigan's energy future to support a more reliable, resilient, and increasingly clean energy system for its customers. The company is seeking approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission for this plan.

"The main priority of our plan is simple: fewer, shorter and less frequent power outages for our customers which requires a modernized grid," said Guy Packard, vice president of electric operations. "Like any tool that people use to power their lives  whether that's a car, cell phone, an appliance or a house  the energy grid needs care and investment to work properly without interuption. We're committed to powering our customers' lives with reliable energy now and in the future with this requested investment."

Consumers Energy's five-year, $5.4 billion Electric Distribution Infrastructure Investment Plan (EDIIP) is a blueprint for serving Michigan today and innovating to meet the challenges of the coming decades. Investments such as trimming trees, replacing poles and wires and upgrading substations and key equipment are top priorities, especially with climate change causing more frequent and severe weather events. The company plans to invest roughly $1 billion annually to upgrade the power grid and improve reliability and resiliency through 2025. Consumers Energy is also bringing its distribution system into the 21st century with smart meters, sensors and automation devices working together to serve customers and provide enhanced reliability and efficiency.

Other major components in the rate change request include:

Making it easier for residential customers to purchase and install an electric vehicle charger and provide other EV incentives;

Expanding a proposed economic development rate which would help attract new business and encourage existing businesses to expand and grow jobs in the Great Lakes State;

Increasing clean energy investments, including doubling the size of its distributed generation program which would bring more solar energy to Michigan ;

; Expanding demand response programs that help customers save money and reduce energy waste by using electricity at optimal times; and

Support the purchase of the Covert Generating Station, a cleaner, highly-efficient, 1,176-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant in Van Buren County .

"To protect Michigan's environment for future generations, we have proposed to eliminate coal as a fuel source for electricity by 2025  but this plan will take every ounce of effort to ensure we can reach this goal while making sure electricity is more reliable and affordable for all," added Packard. "Additionally, we are focused on growing businesses here in Michigan and want to get ahead of the global marketplace to attract and retain jobs which requires competitive electric rates for our largest job-creators."

The final impact on customer bills will not be determined until the MPSC makes its decision in early 2023. If the plan is approved as proposed, an average household will see its electric bill increase by about $7.50 per month. Through our reliability plan, we plan to reduce the average length of time that customers are without power by nearly 15% from 2020 to 2025.

Additionally, to help support those customers struggling, in January 2022, Consumers Energy contributed $3.5 million to establish a new percent of income payment program pilot to help 1,500 low-income customers beginning in October 2022. The Company also contributed this winter $1 million to United Way of Jackson County and TrueNorth Community Services, two Michigan nonprofits with long histories of partnering with the Company to assist customers who are having trouble paying their energy bills.

Consumers Energy, Michigan's largest energy provider, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.8 million of the state's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

For more information about Consumers Energy, go to ConsumersEnergy.com.

Check out Consumers Energy on Social Media

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/consumersenergymichigan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/consumersenergy

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/consumersenergy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consumersenergy

SOURCE Consumers Energy
The drilling program at Alpine will be expanded from 4,200m to 10,000m to enable continued testing of the Alpine Stellar zone and first drilling into the new high-priority step-out targets

to to enable continued testing of the Alpine Stellar zone and first drilling into the new high-priority step-out targets First assay results from CopperCorp's drilling at the Stellar zone are being received and are currently under review prior to release

CopperCorp continues a strategy to increase the mineralization footprint at Alpine towards developing a mineral resource, while also developing and advancing its pipeline of high quality greenfields exploration targets towards drilling

First pass soil geochemistry survey identifies multi-element soil anomalism over the Alpine West geophysical target, directly along strike from known Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) style mineralization at the Stellar zone

New 3D geophysical modelling of gravity and magnetic data confirms potential for a large scale IOCG system at Alpine with new drill targets identified

Several high-priority regional exploration targets identified within both the AMC and Skyline Project areas, with reconnaissance field work commenced and planning and permitting for ground and drilling exploration programs underway

The Company is building its team to support this activity and anticipates hiring at least two more geoscientists in the next several weeks.

Stephen Swatton, President and CEO of CopperCorp, stated, "As we await initial drilling results from the Alpine-Stellar target, I am very encouraged by the work we have completed so far. Approximately 80% of drill holes have now been submitted to the laboratory. Our initial objectives at Alpine were to build off near surface copper mineralization encountered by historical drilling and begin stepping out along strike. Additional surface work and interpretation of geochemistry and regional geophysics has generated multiple new drill targets in the area, leading to our decision to increase our drill program to 10,000 metres. Coupled with acquiring a second drill rig we are also aiming to start drilling in a manner designed to support an initial resource estimate at Alpine-Stellar in 2023".

Alpine Prospect Drilling Update

CopperCorp's focus of exploration to date has been at the Alpine Prospect Stellar Zone where drilling has concentrated on confirmation and infill drilling around historical holes drilled by previous explorers (CRAE in 1985, and Stellar Resources in 2006-2007)1. The historical, wide-spaced drilling intersected significant IOCG-style copper mineralization, with significant intercepts (previously reported1) including:

AP004: 28.1m @ 1.03 % Cu from 58.7m and 41.25m @ 0.3% Cu from 111.55m

AP007: 80.0m @ 0.53% Cu from 62.7m

AP008A: 41.0m @ 0.48% Cu from 29.8m

AP017: 21.65m @ 0.55% Cu from 225.0m

CopperCorp's Phase 1 drilling at the Alpine Stellar Zone has so far totaled 11 diamond drill core holes for 3,925m. All drill holes have been geologically logged and samples from 10 holes have been submitted to the laboratory for assay. Geological logging indicates that most of CopperCorp's drill holes to date have intersected visual mineralization consistent with observations from historical drill core at Stellar Zone. The currently defined mineralization footprint at the Stellar Zone covers a strike length of at least 600m with mineralization intercepted from near surface to depths of at least 300m below surface (open). Assay turn-around times in general at most Australian laboratories are currently in the order of 3-4 months.

To further test the Alpine Stellar Zone at depth as well as additional prospective targets at Alpine (see below), the Phase 1 drilling program will be increased to 10,000m. Planning and permitting for the additional drilling is underway and the Company is seeking a second drill rig to support an expanded program.

Alpine Geophysical Modelling

Concurrent with its drilling program, CopperCorp recently completed a detailed ground gravity survey over the Alpine prospect area and engaged Australian-based independent geophysical consultants, Resource Potentials Pty Ltd, to carry out gravity and magnetic data processing and modelling.

Results from 3D inversion modelling indicate that the drilled IOCG style mineralization at the Alpine Stellar Zone is defined by coincident gravity and magnetic anomalies (see Figure 3). The model further indicates additional areas of high IOCG prospectivity indicated by coincident, partially coincident, or offset gravity and magnetic anomalies  the Alpine West and Alpine North targets (Figures 1 and 2). The Alpine West target is untested by drilling while at the Alpine North target two previous shallow drill holes that failed to intersect significant mineralization are interpreted as possible near misses (best intercept was 1m @ 0.29% Cu in hole AP091) and further drilling is required.

Partially coincident to offset magnetic-gravity anomalies are known to be characteristic features of hematite-dominant IOCG deposits in Australia, particularly in deposits where late stage, oxidized, hematite-associated copper and gold mineralization overprinted and replaced earlier stage magnetite-bearing host rocks such as at the Olympic Dam deposit. Exploration targeting of such anomalies has directly led to the discovery of deposits such as Prominent Hill and Carrapateena in South Australia. A similar geophysical response is interpreted for parts of the Alpine system, where late-stage copper mineralization is associated with siderite (iron carbonate) that overprints and replaces earlier magnetite.

Alpine Soil Survey Results

The Company recently completed a trial b/c-horizon soil sampling survey at Alpine comprising 169 soil samples collected at 50m intervals along 200m spaced north-south orientated grid lines (Figure 4). The first pass sampling coverage included 5 lines over the Alpine West target area and 3 lines over the Stellar zone  Alpine North target area. Unfortunately, effective sampling over known mineralization in the Stellar zone was generally precluded by thick alluvial gravel cover over this area.

Examination of the soil assay data indicates multi-point copper and gold anomalies (with up to 717ppm Cu and 29ppb Au), and broad coincident Ce-La (Cerium & Lanthanum) anomalous zones (with up to 136ppm Ce and 67ppm La) over the Alpine West magnetic-gravity target area. The occurrence of the coincident Cu-Au-Ce-La anomalous soil geochemistry over Alpine West is significant as the light rare earth elements (REE) Ce and La are commonly enriched in IOCG deposits and are often used as exploration pathfinder elements. The Alpine North target area also shows indications of anomalous soil geochemistry, however, further sampling is required to provide improved definition. The Company will carry out follow-up field checking and sampling at Alpine West and further infill sampling is planned across the wider Alpine grid  including at Alpine North.

Regional Exploration Update

CopperCorp is in the final stages of a regional targeting review of the AMC and Skyline tenement packages in northwest Tasmania and has commenced initial reconnaissance field exploration activity over high-priority target areas. Planning and permitting for surface (gridding, mapping, geochemistry and geophysics) and drilling exploration programs is underway. Further details on the regional exploration targets and planned programs will be provided in upcoming news releases.

Going Forward

As discussed above, CopperCorp plans to expand the diamond drilling program at the Alpine Prospect from 4,200m to 10,000m. The expanded drill program will be focused on vectoring towards potential zones of thicker and higher-grade mineralization in the Alpine Stellar Zone, testing the Alpine Stellar Zone at depth, and step-out drilling to test high-priority targets at Alpine West and Alpine North. Planning and permitting for the Alpine West and Alpine North exploration drill programs is underway. The Company currently has one drill at Alpine and plans to source another in order to expedite the planned drilling. Further gridding and soil sampling programs are also planned at Alpine.

In addition to the expanded exploration program at Alpine, CopperCorp plans to undertake exploration programs over high-priority regional exploration targets in both the AMC and Skyline Project areas. The work programs will include mapping, gridding, soil sampling, and magnetic and gravity geophysical surveys which have been highly effective at delineating mineralization targets at Alpine. These planned exploration activities will be designed to advance high-priority targets towards commencing drill testing in Q4 2022, subject to permitting and drill rig availability.

About AMC Project

The AMC Project covers a total of 1,066 km2 along approximately 100 km of strike length and establishes CopperCorp as the dominant owner of prospective ground in the district. The rocks are Neoproterozoic-Cambrian age and comprise a regional-scale metamorphic structural deformation zone that is host to widespread magnetite-sulphide-silicate alteration and mineralization indicative of a large Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG)-style system and includes the Savage River 498 Mt @ 46% DTR magnetite mine (owned by Grange Resources Limited)2 and CopperCorp's Alpine copper prospect.

The Alpine prospect is located 30 km northwest of the local mining hub of Zeehan and within 5 km of two large-scale operating wind and hydro-electric renewable energy plants.

About Skyline Project

The Skyline Project comprises 2 exploration licenses covering a total of 334 km2 of prospective ground along the eastern margin of the highly mineralized Cambrian calc-alkaline volcanic arc of the Mount Read Volcanics belt. Two large-scale operating mines lay within 5 km of the project  the Mt Lyell Cu-Au deposit (total resource 3 Mt Cu and 3 Moz Au @ 1.0% Cu and 0.3g/t Au)3, and the Henty Au deposit (1.64 Moz Au @ 12.5 g/t Au)3. The area is considered prospective for magmatic-hydrothermal IOCG style deposits. The Company is currently preparing to commence field exploration programs over high-priority targets at Skyline. A NI43-101 Technical Report is being prepared for filing and further information on this project will be provided in upcoming news releases.

The Skyline prospect is located 10 km northeast of the local mining town of Queenstown and with 10km of operating hydro-electric renewable energy projects.

About the Western Tasmanian Mining Industry

Western Tasmania is an established mining region located within a low-risk, stable jurisdiction with a long, 150-year exploration and mining history. The region is rich in diverse mineral resources with large-scale multi-generational mines, established infrastructure, local skilled labor, and rail-to-port networks. The region is supplied by 100% renewable energy.

About CopperCorp

CopperCorp is a well-financed mineral exploration company with approximately C$9.8M targeting world class copper-gold discoveries in western Tasmania, Australia. The Company is currently undertaking confirmation and infill drilling and ground exploration programs at the Alpine Prospect (our initial target on the larger AMC Project, formerly the Alpine Project) where wide spaced historical drilling delineated IOCG-style mineralization over a 700m strike length.

Quality Assurance / Quality Control

Full information on historical exploration activities and results at the Alpine prospect, including the historical drilling intercepts reported in this release, are included in the Technical Report (NI 43-101) dated 18 April 2021. True widths of historical drill hole intercepts are yet to be determined. Reported intervals are calculated as length weighted intercepts using a 0.3% Cu lower cut-off grade.

The reported soil sampling was carried out by hand-auger method on a nominal 200x50m grid spacing (50m spaced sampling centres on N-S oriented grid lines, with grid lines spaced 200m apart E-W). The soil samples were preferentially taken on B- or C-horizon material where it could be reached. The hand auger sampling was carried out by a crew of two trained exploration field assistants who recorded depth of sampling and material type. Samples were dried and sieved to -2mm prior to dispatch for assaying. Samples were assayed for trace-level multi-elements (51 elements including gold, base metals, pathfinders and rare earth elements (REE)) using the ICP-MS/OES analysis method at the NATA accredited Labwest Minerals laboratories based in Perth, Australia. Selected samples were also analysed using the Labwest ultrafine+ method which is being trailed by the Company.

Qualified Person

The Company's disclosure of technical or scientific information in this press release was reviewed and approved by Sean Westbrook, VP Exploration for the Company. Mr. Westbrook is a Qualified Person as defined under the terms of National Instrument 43-101.

References

1Independent Technical Report on EL2/2018 Tasmania Australia. Prepared in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties (NI43-101). Effective date: 18 April 2021.

2Grange Resources Limited, 2021. Update to Savage River Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves, ASX Release 31 March 2021.

3Seymour, D.B., Green, G.R., and Calver, C.R. 2007. The Geology and Mineral Resource of Tasmania: a summary. Geological Survey Bulletin 72. Mineral Resources Tasmania, Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources Tasmania.

Mt Lyell is currently under care and maintenance having been in operation for over 100 years up until 2014

Additional information about CopperCorp can be found on its website: www.coppercorpinc.com and at www.sedar.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: that the drilling program at Alpine will be expanded from 4,200m to 10,000m to enable continued testing of the Alpine Stellar zone and first drilling into the new high-priority step-out targets; CopperCorp continues a strategy to increase the mineralization footprint at Alpine towards developing a mineral resource, while also developing and advancing its pipeline of high quality greenfields exploration targets towards drilling; the Company is building its team to support this activity and anticipates hiring at least two more geoscientists in the next several weeks; that the Company is aiming to start drilling in a manner designed to support an initial resource estimate at Alpine-Stellar in 2023; planning and permitting for the additional drilling is underway and the Company is seeking a second drill rig to support an expanded program; the Company will carry out follow-up field checking and sampling at Alpine West and further infill sampling is planned across the wider Alpine grid  including at Alpine North; further details on the regional exploration targets and planned programs will be provided in upcoming news releases; in addition to the expanded exploration program at Alpine, CopperCorp plans to undertake exploration programs over high-priority regional exploration targets in both the AMC and Skyline Project areas, and such work programs will include mapping, gridding, soil sampling, and magnetic and gravity geophysical surveys which have been highly effective at delineating mineralization targets at Alpine; that these planned exploration activities will be designed to advance high-priority targets towards commencing drill testing in Q4 2022, subject to permitting and drill rig availability; that a NI43-101 Technical Report in respect of the Skyline Property is being prepared for filing and further information on this project will be provided in upcoming news releases; and other business plans of the Company. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements, including risks related to: that the Company may experience difficulties in drilling and carrying out related work; the timing and content of upcoming work programs; geological interpretations based on drilling that may change with more detailed information, and other risks and uncertainties. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE CopperCorp Resources Inc.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Custom Truck One Source, Inc. ("Custom Truck One Source" or the "Company") (NYSE: CTOS) today announced that CEO, Fred Ross, President and Chief Operating Officer, Ryan McMonagle, Chief Financial Officer, Brad Meader, and Chief Accounting Officer, Todd Barrett, will participate in a fireside chat and host private investor meetings at the Oppenheimer 17th Annual Industrial Growth Conference on Wednesday, May 4, 2022. The fireside chat is scheduled to begin at 12:45 p.m. EDT.

A live webcast of the fireside chat will be available through the Company's Investor Relations website at investors.customtruck.com. A replay will be archived and available for 30 days following the conference on the same website.

ABOUT CUSTOM ONE TRUCK ONE SOURCE

Custom Truck One Source is a leading provider of specialized truck and heavy equipment solutions to the utility, telecommunications, rail and infrastructure markets in North America. The Company's solutions include rentals, sales, aftermarket parts, tools, accessories and service, equipment production, manufacturing, financing solutions, and asset disposal. With vast equipment breadth, the Company's team of experts service its customers across an integrated network of locations across North America. For more information, please visit customtruck.com.

INVESTOR CONTACT

Brian Perman, Vice President, Investor Relations

844-403-6138

[email protected]

SOURCE Custom Truck One Source, Inc.
TORONTO, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Fast-growing cyber insurance start-up BOXX Insurance today announced the launch of Virtual CISO (vCISO), an enhanced service that makes it easier and more affordable for small to mid-sized businesses (SMEs) to stay ahead of crippling cyber outages.

BOXX vCISO signals the development of BOXX as a 'first of its kind' cyber insurer for Canadian businesses that provides an all-in-one solution: advisory services, managed cyber security and cyber insurance.

Recent research reports the number of cyberattacks against SMEs in every industry jumped by at least 50% last year. Attacks targeting the healthcare and transportation sectors were the highest, rising by more than 125%. Incidents leveled against retail, manufacturing and professional services companies increased between 86% and 90%.

BOXX's newest service comes at a crucial time of unprecedented change and increasing digital dependency for SMEs that are also expected to meet higher security thresholds demanded by their enterprise clients, regulators and cyber insurers. "With cyber threats growing daily in both sophistication and frequency, many business owners and operators know there is a widening gap between what they have and the security horsepower their cyber insurer and enterprise clients require. We are here to fill that gap," said Neal Jardine, BOXX Global Cyber Risk Intelligence and Claims Director. "Their dilemma is where to go for help".

The BOXX vCISO service addresses this gap by providing business owners with the confidence they need to meet the increasing expectations from insurers, clients and regulators without the burden of expensive security hardware and personnel to manage it. The service is provided by a team of cyber security experts and risk management professionals with a deep history in cyber security, incident response and insurance claims.

BOXX appoints Jack Brooks as Head of BOXX Hackbusters

BOXX also announced the appointment of Jack Brooks as Head of BOXX Hackbusters. Brooks brings deep domain expertise, having formerly created the vCISO practice in a leading international MSSP and successively senior technology leadership roles in both public and private enterprises prior to this.

"By helping smaller firms close their cyber security gap, we are not only protecting the vitality of their business, we are protecting the communities they support. These are our customers  and your friends and neighbours  not some enormous, faceless enterprise, but the hundreds of thousands of businesses who are struggling to meet the daily onslaught of cyber-attacks," Jardine concludes.

About BOXX Insurance

BOXX Insurance Inc. helps businesses, individuals and families insure and defend against cyber threats. BOXX Insurance Inc. is privately-held with headquarters in Toronto, Canada. BOXX's vision is to help businesses, individuals and families stay ahead of, respond to and recover from cyber threats, putting their digital safety first. For further information, please visit www.boxxinsurance.com.

SOURCE BOXX Insurance
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- David Hess, MD is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Top Pinnacle Physician in the Medical field and in acknowledgment of his work at Farmington Hills Emergency Medicine.

David Hess treats patients in the emergency department at Beaumont Farmington Hills Hospital. He has been providing Emergency Healthcare for the past twelve years. He is involved with the training of Emergency Medicine physicians and is the Vice-Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Beaumont Farmington Hills.

David Hess, MD

Dr. Hess first attended Weber State University, completing a Bachelor's degree in Clinical Laboratory Science/Medical Technology in 2000. He then earned a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine at the Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific in California in 2005. He completed his internship in 2006 and residency in emergency medicine in 2009 at Beaumont Farmington Hills Hospital. Dr. Hess became board-certified in Emergency Medicine through the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine. This board certifies physicians who have met the criteria for exceptional patient care in medical and surgical treatment.

Dr. Hess began as a Physician at Emergency Medicine Specialists in New Baltimore, MI, from 2009-2010. In 2010, he took on a new role as a Physician at Farmington Emergency Medicine Associates in Farmington Hills, MI, where he has now worked for eleven years.

Today, Dr. Hess treats patients in the emergency department at Beaumont Farmington Hills Hospital, located at 28050 Grand River Ave. in Farmington Hills, MI. He treats patients who require emergency, life-saving medical care for injuries, illnesses, diseases, and trauma. Dr. Hess also cares for patients who have minor injuries or are acutely ill. He does not see his patients by appointment but instead sees them as they enter the emergency room and makes critical and time-sensitive decisions for their care.

Remaining involved in the medical community, Dr. Hess is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, is a Clinical Assistant Professor for the Department of Osteopathic Medical Specialties at Michigan State University, and is the medical director for Superior EMS of Michigan. He is also actively involved with emergency medical services and several Medical Control Authorities in the southeast Michigan area.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who
HAMAMATSU, Japan, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dotphoton, an industry-leading raw image compression company, and Hamamatsu Photonics, a world leader in optical systems and photonics manufacturing, are pleased to announce their new partnership.

Modern microscopy, drug discovery, and cell research are among the many applications that rely on the highest quality image data. Hamamatsu, a renowned scientific camera manufacturer, provides the ultimate image quality needed for scientific research and pharmaceutical industry in fields such as light-sheet microscopy, high-throughput screening, and histopathology.

In these applications, the generation of large volumes of data leads to low scalability and high costs and complexity of required IT infrastructure. This new partnership enables researchers to capture and preserve higher volumes of quality data, and to make the most of modern processing methods, including AI-based image processing.

"In industry and academia, storage budgets grow exponentially every year, and the increase of datacenter costs and its CO 2 impact reduce the amount of resources available for research. We have built Jetraw to address all these problems at once, and are very happy to partner with Hamamatsu Photonics to make large image data more reliable and sustainable, and help many wonderful discoveries to happen," says Eugenia Balysheva, CEO of Dotphoton.

Hamamatsu offers advanced imaging technology on the forefront of the development of new and existing scientific applications. Today, Hamamatsu's ORCA cameras are compatible with Dotphoton's Jetraw software. Thanks to this new partnership, Hamamatsu will be able to support customers in their data management, an additional benefit to the high-sensitivity, fast readout speeds, and low noise delivery of its scientific CMOS cameras.

The Jetraw software provides the highest raw image compression ratio in the market combined with the highest processing speed. That means that Hamamatsu camera users can benefit from the fully preserved raw image data without constraints linked to storage and data transfer speed. Jetraw enables reduction of storage costs by 80%, CO 2 emissions by 73%, and data transfer speed by 5-7x.

"At Hamamatsu, our aim is to support customers achieve their ambitions. In the case of our scientific research customers, we understood the need for them to easily share and manage their ever-increasing data creation. Our scientific cameras produce incredibly fast, quantitative imagery that our customers develop at a high volume. Thanks to our new partnership with Dotphoton, we can support our customers one step further by offering them the possibility to reduce their file sizes without ever compromising the quality of their work. We look forward to this collaboration and the exciting possibilities now presented to our customers," explained by Marco Mayer, the Strategic Business Development Manager of Hamamatsu Europe.

Jetraw software is available for the range of Hamamatsu ORCA cameras, and can be purchased at the Jetraw.com website. Jetraw is compatible with most popular image processing workflows and enables long-term scalability and reliability of image processing.

"Working in developmental biology we need to acquire large time-lapse movies to capture the dynamics of the growing zebrafish embryo. We struggle to interact with our tera-byte size data due to slow data transfer and expensive storage. With Jetraw's compression (from 913GB to 115GB per movie, as an example) we solved these issues with the perk of not losing any information on the data even when performing our routine analysis," said Arianne Bercowsky, Oates Group, EPFL, Switzerland, a user of a Hamamatsu ORCA-Fusion BT camera within Viventis LS1 Live Light Sheet Microscope System.

About Dotphoton

Dotphoton is a Swiss-based technology company that provides innovative image data compression solutions, which enable efficiency and reliability of large image data processing in critical applications.

About Hamamatsu Photonics

Hamamatsu Photonics offers a wide range of highly sophisticated scientific cameras ideal for researchers studying the life sciences. Present since 1953 and driven by Japanese excellence, its capabilities are rooted in photonics technology including optics, electronics, mechanics, and software.

Information furnished by Hamamatsu Photonics is believed to be reliable. However, no responsibility is assumed for possible inaccuracies or omissions. Specifications are subject to change without notice.

SOURCE Hamamatsu Corporation
NEWMARKET, ON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- EdibleWildFood.com, a wild food foraging authority, announces the availability of new foraging season calendars and a unique booklet 'How to Preserve and Store Wild Edibles'. By teaching people how to forage for free food in the wild, EdibleWildFood.com can help alleviate food shortages that the world is increasingly facing.

Foraging for Food

"Food insecurity is fast becoming a reality that affects more and more people in the world today," says Karen Stephenson, owner of EdibleWildFood.com. "This is readily apparent by the increasing amount of interest people are showing about foraging for edible plants and wild mushrooms."

These new foraging calendar PDFs list when each edible part (e.g. leaves, flowers, roots, berries, etc.) can be foraged, and are available for the following regions: Northeast USA and Canada, Southeast USA, Midwest USA and Canada, Northwest USA and Canada and Southwest USA. Each calendar has taken many hours of research to put together, and can save new and experienced foragers alike a great deal of time when it comes to gathering wild edibles.

How to Preserve and Store Wild Edibles is a print publication that gives people detailed instructions on what to do after they have harvested their wild food. Another available publication is the one-of-a-kind Winter Survival Food.

"Climate change is just one factor when it comes to this food crisis. There is global instability as well as the potential for catastrophic events which could seriously exacerbate the food shortages some places are experiencing," says Karen. "People can empower themselves against this threat by learning how to safely find and store free wild food that is also more nutritious than much of the produce we see in grocery stores".

In addition, Karen just completed a manuscript about wild mushrooms for a major New York publisher with a release date of September 2022. This will be Karen's second book; her "Foraging Cookbook" was released in July of 2020. Be sure to watch for announcements about this new book on the EdibleWildFood.com website.

About EdibleWildFood.com

EdibleWildFood.com has grown "like a weed" since launching in 2011. The website started out with edible weeds, and since then has added other foods to their website such as wild fungi, aquatic plants as well as edible trees and shrubs. Every day thousands of people are learning about wild foods at EdibleWildFood.com.

Media Contact:

Karen Stephenson

905-898-5942

[email protected]

SOURCE EdibleWildFood.com
ByYan Yu

Recently, Sector West Commander for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) awarded 15 peacekeepers of the 12th Chinese peacekeeping engineering contingent to South Sudan with the Sector Commander's Commendation in recognition of their outstanding performance and contributions in peacekeeping operations. For a long time, China's Blue Helmets have demonstrated the responsibility of a major country in maintaining peace in conflict areas.

The UN peacekeeping operations (UNPKOs), which began in 1948, aim to help conflict-stricken countries create the conditions for lasting peace. For more than 70 years, UN peacekeepers have selflessly dedicated to the peace career in the most difficult and dangerous areas in the world. The Blue Helmets have become a symbol of peace and hope in war-torn areas. China's Blue Helmets is one of the constructive force among them.

In 1990, China sent five military observers to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, which marked the beginning of Chinese militarys participation in UNPKOs. Over the past three decades, Chinas contribution to the UNPKOs has expanded from dispatching military observers to sending organic units such as engineer contingents, medical contingents, transport contingents, helicopter contingents, guard contingents, and infantry battalions, as well as peacekeeping professionals such as staff officers, military observers, and contract officers .

A set of data can directly show China's active role in peacekeeping operations: since 1992, China has participated in 25 UNPKOs and has dispatched nearly 50,000 peacekeepers in total to more than 20 countries and regions around the world including Cambodia, Congo (DRC), Liberia, Sudan, Lebanon, Cyprus, South Sudan, Mali and Central Africa. China is the second-largest contributor to UN peacekeeping assessments and regular budget, and among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, China tops the other four in contributing troops to UNPKOs.

Since 2013, China has dispatched nine peacekeeping forces to Mali. The Chinese peacekeeping guard contingents have the reputation of des troupes d'eliteof Sector East of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) by their preeminent performances in carrying out the armed patrol and guarding duties.

In Lebanon, the Chinese peacekeeping troops have been deployed for 16 years and completed with flying colors tasks such as mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), construction maintenance, medical aids and humanitarian assistance. The Chinese peacekeeping deminers have created a miracle of zero casualties in mine clearance and EOD operations.

In Congo (Kinshasa), , the Chinese peacekeeping medical contingent has kept providing material and medical assistance for the "SOS International Children's Village" in Bukavu for 19 years.

In South Sudan, Chinese peacekeepers impart agricultural techniques, donate farm tools and vegetable seeds to local farmers, and uopn invitation give lessons on Chinese culture and Chinese language in local middle schools...

Chinese peacekeepers are also messengers of friendship. Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, commended Chinas contribution to UNPKOs as very important.

Peace needs to be fought for, and peace needs to be maintained. China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of international order. The Chinese military has always been a just force for maintaining world peace. China's Blue Helmets will continue to set out for peacekeeping missions with a high degree of discipline and responsibility for the maintenance of world peace.
Scholarships created to support inclusivity in the tech industry

MIAMI, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate the success of the 2022 eMerge Americas conference, eMerge Americas and Ironhack announced $200,000 in scholarship diversity funds to develop local tech talent and support the growth of the #MiamiTech ecosystem. Ironhack is building the leading global talent marketplace for emerging tech talent that is powered by their 10,000 and counting bootcamp alumni with the goal of becoming the most outcomes-focused institution in the world.

eMerge Americas Hackathon Winner 2022

The fund will consist of 50 partial scholarships ranging from $2,000 to $9,500 to be put towards Ironhack tuition. The scholarship will prioritize women and underrepresented minorities (i.e. Black, Latino/Hispanic, Native American) who are at least 18 years of age on the date of entry.

Interested individuals can apply starting on April 19, 2022 at https://www2.ironhack.com/emerge to begin the application process. Cohorts are available starting in May for in-person, remote and hybrid courses. Applicants can choose between courses offered on Web Development, UX/UI Design and Data Analytics.

Accessible and equitable tech education is integral for the future of workforce development. As companies continue to relocate to Florida, eMerge Americas and Ironhack's scholarship initiative aims to connect local talent with the necessary credentials to secure tech jobs and make high-skilled career opportunities available to all.

"Our mission at eMerge Americas to transform Miami into the tech hub of the Americas goes far beyond simply recruiting tech workers and startups. In order to truly give back to the community and continue its exponential growth, it is vital that we empower those who already call Miami home with the tools they need to land a good paying job in a booming industry. Our partnership with Ironhack and this scholarship fund does just that." - Felice Gorordo, CEO of eMerge Americas.

"eMerge has been a crucial component to the growth of Florida over the years. Partnering with eMerge allows us to make sure we're empowering diverse talent in our local communities with future-proof careers in tech and making sure everyone can benefit from this movement." - Ariel Quinones, Ironhack Co-Founder and Co-CEO

Ironhack's U.S. operations have been headquartered in Miami since 2015 with campuses throughout Europe and Latin America. Ironhack is paving the way in edTech to fill the industry's employment gap and enterprise training. In January 2021, Ironhack secured $20 million in a Series B round led by Lumos Capital and was listed as a GSV EdTech 150, one of the most transformative companies in digital learning.

Ironhack's educational programs provide students with the technical training and industry introductions they need to be employable after graduation. Every student gets access to the most in-demand digital skills through live and hands-on training and can build the foundation to transform their career and become a developer, a UX/UI designer or a data analyst regardless of their previous experience.

About eMerge

eMerge Americas is a venture-backed platform focused on transforming Miami into the tech hub of the Americas. The eMerge signature event, launched in 2014, is a global tech conference held annually at the Miami Beach Convention Center, attracting more than 16,000 attendees from 40 countries and over 3,900 unique participating organizations. In addition to the annual conference, eMerge organizes and hosts year-round executive summits, innovation challenges, startup pitch competitions, masterclasses, webinars, as well as publishes venture activity and investment insights reports. For the last decade, eMerge has served as a catalyst for innovation and investment across the Americas, working at the forefront of building the South Florida entrepreneurial and tech ecosystem. Visit www.emergeamericas.com for more information.

About Ironhack :

Ironhack is building the leading global talent marketplace for emerging tech talent that is powered by our 10,000 and counting bootcamp alumni with the goal of becoming the most outcomes focused institution in the world. Founded in 2013, Ironhack has operations in 8 countries and 160 employees and was listed as a GSV EdTech 150, one of the most transformative companies in digital learning.

Photo Drive: PR Photos

Media contact: [email protected]

SOURCE eMerge Americas
Increase in demand for transport applications and the growth of renewable energy industry drive the growth of the global energy storage systems market.

PORTLAND, Ore., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Energy Storage Systems Market by Technology (Pumped Hydro Storage, Battery Energy Storage, Compressed Air Energy Storage, and Flywheel Energy Storage), End User (Residential, Non-residential, and Utilities), and Application (Stationary and Transportation): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030." According to the report, the global energy storage systems industry generated $188.5 billion in 2020, and is estimated to reach $435.4 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 8.3% from 2021 to 2030.

Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunities

Increase in demand for transport applications and the growth of renewable energy industry drive the growth of the global energy storage systems market. However, high costs associated with battery energy storage systems restrain the market growth. On the other hand, rise in investments in power infrastructure network and the growth of the electric vehicle sector create new opportunities in the coming years.

Download Sample PDF (320 Pages PDF with Insights): https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/134

Covid-19 Scenario

The ban on import & export activities and challenges in manufacturing & processing activities of energy storage systems during the lockdown impacted the market negatively.

There has been a decline in demand for energy storage systems due to halt in manufacturing activities, construction activities of utility infrastructures & renewable energy structures, and production of vehicles worldwide amidst the global lockdown.

However, the demand for energy storage systems market is expected to recover post-pandemic, as end user industries have already set about their operations.

The pumped hydro storage segment to continue its lead position throughout the forecast period

Based on technology, the pumped hydro storage segment accounted for the highest market share in 2020, contributed to more than 95% of the global energy storage systems market, and is projected to continue its lead position in terms of revenue throughout the forecast period. This is due to rise in demand for power generation based on pumped hydro storage and supportive government initiatives toward renewable energy generation. However, the battery energy storage segment is projected to witness the largest CAGR of 20.1% from 2021 to 2030, owing to increase in demand for batteries from different energy storage applications such as grid energy storage and automotive applications along with the growth of the renewable energy sector.

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The utilities segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period

Based on end user, the utilities segment contributed to the highest market share in 2020, accounting for nearly 90% of the global energy storage systems market, and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. This is attributed to increase in the demand for electricity and related products and the growth of electric vehicle sector. However, the non-residential segment is projected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 8.5% from 2021 to 2030. This is attributed to rapid expansion of heavy industries such as paper mills, sugar mills, chemical plants, automobile plants, and others along with increase in demand for sustainable power for various applications in commercial & industrial sectors.

Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, to maintain its dominance by 2030

Based on region, Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, accounted for the highest market share in terms of revenue in 2020, contributing to more than two-fifths of the global energy storage systems market, and is expected to maintain its dominance by 2030. Moreover, this segment is projected to register the fastest CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period. This is attributed to presence of huge consumer base, rapid expansion of the renewable energy sector, increase in investment towards energy storage systems, and the presence of key players in the region.

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Leading Market Players

Schneider Electric

SMA Solar Technology AG

Exide Industries Ltd.

SK Holdings.

Autobat SACI

Enerbrax Acumuladores Ltda

Eguana Technologies

Imergy Power Systems

Ionotec Ltd.

Tata Power

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In September 2021, ENGINE was awarded the ATA's creative business, including campaigns, always-on organic social content, landing pages, email, account and strategic management, and social analytics. There was no pitch ENGINE won the business based on a shared vision for the island and the success of a two-year long media and analytics relationship.

"The ENGINE team continues to show us their great spirit and love for our island and are fully invested in our success. Their incredibly dynamic team is strongly equipped to meet our marketing goals and provide leading strategic thinking. This synthesis is why we chose them as our media partners and why we evolved that relationship to include creative," said Lea Giaquinto, Director Digital Marketing North America, Aruba Tourism Authority.

The One Happy Island is bringing "The Aruba Effect" to life through its new advertising which includes website updates, digital videos, organic social, and display as well as special partnerships with HBO, Hulu, Paramount and Discovery+. By focusing on how the island improves wellbeing, drops defenses, and reveals a happier version of each person that stays with them even when they return home, the campaign is a testament to the people of Aruba and the impact of its culture on a personal and potentially global level. Videos include families, couples, solo travelers, and friends experiencing "The Aruba Effect" on the island's beaches, bike trails, and city streets.

"Looking outwardly, Aruba is a beautiful Caribbean Island with world-class beaches, water and weather. Looking inwardly at the transformative effects of Aruba, how you feel, how you are treated by the locals and how you treat others in turn, you realize that there is no island in the world like the One Happy Island," said Matt Steinwald, SVP, Executive Creative Director, ENGINE Agency.

To capture the island's transformative effect, ENGINE began re-thinking the role of travel and destination advertising, based on travelers' changing preferences.

"Post pandemic, everyone is re-evaluating priorities, deciding what to keep and what to let go of, and moving through life with renewed intention. This era of intentionalism has impacted what people want from a vacation, moving away from 'traveling for the 'gram' to traveling for real, impactful experiences," said Lindsey Allison, SVP, Head of Strategy, ENGINE Agency. "Instead of focusing on attracting visitors to the island, we instead focused on the lasting impacts they'll experience when they leave."

The campaign will go to market today through a unified communications plan with cohesive adaptations of "The Aruba Effect" activated through paid and earned media, influencers, sales and other channel efforts, also designed and executed by ENGINE. Zeno Group completes the agency team, running PR and influencer for ATA North America.

Watch "The Aruba Effect" videos here.

Visit "The Aruba Effect" website: https://www.aruba.com/us/the-aruba-effect

ABOUT ENGINE

ENGINE is a global, full-service media and marketing services company that unites culture and commerce to move brands forward faster. We are: Driven by data. Fueled by imagination. Powered by technology. Founded in 2005, ENGINE has global headquarters in New York and offices across North America, the UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific. ENGINE empowers clients to outperform in the present and win in the future with its vast range of marketing solutions including  insights, creative, media, data and technology. Find out more at enginegroup.com and follow @engineworldwide.

Media contact:

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Director of Corporate Communications

ENGINE

[email protected]

SOURCE ENGINE Group
Company affirms guidance and financial outlooks

NEW ORLEANS, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) reported first quarter 2022 earnings per share of $1.36 on an as-reported basis and $1.32 on an adjusted basis (non-GAAP).

"We had a strong start for 2022 and continued to make important operational, strategic, and financial progress across the business," said Leo Denault, Entergy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "With favorable weather and higher-than-planned retail sales, we are ahead of schedule and solidly on track to achieve our 2022 objectives."

Business highlights included the following:

E-LA completed an $86M transmission upgrade in Lafourche Parish , improving the resilience and reliability of the local power grid.

transmission upgrade in , improving the resilience and reliability of the local power grid. E-LA completed a $100M transmission improvement project in north Louisiana that will increase resilience and reliability and provide economic benefits.

transmission improvement project in north that will increase resilience and reliability and provide economic benefits. E-TX selected several resources from its 2021 solar RFP totaling at least 400 megawatts of capacity.

E-AR filed for approval of a new 250-megawatt solar facility, Driver Solar.

E-AR and E-LA announced their intent to issue RFPs totaling 2,000 megawatts of renewable resources.

E-TX issued securitization bonds, completing recovery of its 2020 storm costs.

The LPSC approved cost recovery and financing for E-LA's 2020 storms, including a $290 million storm reserve as well as $1 billion escrow designated for Hurricane Ida costs.

storm reserve as well as escrow designated for Hurricane Ida costs. E-NO submitted a filing seeking approval to issue $150M in securitized bonds to replenish its storm escrow.

in securitized bonds to replenish its storm escrow. E-MS filed its annual FRP.

Consolidated earnings (GAAP and non-GAAP Measures) First quarter 2022 vs. 2021 (See Appendix A for reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures and description of adjustments)

First quarter

2022 2021 Change (After-tax, $ in millions)





As-reported earnings 276 335 (58) Less adjustments 7 38 (30) Adjusted earnings (non-GAAP) 269 297 (28) Estimated weather impact 16 23 (7)







(After-tax, per share in $)





As-reported earnings 1.36 1.66 (0.30) Less adjustments 0.04 0.19 (0.15) Adjusted earnings (non-GAAP) 1.32 1.47 (0.15) Estimated weather impact 0.08 0.11 (0.03)









Calculations may differ due to rounding



Consolidated results

For first quarter 2022, the company reported earnings of $276 million, or $1.36 per share, on an as-reported basis, and earnings of $269 million, or $1.32 per share, on an adjusted basis. This compared to first quarter 2021 earnings of $335 million, or $1.66 per share, on an as-reported basis, and earnings of $297 million, or $1.47 per share, on an adjusted basis.

Summary discussions by business are below. Additional details, including information on OCF by business, are provided in Appendix A. An analysis of quarterly variances by business is provided in Appendix B.

Business segment results

Utility

For first quarter 2022, the Utility business reported earnings attributable to Entergy Corporation of $340 million, or $1.67 per share, on both an as-reported and an adjusted basis. This compared to first quarter 2021 earnings of $357 million, or $1.77 per share, on both an as-reported and an adjusted basis. Drivers for the quarter included:

the first quarter 2021 reversal of a regulatory provision at E-AR for its 2019 netting adjustment;

higher operating expenses including other O&M, taxes other than income taxes, and depreciation expense; and

higher interest expense.

These drivers were partially offset by the net effect of regulatory actions across the operating companies.

On a per share basis, first quarter 2022 results reflected higher common shares outstanding.

Appendix C contains additional details on Utility operating and financial measures.

Parent & Other

For first quarter 2022, Parent & Other reported a loss attributable to Entergy Corporation of $(71 million), or (35) cents per share, on both an as-reported and an adjusted basis. This compared to a first quarter 2021 loss of $(60 million), or (30) cents per share, on both an as-reported and an adjusted basis. No individual drivers were significant contributors to the change.

Entergy Wholesale Commodities

For first quarter 2022, EWC reported earnings attributable to Entergy Corporation of $7 million, or

4 cents per share, on an as-reported basis. This compared to a first quarter 2021 earnings attributable to Entergy Corporation of $38 million, or 19 cents per share, on an as-reported basis. Drivers for the quarter included:

lower revenue primarily due to the shutdown of Indian Point 3, and

the absence of earnings from NDTs as a result of the sale of Indian Point.

These drivers were partially offset by:

lower other O&M due primarily to the shutdown of Indian Point 3, and

lower decommissioning expenses primarily due to the sale of Indian Point.

Appendix D contains additional details on EWC operating and financial measures, including reconciliation for non-GAAP EWC adjusted EBITDA.

Earnings per share guidance

Entergy affirmed its 2022 adjusted EPS guidance range of $6.15 to $6.45. See webcast presentation for additional details.

The company has provided 2022 earnings guidance with regard to the non-GAAP measure of Entergy adjusted EPS. This measure excludes from the corresponding GAAP financial measure the effect of adjustments as described below under "Non-GAAP Financial Measures." The company has not provided a reconciliation of such non-GAAP guidance to guidance presented on a GAAP basis because it cannot predict and quantify with a reasonable degree of confidence all of the adjustments that may occur during the period. One such adjustment will be the exclusion of EWC earnings from Entergy adjusted EPS. We currently estimate that the contribution of EWC to Entergy's as-reported EPS will be approximately 20 cents in 2022. This estimate is subject to substantial uncertainty due to, among other things, the potential effects of exiting the EWC business.

Earnings teleconference

A teleconference will be held at 10:00 a.m. Central Time on Wednesday, April 27, 2022, to discuss Entergy's quarterly earnings announcement and the company's financial performance. The teleconference may be accessed by visiting Entergy's website at www.entergy.com or by dialing

844-309-6569, conference ID 7789889, no more than 15 minutes prior to the start of the call. The webcast presentation is also being posted to Entergy's website concurrent with this news release. A replay of the teleconference will be available on Entergy's website at www.entergy.com and by telephone. The telephone replay will be available through May 4, 2022, by dialing 855-859-2056, conference ID 7789889.

Entergy Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in New Orleans, powers life for 3 million customers through its operating companies across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Entergy is creating a cleaner, more resilient energy future for everyone with our diverse power generation portfolio, including increasingly carbon-free energy sources. With roots in the Gulf South region for more than a century, Entergy is a recognized leader in corporate citizenship, delivering more than $100 million in economic benefits to local communities through philanthropy and advocacy efforts annually over the last several years. Our approximately 12,500 employees are dedicated to powering life today and for future generations.

Entergy Corporation's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and NYSE Chicago under the symbol "ETR".

Details regarding Entergy's results of operations, regulatory proceedings, and other matters are available in this earnings release, a copy of which will be filed with the SEC, and the webcast presentation. Both documents are available on Entergy's Investor Relations website at www.entergy.com/investor_relations.

Entergy maintains a web page as part of its Investor Relations website, entitled Regulatory and Other Information, which provides investors with key updates on certain regulatory proceedings and important milestones on the execution of its strategy. While some of this information may be considered material information, investors should not rely exclusively on this page for all relevant company information.

For definitions of certain operating measures, as well as GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures and abbreviations and acronyms used in the earnings release materials, see Appendix F.

Non-GAAP financial measures

This news release contains non-GAAP financial measures, which are generally numerical measures of a company's performance, financial position, or cash flows that either exclude or include amounts that are not normally excluded or included in the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Entergy has provided quantitative reconciliations within this news release of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

Entergy reports earnings using the non-GAAP measure of Entergy adjusted earnings, which excludes the effect of certain "adjustments," including the removal of the Entergy Wholesale Commodities segment in light of the company's exit from the merchant power business. Adjustments are unusual or non-recurring items or events or other items or events that management believes do not reflect the ongoing business of Entergy, such as the results of the EWC segment, significant tax items, and other items such as certain costs, expenses, or other specified items. In addition to reporting GAAP consolidated earnings on a per share basis, Entergy reports its adjusted earnings on a per share basis. These per share measures represent the applicable earnings amount divided by the diluted average number of common shares outstanding for the period.

Management uses the non-GAAP financial measures of adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per share for, among other things, financial planning and analysis; reporting financial results to the board of directors, employees, stockholders, analysts, and investors; and internal evaluation of financial performance. Entergy believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors in evaluating the ongoing results of Entergy's business, comparing period to period results, and comparing Entergy's financial performance to the financial performance of other companies in the utility sector.

Other non-GAAP measures, including adjusted EBITDA; adjusted ROE; adjusted ROE, excluding affiliate preferred; gross liquidity; net liquidity; net liquidity, including storm escrows; debt to capital, excluding securitization debt; net debt to net capital, excluding securitization debt; parent debt to total debt, excluding securitization debt; FFO to debt, excluding securitization debt; and FFO to debt, excluding securitization debt, return of unprotected excess ADIT, and severance and retention payments associated with exit of EWC, are measures Entergy uses internally for management and board discussions and to gauge the overall strength of its business. Entergy believes the above data provides useful information to investors in evaluating Entergy's ongoing financial results and flexibility, and assists investors in comparing Entergy's credit and liquidity to the credit and liquidity of others in the utility sector. In addition, ROE is included on both an adjusted and an as-reported basis. Metrics defined as "adjusted" (other than EWC's adjusted EBITDA) exclude the effect of adjustments as defined above. EWC's adjusted EBITDA represents EWC's earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation and amortization, and also excludes decommissioning expense.

These non-GAAP financial measures reflect an additional way of viewing aspects of Entergy's operations that, when viewed with Entergy's GAAP results and the accompanying reconciliations to corresponding GAAP financial measures, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting Entergy's business. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be used to the exclusion of GAAP financial measures. Investors are strongly encouraged to review Entergy's consolidated financial statements and publicly filed reports in their entirety and not to rely on any single financial measure. Although certain of these measures are intended to assist investors in comparing Entergy's performance to other companies in the utility sector, non-GAAP financial measures are not standardized; therefore, it might not be possible to compare these financial measures with other companies' non-GAAP financial measures having the same or similar names.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

In this news release, and from time to time, Entergy Corporation makes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding Entergy's 2022 earnings guidance; its current financial and operational outlooks; and other statements of Entergy's plans, beliefs, or expectations included in this news release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this news release. Except to the extent required by the federal securities laws, Entergy undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements, including (a) those factors discussed elsewhere in this news release and in Entergy's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Entergy's other reports and filings made under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; (b) uncertainties associated with (1) rate proceedings, formula rate plans, and other cost recovery mechanisms, including the risk that costs may not be recoverable to the extent or on the timeline anticipated by the utilities and (2) implementation of the ratemaking effects of changes in law; (c) uncertainties associated with efforts to remediate the effects of major storms and recover related restoration costs; (d) risks associated with operating nuclear facilities, including plant relicensing, operating, and regulatory costs and risks; (e) changes in decommissioning trust fund values or earnings or in the timing or cost of decommissioning Entergy's nuclear plant sites; (f) legislative and regulatory actions and risks and uncertainties associated with claims or litigation by or against Entergy and its subsidiaries; (g) risks and uncertainties associated with executing on business strategies, including strategic transactions that Entergy or its subsidiaries may undertake and the risk that any such transaction may not be completed as and when expected and the risk that the anticipated benefits of the transaction may not be realized; (h) effects of changes in federal, state, or local laws and regulations and other governmental actions or policies, including changes in monetary, fiscal, tax, environmental, or energy policies; (i) the effects of changes in commodity markets, capital markets, or economic conditions; (j) impacts from a terrorist attack, cybersecurity threats, data security breaches, or other attempts to disrupt Entergy's business or operations, and/or other catastrophic events; (k) the direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Entergy and its customers; and (l) the effects of technological change, including the costs, pace of development and commercialization of new and emerging technologies.

First quarter 2022 earnings release appendices and financial statements

Appendices

A: Consolidated results and adjustments

B: Earnings variance analysis

C: Utility operating and financial measures

D: EWC operating and financial measures

E: Consolidated financial measures

F: Definitions and abbreviations and acronyms

G: Other GAAP to Non-GAAP reconciliations

Financial statements

Consolidating balance sheets

Consolidating income statements

Consolidated cash flow statements

A: Consolidated results and adjustments

Appendix A-1 provides a comparative summary of consolidated earnings, including a reconciliation of as-reported earnings (GAAP) to adjusted earnings (non-GAAP).

Appendix A-1: Consolidated earnings - reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures First Quarter 2022 vs. 2021 (See Appendix A-2 and Appendix A-3 for details on adjustments)

First quarter

2022 2021 Change (After-tax, $ in millions)





As-reported earnings (loss)





Utility 340 357 (16) Parent & Other (71) (60) (12) EWC 7 38 (30) Consolidated 276 335 (58)







Less adjustments





Utility - - - Parent & Other - - - EWC 7 38 (30) Consolidated 7 38 (30)







Adjusted earnings (loss) (non-GAAP)





Utility 340 357 (16) Parent & Other (71) (60) (12) EWC - - - Consolidated 269 297 (28) Estimated weather impact 16 23 (7)







Diluted average number of common

shares outstanding (in millions) 203.9 201.1









(After-tax, per share in $) (a)





As-reported earnings (loss)





Utility 1.67 1.77 (0.10) Parent & Other (0.35) (0.30) (0.05) EWC 0.04 0.19 (0.15) Consolidated 1.36 1.66 (0.30)







Less adjustments

Utility - - - Parent & Other - - - EWC 0.04 0.19 (0.15) Consolidated 0.04 0.19 (0.15)







Adjusted earnings (loss) (non-GAAP)





Utility 1.67 1.77 (0.10) Parent & Other (0.35) (0.30) (0.05) EWC - - - Consolidated 1.32 1.47 (0.15) Estimated weather impact 0.08 0.11 (0.03)



Calculations may differ due to rounding

(a) Per share amounts are calculated by dividing the corresponding earnings (loss) by the diluted average number of common shares outstanding for the period.







See Appendix B for detailed earnings variance analysis.

Appendix A-2 and Appendix A-3 list adjustments by business. Adjustments are included in as-reported earnings consistent with GAAP but are excluded from adjusted earnings. As a result, adjusted earnings is considered a non-GAAP measure.

Appendix A-2: Adjustments by driver (shown as positive/(negative) impact on earnings or EPS) First quarter 2022 vs. 2021

First quarter

2022 2021 Change (Pre-tax except for income taxes, preferred dividend requirements, and totals; $ in millions) EWC





Income before income taxes 11 54 (43) Income taxes (3) (16) 13 Preferred dividend requirements (1) (1) - Total EWC 7 38 (30)







Total adjustments 7 38 (30)







(After-tax, per share in $) (b)





EWC





Total EWC 0.04 0.19 (0.15)







Total adjustments 0.04 0.19 (0.15)











Calculations may differ due to rounding

(b) Per share amounts are calculated by dividing the corresponding earnings (loss) by the diluted average number of common shares outstanding for the period.

Appendix A-3: Adjustments by income statement line item (shown as positive/(negative) impact on earnings)

First quarter 2022 vs. 2021

(Pre-tax except for income taxes, preferred dividend requirements, and totals; $ in millions)



First quarter



2022 2021 Change

EWC







Operating revenue 150 248 (98)

Fuel and fuel-related expenses (26) (21) (5)

Purchased power (14) (18) 4

Nuclear refueling outage expenses (11) (11) -

Other O&M (41) (99) 58

Asset write-off and impairments (1) (3) 3

Decommissioning expense (14) (53) 39

Taxes other than income taxes (10) (6) (3)

Depreciation/amortization exp. (9) (13) 4

Other income (deductions)other (13) 34 (47)

Interest exp. and other charges (1) (4) 3

Income taxes (3) (16) 13

Preferred dividend requirements (1) (1) -

Total EWC 7 38 (30)











Total adjustments (after-tax) 7 38 (30)























Calculations may differ due to rounding





Appendix A-4 provides a comparative summary of OCF by business.

Appendix A-4: Consolidated operating cash flow First quarter 2022 vs. 2021 ($ in millions)

First quarter

2022 2021 Change Utility 495 (77) 572 Parent & Other (35) (22) (13) EWC 78 49 29 Consolidated 538 (50) 588











Calculations may differ due to rounding





OCF increased for the quarter due to several drivers, including higher Utility customer collections, lower fuel and purchased power payments (including costs related to Winter Storm Uri in 2021), lower pension contributions, and higher proceeds from the DOE regarding spent fuel litigation. The increase was partially offset by higher non-capital storm restoration spending.

Intercompany income tax payments contributed to the line of business variances.

B: Earnings variance analysis

Appendix B provides details of current quarter 2022 versus 2021 as-reported and adjusted earnings per share variances for Utility, Parent & Other, and EWC.

Appendix B: As-reported and adjusted earnings per share variance analysis (c), (d), (e) First quarter 2022 vs. 2021 (After-tax, per share in $)

Utility

Parent & Other

EWC

Consolidated

As-

reported Adjusted

As-

reported Adjusted

As- reported

As- reported Adjusted 2021 earnings (loss) 1.77 1.77

(0.30) (0.30)

0.19

1.66 1.47 Operating revenue less: Fuel, fuel-related expenses and gas purchased for resale, Purchased power, and Regulatory charges (credits)net 0.43 0.43 (f) - -

(0.39) (g) 0.04 0.43 Other O&M (0.10) (0.10) (h) (0.01) (0.01)

0.23 (i) 0.12 (0.11) Asset write-offs and impairments - -

- -

0.01

0.01 - Decommissioning expense (0.01) (0.01)

- -

0.15 (j) 0.14 (0.01) Taxes other than income taxes (0.07) (0.07) (k) - -

(0.01)

(0.08) (0.07) Depreciation/amortization exp. (0.11) (0.11) (l) - -

0.02

(0.09) (0.11) Other income (deductions) (0.17) (0.17) (m) (0.01) (0.01)

(0.18) (n) (0.36) (0.18) Interest expense (0.06) (0.06) (o) (0.03) (0.03)

0.01

(0.08) (0.09) Income taxesother 0.01 0.01

- -

0.01

0.02 0.01 Share effect (0.02) (0.02)

- -

-

(0.02) (0.02) 2022 earnings (loss) 1.67 1.67

(0.35) (0.35)

0.04

1.36 1.32























Calculations may differ due to rounding



(c) Utility operating revenue / regulatory charges and Utility income taxes-other exclude $17 million, in first quarter 2022 and $41 million, in first quarter 2021 for the return of unprotected excess ADIT to customers (net effect is neutral to earnings). (d) Utility regulatory charges (credits) and Utility preferred dividend and noncontrolling interest exclude $1 million, in first quarter 2022 and $0 in first quarter 2021 for the effects of HLBV accounting and the approved deferral (net effect is neutral to earnings). (e) EPS effect is calculated by multiplying the pre-tax amount by the estimated income tax rate that is expected to apply and dividing by diluted average number of common shares outstanding for the prior period; income taxesother represents income tax differences other than the tax effect of individual line items. (f) The earnings increase was primarily driven by regulatory actions including E-AR's FRP; E-LA's FRP; E-MS's FRP and ad valorem rider; E-NO's FRP; and E-TX's GCRR, TCRF, and DCRF. The variance also reflected a change in regulatory provisions for decommissioning items (the difference between expense and trust earnings plus costs collected in revenue, largely earnings neutral) and a regulatory provision for the true-up of E-LA and E-TX cost of debt from 2020 storms. Partially offsetting was the first quarter 2021 reversal of an E-AR regulatory provision. (g) The earnings decrease was due largely to the shutdown of Indian Point 3 in April 2021. (h) The earnings decrease from higher Utility other O&M was due primarily to higher customer service center support expenses, higher nuclear generation expenses, higher transmission expenses, and higher distribution operations expenses. These items were partially offset by higher nuclear insurance refunds. (i) The earnings increase from lower EWC other O&M was due largely to the shutdown of Indian Point 3 in April 2021 and lower severance and retention expenses. (j) The earnings increase from lower EWC decommissioning expense was due primarily to the sale of Indian Point in May 2021. (k) The earnings decrease from higher Utility taxes other than income taxes was due to increases in ad valorem and franchise taxes. (l) The earnings decrease from higher Utility depreciation expense was due primarily to higher plant in service. (m) The earnings decrease from lower Utility other income (deductions) was due largely to changes in decommissioning trust fund returns (based on regulatory treatment, decommissioning-related variances are largely earnings neutral). (n) The earnings decrease from lower EWC other income (deductions) was due largely to the absence of earnings from nuclear decommissioning trust funds that were transferred in the sale of Indian Point in May 2021 and the performance of Palisades decommissioning trust investments. The decrease was partially offset by lower non-service pension costs. (o) The earnings decrease from higher Utility interest expense was due primarily to higher debt balances.

Utility as-reported operating revenue less fuel, fuel-related

expenses and gas purchased for resale; purchased power; and

regulatory charges (credits)-net variance analysis 2022 vs. 2021 ($ EPS)

1Q Volume/weather (0.05) Retail electric price 0.33 1Q21 reversal of reg. provision for E-AR's FRP 2019 netting adj. (0.16) 1Q22 reg. provision for true-up of E-LA and E-TX cost of debt from 2020 storms 0.05 Reg. provisions for decommissioning items 0.22 Other, including Grand Gulf recovery 0.04 Total 0.43

C: Utility operating and financial measures

Appendix C provides comparative summaries of Utility operating and financial measures.

Appendix C: Utility operating and financial measures First quarter 2022 vs. 2021

First quarter

2022 2021 %

Change % Weather

Adjusted (p) GWh sold







Residential 8,454 8,663 (2.4) (3.6) Commercial 6,271 6,111 2.6 5.2 Governmental 584 581 0.5 0.5 Industrial 12,496 11,738 6.5 6.5 Total retail sales 27,805 27,093 2.6 2.9 Wholesale 3,641 4,299 (15.3)

Total sales 31,446 31,392 0.2











Number of electric retail customers







Residential 2,548,138 2,532,172 0.6

Commercial 368,951 360,323 2.4

Governmental 18,173 17,811 2.0

Industrial 46,477 44,622 4.2

Total retail customers 2,981,739 2,954,928 0.9











Other O&M and refueling outage

expense per MWh $21.00 $20.23 3.8















Calculations may differ due to rounding

(p) The effects of weather were estimated using heating degree days and cooling degree days for the period from certain locations within each jurisdiction and comparing to "normal" weather based on 20-year historical data. The models used to estimate weather are updated periodically and are subject to change.







On a weather-adjusted basis retail sales increased 2.9 percent. Residential sales decreased (3.6) percent and commercial sales increased 5.2 percent, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on first quarter 2021. Industrial sales volume increased 6.5 percent due to higher sales to cogeneration customers, higher sales to existing large industrial customers (primarily chemicals and pulp and paper industries, partially offset by lower petroleum refining), an increase in demand from expansion projects (primarily in the chemicals, transportation, and petroleum refining industries), and higher sales to mid-to-small industrial customers.

D: EWC operating and financial measures

Appendix D-1 provides a comparative summary of EWC operating and financial measures.

Appendix D-1: EWC operating and financial measures First quarter 2022 vs. 2021

First quarter

2022 2021 % Change Owned capacity (MW) (q) 1,205 2,246 (46.3) GWh billed 2,225 4,413 (49.6)







EWC Nuclear Fleet





Capacity factor 100% 99% 1.0 GWh billed 1,766 3,988 (55.7) Production cost per MWh $25.47 $18.46 38.0 Average energy/capacity revenue per MWh $59.21 $52.04 13.8











Calculations may differ due to rounding

(q) 2022 is lower due to the shutdown of IP3 (1,041MW) on April 30, 2021.





See the appendix in the webcast presentation for EWC hedging and price disclosures.

Appendix D-2 provides a comparative summary of EWC adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP).

Appendix D-2: EWC adjusted EBITDA - reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures First quarter 2022 vs. 2021 ($ in millions) First quarter

2022 2021 Change Net income (loss) 8 38 (30) Add back: interest expense 1 4 (3) Add back: income taxes 3 16 (13) Add back: depreciation and amortization 9 13 (4) Subtract: interest and investment income (17) 48 (65) Add back: decommissioning expense 14 53 (39) Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) 51 76 (24)











Calculations may differ due to rounding





E: Consolidated financial measures

Appendix E provides comparative financial measures. Financial measures in this table include those calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP, as well as those that are considered non-GAAP financial measures.

Appendix E: GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures First quarter 2022 vs. 2021 (See appendix G for reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures)



For 12 months ending March 31 2022 2021 Change GAAP measure





As-reported ROE 9.3% 15.1% (5.7)%







Non-GAAP measure





Adjusted ROE 10.4% 11.3% (0.8)%







As of March 31 ($ in millions, except where noted) 2022 2021 Change GAAP measures





Cash and cash equivalents 702 1,743 (1,041) Available revolver capacity 4,129 4,220 (92) Commercial paper 1,343 1,028 315 Total debt 28,630 25,803 2,827 Securitization debt 55 147 (92) Debt to capital 70.5% 69.6% 0.9% Off-balance sheet liabilities:





Debt of joint ventures  Entergy's share 5 15 (10) Total off-balance sheet liabilities 5 15 (10)







Storm escrows 33 72 (39)







Non-GAAP measures ($ in millions, except where noted)





Debt to capital, excluding securitization debt 70.4% 69.5% 0.9% Net debt to net capital, excluding securitization debt 69.9% 68.0% 1.9% Gross liquidity 4,830 5,963 (1,133) Net liquidity 3,487 4,935 (1,448) Net liquidity, including storm escrows 3,521 5,007 (1,487) Parent debt to total debt, excluding securitization debt 21.5% 22.3% (0.8)% FFO to debt, excluding securitization debt 8.7% 8.2% 0.5% FFO to debt, excluding securitization debt, return of unprotected excess ADIT,

and severance and retention payments associated with the exit of EWC 9.3% 8.7% 0.6%









Calculations may differ due to rounding



F: Definitions and abbreviations and acronyms

Appendix F-1 provides definitions of certain operating measures, as well as GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures.

Appendix F-1: Definitions Utility operating and financial measures GWh sold Total number of GWh sold to retail and wholesale customers Number of electric retail

customers Average number of electric customers over the period Other O&M and refueling

outage expense per MWh Other operation and maintenance expense plus nuclear refueling outage expense per MWh of total sales



EWC Operating and financial measures Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) Earnings before interest, income taxes, and depreciation and amortization, and excluding decommissioning expense Average revenue per MWh

on contracted volumes Revenue on a per unit basis at which generation output reflected in contracts is expected to be sold to third parties (including offsetting positions) at the minimum contract prices and at forward market prices at a point in time, given existing contract or option exercise prices based on expected dispatch or capacity, excluding the revenue associated with the amortization of the below-market PPA for Palisades (revenue will fluctuate due to factors including positive or negative basis differentials and other risk management costs) Capacity factor Normalized percentage of the period that the nuclear plants generate power Expected sold and market

total revenue per MWh Total energy and capacity revenue on a per unit basis at which total planned generation output and capacity is expected to be sold given contract terms and market prices at a point in time, including positive or negative basis differentials and other risk management costs, divided by total planned MWh of generation, excluding the revenue associated with the amortization of the Palisades below-market PPA GWh billed Total number of GWh billed to customers and financially-settled instruments Owned capacity (MW) Installed capacity owned by EWC Percent of capacity sold

forward Percent of planned qualified capacity sold to mitigate price uncertainty under physical or financial transactions Percent of planned

generation under contract

(unit contingent) Percent of planned generation output sold under unit-contingent contracts Planned net MW in

operation (average) Average installed nuclear capacity to generate power and/or sell capacity, reflecting the shutdown of Palisades (May 31, 2022) Planned TWh of generation Amount of output expected to be generated by EWC nuclear resources considering plant operating characteristics, reflecting the shutdown of Palisades (May 31, 2022) Production cost per MWh Fuel and other O&M expenses according to accounting standards that directly relate to the production of electricity per MWh (based on net generation) Unit contingent Transaction under which power is supplied from a specific generation asset; if the asset is in operational outage, seller is generally not liable to buyer for any damages, unless the contract specifies certain conditions such as an availability guarantee



Financial measures  GAAP As-reported ROE 12-months rolling net income attributable to Entergy Corporation divided by avg. common equity Debt of joint ventures  Entergy's share Entergy's share of debt issued by business joint ventures at EWC Debt to capital Total debt divided by total capitalization Available revolver capacity Amount of undrawn capacity remaining on corporate and subsidiary revolvers Securitization debt Debt on the balance sheet associated with securitization bonds that is secured by certain future customer collections Total debt Sum of short-term and long-term debt, notes payable and commercial paper, and finance leases on the balance sheet







Appendix F-1: Definitions (continued) Financial measures  non-GAAP Adjusted EPS As-reported EPS excluding adjustments Adjusted ROE 12-months rolling adjusted net income attributable to Entergy Corporation divided by average common equity Adjustments Unusual or non-recurring items or events or other items or events that management believes do not reflect the ongoing business of Entergy, such as the results of the EWC segment, significant tax items, and other items such as certain costs, expenses, or other specified items Debt to capital, excluding

securitization debt Total debt divided by total capitalization, excluding securitization debt FFO OCF less AFUDC-borrowed funds, working capital items in OCF (receivables, fuel inventory, accounts payable, taxes accrued, interest accrued, and other working capital accounts), and securitization regulatory charges FFO to debt, excluding

securitization debt 12-months rolling FFO as a percentage of end of period total debt excluding securitization debt FFO to debt, excl.

securitization debt, return

of unprotected excess

ADIT, and severance and

retention payments

associated with the exit of

EWC 12-months rolling FFO excluding return of unprotected excess ADIT and severance and retention payments associated with the exit of EWC as a percentage of end of period total debt excluding securitization debt Gross liquidity Sum of cash and available revolver capacity Net debt to net capital,

excl. securitization debt Total debt less cash and cash equivalents divided by total capitalization less cash and cash equivalents, excluding securitization debt Net liquidity Sum of cash and available revolver capacity less commercial paper borrowing Net liquidity, including

storm escrows Sum of cash, available revolver capacity, and escrow accounts available for certain storm expenses, less commercial paper borrowing Parent debt to total debt,

excl. securitization debt Entergy Corp. debt, incl. amounts drawn on credit revolver and commercial paper facilities, as a percent of consolidated total debt, excl. securitization debt

Appendix F-2 explains abbreviations and acronyms used in the quarterly earnings materials.

Appendix F-2: Abbreviations and acronyms ADIT AFUDC AFUDC  borrowed funds ALJ AMI APSC ARO ATM bps CCGT CCNO CFO COD DCRF DOE DSM E-AR E-LA E-MS E-NO E-TX EBITDA

EPC EPS ETR EWC FERC FFO FIN 48

FRP GAAP GCRR Grand Gulf or GGNS HLBV Accumulated deferred income taxes Allowance for funds used during construction Allowance for borrowed funds used during construction Administrative law judge Advanced metering infrastructure Arkansas Public Service Commission Asset retirement obligation At the market equity issuance program Basis points Combined cycle gas turbine Council of the City of New Orleans Cash from operations Commercial operation date Distribution cost recovery factor U.S. Department of Energy Demand side management Entergy Arkansas, LLC Entergy Louisiana, LLC Entergy Mississippi, LLC Entergy New Orleans, LLC Entergy Texas, Inc. Earnings before interest, income taxes, and depreciation and amortization Engineering,procurement,and construction Earnings per share Entergy Corporation Entergy Wholesale Commodities Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Funds from operations FASB Interpretation No.48, "Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes" Formula rate plan U.S. generally accepted accounting principles Generation Cost Recovery Rider Unit 1 of Grand Gulf Nuclear Station (nuclear), 90% owned or leased by SERI Hypothetical liquidation at book value IIRR-G Indian Point 3

or IP3 IPEC or

Indian Point ISES 2 LPSC LTM MISO Moody's MPSC MTEP Nelson 6 NDT NRC NYSE OCAPS OCF OpCo OPEB Other O&M

P&O Palisades PMR PPA

PUCT RFP ROE RS Cogen RSP S&P SEC SERI TCRF UPSA WACC Infrastructure investment recovery rider - gas Indian Point Energy Center Unit 3 (nuclear)

(shut down April 30, 2021, sold May 28, 2021) Indian Point Energy Center (nuclear)

(sold May 28, 2021) Unit 2 of Independence Steam Electric Station (coal) Louisiana Public Service Commission Last twelve months Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. Moody's Investor Service Mississippi Public Service Commission MISO Transmission Expansion Plan Unit 6 of Roy S. Nelson plant (coal) Nuclear decommissioning trust U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission New York Stock Exchange Orange County Advanced Power Station Net cash flow provided by operating activities Utility operating company Other post-employment benefits Other non-fuel operation and maintenance expense Parent & Other Palisades Power Plant (nuclear) Performance Management Rider Power purchase agreement or purchased power agreement Public Utility Commission of Texas Request for proposals Return on equity RS Cogen facility (CCGT cogeneration) Rate Stabilization Plan (E-LA Gas) Standard & Poor's U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission System Energy Resources, Inc. Transmission cost recovery factor Unit Power Sales Agreement Weighted-average cost of capital

G: Other GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations

Appendix G-1, Appendix G-2, and Appendix G-3 provide reconciliations of various non-GAAP financial measures disclosed in this news release to their most comparable GAAP measure.

Appendix G-1: Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures  ROE (LTM $ in millions except where noted)

First quarter



2022 2021 As-reported net income (loss) attributable to Entergy Corporation (A) 1,060 1,604 Adjustments (B) (127) 399







Adjusted earnings (non-GAAP) (A-B) 1,187 1,205







Average common equity (average of beginning and ending balances) (C) 11,364 10,621







As-reported ROE (A/C) 9.3% 15.1% Adjusted ROE (non-GAAP) [(A-B)/C] 10.4% 11.3%









Calculations may differ due to rounding

Appendix G-2: Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures  debt ratios excluding securitization debt; gross liquidity; net liquidity; net liquidity, including storm escrows ($ in millions except where noted)

First quarter



2022 2021 Total debt (A) 28,630 25,803 Less securitization debt (B) 55 147 Total debt, excluding securitization debt (C) 28,575 25,656 Less cash and cash equivalents (D) 702 1,743 Net debt, excluding securitization debt (E) 27,874 23,914







Commercial paper (F) 1,343 1,028







Total capitalization (G) 40,626 37,075 Less securitization debt (B) 55 147 Total capitalization, excluding securitization debt (H) 40,571 36,928 Less cash and cash equivalents (D) 702 1,743 Net capital, excluding securitization debt (I) 39,870 35,185







Debt to capital (A/G) 70.5% 69.6% Debt to capital, excluding securitization debt (non-GAAP) (C/H) 70.4% 69.5% Net debt to net capital, excluding securitization debt (non-GAAP) (E/I) 69.9% 68.0%







Available revolver capacity (J) 4,129 4,220







Storm escrows (K) 33 72







Gross liquidity (non-GAAP) (D+J) 4,830 5,963 Net liquidity (non-GAAP) (D+J-F) 3,487 4,935 Net liquidity, including storm escrows (non-GAAP) (D+J-F+K) 3,521 5,007







Entergy Corporation notes:





Due July 2022

650 650 Due September 2025

800 800 Due September 2026

750 750 Due June 2028

650 650 Due June 2030

600 600 Due June 2031

650 650 Due June 2050

600 600 Total Entergy Corporation notes (L) 4,700 4,700 Revolver draw (M) 150 55 Unamortized debt issuance costs and discounts (N) (47) (54) Total parent debt (F+L+M+N) 6,145 5,728 Parent debt to total debt, excluding securitization debt (non-GAAP) [(F+L+M+N)/C] 21.5% 22.3%









Calculations may differ due to rounding

Appendix G-3: Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures  FFO to debt, excluding securitization debt; FFO to debt, excluding securitization debt, return of unprotected excess ADIT, and severance and retention payments associated with the exit of EWC ($ in millions except where noted)

First quarter



2022 2021 Total debt (A) 28,630 25,803 Less securitization debt (B) 55 147 Total debt, excluding securitization debt (C) 28,575 25,656







Net cash flow provided by operating activities, LTM (D) 2,888 1,981







AFUDC  borrowed funds, LTM (E) (29) (43)







Working capital items in net cash flow provided by operating

activities, LTM:





Receivables

91 (262) Fuel inventory

6 15 Accounts payable

162 90 Taxes accrued

130 21 Interest accrued

26 9 Other working capital accounts

(105) (165) Securitization regulatory charges, LTM

71 124 Total (F) 382 (170)







FFO, LTM (non-GAAP) (G)=(D+E-F) 2,477 2,109







FFO to debt, excluding securitization debt (non-GAAP) (G/C) 8.7% 8.2%







Estimated return of unprotected excess ADIT, LTM (H) 66 80 Severance and retention payments associated with exit of EWC, LTM

pre-tax (I) 119 55







FFO to debt, excluding securitization debt, return of unprotected

excess ADIT, and severance and retention payments associated

with the exit of EWC (non-GAAP) [(G+H+I)/(C)] 9.3% 8.7%









Calculations may differ due to rounding

SOURCE Entergy Corporation
HOBOKEN, N.J., April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- eToro , the online social investment platform with over 27 million registered users, today announced that a survey of US adults conducted by the firm reveals that more than 80% of people turn to social media for education and tips about investing. This finding is in line with a growing trend of younger investors doing their own research when beginning their investment portfolios. Additional responses included that over 83% of people feel more comfortable investing with the help of expert advice, that over 60% feel more creative when in a group setting, and over half feel they learn better when being helped by others.

eToro CEO and Co-founder, Yoni Assia said: "We are witnessing tectonic shifts in asset ownership and a convergence of finance and culture driven by the twin forces of technology and community. Millennials and Gen Z are on the threshold of becoming the new investor class, and eToro was designed to answer the needs of this generation of investors and collectors."

Emerging Investors Turn to Social Media

Nearly 40% of people surveyed stated they were "not that confident" or "not at all confident" investing on their own. 66% of people agreed that access to a social investing community would at least somewhat increase their confidence when investing. Half of respondents use online resources when seeking education in investing. At 63%, YouTube was the most popular among those who use social media to seek investment information, followed by Facebook at 44% and Twitter at 34%.

US CEO of eToro Lule Demmissie said: "These results confirm what eToro knows to be true: that the next generation of retail investor demands an experience rooted in community, with universal access to educational tools and expert analysis,". "eToro pioneered the social investing platform, and we expect to see this style of investing flourish as millennials and gen z continue to enter the market."

The Next Generation of Investor is Here

The results of this and past consumer surveys conducted by eToro tell the story of a new generation of investors, who seek out community and are turning to social media to find information on investing. eToro's social investment platform combines the community aspects of social media with the convenience of an online and mobile investing tool. The platform creates access to investing by providing expert financial analysis, educational materials, and the ability to copy the portfolios of successful traders. The platform also offers a virtual portfolio through which users can "trade" $100,000 in virtual currency to get firsthand investment practice with zero risk. Additionally, investors who perform well on the platform can become part of eToro's popular investor program, which offers additional benefits.

Previously, eToro released findings from a survey which examined US consumers behavior related to cryptocurrency and dating, where 74% of respondents said they would go on a second date with a person who paid the bill with Bitcoin. Future releases will examine topics such as women in investing and the behavioral psychology involved in investing.

About the Survey

eToro's Community Investment survey was commissioned from Appinio, a global market research platform that enables companies worldwide to obtain thousands of opinions from specific target groups. User accounts are verified by digital fingerprint and social identity logins to ensure that every respondent is directly attributed to just one device and to prohibit multiple accounts. Appinio uses quality-control questions to monitor the consistency and attentiveness of its panelists and automatically excludes respondents who show certain response patterns such as straight-liners and speeders. Respondents are screened for target group fit in a process that takes place outside of the context of the corresponding survey to ensure unbiased answers and superior data quality. Appinio's acquisition channels consist of a variety of online and offline activities that maximize reach and guarantee representation. Channels include user referral, social media, targeted ads for specific groups, and offline content partnerships.

About eToro

eToro is a multi-asset investment platform that empowers people to grow their knowledge and wealth as part of a global community of successful investors. eToro was founded in 2007 with the vision of opening up the global markets so that everyone can trade and invest in a simple and transparent way. Today, eToro is a global community of more than 23 million registered users who share their investment strategies; and anyone can follow the approaches of those who have been the most successful. Due to the simplicity of the platform users can easily buy, hold, and sell assets, monitor their portfolio in real time, and transact whenever they want.

https://www.etoro.com

Disclosure

Crypto Trading is offered via eToro USA LLC. Securities trading is offered via eToro USA Securities, Inc.("The BD"), a broker dealer registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The BD is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ( FINRA ) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation ( SIPC ). eToro USA LLC (NMLS ID: 1769299 ) is not a registered broker-dealer or FINRA member and your cryptocurrency holdings are not FDIC or SIPC insured. Our full disclosures page is here . Our fees page is here . eToro USA LLC.  2022

Media Contact

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SOURCE eToro
DUBLIN, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Insurance Telematics in Europe and North America - 6th Edition" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

What are the latest trends in the Insurance telematics market? The report estimates that the total number of insurance telematics policies in force in the European market reached 16.2 million at the end of 2021. Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 21.5 percent, the number of active insurance telematics policies in Europe is estimated to reach 35.1 million by 2025.

In North America, the total number of insurance telematics policies in force is forecasted to increase from an estimated 21.7 million policies at the end of 2021 to reach 49.0 million policies by 2025.

The integration of telematics technology constitutes the latest revolution in the automotive insurance industry. The concept of telematics is a portmanteau of telecommunications - long-distance communications - and informatics - the science of information. Telematics in general thus refers to the collection of information related to remote objects such as vehicles via telecommunications networks.

The introduction of telematics technology in the context of automotive insurance is commonly referred to as usage-based insurance (UBI) or insurance telematics. Solutions of this type generally enable automotive insurers to improve pricing mechanisms based on actual driving data, gain better control of claims and differentiate their offerings to current and prospective policyholders. Variants of insurance telematics that have been popularised over the years include behavior-based pricing models such as Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD), Pay-How-You-Drive (PHYD), and Manage-How-You-Drive (MHYD).

The addressable market for insurance telematics is significant. A total of around 317 million vehicles were in use in the EU22+3 in 2019, including over 277 million passenger cars. In North America, an estimated total of around 293 million vehicles were in use in 2019, out of which passenger cars and light trucks are estimated to represent around 277 million vehicles.

Some kind of basic automotive insurance is mandatory in most developed countries and there are in addition several subcategories of insurance that provide coverage for different types of unforeseen events involving motor vehicles. Motor gross written premiums in EU22+3 reached a total of over  142.3 billion in 2019. The equivalent number for North America was US$ 253.2 billion ( 226.2 billion) in 2019.

The insurance telematics market is currently in a phase of strong growth which is expected to accelerate in the coming years. Europe and North America so far represent the vast majority of all insurance telematics programs and active policies from an international perspective, and the front-running national markets include the US, Italy, Canada, the UK, and Germany.

The report estimates that the total number of insurance telematics policies in force in the European market reached 13.1 million at the end of 2020. Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 21.7 percent, the number of insurance telematics policies in force in Europe is estimated to reach 35.1 million by 2025. In North America, the total number of insurance telematics policies in force is forecasted to increase from an estimated 16.7 million policies at the end of 2020 to reach 49.0 million policies by 2025, representing a compound annual growth rate of 24.0 percent.

In the US, the top three insurers in terms of UBI policies have all introduced smartphone-based solutions to supplement or replace the previously used OBD dongles. The several US and Canadian insurers have during the recent year re-assessed and re-launched their telematics programs. The North American insurance carriers are also exploring claims-related insurance telematics and many are adding distracted driving parameters in their UBI.

The European insurance telematics market is still dominated by insurers in Italy and the UK, with an estimated 9.7 million and 1.3 million policies respectively. The market in Germany has grown considerably during 2020 and reached about 0.7 million telematics policies. Uptake on all other markets is considerably lower, with between 120,000 and 440,000 policies in Spain, France, Benelux as well as Central and Eastern Europe.

Highlights from the report

Insights from 30 new executive interviews with market-leading companies

Comprehensive overview of the insurance telematics value chain and key applications

In-depth analysis of market trends and key developments

Case studies of 67 insurance telematics initiatives

Summary of the involvement of vehicle OEMs and mobile operators

New data on vehicle populations in Europe and North America

and Market forecasts by country lasting until 2025

Key Topics Covered:



Insurance Telematics Case Studies

More Than 40 Percent Of The Vehicles Insured By Unipolsai Feature A Black Box

Generali Offers A Wide Portfolio Of Insurance Telematics Products

Smartphone-Only Solutions - A Growth Engine For Allianz'S Telematics Offerings

Axa Offers Its Insurance Telematics Portfolio in Multiple European Countries

Admiral Group Has Multiple Insurance Telematics Programs in Europe

Insure The Box Has Sold More Than 1.0 Million Black Box-Based Policies

Direct Line Group Uses A Variety Of Sensors For Gathering Of Telematics Data

Aviva Chooses Device-Based Telematics in The Uk

Ingenie Targets Drivers in The 17- To 44-Year-Old Age Bracket

IMS Expands Carrot Insurance's Platform To North America

Marmalade Targets Young Drivers

RSA Offers UBI Via More Than Smart Wheels and 123Go

Be Wiser Offers Drive Wiser PHYD Insurance in The UK Based On Coverbox

Abbeyautoline (Prestige) Offers Chillidrive Powered By Inzura

By Miles Offers Payd Using Aftermarket OBD Devices and OEM Telematics

Calamp Invests in The Insurance Marketplace

Stellantis' Psa Group Offers UBI in The UK, Belgium , and France

, and Mercedes-Benz Offers UBI in Four European Countries

Huk-Coburg Relaunched Telematik Plus in 2019

Vhv'S Telematik Garant Switched To A Mobile-Based Telematics Solution

German Insurer Signal Iduna Launches UBI Based On A Smartphone App

Emil Powers Pay-Per-Mile Telematics Products in Germany

Devk Implements Dolphin Technologies in Its App-Based Telematics Offering

Uniqa Safeline Powered By Dolphin Technologies Focuses On Safety

Groupama Offers Insurance Telematics in Multiple Countries

Risk Has Launched Several Insurance Telematics Products in The Netherlands

Mapfre Provides Insurance Telematics Products in Spain and The US

and The US Osa and Sparkassen Versicherung Offer E-call Services in Germany

Gdv Launches Ecall Service With 46 Participating German Insurers

Zavarovalnica Triglav Brings UBI To Slovenia

Pzu Group and Link4 Offer Telematics Programs in Poland

Cherrisk Rewards Safe Driving

Hdi Global Has Launched Diamonddrive in Germany

Zurich Invested in The UK Telematics Insurance Provider Mypolicy in 2021

If Insurance Has Long Experience Of Telematics in The Nordics

Paydrive Leverages Aftermarket and OEM Telematics For UBI

Vis Pioneers Telematics Insurance in Iceland

Insurance Telematics Case Studies

Progressive Is The UBI Telematics Pioneer in The US

State Farm Works With CMT To Enhance The Drive Safe & Save Program

Allstate Offers Drivewise and Milewise in The US

Esurance Offers Drivesense in 37 US States

Allstate'S Subsidiary Arity Expands Its Offering To External Customers

Liberty Mutual Has A Broad Portfolio Of Telematics Products

Desjardins Offers A Smartphone App For Insurance Telematics in Canada

Nationwide Offers UBI Based On OBD, Smartphone, and OEM Telematics Data

Farmers Offers Mobile-Based Insurance Telematics From Driveway Software

Travelers Offers Smartphone-Based UBI

Geico Offers A Smartphone-Based Telematics Program in Select US States

Toyota Insurance Management Solutions Offers UBI in The US

CAA Offers Myspace and Connect Powered By Octo Telematics

Root Insurance Is A Smartphone-Based Insurance Company

Usaa Enhances Insurance Offering By Acquiring UBI Focused Noble

Mobileye and Munich Re Collaborate in Munich Re's Smart Mobility Program

Progressive Has Launched A Second Commercial UBI Product

Nationwide Offers Commercial Lines Insurance Telematics Solutions

Philadelphia Insurance Companies Offers Fleet Insurance Telematics

Trov Offers Mobility Insurance Solutions Built On Sentiance's Platform

True Mileage Uses NFC and Works With Ohio Mutual Insurance Group

State Auto Has A Broad Telematics Portfolio Focusing On Both UBI and Claims

Ford, Hyundai, Honda, and Gm Join Verisk Telematics Data Exchange

Cmt Powers Multiple Safe Driving Contests in The US

Intact Discontinues Its Device-Based Program in Favour Of Mobile Solutions

Lemonade Acquires Metromile

American Family Insurance

HDVI Pioneers Telematics UBI For Fleets Of Semi Trailer Trucks

Tesla Launches Its Own Telematics Insurance Brokerage in Texas and Illinois

and Pouch and Mojio Partner To Offer Fleet Insurance To Small Businesses

Future Industry Trends

Continued Broadening Of The Insurance Telematics Concept Is Expected

Insurers Will Embrace Both UBI and Claims-Related Insurance Telematics

Form Factor Shift To Favour Mobile Devices

Connected Cars Pave The Way For Mass-Marketisation Of Insurance Telematics

New Data Exchanges Expected To Make OEM Data Available To Small Insurers

Fleet Insurance Telematics To Disrupt The Fleet Tracking Market

Privacy Concerns Are Softening Across Customer Segments

Big Data: Ownership and Portability Of Telematics Data To Be Scrutinised

Insurance Telematics Aims To Reduce Distracted Driving

Mobility Trends Provide New Opportunities For Telematics-Based Insurance

Vehicle Diagnostics Data From Connected Cars Can Create Value For Insurers

Outlook: Insurance Telematics Is Growing Rapidly in Other Regions

Pay-Per-Mile Insurance Programs Are Resurging

Insurers To Explore Other IoT Verticals

The Insurance Telematics Concept To Be Applicable For More Vehicle Types

Autonomous Cars Alter The Playing Field For Motor Insurance

Automotive OEMs Bet On Insurance Telematics

Company Profiles

Agero

Amodo

Autoliv

Azuga

Baseline Telematics

Bosch Connected Devices and Solutions

Calamp

Cambridge Mobile Telematics

Ccc Information Services

Clearscore

Dolphin Technologies

Earnix

Fairconnect (Drivequant)

Greater Than

Ims (Trak Global Group)

Ingenie Business

Insure Telematics Solutions

Inzura

Lexisnexis Risk Solutions

Meta System

Modus

Motix Connected

Munic Car Data

Octo Telematics

Oseven Telematics

Quartix

Redtail Telematics

Scope Technology

Sentiance

Swiss Re

Targa Telematics

Telematics Technologies

The Floow

Trakm8

Verisk Analytics

Viasat Group

Vodafone Automotive

Webfleet Solutions

Zendrive

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/jb31vf

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets
Marianita Vela, PA-C of Kalos Medical Spa will train medical professionals in the clinical use of the non-surgical fat freezing treatment.

FORT WORTH, Texas, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Certified Physician Assistant Marianita "Mari" Vela, PA-C has been named a CoolSculpting Faculty Trainer by Allergan Medical Institute (AMI). In her role as a trainer, Ms. Vela will instruct aesthetic providers on the proper use of CoolSculpting at training centers in Texas, Virginia, and California and in local field training programs.

Marianita Vela, PA-C of Kalos Medical Spa in Fort Worth has been named a CoolSculpting Faculty Trainer by Allergan Medical Institute.

"I am honored to have the opportunity to share my CoolSculpting knowledge and experience with other aesthetic professionals," Ms. Vela commented. "Many patients believe that anyone is qualified to offer non-surgical treatment, but this is simply not true. Undergoing top-level medical training is imperative to keep patients safe and to achieve aesthetically sound results."

In addition to CoolSculpting, Allergan is also the maker of aesthetic treatments with household names like Botox, Juvederm, and Latisse and is one of the 4 manufacturers of FDA-approved breast implants and related medical devices. Allergan's own CoolSculpting University (CSU) training courses, delivered by CoolSculpting AMI Faculty Trainers like Ms. Vela, are considered the industry gold-standard for learning to administer the popular "fat-freezing" treatment. Attendees are hand-selected for the certificate program and receive both didactic and hands-on training with faculty.

CoolSculpting is a modern, non-surgical body contouring technology

CoolSculpting reduces fat in areas like the chin, abdomen, and arms using a topical applicator that brings the underlying fat to a controlled, specific cool temperature. Without damaging the skin, muscle, or other tissues, the cold temperature signals the fat to undergo lipolysis, or natural cell death. The fat reduction then takes place over the course of several weeks-to-months after treatment, and patients see as much as a 25% reduction in fat in the treatment area with each session.

Still, Ms. Vela explains, repeat treatments lead to best results for most patients. "We explain to patients at their consultation that, although some results are typically noticeable after one treatment, you're most likely going to be happier with a series of treatments. A treatment series allows us to sculpt enough fat that you feel slimmer and notice a difference in fitted clothes," Ms. Vela said. "The trade-off of having no downtime for a non-surgical recovery is that you have to be patient as results develop."

Ms. Vela's outstanding career in aesthetics

Ms. Vela is a highly accomplished aesthetic specialist, with 12 years of experience in the field. For nearly four years, she has provided a full range of non-surgical aesthetic treatments at Kalos Medical Spa in Fort Worth. Other treatments she offers include Botox injections, dermal fillers, SkinPen microneedling, Ultherapy, FemTouch vaginal treatments, laser hair removal, and laser skin resurfacing.

In addition to offering non-surgical treatments, Ms. Vela works with board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Emily Kirby at Kirby Plastic Surgery, which shares a location with Kalos Medical Spa. There, Ms. Vela works with Dr. Kirby's surgical patients before and after their procedures, which include breast augmentation, tummy tuck, and mommy makeovers, among other procedures.

"Mari is the kind of attentive, personable, and dedicated professional patients are seeking for medical aesthetic treatments," said Dr. Kirby. "We are proud to work with her and excited to see her flourish as a leader and educator for other aesthetic professionals learning about CoolSculpting."

About CoolSculpting

CoolSculpting is FDA-cleared to treat visible fat bulges in 9 areas of the body. Some common side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort, and swelling. CoolSculpting is not a treatment for weight loss.

About Kalos Medical Spa: Dr. Emily J. Kirby is a board certified plastic surgeon specializing in aesthetic and reconstructive procedures as well as non-surgical treatments. She is the founder and owner of Kirby Plastic Surgery, City Surgery Center, and Kalos Medical Spa, which are located at 5075 Edwards Ranch Rd, Fort Worth, TX 76109. Dr. Kirby was the first female Chief of Plastic Surgery at Texas Health Resources Harris Methodist Hospital, the largest hospital in Fort Worth. For more information, visit www.kalosmedicalspa.com.

Media Contact: Randol Kirby, 817.292.4200

SOURCE Kirby Plastic Surgery
HONG KONG, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fosun International Limited (HKEX stock code: 00656, "Fosun International"), together with its subsidiaries ("Fosun" or the "Group"), today issued the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report 2021 (the "Report").

The Report focuses on corporate governance and business ethics, customer privacy and data security under global layout and lean operation, product quality and safety, climate change mitigation and energy management, safety and environmental protection, responsible investment, sustainable supply chain management, employee health and safety, employee benefits and welfare, customer service and satisfaction, social welfare, etc. The Report comprehensively demonstrates Fosun International's ESG strategies, practices and achievements in 2021 to stakeholders including shareholders, customers and consumers, employees, governments, partners and the general public.

The Report complies with the core option of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standards (GRI Standards) and the Environmental, Social and Governance Reporting Guide in Appendix 27 to the Listing Rules of Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The Report was also audited and approved by SGS, an independent third-party and internationally recognized certification body.

Became a member company of international and domestic organizations such as the UNGC to actively promote the sustainable development of China and the world

Fosun's unique globalization capability allows the Group to have a global mindset while stay rooted in China. The Group is committed to working with various international initiatives to promote sustainable development. In August 2014, the Group joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and is devoted to the global commitment to sustainable development, promoting the achievement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through participating in related activities globally and locally. As a participant in the UNGC, Fosun supports the ten principles of UNGC in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, relentlessly promoting their close integration with Fosun's ESG strategies and actively engaging its member companies in the implementation of ESG strategies.

While actively promoting sustainable development around the world, the Group joined the Chinese ESG Leaders Association in 2020, became a member of the China Business Council for Sustainable Development (CBCSD), and acted actively in fostering conservation and cooperation in the field of sustainable development among enterprises, governments and social organizations. While sharing Fosun's concepts, information and experience with respect to sustainable development, Fosun actively learns from the good practices of other companies to provide better assistance for companies to cope with the challenges of global climate change, environmental protection, health, safety, corporate social responsibility, etc., promoting and striving to achieve national sustainable development through joint efforts.

Top-down and long-term mechanism for ESG improvement to link ESG performance with the performance appraisal of the Board

This year, Fosun enters into the 30 years of establishment. Since its establishment, Fosun has defined its corporate operating principles and cultural values of "Self-improvement, Teamwork, Performance, and Contribution to Society". It has been closely linking the development and achievement of individuals and enterprise with the improvement of social welfare all along. Fosun has been upholding the original aspiration of "Contribution to Society", improving the Group's ESG performance in every aspect of its operations and fulfilling the mission of "creating happier lives for families worldwide".

In order to ensure the smooth and continuous progress of ESG work, Fosun has established a top-down and long-term mechanism for ESG improvement. Fosun includes ESG management performance as an evaluation factor in the Executive Directors' performance assessment and remuneration assessment. With this mechanism, the Group and its member companies can deeply incorporate ESG into the operations and management progressively.

To further improve the ESG management system, Fosun has set up an ESG Board Committee under the Board of Directors (the "Board") to assist the Board in guiding and overseeing the Group's ESG development and implementation; at the management and decision level, Fosun has established an ESG Executive Committee under the management to provide decision support for the implementation of ESG strategies. At the implementation level, the Group has also set up an ESG Management Committee and an ESG Working Group to implement ESG strategies and related actions and ensure the establishment of appropriate and effective ESG risk management and internal control system.

Improved ESG rating for three consecutive years and made impressive achievements, adhering to its original aspiration of "Contribution to Society"

As at the end of the Reporting Period, Fosun International was the only conglomerate in Greater China with an MSCI ESG rating of AA. It was also selected as a constituent of the MSCI CHINA ESG LEADERS 10-40 Index, and its Hang Seng Sustainability Rating was A, and was selected as a constituent of the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Benchmark Index (HSSUSB) and Hang Seng ESG 50 Index; FTSE Russell ESG Rating and S&P CSA ESG Scores were also significantly raised, with all ratings higher than the industry average. Various rating agencies have given Fosun International excellent ratings and scores, which demonstrates the market's recognition of Fosun International's outstanding performance in sustainable development, including ESG, as well as a praise for Fosun's adherence to its original aspirations.

Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun International said, "After 30 years of development, Fosun has grown into one of the few domestic enterprises that are equipped with global operation and investment capabilities, as well as accumulated profound technology and innovation capabilities. Over the years, Fosun has endured different stages of development, but we have always adhered to the values of 'Self-improvement, Teamwork, Performance, and Contribution to Society'. Through the continuous upgrade in strategic evolution, we remain committed to our mission of serving one billion families worldwide and creating happier lives for families worldwide. Fosun has developed business for good with a customer-oriented focus. We have always believed that people's pursuit of happier and brighter life remains unchanged regardless of the external situation. The significance of the existence of an enterprise is to bring more warmth and love to the society."

E (Environmental): Contribute to carbon peak and carbon neutrality, act as a responsible global citizen

2021 marks the first year of Fosun's carbon neutrality. Centered around the national "carbon neutrality" strategy, the Group has set a carbon reduction target  "to achieve carbon emissions peak by 2028 and carbon neutrality by 2050" and has formulated effective strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation to align with 1.5C temperature control target set in the Paris Agreement.

Established Carbon Neutrality Committee and Working Group to actively advance Fosun's carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets

To further advance Fosun's carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets, Fosun has established a Carbon Neutrality Committee and a Carbon Neutrality Working Group. The Carbon Neutrality Committee, composed of the directors of the Company and directors of its member companies, is responsible for supervising and promoting the overall carbon neutrality strategy and regulating and monitoring climate-related risks and opportunities. During the Reporting Period, Fosun added the indicator of "carbon neutralization management" to the ESG management performance appraisal mechanism of the Group's CEO and Business Groups' leaders, with the aim of further assessing the achievement rate of carbon neutral projects of their managing operating entities, promoting further implementation and enforcement of carbon neutral management across the Group.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) established the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) in 2015 to assist companies in disclosing climate-related financial risks voluntarily. The Group is striving to build long-term climate adaptive capacity and drive the transformation towards a low-carbon economy through gradual implementation of the TCFD recommendations. During the Reporting Period, based on the TCFD recommendations, Fosun strengthened climate-related risk assessment to understand climate-related risks and opportunities in its business, including physical risks and transition risks.

Actively promote energy conservation and carbon reduction to contribute to the sustainable development of the Earth

The Group actively monitors and records greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of each member company for continuous improvement. Total GHG emissions in 2021 was approximately 21.965 million tonnes, decreased by 1.02% from 2020; GHG emissions intensity in 2021 was 103.9 tonnes/RMB million of revenue, decreased by 20.65% from 2020; total energy consumption intensity in 2021 was 274.3 MWh/RMB million of revenue, decreased by 17.52% from 2020.

The Group and its member companies actively promote energy conservation and carbon reduction and are determined to become carbon reduction pioneers in their industries. The Group's Atlantis Sanya was awarded the carbon neutrality certificate, which was the first carbon neutrality certificate obtained by tourism enterprises in Hainan Province; the Bund Financial Center (BFC), the Group's base in Shanghai and a landmark in Shanghai, was awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification, which is hailed as the "Oscar Award" in the green building industry, with a score of 97 points to set a new world record. Nanjing Iron & Steel's new intelligent rail electric locomotive "Nanjing Steel" was officially put into operation in October 2020. This is the first new intelligent rail electric locomotive in China, promoting the dispatching locomotive of large industrial and mining enterprises into a new era of clean energy.

S (Social): Develop business for good, and actively give back to the society

As a global enterprise rooted in China, while actively creating business value, Fosun attaches great importance to corporate social responsibility and actively brings contribution to the society through public welfare programs such as supporting the combat against the pandemic, assisting in the fight against malaria in Africa, running the Rural Doctors Program, fostering education, culture and entrepreneurship.

Provide anti-pandemic efforts around the clock to demonstrate its commitment to corporate social responsibility

Since the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, Fosun has immediately initiated the global medical supplies deployment plan to make continuous contributions to China's and overseas fight against the pandemic. By the end of December 2021, Fosun Foundation had made a total of 125 donations for global humanitarian support against the COVID-19 pandemic. It provided more than 3.19 million medical protection materials, such as face masks, protective suits, oxygen concentrators and nucleic acid detecting reagents, to multiple worst-hit countries as well as domestic regions including India, Indonesia, Nepal, Cambodia; Jilin, Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan and Tibet, etc.

In the face of the severe fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong this year, Fosun Foundation immediately announced the donation of HK$10 million anti-epidemic materials to Hong Kong. Since late February, a total of approximately 1.15 million pieces of materials have been delivered to non-profit organizations and grassroots communities in Hong Kong in three batches for high-risk groups such as chronically ill patients, the elderly, and children, as well as frontline anti-epidemic personnel.

In March, Shanghai is also at a critical moment for epidemic prevention and control. Fosun quickly launched the "Warming Spring Anti-epidemic Support Action", set up a Fosun volunteer anti-epidemic team in Shanghai, donated anti-epidemic materials to frontline anti-epidemic personnel and volunteers, etc. At the same time, Fosun Foundation continued to respond to the donation requests from various parties, and actively donated anti-epidemic materials to hospitals, mobile cabin hospitals, colleges and universities, communities, etc., fully supporting anti-epidemic efforts in Shanghai. As of 26 April, a total of approximately 3.7 million pieces of anti-epidemic materials and daily necessities have been donated to the parties in need. In response to the shortage of supplies and urgent medical needs among staff during the epidemic, Fosun's employee emergency care project "Fosun Warmth" continued to provide timely assistance to employees in distress. As of 26 April, "Fosun Warmth" has addressed more than 260 emergency needs of employees. The Company will continue to ensure the smooth development of various emergency care initiatives through the "Fosun Warmth" project and provide systematic care, psychological counselling and professional guidance for employees and their families.

In addition to humanitarian donations, Fosun is also committed to the research and development of vaccines and drugs. Fosun joined hands with Germany's BioNTech to develop the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (COMIRNATY). During the Reporting Period, approximately 22 million doses of COMIRNATY were sold in Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan region, playing a positive role in the prevention and control of the epidemic in the regions.

Assist in the fight against Malaria in Africa to build a Malaria-free world

As an official member of the Roll Back Malaria, a global cooperative initiative advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO), Fosun Pharma is committed to raising awareness of malaria prevention among African people, reducing the morbidity and ultimately achieving the target of a "malaria-free world".

Fosun Pharma's antimalarial product portfolio covers malaria prevention, and treatments of complicated and severe malaria. As of January 2022, Fosun Pharma has 30 antimalarial products prequalified by WHO (WHO-PQ), including 26 finished dosage forms and 4 APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), making Fosun Pharma the leading antimalarial drug manufacturer with the most certifications.

As the first Chinese brand pharmaceutical product well recognized in Africa, Artesun (artesunate for injection), self-developed and manufactured by Fosun Pharma, has been used to treat over 48 million severe malaria patients worldwide by the end of 2021, which turned to be a symbol of China's self-developed innovative medicines to the world.

Fosun Pharma has been constantly innovating, with an aim to provide more innovative anti-malaria solutions, assisting in "Building A Malaria-free World". At present, Fosun Pharma's SPAQ-CODisp, which indicated for the prevention of malaria in children was pre-qualified by WHO, and around 175 million children in high malaria transmission African countries had benefited from the "Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) Program", for which SPAQ-CODisp is used as the core drug. SMC with SPAQ-CODisp effectively reduced the morbidity of malaria in children under five years old in Africa.

World Malaria Day is celebrated on 25 April each year, which aims to promote global malaria prevention and control. This year, World Malaria Day is marked under the theme "Harness innovation to reduce the malaria disease burden and save lives". On 25 April, during World Malaria Day, Fosun Pharma and Fosun Foundation responded positively and launched series of public welfare activities around the world calling on people to join hands to fight against malaria, including the collaboration with Fosun Hive to put up posters on the facade of its landmark buildings at home and abroad, drawing global attention to the fight against malaria in Africa.

Promote rural revitalization, and practice common prosperity

Rural Doctors is one of the key initiatives to promote common prosperity in the society. At the end of 2017, under the guidance of the National Health Commission, Fosun initiated the Rural Doctors Program. Fosun has been actively supporting rural revitalization and promoting common prosperity in rural areas. By the end of 2021, the Rural Doctors Program had covered 73 counties across the country, assisted 12,545 administrative village clinics, supported 23,956 rural doctors and benefited 3 million grassroots families.

This year marks the first year of rural revitalization. Through the Rural Doctors Program, Fosun will continue to help rural doctors to better perform their duties, mitigate the problem of villagers returning to poverty due to illness, assist in rural revitalization and promote common prosperity in rural areas. In addition, Fosun will help the underprivileged through education, culture, employment and other public welfare programs and contribute to narrow the income gap between regions, urban and rural areas, endeavoring to achieve common prosperity in the society.

G (Governance): Sound corporate governance structure and global partners system to lead sustainable development

The Group is committed to safeguarding the interests of shareholders through high-standard corporate governance and ethical business operations and to enhance its corporate value and accountability. Therefore, Fosun has established a sound corporate governance structure, under which the Board is responsible for the leadership and oversees the businesses, strategic decisions and performance of the Group. The Board has established the Audit Committee, the Remuneration Committee, the Nomination Committee and the ESG Committee to oversee particular aspects of the Company's affairs. Fosun recognizes and embraces the benefit of having a diverse governance and believes that increasing diversity in governance will help Fosun maintain a competitive advantage and achieve long-term sustainable growth. The Group has formulated the Board Diversity Policy to ensure members of the Board of Directors possess the appropriate skills, experience and diversity of viewpoints and perspectives required for the Company's business.

In order to promote the healthy development of the Group and enhance its ability to resist risks, the Group has established risk management and internal monitoring systems targeted for risk management and control. The Group has formulated an enterprise risk management plan, implementing proactive ex-ante, in-process and afterwards risk management, and building a systematic tiered risk management system that empowers and adds value to the Group, providing an important guarantee for the Group to achieve its strategic and business objectives.

It is also critical to have a cultural base for ESG developments to better execute ESG work. Fosun regards its employees as its most valuable assets. Fosun has been introducing and integrating external talents into the internal training, so as to gather global talents with entrepreneurial spirit. Fosun's partner system is a market-based, benefit-sharing entrepreneurial mechanism. At present, it has more than 140 global partners and 20 overseas partners, covering China, Japan, India, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, the United States, Israel, etc. The Group also has more than 800 industry and functional line partners. This mechanism has enabled Fosun to cultivate talents with consistent thinking on the cultural level and a sense of identity as a member of Fosun. They function as the core leadership of the Company. This sense of identity can help Fosun implement the ESG concepts more efficiently.

Established for 30 years, continue to uphold its original aspirations, and create happier lives

Fosun, which is about to turn 30 this year, will continue to uphold its original aspirations of developing its business for good and "Contribution to Society", actively shoulder more social responsibilities, implement ESG strategies, constantly create value and give back to the society, helping to promote high-quality development of the Group and the society. With the global trend of promoting carbon neutrality, carbon emissions reduction and the sustainable development of the earth, Fosun will continue to actively cooperate with its member companies to promote the implementation of ESG strategies, especially in the areas of carbon emissions peak, carbon neutrality, energy conservation and consumption reduction, and actively promote the sustainable development of the Group.

For more information on Fosun's ESG, please refer to Fosun International's ESG Report 2021 posted on:

the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's website (http://www.hkexnews.hk)

or the Company's sustainability webpage (https://en.fosun.com/development/)

About Fosun

Founded in 1992, Fosun is a global innovation-driven consumer group dedicated to providing high-quality products and services for families around the world in Health, Happiness, Wealth and Intelligent Manufacturing segments. In 2007, Fosun International Limited was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (stock code: 00656.HK). In 2021, Fosun International's total revenue was RMB161.3 billion and total assets amounted to RMB806.4 billion. Fosun International ranks No.459 on the 2021 Forbes Global 2000 List, with a MSCI ESG rating of AA.

SOURCE Fosun
A cash-intensive business is one that receives a significant amount of receipts in cash. This can be a business such as a restaurant, grocery, or convenience store, that handles a high volume of small-dollar transactions. It can also be an industry that provides cash payments for services, such as construction or trucking, where independent contract workers are commonly paid in cash, albeit this is very inadvisable as it can be construed as aiding and abetting income tax evasion if you do not include the cash wages on a W2 or 1099.

How IRS and the California Taxing Authorities Audit Cash-Intensive Businesses?

The IRS and the California taxing authorities, such as the Franchise Tax Board (FTB), the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), and the Employment Development Department (EDD), are aware that the staggering individual income tax "gap" results from increasing underreporting of income by those taxpayers with the ability to determine their own reported income, such as businesses that receive most of their income in cash. Cash transactions are anonymous, leaving no trail to connect the purchaser to the seller, which leads taxpayers to mistakenly believe that cash receipts can be unreported and escape detection.

Cash businesses, such as restaurants, flea market vendors, beauty salons, etc., are more likely to be audited and face a particular problem when audited because it is difficult to verify income received in cash. There are three main ways to misappropriate cash from a business:

It can be skimmed from receipts before they are recorded;

It can be stolen after it has been recorded; and

A fraudulent cash disbursement can be created to a fictitious payee.

One of the most significant indicators that can alert the IRS, FTB, CDFTA, or EDD that income has been purposefully & willfully underreported is a consistent pattern of losses or low-profit percentages that seem insufficient to sustain the business or its owners over time. Other indicators of fraudulently unreported income include:

A lifestyle or cost of living that can't be supported by the income reported.

A business that continues to operate despite losses year after year, with no apparent solution to correct the situation;

Application of the Cash Transaction examination method (Cash T) shows a deficit of funds;

Bank balances, debit card balances, and liquid investments increase annually despite reporting of low net profits or losses;

Accumulated assets increase even though the reported net profits are low or there's a loss;

Debt balances decrease, remain relatively low, or don't increase, but low profits or losses are reported;

A significant difference exists between the taxpayer's gross profit margin and that of his industry; and

Unusually low annual sales for the type of business.

Use of a Zapper program is detected by a state or federal taxing authority.

Examination Techniques

From our decades of experience, we know that the examining agents are instructed to tailor their techniques to provide for the most accurate analysis of a specific taxpayer's possible income stream. There are several techniques employed by state and Federal taxing authorities that are used when auditing cash-intensive businesses.

For example, first, a financial status analysis, including both business and personal financial activities, is done. This is a required minimum income probe. If it shows an imbalance in the cash flows indicative of underreported income, an examiner will ordinarily request clarification or explanation from you or your representative before beginning the use of an indirect method.

Indirect methods, such as a fully developed Cash T, percentage mark-up, source and application of funds, or bank deposit and cash expenditures analysis, can then be used to confirm the amount of any understatement. Please be aware that the authorities have instructed their examiners that the most critical aspects of successfully examining cash-intensive businesses are the examiner's ability and skill in gathering information about how the taxpayer conducts business, documenting cash inflows and outflows, and conducting a detailed interview with the owner of the business relating to business and non-business cash receipts and cash expenditures. You can thus expect that your examiner will be very skillful and aware of all the tricks of the trade.

The IRS and California taxing authorities have repeatedly emphasized to their examiners the importance of interviewing the taxpayer thoroughly. The examiners know that taxpayers' oral testimony may be the only evidence they will have because cash-intensive businesses tend to have few physical records. IRS auditors are informed that the interviews should be as thorough as possible and may take at least two hours.

If you know you cheated on your tax returns, you would be well served to hire a dual licensed Tax Defence Attorney and CPA to guide you through the process. During eggshell audits, the agents are looking for the possibility that you, as the subject of a civil audit, will, under pressure, crack under the pressure and inadvertently provide incriminating information, or worse yet, apologize and admit to the wrongdoing, that eventually leading to a referral for criminal tax investigation. As your dual licensed Tax Defense Attorneys & CPAs, our goal when advising you through an eggshell audit is the resolution of the audit without a referral by the civil examiner to the California or IRS's criminal investigation divisions (CID).

If you are a cash-intensive business and find yourself in the unfortunate situation of receiving a federal or California audit or criminal tax investigation notice, and know for a fact that you cheated on the returns under audit, do not contact the original preparer under any circumstances. You are going to be bitterly disappointed if you think they are going to stand up in your defence and take one on the chin. On the contrary, they are likely to become government witness number one against you if the government even hints at seeking criminal tax charges fearing that they could be viewed as having aided and abetted your tax evasion. Additionally, the CPA's duty of confidentiality goes out the window where criminal tax charges are at issue.

At the Tax Law Office of David W. Klasing, we are California Tax Attorneys & CPAs with a long record of successfully representing cash-intensive businesses in California and Federal civil audits and criminal tax investigations, Appeals & Litigation before the IRS, FTB, and Office of Tax Appeals (OTA). Equipped with nearly 30 years of business bookkeeping and accounting experience, including more than two decades of public accounting auditing experience, our David Klasing and his staff of California Tax Lawyers & CPAs can protect and advise your small or large business on all of the issues impacting your profits.

How Are Different Industries Scrutinized?

The IRS has specific audit techniques for all kinds of cash intensive industries, such as bail bond agents, beauty salons, car washes, coin-operated amusements, convenience stores, mini-marts, bodegas, and laundromats. We lay out some of the key ones below:

Bail Bonds: The auditors will examine build up fund accounts for unreported income, premium income, reimbursed expenses, double deductions due to payments made from build up fund accounts, and deducted bond costs that should have been slowly amortized over time.

The auditors will examine build up fund accounts for unreported income, premium income, reimbursed expenses, double deductions due to payments made from build up fund accounts, and deducted bond costs that should have been slowly amortized over time. Beauty Shops: The agents will check income earned from services, sale of products, and station rental income from stylists who are independent contractors.

The agents will check income earned from services, sale of products, and station rental income from stylists who are independent contractors. Car Wash: One of the indirect methods used by the agents to test income is analyzing expenses to reconstruct potential income. With respect to a car wash business, an auditor may measure the amount of water, soap, and chemicals used to determine how many cars were washed.

One of the indirect methods used by the agents to test income is analyzing expenses to reconstruct potential income. With respect to a car wash business, an auditor may measure the amount of water, soap, and chemicals used to determine how many cars were washed. Convenience Stores, Mini-Marts, and Bodegas: The examiner will review money orders and money transfer systems like Western Union as some unrecorded cash may be used to purchase money orders. The examiner may also check for self-consumed items as they are often unreported in the books.

The examiner will review money orders and money transfer systems like Western Union as some unrecorded cash may be used to purchase money orders. The examiner may also check for self-consumed items as they are often unreported in the books. Laundromats: If a laundromat has no books and records, the auditors will reconstruct income by measuring the water, electricity, and gas consumption of the business.

If a laundromat has no books and records, the auditors will reconstruct income by measuring the water, electricity, and gas consumption of the business. Scrap Metal: Taxpayers should be aware that the agents will check the adequacy of their documents, substantiating their purchases. Taxpayers should keep proper receipts showing unit cost, total cost, metal type, and weight of scrap metal received as substantiation for cash purchases.

Taxpayers should be aware that the agents will check the adequacy of their documents, substantiating their purchases. Taxpayers should keep proper receipts showing unit cost, total cost, metal type, and weight of scrap metal received as substantiation for cash purchases. Taxicabs: The IRS has developed a formula called the taxi/cab formula to reconstruct gross receipts of taxicab drivers. The agents will calculate the total amount a taxicab driver earns for entry by multiplying the average number of customers per day by the number of days per year the driver works and by the driver's entry rate. This will be the driver's total earned entry amount. Using the number of gallons used and the total business miles driven, the agents will figure out the rate the driver charges per mile. They will multiply the total business miles driven by the rate the driver charges per mile. To this total, they will add the total earned entry amount, tips and lease income, and any other income like wait time to calculate the total gross receipts.

No matter which industry you belong to, we have devised a fool-proof method of representing our clients as they undergo eggshell audits of cash intensive businesses. We are always on the lookout for signals to evaluate whether a civil investigation has turned criminal. In unfortunate circumstances in which a criminal investigation has already started, our goal is to lessen the possibility of referral for criminal tax prosecution, which is called a declination. It is important to note that once the criminal investigation division of the IRS complete an investigation, they have over a 90% historical conviction rate. That being said, we have achieved declinations in the past.

Why Do You Need the Help of our Dual Licensed Criminal Tax Attorneys and CPAs?

The IRS has long proven itself extremely capable of investigating both civil tax fraud and criminal tax fraud. The investigation of tax fraud is one of the most important phases in the administration and enforcement of tax laws. Given that cash-intensive businesses are considered to contribute significantly to the tax gap, the taxing authorities have significantly increased their enforcement activities toward cash-intensive businesses in an effort to reduce it.

Increased information reporting to the IRS and the IRS' expedited reporting with state and foreign governments will have a significant impact on the tax gap. As a result of their matching programs, the authorities can now better identify cash-intensive businesses that have underreported or not reported income or have otherwise failed to file income, sales, or employment tax returns. With Congress now involved, hunting for under-reporters and non-filers will likely become the trophy sport for the IRS. The criminal functions of the CDTFA, FTB and EDD are not to be dismissed lightly either.

High audit potential taxpayers have traditionally included high net worth individuals, attorneys, medical professionals, etc., and anyone involved in a cash-intensive business. The IRS is now "operating as a business" and has been successfully targeting cash-intensive industries, as it deems them to have a strong potential for significant audit adjustments.

We advise you to seek legal guidance from a dually California licensed Tax Attorney and CPA immediately if you or your business entity (S Corp, C Corp, LLC, Partnership, etc.) have received an audit notice from the IRS, FTB, EDD, or CDTFA concerning a tax audit or criminal tax investigation. You should be aware an audit could lead to an unexpected tax assessment, costly accumulated interest, and substantial civil penalties. If your case is not handled properly, there is always the possibility that your case will be referred by the civil examiner to the IRS's criminal investigation division (CID) or the state of California's criminal tax function.

David Klasing is a former public auditor and dual-licensed Tax Attorney and CPA who understands and can accurately anticipate federal and California auditing practices and methodologies. He uses his decades of experience and ever-increasing knowledge to develop responsive strategies to the civil and potentially criminal tax issues you may face. All of the Tax Lawyers and CPAs of the Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing are experienced in federal and California tax controversies and will diplomatically fight for you in an aggressive and strategic manner.

If you run a cash-intensive business such as a restaurant, salvage yard, check-cashing business, pawn shop, jewelry store, or parking garage and are facing an IRS, FTB, CDFTA, or EDD audit, contact the experienced tax lawyers of the Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing today. To speak to our Tax Lawyers who are experienced and thoroughly versed in IRS, California FTB, and California audit and criminal tax investigation techniques and the litigations and appeals processes, call 800-681-1295 or contact us online today to schedule a reduced-rate initial consultation.

Here is a link to our YouTube channel: click here!

See our Audit Representation Q and A Library

See our Foreign Audit Q and A Library

Public Contact: Dave Klasing Esq. M.S.-Tax CPA, [email protected]

SOURCE Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing, PC
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Galliott Capital Advisors, the independent wealth advisory firm, today announced that Robert Mourad has joined the firm in the new executive role of Chief Portfolio Strategist. Mr. Mourad will also serve as Executive Director of Products & Services, responsible for working directly with the firm's clients on portfolio construction and partnering with Galliott's advisors on growing their business.

Galliott, founded in 2020 by Antoine Souma, focuses on the financial and investment needs of international clients, primarily in Europe, Mexico, and the Middle East. The hiring of Mr. Mourad is part of a strategic plan to significantly grow the firm's assets under management and attract additional entrepreneurial advisors who seek the benefits of working in a collaborative, independent environment.

"Having known Robert Mourad for more than 20 years, I knew that his knowledge of the industry, the markets, and the full array of products we can deliver would make Robert a tremendous asset to our clients and advisors alike," said Mr. Souma, Galliott's Managing Partner.

Mr. Mourad joined Galliott from UBS Financial Services after a 26+ year career, during which he held several roles in investment advisory, portfolio strategy, and wealth planning, culminating in his role as Advisory Sales Consultant for UBS' Southwest Region. He holds multiple industry designations, including: CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (CFP); Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA); Certified Private Wealth Advisor (CPWA); Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA); and Chartered Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investments Counselor (CSRIC). Mr. Mourad earned his MBA at Pepperdine University and his BS in Business Administration Finance at California State University Long Beach.

"Our international clients have particular needs that are often underserved by larger financial services firms," said Mr. Mourad. They require not only more skilled and specialized advisors, but also a broader range of investment vehicles to accommodate their portfolio objectives. As an independent firm working in a true open architecture, Galliott can deliver best-in-class products, services and analytics from our growing list of resource partners."

About Galliott Capital Advisors

Galliott Capital Advisors is an independent wealth advisory firm, providing family office solutions to sophisticated entrepreneurs and their families. A globally oriented practice, with international clients primarily in Europe, Mexico, and the Middle East, Galliott has managed the complex, multigenerational financial needs of cosmopolitan clients for more than 20 years. Galliott offers a private banking level of personalized service, integrity, a tireless work ethic, and discretion. To learn more, visit www.galliott.com.

The Firm's financial Advisors are also registered representatives of Insigneo Securities, LLC, an unaffiliated broker dealer, www.insigneo.com

Media Contact:

Lauren Colonna [email protected]

SOURCE Galliott Capital Advisors
DUBLIN, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Emergency Lighting Market Size, Share & Industry Trends Analysis Report By Offering (Hardware, Software, and Services), By Power System, By Lighting Type, By Application, By Regional Outlook and Forecast, 2021-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Emergency Lighting Market size is expected to reach $7.9 billion by 2027, rising at a market growth of 6.3 % CAGR during the forecast period.



An emergency light is a battery-powered illumination gadget that immediately powers up and switches on lights in case of a sudden power cut or when the primary power supply is shut and normal lights are turned off. In addition, in case of a fire emergency, a power outage, or the breakdown of typical lighting supplies can all cause the primary power source to fail. Emergency lights are widely being employed in various newly constructed offices and dwellings. It can also be used in a variety of settings, including residential, commercial, and industrial.



One of the most crucial technological developments in emergency lighting has been the incorporation of LEDs in green or red exit signs. Several exit signs in the emergency lighting sector now utilize emergency lighting technology because it is more cost-effective, long-lasting, and energy-efficient than other traditional illumination sources. This emergency lighting is also necessary in public venues such as schools, industrial infrastructure, hospitals, and other public places so that people can safely be rescued in the case of an emergency.



One of the most significant benefits of the emergency light is its substantial energy density of lithium-based batteries, combined with their long life, which is double that of Ni-Cd (nickel-cadmium) batteries and Ni-MH (nickel-metal hydride). Additionally, the increased adoption of LEDs and the combination of emergency lighting and aesthetic lighting are key factors that are allowing manufacturers to bring more developments to their products.



It prevents the user from becoming trapped in a tough circumstance due to a sudden blackout and allows the user to quickly create an emergency light. This circuit replaces incandescent lamps with light-emitting diodes, resulting in a circuit that is both energy-efficient and brighter with its illuminance. Additionally, the circuit employs a novel theory to improve the economic performance of the unit.



COVID-19 Impact Analysis

The COVID-19 outbreak had a severe impact on society and the economy around the world. The pandemic's impact on the supply chain has been increasing day by day. This has caused stock market uncertainty, as well as lowered corporate confidence, hindered supply chains, and increased consumer concerns. Due to the suspension of manufacturing services across the world, various countries under lockdown experienced major losses of businesses and money. The emergence of COVID-19 also had a significant impact on production and manufacturing operations, resulting in a decline in the growth of the emergency lighting market.



COVID-19's continued spread has become one of the world's most serious economic risks, bringing widespread concern and economic suffering for consumers, businesses, and communities around the world.



Market Growth Factors:

Increasing number of government initiatives

Various governments are planning to build world-class infrastructure across their countries in order to attract key investors from all over the world. In addition, many governments have announced the development and construction of numerous smart city projects. The goal of these projects is to incorporate automatic and comprehensive emergency lighting systems.



Moreover, NFPA 70 - National Electric Code, International Fire Code, Advanced Occupational Safety and Health Administration Code of Federal Regulations, Advanced, Latest Standard Fire Prevention Code 1999, NFPA 101 - Life Safety Code, and NFPA 1997 5-9.3 are a few of the primary regulations for primary testing, maintaining, and regulating advanced emergency lighting systems all over the world.



Reducing LED Prices

Emergency lighting is typically characterized as basic lighting with the ability to turn on automatically when there is no specific source of continuous power supply or if any normal lighting malfunctions on a regular basis. Most modern structures now include an emergency light that can be installed during the construction process. In the industrial context, LEDs can save up to 70% of energy. Moreover, the incorporation of LEDs into the security sector is likely to have a substantial advantage on the emergency lighting industry because of their great controllability.



The fundamental, as well as one of the most important factors that are increasing the popularity of emergency lighting systems, is the steady drop in average selling prices of light-emitting diodes. Because of their low energy efficiency and long-life cycle, LEDs are widely being employed in the emergency lighting industry, due to which, the overall cost of the emergency lighting systems are being reduced.



Marketing Restraining Factor:

High initial investment and maintenance cost

The initial investment that is required for the deployment of efficient emergency lighting systems, such as capital investment and operational cost, is very high. Architects, electrical experts, and lighting designers have numerous issues when it comes to providing sufficient emergency lighting. The required information about the premises must be collected either through blueprints, site surveys, or the building in-charge at the commencement of any emergency lighting design. the inadequate information of all these factors may result in poor and inefficient design and installation of the emergency lighting systems.



The high capital investment can result in the incorporation of low-quality components in the emergency lighting systems. While emergency lighting goods are required by law and are an important construction component, badly designed lighting products are likely to suffer from a lower aesthetic appeal.

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Market Scope & Methodology



Chapter 2. Market Overview

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 Overview

2.1.1.1 Market Composition and Scenario

2.2 Key Factors Impacting the Market

2.2.1 Market Drivers

2.2.2 Market Restraints



Chapter 3. Strategies Deployed in Emergency Lighting Market



Chapter 4. Global Emergency Lighting Market by Offering

4.1 Global Hardware Market by Region

4.2 Global Software Market by Region

4.3 Global Services Market by Region



Chapter 5. Global Emergency Lighting Market by Power System

5.1 Global Self-Contained Power System Market by Region

5.2 Global Central Power System Market by Region

5.3 Global Hybrid Power System Market by Region



Chapter 6. Global Emergency Lighting Market by Lighting Type

6.1 Global LED Market by Region

6.2 Global Fluorescent Lighting Market by Region

6.3 Global Incandescent Market by Region

6.4 Global Others Market by Region



Chapter 7. Global Emergency Lighting Market by Application

7.1 Global Industrial Market by Region

7.2 Global Commercial Market by Region

7.3 Global Residential Market by Region



Chapter 8. Global Emergency Lighting Market by Region



Chapter 9. Company Profiles

9.1 Zumtobel Group AG

9.1.1 Company Overview

9.1.2 Financial Analysis

9.1.3 Segmental and Regional Analysis

9.1.4 Research & Development Expense

9.1.1 Recent Strategies and Developments:

9.1.1.1 Partnerships, Collaborations, and Agreements:

9.2 Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc.

9.2.1 Company Overview

9.2.2 Financial Analysis

9.2.3 Regional and Segmental Analysis

9.2.4 Research & Development Expense

9.2.5 Recent Strategies and Developments:

9.2.5.1 Partnerships, Collaborations, and Agreements:

9.2.5.2 Acquisitions and Mergers:

9.2.5.3 Product Launches and Product Expansions:

9.4 Legrand S.A.

9.4.1 Company Overview

9.4.2 Financial Analysis

9.4.3 Regional Analysis

9.4.4 Research & Development Expense

9.4.5 Recent Strategies and Developments:

9.4.5.1 Acquisitions and Mergers:

9.5 Signify N.V. (Cooper Lighting, LLC)

9.5.1 Company Overview

9.5.2 Financial Analysis

9.5.3 Segmental and Regional Analysis

9.5.4 Research & Development Expense

9.6 Koninklijke Philips N.V.

9.6.1 Company Overview

9.6.2 Financial Analysis

9.6.3 Segmental and Regional Analysis

9.6.4 Research & Development Expense

9.6.5 Recent Strategies and Developments:

9.6.5.1 Acquisitions and Mergers:

9.7 AMS AG (OSRAM Licth AG)

9.7.1 Company Overview

9.7.2 Financial Analysis

9.7.3 Segmental and Regional Analysis

9.7.4 Research & Development Expense

9.8 Schneider Electric SE

9.8.1 Company Overview

9.8.2 Financial Analysis

9.8.3 Segmental And Regional Analysis

9.8.4 Research & Development Expense

9.8.5 Recent Strategies and Developments:

9.8.5.1 Partnerships, Collaborations, and Agreements:

9.8.5.2 Acquisitions and Mergers:

9.8.6 SWOT Analysis

9.9 Beghelli S.p.A.

9.9.1 Company Overview

9.9.2 Financial Analysis

9.10. Daisalux, S.A.

9.10.1 Company Overview

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/c0rj3a

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
Dublin, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market - A Comprehensive Launch Market Assessment: Focus on End User, Satellite Mass, Platform Type, Propulsion Type, Service Type, and Country - Analysis and Forecast, 2022-2032" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global small launch vehicle market is expected to reach $4,624.0 million by 2032, with a CAGR of 13.34% during the forecast period 2022-2032.

After 2014, the SLV market witnessed exponential growth due to an increase in the number of SLV manufacturers and launch service providers. The increasing number of satellite constellations for applications such as communication, technology development, Earth observation, and remote sensing is expected to be the major driving factor for SLV market growth.

As of February 2022, there were 17 operational small-lift launch vehicles and 99 small launch vehicles under development.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Industry Overview



The use of small satellites for several applications such as Earth observation, communication, and space exploration is expected to drive the growth of the SLV market.

Several programs such as Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) are organized for developing an affordable method for launching small satellites. In addition, with rigorous testing of new technologies and research and development work, ALASA is expected to introduce small launch systems to provide more reasonable, routine, and reliable access to space in less than $1 million per launch.

Market Segmentation



Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by Satellite Mass



Satellite mass is a prominent market segment. The 501-2,200 Kg satellite mass segment has the highest market share and is estimated to grow over the forecast years due to the rise in the number of small satellite constellations from various key manufacturers such as SpaceX, Amazon, Cloud Constellation, Urthecast, and ISRO.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by Platform Type



The land platform has the highest market penetration in the global SLV market during the forecast period 2022-2032. The market growth is due to cost-effective launch and high success rate.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by Propulsion Type



Solid propulsion technology is expected to have the highest market penetration in the global small launch vehicle market during the forecast period 2022-2032. This is due to the high demand for solid propellant rockets, which are much easier to store and handle during launch.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by End-User



The commercial end user is anticipated to witness huge growth over the forecast period. It had a significant market share in 2021 due to the increasing demand for commercial applications such as remote sensing, Earth observation and navigation, surveillance, and satellite internet. The satellite internet constellation is a major project in this segment.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by Service Type



The pre-launch services segment had a significant market share in 2021 and is estimated to hold significant market share over the forecast period due to an increase in the number of commercial launches per year.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by Region



In 2021, the contribution of Asia-Pacific held the highest share of the global small launch vehicle market. The region is anticipated to hold a significant share in the global market by the end of 2032.

The majority of the market growth in the Asia-Pacific region is contributed by the market in China owing to the presence of key market players such as China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and Galactic Energy (Beijing) Space Technology Co., LTD. CASC and Galactic accounted for more than 30 successful SLV launches per year.

Key Market Players and Competition Synopsis



The companies profiled in the report have been selected post-in-depth interviews with experts and understanding details around companies such as product portfolios, annual revenues, market penetration, research and development initiatives, and domestic and international presence in the small launch vehicle market.

Some key players in the global small launch vehicle (SLV) market include Arianespace, Astra Space, Inc., Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab USA, Inc., ABL Space Systems, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace Inc., China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and Interorbital Systems among others.

Recent Developments in Global Small Launch Vehicle Market

In January 2022 , European Space Agency (ESA) awarded a launch contract to Arianespace on behalf of the European Commission.

, European Space Agency (ESA) awarded a launch contract to Arianespace on behalf of the European Commission. In November 2021 , Amazon partnered with ABL Space Systems to launch the first two prototype satellites for its Project Kuiper satellite broadband constellation by late 2022. RS-1 rocket will be used for the launch.

, Amazon partnered with ABL Space Systems to launch the first two prototype satellites for its Project Kuiper satellite broadband constellation by late 2022. RS-1 rocket will be used for the launch. In September 2021 , Firefly Aerospace Inc. conducted the maiden flight of its Alpha launch vehicle from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California .

, Firefly Aerospace Inc. conducted the maiden flight of its Alpha launch vehicle from in . In August 2021 , Gilmour Space Technologies partnered with Exolaunch to sell a full suite of launch and deployment services to a growing number of small satellite operators using the Gilmour designed and built Eris launch vehicle.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Markets

1.1 Industry Outlook

1.1.1 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market: An Overview

1.1.2 Launch Vehicle Mapping with Satellite/Payload, Orbit, and Launch Site

1.1.3 Global Small Satellite Industry Scenario: Business Opportunity for SLV Market

1.1.4 Trends: Current and Future

1.1.4.1 Cost Advantage in Reusable Launch Vehicle

1.1.4.2 Propulsion System

1.1.4.3 Modernization in Structure Composition of Small Launch Vehicle (SLV)

1.1.5 Spaceports: Capability Analysis

1.1.6 Start-Up and Investment Landscape

1.1.6.1 Key Start-Ups in the Ecosystem

1.1.6.2 Funding Analysis

1.1.7 Supply Chain Analysis

1.2 Business Dynamics

1.2.1 Business Drivers

1.2.1.1 Increasing Usage of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Components

1.2.1.2 Growing Demand for Small Satellites and Constellations in LEO

1.2.1.3 Increasing Cooperation among Space Agencies for Space Missions

1.2.2 Business Challenges

1.2.2.1 Absence of Efficient and Reliable Micro-Propulsion Systems

1.2.2.2 High Cost Associated with Space Launch Vehicles

1.2.3 Business Opportunities

1.2.3.1 Increasing Developments in Low-Cost Launching Sites

1.2.3.2 Emerging Startups in SLV Manufacturing

1.2.3.3 Advancements in 3D Printing Technology for Space Industry

1.2.4 Key Business Development

1.2.5 Partnerships, Collaborations, Agreements, and Contracts

1.2.6 Mergers & Acquisitions

2 Application

2.1 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by End User)

2.1.1 Market Overview

2.1.1.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by End User)

2.1.2 Academic

2.1.3 Commercial

2.1.4 Government

2.1.5 Military and Defense

2.1.6 Non-Profit Organization

3 Products

3.1 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Satellite Mass)

3.1.1 Market Overview

3.1.1.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Satellite Mass)

3.1.2 0-500 Kg

3.1.3 501-2,200 Kg

3.2 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Platform Type)

3.2.1 Market Overview

3.2.1.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Platform Type)

3.2.2 Land

3.2.3 Air

3.2.4 Sea

3.2.5 Balloon

3.3 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Propulsion Type)

3.3.1 Market Overview

3.3.1.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Propulsion Type)

3.3.2 Solid

3.3.3 Liquid

3.3.4 Hybrid

3.4 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Service Type)

3.4.1 Market Overview

3.4.1.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Service Type)

3.4.2 Pre-Launch Service

3.4.2.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (Pre-Launch Service, by Service Type)

3.4.3 Post-Launch Service

3.4.3.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (Post-Launch Service, by Service Type)

3.5 Product and Pricing Analysis

3.5.1 Launch Vehicle Manufacturing

3.5.2 Satellite Launch Services

3.5.3 Payload Manufacturing and Deployment Cost Analysis

4 Region

4.1 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Region)

4.2 North America

4.2.1 Market

4.2.1.1 Key Small Launch Vehicle Manufacturers and Launch Service Providers in North America

4.2.1.2 Business Drivers

4.2.1.3 Business Challenges

4.2.2 Application

4.2.2.1 North America Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by End User)

4.2.3 Product

4.2.3.1 North America Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Satellite Mass)

4.2.4 North America (by Country)

4.3 Europe

4.4 Asia-Pacific

4.5 Rest-of-the-World

5 Market - Competitive Benchmarking & Company Profiles

5.1 Competitive Benchmarking

5.2 Market Share Analysis

5.3 Key Market Players

Arianespace

Astra Space , Inc.

, Inc. Galactic Energy ( Beijing ) Space Technology Co., LTD.

) Space Technology Co., LTD. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)

IHI Aerospace Co. Ltd.

Interorbital System

Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.

Northrop Grumman Corporation

Rocket Lab USA , Inc.

, Inc. ABL Space Systems

Agnikul Cosmos Private Limited

CubeCab

EUROCKOT Launch Services GmbH

Firefly Aerospace Inc.

Gilmour Space Technologies

HyImpulse Technologies GmbH

Orbex

PLD Space

Skyroot Aerospace Private Limited

Virgin Orbit

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/nfqwab

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Stretchable Conductive Material Market (2021-2026) by Application Type, Conductive Type, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Stretchable Conductive Material Market is estimated to be USD 5.9 Mn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 108.76 Mn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 79.11%.

The Global Stretchable Conductive Material Market is driving due to increasing usage of the stretchable conductor in consumer electronics like TV and Laptops, including display and touch. Also, smart textile wears and flexible products used in various applications boost the market's growth.

Additionally, the miniaturization of the electronic product helps increase operational speed, and growing advancement in product designing strategies, assembly techniques and materials are driving the market's growth. On the other hand, lack of technological awareness, slower and laborious manufacturing processes that consume more time, and lower lifespan of stretchable circuits are restricting the market's growth.



Furthermore, growing demand and trend for wearables electronics, increasing research and development activities, and increasing adoption of stretchable conductive material by medical industries are creating potential opportunities for the market to grow in the forecasted period. Moreover, the product's performance and its capability will be a challenge for the market.

Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are 3M Company, Advanced Nano Products Co Ltd, Applied Nanotech, Inc, DuPont de Nemours, Inc, Indium Corporation, LOTTE Advanced Materials Co Ltd, Panasonic Corporation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Toyobo Co Ltd, and Vorbeck Material Corp, etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes a Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Stretchable Conductive Material Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Influencers

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Increasing Stretchable Conductor Usage in Consumer Electronics

4.1.2 Higher Operational Speed due to Product Miniaturization

4.1.3 Growing Advancement of Design, Material, and Techniques

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Lower Lifespan of Stretchable Circuits

4.2.2 Time Consuming Manufacturing Process

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Increasing Demand for Wearables Electronics

4.3.2 Increasing Adoption by Medical Industries

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Product Performance and Compatibility



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.2 Impact of COVID-19

5.3 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Stretchable Conductive Material Market, By Application Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Biomedical

6.3 Cosmetic

6.4 Photovoltaics

6.5 Wearables

6.6 Others



7 Global Stretchable Conductive Material Market, By Conductor Material Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Copper

7.3 Carbon Nanotube

7.4 Graphene

7.5 Silver

7.6 Others



8 Global Stretchable Conductive Material Market, By Geography

8.1 Introduction

8.1 America

8.1.1 Argentina

8.1.2 Brazil

8.1.3 Canada

8.1.4 Chile

8.1.5 Colombia

8.1.6 Mexico

8.1.7 Peru

8.1.8 United States

8.1.9 Rest of Americas

8.2 Europe

8.2.1 Austria

8.2.2 Belgium

8.2.3 Denmark

8.2.4 Finland

8.2.5 France

8.2.6 Germany

8.2.7 Italy

8.2.8 Netherlands

8.2.9 Norway

8.2.10 Poland

8.2.11 Russia

8.2.12 Spain

8.2.13 Sweden

8.2.14 Switzerland

8.2.15 United Kingdom

8.2.16 Rest of Europe

8.3 Middle East and Africa

8.3.1 Egypt

8.3.2 Israel

8.3.3 Qatar

8.3.4 Saudi Arabia

8.3.5 South Africa

8.3.6 United Arab Emirates

8.3.7 Rest of MEA

8.4 Asia-Pacific

8.4.1 Australia

8.4.2 Bangladesh

8.4.3 China

8.4.4 India

8.4.5 Indonesia

8.4.6 Japan

8.4.7 Malaysia

8.4.8 Philippines

8.4.9 Singapore

8.4.10 South Korea

8.4.11 Sri Lanka

8.4.12 Thailand

8.4.13 Taiwan

8.4.14 Rest of Asia



9 Competitive Landscape

9.1 Competitive Quadrant

9.2 Market Share Analysis

9.3 Strategic Initiatives

9.3.1 M&A and Investments

9.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

9.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



10 Company Profiles

10.1 3M Company

10.2 Abalonyx AS

10.3 ACS Technologies Group, Inc

10.4 Advanced Nano Products Co Ltd

10.5 Applied Nanotech, Inc

10.6 Arkema S.A.

10.7 BASF SE

10.8 Carbon Solution Group

10.9 CHASM Advanced Materials, Inc

10.10 Dow, Inc

10.11 DuPont de Nemours, Inc

10.12 Dycotec Materials Ltd

10.13 Hyperion Catalysis International

10.14 Indium Corporation

10.15 Klean Industries, Inc

10.16 LOTTE Advanced Materials Co Ltd

10.17 Nanocyl SA

10.18 Nanotek Instruments, Inc

10.19 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

10.20 North Carolina State University

10.21 Osaka Organic Chemical Industry Ltd

10.22 Panasonic Corporation

10.23 Rajasthan Electric Industries

10.24 Showa Denko K.K

10.25 Toyobo Co Ltd

10.26 University of Houston

10.27 US Research Nanomaterials, Inc

10.28 Versarian PLC

10.29 Vorbeck Material Corp

10.30 Xiamen Knano Graphene Technology Corporation Limited



11 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/f01fi3

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Synthetic Fibres (Polyester, Nylon, Acrylic & Polyolefin) Market: Insights & Forecast with Potential Impact of COVID-19 (2022-2026)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global synthetic fibres market is expected to reach US$85.07 billion in 2025, progressing at a CAGR of 7.39%, over the period of 2021-2025.

Growth in the synthetic fibres market has accrued due to the growing population, surging number of fitness clubs, accelerating demand for clothing and apparel, expanding urbanization and rising e-commerce penetration.

The market is anticipated to experience certain trends like escalating interest in home furnishing, rapid growth of automotive industry and increasing per capita consumption of fish. The growth of the market would be challenged by frequent fluctuations in raw material prices and stringent government regulations.

The global synthetic fibres market has been segmented on the basis of type and application. According to type, the market can be bifurcated into polyester, nylon, acrylic, polyolefin and other synthetic fibres such as rayon, acetate, aramid, etc. Whereas, in terms of application, the global synthetic fibres market can be split into clothing, home furnishings, automotive, filtration and others.

The fastest-growing regional market is Asia Pacific due to the rising demand for clothing from a large population in the region along with rising acceptance of fashion trends from the western culture, increasing demand for synthetic fibres in the automotive sector as the consumer prefers the lightweight vehicle to reduce fuel consumption and growing urbanization.

Further, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 is causing an adverse disruption on the overall economy through halted business operations and manufacturing activities, affecting the demand and supply of synthetic fibres across the world.

The competitive landscape of the market, along with the company profiles of leading players (DuPont de Nemours, Inc., Indorama Ventures PCL, Teijin Limited, Lenzing AG, Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company Limited and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation) are also presented in detail.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Market Overview

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Classification of Fibres

1.3 Production Process of Synthetic Fibers and Fabrics

1.4 Key Types of Synthetic Fibers

1.5 Advantages of Synthetic Fibres

1.6 Disadvantages of Synthetic Fibres

1.7 Difference Between Natural and Synthetic Fibre

1.8 End-Product Types of Synthetic Fibres



2. Impact of COVID-19

2.1 Decline in Sportswear Sales

2.2 Decreased Demand from Automotive Industry

2.3 Drop in Global Fibre Demand

2.4 Reduction in Industrial Production



3. Global Market Analysis

3.1 Global Synthetic Fibre Market by Value

3.2 Global Synthetic Fibre Market Forecast by Value

3.3 Global Synthetic Fibres Market by Type

3.3.1 Global Polyester Synthetic Fibres Market by Value

3.3.2 Global Polyester Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Value

3.3.3 Global Nylon Synthetic Fibres Market by Value

3.3.4 Global Nylon Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Value

3.3.5 Global Nylon Synthetic Fibres Market by Application

3.3.6 Global Nylon Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Application

3.3.7 Global Acrylic Synthetic Fibres Market by Value

3.3.8 Global Acrylic Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Value

3.3.9 Global Polyolefin Synthetic Fibres Market by Value

3.3.10 Global Polyolefin Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Value

3.4 Global Synthetic Fibres Market by Application

3.4.1 Global Clothing Synthetic Fibres Market by Value

3.4.2 Global Clothing Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Value

3.4.3 Global Home Furnishing Synthetic Fibres Market by Value

3.4.4 Global Home Furnishing Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Value

3.4.5 Global Automotive Synthetic Fibres Market by Value

3.4.6 Global Automotive Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Value

3.4.7 Global Filtration Synthetic Fibres Market by Value

3.4.8 Global Filtration Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Value

3.5 Global Synthetic Fibres Market by Region

3.6 Global Synthetic Fibres Market Volume

3.7 Global Synthetic Fibres Market Volume Forecast

3.8 Global Synthetic Fibres Market Volume by Type

3.8.1 Global Polyester Synthetic Fibres Market Volume

3.8.2 Global Polyester Synthetic Fibres Market Volume Forecast

3.8.3 Global Nylon Synthetic Fibres Market Volume

3.8.4 Global Nylon Synthetic Fibres Market Volume Forecast

3.8.5 Global Nylon Synthetic Fibres Market Volume by Form

3.8.6 Global Nylon Synthetic Fibres Market Volume Forecast by Form



4. Regional Market Analysis

4.1 Asia Pacific

4.1.1 Asia Pacific Synthetic Fibres Market by Value

4.1.2 Asia Pacific Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Value

4.1.3 China Synthetic Fibres Market by Value

4.1.4 China Synthetic Fibres Market Forecast by Value

4.2 North America

4.3 Europe

4.4 RoW



5. Market Dynamics

5.1 Growth Drivers

5.1.1 Growing Population

5.1.2 Surging Number of Fitness Clubs

5.1.3 Accelerating Demand for Clothing and Apparel

5.1.4 Expanding Urbanization

5.1.5 Rising E-commerce Penetration

5.2 Key Trends and Developments

5.2.1 Escalating Interest in Home Furnishings

5.2.2 Rapid Growth of Automotive Industry

5.2.3 Increasing Per Capita Consumption of Fish

5.2.4 Upsurge in Outdoor Activities

5.3 Challenges

5.3.1 Frequent Fluctuations in Raw Material Prices

5.3.2 Health and Environmental Risks of Synthetic Fibres

5.3.3 Stringent Government Regulations



6. Company Profiles

DuPont de Nemours, Inc.

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation

Lenzing AG

Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company Limited

Teijin Limited

Indorama Ventures PCL

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/misx2y

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
VANCOUVER, BC, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Gold Royalty Corp. (NYSE: GROY) ("Gold Royalty", or the "Company") announces that it has extended the expiry date of its previously announced offer (the "Offer") to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Elemental Royalties Corp. (TSXV: ELE) ("Elemental") to 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on May 12, 2022, subject to any further abridgement, extension or withdrawal.

A Third Notice of Variation and Extension, which sets out consequential amendments to reflect the extended expiry date, will be filed under Elemental's profile at www.sedar.com and mailed to Elemental shareholders. Other than with respect to the extension of the expiry date, the revisions do not change the principal terms or conditions of the Offer in any material respect.

David Garofalo, President and CEO of Gold Royalty, commented: "As previously stated, we commend the Elemental team for what they have built to date. However, we continue to believe that combining with Gold Royalty represents a unique and compelling opportunity for Elemental shareholders to benefit from enhanced scale, growth and liquidity. To that end, we have made several overtures to Elemental's board and management to engage in discussions and gain access to diligence with the objective of reaching a mutually-beneficial, board-supported transaction. While our attempts to engage have thus far been unsuccessful, we remain ready and willing to engage in discussions and gain access to management and due diligence with the objective of potentially revising the current offer and reaching a mutually-beneficial, board-supported transaction for the benefit of all stakeholders."

The Company has extended the expiry date of the Offer by 10 working days in order to afford Elemental shareholders additional time to review and consider the Offer. In the event that the conditions to the Offer, including the receipt of requisite deposits of Elemental common shares, are not satisfied by the new expiry date and in the absence of constructive engagement with Elemental towards a negotiated transaction, the Company does not currently plan to further extend the expiry date.

Conditions to the Offer

The Offer remains subject to certain conditions, including, among other things: (i) there having been validly deposited pursuant to the Offer and not withdrawn at the expiry time that number of Elemental Shares, together with the associated rights under Elemental's shareholder rights plan dated December 30, 2021 (the "SRP Rights"), which constitute more than 50% of the Elemental Shares outstanding, excluding those Elemental Shares beneficially owned, or over which control or direction is exercised, by Gold Royalty or by any persons acting jointly or in concert with the Offeror, if any. This condition cannot be waived by Gold Royalty; (ii) there having been validly deposited under the Offer and not withdrawn, at or prior to the expiry time, such number of Elemental Shares, together with the associated SRP Rights, that, together with the Elemental Shares held by Gold Royalty and its affiliates, represent not less than 66 2/3% of the total number of outstanding Elemental Shares, calculated on a fully diluted basis; and (iii) Gold Royalty having determined, in its reasonable judgment, that there does not exist and there shall not have occurred or been publicly disclosed since the date of the Offer, a material adverse effect.

The Offer is subject to certain other conditions in addition to those listed above. A more detailed discussion of the conditions to the consummation of the Offer can be found in the Company's Offer and Circular dated January 11, 2022, as supplemented by the Notice of Change dated January 21, 2022 and as further supplemented and varied by the Notice of Variation and Change dated April 11, 2022 and the Third Notice of Variation and Extension dated April 27, 2022 (collectively, the "Offer Documents"), available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on Gold Royalty's website at www.goldroyalty.com/elemental-offer/.

Elemental shareholders are strongly encouraged to read the Offer Documents carefully and in their entirety, since they contain additional important information regarding Gold Royalty and the terms and conditions of the Offer, as well as detailed instructions on how Elemental shareholders can tender their Elemental Shares to the Offer.

About Gold Royalty Corp.

Gold Royalty Corp. is a gold-focused royalty company offering creative financing solutions to the metals and mining industry. Its mission is to acquire royalties, streams and similar interests at varying stages of the mine life cycle to build a balanced portfolio offering near, medium and longer-term attractive returns for its investors. Gold Royalty's diversified portfolio currently consists of net smelter return royalties on gold properties located in the Americas.

For additional information, please contact:

Gold Royalty Corp.

Telephone: (833) 396-3066

Email: [email protected]

For Elemental shareholders who have questions or require additional information, please contact:

Laurel Hill Advisory Group

North American Toll-Free: 1-877-452-7184 (+1-416-304-0211 outside North America)

E-mail: [email protected]

No Offer or Solicitation

This news release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, any securities. The Offer is being made solely by, and subject to the terms and conditions set out in the Offer Documents.

Notice to U.S. Elemental Shareholders

Gold Royalty has filed with the SEC a Registration Statement on Form F-4, as amended by Amendment No. 1 (the "Registration Statement"), which contains a prospectus relating to the offer to acquire the securities of Elemental, under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. SHAREHOLDERS OF ELEMENTAL AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES ARE URGED TO READ SUCH REGISTRATION STATEMENT AND ANY AND ALL OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED OR TO BE FILED WITH THE SEC IN CONNECTION WITH THE OFFER AS THOSE DOCUMENTS BECOME AVAILABLE, AS WELL AS ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS TO THOSE DOCUMENTS, BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN OR WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT GOLD ROYALTY, ELEMENTAL, AND THE OFFER. Materials filed with the SEC will be available electronically without charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov under Gold Royalty's profile and the materials will be posted on Gold Royalty's website at www.goldroyalty.com.

Gold Royalty is a foreign private issuer and is permitted to prepare the offer to purchase and take-over bid circular and related documents in accordance with Canadian disclosure requirements, which are different from those of the United States. Gold Royalty prepares its financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, and they may not be directly comparable to financial statements of United States companies.

Shareholders of Elemental should be aware that owning Gold Royalty shares may subject them to tax consequences both in the United States and in Canada. The Offer Documents may not describe these tax consequences fully. Elemental shareholders should read any tax discussion in the Offer Documents, and holders of Elemental shares are urged to consult their tax advisors.

An Elemental shareholder's ability to enforce civil liabilities under the United States federal securities laws may be affected adversely because Gold Royalty is incorporated in Canada, some or all of Gold Royalty's officers and directors and some or all of the experts named in the Offer Documents reside outside of the United States, and a substantial portion of Gold Royalty's assets and of the assets of such persons are located outside the United States. Elemental shareholders in the United States may not be able to sue Gold Royalty or its officers or directors in a non-U.S. court for violation of United States federal securities laws. It may be difficult to compel such parties to subject themselves to the jurisdiction of a court in the United States or to enforce a judgment obtained from a court of the United States.

NEITHER THE SEC NOR ANY STATE SECURITIES REGULATOR HAS OR WILL HAVE APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THE GOLD ROYALTY SHARES OFFERED IN THE OFFER DOCUMENTS, OR HAS OR WILL HAVE DETERMINED IF ANY OFFER DOCUMENTS ARE TRUTHFUL OR COMPLETE. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE.

Elemental shareholders should be aware that, during the period of the Offer, Gold Royalty or its affiliates, directly or indirectly, may bid for, or make purchases of, the securities to be distributed or to be exchanged, or certain related securities, as permitted by applicable laws or regulations of Canada or its provinces or territories and the United States, including Rule 14e-5 under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent information about such purchases or arrangements to purchase is made public in Canada, such information will be disclosed by means of a press release or other means reasonably calculated to inform shareholders in the United States of such information.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

Certain of the information contained in this news release constitutes 'forward-looking information' and 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws ("forward-looking statements") and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Gold Royalty's actual results, performance and achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied therein. The words "believe", "expect", "will", "propose" and derivatives thereof and other expressions which are predictions of or indicate future events, trends or prospects and which do not relate to historical matters, identify the above mentioned and other forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements, including among others, statements regarding the satisfaction of the conditions of the Offer and the anticipated timing, benefits and effects of the completion of the Offer, involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the ability to obtain necessary approvals, and to meet the other conditions under the Offer, the ability to realize the benefits under the proposed transaction, material adverse effects on the business, properties and assets of the parties; the impact of general economic and market conditions; any inability of the operators of the properties underlying the parties' royalty and other interests to execute proposed plans for such properties, risks related to such operators or the exploration, development and mining operations of the properties underlying the parties' royalty and other interests; impacts of macroeconomic developments; and the impact of and the responses of relevant governments to the COVID-19 pandemic and the effectiveness of such responses and the other important risks and uncertainties set out in the Offer Documents, Gold Royalty's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended September 30, 2021 and its other public filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Gold Royalty Corp.
Born out of MIT in 2005, Living Proof is a category trailblazer, renowned for its breakthrough, patented approaches for real world hair problems. With a storied acting career spanning over a decade, Lily Collins has ascended to beauty icon status, starring in 2009's The Blind Side, earning her first Golden Globe nomination for 2016's Rules Don't Apply , and breaking streaming records for her portrayal of Emily in Netflix's mega-hit Emmy-nominated Emily In Paris . For her next act, Lily becomes the new face for the haircare disruptor. Transformational and fearless, Lily Collins is influencing a generation by showing her true characterboth on and off the screen. Together, this partnership forms the crux of the remarkable, high-performance results born out of the brand's 'science in action' mission.

Lily Collins leads the charge in a multifaceted campaign dubbed 'We Have Haircare Down to a Science,' sparking a new narrative around how true innovation fuels healthy, remarkable results. The campaign will live at the forefront in North America and the UK, running in the Spring of 2022. In addition to organic campaign efforts on owned and partner channels, content and media will run across YouTube, Google, TVC (Hulu), podcast, out-of-home advertising on billboards in New York City and Los Angeles as well as paid social across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and The New York Times. The campaign will also launch with a hero brand video, which follows Lily throughout her morning routine, spotlighting how optimal hair health acts as a vehicle for overall confidence and joy, culminating with Lily being spotlighted as 'The Living Proof.' As Collins remarks in the brand video, '[you] don't have to be in a lab to know results when [you] see them'  that's the beauty of Living Proof having haircare down to a science.

On the heels of five consecutive quarters of more than 30% growth, Living Proof debuts this collaboration with Lily Collins, which celebrates its legacy of pioneering performance-defining products. The brand's passion for brilliant hair starts in their Boston, MA lab. By leading with science, Living Proof engineers patented, breakthrough solutions for real-world hair problems that are scientifically tailored to solve unique hair challengesnever to conceal them. The brand was drawn to Lily's like-minded passion for transparent, performance-based solutions that she can really trust, so that she can always show off her true character. Living Proof allows Lily to feel emboldened in the power of self-expression while maintaining her healthiest hair, always.

"The brand is called Living Proof for a reason. It was founded on the principle that there wasn't a need for marketing fluff, universal ingredients or smoke and mirrors," says Zach Rieken, CEO of Living Proof. "We were, and always will be, about showing off how our products actually perform - through the people who use them. And having a modern muse like Lily Collins partner with us shows that proof is impactful and resonates in an extremely valuable way."

A longtime fan of the brand, Lily Collins adds, "When you treat your hair well, you're treating yourself well. Living Proof's philosophy is rooted in cutting edge science. Their products aren't about masking your hair problems, they formulate them so your hair can be its best, most natural self. As someone who is always striving to keep my hair healthy, I was so drawn to this philosophy and the products that delivered the best hair I've ever had in my life. And you can see it, in its growth, shine, how it withstands all of the damage I put it through."

Rieken adds, "Living Proof has always been synonymous with science-backed solutions and giving our customers the tools to show off their best, natural hair. We don't formulate products that conceal your hair problems, we engineer high performance solutions that treat your hair concern. That's why we are called Living Proof - you are the result. And we felt that Lily was the perfect person to show off what healthy, remarkable results look like. Lily became a modern muse for healthy, gorgeous hair. And considering the many different characters she plays and all of her different press looks and photoshoots, her hair routine has been powered by Living Proof so it's no coincidence that it looks as amazing as it does."

The brand campaign will officially launch in May, shot by Nicolas Kantor.

About Living Proof

In 2005, an unlikely combination of biotech scientists and renowned hair stylists came together to pioneer a first-of-its-kind haircare philosophy based in science. Our mission was to create inventive solutions designed to solve real-world hair problems, not conceal them. 156 global patents, 450+ formulas, 44 products, 100+ awards, and 16 years later, we continue to put research at the forefront of our formulations. Today, Living Proof is Science in Action, utilizing in-house scientific discovery and invention to develop the latest innovations in haircare that deliver game-changing results for all hair types and textures. We are the science. You are the Living Proof.

Learn more at LivingProof.com and @livingproofinc .

About Lily Collins

As a Golden Globe-nominated actress, author, and philanthropist, Lily Collins is one of Hollywood's most sought-after actresses. Her performance as a religiously devout actress in Warren Beatty's film, RULES DON'T APPLY, won her praise and secured her first Golden Globe Award Nomination in the Best Actress Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.

Collins can most recently be seen in the Netflix hit rom-com series "Emily in Paris," for which she received her second Golden Globe nomination. The Emmy nominated series, in which Collins plays the titular star and also serves as a producer on, debuted it's second season on January 22nd, 2021 and became Netflix's most popular comedy series to date. The actress can also recently be seen in Netflix's WINDFALL, a modern-day noir pic from director Charlie McDowell that stars Jason Segel and Jesse Plemons alongside Collins. The actress is also set to star in and produce Lena Dunham's upcoming Polly Pocket feature film, in which she will play the title role.

Collins' philanthropic endeavors also extend to participating in various "We Day" events, supporting its social media initiatives, and contributing to the initial round of videos for the site. Collins is also actively involved with national nonprofit organization, GO Campaign, and serves as an ambassador for the GO Campaign Gala. Collins serves on the Actors Branch Executive Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Consistently making best-dressed lists, Collins is a style icon and is an ambassador for the iconic brands Lancome and Cartier. Born in West Sussex, England Collins moved to the United States at age six and currently resides in Los Angeles.

SOURCE Living Proof
Helping the Navy and Marine Corps Harness Innovative Financial Management Solutions that Outwit Complexity

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Guidehouse, a leading global provider of consulting services to public sector and commercial clients, has been awarded a prime seat on a contract vehicle worth up to $999.6 million over five years to support the US Navy and Marine Corps on financial, accounting, and business process services.

Building on seven years of support across the Navy's comptroller organization and commands, Guidehouse anticipates supporting the Navy and Marine Corps in areas including systems consolidation, modernization, and implementation; financial data environment; audit remediation and response; financial reporting and accounting operations; financial policy, standardized business processes, and budgetary reform; and internal controls institutionalization.

Guidehouse has invested significantly in innovative financial management solutions, leveraging a long history of support to multiple branches of the Department of Defense to take advantage of those lessons to benefit the Department of the Navy and train the teams on best practices.

"We are excited to bring the Navy and Marine Corps the next generation of leading financial management practices and expertise," said Ed Meehan, Guidehouse Partner and Defense Segment Leader. "Extending our partnership with this new five-year prime contract will enable us to scale leading financial management experts and innovations to accelerate the Department of the Navy's financial management journey."

For more information about Guidehouse and Defense Consulting capabilities, please visit https://guidehouse.com/capabilities/industries/defense.

About Guidehouse

Guidehouse is a leading global provider of consulting services to the public sector and commercial markets, with broad capabilities in management, technology, and risk consulting. By combining our public and private sector expertise, we help clients address their most complex challenges and navigate significant regulatory pressures focusing on transformational change, business resiliency, and technology-driven innovation. Across a range of advisory, consulting, outsourcing, and digital services, we create scalable, innovative solutions that help our clients outwit complexity and position them for future growth and success. The company has more than 13,000 professionals in over 50 locations globally. Guidehouse is a Veritas Capital portfolio company, led by seasoned professionals with proven and diverse expertise in traditional and emerging technologies, markets, and agenda-setting issues driving national and global economies. For more information, please visit www.guidehouse.com.

Media Contact:

Guidehouse

Cecile Fradkin [email protected]

SOURCE Guidehouse LLP
Patients who are eligible will receive both an imaging test and a novel biomarker test that measures the immune system's response to pancreatic disease in the blood.

"The earlier cancer is detected, the better the chance of successful treatment," says Rosario Ligresti, M.D., chief of Gastroenterology at Hackensack University Medical Center, a National Pancreas Foundation Center of Excellence since 2013, where this new initiative is offered as part of the hospital's high risk surveillance program for pancreatic cancer.

Unfortunately, studies show only about a quarter of people who qualify for high risk surveillance actually take advantage of it, but Dr. Ligresti believes this new blood test will be a game changer.

"Pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest of cancers, is difficult to detect early, at a stage when surgical resection, the only curative therapy, is possible," Dr. Ligresti explains. "This new test has been shown to detect early stage pancreatic cancer in high risk patients, with the goal of catching it before it has the chance to spread to other tissues."

Who is considered high-risk?

Pancreatic cancer may run in the family and/or may be linked with genetic conditions that increase the risk of other types of cancer. This is called familial pancreatic cancer and includes instances in siblings, parents and grandparents through current generations of your family. You and your family may be at an increased risk if 2 or more first-degree relatives or at least 3 members of the family have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

What is the current standard of care for screening?

Currently, screening of the pancreas for cancer is performed using either MRI or endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). This is a specialized test involving an endoscope and high-frequency ultrasound to image the pancreas precisely. The tests are done annually and both have pros and cons. MRI can be cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming. EUS involves a minimally-invasive endoscopy and requires fasting and sedation. Hackensack University Medical Center has been performing pancreas screening in this fashion for many years. Prior to now, no specialized or accurate blood test has been available commercially to allow for pancreas cancer screening.

Who qualifies for this new pancreas cancer surveillance?

Pancreas cancer screening is very important in the following high-risk groups. Any patient older than the age of 18 with:

BRCA mutation

Cystic Fibrosis

Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP)

Familial Atypical Multiple Mole Melanoma (FAMMM)

Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer (HNPCC) or Lynch Syndrome

Hereditary Pancreatitis

PALB2 mutation

Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome

Family history of pancreas cancer in two first-degree relatives

What is the screening protocol?

Patients will have a comprehensive consultation with Dr. Ligresti. They will then have the IMMray PanCan-d test as well as an MRI or EUS performed. Once all the results are available, they will meet with Dr. Ligresti to review them and the plan for continued surveillance. This is usually done annually.

Why does early detection of pancreatic cancer matter? Symptoms typically only develop with late-stage disease, so the majority of pancreatic cancer is diagnosed in late stages when treatments are less effective.

Who is at risk for developing pancreatic cancer? Identifying patients who are at risk for developing the disease because of known genetic mutations or family history of pancreatic cancer can be critical for finding it early. High-risk subgroups represent a substantial proportion of all cases of pancreas cancer.

How does this new test work? The IMMray PanCan-d analyzes 9 biomarkers in serum to detect pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common type of pancreatic cancer. Biomarkers involved in multiple cellular processes including metabolism, inflammation and tissue damage/repair, along with CA19-9, are included in the assay. A sample's response to each biomarker is measured and then combined using an algorithm to determine a test result of "High-Risk Signature Present", "Negative for High-Risk Signature", or "Borderline".

Test Performance: In a recent peer-reviewed publication by Brand et al published in Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology, the IMMray PanCan-d test demonstrated a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 99% in detecting pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) using serum. The IMMray PanCan-d test was able to detect Stage I & II PDAC with 89% sensitivity and 99% specificity.

For more information or to book an interview contact [email protected] or call 551-795-1675.

ABOUT THE LAB

Immunovia, Inc. is the exclusive laboratory for the IMMray PanCan-d test, a blood test for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. All patient samples are shipped to their CLIA-certified and CAP-accredited laboratory for processing in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

ABOUT HACKENSACK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

Hackensack University Medical Center, a 771-bed nonprofit teaching and research hospital, is the largest provider of inpatient and outpatient services in New Jersey. Founded in 1888 as Bergen County's first hospital, it was the first hospital in New Jersey and second in the nation to become a Magnet-recognized hospital for nursing excellence. The academic flagship of Hackensack Meridian Health, Hackensack University Medical Center ranked #1 in New Jersey and #7 in the New York metro area by U.S. News & World Report's 2021-2022 "Best Hospitals" Honor Roll, making it the only hospital in New Jersey with the #1 adult and children's hospital rankings. Hackensack University Medical Center is also rated as High Performing in 14 specialties procedures and conditions, and sets the standard for all New Jersey hospitals in several specialties. The campus is home to facilities such as John Theurer Cancer Center, the #1 hospital for cancer care in New Jersey in U.S. News & World Report's 2021-2022 "Best Hospitals" Honor Roll; the Heart & Vascular Hospital, and the Sarkis and Siran Gabrellian Women's and Children's Pavilion, recognized as being in the top 1% of children's hospitals in the nation and #1 children's hospital in New Jersey by U.S. News & World Report's 2021-22 "Best Hospitals" Honor Roll. Hackensack University Medical Center's comprehensive clinical research portfolio includes studies focused on precision medicine, translational medicine, immunotherapy, cell therapy, and vaccine development.

SOURCE Hackensack University Medical Center
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- High Street Insurance Partners continues its exponential growth focused on building the best insurance agency.

CEO Scott Wick said, "To build the best insurance agency you need the best talent. Our strategy is two-fold -- partner with like-minded agencies that drive organic growth and executives who have industry and domain experience to drive growth and build critical infrastructure. I am very proud of our agency partners and the executive team we have brought together to execute on our strategy."

In the last eight months, High Street has assembled an impressive team with significant industry and domain expertise. Last September, Angela Williams, Chief Brand and Communications Officer, Emma Riza, Chief Development Officer, and Kevin Smith, Chief Information Officer, joined the Executive Team of Scott Wick, Founder and CEO, Scott Goodreau, President & COO, and Dave Tuit, CFO. Dave Tuit said, "These additions to the team bring a wealth of expertise in their areas and have driven significant results throughout their careers."

Most recently, James Hutchinson, Chief Marketing Officer & Regional President, Northeast, and Robert Sajdak, Chief Legal Officer, joined the High Street Executive Team.

James has over thirty years of insurance industry expertise and is recognized for creating and executing innovative growth and retention strategies. He has held numerous senior positions including Chief Marketing Officer and President of Commercial Lines for a top ten global insurance brokerage. Additionally, James served as Senior Vice President for Navigators Group where he led Navigators field operations and was responsible for its retail distribution and national sales strategy. James serves on the Boards for Advisen and the National African American Insurance Association.

Robert joins High Street from a large global insurance brokerage, where he spent the last 12 years, most recently serving as Vice President, Assistant General Counsel with responsibility for regulatory matters, corporate compliance, and M&A and other transactional matters. Robert also spent time as in-house counsel for a Chicago-based specialty insurance carrier.

Scott Goodreau commented, "Leadership has changed so much over the last couple of years and leaders are being asked to make decisions like they never have before. We believe in illuminating a diverse and inclusive world and I am excited to say we have built an Executive Team that challenges the status quo and attracts leaders of tomorrow."

About High Street Insurance Partners

High Street Insurance Partners is a national insurance agency with over 100 agency partners across the continental US. Founded in 2018, the Traverse City, Michigan-based company provides a broad array of business insurance & risk management; employee benefits & human capital management; financial & retirement services; and personal insurance solutions.

Our Purpose: We love to help people pursue life's opportunities with tenacity and confidence to create stronger, more resilient communities. We do it for all our futures.

Additional information can be found at www.highstreetpartners.com.

SOURCE High Street Insurance Partners
PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Home Winemaker Depot is very excited and proud to announce our organization, as well as our parent company Prospero Equipment Corp., is celebrating 50 years in the winemaking industry in 2022. Our wine equipment supply company in Pleasantville, NY continues to share the Prospero family tradition of home winemaking with locals, visitors, and commercial businesses in the area, ever since our start in 1972. Our goal as an organization is to provide high quality winemaking equipment, supplies and expertise to home winemakers and enthusiasts both locally and nationally. As Home Winemaker Depot enters its 50th year of operation, spreading the knowledge, skill, and passion of our founding Prospero family, we're sharing some details about the history of our subsidiary company.

Home Winemaker Depot, and parent company Prospero Equipment Corp., celebrate 50 years in the winemaking industry.

Home Winemaker Depot owes its start to the Prospero Winery & Grapes, whose origins date back all the way to 1972. Founder Tony Prospero started selling California-grown wine grapes and winery equipment  including basket presses, crushers, and destemmers  sourced from Italy during the fall harvest season, in an effort to expand into the world of wine aficionados. This allowed local winemaking amateurs and enthusiasts to continue living their European lifestyle, and gave Prospero the chance to establish strong, multi-generational relationships with his clients.

Our Home Winemaker Depot mission is to help everyday amateur winemakers and wine enthusiasts in Westchester, NY and across the United States pursue their passion for this industry. As we move into our 50th year of operation, we're reaffirming our organization's generational commitment to quality and letting our community know about all the different supplies we offer. From barrels to crushers and destemers, to corks and yeast, we offer all the equipment and supplies that you need to bring grape to bottle. A full catalog is available on our website.

Today Home Winemaker Depot maintains our dedication to local home winemakers and hobbyists who enjoy the home winemaking tradition. Learn more about our world-class winemaking equipment collection, resources, and mission at https://www.homewinemakerdepot.com/ .

About Home Winemaker Depot:

Home Winemaker Depot is a winemaking equipment and resource supplier for amateur winemakers and enthusiasts in Pleasantville, NY and across the United States. Since 1972, our subsidiary organization of Prospero Equipment Corp. and Prospero Winery & Grapes, has been dedicated to sharing the knowledge of creating world-class wines and helping our community members create their own unique blends. A full current catalog is available on our website.

Contact:

Melissa Prospero

[email protected]

(833) 201-5903

SOURCE Home Winemaker Depot
Increase in use of expanded paper honeycomb as a substitute over traditional filling materials such as solid fillings, chipboard stripes, and tube board in interior doors and partition walls drive the growth of the global honeycomb paper market

PORTLAND, Ore., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Honeycomb Paper Market by Core Type (Expanded Paper Honeycomb, Expanded Paper Honeycomb Blocks Paper Honeycomb, Continuous Paper Honeycomb, Others), by Cell Size (Upto 10 mm, 10 to 30 mm, Above 30 mm), by End-use Industry (Home Decor, Transport and Logistics, Automotive, Building and Construction, Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030." According to the report, the global honeycomb paper industry was estimated at $6.5 billion in 2020, and is anticipated to hit $11.0 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 5.4% from 2021 to 2030.

Drivers, restraints, and opportunities-

Increase in use of expanded paper honeycomb as a substitute over traditional filling materials such as solid fillings, chipboard stripes, and tube board in interior doors and partition walls drive the growth of the global honeycomb paper market. On the other hand, poor processing performance of paper honeycomb paperboard limit the application of honeycomb paper in certain end-use industries, thereby impedes the growth to some extent. Nevertheless, paper honeycomb pallets are widely used and highly preferred for air shipments owing to their low weight and durability. This, in turn, has created lucrative opportunities in the industry.

Request PDF Brochure: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/12194

Covid-19 scenario-

The outbreak of the pandemic gave way to the closure of an array of industry verticals, which decreased the demand for honeycomb paper from several sectors, thereby impacting the market growth negatively, especially during the initial period.

Nevertheless, as most of the industries have started reinstated their operations, the global honey comb market is anticipated to get back on track soon.

The 10 to 30 mm segment to dominate by 2030-

Based on cell size, the 10 to 30 mm segment accounted for nearly half of the global honeycomb paper market share in 2020, and is anticipated to rule the roost by 2030. The same segment would also cite the fastest CAGR of 5.6% throughout the forecast period. Growing population coupled with rapid urbanization has surged the growth of the building & construction sector in both the developed and developing economies where of cell sizes of honeycomb paper range from 10 mm to 30 mm and are used for manufacturing cores of different interior doors.

Get Detailed COVID-19 Impact Analysis on the Honeycomb Paper Market @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/12194?reqfor=covid

The home decor segment to maintain the dominant share-

Based on end-use industry, the home decor segment held more than two-fifths of the global honeycomb paper market revenue in 2020, and is expected to lead the trail by 2030. The same segment would also manifest the fastest CAGR of 5.8% from 2020 to 2030. This is because paper honeycomb core is widely adopted for wide home decor applications such as interior doors and interior furniture products.

Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, garnered the major share in 2020-

Based on region, Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, held the major share in 2020, generating more than two-fifths of the global honeycomb paper market. The same region would also grow at the fastest CAGR of 6.2% by 2030. High strength ratio of honeycomb core materials make them an ideal substitute over other traditional chipboard strips and tube boards for home decor applications. The home decor sector across Asia-Pacific is gaining traction owing to rise in demand and adoption of eco-friendly products.

Key players in the industry-

Lsquare Eco Products Pvt. Ltd.

Greencore Packaging

Honicel Nederland B.V.

EcoGlobe Packaging Private Limited

Helios Packaging

MAC PACK

Axxor

Crown Holdings Inc.

Schutz GmbH & Co. KGaA

YOJ Pack-Kraft

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Pawan Kumar, the CEO of Allied Market Research, is leading the organization toward providing high-quality data and insights. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.



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SOURCE Allied Market Research
RENO, Nev., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - i-80 GOLD CORP. (TSX: IAU) (OTCQX: IAUCF) ("i-80", or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it will hold an "Investor Day" presentation immediately following its Annual General Meeting (AGM) being held at the Toronto Board of Trade on May 10, 2022. The AGM is to begin at 4:00pm EDT in person followed by the with the Investor Day presentation commencing at 4:30pm EDT which will also be available via webcast and conference call (details below). Investors are invited to attend the event where they can meet and discuss details with members of i-80's Board of Directors and Management Team.

Among other things, the Investor Day presentation will highlight the Company's numerous achievements in its first year of existence including: 1) Numerous exploration successes with detailed updates from its highlysuccessful drilling program at Granite Creek and initial results that will be provided from the major ongoing drill campaign at Ruby Hill; 2) Operational updates from several project sites including Lone Tree; and 3) Detail the status of the Comprehensive Scorecard that was released by the Company earlier in 2022.

The Company also intends to release Q1 2022 financial and operating results prior to the event and Management will speak to these results during the Investor Day presentation.

Investor Day Webcast & Conference Call

The Company will host a live conference call and webcast on May 10, 2022, commencing at 4:30 pm EDT, providing the opportunity for analysts and investors to ask questions of i-80 Gold's executive team.

Conference Call

North American Toll-free: 1-888-204-4368

Confirmation #: 3896886

Webcast Link

Click HERE to access the webcast or visit our website at www.i80gold.com.

Conference Call Replay

A recording of the call can be accessed until May 17, 2022.

North American Toll-free Replay: 1-888-203-1112

Replay Code: 3896886

About i-80 Gold Corp.

i-80 Gold Corp. is a well-financed, Nevada-focused, mining company with a goal of achieving mid-tier gold producer status through the development of multiple deposits within the Company's advanced-stage property portfolio to complement existing gold production from the Ruby Hill open pit.

Certain statements in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including but not limited to, the expansion or mineral resources. Such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company, its projects, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict" and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events, performance and results and speak only as of the date of this release.

Forward-looking statements and information involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indicators of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements or information, including, but not limited to: material adverse changes, unexpected changes in laws, rules or regulations, or their enforcement by applicable authorities; the failure of parties to contracts with the company to perform as agreed; social or labour unrest; changes in commodity prices; and the failure of exploration programs or studies to deliver anticipated results or results that would justify and support continued exploration, studies, development or operations.

SOURCE i-80 Gold Corp
Leading global roofing manufacturer creates jobs, expands to serve US single-ply market

WILMINGTON, Del., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - IKO, a North American pioneer in the manufacture of residential and commercial roofing products, has announced the official grand opening of its newest production facility in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Marketing Services Director Carol Perkins says that local dignitaries and IKO customers, employees and their families will be invited to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony and tour the plant during its official commissioning celebration on May 12th. The new plant, announced as the company's sixth US based manufacturing site in 2019, began producing product in the latter half of 2021.

The 460,000 square foot production and warehouse facility marks IKO's first manufacturing site for thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO), a single-ply roofing membrane material used in the commercial flat roofing market. In addition to TPO, the plant will also produce polyisocyanurate (ISO) insulation products for distribution across North America. A long-time supplier to the residential roofing marketplace in the United States, IKO opened its first US based asphalt shingle plants in Delaware, Illinois and Ohio in 1981 and exports to around 100 countries globally.

According to Mike Mendoza, Director of Single Ply Systems, the new flagship facility is another key step forward in our company's long-term strategic expansion plans. "IKO has made significant investments in expanding both its product lines and its manufacturing footprint in the U.S. market," said Mendoza. "This TPO plant will help to establish the IKO brand and its Innovi product line as a significant player for U.S. commercial roofing in the same way we are already a preferred brand in the residential market. While TPO may be new to IKO, we have decades of experience in the commercial market globally to leverage as we introduce commercial roofers to IKO in the United States."

As it officially opens, the $70M facility will employ 40 people locally, with the possibility for future expansion to meet consumer demand as the business grows.

About IKO

IKO is a world-wide leader in the roofing, waterproofing and insulation industry for residential and commercial markets. A vertically integrated company, IKO operates more than 35 manufacturing plants throughout North America and Europe. IKO is a family owned business established in 1951.

Copyright 2022 IKO Industries, Ltd. All rights reserved. For media or industry analyst support, please visit our website at http://www.iko.com

SOURCE IKO Industries
Series A funding round will accelerate international expansion and fuel AI-based medical algorithm development.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IMPLICITY, a leader in remote patient monitoring and cardiac data management solutions, today announced it has raised $23 million in Series A funding led by new investors: Credit Mutuel Innovation and Bpifrance.

Additional investors for the round include BNP Paribas Development and previous seed investors: Serena, XAnge and Karista.

This new funding comes just months after IMPLICITY received FDA clearance for a novel AI algorithm that analyzes ECG episodes from Implantable Loop Recorders (ILRs).

"This financing round marks a new and exciting chapter for IMPLICITY. With clinical staff everywhere wrestling with an increasing volume of data coming from the growing number of connected devices, the need for a universal remote platform is now widely recognized as paramount. Coverage of remote care sparked by Covid-19 set the scene. In order to democratize remote cardiac care, our mission is to provide healthcare professionals with the best technology available to scale and monitor all cardiac patients," said Dr. Arnaud Rosier, CEO and founder of IMPLICITY.

The new funding will help speed the international rollout of IMPLICITY's AI-based technology and cardiac data management solutions  enabling healthcare professionals around the world with a more holistic approach to caring for cardiac patients. Proceeds will be used to:

Increase the company's market presence in the US and support expansion into new markets

Develop additional medical device software to strengthen the technological leadership of the company

"We are very pleased to support the commercial expansion of IMPLICITY's cutting-edge platform that enables cardiologists to provide more effective patient care by streamlining data across major remote cardiac monitoring devices," said Delphine Cardi, Investment Director at Credit Mutuel Innovation. "The company is already on a strong growth path in the U.S. and Europe, and we look forward to building on that momentum as they continue to develop next-generation offerings that move toward the prevention of heart disease."

"We are extremely impressed by IMPLICITY's current international market success. We believe the company has the potential to become a world-class leader in cardiac remote monitoring. This investment will help accelerate adoption across all regions in 2022 and beyond, particularly in the U.S. This is a very large market opportunity that cannot be overstated," said Chahra Louafi, Director of the Autonomous Patient Fund at Bpifrance.

About IMPLICITY

IMPLICITY is a software company that provides a universal cardiac remote monitoring and research platform to clinics and service companies, helping them provide the best remote care to cardiac patients. As a digital Medtech, IMPLICITY develops AI and knowledge based algorithms to reduce healthcare professionals' workload and allows them to potentially predict patient health status.

The IMPLICITY platform aggregates, normalizes and standardizes data from all implantable cardiac electronic device across all major manufacturers. In addition to having an FDA cleared solution and multiple CE markings, IMPLICITY has been the first private company authorized to access the Health Data Hub*, one of the world's largest patient databases, supporting the development of its AI solutions to improve care for patients with chronic heart failure conditions. IMPLICITY covers more than 60,000 patients in 100 medical facilities across the United States and Europe. http://www.implicity.com

* Health Data Hub is a health data platform put in place by the French government to combine existing health patient databases and facilitate their usage for research and development purposes.

About Credit Mutuel Innovation

Credit Mutuel Innovation is the venture capital subsidiary of Credit Mutuel Equity (3.5 billion of capital under management), part of Credit Mutuel Alliance Federale. It invests tickets between 1m and 20m in innovative companies in the digital, life sciences and deeptech sectors.

Credit Mutuel Innovation enables entrepreneurs to develop their growth potential by connecting them to companies in the ecosystems it belongs. Because it takes more than five years to create a world leader, Credit Mutuel Innovation invests (and often reinvests) its own capital on a long-term basis and builds long-term relationships with the entrepreneurs it supports. www.creditmutuel-equity.eu

About Bpifrance and FPA

Bpifrance's equity investments are made by Bpifrance Investissement. Bpifrance finances companiesat each stage of their developmentwith loans, guarantees and equity. Bpifrance supports them in their innovation projects and internationally. Bpifrance now also ensures their export activity through a wide range of products. Advice, university, networking and acceleration programs for startups, SMEs and ETIs are also part of the offer offered to entrepreneurs. Thanks to Bpifrance and its 50 regional locations, entrepreneurs benefit from a close, unique and efficient interlocutor to support them in facing their challenges. Bpifrance's Autonomous Patient Fund, launched in early 2018, targets startups which develop innovations that allow:

Optimization of health costsBetter care by helping to strengthen the relationship between a health professional and his patient (telemedicine, remote monitoring, digital therapies),

An improvement in the quality and efficiency of care,

Improvements in the care pathway, in particular for chronic diseases (diabetes, cancers, mental health, etc.), by helping to prevent diseases and their complications, by facilitating the diagnosis of the disease and by monitoring its evolution over time real, in particular thanks to artificial intelligence, "deep/machine learning."

www.Bpifrance.fr

Media Contact:

Andrea LePain

eMedia Junction

617-275-8112

[email protected]

SOURCE Implicity
DUBLIN, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Indonesia Construction Market Size, Trends and Forecasts by Sector - Commercial, Industrial, Infrastructure, Energy and Utilities, Institutional and Residential Market Analysis, 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Indonesian construction industry's output grew by an estimated rate of 3.1% in 2021, as the government eased social restrictions towards the end of the year.

The industry's output in coming quarters may be affected by a possible decline in economy activity, with the emergence of the Omicron variant and a rise in Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases potentially requiring the reimposition of containment measures.

The construction industry registered year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth of 2.4% in the first three quarters of 2021, according to the BPS (Badan Pusat Statistik), although this growth mostly reflects the low base in 2020, when construction output fell by 2.4% in the first three quarters of 2020.

The industry's performance will be supported by the government's emphasis on the implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects under the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN). Under which the government plans to develop 5,000km of new toll roads, 3,000km of new national roads, 38,726m of bridges and 31,053m of flyovers and underpasses by 2024.

The industry's output over the forecast period (2023-2026) will also be supported by the Electricity Procurement Plan (RUPTL) 2021-2030, under which the government plans to add 40.6GW of additional capacity by 2030, of which 4.7GW will be solar, and 51.6% will be from renewable sources.



Over the remainder of the forecast period, the construction industry is expected to register an annual average growth of 5.8%, supported by the government's focus on the development of infrastructure, as well as energy and utilities construction projects. Improvements in consumer and investor confidence and positive developments in regional economic conditions will also provide momentum.

The industry's output will also be supported by the government's plan to invest IDR6.2 quadrillion ($430 billion) on infrastructure projects by 2024, to support long-term social and economic development, which was unveiled by the government in 2020.

Scope

Historical (2017-2021) and forecast (2022-2026) valuations of the construction industry in Indonesia , featuring details of key growth drivers.

, featuring details of key growth drivers. Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by sub-sector

Analysis of the mega-project pipeline, including breakdowns by development stage across all sectors, and projected spending on projects in the existing pipeline.

Listings of major projects, in addition to details of leading contractors and consultants

Key Topics Covered:



1 Executive Summary



2 Construction Industry: At-A-Glance



3 Context

3.1 Economic Performance

3.2 Political Environment and Policy

3.3 Demographics

3.4 Covid-19 Status

3.5 Risk Profile



4 Construction Outlook

4.1 All Construction

Outlook

Latest News and Developments

Construction Projects Momentum Index

4.2 Commercial Construction

Outlook

Project Analytics

Latest News and Developments

4.3 Industrial Construction

Outlook

Project Analytics

Latest News and Developments

4.4 Infrastructure Construction

Outlook

Project Analytics

Latest News and Developments

4.5 Energy and Utilities Construction

Outlook

Project Analytics

Latest News and Developments

4.6 Institutional Construction

Outlook

Project Analytics

Latest News and Developments

4.7 Residential Construction

Outlook

Project Analytics

Latest News and Developments

5 Key Industry Participants

5.1 Contractors

5.2 Consultants



6 Construction Market Data



7 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/3dn6xh

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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SOURCE Research and Markets
In-Scope:

Food & Beverages:



The Indonesia retail market share growth by the food and beverages segment will be significant during the forecast period. The food and beverage industry in Indonesia is experiencing growth due to an upward trend in the prices of commodities, which has led to an increase in the purchasing power of people in regions such as Sumatra and Kalimantan that produce the commodities. Also, Indonesia is experiencing a growing interest of consumers in imported goods, especially processed foods, which is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period.

Out-of-Scope:

Electrical & electronics



Apparel & footwear



Home improvement & household products



Others

Download Sample to gain further insights on the market contribution of various segments

Moreover, the report also provides Value Chain Analysis which helps companies gain a competitive advantage in the market. The Value Chain of the Indonesia Retail Market includes the following core components:

Inputs

Inbound logistics

Operations

Outbound logistics

Marketing and sales

Service

Support activities

Innovation

Highlights-

Segmentation- The report extensively covers market segmentation by Product (food & beverages, electrical & electronics, apparel & footwear, home improvement & household products, and others) and Distribution channel (offline and online)

The report extensively covers market segmentation by Product (food & beverages, electrical & electronics, apparel & footwear, home improvement & household products, and others) and Distribution channel (offline and online) Key Companies- CT Corp., PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk, PT Hero Supermarket Tbk, PT Lion Super Indo, PT Multipolar Tbk, PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk, PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk, PT. Circleka Indonesia Utama, PT. Indomarco Prismatama, and PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk among others

CT Corp., PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk, PT Hero Supermarket Tbk, PT Lion Super Indo, PT Multipolar Tbk, PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk, PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk, PT. Circleka Indonesia Utama, PT. Indomarco Prismatama, and PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk among others Driver- Expansion of the retail landscape in Indonesia to drive the market

Expansion of the retail landscape in to drive the market Challenge- Underdeveloped infrastructure to hamper the market growth

Download Sample: for more additional information about the Indonesia Retail Market

Vendor Insights-

The Indonesia retail market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market.

CT Corp.- The company operates retail stores under the brand name Transvision.

The company operates retail stores under the brand name Transvision. PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk- The company runs its business under Cellular phones and tablets, Operator product, Computer and other electronic devices, and Accessories and others segments. The company operates retail stores under the brand name Erafone.

The company runs its business under Cellular phones and tablets, Operator product, Computer and other electronic devices, and Accessories and others segments. The company operates retail stores under the brand name Erafone. PT Hero Supermarket Tbk- The company operates retail stores under the brand names such as Hero Supermarket, Guardian, and Giant Extra.

Download Sample Report to find additional highlights on the vendors and their product offerings.

Learn More about Key Driver & Challenge of the Market-

Indonesia Retail Market Driver:

Expansion of the retail landscape in Indonesia :



The traditional unorganized retail outlets in Indonesia are increasingly being replaced by big retail hypermarkets , supermarkets, and other retail chains. The demand for organized retailing is growing in Indonesia because of the availability of all the necessary items under one roof. Several retail companies are focusing on expanding their stores to new areas. Moreover, both foreign and local retailers have made plans to increase their investments in the retail space of Indonesia. This expansion of the retail landscape in Indonesia will be a significant factor in driving the growth of the retail market.

Indonesia Retail Market Challenge:

Underdeveloped infrastructure:



The lack of developed and well-maintained infrastructure and network service in Indonesia is a major factor behind an increase in inefficiency and transaction costs, making it difficult for exporters and investors to operate efficiently. Warungs and minimarts are traditional markets in Indonesia that continue to be popular among consumers. Consumer business companies require an extensive distribution network to gain traction in the market. They also need to focus on innovations, especially in terms of packaging, due to limited and highly competitive shelf space in traditional retail outlets.

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Indonesia Retail Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4% Market growth 2021-2025 $ 37.32 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 2.45 Regional analysis Indonesia Performing market contribution Indonesia at 100% Key consumer countries Indonesia Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled CT Corp., PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk, PT Hero Supermarket Tbk, PT Lion Super Indo, PT Multipolar Tbk, PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk, PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk, PT. Circleka Indonesia Utama, PT. Indomarco Prismatama, and PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization preview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2020

Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025

Five Forces Analysis

Fiver forces summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Product

Market segments

Comparison by Product

Food and beverages - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Electrical and electronics - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Apparel and footwear - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Home improvement and household products - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Others - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Product

Market Segmentation by Distribution channel

Market segments

Comparison by Distribution channel

Offline - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Online - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Distribution channel

Customer landscape

Overview

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Overview

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

CT Corp.

PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk

PT Hero Supermarket Tbk

PT Lion Super Indo

PT Multipolar Tbk

PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk

PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk

PT. Circleka Indonesia Utama

PT. Indomarco Prismatama

PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

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Technavio Research

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Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
Aggregating impact of weekly events, weekly Event Index score helps businesses and community leaders prepare for upcoming demand surges and drops

SAN FRANCISCO, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PredictHQ , the demand intelligence company, today announced the launch of the PredictHQ Event Index , an easy-to-understand, week-by-week indication of how much events will impact key cities. It uses a series of machine learning models to identify the impact of weekly event activity in more than 60 cities and compares that to five years of historical event impact to generate a score out of 20. This gives companies operating in those areas a simple summary to help them plan for any anticipated demand surges or drops.

An index score of 10 represents an average score for that city, a score above a 15 means the city is likely to be significantly busier than usual, and a score below an 8 means that city will likely be noticeably quieter than usual. Every city has its own baseline and scale to accommodate for the variation in their populations. For example, a score of an 18 in New York City will entail millions of people moving about the city, whereas a score of 18 in Wichita, Kansas will involve just over 100,000 people.

"We've spent years aggregating and analyzing billions of event data points to understand how these external forces impact demand for businesses across a range of industries, so we're acutely aware of how significant these impacts can be," said Campbell Brown, CEO of PredictHQ. "One cluster of events could drive six figures in sales in a single weekend for a restaurant in that city, but only if that business is ready for the surge. Knowing small businesses and city leaders often don't have resources for sophisticated demand forecasting, we built the Event Index to provide a simple metric for tracking upcoming demand surges and drops so they can plan with confidence."

The Index scores for the month ahead highlight just how much events impact people movement across the country  especially in cities that aren't known as event hot spots. For example, San Antonio has an Index score of 16.3 for the first week of May, suggesting local businesses should prepare for demand surges, but that score drops to just 7.6 the following week, meaning businesses should plan for a drop in demand during that time.

PredictHQ tracks global events across19 categories, accounting for attendance-based events like concerts, non-attendance-based events like public holidays, unscheduled events such as severe weather incidents, and viewership for televised sporting events. The Event Index factors in the vast majority of these events, with the exclusion of breaking events that are captured in real-time and televised events, to give a quick look at the aggregate impact of everything taking place in a given city during that week. It provides a weekly score for the month ahead as well as the two months prior, so companies can track scores over time and get a better understanding of what each score means for their business.

While the Event Index provides an accurate look ahead at people movement, it is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the demand intelligence PredictHQ offers  particularly for large companies operating worldwide. Industry leaders like Uber, Domino's, and Accor Hotels all use PredictHQ's verified and enriched event data to inform staffing decisions, merchandising strategies, and many other core business functions.

For more information on PredictHQ please visit www.predicthq.com .

About PredictHQ

PredictHQ, the demand intelligence company, empowers global organizations to anticipate changes in demand for their products and services through intelligent event data. PredictHQ aggregates events from 350+ sources and verifies, enriches, and ranks them by predicted impact so companies can proactively discover catalysts that will impact demand.

SOURCE PredictHQ
RADNOR, Pa., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP (www.ktmc.com) informs investors that the firm has filed a securities class action lawsuit against AbbVie, Inc. (AbbVie) (NYSE: ABBV) on behalf of all persons and entities who purchased or otherwise acquired AbbVie securities between April 30, 2021, and August 31, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period").

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR ABBVIE LOSSES. YOU CAN ALSO CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK OR COPY AND PASTE IN YOUR BROWSER: https://www.ktmc.com/new-cases/abbvie-inc?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=abbvie&mktm=r

TO VIEW OUR VIDEO, PLEASE CLICK HERE

TO VIEW OUR COMPLAINT, PLEASE CLICK HERE

LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE: JUNE 6, 2022

CLASS PERIOD: APRIL 30, 2021 through AUGUST 31, 2021

CONTACT AN ATTORNEY TO DISCUSS YOUR RIGHTS:

James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453 or Email at [email protected]

Kessler Topaz is one of the world's foremost advocates in protecting the public against corporate fraud and other wrongdoing. Our securities fraud litigators are regularly recognized as leaders in the field individually and our firm is both feared and respected among the defense bar and the insurance bar. We are proud to have recovered billions of dollars for our clients and the classes of shareholders we represent.

ABBVIE'S ALLEGED MISCONDUCT

AbbVie is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. The company's revenues will come under significant pressure in the coming years when its best-selling drug, Humira, will lose patent protection in 2023. Accordingly, AbbVie's future revenue and earnings depend in large part on its ability to develop new sources of revenue to offset Humira's lost sales. Rinvoqan anti-inflammatory drug manufactured by AbbVie and used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other diseases by inhibiting Janus kinase (JAK) enzymeswas touted as one such drug. Rinvoq was initially approved in the United States to treat only moderate to severe RA. However, AbbVie was actively pursuing additional treatment indications and, in 2020, asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve Rinvoq for the treatment of several other diseases.

As is relevant here, Rinvoq is similar to other JAK inhibitor drugs, including Xeljanz, manufactured by Pfizer Inc. When the FDA approved Xeljanz in 2012 for the treatment of RA, it required an additional safety trial to evaluate Xeljanz's risk of triggering certain serious side effects. Beginning in February 2019, the FDA repeatedly warned the public that the safety trial indicated that Xeljanz's use could lead to serious heart-related issue, cancer, and other adverse events. Notwithstanding the similarities between Rinvoq and Xeljanz, during the Class Period, Defendants assured investors that Rinvoq was far safer than Xeljanz and not subject to the same regulatory risks.

However, investors began to learn the truth about Rinvoq's significant risks on June 25, 2021, when AbbVie revealed that the FDA was delaying its review of expanded treatment applications for Rinvoq due to the safety concerns associated with Xeljanz. On this news, the price of AbbVie common stock declined $1.76 per share, or approximately 1.5%, from a close of $114.74 per share on June 24, 2021, to close at $112.98 per share on June 25, 2021.

Then, on September 1, 2021, the FDA announced that final results from the Xeljanz safety trial established an increased risk of serious adverse events, even with low doses of Xeljanz. As a result, the FDA determined that it would require new and updated warnings for Xeljanz and Rinvoq because Rinvoq "share[s] similar mechanisms of action with Xeljanz" and "may have similar risks as seen in the Xeljanz safety trial." The FDA also indicated that it would further limit approved indications for Rinvoq as a result of these safety concerns. On this news, the price of AbbVie common stock declined $8.51 per share, or more than 7%, from a close of $120.78 per share on August 31, 2021, to close at $112.27 per share on September 1, 2021.

After the Class Period, on December 3, 2021, AbbVie announced that the FDA had updated Rinvoq's label to require additional safety warnings and limit marketing of Rinvoq to only its use after treatment with other drugs has failed. On January 11, 2022, Defendants admitted that these changes to Rinvoq's label would negatively impact sales, forcing the Company to reduce its long-term guidance for Rinvoq's sales in 2025.

The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, the Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, about the company's business and operations. Specifically, Defendants misrepresented and/or failed to disclose that: (1) safety concerns about Xeljanz extended to Rinvoq and other JAK inhibitors; (2) as a result, it was likely that the FDA would require additional safety warnings for Rinvoq and would delay the approval of additional treatment indications for Rinvoq; and (3) therefore, Defendants' statements about the company's business, operations, and prospects lacked a reasonable basis, As a result of the Defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, and the significant decline in the market value of AbbVie's securities, AbbVie investors have suffered significant damages.

WHAT CAN I DO?

AbbVie investors may, no later than June 6, 2022 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP encourages AbbVie investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm directly to acquire more information.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CASE

WHO CAN BE A LEAD PLAINTIFF?

A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff is usually the investor or small group of investors who have the largest financial interest and who are also adequate and typical of the proposed class of investors. The lead plaintiff selects counsel to represent the lead plaintiff and the class and these attorneys, if approved by the court, are lead or class counsel. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.

ABOUT KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country and around the world. The firm has developed a global reputation for excellence and has recovered billions of dollars for victims of fraud and other corporate misconduct. All of our work is driven by a common goal: to protect investors, consumers, employees and others from fraud, abuse, misconduct and negligence by businesses and fiduciaries. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com.

CONTACT:

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP

James Maro, Jr., Esq.

280 King of Prussia Road

Radnor, PA 19087

(484) 270-1453

[email protected]

SOURCE Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP
PHILADELPHIA, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Investor protection law firm Kaskela Law LLC is investigating potential claims on behalf of Cornerstone Building Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CNR) ("Cornerstone") shareholders.

On March 7, 2022, Cornerstone announced that it had agreed to be acquired by private investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice at a price of $24.65 per share. Following the closing of the proposed transaction, Cornerstone's shares will no longer be publicly traded.

The investigation is focused on whether the members of Cornerstone's Board of Directors violated the securities laws in connection with the proposed transaction, and whether the company has properly disclosed all material information about the transaction to its shareholders.

Cornerstone shareholders are encouraged to contact Kaskela Law LLC (Adrienne Bell, Esq.) at (484) 229  0750, or by email ([email protected]) or online at https://kaskelalaw.com/cases/cornerstone/ , to receive additional information about this investigation and their legal rights and options.

Kaskela Law LLC exclusively represents investors in securities fraud, corporate governance, and merger & acquisition litigation. For additional information about the firm please visit www.kaskelalaw.com. This notice may constitute attorney advertising in certain jurisdictions.

CONTACT:

D. Seamus Kaskela, Esq.

Adrienne Bell, Esq.

KASKELA LAW LLC

18 Campus Blvd., Suite 100

Newtown Square, PA 19073

(484) 229  0750

(888) 715  1740

www.kaskelalaw.com

SOURCE Kaskela Law LLC
SHERIDAN, Wyo., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As medical facilities across the US strengthen efforts to make healthcare environments safer, industry pioneer Kennon Products has introduced its second-generation in-room Soft Suicide Prevention Door (SSPD), the Kennon SSPD Door 2.0.

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, and the rate has risen in recent years, in clinical settings. In the healthcare environment, patient rooms and bathrooms can contain features that patients use to attempt suicide. The Kennon SSPD Door 2.0 is designed to give patients privacy while its ligature-resistant breakaway hinge protects them from harming themselves. The door is ideal for use in behavioral health facilities, psychiatric hospitals, mental health facilities, emergency departments, assisted-living situations, prisons, and juvenile facilities.

"Three years of engineering and testing allowed us to achieve a door in which we are really proud," said Joe Wright, CEO of Kennon Products. "The Kennon SSPD Door 2.0 is the most advanced in-room suicide prevention door. The door is soft, lightweight, and has a magnetic hinge which will break away under 20 pounds of pressure. It's also very durable and received NFPA-286 certification from the National Fire Protection Association. Facility operators wishing to meet certain fire prevention guidelines require that certification, and the Kennon SSPD Door 2.0 is the first to receive that certification. NFPA-286 is a big accomplishment for our team."

The Kennon SSPD Door 2.0 was designed for both new construction and retrofitting into existing units. The door helps facilities demonstrate patient care, boost staff morale and adds an aesthetic element in an otherwise sterile patient room environment. The door comes in four sizes to fit any doorway. Its integrated magnetic hinge enables easy installation into any hollow metal frame in seconds with no special tools or training. In non-steel door frames, Kennon offers ligature-resistant attachment plates.

Other features include:

Tear Resistant

Durable/Water Resistant

Easily washable

Customizable with colors, graphics, and images to match any decor

Anti-ligature design

Breakaway hinge

Magnetic closure

Integrated notch for use as a "door handle"

Meets Life Safety Code 101

Kennon Products created the original SSPD in 2009, working in partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Kennon SSPD Door 2.0 is lighter than the previous door, improving functionality. It also enables caregivers to see in, and monitor the patient, while not infringing on their privacy. Kennon offers the door, printed with high-resolution images, on both sides. Kennon has sold over 18,000 Soft Suicide Prevention Doors to roughly 600 different facilities across the United States.

"Our mission gives us enough flexibility to explore all kinds of new markets," Wright said. "Our key to success isn't our products so much as it is the tight integration of our engineering, manufacturing, and our mission of protecting people. We took on the challenge of creating the SSPD because it meshed perfectly with our mission to protect people, and the solution required the same engineering and precision manufacturing that we use in the rest of our products."

About Kennon Products

Founded in 1984, Kennon Products is a leading designer and manufacturer of products that protect people and high-value assets for the military, aviation, and healthcare industries. The company employs more than 60 people at its Sheridan, Wyoming facility. Kennon is an employee-owned ESOP (employee stock ownership program) company. With engineering and manufacturing at its core, Kennon Products says yes to virtually any project whose goal is to protect high-value assets. Learn more about Kennon Products at kennonproducts.com .

Contact: Neal Leavitt, 760-639-2900, [email protected]

SOURCE Kennon
Purpose-driven leaders from Knowledge Impact Network, ModiHealth, LifeForce, DignityMoves, Grace Children's Foundation, and V4 CAPITAL have come together to help the people of Ukraine on urgent issues, and everyone can help

LOS ANGELES, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A movement of innovative social entrepreneurs has been brought together by Knowledge Impact Network (KIN) to assist Ukrainians in the crucial areas of housing, food and medical supplies, pediatric medical care and technology. KIN is a community of purpose-driven leaders and innovative social entrepreneurs with a mission to alleviate some of the world's most pressing problems by sharing skills, insights, and connections to accelerate progress in these areas. To accelerate the Ukrainian relief effort, KIN is amplifying and facilitating collaborations across vital initiatives. The public can help by supporting the following programs via spreading awareness, funding, or sharing additional resources.

ModiHealth, LifeForce, DignityMoves, Grace Children's Foundations, and V4 CAPITAL provide help in the following crucial areas:

Virtual Emergency Care.

ModiHealth provides free emergency care for Ukrainians and Ukrainian refugees via a HIPAA-compliant secured telehealth platform. It includes free emergency medical and mental health care, emotional trauma first aid, and mental health support. The following categories of care and crisis training are available - Medical care and first aid support, emotional trauma first aid, and mental health support.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Get the word out by sharing the link below with anyone who can reach Ukrainians in need, share on social media and tag #helpukraine or share with anyone who may want to volunteer!

https://bit.ly/care-ukraine Develop a secure platform in Ukraine to apply precision technology to humanitarian first response.

The AI for Good Foundation has spearheaded the LifeForce Ukraine Project, a peer-to-peer humanitarian aid matching platform being developed to counter-balance Russian efforts to exploit open humanitarian data on the web. The platform: CONNECTS real time aid requirements with available support & resources, ALERTS civilians about supplies, shelters, transport, and dangerous situations in their vicinity, SECURES civilian and critical online infrastructure, and PROTECTS humanitarian data and locational assets and resources. It ensures a coordinated and resilient response of government and NGO resources, providing immediate support, advice and real time content.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: LifeForce is being piloted currently, and is seeking additional partners. Contact [email protected] for more information. Interim housing units.

KIN- DignityMoves is exploring the possibility of leveraging high-quality, insulated, and portable prefabricated interim housing currently being used by the homeless in California for Ukrainian refugees. These could also be ideal structures during the rebuild and recovery period for homes bombed in Ukraine .

HOW YOU CAN HELP: A feasibility study is in progresscontact [email protected] to get involved in assessing the local landscape for supplying these housing units. Coordinating aid for children who need medical/surgical and rehabilitative care. Grace Children's Foundation (GCF) offers its global online Children's Resource Exchange, a HIPAA compliant platform and database to expedite and match cases of children with complex medical needs to physicians and hospitals throughout the world willing to provide donated and subsidized care. Partnering with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine on its priority list of the children suffering with traumatic injuries from the war, GCF also helps identify and coordinate non-medical resources to supplement the needs of the pediatric patients being evacuated, including transportation and housing.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Get the word out about GCF's available services for Ukrainian children with your networks. If you are a physician, specialist, a service provider willing to donate transportation logistics, or can donate other non-clinical services to support the children, please contact [email protected] Delivering much needed aid to Ukraine - telecom infrastructure, consumer staples and pharmaceuticals.

Payel Farasat & Joe Farasat , Founders & Managing Principals of V4 CAPITAL, a bespoke private equity impact house, are activating their networks in the telecom infrastructure space to restore communications in Ukraine that were destroyed by bombings. Leveraging their experience from previous aid work in India during the height of the pandemic, they are pivoting their resources to ensure that Ukrainians are now getting much needed humanitarian aid: trauma kits, pharmaceuticals, surgical equipments, Meals-Ready-To-Eat (MREs) and hot food. As early investors in 3D Printing Technology, V4 is amplifying the genius of 3D Printing portfolio companies shipping 3D Printers to Ukraine that are printing CAT Tourniquets, Quick Bandage Appliers, and Drones - on the spot - to meet the high and constant demand for these items while reducing logistical time delays, transportation costs, transit theft and waste. By donating 3D printers and file parts and by supporting the 3D Printing community, more 3D printers and filaments can be sent to Ukraine - empowering the Ukrainians to innovate and print the medical and protective equipments they need in real time.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: If your business has any inventories of medical supplies, canned foods, radios, repeaters, 3D printers or materials to donate, contact [email protected]

To learn more about how these organizations are coordinating and amplifying efforts to support Ukrainians and how to offer assistance, book an interview with Leigh-Anne Anderson at [email protected].

SOURCE Knowledge Impact Network
TREVOSE, Pa., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE: LCI) today announced that it will report financial results for its fiscal 2022 third quarter on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, after the market closes. Lannett management will host a conference call that same afternoon at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time to review the company's performance and answer questions.

The conference call will be available to interested parties by dialing 877-344-8082 from the U.S. or Canada, or 213-992-4618 from international locations. The call will be broadcast via the Internet at www.Lannett.com. Listeners are encouraged to visit the website at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the scheduled presentation to register, download and install any necessary audio software. A playback of the call will be archived and accessible on the same website for at least three months.

About Lannett Company, Inc.

Lannett Company, founded in 1942, develops, manufactures, packages, markets and distributes generic pharmaceutical products for a wide range of medical indications. For more information, visit the company's website at www.lannett.com.

Contact: Robert Jaffe

Robert Jaffe Co., LLC

(424) 288-4098

SOURCE Lannett Company, Inc.
To celebrate its creator-first platform, Gamma has commissioned a series of original artworks by a group of artists and creators in the space. The collection, titled "Together, with Gamma," features several dozen digital collectibles of varying styles, each depicting the theme of people coming together around Bitcoin and Web3. The collection will mint on its platform, where 100% of revenues and royalties will be distributed to the artists with works featured in the collection.

Though a large portion of today's NFTs exist on Ethereum and other blockchains, Gamma believes strongly in Bitcoin's decentralization, as well as its widespread trust and adoption as a settlement layer for assets  and extending this to non-fungible tokens.

NFTs originated on the Bitcoin blockchain in 2016, but made their way to other chains due to base layer technology limitations on Bitcoin. Breakthroughs for smart contracts settled on the Bitcoin base layer have led to a revival of NFTs on Bitcoin, the first, largest, and most decentralized blockchain. The company believes that unlocking Bitcoin's capital and making it productive will accelerate the adoption of Web3 technologies and the value they bring to individuals and organizations.

"We have seen how NFTs have revolutionized the world of digital assets over the past year, connecting artists, collectors, curators, and creators. We've made friends, found communities, and invested in projects we've believed in, through this powerful tool that has brought people from all over the world, together." said Gamma Founder and CEO, Jamil Dhanani, a Stanford graduate student and former Apple engineer. He continues, "Gamma is the next step in that evolution, doubling down on community and putting the collectors, artists, and curators first."

About Gamma

Gamma is the leading open marketplace for Bitcoin-secured NFTs, powered by Stacks. Gamma consists of three core platforms: its user-first marketplace for exploring and collecting NFTs, its creator-first launchpad for artists to deploy fully-tested no-code, smart contracts in minutes, and its social platform, which brings together creators and collectors in an engaging and Web3-native way. Gamma supports hundreds of NFT collections, nearly 500 of which were deployed using its no-code portal. Its marketplace has facilitated millions of dollars of transactions in under six months and supports trading the largest number of NFT contracts of any platform built on Bitcoin.

SOURCE Gamma.io
Based in McKinney, Jeff Raich is leveraging deep experience to continue fast-track growth for national mortgage organization's a mortgage boutique division

DALLAS, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A mortgage boutique, First Community Mortgage's Wholesale Division has named Jeff Raich as Regional Sales Manager. A seasoned mortgage banking professional with over 25 years' broad-based experience in mortgage lending, Raich is based in McKinney, focusing on Third-Party Originator (TPO) lending.

First Community Mortgage's Jeff Raich

"Jeff is a great fit for our growing team," says Retta Gardner, Executive Vice President of the a Mortgage Boutique Division at FCM. "He is an easygoing, proven leader with a solid reputation for building and running strong sales and operations teams and has an in-depth knowledge of our industry."

Raich earned a bachelor's degree in Finance from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and has previously built high-performing teams and wholesale divisions in the mortgage industry.

"I am excited by the expertise and energy within First Community Mortgage's Wholesale operation and look forward to hiring Account Executives across the U.S. in three channels  broker, delegated correspondent and non-delegated correspondent  strengthening the organization across the 46 states in which it originates mortgages," Raich says, noting he is focusing on filling positions in Austin, DFW, Houston and San Antonio.

First Community Mortgage, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of First Community Bank of Tennessee, and includes Wholesale, Correspondent and Retail divisions. FCM is a FNMA, FHLMC, and GNMA seller/servicer and offers mortgage solutions to consumers and financial institutions. It funded nearly $3.5 billion in home loans in 2021 and has been the winner of several "best places to work" awards over the past year. First Community Mortgage is an Equal Housing Lender, NMLS ID 629700.

Raich (NMLS# 1962077) can be reached at 214-906-1481 or [email protected], if you are interested in learning more about AMB or signing up to be a lending partner.

Media Contact:

B. Andrew (Drew) Plant

[email protected]

678-637-5532

First Community Mortgage

Megan Chastain, VP of Marketing

[email protected]

731-610-1504

SOURCE First Community Mortgage
LG Energy Solution posts quarterly revenue of KRW 4.34 trillion ; operating profit at KRW 258.9 billion

; operating profit at Battery manufacturer sets capital expenditures for 2022 at KRW 7 trillion

LGES annual global manufacturing capacity will reach 520GWh by 2025

SEOUL, South Korea, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Energy Solution (LGES; KRX: 373220) today reported its first quarter results, buoyed by steady demand for its cylindrical battery cells and enhanced productivity through automated manufacturing system.

In what was LG Energy Solution's first official earnings report since going public, the battery manufacturer said its consolidated revenue came in at KRW 4.34 trillion in the January-March span, down 2.2% on-quarter. The company logged KRW 258.9 billion in operating profit and operating margin at 6%.

LG Energy Solution largely attributed the slight drop in revenue to the rising costs of raw materials, ongoing global semiconductor shortage and supply chain disruption caused by the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and periodic COVID lockdowns. The company also added prioritizing replacing recalled batteries also dragged down the sales in the first quarter.

Despite the unfavorable commodity market conditions with prices of key battery materials such as nickel, lithium and cobalt skyrocketing, LG Energy Solution said it managed to uphold steady operating profit with solid sales of cylindrical battery cells, improved productivity due to automation, and a cost pass-through mechanism to cover rising prices of aforementioned earth metals.

Looking at the year as a whole, LG Energy Solution targeted annual sales of KRW 19.2 trillion, an increase of 8% on-year, as major partnering automakers plan to expand their EV lineups.

The company said it will invest about KRW 7 trillion in global capital expenditures to maximize its battery manufacturing capacity. LGES projected its annual production capacity to reach 200GWh this year, and 520GWh by 2025. By region, the company's battery capacity in 2025 would account for 41% in North America, which would be the largest share in the region, 37% in Asia and 22% in Europe.

LG Energy Solution also outlined its actions aimed at improving profitability amid spiraling metal prices. In addition to solidifying partnership with its suppliers, LGES said it will secure raw materials through long-term agreements and strategic equity investments. In response to the fluctuating metal prices, LGES will expand the coverage of the cost pass-through schemes by adding copper, aluminum and manganese to the existing list of lithium, nickel and cobalt.

The company revealed plans to fully transform all its facilities into smart factories to make data-driven decisions in plant operation as well as enable automatic calibration to ultimately reduce manufacturing cost while reinforcing manufacturing competitiveness. The company is also on course to strengthen its organizational structure with its newly appointed Chief Digital Officer.

To secure product competitiveness, LGES is working on a solution that can better control thermal propagation in pouch battery packs. For competitive pricing, the battery manufacturer said it continues to develop new cathode materials, while introducing high-capacity cylindrical battery cells in new form factors.

LG Energy Solution is ensuring product quality by implementing a unified operational process that comprehensively covers from identifying the root cause of battery defects to customer support. With it, LGES plans to advance automated inspection process and eventually reduce the range and the volume of recalled batteries.

"Despite global economic uncertainties, LG Energy Solution will continue to make prudent investments to revamp quality and raise product competitiveness," said Youngsoo Kwon, CEO of LG Energy Solution. "As a responsible and loyal business to our partners, shareholders and investors, LGES will lead the energy industry toward a battery-powered future with unrivaled competitiveness."

About LG Energy Solution

LG Energy Solution (KRX: 373220) is a global leader delivering advanced lithium-ion batteries for Electric Vehicles (EV), Mobility & IT applications, and Energy Storage Systems (ESS). With 30 years of experience in advanced battery technology, it continues to grow rapidly towards the realization of sustainable life. With its robust global network that spans the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia, LG Energy Solution is more committed than ever to developing innovative technologies that will bring the future energy a step closer. Under its ESG vision "We CHARGE toward a better future," LG Energy Solution is doing its utmost to prioritize environment, fulfil social responsibilities and shape sustainable future. For more information, please visit https://www.lgensol.com.

SOURCE LG Energy Solution
The event will feature performances by GRAMMY award-winning band Ozomatli, performing songs from their new hit album "Non-Stop: Mexico to Jamaica," a social justice art walk highlighting the organization's four-decade history, an interactive art wall created in partnership with local organization Arts Bridging the Gap, and a live mural painted by local artist Amani Holbert. This social justice gathering will be an event unlike any other in the history of Liberty Hill.

"Our Homecoming Celebration is the perfect way to celebrate the work of the many activists, grassroots leaders, community partners, donors, foundation partners, and other allies on the frontlines fighting to advance social justice," said Liberty Hill Foundation President/CEO Shane Murphy Goldsmith. "This year's theme is The Fight for Home, a celebration of the activists, organizers, and organizations that are waging the ultimate fight to protect the right of Angelenos to have a roof over their heads and housing as a human right, as well as the fight to protect the one home we all shareour environment."

The Upton Sinclair Homecoming Celebration will honor several champions in the fight for social justice with awards that reflect Liberty Hill's commitment to justice for all. California State Assemblymember Isaac Bryan will serve as keynote speaker and receive the Upton Sinclair Award, presented to a person of unwavering idealism and vision, whose work illustrates an abiding commitment to social justice and equality. The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and CEO Nichol Whiteman will receive the Visionary Award for their commitment to youth development, education, health care, and ending homelessness, through a social justice lens. Liberty Hill will also present its Founders Award to the Meltzer Sieroty family, who have been a passionate force in progressive philanthropy in Los Angeles for more than 40 years.

Liberty Hill achieves its mission by identifying community leaders on the frontlines, investing in their work, and building strategic alliances to spearhead progressive change.

For more information about Liberty Hill or the 2022 Upton Sinclair Homecoming Celebration, please contact Courtney Kassel, Chief Communications Officer, at [email protected] .

About Liberty Hill Foundation

Liberty Hill Foundation is a laboratory for social change philanthropy. We leverage the power of community organizers, donor activists, and allies to advance social justice through strategic investment in grants, leadership training, and campaigns. We envision a society in which all people have a powerful voice, including those currently shut out of our democracy, people cut off from opportunities because of their skin color, gender or sexual orientation, where they live, or where they were born. We will not rest until society provides justice and equality for all.

SOURCE Liberty Hill Foundation
JOLIET, Ill., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Lion Electric Company (NYSE: LEV) (TSX: LEV) ("Lion" or the "Company"), a leading manufacturer of all-electric medium and heavy-duty vehicles, has announced that the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), aimed at accelerating the development and deployment of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies. Lion was the only school bus manufacturer selected by the DOE to sign onto the agreement.

Under the MOU, Lion will collaborate with over a dozen industry leaders including utilities, OEMs, government agencies, industry labor organizations and the DOE to collaboratively explore the development and integration of bidirectional electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure into the nation's energy grid. The MOU will also focus on the development of cybersecurity related to the deployment of V2X technologies, including vehicle-to-grid (V2G), vehicle-to-building (V2B) and vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionalities.

"As we transition to decarbonized transportation and energy sectors, heavy-duty electric vehicles with large battery capacities are likely to play an important role in balancing an increasingly renewable power grid. Connected vehicles, V2G and V2X technologies are poised to create a transportation sector that is safer, more efficient, highly-optimized, and most importantly, zero-emission -- and Lion is pleased to be collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy and industry leaders to help get us there," said Marc-Andre Page, Vice President of Commercial Operations at Lion Electric.

With their large energy storage capacity, heavy-duty electric vehicles have the potential to function as distributed storage on the energy grid  which is likely to become increasingly important as energy sectors around the world transition to renewable energy sources. V2G and V2X technologies promote grid resiliency by reducing the strain on the grid when renewable energy production is at its peak, with the potential to export this energy back when production decreases  ultimately reducing reliance on fossil fuels and promoting domestic energy independence.

Lion's current lineup of all-electric heavy-duty trucks and buses are V2G ready, and Lion is actively participating in pioneering V2G programs in North America, including projects in New York and California where Lion's all-electric school buses have successfully exported energy back to the grid. V2G gives operators the potential to further lower their total cost of ownership by charging when demand and electricity prices are low, and exporting energy back to the grid during peak demand when prices are higher.

About Lion Electric

Lion Electric is an innovative manufacturer of zero-emission vehicles. The company creates, designs and manufactures all-electric class 5 to class 8 commercial urban trucks and all-electric buses and minibuses for the school, paratransit and mass transit segments. Lion is a North American leader in electric transportation and designs, builds and assembles many of its vehicles' components, including chassis, battery packs, truck cabins and bus bodies.

Always actively seeking new and reliable technologies, Lion vehicles have unique features that are specifically adapted to its users and their everyday needs. Lion believes that transitioning to all-electric vehicles will lead to major improvements in our society, environment and overall quality of life. Lion shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol LEV.

Lion Electric, The Bright Move

Thelionelectric.com

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about Lion's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "believe," "may," "will," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," "could," "plan," "project," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "target" or other similar expressions and any other statements that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words.

The Company made a number of economic, market and operational assumptions in preparing and making certain forward-looking statements contained in this press release including, but not limited to, that Lion will be able to retain and hire key personnel and maintain relationships with customers, suppliers and other business partners, that Lion will continue to operate its business in the normal course, that Lion will be able to implement its growth strategy, that Lion will be able to successfully and timely complete the construction of its U.S. manufacturing facility and its Quebec battery plant and innovation centre, that Lion will not suffer any material disruption in the supply of raw materials on competitive terms, that Lion will be able to maintain its competitive position, that Lion will continue to improve its operational, financial and other internal controls and systems to manage its growth and size and that its results of operations and financial condition will not be adversely affected, that Lion will be able to benefit, either directly or indirectly (including through its clients), from government subsidies and economic incentives in the future and that Lion will be able to secure any required additional funding through equity or debt financing on terms acceptable to Lion. Such estimates and assumptions are made by Lion in light of the experience of management and their perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors believed to be appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. However, there can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Lion believes that these risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following: any adverse changes in the U.S. and Canadian general economic, business, market, financial, political and legal conditions, including as consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of COVID-19 variants and varying rates of vaccination amongst various countries; Lion's inability to successfully and economically manufacture and distribute its vehicles at scale and meet its customers' business needs; Lion's reliance on key management and any inability to attract and/or retain key personnel; Lion's inability to execute its growth strategy; Any unfavourable fluctuations and volatility in the price of raw materials included in key components used to manufacture Lion's products; Lion's reliance on key suppliers and any inability to maintain an uninterrupted supply of raw materials; Lion's inability to maintain its competitive position; Lion's inability to reduce its costs of supply over time; any inability to maintain and enhance Lion's reputation and brand; any significant product repair and/or replacement due to product warranty claims or product recalls; any failure of information technology systems or any cybersecurity and data privacy breaches or incidents; the reduction, elimination or discriminatory application of government subsidies and economic incentives or the reduced need for such subsidies; natural disasters, epidemic or pandemic outbreaks, boycotts and geo-political events; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against the Company from time to time.

These and other risks and uncertainties related to the businesses of Lion are described in greater detail in the section entitled "Risk Factors" not related to an investment in the Company's final prospectus dated May 5, 2021 (the "Canadian Prospectus") filed with the Autorite des marches financiers (the "AMF") and the registration statement on Form F-1 (the "Registration Statement") filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and declared effective on June 14, 2021 and other documents publicly filed with the AMF and the SEC. Many of these risks are beyond Lion's management's ability to control or predict. All forward-looking statements attributable to Lion or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained, and risk factors identified, in the Canadian Prospectus, the Registration Statement and other documents filed with the AMF and the SEC.

Because of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Furthermore, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required under applicable securities laws, Lion undertakes no obligation, and expressly disclaims any duty, to update, revise or review any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Lion Electric
Leading global pizza chain looks forward to expanding its territory in an established, food-trendy market by actively seeking multi-unit agreements

DETROIT and BUFFALO, N.Y., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Little Caesars is looking to offer a slice of its franchise business to Buffalo, NY entrepreneurs with the goal of opening at least 11 new stores in the coming years. The global, family-owned pizza chain aims to secure this expansion by signing three multi-unit franchise agreements by 2023.

"Demand for our brand is strong in Buffalo, and we're aiming to give consumers and entrepreneurs more of what they want," said Craig Sherwood, Vice President of U.S. Development. "Buffalo has a flourishing entrepreneurial community, and it's also a city that knows its food, and we are eager to grow our footprint there."

With four franchise locations currently open and operating in the area, Little Caesars is building momentum to expand, currently seeking both single-unit and multi-unit investors looking to grow their business endeavors.

Potential prospects interested in learning more about Little Caesars and its growth opportunities in Buffalo are invited to attend an exclusive, live webinar on Tuesday, May 3 at 3 p.m. EDT. To register for this free event hosted by key members of the Little Caesars franchise development team, please visit bit.ly/LCEBuffalo.

"To create and support development opportunities for franchise prospects, Little Caesars is looking for innovative markets where there is growth potential," said Sherwood. "The Little Caesars brand and business model is the right fit for the Buffalo market, which has a growing younger demographic as well as increased investments in technology and innovation."

Little Caesars franchising investments start at around $360,000, with incentive programs available for veterans and first responders. Interested prospects should visit Franchise.LittleCaesars.com .

ABOUT LITTLE CAESARS

Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, Little Caesars was founded by Mike and Marian Ilitch in 1959 as a single, family-owned restaurant. Today, Little Caesars is the third largest pizza chain in the world, with stores in each of the 50 U.S. states and 27 countries and territories.

Known for its HOT-N-READY pizza and famed Crazy Bread, Little Caesars products are made with quality ingredients, like fresh, never frozen, mozzarella and Muenster cheese and sauce made from fresh-packed, vine-ripened California crushed tomatoes.

An exceptionally high growth company with 60 years of experience in the $145 billion worldwide pizza industry, Little Caesars is continually looking for franchisee candidates to join our team in markets around the world. In addition to providing the opportunity for entrepreneurial independence in a franchise system, Little Caesars offers strong brand awareness with one of the most recognized and appealing characters in the country, Little Caesar.

SOURCE Little Caesars
Established in 1958, Forbes Travel Guide is the only global rating system for luxury hotels, restaurants and spas. Anonymous professional inspectors evaluate based on up to 900 objective standards, with an emphasis on exceptional service, to help discerning travelers select the world's best luxury experiences. Hotels are rated as Five-Star, Four-Star, and Recommended.

The hotels' historic facilities from the 19th Century and Korean hospitality services were highly evaluated for this year. First, built in 1882, LOTTE NEW YORK PALACE houses The Palace (The Villard Houses) and The Towers. The 55-story hotel feature total 909 guest rooms and 23 banquet halls, boasting incomparable size even in NYC.

Especially the triplex penthouses are iconic to the hotel. Inspired by the finest Champagne, Dom Perignon, its Champagne Suite welcomes guests with a Nouveau Nero marble floor leading to a double-story Grand Parlour surrounded by floor to ceiling windows. The master and queen suites take design inspiration from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with deep rose toned leather. A shimmering crystal pendant chandelier designed to invoke the effervescent champagne bubble cates the eyes and the Champagne cave, the only one of its kind in NYC, provides a rustic experience.

Another iconic suite is the Jewel Suite, designed in collaboration with acclaimed jewelry designer Martin Katz. The suite opens with a two-story cascading crystal chandelier and five sculptural crystal jewel boxes, personally curated by Martin Katz. The suite gleams from the reflection, as if one is inside the jewel box. The master and double bedrooms reflect the jeweled theme in opulent, upscale furnishings. The hotel is deeply ingrained with artistic features, not to mention the sculptures and paintings of the gold room and the drawing room. Furthermore, its private membership bar 'Rarities', America's first and the only location for the British luxury 'ILA spa' and more continue to inherit the heritage.

LOTTE NEW YORK PALACE was even more upgraded since 2015 after the acquisition by LOTTE HOTEL by successfully transferring the essence of Korean hospitality service. All staff above the director level from the previous New York Palace hotel were invited to Korea and were given service training on a regular basis. Moreover, by hosting significant global events such as the UN General Assembly and national summits, and by being known as the hotel that the U.S. presidents stay, LOTTE NEW YORK PALACE continues to enhance the brand power of LOTTE.

Being its 3rd consecutive year as Five-Star hotel, LOTTE HOTEL ST. PETERSBURG was originally built as a mansion in 1851. With over 170 years history, the hotel presents 12 types of rooms including the deluxe room with story height of 3.5 metre and the heavenly room equipped with mansard roof for sky view. Modern Japanese restaurant, rooftop bar overlooking Saint Isaac's Cathedral  one of the most beloved tourist spots in the world, and Bali-style relaxation spa are also offered. Moreover, it is considered that Korean hospitality service has contributed in enhancing service quality in the city.

SOURCE LOTTE HOTELS & RESORTS
MELVILLE, N.Y., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Micross Components, Inc. ("Micross"), a leading global provider of mission-critical microelectronic components and services for high-reliability aerospace, defense, space and industrial applications, was recognized by Northrop Grumman Corporation as a 2021 World Class Team Supplier honoree. Northrop Grumman recognized 24 small business suppliers with World Class Team awards for their outstanding performance in support of the company's cost, performance and supplier diversity objectives.

"Micross is honored to be recognized by Northrop Grumman with their prestigious 2021 World Class Team Supplier award. Our values and mission to support our customers' system-critical requirements through delivering hi-reliability microelectronic components and services on-time and to specification, perfectly aligns with Northrop Grumman's business objectives and the required attributes recognized by this award," stated Jeremy Adams, Vice President of Micross Products & Services.

This year marks the 30th year that Northrop Grumman has recognized suppliers with World Class Team awards for supporting its supplier diversity program. The company's supplier diversity program strives to ensure that capable small businesses receive maximum practicable subcontracting opportunities on all major programs. These small businesses include disadvantaged, women-owned, veteran-owned, and service-disabled veteran-owned, HUBZones small businesses, disability owned, AbilityOne organizations, LGBTQ+ businesses and Historically Black Colleges/Universities and Minority Institutions.

Micross Silicon Turnkey Solutions, located in Milpitas, CA, demonstrated exceptional support and commitment to Northrop Grumman's business objectives through demonstrated delivery performance, outstanding program support, superior technical achievement, and cost performance/competitiveness and/or continuous process improvement.

Related Link: https://www.micross.com/advanced-services/

For questions regarding article development, please contact:

Chris Stabile, Director of Corporate Marketing Communications

Micross Components

[email protected]

About Micross

Micross is the most complete provider of advanced microelectronic services and component, die and wafer solutions. With the broadest authorized access to die & wafer suppliers, and the most comprehensive advanced packaging, assembly, modification and test capabilities, Micross is uniquely positioned to provide unparalleled high-reliability solutions from bare die, to fully packaged devices, to complete program lifecycle sustainment. For more than 40 years, Micross has been a trusted source for the aerospace, defense, space, medical, energy, industrial, and other markets.

For more information about Micross, please visit www.micross.com.

Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

SOURCE Micross Components
VANCOUVER, BC, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Mind Cure Health Inc. (CSE: MCUR) (OTCQX: MCURF) (FRA: 6MH) ("MINDCURE" or the "Company") today announced its financial results for the three and nine months ended February 28, 2022. All amounts are stated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated.

A copy of the Company's financial statements for the three and nine months ended February 28, 2022 and the related management's discussion and analysis are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Philip Tapley, Interim CEO

Forward-Looking Information

Forward-looking information is based on a number of key expectations and assumptions made by management of MINDCURE, including, without limitation: the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the Canadian economy and MINDCURE's business, and the extent and duration of such impact; no change to laws or regulations that negatively affect MINDCURE's business; there will be a demand for MINDCURE's products in the future; no unanticipated expenses or costs arise; MINDCURE will be able to continue to identify products that make them ideal candidates for providing solutions for treating mental health; that iSTRYM will be developed, optimized and operate as contemplated within the psychedelics industry; that the Company will be effective in obtaining the patents applied for synthesizing ibogaine, or synthesizing ibogaine, or developing synthesized ibogaine for research, medical or commercial use; that MINDCURE will advance wellness worldwide; that iSTRYM will be brought to commercial deployment in the near term or otherwise or that it will reduce symptoms, improve quality of life, or support transformation and healing, or that the deployment may not occur at the scale or within the time frame contemplated.

Although MINDCURE has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information presented, there may be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements as no forward-looking information can be guaranteed.

Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and MINDCURE does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

SOURCE Mind Cure Health Inc.
5 DAYS LEFT TO SEEK LEAD PLAINTIFF STATUS before May 2, 2022 **

NEW YORK, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Moore Kuehn, PLLC is investigating potential claims against:

BlockFi

A class action lawsuit was filed against BlockFi claiming BlockFi, BlockFi, Inc. ("BFI"), BlockFi Trading, LLC ("Trading"), and BlockFi Lending, LLC ("Lending") for violations of the Securities Act of 1933 and seeks to represent all people in the United States who enrolled in a BlockFi Interest Account/Crypto Interest Account.

BFI is a financial services company that generates revenue through cryptocurrency trading, lending, and borrowing, as well as engaging in proprietary trading.

The BlockFi class action lawsuit alleges that since March 4, 2019 BFI, through its affiliates Lending and Trading, has been, at least in part, funding its lending operations and proprietary trading through the sale of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency interest-earning accounts.

On or around February 14, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") "charged BlockFi Lending LLC (BlockFi) with failing to register the offers and sales of its retail crypto lending product." Further, "[t]o settle the SEC's charges, BlockFi agreed to pay a $50 million penalty, cease its unregistered offers and sales of the lending product, BlockFi Interest Accounts (BIAs), and attempt to bring its business within the provisions of the Investment Company Act within 60 days. BlockFi's parent company also announced that it intends to register under the Securities Act of 1933 the offer and sale of a new lending product. In parallel actions, BlockFi agreed to pay an additional $50 million in fines to 32 states to settle similar charges."

Blockfi Interest Account/Crypto Interest Account holders may still apply for lead plaintiff. A lead plaintiff acts on behalf of all other class members in directing the BlockFi class action lawsuit.

If you want more information or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Fletcher Moore, Esq. by email at [email protected] or telephone at (212) 709-8245.

There is no cost to you. Moore Kuehn is a New York-based law firm with attorneys representing investors and consumers.

Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Moore Kuehn, PLLC

Fletcher Moore, Esq.

30 Wall Street, 8th Floor

New York, New York 10005

[email protected]

(212) 709-8245

SOURCE Moore Kuehn, PLLC
The Soothing Peony Milky Lotion's lightweight formula, with Japanese Peony Extract, sinks right into the skin and seals in moisture, providing a level of hydration that lasts all day. The scent is a refreshingly light, clean, floral combination.

MyKirei by KAO has always put the environment at the forefront of its offerings, beginning with its revolutionary personal care and hair-care products housed in patented AIR Bottles, refillable Bottles for Life, and now Eco-Holders. To ensure similar standards and quality for its body lotions, MyKirei by KAO commissioned Japanese artists to create bottle designs based on the traditional crafts of Sashiko, an embroidery technique, and Urushi, a lacquer technique. In winning a 2022 Smart Beauty Award, MyKirei by KAO Soothing Peony Milky Lotion and Eco-Holder prove that environmental responsibility isn't just a trend but a priority for consumers and editors alike.

About MyKirei by KAO: Launched in April 2020, MyKirei by KAO is a personal care line founded on the Japanese philosophy that caring for ourselves, our society, and the world around us makes life more beautiful. The line includes innovations like biodegradable formulas, plant-based cleansing materials, and packaging that brings less plastic into your home. It also incorporates traditional Japanese ingredients like Yuzu and Rice Water. The 16-item personal care line includes hair care items, Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner, both formulated with Tsubaki and Rice Water, hand soap items, Nourishing Hand Wash, Paw Print Foam Hand Wash, and the viral Yuzu Flower Foam Hand Wash, all with Yuzu Extract and Rice Water, and body care products, Foam Body Wash and Nourishing Body Wash, both with Yuzu Extract and Rice Water, plus the newest Soothing Peony Milky Lotion and Eco-Holder. All items have refills available for them.

About Kao USA Inc.: Kao USA Inc. is a leading manufacturer of premium beauty care brands recognized worldwide for their innovation and quality. The Kao USA Inc. portfolio includes; Jergens and Curel hand and body lotions; Biore facial care; John Frieda hair care, Ban antiperspirants, as well as Goldwell, KMS and Oribe professional hair care and Molton Brown products for body and home. Founded in 1882, Kao USA Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kao Corporation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT TRACTENBERG & CO.

LAUREN DONNER | [email protected]

SOURCE MyKirei by KAO
WASHINGTON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts are in orbit following their launch to the International Space Station at 3:52 a.m. EDT Wednesday, April 27, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The international crew of astronauts will serve as the fourth commercial crew rotation mission aboard the space station.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying Mission Commander Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Bob Hines, and Mission Specialist Jessica Watkins, all NASA astronauts, and Mission Specialist Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency). The crew will conduct a science expedition in microgravity aboard the space station.

"Liftoff! The past few days at Kennedy Space Center have been inspiring and busy with the return of the Axiom crew and now the successful launch of Crew-4 astronauts to the International Space Station," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "Aboard station, Kjell, Bob, Jessica, and Samantha will carry out research investigations that will help NASA prepare for longer duration stays on the Moon  and eventually Mars. These missions wouldn't be possible without the dedicated NASA and SpaceX teams here on Earth. Godspeed, Crew-4!"

This Crew-4 mission is the first launch for Hines and Watkins, and the second flight to the station for Lindgren and Cristoforetti. It launched in a new Dragon spacecraft, named Freedom by the crew, and a Falcon 9 booster flying its fourth mission into space. This is the fifth SpaceX flight with NASA astronauts  including the Demo-2 test flight in 2020 to the space station  as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program.

During Dragon's flight, SpaceX will monitor a series of automatic spacecraft maneuvers from its mission control center in Hawthorne, California, and NASA teams will monitor space station operations throughout the flight from the Mission Control Center at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Dragon will dock autonomously to the space-facing port of the station's Harmony module around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 27. NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency's website are providing ongoing live coverage through docking, and hatch opening. NASA also will cover the ceremony to welcome the crew aboard the orbital outpost about 2:40 a.m. on Thursday, April 28.

"NASA, SpaceX and our international partners have worked tirelessly to ensure that the International Space Station continues conducting important research in microgravity, and working on a whole host of activities that benefit humanity and opens up access to more people in space," said Kathryn Lueders, associate administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. "Crew-4's launch, less than two days after the return of the first all-private mission to station, exemplifies the spirit and success of the Commercial Crew Program to help maximize use of low-Earth orbit for years to come, testing the technologies we need for the Artemis program and beyond."

Lindgren, Hines, Watkins, and Cristoforetti will join the space station's Expedition 67 crew of Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, all NASA astronauts, Matthias Maurer of ESA, and cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Sergey Korsakov, and Denis Matveev of Roscosmos. For a short time, the number of crew aboard the space station will increase to 11 people until Crew-3 astronauts Chari, Marshburn, Barron, and Maurer return to Earth a few days later.

Crew-4 is the third commercial crew mission to fly an ESA astronaut.

"It gives me great pleasure to see the successful launch of Samantha Cristoforetti and her Crew-4 colleagues. Samantha will take over from Matthias Maurer and continue to represent Europe and support European experiments aboard the space station throughout her mission," says ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.

ESA Director of Human and Robotic Exploration David Parker adds, "Samantha has been an excellent role model  even more so as on the space station she will take on the role of USOS lead, responsible for operations within the U.S. Orbital Segment of the International Space Station, comprising of American, European, Japanese and Canadian modules and components."

The Crew-4 astronauts will spend several months aboard the space station conducting new scientific research in areas such as materials science, health technologies, and plant science to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth.

The Crew-4 mission continues NASA's efforts to maintain American leadership in human spaceflight. Regular, long-duration commercial crew rotation missions enable NASA to continue the important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the station. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future exploration of the Moon and Mars, starting with the agency's Artemis missions, which includes landing the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface.

Lindgren is commander of the Dragon spacecraft and the Crew-4 mission. He is responsible for all phases of flight, from launch to re-entry, and will serve as an Expedition 67 flight engineer. This will be Lindgren's second spaceflight since becoming an astronaut in 2009. In 2015, he spent 141 days aboard the orbital laboratory as a flight engineer for expeditions 44 and 45. Board certified in emergency medicine, he previously worked at NASA Johnson as a flight surgeon supporting space station training and operations and served as a deputy crew surgeon for space shuttle flight STS-130 and Expedition 24. Lindgren was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and spent most of his childhood in England before graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Hines is the pilot of the Dragon spacecraft and second in command for the mission. He is responsible for spacecraft systems and performance. Aboard the station, he will serve as an Expedition 67 flight engineer. This will be his first flight since his selection as an astronaut in 2017. Hines has served more than 22 years in the U.S. Air Force as a test pilot, fighter pilot, and instructor pilot. Before his selection in 2017, he was a research pilot at Johnson.

Watkins is a mission specialist for Crew-4 and will work closely with the commander and pilot to monitor the spacecraft during the dynamic launch and re-entry phases of flight. Once aboard the station, she will serve as a flight engineer for Expedition 67. Watkins grew up in Lafayette, Colorado, and studied geology at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, and the University of California, Los Angeles. As a geologist, she studied the surface of Mars and was a science team collaborator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, working on the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity. She also was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017, and this will be her first trip to space.

Cristoforetti will also serve as a mission specialist, working to monitor the Dragon spacecraft during the dynamic launch and re-entry phases of flight. She will serve as a flight engineer for Expedition 67. This will be her second trip to space following five months in 2015 as a flight engineer for Expeditions 42 and 43. Born in Milan, Italy, she was a fighter pilot in the Italian Air Force prior to being selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009. In 2019, she served as commander for NASA's 23rd Extreme Environment Mission Operations mission on a 10-day stay in Aquarius, the world's only undersea research station.

Learn more about NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 and Commercial Crew Program at:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

SOURCE NASA
Churchill Downs Welcomes New Sponsors, Licensees for the 148th Run for the Roses

LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Churchill Downs Racetrack today welcomes an exciting lineup of new sponsors and licensees to the 148th Kentucky Derby, taking place on Saturday, May 7, including BMW of North America, Monogram, FTD, Red Bull and AIR.

Outside of being The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports, the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve presents endless opportunities for brands to engage with fans, whether attending the race or celebrating from home. Bringing together world-class hospitality, high-end fashion and gourmet food, the Kentucky Derby seeks luxury and lifestyle partners to elevate the party experience and highlight Derby traditions in new ways.

"We're very excited to welcome these lifestyle brands to the greatest race on earth," said Casey Ramage, Churchill Downs Racetrack's Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships. "From a first look at BMW's all-new electric vehicle to unique, Derby-inspired clothing and accessories, our new sponsors and licensees will help bring to life the luxury and excitement of the Kentucky Derby for fans across the globe."

The 2022 new Kentucky Derby sponsors and activations include:

BMW of North America , the first-ever luxury auto partner of the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs, will showcase the all-new BMW 7 Series at the racetrack throughout Derby weekend, including the first-ever, fully electric BMW i7. To honor "The Run for the Roses," BMW also will activate with a live flower wall spotlighting more than 7,000 roses and lilies.

, the first-ever luxury auto partner of the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs, will showcase the all-new BMW 7 Series at the racetrack throughout Derby weekend, including the first-ever, fully electric BMW i7. To honor "The Run for the Roses," BMW also will activate with a live flower wall spotlighting more than 7,000 roses and lilies. Woodford Reserve , the presenting sponsor of the 148 th Kentucky Derby, is expanding its on-site partnership to include the Homestretch Club, which will feature the "Woodford Reserve Bar," the longest bar in the Commonwealth of Kentucky at 95 feet in length, for fans to come together and toast to race day.

, the presenting sponsor of the 148 Kentucky Derby, is expanding its on-site partnership to include the Homestretch Club, which will feature the "Woodford Reserve Bar," the longest bar in the Commonwealth of at 95 feet in length, for fans to come together and toast to race day. FTD, an industry leader in online flower delivery, will join as the first floral partner, providing red rose-inspired floral arrangements in select premium spaces throughout the racetrack, as well as a floral photography experience for social sharing moments.

Premium-grade appliance brand Monogram will provide a luxury kitchen experience with global icon, Chef Marcus Samuelsson , who will create his own flavorful Derby bite  bourbon-glazed chicken with peanut succotash on a savory pancake. The dish will be highlighted live by NBC on Derby Day.

, who will create his own flavorful Derby bite  bourbon-glazed chicken with peanut succotash on a savory pancake. The dish will be highlighted live by on Derby Day. Red Bull will bring the energy to the Infield with its DJ Booth, entertaining fans throughout the day with the ultimate party experience.

will bring the energy to the Infield with its DJ Booth, entertaining fans throughout the day with the ultimate party experience. AIR, creators of personal eVTOL aircraft, will be hosting their AIR ONE kickoff event inside the exclusive Green Room for celebrities and VIPs on Kentucky Derby and Oaks Days.

In addition, new licensees this year bring a fresh take to Derby clothing and accessories, celebrating the tradition of the iconic race, while infusing modern, innovative design:

London-born handbag brand Radley London has designed a stylish collection of bags and wristlets.

has designed a stylish collection of bags and wristlets. Black-owned brand Homme+Femme elevates the rich and historic traditions of the Kentucky Derby through the unique, modern lens of streetwear fashion.

elevates the rich and historic traditions of the Kentucky Derby through the unique, modern lens of streetwear fashion. HOMAGE turns back the clock with six vintage-inspired Churchill Downs t-shirt designs.

turns back the clock with six vintage-inspired Churchill Downs t-shirt designs. Tiny Turnip offers Derby-inspired Mommy and Me designs, including t-shirts and onesies.

Official sponsors of the 148th Kentucky Derby also include Ford, Longines, Jackson Family Wines, White Claw and vineyard vines.

Official Kentucky Derby merchandise and accessories are available online at www.KentuckyDerbyStore.com.

ABOUT THE KENTUCKY DERBY

The $3 million Kentucky Derby takes place on the first Saturday in May at historic Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Inaugurated in 1875, the legendary 1 1/4-mile race for 3-year-olds is the longest continually-held major sporting event in the United States and the first leg of horse racing's Triple Crown series. Also known as "The Run for the Roses" and "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports," the Kentucky Derby is the most attended horse race in the nation. This year, the Kentucky Derby will take place on May 7, 2022. For more information, please visit www.KentuckyDerby.com.

ABOUT CHURCHILL DOWNS RACETRACK

Churchill Downs Racetrack ("CDRT"), the world's most legendary racetrack, has been the home of The Kentucky Derby, the longest continually held annual sporting event in the United States, since 1875. Located in Louisville, CDRT features a series of themed race days during Derby Week, including the Kentucky Oaks, and conducts Thoroughbred horse racing during three race meets in the Spring, September, and the Fall. CDRT is located on 175 acres and has a one-mile dirt track, a 7/8-mile turf track, a stabling area, and provides seating for approximately 60,000 guests. The saddling paddock and the stable area has barns sufficient to accommodate 1,400 horses and a 114-room dormitory for backstretch personnel. CDRT also has a year-round simulcast wagering facility. www.ChurchillDowns.com.

SOURCE Churchill Downs Racetrack
"Violet has been a beloved and inspirational leader in our organization and in the Northwest Indiana community for nearly 30 years," said Lloyd Yates, NiSource President and CEO. "Her impacts on NiSource and our operating companies throughout her impressive career have been numerous and lasting. She has been an invaluable member of our leadership team and a trusted and respected advisor to all of us. I and the entire NiSource community will miss working with Violet, and we wish her the best in her well-deserved retirement."

Earlier in her NiSource career, Violet served as Vice President, Customer Contact Centers. While in that position, she directed the operation of NiSource's customer contact centers and managed customer service for the 3.7 million residential natural gas and electric customers served by NiSource's energy distribution companies at that time.

Later, Violet served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, with responsibilities for information technology, supply chain, real estate and facilities management. In 2015, Violet was chosen to lead the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) as President  a role she held until 2020, when she was asked to lead NiSource's Experience Organization, which includes customer service, human resources, diversity equity & Inclusion and communications.

In addition, Violet co-founded NiSource's Women in Leadership initiative over 10 years ago, which led to the formation of the company's DAWN employee resource group, a women's mentoring program and the company's overall diversity initiatives.

"I have always believed that leading with integrity brings the best out of people," Violet said upon reflecting on her career. "I've been fortunate to lead a number of highly impactful teams over the years and am proud of their many contributions to the company.

"My time with NiSource has been much, much more than the roles I've held. I will always cherish the many relationships I've built with this wonderful group of people over the years, and the opportunities I've had to mentor and develop talent at all levels of their careers, especially other women and diverse leaders.

"I believe NiSource and its talented employees are well positioned for continued success, and I look forward to the company's next stage of growth."

In addition to NiSource, Violet is also a highly respected leader in Northwest Indiana, where she held the role of Chair of the area's One Region organization, as well as serving on the boards of the Girl Scouts of Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland, the Indiana Energy Associates and the Edison Electric Institute.

Violet will remain with the company until July 1 while a national search is underway for her replacement.

About NiSource

NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI) is one of the largest fully regulated utility companies in the United States, serving approximately 3.2 million natural gas customers and 500,000 electric customers across six states through its local Columbia Gas and NIPSCO brands. Based in Merrillville, Indiana, NiSource's approximately 7,500 employees are focused on safely delivering reliable and affordable energy to the customers and communities we serve. NiSource is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index  North America. Additional information about NiSource, its investments in modern infrastructure and systems, its commitments and its local brands can be found at www.nisource.com. Follow us at www.facebook.com/nisource, www.linkedin.com/company/nisource or www.twitter.com/nisourceinc. NI-F

SOURCE NiSource Inc.
LUXEMBOURG and PARIS, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The NowCM Group ("NowCM"), the leading digital solutions and infrastructure provider for the primary debt markets, together with Liquidnet, the global institutional investment network, has successfully performed its first simulation of a deal origination and order submission.

The simulation involved two leading dealer banks, transaction counsel and a leading European frequent issuer, together with Liquidnet. It delivered the real-time production and negotiation of a complete set of transaction documentation in English and German on NowDocs, NowCM's documentation platform.

The key transaction information and new issue data was shared electronically with Liquidnet's primary market workflow tools, designed to connect institutional investors to actionable electronic data in the syndication process.

Robert Koller, CEO and founder of NowCM, said: "We are grateful to have had the opportunity to test the complete workflow with these prestigious market participants. We now not only have flexibility in the production of any transaction document in our digital documentation modules, we can also involve an unlimited number of parties to negotiate these live on syndicated debt transactions. This can include both investors and dealer banks, all within a MiFID II compliant environment."

Koller added: "We look forward to making several important rollout announcements in the coming weeks which will show the benefits of a fully integrated value chain which is truly end-to-end and not simply focused on a small part of the issuance process. The digital primary debt markets are now finally ready for take-off."

Paul Tregidgo, Head of Primary Markets at Liquidnet, commented: "NowCM is a highly innovative firm looking to optimize the capital creation process. We are happy with the results of this successful test environment transaction demonstrating the importance of connectivity between various parts of the transaction chain. The outcome shows how a connected digital process can improve the primary markets user experience for all parties involved and exemplifies that working together with partners through open architecture can bring value to the market."

About NowCM

NowCM is the leading digital solutions and infrastructure provider for the primary debt markets. It provides a unique end-to-end digital solution where companies can offer established issuers with a digital transaction workflow, or, in the case of new entrants, with a CMaaS (Capital Markets as a Service) funding "subsidiary" using standardised documentation. The NowCM solution is relevant for both large and small companies and provides improved harmonisation of capital markets in a MiFID II and CMU compliant environment, without media breaks. Following the acquisition of NowCP in France, NowCM owns and operates a multi-lateral trading facility which is the world's first and only primary marketplace, regulated by the ACPR and AMF (France). NowCM, is also a member of Swift.

The NowCM Group consists of several entities including eppf S.A., a securitisation vehicle established under Luxembourg law and supervised by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier. For further information, visit www.NowCM.eu and follow us on twitter @NowCM_EU

About Liquidnet

Liquidnet is a technology-driven, global institutional investment network that intelligently connects the world's investors to the world's investments. Since our founding in 1999, our network has grown to include more than 1,000 institutional investors that collectively manage $33 trillion in equity and fixed income assets. Our network spans 46 markets across six continents and seamlessly connects institutional brokers, investment banks, exchanges, alternative trading venues, and a growing list of data and research providers. We built to make global capital markets more efficient, and continue to do so by adding additional participants, enabling trusted access to trading and investment opportunities, and delivering the actionable intelligence and insight that our customers need. Liquidnet Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries are part of TP ICAP Group plc. For more information, visit www.liquidnet.com and follow us on Twitter @Liquidnet.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1780722/NowCM_Logo.jpg

Media Contact: Robert Koller, CAIA

CEO

Phone: +352 2786 8000

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE NowCM
Some know Olga in her regular capacity as a Nurse Practitioner affiliated with National Spine and Pain Centers (NSPC) in Gainesville, Georgia. Over the next few weeks, Olga will take on a new role as a humanitarian volunteer on the Polish-Ukrainian border. She parts from her husband and two young daughters at home in Georgia to head into the war zone.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 created a heart-wrenching refugee crisis. Nearly 4.8 million Ukrainians have left their country in dire and uncertain circumstances. Many flee by train across the Polish-Ukrainian border and temporarily stop in Warsaw before heading out to other parts of Europe. Olga will spend the first part of her trip in Warsaw, interpreting for refugees that arrive at the Central Railway Station. She will also go to different Welcome Centers, offering refugees temporary housing during their stay in Poland. Olga is originally from Russia, but her mother is Ukrainian. She speaks fluent Russian, which allows her to communicate with Ukrainian refugees since the two languages are fairly similar.

During the second part of her trip, Olga will cross the Polish-Ukrainian border to the war zone. She will work alongside a doctor and a paramedic in a Humanitarian Aid Center in the small village of Shagini. Olga will use her skills as a pain management nurse while working with Ukrainian refugees, mostly women, children, and the elderly. These people may have some physical injuries but also suffer from depression, anxiety, poor sleep, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The refugees share similar challenges to the chronic pain patients Olga works with in the United States.

"Ukrainian refugees are going through both physical and mental pain in unimaginable ways. I encounter these challenges in treating pain patients every day and hope to apply the same approach to working with the refugees," say Olga. "My biggest tools with any patient, are listening to their stories, show understanding and compassion, offer options and most important  offer hope," she says.

Besides her courage and medical abilities, Olga takes with her 18 suitcases of medications and medical supplies to Ukraine. Some supplies were graciously donated by National Spine and Pain Centers and other individual donors. Dr. Peter Staats, Chief Medical Officer of NSPC, arranged for a donation of 10 noninvasive Vagus Nerve Stimulators from electroCore. These top-notch devices are FDA cleared for migraines and have received a breakthrough designation from the FDA for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), common issues in people traumatized by war. Olga also used her private funds to buy combat-grade tourniquets, currently in short supply on the battlefields.

"One of the core values of our organization is: We go the extra mile in all internal and external relationships", says Douglas Wisor, MD, Chief Executive Officer of National Spine and Pain Centers. "Of course, we have people in our organization who do that every day, but by selflessly leaving her family behind to help Ukrainian refugees in their time of greatest need  as a medical professional and on a personal level  Olga represents the true essence of a hero," concluded Dr. Wisor.

About National Spine and Pain Centers:

For more than 30 years, NSPC affiliated physicians have been pioneers in the relief of chronic and acute pain through minimally invasive procedures and leading-edge clinical research. Today, with more than 130 locations and 1,250 medical professionals facilitating one million patient visits a year, NSPC continues to be the healthcare brand more people trust for access to pain relief providers than any other. NSPC's stated mission is to end needless human pain and suffering by facilitating world-class care. For more information, visit www.NationalSpine.com.

SOURCE National Spine and Pain Centers
TOKYO, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nippon Express (India) Private Limited (hereinafter "NX India"), a company of the Nippon Express Holdings, Inc. group, has recently completed construction of a school building on the premises of the Government Kannada Boys Model School as part of its long-standing commitment to CSR activities. The building was donated to the school at a handover ceremony held on March 23.

Logo: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/img/202204210296-O1-JYSoUwCo

Photo1: Government Kannada Boys Model School

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M103866/202204210296/_prw_PI2fl_PQIx9W6O.jpg

Photo2: At handover ceremony with Karnataka government officials

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M103866/202204210296/_prw_PI3fl_055Axk7K.jpg

A "model school" equates to a combined elementary and junior high school in Japan, and approximately 700 students attend this school for eight years from age six. Upon learning that India's growing population had created a shortage of classrooms, NX India decided to build and donate a two-story school building featuring six classrooms with tiled floors and ventilation equipment not found in other classrooms. A completion ceremony and prayer preceded the handover ceremony, where school officials warmly welcomed NX India representatives and expressed their thanks.

The NX Group has developed alongside society by transporting goods and thereby connecting people, companies and communities, and it will continue fulfilling these responsibilities as well as actively engaging in social contribution activities.

Name of school: Government Kannada Boys Model School

Address: KR Road, Hosakote Town, Bangalore Rural District, Karnataka 562114

Nippon Express website: https://www.nipponexpress.com/

NX Group's official LinkedIn account:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/nippon-express-group/

SOURCE Nippon Express Holdings, Inc.
Pica8 Will Demonstrate the Pica8 Enterprise Automation Software Suite

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pica8, a leader in enterprise networking software, today announced it will be presenting in Networking Field Day #28, part of the Tech Field Day conference series hosted by Gestalt IT Media LLC. The series is intended to bring together vendors and independent bloggers, freelance writers, speakers and influencers in the online communities to participate in an active demonstration forum for technology products important in the open marketplace today.

This event marks the second time Pica8 will be participating in Networking Field Day, following on a successful event at the previous seminar in January.

"We are pleased to again host Pica8 at Networking Field Day," said Tom Hollingsworth, Event Lead, Gestalt IT. "We had an effective introduction to the company previously and are now ready for an in-depth look at the product solution with our distinguished panel of technical delegates."

Pica8 technical professionals will be present to demonstrate the Pica8 Enterprise Automation Software Suite. When installed on any common white box networking hardware, the Pica8 solution is an effective answer to the question of how to maximize administration power in your network. Switch deployment, management and orchestration is accomplished through a simple graphical user interface that is easily automated. Common networking tasks that can sometimes take hours or days are now a single button push that can be scheduled at your convenience.

"Pica8 is now featuring Zero Trust Automation to help our customers securely support more users and devices in hybrid and campus network environments," said Mani Subramanian, Senior Technical Marketing Engineer for Pica8. "Automation will be a non-negotiable tool in today's ever expanding network environments, saving valuable administration time."

In addition, Pica8's easy single-term licensing can be the answer to simplifying your network cost structure with all-inclusive security, virtualization, automation and analytics features. Pica8 provides a flat fee product with a buy once / run anywhere model.

"Our single license and product model makes it easy to manage, automate and secure your network use cases," said Lance Gallardo, Senior Sales Engineer for Pica8. "It is the same Pica8 software, with a single, simple license, for enterprise campus, data center, branch office, IoT networks and more."

"Productivity begins at the edge," said Neal Trieber, Senior Sales Engineer for Pica8. "Virtualization automation with EVPN-VXLAN from the core all the way to the edge with the same, single license makes it easy to deploy and manage."

Watch Pica8's live presentation on Friday, May 6, at 2:00 pm Pacific Time here:

https://techfieldday.com/appearance/pica8-presents-at-networking-field-day-28/

About Pica8

Pica8 is the industry's open networking software alternative to Cisco, Juniper and Arista for the enterprise. Pica8's AmpConO Network Controller for centralized management and automation and PicOSO Software Switches for networking and security have successfully replaced Cisco DNA Center and Catalyst Switches and competing Juniper and Arista solutions for campus, data center and distributed site networks within Fortune 500 enterprises. Pica8 software is deployed at over 1,000 customers in over 40 countries. For more information, visit www.pica8.com

Media Contact

Kelly LeBlanc, Chief Marketing Officer, Pica8

[email protected]

SOURCE Pica8
Practifi Sets Sight on Powering the Future of the Wealth Management Industry

CHICAGO, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Practifi, a performance optimization platform for the wealth management industry, today announced the company has evolved its brand to align with its growth, vision and suite of new platform capabilities. Practifi's forward-looking solutions are driving the future of wealth management across the spectrum, with the firm's platform offerings addressing the ever-expanding needs of the RIA market and enterprise market.

In the past nine months, Practifi built more functionality and features on its platform to further support the RIA industry, while expanding its platform to help enterprise clients achieve their business goals and drive efficiencies. Practifi's previous and upcoming product releases build off the platform's brand evolution and will continue to include new solutions designed with both enterprise and RIA firms in mind.

Newer platform capabilities include:

Business Development Application: Tracks the ROI of growth activities and improves operational efficiency with comprehensive life cycle management through M&A and network expansion.

Tracks the ROI of growth activities and improves operational efficiency with comprehensive life cycle management through M&A and network expansion. Deliverables: Reduce compliance risk by managing deliverable fulfillment in one convenient location; with automatic reminders, detailed tracking and pre-built deliverables reports.

Reduce compliance risk by managing deliverable fulfillment in one convenient location; with automatic reminders, detailed tracking and pre-built deliverables reports. Profitability Reporting: Identify which advisors, clients and services are moving the needle for the firm with profitability reports that surface key revenue and cost drivers.

Identify which advisors, clients and services are moving the needle for the firm with profitability reports that surface key revenue and cost drivers. Next-Generation Workflow Experience: Increases efficiency and captures data seamlessly with a range of enhancements to workflow and automation capabilities.

Increases efficiency and captures data seamlessly with a range of enhancements to workflow and automation capabilities. Expanded Role-Based Applications: Unify teams within Practifi through bespoke experiences and dashboards for different roles within a firm.

Unify teams within Practifi through bespoke experiences and dashboards for different roles within a firm. Microsoft 365 Email Sync: Increases operational efficiency and reduces compliance risk with automatic email capture, ensuring email history in Practifi is comprehensive and accurate.

Practifi also has an open API that allows for deeper, more custom integrations with industry-leading partners to help both RIAs and enterprise firms build their ideal tech stack.

Adrian Johnstone, President, and Co-Founder of Practifi said, "We want to awaken the industry to the possibilities available through better technology and partnerships, transforming data into insights, action and excellence at scale. We want to help wealth management firms go beyond the traditional CRM and redefine what's possible."

Practifi's platform and brand evolution align with the firm's aspirations to power the future of wealth management. Built on the world's No. 1 enterprise cloud, Practifi is secure, reliable and massively scalable. With an extensive list of industry features and integration capabilities, Practifi has a library of ever-growing APIs and best-in-class integration partners.

Glenn Elliott, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder of Practifi said, "This is the next chapter of our business after experiencing tremendous growth since being here. We've set our sights on building better technology and challenging conventions for better results that move the wealth management industry forward." Johnstone added, "We're deeply proud to have helped so many firms and clients solve their CRM needs and grow their business. As the industry and our clients continue to grow, we want to grow alongside it. That means pioneering bold ideas that power the future of wealth management. With our new approach, we aim to 'power more possibilities'."

About Practifi

Practifi is the performance optimization platform purpose-built for the wealth management industry. Practifi empowers teams to automate workflows, create rich client records, and access advanced analytics in a unified experience. With comprehensive APIs, a range of specialist wealth industry integrations, and an ecosystem of hundreds of integrated apps, our platform centralizes data and gives greater visibility across organizations. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with offices in Sydney, Australia, Practifi enables organizations across the globe to deepen loyalty with their clients and pioneer the future of wealth management. To learn more, visit practifi.com .

SOURCE Practifi
Join 2:00 pm ET, April 27 in Titusville or on Facebook Live

TITUSVILLE, Fla., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time, Crosley Green and his Crowell & Moring pro bono legal team will outline their plans to keep Green free as they ask the full 11-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a recent three-judge panel decision that holds Green's freedom in the balance. The impact of their decision could re-affirm that prosecutors should not hide evidence directly pointing to a defendant's innocence and therefore impact how prosecutors handle evidence of all crimes in the future. The court will decide whether to grant reconsideration in the coming weeks. Join the press conference in Titusville, Fla. or via live stream on Facebook live (details below).

In March, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Green, reversing a 2018 landmark habeas victory that overturned his conviction because prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence that the first-responding officers concluded another individual was the murderer.

Green now faces the possibility of having his freedom snatched away and being thrown back in prison for a murder he did not commit. Green served nearly 32 years in prison, including 19 years on Florida's death row, while steadfastly maintaining his innocence. He was released in April 2021 on house arrest while his case is pending appeal. Lawyers for Green filed a petition to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for a rehearing on April 21. Crowell & Moring has represented Green pro bono since 2008 on referral from the ABA Death Penalty Project.

Green's attorneys will address:

The significant implications of the panel's decision, which allows prosecutors to conceal critical evidence from defense counsel.

What's next in Green's long fight for justice as the 11 th Circuit Court of Appeals considers whether the full 11-judge court will rehear the case, and what happens if they do not.

Circuit Court of Appeals considers whether the full 11-judge court will rehear the case, and what happens if they do not. A look at the trail of exonerations and other Brevard County cases from the late 1980s and 1990s that demonstrate a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct.

Green will be joined by members of his family. Green will address:

How he is handling the possibility of returning to prison.

What it has meant to live outside prison for the past year as he has reconciled with his family, kept a job, and met grandchildren for the first time.

Green and his family will answer questions.

Also speaking will be Diane Clarke, who was a Brevard County Sheriff's Office Patrol Sergeant and one of the two first-responding officers on the crime scene. The court opinion putting Green's freedom in jeopardy turns on whether information Clarke had that was not disclosed by the state would have been helpful to the defense. Clarke will address what she observed and why she told prosecutors that another person was the likely murderer.

Quotes for attribution:

"If prosecutors are allowed to conceal and hide evidence pointing to innocence from defense counsel, it could impact every criminal defendant going forward throughout the 11 th CircuitFlorida, Georgia , and Alabama ," said Crowell & Moring partner Keith J. Harrison , pro bono counsel to Green.

"Prosecutors pushed me to plead guilty. But I refused because I was innocent, and I believed that the truth would come out in the justice system. Now, it is my faith in God and the love of my family that keeps me going. Everyone should be afraid of what happened to me because it could happen to anyone," said Green.

Members of the media, please RSVP via [email protected]. Exclusive interviews with Green and other speakers will be provided before and after the press conference as requested prior to the conference. Please advise special requests in advance.

Press conference (in-person):

2:00 pm ET, April 27

Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church

801 Dummitt Ave., Titusville, FL 32780

*Built in 1889, Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church is the largest African-American church in Titusville, Fla.

On Facebook Live:

https://www.facebook.com/crosleygreen/

Speakers (Lawyers):

Speakers (Green Family):

Crosley Green

Shirley White (sister to Green)

(sister to Green) O'Connor Green (brother to Green)

Additional Speakers:

Diane Clarke , a former Brevard County Sheriff's Office Patrol Sergeant and one of the two first-responding officers on the crime scene

, a former Sheriff's Office Patrol Sergeant and one of the two first-responding officers on the crime scene Kenneth B. Nunn , Professor of Law and Dr. Patricia Hilliard-Nunn Memorial Racial Justice Term Professor (2021-22), University of Florida , Levin College of Law

More details of the case can be found here.

About Crowell & Moring LLP

Crowell & Moring LLP is an international law firm with offices in the United States, Europe, MENA, and Asia that represents clients in litigation and arbitration, regulatory and policy, and transactional and corporate matters. The firm is internationally recognized for its representation of Fortune 500 companies in high-stakes litigation and government-facing matters, as well as its ongoing commitment to pro bono service and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Media Contact:

Nicole Quigley

Senior Communications Advisor

+1 202.624.2489

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Crowell & Moring LLP
SHENZHEN, China, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- April 27 marks the 7th anniversary of the inauguration of Qianhai Shekou Free Trade Zone, whose day-to-day changes are always fascinating. According to Authority of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, in 2021, the number of Hong Kong-funded enterprises registered in Qianhai has increased by 156% year-on-year, and the actual use of Hong Kong capital accounts for 93.8% of the total foreign investments. Its Q1 2022 actual use of Hong Kong capital amounted to US$1.272bn, accounting for 92.97% of its foreign investments, a rise of 148.01%.

At the junctures of the global economic recovery, China continues to renew the layout of Qianhai, incorporating the development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Institutional innovation turns to be the foundation for cultivating a first-class business environment in Qianhai, thus enticing many entrepreneurs from Hong Kong. Any sharp-eyed entrepreneur would lose no time in seizing the opportunities.

Xu Ziyan is among Hong Kong youth to start their business in Qianhai. This 90's girl has just registered her company here, believing that Qianhai is the first choice for Hong Kongers to do business in Chinese mainland. Previously, she has visited Qianhai many times for feasibility study.

Located in the west of Shenzhen and on the east bank of the Pearl River Estuary, Qianhai has been designated a "special area of the Special Economic Zone" since the State Council approved the Overall Development Plan for Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industrial Cooperation Area of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in 2010. Qianhai's institutional innovation is "avant-garde" and its soft services and support are "awesome". "Through various meetings, we can speak out our minds straight to the officials. Qianhai government can hear our voices directly," exclaimed Xu Ziyan.

Xu's company focuses on new media business, helping connect Hong Kong brands with the mainland through "live commerce". "By means of the Qianhai platform, not only can we dock to the supply chain, but also to the enterprises in need, which saves us from troubles, kind of like 'finding a needle in a haystack'," she said.

As the outside world sees it, Qianhai Cooperation Area is unswervingly forging a "Qianhai model" with institutional innovation in investment, trade, finance and rule of law as its core, making it an important "source" to be drawn upon by other places of China.

Sun Lecheng, partner of KPMG Intelligent Innovation Space, points out that Qianhai has set far-reaching goals of institutional innovation in the rules, systems, mechanisms and models. Not only is the standard high, but also "practicable and solid".

Qianhai is known to have been promoting institutional innovation in multiple sectors, including justice, finance, supply chain, integration of services and manufacturing industries, new technologies, new business models, and so on. For example, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Law Zone is opened; an International Talent Port created, a Multi-Country Consolidation (MCC) and Maritime Transit Hub and an Outbound Air Service Center set up, the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Financial City established, the World Intellectual Property Organization Technology and Innovation Support Center (WIPO-TISC) inaugurated, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao New R&D Institutions Support Program is being promoted.

Latest statistics show that, up to now, the Qianhai Shekou Free Trade Zone has launched 685 institutional innovations, and more than 80-billion-yuan (US$12.2bn) worth of goods are gathered from all over the world to Qianhai Comprehensive Bonded Zone and then transshipped worldwide.

SOURCE Authority of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone
Real Good Foods Offering Exclusive Access to New Products, Merchandise and Gift Cards to Qualified Shareholders Tweet this

"Community has and will always be our number one priority at Real Good Foods," said Bryan Freeman, Executive Chairman of Real Good Foods. "Our community relationships have grown our brand and propelled our products to over 16,000 stores nationwide. We are pleased to announce our partnership with TiiCKER, which will allow us to directly connect and build relationships with our community of investors and give them exclusive real-good rewardsbecause as a community-focused brand, we want to give back to those who support us the most."

TiiCKER has created a new industry  direct-to-shareholder marketing  by partnering with public companies and major brands to build and grow the first shareholder reward and engagement platform.

"TiiCKER offers Real Good Foods a first-ever way to verify, reward and engage with their growing shareholder baseand attract new investors to their company," said Jeff Lambert (Tii:JEFE), founder and CEO of TiiCKER. "Most consumers have no idea that the brands they love are publicly traded and they can earn rewards for owning stock. We want Real Good Foods' shareholders to taste how rewarding our mutual mission of brand loyalty and fostering community can be."

The TiiCKER mobile apps and web-based platform provide access to product discounts, VIP events and exclusive perks to shareholders, as well as commission-free trading, shareholder stores and editorial content. For public companies, TiiCKER is the only direct-to-consumer platform for CMOs and marketers previously unable to reach their millions of owners, and for investor relations executives to grow and engage their previously ignored retail investors.

To claim shareholder perks offered by Real Good Foods, please visit TiiCKER.com/RGF.

About TiiCKER

Launched in 2020, TiiCKER invented verified stock perks and direct-to-shareholder marketing through its web-based and iOS mobile app software platform, providing consumers and investors a revolutionary way to engage with the brands they love. For America's 130 million retail investors, TiiCKER provides unique access to shareholder perks, commission-free trading and custom articles and content. For its public company partners, TiiCKER creates and markets shareholder loyalty programs, helping companies engage and reward their consumers and owners to maximize Shareholder Lifetime Value. For more information, please visit TiiCKER.com.

About The Real Good Food Company

Founded in 2016, Real Good Foods believes there is a better way to enjoy our favorite foods. Its brand commitment, "Real Food You Feel Good About Eating," represents the Company's strong belief that, by eating its food, consumers can enjoy more of their favorite foods and, by doing so, live better lives as part of a healthier lifestyle. Its mission is to make nutritious comfort foods that are low in carbohydrates, high in protein, and made from gluten and grain free real ingredients more accessible to everyone, improve human health, and, in turn, improve the lives of millions of people. Real Good Foods offers delicious options across breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacking occasions available, in over 16,000 stores nationwide, including Walmart, Costco, Kroger, and Target, and directly from its website at www.realgoodfoods.com. Learn more about Real Good Foods by visiting its website or on Instagram at @realgoodfoods, where it has one of the largest social media followings of any brand within the frozen food industry today with nearly 420,000 followers.

For interviews with Bryan Freeman, Executive Chairman, email [email protected].

Media Contact

Nikole Johnston

[email protected]

Investor Contact

Chris Bevenour

[email protected]

SOURCE Real Good Foods
As Right Whales Face Extinction, Wind Power Gives Millions to Environmental Groups from Maryland to Massachusetts

NANTUCKET, Mass., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- From Maryland to Massachusetts, Wind Power corporations (most of them European-based) gave more than $4.2M to conservation groups since 2018, according to a new report released today by the Save Right Whales Coalition. The coalition is a group of long-time environmental activists, scientists and community leaders from the Northeast dedicated to protecting the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.

rsted, the Danish offshore wind developer, seeks to erect hundreds of wind turbines in coastal waters off the US east coast. The company is an official sponsor of the New Jersey Audubon Societys fundraiser, the World Series of Birding.

The report, "Conflicts of Interest," is among the first to trace financial contributions from the Wind Power industry to environmental organizations in the Northeast. It comes as the Biden administration continues its push for offshore wind-generated electricity to combat climate change. However, controversy surrounds several projects including one already permitted to erect multiple giant wind turbines right in the heart of biologically important habitat for the endangered North Atlantic right whale in waters south of Massachusetts and Rhode Island  a cause one would expect local conservation groups to be fighting. Not only do these turbines harm migrating bird populations, but most scientists believe the impact on the right whale threatens the diminishing population that remains on the planet.

"Our investigation sought to understand why environmental groups that have worked vigorously to protect right whales have gone silent in the face of a massive industrialization of right whale habitat. If the money flow is influencing the actions of these environmental groups, the public deserves to know," said Lisa Linowes, a member of Save the Right Whales Coalition.

The coalition also released an open letter sent to the environmental organizations that took the Wind Power money.

Many of the recipients of the corporate money have either issued statements in support of wind power or remained silent.

"These offshore projects, which could decimate hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, will be built by some of the largest international oil and gas companies in the world," the group said. "Our findings take on suspended belief when one considers rsted's involvement with the New Jersey Audubon Society." The Danish company is the official sponsor of the New Jersey Audubon Society's fundraiser, the World Series of Birding where funds are raised to support bird conservation.

The full report can be found here.

CONTACT:

Trevor FitzGibbon, Silent Partner Inc.

[email protected]

704-775-0487

SOURCE Save Right Whales Coalition
NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Insight Partners published latest research study on " Rotary Indexer Market Forecast to 2028  COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis  By Type (Heavy Duty Rotary Indexer and Light Duty Rotary Indexer), Application (Machine Tools, Semiconductors, Medical Packaging, Automated Welding, Robotics, and Assembly Cutting System), and End-Use Industry (Automotive, Medical & Healthcare, Electronics, Transportation, and Aerospace)", the global rotary indexer market size is expected to grow from $654.90 million in 2021 to $883.96 million by 2028; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2028.

The rotary indexer market growth is driven by the increasing prospects in manufacturing industries and rising uptake of automated assembly machinery in end-use industries.

Get Exclusive Access to Sample Pages of Rotary Indexer Market Size - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis with Strategic Insights at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPTE100000593/

Report Coverage Details Market Size Value in US$ 654.90 million in 2021 Market Size Value by US$ 883.96 million by 2028 Growth rate CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2028. Forecast Period 2021- 2028 Base Year 2021 No. of Pages 195 No. Tables 82 No. of Charts & Figures 88 Historical data available Yes Segments covered Type, Application, and End-Use Industry Regional scope North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Latin America; MEA Country scope US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina Report coverage Revenue forecast, company ranking, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends

Rotary Indexer Market: Competitive Landscape and Key Developments

Bettinelli, Motion Index, Weiss, Destaco, and Sankyo are among the key players profiled in the report on the rotary indexer market. Several other market players were also analyzed to get a holistic view of the rotary indexer market and its ecosystem.

In 2020, the servo controller, well suited for WEISS rotary indexing tables, saves time and effort during project design and decreases the labor required for machine controller programming.

Place Your Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/inquiry/TIPTE100000593/

In 2019, The RS-50A, the newest addition to Nabtesco's product portfolio, was introduced. The RS-50A is a high-performance device in a small, easy-to-install package. The RS-50A is ideal for indexing tables and high-speed, precision applications with weights up to 1500 kg.

Precision rotary indexers are designed for precise motor-driven rotary positioning and indexing operation. They have a low-profile design that helps minimize stack height in multi-axis configurations and enables them to fit in many places where other motorized rotary devices lag in reaching. Precision rotary indexers are designed for high load capacity and smooth flat rotary motions and have a very high acceleration during indexation with low power dissipation. They allow high-duty cycles, high dynamics, outstanding accuracy, low maintenance, and easy integration.

Top and bottom mounting surfaces are precision ground to assure flatness. A precision rotary indexer provides a high repeatable index, zero backlashes, and high precision, torque, and acceleration, wherein the addition of a servo motor eliminates the cost of a reducer. Such advantages of precision rotary indexer make it highly preferable to be used in various manufacturing industries for welding, trimming, packaging, bottling, printing, processing, and other applications.

Precision rotary indexers are used in various applications, such as transporting, metrology, machine tool, semiconductors, robotics, automated welding, medical packaging, assembly, cutting systems, and other applications. These indexers are even used in non-industrial applications, such as theatrical staging. They are employed in various industries, such as life science, electronic manufacturing, semiconductor, machine tool, and automotive. Thus, the associated advantages of precision rotary indexers over conventional ones are augmenting their adoption in vertical industries for various applications, thereby driving the growth of the rotary indexer market.

Connect With Our Research Analyst On: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/speak-to-analyst/TIPTE100000593

The COVID-19 outbreak dramatically impacted the global economy during its peak in 2020 in its initial days, and the crisis hampered the business activities in the manufacturing industry significantly. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the rotary indexer market was experiencing substantial growth due to the growing demand for advanced indexing technology and rising investment in the manufacturing industry. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the GDP rose faster due to a surge in investment from various investors and government support. However, the COVID-19 pandemic certainly slowed down the deployments and investment of rotary indexer solutions that hampered the business dynamics of the rotary indexer market. During the initial days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis restricted all business deals, collaborations, and partnerships that significantly shattered the rotary indexer market.

The manufacturing industry significantly evolved over the years from the industrial revolution when water and steam-powered machines were in use to the adoption of computer and automation technology. Today, the midst of yet another transformation commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, optimizes the third revolution's digitization with smart and autonomous systems fueled by data and machine learning.

Industry 4.0 holds huge potential for manufacturing companies in numerous industries to enable product customization, provide flexibility to meet new demands in real-time, and produce more efficient operations. The focus of developments in industrial automation is centered around advanced technology capabilities, together with enhanced efficiency of the assembly line. The demand for automation is growing as companies in multiple sectors look for new ways to enhance productivity and competitiveness. New trends are emerging due to technological development in the industrial automation machines, such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), collaborative robots, and more precision in manufacturing technology. Thus, the above-mentioned factors are contributing to the global rotary indexer market growth.

Buy Premium Copy of Rotary Indexer Market Size, Share, Revenue, Strategic Insights and Forecasts 2021-2028 Research Report at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/buy/TIPTE100000593/

Rotary Indexer Market: End-Use Industry Overview

Based on end-use industry, the rotary indexer market is segmented into automotive, electronics, medical and healthcare, transportation, and aerospace. The automotive segment led the rotary indexer market share in 2020. The high-performance servo positioners are used for light to heavy-duty applications in the automotive industry and feature large center thru-holes and zero backlash mechanisms. Larger positioners can rotate several tons of automotive body parts in seconds, while smaller parallel and roller gear indexing drive accurately rotate pharmaceutical or electronic components in milliseconds. Automotive applications of rotary indexers include the body in a white component that is being welded, such as frames, doors, and hoods. Many auto parts are also assembled with the equipment, including hinges, latches, motors, sensors, and switches. Thus, rotary indexers are used in various applications within the automotive industry, further fueling the rotary indexer market growth.

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Absolute Rotary Encoders Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type (Mechanical Absolute Encoder, Optical Absolute Encoder, Others); Application (Elevator, NC Machine Tool, Textile Machinery, Others) and Geography

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Robotic Welding Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type (Spot Welding, Arc Welding, and Others), Payload (Less than 50 kg, 50150 kg, and More than 150 kg), and End User (Automotive and Transportation, Electrical and Electronics, Metal and Machinery, and Construction)

About Us:

The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We specialize in industries such as Semiconductor and Electronics, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Biotechnology, Healthcare IT, Manufacturing and Construction, Medical Device, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Chemicals and Materials.

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SOURCE The Insight Partners
RSI Scores Hat Trick by Winning Three Prestigious Awards for BetRivers & PlaySugarHouse Brands

CHICAGO, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rush Street Interactive, Inc. (NYSE: RSI) ("RSI") has been named Operator of the Year, Customer Service Operator of the Year and Social Gaming Operator of the Year at the EGR North America Awards 2022. The EGR Awards are regarded as the gold standard in the online gaming industry, celebrating excellence in the North American online gaming industry. The independent panel of judges for these premier gaming awards, who are all e-gaming experts, recognize the leading operators who have demonstrated outstanding performance over the past year.

For the Operator of the Year award, RSI was judged on its growth and commercial success, player retention, and differentiation and originality of product. RSI stood out from the competition with continued revenue increases, premiere betting content and strong user experience, and its in-house developed online gaming platform.

For the Customer Service Operator of the Year award, RSI was judged on its collaborative and communicative culture as well as continual training and development. RSI differentiated itself from the competition with its unwavering commitment to transparency, excellent customer service and the company's approach to making every player know and feel that they are valued. RSI has won this award every time since its inception.

For the Social Gaming Operator of the Year, RSI was judged on its ability to increase engagement and visitation to land-based casinos while generating growing revenues. RSI's revenue increase, wide selection of game content, strong operations, and in-house developed social gaming software helped RSI rise above the competition to achieve this award.

"It is an honor and especially meaningful for RSI to be recognized by the gaming industry's top leaders for our passion to develop innovative and intuitive betting experiences and for always prioritizing earning and retaining our players' trust," said Richard Schwartz, C.E.O. of Rush Street Interactive. "It's especially rewarding that EGR recognizes that RSI continues to enhance our customer offerings to provide a best-in-class user experience in both social and real-money gaming. The customer service of the year award has only been awarded three times and RSI has won each time, reflecting our dedication to engaging and retaining players."

RSI was previously crowned Casino Operator of the Year, Customer Service Operator of the Year and Social Gaming Operator of the Year at the EGR North America Awards 2021.

"These crowning achievements are a tribute to RSI's talented team," Schwartz added. "Their passion and collaborative spirit, to constantly improve the quality of our real money and social gaming products and customer service, is what leads to such honors."

In North America, RSI develops and operates a proprietary gaming platform powering online casinos and sportsbooks for BetRivers.com and PlaySugarHouse.com . It is currently live in 13 U.S. states and this month launched BetRivers in Canada.

About RSI

RSI is a trusted online gaming and sports entertainment company focused on regulated markets in the United States, Canada and Latin America. Through its brands, BetRivers.com, PlaySugarHouse.com and RushBet.co, RSI was an early entrant in many regulated jurisdictions. It currently offers real-money mobile and online operations in thirteen U.S. states: Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Michigan, Indiana, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, West Virginia, Arizona and Louisiana, as well as in the regulated international markets of Ontario, Canada and Colombia. RSI offers, through its proprietary online gaming platform, some of the most popular online casino games and sports betting options in the United States. Founded in 2012 in Chicago by gaming industry veterans, RSI was named the 2020 Global Gaming Awards Digital Operator of the Year, the 2021 EGR North America Awards Casino Operator of the Year, Customer Services Operator of the Year and Social Gaming Operator of the Year, and the 2021 SBC Latinoamerica Awards Sportsbook operator of the Year. RSI, which received RG Check iGaming Accreditation from the Responsible Gambling Council for its BetRivers.com and PlaySugarHouse.com sites, is committed to industry-leading responsible gaming practices and seeks to provide its customers with the resources and services they need to play responsibly. For more information, visit www.rushstreetinteractive.com.

SOURCE Rush Street Interactive
DUBLIN, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With Russia's continuing invasion and aggression in Ukraine dragging on, additional concerns over cyber security and potential attacks from Russian-backed threat actors have arisen and remain high. As Russian malware attacks continue to rise, Cyclonis Limited and its research partners are closely monitoring the developing situation and have compiled effective ways to help you protect yourself from attacks.

US authorities have issued several joint security alerts, coming from the FBI, CISA and NSA, warning of the increased risk of cyberattacks originating from Russian-backed threat actors, including state-sponsored ones. The increasing popularity and accessibility of ransomware toolkits and ransomware-as-a-service, have resulted in an explosion of ransomware attacks.

To learn more about the ongoing cyber attacks against Ukraine, visit https://www.cyclonis.com/cyber-war-ukraine-russia-flares-up-invasion-continues/.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to unexpected shifts across the ransomware landscape. For example, the infamous Conti ransomware gang suffered significant data leaks after declaring their support for the invasion of Ukraine. Around the same time, the criminal outfit operating the Racoon Stealer malware announced a suspension of operation, as one of the hacking gang's core members died due to the war in Ukraine.

As Concerns About Ukraine Mount, Cybersecurity Experts & Governments Issue Ransomware Alerts

In spite of these shifts, Conti, LockBit 2.0, and other ransomware groups are expected to continue operations. Due to mounting concerns over the Ukrainian situation, cybersecurity experts and governments have issued cybersecurity alerts warning all organizations to be on high alert for potentially crippling cyber attacks. Ransomware, data-wipers, info-stealers, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) botnets, and other malware infections described below are expected to surge.

Conti is a Russian-backed ransomware threat actor responsible for multiple attacks on critical infrastructure systems. Conti ransomware has been active since 2020. It uses the AES-256 algorithm to corrupt critical files and demands payment to unlock the victim's files. At the time of this writing, the ransomware gang has claimed to have compromised more than 50 organizations, including Ireland's Health Services and Oiltanking Deutschland GmbH, a major German oil storage company.

LockBit 2.0 is a ransomware-as-a-service threat actor known for attacking large corporations such as Accenture and Bridgestone. It targets Windows and Linux servers by exploiting vulnerabilities in VMWare's ESXi virtual machines. LockBit uses multiple methods to exfiltrate sensitive data and corrupts critical files. LockBit generally leaves instructions on the compromised system detailing how a ransom can be paid to restore the destroyed data. According to researchers at Trend Micro, in the second half of 2021 the United States was the country most affected by LockBit 2.0.

Karakurt is an advanced persistent threat actor focused on data exfiltration and extortion that is closely tied to other dangerous cybercrime outfits. In many cases, Karakurt and Conti ransomware infections have been found to overlap on the same systems. Researchers have also observed cryptocurrency transactions between wallets associated with the two groups. Even if you pay Karakurt's ransom demands, you may still fall victim to Conti and other affiliated threat actors in the very near future.

How to Protect Yourself Against Ransomware Attacks

The attacks described above are not limited only to companies and government agencies. It is important to remember that many ransomware attacks target individual users and consumers worldwide. Users can follow these guidelines to help to prevent ransomware and malware attacks and help increase online security:

Protect your computer from potential cyber attacks with a powerful anti-malware program like SpyHunter.

Backup your data regularly. Consider using a reliable cloud storage backup program like Cyclonis Backup to protect your important files.

Be careful online. Don't click suspicious links from unknown and strange domain names. Don't download attachments or click on links in unsolicited emails. These questionable links may lead to malicious sites or the installation of unwanted software without your knowledge.

Use complex and unique passwords. To help keep track of all your passwords in one central place, use a reputable password manager like Cyclonis Password Manager.

Keep your software up-to-date. Experts often recommend turning on automatic software updates where available.

About Cyclonis Limited

An Irish company headquartered in Dublin, Cyclonis Limited designs and develops desktop, mobile, and cloud-enabled software products focused on simplifying data organization and management. Our applications aim to streamline the process of organizing the increasing volumes of information regular computer users deal with every day.

Connect with Cyclonis Ltd. on Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube

SOURCE Cyclonis Limited
Companies: 10+  ABB Ltd., IDEC Corp., Leuze electronic GmbH + Co. KG, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., OMRON Corp., Pilz GmbH and Co. KG, Rockwell Automation Inc., Schneider Electric SE, SICK AG, and Siemens AG, among others.

10+  ABB Ltd., IDEC Corp., Leuze electronic GmbH + Co. KG, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., OMRON Corp., Pilz GmbH and Co. KG, Rockwell Automation Inc., Schneider Electric SE, SICK AG, and Siemens AG, among others. Coverage: Key drivers, trends, and challenges; Product insights & news; Value chain analysis; Parent market analysis; Vendor landscape

Key drivers, trends, and challenges; Product insights & news; Value chain analysis; Parent market analysis; Vendor landscape Segments: Type (modular and compact)

Type (modular and compact) Geographies: US, Canada , and Mexico

To understand more about Market Dynamics. Download our sample report

According to the recent market study by Technavio, the Safety Programmable Controllers Market Size in North America is expected to grow by USD 532.66 million from 2021 to 2026, at a CAGR of 6.07%. The report provides a detailed analysis of drivers & opportunities, top winning strategies, competitive scenario, future market trends, market size & estimations, and major investment pockets.

Download a Report Sample: for more additional information about the market

Vendor Insights-

The safety programmable controllers market in North America is fragmented and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as price, quality, brand identity, technology, and distribution to compete in the market. The key offerings of some of the vendors are listed below:

ABB Ltd. - The company offers safety programmable controllers that include AC500, AC500-eCo, AC500-S and AC500-XC scalable PLC ranges, which provide interoperability and compatibility in hardware and software from compact PLCs up to high end and safety PLCs.

The company offers safety programmable controllers that include AC500, AC500-eCo, AC500-S and AC500-XC scalable PLC ranges, which provide interoperability and compatibility in hardware and software from compact PLCs up to high end and safety PLCs. IDEC Corp. - The company offers safety programmable controllers that include safety laser scanner, light curtains, interlock switches, e-stop switches, enabling and grip switches, safety relay modules, safety controllers.

The company offers safety programmable controllers that include safety laser scanner, light curtains, interlock switches, e-stop switches, enabling and grip switches, safety relay modules, safety controllers. Leuze electronic GmbH + Co. KG - The company offers safety programmable controllers that include switching sensors, optical sensors, inductive switches, capacitive sensors, ultrasonic sensors, measuring sensors, optical distance sensors, safe locking devices and switches, safe control components, machine safety services, bar code identification, smart cameras, industrial IP camera.

Find additional highlights on the vendors and their product offerings. Download a Sample Report

Regional Market Outlook

The safety programmable controllers market in the US will be significant during the forecast period. The reshoring of manufacturing activities will facilitate the safety programmable controllers market growth in the US over the forecast period. Market growth in this country will be faster than the growth of the market in other countries.

Download our sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share.

Latest Drivers & Trends Drivers in the Market-

Safety Programmable Controllers Market in North America Driver:

Rapid globalization of industries:



The development of industrial infrastructure requires advanced technologies and machinery for smooth functioning. Hence, the adoption of safety programmable controllers in the mentioned industries is expected to increase, which, in turn, will drive the growth of the market during the forecast period.

Safety Programmable Controllers Market in North America Trend:

Growing investments in smart factories:



Manufacturers are adopting smart factories to improve the efficiency and productivity of factories, enhance personnel and machinery safety, and enable their operation with innovative technologies. Thus, the need to efficiently connect devices or machines to maintain safety within various industrial processes is expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period.

Find additional information about various other market Drivers & Trends mentioned in our 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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Safety Programmable Controllers Market Scope in North America Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 6.07% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 532.66 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.34 Regional analysis US, Canada, and Mexico Performing market contribution US at 71% Key consumer countries US Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled ABB Ltd., IDEC Corp., Leuze electronic GmbH + Co. KG, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., OMRON Corp., Pilz GmbH and Co. KG, Rockwell Automation Inc., Schneider Electric SE, SICK AG, and Siemens AG Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, Market condition analysis for forecast period Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary

1.1 Market Overview

Exhibit 01: Key Finding 1

Exhibit 02: Key Finding 2

Exhibit 03: Key Finding 3

Exhibit 04: Key Finding 5

Exhibit 05: Key Finding 6

Exhibit 06: Key Finding 7

2. Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 07: Parent market

Exhibit 08: Market characteristics

2.2 Value chain analysis

Exhibit 09: Value Chain Analysis: Global industrial machinery market

2.2.1 Inputs

2.2.2 Inbound logistics

2.2.3 Operations

2.2.4 Outbound logistics

2.2.5 Marketing and sales

2.2.6 Aftermarket and service

2.2.7 Industry innovations:

3. Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 10: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 11: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026

Exhibit 12: Global - Market size and forecast 2021 - 2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 13: Global market: Year-over-year growth 2021 - 2026 (%)

4. Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five Forces Summary

Exhibit 14: Five forces analysis 2021 & 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 15: Bargaining power of buyers

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 16: Bargaining power of suppliers

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 17: Threat of new entrants

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 18: Threat of substitutes

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 19: Threat of rivalry

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 20: Market condition - Five forces 2021

5 Market Segmentation by Type

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 21: Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Type

Exhibit 22: Comparison by Type

5.3 Modular - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 23: Modular - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 24: Modular - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Compact - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 25: Compact - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 26: Compact - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 27: Market opportunity by Type

6. Customer landscape

6.1 Overview

Technavio's customer landscape matrix comparing Drivers or price sensitivity, Adoption lifecycle, importance in customer price basket, Adoption rate and Key purchase criteria

Exhibit 28: Customer landscape

7. Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 29: Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)

7.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 30: Geographic comparison

7.3 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 31: US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 32: US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.4 Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 33: Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 34: Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.5 Mexico - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 35: Mexico - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 36: Mexico - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.6 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 37: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

8. Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.1.1 Rapid globalization of industries

8.1.2 Improving safety standards and related developments

8.1.3 Increasing demand for compact automation solutions

8.2 Market challenges

8.2.1 Shortage of skilled labor to maintain and operate automation systems

8.2.2 Growing cybersecurity concerns

8.2.3 High installation and maintenance cost

Exhibit 38: Impact of drivers and challenges

8.3 Market trends

8.3.1 Growing investments in smart factories

8.3.2 Value chain integration

8.3.3 Strategic partnerships and acquisitions

9. Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

Exhibit 39: Vendor landscape

The potential for the disruption of the market landscape was moderate in 2020, and its threat is expected to remain unchanged by 2025.

9.2 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 40: Landscape disruption

Exhibit 41: Industry risks

9.3 Competitive Scenario

10. Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 42: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 43: Market positioning of vendors

10.3 ABB Ltd.

Exhibit 44: ABB Ltd. - Overview

Exhibit 45: ABB Ltd. - Business segments

Exhibit 46: ABB Ltd. - Key offerings

Exhibit 47: ABB Ltd. - Segment focus

10.4 IDEC Corp.

Exhibit 48: IDEC Corp. - Overview

Exhibit 49: IDEC Corp. - Business segments

Exhibit 50: IDEC Corp. - Key offerings

Exhibit 51: IDEC Corp. - Segment focus

10.5 Leuze electronic GmbH + Co. KG

Exhibit 52: Leuze electronic GmbH + Co. KG - Overview

Exhibit 53: Leuze electronic GmbH + Co. KG - Product and service

Exhibit 54: Leuze electronic GmbH + Co. KG - Key offerings

10.6 Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

Exhibit 55: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Overview

Exhibit 56: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Business segments

Exhibit 57: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Key offerings

Exhibit 58: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Segment focus

10.7 OMRON Corp.

Exhibit 59: OMRON Corp. - Overview

Exhibit 60: OMRON Corp. - Business segments

Exhibit 61: OMRON Corp. - Key offerings

Exhibit 62: OMRON Corp. - Segment focus

10.8 Pilz GmbH and Co. KG

Exhibit 63: Pilz GmbH and Co. KG - Overview

Exhibit 64: Pilz GmbH and Co. KG - Product and service

Exhibit 65: Pilz GmbH and Co. KG - Key offerings

10.9 Rockwell Automation Inc.

Exhibit 66: Rockwell Automation Inc. - Overview

Exhibit 67: Rockwell Automation Inc. - Business segments

Exhibit 68: Rockwell Automation Inc.  Key news

Exhibit 69: Rockwell Automation Inc. - Key offerings

Exhibit 70: Rockwell Automation Inc. - Segment focus

10.10 Schneider Electric SE

Exhibit 71: Schneider Electric SE - Overview

Exhibit 72: Schneider Electric SE - Business segments

Exhibit 73: Schneider Electric SE - Key offerings

Exhibit 74: Schneider Electric SE - Segment focus

10.11 SICK AG

Exhibit 75: SICK AG - Overview

Exhibit 76: SICK AG - Business segments

Exhibit 77: SICK AG - Key news

Exhibit 78: SICK AG - Key offerings

Exhibit 79: SICK AG - Segment focus

10.12 Siemens AG

Exhibit 80: Siemens AG - Overview

Exhibit 81: Siemens AG - Business segments

Exhibit 82: Siemens AG  Key news

Exhibit 83: Siemens AG - Key offerings

Exhibit 84: Siemens AG - Segment focus

11. Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.1.1 Market definition

11.1.2 Objectives

Notes and caveats

11.2 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 85: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.3 Research Methodology

Exhibit 86: Research Methodology

Exhibit 87: Validation techniques employed for market sizing

Exhibit 88: Information sources

11.4 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 89: List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
Agreement extends Chrysler Capital relationship, reaffirming the mutually beneficial financing partnership

DALLAS, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. ("SC" or "the Company"), which does business as Chrysler Capital, today announced it has reached an agreement with FCA US LLC ("Stellantis") to amend and extend the Master Private Label Financing Agreement (the "Chrysler Agreement") through 2025. Under the Chrysler Agreement, which is nearing the end of its original 10-year term, SC has been the FCA US preferred provider for consumer loans, leases and dealer loans. This amendment extends the contract term through December 2025 and updates certain terms to allow SC to serve in a complementary role to Stellantis' recently launched captive finance company, Stellantis Financial Services US.

"Santander Consumer has served as the primary finance provider for Stellantis since 2013," said SC CEO Mahesh Aditya. "While Stellantis announced in 2021 the formation of its own captive finance arm, SC and Stellantis have continued to enjoy a mutually beneficial working relationship. We are pleased to formally extend our partnership and look forward to continuing to help Stellantis succeed."

"Santander Consumer has been a strong partner for Stellantis for many years," said Stellantis Chief Affiliates Officer Philippe de Rovira. "We are proud to have SC continue as a preferred partner, as we grow Stellantis Financial Services US into a full-service captive lender, offering a wide range of financing options to meet the needs of our customers."

About Santander Consumer USA Inc.

Santander Consumer USA Inc., headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a full-service consumer finance company focused on vehicle finance, third-party servicing and delivering superior service to our more than 3 million customers across the full credit spectrum. SC, which began originating retail installment contracts in 1997, had an average managed asset portfolio of approximately $64 billion (for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2021). The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Santander Holdings USA, Inc., and is part of Madrid, Spain-based global banking leader Banco Santander. For more information about Santander Consumer USA, please visit www.santanderconsumerusa.com.

SOURCE Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.
PUYALLUP, Wash., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sarda is excited to announce the launch of their own exclusive diamond collection as part of their exploding online jewelry store that specializes in Bali-Made, artisan jewelry.

Sarda strives to set themselves apart from competition with designer jewelry that is affordable, yet elegant and forever lasting. As diamonds are forever, the union between Sarda and diamonds is only natural.

SARDA Diamonds - Luxury Jewelry Made in Bali Sarda Sarda

"I'm a designer that really wants a bunch of different looks out of things," says SARDA Founder and Designer Janyl Sherman. "I recreate, I restructure so I can incorporate stone and diamond."

Sarda's origins begin nearly 30 years ago when Sherman quit her job in retail to travel across the world to Bali to start her new artisan jewelry business. The natural beauty of the landscape and people of Bali provided all the inspiration that she needed to develop and grow her business to the success it has today. Thanks to the unparalleled craftsmanship and passion that goes into each Bali-made collection, Sarda has gained a massive fan following.

"I worked at a very high-end department store and took a break," Janyl said. "I took a bead class with my mom and realized 'oh my gosh, this could be a jewelry line.' I quit and started that jewelry line, with beaded jewelry, in three months."

That beaded jewelry line evolved into a wide beautiful collection of artisan jewelry. Diamonds are the latest evolution at Sarda as the timing was right to achieve the high quality that Sherman requires in each collection.

"I was born in April, so I've always wanted to do diamonds," says Sherman. "But the quality had to match where I would want to use diamonds. I hadn't felt that I had arrived yet. I always wanted to use them. I actually experimented with them a couple of years ago."

Obtaining quality diamonds isn't the only obstacle, its ensuring the craftsmanship of the jewelry also matches the beauty of the diamonds. Sherman has focused on training a couple employees specifically in the diamond settings at Sarda's Bali factory to secure consistency and elegance in every piece created. Despite being limited, customers don't have to spend a fortune to purchase a truly one of a kind piece for themselves, or for someone special like Mom for Mother's Day.

"A lot of diamonds we're doing now are accents, they're not big wedding ring sets," Sherman says. "We're making sure we don't make mistakes or overcharge. I want to try to get some really good prices for our customers."

Sarda's Diamond Collection is now available on their website - Sarda.com, just in time as April Diamond month ends.

"It's diamond now with Artisan Handcrafted Sterling Silver jewelry. You can't get better than that," Sherman says.

Media Contact:

Miki Turner, Sarda

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 253-921-2379

SOURCE Sarda
SINGAPORE, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SHOPLINE, a silicon valley top 500 start-up, eyes an extensive global expansion by providing a unique and SMART omni-channel solutions platform. With over 350,000 merchants and an annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of USD4 Billion, the commitment to grow at an exponential rate lies in the globalization of the business, starting with the establishment of Singapore as the global headquarters.

To fuel this ambitious growth, Joshua Qiao, General Manager of SHOPLINE 2.0 who has successfully established SHOPLINE as the fastest growing shopping cart solution in Asia, is now leading its globalization efforts.

"The growing demands of business owners for a centralized e-Commerce system and the need to build their own database fueled SHOPLINE to innovate, differentiate and lead the digital disruption through our platform, unique positioning, deep understanding of what our merchants need and localization efforts," commented Joshua Qiao.

The selection of Singapore as the new global headquarters for SHOPLINE was strategic. The great location and connectivity of Singapore makes it ideal for a global hub. Coupled with the Singapore Government's efforts in establishing a reliable and efficient infrastructure, as well as a conducive and pro-business environment, selecting Singapore was a unanimous decision among the Senior Leadership.

To build a successful partner ecosystem that our merchants can leverage on, SHOPLINE has partnered with key Global Strategic Partners including Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp), Tiktok and Google, and Payments and Fulfilments Partners including Paypal, Atome, Stripe, Ninja Van, HyperSKU and Kakaklo, in the bid to strengthen the platform capabilities of SHOPLINE to one that is truly seamless and omni-channel.

SHOPLINE is also thrilled to gain positive recognition from Singapore Associations and Academic Partners such as Textile and Fashion Federation (TaFF), Singapore Retailers Association (SRA), SMU Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Nanyang Polytechnic, who strongly believe and trust in our platform and vision. With an overwhelming response from Singaporean merchants and reputable businesses from a wide variety of industries, SHOPLINE is confident and geared for a successful official launch later this year.

"Our partnership with SHOPLINE is aligned with our strategic goal of engaging industry partners to co-create opportunities for our learners to develop skills and competencies that meet industry needs. This will also strengthen our curriculum at the Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) School of Business Management (SBM), ensuring that our learners stay relevant and ahead of the curve. In addition, as part of our Teaching Enterprise Project, a pedagogy unique to SBM, our learners will also apply their skills learnt to help companies leverage SHOPLINE's SaaS platform to build their online presence and grow their e-Commerce arm. We look forward to deepening our partnership with SHOPLINE to co-develop and co-deliver courses to our learners, and co-assessing and co-certifying this future pool of e-Commerce talents," commented Ms Esther Ho, Director, Nanyang Polytechnic's School of Business Management.

In the coming months, SHOPLINE is expected to expand its global support and capabilities to bolster its existing 1600-strong R&D team by recruiting more diverse talent in Singapore. This aims to bump up the workforce in Singapore and bring the SHOPLINE solution to address broader e-Commerce verticals in the market, all while continuing to further collaborate with the Singapore Government to digitize the nation.

"The future of e-commerce lies in SHOPLINE's disruptive approach in offering a full-featured all-in-one retail solutions platform. In collaboration with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), SHOPLINE is humbled to be a pre-approved Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) vendor that enables merchants to enjoy up to 70% of subsidy from their annual subscription costs, sharing and contributing to the actualisation of the Singapore Government's vision to digitalize the economy and create a smart nation," remarked Joshua Qiao.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Amadea Choo

Head of Marketing, SHOPLINE

Email: [email protected]

Mobile: +65 9630 7757

Dominic Chew

Founder and CEO, Hatch Idea Lab

Email: [email protected]

Mobile: +65 8223 2922

About SHOPLINE Singapore

SHOPLINE is Asia's biggest smart commerce platform, offering solutions and services to merchants and empowering them to succeed everywhere and anywhere. SHOPLINE prioritises delivering an omnichannel experience to merchants of all sizes to achieve local and international growth together. Since 2019, SHOPLINE Singapore has helped over 500 merchants set up their online stores, including well-known brands such as Lush, Mdada, Hardy Hardy and Heinemann. For more information, visit https://shopline.sg .

About SHOPLINE Global

Founded in 2013 and a member of the Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups accelerator in 2014, SHOPLINE is Asia's biggest smart commerce platform, with offices in Hong Kong, Taipei, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Shenzhen, and Singapore.

SHOPLINE prioritises its merchants and aims to support brands of all sizes and across different industry verticals to achieve local and international growth in an omnichannel manner. To date, SHOPLINE has helped over 350,000 merchants start and scale their retail businesses, including well-known brands such as Miniso, Linsy, AUKEY, Olympus, Moft, MedSpa. For more information, visit https://shopline.sg .

SOURCE Shopline Singapore
On the heels of closing of Fund II, the addition of Michelle Moon expands the investment team to five

PALO ALTO, Calif. and SALT LAKE CITY, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sorenson Ventures , an early-stage investor in security and enterprise software companies, today announced it has hired Michelle Moon as Principal. In her new role, she will focus on vertical market software, AI and machine learning, and Industry 4.0.

"Michelle is an experienced early-stage investor passionate about working with founders building disruptive and innovative products," said Rob Rueckert, Partner at Sorenson Ventures. "Her vast experience across the capital stack  from early-stage VC to advising publicly-traded companies on multi-billion dollar M&A transactions  will be a great asset to Sorenson Ventures. She brings a high level of curiosity, intellectual engagement, and strategic insight and we could not be more excited to welcome her to our growing team."

Before joining Sorenson, Michelle was a principal at LG Technology Ventures, helping deploy a $450 million fund in innovative technology startups. Prior to that, Michelle spent two years in investment banking at RBC Capital Markets, followed by four years in private equity at ARC Financial Corp. Michelle holds a Master of Business Administration degree with majors in Business Analytics and Entrepreneurship at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and an International Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business at York University.

"I am excited to join the all-star team at Sorenson Ventures," said Moon. "What impresses me about this team is the depth of expertise and experience, and the relentless focus on forging meaningful, long-term partnerships with founders and startups. When Sorenson invests its capital, we are also investing our commitment, dedication, and energy. We understand what it takes for an early-stage company to succeed, and invest heavily in setting our founders up for success. I haven't seen many firms more thoughtful about their value add."

About Sorenson Ventures

Sorenson Ventures is a Silicon Valley and Utah-based, early-stage investing firm in security and enterprise software companies with more than $250 million of capital under management. Sorenson Ventures invests in product-oriented founders and helps portfolio companies establish a strong foundation to accelerate revenue growth with Global 2000 customers.

About Sorenson Capital

Sorenson Capital is a growth equity firm focused on enterprise software and security investments. Sorenson Capital has more than $1.5 billion in assets under management and typically makes investments of $10 to $50 million in companies with unique strategic positions. Sorenson Capital is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Media Contact:

CodePR

Mary Magnani

[email protected]

SOURCE Sorenson Ventures
Application - Mining and construction, aircraft, and others

Geography - Europe , North America , APAC, Middle East and Africa , and South America

For more insights on YOY and CAGR, Read our latest Sample Report

Vendor Insights

Specialty Tires Market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market.

The growing competition in the market is compelling vendors to adopt various growth strategies such as promotional activities and spending on advertisements to improve the visibility of their services. Some vendors are also adopting inorganic growth strategies such as M&As to remain competitive in the market.

The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors, including:

Balkrishna Industries Ltd.

Bridgestone Corp.

Continental AG

Giti Tire Pte. Ltd.

GRI Tires Pvt. Ltd.

JK Tyre and Industries Ltd.

Kumho Tire Co. Inc.

Michelin Group

Nokian Tyres Plc

Pirelli Tyre Spa

Polymer Enterprises Inc.

Shandong Linglong Tyre Co. Ltd.

The Carlstar Group LLC

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.

Toyo Tire Corp.

Trelleborg AB

Triangle Tire USA

Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co. Ltd.

Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.

Zhongce Rubber Group Co. Ltd.

Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors and their product offerings, Read our Sample Report.

Geographical Market Analysis

APAC will account for 39 percent of market growth. In APAC, China, Japan, and India are the most important markets for specialized tires. The market in this region will expand quicker than the market in the Middle East and Africa.

Over the projected period, the growing use of off-highway agriculture vehicles, construction vehicles, construction and mining machinery, and two-wheelers would aid specialty tire market expansion in APAC

Furthermore, countries such as the US, China, Japan, India, and Germany are expected to emerge as prominent markets for the Specialty Tires Market during the forecast period.

Know more about this market's geographical distribution along with a detailed analysis of the top regions. Download Detailed Sample Report.

Key Segment Analysis

The mining and construction industry will gain considerable market share in specialized tyres. In the future years, the worldwide construction sector will be driven by increased demand for public infrastructures such as shopping and leisure centers, demand for housing and residential properties, and the pace of urbanization, which will fuel the expansion of the specialty tyre market. The mining industry's significant need for off-highway vehicles like track-type tractors, track loaders, scrapers, motor graders, wheel loaders, and dump trucks will bolster market expansion.

View Sample Report : to know additional highlights and key points on various market segments and their impact in coming years.

Key Market Drivers & Challenges:

Reduced natural rubber prices are one of the primary drivers driving the worldwide specialty tire industry's growth, as it lowers overall production costs. Another trend that is projected to favorably impact the industry in the forecast period is the development of airless tires for speciality vehicles and mainstream commercial vehicles. However, the rental market for specialty cars, which offers a cost-effective alternative to owning a specialist vehicle, is one of the major barriers to the global specialty tire industry's growth.

Download Sample Report for highlights on market Drivers & Challenges affecting the Specialty Tires Market.

Customize Your Report

Don't miss out on the opportunity to speak to our analyst and know more insights about this market report. Our analysts can also help you customize this report according to your needs. Our analysts and industry experts will work directly with you to understand your requirements and provide you with customized data in a short amount of time.

Do reach out to our analysts for more customized reports as per your requirements. Speak to our Analyst now!

Related Reports:

Heavy-duty Vehicle Tires Market by Application and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026

Tire Retreading Market in the US by Process Type and Consumption - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Specialty Tires Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4.36% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 10.86 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 4.21 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 39% Key consumer countries US, China, Japan, India, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Balkrishna Industries Ltd., Bridgestone Corp., Continental AG, Giti Tire Pte. Ltd., GRI Tires Pvt. Ltd., JK Tyre and Industries Ltd., Kumho Tire Co. Inc., Michelin Group, Nokian Tyres Plc, Pirelli Tyre Spa, Polymer Enterprises Inc., Shandong Linglong Tyre Co. Ltd., The Carlstar Group LLC, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Toyo Tire Corp., Trelleborg AB, Triangle Tire USA, Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co. Ltd., Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd., and Zhongce Rubber Group Co. Ltd. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, Market condition analysis for forecast period Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Contents

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Market overview

Exhibit 01: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Overview



Exhibit 02: Executive Summary  Data Table on Market Overview



Exhibit 03: Executive Summary  Chart on Global Market Characteristics



Exhibit 04: Executive Summary  Chart on Market by Geography



Exhibit 05: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Application



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 09: Parent market



Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 12: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026

Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between2021 and 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 18: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026

5 Market Segmentation by Application

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 24: Chart on Application - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 25: Data Table on Application - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Application

Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Application



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Application

5.3 Mining and construction - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 28: Chart on Mining and construction - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Mining and construction - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 30: Chart on Mining and construction - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Mining and construction - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Agriculture - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 32: Chart on Agriculture - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Agriculture - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Agriculture - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Agriculture - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Aircraft - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 36: Chart on Aircraft - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Aircraft - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 38: Chart on Aircraft - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Aircraft - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.6 Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 40: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 42: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.7 Market opportunity by Application

Exhibit 44: Market opportunity by Application ($ million)

6 Customer Landscape

6.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 45: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

7 Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 46: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)

7.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 48: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Geographic comparison

7.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 50: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 52: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.4 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 55: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 56: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 57: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 59: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 60: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 61: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 63: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 64: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 65: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 67: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 68: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 69: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.8 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 71: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 72: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 73: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.9 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 74: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 75: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 76: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 77: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.10 Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 79: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 80: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 81: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.11 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 82: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 83: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 84: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 85: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.12 India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 86: Chart on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 87: Data Table on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 88: Chart on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 89: Data Table on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 90: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 91: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

8.4 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 92: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 93: Overview on factors of disruption

9.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 94: Impact of key risks on business

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 95: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 96: Matrix on vendor position and classification

10.3 Bridgestone Corp.

Exhibit 97: Bridgestone Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 98: Bridgestone Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 99: Bridgestone Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 100: Bridgestone Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 101: Bridgestone Corp. - Segment focus

10.4 Continental AG

Exhibit 102: Continental AG - Overview



Exhibit 103: Continental AG - Business segments



Exhibit 104: Continental AG - Key news



Exhibit 105: Continental AG - Key offerings



Exhibit 106: Continental AG - Segment focus

10.5 JK Tyre and Industries Ltd.

Exhibit 107: JK Tyre and Industries Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 108: JK Tyre and Industries Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 109: JK Tyre and Industries Ltd. - Key news



Exhibit 110: JK Tyre and Industries Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 111: JK Tyre and Industries Ltd. - Segment focus

10.6 Michelin Group

Exhibit 112: Michelin Group - Overview



Exhibit 113: Michelin Group - Business segments



Exhibit 114: Michelin Group - Key offerings



Exhibit 115: Michelin Group - Segment focus

10.7 Nokian Tyres Plc

Exhibit 116: Nokian Tyres Plc - Overview



Exhibit 117: Nokian Tyres Plc - Business segments



Exhibit 118: Nokian Tyres Plc - Key news



Exhibit 119: Nokian Tyres Plc - Key offerings



Exhibit 120: Nokian Tyres Plc - Segment focus

10.8 Polymer Enterprises Inc.

Exhibit 121: Polymer Enterprises Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 122: Polymer Enterprises Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 123: Polymer Enterprises Inc. - Key offerings

10.9 The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.

Exhibit 124: The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. - Overview



Exhibit 125: The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. - Business segments



Exhibit 126: The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. - Key news



Exhibit 127: The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. - Key offerings



Exhibit 128: The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. - Segment focus

10.10 Toyo Tire Corp.

Exhibit 129: Toyo Tire Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 130: Toyo Tire Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 131: Toyo Tire Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 132: Toyo Tire Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 133: Toyo Tire Corp. - Segment focus

10.11 Trelleborg AB

Exhibit 134: Trelleborg AB - Overview



Exhibit 135: Trelleborg AB - Business segments



Exhibit 136: Trelleborg AB - Key news



Exhibit 137: Trelleborg AB - Key offerings



Exhibit 138: Trelleborg AB - Segment focus

10.12 Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 139: Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 140: Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 141: Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. - Key news



Exhibit 142: Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 143: Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. - Segment focus

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 144: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 145: Exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 146: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 147: Research methodology



Exhibit 148: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 149: Information sources

11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 150: List of abbreviations

About Us:

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
Through a new partnership with Sprouts, actor Jason Momoa's aluminum bottled water company has found a nationwide retailer with a shared commitment to preserving the environment

BOONE, N.C. and PHOENIX, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sprouts Farmers Market and Mananalu went all out this Earth Day with the launch of their retail partnership, which allows customers to purchase Mananalu's purified drinking water at Sprouts locations nationwide. For every bottle purchased at Sprouts, Mananalu will continue to remove the equivalent of one plastic bottle from ocean-going waste together with rePurpose Global.

The partnership occurs at a pivotal time for Mananalu, dovetailing with the company's latest social media campaign#makewavesin which founder and actor Jason Momoa encourages celebrity friends and consumers to swap their plastic water bottle for a bottle of Mananalu. It also represents a shift in Mananalu's overall sales strategy, which until recently was primarily direct-to-consumer.

When Mananalu began exploring a retail strategy, it was of critical importance to find a grocer with a shared commitment to sustainability, especially as today's consumer increasingly gravitates towards brands that align with their values and priorities. With a focus on farm-fresh produce, innovation and an industry-leading approach to sustainability and ethical product sourcing, Sprouts was the natural choice (no pun intended).

"Our entry into the grocery space represents an important step in Mananalu's mission to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles, and we are thrilled to have found a partner that shares our commitment to this important cause," said Mananalu CEO David Cuthbert.

In addition to selling Mananalu's aluminum-bottled water in over 380 locations nationwide, Sprouts is further promoting the brand to its eco-conscious customers through their Innovation Table and "Find a New Favorite" feature.

About Mananalu

Mananalu is a water brand on a mission to empower the world to stop drinking from single-use plastics. "Mana" means the sacred spirit of life in Hawaiian. "Nalu" means a powerful wave that pushes across the ocean. Founded by actor, environmentalist, and Hawaiian-native, Jason Momoa, Mananalu is creating a wave of change and fighting plastic pollution by bottling water with infinitely recyclable aluminum. To learn more, visit www.mananalu.com or follow us on Instagram ( @mananalu.water , #makewaves #imwithmomoa).

About Sprouts Farmers Market

Sprouts is the place where goodness grows. True to its farm-stand heritage, Sprouts offers a unique grocery experience featuring an open layout with fresh produce at the heart of the store. Sprouts inspires wellness naturally with a carefully curated assortment of better-for-you products paired with purpose-driven people. The healthy grocer continues to bring the latest in wholesome, innovative products made with lifestyle-friendly ingredients such as organic, plant-based and gluten-free. Headquartered in Phoenix, and one of the largest and fastest growing specialty retailers of fresh, natural and organic food in the United States, Sprouts employs approximately 31,000 team members and operates more than 380 stores in 23 states nationwide. To learn more about Sprouts, and the good it brings communities, visit about.sprouts.com .

SOURCE Mananalu
The solar energy provider, formerly known as Greenlight Planet, plans to use the funds to rapidly and sustainably bring electricity access to more homes across Africa and Asia

NAIROBI, Kenya, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Sun King, the largest provider of solar energy products for off-grid homes in Africa and Asia, announced it has raised $260 million in Series D funding, led by BeyondNetZero, the climate investing venture of General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, along with M&G Investments' Catalyst team and Arch Emerging Markets Partners. Founded in 2007 as Greenlight Planet, the company recently rebranded as Sun King, the name under which its products have long been sold.

Sun King is leading a transformation in how electricity is provided across Africa and Asia, where 1.8 billion people still lack access to a reliable electrical grid. To date, Sun King has powered the lives of 82 million people across 40 countries. The company's solar home systems power lights, mobile phones, radios, and larger home appliances. Sun King systems are dramatically more affordable and sustainable than kerosene or new power lines, allowing customers to leapfrog electrical grids and fossil-fuel energy sources entirely.

Today, Sun King operates the world's largest direct-to-consumer, pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar distribution network, growing at a rate of 150,000 new clients per month across seven countries. In Kenya, one in five people use Sun King today, with 18 million Kenyans having benefited over a decade of operations. In Nigeria, the company's user base has tripled in the past year alone. While growing rapidly, the company has remained consistently profitable.

Sun King now accounts for 38% of total industry-wide PAYG solar revenue according to the latest data collected by GOGLA, the global association for the off-grid solar energy industry. As a result of Sun King's growth, the company has eliminated 22 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions while saving consumers $4.4 billion in energy costs.

The $260 million financing includes $100 million in primary investment for Sun King's continued expansion. Sun King's founders retain voting control of the board. In addition to the company's plans for continued geographical expansion, the funds will also be allocated towards product-line expansion, including larger solar systems equipped with AC-electricity inverters (capable of powering larger appliances like refrigerators) and new products such as mobile phones.

"This investment in Sun King marks an incredible inflection point for the global off-grid solar industry," said T. Patrick Walsh, co-founder, and CEO of Sun King. "Over the last 15 years, we have delivered solar energy and light to over 82 million people, enabling kids to study for school, helping entrepreneurs run small businesses, and allowing families to power their lives, free from the danger and high cost of kerosene lanterns. This landmark investment allows us to continue scaling our technology, service, and financing capabilities so we can meet the needs of the next billion energy consumers."

"Sun King is leading a global transformation in the way we provide electricity to consumers in Africa and Asia," said Sun King co-founder Anish Thakkar. "It's now dramatically more affordable to power a home with a solar system than to extend the electrical grid: for less than the cost of a single electrical pole, we can install an entire solar energy system in-home. This funding will further unlock our ability to scale this revolution to the 1.8 billion people who need these products today, and the next billion who will need them tomorrow."

"BeyondNetZero is excited to back Sun King, an industry-leading company that offers consumers accessible and affordable solar products, supported by fair and sustainable business practices," said Eli Aheto, Managing Director on the BeyondNetZero team at General Atlantic. "We look forward to partnering with the company and its leadership as they bring innovative and affordable off-grid solar products to new markets and continue to grow their meaningful contribution to the global net zero transition."

Ekta Partners acted as lead financial advisor for this transaction. Goodwin Procter LLP provided legal counsel to Sun King, and Freshfields provided legal counsel to BeyondNetZero.

About Sun King

Sun King is the world's largest off-grid solar energy company, serving the 1.8 billion people across Africa and Asia who lack access to reliable electricity. Through innovative product design, affordable pay-as-you-go financing, and a grassroots field team of 15,000 agents providing installation and service, Sun King has powered the lives of over 82 million people. Founded in 2007 as Greenlight Planet, Sun King sets the gold standard for off-grid solar technology as part of its mission: powering access to brighter lives. For more information, please visit: www.sunking.com.

About BeyondNetZero

BeyondNetZero is the climate investing venture of General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm. BeyondNetZero invests in growth companies delivering innovative climate solutions that have the potential to meet and exceed net zero emissions targets, with a focus on decarbonization, energy efficiency, resource conservation and emissions management. This venture combines General Atlantic's growth equity experience and global network with a team of experienced climate investors, advisors and industry executives who bring decades of experience in both addressing climate-focused problems and building pioneering growth companies. For more information on BeyondNetZero, please visit: https://beyond-net-zero.com.

About General Atlantic

General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm with more than four decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 445 growth companies throughout its history. Established in 1980 to partner with visionary entrepreneurs and deliver lasting impact, the firm combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to scale innovative businesses around the world. General Atlantic currently has over $84 billion in assets under management inclusive of all products as of December 31, 2021, and more than 215 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Stamford. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit: www.generalatlantic.com.

About M&G Investments

M&G Investments' Catalyst strategy is investing up to 5 billion into innovative privately-owned global businesses working to create a more sustainable world. For over ninety years M&G Investments has been helping its customers to prosper by putting investments to work, which in turn creates jobs, homes, and vital infrastructure in the real economy. Its investment solutions span equities, fixed income, multi asset, cash, private debt, infrastructure, and real estate. M&G Investments is part of M&G plc, a FTSE-100 listed company with over 370 billion of assets under management (as of 31 December 2021), and customers in the UK, Europe, the Americas, and Asia, including individual savers and investors, life insurance policy holders and pension scheme members.

Contact: Jackie Zupsic  [email protected]

SOURCE Sun King
BEIJING, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), a leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education, today announced that it has filed its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on April 27, 2022, U.S. Eastern Time.

The annual report can be accessed on the Company's investor relations website at http://www.sunlands.investorroom.com/ and on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. The Company will provide a hard copy of the annual report containing the audited consolidated financial statements, free of charge, to its shareholders and ADS holders upon request. Requests should be directed to [email protected].

About Sunlands

Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), formerly known as Sunlands Online Education Group, is the leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education. With a one to many, live streaming platform, Sunlands offers various degree and diploma-oriented post-secondary courses as well as online professional courses and educational content, to help students prepare for professional certification exams and attain professional skills. Students can access its services either through PC or mobile applications. The Company's online platform cultivates a personalized, interactive learning environment by featuring a virtual learning community and a vast library of educational content offerings that adapt to the learning habits of its students. Sunlands offers a unique approach to education research and development that organizes subject content into Learning Outcome Trees, the Company's proprietary knowledge management system. Sunlands has a deep understanding of the educational needs of its prospective students and offers solutions that help them achieve their goals.

For more information, please visit http://www.sunlands.investorroom.com/

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Sunlands Technology Group

Investor Relations

Email: [email protected]

The Piacente Group, Inc.

Brandi Piacente

Tel: +1-212-481-2050

Email: [email protected]

Yang Song

Tel: +86-10-6508-0677

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Sunlands Technology Group
ISTANBUL, Turkey, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Flying to more countries than any other airline, Turkish Airlines introduced a special design element adorned with leaves on its Airbus 321 type TC-JSU tail numbered aircraft, which was used for its environmentalist fuel operation. The global carrier operated its first flight with the new themed aircraft, flight TK1795, to Stockholm. In line with efforts to lead towards widespread use of environmentally friendly fuel, the flight used biofuel during its operation and was also undertaken with the zero-waste principle.

Turkish Airlines' sustainability themed aircraft, which uses environmentally friendly biofuel.

In addition to providing information on the sustainability actions with the Green Class concept of this first flight, the flag carrier also took new environmentally conscious actions. While kraft tissues, paper cups, wooden salt and pepper shakers were used on the flight, all passengers were served complimentary, healthy green tea. Other special measures included environmentally-friendly pillow covers and blankets, which were produced with 100 percent recycled certificated threads in order to save on water and FSC certified wooden toys gifted to child passengers.

On the environmentally friendly aircraft, Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Bolat stated: "As the national flag carrier of Turkiye, our newly designed aircraft is now in the skies to underline the importance of sustainability for us. With the biofuel expression on our aircraft, we wish to emphasize the significance of using sustainable aviation fuel as it is one of the biggest hurdles of aviation industry's struggle against carbon emissions. Thus, we are supporting the biofuel manufacturing efforts and aim to increase our flights which use biofuel during their operations."

The global carrier will continue its efforts to lower its carbon emissions with new generation aircrafts added to its already young fleet of 8.5 average age, while planning to add new cities that are served with operations using biofuel including Stockholm, Oslo, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Paris and London.

SOURCE Turkish Airlines
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TacoTime (www.TacoTime.com), known for serving freshly prepared, home-style Mexican fare, is offering a new option with the Impossible Nacho Burrito which will be available for a limited time in stores until July 26.

The Impossible Nacho Burrito features Impossible Meat Made From Plants, Black Beans, Cheese Sauce, Jalapenos, Sour Cream, Homemade Salsa Fresca and Tortilla Strips.

Limited Time Burrito Brings the Impossible to the Table! Tweet this Impossible Nacho Burrito

"We are thrilled to feature a new item on our menu during the spring and summer months," said Kim Heath, senior director of marketing for Kahala Brands, parent company of TacoTime. "With more and more customers craving new and exciting protein options, our Impossible Nacho Burrito delivers just that and offers the same satisfying and flavor-filled experience TacoTime is known for!"

The Impossible Nacho Burrito is available at our participating US TacoTime locations, and excludes Western Washington, E. Wenatchee, Grant and Chelan counties. Please visit www.TacoTime.com to learn more.

About TacoTime

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., TacoTime has been an industry leader in quality quick-service Mexican food for over 60 years. Founded in 1960, TacoTime has over 200 franchised restaurants across the U.S. and Canada. In 2003, TacoTime became part of Kahala Brands, one of the fastest growing franchising companies in the world with a portfolio of nearly 30 fast-casual and quick-service restaurant brands with approximately 3,000 locations in over 30 countries.

For more information about TacoTime, please visit www.TacoTime.com.

SOURCE TacoTime
Record sales and double-digit EPS growth driven by continued strong operational performance

SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE: TEL) today reported results for the fiscal second quarter ended March 25, 2022.

Second Quarter Highlights

TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE: TEL) fiscal second quarter earnings highlights

Net sales were $4.0 billion , up 7% on a reported basis and 8% organically year over year, with growth across all segments.

, up 7% on a reported basis and 8% organically year over year, with growth across all segments. Orders of $4.5 billion with a book to bill of 1.13, reflecting ongoing demand strength in all segments.

with a book to bill of 1.13, reflecting ongoing demand strength in all segments. GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations were $1.71 , up 13% year over year, and adjusted EPS were $1.81 , up 15% year over year.

, up 13% year over year, and adjusted EPS were , up 15% year over year. Cash flow from operating activities was $413 million , with approximately $670 million returned to shareholders.

, with approximately returned to shareholders. TE was named among the World's Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere for the eighth consecutive year.

"I am very pleased with our strong second quarter performance and our global team's execution in delivering record sales and double-digit EPS growth that exceeded our expectations," said TE Connectivity CEO Terrence Curtin. "All three of our business segments  Transportation, Industrial and Communications  contributed and delivered sales growth year over year, demonstrating the strategic positioning of our portfolio, as we continue to benefit from our leadership position in long-term growth and sustainability trends. We continue to outperform the market in both automotive and commercial transportation due to our Transportation segment's ongoing content growth and global design win momentum in electric vehicles. Our Communications segment is also seeing continued content growth in high-speed cloud applications and market share gains as we work with leading cloud customers on AI deployment and data center energy efficiencies. Our Industrial segment continues to demonstrate growth in factory automation applications and renewable energy applications where our technology is advancing sustainability initiatives. Our order trends remained strong through the quarter, and we expect to deliver year-over-year sales growth in the third quarter despite broader volatility in the macro environment."

Third Quarter FY22 Outlook

For the third quarter of fiscal 2022, the company expects net sales of approximately $3.9 billion, reflecting an approximate 1% increase on a reported basis and an approximate 3% increase on an organic basis year over year. The company has included in its third quarter outlook an approximately 300 basis point year-over-year sales headwind from COVID-related shutdowns in China. GAAP EPS from continuing operations are expected to be approximately $1.71, with adjusted EPS of approximately $1.75, both down approximately 2% year over year.

Information about TE Connectivity's use of non-GAAP financial measures is provided below. For reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures, see the attached tables.

Conference Call and Webcast

The company will hold a conference call today beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET. The dial-in information is provided here:

At TE Connectivity's website: investors.te.com

By telephone: For both "listen-only" participants and those participants who wish to take part in the question-and-answer portion of the call, the dial-in number in the United States is (888) 330-3417 and for international callers, the dial-in number is (646) 960-0804

is (888) 330-3417 and for international callers, the dial-in number is (646) 960-0804 A replay of the conference call will be available on TE Connectivity's investor website at investors.te.com at 11:30 a.m. ET on April 27, 2022 .

About TE Connectivity

TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE: TEL) is a global industrial technology leader creating a safer, sustainable, productive, and connected future. Our broad range of connectivity and sensor solutions, proven in the harshest environments, enable advancements in transportation, industrial applications, medical technology, energy, data communications, and the home. With more than 85,000 employees, including over 8,000 engineers, working alongside customers in approximately 140 countries, TE ensures that EVERY CONNECTION COUNTS. Learn more at www.te.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, WeChat and Twitter.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We present non-GAAP performance and liquidity measures as we believe it is appropriate for investors to consider adjusted financial measures in addition to results in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. ("GAAP"). These non-GAAP financial measures provide supplemental information and should not be considered replacements for results in accordance with GAAP. Management uses non-GAAP financial measures internally for planning and forecasting purposes and in its decision-making processes related to the operations of our company. We believe these measures provide meaningful information to us and investors because they enhance the understanding of our operating performance, ability to generate cash, and the trends of our business. Additionally, we believe that investors benefit from having access to the same financial measures that management uses in evaluating our operations. The primary limitation of these measures is that they exclude the financial impact of items that would otherwise either increase or decrease our reported results. This limitation is best addressed by using these non-GAAP financial measures in combination with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in order to better understand the amounts, character, and impact of any increase or decrease in reported amounts. These non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similarly-titled measures reported by other companies.

The following provides additional information regarding our non-GAAP financial measures:

Organic Net Sales Growth (Decline)  represents net sales growth (decline) (the most comparable GAAP financial measure) excluding the impact of foreign currency exchange rates, and acquisitions and divestitures that occurred in the preceding twelve months, if any. Organic Net Sales Growth (Decline) is a useful measure of our performance because it excludes items that are not completely under management's control, such as the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates, and items that do not reflect the underlying growth of the company, such as acquisition and divestiture activity. This measure is a significant component in our incentive compensation plans.

Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted Operating Margin  represent operating income and operating margin, respectively, (the most comparable GAAP financial measures) before special items including restructuring and other charges, acquisition-related charges, impairment of goodwill, and other income or charges, if any. We utilize these adjusted measures in combination with operating income and operating margin to assess segment level operating performance and to provide insight to management in evaluating segment operating plan execution and market conditions. Adjusted Operating Income is a significant component in our incentive compensation plans.

Adjusted Other Income (Expense), Net  represents net other income (expense) (the most comparable GAAP financial measure) before special items including tax sharing income related to adjustments to prior period tax returns and other items, if any.

Adjusted Income Tax (Expense) Benefit and Adjusted Effective Tax Rate  represent income tax (expense) benefit and effective tax rate, respectively, (the most comparable GAAP financial measures) after adjusting for the tax effect of special items including restructuring and other charges, acquisition-related charges, impairment of goodwill, other income or charges, and certain significant tax items, if any.

Adjusted Income from Continuing Operations  represents income from continuing operations (the most comparable GAAP financial measure) before special items including restructuring and other charges, acquisition-related charges, impairment of goodwill, tax sharing income related to adjustments to prior period tax returns and other tax items, other income or charges, and certain significant tax items, if any, and, if applicable, the related tax effects.

Adjusted Earnings Per Share  represents diluted earnings per share from continuing operations (the most comparable GAAP financial measure) before special items including restructuring and other charges, acquisition-related charges, impairment of goodwill, tax sharing income related to adjustments to prior period tax returns and other tax items, other income or charges, and certain significant tax items, if any, and, if applicable, the related tax effects. This measure is a significant component in our incentive compensation plans.

Free Cash Flow (FCF)  is a useful measure of our ability to generate cash. The difference between net cash provided by operating activities (the most comparable GAAP financial measure) and Free Cash Flow consists mainly of significant cash outflows and inflows that we believe are useful to identify. We believe Free Cash Flow provides useful information to investors as it provides insight into the primary cash flow metric used by management to monitor and evaluate cash flows generated from our operations. Free Cash Flow is defined as net cash provided by operating activities excluding voluntary pension contributions and the cash impact of special items, if any, minus net capital expenditures. Voluntary pension contributions are excluded from the GAAP financial measure because this activity is driven by economic financing decisions rather than operating activity. Certain special items, including net payments related to pre-separation tax matters and cash paid (collected) pursuant to collateral requirements related to cross-currency swap contracts, are also excluded by management in evaluating Free Cash Flow. Net capital expenditures consist of capital expenditures less proceeds from the sale of property, plant, and equipment. These items are subtracted because they represent long-term commitments. In the calculation of Free Cash Flow, we subtract certain cash items that are ultimately within management's and the Board of Directors' discretion to direct and may imply that there is less or more cash available for our programs than the most comparable GAAP financial measure indicates. It should not be inferred that the entire Free Cash Flow amount is available for future discretionary expenditures, as our definition of Free Cash Flow does not consider certain non-discretionary expenditures, such as debt payments. In addition, we may have other discretionary expenditures, such as discretionary dividends, share repurchases, and business acquisitions, that are not considered in the calculation of Free Cash Flow.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks, uncertainty and changes in circumstances, which may cause actual results, performance, financial condition or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, financial condition or achievements. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking and the words "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "estimate," "plan," and similar expressions are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have no intention and are under no obligation to update or alter (and expressly disclaim any such intention or obligation to do so) our forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law. The forward-looking statements in this release include statements addressing our future financial condition and operating results, and the impact on our operations resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 ("COVID-19"). Examples of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the extent, severity and duration of COVID-19 negatively affecting our business operations; business, economic, competitive and regulatory risks, such as conditions affecting demand for products in the automotive and other industries we serve; competition and pricing pressure; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and commodity prices; natural disasters and political, economic and military instability in countries in which we operate, including continuing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine or escalating tensions in surrounding countries; developments in the credit markets; future goodwill impairment; compliance with current and future environmental and other laws and regulations; and the possible effects on us of changes in tax laws, tax treaties and other legislation, including the effects of Swiss tax reform. In addition, the extent to which COVID-19 will impact our business and our financial results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted. Such developments may include the geographic spread of the virus, the severity of the virus, the duration of the outbreak, the impact on our suppliers' and customers' supply chains, the actions that may be taken by various governmental authorities in response to the outbreak in jurisdictions in which we operate, and the possible impact on the global economy and local economies in which we operate. More detailed information about these and other factors is set forth in TE Connectivity Ltd.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Sept. 24, 2021 as well as in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and other reports filed by us with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

TE CONNECTIVITY LTD. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (UNAUDITED)

















































For the Quarters Ended

For the Six Months Ended

March 25,

March 26,

March 25,

March 26,

2022

2021

2022

2021

(in millions, except per share data) Net sales $ 4,007

$ 3,738

$ 7,825

$ 7,260 Cost of sales

2,670



2,528



5,258



4,904 Gross margin

1,337



1,210



2,567



2,356 Selling, general, and administrative expenses

416



401



779



762 Research, development, and engineering expenses

185



174



360



336 Acquisition and integration costs

10



6



18



14 Restructuring and other charges, net

21



17



33



184 Operating income

705



612



1,377



1,060 Interest income

4



8



6



11 Interest expense

(18)



(13)



(30)



(28) Other income, net

5



4



20



3 Income from continuing operations before income taxes

696



611



1,373



1,046 Income tax expense

(136)



(106)



(246)



(166) Income from continuing operations

560



505



1,127



880 Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of income taxes





1



(1)



7 Net income $ 560

$ 506

$ 1,126

$ 887























Basic earnings per share:





















Income from continuing operations $ 1.72

$ 1.53

$ 3.46

$ 2.66 Income from discontinued operations













0.02 Net income

1.72



1.53



3.45



2.68























Diluted earnings per share:





















Income from continuing operations $ 1.71

$ 1.51

$ 3.44

$ 2.64 Income from discontinued operations













0.02 Net income

1.71



1.51



3.43



2.66























Weighted-average number of shares outstanding:





















Basic

325



331



326



331 Diluted

327



334



328



333

TE CONNECTIVITY LTD. CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (UNAUDITED)

























March 25,

September 24,

2022

2021

(in millions, except share data) Assets









Current assets:









Cash and cash equivalents $ 749

$ 1,203 Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $50 and $41, respectively

3,068



2,928 Inventories

2,999



2,511 Prepaid expenses and other current assets

601



621 Total current assets

7,417



7,263 Property, plant, and equipment, net

3,817



3,778 Goodwill

5,463



5,590 Intangible assets, net

1,441



1,549 Deferred income taxes

2,466



2,499 Other assets

847



783 Total assets $ 21,451

$ 21,462 Liabilities, redeemable noncontrolling interests, and shareholders' equity









Current liabilities:









Short-term debt $ 610

$ 503 Accounts payable

1,986



1,911 Accrued and other current liabilities

2,450



2,242 Total current liabilities

5,046



4,656 Long-term debt

3,441



3,589 Long-term pension and postretirement liabilities

1,103



1,139 Deferred income taxes

185



181 Income taxes

318



302 Other liabilities

809



847 Total liabilities

10,902



10,714 Commitments and contingencies









Redeemable noncontrolling interests

107



114 Shareholders' equity:









Common shares, CHF 0.57 par value, 336,099,881 shares authorized and issued

148



148 Accumulated earnings

12,160



11,709 Treasury shares, at cost, 13,281,156 and 9,060,919 shares, respectively

(1,769)



(1,055) Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(97)



(168) Total shareholders' equity

10,442



10,634 Total liabilities, redeemable noncontrolling interests, and shareholders' equity $ 21,451

$ 21,462

TE CONNECTIVITY LTD. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (UNAUDITED)

















































For the Quarters Ended

For the Six Months Ended

March 25,

March 26,

March 25,

March 26,

2022

2021

2022

2021

(in millions) Cash flows from operating activities:





















Net income $ 560

$ 506

$ 1,126

$ 887 (Income) loss from discontinued operations, net of income taxes





(1)



1



(7) Income from continuing operations

560



505



1,127



880 Adjustments to reconcile income from continuing operations to net cash

provided by operating activities:





















Depreciation and amortization

194



193



392



380 Deferred income taxes

38



(6)



42



(48) Non-cash lease cost

33



29



64



59 Provision for losses on accounts receivable and inventories

35



16



68



22 Share-based compensation expense

28



30



60



49 Other

13



(41)



4



(20) Changes in assets and liabilities, net of the effects of acquisitions and

divestitures:





















Accounts receivable, net

(205)



(268)



(57)



(567) Inventories

(147)



(67)



(411)



(212) Prepaid expenses and other current assets

(16)



57



36



(30) Accounts payable





161



15



510 Accrued and other current liabilities

(20)



37



(305)



125 Income taxes

(7)



17



27



34 Other

(93)



(83)



(117)



38 Net cash provided by operating activities

413



580



945



1,220 Cash flows from investing activities:





















Capital expenditures

(179)



(142)



(351)



(284) Proceeds from sale of property, plant, and equipment

9



57



63



58 Acquisition of businesses, net of cash acquired

(2)







(102)



(107) Other

(12)



8



7



10 Net cash used in investing activities

(184)



(77)



(383)



(323) Cash flows from financing activities:





















Net decrease in commercial paper

(479)











 Proceeds from issuance of debt

588



661



588



661 Repayment of debt

(3)



(250)



(558)



(280) Proceeds from exercise of share options

8



44



30



119 Repurchase of common shares

(404)



(140)



(708)



(259) Payment of common share dividends to shareholders

(163)



(159)



(326)



(318) Other

(7)



(5)



(38)



(24) Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities

(460)



151



(1,012)



(101) Effect of currency translation on cash

(2)



(4)



(4)



7 Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash

(233)



650



(454)



803 Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at beginning of period

982



1,098



1,203



945 Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at end of period $ 749

$ 1,748

$ 749

$ 1,748























Supplemental cash flow information:





















Interest paid on debt, net $ 17

$ 29

$ 29

$ 33 Income taxes paid, net of refunds

106



96



177



181

TE CONNECTIVITY LTD. RECONCILIATION OF FREE CASH FLOW (UNAUDITED)

















































For the Quarters Ended

For the Six Months Ended

March 25,

March 26,

March 25,

March 26,

2022

2021

2022

2021

(in millions) Net cash provided by operating activities $ 413

$ 580

$ 945

$ 1,220 Excluding:





















Cash (collected) paid pursuant to collateral requirements related to

cross-currency swap contracts

(1)



(18)



(42)



12 Capital expenditures, net

(170)



(85)



(288)



(226) Free cash flow (1) $ 242

$ 477

$ 615

$ 1,006























(1) Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure. See description of non-GAAP financial measures.

TE CONNECTIVITY LTD.

CONSOLIDATED SEGMENT DATA (UNAUDITED)



































































































For the Quarters Ended



For the Six Months Ended



March 25,



March 26,



March 25,



March 26,



2022



2021



2022



2021



($ in millions)



Net Sales







Net Sales







Net Sales







Net Sales





Transportation Solutions $ 2,314







$ 2,287







$ 4,472







$ 4,511





Industrial Solutions

1,075









952









2,134









1,825





Communications Solutions

618









499









1,219









924





Total $ 4,007







$ 3,738







$ 7,825







$ 7,260







































































































Operating

Operating

Operating

Operating

Operating

Operating

Operating

Operating

Income

Margin

Income

Margin

Income

Margin

Income

Margin Transportation Solutions $ 409

17.7 %

$ 398

17.4 %

$ 804

18.0 %

$ 706

15.7 % Industrial Solutions

148

13.8





111

11.7





271

12.7





187

10.2

Communications Solutions

148

23.9





103

20.6





302

24.8





167

18.1

Total $ 705

17.6 %

$ 612

16.4 %

$ 1,377

17.6 %

$ 1,060

14.6 %

































































































Adjusted

Adjusted

Adjusted

Adjusted

Adjusted

Adjusted

Adjusted

Adjusted

Operating

Operating

Operating

Operating

Operating

Operating

Operating

Operating

Income (1)

Margin (1)

Income (1)

Margin (1)

Income (1)

Margin (1)

Income (1)

Margin (1) Transportation Solutions $ 422

18.2 %

$ 413

18.1 %

$ 814

18.2 %

$ 844

18.7 % Industrial Solutions

164

15.3





119

12.5





321

15.0





237

13.0

Communications Solutions

150

24.3





105

21.0





313

25.7





180

19.5

Total $ 736

18.4 %

$ 637

17.0 %

$ 1,448

18.5 %

$ 1,261

17.4 %















































(1) Adjusted operating income and adjusted operating margin are non-GAAP financial measures. See description of non-GAAP financial measures.



TE CONNECTIVITY LTD. RECONCILIATION OF NET SALES GROWTH (DECLINE) (UNAUDITED)









































































Change in Net Sales for the Quarter Ended March 25, 2022

versus Net Sales for the Quarter Ended March 26, 2021

Net Sales



Organic Net Sales







Acquisitions/

Growth (Decline)



Growth (Decline) (1)



Translation (2)

(Divestitures)

($ in millions) Transportation Solutions (3):

































Automotive $ 23

1.4 %

$ 80

4.9 %

$ (57)

$  Commercial transportation

12

3.1





21

5.4





(9)



 Sensors

(8)

(2.9)













(8)



 Total

27

1.2





101

4.5





(74)



 Industrial Solutions (3):

































Industrial equipment

133

39.2





93

27.2





(13)



53 Aerospace, defense, oil, and gas

(6)

(2.2)













(5)



(1) Energy

(1)

(0.5)





9

4.8





(8)



(2) Medical

(3)

(1.9)





(1)

(1.2)





(2)



 Total

123

12.9





101

10.5





(28)



50 Communications Solutions (3):

































Data and devices

107

38.5





98

35.0





(4)



13 Appliances

12

5.4





16

7.3





(4)



 Total

119

23.8





114

22.8





(8)



13 Total $ 269

7.2 %

$ 316

8.4 %

$ (110)

$ 63













































































































Change in Net Sales for the Six Months Ended March 25, 2022

versus Net Sales for the Six Months Ended March 26, 2021

Net Sales



Organic Net Sales







Acquisitions/

Growth (Decline)



Growth (Decline) (1)



Translation (2)

(Divestitures)

($ in millions) Transportation Solutions (3):

































Automotive $ (86)

(2.6) %

$ (11)

(0.4) %

$ (75)

$  Commercial transportation

46

6.5





57

7.9





(11)



 Sensors

1

0.2





13

2.5





(12)



 Total

(39)

(0.9)





59

1.3





(98)



 Industrial Solutions (3):

































Industrial equipment

300

47.3





212

33.0





(25)



113 Aerospace, defense, oil, and gas

(14)

(2.7)





(6)

(1.4)





(8)



 Energy

15

4.2





38

10.5





(12)



(11) Medical

8

2.5





11

3.1





(3)



 Total

309

16.9





255

13.9





(48)



102 Communications Solutions (3):

































Data and devices

222

43.4





209

40.7





(5)



18 Appliances

73

17.7





77

18.4





(4)



 Total

295

31.9





286

30.8





(9)



18 Total $ 565

7.8 %

$ 600

8.2 %

$ (155)

$ 120



































(1) Organic net sales growth (decline) is a non-GAAP financial measure. See description of non-GAAP financial measures. (2) Represents the change in net sales resulting from changes in foreign currency exchange rates. (3) Industry end market information is presented consistently with our internal management reporting and may be periodically revised as management deems necessary.

TE CONNECTIVITY LTD.

RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES TO GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

For the Quarter Ended March 25, 2022

(UNAUDITED)















































































Adjustments















Acquisition-

Restructuring

















Related

and Other





Adjusted



U.S. GAAP



Charges (1)

Charges, Net (1)

Tax Items (2)

(Non-GAAP) (3)



($ in millions, except per share data)

Operating income:































Transportation Solutions $ 409



$ 4

$ 9

$ 

$ 422

Industrial Solutions

148





6



10







164

Communications Solutions

148









2







150

Total $ 705



$ 10

$ 21

$ 

$ 736



































Operating margin

17.6 %





















18.4 %

































Other income, net $ 5



$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 5



































Income tax expense $ (136)



$ (2)

$ (5)

$ 8

$ (135)



































Effective tax rate

19.5 %





















18.6 %

































Income from continuing operations $ 560



$ 8

$ 16

$ 8

$ 592



































Diluted earnings per share from

continuing operations $ 1.71



$ 0.02

$ 0.05

$ 0.02

$ 1.81



































(1) The tax effect of each non-GAAP adjustment is calculated based on the jurisdictions in which the expense (income) is incurred and the tax laws in effect for each such jurisdiction.

(2) Includes $27 million of income tax expense related to the write-down of certain deferred tax assets to the lower tax rate enacted in the canton of Schaffhausen on December 27, 2021. Also includes a $19 million income tax benefit related to the tax impacts of an intercompany transaction. Our estimated annual effective tax rate for fiscal 2022 includes a total income tax benefit of approximately $75 million related to this transaction, with portions recognized in the quarters ended December 24, 2021 and March 25, 2022 and the remainder to be recognized in the remaining quarters of fiscal 2022.

(3) See description of non-GAAP financial measures.



TE CONNECTIVITY LTD.

RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES TO GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

For the Quarter Ended March 26, 2021

(UNAUDITED)



































































Adjustments















Acquisition-

Restructuring













Related

and Other

Adjusted



U.S. GAAP



Charges (1)

Charges, Net (1)

(Non-GAAP) (2)



($ in millions, except per share data)

Operating income:

























Transportation Solutions $ 398



$ 5

$ 10

$ 413

Industrial Solutions

111





3



5



119

Communications Solutions

103









2



105

Total $ 612



$ 8

$ 17

$ 637





























Operating margin

16.4 %















17.0 %



























Other income, net $ 4



$ 

$ 

$ 4





























Income tax expense $ (106)



$ (2)

$ (2)

$ (110)





























Effective tax rate

17.3 %















17.3 %



























Income from continuing operations $ 505



$ 6

$ 15

$ 526





























Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations $ 1.51



$ 0.02

$ 0.04

$ 1.57





























(1) The tax effect of each non-GAAP adjustment is calculated based on the jurisdictions in which the expense (income) is incurred and the tax laws in effect for each such jurisdiction.

(2) See description of non-GAAP financial measures.



TE CONNECTIVITY LTD.

RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES TO GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

For the Six Months Ended March 25, 2022

(UNAUDITED)















































































Adjustments















Acquisition-

Restructuring

















Related

and Other





Adjusted



U.S. GAAP



Charges (1)

Charges, Net (1)(2)

Tax Items (3)

(Non-GAAP) (4)



($ in millions, except per share data)

Operating income:































Transportation Solutions $ 804



$ 7

$ 3

$ 

$ 814

Industrial Solutions

271





18



32







321

Communications Solutions

302





1



10







313

Total $ 1,377



$ 26

$ 45

$ 

$ 1,448



































Operating margin

17.6 %





















18.5 %

































Other income, net $ 20



$ 

$ 

$ (11)

$ 9



































Income tax expense $ (246)



$ (5)

$ (12)

$ 3

$ (260)



































Effective tax rate

17.9 %





















18.1 %

































Income from continuing operations $ 1,127



$ 21

$ 33

$ (8)

$ 1,173



































Diluted earnings per share from

continuing operations $ 3.44



$ 0.06

$ 0.10

$ (0.02)

$ 3.58



































(1) The tax effect of each non-GAAP adjustment is calculated based on the jurisdictions in which the expense (income) is incurred and the tax laws in effect for each such jurisdiction.

(2) Includes $33 million recorded in net restructuring and other charges and $12 million recorded in cost of sales.

(3) Includes a $36 million income tax benefit related to the tax impacts of an intercompany transaction. Our estimated annual effective tax rate for fiscal 2022 includes a total income tax benefit of approximately $75 million related to this transaction, with portions recognized in the quarters ended December 24, 2021 and March 25, 2022 and the remainder to be recognized in the remaining quarters of fiscal 2022. Also includes $27 million of income tax expense related to the write-down of certain deferred tax assets to the lower tax rate enacted in the canton of Schaffhausen, and $12 million of income tax expense related to an income tax audit of an acquired entity, as well as the related impact of $11 million to other income pursuant to the indemnification terms of the purchase agreement.

(4) See description of non-GAAP financial measures.



TE CONNECTIVITY LTD.

RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES TO GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

For the Six Months Ended March 26, 2021

(UNAUDITED)















































































Adjustments















Acquisition-

Restructuring

















Related

and Other





Adjusted



U.S. GAAP



Charges (1)

Charges, Net (1)

Tax Items (2)

(Non-GAAP) (3)



($ in millions, except per share data)

Operating income:































Transportation Solutions $ 706



$ 10

$ 128

$ 

$ 844

Industrial Solutions

187





7



43







237

Communications Solutions

167









13







180

Total $ 1,060



$ 17

$ 184

$ 

$ 1,261



































Operating margin

14.6 %





















17.4 %

































Other income, net $ 3



$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 3



































Income tax expense $ (166)



$ (4)

$ (34)

$ (29)

$ (233)



































Effective tax rate

15.9 %





















18.7 %

































Income from continuing operations $ 880



$ 13

$ 150

$ (29)

$ 1,014



































Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations $ 2.64



$ 0.04

$ 0.45

$ (0.09)

$ 3.05



































(1) The tax effect of each non-GAAP adjustment is calculated based on the jurisdictions in which the expense (income) is incurred and the tax laws in effect for each such jurisdiction.

(2) Income tax benefits related to an Internal Revenue Service approved change in the tax method of depreciating or amortizing certain assets.

(3) See description of non-GAAP financial measures.



TE CONNECTIVITY LTD.

RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES TO GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

For the Quarter Ended June 25, 2021

(UNAUDITED)



































































Adjustments















Acquisition-

Restructuring













Related

and Other

Adjusted



U.S. GAAP



Charges (1)

Charges, Net (1)

(Non-GAAP) (2)



($ in millions, except per share data)

Operating income:

























Transportation Solutions $ 433



$ 5

$ 2

$ 440

Industrial Solutions

148





4



6



158

Communications Solutions

133









3



136

Total $ 714



$ 9

$ 11

$ 734





























Operating margin

18.6 %















19.1 %



























Other income, net $ 2



$ 

$ 

$ 2





























Income tax expense $ (124)



$ (2)

$ (4)

$ (130)





























Effective tax rate

17.6 %















17.9 %



























Income from continuing operations $ 581



$ 7

$ 7

$ 595





























Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations $ 1.74



$ 0.02

$ 0.02

$ 1.79





























(1) The tax effect of each non-GAAP adjustment is calculated based on the jurisdictions in which the expense (income) is incurred and the tax laws in effect for each such jurisdiction.

(2) See description of non-GAAP financial measures.



TE CONNECTIVITY LTD.

RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES TO GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

For the Year Ended September 24, 2021

(UNAUDITED)



























































































Adjustments















Acquisition-

Restructuring





















Related

and Other









Adjusted



U.S. GAAP



Charges (1)

Charges, Net (1)

Other Items (1)(2)

Tax Items (3)

(Non-GAAP) (4)



($ in millions, except per share data)

Operating income:





































Transportation Solutions $ 1,526



$ 18

$ 135

$ 

$ 

$ 1,679

Industrial Solutions

469





15



73











557

Communications Solutions

439





1



25











465

Total $ 2,434



$ 34

$ 233

$ 

$ 

$ 2,701









































Operating margin

16.3 %



























18.1 %







































Other income (expense), net $ (17)



$ 

$ 

$ 28

$ 

$ 11









































Income tax expense $ (123)



$ (7)

$ (35)

$ (6)

$ (333)

$ (504)









































Effective tax rate

5.2 %



























5.2 %







































Income from continuing operations $ 2,255



$ 27

$ 198

$ 22

$ (333)

$ 2,169









































Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations $ 6.77



$ 0.08

$ 0.59

$ 0.07

$ (1.00)

$ 6.51









































(1) The tax effect of each non-GAAP adjustment is calculated based on the jurisdictions in which the expense (income) is incurred and the tax laws in effect for each such jurisdiction.

(2) Charge related to the transfer of certain U.S. pension plan liabilities to an insurance company through the purchase of a group annuity contract.

(3) Represents a $327 million income tax benefit for the net reduction in valuation allowances associated primarily with certain tax planning actions as well as improved current and expected future operating profit and taxable income, $29 million of income tax benefits related to an Internal Revenue Service approved change in the tax method of depreciating or amortizing certain assets, and $23 million of income tax expense associated with the tax impacts of an intercompany transaction.

(4) See description of non-GAAP financial measures.



TE CONNECTIVITY LTD. RECONCILIATION OF FORWARD-LOOKING NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES TO FORWARD-LOOKING GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES As of April 27, 2022 (UNAUDITED)







Outlook for



Quarter Ending



June 24,



2022

Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations $ 1.71

Restructuring and other charges, net

0.07

Acquisition-related charges

0.03

Tax items

(0.06)

Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations (1) $ 1.75

















Net sales growth

1.4 % Translation

4.0

(Acquisitions) divestitures, net

(2.1)

Organic net sales growth (1)

3.3 %







(1) See description of non-GAAP financial measures.

SOURCE TE Connectivity Ltd.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Higg , the sustainability insights platform for the consumer goods industry, today announced its $50M Series B funding round. The funding is co-led by technology growth investor Silversmith Capital Partners and Tom Steyer and Katie Hall's Galvanize Climate Solutions , along with participation by Series A partners Titan Grove and Buckhill Capital . With close to 50,000 brand and manufacturer users in 100+ countries, Higg enables continuous improvement of supply chain sustainabilityacross not only carbon but water, energy, and labor impacts as well. This funding will accelerate Higg's delivery of innovative technology solutions and its rapid expansion into new consumer goods categories such as outdoor, automotive, toys, and home goods.

Higg's Series B comes as companies face growing expectations for ESG (environmental, social, and governance) accountability and disclosure. Regulations are currently being developed in the EU and US for supply chain due diligence, in addition to recent guidelines for product labeling and sustainability claims. Shoppers are also seeking greater product-level transparency about the goods they purchase.

"In this new era of expectations, more businesses will be required to have credible impact data about their supply chains. "The truth is that measuring owned operations is easy," said Higg CEO, Jason Kibbey. "For consumer products companies, the challenge is obtaining accurate data on the non-owned factories that make the goodsand on the materials and products themselves."

"That's why we're thrilled to have Silversmith and Galvanize supporting us," Kibbey continued. "Silversmith brings experience in SaaS innovation that's needed to scale our technology and Tom Steyer's effort at Galvanize is the perfect complement given their emphasis in climate solutions. We're excited to tap into their expertise so that Higg becomes a critical source for ESG information through the value chain and across sectors."

Trusted by major brands as well as tens of thousands of manufacturers across the world, data on the Higg platform is used to design more sustainable products, to expand worker well-being, and to identify suppliers with reduced impact across emissions, water, chemicals, and waste. While many sustainability solutions offer high-level estimates of a business' impact, Higg provides primary data specific to a business' sourcing and value chain, within consistent, comparable industry frameworks. This unique top-down bottom-up approach to performance data has distinguished Higg in a growing market.

"What the Higg team has done in marrying powerful and easy-to-use software with proprietary sustainability data has the opportunity to transform the footprint of entire industries," said Todd MacLean, Managing Partner at Silversmith Capital Partners. "In this case software is not only eating the world, but changing it for the better. We are excited to partner with Jason and his entire team as they continue to scale and ensure consumers have better insights on environmental and social impact when making purchasing decisions."

"While we urgently need improvements in carbon and clean energy, Higg is accelerating transformation across the board," added Tom Steyer, Co-Chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions. "Reimagining sustainability within consumer goods is an interconnected challenge, and Higg's technology addresses this throughout the supply chain."

Higg was launched in 2019 as a public-benefit technology company to build software for the Higg Index tools (developed and owned by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition). This standardized measurement framework for environmental and social performance has become the most widely used within the apparel and footwear industry. Designed for easy exchange of data between brands and their manufacturing partners, Higg has seen rapid adoption across the sector and driven steady improvement in performance scoresproviding a model for other consumer goods categories for industry-wide transformation.

Recently, Higg has begun to host additional assessments, partnering with the Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) to offer a new carbon management program for manufacturing facilities. Higg has also expanded the capabilities of its platform to include advanced analytics, supplier performance dashboards, and product-level impact disclosures, and now enables integration of its data into external product lifecycle management systems.

"Higg is uniquely driving reduced carbon emissions in the world's largest emitting markets, including China and India, as well as global improvements in labor conditions," stated Jeffrey Tannenbaum, Chairman of Titan Grove. "The new capital and strategic partnerships with Galvanize and Silversmith empower our exceptional executive team to enter new industries and to dramatically accelerate our urgent work toward global carbon reduction."

"When we began supporting Higg in 2018, we knew the marketplace for ESG data would expand rapidly," added Henrik Jones from Buckhill Capital. "Given the impact we've seen in apparel and footwear, our dream is to make Higg as universal and ubiquitous as the bar codesomething which lies at the heart of every consumer goods business and drives more informed choices for companies and shoppers alike."

About Higg

Higg is the sustainability insights platform for consumer goods businesses  delivering software and services for measuring, managing, and sharing supply chain performance data.

From materials to products, from facilities to stores, from emissions to working conditions, Higg unlocks a complete view of a business's social and environmental impact.

Launched in 2019 as a public-benefit corporation, Higg is trusted by global brands, retailers, and manufacturers to provide the single source of ESG intelligence they need to accelerate business and industry transformation. www.higg.com

About Silversmith Capital Partners

Founded in 2015, Silversmith Capital Partners is a Boston-based growth equity firm with $2.0 billion of capital under management. Silversmith's mission is to partner with and support the best entrepreneurs in growing, profitable technology and healthcare companies. Representative investments include ActiveCampaign, DistroKid, impact.com, Iodine Software, LifeStance Health, and Webflow. The partners have served on the boards of numerous successful growth companies including ABILITY Network, Dealer.com, Liberty Dialysis, Passport Health, SurveyMonkey, and Wrike. For more information about Silversmith, please visit www.silversmith.com or follow the firm on LinkedIn .

About Galvanize Climate Solutions

Galvanize Climate Solutions, launched in September 2021 by Tom Steyer and Katie Hall, is a mission-driven investment platform that will provide capital, expertise and partnerships necessary to produce and scale vital and urgent climate solutions. Galvanize is purpose-built to accelerate decarbonization efforts by integrating climate-focused investment with global activism.

Galvanize aims to combine investment, technical, policy and communications expertise under one roof. Despite the progress that has already been made surrounding the climate crisis, there is still a significant gap between where we are headed and what the natural world needs to secure a livable future. Galvanize will help to close that gap by driving innovation, leadership and significant private sector investment in climate-focused companies and innovations. galvanizeclimatesolutions.com

About Titan Grove Holdings

Titan Grove is a private holding company that helps build profitable, impact-driven businesses that transform industries and promote sustainable, healthy and just capitalism. Titan Grove achieves this mission by working with exceptional entrepreneurs, innovators and institutions. sPower, which Titan Grove co-founded and helped build into the largest solar utility in the U.S., is indicative of Titan Grove's strategy. www.titangrove.com

About Buckhill Capital

Buckhill Capital invests in companies on a mission to create climate resiliency, educate for employability and build healthy communities. Founded by Henrik Jones in 1999, Buckhill is based in San Francisco with investments including SpaceX, GoodR, Para, Pallet, Graduation Alliance, and Imperfect Foods. www.buckhillcapital.com

Media Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE Higg
ATLANTA, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Aaron's Company, Inc. (NYSE: AAN; "the Company"), a leading, technology-enabled, omnichannel provider of lease-to-own and retail purchase solutions, will webcast its 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday May 4, 2022 from Atlanta, Georgia, as described in its proxy statement, dated March 24, 2022, furnished to Aaron's shareholders.

Investors and other interested parties may access the webcast on the Investor Relations page of Aaron's website at investor.aarons.com. The webcast will allow parties to listen to the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, but will not provide the opportunity to participate.

About The Aaron's Company, Inc.

Headquartered in Atlanta, The Aaron's Company, Inc. is a leading, technology-enabled, omnichannel provider of lease-to-own and retail purchase solutions of appliances, electronics, furniture, and other home goods across its brands, Aaron's and BrandsMart U.S.A. Aaron's offers a direct-to-consumer lease-to-own solution through its 1,300 company-operated and franchised stores in 47 states and Canada, as well as its e-commerce platform. BrandsMart U.S.A. is one of the leading appliance and consumer electronics retailers in the southeast United States and one of the largest appliance retailers in the country with ten retail stores in Florida and Georgia. For more information, visit investor.aarons.com.

SOURCE The Aaron's Company, Inc.
New Studio with Immersive Set Design Enables the Company to Film Professionals Sharing the Products They Love In the Way They Actually Use Them

CHICAGO, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicago-based and founded, The Desire Company  the world's only community of Experts who trial, test and share reviews of the products they genuinely use and trust  is excited to announce the opening of their new studio in Chicago. The company's new, innovative space is located in the heart of The Windy City at 2112, Chicago's first creative incubator. The space includes immersive set designs to film top Pros sharing honest recommendations, easy-to-follow how tos and hands-on classes.

Coming off the heels of a recent $8 Million Series A raise, the increase in production capabilities created by the studio will help satisfy the growing demand from brands and retailers for The Desire Company's authentic Expert reviews. The 7,000 sq ft location also provides office space which houses the Company's Chicago-based employees, a group that is set to grow by over 50% before the end of the year with new hires.

With two thirds of the leadership team and 90% of The Desire Company's investors hailing from Chicago, the Company made the decision to embed roots in the city. "Chicago is my home," says Eric Sheinkop, co-founder and CEO of The Desire Company. "Our very first Desire Co. Pro was someone I met many years ago at Lincoln Park High School. Chicagoans support each other so it was the perfect place to launch a talent-based company. We've since grown the community with Experts from all over the US including more great Chicago Pros, but it feels right to build deeper roots here even as we expand."

Chicago-based choreographer and former Lady Gaga dance captain, Asiel Hardison, is thrilled for the company's new digs, "Chicago is home to some of the realest talent the world has to offer. I am excited for fellow Chicagoans to be a part of this great community of Pros and to be given the platform to share their hard-won knowledge and expertise with people looking for genuine professional advice."

"We congratulate The Desire Company on its expansion into new studio space in Chicago's Portage Park neighborhood," said Michael Fassnacht, President & CEO, World Business Chicago, Chief Marketing Officer, City of Chicago. "We are incredibly proud of home-grown talent like Eric Sheinkop and team who are pioneering innovative ways forward to empower consumers with trusted reviews and more, capitalizing on the accelerated growth that tech and innovation are driving throughout the city. We are excited to watch The Desire Company expand and grow in the years to come."

About The Desire Company

The Desire Company is the world's only community of Experts who tell the truth about the products they actually use and trust. Our mission is to empower shoppers to make more educated, confident purchase decisions by providing credible, expert-driven product reviews, how-tos, and classes. The company was created around the passions of accomplished professionals at the top of their game, in order to democratize their knowledge and build a community to share it.

Media contact:

Kristin Loretta

[email protected]

SOURCE The Desire Company
VANCOUVER, BC, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Deep-South Resources Inc. ("Deep-South" or "the Company") (TSXV: DSM) reports that the legal counsel of the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Namibia ("Ministry") is late to file its defense affidavit and has requested an extension of 10 days to file its affidavit. The reason invoked by the Ministry's counsel is that the Minister was out of the country since April 5, 2022 and was to return to his office only on Monday April 25, 2022. Deep-South's legal counsel indicated that they would be amenable to an extension until April 29, 2022.

Therefore, it is expected that the Ministry will file its defense on April 29, 2022 or at the latest on May 3, 2022. In terms of the current applicable court order Deep-South will have until May 13, 2022 to file its reply to the defense of the Ministry.

The judge has also drawn the attention of the parties to the Part 6 of the Rules of High Court. Part 6 deals with sanctions for failure to comply with the rules, directions or court orders. Sanctions could be applied for failure to respect court orders.

The Court will hold another hearing on May 18, 2022, to define the further procedures with regard to the review of the decision of the Minister to deny the renewal of the exploration license Haib Copper EPL 3140.

The Company will provide regular updates in this regard and any other matter concerning this situation.

About Deep-South Resources Inc

Deep-South Resources is a mineral exploration and development company Deep-South growth strategy is to focus on the exploration and development of quality assets in significant mineralized trends and in proximity to infrastructure in stable countries. In using and assessing environmentally friendly technologies in the development of its copper project, Deep-South embraces the green revolution.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Information contained in this news release which are not statements of historical facts may be "forward-looking information" for the purposes of Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking information. The words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "contemplate", "plan", "intends", "continue", "budget", "estimate", "may", "will", "schedule", "understand" and similar expressions identify forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things: the Minister's refusal to renew the Company's Licence, the Company's intention to contest the Minister's decision before the Courts of Namibia and the outcome of such proceedings.

Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Deep-South, are inherently subject to significant technical, political, business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Factors and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: political risks associated with the Company's operations in Namibia; the failure of the Namibian Government to comply with its continuing obligations under the Act to allow for the renewal of the Licence; the impact of changes in, or to the more aggressive enforcement of, laws, regulations and government practices; the inability of the Company and its subsidiaries to enforce their legal rights in certain circumstances. For additional risk factors, please see the Company's most recently filed Management Discussions & Analysis available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

There can be no assurances that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as many factors and future events, both known and unknown could cause actual results, performance or achievements to vary or differ materially from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained herein or incorporated by reference. Accordingly, all such factors should be considered carefully when making decisions with respect to Deep-South, and prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release is made as at the date hereof. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions, changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE Deep-South Resources Inc.
LONDON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Neutral Digital congratulates Qatar Airways on entering the metaverse with the launch of QVerse  a novel virtual reality (VR) experience for visitors to the airline's website.

Neutral Digital was selected by Qatar Airways as the development partner for the QVerse based on its industry-leading track record of creating cutting-edge immersive experiences in the aviation space. The Qatar Airways and Neutral Digital teams have collaborated closely over the past year to make the QVerse vision a reality.

The QVerse is a unique, immersive experience that allows website visitors to virtually tour and navigate the Premium Check-In area at Hamad International Airport (HIA) and the cabin interior of the airline's aircraft, including different class cabins. Most notably, the experience introduces the world's first MetaHuman cabin crew, 'Sama', demonstrating Qatar Airways' commitment to innovation and leveraging new technologies to delight customers. The MetaHuman cabin crew offers an interactive customer experience through engagement with the user.

'Sama' (whose name is of Arabic origins and translates as 'sky') is a high fidelity digital human brought to life using Epic Games' industry-leading Unreal Engine, the world's most advanced real-time 3D creation tool that's used by leading game makers, Hollywood production and special effects studios. Neutral Digital also used Epic Games' MetaHuman Creator, a cloud-based app for creating high fidelity digital humans.

Neutral Digital Managing Director, Iain Brown, said: "The QVerse demonstrates the value of immersive 3D technology in creating the next generation of customer engagement and marketing experiences. With its track record of pioneering innovation, it is natural that Qatar Airways is leading the way in this space."

About Neutral Digital

Neutral Digital is a technology company providing immersive sales & marketing platforms to help businesses across sectors increase sales and marketing ROI. When products and services are hard to visualise, Neutral Digital's platforms use the latest 3D interactive technologies to bring storytelling to life. Brands can showcase the full value of their products with memorable, immersive encounters.

About Qatar Airways

A multiple award-winning airline, Qatar Airways was announced as the 'Airline of the Year' by the international air transport rating organisation, Skytrax, in addition to securing five additional awards, including World's Best Business Class, World's Best Business Class Airline Lounge, World's Best Business Class Airline Seat, World's Best Business Class Onboard Catering and Best Airline in the Middle East. The airline continues to stand alone at the top of the industry, having won the main prize for an unprecedented sixth time (2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021). The airline's hub, Hamad International Airport (HIA), was also recently recognised as the 'Best Airport in the World 2021', ranking at number one in the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2021.

SOURCE Neutral Digital
DUBLIN, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Carpet and Rugs Market (2022-2027) by Type, Material, Distribution Channel, Application, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Carpet and Rugs Market is estimated to be USD 112.69 Bn in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 143.14 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.9%.

Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Carpet and Rugs Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals.

As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks.

Company Profiles

The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario. Some of the companies covered in this report are Abbey Carpet & Floor, Cormar Carpets, Avalanche Flooring, Inc., Axminster Carpets Ltd, Beaulieu International Group, Victoria PLC,, , etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of - Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of - Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of - Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of - ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA.

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA. Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Carpet and Rugs Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach.



The analyst analyses Global Carpet and Rugs Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.



Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, the analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Carpet and Rugs Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Growing Consumer Interest in Interior Decoration

4.1.2 Increasing Demand for Environment-Friendly Carpets

4.1.3 Rapid Urbanization and Globalization

4.1.4 Rising in the Number of Renovation and Remodeling Activities

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 High Prices of Raw Materials

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Increases Number of Construction Activity in Emerging Countries

4.3.2 Upsurging Importance of Organized Retailing

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Disposal of Wastes



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Carpet and Rugs Market, By Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Tufted

6.3 Woven

6.4 Needle-punched

6.5 Knotted

6.6 Others



7 Global Carpet and Rugs Market, By Material

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Nylon

7.3 Polyester

7.4 Polypropylene (Olefin)

7.5 Wool

7.6 Others



8 Global Carpet and Rugs Market, By Distribution Channel

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Mass Merchandisers

8.3 Home Centers

8.4 Specialty Stores



9 Global Carpet and Rugs Market, By Application

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Residential

9.3 Commercial



10 Americas' Carpet and Rugs Market

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Argentina

10.3 Brazil

10.4 Canada

10.5 Chile

10.6 Colombia

10.7 Mexico

10.8 Peru

10.9 United States

10.10 Rest of Americas



11 Europe's Carpet and Rugs Market

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Austria

11.3 Belgium

11.4 Denmark

11.5 Finland

11.6 France

11.7 Germany

11.8 Italy

11.9 Netherlands

11.10 Norway

11.11 Poland

11.12 Russia

11.13 Spain

11.14 Sweden

11.15 Switzerland

11.16 United Kingdom

11.17 Rest of Europe



12 Middle East and Africa's Carpet and Rugs Market

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Egypt

12.3 Israel

12.4 Qatar

12.5 Saudi Arabia

12.6 South Africa

12.7 United Arab Emirates

12.8 Rest of MEA



13 APAC's Carpet and Rugs Market

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Australia

13.3 Bangladesh

13.4 China

13.5 India

13.6 Indonesia

13.7 Japan

13.8 Malaysia

13.9 Philippines

13.10 Singapore

13.11 South Korea

13.12 Sri Lanka

13.13 Thailand

13.14 Taiwan

13.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific



14 Competitive Landscape

14.1 Competitive Quadrant

14.2 Market Share Analysis

14.3 Strategic Initiatives

14.3.1 M&A and Investments

14.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

14.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



15 Company Profiles

15.1 Abbey Carpet & Floor

15.2 Cormar Carpets

15.3 Avalanche Flooring, Inc.

15.4 Axminster Carpets Ltd

15.5 Beaulieu International Group

15.6 Couristan, Inc.

15.7 Dixie Group, Inc.

15.8 Engineered Floors LLC

15.9 Floor Coverings International

15.10 Foamex International Inc

15.11 Ikea Group

15.12 Interface Inc.

15.13 Invista

15.14 Kraus Carpet Mills Ltd.

15.15 Lowe's Companies, Inc.

15.16 Mannington Mills, Inc.

15.17 Milliken & Company

15.18 Mohawk Industries Inc.

15.19 Oriental Weavers Company for Carpet

15.20 Shaw Industries Group, Inc.

15.21 Stark Carpet Corp.

15.22 Tai Ping Carpets International Limited

15.23 Tarkett S.A.

15.24 The Home Depot, Inc.

15.25 Victoria PLC



16 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/71bi14

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
Disaggregated data on racial and ethnic representation now included

GHG emission reductions progress reported; ahead of key commitment of Science Based Targets initiative

TORONTO, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson Reuters today issued its 2021 Social Impact and ESG Report, which outlines the company's primary environmental, social and governance activities and progress. The release of the report follows the launch earlier this year of the company's purpose  Inform the Way Forward.

"Our purpose expresses the role we play for professionals and the institutions we serve. It also anchors our ESG efforts, uniting our commercial and societal responsibilities: to increase knowledge, to act with courage and integrity, and to pursue justice, truth, and transparency. This is central to everything we do as a company, embedded in our products and reinforced through our partnerships and our people," said Steve Hasker, President and CEO of Thomson Reuters.

The 2021 report expands external reporting on the company's diversity and inclusion efforts with disaggregated data on racial and ethnic representation and, where available, additional talent representation data. This builds on the company's commitment to transparency, as Thomson Reuters continues to focus on increasing representation of women and racial and ethnically diverse talent in senior leadership roles.

At the end of 2021, women comprised 41% of senior leaders and 16% of senior leaders were racially or ethnically diverse. The company's goals are to reach 45% or more women and 20% or more racial and ethnic representation in senior roles by the end of 2022, including a doubling of Black representation from 2020 levels. Last year, Black representation in senior leadership increased by 15%.

"Fostering a diverse and inclusive culture of world-class talent is one of our top global priorities, and transparency is integral to that work," said Hasker. "While we have made some progress, there is still more work to be done."

The report also highlights that Thomson Reuters is in the process of completing a comprehensive global ESG materiality assessment, and the company has aligned with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

Additionally, for the first time, the company is reporting progress on all its commitments as a member of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to reduce absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to prioritize working with suppliers aligned with the Science Based Targets. Thomson Reuters has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner.

Largely through investment in renewable power for its facilities, the company has already exceeded its target to reduce absolute Scope 1 & 2 GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 from 2018 baseline levels  reducing GHG emissions from its direct and indirect operations by over 93%, the equivalent of removing approximately 20,400 passenger vehicles from the road annually. Thomson Reuters is also making clear progress on its target to reduce Scope 3 emissions from business travel, employee commuting, and fuel and energy-related activities by 25% by 2025 from 2019 baseline levels.

Twenty-seven percent of the company's suppliers by spend are committed to Science Based Targets, as Thomson Reuters continues to refine its procurement process to work with more suppliers that share its commitment to sustainability. The company is targeting 65% of its suppliers by spend to have Science Based Targets by 2025.

Other highlights in the report include:

Continued to combat misinformation by providing crucial access to trusted content and data, including the expansion of the Reuters Fact Check unit to review Spanish-language content from Facebook and Instagram in Mexico , and the launch of a partnership with Twitter to provide users of the platform with credible information to make informed decisions.

, and the launch of a partnership with Twitter to provide users of the platform with credible information to make informed decisions. Partnered with Equality Now to publish the breakthrough report Ending Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Women and Girls: A Call for International Standards , drawing on legal and editorial expertise of Thomson Reuters Practical Law attorney-editors, who contributed hundreds of hours of pro bono work.

, drawing on legal and editorial expertise of Thomson Reuters Practical Law attorney-editors, who contributed hundreds of hours of pro bono work. Supported the Thomson Reuters Foundation's TrustLaw, the world's largest pro bono legal network  enabling nearly $20 million worth of free legal assistance globally in 2021 for non-governmental organizations and social enterprises.

worth of free legal assistance globally in 2021 for non-governmental organizations and social enterprises. Used 100% renewable energy for all global operations for the second year and will continue going forward.

The full report is available at tr.com/social-impact-report.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is a leading provider of business information services. Our products include highly specialized information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the world's most global news service  Reuters. For more information on Thomson Reuters, visit tr.com and for the latest world news, reuters.com.

CONTACT

Sarah Schmidt Senior Director, Commercial Communications & Corporate Affairs +1.437.226.7876 [email protected]



SOURCE Thomson Reuters
DuraGrass recently installed 800 square feet of Synthetic Grass Warehouse's Playground Fescue artificial grass in a home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. TigerTurf Playground Fescue features a dual coloring of field green and olive green with brown thatch, and it has a pile height of 1.375 inches. With a 55-ounce face weight, it is ideal for moderate to heavy foot traffic. The state-of-the-art 3D curvy "W" fiber grass blades provide greater resiliency and stability while creating a hyper-realistic appearance. Playground Fescue is manufactured with UV inhibitors for long-lasting color that won't fade with extended exposure to sunlight, and all synthetic grass products from SGW are non-toxic, lead-free, and will drain at a rate of more than 30 inches of rain per hour per square yard.

DuraGrass' client had two kids and two small dogs, so they wanted to transform their backyard into a beautiful, fun, and  most importantly  safe place for the whole family to enjoy. They chose Playground Fescue due to its durable, kid-friendly nature that remained soft to the touch and realistic in appearance. DuraGrass utilized the turf to create vibrant, eye-catching turf ribbons that contrasted with cream hardscaping to create a modern, sleek, and luxurious backyard pool deck.

DuraGrass has served the greater Tulsa area for more than 15 years. Owner Dominic Gomes started the company after identifying a gap in the market in the Tulsa area. "I wanted to do something that not a whole lot of people were doing," Gomes explains. "There were especially not many people doing quality work in this area." With a commitment to high-quality products and full customer satisfaction, Gomes founded the company in 2006 and has expanded ever since, now offering faux rocks and water features in addition to synthetic turf installations.

DuraGrass is Synthetic Grass Warehouse's "Install of the Month" winner for April 2022.

DuraGrass:

DuraGrass is an artificial grass installer with experience in turf installations as well as faux rocks and water features. Founded in 2006, DuraGrass aims to provide Tulsa residents with high-quality installs that guarantee customer satisfaction. DuraGrass proudly serves all of Oklahoma. You can learn more about DuraGrass by contacting Dominic Gomes at (918) 948-4345 or [email protected] .

About Synthetic Grass Warehouse, Inc.:

Synthetic Grass Warehouse is the exclusive national distributor for TigerTurf and Everlast brands of artificial grass products. Founded in 2004, Synthetic Grass Warehouse specializes in turf products designed for landscaping, pets, putting greens, and playgrounds. SGW provides same-day shipping on all turf orders. Learn more at https://www.syntheticgrasswarehouse.com

SOURCE Synthetic Grass Warehouse, Inc.
California's Amador Valley High School Takes First Place in National Academic Competition on the Constitution

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES and WASHINGTON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Forty-seven schools from across the nation competed this weekend in the 35th annual We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution National Finals , a national academic competition on the Constitution that took place online and in the nation's capital. After a final round of competition among the top-12 schools on Monday, Amador Valley High School of Pleasanton, Calif., placed first, earning the title of We the People national champions. Indiana's Fishers High School placed second, and Douglas S. Freeman High School of Henrico, Va., placed third.

"I am inspired by the hard work, dedication and constitutional knowledge of all the young people who competed in the We the People National Finals," said Christopher R. Riano, president of the Center for Civic Education. "With the support of their teachers, parents and communities, they studied the fundamental principles of our nation's government, learned about modern challenges to American representative democracy and engaged their critical thinking skills to formulate their own ideas about core American constitutional principles. With the strong support of our communities and research-proven civic education programs like We the People, I am confident that with this generation, our nation will be stronger and more united."

The We the People National Finals, a program of the Center for Civic Education, began in 1987 as an academic component of the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. Since then, more than 30 million students have taken part in the program in every state. A full list of We the People National Finals award winners is available at https://civiced.org/national-finals-2022-awards .

This year's We the People National Finals featured two John Lewis Scholarship Program schools, Canyon Springs High School from North Las Vegas, Nev., and Parkrose High School from Portland, Ore. Named after the civil rights activist who also served 17 terms as a member of Congress, the John Lewis Scholarship Program provides students in high-need schools with scholarships to attend the We the People National Finals.

We the People National Finals and teams from each state are sponsored by hundreds of individuals and local businesses. The Center for Civic Education has long been recognized as a leader in providing civic education to K12 students and adults, with its research-based curriculum reaching more than 42 million students and 440,000 educators in the United States and in more than 80 countries since 1965.

Follow Us

@CivicEducation

CONTACT:

Chelsea Schuster

Center for Civic Education

561-843-0197

[email protected]

SOURCE Center for Civic Education
NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Wheels Up Experience Inc. (NYSE: UP), the leading brand in private aviation, today announced that Kenny Dichter, chairman & CEO; Vinayak Hegde, president, and Eric Jacobs, chief financial officer will present virtually at the 17th Annual Needham Technology & Media Conference on Monday, May 16, 2022 at 11 a.m., ET.

The event will be webcast live and can be accessed via the Events & Presentations page of our Investor Relations website.

An archive of the presentation will be available at the link above.

About Wheels Up

Wheels Up is the leading provider of on-demand private aviation in the U.S. and one of the largest private aviation companies in the world. Wheels Up offers a complete global aviation solution with a large, modern and diverse fleet, backed by an uncompromising commitment to safety and service. Customers can access membership programs, charter and aircraft management servicesas well as unique commercial travel benefits through a strategic partnership with Delta Air Lines. The Wheels Up Services brands also offer freight, safety & security solutions and managed services to individuals, industry, government and civil organizations.

Wheels Up is guided by the mission to connect flyers to private aircraftand one anotherand deliver exceptional, personalized experiences. Powered by a global private aviation marketplace connecting its growing base of 12,000+ members and customers to a network of more than 1,500 safety-vetted and verified private aircraft, Wheels Up is widening the aperture of private travel for millions of consumers globally. With the Wheels Up mobile app, members and customers have the digital convenience to search, book and fly. Wheels Up is committed to aligning with philanthropic organizations that matter most to our company, members, customers, families and friends. Through the Wheels Up Cares program, a Wheels Up Beechcraft King Air 350i aircraft is custom-designed to represent the established cause and is a flying symbol of each charity's mission. Headquartered in New York City, Wheels Up has office locations in 25 cities and towns across three continents and a workforce of nearly 2,700 employees.

To learn more about Wheels Up, go to Wheelsup.com.

Contacts

Investors:

[email protected]

Media:

[email protected]

SOURCE Wheels Up
Takes aim at millennials with No-Oak freshness and intense fruit

OAKVILLE, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- JL WOOD, a family-owned winery is releasing the 2021 Arroyo Seco Nouveau Chardonnay on April 27 2022. Nouveau is a different and exciting take on Chardonnay a unique, bold style with a remarkable full flavor profile, lively acidity and zero sugar. The wine evolves further as it warms in the glass.

In evaluation sessions tasters have found this wine to be a standout. Frequently mistaken for a white blend it uniformly was rated as "very" or "highly" desirable.

Paul Morrison, managing director JL WOOD 2021 Nouveau Chardonnay Arroyo Seco (Monterey County)

15,000 bottles of the nouveau will be available through finer restaurants, specialty wine stores, upscale supermarkets, and online at jlwoodwine.com.

The grapes come from a JL Wood owned vineyard in the "cone" of the Arroyo Seco AVA (Monterey County). The district is known for slow-maturing Chardonnay grapes with intense tropical fruit esters and lively acid resulting from warm summer days and ocean breeze-cooled nights.

Paul Morrison, JL WOOD Managing Director, tells how the Nouveau Chardonnay came into being:

"Our mission is to bring new and luxurious experiences to the millennial wine drinker. Our winemaker, Edward Filice, suggested we try to elevate Chardonnay into something with a far greater wow factor. We thought it would be good fit for the younger wine lovers we want to reach.

"The grapes tell us how to maximize their potential. When I did one of my harvest-time walks through the vineyards, I tasted some grapes with a much more intense flavor profile than usual and I knew that we might have the raw material for something different. We harvested them that night."

The nouveau Chardonnay was made by JL WOOD in Oakville, California. After initial fermentation the wine was elevated using simple artisanal techniques and light filtration. Early bottling was used to capture the intense flavors. The wine is a luxury experience at just 125 calories per 5-ounce glass.

It was important to make the Nouveau Chardonnay as sustainable as possible. Both the source vineyard and winery hold sustainable certifications.

Paul continues:

"We work to maximize our customer's experience and operate in a responsible manner.

"We minimize tractor runs in our vineyards, use advanced internet-based sensors to monitor our vineyards, and plant cover crops between the vines to reduce carbon in the atmosphere, encourage beneficial insects, and improve our soils.

"Also, using a heavy wine bottle comes with a big carbon footprint. The bottles we use for the Nouveau are as much as 35% lighter than usual."

These seemingly small things make a major difference in the impact on our planet.

JL WOOD will release three additional 2021 wines from its properties in June: an unoaked and a lightly oaked Chardonnay, both very high quality. A release of a premium reduced calorie Chardonnay, at 9% alcohol by volume, will be released at the same time and be available on JLWOODWINE.COM. All wines will have our trademark smoothness with a lively acidity.

JL WOOD is small and family-owned. The company is in business to bring its own wines as well as regional signature wines to market at great prices, observing production practices that are as good for the drinker as they are sustainable.

Please visit us at jlwoodwine.com for special offers and our blog, Inside Modern Wine, which offers deeper insights into the qualities and production methods of the wines we offer.

Media Contacts

Paul Morrison, Managing Director

(415) 518 3050

[email protected]

Torgeir Hansson, Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE JL WOOD
Young activists rally to raise awareness by calling on Capitol Hill decision-makers in Washington, D.C. during Moment of Action for Mental Health

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Truth Initiative, the organization behind the highly effective truth youth smoking, vaping and nicotine public education campaign, is gathering young people from across the country in Washington, D.C. today for a Moment of Action for Mental Health . The event, taking place on the National Mall, will call attention to the impact that vaping nicotine is having on youth mental health and demand decision-makers declare it a mental health issue.

Credit: Truth Initiative

The Moment of Action is part of truth's latest campaign, Breath of Stress Air , which busts the fantasy that vaping nicotine is a stress reliever and calls out the tobacco industry for promoting e-cigarettes and vaping as a way to deal with stress. When in fact, vaping nicotine can increase stress levels and amplify feelings of anxiety and depression.

As part of the Moment of Action, young activists  including former e-cigarette users  will be taking a symbolic live breath to call attention to the impact that nicotine use is having on youth mental health. Leading up to the Moment of Action, hundreds of thousands of young people showed their support for the effort by "taking breaths" at thetruth.com/mentalhealth2022. While in Washington, D.C., young people are also meeting with Members of Congress, members of the Biden Administration and Admiral Rachel Levine, the Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services. They will elevate the discussion around vaping and mental health and call for it to be declared a public health crisis. As momentum builds, young people nationwide can text "ACTION" to 88709 to participate.

The Moment of Action comes on the heels of an advisory issued by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on the state of mental health among young people, in which he called youth mental health an "urgent public health crisis." At the same time, the latest 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey shows that youth vaping remains at epidemic levels with more than two million high school and middle school students using e-cigarettes. These colliding crises are especially troubling given the fact that nicotine can worsen symptoms of anxiety and depression in addition to the physical health risks associated with its use.

The Moment of Action for Mental Health event in Washington, D.C. will feature more than a dozen young activists including both former vapers and non-vapers from Alabama, Alaska, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Tennessee and other states who are leading education and awareness efforts about the dangers of vaping nicotine among youth in their communities.

"As a former vaper who has dealt with mental health repercussions amplified by nicotine, I am passionate about sharing my experiences in hopes it can change views on vaping and help others looking to quit," said Sam, age 20. "I'm excited to be joining in the Moment of Action and hope it will inspire others to learn more about the connection between nicotine and mental health."

"Now more than ever, it is an important time to address how nicotine affects my generation's mental health," said Brooklyn, age 22.

truth's proven-effective campaigns

The Moment of Action for Mental Health continues truth's latest Breath of Stress Air campaign that debunked the marketing of e-cigarettes as stress relievers. It called out the tobacco industry for selling vaping as a way to deal with stress, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Truth Initiative survey found that 93% of e-cigarette users said vaping made them feel more stressed, depressed, or anxious, while 90% of those who quit said they felt less stressed, anxious, or depressed.

The Breath of Stress Air campaign builds on a larger truth effort  It's Messing with Our Heads: Depression Stick  which first exposed the connection between vaping nicotine and youth mental health. It seeks to de-normalize youth vaping by debunking the myth that vaping nicotine can help reduce stress, and to normalize quitting through a free and first-of-its-kind quit vaping text message program, This is Quitting from truth.

Resources to help those looking to quit

Connecting young people with resources is a key component of the truth campaign. This is Quitting from truth is a first-of-its-kind text message quit vaping program that is helping more than 440,000 young people on their journey to quit. The program is free and anonymous. Young people can enroll by texting "DITCHVAPE" to 88709 to get help. A randomized clinical trial found that This is Quitting increased quit rates among young adults aged 18-24 by nearly 40% compared to a control group.

Breathing exercises have been proven to help with nicotine cravings that cause stress and anxiety. For this reason, truth has launched a partnership with Breathwrk through This is Quitting. Program users can access six months of free membership to Breathwrk Pro including access to custom breaths to help on their quit journey by texting "BREATHE" to 88709.

For help with quitting vaping or to learn more about the connection between vaping nicotine and mental health, teens and young adults can visit thetruth.com for free resources.

About Truth Initiative

Truth Initiative is a national public health organization dedicated to achieving a culture where all young people reject smoking, vaping and nicotine and a future where tobacco and nicotine addiction are a thing of the past. In 2020, we celebrated 20 years of saving lives and preventing millions of youth from smoking. Our impact has helped drive the teen smoking rate down from 23% in 2000 to under 3% in 2021. The truth about tobacco and the tobacco industry are at the heart of our proven-effective and nationally recognized truth public education campaign. As youth e-cigarette use threatens to puta new generation at risk for nicotine addiction, we are leading the fight against tobacco and nicotine addiction in all forms. Our rigorous scientific research and policy studies, community and youth engagement programs supporting populations at high risk of using tobacco, and innovation in tobacco dependence treatment are also helping to end one of the most critical public health battles of our time. Based in Washington D.C., our organization, formerly known as the American Legacy Foundation, was established and funded through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. To learn more, visit truthinitiative.org

About truth

truth is the longest-running and most successful national tobacco prevention campaign for youth and young adults. The campaign delivers the facts about tobacco use and the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry so that young people can make informed choices and influence others to do the same. We are credited with preventing millions of young people from becoming smokers and are equally committed to achieving the same results in ending the youth e-cigarette epidemic, including by helping young people quit with our first-of-its-kind quit vaping program for teens and young adults This is Quitting. truth is part of Truth Initiative, a national public health organization dedicated to achieving a culture where young people reject smoking, vaping, and nicotine. Learn more about truth and the organization behind it at thetruth.com and truthinitiative.org.

SOURCE Truth Initiative
Warsaw/Sofia, April 27 : Russia is to halt natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria from Wednesday, according to energy companies and authorities.

Poland's state oil and gas company PGNiG said on Tuesday that Russia's energy corporation Gazprom will suspend its gas supplies to Poland from Wednesday evening, Xinhua news agency reported.

"PGNiG has received a letter from Gazprom announcing the complete suspension of supplies under the Yamal contract," PGNiG added in a statement.

PGNiG also ensured the customers that gas supplies to Poland are secured as it has pipeline connections with neighbouring countries and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the northwest of the country, according to the statement.

The reason given by Gazprom is PGNiG's rejection of the payment in rubles, according to the Polish Press Agency.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed the notice from Gazprom to suspend gas supplies, and said Poland is energy safe.

Russia, which currently covers almost all of Bulgaria's gas needs, will also suspend gas supplies to the Balkan country as of Wednesday, the Bulgarian Energy Ministry said on Tuesday evening.

Russia had informed Bulgaria about this earlier on Tuesday, the Ministry added in a statement.

Bulgarian authorities have taken steps to make alternative arrangements for the supply of natural gas and to deal with the situation. At present, no restrictive measures are required for gas consumption in Bulgaria, it said.
Moscow, April 27 : Russian President Vladimir Putin met with visiting United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Kremlin to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Putin told Guterres on Tuesday that the Ukrainian issue arose after the 2014 "unconstitutional coup" in Kiev and people in Donbas remained under blockade and military pressure even after the Minsk agreements on a peaceful settlement were reached, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the Russian President, the Donbas "republics" have the right to declare their sovereignty and Russia has the right to recognise their independence and provide them with military assistance in full accordance with the UN Charter.

"Despite the ongoing military operation, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track. We are negotiating and we do not refuse them," he said.

The UN chief proposed creating a contact group where the UN, Russia and Ukraine can discuss the situation together so that the humanitarian corridors are truly effective.

He said that to resolve the situation in Ukraine's Mariupol, the UN is ready to fully mobilise its logistical capabilities and human resources, working together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as well as the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces.

Guterres also added that the UN is ready in two or three days, together with the ICRC, to assess the situation at the Azovstal plant in order to evacuate civilians from there.

In response, Putin denied reports that Russian humanitarian corridors are not working and stressed that 130,000 to 140,000 people have left Mariupol with the assistance of Russia and they are free to go anywhere.

The Russian President also offered an opportunity to UN and ICRC representatives to have a look at how Russia treats Ukrainian war prisoners.

Before his trip to Moscow, the UN chief met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday in the capital Ankara. Guterres will travel to Ukraine following talks with Putin.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe in Tehran, capital of Iran, on April 27, 2022. (mod.gov.cn/Photo by Li Xiaowei)

TEHRAN, April 27 -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with the visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe in Tehran on Wednesday.

Ebrahim Raisi said that Iran and China share weal and woe and hold similar stances and support each other in international affairs. Iran opposes unilateralism, hegemonism and external interference and firmly supports China in safeguarding its core interests. Iran thanks for China's support and assistance over the years in its difficult period and hopes that the two sides will further expand cooperation areas and strengthen all-round cooperation including in the military field.

General Wei Fenghe said that both China and Iran are ancient civilizations and their traditional friendship is getting stronger with the passing of time. Since last year, President Xi Jinping and President Ebrahim Raisi have exchanged phone calls and letters, jointly led the China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership to make new progress.

General Wei pointed out that this visit is an important one against the backdrop of the current turbulent international situation. It demonstrates the importance of China-Iran relations and embodies the mutual firm support and common progress. China firmly supports Iran in safeguarding state sovereignty and national dignity, and stands ready to work with Iran to cope with various risks and challenges, safeguard the common interests of both sides and jointly safeguard regional and world peace and stability.

General Wei said that the military-to-military cooperation between China and Iran has been expanding in recent years, and the Chinese military is willing to maintain strategic communication, make good use of cooperation mechanism and promote practical cooperation with the Iranian side, so as to push the development of military-to-military relations to a higher level.

On the same day, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri also met with General Wei Fenghe, and Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani held a welcome ceremony for Wei Fenghe and held a formal talk with him. During the talks and meetings, the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on the international and regional security situation, the Iranian nuclear issue and the situation in Ukraine, and also reached a number of consensus on strengthening strategic communication at the top level of the two militaries and deepening practical cooperation in such areas as exchanges between services and arms, joint exercises and training and personnel training.

Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe (4th, L) , who is paying visit to Iran, holds a meeting with Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri (3rd, R) in Tehran on April 27, 2022. (mod.gov.cn/Photo by Li Xiaowei)
Kinshasa, April 27 : Congo reported a second case of Ebola in the northwestern part of the country after declaring a new Ebola outbreak over the weekend, confirmed the World Health Organisation (WHO).

"Health authorities in the DRC confirmed a second case of Ebola in Mbandaka on April 25. The 25-year-old woman, now deceased, began experiencing symptoms 12 days earlier," tweeted WHO Regional Office for Africa, on Tuesday adding that the second case was the sister-in-law of the first case patient who had also died.

Congo declared the 14th outbreak of Ebola virus on April 23 after one confirmed case was reported in Mbandaka, a city in Congo's Equateur province, Xinhua news agency reported.

The patient, a 31-year-old man, began experiencing symptoms on April 5 and after more than a week of care at home, sought treatment at a local health facility. On April 21, the patient was admitted to an Ebola treatment center for intensive care but died later that day.

Health authorities are working closely to monitor the people in contact with the two deceased patients, said WHO.

Congo is experiencing its 14th Ebola outbreak since 1976. The current outbreak is the sixth since 2018 alone, the most frequent occurrence in the country's Ebola history.
United Nations, April 27 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the attack in the University of Karachi in Pakistan that led to multiple deaths, said his Deputy spokesman.

"I can tell you the Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack in Karachi today," said Farhan Haq, the Deputy spokesman.

The Secretary-General on Tuesday expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and wished those injured a quick recovery, he told a daily press briefing.

Haq said UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, Julien Harneis, also strongly condemned the attack and was deeply saddened by the loss of life, Xinhua news agency reported.

Harneis said attacks that deliberately target education, teachers, and places of learning are particularly condemnable and sent his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, both in Pakistan and in China, according to the UN Deputy spokesman.

An explosion ripped through a shuttle passenger van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi on Tuesday, leaving three Chinese teachers dead, one Chinese teacher injured and causing several Pakistani casualties, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
Islamabad, April 27 : Two soldiers were killed when terrorists targeted security forces in South Waziristan district of Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, an Army statement said.

The troops responded promptly following the attack. During an intense exchange of fire, two soldiers of the Pakistani army lost their lives, the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Tuesday in the statement.

The ISPR statement added that area clearance is being carried out to eliminate any terrorists found in the area, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Pakistan Army is determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve," it said.
Washington, April 27 : The US Department of State said in a statement that it has determined an "emergency" exists in Ukraine that becomes a "national security" concern of the United States, therefore the department bypassed Congress to approve the sale of ammunition to Kiev.

The decision to sell nearly $165 million worth of "non-standard" Soviet-era ammunition was made after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken "has determined and provided detailed justification that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to Ukraine" of ammunition, including grenade launchers, mortars and D-20 cannons, the statement said on Tuesday.

The sale, according to the statement, is "in the national security interests of the United States, thereby waiving the Congressional review requirements" under federal law, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The proposed sale will improve Ukraine's capability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of its forces," the statement added.

"Ukraine already has these items, or variants thereof, in its inventory and will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces." The announcement came just after Blinken and US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin visited Kiev and held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Blinken notified of the arms sale.
United Nations, April 27 : Human activity and behaviour, on top of climate change, are contributing to an increasing number of disasters across the world, finds a UN report.

The number of medium- to large-scale disaster events is projected to reach 560 a year, or 1.5 disasters a day, by 2030 if the current trends continue, according to the Global Assessment Report released by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

An additional estimated 37.6 million people will be living in conditions of extreme poverty due to the impact of climate change and disasters by 2030. A worst-case scenario will push an additional 100.7 million people into poverty by 2030, according to the report.

Between 350 and 500 such disasters took place every year over the past two decades. This is five times higher than the previous three decades. The cost of these disasters has averaged nearly $170 billion per year over the last decade, says the report.

This impact is focused on low-income and lower-middle-income countries, which lose on an average 1 per cent of their national GDP to disasters per year, compared to 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent in high-income countries and upper-middle-income countries, respectively.

The greatest share of economic loss is borne within the Asia-Pacific region. Countries in this region lose on an average 1.3 per cent of GDP to disasters each year. Africa is the second-most affected region, losing an average of 0.6 per cent of GDP to disasters, the report added.

Despite the fact that more countries are adopting disaster risk reduction strategies, more people have been killed or affected by disasters in the last five years than in the previous five, it says.

"There is no time to waste. The current uncertainties around our world must not be a barrier to action. Delay is not an option. We can no longer afford delaying investments in disaster risk reduction. The systemic challenges of the 21st century require systemic thinking, coordination and response if we are to create a more sustainable, more resilient, and more equitable future for all," said UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, who presented the report at UN headquarters in New York.

Mami Mizutori, Head of UNDRR, said at the launch of the report, "If we want to significantly reduce disaster losses by 2030, then we must face the fact that the next eight years require transformation in governance, finance and behavior."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Ankara, April 27 : Turkey has lifted the mandatory wearing of masks in closed spaces as the Covid-19 pandemic does not pose a "mass threat" anymore, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

"The obligation to use masks in closed spaces has been completely lifted" as the pandemic is "no longer a mass threat," Erdogan told reporters on Tuesday after a meeting of the country's coronavirus science board.

However, mandatory mask use in public transport and hospitals will continue until the number of daily cases drops below 1,000, he added.

The science board recommends that those aged above 65 years or with serious diseases continue to use masks, the President said.

Turkey's daily Covid-19 cases have been in a sharp decline in the past months, with 2,604 new cases and 15 deaths reported on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Turkey has administered more than 147.4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines since a mass vaccination campaign in January 2021.

Ankara has been gradually easing coronavirus-related restrictions since 2021. In January 2022, the government abolished the PCR test requirement for screening purposes and for close contacts of individuals testing positive for Covid-19.

The test requirement for unvaccinated individuals joining public events was also cancelled and the quarantine for Covid-19 patients was shortened to seven days.

Turkey lifted the outdoor mask-wearing mandate in March.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New York, April 27 : Harvard University, arguably the world's premier name in education, has laid bare a troublesome tryst with slavery and earmarked $100 million as reparation.

In a letter to the Harvard community, the University President Lawrence Bacow made public a detailed report, "Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery," aiming "to uncover truth..(and) embrace it even when it makes us uncomfortable or causes us pain".

"Enslaved people worked on our campus supporting our students, faculty, and staff, including several Harvard Presidents. The labor of enslaved people both far and near enriched numerous donors and, ultimately, the institution. Some members of our faculty promoted ideas that gave scholarly legitimacy to concepts of racial superiority. And long after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States in 1865, Harvard continued discriminatory practices that sharply limited the presence of African-Americans in our campus," said the report Bacow had created under Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Daniel P.S. Paul, Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of History.

"We cannot dismantle what we do not understand, and we cannot understand the contemporary injustice we face unless we reckon honestly with our history," Bacow said.

"As the committee's report powerfully documents, Harvard's history includes extensive entanglements with slavery. The report makes plain that slavery in America was by no means confined to the South. It was embedded in the fabric and the institutions of the North, and it remained legal in Massachusetts until the Supreme Judicial Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1783. By that time, Harvard was nearly 150-years-old. And the truth is that slavery played a significant part in our institutional history." "Harvard has made much progress in recent decades, but we have much work still to do. Our recent progress must not obscure the reality of our past or the continuing effects of the past on the present." "The legacy of slavery, including the persistence of both overt and subtle discrimination against people of colour, continues to influence the world in the form of disparities in education, health, wealth, income, social mobility, and almost any other metric we might use to measure equality. While Harvard does not bear exclusive responsibility for these injustices, and while many members of our community have worked hard to counteract them, Harvard benefited from and in some ways perpetuated practices that were profoundly immoral. Consequently, I believe we bear a moral responsibility to do what we can to address the persistent corrosive effects of those historical practices on individuals, on Harvard, and on our society," the Harvard University President added.

In addition to shedding fresh light on Harvard's entanglements with slavery and its aftermath, the report makes recommendations for how as a community the university can redress "through teaching, research, and service" legacies with slavery. Together they represent guideposts as Harvard considers how to approach the future in ways that properly reckon with its past.

The university appointed an implementation committee to be chaired by Martha Minow, the 300th Anniversary University Professor, former Dean of Harvard Law School, and a member of the Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery.

To provide the resources, the Corporation has authorised a commitment of $100 million for implementation.

Some of the funds will be available for current use, while the balance will be held in an endowment to support this work over time.

In his own letter to alumni, Harvard Business School Dean, Srikant Datar said the Brown-Nagin committee has painstakingly researched a painful truth.

"During the 17th and 18th centuries, the sale and trafficking of human beings "in slavery" and the industries rooted in the labor of enslaved women, men and children were pervasive around the world, comprised a vital part of the New England economy, and powerfully shaped Harvard University. Harvard leaders, faculty, staff and benefactors enslaved people, some of whom labored at the University; accrued wealth through the slave trade and slave labor; and defended the institution of slavery." "Harvard's strength today was built on human subjugation and the systems "including business" that perpetuated it. It is only with and through truth that we can learn from the tragic mistakes of the past," Datar added.

(Nikhila Natarajan tweets @byniknat)
New Delhi, April 27 : A major fire broke out at Municipal Corporation of Delhi's godown in south Delhi's Triveni complex in Sheikh Sarai area.

The Fire department received information about the incident at nearly 3 a.m. on Tuesday.

The department said nearly 13 fire engines were rushed to the site to bring the fire under control.

"Initially we sent six fire tenders and later when the fire turned big we sent 7 more fire tenders. By 6 a.m., the fire was under control," said the fire official.

The fire official added that the rescue operation was still underway and no person was hurt in the incident.

The cause of the fire was not yet known.
Lucknow, April 27 : The police have arrested a trader for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old girl in an elevator of a plush apartment block in Lucknow's Gomti Nagar Extension.

According to police, the girl is the daughter of a businessman and the action was taken on the basis of an FIR lodged by her family.

The accused, Ajay Kumar Gupta, 45, a trader, had come from Ballia on Monday to attend a house-warming party in the same apartment building.

According to Gomti Nagar Extension Station House Officer, Dileep Kumar Singh, "The minor girl was alone in the lift, when the accused entered and allegedly started sexually harassing her. However, he fled when the girl began screaming. She then went home but was crying continuously. She later narrated the incident to her mother. Thereafter, her parents came to the police and lodged an FIR." The police scanned the CCTV camera footage of the building and of the lift in which the accused was seen with the minor.

Gupta has been arrested under charges of use of criminal force on woman with intent to outrage her modesty, criminal intimidation and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
Lucknow, April 27 : In a freak accident, a new-born baby boy died after he slipped off the hands of a staff nurse and hit the floor at a private hospital in Malhaur locality of Chinhat in Lucknow.

The post-mortem report has confirmed head injury as the cause of death.

Police have registered a case against the nurse and the hospital staff.

The incident took place on April 19 but came to light only late on Tuesday when some media persons came to know about it.

Investigating officer, Abhishek Pandey, said on Wednesday that the post-mortem examination of the baby was done on the day of the incident on the recommendation of the hospital.

"The post-mortem report that came on April 20 revealed that the death was cause due to a head injury," he added.

ADCP, east zone, Qasim Abidi said a case of death by negligence, criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt was lodged on April 24 against a nurse and other staff members of the hospital.

However, no action has yet been taken against the hospital or its staff.

The case was lodged after Jeevan Rajput, the father of the deceased baby, made a formal complaint at the Chinhat police station. Rajput said that his wife Poonam was in a state of trauma after the incident and was under treatment.

Rajput said he took his wife to the hospital on April 19 when she started having labour pains and delivered at night. "I was told the baby was stillborn. However, when I spoke to my wife, she said that the delivery was normal and she saw the baby alive. She told me that she saw a nurse taking the baby in her hands without any towel, when he slipped through her hand. My wife panicked and started screaming. The nurse and other staff members reacted by pressing her mouth and threatened her to keep her mouth shut," alleged Rajput.

However, the hospital rejected the allegations and said that no such incident had taken place.
London, April 27 : Pep Guardiola's Manchester City will take a slender one-goal lead into the UEFA Champions League semifinal second-leg in eight days' time after defeating Spanish giants Real Madrid 4-3 in the first leg, in a ridiculously thrilling encounter at the Etihad on Wednesday (IST).

City, who are also leading the Premier League table, held a two-goal advantage on three separate occasions, but were pegged back each time by Real who refused to buckle on an enthralling night.

The top-flight England club couldn't have asked for a better start, with a goal inside two minutes to send the Etihad into raptures. Looking sharp and focused from the off, the ball was played out to Riyad Mahrez on the right and the Algerian breezed past a clutch of defenders before picking out Kevin De Bruyne's superbly-timed late run. The Belgian guided a low header past international team-mate Thibaut Courtois to make it 1-0, reports mancity.com.

Nine minutes later, Phil Foden carried the ball down the left before playing it back to De Bruyne who crossed into the feet of Gabriel Jesus who took advantage of David Alaba's poor touch to slot the ball past Thibaut Courtois and send the Etihad into wild celebrations once again.

Mahrez and Foden should have increased the lead in the opening 30 minutes but were wayward. On the 33rd minute, Real's Karim Benzema turned Ferland Mendy's cross home with the deftest of volleys. The second-half began as the first as Mahrez raced clear only to see his shot strike the post and Dani Carvajal blocked Foden's follow-up.

However, five minutes later Fernandinho -- a first-half replacement for John Stones -- sent in a sublime cross for Foden to head home from close range. City's two-goal advantage, however, lasted just three minutes as Vinicius Junior span off Fernandinho just inside his own half before racing towards goal down the left flank and eventually tucking a low shot past Ederson.

For the third time in the contest, City went two goals clear. In the 74th minute, Oleks Zinchenko cut inside a challenge on the edge of the box and was brought down. The referee played the advantage and while a clutch of Real defenders seemed to stop, Bernardo picked up the loose ball and thumped it into the top left corner to make it 4-2.

But Real were not giving up just yet. A cross into the City box saw the ball strike the arm of Aymeric Laporte as he went up for a header and the referee pointed to the dreaded spot. Benzema was never going to miss, and he slotted the penalty home to make it 4-3 with 82 minutes on the clock.

City tried to restore that elusive two-goal lead in the time that remained and came close to doing just that with a couple of back-post crosses but Ruben Dias's efforts to connect went in vain.

City will travel to Madrid for the second-leg riding high on the one-goal lead, and knowing that away goals no longer count as double. Pep's team will be back in Premier League action on Saturday as City make the trip to Pennines to face Leeds United at Eland Road.

Result: Manchester City 4 (Kevin De Bruyne 2nd min; Gabriel Jesus 11th, Phil Foden 53rd, Bernardo Silva 74th) beat Real Madrid 3 (Karim Benzema 33rd and 82nd; VinAcius Junior 55th).
Chennai, April 27 : The juvenile accused in the Vellore gang-rape case would be subjected to a mental assessment test, Vellore district superintendent of Police has said.

SP Rajesh Kannan, while speaking to IANS, said: "We will be conducting a mental assessment test of the seventeen and half-year-old who is one among the accused in the Vellore gang-rape. The assessment will be conducted on Thursday and we want to measure the mental maturity of the youth." According to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (care and protection) Act, the mental maturity test can decide whether a juvenile aged between 16 and 18 years of age and who commits a serious crime can be treated as an adult.

The Vellore gang-rape occurred on March 16, when the victim, a doctor, after watching a movie with her male friend was returning to the private hospital where she was working. The woman and her male friend got a lift in a sharing auto but the driver and others in the vehicle, including the juvenile, abducted them and gang-raped the woman.

The gang also forced the male friend to withdraw money from the ATM counter using his debit card and fled the spot.

A case was registered after the woman doctor filed an online complaint and nabbed the accused six days after the crime.

Those under judicial custody other than the juvenile are, R. Parthiban, R. Barath, V. Manikandan, and Santosh Kumar. Parthiban and Bharat are brothers and all are detained under Goonda Act.
New Delhi, April 27 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a three-day visit to Germany, Denmark and France from May 2, aimed at further strengthening bilateral cooperation.

This will be the Prime Minister's first visit abroad in 2022.

In Berlin, the Prime Minister will hold bilateral talks with Olaf Scholz, Federal Chancellor of Germany, and the two leaders will co-chair the sixth edition of the India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC).

The biennial IGC is a unique dialogue format that also sees participation of several Ministers from both sides. This will be Prime Minister's first IGC with Chancellor Scholz, and also the first such Government-to-Government consultations of the new German government, which assumed office in December 2021. During his visit, Prime Minister and Chancellor Scholz would also jointly address a Business Event. He will address and interact with the Indian community in Germany.

In 2021, India and Germany commemorated 70 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations and have been strategic partners since 2000. This visit will be an opportunity to enhance and intensify cooperation in a broad range of areas and for the two governments to exchange views on regional and global matters of mutual interest.

Prime Minister Modi will, thereafter, travel to Copenhagen on an official visit at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen. He will also participate in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit being hosted by Denmark.

The bilateral component of the visit will include talks with PM Frederiksen as well as an audience with Queen Margrethe II. The Green Strategic Partnership was the first of its kind arrangement between India and Denmark. The visit would provide both sides an opportunity to review its progress, as well as examine ways to further expand our multifaceted cooperation.

During the visit, he will attend an India-Denmark Business Forum and also address members of the Indian diaspora.

Prime Minister Modi, during the second India-Nordic Summit, will also interact with other Nordic leaders - Prime Minister KatrAn JakobsdAttir of Iceland, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland.

The Summit will focus on subjects like post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, innovation and technology, renewable energy, the evolving global security scenario and India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic region. The 1st India-Nordic Summit took place in 2018 in Stockholm.

On his return journey on May 4, the Prime Minister will briefly stop over in Paris and meet Emmanuel Macron, President of France.

India and France are celebrating 75 years of their diplomatic relations this year and the meeting between the two leaders will set a more ambitious agenda of the Strategic Partnership.
Kiev, April 27 : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has met with Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca to discuss Bucharest's support for Kiev, the presidential press service said.

During the talks on Tuesday, Zelensky thanked Romania's government for the assistance, including the defence aid it has provided for Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Your visit is an important, clear signal of Ukraine's support in the war against the Russian Federation," Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader praised Romania's position on sanctions policy against Russia over the conflict with Ukraine and the assistance in organising the critical transit of international humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including energy resources.

During their talks, Zelensky and Ciuca also discussed the prospects for Ukraine's European integration, as well as the issues of regional and bilateral cooperation.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Manila, April 27 : Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has refused the invitation of US President Joe Biden to attend the summit between the US and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next month.

In a taped meeting with some members of the Cabinet aired on Wednesday, Duterte said he received an invitation to attend an ASEAN "dialogue" with Biden, but there would be a newly elected Philippine president and the next administration may not like any "agreement" or "commitment" to be discussed in the meeting, Xinhua news agency reported.

"It's not good to go there knowing we already have a new president," Duterte said.

On May 9, Filipinos will elect a new president to succeed Duterte, whose six-year term ends in June. Duterte was elected president in 2016. The Philippine constitution permits the president to serve a single six-year term.

The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs has not issued an official statement on who will attend the summit. Duterte never visited the US during his term in office.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Lucknow, April 27 : The All India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam (AITUI), an organisation of Barelvi-Sunni Muslims, has sent a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, to ensure better facilities for Samajwadi Party leader Mohd Azam Khan in jail.

The letter, signed by Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi, general secretary of the Tanzeem, says that being a saint himself, Yogi Adityanath should take a lenient view of mistakes committed during the Samajwadi regime and ensure early release of Azam, Khan who is lodged in jail since the past 26 months.

Razvi further said that if Yogi Adityanath helps in the release of Azam Khan, Muslims across the country would perceive this as a positive step and there would be a visible change in their attitude towards the state government.

In another letter written to SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Maulana has expressed dismay at the fact that Mulayam has not uttered a word in support of Azam Khan who happens to be the founder member of the Samajwadi Party.

"We have seen Azam Khan begging for votes for your party and he even played a key role in making Akhilesh Yadav the chief minister. It is a matter of regret that during this crisis, the SP has almost abandoned him," the letter says.

The Maulana furthers says that Mulayam is known for his good relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi but it is a matter of regret that he has not done anything to secure the release of his loyal friend from jail.

In the letter, he further asks Mulayam to speak to the Prime Minister and, if needed, raise the issue in Parliament.

"Otherwise, we will be forced to believe that you have no interest in issues related to Muslims," he says.

This is the first time that any Muslim organisation has written to Yogi Adityanath and Mulayam Singh Yadav on the issue of releasing Azam Khan.

The letter is expected to increase troubles for SP which is already facing flak from its own Muslim leaders on the issue.
Islamabad, April 27 : Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif held a telephone conversation with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discussing public health and social sector programmes supported by the foundation in Pakistan, the Prime Minister's Office said.

The prime minister underscored that Pakistan deeply values its cooperation with the Gates foundation in polio eradication and improving immunisation, nutrition and financial inclusion services in the country, the office said in a statement on Tuesday night.

He reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to further solidifying its fruitful partnership with the foundation in all the ongoing areas of work, Xinhua news agency reported.

Pakistan has maintained progress toward polio eradication and appreciates the assistance provided by the Gates foundation in that regard, Sharif added.

Gates acknowledged the positive progress and reiterated the foundation's continued support to Pakistan for ensuring that no child is at risk of paralysis due to poliovirus, the statement said.

The prime minister and Gates also exchanged views on Pakistan's Covid vaccination drive, it added.
Bucharest, April 27 : Moldovan President Maia Sandu has warned that the recent explosions in the country's breakaway Transnistria region may endanger peace within the country.

Following a special meeting of the country's Supreme Security Council on Tuesday, Sandu said that the explosions in the past two days show that "there are tensions between different forces within the region interested in destabilising the situation," Xinhua news agency reported.

"This makes the region vulnerable and poses risks to Moldova," he noted.

"We condemn any provocations and attempts to involve Moldova into actions that could threaten peace in the country," Sandu said, adding that the government "continues to insist on a peaceful settlement of the Transnistrian conflict." According to media reports from Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, unknown assailants fired grenade launchers at the headquarters of the Transnistrian region's Ministry of State Security late on Monday.

Two more explosions were reported early on Tuesday at the Transnistrian radio and television centre, damaging two radio antennas that broadcast Russian radio in the region, all without casualties.

The Russian president's Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, expressed concern about the situation in Transnistria, telling journalists that "we are very closely watching how the situation develops there." Eric Mamer, chief spokesperson of the European Commission, said in Brussels that "the European Union is following the situation in Transnistria with concern and calls for an end to any violent acts."

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Los Angeles, April 27 : Actress Olivia Wilde shared a glimpse of Harry Styles and Florence Pugh in the psychological thriller 'Don't Worry Darling' at the CinemaCon.

Movie theater owners at the annual exhibition trade show got a sneak peek of the trailer, which isn't yet available to the public. The footage opens on Styles and Pugh's characters snuggling in bed, reports aVariety'.

They play a husband and wife living in an idyllic experimental community in the California desert, lined with perfectly placed palm trees and fancy cars.

"You and me?" she asks her husband.

"Always. You and me." Pugh plays a happy housewife, one who becomes increasingly suspicious that her husband's glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets. He's working on something called the Victory Project, which promises to change the world.

"Do you even know what the Victory Project even is? Have you ever asked?" Pugh asks her dutiful husband.

The more she starts to question his work, the more that people think she's crazy. As she gets increasingly incredulous, she concludes: "I don't trust him, and I don't want to be here anymore." Other scenes in the trailer show Styles screaming in a car and later engaging in intimate activities with Pugh on a dining room table.

They may not trust each other, but they certainly have no problem getting it on. In another sequence, Styles and Pugh are hot and heavy against a sink never mind that Chris Pine's character is in the same room.

Later, Styles shows off his signature moves on top of that well-appointed dining room table.

On stage at Caesars Palace, where CinemaCon is currently taking place, Wilde shed a little light on the idea behind 'Don't Worry Darling', which is inspired by 'Inception', 'The Matrix' and 'The Truman Show'.

She calls the movie "a love letter to movies that push the boundaries of our imagination." "I want you to imagine a life where you have everything you could want," she told the crowd of theater owners. "Not just material, tangible things like a beautiful house, perfect weather and gorgeous cars. But also the things that really matter, like true love or the perfect partner or real trusted friendships and a purpose that feels meaningful." "What would it take for you to give up that life, that perfect life. What are you really willing to sacrifice to do what's right?" Wilde asked.

"Are you willing to dismantle the system that's designed to serve you?" Wilde also highly praised her actors, referring to pop sensation Styles as "an up-and-coming actor with no other career that I am aware of, and he is nothing short of a revelation in this part." Of Pugh, who is best known for 'Black Widow', 'Midsommar' and 'Little Women', Wilde says her actor is "brilliant, sexy, fierce and tough,a adding, "We knew this movie would live or die off her role." Along with Styles, Pugh and Pine, the high-wattage cast includes Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne and Nick Kroll. Katie Silberman wrote the screenplay from a spec script by Carey and Shane Van Dyke.

'Don't Worry Darling' is Wilde's follow-up feature to 2019's coming-of-age comedy 'Booksmart'.
Beijing, April 27 : "The blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain and those behind this incident will pay the price," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

Three Chinese nationals and a local man were killed after what appeared to be a targeted suicide bombing outside the University of Karachi's Confucius Institute on Tuesday afternoon.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it strongly condemns and expresses great indignation over this major terrorist attack, conveys deep condolences to the victims and sympathies to the injured and bereaved families, Global Times reported.

The Foreign Ministry and Chinese diplomatic missions in Pakistan will continue to urge relevant Pakistani departments to deal with the aftermath, treat the injured and resolutely crack down on the terrorist organisations involved.

"Judging from the surveillance footage, the attack is a suicide bombing," Li Wei, an expert on national security at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Tuesday, noting that this could be the upgrade from the usual roadside bombing tactics used by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).

Before 2021, the BLA used more roadside bombs to launch terror attacks. But since then, the BLA has refined their attack methods, including the use of children as suicide bombers, Li said, noting that "this is probably because they were supported by other parties." Experts feel the terrorist attack on Chinese citizens is unlikely to be connected to the recent political changes in Pakistan. While there have been some protests since the change in leadership, the situation has not gotten out of hand, Global Times reported.

The root cause of this terrorist attack is that the soil for the growth of terrorism and religious extremism in Pakistan has not been removed, and the environment in which terrorism thrives has always existed, said Chinese experts.

As the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has entered a critical period, some separatist and extreme forces, who think the CPEC is an achievement of the Pakistan government which will be to the detriment of their desire for independence, hold an increasingly hostile attitude toward projects connected with it, Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Centre for Afghanistan Studies in Lanzhou University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The CPEC runs through areas with complicated disputes among different religious groups and ethnic groups with their own complex political and economic interests, Zhu said.

Moreover, the US' withdrawal from Afghanistan last year has greatly affected the security situation in South Asia. Since last year, attacks increased in Pakistan and attacks targeting Chinese people and companies also increased. The terrorist forces in Pakistan have been encouraged and united, which worsens the security situation in the country, said Zhu.

The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan on Tuesday also reminded Chinese citizens, companies and projects to pay close attention to the security situation in Pakistan, improve security measures and not to go outside unless necessary.

Pakistan stepped up its protection of CPEC projects, especially after the Dasu attack last year. However, the protection of "soft targets" like the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi is far less than that of other projects.

Meanwhile, the terrorist organisations chose female suicide bombers, which is not easy to guard against, analysts said, Global Times reported.

An executive of a Chinese state-owned company, which has wide investment in Pakistan, told the Global Times on condition of anonymity on Tuesday that its projects in Pakistan have "very strict security standards," without elaborating on detailed measures.

In the wake of the Tuesday attack, China State Construction has launched a security review, not only into goods and products, but also technologies and relevant personnel, and the company's institutions and projects in Pakistan are safe, a company spokesperson told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The company will upgrade its security to ensure the safety of employees, the spokesperson said, adding that the firm prioritises the safety and health of Chinese employees.

China State Construction has invested in a number of flagship projects under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, including the Peshawar-Karachi Motorway, the largest transportation infrastructure project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
New Delhi, April 27 : Homegrown e-scooter manufacturer Dispatch on Wednesday announced that it is all set to launch its first purpose-built scooter in the first quarter of 2023.

The company said that the upcoming e-scooter, designed to enable shared and commercial applications, is the first purpose-built solution that is said to be tougher, reliable and adaptable for better unit economics and higher profitability.

"Fleets are currently stuck with vehicles designed for personal ownership, without the right infrastructure or relevant services under one unified ecosystem," Rajit Arya, Co-Founder and CEO, Dispatch Vehicles, said in a statement.

"This is a problem that directly affects the earnings, efficiencies and experience of gig economy workers and fleets alike; hence, becoming a barrier in the transition to electric vehicles," Arya added.

The Dispatch e-scooter will enable new business models with the flexibility to pivot when business demands, all without replacing the fleet.

"With the Dispatch e-Scooter, we plan to change the fleet dynamics for last-mile mobility making it more profitable," Arya said.

The company mentioned that the e-scooter will look to overcome the mobility challenges faced by delivery partners and fleet owners.
Beirut, April 27 : Lebanese children's health is in great danger as their vaccination rate has dropped to 60 per cent or less amid the current economic crisis, Lebanon's Health Minister Firas Abiad said.

"These indicators show that our children are in great danger and they may turn from productive people in the future to a segment in dire need for help and medical care, which is dangerous for our community and the country as a whole," Abiad said, Xinhua news agency reported citing Lebanon's National News Agency.

The minister's remarks came during a conference held by the Ministry of Health on the occasion of launching a vaccination campaign for children through the country's primary healthcare centres aimed at increasing the immunisation rate of all children residing in Lebanon.

The conference was also held to celebrate the launch of an application, in cooperation with the UNICEF with funding from the European Union, aimed at adopting a calendar for the vaccination of children in Lebanon.

Abiad attributed the drop in vaccination rate to the dire economic situation, the Covid outbreak and the difficulty of reaching medical centres throughout the country given the lack of affordable transportation means, in addition to a lack of awareness about the importance of vaccination.

Saying that the vaccines are now available in primary healthcare centres for free, the minister urged the residents to vaccinate their children.
Mumbai, April 27 : Bollywood star Deepika Padukone will be a part of the eight-member jury for the 75th edition of Festival De Cannes.

The festival announced on Wednesday that the Indian superstar will assess the international competition as a part of the jury, which will be presided by French actor Vincent Lindon.

Other names to join Deepika on the jury include Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, actress screenwriter producer Rebecca Hall, Italian actress Jasmine Trinca, French director Ladj Ly, American director Jeff Nichols and director Joachim Trier from Norway.

In a statement to the press, Cannes described the actress, "Indian Actress, producer, philanthropist, and entrepreneur Deepika Padukone, is a huge star in her country. actor, producer, philanthropist, and entrepreneur from India. With over 30 feature films to her credit, she made her English language film debut as the female lead in 'xXx: The Return of Xander Cage', co-starring with Vin Diesel." "She is also the principal of Ka Productions, the production company behind 'Chhapaak' and '83', in which she also starred, as well as the upcoming film 'The Intern'. Credits include 'Gehraiyaan' and 'Padmaavat', as well as the award-winning and critically acclaimed film 'Piku'.

"In 2015, she set up The Live Love Laugh Foundation, whose programs and initiatives aim to destigmatize mental illness and raise awareness about the importance of mental health. In 2018, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World", the statement further read.

Deepika took to the story section of her Instagram to share the news with her followers.

Cannes Film Festival, which is held on the French riviera is the world's most prestigious film gathering, it showcases the best of global films which enhance the development of cinema and promote the development of the global film industry.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
New Delhi, April 27 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Central government to file its response on petitions demanding striking down the sedition law by the end of this week. The top court will take up the matter for hearing on May 5.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana that the reply on the petitions is almost ready and sought two days to finalise before filing it in the court.

The bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, recorded that the Centre will file the reply by the end of this week and listed the matter for final disposal on May 5.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal also appeared before the bench since the court had issued a notice to him. The AG said that he will assist the court in the matter. The Chief Justice said that no adjournment will be granted in this matter, which was last heard in July last year.

The top court was hearing petitions filed by Major General (retd) S.G. Vombatkere, the Editors Guild of India and others challenging the constitutional validity of Section 124A, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Vombatkere's plea argued that a statute criminalising expression based on unconstitutionally vague definitions of 'disaffection towards government' etc. is an unreasonable restriction on the fundamental right to free expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) and causes constitutionally impermissible 'chilling effect' on the speech.

In July last year, the top court had questioned the Centre on the utility of having a sedition law even after 75 years of gaining Independence from the British, and also frowned on the misuse of the law by the police against the people.

At that time, a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana told the AG: "It is a colonial law used by the British to silence Mahatma Gandhi, (Bal Gangadhar) Tilak. Still, is it necessary after 75 years of Independence? I am indicating what I am thinking." Citing the example of continued usage of Section 66A of IT Act, which was quashed but abused to arrest thousands for airing their views, the top court pointed out that sedition law (Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code) is also not immune to misuse by police to fix persons who speak against the government.

"It is like you give a saw to a carpenter and he will cut the entire forest. This is the impact of this law," the Chief Justice said.

The AG replied that he completely understands the concern of the top court and submitted that the court can lay down fresh guidelines to restrict the use of the sedition provision only for protection of nation and democratic institutions, instead of taking out the entire law.

The Chief Justice said the situation on the ground is grave, and if one party does not like what the other is saying, Section 124A is used.
New Delhi, April 27 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually address the global Patidar Business Summit starting on April 29. The three-day summit will be held in Surat.

Ahead of the year-end Gujarat assembly polls, the Prime Minister's address to the Patidar Business Summit is seen as an effort to reach out to the community which is politically important in the state. The BJP, however, claimed that it has nothing to do with politics. "Patidars are politically important in Gujarat, but the Prime Minister's address to their business summit has nothing to do with politics. They have invited the Prime Minister and he accepted their invitation. There is no politics," a Gujarat BJP leader said.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, a Patidar face, will attend the event along with Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, Union Minister Parshottam Rupala and state BJP president C R Patil. It is learnt that around 10,000 Patidar businessmen and over seven lakh participants are expected to attend the summit. Different sessions will be held to discuss the role of the community businessmen in nation building, skill development, women entrepreneurship and other topics. The BJP is likely to use the event to highlight their acceptance in the Patidar community, which is politically and economically important in the state.

The event has been organized under Mission 2026 to provide an impetus to the socio-economic development of the Patidar community, to facilitate internal and global alliances of small, medium and large enterprises of the community; to nurture and support new entrepreneurs in the community and to impart training and provide respectable employment to the educated youths in the community.
New Delhi, April 27 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked whether its proper to use the word 'Jumla' against the Prime Minister, during the hearing of the appeal of JNU scholar-activist Umar Khalid in the Delhi riots' larger conspiracy case.

A division bench comprising Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar, during the hearing, took note of the video clip of Khalid's alleged offensive speech delivered in Amravati in February 2021.

Before the bench, Khalid's counsel Trideep Pais argued that the harsh words used against the government cannot amount to an offense under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

During the course of the hearing, Justice Mridul asked: "This word jumla is used against the Prime Minister of India. Is it proper?", at which the counsel said that it is not illegal to criticise the policies of the government.

Earlier on April 22, the bench had said that the speech delivered by Umar Khalid at Amravati, was "offensive and obnoxious". "Did Gandhiji ever employ this language? Did Shaheed Bhagat Singh ever employ such language? We have no qualms about permitting free speech but what are you saying?", the bench had asked.

Last month, Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat had denied bail to Khalid, observing that there were reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against the accused are prima facie true.
Kathmandu, April 27 : Nepal government has imposed a total ban on the import of 10 luxurious goods until mid-July 2022 after the countrys economic crisis deepened.

The measure has been taken to stop further depleting the country's foreign exchange reserve. According to a notice issued in the Gazette on Wednesday, the goods whose import has been banned include cigarettes and tobacco-related products, diamonds, mobile phone sets, colour TVs with screens bigger than 32 inches, automobiles except for ambulances and hearses, motorcycles above 250cc, toys of all kinds, alcoholic beverages and playing cards.

According to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, the ban will not apply to those who complete the banking process before April 30.

Besides this measure, the government has taken other steps to check the foreign reserve from depleting further.

Earlier in the first week of this month, Nepal's central bank had issued a directive to the traders to "discourage" them from opening letters of credit (LC) to import non-essential goods in an effort to stem the outflow of the country's rapidly depleting foreign exchange reserves.

Ballooning imports in recent months have led to massive amounts of foreign currency going out of the country, pushing the balance of payments into the red and raising concerns of a crisis.

The central bank has discouraged the traders not to import 300 different items besides banning the opening of letters of credit.

According to the central bank, an immense portion of bank loans has gone into paying for imports, so the country is short of money to finance economic activities needed to recharge the economy devastated by Covid-19.

In case they needed to open letters of credit, the traders need to keep a 100 per cent margin amount to open them to import alcoholic drinks, tobacco, silver, furniture, sugar, sweets, glucose, mineral water, energy drinks, cosmetics, shampoos, hair oils and colours, caps, footwear, umbrellas and construction materials such as bricks, marble, tiles and ceramics, among others.

Imports jumped by 42.8 per cent to Rs 1.14 trillion during the first seven months of fiscal 2021-22, against an increase of 0.01 per cent last year.

Purchases of petroleum products, medicine, crude palm oil, crude soybean oil, transport equipment, vehicles and parts, among others, have increased sharply.

According to NRB, the country has a foreign currency reserve that is enough to meet its import expenses only for the next six months. Currently, the country has a foreign currency reserve of just $9 billion. Gross foreign exchange reserves had plunged by 16.2 per cent to Rs 1.17 trillion as of mid-February 2022, down from Rs 1.39 trillion in mid-July 2021.

Similarly, the government of Nepal has also decided to announce public holiday on Saturday and Sunday in order to limit government-owned vehicular movement so that consumption of petroleum products reduce. The import of petroleum product consumes the larger chunk of imports of the country.

According to the Department of Customs, Nepal's imports soared by 38.64 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1.30 trillion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year ended mid-March.

The total trade deficit rose by 34.50 percent to Rs 1.16 trillion during the period under review.
Panaji, April 27 : Anticipating an increase in Covid cases in the state, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Wednesday that people should wear masks in public places.

"Anticipating an increase in cases we advise the people to wear masks when in public places. It is not compulsory, nobody will be fined, but it is an advisory to protect yourself from the virus," Sawant said after attending a virtual conference of Chief Ministers with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sawant said that chief ministers were briefed about the Covid status across the world and India.

"Some cities of China are in a complete lockdown. Almost 40-50 crore people are under lockdown there. In Europe some countries have started bringing lockdowns again," Sawant said.

"Comparatively in India, our situation is better and cases are not rising at a quick rate. Yet chief ministers of five states including Delhi, Karnataka, UP, Haryana, and Meghalaya were allowed to speak and were asked to submit reports on the status there. In somes states like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, the cases have been rising sA they have been asked to remain alert on testing, tracking, etc," Sawant said.

The Chief Minister also said that the Prime Minister conducted a review of infrastructure readiness in the three states, while also urging them to increase testing and tracking efforts.

"Stress was also laid on vaccination and administering of precautionary doses. As of now children of 12 years and upwards can get vaccinated. But now (vaccination of) children of six years and above will be started," Sawant said.
Chennai, April 27 : Credit rating agency ICRA said on Wednesday that it expects the Indian general insurance sector to log about 10-12 per cent premium growth in FY23.

According to ICRA, the growth will be led by health and commercial business segments owing to increased awareness of medical insurance and uptick in economic activity.

The gross domestic premium income (GDPI) of government-owned insurers is expected to grow moderately at 4-6 per cent, while private insurers are expected to capture market share by growing at a higher rate of 13-15 per cent in FY23, ICRA said.

However, economic uncertainty due to structural challenges in the automobile industry and rising commodity prices amid the geopolitical crisis pose downside risk to FY23 growth.

According to Sahil Udani, Assistant Vice President and Sector Head-Financial Sector Ratings, the gross premium from the health segment experienced a steep year-on-year growth of 26 per cent in 11 months in FY22, while the fire segment premium grew by 8 per cent despite partial lockdowns across the country.

Post the decline in FY21, the motor business reported muted growth of 4 per cent during the same period. The GDPI from the crop business declined by 20 per cent in 11M FY22 mainly due to the significant decline in the public sector business, Udani said.

The combined ratio (claims plus expenses divided by premium income) across the industry deteriorated to 119 per cent in 9M FY22 from 112 per cent in 9M FY21 with increase in health claims.

Covid claims accounted for 6 per cent of the total number of health claims paid in FY21 and are expected to form around 11-12 per cent of the total number of health claims paid in FY2022.

The combined ratio for the industry is expected to improve in FY23 driven by lower health claims and likely improvement in risk pricing by the insurers.

ICRA expects the combined ratio for PSU insurers to improve marginally to 124-126 per cent in FY23 from the estimated 127 in FY22 supported by various cost-cutting measures directed by the Central government and better claims performance.

The private players, with better risk pricing and underwriting practices, are expected to report a combined ratio of 106-108 per cent in FY23.

To augment the solvency profile, the government of India infused fresh equity capital of Rs 5,000 crore in weaker government insurers in March 2022, Udani said.

The ratings agency further expects government support to weak government insurers in the form of regulatory forbearance or fresh capital in FY23.
London, April 27 : Poland and Bulgaria have accused Moscow of "blackmail" after the Russian energy giant Gazprom said it had cut off gas exports to the countries, BBC reported.

Poland's deputy foreign minister, Marcin Przydacz, told the BBC that Russia was seeking to "foster divisions" between Western allies.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the move showed Russia's "unreliability" as an energy supplier.

It follows Poland and Bulgaria's refusal to pay for gas in roubles, BBC reported.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin had decreed that all energy payments must be made in the Russian currency.

The move, which was designed to shore up the faltering currency which has been battered by Western sanctions, has been fiercely resisted by the European nations.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Gazprom said it had "completely suspended gas supplies" to Poland and Bulgaria in line with the decree issued by Putin.

The company also warned the countries, which are transit states for Russian gas, that any unauthorised withdrawal of gas intended for other European nations would see supplies reduced by an equivalent amount.

Polish state gas company PGNiG confirmed that Gazprom's supplies to the country had been halted and warned that it reserved "the right to seek compensation" and would use "all available contractual and legal means to do so".

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Colombo/New Delhi, April 27 : "A friend in need is a friend indeed" is the saying as it goes. The dictum is in full play as India has offered Sri Lanka an additional $500 million to help it to import fuel while it is in an advance stage of discussion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package.

Sri Lanka, which is grappling with one of the worst-ever foreign exchange crisis and shortage of essential commodities, was extremely disappointed when China declined to come forward in support of the country on flimsy grounds.

The fresh $500 million additional support by India to Colombo is over and above $ 1.5 billion of credit line offered by India earlier.

The economic situation in Sri Lanka is dire and it had requested both India and China for support in these difficult times.

India responded with an additional $500 million for the time being as against Colombo's request for $ 1 billion, but China cited difficulties in supporting the country.

The RMB 200 million ($ 31 million) of Chinese humanitarian assistance to Colombo is a diplomatic way of denial rather than genuine support.

Sri Lanka had asked $ 1 billion loan and $ 1.5 billion buyer's credit from China and the so called "humanitarian assistance" is of no avail for a country which is facing difficulties in importing even essential commodities.

Sri Lanka needs at least $4 billion to meet its immediate debt service and import requirements.

Ali Sabry, the new Finance Minister of Sri Lanka is presently holding talks with international institutions including the IMF, the World Bank, China and Japan.

He expressed hope that if the efforts are successful and an investment of $ 2 billion comes to Central Bank, it will help stop the depreciation of SLR and stabilise it.

After last week's announcement by Colombo about imminent default of $ 35.5 billion in foreign debt by it due to disruptions caused by Covid-19 pandemic and Ukraine war, it started pro-active deliberations with the IMF for a bailout package.

The IMF management met Sri Lankan delegation led by Finance Minister Ali Sabry and Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe in Washington DC. Sri Lankan delegation discussed policy actions to address economic challenges.

The discussion between Sri Lankan delegation and multilateral agencies revolved around recent economic and financial developments in Sri Lanka, the need for implementing a credible and coherent strategy to restore macro-economic stability and the importance of stronger safety nets to mitigate the adverse impact of the current economic crisis.

Sri Lanka has to repay about $ 7 billion this year in debt servicing and other obligations. It has sought $ 4 billion of multilateral assistance from the IMF.

India has also supported Sri Lanka's efforts in this regard. Many analysts view that had China come forward with a supporting hand, Colombo could have averted default and succeeded in tiding over its economic malaise till it could manage to get a bailout package from the IMF. Instead, China showed an indifference much to the dismay of Colombo.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan government is confronting widespread public protests which initially demanded resignation from the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and are now demanding to form an interim government to tackle the economic crisis.

However, Mahinda Rajapaksa while rejecting the demand for an interim government noted that "people need to show patience to face the crisis".

However, the public is losing patience amid shortage of food fuel, power, medicine and other essential items. Meanwhile, the country continues to face the problem of fiscal and current account deficits along with foreign exchange crisis. It has been pushed to default on foreign debt servicing.

Sri Lanka needs support and the countries which feign to be well-wishers of Colombo should ideally come forward. This is a moral obligation.

India has extended its support and is willing to help in all possible ways. But China, which invested in mega projects in the country and pushed it into debt-trap was now giving pretext of "difficulties" rather than providing support. No self respecting country could ever erase such bitter experiences from its memory.

Sri Lanka is not just a green pasture for investment and strategic leverage. It is a country of 2 crore human beings, grappling with the most difficult times of their life.

It needs solidarity in the time of adversity and not kindness or alms like the Chinese "humanitarian assistance".
Kolkata, April 27 : At a time when West Bengal is making headlines repeatedly for all wrong reasons like Bogtui massacre, successive incidents of rape and West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment irregularities scam, the state government is launching a statewide fortnightly propaganda to showcase the successes of the different development schemes of the government.

The propaganda programme christened "Showcasing of Success" will start from May 6, a day after Trinamool Congress celebrates the first anniversary of Mamata Banerjee's third term as the chief minister and will be continuing till May 20.

When contacted, the West Bengal Agriculture Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay told IANS that the programme will be held statewide through seminal, fairs and exhibitions. "We will showcase the successes of the different development schemes like Lokkhir Bhandar, Kanyashree and Swastha Sathi schemes, among others. The event will also highlight the successes of the state government during the last 11 years in the sphere of infrastructure development and setting up of new schools and colleges," Chattopadhyay said.

As per a state government official, who did not wish to be named, the estimated payout from the state exchequer for organising the event will be above Rs 80 crore. "The project will involve 52 state government departments. There will be power-point presentation. At the same time leaflets will be distributed. A professional event management company has been assigned to organise the entire event," the official said.

It is learnt that the event is being organised on the instruction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who wants people in all corners of the state to know about the development schemes being run by the state government.

Opposition leaders have described this initiative as an attempt to divert attention from burning issues like Bogtui massacre, repeated events of rapes in the state and WBSSC scam.

BJP's national vice-president and party Lok Sabha member Dilip Ghosh told IANS that this will be yet another wastage of public money to image recovery of the state government and ruling party which has already been marred because of reasons known to all. "However, the ruling party might be successful in hoodwinking people through such gimmicks for some time, but they will not be able to fool the people of the state all the time," Ghosh said.

--IANS src/

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New Delhi: Police detain a member of Indian Youth Congress during a protest against the arrest of Gujarat Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani and demand his release, near Home Minister Amit Shah's residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (Photo: Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Police detain a member of Indian Youth Congress during a protest against the arrest of Gujarat Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani and demand his release, near Home Minister Amit Shah's residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (Photo: Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Police detain a member of Indian Youth Congress during a protest against the arrest of Gujarat Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani and demand his release, near Home Minister Amit Shah's residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (Photo: Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Indian Youth Congress members protest against the arrest of Gujarat Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani and demand his release, near Home Minister Amit Shah's residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (Photo: Qamar Sibtain/IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, April 27 : Youth Congress on Wednesday protested the arrest of Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani by Assam police and demanded his release.

The protesters wanted to march towards Union Home Minister Amit Shah's residence but were stopped.

Srinivas BV, National President of Indian Youth Congress, said Mevani's arrest is illegal.

The Assam police should have informed the Speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly about any such arrest on prior basis before arresting the MLA, but he was not even informed, which is against the rules, Srinivas BV said.

"In BJP's New India, the rapists, accused are protected and the leaders who raise the voice of the people are attacked. India will not be afraid of BJP's dictatorship, India will fight," he alleged.

He alleged that the state machinery is being used to suppress individual's liberty and freedom of expression.

"No matter how hard the government tries, it cannot suppress the voice of truth," he alleged.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in Assam's Barpeta district on Tuesday rejected the bail petition of Mevani, and sent him to five-day police custody, a day after he was re-arrested by the Assam police on different charges, including "outraging the modesty of a woman police officer".

Mevani was re-arrested soon after the CJM's court in Kokrajhar district granted him bail, six days after he was arrested by Assam police from his home state in Gujarat in connection with an "objectionable" tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mevani's lawyer Angshuman Bora told IANS over phone that they would decide on Wednesday whether the bail petition would be moved to a higher court.
Karachi, April 27 : Banned militant group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed the attack targeting Chinese nationals at the University of Karachi on Tuesday, in a first used a female suicide bomber to carry out the terror strike.

This is the first time that the BLA has used a female suicide bomber, which has set a precedent of a dangerous redefinition of insurgency that co-relates to other terrorist organisations which have used female suicide bombers as part of their targeted suicide attacks in the past.

The female suicide bomber named Sharan Baloch aka Shari Baloch carried at least 3 kg of explosives and blew herself up as the vehicle carrying at least three Chinese nationals reached close to the gate of the Confucius Institute, located inside the premises of University of Karachi, killing herself and her desired targets, claiming lives of professor Huang Guiping, Director at Confucius Institute; Ding Mufang and Chen Sai, both faculty members at the Confucius Institute; and the driver of the van, a Pakistani national.

Shari Baloch was the first affiliate of the BLA Majeed Brigade to carry out a suicide attack, revealing the new redefinition of insurgency tactic being opted by the group.

This also reveals that BLA has now started to follow the same dangerous footsteps, which have been undertaken by global terrorist groups, including Boko Haram in Nigeria, Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan, and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Pakistan.

"This is the fifth rebellion in Balochistan, and the current one is the longest, which broke out in early 2000. Still, it's the first time that the BLA has used a female suicide bomber to attack Chinese nationals in Karachi," said Kiyya Baloch, a journalist who has spent many years closely following the Baloch militancy.

Use of a female suicide bomber by the BLA can have many reasons. Kiyya believes that one of the many reasons is the intense crackdown against Baloch activists suspected of having links to separatists.

"There is an intense crackdown on Baloch activists suspected of having links to separatists. Women attract less suspicion and can easily gain access to their targets," Kiyya said.

"Also, the female who carried out the suicide attack in Karachi was a burqa-clad woman, which helped in hiding explosives. This is a shocking but new strategy in the Baloch movement," he added.

Another reason for deploying a female suicide bomber is that previous suicide attacks by Baloch armed men have failed to achieve their targeted results.

In 2018, the BLA had claimed responsibility for an attack at the Chinese Consulate in Karachi. The attack was targeted at the Chinese officials, but was foiled by the Pakistani security forces.

In 2019, BLA had claimed another attack at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Gawadar. The attack was targeted at Chinese engineers working at the Gawadar port. But it had failed because of the quick response of the security forces.

In 2020, the BLA had claimed a major attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) in Karachi. But the attackers failed to enter the building and were neutralised at the gate of the premises.

However, the current attack at Karachi University got the desired result and is being viewed as a successful attack.

And since the Karachi suicide attack by a female bomber was successful in hitting its target, it is feared that it will attract and give confidence to more women in following the same strategy and offer themselves for more terror strikes in the future.

The use of a female suicide bomber by the BLA is not only a redefinition of insurgency tactic and war plan by the group, it also seems to be the start to a major challenge for the Pakistani security forces, who, in the case of the Karachi suicide attack, were caught by surprise by the use of a female suicide bomber.
New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, April 27 : Indian embassy officials in Yemen have established contact with 'responsible' people who are close to the family of a Yemeni national who was killed by Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya and her friend.

The meeting was held to discuss the possibility of saving Priya's life which can be done only if the family of Talal Mahdi pardons her for blood money -- compensation paid by an offender or his kin to the family of the victim -- in accordance with the Sharia law and diplomatic intervention, as per Yemeni rules.

According to sources in the know of things, the Indian diplomats are also wary that excessive media attention on the blood money factor could turn counterproductive.

It was at the initiative of the 'Save Nimisha Forum' working for her release, that retired Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph agreed to act as interlocutor to see how her life can be saved.

Joseph, along with a team of former and serving diplomatic officials, managed to establish contact with authorities in Yemen.

According to rough estimates, a sum equivalent to Rs 1.50 crore might have to be paid in Yemeni currency and perhaps it could be even more as it includes a fine and other charges.

Meanwhile, a team led by Joseph, including Priya's mother and her young daughter, are awaiting diplomatic clearance to travel to Yemen to have a direct dialogue with Mahdi's family.

Things started to speed up after a Yemeni court last month dismissed Priya's appeal in the murder case of Talal Mahdi, in which she, along with another person, are the prime accused.

The two have been sentenced to death for the murder of Mahdi in 2017.

Hailing from Palakkad, Priya, a nurse by profession, reached Yemen in 2012 with her husband. In 2015, with the help of Talal Mahdi, she set up a clinic. By this time her husband and their child had returned home.

Soon, differences cropped up between her and Mahdi and she accused him of torturing her and taking away her passport, making her trip back to her home state impossible.

On July 25, 2017, she injected Talal with sedatives to take back her passport and flee.

But the man collapsed after being administered the sedatives.

Realising that Mahdi had died, the nurse with another person's help, disposed off his body, which was cut into pieces in a water tank.

Four days later, the crime surfaced and both were arrested and while she was sentenced to death, the other person was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The incident came to light when a Kerala gospel worker reached a jail in Yemen to preach. Priya handed over a letter to him describing the entire incident.
New Delhi, April 27 : The Indian equity indices declined on Wednesday and settled in the red.

Sensex settled at 56,819 points, down 0.9 per cent or 537 points, whereas Nifty at 17,038 points, down 0.9 per cent or 162 points.

"Market continued to be gripped by high volatility following a heavy selloff in the global markets led by elevated energy crisis and weak Chinese economic outlook underpinned by prospects of US rate hikes," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Investors are weighing the possibility of a global slowdown due to monetary tightening by central banks, lockdown in China and Russia -Ukraine war. "This has resulted in an outflow of funds from equity markets to safe havens," Nair added.

Among the stocks, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Tata Consumers, Shree Cements, and Adani Ports were the top five losers among the Nifty 50 companies.

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Colombo, April 27 : On the face of the country's worst-ever economic crisis and a political deadlock, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday said he is willing to form an all-party government after the current cabinet, led by his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigns.

Gotababaya Rajapaksa has informed coalition partners that he is, in principle, ready to form an all-party government with the political parties represented in the parliament.

"As a solution to the crisis facing the country right now, I agree, in principle, to an all-party government representing all parties in parliament be formed," he said.

He has invited leaders of parties and independent groups that helped form his government to meet him on Friday.

"The composition of the said all-party government, which will be formed after the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the cabinet, the duration of its term, appointments to be made in that government and other relevant matters need to be decided upon discussion," a statement issued by the President's office said.

President Rajapaksa has openly suggested resigning of his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has been refusing to step down and insisted that he would be the Premier of whatever interim government that would be formed.

However despite public demand, the President too has not made any sign of resigning from his position.

The Indian Ocean island nation is facing the worst ever economic crisis since its Independence and people had been forced to spend days in queues to get fuel and gas while number of essential items including food, fuel, and medicine are in shortage.

For the last three weeks, people in capital Colombo and around the country have taken to the streets demanding the resignation of government with all Rajapaksas and the cabinet.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Bengaluru, April 27 : The Karnataka education department's direction to Block Education Officers to inspect the syllabus of all Christian schools in the state over making reading of Bible compulsory is likely to stir a controversy.

Education Minister B.C. Nagesh had given the directions after the case of the Clarence High School allegedly making reading of the Bible compulsory came out.

The exercise is likely to be opposed by progressive thinkers and the Opposition Congress party. Nagesh has stated that no school in the state can preach religion, including minority institutions. If any institute has made preaching of religion compulsory, it is against the Karnataka Education Act.

He has warned that if any violation is found in the syllabus strict legal action will be initiated against the schools. There is no room for schools teaching central syllabus to include religious matters, he added.

Considering the sensitivity of the issue and the present situation in the state, sources in the education department said that the exercise is bound to take a communal turn.

Most of the Christian schools have included the Christian value system as part of the curriculum. These inclusions have been made and taught to children since decades. However, going strictly by the law it will be against the rules, sources said.

Nagesh had stated that there is information that schools run by Christian managements are not giving admissions to children refusing to read the Bible. The Opposition leaders who make a hue and cry over the issue of a lesson on Tipu Sultan, hijab are turning a blind eye to this issue, he added.

The ruling BJP alleged to be pursuing aggressive Hindutva, has taken another step in this direction with regard to teaching of the Bible in Christian schools. The issue is all set to snowball into a major controversy in the coming days, said sources in the education ministry.
April 27 : One one the most awaited films of this year, Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn starrer Runway 34 is all set to hit theatres on April 29. Ahead of the release, many Bollywood celebs got the opportunity to watch the film at a special screening. Runway 34 also stars Boman Irani and Rakul Preet Singh. The film is directed and produced by Ajay Devgn.

Umair Sandhu, a member of the overseas Censor Board, reviewed the film on his Instagram stories and gave it four stars. Umair called Runway 34 one of the finest films ever made in India. On the whole, Runway 34 is one of the finest films ever made in Indian cinema. Not only because of its excellent cinematic credentials but also because of the balanced thought behind the film. A unique concept! Highly appreciated! Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan stole the show all the way. Both are in terrific form, the climax will shock you. We say, dont think, just go for it. Cinema at its very best," he wrote.

Kapil Sharma took to his Instagram handle and reviewed Runway 34. Sharing a poster of the film, Kapil wrote, "Beautiful, brilliant, full of thrill, wonderful performance by all the actors, what a beautiful film #Runway34 is kudos to @ajaydevgn paji for the wonderful direction #keepthefaithalive."

Actor and producer Jackky Bhagnani, who is dating Rakul Preet Singh, said she made him proud with her performance. Calling Runway 34 a must watch, Jackky tweeted, #Runway34 is technically one of the most superior films I have seen off late. It emotionally completely engages you. All direction by @ajaydevgn sir. Outstanding performances by all. @amitabhbachchan sir just lights up the screen, @rakulpreet you just made me sooo proud  All the best team and I am so sure the audiences will love the film.

Suniel Shetty also praised the film, and wrote, AJjjjjjj !! Youre a revelation. Watched #Runway34 last night and am mind blown. What a performance - as actor and director. Big big pat captain @ajaydevgn @SrBachchan sir @bomanirani @RakulPreet @aakanksha_s30 @ADFFilms Outstanding!

Riteish Deshmukh was also impressed with the film. "Saw #Runway34 last night - Heart pumping aerial thriller meets courtroom drama. A big hug to my friend and brother @ajaydevgn - so proud of what this man is capable of. The plane landing sequence twisted my insides in all possible directions. This actor-director is the BOMB!"

As per the synopsis of the film, Runway 34 revolves around Captain Vikrant Khanna played by Ajay Devgn, a flying prodigy, whose flight takes a mysterious course after take-off from an international destination. While Ajay and Rakul play pilots in Runway 34, Amitabh Bachchan essays the role of a lawyer who investigates an incident involving an aircraft and Ajays character, pilot Vikram Khanna.
Karachi, April 27 : Tuesday's suicide attack in Karachi University targeting Chinese nationals, carried out by a female suicide bomber, a first by the Majeed Brigade of Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), has raised serious concerns over the use of women to carry out terror strikes.

Three Chinese nationals and a Pakistani citizen were killed after what appeared to be a targeted suicide bombing outside the University of Karachi's Confucius Institute on Tuesday afternoon.

Many believe that such female suicide bombers, who have been previously used for carrying out 'fidayeen' attacks by other terrorist organisations, come from a oppressed background with lesser exposure, making them vulnerable to the motivational sermons of terror groups.

While it may be true to some extent, BLA's first suicide bomber changed the overall outlook to the theory as Shari Baloch, who carried out the attack on Tuesday, was neither illiterate, nor did she come from a family background having connections with separatist groups.

Shari Baloch was a secondary school teacher in her native Kech district. She completed Bachelors in Education (B.Ed) in 2014 and Masters in Education (M.Ed) in 2018. She also did her Masters in Zoology from the University of Balochistan and Masters in Philosophy (MPhil) from the Allama Iqbal Open University, Turbat campus, in Balochistan.

Shari was married and had two young children. Her husband is a dentist while her father served as the director in a government agency and was on government Grade 21 before his retirement.

Her father also became a member of the District Council for at least three years.

Shari's family is well-established and highly-educated with no past connection to any separatist group. In fact, the family was more inclined towards being known as a peaceful unit in comparison to many others with strong views about Baloch liberation movement. Shari has three brothers and four sisters.

One brother is a tehsildar - a grade 16 officer. Another brother works at the district court. One of her uncles is a retired professor, an author and a rights activist. Two of her cousins are doctors.

Shari's father was a registrar at the University of Turbat most recently and remained part of the district ombudsman's team for at least three years. He has also served as Director to the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA).

During her university times, Sharri remained a member of the Baloch Student Organisation (BSO-Azad) but was never booked or found guilty of promoting any anti-state activity through protests and rallies and maintained a low profile.

Also none of the family members were among the missing persons or subjected to enforced disappearances, except of one cousin who was killed during a military operation in 2018 in Kech.

Sharri joined BLA's Majeed Brigade two years ago and voluntarily signed up for the self-sacrificing mission.

"Following Brigade's establishment procedures, she was given time to revisit her decision. During these two years, Sharri rendered her services in different units of Majeed Brigade. However, six months ago, she confirmed that she continues to stand by her decision of carrying out a self-sacrificing attack. After that, she was actively involved in her mission," BLA said in a statement.

Sharri was brought to Karachi about six months back without any information about her relocation to her workplace, where she was a teacher.

The District Education Officer, Kech, had sent served her a show-cause notice for being absent from the school for the past six months. But she did not respond to any of them.

It is still unclear of what prompted Sharri to become a suicide bomber and give her life for BLA's cause. But it is believed that Sharri had joined the BLA Majeed Brigade with the idea of becoming a suicide bomber and persisted with the same, even after two years of her affiliation with the separatist group.

She is being hailed by BLA as the first female suicide bomber, which has given a new and a much more dangerous outlook to the group and its insurgency in Pakistan.
April 27 : Karan Johar is about to complete the shooting of his directorial Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. Starring Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Ranveer Singh, and Alia Bhatt in the lead, the film is slated for a theatrical release on February 10 next year.

Soon after Alias wedding reception on April 17, the actress had left for Jaisalmer with Karan, Shabana Azmi and ace designer Manish Malhotra. Now, reportedly, Ranveer and Alia have jetted off to Delhi for a short shooting schedule. They have also been joined by Shabana Azmi. Reportedly, the actors will wrap the Delhi schedule by April 30.

On Tuesday, Alia, Ranveer, Shabana Azmi and Karan were seen at the Kalinga airport in Mumbai, jetting off to Delhi. While Karan was seen in a black and white printed tracksuit, Ranveer wore a multi-coloured shirt and a stripped, loose-fitted bottom. Shabana Azmi sported a white shirt paired with denims. Alia opted for a pair of black shorts and a long black and white shirt.

The team has started shooting in Delhi today. They will reportedly film at the Leela Hotel in Chanakyapuri and Delhi airport. The team will also shoot some important scenes at the T-3 airport in Delhi. After they shoot at the airport on April 29 and 30, the team will wrap up the Delhi schedule of the film, it is reported.

The film is being helmed by Karan Johar, who returned to direction after Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in 2016. Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani also stars Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi and Dharmendra. The film is written by Ishita Moitra, Shashank Khaitan and Sumit Roy, and is slated to hit the theatres in 2022.

The story of Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani is based on a love relationship between a Bengali girl and a Punjabi boy. A major part of the film was shot in Delhi earlier.

After wrapping up Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, Karan will return with his most popular show, Koffee with Karan. After almost four years, the filmmaker will make a comeback with the coffee table chat show, which will go on floors next month.

Reportedly, Karan will wrap up major portions of his directorial and start shooting for the new season of Koffee With Karan in May. The pre-production of the show is reportedly in full swing and shooting will commence from mid-May. The show is expected to go on air in June on Star network.
Karachi, April 27 : Karachi Police had intelligence reports regarding an attack on the Chinese nationals in the city, said Additional Inspector General Ghulam Nabi Memon, Geo News reported.

In light of the intelligence reports, security was provided to the foreign nationals, he said.

The statement from the Karachi Police chief came after a female suicide bomber blew herself up near a van at Confucius Institute -- a Chinese language teaching centre at Karachi University.

Four people, including three Chinese nationals, were killed while four others sustained injuries. The deceased Chinese nationals were identified as the director of the Confucius Institute Huang Guiping, Ding Mupeng, Chen Sai, and their Pakistani driver, Khalid.

"The police had received reports regarding security threats to Chinese nationals and security was also provided to them, however, no intelligence report of suicide attack through a female bomber was received," the top police official said.

Ghulam Nabi Memon said a student of the Karachi University was used for the suicide bombing, however, investigations are underway regarding how the explosives were dispatched inside the university.

Meanwhile, Karachi University has rejected the report of the female suicide bomber studying at the varsity.
New Delhi, April 27 : Congress on Wednesday appointed Udai Bhan, who is said to be close to former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, as its new Haryana unit chief, while also naming four Working Presidents.

The decision comes after hectic parleys between Congress and Hooda and finally Hooda had his way in the appointment. Now, both the CLP and state President's post have gone to the Hooda's camp.

Though Udai Bhan is also a Scheduled Caste as outgoing state President Kumari Selja but the party has tried to strike balance between various communities, especially the Jats, it has appointed former MP Shruti Chaudhary, who is from the Jat community, as one of the Working Presidents. The others are Ram Kishan Gujjar, Suresh Gupta, and Jitendra Kumar Bhardwaj.

In Haryana, the Congress was witnessing an internal rift and as a result, the district committees were not formed. Ahead of its internal elections, the party wants to put its house in order.

The Congress was in a huddle over streamlining its Haryana unit where the party has plenty of claimants for the top post in the state. Hooda, a two-time Chief Minister, was pushing for a change in the state set up and has been meeting party leaders including Rahul Gandhi.

In the 2019 state Assembly elections, the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 40 seats in the 90-member House, while Congress got 31 seats. Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) got 10 seats, and allied with the BJP to form the government.
Kolkata, April 27 : An Indian smuggler has been nabbed by the Border Security Force (BSF) along the International Boundary (IB) with Bangladesh in Murshidabad district of West Bengal with nearly 12 kg of silver pellets hidden inside the tubes of his bicycle tyres.

The haul is valued at nearly Rs 8 lakh. The smuggler Abdul Baki Malitha (40) and the silver pellets have been handed over to the Customs department at Jalangi, Murshidabad, for further processing.

"Around 7.30 a.m. on Tuesday, Malitha, a resident of Ghoshpara village approached the gate of the border fence with a crop sprayer on his bicycle. Troops of the 141Bn BSF, from Border Outpost Farzipara, sensed something wrong with the body language of the villager who claimed that he was on his way to spray pesticide on his crops across the fence.

"The border patrolmen searched his bicycle and detected metal inside the tyres. On deflating them and cutting open the tubes, silver pellets weighing 11.95 kg fell out. These were to be smuggled to Bangladesh. Malitha may have planned to swap his bicycle with another one kept hidden close to a border pillar," a senior official of the BSF's South Bengal Frontier said.

During questioning, Malitha confessed that he had received the silver from Mahibul Mandal and Rabikul Mandal of Kailashgunj village in Jalangi.

He was tasked to deliver the pellets across the border for which he would be remunerated. Malitha came up with this innovative idea to send across the silver to Bangladesh.

Nagendra Singh Rautela, CO, 141Bn BSF, commended his troops for their alertness.

"We are committed towards preventing cross border crime and smuggling. Smugglers are adopting new techniques but our troops are a step ahead and thwarting all their efforts," he said.
San Francisco, April 27 : Tesla CEO Elon Musk will have to pay Twitter $1 billion in termination fee if he drops the $44 billion takeover deal, according to a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

The filing also said that the micro-blogging platform will have to pay the same amount if it terminates its takeover deal.

"Upon termination of the Merger Agreement under specified limited circumstances, Twitter will be required to pay Parent a termination fee of $1 billion," according to the SEC filing.

"Musk will be required to pay Twitter a termination fee of $1 billion," if he cancels the deal.

As part of the deal, Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions have committed to providing $13 billion in financing, along with $12.5 billion in margin loans to Musk, against his shares in Tesla and other companies.

Musk is expected to provide equity financing of approximately $21 billion on his own.

If Musk's financing falls through, Twitter will get $1 billion.

With Musk acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, advertisers are already having nightmares as his 'free speech' initiative can kill their prospects on the platform as their brand's name may appear alongside hate speech and abusive or dangerous content without moderation.

According to The Verge, online speech is a minefield.

"If Musk really intends on a minimally moderated Twitter worldwide, he could expect huge fights in countries that restrict things like hate speech and false information," said the report.

Another area of concern is recommendation algorithms that amplify or downrank tweets and accounts in potentially biased ways.

Musk wants to make the algorithm "open source", but he hasn't outlined specific plans to follow the requirements of an open source license, "so he could mean it in a more informal sense".

Musk has also now described how he would integrate suggestions made by developers into Twitter's algorithm.
New Delhi, April 27 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday approached the Delhi High Court challenging the April 16 trial court order which upheld the earlier court order setting aside the Lookout Circular (LOC) issued against the former Chairman of Amnesty International, India, Aakar Patel. As Justice Talwant Singh recused from the case on Wednesday, the matter was posted for May 13.

The central probe agency moved to the high court citing the order limited the extent of legal observations. The Special CBI Judge of the Rouse Avenue Court on April 16 had upheld an earlier order directing the CBI to withdraw its Lookout Circular issued against Aakar Patel.

At the same time, the court set aside the direction issued to the CBI director to apologise to Patel for the agency's action against him. "The direction of the trial court to the Director, CBI, to give written apology to the respondent accused, acknowledging the lapse on the part of his subordinate, to compensate for mental harassment, cannot sustain and is liable to be set aside," the court noted in its order.

Prior to that on April 7, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Kumar of the Rouse Avenue court had directed the CBI to immediately withdraw the Lookout Circular issued against Patel. The court also sought a written apology from the CBI director. "In this case, a written apology from the head of CBI, i.e., Director CBI acknowledging lapse on part of his subordinate, to the applicant would go a long way in not only healing wounds of the applicant but also upholding trust and confidence of the public in the premier institution," the court order read.

Journalist and writer Patel was on his way to the US when he was stopped from leaving the country at the Bengaluru airport citing a Lookout Circular issued against him by the CBI in connection with a Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, case.
Kolkata, April 27 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while blaming the non-BJP states for not reducing value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel, ignored the fact that the Union government is giving preferential treatment to BJP-ruled states in payment of central dues, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged on Wednesday.

"In the virtual meeting with the chief ministers of all states on Wednesday, the Prime Minister praised the BJP-ruled state governments for reducing VAT on petrol and diesel, while criticising the non-BJP states for not doing the same.

"However, what he did not say was that the Union government is making differential treatment between the BJP-ruled state and the non-BJP state governments in terms of payment of central dues," Banerjee told mediapersons here.

She also alleged that in the virtual meeting held on Wednesday, the Prime Minister gave a one-sided lecture without giving opportunity to the chief ministers to speak.

"In West Bengal, we are already giving a subsidy of Re 1 per litre on petrol and diesel. The total dues of the West Bengal government from the Union government is to the tune of Rs 97,000 crore. I request the Prime Minister to pay us even half of that amount and we will provide a much higher subsidy on petrol and diesel than the BJP-ruled states," Banerjee said.

She also slammed the Prime Minister for claiming reduction in central excise on petrol and diesel and said that the temporary reduction in central excise is nothing compared to the huge excise amount collected by the Narendra Modi-led government since 2014.

"The total central excise on petrol and diesel collected by the Union government since 2014 is Rs 17,31,242 crore. The amount would be much higher if I add the amount collected from tax on cooking gas," the Chief Minister said.

She also criticised the Prime Minister for not agreeing to the proposal of different state governments for 50:50 share of tax on petrol and diesel between the Union and the state governments.

But the Union government is having 75 per cent share of that tax and now the Prime Minister is asking the state governments to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel, Banerjee said.
New Delhi, April 27 : Indian Navy chief Admiral R. Hari Kumar underlined on Wednesday that it is impossible for any one country to ensure maritime security and therefore, there is a need for cooperation, collaboration, and interoperability so that peace and order can be collectively maintained in the Indo-Pacific region.

In his address at Raisina Dialogue, he said: "To enhance maritime security, India has kept up its goal of being the first responder which helps in developing trust, interoperability, exchange of information and good practices, and domain awareness." Admiral Hari Kumar pointed out that we are in a contested world because of the conflict and the challenge posed by emerging technologies that are emerging, and this offers great opportunities for cooperation and collaboration between like-minded countries.

"We are in a contested world moving on to quite uncertain future and this is primarily because of the conflict we see as well as the challenges thrown in by technologies which are emerging in various domains. The technology indeed has divided us into different blocks depending upon development but it is not a zero sum game," he said.

It asserted that it offers great opportunity for cooperation and collaboration, the Navy chief said, citing two examples.

He said that how the world combated Covid-19 challenges where in all the nations came together pulled in their skills and technology to develop vaccines. Secondly, he said that the International Solar Alliance brought nations together to combat climate change.

The democratic nations always been forthcoming and restrained in the way the technologies are used, Admiral Hari Kumar said.

"At Quad last year there was declaration on the usage of technology where it was said that technology design, development and governance and use need to be worked out," he said.

He said that underlines the principal of democratic values as well as respect for the international human rights.

General Koji Yamazaki, Chief of Staff, Joint Staff of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, questioned Russia's aggression in Ukraine.

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a violation of the international rules-based order; it is an attack on sovereignty and integrity. We must learn from this war. We just acquire capabilities to prevent such events in the future.

"How we use this new technology in cyber warfare, especially in cross-domain operations, will be key. It is important to differentiate between disinformation and correct information. We must clearly demonstrate our will and capability to deal with these emerging threats and have a synergised approach. " Commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), Admiral John Aquilino dwelt on China and Russia and threats from the former.

"This is a concerning time when seen from the lens of global security as is visible from the Russian aggression and the attitude of China. We are cooperating with like-minded countries and becoming interoperable to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.

"All forms of technology apply to military warfare and we need to prepare with a sense of urgency. Now, cooperation is happening more in the multilateral sphere rather than the bilateral one," he said.

He also said that like-minded nations in the Indo-Pacific have been working together for 80 years. "Our values and interest to keep peace and prosperity in the region is a very good thing," he said.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Hyderabad, April 27 : Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders on Wednesday said India needs a torch bearer and visionary like K. Chandrasekhar Rao as its leader.

Speakers at TRS plenary urged Chief Minister KCR to play an active role in national politics to bring a change and guide the country on the path of development and prosperity.

Speaking on 13 resolutions passed at the plenary, state ministers and TRS leaders said KCR should lead the efforts to bring a qualitative change.

TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao said the country needs a visionary leader, and not a leader who is seen only on television.

KTR, who is son of KCR, moved a resolution which says that TRS will play a key role in national politics in the coming days.

The party observed TRS needs to play a constructive role and fill the political void at national level.

The party asserted to bring a qualitative change in the country on the lines the Telangana state achieved desirable results in education, irrigation, health and economic sectors.

The country should be freed from the evil forces and end the bulldozer rule and divide and rule policies adopted by the rulers in the country, says the resolution.

Through another resolution, the party resolved to fight against religious intolerance and protect the national integrity and the country's unique culture.

The plenary observed growing religious intolerance will weaken the country on all fronts. Many countries were struggling after the fanatic groups took over the administrative power.

The TRS called on people to fight unitedly against the barbaric acts by some political forces and spread the message of love and peace .

Speaking on the resolution, TRS leader B. Vinod Kumar said the communal policies of BJP government pose a threat to the country's future.

He denounced union home minister Amit Shah's statement calling for common civil code. He pointed out that while the entire country has same criminals laws for all sections of people, only the family laws are different. He said within the Hindu community there are different customs and practices in different states.

The TRS resolved to fight against the union government for undermining the federal spirit and suppressing constitutional rights which have been accorded to the states.

The Constitution has given absolute powers to the states to bring legislations and also executive powers. Practically, the centre is depriving states of its powers.

The TRS demanded the centre to scrap new power acts and Dam safety acts which are detrimental to the states. The one nation - one registration and one nation- one market policies are part of consolidating the powers of the centre and weaken the states.

The TRS, through another resolution, also demanded the union government to reduce spiralling prices of essential commodities and took strong exception to the centre's indifference towards solving price hike issue.

It said the wrong economic policies adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi put heavy burden on common man. Middle classes are struggling hard due to price burden. Even as the crude oil prices have gone down, the Central government was increasing fuel prices indiscriminately.

Eyeing political benefits, the Central government reduced fuel prices for some time. The party resolved to expose the Centre's failure in the control of prices.

The TRS party extended gratitude to the Telangana government for procuring paddy in the current season after the union government turned down the state plea to purchase paddy directly from farmers.

The party criticised the union government for its failure in resolving the paddy procurement issue amicably.The centre adopted anti-farmer policies which includes reducing subsidy in fertilisers and put heavy burden on farmers. The increase of petrol and diesel prices also mounted the input cost of the farming. The party resolved it will not compromise on farmers issues.

The ruling TRS of Telangana state has demanded the union government to enhance quota to the deserved communities in education and employment based on their social conditions.

The TRS has been demanding to increase quota for Muslims to 12 per cent from 4 per cent in proportionate of the population. The ST reservation should also be increased to 10 per cent. The government adopted resolutions in support of quota hike and sent the same to the centre for approval in April 2017 but there was no response from the union government.

The TRS plenary demanded the union Government to adopt a bill extending 33 per cent reservation for women in the Parliament.

The TRS already adopted a resolution in support of women reservation in the legislative bodies in the state Assembly and sent it to the centre for consideration. The Telangana government is already implementing 50 per cent reservation in local bodies for women . The TRS criticised that the BJP led union government is not sincere in women empowerment.
New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, April 27 : Bidding goodbye to Delhi, 81-year-old former Defence Minister A.K. Antony on Wednesday gave a thumbs up to the Nehru-Gandhi family and said their leadership is the backbone of the Congress party.

Antony, who reached Delhi in 2005 by becoming a Rajya Sabha member after quitting as Kerala Chief Minister in 2004 following the whitewash the Congress party suffered when just one seat out of the 20 was won in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, is now packing his bags from Delhi and will reach the state capital on Thursday.

He has a house in the capital city and on Wednesday told the media in Delhi that he will now operate from his office at the state party headquarters for as long as the party wants.

"The leadership of the Nehru-Gandhi family is the backbone of the Congress party and without them there is no existence for the party. The statement that if any one criticises the Nehru-Gandhi family, their future is over is totally wrong because if that was true then I would not have been here ," said Antony who holds the record for being the longest serving Defence Minister of the country, a post that he held from 2006 till 2014, spread over two UPA governments led by Manmohan Singh.

Antony along with his erstwhile faction in the Congress party in Kerala split from the Indian National Congress and joined the government led by CPI-M leader E.K. Nayanar in 1980. In 1982 Antony and others who included Oommen Chandy returned to the Congress party.

"I don't think any other Congressman would have got this much from the party as I got. I am quite confident that the upcoming conclave in Rajasthan will mark the return of the Congress party. An opposition without the Congress party has no merit and no meaning," added Antony.

"I have been in the Congress Working Committee for a very long time and now it's time for me to move out and I do not wish to continue in it. Now, after I reach home, I will speak to my colleagues in the party in Kerala and decide my future work," said Antony.

Even though Antony was Kerala Chief Minister three times (1977-78, 1995-96 and 2001-04) he never got a full five year term, while he got a full five years as Leader of Opposition 1996-2001).
Mumbai, April 27 : Maharashtra's ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) hit out at the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he on Wednesday pointed fingers at the state government for pushing up petrol-diesel prices.

Leading the attack from the front, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray reiterated that despite being the highest contributor to the national exchequer, Maharashtra has been given step-motherly treatment by the Centre.

"While Maharashtra gets only 5.5 per cent of Central taxes, it contributes as high as 38.3 per cent in direct taxes, 15 per cent of GST which is the highest in the country. If direct taxes and GST are combined, Maharashtra is a leading state in giving taxes. Yet, even today, we are waiting to get our Rs 26,500 GST share," Thackeray said.

State Congress President Nana Patole's poser was what happened to the Bharatiya Janata Party's promise in 2014 to reduce petrol price to Rs 40, but now, it has more than tripled.

"Since the time of Atal Behari Vajpayee, a Re 1/litre Road Development Cess was being collected, it went upto Rs 2 during the tenure of UPA PM Manmohan Singh, and under the present Modi government, it stands at Rs 18/litre, besides a Rs 4 agro cess," he said.

He pointed out that the Centre always hikes cess instead of excise, but when the rates are reduced, only excise is slashed, as was done during the recent elections in five states - since all the states are entitled to a certain revenue share - thus depriving the states of their due share.

Nationalist Congress Party Minister Chhagan Bhujbal slammed the Centre for repeatedly raising fuel prices and then blaming the states while not reimbursing the GST dues of the states.

Thackeray also said that the MVA has repeatedly asked the Centre to expand the narrow definitions of the NDRF criteria to help victims of disasters, though the state has contributed more than the stipulated amount.

"During the Taukte Cyclone (May 2021), the Centre helped Gujarat more than Maharashtra. We not only announced but also implemented the farm loans waivers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we helped the unorganised and weaker sections of society. While speaking about cooperative federalism, it is expected that the Center treats all states in a fair manner," he said.

He added that in Mumbai, for every litre of diesel, there is Centre's VAT of Rs 24.38, while the state's VAT is Rs 22.37, in petrol, Rs 31.58 is Centre's tax and state's tax is Rs 32.55, and hence, it was wrong to blame the states for the spiralling petrol-diesel prices.

Thackeray also pointed out how the state recently reduced VAT on CNG from 13.5 to 3 per cent for the customers, benefitting domestic consumer, transport sectors and encouraging the use of the green fuel.
Mumbai, April 27 : Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn, who is gearing up for the release of his film 'Runway 34', publicly replied to Kannada superstar Kiccha Sudeep's opinion on Hindi not being the national language of India, on Wednesday.

The, 'Singham' actor took to his Twitter and tagged Sudeep as he tweeted, "Brother, if Hindi is not our national language according to you, then why do you release films made in your mother tongue dubbed in Hindi? Hindi is our mother tongue, and our national language, and it will always be. Jana Gana Mana." Sudeep had earlier made a comment at the film launch of 'R: The Deadliest Gangster Ever'. When probed about a Kannada film becoming a pan-Indian hit, Sudeep told media, "You said that a pan India film was made in Kannada. I'd like to make a small correction. Hindi is no more a national language. They (Bollywood) are doing pan-India films today. They are struggling (to find success) by dubbing in Telugu and Tamil, but it's not happening. Today, we are making films that are going everywhere." Incidentally, Ajay was recently seen in a cameo appearance in superstar director S.S. Rajamouli's magnum opus, 'RRR' along with Ram Charan, Jr NTR and Alia Bhatt. The film, which was a pan-India release, was dubbed in five languages - Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.
Chennai, April 27 : Director Vignesh Shivan has thanked the cast and crew of his romantic comedy 'Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kaadhal' on the eve of the film's release worldwide on Friday.

Taking to social media, Vignesh Shivan wrote a post to first thank his three lead actors - Vijay Sethupathi, Nayanthara and Samantha.

He said, "'Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kaadhal' from tomorrow! Wanted this film to come to theatres only to see you all enjoy the super skills of actor Vijay Sethupathi as Rambo! The always amazing #Nayanthara my thangam as Kanmani and the sparkling Samantha as Khatija! "I would like to thank these actors for making my life so easy in making this film !! The energy on sets when all of them were there is something I will miss !! The moments ! This experience will stay wit me for a long time!"

He then went on thank his assistant directors team.

He said, "My team ! Starting from Senthil anna... the best set of Assistant Directors I've ever had! .. Thank you guys for giving your best ! Your 100 per cent ! Staying together through thick & thin. It's a team that always sets the mood for any work! You guys were so good to me ! Thank you forever."
Aizawl/Agartala/Shillong, April 27 : After the outbreak of highly-contagious African Swine Fever (ASF) and killing of thousands of pigs in Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya, the authorities in the three northeastern states have issued several restrictions, including ban on trading of pigs, pig feed, pork and pork products in and around the affected areas.

After Mizoram, the fresh outbreak of ASF was reported from Tripura and Meghalaya.

Officials said on Wednesday that the state authorities are taking steps as per the guidelines of the National Action Plan of the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying for control, containment and eradication of ASF.

In Mizoram, the ASF, which created havoc last year killing over 33,400 pigs, has reappeared in a few districts, killing over 800 pigs over the past two months.

Officials of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department said that fresh pig deaths due to ASF were reported from some villages in Champhai, Aizawl, Lunglei and Saitual districts since February this year.

"We have asked the concerned officials to send daily reports of fresh ASF outbreak to the directorate in Aizawl," an official of the department told IANS over phone.

Chief Secretary Renu Sharma recently held a meeting and reviewed the situation and finalised strategies to prevent the further spread of the infectious disease.

ASF was first detected in Lunglei district in March last year and subsequently, it spread to all the 11 districts of Mizoram, claiming the lives of 33,417 pigs and affecting over 10,000 families besides causing financial loss of Rs 61 crore.

Around 11,000 pigs were culled last year and compensation for culled pigs amounting to around Rs 12 crore was sought from the Central government.

In Tripura, the state Animal Resource Development Department (ARDD) has so far culled over 240 pigs and piglets at the government-run Debipur farm and adjoining villages in Sepahijala district after the outbreak of ASF earlier this month which killed around 100 pigs.

ARDD Director Dilip Chakma told IANS that as per the national guidelines, the state government has been providing Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000 to the affected pig farmers.

An awareness campaign on ASF has been undertaken in Sepahijala district involving the local administration and the gram panchayats, he added.

In Meghalaya, many pigs have died in Umsning block in Ri-Bhoi district.

Villages within 1 km radius of the infected premises have been designated as 'Infected Zone' and all villages within the 10 km radius have been designated as 'Surveillance Zone'.

Principal Secretary in the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department, G.H.P. Raju, issued a notification on Tuesday informing the people that whoever places or permits to be placed in any river, lake, canal or any other water body the carcass or any other part of any animal which at the time of death was known to be infected with ASF, would be punished with fine and imprisonment.

According to experts, the outbreak of ASF may have been caused by pigs or pork imported from neighbouring Myanmar, Bangladesh and the adjoining states of northeast.

The northeast region's annual pork business is worth around Rs 8,000-10,000 crore, with Assam being the largest supplier. Pork is one of the most common and popular meats consumed by both the tribals and non-tribals in the region.
New Delhi, April 27 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to clear its stand, within a week, regarding the release of A.G. Perarivalan, a convict in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Why don't you just agree to have him released? People who have served over 20 years are released... We are also offering you an escape route," a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao told Centre's counsel.

Perarivalan has served more than 30 years in jail and currently he is on bail.

The top court took strong objection to the Tamil Nadu Governor sitting on the state Cabinet's recommendation to release Perarivalan for over three years, and then forwarding it to the President.

The bench, also comprising Justice B.R. Gavai, said that the Centre's argument that the Governor does not have the jurisdiction to take a decision on the mercy plea under Article 161 (Governor's power of mercy), strikes a blow on the federal structure of the country.

It queried Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, representing the Centre, as to what is the provision under which the Governor can refer the decision of the state Cabinet to the President? The bench said if the Governor were to disagree with the state Cabinet decision to release him, then he would refer it back to the Cabinet and not forward it to the President, who is bound by the aid and advice of the Centre.

Nataraj, however, contended that the Tamil Nadu Governor was right to send Perarivalan's plea to the President, saying "In certain situations, the President, and not the Governor, is the competent authority, especially when a sentence of death has been commuted to life..." Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the Tamil Nadu government, submitted that law was settled on the power of Governor to decide mercy pleas under Article 161, and the Centre is trying to unsettle it. He added that the Governor had to abide by the aid and advice of the state Cabinet, and the Governors were bound by the state governments' decision.

Pointing out that Perarivalan has served over 30 years, the bench queried Dwivedi, "Then why don't you release him...... Why should he be caught in the middle of who has the authority, President or Governor, to decide?" The top court agreed with the suggestion of Perarivalan's counsel that the court should also consider making the Governor's exercise of power under Article 161 "time-bound." After a detailed hearing in the matter, the top court scheduled it for further hearing on May 4.

The top court on April 9, granted bail to convict Perarivalan who was serving a life sentence. It had questioned the Tamil Nadu Governor for not deciding on the state government's recommendation to release all convicts, which was made to the Governor way back in September 2018.
New Delhi, April 27 : Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday that despite the Twitter board accepting Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover offer, the Indian guidelines for social media platforms will not change in order to protect users' data privacy and safeguard them from any harm.

Speaking at the 'Raisina Dialogue 2022' here, the minister said the government's guidelines on the social media intermediaries, including Twitter, will remain unchanged.

"Despite Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, IT guidelines governing the social media platforms remain the same. Social media needs to go beyond mere criminality and also expand focus on user harm when it comes to regulations," Chandrasekhar told the audience.

The minister further said that algorithmic biases exist and therefore, "we need to create a mechanism to ensure accountability on algorithmic coding".

In accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules), social media platforms are mandated to publish monthly transparency reports with details of complaints received from users in India and the actions taken, as well as removal actions taken as a result of automated detection.

Under the new IT rules 2021, big digital and social media platforms -- with more than 5 million users -- have to publish monthly compliance reports.

Earlier this week, the Twitter board accepted Musk's $44 billion offer and the Tesla CEO made it clear that he will promote 'free speech' on his platform going forward, a move that has irked many.

Musk has said that free speech is the "bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated".

If Twitter softens its stand on content moderation, it could allow more bullying, violent speech, hate speech, misinformation and other abusive content to gain ground.

"This may make Twitter less palatable to newcomers who were already wary about posting in a 'public square'.

"It could also disincentivise advertisers from investing their budgets with the platform," according to reports.
Lucknow, April 27 : An Allahabad High Court judge has withdrawn himself from hearing the bail plea of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.

Justice Rajeev Singh of the Lucknow bench of the high court, who had granted bail to Ashish Mishra earlier, recused himself from hearing it again after the Supreme Court cancelled his bail order last week on April 18.

While cancelling Mishra's bail, the Supreme Court had also asked the high court to decide his bail plea afresh and the plea came up for hearing before Justice Singh's bench. But he recused himself from hearing it afresh.

Justice Singh, however, gave no reason for withdrawing himself from the single-judge bench hearing the bail plea.

The next hearing of the bail plea too was not scheduled and it would be fixed for the next hearing after the constitution of a new bench to hear it, a court official said.

Ashish Mishra had been arrested in the October 3 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case in which eight people, including four farmers and a journalist, were killed and several others were injured when a convoy of SUVs, including a Thar allegedly owned by his father, had mowed down four farmers.

According to the FIR lodged in the case, Ashish Mishra was sitting in one of the cars. The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had granted regular bail to Ashish Mishra, observing that the present case was one of "accident by hitting with the vehicle".

But the Supreme Court cancelled the bail, saying that the victims were denied "a fair and effective hearing" by the Allahabad High Court, which adopted a "myopic view of the evidence".

The apex court had also Ashish Mishra to surrender before the court and asked the high court to hear Mishra's bail plea afresh.
New Delhi, April 27 : Former Defence Minister AK Antony on Wednesday said that the BJP can't be defeated without the Congress. He added that the Gandhis are the powerhouse of the Congress and there can't be leadership in the party without the Nehru-Gandhi family.

The senior leader when asked said "They (Gandhis) are the powerhouse and guiding force in the party and represent the ideals and ideas of the Congress and have support of 99 percent of the Congress workers." The statement gains significance after talks with political strategist Prashant Kishor failed. Antony is close to the first family of the Congress and stressed that the party should not be underestimated and without the Congress the BJP can't be defeated.

Sources said Antony was one of the naysayers to the proposals mooted by Kishor during his presentation to the party.

He said that he is optimistic about the Congress and it should not be underestimated and will make a comeback as without the Congress Narendra Modi can't be defeated in 2024.

Other Congress leaders too have expressed the hope that the party's upcoming 'Chintan Shivir' in Rajasthan will revive the party after talks with Prashant Kishor failed on Tuesday.

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who was part of the deliberations, said: "It is ultimately the Congress which has to move and put it's house in order. Consultant or no Consultant.

I have a strong hunch that the Chintin Shivir will bring in a new Congress which is the need of the hour." The 'Chintan Shivir' is scheduled from May 13 in Udaipur where around 400 delegates will participate from across the country.

The party has constituted six sub-groups to prepare an agenda for the event.
London, April 27 : Russia will be unable to fight another war for years because of catastrophic kit losses in Ukraine, defence experts said, Daily Mail reported.

"It will take years for Russia to rebuild its inventories," according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In fact, Russian President Vladimir Putin will struggle in the Donbas because vital "inventories are getting low", analyst Mark Cancian told The Times.

Wrecked Kremlin equipment now amount to 939 tanks, 185 planes, 155 helicopters, 421 artillery units and eight ships, the Ukrainian army estimated on Wednesday morning.

Kiev estimates its forces have now killed 22,400 Russian soldiers, up from 22,100 a day before.

Military analyst Henry Boyd from the International Institute for Strategic Studies said that Putin could still draw on sizeable, Soviet-era reserve forces stationed across Russia.

But most Russian soldiers would be unable to use them, he added, Daily Mail reported.

Boyd told the newspaper: "They kept a large number of Soviet-era tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery. You can probably compensate in terms of sheer numbers by reactivating older systems but there is a question mark over whether they will have the crew to man the vehicles and if they do, whether they have had sufficient training."

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
New Delhi, April 27 : A Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the revision of the project outlay for India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) from Rs 1435 crore to Rs 2255 crore as equity infusion to meet regulatory requirements.

The Cabinet also granted in principle approval for future fund infusion to the tune of Rs 500 crore for meeting regulatory requirements and technological upgradation.

Briefing the media, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said that the objective of the project is to build the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man; spearhead the financial inclusion agenda by removing the barriers for the unbanked and reduce the opportunity cost for the under banked populace through assisted doorstep banking.

The project supplements the government's vision of a "less cash economy" and at the same time promote both economic growth and financial inclusion, Thakur added.

India Post Payments Bank had a nationwide launch on September 1, 2018 with 650 branches/controlling offices. The IPPB has enabled 1.36 lakh post offices to provide banking services and has equipped nearly 1.89 lakh postmen and gramin dak sevaks with smartphones and biometric devices to provide doorstep banking services.

Since the launch of the IPPB, it has opened more than 5.25 crore accounts with 82 crore aggregate number of financial transactions with Rs 1,61,811 crore which includes 765 lakh number of AePS transactions worth Rs 21,343 crore.

Out of the over 5 crore accounts, 77 percent of the accounts were opened in the rural areas where in 48 per cent are women customers with around Rs 1000 crore of deposit, Thakur informed.

Nearly 40 lakh women customers received Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) into their accounts valued at Rs 2500 crore. More than 7.8 lakh accounts have been opened for school students.

In Aspirational Districts the IPPB has opened around 95.71 lakh accounts having 602 lakh aggregate transactions worth Rs 19,487 crore.

In Left Wing Extremism (LWE) districts, 67.20 lakh accounts have been opened by the IPPB having 426 lakh aggregate transactions worth Rs 13,460 crore.

The total financial expenditure involved under the proposal stands at Rs 820 crore.

The decision will help India Post Payments Bank pursue its objective of furthering financial inclusion across India by leveraging the network of the Department of Posts, the Minister added.
New Delhi, April 27 : The government on Wednesday said there is an appropriate amount of coal stocks in the country and there is no need to panic.

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said: "The country has enough coal stock. The thermal power plants have more than 9 days' coal stock... the situation is reviewed each day." He said the coal stocks are sufficient in the country and there is no need to panic.

On Monday, Power Minister R.K. Singh and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw held a meeting here to discuss short-term and long-term strategies for dealing with the situation.

Singh had urged all stakeholders at the Central and state level to work hand in hand for unhindered power supply. He urged the power gencos to own freight rakes under the Railways Ministry scheme to deal with logistic constraints in coal supply.

Issues discussed included increasing operational efficiency for loading and unloading of coal, increasing percentage of rakes allotment for power sector, and other logistics issues.

The Congress has attacked the government on the power crisis, with Rahul Gandhi saying: "India is in the midst of a severe power crisis. In most states, common people are being forced to bear 8-hour power cuts." He said he had warned the Modi government that lack of coal stocks will spell torment for the country as power demand peaks.
New Delhi, April 27: Possible terror threats from the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Baloch Liberation Army will pose a serious challenge for the newly inducted Shehbaz Sharif government, as it tries to fix the rapidly sagging economic situation in the country.

On Tuesday, three Chinese nationals were killed in a suicide bombing carried out by a female Baloch bomber identified as Shari Baloch just outside the University of Karachi's Confucius Institute -- the Chinese language teaching centre. Such terror attacks will severely affect inflow of foreign investments.

According to Beijing based newspaper Global Times, experts have said that given the capability and willingness, the BLA is the biggest suspect but the Pakistan Taliban, IS or the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement" could also be involved.

"For the Shehbaz Sharif government, the real threat will come from the TTP, which has asked people to support jihad. For the execution of the CPEC projects, the new government will have to ensure peace and stability," Anil Trigunayat, Distinguished Fellow at Vivekananda International Foundation who earlier served as India's ambassador and told India Narrative. Recently, the TTP came out in support of jihad in Pakistan.

Experts told India Narrative that terror attacks would further slowdown economic activities within the country.

The incident took place in less than a year of the Dasu attack -- on July 14, which left nine Chinese nationals dead on their way to the Dasu hydropower project under the CPEC. The incident was carried out by the TTP also known as the Pakistani Taliban.

In 2022, the TTP's violence will remain a major challenge for Pakistan, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in a report published in January said. In 2021, the militant group operating from bases in Afghanistan, and with a growing presence inside Pakistan, mounted an increasing number of attacks.

Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that "the root cause of this terrorist attack is that the soil for the growth of terrorism and religious extremism in Pakistan has not been removed, and the environment in which terrorism thrives has always existed".

Strongly condemning the attack, the Chinese foreign ministry underlined the need for Pakistan to crack down on terrorist organisations.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, April 27 : Even as tech billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter, he suspended the account of an Indian-origin lawyer Vijaya Gadde over censoring exclusive stories related to US President Joe Biden's son Hunter's laptop in the wake of the Capitol Hill violence, early this year.

Gadde, who has been working at Twitter since 2011, has been a key executive charged with overseeing the microblogging platform's trust and safety, legal and public policy functions. She had also been involved in decisions to remove former US President Donald Trump and banning political advertising on the platform.

Musk on Twitter slammed the lawyer for suspending the account of the New York Post. During the run up to the 2020 US presidential elections, the Post wrote an exclusive article about Hunter Biden's laptop. The article has since been verified by many outlets which had initially dismissed the report as misinformation.

"Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organisation for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate," Musk said in a tweet.

Musk said this in reply to podcast host Saagar Enjeti who shared the Politico report, stating that Gadde reportedly had a tearful virtual meeting with her teams, expressing concerns over the future of the platform, after Musk took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal.

"Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate at Twitter who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan's podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the Elon Musk takeover," Enjeti tweeted.

Musk had long been advocating free speech on the platform, creating apprehensions for many as they fear the site will be left without regulations.

"The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all," Musk wrote on Twitter.

"By 'free speech', I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people," he explained.
Ahmedabad, 27 April : Ahead of any state elections, it is common for political leaders to switch sides. And Gujarat, which is going to the polls later this year, is no different on this count.

Gujarat Congress President Hardik Patel, the face of the reservation movement of 2016-17 who joined the grand old party in 2019, is the latest in Gujarat to fuel talks of political somersault.

Recently, Patel changed his WhatsApp profile picture from the Congress tricolour scarf to one with a saffron scarf. He even deleted Cogress from his WhatsApp bio.

Even during the Yuva Swabhiman Sammelan at Tapi, where Youth Congress national President B.V. Srinivas was present, Hardik was seen wearing a non-Congress plain white scarf.

Asked about the change in WhatsApp profile picture, Hardik said that everyone changes their DPs every five days, and he also did the same.

On the other hand, Hardik has also criticised national Congress leaders on various platforms of late.

On Tuesday, he tweeted: "I am in Congress currently. I hope the central leaders find a way so that I continue to remain in the Congress. There are others who want Hardik to leave the Congress. They want to break my morale.

In a few interviews recently, Hardik had blamed national Congress leaders by saying that he is not getting due respect as Gujarat Congress President, as no one consults him nor gives him any major responsibility.

He recently said in an interview that he considers himself as a 'Hinduvadi' and 'Rambhakt'.

Interestingly, Gujarat government recently said that it has started the procedure to withdraw cases registered against Hardik and 22 other protesters.

But the metropolitan magistrate, V.D. Mod, rejected the state government's plea and asked all the accused, including Hardik, to remain present on May 2, when the court will begin framing charges in the case.
Thiruvananthapuram, April 27 : Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal on Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making political statements during a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers to discuss the spike in Covid cases in the country.

Modi, in his address, said the Centre reduced the excise duty on petrol and diesel last November to reduce the burden on citizens and also requested the states to reduce their taxes and transfer the benefit to the people, but some states did and some others did not do.

It was this statement that irked Balagopal and castigated Modi for using the meeting forum for politics.

"Kerala, in the past six years, has not increased the tax on fuel. With that being the case a person like the Prime Minister should not have, at an important meeting taken a political position... as his was a very misleading statement," said Balagopal.

"Kerala is not getting 42 per cent of the tax, instead the Centre is collecting the cess and the surcharge directly," he said, adding that the Centre has no right to it and in the coming days at the appropriate forums, protests against this will be launched.
Chandigarh, April 27 : With Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking Chief Ministersto lower excise duties on the fuels, petroleum dealers in Punjab, especially in border areas, on Wednesday said it became difficult to operate as diesel is at least cheaper by Rs 6 and petrol by Re 1 compared to Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

"Successive governments in Punjab -- the Akalis and the Congress had been regularly increasing VAT on petrol and diesel, resulting in vast difference in petroleum prices in Punjab as compared to neighboring states," Monty Sehgal, spokesman for the Petrol Pump Dealers Association, Punjab, told IANS.

He said the rate difference of petroleum products with neighboring states is robbing the state government of its revenue, encouraging unscrupulous trade practices and of late, the emergence of oil mafia in the state.

Punjab is predominantly an agricultural state with majority of population living in rural areas. Forty-five per cent of total diesel consumed in Punjab is used in agriculture, 25 per cent in transportation, 20 per cent in industry and 10 per cent by retail consumer.

The consumption in terms of litres of petrol and diesel is showing a continuous downward trend in Punjab. "Sales of diesel in terms of litres have dropped by about 30 per cent in the last couple of years," he said.

The Punjab government, he said, is losing an estimated revenue of Rs 400 to 500 crore annually to its neighboring states due to business shift and the emergence of oil mafia due to massive rate difference with other states.

The worst affected districts include Pathankot, Ropar, Hoshiarpur, and Mohali.
Shimla, April 27 : In the run-up to the Assembly elections scheduled later this year, the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, on Wednesday gave its nod to the Shimla Development Plan, a first in over four decades, prepared by the Department of Town and Country Planning to allow construction even in the core, congested and sinking zones.

Critics say this decision is aimed to allow two-and-a-half-storey structures in Shimla's core area and three-and-a-half floors in the rest of the city.

Also, they say, it is against the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ruling that banned fresh constructions in the core area, the area above the Cart Road, and restricted new buildings to two-and-a-half storeys.

In a matter pertaining to regularisation of unauthorised constructions in Shimla, the state high court this month issued notices to the Chief Secretary, the Additional Secretary, Town and Country Planning, and the Director, Department of Town and Country Planning.

They have been asked to file a reply by the next date of hearing, i.e., May 9.

Rampant construction by realtors and amendments to land laws from time to time to attract non-residents have created a concrete jungle across Himachal Pradesh's once scenic towns, starting with its capital Shimla, the erstwhile summer capital of British India.

Geologists warn that this can't be good for the mountains and may amplify ecological risk.

Section 118 of the Himachal Pradesh Tenancy and Land Reforms Act of 1972 provides for restriction on transfer of land in favour of a person who is not an agriculturist of the state.

This section and rules under it have been amended from time to time to further the basic intention behind its enactment of protecting the interests of local inhabitants while ensuring that the development of the state is not hampered, claims the government.

Contrary to this, the desire to buy an ultra-luxury cottage or a flat in the idyllic settings has been attracting a stream of rich people who are largely owning a piece of paradise to escape the hell of summer and to enjoy a snowy landscape in the hills during winter. And this helps the realtors build business.

In Shimla, most of the buildings are "precariously hanging" on the steep slopes and clinging to one another and are in danger of collapsing like a pack of cards with a moderate intensity temblor. This can be catastrophic for congested settlements like Sanjauli, Hira Nagar and Ladakhi Mohalla that could take a heavy toll on human lives.

The successive Congress and BJP governments kept on amending the existing Interim Development Plan prepared for the Shimla planning area in 1979 just for political gains and are least bothered to set in place a scientific development plan, say local residents.

Planned for a maximum population of 16,000, Shimla now supports 2,36,000 people, as per the provisional figures of the 2011 Census.

The previous BJP government led by Prem Kumar Dhumal had constituted a one-man commission of Justice (retd) D.P. Sood, a former judge of the state high court, to probe illegal land transactions in the state and look into violations of statutory provisions and administrative procedures.

Interestingly, it observed that most of the builders were catering to the needs of the rich from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Non-resident Indians.

Himachal Pradesh is prone to various types of disasters. The central government has identified 25 hazards to which the state is prone.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
New Delhi, April 27: China has come down heavily on its "Iron Brother" Pakistan over the security of the ambitious China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and its citizens working in Pakistan. The Tuesday suicide bombing of a van carrying Chinese teachers in Karachi, which left three Chinese nationals dead follows a string of attacks targeting Chinese employees working on CPEC projects in the restive but resource rich Balochistan Province.

China has been concerned about attacks which indicate that the militants' strategy was evolving as the attackers appeared ready to adopt "fidayeen" tactics. However, with the deployment of a woman suicide bomber, the BLA attack on the university premises has added an altogether new dimension.

Already, the state-run Chinese media has been critical and wary of the security provided by the Pakistani authorities. But now a new realisation is dawning that pure reliance on Pakistan for security may not be enough.

"We must point out that Pakistan has strengthened the protection of Chinese nationals in recent years but without addressing the root causes of the problem, there will always be loopholes," says the Global times, a Chinese affiliated media.

The daily underlines that while CPEC project sites are heavily fortified, its citizens are quite vulnerable.

"Hard targets" like projects or construction sites that are tightly protected are thought to be difficult to attack. For that reason, the terrorists sought "soft targets" such as school teachers. The China-Pakistan anti-terrorism cooperation needs to be further strengthened and resolutely strike related terrorist organization. We shouldn't allow terrorists' evil acts, says The Global Times, adding that Pakistani authorities must devise a full proof and aggressive strategy to deal with those militants who are a major threat to Chinese interests in the country.

"We strongly demand that the Pakistani side make more efforts to protect the safety of Chinese institutions, projects and personnel in Pakistan, and make those organisations understand that those who try to hurt the Chinese will only bring destruction on themselves." Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Islamabad, yet again warned its citizens "to increase security awareness, strengthen internal precautions, reduce trips outside as much as possible, and avoid crowded public spaces".

China is upgrading energy links and infrastructure as part of a $54 billion CPEC programme with both nations wary of security threats to the projects.

Last year, in April 2021, a suicide bomb attack at a luxury hotel hosting the Chinese ambassador in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, killed four and wounded dozens. The ambassador was unhurt.

In July last year, a bus carrying engineers to a construction site near a dam in north western Pakistan was hit by a bomb, killing 13 people including 9 Chinese engineers.

The attack frayed relations between Islamabad and Beijing, and Pakistan later paid millions in compensation to the families of the Chinese workers killed.

Beijing is becoming increasingly frustrated that Pakistan is failing to curb terrorism. It must be noted that although the Baloch's are struggling for a national independence movement, many of the terrorists responsible for attacks, particularly among the Pashtun, are groups with deep links and ties with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and have a Salafi ideology.

"The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack. The BLA will definitely be more resolutely annihilated. I support Chinese military to launch direct air strikes against this terrorist organization's camp after getting approval of the Pakistani government," wrote Hu Xijin, the former editor of Global Times.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Hyderabad, April 27 : The Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol in Telangana is 35.2 per cent while it is 27 per cent on diesel.

However, the state government has rejected demands to reduce VAT saying it did not hike the tax in last seven years.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government has been demanding that the Central government should reduce the cesses which it increased indiscriminately since 2014. The state government says that this will reduce fuel price by 30 per cent.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked opposition-ruled states to cut VAT, state minister and TRS Working {resident K. T. Rama Rao hit back, blaming Modi government for fuel price hike.

"Fuel prices have shot up because of NPA Central govt," he tweeted dubbing National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as Non-Performing Alliance (NPA).

"Name-calling states for not reducing VAT even though we never increased it; is this the co-operative federalism you're talking about Narendramodi ji," KTR asked.

He said that Telangana hasn't increased VAT on fuel since 2014 and rounded off only once.

"We don't get 41 per cent of our rightful share because of the Cess imposed by your govt. In the form of Cess you are looting 11.4 per cent from the state & we are getting only 29.6 per cent for FY23," he said.

"Please scrap Cess so we can give Petrol at Rs 70 & Diesel at Rs 60 all over India. One Nation - One Price?," he added.
New Delhi, April 27 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the Telangana government for cancelling over 19 lakh ration cards and asked it to undertake physical verification of ration cards, which were cancelled on the basis of a computer algorithm.

A bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai said: "We direct the state of Telangana to conduct verification of all the ration cards cancelled pursuant to the directive issued by the Central government in 2016." It noted that 17 parameters were taken into account before cancellation and sought reply from the Chief Secretary explaining how these cards were cancelled, which deprived the people of their right to have free ration.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioner, contended the ration cards were cancelled without giving an opportunity to the people. He added those whose ration cards were cancelled, they had to apply for fresh cards.

The bench directed the authorities to conduct field verification of all the cards and also deal with representation of any aggrieved card holder expeditiously.

Gonsalves contended that the cards were cancelled on the basis of computer algorithm including wrong entry of Aadhaar card, which violates the K. Puttaswamy judgement.

The top court was also informed that people were denied food grains, despite the Centre saying that Aadhaar card is not mandatory for it.

The bench said the state should have been more cautious before cancelling the cards.

The top court made these observations while hearing a plea filed by social activist S.Q. Masood, challenging the Telangana High Court order, which refused to entertain his PIL against the cancellation of ration cards.

--IANS ss/vd

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New Delhi, April 27 : A day after the protesting nurses called off their strike following its direction, the Delhi High court on Wednesday asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to form a board for hearing the grievances of the staffers.

Highlighting that the AIIMS is institute of excellence and on functioning of the medical facility, the bench of Justice Yashwant Varma called for maintaining harmony between the parties.

During the course of the hearing, it asked AIIMS authorities not to take any punitive measures on the persons identified in the incident immediately and if they find anything wrong, then "take it in accordance with the law".

"Do not take any immediate action. Let things cool down. Take undertaking, set up a board. You have to strike a balance," the bench stated.

Nurses union counsel apprised that the union has already decided to call off the strike.

After the submissions of the parties, the bench said that the matter will be heard further on July 29.

In the previous hearing, the court had noted the alarming trend of nursing officers and other essential workers deputed in AIIMS going on strike and that the development resulted in the cancellation of various emergency operations and had seriously crippled its functioning.

The nurses union began an indefinite strike on Tuesday after its President Harish Kajla was suspended by the hospital administration, demanding the rollback of the action and stopping any kind of measures against union executives and union members of main OT.

Kajla was suspended on Monday night in connection with the April 22 incident of disrupting OT patient services.
Guwahati, April 27 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam on Thursday and lay foundations and inaugurate some development projects worth several hundred crores, officials said.

The Assam government declared a local holiday on Thursday within the jurisdiction of Dibrugarh and Karbi Anglong districts in view of Prime Minister's visit.

According to the officials, Modi is scheduled to reach Dimapur (Nagaland) airport and from there, he will go to Diphu in Assam's Karbi Anglong district by helicopter to address a rally -- 'unity, peace and development rally' at Loringthepi and lay the foundation of some development projects worth over Rs 500 crore.

The Prime Minister would then fly to Dibrugarh where he would inaugurate the Dibrugarh Cancer Centre at the Assam Medical College and Hospital.

From Dibrugarh, the Prime Minister would virtually inaugurate seven cancer hospitals and lay the foundation for seven more cancer hospitals across Assam.

Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan Tata, central ministers Sarbananda Sonowal and Rameshwar Teli, state Governor Jagadish Mukhi, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma among others would also be present at the event in Dibrugarh.

The seven cancer hospitals that would be inaugurated by the Prime Minister are in Dibrugarh, Barpeta, Tezpur, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Kokrajhar and Darrang while foundation would be laid at Dhubri, Goalpara, Golaghat, Sivasagar, Nalbari, Nagaon and Tinsukia.

The Assam Chief Minister is personally monitoring the Prime Minister's day-long visit to the northeastern state.

The transport department has arranged over 5,000 buses to bring people to the venues of the programmes in Dibrugarh, where the ruling party leaders, ministers and workers and top officials are working day and night to make the event a success.

BJP workers including women have reached out to far-flung areas in Dibrugarh, Karbi Anglong and adjoining districts and invited people to the Prime Miniser's function in traditional Assamese custom with 'paan and tamul' (betel leaves and areca nuts).
Chennai, April 27 : In a major setback to the Tamil Nadu government and the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) department, the Madras High Court has set aside the take over of the Ayodhya Mandapam.

The first bench of the High Court comprising of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharath Chakravarthy on Wednesday set aside the takeover of the Ayodhya Mandapam.

The takeover of the Ayodhya Mandapam was challenged in court by the Shri Ram Samaj and the court after hearing the arguments from both sides directed the state government to hand the control back to the Shri Ram Samaj. The court said that the HR&CE order was passed without following the procedures of natural justice and that no further opportunity for hearing was given to the Shri Ram Samaj.

The bench said that the HR&CE department had passed the orders merely stating that the Samaj was a public temple as per Section 6 (20) of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act as it fulfilled the conditions stated in the Act. The court said that the HR&CE department failed to look into the objectives of the Samaj and other activities carried out by the Samaj.

The court directed the HR&CE department to conduct a fresh inquiry and proceed in the matter afresh after following the procedures of law.

The court passed the orders on an appeal filed by the Shri Ram Samaj against the order of a single judge dismissing the writ petition filed in 2014 against the take over of the Ayodhya Mandapam by the HR&CE department and appointing a 'fit person' to take over the administration of the Samaj.

The court also directed the Shri Ram Samaj to maintain a proper book of accounts and to carry out all transactions through the banks so that all the transactions are accounted for.

The DMK government had tried to take over the Ayodhya Mandapam and it had led to a major political row in the past few months.

There was a major ruckus in front of the Ayodhya Mandapam at West Mambalam in April this year when the HR&CE took over the premises amid heavy police deployment.

Chief Minister Stalin had while speaking in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly on April 12 told the BJP that if it was trying to politicize the Ayodhya Mandapam into a temple issue, it would not succeed.
Mumbai, April 27 : In an unexpected twist, the mafia angle has emerged in the ongoing ruckus between Independent MP-MLA couple, Navneet Kaur Rana and her husband Ravi Rana, and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

Late on Tuesday, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had dropped a Twitter bomb claiming that the Amravati (SC seat) MP, Navneet Rana, had allegedly taken a loan of Rs 80 lakh from Yusuf Lakdawala, alleged to be linked to the absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and nabbed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a Rs 200 crore money-laundering case a couple of years back.

When questioned, Minister of State for Home, Shambhuraj Desai, said that the police would ascertain the matter and in case a complaint is registered, they would investigate further and do the needful.

A film financier, realtor and businessman, Lakdawala died while in custody at the Arthur Road Central Jail in September 2021.

Raking up the issue, Raut also posted a purported extract of Navneet Rana's 2019 election affidavit which mentions the loan amount due to (the late) Lakdawala.

"Why has the ED not yet investigated this? This is just one matter that has come to light, there may be other such irregularities that will be exposed in the probe," Raut said.

He also wondered whether there could be an "underworld link" to the ongoing political row over reciting 'Hanuman Chalisa', as it (a link) was found during the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

Terming it as an issue of national security, Raut slammed the BJP for "trying to shield" Navneet Rana, who was arrested on April 23 and is currently in custody along with her husband after they threatened to go and chant Hanuman Chalisa outside the private residence of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in Bandra.

Though they later abandoned the plan ostensibly in view of the Prime Minister's visit to Mumbai on Sunday (April 24), they were arrested under various charges, including sedition, and are currently in judicial custody for 14 days.

On Wednesday, Raut tweeted asking if Lakdawala's illegal money is now in Rana's account, will the ED summon and serve tea to her, why the D-Gang is being saved and why the BJP is keeping quiet.

Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal demanded that the Mumbai Police and ED should take immediate cognisance of the allegations against Navneet Rana.

"The ED took action against state minister Nawab Malik for transacting land worth Rs 5 lakh. Now MP Sanjay Raut has posted documents that Navneet Rana had taken Rs 80 lakh from Lakdawala, why should it not be investigated," Bhujbal asked.

It must be probed why the film actress-turned-MP took the money, through whom she approached Lakdawala and what was done with the loan amount, he said.

Sena MoS Kishore Tiwari also joined the debate saying that Badnera MLA Ravi Rana is the nephew of Yoga guru Ramdev.

"He has now invested crores of black money of his uncle Ramdev to buy lands and has become a land-mafia. This came out in his wife Navneet Rana's poll affidavit," said Tiwari, demanding a probe by ED and CBI.

BJP state President Chandrakant Patil distanced himself from the issue saying though Raut is trying to link his party (BJP) with Navneet Rana, they had no connections as she was elected as an Independent MP.
New Delhi, April 27 : Two men, including one person who went to rescue the other, died inside a sewer pit in the national capital on Wednesday, an official said. The deceased have been identified as Chittaranjan (26) and Abdul Salam (18) According to the official, the incident took place in the city's Bawana area when Abdul Salam, a rag picker, had removed the cover of the sewer on Ganga Toli Road near Balaji Chowk in Bawana and entered inside to collect waste plastic. "As he did not come out after some time, his younger brother Sahil (12) raised an alarm and sought people's help," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Brijender Kumar Yadav said.

A passing driver Chitranjan Choudhary went to rescue the man inside the pit. Unfortunately, after sometime the second man also became unresponsive. The Delhi Fire Service and the police received information about the incident and rushed to the spot. Both the persons were taken out from the pit and shifted to MV hospital where the doctors declared them brought dead.

Proceedings under the relevant section of the Code of Criminal Procedure have been initiated, the official said.
Bengaluru, April 27 : The Kannada film industry, which is celebrating the runaway success of 'KGF Chapter 2' at the national level, is also keeping its fingers crossed over the possible outbreak of a fourth Covid wave.

If there is a spike in the number of Covid cases, the state government is likely to first impose restrictions on theatres, pubs and restaurants.

After the assurance from Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday that unnecessary restrictions will not be implemented and measures will be taken in such a way that the economy is not affected, the producers are somewaht relieved.

However, producers of more than 30 films are praying that the fourth wave, if it comes, doesn't turn out to be a spoiler.

The big movies which were shelved due to the pandemic situation in the state in the last two years are being released in the months of May and June. Unfortunately, Bengaluru is already seeing a spike in the number of Covid cases, causing worry to the film industry.

Sharan starrer 'Avatara Purusha', Jaggesh starrer 'Totapuri', Manu Ravichandran's 'Prarambha', Rakshith Shetty's 'Charlie', and Yograj Bhat's 'Galipata 2' are some of the big ticket movies ready to be released in Karnataka.

The teams of 'Totapuri' and 'Avatara Purusha' have finalised the release dates in May and June, respectively, while the release of 'Galipata 2' will also be announced soon, sources in the film industry said.

The film producers and exhibitors have already requested the government not to impose harsh measures on exhibition of movies like it did during the third wave around this time last year.
New Delhi, April 27 : A sex racket being operated from a spa has been busted and seven persons, including five prostitutes, arrested in this connection, Delhi Police said on Wednesday.

According to the police, information regarding a sex racket being run in a spa and massage parlour named "The Space Spa" was received on Tuesday and a raid was conducted by the Special Staff of the Central District and seven persons arrested, including the spa owners - Deepak Kumar and his wife Babita.

The police have registered a case under section 3, 4 and 5 of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act 1956 at the Patel Nagar police station.

During interrogation, it was revealed that the accused couple was the mastermind and they were running this sex racket in the garb of spa and massage parlour.

Huge cache of obscene material was also recovered from the spot, the police said.

"Sustained interrogation is done to know the previous similar crime committed by them and details of their other associates, if any," police added.
Bengaluru, April 27 : The Karnataka government is taking up the exercise of vaccinating the 6-12 years age group school children in schools, as per the direction given by the Central government.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said this on Wednesday while speaking after attending Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with the Chief Ministers in the backdrop of rise in Covid cases across the country.

The Central government has directed to administer vaccine for the 6 to 12 years age group through campaigns in schools.

The state will intensify vaccination drives for those between 6-12 years, 15-18 years, 60 years and above persons, Bommai said.

The state has decided to carry out tests among patients admitted in all hospitals.

The samples will be sent for genomic testing, he added.

"The Central government has said that unnecessary restrictions are not required which create fear among the public. The public should lead life with precautions without affecting the economy," he said.

"I have informed the union government of the status and contemporary situation regarding Covid in the state. Covid infection is under control but, after April 9, the positivity rate in Bengaluru has increased a bit," Bommai said.

"We have decided to increase the testing, we have decided to carry out 30,000 tests every day in Karnataka. In 30,000 tests, 10,000 tests will be conducted in Bengaluru and 20,000 tests are being conducted across the state," he said.

"We have decided to increase the testing, we have decided to carry out 30,000 tests every day. 10,000 tests will be conducted in Bengaluru and 20,000 tests outside Bengaluru," he added.
Jaipur, April 27 : After the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education asked six questions 'glorifying' the history of Congress in the Class XII political science paper, the Centre has now sought a reply from the Education Department of Rajasthan in this regard, on the basis of media reports published in the matter.

A Class 12 question paper of Rajasthan Board went viral on social media recently, creating an uproar as a few questions asked in the paper were reportedly aimed at 'glorifying' the Congress.

After the state BJP had slammed the Congress government on this count, the Centre has now sought a response from the Rajasthan government.

The Union Education Ministry has written to the additional chief secretary in the school education department, stating that the comments/inputs of the state government in this regard should be sent to the department.

Rajasthan Education Minister B.D. Kalla, meanwhile, said that the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan, is an autonomous body which conducts board examinations.

"There is no interference of the government, and the leaders of the BJP and the Central government are unnecessarily trying to magnify the whole matter. All the questions asked in the exam were from the syllabus itself, but the Central is interfering in the state matters only to create a new controversy, which is completely wrong," Kalla said.

Another official said that none of the questions in the paper were out of syllabus. Out of the total 60 questions, it is natural for six questions to be related to the Congress, he added.
New Delhi, April 27 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has attached assets worth Rs 79.23 lakh including immovable properties worth Rs 53.97 lakh and movable properties amounting to Rs 25.26 lakh belonging to one Umesh Aggarwal and his wife, D. Rajan and his wife, wife of Aji Bright and wife of Preeston Silva in a Forest Police case against them.

The ED initiated the money laundering investigation on the basis of occurrence reports registered by the Edamalayar Forest Police Station and the Karimpani Forest Police Station, Thundathil Forest Range of Kerala Police, under section 27(1)(e) IV of the Kerala Forest Act and Wildlife (Protection) Act against the accused.

The accused were involved in multiple offences e.g., trespassing into reserve forest, hunting wild elephants and removing the tusks and illegal trading of ivory and ivory products in 2015.

The ED learnt during the investigation that the accused, by committing offences under various sections of the Kerala Forest Act and Wildlife (Protection) Act, being scheduled offences under the PMLA, had generated Proceeds of Crime to the tune of Rs 79.23 lakh.

"Since the accused persons have generated Proceeds of Crime, invested the same in movable/immovable properties, the same have been attached," said the ED official.

A further probe in the matter is on.
Kolkata, April 27 : West Bengal, which, along with Manipur, ranks tenth among Indian states both in terms of total tax component and state value added tax per litre of petrol, ruled out any possibility of further reducing VAT as urged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

With the latest petrol price hovering around Rs 115 per litre in West Bengal, the total tax component per litre on petrol, that includes central excise and VAT, is Rs 54.10. Out of that, Rs 32.90 is on account of central tax and remaining Rs 21.20 is VAT.

Talking to IANS, state Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the state government, for the last two years, is already giving a subsidy of Re 1 per litre for both petrol and diesel on which the state government has spent Rs 1,500 crore.

"Our VAT is already low compared to states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Kerala. Despite our financial constraints we have not increased the rate so far. Rather, we are continuing with our subsidy of Re 1 per litre petrol and diesel. Still, we are ready to cut our rates further as said by our Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee. But to enable us to do that the Union government needs to clear our dues which is hovering at Rs 95,000 crore," she said.

Bhattacharya also told IANS that the skyrocketing price of petrol and diesel is not because of the state taxes. "It is because of the cess and surcharge levied by the Union government, out of which the state gets no share. Since no Chief Minister could speak in the virtual meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, these points could not be raised," she said.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Banerjee alleged that the Prime Minister, while blaming the non-BJP state governments of not reducing VAT on petrol and diesel, ignored the fact the Union government is giving preferential treatments to BJP-ruled states in payment of central dues.
Bengaluru, April 27 : With an aim to bring back the focus on human values of peace, love and harmony in the midst of war and turmoil, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of The Art of Living Foundation, has launched the 'I Stand for Peace campaign from the UN office in Geneva.

Ravi Shankar himself travelled across Germany, Poland and Switzerland, where he was joined by thousands in this campaign. The campaign will now move to the US next month, an official release issued by the Art of Living stated on Wednesday.

As part of his Europe tour, Ravi Shankar met policymakers, diplomats and thousands of Art of Living volunteers who worked relentlessly to provide help during the Covid-19 pandemic and in rehabilitating Ukrainian refugees, helping them with trauma relief.

He also met and presented Easter gifts to the refugee children in the Art of Living centre in Warsaw, Poland. Thousands gathered at COS Torwar Stadium in Warsaw for a peace meditation and pledged to #IStandForPeace, an event graced by former VP of the European Parliament, Ryzard Charnecki; Indian Ambassadors to Poland and Ukraine, among several other dignitaries, the statement said.

Ravi Shankar has made a strong appeal for global forces of peace and sane voices to join hands in this hour of crisis and work towards building harmony, human values and dispel darkness and mistrust from the society.

The appeal was made in the backdrop of the post-pandemic world that is braving the consequences of global conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war, the release said.

"People come together when there is a crisis, when they feel threatened or when they are wise. I have a question -- can people not come together for something that is positive, something that can create harmony within the society," Ravi Shankar asked in his address at the UN in an event hosted by the International Association for Human Values and the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva on the topic 'Unity and Collaboration in a Post-Pandemic World'.

While talking about the root cause of conflict, he said, "In past so many years, conflicts have happened when trust is broken or the communication breaks down among people. I believe inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help."

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Chennai, April 27 : Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged the states to reduce the Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel "in the spirit of cooperative federalism", the Tamil Nadu government had rejected the rate cut demand last November itself.

Pointing out the Centre's decision to reduce the excise duty on petrol and diesel last November, Modi said some states reduced the taxes while many others did not.

According to an oil industry official, the value added tax (VAT) in Tamil Nadu on petrol comes to about Rs 22.60 (13 per cent plus Rs 11.52) per litre and on diesel, it is about Rs 18.51 (11 per cent plus Rs 9.62) per litre.

The opposition parties in Tamil Nadu have been demanding the DMK government to fulfil its poll promise of reducing the petrol price by Rs 5/litre and that of diesel by Rs 4/litre.

While in opposition, the DMK and its allies had strongly protested against the Central government for fuel price hikes.

On his part, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan has categorically ruled out reduction in state taxes on the two fuels until the Union government rolls back its taxes to 2014 levels.

Rajan said reduction in tax rates would reduce the state's revenue by about Rs 1,050 crore.

He also recalled the reduction of Rs 3/litre of petrol on August 13, 2021 by Tamil Nadu government resulted in a revenue loss of Rs 1,160 crore per annum.

According to Rajan, with the Central government's high taxes, it is neither fair or feasible for the state government to further reduce its taxes.

"I reiterate that the sole, simple, and fair approach to improve the situation for all, is for the Union government to reduce the levy of taxes on petrol and diesel to the rates prevailing in 2014. Such a move will automatically reduce states' taxation (as almost all States follow ad-valorem taxation)," he said.

The Union government has repeatedly continuously increased the levy of tax on petrol and diesel over the last seven years.

According to the Minister, on August 1, 2014, the basic price of petrol and diesel and the global import prices were in line with the current import prices in rupee terms - at Rs 48.55 per litre for petrol and Rs 47.27 per litre for diesel.

Then only, the central taxes were Rs 9.48 per litre on petrol and Rs 3.57 per litre on diesel. At that time, the Tamil Nadu government taxes were Rs 15.47 per litre on petrol and Rs 10.23 per litre on diesel, Rajan said.

On bringing petrol and diesel under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, Rajan had earlier said it can be done provided the Central government scraps the cess and surcharge levied on them.

On the other hand, AIADMK's late Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa was a strong advocate for the Central government changing the fuel pricing formula.

Jayalalithaa argued that the fuel rates should be determined based on import costs and refining charges and rates of domestic crude oil and the refining charges for the same instead of basing it on trade parity Price.

Be that as it may, as per the figures of Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), the total contribution of the petroleum sector to the central exchequer galloped from Rs 172,065 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 419,884 crore in 2020-21 and for the nine month period in FY22, it was Rs 310,155 crore.

On the other hand, the states revenue went up from Rs 160,554 crore in FY15 to Rs 217,650 crore in FY21 and Rs 207,658 crore for the nine month period in FY22.

"While both - the Central and the state governments - say that they get the revenue for investments in infrastructure, the PPAC figures show that the Central government has further leeway to reduce the rates," an industry official not wanting to be quoted told IANS.

However, the petroleum dealers complain that their investments have gone up owing to the rate hikes while there is no commensurable increase in their margins.

"Our margins have not gone up. The dealers are not getting a proper return on their investment," Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers Association President K.P. Murali told IANS.
New Delhi, April 27 : The Centre told the Supreme Court that the Parliament enacted the GNCTD Act, 2021, as the 2018 constitution bench -- which ruled that police, land and public order are the domain of the Centre, and the rest is under the Delhi government -- highlighted certain shortcomings in the legislative scheme of Delhi for enabling co-operative governance.

In an affidavit, the Ministry of Home Affairs said: "The last several years have witnessed several instances of practical difficulties and disruptions in the functioning of the NCT of Delhi owing to the fact that the Lt Governor (LG) is often kept in the dark regarding the decisions pertaining to the NCT of Delhi, despite the fact that even under the unamended GNCTD Act and Transactions of Business Rules, the Government of NCT of Delhi was required to inform the LG regarding administration of the NCT of Delhi." The Supreme Court has decided to examine the constitutional validity of the amended GNCTD Act, 2021 and the Transaction of Business Rules, which allegedly give more powers to LG.

In the 2018 judgement, a five-judge Constitution bench had unanimously held that the LG is bound by the "aid and advice" of the elected government and both needed to work harmoniously with each other.

The Centre said the Act seeks to cut down the conflict by extending the likes of power which was already vested to legislative proposals in order to deal with the controversy at its roots rather than at the later stage requiring reconsideration of proposals, agendas, decisions or the orders already passed. The Centre said LG has not been vested with power of a pocket veto by virtue of the said amendment.

"The Amendment Act of 2021 in no manner attempts to override the substratum of the constitution's bench decision or Article 239AA. The Amendment Act of 2021 merely seeks to bring clarity to and streamline the structure of governance in tune with the principles enshrined by the constitution bench," said the affidavit.

The Centre said the Amendment Act of 2021 is not vague and should not be read down or declared unconstitutional. "The respondent appreciates that any provision of the GNCTD Act would be read in light of the principles of federalism, separation of powers as well as rule of law..," it added.

The Centre said the Delhi government's apprehensions in connection with the amended provisions of Section 21 of the GNCTD Act is "not correct".

The Delhi government has assailed the validity of the amended provisions of the Act, claiming it suffers from ambiguity as to whether the LG would still be bound by the aid and advice of council of ministers in accordance with Article 239 AA (4) of the Constitution. "The Amendment Act of 2021 has made no substantive amendments which may have to effect of directly or indirectly attempting to override the constitutional provision of Article 239 AA (4)a..which provide that the council of minister with the chief minister as their head shall aide and advise the LGa," said the Centre.

The Delhi government, in its plea, has sought quashing of the four amended sections of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act and 13 Rules of the Transaction of Business of the GNCTD Rules, 1993 on various grounds, claiming they violate the doctrine of basic structure, separation of power as the LG has been bestowed with more authority. The Centre filed its response on the Delhi government's plea.

"The Amendment Act has in effect disenfranchised the people of Delhi, and violated their political rights under the Constitution. For these reasons, it is respectfully submitted that the impugned Provisions contravene both Article 239AA of the Constitution, and the judgment of this Court in Govt of NCT of Delhi versus Union of India," said the Delhi government plea.
Lahore, April 27 : A special court in Lahore said on Wednesday that charges against Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and others in the Rs 16 billion money laundering case will be framed on May 14, and asked them to ensure their presence in the next hearing as no further adjournments will be made, media reports said.

"It is made clear that on [the] next date of hearing, charge[s] shall be framed and all the accused shall ensure their personal attendance," the written order said, Dawn reported.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had booked Shehbaz Sharif and his sons, Hamza and Suleman, in November 2020 under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Anti Money Laundering Act. Suleman Shehbaz is absconding in the UK.

The special court had on January 27 granted pre-arrest bail to Shehbaz and Hamza in the case.

During Wednesday's hearing, presiding judge of the special court, Ijaz Hassan Awan, remarked that the accused could not be indicted due to the absence of the prime minister, who had requested an exemption from appearing in court due to a meeting of the federal cabinet that was scheduled for Wednesday, Dawn reported.

The court approved Shehbaz Sharif's request, but ruled out the possibility of further adjournments in the case. The court also summoned all the suspects to be present in person on May 14.

The FIA had in December 2021 submitted the challan against PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza to a special court for their alleged involvement in laundering an amount of Rs 16 billion in the sugar scam case.

"The investigation team has detected 28 benami accounts of the Shehbaz Sharif family through which money laundering of Rs 16.3 billion was committed during 2008-18. The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions," according to an FIA report submitted to the court, Dawn reported.

The amount was kept in "hidden accounts" and given to Shehbaz Sharif in a personal capacity, the report added.

This amount (Rs 16 billion) has nothing to do with the sugar business (of the Shehbaz Sharif family). The money received from the accounts of low-wage employees by Shehbaz Sharif was transferred outside Pakistan via hundi/hawala networks, ultimately destined for the beneficial use of his family members, the FIA had alleged.
New Delhi, April 27 : Virtually sounding the bugle for COP27 later this year, India on Wednesday noted that some countries declined to enhance NDCs after the COP26 and termed it a serious thing about the future of the COPs.

COP26 was held at the UK's Glasgow in 2021 while the COP27 is to be held later this year at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The COP, i.e. the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) is where countries meet annually to negotiate climate actions and climate finance.

"India is among the few countries among the G20 that has fulfilled its NDCs, has achieved its targets. But even the mitigation measures and Net Zero promises and NDCs made by the developed countries... We know that after COP, some countries said there is no need to enhance the NDCs. This is a serious thing about the future of the COP," Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said at the Raisina Dialogues 2022 here.

NDCs, the nationally determined contributions, are the climate actions that each country has promised to take as part of the collective efforts to restrict carbon emissions in order to keep the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial era. Yadav was referring to the promises made by rich countries as part of the COP negotiations and how their actions have not been up to the mark.

Earlier he had pointed out: "It was the pledge of the developed countries at Copenhagen that they would provide $100 billion to the developing countries. But they are not able to fulfill their own promise. Also, for the world to come together in fighting climate change, technology transfer is necessary. But even that is not coming through in a way expected." "It requires $1 trillion in this age, $100 billion dollars is not sufficient," he said.

Yadav also said, it was the demand of the developing countries to define what exactly comprises climate finance and the developed world ultimately agreed to form a committee to work on the exact meaning of climate finance - loan, subsidy, private finance, which one? "Second is about the major demand of developing countries is adaptation. We know adaptation money is only 25 per cent (of the total finance) and developing countries need more money for adaptation," he said.

"India is part of the solution and not part of the problem (of climate change)," he said and reminded the audience of the five major announcements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP26 last year regarding reaching the Net Zero by 2070. He also listed out India's achievements since the Paris Agreement of 2015. "Resolute domestic mitigation actions are underway already," he said.

In reply to a question from amongst the audience, Yadav asserted India's right to development and reiterated its position on phasing down coal rather than phasing it out.
Karachi, April 27 : Security agencies in Balochistan on Wednesday raided the home of a female suicide bomber who blew herself up at the Karachi University a day earlier, mediea reports said.

Four people, including three Chinese faculty members of the Institute of Confucius Studies, were killed on Tuesday when the suicide bomber targeted the van carrying them, Samaa TV reported.

Sources in the investigating team said that one family member of the suicide bomber has been detained in the raid.

Conflicting claims have been made about the identity of the suicide bomber, who was named as Shari Baloch by the banned outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) that claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, Samaa TV reported.

The claims that she was an M.Phil scholar and had moved to Karachi six months ago with her husband and children could not be independently verified, the report said.

In an attempt to pin the identity of the bomber and her handlers, investigators have arrested the driver of the rickshaw she used for entering the university. They also obtained CCTV footage from several locations.

The police on Wednesday registered an FIR against the spokesperson and two commanders of the outlawed group under terrorism charges for the suicide attack against the Chinese nationals.

Newly-appointed Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad shortly after he took charge on Wednesday.

Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah also arrived in Karachi and went to the Chinese consulate, besides meeting the investigators.
Srinagar, April 27 : A soldier was injured in an ongoing encounter between terrorists and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Wednesday, officials said.

Police said a group of two to three terrorists are holed up at Mitrigam area of Pulwama and the priority is to prevent collateral damage and to evacuate the civilians.

"2-3 terrorists including foreign terrorist of JeM terror outfit trapped inside cordon.A Ops was halted for evacuation of civilians. One soldier injured.A Precautions being taken to avoid collateral damage. Trapped terrorists will be neutralised at the earliest," Jammu and Kashmir Police said in a tweet, quoting Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar.

The firefight broke out as a joint team of security forces, which cordoned off the area and launched a search operation on the basis of specific information about presence of terrorists, came under heavy fire as they zeroed in on the spot where terrorists were hiding.
Chennai, April 27 : Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V. Senthil Balaji said on Wednesday that an inquiry commission has been constituted to investigate the Kalimedu incident in which 11 people were electrocuted and 13 grievously injured after the top of a temple chariot touched high tension wires.

The minister, while responding in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly, said that the state revenue secretary, Kumar Jayant, will be in the one-man committee constituted by the government to investigate the Kalimedu tragedy.

Earlier, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had moved a resolution in the House expressing condolence over the death of 11 persons at Kalimedu in Thanjavur district after the top of a temple chariot touched high tension wires. The House also observed a minute's silence as a mark of respect to the departed souls.

The Chief Minister said that to coordinate relief and rescue operations, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi has been deputed to Kalimedu.

Opposition leader E.K. Palaniswami said that the authorities had not taken any precautionary measures, adding that the tragedy could have been averted had proper measures been taken.

He also said that even after the recent stampede during the Madurai Chithirai festival, in which two people had died, no measures were taken to prevent recurrence of similar incidents.
Jaipur, April 27 : After Prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged the state governments to lower value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel in the "spirit of cooperative federalism", Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot accused the Centre of earning the highest amount of revenue in the history of the country by taxing petrol and diesel.

Rajasthan imposes VAT of 30 per cent on petrol and 22 per cent diesel, which are among the highest in the country.

"The Centre earned about Rs 26 lakh crore from excise duty in the last eight years, which is the highest amount earned by any government in the history of the country by taxing petrol and diesel. Despite low crude prices as compared to the UPA era, petrol is being sold at more than Rs 110 a litre and diesel at more than Rs 100 per litre under the present regime.

During the tenure of the UPA government, the price of crude oil breached $100 per barrel, but petrol price didn't exceed Rs 70/litre and diesel Rs 50/litre in view of the interest of the common man," Gehlot said.

On the Prime Minister naming Jaipur, Gehlot said, "Perhaps the Prime Minister took the name of Jaipur to give a message to the BJP-ruled Bhopal where the prices of petrol and diesel are higher than Jaipur. Perhaps he called Bhopal as Jaipur by mistake." Gehlot elaborated, "The Rajasthan government reduced VAT by 2 per cent on petrol and diesel on January 29, 2021, even though the Centre had not reduced the excise duty at that time. Two days later, in the Union Budget for 2021-22, a new cess of Rs 4 on diesel and Rs 2.5 on petrol was imposed in the name of Agriculture Infrastructure and Development. Due to this, the people of Rajasthan could not get the benefit of reducing VAT by 2 per cent." "On November 4, 2021, the Centre reduced excise duty on petrol by Rs 5 and diesel by Rs 10 per liter, while during the Covid lockdown in May 2020, the Central government increased the excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 and diesel by Rs 13 per liter.

"The VAT of the states is levied on the excise duty of the Centre, i.e., by reducing the excise duty, the VAT automatically gets reduced. For this reason, due to reduction in excise duty on November 4, 2021, the Rajasthan government automatically reduced VAT by Rs 1.80 per litre on petrol and Rs 2.60 per litre on diesel.

"To give relief to the common man, the state government on November 17, 2021 reduced VAT on petrol by 4.96 per cent and on diesel by 6.70 per cent. Due to this reduction made three times, there was a revenue loss of about Rs 6,300 crore per year, but the PM only mentioned the revenue loss of Rs 6,000 crore in Karnataka and Rs 3,500-4,000 crore in Gujarat. These two states would probably have been mentioned in view of the upcoming Assembly elections there." The Prime Minister talked about the VAT of the states but did not give information about the excise duty of the Central government, he said.

"In May 2014, when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, excise duty was Rs 9.20 per liter on petrol and Rs 3.46 per liter on diesel, but today excise duty is Rs 27.90 per liter on petrol and Rs 21.80 per liter on diesel. During the UPA government, the states used to get their share of excise duty, but now the share of the states has been continuously reduced to just a few paise per liter, so the states are forced to increase their VAT," Gehlot said.
Ramallah, April 28 : Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian young man and injured three others during a clash in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian Health Ministry and eyewitnesses said.

Ahmad Massad, 18, died after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in Jenin early Wednesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry added in a statement.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli Army personnel stormed the city and its refugee camp, and opened fire during a clash with dozens of young men, killing one and wounding three, said Palestinian eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities have not given any comment on the incidents yet. However, the Israeli press reported that a Palestinian youth was killed and three others injured during a firefight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in the city, Xinhua news agency reported.

It said Israeli soldiers raided Jenin and the nearby town of Qabatiya in the pre-dawn hours in an attempt to arrest Palestinian suspects.

The soldiers also pinned a demolition order to the home of Raad Hazem, the Palestinian who killed three people, when he opened fire in a busy bar in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on April 7, it added.

Palestinian security sources said five Palestinians were detained in the Jenin area after their homes were stormed.

On Tuesday, a Palestinian young man was killed and four others injured by Israeli soldiers when Israeli Army personnel stormed the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp in the Jordan Valley, southwest of the West Bank city of Jericho.

The Israeli Army conducts daily raids on Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank to detain Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks against Israel.

The tension between Israelis and Palestinians has been flaring over the past few weeks in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, mainly during the Muslims' holy month of Ramadan.
United Nations, April 28 : The UN is following up on an agreement with Russia to coordinate the evacuation of civilians in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol of Ukraine, said a UN spokesman.

In a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle to the involvement of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal.

Follow-on discussions were to be held with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Russian Defence Ministry, Xinhua news agency reported.

Following Tuesday's agreement, OCHA is mobilising a team on behalf of the UN system to coordinate the evacuation of civilians in the Azovstal, and the ICRC is also involved in the coordination efforts, said Farhan Haq, Deputy spokesman for Guterres, on Wednesday.

"So, today, Wednesday, we're having follow-on discussions with the authorities in Moscow and in Kiev to develop the operational framework for the timely evacuation of civilians," he added.

"Speed is of the essence. What we've been trying to do from OCHA's side is have some of the most experienced staff with expertise in complex operations travelling to Ukraine from around the world to support this effort... So, we're putting people on the ground, and we're in talks with the sides." "However, having said all that, what we have still is an agreement in principle. What we're trying to do is translate that into an agreement in detail and an agreement on the ground. And ultimately, what we want is to make sure that a cease-fire would be respected that would allow us to move people safely," he told a daily press briefing.

Some senior UN officials are already on the ground and some others are being moved into place.

Humanitarian Coordinator Osnat Lubrani is currently coordinating UN efforts on the ground.

UN Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, Amin Awad is in touch with the authorities in Kiev, said Haq.

"But we have senior officials in Russia and around the world trying to also work ... with the various officials to see what can be done to get a concrete arrangement put in place as safely and as quickly as possible." Asked whether there is a timeframe, the UN spokesman added that the timing is dependent on the outcome of discussions between OCHA and the Russian Defence Ministry on the one side and between the crisis coordinator and the authorities in Kiev.

"So, we're trying to balance all of those different talks," he said.

"And on the one hand, we need a few days to prepare for this extremely complex operation, and those efforts are already happening right now. But on the other hand, of course, we're aware of the need to move as fast as we can while making sure that, if people are being moved, they will be moved safely."

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New York, April 28 : Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is reigniting excitement of the Donald Trump-era when the Twitter boss would unveil "law" over a mis-spelt midnight tweet.

Musk, with his blunt and often impish humour, is in control of spelling, but just as savage shaming folks who he dislikes.

Never mind that he might soon own the world's most happening micro-blogging platform or that the folks running Twitter are low on reverence for the new owner's $269.7 billion net worth, Musk on Wednesday reconfirmed a dim view on how the social media site is being run.

He attacked Vijaya Gadde, a "conscience keeper to Co-founder Jack Dorsey", the person who took the call to deplatform Trump.

On a tweet where Gadde was being cursed by name "for sobbing while talking to her team on the takeover", Musk dived right in.

He said Twitter (read Gadde) was wrong in fighting off misinformation around a news story on Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, and it shouldn't have restricted a New York (NY) Post's account and reach.

This was classic Musk. Zero compunctions "and perfectly aware what abuse trolls would unleash on the immigrant".

If the commentariat has been in near unison that Musk would boot out Parag Agrawal, Twitter CEO, firing at Gadde was almost that.

A conservative commentator using a Politico story to claim how "Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate at Twitter, who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan's podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the @elonmusk takeover" "and Musk quote tweeting it, saying: "Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organisation for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate." Here Musk was referring to NYPost, the conservative daily tabloid, which had published a story about a controversial laptop belonging to Hunter Biden.

The story at that time seemed dodgy. It also had the involvement of several people who were part of Donald Trump's team and many mainstream media publications believed it to be part of a misinformation campaign aimed at hurting Biden's chances in the presidential polls.

Equally interesting has been the pushback from Twitter seniors. Twitter Spokesperson Trenton Kennedy has jumped in with a quote that Politico gleefully has added: "Gadde became emotional when discussing her team's impact and the pride she feels in them." More than this unnecessary confirmation, Kennedy has been amplifying Gadde-fans.

"I feel proud and fortunate to have @vijaya as a colleague. She is one of the most thoughtful, intelligent, considerate and hard-working people I know. She has the most difficult and thankless job at Twitter, and she does it with grace and humility every day," said Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter leader for design, research, product engineering, got the spokesperson's retweet.

He also retweeted an encomium from Elizabeth Luke of Pinterest: "You can talk about making tough decisions, or you can *actually* make tough decisions. Thousands and thousands of times. @vijaya is a rare leader who possesses incredible wisdom and empathy. This is not a debate."Gadde, 48, a native Telegu, migrated at the age of three and attended Cornell and New York University, is Twitter's legal and policy mamma and the final word on what to allow on the platform and what to restrict and block.

In 2014, Fortune described her as the most powerful woman on Twitter's executive team, though she was later joined by Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland.

Berland too is under fire for saying that Musk is putting people "who care about health on the platform in a very difficult position" by criticising their content moderation policies -- a charge she denies.

It is Gadde who convinced Dorsey not to sell political advertisements during 2020.

Gadde has spoken in defence of the decision by saying, "It wasn't about anything other than, 'This is the right thing to do for us as a company'." She had to apologise during Dorsey's trip to India for letting him being photographed with a poster on "Brahmin patriarchy." A direct and public attack from the new owner is indication that Gadde might leave.

Just to reconfirm his thought process on Gadde, Musk tweeted on Thursday that Trump's "Truth Social (terrible name) exists because Twitter censored free speech".

(Nikhila Natarajan tracks Big Tech and tweets @byniknat)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Dataquest Launches Microsoft Power BI Certification Scholarship Were pleased to work with Dataquest on these scholarships. By combining Microsoft expertise with the interactive Dataquest learning platform, learners will acquire skills necessary to pass the PL-300 exam and prepare for a career in data science. Geoff Hirsch, Senior Director at Microsoft

Dataquest is excited to announce they are partnering with Microsoft to offer 500 scholarships to applicants from underrepresented groups who seek to start a career in the data field.

The scholarship application period runs from April 25 to June 25, 2022, and is open to anyone underrepresented in the data field. Gender, ethnicity, education level, and income are all axes of diversity that will receive consideration.

Upon completing the Dataquest Power BI training program, recipients will receive a free opportunity to take the Exam PL-300 Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst.

A scholarship to improve representation in the data field

Significant equity gaps exist in data roles.



Only 15% to 22% of all professionals in data science-related roles were women in 2020 (BCG).

Only 5.2% of data scientists were LatinX, and only 1% were African American in 2021 (Zappia).

94% of data scientists had at least a college degree in 2021 (General Assembly).

My goal when I started Dataquest was to help millions of people break into the data field. As a self-taught data scientist, I know how hard it can be to get your foot in the door. Thats why Im excited to be collaborating with Microsoft  Power BI is a key skill that helps people start new analytics roles. Our scholarship initiatives help us continue our mission and improve access to education. Vik Paruchuri, Dataquest Founder

An initiative for interactive training

Dataquest and Microsoft have partnered to offer the first interactive Power BI courses. These courses teach Power BI through a project-based, in-browser approach. This prepares learners for real-world skill application, increasing comprehension and confidence. After completing the 12-week program, learners will be well prepared to pass the PL-300 Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Exam and continue advancing their data careers.

Microsoft Power BI is the industry leader for analytics and business intelligence platforms. Proficiency with Power BI is also one of the most common requests in data job descriptions.

Were very pleased to work with Dataquest on these scholarships. This initiative supports our strategy to help every person and every organization on the planet achieve more. By combining Microsoft expertise with the interactive Dataquest learning platform, learners will acquire digital skills necessary to pass the PL-300 exam and prepare for a career in data science. Geoff Hirsch, Senior Director at Microsoft.

Learn more about the scholarship and how to apply here.

About Dataquest

Dataquest was founded in 2015 to help anyone learn data science and advance their careers. With Dataquest Career paths, learners get everything they need to start a new job in 3 to 9 months. Learners can build a portfolio as they progress through the program and earn career path certification by completing a capstone project.
Weve remained true to our heritage since day one at thats not something we will ever sacrifice. But as the restaurant industry and consumer tastes evolve, were doing the same  both with our menu and our franchise offering.

After a trip to Calabria in Southern Italy, the rugged and parched province that provides the lower tip of the Italian boot, a dream to make delivery pizza different, better, and special was born. A pizza dough made daily from only 100% whole wheat flour, yeast, water, salt, olive oil, and secret Calabrian traditions, combined with crushed tomatoes and daily shredded mozzarella. Simple ingredients, yet executed at the highest level, and built around the convenience of delivery and take-out. Since acquiring the rights to develop the U.S. market in 2005, Sarpinos USA has steadily been building locations with the understanding that when it comes to flavor  fresh and daily chopped ingredients are the only building blocks needed for great meal. Now with nearly 50 units spread across the Midwest, Sarpinos has its sights set on expansion through franchising in Florida, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Colorado, and across the Southeast.

From the first time Sarpinos opened in the U.S. in 2005 to its first ever national franchise push now in 2022, the brand has been ingrained in the idea that delivery and take-out pizza can be done better. Today, those core values still determine the companys direction and have kept the brand thriving and growing despite the turmoil of the last few years.

Almost everyone can relate to freshly made pizza with the best ingredients  whole wheat flour, crushed tomatoes, whole milk mozzarella  because there is an emotional connection to that kind of authenticity, said David Chatkin, president of Sarpinos USA. Weve remained true to our heritage since day one at thats not something we will ever sacrifice. But as the restaurant industry and consumer tastes evolve, were doing the same  both with our menu and our franchise offering. From our completely vegan menu to our specialty pizzas  our artisanal approach is just not something you find very often in the big chains or in most independent shops. We like to cook from scratch, and were proud that we get to tell that story to our customers with each order. While the Midwest has known and loved us for many years, were excited to introduce our fresh-is-first Sarpinos approach to more cities in Florida, and across the Southeast and Midwest.

Whereas the Sarpinos USA story began more than 15 years ago, the brand has grown and introduced new menu items along the way while refining its systems and procedures for scratch cooking and baking. Today, a typical Sarpinos menu includes salads, wings, sandwiches, calzones, and specialty pizzas, in addition to a completely vegan menu as well. The investment has paid off. Despite the onset of the pandemic, Sarpinos has seen double digit increases over the last few years and average unit volumes exceeding $1.2 million.

Sarpinos focus on a delivery and take-out only model, menu choices, low cost of entry, balanced labor and food costs, world class training and support, technology, and profitability, are credited for igniting the brands surge into franchise development. Furthermore, Sarpinos has made the biggest investment possible in the one thing that is most important to the brand  its people. From investing in bringing team members to Pals Sudden Service to learn about its award-winning dedication to training and employee development to its own 30-day executive team opening support, Sarpinos is about creating hyper-efficient operations for its franchisees to maximize their success.

Our longstanding history of operating multiple restaurants across the Midwest provided us with the runway and experience to position Sarpinos for long term franchising success, said Scott Nelowet, Sarpinos director of franchise development. There was a fundamental shift happening in consumer dining habits prior to 2020, which the pandemic simply accelerated. Sarpinos delivery and take-out model is well positioned for todays guest that demands more transparency and authenticity in the food they choose to eat. This is allowing our franchise partners to take full advantage as we grow.

A small real estate footprint, hyper-efficient operations, and the brands willingness to listen to its franchise partners has kept franchisees operating costs more stable compared to others in the segment. Furthermore, smaller, and more nimble restaurants have lowered the barrier of entry into ownership allowing franchisees to enter previously untouched territories while still benefiting from the experience, purchasing power, training and support that Sarpinos provides. Through the end of 2022, Sarpinos is targeting approximately 10 new franchise agreements and about 6-8 new openings.

Thats part of the magic of our growth potential  were very realistic about how fast, exactly where, and with whom we want to grow, said Nelowet. Our nearly 20 years of restaurant management and development experience gives us a unique perspective about opening successful restaurants that maximize profitability. Other brands simply dont have that luxury.

With a strategic fiver-year growth plan in place, Sarpinos is laying out opportunities in areas with huge development potential such as South Florida, from Miami up to the Palm Beaches, and Georgia to name a few.

As we move forward, it will be critically important that we continue to lay out our foundation for development over the next few years  this means increasing our awareness for franchise growth as a means for investment. While we are well known throughout parts of the Midwest, there are plenty of people that have yet to be introduced to Sarpinos, said Chatkin. With the help of our growing franchisee base, our strong culture and our commitment to scratch made food - we know the future is bright.

About Sarpinos:

Sarpinos is a pizza delivery and take out franchise concept dedicated to from scratch cooking and baking. This allows Sarpinos owners to honor the traditions of its Calabrian heritage while simultaneously elevating them to create better opportunities for growth and profitability. Sarpinos franchisees can expect their initial investment to range from $306,000 to $499,000 depending on the restaurant format and real estate selected. For more information about franchising with Sarpinos, visit sarpinosfranchise.com.
"Goldman Sachs has made an incredible commitment to Black women in this country through its One Million Black Women initiative  said Dr. Montgomery Rice.

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) today published the latest edition of its new "Danforth Dialogues" podcast, featuring a Conversation of Significance between Morehouse School of Medicine President and CEO Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice and Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon. The podcast discusses Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women initiative, which commits $10 billion in direct investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic capital over the next decade to address the dual disproportionate gender and racial biases that Black women have faced for generations, which have only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Launched last month, Danforth Dialogues focuses on the leadership lessons from the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic and their broader implication for society. Launched in March 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, One Million Black Women is named for and guided by the goal of impacting the lives of at least one million Black women by 2030. The initiative focuses on investments in Black women at every stage of their lives across the key impact pillars of healthcare, job creation and workforce advancement, education, housing, digital connectivity, financial health and access to capital.

"Goldman Sachs has made an incredible commitment to Black women in this country through its One Million Black Women initiative and we are so pleased to have David Solomon on our Danforth Dialogues podcast to talk about how this program was created and what he believes will be the impact of this type of effort in coming years, said Dr. Montgomery Rice.

I am honored to discuss our One Million Black Women initiative with Dr. Montgomery Rice, who is a valued member of our Advisory Council in her own right, said Solomon. Morehouse School of Medicines Center for Maternal Health Equity was one of the first investments we made, and those funds will go a long way toward improving maternal health in the Black community.

Solomon said during the podcast that in the aftermath of George Floyds death, Goldmans leadership team began a research effort to determine the areas where they could use their resources to have a positive impact in the Black community. At the time the research was done, the average net worth of Black women in the United States was less than $10,000, said Solomon, compared to an average net worth of over $90,000 for white men.. So we decided we needed to find a way to narrow that gap.

Dr. Montgomery Rice, who participated in a large number of the more than 50 listening sessions Goldman held with Black women to develop the initiative, said she appreciated the transparency that Goldman exhibited during the process providing information on wins and lessons learned that will help to advance its efforts in the future.

In addition to discussing One Million Black Women, Dr. Montgomery Rice and Solomon also discussed their views on the impact of the pandemic across society in coming years and Solomons advice to MSM students as they begin their careers.

Named after the historic Danforth Chapel on the Morehouse College campus, the podcast series will feature a cross-section of guests and topics. The Conversation of Significance editions will feature more in-depth discussions with key leaders from a wide range of backgrounds. Other editions could include multiple guests and topics not directly related to the pandemic, but focused on broader aspects of leadership.

To hear this edition of the podcast, click here. For more information about the Danforth Dialogues leadership series, click here.

To listen and subscribe to the Danforth Dialogues podcast, click here.

For more information about Morehouse School of Medicine, please visit MSM.edu.

###

About Morehouse School of Medicine

Founded in 1975, Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) is among the nation's leading educators of primary care physicians, biomedical scientists, and public health professionals. An independent and private historically-Black medical school, MSM was recognized by the Annals of Internal Medicine as the nation's number one medical school in fulfilling a social missionthe creation and advancement of health equity. Morehouse School of Medicine's faculty and alumni are noted for excellence in teaching, research, and public policy, as well as exceptional patient care. MSM is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award doctoral and master's degrees. To learn more about programs and donate today, please visit http://www.msm.edu or call 404-752-1500.

About One Million Black Women

In partnership with Black-women-led organizations, financial institutions and other partners, Goldman Sachs has committed $10 billion in direct investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic capital over the next decade to address the dual disproportionate gender and racial biases that Black women have faced for generations, which have only been exacerbated by the pandemic. The initiative, One Million Black Women, is named for and guided by the goal of impacting the lives of at least one million Black women by 2030. Goldman Sachs research has shown that sustained investments in Black women across the core pillars of housing, healthcare, access to capital, education, job creation and workforce advancement, digital connectivity and financial health will catalyze economic growth, making for not only a fairer, but also a richer society.
Jeffrey R. Germain named as one of Barrons Top 1,200 Advisors and Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisors in 2022 As investment planning has become more complex, my teams top priority is to work with our clients to develop strategies to help give them confidence around all facets of their financial lives and achieve their short- and long-term investment goals.

Jeffrey R. Germain, Managing Director  Private Wealth Financial Advisor- has been recognized on the Americas Top 1,200 Financial Advisors list by Barrons and Best-In State Wealth Advisors by Forbes in 2022. This accolade represents a list of professionals that come to work with one goal on their minds  helping their clients succeed.

Its an honor to be recognized by both Barrons and Forbes as one of Americas Top Financial Advisors, said Germain. As investment planning has become more complex, my teams top priority is to work with our clients to develop strategies to help give them confidence around all facets of their financial lives and achieve their short- and long-term investment goals.

Jeff has 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has been with Wells Fargo for 22 years and is a Certified Investment Management Consultant (CIMC).

The Barrons Top 1,200 Advisors rankings are based on assets under management, revenue generated for the advisors firms, and the quality of the advisors practices. Investment performance isnt an explicit factor because clients have varied goals and risk tolerances.

The Forbes Best in State Wealth Advisors ranking algorithm is based on industry experience, interviews, compliance records, assets under management, revenue and other criteria by SHOOK Research, LLC, which does not receive compensation from the advisors or their firms in exchange for placement on a ranking. Investment performance is not a criterion.

Investment and Insurance Products are:



Not Insured by the FDIC or Any Federal Government Agency

Not a Deposit or Other Obligation of, or Guaranteed by, the Bank or

Any Bank Affiliate

Subject to Investment Risks, Including Possible Loss of the Principal Amount Invested

About Wells Fargo Advisors

With $1.97 trillion in client assets as of December 31, 2021, Wells Fargo Advisors provides advice and guidance to help clients maximize all aspects of their financial lives. Our vast network of financial advisors, one of the nations largest, serves investors through locations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Wells Fargo Advisors is a part of Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management (WIM), a division within Wells Fargo & Company and one of the largest wealth managers in the U.S. WIM provides financial products and services through various bank and brokerage affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company. Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC, Members SIPC, separate registered broker-dealers and non-bank affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company. All data includes Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC, as of December 31, 2021. http://www.wellsfargoadvisors.com

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets, proudly serves one in three U.S. households and more than 10% of small businesses in the U.S., and is the leading middle market banking provider in the U.S. We provide a diversified set of banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth & Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 37 on Fortunes 2021 rankings of Americas largest corporations. In the communities we serve, the company focuses its social impact on building a sustainable, inclusive future for all by supporting housing affordability, small business growth, financial health, and a low-carbon economy. News, insights, and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.

Additional information may be found at http://www.wellsfargo.com | Twitter: @WellsFargo
Executives of CHI Health and NexCore Group gathered for a groundbreaking celebration for the new clinic. The state of healthcare is better in Nebraska and Western Iowa because of the commitment and investment CHI Health/CommonSpirit has made to this region.

Officials of NexCore Group and Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) recently gathered in Elkhorn to celebrate the groundbreaking for the future CHI Health Clinic Elkhorn.

CHI will be the sole tenant in the one-story, 28,700-square-foot clinic to be located at 1625 North 205th Street. It will offer primary care, physical therapy, behavioral health services and specialty care, as well as imaging services, a laboratory, and a retail pharmacy. In addition, it will provide space for visiting specialists, and the 3.62-acre site will provide parking for 177 vehicles.

Englewood, Colo.-based CHI is part of the Chicago-based health system CommonSpirit, which has hospitals and care centers in 21 states, and was formed in 2019 through an alignment of CHI and Dignity Health.

Todd Varney, chief development officer and managing partner of Denver-based NexCore, a national healthcare real estate (HRE) developer, says the firm is blessed that CHI Health has provided the opportunity to break ground on its eighth facility with CHI and its fifth with regional health network CHI Health.

The state of healthcare is better in Nebraska and Western Iowa because of the commitment and investment CHI Health/CommonSpirit has made to this region. We are privileged to be a part of that commitment, says Mr. Varney. We also want to thank the City of Elkhorn for helping create a smooth transition, getting all the entitlements and approvals in place. Its clear you want to bring high level healthcare to your community.

CHI Health is pleased to be providing access to comprehensive healthcare to Elkhorn. Im so excited that we are putting a tangible mark on the way that we care for our patients, remarked Keith Jankuski, CHI Health Clinic President and COO. None of this work gets done by ourselves, and we have an excellent partner with NexCore. We are so excited to have them as part of the project.

NexCore will own the new CHI Health Clinic Elkhorn building, which is scheduled to be completed in summer 2023.

Rounding out the development team is HGA, headquartered in Minneapolis, and Omaha-based Darland Construction Co.

About NexCore Group LLC

NexCore Group is a national healthcare real estate investment and development company that focuses on acquiring, developing, owning, and managing healthcare facilities including medical office buildings, wellness facilities, ambulatory surgery centers, single and multi-specialty physician buildings, life sciences facilities, seniors housing communities and transitional rehabilitation centers. NexCore partners with top healthcare systems, hospitals, physician groups, and assisted living, memory care and post-acute care operators, and reputable institutional and high net worth investors to develop, acquire and own high quality assets that serve their communities through significant job creation and the provision of quality healthcare services. Since 2004, the NexCore team has completed $4.7 billion in healthcare real estate transactions throughout 29 states, developed and acquired over 14.3 million square feet of healthcare properties across the country and currently manages over $2.9 billion of healthcare facilities spanning 7.3 million square feet. The company has been recognized repeatedly as one of the Top Healthcare Real Estate Developers in the U.S. by Modern Healthcare and HREI. NexCore is headquartered in Denver, with regional offices in Chicago; Bethesda, Md.; Portland, Ore.; Dallas; Orlando, Fla.; Laguna Niguel, Calif.; and Indianapolis. For more information, please visit NexCoreGroup.com. Contact: Kirstin Barbour, Marketing Director, 303-293-0693.
SafeOpt by AddShoppers at the All-In Texas Hold'em Tournament "All-In to Fight Cancer's Texas Hold 'em Tournament was a fantastic event. After a two-year hiatus, it is truly amazing to see so many people come back together for such a good cause."- Dana Toro, CFO, AddShoppers.

SafeOpt by AddShoppers was proud to support the charity event as a diamond sponsor helping All-In raise money for the Charlotte community in the fight against cancer. This year's Texas Hold 'em Tournament benefited three cancer charities in Charlotte; Go Jane Go, The Paula Takacs Foundation, and The Isabella Santos Foundation.

The poker tournament was a night of live music, great food, raffles, poker, of course, and lots of fun. With the help of their sponsors and the 700+ attendees, All-In was able to raise over $625,000 for the local cancer community here in Charlotte, NC.

"All-In to Fight Cancer's Texas Hold 'em Tournament was a fantastic event. After a two-year hiatus, it is truly amazing to see so many people come back together for such a good cause. My team and I had a blast playing cards, and I cant be upset about being put out first in the tournament by our CEO if it's for charity!"- Dana Toro, CFO, AddShoppers.

All-In to Fight Cancer is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the local Charlotte cancer community. Over the last ten years, All-In has put on 11 events that have raised over one million dollars for 22 charity organizations. The money All-In raised has been able to fund treatments and care for both child and adult cancer patients and support cancer patients, survivors, and their families. They also help to fund essential cancer research. While most of the money they raise comes from their annual poker tournament, All-In also accepts donations through their website, https://www.allintofightcancer.org/.

SafeOpt by AddShoppers is a digital commerce platform focused on bringing shoppers and brands together through seamless shopping experiences. The company was founded in 2011 by two Charlotte natives with a passion for marketing who enjoy digital commerce marketing. AddShoppers specializes in building strong relationships with brands and helping them to acquire new customers. SafeOpt is a free service that saves online shoppers time and money while giving them full control over their data.
A Nissan dealership, Redwood City Nissan in Redwood City, California, is now open for business

Carnamic Car Center is pleased to announce the addition of another Nissan dealership to the Carnamic Family. Redwood City Nissan, opened in Redwood City, California, on March 17, 2022, is Carnamics eighth dealership. With this new store for Nissan enthusiasts, the Carnamic Family aims to strengthen its relationship with Nissan and the community of Redwood City and surrounding areas.

Redwood City Nissan offers a wide range of new Nissan vehicles along with an extensive inventory of pre-owned models. Moreover, the dealership lets drivers apply online to get pre-approval for financing. No matter the credit situation, the dealerships team of financial experts can tailor a financial package for all kinds of customers.

In addition to selling vehicles, the dealership also offers automotive maintenance and general routine services for Nissan models. Interested parties can schedule a service appointment right away. Not only does the dealerships team offer exceptional services, but they also assist the drivers in purchasing genuine OEM parts. Individuals interested in buying parts and accessories for their Nissan vehicles can visit the dealerships website to place an order.

Customers who want to learn about the Redwood City Nissans services can visit http://www.redwoodcitynissan.com or contact them by dialing 650-670-8052. Those who want to check out the dealership in person can visit 543 El Camino Real in Redwood City, California.
Security personnel inspect the blast site of the terrorist attack inside a university in Karachi, Pakistan, April 26, 2022. (Xinhua)

BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has described Tuesday's terrorist attack in Karachi, Pakistan, as very vile, adding that China will work with Pakistan to hunt down the perpetrators, bring them to justice and make them pay a heavy price.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks on Wednesday at a regular news briefing in response to the terrorist attack on a van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi.

"We once again extend deep condolences to the victims of the two countries and sincere sympathies to the injured and the bereaved families," Wang said.

He described the incident as a premeditated suicide terrorist attack against Chinese citizens. The terrorists directly targeted teachers, the inheritors of human civilization and promoters of cultural exchanges, making the attack a very vile and a heinous act, said Wang, adding that the Chinese side expresses strong condemnation and indignation at it.

The Chinese government always attaches great importance to the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions overseas, Wang said, pointing out that following the incident, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and diplomatic missions in Pakistan immediately activated the emergency response mechanism and sent staff to the scene.

Officials of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and diplomatic missions in Pakistan have urged the Pakistani side to do its best to treat the injured, properly handle the follow-up matters of those killed, conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into the attack, arrest the perpetrators and severely punish them according to law, he said.

At the same time, stronger measures should be taken to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions in Pakistan so that such incidents will never happen again, he added.

The Chinese diplomatic missions in Pakistan also reminded Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan to strengthen security awareness and enhance the security level to ensure their own safety.

"Yesterday, the Chinese Consul General in Karachi went to the hospital to visit the injured Chinese teacher, who is receiving proper treatment and recovering," the spokesperson said.

Wang noted that Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad on Tuesday evening to express his condolences, stressing that the Pakistani government is using all its resources to conduct an in-depth probe into the incident, and will spare no effort to hunt down the perpetrators and make an example of the perpetrators in punishing them.

Wang added that the Pakistani side pledged to take further measures to strengthen the security of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan in an all-round way.

Sharif said his government will never allow any force to undermine Pakistan-China friendship and cooperation.

The blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain, Wang said, adding that China firmly supports Pakistan's anti-terrorism efforts and will work with Pakistan to hunt down the perpetrators, bring them to justice and make them pay a heavy price.

"We once again remind Chinese citizens in Pakistan to pay close attention to the local security situation and prevent security risks," he added.
Winners of the 2022 AMUG Technical Competition. With 32 entries, this was the largest AMUG Technical Competition we have ever held.

The Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) today announced the winners of its annual Technical Competition, which recognizes excellence in additive manufacturing applications and finishing techniques. A panel of industry veterans selected Bill Braune of Dinsmore, Inc. and Nanci Hardwick of MELD Manufacturing as winners in the Advanced Finishing and Advanced Concepts categories. AMUG Members selected Jung Kyu Im and Daniel Goncalves of Custom Prototypes Inc. for the first-ever Members Choice Award.

The Technical Competition took place at the annual AMUG Conference in Chicago, Illinois. According to Bonnie Meyer, Chair of the Technical Competition Committee, With 32 entries, this was the largest AMUG Technical Competition we have ever held. She noted that quantity did not diminish quality. I received many comments from the competitors and from the AMUG Members praising the high quality of the entries.

AMUG Members cast votes to determine the winner of the Members Choice Award. Of the 32 entries, they selected Jung Kyu Ims and Daniel Goncalves entry titled Metal 3D Printed Bathroom Faucet. The custom design, which had floral inspirations, incorporates water channels within the organically shaped stems that twist as they rise to connect with the flower that discharges the flow of water.

The faucet and the accompanying handles were manufactured in stainless steel using laser powder bed fusion technology from Renishaw. In their entry description, Im and Goncalves said, The complex shape could only be produced with powder bed metal 3D printing. They also commented, We had to design the water channels in a way that would avoid internal supports.

Nine judges scrutinized every detail of the competition entries to select the winners in Advanced Finishing and Advanced Concepts.

Bill Braune's winning entry in the Advanced Finishing category was Mars Attacks, a large, highly detailed homage to the hit film by Tim Burton. Measuring 34 by 23 inches., everything from the base to the Martians to the Las Vegas sign was 3D printed and brought to life through artistry and craftsmanship.

Braune said, The Las Vegas sign has 111 individual pieces, ninety of which are individual light bulbs that go around the sign. He continued, We embarked on this journey to showcase everything we [Dinsmore Inc.] have to offer. To bring Mars Attacks to life, Braune and his team invest over 200 manhours and countless hours of build time on seven different AM platforms.

Meyer said, This is the third win in a row for Bill Braune. The methods he uses and the attention to detail never disappoint. The judges commented, The finishing techniques and use of many AM technologies are impressive. Amazing hand finishing work and creative techniques to achieve a wide variety of looks.

Nanci Hardwick received first place in the Advanced Concepts category for "Metal 3-D Printing Raises the Bar for the Armys Jointless Hull Program. The entry was a representation of what the U.S. Army plans to do with MELD Manufacturings technology, which was chosen to be a part of the worlds largest metal printer for the Jointless Hull Program.

The patented MELD method is a solid-state process that stirs plastically deformed metal. The Armys program plans to have a printer with a build envelope of 20 x 30 x 12 feet, which is big enough to manufacture a monolithic hull. Hardwicks entry was a section of a hull made from aluminum and weighing over 200 pounds.

Meyer shared the following comments from the panel of judges. Fascinating, novel AM technology that enables large-scale manufacturing. Maybe the most impressive new AM technology here.

For Advanced Finishing, Mark Abshire took second place with his work titled "Adding a Colorful 3rd Dimension." Third place was awarded to Brent Wright of LifeNabled for Curiosity Revealing and Animating Gears.

Andreas Vlahinos of Advanced Engineering Solutions received the second-place award for Avionics Heat Exchanger in the Advanced Concepts category. Third place went to Jason Jones of Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies for his entry Using PBF to Enable DED in a CNC.

As winners of the Technical Competition, each receives complimentary admission to the 2023 AMUG Conference so that they can elaborate, from the stage, on the project details and processes that were used.

The Technical Competition judging panel was comprised of nine AMUG DINOs, a recognition of selfless service to AMUG, its members and the additive manufacturing community. These judges were Ron Belknap, Rey Chu, Jeff DeGrange, Jason Dickman, Dave Flynn, Sheku Kamara, Bruce LeMaster, Bob Markley and Robin Van Bragt.
"ACLS is proud to have led this singular program, which has supported exceptional faculty working at community colleges across the country."

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce the 2022 Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellows.

The Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowship program offers faculty teaching at two-year colleges support for research projects in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Launched in 2018 with the support of the Mellon Foundation, this four-year initiative has recognized the vital and diverse contributions of more than one hundred community college faculty to humanistic research and teaching.

ACLS is proud to have led this singular program, which has supported exceptional faculty working at community colleges across the country, said ACLS President Joy Connolly. The commitment of these fellows to bringing vibrant humanistic inquiry into the undergraduate classroom is exemplary, and we look forward to drawing on their experience and expertise as we develop new opportunities to support scholars in the humanities and interpretive social sciences.

The 30 awardees selected for the final cohort for the program will each receive $40,000 to advance their projects, many of which include research, community engagement, and pedagogical dimensions. The fellows also will participate in a multi-day convening hosted by ACLS that will bring current and past awardee cohorts together with academic leaders to share perspectives from their work.

This years supported projects include a study of the multilayered concept of home in Palestinian American womens poetry; research on Indigenous kinship ethics and the development of a related undergraduate course; and a series of scholarly papers and open educational resources on the domestic and international political dimensions of the Chinese Dream.

Learn more about the 2022 Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellows and their projects.

Formed a century ago, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 78 scholarly organizations. As the leading representative of American scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, ACLS upholds the core principle that knowledge is a public good. In supporting its member organizations, ACLS utilizes its $179 million endowment and $34 million annual operating budget to expand the forms, content, and flow of scholarly knowledge, reflecting our commitment to diversity of identity and experience. ACLS collaborates with institutions, associations, and individuals to strengthen the evolving infrastructure for scholarship. In all aspects of our work, ACLS is committed to principles and practices in support of racial and social justice.

The Mellon Foundation is the nation's largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Mellon believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom to be found there. Through its grants, Mellon seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. The Foundation makes grants in four core program areas: Arts and Culture; Higher Learning; Humanities in Place; and Public Knowledge.
Newly elected AMUG Board members (from Left) Mark Abshire, Shannon VanDeren and Jason Dickman. Their experience within the organization and history in our industry will give them the foundations to support great advancements in our organization.

The Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) today announced the election of three individuals to its Board of Directors. Mark Abshire, Shannon VanDeren and Jason Dickman will serve as President, Vice President and Director of Membership, respectively.

These newly elected individuals have been actively involved in AMUG and the AMUG Conference for many years and in many capacities. Each has also received AMUG's coveted DINO Award, which recognizes selfless service to AMUG, its members and the additive manufacturing community.

Carl Dekker, AMUGs current President, said, "It is a pleasure to welcome experienced and seasoned members to our board. This is a time of growth, and it brings a lot of work that I feel these additions will be able to address as we continue to expand our membership. Their experience within the organization and history in our industry will give them the foundations to support great advancements in our organization."

The two-year term for these positions will commence on July 1, 2022. The balance of the board includes four elected positions with one year remaining in their terms, the Past President position and two appointed positions.

The 2022- 2023 AMUG Board members are:



President: Mark Abshire

Past President: Carl Dekker, Met-L-Flo

Vice President: Shannon VanDeren, Layered Manufacturing and Consulting

Treasurer: Vince Anewenter, Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE)

Secretary: Leslie Frost, 6K, Inc.

Director of Membership: Jason Dickman, ClassIQmfg.com

Director of Education & Conference: Jordan Weston, Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE)

Director of Business Development: Tim Bell, Siemens Digital Industries USA

Director of Events and Hospitality: Thomas Sorovetz

Director at Large: Gary Rabinovitz, Reebok International

Mark Abshire and Shannon VanDeren will also be officers of the corporation. The other officers are Leslie Frost, Secretary, and Vince Anewenter, Treasurer.

Mark Abshire, who recently retired from Computer Aided Technology, will replace Carl Dekker as President. Dekker, who has served three terms as President, will take on the Past President position.

Abshire has filled many roles over the 32 years that he has attended the AMUG Conference. At the board level, he has served as Vice President (2011 and 2012) and Secretary (2013), and he has supported the board as an Advisor and as Registrar. He is a member of the Registration Committee and a former member of the Nomination Committee. Other volunteer roles span from presenter to Technical Competition judge to AMUGexpo organizer. Abshire is also a recipient of AMUG's highest honor, the President's Award for exceptional service.

Abshire said, "With over 30 years as an AMUG member and almost half of those years working on the AMUG Board of Directors in various positions and several committees, my business retirement did not mean ending a relationship with this users group. But rather, it offered an opportunity to give back and serve this community that has been an integral part of a successful lifetime career. My goal as President is to ensure that AMUG's growth and direction are sustainable while providing a path forward for a new generation to follow with success."

Shannon VanDeren, President of Layered Manufacturing and Consulting, will hold the position of Vice President. For eight years, she has served as the AMUG Track Leader for the medical portion of the AMUG Conference program. VanDeren is a member of the DINO Selection Committee and past Industry Liaison. Her other volunteer activities include serving as an advisor for SME's additive manufacturing activities and as a member of 3D Metal Printing's advisory board.

VanDeren said, "After having orchestrated the content and contributions from OEMs and attendees to populate the medical track, it seems a natural transition to serve AMUG in a broader scope. The Vice President role has great focus in blending the offerings, intellect and experience between our user community and the OEMs that support those efforts."

The newly elected Director of Membership, Jason Dickman, is the CTO of ClassIQmfg.com. He has attended the AMUG Conference since 1995 and participated as a speaker, moderator, Technical Competition judge, and competitor in the Technical Competition. Dickman's legacy includes the creation of the digital dinosaur, via 3D scanning, that is 3D printed and mounted on all AMUG DINO awards presented over the past 25 years.

Dickman said, "I felt that I had more to give to AMUG in return for what it has given me. I ran for office because I am at a place in my life where I can dedicate the time needed to fulfill the duties of a member of the board."

Dekker expressed gratitude for the two board members that are stepping down from their positions, Andrew Allshorn, Vice President, and Bill Macy, Director of Membership. He said, "We have had very challenging endeavors over the recent pandemic years. It was a pleasure to work with Andrew and Bill as we overcame these challenging times. Their efforts have helped build the foundations our new board can build upon and helped generate a growing organization that will prevail the test of time."

The board's primary responsibilities will include building the program for the 2023 conference, soliciting support from businesses in the additive manufacturing industry, and overseeing the event's day-to-day activities. The five-day conference will feature the AMUGexpo, hands-on workshops, training labs, instructional sessions, technical presentations, and an off-site dinner. The 2023 AMUG Conference will be held in Chicago, Illinois, from March 19 - 23.

About Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG)

AMUG is an organization that educates and advances the uses and applications of additive manufacturing technologies. AMUG members include those with industrial additive manufacturing/3D printing technologies used for professional purposes from companies such as Covestro Additive Manufacturing, Desktop Metal, DMG MORI, Dyndrite, EOS, Essentium, ExOne, fabWeaver, Formlabs, GE Additive, Hexagon, HP 3D Printing, LuxCreo, Meltio, Nexa3D, Stratasys, and Tekna. AMUG meets annually to provide education and training through technical presentations on processes and new technologies. This information addresses operation of additive manufacturing equipment and the applications that use the parts they make. Online at http://www.amug.com.
All stages of life are meant to be enjoyed with peace-of-mind regardless of the circumstances.

The Law Office of Mary Ann Tardiff, Atascadero attorney, recently announced the launch of a new website by Access Publishing. Along with the new website, Tardiff also announced that she is offering a flat fee for estate plans and also makes house calls for clients by appointment as well as opening her office to clients after hours by appointment.

An attorney for over 30 years, Mary Ann Tardiff practices law in a down-to-earth practical manner that works for ordinary daily lifestyles. Im a person like everyone else, but I just happen to be an attorney as well, says Tardiff. Her commitment to common-sense legal practice is one of the traits that inspired her to provide flexible hours and in-home appointments as needed by her clients.

After completing a B.A. at the University of California, Tardiff attended the Santa Barbara College of Law, graduating with her J.D. degree in 1984. She was admitted to the California Bar Association in 1986. She has served as a commissioner on the Board of Parole Hearings for the California Department of Corrections, as a Judge pro-tem and practiced law in Santa Barbara before moving to Atascadero. The Atascadero attorney serves and supports the local communities and all of San Luis Obispo County and Monterey County.

Her broad legal experience and commitment to down-to-earth, affordable and practical solutions for her clients makes her a top choice to call for legal services. Tardiffs areas of service include:



Estate planning

Wills and Trusts

Elder law

Business law

A variety of family law matters

Consumer rights

Healthcare issues

All stages of life are meant to be enjoyed with peace-of-mind regardless of the circumstances. Whether a young person is just starting out, a family is in need of legal solutions regarding children or marriage, a business person facing legal issues, or a senior citizen, Tardiff helps her clients secure their futures, meet legal challenges and solutions with a common-sense approach. Staying abreast of the law regarding estates, family matters, business, elder care, healthcare and consumer rights gives her the foundation necessary to not only address a variety of situations, but to understand the life events that often weave circumstances together.

Access Publishing is a leading marketing firm in San Luis Obispo County offering proven solutions for web design, SEO and online advertising customized to every business.

Law Office of Mary Ann Tardiff

3540 El Camino Real

Atascadero, California 93422

(805) 451-6683
Francois Jean-Paul, a native of Haiti who immigrated to the United States in 1977, served briefly as a combat engineer in the US military, earned a degree in Political Science from the University of Connecticut, has now completed his new book American Republican Drivers: an impassioned discussion of racial inequity in both historical and modern political context.

The author writes, This book is about the plight of Black Americans and other minorities living in the United States and suffering from injustices as a result of the governments failure in justice provision to them due to a mistaken or willful allowance of a third branch of the American government without an election.

Then whether they were to try their own businesses or become well-educated to serve on any layer of the American government, the last words always belong to someone of the opposite race. And the law had made it so through Plessy claiming equal opportunity to the Black race where later in their interactions on the job, both races would show separate social behaviors deriving from two different educations, Plessy of which, the poorly financed Black schools had herein clearly shown through the holding positions of those minorities. Evidently, looking at the judiciary, most of the judges are whites and thus have no intention of favoring those minorities in any way because the surviving prevalence of their position does not depend on those minorities ballots.

Then through the decision of the lower courts, those minorities, although already facing impoverishment due to the established slavery (which has plagued them for so long), are either constantly imprisoned or have to make some sort of payment to those white leaders administrations, whether on a local, state, or federal level. Obviously, such actions have decimated every possibility for the descendants of those minorities to properly excel while facing the children of the opposite race. Indeed, the hiring of Black Judge Thurgood Marshall, for example, might be an exception; their separate education from that of the Whites, such as Plessy, had set it would not normally allow those minorities to such position and that the full segregation of the United States Supreme Court until Thurgood Marshall had evidenced it. Then those Blacks used to have a slave master on the plantation fields behind them with a cowhide, so they would not leave. In New York, for example, the city had set such victimization of minorities through the action of preventing them from leaving their poorly financed school system to go to a better one as they had applied Plessy through some school districting rule system. Obviously, those leaders, mostly Whites of European descendants, might have acted this way up to now so they could continue to reign over their former slaves. Then through the application of such behavior that they would have always all claimed was the work of the city council, even with a few members of the minority community in that council, those leaders will force minorities to continue poking at them with the epithet of neo-slave drivers of the American republic, for none had done something to end that culture. Then they faced Occupy Wall Street that failed.

They will continue to witness more protests around the courthouses as in Oregon. Then more of George Floyds I Cant Breathe right across those mayors offices such as in the city wall park of New York when equalizer corona had temporarily stopped those leaders exploitation and abuse of those drivers on the street of Manhattan, the daily drivers farming fields till the reshaping of the courts for the establishment of laws favoring them.

Published by Page Publishing, Francois Jean-Pauls engrossing book is a thought-provoking commentary on a wide range of racial, social, and political issues facing the United States in the twenty-first century.

Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase American Republican Drivers at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing understands that authors should be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
ECS5 Media Suite

Vending Sense have extensive experience in the food and beverages industry and provide advice and consultancy for businesses looking to capitalize on the benefits of refreshments in the workplace. A recent addition to their business model has been micro markets, which Vending Sense provide, manage, and maintain within workplaces across the UK. Micro markets are unattended retail environments where consumers can purchase products from open shelves, coolers, or freezers, using a self-checkout kiosk.

Each of the micro markets that Vending Sense service stocks around 300 products, and with different pricing across their locations, creating pricing labels for their shelves, coolers and freezers was an extremely time-consuming manual process. With their micro markets becoming increasingly popular, with more locations constantly being opened, Vending Sense decided to review their options as they felt there must be a solution out there being used to automate the creation of pricing labels, given major supermarkets stock thousands of products, and their search led them to ECS Global.

From initial introductions it was clear to see ECS5 by ECS Global would be the perfect solution to meet the needs of Vending Sense and a system was configured to their requirements at pace, taking less than three weeks from their first enquiry to having a live solution.

Vending Sense now have the ability to simply upload their product data and pricing to the solution and in a matter of seconds automate the creation of their price labels from an easy-to-use system. Vending Sense worked with the ECS design team to create templates for their signage, which the ECS design team manage and maintain, and Vending Sense are now able to include more detailed information on their tickets including product features and product imagery.

Sam Marra, Director at Vending Sense said The onboarding process at ECS has been great. ECS5 has saved us hours of manual work and provided a solution where its easy to update signage, which is key in the current climate.

ECS5 enables organizations to bring together all their communication channels with one solution, using one instance of data and logic, and one intuitive design suite, rather than what is hugely inefficient and prevalent today, multiple individual systems, where nothing is joined up, consistent or enforcing strong quality branding.

By bringing together in-store communication solutions and introducing efficiencies through ECS5, you are able to react to your competition at pace and will ultimately increase sales, in what is an ever more competitive environment.

Derek Buchanan, Chief Executive Officer at ECS Global Inc, said We have been delighted to work with Vending Sense on this project in such an innovative area of the retail market and we look forward to working together as Vending Sense expand their business over the coming months.

For more information, visit http://www.ecsglobalinc.com or email clientrelations@ecsglobalinc.com
EnVue Telematics Becomes a Member of Texas Trucking Association As an Allied Member, EnVue Telematics brings value to our members with a commitment to using advanced technology to improve fleet safety and profitability.

EnVue Telematics, a consultative resource that helps fleets use advanced technology to reduce risk, boost productivity and lower cost per mile, has become a member of the Texas Trucking Association (TXTA), the unified voice of the Texas commercial trucking industry since 1932.

Joining the association gives EnVue Telematics the chance to connect with fleets across Texas, sharing the benefits of using connected telematics devices and advanced software systems to make fleets more efficient and effective.

At TXTA, part of our mission is to connect fleets in the state with association members who promote a safe, efficient and consistently dependable commercial transportation industry in Texas, said TXTA President & CEO John D. Esparza. As an Allied Member, EnVue Telematics brings value to our members with a commitment to using advanced technology to improve fleet safety and profitability.

EnVue Telematics Director of Sales, John Gaither, expressed excitement about the opportunities available to the company through becoming a TXTA member. EnVue Telematics has more than two decades of experience helping companies with business vehicles reduce their risk, ensure their compliance, and reduce their operating costs.

The Texas Trucking Association is one of the most active and largest transportation associations in the country. Many fleets have their headquarters here or use Texas as a central distribution hub for nationwide supply chains, said Gaither. Were looking forward to strengthening the business relationships we already have in the state, as well as creating new ones.

TXTA has more than 1,000 members. The major focus of the association is to continue making Texas a great state to own and operate a business. TXTA members enjoy exclusive access to membership contact information and attendance at the TXTA annual conference, as well as maintenance and prevention conferences throughout the year.

Members also have access to TXTA University, a repository of trucking knowledge that includes safety training videos and information about state and federal regulatory compliance. Members also receive The Steering Wheel, the associations award-winning magazine, and a bi-weekly executive summary of breaking news called TruckADVISOR.

EnVue Telematics offers technology that reduces operating costs and enhances productivity. The company also collaborates with clients before and after their purchase to ensure they get the maximum return for their investment in telematics. EnVue Telematics clients report many benefits, including a reduction in annual reportable accidents, fewer accidents per million miles and lower fuel and maintenance costs.

About EnVue Telematics

EnVue Telematics has over 20 years experience in providing intelligent technology solutions to the challenges facing commercial fleets. The company partners with leaders in data analytics and offers innovative telematics tools and safety devices that can solve challenges in areas such as asset tracking, safety, compliance, and route optimization. The companys user-friendly solutions combined with powerful data collection and information technology make fleet and asset management simple and more precise than ever before. EnVue Telematics also offers exceptional after-sale customer service to help clients make the most of their telematics purchases.
Husch Blackwell is pleased to announce that former U.S. Attorney General William Barr recently appeared on an episode of The Justice Insiders, a podcast produced by the firms White Collar, Internal Investigations & Compliance team. Barr was interviewed by podcast co-hosts Gregg Sofer, an Austin-based partner at Husch Blackwell and former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, and Tim Garrison, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri and current Husch Blackwell partner based in Springfield, Missouri.

The episode, which posted today, features over 20 minutes of conversation exploring the challenges and accomplishments of Mr. Barrs two tenures heading up the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as discussing his new book, One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General. The book has spent the past month on the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction, including two weeks at Number One.

We are so thankful that AG Barr took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to our audience about a range of important topics that bear upon regulatory compliance and the prosecution of white-collar crime, Sofer said. DOJ is increasingly focusing its efforts on investigating and prosecuting corporate crime. AG Barrs insight on the difficulties of changing priorities and implementing policy changes provides valuable perspective our listeners can utilize to understand this evolving enforcement landscape.

The Justice Insiders was launched in March 2022 and provides perspective on interesting criminal cases and issues related to compliance, internal investigations, and regulatory enforcement.

# # #

About Husch Blackwell

Husch Blackwell is an industry-focused law firm with 25 offices across the United States, including its virtual office, The Link. The firm represents clients around the world in major industries including energy and natural resources; financial services and capital markets; food and agribusiness; healthcare, life sciences and education; real estate, development and construction; and technology, manufacturing and transportation. For more information, visit huschblackwell.com.
Greenberg Traurig Launches Energy & Infrastructure Practice in Asia-Pacific Region, Firm Sets Course for Singapore This team is known for providing hands-on support to clients, from deal initiation and structuring innovative solutions to solving vexing bankability issues faced by investors on complex projects," Greenberg Traurig Executive Chairman Richard A. Rosenbaum said.

On the heels of adding a six-shareholder real estate finance team from Winston & Strawn earlier this week, a highly integrated team of four energy and infrastructure shareholders joins global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP to launch its Asia Energy & Infrastructure Practice, initially located in the firm's Tokyo office and with the intention to soon lead the firm's opening in Singapore, expanding the firms capabilities in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

The team is led by Joseph Kim, who has covered Asias energy and infrastructure sectors for the past 20 years. He has joined as head of the firms Asia Energy and Infrastructure Practice. Joe, together with William Wu and Da Woon (Christina) Jeong, were previously at Hogan Lovells Tokyo and Hong Kong offices. Jared Raleigh is rejoining the team he previously worked with after spending several years as a senior in-house lawyer and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) executive at global mining, energy, and infrastructure companies. All join as shareholders.

This team is known for providing hands-on support to clients, from deal initiation and structuring innovative solutions to solving vexing bankability issues faced by investors on complex projects. There is no time when finding creative solutions to energy needs has been more crucial to clients and governments alike, and Joe is an extremely experienced and well-regarded lawyer known for advising clients who have projects involving cross-border investments led by entities in Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and beyond. We are honored to have him join us and lead the strategic growth of our Asia energy practice, Greenberg Traurig Executive Chairman Richard A. Rosenbaum said. This is a key time to add strategic assets, following our best year on record and with the world facing disruptive times, as we also did earlier this week by adding significant leaders and teams in real estate finance across multiple offices. These are business-oriented, highly regarded and pragmatic lawyers in real estate finance, while Joe brings a uniquely experienced understanding of the power sector and the diverse and complex issues faced by clients. He has long been highly effective in creating customized strategies to address those issues and embodies the qualities we look for in an attorney and a leader. We are known for growing with top-notch practitioners in areas important to clients and with a focus on optimistic, urgent problem solvers.

The team will focus on energy transition matters and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investments in the renewable power and infrastructure sectors and will be capable of managing the full lifecycle of project/platform investments, developments, acquisitions, dispositions, and financings. With deep industry knowledge in liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power, and renewable power projects  including on and offshore wind, hydropower, utility scale solar and geothermal projects, and digital infrastructure projects, to name a few  the team will cover the investment flows to and from countries in the region who are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Greater China region, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East.

Greenberg Traurig offers a unique global platform and enjoys a coveted reputation that is so important for my clients. I look forward to working with my new colleagues around the globe and assisting the firm in further expanding the Asia practice, Joe said.

Greenberg Traurigs Asia Practice continues to grow, not simply in terms of the number of attorneys, but also regarding quality and the types of services we can offer clients. We are pleased that Joe, Will, Da Woon, and Jared chose Greenberg Traurig to further expand their successful careers, Greenberg Traurig Vice Chairman Richard A. Edlin said.

With governments pledging to decarbonize their economies to net-zero carbon economies, the team will be ready to work with clients to handle matters dealing with new energy solutions and technologies such as building the green hydrogen/ammonia economy. The team will also focus on working closely with the firms institutional funds and private equity clients to assist them in expanding their investment activities in APAC region countries. The team will continue to work with the leading trading houses, utilities, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), export credit agencies (ECAs), development financial institutions (DFIs), insurance companies, private capital, and multilateral agencies to structure innovative solutions to accelerate the launch of successful and bankable projects and platforms in the region.

Initially, the team will be based in Tokyo but will shortly be transitioning to Singapore and expanding to provide additional offerings to clients. From Singapore, the team will continue to collaborate closely with the firm's Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai offices to assist firm clients investment activities in the region.

Over the past several years, the firm has been actively and strategically expanding its Asia and Corporate Practices. Singapore is fast becoming the key hub in Southeast Asia, and in many ways surpassing Hong Kong as a major regional business center. We hope to announce further additions to the Singapore, Tokyo, and Seoul offices soon, Rosenbaum said.

Joseph Kim has been recognized by several publications and organizations. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in Japan under the Project Finance and Development Practice category for 2022; in the Chambers Asia-Pacific Guide as a Projects & Energy: International - Leading Individual from 2019 to 2021; in the Chambers Global Guide under Projects & Energy: International (Japan) as a Recognised Practitioner from 2019 to 2021; and in the 2021 edition of The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific under Projects & Energy: International Firms and Joint Ventures. He was recognized in the 2016  2018 editions of IFLR1000; as a Highly Regarded Lawyer in Financial and Corporate Law (Japan) in 2018 and listed as a Leading Lawyer in Energy and Infrastructure (Japan) in 2016 and 2017. He is a member of the Daini Tokyo Bar Association. Joe received his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School and his B.A. from the University of the Pacific. He is admitted to practice in California and is registered as a Gaikokuho-Jimu-Bengoshi (GJB) in Japan.

William Wu advises on a wide range of corporate, M&A, and regulatory matters. He advises international clients on cross-border matters, representing both public and private clients in their mergers, spin-offs, and joint ventures, particularly for energy and infrastructure related projects. In addition to equity investments in the energy and infrastructure space, Will has also advised multinational corporations on their strategic alliances, distribution arrangements, product recalls, as well as cross-border disputes arising out of business transactions. A native of Taiwan, Will has most recently been involved in various offshore wind and other renewable projects in Taiwan. He has first-hand and extensive experience on auctions for various offshore wind farms in Taiwan and has recently advised leading Taiwan financial institutions and international investors on several other renewable projects in development and advising bidders on equity processes. Will received his LL.M. from Cornell University, his LL.B. (with Honors) from the University of Manchester, and his B.A. (cum laude) from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Will is a member of the New York State Bar Association and a Foreign Legal Consultant with the Hong Kong Law Society.

Da Woon (Christina) Jeong is a project finance lawyer with expertise advising sponsors and lenders (including development finance institutions, export credit agencies, and commercial banks) on international energy projects with a focus on power, petrochemical, and renewable energy projects in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa who will be joining the firm. Previously, she practiced law in Korea, Japan and the UK as an energy projects lawyer. Da Woon has been on secondment with Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (a Japanese ECA), working closely with the Structured and Trade Finance Insurance Department. Da Woon received an LL.B. and B.A. from the University of Auckland. She is admitted in England and Wales and New Zealand. She is fully bilingual in English and Korean, and she is fluent in Japanese.

Jared Raleigh is a seasoned practitioner advising on large-scale energy and infrastructure projects throughout Asia, the Middle East and Australia will be joining the firm. who is joining. Based in Singapore since 2011, Jared advises on all phases of the development, structuring and financing of infrastructure projects and has extensive experience in analysing, negotiating, and drafting the full suite of project and finance documentation in established and emerging markets. Jared brings a commercial focus to his practice, after spending several years as a senior in-house lawyer and M&A executive at global mining, energy, and infrastructure companies. Jared received his LL.B. (with Honors) and BCom from Monash University.

About Greenberg Traurigs Asia Practice: Greenberg Traurigs Asia Practice regularly represents companies throughout China, India, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan in their business dealings in the United States and abroad. The firm also advises U.S. and European companies engaging in transactions throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Attorneys provide strategic advice and legal services in connection with mergers and acquisitions, financings and securitization activities, intellectual property, trade and governmental strategies, international dispute resolution, infrastructure and project finance, export controls, and business immigration issues. The practice brings together attorneys based in the firms Shanghai, Seoul, and Tokyo offices along with numerous multilingual attorneys from across Greenberg Traurigs global organization with experience handling client matters in Asia.

About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP has more than 2400 attorneys in 43 locations in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm, often recognized for its focus on philanthropic giving, innovation, diversity, and pro bono, reported gross revenue of over $2 Billion for FY 2021. The firm is consistently among the top firms on the Am Law 100, Am Law Global 100, NLJ 250, and Law360 (US) 400. On the debut 2022 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard, it is a Top 15 firm. Greenberg Traurig is Mansfield Rule 4.0 Certified Plus by The Diversity Lab and net carbon neutral with respect to its office energy usage. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com.
Most companies are offering employees more flexible work options than ever before. Consequently, organizations must implement strategies to optimize hybrid workforce security and productivity.

A NYC area hybrid workforce expert explains how to optimize hybrid workforce security and productivity in a new article on the eMazzanti Technologies website. The informative article first reviews challenges to hybrid workforce security and productivity, including the lack of a security perimeter and multiple ways to connect.

The author recommends some cybersecurity basics, such as zero trust, employee training, endpoint security, and timely patching. She continues by discussing tools that support collaboration flexibility, like Microsoft Loop, and the new Share-to-Stage feature in Teams. She concludes by examining human factors and the need to blend technology solutions with cultural changes.

Most companies are offering employees more flexible work options than ever before, stated Jennifer Mazzanti, CEO, eMazzanti Technologies. Consequently, organizations must implement strategies to optimize hybrid workforce security and productivity.

Below are a few excerpts from the article, Maximize Hybrid Workforce Security and Productivity.

Challenges to Hybrid Workforce Security and Productivity

As a large chunk of the workforce has moved at least partially remote, traditional security approaches no longer suffice. It is no longer possible for IT to identify and secure the perimeter. Instead of a corporate network almost entirely on-premises, cloud computing means that employees access critical resources from almost anywhere.

The Right Tools Increase Productivity and Security

As hybrid work has taken center stage, the technology community has stepped up to supply tools to support greater flexibility in the way people collaborate. For instance, Microsoft has begun delivering Microsoft Loop to allow users to collaborate fluidly, removing the boundaries between applications.

Remember the Humans

As most office workers moved to remote work during the pandemic, employees in many cases reported greater levels of productivity. They cited the ability to work a more flexible schedule, allowing them to match their work hours to their lifestyle and personality. They also mentioned the reduction of distractions caused by coworker chatting.

However, increased productivity comes at a price. Over time, workers began to experience digital exhaustion. Microsoft statistics suggest that employees more than doubled their time in video meetings. And they sent far more work-related chats and emails, including after hours. Much of this communication occurred without schedule, putting stress on the work/life balance.

eMazzanti Delivers the Expertise to Power a Hybrid Workforce

With a workforce spread across multiple continents, eMazzanti understands firsthand the challenges and opportunities inherent with hybrid work. Consequently, the company supplies both the tools and the expertise needed to help organizations find the optimal security and productivity balance in the hybrid work environment.

Have you read?

Microsoft Ukraine and Cybersecurity  How Microsoft is Helping and What That Means to You

Manufacturing Cybersecurity Issues and What to Do About Them

About eMazzanti Technologies

eMazzantis team of trained, certified IT experts rapidly deliver increased revenue growth, data security and productivity for clients ranging from law firms to high-end global retailers, providing advanced retail and payment technology, cloud and mobile solutions, multi-site implementations, 247 outsourced network management, remote monitoring, and support.

eMazzanti has made the Inc. 5000 list 9X, including eight consecutive years, is a 4X Microsoft Partner of the Year, the #1 ranked NYC area MSP and NJ Business of the Year! Contact: 1-866-362-9926, info@emazzanti.net or http://www.emazzanti.net Twitter: @emazzanti Facebook: Facebook.com/emazzantitechnologies.


IVF FLORDAs Marcelo J. Barrionuevo, M.D., invited as keynote speaker at the South Florida Fertility Expo. During the South Florida Fertility Expo, Dr. Barrionuevo will discuss fertility preservation, and the process of using egg donation, sperm donation, and embryo donation to build families.

Marcelo Barrionuevo, M.D., a fertility specialist at IVF FLORIDA, has been invited to be a keynote speaker at the Fifth Annual South Florida Fertility Expo on Saturday, April 30, 2022. During the event, Dr. Barrionuevo will be discussing fertility preservation, and family planning using third-party reproduction options, including donor egg, donor sperm, donor embryos, and surrogacy. He will present his keynote discussions in Spanish and English.

The South Florida Fertility Expo is a one-day event that gathers information seekers interested in fertility, health and wellness, and fertility funding options. The event will feature more than 50 exhibitors, interactive workshops, and panel discussions on family building and fertility topics.

A new feature to this years program is a Spanish-only workshop, which includes speakers and experts delivering topics for Spanish-speaking attendees. During this workshop, Dr. Barrionuevo will discuss fertility preservation, and the process of using egg donation, sperm donation, and embryo donation to build families. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions about IVF FLORIDA, donor success rates, and choosing a donor.

IVF FLORIDAs Dr. Barrionuevo is subspecialty certified in reproductive endocrinology and infertility. He earned his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires Medical School in Argentina. Dr. Barrionuevo completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Sinai Hospital of Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. He then completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, Florida.

Dr. Barrionuevo received several teaching and clinical excellence awards. He has presented numerous times at national and international meetings and has authored multiple publications. He has also received mentorship and patient care awards, including the 2022 Castle Connelly Top Doctors for Infertility honors. Dr. Barrionuevo sees patients at IVF FLORIDAs Coral Gables, Pembroke Pines, and Margate offices.

The Fifth Annual South Florida Fertility Expo is open to the public. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit southfloridafertilityexpo.com.

To learn more about fertility and family building options with Dr. Barrionuevo or any other IVF FLORIDA physician, schedule an appointment by calling 954-247-6200 or visit ivfflorida.com.

IVF FLORIDA Reproductive Associates has been providing fertility treatments in South Florida since 1986. Our IVF clinic was among the first in the region, and we have been a leader in the field ever since. We have six convenient locations throughout South Florida, including Coral Gables, Pembroke Pines, Margate, Boca Raton, Wellington, and Jupiter. IVF FLORIDA is among the founding partner practices of US Fertility, the largest physician-led partnership of top-tier fertility practices in the U.S. For more information, call 954-247-6200 or visit ivfflorida.com.


IVF FLORIDAS Daniel Christie, M.D., discusses family-building options for gay couples and individuals at Men Having Babies conference. The Men Having Babies Conference is a great opportunity for IVF Florida Reproductive Associates to connect with South Floridas LGBTQ+ community and provide valuable information about gestational carriers, egg donation, and other available family building options.

Gay couples and individuals who want to become parents are invited to hear guest speaker, Daniel Christie, M.D., of IVF FLORIDA Reproductive Associates, address the selection and screening of egg donors on April 30, 2022, during the Men Having Babies Expo and Conference.

Dr. Christies presentation is part of the fourth annual Men Having Babies 2022 Southern Surrogacy Conference at the Pride Center at Equality Park, 2040 N. Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors. The event features presentations and opportunities to interact with over 20 reputable gay-friendly agencies, clinics, law firms, and other surrogacy providers.

For more than 30 years, IVF FLORIDA has provided individuals and couplesregardless of their gender, sexual orientation, or marital statuscompassionate fertility care and treatment options to build the families of their dreams. This year, IVF FLORIDA is an enhanced gold sponsor at the event.

The Men Having Babies Conference is a great opportunity for IVF Florida Reproductive Associates to connect with South Floridas LGBTQ+ community and provide valuable information about gestational carriers, egg donation, and other available family building options, says Dr. Christie. For gay couples and individuals to have access to a safe space with a wealth of information is a huge benefit, and we are proud to support such a great event

Dr. Christie received his medical degree from the University of Louisville School of Medicine and completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He then went on to complete his subspecialty training in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Christie sees patients at IVF FLORIDAs Pembroke Pines and Margate offices.

This one-day in-person event is open to the public and tickets are available online. Attending the conference requires proof of vaccination, and MHB is implementing extensive COVID-19 protocols to keep attendees safe.

To learn more about fertility options for LGBTQ+ couples and individuals with Dr. Christie or any other IVF FLORIDA physician, schedule an appointment by calling 954-247-6200 or visit ivfflorida.com.

IVF FLORIDA Reproductive Associates has been providing fertility treatments in South Florida since 1986. Our IVF clinic was among the first in the region, and we have been a leader in the field ever since. We have six convenient locations throughout South Florida, including Coral Gables, Pembroke Pines, Margate, Boca Raton, Wellington, and Jupiter. IVF FLORIDA is among the founding partner practices of US Fertility, the largest physician-led partnership of top-tier fertility practices in the U.S. For more information, call 954-247-6200 or visit ivfflorida.com.
When the economy is less than robust, competition for each customer increases. Serving great-tasting products is not enough; you must polish each element of the customer experience until it shines." - Greg Ubert, Founder and President, Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea

Now, more than ever, clean translates into green when operating a coffee shop business, according to Greg Ubert, founder and president of Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea, an award-winning coffee roaster and coffee shop startup consultant.

When the economy is less than robust, competition for each customer increases, he said. Serving great-tasting products is not enough; you must polish each element of the customer experience until it shines.

Customers form an immediate first impression when entering a coffee house, and cleanliness accounts for a big part of that impression, he added. The first impression either sets the foundation for a lasting customer relationship or flashes a stop sign in the customers mind. Thats why your coffee house should sparkle every minute of every hour of every day.

Ubert, who has helped to establish over 300 independent coffee houses in 30 states since 1991, believes cleanliness is so important that he devoted a chapter of his book, Seven Steps to Success: A Common-sense Guide to Succeed in Specialty Coffee, to maintaining a sparkling coffee house.

A few of the tips from the book include:



Cleanliness starts when pulling into the parking lot. Train staff to observe their surroundings. When they arrive at work, ask them to scan the exterior of the business, pick up any trash and note any landscaping issues such as overgrown grass or untrimmed bushes.

Set up shift checklists. Each shift should function as if they are opening and closing the store for the day. This helps keep the store clean throughout the day and ensures the dirty work doesnt get dumped on the third shift.

If there's time to lean, there's time to clean. When there is a lull in customers, the barista and cashier should wipe down counters and tables, straighten chairs, pick up magazines and newspapers, dispose of trash and clean the floors.

Pay constant attention to the condiment station. Its the biggest mess magnet in the coffee house, so it not only needs to be stocked frequently, but also needs to be kept tidy.

Keep the silver shining and the china sparkling. Make sure to keep glasses, cups, plates and flatware clean and ready for use. Discard chipped and cracked items, which make a poor presentation and present the risk of injuring customers.

Out of sight cant be out of mind. Instruct each employee to check the outside of the business regularly, especially in shops that offer outdoor seating. Keeping the outside picked up and orderly reflects just as critically upon the business as that first step inside the door.

Follow maintenance schedules. Espresso machines, grinders, blenders and other equipment have maintenance schedules. Following those schedules religiously can preserve the life of equipment and will definitely protect the quality of the product you are serving to each and every customer.

Always be prepared for health and safety inspections. Depending on locale, the health department may pop in for an unplanned inspection. Dont be caught with inadequate facilities, which could lead to fines and, at times, closure of your business until the necessary issues are resolved.

In his book, Ubert shares more detail about these and other procedures for maintaining a sparkling  and profitable  independent coffee house. Based on Uberts experience in consulting with hundreds of independent coffee shops, the book is the foundation of Crimson Cups 7 Steps to Success Coffee shop startup program.

We offer everything a coffee franchise does  and more  but without franchise fees, royalties or business restrictions, he said. And our consulting program is equally effective for those interested in starting a new coffee shop or existing coffee house owners.

We help create a solid coffee shop business plan that covers all the bases, from choosing a location to purchasing equipment, developing a menu, hiring staff and much more, he added. We also send a member of our coffee shop startup consulting team to provide comprehensive, on-site training to ensure each shop gets off to a great start.

To learn more about the 7 Steps program or to schedule an initial consultation, call 888-800-9224 or visit the Crimson Cup website.

About Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea

Founded in 1991, Crimson Cup is at the forefront of the coffee industry. Its attentive roasting, startup support and global partnerships are consciously designed for the greater good of communities around the world. Among other national recognitions, the company has earned 2020 and 2017 Good Food Awards, the 2019 Golden Bean Champion for Small Franchise/Chain Roaster and Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year.

Crimson Cup travels the world searching for the perfect cup  driven by meaningful relationships, honesty and a shared vision for the future. Its Friend2Farmer initiatives foster respect and decency through mutually beneficial collaboration across local and global communities.

Through its 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program, the company teaches entrepreneurs how to open and run independent coffee houses in their local communities. By developing a coffee shop business plan, entrepreneurs gain insight into how much it costs to open a coffee shop.

Crimson Cup coffee is available through over 350 independent coffee houses, grocers, college and universities, restaurants and food service operations across 30 states, Guam and Bangladesh. The company also owns several Crimson Cup Coffee Shops and a new CRIMSON retail flagship store. To learn more, visit crimsoncup.com, or follow the company on Facebook and Instagram.
Baby Heart: Remembering Who I Am: a sweet story of an innocent heart and the peaks and valleys of life. Baby Heart: Remembering Who I Am is the creation of published author Kim Kolze.

Kolze shares, This is the story of Baby Heart, who comes into this life with excitement and anticipation of all she will experience, and as part of her journey, she learns through life lessons about forgiveness, love, and worthiness. She learns to listen to the still, soft voice inside always whispering that she is greatly loved and perfect as she is. This is a story to teach us to know that we are enough just as we are.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Kim Kolzes new book is a creative opportunity to discuss worthiness, forgiveness, and love with young readers.

Kolze presents an important message of Gods love and the value that one carries within the pages of this charming work.

Consumers can purchase Baby Heart: Remembering Who I Am at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Baby Heart: Remembering Who I Am, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Broken, Crushed, Shattered, Mended, Healed: How to Survive a Broken Heart: a powerful collection of spiritually-based poetry. Broken, Crushed, Shattered, Mended, Healed: How to Survive a Broken Heart is the creation of published author LaToiya Whipple, MA, BA, who has a masters degree in nonprofit leadership studies and a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. Whipple has been in the human service field for the past twelve years. She is currently serving on the Executive Committee for the Board of Directors as the Board Member at Large for a nonprofit for the past six years, as well as an Officer of Election for the past five years.

Whipple shares, These poems are a collection of some of the most suspenseful, dramatic, and intense moments of the most unpleasant yet transforming lyrics of LaToiya Whipples life. The reader will be left sitting on the edge of his seat after indulging in the literary collectionthat will transform and cause the reader to reach into those emotions that most people will shy away from.

This poetry book, Broken, Crushed, Shattered, Mended, Healed: How to Survive a Broken Heart by Elder LaToiya Whipple, will teach the reader how to deal with hurt. This book will teach you how to function while being broken, crushed, and shattered, by allowing Gods Word to mend and heal ones heart. The readers lives will be transformed, globally, psychologically, and spiritually for the betterment of his internal well-being.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, LaToiya Whipple, MA, BAs new book will encourage readers to reflect and seek opportunity for growth and healing.

Whipple shares in hopes of nurturing others back to a place of faith, peace, and strength.

Consumers can purchase Broken, Crushed, Shattered, Mended, Healed: How to Survive a Broken Heart at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Broken, Crushed, Shattered, Mended, Healed: How to Survive a Broken Heart, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Jean DellAmore (left) President of Stertil-Koni USA with Lou Cardoza, founder of Lou Cardoza Enterprises. Its been a great ride with Stertil-Koni and Im sticking with them.

Hawaii, long known for beautiful beaches, sunny skies, and tropical climes, has added another highlight to the list  an advanced heavy duty vehicle lifting industry supporting the islands public, private, and commercial transportation sector. Much is at stake: the safety and efficiency of scores of vehicle technicians across the state and the delivery of a modern, transportation sector serving more than a 1.4 million residents and visitors.

Cardoza recalls that the Hawaii market for heavy duty vehicle lifts was untapped and unexplored when he joined Stertil-Koni as an exclusive sales and service representative in 1998. Ninety percent of the accounts I called on had no vehicle lifts, Cardoza explains. They were doing all their service on creepers, literally crawling along the ground  not a particularly safe or efficient practice. So, we educated them about how Stertil-Koni lifts could increase their safety, productivity, and profitability.

Today the entire State of Hawaii depends on Stertil-Koni heavy-duty vehicle lifts. In addition, Cardoza also has loyal customers throughout his Pacific territory, which includes the Mariana Islands, Samoa, and Guam.

Stertil-Koni Mobile Column Lifts are our most popular product, says Cardoza. They work in all kinds of situations and geographic areas. Consider Stertil-Koni Mobile Column Lifts: these highly engineered hydraulic lifting systems feature high tensile DOMEX steel, full color-touch screen controls, and a lifting capacity of up to 40,000 pounds per column. One of Cardozas clients uses Mobile Column Lifts to raise the prefab homes that it manufactures; and Hawaiian Airlines depends on them to lift 60,000-pound tugs that move commercial aircraft. As Cardoza recalls, They were flabbergasted when they saw what the Mobile Lifts can do.

State, county, and municipal government agencies  as well as major tour bus companies  also use the lifts, as does TheBus, the public transit system operated by Oahu Transit Services. TheBus maintains daily routes across Honolulu, transporting half a million passengers per week. Its maintenance facilities employee more than 350 technicians, and Stertil-Koni helps ensure that they work safely and efficiently to keep the vital transit system moving with optimum performance. Additionally, Honolulu County has purchased 16 Stertil-Koni Mobile Column Lifts, plus half a dozen flush-mounted Stertil-Koni platform Skylifts -- renowned for delivering free access to the vehicle from all sides, true vertical lifting, an automatic safeguard against overloading or uncontrolled descent, and rapid-drive on/drive-off capabilities for vehicles being serviced.

Continues Cardoza, The number one reason for the joint success of my business and for Stertil-Koni, is that the customer always comes first. Its all about relationships and service, especially since Hawaii is 2,500 miles from the mainland. Customers evaluate you first and foremost on your dedication to service because they want to know who is going to be there after the sale for installation, training, and maintenance. Stertil-Koni has the highest quality, best workmanship, and best service in the business.

Cardoza, whose workday starts before dawn, adds that although Hawaii has a well-deserved reputation as a vacation paradise, it also has a longstanding sunup to sundown work ethic. Nonetheless, he does take full advantage of his free time on the islands, enjoying deep sea fishing and working at his favorite hobby -- cars. I like car culture. In my younger years I raced. Im a Corvette guy, and I collect, design, and maintain collector cars and trucks while helping others with their automotive projects. He concludes, Its been a great ride with Stertil-Koni and Im sticking with them.

Adds Stertil-Koni President, Dr. Jean DellAmore, We thank Lou for his deep product expertise and extreme focus on customer care. Those are hallmarks of both Stertil-Koni and Lou Cardoza Enterprises, and we congratulate Lou who is a tremendous asset to our team.
We think it's vital to be part of the standards process and to interact with our present and future customers at the conference.

Mako Networks is participating in-person at the annual Conexxus Conference and renewing its commitment as a Diamond Sponsor. From May 1-5, suppliers and retailers will gather in Tucson, Arizona for the Petroleum/C-Store industrys main event devoted to technology. The Petroleum/C-Store market is a key component of Makos business, particularly in the US, with Mako-managed secure network solutions used at tens of thousands of domestic petroleum retail locations.

Mako has steadily increased its participation with Conexxus for the past five years, adding Diamond-level sponsorship last year in addition to its Gold-level membership status. This affirms the network technology vendors appreciation for the work Conexxus does to support innovation in the industry and recognizes Conexxus role as a leader in promoting secure networking for C-Store and Petroleum operators and customers across the country.

Conexxus suppliers, brands, dealers and vendors work together to devise standards and promote pioneering technology advancements. Conexxus relies upon the voluntary time and expertise of industry personnel across all sectors. Mako Networks President Simon Gamble has recently taken on the role of Security Advisory Working Group Chair. We think it's vital to be part of the standards process and to interact with our present and future customers at the conference, said Gamble. The role of the Security Advisory Working Group is to ensure security is baked into all the Conexxus standards.

The nonprofits popular conference will feature committee meetings, workshops, speakers and scheduled leisure activities. In addition to the in-person conference, there will be the opportunity to register, attend and interact virtually via live broadcast. In terms of education sessions, we have some really great panels including an IT Think Leaders panel and What Our Future Might Look Like in 2030 in the Convenience and Fuel Industry, said Linda Toth, Managing Director of Conexxus.

To inquire about Mako products and services for your distributed enterprise, please contact Mako Networks at sales@makonetworks.com or +1 800-851-4691.

About Conexxus

Launched in 1995 as the NACS Technology Standards Project, Conexxus is a nonprofit, member-driven technology organization dedicated to the development and implementation of standards, technologies innovation and advocacy for the convenience store and fuel market. The Virginia-based retail organizations work and social events bring industry experts together to identify and resolve technology challenges. Conexxus is committed to providing a cooperative, collaborative forum with a level playing field for member companies of all sizes to have equal footing to have a voice in the organization.

About Mako Networks

Mako Networks provides simple, secure, PCI-certified networks for distributed enterprises. Operating internationally from offices in the United Kingdom, US, Australia and New Zealand, Mako integrates centralized cloud management and reporting, true SD-WAN, secure Wi-Fi, HA Fast Failover, Mako VPN Cloud, next-generation firewalls and end-to-end PCI DSS certification in one, easy-to-manage system. For more information, visit makonetworks.com.


The Enemy We Face: a potent reminder of the importance of establishing a strong spiritual base. The Enemy We Face is the creation of published author Monika Starova, a native of Albania who later immigrated to Switzerland where she studied French language and worked as a French instructor prior to moving to Canada. Starova now works as a paralegal and teaches French at the North Toronto Christian School in Toronto, Canada.

Starova shares, I wrote this book in order to present to the newborn believers and also people that are looking for God for help and to know him the importance of knowing the enemies, spirits invisible being in our life as well as the importance of the deliverance in the healing of human body, soul, will, and mind. Devil and his demons (evil spirits), I have to remind you that demons are spiritual beings, fallen evil angels in earth from heavens in one part and the other part they are evil disembodied spirits, spirits of the giant Nephilim and their offspring from the flood of Noah. Many believers do not talk much about him. They like to be covered in darkness and be unknown. I believe we have to respect Satan as Dr. David Jeremiah said, but when the demons, evil spirits attack us, our sister and brother in Christ, also nonbelievers, we have to know to localize them and cast them out. Jesus, during all his life in his ministry, cast out demons, evil spirits. He delivered and healed people from all kinds of weak spirits that caused bondage to humanity because of their habitation in human body. Evil spirits like to invade human body. They live under a strong man which is leader and are in group. Imagine a tree with his branches. The root of the tree and his trunk, the strong man, the main demon that keep in bondage in yoke the human being, and under his dominion are other gangs of demon that are branches, so group of branches.

It makes me feel bad when many believers ignore the devil and demons we have won the battle in Lord. Yes, Christ won the battle in the cross. We are victorious on him, but if we do not know where the enemy comes from, the evil spirits, their name, and we do not cast out, even the believers can live under sickness, under yoke, because of the ignorance and no knowledge. Thats what the devil wants. He hides and makes us feel that he does not exist. He put lies to us that he is not present at all. The reality or fact is that demons are everywhere in our earth as spiritual being without body, but also human being serving Satan such wizards, soothsayers, warlocks, witch doctors, necromancer, fortune-teller, sorcerers, they are everywhere. During the ministry in earth, Lord Jesus Christ always exposed and revealed the demons by names attached to people. Paul and Peter, too, after Christ exposed the enemies, demons by their names. We see this in Matthew 8:2834 when he cast out thousands of demons from demon-possessed man, the demons exposed themselves saying their names: Legion. Also in Luke 11:14, when he cast out the demon and mute man spoke. In Matthew 8:16, the Lord cast out evil spirit of demon-possessed man (Luke 4:41). When the Lord was casting out demons and demons were shouting, they exposed themselves with voices. They knew Jesus was the Christ, the God with Word and healed all who were ill. So we see, the casting out of demons is connecting with healing during the time of Jesus, and today, also we can see the casting out of demons with the healing in New Testament in this in Galatians 3:10, when Paul says to Galatians people of the church how they had been bewitched being in darkness. Also in Acts 8:924, when the sorcerer Simon was exposed. Also the case of exposition of fortune-teller woman in Acts 16:1618 when Paul exposed her. Also in Acts 13:1112 where the false prophet Bar Jezu was exposed, revealed the sorcerer that was trying to put preconsul Segius Paulus away from faith in Christ. So Paul revealed him and struck him with Word of God and he became blind.

We see this in the ministry of Apostle Peter. After the death of Jesus Christ, Peter cast out many demons to many people. He cast out demons with Jesuss ministry but also after Jesuss ministry and a lot of healing and deliverance took place instantly. Acts 3:6 when Peter cast out demons in lame man and he was healed.

The Lord, before he ascended to heaven, he said to the disciples clearly in John 14:1214: Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater thins then this.

During all his ministry, our Lord Jesus Christ, all he did was preach the Word of God, delivering the sick people by casting out demons of any kind and exposing them, healing the sick. All miracles the Lord did at his time, he let to us as covenant to do it now also as it was in his time. In the Word, he said also that we are able do greater miracle deliverance, healing then this. We have the Word of God as sharpened sword to be used and the faith to cast out the demons. We do not have to be passive and blind to not target the evil spirit to ourselves and to others. All Lord wants from us is to live a life of victory, healthy, prosperous, not in bondage of sin. A lot of Christians live still under the yoke because they do not take the deliverance in serious way for themselves, their loved ones, and others.

It is my wish and prayer to you that in end of this book, you have understood the importance of opening the spiritual eyes in the light to see, expose the invisible enemy, and to cast him outthat means to win against him. Youll see how our lives become better, our bodies feel healthier and lighter, and our spirit is filled with Holy Spirit and joy of the Lord.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Monika Starovas new book will challenge and encourage believers both new and established.

Starova offers personal reflections and relevant scripture in hopes of aiding those in need of spiritual inspiration and guidance.

Consumers can purchase The Enemy We Face at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about The Enemy We Face, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Morphisec CTO and head of threat research Michael Gorelik will present at the 2022 RSA Conference in San Francisco at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. Ransomware groups have upgraded their attack techniques to exploit weaknesses in next generation antivirus (NGAV) and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. Goreliks presentation, Ransomware Alert! Why NGAV and EDR Are Failing and How to Improve Security, discusses real-world findings from advanced attacks and shows how threat actors bypass detection-based defenses.

The presentation comes amid an environment of consistently increasing cyberattacks, with cybercriminal groups deploying sophisticated malware such as CaddyWiper and the Core Impact backdoor. Goreliks presentation, taking place in the South Expo Hall, shows how organizations can protect against such advanced attacks.

A noted speaker with extensive experience leading diverse cybersecurity software development projects, Michael Gorelik leads Morphisecs malware research operation and sets technology strategy. His career has seen him work closely with the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, countering global cybercrime.

With remote work significantly expanding organizations attack surface during the pandemic, Morphisec is riding growing momentum for its breach prevention solutions. In fact, 67 percent of small and medium-sized businesses suffered at least one ransomware attack during the last year. Morphisecs Moving Target Defense (MTD) technology proactively prevents advanced attacks without requiring dedicated security teams to respond to or investigate them.

Michael Gorelik and the Morphisec team will be available to speak with conference attendees at the Moscone North Expo Hall, Booth #5351. Goreliks session will be available on-demand 24/7 during the event.



To book a meeting with Morphisec at RSA, reach out here.

About Morphisec

Morphisec is breach prevention made easy. We are the world leader in providing prevention-first software that prevents ransomware and other advanced attacks which todays NGAV and EDR solutions are unable to stop, from endpoint to the cloud. Antivirus and EDR solutions focus on detecting known attacks and rely on human intervention, resulting in an inability to stop advanced attacks as well as higher resource costs. Our solutions deliver operationally simple, proactive prevention of the most advanced and unknown threats using Moving Target Defense. Morphisec protects over eight million endpoints worldwide from ransomware, zero-day attacks and other evasive threats at companies such as Motorola, Maersk, Citizens Medical Center, Yaskawa and many more.
With higher wages and more demand for their talent than many previous generations, we congratulate the Class of 2022 and look forward to seeing their impact on the workforce. - Express Employment International CEO Bill Stoller

With 86% of U.S. companies looking to hire employees in key departments this year, more than half (52%) say they intend to hire recent college graduates.

This is according to a recent survey from The Harris Poll commissioned by Express Employment Professionals.

College graduates have continually been on the radar for hiring decision-makers since 2020 (48% in the first half of 2021, 43% in the second half of 2020, 38% in the first half of 2020). Further, more than 1 in 3 say they plan to hire vocational/career tech graduates (42%) and/or college students (36%) in 2022.

There is very high demand for any graduate right now who is eager for work, said Mike Nolfo, Express franchise owner in New Jersey. With the shortage of both office services and professional staffing and skilled trade employees, employers are grabbing talent everywhere. Oftentimes, companies are excited to hire entry-level grads because they are a blank canvas to train.

In Florida, Express franchise owner Mike Brady says jobs are also ready and waiting for career tech graduates because of the persistent skills gap.

We work with two career tech schools here in Jacksonville and they have employers lined up looking for skilled trades graduates, he said.

Nolfo doesnt see this increased demand for graduates easing anytime soon as supply and demand fail to balance out.

Graduates show the ability to complete something and the grit needed to finish a task, he said. That is a huge plus for hiring managers.

As these college and career tech grads apply for jobs, they may face at least an initial virtual interview as 61% of businesses say they have conducted remote video interviews. However, these remote interviews come with their own challenges for interviewees.

More than 2 in 5 hiring decision-makers (43%) say they are tougher with candidates in remote interviews as compared to in-person. Specifically, if interviewees are seen wearing unprofessional dress (e.g., loungewear, spaghetti straps, etc.) (41%), hiring decision-makers report it would cause them not to hire the candidate.

The state of the interviewees background is also under watch as a visible mess (36%), a TV on (35%) and/or people in the background (31%) could be cause for the candidate to be denied the position.

Try to treat it like a face-to-face interview, Brady suggests. Prepare, know the job description and information on the company. Make and keep eye contact and avoid any distractions. Ensure your computer will work for the interview and dress for success.

Nolfo says with the economy opening back up, recruiting is becoming a bit easier, which makes a successful virtual interview all the more important.

Last year, there were no choices, and hiring managers interviewed and hired almost anyone interested, he said. Now, with some competition for positions, you are not the only choice anymore. Its important to make the right impression.

The labor market is ideal for these new graduates, and they should take advantage of this kickstart in their career paths, according to Express Employment International CEO Bill Stoller.

With higher wages and more demand for their talent than many previous generations, we congratulate the Class of 2022 and look forward to seeing their impact on the workforce, he said.

Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals between Nov. 10 and Dec. 2, 2021, among 1,009 U.S. hiring decision-makers (defined as adults ages 18+ in the U.S. who are employed full-time or self-employed, work at companies with more than one employee, and have full/significant involvement in hiring decisions at their company). Data were weighted where necessary by company size to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.

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If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bill Stoller to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena Hollander, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966.

About Bill Stoller

William H. "Bill" Stoller is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment

International. Founded in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the international staffing franchisor

supports the Express Employment Professionals franchise and related brands. The Express franchise brand is an industry-leading, international staffing company with franchise locations in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

About Express Employment Professionals

At Express Employment Professionals, were in the business of people. From job seekers to client companies, Express helps people thrive and businesses grow. Our international network of franchises offers localized staffing solutions to the communities they serve across the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, employing 586,000 people globally in 2021 and 10 million since its inception. For more information, visit ExpressPros.com.


Prevent Blindness expands the "Diabetes and the Eyes program, with support of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., to educate the public on diabetes and the impact on vision. Diabetes continues to affect the lives of millions of Americans, and sadly, the number of cases continues to grow. The impact that diabetes may have on vision, as well as quality of life, can be devastating, said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness.

Prevent Blindness, the nations oldest voluntary eye health and safety organization, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., are uniting to increase education on the impact diabetes can have on vision and eye health through an expanded Diabetes and the Eyes program. With the support of Regeneron, the program will now include a video series relevant for both English and Spanish speakers, community-level health education and support, and refreshed materials to increase awareness of diabetes impact on vision.

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of vision loss and blindness in the nation due to the damage the disease can cause in eyes even before visual symptoms are noticeable. According to the 2022 National Diabetes Statistics Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 37.3 million Americans have diabetes, and 23% of those people are unaware of their condition, which is an alarming statistic indicating nearly a quarter of people with diabetes are unaware of their risk for developing diabetes-related visual impairment.

Diabetes continues to affect the lives of millions of Americans, and sadly, the number of cases continues to grow. The impact that diabetes may have on vision, as well as quality of life, can be devastating, said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. We thank Regeneron for their continued support and partnership to help save sight and maintain independence through the Diabetes and the Eyes program.

Diabetes-related eye disease refers to a group of conditions that can affect people with diabetes, including diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema. Prevent Blindness created the Diabetes and the Eyes program in 2019 to provide much-needed educational resources to allied health personnel and consumers with the goal of helping to prevent vision loss due to diabetes. In addition to the updated Diabetes and the Eyes toolkit, fact sheets and graphics, the support from Regeneron has allowed the program to expand and include the following:



Video series (which will include Spanish subtitles): Videos will be produced on a variety of topics, including an introduction of the Diabetes and the Eyes toolkit, the socio-emotional impact of diabetes-related eye disease, entitled Diabetes, Vision Loss, and Mental Wellness, patient education for the newly diagnosed, and eye care coordination for the individual living with diabetes.

Community-Level Health Education and Support: Prevent Blindness affiliates across the country will work with local partner organizations to effectively increase awareness about the causes of eye disease, risks due to health history or behaviors, and understanding of the impact of diabetes-related eye disease on mental health and quality of life. Partner organizations may be equipped with new vision screening or risk assessment skills and will provide education, screening, and eye care access to thousands of individuals with diabetes.

Patient and Professional Education Webinar: As part of Mays Healthy Vision Month, Prevent Blindness will host the Diabetes and Your Eyes: A Conversation Around Patient-centered Care webinar on May 25. The goal of the discussion is to better understand the importance of care coordination, interprofessional communication, and a patient-centered approach for the care of diabetes-related eye disease across health care providers and allied health professionals who support the individual living with diabetes.

National Awareness Campaign: Prevent Blindness will utilize a variety of tactics to educate the public on diabetes and vision through social media, new episodes in the Focus on Eye Health Expert Series, newsletters, and more.

Prevention, early detection and timely treatment are all important components to help preserve vision in patients with diabetes-related eye diseases. It is imperative that we continue to arm our communities with the proper educational tools and resources to learn and understand the impact that diabetes can have on the eye, said Alyson Berliner, Executive Medical Director, Clinical Sciences at Regeneron. We are proud to support and work alongside Prevent Blindness on the Diabetes and the Eyes program and further advance our commitment to the patient community.

For more information on the Diabetes and the Eyes program, please visit https://www.preventblindness.org/diabetes-and-eyes-educational-toolkit. For general diabetes information, visit http://preventblindness.org/diabetes

About Prevent Blindness

Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screening and training, community and patient service programs and research. These services are made possible through the generous support of the American public. Together with a network of affiliates, Prevent Blindness is committed to eliminating preventable blindness in America. For more information, visit us at preventblindness.org, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

About Regeneron

Regeneron is a leading biotechnology company that invents, develops and commercializes life-transforming medicines for people with serious diseases. Founded and led for nearly 35 years by physician-scientists, our unique ability to repeatedly and consistently translate science into medicine has led to numerous FDA-approved treatments and product candidates in development, almost all of which were homegrown in our laboratories. Our medicines and pipeline are designed to help patients with eye diseases, allergic and inflammatory diseases, cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, pain, hematologic conditions, infectious diseases and rare diseases.

Regeneron is accelerating and improving the traditional drug development process through our proprietary VelociSuite technologies, such as VelocImmune, which uses unique genetically-humanized mice to produce optimized fully-human antibodies and bispecific antibodies, and through ambitious research initiatives such as the Regeneron Genetics Center, which is conducting one of the largest genetics sequencing efforts in the world.

For more information, please visit http://www.Regeneron.com or follow @Regeneron on Twitter.
Our growth is really just starting. Demand for our services continues to rise exponentially because there is nothing else like it out there. At PROSE, being a majority woman-owned franchise is something we take immense pride in," said Nate McFarland.

PROSE Nails, the fast growing manicure and pedicure franchise, has quickly become the largest nail salon membership franchise in the country after opening its 27th location in Sandy Springs, Ga. The Sandy Springs salon is the second in Georgia for Area Developer Emily Ebsworth. In 2021 alone, PROSE grew open locations by 65% and increased its ownership by women to more than half the system. Furthermore, it grew in almost every unit category including unit revenue, unit recurring revenue, retail sales, active membership, pre-sold memberships and more.

From the time PROSE was launched in 2017, the pioneering salon has made hand and foot care an essential part of peoples lives while providing a platform for female entrepreneurship by disrupting the beauty industry.

If you want to have strong results, you obviously must have an incredible product with amazing customer service, but you also need to build a great culture, said Nate McFarland, PROSE Nails CEO. From race to geography and gender and beyond, diversity in all its forms spurs innovation.

Only about 50 years ago, women-owned businesses represented less than 5% of all businesses. Today that number has skyrocketed to nearly 50%.

While the trends are positive, women still face more obstacles and barriers than other entrepreneurs when starting and growing a business, McFarland added. PROSE intends to eliminate those barriers that thwart growth and opportunity to not only spur our collective economic recovery, but to also spark productivity, job creation and wealth across all sectors of the economy.

One of the most widely acknowledged and turnkey paths to entrepreneurship is through franchising. After opening PROSE to franchising just five years ago, the company has grown into a brand that consists of more than 50% female franchise owners.

As an industry leader and disruptive force in the nail salon sector, PROSE recognizes that women are at the forefront of the health and beauty industry and that is one of the things that most attracted us to investing in the brand, said Atlanta PROSE Nails Area Developer Emily Ebsworth. From PROSE AT HOME, which curates beautiful brands developed and owned by women, to our support, training, and operating systems designed specifically around female entrepreneurship, PROSE will always be about supporting women-owned and women-inspired businesses. Thats why were so excited to open in Sandy Springs and inspire an elegant and wellness-centric lifestyle that brings health, beauty and relief to every hand and foot in our community.

The cornerstone of PROSE is its commitment to creating a better way to beautiful hands and feet through its risk-free membership program. This includes access to a customized number of services, savings up to 36% per service, 10% off retail products, and free family and friend transfers. All services feature the use of industry-leading sterilization techniques, non-toxic, and hypoallergenic products in an inspiring space that is free of overwhelming smells. Personal phone plugs, purse hooks, customized pedicure chairs, hydrating and nourishing refreshments and environmentally friendly, enriching products are available for each guest and member to enjoy with every visit. Over 200 nail polish colors from the highest-quality brands provide an array of gorgeous, fresh hues that change with each season.

Our growth is really just starting, said McFarland. Demand for our services continues to rise exponentially because there is nothing else like it out there. At PROSE, being a majority woman-owned franchise is something we take immense pride in. The predictability that our membership model provides along with our diversified revenue streams are major calling cards for potential owners. And maybe most important of all, PROSE is in the people business.

About PROSE Nails:

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., PROSE has innovated and transformed the traditional nail salon into a thoughtfully inspired boutique experience. Created to elevate the member and guest experience in all aspects, PROSE is more than just manicure and pedicure maintenance  its hand and foot poetry. With world-class products and exceptional services focused on delighting these two hardworking parts of the body, PROSE Artists create unforgettable experiences in a sophisticated environment. Through its risk-free and affordable membership program, PROSE carefully considers each guests needs and routine by providing personalized services and convenient booking capabilities online and with the mobile app. The brand also focuses on industry leadership and elevating the profession of Artists and their important work by creating a healthy culture that rewards and respects their artisanal talents. For additional information, visit http://www.myprose.com.

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Enhanced security centers are a critical focus for card issuers digital properties, offering personalized information, additional authentication and alert options to help with timely fraud detection. said Beth Robertson, managing director, Keynova Group.

Keynova Group, the principal competitive intelligence source for digital financial services firms, today announced the results of the Q2 2022 edition of its semi-annual Credit Card Scorecard. Bank of America and Discover once again tied for top honors for their digital user experiences, both ranking first in Overall Score in Keynova Groups competitive evaluation of the 10 leading U.S. credit card issuers. The Scorecards findings show that key trends to watch among issuers include the expanded use of security centers offering personalized data and prescribing recommended cardholder actions, the movement of card-based Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) to the point of sale and the increasing prevalence of intelligent digital assistants to aid the cardholder experience.

With the FTC reporting that credit card fraud accounted for 40% of identity theft incidents in the last quarter of 2021, credit card issuers have an imperative to augment and highlight the security measures associated with credit cards and cardholder accounts, said Beth Robertson, managing director, Keynova Group. Enhanced security centers are a critical focus for card issuers digital properties, offering personalized information, additional authentication and alert options to help with timely fraud detection.

Key Findings:

Increase in Digital Transacting Heightens Security Focus

As consumers increased digital transactions are heightening issuers focus on security, many credit card issuers are adding security centers and related features to assist cardholders with key action items such as reviewing account-access indicators, setting up alerts and adding options for additional authentication or identity monitoring.

Nearly all issuers (90%) have a security center accessible from their secure site, and 40% now include information that is personalized to the cardholder or to the card account. This includes information identifying merchants storing the card number, showing recent devices used for digital access to the account or listing apps with approval to link to the account for transaction data. Further, newer security centers, such as those from Bank of America and Chase, include proactive suggestions and links to steps that cardholders can take to improve their security. Bank of America also includes a customized security meter to highlight the impact of additional security measures enacted by the cardholder.

Identity monitoring measures such as social security number tracking services or dark web and data breach monitoring  pioneered by issuers like American Express and Discover  are offered by 40% of issuers, sometimes via the security center. These security centers can also house sign-in preferences, such as for additional authentication, with 70% of issuers now enabling cardholders to opt-in to further authentication measures for known or unknown device logins.

Card-based BNPL Expands to the Point of Sale

Half of issuers are actively confronting developments in the fintech BNPL market with novel product offerings that may help to expand cards appeal to different demographic segments. While credit card issuers can market cardholder and purchase protections and elements related to a users credit score, such as no need for an additional credit query or new loan to participate in an issuer-based payment plan, positioning at the point of sale has been a challenge for expanding card-based BNPL solutions. American Express became one of the first issuers to market its BNPL installment option at the point of sale with an external vendor, Delta Airlines. Additional initiatives from card networks, individual issuers, or fintechs offering white-labeled services are expected to build the prominence of card-centric BNPL at the point of sale.

Digital Assistant Capabilities Vary Widely

Digital assistants vary widely from the most basic of chatbots to AI-powered tools that are rapidly increasing in sophistication, enabling key insights and interacting with spoken and contextual responses. While virtual assistants (VAs) that are situated in issuers mobile apps are nearly a norm  70% of issuers currently offer a VA in their app  only 30% of issuers offer a truly intelligent virtual assistant with strong natural language abilities and personalized data and content. Bank of America and U.S. Bank are paving the way for this emerging generation of advanced mobile app VAs that can augment live support, provide useful transaction insights and cleanly link users to a live agent on request. These industry-leading VAs are inspiring the 40% of issuers that offer digital chatbots to improve these assistants capabilities with useful content, links to key tasks or information or by transferring users to a live agent after a maximum of two failed answer attempts.

About the Credit Card Scorecard

Keynova Groups semi-annual Credit Card Scorecard objectively evaluates the cardholder acquisition and servicing experience for consumers using the digital channels of 10 leading U.S. credit card issuers. With more than two decades of experience benchmarking digital financial services, Keynova Groups Scorecard identifies best practices and trends in the competitive landscape for consumer credit card issuing. The Credit Card Scorecard reviews the digital channels supporting credit card products for issuers American Express, Bank of America, Barclays U.S., Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Discover, PNC, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. For more information about Keynova Groups Q2 2022 Credit Card Scorecard, please visit https://www.keynovagroup.com/scorecards/#credit-cards-and-lending.

About Keynova Group

Keynova Group is the nations foremost competitive intelligence firm providing trusted benchmarking insights and analysis of consumer and small business digital financial services, including banking, credit card, home lending and insurance. Since 1999, Keynova Groups Scorecards have served as the go-to source for leading financial services firms to obtain reliable competitive intelligence and actionable insights. The firms proven methodology and highly detailed results help its clients maximize the value of their digital channels to deliver a premier experience to customers and prospects.
The Artist Tree Studio Consumption Lounge "By fusing art with cannabis culture, The Artist Tree is defining a new standard for art, learning, shopping, events and on-site enjoyment and youll see that represented in the Studio Cannabis Lounge." said Lauren Fontein, co-founder of The Artist Tree.

Just in time for National Cannabis Day, The Artist Tree announced the return of consumption lounge operations in Southern California with the opening of The Artist Tree Studio Cannabis Lounge located at 8625 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069 on Wednesday, April, 20. The Artist Tree opened its first location in 2019 as a new brand of cannabis businesses, creating one-of-a-kind destinations for art and cannabis exploration. The newest member of The Artist Tree family is The Studio Cannabis Lounge, a two-level experience atop the retailers art gallery and dispensary on the ground floor designed by Kevin Klein Design. The Cannabis Smoking and Edible Lounge will offer a curated premium selection of dispensary retail items geared toward on-site consumption with single serving items and smaller sizes of flower, prerolls and vapes. Guests can enjoy table-side service set in a performance space, indoor and outdoor seating, and multiple non-smoking areas for edible consumption alongside non-infused food and drink options, including breakfast, lunch, dinner and mocktails in partnership with Kitchen 24.

As one of the only cannabis consumption lounges in the country, The Artist Tree Studio Cannabis Lounge is a portal to experience Californias incredible art scene like never before with original works from Californias most inspired artists and a wide range of the freshest cannabis products to hit the market. The opening exhibit features artwork by Sinister Monopoly, Billy Morrison, and Jessica Czarnecki.

On Wednesday, April 20 The Artist Tree hosted an all-day event produced by Zane Pond aka Flabbergast which included a seated Drag Brunch and a ticketed variety show with unlimited food, musical performances, a magician, comedians and activations from a host of cannabis brands. Ongoing weekly event programming on both the consumption lounge and studio levels will include yoga and wellness classes, puff and paint experiences, comedy shows, DJ performances and more. The calendar of events can be found on The Artist Trees website.

We envisioned The Artist Tree to always be an immersive experience for cannabis learning, shopping, wellness and the arts (both visual and performance). Cannabis has been used as a source of creative inspiration by artists for thousands of years and we wanted to highlight that natural synergy at all of our destinations said Lauren Fontein, co-founder of The Artist Tree. By fusing art with cannabis culture, were defining a new standard for art, learning, shopping, events and on-site enjoyment and youll see that represented in the Studio Cannabis Lounge. Its an exciting new era for cannabis businesses and were happy that we can contribute to the movement in our own way.

The Artist Tree was created by Lauren Fontein, Aviv Halimi, and brothers Avi Kahan and Mitchell Kahan, long time operators of licensed dispensaries in Southern California Lauren, Aviv, Avi and Mitchell built The Artist Tree to help people learn about and enjoy cannabis in an inviting atmosphere that celebrates art and community. The cannabis dispensary, weed delivery, hospitality and retail group is the only business applicant to qualify for West Hollywoods cannabis licenses in all five categories, which include recreational cannabis sales, medical cannabis sales, cannabis delivery, operation of a cannabis lounge offering edible products, and operation of a lounge where cannabis smoking and vaping is permitted and edible products can be consumed.

There are currently four Artist Tree Marijuana Dispensary locations. The flagship dispensary in West Hollywood is the largest marijuana dispensary and delivery service in West Hollywood. The Beverly Hills dispensary is located near the Beverly Center and La Cienega at 8311 Beverly Blvd, 90048. The Artist Tree Marijuana Dispensary Los Angeles is centrally located in Koreatown near Downtown Los Angeles at 520 S. Western Ave., 90020 and The Artist Tree Riverside Dispensary is located in Highgrove at 240 Iowa Ave. 92507. The cannabis group is currently in construction for new retail stores in Oxnard, Fresno, and El Sobrante. Fresno will open this summer and Oxnard and El Sobrante in the fall.

The Artist Tree Studio Cannabis Lounge will be open daily from 11:00 AM  10:00 PM at For details on upcoming events and to make reservations visit TheArtistTree.com and follow @TheArtistTree on Instagram.

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About The Artist Tree

The Artist Tree was founded by Lauren Fontein, Aviv Halimi, Avi Kahan and Mitchell Kahan. With more than 13 years of experience in the California cannabis industry, The Artist Tree is the only business applicant to qualify for West Hollywoods cannabis licenses in all five categories, which include recreational cannabis sales, medical cannabis sales, cannabis delivery, operation of a cannabis lounge offering edible products and operation of a lounge where cannabis smoking and vaping is permitted and edible products can be consumed. The Artist Trees mission is to provide safe access to legal cannabis, raise awareness of the health benefits of cannabis, showcase artists from the community and break stereotypes surrounding cannabis sales and consumption. Learn more at http://www.theartisttree.com and follow @theartisttree on Instagram.


Bringing fresh, exciting flavors to the menu, Togos, the nearly 200-unit California based sandwich franchise, is embracing the taste of spring with three new Caprese hot sandwiches. The Caprese trio is a limited-time offer, only available from April 27 through June 30.

Togos take on the traditional caprese salad, the trio includes:



Caprese Chicken: Featuring  lb. of all-natural, rotisserie-style chicken with melted mozzarella, fresh spring mix, and sliced tomatoes, all drizzled with basil pesto and balsamic dressing

Caprese Italian: Featuring over  lb. of premium, Italian meats: mortadella, capicola, Italian dry salami, and black forest ham, with melted mozzarella, fresh spring mix, and sliced tomatoes, all drizzled with basil pesto and balsamic dressing

Caprese Veggie: Featuring a double portion of melted mozzarella and sliced tomatoes, with fresh spring mix, all drizzled with basil pesto and balsamic dressing

All three choices are also available as a wrap inside a spinach tortilla.

"We're constantly looking for new ways to innovate at Togo's, which is why we're excited for customers to try our new Caprese sandwiches and wraps," said Anna Nero, SVP of Marketing for Togo's. "Our loyal customers already love our signature sandwiches, and now we can provide them with a fresh and light option through the spring and early summer."

Rewards Members will receive special offers and bonus points to try the new sandwich.

ABOUT TOGOS EATERIES, LLC

Togo's Sandwiches was founded in 1971 in San Jose, California, by a young college student with a large appetite and little money who was looking to make sandwiches the way he liked them  big, fresh and meaty. Today, that spirit of the founder and the original sandwich shop continues. Like the first days of the brand, Togo's products are still made with only the highest quality ingredients, including fresh artisan breads, hand sliced premium pastrami, turkey and roast beef, as well as Hass avocados hand-mashed in-house daily. Togo's is a franchised business that offers entrepreneurs a terrific opportunity to own their own business. With nearly 200 locations open and under development throughout the West, the brand is a restaurant staying ahead of the pack. For more information, to find your closest Togos location, or to order online, please visit http://www.togos.com.

The current initial investment for a Togos franchise ranges from $216,500 to $451,500, which includes a $30,000 franchise fee. For more information, visit https://togosfranchise.com/.
Torque3 Logo There is nothing like this for recovery exercise offered anywhere for stroke or TBI survivors, who are often told theyve plateaued, and no further gain is possible. If you dont accept that, you are perfect for our program.

Torque3, the company combining VR and motion simulation technology currently designed for stroke and TBI rehabilitation, announced today the opening of the Alpha Program  its private pay assessment program developed to evaluate its proprietary experience that puts survivors in direct control of their recovery.

Right now, participants have a rare chance to be one of the first few stroke or TBI survivors to experience this revolutionary neurorehabilitation platform. The exclusive opportunity is limited to just 40 participants.

Torque3 has created a simulated environment that mimics real-life through tactile feedback from the motion sim base, pedals, and steering arms. Survivors can even feel the G-forces when they make a hard turn, the wind on their face, and smell the forest or waterfall as they pedal past. This fully immersive, multi-modal experience transforms going to therapy into a thrilling adventure!

The program is anticipated to run for at least six months and is seeking participants who are serious about regaining their independence. Torque3s engineers will be actively involved with these 40 participants to create an experience tailored to meet their specific requirements, and these survivors will be individually accommodated as much as possible.

The Alpha Program is scheduled to open in the Summer of 2022, in Centerville, Utah (about 10 miles north of Salt Lake City).

This new approach to stroke therapy is designed to be infinitely more tolerable  even enjoyable  than traditional physical therapy, in hopes of making attendance and participation much higher. The goal is to achieve even greater gains and faster results.

During this Alpha Program, Torque3 will continue to gather data and fine-tune the survivor experience before moving into the next phase. There are only four of these platforms on the planet, and only three of these can be accessed at any one time. This is an opportunity to be one of the first to explore the benefits of this truly revolutionary rehabilitation platform before it makes its product offering to the rehabilitation market expected in Q4 of 2022.

There is nothing like this for recovery exercise offered anywhere for stroke or TBI survivors, who are often told theyve plateaued, and no further gain is possible. If you dont accept that, you are perfect for our program. You dont want to miss out on this incredible opportunity with extremely limited spots available, said Torque3 CEO David Ellzey.

Torque3 offers the only rehabilitation solution that engages the mind, body, and all the senses in an intense, deeply immersive task-orientated therapy.

Currently, neurorehabilitation for stroke survivors results is fewer than 10 percent resuming an active, independent lifestyle. This is where Torque3 believes it can make the most significant impact.

The ideal candidate for this intensive stroke rehabilitation program is not satisfied with learning to live with their new normal of limited mobility and lack of independence after their stroke or TBI. In addition, they often feel overwhelmed and demoralized because of the neurological impact of their stroke/TBI and just want to feel whole again.

To find out more about Torque3, visit https://torque3.com
Our elected officials have come to know who we are and respect us as the authoritative voice for the U.S. water sector. It is remarkable how these discussions for or against a particular issue can impact outcomes.

Approximately 140 delegates from the American Water Works Association (AWWA) met with members of U.S. Congress today to advocate for smart water policy and legislation during the 2022 Water Matters! Fly-In.

After two years of virtual meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meetings returned to a mostly in-person format on Capitol Hill. AWWA delegates from 37 states scheduled face-to-face meetings and delegates from 10 states gathered virtually.

Among the topics discussed were ways to improve the water sectors cybersecurity, infrastructure funding and the inclusion of a water utility exemption from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) liability in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund.

The Water Matters! Fly-In has grown to be one of AWWAs premier events, said John Donahue, Water Utility Committee legislative chair and government affairs director with North Park Public Water District in Illinois. He has attended the event since 2002.

Our members of Congress truly appreciate connecting personally with utility representatives from their districts and hearing first-hand how federal legislation may impact them, he added. Our elected officials have come to know who we are and respect us as the authoritative voice for the U.S. water sector. It is remarkable how these discussions for or against a particular issue can impact outcomes.

In conjunction with the Fly-In, AWWA and other partners in the water sector will participate in Water Week April 24-30, when a cross-section of U.S. water professionals convene in Washington, D.C., to advocate for safe, reliable and affordable water.

AWWA, through its members and the WUC, ensures that the water sectors knowledge and expertise is included throughout the process of determining water policy, and AWWAs Fly-In is a great opportunity to highlight our priorities with elected officials, said Tommy Holmes, legislative director.

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Established in 1881, the American Water Works Association is the largest nonprofit, scientific and educational association dedicated to managing and treating water, the worlds most important resource. With approximately 50,000 members, AWWA provides solutions to improve public health, protect the environment, strengthen the economy and enhance our quality of life.
Though AI-narrated audiobooks has its critics, another big voice has entered the market. Google Play Books has announced that publishers in six countriesthe U.S., Canada, U.K., Spain, Australia, and New Zealandcan now create, edit, publish, and sell auto-narrated audiobooks on its platform.

Customers wishing to create an auto-narrated audiobook must provide an English- or Spanish- language .epub e-book file and additionally offer the e-book for sale on Google Play. Publishers will receive 52% of the revenue generated by an AI-narrated audiobook. Potential audiobook publishers on the platform must also assert that they own the audio rights to the title in the selected language and territories.

Publishers can choose from more than 35 narrator options, selecting for accent, age, and gender. Audiobook creators also have access to a suite of editing tools to fine-tune pronunciation and check and correct content. Once an auto-narrated title is complete and available for sale in the Google Play store, publishers can also download their auto-narrated audiobook and distribute it through other retailers as well.

For a limited time, the auto-narration audiobook creation capability is free as part of Google Play Books beta program. In an earlier publisher beta testing phase, a Google Play Books spokesperson said that a range of customers, including large publishers, university presses, small independents, and self-publishers, had experimented with the new feature.

Publishers of traditional audiobooks currently sell titles on Google Play Books global digital bookstore via distributors like Findaway and Bookwire. In the coming months Google Play Books will allow publishers to upload audiobooks directly to its platform and offer them for sale.

Judy Chang, group product manager for Google Play Books pointed to some of the reasons behind the drive to offer auto-narration capability. For many publishers, audiobook production can be a major investment, she said. Thats why Google Play Books auto-narrated audiobooks are designed to help publishers create high-quality audiobooks easily and affordably. Publishers can also assess audiobook demand for their titles before making an investment in human narration.
Longtime publishing marketing executive Maryann Palumbo died on April 3. She was 75.

Born in Brooklyn, Palumbo earned her B.A. at Brooklyn College. She began her publishing career at In-Text Publishing and moved on to World Publishing, which was owned by the Times Mirror Company, which was also owner of the paperback publisher New American Library (NAL). Palumbo transferred to the NAL publicity department where she became publicity director. She was there when NAL, known for its paperback reprints and Signet Classics, launched its first hardcover line, NAL Books, in the early 1980s. During this period, she oversaw the publicity campaigns for some of NALs biggest authors including Stephen King, Ken Follett, Erica Jong, Mario Puzo, and Robin Cook.

In 1984, Palumbo was named NAL director of advertising, promotion, and publicity. She became known for her innovative marketing programs, such as the time she staged a casino party at the American Booksellers Association conference to promote the Signet publication of Mario Puzos Fools Die. She and her team created many consumer and trade campaigns for some of the companys most successful titles such as Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinem, Growing Up by Russell Baker, and Weight Watchers bestselling cookbooks.

She was named v-p at NAL in 1985. Perhaps her best-known campaign was the six-volume serialized publication of Stephen Kings The Green Mile, each volume reached the top of bestseller lists nationwide, and sold 250,000 copies of the special boxed set. For this successful campaign Palumbo was included in Advertising Ages Marketing 100 in 1997.

After leaving NAL in 1998, Palumbo established her own firm, Maryann Palumbo Marketing Concepts. Among the book projects she worked on there were for the Guinness Book of Records, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. She retired in 2016.
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Lack of access to health care and good nutrition, major issues with substance abuse, and inadequate broadband and education in rural America are causing many people to struggle with getting and staying healthy.

Jerome Adams, presidential fellow at Purdue University and the 20th U.S. surgeon general, will be joined by Karen Plaut, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of the Purdue College of Agriculture, and Jason Henderson, director of Purdue Extension, to answer questions from the media regarding rural health and health equity before Adams addresses the annual Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry.

Adams, Plaut and Henderson will be available for questions at 10 a.m. Saturday (April 30) in the Blue Ribbon Pavilion Directors Office on the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Adams is committed to changing the current rural health narrative by leveraging existing community connections in rural communities. With offices in all 92 Indiana counties and established partnerships with community organizations, Purdue Extension is positioned to respond to the needs of Hoosiers.

Media should confirm attendance to Maureen Manier at mmanier@purdue.edu.

Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;

Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu

Agriculture News Page
Founded in 2004, Airties currently serves internet service providers with a combined footprint of more than 80 million households across the world. Airties has consistently achieved strong organic revenue growth through significant client wins and by broadening its relationships with existing clients including AT&T in the US, Sky in the UK, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone across Europe and Telstra in Australia. Premier private equity firm Providence specialises in growth-oriented investments in media, communications, education and technology. Detailed financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed but Providence says that its investment will assist Airties with accelerating growth into new markets globally, as well as funding additional R&D and product innovation to continue delivering what the company calls superior connectivity, and expanding its sales, marketing, and recruitment efforts globally.As sector-focused investors with a history of partnering with innovative telecoms and technology companies, Providence believes that it is well-positioned to harness its expertise, network and resources to support Airties as it enters what it calls a transformative new chapter.We have been impressed by the strength and quality of Airties cloud-based managed Wi-Fi solutions and strongly believe its leading software offering, together with its deep expertise in integrating across hardware technologies and operator platforms, positions Airties as a preferred partner for broadband service providers, remarked managing director Providence Michael Vervisch. We see tremendous potential to continue Airties growth trajectory by extending its global reach and expanding its offering. Additionally, we believe its culture of innovation and success make it a perfect fit for us. We look forward to partnering with Philippe and his outstanding team by leveraging our deep sector expertise in the next chapter of the companys journey.Once the transaction is complete, Airties will continue to be led by current CEO Philippe Alcaras. Commenting on the deal, Airties board member and Invus managing director at Evren Bilimer said: When my partner, Mario Kaloustian, and I met the founding team of Airties led by Bulent Celebi and Metin Taskn in 2010, they had a clear vision for the Internet of the future and centrality of Wi-Fi within it. Over our 12-year journey with the team, Airties has been at the forefront of the Wi-Fi revolution as it transformed its business from a hardware centric business in Turkey to a global software powerhouse both on the edge and the cloud, while also providing the most advanced access points. We are excited to now hand over the baton to the Providence team for the next chapter of Airties.
It was 1999 at Goldman Sachs, and a senior person in its private bank was asked what he was recommending his very rich clients buy. He replied that they should purchase AOL, and hold it for life. Its so easy to forget how very blue chip and everywhere AOL once was. In fact, everywhere was one of AOLs marketing descriptors. How things change.

Change is something to keep in mind as critics and fans of Elon Musks bid (and recently announced agreement to purchase it) for Twitter seemingly lose theirs. Musks mere proposal to purchase Twitter unsurprisingly unearthed impassioned reactions. The impassioned should relax. Even given the recent news.

For one thing, its hard to imagine Musk would purchase Twitter and take it private if his plan were to lead the social media giant down a path familiar to its users. If history is any guide to Musk, hes a doer as opposed to a follower. Which means the very idea of him purchasing Twitter just so he can tweak a few things reads as ridiculous. Musk as a rule takes his customers or potential customers in all new directions; often amid great skepticism. Which is a long or short way of telling critics and fans to stop cheering or critiquing a future that none of us can realistically foretell.

For now, the speculation seems to be that the free speech absolutist in Musk will open up the platform to more speech. Maybe he will, maybe he wont.

Whatever the answer, members of the Left should stop worrying. Really, what do they have to fear? Particularly if they think the Right nuts as is, giving whats apparently nuts a bigger platform will hardly elevate it. Furthermore, free speech cuts both ways. In which case it seems unrealistic that Musk would spend tens of billions just to give the Right more of a voice.

Another speculated on fear of the Left is that unlike the present regime, a Musk-owned Twitter wouldnt squash stories like the one involving Hunter Biden. Maybe not, but then who honestly didnt know about Hunter Biden and the laptop before the November of 2020 elections? Which is the point. The covering up of what wasnt well known is what made it well known. Basically Banned in Boston is the best way to sell lots of your books, or get your story lots of publicity. Think about it. To censor is to amplify what you're censoring.

As for members of the Right who think social media has been unfair to them, and who think that Musk will make it more fair, please look around you. Check out most any right-of-center advocacy organization, think tank, of anything else associated with politics. Having done that, please check out the doings of those organizations on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat, TikTok, and yes, Twitter. They all have major presences on each, and better yet, theyre looking to expand them. While its probably true that employees of the companies mentioned swing Left, they love money more than they do ideology. Which means the platforms mentioned are far less hostile to the Right and its organizations and Parties than most would like to admit. Those entities have been undeniably good for the Right. In other words, Musk and Twitter as a step toward free speech is much less of a story than most anyone would care to admit.

Critics think it terrifying that someone so rich could control such an important speech platform (Washington Post), while supporters have billed Musks ability to purchase Twitter and open it up to speech as a battle for Americas soul" (Epoch Times - Roger Simon). Oh wow, were a really rich country full of people with too much time and too much emotion. Seriously?

Back to reality, nothing lasts forever. Nothing. Whats true applies to Twitter. To pretend that so much importance can be derived from one company and its owner is just childish, and it insults the greatest country on earth. Referencing this write-ups opening, does anyone remember AOL? Not really, and if they do, they remember it as an example of what used to be relevant.

Implicit in all this wailing about Twitter is that were at the frontier of speech and communication, and Twitter is the final advance. Such a view is much less than serious.

Assuming Musk completes the purchase of Twitter and improves it, well all win. If not, and even if he turns out to not be the free speech absolutist that some claim, failure won't foretell censorhip as far as the eye can see as much as it will signal a business opportunity for an entrepreneur eager to knock a censorious Twitter of its perch. Wise minds should relax.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/27/2022



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

alum Hannah Godwin has shared a new update on the planning for her upcoming wedding to fiance Dylan Barbour Hannah and Dylan fell in love and got engaged on 's sixth season in June 2019, but they've had to push their wedding back due to COVID-19 and to cut back on their spending after financing and moving into a new home together in San Diego, CA.But it appears the happy couple, who recently traveled to Europe on vacation, is finally getting the ball rolling on their wedding plans."Yeah, we looked at a venue -- our very first venue!" Hannah revealed on a recent episode of The Bachelorette alums Becca Kufrin and Michelle Young 's "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast."We were like, 'We're just going to set the bar so high, maybe a little too high."Hannah shared how she and Dylan were "always curious about what a wedding venue in Italy would look like.""I kind of like the idea of European vibes, I guess," the model noted."So we were like, 'We'll start there and maybe we'll like it a lot.' I mean, of course we loved it, but logistically, we'd have to kind of talk through how that would be possible."Hannah said the idea was to check out a beautiful wedding venue in Italy and then return to California and scope out venues there."We can kind of take bits and pieces and compare it to this beautiful venue that we saw, which was amazing," Hannah said.The "amazing" Italian venue was Villa Balbiano in Lake Como."It was just, like, unreal. But that's the only thing; I'm worried I set [my expectations] a little too high. I got there and I was like, 'Mmm, yeah, I get it! I get it. But am I going to get it?' I was trying to figure it out," Hannah explained.Considering Lake Como would be a destination wedding, Hannah admitted she'd "definitely have to downsize" the guest list to make sure her closest family and friends could attend."We kind of liked the idea of that a little bit too, where it can just be a little bit smaller and more personal," Hannah said."But the only way I would be able to have it is if I can have my people there, you know?"Michelle therefore suggested maybe Hannah and Dylan could honeymoon in Lake Como instead.In February, Hannah told People of her postponed wedding, "We decided to buy a new house. And there's only so much money in the world. So, coming soon. I'm sorry."When a follower asked Hannah what her wedding dress will look like, Hannah replied, "Part of me wants simple, but then I'm like... I can always wear a simple dress. You know? Maybe I go big, like Vogue. I don't really know."Hannah and Dylan initially decided on an early 2020 wedding, but their planning got derailed due to the global outbreak of coronavirus -- and now more than two years have passed."[The date has been] pushed back a bit. We've been eyeing 2023 so we'll see how it goes," Hannah told Us Weekly in September 2021.Dylan said at the time he and Hannah hoped to wed in Spring 2023 because they don't want to exchange vows in the winter, and Hannah shared how they had already hired a wedding planner and anticipated tying the knot in California since the West Coast has captured their hearts."We're loving being engaged," the model and social-media influencer gushed to the magazine last year."We are excited to, like, start the next chapter whenever that is though. We are getting eager for it."Hannah and the Vizer app co-founder agreed at the time they'd like to have an "outdoor, European-ish" wedding.Hannah also confirmed earlier this year that she and Dylan don't want to get married on television for ABC cameras and viewers."For our wedding, we'd just want it to be personal, like, as close-knit as we possibly can. We want to just keep it personal and small," Hannah explained.Hannah said she believes the wedding will be "more enjoyable" the more intimate it is."And we won't have to be greeting people the whole time essentially," she added."It's going to be nice I think just to have everybody -- like for it to be a memory for everybody and not just like us. We want to really enjoy it."Hannah and Dylan also expressed how they didn't appreciate criticism about their delayed wedding or doubts about their future as a couple.Hannah told Us last year how she and Dylan "love" being each other's rock and support system."We just are each other's No. 1 biggest fan and it's really cool. It's really cool," Hannah gushed.Prior to meeting on , Hannah competed for Colton Underwood 's heart on The Bachelor's 23rd season and Dylan appeared on The Bachelorette's fifteenth season starring Hannah Brown During 's sixth season, Dylan called Hannah the love of his life and had no doubts in his mind that she was his person.Dylan basically fell in love with Hannah during the first week of Paradise, but Hannah was a little terrified of investing her heart into a man after her breakup with Colton.Dylan, however, never gave up on their potential, even when Blake Horstmann was trying to charm her.After Hannah worked through "a few obstacles" inside of herself, she accepted Dylan's marriage proposal.At the reunion portion of the show, Dylan said getting engaged to Hannah was "the best decision" he's ever made."We talk all the time, like, 'How did this all work out for us?' But for some reason, it did. He's my person and I have a different kind of love for him that I knew existed, and that's really special," Hannah shared in Summer 2019.Hannah also revealed at the time they had met each other's families and she'd be moving from Birmingham, AL, to California in order to be closer to Dylan and his job.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/26/2022



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

alum Ashley Hebert has paid a sweet tribute to her boyfriend Yanni Georgoulakis on social media in honor of their one-year dating anniversary.Ashley, who starred on 's seventh season, paid Yanni a tribute Monday, April 25 on her Instagram Story, revealing that they've been together for a year and she's totally smitten.Ashley began her post by uploading a photo of Yanni -- the founder of "Foody Fetish," a social-media brand which boasts over three million followers on Instagram, and the co-founder of several restaurants -- snapping a picture of two cocktails at a restaurant."One year ago, I went on my first date with this cutie," Ashley wrote on the photo.She went on to joke, "He took photos of food almost the entire time."Ashley then posted a photo of Yanni checking a skillet's heat on her stove."Then he would come over and cook for me," Ashley revealed.Ashley proceeded to share a photo of the couple lounging on a beautiful deck in their pajamas, writing, "Since then, we've traveled."Ashley and Yanni have traveled to romantic destinations such as Mexico and Curacao.After posting a video of Yanni pointing out the sunset from a balcony, Ashley continued, "[We've also] enjoyed sunsets, danced, laughed, dined, spent time on our phones, traveled, and ate some more."As Ashley listed the pair's activities over the past year, she posted a video of Yanni dancing in her kitchen as well as a clip of herself playfully stealing one of Yanni's crispy onion rings at a restaurant.Ashley also included a sweet selfie of the couple in her slideshow as well as a video of Ashley curled up on a daybed looking at her phone, which ended with Yanni sneaking up behind her and scaring her.Ashley also thanked Yanni for "taking the best pictures," which apparently includes an image of Ashley floating in the ocean in a pink bikini.Ashley went on to thank her man "for bringing calm, peace and unconditional love to my heart."Ashley concluded on her Instagram Story, "Can't wait for Year 2 with you," alongside another great picture of the couple posing next to each other and smiling big for the camera.Yanni is reportedly 37 years old, just like Ashley, and currently resides in Miami, FL, where Ashley also lives, according to Us Weekly.Ashley, who works in pediatric dentistry, just revealed in late March that her relationship was getting serious and her boyfriend -- whom she never identified herself on social media -- had already met her two children : son Fordham, 7, and daughter Essex, 5."I introduced him after about nine months...as one of my friends. Not sure how this happened, but they thought he was their babysitter," Ashley told her followers during an Instagram Q&A session.She added with crying-laughing emoticons, "They said he was the best babysitter ever. Lol."Ashley first announced she has a new boyfriend in late October 2021, which was right around the time she finalized her divorce from ex-husband and winner J.P. Rosenbaum , who is also the father of her kids."I spent the first 4-5 months in denial about the relationship," Ashley told a fan during her recent Q&A. "That's prob why it went by so fast. LOL."J.P., 44, filed for divorce in Miami-Dade County in Florida on July 28, 2021, according to court records obtained by E! News.J.P. previously told the website there was "no fighting" with Ashley as they proceeded with a divorce and they intended to remain "friendly" in order to co-parent their two children."It's 100% Perfectly ok to NOT have all the answers, to NOT know what the future holds, to be afraid, to have anxiety, to feel uneasy about anything and everything," J.P. wrote on Instagram in August 2021 shortly after filing for divorce.But J.P. told his followers to "embrace the unknown" and "live your life."When Ashley announced she has a new boyfriend in October, she said J.P. had not met him yet, but the situation has likely changed since then.After all, Ashley assured her fans around that time that she'd be careful whom she introduces to her children and J.P. would meet a significant man in her life before she'd allow the kids to have a meet and greet."I'm pretty sure my kids don't understand what dating is," Ashley noted last year. "If I am serious enough with someone, they will meet JP first, then the kids. But wow, I don't feel ready for that yet!"While Ashley appears happy and moved on from her marriage, she apparently isn't sure she'd like to walk down the aisle again.Ashley said last year that "marriage complicates things" and she would "rather just love someone and choose to be with them."When asked whether she and J.P. were still "friends" in October -- considering the pair had just reunited for Ford's birthday party -- Ashley responded, "Define friends?""We communicate as necessary for the well-being of our children! He still never laughs at my jokes," she added.Ashley also said last summer that she's "all for" J.P. meeting someone new and she'd like for him to find a partner who will make him happy."If JP introduces someone to me, that means it's serious. I would be very happy for him. Honestly," Ashley insisted. "If JP is happy that means my kids are around someone that is bright, uplifting, loving, etc etc."Ashley admitted she and J.P. had broken up in part because they "see the cup differently.""I lost a huge part of what I loved about myself towards the end of my marriage," Ashley said after announcing the breakup. "I feel like myself again. Don't have an explanation for it tho."Ashley and J.P. announced in October 2020 they had decided to split up and "separate ways" after nearly eight years of marriage."It is with a heavy heart that I share with you that, after months of separation, JP and I have amicably decided to go our separate ways," Ashley captioned a photo of the couple in happier times on Instagram."We created the most beautiful children and shared memories that will never be forgotten. Our differences have taken a toll on our relationship and after years of attempting to repair the damage, we've decided that it is in our family's best interest to create new and separate lives for our children."According to J.P.'s Instagram posting, couple had already been separated for months prior to their big announcements."I have written and rewritten this post dozens of times and each time I feel the same level of disbelief and extreme sadness," J.P. wrote on Instagram in Spring 2021."While I realize that this will come as a complete shock to everyone, I can assure you that this is something that has been developing in our relationship for quite a while. It is with a heavy heart that I share with you that after months of separation, Ashley and I have amicably decided to live our lives apart from one another."In his posting, J.P. also insisted the couple had done "absolutely everything" they could to save their marriage and they've had irreconcilable differences for years."Please please please know that there is no one to blame, that there's no event that triggered this decision, that no one is the victim, and that we've done absolutely everything we possibly can to try to salvage this marriage," he wrote."I think we've both come to realize that we are just two very different people, with very different personalities and perspectives, who just don't see eye to eye on a lot life fundamentals, those which are the building blocks for a happy and healthy marriage."couple's split announcement came two years after Ashley and J.P. had renewed their wedding vows in a beachfront ceremony in Aruba in August 2018.Ashley originally appeared on Season 15 of The Bachelor starring Brad Womack and then became 's seventh-season star.Ashley ended up selecting J.P. over her runner-up, Ben Flajnik , at season's Final Rose Ceremony for Season 7 in Fiji.J.P. proposed marriage to Ashley in the finale that aired on ABC in Summer 2011, and the couple got married in December 2012 in a ceremony that was also televised.couple welcomed Fordham in September 2014 and Essex Reese in November 2016.In 2017, Ashley and J.P. also appeared on Season 7 of Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars.During their Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars appearance, Ashley voiced her frustration with J.P.'s "tunnel vision with work" while J.P. found Ashley's inability to put him first "reprehensible."In addition, Ashley and J.P. were shown disagreeing on parenting approaches.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
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.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

A mainly sunny sky. High 71F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low 39F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
To the editor: I am writing in regards to the article West River Education District urged to act quickly on racism, published on April 28.
Pregnant woman sentenced for drugged driving; she might be out of jail by the time baby is born
To the editor: Regarding the issue of Brattleboro severing its ties with Rescue Inc. ("Brattleboro, Rescue Inc. to go their separate ways after contract dispute," April 11).

It seems to me that a new town manager should at least experience one year of what has been going on for over 50 years and try to understand what a decision to change such a long standing performance means to the town. When the Brattleboro Fire Department has to take over the operation with two new ambulances, at a cost of around $400,000 each, hire and train the new staff and cover medical and other benefits, it will find out that it is a bit more complicated than it sounds. Where are the new ambulances going to be housed? Do we have to enlarge the new fire department and also enlarge the sleeping and eating areas? All costs of these additions and training I dont believe have been considered. It has taken 50 or so years to build Rescue. This years cost has been projected to be the same. Does the town understand that Rescue does benefits to raise money and the many people in town donate funds to support it? I cant imagine the fire department holding fund raising events.

Brattleboro clears hurdle for paramedic license NEWFANE  The Brattleboro Fire Department received approval from the Vermont EMS District 13

I am losing respect for our Select Board members. Years ago the pay was $500 a year and we met every week, not counting the extra meetings. I just cant believe that a new town manager with about four months on the job would make such an important decision with so little experience.

We at Sams (Outdoor Outfitters) worked with Rescue for over 20 years with a free hunter's breakfast exposing the building and donating time and money for their support. One has to work with Rescue to understand what great citizens they are and how they take their responsibility for service and dedication to the whole area. They now cover most of Southern Vermont. Where does the town start and end for the fire department? Rescue does not have to make that decision.

Remember also that a decision was made last fall to have Rescue resume their service.

The Select Board and new town manager need to revisit this issue.

Stanley "Pal" Borofsky

Brattleboro, April 21
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The mothers in your life deserve a special day, and these Connecticut restaurants are rolling out memorable Mother's Day menus for brunch and dinner. All events are on May 9 unless otherwise specified.

Bernards in Ridgefield hosts both brunch and dinner. A $70 prix-fixe brunch menu is available between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., with entrees like eggs Benedict, roasted sirloin with organic egg, lobster fricassee with green pea ravioli, sauteed filet of bronzini, French-cut breast of chicken or beef Wellington (for an upcharge.) Dinner, from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m., features a $125 prix-fixe menu with entrees like bronzini, roasted pork chop, roasted half-chicken or beef Wellington. Kids' menus for children under 12 are $45 at brunch; $65 at dinner. 203-438-8282.

Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media

Artisan Restaurant in Southport offers a special Mother's Day menu from noon to 7 p.m., with entree options like spring risotto primavera, Maine lobster fra diavolo, halibut crusted with Jasper Hill's Whitney cheese, local sea scallops, Scottish salmon a la plancha, Amish chicken breast, crispy duck breast and filet mignon. Cost is $85 per person; $45 for young adults 12 and under. 203-307-4222.

The Cottage in Westport serves a special Mothers Day meal from noon to 7 p.m., with a prix-fixe menu ($85 per guest; $45 per child under 12). Main course selections include king salmon in cedar paper, Rhode Island black bass, spring vegetable farrotto and Painted Hills beef tenderloin. 203-557-3701.

The Cottage's Greenwich location also hosts Mother's Day from noon to 6 p.m., with entree options of king salmon, Maine halibut, beef tenderloin or spring vegetable farrotto. Cost is $85 per person; $45 for children under 12. 203-769-1220.

L'escale in Greenwich offers a three-course prix-fixe menu from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., for $95 per person. The menu will be posted at lescalerestaurant.com. 203-661-4600.

Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media

Riverview Bistro in Stratford hosts a Mother's Day brunch buffet with seatings between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The menu features a breakfast station, hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, raw bar items, hot entrees, a carving station with prime rib and roasted pork loin, desserts and unlimited mimosas. Cost is $45.95 for adults, $19.95 for kids ages 5 to 12. 203-690-1616.

The Capital Grille, with locations in Hartford and Stamford, will open early on Mother's Day and serve its full menu, plus brunch specials from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Specials include lobster frittata with butter-poached lobster tails, truffle Hollandaise, asparagus and white cheddar hash browns, along with two steak dishes: 14-ounce bone-in, dry-aged NY strip and eggs, and eight-ounce center cut filet mignon. 860-244-0075 (Hartford); 203-967-0000 (Stamford).

Rive Bistro in Westport serves its Mother's Day menu from noon to 6 p.m., with entrees like grilled salmon, duck breast a l'orange, filet mignon rossini, branzino a la plancha and rigatoni with vegetable ragout. Cost is $68 per person, $30 for kids. 203-557-8049.

Barcelona Wine Bar offers Mother's Day specials in addition to its regular brunch menus at its locations in Fairfield, Norwalk, Stamford, New Haven and West Hartford.

Courtesy of Barcelona Wine Bar

Madison Beach Hotel's The Wharf restaurant serves Mother's Day brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a soup station, raw bar items, carving and omelet stations, assorted salads, hot breakfast and lunch entrees and a selection of desserts. Cost is $97 for adults, $45 for children ages 6 to 12, free for kids 5 and under. Advanced reservations are required, with pre-payment. 203-350-0014.

Hilton Mystic hosts Mother's Day brunch with seatings at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., with buffet stations featuring breakfast items, soups, frittatas, salads, carved baked glazed ham and herb crusted sirloin, hot entrees and desserts. Each Mom will receive a small gift to take home. Cost is $76, all inclusive; children under 5 are free. Tickets are available online at Eventbrite.

Stone Acres Farm in Stonington hosts Mother's Day brunch from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with a three-course menu and bubbly. Cost is $59 for adults, $20 for children. Reserve online at Resy.

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar in West Hartford offers a three-course menu on May 7 and 8, with choice of salad, entree and dessert. Entree options include petite filet mignon with crab-stuffed shrimp scampi ($90) or lobster tail scampi ($100.)

Millwright's Restaurant in Simsbury offers a special Mother's Day three-course prix-fixe menu. Entree choices include ham with onion and Gruyere crepe, crab and lobster cake Benedict, Painted Hills NY strip, spring lamb duo, mahi mahi with lemon coconut brodo, ricotta gnocchi and mushroom "fettuccine." Cost is $65 for adults, $30 for children. 860-651-5500.

Winter Caplanson

Grano Arso in Chester offers Mother's Day brunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a four-course menu featuring choice of appetizer, pasta and entree. Main course options include tender chuck roast of beef, Arctic char or polenta torta. Cost is $68 per person. 860-322-3143.

Shell & Bones Oyster Bar and Grill in New Haven will be open on Mothers Day from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., offering specials in addition to its a la carte menu. Specials include crabmeat asparagus avocado toast, squid ink fettuccini with lobster bolognese sauce and spring vegetables and red snapper with baby clams, Merguez sausage and Romesco broth. Reserve online or call 203-787-3466.

Saybrook Point Resort & Marina in Old Saybrook hosts Mother's Day brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with breakfast items, waffle and omelet stations, seafood and charcuterie selections, salads, a carving station with prime rib, ham and turkey breast; pastas and hot entrees. Cost is $79.95 for adults, $44.95 for children 5 and older. Reservations are required: 860-388-1111

Water's Edge Resort & Spa in Westbrook hosts Mother's Day brunch from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with roasts carved to order, fresh pastas, omelets prepared to order, a Belgian waffle and crepe bar, hot and cold breakfast items, hot entrees and desserts. Cost is $59 for adults, $25 for kids ages 6 to 10, free for kids 5 and under. Reservations: 860-399-5901.

Mohegan Sun offers assorted dining specials at its restaurants, including Jasper White's Summer Shack, Lansdowne Irish Pub, Michael Jordan's Steak House and SolToro.

Pond House Cafe in West Hartford hosts Mother's Day brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with breakfast and savory items. A carving station offers beef tenderloin, rosemary peach glazed turkey breast, herb roasted leg of lamb, seared ahi tuna and porchetta, and another station features waffles and French toast. Egg dishes include assorted Benedicts and omelets, and savory dishes include pulled pork and black bean burritos, beet cured salmon, chicken and waffles, cod cakes and sweet potato falafel. Cost is $64.87 for adults, $38.31 for kids ages 5 to 12. 860-231-8823.
NEW MILFORD  After two hours of heated discussion at Tuesday nights Board of Education meeting, New Milford High School Principal Raymond Manka rescinded his resignation and plans to continue leading the school.

Immediately upon Mankas announcement, about 150 people in the audience applauded and cheered for more than five minutes.

Manka announced his resignation Friday in an email sent to parents at the high school. The resignation was followed with an online petition to oust superintendent Alisha DiCorpo and a Monday walkout by New Milford students. DiCopro and Manka have declined to address the reason for the resignation.

Manka became principal in the spring of 2021, when he replaced former Principal Greg Shugrue.

The petition, created by a caregiver of a student at the high school, circulated on social media indicating Manka would be one of about 10 staff members who left the district since DiCorpo was hired about 18 months ago. The petition, which has nearly 1,800 signatures, claims the high turnover is due to DiCorpos leadership.

On Monday morning, several hundred students at New Milford High School participated in a walk-out, in an effort to keep Manka at the school.

Throughout the one-hour public comment period of Tuesdays Board of Education meeting, more than a dozen parents and students spoke in support of Manka  many sharing personal stories of how Manka changed their lives and the lives of their children.

One student was sophomore Joseph Russell, who said the school needs leadership like Mankas more than ever  in light of prior principals who have left and because of the pandemic.

As students, we have been hugely affected by COVID since March of 2020. The last thing that we need is another new principal. Over the past 10 months, Mr. Manka has made our school a happy and exciting place, a place that I never dreaded going to and a place where we all felt very included, Russell said. We do not want to have our third principal in high school going into our junior year after COVID.

Russell said Manka helped his family through a recent traumatic period.

Principal Manka was the first one to reach out to me. He put a team together immediately to make sure that I had somebody to turn to in the event that I needed assistance, he said.

Jen LaCava, an English teacher at New Milford High School and parent of two students at the school, spoke about the adjustment period Manka went through coming into his new role.

Mr. Manka started off the year in almost a dire situation. He came into a brand new computer system to all of the staff and faculty as we introduced Power School at New Milford High School. He fielded hundreds of phone calls and emails from irate parents, taking blame for incorrect schedules, people not being able to log in ... and not one of these issues was his fault, LaCava said.

She said, However, he graciously returned each email and phone call with politeness and professionalism until the program was made more manageable. Teachers and staff were also frustrated with the lack of time focused on Power School training, and he bore the brunt of that as well, with calmness and transparency, giving us time and opportunity to master the program ... Mr. Manka met these challenges head-on and kept a positive attitude throughout the entire year.

She said Manka is an effective communicator and a visible presence in our building. He is present in nearly all student functions and champions these kids every chance that he gets. He is invested in them, and they can feel it and that makes a difference. As a teacher, I feel supported by his administration.

A handful addressed DiCorpo  both in support of her leadership and against it.

Shortly after public comment ended, the board took a 10-minute break and then, upon returning, asked publicly for Manka to speak in regard to his resignation  to which he stepped up to the podium and rescinded it.

I would really like to express my thanks and gratitude for the school community, the community at large, and also to the board for granting me the opportunity to speak this evening, Manka told Hearst Connecticut Media after his announcement, while students and parents surrounded him with smiles and laughter. There are still things that have to happen and work that has to be done, but I look forward to being able to still work in and support my community.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)  The state of Connecticut moved closer Tuesday toward placing tougher restrictions on marijuana advertising, including barring ads from cross-border retail cannabis establishments such as the billboard ads that have popped up along the state's border with Massachusetts.

A bill cleared the House of Representatives, by a vote of 98-48, that prevents anyone without a Connecticut cannabis-related license from advertising the product and cannabis-services within the state. The same bill also bars Connecticut licensees from using images of the cannabis plant as well as from advertising on an illuminated billboard between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. and from advertising within 1,500 yards of a school or church.

These new restrictions would be in addition to the state's original rules for cannabis advertising that were included in the legalization law that passed last year. While residents over the age of 21 can legally possess up to 1.5 ounces (42.5 grams) of marijuana in Connecticut, retail recreational cannabis establishments are not expected to begin operating in the state until late 2022 at the earliest.

Rep. Mike D'Agostino, D-Hamden, said both Democratic and Republican legislators, especially those representing border towns, approached the General Assembly's General Law Committee this year and said, Look, I'm sick of seeing these billboards with cannabis leaves splayed all across them, within 1,500 yards across from a school or church or whatever. Can't we do something more about that?

Rather than an outright ban on the advertising, which would raised constitutional issues, D'Agostino said this legislation provides very reasonable time, place and manner restrictions while also requiring those who advertise to hold Connecticut licenses.

The bill, which now awaits Senate action, marks the first of what lawmakers predicted will be regular updates to Connecticut law.

We haven't even begun to see the impact of this, said House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, who opposed last year's marijuana legalization bill, predicting it will have a negative impact on children.

The same bill also tightens rules for gifting marijuana. Some legislators have raised concerns about cannabis bazaars, where people barter for marijuana, essentially circumventing the state's regulated marketplace, D'Agostino said. Participants might pay a cover charge to get into one of these events or buy an item, such as a T-shirt, to obtain marijuana.

D'Agostino stressed that lawmakers are not banning people from giving someone a gift of marijuana, but rather trying to reign in these commercial exchanges.

You can gift to your friends and relatives. You can host a brownie party at your house, D'Agostino said.

The issue has been a controversial one among marijuana advocates, some of whom recently staged a protest on the state Capitol grounds where they handed out marijuana cigarettes. Some said the gifting events have had personal benefits, especially for people with anxiety issues who might not be able to afford marijuana otherwise.

The bill also allows physician assistants to prescribe medical marijuana in Connecticut. Additionally, beginning in fiscal year 2024, the bill eliminates the registration and renewal fees for medical marijuana patients. They typically total about $200.
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U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and Vice President Kamala Harris each announced Tuesday a positive COVID diagnosis.

After feeling mild symptoms overnight, I tested positive for COVID this morning, Murphy said on Twitter. We've done the contact tracing and let people know. It's a bummer, but I'm sure if I wasn't fully vaccinated, I would be feeling a lot worse.

Harris also tested positive, though the White House said she was not experiencing symptoms.

She has exhibited no symptoms, will isolate and continue to work from the vice presidents residence, the White House said in a prepared statement. She has not been a close contact to the president or first lady due to their respective recent travel schedules.

Harris and Murphy are the latest high-ranking politicians to test positive. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo all tested positive earlier this month.

After Gov. Ned Lamont, Lt Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong all tested positive for COVID earlier this month, Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani said their mild symptoms were indicative of the value of vaccination.

This is a testament to the vaccines, she said. These vaccines work and they're doing well.

COVID metrics have been slowly rising in Connecticut with the state announcing an additional 5,156 cases identified over the last seven days out of 60,564 reported tests, a positivity rate of 8.51 percent, the highest since the omicron surge subsided this winter.

The state also reported an increase of 41 COVID-related hospitalizations over the last seven days, for a total of 191.

But Pedro Mendes, a disease modeler at the University of Connecticut, said Tuesday he did not expect hospitalizations to increase dramatically.

He said his latest prediction is still only showing a small wave of hospitalizations that should be peaking around the first week of May.
NEW YORK (AP)  A Florida teen who became a prominent opponent of the state's so-called Don't Say Gay bill will be honored at next month's PEN America gala. Jack Petocz, a high school junior, will be presented the PEN/Benenson Freedom of Expression Courage Award.

Jack Petocz is leading his generation in fighting back against book bans and legislative efforts to police how individual identities can be discussed in schools, Suzanne Nossel, CEO of the literary and human rights organization, said in a statement Wednesday.

Jack understands that the struggles he and his peers are waging for a more equitable and inclusive society cannot succeed without robust free speech protections. He has been fearless in asserting his rights and those of others in the face of political forces that are determined to meet ideas they disagree with not with reasoned argument, but with bans and punishments.

Petocz helped organize a statewide Say Gay student walkout in early March to protest the bill, which forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. He was briefly suspended from Flagler Palm Coast High School for handing out LGBTQ+ pride flags during a protest there.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law on March 28.

Asia Kate Dillon, known for their roles in Orange Is the New Black and Billions, will present the award to Petocz. Among previous honorees are Darnella Frazier, who recorded on video the murder of George Floyd; and two survivors of the shootings at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Also on Wednesday, PEN announced that actor, author and radio and television commentator Faith Salie will host the May 23 gala, to be held at the American Museum of Natural History. Other honorees will include the imprisoned Ukrainian journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko, Audible founder Don Katz and author Zadie Smith.

Oscar winner Michael Douglas will present Yesypenko's award to the journalist's wife, Kateryna Yesypenko.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  LGBTQ rights advocates called Tuesday for a Kansas state lawmaker to be formally censured after she publicly said she didn't want to share the women's restrooms at the Statehouse with a transgender colleague.

The Kansas House's top Republican called GOP state Rep. Cheryl Helmers comments unfortunate and Democrats condemned them. The state's leading LGBTQ rights lobbyist saw a new level of toxic bigotry in Helmer's emailed remarks to a University of Kansas student and subsequent interviews about Democratic state Rep. Stephanie Byers.

The furor over Helmer's remarks shadowed GOP lawmakers' attempt to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a bill that would ban transgender athletes from girls' and women's K-12 and college sports.

We know this has been going on in offices, and back rooms and conversations since the day I was elected, Byers said Tuesday. The shocking part is that it came out, that someone actually said it.

Helmer stood firmly by her comments while defending a bill she co-sponsored that would make it a felony for doctors to provide hormones or do gender transition surgery for children under 18. She also said she worried about the safety of young children who visit the Statehouse and decried what she called an in your face approach to promoting transgender rights from Byers, the state's first elected transgender lawmaker.

The 70-year-old Republican lawmaker also said she tried to make a point when she mistakenly entered a mens restroom in the House in early 2021. The men, she said, were surprised and upset, so she asked them how they would like it if a woman regularly used their restroom. Pressed on the issue Monday evening, she said parents shouldnt be allowed to change their childs gender.

You cant lop a penis off and then expect, you know, a little boy to now live his life, she said. Hell be in regret for the rest of his life.

Supporters of the bill on transgender athletes have said they want to preserve fair competition and are not attacking transgender girls and women. LGBTQ rights advocates said Helmer's comments prove anti-trans bigotry is behind the measure.

The Kansas Senate voted 28-10 on Tuesday to override Kellys veto of the transgender athletes bill. A House vote will follow, but it wasnt likely this week.

Republicans in at least 15 states have enacted bans on transgender athletes, and several have outlawed gender-affirming medical care for children. In Michigan, a conservative state senator accused a Democratic colleague of wanting to groom and sexualize young children, prompting a response that went viral on social media.

Helmer is a retired Wichita school counselor and nursing instructor, a conservative Republican elected in 2018 to represent a district south of the state's largest city. She participates in rodeo barrel racing and has a sign in her office that says, My horse is smarter than your honor student.

Byers, 59, is a retired Wichita high school music teacher and band director who was elected to the House in 2020.

In her email Sunday to 25-year-old University of Kansas graduate student Brenan Riffel, Helmer wrote: Now, personally I do not appreciate the huge transgender female who is now in our restrooms in the Capitol. Riffel, who describes themself as trans-feminine and uses the pronouns they/them, released the email to the Kansas Reflector, a nonprofit news provider.

Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, called on the Kansas House to censure Helmer, something that would take a formal complaint from another lawmaker and a two-thirds majority vote.

It is a new level of toxic bigotry that I have not seen in this building before," Witt said.

Equality Kansas later sent a letter to House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., a Kansas City-area Republican, demanding that Helmer be punished. The speaker can strip a House member of committee assignments, but Ryckman noted that committees no longer are meeting for the year.

Ryckman said that if another lawmakers files a complaint, the House will form a committee to investigate, adding, She will be held accountable by her constituents.

Byers said several lawmakers have moved away from her in the elevator, and that the Kansas Republican Partys last platform, drafted in 2018, declares that, We believe God created two genders, male and female.

In her email to Riffel, Helmer wrote, A doctor can inject meds and dilute but cannot destroy what God has done in the perfection of the HUMAN BEING.

Riffel said in an interview that they weren't surprised by Helmer's response, considering what it would take" to sponsor the bill banning gender-affirming care for trans youth.

The rhetoric against the LGBTQ community has been the same for years, that were a threat to society; were going to hurt people, said Riffel. I just want to go about and just be myself."

___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  House lawmakers will vote next week on a congressional map built around the Interstate 93 corridor despite opposition from Gov. Chris Sununu.

The House Special Committee on Redistricting voted 8-7 on Wednesday to recommend a plan that creates a new, Republican-leaning 1st Congressional District by clumping together towns and cities along I-93 in the southern half of the state, with the 2nd District reaching up and around it on both sides. Sununu has promised to veto an earlier plan passed by both the House and Senate, and has indicated the new one falls short as well.

Under the current map, the 1st District covers the eastern part of the state and some of the south, including Manchester. The 2nd District covers the western, northern and some southern communities, including Nashua.

Both seats are held by Democrats  Rep. Chris Pappas in the 1st District and Rep. Annie Kuster in the 2nd  but the new plan would put both of their hometowns in the 1st District. It also would move several of the current candidates for the GOP nomination in the 1st District to the 2nd. Candidates are not required to live in the district they seek to represent. The maps creator, Rep. Ross Berry, said he did not take incumbency into account.

Instead, Berry said his goals included achieving as even a population split as possible, keeping counties intact and grouping together communities with similar economic interests.

I gave you exactly what you asked for, Berry, R-Manchester, told Democrats on the committee.

The current map hasnt changed drastically since 1880, but Berry argued that it should be abandoned because it was drawn to dilute the Catholic vote.

For how many more centuries should we continue to eat around the edges and not just recognize the population of the state has shifted? he said.

But Democrats, who favored moving just a single town  Hampstead  from the 1st District to the 2nd, noted that every map since 1880 has been created by Republicans.

Each of the Republican majorities every 10 years since 1880 has recognized that the state has been here for a long time and things change... but we do not operate from a blank slate, said Rep. Marjorie Smith, D-Durham. We do not go back and pretend that nothing that happened before matters.

Sununu said Monday hes not in favor of Berrys plan.

The people of New Hampshire are counting on the House Special Committee on Redistricting to deliver a map that holds our incumbents accountable and keeps our districts competitive, he said. We are still not there.
NORWALK  Two schools along Highland Avenue are set to receive sidewalk makeovers before the fall.

Last month, the city released a Request for Proposals for a company to complete the curbing and sidewalks along Highland Avenue, in front of three of the citys public schools.

With the bidding period closed Monday, the city received three bids on the project, Transportation, Parking and Mobility Department Director Jim Travers said.

The project is estimated to cost between $600,000 and $650,000, as part of the federal Safe Routes to School transportation program, Travers said.

This has been a priority for the administration and department for some time. For several years, we proportionally requested capital funding and each year the department requested $225,000 for Safe Routes to School, Travers said. We look for these funds to look at improved sidewalks to schools, other infrastructure investments, whether that be flashing signs, better crossings.

For three years, the $225,000 appropriated for Safe Routes to School was saved to be used on the Highland Avenue sidewalk project, Travers said.

Safe Routes to School is a program run by the U.S. Department of Transportation that encourages infrastructure changes that make it easier for students to walk to and from school each day, increasing childhood health and decreasing environmental impact, according to the U.S. DOT.

With the Bike/Walk Commission, Travers and his department viewed Highland Avenue as a priority for repaving.

Along 1 mile of Highland Avenue, there is Brookside Elementary School, Brien McMahon High School and Roton Middle School. The sidewalks connecting the three schools will be repaved.

The new sidewalks will run from the intersection of Meredith Court and Highland Avenue to the intersection of Charcoal Road and Highland Avenue, ending shortly before Roton Middle School, according to the RFP.

The sidewalk in front of Roton was not included in the project as new sidewalk was installed on that strip a few years ago, Travers said.

So, itll be one continuous stretch of new sidewalk. More importantly for Highland, its connecting three schools on the street, Travers said.

The curbing and sidewalk work will be conducted between June 20 and Aug. 19, in time for the start of the 2022-23 school year, according to the RFP.

The city will ensure an entrance to each school will be available during the construction, Travers said.

We have been in contact with all three schools to let them know. We are coordinating the day when school is out, Travers said. If we do sidewalks through schools, we will do half at a time to never block access into school. We will work with every property owner and schools for anything. We dont want this to be massively disruptive, but we really believe the benefit will be worth it.

The new sidewalk and curb designs will include updated accessibility ramps and pavement signage preventing drivers from blocking ramps and crosswalks, Travers said.

Bike lanes along the avenue will be widened as well, making for safer sidewalks as distance is added between drivers and the sidewalk, Travers said.

The project was in the works for a while before Travers and his team completed the design and brought the project to fruition, city spokesperson Michelle Woods Matthews said.

abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com
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OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  Beefed up fire crews made major progress on a large prairie fire burning near the Nebraska-Kansas line on Tuesday and lighter winds allowed firefighters to keep flames from advancing significantly at big fires in the Southwest where some rural towns remain under evacuation orders.

Stiff winds remained a challenge in the Midwest, but eased in Arizona and New Mexico where they're expected to pick up again in the days ahead after fires destroyed dozens of home and charred a combined 225 square miles (580 square kilometers) last week.

It was a very good day, said Terry Krasko, a spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team.

More than 200 firefighters are now battling the blaze in Nebraska that killed a former volunteer fire chief, injured several firefighters and destroyed several homes last week.

No injuries. No more structures lost, Krasko told The Associated Press Tuesday night from Cambridge, Nebraska. I think the biggest loss we had today was a few hay bales.

Overall containment grew there from 47% to 74% on Tuesday. That means crews have dug fire lines around about three-fourths of the fire that has burned 65 square miles (168 square kilometers) of mostly grasses and farmland.

The major footprint of the fire stayed where it was supposed to be despite 30 to 40 mph winds," Krasko said. Critical fire conditions were forecast to return on Wednesday, but not as windy.

More than 3,000 firefighters and support personnel were assigned to multiple fires Tuesday in the Southwest, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

The focus was on efforts to corral blazes in northern New Mexico, where evacuations remain in place and several small villages were threatened. Authorities have started to survey the damage but have yet to tally the number of homes and other buildings that were destroyed.

The largest of the wildfires has blackened more than 94 square miles (245 square kilometers) in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Crews continued to make progress on that fire Tuesday, but they were bracing for the weather to take a turn later this week with more hot, dry and windy conditions forecast for the area.

San Miguel County Deputy Manager Jesus Romero described the situation as touch-and-go as the winds cranked up Tuesday afternoon.

Everybody is eager to get back home. Its still not really safe right now," he said. Theres plenty of forest still to be burned, plenty of fuels and its plenty dry and were dealing with the wind. Some places are a little bit better than others, but right now its just too risky.

In Arizona, crews are working to encircle and mop up a 33-square-mile (85-square-kilometer) wildfire on the outskirts of Flagstaff that burned 30 homes and additional structures last week. Aircraft helped firefighters battling a different major fire that continued to grow, burning 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) in the Prescott National Forest in north-central Arizona.

Four new fires were reported Monday, two in Colorado and one in Oklahoma and Virginia, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Nationally, 11 large fires have burned about 342 square miles (890 square kilometers) in six states, the agency reported Tuesday.

___

Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Associated Press reporter Margaret Stafford reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press writer Paul Davenport contributed from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Scott Sonner contributed from Reno, Nevada.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)  U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said he tested positive for the coronavirus Tuesday after experiencing mild symptoms overnight.

We've done the contact tracing and let people know, the Democrat said in a Twitter post. It's a bummer, but I'm sure if I wasn't fully vaccinated I would be feeling a lot worse. So remember to get your booster!
WASHINGTON (AP)  One of the largest providers of military housing in the United States continues to respond inadequately to mold and other structural problems, threatening the health and safety of service members and their families, according to a Senate panel's investigation.

The allegations against Balfour Beatty Communities LLC are focused on housing provided to service members stationed at Fort Gordon Army Base in Georgia and Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. The company oversees about 1,700 homes at the two bases.

Balfour pleaded guilty in December to committing fraud against the United States from 2013 to 2019. The company was ordered to pay $65.4 million in fines and restitution and was placed under an independent compliance monitor for three years. The Senate panel, led by Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., released a report Tuesday concluding that Balfour's practices since 2019 mirror those that occurred in previous years.

Ossoff said that the eight-month investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations stemmed from the complaints he heard from military families about their maintenance requests being ignored. He said that the investigation revealed grave risks to the health and safety of servicemembers and their families."

Two service members recounted their harrowing experiences with military housing at a hearing Tuesday.

U.S. Army Capt. Samuel Choe said his daughter developed a potentially fatal allergy as a result of exposure to black mold and mildew. He said his family made repeated efforts to get Balfour Beatty to fix the problem, but were ignored, disappointed or disregarded at every juncture." His daughter continues to break out with rashes and on her worst days resembles a burn victim, he said.

It will haunt her as well as us for the rest of our lives," Choe said.

Air Force Technical Sergeant Jack Fe Torres described how a mold problem persisted in a Balfour Beatty house that his family lived in at Sheppard Air Force Base. He said that after moving into the home, his wife and children experienced symptoms that included rashes, nausea, memory loss and fungal infections.

Our military families should not be forced to live in fear of their own homes," Fe Torres said.

Richard Taylor, a president at Balfour Beatty, said he made a commitment to Congress in 2019 that the company would get better at monitoring repairs and responding to problems. He said the company gets more than 280,000 work orders annually and that performance metrics indicate the overwhelming majority of residents are happy with their homes.

Im proud to say we have made enormous strides since I made that commitment, Taylor said.

Balfour operates more than 43,000 on-base homes at 55 military bases.

Ossoff read about a dozen emails from military housing residents that included I have a pregnant wife who is high risk and I have to live with this exposed mold on my ceiling." Another read death trap of a house."

He said those emails came in after the 2013-2019 period in which Balfour Beatty had pleaded guilty to defrauding the government. Ossoff asked why lawmakers should believe that a company that engaged in major fraud has changed.

I reject the suggestion that it's a systemic failure," said Taylor, emphasizing that the nearly one dozen complaints Ossoff read must be compared against the 280,000 work orders the company receives annually.

Things go wrong. We don't always get it right the first time. We're not perfect," Taylor said. What's important for us is that we understand where our shortcomings are and we take action to correct those deficiencies."

The committee also heard from military housing advocates critical of Balfour Beatty. Rachel Christian, chief legislative officer for Armed Forces Housing Advocates, said the volunteer organization assists residents with mold remediation, lead exposure and other problems related to military housing.

How many more cases of negligence, fraud and civil rights violations must we present in this building before Balfour Beatty is properly held accountable and banned from receiving further government contracts?" Christian said.

The subcommittee said it reviewed more than 11,000 pages of records from Balfour as part of its review. Staff also interviewed more than one dozen military family members and former Balfour employees, and received briefings from the Department of Defense and advocacy groups for military families.

The report concluded with a call for federal agencies to conduct more robust oversight" of Balfour Beatty to ensure military families get the housing services they deserve.
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SINGAPORE (AP)  Singapore on Wednesday executed a Malaysian man convicted of drug smuggling after a court dismissed a last-minute challenge from his mother and international pleas to spare him on grounds he was mentally disabled.

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for over a decade after he was found guilty of trafficking about 43 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin into Singapore. The city-state's government has said its use of the death penalty for drug crimes is made clear at the borders.

Nagaenthrans family and social activists confirmed the execution Wednesday.

On this score may I declare that Malaysia is far more humane, his sister, Sarmila Dharmalingam, said. Zero to Singapore on this.

Nagaenthrans supporters and lawyers said he had an IQ of 69 and was intellectually disabled, and that the execution of a mentally ill person was prohibited under international human rights law.

Singapore courts cited psychiatrists' testimony that he was not mentally disabled and had understood his actions at the time of his crime.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingams name will go down in history as the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice, said Maya Foa, director of nongovernmental organization Reprieve.

Hanging an intellectually disabled, mentally unwell man because he was coerced into carrying less than three tablespoons of diamorphine is unjustifiable and a flagrant violation of international laws that Singapore has chosen to sign up to, she said.

Nagaenthran and his mother filed a motion Monday arguing that it was unconstitutional to proceed with his death sentence and that he may not have been given a fair trial because the chief justice who presided over his appeals had been the attorney general when Nagaenthran was convicted in 2010, which the filing alleged could be a conflict of interest.

The court dismissed the motion, describing it as frivolous.

His family said Nagaenthrans body will be brought to their hometown in Malaysia's northern state of Perak for a funeral.

Singapore had halted executions for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming them with the execution of a drug trafficker in March.

Anyone found with over 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin faces the death sentence in Singapore, although it can be reduced to life in prison. Attempts to reduce Nagaenthran's sentence or obtain a presidential pardon failed.

Malaysias leader, European Union representatives and global figures such as British business magnate Richard Branson called for Nagaenthrans life to be spared and used the case to advocate for ending capital punishment.

Human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement that Nagaenthran's hanging highlights the deep flaws of the death penalty in Singapore and the horror of its continued use.

The execution of Nagaenthran is a disgraceful act by the Singapore government  ruthlessly carried out despite extensive protests in Singapore and Malaysia and an outcry across the world, said Amnesty Internationals Asia-Pacific regional director Erwin van der Borght.

According to activists, another Malaysian, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, is scheduled to be executed in Singapore on Friday. He was convicted of smuggling 45 grams (1.5 ounces) of heroin from Malaysia. Singapore doesnt formally announce its hangings.

___

Ng reported from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
An ongoing effort to allow the direct sales of electric vehicles in Connecticut faced resistance Tuesday from traditional car dealerships and unions representing auto technicians, who said the legislation would offer special exemptions to companies like Tesla and Rivian at the expense of their workers.

Most new electric vehicle manufacturers rely on a direct-sales model that avoids traditional franchise dealerships used by automakers such as Ford, General Motors and Toyota.

Connecticut, however, has a franchise law similar to those on the books in the majority of states, which require manufacturers to sell their cars through third-party dealerships. Legislation before the House would create an exemption for electric vehicle manufacturers without an existing presence in the state, benefiting companies like Tesla and Rivian.

During a news conference Tuesday morning, opponents of that bill said it would undermine Connecticuts consumer protection laws and threaten the jobs of the nearly 14,000 employees of car dealerships in Connecticut  pointing to allegations of union-busting by Tesla.

I dont see the need to do a Tesla bill, said state Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, a former regional director for the United Auto Workers union. I dont see the need to advance Elon Musk, who is already ruler of the world.

The news conference followed a similar event last week hosted by advocates for the bill, who accused car dealerships of using discriminatory lending practices and hidden fees to take advantage of minority customers.

The sponsor of the bill, state Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, has also argued that any brick-and-mortar sales locations set up by electric car makers in Connecticut would still be subject to the same consumer protection and lemon laws that apply to traditional car dealerships.

In addition, despite Tesla being the most-popular electric car in Connecticut, customers must currently travel out of state to purchase or service their vehicles, supporters argue.

My constituents who want to go electric and buy the most popular car on the market, theyve got to drive all the way to Mt. Kisco, N.Y., Haskell said during a public hearing last month. I think our state policies should make it easier, not harder, for people to go electric.

Advocates for the dealership model argued Tuesday, however, that any barriers to Connecticuts market of affluent car buyers were self-imposed by the manufacturers.

Brian Schneck, president of UAW Local 259, said franchise laws have been in place around the country for decades  Connecticuts franchise law was originally passed in 1972  and companies like Tesla could choose to follow the franchise model rather than pushing states to allow for direct sales.

They knew that from Day 1, and theyre doing mission creep across the country, making an attempt to change the rules to favor their self-chosen business model, Schneck said. If Tesla is so confident in their product, and the other [electric car parts manufacturers] are so confident in their product, what do they fear about having franchise dealers? Whats the problem?

Representatives for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The franchise dealer system simply will not work for Rivians business model, where vehicles are made-to-order and were ramping our production, Leslie Hayward, a spokesperson for Rivian, said in an email. As a company, we are innovating on not just the product, but also the customer experience. Furthermore, we know that the vast majority of the EVs sold in the United States are via direct sales  this is no coincidence.

Previous efforts to enact a direct-sales model in Connecticut have failed in the face of opposition from car dealerships. The latest effort passed the Transportation Committee last month with mostly-Democratic support, though a few members crossed party lines during the vote.

Haskell said Tuesday that he did not have a timetable for when the legislation may come up for a vote on the House floor. The ongoing legislative session will end at midnight on May 5.
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LONDON (AP)  Britains top diplomat called Wednesday for Western allies to send tanks, warplanes and other heavy weapons to Ukraine, saying fears of escalating the war were misplaced and inaction would be the greatest provocation.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said this is a time for courage, not caution among nations helping Ukraine fight Russia's invasion.

Heavy weapons, tanks, airplanes  digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this, Truss said during an annual foreign policy speech at Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor of London.

NATO nations have supplied Ukraine with military weapons and gear, including missiles and armored vehicles. But they have been reluctant to send fighter planes  despite pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy  for fear of escalation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has already accused NATO of effectively waging a proxy war against Russia.

Western officials deny that, saying the conflict is between Russia and Ukraine due to Russias illegal invasion of its neighbor.

Britain has sent 450 million pounds ($565 million) in military aid to Ukraine, including thousands of missiles. But Despite Trusss call for jets, British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons spokesman, Max Blain, said there were no plans for the U.K. to send planes. He did not rule out Britain sending planes to another country, such as Poland, that would then give its own jets to Ukraine, but said there were no specific plans to do so.

Truss said Russias attack on Ukraine must be a wake-up call for international institutions that failed to prevent the invasion.

The architecture that was designed to guarantee peace and prosperity has failed Ukraine, Truss said. The economic and security structures developed after the Second World War and then the Cold War have been bent out of shape so far that they have enabled rather than contained aggression.

Truss called Russian President Vladimir Putin a desperate rogue operator who was ripping up the global order and outfoxing international institutions.

Russia is able to block any effective action in the U.N. Security Council, where it has a veto as a permanent member, she said, adding that the Group of 20 club of wealthy and emerging nations cannot function as an effective economic body while Russia remains at the table.

In response, Truss called for a new focus on military strength, economic security and deeper global alliances among free nations.

After years of declining military spending in many countries, including Britain, she said NATOs goal that countries spend 2% of gross domestic product on defense should be a floor, not a ceiling.

Truss also called for tougher economic sanctions on Russia, saying the West must cut off Russian oil and gas imports once and for all. That would be an easier thing to do for Britain than for many other European nations.

If Putin succeeds, there will be untold further misery across Europe and terrible consequences across the globe, she said. We would never feel safe again. So we must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine








ISLAMABAD, April 27 (Xinhua) -- China strongly condemned the terrorist attack Tuesday afternoon inside a university in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan said in a statement.

An explosion ripped through a shuttle passenger van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi, leaving three Chinese teachers killed and one Chinese teacher injured so far, the statement said.

"The Embassy and Consulates General of China in Pakistan express deep condolences to the victims from both countries and sincere sympathy to the injured and the bereaved families, and will make every effort to handle the incident with the Pakistani side," the statement said.

The Chinese embassy and consulates general in Pakistan have launched an emergency plan immediately, requesting the Pakistani side to make every effort to treat the wounded, thoroughly investigate the attack, and severely punish the perpetrators, said the statement.

The Chinese embassy and consulates general in Pakistan require relevant departments at all levels in Pakistan to take practical and effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, institutions and projects in Pakistan, and to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again, according to the statement.

After the terrorist attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad Tuesday afternoon to express his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and the government and people of China.

Strongly condemning the attack, Shahbaz said he is deeply grieved by the loss of precious lives of Chinese friends in the heinous terrorist attack in Karachi.

The prime minister said he has instructed that the attack be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice, adding that the Pakistani side will provide all possible assistance to the injured.

Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, said Shahbaz, adding that such vicious acts against the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China will never dent the iron brotherhood between the two countries or hinder bilateral cooperation.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
A policeman at the blast site a day after a suicide attack by suicide bomber from a Pakistan separatist group on a van near the Confucius Institute at Karachi University in Karachi. The blast on April 26, 2022 killed four people, including three Chinese nationals.

Four people, including three Chinese nationals, have died in a suicide bomb attack on a Confucius Institute in Pakistan thought to be linked to Beijing's Belt and Road projects in the country.



's attack near the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi in southern Pakistan left four people dead, including the director, Huang Guiping, and teachers Ding Mupeng and Chen Sai. Another Chinese national, Wang Yuqing, was injured alongside several local people.



CCTV footage of the blast showed a person in a burqa walking towards a van, which then exploded, covering the surrounding area in thick smoke.





Pakistani military personnel and police cordoned off the area, with news photos showing the remains of a charred, white Toyota van near the gate of the Confucius Institute on the Karachi University campus.



The van, according to local media reports, had been carrying several teachers to the Institute when it was attacked, escorted by several motorcycles.



The injured Chinese national was rushed to a local hospital for treatment, along with several injured security personnel and other staff.



The Chinese Consulate General in Karachi confirmed that the three deceased were staff of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi.



Rangers stand guard nearby the blast site a day after a suicide attack on a van near the Confucius institute which is the cultural programme that China operates at universities around the world at the Karachi University in Karachi, April 27, 2022. Credit: AFP. Security alert raised News photos from the aftermath of the blast showed the Confucius Institute building with shattered windows.Pakistani military personnel and police cordoned off the area, with news photos showing the remains of a charred, white Toyota van near the gate of the Confucius Institute on the Karachi University campus.The van, according to local media reports, had been carrying several teachers to the Institute when it was attacked, escorted by several motorcycles.The injured Chinese national was rushed to a local hospital for treatment, along with several injured security personnel and other staff.The Chinese Consulate General in Karachi confirmed that the three deceased were staff of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi.

It said the "terrorist attack" took place at around 2.20 p.m. local time on , and that the consulate has activated its emergency plan, raising the security alert level for all Chinese institutions, projects and personnel in Pakistan.



A consulate employee who answered the phone declined to comment when contacted by RFA on .



"This isn't my responsibility," the staff member said. "I don't know the specific details of the situation."



"It's not that I don't want to answer your query; I really don't know. You need to contact the embassy," the staff member said.



Repeated calls to the Chinese embassy rang unanswered during office hours on .

"First of all, from a political point of view, Chinese people are a very big target and an influential target that can make the Pakistani government pay a high level of attention," a Chinese national living in Pakistan told RFA.

"The Chinese government will also always pay a high level of attention to security issues," said the person, who asked to remain anonymous. "So these are some of the reasons for this terrorist attack against the Chinese."

The separatist group the Baloch Liberation Army, which has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Confucius Institute, said more deadly attacks on Chinese targets could follow. Mining and energy projects The group is one of several fighting for independence in Pakistan's biggest province, where Chinese companies are involved in lucrative mining and energy projects under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative.

"Hundreds of highly trained male and female members of the Baloch Liberation Army's Majeed Brigade are ready to carry out deadly attacks in any part of Balochistan and Pakistan," spokesman Jeeyand Baloch said in a statement on reported by Agence France-Presse.



He called on China to halt its "exploitation projects" in Balochistan and its "occupying of the Pakistani state."



The group named the bomber as Shaari Baloch, a 30-year-old mother of two who had been studying for a master's degree.



China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Pakistan to take steps to guarantee the safety of all Chinese citizens and interests in the country and to launch a full investigation into the blast, warning Chinese nationals not to go out unless necessary, and to take "the strictest precautions."



The Prime Minister's Office issued a message of condolence, and vowed to eliminate terrorists, while Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif paid a visit to the Chinese embassy to express condolences, condemnation, and to promise a full investigation.



Taiwan strategic analyst Shih Chien-yu said the Karachi Confucius Institute was a relatively easy target for terrorist attacks.



"Confucius Institutes are particularly vulnerable and don't have very strong security," Shih told RFA. "A lot of the infrastructure and engineering projects along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor employ various private security guards and even the Pakistani army [for protection], so it's not easy to carry out an attack."



"Confucius Institutes are relatively vulnerable ... so it's not surprising it was the target of a suicide attack," he said.



Debt and resentment

Shih said the attack came amid growing resentment over the presence of Chinese companies involved in Belt and Road projects.



"People in Balochistan, the ethnic groups in the upper and lower reaches, have always felt that they are a neglected and bullied minority ... who have received no benefits from the construction projects of the Belt and Road."



The attacks are a fresh blow for Belt and Road in Pakistan, following a Bloomberg report in 2021 that the planned flagship port and airport development at Gwadar, the last stop in the China-Pakistan Corridor and terminus for dozens of planned roads, railways and pipelines, was semi-moribund.



Many infrastructure projects in Pakistan are still heavily indebted to China, while incoming Chinese investment has been falling year-on-year.



In October, Pakistan was forced to borrow U.S.$6 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to meet its immediate needs.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
The USS Sampson, now deployed to the 7th Fleets area of operations, made its first-known Taiwan Strait transit.

Chinas People's Liberation Army dispatched troops to shadow the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Sampson when it transited the Taiwan Strait this week, a passage described by a Chinese think-tank as humiliating for the PLA.

The U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement that its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on Tuesday through international waters in accordance with international law.

The transit demonstrates the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, the statement said, adding that the U.S. military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows."

China responded quickly. A spokesperson for the PLA Eastern Theater Command on Wednesday said the U.S. has been frequently carrying out provocative acts to send wrong signals to Taiwan Independence forces, deliberately undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

The spokesperson, Snr. Col. Shi Yi, said the U.S. Navy hyped it [the Taiwan Strait transit] up publicly and in response, the PLA Eastern Theatre Command sent troops to track and monitor the U.S. warship's passage, and remained alert in the whole course.

Not threatening but humiliating

China considers Taiwan a province of China and has repeatedly said that the democratic island of 23 million people will eventually be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

The U.S. considers the waterway between the island and Chinas mainland international waters and has been patrolling the Taiwan Strait as part of its Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy.

U.S. warships conducted 12 such transits last year and four since the beginning of 2022, according to Collin Koh, a regional military analyst.

Elsewhere in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy has also been conducting regular Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs).

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday described the USS Sampsons northward journey through the strait as normal and said the Taiwanese military used joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to monitor movements at sea and in the air around Taiwan.

The South China Sea Probe Initiative (SCSPI), a Beijing-based think-tank, however, said on Twitter: The U.S. military operation around China has been over politicized.

We don't know the meaning of this kind of publicity and hyping. For the PLAN (PLA Navy), this is not much threatening, but a bit humiliating, it said.

The SCSPI offered no policy recommendations, but noted that the PLAN also maintained full surveillance based on international practice.

Tuesdays passage was the first known Taiwan Strait transit for the USS Sampson, which has been forward-deployed to the 7th Fleets area of operations and is now taking part in a carrier strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72).

The strike group conducted joint exercises with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) in the Sea of Japan on Apr. 13 and 14.
The North Korean leader used the armys 90th anniversary to trumpet the strength of his forces.

Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missiles take part in a nighttime military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 26, 2022.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday vowed to boost his nuclear weapons program and said the weapons could be used in any situations of warfare as he observed a massive military parade that showed off Pyongyangs intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), state media reported.

Kim Jong Un emphasized the need to strengthen the North Koreas military capabilities, with an emphasis on nuclear development, in a speech before the parade that analysts in Seoul and Washington said were troubling.

In particular, the nuclear forces, the symbol of our national strength and the core of our military power, should be strengthened in terms of both quality and scale, so that they can perform nuclear combat capabilities in any situations of warfare, according to purposes and missions of different operations and by various means, the state-run Korea Central News Agency reported him as saying.

The event commemorated the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Peoples Revolutionary Army (KPRA), which under the countrys founder, Kim Il Sung, waged guerilla attacks against the Japanese army in and around the Korean peninsula. The elder Kim is Kim Jong Uns grandfather.

Pyongyang has been actively testing short and long-range missiles to display its military power, with a more conservative administration about to take over the government in South Korea and talks with the U.S. over denuclearization stalled.

Officials in Washington and Seoul have said that activity at North Koreas nuclear testing site may indicate that Pyongyang is preparing to resume tests there.

Kim said in the speech that the purpose of Pyongyangs nuclear arsenal is to deter attacks, but also suggested that the weapons could be used for other purposes.

Our nukes can never be confined to the single mission of war deterrent even at a time when a situation we are not desirous of at all is created on this land, Kim said. If any forces try to violate the fundamental interests of our state, our nuclear forces will have to decisively accomplish its unexpected second mission.

The parade included the countrys largest known ICBM, the Hwasong-17, which Pyongyang claims to have successfully tested last month. South Korean officials have said that the Hwasong-17 exploded prematurely during the test and North Korea tested a less-advanced missile a few days later, claiming it was the Hwasong-17.

State media made a point of showing Kim shaking hands with military officials as the Hwasong-17 rolled by them.

People at a train station in Seoul, South Korea watch a TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea's military parade, Tuesday, April 26, 2022. Photo: AP

De-escalation urged

Officials in South Korea urged the North to stop raising tensions on the peninsula.

The South Korean government, above all else, urges North Korea to immediately stop any actions that cause tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the region, South Koreas Foreign Ministry spokesperson Choi Young-sam said.

The presidential transition committee for South Korean President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol, who will assume office on May 10, said in a statement that close cooperation with the U.S. was necessary to deter North Korean threats.

South Korean analysts said that Kims words signified a significant shift regarding North Koreas nuclear ambitions.

North Koreas supreme leader has explicitly stated that [nuclear weapons] are no longer a means of self-defense, but they are now for attack, Kwak Gil Sup of Kookmin University in Seoul told RFAs Korean Service.

This increases the likelihood that North Korea would attempt to use nuclear weapons to resolve crises, Cho Han Bum of the Seoul-based Korea Institute of National Unification told RFA.

By significantly expanding the scope of the use of nuclear weapons, it is possible to use nuclear weapons in such attempts as regime crises, internal crises and regime changes, said Cho.

Analysts in the U.S. meanwhile expressed doubts that the Hwasong-17 in the parade was real, but agreed that Kim Jong Uns comments about his nuclear ambitions were troubling.

What we see in the parade may only be a mockup, [and] may not be a real missile, either, David Maxwell, a former Army officer and now a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told RFA.

I think it's safe to say that Kim Jong Un is trying to show us advanced military capabilities, which on the one hand support his political warfare strategy and blackmail diplomacy to raise tensions to make threats. And they use these provocations to gain political and economic concessions, Maxwell said.

Bruce W. Bennett, a counterproliferation expert at the RAND Corporation, told RFA that Kim Jong Uns comments about nuclear weapons were worrisome.

He's trying to be scary and make it look like he's capable. And then he says, Hey, guys, bother me, and I'll use nuclear weapons. You know, it's a threat, he said. And especially given that he's facing internal instability, [it] does make us wonder where things are going on the peninsula.

People at a train station in Seoul, South Korea watch a TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea's military parade, Tuesday, April 26, 2022. Photo: AP

The General Political Bureau of the Peoples Army used the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the KPRAs founding to issue a directive to soldiers that they have the responsibility of protecting the system as the military of the supreme leader, a military source in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFAs Korean Service Monday on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

But the source said that there was discontent brewing among the troops.

The soldiers and even military officials criticize their leaders for designating them as a spearhead for protection of the [current political system], without treating them accordingly.  [The order] emphasizes protecting the system but does not say anything about improving the military supply situation, so many soldiers scoff at the directive, the military source said.

In North Pyongan province, in the northwest, another military source told RFA the directive included instructions to boost troop morale.

The [recent] test firings of strategic and tactical weapons  induced the morale of the soldiers which has fallen due to hard training and a poor military supply system. It says that we can respond to any type of war, the second source said.

Officials and soldiers reacted that they feel that this propaganda, touting them as the strongest military in the world, is absurd. They question how, saying they are just workers in military uniforms who are unable to eat enough food.

Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Sources say that personal and financial insecurity has forced more than one-third of members to quit.

Myanmars Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), a popular strike movement that at its peak brought the administrative machinery of the military regime to a halt, has lost more than one-third of its active members amid a crackdown by the junta, organizers and the countrys shadow government said Tuesday.

Formed by doctors in Mandalay a day after the Feb. 1, 2021, coup, the CDM once boasted more than 360,000 members who chose to walk away from their state jobs and take part in peaceful anti-junta protests or other opposition activities in a bid to pry loose the regimes grasp on power. The CDM captivated the international community for its effectiveness in the face of the juntas violent repression and was even nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

But Kyaw Zaw, a spokesman for the shadow National Unity Governments (NUG) Presidents Office, told RFAs Myanmar Service that the number of active members in the CDM has dwindled significantly since the junta began to target them with a campaign of threats, arrest, and other forms of harassment.

CDM members have been arrested. They have endured many kinds of threats, and even torture in some cases. Furthermore, when CDM staff evade arrest, authorities detain their family members, he said.

Many CDM members felt insecure to a point that they had to leave the movement.

Kyaw Zaw said the NUG estimates there are currently around 200,000 state employees still in the CDM, although we dont know exactly how many have left the movement.

The shadow governments assessment suggests that the CDM has lost more than 150,000, or slightly more than 40%, of its peak membership.

CDM sources told RFA that the junta also tries to lure CDM members away from the movement by making them offers that include reinstatement to their former jobs and guarantees that they will not be sent to prison. But they said those who refuse are often arrested on what they called bogus charges or can have difficulty earning a living due to policies such as a ban on hiring CDMs in the private sector.

Hein Thiha, a senior CDM teacher from Magway region, said some of his colleagues had left the movement after receiving threats.

Your ability to participate can be different based on whether you are based in an area with a strong CDM or a weak CDM, he said. Where the CDM is strong, it is easier to operate. But its very difficult where the CDM is weak. Some people have reluctantly withdrawn from the CDM because of these pressures.

Hein Thiha said that, like many CDM employees, he has been struggling to make ends meet as a farmer since February 2021 with no source of regular income.

Sit Min Naing, a CDM doctor, told RFA that public support for the movement appears to have shifted to the armed opposition since the NUG declared war on the junta in September and ordered allied prodemocracy Peoples Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary groups around the country to attack military targets.

This support grew stronger and stronger, and now they seem to have forgotten about the CDMs, he said.

In its first annual report issued on April 16, the NUG said it had provided 229 million kyats (U.S. $190,000) in financial support to CDM staff. But NUG officials said at a press conference accompanying the release of the report that they had shifted the focus of their financial support to military expenditures and acknowledged that doing so had likely led to a decline in the number of CDM members.

A Civil Disobedience Movement protest by education workers in Yangon, Feb. 19, 2021. Credit: RFA Former security forces joining movement

One of the few civil servant groups to grow the ranks of the CDM in recent months is that of the countrys security forces, according to the Peoples Embrace  a faction within the movement that is made up of former junta soldiers.

CDM Capt. Lin Htet Aung told RFA that former members of the security forces who have joined the movement now number around 10,000, which he said is partly because they no longer want to be complicit in the juntas killing of civilians.

We realize we are fighting against the population. We are killing people and they hate us. We dont have the support of the people anymore, he said.

We realize we are working to benefit the personal interests of the military leaders and not in the national interest.  This has led to a steady increase in deserters.

Lin Htet Aung said more people would leave the military and the police force if their security could be guaranteed.

Meanwhile, relatives of members of the security forces told RFA that the junta has tightened restrictions inside the military and police force in a bid to dissuade potential deserters, including by restricting their access to friends and family.

Junta deputy information minister, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, dismissed claims that authorities have been targeting CDM staff.

In some cases, there have been terminations  but these actions were taken according to existing staff regulations, he said.

However, in cases where [CDM staff] are found to have incited people during protests, they will be punished according to the law.

According to Thailands Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, there are around 100 CDM staffers serving prison sentences in Myanmar and at least 886 in detention.

Myanmar-based political analyst Sai Kyi Zin Soe told RFA that the CDM will continue to lose members if they cannot be guaranteed personal and financial security.

After more than a year, we can say the CDM is losing steam, he said. This is because many employees in the CDM already must risk their lives for the movement. Things become untenable if they are also unable to earn enough to live.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Detained Myanmar State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi (L) and president Win Myint (R) during their first court appearance in Naypyidaw, May 24, 2021.

A military court sentenced deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in jail on Wednesday finding her guilty of corruption in closed-door proceedings, a source familiar with the trial said.

In the first of 11 corruption cases against the 76-year-old Nobel laureate, the judge in the capital Naypyidaw pronounced her guilty minutes after the trial opened, within moments of the court convening, said the source, who declined to be identified for security reasons

The former State Counselors lawyers have been barred since October by Myanmars military rulers from releasing information or speaking publicly about the two cases being tried.

The junta-controlled court said Aung San Suu Kyi had violated section 55 of the Anti-corruption Law in a case that alleged she accepted 11.4 kg (402 oz) of gold and cash payments totaling $600,000 from former Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein.

She has rejected all allegations, which her supporters, rights groups and foreign governments have condemned as political charges aimed at ending her career. Last year she said allegations she took payments from Phyo Min Thein "just bogus ones borne out of imaginations.

Aung San Su Kyi, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) ruled the country for five years and won re-election in November 2020 in a landslide vote that the army refused to honor, was sentenced in January to six years for violating export-import laws, the communications law, and the natural disaster management law.

Myanmars junta and the countrys kangaroo courts are walking in lockstep to put Aung San Suu Kyi away for what could ultimately be the equivalent of a life sentence, given her advanced age, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

This conviction on bogus corruption charges just piles on more years behind bars, he said in a statement from Bangkok.

Sadly, theres more where that came from in the coming months, with many additional trials on other criminal charges to follow, added Robertson.

Aung San Su Kyi had already been sentenced to six years in prison on five of 18 charges lodged against her since the junta overthrew and detained her. With Wednesdays five-year sentence, she faces 11 years imprisonment from six charges, with 12 more charges pending.

This case shows that we need to ask a lot of questions about the judiciary at a time when the military is dominating everything, said Bo Bo Oo, a member of the Yangon regional assembly from the NLD.

Phyo Min Thein should not have turned against Aung San Suu Kyi "even under life-threatening situations, no matter how much you have been tortured," said Tun Kyi, a former political prisoner.

"His reputation, his past achievements, have all gone down the drain. Thats why he will go down in history with a black mark," he told RFA.

According to the Association Assistance for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the military regime has handed out more than 1000 sentences among more than 10,300 civilians arrested or detained since the Feb. 1 coup that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi and her elected government. The junta has killed nearly, 1,800 civilians, the Bangkok-based group says.

Analysts said the prosecution of Aung San Suu Kyi will only add to the military junta's pariah status.

No other country will see this as a fair trial, said political analyst Sai Kyi Zin Soe. They will see this as injustice, as a ploy to bar the NLD from playing a political role in the future.

Reported by RFA's Myanmar Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
Rights groups are pressing the UN to release an overdue report on Xinjiang and to press for meaningful access.

The headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights named Palais Wilson, honoring the former US President Woodrow Wilson, are seen in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 8, 2018.

With an advance team for the United Nations human rights chiefs visit to China next month in the country to prepare for her long-awaited tour, Uyghur activists and other rights groups are pressing for a meaningful investigation of atrocities in Xinjiang and the release of a delayed U.N. report on the region.

The five-person delegation invited by the Chinese government was quarantining in Guangzhou before moving on to Xinjiang, U.N. human rights spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell told the South China Morning Post this week.

Once out of quarantine, they are due to visit the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Throssell told the Hong Kong daily.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular news conference that an advance team from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had arrived in China to prepare for an inspection tour by U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet.

What I want to tell you is that the goal of the high commissioners visit is to promote exchange and cooperation, Wang said. We are opposed to political manipulation by exploiting the matter.

After years of negotiations with Beijing about her visit, Bachelet, a former Chilean president, announced that she had recently reached an agreement with the government of China for a visit in May, including to Xinjiang, where China is accused of having incarcerated 1.8 million Uyghurs in mass detention camps.

China angrily rejects all such claims as politically motivated attacks on its security and development policies in the vast western region. Beijing is calling for a "friendly" visit by the U.N. rights official, the kind that rights experts fear would help China whitewash the situation.

The advance team will be expected to ensure meaningful access and try to gain a clear understanding of the human rights situation in the country and engage in discussions on relevant issues with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior government officials and civil society, Throssell told the SCMP.

Doubts about access

Bachelet first announced that her office sought an unfettered access to Xinjiang in September 2018, shortly after she took over her current role. But the trip has been delayed over questions about her freedom of movement through the region.

She would be the first human rights commissioner to visit China since 2005.

The Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU), a Washington, D.C.-based Uyghur rights organization, welcomed the news that Bachelets team had arrived in Guangzhou, but doubted that she would be given unimpeded access because China had refused a visit unless the trip was friendly in nature.

CFU said the Chinese government has given no sign that Bachelet will be allowed unimpeded access.

While I welcome news that the high commissioners visit is seemingly moving forward, I am concerned that this is another tactic to delay the release of her report on Uyghur genocide until her term expires, CFU executive director Rushan Abbas said in a statement issued Monday.

Her visit is contingent on COVID restrictions, and she may spend weeks in quarantine moving from city to city, hampering her ability to investigate, Abbas said.

'Extreme suffering'

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and other European-based Uyghur organizations will hold a protest in front of the United Nations compound Geneva on May 13 to demand the immediate release of the overdue human rights report on abuses in Chinas Xinjiang region, the Germany-based activist group said Tuesday.

WUC is teaming up with Tibetan and other international rights groups to call on Bachelet to issue the report and to consult Uyghur groups in exile and former internment camp detainees ahead of her planned trip to China.

Activists will stage a two-hour protest outside Palais Wilson, OHCHR's headquarters.

We have been waiting for the release of the high commissioners report since September. Why has it been delayed? WUC president Dolkun Isa said in a statement. We are calling on Ms. Bachelet to consult with Uyghur representatives in exile beforehand, and listen to the voices of those who have experienced extreme suffering as a result of Chinas policies.

WUC and other rights groups have expressed concern that the Chinese government will restrict access to places or otherwise set an itinerary designed to hide evidence of human rights abuses.

Rights groups have said that Bachelet must have unfettered access to locations she wants to visit for her trip to be seen as credible. That includes Chinas vast network of internment camps where millions of mostly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities have been arbitrarily detained and allegedly subject to torture, rape and other abuses.

About 200 organizations, including WUC, called on Bachelet in March to release the report and brief members and observers of the U.N. Human Rights Council on its contents as a matter of urgency.

On April 19, nearly 60 rights groups issued a set of preconditions that had to be met in order for Bachelets visit to be seen as credible and independent.

WUC's statement came a day after four Uyghur internment camp survivors began a weeklong protest outside U.N. offices in Geneva. The group is calling on Bachelet to meet them before her visit and to publish her report on the situation.
Le Trong Hung is known for livestreaming videos on controversial social and political issues.

Vietnamese independent journalist Le Trong Hung and his wife Do Le Na are shown in an undated photo.

Vietnamese citizen journalist and political prisoner Le Trong Hung was allowed to see his wife for the first time since his arrest more than a year ago, a 40-minute meeting last week, his wife told RFA.

Born in 1979, Hung is known for livestreaming on Facebook and YouTube videos on controversial social and political issues, particularly land rights cases that have been at the center of controversies in Vietnam.

He was arrested in March 2021 on charges of disseminating anti-State materials under Article 117 of Vietnams Penal Code shortly after nominating himself to run for Vietnams National Assembly elections in defiance of the ruling Communist Party and sentenced in December to five years in prison and five years of probation.

Hung was able to see his family on April 22, three days after an appeals court in Hanoi upheld his sentence in a hearing that neither his lawyers nor his family were informed about in advance, said Hungs wife, Do Le Na.

My husband said that on April 19, the trial day, he was kidnapped; and sent to the court. He did not agree to stand the trial as he hadnt got a chance to see his lawyers, she told RFA.

Her 40-minute meeting was closely monitored, Na added.

They repeatedly reminded me and my husband not to mention the appeal trial, she said. They warned that our talk over the phone would be stopped and we would be kicked out if we talked about the trial.

Na said that she would keep fighting for her husband.

I myself will keep speaking up and reaching out to human rights organizations and civilized countries which pay attention to the human rights situation in Vietnam. I want to point out how my husband has been treated and expose all of the Vietnamese governments wrongdoings.

Before his candidacy, Hung was a chemistry teacher at Xa Dan junior high school in Hanoi, but he quit teaching after unsuccessfully petitioning for reforms to the educational system.

He had also participated in protests for environmental conservation, as well as sharing news about protests in Myanmar and the cases of other activists targeted by Vietnams government.

Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Nawar Nemeh.
Welcome back to The Farda Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that tracks the key issues in Iran and explains why they matter.

I'm RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari. Here's what Ive been following during the past week and what Im watching out for in the days ahead.

The Big Issue

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, is facing calls to step down after his family members went on a reported shopping spree in Turkey. The incident has triggered uproar in Iran, where many are struggling to make ends meet. Qalibaf has championed himself as a defender of underprivileged Iranians. But in the wake of the controversy, he has been widely accused of hypocrisy, even by his fellow political hard-liners.

Why It Matters: In the past year, Irans hard-liners have gained control of the presidency and parliament. But the controversy surrounding Qalibaf has exposed divisions within that political camp. Some, including Qalibafs supporters, have claimed that the uproar over the reported shopping trip has been orchestrated by fellow hard-liners who want to remove the parliament speaker from his powerful post. Details of the Qalibaf familys trip to Turkey were revealed by Iranian activist Vahid Ashtari, who is reported to have ties with Saeed Jalili, an ultra-hard-liner who was Iran's top nuclear negotiator under President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

Whats Next: Qalibaf has been silent on the controversy. His son, Elias, has called the trip an unforgivable mistake and claimed that his father had voiced opposition to it. While some hard-line political figures and media outlets have blasted him, others have defended Qalibaf. In the days ahead, Qalibafs rivals are likely to launch more attacks against him in a move that could fuel more infighting among hard-liners.

Stories You Might Have Missed

Iran has reportedly deployed an armored division to the border with Afghanistan following clashes between Taliban fighters and Iranian border guards on April 23. There have been several border skirmishes since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August. Iranian media said the latest violence was triggered by the Talibans attempt to construct a road along the 900-kilometer border without prior coordination with Tehran. Taliban officials said the clashes erupted after it seized a vehicle belonging to Iranian forces that had illegally crossed the border.

deployed an armored division to the border with Afghanistan following clashes between Taliban fighters and Iranian border guards on April 23. There have been several border skirmishes since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August. Iranian media said the latest violence was triggered by the Talibans attempt to construct a road along the 900-kilometer border without prior coordination with Tehran. Taliban officials said the clashes erupted after it seized a vehicle belonging to Iranian forces that had illegally crossed the border. Students at Tehrans Amir Kabir University staged a rally on April 24 to protest the beating of a student. The demonstrators said the university was not a military base and that they would not allow Stone Age ideas to be imposed on students. The rally at the university, the scene of political protests in the past, came after reports that security forces had been stationed on campus and stricter hijab rules on female students were enforced.

on April 24 to protest the beating of a student. The demonstrators said the university was not a military base and that they would not allow Stone Age ideas to be imposed on students. The rally at the university, the scene of political protests in the past, came after reports that security forces had been stationed on campus and stricter hijab rules on female students were enforced. Teachers again took to the streets of dozens of cities in Iran to demand fair wages, better labor conditions, and the release of their jailed colleagues. At least 70 protesters were reportedly detained at the protests on April 21. Most have been released. The rallies took place despite pressure by authorities, who have summoned, detained, and jailed members of the teachers union.

What Were Watching

A special United Nations rapporteur, Alena Douhan, is scheduled to visit Iran from May 7 to May 18 to assess the impact of U.S. sanctions on the human rights situation in the country. Douhan, a native of Belarus whose mandate was created following a 2014 resolution at the UN Human Rights Council introduced by Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, will submit her conclusions to the council in September.

Why It Matters: This is the first time that Iran has allowed a UN special rapporteur to visit the country since 2005. The reason is that Douhans findings could give Tehran ammunition to criticize U.S. sanctions that have crippled the economy. Iranian activists outside the country have warned that Tehran could use the trip for propaganda purposes. Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has called on the world body to postpone the trip until Tehran allows the UN special rapporteur on human rights, Javed Rahman, to travel to the country. There are also concerns that Douhan will only be allowed to meet with state-approved organizations and individuals.

Fahimeh Kherz from RFE/RL's Radio Farda won the Silver Medal at the 2022 New York Radio Festivals for her audio documentary titled The Censored Life of Shabma. The documentary was recognized in the Human Rights category.

Thats all from me for now. Dont forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have.

Until next time,

Golnaz Esfandiari

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your in-box every Wednesday.
The last Ukrainian fighters in the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the strategic port of Mariupol vowed on May 8 not to give up as they face a bloody final showdown with Russian invaders after the evacuation of civilians.

"We will continue to fight as long as we are alive to repel the Russian occupiers," Captain Svyatoslav Palamar, a deputy commander of Ukraine's Azov Regiment, told an online news conference.

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.

"We don't have much time. We are coming under intense shelling," Palamar said, pleading with the international community to help to evacuate wounded soldiers from the plant.

Officials on both sides said the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal had been completed. Eight buses carrying 174 Mariupol civilians, including 40 evacuated from the steelworks, arrived in Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhya on May 8, AFP reported.

Azovstal, with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders holed up in its sprawling network of underground tunnels and bunkers, has achieved a symbolic value in the conflict, with the Russian forces seeking a celebratory win ahead of the Victory Day holiday on May 9.

The conquering of Mariupol would also give Moscow a land bridge between the Crimean Peninsula, which it illegally annexed in 2014, and regions run by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told leaders of the Group of 7 (G7) countries on May 8 that 60 civilians 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 during a virtual meeting.

Serhiy Hayday, the governor of the Luhansk region, told reporters earlier that Russian forces had bombed the school in Bilohorivka where about 90 people were sheltering, triggering a fire that engulfed the building.

Hayday said 30 people were rescued from under the rubble.

Bilohorivka is an urban settlement about 10 kilometers west of Lysychansk, which is under heavy Russian bombardment.

Zelenskiy denounced Russia's heavy shelling in the east of the country, saying Russia has "forgotten everything that was important to the victors of World War II" a day before Moscow commemorates the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany.

WATCH: In the first stage of the operation to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steelworks, which is under attack by Russian forces in Mariupol, over 150 people were brought out by bus. Those who got out told harrowing stories on May 3 of bodies strewn around the plant.

After Zelenskiy met with the G7 leaders, the group condemned Russias "unprovoked, unjustifiable, and illegal military aggression" against Ukraine and its "attempts to replace democratically elected Ukrainian local authorities with illegitimate ones."

The G7 leaders 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."

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.

Ahead of the virtual meeting, British officials announced an extra $1.6 billion in military aid for Ukraine. The funding includes 300 million pounds of military equipment promised by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This includes radar systems to target Russian artillery, GPS jamming equipment, and night-vision devices.

Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy met with the president of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, Baerbel Bas, who traveled to Kyiv by train, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced new weapons and equipment for Ukraine and new sanctions on Russian individuals and entities connected with the invasion. He also said the Canadian Embassy would reopen.

Zelenskiy said securing the Bundestag's approval of heavy arms deliveries to help Ukraine fend off Russian attacks was one of his country's top priorities.

The visit came after a major shift in German policy to send heavy weapons to Ukraine, including self-propelled howitzers and Gepard anti-aircraft systems, also known as the Cheetah system.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has faced increasing criticism over Germany not doing enough to help Ukraine amid Russia's invasion. But Scholz's government reversed course last month and pledged to export heavier weapons to Kyiv.

On May 6, Zelenskiy called on Scholz to take a "powerful step" and visit Kyiv on May 9 -- the date that Russia commemorates as the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. There was no immediate word on whether Scholz had agreed.

The German chancellor emphasized Germany's historical responsibility in supporting Ukraine against Russia's war in a televised speech he was to deliver to mark the anniversary.

"We have learned a central lesson from our country's catastrophic history between 1933 and 1945," Scholz said, according to a transcript of the address quoted by dpa.

"Freedom and security will triumph -- just as freedom and security triumphed over violence and dictatorship 77 years ago," he said.

On the battlefront, Russia's Defense Ministry said on May 8 that it had destroyed a Ukrainian Navy ship near Odesa in an overnight missile strike.



The ministry's statement added that Russian air defenses also shot down two Ukrainian SU-24 bombers and a Mi-24 helicopter over Snake Island in the Black Sea at night.

The reports could not be independently verified.

The head of Ukraine's regional military administration said Russian troops launched a series of missile strikes in the Odesa region during the day on May 8.



According to Maxim Marchenko, the attacks took place beginning early in the day, and Ukrainian air-defense units shot down four missiles, but an apartment house was hit, wounding a young girl, and a substation was destroyed, knocking out power in six neighborhoods.

On May 7, the Ukrainian military said it had destroyed a Russian landing ship near Snake Island, hitting it with an armed drone. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Russian forces launched a new offensive last month along most of Ukraine's eastern flank, with some of most intense attacks and shelling taking place recently around Popasna in the Luhansk region.



There has also been fierce fighting around Popasna in recent days amid a sustained Russian assault, and Hayday said Ukrainian forces had been pulling back and that the town had been destroyed.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said his troops had taken control of most of the town.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and dpa
Statues and memorials built to glorify and commemorate the Soviet Union and the Red Army have been torn down -- in one case illegally -- in several countries amid outrage at the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the same day workers in Kyiv dismantled a Soviet-era monument to friendship between Ukraine and Russia, far to the north in Latvia a Red Army memorial stone was being pulled out of the ground. The following photos show the destruction of Soviet monuments -- which many see as symbolic of historical Kremlin oppression -- that has taken place across Europe since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Serhiy Myrhorodsky, one of the designers of the 1982 monument, watched the dismantling alongside around 100 other people. Myrhorodsky told Reuters: "Russia invaded Ukraine.... Can we be friends with Russia? What do you think? This is our worst enemy. That is why the monument to Russian-Ukrainian friendship doesn't make sense anymore."

The stone pictured above was engraved with the words "On September 26, 1944, the Soviet Army liberated Madliena from fascist German invaders." The council of the Ogre municipality, which includes Madliena Parish, announced in late April that it would remove five memorial stones to Red Army fighters in the region. The Madliena stone was the first to be targeted.

In 2017, Poland enacted a law prohibiting monuments that "symbolize or propagate" totalitarian regimes. The law does not apply to objects that are "solely artistic, or that were erected over the remains of fallen soldiers."

Before the Garncarsko monument's destruction, a plaque was removed that had previously been defaced with red paint. The panel declared, "Eternal glory to the heroes killed for the honor and independence of the Soviet homeland." During World War II, the Red Army drove Nazi German forces out of Poland, but the subsequent communist regime imposed on the country is seen by most Poles as a dark period in their history before they regained their independence in 1989.

Polish police told local media that this 1950s-era graveyard monument to the Red Army in Koszalin appeared to have been illegally toppled by someone using an excavator who drove into the cemetery late at night. The sandstone memorial was of a Soviet soldier being hugged by a girl with a dove in her hand.
SARAJEVO -- Nusreta Sivac has spent decades recounting horrific episodes from a war that much of Europe has tried hard to forget.

One of dozens of female prisoners at one of the notorious Prijedor concentration camps run by ethnic Serbs early in the 1992-95 Bosnian War, she has testified in prosecutions in The Hague and still appears in ongoing war-crimes trials in her native Bosnia-Herzegovina.

She said she recognizes a tragically familiar pattern in reports from Ukraine since Russia's full-scale military invasion eight weeks ago.

"It is a model copied there in Ukraine, the raping of women," Sivac told RFE/RL's Balkan Service.

From their perspective as survivors of Balkan conflict synonymous with ethnic cleansing, genocide, and rape, she and other Bosnian women said the most important advice they could give Ukrainian women enduring the current war was to persevere and document crimes -- and look ahead to a time when they, too, might get their day in court.

"I would tell them to gather strength for when they have the opportunity. It may be dangerous now and it is not appropriate to talk at this time -- to testify about it," said Sivac, a former judge and an activist for war-crimes victims.

International observers have concluded that, between 20,000 and 50,000 girls, women, and men were raped during the 1992-95 Bosnian War.

The vast majority of those crimes have gone unpunished, despite decades of efforts by international prosecutors at the purpose-built International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

More than 30 people were convicted by the ICTY of sexual violence constituting war crimes between its first prosecution in 1997 and its final verdicts in 2017. One hundred and thirty more have been convicted of wartime sexual violence by Bosnian courts, and around 200 more cases are still pending in Bosnia. (NGOs who track such cases say around two-thirds of those convicted receive prison sentences of between three and five years.)

But Ukrainian authorities and the prevalence of smartphones in Europe's first major war of the 21st century have drawn immediate attention to possible war crimes.

Cases Already Opened

Rape accounts have proliferated as reports of abuses by Russian troops have increased, although much of the war zone is still difficult to access.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor launched an investigation in March into possible crimes committed in Ukraine since November 2013, reaching back to before Russia covertly invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014 in what was the initial phase of a decade-long conflict.

The UN Human Rights Council has created a Commission of Inquiry into possible violations of the laws of war and suspended Russia's membership.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued an extraordinary statement warning of reported rape and other atrocities by Russian troops, calling for the "adequate preservation of evidence" and international political will "in the medium and long term" to investigate such crimes.

Individual rape accounts have also emerged, with detailed statements by victims in some cases already handed over to Ukrainian authorities continuing to operate despite Russian military offensives all over the country.

Oleksiy Danylyak, a deputy prosecutor in the southern Kherson region, told RFE/RL recently that his office opened more than 1,000 cases into alleged violations after Russian troops withdrew from occupied areas there, including murder, kidnapping, deportation or forcible relocation, torture, and sexual crimes.

Intercepted Russian statements from the battlefield have even incriminated troops in the suspected use of rape to terrorize Ukrainians and prosecute the war.

Russian officials have not responded specifically to the allegations of battlefield rape in a war where Russian artillery has routinely pounded civilian areas, including residential buildings, schools, and hospitals. Russian officials deny targeting civilians.

In Moscow on April 26 for his first senior meeting with Russian officials since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was concerned about possible war crimes and that independent investigations were needed.

'Document The Crimes'

"Whatever the results are of this aggression, they must dedicate themselves to documenting war crimes," said Mirsad Tokaca, a founding director of the Research and Documentation Center in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.

He contrasted the situation with that of wartime Bosnia, where former Yugoslav institutions had mostly ceased to function. Ukraine still has prosecutors' offices, courts, police, NGOs, and now an international commission already formed to look into accusations of wrongdoing, he said.

Tokaca has already offered his center's assistance and experience, he added. "This is the 21st century and you can see the [higher] level of communication," Tokaca said. "We didn't have that in 1992."

Two months into the war, Russian forces control wide swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine including the easternmost parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. Russia also maintains its annexation of Crimea, which UN countries have overwhelmingly rejected as an illegal occupation.

Russian advances have been limited and come at considerable cost to Russia's military, according to Western military analysts who cite the stubborn defense of Ukrainian professional soldiers and volunteers along with the supply of weapons and intelligence by Western supporters.

'Persevere In Everything'

Halida Konjo-Uzunovic suffered torture and abuse and lost her husband and other male family members during an ethnic-cleansing campaign by ethnic Serb troops who controlled the region of Foca, in eastern Bosnia, between 1992 and 1994.

About 3,000 Bosniaks were killed in Foca, with authorities still searching for the remains of more than 600 of the victims -- more than one-third of them women or girls.

Konjo-Uzunovic said the images from Ukraine have evoked memories and understanding for the horrors of war that Ukrainian women are enduring.

"Only we who have gone through the same can fully understand and tell them to persevere in everything, even though it is the most terrible thing that can happen to a woman," Konjo-Uzunovic, who now lives in Sarajevo, told RFE/RL's Balkan Service. "I have personally experienced all this and the abduction of male family members, their executions and [identifying] their bodies."

One of the greatest sources of frustration for her and other victims has been the lack of a unified institution to seek justice in Bosnia, which is still divided administratively and otherwise along ethnic lines formally set up under the 1995 Dayton agreements that ended the fighting.

She said that Ukrainian women must feel that justice is nearly impossible in a divided country, and she hopes they don't face a legacy of war similar to what she and other Bosnians experienced.

But Konjo-Uzunovic said she and other affected victims have emerged from being "wounded, humiliated, and injured" to "walking bravely through life all these years."

Written by Andy Heil based on reporting by RFE/RL Balkan Service correspondents Milorad Milojevic and Meliha Kesmer in Sarajevo
Ukraine's defense minister says the country has "extremely difficult weeks" ahead, warning of major "destruction" in an ongoing large-scale Russian offensive in the east of the country.



Russia "will try to inflict as much pain as possible," Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on April 27, warning of "destruction and painful casualties."

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.

His statement came as officials from about 40 officials from met for a second day at the U.S. air base at Ramstein, Germany. Reznikov met on April 27 with the ministers of several Western countries, including Germany, Poland, and Canada.



"This is a true coalition whose goal is not just to hold the Kremlin accountable, but to defeat Russian tyranny, to ensure the civilized world can win this war," he said on Facebook.



Earlier on April 27, Western countries accused Russia of "blackmail" for cutting off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.



The White House said Russia's move against the two NATO allies was essentially "weaponizing energy supplies" and said Washington had expected it.



Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called Russia's move a "direct attack" on his country and said Poland will not purchase Russian gas from the autumn.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the Kremlin's attempt to "sow division" among EU states had failed again.



"We are prepared for this scenario," she said, adding that contingency plans have been put in place and that the EU response will be "immediate, united, and coordinated."

Gazprom said in a statement on April 27 that it had "completely suspended" gas supplies to Poland and Bulgarian for failing to pay in rubles, a condition Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated last month for "unfriendly" countries after a raft of sanctions were imposed on Russia and after the United States and other Western allies vowed to rush more and heavier weapons to Ukraine.



Poland has been a major gateway for many of the weapons already delivered, and Bulgaria has hosted Western fighter jets at a new NATO outpost on its Black Sea coast. But it still gets more than 90 percent of its gas from Russia.



Von der Leyen warned EU members against giving in to Moscow's demands for payments in rubles unless their contract is denominated in rubles. She said about 97 percent of all EU contracts explicitly stipulate payments in euros or dollars.

In a continuation of his diplomatic push, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Kyiv on April 27 following talks with Putin in Moscow.



"We will continue our work to expand humanitarian support and secure the evacuation of civilians from conflict zones," he vowed. "The sooner this war ends, the better -- for the sake of Ukraine, Russia, and the world," he said on Twitter ahead of talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

During his talks with Putin, Guterres repeated calls for both Russia and Ukraine to work together to set up humanitarian corridors. Putin told him he hoped that negotiations could end the conflict though talks remain stalled.



On the battlefield, Russian forces pounded a steel plant in Mariupol where the city's last defenders and some civilians are holed up.



Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the city's mayor, said there had been no let-up in air strikes on the Azovstal plant. Several recent attempts to establish a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to escape have failed.

Russia claimed its missiles took out a "large batch" of Western-supplied weapons and ammunition being stored at an aluminum plant in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhya.



A British intelligence report said earlier that Russian forces had targeted hangars at the plant using long-range sea-based missiles but did not specify what weapons if any were hit by the strike.



The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on April 27 that the villages of Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody in the northeastern Kharkiv region and Zarichne and Novotoshkivske in the eastern Donetsk region had fallen to the Russian forces, whose aim appears to be linking territory held by Kremlin-backed separatists in the east to Russia-annexed Crimea.



The Russian Defense Ministry said on April 26 that it had gained full control of the Kherson region, which lies in the area that would provide Russia that land link.

Kherson regional Governor Hennadiy Laguta said in a video address on April 26 that the occupation meant his administration was forced to leave.



A series of recent blasts in the Russian-backed separatist region of Transdniester, which has a border with Ukraine, raised fears that the war could spill over into Moldova.



Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak on April 27 accused Moscow of wanting to use Transdniester to "destabilize" Moldova.



"If Ukraine falls, tomorrow Russian troops will be at Chisinau's gates," Podolyak said, referring to Moldova's capital, after separatist authorities in Transdniester called the blasts "terrorist attacks."

Russia on April 27 also reported several explosions and a fire on its own territory -- at an ammunition depot in the Kursk and Belgorod regions respectively, both of which border Ukraine -- the latest in a series of incidents that a top Ukrainian official called payback and "karma" for Moscow's invasion.

Podolyak, without directly admitting that Ukraine was responsible, said it was natural that Russian border areas where fuel and weapons are stored were learning about "demilitarization" -- a direct reference to the Kremlin's alleged objective for the unprovoked invasion, which it calls a special military operation to disarm and "de-Nazify" its neighbor.

"If you (Russians) decide to massively attack another country, massively kill everyone there, massively crush peaceful people with tanks, and use warehouses in your regions to enable the killings, then sooner or later the debts will have to be repaid," Podolyak said.

The April 27 explosions came after a major fire this week at a Russian oil-storage facility in the Bryansk region near the border.

Earlier this month, Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters, which a top Kyiv security official denied.

The incidents have highlighted Russia's weakness in areas close to Ukraine that are vital to its military logistics chains.

In Voronezh, the administrative center of another southern region, TASS news agency cited an Emergency Situations Ministry official as saying that two explosions had been heard in the area.

Regional governor Aleksandr Gusev said that an air-defense system had detected and destroyed a small reconnaissance drone.

Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the incidents but described them as payback. "Karma is a cruel thing," Podolyak wrote on social media.

With reporting by AP, AFP, BBC, and Reuters
The worlds largest hydrogen-powered mine haul truck starts operating at Anglo Americans PGMs mine in South Africa Last Friday, Anglo American unveiled a prototype of the worlds largest hydrogen-powered mine haul truck designed to operate in everyday mining conditions at its Mogalakwena PGMs mine in South Africa.

Police initiates criminal case against illegal miner in Yakutia, who recovered 289 diamonds In Yakutia, the police detained a worker of a mining and processing plant who illegally recovered 289 diamonds totally weighing 104 carats.

Russian Ambassador to Angola on ALROSAs participation in the countrys diamond mining: Our work there will go on as usual Vladimir Tararov, Russian Ambassador to Angola said in a recent interview with RIA Novosti that despite the sanctions, ALROSA will continue to take part in mining diamonds in this country. Our work there will go on as usual, he said talking about the...

Lucara Diamond nets $68.2 million in revenue in Q1 2022 demonstrating a strong start to the year Lucara Diamond netted $68.2 million in revenue in Q1 2022, up 28% from $53.1 million in Q1 2021, the miner said in a press release last week adding that this reflected strong rough and polished diamond market fundamentals.
Russia developing free trade ecommerce platforms into Central Asia

Wildberries the Russian online retail equivalent of Amazon, has just opened a distribution center in Kyrgyzstan, which will strengthen companys partnership with local businesses, as well as speed up the delivery of local orders..

Wildberries first distribution center has opened in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital city. Entrepreneurs from Kyrgyzstan will be able to cut their own logistics costs, improve sales, and expand the range of their products on the market with improved access to Russia consumers. There is a simplified registration procedure on the website for Kyrgyz entrepreneurs.

Wildberries press release stated The number of local entrepreneurs registered on our web platform increased 35 times year-on-year to 2,150 in the first quarter of this year. Clothing and footwear, as well as pet supplies, various kitchen utensils became the most popular goods sold locally. We hope that a new logistics facility will accelerate the further development of cooperation between Russia and Kyrgyzstan and will increase delivery speeds of orders for residents of the country.

Both Kyrgyzstan and Russia are members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) which provides Free Trade access to each others markets. Kyrgyzstan is land-locked, and borders China, its largest trade partner by far. However improved infrastructure connectivity as part of the Belt & Road Initiative has improved the countries foreign trade, which grew last year by 19.5%.

Developing platforms such as Wildberries into EAEU markets and elsewhere in Asia will be a core part of Russias pivot to Asia as it seeks new markets in the wake of its problems in the West.

In 2020, Russia exported about US$1.5 billion to Kyrgyzstan, while Kyrgyzstan exported goods to the value of about US$385 million. Much of the trade is industrial, however attention by players such as Wildberries will open up markets for SMEs and entrepreneurs in bilateral trade  and trade tourism.

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A law firm representing a victim who was molested by a youth choir director at a Richmond church is calling on California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate the case because the churchs pastor  who hired the choir director  is the husband of the Contra Costa County district attorney.

Alvin Bernstine, husband of Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton, is the pastor at Bethlehem Mission Baptist Church of Richmond who hired Jesse Armstrong as a youth choir director either without doing a background check on him that would have showed he was a registered sex offender or despite knowing of his criminal background and sex offender status, the victims attorney, Vince Finaldi, said in a statement.

Armstrong is a registered sex offender in California and had been convicted twice of sexually abusing five minor girls before was hired as a youth choir director at the church, according to the lawsuit. He was employed at the church from 2011 through 2012, the lawsuit said.

Last month, Armstrong pleaded guilty to charges of lewd acts against a minor, unlawful intercourse with a minor and meeting with a minor for a lewd purpose, said Stu Mollrich, an attorney with the law firm representing the victim, Manly, Stewart & Finaldi.

On Monday, lawyers for the victim filed a civil lawsuit in Contra Costa County Superior Court against Bernstine, the church and Armstrong, demanding punitive and economic damages for the victim, who lawyers said is suffering from physical, emotional, psychological and economic damage as a result of the abuse.

The lawsuit alleges that Bernstine and the church ignored and/or concealed the sexual assault of the girl and continued to allow Armstrong around children in private and secluded areas, such as church youth choir practices and events.

Prior to and during the sexual harassment, molestation and assault of Plaintiff, Defendants knew or had reason to know that (Armstrong) had violated his role as a teacher, mentor, supervisor, caretaker and advisor to minors, and used this position of authority and trust acting on behalf of Defendants to gain access to children, including Plaintiff, on and off the premises and grounds of Defendants, the lawsuit said.

Armstrong spent roughly four months  both on and off church property  grooming and sexually assaulting the 14-year-old girl, who was a member of the church choir, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also alleges that the church and Bernstine failed to take reasonable steps, or implement reasonable safeguards to avoid acts of childhood sexual assault posted to children in their programs.

Armstrong is serving a prison sentence of two years and eight months in connection with his sexual abuse of the girl, the lawsuit 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.

Finaldi and the other lawyers representing the victim are calling on Bonta to investigate this case to avoid any conflict of interest on behalf of the District Attorney, Finaldi said, pointing to Becton and Bernstines marriage. Bernstine could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday evening.

Ted Asregadoo, a spokesperson for the Contra Costa County District Attorneys Office, told The Chronicle on Tuesday evening that the civil claims substantially predate the 2020 marriage of Dr. Alvin Bernstine and Diana Becton.

As such, she is completely unrelated to the civil claims which stem from a decade ago, Asregadoo said.

Lauren Hernandez (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByLHernandez
The East Bay Municipal Utility Districts decision Tuesday to slash water usage means that residents of parts of Contra Costa and Alameda counties will have to take certain steps to help the states worsening drought crisis.

The decision means that single family households can use up to 1,646 gallons per day without incurring fines  a generous cutoff that will impact only about 1% to 2% of customers.

But there are other restrictions too. Here is what the new rules mean for residents of the district, which includes Oakland and Berkeley (click here for a map):

 Residents are prohibited from filling decorative fountains and ponds that dont circulate water.

 Outdoor watering is limited to three times per week.

 Residents and businesses can no longer wash down sidewalks and driveways with a hose. They can still use a bucket and mop.

 People must use a hose with a shutoff nozzle to wash vehicles.

 Restaurants and bars should only provide water upon request.

 Hotel patrons must say if they want their linens and towels washed every day.

In terms of the caps, the water agency will let customers know if they are in violation, and if customers persist in breaking the new rules, there are charges that can be added their bill.

Heather Cooley, the director of research at the Pacific Institute, a national organization based in Oakland that focuses on water, said residents can do even more to conserve water.

Cooley said that often times in a drought, residents will hear that they should shower and flush less. While those measures can certainly help, Cooley said replacing toilets, faucets, shower heads and clothes washers can be even more effective.

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.

For example, old toilets in California, installed in 1980 and after, use six gallons per flush. The standard in California now is 1.28 gallons per flush, but many older homes still have the older models, Cooley said.

Older models of shower heads use about 2 1/2 gallons per minute versus newer models that use 1 1/2 gallons per minute, she said.

In addition, residents can slash their often-hefty outdoor water usage by replacing water intensive grass with other plants like poppies, sage and rosemary that require less water.

Increasingly, we are seeing landscape shops stocking these low water use plants, Cooley said.

Sarah Ravani (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Bonnie Candell has to spoon-feed Beastie, her 12-year-old Chihuahua-terrier mix, because he has a dental infection and broken tooth. Late last week, she finally got results of an echocardiogram giving her dog clearance to get dental surgery with her vet, Montclair Veterinary Hospital in Oakland.

She was shocked to learn on Friday evening that the vet practice had shut down abruptly with no advance notice to its hundreds of clients or its 19-person staff.

It will be a week before I can see another vet and get a refill for his antibiotics, Candell said. All that infection might come flooding back, and he could be in more pain and stop eating.

Scores of other Montclair patients expressed similar concerns in interviews with The Chronicle and posts on social media, with emotions ranging from disbelief to anger as they scrambled to find care for their pets.

Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle

This decision was not made lightly or without consideration for our pet parent community, said an email most Montclair clients received Friday evening, which said that the hospital was closing immediately.

Although the email was signed by The Team at Montclair Veterinary Hospital, staffers said they had no idea this was coming.

We were all completely blindsided and flabbergasted, said Dr. Rachel Moulton, Montclairs medical director. Im devastated for my clients. So many lives got upended by this: the staff, the clients, the animals.

Montclair was closed by its owner, Thrive Pet Healthcare, a Texas company with about 340 vet practices nationwide that bought the Oakland clinic four years ago.

Continuing to operate the practice was no longer sustainable, it said in a statement, adding that Montclair had experienced staff shortages like the rest of the industry.

Most vets used to be locally owned, but corporate consolidation has ramped up to the point where between 25% and 30% of U.S. veterinary clinics are owned by big companies, said Karen Felsted, a veterinarian and CPA whose Texas company PantheraT consults for vet practices.

Vet visits and pet ownership both increased during the pandemic, making vet practices even more attractive for corporate acquisitions. Pet owners spent a record $123.6 billion last year with vet care and medical products accounting for $34.3 billion of that, according to the American Pet Product Association.

Industry experts said its an open secret that Thrive hopes to go public in the near future, so it may be jettisoning properties that dont perform to Wall Street standards.

Formerly called Pathway Vet Alliance and owned by Morgan Stanley, Thrive was purchased in March 2020 by San Francisco private-equity firm TSG Consumer Partners for a price estimated at $2 billion by the Wall Street Journal.

TSG declined to comment on the Montclair closure.

Thrive used to operate almost 100 vet clinics inside Petco stores, but last month the two companies parted ways with Petco buying out Thrives stake in their joint venture. Thrive said that had nothing to do with closing Montclair.

Gabriella Rivas, a vet tech at Montclair, said that Thrive told the staff on Thursday to cancel all Friday afternoon appointments in anticipation of a meeting. At the noon meeting, as the Montclair staff started to eat lunch, a Thrive vice president announced that the practice wasnt making enough money; it was being closed immediately and they all were laid off.

We were all in shock, Rivas said. I started crying. I saw my co-workers struggle with the news. They pulled us one by one into exam rooms to give us our severance packet.

Rivas said Thrive is paying her through the end of May.

Moulton, the medical director, said Thrive told her about the closure five minutes before the noon meeting. She had never heard that Thrive had any issues with Montclairs financial performance.

In fact, Thrive was about to remodel the practices building, she said. We were really excited to renovate to make it flow more easily and make it more cat-friendly, she 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.

Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle

No California law bars vet clinics from abrupt closures. However they are required to maintain pets medical records for three years, and provide them within five days upon request, said the California Veterinary Medical Board.

Montclair Veterinary Clinics website is currently displaying a pop-up that references the closure, recommends another facility, and provides an email address to request records, it said in an email.

Thats cold comfort to pet owners.

There had to have been other ways they could have handled it, said Katherine Kott of Oakland. Her Brittany spaniel, Gabby, had growths on her gums removed last week; the biopsy results were due on Monday. She doesnt know how shell obtain the results.

Felsted, the vet and CPA consultant, said its not unusual for a corporate group to shut down a vet clinic. Independent practices close as well, but usually when the vet reaches retirement age, she said.

Many corporate groups at one time or another made a buying mistake; they bought a practice they thought would do great, then, for whatever reasons, it didnt, Felsted said. They look at their portfolios to weed out locations that dont work as well. Its a typical business decision.

But for pet owners, the shutdown felt like a slap-in-the-face treatment of clients and staff, as Candida Pugh of Oakland put it. Her German shepherd, Vela, age 12, has arthritis and a skin infection that hasnt responded to medication. Now she has to seek a new vet and theyll have to start over from ground zero, Pugh said.

Lydia Tonozzi said her dog Rocky, a 7-year-old mutt, has been extremely sick and losing weight. He was supposed to see a vet at Montclair early this week; she found out on Saturday afternoon that the clinic had closed.

Im really worried about what will happen while I try to find a new vet, she said.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
Mario Gonzalez, who died after he was pinned to the ground by Alameda police in April 2021, died at the hands of the arresting officers, not from methamphetamine in his system, according to a new autopsy report.

The findings, released Wednesday, run counter to the original autopsy results from the Alameda County coroner, who had categorized Gonzalezs death as a homicide but listed the toxic effects of methamphetamine as the cause of death, adding stress from the arrest, alcoholism and morbid obesity as significant contributing factors.

The second autopsy was requested by the lawyers representing Gonzalezs family in an ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit against Alameda police. It found that Gonzalez died from restraint asphyxiation, according to the report by forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu, a former chief forensic pathologist at the San Joaquin County Sheriffs Office.

As Gonzalezs family seeks justice for his death, the new autopsy report will play a central role in helping to explain that Mario died from restraint asphyxia, not meth intoxication, Julia Sherwin, an attorney representing Gonzalezs family, told The Chronicle.

The independent autopsy confirms what we all saw with our own eyes, Sherwin said in a statement. Meth didnt kill Mario, the officers did.

The report indicates that Gonzalez had fluid in his lungs and swelling in his brain, which could be caused by a lack of oxygen, or drugs. The Alameda County coroners report did not mention the lung fluid or the brain swelling.

Gonzalez had methamphetamine in his system, but not enough to account for his death, Omalu wrote in his report. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration considers a methamphetamine concentration of less than 2.5 mg/L to be non-toxic and typical for recreational use. Meth levels in Gonzalezs body were found to be at 0.907 mg/L, and he was a chronic user, Omalu wrote.

The lethality of the asphyxial brain injury in this case far exceeds and supersedes, the lethality of Methamphetamine toxicity, and asphyxial brain injury will assume the underlying cause of death, Omalu wrote. The manner of death would be a homicide.

If not for his asphyxial brain injury, Mr. Gonzalez-Arenales, more likely than not, would not have died and was not expected to die on April 19, 2021.

Omalu has said that he discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease known to affect football players, and his work on the disease inspired the movie Concussion, in which he was played by actor Will Smith. The Washington Post reported in 2020 that some people in the scientific community are skeptical of his work and believe he has built his career on distorted science.

Sherwin said she has great respect for Omalu and said his detractors may not be fully aware of his work. He was paid $16,000 to do the autopsy  his standard fee for such a procedure, Sherwin said  and she asserted that Gonzalezs family and lawyers had no influence or impact on the autopsy whatsoever.

Gonzalez was arrested the morning of April 19, 2021, after Alameda police received two calls about a man talking to himself outside the front gate of a house on the corner of Oak and Powell streets. Officer Eric McKinley spoke to Gonzalez for nine minutes and then arrested him with help from Officers James Fisher and Cameron Leahy, according to the coroner investigators report.

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 officers restrained Gonzalez for about five minutes, putting some of their weight on his back as he lay on the ground. In body camera footage, Gonzalez can be heard groaning and the officers can be heard telling him to stop resisting. Gonzalez eventually went limp underneath the officers and they began administering CPR.

Gonzalez was pronounced dead at Alameda Hospital about 45 minutes later, according to the coroners report.

The Alameda County District Attorneys Office declined to file criminal charges against the three arresting officers earlier this month.

I want to acknowledge the pain and concerns in our community over the killing of Mr. Gonzalez, District Attorney Nancy OMalley said in a statement earlier this month. After a thorough, extensive, and independent investigation by my Office, the evidence does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers broke any laws.

An attorney representing the three Alameda police officers could not immediately be reached for comment.

Andy Picon (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: andy.picon@hearst.com Twitter: @andpicon
Search and rescue crews recovered a mans body from Mount Whitney on Saturday, nearly a week after hikers ascending Californias tallest mountain reported seeing the body on the trail.

After multiple attempts over several days to reach the body were thwarted by high winds and snow, rescue crews assisted by the California Highway Patrol retrieved the deceased person, who appeared to be a fit, middle-aged male, the Inyo County Sheriff's Office and volunteer Inyo County Search and Rescue team told The Chronicle.

As of Wednesday, the mans identity had not been released, and an autopsy report was pending, the Inyo County Coroners Office said. His body was recovered below the 99 switchbacks of the main trail on Mount Whitney, which is just over 22 miles out-and-back with an elevation gain of 7,000 feet.

The mountain, which stands on the border between Sequoia National Park and Inyo National Forest, is the most frequently climbed peak in the Sierra Nevada, according to the National Park Service. A permit is required for everyone hiking in the Mount Whitney zone, including day hikers.

Less than 50% of hikers successfully summit Mount Whitney every year, according to officials with the nonprofit Search and Rescue team, which partners with the Inyo County Sheriffs Office.

They added that in the off season, the distance and elevation gain are greater as hikers are forced to start their hike lower down because of seasonal road closures. For individuals with the proper hiking experience and fitness levels, it can take up to 14 hours to scale the mountain, they said. The trail is usually relatively snow-free from late June to mid-October.

Teams who retrieved the hikers body said he did not appear to be equipped with proper gear, according to Inyo County Search and Rescue.

He was found wearing sneakers but no microspikes, which hikers attach to their shoes to provide traction on slippery surfaces like ice and snow. However, it is possible that any microspikes could have fallen off, officials added.

The hiker also did not appear to have an ice ax  a walking tool that provides support in snowy or icy conditions  though it could also have been scattered with other personal gear from the fall, officials said.

In the past 12 months, four people have died attempting to summit Mount Whitney  a higher toll than usual, sheriffs officials said. According to historical data, deaths range from one to two per year on average.

Many of the recent deaths have been in spring or early summer due to falls on snow and ice, where the subject did not have or know how to use critical gear like crampons and an ice axe, the Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post.

Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the 48 contiguous U.S. states, is considered a strenuous hike, and officials say anyone interested in climbing the slope should have the necessary training and come equipped with the right equipment, including crampons, microspikes and ice axes.

Experts caution that even experienced hikers can get into trouble from dangers including accidental injuries, extreme weather conditions, altitude sickness and other medical emergencies like heart attacks.

Anyone can be affected by altitude sickness  which can present as headaches, nausea, shortness of breath, and lack of coordination  and which can progress rapidly from discomfort to death, according to Inyo County Search and Rescue. If you begin to become affected, the only cure is to descend to a lower elevation.

Here are other life-saving tips from the rescue group to keep in mind while attempting to climb Mount Whitney:

 Avoid hiking alone. Most emergencies happen when parties split up. Its important to stay with your partners until you return to the trailhead.

 If you do hike solo, leave a detailed itinerary with an emergency contact, along with an estimated return time and instructions for calling for help if you are significantly overdue.

 Always turn around before it gets dark or you run out of food or water.

 Remember the summit is only halfway  the descent can be the hardest part of the hike. Plan accordingly.

 Always have an emergency plan because you may not be guaranteed a rescue. It could take 6-24 hours for rescuers to reach your location.

 Only call Search and Rescue in a life-threatening emergency.

 Make sure you know how to use all the gear you bring, including crampons and an ice ax.

Annie Vainshtein (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com
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As endangered whales begin to migrate past San Francisco Bay, theres a new effort to protect them from getting struck by cargo ships, a leading cause of death.

From May 1 to Dec. 15, federal officials are asking vessels to voluntarily reduce their speeds to 10 knots (11 mph) or less in the Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries, an area from San Francisco to Point Arena (Mendocino County).

Its the first time the federal government has asked ships to slow down in such a large part of the Northern California coast.

The initiative gives whales more time to avoid a strike, and makes strikes less likely to be lethal if they occur, said William J. Douros, West Coast regional director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office of National Marine Sanctuaries, in a letter also signed by representatives of the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The program expands on an existing voluntary speed reduction zone that is limited to shipping zones that go in and out of the bay. The new program also lengthens the time the voluntary speed reduction program is in place by one month; formerly it ended Nov. 15.

Blue, humpback and fin whales, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Act, are the main focus of the program.

We have been showing them over the years that that was not enough, because there were still whales hanging around in late November and early December, said Jaime Jahncke of the Petaluma organization Point Blue Conservation Science, who was part of a working group that helped spur the recommendations.

NOAA has mandatory vessel speed limits on the East Coast to protect the critically endangered right whale, but none on the West Coast. In 2019, a voluntary vessel speed reduction zone was expanded in Southern California from shipping lanes at the port of Los Angeles to a greater area from Santa Barbara County to Orange County.

The program in the Bay Area is based on observations of whale migration patterns. Blue whale migration, for example, is particularly heavy, especially right where the northern and central shipping lanes end.

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.

Point Blue Conservation Science estimates that 83 endangered whales are killed annually by ships on the West Coast, though their bodies are rarely found because they sink quickly to the sea floor.

Jahncke estimates that the new protections will greatly reduce the risk to whales from ship strikes in the region.

Its a great step forward to help whales, said Jahncke. We should be able to see the results over the next few years.

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan
New details emerged Wednesday in the investigation into the kidnapping this week of a 3-month-old baby who was safely recovered in San Jose, with police saying one of the three people arrested Tuesday was a friend of the infants family.

Investigators believe the kidnapping was premeditated, San Jose police Sgt. Christian Camarillo said at a news conference Wednesday. The suspects motive and the amount of time they allegedly spent planning to take the baby remained under investigation, he said.

Early Wednesday, San Jose police identified the three people arrested: Jose Roman Portillo, 28; Yesenia Guadalupe Ramirez, 43; and Baldomeo Sandoval, 37. The three San Jose residents had been in custody since Tuesday, police said on Twitter.

The baby was reportedly kidnapped at about 1 p.m. Monday at his grandmothers home in the 1000 block of Elm Street while she unloaded groceries from her car.

After a 20-hour search, law enforcement agencies recovered the boy unharmed at about 10 a.m. Tuesday at a home in East San Jose that appeared to have belonged to Portillo, San Jose police said in a Wednesday news release.

Ramirez, who transported the grandmother and the baby to run errands, is a family friend and believed to have been in contact with Portillo, who allegedly kidnapped the baby from the grandmothers home, police said.

We dont know how long that communication lasted between Ramirez and Portillo, said Camarillo.

Ramirez was identified as a person of interest in the case on Tuesday after her statement changed several times during the investigation, police said.

The alleged role of the third suspect, Sandoval, was unclear, with Camarillo saying he played some role in this kidnapping.

Police did not say whether Portillo or Sandoval had any link to the baby's family.

Portillo is suspected of entering the home unlawfully and taking the baby, the release said. Surveillance video footage released Monday showed an unidentified man holding a baby carrier as he walked through a residential neighborhood.

Authorities initially believed the baby was in the carrier.

Camarillo clarified Wednesday that the man in the video was actually arriving at the grandmothers home with an empty carrier and later left with the child in it.

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 a clear indication that this was pre-planned, premeditated, they had a plan (that) they executed that day, said Camarillo.

The three were booked on suspicion of kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, child abduction and home invasion, and face arraignment in court Thursday, police said. Camarillo said the charges may change as the investigation continues.

The FBI child abduction response team and the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office helped San Jose police search for the infant.

Camarillo said the babys mother, who was at work when the abduction occurred, was very relieved to be reunited with her infant, but also very traumatized right now. He said the mother was currently not interested in speaking to the news media and asked reporters to give her space.

Anyone with information is asked to contact San Jose Detective Van Brande #4542 at 408-277-4166.

Jessica Flores (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores
Bansang, a modern Korean restaurant from two fine-dining chefs and the restaurant group behind Daeho, opens Thursday, April 28, in San Francisco with dishes such as sashimi soup and uni scallop toast.

The restaurant is located at 1560 Fillmore St., at Geary Boulevard, the former location of Japanese restaurant Izakaya Kou.

Although chefs Ethan Min, who previously worked at Atelier Crenn, Saison and Kinjo, and Jin Lim, formerly of Michael Mina, Kinjo and Kabuto, bring high-end restaurant experience, their vision for Bansang is more casual. They originally planned to serve a set menu at Bansang but switched to a la carte for the soft opening of the restaurant.

Bansang refers to how tables were set for kings and other royalty during imperial Korea, with banchan, rice, soup, entrees and condiments laid out at the same time. At the restaurant, Min and Lim are bringing Japanese and French culinary techniques to show the range of Korean cuisine. The menu is in the vein of Korean-style tapas, where diners can combine small plates into a full meal.

Banchan include tomato-basil kimchi, mussel-seaweed soup, kimchi oysters, quail eggs and cucumber salad. Dishes start at around $10, with pricier options such as double-cut short rib galbi with pickled pearl onions and uni scallop toast priced around $30.

Seafood also plays a big role on the menu, with dishes such as sea bass with thyme-miso vinaigrette and maitake mushrooms and mulhwe, a seafood soup featuring kelp-cured fluke.

Serving dishes a la carte and in smaller portions feels more approachable, Min said.

The decision to make the restaurant more accessible stemmed from Mins experience with family and friends who wanted to visit the high-end restaurants he worked at but couldnt afford the cost of the meals.

I wanted to open a restaurant everyone can enjoy, including our families and friends, Min said.

Other dishes in the works may seem similar to those offered in other Korean restaurants in the U.S., such as fresh rice cakes in gochujang tomato sauce or radish kimchi fried rice. Set menus will be offered after Bansang fully opens.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Bansang will also serve a range of sool, or Korean liquors, such as a plum-flavored soju and rice wine from Yangchon Brewery in South Korea.

The restaurant seats 70, plus theres a private dining room. The owners kept wooden accents from the previous restaurant but added Korean design elements, importing lamps and designing window frames inspired by the geometric designs of rice paper-covered doors in Korean architecture.

If Bansang does well, more locations may open throughout the region, according to Daeho Chief Operating Officer Tony Chong.

The Bay Areas Korean food scene is expanding quickly to meet soaring demand for specialty restaurants like Daeho, which operates four locations focused on short-rib stew or kalbijjim, San Bruno gilgeori toast specialist Just My Toast and Oaklands Joodooboo, where tofu is the star. Hybrid cuisine is offered at Hotline, a new Korean-Chinese restaurant in the Outer Sunset, while the menu at noted chef Corey Lees hotly anticipated San Ho Won features charcoal-grilled meats alongside kimchi pozole.

Bansang. 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. 1560 Fillmore St., San Francisco. bansangsf.com

Gwendolyn Wu (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com
Coronavirus cases are ticking up again across the Bay Area as the region enters a fifth swell of the pandemic, but this wave will likely look very different from earlier surges, with far fewer people seriously ill and needing hospital care, health officials say.

It also will play out differently in other remarkable ways: Though no one yet knows how high cases will climb before this wave crests, health officials dont expect to have to put back in place mask mandates and other broad mitigation measures. That shifts the burden of responsible pandemic behavior squarely onto individuals shoulders.

The United States as a whole has entered a new chapter of the pandemic, staggering from two years of crisis response toward coexistence with the coronavirus. On Tuesday, the nations top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on PBS NewsHour program that the country is out of the pandemic phase, though much remains uncertain about what life with the virus will look like as it becomes endemic.

With almost no government mandates now in place, increasingly people will need to decide for themselves what risk is tolerable and what is not, and adjust their actions accordingly. That decision-making may feel uncomfortable and even frightening to some individuals, local health officials recognize, and it may play out awkwardly at times  a prom in San Francisco with dozens of teenagers infected is just one recent example  but the virus is no longer as threatening as it once was, and its time to move past the onerous control efforts that defined the previous two years, many experts say.

Even for people who have been extraordinarily careful throughout the pandemic, it is hard to keep up that level of meticulous vigilance. I think thats why theres a reticence to come down with mandates, said Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County health director, in an interview Wednesday. People just have to remember that they have to do their best, and every little bit is going to help. It doesnt have to be absolutely perfect all the time, because thats maybe not where were at 2 years into this.

Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle

Daily coronavirus cases have roughly doubled in the Bay Area from a low base since the beginning of April, and some counties are reporting transmission rates similar to the peak of last summers delta surge. But current case numbers are still at less than 10% of the height of the omicron wave. Cody said shes insisting on calling this period a swell, not a surge.

Health officials acknowledge that cases are underreported now, with so many people testing themselves at home, but they believe enough laboratory testing is being done to give them a clear picture of the trajectory of the virus in their community. They also say that case counting is less important now than it once was, with so few people experiencing severe outcomes from COVID. More important is tracking hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and deaths due to COVID, experts said.

In the Bay Area, COVID hospitalizations have begun to climb again after more than two months of declines, though they remain at near-historic low levels. The number of patients in intensive care has been stable and low since early April  as of Tuesday, 31 people with COVID were in Bay Area ICUs, a fraction of the winter peak of 363. Deaths too have dropped off significantly, from 30 or more a day in early March to just three or four a day lately.

And all types of severe outcomes  from needing intensive care to dying  are far below the darkest days of the pandemic in winter 2020 to 2021. Thats due largely to overall high vaccination rates in the Bay Area and the fact that the currently circulating variants of the virus, though more infectious, generally cause milder illness.

We are seeing about 70 new cases per day on average in Marin County. And at the peak of delta (last summer) we were seeing about 50 cases per day on average, said Dr. Matt Willis, the county health officer. For many, that would be a cause for alarm in itself. But I see it as a reason why we need to stop looking so closely at case counts. Weve had at the most two people in the intensive care units of any Marin County hospital since the beginning of March. Were so much better protected now.

Given the relatively low risk of serious illness for those who are vaccinated  which is the vast majority of Bay Area residents  its no longer appropriate to put in place universal control measures like mask and vaccine mandates to slow down transmission, health officials said.

They advise that individuals pay attention to viral trends in their community  by looking at transmission levels posted weekly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, their own county COVID dashboard or other pandemic trackers  and consider taking more precautions as cases rise. San Francisco health officials have for several weeks been recommending that residents put together a COVID tool kit for these situations when transmission is increasing. They should make sure they have stockpiles of home tests and masks that are high quality and comfortable. They should know what to do if they test positive and determine how to get quick access to drugs to prevent severe illness.

The safeguards people take in response to increased transmission likely will vary based on their own risk assessment. Fully vaccinated high school students probably will alter their behavior less than the parents of unvaccinated toddlers or people who live with someone whos immunocompromised. Beyond that, people will have widely disparate views on how much risk theyre willing to take, and for what types of activities.

This week, President Biden announced that he planned to attend the White House Correspondents Association dinner, which is being held again this Saturday after two years of pandemic cancellations; but Fauci, the presidents senior medical adviser, who is two years older, said he would not. Thats just one conspicuous example of the decisions nearly everyone is facing right now. Those parents of toddlers may be thinking more along the lines of whether play dates are worth the risk. The high school students may be wondering about going maskless at prom.

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.

We hope that proms take place, we hope that graduations take place, said Dr. Curtis Chan, the deputy health officer for San Mateo County, the location of the high school whose prom, held in San Francisco, sickened more than 100 students; the students had been advised to wear masks, but many did not. San Mateo is the lone Bay Area county that is no longer at a low level of viral transmission as defined by the CDC, meaning masks are recommended for high-risk individuals.

Jana Asenbrennerova/Special to The Chronicle

Its a matter of weighing risk and benefit, Chan said. Families with young children, for example, may decide that spending time with other kids is important after two years of isolation, and if play dates are outdoors and nobody in the families has been sick, the likelihood of transmission could be quite low.

Health officials said theyre happy to advise people and organizations about how to more safely behave in times of increased virus, but theyre mostly past the point of telling everyone outright what to do.

When the teenage son of Willis, the Marin County health officer, heard about last weeks prom virus outbreak, he asked his dad, Youre not even thinking about changing our prom plans, are you? His sons prom is scheduled for this weekend  Willis told him that he would not be recommending the event be canceled or postponed.

This was a quality-of-life decision. Hell be attending his prom, because its important for him, Willis said. But we also recognize there may be risks, and we hope everyone will test the day of the prom.

Willis noted that roughly 90% of Marin County teenagers are vaccinated, and even before vaccines, there were very low rates of hospitalizations and no deaths from COVID in that age group. We have to evaluate that against the experience of a rite of passage, Willis said. And were falling on the side of we have to allow it.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday
The California Department of Public Health has launched a Spanish- and English-language chatbot to prevent misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19, specifically within Latino and Spanish-speaking communities, and to help spread reliable information about virus.

The chatbot on the WhatsApp messaging service was created in partnership between the health department and Facebooks parent comapny Meta, and is believed to be a first-of-its-kind in the United States, state health officials announced in a news release last week.

The tool is specifically intended to combat misinformation and disinformation in Latino and Spanish-speaking communities and to provide those communities with reliable information about vaccines, how to find and book vaccination appointments and more.

Our mission to keep California safe from the threat of COVID-19 is not over, and we must continue to keep our communities informed on how we can continue moving toward the new normal we all long for, said Dr. Tomas Aragon, director of the states public health department, in the release.

That is why we are meeting even more Californians where they are, and spend time every day, by presenting reliable, accurate information on a trusted platform and in the language they speak, Aragon added.

Mona Pasquil Rogers, head of Meta State Policy in California, said in a statement that the partnership was one of the many ways Meta is helping to fight Spanish-language misinformation.

Misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19, specifically on Facebook and other social media platforms, is rampant among Spanish speakers and Latinos, who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, according to several media reports.

In a statement to The Chronicle on Tuesday, state health officials said more than 2,200 people used the chatbot in the first 24 hours since it launched last week.

The top three most frequently asked questions have been people seeking information on vaccine safety, how to secure a vaccine appointment and how to use the digital COVID-19 vaccine record, state health officials said.

Well continue to monitor (metrics) on a routine basis, a spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday.

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 chatbot is free to use. To use the tool, people must text hola to 833-422-1090 on WhatsApp or scan the QR code found on this web page.

A virtual assistant will then ask if you prefer to continue to conversation in English or Spanish, and then it will present five different topics to choose from to request further information (appointment information, vaccine safety, current state recommendations, digital COVID-19 vaccine record or other vaccine information).

When a reporter chose the vaccine safety option in Spanish, a list of questions appeared that the user can choose from, such as Are the vaccines safe for kids? and Is it safe to get vaccinated while youre pregnant or lactating?

Jessica Flores / The Chronicle

People who do not have access to the internet or WhatsApp can call the states COVID-1 hotline at 833-422-4255. Support is available in multiple languages, according to state health officials.

Jessica Flores (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores
In a world where wealth and fame are almost universally venerated, it should come as no surprise that someone who is rich and famous is often considered a universal genius, someone who knows everything about everything. The worlds richest private individual, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk  he of Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Co., Neuralink and now Twitter takeover fame  is no stranger to this level of cult-like adoration.

Certainly, Musk deserves recognition for Teslas creation of an electric vehicle mass market, for Space Xs efforts toward full and rapid rocket reusability and for Neuralinks efforts to bring digital intelligence and biological intelligence together (which shows considerable potential for improving the lives of those who have suffered brain and spinal cord injuries). But such efforts do not exist in an ideology-free vacuum, however.

As a science fiction writer, I tend to pay attention when someone with a science-fictional disposition has dominant interests in future-oriented companies. So lets provide some context on the Twitter purchase, which Musk has presented as a sort of philanthropic protection of free speech.

This is nothing new. Musk has long argued for the inherent social good of his billions by claiming that all my companies are philanthropies. His argument, however, merely substitutes the Greek etymological origin of the word philanthropy (love of humanity) for the entire history of that words usage.

Philanthropy has traditionally been about giving back in response to recognizing how much an individuals wealth depends on the existing socioeconomic system that created the opportunity for that individual to become successful. Although Musk may consider himself a self-made man and worship his maker, no mortal, not even a billionaire, is self-created. Even immortal Athena needed a head (Zeus) from which to spring.

When Benjamin Franklin gave away for the good of humanity the design specs for the lightning rod, he was engaging in philanthropy. If Franklin had demanded people pay a licensing fee for the right to use the lightning rod he invented  or if he had made money selling lightning rods outright  he would not have been engaged in philanthropy. He would instead have been straightforwardly involved in an enterprise that he personally profited from, as Musk does.

Tesla may make green cars, but Musks efforts with that company have always been about making green dollars first. Musks pronouncements regarding his Space X and Boring Co. income streams are similarly conflicted.

One moment he tells us that we are about to enter an age of abundance characterized by inexhaustible resource utilization here on Earth  a cornucopian vision that conveniently overlooks technologically induced collateral damage like climate change, soil erosion and habitat destruction (but that will also mean money for the Boring Co.). The next moment he is telling us that we need to settle Mars and mine the asteroids to avoid resource exhaustion and that we must become a multiplanetary species because Earth is not enough.

Along the way Musk has also contended that Mars is an escape valve for Earths burgeoning human population  yet at the same time he warns that the (extremely unlikely) threat of population collapse on Earth must be avoided at all costs because it will weaken prospects for settling Mars!

Musk is always working to ensure that the future will be an age of abundance  for Elon Musk. Although he has persistently cast his Twitter takeover as philanthropic protection of absolute free speech, in light of the brief history presented here it seems that, as with all his other philanthropic companies, the first beneficiary of Musks philanthropy will be ... Musk.

Selfishness is still not a virtue, Ayn Rand and Elon Musk notwithstanding.

Howard V. Hendrix was a longtime literature and writing teacher at Fresno State University. He writes fiction, nonfiction and poetry from the Central Valley.
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Sophie Smith loves baking cakes for her growing San Francisco business, but trying to get a permit from the notoriously bureaucratic city government proved anything but sweet.

The 25-year-old tried for nearly 18 months to get city permission to rent kitchen space from a restaurant or bar that wasnt operating at full capacity as the pandemic stretched on. She needed a kitchen. Plenty of businesses needed income. It seemed like a pairing as perfect as the flavors in her chocolate ganache toffee cake.

But in a bitter tale of City Hall red tape, her smart idea simply wasnt allowed because of overly complicated, outdated rules.

So, like many city residents trying to make basic changes to their homes or small businesses and meeting a big No! from those who issue permits, she went ahead anyway, always looking over her shoulder. What if she got in trouble for doing the unthinkable  baking cakes in a restaurant kitchen?

She recently contacted The Chronicle, and after some digging, it turns out there is some sweet news. Her business, Butter and Crumble, doesnt risk crumbling. Even more importantly, her travails led to sensible tweaks in the city code so more upstart chefs can use more empty kitchens  even though no one in city government bothered to tell her about the changes she inspired.

The saga makes for an interesting look at a city government thats trying to help small businesses, but never makes it easy. And the good that can happen for entrepreneurs when the city does the right thing.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

Sharky Laguana, president of the citys Small Business Commission, said Mayor London Breed has made strides in making life easier for small-business owners, but its hard to get the word out. For example, he said, a survey of the citys 50,000 small-business owners received just 570 responses. And Proposition H, passed by voters in November 2020 to make it easier for small businesses to get permitted, has helped just a few dozen people, he said, whereas hed like to see have seen it assist hundreds or thousands by now.

When people are starting a business, its inherently frustrating and inherently complicated, he said. Its incumbent on the city to make it as easy and painless as possible.

Smith certainly wouldnt describe her experience that way. After attending culinary school in 2019, she got a job at A-16, an Italian restaurant in the Marina, and sold cakes she baked in her tiny apartment nearby to friends as a side hustle. But when the pandemic shuttered restaurants, baking became her full-time job, and she needed a lot more space.

A-16s owner let her use the restaurants kitchen for free and posted about her cakes on the restaurants Instagram account. Her business took off. But then A-16 needed the kitchen back for its growing takeout business, and Smith bounced between a few restaurant kitchens before finding her current digs in February 2021 at Rockwell, a Marina bar where she pays $3,000 a month.

But Smith had a nagging thought. Was this aboveboard? Her dad is Jesse Smith, a longtime lawyer in the City Attorneys Office, whod always instilled in her the importance of following the rules.

I never wanted to do this underground, she said.

She added that her dad didnt help with her permitting quest other than listening to her gripe. His response to me was, Every part of the city system is like this, she said.

Smart man.

Smith had a business license. And each kitchen she used was fully permitted and up to code and had passed health inspections.

But when she emailed various departments in August 2020 to see about getting whats called a food permit to operate, she was told she couldnt get one. She could use the kitchen only of a business that sold no alcohol, which is very rare for a San Francisco restaurant and would certainly eliminate bars. Her other option was baking in a commissary kitchen in an industrial zone, most likely in the Bayview or Dogpatch  miles from her Marina apartment.

She doesnt have a car, and lugging all her equipment and ingredients on Muni each day would be impossible. Commissary kitchens, often used for short stints by food truck workers and caterers, usually charge by the hour. It would be far too expensive and logistically insane.

I was trying to go the legal route, and I was getting punished for it and told to shut down and move, she said.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

She shared a flurry of e-mail exchanges she had with the Department of Public Health, Planning Department, and Mayors Office of Economic and Workforce Development trying to sort out her situation to no avail.

I was asking, Why does this law exist? Nobody could really tell me, she said. They were just like, This is whats written.

So she kept baking at Rockwell, always nervous shed get in trouble. One time, a police officer walked in while she was baking. Turns out he just wanted cake.

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.

Finally, after 17 months, she got word the Health Department had granted her food permit, but she thought it was a one-off and was never informed the codes were changed. Meanwhile, Butter and Crumble grew so successful, she started looking for an even larger kitchen and landed on Westwood, another restaurant in the Marina. But she didnt want to go through the permitting rigmarole again, so she hesitated  and contacted The Chronicle about her concerns.

Im at full capacity in this space, she said as we chatted in a booth at Rockwell two weeks ago. My freezer is over-flowing. I just hired my second assistant. But Im a little bit terrified.

It turns out she didnt need to worry. Dan Sider, chief of staff for the planning department, said Breeds Small Business Recovery Act, which took effect in September 2021, included a change to allow food entrepreneurs to rent kitchens from any restaurant, whether it serves alcohol or not. Smith plans to move to the larger space at Westwood within months.

And it turns out Smith inspired the change, even though no one at the city told her about it until I started asking questions.

We had been tracking the catering issue for a few years, but Sophies situation certainly put a spotlight on it, Sider told me. When the mayor told us to pull out all the stops to keep our small businesses alive, this was low-hanging fruit.

Asked how she felt about the news, Smith said she was a little confused by being kept in the dark. But also proud. In this overly complicated city, prompting code changes is a real accomplishment.

It was terrifying putting my semi-illegitimate business in the spotlight, she said. Im so proud that I actually did have an impact.

You might even call it icing on the cake.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf
A hiker was found dead in mid-April on the trail that summits Mount Whitney in the eastern Sierra Nevada, officials said Monday. This is the fourth death on Californias tallest mountain in the last 12 months.

The Inyo County Sheriffs Office received a call April 18 reporting a deceased body just below a section of the trail with 99 switchbacks.

Due to extreme winds and snowy conditions in the region, search and rescue teams were unable to recover the body until April 23 when the weather finally cleared. California Highway Patrol helicopters made two failed attempts in windy conditions before a helicopter crew successfully flew over and hoisted two search and rescue members at the location to recover the body.

The sheriffs office said that deaths most often occur on the mountain in spring or early summer due to falls on snow and ice when a hiker did not have or know how to use critical gear like crampons and an ice axe.

It is imperative that you are prepared with the proper gear and know how to use it, the sheriffs office said.

The National Park Service called on the public to heed the sheriffs offices warning.

While there are wildflowers in the valleys, the mountains still hold significant hazards in spring, a statement posted on the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Facebook page read. Anyone attempting to summit Mount Whitney this time of year must be mentally and physically prepared for snow, ice, freezing temperatures, high winds, and limited visibility. Dont count on a speedy rescue if things go badly.

Whitney straddles Sequoia National Park and Inyo National Forest and is the most frequently climbed peak in the Sierra Nevada, the National Park Service said.

At 14,500 feet, Whitney is the tallest peak in the U.S. outside Alaska.
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost $1.2 billion in the first quarter as it took large write-downs and lost money in both its civilian-airplane and defense businesses.

The loss was bigger than Wall Street had forecast, and the company's quarterly revenue also fell short of expectations. Boeing burned through $3.2 billion in cash.

Messier quarter than any of us would have liked," CEO David Calhoun acknowledged on CNBC.

Shares of Chicago-based Boeing Co. fell as much as 12.6% after the opening bell Wednesday  to a 52-week low  and were down 7% in midday trading.

Boeing offered some optimism for improvement, however, saying that it has submitted plans to resume deliveries of its 787 airliner and it increased production and deliveries of the 737 Max passenger jet during the quarter.

Calhoun said the company was on track to generate positive cash flow over the entire year "despite the pressures on our defense and commercial development programs.

This was another dreadful quarter from Boeing, Robert Stallard, a longtime aerospace analyst who covers Boeing for Vertical Research Partners, said in a note to clients. And what we think will really worry investors is that we keep getting MORE bad news.

The quarterly report brought disappointment for Boeing shareholders on several fronts.

The company again pushed back the expected first delivery of a new version of its huge, twin-aisle 777 passenger jet until 2025, five years after the original target. The delay was widely expected, as Boeing adapts to certification standards that have been tightened since regulators approved the Max, then were forced to ground the planes after two deadly crashes.

The delay in expected approval for the 777-9 caused Boeing to forecast $1.5 billion in abnormal production costs for the plane, which is designed to carry more than 400 passengers on long-haul flights. Boeing will halt production at least through the end of next year to avoid building planes that might need to be reworked later.

Boeing took a $660 million charge for its program to build two new presidential Air Force One jets  specially modified Boeing 747s  which it blamed on higher supplier costs and schedule delays. It also took $367 million in charges on a military training jet. Inflation is lowering the value of Boeing's fixed-cost contracts for government customers.

Boeing said it submitted plans to the Federal Aviation Administration to resume deliveries of the 787 passenger jet. Those deliveries have been halted for more than a year by production issues that Boeing previously said would add about $2 billion in costs, of which $312 million was recorded in the first quarter.

Airlines are expecting a boom summer, with travelers returning in huge numbers after two years of pandemic. But some of them, like American, have trimmed summer schedules because they haven't received the Boeing 787s that they ordered years ago.

They have a busy summer schedule. We have already disappointed them with respect to the capacity on that summer schedule," Calhoun said. Just when Boeing will be cleared to resume deliveries of 787s is up to the FAA, but Calhoun said We will be back in the air sooner rather than later.

Boeing expects to boost production of the 737 Max to 31 planes a month in the current quarter, which runs through June. That plane was grounded worldwide for nearly two years after two deadly crashes.

And Boeing took $212 million in pretax charges related to Russias invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions imposed by the United States and allies have barred Boeing from selling planes or performing services for Russian airlines.

In a memo to employees, Calhoun said Boeing is taking steps to improve long-term performance.

We are a long-cycle business, and the success of our efforts will be measured over years and decades, not quarters, he said.

Boeing's commercial-airplanes division lost $859 billion, hobbled by the inability to deliver 787 jets while Boeing tries to fix production flaws on the twin-aisle plane.

The defense business, long a bulwark against volatility in aircraft sales to airlines, lost $929 million as revenue fell 24%.

The company reported a loss attributable to shareholders of $1.22 billion, compared with a loss of $537 million a year earlier. The core loss was $2.75 a share on revenue of $13.99 billion. Analysts expected a loss of 25 cents per share on revenue of $16.02 billion, according to a FactSet survey.
Kin Cheung/AP

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP)  Central African Republic has legally recognized the use of cryptocurrency after the president approved a law adopted by deputies last week that has also made bitcoin an official currency alongside the West African CFA franc in the African nation.

President Faustin Archange Touadera validated the law Wednesday, saying that the exchange rate between cryptocurrencies and the FCFA is freely determined by the market. Tax contributions can also be paid in cryptocurrencies through platforms recognized by the government, the government statement said.
Two days after striking a deal to purchase Twitter, Elon Musk used his powerful Twitter account to elevate conservative criticism of two executives at the social media company, roiling a workforce already uneasy about how he will balance his abrasive social media style and embrace of free speech with his stewardship of the company.

On Wednesday, he tweeted a meme to his more than 86 million followers with the face of Twitter's top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, that appeared to suggest the company's decisions are affected by a "left wing bias." The tweet came hours after he criticized a 2020 policy decision Gadde made, and was in response to an earlier tweet from a political podcast host calling her the company's "top censorship advocate."

Twitter users quickly piled on - calling on Musk to fire Gadde or using racist language to describe her. Gadde was born in India and immigrated to the United States as a child. One user said she would "go down in history as an appalling person."

Musk's tweets have singular power to unleash mobs against people with much lower profiles - in 280 characters or less. As Musk stakes his $44 billion takeover of one of the world's most influential social platforms on the promise of restoring free speech there, his rhetoric is at odds with the way his supporters have weaponized Twitter - prompting people to lock down their personal profiles and public information.

"Musk has actually used Twitter as his slingshot when going after critics," said April Glaser, a senior research fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. "It's not surprising he would then want to have greater control of that slingshot."

Musk's power to unleash his followers in these ways has alarmed some Twitter workers, who expressed concerns at a company town hall on Monday and in interviews about the possibility of being mentioned in tweets by their future boss. It is unusual for an incoming owner to make any public comment about his future employees, much less publicly criticize their performance or past decisions.

The terms of his deal to acquire Twitter allow the SpaceX and Tesla CEO to tweet about his acquisition "so long as such tweets do not disparage the Company or any of its Representatives."

A person familiar with the dealmaking process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential matters, said that the so-called disparagement clause is only applicable when Musk is tweeting or commenting about the deal itself, and therefore negative comments about Twitter outside of that do not violate the terms.

Twitter declined to comment for this article. Gadde and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.

Musk views Twitter as the "de facto town square," a place where rules should be kept to a minimum. Twitter's employees, however have spent years developing sophisticated protocols to police its platform for hate speech and other rule-breaking content, including recently investing in tools to limit online harassment. Now the company is being acquired by the world's richest person, whose views are fundamentally at odds with those of much of the workforce.

In a 2018 interview with "60 Minutes," Musk said, "Twitter is a war zone. If somebody's going jump in a war zone, it's like 'okay, you're in the arena, let's go.'"

More recently, after launching his hostile takeover bid, Musk acknowledged that content moderation is not clear-cut.

"Well, I think we would want to err on the, if in doubt, let the speech, let it exist. But if it's a gray area, I would say let the tweet exist," he said at a TED conference. "But obviously in a case where there's perhaps a lot of controversy, you're not necessarily going to promote that tweet. I'm not saying I have all the answers here."

Social media experts say a simplistic view of "free speech," which essentially means few or no rules and restrictions, ignores that such a freewheeling environment could result in violent or harassing attacks that can actually shut down people from participating in the online conversation.

"When that energy is bearing down on you, it's terrifying. It's terrifying for you and your friends and family," said Whitney Phillips, a professor of communications at Syracuse University. "The fact that it is so silencing and creates a chilling effect for others who are worried about speaking out. If you want to talk about dangers and challenges to free speech, that's central."

Musk's response to the tweet about Gadde - his first criticizing the decision of a specific Twitter executive since buying the company - underscored how his followers can quickly be activated by a single tweet.

Musk didn't specifically name or tag Gadde. But he responded to a tweet by political podcast host Saagar Enjeti in which she was named, drawing more than 400,000 likes, retweets and replies on Musk's post.

"Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate at Twitter who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan's podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the @elonmusk takeover," Enjeti tweeted, linking to a Politico story on the topic.

During the 2020 presidential election, Twitter temporarily blocked a New York Post story on Democratic nominee Joe Biden's son Hunter that it said violated a policy against posting hacked materials. The company did not suspend the entire news organization but did prevent it from tweeting for a period of time.

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified before Congress in 2020 that the company made a mistake and assumed the article violated its hacked materials policy, which it subsequently changed.

On Tuesday, Musk tweeted, "Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate."

Twitter employees publicly defended Gadde from the attacks on Wednesday morning. "@vijaya, fist bump of empathy," tweeted Lea Kissner, the company's head of privacy engineering.

Enjeti defended his tweet on Gadde because she is a "public figure" who appeared on Joe Rogan's popular podcast and denied that he's responsible for the way people are treating her online.

Musk's response Tuesday to the tweet from Enjeti raises questions about how he will manage a workforce that is already suspicious of the billionaire and his intentions.

Also troubling to some workers, Musk on Tuesday replied to another tweet that called attention to Twitter's deputy general counsel Jim Baker, who previously held a high-ranking position at the FBI.

Online influencer Mike Cernovich tweeted at Musk about Baker's role in a case that has drawn fire from conservatives, saying, "@elonmusk, this is who is inside Twitter." Musk replied, "Sounds pretty bad."

Baker declined to comment about the exchange. In a message, Cernovich said, "I'm surprised by the reaction to my tweet, which was a discussion of a news report."

Musk launched a hostile takeover bid for Twitter two weeks ago. On Monday, the two parties announced they'd reached an agreement for an acquisition that is expected to close in three to six months, according to executives.

Musk has used the platform to criticize Twitter's decisions in the past, particularly on topics related to free speech and the banning of accounts of individuals who violate Twitter rules. Gadde is the most senior executive responsible for those decisions.

The vitriol hitting the Twitter employees is part of a years-long pattern of online harassment that has previously ensnared government officials, company whistleblowers, technologists, journalists and - at one point - a Thai cave rescue volunteer Musk called a "pedo guy," leading to a defamation suit. (Musk ultimately was not liable in the suit.)

Last October, Musk took aim at Duke University professor Missy Cummings when she was appointed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as an adviser. Musk's tweet alleging she was "extremely biased" unleashed a swarm of personal attacks and misogynistic harassment. Cummings deactivated her Twitter account soon after.

"I am increasingly concerned about my personal safety around people who clearly are not capable of rational and reasoned thinking," she wrote in a post on LinkedIn two months ago.

Also last year, Musk tweeted a link to the Wikipedia page of National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy, a critic of Tesla's failure to adopt certain safety measures. But the repeated attempts to alter Homendy's page appeared to prompt Wikipedia to lock it.

Others say they have been targeted for voicing skepticism about Musk. Earlier this year, Brianna Wu, the executive director of Rebellion Pac and a software engineer, critiqued Musk's plans to send Starlink devices to Ukraine, tweeting that the devices didn't work based on coverage she read in tech publications. (A Ukraine official told The Post in March that the Starlink antennas proved "very effective.")

Wu, who was previously targeted with threats during a broad online-harassment campaign targeting female game developers known as GamerGate, said her Twitter account "turned into a sea of personal attacks." Rather than disagreeing with the posts, Wu said that Musk's online supporters focus on reputational attacks.

"Elon Musk fans are honestly some of the worst harassers I've ever encountered on the Internet," Wu said in an interview. "So the argument isn't that you're wrong about this and this is why. It's that you're a fraud and a terrible person, and you have no right to exist."
CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) _ MaxLinear Inc. (MXL) on Wednesday reported first-quarter profit of $33.6 million.

On a per-share basis, the Carlsbad, California-based company said it had net income of 42 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to $1 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 91 cents per share.

The chipmaker posted revenue of $263.9 million in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $260.1 million.

For the current quarter ending in July, MaxLinear said it expects revenue in the range of $275 million to $285 million.

_____

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MXL at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MXL
GENEVA (AP) _ STMicroelectronics NV (STM) on Wednesday reported profit of $747 million in its first quarter.

On a per-share basis, the Geneva-based company said it had profit of 79 cents.

The chip company posted revenue of $3.55 billion in the period.

For the current quarter ending in July, STMicroelectronics said it expects revenue in the range of $3.75 billion.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on STM at https://www.zacks.com/ap/STM
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  The International Atomic Energy Agency's director-general says the level of safety at Europes largest nuclear plant, currently under Russian occupation in Ukraine, is like a red light blinking as his organization tries in vain to get access for work including repairs.

Rafael Grossi, in an interview with The Associated Press, turned the focus to the nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia  a day after the 36th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. That plant was also taken over by Russian forces.

Grossi said that the IAEA needs access to the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine so its inspectors can, among other things, reestablish connections with the Vienna-based headquarters of the U.N. agency. And for that, both Russia and Ukraine need to help.

The plant requires repairs, and all of this is not happening. So the situation as I have described it, and I would repeat it today, is not sustainable as it is," Grossi said. So this is a pending issue. This is a red light blinking.

He spoke in an interview Wednesday, a day after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the issue.

Understandably, my Ukrainian counterparts do not want the IAEA inspectors to go to one of their own facilities under the authority of a third power, Grossi said. I had a long conversation about this with President Zelenskyy last night, and its something that will still require consultations. We are not there yet.

The IAEA chief continues to press Russias government for access to the Zaporizhzhia plant.

I dont see movement in that direction as we speak, he said. But he is meeting with the Russian side soon.

There are two units that are active, in active operation, as you know, others that are in repairs or in cool down. And there are some activities, technical activities and also inspection activities that need to be performed, Grossi said.

With 15 reactors and one of the largest nuclear power capacities in the world, the war has essentially turned parts of Ukraine into a nuclear minefield. Again and again since the invasion, nuclear experts have watched in alarm as Russian forces have come uncomfortably close to multiple nuclear plants in Ukraine.

A Chernobyl security worker told the AP that the Russians flew aircraft over the damaged reactor site and dug trenches in highly radioactive dirt.

On Monday, Russian cruise missiles flew over the Khmelnitsky nuclear plant in western Ukraine.

There cannot be any military action in or around a nuclear power plant, Grossi said, adding that he has appealed to Russia about this.

This is unprecedented to have a war unfolding amidst one of the worlds largest nuclear infrastructures, which, of course, makes for a number of fragile or weak points that could be, of course, exploited wittingly or unwittingly, he added.

So this requires a lot of activity on our side and cooperation. Cooperation from the Russian side. Understanding from the Ukrainian side so that we can avoid an accident.

On Iran, Grossi said his agency is still trying to clarify answers from Tehran on outstanding questions involving traces of human-made enriched uranium at three sites in the country. The Islamic Republic and the IAEA have been trying to resolve a series of issues between them since the collapse of Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers, including regaining access to footage from surveillance cameras at atomic sites in the country.

He also acknowledged Irans ability to enrich uranium since the deals collapse had expanded as it uses more-advanced centrifuges. Tehran recently moved a centrifuge workshop to its underground Natanz nuclear facility after a suspected Israeli attack.

They are transferring the centrifuge producing capacity to a place where they feel they are more protected, Grossi said.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, along with U.S. and European support for Ukraine in the conflict, have increased tensions between Russia and the West, but it's imperative for us to look for common denominators in spite of these difficulties, he said.

He added: We cannot afford to stop. We have to continue. Its in the worlds interest, its in their own interest that the nuclear situation  is successful. I cannot imagine a geostrategic scenario where more nuclear weapons, proliferation, in the Middle East would help anybody or anything.

Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. However, U.S. intelligence agencies and the IAEA assess Tehran had an organized military nuclear program through 2003.

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Associated Press reporters Jon Gambrell in Lviv, and Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Kyiv, contributed to this report.

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Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Along the edge of the Gulf, Nathaniel 'Natty' Adams details the people, places, culture and moments that make New Orleans one of America's most colorful and vibrant cities.

At the far eastern end of the Bywater neighborhood, past Poland Avenue and below St. Claude, lies New Orleans most beloved unofficial public park. Across train tracks, through collapsed barbed wire-topped fence, and uphill atop a scruffy levee is how locals reach what they call The End of the World. The spit of land curlsbeckoning fingerlike to the boats on the Mississippiat the mouth of the Industrial Canal, where small ships are waved past a rusted lock by the Army Corps of Engineers. Here the industrial and the natural abut and overrun one another, concrete covering earth, pierced in turn by scrubby marsh grass and skinny shadeless trees.



Canal-side, herons and cormorants stalk at waters edge as the absurd pelican sits on the edge of a bollard with the hauteur befitting an official state bird. The city side of the levee is dominated by a hulking brutalist naval base, shuttered since 2011, that's now home to squatters, transients, scrap metal-hunters who have stripped it down to the window frames, and battalions of feral raccoons. Inscribed along the base's great barrier, a message in graffiti two stories tall: OPEN YOUR EYES.

Open your eyes at the End of the World and youll find lots to look at. In true New Orleans style, this is a syncretic spacewhat a city planner might call multi-usebut its beauty is in being a place bereft of city planning, a featureless gray mass on Google Maps, coy with its true verdant charm, more wild than manicured Crescent Park nearby.

'Ive climbed trains and watched the sunrise at the End of the World.'



Ive climbed trains and watched the sunrise at the End of the World, says New Orleans native Victoria Barkley. Ive been to bonfires. Crescent Park is a cookie cutter. This fits better with New Orleans because New Orleans is a bit f--ked up and thats what makes it special.



The contrast between beauty and blight extends beyond landscapeat any given sunset youre as likely to hear the crack of a pistol in the distance as you are to interrupt a marriage proposal (I said yes! the fresh fiance exulted to all passers-by.)



The End of the World, its various segments comprising an area of roughly 12 acres (not including the naval base) has evolved based on how locals have used it. A graffiti wall intersects the levee at angles. Someone occasionally whitewashes it but within a day theres fresh spray paint again. About 400 feet from the wall, toward the canals mouth is a concrete platform with a corrugated tin shack known as The Hobo Hut. Someone has painted a walking labyrinth on the ground, mandala-like, with stones along its path. Two handmade shrines to dead people have been left; pyramids possibly carried along the levee by the Anarchic Mardi Gras Krewe of Erisnamed after the Greek goddess of discordduring its rogue carnival parade that concludes at dawn at the End of the World.

Another shrine has been constructed in the memory of a beloved dog, now deceased. Decorated in New Orleans black-and-gold, it is a rudimentary dog house and includes, alongside faded photos of pets, a painted stone bearing the words To All Our Best Friends.



Apart from the taggers and picnicking punks who bonfire at levees edge (a tight Venn diagram), the most visible World-Enders are the dog owners, who gather daily around five in the evening. There are more mutts and rescue dogs here than at the more civilized dog runs around New Orleans. Here the beautiful bastard breeds nip and wrestle and swim, brindle pit bulls leaping and splashing, shaggy domestic wolves fetching tossed driftwood, little sausagey dachshund mixes trotting across the muddy beachhead at low tide.



Rob M. brings his dogs, Bubba and Stella, every day, rain or shine. Its the only place where Bubba can swim while Stella occasionally wades gingerly like a dignified lady. Just a few feet from where the dogs typically frolic, people fish; mostly middle-aged and older Black men who wade near the mouth of the canal and heave four-foot catfish out of the river two-handed before gutting them and tossing them in their bicycle baskets, bound for a pan of cornmeal and a pot of oil at a Friday Lenten fish-fry. The dogs, intrigued by the entrails, give themselves a good roll in the filth. Rob shrugs: They get back in the water and then I give them a little beer shampoo, he says, indicating the two cans of Founders IPA he brings to sip at sunset as the dogs play.



The land once belonged to the Convent of the Ursuline Sisters, but it was bought by the city in 1919 andin the grips of canal fever provoked by Panamalocal authorities tore down the convent to connect the Mississippi River with Lake Pontchartrain. The inauguration of the Industrial Canal in 1923 was an event of great fanfareriverboats and tugs chugging up and down the canal to the excitement of straw-hatted men with crinolined wives.



Recent history begins with Hurricane Katrina, when surging water inundated the canal, flowing back on itself and ultimately topping the levy meant to protect the surrounding neighborhoods. After the storm in 2005, the adjacent neighborhood began to gentrify, and sometime between then and the abandonment of the naval base locals named it the End of the World.



The source of the name is a mystery. Several other areas downriver had been called Worlds End and similar things in the past, so it could be that newcomers, unfamiliar with the geography, heard that term and applied it to the local levee, (especially because the semi-apocalyptic landscape fits the moniker so aptly.) A more critical look notices that the name is referring to the land between the more recently white-majority Bywater and the Black-majority neighborhoods across the canal.

David Melerines family has deep roots in the area. His mother grew up in the Bywater and for a time worked as a secretary at the Naval Base in its heyday. His ancestors owned a part of the land in the 19th century. David has been going to the End of the World since as early as 2008, long before dog walkers were typical. He and many others noted a spike in its popularity during the pandemic.



It was one of the only places with enough physical space, Melerine recalls. Since then its become a sanctuary for many people. I go there and meditate. Ive been there to weep for lost friends. Its an urban Nirvana.



Early in lockdown, someone set up a Free Store in a structure that used to be part of an old gas station, swapping and giving away clothes and home goods. In May of 2021, after the citys second Covid wave had subsided, taking that years Mardi Gras with it, one of the first widely-attended public parties was a gallery show in the station featuring DJs and a neon light show. It was catharsis. People danced and drank, sweaty and grateful to be alive in this city at that moment.

Many people discovered it for the first time in those days, including Susan Hecker, who was first invited there on a Tinder date. Her date proposed the location and Susan reasonably confident that she wasnt about to be murdered and dumped in the canalagreed.



For me there is no better date than sitting by the water, having some wine, having a chat, Hecker says. In those respects the date was perfect, and she fell in lovewith the End of the World. Its the best thing that came out of the date, she admits.



Despite living on the other side of town with its own riverfront levees, Suzan prefers to drive all the way to the End of the World, setting up a folding chair, with neither dog nor fishing pole nor can of Krylon paint, just to enjoy the peace and not get around to reading the books she always brings.

'I look at the ships and I wonder about themwhere theyre going, where theyve come from.'

I like to see the movement, she says. All the boats on the river waiting to get into the canal. I look at the ships and I wonder about themwhere theyre going, where theyve come from.



Melerine also took his first post-lockdown date to the End of the World and, overwhelmed by the location, started to cry.



I was thinking about my relationship with New Orleans and my familys connection to this land. And I thought Mm, shes not going to call me back. And she didnt. But thats OK. I still go there and put my feet in the river. Its a place that calls to you. It gets into your dreams.
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AMSTERDAM (AP)  After two years of celebrations muted by coronavirus lockdowns, the Netherlands marked King Willem-Alexander's 55th birthday Wednesday with street parties, music festivals and a national poll showing trust in the monarch ebbing away.

The king, who was photographed drinking a beer with Vladimir Putin at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, voiced criticism of the Russian president as he expressed gratitude for being able to celebrate his birthday in peace and freedom.

The poll conducted by Ipsos for national broadcaster NOS showed the kings approval rating had slipped to 6.7 on a 10-point scale, compared to 7.7 in 2020. Willem-Alexander told the broadcaster he did not pay much attention to polls.

What I do think is very good is constructive criticism, he said. In other words, if you dont have that, you can end up like a Putin, and nobody wants that.

Willem-Alexander said he was grateful for the birthday festivities after two years of coronavirus restrictions, but he alluded to Russia's two-month-old war in Ukraine.

You see not far from here in Ukraine what it means if you dont have peace and freedom, the king said. "So we should be extra grateful as the Netherlands that we can celebrate this together without forgetting that it can be very different. So Ukraine lives in my heart.

He was in the southern city of Maastricht, which hosted an event for the king and his family that included music from King of the Waltz" Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra.

The city was originally scheduled to host the celebration in 2020, but it was twice delayed amid coronavirus lockdown measures.

Royal fans lined the streets and exchanged fist bumps  instead of pre-COVID-19 handshakes  with the king, his wife, Queen Maxima, their three daughters and other members of the royal family.

A small group of republicans held up a banner saying Willem the Last near the route of the royal walkabout.

Elsewhere across the Netherlands, people dressed in the national color, orange, held street parties and sold unwanted belongings at sidewalk free markets.

In Amsterdam, children sold their surplus toys, clothes and books at a free market in the Dutch capital's largest public park, the Vondelpark.

By early afternoon, police urged people not to take to the city's famed canals in boats, saying they were already too busy.

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Associated Press writer Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed.

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Follow APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
Memory" is an interesting title for the latest Liam Neeson thriller. Do you remember the last Liam Neeson thriller? Or the one before that? Who was it that got took in that one? It began getting hard to tell these films from one another years ago, and yet they've kept coming. Key & Peele" only seems more prophetic for making the actor's name plural. Liam Neesons is right. He contains, and kills, multitudes.

Memory, which opens in theaters Friday, doesn't much alter the formula but makes for a brutal and bleak variation on the Liam Neeson theme. It casts a broader, more interwoven noir tapestry set around the Texas borderlands, with an ensemble cast including Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci, and Ray Stevenson. If you come to Memory hoping Neeson is going to growl one-liners like Commit THAT to memory! or If memory serves me correctly, you're toast!"  you may be surprised to find a movie less interested in such action-star heroics than it is something murkier and more cynical.

Does that make it good? Well, I wouldn't go that far. The filmmaking, by Martin Campbell, the British director of thrillers both glossy ("Casino Royale") and gritty ("Edge of Darkness"), lacks the texture and sense of place that could have made Memory (much of which was shot in Bulgaria) something more than a throwaway. But the performers  Neeson and particularly Pearce  don't phone anything in.

Neeson plays an El Paso, Texas, assassin named Alex Lewis who tilts more toward bad guy territory than most of the actor's protagonists. Of course, though, Alex has a moral compass that won't tolerate certain things. He smashes one guy's head against the bar for his rude behavior toward a prostitute. And he won't kill kids. When Alex refuses to kill a 13-year-old girl (Mia Sanchez), a crime syndicate seeking to cover up a child trafficking ring comes after him. At the same time, Alex is beginning to experience early onset Alzheimer's. That, curiously, only seldom affects his mission to protect the girl and bring down the syndicate, but it does make Alex even bolder; his life is fading away, anyway.

At the same time, the FBI agent Vincent Serra (Pearce) is trying to bring down the ring and is watching over the very same teenage girl, but his higher-ups keep pushing him toward other cases. Pearce's very presence in a memory-loss thriller is a nod to Memento. In one scene, when Neeson writes clues on his forearm to help himself remember, you half expect Pearce to grab the pen and give him a few pointers. There's much that's familiar in Memory, a remake of the 2003 Belgian thriller Memory of a Killer.

Alex and Vincent form a loose partnership as two men trying to carry out one act of justice in a place without it. If the Liam Neeson thriller has cast Neeson as a kind of globe-trotting vigilante and defender of justice in a fallen world, it's fitting that he should make his way to the U.S.-Mexican border. Credit Memory for summoning outrage for the plight of young Mexican immigrants along the border.

Pearce, sweaty and grungy, steadies Memory; it's his film as much as Neeson's. But if anything, they seem like actors who ought to be in something better than this, an often slipshod movie populated largely by stock and half-formed characters  like Bellucci's somewhat ridiculous millionaire, an El Paso mogul pulling strings to cover for her son. There's just enough here to imagine a better, more memorable iteration of Memory.

Memory, an Open Road release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for for violence, some bloody images and language throughout. Running time: 114 minutes. Two stars out of four.

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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
With such an abundance of delicious food to sample across hundreds of Bay Area restaurants, sandwich windows, taco trucks and snack carts, SFGATE staff felt like it was our duty  no, our responsibility  to split up and find the best lunchtime deals for 10 bucks or less. After all, someones got to do it, and were up for the challenge. So say goodbye to your sad microwavable desk lunch. Put down that bland Wonder bread sandwich. Instead, let us satiate your appetite with some of the tastiest and most affordable bites to spice up your afternoon routine. In this guide, we cover everything from lip-smacking Sinaloa-style ceviche and hearty East African fava bean stews to homestyle Filipino recipes like Auntie used to make and, of course, a variety of pizza pies. There are also Vietnamese sandwiches and vegan-friendly taquitos with a delectable crunch and spicy avocado salsa. Hungry yet? Here are the best $10 lunches to try in the Bay Area.

Steph Rodriguez / SFGATE

While quesabirria ramen, Hawaiian-style tortas and kilo-sized carne asada burritos are all very tempting, I wasnt looking for a food coma on a warm Saturday afternoon. At Aguachiles El Tamarindo, a busy food truck with permanent residence on International Boulevard in Oakland, its all about the seafood  and Im craving ceviche. Darted with bright yellow umbrellas, the parking lot is Aguachiles shaded open-air dining area, with plenty of long tables to seat the growing line of customers seeking gooey quesadillas and tacos dripping with al pastor. The tostada Sinaloense ($10) is a heaping mound of chilled scallops, shrimp and octopus marinated in lime juice and a deep salsa negra. Crowned with fresh avocado and tossed with plenty of diced cucumber, cilantro, onion and tomato, I break off a thick piece of toasted corn tortilla and dive right in. Each scoopful has little surprise bursts, whether its the tart citrus-soaked scallops that smack against refreshing bits of perfectly diced cucumbers and red onion or the sweet, meaty texture of baby octopus accompanied by a lovely toasted masa flavor from the sturdy tortilla rounds. Ceviche is a light yet filling lunchtime splendor. Its a dish you can eat until your hearts content  while still leaving room to maybe grab a taco for the road.  Steph Rodriguez

Aguachiles El Tamarindo, 3053 International Blvd., Oakland. Open daily, 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m.

A slice in the sunshine

John K. / Yelp

You may have stopped by Arizmendi Bakery for a croissant or cherry-corn scone, but its the fresh slices of the day ($3.25) that keep me coming back for lunch just about every week. Theyre always vegetarian, made on a thin sourdough crust thats to die for, and you can expect a variety of savory, organic toppings that rotate on a daily basis. My last slice was studded with marinated artichoke hearts, red onions, capers, sun-dried tomato pesto and mozzarella cheese. But youll also find fun flavor fusions like roasted cauliflower with masala curry or sugar plum tomatoes with roasted poblano spread and cotija cheese. The move is to cradle the foil-wrapped slice in your lap and eat it in the sunshine at the bakerys outdoor parklet on Valencia Street, preferably while people-watching or reading a good book. Bonus tip: You can also order a ball of pizza dough ($3.75) for later. Its been a saving grace for me when I have a bunch of leftover veggies in the back of my fridge  just let the dough rise for one to three hours, add sauce and toppings and bake in a preheated oven at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 to 15 minutes. (I received this recommendation from the friendly folks at Fayes, which is worth a stop after youre finished.)  Amanda Bartlett

Arizmendi Bakery is a worker-owned cooperative with four other locations in the Sunset, San Rafael, Oakland and Emeryville. All stores are open Tuesday through Sunday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

East African comforts

Alem's Coffee / Yelp

On Sunday mornings, most Temescal residents flock to the farmers market in the Oakland DMV parking lot for affordable bites and locally grown produce. But for those in the know: The best deal in town is actually across the street at Alems Coffee. Since 1999, the homey little Claremont Avenue cafe has served up homestyle East African dishes and Ethiopian coffee alongside American breakfast favorites such as egg sandwiches and toasted bagels. When I lived around the corner, I often stopped by at lunchtime for a bowl of shihan ful, a hearty Eritrean fava bean stew. For $8.95, its quite the meal. The savory vegetarian stew also comes with two hefty, warm French rolls. (I can never finish both, so my ritual is saving the second for some high-quality toast the next morning.) Regardless of your carb capacity, the rolls are perfect for sopping up the addictive mixture of fatty beans and olive oil, salty feta, tangy tomatoes and zingy jalapeno. If you order it spicy, which I definitely recommend, the berbere adds a welcome kick of intensity. Take it home, or eat it on the cafes cozy, tree-shrouded patio, a popular gathering place for Oaklands East African community.  Madeline Wells

Alems Coffee, 5353 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Open daily, 7 a.m.-6 p.m.

Taquito Tuesdays

Susana Guerrero/ SFGATE

Theres something special about returning to your former college town and discovering that most of your old haunts havent changed a bit. Thats the effect Flacos had during my most recent and long-overdue visit. This favored Mexican restaurant has maintained its simple, no-fuss vegan menu since 2010 with steamed tamales in corn husks or banana leaves, pozole rojo with corn hominy, rice and bean tacos and more. But before I arrived, I already knew I was going to order the crispy taquitos. Soy protein, which cleverly mimics the texture of tender chicken, is wrapped in hand-pressed corn tortillas and then lightly fried. Flacos taquitos are normally $2.25 each, but on Taquito Tuesdays, the restaurant offers them at a discount. I ordered two with a side of fiery avocado hot sauce for $3.64. And while Im not vegan, Flacos is exceptional with its flavorful take on classic Mexican entrees. When my order arrived, I promptly dipped one taquito into the spicy verde hot sauce and savored my first taste, which took me back to apartment living with my former roommate. As I enjoyed each crunchy bite lost in daydreams about years past, I hastily snapped back to reality once the intense heat from the avocado sauce kicked in and made my lips tingle.  Susana Guerrero

Flacos, 3031 Adeline St., Berkeley. Open Tuesday through Saturday, noon-7 p.m. (closes 6 p.m. on Saturday)

A taste of northern Italy

Katie Dowd / SFGATE

If flying to Europe on a whim isnt in your budget, assuage those travel desires with a quick trip to Casa Barotti. The adorable Italian eatery, right on the border of Berkeley and Oakland on College Avenue, has some of the best and cheapest eats in the East Bay. The restaurant boasts of being the Bay Areas only spizzicheria, a spot where neighborhood locals can pop in for a quick bite and glass of wine. Casa Barotti has a dazzling array of pizza al trancio, a northern Italy specialty that straddles the line between pizza and focaccia. The light, doughy squares feature a lineup of toppings from those of a simple margherita to different veggies to prosciutto. Slices range from $5 to $7 and are surprisingly filling. (Every time I order two, I end up with leftovers.) If you want an even better deal, swing by for happy hour from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Every glass of wine or beer comes with a free sampler plate. The last time I popped by, I had a pleasant $12 glass of rose and enough pizza samples to feel sated for a light meal. Its a shockingly good bargain and, for one breezy, carb-filled hour, I imagined I was on vacation again.  Katie Dowd

Casa Barotti, 3204 College Ave., Berkeley. Open daily, 11:30 a.m. - 8 p.m. (closes 6:30 p.m. on Sunday)

Dripping with flavor

Nico Madrigal-Yankowski / SFGATE

Amid the herbaceous scent permeating from a neighboring cannabis dispensary, DragonEats Haight Street location serves up pork meatball banh mi for $8.50, making it one of those Bay Area gems you can truly rely on for a quick lunch. Subtle whiffs of five-spice chicken and teriyaki-marinated tofu break through the nondescript glass storefront, where everything on the menu is under $10. From the seven banh mi selections to the fresh rolls and salads, its all made to order  but the pork meatball sandwich stands above the rest. It starts with the bread: Baked to such crackly perfection, it left a delightful mess of crumbly flakes all over my shirt after each bite. Its soft interior is brushed with a quick stroke of mayo that allows the bunch of fresh cilantro (stems included), julienned jalapenos and shredded pickled carrots to stay in place. Then, the meatball  juicy and dripping with flavor  is met with hearty slabs of crisp cucumber that created such a luscious bite that paired nicely with plenty of abutting textures and pickled moments. When I used to work in Hayes Valley, Id often frequent the DragonEats location on Gough Street. During my first time eating there, I asked the owner what his favorite banh mi was and, unequivocally, he recommended the pork meatball. Since then, its my go-to when I visit, and now hopefully, yours too.  Nico Madrigal-Yankowski

DragonEats, 1671 Haight St., San Francisco. Open daily, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Additional locations: 520 Gough St. and 555 Folsom St. Visit each stores website for more hours.

Generous auntie portions

Image via Yelp

Tucked inside an unassuming mini-mall on Mission Street is JT Restaurant, a Filipino cafeteria covered in plants and shelves and packed with classic Pinoy pantry staples. The cafeteria is as close as Ive felt in San Francisco to being transported back to the Philippines, waiting in line for a carenderia or, at the very least, being paraded around by my parents at an aunties house party. Options are modest, with a mix of party staples (including adobo and lumpia) and more traditional Filipino fare, like the stewed vegetable dish called pinakbet, a gingery chicken soup called tinola and a peanut oxtail stew known as kare-kare. At $10 for a one-item combo, youre given heaping piles of kanin (rice) or pancit canton or palabok served with an entree of your choice. The trays rotate on any given day  but this writer is partial to Tuesdays, when kaldereta (a traditional beef stew) and nilagang baka (a hearty beef and potato soup) are served. The food is good and classic, but the experience at JT Restaurant is carried by how intimately familiar it all feels. Tess Diaz-Guzman, the woman who runs the whole shebang, is as generous with her spirit as she is with her rice portions. The meal being served on Dixie plates with plastic utensils, the same kind that my parents use when they throw get-togethers with my entire extended family, makes it feel like stopping by someones kitchen for a home-cooked meal, or lutong bahay. Sometimes, if youre lucky, you can find Tita Tess bantering with regulars in Tagalog, adding to the restaurants homespun charm. A 30-minute lunch break that feels like a brief homecoming is worth the $10 alone.  Joshua Bote

JT Restaurant, 953 Mission St., San Francisco. Open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
Oahu, Hawaiis third-biggest island, will now place further restrictions on where Airbnb, Vrbo and other short-term rental properties can be located throughout Honolulu and the island.

In a move that has roiled landlords and other short-term rental operators, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi  whose office pushed for the bills introduction to the city council  has signed a bill that would place significant limitations not only on where Airbnbs and Vrbos can be located, but for the length of short-term rentals in large swaths of the island.

We could feel the outcry from our communities across the island on what had gone on with illegal vacation rentals, Blangiardi said in a press conference Tuesday. [This] is to bring back our neighborhoods, where people grow up, where families are raised and not have them be mini-hotels, but be the neighborhoods they were designed to be, a source of great pride for all of us who have raised families here in Oahu.

The bill will require rentals in most parts of Oahu to have a minimum stay of 90 days, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Shorter stays, with a minimum of 30 days, are only allowed in properties located in areas with resort zoning  namely in Koolina, Kuilima, Makaha and parts of Waikiki.

As reported by Hawaii News Now, the legislation passed through the city council earlier this month with near-total unanimity  a vote of 8-1. Only one councilmember, Andria Tupola, voted no. Tupola, whose district lies in the western side of the island, expressed concerns that past regulation of illegal rental properties has already failed, Hawaii News Now says.

She also expressed concern over a potential conflict of interest after Honolulus permitting department head recused himself from working on this legislation. Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting Director Dean Uchidas wife, Joy Uchida, is employed by a firm that owns numerous condo-hotel properties in Waikiki and could benefit from this legislation.

Honolulu Civil Beat reports that the bill, which would take effect in 180 days, would place new restrictions on short-term rentals, such as requiring a parking spot for any rooms rented in residential areas and prohibiting illicit operators from advertising these properties.

Proponents for the legislation have noted that unfettered short-term rentals, especially in the pandemic, have contributed to skyrocketing rents across Honolulu, where rental website Zumper says the cost of a one-bedroom is $1,600, and across the island. They also note that tourists have overrun residential areas, says Civil Beat, where they previously spent a majority of their time in Waikiki and other neighboring areas. Hotel operators are also in support of the bill.

But the debate leading up to Blangiardi's signing has been tense  with short-term rental hosts and services contesting the bill on grounds that it harms property owners and privileges hotels. The World Surf League also expressed opposition to the bill, arguing that the bill could pose a roadblock on all surf events held by the league in Hawaii.

In a letter submitted to the city council and shared with SFGATE, Airbnb expressed concern that the bill's "implementation would be impermissible by state law" and could make it harder for "critical use cases" on the platform, such as first responders and disaster workers.

Still, residents remain adamant that the bill could aid in the ongoing housing crisis across Hawaii.

Any economic benefits of opening up our residential areas to tourism are far outweighed by the negative impacts on our neighborhoods and local residents, resident Thomas Cestare told Hawaii News Now.
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When the Rev. Kyunglim Shin Lee was ordained in 1988, it angered her in-laws for contravening long-held Korean cultural values subordinating womens roles in society. Even her husband, a pastor, told her he understood intellectually but his heart couldnt accept it.

Those reactions broke Lees heart  and steeled her resolve. Today she is vice president for international relations at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.; has traveled to 60 countries as the seminary's ambassador; and once served as interim lead pastor at a Korean American church for 11 months. Along the journey, she visualized herself as a speeding train.

People would either have to get in for the ride, or step out of the way, she said. Once I became convinced that God can use me, no one or nothing could stop me.

Lees success story is rare in the realm of Korean American churches, where women are seldom seen in the pulpits. In a time when women make up about 20% of Protestant pastors in the United States, Korean American female pastors still struggle to gain acceptance in their home churches and often end up assuming leadership roles elsewhere.

Women like Lee who have broken barriers in these spaces remain pessimistic about the pace of change and are concerned by the resilience of patriarchal attitudes even among second- and third-generation Korean Americans. More representation in church elder boards and in the pulpit is needed to promote equality and provide role models for younger women considering ministry, they say, but bringing about such cultural shift has proved a formidable challenge.

Gender equality in Korean American churches lags well behind congregations in South Korea, according to the Rev. Young Lee Hertig, executive director of Innovative Space for Asian American Christianity, which supports Asian American women in ministry. There are more female lead pastors in South Korea, she said, because culture changes faster when it is mainstream.

Korean American churches are the most patriarchal among Asian American churches. ... Things should have changed by now, but they havent, Hertig said.

Male dominance in traditional Korean society has roots in Confucianism from centuries ago, when women were subject to the authority of their husbands and fathers and in many ways barred from participating in public life. Many immigrants from Korea still hold such notions, and churches especially have been slow to embrace equality, said Grace Ji-Sun Kim, a theology professor at the Earlham School of Religion in Indiana.

Its hard for Korean women to be ministers because they are expected to be obedient to men, she said. Its difficult for (Korean) men to listen to a woman who is preaching because this idea of superiority is embedded in their psyche.

The Rev. Janette Ok, an associate professor specializing in the New Testament at Fuller Seminary and pastor at Ekko Church, a nondenominational congregation in Fullerton, California, agreed that representation matters.

She was fortunate to have a role model while growing up in the 1980s in Detroit, where she saw a Korean woman leading her churchs English-language service every Sunday  but at the time didn't grasp how exceptional that was.

I watched her give sacraments, give the benediction. I still have this image of her in a pastoral robe and stole, Ok said. Without her example, I wouldve never imagined I could become a pastor.

That woman was the Rev. Mary Paik. Now retired and living in Hawaii, Paik said she was only hired as a last resort because the male applicants English wasnt good enough. She received a lot of strange looks as an unmarried, 30-year-old female pastor.

Male church elders were patronizing and treated her like a daughter, while some of the younger men flirted with her or refused to acknowledge her. Many of the older women seemed to find her presence inconceivable.

But some younger women were standing up a little straighter because I was there, Paik said. They felt good about it.

She has seen some progress. When the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) started a group in 1991 for female Korean American clergy in the denomination, there were just 18. Today there are 150.

When I started this, I was alone, Paik said. Now there are other women who talk to each other, share their struggles with one another. As long as we do it together, its bearable. And we do it not because its easy or hard, but because its a calling.

But Ok said that while there are more of them in ministry now, most end up serving in mainline or multiethnic congregations rather than Korean American churches.

There is this sense that I love my home church and I dont want to abandon my home community, she said. But they dont affirm me as a leader. Its heartbreaking.

Oks own church is largely Asian American, but not specifically Korean. Several years ago she served as interim lead pastor for nine months.

I was afraid people would leave because Im a woman, but they didnt, she said. That was very encouraging. Change doesnt happen overnight. You have to create pathways and pipelines.

Soo Ji Alvarez is in a similar situation. After growing up in a conservative Korean immigrant church in Vancouver, British Columbia, that had no female pastors, today she is lead pastor of The Avenue Church, a multiethnic Free Baptist congregation in Riverside, California.

The move away from her home church was not intentional but happened organically, she said, and she embraces her pastoral position as a role model.

Its a big deal for me (as a woman of Korean descent) to lead a congregation, she said. I hope I can help pave the way for others so they know its possible. Ministry should be like any other career  your ethnicity or gender should not affect your chances.

As for the pastors male counterparts in Korean American churches, Kim, for one, expressed anger that so many stay silent on the issue: They feel like fighting social justice issues shouldnt be the churchs business. But to me it is Gods work. Its important, necessary work.

But Lee, whose ordination was objectionable to her family, said it pleases her to see some male pastors welcome women to the pulpit  as her husband eventually did.

The Rev. John Park, who leads Numa Church in Buena Park, California, is one male pastor who embraces such allyship. He called on men to consciously work to empower women, citing Scripture in the words of the Apostle Paul: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

The Bible is clear on the issue of equality, Park said. But this is an internal battle in our community. Were fighting our own past.

___

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.
YAOUNDE, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The government of Cameroon has demonstrated an exceptional amount of generosity and understanding by agreeing to play host to refugees from strife-torn neighboring countries, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi said on Tuesday.

"I am so grateful to Cameroon for hosting the refugees. I want to discuss with Cameroon on how to increase international support but also how to find solutions so that people can return safely and voluntarily to their countries," Grandi told reporters in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde.

Grandi, who is on an official visit to Cameroon, made the remarks after meeting with the country's Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji.

Nji said Cameroon has an obligation to assist the vulnerable population and whenever there is a crisis in the sub-region, "our doors are open to welcome the refugees."

Grandi is in Cameroon to attend the Regional Ministerial Conference on solutions to forced displacements related to the armed conflict in the Central African Republic, which began on Monday.

"My presence here is testimony that the UNHRC will not forget and neglect other crises that need international support," Grandi said.

According to the UNHRC, Cameroon hosts about 2 million persons of concern, including 1 million internally displaced persons (IDP), 460,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, and 466,000 IDP returnees. The refugees are predominantly from the Central African Republic and Nigeria, while the internally displaced persons mainly come from Cameroon's Far North, Northwest, and Southwest regions. 
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP)  Two Fairchild Air Force Base staff sergeants face charges of stealing thousands of rounds of ammunition from the Spokane, Washington, base in a case with antigovernment overtones.

John I. Sanger and Eric Eagleton were named in a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Spokane on Tuesday. The complaint accused both men of taking the ammunition for personal use at a shooting range near Fishtrap Lake, The Spokesman-Review reported Wednesday.

The Inland Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force had been investigating Sanger after linking him with a pair of social media accounts that made antigovernment statements in the months between the 2020 presidential election and the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to court documents.

In a comment posted Dec. 2, 2020, one of the accounts linked to Sanger said: I think the capital needs to be seized  No trial or chance to escape, according to court records.

Four days later, the same account wrote, They defrauded our election system and are getting away with it. That means this system has run its course. People have to die, according to court documents.

An undercover agent working with the Air Forces Office of Special Investigations began chatting with Sanger, who told the (agent) he is actively recruiting in hopes of forming a local cell of like-minded individuals.

Last month, the undercover agent and Sanger met Eagleton at a truck stop before going target-shooting. The agent was wearing a recording device, and Eagleton told the agent that members of the bases Combat Arms Training Management section routinely stole ammunition, up to 3,000 rounds in a day, according to court documents.

During the meeting, Eagleton also discussed his anti-Semitic views and dislike for Jews, according to court documents.

Air Force Office of Special Investigations agents observed the men shooting ammunition taken from cans that appeared similar to those used for combat arms training. The packaging contained numbers that a check of base records showed had been expended on-base in training exercises, according to court documents.

Both men face charges of conspiracy to commit theft of government property and possession of stolen ammunition. The offense can carry up to a five-year prison sentence.

The office of the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington had not yet assigned an attorney to Sanger. Eagletons attorney David Miller could not be immediately reached for comment

In a statement, U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington Vanessa Waldref commended FBI and Air Force investigators for working together to build the case.

So many of those who serve at Fairchild Air Force Base are career public servants who sacrifice their time, energy, and even their lives to keep America safe, Waldref said. When individuals put their own interests ahead of others and abuse the public trust, those individuals dishonor the countless public servants who dedicate their lives to government and military service.

"I am in awe of how our law enforcement partners came together to halt this dangerous conspiracy, said Brig. Gen. Terry Bullard, commander of the Air Forces Office of Special Investigations, in a written statement.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP)  Two people have been arrested after a targeted drive-by shooting in North Carolina in which a man was killed and a 14-year-old boy was wounded as he waked down the street, police said.

Officers with the Winston-Salem police responded on Tuesday to a reported shooting and were told that Miguel Angel Fuentes Nava, 27, was driven in a private vehicle to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead soon after his arrival, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
PENDLETON, Ind. (AP)  Five people were taken to local hospitals after they were injured in an electrical fire Tuesday afternoon at Pendleton Correctional Facility, authorities said.

Responders with the Pendleton Fire Department and the Indiana Department of Correction were dispatched to the prison for the fire and contained the blaze quickly, Madison County Sheriff Scott Mellinger said.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  At least eight people were killed and 11 injured when competing groups of workers clashed at a cement plant before dawn Wednesday in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, authorities said.

The deadly clash to control the cement plant near Tula, Hidalgo caps at least a decade of angry, sometimes violent disputes within the employees' cooperative that owns both the cement plant and one of Mexico's top soccer teams.

Hidalgo Gov. Omar Fayad said via Twitter that he strongly condemned the violence at the Cruz Azul cement cooperative's plant. He said nine suspects had been arrested in the clash.

The Hidalgo state public safety agency said in a statement that emergency calls began coming in early Wednesday from the plant about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Mexico City. Facilities and vehicles were damaged.

Authorities only identified those involved as two groups of people, but local media said the clash was related to a long-running leadership dispute at the cooperative.

Starting more than a decade ago, a former cooperative leader allegedly appropriated or misspent funds from the cooperative. The man, Guillermo Alvarez, is now a fugitive, but his supporters apparently retained control of some assets, including the factory.

Hidalgo Prosecutor Alejandro Habib told local media that apparently as many as five trucks or vans and 200 people were involved in the assault on the plant.

Alvarez faces charges equivalent to money laundering and embezzlement. He reportedly used the Cruz Azul soccer team in Mexico's top league as a front for illicit deals, allegedly overstating the amount of money paid to recruit top players and then pocketing the difference between that and the real price.

The group opposing the old leadership denied in a statement that they were responsible for the violence, saying they had used legal channels to try to recover control of the facility.

The cooperative was formed by workers in the 1930 to buy out the cement plant.
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NEW YORK (AP)  The owner of a New York-based hedge fund that collapsed when it defaulted on margin calls was arrested Wednesday on charges alleging he defrauded leading global investment banks and brokerages of billions of dollars.

The charges unsealed in an indictment in Manhattan federal court named Bill Hwang, the founder of Archegos Capital Management, and his former chief financial officer, Patrick Halligan. Prosecutors allege Hwang told the banks and brokerages lies so his private investment firm could grow its portfolio from $10 billion to $160 billion.

Both men entered not guilty pleas to racketeering conspiracy and fraud charges through their lawyers at an arraignment. Hwang was freed on $100 million bail while Halligan was freed on $1 million bail.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference that the scheme "nearly jeopardized our financial system."

"But last year, the music stopped. The bubble burst. The prices dropped. And when they did, billions of dollars of capital evaporated nearly overnight, he said.

Williams said Archegos head trader Scott Becker, 38, of Goshen, New York, and William Tomita, 38, of Greenwich, Connecticut, the firm's chief risk officer, pleaded guilty last week in connection with their participation in the conspiracy and are cooperating with the government.

The prosecutor said the defendants lied to banks to get billions of dollars that they used to inflate the stock price of publicly traded companies.

The lies fed the inflation and the inflation led to more lies, he said. Round and round it went.

Williams said that at one point, Hwang and his firm secretly controlled over 50% of the shares of ViacomCBS.

Hwang, 58, of Tenafly, New Jersey, carried out the fraud from March 2020 to March 2021 by originally investing his personal fortune, which grew from $1.5 billion to over $35 billion, and later the investments he borrowed from major banks and brokerages, which grew from about $10 billion to over $160 billion, the indictment said.

He hid the extent of his market prowess from investors by using derivative securities that had no public disclosure requirement, it said.

As a result, despite the size of Archegos's positions, the investing public did not know that Archegos had come to dominate the trading and stock ownership of multiple companies, the indictment said.

The risky maneuvers made the firm's portfolio highly vulnerable to price fluctuations in a handful of stocks, causing a flurry of margin calls in late March 2021 that had a destructive domino effect. Over $100 billion in market value disappeared in days for nearly a dozen companies and banks and prime brokers duped by Archegos lost billions, the indictment said.

It said the schemes also caused millions of dollars in losses for innocent Archegos employees who had been required to allocate to the firm a substantial amount of their pay as deferred compensation.

Separate civil charges against Hwang and Halligan, 45, of Syosset, were brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a release, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said: The collapse of Archegos last spring demonstrated how activities by one firm can have far-reaching implications for investors and market participants.

We allege that Hwang and Archegos propped up a $36 billion house of cards by engaging in a constant cycle of manipulative trading, lying to banks to obtain additional capacity, and then using that capacity to engage in still more manipulative trading, said Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SECs Division of Enforcement.

But the house of cards could only be sustained if that cycle of deceptive trading, lies and buying power continued uninterrupted, and once Archegoss buying power was exhausted and stock prices fell, the entire structure collapsed, allegedly leaving Archegoss counterparties billions in trading losses, Grewal said.

Hwangs attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, said lawyers were extremely disappointed with a prosecution that they believe has absolutely no factual or legal basis.

A prosecution of this type, for open-market transactions, is unprecedented and threatens all investors, he said in a written statement. As you will see when the facts unfold, Bill Hwang is entirely innocent of any wrongdoing; there is no evidence whatsoever that he committed any kind of crime, let alone the overblown allegations that pervade this indictment.

Lustberg said it was also disappointing that Hwang was arrested without notice even though he has made himself available and fully cooperated with the Government's investigation.

We vehemently dispute the charges as a matter of law and fact and are confident that we will prevail in Court, but in no event was an arrest necessary in this case, in the midst of an investigation that has gone on for more than a year and apparently remains ongoing, he wrote.

Attorney Mary Mulligan, representing Halligan, said: Pat Halligan is innocent and will be exonerated.

___

Associated Press Writer Karen Matthews contributed to this report.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  Staff at a now-closed North Carolina charter school falsified enrollment numbers to obtain more than $400,000 in state money that it wasn't entitled to, according to a state audit released Wednesday.

Auditors of Bridges Academy in Wilkes County also said the school misused almost $79,000 in taxpayer funds to support a preschool, which also required tuition fees from parents of the children. Charter schools receive public funds and don't charge tuition to its K-12 students.

Findings from the investigation by State Auditor Beth Woods office  the result of tips to its fraud and waste hotline  were referred to the local district attorney, as well as to the IRS and state Revenue Department. The school, which opened in 1997 and reported fewer than 200 students on average, closed last June during Wood's probe and is now in receivership for asset liquidation.

The investigative audit cited possible violations of state law and tax rules. The auditors also found the academy didn't prepare and submit required income forms for contract workers.

The court-ordered receiver  a Chapel Hill attorney  said in a response letter attached to the audit that he accepted the audit's primary findings.

In another letter, state schools Superintendent Catherine Truitt said the Department of Public Instruction agency would seek repayment of what the audit called the misspent money, in keeping with the audit's recommendations. She also said DPI was updating student enrollment processes to detect and aim to prevent falsifications.

The audit, which did not name administrators at the K-8 school by name, said the academy's director and finance officer colluded to submit falsified student enrollment records to DPI and to conceal the falsified records from Bridges Academy teachers and support staff. They used a second student information system to hide the activity from a newly hired principal and others, according to the audit.

Records sent to DPI in September 2020 included 180 students, of which 72 were falsified, the auditors wrote, meaning $404,971 of state funds were not available for the education of legitimate students in North Carolina in the 2020-21 school year.

It's a misdemeanor for a school employee to knowingly and willfully create false attendance or other reports.

It wasn't immediately clear whether authorities would pursue charges. State charges could originate from the district attorney covering Wilkes County or from the Department of Revenue.

The director and finance officer also indicated to auditors that the process of inflating enrollment began several years earlier. Wood's office recommended that DPI consider reviewing previous years' records to see if other funding was obtained on falsified students. Truitt wrote that it wasn't feasible due to several factors, including a May 31 deadline to submit financial claims against the academy.

The academy's charter school funds were misused to support the preschool that opened in 2020 because business activities of the preschool and charter school weren't separated, according to the investigation. And it didn't help that the board of Bridges Educational Foundation Inc.  which operated the school  adopted a 2020-21 preschool budget with an anticipated $80,000 shortfall, the audit said.

Bridges Academy, located in the State Road community, accepted students from Surry, Wilkes, Yadkin and Alleghany counties.

The State Bureau of Investigation opened in March 2021 an investigation into allegations at the school. The school's board announced the closing in early June, saying a consulting team it had brought in found irregularities in the schools operations.
LVIV, Ukraine (AP)  Belarus' top independent journalists' organization has been awarded a UNESCO press freedom award.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists has been named as the laureate of the 2022 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize  a $25,000 award for outstanding contributions to the defense or promotion of press freedom especially in the face of danger, UNESCO announced Wednesday.

For twenty-five years, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Prize has been calling the worlds attention to the bravery of journalists around the world who sacrifice so much in the pursuit of truth and accountability. Once again, we are inspired by their example and reminded of the importance of ensuring the right of journalists everywhere to report freely and safely, Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO's director-general, said in the statement.

BAJ, a non-governmental association of journalists, has operated in Belarus since 1995 and is the country's largest NGO, with over 1,300 members. It has won a number of prestigious awards for standing up for press freedom. The country's Supreme Court ordered it to liquidate last August as part of the government's unprecedented crackdown on dissent that engulfed the ex-Soviet nation following months of mass protests.

The demonstrations broke out in August 2020 after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko was given a sixth term in office in a presidential election widely seen as rigged. Thousands of protesters were detained, and the authorities clamped down hard on human rights groups and independent media, shutting down news outlets and imprisoning journalists.

The order to liquidate BAJ followed the jailing of some 30 journalists, raids on newspaper offices, blocking the websites of major independent media and closing the PEN Center writers organization that was headed by Nobel literature laureate Svetlana Alexieveich, who herself is a member of BAJ.

This award is dedicated to all those who pay an enormous price for standing up for the principles of independent journalism in Belarus, where the situation with freedom of speech is the worst in all of Europe, BAJ leader Andrei Bastunets told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Torture, beatings, prosecution of independent media and journalists in Belarus have become systemic.

Currently, 24 media workers in Belarus remain behind bars either awaiting trials or serving sentences. Hundreds of Belarusian journalists have faced administrative arrests and raids. Bastunets, like many other Belarus journalists, has left the country following a series of raids and detentions.

The awards ceremony will take place on May 2 in Punta del Este, Uruguay, at the World Press Freedom Day Global Conference.
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BRIDGEPORT  For the family of Emily Todd, it had been a long, agonizing three-year wait to see justice for the Bethel woman, who was shot and left to die by a Bridgeport boat ramp.

But in that moment Tuesday morning, as the jury began to deliver its guilty verdicts against Brandon Roberts, it was as though the air had been sucked out of the courtroom. And then, there was a collective gasp from the family.

We were terrified, Jennifer Lawlor, Emily Todds mother, explained later. You are at the mercy of a jury trial. We were scared, really scared for that answer to come out. It was like a relief period because of how much Emily deserved that word to be said.

Roberts stood between his lawyers and showed no emotion as the 12-member jury repeatedly declared him guilty of murder with a firearm, felony murder, first-degree robbery, and carrying a pistol without a permit. But then he turned and mouthed something at Lawlor and her family.

He then yelled, Im still alive, as judicial marshals hustled him out of the courtroom.

It was just disgusting, to a room full of people who had been demolished. I really hope this makes the jury feel better about their decision, Lawlor said later.

The 29-year-old Roberts faces up to 90 years in prison when he is sentenced by state Superior Court Judge Alex Hernandez on June 24.

Roberts, a 2012 graduate of Ansonia High School, met Todd, a 25-year-old therapist, through an online dating app. She later broke up with him but police said on Dec. 8, 2018, he lured her to the boat ramp where he shot her once in the back of the head and then stole her car.

During a trial that began last week, lawyers representing Roberts didnt challenge evidence showing he pulled the trigger, but argued he was under extreme emotional distress at the time  by the death of his mother the previous year, being homeless, and his tumultuous, three-week relationship with Todd.

During closing arguments Monday, attorneys on both sides focused on Roberts state of mind.

Roberts lawyer, recently retired Public Defender Joseph Bruckmann, said the case was difficult, horrible, and tragic, but asked the jury to convict his client of manslaughter, arguing Roberts was suffering from an emotional whirlwind.

States Attorney Joseph Corradino referred to surveillance footage of Roberts draining Todds bank account at two different ATMs after the shooting, calling the homicide deliberate, intentional, and planned.

Roberts was arrested six days after the shooting at his fathers home in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and charged with Todds murder.

While being questioned in the Shaker Heights police station, Roberts confessed to Bridgeport Police Lt. Chris LaMaine that he had killed Todd and shot another woman near Washington Park a year earlier.

LaMaine stood in the back of the courtroom as the verdict was announced.

I just wish there was more we could do to ease the familys suffering, he said.

Corradino, who prosecuted the case with Assistant States Attorney Susan Campbell, later thanked LaMaine, Capt. Brian Fitzgerald and the detectives who worked on the case.

The jury worked hard to reach the appropriate verdict in the case, Corradino later said.

It had been a long road for the prosecution as well.

In January 2020, it appeared the case was close to being resolved without a trial when Roberts offered to plead guilty in exchange for a 45-year prison term. However, the Todd-Lawlor family loudly protested the deal and a judge instead ordered the case go to trial.

Its important for everyone to understand that the 45-year offer was developed by the person who killed my daughter, Jennifer Lawlor said Tuesday. And thats where the extreme reaction came from our family. We thought long and hard, knowing that there are so many risks from a trial and that it would be very painful. But as a family we had to decide what we could live with and living with that (the deal) wasnt collectively what we could do.
The historically severe drought in Southern California has compelled one of its water suppliers to implement "emergency" conservation measures for the first time that will affect roughly 6 million people.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) declared the water shortage emergency Tuesday and ordered limits to "reduce nonessential water use" to parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. The move includes the unprecedented measure of restricting outdoor watering to one day a week for about a third of their region.

The water district attributed the emergency declaration to its "reliance" on "severely limited" water supplies in Northern California, which is also enduring extreme drought. It comes as the state has experienced a lack of precipitation and abnormally high temperatures in recent years.

"The past three years are projected to be the driest in our state's history, leading to drought conditions unlike anything we've experienced before," it tweeted.

The water restrictions take effect June 1, when cities and smaller suppliers connected to the water district will be required to reduce outdoor water use or meet certain monthly allocation limits. Those that do not meet the requirements will be fined $2,000 per acre-foot for any water the agency supplied that exceeds limits. Officials said some areas will have to make greater cuts, but everyone across Southern California is urged to immediately reduce their water use by 20 to 30%.

The agency obtains water from the State Water Project and the Colorado River, and serves 19 million people across six counties. While it has worked to improve its water-distribution network for decades, its Board of Directors stated it "cannot meet normal demands" due to the depth and duration of the drought, which is now entering its third year.

In August, low water levels in Lake Mead, a reservoir on the Colorado River, triggered the federal government to declare a water shortage there for the first time. As of Wednesday, water levels at Lake Mead were at around a third of its capacity.

Some nearby areas in Southern California have already imposed restrictions. For instance, the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District is under a local drought emergency and has cut its customer's water budgets by half.

The crisis has its roots in a period between fall 2019 and fall 2020, when there was exceptionally low precipitation. This fall, the region's luck almost seemed to turn around when stormy weather brought substantial rain and mountain snow to the northern part of the state. However, the faucet largely shut off from January to March, which was the driest start of the year on record for California.

Parts of California saw beneficial rain and snow last week, but not nearly enough to substantially put a dent in the drought.

Right now, 95% of the state - including Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties - is experiencing severe to extreme drought. Statewide snowpack is only about 35% of normal.

Scientists have determined that the extremely dry conditions over the past three years are part of a longer megadrought, which has persisted since 2000. Research published in February showed that this 22-year period is the driest in 1,200 years and is linked to human-caused climate change.

"Without climate change, this would not be even close to as bad," climate scientist Park Williams told The Washington Post.

Forecasters call for the current drought to persist through the summer as California enters its dry season and typically sees very little rain or snow.
BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP)  Two teenagers were killed and four others, including a Washington County Sheriffs Office deputy, were critically injured after a Wednesday vehicle crash in Beaverton, Oregon, authorities said.

Beaverton police were called to the two-car crash just before 12:30 a.m., KATU reported.

A Nissan Altima was driving southbound, ran a red light and hit a Washington County Sheriffs Office patrol car, investigators said.

Beaverton police said five people were in the Nissan at the time of the crash.

Two people in the Nissan, identified as Matthew Amaya, 17, and Juan Pacheco Aguilera, 16, were pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Beaverton Police Department.

The Beaverton School District said the five people in the Nissan attended Southridge High School.

We are devastated to learn of these deaths. Our hearts go out to their families and friends, and our thoughts are with those who are currently hospitalized, Superintendent Don Grotting wrote in a letter to families.

Authorities identified the deputy as Michael Trotter and said as of Wednesday afternoon he was in critical but stable condition at a nearby hospital.

The three other people in the car, including the driver, were taken to nearby hospitals and were in critical condition. None of their names have been released to the public.

The Washington County Crash Analysis and Reconstruction Team is investigating the crash.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP)  The European Union wants to start formal membership talks with North Macedonia by early this summer and renew efforts to address objections from Bulgaria that have held up the process, a top EU official said Wednesday.

Oliver Varhelyi, the EU s enlargement commissioner, said during a visit to North Macedonia that the bloc is eager to break the two-year deadlock. Hastening the process of admitting new members has taken on more urgency for the EU following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. North Macedonia is part of Europe! No time to waste to speed up the procedures! Varhelyi tweeted after a meeting with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski. Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, argues that North Macedonia has failed to honor parts of a 2017 friendship deal between the neighboring countries.
BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Commission has launched proceedings that could ultimately lead to the partial suspension of support payments to Hungary for breaching the 27-nation blocs rule-of-law standards, the EU's executive arm said Wednesday.

The commission has given Hungary formal notification that marks the start of the process. The notice opens a round of discussions, and Hungary has two months to provide explanations and propose remedies

The case marks the first use of a new mechanism allowing the EU to take action to protect its budget since the European Unions highest court ruled in February that the procedure had been adopted legally.

The commission said the main goal will be reaching an agreement so the process can be stopped. If not, the process will continue, and the commission would ultimately make proposals for EU members to consider.

The proposed measures, such as the suspension of payments or ordering financial corrections, would need to be proportionate on the basis of the impact of the breaches on the EU budget, the commission said,

A full suspension of EU funds is therefore unlikely. Any action requires approval from a qualified majority of the European Council - 55% of member states representing at least 65% of the total EU population.

The new tool does not target EU members for general breaches of EU law but was designed to protect the EUs financial interests from violations affecting the bloc's common budget.

The commission decided to move against Hungary because of concerns about the country's use of EU money, alleged lack of proper anti-corruption procedures and alleged breaches of EU law.

Commission officials said Hungary has consistently failed to implement EU recommendations for more than 10 years.

The announcement came just weeks after Hungarys nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban claimed a mandate for a fourth term.

Hungary, a large recipient of EU funds, has come under increasing criticism over the past few years for veering away from democratic norms with policies such as exerting excessive control over the judiciary, stifling media freedom and denying the rights of LGBT people.

The rule of law mechanism, seen as the EUs most potent weapon to prevent a democratic rift from deepening within the bloc, was approved more than a year ago, but the European Commission waited until it received legal clearance before applying it.
DEKALB, Ill. (AP)  Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is expanding a data center in northern Illinois and says more than 200 operational jobs will be based there once complete.

The company announced the expansion Wednesday.

The company announced its initial plan for the DeKalb data center in June 2020, proposing an $800 million project in northern Illinois that would require about 100 operational employees once complete.

The expansion brings the total project cost to more than $1 billion, Meta said in a statement.

We are thrilled to be expanding our presence in Illinois," said Darcy Nothnagle, director of community and economic development for Meta. The city of DeKalb and the state of Illinois have been great partners from the beginning, and we look forward to a continued strong and fruitful partnership for years to come.

Paul Borek, executive director of the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation, said more than 1,200 construction workers have been at work on the site  a boon to Illinois."

DeKalb officials and the company also touted Meta's grant program available to schools or nonprofits where it runs data centers, which will launch in DeKalb County this fall.

The county's school district Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez said it will create opportunities for local students.

"We look forward to the future as we transform from being known as an agricultural community to one of the leading technological centers in the nation and we look forward to our future endeavors," Garcia-Sanchez said.
ATLANTA (AP)  The abrupt firing of the superintendent in Georgia's third-largest school system brought fierce pushback Wednesday, dragging a local dispute into a statewide spotlight.

DeKalb County school board members voted 4-1 in a virtual meeting Tuesday to fire Cheryl Watson-Harris immediately, after less than two years on the job in the 93,000-student district.

Watson-Harris was DeKalb County's sixth superintendent in a decade, having worked as first deputy chancellor in New York City's sprawling school system before coming to Georgia.

Watson-Harris said in a statement Wednesday that she was blindsided by her termination and was disconnected from the virtual meeting when board members discussed firing her.

I was unaware that my contract or employment would be discussed during yesterdays meeting as I was not notified and it was not identified on the meeting notice, Watson-Harris said.

Vasanne Tinsley, formerly deputy superintendent of student support and intervention, was named interim superintendent.

State Superintendent Richard Woods and Gov. Brian Kemp both lambasted the firing.

I am highly concerned that these serious issues in DeKalb County could be a result of a school system choosing politics over students, families, and educators, the Republican Kemp said in a statement Wednesday. He said he would coordinate with Woods on possible further action.

Woods, in a letter to DeKalb school board chair Vickie Turner, blasted the action as a step backward, noting he had sent a letter Monday saying the board needed to work with state officials to solve facilities issues brought to light by a recent student video chronicling problems at Druid Hills High School.

Instead of moving deliberately and decisively in line with my recommendations, the board chose to largely meet this moment with dysfunction and deflection, Woods wrote. He wrote that the actions in firing Watson-Harris erode not only the public's trust, but my trust in your seriousness to address the issues facing DeKalb County Schools.

In 2013, Gov. Nathan Deal replaced a number of DeKalb County school board members after the district was threatened with a loss of accreditation. The new board hired Michael Thurmond, now DeKalb Countys elected CEO, as interim superintendent from 2013 to 2015.

In his State of the County address Thursday, Thurmond lamented the firing, as Tinsley and school board members listened in the audience.

I didnt go through all that  this county didnt go through all that  to go back down that road again. It makes no sense, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Thurmond said. He said the firing feels a lot like that crap he inherited. Twice, Thurmond said Enough," pounding the lectern for emphasis, to applause.

Tinsley had been retired since 2020, and critics questioned how the board arranged for her to be interim superintendent without violating the state open meetings law. In a separate Wednesday letter to state Sen. Elena Parent, a DeKalb County Democrat, Woods said he is asking Attorney General Chris Carr to investigate possible open meetings violations. Tinsley told reporters she was approached Monday but didn't say who asked her.

The district is likely to have to pay the remaining 14 months on Watson-Harris' contract, about $380,000. Before it hired Watson-Harris, the district considered and rejected hiring former New York City schools Chancellor Rudy Crew. The district agreed to pay Crew $750,000 to settle a lawsuit, according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The firing came hours after board chair Turner appeared to blame Watson-Harris for poor conditions at Druid Hills in a letter to Woods.

Turner told reporters Wednesday that "the changes that we have had to make are for the benefit of our children. She said board members want better academic achievement, facilities and support for employees, and seemed to blame Watson-Harris for those problems.

The challenges that we have dealt with in our school district were just being ignored in some ways," Turner said.

Board member Marshall Orson, who missed the meeting, said he would have voted against firing Watson-Harris. He wrote on Facebook that the decision was clearly planned action taken by a subgroup of board members. There was no rationale for the decision, he added.

A group of students had made a video about poor conditions including raw sewage at Druid Hills that gained wide attention. But the board rejected plans for $50-million-plus overhaul at the high school, instead voting to make minor repairs at all the district's schools.

The dispute dredged up racial and class tensions that often divide the district between a wealthier white minority in the northern end of the suburban Atlanta county and a poorer, Black majority in the southern end.

Woods intervened in the dispute by saying the state would refuse to approve the district's facility plans until it addressed issues at the high school. Such a refusal would block the district from obtaining state facilities money.

In March, Watson-Harris apologized after administrators included a list of 10 performance factors in next year's teacher contracts, arousing opposition.

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Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  A hunting group is suing the state of Maine to overturn the state's longstanding ban on Sunday hunting.

Hunting bear, moose, wild turkey and deer is popular in Maine, but the state has barred Sunday hunting for generations. Opponents of the ban filed their lawsuit on Wednesday with a claim that the law violates the state's new Right to Food amendment.
First, we got advice on staying fit and healthy while working in the office. Then when the pandemic started, we got advice on staying fit and healthy while working from home.

As the era of hybrid work  doing the same job in both places  takes hold, now what?

There are a lot of health tradeoffs, said Shawn Roll, an occupational therapist and associate professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles who researches workplace health. "You can get a lot of benefits from both, but also a lot of potential problems and concerns. There has to be a balance."

A Gallup poll last fall showed 45% of full-time employees worked at home either all or part of the time, including 67% of white-collar workers. Of those working remotely, 54% hoped to keep their hybrid arrangement, splitting time between home and office.

One of them is Dr. Jeffrey Harris, a professor in the department of health systems and population health at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"I usually go in three days a week and work at home two days a week," he said. "I'm certainly just as productive, and I don't miss the commute. But I do miss the human interaction."

At least for some people, that's one of the tradeoffs. A February report from the World Health Organization warned the isolation of working at home can lead to burnout and depression, and urged employers to promote healthy work environments as well as support for home workers.

Working alone instead of in an office can affect health in both directions. Not having a supervisor or workplace rules, Harris said, could leave someone free to drink alcohol or smoke more than before. That fridge just a few steps away could be a source of healthy food  or easily accessible junk. But a home setting could offer more flexibility to take breaks, get up and move around, a key factor in countering the bad effects of sedentary desk work.

Even the commute can cut both ways. While people may enjoy the time saved by not trekking to the office, Roll said his survey data show some would rather make the trip.

"For a lot of people, it's a nice clean break and a transition between home and work, creating a boundary between them," he said. "At home there's the question of when the workday ends, and does the employer think you're available 24/7."

Wherever work gets done, both experts stressed healthy habits to keep in mind:

 Interacting with coworkers, whether in person or virtually, helps defuse anxiety and stress.

 Creating a healthy workspace, with quality chairs, good lighting and an ergonomically designed setting, is important whether at the office or the kitchen table. "People lying on the couch all day with a laptop tend to have more problems," Roll said. "It can strain the eyes and put you in a terrible posture."

 Sitting anywhere for too long is a bad idea. "Get up and stretch and take exercise breaks," Harris said. "And pay attention to the things that can pose health risks, like drinking and smoking and proximity to the refrigerator."

If hybrid work is here to stay, Roll hopes employers help make the home workspace as effective as possible.

"They need to be cognizant that every employee has a different home situation with different resources," he said. "It's not just the work and what's best for the business, it's also about supporting employee health and well-being."

Hybrid workers, meanwhile, need to look out for themselves.

"Get a sense of who you are, how you're feeling both physically and mentally, and how and where you work best," Roll said. "Try to organize your work life to be the most productive and the most healthy."

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Video meetings dampen brainstorming because we are so hyper-focused on the face in that box that we don't let our eyes and minds wander as much, a new study found.

Staring isn't good for creativity. While it's rude to stare at someone in real life, it's expected when on a video call, researchers said.

When it comes to evaluating those new ideas, though, that focus, at least in one-on-one chats, seems to make remote meetings slightly better than in-person chats, Wednesdays study in the journal Nature said.

Researchers watched 745 pairs of engineers in five different countries try to come up with creative ideas for using a Frisbee or bubble wrap. Those in the same room generated on average one more idea, which is about 17% more than those in remote meetings. And those in-person ideas were judged by outside experts to be more creative, the study found.

Study author Melanie Brucks, an applied psychology professor at Columbia Universitys business school, said it was the outcome she expected  but not the reason she expected.

At first she figured it had to be the social and physical distance  maybe the two people just didn't connect as well or people didn't know who speaks when. But several different tests for social connectedness found that the remote meeting pairs were connecting with each other in the same way as people in the same room.

Then the eyes gave it away. When Brucks tracked eye movement she found that people in the same room gazed away more often, looked around. But the remote meeting pairs didn't.

They were too focused on specifically the task at hand and that made them narrower in their thinking," Brucks said  in an interview over Zoom.

This makes sense because faces draw our focus, said Georgetown University psychology professor Adam Green, who wasn't part of the research.

Faces really matter to our brains and we devote a lot of attention to looking at faces, said Green, president of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity. When we are with someone in person, it is not considered polite to stare directly at their face for an extended period of time.

Remote meetings work otherwise, Brucks said.

Its not that Zooms bad, everythings worse. It seems like (the problem) is unique to the more generative, creative process, Brucks said.

When it was time to evaluate those options, the remote meeting engineers picked out the better choice -- as judged by a team of outside experts -- slightly more than those in person, the study found.

The experiment started before the pandemic and was done using WebEx with one company in offices in Portugal, Israel, Finland, Hungary and India. The results were about the same across the different locations.

When I brainstorm now on Zoom, I turn off my camera, Brucks said. She notes that's no different than talking on the telephone, except she establishes a personal connection by starting with the camera on.

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: @borenbears

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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.
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP)  A Fort Wayne woman has pleaded guilty to three felony charges in the death of her 9-year-old stepson, who died in December after suffering blunt force injuries.

Alesha L. Miller, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated battery and two counts of neglect of a dependent, The Journal Gazette reported. A higher level neglect charge will be dropped and Miller will face a 30-year prison sentence if an Allen County judge accepts her plea agreement.
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi expressed Wednesday his governments desire for closer cooperation with China in remarks made during a visit by the Chinese defense minister, state media reported.

According to the report, Raisi told Chinas Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe that Tehran sees its ties with Beijing as strategic. Closer cooperation would serve to confront what the Iranian president described as U.S. unilateralism as talks to revive Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers have stalled.

Confronting unilateralism and creating stability and order is possible through cooperation of independent and like-minded powers, Raisi was quoted as saying.

Wei in turn said improving ties between Iran and China would provide security, particularly in the current critical and tense situation.

Wei also met with his Iranian counterpart, Gen. Mohammad Reza Ashtinai, and reportedly invited him to visit China, as well as with other Iranian military officials.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Ashtiani as assailing U.S. military presence in the Middle East and elsewhere, claiming that wherever the U.S. has had military presence, it has created waves of insecurity, instability, rifts, pessimism, war, destruction and displacement.

Wei said his visit was aimed at improving the strategic defense cooperation between Iran and China  cooperation that he said would have a remarkable impact in defusing unilateralism and fighting terrorism.

Iran and China have increased their military ties in recent years, with their navies visiting each others ports and holding joint naval drills in the Indian Ocean.

In 2021, Iran and China signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement that covered a variety of economic activities from oil and mining to promoting industrial activity in Iran, as well as transportation and agricultural collaborations.

China is a signatory to the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, along with Russia, Britain, France and Germany.
PERRY, Ga. (AP)  Georgia is welcoming Sasquatch, or at least the Wisconsin-based meat snack company that has adopted the furry creature as a mascot.

Jack Link's protein snacks announced Tuesday that it will build a $450 million factory in the middle Georgia town of Perry, hiring 800 people after it opens in late 2023. Link Snacks says it is the largest maker of protein snacks worldwide, making beef jerky and other meat snacks sold under its own name and other brands.

Gov. Brian Kemp and members of the Link family who own the Minong, Wisconsin, company, gathered with other officials Tuesday in a 120-acre (50-hectare) pecan orchard in Perry where the factory will be built.

Kemp said it's Georgia's largest economic development project outside metro Atlanta this year.

When I ran for governor I promised to bring opportunities like this one were celebrating today to all parts of our state, especially rural Georgia," said the Republican, who is seeking reelection and has opposition including former U.S. Senator David Perdue in the May 24 GOP primary. Today is the latest fruit of our hard labor to create more jobs and opportunity for hardworking Georgians.

CEO Troy Link, the son of founder Jack Link, said the Georgia plant will be the largest his family's company has ever built.

The Georgia facility is going to ensure that we continue to lead the protein snacking category with great innovation, and continue to grow with our customers, consumers and team members, Link said.

The company's Sasquatch mascot was on hand, part of its longrunning Messin With Sasquatch campaign

Hes been wonderful for our business and we have lots of fun messin with Sasquatch," Link said.

Kevin McAdams, the companys North American president, said Link Snacks considered more than 30 sites nationwide. McAdams said the company is hiring immediately for a plant manager, human relations manager, controller, food safety and quality director and plant engineer.

McAdams said the company also is doubling the size of its factory in Alpena, South Dakota, and adding onto facilities in Minong, Wisconsin, and Underwood, Iowa. Jack Links also has facilities in Germany, New Zealand and Brazil.

Georgia will pay to train company workers, although a value for that incentive wasn't immediately available.

Link Snacks could claim various tax breaks, including an income tax credit allowing it to annually deduct $3,500 per job from state income taxes, up to $14 million over five years, as long as workers make at least $28,000 a year. If Jack Link's doesn't earn enough to owe that much in taxes, the state would give it personal income taxes from worker paychecks to make up the rest. The company could also get local property tax breaks.

State Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson said Jack Link's will add to Georgia's food industry.

We have a fantastic food processing industry that is thriving," Wilson said. "Agriculture continues to be the backbone of the Georgia economy.

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Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.
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SABHA, Jordan (AP)  Efforts to restore damaged but once fertile land in Jordan's desert are sprouting hope for one of the worlds most water-scarce nations, as a land assessment report Wednesday warned of the growing scale of global degradation.

Local organizations believe projects that reintroduce native plants and implement smart water harvesting systems will cushion the impacts of climate change and desertification, which are only set to worsen, according to the United Nations report.

The U.N. desertification agency says 40% of land globally is currently degraded, blaming unsustainable land and water management, poor agricultural practices, mining, urbanization and infrastructure development for the land's deterioration.

Mira Haddad, from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas said several other factors, including overexploitation of vegetation cover, overgrazing, and...new land practices as well as climate change are also contributing to land degradation in Jordan.

But environmentalists are already pursuing options to ward off further damage. One of the efforts, run by the Watershed and Development Initiative, is introducing four native plants to 10,000 acres (41 square kilometers) of desert in the Sabha reserve, roughly 56 miles (90 kilometers) east of the Jordanian capital Amman.

"Were working on the water, were working on the green cover and were working also with the habitats of the creatures, from insects to animals and all living parts of that ecosystem, Deyala Tarawneh, a WADI founding member, said. The success rate of these plants is 85%, which is considered a very high percentage, and they only need to be watered once, which is also reducing the amount of water needed for the irrigation of the green areas.

But despite the success of WADI's planting initiative, land restoration in Jordan is still facing several challenges: the number of land unit areas available for restoration is lacking, and the willingness of local communities to leave the land for at least one or two rainy seasons without grazing is also hindering efforts, said ICARDA's Haddad.

Jordan is one of several countries already grappling with the effects of degradation, with more than 2.3 billion people currently living in water-stressed countries, according to the U.N. report. It warned that more food supply disruptions, forced migration and greater pressure on species survival are also expected as climate change intensifies and poor land management practices continue. By 2030, it warns that 700 million people could be displaced by drought.

The situation we have right now is unhealthy and certainly not acceptable, Ibrahim Thiaw, the executive secretary of the U.N. desertification agency, told the Associated Press. The more you degrade land the more you emit carbon and the more you contribute to climate change.

The report calls for financial support to bolster conservation and restoration in developing countries. It says the expansion of protected areas and conservation hotspots, better water management, smart agriculture, and the rewilding of biodiversity can be boosted by appropriate funding.

If these kinds of measures are implemented on a wider scale, the U.N. agencys restoration scenario predicts reduced biodiversity loss and improved soil health, with the benefits particularly felt in North and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

But it also notes that inaction would lead to 16 million square kilometers (6 million square miles)  nearly the size of the entire South American continent  of land degradation by 2050.

The report also recommends scaling up land rights for Indigenous peoples and local communities, urging farmers to draw on ample lessons about land restoration, crop adaptation and livestock from established customs and traditional knowledge.

We welcome new allies to this battle, including economic actors who are increasingly interested in avoiding climate risk, but we must make clear that we will not be used for greenwashing," Jose Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, the leader of the Congress of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, said in a statement. Partnering with Indigenous peoples requires embracing transformative change.

The U.N.'s Thiaw agreed that support for restoration projects should be ramped up. He said addressing land degradation is the cheapest solution to the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. It is possible to do it by 2050, which is just one generation."

He added: It does not require high tech nor a PhD to undertake. Land restoration is accessible and democratic."

Several countries, like Jordan, are already addressing their own land issues, from drought preparedness programs in Mexico, the USA and Brazil, to the 11-country Great Green Wall in Africa aimed at restoring 100 million hectares (390,000 square miles) of degraded landscapes along the Sahel.

Land restoration is a win for the environment, economy, society, and for biodiversity," said Thiaw. What we are calling for now is the acceleration of such programs."

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Wanjohi Kabukuru reported from Mombasa, Kenya.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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MIAMI (AP)  A judge in Miami on Wednesday vacated the life sentence of a 55-year-old Black man who prosecutors said was wrongfully convicted because of mistaken identity in 1991.

I feel good. Real good," Thomas Jay" Raynard James said Wednesday as he left a Miami courtroom with his attorneys and family members.

James was convicted of the 1990 death of Francis McKinnon, largely on the identification by an eyewitness who told jurors she watched him gun down her stepfather during a robbery in his Coconut Grove apartment.

Earlier Wednesday, James, wearing his red prison uniform and shackles, stood behind his mother, Doris Strong, as Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle detailed a 90-page motion her office filed asking for the conviction to be vacated.

Mom, hopefully the court will grant you the freedom youve been looking for for so many years," Fernandez Rundle told Strong, who sobbed quietly throughout the news conference.

James, who was 23 when he was convicted, was expected to be released after paperwork was completed Wednesday.

Over the past year, Fernandez Rundle said, members of her office's Justice Project poured over 20,000 pages of documents, reinterviewed witnesses, resubmitted fingerprints and retested DNA samples.

She said the case has gone through numerous appeals, post-conviction reviews, and reviews by a private investigator and the Innocence Project of Florida Inc.

None were successful in finding Mr. Thomas Raynard James innocent until we got involved," Fernandez Rundle said.

In a 90-page motion to vacate the conviction, prosecutors said what appears to be a chance coincidence that the defendant, Thomas Raynard James, had the same name as a suspect named by witnesses and anonymous tipsters ... led to the defendant's photograph being included in a lineup, and set in motion a mistaken identity."

Months later, James was arrested and charged with murder.

At the trial, eyewitness Dorothy Walton told jurors that she was sure that James, then 23, pulled the trigger.

I'm positive of it. I will never forget his face," she told jurors in 1991.

Another eyewitness who had identified James in the photo lineup testified that the person he saw that night was not in the courtroom.

But Walton's testimony was key to the jury's verdict, because there was no physical evidence tying anyone to the killing, Fernandez Rundle said. In fact, fingerprints from the scene did not match James.

But beginning last fall, Walton said she had some concerns about her testimony, Fernandez Rundle said. She initially refused to meet with prosecutors, but earlier this month made contact and said she now believes she made a mistake in identifying James as the gunman.

Fernandez Rundle said that over the years there have been conflicting stories about detectives confusing James with another man who shared his name. But that man had been arrested and was in jail at the time of the shooting, she said.

The man suspected of killing McKinnon died in 2020 in Las Vegas, the motion said.

Natlie Figgers, who represents James, urged people to speak up when they see an injustice.

It took a village to make this happen. It wasn't a smooth ride," Figgers said. I want to extend my gratitude to everyone that played a part in bringing this result."
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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)  Colombians will soon be going to movie theaters without having to wear face masks. Chile opens its borders next week for the first time in two years. Mexico's president has declared the pandemic over. And in Rio de Janeiro, tens of thousands attended Carnival parades just two months after the world-famous spectacle was postponed to prevent COVID-19 infections.

Even as coronavirus cases rise half a world away in China and authorities there impose new lockdowns, plummeting infection rates in Latin America have countries eliminating restrictions on mass gatherings, lifting some travel requirements and scrapping mask mandates that have been in place for two years.

The region has been hit hard by the pandemic, with nations like Brazil and Peru registering some of the worlds highest death tolls. But cases and deaths fell this month in most places to lows resembling levels last seen in the first two months of the pandemic.

Some epidemiologists believe vaccination campaigns and months of exposure to different strains of the virus have helped the regions populations resist new waves of contagion.

What we appear to be seeing is that while the virus is still circulating, many people are not falling ill or presenting symptoms, said Fernando de la Hoz, an epidemiology professor at the National University in Bogota, Colombias capital.

Last year Latin American countries were pummeled by the coronavirus, with the Delta and Gamma variants  the latter of which emerged in Brazil  infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands.

In June, Brazil reached 500,000 deaths and seven countries in South America were among the 10 nations in the world with the highest death rates per capita.

Peru is now the only Latin American nation still to have that dubious distinction, according to data compiled by Statista, a market research platform. But even in Peru, COVID-19 deaths have fallen dramatically, from more than 200 a day in February to around 20 by the end of April. Coronavirus intensive care units, packed a year ago, were at just 11% of capacity at the beginning of this month according to the Ministry of Health.

The BA.2 variant of the virus, which spread rapidly through China, the United States and some European countries in March, has not had a significant impact in most of the region so far.

In Colombia, cases are down from 35,000 per day in mid-January, when the omicron variant peaked, to around 250 per day. Daily deaths are in the single digits, and as of the first week of April, just 177 of a total of 10,700 ICU beds were occupied by coronavirus patients, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

We dont expect that wave from China to arrive here because our strategy has been different to theirs, Martha Lucia Ospina, the director of Colombias National Health Institute, told radio station La FM this month.

They shut down contact with the outside world as they aimed for a zero Covid strategy ... while we opened up gradually and applied different kinds of vaccines that have generated an interesting mix of immunity, Ospina said.

Most countries in the region have met the World Health Organizations target of vaccinating 70% of their people with at least two doses.

As case numbers and hospitalizations fall away, so do many restrictions on social life.

Brazil's federal government revoked a 2020 measure that declared the pandemic a health emergency, and many states have eased mask mandates and other constraints.

Masks were not required last weekend at the packed Sambadrome, Rio's Carnival parade ground, which can hold more than 60,000 spectators. Vaccination cards were supposedly a condition for entry, but people had no trouble getting in without them. After being suspended in February, the celebrations were moved to an April holiday.

Colombia's government announced that starting May 1, masks will no longer be needed at shopping malls, cinemas and other large indoor venues in cities with vaccination rates of at least 70%.

Argentina lifted all travel restrictions in March including for unvaccinated people, and Buenos Aires, the capital, no longer requires masks in any venues.

In Central America, El Salvador stopped requiring them in public spaces as of April 21st.

Masks are also no longer mandatory in most places in Mexico, which has seen daily cases fall from 40,000 in late January to 1,000 in mid-April. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said this week that the country had entered a new stage in which the virus will have seasonal variations.

There is at least one place where infections are rising: In Puerto Rico, cases rebounded after mask requirements and caps on attendance in public venues were lifted March 10, prompting the island's government this month to once again mandate masks at large events.

The island surpassed 3,000 cases a day this week, according to Johns Hopkins University, up from about 200 per day during the first week of March.

Ivan Dario Velez, a specialist in infectious diseases at Colombia's University of Antioquia, said new mutations and outbreaks can still happen in the coming months, and governments in the region may have to apply new rounds of vaccinations or take other steps.

This virus is very unpredictable, he added. Governments will have to monitor its behavior closely and take appropriate measures.

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Associated Press writers David Biller in Rio de Janeiro; Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Eva Vergara in Santiago, Chile; Franklin Briceno in Lima, Peru; Marcos Aleman in San Salvador, El Salvador; and Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  The ringleader of a scheme to import large quantities of raw anabolic steroids that were then processed and packaged for redistribution throughout the U.S. has been sentenced to six years in prison, federal prosecutors said.

David M. Esser, 48, of North Attleborough, Massachusetts, arranged for the importation of steroids from international suppliers, primarily based in Hong Kong, and used the money he made to fund a luxury lifestyle and to invest in real estate and cryptocurrency, the U.S. attorney's office in Rhode Island announced Wednesday.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  The consensus Republican front-runner for Nevada governor drew attention and applause from a GOP luncheon audience Tuesday when he used an expletive to deride Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolaks decision to enact a state-managed public health insurance option.

Answering a question about homelessness, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo expressed frustration about people who dont or wont accept help from public services. He said he wanted to stop the Clark County jail from being the No. 1 facility for mental health services in Nevada.

A very small percentage are homeless due to circumstances out of their control, said Lombardo, who served two terms as nonpartisan elected head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. You have to hold them accountable and, unfortunately, society is turning a blind eye to that issue.

The governor can make that a priority, Lombardo continued, referring to Sisolak. He said his priority is health. And hes talking about (bull--) things like the public option.

Sisolak last year signed Nevadas public health care option into law, amid projections that it will lower insurance premium costs 15% for participants by 2026.

Sisolak campaign aide Reeves Oyster responded to Lombardos comment with a statement saying 350,000 Nevada residents will benefit from the law; pointing to the coronavirus pandemic; and accusing Lombardo of siding with big insurance over Nevada families in need of health care.

The answer wrapped up Lombardos time during a forum that drew more than 200 luncheon guests to the Dragon Ridge Country Club in Henderson. It was moderated by Nickie Diersen, of the Southern Hills Republican Womens Club, and conservative KNXT-AM radio morning show host Alan Stock.

In a statement late Tuesday, Lombardo campaign aide Elizabeth Ray said, the actual benefit of this public option bill has not been made evident, and Nevadans dont deserve to suffer through the beta test for this bad public policy, which was rushed through the Legislature.

Nine Republican candidates for governor were asked about the economy, crime, schools, homelessness, and development amid a dwindling Colorado River water supply during the question-and-answer style forum.

On hand were perennial political hopeful Eddie Hamilton, logistics manager Tom Heck and real estate investor Barak Zilberberg, plus five others who took part in a campaign forum last week in Las Vegas: North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, Gardnerville surgeon Fred Simon, Reno venture capitalist Guy Nohra, former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and firebrand northern Nevada lawyer Joey Gilbert.

Stock said the station planned to broadcast the two-hour event twice -- at 2 p.m. Saturday and noon May 8.

The campaign for the June 14 GOP primary has 20 announced candidates.

Sisolak has a tremendous campaign finance advantage over any of the Republicans, and he faces a lone underfunded Democratic primary challenger, former North Las Vegas City Council member and Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins.

Most of the Republican candidates have offered dire assessments of the states economy, rising crime and struggling schools. Several have blamed Lombardo for not attending previous campaign events.

Lombardo hit back Tuesday against Heller, who served one term in the Senate after serving in the state Assembly and Congress, for Hellers stump speech comments about sanctuary cities, catch-and-release jail policies and defunding police.

You want to live in a dangerous neighborhood? Live in a sanctuary city, Heller said Tuesday. Practice catch-and-release? You have a dangerous community. Youre talking about defunding the police? Guess what, you have a dangerous city.

Lombardo withdrew Las Vegas police in 2019 from participating in a jail-based federal immigration enforcement program known as 287(g) that critics including the American Civil Liberties Union said led to unconstitutional warrantless arrests. Others said that pulling out of the program made Las Vegas a haven for people living in the U.S. without legal permission.

Lombardo this week began airing a campaign advertisement that took credit for deporting 10,000 people.

Im freaking tired of hearing it, the sheriff declared Tuesday. There is no sanctuary jurisdiction in Clark County or the state of Nevada. There is no catch-and-release program in the state of Nevada.

___

This story was updated to correct the year Nevadas public health care option is expected to lower insurance premium costs 15% for participants. It will be by 2026, not 2025.
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP)  A southern Oregon man was sentenced Tuesday for shooting at a Bureau of Land Management employee while the employee was taking photos of a campsite the man was occupying, officials said.

Scott Dye, 56, was sentenced Tuesday to time served and three years supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office  District of Oregon. Dye was in custody from June 2020 until his release after pleading guilty to assaulting a federal officer in December 2021.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy assured colleagues Wednesday he never asked then-President Donald Trump to resign over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, defending private conversations that have spilled into the open and jeopardized his leadership.

It was McCarthy's first face-to-face meeting with House Republicans amid the fallout from his criticisms of Trump as well as the party's most far-right members, but it's probably not the last time he'll have to shore up his own standing as leader. In line to become House speaker if Republicans win control in the fall midterm election, McCarthy has treacherous months ahead.

For now, he received a standing ovation.

One Republican in the room said the meeting was cathartic for lawmakers. Another voiced confidence that McCarthy would be the next speaker.

Hes got the support of the conference and then some, Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., said as he left the private session at GOP headquarters across the street from the Capitol.

Yet amid the show of support, McCarthy was challenged by two of the party's most hard-right lawmakers  Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia  who said they felt particularly singled out by the leadership team over their fiery comments around Jan. 6. Trump ally Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., who helped organize challenges to the 2020 election results, also voiced concerns, another Republican said.

Gaetz, in an appearance on Tucker Carlsons Fox News Channel program Wednesday night, said of McCarthy, Its debasing for Republicans to give this guy a standing ovation.

The detractors are a political force among the Republicans, but they also appeared to be in a dwindling minority as rank-and-file lawmakers rallied around McCarthy, the man who recruited many of them to Congress and is now raising untold millions to win back the House.

You guys obsess over January 6. Nobody cares," Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., told a gaggle of reporters outside House GOP headquarters. It's history.

A California Republican long eyeing the speaker's gavel, McCarthy is at a critical juncture as he works to ascend to the top leadership position. It will be his second try after a failed 2015 bid  but one now fully dependent on his volatile relationship with Trump, who still holds great influence over the party and can make and break careers.

New audio recordings released in recent days by The New York Times portray McCarthy as fed up with Trump in the aftermath of the Capitol attack, when the defeated president rallied his supporters to head to Congress and object to Democrat Joe Biden's election victory.

In the recordings, McCarthy is heard telling Republicans privately that he was considering asking Trump to resign. In another recording released late Tuesday, McCarthy warns that dangerous public commentary from Gaetz and others is putting people in jeopardy of potential violence.

McCarthy has denied The New York Times account of events, leading Democrats and others to call him a liar, as audio of the secretly recorded calls was released. The House committee investigating Jan. 6 is seeking an interview with him.

On Wednesday, McCarthy stood at party headquarters and defended his actions, suggesting he was merely running through possible scenarios as Democrats moved to impeach Trump in the aftermath of the violent siege.

In the GOP meeting, McCarthy clearly stated that he never asked the president to resign, the Republicans said. He has also publicly said he did not do so. The Times did not report that he asked Trump to resign, only that he told Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and other members he would.

As president, Trump had affectionately referred to McCarthy as My Kevin, one of his earliest endorsers, but their relationship has frayed over time. McCarthy momentarily turned on Trump as his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to disrupt certification of Biden's 2020 presidential win.

In the days after the riot, it seemed Republicans in Washington might part ways with Trump. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell gave blistering speeches against Trump, and McCarthy's public and private conversations at that time show flashes of anger and the depth of angst over the shocking, devastating riot by Trump supporters.

But once Biden took office McCarthy quickly went to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to patch things up with the defeated president.

Trump and McCarthy spoke last week, and the former president told the leader he was not mad about the disclosures.

To become speaker if Republicans win back the House, McCarthy would need to win at least 218 votes.

President Trump said their relationship has never been stronger. Thats good enough for me," said Roger Williams, R-Texas. "Were totally supportive of Kevin McCarthy.

Hes got my support. Hes got everybody elses support, too, he said.

Still, Gaetz and other detractors remain a force McCarthy must contend with, much like the lawmakers six years ago who denied him backing to become speaker. He abruptly dropped out of the race.

Gaetz tweeted late Tuesday that the private comments from McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican leader, to Cheney and others are "the behavior of weak men, not leaders."

Among past rivals for the speaker's gavels, Scalise of Louisiana is no longer outwardly chasing McCarthy for the job, and has in fact become wrapped in the Jan. 6 fallout.

Scalise also faced questions Wednesday in the private meeting after the Times had reported that he joined McCarthy in raising concerns about Gaetzs public comments at the time, Republicans said.

Scalise said the call had been a private conversation, and no one had been accused of anything.

In a statement, Scalise said it's pathetic" that this is what the media chooses to cover. He said with inflation, crime and other issues, it's obvious that Democrats and the media continue to double down on their obsession with January 6th" to distract public attention from the absolutely dismal state of the country.

Yet other Republicans remained noncommittal about McCarthy. Asked if he still has the votes to be the party leader, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said, Time will tell."

From the Democratic side, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the caucus chairman who is also seen as a potential speaker candidate if Democrats retain control, dismissed the Republican strategy for winning back the House as nothing but lies.

Every day its a five-point playbook: Number one, lie. Number two, lie. Number three, lie. Number four, lie. Number five, lie again, he said.

Jeffries said it would be nice if, instead of the infighting, the chaos, the shots fired against each other, the knife fights in a phone booth that is the modern day House Republican Conference, that they would actually decide to work with us on issues of importance to the American people.

___

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Alan Fram and video journalist Rick Gentilo contributed to this report.
HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP)  The final scheduled debate for North Carolinas Republican Senate primary featured former Gov. Pat McCrory and ex-U.S. Rep. Mark Walker largely agreeing on issues and criticizing rival Rep. Ted Budd for his absence from another television forum.

Walker and McCrory took the stage for an hourlong debate at a High Point TV station Tuesday night, responding to questions on immigration, COVID-19 and Russias war against Ukraine among others, news outlets reported.

Budd, who has received former President Donald Trumps endorsement in the May 17 primary race, declined to participate in the debate that aired on several Nexstar stations that cover North Carolina. He hasnt joined colleagues in three previous GOP debates since late February.

Budd spokesperson Jonathan Felts said in an email that the candidate is focused on finishing his tour of every county in state "so he can speak directly to voters in all 100 counties and ask for their votes. Early in-person voting begins Thursday.

McCrory, the governor from 2013 through 2016, was particularly unhappy when footage of Budd being interviewed about health care costs was aired during the debate.

If Ted Budd had enough time to do that interview, why in the hell didnt he have enough time to come to this debate and three other debates? McCrory asked.

On the war in Ukraine, both McCrory and Walker were fervent in supporting the fight against the invasion and accused Budd of failing to staunchly decry Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On immigration, the two candidates agreed refugees from war-torn countries should be given entry to the U.S. sooner than others. Walker opposed efforts that would give people who entered the country unlawfully as children a pathway to citizenship.

I will continue to fight for those who come here legally, Walker said. I will not put people who came here illegally in front of the line of those who tried to obey the law.

On climate change and renewable energy, McCrory said he cares deeply about energy independence and opposes phasing out natural gas. Walker said he supports both electric vehicles and coal, but worries about government regulations that could affect jobs.

Fourteen Republicans are seeking the nomination and the chance to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr. Marjorie Eastman, who has participated in some of the debates, did not meet a polling threshold to participate in Tuesdays debate, according to Nexstar.

The GOP primary winner is likely to take on former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley in the general election. She is the front-runner in an 11-member Democratic primary field.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  When Mexican police found a pile of about 150 skulls in a cave near the Guatemalan border, they thought they were looking at a crime scene, and took the bones to the state capital.

It turns out it was a very cold case.

It took a decade of tests and analysis to determine the skulls were from sacrificial victims killed between A.D. 900 and 1200, the National Institute of Anthropology and History said Wednesday.

Believing they were looking at a crime scene, investigators collected the bones and started examining them in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital, the institute, known as INAH, said in a statement.

The police in 2012 werent being stupid; the border area around the town of Frontera Comalapa in southern Chiapas state has long been plagued by violence and immigrant trafficking. And pre-Hispanic skull piles in Mexico usually show a hole bashed through each side of every skull, and were usually found in ceremonial plazas, not caves.

But experts said Wednesday the victims in the cave had probably been ritually decapitated and the skulls put on display on a kind of trophy rack known as a tzompantli. Spanish conquistadores wrote about seeing such racks in the 1520s, and some Spaniards heads even wound up on them.

While usually strung on wooden poles using holes bashed through them  the common practice among the Aztecs and other cultures  experts say the cave skulls may have rested atop poles, rather than being strung on them.

Interestingly, there were more females than males among the victims, and none of them had any teeth.

In light of the cave experience, archaeologist Javier Montes de Paz said people should probably call archaeologists, not police.

When people find something that could be in an archaeological context, don't touch it and notify local authorities or directly the INAH, he said.
WASHINGTON (AP)  One of the dozens of police officers injured during the U.S. Capitol riot testified Wednesday that he didn't punch or pick a fight with a retired New York City police officer charged with attacking the officer.

Thomas Webster, whose trial on an assault charge started this week, claims he was acting in self-defense when he tackled Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathbun outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Rathbun said he reached out with an open left hand and pushed Webster in the face after the New York man shoved a bike rack at him. Rathbun said he was trying to move Webster back from a security perimeter that he and other officers were struggling to maintain behind rows of bike racks.

I just think its unfortunate to be in the nations capital and be treated like that by another citizen," Rathbun said during the second day of Webster's trial.

Webster's trial is the first among dozens of Capitol riot defendants charged with assaulting police on Jan. 6, 2021. His trial is the fourth before a jury and the sixth overall.

Defense attorney James Monroe said he plans to call Webster to the stand to testify once the government finishes presenting its case, possibly on Thursday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Kelly showed jurors five videos that captured the encounter between Webster and Rathbun from different angles, including a close-up view from the body camera on Rathbuns chest.

The videos show Webster shoving a bike rack at Rathbun before swinging the flag pole at the officer in a downward chopping motion, striking a metal barricade in front of the officer. After Rathbun grabbed the broken pole and retreated, Webster charged at the officer and tackled him to the ground.

Rathbun said he started choking and couldnt breathe when Webster grabbed his gas mask and the chin strap pressed against the officers neck.

Thats not a position that anyone wants to be in, Rathbun said.

Webster's lawyer told jurors during the trial's opening statements on Tuesday that Rathbun started this whole thing by punching Webster. Monroe asserts that a video shows Webster making a motion with his arm to goad Webster into fighting.

That was a motion to back up, Rathbun said during the defense lawyer's cross-examination. That wasn't a motion to move forward.

Rathbun's body camera captured Webster shouting profanities and insults at the officer before they made any physical contact. Rathbun said it would never be permissible for him to hit somebody in response to verbal abuse.

Webster was carrying a U.S. Marine Corps flag on a metal pole on Jan. 6. Rathbun said he noticed that other people in the mob were carrying signs expressing support for police.

But the things they were saying were clearly hostile, he added.

Webster faces six counts, including a charge that he assaulted Rathbun with a dangerous weapon, a metal flag pole. He isnt accused of entering the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Rathbun took a deep breath and briefly paused when Kelly asked him how he feels about the incident more than a year later.

I think it's sad," he said. This whole incident is tragic, but I try not to think about it."

Rathbun reported a hand injury from a separate encounter with a rioter inside the Capitols Rotunda. He didn't report any injuries caused by Webster, but jurors saw photos of leg bruises that Rathbun attributed to his confrontation with the retired officer.

A Metropolitan Police Department detective, Jonathan Lauderdale, said Rathbun initially didnt recall his encounter with Webster when he asked him about the incident. Rathbun said seeing the body camera video refreshed his memory.

Webster retired from the NYPD in 2011 after 20 years of service. His department service included a stint on then-Mayor Michael Bloombergs private security detail. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989 before joining the NYPD in 1991.

More than 780 people have been charged with riot-related federal crimes. The Justice Department says over 245 of them have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

The first three Capitol riot defendants to get a jury trial were convicted of all charges in their respective indictments.

In a pair of bench trials, a different federal judge heard testimony without a jury before acquitting one defendant and partially acquitting another.

Also on Wednesday, a Missouri man who was a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, pleaded guilty to obstructing law enforcement officers during the Capitol riot. Louis Enrique Colon, 45, of Blue Springs, Missouri, had been charged with conspiring with other Proud Boys members to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory.

A sentencing hearing for Colon wasn't immediately scheduled. He agreed to cooperate with Justice Department prosecutors as part of his plea deal.

Two Proud Boys members, Charles Donohoe and Matthew Greene, already have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities. A trial for five other Proud Boys leaders and members is scheduled to start in August.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  A Russian man and a Belarusian man have been arrested in Poland for three months on allegations of spying for Russias special services, security authorities in Poland said Wednesday.

Stanislaw Zaryn, a spokesman for Polands state security bodies, said that material gathered by Polands military intelligence formed the evidence for the arrests. Zaryn said the men were gathering sensitive military information, including about Polish troops presence near Polands border with Belarus.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  A Catholic priest in Topeka suspended from his public duties after being accused of sexually abusing a minor will not face criminal charges in the case.

Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay's office will not file charges against the Rev. John Pilcher after reviewing the results of an investigation conducted by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Kagay told the Capital-Journal this week.
HONOLULU (AP)  A Hawaii man charged with murder in the shooting death of his wifes lover should be locked up because of his wealth and the danger he poses to his family, a prosecutor said.

Honolulu prosecutors filed a motion this week asking a judge to revoke Eric Thompsons $1 million bail. Thompson posted bail and was released after he was arrested on Valentine's Day, but prosecutors said that after he was indicted last week and now faces trial, hes more likely than he was before to try to flee.

Prosecutors said Thompson shot acupuncturist Jon Tokuhara four times in the face in January because he found out his wife and Tokuhara had a sexual relationship.

The cold-blood killing was calculated, prosecutors said.

Tokuhara had been treating Joyce Thompson for back pain and fertility issues, police said.

Eric Thompson owns a home worth more than $2 million in the upscale Honolulu neighborhood of Kahala and has a bathtub accessibility modification business, the motion said.

Defendant sought to end his feeling of betrayal by ending Jon Tokuharas life. But Defendants wife, Joyce, is still in risk of danger, as are her family, and anyone else Defendant views as responsible, a prosecutor wrote in the no-bail motion.

After learning of the affair in July, Thompson forbade his wife from seeing Tokuhara and her siblings, the motion said. Thompson wrongly believed his brother-in-law and sister-in-law knowingly facilitated the affair by babysitting the Thompsons' 1-year-old child when Joyce Thompson went to see Tokuhara, the document said.

These individuals are persistently in danger, the motion said.

Eric Thompson has followed all bail conditions, his attorney, David Hayakawa, said Wednesday.

The state is just upset that he was able to post bail, Hayakawa said.

If prosecutors believed Thompson was a danger or could flee then they should have requested that he be held without bail earlier, the defense attorney said.

Thompson will plead not guilty at an arraignment scheduled for Thursday, Hayakawa said.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  People who want South Carolina to become the 49th U.S. state to pass a hate crimes law have explained, bargained and begged Republicans in the state Senate to just hold a debate on the bill.

On Wednesday, with just days left before the measure dies, they turned to one of the survivors of one of the most heinous racist attacks in modern America seeking to persuade senators to at least take a vote on the bill.

They showed a two-minute video of Polly Sheppard to the Senate chamber, where the bill has been stuck for months with eight Republicans senators objecting and only eight more legislative days to take action.

The racist gunman who killed nine of Sheppard's church friends in 2015 pointed his gun at the woman, but said he would spare her life so she could let people know he was killing Blacks because he hated them. One of the dead from the attack was Sheppard's pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, whose portrait hangs in a place of honor in the Senate chamber.

Eight members of the South Carolina Senate are giving a safe haven to hate. Every time you look at senator Pinckney's photograph, you should be reminded that hate killed him, Sheppard said.

The killer at Emanuel AME is on death row after being convicted of hate crimes under federal law, a point opponents of the bill use to say it is unnecessary. They also have said a crime is a crime no matter the motivation and a hate crime bill could eventually be used to curtail free speech, especially against Christians.

But mostly, opponents have stayed silent about their reasons to not bring the bill that passed the House in 2021 up for debate in the Senate since the session started in January. If the bill does not pass before the session ends May 12, supporters will have to go back to square one.

Wyoming is the only other U.S. state without a hate crime law. That's where the killing of gay college student Matthew Shepard in 1998 led to the federal hate crimes law. Repeated attempts to pass a bill in Wyoming have failed, including last in 2021.

The  Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act  in South Carolina would add up to five years in prison for someone convicted of murder, assault or other violent crime fueled by hatred of the victims race, sexual orientation, gender, religion or disability.

Democratic Sen. Kevin Johnson said he has heard naming the bill after the Senate's fallen colleague rankled some opponents and offered to change the law's title.

It's not the name that's attached to the bill. It's the bill itself and what it represents and more important what it speaks against, Democratic Sen. Ronnie Sabb responded.

Several Democrats stood Wednesday to get a better view of the Polly Sheppard video and were joined by a few Republicans. The video ended with the names of the eight Republicans objecting to the bill and the tag line What will you do!?

What is wrong with protecting us from hate crimes? Sheppard said in a quiet, but firm voice. Please remove your objection so this bill can pass today."

Tension spilled over as other Democrats rose to speak. Sabb didn't finish his remarks in the five minutes allotted and a fellow senator made an almost always granted request for additional time. Several Democrats said Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey objected.

Senate Republicans against the bill did not respond when asked en masse if they wanted to speak Wednesday. At least one of their colleagues said the Senate was wrong just to ignore the bill.

This white Republican thinks we need an open and honest debate, Sen. Sandy Senn said.

Supporters of the hate crimes bill worked throughout most of 2021 to get it through the more conservative South Carolina House. The state Chamber of Commerce pushed hard saying major companies might think twice about locating or expanding in a state without a hate crimes law.

South Carolina's reluctance is being discussed on a white supremist message board too, where members discussing the best places to live mention the lack of a hate crimes law alongside the state's booming economy and good weather, according to members of the Anti-Defamation League who monitor the sites.

We're sending a message we dont stand against hate, and some crazy people might think we support it, said Joel Lourie, a former Democratic state senator and a member of a regional board of the Anti-Defamation League.

South Carolina Sen. Darrell Jackson said he worries the memories of nine dead Black people at a Bible study is not enough to spur a state hate crime law.

We will eventually get hate crimes, let me tell you. The question is how much pain we will have to endure before we get it, the Democrat said.

For Jackson, who has been in the South Carolina Senate since 1993, the hate crimes debate is a reminder of how long and hard the fight was to first bring the Confederate flag off the Statehouse dome in 2000 and then off the Capitol lawn in 2015 after the Emanuel AME massacre.

We will come around. South Carolina always does the right thing, Jackson said. "A friend of mine called me and said, you told me that two years ago, The question is how long does it take you to come around?

___

Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  Albuquerque's K-12 schools should cut staff and think about downsizing its footprint because of dwindling enrollment and spend more for the education of low-income students who fell further behind their peers during this school year, according to a report from the New Mexico Legislature made public Wednesday.

The report from the powerful Legislative Finance Committee recommended that Albuquerque Public Schools let go 400 of the district's 12,000 employees, but didn't specify how many of the district's increasingly empty schools it should shutter. The school district has 144 schools and 73,000 students, down from 85,000 six years ago.

Public schools in New Mexico have not recovered from the exodus of students that accelerated during the pandemic, with enrollment across the state and in Albuquerque still down about 4%, more than the average of 2.6% for 41 U.S. states.

Thousands of families in New Mexico amid the pandemic tried homeschooling or charter schools for the first time and didn't send their kids back to classrooms this year. Despite getting financing federal pandemic relief funds, most school districts across the U.S. now have fewer students and less funding than before the pandemic, forcing educators to consider cutting spending.

Rural districts across New Mexico also lost students, though often for different reasons.

They went to Texas because their schools were open 100%, said state Sen. Gay Kernan, of Hobbs, in southeastern New Mexico on the Texas border, told Albuquerque education officials at the hearing where the report was delivered Wednesday. Lesson learned.

Albuquerque should prioritize filling special education positions and offer bonuses to teachers in high-need positions at schools serving greater numbers of low-income students, the report said. The district currently has more than 600 job openings listed, many for special education instructors.

But many of the city's teachers are expected to retire this year, said Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein.

I don't believe there will be cuts  there are still shortages, she said.

She said the district is already transferring teachers from emptier schools to fuller ones.

The district's low-income students are learning, but their advancement in reading and math is much slower than their more privileged peers, the report stated.

Higher rates of absenteeism for the district's students and fewer learning days are part of the problem. This year, 36% of Albuquerques students missed at least 10 days of school, including excused absences for illness or sports, compared to 30% of students statewide.

The New Mexico Legislature has put aside around $40 million in funding for Albuquerque Public Schools to fund extra learning days. Schools are still deciding if they'll take the money, and many are expected not to because teachers and parents want long summers.

The Legislature does periodic reviews of the state's public schools and the report about the district is the first conducted since 2007.

Albuquerque enrollment declined 17% over the past decade, driven by lower birth rates and growth at charter schools. Meanwhile per-student funding increased by 49% and achievement gaps between low-income and other students in reading and math widened in Albuquerque more than in the rest of the state.

The report also documented rising facility costs and a 21% increase in learning space, even as enrollment dropped.

While the report did not explicitly recommend closing schools, Albuquerque Superintendant Scott Elder read between the lines speaking to lawmakers Wednesday, calling that section of the report "a bit of euphemism for closing schools. He said that closing schools was a charged issue for parents, and could create additional costs.

If we shut schools, kids that live close to that school have to be transported to their new school, so we would have significant impacts on transportation, said Elder.

In a written response to the committee's report, said increased funding is often tied to salary increases and cannot be used to fund services for at-risk youth. He also pointed out that while overall enrollment is down, low-income and other at-risk students represent a larger share of the student population.

The district is already transferring teachers from emptier schools to fuller ones, said Bernstein, the union president. She said uncertainty over who will be moved and when is causing incredible stress for teachers, but gave the district credit for transferring teachers now instead of during the fall, when transfers normally happen. Earlier transfers are better for students and staff, Bernstein said.

While the district has said since 2019 that it should craft a five-year plan to manage its finances amid projected drops in enrollment and funding, the report said that hasnt happened and that they are common for other large New Mexico districts even though they are not required by law.

District officials have announced that cuts are needed and asked parents and staff to offer ideas to reduce costs in recent months.

The legislative committee that drafted the report credited Albuquerque Public Schools for increased oversight of outside contracts ranging from face masks to learning software, potentially cutting down on fraud and waste. It also recognized the district for having low administrative spending of about 4%, on par with districts of its size nationally.

___

This article has been corrected to reflect the content of the report's analysis of district buildings, which observed that its facility footprint had grown while enrollment dropped, but did not explicitly recommend closing schools.

___

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.
SEATTLE (AP)  A civilian oversight board says some Seattle police officers routinely  and illegally  ignored state and city mask mandates during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and refused to obey direct orders from the chief to comply.

The Seattle Times reports that a recently released review by the Office of Inspector General exposed a serious cultural issue within the department.

The report states the department was fined $17,500 last year after receiving two notices of serious violations of the Washington Administrative Code over officers refusal to comply with the mandates after inspections by the state Department of Labor and Industries. The report noted it was difficult for command staff to demand officers comply with the regulations because some captains and assistant chiefs didnt mask up, either.

L&I concluded the police department did not provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing, or likely to cause, serious injury or death.

The departments OIG, one of three civilian-run police oversight agencies, said the police chief gave officers clear direction and explicit orders about mask-wearing as early as March 2020  followed by a string of increasingly stern reminders.

Interim Chief Adrian Diaz then issued a direct order in January 2021 that all officers comply with the citys mask policy, saying any violation would be referred to internal affairs.

The emails demonstrate that command staff and supervisors struggled to gain widespread compliance with orders pertaining to masking, the OIG report issued on April 15 said.

That same month, a captain emailed that he was just stunned at the noncompliance.

No officer was ever disciplined for refusing to wearing a mask, according to the report and a statement from the Office of Police Accountability. Inspector General Lisa Judge concluded this decision set a questionable precedent.

A statement issued Tuesday by SPD did not address the reports specifics.

The Department acknowledges the findings of this report and the concerns it states, the statement said.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  The Minneapolis Police Department has engaged in a pattern of race discrimination for at least a decade, including stopping and arresting Black people at a higher rate than white people, using force more often on people of color and maintaining a culture where racist language is tolerated, a state investigation launched after George Floyds killing found.

The report released Wednesday by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights following a nearly two-year investigation said the agency and the city would negotiate a court-enforceable agreement to address the long list of problems identified in the report, with input from residents, officers, city staff and others.

The report said police department data demonstrates significant racial disparities with respect to officers use of force, traffic stops, searches, citations, and arrests. And it said officers used covert social media to surveil Black individuals and Black organizations, unrelated to criminal activity, and maintain an organizational culture where some officers and supervisors use racist, misogynistic, and disrespectful language with impunity.

Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said during a news conference after the report was released that it doesnt single out any officers or city leaders.

This investigation is not about one individual or one incident, Lucero said.

Asked how long the agreement with the city, known as a consent decree, might have to remain in force, Lucero said, As long as it takes to do it right. Neither she nor the report laid out a timeline for the negotiations. Consent decrees in federal cases often remain in place for years.

The report said the city and police department do not need to wait to institute immediate changes to begin to address the causes of discrimination that weaken the Citys public safety system and harm community members. It listed several steps that the city can take now, including implementing stronger internal oversight to hold officers accountable for their conduct, better training, and better communication with the public about critical incidents such as officer-involved shootings.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he was disturbed by the report and vowed to cooperate with the state to make the needed changes.

I found the contents to be repugnant, at times horrific, Frey said at a news conference. It made me sick to my stomach and outraged, and I think that our community feels the same way. ... I talked with leaders from our Black community this morning, and they're not surprised at all. They've been saying this for years, for decades and for generations.

Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman told reporters the points raised in the report are deeply concerning to everyone. But she said her department has been moving forward with reforms in the two years since the investigation began and isnt going to wait to make further changes.

Were committed to providing effective, constitutional police service, the service that people across our community want and need and deserve, Huffman said.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and his partners, who won a $27 million settlement from the city for the Floyd family, called the report historic and monumental in its importance. They said they were grateful and deeply hopeful that change is imminent.

We call on city, state, and Police leaders to accept the challenge of these findings and make meaningful change at last to create trust between communities of color in Minneapolis and those who are sworn to protect and serve them, the lawyers said in a statement.

Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality, called the finding obvious."

The findings were no surprise, but now there's an agency with the muscle to make those changes happen, Gross said. She said a critical next step is who will monitor a consent decree to make sure changes actually happen, and said she would demand that community members take part. Gross said she was meeting Thursday with Lucero's department and that monitoring a decree would top her agenda.

The Department of Human Rights launched its investigation barely a week after Floyd's death on May 25, 2020. Then-Officer Derek Chauvin used his knee to pin the Black man to the pavement for 9 1/2 minutes in a case that sparked protests around the world against police racism and brutality. Chauvin, who is white, was convicted last spring of murder. Three other fired officers  Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng  were convicted this year of violating Floyd's civil rights in a federal trial and they face a state trial starting in June.

State investigators reviewed a decade's worth of information, including data on traffic stops, searches, arrests and uses of force, and examined policies and training. The review included around 700 hours of body camera video and nearly 480,000 pages of city and police department documents. Lucero said investigators interviewed officers throughout the department and overwhelmingly, we found officers being very forthcoming. The investigators also invited citizens to submit their own stories of encounters with Minneapolis police.

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights is the states civil rights enforcement agency. Its duties include enforcing the Minnesota Human Rights Act which, among other things, makes it illegal for a police department to discriminate against someone because of their race.

"Race-based policing is unlawful and especially harms people of color and Indigenous individuals  sometimes costing community members their lives, the report said.

People of color or Indigenous individuals comprise about 42% of the citys population, the report said, while about 19% of city residents are Black.

The police department has come under pressure from multiple directions since Floyd's death. The U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating Minneapolis policing practices, though it is not thought to be close to a conclusion.

Several City Council members and residents have pushed to replace the department with a new public safety unit that they argue could take a more comprehensive public health approach to policing, including dropping a required minimum number of police officers. Voters rejected the idea last year.

Frey and Chief Medaria Arradondo, before his retirement in January, also made a range of changes in department policies and practices, including requiring officers to document their attempts to de-escalate situations, and no longer stopping motorists for minor traffic violations.

But community anger at police flared anew in February when police officers serving a no-knock warrant shot and killed Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man who was staying on a couch in his cousin's apartment. Prosecutors declined to charge the officer who shot Locke, saying body camera video showed him pointing a gun at the officer, a claim his family disputed. The city has since banned no-knock warrants except in the most extreme circumstances, such as a hostage situation.

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Find APs full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd

___

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.
LONDON (AP)  British fraud investigators have raided the U.K. offices of the GFG Alliance, owners of the countrys third-largest steelmaker, as part of an investigation into possible fraud and money laundering related to financing from a now-bankrupt lender with ties to former Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation last year after Greensill Capitals collapse forced the owner of Liberty Steel, which has thousands of staff in the U.K., to seek a government bailout. British media have reported that Cameron lobbied government officials, including Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock, on behalf of Greensill.
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  The divided Virginia General Assembly slogged through scores of Gov. Glenn Youngkin's proposed amendments to legislation and effectively upheld all of his vetoes Wednesday.

Lawmakers met for this year's one-day reconvened session, which also featured a dose of political drama as House Democrats voted for a leadership shakeup months after an unsuccessful election cycle that saw their party lose full control of the state government.

Democrats still narrowly control the state Senate, where lawmakers challenged many of the Republican governor's 26 vetoes but failed to secure the two-thirds vote needed to override any of them. The GOP-controlled House upheld each veto, despite the fact that many of the measures had initially passed with broad, or in some cases unanimous, support.

Of the 841 measures the General Assembly sent Youngkin during the regular session that ended in mid-March, the governor amended over 100, with proposed changes ranging from highly technical to highly contested.

The Senate spent much of the afternoon taking up and then setting aside a complicated amendment to a measure aimed at reining in the sales of products containing delta-8, a psychoactive form of THC.

Sales of items containing delta-8 have proliferated in Virginia and around the country, even though in Virginia there's currently no recreational retail market for marijuana. Youngkins amendments would have prohibited the retail sale of products containing synthetic delta-8 as of Oct. 1, according to this office. They also would have created create two new intermediate misdemeanor penalties for possession of marijuana.

The chamber initially voted to reject the governor's amendments, which would have sent the measure as it passed back to Youngkin, who could have either signed it or vetoed it. GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who presides over the chamber, broke a tied vote to reject the governor's amendments.

But then  after a series of private conversations  the chamber decided to reconsider that vote and send the measure back to a committee, a move that effectively kills it for the year.

Supporters said the issue was a matter of urgency, because hospitals and poison control centers have reported an uptick in people of all ages being sickened by products, including edibles, containing delta-8. But the attempts to restrict the product in were met with pushback from the hemp industry, which broadly argued the changes could impact the sale of CBD products that dont produce a high.

Senate members at times Wednesday seemed angry or confused about what procedural options were before them.

The measure's sponsor, Republican Emmett Hanger, told reporters the issue had been a difficult one because of the power of the hemp lobby.

Some of them are making a ton of money off these products. Some of it's very legitimate and we want to encourage that. Some of it is just ... its just a very lucrative business, he said.

The death of the bill comes after lawmakers failed earlier this year to agree on a measure that would have moved up the date for retail sales of marijuana to begin in Virginia following the legislature's decision last year to legalize adult possession of up to one ounce.

Lawmakers also had a particularly sharp debate on Youngkin's amendments to a measure that took aim at Loudoun County Public Schools, a suburban Washington district that has drawn outsized attention for controversies over curriculum debates, COVID-19 policies and the districts handling of two sexual assaults.

The governors proposed amendments, which the Senate rejected, would have forced the entire nine-member board to face election this fall.

Democratic Del. David Reid, who sponsored the bill that originally dealt with how terms would be staggered, said requiring the board to hold new elections would set a dangerous precedent. This could create complete chaos after every election, so be very careful about the precedent that were making here, Reid said.

Republican Del. Christopher Head said the school board has broken faith with parents, and holding elections this fall simply brings accountability a few months early.

The measure now goes back to Youngkin for consideration as it passed.

Not all votes on amendments were partisan. Some were noncontroversial and sailed through with bipartisan support. And in some cases Republicans joined with Democrats in rejecting Youngkin's proposals.

Lawmakers also kicked off a special session earlier this month focused on ending a budget stalemate. Instead of opting to extend their regular session as the deadline approached in mid-March, the assembly decided to carry the matter over, along with dozens of other unfinished bills.

Budget negotiators have held sporadic talks since then but still don't have a deal to consider.

Only one special session matter was taken up Wednesday. On a bipartisan vote, a Senate committee defeated legislation the governor requested that would roll back the gas tax, then gradually restore it after a three-month holiday. A House version of the measure is still alive but would almost certainly meet the same fate once sent to the Senate.

In brief remarks to reporters, Youngkin said he was disappointed.

Its Virginians money, not governments money. ... Im really disappointed that the Democrats dont see that," he said.

There was action outside the Capitol on Wednesday, too, as a crowd of hundreds gathered for the 4th annual Virginia March for Life. Earle-Sears was among the speakers, and Youngkin attended and joined the march.
PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. - Mikey Milne had a hat trick and added an assist to lead the Winnipeg Ice to a 10-1 rout of the Prince Albert Raiders on Tuesday in Western Hockey League playoff action.

Winnipeg leads the best-of-seven first-round series 3-0.

Zachary Benson had two power-play goals and added two assists for the Ice, while Connor McClennon scored and had three assists. Owen Pederson, Jakin Smallwood, Conor Geekie and Skyler Bruce rounded out the attack.

Daniel Hauser made 18 saves for the win in net.

Harrison Lodewyk was the lone scorer for Prince Albert.

Tikhon Chaika started in net for the Raiders, stopping 17-of-22 shots in 30:50 of work. Max Hildebrand turned aside 9-of-14 shots in relief.

The Ice were 3 for 5 on the power play and Prince Albert could not score on its three man advantages.

Elsewhere in the WHL, the Red Deer Rebels downed the Brandon Wheat Kings 3-1 to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series. The Edmonton Oil Kings took a 3-0 lead in their series with the Lethbridge Hurricanes after a 4-1 win on Tuesday. The Moose Jaw Warriors edged the Saskatoon Blades 3-2 in overtime to take a 3-0 lead in their series. The Portland Winterhawks blanked the Prince George Cougars 2-0 for a 3-0 series lead. The Seattle Thunderbirds topped the Kelowna Rockets 5-1 to improve to a 2-0 series lead.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2022.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A veritable who's who of Washington's political and foreign policy elite gathered Wednesday to pay their last respects to the late Madeleine Albright, a child of conflict-ravaged Europe who arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year old girl and became America's first female secretary of state.

The trailblazing diplomat and champion of her adopted country as the world's indispensable nation was joyously remembered by President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton as a no-nonsense, valued adviser who did not suffer fools or tyrants and was most concerned about Russia's war with Ukraine when she died last month of cancer at 84.

Biden said Albrights name was synonymous with the idea that America is a force for good in the world.

In the 20th and 21st century, freedom had no greater champion than Madeleine Korbel Albright, he said. Today we honor a truly proud American who made all of us prouder to be Americans.

He said he had learned of Albright's death while flying to Brussels for an emergency NATO summit on Ukraine and was struck by the memory of her key role in pressing for the expansion of the alliance in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union to protect Europe from a repeat of the carnage of World War II and the Cold War ideological battle between communism and democracy.

And Clinton, the man who appointed her first as his U.N. ambassador in 1993 and then as secretary of state in 1996, said his last conversation with Albright just weeks before her passing were dominated by the situation in Ukraine and her fears about the future of democracy at home and abroad.

He recalled that Albright didnt want to talk about her declining health at a moment when the West is on edge following Russias invasion of Ukraine. Albright, Clinton recalled, assured him that she was getting the best care she could, but didnt want to waste time talking about that.

The only thing that really matters is what kind of world were going to leave to our grandchildren, Clinton recalled Albright told him. He added, She made a decision with her last breath she would go out with her boots on.

Biden and Clinton, along with former President Barack Obama and several of Albright's successors as secretary of state, including Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, John Kerry and current office-holder Antony Blinken, were some 1,400 mourners who attended the funeral at Washington's National Cathedral.

The service was punctuated at points by tears, laughter and applause during reminiscences from Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Albright's three daughters, Anne, Alice and Katharine, who remembered her as a doting mom" and Granny Maddy to their own children even amid a hectic work schedule that often took her around the world.

That schedule didn't let up when she left government service in 2001 and returned to teaching at Georgetown University, started a successful international consulting company, served on the boards of numerous women's and human rights groups and became a best-selling author.

Hillary Clinton recalled stories that she had lobbied for Albright to serve as secretary of state, a role that Clinton would serve in herself during the Obama administration. Its been said that I urged my husband to nominate her as our first female secretary of state," she said. Unlike much thats said, this story was true.

The two developed a strong friendship over the years. and Hillary Clinton recalled a pair of stories about her and Albright on visits overseas during which they bonded.

Once on a walk in a drenching rainstorm in the Czech capital of Prague, Clinton said they laughed so hard they forgot they were wet. On another occasion in Beijing, Clinton recalled that she and Albright had marched through mud in a torrential downpour and confronted Chinese security forces to meet women's rights activists.

Clinton in her own tribute recalled some lighter memories of Albright, including the time she taught the foreign minister of Botswana the Macarena and danced the night away with a young, handsome man at her daughter Chelsea's wedding. She also remembered Albright as a fearless diplomat that broke barriers and then counseled, cajoled and inspired women to follow in her footsteps.

The angels better be wearing their best pins and putting on their dancing shoes, Clinton said. Because if as Madeleine believed theres a special place in hell for women who dont support other women, they havent seen anyone like her yet.

On the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and one month before her death, The New York Times printed what would be Albright's last published writing. She wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion would be a historic error that would cement his legacy as one of infamy. Until the end, she was still in a hurry to do good, Clinton said.

Other top current officials who attended the service included Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA Director Bill Burns, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Mark Milley and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The members of the VIP audience were masked, as Albright's family had requested.

Foreign dignitaries invited to the funeral included the presidents of Georgia and Kosovo and senior officials from Colombia, Bosnia and the Czech Republic.

Albright was born in what was then Czechoslovakia, but her family fled twice, first from the Nazis and then from Soviet rule. They ended up in the United States, where she studied at Wellesley College and rose through the ranks of Democratic Party foreign policy circles to become ambassador to the United Nations. Bill Clinton selected her as secretary of state in 1996 for his second term.

Although never in line for the presidency because of her foreign birth, Albright was near universally admired for breaking a glass ceiling, even by her political detractors. Several senior Republican lawmakers, including Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, attended the service.

As a Czech refugee who saw the horrors of both Nazi Germany and the Iron Curtain, she was not a dove. She played a leading role in pressing for the Clinton administration to get involved militarily in the conflict in Kosovo. My mindset is Munich, she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.

As secretary of state, Albright played a key role in persuading Clinton to go to war against the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic over his treatment of Kosovar Albanians in 1999. As U.N. ambassador, she advocated a tough U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the case of Milosevics treatment of Bosnia. NATOs intervention in Kosovo was eventually dubbed Madeleines War.

She also took a hard line on Cuba, famously saying at the United Nations that the 1996 Cuban shootdown of a civilian plane was not cojones but rather cowardice.

Bill Clinton recalled the moment in his tribute, remembering that Albright faced criticism at the time that the sharp barb was undiplomatic and unladylike." He absolutely loved it.

I called her and I said ... 'This is the best line developed and delivered by anybody in this administration," Clinton said.

In 2012, Obama awarded Albright the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, saying her life was an inspiration to all Americans.

Born Marie Jana Korbel in Prague on May 15, 1937, she was the daughter of a diplomat, Joseph Korbel. The family was Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism when she was 5. Three of her Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps.

Albright was an internationalist whose point of view was shaped in part by her background. Her family fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 as the Nazis took over their country, and she spent the war years in London.

After the war, as the Soviet Union took over vast chunks of Eastern Europe, her father brought the family to the United States. They settled in Denver, where her father taught at the University of Denver. One of Korbels best students was Condoleezza Rice, who would later succeed his daughter as secretary of state.

Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959. She worked as a journalist and later studied international relations at Columbia University, where she earned a masters degree in 1968 and a Ph.D. in 1976. She then entered politics and what was at the time the male-dominated world of foreign policy professionals.
DENVER (AP)  A man, a woman and a young boy were found dead in an apartment Tuesday after being shot multiple times, police said.

Investigators dont suspect the shooting was a murder-suicide and are trying to learn more about the circumstances of the shooting and those responsible for it, police spokesman Doug Schepman said Wednesday.
By Randy Myers

Bay City News Foundation

The final weekend of the San Francisco International Film Festival brings more cinematic enticements with some plots that reflect current crises and others that gaze into the past to better grasp where we are now.

To get tickets and to view the entire program, visit https://sffilm.org/.

Thursday sees the arrival of two solemn but stirring narrative features. Alejandro Loayza Grisi's quiet and quite powerful elegy to a fading culture follows older Quechua couple Virginio (Jose Calcina) and Sisa (Luisa Quispe) as their way of life in a remote region of Bolivia gets challenged and threatened by a modern society and an overwhelming drought. Eloquent and poetic, Grisi's "Utama" illustrates how climate change is not only altering landscapes but also the inhabitants eking out a fragile existence from them. "Utama" patiently watches and observes this steadfast, way off-the-grid couple as well as how their much-more-modern grandson's visit reminds them that the world itself is transforming around them. (6 p.m. Thursday, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive)

It's been nearly 10 years since the screenwriting/directing team of Scott McGehee and David Siegel (the wonderful "What Maisie Knew" and "The Deep End") produced a film. But the wait's been worth it. Their "Montana Story" wrestles with the painful, tortured childhood pasts of an estranged brother (Owen Teague) and his sister (Haley Lu Richardson), both of whom must reconcile because their father -- the source of the wedge driven between them -- lies in a coma at the family ranch home. "Montana Story" reminds us that if you do indeed go home again, prepare to encounter unresolved issues that'll need to be confronted before you can truly live your own life to its fullest. (8:30 p.m. Thursday, CGV San Francisco)

If you're in the mood for a wide-ranging movie experience come Friday, you're going to have to make some choices. Two high-profile films -- one from England, the other from the U.S. -- along with a documentary that's paired with an SFFILM award presentation, punctuate the program.

First up is "Benediction" from one of our most formidable filmmakers, Terence Davies. The sumptuous period piece/biopic aims to separate truth from speculation over its storied subject, poet Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden). A decorated soldier and later anti-war writer, Sassoon's life and his relationships with men gives us an unforgettable look into the life and mind of a creative, complex man. "Benediction" digs much deeper into the soul and the angst of its subject than traditional biopics and culminates with an ending that defies conventional filmmaking and hits you with an emotional force you won't forget. As Sassoon, Lowden -- star of Apple TV+'s addictive spy series "Slow Horses" -- notches another natural and graceful performance. (4 p.m. Friday, BAMPFA; 3 p.m. Saturday, Castro Theatre)

A hit with critics and audiences at this year's Sundance Film Festival, John Patton Ford's "Emily the Criminal" stars another one of our more exciting actors, the ever-game and irresistible Aubrey Plaza. Mixing in the thrills with the edgy laughs, her Emily proves she has a knack for committing fraud. (8:30 p.m. Friday, Castro)

One of the biggest events Friday night happens at the Pacific Film Archive where UC Berkeley graduate school professor Trinh T. Minh-ha, also a filmmaker, writer and composer, will receive SFFILM's prestigious Persistence of Vision Award. UC Berkeley's Rizvana Bradley, an assistant professor of film and media, will be leading a conversation with Trinh, and her latest experimental documentary "What About China?" will screen. (7 p.m. Friday, BAMPFA)

Come Sunday, the spotlight shines on two documentaries and one excellent Ukrainian-set anti-war feature that'll leave you breathless and exhausted. All screen at the PFA.

In the eye-opening documentary "Midwives," Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing immerses us in the world of a western Myanmar midwife clinic that is owned and run by Hla, a Buddhist, with her apprentice Nyo Nyo, a Muslim. Hlaing explores the tensions and divisions of that volatile region and the relationship between the two. (2:30 p.m., BAMPFA)

Sierra Pettengill revisits the roots of the militarization of police in "Riotsville, USA," a compelling, shocking documentary that's entirely composed of archival footage. What exactly is Riotsville? It's a number of fake towns that were created by the military. If you knew nothing about that, expect that to change as Pettengill takes us back to the '60s so we can better see how it leads to the crisis we're in right now. (4:30 p.m., BAMPFA)

Perhaps one of the most relevant anti-war screams comes courtesy of Maryna Er Gorbach's piercing, nearly surreal takedown of armed conflict in the early days of the Donbas war. In the based-on-a-true story "Klondike," a couple expecting their first child encounter every hellish obstacle thrown at them. There are body parts in the backyard, remnants from a plane crash and their house is partly in rubble. Yes, it's disturbing -- particularly that ending -- but it is also so urgently needed and important. (7 p.m., BAMPFA)

To get you fired up for the upcoming DocLands Documentary Film Festival (May 5-11), the Smith Rafael Film Center presents a screening along with a rousing musical performance and a conversation tied to "Stay Prayed Up." The documentary celebrates the Branchettes, a 50-year-plus North Carolina gospel group that's known even beyond the United States. Co-directors D.L. Anderson and Matthew Durning focus on the popular group, led by indomitable bandleader Lena Mae Perry, while it records its first studio album. Expect the Branchettes to move spirits at the Rafael stage when they perform with Perry. (7 p.m. Saturday, Smith Rafael Film Center, https://rafaelfilm.cafilm.org/stay-prayed-up/)

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After more than two years of virtual meetings, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors will return to in-person meetings in May, the county announced on Tuesday.

The next meeting on May 3 will take place at the board chambers, located at 400 County Center, Redwood City. But the meeting will still be streamed virtually and some supervisors will still attend remotely.

There will be limited capacity at the board chambers and seats will be spaced out to allow for social distancing. People will also be able to view meetings in the lobby outside the board chambers.

Board President Don Horsley said in a statement that they will assess this model of both in-person and virtual options to determine if they will continue hosting meetings with both options in the future.

Police in Palo Alto say a woman shopping Tuesday at Stanford Shopping Center recognized the woman accosting her, moments before the suspect and an accomplice robbed her of $2,500 worth of merchandise.

Officers responded to a 4:55 p.m. report of a strong-arm robbery inside the Nordstrom store. The victim, a woman in her 20s, had just made a purchase at a register when she was verbally accosted by another woman, according to a news release issued Tuesday night by the Palo Alto Police Department.

"The victim recognized the suspect as someone with whom she shared an acquaintance," according to the news release.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the COVID-19 treatment remdesivir for children under age 12 this week, the first COVID treatment the agency has approved for pediatric patients.

The medication, which has the brand name Veklury and is developed by Gilead Sciences Inc., will now be available to children at least 28 days old and weighing at least roughly 7 pounds who are hospitalized with COVID or have tested positive and are at high risk of developing severe illness.

Prior to the FDA approving the medication for young children on Thursday, remdesivir had been approved for people ages 12 and older who had tested positive for the virus.

As a result of the FDA's approval, remdesivir is now fully authorized for all age groups and the agency has rescinded its emergency use authorization for the medication.

Contra Costa County has the second-lowest COVID-19 death rate in the United States among counties with more than a million residents, county health director Anna Roth told the county board of supervisors Tuesday.

Showing the strength of what Roth called "the benefit of regional approaches," Roth said Alameda County is number one. Santa Clara County is third.

As of April 20, there have been 1,297 COVID-related deaths in Contra Costa (three people have died in the county since April 20).

As of Tuesday, 82.2 percent of county residents were fully vaccinated, with another 57.9 percent receiving boosters. Total cases since the pandemic began have reached 193,709 with 2,159 cases currently active.

The California State Senate Public Safety Committee passed a bill Tuesday put forth by State Senator Scott Wiener and San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin that would prohibit law enforcement from retaining the DNA profiles of survivors of sexual assault in a searchable database that could be searched for reasons "entirely unrelated to sexual assault," according to DA Boudin's Office.

Senate Bill 1228, Genetic Privacy for Sexual Assault Victims, unanimously passed its first hurdle and now moves to the senate appropriations committee.

SB 1228 would prohibit a victim's DNA from ever being used for anything other than aiding and identifying a perpetrator, the DA's office said. Law enforcement would be barred from searching not only the DNA database of sexual assault victims, but also their close consensual contacts, family, and housemates who may have provided DNA to differentiate from the perpetrator.

A Greenfield man who pleaded no contest to felony drunk driving and impersonating a police officer will receive a stipulated two-year prison sentence, the Monterey County District Attorney's Office announced on Tuesday.

Clemente Martinez, 27, admitted to having five prior convictions for driving under the influence, going back to 2012.

On March 6 of this year, Martinez equipped his vehicle with flashing red and blue lights and attempted to perform a traffic stop on the wrong guy: an off-duty Monterey County Sheriff Sergeant. The off-duty sergeant complied with the request to pull over but became suspicious when Martinez did not exit his vehicle, the DA said. Martinez abandoned his "traffic stop" and proceeded to drive away, allowing the sergeant to get a good look at his vehicle, which was clearly not law enforcement. The sergeant followed Martinez until Greenfield officers could pull him over.

Greenfield officers conducted a field sobriety test on Martinez, who was allegedly found to have a blood alcohol level of .10.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced Tuesday a lawsuit against three companies alleging they illegally dumped several tons of soil and other materials on Treasure Island in 2019.

The suit was filed against Tip Top Trucking, LLC, Neeve Engineering, Inc., and Neeve's principal, Joseph Lawrence, seeking damages and penalties, after the city spent $200,000 to have the materials tested and removed, Chiu said in the statement.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated California's Unfair Competition Law by violating the city's illegal dumping ordinance, creating a public nuisance, and trespassing on City property.

The National Weather Service forecast for the San Francisco Bay Area calls for breezy and cool conditions Wednesday under mostly sunny skies. Highs are expected in the upper 50s on the coast and the mid to upper 60s throughout the region. Overnight lows will be in the mid to upper 40s.

High pressure is expected to bring a warming and drying trend

from Friday into the upcoming weekend.

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
StackCommerce

Wine lovers arent content to stop at the supermarket or even a liquor store to pick up a bottle of vino anymore. The advent of wine clubs and subscription-based wine services have eliminated a lot of the guesswork found in researching and finding quality wines.

Howeverwhos making the recommendations that show up at your door each month? Wine subscriptions are only as good as the braintrust making their selections. Rather than a clubs nameless, faceless tastemakers, wouldnt you rather trust the wine options of the dining worlds creme de la creme, the bottlesserved by Michelin-star restaurants with their world-class cuisine?
WFO EL PASO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, April 27, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in El Paso has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

South central Dona Ana County in south central New Mexico...

Northwestern El Paso County in western Texas...

* Until 1100 PM MDT.

* At 1015 PM MDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 7 miles

southwest of Santa Teresa, moving northeast at 25 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is possible. Expect wind damage

to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

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Ms. Nguyen Thi Le, Chairwoman of the People's Council of HCMC (C), receives Ms. Wiraka Moodhitaporn, the new Consul General of Thailand to HCMC. (Photo: SGGP)

At the meeting, the two sides discussed some matters that HCMC is interested in. At the same time, they agreed to strengthen linkages and promote cooperation between HCMC and localities in Thailand, including Bangkok.



On this occasion, Ms. W. Moodhitaporn thanked HCMC for supporting and distributing Covid-19 vaccines to the Thai community in HCMC over the past time. Ms. W. Moodhitaporn said that she would strive to promote trade, investment, tourism, and people-to-people diplomacy further in her working term. Currently, Thailand is the 12th largest investor out of 116 countries and territories investing in HCMC, with 235 investment projects and total capital of more than US$482 million. Thailand strives to be in the top five largest investors in Vietnam.



Ms. Nguyen Thi Le, Deputy Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee, Chairwoman of the People's Council of HCMC, hopes that the Consulate General of Thailand and HCMC will continue to launch cultural promotion programs in the two countries and accelerate people-to-people exchanges in the coming time. On this occasion, Ms. Nguyen Thi Le wishes that Consul General Wiraka Moodhitaporn will have a dynamic and effective working term, playing an important role in strengthening the two sides' relations and connecting Vietnam and Thailand as well as HCMC and the localities of Thailand.

By Hanh Chi  Translated by Thanh Nha
 Takeaway: Under Nevada law, a whistleblower with a facially valid complaint of retaliation is entitled to retain her job without being fired for a prohibited reason, even as an at-will employee. In light of this clarification offered by the court, Nevada's Occupational Safety and Health Administration would be wise to ensure such complaints are thoroughly investigated. The court went so far as to suggest that the agency should be required to explain any decision not to investigate.

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An at-will employee who filed a complaint with Nevada's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (NOSHA) alleging retaliation for reporting unsafe medical practices had a "legitimate claim of entitlement" to retain her job without being fired for a prohibited reason under state law, a federal appeals court recently held. The court stressed that NOSHA is mandated to investigate facially valid complaints and file suit to remedy any violations found.

The plaintiff, a supervisor at an otolaryngology practice (focusing on the ears, nose and throat), alleged she had witnessed unsafe medical practices in her workplace, including the use of contaminated syringes and the sale of expired prescriptions. When her employer ignored her concerns, she filed a complaint with NOSHA. Following her complaint, she claimed that her employer retaliated against her, demoting her to a nonsupervisory role. She then filed a second whistle-blowing complaint but, fearing further retaliation, withdrew it before the employer learned of it.

A NOSHA official mistakenly copied the plaintiff's employer on a letter to the plaintiff acknowledging the withdrawal of her second complaint, and the retaliation allegedly worsened. Although she had never been the subject of a complaint in 23 years with the employer, she was issued 50 disciplinary write-ups following the employer's notification of the withdrawn complaint. The plaintiff filed an additional retaliation complaint and was fired three months later.

NOSHA suspended the investigation several months after the termination. Several NOSHA officials ordered investigators not to communicate with the plaintiff or inform her the investigation was not going forward, despite her repeated attempts to determine its status. Further, a settlement offer made by the employer was never communicated to her. Despite the employer's continued failure to document any allegations of misconduct by the plaintiff, as requested by a NOSHA investigator, the agency shut the case a year later.

The plaintiff sued four state officials, alleging they had violated her substantive and procedural due process rights as well as violated other laws. The district court dismissed all claims, and the plaintiff appealed.

On appeal, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the plaintiff's contention that Nevada's protection against discipline for safety and health whistleblowers creates a "legitimate claim of entitlement" to retain a job without being fired for a prohibited reason, even for at-will employees. The court rejected the district court's reasoning that the plaintiff, as an at-will employee, had not alleged a constitutionally protected property interest in continued employment.

"We now hold that Nevada's statutory and common law protections for whistleblowers create a limited property interest for plaintiffs who plausibly allege that they have been illegally terminated for health and safety whistleblowing," the court said. "Nevada OSHA statutes and case law prohibit employers from firing employees for properly reporting OSHA violations.  All Nevada employees who availed themselves of those rights are provided a legitimate entitlement, established by the state, not to be fired for those actions, and so have a property right in continuing employment if they do exercise those rights."

Although the property interest recognized by the court is narrower than the interest held by an employee with a contract assuring continued employment, its restricted nature "does not destroy the prospect of any property interest in continued employment," the court said.

The defendants' argumentthat the plaintiff was not entitled to whistleblower protections because she had not made a plausible showing she was fired due to her complaints about health and safety violations, rather than due to her "numerous workplace problems"failed, the court found. This argument was based on allegedly pretextual write-ups made in retaliation for whistleblowing. On a motion to dismiss, taking factual allegations in a complaint as true, "the presence of allegedly pretextual reasons for firing do not defeat the plausibility of [plaintiff's] allegation that her termination was retaliatory," the court said.

However, the court accepted the officials' argument that the plaintiff hadn't plausibly alleged that their conduct caused her firing. The letter informing the employer of the second whistle-blowing complaintalleged to have "set in motion all of the retaliation to follow"was negligently sent, according to the complaint. Thus, the plaintiff had not plausibly alleged she was deprived of her interest in continued employment free from retaliation by intentional actions of the defendants, as required under 42 U.S.C. 1983.

The plaintiff also argued in her briefing, however, that the state officials colluded with her employer to interfere in the whistle-blower investigation in order to secure her termination, which would constitute an intentional action. If the plaintiff can allege facts sufficient to show that the defendants coordinated with the employer after the letter was sent but before her termination, such acts may be sufficient to sustain either a "direct participation" or "setting in motion" theory, the court said in granting the plaintiff leave to amend her complaint.

In response to the plaintiff's contention that the statutory protections Nevada affords to whistleblowers extend to reinstatement to their jobs, the court clarified that, although the statute creates a property interest beyond continued employment, that interest doesn't extend to reinstatement because this is not within NOSHA's direct control. But the statute does require NOSHA to investigate complaints and, if violations are found, file suit to remedy the violations, including seeking reinstatement. The court noted the Nevada statute hews closely to the federal OSHA, which "places a mandatory burden on the secretary of labor to perform at least some investigation into facially valid complaints." For this reason, the court interpreted the Nevada law as placing the same mandatory burden on the NOSHA administrator to investigate.

"Although some complaints may be facially meritless and therefore not warrant an investigation, the administrator must undertake some investigation in cases involving facially meritorious complaints," the court explained. "And the requisites of pre-deprivation process should focus on safeguards ensuring that facially meritorious complaints are thoroughly investigated; one protection, for example, might be requiring NOSHA to explain any failure to investigate."

The appeals court held that the district court had erred in finding the plaintiff had no property right in the investigation of her whistle-blowing complaint. Further, the plaintiff plausibly alleged that NOSHA deprived her of procedural due process in protecting that right, the court said, reversing dismissal of her procedural due process claim.

Turning to the plaintiff's substantive due process claims, which alleged the officials' actions denied her 13 years of employment, the court found they were unsupported. Nothing in her complaint alleged the officials' conduct rose "to the level of a government blacklist or the revocation of a license to practice a particular profession," the appeals court said, holding that the district court did not err in dismissing the substantive due process claim.

The court found that the negligent infliction of emotional distress claim, pursued against only the defendant who sent the letter to the employer, was not barred by discretionary function immunity as the district court had held. To be protected by the discretionary function statute, a decision must 1) involve an element of individual judgment or choice and 2) be based on considerations of social, economic or political policy. While the decision to copy the employer on the letter sent to the plaintiff concerning her withdrawal of the whistle-blowing complaint did "involve an element of individual judgment or choice" because it wasn't required by the OSHA manual, this specific discretionary action "was not susceptible to considerations of social, economic, or political policy," the court said. "We see no basis for concluding that the allegedly negligent decision to copy [the employer] when sending the withdrawal letter involved such policy considerations."

"The letter informed [the employer] of whistleblowing activityfiling the complaintof which it was previously unaware, without saying anything to warn against retaliation based on that activity. If anything, copying the letter to [the employer] was likely to lead to more retaliation, not lessexactly what [the plaintiff] alleges," the court said. Because no cognizable social, political or economic reason is offered for the specific act of copying the employer on the letter, the court reversed the dismissal of the negligent infliction of emotional distress claim.

The plaintiff's civil conspiracy claim alleging that the state officials conspired with her employer to deny her due process was insufficiently pleaded to support a plausible allegation that the parties engaged in concerted action with the intent to accomplish an agreed-upon unlawful objective, the court held. However, the court granted the plaintiff leave to amend her claim for civil conspiracy.

Armstrong v. Reynolds, 9th Cir., No. 20-15256 (Jan. 13, 2022).

Rosemarie Lally, J.D., is a freelance legal writer based in Washington, D.C.
People around the world are demanding more progress on sustainability and social efforts and are looking to businesses to step up, according to a new study by Oracle and Pamela Rucker, CIO Advisor, Instructor for Harvard Professional Development. The No Planet B study surveyed more than 11,000 consumers and business leaders across 15 countries and found that people are fed up with the lack of progress society is making towards sustainability and social initiatives, want businesses to turn talk into action, and believe technology can help businesses succeed where people have failed.

People want businesses to step up sustainability and social efforts

The events of the past two years have put a spotlight on sustainability and social efforts with people worldwide fed up with the lack of progress and calling for businesses to step up. Below are some key findings:

93 percent of global respondents believe sustainability and social factors are more important than ever and 80 percent said the events over the past two years have caused them to change their actions. In India, 97 percent of people believe sustainability and social factors are more important than ever and 95% said the events over the past two years have caused them to change their actions.

94 percent believe society has not made enough progress. 42 percent attribute the lack of progress to people being too busy with other priorities, 39 percent believe it is the result of more emphasis on short-term profits over long-term benefits, and 37 percent believe people are too lazy or selfish to help save the planet. In comparison, 96 percent of respondents from India believe society has not made enough progress. 42 percent attribute the lack of progress to people being too busy with other priorities, 44 percent believe it is the result of more emphasis on short-term profits over long-term benefits, and 43 percent believe people are too lazy or selfish to help save the planet.

45 percent globally and 54 percent in India believe businesses can make more meaningful changes to sustainability and social factors than individuals or governments alone

78 percent globally and 82 percent in India are frustrated and fed up with the lack of progress by businesses to-date, and 89 percent globally and 93 percent in India believe its not enough for businesses to say theyre prioritizing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)  they need to see action and proof.

84 percent globally and 96 percent in India believe businesses would make more progress towards sustainability and social goals with the help of AI. 61 percent globally while 83 percent in India even believe bots will succeed where humans have failed.

Human bias and operational challenges are holding businesses back

Business leaders know sustainability efforts are critical to corporate success and even trust bots over humans alone to drive sustainability and social efforts:

92 percent believe sustainability and ESG programs are critical to the success of their organizations. Executives identified the top three benefits as strengthening the brand (40 percent); increasing productivity (39 percent); and attracting new customers (38 percent) whereas in India 96 percent believe sustainability and ESG programs are critical to the success of their organizations. Executives in India identified the top three benefits as strengthening the brand (52 percent); increasing productivity (53 percent); and attracting new customers (47 percent).

Almost all business leaders (91 percent globally and 98 percent in India) are facing major obstacles when implementing sustainability and ESG initiatives. The biggest challenges include obtaining ESG metrics from partners and third parties (35 percent globally and 51 percent in India); a lack of data (33 percent globally and 39 percent in India); and time-consuming manual reporting processes (32 percent globally and 46 percent in India).

96 percent of business leaders admit human bias and emotion often distract from the end goal and 89 percent believe organizations that use technology to help drive sustainable business practices will be the ones to succeed in the long run. In India, 97 percent of business leaders admit human bias and emotion often distract from the end goal, and 98 percent believe organizations that use technology to help drive sustainable business practices will be the ones that succeed in the long run.

93 percent of business leaders would trust a bot over a human to make sustainability and social decisions. They believe bots are better at collecting different types of data without error (43 percent); making rational, unbiased decisions (42 percent); and predicting future outcomes based on metrics/past performance (41 percent). 98 percent of business leaders in India would trust a bot over a human to make sustainability and social decisions. They believe bots are better at collecting different types of data without error (53 percent); making rational, unbiased decisions (56 percent); and predicting future outcomes based on metrics/past performance (50 percent).

Business leaders believe people are still essential to the success of sustainability and social initiatives and believe people are better at implementing changes based on feedback from stakeholders (globally 48 percent and 60 percent in India); educating others on the information needed to make decisions (globally 46 percent and 60 percent in India); and making context-informed strategic decisions (globally 42 percent and 47 percent in India).

People will cut ties with businesses that dont take action on sustainability and social initiatives

Businesses need to prioritize sustainability and social issues and rethink how they use technology to make an impact or risk facing major consequences.

94 percent of people want to make progress on sustainability and social factors to establish healthier ways of living (50 percent); save the planet for future generations (49 percent); and help create more equality around the world (46 percent). In this parameter, 98 percent of people in India want to make progress on sustainability and social factors to establish healthier ways of living (55 percent); save the planet for future generations (54 percent) and help create more equality around the world (54 percent).

Globally, 70 percent and 85 percent of people in India would be willing to cancel their relationship with a brand that does not take sustainability and social initiatives seriously, and globally 69 percent and 84 percent in India would even leave their current company to work for a brand that places a greater focus on these efforts.

If organizations can clearly demonstrate the progress they are making on environmental and social issues, people would be more willing to pay a premium for their products and services (87 percent); invest in them (83 percent); and work for them (83 percent). In India, if organizations can clearly demonstrate the progress they are making on environmental and social issues, people would be more willing to pay a premium for their products and services (97 percent); invest in their companies (93 percent); and work for them (94 percent).

Business leaders understand the importance and urgency  94 percent globally and 96 percent in India believe sustainability and societal metrics should be used to inform traditional business metrics, and 91 percent globally and 96 percent in India want to increase their investment in sustainability.

The events of the past two years have put sustainability and social initiatives under the microscope and people are demanding material change. While there are challenges to tackling these issues, businesses have an immense opportunity to change the world for the better, said Pamela Rucker, CIO Advisor and Instructor for Harvard Professional Development. The results show that people are more likely to do business with and work for organizations that act responsibly toward our society and the environment. This is an opportune moment. While thinking has evolved, technology has as well, and it can play a key role in overcoming many of the obstacles that have held progress back.

It's never been more critical for businesses to invest in sustainability and ESG initiatives, as people dont just want to hear about it  theyre looking for decisive action and are demanding more transparency and tangible results, said Juergen Lindner, senior vice president and CMO, Global Marketing SaaS, Oracle. Business leaders understand the importance, yet often have the erroneous assumption that they need to prioritize either profits or sustainability. The truth is this is not a zero-sum game. The technology that can eliminate all the obstacles to ESG efforts is now available, and organizations that get this right can not only support their communities and the environment, but also realize significant revenue gains, cost savings, and other benefits that impact the bottom line.

Today sustainability is not just a topic for boardroom discussion, but a critical brand differentiator, said Kaushik Mitra, Senior Director, Cloud ERP, Oracle India. Our data indicate that customers are considering the social and environmental impact of their choices. As companies face rising demands from consumers, governments, and their own boards, a clear sustainability vision combined with some real creativityand enabled by innovative technologies, including AI and machine learning, can both make an environmental difference and enhance a companys brand reputation.

Given Asia Pacifics large share of the global population and emissions, climate vulnerabilities, and technological and financial strengths, the global fight against climate change will be won or lost in Asia Pacific. Its imperative that we take action on climate change and businesses have a narrowing window to lead the way, said Will Symons, Asia Pacific Sustainability and Climate Lead, Deloitte. It is great to see organizations like Oracle helping businesses to step up and prioritize sustainability. The study results show people want businesses to prioritize progress on sustainability and are willing to reward those who lead. To do this organizations must re-think how they use technology to shift from ambition to action on sustainability commitments while ensuring transparency and accountability to all stakeholders.
German conglomerate Siemens AG on Wednesday said it has successfully migrated 1,168 of its global locations to a secure software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) infrastructure.

Orange Business Services, with its technology partner Cisco, has been able to now fully deliver one of the biggest SD-WAN deployments in the world across 94 countries, said a media release.

With the global capabilities, expertise and orchestration of Orange Business Services, we were able to successfully complete the massive deployment of Flexible SD-WAN, which delivers decisive advantages for our business and users alike, including a streamlined user experience with dynamic traffic routing for applications as well as dynamic bandwidth allocation, said Hanna Hennig, CIO, Siemens AG.

Flexible SD-WAN, leveraging Cisco technology, delivers significant benefits for Siemens locations globally. By consolidating network design and maintenance with Orange Business Services as its digital services provider, Siemens has simplified the management of complex environments and further improved performance and agility.

"Deploying, migrating and implementing this huge digital transformation project for Siemens and managing their critical global communications infrastructure underlines our end-to-end integrator expertise in delivering large-scale global projects, commented Aliette Mousnier-Lompre, Interim CEO at Orange Business Services.

Orange Business Services and Siemens in September 2021 had inked a pact to target French manufacturers with integrated factory automation systems comprising private 5G networks, cybersecurity, and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms.

The companies will also offer an end-to-end support to all companies of all sizes. Services offered will include consultation, integration and analysis of digital factory systems.

Alongside 5G and industrial IoT platforms, the two plan to offer products using cloud and edge computing alongside AI.
The government is mulling a scheme to provide funding support to telecom companies for taking wireline internet connections to rural households, a senior official said on Tuesday. While speaking at a Broadband India Forum event, Universal Service Obligation Fund Administrator Hari Ranjan Rao said 99 per cent of the villages are now covered with 4G services and getting data at a very low cost.

Talking about the success of the Bharatnet project and the Prime Minister's vision to take optical fibre-based connectivity to every village, Rao said that the fibre-based broadband connection will have to be offered at a very competitive rate in rural areas.

"Now the thinking that is going on at USOF level is that we should also think in terms of planning a scheme so that that last mile connectivity can also be plugged through a viability gap funding so that if we are able to take the network right to the villages, going to households should also be possible," Rao stated.

The government aims to provide high-speed broadband connectivity to all 2.5 lakh village panchayats across the country through the Bharatnet project.

"We have reached 1.47 lakh gram panchayats. The Prime Minister has announced that all the six lakh villages will now have to be covered with optical fibre. So, suddenly my task has become threefold and the resources and the planning remain the same. We have to go back to the drawing board and see how this is possible in a much shorter time," Rao said.

He said that the government is also looking at alternative technologies to bring broadband to every household in the villages.
Born May 1, 1912 in Oakland, California, Clancy began his theatrical career by traveling with the stock companies at age 16. He started college in 1930, enrolling in the newly formed Speech and Drama Department. Jim Clancy was soon touted in the Campus Newspaper as the best student ever turned out by the Drama Department. Clancy received his Bachelors degree in 1935 and was made a member of the faculty one year later. While teaching at SJSU he simultaneously attended graduate school and received his Masters Degree from Stanford University. His successful academic career was interrupted by WWII during which he became a Captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps Intelligence.

Returning from the European campaign in 1946, he resumed one of the most intense and productive academic careers seen at SJSU, or any university. For several years he was the editor of the Educational Theatre Journal and received a prestigious Ford Foundation in 1959 for outstanding work in theatre.

In 1949 he married Stella Pinoris, a drama student who had received her degree the previous year. The new Clancy family quickly grew with the birth of three children (Patrick, Steven, and Elena). Following his tenure at San Jose State, Dr. Clancy held positions at University of Iowa, Stanford University, Dartmouth (in connection with the opening of the Hopkins Center for the Arts) and Cornell. While at both Dartmouth and Cornell, he started two Equity summer theatre companies, which are still operating today. He retired in 1977, but continued to teach and direct at universities in Kansas City and Austin, Texas. He returned to California where he occasionally taught and directed at Santa Clara University, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis and SJSU. Jim Clancy's theatrical legacy at SJSU includes 32 roles as an actor and an astonishing 65 productions as a director.

James Clancy, Director 1934 Three to Get Ready

The Assassin

1953 Eurydice

1935 All For Love

Romersholm

The Sheep Well

1936 Olympia

Alcestis

1954 Volpone

The Beaux Stratagem

1948 Medea

Oedipus Rex

Elizabeth the Queen

The Changeling

Oedipus at Colonus

Weep Jesus

The Wanhope Building

Antigone

1939 Beggar on Horseback

The Circle

School for Wives

Trouble in My Prayer

King Lear

1955 He Who Gets Slapped

Twelfth Night

1949 Agamemnon

Madwoman of Chaillot

1940 Once in a Lifetime

Love for Love

1956 Each in His Own Way

Henry IV

Rose of the Rancho

Blood Wedding

Heartbreak House

The Sea Gull

The Man of Ashes

Masses and the Man

1950 The Heiress

The Skin of Our Teeth

Hell Bent Fer Heaven

1951 Antigone

Shadow and Substance

Much Ado About Nothing

The Flies

1957 Green Grow the Lilacs

1941 The Father

The Three Sisters

Macbeth

Holiday

Phedre

The World is Round

The Torchbearers

Jenny Kissed Me

1958 The Caucasian Chalk Circle

The Rivals

Curious Savage

The Italian Straw Hat

1946 Tonight We Improvise

Othello

The Misanthrope

Duchess of Malfi

1952 Nights of Wrath

1953 Eurydice

1947 Doctor in Spite of Himself

Trickery of Scapin

The Sheep Well

James Clancy, Actor 1930 Judas Iscariot

Death Takes a Holiday

1941 Hamlet

Courage

1935 Hay Fever

1946 The Glass Menagerie

He Who Gets Slapped

Chimera

1947 The Guardsman

1931 Queen's Husband

1936 The Guardsman

1948 Androcles and the Lion

Houseparty

There's Always Juliet

Romantic Young lady

1932 Romeo and Juliet

1937 Peer Gynt

King Lear

1933 Lilliom

1938 Squaring the Circle

1950 The Glass Menagerie

1934 Hedda Gabbler

Arms and the Man

1951 Accidentally Yours

Three to Get Ready

Weep Jesus

1952 Trickery of Scapin

School for Scandal

1939 Night Must Fall

1955 Hamlet

Hamlet

Our Town



Gallery

A sampling of photos from SJSU Clancy productions are displayed below.
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Macquarie Group chief executive Wikramanayake has declared the profitability of coal will not last and affected communities must be reskilled but warned the transition to renewable energy cannot happen overnight.

The comments come as the Coalition government faces internal division over its climate policy after Nationals Senator Matt Canavan declared the net zero emissions target was dead which prompted rebukes from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

More than 40 countries pledged to shift away from coal during the Glasgow climate summit last year, but sanctions following the Kremlins invasion of Ukraine have triggered a surge in demand for fossil fuels produced outside Russia.

Macquarie Group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake says current coal profits will not last. Credit:Louie Douvis

Wikramanayake on Wednesday said the current profitability of coal companies would not last and new opportunities must be created for coal communities, pointing to Macquaries efforts to diversify the worlds largest coal port in Newcastle by investing in hydrogen hubs.
The Star Entertainment Group may have underpaid the NSW government as much as $2.5 million in gambling taxes by incorrectly classifying local patrons as international high-rollers.

The inquiry into The Stars Sydney casino licence also heard on Wednesday that the groups NSW chief casino officer, Greg Hawkins, was unsure if the company had notified the state regulator about the possible underpayment.

Star Entertainment Group. Credit:Flavio Brancaleone

The Star pays NSW duties of 27.5 per cent on money it wins from local players at its Pyrmont casino, but only 10 per cent for winnings from international high rollers.

But the royal commission-style review  which was launched after the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes exposed money laundering, criminal infiltration and wide-scale fraud at The Star  heard the casino failed to follow set procedures to determine which tax rate should apply.
The spam bots, for him, are highly visible and somewhat personal, said Donovan. Most people dont see a lot of these spammy accounts. And for those unhappy with the companys crackdown on hate, harassment and misinformation, there are plenty of fledgling examples of free speech-focused social media platforms that have been launched in the past few years as Twitter antidotes, largely by conservatives. Many have struggled to deal with toxic content, and at least one has been cut off by its own technology providers in protest. Loading This move just shows how effective (moderation features) have been to annoy those in power, said Kirsten Martin, a professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame. I would be worried as to how this would change Twitters values. The fact that no other bidders emerged in public before Musks deal was a sign that other would-be acquirers might find Twitter too difficult to improve, said Third Bridge analyst Scott Kessler.

This platform is pretty much the same one weve had over the last decade or so, Kessler said. Youve had a lot of smart people trying to figure out what they should do, and theyve had trouble. Its probably going to be tough to make a lot of headway. Musk received an effusive, if highly abstract, endorsement from Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who praised Musks decision to take Twitter back from Wall Street and tweeted that he trusts Musks mission to extend the light of consciousness  a reference to Dorseys notion that Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness. But others familiar with Twitter say theyre dismayed at Musks successful bid for the company. Youve had a lot of smart people trying to figure out what they should do, and theyve had trouble. Its probably going to be tough to make a lot of headway. Scott Kessler, analyst at Third Bridge Twitter is going to let a man-child essentially take over their platform, said Leslie Miley, a former Twitter employee who has also worked for Google and Apple. Miley, who was the only Black engineer at Twitter in a leadership position when he left the company in 2015, echoed doubts about Musks grasp of the platforms complexities.

I am not sure if Elon knows what he is getting, Miley said. He may just find that having Twitter is a lot different than wanting Twitter. The more hands-off approach to content moderation that Musk envisions has many users concerned that the platform will reanimate accounts that propagated dangerous conspiracies and harassment. Twitters headquarters in San Francisco. Credit:David Paul Morris/Bloomberg Wall Street analysts said if he goes too far, it could also alienate advertisers  Twitters chief revenue source. And it could make it harder to retain the San Francisco-based companys more than 7500 employees, some of whom are already voicing concerns about the possibility of a backslide on content standards. In Europe, officials reminded Musk about a new law, the Digital Services Act, that will force tech companies to step up policing of their online platforms.

Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules  regardless of their shareholding, tweeted Thierry Breton, the European Union commissioner in charge of the blocs internal market. Mr Musk knows this well. He is familiar with European rules on automotive, and will quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act. Musks takeover is not yet a done deal and still awaits the approval of a majority of Twitters stockholders. Twitter previously scheduled its annual shareholders meeting for May 25, but a regulatory filing on Tuesday said the company will be convening a special meeting as promptly as reasonably practicable. Loading While there are likely to be some bumps along the way, there dont appear to be serious enough obstacles to stop the deal, according to Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. Twitter or Musk can walk away from the deal if its not completed by October 24, but if either Musk or Twitter is deemed responsible for the deal not going forward, they would have to pay a $US1 billion termination fee, according to details of the transaction contained in a regulatory filing published on Tuesday. The filing also showed that Twitter will drop a poison pill measure it had earlier adopted to defend against Musks takeover by making it prohibitively expensive.

Normally when companies go private, dissenting shareholders are forcibly cashed out. Some could challenge the stock price in court, contending that Musk should pay more, but that probably wont hold up the sale, Elson said. Its likely that Musk would dissolve the current board and replace it with a new one that would agree with his management direction. And once Twitter is private, Musk will face fewer gripes from shareholders that often bring lawsuits, Elson said. Private companies also dont face as much scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been a finger in Musks eye for years, often because of statements hes made on Twitter. Loading On Tuesday, shares of Twitter traded just under $US50, below the $US54.20 purchase price. Twitter will offer a glimpse into the health of its business when it reports its quarterly financial results on Thursday. Twitters constituents arent the only ones anxious about Musks $US44 billion investment.
Universities have welcomed back international students, but Australias largest states are yet to lift a ban on secondary-student exchange programs, putting at risk the travel plans of scores of local and overseas students.

Exchange programs, which allow students to attend schools abroad for up to a year, came to a halt when Australia shut its international border in early 2020 as COVID-19 spread.

Alison Ciolli, Martin Lehrer and Katrina Ciolli, of Bright P-12 College, in traditional German dress.

But while full-fee paying international students can now fly back into Australia, teenagers in Victoria and NSW are still waiting on government approval to study overseas.

The Council of Australian Student Exchange Organisations, which represents groups that facilitated thousands of trips each year before the pandemic, have called on the states to dump the ban.
The Australian Electoral Commission insists every postal vote from overseas will be counted after the federal government drastically reduced the number of embassies that would be used as polling places.

Only 19 out of 109 voting booths designated overseas will be operating during this election, according to the commission, as embassies seek to reduce the risk of COVID infection.

From the United States to Japan, many overseas voters worried their vote would be lost in the mail if the physical voting packs didnt return to Australia in time to be counted.

Jane Herbert, a retired Australian storm chaser living in Kansas, United States, said that she would be voting by postal ballot.

Without the aid of voting booth volunteers, the AEC website remained the only resource for those voting from home. Herbert, a self-confessed IT nerd, said it was too complicated for the average user, and should be streamlined if postal ballots are to be the main or only avenue for most overseas citizens.
The mayor of Tasman, Mr Neil Noye, spoke with a shaking voice of the horror that had struck this corner of the world. But he said, We must go forward with hope in our hearts and vision for a brighter tomorrow. Members of the congregation cried as he concluded with the poetry of Dame Mary Gilmore. Nurse no long grief/Lest the heart flower no more/Grief builds no barns/ its plough rusts at the door. Loading In the ecumenical service the Anglican Churchs Reverend Henry Ivey drew on the symbol of the autumn leaf in a powerful address to encourage hope for renewal. But like others outside the church at the services conclusion, he needed comforting. Outside, the day belonged to a group of survivors, like Mr Mikac who, with his family, placed crosses and garlands on the trees near where his wife and two daughters died; and the local Burgess family, who stood quietly in the ruins of the Broad Arrow as the hour ticked past 1.30 pm, the time their daughter Nicole died.

At that moment, about 100 people gathered at the flower-strewn base of the cross for prayers. Their thoughts delivered, the mourners lingered near the cross, some hugging tightly as they wept. First published in The Age on April 29, 1997 Port Arthur remembered by those trying hard to forget Bev Kelly is caught between remembering and forgetting. She was in the Broad Arrow Cafe on that Sunday in April last year, a memory she says is in her mind every day, one that she believes she will never lose.

That terrible event forged a strong bond of friendship with the others who survived the tragedy at Port Arthur, but its a bond, Ms Kelly says ruefully, she would rather not have. Yesterday, at the Wesley Uniting Church in Lonsdale Street, that emotion trapped somewhere between the desire to forget and the need to remember was acknowledged in a simple service of prayer and song marking the first anniversary of the killings at Port Arthur. The theme of Melbournes service was forgiveness and renewal  remembering enough to absolve, but forgetting just enough to let go. Speaking outside the church after an ecumenical service in which daffodil bulbs were blessed and then passed among the congregation as a symbol of renewal, Ms Kelly said forgiveness was still a distant thought for her. To me hes nothing, she said of Martin Bryant. I dont think about him. We have been trying to move on for quite a while now  we have the kids.

Loading This service was very important for her, she said. She did not want to go back for the Port Arthur ceremony; she went back in November for the trial and did then what she wanted to do. Instead, Ms Kelly and other Port Arthur survivors, their families and friends and members of the community gathered for a service which seemed deliberately low-key. The hymns were of faith and optimism, the readings about strength and unity. Passionate oratory had no place here.
All of a sudden, travel has sprung back to life. You can once again hear the excited buzz of conversations in bars and cafes and at the water cooler at work. Im going to Bali for three weeks  I can barely believe it! or Ive just come back from Egypt  it is so amazing to be able to travel again.

And theres no doubt that it is. For the past two years our world shrank down to the local, the domestic, the isolated COVID-induced reality of restricted and locked down lives. Those of us with the privilege of being able to travel for much of our adult lives were suddenly waylaid, immobilised, forced to stand still.

A holiday in Bali is again possible now that we are free to travel.

But now, almost unbelievably, the world has opened up again. Hallelujah  we can travel again. For some its the excitement of new destinations, new horizons, new cultures to explore.

For others it is something more  re-establishing long-missed old friendships or even reconnecting with beloved family. Travel has always been the elixir that opens new doorways, breaks old domestic routines, wakes our souls from static slumber.
Man dead after suspected gangland shooting in Sydney's south west

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Police escort needed for insurance officials

Following the arrest of three officials of the Federal Life and General Assurance Company there were exciting scenes in Macquarie Place, with only the presence of police officers preventing some 300 infuriated shareholders from attacking one of the principals as he made his way from the building to a waiting car. Indignant policyholders invaded the detective office at police headquarters, many with harrowing tales to tell of loss of their lifes savings.

Governor-Generals nomination refused

The Observer newspaper in London was prominently reporting that the Australian Prime Minister Mr. Scullins nomination of fellow Australian Sir Isaac Isaacs for the Governor-Generalship of Australia had not been accepted, noting, This has created a most embarrassing situation because of the Infringement of the Royal prerogative. Moreover, the name of a particularly high personage from Britain would have been submitted already.

Death at the circus

The sudden death of Captain James Lindo, the lion tamer, shortly after the Saturday matinee performance of Wirths Circus caused an atmosphere of gloom behind the footlights at the evening entertainment. Six Australian brumbies, which had been trained to carry out military movements by Miss Gladys, made a welcome reappearance. Many new acrobatic turns were introduced in addition to the old favourites, including the very popular performing elephants.
Police investigate drive-by shooting at Queensland home

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Police investigate drive-by shooting in Brisbane's north

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A second former Special Air Service soldier has supported Ben Roberts-Smith in his Federal Court defamation case, backing the war veterans denial that he was involved in the alleged murder of Afghan prisoners.

Person 35, a friend of the decorated former soldier, gave evidence on Wednesday in Robert-Smiths defamation suit against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times. His name cannot be revealed for national security reasons.

Ben Roberts-Smith outside the Federal Court in Sydney last month. Credit:Edwina Pickles

He was asked about key details on missions by the SAS in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2012, and corroborated the accounts given by Roberts-Smith. The decorated former soldier is suing the newspapers over a series of stories in 2018 that he says portray him as a war criminal.

The media outlets are seeking to rely on a defence of truth and have alleged Roberts-Smith killed an Afghan man in 2009 who was taken prisoner by the SAS after being pulled from a tunnel at a compound dubbed Whiskey 108.
A former Special Air Service soldier who testified for war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith at his defamation suit has been arrested and charged with harming and resisting a Commonwealth official following his turn in the witness box.

The ex-soldier, who was given the pseudonym Person X for the purposes of his criminal proceedings, was approached by detectives attached to the Office of the Special Investigator enquiring into allegations of war crimes hours after he finished giving evidence on Tuesday afternoon.

Ben Roberts-Smith arriving at Queens Square for his defamation case on Tuesday. Credit:Oscar Colman

He has been charged with obstructing/hindering/intimidating/resisting a Commonwealth official and causing harm to a law officer. Appearing via video link at Central Local Court on Wednesday afternoon, the man was granted bail. He will be permitted to return to his home overseas until he is next required in court.

Person X spent three days giving evidence for Roberts-Smith, who is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times over articles that he claims portray him as a war criminal and murderer.
Australia will resist sending soldiers and police to Solomon Islands if they are forced to operate alongside Chinese security personnel as concern grows that Beijing will deploy brutal and repressive tactics in the Pacific island nation.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews on Wednesday warned it was very likely China would attempt to send troops to Solomon Islands, while also claiming Beijing had politically interfered in Australias election without providing any evidence.

Australian Defence Force personnel in Honiara last year. Credit:Handout / ADF

More than 100 members of the Australian Federal Police and Australian Defence Force were sent to the Solomons last November to help Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare quell a violent uprising.

But the Australian government is now rethinking its approach in the wake of the countrys controversial security pact with China.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Corflutes line Perths Stirling Highway and pepper the front lawns of houses in leafy green and coastal suburbs while billboards usually displaying the latest high-end jewellery designs are now plastered with political paraphernalia. The safe Liberal seat of Curtin in the citys affluent west is becoming a headache for the party like never before. Curtin candidates Kate Chaney, Celia Hammond and Yannick Spencer. The presence of climate and transparency-focused independent Kate Chaney could see first-term Liberal member Celia Hammond unseated, which has sparked an election campaign resembling something more akin to ultra-marginal seat tussles and has thrown a spanner in the works for the Liberals broader West Australian campaign. It is no wonder, with recent polls suggesting a neck-and-neck race between the two women. Losing Curtin would place a giant boulder in the Liberals path back to government, according to Notre Dame Politics and International Relations professor Martin Drum. I think every sort of independent race is a bit different, but every seat [the Liberals] lose makes it harder for them to form a majority government, he says. Curtin has always been a Liberal seat  except for a hiccup in 1996 when incumbent Liberal Allan Rocher fell out with his party and ran successfully as an independent. Under former foreign affairs minister and one-time prime ministerial hopeful Julie Bishops rein from 1998 to 2019, she gradually increased the margin to 20.7 per cent at the 2016 election.

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Hammond lost some paint following her victory, but at 13.9 per cent Curtin remains the Liberals safest seat in WA, its spiritual home and the source of its best fundraising prospects. The affluence of the electorate is not just reflected on the billboards. According to the 2016 census, weekly household income was nearly $500 above the WA average at $2052 and the medical sector is the biggest employer of its residents. Curtin also has the highest level of university-educated people in the state, at 44.1 per cent of residents. It is these demographics that the climate-focused independent movement, which Chaney finds herself a part of, hope makes Curtin ripe to unseat a Liberal MP. Somethings cooking Flyers and campaign materials are strewn among the cooking equipment and cutlery left behind from the once-bustling Subiaco Japanese restaurant where Chaneys campaign is headquartered.

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There is an air of chaos to it all but as one of the new wave of teal independents backed by Simon Holmes a Courts Climate 200 group  which is actively supporting climate-focused independents across the country  Chaney is emerging as a serious contender. She says Curtin has been taken for granted by the Liberal party for a long time. I strongly believe that our two-party system is failing us, its all about winning elections, instead of setting the long-term direction for the country, she says. She has an army of more than 500 volunteers and is easily outpacing most major party campaigns in the fundraising stakes. According to her publicly declared donor wall, by Tuesday, her campaign had reaped $686,000 in donations  with $300,000 of that from Climate 200. Kate Chaney at her Subiaco campaign office. Credit:Hamish Hastie Chaney was approached to run earlier this year by a recently formed group called Curtin Independent, which identified her as an ideal candidate given her professional background and family history in business and the Liberal party. Her grandfather Fred Chaney was a Menzies government minister while her uncle was a Fraser government minister. Her father Michael is one of WAs most recognisable business figures as the current chair of Wesfarmers and former chairs of Woodside and NAB.

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Chaneys own business credentials as a corporate lawyer, head of sustainability at Wesfarmers and innovation director at Anglicare are what her campaign hopes will get Liberal voters to switch their thinking this year. Despite this Liberal pedigree, Chaney has been forced to fight off questions over her independence by her opponents after she admitted she joined the Labor Party for a short time last year. She said she joined after deciding she needed to stop complaining about politics from the sidelines, but after attending one event found it was more of the same tribalism. Ive been called just another Liberal, a Labor Party stooge, a Climate 200 stooge. Its very hard for people to get their head around the idea of actual independence, she says. The incumbent Hammond left her role as Notre Dame University vice-chancellor to run for Curtin after Bishops retirement in 2019 with the support of former finance minister and WA senator Matthias Cormann. The past three years, like other first-term MPs, have been unlike any other as the governments policy focus turned to the COVID-19 pandemic response.

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Hammonds most notable effort during the pandemic was to campaign for citizens desperate to bring their immediate family members living overseas into Australia after the international borders shut. She tabled a petition in parliament calling for a relaxation of the rules. According to one Liberal party member, Hammond has not established herself an expert fundraiser like Bishop, who could easily raise hundreds of thousands of dollars at just one dinner. In normal elections, money raised in Curtin would be spent on other electorates, but the insider said this years campaign was struggling to fundraise at that same level and anything brought in was being spent to sandbag the electorate. Celia Hammond hopes to retain the Liberal stronghold of Curtin. Hammond brushes aside these concerns and says she receives plenty of support from both Liberals and non-Liberals. I focus on doing what I can do, and what I need to do, which is being out in my electorate and meeting with people, she says. Hammond recognises this election is not the foregone conclusion that Curtin could once be chalked up to be.

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Labor will go to the federal election offering only modest repair to the budget bottom line financed by extra taxes from the worlds largest multinationals and an audit of wasteful spending that could drop the axe on projects promised by the Coalition.

Just minutes after the release of key inflation data, shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers and Labors finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher unveiled plans they said would raise $1.9 billion in extra tax from multinationals while also saving $3 billion by cutting expenditure on consultants and labour hire companies.

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers displaying a cost of living chart for the media on Wednesday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Last months federal budget showed a deficit of $80 billion this financial year to be followed by a $78 billion shortfall in 2022-23. Gross debt, currently $883 billion, is on track to reach $1.2 trillion by 2025-26.

Based on the Coalitions own forecasts, the budget will remain in deficit for the rest of the decade and beyond with spending pressures growing in areas such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme, aged care, health and defence.
Those two things cant be true at the same time. Loading At issue is the impact on exporters from a Labor plan to require gradual cuts to emissions from 215 big emitters (including 62 coal miners) in an existing federal government scheme called the Safeguard Mechanism, which imposes few obligations today but would be adjusted by Labor to meet its 2030 climate target and its goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned on Wednesday the scheme would be a carbon tax because it would require companies to pay for carbon credits to offset their emissions. As we know Labor has their sneaky carbon tax on their carbon credits scheme, he said while campaigning in Rockhampton. A sneaky carbon tax which is going to punish and cost our traditional industries not just coal, by the way, oil and gas and many other sectors that will be hit with that measure.

But the Labor policy is not a tax, does not put a fixed price on carbon, and does not force companies to trade in carbon credits. It proposes instead that the Clean Energy Regulator would consult with companies on new benchmarks to reduce their emissions. Greens leader Adam Bandt will heighten the debate over coal on Thursday by announcing a policy to phase out coal exports by 2030 and apply a levy of $1 per tonne on thermal coal and $3 on coking coal to raise $21.7 billion over the period before the exports are halted. Greens leader Adam Bandt will outline his partys plan to phase out coal on Thursday. Credit:Paul Jeffers Labor is not proposing that coal miners would pay the government directly. Labor has not finalised the approach to using carbon credits or how industries might be helped to reduce their emissions. If miners pay for credits, the proceeds would go to farmers or others who generate the reduction in emissions. The Business Council of Australia expressed no concern about the Labor policy given both major parties have promised to cut emissions to net zero by 2050.

The safeguard mechanism is already in place alongside a suite of other measures to reduce emissions, with careful consultation with industry we believe it is the right incentive to drive investment, deliver more jobs and meet our net zero commitments, the peak business group said. Loading Labor climate spokesman Chris Bowen rejected the carbon tax claim and said the modelling for the Labor policy, conducted by research firm RepuTex, showed there would be no job losses at coal mines due to the Labor policy, separate from any impact from changes to global demand for coal. The Labor policy only makes mining companies responsible for about 33 million tonnes each year of fugitive emissions and other carbon produced in the process of mining. The policy does not make miners pay for the emissions when coal is burned for power, heating or steelmaking. Given that 86 per cent of Australian coal is exported, most of these emissions are the responsibility of countries that take those exports.

Wood said the fugitive emissions varied by coal mine but the average was around 0.05 tonnes of emissions for every tonne of coal. Loading It makes sense to offset these emissions somewhere else and for the coal miners to pay for those offsets, he said. A Labor government could allow the coal miners to meet their reduction obligation this way. The government would have to decide what, if any, limits to place on the type of offsets. And this would determine the cost.

With Labor treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers noting a price of around $24 per tonne of emissions under existing government policies, the Grattan Institute calculation suggests a cost of $1.20 per tonne of coal on the conservative assumption that all emissions had to be offset immediately. However, Wood noted the cost of the offsets could vary greatly when the governments Emissions Reduction Fund paid less than $20 per tonne to offset carbon while overseas offsets cost less than $2 per tonne. As well, the cost would only apply to some of the emissions under the Labor proposal to tighten the benchmarks in the Safeguard Mechanism at a gradual pace of about 3.3 per cent each year. It would be a small rounding error for quite some time, Wood said. I understand that Labor would look to other ways to work with individual companies and the circumstances.
Senior government figures are denying a split between the Liberals and Nationals over climate change, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison insisting the commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 is not up for negotiation.

But former Nationals minister Matt Canavan doubled down on the position he aired on Tuesday that net zero is all sort of dead, saying other countries werent on track to reach that position.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison campaigns with Nationals member for Capricornia Michelle Landry. Credit:James Brickwood

He said on Wednesday his view shouldnt be a surprise to anyone.

My assessment, for what its worth, is the rest of the world is doing nothing to go towards net-zero emissions. What country in the world is doing anything? If net zero is alive and kicking, show me where countries are doing that, Canavan told Nine.
For an issue that has not been raised with Dominic Perrottet, it was a curious move for the premier to weigh into a debate that did not exist until nasty tweets from a little-known wannabe Liberal MP were unearthed.

Even more curious was that Perrottet seemingly did not foresee that he would infuriate one of NSWs kingmaker independents by allowing a culture war over transgender children playing sport to infiltrate state politics.

Dominic Perrottet said he wanted to have a conversation about trans women in sport. Credit:Janie Barrett

Instead of the NSW political focus being on far more important issues of flood recovery or the looming budget, debate in Macquarie Street for the past week has been dominated by an issue with zero consequences for the state (other than, of course, potentially causing distress to trans children and their families).

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean lit the fuse when he thundered on Radio National that Katherine Deves  who has described transgender children on Twitter as surgically mutilated and sterilised  should be disendorsed as the federal Liberal candidate for the northern beaches seat of Warringah.
Half of all calls for homelessness help went unanswered in Victoria in January, and experts say no new permanent support staff have been funded in the past decade despite a three-fold increase in after-hours demand.

Data from The Salvation Army statewide crisis centre shows 49.4 per cent of calls went unanswered in January. The Council to Homeless Persons said other support services had been forced to turn off their voicemail due to lack of staff.

Rough sleepers in central Melbourne on Tuesday. Credit:Joe Armao

The council has called for the state government to fund more permanent staff, saying in its budget briefing that answering calls for help was the key to identifying people who needed support before they started couch-surfing or sleeping rough.

The Salvation Army said January was a particularly stretched month because pandemic support from the state government was wound back, while its staff was limited by COVID-19 and annual leave.
Bangkok: A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the countrys former leader Aung San Suu Kyi of corruption and sentenced her to five years in prison Wednesday in the first of several corruption cases against her.

Suu Kyi, who was ousted by an army takeover last year, had denied the allegation that she had accepted gold and hundreds of thousands of dollars given her as a bribe by a top political colleague.

Her supporters and independent legal experts consider her prosecution an unjust move to discredit Suu Kyi and legitimise the militarys seizure of power while keeping the 76-year-old elected leader from returning to an active role in politics.

Former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi faces further trials over charges. Credit:AP

She has already been sentenced to six years imprisonment in other cases and faces 10 more corruption charges. The maximum punishment under the Anti-Corruption Act is 15 years in prison and a fine. Convictions in the other cases could bring sentences of more than 100 years in prison in total for a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who already spent years in detention for defying military rule.
London: The northern English city of York stripped Britains Prince Andrew, who is the Duke of York, of the freedom of the city.

Local councillors voted en masse on Wednesday London-time to rescind the honour bestowed on Andrew, Queen Elizabeths second son, in 1987.

In Britain, an honorary freedom is a distinction given to a valued citizen by a city.

Prince Andrew has lost a number of honours since sex abuse allegations came to light. Credit:AP

Andrew, who has fallen from grace as a member of Britains royal family, in February settled a US lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager, potentially sparing him further embarrassment.
Ukraine reported on Wednesday that Russian troops had made gains in several villages there. Ukraines prosecutor-general said Russian forces had used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a pro-Ukraine rally in the southern city of Kherson, the first big urban centre seized by Moscow after the February 24 invasion. Gazprom, Russias gas export monopoly, said it had completely suspended gas supplies to the Polish and Bulgarian gas companies due to absence of payments in roubles, as stipulated in a decree from President Vladimir Putin that aims to soften the impact of sanctions on the Russian economy. Polish President Andrzej Duda said the move violated basic legal principles. Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said gas was being used as a political and economic weapon. Ukrainian serviceman install a machine gun on the tank during the repair works after fighting against Russian forces in Donetsk region. Credit:AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia remained a reliable energy supplier and denied it was engaging in blackmail. He declined to say how many countries had agreed to switch to paying for gas in roubles but other European customers said gas supplies were flowing normally. Loading European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the cut-off yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail. But the commission has also said the EUs gas buyers can engage with Russias payment scheme provided certain conditions are met. Germanys main importer, Uniper, said it could pay without violations. Austria and Hungary, among others, have also indicated they will take this route.

However, ambassadors from the EU member states asked the commission for clearer guidance on whether sending euros to Gazprombank would amount to a breach of sanctions. Poland and Bulgaria are both former Soviet-era satellites of Moscow that have since joined the EU and NATO. Poland has been one of the Kremlins most vocal opponents over the war. Bulgaria has long had warmer relations with Russia, but Prime Minister Kirill Petkov, an anti-graft campaigner who took office last year, has denounced the invasion of Ukraine. He was due in Kyiv on Wednesday to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky. Donbas Bulgaria and Poland are the only two European countries with Gazprom contracts due to expire at the end of this year, which meant their search for alternative supplies was well under way.

Since the Russian invasion force was driven back at the outskirts of Kyiv last month, Moscow has refocused its operation on eastern Ukraine, starting a new offensive from several directions to fully capture two provinces known as the Donbas. Russia has already gathered strength for a large-scale offensive in eastern Ukraine ... in the coming days we will need all our resilience and extraordinary unity, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on his Facebook page. An aide to the mayor of the ruined port city of Mariupol said Russian forces had renewed their attacks on the Azovstal steel plant, where fighters and some civilians remain holed up. No agreement was reached on evacuating civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday. Concern has increased in recent days over the prospect of the conflict widening to neighbouring Moldova, where pro-Russian separatists have blamed Ukraine for reported attacks this week in their region, occupied since the 1990s by Russian troops.

Authorities in Transnistria said there had been firing across the border from Ukraine on Wednesday. Ukraine has accused Russia of trying to mastermind false flag attacks in the region, and Moldovas pro-Western government accuses the separatists of trying to stir conflict. Genocide The invasion of Ukraine has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble, and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad. Moscow calls it a special operation to disarm Ukraine; Kyiv and its allies call the war an unprovoked act of aggression.

Putin on Wednesday warned that any countries attempting to interfere in Ukraine would be faced with a swift response from Russia and said all decisions on how Moscow would react in that situation have already been taken. Addressing lawmakers in St Petersburg, Putin said the West wanted to cut Russia up into different pieces and accused it of pushing Ukraine into conflict with Russia. Canadian lawmakers voted unanimously on Wednesday Ottawa-time to call Russias attacks in Ukraine a genocide, with members of parliament saying there was ample evidence of systemic and massive war crimes against humanity being committed by Moscow. Loading The Canadian House of Commons motion said war crimes by Russia include mass atrocities, systematic instances of willful killing of Ukrainian civilians, the desecration of corpses, forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, torture, physical harm, mental harm, and rape.
RTHK: Heatwave, landfill blaze choke New Delhi

India is getting too hot too early, raising the risk of fires, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned on Wednesday, as a heatwave gripped much of the country and a landfill site burned on the capital's outskirts.

"Temperatures are rising rapidly in the country, and rising much earlier than usual," Modi told heads of India's state governments in an online conference.

The extreme heat has swept across large areas of India and Pakistan this week and follows the hottest March since the India Meteorological Department (IMD) began keeping records 122 years ago.

More than a billion people are at risk of heat-related health impacts, scientists said. In the capital New Delhi, temperatures have soared past 40 degrees Celsius for several days and are forecast to linger around 44C until Sunday, with peak summer heat still to come before cooling monsoon rains arrive in June.

"We are seeing increasing incidents of fires in various places  in jungles, important buildings and in hospitals  in the past few days," Modi said.

He asked states to conduct fire-safety audits for hospitals. Dozens of people die every year in fires at Indian hospitals and factories, mainly due to illegal construction and lax safety standards.

Fires in Delhi's dump yards also contribute to the toxic air in the world's most polluted capital.

As Modi spoke, firefighters were struggling to extinguish a blaze at the Bhalswa landfill site, a hillock rising above the northwestern edge of the city. Fumes from the burning waste forced a nearby school to close on Tuesday.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2022-04-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
by Christopher Guly, Shang Xuqian

OTTAWA/UNITED NATIONS, April 27 (Xinhua) -- An indigenous leader is pressing the United Nations to investigate alleged genocide by the Canadian government in residential schools for indigenous children.

"The Canadian government established what I call 'institutions of assimilation and genocide,'" said RoseAnne Archibald, national chief of Canada's Assembly of First Nations (AFN), an organization for indigenous rights, at a session of the UN Permanent Forum in New York on Monday.

"These institutions were designed to kill the Indian in the child by forbidding them to speak their language, which disconnect them from their families and communities," she said.

In May 2021, the remains of 215 indigenous children were discovered at the site of a former Indian residential school in the west coast Canadian province of British Columbia.

A month later, hundreds more unmarked graves at the site of another residential school in another province, Saskatchewan, were found.

Since then, more remains have been located at schools, mainly run by the Catholic Church and funded by the Canadian government.

"I'm calling on the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, along with other special rapporteurs, to conduct full-fledged investigations of the circumstances and responsibilities surrounding these institutions, including full redress, criminal prosecutions and sanctions and other remedies for human rights violations, including genocide," she said.

Archibald has also called on the International Criminal Court to launch its own human rights investigation into Canada's residential schools.

In its annual budget delivered earlier this month, the Canadian government set aside about 8.2 million U.S. dollars over two years to the federal justice department to appoint a special interlocutor to work with Canada's indigenous communities to protect and preserve unmarked burial sites.

"We will always cooperate with the United Nations," Canadian Justice Minister David Lametti told reporters in Ottawa on Monday.

The government's 2022 budget also included 165 million U.S. dollars over five years to, in part, help "document, locate and memorialize" burial sites at former Indian residential schools.

A national inquiry into what transpired at residential schools conducted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, created through a legal settlement between school survivors, the AFN, representatives of Canada's Inuit community, the Canadian government and the Christian Churches that ran the institutions, found that more than 4,100 children died while attending the schools.

Still, Archibald sees little hope of impartial investigations by the Canadian government.

"Canada's government established those institutions through policies and legislation. How can they possibly be independent and impartial when it shows that they are culpable and guilty of the deaths of our children?" Archibald said, noting that the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police would enter Indian communities, take children forcibly and threaten parents with arrest.

"Canada must not be allowed to investigate itself," Archibald said. "Please help us ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. Not just to us, but to anyone." 
Russia accused of dragging parts of Moldova into war with Ukraine

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Remarks By

H.E. Governor Eugene B. Holiday

on the occasion of Kings Day Celebrations

Royal Ball Room

Simpson Bay Resort & Marina, Pelican

April 26, 2022

Esteemed Guests,

Good evening,

And a very warm welcome to this Kings Day celebration in honor of the birthday of His Majesty King Willem-Alexander. My wife Marie-Louise and I are pleased to see you and celebrate with you this evening. We do so in the spirit of this evenings theme: Creating Opportunities With Education.

As an economics student, not too long ago, I read Adam Smiths book the Wealth of Nations in which he describes the acquired and useful abilities of individuals as a fundamental source of wealth and economic progress of a country. Simply put education is a key driver of national development and growth.

Experience has taught me that education is enriching, it creates opportunities. It helps us to better understand ourselves, our community, and our world. It is an investment in human capital, that is in acquiring knowledge, information, and skills for our people. The more we invest in our human capital the greater our chances of achieving our aspirations as individuals, as businesses, as government and as a country. These investments create broad individual and societal benefits and opportunities, such as, a reduction in poverty, an improvement of the health of our people, the stimulation of ideas and innovations, greater more effective participation in social and democratic processes, greater control of our destiny, and shared values.

It is therefore not surprising that studies show that human capital explains up to two thirds of income differences across the world. Education is as such the brain food needed to propel our nation forward.

Esteemed Guests,

Hence our continued pursuit of a more just and sustainable society, requires that we  you and I  must continue to educate ourselves and to promote and support the education of our children. If our community does not receive enough of the nourishment it needs, it will fail to flourish. A plant with insufficient water will wither and so will the spirit and mind of our nation without adequate education.

Esteemed guests,

Imagine what our society would be like without the services of our well-trained professionals and volunteers  such as, teachers, nurses, doctors, clergy, policemen, social workers, engineers, environmentalists, and others  who, in so many different ways, work to improve the quality of our lives. The work of these persons anchored on their training is the oil that fuels our countrys progress. It is with the knowledge of and appreciation for their valued service to our community that we can look to the future with hope for the further growth of our country. And at the same time use their example to call on others for the necessary expansion of our countrys circle of trained professionals. That is because to optimize our nations potential it is imperative that we grow our all-important human capital.

Esteemed Guests,

It is therefore with gratitude that we shall in a few moments stand still to highlight the importance of creating opportunities with education. Every year persons are recognized for their contributions and achievements during the Kings Day Celebration. They are selected for their prolonged outstanding service to our community.

This year, Dr. Marlon Halley has been decorated as Knight in the Order of Oranje Nassau for his contributions to catholic education on Sint Maarten. He has, through his involvement with the Catholic School Board, dedicated a significant part of his life to the advancement of the education of our children. During the past 30 years our island and with that our schools have faced several major challenges because of, among others, Hurricanes Luis (1995) and Irma (2017) and the ongoing COVID pandemic. Dr. Halley has played a significant role in navigating the catholic schools through these challenging periods. Through his dedicated and unselfish volunteer work he has also helped to upgrade and expand catholic education and to introduce the internationally Baccalaureate Diploma Program.

This years recipient has helped to positively influence the lives of many in our country over a prolonged number of years by Creating Opportunities with Education. Our 2022 honoree as such reminds all of us of the importance of education in creating opportunities towards the building of a stronger Sint Maarten community. And at the same time serves as a call to all of us to become more involved to make a difference in our community.

I therefore extend my appreciation to the 2022 Royal Decorations recipient for exemplary services to our community through education. It is an honor and special distinction to be awarded a Royal Decoration and I thus, in closing, convey my congratulations to the 2022 recipient and to all family and friends present.

Thus, as we continue the tradition of celebrating Kings Day, I wish you an enjoyable evening.

Thank you,

God Bless you, and

May God Bless Sint Maarten and protect its coast.
You might have missed a poll from Sacred Heart University that showed Gov. Ned Lamont beating GOP challenger Bob Stefanowski by a hefty 18 points, 48 percent to 30 percent, if the election for governor were held today.

The online poll, taken between March 24 and April 11 and released last Friday, was not widely reported despite high interest in the election. Thats because the fraternity and sorority of political chatterers and power brokers in Connecticut  on both sides and in the middle  believe the result is, um, not even close to believable.

Most accounts have Lamont slightly ahead of Stefanowski, nothing remotely comfortable despite the advantages of incumbency and a 37percent-to-20 percent Democratic Party registration advantage. Unaffiliateds account for 42 percent of the electorate.

So how can a poll by SHU, a generally credible public policy operation, with an established partner, Glastonbury-based GreatBlue Research, turn out a result well into double-digits for Lamont?

The answers tell us a lot about polling in the fractured, all-digital, post-pandemic world of 2022. Its extraordinarily hard to reach a representative sample of the population at a slice in time and accurately project their opinions of the actual world.

Possible problems

First, maybe SHU/GreatBlue is right. Its possible we politicos, a smallish bunch currently enmeshed in a legislative session, are all wrong and Lamonts message about a Connecticut on the rise is reaching voters in a way were missing.

Weve all messed up before, notably with the Trump-Clinton election of 2016. Although I called that one correctly, my record is spotty like everyone elses.

Inconsistencies point to other problems in the SHU poll of 1,000 Connecticut residents. Its an all-digital poll, meaning respondents were asked to mark up 39 questions without a prompt from a real person, which can cause problems. And it was an existing panel of respondents, basically self-selecting, not a fresh, new, random sample  the gold standard.

The poll includes 19.7 percent who are not likely voters, by their own account, and yet everyone was invited to opine on who they might vote for in the race for governor. Who cares what non-voters think in an election poll? Not me.

The 1,000 respondents were heavily weighted white  80 percent as compared with 69 percent of the states population. It was underweighted for Black people by a couple of points and woefully underweighted for the Hispanic and LatinX population  6.3 percent compared with a reality of 17 percent.

When the poll asked who respondents were voting for in the governor race, it did not state the names of Lamont and Stefanowski but they were explicitly listed as the answer options/choices, an executive at GreatBlue told me in an email.

That might not be enough of a prompt to separate support from name recognition. In other words, there may be people who will vote for the Republican nominee but who didnt easily identify Stefanowski as that person.

The poll shows that 74 percent rated their overall quality of life in Connecticut as good or excellent, up from 69 percent in October, when a similar poll asked the same question. Thats a big number and it raises questions about how an incumbent governor in a strong majority party would only poll 48 percent.

It also appears to skew toward New Haven County and underweight unaffiliated voters, which matters, since thats the group both parties are fighting to win.

Would those factors tend to make a poll swing incorrectly to Lamont? Maybe, maybe not, but those discrepancies raise questions. Something has to be amiss somewhere and neither SHU nor GreatBlue explained it when I asked.

The candidates react

Lamont, wisely, told reporters he places no stock in the poll whatsoever. That of course is in keeping with Politics 101 for incumbents seeking reelection, thou shalt disavow all polls publicly.

None. None. Seven months is a long way away, Lamont said when asked about the poll. Ive got a lot of work I gotta do between now and then. I did like the fact that theres an uptick in people who have a renewed appreciation for the quality of life in Connecticut. I think thats really important....You see that reflected in some people moving to the state.

And he was off and running, talking about the new, improved Connecticut on his watch  an allowable reference to polls in the handbook.

The Stefanowski camp sees things differently. This from Liz Kurantowicz, Stefanowskis strategy consultant:

Even in a significantly flawed survey, the governor still doesnt get 50 percent of the vote and thats because while hes bending over backwards to make people believe his version of the truth, they know Ned Lamont has made Connecticut less affordable and less safe while his administration is mired in scandals.

Thats the great thing about polls. Right or wrong, they give us a lot to talk about. Lamont beat Stefanowski by 3 percentage points in 2018 in a high-turnout election.

Ben Proto, the Republican state chairman, noted that President Joe Biden fetched a 39 percent approval rating in the poll, which raises questions about Lamonts supposed margin over Stefanowski.

To repeat: Maybe Sacred Heart University and GreatBlue are right, that Lamont is on his way to far outperforming the national Democratic Party. The states political observers on both sides are all locked in for a tight race and Lamont is on the air with TV ads seven months out, meaning his camp sees a dogfight, not a walk in the park.

Same ending as my earlier column this week about Lamonts and Stefanowskis wildly different views of the Connecticut economy: This is going to be fun.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
Nearly a year after the defeat of a multi-state effort to reduce carbon emissions, Connecticut lawmakers are moving forward with sweeping legislation that aims to add thousands of electric cars, trucks and buses to the states roads over the next decade.

On Tuesday, the two major prongs of the Connecticut Democrats climate agenda  adopting Californias electrification requirements for trucks as the states own version of the Clean Air Act  were combined into a single piece of legislation that passed the Senate by a vote of 24-11.

The move sent the bill to the House with a little more than a week left in this years legislative session, when party leaders in both chambers and Gov. Ned Lamont have pledged to take more aggressive steps to address the threat of climate change.

The combined bill includes the adoption of Californias regulations requiring vehicle manufacturers to phase in sales of electric medium and heavy-duty trucks, which was originally proposed by Lamont through legislation in the House. The governors bill was rolled into Senate Bill 4, the Connecticut Clean Air Act, which proposes expanded rebates for the purchase of electric vehicles, bikes and charging infrastructure. The bill would also grant new rights to renters and condo residents to install charging stations at their own cost, while also making such upgrades exempt from property taxes.

The legislation would also require the state to switch its fleet of roughly 3,600 cars and light-duty trucks to electric models by 2030, and set new targets for the conversion of buses to lower and zero-carbon emission models.

The climate change crisis is growing more acute all the time and doesnt follow our schedule or any timetable that we would consider convenient to make policy changes, said Senate Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven. This is happening inexorably in a way that is dangerous and threatening to all of us.

Republicans, however, echoed concerns from business groups that the stricter California truck standards would add tens-of-thousands of dollars in upfront costs for small businesses to purchase cleaner trucks. They also depicted the additional rebates for purchasing electric vehicles  currently worth up to $9,500 per vehicle  as catering to affluent areas of the state, where those cars remain more popular.

While legislation directs the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to prioritize those rebates to low-income residents and economically distressed communities, it would also eliminate the $63 discount on registrations that electric vehicle owners receive every three years.

Its hard enough to find a used car in Connecticut due to supply chain issues, said state Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield. I want a nice clean future for my children, but I dont want to bankrupt them in the process.

During more than six hours of debate in the Senate on Tuesday, Democrats beat back several Republican amendments to the bill  including one revision that would have scrapped a proposed ban on purchases of diesel buses by the state beginning in 2024, in favor of a more phased-in update to the states bus fleet.

Last year, Republicans helped to sink an effort by Connecticut and several neighboring states to reduce vehicle emissions, the Transportation Climate Initiative, by highlighting the five-cents-per-gallon increase it was anticipated to place on gas. Democrats largely avoided those arguments this year by focusing on sales of electric vehicles, rather than gasoline.

State. Sen. Will Haskell, D- Westport, said he and other sponsors of the bill spent months engaged with stakeholders to ensure the various provisions of the bill could be met without placing excessive burdens on businesses and property owners.

To help ease the transition toward cleaner vehicles, the legislation authorizes the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to establish a $15 million voucher program for the purchase of medium and heavy-duty trucks, along with $20 million in grants to help school districts purchase carbon-free school buses.

Another $75 million in bonding is included in the bill to upgrade traffic lights to reduce traffic and idling.

We believe we set forth a timeline thats achievable, but ambitious, Haskell said.

In addition to Democrats, the legislation garnered the support of the broad coalition of conservation groups, who point to the fact that Connecticut remains well behind on existing goals to reduce carbon emissions by roughly 80 percent by 2050.

Even that pace, however, is not fast enough to avoid the worst regional effects of climate change, experts now say.

Vehicle emissions have also contributed to Connecticuts poor air quality and high rates of asthma in cities, lawmakers said. Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency recommended labeling most of southwestern Connecticut as being in severe nonattainment with federal smog standards due to stubbornly high amounts of ground-level ozone from tailpipe emissions.

These failures have led to places like New Haven and Hartford being named among the worst cities to live in if you have asthma, said state Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, the co-chair of the Environment Committee.

Opponents, however, countered that Connecticut's poor air quality can be largely attributed to the states location downwind from other industrial states and urban areas.

In addition to the immediate costs of reducing vehicle emissions, Republicans also questioned whether the regions power grid would be equipped to handle the additional load needed to recharge thousands of electric vehicle batteries, even if the majority of that charging is done overnight.

We need to make sure that the infrastructures there, that were going to have enough electricity to power that generation to the actual bus lots is going to be available, said state Sen. Dan Champagne, D-Vernon.

ISO New England, the operator of the regional power grid, predicted last year that New England will be home to more than 1 million cars by 2030  with the energy needed to power those vehicles accounting for roughly 2.7 percent of the entire grid demand.

Matthew Kakley, a spokesperson for ISO New England, said the operator has not analyzed the impact of the proposed Connecticut legislation, though it is planning to release a report in the next month that will attempt to forecast the additional grid demands of electric delivery trucks and buses across the region.

Only one Republican, state Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, joined the Democrats in voting to pass the legislation out of the Senate. Another Republican, state Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, was absent Tuesday as she awaited the results of COVID-19 testing.
Connecticut schools may see a lot of red Wednesday.

Educators statewide are donning red to show their solidarity for the Connecticut Education Association's #RedForEd Day of Action campaign. Through the campaign, educators are urging lawmakers to pass legislation they say will ensure student success and help retain and recruit more teachers.

The Connecticut legislative session adjourns May 4.

We know theres not much time to get these important priorities across the finish line, CEA President Kate Dias said in a statement. Thats why its so important for legislators to see their constituents wearing #RedforEd and hearing directly from them about the need to pass these bills.

In a letter published in Hearst Connecticut Media Groups publications this week, Dias and CEA Vice President Joslyn DeLancey called on state lawmakers, parents and voters to wear red in support, and to contact their lawmakers to support a handful of bills.

We are at a pivotal moment for passing much-needed legislation, Dias and DeLancey wrote in the letter. The time is now to stand with Connecticuts public schools and the students and educators at the heart of those schools and make investments that underscore your support.

In particular, CEA officials are calling on lawmakers to pass HB 423, which would improve the indoor air quality and establish temperature and humidity standards; SB 427, which would create a Teacher Recruitment and Retention Task Force; and SB 1 and HB 5001; which would increase the number of certified mental health professionals in Connecticut schools.

Officials are also asking lawmakers to prohibit dual instruction in SB 1 and HB 5001.

Jason Ghidini, a teacher at Kennedy Middle School and the president of the Southington Education Association, will be wearing red Wednesday at school and then plans to head to the Capitol to meet with legislators face-to-face.

I lived through dual instruction for two years and saw firsthand how ineffective it was for all learners, Ghidini noted. By taking part in todays #RedforEd Day of Action, I am ensuring the voices of the experts in the field of education are heard in the creation of policy.
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DARIEN  Several residents who live near a major redevelopment project in town have filed a lawsuit against the Darien Planning and Zoning Commission and are seeking a restraining order to halt the project from moving forward.

In February, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved the redevelopment of a mostly vacant office park at 3 Parklands Drive to a multi-residential complex by a 3-2 vote, ending a contentious decision process that spanned months.

Now, six residents whose properties abut the site of the proposed redevelopment have filed a lawsuit aiming to rescind that decision.

The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court in Stamford on Monday, names as defendants both the town Planning and Zoning Commission and Parklands Darien LLC, the owner of the office park.

The town attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment but attorney William Hennessey  who is representing the Parklands project  said he was confident the commissions decision would be upheld by the court.

We were pleased with the Planning and Zoning Commissions decision and believe it was considered and completely appropriate, Hennessey said in a statement.

Parklands LLC is owned by developer Bob Gillon, who previously said he considered pushing a much larger complex through under the states 8-30g statute had the 60-unit complex been denied. An 8-30g housing development carries much less stringent requirements than a regular development.

Residents and plaintiffs Sandra and Thomas Conway, Pamela Maffucci, Margaret Conrad, Trisha Charland and Manohar Pasumarti are alleging that the commission acted unlawfully, arbitrarily, capriciously ... in abuse of its discretion and exceeded its authority in approving the redevelopment project.

The Plaintiffs are aggrieved by the decision of the Commission as they own the real property that either abuts or is within a radius of 100 feet of any portion of the land involved in the decision of the Commission, the lawsuit states.

Residents are alleging, among other reasons, that the size and height of the building along with the screening and lighting on the grounds hinders development on neighboring properties as well as impairing their value, according to the lawsuit.

The complex would include 60 apartments, encompassing studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.

Residents allege the project fails to comply with Dariens zoning regulations, the nearby streets cannot adequately accommodate the volume of traffic, and no consideration was given to the protection of the nearby nature preserves, Sellecks Woods and Dunlap Woods.

Residents also claim that one or more members of the commission had a conflict of interest, though the lawsuit does not name which member or members it is referring to.

They are asking the court to determine that the zoning commission acted illegally and to declare its Feb. 15 approval as invalid.

Residents also ask the court to, if needed, issue a restraining order ... against Co-defendants Parklands Darien, LLC and its contractors prohibiting them from conducting any construction at the Property based on the Commissions February actions until such time as this appeal is finally resolved, according to the lawsuit.

The Planning and Zoning Commission and the Parklands developer have until May 3 to file an appearance with the court, according to court documents.

raga.justin@hearst.com
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WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden congratulated the 2022 national teacher of the year on Wednesday by offering a deeply personal story saluting school leaders who helped him overcome a serious childhood stutter decades before he had White House aspirations.

I wonder how I got here. I got here because of my parents and my teachers, Biden said in a long, heart-felt deviation from his prepared remarks during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. That idea is exemplified by the national teacher of the year.

The president and first lady Jill Biden, who continues to teach English at a community college in suburban Washington, cheered Ohio history teacher Kurt Russell, the 2022 national teacher of the year, and finalists for the award who gathered from each state.

Teaching is not what Jill does, its who she is, like most of you, the president said, before telling the crowd about his problem as a child speaking  especially in class or otherwise publicly  when I stuttered, everyone thinks you're stupid. Totally incompetent.

Biden has talked openly about battling a childhood stutter in the past, including while running for president in 2020. But he stressed on Wednesday the importance of teachers in helping him with that effort.

I have teachers, I can name the ones through grade school, high school, even college, the president said. I didn't really beat my stutter  and still occasionally I do (stutter)  until I took a speech debate class in college just to force myself to be able to stand up."

Biden recalled being an adjunct law professor and said he once made extra money as a substitute teacher, drawing laughs by sternly admonishing the crowd, you should be nicer to them. He called for increasing teacher pay  a position that draws broad bipartisan support even if following through on raises don't often materialize in many parts of the country.

The president also got political, decrying Republican-led efforts in some states to restrict some books taught in classrooms or available in school libraries after some parents objected to subject matter they saw as too sexually explicit or overly politically correct.

Today, there are too many politicians trying to score political points banning books, Biden said. All because it doesnt fit somebodys political agenda. He added of teachers, "We have got to stop making them the target of the culture wars.

Russell summed up his profession by saying, Each student needs a champion, no matter what the circumstance are.

That echoed the sentiments of the first lady, who said of great teachers, its not the curriculum or the classroom tactics, its that smile that tells students that they dont have to be afraid to answer out loud.

Its the calm in your voice that can still the wild horses running through their hearts," she added. Its the way that you know that, sometimes, Im fine means everything is wrong.

When Jill Biden talked about teachers changing lives student by student, her voice began to crack, before she laughed and said Now I'm getting emotional.

___

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
HONOLULU (AP)  Hawaii Gov. David Ige said Tuesday that the state has agreed to pay $328 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by 2,700 Native Hawaiians who languished on a waitlist to receive homestead leases and suffered other harms from the mismanagement of the Hawaiian homes program.

Ige said the Legislature must approve the funds for the settlement and then a Circuit Court judge must sign off on its terms for it to be final.

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 was meant to provide economic self-sufficiency to Hawaiians by supplying them land. Those with at least 50% Hawaiian blood quantum can apply for a 99-year lease for $1 a year.

But Hawaii has been slow to award leases. An estimated 28,000 people are on the waitlist.

The lawsuit stems from a 1991 law allowing Native Hawaiians to file claims against the state for losses incurred while waiting for a homestead lease from 1959 to 1988. The Legislature created a panel to address claims but the existence of the panel wasn't extended past 1999. So the plaintiffs sued.

The Hawaii Supreme Court in 2020 voted to allow the class-action lawsuit to continue and for damages to be awarded. About 1,000 plaintiffs have died in the two decades since the lawsuit was filed.

Leona Kalima, one of the plaintiffs, said the settlement has the potential to change thousands of lives for the better.

Were looking forward to it being resolved, finally, she said in a statement issued by her attorney.

Carl Varady, an attorney for the plaintiffs, thanked the state officials who worked on the agreement.

Our appreciation is tempered by the knowledge that nearly a third of the class members will not be with us to witness or celebrate the conclusion," Varady said in a statement. "That conclusion will take some time, to make sure the class members are treated fairly, but we are looking ahead to the final stage when our clients will be compensated for their lost opportunity to obtain a homestead.
NEW HAVEN  John Maduko, a medical doctor and educational administrator in Minnesota, has been appointed as the first president of the Connecticut State Community College, the state Board of Regents announced Wednesday.

Maduko currently serves as vice president of academic and student affairs for Minnesota State Community and Technical College, the regents said in an announcement. He will now lead the merged community college system in Connecticut that includes 12 campuses and more than 32,000 students.

I have come to Connecticut because I believe that CT State has a mission that is meaningful and authentic, Maduko said in a statement.We are establishing a new normal of higher education. The impact of the pandemic over the last two and a half years has been enormous and will have long-lasting effects. But there is an even stronger history here of success in academics and career programs, student affairs and wrap-around student services that we will leverage.

Maduko was selected to serve as the first president of the Connecticut State Community College after a nationwide search involving more than 40 students, faculty, professional staff, administrators, foundation leaders, union representatives, and external partners, officials said.

The states 12 community colleges are merging under the flagship name of Connecticut State Community College, beginning in Fall 2023, according to the state college system.

Both Gov. Ned Lamont and Terrence Cheng, the president of State Colleges and Universities, praised Madukos experience and suitability for the role.

John Maduko approaches this position as an experienced and talented educator, with significant teaching experience, Lamont said in a statement. We are now about a year away from the official opening of CT State as our single community college with all current locations continuing to stay open and remaining fully operational. I am confident that, with John Maduko in charge of the college and Terrence Cheng leading the CSCU system, we are in good hands to improve student success and provide workforce opportunities for all Connecticut residents.

Before taking on his current job in 2019, Maduko held leadership and faculty roles at North Central Texas College District, Rasmussen University, National Paralegal College, Mountain State University and Hillsborough Community College, officials said.

John is someone who understands the need to change and innovate based on data and the needs of the students we serve  but he also understands the importance of community buy-in, for a constructive working relationship with all employees within the college, Cheng said, adding that Madukos background in education highlighted a strong focus on student equity and success.

On behalf of the Board of Regents for Higher Education, it is my pleasure to welcome Dr. John Maduko as president-designate of Connecticut State Community College, board Chair Matt Fleury said. Dr. Maduko is eminently qualified for this position as an experienced educator and administrator. Perhaps most importantly, he is guided by a set of principles that are reflective of the mission, vision, and values or the Board of Regents, CSCU, and CT State  putting access, equity, and student success at the forefront of everything he does.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Contributed photo

Vanessa Avery will become Connecticuts first Black female U.S. attorney following confirmation by the U.S. Senate Wednesday.

Avery, of New Haven, who serves as an associate attorney general in Attorney General William Tongs office, will replace Leonard C Boyle, who has held the office on an interim basis.
NEWTOWN  Eight Sandy Hook families and an FBI agent who won a defamation case against conspiracy extremist Alex Jones have asked a federal judge to dismiss bankruptcies Jones filed for three of his business entities, which has stalled trials to award damages.

These bankruptcy cases were filed to improperly delay these trials, attempt to liquidate (Sandy Hook families) claims in this venue instead of by juries of their peers, and provide Jones and (his parent company Free Speech Systems) all of the protections of the bankruptcy processwithout having to disclose relevant financial and business documentation, writes the families attorney Ryan Chapple in Southern Texas Bankruptcy Court. They have no valid bankruptcy purpose, and they should be dismissed with prejudice as bad-faith filings so the (families) and the other Sandy Hook plaintiffs can continue with their constitutional rights to have the damages Jones inflicted upon them liquidated by a jury of their peers.

The Sandy Hook families are asking bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez to throw out Jones Chapter 11 filings as soon as Friday, because the delay and expense that will be suffered given that one trial date has already been lost, and others may be in jeopardy if the (families) are not allowed to proceed to liquidate their claims by jury trial.

The families are challenging the bankruptcy filings of three Jones-controlled business entities last week that stalled trials to award defamation damages to Sandy Hook families in Texas and Connecticut.

The first of those trials for the parents of a slain Sandy Hook first-grader was scheduled to being on Monday in Austin  the business home of Jones conspiracy-based website and broadcast platform, Infowars.

A second defamation awards trial was set to follow in Texas for parents of another slain Sandy Hook first-grader, followed by a defamation awards trial in August for the Sandy Hook families who won a defamation case against Jones in Connecticut.

Jones and his parent company Free Speech Systems did not file for bankruptcy because Jones was concerned his reputation would suffer in the conspiracy theory community, and it would diminish his ability to sell products to his listener base, his representative said in bankruptcy court last week.

The Sandy Hook families in the Texas cases last week asked the judge to deny Jones bankruptcy filings by attaching their complaint to that of a Justice Department official who oversees bankruptcy cases in southwest Texas. That official, U.S. Trustee Kevin Epstein, said in an objection that Jones filing raises numerous questions  the answers to which may demonstrate these cases are an abuse of the bankruptcy system.

Jones attorneys disagreed, saying the cases were a legitimate use of bankruptcy protection laws for Jones, who has spent $10 million on legal fees and has lost $20 million in sales as a result of the Sandy Hook defamation cases.

[T]he parties have worked very hard in good faith to bring a proposal to pay creditors and pay them in an equal fashion, Jones lead bankruptcy attorney Kyung Lee said in bankruptcy court last week.

A ruling may come as soon as Friday, when Lopez has scheduled a conference. Last week at the first hearing on the Jones bankruptcy cases, Lopez said he would take no action to sanction the bankruptcy process.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media

BRIDGEPORT  A Superior Court jury has ordered Stamford Hospital to pay $12.5 million to the family of a Westport man who died following thigh surgery at the hospital in 2015.

Following a trial, the 6-member jury found that an orthopedic surgeon at the hospital, Dr. Edward Feliciano, deviated from acceptable standards of care and caused the death of 63-year-old Keith Gilmore.
STAMFORD  A city man will serve at least five years in prison after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl.

Fredy A. Orellana, 35, pleaded guilty to a charge of illegal sexual contact with a minor in state Superior Court in Stamford on Wednesday as a part of a deal with state prosecutors.

In return for pleading guilty, Orellana will receive a 15-year sentence suspended after six years, five of which are mandatory, according to Supervisory States Attorney Maureen Ornousky.

Ornousky said Orellana will also be placed on probation for a period of time between 10 to 20 years, depending on the discretion of the judge.

Orellana will also be required to register as a sex offender.

Orellana was arrested by law enforcement officials in Los Angeles in July 2021 after he fled Connecticut after learning about a warrant for his arrest, police said at the time.

Orellana was charged with first-degree sexual assault and two counts of risk of injury to a minor under the illegal sexual contact with a minor subsection of Connecticut statute.

According to Ornousky, Orellana had been sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl over a two-year period.

Ornousky said Stamford police started investigating Orellana after the victim went to the hospital with a suspected sexually transmitted disease.

Officers later conducted a forensic interview of the victim and corroborated many of the allegations made, according to his arrest warrant.

Investigators worked with the states attorneys office to secure an arrest warrant for Orellana in May 2021, but he fled Connecticut when he became aware of his pending arrest, police said.

The U.S. Marshals Service helped track down Orellana in California, police said.

Orellana is scheduled to be sentenced on July 13.
Forty Syrian refugees were transferred to Romania from Turkey this month, during the extra-EU relocation program.

"Through this action, Romania is actively contributing to the international community in supporting and protecting refugees who were displaced in third party states, applying the commitments for the period of 2020-2021. Financing relocation action was supported through the National Program for Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund - 2014-2020," according to a press release sent by the General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI).

The IGI Police - The Asylum and Integration Directive, along with the representatives of the International Organization for Migration, have received, throughout this month, upon entering Bucharest, 40 refugees evacuated from Turkey, Agerpres.ro informs.

The transfer of Syrian refugees represents applying provisions of Government Decision no. 1596/2008 regarding refugees relocation in Romania, for the period of 2020-2021, for the relocation of 200 persons who are in need of protection, from Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

The operation of transferring Syrian refugees represents the result of actions taken, throughout several months, in order to select and accept in Romania people who are in an immediate need for relocation.

"The transfer activity was organized with the help of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), who offered aid to migrants until they reached our country. Furthermore, complementary to government assistance, through projects with European financing, IOM will continue to offer specific assistance to the Syrian citizens for a maximum period of 45 days, later being subscribed in the integration program," the quoted source says.

The costs for relocation were financed through the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund 2014-2020.

Preliminary activities to the transfer, medical examination, assistance prior to the transfer in Romania, transport from the first asylum country to Romania and on the national territory, assistance granted during the time of transfer and after arrival in Romania are financed through implemented projects at the level of the General Inspectorate for Immigration.
The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) proposes Ioan Sabau-Pop, a university professor, member of the International Court of Commercial Arbitration, who, as "a lawyer has obtained tens of thousands of hectares of land for the Romanian state", for the position of judge at the Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR).

"Ioan Sabau-Pop dedicated decades of his life to the fight in court for the recovery of lands and forests that were fraudulently retroceded. He obtained tens of thousands of hectares of land, which had been illegally taken from the Romanian state patrimony. Normally, he should be voted for with two hands by any parliamentarian who still has a shred of conscience. Whoever wants a strong and independent Constitutional Court, and not its kneeling, can support Professor Pop," AUR Chairman and MP George Simion said in a press release.

In his turn, AUR senator Claudiu Tarziu maintains that this proposal is "the most serious" and likely to maintain the standards regarding the independence and impartiality of CCR, Agerpres.ro informs.

"In addition to academic, judicial and legal experience, Professor Ioan Sabau-Pop has an impeccable reputation, unlike his opponents, who are merely pitiable figures. One is a political yes-man, another is close to the secret services, and the third has been expelled from the judiciary," Tarziu said.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Wednesday when asked why Senate President Florin Citu was not part of the delegation that visited Ukraine, that there were "two separately planned visits".

"There were two visits planned separately. It is about the number of members who could be part of the delegation, certainly, being conditioned by the protection and security measures in Kyiv and in the localities where we were," Ciuca said in a press conference at Victoria Palace.

He said he had received an invitation to visit Ukraine from his Ukrainian counterpart.

"It was established through diplomatic channels through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The first elements were established about two weeks ago," the prime minister said.

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca paid a working visit to Ukraine in Kyiv on Tuesday, during which he was accompanied by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu.

AGERPRES
Romania's Defence Minister Vasile Dincu said on Wednesday that in his opinion there is no possibility of war breaking out in the Republic of Moldova.

"We are concerned about what is happening around our country when it comes to conflicts; at the moment we see an attempt to create a conflict in this area, which, according to our analysis, has no chance to develop. Of course, Moldova is managing this situation, they are checking, sounding the alarm, monitoring the developments, but we do not see that as a problem," Dincu said at the National Military Club in Bucharest.

Asked by journalists how Romania is affected by the statements according to which Romania would like to annex Moldova, Dincu showed that the country is not affected and that there is no possibility of war in Moldova.

"It affects us only to the extent that we become a sounding board for Moscow's propaganda. Then it affects us. Amidst this complex, hybrid war, they are seeking every day to affect, to reach public opinion in the area that supports Ukraine. That is not affecting us, and I believe that there is no possibility of war in Moldova. Remember, Moldova is neutral from a military and political point of view," Dincu also said.

AGERPRES
Deposits of non-government resident customers went down 0.5 percent month on month to RON 478,751.9 million, while the annual growth rate was 11.1 percent (0.9 percent in real terms), the National Bank of Romania (BNR) informs on Wednesday.

RON-denominated deposits of residents, representing 62.4 percent of deposits of non-government customers, decreased 2.7 percent to RON 298,571.4 million month on month and rose 6.6 percent (down 3.2 percent in real terms) year on year.

RON-denominated households deposits went down 4.8 percent to RON 156,831.2 million month on month and advanced 1.0 percent (down 8.3 percent in real terms) year on year, Agerpres.ro informs.

RON-denominated deposits of other sectors (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) decreased by 0.2 percent (to RON 141,740.2 million) month on month and advanced by 13.6 percent (3.1 percent in real terms) year on year.

Foreign currency-denominated deposits of residents, representing 37.6 percent of total volume of deposits of non-government customers, went up 3.3 percent against February 2022 to RON 180,180.5 million when expressed in domestic currency (when expressed in EUR, these deposits moved ahead 3.3 percent to EUR 36,425.1 million). In year-on-year comparison, this indicator grew 19.5 percent when expressed in RON and 19.0 percent when expressed in EUR.

Foreign currency-denominated deposits of households increased by 2.9 percent from February 2022 to RON 125,047.9 million when expressed in RON (similar evolution when expressed in EUR). On an annual basis, this indicator expanded by 14.4 percent when expressed in domestic currency and by 13.9 percent when expressed in EUR.

Foreign currency-denominated deposits of other sectors advanced 4.1 percent against February 2022 to RON 55,132.7 million when expressed in RON (similar evolution when expressed in EUR). Compared to March 2021, this indicator moved up 32.8 percent when expressed in RON (32.2 percent when expressed in EUR).
The money allocated through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) for the environmental component will contribute to the closure of the infringement procedures that Romania has, Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests Tanczos Barna announced on Wednesday.

"In terms of waste, in principle, yes, the money from the PNRR will contribute if we build those voluntary agreement centers or digitized smart islands tanks to which we will increase the degree of collection and increase the degree of selective collection. This is one of the thorny issues and can only be solved by building infrastructure. From this point of view, in terms of waste, the PNRR can certainly contribute to the closure of some infringement procedures," the Minister of Environment specified, at a debate within the Committee for the Environment and Ecological Balance of the Chamber of Deputies.

With regard to the forestry sector, the Environment minister stated that he will contribute "without a doubt" to the digitalization component of SUMAL 2.0.

"As for the forests, the digitalization component contributes without a doubt to this and the development of these systems on SUMAL 2 represents Romania's commitment to the European Commission, a commitment of mine to Commissioner Sinkevicius [European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius ed.n.], so that systems can be connected to cameras, satellite imagery and we can increase the monitoring degree and we can reduce crime," he added, Agerpres.ro informs.

Moreover, as concerns the water component, the Minister of Environment pointed out that localities with more than 10,000 inhabitants already have infringement proceedings due to the low degree of connection and on the problems of wastewater management.

"Here, the component managed by AFM [the Administration of the Environment Fund] helps reduce the risk of infringement, and small towns, which have not been funded so far, benefit for the first time from targeted funding, those with less than 2,000 equivalent inhabitants, and there we can prevent a infringement on the lack of wastewater management infrastructure," concluded the Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests, Tanczos Barna.

The Committee for the Environment and Ecological Balance of the Chamber of Deputies held a debate on Wednesday at the Palace of the Parliament on the topic "Environmental priorities established by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR)".
The measures envisaged in the "Support for Romania" package give us the prospect of remaining in an area of economic growth similar to the initial commitments, Finance Minister Adrian Caciu said on Wednesday, underscoring that, in order to have a high growth this year, we need to stimulate the construction sector and agriculture, first of all.

"The forecasts taken by the main international financial institutions have cut down the anticipation of economic growth for 2022 for Romania, but the government's actions in the "Support for Romania" package, focused on incentives for private investments in proportion of more than 60pct of the allocated budget envelope, 10.4 billion lei, respectively, out of 17.3 billion lei, give us the perspective of staying in an area of economic growth similar to the initial commitments, obviously provided that the stimuli arrive on time and targeted in the economy," explained Caciu in Parliament, at the "Government's Hour."

He added that, at the same time, increasing the collection of budget revenues and accessing European funds "have been, are and will be priorities of the current Government." Thus, in the first quarter of 2022, more revenues were collected by more than 21pct than in the same period last year, by 18.2 billion lei, respectively, from 85.8 billion lei in 2021 to 104 billion lei in 2022. The increase in the collection of taxes recorded an increase of 21.8pct, and that of the insurance contributions an increase of 9.2pct, Agerpres.ro informs.

The Minister also said that, according to the data for the first quarter, there will be a 67pct increase in the amounts coming from European funds, respectively 8.1 billion lei compared to 4.9 billion lei last year.
Romania's Defence Minister Vasile Dincu said on Wednesday that after his recent visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, no concrete decisions were taken, and Romania will not send out weaponry to Ukraine.

"First of all, the specific needs of Ukraine at the moment, coordination and solidarity were discussed. No concrete decisions were taken, but there were some important decisions for the future. Not only at this time when Ukraine needs to be supported to cope with an invasion, but we need to see what we will do in the future in this area, in the world in general. Romania is the most important humanitarian hub for Ukraine, and there is no talk underway of weaponry, of sending out lethal weapons," Dincu said at the National Military Club in Bucharest.

He said that the Romanian delegation had the opportunity to meet the main defence players of Ukraine, with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov and the latter's most important aides.

"A normal visit; it seems natural to us to be there too, to set an example of solidarity. Romania, however, has shown since the first day of the war signs of solidarity and concrete gestures of solidarity. This gesture of our delegation rounded up, so to speak, the help we give, by a symbolic meeting there in Kyiv with our Ukraine friends," said Dincu.

AGERPRES
The Romanian penitentiary system has progressed in recent years and is not inferior to other systems in Europe, said on Wednesday the Minister of Justice, Catalin Predoiu, who had a working meeting with the Director General of the National Administration of Penitentiaries, Dan Halchin, and with 40 directors of penitentiaries.

According to a press release, the Minister of Justice congratulated them on "the efficient management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the prison environment, appreciating the effort, involvement and effective measures implemented in 2020, in particular, but also so far, thus avoiding a serious crisis in the penitentiary system".

Also, the leadership of the Ministry of Justice underlined the need to continue the steps taken in order to improve the conditions of detention and work, by referring to the plan assumed for the execution of the pilot decision Rezmives and others against Romania, which will be applied starting with 2020 and resulted in the extension of the accommodation capacity and the modernization of detention facilities, generating an improvement of detention conditions, shows the Ministry of Justice press release, Agerpres.ro informs.

"The conditions in prisons must be equal for all, and the observance of procedures and the rights of detainees must be strict. As the number of detention places in prisons increases and the conditions of detention improve, we will gradually erase the image of the penitentiary system created by the ECHR convictions in previous years, because those convictions were handed down for the situation at the level of years 2000 - 2010, the situation being radically changed at present. I am well aware of the situation of the penitentiary systems in Europe and I can say that the Romanian system has progressed in recent years and is not inferior to other systems in Europe, and these progresses will continue," said Catalin Predoiu, as cited in the release.

He emphasized that "every director of the penitentiary is also responsible for monitoring compliance with the law and protecting the rights of each individual detainee".

"The leadership of the Ministry of Justice will carry out regular, announced and unannounced visits to the penitentiaries, in order to permanently verify the observance of the detainees' rights," the Minister of Justice specified.

Predoiu called on the management of the National Administration of Penitentiaries and the directors of the subordinated units to maintain the pace of investments and to included among targets the increase of accommodation capacity and modernization of the detention places.
Bogdan Licu, First Deputy of the Prosecutor General, proposed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) for the position of judge at the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR), said on Wednesday that he gave up the scientific title of doctor because he considered that his PhD thesis "did not meet the highest scientific expectations", reiterating that the accusations of plagiarism are not true.

He said during the interview with the Legal Committee of the Chamber of Deputies that he is ready for the position of judge at the CCR, mentioning that he has evolved in 15 years.

According to Bogdan Licu, on January 2020 he offered a more detailed explanation before the Minister of Justice, regarding his PhD thesis, Agerpres.ro informs.

"In short, I said at that moment that I was not sufficiently prepared for submitting a high-quality scientific paper, that PhD thesis, which is why I gave up, I filed a lawsuit in court to give up on the title, as a recognition of the fact that, looking back, I truly considered that it did not rise to the highest expectations for such a scientific title, but also because I made certain errors, from either rushing, or because, I repeat, it did not meet the highest scientific expectations, yet to plagiarism, meaning theft, it is a long way, and none of it is true," Licu specified.

On Wednesday, the Legal Committee has audited the three candidates for CCR, replacing the current chairman of the Court, Valer Dorneanu, whose term will expire: Bogdan Licu, proposed by PSD; judge Cristi Danilet - supported by Save Romania Union (USR) and University Professor Ioan Sabau-Pop - supported by the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR).

The plenum of the Chamber of Deputies will cast a vote on the three candidacies during its May 3 session.
Magistrate Cristi Danilet has declared on Wednesday that in the last years the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) has become a "political actor" and "strayed from the initial purpose of the Constitution".

Cristi Danilet, proposed by Save Romania Union (USR) for the position of magistrate within the Constitutional Court, over the current chairman of CCR, Valer Dorneanu, whose term will expire, is being audited on Wednesday in the legal select committee of the Chamber of Deputies.

"In the last years, CCR has become a political actor and I believe that it has strayed from the initial purpose of the Constitution. I say this because, when we are interpreting the country's Constitution, we must refer to to the will of constituent power since 1991 and things which are still in force, as well as parliamentary works of 2003, when the Constitution was reviewed. In 2003 this task was created by CCR to solve constitutional conflicts between authorities and I believe that what the lawmaker wanted was not even close to replacing political will. I believe that when we have organisms, institutions, political authorities, these, through negotiations and through political attitude, must solve their problems, not to go with them to the CCR. I am for a limitation of the CCR's powers. Of course, only by jurisprudential way, because we have a jurisprudential way of the CCR which defines exactly what a legal conflict of a constitutional nature is," Danilet specified, Agerpres.ro informs.

He said that in the event in which CCR declares that a law is not in accordance with the Constitution, when it regulates in an area which is linked to the European Union, the judge must disregard that Court's decision.

"There are three decisions, from 2018, 2020 and 2021, of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which explain how we interpret the law of the European Union. Namely: The Romanian judge is the first European judge, he/she is obligated to apply the treaties and other mandatory normative acts. The decision through which the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism is mandatory for Romania and its effects will cease when it will be repealed. Even if CCR declares that a law is in accordance with the Constitution, when it is regulated in a sector that is tied to the European Union, then the European judge, according to the CJEU, needs to disregard CCR's decision, to apply the European law directly," Cristi Danilet explained.

The magistrate said that he wants more transparency of CCR's activity.
Constitutional Court nominee Peter Eckstein-Kovacs, a former Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania Senator, said on Wednesday that this high court's power to rule on particular institutional disputes among public authorities "has and will continue to cause a stir".

Peter Eckstein-Kovacs, proposed by the Save Romania Union to replace judge Mona Pivniceru whose term is running to end in June, was heard on Wednesday by the Senate's Law Committee.

"What I believe as far as the Constitutional Court is concerned, is that one of its particular powers has and will continue to cause a stir - its competence to issue a point of view and a ruling regarding the institutional conflicts among the public authorities. Which means that, from this point of view, to a certain extent the Constitutional Court has jurisdiction over the other public institutions of the Romanian state," Peter Eckstein-Kovacs said during the hearing, Agerpres.ro informs.

Regarding the appointment to the Constitutional Court of exclusively politically independent persons, he said that he has nothing against lawmakers' candidacies for the Constitutional Court "being placed somewhat to the back".

"I wouldn't oppose such an idea. There are arguments for it - yes, exclude those who have done politics. I think a compromise solution emerged at some point in the public space - to have a two-year gap between the end of the political office or party membership and the moment of submitting one's candidacy for office. It's practically a midway solution. I have nothing against lawmakers' candidacies for the Constitutional Court being - if not downright rejected - placed somewhat to the back," said Peter Eckstein-Kovacs.
Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Wednesday that the Romanian delegation who went to Ukraine with him were moved by what they saw in Irpin and Borodianka, "two towns that were hit without taking anything into account."

Ciuca told a news conference that hitting civilian targets in which innocent people lose their lives cannot be tolerated no matter the context. He underlined Romania's support for a field investigation in order to discover war crimes.

"The Romanian government has allocated 100,000 euros, a voluntary contribution to the International Criminal Court so that it can carry out a field mission," said Ciuca. He added that this contribution could be increased, and Romania could also send experts for the investigation.

On Tuesday, Ciuca met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and members of the Ukrainian government. He was accompanied by Speaker of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies Marcel Ciolacu, and Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu.

AGERPRES
Romania condemns in the harshest terms the blatant violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity by Russia, as well as of its international obligations, according to international law, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Tuesday after the meeting held in Kyiv with his Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmyhal.

"We are alongside Ukraine in these difficult times, because Ukraine's security means European and Euro-Atlantic security. Ukraine's fight is also the fight to defend our common values and freedoms," the head of the Government in Bucharest added, according to a press release.

He added that "the whole world should see and praise the courage of the Ukrainian people to follow freely their own path."

"Russian aggression continues day by day with more and more casualties as a result of premeditated attacks. There are not enough words to describe the atrocities in Bucha, Borodianka, Irpin and other parts of Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine violates any rule of international law and humanitarian law. It is contrary to the fundamental moral values of humanity. Russia must be held accountable for every crime and act committed by its forces in Ukraine, which are legitimately condemned by the international community," Ciuca added.

Thus, the prime minister spoke about the efforts to take "all possible measures to hold accountable and punish all those responsible for the design, financing and implementation of this illegal war of aggression against a people who, like us, want peace, freedom and prosperity".

Ciuca pointed out that "Romania will continue to make every effort bilaterally and multilaterally, within all international organizations and at all levels - political, humanitarian, economic and legal - to ensure that international law and moral principles are again fully respected in our hard-tried region."

He said that Romania "is deeply interested and committed to contributing to the efforts aimed at the complete reconstruction of Ukraine, and we are ready to discuss this process in concrete terms."

"Ukrainians want to take their rightful place in the European family, along with other people who share the same values. No one has the right to crush a legitimate aspiration, so deeply rooted in the choices, the identity and conscience of the Ukrainian people. This should be good enough a reason to support Ukraine's joining EU. I am proud and honored to be here today and I assure you that Romania and the entire Romanian people fully support Ukraine on its European path," he added.

Nicolae Ciuca met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and members of the Ukrainian Government on Tuesday. The prime minister was also accompanied by the President of the Chambers of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu.

AGERPRES
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca stated, on Wednesday, that Romania is unaffected at this time, after Gazprom has cut off the supply of gas to Bulgaria and Poland.

"I had a discussion, after we returned to the country this morning, with the Minister of Energy. Romania is unaffected at this time. The gas consumption is far below the production capacity that we have. You know very well that we are one of the few countries in Europe to benefit from a consistent gas resource, surely, not to the extent of our needs. We ensure for the winter period an import of approximately 20% of the need. Now, when we're discussing, alternative sources to ensure gas are sought, but, once more, at this moment Romania is not affected," said Nicolae Ciuca, in a press conference at the Victoria Governmental Palace, Agerpres.ro informs.

The Russian energy company Gazprom has announced that it has completely cut off deliveries of natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria, in the absence of payments in rubles by the two countries for the delivery of fuel, international media report. Supply will be interrupted until payments are made, Gazprom said.
Romania will analyze the requests of the Kyiv Executive regarding the supply of weapons to Ukraine, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Wednesday.

"We had a decision to transfer protective equipment and ammunition. We will continue to look at the requests that the Ukrainian government will make and, based on that, we will make a decision," the PM told a press conference at the Victoria Palace, Agerpres.ro informs.

The Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, met on Tuesday, in Kyiv, with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"The most important part of the discussions was related to the economic and humanitarian steps that Romania can take in respect to Ukraine. At the moment, the Ukrainian economy is very affected. The export of grains, of agri-food products meant an important contribution to Ukraine's GDP," Ciuca said.

According to the head of Executive, "the main concern is the economic one, beyond the efforts of the Ukrainian people, to be able to cope with the invasion of the Russian army."

The head of the Government in Bucharest stated that Romania is willing to get involved in the process of rebuilding Ukraine and open to hosting companies that can no longer operate in Ukraine.

"President Zelenskyy underscored that the Romanian minority in Ukraine will enjoy the same rights, "in the mirror," as the Ukrainian minority in Romania enjoys," Nicolae Ciuca added.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca announced on Wednesday that Romania was assessing the possibility of opening new border crossing points with Ukraine.

"We have discussed the demarches that our country is making so we can continue to ensure all these border crossing facilities in the future. Together with Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu, we have assessed the possibility of opening other new border crossing points. This is under analysis and we'll get back as soon as possible and confirm withe the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Ukraine the decisions to be taken," Ciuca told a press conference at the Victoria Palace, Agerpres.ro informs.

He underscored the importance of opening in 2020 the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing point and liberalising the freight transport for Ukrainian operators on April 5.
Romania needs to reposition itself on the map of mineral resources and become a pole of competitiveness through these resources, said Economy Minister Florin Spataru at a first working meeting held at the Ministry of Economy on Wednesday, bringing to the same table all those who can contribute to the upgrading of the Strategy for Non-Energy Minerals 2035, informs a press release sent to AGERPRES.

Also attending the meeting were Secretary of State Mihai-Ion Macaveiu and representatives of the Mineral Resources Directorate, as well as members of the Romanian Academy, the National Agency for Mineral Resources, the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, Patromin (Mining Employers' Association of Romania), Patromat (Employers' Federation of Construction Materials Industry of Romania), Cepromin Deva, Remin SA Baia Mare, Conversmin, Salrom, National Mineral Water Company, Apemin SA, CNCAF Minvest Deva.

According to the quoted source, the principles that will underpin this strategy's design are the economic interest of Romania and the development of a value chain in the mining industry, Agerpres.ro informs.

"It is especially important to have well-established guidelines that are updated to the needs of the market and, at the same time, to the needs of critical materials that are becoming indispensable in today's industries. The priorities established at the time of writing the document no longer correspond to the current situation, when several crises overlap, and Romania's geopolitical position has an essential contribution in the future negotiation processes at the European decision-making table," said Florin Spataru.

The mining industry is a global industry and needs to be addressed accordingly.

"The demand for mining products for the non-energy sector is growing both at EU and global level. The competitiveness of the industry cannot be ensured without an integrated approach of industrial policies with a policy of ensuring solid mineral resources. As soon as the strategy is completed and the objectives set, Romania will be able to become a development hub in the field of non-energy minerals, but also in the field of rare raw materials," reads the release.

At the same time, the Ministry of Economy has restarted the National Geological Program, aimed at identifying the non-energy mineral resources available in all areas of the country, thus establishing the competitive areas in each region.
As many as 1,464 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, up 740 from the previous day, with more than 25,500 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Wednesday.

Of the new cases, 159 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 - 290 and in the counties of Cluj - 123, and Timis - 97.

As of Wednesday, 2,890,827 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania.

- Hospitalisations -

As many as 1,251 people with COVID-19, down 21 from the previous reporting, including 79 children, are hospitalised in Romania at specialist care facilities.

Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 212 patients, including one minor, down 12, are in intensive care.

Of the 212 patients admitted to ICU, 192 are unvaccinated against COVID-19.

- Deaths -

According to the ministry, another 26 Romanians infected with SARS-CoV-2 - 14 men, 12 women and one minor - are reported dead in the last 24 hours.

Out of the total 26 patients who died, 22 were unvaccinated and four vaccinated. Two of the vaccinated patients were between 70-79 years old and two were over 80 years old.

All deaths were in patients with comorbidities

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 65,456 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania.

AGERPRES
The Minister of Finance, Adrian Caciu, is invited, on Wednesday, to the "Government's Hour" debate in the Senate.

The debate, which will begin at 11 a.m., was requested by the Save Romania Union (USR) parliamentary group.

The topic is "The perspective of the deterioration in the purchasing power of the Romanians, public finance and Romania's macroeconomic balances".

AGERPRES
Senate President Florin Citu, is conducting a visit to Ukraine on Wednesday, together with two other officials, parliament presidents of two other European countries, announced the leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL) group in the Senate, Daniel Fenechiu.

He stated that Citu's visit to Ukraine is separate from that of the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, and of Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, carried out on Tuesday, because "the preparations that took place between the Romanian Senate and the Republic of Ukraine targeted April 27", Agerpres.ro informs.

"Distinctly, there was the visit of the Prime Minister and with him went the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. I think it is very good that, for two consecutive days, Romania is present at the top level in Ukraine," Fenechiu said.
A series of art films, documentaries and award-winning productions at international festivals will be presented, Wednesday through Saturday, at the TIFF@MNAR Cinematheque event, in the Auditorium Hall of the National Art Museum of Romania.

According to a press release sent to AGERPRES, the programme opens on Wednesday, at 7.00 pm, with the gala premiere of the documentary "Occasional Spies" directed by Oana Bujgoi Giurgiu. Based on real life events and testimonies, the film recreates the story of some unusual espionage that marked the outbreak of World War II: the recruitment of young Zionists from Palestine, who were then sent back to their countries of origin in Eastern Europe, including Romania, to obtain information about the Germans.

The screening will take place in the presence of the film team, but also of guests such as David Saranga, Israel's ambassador to Romania, and Radu Ioanid, Romania's ambassador to Israel.

On Thursday, also from 7.00 pm, the audience is invited to watch the documentary "Salvador Dali. In Search of Immortality," directed by David Pujol, which sheds new light on the life of the famous artist, through previously unreleased stories and materials.

On Saturday, at 5.00 pm, the "Windseeker" is scheduled, the debut of Mihai Sofronea, winner of the FIPRESCI Award at the Sofia Film Festival 2022.

The screening will take place in the presence of film director Mihai Sofronea and actor Dan Bordeianu, alongside other members of the team, who will also discuss with the audience at the end of the screening.

The Cinematheque programme also includes titles such as "Look at the Sky," directed by Georgian Alexandre Koberidze and winner of the FIPRESCI Award at the 2021 Berlinale, or "Mommy"/"Little Mom," the story about childhood and the relationship between mother and daughter nominated for the BAFTA Awards in 2021.

Screenings at the TIFF Cinematheque will continue each week until May 29, and the programme will resume in the fall. The programme will include meetings with filmmakers, debates and roundtables with art and film critics.

AGERPRES
ST. LOUIS  A judge on Wednesday ordered former downtown nightspot Reign to pay its landlord nearly $340,000 in rent and attorney's fees after nobody from the restaurant showed up for a scheduled trial.

Reign, which was evicted from its building at 1122 Washington Avenue in October after the city deemed it a "threat to public safety," will now be required to pay about $257,000 in rent and $82,700 in attorney's fees to Copia Acquisitions LLC.

Copia argued in court filings the restaurant was first notified in September 2020 that it was behind on rent, but Reign continued to operate out of the building for about a year without paying the full amount.

Reign's owner, Dana Kelly, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another suit between Copia Acquisitions and Reign is still pending. That proceeding argues Reign owes at least $387,000 in interest and damages after it left the building with torn-out or destroyed cabinets, freezers, coolers, toilets, ovens, doors and gas fireplaces, among other items.

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More than 100 years ago, women in long dresses, men in silk hats and students parading with flags gathered proudly in Forest Park to celebrate.

The nations first Jefferson Memorial, sheltering a 9-foot-tall marble statue of a great Founder, was finished. Some schools and businesses closed for half a day to mark the happy occasion  a monument to the third president built with money from the 1904 Worlds Fair.

The fair itself, of course, had honored the presidents acquisition of the Louisiana Territory, including the city of St. Louis and the future state of Missouri.

In a dramatic moment, a large U.S. flag was pulled off the statue.

Behold one of the immortals, David R. Francis, the fairs director, said at the unveiling on April 30, 1913.

Oops. Fast-forward.

In the 21st century, those formerly glorious achievements and the primary writer of the nations Declaration of Independence are, if not tarnished, now held up to a different level of scrutiny.

In modern parlance: Its complicated.

Thomas Jeffersons name is still carved on the building, but its now better known as the Missouri History Museum. His statue by Karl Bitter remains, but on Tuesday it acquires interpretive panels, which explain that the president fathered at least six children with a woman he enslaved.

The panels also depict land he bought from the French as the longtime home of Americans whose presence was inconvenient to white settlers. These Native Americans would be fought, killed or eventually removed to reservations.

Should the Louisiana Purchase be celebrated? one new 6-foot-long panel asks. Another says: Can we still be moved by the words of Jefferson but horrified by his actions?

The panels, two years in the making, are part of the nations ongoing efforts to publicly reckon with flaws in men idealized as immortal heroes through monuments, statues, signs and the like.

The new panels show a better history, said Peter J. Kastor, a history professor at Washington University and a museum trustee. Times change. It was not only necessary and urgent, but a tremendous opportunity.

Kastor was part of an advisory committee for the panels, a project that also included input from at least 100 reviewers, including high school students.

Some thought the statue should be removed; others thought panels should focus on Jefferson as an accomplished leader. But most agreed with a more rounded view, said Jody Sowell, managing director of public history at the Missouri History Museum.

National criticism of some monuments often notes that they belong not in a public park, but a museum. Well, the Jefferson statue is in a museum.

We long for heroes, Sowell said. We long for people to hold up on a pedestal. But visitors would rather be told the whole story and know the 360-degree view of these historic actors.

Always controversial

Jefferson was controversial pretty much all of his public life, historian Annette Gordon-Reed said last week while giving a speech at Washington University. The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Hemingses of Monticello, Gordon-Reed talked about how views of the president evolved over 250 years.

He was hated; he was loved. His idea on the separation of church and state made critics see him a dangerous atheist, Gordon-Reed said. Some people buried their Bibles because some were afraid Jefferson would take them.

He condemned slavery in the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, but the passage was removed. Likely, too many colonists, including Northerners, had profited from it. During his life, Jefferson owned more than 600 enslaved people himself.

Although even some contemporaries knew he had fathered children with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman 30 years younger, his white family members continued to deny that the pairs four adult children were Jeffersons offspring. The children, whose heritage was seven-eighths European and one-eighth African, were legally white. But they had been born into slavery because their mother was enslaved.

It wasnt until 1998 that DNA testing confirmed Jefferson as their father, and not until 2018 that the Thomas Jefferson Foundation introduced a new Hemings exhibit at Monticello, calling paternity of her offspring settled historical matter.

On the new panels at the Missouri History Museum, Hemings and Jefferson are referred to as having a relationship. More than 100 years ago, she was often called a concubine. Today, some call the coupling less a relationship than rape because of the power dynamics.

But relationship at its most basic can be used to indicate any connection between people. Sally Hemings feelings about the situation are unknown. Her son Madison recalled years later that his mother only agreed to return to America with Jefferson from France (where she was free) if Jefferson agreed to treat their children with special privileges and to free them as adults.

For Gordon-Reed, statues dont imply hero worship. To her, she said, its someone who was important to the development of the country.

U.S. expansion

The second important controversy acknowledged in the panels concerns the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States. In 1803, the U.S. paid about $15 million (a portion was debt forgiveness) to Napoleon Bonaparte, who had military control over at least some of the area, particularly the crucial shipping port of New Orleans.

(The Louisiana Purchase) assures forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a rival who, sooner or later, will humble her pride, Bonaparte said. Bonaparte had not, however, purchased most of the land from the people who lived on it.

In 2008, Robert Miller, author of Native America, Discovered and Conquered, phrased the sale thus: You have no doubt read that the Louisiana Purchase was the greatest real estate deal in history because the United States paid only three cents an acre. That statement is false.  Instead, the United States bought the Discovery right to a limited sovereignty over the territory, the right to be the government the Indian Nations could deal with politically and commercially, and the preemptive right, the exclusive option to purchase the real estate whenever the owners, the Indian Nations, chose to sell.

The panel says: In the years to come, the U.S. would make many treaties with the Native American nations who called the Louisiana Territory home. However, these treaties were often one sided, negotiated in bad faith, or ignored by settlers who pushed to take more territory from Native Americans.

Monumental views

Geoff Ward teaches a class called Monumental Anti-Racism at Washington University. His students followed the progress of the history museums panels.

He said visitors to the Jefferson Monument dont need to feel threatened by interpretive panels.

We have a collective interest in understanding this figure in our national story, Ward said.

Because most people arent going back to school, they often learn about evolving ideas about history through museums, films, public art.

When many monuments were first conceived, corridors of power had little to no diverse input. Now other views are being offered.

On his own campus, Ward would like to see more information added to a statue of George Washington and another highlighting the Olympic Games played in St. Louis. Hed like more discussion of street names and cities (like Clayton) named after slaveowners.

At the museum, Sowell expects that within a few years, more information will be added to the Worlds Fair gallery and to the reproduction of Charles Lindberghs Spirit of St. Louis airplane. (A panel discussion about monuments and memorials is set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the museum.)

The plane and the Jefferson statue are such long-held museum artifacts that reinterpretation often took a back seat to newer exhibitions. Still, Sowell said, the panels for Jefferson should have been added years ago.

Concise and meant to appeal to all visitors, the panels still only touch on the paradox of Jeffersons life. For more, there are always a multitude of biographies and histories.

If you leave the museum saying, I never knew that or I was fascinated by that, and then you decide you want to learn more, I think weve done a real service, Sowell said.

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There is a lot of diversity in the films to be shown at QFest, the Cinema St. Louis festival devoted to films centering on the LGBTQ community.

The selections range from full-length features to short subjects, from fiction to documentary, from American to a wide slate of international titles.

More substantially, they range from The Therapy, an intense documentary about the emotional pain of conversion therapy, even when it is voluntary, to Lego Harry Potter and the Transgender Witch, Episode 1, which is a stop-action animated short using Legos to tell the story of the first transgender student at Hogwarts.

Spoiler: Harry Potter and his friends turn out to be bullies.

Now in its 15th year  Cinema St. Louis artistic director Chris Clark jokes that it is celebrating its quinceanera  the festival is a hybrid in 2022. All of the 15 full-length films and the four programs of short films can be seen at the Galleria 6 Cinemas in Richmond Heights. All of the shorts and two of the full-length films can also be viewed online.

The festival runs April 29-May 5. The movies shown in person have specific showtimes, but the virtual offerings can be streamed at any time during the festival.

As with the selections shown at, say, French or Italian film festivals, Clark says, the offerings at QFest are films of empowerment aimed at that particular community.

At the same time, says Clark, who is one of the festivals founders and was one of its three programmers this year, the films are also chosen for their broad appeal.

The films are celebrating and empowering to the LGBTQ community, but it is not just for them, he says. We want everyone to share in other communities and learn about other peoples throughout the world of film.

Anais in Love, a 2021 French film (7:30 p.m. April 30, 8:15 p.m. May 3), is a romantic comedy about an impulsive woman unhappy with her boyfriend and her life. So she begins a passionless affair with an older man before finding more interest in his girlfriend.

Its a typical French sex comedy, Clark says.

One international title that the festival is particularly proud to present is The Depths, a 2010 film from early in the career of Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Hamaguchi became an international filmmaking star last year when his Drive My Car was nominated for four Academy Awards, including best picture. It won the Oscar for best international feature film.

The Depths has screened in the United States only a handful of times since its release, Clark says, and finding a copy of it was difficult. The festival managed to track one down at Tokyo University, where Hamaguchi attended; it will be shown as a sort of companion piece to his Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (8:15 p.m. May 2), which was featured last year at the St. Louis International Film Festival.

For the last several festivals, QFest has shown an acknowledged classic of gay cinema. This year, the selection is Poison, the 1991 full-length debut of writer-director Todd Haynes, who would later receive an Academy Award nomination for Carol.

Poison tells three stories that are related only thematically. Each is based on a story by the French novelist and playwright Jean Genet. The film received considerable attention when it was released; one Washington Post critic called it the best movie of the year.

It was part of the then-rising New Queer Cinema that came out of (the) Sundance (Film Festival) at that time, Clark says.

Were All Going to the Worlds Fair does not even have a specifically gay theme. It is a horror film about an emotionally isolated teenager getting sucked deeper into a world of terror on the internet (8:15 p.m. May 4).

Its just a weird, creepy horror film, Clark says. Its not something you would ordinarily see at a gay film festival, but it fits in here.

The main character may or may not be trans, he says, but the filmmaker is, so it counts.

What QFest  When April 29-May 5  Where Galleria 6 Cinemas, 30 St. Louis Galleria Street, Richmond Heights  How much $12-$15 per film; passes available for $50-$150; proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative test required  More info cinemastlouis.org/qfest

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ST. LOUIS  In late July, a fire burned down a house in the citys Carondelet neighborhood, melting away the siding on a house next door.

The damage revealed a secret the house had been harboring for decades: It was a log cabin.

On Tuesday, the nonprofit Landmarks Association of St. Louis had the log cabin dismantled and plans to eventually have it reassembled in Carondelet Park. The home stood at 7616 Vermont Avenue.

It is a rare discovery on a brick-bungalow-filled city street. The cabin will help tell the story of Carondelet, which was founded in 1767 and was an independent city until St. Louis absorbed it about 100 years later.

Robert McLaughlin, owner of the two-bedroom, one-bath home, had tenants living there at the time of the fire and had no idea it was a log cabin. It had a rear addition and was otherwise modernized.

We rehabbed it. I was always curious why this room was completely out of square and the walls were enormous, he said. And now we know.

It was also difficult to screw anything into the walls because the wood was so dense, he noted.

McLaughlin, who owns other rental properties in the area, was more than happy to donate the home and the land to the Landmarks Association. I wanted it saved. I dont want it to end up in a landfill, he said.

Andrew Weil, executive director of the Landmarks Association, said its never ideal to move a house from its original location, but the home couldnt be saved here.

Some of the logs have fire and termite damage, but experts will assess each piece, restore and rebuild whats too damaged to save, and likely take the money from the land sale and put it toward reconstruction.

The association is working with the city and would like to make the cabin part of the complex around the historic Lyle House in Carondelet Park, which was likely built around the 1860s. Preservationists are raising money to restore Lyle House to be used as some type of gathering space.

Thats a way to not just have it disappear, and its a way to keep it in Carondelet, Weil said of the cabin.

The cabin is a simple structure, about 17-by-17 feet, with a doorway in front and a window on each side of the door, a window on one side, no windows on the other, and several openings at the back, which led to the addition.

Theyve just been lifting these off, said Weil of the logs. Theyre just held together with notches and gravity.

Z&L Wrecking Co. brought machinery for the heavy lifting.

Its difficult to tell when the house was built, though Jesse Francis, cultural site manager for St. Louis County Parks who came out to tag the logs and help with the disassembly, thinks it dates to the 1840s. He pointed out the lime and sand mortar, and said the sand likely came from the Mississippi River and the lime made nearby.

The wood is poplar, cottonwood, white oak and red oak, most no larger around than a salad plate, likely harvested from the woods nearby. Some of the logs showed several layers of whitewash, and some logs had round holes where pegs held pieces together.

Weil knows that the land where it sits was once part of the Carondelet Commons, land set aside for public use. That land was used for things like grazing livestock and building materials, so its not likely that a home was built there until land was subdivided for private use in the first half of the 1800s, he said.

Weils research showed the town leased that block to a man named Peter Conrad for a period of 99 years, starting on May 6, 1847. He could farm the land for an annual rent of $3. Conrad or one of his tenant farmers could have built the cabin, though by this time nearby homes were being built of brick, stone and milled lumber, Weil said.

Weil studied the census and found two Peter Conrads living in the area at the time. In 1850, theres a record of blacksmith Peter Conrad, 33, his wife, Eliza, 23, and their daughter Lorette, 2, who lived in St. Louis County. The couple were born in Pennsylvania, something Weil found interesting because V notches at the end of the logs, like the ones on the Carondelet cabin, can be associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.

That Conrad family disappeared from the Missouri census by 1860, but the daughter was recorded as being born in Missouri, which corresponds to the date of the lease.

The other Peter Conrad, born in 1817 in France, was listed in the 1850 and 1860 census as living in St. Louis city, first as a boatman and then a steamboat captain. He had a large family born in Missouri. Weil doesnt think those Conrads farmed the property nor built the cabin, but they might have bought the lease and then sub-leased it to farmers.

This likely isnt the only log cabin hiding under tar paper and siding in Carondelet. Some homes could date to the late 1700s, and historians have identified at least a dozen houses that feature traits of French buildings: stone first floors, gallery porches and rooflines with two pitches.

In 2017, the Carondelet Historical Society hosted an exhibit that showed off photos, logs and building pegs from dozens of buildings, some destroyed in recent years. Many of the homes, like the one disassembled Tuesday, had more modern additions, so the original log cabin simply became a single room of a larger house.

Its amazing that this held together, but it did, said Francis. We dont know how many of them are left in St. Louis city.

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ST. LOUIS  A bail bond agent from Louisiana charged with kidnapping a woman in St. Peters has had his own bond revoked for carrying a gun and continuing to hunt fugitives, despite a judges order not to do either.

U.S. Magistrate John M. Bodenhausen on Thursday ordered that the bail bond agent, Wayne Lozier Jr., remain behind bars as he awaits trial in the federal kidnapping case. Bodenhausen revoked Loziers bond for violating conditions of the pretrial release.

Lozier, 43, was arrested March 31 for the violations in the state of Louisiana and brought to Missouri. He has been held in the Ste. Genevieve County Jail for the last week.

In a hearing Wednesday, Matthew Martin with the U.S. attorneys office said Lozier violated multiple conditions for release that Bodenhausen had specifically set: Lozier ventured out of the eastern district of Louisiana for something other than a court appearance. He kept working to hunt fugitives. And he carried a weapon.

We dont have one violation, we have admittedly three, Martin said. Lozier is acting as if the law doesnt apply to him or hes above the law, Martin added.

Loziers attorney, Ralph Whalen Jr. of New Orleans, claimed the gun Lozier was spotted wearing recently while out on bond was essentially a BB gun that fires non-lethal rubber pellets. Lozier used it for his work as a bouncer in the French Quarter. Lozier didnt consider it a violation of bail conditions because he didnt consider it a dangerous weapon, Whalen said.

In his order Thursday, Bodenhausen discounted Loziers claims that the weapon is non-lethal. Bodenhausen reviewed video from a hospital surveillance camera. It showed Lozier with multiple gun magazines on his belt as well as other items consistent with fugitive apprehension work, such as handcuffs and what looked like pepper spray, Bodenhausen wrote.

The bond revocation is tied to a court case involving an incident in St. Peters on May 9, 2019. Lozier and his partner, Jody L. Sullivan, were indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in June on kidnapping conspiracy charges. Police reports accuse Lozier and Sullivan of taking a woman, identified only as R.H. in court documents, from a St. Peters home when they were not authorized to operate in Missouri and without notifying St. Peters police.

At the Flying J truck stop in Sullivan, R.H. asked the clerk and customers to call the police before she was shocked with a Taser, kicked and punched and then dragged to the bail agents car, reports say. Prosecutors added a kidnapping charge against Lozier and Sullivan on March 2. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Whalen concedes that Lozier violated other terms of his release as well. He left the eastern district of Louisiana, but just over a bridge nearby, his attorney said. And he handled the surrender of fugitives because he had no one else to do it, Whalen added.

Bodenhausen wrote that Loziers excuse that he was using other people to do the leg work for him actually undercuts his request for release because it demonstrates rather convincingly that (Lozier) will concoct a way to circumvent any condition that he deems inconvenient or unacceptable to him.

Whalen had wanted the judge to go easier on Lozier for violating bond conditions. Whalen asked if Lozier could return to Louisiana perhaps under house arrest with an ankle monitor, rather than stay in jail. That way it would be easier for the defense attorney to work with his client on trial preparation, and Lozier could help his pregnant girlfriend prepare for the birth of their child. The judge instead ordered that Lozier be held at a corrections facility.

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CLAYTON  There is no dispute that Beau Rothwell killed his pregnant wife in November 2019, tried to clean up the crime scene and led police to her body in Lincoln County.

But a St. Louis County jury will decide if Jennifer Rothwells death was premeditated murder or a crime of sudden passion. Testimony began Tuesday in Beau Rothwells trial on charges of first-degree murder, evidence tampering and abandoning a corpse.

The 28-year-old woman was six weeks pregnant when her husband reported her missing Nov. 12, 2019. He was charged in her death two days later and ultimately told police they could find her naked body partly covered in branches and brush in a wooded area off U.S. 61 near Troy, Missouri.

Assistant Prosecutor Tom Smith told jurors that Beau Rothwell, 31, smashed his wifes skull in the basement of the couples home near Creve Coeur with such violent, homicidal force that she bled out on their basement carpet. He said Jennifer Rothwell was a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend. She had just found she was going to be a mother.

After he murdered her, Smith told jurors, he cleaned up evidence, her blood with cleaning supplies and he took her body about an hour away, stripped her naked, put a trash bag over her head, secured it with duct tape and hid her in the woods.

Beau Rothwells lawyer, Charles Barberio, said in opening statements that the couple began dating while studying engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia and moved to St. Louis for work. He said the couple had struggled since 2018 to have a child, that Beau Rothwell lost interest and began having an affair. He said they learned shed become pregnant at the end of October 2019, started planning for parenthood and proposing baby names.

Beau was excited to be a dad, Barberio said. When Beau got the news that Jennifer was pregnant, he told his mistress that he was going to have to break up with her. This was stressful to Beau. He felt guilty and ashamed and it weighed on him.

On the night of Nov. 11, Beau Rothwell decided to come clean about his affair, Barberio said. His wife became upset and demanded to know the identity of his mistress but he refused to say.

Things escalated quickly, Barberio said. In the heat of sudden passion, he killed her.

Beau Rothwells efforts to conceal evidence of her death were so poorly conceived that he was arrested before police found her body, Barberio said. Beau Rothwell is expected to testify that he never planned to kill her.

Hell tell you he didnt know what he was doing, Barberio said.

On Tuesday, Jennifer Rothwells mother, brother and co-workers testified to observing what they thought was a happy marriage, with no signs of abuse. When Jennifer Rothwell didnt show up for work, relatives and co-workers created and distributed flyers around Creve Coeur, and searched potential routes between her house and her engineering job at MECS Inc. in Chesterfield.

Police found Jennifer Rothwells Hyundai Sonata parked along the shoulder of Olive Boulevard near Fern Ridge Parkway during a snowstorm. Officers testified that tire tread marks in the snow suggested the car hadnt skidded off the road. They found her cellphone inside the cars center console.

The jury heard Beau Rothwells 911 call about 9:45 p.m. Nov. 12 to report his wife missing. He told a dispatcher hed last seen her when she left for work about 6:20 a.m. The husband of one of Jennifer Rothwells co-workers testified that while accompanying Beau Rothwell on the search, he seemed unusually aloof.

A St. Louis County detective testified to seizing trash from a can at the curb of the Rothwells home on Nov. 13 that included various cleaning supplies, latex gloves, saturated paper towels and a Nov. 11 receipt from Dierbergs for various supplies. St. Louis County Detective Mike Hooten said the trash bags had an overwhelming smell of bleach.

Police have said they found multiple bottles of bleach inside the Rothwells home, along with a wet, blood-stained carpet and padding. Police also said they used DNA samples from Jennifer Rothwells parents to confirm that blood found in the Rothwells house was their daughters. According to search warrants, Jennifer Rothwell had searched the internet on her cellphone about what to do if your husband is upset you are pregnant.

Prosecutors are planning to show jurors text and Facebook messages Beau Rothwell had exchanged with his mistress.

Beau Rothwell is expected to testify later this week; the trial is expected to wrap up by Friday.

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ST. LOUIS  A man was shot multiple times just before noon Tuesday in the O'Fallon neighborhood of north St. Louis.

Police said he was conscious and breathing when he was taken to a hospital.

Investigators had most of the 4300 block of Penrose Street taped off around 12:30 p.m. and dozens of evidence markers could be seen on the street.

Bloody clothing was on the ground near a white Pontiac Grand Prix.

Additional information about the incident was not released.

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ST. LOUIS COUNTY  St. Louis County prosecutors on Wednesday charged a third teenager in the deadly shooting Sunday of a cab driver in north St. Louis County.

Court documents allege Coron Dees, 19, was riding in Dewight Price's cab Sunday with two other men when the three pulled guns and threatened to rob Price in his cab in the Hazelwood Central High School parking lot at 15875 New Halls Ferry Road.

Police said the teens then shot Price around 6:40 a.m., killing him.

Tywon Harris and Jeremiah Allen, both 18, were charged Monday with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. Harris and Allen both live in unincorporated St. Louis County.

Police said a fourth suspect, a 17-year-old boy, was also taken into custody and referred to St. Louis County Family Court.

Dees is charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action and first-degree robbery. Dees lives in Ferguson.
WELLSTON  St. Louis County Executive Sam Page on Wednesday said his administration is seeking to use up to $10 million in federal aid to expand programs at the MET job training center here and fund necessary repairs to the decades-old building, formerly the Wagner Electric factory.

The county seeks to use $5 million  from a remaining $77 million in federal pandemic aid  and up to $5 million in state-matched grants on the center, which Page and other officials said was pivotal to helping lift families out of poverty and contributing to economic development in the region.

That includes a plan to renovate the sixth floor to open it for use. Carolyn Seward, CEO of Family and Workforce Centers of America, which coordinates the MET programming, said that negotiations are underway with a four-year college to run a new agribusiness training program on the floor.

The funding would be transformational for a community anchor aimed at lifting families in poverty and addressing racial and economic disparities, Page said at a news conference to promote the plan.

Weve had a lot of communities that have been left behind. ... We have people who want and need training and we have a lot of jobs in the community, he said. The MET Center is really a crucial part in making that match.

The facility, opened in the 1990s, houses a heavy truck repair and maintenance training program run by St. Louis Community College, a licensed practical nurse certificate program run by the Special School District of St. Louis County, a lab-tech training program with curriculum designed by companies such as Pfizer, and GED classes run by St. Louis Public Schools. The center also offers participants and their families financial literacy courses and help obtaining legal and social services.

But only about two-thirds of the building is leased. The facility is in need of a new elevator, new HVAC system and updated plumbing, Page said.

The programs at the MET Center offer training in jobs that are in the top five industries in our region, Seward said. The center connected about 2,000 trainees with jobs last year.

We want to almost double those numbers, with the additional funding, she said.

The center also offers mental health services; between 60% and 70% of participants have a mental or behavioral complication, Seward said.

Officials did not have more details about how the funding would break down, but said the ultimate goal is to expand a 2-decade-old job training program into one that also prepares participants to launch their own businesses.

This is about a transformational plan to the vision for what the MET Center will be  a space where entrepreneurs can grow their own business, said Greg Laposa, county director of workforce development. Its a space where employers across key industries that give our region a competitive edge will be able to find the talent that they need.

Asked whether the county would need to prioritize infrastructure needs or program expansion if it doesnt receive state grants, Page said the county would look for other resources if necessary.

I would imagine it would delay some of our programming, but well get there, he said.

Unusual, but necessary

Page also said Wednesday that the countys decision to fund demolition of the former Jamestown Mall before it had a deal for redevelopment was unusual but necessary to draw potential developers.

Page has said he will sign a bill setting aside $6 million to demolish Jamestown and clear the 145-acre site under a plan sponsored by 4th District Democrat Shalonda Webb and approved unanimously by the County Council on Tuesday.

Page said it was unusual to demolish a large commercial property without having a redevelopment plan, but it would better allow the county to transform the site, something it has struggled to do since it closed in 2014.

Usually a large commercial property like this, we would have a redevelopment plan before we would do remediation and demolition, but this has been such a challenge that, you know, my administration wanted to get it done; I know Councilwoman Shalonda Webb from that district wants to get it done, he said.

We think that removing that element of risk from the redevelopment of that site will bring us more interested parties and will bring us a better product, he said. The challenge with any redevelopment is the risk of remediation and demolition, and were going to try and remove that variable.

The Port Authority, which owns the site, had reached a deal with a developer early last year to turn the former mall into an industrial park, but that plan was scrapped under opposition by Webb and residents who said they wanted a community center.

The county isnt expected to bid for demolition until later this year, when it expects to finish remediation for hazardous materials in the building, which has been vacant for at least eight years and has undergone fires and flooding.

The authority previously estimated up to $10 million to demolish the building and completely clear the land, based in part on the former developers proposal to spend $4 million to tear down some parts of the building and convert other parts. County officials are also seeking additional funding from the state or federal government.

Asked whether the estimated $10 million was accurate, Page said it could be revised based on how construction and supply costs fluctuate over the next year.

We believe that is a good number to work with, he said. If we fall short, we will find other resources to get his done because were committed to it.

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GLEN CARBON  For over 25 years, Russ Signorino helped St. Louisans understand their economy as the go-to expert for media outlets looking for someone to unpack regional jobs data.

But he also became the subject of headlines after being ousted in 1997 in an act of political retribution following allegations of misspent federal worker training funds surfaced in a scandal that came to be known as Kinkogate.

Russell D. Signorino, of Glen Carbon, died Thursday, April 21, at Christian Hospital following a long chronic condition, his family said. He was 70.

He was born on April 11, 1952, and grew up in north St. Louis County. He received his bachelors degree in psychology from Missouri University of Science & Technology, at Rolla, then known as the University of Missouri-Rolla School of Mines. He later received a masters degree in urban programs from St. Louis University.

Signorino worked as an analyst and researcher for the state of Missouri from 1975 to 1994, and he was often quoted in newspapers as an expert on regional employment data. He continued as an economic expert after moving to St. Louis Countys economic development office in 1994, but three years later got wrapped up in a political scandal that cost him his job.

In April 1997, John Pendleton of the Missouri Division of Employment Security, sent an anonymous fax to area media and members of a board overseeing county job training money. A federal audit had recently begun that would later allege the county misspent $704,311, and Pendleton claimed that a county official overseeing the funds had told employees not to cooperate with auditors.

The office of then-St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch subpoenaed the security tape of the Creve Coeur Kinkos store where the fax had originated. The investigation was dropped as soon as the tape was secured. By then, the administration of County Executive George Buzz Westfall had used it to identify Pendleton and Signorino in the store.

When news broke that police and the prosecutors office were used to seize the security tape and identify Westfall administration critics, the ensuing scandal became known locally as Kinkogate.

Signorino claimed he had only gone to lunch with Pendleton and did not realize what was in the fax. Nonetheless, St. Louis County Economic Council Director Denny Coleman forced him to resign, a move Signorino said Coleman told him came at the direction of James Baker, Westfalls chief of staff.

Pendleton and Signorino later filed suit against the county and several officials, claiming their civil rights had been violated. They didnt prevail, but top officials in the office overseeing job training money ended up resigning.

Even if I was the worst employee that ever existed, it still didnt give them the right to use the power of the prosecuting attorney and (police) to go after someone who did nothing wrong, Signorino told the Post-Dispatch in 2000.

Signorino continued explaining economic data to area media as an analyst for the United Way of Greater St. Louis research division, where he also worked on other community programs and initiatives. Later, he served as executive director of the Gateway EITC Community Coalition, which helps low-income people file tax returns so they can claim the federal earned income tax credit. Most recently, he led the Building Union Diversity initiative for the construction trades, which helps minorities and women become apprentices and get into the construction industry.

He was always giving and helping those in need and helping those in need try and raise themselves up, said his son, Samuel Signorino.

In addition to his son, Signorino is survived by his wife of 49 years, Karon E. Signorino; a daughter and son-in-law, Valerie and Luis Marino of Fort Myers, Florida; a son-in-law, Cedric L. Love of Glen Carbon; four grandchildren and a brother and a sister.

A visitation will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 1, at Irwin Chapel, 591 Glen Crossing Road in Glen Carbon.

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Here's a look at some trending topics for today, April 26.

Amber Heard and Histrionic personality disorder

A forensic psychologist testified Tuesday that actor Amber Heard suffers from borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder, as the civil lawsuit between her and ex-husband Johnny Depp continues to wallow in the couples personal issues.

Depp is suing Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court after she wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post referring to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. The article doesn't mention Depp by name, but his lawyers say the article contains defamation by implication" because it clearly refers to allegations of domestic abuse made by heard when she filed for divorce in 2016. Read more here:

Moldova

Two explosions in a radio facility close to the Ukrainian border knocked a pair of powerful broadcast antennas out of service in Moldova's separatist region of Trans-Dniester, local police said Tuesday.

Trans-Dniester, a strip of land with about 470,000 people, has been under the control of separatist authorities since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops in the breakaway region, nominally as peacekeepers. Get more info here:

Kamala Harris tests positive for COVID

Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday after returning from a weeklong trip to California.

"Today I tested positive for COVID-19. I have no symptoms, and I will continue to isolate and follow CDC guidelines. I'm grateful to be both vaccinated and boosted," Harris tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

Kirsten Allen, the vice president's press secretary, said in an earlier statement that Harris tested positive for Covid-19 on rapid and PCR tests. Read more information here:

Trump

A New York judge found former President Donald Trump in contempt of court and set in motion $10,000 daily fines Monday for failing to adequately respond to a subpoena issued by the state's attorney general as part of a civil investigation into his business dealings.

Judge Arthur Engoron said a contempt finding was appropriate because Trump and his lawyers hadnt shown they had conducted a proper search for records sought by the subpoena. Read more about the legal fight here:

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CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  A senior Australian minister on Wednesday suggested that China had deliberately announced its security pact with the Solomon Islands during an election campaign to undermine her governments chances of reelection.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews accusation is consistent with her conservative Liberal Partys argument that Beijing wants the center-left Labor Party to win the May 21 election because Labor lawmakers were less likely to stand up to Chinese economic coercion.

Labor has described the governments inability to prevent the deal announced by the Chinese and Solomons governments last week as Australias biggest foreign policy failure in the Pacific since World War II.

Andrews  who is responsible for the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nations main domestic spy agency, and has access to classified secrets from other intelligence agencies  said Australians should be taking notice of and paying some attention to the timing of the Solomons' announcements.

Beijing is clearly very aware that were in a federal election campaign here at the moment. Why now? Why, right in the middle of a federal election campaign is all this coming to light? Andrews told Brisbane Radio 4BC.

"We talk about political interference and that has many forms, Andrews added.

Australia angered China in 2018 by passing national security laws that ban covert foreign interference in domestic politics. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said at the time the government was prejudiced against China and had poisoned the atmosphere of China-Australia relations.

Jim Chalmers, a senior Labor lawmaker, dismissed the possibility of China attempting to use its Solomons deal to influence the Australian election.

Even by the incredibly low standards of this government, I thought what Karen Andrews said was remarkably desperate and remarkably unhinged, Chalmers said. The Australian people will determine who wins this election.

John Blaxland, Australian National Universitys Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies, questioned whether Andrews was drawing on classified intelligence briefings in her comments on the Solomons.

It certainly is plausible that they timed it this way. They wouldve been mindful of whats happening in the elections, Blaxland said.

Id be very surprised if China wanted to go public on siding with one side or the other because thats basically a poison chalice youre handing to that side of politics, Blaxland added.

Blaxland suspected Beijing and Paris would both welcome a change of government in the hope of resetting their bilateral relationships with Australia.

Chinas Foreign Ministry welcomed Morrisons elevation to prime minister in 2018 after the Liberal Party dumped his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull, who had banned foreign interference.

China stands ready to work with the new Australian government to move forward bilateral ties along the right track, a ministry official said at the time.

But bilateral relations have continued to sour.

France was incensed in September when Australia dumped a $66 billion contract for French-build conventional submarines. The United States and Britain will instead provide Australia with a nuclear-powered fleet.

The government boasts the new submarine deal is evidence of its superiority over Labor on national security.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry attacked Defense Minister Peter Duttons warning this week that Australians must prepare for war because of the threat from China and global insecurity spurred by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Certain Australian politicians often seek selfish political gains by making wild remarks to smear China and clamor for war, Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said the United States had a fundamental concern with the lack of transparency in Chinese activities in the Pacific islands.

Only a handful of people in a very small circle in the Solomons had seen the detail of the Chinese pact, Kritenbrink said Tuesday.

Labor on Tuesday announced a range of measures that it would implement in government to increase Australias engagement in the Pacific.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that by blaming the government, Labor was siding with China in the dispute over the Solomons pact that has raised fears of a Chinese naval presence less than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) off the northeast Australian coast.

They are playing politics with the Pacific and the only ones who are benefitting from Labors attacks on the government is the Chinese government, Morrison said Tuesday.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP)  Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, using its most essential export in what was seen as a bid to punish and divide the West over its support for Ukraine.

The move, condemned by European leaders as blackmail," marked a dramatic escalation in the economic war of sanctions and countersanctions that has unfolded in parallel to the fighting on the battlefield.

The tactic, coming a day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to rush more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, could eventually force targeted nations to ration gas and could deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.

Poland has been a major gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and confirmed this week that it is sending the country tanks. Just hours before Russia's state energy giant Gazprom acted, Poland announced a new set of sanctions against the company and other Russian businesses and oligarchs.

Bulgaria, under a new liberal government that took office last fall, has cut many of its old ties to Moscow and likewise supported punitive measures against the Kremlin. It has also hosted Western fighter jets at a new NATO outpost on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.

The gas cuts do not immediately put the two countries in any dire trouble. Poland, especially, has been working for many years to line up other suppliers, and the continent is heading into summer, making gas less essential for households.

Also, Russian gas deliveries to both Poland and Bulgaria were expected to end later this year anyway.

Still, the cutoff and the Kremlin warning that other countries could be next sent shivers of worry through the 27-nation European Union. Germany, the largest economy on the continent, and Italy are among Europes biggest consumers of Russian natural gas, though they, too, have been taking steps to reduce their dependence on Moscow.

It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us, said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Today, the Kremlin failed once again in his attempt to sow division amongst member states. The era of Russian fossil fuel in Europe is coming to an end.

Gazprom said it shut off the two countries because they refused to pay in rubles, as President Vladimir Putin has demanded of unfriendly" nations. The Kremlin said other countries may be cut off if they don't agree to the payment arrangement.

Most European countries have publicly balked at Russias demand for rubles, but it is not clear how many have actually faced the moment of decision so far. Greeces next scheduled payment to Gazprom is due on May 25, for example, and the government must decide then whether to comply.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told his country's parliament that he believes Polands support for Ukraine  and the new sanctions imposed by Warsaw on Tuesday  were the real reasons behind the gas cutoff.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov called the suspension blackmail, adding: We will not succumb to such a racket.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia views gas as a weapon for political blackmail and "sees a united Europe as a target.

On the battlefield, fighting continued in the country's east along a largely static front line some 300 miles (480 kilometers) long.

Russia claimed its missiles hit a batch of weapons that the U.S. and European nations had delivered to Ukraine. One person was killed and at least two were injured when rockets hit a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv.

Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence findings, said Russia has made slow progress in the Donbas region, with minor gains, including the capture of villages and small towns south of Izyum and on the outskirts of Rubizhne.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, conceded that Russia has made minor progress in its advance on Rubizhne through its nearly constant bombardment, but that Ukrainian troops are fighting back and retreating only when there is nothing left to defend.

There is no point in staying on territory that has been fired on so often that every meter is well known, he said.

The Western officials said some Russian troops have been shifted from the gutted southern port city of Mariupol to other parts of the Donbas. But some remain in Mariupol to fight Ukrainian forces holed up at the Azovstal steel plant, the last stronghold in the city. About 1,000 civilians were said to be taking shelter there with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders.

The situation is very difficult. There are huge problems with water, food, Serhii Volynskyi, commander of the marine unit inside the plant, said in a Facebook video message. He said hundreds of fighters and civilians were wounded and in need of medical help, and those inside included children, older people and disabled people.

Just across the border in Russia, an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region burned after several explosions were heard, the governor said. Blasts were also reported in Russia's Kursk region near the border, and authorities in Russia's Voronezh region said an air defense system shot down a drone.

Earlier this week, an oil storage facility in the Russian city of Bryansk was engulfed by fire.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak hinted at the country's involvement in the fires, saying in a Telegram post that karma (is) a harsh thing.

In other developments:

 The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said the safety level at Europes largest nuclear plant, now under Russian occupation in Ukraine, is like a red light blinking as his organization tries in vain to get access to the Zaporizhzhia power station for repairs.

 Amid rising tensions over gas, Moscow and Washington carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in the U.S.

With the help of Western arms, Ukrainian forces managed to thwart Russian forces' attempt to storm Kyiv. Moscow now says its focus is the capture of the Donbas, Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland.

A defiant Putin vowed Russia will achieve its military goals, telling parliament, "All the tasks of the special military operation we are conducting in the Donbas and Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, will be unconditionally fulfilled.

Simone Tagliapietra, senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, said Russias goal in cutting off the flow of gas is to divide and rule  pit European countries against one another as they cast about for energy.

While Poland gets around 45% of its gas from Russia, it relies overwhelmingly on coal and said it was well prepared for the cutoff. It has ample gas in storage and will soon benefit from two pipelines coming on line, analyst Emily McClain of Rystad Energy said.

Bulgaria gets over 90% of its gas from Russia, but it could increase imports from Azerbaijan, and a pipeline connection to Greece is set to be completed later this year.

Dobrin Todorov, a resident of Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, said the suspension is not a big problem.

Ultimately, the choice between freedom and dignity or gas, the answer is clear, in favor of freedom and dignity, Todorov said, adding that a lack of gas "cannot be compared to the hardship and tribulations that the Ukrainian people are currently suffering.

Europe is not without its own leverage, since it is paying some $400 million a day to Russia for gas, money Putin would lose in a complete cutoff. Russia can, in theory, sell oil elsewhere  to India and China, for instance. But it doesn't have the necessary pipelines in some cases, and it has only limited capacity to export gas by ship.

The move that Russia did today is basically a move where Russia hurts itself," von der Leyen said.

Gambrell reported from Lviv, Ukraine, and Gera reported from Warsaw, Poland. Associated Press journalists Jill Lawless in London, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, David Keyton in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi at Chernobyl, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.

Follow APs 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.
Kansas City Star. April 20, 2022.

Editorial: Kansas, Missouri senators do nothing as veterans exposed to toxins get sick and die

One by one, U.S. military veterans walked to a podium at Kansas Citys VFW headquarters Tuesday, describing the brutal effects of exposure to toxic smoke while in the service.

Headaches. Cancers. Difficulty breathing. Broken families and lost friends. Death.

The vets have endured years of illness  and a government that too often seems indifferent to their suffering. These veterans who are looking for care are being betrayed, said William Wisner, who works with Burn Pits 360, an advocacy group for veterans dealing with toxic poisoning. Its not right, he said.

Wisner and his colleagues are correct: For far too long, America has failed its veterans who are sick because of exposure to toxic burn pits and other harmful chemicals.

And its appalling that real help for these veterans is now being delayed by Republicans in the U.S. Senate, including four from our region: Sens. Roger Marshall, Jerry Moran, Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley.

All four senators happily salute veterans on holidays. But they should turn that support into action by endorsing the Honoring our PACT bill, which passed the House in March.

The PACT bill would provide a comprehensive set of services to veterans who took part in a toxic exposure risk activity during their service. It would also extend benefits to vets who served in a specific place during a specific time when toxic exposure was common.

The bill would provide treatment services and counseling for 3.5 million veterans suspected of exposure to toxic chemicals. It would add a presumption of service connection to lung illnesses connected with burn pit exposures and airborne hazards. For some veterans, it would expand eligibility timelines.

The measure would, in short, address real suffering from veterans whose lives are being destroyed because they dared to breathe during their time in uniform.

The bill would cost an estimated $20 billion annually for the next ten years. Thats a rounding error in the federal budget, and cannot be an excuse for inaction.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch. April 23, 2022.

Editorial: Even some of Eric Schmitts fellow Republicans have had enough of his stunts

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.

Jefferson City News Tribune. April 21, 2022.

Editorial: Does recreational marijuana make more sense than medical marijuana?

Weve previously frowned on the idea of medical marijuana.

Its a Schedule I drug that has more potential for abuse than it has value for medicine. Other medicines exist for the conditions for which it is used, and not enough research has been done on it. Plus, the largest doctors group, the American Medical Association, opposes it.

But Missouri voters felt otherwise. They legalized medical marijuana in 2018.

But should Missouri take the extra step and approve the use of recreational marijuana? The more apt question might be: How should we approve the use of recreational marijuana.

Weve always believed the medical marijuana issue was a way for many marijuana supporters to get their foot in the door, with the ultimate goal of legalizing it in general. And thats whats happening. It could be approved as early as this year.

The push for legal recreational marijuana is occurring on two fronts: in the legislation and through the initiative petition process.

As we recently reported in a Missouri Independent story, Rep. Ron Hicks is sponsoring a bill to legalize possession and use of marijuana for individuals 21 and older. Its process has slowed due to a pair of amendments that have been tacked onto the bill.

Supporters of recreational marijuana are also pushing to get the issue on the statewide ballot. With a May 8 deadline to come up with the needed 170,000 signatures, theyre making a last-minute push for supporters. That includes appeals to medical marijuana businesses to donate to the cause and to lend employees to help gather signatures. The bottom line is societys views on marijuana have changed substantially over past generations. It appears its just a matter of time before either lawmakers or the public legalize it. We dont believe legalizing marijuana will create a better society, but we do believe in personal freedom. So does the issue of recreational marijuana rise to the level that we need government to save us from ourselves? Alcohol overdose can cause death, while marijuana overdoes typically does not. On an average year, more than 10,000 people die from drunk-driving crashes. We couldnt find a comparable statistic for marijuana, but we suspect its a small fraction of that. Does it make sense for alcohol to be legal and marijuana illegal? Marijuanas supporters cite studies showing it is not as toxic or addictive as alcohol, less harmful to the body and less likely to contribute to reckless/violent behavior.

What is your view of the issue? Let us know what you think at gtritz@newstribune.com. It can be just for us, or, if you prefer, it can run as a letter to the editor.

END

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Reflecting on the life of former Sen. Orrin Hatch has underscored what I believe is a truth about politics: Grace is more important than positions on specific issues.

Orrin and I each arrived in the Senate after the 1976 election, he from Utah and I from Missouri. We then overlapped for three terms  18 years  after which I retired from the Senate but he went on to serve four more terms. During those 18 years, we both worked together almost daily on the very consequential Senate Finance Committee. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, to which I did not belong, he also was my valued ally during the heartrending ordeal that preceded Clarence Thomass confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Most observers would have said that Orrin was more conservative than I, but differences in philosophy or issues have long since vanished from my memory. On the thousands of matters on which we voted during our 18 years together, I recall only one where we were opposed  the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which I authored.

What I remember about Orrin isnt his votes, but his style.

I always suspected (facetiously, of course) that Orrins blood pressure was about 80 over 40. There was never any doubt that he had strong conservative opinions. Far from being wishy washy, he expressed his views clearly and forcefully. But in all those 18 years, I never heard him raise his voice in anger or saw him lose his temper. He was the model of civility, who consistently exemplified what must be a fundamental principle of workable politics: Your opponent is not your enemy.

Michael Deaver once said of Ronald Reagan that people wanted to please him. Many people disagreed with Reagan on important subjects, but everyone liked him personally. Chris Matthews wrote a book called Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked. It was about the mutual affection of House Speaker Thomas Tip ONeill and Ronald Reagan, two political opposites whose friendship made government function.

I enjoyed the same experience with my Senate colleague, Tom Eagleton; he a Democrat, I a Republican. Our differences, which were real, seemed beside the point. We liked each other and trusted each other, and that relationship benefited the people we served.

Orrin showed respect for his Senate colleagues, and they in turn respected him. He searched for and found common ground across political differences, notably with Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, with whom he worked to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Childrens Health Insurance Program. It was a style of politics that made government work.

Government isnt working today.

The Senate today is not a place where complex issues are negotiated in a spirit of mutual respect toward mutually shared objectives. It is a place of relentless, bitter hyper-partisanship. Far from the equanimity of Orrin Hatch, todays office seekers are on the verge of exploding with rage. Check out YouTube samples of almost any current candidates public appearances and note not just the over-the-top verbiage but the body language and the facial expressions. Its as though they are about to pop out of their skin. They are the opposite of Orrin Hatch. Theyre angry people whose goal it is to win primary elections by enraging the most aggrieved members of their political base. No wonder America is polarized and tribal: Todays politicians work hard to make us so.

Lincoln famously said that America would hold together as a nation when our common chords are touched by the better angels of our nature. Today its hard to find anyone in public life who appeals to our better instincts. No, their appeal is to our worst.

We hear it all the time: Im a fighter! Send me to Washington and I will fight for you, presumably against them. I recently received an email from a candidate who used the word fight three times in one sentence. I guess this person thinks theres still not enough fighting in Washington.

If one were to believe that correct positions on political issues truly determined the nations future, then the bellicose behavior of our politicians would be understandable. But, of course, that is not the case. We are more than our politics. We are 330 million people who are bigger than any issues. Politics is important, but it is only politics, a place of give and take, and, when it functions, a place of compromise. Politics will never save us, and politicians are not our saviors.

What politicians can do is try to appeal to our better angels. They can try to bring out the best in us and not the worst. Thats the model Orrin Hatch gave us. And its one that, as much as any time in our history, we need to heed.

John C. Danforth served three terms in the U.S. Senate and is former Missouri attorney general.
One of the worlds most influential social-media platforms will soon be under the private ownership of the worlds richest person. What could possibly go wrong? Elon Musks $44 billion purchase of Twitter has prompted speculation about how the mercurial electric-car mogul might change things. Republicans are giddy about the prospect that Musk might restore free speech to the platform  which, of course is conservative code for allowing right-wing disinformation to flourish.

Speaking of disinformation, one of the most discussed issues out there is whether Musk will reopen Twitter to former President Donald Trump, who was rightly banned for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. (Trumps declaration that he has no interest in returning to Twitter isnt believable, given his past obsession with the site.) But Musk and everyone else should remember the broader stakes of shaking up a platform that, for better or worse, has no real social-media equal in its power to immediately and dramatically impact Americas political conversation.

Twitter has more than 350 million users worldwide, more than 70 million of those in the U.S., which makes it far smaller than platforms like Facebook or Instagram. But Twitter has exerted outsized influence on American political debate, largely because its bumper-sticker-like brevity makes it the perfect soapbox for politicians and celebrities. Unfortunately, the 280-character limit also encourages sloganeering and insults rather than reasoned discourse. Thats good for partisanship and zealotry, but not so much for civility and factual information.

Whether Musk would make that situation better or worse is, like so much of the mega-billionaires persona, unclear. Musks politics have always been difficult to pin down  he donates (not much) to both parties and voices opinions that are all over the political map. But his vow to dramatically scale back content moderation falls very much in line with the political right today. Musk has said that, short of outright illegal speech like death threats, hed be inclined to let the speech exist.

That sounds nice, but does it include speech that doesnt quite rise to criminality but is clearly harassment? How about spreading deliberate medical disinformation during a deadly pandemic? Or inciting an attack on democracy with disproven election-fraud lies?

Todays conservative bromides to free speech are cynically situational anyway (as Florida Republicans just demonstrated by bringing the heavy hand of government down on Disney for criticizing their dont say gay law). Contrary to some assertions, private companies arent legally obligated to host toxic lies. Twitters content moderation has never been perfect, but its hard to imagine that abandoning the effort altogether could do anything but make its too-often-swampy environment swampier.

More pedestrian but useful changes, like adding editing capability for users and better bot control, could be good for everyone. Most important is that Musk understands he has taken on a responsibility to society by buying this unparalleled megaphone.
American defense officials now admit that if the Starlink satellite internet service were government run, it would not have remained operational over Ukraine because government regulations do not allow for the quick responses Starlink management used to defeat Russian electronic attacks. .

SpaceX, the American firm that designed, built and put the Starlink satellites into orbit, accomplished this by encouraging innovation and acting quickly to deal with service interruptions, including deliberate efforts by hackers or hostile governments. This was demonstrated after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th. The Ukrainian minister of digital transformation contacted Starlink management for help in dealing with Russian efforts to cut Ukrainian access to the Internet. Starlink officials had already been negotiating with Ukraine to provide Starlink service locally. SpaceX agreed to help and within four days hundreds of Starlink satellites activated to provide Ukraine with high-speed Internet service using hundreds of Starlink user kits (a small dish and a special router) sent to Ukraine. Within a month there were thousands of Starlink user kits in Ukraine and the number keeps growing with many Ukrainian organizations buying additional user kits.

Currently about 20 percent of the initially planned Starlink global network satellites are in orbit. These were active over a few areas so reviewers and other volunteer users can test the system. By February 2022 Starlink appeared to be a success but the network also displayed a remarkable resistance to attacks from hostile governments, and the Russians were the first ones coming after it with major jamming efforts and threats to destroy Starlink satellites over Ukraine. SpaceX pointed out that it could put additional Starlink satellites into orbit faster than Russia or anyone else could destroy them. This capability was part of the Starlink design that not only allowed satellite and user software to be quickly updated but new Starlink satellites often had new features added to improve performance and that included more resistance to hacking and jamming.

Starlink satellites are designed to last for up to seven years and the Starlink system is designed to expand to over 30,000 satellites if demand by paying customers is large enough to justify and pay for it. That is being tested by the heavy use of the Starlink satellites over Ukraine by Ukrainians who dont have to pay the usual one time $500 startup and $99 monthly fees. This serves as a test of how much heavy use each satellite can handle, especially when constantly subject to heavy Russian hacking and jamming efforts.

Russia did seek to sever the fiber optic cables that connect Ukraine to the global Internet, and generally try to disrupt Internet service inside Ukraine. Starlink made this effort futile and Starlink became the first satellite communications service that could be described as combat tested. This is always a major selling point for military equipment or anything built to that is built to survive in a harsh environment. Starlink expected many emergency relief organizations would maintain Starlink accounts that could be taken into disaster areas where most communications were disabled. Starlink terminals can be kinked to local networks and supply Internet service for locals and emergency workers.

Starlink resistance to hackers and jamming was quickly put to the test as Russia came after it several times in the last two months, failing in each attempt because Starlink engineers could diagnose an attack, develop a software patch and implement it quickly, often in less than an hour. Starlink also responded by modifying the design of newly manufactured Starlink satellites to resist efforts to disrupt service.

The Ukrainians were equally innovative in finding new ways to use Starlink Internet service in combat. One example was using Starlink to support attacks on Russian supply lines day and night. The night attacks were effective because of the use of small Ukrainian designed UAVs equipped with GPS, a night vision camera, a laser range finder and a link to a nearby artillery unit via Starlink. The UAV patrolled Russian supply routes at night and, when a convoy was spotted trying to move safely in the dark, the artillery unit had the continually updated location of the trucks. That enabled the Ukrainians to fire at the convoy and destroy many of the vehicles while demoralizing the survivors who didnt believe the Ukrainians could detect them in the dark and call-in accurate artillery fire.

Similar innovations were developed to provide Ukrainian military units with better communications than the Russian invaders. That edge has been maintained and it is expected that the Russians will continue trying to disrupt Starlink service.

The American military bureaucracy is not hopelessly trapped by mandatory rules and regulations. In wartime the system becomes a lot more responsive as the military is allowed to act quickly and effectively to deal with problems. This was the case during the recent war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq/Syria. That effort is winding down and the rules and regulations are regaining their dominance. Commercial firms like SpaceX achieve success by using wartime rules and often eventually fade as more rules replace their freedom to quickly respond.
In 2021 the Afghan Taliban, with the help of Pakistan, regained control of Afghanistan. Pakistan believed it had achieved a degree of control over Afghanistan they had long sought, with trusted Afghans occupying key positions in the new IEA (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan).

This has not worked out as Pakistan expected, with growing violence inside Afghanistan becoming a major problem for Pakistan and Iran. Currently IEA security forces are confronting Pakistani special operations forces entering eastern and southern provinces to capture or kill TTP (Pakistani Taliban) leaders. The Pakistani troops are supported by artillery and air strikes that often kill Afghan civilians. In the east Iran is moving armor units to the border to confront Afghans guarding heroin smugglers traveling into Iran. The drug smugglers have been a problem for over two decades and long-ago turned the Afghan/Iran border into a combat zone. Since the IEA took power, the violence here has escalated. Throughout Afghanistan there are outbreaks of activity by armed Shia militias and their 1990s Northern Alliance allies, now reassembled as the NRF (National Resistance Front).

This escalating chaos in Afghanistan is responsible for is directly responsible for the 30 percent increase in Islamic terrorism related deaths in Pakistan compared to 2020. So far, 2022 appears headed for twice as many Islamic terrorism deaths in Pakistan. This is not just about what is going on in Afghanistan, some internal problems in Pakistan play a role. This is all about the Pakistani military managing to terrorize or influence enough politicians and political parties to give the military control of the government without a coup. That control is running into trouble because misbehavior by the military is seen as responsible for the mess in Afghanistan.

This all began when Pakistan stepped up and provided bases for the Afghan resistance to the 1979 Russian invasion. After that Pakistan gained a much greater role over internal Afghan affairs. This is much resented in Afghanistan, mainly because of how Pakistan got involved in the Afghan civil war in the 1990s. The Russians left in 1989 and two years later the Soviet Union collapsed. The pro-Russian Afghan government soon fell because Russian subsidies disappeared after 1991. Pakistan then invented the Taliban, using young Afghan religious school faculty and students in Pakistan refugee camps to defeat all the other factions and create a pro-Pakistan religious dictatorship. The Taliban almost achieved that goal by providing sanctuary for other Islamic terror groups as long as these foreigners assisted the Taliban with its continued fight to gain control over all of Afghanistan. That appeared to be working, until late 2001 when Taliban support of al Qaeda (and the September 11, 2001 attacks) brought in active American support for the northern factions still holding out against the Taliban. That led to the American-supported IRA (Islamic Republic of Afghanistan) government. Since 2001 continued Islamic terrorist violence, still supported by Pakistan, has left nearly 150,000 dead in Afghanistan and Pakistan. About a third of the dead were civilians with most of the rest being Taliban and various drug gangs. A third of the dead occurred in Pakistan, which began using Islamic terrorism to fight India in the 1970s and eventually found that the Islamic terrorists were getting out of control and killing lots of Pakistanis. Afghans have always been religious, but not fanatic and Afghans blame Pakistan for letting the Saudi financed Islamic radical (Wahhabi) missionaries set up schools in the refugee camps during the 1980s and indoctrinate a generation of Afghan kids that Islamic terrorism was the solution to everything. The Afghans know that a lot of Islamic radicals have been running Pakistani military intelligence (ISI) for decades and cannot be trusted to do what is best for Afghanistan. The ISI is now under fire in Pakistan because of all the Islamic terrorist violence caused inside Pakistan and meddling with the elected Pakistani government.

The Taliban once more took over in August 2021 and formed the IEA. Despite the presence of known Pakistani agents in key government positions, there was more anti-Pakistan violence coming from Afghanistan than when the U.S. backed IRA government was in charge. Afghans are also acutely aware that their country has been at war since the late 1970s when Russian backed Afghan communists tried to start a revolution and establish a strong central government in an area that had never tolerated one. The communists were followed by a Russian invasion, drug gangs, an Islamic revolution, civil war and Pakistan seeking to take control in the 1990s with their Taliban. That led to the American invasion and Pakistan continuing to support the drug gangs and Taliban while assisting the U.S. in its war on terror. Many Americans saw Afghanistan as hopeless and just wanted to just leave. The problem was that leaving meant Afghanistan was at the mercy of Pakistan, Iran and Russia, as well as all the drug gangs, Islamic terror groups and numerous Afghans who oppose the drugs and all the outside interference. The drugs and Islamic terrorism are still major exports. The West can leave Afghanistan but the ills of Afghanistan wont leave the West. This is even more visible in Pakistan.

IEA-run Afghanistan is more tolerant of Islamic terrorism than the IRA and tolerates the presence of the TTP that seeks to impose a religious dictatorship on Pakistan. The IEA appears to have made a similar deal with ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), or some of the ISIL factions in Afghanistan, because the number of ISIL attacks in Pakistan have increased this year and these attacks are often coming from ISIL factions based across the border in Afghanistan. The Pakistani military apparently underestimated the degree of anti-Pakistan attitudes among IEA leaders and Afghans in general.

Pakistans role in the Taliban gaining control of Afghanistan is now portrayed by the international community as a criminal act in support of Islamic terrorism as well as protecting the worlds main source of heroin. Foreign nations are slow to recognize the new IEA government. Initially, not even Pakistan did so because being first to recognize the new government would be a further admission of guilt for the role Pakistan has played in making it happen. Pakistan, like several other Islamic nations, has established unofficial diplomatic relations with the IEA via the use of diplomatic missions where the people working in these missions do not have diplomatic or any official recognition.

The IRA is still recognized as the legitimate, if powerless, government of Afghanistan. The IRA has no income and cannot maintain all the foreign embassies they established. Some countries are turning former IRA embassies over to the IEA without officially recognizing the IEA. This includes Russia, Pakistan, Iran and China. In Iran some consulates have come under attack because of the increasing violence in Afghanistan against the Shia minority.

Pakistan also finds itself under attacks by IEA security forces because of an unresolved border dispute, as well as the TTP. Both Afghanistan and Pakistan now have more violence on their Iranian borders because of drug smuggling and separatist rebels in Pakistan. Iran is also angry at the new Afghan government because of increased attacks on Afghan Shia. The Taliban victory that Pakistan made possible is seen more and more as a mistake because Afghanistan has become a major problem for Pakistan and a growing problem for other nations.

The IEA has an urgent need for an organized, disciplined force to deal with its escalating internal security problems. This includes Islamic terrorist groups who see the IEA as an enemy rather than an ally and provider of sanctuary. There are also problems with some ISIL factions. A larger threat is posed by the non-Pushtun (Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazara) resistance groups, and a growing number of Afghan Taliban factions that oppose Pakistani efforts to control the IEA. In many ways the IEA faces more internal resistance than the original Taliban government did from the mid-1990s to late 2001. The American intervention after September 11, 2001 allowed the non-Pushtun Northern Alliance to go on the offensive and drive the Taliban out of the country by the end of 2001.

Neighboring countries, with the exception of Pakistan, believe the IEA will collapse after a few years because of internal unrest and growing poverty which most Afghans will note is in sharp contrast to the previous two decades when per-capita GDP nearly tripled. Under the IRA massive foreign aid took care of most government expenses and that led to a lot of foreign investment. This foreign aid and investment averaged over a hundred billion dollars a year since 2002 and, even though most of it was not spent in Afghanistan, there was enough being spent in Afghanistan to keep the IRA government in power and the GDP expanding, living standards increasing along with life-expectancy.

The IEA s security forces arent large enough to deal with all the local unrest and the only source of help is the Pakistani military. The heroin cartels are a major source of income for the Pakistani military because the Pakistani generals provide export routes for most of that heroin via the port of Karachi and several major airports. Then there are the vital chemical imports needed for the conversion of opium to heroin. There are twice as many Pushtuns in Pakistan than Afghanistan and in 2022 these Pakistani Pushtuns are getting organized to oppose the Pakistani military and its control over the elected Pakistani government and the unelected IEA in Afghanistan. Because of this, getting troop reinforcements from Pakistan is not a practical solution to the inadequate size of the IEA army and security forces.

April 23, 2022: In the east, on the Pakistan border (North Waziristan), Afghan gunmen, apparently TTP, fired on a Pakistani border post and killed three soldiers

April 21, 2022: ISK ( Islamic State Khorasan), the local ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) affiliate, took credit for several attacks against Afghan Shia since yesterday that left 61 Shia dead and over a hundred wounded. Bombs were placed in Shia mosques and set off durig prayer services.

April 20, 2022: The new IEA courts are using Sharia law to punish those who drink or sell alcohol (flogging) stealing (chopping a hand or foot off) and capital crimes result in public executions (often a beheading). Some criminals are sent to jail for short periods. Women are sometimes flogged or just beaten by religious police.

April 19, 2022: Afghanistan is once more a sanctuary for Islamic terrorist groups, as long as they do not carry out attacks inside Afghanistan. Despite that, ISIL groups like IS-K survive in Afghanistan even though they regularly carry out mass killings of Afghan Shia and even use Afghanistan as a base for similar attacks in Pakistan.

April 18, 2022: Pakistan warned the IEA in Afghanistan that if Islamic terrorists attacks in Pakistan by groups operating from Afghanistan, did not halt there would be serious economic consequences for Afghanistan. At the same time, Pakistan is believed responsible for the large UAVs being seen in Khost and Kandahar provinces as well as over Kabul. These UAVs have attacked TTP bases and leaders in Khost province and may do the same in Kabul or Kandahar, where a lot of the heroin production takes place.

April 17, 2022: Western nations that previously contributed a lot of aid to Afghanistan have halted that aid until the IEA allows women and girls to return to schools and universities.

April 16, 2022: In northwest Pakistan the army used helicopter gunships and artillery (rockets) to attack TTP camps in Afghanistan (Kunar and Khost provinces). TTP casualties were not disclosed, but Afghanistan reported that there were 47 dead and many wounded, including women and children. The Afghan IEA government protested, as Afghan governments have been doing for a decade.

At the end of 2021 the IEA threatened Pakistan because of resumed use of rockets and artillery fire from Pakistan into eastern Afghanistan (usually Kunar province) against TTP camps. Pakistan has been doing this for years. The deposed (in mid-2021) IRA (Islamic Republic of Afghanistan) government would contact Pakistan and the Pakistanis usually apologized and said they would halt the attacks. The attacks kept happening. Back in early 2019 the IRA government sent the UN a letter complaining about nearly a decade of similar Pakistani border violence. The Afghan letter detailed incidents from 2012 to early 2019 in which Pakistani troops fired 28,849 rockets, mortar or artillery shells into eastern Afghanistan. Much of this firepower is directed at Kunar province and has been going on since 2010 in an effort to hit real or suspected TTP bases there. These incidents increased to the point where the Afghans began keeping track of them in 2012. Since then, this violence has killed or wounded nearly 300 people that the Afghan government knows about. The shelling occurs against rural areas that are often unpopulated so it is unclear if the Pakistanis have hit many Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani government propaganda insists that these Taliban Islamic terrorists are based in eastern Afghanistan and regularly cross into Pakistan to carry out attacks. The 2019 letter to the UN detailed how the situation was getting worse and that in 2018 there were 161 of these incidents that involved at least 6,025 Pakistani projectiles landing in Afghanistan. The letter pointed out that several elected Pakistani leaders have pledged to halt these border violations but those pledges are ignored by the Pakistani military. There was a large scale (neatly 200 shells and rockets) Pakistani attack in late 2019 but since the UN was notified and the Pakistani habit of cross border attacks became news, there have been fewer of these Pakistani attacks, and they have not stopped, even as the Pakistan-backed IEA government replaced the elected IRA one. The Pakistani military is also sending its missile armed UAVs to look for TTP leaders living in Afghanistan and kill them. The TTP bases in Afghanistan are real but Afghan governments are not willing to find and attack them if only because the TTP are usually guests of local tribes that agree with the TTP that the Pakistanis are hostile to Pushtun people who dominate both sides of the border. The IEA, like the IRA before it, is demanding that the UN do something about the Pakistani attacks.

April 14, 2022: In northwest Pakistan (North Waziristan) seven soldiers were killed when ambushed by Islamic terrorists. Four of the attackers were killed. No one took credit for the attack but it was believed to be TTP (Pakistan Taliban). There was another clash in the area, leaving one soldier dead. So far this year Pakistani forces have killed 128 Islamic terrorists in clashes near the Afghan border. Nearly a hundred Pakistani troops have been killed.

April 12, 2022: Renewed attacks on Afghan Shia caused Iran to threaten support for an armed Afghan Shia resistance manned by the thousands of Afghan Shia who served as mercenaries in Syria. Some still do, because the Afghan mercs were the best fighters and demanded higher pay than Arab mercenaries. These armed Shia fighters would work with their 1990s Northern Alliance allies, which has reassembled as the NRF (National Resistance Front) and is planning new operations. That alone may be more than the new IEA (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) government can handle. Some of the NRF leaders are sons of successful Northern Alliance commanders. Iran threatens to provide more support to the NRF than they gave the Northern Alliance.

April 11, 2022: The IEA announced that it encouraged foreign investors to visit Afghanistan and visas would not be a problem. Few foreign investors are interested given the increasingly unstable and violent environment in Afghanistan. The IEA is particularly eager to have Chinese investors operating in Afghanistan. China said it would encourage that if the IEA did something about the heroin and other drugs produced in Afghanistan and exported to neighboring countries, including China as well as worldwide. The IEA agreed and issued a decree banning farmers from growing poppies, the plant that produced opium, which is further processed into heroin. The farmers, mainly in the south (Helmand province), ignored the decree, pointing out that poppies were the most profitable crop they could produce and the heroin cartels had more firepower than the IEA. Just another reminder to be wary of Taliban promises.

Money talks. Farmers can obtain 7-15 pounds of opium per acre (8-17 kg per hectare), t o create the opium which is refined into heroin. The farmer is paid about a thousand dollars per acre for the opium. But the value of that opium increases fifty times once it is refined into heroin and sold in foreign markets . Most of that increase goes to middlemen (refiners, smugglers and distributors). Most of the increase in value occurs once the heroin gets out of the country, but that still makes the opium and heroin trade the biggest single segment of the Afghan economy. Efforts to stop the flow of acetic anhydride, the chemical needed to turn opium into heroin, into Afghanistan failed. Used in many industrial and medical applications, there is no company in Afghanistan with a legitimate use for acetic anhydride. It was believed that all you had to do was stop any acetic anhydride coming into Afghanistan. This did not work because the acetic anhydride came from Pakistan and that supply was protected by the Pakistan military, which also assisted with exporting the heroin. The Pakistani military was one of the middlemen that made a lot of money from the Afghan heroin. Up until 2021 the Taliban made several hundred million dollars a year protecting heroin production. IRA officials stole much of the billions of dollars in foreign aid for destroying poppy crops. The IEA can either tax the heroin cartels to produce more income that the Taliban received to spend money they dont have much of in an effort to shut down poppy production. In Afghanistan, trying to bring down a government is a lot easier than trying to be the government.
CUPERTINO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / Boardwalktech Software Corp ("Boardwalktech") (TSXV:BWLK) (OTCQB: BWLKF), the leading Digital Ledger low-code application platform and enterprise software applications company, today announced that it will be presenting at the Planet MicroCap Showcase 2022 at the Bally's Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 at 2PM EST. Chief Executive Officer Andrew T. Duncan and Chief Financial Officer Charlie Glavin will be hosting the presentation and answering questions from investors, as well as, in person, 1-on-1 investor meetings over two days.

To access the live presentation, please use the following information:

Planet MicroCap Showcase 2022 in Las Vegas

Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Time: 2PM Eastern Time (11AM Pacific Time)

Webcast: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2862/45271

If you would like to book 1on1 investor meetings with Boardwalktech, and to attend the Planet MicroCap Showcase 2022, please make sure you are registered here: https://planetmicrocapshowcase.com/signup

1on1 meetings will be scheduled and conducted in person at the conference venue.

The Planet MicroCap Showcase 2022 website is available here: https://planetmicrocapshowcase.com/

If you can't make the live presentation, all company presentations "webcasts" will be available directly on the conference event platform on this link under the tab "Agenda": https://planetmicrocapshowcase.com/agenda

News Compliments of Accesswire

About Boardwalktech

Boardwalktech has developed a patented Digital Ledger Technology Platform currently used by Fortune 500 companies running mission-critical applications worldwide. Boardwalktech's digital ledger technology and its unique method of managing vast amounts of structured and unstructured data is the only platform on the market today where multiple parties can effectively work on the same data simultaneously while preserving the fidelity and provenance of the data. Boardwalktech can deliver collaborative, purpose-built enterprise information management applications on any device or user interface with full integration with enterprise systems of record in a fraction of the time it takes other non-digital ledger technology-based platforms. Boardwalktech is headquartered in Cupertino, California with offices in India and operations in North America. For more information on Boardwalktech, visit our website at www.boardwalktech.com.

About SNN.Network

SNN.Network is your multimedia financial news platform for discovery, transparency and due diligence. This is your one-stop hub to find new investment ideas, check in on watchlist, gather the most up-to-date information on the Small-, Micro-, Nano-Cap market with the goal to help you towards achieving your wealth generation goals. Follow the companies YOU want to know more about; read and watch content from YOUR favorite finance and investing influencers; create YOUR own watchlist and screen for ideas YOU'RE interested in; find out about investor conferences YOU want to attend - all here on SNN.Network.

If you would like to attend the Planet MicroCap Showcase, please register here: https://planetmicrocapshowcase.com/signup

For more information please contact:

Charlie Glavin, CFA

Boardwalktech, Inc.

650-618-6163

[email protected]

Investor Relations

[email protected]

(416) 842-9003

SOURCE: Boardwalktech Software Corp via SNN Network

View source version on accesswire.com:
The Board of Servotronics, Inc. (NYSE American  SVT) announced the appointment of two new independent directors and a non-executive Chairman, as well as the accelerated expiration of the company's shareholder rights plan.

Evan Wax, Managing Member of one of Servotronics' largest shareholders, Wax Asset Management LLC, and retired public company finance and business executive Karen L. Howard have joined the Board as independent directors. In addition, sitting independent director Christopher M. Marks was appointed Chairman of the Board.

Today's announcements follow Servotronics' previously disclosed appointment of William F. Farrell, Jr. to serve as Chief Executive Officer and a director of the company. All of these appointments are effective as of April 25, and the Board intends to nominate each of them for election at Servotronics' next annual meeting of shareholders as part of a six-person slate that is expected to include incumbents Edward C. Cosgrove, Esq. and Lucion P. Gygax.

The Board has also approved an amendment to the company's shareholder rights plan to accelerate its expiration date to April 26, 2022, effectively terminating the "poison pill" that had previously been set to expire on October 15, 2022.

"Servotronics recognized, publicly acknowledged and initiated action on the need for governance changes last year. This included announcing a search for a new CEO with advanced manufacturing and aerospace experience and beginning the process of recruiting new independent directors to add diversity and perspective to the Board," Mr. Marks said. "We believe these changes will help ensure that the Board is well equipped to represent the interests of all of its common stockholders. Much important work remains to be done, and with the latest additions of highly experienced and proven leaders to our Board and executive team, coupled with other governance changes announced today, we believe the company is well positioned for growth, operational success and shareholder value creation."

The company also announced today that Jason T. Bear tendered his resignation as a director, effective April 25. Mr. Marks said, "We thank Jason for his valuable service to Servotronics over the last five years, and particularly for his leadership as Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Chair through the CEO-search and Board-refreshment process. We wish him the very best as he returns his full professional attention to the marketing business he founded and continues to lead as its CEO."

As previously disclosed on December 27, 2021, the Board does not intend to renominate the company's former Chairman and CEO Kenneth D. Trbovich for election to the Board at the next annual meeting of shareholders.

Independent Director Evan WaxMr. Wax, 40, was appointed to the Servotronics Board in April 2022. He is Managing Member of Wax Asset Management LLC in Madison, CT, which has held Servotronics common stock since October 2014 and most recently disclosed beneficial ownership of 158,615 of the company's shares, or 6.37% of shares outstanding. Wax Asset Management employs a long-term value based investment strategy. By investing in a concentrated portfolio of equities its goal is to generate capital appreciation and superior risk adjusted returns over time. Prior to founding Wax Asset Management in 2011, Mr. Wax was Managing Director and Head Trader at Hayground Cove Asset Management where he was also a member of the investment committee and risk committee. Prior to that, he worked as a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Wax graduated from Yale University where he received a B.A. in Economics.

Independent Director Karen L. HowardMs. Howard, 59, was appointed to the Servotronics Board in April 2022. She has more than 30 years of professional experience as an advisor to and finance executive with public companies, as well as a proven record of board leadership. She retired in 2020 after serving for seven years as Executive Vice President of Kei Advisors LLC, an investor relations and business advisory firm serving micro-, small- and mid-cap public company executives and boards across the United States. Previously, she served for 17 years with Columbus McKinnon Corporation, including as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and earlier roles as Treasurer and Controller of the publicly traded global manufacturer of material handling products and solutions. Prior to that, she was a certified public accountant with Ernst & Young LLP. Ms. Howard serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Highmark Western and Northeastern New York Inc. (formerly HealthNow New York Inc.), a regional health care company with about $3.1 billion in revenue. She also chairs its audit committee. Active in the Western New York community, Ms. Howard serves on the Niagara University Board of Trustees where she also chairs its investment committee. She also serves on the Seneca Street Community Development Corp. Board of Directors, as well as the finance council of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and its audit and compliance committees. Ms. Howard earned her bachelor's degree in accounting from Niagara University.

Chairman Christopher M. MarksMr. Marks, 57, was appointed Chairman of the Servotronics Board in April 2022 and has served as an independent director of the company since 2016. He has served as Chair of the Audit Committee and member of the Compensation Committee and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Mr. Marks brings over 25 years of financial planning and analysis experience to the company as well as a background in accounting, corporate law and governance. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accountancy from Villanova University, a Master of Business Administration from St. Bonaventure University, and a Juris Doctorate with honors from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. His extensive experience includes practicing commercial and corporate law at Phillips Lytle, LLP and several years working for the auditing and accounting firm Price Waterhouse in New York City. Mr. Marks is a member of the financial planning firm Jensen, Marks, Langer & Vance, LLC, where he provides financial planning advice and investment management services. Also, he is a member and the Chief Compliance Officer of Sterling Investment Counsel, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Additionally, Mr. Marks is a member of the New York State and Erie County Bar Associations, is a past president of the Buffalo Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals, and has served on various boards and advisory committees for privately held companies, charities, and educational institutions.

Chief Executive Officer and Director William F. Farrell, Jr.Mr. Farrell, 55, was appointed to serve as Servotronics' Chief Executive Officer and a member of the company's Board in April 2022. He joined Servotronics following a more than 30-year career with Western New York-based Moog Inc., where he ran businesses with up to $600 million in annual revenues, 1,400 employees and global facilities, achieved significant sales and operating margin growth, and led successful quality, on-time delivery and safety improvement efforts. Most recently, he served two years as Site General Manager for Moog's Aircraft Group, which supports military and commercial aerospace applications. Prior to that, he served five years as Site General Manager for its Industrial Group, supporting markets including flight simulation, oil and gas exploration, power generation and industrials automation. Earlier in his tenure at Moog, he worked in a variety of other executive and engineering roles for the worldwide designer, manufacturer, and integrator of precision control components and systems, including in its Industrials Group, Space Products Division and Engine Controls Division. Mr. Farrell holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A in manufacturing operations management from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The Board of Directors has determined that each of Ms. Howard, Mr. Wax and Mr. Marks meet the test of "independence" as defined by the NYSE American listing standards.
NAGOYA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 2ND STREET TAIWAN CO., LTD., a subsidiary of GEO Holdings (TOKYO: 2681), is set to open 2nd STREET Taoyuan Tonlin on May 13, 2022. This will be the ninth shop in Taiwan for 2ND STREET TAIWAN CO., LTD.

Within Japan, GEO Holdings has more than 2,000 shops and EC stores, including GEO Shops, which sell and rent DVDs, CD, and video games, and 2ND STREET, which handles the sales of a comprehensive selection of used products, including clothing, furniture, and appliances. Beginning in 2018, the first 2ND STREET shops outside of Japan began by opening in the United States and in Malaysia. The first shop in Taiwan opened in August of 2020, and this shop, 2nd STREET Taoyuan Tonlin, will be the ninth.

2nd STREET Taoyuan Tonlin will open in the Taoyuan Area, home to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwans gateway to the skies. That area is a frequent destination for tourists on their first or last days of travel to Taiwan. The shop will open within the Tonlin Plaza, a shopping mall located in front of Taoyuan Station. Not only is that location home to trendsetters and fashion, gourmet restaurants, and unique lifestyle products where locals come to do their everyday shopping, it is also an attraction for tourists from other parts of Taiwan as well.

2nd STREET Taoyuan Tonlin will carry approximately 12,000 luxurious items for reuse, including clothing, handbags, shoes, and accessories, carefully selected from the abundant inventory purchased at approximately 700 2ND STREET shops within Japan. Those items will include selections from Japanese designer brands as well as internationally popular luxury brands. The array of items will include reasonably priced quality selections from designer brands and boutiques in the United States and Europe as well.

The shop will be laid out, as is the case for 2ND STREET shops in Japan, in ways that categorize the different items and genres, making it easier to find what you are looking for. It will also include venues to brandish and sell recent fashion trends, including street styles.

The purchasing service will begin when the shop opens as a result of the short amount of time it took to develop the buyer training system in Taiwan.

2ND STREET TAIWAN has plans to open an additional nine shops by the end of March 2023.

2nd STREET Taoyuan Tonlin

Opening Date: Friday, May 13, 2022, local time

Address: 3F, No. 61, Zhongzheng Road, Taoyuan District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan

Hours of Operation: Sunday to Thursday 11:00 until 21:30 (from 11:00 to 22:00 on Fridays and Saturdays)

Floor Space: 4,340 square feet

Products on Sale: A total of approximately 12,000 items, including clothing, handbags, shoes, and accessories.

2ND STREET TAIWAN CO., LTD.

Address: 5F-11, 41 Nanjing W. Rd., Datong District, Taipei

Capitalization: 28 million NTD (a wholly-owned subsidiary of GEO Group)

Date of Establishment: August 30, 2019

Director: Sadaharu Deguchi

Business Description: Shop Management and Wholesale Sales for Used Clothing and Accessories

2ND STREET TAIWAN CO., LTD. URLs

Shop: https://2ndstreet.com.tw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/2ndstreet_taiwan/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2ndSTREET.TAIWAN/

LINE: https://line.me/R/ti/p/@062zihqb

GEO Holdings

GEO Holdings is a retail business, listed in the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with 300 billion yen in annual turnover. It manages more than 2,000 shops and EC stores in a wide variety of business formats, including GEO Shops that sell and rent DVDs, CDs, and video games, 2ND STREET shops that handle a comprehensive selection of used clothing, furniture, and appliances, as well as bargain shops and discount stationery stores.

See http://www.geonet.co.jp/english/ for more information.

The original source-language text of this announcement is the official, authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation only, and should be cross-referenced with the source-language text, which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220413005424/en/

HSIAOHAN CHIEN

2ND STREET TAIWAN CO., LTD.

TEL: +886-2-2550-5222

Source: GEO Holdings Corporation
New Facility Creates Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) from Food Waste Diverted from Landfills

BURLINGTON, Ontario & PONTINIA, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Anaergia Inc. (Anaergia or the Company) (TSX: ANRG) announced it officially commissioned its Easy Energia Ambiente facility in Pontinia, Italy, at a ceremony today. The state-of-the-art facility has the capacity to anaerobically digest 36,450 tons of landfill-diverted food scraps and other organic waste each year, and to convert this waste into 3,215,000 cubic meters of renewable natural gas (RNG or biomethane) that will be injected into the regions gas pipelines. The new plant will also treat the digestate that remains after the anaerobic digestion process to create 4,500 tons per year of high-quality natural fertilizer, plus enough water to cover all of this facilitys requirements. Anaergia was the technology provider for the project, and it will own and operate the facility.

Commissioning this facility marks the first milestone in achieving remarkable growth in Italy this year, said Andrew Benedek, Chairman and CEO of Anaergia. The six new facilities we plan to commission in 2022, and a seventh in 2023, will all add RNG to the Italian gas grid, providing more and more biomethane to replace fossil fuels. This will assist the European Union in achieving greater energy independence.

The Easy Energia Ambiente facility will receive the food waste it processes from waste collection companies operating in the region surrounding Rome. The food waste will be converted into biogas with the Companys high throughput and high efficiency Omnivore technology, and it will then be upgraded to pipeline quality RNG using other proprietary technologies of Anaergia.

This new facility exemplifies a new and better way of dealing with waste--we are moving away from the old approach of take, use and throw away and instead adopting principles of a circular economy, said Alessandro Massone, Anaergias Vice President of Sales in Italy. A circular economy means recovering new resources from wastelike renewable energy--from discarded organic material. We are proud to provide this advanced technology solution.

Food waste is the third-leading source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Landfilled food waste creates methane emissions, which have a far greater short-term effect in warming the planet than carbon dioxide. Reducing methane emissions curbs the adverse impacts of climate change more significantly in the near term compared to reducing carbon dioxide reductions.

About Anaergia

Anaergia was created to eliminate a major source of greenhouse gases by cost effectively turning organic waste into renewable natural gas (RNG), fertilizer and water, using proprietary technologies. With a proven track record from delivering world-leading projects on four continents, Anaergia is uniquely positioned to provide end-to-end solutions for extracting organics from waste, implementing high efficiency anaerobic digestion, upgrading biogas, producing fertilizer and cleaning water. Our customers are in the municipal solid waste, municipal wastewater, agriculture, and food processing industries. In each of these markets Anaergia has built many successful plants including some of the largest in the world. Anaergia owns and operates some of the plants it builds, and it also operates plants that are owned by its customers.

For further information please see: www.anaergia.com

Source: Anaergia Inc.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005774/en/

For media relations please contact: Melissa Bailey, Director, Marketing & Corporate Communications, [email protected]

For investor relations please contact: [email protected]

Source: Anaergia Inc.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aqara, a leading provider of smart home products, announced the launch of its new Motion Sensor P1, an updated model of the best-selling Aqara Motion Sensor. The sensor is a PIR motion and motion-light sensor that detects motion as well as the ambient light status in the room, and can be used for home security and automation. Built on the previous generation, the P1 model further extends the battery life to a record length of up to 5 years*, thanks to more power-efficient technologies and the improved batteries. The new sensor has been made available on Amazon in the US, Canada, Germany and France, as well as via selective Aqara retailers in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania**. It is expected to hit Amazon UK in the following weeks.

Based on the Zigbee 3.0 protocol which allows faster response, higher reliability and better compatibility, the Motion Sensor P1 adds more flexibility for users including a configurable detection timeout and the adjustable sensitivity level. No longer fixed at a 60-second timeout like the predecessor, the P1 sensor allows users to set the detection timeout between 1 to 200 seconds on the Aqara Home app. Its also possible to set the sensitivity level to high, medium or low, which refers to the distance from which the sensor will be triggered from, so that false alarms could be reduced. By default which is medium sensitivity, the sensor supports a field of view (FoV) of 170 for up to 2 meters and 150 for up to 7 meters.

The P1 motion sensor are compatible with major smart home ecosystems including HomeKit, Alexa, IFTTT and more. Moreover, the sensor will support Matter - the new connectivity standard for IoT devices - via an OTA update of Aqara hubs after the Matter rollout. The sensor itself also supports OTA updates, which means that new features and fixes now can be added after the release of the product.

Motion sensor has become increasingly popular among smart home users, as it is a natural part of the majority of smart home automations. The combination of an Aqara hub, a Motion Sensor P1 and controller devices like smart wall switches and roller shade drivers can automate many routine tasks, such as turning on the lights, opening the sun shades or controlling the TV. Moreover, with P1s built-in light sensor, the lights could be controlled more precisely. For example, users could set to turn on the hallway lights only when its dark and motion is detected, so that energy consumption is reduced, and the lifespan of lights is increased.

To celebrate the launch, Aqara now offers a 10% discount for the new Motion Sensor P1 on its Amazon brand stores. North American customers will enjoy the offer with the promo code MOTIONUS in the US and Canada, while European customers will enjoy it using the promo code EUMOTIONPI in Germany and France. Both codes will be valid through April 29, 2022.

For more details of the Motion Sensor P1, please visit our website.

* Based on lab test, on the assumption of LED trigger indicator disabled and detection timeout of no less than 30 seconds.

** Product availability may vary among different retail channels, and could be updated all the time. Its recommended to check with the regional retailer(s) for real time availability.

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For Media Inquiry:

Michell Li

Phone number: 86-18501199430

Email: [email protected]

Source: Aqara
CHARLESTON, W. Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- City National Bank received the highest ranking in customer satisfaction in the North Central Region in the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, claiming the top honor in its region for the fourth time in five years. City scored higher than all other banks in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

Providing exceptional personal service is of utmost importance at City  in our branches, through our digital banking channels and in our call center, said President and CEO Skip Hageboeck. Hearing that our customers are satisfied with the service they receive is the most meaningful recognition we could hope for.

Executive Vice President for Retail Tim Quinlan commended Citys employees, Our employees truly care about their customers and strive to provide the best possible experience for every person who walks through our doors, calls in or reaches out outline. This award is a testament to the efforts of all City employees and their personal commitments to serving their neighbors.

The U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, now in its 17th year, was redesigned for 2022. It measures satisfaction across seven factors (in order of importance): trust; people; account offerings; allowing customers to bank how and when they want; saving time and money; digital channels; and resolving problems or complaints.

In addition to ranking highest overall in its region, City also fared best in the factors of trust, people and account offerings.

The study is based on responses from 101,587 retail banking customers of the largest banks in the United States regarding their experiences with their retail bank. To view the full J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, click here.

About City National Bank

Headquartered in Charleston, W. Va., City National Bank operates 94 branches in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio. With $6 billion in assets, City offers a variety of financial products and services for both consumer and business customers.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427006139/en/

LeAnn Cain, Senior Marketing & PR Manager

304-769-1138

[email protected]

Source: City National Bank
Program continues support for military dependent scholarship recipients beyond college

EAST GREENWICH, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Corvias Foundation, a private foundation founded by Corvias Chairman John Picerne to support education opportunities for military families, today announced eight recipients of its Alumni Professional Development Grant, which is a post-graduate award granted to select past scholarship recipients by a committee of their peers. The grants offer the opportunity for Foundation scholars to advance their professional and personal growth through certification classes, conferences, academic courses and more.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005713/en/

Julia Moreno, one of eight recipients of the Corvias Foundation Alumni Professional Development Grant, is using her funds to complete a strategy execution certificate program through Harvard Business School. The organizations Alumni Advisory Board has awarded nearly $25,000 since the establishment of the grant program in 2019. (Photo: Business Wire)

Corvias Foundations support extends far beyond our scholars graduation dates, said Maria Montalvo, Corvias Foundations executive director. We believe in creating a community for our scholars and alumni that continues into their professional lives to ensure additional opportunities to help drive success and growth in their careers.

Each recipient was chosen by the organizations Alumni Advisory Board, a group that supports the personal, professional and philanthropic growth of Corvias Foundation scholars and alumni. Applicants complete a brief submission, detailing how the opportunity will benefit their growth. Board members review submissions twice a year and select recipients based on these factors: quality of professional development opportunity, relevance to professional growth, reasons for funding request, and commitment to giving back.

Julia Moreno, currently residing in Orlando, Florida, is one of the recipients of this year's grant and is using the funds to complete a strategic-execution certification program offered by Harvard Business School. Recently, Julia was promoted to Director of Client Services & Operations at a consulting firm, where she oversees all client engagements and provides logistical support to create strong partnerships. Through the extra course work, she hopes to learn how to better measure performance, progress, success and to manage risks in her workplace.

I am hoping this program will elevate my business acumen in ways that apply both internally and externally, Moreno said. Externally, my role is heavily client-facing. Having the vocabulary as well as the expertise to assure clients we are supporting them in ways that will create long-term sustainable growth is critical.

Internally, I want to ensure that the processes and changes I make are rooted in research and best practices, she said. At work, I am surrounded by brilliant minds with decades of hands-on experience. I want to follow that path and lead organizations one day with the same passion and experience that they do.

To learn more about Julias journey, view her vlog series here where she provides an inside look into her professional development experiences.

Corvias Foundation has awarded more than $15 million to more than 500 military dependents through the organizations scholarship program. To-date, the foundations Alumni Advisory Board has awarded nearly $25,000 in funds to individuals interested in expanding their professional skills. To learn more about Corvias Foundations mission and work, visit the website here.

About Corvias Foundation

Corvias Foundation is committed to inspiring students, college and university campuses, and military families to reach higher. Founded in 2006, our work increases access to educational, internship, mentoring, and volunteer opportunities so that those we touch are empowered to pursue their dreams and to make a greater impact in service to their communities and their nation. We strive to create ever-increasing opportunities by providing the resources and networks needed to help our scholars and partners surpass their goals. We achieve this through a commitment to education, community engagement and high-impact charitable giving. To learn more, please visit: corviasfoundation.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005713/en/

Media Contact:

Christina Chase, Corvias

401.541.3349

[email protected]

Source: Corvias Foundation
Packed with Bold Everything Flavor, the New Bread Joins Raisin The Roof! to Deepen the Brands Stake in the $457M Breakfast Category

MILWAUKIE, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Daves Killer Bread is rising to the breakfast occasion with its new killer offering, Epic Everything Organic Breakfast Bread. Combining Americas favorite bagel flavor with a classic whole grain loaf, the new bread explodes with bold onion and garlic flavor, a savory alternative to sweet fan favorite Raisin The Roof! cinnamon raisin bread.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005126/en/

Find Epic Everything and Raisin' The Roof! Organic Breakfast Breads wherever Dave's Killer Bread products are sold (Photo: Business Wire)

Consistent with the brands commitment to nutrition, Epic Everything serves up an awesome 9g of whole grains and 4g of protein. It makes killer avocado toast; BLTs; bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches and more. Like all Daves Killer Bread offerings, Epic Everything is certified USDA Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified, and contains no artificial ingredients, artificial preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup or bleached flour.

More than half of America rates breakfast their favorite meal of the day, and they arent limiting it to the morning, said Cristina Watson, brand manager at Daves Killer Bread. With the growing popularity of the everything flavor across multiple product segments and our BreadHeads love of our Epic Everything bagel, it was a no brainer to leverage the flavor in a breakfast bread.

A Breakfast Duo

Not to leave out the sweeter side, Daves Killer Bread Raisin The Roof! boasts 8g of whole grains and tasty cinnamon raisin swirls. Its as delicious as French toast and terrific for both sweet and savory grilled sandwiches. Wrapped in newly refreshed packaging, the loaf rounds out the brands sweet & savory Organic Breakfast Bread offerings.

Daves Killer Bread Organic Breakfast Breads are available now at retailers nationwide. The brand also offers delicious, organic whole grain English muffins and bagels, as well as its best-selling line of organic whole grain breads to rock any mealtime.

About Daves Killer Bread

Feeding consumers love of whole grains and rocking the bread aisle comes naturally to Daves Killer Bread. First introduced at the Portland Farmers Market in 2005, it is now the nations best-selling organic bread brand* with widespread distribution across the U.S. and Canada. The flagship organic bread brand for Flowers Foods (NYSE: FLO), Daves Killer Bread pioneered the organic seeded bread category and offers 23 varieties of whole grain organic bakery products, all of which are certified USDA organic and Non-GMO Project Verified. In addition, Daves Killer Breads commitment to Second Chance Employment (employing those with a criminal background) helps transform lives through job opportunities. One in three employee-partners at its Oregon bakery have a criminal background. The Daves Killer Bread Foundation inspires other businesses to become Second Chance Employers. Learn more at: http://www.daveskillerbread.com/ and http://www.dkbfoundation.org.

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Madeline Howard, Maxwell

Office: 503-231-3086 / [email protected]

Source: Daves Killer Bread
Further Bolsters Eastdil Secureds Market-Leading Hospitality Practice in Texas and the Sunbelt

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Eastdil Secured, L.L.C. (Eastdil Secured or the firm), the global real estate investment bank, today announced that it has hired John Bourret as Managing Director in its Dallas office, effective immediately. In this role, Mr. Bourret will be part of the firms global hospitality group and will be responsible for overseeing the hospitality business in the region, working closely with the entire hospitality group, including Louis Stervinou, Patrick Deming and Andy Wimsatt.

We are delighted to welcome a professional of Johns caliber to the firm, said D. Michael Van Konynenburg, President of Eastdil Secured. John has a proven record of delivering creative, actionable solutions for clients in the hospitality sector, and his decades of experience will be invaluable for our clients as they look to navigate this dynamic market. We are focused on further growing and expanding our footprint in key markets such as Texas and the greater Sunbelt, where we see significant investor and lender interest driven by the regions strong employment and population growth.

John brings his exceptional knowledge and relationships to our leading global hospitality business, added Louis Stervinou, Managing Director and a member of the firms Management Committee. Our team is coming off a strong 2021, during which we completed over $13 billion in global hospitality transactions, and we are excited to benefit from his expertise as we further grow our Texas and Sunbelt business.

Mr. Bourret joins fellow Managing Directors Clint Frease, Josh McArtor, Elizabeth Malone, Philip McKnight, Ryan Reid and K.C. Scheipe in the Dallas office. The firm completed over $45 billion of sales, joint ventures, financings and M&A-related transactions across Texas and the greater Sunbelt region in 2021. Amidst a dynamic and active market, the addition of Mr. Bourret underscores the firms commitment to the region and long-term confidence in both the broader commercial real estate market and the hospitality sector.

I am excited to join Eastdil Secureds industry-leading team in Texas and grow the firms hospitality-focused capabilities in both Texas and throughout the Sunbelt, said Mr. Bourret. This is an opportune time to invest in the sector given the unprecedented growth dynamics we are experiencing, and the need for the trusted, specialized insight that Eastdil Secured provides has never been greater. I look forward to working closely with my colleagues around the world to support clients, grow our practice and build on the firms industry-leading momentum in Texas and the greater Sunbelt.

The addition of Mr. Bourret brings the total number of transaction professionals in the firms Dallas office to 30, advising global clients across the industrial, multifamily, office, retail and hospitality sectors.

Prior to joining Eastdil Secured, Mr. Bourret was a Managing Director in the Hospitality Investment Advisory practice at Hodges Ward Elliott, specializing in institutional-grade hotel and resort property transactions throughout North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, including investment advisory, debt and equity placements. Prior to that, Mr. Bourret worked for more than 13 years at HFF, Inc., before its acquisition by JLL, where he played a critical role in forming and building its hospitality practice in Texas and the Central United States. Recent notable transactions include the recapitalization of the Ritz-Carlton Dallas and Hotel Crescent Court, the sale of the Hyatt Regency DFW Airport and the sale of Hotel Van Zandt in Austin. He is an active member of the North Texas Hotel Development Council of the Urban Land Institute. Mr. Bourret holds a B.A. from Texas Tech University.

About Eastdil Secured

As the most relevant and trusted advisor in the commercial real estate capital markets, Eastdil Secured creates value for clients through creative, actionable ideas and flawless execution. With an unrivaled combination of capital markets expertise and in-depth understanding of real estate fundamentals, Eastdil Secured delivers best-in-class advice on mergers and acquisitions, sales, joint ventures, debt placement, structured credit and loan sales to investors around the world. Headquartered in New York, Eastdil Secured has a broad global footprint to support clients with offices across the United States in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orange County, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., and internationally in Dubai, Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Milan, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo. For more information on Eastdil Secured, the global real estate investment bank, please visit https://www.eastdilsecured.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220426006318/en/

Jon Keehner / Jack Kelleher / Erik Carlson

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

212.355.4449

Source: Eastdil Secured, L.L.C.
 Strong Leasing Activity of 500,000 Square Feet 

 Updated FFO Outlook 

____________

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc. (NYSE: HPP), a unique provider of end-to-end real estate solutions for dynamic tech and media tenants in global epicenters for these synergistic, converging and secular growth industries, today announced financial results for the first quarter 2022.

"Our unique focus and specialized expertise in serving the growing tech and media industries yielded strong results during the first quarter, with notable leasing success across our world-class, amenitized, collaborative and sustainable office and studio space," commented Victor Coleman, Hudson Pacific's Chairman and CEO. "We signed over 500,000 square feet of leases, which included the full lease-up of our Harlow office development, and with tenant activity accelerating, we further expanded our leasing pipeline. Our work is progressing on over 2.3 million square feet of under construction and near-term planned state-of-the-art office and studio value creation opportunities, the first of which, Sunset Glenoaks, a 7-stage studio development in Los Angeles, will deliver in 2023."

Financial Results Compared to First Quarter 2021

Total revenue increased 14.7% to $244.5 million

Net loss attributable to common stockholders of $19.8 million, or $0.13 per diluted share, compared to net income of $5.0 million, or $0.03 per diluted share

FFO, excluding specified items, increased 2.3% to $75.2 million and 3.0% to $0.50 per diluted share. Specified items consist of a trade name non-cash impairment of $8.5 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, and transaction-related expenses of $0.3 million, or $0.00 per diluted share

FFO of $66.4 million, or $0.44 per diluted share, compared to $72.5 million, or $0.48 per diluted share

AFFO grew 11.8% to $58.6 million

Same-store property cash NOI was up 1.4% to $120.3 million

Leasing

In-service office portfolio ended the quarter at 91.1% occupied and 92.3% leased upon signing 504,000 square feet of new and renewal leases. GAAP and cash rents increased 12.0% and 5.8% respectively, from prior levels

Expanded global post-production firm Company 3 at the Company's Harlow office development on the Sunset Las Palmas studio lot in Hollywood with an approximately 11-year, 60,000-square-foot lease. Company 3 now leases and has taken possession of the entire 130,000-square-foot building, with GAAP revenue recognition on the expansion lease commencing January 2022

Renewed and expanded Bank of Montreal with a 105,000-square-foot, approximately 11-year lease through July 2035 at Bentall Center in Vancouver, which is the site of the Companys planned Burrard Exchange hybrid mass-timber office development

Development

Google began tenant improvements at the Companys 584,000-square-foot One Westside office redevelopment, which was delivered and commenced GAAP revenue recognition ahead of schedule in November 2021

Successfully progressing over 2.3 million square feet of under construction and near-term planned development projects, including the Companys under construction 7-stage, 241,000-square-foot Sunset Glenoaks studio development in Sun Valley, Los Angeles, which remains on-time and on-budget for delivery in third quarter 2023

Expected near-term closing and podium delivery for the Companys 546,000-square-foot Washington 1000 office development in Seattles Denny Triangle submarket, with anticipated construction start in second quarter 2022 and delivery in 2024

Advancing entitlements for Burrard Exchange, the Companys 450,000-square-foot hybrid mass-timber office building in Downtown Vancouver, and the 21-stage, 1.1 million-square-foot Sunset Waltham Cross studio development in Broxbourne, UK

Capital Markets

Entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement to purchase $200 million of outstanding common stock with approximately 6.6 million shares repurchased as of March 11 and final settlement expected during third quarter 2022

Balance Sheet as of March 31, 2022

$3.2 billion of the Company's share of unsecured and secured debt and preferred units (net of cash and cash equivalents)

$802.6 million of total liquidity comprised of $137.6 million of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and $665.0 million of undrawn capacity under the unsecured revolving credit facility. The Company also has $147.4 million and $90.2 million of undrawn capacity under the construction loans secured by One Westside/10850 Pico and Sunset Glenoaks, respectively

Investment grade credit rated with 68.2% unsecured and 75.4% fixed-rate debt and a weighted average maturity with extensions of 4.9 years

Dividend

The Company's Board of Directors declared and paid a dividend on its common stock of $0.25 per share, equivalent to an annual rate of $1.00 per share, and on its 4.750% Series C cumulative preferred stock of $0.4453125 per share

ESG Leadership

Launched new impact investing platform, EquiBlueTM, which will seek to leverage commercial real estate to holistically provide economic opportunity and upward mobility for women and people of color. EquiBlues initial fund will target $300 million of equity, of which the Company, as sponsor, and CBRE, as strategic partner and service provider, will commit at least 20%

2022 Outlook

The Company is narrowing its 2022 full-year FFO guidance to a range of $2.02 to $2.08 per diluted share, excluding specified items. Specified items consist of the trade name non-cash impairment of $8.5 million and transaction-related expenses of $0.3 million, both identified as excluded items in the Company's first quarter 2022 FFO. This guidance assumes the successful disposition of the Company's four held-for-sale properties before the end of the third quarter for gross proceeds in the range of $325 to $350 million, which the Company expects to use to repay outstanding amounts under its unsecured revolving credit facility, to fund development costs, and for general corporate purposes.

The FFO outlook reflects managements view of current and future market conditions, including assumptions with respect to rental rates, occupancy levels and the earnings impact of events referenced in this press release and in earlier announcements. It otherwise excludes any impact from new acquisitions, dispositions, debt financings or repayments, recapitalizations, capital markets activity or similar matters. There can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from this estimate.

Below are some of the assumptions the Company used in providing this guidance (dollars and share data in thousands):

Current Guidance Full Year 2022 Metric Low High FFO per share $2.02 $2.08 Growth in same-store property cash NOI(1)(2) 2.00% 3.00% GAAP non-cash revenue (straight-line rent and above/below-market rents)(3) $45,000 $55,000 GAAP non-cash expense (straight-line rent expense and above/below-market ground rent) $(4,500) $(4,500) General and administrative expenses(4) $(78,000) $(82,000) Interest expense(5) $(138,500) $(141,500) Interest income $1,750 $1,850 Corporate-related depreciation and amortization $(17,950) $(18,050) FFO from unconsolidated joint ventures $6,000 $7,000 FFO attributable to non-controlling interests $(70,500) $(74,500) FFO attributable to preferred units/shares $(21,000) $(21,000) Weighted average common stock/units outstandingdiluted(6) 147,300 148,300

(1) Same-store for the full year 2022 is defined as the 43 stabilized office properties and three studio properties owned and included in the portfolio as of January 1, 2021, and anticipated to still be owned and included in the portfolio through December 31, 2022. Same-store property cash NOI growth assumes the expiration (without renewal or backfill in 2022) of all 376,817 square feet leased to Qualcomm at Skyport Plaza as of July 31, 2022. Adjusted for this expiration, full year 2022 same-store property cash NOI growth would be 3.50% - 4.50%. (2) Please see non-GAAP information below for definition of cash NOI. (3) Includes non-cash straight-line rent associated with the studio and office properties. (4) Includes non-cash compensation expense, which the Company estimates at $25,000 in 2022. (5) Includes amortization of deferred financing costs and loan discounts/premiums, which the Company estimates at $13,000 in 2022. (6) Diluted shares represent ownership in the Company through shares of common stock, OP Units and other convertible or exchangeable instruments. The weighted average fully diluted common stock/units outstanding for 2022 includes an estimate for the dilution impact of stock grants to the Company's executives under its 2020, 2021 and 2022 long-term incentive programs. This estimate is based on the projected award potential of such programs as of the end of the most recently completed quarter, as calculated in accordance with the ASC 260, Earnings Per Share.

The Company does not provide a reconciliation for non-GAAP estimates on a forward-looking basis, including the information under "FFO Guidance" above, where it is unable to provide a meaningful or accurate calculation or estimation of reconciling items and the information is not available without unreasonable effort. This is due to the inherent difficulty of forecasting the timing and/or amount of various items that would impact net income attributable to common stockholders per diluted share, which is the most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP financial measure. This includes, for example, acquisition costs and other non-core items that have not yet occurred, are out of the Company's control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted. For the same reasons, the Company is unable to address the probable significance of the unavailable information. Forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures provided without the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures may vary materially from the corresponding GAAP financial measures.

Supplemental Information

Supplemental financial information regarding Hudson Pacific's first quarter 2022 results may be found on the Investors section of the Company's website at HudsonPacificProperties.com. This supplemental information provides additional detail on items such as property occupancy, financial performance by property and debt maturity schedules.

Conference Call

The Company will hold a conference call to discuss first quarter 2022 financial results at 11:00 a.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. ET on April 28, 2022. Please dial (844) 200-6205 and enter passcode 415769 to access the call. International callers should dial (929) 526-1599. A live, listen-only webcast and replay can be accessed via the Investors section of the Company's website at HudsonPacificProperties.com.

About Hudson Pacific Properties

Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE: HPP) is a real estate investment trust serving dynamic tech and media tenants in global epicenters for these synergistic, converging and secular growth industries. Hudson Pacifics unique and high-barrier tech and media focus leverages a full-service, end-to-end value creation platform forged through deep strategic relationships and niche expertise across identifying, acquiring, transforming and developing properties into world-class amenitized, collaborative and sustainable office and studio space. For more information visit HudsonPacificProperties.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," or "potential" or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases that are predictions of or indicate future events, or trends and that do not relate solely to historical matters. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and contingencies, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which may cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. All forward-looking statements reflect the Company's good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, but they are not guarantees of future performance. Furthermore, the Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, of new information, data or methods, future events or other changes. For a further discussion of these and other factors that could cause the Company's future results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements, see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and other risks described in documents subsequently filed by the Company from time to time with the SEC.

Consolidated Balance Sheets Unaudited, in thousands, except share data March 31, 2022 December 31, 2021 (Unaudited) ASSETS Investment in real estate, at cost $ 8,405,272 $ 8,361,477 Accumulated depreciation and amortization (1,354,245 ) (1,283,774 ) Investment in real estate, net 7,051,027 7,077,703 Non-real estate property, plant and equipment, net 59,894 58,469 Cash and cash equivalents 137,598 96,555 Restricted cash 60,183 100,321 Accounts receivable, net 28,671 25,339 Straight-line rent receivables, net 255,772 240,306 Deferred leasing costs and intangible assets, net 325,641 341,444 U.S. Government securities 127,157 129,321 Operating lease right-of-use assets 308,409 287,041 Prepaid expenses and other assets, net 140,776 119,000 Investment in unconsolidated real estate entities 160,821 154,731 Goodwill 109,439 109,439 Assets associated with real estate held for sale 239,020 250,520 TOTAL ASSETS $ 9,004,408 $ 8,990,189 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Liabilities Unsecured and secured debt, net $ 3,972,651 $ 3,733,903 In-substance defeased debt 127,294 128,212 Joint venture partner debt 66,136 66,136 Accounts payable, accrued liabilities and other 318,651 300,959 Operating lease liabilities 315,386 293,596 Intangible liabilities, net 39,472 42,290 Security deposits and prepaid rent 78,741 84,939 Liabilities associated with real estate held for sale 5,114 3,898 Total liabilities 4,923,445 4,653,933 Redeemable preferred units of the operating partnership 9,815 9,815 Redeemable non-controlling interest in consolidated real estate entities 127,684 129,449 Equity Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc. stockholders' equity: Preferred stock, $0.01 par value, 18,400,000 authorized at March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively; 4.750% Series C cumulative redeemable preferred stock; $25.00 per share liquidation preference, 17,000,000 outstanding at March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively 425,000 425,000 Common stock, $0.01 par value, 481,600,000 authorized, 144,559,168 shares and 151,124,543 shares outstanding at March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively 1,445 1,511 Additional paid-in capital 3,063,500 3,317,072 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (676 ) (1,761 ) Total Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc. stockholders' equity 3,489,269 3,741,822 Non-controlling interestmembers in consolidated real estate entities 398,941 402,971 Non-controlling interestunits in the operating partnership 55,254 52,199 Total equity 3,943,464 4,196,992 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY $ 9,004,408 $ 8,990,189

Consolidated Statements of Operations Unaudited, in thousands, except share data Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 2021 REVENUES Office Rental $ 206,192 $ 189,861 Service and other revenues 5,208 2,282 Total office revenues 211,400 192,143 Studio Rental 13,394 12,153 Service and other revenues 19,719 8,823 Total studio revenues 33,113 20,976 Total revenues 244,513 213,119 OPERATING EXPENSES Office operating expenses 73,631 66,562 Studio operating expenses 18,983 11,453 General and administrative 20,512 18,449 Depreciation and amortization 92,193 82,761 Total operating expenses 205,319 179,225 OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE) Income from unconsolidated real estate entities 303 635 Fee income 1,071 848 Interest expense (30,836 ) (30,286 ) Interest income 910 997 Management services reimbursement incomeunconsolidated real estate entities 1,108  Management services expenseunconsolidated real estate entities (1,108 )  Transaction-related expenses (256 )  Unrealized gain on non-real estate investments 1,650 5,775 Impairment loss (20,503 )  Other income (expense) 852 (452 ) Total other expense (46,809 ) (22,483 ) Net (loss) income (7,615 ) 11,411 Net income attributable to Series A preferred units (153 ) (153 ) Net income attributable to Series C preferred shares (5,290 )  Net income attributable to participating securities (294 ) (278 ) Net income attributable to non-controlling interest in consolidated real estate entities (8,561 ) (6,630 ) Net loss attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest in consolidated real estate entities 1,890 682 Net loss (income) attributable to non-controlling interest in the operating partnership 230 (50 ) NET (LOSS) INCOME ATTRIBUTABLE TO COMMON STOCKHOLDERS $ (19,793 ) $ 4,982 BASIC AND DILUTED PER SHARE AMOUNTS Net (loss) income attributable to common stockholdersbasic $ (0.13 ) $ 0.03 Net (loss) income attributable to common stockholdersdiluted $ (0.13 ) $ 0.03 Weighted average shares of common stock outstandingbasic 149,187,994 150,823,605 Weighted average shares of common stock outstandingdiluted 149,187,994 151,141,079

Funds From Operations Unaudited, in thousands, except per share data Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 2021 RECONCILIATION OF NET (LOSS) INCOME TO FUNDS FROM OPERATIONS (FFO)(1): Net (loss) income $ (7,615 ) $ 11,411 Adjustments: Depreciation and amortizationConsolidated 92,193 82,761 Depreciation and amortizationNon-real estate assets (4,432 ) (577 ) Depreciation and amortizationCompany's share from unconsolidated real estate entities 1,369 1,511 Impairment loss 12,003  Unrealized gain on non-real estate investments (1,650 ) (5,775 ) FFO attributable to non-controlling interests (20,004 ) (16,717 ) FFO attributable to preferred shares and units (5,443 ) (153 ) FFO to common stockholders and unitholders 66,421 72,461 Specified items impacting FFO: Impairment of trade name 8,500  Transaction-related expenses 256  One-time prior period net property tax adjustment  1,050 FFO (excluding specified items) to common stockholders and unitholders $ 75,177 $ 73,511 Weighted average common stock/units outstandingdiluted 151,426 152,504 FFO per common stock/unitdiluted $ 0.44 $ 0.48 FFO (excluding specified items) per common stock/unitdiluted $ 0.50 $ 0.48

Hudson Pacific calculates FFO in accordance with the White Paper on FFO approved by the Board of Governors of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). The White Paper defines FFO as net income or loss calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP), excluding gains and losses from sales of depreciable real estate and impairment write-downs associated with depreciable real estate, plus real estate-related depreciation and amortization (excluding amortization of deferred financing costs and depreciation of non-real estate assets), adjusting for consolidated and unconsolidated joint ventures. The calculation of FFO includes amortization of deferred revenue related to tenant-funded tenant improvements and excludes the depreciation of the related tenant improvement assets. Hudson Pacific believes that FFO is a useful supplemental measure of its operating performance. The exclusion from FFO of gains and losses from the sale of operating real estate assets allows investors and analysts to readily identify the operating results of the assets that form the core of the Company's activity and assists in comparing those operating results between periods. Also, because FFO is generally recognized as the industry standard for reporting the operations of REITs, it facilitates comparisons of operating performance to other REITs. However, other REITs may use different methodologies to calculate FFO, and accordingly, the Company's FFO may not be comparable to all other REITs.



Implicit in historical cost accounting for real estate assets in accordance with GAAP is the assumption that the value of real estate assets diminishes predictably over time. Since real estate values have historically risen or fallen with market conditions, many industry investors and analysts have considered presentations of operating results for real estate companies using historical cost accounting alone to be insufficient. Because FFO excludes depreciation and amortization of real estate assets, Hudson Pacific believes that FFO along with the required GAAP presentations provides a more complete measurement of the Company's performance relative to its competitors and a more appropriate basis on which to make decisions involving operating, financing and investing activities than the required GAAP presentations alone would provide. Hudson Pacific uses FFO per share to calculate annual cash bonuses for certain employees.



However, FFO should not be viewed as an alternative measure of Hudson Pacific's operating performance because it does not reflect either depreciation and amortization costs or the level of capital expenditures and leasing costs necessary to maintain the operating performance of the Company's properties, which are significant economic costs and could materially impact the Company's results from operations.

Net Operating Income Unaudited, in thousands Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 2021 RECONCILIATION OF NET (LOSS) INCOME TO NET OPERATING INCOME (NOI)(1): Net (loss) income $ (7,615 ) $ 11,411 Adjustments: Income from unconsolidated real estate entities (303 ) (635 ) Fee income (1,071 ) (848 ) Interest expense 30,836 30,286 Interest income (910 ) (997 ) Management services reimbursement incomeunconsolidated real estate entities (1,108 )  Management services expenseunconsolidated real estate entities 1,108  Transaction-related expenses 256  Unrealized gain on non-real estate investments (1,650 ) (5,775 ) Impairment loss 20,503  Other (income) expense (852 ) 452 General and administrative 20,512 18,449 Depreciation and amortization 92,193 82,761 NOI $ 151,899 $ 135,104 NET OPERATING INCOME BREAKDOWN Same-store office cash revenues 172,458 166,623 Straight-line rent 2,774 5,318 Amortization of above-market and below-market leases, net 2,578 2,466 Amortization of lease incentive costs (400 ) (422 ) Same-store office revenues 177,410 173,985 Same-store studios cash revenues 19,807 20,953 Straight-line rent 590 32 Amortization of lease incentive costs (9 ) (9 ) Same-store studio revenues 20,388 20,976 Same-store revenues 197,798 194,961 Same-store office cash expenses 60,455 57,616 Straight-line rent 325 366 Non-cash portion of interest expense 21 10 Amortization of above-market and below-market ground leases, net 586 586 Same-store office expenses 61,387 58,578 Same-store studio cash expenses 11,533 11,374 Non-cash portion of interest expense 68 79 Same-store studio expenses 11,601 11,453 Same-store expenses 72,988 70,031 Same-store net operating income 124,810 124,930 Non-same-store net operating income 27,089 10,174 NET OPERATING INCOME $ 151,899 $ 135,104 SAME-STORE OFFICE NOI INCREASE 0.5 % SAME-STORE OFFICE CASH NOI INCREASE 2.7 % SAME-STORE STUDIO NOI DECREASE (7.7 ) % SAME-STORE STUDIO CASH NOI DECREASE (13.6 ) %

Hudson Pacific evaluates performance based upon property NOI from continuing operations. NOI is not a measure of operating results or cash flows from operating activities or cash flows as measured by GAAP and should not be considered an alternative to income from continuing operations, as an indication of the Company's performance, or as an alternative to cash flows as a measure of liquidity, or the Company's ability to make distributions. All companies may not calculate NOI in the same manner. Hudson Pacific considers NOI to be a useful performance measure to investors and management because when compared across periods, NOI reflects the revenues and expenses directly associated with owning and operating the Company's properties and the impact to operations from trends in occupancy rates, rental rates and operating costs, providing a perspective not immediately apparent from income from continuing operations. Hudson Pacific calculates NOI as net income (loss) excluding corporate general and administrative expenses, depreciation and amortization, impairments, gains/losses on sales of real estate, interest expense, transaction-related expenses and other non-operating items. Hudson Pacific defines NOI as operating revenues (including rental revenues, other property-related revenue, tenant recoveries and other operating revenues), less property-level operating expenses (which includes external management fees, if any, and property-level general and administrative expenses). NOI on a cash basis is NOI adjusted to exclude the effect of straight-line rent and other non-cash adjustments required by GAAP. Hudson Pacific believes NOI on a cash basis is helpful to investors as an additional measure of operating performance because it eliminates straight-line rent and other non-cash adjustments to revenue and expenses.

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Investor Contact

Laura Campbell

Executive Vice President, Investor Relations & Marketing

(310) 622-1702

[email protected]



Media Contact

Laura Murray

Director, Communications

(310) 622-1781

[email protected]

Source: Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc.
Joint effort will establish quantum innovation accelerator in Singapore

SANTA ROSA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS), a leading provider of advanced design and validation solutions, and Singapores Quantum Engineering Programme (QEP) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate in accelerating research, development and education in quantum technologies.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005691/en/

National University of Singapore (NUS), Quantum Engineering Programme (QEP) and Keysight MOU signing ceremony. From left to right; Dr. Chen Guan Yow, Vice President and Head (New Businesses), Economic Development Board; Mr. Quek Gim Pew, Co-chair, QEP Steering Committee & Senior R&D Consultant for Ministry of Defence; Professor Chen Tsuhan, Deputy President (Research and Technology), NUS; Mr. Oh Sang Ho, Director of Keysight South Asia Pacific Regional Sales; Mr. Gooi Soon Chai, President of Keysight Order Fulfilment and Digital Operations & Keysight Senior Vice President; and Mr. Tan Boon Juan, Vice President & General Manager of Keysight General Electronics Measurement Solutions. (Photo: Business Wire)

The QEP was launched in 2018 by the National Research Foundation, Singapore (NRF) and hosted at the National University of Singapore (NUS), with the aim of supporting quantum technologies research and ecosystem building. The programme funds projects in quantum computing, quantum communication and security, quantum sensing, as well as a quantum foundry, that are expected to lead to practical uses.

Keysight is well positioned to provide modular and scalable quantum control systems, by leveraging the companys expertise in advanced measurement equipment, qubit control solutions and precise measurement instrumentation, which enable researchers to engineer and perhaps scale next-generation systems to harness the power of quantum computing and other quantum devices.

Its going to take a team effort to deliver on the promise of quantum technologies, whether that is better computing performance or more secure communication. We are glad to have Keysight join the partners of the Quantum Engineering Programme to support this work in Singapore, said Alexander Ling, director of the QEP. He is also an associate professor in the NUS Department of Physics and Principal Investigator at the Centre for Quantum Technologies.

Under the MOU, QEP and Keysight will closely cooperate in the development of quantum instrument packages, as well as the technologies that enable quantum systems to be scalable and deployable. In addition, they will establish a programme named Quantum Joint Innovation Accelerator that makes it easy for researchers participating in QEP to access several of Keysights software design tools and advanced test and measurement equipment. Researchers can apply to evaluate Keysight measurement tools in their laboratories and access equipment hosted at Keysights premises in Singapore.

"We're pleased to support QEP with quantum test solutions based on our expertise in advanced measurement and quantum engineering technologies," said Sang Ho Oh, general director for South Asia-Pacific at Keysight Technologies. "As the quantum ecosystem continues to build, Keysight will contribute solutions that will enable the Singapore ecosystem to accelerate the research, development and education of quantum technologies."

"Keysight and QEP will establish a collaborative framework to accelerate research and development in the emerging quantum technology ecosystem," said BJ Tan, vice president and general manager of Keysights general electronics measurement solutions. "Having this leading research partnership upstream will open up new frontiers and developments, which will propel industry innovations for years to come."

About the Quantum Engineering Programme (QEP)

The Quantum Engineering Programme (QEP) in Singapore will apply quantum technologies for solving user-defined problems, by funding research and supporting ecosystem building. Its work is focused over four pillars: quantum sensing, quantum communication and security, quantum computing and the establishment of a National Quantum Fabless Foundry. The programme was launched in 2018 by the National Research Foundation, Singapore, and is hosted by the National University of Singapore (NUS). More information is available at qepsg.org.

About National University of Singapore (NUS)

The National University of Singapore (NUS) is Singapores flagship university, which offers a global approach to education, research and entrepreneurship, with a focus on Asian perspectives and expertise. We have 17 faculties across three campuses in Singapore, with more than 40,000 students from 100 countries enriching our vibrant and diverse campus community. We have also established our NUS Overseas Colleges programme in more than 15 cities around the world.

Our multidisciplinary and real-world approach to education, research and entrepreneurship enables us to work closely with industry, governments and academia to address crucial and complex issues relevant to Asia and the world. Researchers in our faculties, 30 university-level research institutes, research centres of excellence and corporate labs focus on themes that include energy; environmental and urban sustainability; treatment and prevention of diseases; active ageing; advanced materials; risk management and resilience of financial systems; Asian studies; and Smart Nation capabilities such as artificial intelligence, data science, operations research and cybersecurity.

For more information on NUS, please visit https://www.nus.edu.sg/

About Keysight Technologies

Keysight delivers advanced design and validation solutions that help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world. Keysights dedication to speed and precision extends to software-driven insights and analytics that bring tomorrows technology products to market faster across the development lifecycle, in design simulation, prototype validation, automated software testing, manufacturing analysis, and network performance optimization and visibility in enterprise, service provider and cloud environments. Our customers span the worldwide communications and industrial ecosystems, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, semiconductor and general electronics markets. Keysight generated revenues of $4.9B in fiscal year 2021. For more information about Keysight Technologies (NYSE: KEYS), visit us at www.keysight.com.

More information about Keysights involvement in the emerging technologies of quantum computing can be found at https://www.keysight.com/us/en/solutions/emerging-technologies/quantum-solutions.html.

Additional information about Keysight Technologies is available in the newsroom at https://www.keysight.com/go/news and on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

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QEP CONTACT:

Jenny Hogan

+65 65164302

[email protected]

KEYSIGHT TECHNOLOGIES CONTACTS:

Geri Lynne LaCombe, Americas/Europe

+1 303 662 4748

[email protected]

Fusako Dohi, Asia

+81 42 660-2162

[email protected]

Source: Keysight Technologies, Inc.
Excluding US operations according to IFRS 5, Group's consolidated quarterly revenue at 2.3 million euros

Operating and net earnings excluding US operations according to IFRS 5 at the break-even point

Positive EBITDA at 0.2 million euros excluding US activities according to IFRS 5

GRENOBLE, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News:

MEMSCAP (NYSE Euronext: MEMS), the leading provider of innovative solutions based on MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) technology, today announced its earnings for the first quarter ending March 31, 2022.

Launch of the restructuring of the US operations / Analysis of the consolidated income statement

As part of the progress of the Fablite plan, the MEMSCAP Group has initiated the restructuring phase of the US operations.

Several options are considered, including the possibility of the sale of the US industrial operations. In accordance with IFRS 5 Non-current assets held for sale and discontinued operations, revenue from the US operations is excluded from revenue from continuing operations and included in the consolidated income statement via the loss after tax from discontinued operations.

Consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2022 excluding US operations amounted to 2.3 million euros (2.6 million US dollars) compared to 2.2 million euros (2.6 million US dollars) for the first quarter of 2021.

Consolidated revenue distribution by market segment, over the first quarter of 2022 and presented in accordance with IFRS 5, is as follows:

Market segments / Revenue (In million euros)  Non-audited Q1 21 % Q1 22 % Aerospace 0.9 42% 1.7 74% Medical 1.2 57% 0.6 25% Others 0.0 1% 0.0 1% Total revenue from continuing operations 2.2 100% 2.3 100% Revenue from US operations (Discontinued operations)  IFRS 5 0.6 -- 0.4 --

(Any apparent discrepancies in totals are due to rounding.)

MEMSCAPs consolidated earnings for the first quarter of 2022, and presented in accordance with IFRS 5, are given within the following table:

In million euros  Non-audited Q1 21 Q1 22 Revenue from continuing operations 2.2 2.3 Cost of revenue (1.1) (1.4) Gross margin 1.0 0.8 % of revenue 49% 37% Operating expenses* (0.8) (0.8) Operating profit / (loss) 0.3 0.0 Financial profit / (loss) (0.0) (0.1) Income tax expense (0.0) 0.0 Net profit / (loss) from continuing operations 0.3 (0.0) Profit / (loss) after tax from discontinued operations (0.4) (0.4) Net profit / (loss) (0.1) (0.4)

(Any apparent discrepancies in totals are due to rounding.)

* Net of research & development grants.

* * *

(The following financial data are restated according to IFRS 5  Excluding US operations)

Consolidated sales for the first quarter of 2022 confirmed the recovery of the avionics business, up +0.8 million euros (+87%) compared to the first quarter of 2021. The evolution of the business volumes relating to the medical business (down -0.7 million euros) resulted in particular from the annual delivery schedules marked by high delivery levels in the first quarter of 2021.

The Group's gross margin rate stood at 37% of consolidated sales compared to 49% for the first quarter of 2021, notably resulting from the change in the sales mix during the first quarter of 2022.

The amount of operating expenses at 0.8 million euros for the first quarter of 2022 was similar to the first quarter of 2021.

The Group therefore reported consolidated operating and net earnings from continuing operations at the breakeven point for the first quarter of 2022 compared to consolidated operating and net profit from continuing operations at 0.3 million euros for the first quarter of 2021.

EBITDA from continuing operations amounted to +0.2 million euros for the first quarter of 2022 compared to +0.5 million euros for the first quarter of 2021.

* * *

Analysis and perspectives

At the end of the restructuring phase of the US operations, the Norwegian entity, including the avionics and medical businesses of the Group, will become the operational core of the MEMSCAP Group. Its activities in the first quarter of 2022 posted the highest level of quarterly sales since the second quarter of 2018, i.e. 14 consecutive quarters, thanks to the momentum of the avionics business.

These ongoing restructuring operations should lead to a significant improvement in the Group's operating profitability.

* * *

MEMSCAP general shareholders meeting: May 31, 2022.

Q2 2022 earnings: July 27, 2022.

About MEMSCAP

MEMSCAP is the leading provider of innovative micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)-based solutions.

MEMSCAPs products and solutions include components, component designs (IP), manufacturing and related services.

For more information, visit our website at:

www.memscap.com.

MEMSCAP is listed on Euronext Paris  - Segment C - ISIN: FR0010298620 - MEMS.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220426006176/en/

Yann Cousinet

Chief Financial Officer

Ph.: +33 (0) 4 76 92 85 00

[email protected]

Source: MEMSCAP
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, funding to Ontarios health and safety associations declined by approximately 17 per cent between 2013 to 2020.

On April 28, National Workers Day of Mourning for those who lost their lives on the job, CUPE calls on all political parties to commit to improved spending on health and safety training and the reinvestment of Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) budget surpluses back into vital occupational health programs.

COVID-19 has fundamentally shifted how we think about health and safety at work. But, despite hard lessons learned during this and previous pandemics, we continue to see provincial governments implement stark cuts to our first lines of defence against infectious diseases: awareness and prevention, says Harry Goslin, President of the Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU)/Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1750, representing more than 3,600 employees at the WSIB and the Infrastructure Health & Safety Association (IHSA).

Investment in health and safety training is fundamental to workers wellbeing and reduces accidents and injuries in the workplace, and in turn, presents real cost-savings to safe employers.

Investment in occupational health and safety training results in fewer workplace injuries, fatalities, and WSIB claims, says Goslin.

For every dollar invested in health and safety, safe employers can see financial gains that can range from $1.24 to $2.14, according to research commissioned by WSIB Ontario.

Health and safety are based on hard science, not political agendas. With the provincial election around the corner, its time for political parties to decide what side of history they want to rest onthe laxation of unpopular, but necessary restrictions or the protection of frontline workers across the province, says Goslin.

lf/cope491

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005717/en/

For more information and media requests:

Paul Whyte

Communications Representative

CUPE Communications

647-212-9887

[email protected]

Source: Canadian Union of Public Employees
Neuron Mobility, Canadas fastest-growing e-scooter operator, announces it has raised US$43.5M in a Series B investment round, bringing their total capital raised to US$77.7M

Since Neurons last investment round, in September 2020, the company has tripled its operations by launching in 22 new cities globally, solidifying their leadership position in Australia and New Zealand, expanding global operations in the UK and South Korea, while also becoming Canadas fastest growing e-scooter operator in their first year

New investment will fuel Neurons rapid global expansion which is focused on winning highly prized city tenders to operate long-term micromobility programs, rather than launching in unregulated free-for-all cities which are often less predictable

Neuron will continue to differentiate from the competition by designing and manufacturing their own safety-first e-scooters, investing in more proprietary technology to help win competitive tenders, and integrate into cities in the best possible way

The funding round was co-led by global venture firms GSR Ventures and Square Peg. Singapores EDBI, global Asia-based investor, also joined the round

CALGARY, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Neuron Mobility, Canadas fastest-growing shared e-scooter and e-bike operator, announces it has successfully raised US$43.5 million in Series B funding. This follows 19 months of significant growth and brings the companys total funding to US$77.7 million. The investment round was co-led by global venture firms GSR Ventures and Square Peg. Also joining the round was Singapores EDBI, a global Asia-based investor.

Fresh capital will fuel Neurons unique international expansion strategy, which is laser-focused on winning highly prized competitive tenders. Increasingly, cities are choosing to limit the number of micromobility operators by awarding long-term contracts to the best operators which prioritize managing e-scooters and e-bikes in a sustainable and responsible way. This suits Neurons willingness to partner with cities and is far more predictable, with higher vehicle-use rates, than operating in less-regulated free-for-all markets with low, or no, barriers to entry.

Funding will also allow the company to continue to design and manufacture their own safety-first e-scooters, as well as develop and roll out a range of innovative technology at scale. This vertically integrated approach  which differs from most other shared micromobility companies  allows Neuron to innovate quicker and more efficiently. Continuous operational data and feedback enables the company to adapt and update their vehicles quickly to perform better and last longer. This provides the company with a competitive advantage as more cities across the world look to select only the best and most innovative micromobility providers.

Since Neurons last funding round 19 months ago, the company has more than tripled its operations, growing from seven cities in September 2020 to 26 cities today. Neuron launched in Canada in May 2021 and has since gained permits to operate in over 30 per cent of all available cities to become the fastest-growing e-scooter operator in the country. To date, the company has secured permits in five Canadian cities, including Ottawa, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge, and Vernon.

Over the last year, more Canadian cities have embraced micromobility, particularly shared e-scooter programs. Across the country, e-scooter programs have been well-received with an average of 46 per cent of all Neuron trips replacing car journeys. This has led to a reduction in congestion and carbon emissions which makes cities more livable and also supports their sustainability goals. E-scooters are extending existing transportation networks, providing a safe, convenient and environmentally-friendly alternative transport option for both commuting and recreational purposes. Studies have also shown that e-scooters have helped boost local economies by driving more people to small businesses and tourism hubs. In 2021, Neuron e-scooters clocked up over 1.2 million kilometers in Canada.

In Australia, Neuron has solidified its position as the countrys leading micromobility operator and the company has won every competitive tender it has participated in, bringing their total number of operational cities in Australia to 14. The company also increased its global footprint with city launches in the United Kingdom and South Korea.

Zachary Wang, Neuron Mobilitys CEO, said: Cities are shifting to a more regulated way of managing shared micromobility, increasingly selecting the best one or two operators before awarding them long-term contracts. This fully validates our strategy, and the strong foundations we have built in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK give us a great springboard to scale globally. Over the last 19 months Neuron has launched in 22 new cities and the vast majority have been the result of winning competitive tenders  this bodes very well for the future.

He continued: We think our vertically integrated approach, designing and building our own e-scooters and the systems that run them, gives us a unique advantage. Proprietary technologies, like our e-scooter brain and a range of AI innovations, are a real differentiator and help us integrate into cities in the best possible way.

Yuechen Zhao, Partner at GSR Ventures, said: We are happy to support the Neuron team as they deliver on their exciting expansion plans. Neuron takes a unique partnership approach when it comes to working with cities, continually adapting and innovating to meet their needs. We look forward to seeing Neuron further advance their technology leadership by adding to their long list of innovations over the coming months.

Square Pegs Partner, Tushar Roy, said: Innovation and collaboration is part of Neurons DNA. The company continues to create new technology to address the mobility and logistics challenges of individual cities, and they work closely with councils to implement them in a way that drives better outcomes for all stakeholders. This approach will stand them in good stead as they deliver on their exciting expansion plans.

Investing in technology

New investment will fund more proprietary technology and will accelerate the launch of Neurons new e-scooter brain which will be rolled out on their e-scooters in key cities. The technology includes industry-leading High Accuracy Location Technology (HALT) which can correct GPS variance to locate an e-scooter to within 10 centimetres rather than the industry norm of 5-10 metres. It also includes a range of smart sensors and a Dangerous Riding Detection system, which will combat sidewalk riding, aggressive swerving, skidding, tandem riding and curb jumping. The technology allows the company to correct or penalize unsafe behaviours while also incentivizing safe riding. A major technology trial  the first of its kind  involving 1,500 e-scooters in Australia, Canada and the UK was announced in November 2021.

Neuron designs and manufactures its own e-scooters for safety and sustainable operations. Its long list of industry firsts includes the first battery swappable e-scooter in 2018 for greener operations. In the same year, they launched a full suite of geofencing to control where and how e-scooters are ridden. In early 2020 they launched the first app-controlled helmet lock which integrates a helmet to every e-scooter.

About Neuron Mobility

Neuron, Canada's fastest-growing e-scooter operator, differentiates by being the best partner to cities while also leading the industry when it comes to safety and sustainable operations. Founded in Singapore in 2016, the company has introduced an impressive number of industry world firsts and pioneering innovations including e-scooter battery swapping, geofencing control and integrated helmets. Neuron announced its arrival into Canada in 2021 and has since expanded its operations to five Canadian markets including Ottawa, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge and Vernon. Neuron is also the leading operator in Australia and New Zealand and has operations in the United Kingdom. For more information, visit: https://rideneuron.com

About GSR Ventures

Founded in 2004, GSR Ventures is one of the worlds most successful early-stage venture firms, with over $3 billion under management and offices in Silicon Valley, Singapore, and Beijing. We are focused on early-stage technology companies developing innovative enterprise software, consumer platforms, and healthcare technology. The GSR team brings unmatched expertise and includes founders, industry veterans, enterprise executives, and physicians. For more information, visit www.gsrventures.com.

About Square Peg

Square Peg is a global venture capital fund that invests across Southeast Asia, Australia, Israel and with a focus on Seed to Series B. It backs outstanding founders with the vision and tenacity to build transformative technology companies. Its global portfolio of technology companies has spanned industries and business models, including category leaders like Kredivo, Canva and Fiverr.

About EDBI

Investing since 1991, EDBI is a Singapore-based global investor in select high growth technology sectors ranging from Information & Communication Technology (ICT), Emerging Technology (ET), Healthcare (HC) and promising Singapore SMEs in strategic industries. As a value-creating investor, EDBI assists companies achieve their ambitious goals by leveraging our broad network, resources and expertise. With our growth capital, EDBI supports companies seeking to grow in Asia and globally through Singapore. For more information, visit https://www.edbi.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005744/en/

For Media Enquiries

Matt Roth

[email protected]

647.518.6754



Derek Holota

[email protected]

343.422.5606



Gwen McGuire

[email protected]

Source: Neuron Mobility
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News:

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) will host a live audio webcast of its 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. ET. The meeting will be held in a virtual format only, including closed captioning, and can be accessed at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PMI2022.

During the meeting, Andre Calantzopoulos, Executive Chairman of the Board, and Jacek Olczak, Chief Executive Officer, will address shareholders and answer questions. Only shareholders of record with a valid 16-digit control number will be allowed to ask a question or make a comment.

The audio webcast may also be accessed on iOS or Android devices by downloading PMIs free Investor Relations Mobile Application at www.pmi.com/irapp.

An archived copy of the webcast will be available for approximately one year from the date of the meeting at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PMI2022.

Presentation slides and script will also be available at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PMI2022.

Philip Morris International: Delivering a Smoke-Free Future

Philip Morris International (PMI) is a leading international tobacco company working to deliver a smoke-free future and evolving its portfolio for the long-term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. The companys current product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products, including heat-not-burn, vapor and oral nicotine products, which are sold in markets outside the U.S. Since 2008, PMI has invested more than USD 9 billion to develop, scientifically substantiate and commercialize innovative smoke-free products for adults who would otherwise continue to smoke, with the goal of completely ending the sale of cigarettes. This includes the building of world-class scientific assessment capabilities, notably in the areas of pre-clinical systems toxicology, clinical and behavioral research, as well as post-market studies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the marketing of versions of PMIs IQOS Platform 1 devices and consumables as Modified Risk Tobacco Products (MRTPs), finding that exposure modification orders for these products are appropriate to promote the public health. As of March 31, 2022, PMI's smoke-free products are available for sale in 71 markets, and PMI estimates that approximately 12.7 million adults around the world excluding Russia and Ukraine, have already switched to IQOS and stopped smoking. With a strong foundation and significant expertise in life-sciences, in February 2021 PMI announced its ambition to expand into wellness and healthcare areas and deliver innovative products and solutions that aim to address unmet consumer and patient needs. For more information, please visit www.pmi.com and www.pmiscience.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005512/en/

Philip Morris International

Investor Relations:

New York: +1 (917) 663 2233

Lausanne: +41 (0)58 242 4666

Email: [email protected]

Media: David Fraser

Lausanne: +41 (0)58 242 4500

Email: [email protected]

Source: Philip Morris International
SDKs Allow Rollbar Users to Keep Current with the Languages, Frameworks of Their Choice

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Rollbar, provider of real-time error monitoring Software as a Service, today announced new and updated software development kits (SDKs) and capabilities. These SDKs keep Rollbar current on both older, but very significant, platforms like .Net, PHP and Laravel and also the fastest-moving platforms like Apple iOS, React, Typescript and Flutter.

Rollbar is an essential tool from the moment developers say Hello World in whatever language they leverage. These releases ensure that we evolve along with the range of languages and frameworks that we support, said Rollbar Chief Product Officer Cyrus Radfar.

The new and updated SDKs that Rollbar unveiled today include:

.Net v5 : The latest release of Rollbars .Net SDK adds Blazor browser-side WebAssembly (Wasm) support and introduces RollbarInfrastructure. When enabled within Blazor client-side hosts, RollbarInfrastructure offloads significant payload packaging and processing to a dedicated background worker thread to be handled asynchronously. Also, Rollbar configuration can now be grouped into functionally relevant groups, or configurational options, instead of one long flat list of settings.

: The latest release of Rollbars .Net SDK adds Blazor browser-side WebAssembly (Wasm) support and introduces RollbarInfrastructure. When enabled within Blazor client-side hosts, RollbarInfrastructure offloads significant payload packaging and processing to a dedicated background worker thread to be handled asynchronously. Also, Rollbar configuration can now be grouped into functionally relevant groups, or configurational options, instead of one long flat list of settings. Apple/Mac SDK : The successor to the Rollbar-iOS SDK, this new release is more lightweight, has better-defined public APIs that are more Swift-friendly and can be used on all current Apple operating systems and platforms. The modular design allows users to leverage all or just parts of this SDK, for which each SDK module is a self-contained SPM package that automatically brings in any required dependency on any other package of the SDK as needed. Also, crash reporting with this SDK is now optional. Memory management features are coming soon.

: The successor to the Rollbar-iOS SDK, this new release is more lightweight, has better-defined public APIs that are more Swift-friendly and can be used on all current Apple operating systems and platforms. The modular design allows users to leverage all or just parts of this SDK, for which each SDK module is a self-contained SPM package that automatically brings in any required dependency on any other package of the SDK as needed. Also, crash reporting with this SDK is now optional. Memory management features are coming soon. Flutter Beta: This SDK is a fully-functional implementation of a Rollbar notifier that allows users to compose and transmit logging payloads to Rollbar.com. It can be used on any application based on Dart or Flutter. It can tap into Flutters uncaught/unhandled exceptions pipeline and forward all unhandled exceptions to Rollbar globally within the application. It includes RollbarInfrastructure for payload offloading. Also, its connectivity monitor serves to optimize unnecessary payload transmission during offline intervals.

This SDK is a fully-functional implementation of a Rollbar notifier that allows users to compose and transmit logging payloads to Rollbar.com. It can be used on any application based on Dart or Flutter. It can tap into Flutters uncaught/unhandled exceptions pipeline and forward all unhandled exceptions to Rollbar globally within the application. It includes RollbarInfrastructure for payload offloading. Also, its connectivity monitor serves to optimize unnecessary payload transmission during offline intervals. PHP 8/Laravel 9: The latest release of this SDK adds support for PHP 8 and Laravel 9 and delivers an array of new functionality. Travis actions can now be converted to GitHub with this release. CI has been enabled for pull requests. There is now a fallback on the getKey method. This SDK also makes available the Laravel integration test matrix.

The latest release of this SDK adds support for PHP 8 and Laravel 9 and delivers an array of new functionality. Travis actions can now be converted to GitHub with this release. CI has been enabled for pull requests. There is now a fallback on the getKey method. This SDK also makes available the Laravel integration test matrix. react v0.10.0: With this new release, Typescript projects are now fully supported. Typescript projects have a dependency on Rollbars javascript SDK, so that must be installed as well. Additionally, this SDK now supports class components.

These SDK releases and updates demonstrate Rollbars commitment to supporting developers in improving code across all platforms and environments, said Brian Rue, CEO and co-founder at Rollbar. They show that Rollbar continues to improve its offering across all the platforms it supports and continues to add new platforms. And as we introduce new capabilities in one SDK, we add them to the other SDKs that we support as quickly as possible.

To access and install these SDKs, click on the following links:

To get free access to Rollbar forever, click here.

About Rollbar

Rollbar helps developers deploy better software, faster, with solutions that identify, prioritize and resolve coding errors. Rollbar works alongside a development team's existing tool chain to give greater coverage and insights into broken code, across the development lifecycle. Used by thousands of companies, such as Salesforce, Twilio, Uber, Instacart, Twitch and Kayak, Rollbar has won accolades for its ability to accelerate release cycles, reduce costs and improve software quality. Learn more at https://rollbar.com/ or follow us @Rollbar.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220426005079/en/

Miranda Honnoll for Rollbar

[email protected]

408.887.8486

Source: Rollbar
Availability of informational documents

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News:

The shareholders of Sopra Steria Group (Paris: SOP) are invited to attend the Combined General Meeting to be held on 1st June 2022, at 2.30 p.m., at the Pavillon Dauphine, Place du Marechal de Lattre de Tassigny, 75116 Paris.

Given the current context relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ways of participating in the General Meeting are modified and may change based on public-health and/or legal imperatives. Shareholders are invited to regularly consult the dedicated General Meeting section on the companys website: https://www.soprasteria.com/investors/investors-relations-shareholders/shareholders-meetings?year=2022

Notice of the Combined General Meeting, containing the agenda and draft resolutions, was published on 04 April 2022 in the BALO, issue no. 40.

Documents and information required by Article R.225-83 of the French Commercial Code will be available to shareholders in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations:

Up to the fifth day, inclusive, prior to the Combined General Meeting, all holders of registered shares may request that the company send them these documents and information. Holders of bearer shares who wish to exercise this right must produce a certificate proving that the shares are registered on the bearer share accounts maintained by an authorised intermediary.

All shareholders may inspect these documents at the companys registered office during a period of 15 days prior to the Combined General Meeting.

The documents may also be consulted on Sopra Steria Groups website: https://www.soprasteria.com/investors/investors-relations-shareholders/shareholders-meetings?year=2022

Disclaimer

This document is a free translation into English of the original French press release. It is not a binding document. In the event of a conflict in interpretation, reference should be made to the French version, which is the authentic text.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005618/en/

Investor Relations

Sopra Steria Group

Olivier Psaume

[email protected]

+33.1.40.67.68.16

Press Relations

Image Sept

Caroline Simon-Felip

[email protected]

+33.1.53.70.74.65

Source: Sopra Steria Group
Report shows how Regions Bank and the Regions Foundation are creating more inclusive prosperity.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) on Wednesday announced the release of the Making Life Better: 2021 Community Engagement Report. The report highlights how Regions Bank and the nonprofit Regions Foundation, along with Regions Bank associates, are taking steps to make a clear and beneficial difference in helping people, businesses and communities achieve success.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005077/en/

Regions Bank and the Regions Foundation are committed to creating more inclusive prosperity. (Photo: Business Wire)

Regions Bank and the Regions Foundation serve and support many of the fastest-growing markets in the country, said Leroy Abrahams, head of Community Affairs for Regions Bank and president and chairman of the Regions Foundation. As our communities grow, we are mindful of the fact that, for communities to truly succeed, all people need an opportunity to take part in that success. This report reaffirms Regions commitment to fostering inclusive prosperity by highlighting the many ways Regions Bank and the Regions Foundation are taking meaningful action to address important needs.

Regions Bank and the Regions Foundation align their community engagement initiatives toward three key priorities:

Advancing economic and community development;

Supporting education and workforce readiness;

And increasing financial wellness.

These priorities also complement the commitment of Regions Bank and the Regions Foundation to advance racial equity and economic empowerment for communities of color while also helping close the wealth gap and the digital divide. In addition, the Making Life Better: 2021 Community Engagement Report provides key updates on Regions commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Among highlights from the report:

Fostering Inclusive Prosperity Through Economic and Community Development

Regions Bank invested $4.4 billion in community development through small-business and small-farm lending, community development lending, and other community-focused investments in 2021.

In addition to funding programs that foster and sustain homeownership, the Regions Foundation invested $8 million in two socially responsible funds that create more economic development and affordable housing.

The Regions Community Development Corporation (RCDC) invested $33 million in new debt and equity commitments for the purposes of affordable housing development, economic revitalization and supporting low- and moderate-income (LMI) small businesses and individuals. The RCDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Regions Bank that provides debt and equity financing for projects and entities with a clear community development purpose.

Fostering Inclusive Prosperity Through Education and Workforce Readiness

Regions Bank supported organizations that provide hands-on trade skills, service-learning opportunities for college students, and skill-building for people with disabilities.

The Regions Foundation provided financial support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) including Tuskegee University, Miles College, Alabama State University, Alabama A&M University and Tennessee State University to help ensure academic success for their students.

Fostering Inclusive Prosperity Through Financial Wellness

Extensive work was completed in 2021 to expand Regions Banks financial wellness programs to include a series of online seminars for people with disabilities; further, the bank prepared new online modules to help people maintain financial stability during a medical hardship. This work was formally announced in March 2022 as Regions Bank made a $50,000 contribution to RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit that leverages donations to purchase large bundles of medical debt and then relieve that debt with no tax consequences to the people who are helped.

Approximately 1.4 million people received financial education from Regions Bank in 2021.

Regions Bank associates led approximately 124,000 financial wellness workshops in a variety of settings.

Fostering Inclusive Prosperity with a Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Regions was once again designated a Military Friendly Employer by Military Friendly, an organization that measures the commitment of companies to create professional opportunities that leverage military experience. Regions placed in all four categories of the Military Friendly ratings.

The bank was recognized as a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion after earning a perfect score of 100 on the Disability Equality Index.

In June 2020, Regions Bank and the Regions Foundation announced a two-year, $12 million commitment to advance programs and initiatives that promote racial equity and economic empowerment for communities of color. By December 2021, both entities combined to invest $14.6 million in 18 months, surpassing the commitment six months early. Investments focused on strengthening community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions, growing minority-owned businesses, increasing minority homeownership, reducing the digital divide, and promoting educational attainment and workforce success.

Regions Bank received a score of 100% on the Human Rights Campaign Foundations 2021 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nations foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality.

Regions Bank and the Regions Foundation saw significant results in 2021, and both the bank and foundation are working in 2022 to build on that progress, Abrahams concluded. Through strategically aligning resources with needs, there is tremendous potential to do even more.

The 2021 Community Engagement Report is available to read and download here on regions.com. More information about Regions Bank and the Regions Foundation is available in the Community Engagement section of regions.com.

About Regions Foundation

Regions Foundation supports community investments that positively impact the communities served by Regions Bank. The Foundation engages in a grantmaking program focused on priorities including economic and community development; education and workforce readiness; and financial wellness. The Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation funded primarily through contributions from Regions Bank.

About Regions Financial Corporation

Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF), with $164 billion in assets, is a member of the S&P 500 Index and is one of the nations largest full-service providers of consumer and commercial banking, wealth management, and mortgage products and services. Regions serves customers across the South, Midwest and Texas, and through its subsidiary, Regions Bank, operates approximately 1,300 banking offices and more than 2,000 ATMs. Regions Bank is an Equal Housing Lender and Member FDIC. Additional information about Regions and its full line of products and services can be found at www.regions.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220427005077/en/

Jeremy D. King

Regions Bank

205-264-4551

regions.doingmoretoday.com

Follow Regions News on Twitter: @RegionsNews

Source: Regions Financial Corp.
(Updated - April 27, 2022 10:38 AM EDT)

Germany is prepared to back a gradual ban on Russian oil, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with talks among EU ambassadors.

Berline would support a phased approach to targeting oil rather than some other options.
CGI (NYSE: GIB) announced today that it has entered into an agreement for the acquisition, through its subsidiary CGI France SAS, of all of the shares of Harwell Management holding and their subsidiaries. Harwell Management is a management consulting firm specializing in the financial services industry and operating mainly within the French market.

The acquisition will increase CGI's capabilities within its CGI Business Consulting business across several key financial services sectors, including retail banking, corporate and investment banking, capital markets, insurance, and other specialized banking services, such as energy trading and asset management.

Founded in 2009, Harwell Management has approximately 150 consultants who support large financial institutions, including banks and insurers, in defining and executing purpose-driven strategies, adhering to ever-evolving regulations, building competitive advantage, and accelerating sustainable value and long-term growth.

The signing of the share purchase agreement and completion of the acquisition would only take place after completion of the information and consultation procedures of the relevant employee representative bodies of Harwell Management and CGI France.

"We look forward to joining forces with Harwell Management. Together, we offer strong business and strategic IT consulting expertise, regulatory know-how, and end-to-end innovative digital services to support clients across the entire financial services value chain," said Laurent Gerin, CGI's Western and Southern Europe President.

"Along with the 800 French CGI Business Consulting members, I look forward to welcoming Harwell Management's 150 consultants. Their in-depth knowledge of the financial services industry, proximity to clients, and proven approach are assets for accelerating the growth of CGI's business consulting offering in France and enhancing our capabilities around the globe," said Pierre-Dominique Martin, Senior Vice President, CGI Business Consulting.

"We founded Harwell Management with the aim of being the preferred partner of choice in the financial sector. As such, we are proud of the firm's journey and the value it has brought to our clients over the years. By joining CGI, our teams and clients will benefit from new opportunities to enhance their business and careers. We are delighted to join CGI Business Consulting, with whom we share a common set of values and unique complementary capabilities," added with one voice Harwell Management Founders Christophe Da Cunha and Franck Benzoni.
The Gorman-Rupp Company (NYSE: GRC) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Fill-Rite and Sotera (Fill-Rite), a division of the Tuthill Corporation, for $525 million. When adjusted for approximately $80 million in expected tax benefits, the net transaction value is approximately $445 million. Gorman-Rupp expects to fund the transaction with cash on-hand and new debt. Subject to customary closing conditions and necessary regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022.

With facilities in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Lenexa, Kansas, the Fill-Rite and Sotera brands carry strong legacies associated with superior products, and hold leadership positions in attractive niche pump markets. Fill-Rite provides rugged, high performance liquid transfer pumps as well as a comprehensive line of mechanical and digital meters, precision weights and measures certified meters, hand pumps, hoses, nozzles and accessories. For the 12 months ended March 31, 2022, Fill-Rite generated revenue of approximately $140 million and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $34.5 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 25%.

We are extremely excited to welcome Fill-Rites impressive portfolio of mission-critical pumps and its outstanding team of employees to the Gorman-Rupp family, said Scott King, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gorman-Rupp. Altogether, with our combined capabilities, we expect our revenues to reach over $500 million annuallya significant milestone. In addition to the natural product adjacencies between Gorman-Rupp and Fill-Rite, we truly believe that the two companies are culturally aligned. We look forward to working with the Fill-Rite team to continue to drive shareholder value and to execute on our strategic business plan.

I first learned about Gorman-Rupp when I was in high school, said Jay Tuthill, Chairman of Tuthill Corporation. That was the Summer of 1969 and I was being given a crash course on Whos Who in the Pump Business. Now, more than half a century later, I am thrilled to see Tuthills Fill-Rite business moving into the Gorman-Rupp orbit. From my first conversation with Jeff Gorman, it was clear we had a lot in common and that will make it easy for the Fill-Rite folks to quickly find their place within the world of Gorman-Rupp.

We are pleased to have found a partner that represents an excellent strategic fit for both companies, bringing together two pioneering flow control businesses with over 150 years of combined experience operating as market-leaders, commented Jeff Gorman, Executive Chairman of Gorman-Rupps Board of Directors. This exceptional opportunity fits well into Gorman-Rupps overall strategic plan to find well-suited opportunities for expansion and innovation.

Expected Strategic and Financial Benefits: Gorman-Rupp believes that the addition of Fill-Rite will benefit Gorman-Rupp and its shareholders in several important ways, as follows:

Extends product portfolio: Fill-Rite is a leading provider of mission-critical fuel and chemical transfer solutions

Fill-Rite is a leading provider of mission-critical fuel and chemical transfer solutions Expands applications and end markets served: Strategically expands Gorman-Rupps position in the agriculture, construction and recreation markets; accelerating growth as these markets continue to benefit from secular trends

Strategically expands Gorman-Rupps position in the agriculture, construction and recreation markets; accelerating growth as these markets continue to benefit from secular trends Market leading brands: Fill-Rite and Sotera both hold niche leadership positions with the #1 or top 3 position across key product lines

Fill-Rite and Sotera both hold niche leadership positions with the #1 or top 3 position across key product lines Experienced management team: Fill-Rites management team, which has driven significant organic growth, will continue to lead Fill-Rite as a new division of Gorman-Rupp

Fill-Rites management team, which has driven significant organic growth, will continue to lead Fill-Rite as a new division of Gorman-Rupp U.S. based production and supply chain: Fill-Rites supply chain is 95% U.S. based, mitigating risk of disruptions and dislocations

Fill-Rites supply chain is 95% U.S. based, mitigating risk of disruptions and dislocations Revenue Synergies: Opportunity to leverage commercial channels to drive revenue synergies

Opportunity to leverage commercial channels to drive revenue synergies Attractive financial benefits: The transaction is expected to be accretive to Gorman-Rupps organic growth, gross margins and EBITDA margins, and is expected to be cash EPS accretive with double digit percentage accretion anticipated in 2023

The transaction is expected to be accretive to Gorman-Rupps organic growth, gross margins and EBITDA margins, and is expected to be cash EPS accretive with double digit percentage accretion anticipated in 2023 Strong Free Cash Flow: Accelerated deleveraging anticipated from expected strong free cash flows of the combined businesses. Leverage target of less than 3.5x anticipated by the end of 2024

Accelerated deleveraging anticipated from expected strong free cash flows of the combined businesses. Leverage target of less than 3.5x anticipated by the end of 2024 Aligns with articulated acquisition strategy: Fill-Rite aligns with Gorman-Rupps disciplined acquisition criteria focused on pumps and pumping solutions

The transaction is not expected to impact Gorman-Rupps dividend policy, including maintaining its historic record of annual dividend increases.

Investor Conference Call

Gorman-Rupp Executive Chairman, Jeff Gorman, President and CEO, Scott King, and Chief Financial Officer, Jim Kerr, will discuss the acquisition on a conference call with investors on Wednesday April 27, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. A live audio webcast of the call, along with the related presentation, can be accessed from the Investor Information page of the Company's website at www.gormanrupp.com shortly before the call begins or by dialing toll free 1-877-704-4453 (international callers dial 1-201-389-0920) and provide conference ID #13729566. A replay of the conference call will be made accessible once it becomes available and will remain accessible through Wednesday May 11, 2022 by dialing 1-844-512-2921 (international caller dial 1-412-317-6671) and using Pin number 13729566. The webcast presentation will be archived at the Company's website following the conclusion of the event.

Advisors

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Gorman-Rupp and is providing committed financing. Squire Patton Boggs LLP is providing legal counsel.

Citi is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Tuthill Corporation and ArentFox Schiff LLP is providing legal counsel.
Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE: VMI), a global leader that provides vital infrastructure and advances agricultural productivity while driving innovation through technology, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in Colorado-based ConcealFab, an industry leader in 5G infrastructure and passive intermodulation (PIM) mitigation solutions. Ericsson, a global leader in 5G technology, will reinvest their ConcealFab equity and hold a minority position in the new company.

The strategic partnership with Ericsson to acquire ConcealFab aligns Valmont with a leading provider of innovative 5G infrastructure and PIM mitigation solutions. Founded in 2007 in Colorado Springs, CO., ConcealFab has been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the Telecom industry. Their success is a result of their first-to-market innovation, customer-centric fulfillment strategy and ability to design, manufacture and meet ever-changing and specific industry demands. ConcealFabs partnerships with wireless operators, utilities, and major OEMs have also been a key driver in their rapid growth and will continue to support future expansion.

Valmont is advancing our infrastructure portfolio with a greater focus on high-growth and high return on invested capital opportunities, said Valmonts Aaron Schapper, group president, Infrastructure. The future of infrastructure, especially in the telecommunications space, relies on connectivity, sustainable solutions and seamless expansion across the globe. Im proud to say that together, this partnership between Valmont, Ericsson and ConcealFab will play a central role in meeting the integrated telecommunication needs of the future by leveraging our companies deep customer relationships, customer-centric values, and our combined footprint to accelerate our growth strategy.

Investing in 5G infrastructure aligns with Ericssons goal to streamline the delivery of 5G networks throughout North America, said Kevin Zvokel, head of networks, Ericsson North America. We believe the combined strengths of Ericsson, Valmont and ConcealFab will address critical pain points and further propel the delivery of 5G technology to our customers throughout the U.S. We are excited to be a part of their future.

This is a pivotal moment for Valmont, said Joseph Catapano, president, Global Telecom at Valmont. We hold a firm commitment to innovation and putting our customers firstthis is shared by both ConcealFab and Ericsson. With this transaction and our combined portfolio of products, services, and capabilities, we are positioned to usher in a new era of unprecedented innovation and customer service. We are excited to welcome ConcealFab to the Valmont Team.

Valmonts Telecom strategy is focused on three key objectives: providing vital end-to-end infrastructure products, spreading inclusive connectivity by investing in strategic partnerships, and expanding its manufacturing footprint globally. The joint acquisition brings this strategy to life and positions Valmont and ConcealFab with the opportunity to immediately accelerate expansion in the concealment, PIM solutions and RF markets.

As an early innovator in 5G and small cell infrastructure, ConcealFab has been bridging the gap between an evolving technology and market needs for 15 years, and this combination with Valmont and Ericsson presents an accelerated path for further growth and expansion, said ConcealFab CEO Jonathan Fitzhugh. Valmonts global manufacturing footprint and established presence with key stakeholders uniquely position us to meet the anticipated ramp in demand for telecom infrastructure across the US and beyond. We are looking forward to improving connectivity for customers around the world.

The transaction will be funded with cash on hand, and is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings, with Year-1 revenue of approximately $50 million. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022 and is subject to customary closing conditions.
By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) -Archegos Capital Management founder Bill Hwang on Wednesday was released on bail after pleading not guilty to U.S. criminal charges over the meltdown of his New York private investment firm, which left global banks with $10 billion in losses. Archegos, which had $36 billion in assets, collapsed last year when it was caught short on highly leveraged trades.

Among the biggest fund blow-ups in years, the scandal roiled Wall Street, sparked a fire sale in stocks including ViacomCBS and Discovery Inc, and caused Credit Suisse, Nomura Holdings, among other lenders, to lose billions on their trades with Archegos.

Prosecutors alleged on Wednesday that Hwang amassed his huge equity exposures by lying to the banks to increase Archegos' credit lines. He then used derivatives he traded with them to manipulate the underlying shares and ratchet up his returns.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange commission, in a separate civil complaint also brought on Wednesday, said Hwang and Archegos "engaged in a brazen scheme to manipulate the market" and "propped up a $36 billion house of cards" through a cycle of manipulative trading and lying to banks to obtain additional loans.

"Eventually, the weight of Defendants' fraudulent and manipulative scheme was too much for Archegos to bear, and over the course of less than a week in late March 2021, the house of cards collapsed," the SEC said.

Hwang was arrested on Wednesday morning, along with Archegos Chief Financial Officer Patrick Halligan. Hwang pleaded not guilty to 11 counts including racketeering, market manipulation and fraud in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday afternoon. Halligan pleaded not guilty to three charges.

Lawrence Lustberg, a lawyer for Hwang, said in a statement that the case had "absolutely no factual or legal basis." He added: "Hwang is entirely innocent of any wrongdoing; there is no evidence whatsoever that he committed any kind of crime." He said Hwang had previously cooperated with the government.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer Willis ordered Hwang, who was wearing glasses and a green turtleneck, released on $100 million bond, secured by two properties and $5 million cash bail. His travel is restricted to the New York area, and he must attest to the court that he lost his passport.

Halligan was released on $1 million bond. His lawyer said Halligan is "innocent and will be exonerated."

'BRAZEN SCHEME'

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Hwang used a type of leveraged equity swap to manipulate the prices of seven of Archegos' portfolio companies, including Viacom, Discovery and Tencent Music Entertainment. At times, Hwang's leverage reached as high as 1,000%, authorities said.

Hwang was also able to exploit another regulatory loophole by trading through his family office, a type of private fund that does not have to register with the SEC, prosecutors said. That meant Hwang was not required to report information about his level of exposure to regulators, prosecutors said.

"These defendants committed this fraud in the darkness," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York said at the news conference.

Hwang's dealers included Credit Suisse, Macquarie, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, UBS AG, Nomura and MUFG. Spokespeople for the lenders, other than Deutsche Bank, either declined comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

"While we cannot comment on specific interactions and matters, the bank cooperates with law enforcement and our regulators," a Deutsche Bank spokesperson said, adding that thanks to the way the bank hedged its exposure, it did not suffer losses on its Archegos trades.

If proven, each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, though any sentence would be imposed by a judge based on a range of factors. Hwang and Halligan make their next court appearance on May 19.

Prosecutors also brought charges against Archegos head trader William Tomita and Chief Risk Officer Scott Becker for their alleged roles in the scheme. Attorneys for Becker and Tomita did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The pair pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors, officials said during a news conference.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Jody Godoy in New York; Additional reporting by Megan Davies and Elizabeth Dilts in New York, Chris Prentice in Washington and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Writing by Michelle Price and Luc Cohen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Elaine Hardcastle, Matthew Lewis, Cynthia Osterman and Daniel Wallis)
Massively Parallel Secondary Indexes for Complex SQL Queries

Support for Large Document Data Models from Gigabyte to Petabyte Scale

New Batch API Support for Heavy Writes and Mixed Workloads

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aerospike Inc. announced today the general availability of Aerospike Database 6, a significant new release of the core engine that powers the popular Aerospike Real-time Data Platform. Aerospike Database 6 provides developers an environment that supports multiple programming models to build real-time applications with a predictable performance at any scale for which Aerospike is renowned.

Aerospike Database 6.0 is the first real-time database with native support for JSON document models at any scale. The release adds enhanced support for Java programming models, including JSONPath query support to store, search, and better manage complex data sets and workloads. Aerospike Database 6 allows the company to support large-scale data models in instances across the enterprise and positions the company to add Time Series, Graph, and more data models in future releases.

Market leadersthe disruptors in their industriesbuild with Aerospike to meet the insatiable demand for instant experiences in the Right-Now Economy, said Subbu Iyer, CEO of Aerospike. Our Real-time Data Platform, powered by Aerospike Database 6, delivers predictable sub-millisecond performance, low latency, and unlimited scale. And we do this at an affordable cost for many different data models across the enterprise. Companies that start with Aerospike future-proof their real-time data stack for ongoing growth and success.

Analyst and Partner Praise

There are two types of companies in todays digitally transforming world. The ones that understand how to win in the moments that matter and those that dont, said Holger Mueller, Vice President, and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. The ones that do will realize that Aerospike Database 6 is the real-time engine they need to effectively compete with larger, complex data sets were now seeing in the enterprise.

Having implemented and operated one of the largest Customer Data Platforms on the Aerospike Real-time Data Platform for over five years, our team is looking forward to using the new batch and document storage features of the Aerospike Database 6.0, said Amit Raj, Managing Consultant, Hoonartek. These new capabilities, coupled with Aerospikes superior capabilities for data ingestion, query, data consistency, and XDR replication, will promote business innovation with the market-leading reliability and performance that our customers expect from Aerospike.

Highlights of the Aerospike Database 6:

Massively Parallel Secondary Indexes: Aerospike Database 6 offers massively parallel secondary indexes supporting partition and pagination queries. The new release gives secondary index queries the same speed and efficiency as primary indexes. Further, it supports SQL via Spark and Presto/Trino Connectors as plug-and-play integrations found on Aerospike Connect.

Aerospike Database 6 offers massively parallel secondary indexes supporting partition and pagination queries. The new release gives secondary index queries the same speed and efficiency as primary indexes. Further, it supports SQL via Spark and Presto/Trino Connectors as plug-and-play integrations found on Aerospike Connect. Large Scale Document Data Models: Aerospike Database 6 is the first and only real-time data platform to support JSON document data models that can deliver sub-millisecond performance at the gigabyte-to-petabyte scale. Aerospike Database 6, with JSON and JSONPath query support, adds the ability to store, search, query, and manage richer and more varied data from gigabyte to petabyte scale.

Aerospike Database 6 is the first and only real-time data platform to support JSON document data models that can deliver sub-millisecond performance at the gigabyte-to-petabyte scale. Aerospike Database 6, with JSON and JSONPath query support, adds the ability to store, search, query, and manage richer and more varied data from gigabyte to petabyte scale. Efficient Batch Processing: Aerospike Database 6 enhanced batch API allows heavy read/writes and mixed workloads to reduce round-trip time and network traffic while improving parallelism for faster data ingestion and processing. The result is more efficient batch processing of data operations at any scale.

Aerospike Database 6 enhanced batch API allows heavy read/writes and mixed workloads to reduce round-trip time and network traffic while improving parallelism for faster data ingestion and processing. The result is more efficient batch processing of data operations at any scale. Federal Security Compliance: Aerospike Database 6 is FIPS 140-2 compliant, providing federal agencies the ability to deploy large-scale, mixed workload use cases securely.

Resources:

Future-Proof with Aerospike Database 6

Aerospike Database 6: Partitioned Secondary Index Queries, Batch Anything, and JSON

Developer Hub

Learn more about The Aerospike Real-time Data Platform at Mission Now - The Aerospike 2022 Summit.

For more information about Aerospike, please visit www.aerospike.com or to join the team, see our employment opportunities around the globe.

About AerospikeThe Aerospike Real-time Data Platform enables organizations to act instantly across billions of transactions while reducing server footprint by up to 80 percent. The Aerospike multi-cloud platform powers real-time applications with predictable sub-millisecond performance up to petabyte-scale with five-nines uptime with globally distributed, strongly consistent data. Applications built on the Aerospike Real-time Data Platform fight fraud, provide recommendations that dramatically increase shopping cart size, enable global digital payments, and deliver hyper-personalized user experiences to tens of millions of customers. Customers such as Airtel, Criteo, Experian, Nielsen, PayPal, Snap, Wayfair, and Yahoo rely on Aerospike as their data foundation for the future. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company also has offices in London, Bangalore, and Tel Aviv.

Contact:

John MoranLook Left Marketing[email protected]

Source: Aerospike Inc
HORSHAM, Pa., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. is teaming up with Walmart for its 2022 Fight Hunger. Spark Change. campaign. Now in its ninth year, the campaign works with local Feeding America food banks to help secure meals for those facing food insecurity.

Each day one in eight Americans faces hunger and food insecurity, a problem affecting every community in the country. To help combat this issue, Walmart is working with national brands and organizations to benefit all 200 Feeding America member food banks.

From April 18, 2022, until May 15, 2022, Bimbo Bakeries USA will donate to Feeding America for each purchase of participating Bimbo Bakeries USA bread and breakfast products at Walmart from Sara Lee, Natures Harvest and Thomas Brands. One dollar helps secure at least 10 meals for local member food banks through Feeding America.

Eligible products include Sara Lee Classic Wheat, Sara Lee Honey Wheat, Sara Lee Whole Grain White and Sara Lee Butter Bread; Natures Harvest Honey Wheat, Natures Harvest Butter Wheat, Natures Harvest 100% Whole Wheat, Natures Harvest Healthy Habits Light Multigrain, Natures Harvest Healthy Habits Smooth Wheat and Natures Harvest Healthy Habits White made with Whole Grain; Thomas Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins, Thomas Light Multigrain English Muffins, Thomas Original English Muffins, Thomas Plain Bagel Thins, Thomas Plain Mini Bagels, Thomas Plain Bagels (20 oz) and Thomas Everything Bagels (20oz).

We are proud to be working with Walmart and Feeding America as a partner of this years Fight Hunger. Spark Change. campaign, said Jeff Hendrix, Vice President of Sales at Bimbo Bakeries USA. Bimbo Bakeries USA recognizes the importance of ending hunger and is dedicated to giving back to the communities where we live and work.

Bimbo Bakeries USAs participation in this years campaign continues the longstanding relationship between the Company and Feeding America. As a Feeding America Leadership Partner, Bimbo Bakeries USA donates approximately 20 million pounds of food annually to local food banks nationwide.

For more information, visit www.walmart.com/FightHunger.

DisclaimerFor each purchase of participating Bimbo Bakeries USA products at Walmart from April 18- May 15, 2022, Bimbo Bakeries USA will donate the monetary equivalent of at least 1 meal ($0.10) to Feeding America. Guaranteed minimum donation of $50,000. Maximum donation of $100,000. $1 helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local member food banks. Visit Walmart.com/FightHunger for details.

About Bimbo Bakeries USABimbo Bakeries USA is a leader in the baking industry, known for its category leading brands, innovative products, freshness and quality. Our team of 20,000+ U.S. associates operates approximately 60 manufacturing locations in the United States. Over 11,000 distribution routes deliver our leading brands such as Arnold, Artesano, Ball Park, Bimbo, Boboli, Brownberry, Entenmann's, Little Bites, Marinela, Mrs Bairds, Oroweat, Sara Lee, Stroehmann and Thomas'. BBU is owned by Mexico's Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B de C.V., the world's largest baking company with operations in 33 countries.

About WalmartWalmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better  anytime and anywhere  in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, approximately 230 million customers and members visit more than 10,500 stores and clubs under 46 banners in 24 countries and eCommerce websites. With fiscal year 2022 revenue of $573 billion, Walmart employs approximately 2.3 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting corporate.walmart.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at twitter.com/walmart.

About Feeding America Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through a network of more than 200 food banks, 21 statewide food bank associations, and over 60,000 partner agencies, food pantries and meal programs, we helped provide 6.6 billion meals to tens of millions of people in need last year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; brings attention to the social and systemic barriers that contribute to food insecurity in our nation; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Visit www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

CONTACT: Annie Speer[email protected] 610.228.0832

Source: Bimbo Bakeries
Washington, DC, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Conservation efforts for other animals have likely helped protect many reptile species, according to a new study led by NatureServe, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Conservation International. The study, published in the journal Nature, presents an analysis of the first comprehensive extinction risk assessment for reptiles on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which found that at least 21% of all reptile species globally are threatened with extinction.

For the Nature study, a diverse research team, representing 24 countries across six continents, analyzed the conservation needs of 10,196 reptile species in comparison with mammals, birds, and amphibians. Reptiles in the study include turtles, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tuatara, the only living member of a lineage that evolved in the Triassic period approximately 200-250 million years ago.

The research revealed that efforts to conserve threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians are more likely than expected to co-benefit many threatened reptiles. Although reptiles are well known to inhabit arid habitats such as deserts and scrubland, most reptile species occur in forested habitats, where they and other vertebrate groups  suffer from threats such as logging and conversion of forest to agriculture. The study found that 30% of forest-dwelling reptiles are at risk of extinction, compared with 14% of reptiles in arid habitats.

I was surprised by the degree to which mammals, birds and amphibians, collectively, can serve as surrogates to reptiles, said Dr. Bruce Young, co-leader of the study and Chief Zoologist and Senior Conservation Scientist at NatureServe. This is good news because the extensive efforts to protect better known animals have also likely contributed to protecting many reptiles. Habitat protection is essential to buffer reptiles, as well as other vertebrates, from threats such as agricultural activities and urban development.

The study also highlighted what we stand to lose if we fail to protect reptiles. If each of the 1,829 threatened reptiles became extinct, we would lose a combined 15.6 billion years of evolutionary historyincluding countless adaptations for living in diverse environments.

The results of the Global Reptile Assessment signal the need to ramp up global efforts to conserve them, said Neil Cox, co-leader of the study and Manager of the IUCN-Conservation International Biodiversity Assessment Unit. Because reptiles are so diverse, they face a wide range of threats across a variety of habitats. A multifaceted action plan is necessary to protect these species, with all the evolutionary history they represent.

The authors note that urgent, targeted conservation measures are still necessary to protect some of the most threatened reptile species, especially island endemic lizards threatened by introduced predators and those that are more directly impacted by humans. For example, hunting, rather than habitat modification, is the main threat to turtles and crocodiles, half of which are at risk of extinction.

The findings of the Global Reptile Assessment serve as a baseline that can be used to measure changes in extinction risk and track species recovery progress over time. Results will also be valuable to help guide allocation of conservation resources through identification of Key Biodiversity Areas and other places where active management could prevent extinctions.

Reptiles are not often used to inspire conservation action, but they are fascinating creatures and serve indispensable roles in ecosystems across the planet. We all benefit from their role in controlling pest species and serving as prey to birds and other animals, stated Dr. Sean T. OBrien, President and CEO of NatureServe. The analysis of the first Global Reptile Assessment enable us to pinpoint where reptiles need the most help and serve as a major step to countering the global extinction crisis.

Over 900 scientists were recruited to contribute to the IUCN Red List assessments, the findings of which helped inform this analysis.

###

Editors notes

The global biodiversity crisis will take center stage this year as the UNs Convention on Biological Diversity convenes its Conference of the Parties  COP15  in Kunming, China with the goal of finalizing the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. This framework will have the potential to do for species what the Paris Climate Agreement has done for global warming: set the course of biodiversity conservation for the next decade.

Supporting quotes:

"The potential loss of one fifth of all reptile species reminds us how much of Earth's biodiversity is disappearing, a crisis that is threatening all species, including humans," said Maureen Kearney, a program director at the U.S National Science Foundation, which funded much of the study research conducted in Latin America and the Caribbean. "It is critical we understand extinction risk data for all species if society is to develop strategic, effective conservation efforts, and this study fills a gap in that understanding. These researchers and the knowledge theyve provided highlight how a global understanding of biodiversity can only be gained by large, international teams of field experts conducting difficult, time-consuming, and often underappreciated 'boots-on-the-ground' work.

"These study results show that reptile conservation research no longer needs to be overshadowed by that of amphibians, birds and mammals. It is concerning though that more than a fifth of all known reptile species are threatened, said Mark Auliya, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change. Findings from this work must now be channeled into concrete research activities to classify the degree of endangerment of certain species and thereof derive targeted conservation measures. However, for the sustainable conservation of reptile diversity and their ancestral ecosystems, an interdisciplinary approach involving responsible actors is an indispensable prerequisite to halt the increase in threatened species.

Its great to see this exceptional work of more than 900 experts come to fruition  assessments such as this form the basis for conservation planning and action, said Monika Bohm, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London. While we have likely already provided some conservation benefits to reptiles through protecting other species of mammals, birds and amphibians, we now need to take what we learned from this Global Reptile Assessment to instigate targeted conservation action on the ground, improve the conservation status of these magnificent creatures and reverse the red.

Australia is a global reptile hotspot, being home to around 10% of the worlds species. The vast majority of these species are endemic to Australia, said Professor David G. Chapple, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University. The Global Reptile Assessment revealed that the plight of Australias reptiles has deteriorated over the past 25 years, with a doubling of the number of threatened species, and the first recorded extinction of an Australian squamate reptile (Christmas Island forest skink, Emoia nativitatis), and two species becoming Extinct in the Wild (blue-tailed skink, Cryptoblepharus egeriae, and Listers gecko, Lepidodactylus listeri).

The recent IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services bases one of its conclusions on data for 1,500 reptile species. Our work provides a more complete picture of the status of an Essential Biodiversity Variable, the distribution and status of species, by providing an in-depth analysis, updated geographies, and extinction risk for more than 10,000 reptile species, said Miguel Fernandez, Post-doctoral Researcher at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Affiliate Faculty at the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University. On a personal level this publication helps me to remember an obvious truth, that our responsibility is to leave to future generations a planet equal or better than the one we are living on with respect to other living species.

Besides revealing general patterns of extinction risk, this study has identified hot spots of threatened reptile species, such as in the Caribbean islands, where we need to focus our efforts said Blair Hedges, Carnell Professor and Director of the Center for Biodiversity at Temple University. Extinctions are already occurring from deforestation alone, and climate change is now accelerating the process, especially in countries like Haiti where nearly all primary forest has been destroyed. We are quickly running out of time.

From turtles that breathe through their genitals to chameleons the size of a chickpea, reptiles are an eclectic bunch, said Mike Hoffmann, Head of Wildlife Recovery at the Zoological Society of London. Many reptiles, like the Tuatara or Pig-nosed Turtle, are like living fossils, whose loss would spell the end of not just species that play unique ecosystem roles, but also many billions of years of evolutionary history. Their future survival depends on us putting nature at the heart of all we do.

Reptiles from Christmas Island, an Australian island south of Sumatra, are highlighted in the study as they are examples of reptiles severely impacted by invasive predators, said Nicola J. Mitchell, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia. In this instance, an invasive Wolf Snake from Asia drove a recent collapse of the reptile community. Fortunately, captive breeding was initiated in time to save two of the species from extinction, and captive-bred blue-tailed skinks have now been introduced to snake-free islands in the Cocos-Keeling archipelago, more than 1000 km from Christmas Island. We may need many more actions such as this to secure our astounding reptile diversity, especially as many reptile habitats will be lost due to climate change.

In respect to conservation, the chelonians are very important, said Philipp Wagner, Curator at Allwetterzoo, Germany and responsible for the International Centre for the Conservation of Turtles. More than 50% of the species are threatened and many of the Asian species are assessed as critically endangered. Cuora zhoui for example is only known from captivity with less than 200 individuals.

This comprehensive global assessment increases our understanding of the conservation status of reptile species assessed to date. It highlights the importance of identifying Key Biodiversity Areas and providing protection for microendemics that occur outside of existing protected areas and the fragile ecosystem they inhabit before they are lost due to development, said Hana Saif Al Suwaidi, Chairperson of Environment and Protected Areas Authority, Sharjah. The diverse reptile species of arid regions, which are perfectly adapted to harsh environmental conditions and are often poorly represented in conservation actions, were not overlooked in this study.

The outcome of this study provides strong motivation for taking conservation forward in Africa, said Krystal Tolley of the South African National Biodiversity Institute in Cape Town, South Africa. Contrary to prior assumptions, our results showed there are elevated threat levels for forest reptiles. Given that the African continent is currently undergoing substantial habitat loss, especially for indigenous forests, we can now link forest loss to the high threat level of reptiles. Ultimately, conservation starts with recognition of what the impacts are, and from there, we can design solutions.

About NatureServe

For nearly 50 years, NatureServe has been the authoritative source for biodiversity data and the central coordinating organization for a network of over 60 member programs throughout North America. Together, NatureServe and the Network of member programs are dedicated to developing, collecting, and analyzing biodiversity information to support informed decisions about managing, protecting, restoring, and conserving natural resources. NatureServe and the Network develop and manage data for over 100,000 species and ecosystems, answering fundamental questions about what exists, where it is found, and how it is doing. www.natureserve.org.

About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organizations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. Created in 1948, IUCN is now the worlds largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,400 member organisations and some 18,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, the IUCN works to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems, and improve peoples well-being. www.iucn.org.

About Conservation International

Conservation International protects nature for the benefit of humanity. Through science, policy, fieldwork and finance, we spotlight and secure the most important places in nature for the climate, for biodiversity and for people. With offices in 30 countries and projects in more than 100 countries, Conservation International partners with governments, companies, civil society, Indigenous peoples and local communities to help people and nature thrive together. Go to Conservation.org for more, and follow our work on Conservation News, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Attachments

Samantha Tranfa NatureServe 703-908-1871 [email protected]

Source: NatureServe
SINGAPORE, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a release issued under the same headline on April 22, 2022 by Genius Group Limited (NYSE American: GNS) please note that all references to "property investors network" and "pin" should be written lowercase, not as "Property Investors Network" and "PIN" as previously stated.The corrected release follows:

Genius Group Limited (NYSE American: GNS), a world-leading entrepreneur Edtech and education group, has announced the completion of two of its four planned acquisitions following the closing of its recent initial public offering (IPO): Education Angels and property investors network. These acquisitions were set in motion in 2020 and were completed on April 14, 2022.

Genius Group is a world-leading entrepreneur Edtech and education group, with a mission to disrupt the current education model with a student-centered, life-long learning curriculum that prepares students with the leadership, entrepreneurial and life skills to succeed in todays market. The group has over 2.7 million students in 200 countries, ranging from ages 0 to 100.

Following its IPO on NYSE American on April 12, 2022, Genius Group is now integrating its new acquisitions into its Genius curriculum.Education Angels

New Zealand based Education Angels is a provider of in-home childcare, which enables children from birth to five years to flourish in a caring environment tailored to their needs. The goal is for childrens learning potential to be maximized and their emotional intelligence built up with the intention that they develop confidence, creativity, and the desire for lifelong learning.

Angela Stead, Director of Education Angels and Co-Founder of GeniusU said:

I am delighted to be able to bring Education Angels under the Genius Group umbrella. It gives us the opportunity to continue our global growth and means that we will be able to make our curriculum and educational programs available on a worldwide scale.

property investors network

property investors network (pin) is a United Kingdom based property networking organization. pin has a city-based event model that connects new and experienced property investors in 50 cities across the United Kingdom. Following the acquisition, Genius Group and pin now plan to expand the pin model to investors globally through Genius Groups community of partners and students.

Simon Zutshi, who remains as CEO of pin following the acquisition, said:

Having the opportunity to work with Roger and the team at Genius Group, we are able to leverage our two decades of success in the UK to enter the global market, empowering property entrepreneurs worldwide.

Roger James Hamilton, Founder & CEO of Genius Group, said:

So many students have had their learning disrupted in recent years and it is so important that we offer them the skills to thrive and grow their genius, enabling them to help solve the economic, social and environmental problems our world is facing and to bring about positive change for future generations. Our recent program of acquisitions has been geared to improving educational opportunities in a lifelong learning curriculum from 0-100 years old. We warmly welcome all team members, partners and students from each of our acquisition companies into our Genius family.

About Genius GroupGenius Group is a world-leading entrepreneur Edtech and education group, with a mission to disrupt the current education model with a student-centered, life-long learning curriculum that prepares students with the leadership, entrepreneurial and life skills to succeed in todays market. The group has over 2.7 million students in 200 countries, ranging from ages 0 to 100. The group includes four pre-IPO companies (the Pre-IPO Group), and will include four companies intended to be acquired at the time of, or shortly after, the closing of the companys initial public offering (the IPO Acquisitions). Two of these four IPO Acquisitions are Education Angels and property investors network.

The entrepreneur education system of our Pre-IPO Group has been delivered virtually and in-person, in multiple languages, locally and globally mainly via the Pre-IPO Groups artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, personalized GeniusU Edtech platform to adults seeking to grow their entrepreneur and leadership skills.

The Pre-IPO Group includes Genius Group, GeniusU, Entrepreneurs Institute and Entrepreneur Resorts. This group of entrepreneur education companies has grown through organic growth and acquisitions, with a focus on adding value to each company through GeniusU, which is being developed to provide AI-driven personal recommendations and guidance for each student. The Pre-IPO Group is now expanding its education system to age groups beyond its current adult audience, to children and young adults. The four IPO Acquisitions will be the first steps towards this. They will include: Education Angels, which provides early learning in New Zealand for children from 0-5 years old; E-Square, which provides primary and secondary school education in South Africa; University of Antelope Valley, which provides vocational certifications and university degrees in California, USA; and property investors network, which provides property investment courses and events in England.

Genius Groups current plan is to combine the education programs of the IPO Acquisitions with its current education programs and Edtech platform as part of one lifelong learning system, and it has selected these acquisitions because they already share aspects of the Genius curriculum and its focus on entrepreneur education.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements, including with respect to the closing of the acquisitions. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Companys final prospectus for its initial public offering filed with the SEC. Copies are available on the SECs website, www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law.

Media Contacts:Sally Butler, Senior Account Manager, Adia PR Tel: +44 7961 730303 Email: [email protected] Leila Dastyar, Account Manager, Adia PRTel: +44 7564 334198 Email: [email protected]

Company Contact:Dave Gentry, RedChip Companies, Inc.Phone: +1 407 4914498[email protected]

Source: Genius Group Ltd
LAS VEGAS and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TAAT GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES INC. (CSE: TAAT) (OTCQX: TOBAF) (FRANKFURT: 2TP) (the Company or TAAT) is pleased to announce that it has received the first batch of commercial samples for the TAAT heat-not-burn offering to be launched in the United States by the end of 2022. In a press release dated February 18, 2022, the Company announced it had commenced the development of a TAAT heat-not-burn device and heatable sticks to complement its flagship combustible product (a tobacco-free and nicotine-free alternative to tobacco cigarettes), which is currently sold in over 2,500 U.S. stores. Following an initial assessment of the commercial samples of the heatable TAAT sticks, the Company is making minor adjustments to the base material used for this product category to optimally align with the latest flavour profile of TAAT combustible products.

The TAAT heat-not-burn offering will consist of a reusable device (pictured below) that is reverse-compatible with heated tobacco sticks offered by the Companys competitors, as well as TAAT heatable sticks in Original and Menthol flavours. The hardware and heatable sticks will be marketed and sold under the TAAT brand name in the United States starting in either Q3 or Q4 2022. By providing an additional nicotine-free and tobacco-free alternative to popular tobacco products, the Company believes it can further expand its existing market share in the global tobacco industry.

Based on the popularity of heat-not-burn tobacco products in international markets, TAAT has arranged to showcase its heat-not-burn offering as an exhibitor at the InterTabac trade show in Dortmund, Germany (September 15-17, 2022). During the 2019 InterTabac event, approximately 520 exhibitors from approximately 47 countries greeted an audience of over 13,000 attendees; approximately 42% of whom were attending from abroad1.

For more information about InterTabac, please visit the following web page: https://www.intertabac.de/en/portal/

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c24f92f4-07af-46a1-b512-9bbd773b20eb

Readers using news aggregation services may be unable to view the media above. Please access SEDAR or the Investor Relations section of the Companys website for a version of this press release containing all published media.

TAAT Chief Executive Officer Setti Coscarella commented, Tobacco companies have invested heavily into the development of heat-not-burn solutions for the simple reason that many adult smokers worldwide are on the lookout for something different. Although combustible products such as cigarettes remain dominant, heat-not-burn seems to have a relatively high user retention rate compared to other alternatives on the market. Based on this, we are building upon our existing footprint in the tobacco industry by creating a nicotine-free and tobacco-free offering in the heat-not-burn segment, which I believe can enhance our ability to capture market share globally. We look forward to finalizing the exact product formulation as well as its commercialization plan as we prepare to launch TAAT heat-not-burn in 2022.

Sources

1 - https://www.intertabac.de/en/start/

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company,

TAAT GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES INC.

Setti Coscarella

Setti Coscarella, CEO and Director

For further information, please contact:

TAAT Investor Relations1-833-TAAT-USA (1-833-822-8872)[email protected]

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE (CSE) HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE, NOR HAS OR DOES THE CSES REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER.

About TAAT Global Alternatives Inc.

The Company has developed TAAT, which is a tobacco-free and nicotine-free alternative to traditional cigarettes offered in "Original", "Smooth", and "Menthol" varieties. TAAT's base material is Beyond Tobacco, a proprietary blend which undergoes a patent-pending refinement technique causing its scent and taste to resemble tobacco. Under executive leadership with "Big Tobacco" pedigree, TAAT was launched first in the United States in Q4 2020 as the Company seeks to position itself in the $812 billion1 global tobacco industry.

For more information, please visit http://taatglobal.com.

References

1 Statista: Consumer Markets - Tobacco Products

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Often, but not always, forward-looking information and information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, estimates, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur, or be achieved. Forward-looking information in this news release includes statements regarding the anticipated performance of TAAT in the tobacco industry, in addition to the following: Completion of further research and development work on the TAAT heat-not-burn offering, launch of TAAT heat-not-burn in the United States by the end of 2022, presence and potential performance of TAAT as an exhibitor showcasing its planned heat-not-burn offering at InterTabac trade show in Germany in September 2022. The forward-looking information reflects managements current expectations based on information currently available and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed timeframes or at all. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include: (i) adverse market conditions; (ii) changes to the growth and size of the tobacco markets; and (iii) other factors beyond the control of the Company. The Company operates in a rapidly evolving environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is impossible for the Companys management to predict all risk factors, nor can the Company assess the impact of all factors on Companys business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

The statements in this news release have not been evaluated by Health Canada or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As each individual is different, the benefits, if any, of taking the Companys products will vary from person to person. No claims or guarantees can be made as to the effects of the Companys products on an individuals health and well-being. The Companys products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

This news release may contain trademarked names of third-party entities (or their respective offerings with trademarked names) typically in reference to (i) relationships had by the Company with such third-party entities as referred to in this release and/or (ii) client/vendor/service provider parties whose relationship with the Company is/are referred to in this release. All rights to such trademarks are reserved by their respective owners or licensees.

Statement Regarding Third-Party Investor Relations Firms

Disclosures relating to investor relations firms retained by TAAT Global Alternatives Inc. can be found under the Company's profile on http://sedar.com.

Picture 1 By the end of 2022, TAAT plans to launch a heat-not-burn offering in the United States. In April 2022 the Company received its first batch of commercial samples for the heatable sticks, which it has recently evaluated in-house to adjust the base material formulation in order to align the flavour of the sticks with the existing range of TAAT combustible products. In addition to heatable sticks, the heat-not-burn device shown above will also be sold under the TAAT brand name.

Source: TAAT Global Alternatives Inc.
WABASH, Ind., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FFW Corporation (the Corporation) (OTC PINK: FFWC) (4/26/2022 Close: $46.50), parent corporation of Crossroads Bank (the Bank), announced earnings for the quarter and year to date ended March 31, 2022.

For the three months ended March 31, 2022, the Corporation reported net income of $1,369,000 or $1.20 per common share compared to $1,575,000 or $1.38 per common share for the three months ended March 31, 2021. Net interest income for the three months ended March 31, 2022 was $3,745,000 compared to $3,655,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2021. The provision for loan losses was $75,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and $165,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2021. Total noninterest income was $1,120,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2022 compared to $1,917,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2021. Noninterest expense was $3,291,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and $3,570,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2021.

For the nine months ended March 31, 2022, the Corporation reported net income of $4,197,000 or $3.67 per common share compared to $5,096,000 or $4.46 per common share for the nine months ended March 31, 2021. Net interest income for the nine months ended March 31, 2022 was $11,338,000 compared to $11,089,000 for the nine months ended March 31, 2021. The Company recognized a provision for loan losses of $205,000 for the nine months ended March 31, 2022 and $495,000 for the nine months ended March 31, 2021. Total noninterest income was $3,366,000 for the nine months ended March 31, 2022 compared to $5,713,000 for the nine months ended March 31, 2021. Noninterest expense was $9,718,000 for the nine months ended March 31, 2022 and $10,255,000 for the nine months ended March 31, 2021.

The three and nine months ended March 31, 2022 represented a return on average common equity of 10.30% and 10.32%, respectively, compared to 12.00% and 13.12% for the three and nine month periods ended March 31, 2021. The three and nine months ended March 31, 2022 represented a return on average assets of 1.04% and 1.08%, respectively, compared to 1.36% and 1.44%, for the three and nine month periods ended March 31, 2021.

The allowance for loan losses as a percentage of gross loans receivable was 1.28% at March 31, 2022 compared to 1.43% at June 30, 2021. Nonperforming assets were $2,518,000 at March 31, 2022 compared to $3,242,000 at June 30, 2021.

As of March 31, 2022, FFWCs equity-to-assets ratio was 9.41% compared to 10.89% at June 30, 2021. Total assets at March 31, 2022 were $532,318,000 compared to $486,442,000 at June 30, 2021. Shareholders equity was $50,103,000 at March 31, 2022 compared to $52,954,000 at June 30, 2021. Crossroads Bank exceeds all applicable regulatory requirements to be considered well capitalized.

The corporation has an active walk-in share repurchase program. Share repurchases may be facilitated at the corporate office located at 1205 N. Cass St., Wabash IN 46992. For more information regarding the share repurchase program, please contact Kirsten Pendarvis, Treasurer, at (260) 563-3185. The corporation may suspend or discontinue repurchases at any time.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include expressions such as expects, intends, believes, and should, which are necessarily statements of belief as to the expected outcomes of future events. Actual results could materially differ from those presented. The Corporation's ability to predict future results involves a number of risks and uncertainties. The Corporation undertakes no obligation to release revisions to these forward-looking statements or reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.

Crossroads Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of FFW Corporation providing an extensive array of banking services and a wide range of investments and securities products through its main office in Wabash and six Indiana banking centers located in Columbia City, North Manchester, Peru, South Whitley, Syracuse and Warsaw. The Bank also provides leasing services at each of its banking centers. Insurance products are offered through an affiliated company, Insurance 1 Services, Inc. The Corporations stock is traded on the OTC Markets under the symbol FFWC. Our website address is www.crossroadsbanking.com. Crossroads Bank, Member FDIC.

FFW Corporation Selected Financial Information

Consolidated Balance Sheet

March 31 June 30 2022 2021 Unaudited Assets Cash and due from financial institutions $ 6,366,006 $ 4,779,188 Interest-bearing deposits in other financial institutions 61,807,267 51,646,720 Cash and cash equivalents 68,173,273 56,425,908 Securities available for sale 112,746,728 116,335,455 Loans receivable, net of allowance for loan losses of $4,203,633 at March 31, 2022 and $4,168,689 at June 30, 2021 325,007,588 285,643,064 Loans held for sale - 2,613,987 Federal Home Loan Bank stock, at cost 1,289,700 1,462,500 Accrued interest receivable 1,881,750 2,131,744 Premises and equipment, net 8,601,701 8,949,842 Mortgage servicing rights 1,124,143 1,011,046 Cash surrender value of life insurance 9,690,141 9,459,746 Goodwill 1,213,898 1,213,898 Repossessed Assets 68,758 148,621 Other assets 2,520,184 1,045,876 Total assets $ 532,317,864 $ 486,441,687 Liabilities and shareholders' equity Deposits Noninterest-bearing $ 56,402,280 $ 49,510,375 Interest-bearing 421,539,440 380,084,790 Total deposits 477,941,720 429,595,165 Accrued expenses and other liabilities 4,273,628 3,892,719 Total liabilities 482,215,348 433,487,884 Shareholders' equity Common stock, $.01 par; 2,000,000 shares authorized; Issued: 1,836,328; outstanding: 1,143,327 - March 31, 2022 and 1,141,190 - June 30, 2021 18,363 18,363 Additional paid-in capital 9,887,878 9,809,754 Retained earnings 55,157,652 51,852,194 Accumulated other comprehensive income (3,131,898 ) 3,058,832 Treasury stock, at cost: 693,001 shares at March 31, 2022 and 695,138 shares at June 30, 2021 (11,829,479 ) (11,785,340 ) Total shareholders' equity 50,102,516 52,953,803 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 532,317,864 $ 486,441,687

FFW Corporation Selected Financial Information

Consolidated Statement of Income

Three Months Ended March 31 Nine Months Ended March 31 2022 2021 2022 2021 Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Interest and dividend income: Loans, including fees $ 3,342,482 $ 3,347,999 $ 10,097,771 $ 10,512,304 Taxable securities 289,642 340,065 976,127 994,577 Tax exempt securities 407,352 419,231 1,228,982 1,209,159 Other 25,514 6,281 69,363 23,790 Total interest and dividend income 4,064,990 4,113,576 12,372,243 12,739,830 Interest expense: Deposits 319,839 458,636 1,034,161 1,651,282 Borrowings - - 1 - Total interest expense 319,839 458,636 1,034,162 1,651,282 Net interest income 3,745,151 3,654,940 11,338,081 11,088,548 Provision for loan losses 75,000 165,000 205,000 495,000 Net interest income after provision for loan losses 3,670,151 3,489,940 11,133,081 10,593,548 Noninterest income: Net gains on sales of securities - - - 98,467 Net gains on sales of loans 92,943 1,006,539 447,769 3,215,381 Net gains (losses) on fixed assets 24,033 - 34,283 9,204 Net gains (losses) on sales of REO 4,532 (16,963 ) 11,286 (23,498 ) Commission income 305,301 344,053 941,537 915,456 Service charges and fees 349,991 238,602 859,663 533,440 Earnings on life insurance 76,749 74,875 230,396 224,695 Other 266,661 270,216 840,757 739,662 Total noninterest income 1,120,210 1,917,322 3,365,691 5,712,807 Noninterest expense: Salaries and benefits 1,794,574 1,534,134 5,285,688 5,009,601 Occupancy and equipment 338,682 350,158 985,152 1,014,617 Professional 111,657 553,813 336,807 707,007 Marketing 85,077 105,096 303,131 327,689 Deposit insurance premium 36,448 33,000 102,448 99,000 Regulatory assessment 9,585 9,515 28,305 28,117 Correspondent bank charges 19,814 17,967 58,524 52,630 Data processing 414,997 400,609 1,247,433 1,221,879 Printing, postage and supplies 71,759 62,358 220,037 229,854 Expense on life insurance 21,232 20,611 63,996 52,309 Contribution expense 22,380 32,340 53,907 59,615 Expense on REO 1,068 5,018 2,093 13,057 Other 363,451 445,260 1,030,468 1,440,008 Total noninterest expense 3,290,724 3,569,879 9,717,989 10,255,383 Income before income taxes 1,499,637 1,837,383 4,780,783 6,050,972 Income tax expense 130,611 262,145 583,505 954,632 Net income $ 1,369,026 $ 1,575,238 $ 4,197,278 $ 5,096,340

FFW Corporation Selected Financial Information

Key Balances and Ratios

Three Months Ended March 31 Nine Months Ended March 31 2022 2021 2022 2021 Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Per common share data: Earnings $ 1.20 $ 1.38 $ 3.67 $ 4.46 Diluted earnings $ 1.20 $ 1.38 $ 3.67 $ 4.46 Dividends paid $ 0.26 $ 0.25 $ 0.78 $ 0.75 Average shares issued and outstanding 1,143,348 1,142,690 1,143,981 1,142,690 Shares outstanding end of period 1,143,327 1,142,690 1,143,327 1,142,690 Supplemental data: Net interest margin ** 3.03 % 3.37 % 3.11 % 3.35 % Return on average assets *** 1.04 % 1.36 % 1.08 % 1.44 % Return on average common equity *** 10.30 % 12.00 % 10.32 % 13.12 % March 31 June 30 2022 2021 Nonperforming assets * $ 2,518,218 $ 3,241,581 Repossessed assets $ 68,758 $ 148,621 * Includes non-accruing loans, accruing loans delinquent more than 90 days and repossessed assets ** Yields reflected have not been computed on a tax equivalent basis *** Annualized

FOR MORE INFORMATION Contact: Kirsten Pendarvis, Treasurer, at (260) 563-3185

Source: FFW Corporation
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OR TO ANY PERSON LOCATED OR RESIDENT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ITS TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS, ANY STATE OF THE UNITED STATES OR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

TORONTO, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSXV: FRED) Fredonia Mining Inc. (the Company or Fredonia) is pleased to announce today the closing of its previously announced brokered private placement, consisting of a total of 22,606,779 units of the Company (each, a Unit, and collectively the Units), which included the exercise of an option to increase the size of the Offering from the proposed base offering size, at a price of $0.18 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of approximately $4,069,220.22 (the Offering).

Each Unit consisted of one common share of the Company (each, a Common Share, and collectively the Common Shares) and one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a Warrant and collectively the Warrants). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.28 per Common Share for a period of five years from the closing date of the Offering.

The Offering was led by Paradigm Capital Inc. as sole agent and bookrunner (the Agent). In consideration for the Agents services, and pursuant to the terms of an agency agreement entered into on April 27, 2022 between the Company and the Agent, the Agent received compensation consisting of 1,485,213 Units (the Broker Units) in lieu of cash, representing 7.0% of the Units issued pursuant to the Offering, other than in respect of sales made by other registered dealers participating in the Offering for which the Company issued cash compensation in the amount of the agreed-upon selling concession. Each Broker Unit consists of one Common Share and one Warrant. The Company also granted the Agent 1,582,475 broker warrants (each, a Broker Warrant and collectively the Broker Warrants), representing 7.0% of the number of Units issued pursuant to the Offering, with each such Broker Warrant entitling the Agent to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.18 per Common Share for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering.

The Corporation intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering to fund ongoing exploration, updating technical studies, and for general corporate purposes.

The securities have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act), or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States without registration under the U.S. Securities Act and all applicable state securities laws or compliance with the requirements of an applicable exemption therefrom. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor may there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

The Units were offered and sold by private placement in Canada to accredited investors within the meaning of National Instrument 45-106  Prospectus Exemptions and other exempt purchasers in each province of Ontario and foreign jurisdictions. The securities issued in the Offering will be subject to applicable hold periods imposed under applicable securities legislation, including a hold period of 4 months and one day from the date of issuance.

Certain directors and officers of the Company participated in the Offering. A material change report with respect to the Offering was filed less than 21 days before the closing date, which was reasonable and necessary in the circumstances for the Company to take advantage of available financing opportunities.

About Fredonia

Fredonia, directly or indirectly, owns a 100% interest in certain license areas (totaling approximately 18,300 ha.) (collectively, the Project), all within the Deseado Massif geological region in the Province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, including the following principal areas: El Aguila, approx. 9,100ha, Petrificados, approx. 3,000ha, and the flagship, advanced El Dorado-Monserrat (EDM) covering approx. 6,200ha located close to Anglo Gold Ashanti's Cerro Vanguardia mine, subject to a 1.5% net smelter return royalty on the EDM project, and a 0.5% net profits interest on Winki II, El Aguila I, El Aguila II and Petrificados.

For further information: Please visit the Company website www.fredoniamanagement.com or contact: Omar Salas, Chief Financial Officer, Direct: +1-416-846-7807, Email: [email protected]

Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement

This news release contains forwardlooking information within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates, projections and interpretations as at the date of this news release. The information in this news release about the use of the proceeds from the Offering; the prospects of the Project; and any other information herein that is not a historical fact may be forward-looking information. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, interpretations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, interpreted, management's view, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information and are intended to identify forward-looking information. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company, at the time such assumptions and estimates were made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the results of exploration activities, and managements discretion with respect to use of proceeds. Although the forward-looking information contained in this news release is based upon what management believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot guarantee that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking information, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, and neither Company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any such forward looking information. The Company does not undertake, and assumes no obligation, to update or revise any such forward looking statements or forward-looking information contained herein to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Source: Fredonia Mining Inc.
TORONTO, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) today filed its submission to the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) in response to its request for comments on proposed amendments to National Instruments 41-101 and 81-101 relating to prospectus filing requirements for investment funds.

IFIC commends the CSA for its efforts to modernize the prospectus filing model and reduce regulatory burden for firms, said Paul Bourque, President and CEO, IFIC. Extending the requirement to file a prospectus from every 12 months to every 24 months is a positive step for the industry and it continues to effectively meet investors information needs.

In its submission, IFIC also recommended that the CSA retain the current option to either file stand-alone amendments or an amended and restated prospectus when material changes occur.

About IFIC

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada is the voice of Canadas investment funds industry. IFIC brings together approximately 150 organizations, including fund managers, distributors and industry service organizations, to foster a strong, stable investment sector where investors can realize their financial goals. By connecting Canadas savers to Canadas economy, our industry contributes significantly to Canadian economic growth and job creation.

For more information:

Pira KumarasamySenior Manager, Communications and Public Affairs[email protected]416-309-2317

Source: The Investment Funds Institute of Canada
OAKLAND, Calif., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, civil rights law firm Haddad & Sherwin LLP released the results of a second, independent autopsy it obtained on Mario Gonzalez. Mr. Gonzalez was killed by Alameda, California, police officers Eric McKinley, James Fisher, and Cameron Leahy, on April 19, 2021. The independent autopsy confirms that Mr. Gonzalez died from restraint asphyxiation, when the police officers forced him face down on the ground, with three officers putting their body weight on him for more than five minutes. Mr. Gonzalez was fully handcuffed for more than three and a half of those minutes. The Alameda County Sheriff-Coroner determined that Mr. Gonzalezs death was a homicide, which means death at the hands of another. The newly released independent autopsy confirms that Mr. Gonzalez died of homicide at the hands of the police.

In December 2021, Haddad & Sherwin LLP brought a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Gonzalez and his now five-year-old son, little Mario, against the City of Alameda, its former Police Chief Randy Fenn, and the officers who killed Mr. Martinez.

On April 19, 2021  the day before the jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder for the restraint-asphyxia death of George Floyd  Alameda Police Officer Eric McKinley encountered Mario Gonzalez in a small pocket-park in Alameda, California. Officer McKinley was dispatched to do a welfare check on Mr. Gonzalez  who was peacefully standing in the public park, talking to himself  in response to a man who called police to complain that Mr. Gonzalez was not doing anything wrong, but his presence in the park was scaring the callers wife. Officer McKinley asked Mario Gonzalez how he was doing and Mr. Gonzalez responded that he was fine, although he appeared confused and disoriented. After attempting to engage Mr. Gonzalez in conversation for several minutes, and after having Officer Fisher confirm with a nearby drugstore that Mr. Gonzalez was not suspected of stealing the alcohol he had with him, the officers had no legal cause to arrest Mr. Gonzalez.

Officers body-worn camera videos show officers placing Mr. Gonzalez in multiple pain compliance holds before they forced him face-down on the ground. Officers forced Mr. Gonzalez into a prone position and Officers McKinley and Fisher held him down with their force and body weight. The officers were soon joined by Officer Leahy, who added his weight as well. Mr. Gonzalez struggled to breathe over the next five minutes while these officers restrained him in a prone position with their force and body weight. For more than three and a half of those minutes, Mr. Gonzalez was fully handcuffed behind his back.

Mario Gonzalez never attacked or threatened any person and never actively resisted any officer. He simply moved around in attempts to breathe under Defendants illegal and asphyxiating restraint. In the course of the officers illegal restraint and seizure of Mario Gonzalez, one officer said, Hes lifting my whole body weight up. After the officers had handcuffed Mr. Gonzalez, but still kept him prone with great weight on his torso and legs, one officer said, Think we can roll him on his side? to which another officer answered, I dont wanna lose what I got, man. When officers finally rolled Mario Gonzalez over, he was limp and unresponsive. He died as a result of the officers tactics and force.The independent autopsy, performed by noted forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet I. Omalu, confirmed that Mr. Gonzalez died from restraint asphyxiation. Dr. Omalu found acute, severe swelling and congestion in Mr. Gonzalezs lungs and global swelling of his brain from the lack of oxygen and asphyxiation that caused his death.

The amount of methamphetamine found in Mario Gonzalezs blood was relatively low, well within what the United States government has determined to be a normal recreational amount. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that the normal recreational blood concentration of methamphetamine for users arrested for driving while intoxicated, and therefore still alive, is up to 2.5 milligrams per liter. The normal recreational amount of methamphetamine is between 2  and 5 times more than the amount of methamphetamine that was reportedly in Mr. Gonzalezs blood at the time of the first and second autopsies. The risk of death from methamphetamine is just 1 in 353,000.

This was at least the second restraint asphyxiation caused by APD officers in three years.

Andrea Cortez, the mother of Mario Gonzalezs five-year-old son, says: Mario was a peaceful, calm person. He was a very mellow guy. He adored our son and was a good father. The police should have known to use better tactics with Mario. He wasnt hurting anyone and he was clearly confused. If they had rolled him on his side when the first officer said to, my sons father might still be here.Julia Sherwin, an attorney for Mario Gonzalez and his son, says, The independent autopsy confirms what we all saw with our own eyes. Meth didnt kill Mario, the officers did. They killed him by restraining him in a prone position, with three officers weight on him, for over five minutes. And for more than three and a half of those minutes, Marios hands were handcuffed behind his back. It is shameful that District Attorney Nancy OMalley did not have the courage to bring criminal charges for this homicide. Little Mario will hold the officers who killed his Papi accountable in federal court, and we will fight for reforms so no other family will suffer the way Marios family has suffered from this completely preventable and senseless death.

To interview attorneys Julia Sherwin or Michael Haddad of Haddad & Sherwin LLP, please call or email them as listed below. A copy of the independent autopsy report is available here.

A Go Fund Me account has been established to support little Mario. Click here if you wish to contribute: https://gofund.me/a964dc8d

ABOUT HADDAD & SHERWIN LLP. Founded in 1998 by Michael Haddad and Julia Sherwin, Haddad & Sherwin LLP is an Oakland law firm representing people in serious civil rights, police and jail misconduct, and wrongful death cases. For more information, visit https://haddadandsherwin.com/.

Contact:

Julia Sherwin or Michael Haddad(office) (510) 452-5500[email protected]

Tim JohnsonUPRAISE Marketing + PR for Haddad & Sherwin LLP(cell) (415) 385-9537[email protected]

Source: Haddad & Sherwin LLP
PALO ALTO, Calif., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Insuranks, the insurance quote comparison and educational website, has updated its 2022 cost estimates of bounce house insurance, box truck insurance, tractor insurance, and business hazard insurance cost. With this, the company aims to encourage business owners to be more aware of rates as insurance policyholders and get insured and be protected from risks.

"Insurance can be cheap or expensive for different kinds of business. There's no one-size-fits-all pricing. It's important that there's a reliable reference that gives an idea about the cost of a particular insurance product", as stated by Ofir Sahar, the company founder.

Business hazard insurance helps owners mitigate the cost of damage to business property as caused by explosions, fire, smoke, extreme weather, theft, vandalism, and more. The policy is also a requirement for an SBA loan.

According to Insuranks, the average business hazard insurance cost per month is $63. This translates to an $806 yearly premium. Such a rate is for businesses with a commercial space. For home-based businesses, the cost of business hazard insurance is only $46.17 a month or $554.04 a year. Insuranks recommends CoverWallet, NEXT, State Farm, Progressive, The Hartford, and Berkshire Hathaway GUARD for the best coverage.

"To estimate the cost of business hazard insurance, we assumed that the policy offers $60,000 in coverage and has a deductible of $1,000", Sahar says.

There are many policies included in box truck insurance. Insuranks estimated the cost of box truck insurance premiums based on the kind of protection the customer wants to get. Here are the findings:

Auto liability insurance for box trucks is $416.66 a month or $5,000 a year.

Cargo insurance for box trucks is $145.83 a month or $1,750 a year.

Physical damage insurance costs $191.66 a month or $2,300 a year.

Box truck non-trucking liability insurance costs $41.66 a month or $500 a year.

In connection, factors that affect the cost of box truck insurance are the value of the unit to be insured, number of box trucks to be insured, location, mileage, type of goods or materials hauled, and business history.

"As we looked into different carriers that offer box truck insurance, companies with perks that stand out among the rest are CoverWallet, Progressive, Geico, and State Farm", Sahar states.

According to Insuranks, the primary liability coverage included in tractor insurance costs $695.66 a month or $8,348 a year. Physical damage coverage costs $160 a month or $1,920 a year. Bobtail insurance for tractors is $30 a month or $360 a year. Finally, cargo insurance costs $800 per year or $66.66 a month. Recommended companies for the best tractor insurance are Coverwallet, Geico, AXA, State Farm, ACKO, USAA, Tata AIG, Farm Bureau, and Liberty Insurance.

In terms of bounce house insurance, Insuranks states that the average cost is $41.66 a month or $500 a year for a $1 million general liability insurance. These rates only apply to bounce house centers. For bounce house rental businesses, premiums cost $50 a month or $600 a year for a $1 million general liability coverage. Finally, temporary insurance for bounce house business starts at $280.

Insuranks is an online quote comparison and educational website that's a partner of insurance companies such as Thimble, CoverWallet, Next, and Hiscox. The company provides reliable and relevant information about different insurance products. Insuranks is located at Tel Aviv, HaMerkaz, Israel.

For more information visit https://www.insuranks.com or email: [email protected]

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Source: Insuranks ( insuranks.com
NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- We are advised by Holodeck Media that journalists and other readers should disregard the news release "Holodeck Media Acquires Leading Crypto Content Brands to Become First Integrated Metaverse, Gaming, and Crypto Media Company" issued April 26, 2022.

Source: Holodeck Media
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novo Resources Corp. (Novo or the Company) (TSX: NVO, NVO.WT & NVO.WT.A) (OTCQX: NSRPF) is pleased to advise that it has closed the first tranche of its previously announced sale of 15 million shares (the Transaction) of New Found Gold Corp. (New Found). A total of 8.25 million New Found shares have been transferred to a corporation controlled by Eric Sprott at C$8.35 per share for gross proceeds of approximately C$68.9 million1.

The second tranche of the Transaction, consisting of 6.75 million New Found shares at C$8.45 per share for gross proceeds of approximately C$57.0 million, is scheduled to close on August 5, 2022 (Tranche 2). The New Found shares representing Tranche 2 are subject to escrow provisions. The consent of the TSX Venture Exchange, on which New Founds common shares trade, to the transfer of the Tranche 2 shares within escrow has been obtained.

Novos cash position is currently approximately C$91 million. Net funding from the Transaction will be used to provide Novo with the flexibility to aggressively advance exploration efforts across the Pilbara and Victoria, while expediting a Feasibility Study on the Fresh component of the Companys Beatons Creek project in Nullagine, Western Australia2.

ABOUT NOVO

Novo operates its flagship Beatons Creek project while exploring and developing its prospective land package covering approximately 12,500 square kilometres in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. In addition to the Companys primary focus, Novo seeks to leverage its internal geological expertise to deliver value-accretive opportunities to its shareholders. For more information, please contact Leo Karabelas at (416) 543-3120 or e-mail [email protected].

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

Novo Resources Corp.

Michael Spreadborough

Michael Spreadborough

Executive Co-Chairman and Acting CEO

Forward-looking information

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information (within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation) including, without limitation, that Tranche 2 will settle on August 5, 2022, and that funding generated from the Transaction will provide Novo with the flexibility to aggressively advance exploration efforts across the Pilbara and Victoria while expediting a feasibility study on the Fresh component of the Companys Beatons Creek project in Nullagine, Western Australia. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, without limitation, the completion by the parties of their respective obligations under Tranche 2, customary risks of the resource industry, and the risk factors identified in Novos managements discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2021 which is available under Novos profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date those statements are made. Except as required by applicable law, Novo assumes no obligation to update or to publicly announce the results of any change to any forward-looking statement contained or incorporated by reference herein to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements. If Novo updates any forward-looking statement(s), no inference should be drawn that the Company will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.

1 Refer to the Companys news release dated April 12, 2022.2 Refer to the Companys news release dated April 7, 2022.

Source: Novo Resources Corp.
MIAMI, FL, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire  Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD) (Progressive Care or the Company), a personalized healthcare services and technology company, is excited to announce its expansion into the rapidly growing multi-billion dollar Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) space.

See on website

According to new research from MarketsandMarkets, the global RPM market is projected to reach $175.2 billion by 2027, growing at a robust 27% compound annual growth rate over the next 5 years.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information estimates that approximately 67% of Medicare beneficiaries have two or more chronic conditions accounting for 94% of Medicare spending. Chronic conditions have a significant impact on healthcare spending as well as hospital readmissions. Due to this burden, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) developed the RPM program to mitigate spending and provide clinicians with the digital data to implement more informed treatment plans for patients enrolled in the service. The Companys experience in medication and therapy management and its active participation in data analytics would carry over directly into the RPM marketplace.

The implementation of patient-oriented technologies such as wearables and 5 G-powered home devices to track physiological data will enhance Progressive Cares capabilities to provide doctors with usable insights into patients overall health. Additionally, it will benefit our existing physician base as well as provide a more complete suite of services for future accounts. CMS authorizes pharmacies to work in collaboration with providers, offering services as employees or contracted personnel and thereby enabling the Company to bill providers and healthcare organizations for RPM services.

Alan Jay Weisberg, CEO of Progressive Care, stated, The RPM space is set to be one of the most important growth areas within the healthcare industry over coming years and our most logical next step given our broad base of patients who have multiple chronic conditions. Progressive Care has differentiated itself from competitors in terms of commitment to medication therapy management. Our reputation among healthcare professionals in this domain is one of our strongest advantages.

For more information about Progressive Care, please visit the companys website. Connect and stay in touch with us on social media:

Progressive Care Inc.https://www.progressivecareus.comPharmCo, LLChttps://www.pharmcorx.comClearMetrXhttps://www.clearmetrx.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

Statements contained herein that are not based upon current or historical fact are forward-looking in nature and constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements reflect the Companys expectations about its future operating results, performance, and opportunities that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. When used herein, the words anticipate, believe, estimate, upcoming, plan, target, intend and expect and similar expressions, as they relate to Progressive Care Inc., its subsidiaries, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the Company and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the Companys actual results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements.

Public Relations Contact:Carlos Rangel[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:ClearThink Capital[email protected]

Source: Progressive Care, Inc.
New York, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing stresses of everyday life are making this a time of worry and anxiety for many people. There is an urgent need for open discussions about how to safeguard our mental health.

Season 7 of the public television series Healthy Minds with Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein, launching nationally on PBS in May during Mental Health Awareness month, features inspiring personal stories from people who have experienced mental health issues, as well as the latest information from experts on new approaches to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illness.

One in five people are affected by a mental illness, and we are seeing increases in depression and anxiety during these unsettling times, says Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., President and CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the nations largest private funder of mental health research grants. Dr. Borenstein, who developed the series and serves as its host and executive producer, adds, The goal of Healthy Minds is to inspire conversations about mental illness, provide understandable information and resources for viewers and demonstrate that with help, there is hope.

Emmy Award-winning actor Maurice Benard sits down with Dr. Borenstein to discuss his experience living with bipolar disorder and his work as an advocate to help raise awareness and remove stigma around the illness. To bring greater awareness to the public, the writers and Mr. Bernard chose to include having his character on the soap opera General Hospital live with bipolar disorder.

Another episode includes an interview with Dr. David Miklowitz, distinguished professor of psychiatry at UCLA Semel Institute, who offers vital information to help families recognize the warning signs of bipolar disorder in adolescents and young adults.

Dr. Maura Boldrini, associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia Medical College, talks with Dr. Borenstein about research that is discovering how COVID-19 affects the brain in the short and long term, including brain fog, depression, anxiety, and increased risk of suicide.

The nationwide rollout of the 9-8-8 mental health crisis emergency number in July 2022 will provide a much-needed alternative response mechanism for mental health-related crises. Dr. William Carson, chairman of the Sozosei Foundation, explains how mental health and suicide prevention services will serve as the telephone help line to respond to crises that 9-1-1 calls are not able to handle.

The Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Joshua Gordon, discusses an update on promising new mental health research currently underway.

The intersection of faith and mental health is explored with Dr. W. Daniel Hale, a psychologist who lost his daughter to suicide and has become a leading voice of support for others. He shares how his faith, clinical training, and his own depression have impacted his experience.

Additional episodes will focus on new treatments for depression, insights on the latest cutting-edge therapies for one of the most common mental illnesses, and innovative research being conducted to better understand the brain.

Season 7 is available nationally on PBS.org starting May 1. Viewers can also see if it is airing in their area by looking up Healthy Minds with Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein on their local PBS station or visiting: https://www.bbrfoundation.org/healthy-minds-tv

The Emmy nominated series is produced by the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, presented by Connecticut Public Television (CPTV), and distributed by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). Funding is provided by the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, the Bank of America Charitable Gift Fund, and the John & Polly Sparks Foundation.

Episode Details

701  How COVID-19 Affects the Brain Researchers are discovering how COVID-19 affects the brain in the short and long term, including brain fog, depression, anxiety, and increased risk of suicide. Maura Boldrini, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia Medical College, and Director of the Human Brain Biology Institute (Brain QUANT) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center discusses the latest developments including the difference vaccination makes in decreasing the risk of brain impact.

702  National Institute of Mental Health: An Update on Promising Research Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D. the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the lead federal agency for research on mental disorders, gives an update on promising new research currently underway.

703  Rapid-Acting Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation The new rapid-acting Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy for treatment-resistant depression works in days instead of weeks and may have implications for use in other mental disorders. Nolan Williams, M.D., Assistant Professor, Director, Interventional Psychiatry Clinical Research and Director, Brain Stimulation Laboratory at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Stanford University Medical Center explains how this non-invasive treatment works.

704  Optogenetics with Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D.  Part One A technique that uses light to control brain cells enables researchers to turn behaviors on and off in lab mice to better understand the human brain and disorders including autism, depression, eating disorders, and more. Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D, professor of Bioengineering, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University's Howard Hughes Medical Institute, developed optogenetics and explains his research and how his findings impact what he sees clinically working with human patients.

705  Optogenetics with Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D.  Part Two Dr. Borenstein continues his conversation with Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D, professor of Bioengineering, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University's Howard Hughes Medical Institute, about his revolutionary optogenetics research of behavior in mice that can help doctors better understand the human brain and disorders.

706  Deep Brain Stimulation  Treatment-Resistant Depression A treatment originally used for Parkinson's Disease may have the potential to help patients with depression who have not responded to multiple treatments including medications, psychotherapy, and electroconvulsive therapy. Helen Mayberg, M.D, Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai and Director, Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics, Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai, discusses the next generation of deep brain stimulation (DBS).

707  Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy and Post-Traumatic Stress New uses for psychedelic drugs offer potential breakthroughs for patients with post-traumatic stress, working with trained therapists to guide the experience and open perspectives into a patient's state of mind. Rachel Yehuda, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience / Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai and Director, Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research has been at the forefront of trauma research for three decades and discusses this new development.

708  Bipolar Disorder, What You and Your Family Need to Know Exploring the symptoms, warning signs, and early treatment options for adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder. David J. Miklowitz, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA Semel Institute, takes families through the vital information they may need.

709  Living with Bipolar: A Conversation with Maurice BenardEmmy Award-winning actor Maurice Benard shares his experience living with bipolar disorder, and his work as an advocate for awareness to remove stigma, which included his character Sonny Corinthos on the soap opera General Hospital sharing his disorder.

710  Managing a Mental Health Crisis and the New # 988 The nationwide rollout of the "9-8-8" mental health crisis emergency number in July 2022 provides an alternative response chain for mental health-related crises. William H. Carson, M.D., Chairman of the Sozosei Foundation explains how mental health and suicide prevention services will be responded to in ways that 9-1-1 calls aren't able to handle.

711  Depression  Intersection of Faith and Mental Health A psychologist who lost his daughter to suicide has become a leading voice of support for others, sharing how his faith, clinical training, and his own depression impacted his experience. W. Daniel Hale, Ph.D., Special Advisor to the President of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, offers insight for families to try to help them prevent their own tragedy.

About Brain & Behavior Research Foundation:Now celebrating its 35th year, The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation awards research grants to develop improved treatments, cures, and methods of prevention for mental illness. These illnesses include addiction, ADHD, anxiety, autism, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, eating disorders, OCD, PTSD, and schizophrenia, as well as research on suicide prevention. Since 1987, the Foundation has awarded more than $430 million to fund more than 5,100 leading scientists around the world, which has led to over $4 billion in additional funding for these scientists. 100% of every dollar donated for research is invested in research. BBRF operating expenses are covered by separate foundation grants.

About Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network:The Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network (CPBN) is home to CPTV, WNPR, and the Learning Lab. CPTV is a locally and nationally recognized producer and presenter of quality public television programming, including original documentaries, public affairs, and educational programming. WNPR is an affiliate of National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and American Public Media. The Learning Lab serves high school seniors through a partnership with Hartford Public Schools and the Journalism and Media Academy Magnet School. It is also home to the Institute for Advanced Media, a program that provides the men and women of our armed forces and adult learners an opportunity to learn skills necessary for the 21st century digital media workplace. For more information, visit cpbn.org.About the National Educational Telecommunications Association:The National Educational Telecommunications Association is a professional association that serves public television licensees and educational entities in all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Since 1967, the Associations reason for existing has been to connect public television people and ideas, by providing quality programming, educational resources, professional development, management support, and national representation.

Attachments

Myrna Manners Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (718) 986-7255 [email protected]

Source: Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
Live Presentation To Take Place at 9:30AM ET / 2:30PM GMT

LONDON, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Small Pharma Inc. (TSXV: DMT) (OTCQB: DMTTF) (the Company or Small Pharma), a biotechnology company focused on short-acting psychedelic-assisted therapies for mental health conditions, announces that Peter Rands, Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. Carol Routledge, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, will present live at the KCSA Psychedelics Virtual Investor Conference at www.virtualinvestorconferences.com .



Details for the live presentation are as follows:

DATE: April 28, 2022

TIME: 9:30AM ET / 2:30PM GMT

LINK: https://bit.ly/37mU2p6

The live virtual presentation by the Company will be followed by an opportunity for investors to ask the Company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will be made available after the event on the Companys website.

To schedule a one-on-one meeting with Small Pharmas management team, please contact KCSA Strategic Communications at [email protected].

About Small Pharma

Small Pharma is a biotechnology company progressing a pipeline of short-acting psychedelics with therapy for the treatment of mental health conditions, with a current focus on depression. Small Pharma initiated a clinical program into N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) assisted psychotherapy in February 2021. This program includes a Phase I/IIa trial on the Companys lead candidate alongside development of a robust pipeline of proprietary preclinical assets.

About DMT

DMT is a naturally occurring psychedelic tryptamine found in plants and in the brain of mammals. Scientific evidence suggests DMT offers the potential for rapid-acting and long-lasting antidepressant effects. DMT is differentiated by its short psychedelic experience (

For further information contact:

Small Pharma Inc.

Peter Rands

Chief Executive Officer

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 (0)20 7112 9118

Investor Relations Contacts:

Eric Ribner

LifeSci Advisors

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1 (646)-889-1200

Tim Regan

KCSA Strategic Communications

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1 (347) 487-6788

Media Relations Contacts:

USA

McKenna Miller

KCSA Strategic Communications

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1 (949) 949-6585

Rest of World

Donna Curran

Hanover Communications

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 (0)20 7400 4480

Cautionary Note

Small Pharma makes no medical, treatment or health benefit claims about its proposed products. The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) or other similar regulatory authorities have not evaluated claims regarding DMT-assisted therapies and other next generation psychoactive compounds. The efficacy of such therapies has not been confirmed by MHRA-approved research. There is no assurance that such DMT-assisted therapies and other psychoactive compounds can diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition. Vigorous scientific research and clinical trials are needed. Any references to quality, consistency, efficacy and safety of potential therapies do not imply that Small Pharma verified such in clinical trials or that Small Pharma will complete such trials. If Small Pharma cannot obtain the approvals or research necessary to commercialize its business, it may have a material adverse effect on Small Pharmas performance and operations.

The TSX Venture Exchange (the TSXV) has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan at The Paramount Theater At Paramount Pictures Studios for the Los Angeles Premiere of Peter Greenbergs Global Television Special Tanzania: The Royal Tour

New York, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzanias first woman to lead her nation, greeted more than 400 guests and celebrities at the Paramount Theater for the Los Angeles Premiere on Thursday April 21, of Emmy award-winning journalist and travel editor Peter Greenbergs global television special, Tanzania: The Royal Tour.

This followed President Samias week-long visit to the United States which started with a visit to the White House for a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris. President Samia was in New York on Monday April 18, for the World Premiere of Tanzania: The Royal Tour at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Her Excellency came to Los Angeles to attend the Los Angeles Premiere on Thursday, April 21, at Paramount Theater at Paramount Picture Studios.

"This is a very special, up close and personal journey to and through a country, seen through the eyes of its leader" says producer and host Peter Greenberg. "It's an all-access pass, a deep immersion into the history, culture and the environment at a critical time in Tanzania's history." And the President was Greenberg's tour guide as they crisscrossed the entire country, from her small fishing village in Zanzibar to soaring over Mt. Kilimanjaro; from the expanse of the Serengeti to the Tanzanite mines, from searching for the big five to investigating the country's anti poaching efforts.

Please find link to the trailer here: TANZANIA: THE ROYAL TOUR TRAILER

Since taking office in March of 2021, one year ago, President Samia has embraced an ambitious economic development plan, encouraging women-run business, and strengthening health care, most importantly reversing her predecessors Covid denial and making vaccines available to the public. Another principal objective is the promotion of tourism, with the goal of increasing the number of international travelers from the current 1.5 million to 5 million within the next 5 years, by showcasing Tanzania as a vibrant tourist destination and the many investment opportunities that are offered in her country. The Presidents visit to the US also affords her the opportunity to promote Tanzanias economic development and investment opportunities.

Tanzania is an extraordinary destination with 500 miles of coastline along the Indian Ocean dotted with the fabled spice islands and Zanzibar just off its mainland. The country's cultural and natural assets are incomparable, seven destination wonders are UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Kilimanjaro National Park, home to Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain; Serengeti National Park; Ngorongoro Conservation Area; Selous Game Reserve; Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara; Kondoa Rock-Art Sites and Stone Town of Zanzibar.

Tanzania: The Royal Tour, produced in partnership with Chicago PBS station WTTW, premiered on public television stations across the country on April 18, 2022 (Check local listings for times). Tanzania: The Royal Tour is now available on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.

Please find YouTube coverage of President Samia at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris.

PRESIDENT SAMIA VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/04/15/remarks-by-vicepresident-harris-and-president-samia-suluhu-hassan-of-tanzania-before-bilateral-meeting/

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/president-samia-travels-to-us-3782176

For more information contact:

Sally Fischer Public Relations [email protected]

The Bradford Group [email protected]

Attachments
To give a new impetus to the renovation of apartment buildings, the SB Modernization Fund established by Siauliu Bankas has started operations. Loans to the EUR 275 million Fund were provided to the fund by Lithuanian and foreign financial institutions.



SB modernizavimo fondas, UAB, a subsidiary of Siauliu Bankas, has signed agreements with the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), INVL Asset Management, Swedbank and Siauliu Bankas. The 275-million-euro fund administered by Siauliu Bankas will consist not only of investors, but also of the Lithuanian state and the European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF).

"Investors focused on the newly established fund are ready to accelerate the renovation apartment buildings. We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of funding the renovation of more than half a thousand apartment buildings, which would allow residents to reduce the burden of rising heat costs and improve their quality of life. Rapid renovation of apartment buildings would reduce Lithuania's dependence on fossil fuels, and would also make a significant contribution to the fight against climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions, - said Vytautas Sinius, CEO of Siauliu Bankas.

According to V. Sinius, the new fund is a unique financial instrument designed to attract private funding for renovation not only in Lithuania but also in Europe. The structure of this fund allows to obtain significant synergies - by attracting private capital to increase the state funds allocated for funding renovation projects up to 5 times.

The fund plans to renovate 600 old apartment buildings improving the living conditions of 16,000 households. The project is expected to save 200 gigawatt hours (GWh) of heat and about 50,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. Renovation of old apartment buildings can significantly reduce the consumption of energy resources and strengthen Lithuania's energy independence.

Lithuania's long-term renovation strategy envisages the renovation of most old apartment buildings by 2050, of which as many as 66% are in energy classes D and lower. The strategy aims to reduce primary energy consumption by 60% and eliminate the carbon footprint.

Siauliu Bankas, in cooperation with the EIB, has been participating in the modernization programs of apartment buildings for more than ten years and occupies more than 60% of this market. During this period, modernization loans were signed for more than 720 million euros (of which more than 520 million euros are own funds of Siauliu Bankas), and the bank has provided funding to 2,380 apartment buildings.

Additional information:

Monika Rozyte

Lead of Communication Group

+370 686 79234, [email protected]




HAMPTON, N.H., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unitil Corporation (NYSE: UTL) (unitil.com) held its Annual Meeting of Shareholders today at the corporate office in Hampton, New Hampshire. Shareholders elected Edward F. Godfrey, Eben S. Moulton, and David A. Whiteley to the Board of Directors each for a term of three years. Shareholders also ratified the selection of Deloitte & Touche, LLP as independent registered public accountants for 2022. Additionally, the required shareholder advisory vote concerning executive compensation, also known as say on pay, was approved by 96% of shareholders.

Following the business of the formal meeting, Thomas P. Meissner, Jr., Unitil's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, presented highlights from 2021 as well as the outlook for economic growth for the coming year, and a strategic look at the transition to a low-carbon future. Mr. Meissner's presentation is available in the Investor Relations section of the Companys website at investors.unitil.com.

About Unitil Corporation

Unitil Corporation provides energy for life by safely and reliably delivering natural gas and electricity in New England. We are committed to the communities we serve and to developing people, business practices, and technologies that lead to the delivery of dependable, more efficient energy. Unitil Corporation is a public utility holding company with operations in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Together, Unitils operating utilities serve approximately 107,700 electric customers and 86,600 natural gas customers. For more information about our people, technologies, and community involvement please visit unitil.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Certain factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to the following: variations in weather; changes in the regulatory environment; customers' preferences on energy sources; general economic conditions; increased competition; fluctuations in supply, demand, transmission capacity and prices for energy commodities; and other uncertainties, all of which are difficult to predict, and many of which are beyond the control of Unitil Corporation.

For more information please contact:

Todd Diggins  Investor RelationsPhone: 603-773-6504Email: [email protected]

Alec OMeara  Media RelationsPhone: 603-773-6404Email: [email protected]

Source: UNITIL Corporation
SEATTLE, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WatchGuard Technologies, a global leader in network security and intelligence, advanced endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and secure Wi-Fi, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Vector Capital to make a large new equity investment in the business, acquire interests previously owned by Francisco Partners and other co-investors, and become the companys majority shareholder. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1996, WatchGuard has made enterprise-grade security accessible to all types of organizations for more than 25 years. The companys unique focus on delivering best-of-breed security offerings and enabling Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to easily deploy and administer these solutions has fueled mainstream adoption of advanced cybersecurity.

During Vector Capitals and Francisco Partners joint ownership for more than a decade, WatchGuard transformed from a trusted network security vendor to a full-fledged cybersecurity platform provider. Today, the companys Unified Security Platform enables more than 17,000 MSPs to protect the environments, users, and networks of more than 250,000 businesses worldwide.

Building on its prior ownership, Vector Capital is well-positioned to partner with WatchGuards management team to further accelerate the companys growth. WatchGuard will continue to invest in critical areas including but not limited to Cloud transformation, secure access service edge (SASE), extended detection and response (XDR), managed detection and response (MDR), and further innovation in security automation and simplification for MSPs.

Vector firmly believes in WatchGuards portfolio, partners, employees, and vision. This transaction is a testament to WatchGuards current success and the opportunity ahead, said Prakash Panjwani, CEO of WatchGuard Technologies. We believe Vector is well positioned to further accelerate WatchGuards growth strategy while preserving our company culture and commitment to security delivery through the MSP community.

We are thrilled to continue the journey we started with WatchGuards employees, partners, and customers over a decade ago, said Alex Slusky, Founder, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Vector Capital. We are proud of the foundation of success weve built with WatchGuards management team and look forward to fueling the next phase of growth and transformation for the company.

MSPs represent the future of security delivery, but to be successful, they need a bespoke platform built for their needs, continued Sandy Gill, Managing Director of Vector Capital. WatchGuard is uniquely positioned to lead the market in enabling those MSPs with its Unified Security Platform. We are excited to further invest both organically and via acquisitions in the companys mission to deliver security-focused MSPs one vendor, one platform, and one vision to build their business upon.

WatchGuard has established itself as a leading cybersecurity company under our joint ownership, with a relevant product portfolio, strong partner ecosystem, and talented team of employees, said Ben Ball, Partner of Francisco Partners. We are proud of our role in supporting WatchGuards transformation, and we look forward to following the companys ongoing success as they continue to pave the way for simplified security when the industry needs it most.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of Q3 2022, subject to customary conditions.

Barclays is serving as the financial advisor to WatchGuard Technologies. Sidley Austin LLP and Richards, Layton & Finger are serving as legal counsel to WatchGuard Technologies. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal counsel to Vector Capital.

About WatchGuard Technologies

WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in network security and intelligence, advanced endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication, and secure Wi-Fi. The companys award-winning products and services are trusted around the world by more than 17,000 security resellers and service providers to protect more than 250,000 customers. WatchGuards mission is to make enterprise-grade security accessible to companies of all types and sizes through simplicity, making WatchGuard an ideal solution for midmarket businesses and distributed enterprises. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit WatchGuard.com.

For additional information, promotions and updates, follow WatchGuard on Twitter (@WatchGuard), on Facebook, or on the LinkedIn Company page. Also, visit our InfoSec blog, Secplicity, for real-time information about the latest threats and how to cope with them at www.secplicity.org. Subscribe to The 443  Security Simplified podcast at Secplicity.org, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

About Vector Capital

Vector Capital is a leading, San Francisco-based global private equity and credit investment firm focused on transformative investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses. Founded in 1997, Vector oversees approximately $4 billion of capital across its private equity and credit strategies from a variety of investors including university endowments, foundations, and financial institutions. With our disciplined approach to valuation and deep-rooted operational experience, Vector has generated competitive returns and established a successful track record spanning nearly 25 years. For more information, please visit www.vectorcapital.com.

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in over 400 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. With more than $38 billion in assets under management, the firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.

Chris Warfield WatchGuard Technologies, Inc 206-617-6101 [email protected] Justin Hall Voxus PR 253-441-5689 [email protected]

Source: WatchGuard Technologies, Inc
Basin Energy to Spend AUD$5M for 60% of Two Uranium Properties and 100% in One Uranium Property

Staged Option to Earn up to 80% Interest in Geikie and North Millennium Projects, Subject to Additional AUD$10M in Spend

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - CanAlaska Uranium Ltd.(TSXV: CVV) (OTCQB: CVVUF) (FSE: DH7N) ("CanAlaska" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has entered into Purchase Option Agreements ("POA") with Basin Energy Limited ("Basin Energy"), an Australian public limited corporation, to allow Basin Energy to earn up to an 80% interest in CanAlaska's 100%-owned North Millennium and Geikie projects, and a 100% interest in CanAlaska's 100%-owned Marshall project. These projects total 50,994.56 hectares in the Eastern Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, Canada (the "Projects") (Figure 1).





Figure 1: North Millennium, Marshall and Geikie Project Location Map



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2864/121815_892971bbb4a2a9f4_001full.jpg

North Millennium and Geikie Projects

Basin Energy may earn up to an 80% interest in each of the North Millennium and Geikie projects by undertaking work and milestone payments in three defined earn-in stages on each project.

Basin Energy may earn an initial 40% interest ("40% Option") in each of the projects by paying the Company AUD$33,333.33 cash per project and issuing 6.66% worth of ordinary shares in Basin Energy's capital structure as at listing on the Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX") per project within 180 days following execution of a definitive Property Option Agreement ("POA"). Basin Energy will have the right to extend the 40% Option on a month-by-month basis for up to three (3) consecutive months upon payment of an option extension fee of AUD$8,333 per month per project.

Basin Energy may earn an additional 20% interest ("60% Option") in each of the projects by incurring AUD$2,500,000 in exploration expenditures per project within 24 months of the ASX listing date.

Basin Energy may earn an additional 20% interest ("80% Option") in each of the projects by issuing a further 2,250,000 ordinary shares in Basin Energy per project and incurring an additional AUD$5,000,000 (total: AUD$7,500,000) in exploration expenditures per project within 48 months of the ASX listing date and granting the Company a 2.75% net smelter returns ("NSR") royalty on all products derived from the claims with a repurchase right of 0.50% NSR for AUD$500,000 at any time commencing from the grant of the 2.75% NSR per project.

CanAlaska will be operator of the projects through the 60% Option threshold and charge an operator fee.

Basin Energy will be obligated to keep and maintain the North Millennium and Geikie claims in good standing for a minimum period of one year at all times during the term of the POA.

After successful completion of either of the 40% Option or 60% Option stages of the agreement, and if Basin Energy elects to not enter the final stage, a joint venture will be formed and the parties will co-contribute on a simple pro-rata basis or dilute on a pre-defined straight-line dilution formula. If either party dilutes to a 10% interest, the diluting party will automatically forfeit its interest in the respective project and in lieu thereof will be granted a 2.75% net smelter returns (NSR) royalty on the respective property on all products derived from the claims with a repurchase right of 0.50% NSR for AUD$500,000 at any time commencing from the grant of the 2.75% NSR, except that, this provision will not apply to CanAlaska if CanAlaska has already been granted the 2.75% NSR prior to diluting to a 10% interest.

Marshall Project

Basin Energy may acquire a 100% interest in the Marshall project by:

Paying the Company AUD$33,333.33 cash and issuing 6.66% worth of ordinary shares in Basin Energy's capital structure as at listing on the ASX within 180 days following execution of a definitive POA. Basin Energy will have the right to extend the payment period on a month-by-month basis for up to three (3) consecutive months upon payment of an option extension fee of AUD$8,333 per month.

Granting to the Company a 2.75% net smelter returns ("NSR") royalty on all products derived from the claims with a repurchase right of 0.50% NSR for AUD$500,000 at any time commencing from the grant of the 2.75% NSR.

CanAlaska and Basin Energy will enter into an agreement (the "Marshall Project Operator Agreement"), on terms acceptable to both parties, pursuant to which Basin Energy will engage the Company to be the operator of the initial AUD$1,500,000 work program on the property after closing of the transaction. CanAlaska will be entitled to charge Basin Energy an operator fee.

An area of mutual interest will be established that extends two kilometres from the boundary of the North Millennium, Geikie and Marshall claims.

First Programs

The parties will establish a Joint Technical Operating Committee ("JTOC") under the terms of the Marshall Project Operator Agreement and the POAs relating to the North Millennium and Geikie projects to discuss exploration and development strategies, review and comment on programs and budgets submitted by CanAlaska, as the Operator under the agreements, review the progress and results of activities conducted under the current programs and to discuss other issues in respect to the properties. The final binding decision with respect to establishing programs to be carried out by the Operator (including any changes or amendments to programs) shall be made by Basin Energy. The preliminary work programs and budgets for each project will be laid out for the next 2 years. Once the 40% Option threshold has been met with respect to the North Millennium and Geikie projects, and the 100% Option has been fully exercised with respect to the Marshall project, it is anticipated the first exploration programs under the respective property agreements will be conducted in the last half of 2022.

About Basin Energy Limited

Basin Energy Limited (ACN 655 515 110) is an Australian unlisted uranium exploration and development company incorporated for the purpose of pursuing highly prospective uranium opportunities globally. Basin Energy is backed by a high-quality board and management team with extensive uranium project experience across multiple jurisdictions and a proven track record of value creation. The completion of this transaction is conditional upon Basin Energy listing on the ASX which is indicatively planned for early Q3-CY2022.

CanAlaska CEO, Cory Belyk, comments, "Completion of these definitive agreements with Basin Energy represents a very significant investment into CanAlaska's uranium portfolio providing multiple discovery opportunities for CanAlaska shareholders on several of our new and highly prospective Eastern Athabasca projects. It has been a real delight to work with the Basin Energy team to bring these projects across another critical threshold. I look forward to the first Basin Energy funded exploration programs."

Other News

The prior announced Purchase Option Agreements for the Waterbury East and McTavish projects have expired.

About CanAlaska Uranium

CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: CVV) (OTCQB: CVVUF) (FSE: DH7N) holds interests in approximately 300,000 hectares (750,000 acres), in Canada's Athabasca Basin - the "Saudi Arabia of Uranium." CanAlaska's strategic holdings have attracted major international mining companies. CanAlaska is currently working with Cameco and Denison at two of the Company's properties in the Eastern Athabasca Basin. CanAlaska is a project generator positioned for discovery success in the world's richest uranium district. The Company also holds properties prospective for nickel, copper, gold and diamonds. For further information visit www.canalaska.com.

The qualified technical person for this news release is Nathan Bridge, MSc., P.Geo., CanAlaska's Vice President, Exploration.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Peter Dasler"

Peter Dasler, M.Sc., P.Geo.

President

CanAlaska Uranium Ltd.

Contacts:

Cory Belyk, Executive VP and CEO

Tel: +1.604.688.3211 x 306

Email: [email protected]

Peter Dasler, President

Tel: +1.604.688.3211 x 138

Email: [email protected]

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking information

All statements included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions made by the Company based on its experience, perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. In addition, these statements involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will prove inaccurate, certain of which are beyond the Company's control. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date hereof or revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121815
Carson City, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Cell MedX Corp. (OTCQB: CMXC) ("Cell MedX" or the "Company"), a biotech company focusing on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutic and non-therapeutic products that promote general wellness, is pleased to announce that it has appointed Mr. Dwayne Yaretz to the Board of Directors and as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Yaretz replaces Mr. McEnulty, as CEO of the Company. Mr. McEnulty will continue to serve as a director of Cell MedX.

Mr. Yaretz' experience spans many industries including the development of industrial and medical imaging devices. He has aided in the re-structure of numerous companies by identifying and recruiting key personnel, enhancing the management team, capitalization, and maximizing business and sales opportunities.

Mr. Yaretz has acted as a Director, President and CEO, Corporate Secretary and CFO for both private and public companies.

Mr. Yaretz commented, "I am excited to join the Cell MedX team, to prepare the Company to capitalize on its current Health Canada approvals for its eBalance Systems, and in preparation of FDA 510K clearance to enter the US Market. It is my hope that Cell MedX will provide its rigorously tested microcurrent technology solution to millions of people who suffer from pain and would benefit from a safe, easy-to-use, non-invasive solution."

Mr. McEnulty, Director and former CEO of the Company, stated, "We are very excited to welcome Mr. Yaretz to the Cell MedX team. His wealth of experience in the capital markets along with his manufacturing and medical devices background is a great asset to the Company."

About Cell MedX Corp. (OTCQB: CMXC)

Cell MedX Corp. is a biotech company focused on the continued research and development of its eBalance Technology and its eBalance Home and eBalance Pro Systems, which have received Health Canada Approval as Class II Medical Device Systems for pain associated with sore/aching muscles in the shoulders, waist, back, neck, upper extremities and lower extremities due to strain from exercise or normal household- or work-related activities, as well as for general relaxation. In addition, the Company will work towards the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutic and non-therapeutic products that promote general wellness and alleviate complications associated with medical conditions including, but not limited to: diabetes, Parkinson's disease, high blood pressure, neuropathy and kidney function. For more information about the Company and its technology please visit www.cellmedx.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Cell MedX Corp.

Frank McEnulty

Director

Forward-Looking Statements

The information included in this press release has not been reviewed by the FDA or Health Canada, nor has it been peer reviewed. This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are identified by words such as "expects", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "anticipates", "believes", "could", and other similar words. All statements addressing product performance, events, or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Because the statements are forward-looking, they should be evaluated in light of important risk factors and uncertainties, some of which are described in the Company's Quarterly, Annual and Current Reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the Company's underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those currently anticipated. In addition, undue reliance should not be placed on Company's forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, Cell MedX Corp. disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory body has reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Investors are advised to carefully review the reports and documents that Cell MedX Corp. files from time to time with the SEC, including its Annual, Quarterly and Current Reports.

SOURCE:

Cell MedX Corp.

For further information visit: www.cellmedx.com.

Investor Relations: 1-844-238-2692

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121818
San Diego, California--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - HUMBL, Inc. (OTCQB: HMBL) today announced that Brian Foote will be attending The Q2 Investor Summit Group - In-Person. HUMBL's CEO, Brian Foote, will be providing an overview of the company, including descriptions of key products and services, as well as laying out the company's vision for the future of Web3 and blockchain and where HUMBL fits in that future.

Event: The Q2 Investor Summit Group Date: May 3-4, 2022 Location: The Westin New York Grand Central

212 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017 Presentation: May 3rd at 9:30 AM ET View webcast

presentation: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JfcpQUZUTwqkEXqsN5tdIQ

1x1s will be available for qualified investors

The conference is completely complimentary to qualified investors. Please register at Complimentary Investor Registration

About HUMBL, Inc.

HUMBL is a Web3 company that has developed a full technology stack of blockchain solutions across a number of different verticals. The HUMBL consumer division includes a mobile wallet, NFTs and ticketing, in which customers can buy crypto, use and send up to 20+ digital assets. The HUMBL commercial division develops customized blockchain-as-a-service programs, such as mobile IDs and verifiable credentials, for government and private sector customers.

For further information:

HUMBL, Inc.

Investor Relations

(786) 738-9012

[email protected]

About the Investor Summit Group

The Investor Summit Group (formerly MicroCap Conference) is an exclusive, independent conference dedicated to connecting smallcap and microcap companies with qualified investors. The Q2 Investor Summit Group will take place in-person, featuring 65+ companies and over 300 investors comprising institutional investors, family offices, and high net worth investors. Sectors Participating: Biotech, Communication Services, Consumer, Energy, Energy/Tech, Financial, Healthcare, Industrials, Materials, Real Estate, Technology, and Tech/Crypt. [email protected]
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Lion Copper and Gold Corp. (TSXV: LEO) (OTCQB: LCGMF) ("Lion CG", or the "Company") is pleased to announce that further to its March 21, 2022 news release, the TSX Venture Exchange has approved the Company's Option to Earn-in Agreement (the "Agreement") with Rio Tinto America Inc. ("Rio Tinto") dated March 18, 2022.

Under the Agreement, Rio Tinto has the option to earn up to a 75% interest in the Company's Mason Valley, NV assets, including the historic Yerington mine, greenfield MacArthur Project, Wassuk property, the Bear deposit, and associated water rights (the "Mining Assets"). In addition, Rio Tinto will evaluate the potential commercial deployment of its NutonTM technologies at the site. NutonTM offers copper heap leaching technologies developed by Rio Tinto to deliver greater copper recovery from mined ore and access new sources of copper such as low-grade sulphide resources and reprocessing of stockpiles and mineralised waste. The technologies have the potential to deliver leading environmental performance through more efficient water usage, lower carbon emissions, and the ability to reclaim mine sites by reprocessing waste.

Upon completion of a feasibility study, Rio Tinto and Lion CG will decide whether to create an investment vehicle into which the Mining Assets will be transferred, with Rio Tinto holding not less than a 65% interest in the investment vehicle. If Rio Tinto elects not to create the investment vehicle, then Lion CG shall grant to Rio Tinto a 1.5% net smelter return royalty ("NSR") on the Mining Assets. Rio Tinto may elect to fund up to sixty million U.S. dollars ($60,000,000) of Lion CG's project financing costs in exchange for a 10% increase in Rio Tinto's ownership percentage. In addition, upon mutual agreement of Rio Tinto and Lion CG, Rio Tinto may fund an additional forty million U.S. dollars ($40,000,000) of Lion CG's project financing costs in exchange for an additional 5% increase in Rio Tinto's ownership percentage. Rio Tinto may also acquire 1.0% or a pro rata portion thereof for (a) each US$4,500,000 paid for any additional infrastructure that Lion CG and Rio Tinto mutually agree to pursue; and (b) each US$4,500,000 which Rio Tinto funds for the feasibility study in excess of the US$50,000,000. If Lion CG's ownership percentage in the investment vehicle is diluted to 10% or less, then Lion CG's ownership interest will be converted into a 1% uncapped NSR. Please see the Company's March 21, 2022 news release for additional information on the Agreement with Rio Tinto.

About Lion CG

Lion Copper and Gold Corp. is a Canadian-based company advancing its flagship MacArthur Copper Project in Mason Valley, Nevada, in addition to advancing its exploration projects including the Chaco Bear and Ashton properties in highly prospective regions in British Columbia, Canada, and the Blue Copper Prospect in Montana, USA.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Stephen Goodman

President

For more information please contact:

Karen Robertson

Corporate Communications

778-898-0057

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.lioncg.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121888
SNN Network's Planet MicroCap Showcase taking place in Las Vegas May 3 rd to 5th

Planet MicroCap "brings together the most promising companies and top dealmakers in MicroCap Finance"

As Presenting Company, The Gummy Project will be featured through presentations, one on one meetings, webcast, and podcast profiles on SNN

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Potent Ventures Inc.(CSE: POT) (FSE: 0OS2) (OTCQB: POTVF)("Potent" or the "Company")is excited to announce that the Company will be a Featured Company, participating in the Planet MicroCap Showcase in Las Vegas, May 3rd to 5th.

"The Gummy Project has established foundational partnerships with OCEARCH (www.ocearch.org), and the Bee Conservancy (www.thebeeconservancy.org) and World of Vegan (https://www.worldofvegan.com), and now we are excited to be able to reach key investor and industry audiences at the Planet MicroCap Conference in Las Vegas as we work strategically to raise brand awareness in preparation for the launch of our product line," said Mr. Charlie Lamb, CEO of The Gummy Project.

Highlights of the MicroCap Presenting Company Benefits Include:

25-minute presentation to Conference Audiences

Webcast of your 25-minute presentation. Including archival webcast on SNN's YouTube Channel

Exclusive pre-Showcase one-on-one meeting scheduling opportunity with attending registered investors, sponsors and service providers prior to event

Video Interview with a company executive and Planet MicroCap Podcast host

ABOUT PLANET MICROCAP SHOWCASE AND THE SNN NETWORK

The Planet MicroCap Showcase IS GOING BACK TO LAS VEGAS! Join us as we bring together the most promising companies and the top dealmakers in MicroCap Finance for three (3) days of company presentations, 1x1 meetings and educational panels in The Premier IN PERSON Event in MicroCap Finance. www.planetmicrocapshowcase.com

SNN Network is a global multimedia and publishing financial news investor portal covering the small-, micro- and nano-cap markets by providing news, insights, education tools and expert commentary. We have cultivated an active and engaged community of folks that are interested in learning about and to stay ahead of the curve in the Small, Micro and Nano-Cap space.

SNN Network publishes the following content:

SNN.Network (Investor Portal)

MicroCap Review Magazine (link to Q1 2022 issue)

MicroCap Review Index (MCRI)

Planet MicroCap Podcast hosted by Robert Kraft

SNN Network YouTube Channel

ABOUT POTENT VENTURES

We are a growing community of individuals and organizations who believe small contributions can add up to something big. We sell low sugar, plant based gummy products while raising money (and awareness) to support endangered keystone species. We are the only "better for you" candy company that is built to support our planet's most precious species and ecosystems, while educating our future generations on the steps we must take today, to ensure a viable tomorrow.

Charlie Lamb, President & CEO, Director

Telephone: 1(236) 317-2812 - Toll free 1(888) 556-9656

E-mail: [email protected]

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates", "may" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, risks relating to epidemics or pandemics such as COVID-19, including the impact of COVID-19 on the Company's business, financial condition, and results of operations. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121857
VTEM(TM) data identify multiple electromagnetic-magnetic targets spatially associated with known ultramafic rocks as well as with the Fortin Sill nickel-copper-PGE surface showing.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - Qubec Nickel Corp. (CSE: QNI) (FSE: 7lB) (OTCQB: QNICF) (or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has received the final data and logistics report from Geotech Ltd. for the helicopter-borne Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetic-Magnetic (VTEMTM) survey that was completed over the Company's Ducros property in mid-March. The 1,717 line-kilometer survey was flown at a 100-metre line spacing and covers the entire >15,000 Ha Ducros Ni-Cu-PGE property.

Highlights:

Coincident electromagnetic and magnetic targets identified at the Fortin Sill nickel-copper-PGE showing that have never been evaluated by drilling.

Numerous high-quality coincident electromagnetic-magnetic anomalies identified in the central part of the property which are spatially associated with occurrences of and along trend from known mafic and ultramafic sills & dikes, none of which have ever been drilled.

Preliminary interpretation of the magnetic data suggests multiple regional-scale structures cut across the Ducros property and likely acted as deep-seated conduits for the emplacement of the Ducros Gabbro body and related Ducros Ultramafic Sill Complex.

The next phase of work is focussing on 2-D and 3-D inversion modelling of the VTEM and magnetic data that will be used to guide the Phase II drilling program.

A preliminary review of the VTEMTM data indicates the presence of many high-conductance, limited strike-length, electromagnetic anomalies coincident with magnetic high features across the property. Of note is the occurrence of a short strike length coincident electromagnetic-magnetic anomaly directly beneath the Fortin Sill nickel-copper-PGE showing at the eastern side of the project (Figures 1-3). This geophysical anomaly has never been drilled, as the two historical holes completed by Golden Valley Mines in 2008 at the Fortin Sill showing, namely GCF-08-06 and GCF-08-07, were collared too far east to intersect the newly identified anomaly. For reference, GCF-08-06 intersected 0.19% Ni and 0.11% Cu over a core length of 42 metres hosted within what is described in historical drill logs as an olivine gabbro unit. Assay results from hole GCF-08-07 returned 0.38% Ni, 0.44% Cu and 0.65 g/t Au-Pt-Pd over a core length of 20.7 metres within gabbro and olivine-bearing gabbro rock units. At the Fortin Sill showing, confirmation chip samples collected for the recently filed 43-101 Technical Report (2021), returned assay values ranging from 0.12 to 0.57% Ni and 0.62 to 2.36% Cu (refer to the Company's July 6, 2021 news release for additional information regarding the Ducros Project 43-101 Technical Report).





Figure 1. Geology map of Quebec Nickel's Ducros property (red outline) showing the individual mining claims that comprise the property land package, along with the locations of the various Ni-Cu-PGE target areas. The regional geology is sourced from the Government of Quebec's online SIGEOM database.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8152/121834_quebecfigure1.jpg

Outside of the Fortin Sill target area, many of the VTEMTM anomalies are noted to be spatially associated with known occurrences or along strike of large mafic-ultramafic sills (i.e. dunites and pyroxenites), such as at the Ducros Ultramafic Sill Complex (Figures 1-3). Although the inversion modelling of the electromagnetic data has yet to be completed, indications are there may be Ni-Cu-PGE sulphide related geophysical targets associated with the Ducros Gabbro target at depth, both internally within and along the edges of the intrusion. These targets will be evaluated for future drilling once the inversion modelling is completed.

In addition to defining specific nickel-copper-PGE-related drill targets, a preliminary interpretation of the VTEMTM magnetic data suggests there are multiple regional-scale faults that cut across the Ducros property (Figure 3). These probable long-lived and deep-seated structures are interpreted as being responsible for the emplacement of the large volumes of mafic and ultramafic rocks at Ducros, including the Ducros Gabbro intrusion. Plans are to use the new magnetic data to complete a detailed structural analysis of the Ducros Property geology, which in turn will aid in the prioritization of future drill targets.





Figure 2. Plan map of Quebec Nickel's Ducros property (red outline) showing the VTEMTM dB/dt Channel 30 late-time response overlain on top of geology (Quebec Government), with Ni-Cu-PGE target areas indicated.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8152/121834_quebecfigure2.jpg

As a result of the preliminary review of the VTEMTM data, the Company is making arrangements to mobilize a second diamond drill to the project, which will focus on testing the numerous coincident electromagnetic-magnetic anomalies at the Ducros Ultramafic Sill Complex target (Figure 1 & 2) and other areas on the property. The permits for this work are already in place and the drilling at this target area is expected to commence later this spring. For budgetary purposes, a total of up to 7,000 metres have been allocated for testing these targets.





Figure 3. Plan map of Quebec Nickel's Ducros property (red outline) showing the VTEMTM Residual Magnetics response overlain on top of geology (Quebec Government), with initial interpreted structures (dashed lines) and Ni-Cu-PGE target areas indicated.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8152/121834_quebecfigure3.jpg

Gary DeSchutter, QNI's Vice President of Exploration, comments, "I'm quite excited to have these VTEM results in hand as they will certainly help guide us to drill the best targets at Ducros. I'm especially looking forward to the start of drilling at the Ducros Ultramafic Sill Complex target area, where it looks like we have quality geophysical anomalies associated with more than 30 line-kilometres of mafic and ultramafic sills, none of which have ever been drilled. It's about to get a lot busier as our work programs start to ramp-up, and I know our Val-d'Or-based team is up to the challenge."

Dave Patterson, QNI's CEO, adds, "Now that we have these new geophysical data, we are going to start our Phase II drilling program soon and will begin to test the many other high-quality nickel targets at Ducros. I'm very proud of the hard work our team has put-in so far, and I look forward to reporting the results in due course."

Quebec Nickel has retained personnel from the Toronto-based office of Southern Geoscience Consultants Pty Ltd to provide independent QAQC analyses and interpretive/data integration support for all Ducros project geophysical data needs.

About Southern Geoscience Consultants

Southern Geoscience Consultants (SGC) is a specialist group of geoscientists focused on providing the highest quality integrated geophysical solutions to the resource industry. The technical team is one of the largest groups of geophysicists globally with extensive experience throughout Asia Pacific, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, as well as the Middle East and Russia.

QUALIFIED PERSON

Gary DeSchutter, M.Sc., P.Geo., Vice-President of Exploration for Quebec Nickel Corp., and a Qualified Person ("QP") as defined under National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content of this press release.

ABOUT QUEBEC NICKEL CORP.

Quebec Nickel Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on acquiring, exploring, and developing nickel projects in Quebec, Canada. The Company has a 100% interest in the Ducros Property, consisting of 280 contiguous mining claims covering 15,147 hectares within the eastern portion of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada. Additional information on Quebec Nickel Corp. is available at www.quebecnickel.com.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

David Patterson

Chief Executive Officer and Director

1 (855) 764-2535 (QNICKEL)

[email protected]

CAUTIONARY AND FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates, opinions, or other factors should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/121834
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2022) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Sung Kook (Bill) Hwang, the owner of family office Archegos Capital Management, LP (Archegos), with orchestrating a fraudulent scheme that resulted in billions of dollars in losses. The SEC also charged Archegoss Chief Financial Officer, Patrick Halligan; head trader, William Tomita; and Chief Risk Officer, Scott Becker for their roles in the fraudulent scheme.

The SECs complaint alleges that, from at least March 2020 to March 2021, Hwang purchased on margin billions of dollars of total return swaps. These security-based swaps allow investors to take on huge positions in equity securities of companies by posting limited funds up front. As alleged, Hwang frequently entered into certain of these swaps without any economic purpose other than to artificially and dramatically drive up the prices of the various companies securities, which induced other investors to purchase those securities at inflated prices. As a result of Hwangs trading, Archegos allegedly underwent a period of rapid growth, increasing in value from approximately $1.5 billion with $10 billion in exposure in March 2020 to a value of more than $36 billion with $160 billion in exposure at its peak in March 2021.

The complaint also alleges that, as part of the scheme, Archegos repeatedly and deliberately misled many of Archegoss counterparties about Archegoss exposure, concentration and liquidity, in order to get increased trading capacity so that Archegos could continue buying swaps in its most concentrated positions, thereby driving up the price of those stocks. Ultimately in March 2021, price declines in Archegoss most concentrated positions allegedly triggered significant margin calls that Archegos was unable to meet, and Archegoss subsequent default and collapse resulted in billions of dollars in credit losses among Archegoss counterparties.

"Today, we charged Archegos Capital Management and affiliated individuals withcommitting fraud andmanipulating stock prices using total return swaps.The collapse of Archegos last spring demonstrated how activitiesby one firm can have far-reaching implications for investors and market participants. I thank the SEC staff for taking swift action to hold these actors responsible for theirallegedmisconduct, which hurt investors across our capital markets," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. "The failure of Archegos underscores the importance of our ongoing work to update the security-based swaps market to enhance the investor protections, integrity, and transparency of this market. Further, Iencourageprime brokers and other market participants toremain vigilant to the risks presented by counterparty relationships."

"We allege that Hwang and Archegos propped up a $36 billion house of cards by engaging in a constant cycle of manipulative trading, lying to banks to obtain additional capacity, and then using that capacity to engage in still more manipulative trading," said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SECs Division of Enforcement. "But the house of cards could only be sustained if that cycle of deceptive trading, lies and buying power continued uninterrupted, and once Archegoss buying power was exhausted and stock prices fell, the entire structure collapsed, allegedly leaving Archegoss counterparties billions in trading losses."

The SECs complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan, charges Hwang and the other defendants with violating antifraud and other provisions of the federal securities laws. The complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief, return of allegedly ill-gotten gains, and civil penalties. The SEC also seeks to bar individual defendants from serving as a public company officer and director.

In parallel actions, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York today announced criminal charges for similar conduct, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced civil charges.

The SECs ongoing investigation is being conducted by David Zetlin-Jones and Brian Fitzpatrick of the Asset Management Unit and Joshua Brodsky of the Complex Financial Instruments Unit, with assistance from Stephen Johnson of the New York Regional Office. It is being supervised by Andrew Dean and Dabney ORiordan of the Asset Management Unit and Osman Nawaz of the Complex Financial Instruments Unit. The litigation will be led by Mr. Zetlin-Jones and Jack Kaufman. Additional assistance to the investigation was provided by Dennis Hamilton and Adam Yonce of the SECs Division of Economic and Risk Analysis.The SEC acknowledges the assistance and cooperation of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York, the FBI, and the CFTC.
BEIJING, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The winners of the 12th DBN Science and Technology Award will be conferred at a ceremony slated to be held on May 28 and 29 in Beijing. Inaugurated in 1999, DBN Science and Technology Award was established to recognize and reward individuals and organizations who have made extraordinary technological discoveries that have translated into real-world outcomes that reshape the future of the global agricultural industry.

Selected and reviewed by a panel of experts and scholars across a variety of industries, the Award has acknowledged the achievements made by a host of prestigious academicians and scientists whose technologies demonstrate next-level innovation with great impact on the agricultural industry. Those outstanding individuals include Professor Roger Beach, founding director of the World Food Center at UC Davis; Xie Hua'an, academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Qiao Shiyan, academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Parallel with the Zhongguancun Global Technological Innovation Forum, the event is hosted by Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University, Zhejiang University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Chinese Association of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Crop Science Society of China. The two-day event will invite over 1,000 top-notch scientists, researchers, corporate leaders and industry leaders as well as Nobel Prize laureates to shed light on the opportunities and challenges facing the agricultural industry, with an estimated one million viewers expected to join the sessions via the live-streaming channel.

Meanwhile, the Global Agricultural Technology Innovation platform (GAIN) will be announced, which is established for global industry players to strengthen cooperation, therefore enabling quick, efficient and cost-effective co-creation of breakthrough agricultural solutions that address pain points in farming and food production.

"Over the past 22 years, DBN Science and Technology Award has nominated 474 winners from the global agricultural communities whose 55 technological innovations and achievements have later been selected as China's national priority projects. Through the initiative that allows industry scientists to showcase their pioneering ideas and impactful scientific contributions, we are proud to support some of the most prominent individuals, companies and research institutions in their quest to explore the agricultural solutions that will benefit farmers, consumers as well as the crop production system for years to come," said Dr.Song Weiping, the CEO of DBN Group.

"This year, DBN Group aims to build on its previous milestones to further expand the extensive cooperation and communication space that the Award and the Forum offer, setting up GAIN to bolster businesses and scientific institutions that are pursuing industry partners, as part of our effort to drive forward the development of the industry" Dr.Song added.

The Group has secured its longtime place as one of the top recipients of China's patents with over 330 innovative inventions, ranking it as the number eight company in China by patent strength evaluated on value, utility, number and PCT applications of the patents.

GAIN website: https://www.gainnovation.org.cn/en/show-61.html

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SOURCE Global Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Platform (GAIN)
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe named 2022 Northwest Outdoor Activity Vehicle of the Year

Grand Cherokee 4xe also takes top honors in Electrified Utility Vehicle and Mid- and Full-Size Family categories

First time in the event's 27-year history that a vehicle has won the Overall, Electrified Utility Vehicle and Mid- and Full-Size Family categories

The all-new 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe  the first-ever electrified Grand Cherokee  dominated the field at the 27th annual Mudfest competition, hosted by the Northwest Automotive Press Association (NWAPA). The Jeep brand won three of the eight vehicle categories, with the all-new 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe taking home top honors, being voted Northwest Outdoor Activity Vehicle of the Year by automotive journalist members of NWAPA.

"The 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe marks a new era in the SUV market," says NWAPA President John Vincent of U.S. News & World Report. "It's a no-compromise vehicle that blends Jeep's legendary off-road capability with outstanding on-road manners, impressive fuel economy and the ability to travel on electricity alone."

In addition to taking overall top honors, the 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe earned wins in the Electrified Utility Vehicle and Mid- and Full-Size Family categories. This is the first time in the event's 27-year history that a vehicle has captured the Overall, Electrified Utility Vehicle and Mid- and Full-Size Family categories at once.

"The 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, along with the first-ever three-row Grand Cherokee L and all-new two-row Grand Cherokee, make up the best lineup ever for Grand Cherokee, a nameplate that holds the distinction of being the most awarded SUV of all time," said Jim Morrison, vice president and head of Jeep brand North America. "Winning the 2022 Northwest Outdoor Vehicle of the Year, the Grand Cherokee, now with electrified 4xe technology, leads the Jeep brand toward its vision of Zero Emission Freedom."

Members of NWAPA spent two days testing vehicles on paved and off-road routes. Testing took place at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington. Journalists tested 20 vehicles from 17 manufacturers to select winners in eight categories: Subcompact and Compact Family, Mid- and Full-Size Family, Compact and Midsize Luxury, Full-Size Luxury, Pickup Trucks, Extreme Capability, Electrified Utility Vehicle and Outdoor Activity Vehicle of the Year. The overall winner, the all-new 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, was selected from the category winners to be named the 2022 Northwest Outdoor Activity Vehicle of the Year.

All-new 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe

The all-new 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe is the first Grand Cherokee to offer a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) variant. Its introduction signals the continued growth of the Jeep brand's electrified mission of Zero Emission Freedom, as the brand explores future mobility. The 4xe PHEV technology enhances the fun, freedom and adventure that the Jeep brand is known for, while providing unprecedented performance, fuel economy and environmental friendliness. The 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe offers 25 miles of all-electric range and 56 MPGe from a PHEV system that delivers 375 hp, 470 lb.-ft. of torque, 0-60 miles per hour (MPH) in 6.0 seconds and max towing of 6,000 lbs. The Grand Cherokee 4xe comes standard with a two-speed transfer case, 2.72:1 low-range gear ratio and 47.4:1 crawl ratio. When equipped with the Quadra-Lift air suspension, the Grand Cherokee 4xe delivers up to 10.9 inches of ground clearance and 24 inches of water fording capability.

NWAPA

NWAPA (www.nwapa.org) is a professional organization of automotive journalists and media members from throughout the Pacific Northwest and Southwest Canada. Founded in 1991, NWAPA includes 45 voting members representing newspapers, magazines, radio stations, media groups, and the internet. Members of the organization have been testing SUVs and crossovers since the advent of the modern sport-utility vehicle in the mid-1990s. Non-voting NWAPA members include representatives from automotive manufacturers and related industry professionals.

Jeep Brand

Built on 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV brand that brings capability, craftsmanship and versatility to people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles that continues to provide owners with a sense of safety and security to handle any journey with confidence. The Jeep vehicle range consists of the Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee 4xe, Renegade and Wrangler and Wrangler 4xe. Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep 4x4 lineup, is filled with benefits and exclusive perks to deliver Jeep brand owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support. The legendary Jeep brand's off-road capability is enhanced by a global electrification initiative that is transforming 4xe into new 4x4 in pursuit of the brand's vision of accomplishing Zero Emission Freedom. All Jeep brand SUVs will offer an electrified variant by 2025.

Follow Jeep and company news and video on:Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.comMedia website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.comJeep brand: www.jeep.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/jeep Instagram: www.instagram.com/jeep Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeepLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/jeepYouTube: www.youtube.com/thejeepchannel or https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA

For more information, please visit the Stellantis media site for North America at https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com.

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SOURCE Stellantis
Levi's vast expertise in marketing and product will help bolster company's global exposure

ASHBURN, VA, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Anodot, the business monitoring company, today announced that Amit Levi has been promoted to the position of Chief Marketing Officer. Levi, who was appointed following four years as VP Growth and Marketing, has over 15 years of experience in the fields of marketing, product, and data. In his role as CMO, Levi will continue to spearhead Anodot's global marketing strategy, help drive company growth, and further develop Anodot's international brand.

"Throughout my career as a data expert, I dreamed of building what we've built here at Anodot," said Levi, incoming CMO of Anodot. "Giving customers the ability to autonomously monitor the two main pillars of their business  costs and revenue  helps them leapfrog ahead of competitors and grow their business effectively. I am excited to be part of such an extraordinary team and to take on new responsibilities and challenges within Anodot, especially at this pivotal moment of growth for the company."

Prior to joining Anodot, Levi served as VP of Product Management and Analytics for Yokee Music and VP of Product for CoolaData, where he gained invaluable experience leveraging data to drive bottom-line outcomes.

"Amit embodies Anodot's vision and has been essential to the company's growth over the past four years. Together, we have built a company that is powering the future of business intelligence as we know it," said David Drai, CEO and Co-Founder of Anodot. "Anodot's technology is a key driver in augmented analytics. We are delighted to have Amit as part of the executive team as we continue to provide unparalleled value for our customers  giving them real-time insights to proactively tackle critical revenue and cost-related issues."

About Anodot

Anodot is the business monitoring company that eliminates business blind spots by proactively monitoring business metrics, enabling companies to protect revenue, manage costs, and improve customer experiences. Leveraging AI and ML, Anodot's augmented analytics proactively alert companies to revenue-critical business incidents and automate their remediation in real time. The company's Cloud Costs solution provides accurate monitoring and forecasting as well as savings recommendations that cut up to 40% on annual cloud spend. Founded in 2014 by David Drai, Ira Cohen, and Shay Lang, Anodot is trusted by numerous Fortune 500 companies to help slash time to detection and resolution for revenue-critical issues by as much as 80%.

Press Contact

Allison Grey[email protected]IL:+972 53 820 2606US:+1 323 283 8176

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SOURCE Anodot
WEST WARWICK, R.I., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Citing exceptional support and partnership, Blood Centers of America (BCA) is recognizing Abbott with the BCA's President's Award at their April Board of Directors' Meeting. This award is given at BCA's discretion from time to time to recognize organizations or individuals that have made outstanding contributions to furthering the mission of BCA's members.

Citing exceptional support and partnership, BCA is recognizing Abbott with the BCA's President's Award

Abbott has demonstrated a level of commitment to supporting BCA's members' efforts that goes beyond a traditional supplier relationship. "Abbott understands that helping to address the challenges blood centers face every day will in turn help them fulfill their mission of making a lasting impact on the communities they serve" noted Bill Block, BCA President and CEO.

BCA and Abbott have partnered to identify innovative solutions to help address the challenges blood centers are facing in recruiting blood donors. There is a need to bring a new perspective to the importance of building a sustainable blood supply in the US as current donors are aging. There has been a 56% decline in donors from age 16-59 in the past ten years. As the young generation is not replenishing the donor pool at the same pace, a new way to deal with this reality is needed.

"BCA and its members are grateful to Abbott for their contributions to optimize our laboratory operations and provide the safest blood products to our patients over many decades, and now for their support to further engage and grow our donor community so that every patient needing a blood transfusion has the hope for healing they deserve," said Harpreet Sandhu, BCA Chair and Executive Director and CEO of Stanford Blood Center.

Abbott is a global healthcare leader with life-changing technologies in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines.

About Blood Centers of AmericaBlood Centers of America (BCA) represents independent community blood centers and is the largest blood supply network in the U.S. Together, we collect and distribute over 50% of the nation's blood supply. Our well-established network empowers our members to call upon each other for support, helping to supply blood to patients and hospitals when and where it is needed. BCA members are strong, ready and connected which enables us to deliver reliable service with a profound commitment to the communities we serve.

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SOURCE Blood Centers of America
BRISTOL, Tenn., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NFI Consumer Products (NFI), the makers of Blue-Emu, are proud to announce that Blue-Emu Ultra Pain Relief Cream with hemp seed oil received official certification from U.S. Hemp Authority. The innovative and proprietary formulation combines Trolamine salicylate with pure hemp seed oil  an exciting way to meet the high expectations of both new and loyal consumers.

Certification with U.S. Hemp Authority involves a rigorous audit of manufacturing practices and product quality concerning hemp ingredients. NFI completed this third party audit successfully, showing their selected hemp seed oil and manufacturing protocols meet the high standards of the U.S. Hemp Authority and reflect the best manufacturing practices that Blue-Emu is so well known for.

"Satisfying our consumers is the most important aspect of our business. This certification demonstrates our products continue to meet their high standards of quality. "  CEO, Susan Gregory

The U.S. Hemp Authority logo will appear on the Blue-Emu Ultra Pain Relief Cream packaging in the very near future. The logo will show prominently on both the external and internal product packages, adding yet another incentive for consumers to choose Blue-Emu for their pain relief needs both at the retail shelf and at home.

"We deeply value Blue-Emu consumers' product experience and loyal support. With this U.S. Hemp Authority certification, we proudly reinforce confidence in our products and innovations as pain relief consumers can trust."  SVP of Sales, Jim Richmond

For more information, please contact NFI Consumer Products via email at [email protected] or visit the Blue-Emu website at www.blue-emu.com.

About NFI Consumer Products, Blue-Emu

NFI Consumer Products (NFI) is an innovative consumer products company that manufactures, markets, and distributes the Blue-Emu line of products for muscles and joints. Blue-Emu products are made with real emu oil. In January of 2014, Gregory Pharmaceutical Holdings, Inc. purchased NFI and quickly capitalized on the Blue-Emu following amongst consumers, expanding advertising efforts and accelerating the growth of the Blue-Emu brand and product line. In June 2014, Original Blue-Emu Super Strength cream was recognized as the #1 selling over-the-counter muscle and joint cream in the United States. Under the leadership of CEO, Susan Gregory and guidance from EVP of Sales and Marketing, Benjamin Blessing, NFI has expanded the Blue-Emu product line to include Blue-Emu Continuous Pain Relief Spray, Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief Cream, Blue-Emu Ultra Pain Relief Cream, Blue-Emu Pain Relief Micro-Foam, Blue-Emu Lidocaine Pain Relief Cream, Blue-Emu Recovery Bath Pods, and Blue-Emu Foot Therapy. Today, NFI distributes Blue-Emu products, in over 50,000 locations throughout the US, primarily across the Mass, Food, Chain Drugstore and Independent Drug Store channels, as well as via wholesalers and numerous e-commerce platforms.

About U.S. Hemp Authority

The U.S. Hemp Authority Certification Program is the hemp industry's initiative to provide high standards, best practices, and self-regulation, giving consumers and retailers confidence in hemp and CBD products. Started in 2016 from the Kentucky Hemp Industry Coalition as the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, the organization has continued to update their Guidance Plan to ensure the highest quality hemp processing and products in the United States. They have partnered with FoodChain ID to be the exclusive certifying body for its Certification Program. For more information, visit https://ushempauthority.org/.

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SOURCE NFI Consumer Products
NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bureau Veritas today announced that the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) had approved its nomination as Certified Verification Agent (CVA) for the US Wind, Inc. (US Wind) MarWin project, offshore of Maryland. This approval of the nomination demonstrates that Bureau Veritas meets the strict CVA criteria, and successfully maintains adherence to highly regulated qualifications requirements set forth by BOEM. Bureau Veritas works closely with US Wind as an independent third-party verification agent for its MarWin offshore wind project.

"We are excited to be appointed as the Certified Verification Agent by US Wind. This nomination approval reinforces our commitment to supporting our clients on their sustainability journeys, as we expand our North America renewables footprint into the offshore wind industry," said Riad Habib, Senior Vice President, Energy and Industry, Bureau Veritas North America. "We continue to build on our unparalleled 200-years of experience at Bureau Veritasapplying technical standards and key safety regulations that help make our clients' offshore wind projects safer, compliant, and empowered to perform at the highest standards."

"This official recognition of our Statement of Qualifications and Verification / Certification Plan marks an important milestone in Bureau Veritas' history as a major player in the global offshore Wind Market," said Ahmed Phuly, Director of Offshore Wind, Bureau Veritas North America. "With this announcement, Bureau Veritas becomes the second certification-body to be formally appointed as a CVA for an offshore wind project in US federal waters."

"BOEM approval of the CVA scope and qualifications is a critical milestone in the development and permitting of our MarWin Project," said Matthew V. Filippelli, Technical Director, US Wind. "We look forward to continuing work with the Bureau Veritas team to deliver clean offshore wind power and good jobs to Maryland."

CVA Nomination CriteriaBureau Veritas meets the CVA nomination criteria set forth by BOEM according to 30 CFR 585 Subpart G  585.706 (b) (1  7), as well as (c) and (d). Bureau Veritas has the formal structure in place to conduct CVA verification activities for offshore wind projects including the demonstration of independence and measures for the avoidance of Conflict of Interest.

Bureau Veritas is a leader in testing, inspections, and certification for a broad range of industries, including an extensive portfolio of renewable energy services. The company's portfolio of renewable energy solutions spans a wide range of offshore wind-related services including, project certification, ITC verification, manufacturing facility assessment and certification, owner's engineering and MWS.

About Bureau VeritasBureau Veritas is a world leader in laboratory testing, inspection and certification services. Created in 1828, the Group has close to 80,000 employees located in nearly 1,600 offices and laboratories around the globe. Bureau Veritas helps its 400,000 clients improve their performance by offering services and innovative solutions in order to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection and social responsibility.

Bureau Veritas is listed on Euronext Paris and belongs to the CAC 40 ESG, CAC Next 20 and SBF 120 indices. Compartment A, ISIN code FR 0006174348, stock symbol: BVI. For more information, visit www.bvna.com, and follow us on Twitter (@bureauveritasNA) and LinkedIn.

About US Wind US Wind was founded in 2011 and has established itself as Maryland's leader in offshore wind development. In 2014, US Wind acquired an 80,000-acre federal Lease area off the coast of Maryland. In 2017, Maryland approved the award of Offshore Renewable Energy Credits (ORECs) to the company's MarWin project and, in 2021, the state approved ORECs for the Momentum Wind project.

MEDIA CONTACTSTheresa Anderson+1 917 344 4593[email protected]

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SOURCE Bureau Veritas
The 2022 Moxie Awards Celebrate the Outsized Contributions of Women in the Industry

CHICAGO, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Built In is pleased to release its 2022 Moxie Awards Program, which honors rising women in tech. See the full winners list below and learn more about the 100 winners here.

Built In 2022 awards program, the Moxies, honors women on the rise in tech.

The Moxie Awards Program Celebrates Women in Tech "I'm extending my sincerest congratulations to the winners of the 2022 Moxie Awards Program," saya Maria Christopoulos Katris, CEO, Built In. "I look forward to seeing where they'll take their careers in tech. Based on their achievements thus far, along with their demonstrable potential, it's clear they're on a trajectory to become the next generation of leaders in tech. I'm so proud Built In can be a forum in which to honor them."

The 100 winners work across a range of tech and tech-adjacent disciplines, including but not limited to engineering, marketing, product and design. What they share in common is "moxie," a quality Built In defines as a combination of courage, determination, energy and know-how.

The Tech Industry and Esteemed Judges' Panel Joins in Mission to Elevate Women "We received more than twice the number of entries we did last year, and 2022 represents only the second year of this program," says Katris. "This dramatic uptick in nominations is a testament to the industry's enthusiasm for celebrating women on the rise. And it's the same level of commitment we saw from our 2022 judges' panel. These extraordinary women leaders had the unenviable task of selecting winners from more than 900 incredible nominees. I consider myself fortunate to call them partners in our mission to elevate women across tech."

The judges' panel included 35 women leaders with far-fanging areas of expertise, including technology, design, customer success, DEI, marketing and women's professional advancement, to name just a few.

Learn about the 2022 Moxie judges here.

The 2022 Moxie Awards Program Winners Johanna Acevedo, Group Engineering Manager, Global IT Chicago, Deere & CompanyVeronica Adorisio, Account Manager, PropelAsieh Ahani, Head of Data Analytics, MassMutualAmy Angelo, Senior Client Success Manager, PopmenuMadalyn Armijo, Director of Account Management, ViseAlegria Baquero, Senior Software Engineer, Team Lead, ZocdocMeg Bednarcik, Engineering Manager, Panorama EducationNeeharika Bhartiya, Director of Strategy & Operations, FivetranJennifer Bodie, Events Manager, ID.meRochelle Williams Brann, Head of People Programs, Step MobileTori Campbell, Motion Capture Stage Technician, 2KFerheen Chaudhry, Senior Product Manager, Boost InsuranceSheila Cherian, Senior Engineering Manager, Farmer's FridgeNicole Chiantello, Director of Product, Pie InsuranceJessica Chung, Crafter, 8th LightCarri Craver, Senior UX Designer, Take CommandRenee Danna, Senior Manager of People, Favor DeliveryRene Day, Senior Director, Total Rewards and People Operations, Stack OverflowFlavia DeAndrade, Technical Program Manager, MarkforgedAmber Dorst, Director, Technology, SpreetailEmily Dretzka, Associate Product Manager, BoulevardFrederike Dubeau, Manager & Data Scientist, Logic20/20Sarah Eckles, Senior Cloud Platform Engineer, GeminiHannah Espina, Senior Copywriter and Content Strategist (Part of the UX/UI Design team), SaatvaRachel Euchner, Director, Flight Test Engineering, Kranze Technology SolutionsNicole Frapolly, Senior Manager of Data Infrastructure, Data Strategy and Data Warehouse, EnovaSarah Fricke, Senior Director, Sales Enablement, RingCentralGrace Ge, Associate Director, Data Engineering, MobilityWareIsabella Giannini, Director of Customer Loyalty and Axon Aid Co-lead, AxonKara Gibson, Senior Public Relations Manager, SmartAssetKelsey Godwin, Senior Director, Member Success, Carrot FertilityJigyasa Grover, Machine Learning Engineer, TwitterMadhuri Gupta, Lead Data Scientist, EnovaSelah Hampton, Senior Manager of Growth, US MobileAdrienne Hardin, Senior Customer Communication and Engagement Manager, TrustRadiusCynthia Hayward, Senior Manager, IT Risk, EnovaEmma Heizer, Director of Experience Design, MixlabLauren Hetu, Lead Gameplay Designer, Phoenix LabsGrace Houghton-Larsen, Talent Acquisition Coordinator, BetterCloudSalle Ingle, Lead AWS Architect, CloudticityEmily Jacobs, Senior Data Engineer, GopuffTanya Jones, Senior Manager Cybersecurity, Discover Financial ServicesStephanie Jourdan, Support Lead, PopmenuLauren Katzberg, Group Product Manager, ReverbMeagan Keck, Program Director, AffinitivJasmine Kent, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Lead, EnovaAlicia Kortmeyer, Head of Talent Acquisition, AxleMansi Kothari, Group Product Manager, Maven ClinicLindsay Kulzer, Senior Manager, Engineering, Carrot FertilityTricia Leach, Senior Developer, Work & CoElynn Lee, Senior Product Manager, OpendoorJamie Levy, Director of R&D, HuntressLauren Linzer, Director of Marketing, Travelers HavenSam MacIlwaine, Mid Backend Engineer, Fluid TruckHolly MacIntosh, Chief of Staff, Technology, 2KTalar Malakian, Senior Director of Marketing Strategy, RECURBelinda Marchand, Director of Astrodynamics and Space Systems R&D; Adjunct Associate Professor at Purdue University, Slingshot AerospaceHeather Martin, Director Application Development, Discover Financial ServicesChelsea Mathews, Manager of Audience Operations, BomboraAlexa Maturana-Lowe, Director of Product, Core Experience, FivetranDeena McKay, Senior Delivery Consultant & US Co-Lead for Kin + Carta's Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Awareness (IDEA) Program, Kin + CartaKalyani Menon, Senior Director of Growth Marketing, SealedMolly Middleton, Recruiting Manager, PraxentMegan Modl, Head of Design, Trust & WillYesenia Monroy, Senior Director, Global Operations, FeedonomicsLeah Nida, Chief of Staff to the CTO, CollectorsCrystal North, Director, Sales Enablement, Applause App Quality, Inc.Susie O'Brien, Senior Product Manager, PackbackMadeline O'Hara, User Experience Architect II, SMS Assist LLCNicole Opalinski, Data Materials Specialist, AMP RoboticsJamila Parham, Senior Project Manager/Owner of The Tech Unicorn, Microsoft and The Tech UnicornEmily Paul, Product Director, Sophia GeneticsVictoria Perizes, Senior Biomedical Solutions Specialist, Level ExBecky Pierson, Senior Principal Strategist, Kin + CartaEmma Quigley, Senior Influencer Marketing Manager, CurrentCarolyn Russell, Senior Software Engineer, FigureMoana Sato, Sales Operations Manager, AMP RoboticsDanya Sauerhaft, Business Operations Manager, WisetackShaina Semiatin, Director of Talent Acquisition, GrindrSaloni Shah, Manager Software Engineering, Discover Financial ServicesAidan Sherr, Engineering Manager, Realtor.comBianca Siegel, Senior Analyst, SEO, GR0Rory Skene, Director of Search Marketing, The Life Time Value CoJade Slade, Director of Global Field & Demand Generation, MitratechCarie Small, Director of Operations, SMART Monitoring, ADTMargaret Smiley, Director, Data Operations, Quartet HealthGina Smith, Director User Research, 2KCourtney Stepien, Lead Data Scientist, EnovaAna Lisa Sutherland, Software Engineer, ArtsyLiz Tashik, Senior Director, Client Experience, Movable InkKelsey Van Bussum, Director Technology Capability Enablement, Discover Financial ServicesAmelia Van Camp, Director of People AMER, MiraklDanielle Vargas, Solution Architect, Professional Services, BringgAndrea "Drea" Vidaure, Customer Success Specialist, RealWork LabsYolanda Washington, Senior Manager, Data Quality, OoklaJessica Wicks, Director of Marketing, Downstream, ProprioChristina Willis, Senior Analyst, ColdQuantaRebecca Willison, Data Scientist, Farmer's Business NetworkDaniela Wojciechowska, Senior Manager, Performance PR, GR0Jenny Yin, Senior Manager of Engineering, Syndio

ABOUT THE 2022 MOXIE AWARDSBuilt In's 2022 Moxie Awards Program celebrates outstanding women in tech whose leadership qualities, expertise and passion for their discipline indicate that they're likely to advance to the pinnacles of their careers. A judges' panel of celebrated women leaders in tech selected 100 winners, using scorecards with identifying information removed. To be nominated, participants must have met eligibility requirements: They must identify as women, whether through gender identity, gender expression or sex; serve in roles such as director, individual contributor or manager but don't serve on executive or C-Suite teams; and work in traditional tech roles (engineering) or in tech-adjacent roles, which includes any discipline that supports a company's technology.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE: EHC), a national leader in integrated healthcare, offering facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and home health and hospice agencies, today reported its results of operations for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.

"Our first quarter results are further evidence of the strong demand for the services we provide," said President and Chief Executive Officer of Encompass Health Mark Tarr. "Our hospital and home care teams continue to provide high quality, compassionate care to patients in need of our services. While we continue to face near-term staffing challenges, we remain confident in the long-term prospects for our businesses."

Consolidated results

Growth Q1 2022 Q1 2021 Dollars Percent (In Millions, Except Per Share Data) Net operating revenues $ 1,333.6 $ 1,230.4 $ 103.2 8.4% Income from continuing operations attributable to Encompass Health per diluted share 0.87 1.07 (0.20) (18.7)% Adjusted earnings per share 0.97 1.05 (0.08) (7.6)% Cash flows provided by operating activities 218.9 158.5 60.4 38.1% Adjusted EBITDA 245.0 250.8 (5.8) (2.3)% Adjusted free cash flow 165.9 107.4 58.5 54.5%

Revenue growth in the first quarter of 2022 resulted primarily from volume growth in both segments.

Income from continuing operations attributable to Encompass Health per diluted share in the first quarter of 2022 was impacted by higher costs associated with the strategic alternatives review and higher stock-based compensation.

Cash flows provided by operating activities increased 38.1% in the first quarter of 2022. Adjusted free cash flow increased 54.5%, primarily as a result of improved working capital. Accounts receivable in the first quarter of 2021 were elevated due predominantly to the phase out of the home health request for anticipated payment and inpatient rehabilitation Medicare payment processing delays.

See attached supplemental information for calculations of non-GAAP measures and reconciliations to their most comparable GAAP measure.

Inpatient rehabilitation segment results

Growth Q1 2022 Q1 2021 Dollars Percent Net operating revenues: (In Millions) Inpatient $ 1,036.2 $ 942.3 $ 93.9 10.0% Outpatient and other 23.1 17.6 5.5 31.3% Total segment revenue $ 1,059.3 $ 959.9 $ 99.4 10.4% (Actual Amounts) Discharges 50,771 47,187 3,584 7.6% Same-store discharge growth 3.8% Net patient revenue per discharge $ 20,409 $ 19,969 $ 440 2.2% Revenue reserves related to bad debt as a percent of revenue 2.2% 1.7% 50 basis points (In Millions) Adjusted EBITDA $ 226.2 $ 234.9 $ (8.7) (3.7)%

Revenue  Inpatient revenue growth resulted from increased volumes and pricing. Total discharge growth for the first quarter of 2022 was 7.6% with same-store growth of 3.8%. Revenue reserves related to bad debt as a percent of revenue increased 50 basis points, primarily attributable to a shift in payor mix toward non-Medicare payors. Growth in net patient revenue per discharge of 2.2% primarily resulted from an increase in reimbursement rates. The increase in outpatient and other revenue included an increase of $5.8 million in provider tax revenues (partly offset by an increase of approximately $2.7 million in provider tax expense included in other operating expenses).

Adjusted EBITDA  The 3.7% decrease in Adjusted EBITDA primarily resulted from increased utilization and pricing of agency staffing and sign-on and shift bonuses in order to service the increased volume of patients.

Home health and hospice segment results

Growth Q1 2022 Q1 2021 Dollars Percent Net operating revenues: (In Millions) Home health $ 224.9 $ 219.9 $ 5.0 2.3% Hospice 49.4 50.6 (1.2) (2.4)% Total segment revenue $ 274.3 $ 270.5 $ 3.8 1.4% Adjusted EBITDA $ 50.1 $ 50.8 $ (0.7) (1.4)% Home Health Starts of care: (Actual Amounts) Total admissions 53,309 50,799 2,510 4.9% Same-store total admissions growth 0.9% Total recertifications 31,787 31,902 (115) (0.4)% Total starts of care 85,096 82,701 2,395 2.9% Episodic admissions 38,971 40,215 (1,244) (3.1)% Same-store episodic admissions growth (7.4)% Episodic recertifications 25,808 28,083 (2,275) (8.1)% Total episodic starts of care 64,779 68,298 (3,519) (5.2)% Revenue per episode $ 3,037 $ 2,923 $ 114 3.9% Hospice Admissions: Same store 2,830 3,325 (495) (14.9)% New store 416 5 411 12.4% Total admissions 3,246 3,330 (84) (2.5)%

Revenue  Home health total admissions increased 4.9% and same-store total admissions increased 0.9%. Home health revenue per episode increased 3.9%, driven primarily by an increase in Medicare reimbursement rates. Hospice admissions decreased 2.5%, primarily attributable to capacity constraints.

 Home health total admissions increased 4.9% and same-store total admissions increased 0.9%. Home health revenue per episode increased 3.9%, driven primarily by an increase in Medicare reimbursement rates. Hospice admissions decreased 2.5%, primarily attributable to capacity constraints. Adjusted EBITDA - The 1.4% decrease in Adjusted EBITDA resulted primarily from increased costs of service due to higher labor costs.

General and administrative expenses

Q1 2022 % ofConsolidated Revenue Q1 2021 % of Consolidated Revenue (In Millions) General and administrative expenses, excluding stock-based compensation $ 31.3 2.3% $ 34.9 2.8%

General and administrative expenses decreased as a percent of consolidated revenue due to improved operating leverage and a decline in fair value adjustments on the Company's nonqualified 401(k) plan (offset with "Other Income" in the inpatient rehabilitation segment).

General and administrative expenses in the above table exclude $9.6 million in costs associated with the strategic alternatives review of the Company's home health and hospice business for the first quarter of 2022.

Spin off of the home health and hospice business

The Company expects the spin off of its home health and hospice business to form an independent, publicly traded company (the "HH&H Business") to be effectuated on July 1, 2022, subject to customary conditions, including the effectiveness of a Form 10 registration statement, regulatory approvals and receipt of a favorable IRS private letter ruling. Additional information regarding the spin off is provided in the supplemental slides accompanying this release.

2022 guidance

The Company is reaffirming its guidance for full-year 2022.

2022 Guidance Ranges (In Millions, Except Per Share Data) Net operating revenues $5,380 to $5,500 Adjusted EBITDA $1,015 to $1,065 Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations attributable to Encompass Health $3.83 to $4.19

The Company's 2022 consolidated guidance assumes the continuation of the current structure of the business for 2022. Guidance is not inclusive of any costs incurred in 2022 related to the preparations for the planned spin off of Enhabit Home Health & Hospice including rebranding, professional fees, or personnel additions specifically required for an independent public company.

The Company intends to provide 2022 guidance for Encompass Health and Enhabit on a separated basis in the first half of June 2022.

For additional considerations regarding the Company's 2022 guidance ranges, see the supplemental information posted on the Company's website at http://investor.encompasshealth.com. See also the "Other information" section below for an explanation of why the Company does not provide guidance for comparable GAAP measures for Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share.

Earnings conference call and webcast

The Company will host an investor conference call at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, April 28, 2022 to discuss its results for the first quarter of 2022. For reference during the call, the Company will post certain supplemental information at http://investor.encompasshealth.com.

The conference call may be accessed by dialing 866 342-8591 and giving the pass code EHCQ122. International callers should dial 203 518-9713 and give the same pass code. Please call approximately ten minutes before the start of the call to ensure you are connected. The conference call will also be webcast live and will be available for on-line replay at http://investor.encompasshealth.com by clicking on an available link.

About Encompass Health

As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 147 hospitals and 252 home health locations and 99 hospice locations in 42 states and Puerto Rico, the Company provides high-quality, cost-effective integrated healthcare. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on our newsroom, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Other information

The information in this press release is summarized and should be read in conjunction with the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 (the "March 2022 Form 10-Q"), when filed, as well as the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K filed on April 27, 2022 (the "Q1 Earnings Form 8-K"), to which this press release is attached as Exhibit 99.1. In addition, the Company will post supplemental information today on its website at http://investor.encompasshealth.com for reference during its April 28, 2022 earnings call.

The financial data contained in the press release and supplemental information include non-GAAP financial measures, including the Company's adjusted earnings per share, leverage ratio, Adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted free cash flow. Reconciliations to their most comparable GAAP measure, except with regard to non-GAAP guidance, are included below or in the Q1 Earnings Form 8-K. Readers are encouraged to review the "Note Regarding Presentation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" included in the Q1 Earnings Form 8-K which provides further explanation and disclosure regarding the Company's use of these non-GAAP financial measures.

Excluding net operating revenues, the Company does not provide guidance on a GAAP basis because it is unable to predict, with reasonable certainty, the future impact of items that are deemed to be outside the control of the Company or otherwise not indicative of its ongoing operating performance. Such items include government, class action, and related settlements; professional feesaccounting, tax, and legal; mark-to-market adjustments for stock appreciation rights; gains or losses related to hedging instruments; loss on early extinguishment of debt; adjustments to its income tax provision (such as valuation allowance adjustments and settlements of income tax claims); items related to corporate and facility restructurings; and certain other items the Company believes to be not indicative of its ongoing operations. These items cannot be reasonably predicted and will depend on several factors, including industry and market conditions, and could be material to the Company's results computed in accordance with GAAP.

However, the following reasonably estimable GAAP measures for 2022 would be included in a reconciliation for Adjusted EBITDA if the other reconciling GAAP measures could be reasonably predicted:

Interest expense and amortization of debt discounts and fees - estimate of $160 million to $170 million

Amortization of debt-related items - approximately $10 million

The Q1 Earnings Form 8-K and, when filed, the March 2022 Form 10-Q can be found on the Company's website at http://investor.encompasshealth.com and the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

Encompass Health Corporation and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 2021 (In Millions, Except Per Share Data) Net operating revenues $ 1,333.6 $ 1,230.4 Operating expenses: Salaries and benefits 776.0 687.2 Other operating expenses 182.1 162.3 Occupancy costs 20.9 20.2 Supplies 56.1 51.9 General and administrative expenses 48.4 38.6 Depreciation and amortization 66.2 62.5 Total operating expenses 1,149.7 1,022.7 Loss on early extinguishment of debt 0.3  Interest expense and amortization of debt discounts and fees 39.6 42.8 Other expense (income) 3.6 (1.4) Equity in net income of nonconsolidated affiliates (0.9) (1.0) Income from continuing operations before income tax expense 141.3 167.3 Provision for income tax expense 31.2 34.5 Income from continuing operations 110.1 132.8 Loss from discontinued operations, net of tax   Net and comprehensive income 110.1 132.8 Less: Net and comprehensive income attributable to noncontrolling interests (22.6) (25.5) Net and comprehensive income attributable to Encompass Health $ 87.5 $ 107.3 Weighted average common shares outstanding: Basic 99.2 99.0 Diluted 100.2 100.2 Earnings per common share: Basic earnings per share attributable to Encompass Health common shareholders: Continuing operations $ 0.88 $ 1.08 Discontinued operations   Net income $ 0.88 $ 1.08 Diluted earnings per share attributable to Encompass Health common shareholders: Continuing operations $ 0.87 $ 1.07 Discontinued operations   Net income $ 0.87 $ 1.07 Amounts attributable to Encompass Health: Income from continuing operations $ 87.5 $ 107.3 Loss from discontinued operations, net of tax   Net income attributable to Encompass Health $ 87.5 $ 107.3

Encompass Health Corporation and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) March 31, 2022 December 31, 2021 (In Millions) Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 94.2 $ 54.8 Restricted cash 61.0 65.1 Accounts receivable 683.5 680.3 Other current assets 111.0 121.2 Total current assets 949.7 921.4 Property and equipment, net 2,667.1 2,601.6 Operating lease right-of-use assets 236.8 242.0 Goodwill 2,456.5 2,427.9 Intangible assets, net 410.6 417.5 Other long-term assets 223.3 254.5 Total assets $ 6,944.0 $ 6,864.9 Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity Current liabilities: Current portion of long-term debt $ 42.8 $ 42.8 Current operating lease liabilities 38.4 38.4 Accounts payable 147.3 137.6 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 526.0 530.0 Total current liabilities 754.5 748.8 Long-term debt, net of current portion 3,221.3 3,243.9 Long-term operating lease liabilities 208.3 213.1 Deferred income tax liabilities 89.7 86.7 Other long-term liabilities 178.6 173.2 4,452.4 4,465.7 Commitments and contingencies Redeemable noncontrolling interests 43.2 42.2 Shareholders' equity: Encompass Health shareholders' equity 1,973.5 1,911.3 Noncontrolling interests 474.9 445.7 Total shareholders' equity 2,448.4 2,357.0 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 6,944.0 $ 6,864.9

Encompass Health Corporation and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 2021 (In Millions) Cash flows from operating activities: Net income $ 110.1 $ 132.8 Depreciation and amortization 66.2 62.5 Stock-based compensation 7.5 2.8 Deferred tax expense 2.0 8.7 Other, net 7.9 2.0 Changes in assets and liabilities, net of acquisitions  Accounts receivable 7.3 (55.1) Other assets 12.0 1.3 Accrued payroll 5.6 5.7 Other liabilities 0.4 (2.2) Net cash used in operating activities of discontinued operations (0.1)  Total adjustments 108.8 25.7 Net cash provided by operating activities 218.9 158.5 Cash flows from investing activities: Purchases of property and equipment (115.2) (98.8) Other, net (7.9) 3.2 Net cash used in investing activities (123.1) (95.6) Cash flows from financing activities: Principal payments on debt, including pre-payments (103.9) (3.6) Borrowings on revolving credit facility 130.0  Payments on revolving credit facility (25.0)  Debt amendment costs (20.0)  Taxes paid on behalf of employees for shares withheld (7.6) (15.6) Contributions from noncontrolling interests of consolidated affiliates 21.4 4.5 Dividends paid on common stock (28.5) (29.1) Distributions paid to noncontrolling interests of consolidated affiliates (21.3) (27.8) Other, net (6.0) (5.9) Net cash used in financing activities (60.9) (77.5) Increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash 34.9 (14.6) Cash, cash equivalents. and restricted cash at beginning of period 120.3 310.9 Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at end of period $ 155.2 $ 296.3 Reconciliation of Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Restricted Cash Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period $ 54.8 $ 224.0 Restricted cash at beginning of period 65.1 65.4 Restricted cash included in other long-term assets at beginning of period 0.4 21.5 Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at beginning of period $ 120.3 $ 310.9 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 94.2 $ 223.9 Restricted cash at end of period 61.0 62.2 Restricted cash included in other long-term assets at end of period  10.2 Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at end of period $ 155.2 $ 296.3

Encompass Health Corporation and Subsidiaries Supplemental Information Earnings Per Share Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 2021 (In Millions, Except Per Share Data) Adjusted EBITDA $ 245.0 $ 250.8 Depreciation and amortization (66.2) (62.5) Interest expense and amortization of debt discounts and fees (39.6) (42.8) Stock-based compensation (7.5) (2.8) (Loss) gain on disposal or impairment of assets (0.6) 0.1 131.1 142.8 Items not indicative of ongoing operating performance: Loss on early extinguishment of debt (0.3)  Costs associated with the strategic alternatives review (9.6) (0.9) Change in fair market value of equity securities (2.5) (0.1) Pre-tax income 118.7 141.8 Income tax expense (31.2) (34.5) Income from continuing operations (1) $ 87.5 $ 107.3 Basic shares 99.2 99.0 Diluted shares 100.2 100.2 Basic earnings per share (1) $ 0.88 $ 1.08 Diluted earnings per share (1) $ 0.87 $ 1.07 (1) Income from continuing operations attributable to Encompass Health

Encompass Health Corporation and Subsidiaries Supplemental Information Adjusted Earnings Per Share Q1 2022 2021 Earnings per share, as reported $ 0.87 $ 1.07 Adjustments, net of tax: Costs associated with the strategic alternatives review 0.07 0.01 Income tax adjustments  (0.03) Change in fair market value of equity securities 0.02  Adjusted earnings per share* $ 0.97 $ 1.05 * Adjusted EPS may not sum due to rounding.

Encompass Health Corporation and Subsidiaries Supplemental Information Adjusted Earnings Per Share For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 Adjustments As Reported Loss on EarlyExtinguishment of Debt Income TaxAdjustments CostsAssociatedwith the Strategic Alternatives Review Change in Fair MarketValue ofEquity Securities As Adjusted (In Millions, Except Per Share Amounts) Adjusted EBITDA* $ 245.0 $  $  $  $  $ 245.0 Depreciation and amortization (66.2)     (66.2) Interest expense and amortization of debt discounts and fees (39.6)     (39.6) Stock-based compensation (7.5)     (7.5) Loss on disposal or impairment of assets (0.6)     (0.6) Loss on early extinguishment of debt (0.3) 0.3     Costs associated with the strategic alternatives review (9.6)   9.6   Change in fair market value of equity securities (2.5)    2.5  Income from continuing operations before income tax expense 118.7 0.3  9.6 2.5 131.1 Provision for income tax expense (31.2) (0.1) 0.2 (2.5) (0.6) (34.2) Income from continuing operations attributable to Encompass Health $ 87.5 $ 0.2 $ 0.2 $ 7.1 $ 1.9 $ 96.9 Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations** $ 0.87 $  $  $ 0.07 $ 0.02 $ 0.97 Diluted shares used in calculation 100.2 * See reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA. ** Adjusted EPS may not sum across due to rounding.

For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2021 Adjustments As Reported Income TaxAdjustments Costs Associatedwith the StrategicAlternatives Review Change in Fair Market Value ofEquity Securities AsAdjusted (In Millions, Except Per Share Amounts) Adjusted EBITDA* $ 250.8 $  $  $  $ 250.8 Depreciation and amortization (62.5)    (62.5) Interest expense and amortization of debt discounts and fees (42.8)    (42.8) Stock-based compensation (2.8)    (2.8) Gain on disposal or impairment of assets 0.1    0.1 Costs associated with the strategic alternatives review (0.9)  0.9  Change in fair market value of equity securities (0.1)   0.1  Income from continuing operations before income tax expense 141.8  0.9 0.1 142.8 Provision for income tax expense (34.5) (3.3) (0.2)  (38.0) Income from continuing operations attributable to Encompass Health $ 107.3 $ (3.3) $ 0.7 $ 0.1 $ 104.8 Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations** $ 1.07 $ (0.03) $ 0.01 $  $ 1.05 Diluted shares used in calculation 100.2 * See reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA. ** Adjusted EPS may not sum across due to rounding.

Encompass Health Corporation and Subsidiaries Supplemental Information Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 2021 (In Millions) Net income $ 110.1 $ 132.8 Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests (22.6) (25.5) Provision for income tax expense 31.2 34.5 Interest expense and amortization of debt discounts and fees 39.6 42.8 Depreciation and amortization 66.2 62.5 Loss on early extinguishment of debt 0.3  Loss (gain) on disposal or impairment of assets 0.6 (0.1) Stock-based compensation 7.5 2.8 Costs associated with the strategic alternatives review 9.6 0.9 Change in fair market value of equity securities 2.5 0.1 Adjusted EBITDA $ 245.0 $ 250.8

Reconciliation of Segment Adjusted EBITDA to Income from Continuing Operations Before Income Tax Expense Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 2021 (In Millions) Total segment Adjusted EBITDA $ 276.3 $ 285.7 General and administrative expenses (48.4) (38.6) Depreciation and amortization (66.2) (62.5) (Loss) gain on disposal or impairment of assets (0.6) 0.1 Loss on early extinguishment of debt (0.3)  Interest expense and amortization of debt discounts and fees (39.6) (42.8) Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests 22.6 25.5 Change in fair market value of equity securities (2.5) (0.1) Income from continuing operations before income tax expense $ 141.3 $ 167.3

Encompass Health Corporation and Subsidiaries Supplemental Information Reconciliation of Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Adjusted EBITDA Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 2021 (In Millions) Net cash provided by operating activities $ 218.9 $ 158.5 Interest expense and amortization of debt discounts and fees 39.6 42.8 Equity in net income of nonconsolidated affiliates 0.9 1.0 Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests in continuing operations (22.6) (25.5) Amortization of debt-related items (2.3) (2.0) Distributions from nonconsolidated affiliates (1.0) (1.0) Current portion of income tax expense 29.2 25.8 Change in assets and liabilities (25.3) 50.3 Cash used in operating activities of discontinued operations 0.1  Costs associated with the strategic alternatives review 9.6 0.9 Change in fair market value of equity securities 2.5 0.1 Other (4.6) (0.1) Adjusted EBITDA $ 245.0 $ 250.8

Encompass Health Corporation and Subsidiaries Supplemental Information Reconciliation of Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Adjusted Free Cash Flow Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 2021 (In Millions) Net cash provided by operating activities $ 218.9 $ 158.5 Impact of discontinued operations 0.1  Net cash provided by operating activities of continuing operations 219.0 158.5 Capital expenditures for maintenance (34.5) (23.3) Distributions paid to noncontrolling interests of consolidated affiliates (21.3) (27.8) Items not indicative of ongoing operating performance: Transaction costs and related assumed liabilities 2.7  Adjusted free cash flow $ 165.9 $ 107.4

For the three months ended March 31, 2022, net cash used in investing activities was $123.1 million and resulted primarily from capital expenditures. Net cash used in financing activities during the three months ended March 31, 2022 was $60.9 million and resulted primarily from net debt repayments and amendment costs, cash dividends paid on common stock and distributions to noncontrolling interests of consolidated affiliates.

For the three months ended March 31, 2021, net cash used in investing activities was $95.6 million and primarily resulted from capital expenditures. Net cash used in financing activities during the three months ended March 31, 2021 was $77.5 million and primarily resulted from cash dividends paid on common stock, distributions to noncontrolling interests of consolidated affiliates and taxes paid of behalf of employees for shares withheld under stock compensation arrangements.

Encompass Health Corporation and SubsidiariesForward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release and the supplemental information which are not historical facts, such as those relating to the timing and effects, such as the tax-free treatment and the incremental costs, of the spin-off and rebranding of the home health and hospice business and its impact on the business model, outlook and guidance, the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Encompass Health's business and financial assumptions, legislative and regulatory developments, financial guidance, balance sheet and cash flow plans, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition, Encompass Health, through its senior management, may from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning the matters described herein. All such estimates, projections, and forward-looking information speak only as of the date hereof, and Encompass Health undertakes no duty to publicly update or revise such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates based upon current information, involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and relate to, among other things, future events, Encompass Health's plan to repurchase its debt or equity securities, dividend strategies, effective income tax rates, its business strategy, its financial plans, its future financial performance, its projected business results or model, its ability to return value to shareholders, its projected capital expenditures, its leverage ratio, its acquisition opportunities, and the impact of future legislation or regulation. Actual events or results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. While it is impossible to identify all such factors, factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those estimated by Encompass Health include, but are not limited to, the possibility that the Company may not be able to realize higher values for its home health and hospice business through strategic transactions; the possibility that the Company may decide not to undertake a transaction following the review of strategic alternatives or that it is not able to consummate any proposed transactions resulting from the review due to, among other things, market, regulatory and other factors; the potential for disruption to the Company's business resulting from the review of strategic alternatives or the undertaking of any transactions following the review; the continued spread of COVID-19, including the speed, depth, geographic reach and duration of the spread, which could decrease our patient volumes and revenues and lead to staffing and supply shortages and associated cost increases; actions to be taken by the Company in response to the pandemic; the legal, regulatory and administrative developments that occur at the federal, state and local levels; the Company's infectious disease prevention and control efforts; the demand for the Company's services, including based on any downturns in the economy, consumer confidence, or the capital markets and unemployment among family members; the price of Encompass Health's common stock as it affects the Company's willingness and ability to repurchase shares and the financial and accounting effects of any repurchases; any adverse outcome of various lawsuits, claims, and legal or regulatory proceedings involving Encompass Health, including any matters related to yet undiscovered issues, if any, in acquired operations; Encompass Health's ability to attract and retain key management personnel; any adverse effects on Encompass Health's stock price resulting from the integration of acquired operations; potential disruptions, breaches, or other incidents affecting the proper operation, availability, or security of Encompass Health's or its vendors' information systems, including unauthorized access to or theft of patient, business associate, or other sensitive information or inability to provide patient care because of system unavailability as well as unforeseen issues, if any, related to integration of acquired systems; the ability to successfully integrate acquired operations, including realization of anticipated tax benefits, revenues, and cost savings, minimizing the negative impact on margins arising from the changes in staffing and other operating practices, and avoidance of unforeseen exposure to liabilities; Encompass Health's ability to successfully complete and integrate de novo developments, acquisitions, investments, and joint ventures consistent with its growth strategy; increases in Medicare audit activity, including increased use of sampling and extrapolation, resulting in additional unpaid reimbursement claims and an increase in the backlog of appealed claims denials; changes, delays in (including in connection with resolution of Medicare payment reviews or appeals), or suspension of reimbursement for Encompass Health's services by governmental or private payors; changes in the regulation of the healthcare industry at either or both of the federal and state levels, including as part of national healthcare reform and deficit reduction (such as the Patient-Driven Groupings Model for home health) and Encompass Health's ability to adapt operations to those changes; competitive pressures in the healthcare industry and Encompass Health's response thereto; Encompass Health's ability to obtain and retain favorable arrangements with third-party payors; Encompass Health's ability to control costs, particularly labor and employee benefit costs, including group medical expenses; adverse effects resulting from coverage determinations made by Medicare Administrative Contractors regarding its Medicare reimbursement claims and lengthening delays in Encompass Health's ability to recover improperly denied claims through the administrative appeals process on a timely basis; Encompass Health's ability to adapt to changes in the healthcare delivery system, including value-based purchasing and involvement in coordinated care initiatives or programs that may arise with its referral sources; Encompass Health's ability to attract and retain nurses, therapists, and other healthcare professionals in a highly competitive environment with often severe staffing shortages, which may be worsened by the pandemic, and the impact on Encompass Health's labor expenses from potential union activity and staffing shortages; general conditions in the economy and capital markets, including any instability or uncertainty related to armed conflict or an act of terrorism, governmental impasse over approval of the United States federal budget, an increase in the debt ceiling, or an international sovereign debt crisis; the increase in the costs of defending and insuring against alleged professional liability claims, including claims associated with patient and employee exposures to COVID-19, and Encompass Health's ability to predict the estimated costs related to such claims; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in Encompass Health's SEC filings and other public announcements, including Encompass Health's Form 10K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, when filed.

Media ContactCasey Winger, 205 447-6410[email protected]

Investor Relations ContactMark Miller, 205 970-5860[email protected]

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SOURCE Encompass Health Corp.
Saeger recognized by the Pittsburgh Tech Council as top leader in innovation and technology in 2022

PITTSBURGH, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Since joining GNC in 2018, SVP, Chief Information Officer Scott Saeger has been at the center of the global retailer's technology transformation. As the company evolved from a Pittsburgh power player to a solidified global influencer in the health and wellness category, Saeger's role as a visionary leader, with nearly three decades of experience, was critical to the company's future. His ability to define and successfully execute against a North Star technology strategy, with GNC consumers and data at the center, has resulted in the company's forward progress and his distinction as a 2022 CIO of the Year Finalist by the Pittsburgh Tech Council.

"The strength and resilience of our organization is largely dictated by our people and their commitment to our business and consumers," said GNC CEO, Josh Burris. "This recognition of Scott is a great achievement and one he should be proud of. Together with his team he's enabled GNC's continued innovation on our journey to help consumers Live Well."

Saeger and GNC's Information Technology team is concentrated on high quality strategic planning and execution for business applications and operations, integration of e-commerce and back-office platforms, native mobile application, B2B and B2C initiatives and maintenance of retail, Azure, and API management. His oversight has resulted in key GNC achievements including:

Compartmentalizing GNC's tech stack and managing nearly a dozen external technology partners that augment his in-house team of 75 associates across the U.S. and Canada

Modernizing and launching the company's new cloud-based native and mobile point-of-sale allowing for curb side pickup, same day delivery, and online sales at GNC.com

Instituting Azure and Microsoft Dynamics 365 to produce a database operating as a single source of truth and influencing personalized outreach to consumers

Effectively launching voice ordering capabilities with Amazon Alexa enabled devices to create new avenues for GNC consumers to shop with the brand

Completing GNC's transition to headless architecture to leverage order management, inventory availability, and fulfillment optimization capabilities

"It's a tremendous honor to be recognized as a CIO of the Year finalist by the Pittsburgh Tech Council," Saeger said. "This distinction is a shared with my team  it's their countless hours of dedication and sacrifice that is the true foundation of this award and collective success as an IT organization empowering our business partners on our collective journey to Live Well."

In addition to his role at GNC, Saeger is actively engaged in the retail technology community offering expert perspective with organizations including the CDW Retail Customer Advisory Board and the National Retail Federation's CIO Council. In addition to this recognition by the Pittsburgh Tech Council, Saeger was also honored as a 2021 Top Movers and Shakers in Retail by Retail Info Systems.

"We're thrilled to honor Scott as one of Pittsburgh's brightest and most influential technology leaders," said Pittsburgh Tech Council CEO Audrey Russo. "Our 2022 class of CIO and CISO of the Year honorees is immensely talented and all jointly committed to advancing the success of the region."

A native of Houston, Texas, Saeger previously spent time with 1-800-Flowers, Hewlett Packard, ExxonMobil, Laura Mercier, and others.

To learn more about GNC, visit www.gnc.com.

About GNCGNC is a leading global health and wellness brand that provides high-quality, science-based products and solutions consumers need to live mighty, live fit and live well.

The brand touches consumers worldwide by providing its products and services through company-owned retail locations, domestic and international franchise locations, digital commerce and strong wholesale and retail partnerships across the globe. GNC's diversified, multi-channel business model has worldwide reach and a well-recognized, trusted brand. By combining exceptional innovation, product development capabilities and an extensive global distribution network, GNC manages a best-in-class product portfolio. www.gnc.com.

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SOURCE GNC
2022 Santa Cruz Will Compete in Tough X-CROSS Class

All-Women Navigation Rally Held in The Deserts of California and Nevada

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Automotive writers Jill Ciminillo and Kristin Shaw will drive a 2022 Santa Cruz Limited in the seventh annual Rebelle Rally, an all-women, off-road navigational challenge held in the deserts of California and Nevada. Starting Oct. 6 at a to-be-determined location in Nevada, the rally will cover 1,500 miles in eight days before reaching the finish line, Oct. 15, in the Imperial Sand Dunes of Southern California. It will be Ciminillo and Shaw's first attempt at the Rebelle Rally and Hyundai's first time supporting the event. Follow their journey at:

"We are incredibly proud to be sponsoring our first Hyundai team in the Rebelle Rally."

"We are incredibly proud to be sponsoring our first Hyundai team in the Rebelle Rally," said Dana White, chief communications officer, Hyundai Motor North America. "Rebelle Rally is not only about the competition. It is also about empowering women and allowing them to showcase their strengths and skills. We are thrilled to be partnering with Jill and Kristin on this adventure and can't wait to see them in action in the Santa Cruz."

The RallyRebelle Rally blends the love of off-road driving with the ultimate challenge of precise navigation skills. It is not a race for speed, but a unique and demanding event based on the elements of headings, hidden checkpoints, and time. Distances and directions are calculated using maps and a compass. No cellphones or GPS navigations systems are permitted. In fact, cellphones are collected at the start of the event to ensure no cheating.

"When Jill and I decided to travel down the path to becoming competitors in the Rebelle Rally, we knew we wanted a vehicle that was both supremely capable and fun," said Kristin Shaw. "We're thrilled to be driving the unique Santa Cruz in this 1,500-mile rally and representing Hyundai, a brand that has been knocking it out of the park and establishing itself as a major player. I've been watching Hyundai evolve over the last several years and have been impressed by its innovative, intelligent approach to the market."

"Kristin and I decided more than a year ago that we wanted to travel this path together, and when we talked about who we wanted to work with, we immediately thought of Hyundai because of its progressive line of vehicles," said Jill Ciminillo. "More specifically, we loved the idea of taking the Santa Cruz, a new vehicle in an emerging segment, and showing the world what it can really do."

The Training at Rebelle UniversityTo compete in the Rebelle Rally, Shaw and Ciminillo must complete a two-day navigation school and a two-day off-road driving school at Rebelle University. Training highlights include:

Sand driving and basic recovery techniques

Tires and vehicle trouble shooting

Map reading and interpretation

Plotting latitude and longitude

Route planning

The DriversJill Ciminillo is a Chicago-based automotive writer, YouTube personality, podcast host, and the managing editor of Pickup Truck+SUV Talk. Her articles and videos appear in outlets throughout the U.S. Additionally, she co-hosts a weekly radio show on car stuff for a local Chicago station. Previously, Jill has been the automotive editor for both the Chicago Sun-Times News Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group. She is also a past president for the Midwest Automotive Media Association and has the distinction of being the first female president for that organization. Find her on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube at @jillciminillo.

Kristin Shaw has had a fascination with cars since her parents started taking her to classic car shows when she was a kid. Now she is a freelance journalist covering automotive and aviation for outlets like The Drive, Car and Driver, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, A Girls Guide to Cars, AutoWise, GearJunkie, Airport Improvement magazine, and more. She is the immediate past president of the Texas Auto Writers Association and a current member of the TAWA board. Find her on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @DriveModeShow and Twitter @KristinVShaw.

The Sport Adventure Vehicle: Santa Cruz

Multi-utility, secure open bed provides diverse gear-carrying flexibility

Powerful and efficient 2.5L turbo powertrain with HTRAC AWD capability

Compact footprint provides superior maneuverability in an open-bed configuration

Proudly built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) in Montgomery

Skid plate and off-road tires have been added for the desert driving

8.6 inches of ground clearance

Santa Cruz Limited offers a 2.5L direct-injected turbocharged engine with an estimated 275+ horsepower and 310+ lb.-ft. of torque linked to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission (DCT). All Santa Cruz models offer HTRAC all-wheel drive capability for complete confidence when pursuing adventures of all kinds or for that extra peace of mind when driving in an unexpected snowfall. The HTRAC AWD system was developed as a multi-mode system, providing an electronic, variable-torque-split clutch with active torque control between the front and rear axles. The Sport setting gives a more agile feel by sending more torque to the rear wheels, for a sporty, dynamic experience. This system has a wide range of torque distribution variability, tuned for conditions such as straight-line acceleration, medium- and high-speed cornering, and hill starts.

Hyundai Motor AmericaHyundai Motor America focuses on 'Progress for Humanity' and smart mobility solutions. Hyundai offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs and electrified vehicles. Our 820 dealers sold more than 738,000 vehicles in the U.S. in 2021, and nearly half were built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. For more information, visit www.HyundaiNews.com.

Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

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SOURCE Hyundai Motor America
TORREON, Mexico, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Grupo LALA, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: LALAB) announces, upon request from BBVA Bancomer, S.A., Institucion de Banca Multiple, Grupo Financiero BBVA Bancomer, in its capacity as fiduciary of Trust Number 410541-7, the initiation, as of today, in terms of Article 108 of the Securities Market Law of the Voluntary Public Acquisition Offering (the "Offer") for up to all the outstanding Company shares not owned, directly or indirectly, by the offerors nor affiliated trusts, as of this date, for a price of $17.36 pesos payable in cash, equivalent to the price offered in the tender offer that concluded in September 2021.

It is expected that, within ten business days after the initiation of the Offer, the Board of Directors of Grupo LALA will issue an opinion on the Purchase Price proposed in the Offer, after consulting with the Audit and Corporate Practices Committee of the Board.

The information regarding the aforementioned offer is available in the information brochures available for review on the websites of Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (www.bmv.com.mx), the Comision Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (www.cnbv.gob.mx), and the Company (www.lala.com.mx).

The offer is expected to expire on May 25, 2022, unless it is extended under the terms described in the aforementioned offering documents.

For more information:

Daniel Espinosa and Marco Estradai[email protected]

About LALA:

Grupo LALA, a Mexican company focused on the healthy and nutritious food industry, has more than 70 years of experience in the production, innovation and marketing of milk, dairy products and beverages under the highest quality standards. LALA operates 29 production plants and 172 distribution centers in Mexico, Brazil, the United States and Central America, and is supported by more than 40,000 employees. LALA operates a fleet that exceeds 7,500 units for the distribution of its more than 600 products which reach more than 628,000 points of sale. LALA, Nutri and Vigor stand out in their brand portfolio. Grupo LALA is listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the ticker "LALAB".

Limitation of Liability: This press release may contain forecasts or projections which reflect our current views and expectations regarding our performance, business, and future events. Forecasts include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, indicate, or imply future results, performance or achievements and may contain words such as "believe", "anticipate", "expect", "in our view", "will likely occur", or some other word or phrase with a similar meaning. These statements are subject to certain risks, unforeseen events, and assumptions. We caution that a significant number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates, and intentions expressed in this report. In no event will we, nor any of our subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, executives, agents, or employees be liable to third parties (including investors) for any investment, decision or action taken in relation to the information released in this press release or for any consequential special or similar damage. For more information visit: www.lala.com.mx

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1004423/Grupo_LALA_Logo.jpg

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SOURCE Grupo LALA, S.A.B. de C.V.
LG Energy Solution posts quarterly revenue of KRW 4.34 trillion; operating profit at KRW 258.9 billion

Battery manufacturer sets capital expenditures for 2022 at KRW 7 trillion

LGES annual global manufacturing capacity will reach 520GWh by 2025

SEOUL, South Korea, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Energy Solution (LGES; KRX: 373220) today reported its first quarter results, buoyed by steady demand for its cylindrical battery cells and enhanced productivity through automated manufacturing system.

In what was LG Energy Solution's first official earnings report since going public, the battery manufacturer said its consolidated revenue came in at KRW 4.34 trillion in the January-March span, down 2.2% on-quarter. The company logged KRW 258.9 billion in operating profit and operating margin at 6%.

LG Energy Solution largely attributed the slight drop in revenue to the rising costs of raw materials, ongoing global semiconductor shortage and supply chain disruption caused by the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and periodic COVID lockdowns. The company also added prioritizing replacing recalled batteries also dragged down the sales in the first quarter.

Despite the unfavorable commodity market conditions with prices of key battery materials such as nickel, lithium and cobalt skyrocketing, LG Energy Solution said it managed to uphold steady operating profit with solid sales of cylindrical battery cells, improved productivity due to automation, and a cost pass-through mechanism to cover rising prices of aforementioned earth metals.

Looking at the year as a whole, LG Energy Solution targeted annual sales of KRW 19.2 trillion, an increase of 8% on-year, as major partnering automakers plan to expand their EV lineups.

The company said it will invest about KRW 7 trillion in global capital expenditures to maximize its battery manufacturing capacity. LGES projected its annual production capacity to reach 200GWh this year, and 520GWh by 2025. By region, the company's battery capacity in 2025 would account for 41% in North America, which would be the largest share in the region, 37% in Asia and 22% in Europe.

LG Energy Solution also outlined its actions aimed at improving profitability amid spiraling metal prices. In addition to solidifying partnership with its suppliers, LGES said it will secure raw materials through long-term agreements and strategic equity investments. In response to the fluctuating metal prices, LGES will expand the coverage of the cost pass-through schemes by adding copper, aluminum and manganese to the existing list of lithium, nickel and cobalt.

The company revealed plans to fully transform all its facilities into smart factories to make data-driven decisions in plant operation as well as enable automatic calibration to ultimately reduce manufacturing cost while reinforcing manufacturing competitiveness. The company is also on course to strengthen its organizational structure with its newly appointed Chief Digital Officer.

To secure product competitiveness, LGES is working on a solution that can better control thermal propagation in pouch battery packs. For competitive pricing, the battery manufacturer said it continues to develop new cathode materials, while introducing high-capacity cylindrical battery cells in new form factors.

LG Energy Solution is ensuring product quality by implementing a unified operational process that comprehensively covers from identifying the root cause of battery defects to customer support. With it, LGES plans to advance automated inspection process and eventually reduce the range and the volume of recalled batteries.

"Despite global economic uncertainties, LG Energy Solution will continue to make prudent investments to revamp quality and raise product competitiveness," said Youngsoo Kwon, CEO of LG Energy Solution. "As a responsible and loyal business to our partners, shareholders and investors, LGES will lead the energy industry toward a battery-powered future with unrivaled competitiveness."

About LG Energy Solution

LG Energy Solution (KRX: 373220) is a global leader delivering advanced lithium-ion batteries for Electric Vehicles (EV), Mobility & IT applications, and Energy Storage Systems (ESS). With 30 years of experience in advanced battery technology, it continues to grow rapidly towards the realization of sustainable life. With its robust global network that spans the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia, LG Energy Solution is more committed than ever to developing innovative technologies that will bring the future energy a step closer. Under its ESG vision "We CHARGE toward a better future," LG Energy Solution is doing its utmost to prioritize environment, fulfil social responsibilities and shape sustainable future. For more information, please visit https://www.lgensol.com.

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SOURCE LG Energy Solution
LOS ANGELES, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Liberty Hill Foundation, the leading social justice foundation in Los Angeles, will host its signature Upton Sinclair Homecoming Celebration to honor the work of frontline organizers, activists, philanthropists, and everyday changemakers.

Back in person for the first time since 2019, the Homecoming Celebration will bring more than 700 members of the Los Angeles progressive community together to celebrate the often-overlooked work of activists and community organizations fighting for systemic change locally.

The event will feature performances by GRAMMY award-winning band Ozomatli, performing songs from their new hit album "Non-Stop: Mexico to Jamaica," a social justice art walk highlighting the organization's four-decade history, an interactive art wall created in partnership with local organization Arts Bridging the Gap, and a live mural painted by local artist Amani Holbert. This social justice gathering will be an event unlike any other in the history of Liberty Hill.

"Our Homecoming Celebration is the perfect way to celebrate the work of the many activists, grassroots leaders, community partners, donors, foundation partners, and other allies on the frontlines fighting to advance social justice," said Liberty Hill Foundation President/CEO Shane Murphy Goldsmith. "This year's theme is The Fight for Home, a celebration of the activists, organizers, and organizations that are waging the ultimate fight to protect the right of Angelenos to have a roof over their heads and housing as a human right, as well as the fight to protect the one home we all shareour environment."

The Upton Sinclair Homecoming Celebration will honor several champions in the fight for social justice with awards that reflect Liberty Hill's commitment to justice for all. California State Assemblymember Isaac Bryan will serve as keynote speaker and receive the Upton Sinclair Award, presented to a person of unwavering idealism and vision, whose work illustrates an abiding commitment to social justice and equality. The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and CEO Nichol Whiteman will receive the Visionary Award for their commitment to youth development, education, health care, and ending homelessness, through a social justice lens. Liberty Hill will also present its Founders Award to the Meltzer Sieroty family, who have been a passionate force in progressive philanthropy in Los Angeles for more than 40 years.

Liberty Hill achieves its mission by identifying community leaders on the frontlines, investing in their work, and building strategic alliances to spearhead progressive change.

For more information about Liberty Hill or the 2022 Upton Sinclair Homecoming Celebration, please contact Courtney Kassel, Chief Communications Officer, at [email protected].

About Liberty Hill Foundation

Liberty Hill Foundation is a laboratory for social change philanthropy. We leverage the power of community organizers, donor activists, and allies to advance social justice through strategic investment in grants, leadership training, and campaigns. We envision a society in which all people have a powerful voice, including those currently shut out of our democracy, people cut off from opportunities because of their skin color, gender or sexual orientation, where they live, or where they were born. We will not rest until society provides justice and equality for all.

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SOURCE Liberty Hill Foundation
GREENBELT, Md., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A., filed a Complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia to hold Liberty University accountable for failing to investigate its client Jane Doe's report of a violent student-on-student sexual assault and rape, refusing to provide accommodations for her emotional, physical, psychological suffering that resulted from the assault, and retaliating and discriminating against her in the wake of the assault.

Liberty University Retaliated and Discriminated Against Student Rape Survivor

The Complaint alleges that on April 27, 2021, Jane Doe, then a Liberty University student, was brutally raped and sexually assaulted by a fellow Liberty student at an off-campus student apartment building called The Oasis. Liberty University received prompt notice of the rape and assault but failed to provide Jane Doe with services, protection, and accommodations required under Title IX law.

According to the lawsuit, despite their knowledge of the incident, Liberty failed to take any action or protective measures in response. Instead, Liberty systematically demonstrated deliberate indifference, retaliated against Jane Doe, and perpetuated the sexually hostile and dangerous environment on and around campus.

As a result of Liberty's conduct, Jane Doe was deeply harmed, suffering significant damages. Her academic standing suffered, she was ostracized from the university community, accused by the administration of violating the "Liberty Way" (Liberty's code of student conduct), lived in regular fear of encountering her assailant on and around campus, and dealt with daily mental, emotional, and psychological trauma. Ultimately, Jane Doe was forced out of Liberty University.

Erika Jacobsen White, Principal at Joseph Greenwald & Laake and counsel for Jane Doe explained, "Liberty's treatment of Jane Doe is emblematic of the kinds of institutional barriers that sexual assault survivors regularly face in getting justice. Rather than immediately taking steps to protect our client, Liberty engaged in a pattern of retaliation that included failing to provide her with any reasonable accommodations at all in order as she was recovering from the trauma that she endured from being raped. Instead of ensuring Jane Doe's safety, Liberty engaged in classic victim-blaming, compounding her trauma,"

Ms. Jacobsen White continued: "Following her complaints, Liberty failed to take any meaningful steps to keep Jane Doe's assailant away from her, allowed him to continue to harass her on campus  even being assigned to the same housing as Jane Doe where she was raped - and then systematically targeted our client for allegedly violating the "Liberty Way" for associating with other students who were allegedly drinking. This kind of institutional discrimination, harassment, and retaliation is designed to silence victims and perpetuates a toxic culture of oppression."

As noted by Drew LaFramboise, Senior Counsel at Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, "Today's action unfortunately follows a number of other lawsuits alleging Liberty's Title IX violations in handling sexual assault and harassment claims by students or former students. Liberty has knowingly created and fostered a culture where sexual violence is ignored or swept under the rug, and far too many students have suffered as a result. Students should not be afraid for their safety or fear their school's response to reports of sexual assault. This suit seeks justice for our client, and we hope it will compel Liberty to make institutional changes to protect survivors of sexual assault."

The Complaint outlines the details of the case and the Title IX claims, negligence claims, and disability discrimination claims against the defendants: Liberty University, the student assailant, and the companies that owned and operated the off-campus housing where the attack occurred.

To learn more about Joseph, Greenwald & Laake's Title IX practice, click here.

About Joseph, Greenwald & Laake Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A., is one of the most trusted law firms serving Washington, D.C., and the suburban Maryland area. For more than 50 years, our law firm has represented a variety of clients, including individuals, small businesses and multimillion-dollar corporations. From simple to complex legal needs, our law firm is prepared to deliver strategic solutions with high standards. Call or e-mail us at Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A. to schedule a consultation with an experienced attorney. We offer reliable counsel on how best to proceed and what your rights and responsibilities are.

Media Contact: Lauren Smith, MBA [email protected] (240) 498-8123

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SOURCE Joseph Greenwald and Laake
Over 75 employers and hundreds of career seekers attend in-person career fair at Citizens Bank Park as economic recovery from the pandemic continues.

PHILADELPHIA and MONTGOMERY COUNTIES, Pa., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the national labor shortage, Philadelphia Works Inc. and MontcoWorks, two Mid-Atlantic workforce development boards, recently partnered to host an in-person career fair at Citizens Bank Park. Over 75 businesses representing multiple industries, from healthcare to manufacturing, were able to connect with over 400 career seekers, doubling last year's outcomes for both business and career seeker attendance.

While economic recovery in the region is clear in many areas, indicated by increased wages and stronger consumer behavior, employers see minimal improvement in the labor pool. This becomes a point of frustration when thousands of Philadelphia residents remain unemployed. Workforce development professionals are looking at how the digital divide may play a role in that disconnect.

"The trajectory and rate of our regional economic recovery will continue to be defined by three factors, quality data, strong partnerships, and equitable access to opportunity," said H. Patrick Clancy, president and CEO at Philadelphia Works. "While the pandemic incited the labor shortage, equity and access to employment and training opportunities was already an area of improvement for our workforce system. This in-person, multi-industry hiring event creates access to those who are marginalized by the digital divide. Both In-person and virtual workforce opportunities are necessary for career seekers and businesses to thrive."

The pandemic forced many workers indoors and allowed only those in professional and technical occupation, and access to technology, to continue working. Frontline workers either endured through the pandemic, were laid-off, or chose to exit the labor force.

"As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, worker shortages continue to be a stubborn obstacle to getting our regional economy back on track. Through the hard work of partners like Philadelphia Works, Inc. the City of Philadelphia and all the employers participating in the career fair, we're working aggressively to meet the needs of employers and career seekers alike, to ensure we're providing people with access to the economic opportunities they deserve." Dan Fitzpatrick President, Citizens Mid-Atlantic Region and Board Chair of Philadelphia Works, Inc.

Download the full list of businesses that attended the Multi-Industry Career Fair at Citizens Bank Park.

Media Contact:Dawn Thomas, Director, Communications and OutreachPhiladelphia Works, Inc.[email protected] - (215) 557.2587

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SOURCE Philadelphia Works
In a consultative role, Dr. Standifer will aid in the development and cultivation of new research partners

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LUNGevity Foundation, the nation's leading lung cancer-focused nonprofit organization, welcomes Maisha Standifer, PhD, MPH, as its first Community Scholar-in-Residence. In this new position, Dr. Standifer will help develop relationships with organizational, academic, and community-based research partners and will also be instrumental in executing LUNGevity's Annual Lung Cancer Health Equity Roundtable.

Dr. Standifer is currently the Director of Health Policy in the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine. She is also a co-investigator on multiple federally funded studies and a lecturer at Morehouse College and Emory University. In addition, as a lecturer at Morehouse College and Emory University, she serves as a public health policy analyst for several ongoing research studies on ethnic minority status as a social determinant of health for COVID-19 funded by the CDC and Kessler Foundation.

Before her role at Morehouse, she worked at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, where she was a research specialist, a program administrator, and a study investigator for research and development services.

"With 15 years of examining health inequalities both globally and domestically, Maisha will be a welcome addition to LUNGevity," explained Andrea Ferris, the foundation's president and CEO. "We look forward to benefiting from her leadership and expertise as we expand our efforts to ensure that all individuals with lung cancer benefit from the latest scientific advances."

Dr. Standifer received her BA in sociology at Spelman College, her MPH from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and a PhD in applied anthropology with a concentration in medical anthropology from the University of South Florida.

About LUNGevity

LUNGevity Foundation is the nation's leading lung cancer organization focused on improving outcomes for people with lung cancer through research, policy initiatives, education, support, and engagement for patients, survivors, and caregivers. LUNGevity seeks to make an immediate impact on quality of life and survivorship for everyone touched by the diseasewhile promoting health equity by addressing disparities throughout the care continuum. LUNGevity works tirelessly to advance research into early detection and more effective treatments, provide information and educational tools to empower patients and their caregivers, promote impactful public policy initiatives, and amplify the patient voice through research and engagement. The organization provides an active community for patients and survivorsand those who help them live longer and better lives.

Comprehensive resources include a medically vetted and patient-centric website, a toll-free HELPLine for support, the International Lung Cancer Survivorship Conference, and an easy-to-use Clinical Trial Finder, among other tools. All of these programs are to achieve our visiona world where no one dies of lung cancer. LUNGevity Foundation is proud to be a four-star Charity Navigator organization.

Please visit LUNGevity.org to learn more.

About Lung Cancer in the US

About 1 in 17 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their lifetime.

More than 236,000 people in the US will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year.

About 60%-65% of all new lung cancer diagnoses are among people who have never smoked or are former smokers.

Lung cancer takes more lives than the next two deadliest cancers (colorectal and pancreatic) combined.

Only 23% of all people diagnosed with lung cancer will survive 5 years or more, BUT if it's caught before it spreads, the chance of 5-year survival improves dramatically.

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SOURCE LUNGevity Foundation
Black Insurance Industry Collective to Expand Leadership Development for Black Professionals

MALVERN, Pa., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Black Insurance Industry Collective (BIIC), a newly-formed non-profit organization affiliated with The Institutes, today announced its launch. The BIIC is focused on accelerating the advancement of Black insurance professionals.

BIIC's mission is to empower Black insurance professionals to expand their leadership development opportunities.

BIIC's mission is to empower Black insurance professionals to expand their leadership development opportunities by emphasizing mentorship and sponsorship while collaborating with other organizations that are also working toward those goals. The group will provide customized programs that address the unique needs and experiences of these professionals to tangibly improve the representation of Black insurance industry talent.

This initiative, created under the leadership of four insurance industry diversity and human capital leaders, has been two years in the making, and included input from over 50 participants from insurance, talent development, and academia.

BIIC will partner with the University of Virginia Darden School of Business to create a specialized leadership development program focused on developing skills necessary for career progression. The leadership program at Darden, part of BIIC's suite of offerings, will provide insurance professionals with the benefits of a supportive community of colleagues.

"Insurance is an ever-changing industry. No one should have to navigate it alone. With a strong network of peers who share similar interests, BIIC offers the support to learn from executive leaders in the insurance industry while developing critical skills through our strategic partnership with the Darden School of Business at The University of Virginia," said Ronald Reeves, Chief Diversity Officer at AIG.

"The Institutes are excited to contribute to the formation of the BIIC as part of our overall DEI initiative. We look forward to working with the BIIC Leadership Council as they cultivate and preserve a culture of inclusion for all who work in and are served by the risk management and insurance community," said Peter L. Miller, CPCU, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Institutes.

A lack of exposure to the insurance industry and professional networks are the top two barriers for Black professionals, according to a study conducted by Marsh, The Journey of African-American Insurance Professionals.

"BIIC is built from the ground up by insurance leaders," said Susan Johnson, Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer at The Hartford. "We are focused on spotlighting top talent to key leaders and insurance industry role models who share similar cultural experiences."

Obstacles for Black insurance professionals are greater than for other people of color, according to the Marsh study. These obstacles impact individuals and have far-reaching business impacts. Black employees are also nearly twice as likely as other people of color to perceive their race will make it harder to achieve their goals, according to a recent study by McKinsey, Race in the Workplace: The Black Experience in the U.S. Private Sector.

"This initiative was named as a collective because we believe we can achieve more together than separately," said Ivy Kusinga, Chief Culture Officer at Chubb. "We seek to address the unique, cultural, mental, and psychological experiences and challenges encountered by Black insurance professionals in achieving their career aspirations."

"BIIC is committed to empowering and positioning Black professionals to lead and inspire excellence across the industry by bringing together top talent, mentors, sponsors, and allies," said Tony Steadman, Managing Director, Accenture. "Although we have more work to do, by working together, we can equip leaders with a developmental roadmap, putting them on a path to success."

BIIC invites organizations to join as Founding Year Sponsors in order to grow this critical program. Sponsorship will facilitate funding for BICC's key education and leadership development initiatives.

To learn more about BIIC or to become a Founding Year Sponsor, contact Amy Cole-Smith at [email protected].

Black Insurance Industry Collective Leadership Council Susan Johnson, Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, The Hartford Ivy Kusinga, SVP, Chief Culture Officer, Chubb Ronald Reeves, Chief Diversity Officer, AIG Tony Steadman, Managing Director, Global Client Leader, Accenture

About the BIICThe focus of the Black Insurance Industry Collective (BIIC) is to accelerate the advancement of Black professionals with the end goal of increasing the representation of Black leaders at the mid-to-executive level in the insurance industry. Our vision is to support the development of Black talent in the insurance industry by providing educational opportunities, networking, and training opportunities.

About The Institutes | Risk and Insurance Knowledge Group The Institutes, the leading provider of risk management and insurance knowledge education and solutions, offer professional designations, including the CPCU program. In addition, The Institutes provide introductory, foundational, and leadership courses and programs; online and continuing education courses; custom solutions; events and conferences; online and print news platforms; assessment tools; and research reports.

CPCU is a registered trademark of The Institutes. All rights reserved.

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SOURCE Insurance Information Institute
JUNO BEACH, Fla., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NextEra Energy Transmission, LLC, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE), today announced that it has been awarded the Minco-Pleasant Valley-Draper transmission line project by the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).

The SPP Board of Directors approved an industry expert panel (IEP) recommendation for NextEra Energy Transmission Southwest to build the Minco-Pleasant Valley-Draper transmission line project. The IEP evaluated this project through its competitive transmission owner selection process, which is required under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order No. 1000 for certain transmission projects.

"We are pleased to have been awarded the Minco-Pleasant Valley-Draper project by SPP," said Matt Valle, president of NextEra Energy Transmission. "This project award, our second in SPP, furthers our goal of creating America's leading competitive transmission company and is consistent with our strategy of adding high-quality regulated assets to our portfolio."

NextEra Energy Transmission will construct a new, approximate 48-mile, 345-kilovolt (kV) transmission line that will connect the Minco and Draper substations in Oklahoma to address economic needs in the region.

The project is expected to be online in 2024.

NextEra Energy TransmissionNextEra Energy Transmission develops, finances, constructs, and maintains transmission assets across the continent. NextEra Energy Transmission operates through its regional subsidiaries to integrate renewable energy and strengthen the electric grid. The company's subsidiaries were among the first non-incumbents to be awarded projects by system operators and utility commissions in California, New York, Texas, and Ontario. NextEra Energy Transmission's portfolio includes operating assets in 10 states, six regional transmission organizations and one Canadian province, with numerous projects under development and construction. To learn more, visit www.NextEraEnergyTransmission.com.

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SOURCE NextEra Energy Transmission, LLC
Transaction Aims to Accelerate Smart Wi-Fi Adoption Globally

Airties Looks to Expand into New Markets, Invest in R&D, Marketing and Recruiting

Airties will continue to be led by CEO Philippe Alcaras

LONDON and ISTANBUL, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Airties (the "Company"), a leading provider of cloud-based managed Wi-Fi solutions to operators globally, today announced that its Board and principal shareholders, including Invus, an evergreen equity investor, have agreed to the acquisition of the Company by Providence Equity Partners ("Providence"), a premier private equity firm that specializes in growth-oriented investments in media, communications, education and technology. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2004, Airties is a leading provider of cloud-based managed in-home Wi-Fi solutions, serving internet service providers ("ISPs") with a combined footprint in excess of 80 million households across the world. Airties has consistently achieved strong organic revenue growth through significant client wins and by broadening its relationships with existing clients  including AT&T in the US, Sky in the UK, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone across Europe, and Telstra in Australia.

Providence's investment will assist Airties with accelerating growth into new markets globally, as well as funding additional R&D and product innovation to continue delivering superior connectivity, and expanding its sales, marketing, and recruitment efforts globally. As sector-focused investors with a history of partnering with innovative telecoms and technology companies, Providence is well-positioned to harness its expertise, network and resources to support Airties as it enters a transformative new chapter.

Philippe Alcaras, CEO of Airties, said: "We are proud of the leadership position we have achieved and thank our Board and investors for supporting us on this journey. We are excited to work with Providence as Airties continues to build momentum and enter the next stage of its growth journey. We could not have found a better partner to help us accelerate our development globally."

Evren Bilimer, Managing Director at Invus and Board member of Airties, said: "When my partner, Mario Kaloustian, and I met the founding team of Airties led by Bulent Celebi and Metin Taskn in 2010, they had a clear vision for the Internet of the future and centrality of Wi-Fi within it. Over our 12-year journey with the team, Airties has been at the forefront of the Wi-Fi revolution as it transformed its business from a hardware centric business in Turkey to a global software powerhouse both on the edge and the cloud, while also providing the most advanced access points. We are excited to now hand over the baton to the Providence team for the next chapter of Airties."

Michael Vervisch, Managing Director at Providence, said: "We have been impressed by the strength and quality of Airties' cloud-based managed Wi-Fi solutions and strongly believe its leading software offering, together with its deep expertise in integrating across hardware technologies and operator platforms, positions Airties as a preferred partner for broadband service providers. We see tremendous potential to continue Airties' growth trajectory by extending its global reach and expanding its offering. Additionally, we believe its culture of innovation and success make it a perfect fit for us. We look forward to partnering with Philippe and his outstanding team by leveraging our deep sector expertise in the next chapter of the company's journey."

Airties' innovation has been recognized by numerous esteemed industry bodies, winning: "Best Home Wi-Fi Solution Award" from Broadband World Forum; the "Best Wi-Fi Service Provider Solution" and "Best Home Wi-Fi Product" awards from Wi-Fi NOW; "Best-In Home Wi-Fi Network" from Wireless Broadband Alliance; the "Best Broadband Customer Experience" award from Cable & Satellite International; and many others.

Airties was advised by Stifel (M&A), alongside Esin Attorney Partnership and Baker McKenzie London (M&A Legal), EY (Vendor Tax and Financial), PwC (Tax and Structuring), YC Law (Corporate Legal), DLA Piper (Management Legal) and Liberty Partners (Management). Providence was advised by LionTree (M&A), Allen & Overy (Legal), FTI Consulting (Financial), KPMG (Tax and Structuring) and EY Parthenon (Commercial).

About AirtiesAirties is a leading provider of managed Wi-Fi solutions to operators around the globe. The Smart Wi-Fi portfolio from Airties includes Airties Edge, smart Wi-Fi software for gateways; Airties Cloud, a cloud-based management platform and its companion app, Airties Vision; and Wi-Fi mesh extenders. Operators turn to Airties for the design, implementation, and ongoing optimization of their customers' broadband experience. Airties' customers include AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Singtel, Sky, Telia, Telstra, Vodafone, and many others. More information is available at www.Airties.com.

About Providence Equity PartnersProvidence is a premier global private equity firm with approximately $31 billion in aggregate capital commitments. Providence pioneered a sector-focused approach to private equity investing with the vision that a dedicated team of industry experts could build exceptional companies of enduring value. Since the firm's inception in 1989, Providence has invested in more than 170 companies and is a leading equity investment firm focused on the media, communications, education and technology industries. Providence is headquartered in Providence, RI, and also has offices in New York and London. For more information, please visit www.provequity.com.

About InvusFounded in 1985, Invus makes equity investments in transformational opportunities in both private and public companies. The firm is active across a range of industries including consumer and retail, technology and healthcare. Invus has an evergreen structure enabling a long-term horizon with $10 billion under management and offices in New York, Paris and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.invus.com.

Media Contacts

Airties Providence Equity Jeremy Pemble JLM Partners [email protected] +1 206 930 7998 Rory King/ Giles Bethule Sard Verbinnen & Co. [email protected] +44 (0)7917 086 227/ +44 (0)77 6138 5365

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SOURCE Airties
RENTON, Wash., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Radiant Logistics, Inc. (NYSE American: RLGT), a third-party logistics and multimodal transportation services company, today announced that it has filed a new universal shelf registration statement on Form S-3 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which will replace its previous $100 million universal shelf registration that recently expired. The shelf registration statement is intended to provide Radiant with flexibility to access the public capital markets in the future in order to respond to financing and business opportunities that may arise at that time.

Although the shelf registration statement has been filed with the SEC, it has not yet become effective. Following the effectiveness of the shelf registration statement, Radiant will be able to offer and sell, from time to time, up to $150 million of securities such as senior, subordinated or convertible debt securities, warrants, units, common and preferred stock, or any combination thereof, in amounts, at prices, and on terms to be announced when, and if, the securities are offered. The terms of any securities offered under the shelf registration statement, and the intended use of the net proceeds resulting therefrom, will be established at the times of the offerings and will be described in prospectus supplements to-be filed with the SEC at the times of the offerings. At the present time, Radiant has no specific plans to issue securities under the shelf registration statement.

These securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the shelf registration statement becomes effective. This press release is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

A copy of the shelf registration statement on Form S-3 and copies of the prospectus supplements relating to any offerings under the shelf registration statement, when available, can be obtained by contacting Radiant Logistics, Inc., Attention: Todd Macomber, Chief Financial Officer, Triton Towers Two, 700 S. Renton Village Place, Seventh Floor, Renton, WA 98057.Telephone: (425) 943-4599. Email: [email protected].

About Radiant Logistics (NYSE American: RLGT)

Radiant Logistics (www.radiantdelivers.com) is a third-party logistics and multimodal transportation services company delivering advanced supply chain solutions through a network of company-owned and strategic operating partner locations across North America. Through its comprehensive service offering, Radiant provides domestic and international freight forwarding services, truck and rail brokerage services and other value-added supply chain management services, including customs brokerage, order fulfillment, inventory management and warehousing to its customers.

Interested parties can access additional information about Radiant on its web site at http://www.radiantdelivers.com, and in documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, regarding future operating performance, events, trends and plans. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding our future financial position, business strategy, and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "estimates," "anticipates," or "believes" or the negative thereof or any variation thereon or similar terminology or expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our expectations, include, but are not limited to those risk factors disclosed in Item 1A of our Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2021, other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other public documents and press releases which can be found on our website (www.radiantdelivers.com). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, as they speak only as of the date made. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and we undertake no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof.

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SOURCE Radiant Logistics, Inc.
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Akashdeep Randhawa came to Rutgers to study science. Along the way, he became an entrepreneur, building a start-up company around an invention with the potential to improve results for millions of patients in physical therapy.

Randhawa started Smart MS3 (Muscle Sensing in Three Dimensions) after his grandmother suffered a stroke. He wanted to do something to keep her motivated to continue intense physical therapy to restore her ability to hold things and to walk.

The company's disc-shaped monitor is about the size of an adult hand and powered by electrodes that can record a patient's activity and collect data on how hard their muscles are working. The data provides patients with a better understanding of how therapy is working their muscles, which activities are helping the most, measuring progress.

"I deeply believe in the technology we're developing," Randhawa said. "I know it's going to be helpful to people."

A junior at the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in bio neuroscience, Randhawa is also minoring in entrepreneurship at Rutgers Business SchoolNew Brunswick. He is an example of a generation of student entrepreneurs Rutgers is producing in an ecosystem of instruction, networking, and mentorship.

As a student, he is applying his classroom lessons almost instantly. As a chief executive officer, he is leading his team through the challenging real-world experience of founding a business.

"Akash is an amazing guy," said Rutgers Business School's Assistant Director of Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Programs Alfred Blake who invited Randhawa to join the inaugural cohort of the Entrepreneurship Living and Learning Community. "He's extremely disciplined, poised and relentless," Blake said. "He doesn't waste any opportunity."

Randhawa's determination comes through when he describes the reiteration of refining a pitch, learning what resonates with investors or navigating through the chip shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. "If you put a brick wall in front of me," he said, "I'll figure out a way through it."

After nearly two years and 15 pitch competitions, Randhawa and his team recently won two, including first place at the regional round of the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards. Members of the Smart MS3 team recently faced off against other students and alumni in Rutgers Business School's annual Business Plan Competition, winning a prize of $10,000.

The spring brought another exciting development when Randhawa learned that Smart MS3 was selected to be one of 12 startups selected for the TechStars NYC Accelerator Program.

Randhawa started his study of entrepreneurship serendipitously. In a conversation with Blake during his first days at Rutgers, he learned about the Entrepreneurship Living and Learning Community (LLC), which Blake had just started on the Livingston Campus.

The LLC brings together cohorts of freshman students from across the university who have an interest in entrepreneurship. During freshman year, they live together in dormitory, supporting and inspiring one another. For many it's the springboard into an ecosystem that fosters inventiveness and ingenuity. After speaking with Blake, Randhawa quickly moved from his dorm on the Cook Campus to join the LLC. "The business side was not something I expected," Randhawa said. "I was thinking I have this awesome idea. Why not join a group of like-minded people."

Blake introduced him to entrepreneurship instructor Mukesh Patel, who brings the experience of entrepreneur, lawyer, investor, and advisor to his teaching. With that introduction Randhawa gained entry to the Honor College's Innovation Lab where he connected with other student entrepreneurs. Three students from the Honors College are now part of his team. Patel also leads Road to Silicon V/alley, a student organization that Randhawa joined to network with other entrepreneur-minded students.

In addition to Blake and Patel, he counts RBS instructors Gary Minkoff and Kristy Fall among his mentors. One of his classes with Minkoff was a practicum that allowed him to focus on building his company and getting academic credit for it. The combination of science and business have "fed into each other," Randhawa said.

"I go to neuroscience class, and it teaches me more about the brain interfacing with the body and that gets directly applied to what I'm working on," he said. "On the business side, I go into entrepreneurship classes, and they tell me how to present, how to prepare a pitch deck, how to incorporate a company.

"I have such a short feedback loop of learning and implementation that the second I learn, a couple of days later, I'm already implementing the ideas," he said.

When Randhawa's team won the pitch competition in January, the accomplishment was a testament to practice and determination, but what mattered even more than the prizes was getting the company noticed by New Jersey's angel investment community.

"This win got us on the radar," he said. "It takes away the image of us being a group of college students to us being a team of founders working on something to change the world."

The Smart MS3 team consists of Randhawa's high school friend Varun Kota, a biology student at Nova Southeastern; Fahad Karim, a 2019 graduate from the University of Michigan, Rutgers alumnus Hammad Farooqui (SOE, '19); and Rutgers student Manu Sankaran (SAS, '23). The newest additions to the team are Rutgers Honors College students, Anna Zhang, (SAS '22), Iris Zhorov (SAS '24) and Rehan Yadav (RBS '24).

Even before the pitch win, Smart MS3's device was gaining validation in pilots run by a network of physical therapy clinics. The pilots are also helping to attract investors, including former Mr. Olympian bodybuilder Shenru Aangrish. To date, the team has raised $250,000 in financing. Within months, they expect to finish a second round that is expected to generate another $250,000.

Randhawa's grandmother, who inspired Smart MS3, has gone from bedridden to walking with assistance and a cane. Her progress has helped to sustain Randhawa through the rollercoaster of being a student CEO.

"For anyone trying to build something like this, for every step forward you take, you have 30 rejections before you take another step forward," he said. "It's hard, but at the end of the day, I remember what I'm working for and that's the compass that's guiding me."

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SOURCE Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick
IRVINE, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Shopoff Realty Investments ("Shopoff"), a national manager of opportunistic and value-add real estate investments, announced today the company has sold Iron Horse Shopping Center, a 185,890-square-foot neighborhood center, located in Sparks, Nevada for $18 million.

"When Shopoff purchased Iron Horse Shopping Center, the property was in very poor condition having been foreclosed on by the lender and under the management of a receiver for several years," explained Shopoff Realty Investments president and chief executive officer William Shopoff. "Through our team's efforts, the property made a major transformation, with the addition of many new tenants, the reworking of leases with existing tenants, extensive improvements, and the addition of a new retail pad. The asset is now a positive resource for the surrounding community, rather than a blight."

When Shopoff purchased the property, it was a distressed, lender-owned asset and only 33% occupied, with a former Target store space representing over 100,000-square-feet of vacant space. Shopoff was able to make significant capital improvements to the center, including new paint and column architectural features, enhanced signage, landscaping, repairing and replacing of the asphalt in the parking lots. Additionally, a new 7,151-square-foot pad was also constructed on the property. Ultimately, the Shopoff team was able to increase the occupancy of the center to 75%, signing several key long-term leases.

In addition to the main center, there are two retail pads on the property that are being sold separately. One of the pads is 3,008-square-feet, and currently houses a Jack-in-the-Box fast food restaurant, and the other is the aforementioned 7,151-square-foot pad constructed by Shopoff, which has several tenants including Starbucks, Super Chix, Roberto's and Freeway Insurance.

About Shopoff Realty InvestmentsShopoff Realty Investments is an Irvine, California-based real estate firm with a 30-year history of value-add and opportunistic investing across the United States. The company primarily focuses on proactively generating appreciation through the repositioning of commercial income-producing properties and the entitlement of land assets. The 30-year history includes operating as Asset Recovery Fund, Eastbridge Partners and Shopoff Realty Investments (formerly known as The Shopoff Group). Performance has varied in this time frame, with certain offerings generating losses. For additional information, please visit www.shopoff.com or call (844) 4-SHOPOFF.

DisclosuresThis is not an offering to buy or sell any securities. Such offer may only be made through the offerings memorandum to qualified purchasers. Any investment in Shopoff Realty Investments programs involves substantial risks and is suitable only for investors who have no need for liquidity and who can bear the loss of their entire investment. There is no assurance that any strategy will succeed to meet its investment objectives. The performance of this asset is not indicative of future results of other assets. Securities offered through Shopoff Securities, Inc. member FINRA/SIPC, 18565 Jamboree Road, Suite 200, Irvine, CA 92612, (844) 4-SHOPOFF.

Contact: Jill SwartzSpotlight Marketing Communications949.427.1389[email protected]

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SOURCE Shopoff Realty Investments
BEIJING, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), a leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education, today announced that it has filed its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on April 27, 2022, U.S. Eastern Time.

The annual report can be accessed on the Company's investor relations website at http://www.sunlands.investorroom.com/ and on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. The Company will provide a hard copy of the annual report containing the audited consolidated financial statements, free of charge, to its shareholders and ADS holders upon request. Requests should be directed to [email protected].

About Sunlands

Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), formerly known as Sunlands Online Education Group, is the leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education. With a one to many, live streaming platform, Sunlands offers various degree and diploma-oriented post-secondary courses as well as online professional courses and educational content, to help students prepare for professional certification exams and attain professional skills. Students can access its services either through PC or mobile applications. The Company's online platform cultivates a personalized, interactive learning environment by featuring a virtual learning community and a vast library of educational content offerings that adapt to the learning habits of its students. Sunlands offers a unique approach to education research and development that organizes subject content into Learning Outcome Trees, the Company's proprietary knowledge management system. Sunlands has a deep understanding of the educational needs of its prospective students and offers solutions that help them achieve their goals.

For more information, please visit http://www.sunlands.investorroom.com/

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Sunlands Technology GroupInvestor RelationsEmail: [email protected]

The Piacente Group, Inc.Brandi PiacenteTel: +1-212-481-2050Email: [email protected]

Yang SongTel: +86-10-6508-0677Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Sunlands Technology Group
HOUSTON, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Zeta Energy announced today that it has passed an important milestone in its development of its proprietary lithium-sulfur battery by demonstrating a scalable process for volume manufacturing of a three-dimensional carbon nanotube-based anode. The carbon nanotube anode will be coupled with Zeta Energy's proprietary sulfurized carbon cathode to create a high-performance and low-cost battery cell technology. As CEO Charles Maslin noted, "We have achieved a major milestone by demonstrating a scalable process for our anode technology. This is a great day for Zeta Energy."

Zeta Energy's battery technology is expected to enable breakthrough improvements in electric vehicles and grid energy storage, as well as many other applications. Zeta's technology uses no nickel, cobalt, manganese, or graphite, obviating the need for battery materials that have been subject to extreme volatility in pricing and availability. All of Zeta Energy's materials can be sourced close to its manufacturing locations, relieving it from dependence on international supply chain constraints.

About Zeta EnergyZeta Energy is a US-based privately-held company focused on developing and commercializing high performance, safe, rechargeable batteries that are lower cost and sustainably manufactured. Zeta has filed more than thirty patents on its proprietary carbon nanotube anode and sulfur cathode technology. The Company may from time to time disclose public material events via its website at http://www.ZetaEnergy.com or its social media accounts at the following locations:https://www.linkedin.com/company/zeta-energy/about/ https://twitter.com/ZetaEnergy

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SOURCE Zeta Energy
Northeast Iowa Community College to deliver agribusiness curriculum for Zurich crop insurance apprentices; Harold Washington College to serve Chicago apprentices

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To power the expansion of the Zurich Apprenticeship Program this fall, Zurich North America is onboarding two additional education providers. Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) will deliver agribusiness curriculum to apprentices in Zurich's crop insurance business. Harold Washington College will provide coursework to downtown Chicago apprentices based in three Zurich business units: U.S. National Accounts, including International Programs; Middle Market; and Life, Accident and Health.

The pioneering Zurich Apprenticeship Program, launched in 2016, is hiring more than double the typical number of apprentices for the cohort that will start the program in August. Zurich is currently recruiting for 75 positions based in different areas of Zurich's business in 16 states. Cities include Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York City, Overland Park (Kansas), Philadelphia, San Francisco, Schaumburg (Illinois) and Winston-Salem (North Carolina). Crop apprentices will be in states such as Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Washington.

This year's cohort will be the largest in the history of Zurich's U.S. program, which was created to widen Zurich's talent pipeline and open new earn-and-learn career pathways for non-degreed talent, including high school graduates, career changers, those re-entering the workforce after a hiatus, and veterans.

Zurich starts a new U.S. cohort every year. From their first day, Zurich apprentices earn a full-time salary and benefits, including health insurance and paid time off. Apprentices work three days a week at Zurich and focus on coursework two days. Zurich covers their tuition. Upon completion of the two-year program, apprentices earn an associate degree and a Department of Labor apprentice certification.

Approximately 14 businesses and functions at Zurich are hiring apprentices this year, some for the first time. There are opportunities in underwriting, claims, sales, IT, cyber, crop insurance, life, international programs, communications and more.

Demand for apprentices to help serve farmers

There's a significant increase in demand for apprentices to support Zurich's crop insurance business, RCIS, which serves farmers in several states. This increased demand led to the Zurich Office of Apprenticeship's new collaboration with NICC in Iowa, which will provide agribusiness-focused curriculum to crop insurance apprentices through its remote learning platform.

The NICC curriculum will include agriculture, business and general education courses relevant to agribusiness and insurance. Most classes are synchronous online, meaning apprentices will have live interaction with instructors and advisors using cutting-edge conferencing tools.

Harold Washington College, part of City Colleges of Chicago, will provide education to apprentices based at Zurich's downtown Chicago office.

Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, will continue to provide education to apprentices based at Zurich's North American headquarters in Schaumburg, northwest of Chicago. Borough of Manhattan Community College will serve Zurich apprentices in New York and in key expansion cities, via remote learning. In 2020, when Zurich decided to expand to New York City, Zurich helped BMCC establish its first apprenticeship and Risk Management and Insurance curricula.

"We are excited to expand our apprenticeship program once again," Kristof Terryn, CEO of Zurich North America, said. "Working with NICC and Harold Washington College, in addition to Harper College and BMCC, will help us meet a clear and critical business need. It also will create meaningful career and education opportunities for motivated individuals who otherwise might not have access to them. Through education and on-the-job learning, apprentices develop skills that have tremendous value at Zurich and in the marketplace. Hiring people representing a variety of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives helps us to better serve our customers and communities."

'The first of its kind'

NICC created an online agribusiness program five years ago, making it possible for NICC to serve Zurich crop insurance apprentices coast to coast.

"Our new collaboration with Zurich to provide 14 of their apprentices with Associate of Applied Science degrees in Agriculture Business is the first of its kind at Northeast Iowa Community College," said Bruce Bearinger, NICC Dean of Agriculture, Animal Science and Transportation. "But we are already seeing other local agribusinesses show interest. I believe programs of this nature will be a large portion of the future success of community college career and technical education."

Harold Washington College has provided apprenticeship curricula to other companies that are part of the Chicago Apprentice Network, which Zurich co-founded with Aon and Accenture in 2017. The network has grown to over 70 employers today.

"We are proud to add Zurich North America as a leading employer that can provide students a fast track to great careers through apprenticeship," said Dr. Daniel Lopez Jr., President at Harold Washington College. "This is exactly what our college is here to do. We can deliver on our mission thanks to employers who are committed to investing in the communities where their people live and work."

Apprenticeship is common in Switzerland, the home of Zurich Insurance Group, of which Zurich North America is part. Zurich North America adapted the Swiss model when it launched its program, which became the first of its kind to be registered with the U.S. Department of Labor. For the first few years, Zurich apprentices were based exclusively at the company's North America headquarters in Schaumburg. In 2020, the program expanded to Zurich's New York office. In 2021, it expanded to Zurich's Atlanta office and Zurich's crop insurance business. Last November, Zurich announced its plans to expand to several more cities.

The Zurich Apprenticeship Program offers the opportunity to launch a career with a premier provider of commercial insurance products and services. Lifting degree requirements and covering the cost of college coursework removes two barriers to launching a promising career in business. This opens the door to people from underrepresented communities, contributing to diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging at Zurich and in the insurance sector.

For more information, visit zurichna.com/apprentices. To apply, click here.

About Zurich North America

Zurich North America is one of the largest providers of insurance solutions and services to businesses and individuals. Our customers represent industries ranging from agriculture to technology. Zurich North America is part of Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich), a leading multi-line insurer serving more than 55 million customers  both people and businesses  in more than 210 countries and territories. Founded 150 years ago, Zurich is transforming insurance. In addition to providing insurance protection, Zurich is increasingly offering prevention services such as those that promote wellbeing and enhance climate resilience. Reflecting its purpose "to create a brighter future together," Zurich aspires to be one of the most responsible and impactful businesses in the world. It is targeting net-zero emissions by 2050 and is one of the world's most sustainable insurers, as shown by the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment. In 2020, Zurich launched the Zurich Forest project to support reforestation and biodiversity restoration in Brazil. The Group has about 56,000 employees and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd (ZURN) is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and has a level I American Depositary Receipt (ZURVY) program, which is traded over-the-counter on OTCQX. Further information is available at www.zurich.com.

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SOURCE Zurich North America
____________________________________________________

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

_______________________

FORM 6-K

__________________________________

Report of Foreign Private Issuer

Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16

under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

For the month of April 2022

Commission File Number: 001-15102

__________________________________

Embraer S.A.

__________________________________

Avenida Dra. Ruth Cardoso, 8501,

30th floor (part), Pinheiros, Sao Paulo, SP, 05425-070, Brazil

(Address of principal executive offices)

__________________________________

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F:

Form 20-F x Form 40-F 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1): 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7): 

EMBRAER S.A.

Publicly Held Company

CNPJ/ME No. 07.689.002/0001-89

NIRE 35.300.325.761

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL SHAREHOLDERS MEETING

HELD ON APRIL 26, 2022

Date, Time and Place : On April 26, 2022, at 10am, ( Company  or  Embraer ), exclusively by digital means, through the Microsoft Teams electronic platform, pursuant to CVM Instruction no. 481/2009, as amended ( ICVM 481 ), deemed to have been held at the Company's headquarters, in the city of Sao Jose dos Campos, State of Sao Paulo, at Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima 2170.

Previous Publications : First call notice published in the editions of March 26, 29 and 30, 2022, of the newspaper O Vale (pages 12, 6 and 3) and of Valor Economico (pages A8, A18 and A6). The Financial Statements, the Management Report, the Independent Auditors Opinion, the Fiscal Councils Opinion and the Audit, Risk and Ethics Committees Opinion related to the fiscal year ended on December 31, 2021 were published on March 10, 2022 in the newspapers O Vale (pages 1 to 16) and Valor Economico (exclusively in digital format).

Composition of the Presiding Table : The Chairman of the Companys Board of Directors, Alexandre Goncalves Silva, in accordance with Section 23 of the Bylaws, assumed as chairman of the Shareholders Meeting, having invited the Executive Vice-President, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer, Fabiana Klajner Leschziner, to act as secretary of the meeting and, to compose the presiding table, the President and Chief Executive Officer, Francisco Gomes Neto and the Executive Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations, Antonio Carlos Garcia.

Attendance : Shareholders representing 48.2 % of the Company's capital stock were present, as evidenced (i) by the attendances registered by means of the electronic platform made available by the Company, pursuant to ICVM 481, and (ii) by the valid distance voting ballots received through the B3 Central Depository, the bookkeeping agent for the shares issued by the Company and directly by the Company, in accordance with CVM regulations . The meeting was also attended by the representative of the Audit, Risk and Ethics Committee, Joao Cox Neto, by Ivan Mendes do Carmo, chairman of the Fiscal Council, and by Mr. Rafael Alvim Guimaraes, as representative of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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Cont. of the Minutes of the ASM of Embraer S.A. held on April 26, 2022

Initial Clarifications : Initially, the Chairman of the Board reminded those present that the counting of votes shall be carried out in accordance with the Bylaws.

Agenda : To resolve on :

1. To review the management accounts and to examine, discuss and approve the financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021;

2. To review and resolve on the allocation of income for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021;

3. To elect the members of the Fiscal Council;

4. To determine the aggregate annual compensation of the Companys management; and

5. To determine the compensation of the members of the Fiscal Council.

Reading of Documents, Receipt of Votes, Drawing up and Publication of the Minutes : As proposed by the Presiding Table, (i) the reading of the Call Notice and the Manual and Managements Proposal was waived, as they are fully known to the shareholders, as well as the reading of the consolidated voting map of the remote votes, adjusted after application of the voting limitation rules pursuant to the Company's Bylaws, the referred to map having been published by the Company; and (ii) It is hereby recorded that the minutes of this Meeting shall be drawn up in summary form, in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 1 of Article 130 of Law No. 6,404/76 ( Corporation Law ). In addition, the publication of the minutes of this Meeting omitting the signatures of the shareholders in attendance was approved, in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 2 of Article 130 of Law No. 6,404/76. This proposal received 16.753.943 approvals, 0 abstentions and 0 rejections.

Resolutions : After analyzing and discussing the matters included in the Agenda, the Shareholders resolved:

1. To approve the Management's annual report and accounts, as well as the financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, accompanied by the opinions of the independent auditors (PricewaterhouseCoopers), the Fiscal Council and the Audit, Risks and Ethics Committee.

This proposal received 7.818.974 abstentions, 71.434.597 approvals and e 76.903 rejections.

2. To approve the allocation of income for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, as follows: Absorption of the loss for the fiscal year in the amount of R$ 274,819,250.28, as well as the loss generated by the adjustment of the previous fiscal year recorded in the amount of R$ 127,188,371.99, totaling R$ 402,007,622.57, to be recorded as Accumulated Losses in the Companys Shareholders Equity.

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Cont. of the Minutes of the ASM of Embraer S.A. held on April 26, 2022

This proposal received 5.145.747 abstentions, 74.173.997 approvals and 10.730 rejections.

3. To elect the following effective members and respective alternates to compose the Company's Fiscal Council:

Ivan Mendes do Carmo , Brazilian, divorced, economist, bearer of Identity Card RG No. 584.786-SSP/DF and enrolled with the CPF/ME under No. 279.786.131-00, residing and domiciled in the City of Brasilia, Federal District, with business address in the same city, at SEP Sul, Quadra 702/902, Conj. B, Bloco A, Edificio General Alencastro, 1st floor, Asa Sul, CEP 70390-025, as an effective member and Chairman of the Fiscal Council , and Tarcisio Luiz Silva Fontenele , Brazilian, married, lawyer, bearer of Identity Card RG No. 616.088-SSP/DF and enrolled with the CPF/ME under No. 265.672.021-49, residing and domiciled in the City of Brasilia, Federal District, with a business address in the same city, at SEP Sul, Quadra 702/902, Lote B, Bloco A, Edificio General Alencastro, 1st floor, CEP 70390-025, as his respective alternate ; Jose Mauro Laxe Vilela , Brazilian, married, economist, bearer of Identity Card No. 80.796.046-3--IPF/RJ and enrolled with the CPF/ME under No. 102.631.287-68, residing and domiciled in the City of Niteroi, State of Rio de Janeiro, at Alameda Carolina 18, apt. 502, Icarai, CEP 24230-140, as an effective member and Vice-Chairman of the Fiscal Council , and Wanderley Fernandes da Silva , Brazilian, married, accountant, bearer of Identity Card RG No. 09757043-6-IFP/RJ and enrolled with the CPF/ME under No. 028.343.127-02, residing and domiciled in the City and State of Rio de Janeiro, with business address at Rua Anibal de Mendonca 27  2nd floor - Ipanema - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - CEP 22.410-050, as his respective alternate ; Otavio Ladeira de Medeiros , Brazilian, married, public servant, bearer of Identity Card RG No. 1.473.608  SEP-DF and enrolled with the CPF/ME under No. 065.675.548-27, residing and domiciled in the City of Brasilia, Federal District, Rua SMPW 19, Conj.2 Lote 5, Casa B , CEP 71.742-002, as an effective member of the Fiscal Council , and Adriano Pereira de Paula , Brazilian, married , public servant, bearer of Identity Card RG No. 55.562.102  IFP-RJ and enrolled with the CPF/ME under No. 743.481.327-04, residing and domiciled in the City of Brasilia, Federal District, as his respective alternate ; and Mario Ernesto Vampre Humberg , Brazilian, married, economist, bearer of Identity Card RG No. 13.577.292 SSP/SP and enrolled with the CPF/ME under No. 057.161.178-80, residing and domiciled at Rua Caraca, 251  Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, SP, as an effective member of the Fiscal Council, and Carla Alessandra Trematore , Brazilian, in a common-law marriage, accountant, bearer of Identity Card RG No. 21.880.357-6  SSP-SP and enrolled with the CPF/ME under No. 248.855.668-86, residing and domiciled at Rua Apinajes 868, apt 71 Perdizes  Sao Paulo  SP, CEP 05017-000, as his respective alternate .

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Cont. of the Minutes of the ASM of Embraer S.A. held on April 26, 2022

The elected members of the Fiscal Council shall take office within the period referred to in article 149 of Law No. 6,404/76, with a term of office until the Annual Shareholders Meeting to be held in 2023, and they have declared to the Company that they do not have any legal impediment that prevents them from being elected or taking office.

This resolution received the following votes: 383.012 abstentions, 55.997.483 votes on the slate proposed by the management and 22.949.978 votes on the alternative slate.

4. To determine the aggregate annual compensation of the management in the amount of R$ 72,000,000.00, for the period from May 2022 to April 2023.

This proposal received 6.007.735 abstentions, 73.206.422 approvals and 116.317 rejections.

5. To approve the monthly compensation of the Chairman of the Fiscal Council in the amount of R$16,666.67 and the individual monthly amount of R$15,000.00 for the other effective members of the Fiscal Council for the period from May 2022 to April 2023, with a increase of R$1,500.00 in the individual compensation of each member of the Fiscal Council, in compliance with the legislation in force.

This proposal received 12.411.482 abstentions, 62.015.209 approvals and 4.903.782 rejections.

Closing : There being no further matters to discuss, the Chairman thanked everyone for their presence and adjourned the meeting for the drafting of these minutes, which, after being approved, were considered signed by the shareholders whose distance voting ballot were deemed valid by the Company and by the shareholders who registered their attendance through the electronic platform made available by the Company, in accordance with ICVM 481.

Sao Jose dos Campos, April 26, 2022.

Page | 4

Cont. of the Minutes of the ASM of Embraer S.A. held on April 26, 2022

Alexandre Goncalves Silva

Chairman

Fabiana Klajner Leschziner

Secretary

Page | 5

Cont. of the Minutes of the ASM of Embraer S.A. held on April 26, 2022

Present Shareholders:

JPMORGAN CHASE BANK

BNDESPAR

TEMPO CAPITAL

MARMARA CONSULT E ADM DE BENS PROPRIOS EIRELI

SANTANDER FI IBrX ACOES

SANTANDER PREV ACOES IBOVESPA ATIVO FI

SANTANDER FI IBOVESPA ATIVO INSTITUCIONAL ACOES

CALIFORNIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM

LEGAL AND GENERAL ASSURANCE PENSIONS MNG LTD

OREGON PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM

CITY OF LOS ANGELES FIRE AND POLICE PENSION PLAN

DIMENSIONAL EMERGING MKTS VALUE FUND

EMPLOYEES RET SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF HAWAII

IBM 401 (K) PLUS PLAN

MANAGED PENSION FUNDS LIMITED

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM OF OHIO

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ASSOCIATION OF NEW MEX

PUBLIC EMPLOYES RET SYSTEM OF MISSISSIPPI

SOUTHERN CAL ED C N F Q C DC MT S ON P VD N G

STATE ST GL ADV TRUST COMPANY INV FF TAX EX RET PLANS

THE MONETARY AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE

CAISSE DE DEPOT ET PLACEMENT DU QUEBEC

BLAKROCK GLOBAL ALLOCATION FUND INC

STATE OF ALASKA RETIREMENT AND BENEFITS PLANS

WASHINGTON STATE INVESTMENT BOARD

LOS ANGELES COUNTY EMPLOYEES RET ASSOCIATION

BLACKROCK GL ALLOCATION PORTFOLIO OF BLACKROCK SER FD, INC

BLACKROCK GLOBAL ALLOC V.I. FD OF BLACKROCK VAR SER FDS, INC

STICHTING PENSIOENFONDS VAN DE ABN AMRO BK NV

FORD MOTOR CO DEFINED BENEF MASTER TRUST

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND

THE BOARD OF.A.C.E.R.S.LOS ANGELES,CALIFORNIA

UTAH STATE RETIREMENT SYSTEMS

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

EMER MKTS CORE EQ PORT DFA INVEST DIMENS GROU

ALASKA PERMANENT FUND

CITY OF NEW YORK GROUP TRUST

BLACKROCK LIFE LIMITED - DC OVERSEAS EQUITY FUND

BLACKROCK GLOBAL FUNDS - S. GLOBAL SMALLCAP FUND

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Cont. of the Minutes of the ASM of Embraer S.A. held on April 26, 2022

BLACKROCK GLOBAL FUNDS-GLOBAL ALLOCATION FUND

ISHARES PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

BLACKROCK GLOBAL ALLOCATION FUND (AUST)

KAISER FOUNDATION HOSPITALS

CHEVRON UK PENSION PLAN

SUNSUPER SUPERANNUATION FUND

SPDR SP EMERGING MARKETS ETF

JOHN HANCOCK FUNDS II EMERGING MARKETS FUND

JOHN HANCOCK VARIABLE INS TRUST EMERGING MARKETS VALUE TRUST

IVESCO FTSE RAFI EMERGING MARKETS ETF

ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS SMALL CAP ETF

COLLEGE RETIREMENT EQUITIES FUND

TACAMI FIM PREVIDENCIARIO

EATON VANCE COLLECTIVE INVESTMENT TFE BEN PLANS EM MQ EQU FD

EATON VANCE INT (IR) F PLC-EATON V INT (IR) PAR EM MKT FUND

SSGATC I. F. F. T. E. R. P. S. S. M. E. M. S. C. I. S. L.F.

VANGUARD TOTAL WORLD STOCK INDEX FUND, A SERIES OF

THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON EMP BEN COLLECTIVE INVEST FD PLA

ISHARES III PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

NTGI-QM COMMON DAC WORLD EX-US INVESTABLE MIF - LENDING

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION, INC.

ST ST MSCI EMERGING MKT SMALL CI NON LENDING COMMON TRT FUND

LVIP BLACKROCK ADVANTAGE ALLOCATION FUND

STICHTING PGGM DEPOSITARY

MISSOURI LOCAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM

KAISER PERMANENTE GROUP TRUST

SCHWAB EMERGING MARKETS EQUITY ETF

THE BANK OF N. Y. M. (INT) LTD AS T. OF I. E. M. E. I. F. UK

INVESCO MARKETS III PLC - INV FTSE RI EMERGING MARK U ETF

MASSMUTUAL SELECT BLACKROCK GLOBAL ALLOCATION FUND

ISHARES MSCI BRAZIL SMALL CAP ETF

LEGAL GENERAL GLOBAL EMERGING MARKETS INDEX FUND

CUSTODY B. OF J. LTD. RE: STB D. E. E. F. I. M. F.

CLARITAS HEDGE MASTER FUNDO DE INVESTIMENTO MULTIMERCADO LP

CLARITAS LONG SHORT MASTER FUNDO INVESTIMENTO MULTIMERCADO

DELA DEPOSITARY ASSET MANAGEMENT B.V.

QIC INTERNATIONAL EQUITIES FUND

FIRST TRUST BRAZIL ALPHADEX FUND

SSGA SPDR ETFS EUROPE I PLC

ADVANCED SERIES TR - AST BLACKROCK GL STRATEGIES PORTFOLIO

JNL/BLACKROCK GLOBAL ALLOCATION FUND

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Cont. of the Minutes of the ASM of Embraer S.A. held on April 26, 2022

MIP ACTIVE STOCK MASTER PORTFOLIO

ISHARES EMERGING MARKETS FUNDAMENTAL INDEX ETF

VANGUARD FUNDS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

MERCER QIF FUND PLC

WATER AND POWER EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT PLAN

BNYM MELLON CF SL ACWI EX-U.S.IMI FUND

FLEXSHARES MORNINGSTAR EMERGING MARKETS FACTOR TILT INDEX F

ISHARES CORE MSCI EMERGING MARKETS ETF

ISHARES CORE MSCI TOTAL INTERNATIONAL STOCK ETF

SCOTTISH WIDOWS INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS FUNDS ICVC- FUNDAMENTAL

KAPITALFORENINGEN LAEGERNES PENSIONSINVESTERING, LPI A EM II

INVESTERINGSFORENINGEN LAEGERNES PENSIONSINVESTERING, LPI AK

STATE STREET IRELAND UNIT TRUST

NORTHERN TRUST COLLECTIVE EAFE SMALL CAP INDEX FUND-NON LEND

JPMORGAN DIVERSIFIED RETURN EMERGING MARKETS EQUITY ETF

STATE STREET GLOBAL ALL CAP EQUITY EX-US INDEX PORTFOLIO

LEGAL GENERAL GLOBAL EQUITY INDEX FUND

WISDOMTREE EMERGING MARKETS EX-STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES FUND

PIMCO EQUITY SERIES: PIMCO RAE EMERGING MARKETS FUND

PIMCO RAE EMERGING MARKETS FUND LLC

COLUMBIA EM CORE EX-CHINA ETF

FIDELITY SALEM STREET T: FIDELITY TOTAL INTE INDEX FUND

VANGUARD INV FUNDS ICVC-VANGUARD FTSE GLOBAL ALL CAP INDEX F

TIAA-CREF QUANT INTER SMALL-CAP EQUITY FUND

CITITRUST LTD A T VANG FDS S - VANGUARD MODERATE GROWTH FUND

CITITRUST LIM AS TR OF BLACK PREMIER FDS- ISH WOR EQU IND FD

PIMCO EQUITY SERIES: PIMCO RAFI DYNAMIC MULTI-FACTOR EMERGIN

BLACKROCK GLOBAL ALLOCATION COLLECTIVE FUND

EMERGING MARKETS ALPHA TILTS-ENHANCED FUND

EMERGING MARKETS SMALL CAPITALIZATION EQUITY INDEX FUND

EMERGING MARKETS SMALL CAPIT EQUITY INDEX NON-LENDABLE FUND

EMERGING MARKETS SMALL CAPITALIZATION EQUITY INDEX FUND B

GLOBAL ALPHA TILTS FUND B

GLOBAL EX-US ALPHA TILTS FUND

GLOBAL EX-US ALPHA TILTS FUND B

SEI INSTITUCIONAL INVESTMENT TRUST - WORLD S. E. F.

BLACKROCK ADVANTAGE E. M. FUND OF BLACKROCK FUNDS

LEGAL GENERAL SCIENTIFIC BETA EMERGING MARKETS FUND, LLC

INVESCO PUREBETASM FTSE EMERGING MARKETS ETF

FRANKLIN LIBERTYSHARES ICAV

FUNDO DE INVESTIMENTO MULTIMERCADO COLISEU

Page | 8

Cont. of the Minutes of the ASM of Embraer S.A. held on April 26, 2022

FRANKLIN TEMPLETON ETF TRUST - FRANKLIN FTSE BRAZI

CLARITAS TOTAL RETURN MASTER FIM

VANGUARD EMERGING MARKETS STOCK INDEX FUND

MERCER EMERGING MARKETS SHARES FUND

PARAMETRIC TMEMC FUND, LP

CLARITAS ADVISORY ICATU PREVIDENCIA FIM

MACKENZIE EMERGING MARKETS SMALL CAP MASTER FUND (

SCRI-ROBECO QI CUST EMERG MARKETS ENHANCED INDEX EQUIT FUND

MSCI ACWI EX-U.S. IMI INDEX FUND B2

INVESCO STRATEGIC EMERGING MARKETS ETF

FRANKLIN TEMPLETON ETF TRUST - FRANKLIN FTSE LATIN

AVIVA I INVESTMENT FUNDS ICVC - AVIVA I INTERNATIONAL I T F

VANGUARD FIDUCIARY TRT COMPANY INSTIT T INTL STK MKT INDEX T

CLARITAS PREVIDENCIA FIFE FUNDO DE INVESTIMENTO MULTIMERCADO

LVIP BLACKROCK GLOBAL ALLOCATION FUND

MERCER UCITS COMMON CONTRACTUAL FUND

WELLINGTON TRUST COMPANY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION MUL

SPARTAN GROUP TRUST FOR EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS: SP

CLARITAS BRASILPREV FIFE FUNDO DE INVESTIMENTO MULTIMERCADO

VANGUARD F. T. C. INST. TOTAL INTL STOCK M. INDEX TRUST II

GLOBAL ALL CAP ALPHA TILTS FUND

CLARITAS XP TOTAL RETURN PREVIDENCIA FIFE FUNDO DE INVESTIME

CLARITAS PREVIDENCIA MASTER FIFE FUNDO DE INVESTIMENTO MULTI

CLARITAS MACRO PREVIDENCIA FIFE FUNDO DE INVESTIMENTO MULTIM

DIMENSIONAL EMERGING CORE EQUITY MARKET ETF OF DIM

JOHN HANCOCK TRUST COMPANY COLLECTIVE INVESTMENT T

SCOTTISH WIDOWS MANAGED INVESTMENT FUNDS ICVC -INT

HSBC BANK PLC AS TRUSTEE OF STATE STREET AUT EMERG

QIC LISTED EQUITIES FUND

INVESCO RAFI FUNDAMENTAL GLOBAL INDEX TRUST

NORTHERN TRUST COLLECTIVE EMERGING MARKETS EX CHIN

EMERGING MARKETS EX CHINA ALPHA TILTS - ENHANCED FUND

ALLIANZ GL INVESTORS GMBH ON BEHALF OF ALLIANZGI-FONDS DSPT

BLACKROCK ASSET MANAG IR LT I ITS CAP A M F T BKR I S FD

BUREAU OF LABOR FUNDS - LABOR PENSION FUND

BUREAU OF LABOR FUNDS - LABOR RETIREMENT FUND

NEW YORK STATE COMMON RETIREMENT FUND

STATE OF NEW MEXICO STATE INV. COUNCIL

VANGUARD TOTAL INTERNATIONAL STOCK INDEX FD, A SE VAN S F

ITAU ACOES DIVIDENDOS FI

ITAU INDEX ACOES IBOVESPA - FUNDO DE INVESTIMENTO

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Cont. of the Minutes of the ASM of Embraer S.A. held on April 26, 2022

TAU PREVIDENCIA IBRX FIA

IT NOW PIBB IBRX-50 FUNDO DE INDICE

ITAU HEDGE MULTIMERCADO FI

ITAU GOVERNANCA CORPORATIVA ACOES - FUNDO DE INVESTIMENTO

ITAU INDEX ACOES IBRX - FUNDO DE INVESTIMENTO

IT NOW IGCT FUNDO DE INDICE

IT NOW IBOVESPA FUNDO DE INDICE

ITAU ASGARD INSTITUCIONAL ACOES FUNDO DE INVESTIMENTO

CLUBE DE INVESTIMENTO DOS EMPREGADOS DA EMBRAER CIEMB

ALEXANDRE GONCALVES SILVA

EMILLIO KAZUNOLI MATSUO

ALEXANDRE MAGALHAES FILHO

LAERCIO PELLEGRINO FILHO

JOAQUIM RUBENS FONTES FILHO

Page | 10

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

Date: April 27, 2022
AUSTIN, Texas  A Texas National Guard member who drowned on the U.S.-Mexico border while on duty was not equipped with a flotation device when he jumped in the Rio Grande to help a migrant who was struggling to swim across, state officials said Wednesday.

Spc. Bishop Evans, who was missing three days before search crews found his body Monday, was among the more than 6,100 guard members stationed on the border as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's massive border security mission known as Operation Lone Star. The mission has 43 flotation devices for guard members who are assigned to boat missions, Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer said. Evans was not a boat crew member.

Requests for more flotation devices were first made in February but have been delayed by supply chain issues, Suelzer told lawmakers in the Texas Capitol while facing questions about Evans' death, low morale and equipment shortages that have rattled the yearlong mission. Guard leaders defended not issuing all soldiers flotation devices because, they said, many are stationed on land.

Suelzer said that since Evans' death, guard members have been instructed not to go in the water unless they have special training.

(He) was a human being," Suelzer said. He saw a human being drowning and he jumped in the water to save them."

Migrant rescues by Border Patrol are common along Texas' 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border with Mexico. Attempted crossings are sometimes deadly.

Brig. Gen. Monie Ulis said that guard members mostly stay on the banks to help migrants, and that he could recall only four or five instances where a guard member went into the water.

Evans is at least the fifth guard member who has died during the mission, a number that included suicides, said state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat has called for an inquest into the deaths. The mission includes thousands of state troopers, patrol boats on the Rio Grande and surveillance aircraft, and costs the state more than $2 million a day, said Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Abbott gave guard members unusual authority last year to detain and arrest migrants, but most on the mission are assigned to observation posts. Guard leaders acknowledged morale problems, including equipment shortages and sparse living conditions, but said improvements have been made in recent months.

Average morale would be about a seven," Ulis said. Far above when we first started."
(Tribune News Service)  U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott are on board to bring the Space Forces training headquarters to the Space Coast. So is a bipartisan group that includes U.S. Reps. Bill Posey, Charlie Crist, Stephanie Murphy, Darren Soto, Matt Gaetz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz among others.

The states two senators and 23 of its 27 members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed onto a letter to the Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall this week asking for STARCOM, the Space Training and Readiness Command, which is one of three Space Force field command units, to be based at Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Brevard County.

The Air Force announced earlier this month that Patrick SFB was one of six candidates being considered for its headquarters, which has been located temporarily at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado since the Space Forces inception in 2021 under President Donald Trump. The other headquarters candidates include two locations in California: Los Angeles AFB and Vandenburg SFB, and three locations in Colorado: Buckley SFB, Schriever SFB and Peterson SFB.

Site surveys for the six candidates are set to begin in late April or early May, assessing factors related to mission, infrastructure capacity, community support, environmental considerations and cost.

 Florida is the most military friendly state in the Union, reads the letter. Our state proudly hosts three combatant commands, 21 installations, and an effective national guard. Additionally, Florida has a robust defense industry spread throughout the state and is also home to top tier universities with cutting edge research programs with extensive history of working with the Air Force and Department of Defense ( DoD). Florida also has the third highest veteran population.

The two former Air Force installations were among the first to be converted to the Space Force, and are already home to Space Launch Delta 45, which is in direct support of all of the launches from both Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center.

Patrick SFB and Cape Canaveral SFS hold a unique place in Americas history of space flight and exploration, the letter reads. Every crewed mission to space in our nations history has launched from Brevard County, Florida. From Apollo, to the Space Shuttle, and the future Artemis missions, Florida has served as our nations gateway to the stars. NASA and DoD formed significant bonds with the local community, private industry, and academic institutions for more than half a century.

Patrick was in the running to host the U.S. Space Command headquarters, which is a separate entity from the Space Force, but lost out to Redstone Arsenal, Alabama in a decision last year. Space Forces overall headquarters is based in Washington at the Pentagon along with other HQs of the nations armed forces. Its three field commands are based elsewhere. Space Operations Command is at Peterson SFB in Colorado while Space Systems Command is at Los Angeles AFB.

STARCOM is the lone field command without a permanent home.

Under each command are smaller organizational units called Space Launch Deltas. Patricks SLD 45 falls under Space Systems Command.

STARCOM has five Deltas under its auspices, including Space Launch Delta 10 - Doctrine and Wargaming, which the Air Force said was already headed to Patrick SFB, labeling the Brevard base as the sole candidate location being considered to host this mission because of its proximity to a Department of Defense modeling and simulation capability with resident space.

SLD 10 will develop Space Force doctrine and tactics, conduct its Lessons Learned Program, and run wargames to to posture USSF forces and designated joint and allied partners.

STARCOMs other subgroups include Delta I - Training, already based at Vandenberg SFB, which focuses on initial skills training and specialized warfighter training; Delta 11 - Range and Aggressor, which replicates combat in live, virtual and potentially some sort of orbital range in the future; Delta 12 - Test and Evaluation; and Delta 13 - Education.

The headquarters, though, is the bigger fish that could bring more jobs to the Space Coast.

Other members of Congress that signed the letter include Reps. Michael Waltz, Carlos A. Gimenez, Gus M. Bilirakis, Mario Diaz-Balart Maria Elvira Salazar, Darren Soto, Brian Mast, Scott Franklin, Kathy Castor, W. Gregory Steube, Kat Cammack, Byron Donalds, John H. Rutherford, Vern Buchanan, Dr. Neal P. Dunn, Daniel Webster, Frederica S. Wilson and Ted Deutch.

Orlandos Rep. Val Demings, who is running against Rubio in November, as well as Lois Frankel, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Al Lawson, four of the states 11 Democrats, were the only ones not included in the letter.

2022 Orlando Sentinel.

Visit orlandosentinel.com .
Base tours offer an easy way to see Europe with other members of the military community. Here is a sampling of trips scheduled as of April 29, 2022. Please update this information and add tours by sending an email to Marcus Klockner at kloeckner.marcus@stripes.com.

Belgium

SHAPE TRIPS AND TOURS: Call 06544-3884. Email shapetripsandtours1@gmail.com or visit www.shape2day.com.

Germany

ANSBACH OUTDOOR RECREATION: May 12.14, June 9-11, Ansbach, fishing course, $80; May 3, Tuesday bike ride, $5 with rental bike; May 7, Paintball, $100; May 7, skydiving, $239; May 14, Cologne, $99 adults, $49 children ages 4-12, $25 children ages 3 and under; June 1, Ansbach, sunset paddling, $25 adults, $5 children ages 12 and under. DSN 467-3225/CIV 09802-83-3225 or MWR Central DSN 467-1780 or CIV 09802-83-1780.

BAUMHOLDER OUTDOOR RECREATION: April 30, Black Forest, $69 adults, $49 children ages 12 and under; May 1, Stuttgart zoo, $69 adults, $49 children ages 6-17; May 8, All-terrain vehicle tour, $95-$175. DSN 485-7182 or CIV 06783-67182.

GRAFENWOEHR OUTDOOR RECREATION: May 1, Prague, $65 adults, $50 children ages 3-12, $20 children under 3; May 7, $95 adults, $85 children ages 3-12, $25 children ages 3 and under; May 7, Mothers Day fishing event, $15 adults, $5 children ages 17 and under; Mothers Day shoot, $20 per family; May 13-15, Amsterdam, $155 adults, $130 children ages 3-12, $70 children ages 3 and under. DSN (314) 475-8529 or CIV 09641-83-8529

KAISERSLAUTERN OUTDOOR RECREATION: May 26-30, Costa Brava, $529-$600 adults, $49 children ages 4-11, $229 children ages 3 and under; May 27-30, Normandy and Omaha beach, $579-$779 adults, $499 children ages 11 and under. DSN 493-4117 or CIV 0631-34064117.

RTT TRAVEL RAMSTEIN: May 6-8, Dutch Grand Slam, 449 euros adults, 359 euros adults (double room); May 12-16, Lourdes, 559 euros adults, 499 euros double room; May 27-30, Normandy, 699 euros adults, 599 euros children ages 6-12; Call CIV 06371-463650 or see www.RTTtravel.com. RTT FLIGHT TOURS/RAMSTEIN: Call 06371-463650 or see www.RTTtravel.com.

SPANGDAHLEM INFORMATION, TICKETS AND TRAVEL May 21, Japan day, Duesseldorf, 62 euro adults, 57 euro children ages 8-14, 25 euro children ages 2 and under. DSN 452-6567 or CIV 06565-61-6567.

STUTTGART OUTDOOR RECREATION: May 16, bike to week work, $99 bike rental; June 18, Black Forest, intro to Klettersteig, $69. DSN 431-2774 or CIV 0703-2774.

WIESBADEN OUTDOOR RECREATION: DSN 337-5760 or CIV 06117-055760; email usarmy.wiesbaden.imcom-eurospe.list.mwr-outdoor-recreation@mail.mil.

Italy

USO ROME: Daily: 8 a.m., Rome, 36 euros adults, 28 euros ages 2-8; 9:30 a.m., Borghese Gallery, 45 euros adults, 35 euros children; 3 p.m. daily, Love and Death in Rome: 2,700 Years of Scandals, 40 euros adults, 33 euros ages 5-17; daily: 10 a.m., Vatican museums and St. Peters Basilica, 65 euros adults, 46 euros ages 5-17; 9:30 a.m. daily, ancient city (Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill), 60 euros adults, 45 euros children ages 5-17; 7 p.m. daily, Rome at Twilight, 29 euros adults, 23 euros ages 5-17; 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. daily, Underground Rome, 46 euros adults, 38 euros ages 5-17; 2 p.m. daily, catacombs, 45 euros; Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Arts and History Elite Walking Tour, 35 euros adults, 28 euros ages 2-12; Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Rome by Night with dinner and music, 75 euros adults, 60 euros ages 2-12; Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, Jewish Ghetto, Tiberina Island and Trastevere, 35 euros adults, 28 euros ages 2-12; Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Baroque Rome and Caravaggio, 35 euros adults, 28 euros ages 2-12; Mondays, Florence (semi-private walking tour), 52 euros adults, 39 euros ages 5-17; call CIV 06-397-27419 or visit www.rome.uso.it.

Netherlands

SCHINNEN: (+31) (0) 46-443-7561 or DSN 360-7561 or email usarmy.schinnen.imcom-eurospe.list.schinnen-fc@mail.mil.

Spain

ROTA OUTDOOR RECREATION: April 30, rock climbing; May 7, Via Ferrata Grazalema Park; May 21, hiking El Pinsapar of Grazamela; May 28, Tarifa, bike ride; June 1 and June 14, night kayak and Sancto Petri castle tour; June 4, fishing trip; June 11, canyon descending; June 18, local kayak trip; June 25, local stand up paddle board tour; June 30, night kayak and Sancti Petri castle tour. DSN 727-3101 or CIV 095682-3101/3208.

ROTA ITT: April 30, grain to mug: beer factory visit and lunch; May 7, Sevilla, spring feria; May 14, Cordoba, historical tour; May 21, Flamenco show and diner; May 22, bullfight in Sanlucar; May 28, Malaga historical tour; June 4, Cadiz historical tour; June 11, Vejer de la Frontera, historical tour and Bolonia Roman ruins. DSN 727-3101/3208 or CIV 095682-3101/3208.
CAIRO  Sudanese authorities released two outspoken former government officials from jail, lawyers said Wednesday, part of trust-building measures amid efforts to end the country's political impasse.

Sudan has been plunged into turmoil since an October military coup upended its short-lived transition to democracy after three decades of repressive rule by former strongman Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir and his Islamist-backed government were removed in a popular uprising in April 2019.

Khalid Omar, a former minster of Cabinet affairs, was released late Tuesday and Mohammed al-Faki Suliman, a former member of the ruling Sovereign Council, walked free from a prison in the capital of Khartoum on Wednesday, their defense team said.

The Criminal Court in northern Khartoum rejected the prosecutors' request to renew their detention pending investigation into an array of vague charges, including betrayal of public trust, according to their lawyers. The court cited insufficient evidence to keep them in custodu, they said.

Both Omar and Suliman had been detained along with dozens of other officials during the Oct. 25 coup and were released a month later as part of a deal between the military and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. The premier resigned in January after failing to bridge the gap between the generals and the protest movement.

The two men were rearrested in February amid a crackdown by the generals on anti-coup groups. Dozens of activists were also detained amid relentless protests against the military's takeover.

The crackdown on protesters killed more than 90 people, mostly young men, and injured thousands, according to a Sudanese medical group.

Suliman was also deputy head of a government-run agency tasked with dismantling the legacy of al-Bashir's regime. The agency is known as The Committee to Dismantle the Regime of June 30, 1989  a reference to the Islamist-backed coup that brought al-Bashir to power. It was created after the uprising and for two years worked to purge al-Bashir's loyalists from government institutions.

The generals, including coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, have long criticized the agency. It was dismantled after the October coup and the generals appointed another committee to review its decisions. Many of the agency's decision were reversed, measures seen by critics of the military as a way to enable Islamists allied with the generals.

Other detained members of agency, including Wagdy Saleh, Taha Osman and Babiker Faisal were also released Wednesday, their defense team said.

"After a detention that lasted 78 days, we return to the streets.  We won't forget that these streets have brought us to the positions of responsibility," Saleh said in a tweet, referring to the popular uprising.

Earlier this month, authorities freed over two dozen activists who were detained in recent weeks over the anti-coup protests.

The military's takeover has plunged the country into turmoil and sent its already fragile economy into free fall, with living conditions rapidly deteriorating.

The U.N. envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, warned in March that Sudan was heading for "an economic and security collapse" unless it addresses the political paralysis. Perthes' comments to the U.N. Security Council angered the generals and Burhan threatened to expel him.

Perthes is now leading joint efforts with the African Union and the eight-nation east African regional group called the Intergovernmental Authority in Development to facilitate Sudanese-led political talks. Perthes and the two organizations' envoys held a joint news conference Wednesday in Khartoum on their efforts.

Ismael Wais, the development authority's special envoy to Sudan, welcomed the releases as a "very positive development." He urged Sudanese authorities to free all political prisoners and activists and lift the state of emergency as a necessary condition to help facilitate reaching an agreement on a way out of the crisis.

Mohamed Al Hacen Ould Lebatt, the AU's envoy for Sudan, said the trio will launch a political dialogue after the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan early in May. The meetings are expected to start May 10-12, he said.

He said the talks will include the military and other political parties and groups  except al-Bashir's now dissolved Congress Party  with the aim of agreeing on how the country will be ruled during the rest of transitional period and holding elections.

"The situation in this country is highly sensitive if it is not extremely dangerous," Lebatt said, adding that the talks will eventually aim at "achieving the aspiration of the Sudanese people expressed in their revolution."

There was no immediate comment from the two main protest groups, the Sudanese Professionals Association and the Resistance Committees, which have spearheaded the uprising against al-Bashir and the ongoing anti-coup protests. They have long demanded the removal of the military from power and the establishment of a fully civilian government.

The generals, however, have said they will only hand over power to an elected administration. They say elections will take place in July 2023, as planned in a constitutional document governing the transitional period.
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii  The Defense Department on Monday announced a $96 million award to Hawaii for construction of a new elementary school at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Oahu.

The new school will replace the dilapidated Mokapu Elementary School, which had earned a poor rating for its condition on the DODs most recent Public Schools on Military Installations Priority List.

All Hawaii public schools, including those on military bases, are administered by the state Department of Education.

Mokapu Elementary is made up of 12 permanent buildings constructed about 70 years ago and 10 portable structures that have been added for classroom space as the student body has grown through the years, the Marine Corps said in a news release Tuesday.

The complex sits on about 14 acres, with 813 students enrolled this school year, which concludes at the end of May.

The DOD priority list states that the existing school should have an enrollment no larger than 627 students.

This new facility will serve 975 military-connected students in grades kindergarten through sixth, the Marine Corps said.

The number of Marines and their dependents at the base is expected to grow over the next decade as the service shifts troops from Okinawa to Hawaii, Guam and Australia.

About 2,700 Marines are expected to be relocated to Hawaii by the end of this decade, according to Marine Corps projections.

The new school is estimated to cost $120 million, with the state of Hawaii kicking in the other $24 million, the Hawaii Department of Education said in a statement emailed Tuesday to Stars and Stripes.

Bidding for the project is expected to be open from late May to mid-July, the statement said. Construction could begin as early as October and take about four years, the statement said.

The new complex will be built on the site of the existing school, with students shifting to new classrooms as the construction is completed in phases, the statement said.

The new complex will include a two-story administration/library building, a two- and three-story classroom building with 55 classrooms, cafeteria and a covered playground, the statement said.

We are excited that this project is moving ahead to provide students and staff at Mokapu Elementary with an array of brand new facilities that support high-quality learning environments and academic excellence, Keith Hayashi, interim superintendent for the Hawaii Department of Education, said in the Marine Corps statement.

The Department of Defense continues to be a valuable partner in the improvement of our public schools located on military bases and we thank them tremendously for their support, he said.
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  More than two dozen South Koreans, including several employed by the U.S. military, were indicted on charges of employment fraud following a two-year investigation, South Korean police said Monday.

Twenty-six people, including 10 current and former U.S. Forces Korea employees, pocketed roughly $138,700 in exchange for preferential treatment of Korean job candidates between April 2018 and December 2020, the Daegu Metropolitan Police statement said.

USFK is the military command in charge of roughly 28,500 troops on the Korean Peninsula.

Two defendants, including an official with the USFK Labor Service Corps, were arrested according to police. The labor official and others are suspected of receiving between $23,800 and $31,700 from five job seekers in exchange for favorable reviews during their interviews.

The defendants allegedly created fake certifications required for employment. Police confiscated around $126,800 from the defendants prior to their arrest.

The investigation was launched after the Armys Criminal Investigation Division obtained information about the bribes and relayed it to South Korean authorities. An Eighth Army spokesman declined to comment on whether the suspects were privy to sensitive military information.

These arrests involved persons and activities that may be related to the Korean Service Corps and are currently the subject of a criminal investigation, Army Lt. Col. Neil Penttila said in a statement Tuesday. We will withhold further comment until the completion of that investigation.

The Daegu Metropolitan Police and its International Crime Investigation Team vowed to work jointly with Army investigators to actively respond to illegal acts being committed by USFK-affiliated South Koreans.

Corruption that undermines impartial hiring is a crime punishable not only when money or other considerations changes hands, but also when theyre offered as a bribe, the Daegu Metropolitan Police statement said. Thus, we ask people to report to police whenever they receive such a suggestion or witness anything of the kind.

Around 12,500 Koreans are employed by the U.S. military, according to the Korean Employees Union. They work on military bases in a variety of jobs, including as nurses, engineers, mechanics and accountants.

Stars and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report.
The Navy has awarded $72.5 million to Boeing to deliver a prototype of a very large, unmanned submarine for testing purposes, ahead of five of the same model already in production.

Boeing has been under contract to build the Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles, or XLUUVs, since it won the contract over Lockheed Martin in February 2019.

The Orca could carry a variety of payloads, but it may first covertly deploy the Hammerhead mine, a weapon tethered to the seabed and armed with an anti-submarine torpedo, according to a March 31 report from the Congressional Research Service.

The March 25 contract modification allows for a test asset system for the Navy to evaluate the Orca platform before receiving the completed submarines, Naval Systems Command spokesperson Jamie Koehler told Stars and Stripes in a Friday email.

The Navy and Boeing plan to use this Test Asset System for a test/fix/test platform while the five vehicles continue production, which will reduce schedule and cost risk, Koehler said. This approach provides an important learning period for XLUUVs and will help ensure the success of the overall XLUUV acquisition strategy.

The Navy expects to begin testing the prototype in water this month, Koehler said.

Since awarding the original $43 million contract to Boeing in February 2019, the Orca development contract has grown to $357 million, according to usaspending.gov. The newest modification brings the total to $432.5 million.

The Navy continues to work closely with Boeing to deliver the Orcas, Koehler said, but an expected delivery date was not specified. The contracts current end date is Dec. 29.

The Orca design is based on the Echo Voyager, another extra-large undersea vehicle developed by Boeing, according to the Congressional Research Service report.

The Echo Voyager is a 51-foot unmanned submarine with a top speed of 8 knots, a maximum depth of 11,000 feet and a range of 6,500 nautical miles. The vessel also has a 34-foot modular payload section.

The extra-large vehicles are just one of three types of unmanned vessels the Navy plans to develop or procure. The other two, large and medium unmanned surface vehicles could also be equipped with weapons, sensors or other payloads and conduct operations that would be too lengthy or dangerous for manned missions.
The Navy sent another guided-missile destroyer through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the fourth U.S. warship to make the trip this year.

The USS Sampson continued a two-year-old Navy routine of sending a ship through the contentious, 110-mile-wide strait roughly once a month. It steamed northeast through the strait as part of a routine transit, 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nicholas Lingo told Stars and Stripes in an email Wednesday.

The strait separates mainland China from the island of Taiwan and offers a maritime route between the South China Sea and East China Sea.

U.S. Navy ships routinely use the Taiwan Strait to transit between the two and have done so for many years, Lingo said. The Sampsons passage was not in response to any particular event or action.

China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. Taiwan, a functioning democracy, is a friend to the U.S., which does not recognize the island as independent, but supports it with arms sales, public statements, visits from high-ranking political figures and other measures.

A delegation of six U.S. lawmakers, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., visited Taiwan earlier this month to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen and declare their support.

Lingos email said the Chinese military hailed the Sampson, but the communications were consistent with international norms and did not affect the ships movement.

A spokesman for the Chinese army condemned the Sampsons passage as provocative.

The US has been frequently carrying out provocative acts to send wrong signals to Taiwan Independence forces, deliberately undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China is firmly opposed to this, said Army Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command. The quote appeared Wednesday in China Military, the official news website of the of the Chinese army.

The Sampsons passage was hyped uppublicly by the Navy, according to Shis statement. The Eastern Theatre Command tracked and monitored the ships course, according to the report.

The troops of the PLA Eastern Theatre Command always stay on high alert to resolutely defend Chinas national sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to Shis statement.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson steamed through the strait on Feb. 26 and again on March 17, and the destroyer USS Dewey made the trip on Jan. 26.

Last year, the Navy conducted almost monthly trips through the strait. In 2020, it made 13 transits, the most since 12 in 2016, according to a Congressional Research Service report in September. U.S. transits fell to six the next two years but increased again with nine in 2019.

The Sampson deployed as part of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincolns strike group in January and has since been active in the Pacific. In late January, the destroyer arrived at Tonga to provide disaster relief for the remote islands following the undersea eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano.
WARSAW, Poland  Polish and Bulgarian leaders accused Moscow of using natural gas to blackmail their countries after Russia's state-controlled energy company stopped supplying their countries with gas Wednesday. European Union leaders echoed those comments and were holding an emergency meeting on the Russian move.

The gas cutoff to Poland and Bulgaria came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that "unfriendly" countries would need to start paying for gas in rubles, Russia's currency, which Bulgaria and Poland refused to do.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said in a statement that it hadn't received any payments from Poland and Bulgaria since April 1 and was suspending their deliveries starting Wednesday. And if those countries siphon off Russian gas intended for other European customers, deliveries to Europe will be reduced by that amount, the gas company said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the announcement by Gazprom "is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail."

Europe is not without some leverage in the dispute; at current prices, it pays Russia $400 million a day for gas, money Putin would lose with a complete cutoff.

Fatih Birol, the head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, described Russia's move as a "weaponization of energy supplies," adding that it "makes it clearer than ever that Europe needs to move quickly to reduce its reliance on Russian energy."

Russia, however, rejected the idea that it was using blackmail while warning it may halt gas supplies to other European customers if they also refuse to switch to paying in rubles.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, argued that the Russian demand to switch to paying for gas in rubles resulted from Western actions that froze Russian hard currency assets. He said those were effectively "stolen" by the West in an "unprecedented unfriendly action."

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehemmer said he was assured recently by Putin that his country will be allowed to keep paying for gas in euros. Austria is not a NATO member and has strongly opposed sanctions on Russian energy, but supports other European Union sanctions against Russia and has called for apparent war crimes in Ukraine by Russian forces to be investigated.

Nehemmer tweeted to debunk "fake news" that Austria had agreed to pay in rubles before it could be "spread further by Russian propaganda."

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told Poland's parliament that he thinks the suspension was revenge for new sanctions against Russia that Warsaw imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Morawiecki vowed that Poland would not be cowed by the cutoff. He said the country was safe from an energy crisis thanks to years of efforts to secure gas from other countries.

Polish lawmakers stood and applauded when he said that Russia's "gas blackmail" would have no effect on Poland.

During a visit to Prague, Poland President Andrzej Duda Duda said the Russian move was not a surprise and that Poland was prepared for it.

The new sanctions against Russia, announced Tuesday, targeted 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom. Hours later, Poland said it had received notice that Gazprom was cutting off its gas supplies for failing to adhere to the demand to pay in Russian rubles. Poland's gas company, PGNiG, said the gas supplies from the Yamal pipeline stopped early Wednesday.

Bulgaria said Tuesday that it also was informed by Gazprom that the country's gas supplies would end at the same time.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov called Gazprom's suspension of gas deliveries to his country "a gross violation of their contract" and "blackmail."

"We will not succumb to such a racket," he added.

Russia's move raised wider concerns that other countries could be targeted next as Western countries increase their support for Ukraine amid a war now in its third month.

The Greek government was holding its own emergency meeting Wednesday in Athens. Greece's next scheduled payment to Gazprom is due on May 25, and the government must decide whether it will comply with the demand to pay in rubles.

Greece is ramping up its liquefied natural gas storage capacity, and has contingency plans to switch several industry sectors from gas to diesel as an emergency energy source. It has also reversed a program to reduce domestic coal production.

If European nations decide not to pay in rubles, Russia can in theory sell its oil elsewhere, such as to India and China, because oil primarily moves by ship.

It has less options with gas, because the pipeline network that carries gas from Russia's huge deposits in northwestern Siberia's Yamal Peninsula does not connect with pipelines that run to China. And Russia only has limited facilities to export super chilled liquefied gas by ship.

Russian gas made up 45% of Poland's overall gas usage until the cutoff. But Poland relies on coal for 70% of its energy needs, with gas only making up around 7% of the country's overall energy mix.

Russian gas supplies to Poland already were expected to end later this year anyway. Poland has worked for many years to secure supplies from other countries.

Several years ago, the country opened its first terminal for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, in Swinoujscie, on the Baltic Sea coast. A pipeline from Norway is to due to start operating this year.

In Bulgaria, the main consumers of gas are district heating companies. Only about 120,000 households rely on gas. Bulgaria's energy minister said his country can meet the needs of users for at least one month.

"Alternative supplies are available, and Bulgaria hopes that alternative routes and supplies will also be secured at the EU level," Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said.

Toshkov reported from Bulgaria. Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jon Gambrell in Lviv, Ukraine, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed.
ATHENS, Greece  Greece made a formal protest to Turkey on Wednesday involving accusations that the fellow-NATO member conducted unauthorized military flights over inhabited Greek islands.

"These actions constitute a violation of Greece's sovereignty, they are an unacceptable provocation and run contrary to fundamental principles of international law," Greece's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Turkey's ambassador to Athens was summoned to the ministry to receive the complaint in person. Turkey did not immediately respond publicly to Wednesday's complaint.

Neighbors Greece and Turkey have long-standing sea and air boundary disputes that intensified with moves to explore potential undersea natural gas reserves.

The disagreement has resulted in near-daily air force patrols and interception missions, mostly in disputed airspace around Greek islands that are near Turkey's coastline.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met in Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month after Russia's invasion of Ukraine became an urgent topic among NATO allies.

But Athens maintains that Turkey has stepped up hostile air force patrols in recent weeks to include overflights of the eastern islands.
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KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany  Rheinland-Pfalz is reducing its quarantine period for COVID-19 infection, a further step toward the new normal in a state that hosts tens of thousands of U.S. military community members.

Speaking in the state capital of Mainz on Tuesday, Rheinland-Pfalz Health Minister Clemens Hoch announced that starting Sunday, people who test positive for the illness will need to self-isolate for at least five days.

After day five, the quarantine ends without the need for another test result, as long as the person remains symptom-free for 48 hours by the end of quarantine, Hoch said.

U.S. military commands within the state typically align their policies with German rules and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.

If symptoms such as fever or cough persist, the quarantine period automatically ends after 10 days or after a negative result on an antigen or PCR test.

The revision shaves two days off the previous minimum quarantine period in Rheinland-Pfalz.

People who came into close contact with an infected person or live in the same household as someone who has COVID-19 no longer will be required to quarantine, even if they are not vaccinated.

Masks remain mandatory for everyone in health care settings and on public transportation throughout the state. Business owners may continue to require them on their property.

The new isolation regulations also apply to schools and day care centers, and the testing requirement for children who came into close contact with an infected person will be dropped as well.

Hoch said the free tests, which do not require German citizenship and are open to U.S. service members, will be available until the end of June, after which federal funding would have to be renewed.

Local hospitals are still strained from the most recent upward trend in COVID-19 infections, but the caseload remains manageable, Hoch said.

As of Monday, health officials said that statewide, 793 coronavirus patients were hospitalized, 38 of whom were on a ventilator.

While the possibility of new virus variants makes future developments difficult to predict, Hoch said the omicron wave has peaked.

We will be able to continue to live with the virus as normally as possible in the summer, he said.
TEHRAN, Iran  Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi expressed Wednesday his government's desire for closer cooperation with China in remarks made during a visit by the Chinese defense minister, state media reported.

According to the report, Raisi told China's Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe that Tehran sees its ties with Beijing as strategic. Closer cooperation would serve to confront what the Iranian president described as U.S. unilateralism as talks to revive Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers have stalled.

"Confronting unilateralism and creating stability and order is possible through cooperation of independent and like-minded powers," Raisi was quoted as saying.

Wei in turn said improving ties between Iran and China would provide security, "particularly in the current critical and tense situation."

Wei also met with his Iranian counterpart, Gen. Mohammad Reza Ashtinai, and reportedly invited him to visit China, as well as with other Iranian military officials.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Ashtiani as assailing U.S. military presence in the Middle East and elsewhere, claiming that "wherever the U.S. has had military presence, it has created waves of insecurity, instability, rifts, pessimism, war, destruction and displacement."

Wei said his visit was aimed at "improving the strategic defense cooperation" between Iran and China  cooperation that he said would have a "remarkable" impact in defusing unilateralism and fighting terrorism.

Iran and China have increased their military ties in recent years, with their navies visiting each other's ports and holding joint naval drills in the Indian Ocean.

In 2021, Iran and China signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement that covered a variety of economic activities from oil and mining to promoting industrial activity in Iran, as well as transportation and agricultural collaborations.

China is a signatory to the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, along with Russia, Britain, France and Germany.
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JERUSALEM  The coronavrius pandemic and Israel's overwhelming force during the Gaza war helped fuel a worldwide spike in antisemitism last year, Israeli researchers reported on Wednesday.

The prominence of political extremism and the reach of social media also may have intensified the ancient phenomenon of scapegoating Jews in recent years, the report said.

Antisemitic events notably increased in 2021 in many countries with major Jewish populations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia, the report said. The study compiled data from 22 countries.

French authorities, for instance, reported a 36% jump in antisemitic incidents involving physical violence, from 44 to 60. The United Kingdom saw a 78% jump in incidents of assault, from 97 to 173. The number of antisemitic incidents in Canada rose 54%, from 173 to 266, the report said.

Extremist and violent ideas have always been out there, but "you really had to make an effort decades ago to be exposed to them," said Uriya Shavit, head of the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, which produced the report. "Today, it's so easy to access them."

Released as much of the world emerges from a two-year pandemic, the report comes after a year of extensive change in Israel. The relatively wealthy Mideast nation was among the world's leaders in its vaccination program early last year. Then in May came its 11-day war against Gaza's militant Hamas rulers, in which more than 260 Palestinians and 14 people in Israel were killed. Intense Israeli airstrikes caused heavy damage in Gaza and drew international concern and condemnation.

It all fed into a rise of antisemitism despite years of education, new laws and money directed at fighting anti-Jewish bigotry, the authors wrote.

"The struggle is failing," said the report, which analyzes studies, news reports and other sources of information.

Released ahead of Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day, the report says that several countries with large Jewish minorities have experienced sharp rises in anti-Jewish attacks since the pandemic began in 2020.

Other nations, such as Italy and Argentina, saw decreases in antisemitism during the pandemic, according to the report. Pandemic restrictions may have played a role as white supremacists and state sponsors like Iran and Belarus spread conspiracy theories to a waiting audience of millions of locked-down people "glued to their screens," the report said.

In the United States, with a Jewish population of about 6 million, reports by police departments, Jewish organizations and the media suggest a rise in antisemitic activities.

The Anti-Defamation League counted 2,717 antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in 2021, a 34% increase over the previous year. It was the highest number since the New York City-based group began tracking such incidents in 1979.

The Tel Aviv University report released suggests antisemitism was on the rise during that period, but showed some fluctuations according to some measures. Its survey of American media reports suggested 28 incidents of violent physical assaults against Jews in 2021, compared to a dozen in 2020 and 36 in 2019.

Police departments in New York and Los Angeles, homes of the largest Jewish populations in the United States, showed small fluctuations. In 2021 the NYPD recorded 214 anti-Jewish hate crime reports, up from 126 a year earlier and 252 in 2019. The LAPD, meanwhile, recorded 79 anti-Jewish hate crime reports in 2021, compared to 40 in 2020 and 42 the year before.

There are indicators that antisemitism spiked during the Israel-Gaza war, with social networks  especially the so-called dark web  playing a role in the wave.

In Canada, B'Nai Brith Canada reported 61 assaults against Jews  the most since monitoring began in 1982  in May 2021. Altogether, 226 incidents were recorded during that month, a 54% increase from the same period a year earlier, the report said.
UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. General Assembly took a first step Tuesday to put the five permanent members of the Security Council under the spotlight whenever they use their veto power, a move highlighted by Russia's veto threat paralyzing any action by the U.N.'s most powerful body on the Ukraine war.

A resolution adopted by consensus in the 193-member assembly amid a burst of applause does not eliminate or limit the veto power of the Security Council's permanent members  the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

But for the first time, the General Assembly will be required "to hold a debate on the situation" that sparks a veto in the Security Council within 10 working days. Precedence will be given on the list of speakers to the permanent member who casts a veto.

The assembly isn't required to take or consider any action under the resolution, but the discussion could put veto-wielders on the spot and let a raft of other countries be heard.

Liechtenstein's U.N. ambassador, Christian Wenaweser, who spearheaded the resolution, which had been in the works for two years, has said it aims "to promote the voice of all of us who are not veto-holders, and who are not on the Security Council, on matters of international peace and security because they affect all of us."

In presenting the resolution to the assembly Tuesday morning, Wenaweser alluded to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 and the Security Council's failure to take action: "There has never been a stronger need for effective multilateralism than today, and there has never been a stronger need for innovation in order to secure the central role and voice of the United Nations."

Amnesty International's secretary general, Agnes Callamard, called the resolution "a first step towards increasing the cost of using the veto  and it could not have come soon enough."

The resolution had about 80 co-sponsors, including the United States and the United Kingdom. But it also had detractors even though they didn't break consensus, including Russia and close ally Belarus as well as current elected council members Gabon and India and other U.N. member nations.

The reform of the Security Council, which is charged under the U.N. Charter with ensuring international peace and security, has been debated for more than 40 years, and was front and center in comments by countries before and after the resolution's adoption.

There is widespread support for revamping the council to reflect current global realities rather than the international power structure after World War II in 1945 when the United Nations was created. But rivalries between countries and regions have blocked all attempts to reach agreement on the size, composition and powers of an expanded council.

The veto power of the five permanent members is one component on the reform agenda.

More than 200 different Security Council proposals have been vetoed, some by multiple countries, according to U.N. records. The subjects have ranged from the Korean War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to climate change, reporting on weapons stockpiles, and governance of a part of the Indian Ocean nation Comoros.

The former Soviet Union and its successor Russia have cast the most vetoes by far, followed by the United States. Far fewer have been cast by Britain, China and France.

U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mills said after the vote that the United States is "extraordinarily troubled by Russia's pattern of abusing its veto right over the past decade," citing resolutions it vetoed ranging from referring Syria to the International Criminal Court, protesting Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and demanding Russia immediately halt its invasion of Ukraine.

British Ambassador Barbara Woodward, whose country has not used its veto since 1989, called the resolution "a step in pursuit of upholding international peace and security," adding: "We prefer to win votes rather than use our veto to block council action."

France didn't co-sponsor the resolution and its deputy ambassador, Nathalie Broadhurst, said it does not believe the General Assembly can become the judge of the Security Council.

She said that is why France and Mexico have been promoting an initiative on the veto for several years. It would require the five permanent council members to voluntarily and collectively suspend the use of the veto in the event of mass atrocities. Saying the proposal is supported by 105 countries, she urged "all states, in particular the other four permanent members, to join it."

Russia's deputy ambassador, Gennady Kuzmin, called the veto "a cornerstone of the U.N. architecture" and warned that "without it the Security Council would become a rubber-stamping body, rubber-stamping questionable decisions imposed by the nominal majority whose implementation would be hardly possible."

Chinese counselor Jiang Hua said the resolution's automatic triggering of a General Assembly meeting on the vetoed resolution "in practice is likely to cause procedural confusion and inconsistency."

India and Brazil, which have sought permanent seats on the Security Council for many years and are currently serving two-year terms on the body, both complained that the resolution doesn't address the real issue of reforming the council.

"A representative council which reflects the current international system is central to the maintenance of international peace and security and to the future of this organization." Brazilian Ambassador Ronaldo Costa Filho told members.

India's deputy ambassador, Ravindra Raguttahalli, said that "a vocal minority of nay-sayers" who support the status quo in the Security Council have held reform efforts hostage. He said the veto resolution ignores the root cause of the problem  restruturing the council to reflect "contemporary geo-political realities."

Ambassador Michel Biang of Gabon, which is also an elected council member, said Africa has the largest number of U.N. peacekeeping missions but has no permanent seat on the Security Council.

Approving the resolution "will not change the scope of the veto, nor its substance," Biang said.
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost $1.2 billion in the first quarter as it took large write-downs and lost money in both its civilian-airplane and defense businesses.

The loss was bigger than Wall Street had forecast, and the company's quarterly revenue also fell short of expectations. Boeing burned through $3.2 billion in cash.

"Messier quarter than any of us would have liked," CEO David Calhoun acknowledged on CNBC.

Shares of Boeing Co., based in Chicago, fell 10% shortly after the opening bell Wednesday.

Boeing offered some optimism for improvement, however, saying that it has submitted plans to resume deliveries of its 787 airliner and it increased production and deliveries of the 737 Max passenger jet during the quarter.

Calhoun said the company was on track to generate positive cash flow over the entire year "despite the pressures on our defense and commercial development programs."

The quarterly report brought disappointing news for Boeing shareholders on several fronts.

The company again pushed back the expected first delivery of a new version of its long-range, twin-aisle 777 passenger jet by at least a year until 2025. The move was widely expected, as Boeing adapts to certification standards that have been tightened since regulators approved the Max, then were forced to ground the planes after two deadly crashes.

The delay in expected approval for the 777-9 caused Boeing to forecast $1.5 billion in "abnormal" production costs.

Boeing took a $660 million charge for its program to build new presidential Air Force One jets, which it blamed on higher supplier costs, final technical requirements and schedule delays. It also took $367 million in charges on a military training jet.

Boeing said it submitted plans to the Federal Aviation Administration to resume deliveries of the 787 passenger jet. Those deliveries have been halted for more than a year by production issues that Boeing previously said would add about $2 billion in costs, of which $312 million was recorded in the first quarter.

Airlines are expecting a boom summer, with travelers returning in huge numbers after two years of pandemic. But some of them, like American, have trimmed summer schedules because they haven't received the Boeing 787s that they ordered years ago.

"They have a busy summer schedule. We have already disappointed them with respect to the capacity on that summer schedule," Calhoun said. Just when Boeing will be cleared to resume deliveries of 787s is up to the FAA, but Calhoun said, "We will be back in the air sooner rather than later."

Boeing expects to boost production of the 737 Max to 31 planes a month in the current quarter, which runs through June. That plane was grounded worldwide for nearly two years after two deadly crashes.

And Boeing took $212 million in pretax charges related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The company did not immediately explain the write-down.

In a memo to employees, Calhoun said Boeing is taking steps to improve long-term performance.

"We are a long-cycle business, and the success of our efforts will be measured over years and decades, not quarters," he said.

Boeing's commercial-airplanes division lost $859 billion, hobbled by the inability to deliver 787 jets while Boeing tries to fix production flaws on the twin-aisle plane.

The defense business, long a bulwark against volatility in aircraft sales to airlines, lost $929 million as revenue fell 24%.

The company reported a loss attributable to shareholders of $1.22 billion, compared with a loss of $537 million a year earlier. The "core" loss was $2.75 a share on revenue of $13.99 billion. Analysts expected a loss of 25 cents per share on revenue of $16.02 billion, according to a FactSet survey.
WASHINGTON  The United States has put China, Russia and five other countries on its annual blacklist for lax enforcement of intellectual property rights that leaves American companies vulnerable to copyright and trademark piracy.

All seven countries on this year's list were on last year's, too.

"China continues to be the largest origin economy for counterfeit and pirated goods,'' according to the report.

Also on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's "priority watch list'' were Argentina, Chile, India, Indonesia and Venezuela.

The U.S. suspended its review this year of Ukraine  which made last year's blacklist  while it attempts to fight off an invasion from Russia.

The trade office also removed Saudi Arabia from its priority watch list, citing its crackdown on counterfeit and pirated goods, the creation of special intellectual property enforcement courts and other steps.

To prepare the list, which was released Wednesday, the trade office reviewed the performance of more than 100 U.S. trading partners.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that the report identifies countries "that are falling short'' and promised that the Biden administration "will continue to engage with these trading partners to level the playing field for our workers and businesses.''

Russia, it said, continues to lack "sufficient staffing, expertise, and the political will to effectively combat (intellectual property) violations and criminal enterprises.''

In addition to the seven countries on the priority list, another 20 made the trade office's "watch list,'' meaning that the U.S. believes those countries need to step up property rights enforcement.
The two men accused of posing as Department of Homeland Security employees while living inside a luxury apartment in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C., pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of impersonating federal law enforcement and unlawful possession of a gun magazine that holds bullets.

Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, were indicted by a grand jury in federal court April 19 after an investigation uncovered what prosecutors allege was an elaborate scheme that involved the men pretending to be federal agents while cozying up to real members of the U.S. Secret Service. Their defense attorneys in hearings and court filings have denied a plot to infiltrate the intelligence agency, saying Taherzadeh acted out of a "desire for friendship," while Ali believed he was working for a legitimate security company.

Since the FBI arrested the men in early April, prosecutors have scrambled to understand the scope of the alleged ruse that unfolded inside the Crossing apartment complex. They have accused the men of ingratiating themselves with members of the Secret Service assigned to protect the White House and first lady Jill Biden, saying the "defendants were not merely playing dress-up" and "created a potential risk to national security."

Taherzadeh, according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in D.C., provided members of the Secret Service and an employee of DHS with items that included "rent-free apartments (with a total yearly rent of over $40,000 per apartment), iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat screen television, a case for storing an assault rifle, a generator, and law enforcement paraphernalia."

Prosecutors have said the men proudly advertised their affiliation with the Department of Homeland Security when they in fact worked for a purported security company, run by Taherzadeh, named the United States Special Police. Taherzadeh later admitted to law enforcement that his company's name was an "embarrassing misrepresentation that got out of control," according to court documents filed by his defense.

The next court hearing for the men is scheduled for June 28.
WASHINGTON  House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy told colleagues Wednesday he never asked then-President Donald Trump to resign over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol as he defended private conversations around the siege that have spilled into the open and jeopardized his leadership.

That's according to two Republicans in the room for the private morning meeting at GOP headquarters who were granted anonymity to discuss it. McCarthy, who is in line to become House speaker if Republicans win control in the fall midterm election, received a standing ovation.

One Republican in the room said the meeting was "cathartic" for lawmakers. Another voiced confidence that McCarthy would be the next speaker.

Yet amid the show of support, McCarthy was challenged by two of the party's most hard-right lawmakers  Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia  who said they felt particularly singled out by the leadership team for their fiery comments around Jan. 6. Trump ally Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn., who helped organize challenges to the 2020 election results, also rose to voice concerns, another Republican said.

But they appeared to be in a dwindling minority as rank-and-file lawmakers rallied around McCarthy, the man who recruited many of them to Congress and is now raising untold millions to help them win back the House majority.

"You guys obsess over January 6. Nobody cares," Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., told a gaggle of reporters outside House GOP headquarters.

A California Republican long eyeing the speaker's gavel, McCarthy is at a critical juncture as he works to ascend to the top leadership position. It will be his second try after a failed 2015 bid  but one now fully dependent on his volatile relationship with Trump, who still holds great influence over the party and can make and break careers.

New audio recordings released in recent days by the New York Times portray McCarthy as fed up with Trump in the aftermath of the Capitol attack, when the defeated president rallied his supporters to head to Congress and object to Democrat Joe Biden's election victory.

In the recordings, McCarthy is heard telling Republicans privately that he was considering asking Trump to resign. In another recording released late Tuesday, McCarthy warns that dangerous public commentary from Gaetz and others is "putting people in jeopardy" of potential violence.

McCarthy has denied The New York Times account of events, leading Democrats and others to call him a liar, as audio of the secretly recorded calls was released. The House committee investigating Jan. 6 is seeking an interview with him.

On Wednesday, McCarthy stood at party headquarters and defended his actions, suggesting he was merely running through possible scenarios as Democrats moved to impeach Trump in the aftermath of the violent siege.

In the GOP meeting, McCarthy clearly stated that he never asked the president to resign, said one of the Republicans granted anonymity to discuss the private call. He has also publicly said he did not do so. The Times didn't report that he asked Trump to resign, only that he told members he would.

As president, Trump had affectionately referred to McCarthy as "My Kevin," one of his earliest endorsers, but their relationship has frayed over time. McCarthy momentarily turned on Trump as his supporters stormed the Capitol that day to disrupt certification of Joe Biden's 2020 presidential win.

In the days after the riot, it seemed Republicans in Washington might part ways with Trump. McCarthy, along with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, gave blistering speeches against Trump, and McCarthy's public and private conversations at that time show flashes of anger and the depth of angst over the shocking, devastating riot by Trump supporters.

But once Biden took office McCarthy quickly went to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to patch things up with the defeated president.

Trump and McCarthy spoke last week, and the former president told the leader he was "not mad" about the disclosures.

To become speaker if Republicans win back the House, McCarthy would need to win at least 218 votes.

"President Trump said their relationship has never been stronger. That's good enough for me," said Roger Williams, R-Texas. "We're totally supportive of Kevin McCarthy."

"He's got my support. He's got everybody else's support, too," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Alan Fram and video journalist Rick Gentilo contributed to this report.
(Tribune News Service)  A Tennessee school district and media reports from the state reported that Gen. Arnold Bunch Jr., commander of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, has been hired as superintendent or director of schools in Hamblen County, Tenn.

The Hamblen County school board has selected General Bunch for the new director of Hamblen County Schools, that school district posted on its web site earlier this month.

A Tennessee TV station, WATE, also reported that a board there had hired Bunch, a four-star general, and quoted the districts current superintendent, Jeff Perry.

I will commit the remainder of my tenure to creating a smooth transition and to ensure his success, Perry said in the story from TV station WATE. In addition, I encourage all Hamblen County educators, community members, students, and parents to join together to help him.

Hamblen County, in northeastern Tennessee, has a population of nearly 65,000, according to the 2020 Census.

Born in Tennessee, Bunch is the highest-ranking officer serving on Wright-Patterson.

President Joe Biden nominated Lt. Gen. Duke Z. Richardson for a fourth star, promotion to the rank of general. Richardson was also nominated to serve as AFMC commander from his current job as military deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Pentagon.

If confirmed by the Senate as a four-star general, Richardson would lead one of the most important Air Force commands.

The Air Force has not publicly announced any future movement or action regarding Gen. Bunch, an AFMC spokesman said earlier this month. Knoxville, Tenn., TV station WATE reported that Bunch will start in July following Perrys resignation.

Headquartered at Wright-Patterson, AFMC manages more than one-third of the total Air Force budget, managing and dispersing funds across multiple installations, supporting research and development and many other tasks.

Wright-Patterson is the largest single-site employer in Ohio, with more than 32,000 military and civilian employees.

(c)2022 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio)

Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at www.daytondailynews.com

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WASHINGTON  A veritable who's who of Washington's political and foreign policy elite gathered Wednesday to pay their last respects to the late Madeleine Albright, a child of conflict-ravaged Europe who arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year old girl and became America's first female secretary of state.

The trailblazing diplomat and champion of her adopted country as the world's "indispensable nation" was joyously remembered by President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton as a no-nonsense, valued adviser who did not suffer fools or tyrants and was most concerned about Russia's war with Ukraine when she died last month of cancer at 84.

Biden said Albright's name was synonymous with the idea that America is "a force for good in the world."

"In the 20th and 21st century, freedom had no greater champion than Madeleine Korbel Albright," he said. "Today we honor a truly proud American who made all of us prouder to be Americans."

He said he had learned of Albright's death while flying to Brussels for an emergency NATO summit on Ukraine and was struck by the memory of her key role in pressing for the expansion of the alliance in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union to protect Europe from a repeat of the carnage of World War II and the Cold War ideological battle between communism and democracy.

And Clinton, the man who appointed her first as his U.N. ambassador in 1993 and then as secretary of state in 1996, said his last conversation with Albright just weeks before her passing were dominated by the situation in Ukraine and her fears about the future of democracy at home and abroad.

He recalled that Albright didn't want to talk about her declining health at a moment when the West is on edge following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Albright, Clinton recalled, assured him that she was getting the best care she could, but didn't want to "waste time" talking about that.

"The only thing that really matters is what kind of world we're going to leave to our grandchildren," Clinton recalled Albright told him. He added, "She made a decision with her last breath she would go out with her boots on."

Biden and Clinton, along with former President Barack Obama and several of Albright's successors as secretary of state, including Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, John Kerry and current office-holder Antony Blinken, were some 1,400 mourners who attended the funeral at Washington's National Cathedral.

The service was punctuated at points by tears, laughter and applause during reminiscences from Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Albright's three daughters, Anne, Alice and Katharine, who remembered her as a doting "mom" and "Granny Maddy" to their own children even amid a hectic work schedule that often took her around the world.

That schedule didn't let up when she left government service in 2001 and returned to teaching at Georgetown University, started a successful international consulting company, served on the boards of numerous women's and human rights groups and became a best-selling author.

Hillary Clinton recalled stories that she had lobbied for Albright to serve as secretary of state, a role that Clinton would serve in herself during the Obama administration. "It's been said that I urged my husband to nominate her as our first female secretary of state," she said. "Unlike much that's said, this story was true."

The two developed a strong friendship over the years. and Hillary Clinton recalled a pair of stories about her and Albright on visits overseas during which they bonded.

Once on a walk in a drenching rainstorm in the Czech capital of Prague, Clinton said they laughed so hard they forgot they were wet. On another occasion in Beijing, Clinton recalled that she and Albright had marched through mud in a torrential downpour and confronted Chinese security forces to meet women's rights activists.

Clinton in her own tribute recalled some lighter memories of Albright, including the time she taught the foreign minister of Botswana the Macarena and danced the night away with a young, handsome man at her daughter Chelsea's wedding. She also remembered Albright as a fearless diplomat that broke barriers and then counseled, cajoled and inspired women to follow in her footsteps.

"The angels better be wearing their best pins and putting on their dancing shoes," Clinton said. "Because if as Madeleine believed there's a special place in hell for women who don't support other women, they haven't seen anyone like her yet."

On the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and one month before her death, The New York Times printed what would be Albright's last published writing. She wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion would be a "historic error" that would cement his legacy as one of "infamy. "Until the end, she was still in a hurry to do good," Clinton said.

Other top current officials who attended the service included Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA Director Bill Burns, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Mark Milley and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The members of the VIP audience were masked, as Albright's family had requested.

Foreign dignitaries invited to the funeral included the presidents of Georgia and Kosovo and senior officials from Colombia, Bosnia and the Czech Republic.

Albright was born in what was then Czechoslovakia, but her family fled twice, first from the Nazis and then from Soviet rule. They ended up in the United States, where she studied at Wellesley College and rose through the ranks of Democratic Party foreign policy circles to become ambassador to the United Nations. Bill Clinton selected her as secretary of state in 1996 for his second term.

Although never in line for the presidency because of her foreign birth, Albright was near universally admired for breaking a glass ceiling, even by her political detractors. Several senior Republican lawmakers, including Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, attended the service.

As a Czech refugee who saw the horrors of both Nazi Germany and the Iron Curtain, she was not a dove. She played a leading role in pressing for the Clinton administration to get involved militarily in the conflict in Kosovo. "My mindset is Munich," she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.

As secretary of state, Albright played a key role in persuading Clinton to go to war against the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic over his treatment of Kosovar Albanians in 1999. As U.N. ambassador, she advocated a tough U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the case of Milosevic's treatment of Bosnia. NATO's intervention in Kosovo was eventually dubbed "Madeleine's War."

She also took a hard line on Cuba, famously saying at the United Nations that the 1996 Cuban shootdown of a civilian plane was not "cojones" but rather "cowardice."

Bill Clinton recalled the moment in his tribute, remembering that Albright faced criticism at the time that the sharp barb was "undiplomatic" and "unladylike." He absolutely loved it.

"I called her and I said ... 'This is the best line developed and delivered by anybody in this administration," Clinton said.

In 2012, Obama awarded Albright the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, saying her life was an inspiration to all Americans.

Born Marie Jana Korbel in Prague on May 15, 1937, she was the daughter of a diplomat, Joseph Korbel. The family was Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism when she was 5. Three of her Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps.

Albright was an internationalist whose point of view was shaped in part by her background. Her family fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 as the Nazis took over their country, and she spent the war years in London.

After the war, as the Soviet Union took over vast chunks of Eastern Europe, her father brought the family to the United States. They settled in Denver, where her father taught at the University of Denver. One of Korbel's best students was Condoleezza Rice, who would later succeed his daughter as secretary of state.

Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959. She worked as a journalist and later studied international relations at Columbia University, where she earned a master's degree in 1968 and a Ph.D. in 1976. She then entered politics and what was at the time the male-dominated world of foreign policy professionals.
Raleigh Nayes, 99, died Thursday in Chippewa Falls, Wis., just one day after the Army veteran had received the Congressional Gold Medal for his role in fighting with the famed Merrills Marauders in Burma during World War II.

It was almost as if the Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony was his final goal, Jim Nayes, his eldest son, said Monday in a news release by Jonnie Melillo Clasen, who in recent years has served as an informal liaison for the aging group of Marauders.

With the death of Nayes, only four original members of Merrills Marauders are living, said Clasen, whose late father was a member of the unit.

The Marauders namesake was Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill, who led the Army unit as it fought behind Japanese lines in Burma during the war. The Army Rangers trace their lineage to the Marauders.

The units ultimate mission was to capture the Myitkyina airfield in northern Burma, which it did on May 17, 1944, but not before a 1,000-mile slog over the Himalayan foothills, through jungles and enemy resistance.

The soldiers were plagued by disease, parasites, exhaustion and malnutrition, winnowing their ranks from the original 3,000 to roughly 200 by the time they seized the airfield.

Last fall, Congress approved the Congressional Gold Medal for all the soldiers of the 5307th Composite Unit, as the Marauders were formally known, in recognition of their bravery and outstanding service in the jungles of Burma during World War II.

Nayes was presented the Gold Medal on Wednesday by 1st Sgt. Daniel Ryan, a Ranger from Camp Frank D. Merrill in Dahlonega, Ga., while surrounded by family and friends at the Chippewa Manor nursing home, where he had been living for the past few years, Clasen said.

That night he passed in his sleep, and we believe it is because he felt his mission here on earth was finished, the veterans family said in his obituary.

Raleigh was a man of few words with a huge heart, and he will be missed by all who knew him, the obituary said.

Nayes was born Sept. 8, 1922, in Cadott, Wisc., and raised on a dairy farm with seven brothers and one sister. He joined the Army in November 1942 and was told his unit would be tasked with guarding the U.S. Capitol, Nayes told the Chippewa Herald newspaper in 2016.

That did not appeal to the 20-year-old just off the farm, and he volunteered for more hazardous duty, serving on White Combat Team, 1st Battalion, which shipped out for Burma in late 1943, he told the newspaper.

Weve all heard the stories about how he would wake up in the jungle covered in leeches, which was the least of his troubles, his obituary states.

Nayes told his family of seeing snakes spanning the entire width of roads.

He was one of the handful of Marauders left standing and able to fight by the time the airfield had been taken.

"How did I survive? I don't know. Lucky, lucky, lucky," Nayes told the newspaper.

He was healthy enough to continue serving with the 475th Infantry, which became Mars Task Force, the successor unit to the Marauders, Clasen said.

He was shipped back to the U.S. in May 1945, and was stationed at Camp Fannin, Texas, until being discharged in October 1945.

He worked at paper and woolen mills in the Chippewa Falls area before retiring in 1987. He and his wife, Betty, were married for 74 years before her death last year.

Nayes will be buried Friday at Prairie View Cemetery in Chippewa Falls with military honors provided by the Army Rangers and the Chippewa Falls Patriot Council.

Three of the other remaining Marauders were presented their Congressional Gold Medals this month: Bob Passanisi, 97, in New York; Gilbert Howland, 99, in New Jersey; and Russell Hamler, 97, in Pennsylvania, Clasen said.

Gabriel Kinney, 101, who lives in Alabama, is slated to receive his on Friday, she said.

Videos of the five presentations will be part of the virtual Congressional Gold Medal ceremony on May 25 that will be hosted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office and broadcast on C-Span, Clasen said.
WASHINGTON  Russia and the United States have carried out an unexpected prisoner exchange in a time of high tensions, trading on Wednesday a Marine veteran jailed by Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America.

The deal involving Trevor Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace but it was all the more surprising because it was done as Russia's war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

On the other end of the swap was Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot whod been serving a 20-year federal sentence for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.

Even as the Biden administration trumpeted the swap, it made clear the resolution did not herald a broader breakthrough between the countries. Russian forces remain determined in their assault on Ukraine, the U.S. and Western allies continue to impose punishing sanctions and other Americans, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, still remain jailed in Russia.

The swap, the culmination of longstanding requests by both countries as well as private diplomatic wrangling, took place in Turkey when the two planes pulled up side by side, essentially, and then they got out, said Reed's father, Joey.

I think its going to really hit home for him and for us when we finally get to see him and touch him, he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Reed, a 30-year-old former Marine from Texas, was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though the U.S. government has described him as unjustly detained and pressed for his release while his family has asserted his innocence and expressed concerns about his deteriorating health  which included coughing up blood and a hunger strike.

Even on Wednesday, his parents' joy was mitigated by the concern they said they felt about his physical appearance. They were struck by his unsteady gait and how thin he looked as TV footage captured him walking, flanked by guards, from a van to the jet.

He just didnt sound like himself, said Reed's mother, Paula, recounting their brief phone conversation while he was on the plane. We just asked him how he was doing and he said, Im fine. But he always says that even when he isnt. And he just didnt sound like his normal self.

Reed was en route back to the U.S., traveling with Roger Cartsens, the U.S. governments special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

President Joe Biden, who met in Washington with Reeds parents last month, hailed Reeds release and noted without elaboration that the negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly. The Russian government also confirmed the deal, with the foreign ministry describing the exchange as the result of a long negotiation process.

A senior Biden administration official cautioned that the negotiations centered on a discrete set of prisoner issues and did not represent a change to the U.S. governments condemnation of Russias violence against Ukraine.

Where we can have discussions on issues of mutual interest we will try to talk to the Russians and have a constructive conversation without any way changing our approach to the appalling violence in Ukraine, the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the administration.

Yaroshenko, for his part, was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S on drug trafficking charges. The Justice Department has described him as an experienced international drug trafficker who conspired to distribute thousands of kilograms of cocaine around the world.

A lawyer for Yaroshenko, who in 2020 unsuccessfully sought to have his client freed on compassionate release because of the coronavirus pandemic, did not return an email seeking comment Wednesday.

Russia had sought Yaroshenko's return for years while also rejecting entreaties by high-level U.S. officials to release Reed, who was approaching his 1,000th day in custody after being convicted on what one U.S. official, Ambassador John Sullivan, decried as laughable evidence.

The prisoner swap was the most prominent release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad and came even as families of detainees who have met over the last year with administration officials had described the officials as cool to the idea of an exchange.

The U.S. government does not typically embrace such exchanges. It fears doing so might encourage foreign governments to take additional Americans as prisoners as a way to extract concessions. And it is concerned about a potential false equivalency between an unjustly detained American  which U.S. officials believe Reed was  and a properly convicted criminal.

In this case, though, the U.S. decided the deal made sense in part because Yaroshenko had already served a long portion of his prison sentence, which has now been commuted, a senior official told the AP on condition of anonymity.

In a statement, the Reed family thanked Biden, for making the decision to bring Trevor home," other administration officials, and Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The family said Richardson traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reed's release.

Reed's release had no immediate impact on the cases of other Americans held by Russia. Griner, for one, was detained in February after Russian authorities said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis. Whelan is being held on espionage-related charges his family says are bogus.

Biden said Wednesday we wont stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends. U.S. officials have described Whelan as unjustly detained but as yet have not characterized Griners case in those terms. Whelan was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison; Griner is awaiting trial.

At home in Texas, the Reeds had been given a general sense of progress and had even begun cleaning Trevor's room in preparation for his return home, removing paperwork from his bed so he'd have a place to sleep.

It was a welcome turnabout from a month ago when they were demonstrating outside the White House for their son's release, then pressing their case in a private meeting with Biden.

Weve been saying for over a year if we could just speak to the president, that we felt like we could make this thing happen  and thats exactly what happened, Joey Reed said.
Over the past year, $11.7 million was lost on pokie machines in the Whakatane district.

This equates to $447 per adult in the district, almost double the national average of $239 per adult.

In return, the district received around $1.5 million in grants to various organisations from class four gambling trusts, although this was around half the amount the district normally received in pre-Covid-19 years.

These were just some of the figures Whakatane district councillors were presented with last week during submissions to the councils three-yearly review of its Gambling Venues Policy.

Councillors had hoped that adding weight to the sinking lid on the councils gambling venue policy would help alleviate gambling harm but after listening to submitters and deliberating on its Gambling Venues Policy review they were left unsure and felt the issue needed further investigation.

The submissions hearing followed a month-long consultation period.

The councils current policy caps the number of consents for gambling machines, or pokies, at 193  the number of consents currently held.

The idea of the policy was that no new consents could be issued and so the number of machines would drop to the national average as businesses closed or stopped using gaming machines.

When the policy was set three years ago, the district had 179 machines across 12 venues.

However, as some venues already had more consents than they had machines in operation, the number of machines has continued to climb.

There are now 188 gambling machines in Whakatane and another five consents for machines in Edgecumbe, not in use.

In February, Whakatane District Council put forward four proposals designed to strengthen the policy.

The first of these was to clarify the policys wording, making it clear that the council would not grant consent for any new gaming machine licences or for new gaming venues to be established.

Other proposals were that existing gaming venue licences could not be transferred to a new location in the district; that if two clubs wished to merge, they must operate their gaming machines from an existing venue, and that no consents be granted for new stand-alone TAB venues.

Since submissions opened on February 25, 58 official submissions were received, with most in favour of the changes.

Opposition was mainly from gaming trusts and those in favour included problem gambling harm prevention agencies.

Whakatane resident Yvonne Preece, who has previously held a management position in a casino and undergone training in the identification and implementation of policies to minimise problem gambling, gave an oral presentation.

She described the policy that has been in place since 2019 as a failure.

Despite aiming to reduce the number of machines the actual number has increased by nine.

Preece agreed with the proposed amendments to the policy but said they did not go far enough, though she conceded that councils had limited legal parameters to control the growth of gambling.

Another submitter, Tim Wood, from the Grassroots Trust, said that the reason the number of machines had risen by nine since 2019 was that there had been a High Court decision in relation to the Matata Hotel.

The court decided that the establishment should have rights to nine machines that werent previously operating in the hotel.

Among the points made by the gambling trust representatives was that as the number of gambling machines reduced, gamblers turned to online gambling.

In the past three or four years we have seen the growth of online gambling that has coincided with the reduction in our machine numbers, Jarrod True, Gaming Machine Association representative said.

More than 60 per cent of TAB turnover is now done from phones or tablets. In 2018, Lottos online spend was around $200 million, now its around $430 million. Sky City has its own online, offshore based casino. In 2018 it had 25,000 registered players, spending $250 million, that has now almost doubled to 49,000 players with close to $800 million spent.

Offshore-based online gambling doesnt generate any local grants or employment. It makes no contribution to the New Zealand Government by way of tax, is not regulated and offers greater prizes, said True.

The gaming machine trusts were also opposed to the proposal not to allow gambling machines to be transferred to a new location. Mr True said relocation was a very important harm-minimisation tool.

It enables venues to move out of undesirable areas such as residential areas and high deprivation areas or areas that might be close to a church or a school or early childhood centre into a more desirable area. If we dont allow relocation, it simply entrenches those venues in undesirable locations.

During deliberations, councillor Julie Jukes acknowledged the impact gambling had on families but said after listening to submissions she wasnt sure the recommendation not to grant consent for relocation was something she wanted to support.

Im going to do a bit more research ... but from what I hear, under some circumstances it can actually be a good thing to allow them to relocate. Its not as clear cut as I originally thought.

Councillor Lesley Immink agreed. After hearing some of those rationales, it seemed to have more positive impact if we did allow relocations.

Councillor John Pullar said he felt the current policy was working well and he did not know why they were bothering tinkering with it.

"If it was working then our numbers of machines in use wouldnt have gone up in the last triennium, Mayor Judy Turner said. I would want to know what would be the criteria by which somebody could move them.

Councillor Gavin Dennis suggested putting in place a policy that venues could be relocated on condition they had a 15-20 percent reduction in the number of gambling machines.

That would assist with your overall reduction but allow people to move out of deprived areas and upgrade their facilities.

Council staff will prepare a report based on the submissions and councillors deliberations with consideration of options and a recommendation to the strategy and policy committee to adopt on May 19.

-Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
The Anglican Parish of Gate Pa is inviting the public to a short service at St. Georges Anglican Church on April 29 to commemorate the Battle of Gate Pa, also known as Te Pakanga o Pukehinahina.

The gathering is to honour all those who fought and died in this tragic event and the consequences of the battle for nga iwi o Tauranga Moana.

The service will start at 4pm, as thats the time of day back on April 29, 1864, when the British forces began their march up Pukehinahina.

We will hear an account of the battle and then have a time of silent reflection with images playing, says Anglican Parish of Gate Pa vicar Rev. John Hebenton.

At 4.30pm the bell will be rung 60 times to remember the approximately 60 men who lost their lives in the battle. We will finish with prayers/karakia for the future of our city.

This year local historian and writer Buddy Mikaere will be speaking about the work being done to establish Te Putake O Te Riri - Pukehinahina Gate Pa - the New Zealand Land Wars centre which will have a focus on 1864 and the battles at Pukehinahina - Gate Pa and Te Ranga.

The battles were part of the New Zealand wars, a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand from 1845 to 1872 between Maori and new European settlers, also known as Pakeha.

"There were many reasons for these conflicts - Land was the main one. Maori owned it and the settlers wanted it," says a post on the Today in History NZ Facebook page.

"Settlers also brought with them new laws and politics that largely excluded Maori.

"The signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi should have meant that Maori iwi had undisturbed possession of their lands and taonga. Before the signing of the treaty, deals involving land sales were questionable, and the treaty stated that all Maori land should only be sold to the government.

"But the treaty was increasingly ignored by the settlers, which resulted in anger and violence."

The Battle of Gate Pa was one of many battles that took place during the NZ wars, which started in Wairau at the top of the South Island, with major battles in Taranaki and the Waikato before the battles in Tauranga.

General Duncan Cameron led the British troops with over 1600 men into battle. Cameron Road was named after him

The Battle of Gate Pa has captured peoples imagination for two reasons  firstly because of the defeat of an elite force of professional British soldiers by Maori, and secondly, because of the honourable conduct of Maori towards the dead and wounded soldiers.

St Georges Anglican Church was built on the battlesite about 117 years ago as a memorial to those involved and the descendants of those on the British side of the campaign.

The successors to the 68th Durham Light Infantry, The Rifles, are hopeful of offering a video remembering their role on this day, says Hebenton.

Because St. Georges Church sits on the site of the Battle of Gate Pa we feel a sense of responsibility for holding the story of both the battles and the aftermath with integrity, and to offer ways the people can hear about, engage with and reflect upon these stories and what they mean for us living in Tauranga Moana.

In 2014 huge gatherings commemorated the 150th anniversary of the battles of Gate Pa and Te Ranga with some very significant events held on the actual days of the battles.

It continues to be our hope that these would be the beginning of some ongoing events for the people of this city to engage with the story of the New Zealand Wars and our colonial past and how these shape present day New Zealand society, says Rev. John Hebenton.

We offer this simple service as a contribution to this ongoing commemoration. We hope that this will be one of several events happening on this important day for our city.

The service will be followed by refreshments in the church lounge. People are reminded to follow Covid-19 protocols and stay home if unwell.

Remembering Te Pakanga o Pukehinahina  The Battle of Gate Pa will be held at St Georges Church, 1 Church Street, Tauranga at 4pm on Friday, April 29.
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Western Colorado Archaeology Teacher Institute

Date: June 21-24, 2022

Location: Museum of the West, Grand Junction, CO

Participants Receive: $50/day stipends, paid museum and monument fees, lunch for the field trip, and Project Archaeology curriculum guides, College credit available for $21/credit

Emphasis on Social Studies and Science education through Archaeological Inquiry  Grades 3-8

Registration Deadline: May 1, 2022  Limited space available, register today!

This course immerses participants in the Project Archaeology: Investigating Shelter and Rock Art curriculum guides, designed to improve social studies, science, and language arts skills through the investigation of real data from archaeological sites in Colorado.

Professional Archaeology Educators will model the lessons from the award-winning, NCSS endorsed curriculum. Highlights of the course include an experiential learning trip to archaeological sites in McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area, meaningful discussions with Ute Elder, Betsy Chapoose, and Museums 101 at Museum of the West with museum educator, Candice Cravens.

Teachers that attend this workshop will leave fully equipped to share their life-changing experience and cross-curricular lesson plans with their students. They will be able to transform their classroom into a community of student archaeologists who ask questions, make observations, support their inferences with evidence, analyze primary sources, understand and appreciate diversity and culture, and become caring citizens and stewards. This is a shorter version of the NEH Landmarks workshop Voices of the Ancients.

Register for Workshop Download Flyer

If you have questions, contact Samantha Kirkley at samanthakirkley@suu.edu

Sponsored by the Institute for Heritage Education, Southern Utah University, and the Bureau of Land Management.
What just happened? Drone giant DJI has suspended sales in Russia and Ukraine following reports that Russian troops are using its products to navigate missiles. The company says the move is not a statement about any country "but a statement about our principles."

Reuters reports that DJI has become the first major Chinese firm to pull its products from Russia. Ride-hailing company Didi Global had announced it was pulling out of Russia and Kazakhstan in February but changed its mind following pressure from social media users in China accusing it of succumbing to US pressure.

A DJI spokesperson emphasized that, unlike the slew of US companies ranging from Apple to Intel, its decision was not a protest against Russia over its invasion. "DJI abhors any use of our drones to cause harm, and we are temporarily suspending sales in these countries in order to help ensure no-one uses our drones in combat," a spokesperson told Reuters.

In 21 days of the war, russian troops has already killed 100 Ukrainian children. they are using DJI products in order to navigate their missile. @DJIGlobal are you sure you want to be a partner in these murders? Block your products that are helping russia to kill the Ukrainians! pic.twitter.com/4HJcTXFxoY  Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) March 16, 2022

In March, Ukrainian vice president Mykhailo Fedorov sent a letter pleading with DJI CEO and founder Frank Wang to stop selling products to Russia. Fedorov said the Russian army was using an extended version of the DJI AeroScope drone detection program and that DJI products were being used to kill civilians.

Last month, German electronics retailer MediaMarkt removed DJI drones from its shelves over claims the Chinese firm was leaking data on Ukrainian military positions to Russia, an allegation DJI called "utterly false."

DJI said that while it had noticed footage online that suggested the Russian military was using its drones, it had not been able to confirm this and had no control over the use of its products. The company recently put out a statement saying it does not sell drones for military use, and its distributors, resellers, and other business partners have agreed not to sell its products for this purpose or help modify them for the military.
The big picture: Windows is no longer what motivates Microsoft's vision for the software-driven world. Instead, it's become a simple vehicle for selling subscriptions to the company's services, including a subscription for running Windows itself in the cloud. As the PC market's continued growth is not guaranteed, the focus is now on extracting the most out of the existing user base.

Over the past several years, Windows has faded into the background at Microsoft, with cash cows like Office 365, Azure, and Xbox rising to the top of the priority list. With the PC becoming a mature market with little room for growth, the Redmond giant gradually turned its focus to making its software and services available on as many platforms as possible to overcome this limitation.

When the pandemic forced many to work and study from home, Microsoft scrapped its plans for a cloud-first, lightweight Windows 10X operating system. Instead, the company baked it into the full-fat Windows and added some sprinkles of Microsoft Teams on it for everyone's videoconferencing needs. Thus Windows 11 was born as a revamped Windows experience adapted to the new realities of hybrid work.

Before Windows 11 launched, the PC market experienced a slight uplift after years of waning sales. With this new operating system, there was potential for a renewed focus on the core Windows experience and making the PC exciting again. However, Microsoft's Windows 11 push was never about bringing those things back into focus but instead weaving Windows and Office 365 more tightly together.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed as much during an investor call when asked about his take on the strength of the PC market and the role Windows plays in it. Nadella noted that "on the commercial side, I think it's well understood that Windows is the socket for Microsoft 365." In other words, the value of Windows is tied directly to its ability to act as a vehicle for selling more subscriptions to Microsoft services.

With Windows 10 and now Windows 11 released as free upgrades, Microsoft only cares about getting users to buy into services like Office 365 or Xbox Game Pass. For business customers, the company is even pushing Windows as a service with Windows 365. For consumers, considerable focus has been placed on making Edge their go-to for all things web-related. That effort has moved the needle in terms of overall usage to some extent, but not enough to challenge Google's Chrome in a meaningful way.

At the same time, Nadella believes the PC is alive and well, with no sign of that changing in the foreseeable future.

"The PC remains a very important category in people's lives, as we've discovered during the pandemic, and if anything, the intensity of usage has increased," the CEO notes. "There will be cyclical demand that we'll go through, but the number of use cases is definitely, I think, structurally increased."

In terms of pure numbers, Microsoft claims more than 100 million PCs have shipped over the past two years and that consumers and enterprises are gradually warming up to Windows 11. There seems to be some disagreement between market analysts, but Microsoft did try to lead by example with an internal rollout of Windows 11 to over 190,000 devices. As for Office 365, the company touts 58.4 million consumer subscribers and 348 million commercial-paid seats.

Otherwise, Microsoft's business saw substantial revenue in the first three months of 2022, with healthy growth across all product categories. Revenue was $49.4 billion, up 18 percent from Q1 2021. Profit was $16.7 billion, up 8 percent from last year. Also worth noting is that Microsoft's cybersecurity business now generates $15 billion, outpacing all other products in terms of growth.
A stable renewable energy grid is actually possible, as claimed by some experts. They said that energy grids relying on 100% green power that is stable on a daily basis are achievable.

For the past few years, experts have been concerned regarding the transition to renewable energy sources.

They explained that before countries can completely transfer to clean energy, they will still experience blackouts because green power-reliant grids are quite unstable.

But, Stanford Unversity Professor Mark Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineer, said that transitioning to a renewable energy grid can be done without experiencing blackouts.

Stable Renewable Energy Grid is Possible, Says Experts

According to Express UK's latest report, transitioning to 100%, green power grids can be done without suffering from blackouts.

Also Read: Energy Absolute Plans to Spend Almost $60M to Ramp Up Ultra-Fast EV Charging Facilities

"The greatest question facing the world as we transition away from traditional fuels to 100 percent clean, renewable energy is whether we can keep the electricity grid stable every minute of every day," said Jacobson.

He claimed that it is possible to maintain power even when renewable energy is being used. The professor further explained that the existing technological energy innovations could make this happen.

Jacobson also claimed that other countries are already using renewable energy grids without experiencing serious blackouts.

Other Countries Already Achieved It

Mark WWS (Wind-Water-Solar) energy grids are already used in various countries, such as Ethiopia, Nepal, Bhutan, Namibia, etc.

The environmental engineer said that some of the mentioned countries could also produce extra electricity, which they sold to their neighbors.

But, the professor added that most of these countries rely on hydroelectric power, energy acquired from generators driven by turbines, which is not practical for other nations.

Britannica explained that these generators can convert fast-flowing water into mechanical energy, which is then converted to electricity.

On the other hand, new solar cells that can work even at night are allegedly being developed.

Meanwhile, the thermophotovoltaic cell is expected to be better than traditional steam turbines.

For more news updates about renewable energy grids and other related topics, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Biden Administration set to Surpass 25K-Megawatt 2025 Clean Energy Goal

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Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
After Tesla's CEO Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, the officials of the European Union released a statement warning the billionaire that he still needs to follow the rules.

EU Sends Message to Musk

Over the weekend, the European Union or EU greenlit the Digital Services Act or DSA, which forces massive tech companies to more aggressively police the content on their respective platform, according to CNBC.

User-generated content platforms like Facebook and Twitter will be required to implement robust content moderation systems to ensure that they can take down any illegal material like incitement, terrorism, hate speech, and child sexual abuse.

Musk is one of Twitter's most popular users, and he has used the platform to make announcements about Tesla and his other companies. He also posts memes and attacks his critics.

Also Read: #RIPElon Twitter Trend: Elon Musk Clarifies He's NOT Dead, Responds with Emoji

Musk has previously called himself a "free speech absolutist," He said that he wants to reform Twitter as a digital down square with fewer restrictions on what users can say.

That could have huge consequences for the way the content is moderated on the platform, which is a key concern for regulators looking to rein in digital giants over the spread of hate speech and disinformation online, according to The Guardian.

It is unclear what Musk plans to do with the platform, and the process of him buying Twitter is one that is likely to take months, if not years.

But officials stateside have raised concerns over the possibility of Musk reinstating former US President Donald Trump's Twitter account, according to Financial Times.

Trump was banned from the social media platform after his supporters rioted in the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

France's digital minister, Cedric O, said that while there are interesting things that Musk wants to push for at Twitter, the EU's DSA will apply regardless of the ideology of the owner.

The EU's DSA

The DSA is expected to come into force in 2024. Tech companies that fall foul of the rules will be fined up to 6% of their global annual revenues, which is around $300 million for Twitter based on its 2021 sales figures.

The European commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton, warned Musk that he would have to comply with the new regulations.

Breton said that any company operating in Europe needs to comply with the rules, regardless of their shareholdings.

Breton added that Musk knows the rules well as he is familiar with them because of Tesla, and he is confident that Musk will adapt to the DSA.

Breton is a former CEO of French IT firm Atos. He is the key architect of the EU's digital reforms. Alongside the Digital Markets Act or DMA, which seeks to curb the dominance of tech giants, the DSA is part of the plan by the bloc to regulate massive tech companies.

Musk's Twitter buyout serves as the first big test for the DSA. The EU may look to use the deal to test out the new enforcement tools.

Related Article: Elon Musk Reacts on Twitter Meme About His Purchase of the Company-What is Happening on Social Media?

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Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Tesla stock is now dipping after Elon Musk purchased Twitter. On the other hand, the value of the automaker's shares decreased by 9% during the defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, in which the billionaire was involved in.

With all these happenings, is Musk actually distracted? Aside from Tesla, other tech firms also experience a stock dip, such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Apple.

But, unlike the giant EV maker, these tech companies' shares only decreased between 2% and 4%. Because Tesla seems to have the highest share decline, investors are now concerned.

Tesla Stock Decreases by 9%

According to CNBC's latest report, Tesla investors are now worried because Musk might be distracted by all the happenings around him.

Also Read: Elon Musk Talks About Free Speech on Social Media, New Age of Twitter-What Will Happen?

Elon is now handling Tesla, SpaceX, as well as Twitter. Aside from these three tech companies, the billionaire also has two smaller firms (Neurlink and the Boring Company).

In 2021, the tech CEO announced that their automotive revenues were up by 87%. However, because of the Shanghai lockdown, they lost around $16.86 billion.

"Production is resuming at limited levels, and we're working to get back to full production as quickly as possible," said Tesla's Chief Financial Officer Zach Kirkhorn.

Musk's Involvement in Depp Vs Heard Defamation Case

For the past few years, rumors claimed that Musk had an affair with Amber Heard, the ex-wife of Johnny Depp. Because of this, people are expecting him to attend the trials between the two Hollywood actors.

However, The Daily Mail UK reported that Elon decided to be a no-show in the hearings. Although this is the case, his name was still mentioned in the court.

Some documents that were provided during one of the hearings of the defamation case claimed that the billionaire visited Amber, together with Cara Delevingne in the apartment owned by Depp and his ex-wife in Los Angeles.

However, the CEO declined this claim. If you want to see more details about the involvement of Musk with Amber Heard and Johnny Depp case, you can visit this link.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk's Neuralik recently offered job opportunities for smartwatch employees.

On the other hand, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey said that he trusts the billionaire to handle Twitter.

For more news updates about Elon Musk and other tech happenings related to him, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Twitter Users Consider Leaving? Digital Rights Watch Explains Why! Platform Changes Elon Musk May Do

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/Jeremy Bezanger) Twitter

YouTube is expanding its Super Thanks tipping feature, giving more creators another way to monetize their videos on the social media platform.

YouTube Expands Super Thanks

YouTube's Super Thanks allows fans to send their favorite creators some tips directly on videos, which was previously in beta since being announced in 2021, according to Engadget.

Tip amounts vary between $2 and $50, and fans can include a customer-made comment when they send creators tips. The tipping program is now open to all eligible YouTube Partner creators in 68 countries, YouTube announced in a blog post.

YouTube has introduced several ways that creators can monetize interactions with fans and viewers. In addition to Super Thanks, a feature called Super Chat allows livestream audience members to pay to have their comments pinned in the accompanying chat.

Also Read: Twitter New Feature Beta Testing for Upvote/Downvote | Reddit Reacts 'Interesting'

With another livestream tipping feature, Super Stickers, creators can make money when fans buy cartoon character stickers.

Creators make money from their videos on the platform through ad revenue split with the company, but some creators say that income is unreliable, especially if advertisers pull out during bad press or controversies.

The ability to monetize a fanbase directly could provide a steady income stream for creators who worry about being too dependent on ad revenues, according to The Verge.

Podcast Homepage YouTube

Aside from the Super Thanks feature, there were also hints that YouTube planned to tap into podcasts. This came after reports indicated the company hired a podcast executive, Kai Chuk, to lead its efforts in the space and had even started offering cash to popular podcasters to film their shows.

Now, a document has unveiled more about the company's plans in this area, pointing to a future podcasts homepage on the social media platform and other monetization features, according to TechCrunch.

The details were published by Podnews, which recently got its hands on an 84-page presentation where YouTube described its podcasts roadmap.

The company says it will improve podcast ingestion by piloting the ability to pull in podcast RSS feeds. It also noted its plans to centralize podcasts on a new homepage on YouTube.

The URL does not yet work, but it also does not automatically redirect to the platform's homepage, which is what it does if you put other random words after the slash.

Google sees podcasts as a way to expand its advertising business on the platform. The document suggests YouTube will feature audio ads sold by Google as well as other partners.

The document mentions the support of new metrics designed for audio-first creators and the ability to integrate YouTube data into industry-standard podcast measurement platforms. Some of YouTube's partners are Nielsen, Podtrac, and Chartable.

Adding new podcasts vertical to the platform would be a logical next step for the social media company.

Over the years, YouTube has highlighted the service's larger content categories by giving them their own homepages, as it did with YouTube Gaming back in 2015 and with YouTube's Fashion & Beauty in 2019.

Also, YouTube content helps to power Google's streaming service, YouTube Music, which competes with other streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, where podcasts are a competitive advantage.

Related Article: YouTube Shorts Creators Can Get $10,000 a Month: How to Get Qualified

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This new blood test can detect incurable cancers in dogs. But is the new OncoK9 tech really efficient?

For the past years, cancer is still the leading cause of death in dogs. Most of the affected pets are 10 years and older, making it hard for vets to save them from their health complications.

Because of this, pet owners usually ask if there are blood tests for dogs that can help them know if their beloved furry friends are at risk.

"I've been being asked for so many years by families: Isn't there a blood test for cancer?" said the co-founder of PetDx, Andi Flory.

New Dog Blood Test Can Detect Incurable Cancer

According to The Wired's latest report, Flory and Daniel Grosu, another co-founder of PetDx, worked together to create the new OncoK9 blood test.

Also Read: Neuralink's Test Monkeys for Brain Implants Die in Lab But Claims No Animal Abuse-PCRM Disagrees

She and Grosu launched their health innovation for dogs back in 2021. As of writing, more than 400 veterinary clinics are already offering the new blood test.

However, owners can only get one for their dogs through prescription. If their vets don't suggest the use of OncoK9, they can't get the blood test.

Now, PLOS ONE published the new blood test study titled "Clinical validation of a next-generation sequencing-based multi-cancer early detection "liquid biopsy" blood test in over 1,000 dogs using an independent testing set: The CANcer Detection in Dogs (CANDiD)" to show OncoK9's efficiency.

OncoK9's Efficiency

A major trial was conducted in 2019, which involved 1,100 dogs. All of these pets had their blood tested using the new OncoK9.

Based on the study's findings, the new cancer-detecting blood test has an efficiency of 55%. Lisa Moses, a veterinarian, said that the new OncoK9 is really helpful for saving dogs from cancers.

On the other hand, the new research also revealed that the blood test could efficiently detect late-stage cancers as well. During the 2019 trial, OncoK9 determined the most aggressive cancers at 80% efficiency.

If you want to see more details about the new dog cancer-detecting blood test, you can visit this link.

In 2021, Antarctica researchers attached camera sensors to seals, helping them conduct a continental ice study.

On Apr. 22, a new bird-friendly app was developed by Queensland experts so that they can protect endangered birds.

For more news updates about OncoK9 and other health techs that can save animals, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

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Twitter will soon have free speech on its platform when Elon Musk takes over as the social media company leader and owner, something he wants to change online. The new ownership of Musk will change the way people see free speech, and of course, the tech CEO said that censorship will still be present but would not go 'beyond the law.'

Twitter Free Speech: Musk Claims No Censorship 'Beyond the Law'

The new owner of Twitter took it to his platform and tweeted about the kind of social media its company would become under his tutelage and the recent purchase. Here, he said that by free speech, he means that it still matches the law but will not focus on getting censorship on the platform, especially one that goes beyond the law.

Elon Musk wants to change a lot on Twitter and how it promotes a platform that a person can fully express themselves and not have the red tape that bars them in its current state. However, there are not many specifics regarding the change that Musk wants for the platform, only that it will focus on the free speech spectrum.

Read Also: Tesla Stock Decreases by 9% After Twitter Buyout and Musk's Involvement in Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard Case

By free speech, I simply mean that which matches the law.



I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.



If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.



Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2022

Elon Musk to Change Twitter on its Freedom Online

Online freedom is available on social media, but with reservations. It seems that Elon Musk wants to expand more on that freedom and focus on giving more to the public for their usage of Twitter.

However, Musk's campaign for free speech and censorship about Twitter got mixed reactions from the public, and those with negative thoughts about it had an "extreme antibody reaction" about it.

Elon Musk and Twitter

Twitter is abuzz right now, and it is because of the deliberation that pushed for a sale of the social media company to the tech CEO, Elon Musk, and the decision that changes it from here on out. Instead of $43 billion, the billionaire purchased the platform for $44 billion, and the sale continued to its new management that will soon transition.

There are many plans for Twitter now, and one of the most known to the public is its new owner's aspiration to make it into a platform that focuses on free speech. It will change much of the social media from what it currently holds to something that the new president aims for, especially in the new age of Twitter coming soon.

Twitter's founder, Jack Dorsey, expressed his support for Elon Musk in the recent sale and new direction.

Free Speech is somewhat vague initially, with many people thinking that Twitter will become a lawless platform as it focuses on journalism freedom. However, that would not be the case, as it will still focus on censorship that would not go beyond the law and will loosen up restrictions on several topics, with free speech being its centerpiece.

Related Article: Twitter Users Consider Leaving? Digital Rights Watch Explains Why! Platform Changes Elon Musk May Do

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Apple's Self Repair Store has officially launched in the United States. This means that iPhone owner can order the rental self-repair kits from the official center.

The tech giant manufacturer said that the repair equipment is specifically designed to fix iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models.

Apple's self-repair program will offer tools and other needed parts to solve the hardware issues on your smartphones.

Of course, you still need to read the manual before conducting the fix yourself. Now, here are the things included in the new self-repair home rental kit.

Apple Self Service Repair Kits

According to Mac Rumors' latest report, the new Apple iPhone self-repair kit will include two cases-one will weigh 43 pounds.

Also Read: Apple Releases New Beta for Studio Display: Firmware Update 15.5 Brings Webcam Fix

The other one will be 36 pounds. They will be stacked on top of each other, making a bigger repair box. When it comes to inclusions, consumers will have a display press, a battery, some protective covers, and screwdrivers.

iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 owners can receive both kits. But, iPhone SE users will only get one smaller case.

When it comes to prices, the costs for these repair kits will differ based on your needed fixes for your Apple smartphones.

Costs of Apple Self Repair Kits

The official price for one Apple self-repair kit is $49. But, this will be the rental version. On the other hand, the kits for replacing iPhone components will be more expensive.

PC Mag reported that a kit for iPhone 12 Pro Max screen replacement could reach up to $311. But, the price can be lowered, around $278, if you will return the older screen.

Apple explained why the tools are quite expensive. The tech giant manufacturer said that the equipment is actually custom designed.

This will allow the tools to offer the best repair performance that iPhone users can take advantage of.

Meanwhile, Apple's iPhone 13 Pro was used to shoot a documentary-style video about chicken rice in Singapore.

On the other hand, a new Apple facility in Ireland was opened, allowing the company to conduct product tests in the area.

For more news updates about Apple and its upcoming innovations, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: iPhone Production in India Increases 50% As Apple Gives iPhone 13 Project to the Country

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(Photo : Unsplash/ Glenn Carstens-Peters) streaming service

Two of the biggest cable operators in the United States, Comcast and Charter Communications, have created their own streaming platforms.

Comcast and Charter to Launch a Streaming Service

The two companies announced a 50-50 joint venture to create and launch a next-generation streaming platform on various branded 4K streaming devices and smart TVs to reach customers in major markets across the United States.

The platform is yet to be named, but it was revealed that it would compete with streaming platforms such as Amazon's Fire TV, Roku, Google Chromecast, and Apple TV 4K, according to Variety.

Both Comcast and Charter want to deliver a single streaming-aggregation platform available across the United States and not just in their regional operating footprints, giving them better leverage to seal deals with hardware makers, app developers, and retailers.

The JV's expected sources of revenue include e-commerce capabilities and ad sales, as well as distribution deals with third-party streamers.

Also Read: Comcast Shares Drop Despite Subscriber Increase, AT&T New $35 DirecTV Now Bundle Worries Investors

Comcast will license Flex, which is its aggregated streaming platform and hardware, to the JV and contribute to the retail business for XClass TVs and Xumo, the free and ad-supported streaming service that it bought back in 2020. Charter will make an initial contribution of $900 million into JV, funder over multiple years.

The joint venture's products will feature hundreds of free content choices through Xumo, which delivers more than 200 individual streaming channels, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Peacock, the streaming service from Comcast's NBCUniversal and Charter's Spectrum app, will also be featured on the JV's streaming platform and all of the top apps from other providers.

The XClass TVs for the streaming JV will be available through national retail partners and directly from Comcast and Charter.

Xumo will continue to operate as a free global streaming service available through the joint venture's products and third-party devices.

Charter will offer 4K streaming TV devices and voice remotes for the JV's unified platform starting in 2023, and Comcast will continue to offer the Flex streaming platform as a streaming device and service to its own customers, according to Business Wire.

Comcast and Charter Released a Statement

Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said that the products they are working on with Charter are all designed to make search and discovery across live on-demand and streaming video seamless and simple for customers.

Watson added that the partnership brings together more than a decade of technical innovation, national scale, and new opportunities to monetize their combined investment.

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge added that their new venture would bring a full-featured operating platform, new devices, and smart TVs with a robust app store providing a more streamlined and aggregated experience for the customers.

Rutledge added that as the video landscape evolves, the venture will increase retail consumer options, compete at scale with established national platforms, and join their existing lineup of options for the Spectrum TV App available on most streaming devices.

Both Comcast and Charter are in the process of scouting for an executive to head the joint venture. The closing of the JV is subject to usual closing conditions.

The venture does not involve the broadband or cable video businesses of either Charter or Comcast, which will remain independent, the cable giants said.

In 2016, Comcast added Netflix to its platform.

Related Article: Charter Claims 'No Interest' In Sprint Acquisition After SoftBank Lays Out Proposal

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The "Putumayo Massacre" has been harshly questioned because most of the victims were innocent civilians who were taking part in a bazaar.

On Tuesday, Defense Minister Diego Molano faces a "Motion of Censure" in the Lower House and a "Political Control Debate" in the Senate for his responsibility in a military operation that left 11 Colombians dead in Puerto Leguizamo in the Putumayo department on March 28.

Supposedly carried out against dissidents of the disappeared Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the military operation has been harshly questioned because most of the victims were innocent civilians who were taking part in a bazaar. Only one of 11 people killed in the operation was related to illicit activities.

On April 19, the Lower House approved the beginning of the censorship process. In the Senate, Molano was called to account by progressive politicians such as Antonio Sanguino (Green Alliance Party) and Ivan Cepeda (Alternative Democratic Pole).

In both chambers, however, the majority of members agree that Molano and the military leadership must leave their positions due to their responsibility in the events.

Very concerning reports about a potential massacre of civilians in Putumayo, Colombia. If U.S.-trained security forces were involved, they must be cut off from U.S. aid by @StateDept and held accountable by Colombian authorities. https://t.co/4tt6bO9ed2  Rep. Andy Levin (@RepAndyLevin) April 19, 2022

How many murdered men, women, pregnant women, and children do you need on your resume for you to take responsibility and resign from office?, Green Alliance lawmaker Katherine Miranda asked Molano.

So far, the President Ivan Duque's administration has failed to provide convincing explanations for what happened in "the Putumayo Massacre." The Colombian judicial authorities have also not acted with the expected speed.

"The Prosecutor's Office must proceed because there is criminal responsibility," Decency List lawmaker David Racero said, warning that if the investigations do not advance quickly, the Putumayo victims will denounce the Colombian State in international courts.


This Latin American country has the world's largest lithium deposit in the state of Sonora.

On Wednesday, Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) called Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile to a meeting to "do joint work" regarding lithium extraction.

This call occurs after Mexico enacted a reform to the Mining Law that declares lithium as a mineral of public utility whose exploitation can only be carried out by the State. To do so, the AMLO administration will create a new public institution.

"There are countries where lithium has already been nationalized, as is the case in Bolivia... Although that has not happened in Chile and Argentina, their governments are interested in this meeting," Lopez Obrador revealed, adding that Mexico will learn from national experiences and define well the characteristics of the public company.

We will analyze whether this new company will be independent or related to the Secretaries of Economy or Energy, the Federal Electricity Commission, or the entire Government. We are going to look for the best business model, AMLO promised.

Salar de Atacama is the largest salt flat in Chile and the third largest in the world, spanning 1,200 square miles (3,000 sq. km). It is the worlds largest and purest active source of lithium, containing more than one-quarter of the worlds lithium reserves. pic.twitter.com/qN4zPuSqUn  Belgrade (@Karkicer) April 24, 2022

Previously, when defending the mining law reform, the leader National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) recalled that Mexico is in tenth place of the 23 countries with mineral reserves and has the world's largest deposit in the state of Sonora.

"Lithium is a key component of batteries and other electronics that are becoming increasingly common around the world  particularly in the case of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in electric-vehicle manufacturing, as well as larger-scale battery storage," NS Energy recalled.

"With these manufacturing trends expected to accelerate over the coming years as the energy transition accelerates, interest in this silvery-white metal will continue to grow, and analysts expect global demand will more than double by 2024," it added.
The next eye of the storm! The "big fish" of the Azov steel plant is about to come out of the water?
After an almost one-year delay of the Louisiana bill that raises the age of criminal responsibility to 18, the first stage of the landmark law goes into effect Friday, but not without some apprehension across the state.

In this first phase of the Raise the Age law, the state will no longer automatically arrest, detain and prosecute 17-year-olds as adults when the teens are accused of nonviolent crimes. That change, advocates hope, will better rehabilitate youth, but many officials worry how it will affect an already underfunded and, often, outdated juvenile justice system.

Theres no data, theres no numbers out there that say what this is going to look like," said James Bueche, the deputy secretary of the state Office of Juvenile Justice. "I am concerned.  (But) we'll make it work. We have to make it work."

Local law enforcement and juvenile justice administrators remain unsure about how the arrival of 17-year-olds into the youth system will affect the capacity at local juvenile detention centers, which hold youth pretrial, as well as the state-run post-adjudication juvenile secure facilities. And with limited facilities across the state, as well as a shift in how these teens have been treated for decades, officials are expecting hiccups in the process. Yet, they are optimistic.

After years of delays, juvenile prison in Acadiana finally set to open in March A state-of-the-art juvenile prison in Avoyelles Parish has finally received state funding to open its doors  a long-awaited milestone for a L

I think were going to have growing pains," said East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III. "But I think any pain or discomfort will be on the front end, and well learn as we go.

Data from each of the local juvenile detention centers show there is consistent space at their facilities, which advocates hope will be able to supplement the many rural parishes without any such facilities. And OJJ plans this month to open its long-awaited Acadiana Center for Youth, which sat unused for years because of funding shortages and which will add about 70 more beds of juvenile secure custody.

Rachel Gassert, the policy director for the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights, said those logistical challenges will be well worth the long term changes for Louisiana's children.

"This is going to be better for kids, better for communities.  I dont think we can understate how important this is," Gassert said. "Im really optimistic about the benefits it will bring for the state.

Many parishes without options

With Raise the Age in effect, law enforcement are supposed to take 17-year-olds arrested for nonviolent crimes to the local juvenile detention center for booking, instead of the local adult jail. But many parishes, especially in rural areas, do not have a juvenile detention center, relying on open beds at a neighboring juvenile facilities. Officials are concerned these agreements will no longer function as seamlessly.

"I dont think anybody knows whats going to really happen," said Bobby Cormier, the administrator of the Lafayette Juvenile Detention Home. "For this facility, when we start accepting the 17-year-olds here, its going to reduce the number of out-of-parish kids we can bring in."

And until he can grasp how exactly this change will affect his facility, which has 32 beds, he said he will not be accepting outside juveniles for at least a few months. Cormier said his facility has agreements with parishes from across the state, including Iberville, Jefferson Davis, St. James, Winn and West Feliciana parishes.

Officials at other facilities say they don't plan to change their practices, but noted their jurisdictions will remain the priority, which could leave others in a bind.

I dont think its going to be an issue for me because of the bed space I currently have available, but thats short term," said St. Bernard Sheriff James Pohlmann , whose office runs a 36-bed juvenile detention that has about 20 beds available on average. "We have to see how it works out for the state.

A 2016 LSU study commissioned in advance of Raise the Age estimated that about 36 additional youth would need to be held in juvenile detention facilities statewide, a number many local leaders have questioned, especially considering how many 17-year-olds are in parish jails.

But if that's accurate, localities can find space in the 13 juvenile detention centers across the state, of which about two-thirds had at least 10 open beds, on average, according to the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights.

Detention is a big deal  we want to make sure those decisions are not being made lightly, Gassert said, explaining the opportunities in juvenile court for community and family-supervision options, especially for nonviolent crimes. She noted these diversion options have proven fruitful in other states.

"Three states (Connecticut, Illinois, and Massachusetts) that recently raised their age of juvenile justice jurisdiction to include 17-year-olds experienced smaller increases than expected, and hae reported varying declines in areas such as juvenile arrests, court hearings, technical probation violations, and secure-juvenile correctional placements," the 2016 LSU study found.

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+8 Youth charged as adults have no spot in local jail; attorneys plea for return to juvenile detention Antoine Bowie waited in limbo. For days, the 16-year-old sat in what was supposed to be a short-term holding cell in East Baton Rouge Parish P

OJJ is also planning to provide funding for local detention alternatives with money from the criminal justice reforms, which sets aside reinvestment funds for the juvenile system this coming fiscal year.

We think that will be really helpful, especially for jurisdictions that dont have as many programs available," Gassert said.

Raise the Age Louisiana

In 2016, the state legislature passed the Raise the Age act, which moved 17-year-old criminal defendants into the juvenile justice system, a shift that changes their pretrial detention to juvenile detention facilities, their prosecution to juvenile court and a potential sentencing to a more therapeutic and redemptive model. However, state law still allows prosecutors to transfer serious cases into adult court.

The law outlined the changes to occur in two parts, first integrating 17-year-olds accused of nonviolent crimes into the juvenile system in the summer 2018, then including all 17-year-olds by July 2020. Because of budgeting shortfalls, however, the first phase was delayed to March 1. The second phase has not been delayed.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signs Raise the Age prosecution bill into law Louisiana has raised the age of adult prosecution, so 17-year-old offenders wont automatically be treated as adults within a few years.

"Current behavioral research indicates that, compared to adults, most 17-year-olds are less capable of impulse control; more prone to risky behavior; less able to regulate their emotions; different in their approach to moral reasoning; less able to consider the long-term consequences of their actions; and more susceptible to peer pressure," the 2016 LSU study says. "Because the brains of 17-year-olds are still developing, they are predisposed to making more impulsive, aggressive, and shortsighted decisions as compared to adults, and they are physically unable to consistently make the same type of reasoned and responsible decisions as adults."

The study found that bringing 17-year-olds into the juvenile justice system would "benefit public safety, promote youth rehabilitation and create long-term savings."

The Raise the Age law in Louisiana followed a string of similar laws nationwide that aim to keep youth from adult court and jails. According to Campaign for Youth Justice in mid 2017, only five states still automatically exclude 17-year-olds from the juvenile justice system and had no plans or laws in the pipeline to address the disparity: Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, and Wisconsin.

'Who these children will become'

With an additional $4 million allocated to OJJ to fund Raise the Age initiatives through its first four months, Bueche said they will be able to open the Acadiana Center for Youth at full capacity, but also have hired 12 additional probation staff and increased community placements for independent living opportunities for older youth.

The Acadiana Center for Youth will open March 18, and can hold 72 youth in secure care, the term the agency uses for a juvenile prison. The LSU study estimated an additional 67 youth will be placed into secure custody after Raise the Age, which Bueche said brings them close to at capacity, with just the 72 more beds and otherwise typically full facilities.

But Bueche said he is most worried about the agency's budget for next year, which will be crucial to how they respond to the additional population and address continued concerns about their juvenile prisons, which this summer received a scathing audit about frequent violence and staffing shortages.

Violence, 'frequent fighters' spiking in Louisiana's understaffed juvenile lockups, audit finds The prevalence of violence has increased inside Louisiana's juvenile prisons in recent years, even as the number of teens behind bars has fall

Bueche said they have been able to address some staffing shortages, and remain committed to their therapeutic approach to detention. He said, however, they are not worried about how an older population, the 17-year-olds, will increase issues at their secure custody facilities  which include Bridge City Center for Youth, Swanson at Monroe, and Swanson at Columbia  as their average age of entry is already 16.

"Thats what we have in our system, is older kids," Bueche said. "Were committed to our model and dealing with kids in the way that we have been."

And while there remain issues that advocates would like to address, they remain hopeful about Raise the Age.

"Childrens lives are literally on the line and our jobs are to be taking care of them, and helping them return home, and helping them heal from some of the trauma," said Meredith Angelson, a senior staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center who works on juvenile justice. "There is a lot of talk about who these children will become, and I think thats on us."
Antoine Bowie waited in limbo. For days, the 16-year-old sat in what was supposed to be a short-term holding cell in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison's central booking area, the often busy and loud gateway into the jail.

Bowie, however, was not waiting to be checked in or waiting for his first court appearance; there was simply no other place for him at the parish's adult jail. The dorm to house him and other similarly situated juveniles is a more than a three-hour drive north.

So in order see his attorney, he spent days in a holding cell lined only with two wooden benches: no bed, no designated place to shower. He had to eat all his meals in the cell.

When Bowie was charged in November as an adult in an August armed robbery and shooting, he was also transferred from the East Baton Rouge Juvenile Detention Center to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's custody.

That switch meant he would now await trial from the jail in East Carroll Parish, which began providing the juvenile housing for all Baton Rouge youth offenders since the local Sheriff's Office closed its juvenile wing early last year. It's a change local attorneys are fighting, backed by a rarely-used provision from the state's 2016 Raise the Age act, which aims to keep more youth from the adult criminal justice system.

"He's still a child," said Myleka Ennis, Bowie's mom. "He's not at a stable spot.  I'm afraid of something happening to him."

Niles Haymer, Bowie's attorney and other lawyers with juvenile clients recently asked judges to address the current detention setup for youth.

He says what's in place now is detrimental in terms of the child's access to fair legal representation as well as their emotional, mental and physical well-being. He filed to have Bowie transferred back to the local juvenile detention center, which Haymer argues is safer and more appropriate for children.

"Youre psychologically damaging these children, who are only accused of crimes," Haymer said.

In January, a state judge granted the first such request in Baton Rouge for a juvenile charged in adult court to await criminal proceedings from the juvenile detention center, a decision Bowie's family hopes will play out for him.

But some local leaders worry about how such a precedent could affect the juvenile detention center's capacity as well as its safety, as juveniles charged in adult court are accused of the most serious crimes, like murder, rape and armed robbery.

+6 Officials close three wings at aging East Baton Rouge prison because of safety concerns Three wings of the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison were closed in 2018 because of safety concerns for both guards and inmates  the latest addi

Bowie's grandmother said people have to think of the children. She said her grandson, whom she helped raise, has called his "Mawmaw" crying, upset about what he's seen in jail, from both from the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison and the north Louisiana facility.

"Just because a child do something, that don't mean the child was a bad child," Yolanda Antoine, Bowie's grandmother, said, unable to hold back tears. "Im worried about my babys mind.

Back to juvenile custody?

The attorneys for Bowie and another juvenile offender, Malik Gray, filed two similar motions in the first week of February asking that the teens be transferred from the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's custody to the juvenile detention center while they await trial.

Gray is accused in the April slaying of Ricardo Alberto Agular, and was additionally charged with attempted second-degree murder and armed robbery. He recently turned 17 in December, but was 16 when he was arrested.

Our Views: If Louisiana intends to fix its broken juvenile justice system on the cheap, it won't succeed Oscar Wilde learned a thing or two about corrections as an inmate of Reading jail. He said Queen Victoria treated her prisoners so badly, she 

"Under the custody and supervision of East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff, Bowie faces an increased risk of violence, an increased chance of sexual assault and a complete lack of access to education, counseling and social work needs," Haymer wrote in his motion.

Haymer said in his court filing that the East Carroll Parish jail, known as Riverbend Detention Center, has not served Bowie well and he doesn't belong there.

"Such an arrangement simply serves as a warehouse for juveniles accused of a crime with no chance for education, counseling services, pediatric care and other necessities that a child needs on a daily basis."

The juvenile detention center, on the other hand, does provide those services to children in their custody. The motions cite the 2016 change to state law, which updated the language about transferring a child charged in adult court to an adult detention facility from "shall order" to "may order."

When (the articles) amendment was passed by the Louisiana Legislature, it ensured that the physical custody of the juvenile does not necessarily change just because the juvenile is being prosecuted in criminal court," the motions say. Current brain and psychological science supports (youth) being held at the Baton Rouge Juvenile Detention Center.

Gray's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Harry Landry III, explained in his motion that a study found it takes about 200 hours of work for a defense attorney to prepare for a trial that carries a possible sentence of life, and juveniles deserve even more attention.

Landry said he has not even been able to spend two hours with Gray because his client has been housed primarily at the jail in Lake Providence  a seven-hour round-trip from Baton Rouge.

"The inadequate lack of time spent on this case by  The East Baton Rouge Office of the Public Defender has been caused solely by the housing and custody issues of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Office," Landry wrote in his motion.

He said the River Bend Detention Center is also a problem, nothing that it is "over three hours away from Baton Rouge, making both family and attorney visits nearly impossible.

Landry also wrote that when Gray has had to stay in the temporary housing at East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, the conditions have violated the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), a federal law that sets out guidelines for jailing all inmates, including youthful inmates.

"When Mr. Gray and other juvenile defendants have been temporarily housed at East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, he and others have been held in a cell in the prison central booking, Gray's attorney, Harry Landry, wrote in his motion.

He continued, "Mr. Gray was forced to sleep on a bench with no mattress and was never removed from the sight and sound of adult detainees within the prison, in direct violation of PREA."

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Sheriff's spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks denied that any housing was in violation of federal law. She cited a provision of PREA that discusses how youthful inmates, outside of their housing units, can have adult inmates in their sight, sound or physical contact if there is direct supervision.

"Due to the limitations of the space, sound might be possible, but there is constant direct staff supervision," she wrote in an email.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signs Raise the Age prosecution bill into law Louisiana has raised the age of adult prosecution, so 17-year-old offenders wont automatically be treated as adults within a few years.

Hicks explained that in May 2018, the Sheriff's Office closed its wing in Parish Prison dedicated to housing juveniles  those 17 and younger  because there was never enough juvenile offenders to fill the 40-person wing. According to online jail records, there were 25 juveniles in Sheriff's custody as of Friday, including Bowie and Gray.

Hearings on both Bowie's and Gray's motions are scheduled this week.

'Juveniles are different'

In mid-January, District Judge Lou Daniel granted the first such a request in Baton Rouge for a juvenile  15-year-old Gregory Howard who was charged with murder in the August killing of Spencer Hebert  to be held in the juvenile detention center, instead of an adult facility, despite his criminal case being handled in adult court.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already said on multiple occasions  juveniles are different and they need to be handled differently," said Kristen Richardson, Howard's attorney and an assistant public defender in Baton Rouge. "Thats something thats really difficult to do when your client is three hours away; it requires a lot of time just sitting and talking.

+2 EBR's 'dirty little secret': Jail death settlement reignites complaints about conditions of facility In 2013, David O'Quin, a 39-year-old schizophrenic artist, was tied to a chair at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison for the better part of tw

Richardson said when she first was assigned to Howard's case, she didn't realize the current detention circumstances for juveniles charged as adults in Baton Rouge. But said since Howard has been sent back to a juvenile-specific facility, she said, his circumstances have improved.

He, from what I can tell, is doing really well, has access to services," Richardson said.

She said that's in contrast to what he was being held at different times in a temporary cell in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison central booking.

"They were sleeping on a bench," Richardson said. "Theres no beds, theres no cots; Im not sure if they get a mattress.

A photo Hicks provided of the cells used to house juveniles shows a type of mattress on top of one bench, hanging over the thin bench's edge.

Hicks said these juveniles are transferred out "as soon as possible." She said that only two juveniles stay in such a cell to sleep, but there can be up to six held inside otherwise.

Deron Patin, interim director of the East Baton Rouge Juvenile Detention Center, said the one new placement at his facility has not put an extra burden on their operations, but he's not sure how things might change moving forward. In 2018, the juvenile detention center had an average daily population of 27, with 52 total beds.

And, he noted, cases in adult court take much longer to go through the legal system, sometimes years, while there is a much quicker turnover rate in juvenile court.

How many days they hold down a bed limits the capacity for kids who need that bed," Patin said. "Once I reach capacity, I have no ability to transfer."

Why is Louisiana struggling to secure juvenile prisons? Rash of escapes raises crucial question Four teenage inmates escaped from the state juvenile prison in Monroe over the weekend in a jailbreak so violent one guard was airlifted to Sh

Louisiana Center for Children's Right's Policy director Rachel Gassert said that in New Orleans the juvenile detention center has, for some time, actually designated 12 beds to house this unique population, because the city council decided this was the more appropriate place for them, especially pretrial.

They all stay in the (juvenile) facility unless they are moved for some other reason," Gassert said, noting that if those beds become filled, they have designated a process to chose the most appropriate inmates, usually the oldest, to transfer to the adult facility.

In Baton Rouge, prosecutors almost automatically file to have juveniles, who have been charged as adults, moved to an adult detention center.

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III said his office looks at every case individually, taking into account the seriousness of the charge, the facts of the case and any prior criminal record. But, Moore said,he believes primarily for safety reasons that youths charged with serious enough crimes to land them in adult court should no longer be housed with other juvenile offenders.

"We believe a judge should consider whether it is appropriate to continue to house transferred juveniles who are charged with crimes such as rape, armed robbery and murder with juveniles charged with less serious offenses," Moore wrote in a statement.

And in considering these cases  which are relatively limited despite a record-high number of juveniles arrested on murder in 2018  Patin said the juvenile center is also preparing to house all 17-year-old juveniles arrested on non-violent offenses, a much larger group of inmates.

At the beginning of March, juvenile detention centers and juvenile courts across the state will have jurisdiction over non-violent crimes committed by all youth, the first stage of the state's implementation of the Raise the Age law.

Our biggest concern is there will be a significant reduction in available beds," Patin said.

Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of the last name for Mr. Ricardo Alberto Agular. The Advocate regrets the error.
A renewed bid to ban paddling and other forms of corporal punishment in public schools won approval Wednesday without objection from the House Education Committee.

State Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, R-Metairie, sponsor of House Bill 649, noted that juveniles and prisoners in Louisiana cannot be struck by authorities. "I am just asking for the same treatment for our K-12 students," Hilferty told the committee.

A similar bill failed last year in the House, falling five votes short of the minimum needed for approval.

The latest proposal next faces another vote in the full House.

State law leaves it up to Louisiana's 69 school districts on whether corporal punishment is allowed.

Mike Faulk, executive director of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents, said of 46 school systems that responded to a survey 19 allow paddling and other forms of punishment and 27 ban it.

Louisiana bill to outlaw paddling in public schools clears first hurdle, heads to full House In a change from previous years, paddling and other forms of corporal punishment would be banned in public schools under a bill that won lopsi

The practice is prohibited in most districts in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas.

"More and more school systems are discouraging the use of corporal punishment as a means of discipline," said Faulk, whose group was neutral on the bill.

Hilferty cited one unidentified district with a policy that requires a witness to hold the hand of the student who is disciplined "so that the child would not instinctively cover their behind and create the potential for breaking their fingers."

"This is the potential to break fingers," she said. "I want you to understand that."

A total of 31 states have outlawed corporal punishment in public schools, according to 2021 figures from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

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Julia Fleckman, a professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, backed the bill and said striking students causes significant problems, including lower grades in high school.

"It interferes with student learning," Fleckman said.

"It creates a negative school climate," she said. "Students must feel safe. It is important that we promote a really supportive school environment."

A similar proposal won approval in the same committee last year before failing in the House, with 48 in favor and 49 opposed.

Louisiana House rejects bid to ban spanking in public schools The Louisiana House on Tuesday night rejected a bill that would ban paddling and other forms of corporal punishment in public schools.

Opponents said the measure would interfere with the rights of school boards and that rules are in effect to ensure corporal punishment is handled properly.

Hilferty said there is nothing in state law to spell out how spanking and other forms of corporal punishment are to be administered, or whether a large male could punish a small female student.

Susan East Nelson, executive director of the Louisiana Partnership for Children and Families, backed the bill.

Nelson said corporal punishment does not align with other state laws to protect children.

The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children also supported the legislation.

Hannah Gilbert, an official with the group, told the committee there are regular cases of "well intentioned people who have gone too far" while punishing students.

"Do we really want the great state of Louisiana in the headlines for abusing kids?" Gilbert asked.
Photo by Michael Ainsworth/dallasnews.com -- Evacuees on I-10 had a slow-go as they fled the region in advance of Hurricane Katrina on Sunday August 28, 2005. One resident said he traveled just 5 miles in 3.5 hours. Contraflow, that is making all lane of I-10 outbound in the event of evacuation, was an innovation that became the norm in the 1990s.
The Commonwealth Bank is trying to win millennial and younger customers by offering lower interest rates on mortgages for homes that meet high environmental standards, as banks compete to promote their green credentials.

CBA on Wednesday became the first big four bank to offer a green home loan, promising lower rates if customers homes meet specific criteria including minimum usage of solar panels, and no gas appliances or hot water heating.

The launch, which comes as smaller lenders are already targeting the green home loan market, is the latest sign of banks competing for environmentally conscious customers as banks face pressure over their role in climate change.

CBA is offering lower interest rates on mortgages that meet high standards on sustainability and energy efficiency. Credit:Michael Clayton-Jones

CBA said the loan would offer variable rates as low as 1.99 per cent for owner-occupiers who had a deposit of at least 20 per cent, and who took out a mortgage package. To qualify, the customers home would need to meet detailed criteria that included having a minimum amount of solar panels, and having electric cooking and heating instead of gas.
A Queensland nurse who physically abused her sick nephew before he died will be able to reapply for her health registration in five years.

Jodie Maree Powell, who has since been out on parole, was sentenced in 2019 to nine years prison after being found guilty of manslaughter and two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company over the death of her foster son and nephew, Curtis Powell, 10.

Curtis Powell, 10, died in 2015 after his aunt and foster carer, Jodie Powell, failed to provide adequate care for him. Credit:Nine News

The Brisbane Supreme Court previously heard that Curtis died after Powell failed to obtain medical treatment for his developing condition, later ascertained to be bronchopneumonia.

It was told that Curtis choked on a sandwich. Powell tried to remove the food, but the 10-year-old lost consciousness and stopped breathing.
When you venture into Melbournes CBD these days, there are two telltale signs of a city under stress. The proliferation of graffiti and the number of empty shopfronts in even some of the citys best-known streets and arcades are a confronting reminder that while the worst of the pandemic may be behind us, the road to recovery remains a long one.

People are returning to the city, but many are finding it hard to leave behind the flexibility of working from home. The TWaT syndrome  whereby workers show up to the office only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays  is real. Unfortunately, this is putting further pressure on the citys eateries. Many that managed to hang on through the pandemic lockdowns are now finding business is lukewarm at best, even without restrictions.

City of Melbourne workers clean off tagging graffiti near the corner of Little Bourke and Russell streets. Credit:Scott McNaughton

Only this week hospitality industry leaders warned that more of central Melbournes restaurants, cafes and bars would close in coming months. This is a further blow to the revival of a city that prides itself on its food and bar culture.

But the problem isnt only office workers struggling to reacquaint themselves with the city and the commute it requires to get there. To put it bluntly, Melbournes CBD is looking shabby. As city editor Cara Waters reported this week, the City of Melbournes graffiti clean-up crews are contending with a 60 per cent increase in workload since the start of the pandemic and a large volume of rubbish.
Small businesses that have seen a 30 per cent dip in turnover this year are eligible for a grant worth up to $37,500 in a boost to state government assistance packages.

It comes as hospitality businesses with payrolls worth between $4 million and $20 million will also receive a three-month payroll tax waiver if they can prove a 40 per cent drop over a four-week period, and the eligibility criteria for other businesses grants is expanded.

Perths CBD has suffered due to COVID restrictions. Credit:Duncan Wright

WA Health reported 43,408 active COVID cases in the state on Wednesday, with 8392 new cases and 253 people in hospital with the disease  nine in intensive care.

With mask mandates over from Friday, Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas expects an influx of city workers heading back to their CBD offices and a boost in clientele for struggling city businesses.
Singapore: Sitting on a stool in jeans, joggers and a black and green polo shirt, Nagaenthran Dharmalingham stared at the camera, a blank expression on his face.

Captured during a photo shoot at Changi prison in the lead up to his execution, it was to be the last image of the intellectually impaired Malaysian man on death row.

A picture of Nagaenthran Dharmalingham taken in prison before his execution and posted on social media by activist Kirsten Han. Credit:Twitter

Before an execution, family members are allowed to buy clothes for the prisoner to wear at a photo shoot, said Singapore activist and anti-death penalty campaigner Kirsten Han, posting the photograph on social media on Wednesday. The photos are given to the family shortly before, or after execution. [Nagaenthrans brother] Navin says this was Nagens favourite outfit and photo.

The 34-year-old was executed inside the prison on Wednesday morning, his sister Sarmila confirmed, as Singapore authorities carried out a death sentence handed out more than a decade ago for drug trafficking.
During the Wyoming Republican Partys Executive Committee meeting on March 28, 2022, a Laramie County precinct person raised concerns and questioned whether delegates to the state convention had been properly nominated and elected at the Laramie County Convention.

Concerns were raised that the Laramie County Convention had not followed county bylaws and procedures for the election of delegates to the State Convention.

The State Executive Committee passed a motion requesting Laramie County Chairman Dani Olsen to respond to the concerns by April 1.

Specifically, the motion reads as follows: Were your delegates and alternates properly elected according to Laramie County and State Bylaws? If yes, this is a moot issue. If no, please explain how will this be remedied?

Subsequently, Laramie County Chairman Dani Olsen submitted a report on April 1, 2022, admitting that Laramie County did not comply with requirements to accept nominations from the floor or use secret ballots in the selection of delegates for State Convention.

She requested that the delegates be seated regardless of failure to follow county bylaws. For a copy of Chairman Olsens report, click here.

Concerns have been raised about the seating of the Laramie County delegation to State Convention, stated State Chairman W. Frank Eathorne. The State Credentials Committee is tasked with reviewing the qualifications of all delegates to state convention. They will meet on Thursday, May 5th at 9:00 A.M., to consider the Laramie County matter, and make a recommendation to be discussed May 7th on the convention floor.

Chairman Olsens report will be provided to the Convention Credentials Committee for its consideration in determining whether the Laramie County delegation will be seated at the upcoming State GOP Convention.

The Credentials Committee meeting has been moved up to Thursday, May 5th, as a courtesy to Laramie County delegates and alternates, so members of the Laramie County delegation will have time to cancel room reservations in the event its county delegation is not seated.

Following Laramie County leaderships admission of its failures to follow Bylaws in conducting the election, the State Republican Conventions Credentials Committee will now review the matter and make a recommendation to the Convention body as to how many delegates from Laramie County will be seated, commented Chairman Eathorne.

Election Integrity is a top issue among voters after the 2020 elections and has been the number one legislative priority for the Wyoming GOP for the last 3 years.

The Wyoming Republican Party is working hard to safeguard its internal activities and maintain the highest standards of transparency and integrity. No other complaints about county conventions have been brought before the State Executive Committee.

Please watch the Wyoming Republican Party website at www.wyoming.gop for information as Laramie County delegate matters are resolved at the convention in May.
BILOXI, Miss.A shooting Wednesday at a hotel on Mississippis Gulf Coast left three people dead and police in a standoff with the suspect at a business a few miles away, authorities said.

Gulfport police said the suspect was barricaded inside a business and officers had shut down access to the area. Officers were negotiating to get the suspect to surrender and no shots had been fired in the standoff, Officer Hannah Hendry said.

Biloxi Police Department Capt. Milton Houseman confirmed that three people were killed but had no details on their identity.

Police said the shooting happened about 9 a.m. at the Biloxi Broadway Inn, news outlets reported. The gunman fled and then apparently assaulted another victim in Gulfportabout 13 miles west of Biloxibefore police caught up with him, police said.
Children play jump-rope on the street off 5th Avenue in New York City on March 7, 2022. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

3 in 4 US Children Have Had COVID-19: CDC Estimate

Three out of four children in the United States have had COVID-19, along with more than six in 10 young adults, according to new estimates.

Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that only a quarter of children 17 and younger have no signs of having had COVID-19.

The research, which analyzed blood samples submitted for testing, estimated large jumps in seroprevalence, or antibodies found in the blood from past COVID-19 infection, a state also known as natural immunity because of the protection one enjoys against reinfection and severe illness.

In children, seroprevalence rose to 75 percent in February 2022 from 44 percent in December 2021. Among adults aged 18 to 48, seroprevalence increased to 64 percent from 36.5 percent; among those aged 50 to 64, it rose to 50 percent from 30 percent, and among those 65 or older, it rose to 33 percent from 19 percent.

I did expect it to increase. I did not expect it to increase quite this much, Dr. Kristie Clarke, a CDC epidemiologist, told reporters on a call discussing the new estimates.

Although the CDC maintains that a previous infection doesnt mean one is protected against COVID-19, a slew of studies have shown that people who recover from the illness have better protection than those who get vaccinated, including research from the CDC.

To arrive at the estimates, scientists tested blood specimens for anti-nucleocapsid (anti-N) antibodies, a marker thats triggered only by infection with COVID-19, the illness caused by the CCP virus. The testing doesnt indicate whether one has had a vaccine.

But researchers said the great jumps in seroprevalence were recorded among age groups with the lowest vaccination coverage, as just over a quarter of those 5 to 11 have been vaccinated, and no kids under 5 are authorized to get a shot.

The vaccines can protect against severe disease and mortality, according to studies and real-world data, but have proven increasingly limited in shielding against infection.

Vaccination on top of natural immunity can boost protection, studies have shown, but the boosts are often minimal. Additionally, people with natural immunity are more likely to suffer side effects when they get a vaccine, according to some research.

The level of prior infection may actually be higher than estimated. The samples analyzed in December, January, and February totaled about 192,000, well under the actual number of infections recorded during those months, and the antibodies can eventually become undetectable, Clarke said.

Additionally, one of the limitations was that infections after vaccination might result in lower amounts of anti-N antibodies, making them undetectable earlier.

Antibodies are one of the bodys defenses believed to protect people against infection and severe illness.

The research was published in the CDCs quasi-journal without peer review. The journal features papers that align with the agencys messaging.

Dr. Steven Hatfill, a virologist, told The Epoch Times in an email that, based on data hes reviewed, the risks from the vaccines outweigh the benefits for children and young adults.

Childhood vaccination should not be considered unless a child has significant co-morbidities like cystic fibrosis, severe Type 1 diabetes, etc., he wrote.
Pakistani police officers and journalists gather near a burned van at the site of an explosion, in Karachi, Pakistan, on April 26, 2022. (Fareed Khan/AP Photo)

4 People Killed in Karachi University Bombing That Targeted Chinese Officials

Three Chinese nationals and a Pakistani national were reportedly killed in a suicide bombing attack that occurred outside a Chinese-language learning center in Pakistans southern port city of Karachi on April 26.

According to reports, the three were among passengers on a minibus returning to Karachi University when the bomb exploded near the universitys Confucius Institute, killing the Chinese teachers and a Pakistani van driver.

Police said a security guard and another Chinese national were injured in the blast.

Local media showed surveillance footage of a woman dressed in black wearing a backpack standing close to the minibus shortly before the bomb went off and sent up clouds of fire and smoke.

The Majeed Brigade of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a terrorist group based in Pakistans Balochistan province, claimed responsibility for what it says was a self-sacrificing attack that targeted Chinese officials.

Baloch Liberation Armys Majeed Brigade targeted Chinese officials in a successful self-sacrificing attack on Tuesday in Karachi, it said in a statement released on Twitter.

Three Chinese officials, Huang Guiping, Ding Mufang, and Chen Sai, were killed in the attack, whereas Wang Yuqing and their security guards were injured.

BLA said the attack was carried out by a 30-year-old female suicide bomber named Shaari Baloch, who was a mother of two children and had an advanced education, including masters degrees in zoology and philosophy.

In its statement, BLA ordered China to immediately halt its exploitation projects and refrain from aiding the occupying Pakistani state or face even harsher attacks.

Chinas Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attack and demanded the Pakistani authorities punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law and take all possible measures to protect Chinese citizens in Pakistan.

The blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain, and those behind this incident will surely pay the price, the ministry told reporters on April 27.

The bombing was the first major attack against Chinese nationals in Pakistan since last July, when a suicide bomber blew up a passenger bus in northern Pakistan, killing 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals working on a hydro-power plant.

Other attacks on Chinese nationals working in Pakistan have occurred in Balochistan Province, where separatist terrorists have waged an insurgency against authorities for decades.

Balochistan houses a deep-water port in Gwadar city, which Beijing is developing under the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor project as part of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative to expand trade linkages.

Reuters contributed to this report.
45th Congressional Race Between Steel and Chen Contentious

In the newly redrawn 45th congressional district, Republican incumbent Michelle Steel is facing up against Democrat real estate firm owner and Navy reserve officer Jay Chen.

Steel will be running for her second term in Congress, where she last beat incumbent Rep. Harley Rouda in the 48th district in 2020. Previously, she was an Orange County Supervisor since 2015 and also served on the California State Board of Equalization.

Chen has also served on elected boards before, where he was a member of the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District from 2007 to 2015 and is currently a trustee of Mt. San Antonio College.

The district, which covers Orange and Los Angeles counties, went for Joe Biden by 6 points in 2020. Many pollsters today label the contest as a toss up.

The race, so far, has been contentious, with Steel in early February brought to light a vote by Chen in 2010while on the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District Boardto bring the Chinese-funded Confucius Institute into the school system.

The institute, which has expanded since its founding in 2004 from primary schools to universities, prides itself as a cultural program to teach students about Chinese culture, language, and history, yet have been largely found to be a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tactic to spread propaganda about China.

The U.S. State Department 2020 labeled the institute as a foreign mission of the PRC [Peoples Republic of China], recognizing [the Confucius Institute] for what it is: an entity advancing Beijings global propaganda and malign influence campaign on U.S. campuses and K-12 classrooms. Confucius Institutes are funded by the PRC and part of the Chinese Communist Partys global influence and propaganda apparatus.

In response, Chen said in an email fundraiser that Steels concern about the institute was part of a wave of racist attacks contributing to anti-Asian hate in the community, which Steels camp has denied.

As Michelle Steel [recently] passed an amendment to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for environmental abuses, Jay Chen continues championing the CCPs infiltration into our schools and calling parents who dare to challenge him, xenophobic, Steels spokesperson Lance Trover said in a Feb. 8 statement. Jay Chen owes voters an explanation as to why he continues standing with the Chinese Communist Party over California parents and families.

Additionally, more contention arose in early April after Chen was taped mocking Steels accent, telling a fundraiser crowd that you kind of need an interpreter to figure out exactly what [Steels] saying.

Steels campaign has demanded an apology for the comment, with Steel saying her accent is part of her story as a first-generation Korean-American who speaks English as her third language.

According to the Federal Election Commissions data through Mar. 31, Steel has raised $3.7 million, with Chen raising just shy of $2 million. Steel has also spent $1.7 million and currently has $2.1 million on hand, Chen has spent close to $700,000, with $1.3 million left on hand.

The primary election will be held on June 7, where the top two vote-getters will move on to the general election in November regardless of party affiliation, even if one candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote.

A previous version of this article misstated that Shawn Collins was a candidate in the race. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
Americas Navy Is FailingTriple Its Budget or Lose a War to Russia and China

Commentary

China just put two more naval cruisers into service. The two Type 055s, bigger than destroyers, already conducted night-firing exercises. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy plans to retire all its cruisers without replacement until 2028.

Type 055 tested its YJ-21 hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) and another missile that appears to have a maneuverable reentry vehicle (MaRV).

The Navy has no effective defense against hypersonic missiles and none of its own. Neither does it have supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs). A lack of layered security options puts American ships at risk of rapid defeat in a war at sea. China can destroy our aircraft carriers, and their accompanying cruisers and destroyers, with its nuclear-capable hypersonic ASBMs.

Chinas two new cruisers, named the Anshan and Wuxi, joined the worlds largest navy by the number of ships, the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). It has 355 ships and submarines, according to the latest U.S. Department of Defense report to Congress. The U.S. Navy has just 298.

Americas fleet will shrink to 280 by 2027, while Chinas fleet will grow to 436.

Americas naval shipbuilding industry has insufficient facilities for design, supply lines, shipbuilding, and maintenance, causing our multi-billion-dollar fighting ships to retire faster than we can build new ones.

Armed with the YJ-21 and MaRV missiles, the Type 055 could destroy isolated U.S. cruisers and destroyers with impunity. The supersonic YJ-21 has a range of up to 930 miles. Type 055 has 112 vertical launch cells.

Beijing believes that sometimes the best defense is a good offense, and wants to make the PLAN a global blue water navy. It is rapidly transitioning from a focus on near seas to far seas, and will have at least five carrier strike groupseach including a carrier, cruisers, destroyers, and submarinesby 2035.

A Chinese navy formation, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning (C), during military drills in the South China Sea, in an aerial photo taken on Jan. 2, 2017. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

A key development of Type 055 is its missile defense capabilities, including against the subsonic anti-ship missiles deployed by the U.S. Navy, which does not have supersonic or hypersonic anti-ship missiles.

The PLAN now has five Type 055s and plans to increase that number to eight in a first batch, according to the South China Morning Post.

The PLAN calls the 12,000-ton Type 055 a destroyer. Compare it to the U.S. Navys 15,000-ton Zumwalt-class destroyer, dogged with an obsolete mission of bombarding shore targets, engine trouble, and cost overruns that brought the planned 32 ships down to just the three already in existence.

Each new Zumwalt now costs the taxpayer $4.5 billion, compared to the $1.9 billion for the tried and true Arleigh Burke. Yet incredibly, the Zumwalt lacked ammo, anti-submarine torpedoes, and had fewer cells to pack land-attack missiles than Arleigh-Burke destroyers (96), Ticonderoga-class cruisers (122), or Ohio-class cruise-missile submarines (144)all of which were cheaper, and the last of which is stealthier.

Meanwhile, military officials in the Pentagon are trying to convince Congress to retire all 22 American cruisers in the next 10 years to be replaced by Arleigh Burkes. Modernizing an existing cruiser to keep it operational for another 10 years can cost as little as $200 million.

Americas supposedly large defense budget of $813 billion, more than the next 11 countries, as the Guardian says, is not translating into relative power when Chinas defense budget of $230 billion is expanding its navy while we shrink ours.

Something doesnt add up. The Biden administration, which shrank the prior administrations plans for a submarine force from as many as 78 nuclear attack submarines (SSNs) to as little as 66, is part of the problem.

The Pentagon has failed to take years of repeated advice from U.S. Navy fleet commanders to improve maintenance, extend the life of existing ships, and develop and deploy supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles to protect them from adversaries.

As retired U.S. Navy Capt. James Fanell, former director of intelligence for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, wrote in these pages that the recent sinking of Russias flagship cruiser, the Moskva, by two outdated Ukrainian ASCMs, has lessons to which we better listen.

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, he wrote on April 22.

Fanell said in an email: We dont have the shipyards to increase production, so we have to increase the nations shipbuilding infrastructure, which means we need the USG to incentivize this critical, national security industry. That takes time, even if we started in earnest today. The USNs top line is headed to 280 ships, 180 degrees out from what the USN leaders and former SECDEFs have called for, which is a 350 manned ship Navy or even a 500 manned and unmanned ship Navy.

A RIM-7P NATO Sea Sparrow Missile launches from the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) during a stream raid shoot exercise in the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 13, 2007. (Jordon R. Beesley/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

Over the past decade the U.S. Navy has invested in and fielded defensive systems that are designed to deceive and defeat enemy ASCMs (super or subsonic) and ASBMs, he added.

But what we have failed to field is our own family of supersonic ASCMs that can be launched from ships, submarines and aircraft. The fundamental issue is that the USN leadership over the past two decades has stubbornly rejected investing in supersonic, long-range ASCMs as a primary offensive weapon system. Instead, the establishment has sought to rely solely on aircraft carriers and fast attack submarines launching forward from the sea attacks over land, instead of building a fleet that can fight and win a war-at-sea, Fanell wrote.

China and Russia have surprised America time and again with their aggression against places like Ukraine and the South China Sea. Deterrence has failed despite our nuclear weapons and pride in our high-technology defenses. Ukrainians are slugging it out on a battlefield and losing their cities in the process.

What Russia is doing to Ukraine, China could eventually do to the United States. Even if China ultimately lost, we could lose many of our cities in the process. A massive surprise attack against the U.S. military in general, and the Navy in particular, must be planned for and deterred at a more granular level than simple hand waving about nuclear deterrence.

We need to be able to fight and win a conventional war against Russia and China, which will deter them and ultimately keep them from escalating toward nuclear war.

Without a stronger deterrent threat, America must be prepared for Beijings continued incrementalism that could result in nuclear-capable naval ships off Americas coasts, Alaska, and Hawaii, in just a few years. They could dock in Cuba, Venezuela, West Africa, the Azores, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, among other places. They already have temporary access to the Solomon Islands and permanent access to Djibouti.

By the time the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gets five or more carrier strike groups, it can defend its global trading empire. Few democracies would have the stomach to oppose the complete and global dominance of the CCP at that point.

Fixing the problem requires diminishing Chinas economy, which is about 10 times that of Russias, to stop its ability to continue its arms buildup. And we need to increase our defenses by doubling or tripling our efforts, which would require doubling or tripling defense budgets. Then we need to use our military to defend space rather than successively back our red lines toward our capital cities.

Those are the unfortunate costs and risks of effectively defending democracy and deterring a war that is already on the horizon. It will require belt-tightening and steely nerves, but it must be done as our economy may not always be able to sustain even current defense budgets.

Now is the time to stop the CCP. Now or never. Time is not on our side.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Archegos Founder Bill Hwang Arrested on US Federal Fraud Charges

Founder of Archegos Capital Management, Bill Hwang, was arrested on April 27 after being indicted on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, and racketeering, announced federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.

The head of the New York-based hedge fund, which collapsed in March 2021 after defaulting on margin calls, was taken into custody with the firms Chief Financial Officer Patrick Halligan, on allegations that the two men defrauded leading global investment banks and brokerages out of billions of dollars in interrelated schemes and manipulated the price of stocks.

The collapse of the firm shocked Wall Street after borrowing investments from banks and brokerages, saddling the firm with more than $10 billion in losses, according to the indictment.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it will bring separate civil charges against Hwang, Halligan as well as William Tomita, the firms head trader, and Scott Becker, the former chief risk officer.

Halligan, Tomita, and Becker were accused of repeatedly making materially false and misleading statements, under orders from Hwang, about Archegoss portfolio to their counterparties in the financial sector in an attempt to hide the firms misdeeds in order to maintain their scheme, allege prosecutors.

The alleged scam also incurred millions of dollars in losses for Archegos employees who had been required by the firm to hand over a substantial amount of their pay as deferred compensation.

The defendants and their co-conspirators used Archegos, a family office that invested Hwangs personal fortune, as an instrument of market manipulation and fraud, with far-reaching consequences, said the indictment.

The charges, which were unsealed in an indictment in Manhattan federal court, accused Hwang and others of misleading their clients so that the private investment firm could grow its portfolio from $10 billion to over $160 billion.

In a separate statement, SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced that the collapse of Archegos last spring demonstrated how activities by one firm can have far-reaching implications for investors and market participants.

Hwang was able to expand the size of his family office portfolio from $1.5 billion to $35 billion from March 2020 through March 2021 via fraud.

As a result, despite the size of Archegoss positions, the investing public did not know that Archegos had come to dominate the trading and stock ownership of multiple companies, said the federal indictment.

Hwang manipulated the market for several key securities in Archegoss portfolio by unknowingly leading market participants in the scheme to believe that resulting share prices were the result of supply and demand, when he was actually manipulating things behind the scenes.

The financier was able to build up large concentrated positions in companies and held some positions in a mix of cash and swaps with money borrowed from major financial institutions.

The hedge fund took major risks by relying on massive leverage and risky derivatives to take concentrated positions in a handful of stocks, but which were highly vulnerable to price fluctuations.

His strategy used total return swaps that gave his firm the profits and losses on the stocks underlying the swap contracts, while his lenders held the securities, which allowed him to hide the extent of his alleged fraud from investors through the use of derivative securities that had no public disclosure requirement.

Prosecutors said that when securities owned by Archegos rose, Hwang would pump up his top-performing securities, often using swaps and then typically buying stock until he owned about 5 percent of a companys outstanding shares.

According to the SEC, Archegos trading in some of its securities occasionally surpassed 40 percent of the stocks total daily trading volume and that it also engaged in manipulative trading at the end of the day in an effort to drive up and dominate the closing price of the top securities that it owned.

Some of the manipulated stocks in the portfolio included media companies ViacomCBS, Warner Bros. Discovery, Gaotu Techedu Inc., the Chinese internet search engine Baidu, and luxury online retailer Farfetch.

Archegoss failed bet placed on ViacomCBS and Discovery in March 2021 led to a domino effect, leaving the hedge fund unable to meet its margin calls, forcing their brokers to immediately liquidate their positions.

Banks quickly attempted to liquidate their positions tied to Archegos, dumping tens of billions of market value from large companies, which in the end cost $10 billion in losses to counterparties such as Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley, and Nomura.

Within days, over $100 billion in market value disappeared for the nearly dozen companies, banks, and prime brokers that were misled into participating in Hwangs scheme.

Credit Suisse was left with more than $5 billion in losses, while Nomura incurred $3 billion in losses, while Goldman Sachs was quicker to extract itself from its positions and escaped the disaster relatively unscathed.

We allege that Hwang and Archegos propped up a $36 billion house of cards by engaging in a constant cycle of manipulative trading, lying to banks to obtain additional capacity, and then using that capacity to engage in still more manipulative trading, said Gurbir Grewal, Director of the SECs Division of Enforcement.

But the house of cards could only be sustained if that cycle of deceptive trading, lies and buying power continued uninterrupted, and once Archegoss buying power was exhausted and stock prices fell, the entire structure collapsed, allegedly leaving Archegoss counterparties billions in trading losses, said Grewal.

An attorney for Hwang, Lawrence Lustberg, said he is entirely innocent and that there is no evidence whatsoever that he committed any kind of crime.

Lustberg said that Hwangs legal defense was extremely disappointed with charges that they believe have absolutely no factual or legal basis, but that the former money manager will make himself available and will fully cooperate with the governments investigation.

Mary Mulligan, the attorney representing Halligan, said that her client is innocent and will be exonerated.

Hwang and Halligan are expected to appear in federal court later today.

Meanwhile, Tomita and Becker, who were also named in the SEC civil suit, will face no criminal charges at this time.
Sudanese wave national flags during a rally in the town of Zalingei, capital of Central Darfur state on April 3, 2016. (Ashraf Shazly/AFP via Getty Images)

At Least 168 Killed in Western Darfur Violence: Aid Group

KHARTOUMAt least 168 people have been killed and 98 injured in tribal clashes in the western Darfur town of Kreinik, a spokesperson for a refugee group said on Sunday.

The violence is the latest in an uptick of such incidents in the war-weary region.

Western Darfur is home to many of the people displaced by the early-2000s conflict in the region, which saw the government put down armed rebels with help from nomadic Arab militias known as the Janjaweed.

Some 2.5 million people were displaced in the violence and 300,000 were killed. Former President Omar al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges. The trial for one of his aides, known as Ali Kushayb, began earlier this month.

The Coordinating Committee for Refugees and Displaced People accused Janjaweed militias of attempting to clear the area to take control of the land.

They called for the return of international peacekeepers, who withdrew beginning in January 2020.

Representatives for Arab tribes did not respond to calls for comment.

Violence broke out on Friday in Kreinik between Arab nomads and Masalit farmers after an individual altercation, according to several non-governmental organizations.

The Coordinating Committee shared images of burned down buildings. The Darfur Bar Association said that some 20,000 people had been displaced by the violence.

Tensions extended to the nearby city of El Geneina, aid groups said, where stores were ordered to close after sundown.

Another flare-up of urban violence that killed and injured hundreds of civilians in Geneina city last year is a very real, immediate possibility, said an aid official who said road blocks had gone up across the city.

Violence in Darfur has increased since an October 2020 agreement between the countrys post-Bashir transitional government and some of the armed groups that had fought in Darfur.

Some 430,000 people were displaced last year alone, aid groups say.

This demonstrates that there was no positive effect from the agreement on peoples lives or security across the states of Darfur, the Darfur Bar Association said in a statement on Saturday.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Oct. 26, 2021. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Aussie PM Scott Morrison Downplays Party Division on Net-Zero Targets

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has downplayed talk of division within the ranks of the coalition Liberal-National Party on the issue of net-zero carbon emissions commitments.

The catalyst for the debate was the Coalitions candidate for the Queensland seat of Flynn, Colin Boyce, who said on April 26 that there was wiggle room in the Australian governments commitment to decarbonising the economy by 2050.

This viewpoint was backed by Nationals Senator Matt Canavan, who told Sky News Boyce was absolutely right.

Nationals Senator Matthew Canavan at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Jun. 22, 2021. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

The Paris Agreement is not binding. It doesnt bind any nation. In fact, weve just seen in the last few weeks that Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, has paused his nations climate change commitments, his nations net-zero commitments. So none of this is binding on us, and nor should it be, Canavan said.

He added that 2050 was a long way off, and instead, Australias commitments for the next few years should be to defend our nation amid rising tensions with China in the South Pacific and Indo-Pacific.

Downplaying Boyces comments, Morrison said the political candidate meant there was wiggle room in the pathway to achieving net-zero, but not in the governments absolute commitment to the climate agenda.

Everybody knows that Matt hasnt been supportive of that position. Theres no news there, Morrison told reporters on the campaign trail on April 27.

The prime minister said Canavans position was not the position of the centre-right Coalition but noted that his party brings supporters and voters with a diversity of perspectives. Traditionally, the Nationals represent regional and rural voters, often in blue-collar districts.

The Liddell coal-fired power station in the Hunter Vally of New South Wales, Australia. (Taras Vyshnya/Adobe Stock)

Citing fear amongst voters about the opposition centre-left Labor party introducing the equivalent of a carbon tax if elected, Canavan said people are concerned about their jobs and the cost of living.

I think a lot of people have been shocked in the last few days to hear this because there hasnt been a lot of reporting on it, Canavan told Sky News.

He said Labors policy would target not just coal mines but 66 businesses in Western Australia, including all iron ore mines, gas facilities, gold mines, and nickel mines.

This is a massive mining tax, he said.

Labor Denies Carbon Tax

However, Labor Deputy Leader Richard Marles ducked questions from a reporter on whether coal mines would have to buy carbon credits, handing it to the shadow treasurer, Jim Chalmers.

Our policy is designed not to disadvantage our exporters against the companies and the countries with which they compete around the world, Chalmers said.

Australian Sen. Penny Wong in the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Dec. 2, 2019. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)

After similarly attempting to duck questions on the issue, Senator Penny Wong, Labors foreign affairs spokeswoman, echoed Marles and Labor MP Chris Bowen, saying, No coal project will face a carbon constraint  that will make them internationally uncompetitive.

Wong said Labor would not stop new coal and gas projects but noted that Labor sought a realistic pathway to get to net-zero by 2050.

Meanwhile, the leader of the New South Wales state branch of the right-leaning One Nation party, Mark Latham, said Labors climate change policy was the equivalent of a carbon tax.

[Labors climate change policy is] a harsh financial penalty for 215 big employers emitting more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent [per annum]. A massive job destroyer, the equivalent of a carbon tax, Latham said on Twitter on April 27.

Meanwhile, the prime minister said his government would not seek to achieve its net-zero targets by taxing Australians and shutting down businesses and industries connected to the conventional energy sector.

The carbon credits scheme that Labor has put in place, just to be clear  it not only affects the coal industry, Morrison said.

It affects mining, and oil and gas production. It affects rail freight. It affects cement production. It affects fuel refining. And many other sectors are caught up in those arrangements which would see them penalised and taxed.
Australia to Provide Howitzers to Ukraine as Russia Ramps up Offensive

The Australian government has announced it will provide heavy artillery weapons and ammunition to Ukraines armed forces as Russia continues its military offensive in the European nation.

The commitment by Australias prime minister and defence minister was made while the government is in caretaker mode during its federal elections.

In response to more pleas from Ukrainian officials, Australia will supply a further $26.7 million (US$19.1 million) worth of military assistance, providing six M777 lightweight towed howitzers along with ammunition to bolster the countrys resistance to Russias brutal, unrelenting and illegal invasion.

Australia stands with the people of Ukraine and again calls on Russia to cease its unprovoked, unjust and illegal invasion of Ukraine, said Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Minister Peter Dutton in a joint release on April 27.

Australia will continue to identify opportunities for further military assistance, according to the release.

An M777 howitzer from 1st Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, is prepared for transportation before being loaded onto a truck at Gallipoli Barracks, on April 27, in Brisbane, Australia. (Major Roger Brennan, Australian Defence Forces)

The decision comes after Ukraines ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, called on the country to provide further assistance, warning that Russia has the potential to create havoc in the Indo-Pacific.

We need it all to be able to defend, to defend Ukraine, defend Europe, and defend all the values and freedom and democracy, Myroshnychenko said.

We are there in the trenches for you people because  the consequences were going to see will be enormous, that [Vladimir Putin] can take another country by force. This is going to create a domino effect all over the world, including here in the Indo-Pacific.

Australia has already gifted Ukraine with 20 Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles, including 14 protected weapons systems, anti-armour weapons and ammunition, military equipment, combat rations, and military medical supplies.

An Australian Army bushmaster assists in conducting a route clearance in the Cobargo, NSW region in support of Operation Bushfire Assist 19-20. (SGT Bill Solomou/ADF)

Additionally, Australia has provided financial contributions to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisations trust fund for Ukraine, bringing the total contribution to the Ukrainian national defence effort to $225 million.

Meanwhile, Russia has begun to concentrate its attack on southeastern Ukraine.

The BBC reported on April 26 that Russian forces appear to be now concentrating on building a land corridor between Russia, the Russian-backed Ukrainian separatist territories of Donetsk and Luhansk, and the Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Additionally, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned there is a possibility of nuclear conflict in Europe.

Speaking on Russian state television Channel 1 TV, Lavrov, when asked about the possibility of a nuclear confrontation, noted:  the danger is serious.

I would not want to see these risks artificially inflated now when the risks are rather significant, he said. The danger is serious, it is real. It should not be underestimated.

However, he also noted that Russias primary position was one where nuclear confrontation should be avoided if possible.

Lavrov also accused Ukraine of provoking Russia by asking NATO to become involved in the conflict to protect the Ukrainian government.

This also adds fuel to the fire, Lavrov said.
A baby in England has defied the odds despite arriving 17 weeks early and after his parents twice refused doctors advice of turning off his life support.

Little Chay Jefferys weighed just 1 pound when he was born at 23 weeks on June 2, 2021, and spent nine months fighting for his life and battling chronic lung disease.

His mother, Megan Mcgee, 19, had never expected that shed give birth to a premature baby. Her pregnancy was going normal apart from her tooth infection.

I was in such agony and being given all sorts of antibioticsI cant think of another reason that he would have been born so early, Megan, a full-time mom, said. The doctors agree with me that it was probably the antibiotics that triggered my early labor.

Megan was relaxing at her mothers house when she suddenly started to go into labor at just 23 weeks. After rushing to the hospital, she gave birth within hours of arriving.

Chaywho was born in his amniotic sackwas resuscitated by medics and rushed to intensive care before being transferred to University College London Hospital, Holborn.

When he was born, he didnt cry as he wasnt breathing, she said. It was horrible not knowing what was going on, but a really lovely nurse took a little video of them working on him, so I had an idea of what was happening.

Megan got a quick glimpse of Chay after he began breathing, but he was whisked away immediately.

When Chaywho was kept alive by a ventilatorwas just 3 days old, doctors confirmed he had suffered grade four brain bleeds on both sides of his brain along with damage to the white matter and cerebellum.

Megan nestled a teddy bear beside Chay to comfort him while he was in an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit at Hillingdon Hospital, Uxbridge, London.

The teddy was pretty tiny, but Chay was so small, it swamped him, Megan said. It made us realize just how  fragile he was.

It was so scary, Chay was so tiny, he fit in the palm of my hand, she added.

At 3 weeks, his kidneys began to fail, and doctors twice advised the family to turn his life-support machine off, but both Megan and Chays dad, Bradley Jefferys, 22, an electrician, refused their suggestion to turn off their sons life support.

Little Chay Jefferys with his mom and dad. (SWNS)

I said no right away, he had fought so hard I wasnt going to give up on him, Megan said. They kept suggesting it, but he just kept getting bigger and better and so eventually they stopped asking.

Despite his amazing progress, baby Chays lung disease meant that he was unable to leave the hospital for nine months, as he couldnt yet breathe on his own.

But after 280 days in the hospital, he battled to full health and was allowed home to Hillingdon, West Londonmuch to the delight of his big brother, Hugo, 18 months.

Now 9 months and weighing 13 pounds, Chay still has the bearaffectionately named Blueywho has become a firm favorite. Chay, who is now proportionate in size with the bear, loves snuggling with it.

(Left) Little Chay Jefferys with the teddy at birth; (Right) Chay more recently. (SWNS)

Megan says she thanks her lucky stars that Chay wasnt born just a few days earlier as he wouldnt have made the cutoff point, as babies born at 23 weeks are usually deemed too premature for doctors to treat.

She recalls being told that Chay would never be able to walk, talk, or smile, but he is now 9 months old, thriving, feeding, and smiling.

Its been so nice giving him baths and having family over for cuddles, she said. Were so proud of him for coming this far.

Megan believes that Chay will be just like any other kid. Although he has a lot to catch up with, Megan believes that he soon will.

He still needs a bit of oxygen, but they think hell be off that in a few months too, its wonderful, Megan said. Hes having physio to help him with his mobility, which is really helping.

Megan cant wait to see Chay smile more and crawl about.

Being at home has helped him loads already, he seems much more alert and is really grabbing for his toys and reacting to things, Megan said. He still loves cuddling up to Bluey, its so encouraging to see how much bigger he is now, shows just how far theyve both come!

Chay is our little hero.

Epoch Times Staff contributed to this report.

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Brave, powerful, menacing, seductive, cunning, deceptive, and cruel. There are many ways one could describe Harald Hardrada (also known as Harald Sigurdsson). Viking and king are two other ways. Don Hollway, in his new book The Last Viking: The True Story of Harald Hardrada, has provided a vivid look into a complex man who lived at the top during complex times.

Hardradas life is that of fictionmythological fiction, like a man who was a demi-god.

The Timeline of Hardrada

Hollway begins in A.D. 1030 when war and tragedy meet. During the Battle of Stiklestad, Haralds brother, King Olaf II of Norway, is killed, and Harald is wounded and carried to safety. From there, he becomes a mercenary of sorts within the Varangian Guard in the Byzantine Empire where he serves to fight for the emperors, put down revolts, and protect the throne. He also finds time to become lovers with Empress Zoe and Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos lover, Maria Skleraina.

Varangian Guardsmen in an illumination from the 11th-century chronicle of John Skylitzes. (Public Domain)

A majority of the book is centered around his time serving in the Byzantine realm. Hollway discusses how the Viking utilized his prowess, his fighting ability, his personality, and looks to maneuver safely among the highest ranks of the empire. His powerful group of Scandinavian warriors, the Varangian Guard, also ensured his political and physical security.

Eventually, his time serving in the empire comes to an end after being betrayed by Zoe, presumably because of his affair with Maria. He and several of his warriors are sentenced to prison where a massive snake feeds on the flesh of the living and the dead. Determined not to become part of the dead that lie on the floor of the dungeon, Harald and his warriors kill and live off the meat of the snake. By some miracle (often attributed to Saint Olaf), the Viking warriors escape from the prison, assemble several longships, and escape while the Imperial army is busy fighting an invading enemy.

Hollway follows his return home and his eventual rise to kingship. As a mercenary, Haralds actions, regardless of how violent and cruel, are more forgivable as he is merely a warrior following orders. When he becomes king of Norway, however, those cruel actions cut differently for the reader. The author doesnt try to soften the cruelty of Haralds dictatorship. History is what it is, and rulers from ancient times to modern times rarely rule with a velvet glove.

Harald landing near York and defeating the Northumbrian army, from the 13th-century chronicle The Life of King Edward the Confessor by Matthew Paris. (Public Domain)

As is made clear throughout the book, the throne was often a seat of anxiety and suspicion. Had he submitted to this anxiety before his pursuit of England, he might have lived a little longer as king. But as with every great tale, only a good ending will do. And the ending of Harald and this book is one to be remembered.

An Incredible History Story

Hollway has done his due diligence in researching this great story, one utterly worthy of being retold. He has pulled from the great Norse sagas and historical documents to assemble this story of an epic life. Not only will readers learn about the life of Harald, but also the many historic events that took place in the Byzantine Empire, Scandinavia, and England. They will also be introduced to numerous Norse kings, princes, princesses, writers, and men of military might.

All this notwithstanding, The Last Viking is a violent book because its a presentation of those most violent times when soldiers were killed not with bullets, but with sword thrusts and swinging battle axes.

For anyone who is a fan of Viking lore and history, The Last Viking is a thrilling read. For anyone else, it is still a thrilling read with an iconic ending at Stamford Bridge. An ending fit for a king. An ending fit for a Viking.

Cover of The Last Viking: The True Story of King Harald Hardrada.

The Last Viking: The True Story of King Harald Hardrada

By Don Hollway

Osprey Publishing, Sept. 7, 2021

Hardcover: 368 pages
The Good medical practice document has not been updated since 2013. (PA)

British Doctors Could Be Struck Off For Publishing Misleading Posts On Vaccines And Lockdowns

Under proposed new guidance from the UK medical watchdog, social media posts could be scrutinised if a doctor is reported for a breach.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is updating its Good Medical Practice guide, which is seen by some as a modern Hippocratic Oath.

A new draft duty makes clear that doctors must not use digital communications channels to mislead, and they should make reasonable checks to avoid doing so.

The watchdog can refer cases to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), which has the power to restrict, suspend, or revoke a doctors registration in the UK.

On the GMCs orders in 2021, GP Dr. Samuel White, a partner in a rural medical practice in Hampshire, England, was restricted from discussing COVID-19 on social media after he was accused of spreading misinformation for disputing vaccine safety and mask efficacy, pending a full hearing of the allegations against him.

The tribunal banned him from expressing or sharing any views about the pandemic on social media and required him to seek to remove any such views that he had already expressed or shared.

However, those restrictions were overturned, after the High Court found that the tribunal had failed to take into account human rights laws on freedom of expression.

The new GMC document which has not been updated since 2013, outlines professional values and behaviours expected of doctors working in the UK.

The latest version states that in public communications doctors must be honest and trustworthy; make clear the limits of their knowledge; make reasonable checks to make sure any information given is not misleading; declare any conflicts of interest and maintain patient confidentiality.

The new duty also included a news section on workplace bullying, harassment, discrimination, and sexual harassment.

You must not abuse, discriminate against, bully, exploit, or harass anyone, or condone such behaviour by others. This applies to all interactions, including on social media and networking sites, the draft rules stated.

GMC Chief executive Charlie Massey said that good medical practice is the bedrock that helps guide ethical practice and supports doctors to provide the best possible care in a world of increasingly complex medicine.

There is a lot of evidence of the damage bad workplace cultures can do to patient safety and, ultimately, to the UKs ability to retain the healthcare professionals it needs, he added.

Toxic cultures can also spread online, undermining public trust in the medical profession, said Massey.

PA Media contributed to this report.
British Governments Chief Scientific Adviser Says No To Net-Zero Fear Messaging

Sir Patrick Vallance has told a committee that we should not aim to frighten people into changing behaviour over climate change.

During a House of Lords committee called Mobilising action on climate change and environment: behaviour change on Tuesday, the UKs chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance faced questions about how policy actions taken during the COVID-19 crisis could support the government in meeting its 2050 net-zero goal.

Fear Not Necessary for Climate

Its important that the messaging [on climate change] isnt designed to cause fear or upset, said Vallance. It should be about making sure people understand what the situation is.

Vallance said that he didnt think replicating the (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) SAGE Model, which helped to craft COVID-19 policies, and the SPI-B (Members of Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour) model was necessary for this kind of issue.

In March 2020, SPI-B pushed for tactics that warned ministers they needed to increase the perceived level of personal threat from COVID-19 because a substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened and that it needed to be increased among those who are complacent.>

Individuals Need to Know What Is Expected

In terms of net-zero, nudge techniques ie to nudge people into making better decisions are already embedded in UK media and government.

Last year, the broadcaster Sky commissioned a report from the Behavioural Insights Team, established in the Cabinet Office in 2010 by former Prime Minister David Camerons government, to apply behavioural science to public policy on nudging viewers to decarbonise their lifestyles.

Furthermore, the Telegraph reported that in December 2020, the government had set up a green nudge unit inside the Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy department to persuade Britons to install smart meters, drive less, and cut down on meat.

The secret units existence was revealed in a report from the National Audit Office at the time.

Vallance said that looking ahead we should not aim to frighten people because thats not helpful, but we should aim to enable people to understand what actions they can take.

Im eating less meat, I cycle to work, and I fly less than I used to, he said. I havent said I stopped flying or I dont eat meatI do. I think its about reduction and appropriate reduction across society.

Individuals need to know what is expected of them, as well as making that easy for them, he added.

Many on the Lords committee questioned ways to use behavioural science and nudge to help accomplish the UKs legally binding targets as a method to move the population towards everyday decisions to spur environmental action.

No Such Peer-Reviewed Science

However, life peer and former Margaret Thatcher cabinet minister Lord Peter Lilley asked, is it the job of scientists to tell the truth when it is alarming but to keep quiet when its not?

I put down a question asking the government whether they knew of any peer-reviewed science that suggested that the human race would be rendered extinct in the next couple of centuries if we did nothing, and they said no, we have no such peer-reviewed science, he said.

Lilley, who has registered declared interests in the oil and gas industry and is known for his critical views on climate and net-zero energy policy, said that no club of scientists will ever criticize Extinction Rebellion whose very name implies that we will be going extinct if we dont do anything. He asked Vallance if it is the job of scientists to tell part of the truth but not the whole truth?

Absolutely not. The job is to try and make the data and the evidence as clear as you can, replied Vallance. Science is not an immutable set of facts, it is an assessment of the current state of knowledge, he added.
California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson listens as attorneys present their arguments before the California Supreme Court in Sacramento, Calif., on Nov. 6, 2019. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo)

California Republican Party Leadership Accused of Pay-to-Play Politics Over Endorsements

ANAHEIM, Calif.A political firestorm over alleged pay-to-play politics at the recent California Republican Party Convention has burned some candidates who have claimed that party leadership used proxy votes to favor establishment candidates for endorsements.

After the reelection campaign for state Sen. Brian Dahles wife, Assemblywoman Megan Dahle, gave a $40,500 donation to the Republican Party on April 22, the first day of the weekend-long convention, gubernatorial candidate Jenny Rae Le Roux made the pay-to-play allegation in a text message sent out to Republican delegates that was later leaked on social media.

Last night at 8:15 p.m., Megan Dahle made a payment from her campaign account to the CAGOP [California Republican Party]. Two hours later 400 proxies were given to her husbands campaign for Governor by party leadership, Le Roux wrote in the text message. We are not the party of rigged elections. The Republican endorsement should not be for sale. I am calling for the return of the suspicious payment and for everyone to vote their conscience tomorrow.

The next morning, California Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher sent an email to delegates stating that he had asked Megan Dahle for the donation.

I asked for and Megan Dahle gave money to the Party that goes directly to helping win the Assembly seats. Period. End of story, Gallagher wrote. Anything else is just desperate politics. A Governor candidate should know that we need to win all the way down the ticket. Brian Dahle is a proven leader and he deserves our nomination today.

In response, Le Roux also sent an email to delegates.

I stand by my position that endorsements should be earned, not bought, she wrote.

Jenny Rae Le Roux talks to a supporter in the lobby at the California Republican Party convention in Anaheim, Calif., on April 23, 2022. (Brad Jones/The Epoch Times)

Megan Dahles transfer to the party just hours before those assignments was over 5X the size of any prior contribution.  Many of you have known for years that these deals are regularly made. I found the courage to lead with my own conviction.

Sen. Dahle, who has held elected public office for more than 25 years, was endorsed by the party for governor on April 24.

Dahle told The Epoch Times via text message on April 25 that he was in committee and couldnt respond to an inquiry.

Le Roux alluded to the pay-to-play scandal during her campaign speech at a candidates forum on April 23, alleging that the endorsement had been purchased just before organizers cut her mic. She asked the party to return the money.

Ellie Hockenbury, a CAGOP spokesperson, told The Epoch Times on April 25 that the $40,500 was a routine donation.

This is a routine member contribution to the Assembly Republican Caucus. Nothingburger, Hockenbury said in a text message.

Le Roux confirmed that she wrote the text message and sent it out to delegates, but suggested that she had put the incident behind her.

Its time to move on, she told The Epoch Times on April 25.

Ive got a race to win, she said, referring to the June 7 Republican primary, so I can face off with Gavin Newsom in November.

Rachel Hamm mingles with supporters in the lobby at the California Republican Party convention in Anaheim, Calif., on April 23, 2022. (Brad Jones/The Epoch Times)

Rachel Hamm, whos running for California secretary of state, also had her speech cut short when party leadership cut her mic more than a minute before her five-minute time limit had expired.

I got cut off unjustly, she told The Epoch Times.

Hamm said that according to the CAGOP leadership, she broke the rules to not speak negatively about other Republicans when she encouraged other candidates to be conservatives and stop running to the middle, leaning left, [and] acting like liberals.

Several sources within the party told The Epoch Times that the party is controlled by RINOs, an acronym for Republicans in Name Only and that there are rifts between pro-Trump America First candidates and the California Republican Party establishment.

Hamm said she was told that another candidate was offered an endorsement in exchange for a donation. She accused party leadership of favoring moderate candidates and smearing those it opposes.

Its death by a thousand cuts. They did very specific things to sabotage very specific people, me being one of them, she said.

Hamm had been the sole Republican candidate for secretary of state until the party recruited others to run against her, according to Hamm.

People on the board began making phone calls  telling people that I was a satanic witch, and therefore they needed someonefor the sake of the greater good for the partyto step up and run for secretary of state in order to sabotage my campaign, she said.

Shocked at the allegation, Hamm said she was in a state of disbelief until she heard the same claim from more than 20 people.

Im such a strong, outspoken Christian. So, its a very weird, stupid lie. Its so easily just disputed and put to rest  and then I heard it from another person and then another person, she said.

Hamm, a Trump supporter, said RINOs and liberal infiltrators have risen into key party leadership positions and are trying to destroy the party from within.

Mike Netter at the California Republican Party Convention in Anaheim, Calif., on April 22, 2022. (Brad Jones/The Epoch Times)

Mike Netter, campaign manager for Attorney General candidate Eric Early, told The Epoch Times that he believes party leadership conspired to control blank proxy votes to sway which candidates received endorsements.

The CAGOP used a paid candidate operative to give out hundreds of signed proxy votes to delegates attending the convention and told them to use those hundreds of proxies to vote against the opponents, Netter said.

Of the 1,379 eligible delegates, 522 voted at the convention and 534 votes were cast by proxy for other delegates who didnt attend.

No one knows who these proxies are, Netter said.

Each delegate in attendance can carry up to two proxy votes, meaning that they can cast up to three ballotstheir own and one or two proxy votes.

Although proxy votes require a wet signature from a delegate, the delegate doesnt have to specify the candidates for whom theyre voting. In other words, its like a blank check, he said.

Netter is calling for more transparency and a breakdown of how many proxy votes were cast for each candidate.

The California GOP needs to make visible the wet-signature proxies to the delegates, he said. There is currently no way to validate that the proxies are valid, and there is no mechanism, rules, or procedures apparently in place as to how and to what delegates these proxies are distributed.

Netter said the timing of Megan Dahles donation has also created suspicion.

Its bad optics, he said.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks at the California Republican Party Convention in Anaheim, Calif., on April 23, 2022. (Brad Jones/The Epoch Times)

It sure makes delegates and many people in the Republican Party suspicious. We would like someone to come out and show us specifically what that money is used for because it makes delegates not trust the party because everybody thinks proxies are being purchased. Dont tell me theres nothing to look at. Prove me wrong.

California Republican Assembly (CRA) Regional Vice President Jennye Bigelow told The Epoch Times on April 26 that the CAGOP policy of allowing a majority of delegates to vote by proxy opens the door to influence by lobbyists and pay-to-play schemes in which the proxy votes will go to the highest bidder.

The system is designed to favor establishment candidates, Bigelow said.

I had several people reach out to me, after the voting on [April 24] at the convention, confused about the way the system works. They were under the impression it was one delegate, one vote, but they quickly realized it was one delegate with multiple votes, she said. The California GOP allows proxy votes, and when you have more proxy votes than actual delegates there to vote, the outcome is always going to be in the favor of the proxies.

The CRA, although chartered by the California Republican Party, is an independent volunteer organization that makes its own endorsements and doesnt allow delegates to vote by proxy.

Thats the reason why endorsements are always different between the CRA and the California GOP, Bigelow said.

CRA does not allow proxy voting, which means if the delegate doesnt show up at the convention, theres no vote. They dont vote. They cannot give their vote to anybody else. When you use proxy votes, the people no longer have a voice. It should be one person, one vote.

Supporting Moderates

Earlier this year, party leadership was accused of considering the idea of supporting moderate Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections.

When asked by the party secretary about CAGOPs policy on possibly either endorsing or unofficially throwing support behind some of the moderate Democrats, at a meeting on Jan. 22, Chairwoman Jessica Patterson suggested supporting incumbent Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, District 3, whos a member of the Democratic Party.

Chairwoman Jessica Patterson at the California Republican Party convention in Anaheim, Calif., on April 22, 2022. (Brad Jones/The Epoch Times)

However, Hockenbury later told The Epoch Times that the party doesnt endorse Democrats, which would violate CAGOPs official bylaws.

Party Endorsements

At the convention in Anaheim on April 24, the CAGOP endorsed several other statewide candidates: Mark Meuser for U.S. Senate; Lance Christensen for superintendent of public instruction; Nathan Hochman for attorney general; Lanhee Chen for controller; and Angela Underwood Jacobs for lieutenant governor.

After three days of party building, exceptional speakers, insightful trainings, and official business, our delegates endorsed quality and talented candidates for statewide office, Patterson said in a statement. I look forward to supporting them as they challenge California Democrats failed one-party rule with visions for a brighter tomorrow.

The CAGOP board of directors also voted to endorse several candidates for local office. The full list of endorsed candidates can be found on the partys website.
Capitol Report (April 26): How Twitter Impacted 2020 Elections and Beyond

The nations highest court took up a Texas-led immigration case that challenges the White Houses border policy.

Now that Twitter is swapping hands, we take a look at the platforms impact on politics both past and future. Did Twitter play a role in the 2020 election, and what role might it play in 2022?

Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified on U.S. foreign relations priorities. What did he have to say about Russia and China after his weekend trip to Kyiv?

President Joe Biden announced three pardons and commuted dozens of sentences as part of a White House initiative launching job training and reentry programs for prisoners.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy led a GOP delegation to the southern border this week. In a press conference on the banks of the Rio Grande, he appealed to keep Title 42 and criticized Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas over the uncontrolled influx of illegal migrants.

A federal judge has stepped in to temporally allow Title 42 to stay in place, but will this be enough to halt the massive flow of illegal immigration?

An iconic painting of American culture is up for auction. The expected selling price is around $20 million.

Follow CapitolReport on social media:

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Workers vaccinate chicks with the H9 bird flu vaccine at a farm in Changfeng county, Anhui province, China, on April 14, 2013. (Stringer/Reuters)

China Reports 1st Ever Human Case of H3N8 Bird Flu

A boy in China has contracted the H3N8 strain of bird flu, which appears to be the first known human case in the world, said the Chinese regimes health authorities.

The case involved is a 4-year-old boy who had been hospitalized on April 10 in Zhumadian city in the central province of Henan, Chinas health commission said in an April 26 statement.

No human infection of this strain has been reported, the agency added.

H3N8 is known to infect horses, seals, and dogs. It is one of the two strains that cause dog flu in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It has been detected in dogs across much of the United States, CDC said on its website, adding it hasnt infected a human.

The commission said that the chances of it spreading among people were low.

This infection is an accidental cross-species transmission, read the statement. There is a low risk of large-scale transmission.

Though rare, infections in humans can lead to adaptive mutations that potentially allow these viruses to more easily spread in mammals, said Erik Karlsson, deputy head of the virology unit at the Institut Pasteur in Cambodia.

Karlsson said the virus warranted expanded surveillance. He added its implication in the 1889 influenza pandemic, known as the Russian flu, was a major concern for the risk of the virus.

Chinas commission said an initial assessment determined the variant is of avian origin. It noted there were chickens and crows raised in the boys home and that wild ducks were populated in the area.

His close contacts did not show any abnormalities during the medical surveillance period, it added.

The boy developed symptoms including a fever on April 5 and was diagnosed with H3N8 about two weeks later on April 24, according to the statement.

He is in critical condition, according to Hong Kongs health department, citing a notification from Beijing. The National Health Commission did not mention this detail in the statement.

Last year, China reported a 41-year-old man contracted H10N3, which is also believed to be the first human infection of the type of avian influenza.

In 2021, China has reported 21 human infections with the H5N6 subtype of avian influenza to the World Health Organization (WHO). Though the numbers are much lower than the hundreds infected with H7N9 in 2017, infections leave many critically ill and have resulted in at least six deaths, raising concerns among experts.

We need to be concerned about all spillover events, Karlsson said.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Model Y cars during the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide, Germany, on March 22, 2022. (Patrick Pleul/Pool via Reuters)

Chinese Regime Seeks to Control Global EV Supply Chain, Leaving US Vulnerable: Experts

Competition between the United States and China in the realms of electric and autonomous vehicles could determine the future control of global supply chains in an unprecedented way, according to a lawmaker and several experts.

Our competitors, particularly in China, are not holding back, said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) during an April 27 event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a security-focused think tank.

We cannot fall behind on the global stage.

Peters said that the future of the automotive industry was in electric vehicles (EVs) and autonomous vehicles (AVs), and that the nation to best develop those industries would win a great advantage in the global marketplace.

To that end, former Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair noted that both EVs and AVs were singled out in Beijings Made in China 2025 industrial plan as part of its top 10 high-tech areas to seize leadership in. This, he said, demonstrated a clear effort to displace the United States as the lead controller of global supply chains and the international industrial ecosystem.

If the United States loses full spectrum industrial capacity in the automotive industry, and this means designing the cars, testing them, building them, fixing them, the whole ecosystem, then we are hollowing out the industrial sector that we counted on to become the arsenal of democracy in the second world war, Blair said.

The big picture is Chinas all-of-government push and the importance of the automotive sector to American industrial capability.

Blair added that the ongoing technological decoupling of China from the rest of the world in terms of its data and systems standards would prove a vital component of how Sino-American competition in the sector unfolded.

This sort of decoupling of the Chinese economy from the rest of the world is something you need to watch in this space, Blair said.

It may be that separate AI [artificial intelligence] industries and AV technologies grow up in China and the rest of the world.

John Bozzella, President of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, agreed that China could effectively seize control of vital supply chains by seizing industrial prominence in EV and AV technologies, thus pushing the United States out of access to vital technologies.

The countries that really take the lead in developing cutting edge innovative technologies in the auto sector are going to control the supply chains, set the standards, set the running rules, and really own global markets, Bozzella said.

With regard to EVs, you see the U.S. industry already behind China because were competing with a national effort, Bozzella added.

With that in mind, Bozzella suggested that the United States would need to better unite the powers of its private industry with a national strategy, and work to develop the utilities and infrastructure needed to transition its industrial base to produce EV and AV technologies.

The China story does suggest that this private sector leadership ought to be supported by a national strategy, Bozzella said.

We are competing with the Chinese government, not the Chinese auto manufacturers.
A view of Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the seat of Canadas government, in a file photo. The Ontario Civil Liberties Association is opposed to the federal governments intention to make Holocaust denial a criminal offence in Canada, as proposed in the 2022 budget, saying it is a recipe for arbitrary impression-based state censorship. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

Civil Liberties Group Raises Concerns Over Proposed Criminal Law Under Antisemitism Title

The Ontario Civil Liberties Association has written to senators and MPs to express opposition to legislation proposed in the 2022 federal budget to criminalize Holocaust denial and promotion of antisemitism, saying it will damage Canadian democracy and could lead to criminalization of speech about other significant events.

OCLA executive director Joseph Hickey publicized the April 22 letter in a press release that included links to the organizations previous letters to the federal and two provincial governments calling for the repeal of existing hate speech provisions in the Criminal Code.

OCLAs stance is not specific to this issue but to all hate crime legislation, Hickey told The Epoch Times.

We have, for many years, had the position that all of the speech provisions in the Criminal Code should be repealed, he said.

The provisions dont require the prosecutor to bring any actual witness who would have suffered harm or saw harm. And that is unlike other provisions in the Criminal Code, such as uttering a death threat or incitement to violence. In those cases, you need to actually really show a real connection between speech and a potential harm or an actual harm that happened.

Hickey says similar speech crimes with low thresholds for prosecution, such as blasphemous libel and defamatory libel, were removed in 2018, and he doesnt welcome adding a new one.

Hate speech in Canada is a victimless crime, because no evidence of any kind is needed for conviction, Hickey wrote in his letter to parliamentarians. This is a recipe for arbitrary impression-based state censorship.

The new provision reads, In Budget 2022, the government proposes to amend the Criminal Code to prohibit the communication of statements, other than in private conversation, that willfully promote antisemitism by condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust.

International Law

In his letter, Hickey said the new provision is explicitly and directly contrary to international law.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR] requires states to establish a direct and immediate connection to an actual threat when implementing laws that restrict freedom of expression, he wrote.

In 2011, the U.N. issued General Comment No. 34 on the ICCPR, which states: Laws that penalize the expression of opinions about historical facts are incompatible with the obligations that the Covenant imposes on States parties in relation to the respect for freedom of opinion and expression. The Covenant does not permit general prohibition of expressions of an erroneous opinion or an incorrect interpretation of past events.

Hickey told parliamentarians in his letter: All statements of fact and opinion about all historical events must be open to questioning, otherwise we are inhabiting a regime of dogma. In such a regime, there can be no authentic search for truth, and no democracy. The criminalization of expression on state-controlled or taboo topics does not belong in any free and democratic society.

He wrote that by thefalse logic of the proposed new crime, the government could equally criminalize expression, including questions and calls for independent investigations, about other events of national or global significance, such as wars, public health crises, and natural disasters.

Hickey also told The Epoch Times that it was wrong to bury this provision in a budget bill.

These types of laws are very controversial. Theres a lot of debate that should be had. But that can only happen if the bill is put forward in an individualized way, not as part of an omnibus bill, he said.

Low-Hanging Fruit

Scott Bennett, a political science professor at Carleton University, said in an interview that the technical arguments of the OCLA are correct. Still, he doubts parliamentarians would vote against the new hate provision even if it were introduced separately, especially since Kevin Waugh, a Conservative MP from Saskatoon, introduced a private members bill with identical language in February.

In all likelihood, someone in the governing party saw this as low-hanging fruit, as it actually grows out of [Waughs bill]. So it could be seen as a minimal attempt at cooperative behaviour in the Commons, Bennett said.

There would be very few people who would actually deny that the Holocaust took place more or less as described by mainstream historians. So the public is unlikely to get upset about a new criminal act definition unless they can connect it to personally important but more general concerns, like freedom of speech.

Interest groups and politicians are often better at symbolic gestures than thoughtful substantive policy, he says, and this legislation might be one more example.

Will it reduce the magnitude of antisemitic acts? Will it impact hate crimes of any magnitude in a significant way? I think that is very debatable. It may simply drive certain kinds of behaviour further underground, or it may raise concerns that acts against some groups are being taken more seriously than acts against other groups, he said.

Rather than criminalizing certain speech, it would probably be desirable to increase educational activities relating to group-focused hate. Perhaps some of that will come out of the other funding connected to the bill.

The budget earmarks $5.6 million over five years to the office of former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, now the prime ministers special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism.

Germany, Greece, France, Belgium, and the Czech Republic have also enacted Holocaust denial legislation.
Conservatives Call on RCMP to Take Another Look Into Trudeaus 2016 Aga Khan Trip

Opposition Conservatives are asking the RCMP to pursue a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus trip to the Aga Khans private island six years ago, saying theres new evidence.

The Bahamian vacation Trudeau and his family embarked on in 2016 has re-emerged as an issue after the Conservative party received internal documents through an access-to-information request showing the force contemplated investigating him for fraud.

The federal ethics commissioner investigated the trips and in 2017 ruled his acceptance of gifts breached conflict of interest rules because the Aga Khan was the founder of a charity that had received federal money.

Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen has been pressing Trudeau about whether he used his power as prime minster to grant himself the authority to accept the gift.

Her question references a Criminal Code provision that says government officials cannot accept gifts from someone who has dealings with the government without written consent from the head of their government branch.

Bergen says Trudeaus response in the House of Commons Tuesday that he did not grant himself permission to accept the gift counts a new evidence, which means the RCMP should revisit the matter.
Conservatives Demand to Know If Prime Minister Used Loophole to Avoid Fraud Charges

OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau is still being dogged by questions about family vacations six years ago at the Aga Khans private island in the Bahamas.

In question period Tuesday, interim Opposition leader Candice Bergen demanded to know if he used his authority as prime minister to grant himself permission to accept the gifts.

A provision of the Criminal Code says government officials cant accept gifts from someone who has dealings with the government unless theyre given written consent by the head of their branch of government, which in this case would be the prime minister.

Internal RCMP documents show the force considered opening a fraud investigation after details of the trip came to light, but cite numerous reasons why it did not, including the fact that neither Parliament nor the ethics commissioner chose to refer the case to police.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with the Aga Khan on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa on May 17, 2016. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

If Trudeau did grant himself written consent, there would be no case for fraud by the government, the RCMP concluded, but the documents state that they did not know whether that happened.

When Bergen asked Tuesday whether Trudeau used that loophole to avoid being charged, he said no.

The RCMP looked into this matter and no political interference was around it. They came to their own conclusion; there was nothing to pursue, Trudeau told the House.

Bergen pressed on, asking if Trudeau would agree to do an interview with the RCMP about the $215,000 gift. He did not respond.

The ethics commissioner determined in 2017 that Trudeau violated conflict of interest rules, and that he should have recognized going on the trip would be seen as a conflict.

The commissioners report and the information used to compile it cant be used as evidence in court if criminal charges did arise  another reason the RCMP chose not to pursue a case.

Trudeau is the first Canadian prime minister to breach conflict of interest rules while in office.
Denmark to Suspend Countrywide COVID-19 Vaccination Program in May

Denmark has become the first country to suspend its COVID-19 vaccination program, citing a drop in new infections and high immunity among the population.

The countrywhich in February lifted all pandemic-related restrictionsannounced the decision on Tuesday, with officials stating that it was in a good position to scrap the program.

The Danish Health Authority pointed to high vaccination rates across the nation, noting that over 4.8 million Danes have been vaccinated since December 2020, as well as a drop in new infections, high immunity among the population, and stabilized hospitalization rates as reasons for the decision.

Beginning May 15, the government will no longer issue vaccination invitations or reminders, officials said.

However, health officials continue to recommend those who are at an increased risk of severe COVID-19, such as individuals with underlying health conditions, to get vaccinated. They also recommend that Danes complete their vaccination course if they have started one.

While the program will be suspended as of mid-May, officials expect to resume it again after the summer.

Vaccines against COVID-19 will likely be needed again this fall, they added. This is because coronavirus is an unstable virus that can continue to mutate, and we expect to see an increase in infections again as we go from fall to winter.

Bolette Sborg, director of the authoritys department of infectious diseases, said health officials will assess who needs to be vaccinated and when, as well as with which vaccines before next autumn, according to Danish news outlet, The Local.

Denmark became the first country in the EU to scrap pandemic-related restrictions in February, stating that the virus was no longer considered a socially critical disease and was not burdening the health system.

However, when the highly transmissable wave of Omicron hit Denmark in November last year, the country stepped up its immunization campaign, which included booster shots and a fourth dose of the vaccine in mid January for vulnerable individuals.

The decision to drop the vaccination program in Denmark comes a month after White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci warned of the potential for pandemic restrictions to be reinstated in the United States if there is an upstick in virus cases.

Fauci told the BBC that Americans need to be prepared for the possibility for an increase in cases but noted: I dont want to use the word lockdowns. That has a charged element to it. But I believe that we must keep our eye on the pattern of what were seeing with infections.

The BA.2 Omicron subvariant makes up around 68.1 percent of cases, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin listens as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentences him to 22-and-a-half years in prison, for the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn., on June 25, 2021. (Court TV via AP, Pool)

Derek Chauvin Appeals Murder Conviction in George Floyds Death

Attorneys for former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin on Monday asked an appeals court to overturn his conviction in the death of George Floyd.

A 72-page filing dated April 25 (pdf) asks the appeals court to either reverse Chauvins conviction, reverse his conviction and remand for a new trial in a new venue, or return the case to a lower court for re-sentencing.

Chauvin was handed a 22-and-a-half-year sentence in June 21 for second-degree murder by Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill.

Earlier, the former police officer was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter for the May 2020 death of Floyd which sparked widespread riots and protests, as well as calls to defund the police.

Chauvins attorneys in the filing argued that he wasnt given a fair trial owing to the pre-trial publicity and media coverage surrounding the case, combined with the widespread riots prior to and during his trial.

The overwhelming media coverage exposed the jurorsliterally every dayto news demonizing Chauvin and glorifying Floyd, which was more than sufficient to presume prejudice, Chauvins lawyers said. However, the real problem is the jurors expressed concern for (i) they and their families personal safety and (ii) riots breaking out in the event they acquitted Chauvin.

The court proceedings were so pervaded by error, misconduct and prejudice that they were structurally defective, they said.

The pretrial publicity, combined with riotsboth after the incident and during trialcoupled with the announcement of the $27,000,000 settlement, constitutes a presumption of prejudice, the documents state.

Chauvins attorneys argued that media coverage glorified Floyd and demonized Chauvin  literally every day from May 26, 2020 until trial concluded.

The court document also argues that a change of venue was needed in Chauvins case.

There are few cases involving such violent threats by the community in the event the jury finds the defendant not guilty. Those caseswhich all involved defendant police officersrequired transfer of venue, his attorneys said.

The appeal filing said that if Chauvins conviction is upheld, his sentence should be reduced by the court to be within the states sentencing guidelines. Minnesota has a sentencing guideline range of 10 years and 8 months to 15 years.

Chauvins sentence was higher than the presumptive 12-and-a-half years after the judge agreed with prosecutors that there were aggravating factors in Floyds death. In handing down his sentence, Cahill said Chauvin exhibited particular cruelty during Floyds death, abused his position of authority as a police officer, and did so in front of children.
A general view shows the Rikers Island jail complex in the East River of New York, from Queens, on Jan. 13, 2022. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

District Attorneys Say New York Bail Law Abets Crime, Needs Systematic Fix

Since New York state passed a major bail law in 2019, the day-to-day court operations at Otsego County have been turned upside down, according to district attorney John Muehl.

On some days, 20 cases could be scheduled on a city courts calendar and only five defendants would show up. The rate of failure to appear in court has increased almost tenfold, Muehl said.

The 2019 bail law eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, including most drug trafficking offenses. In those cases, defendants are released without paying any money, sometimes on supervised conditions such as electronic monitoring.

Our drug dealers come from New York City, Albany, or Utica, and they have no ties to our community whatsoever. After they were released, they just never came back to court, Muehl said.

Drugs have long been a problem in rural Otsego because of the high demand at two local colleges.

A new discovery law was also passed in 2019 that requires prosecutors to disclose evidence to defense counsel in much shorter time frames.

Confidential informants no longer want to help us because they fear their information will be turned over to the defense. The law has pretty much legalized the sale or possession of drugs in our county, he said.

His office would typically prosecute 75 to 80 serious drug trafficking or possession cases a year. In the past two years, his office prosecuted only two.

Eliminating cash bail for most drug trafficking offenses is also responsible for rising crime in New York City, according to Putnam County District Attorney Robert Tendy.

Robert Tendy. (Courtesy of Robert Tendy)

Before being elected as district attorney in 2015, Tendy had worked in New York Citys Manhattan District Attorneys Office for four years and as a defense attorney for another 20 years.

Narcotics use is a real driver of criminal behavior. It leads to theft, it leads to assault, it leads to grand larcenies, it leads to burglaries and robberies, Tendy said.

As long as we continue to release low-level drug dealers, crime is going to continue to skyrocket.

With the proliferation of lethal drugs such as fentanyl, narcotics use also leads to deaths, he said.

When he was a defense attorney, he represented many young clients with serious drug addiction and on the edge of losing their lives. The best thing he did for them was let them stay in jail while their cases were pending, he said.

He would make deals with parents and district attorneys to make that happen. I can represent your daughter, but you must promise me that you will not bail her out, he would tell the parents.

A lot of times, after a few months in jail with no access to drugs, his clients started to return to normalcy and think for themselves.

Nowadays attorneys cannot do that anymore. Their clients are released no matter what. We are hurting the very people we are trying to help. That is one of the reasons why drug deaths have gone up so high, he said.

Offense Versus Flight Risk

Since the bail law went into effect, New York governors and lawmakers have attempted to fix it twice.

The last attempt, led by Gov. Kathy Hochul early this year, allowed judges to set bail in a few more offenses or consider more factors, including gun sales to minors, repeat offenses where a person is harmed, and repeat property theft.

Both Muehl and Tendy said the change failed to address the root problem of the bail law.

At the heart of the 2019 bail law, they said, is a systematic shift from a flight-risk-based standard to an offense-based standard.

The law essentially divides offenses into two categories: bailable and non-bailable; for non-bailable offenses, bail would almost never be set regardless of flight risk.

The purpose of bail is to ensure that the defendant returns to court as directed, so basing bail on the crime that was committed is foolish. It is the individual, not the crime that he has committed, that decides whether or not he is going to return, Muehl said.

In practice, setting bail on flight risk also allows judges to consider the seriousness of offenses as well as the threat level of defendants, Tendy said.

Serious offenses mean serious consequences, so prosecutors can argue in front of a judge that because the potential consequences are so serious, the defendants have a flight risk and bail should be set, he said.

As for defendants who are likely to commit new crimes while their cases are pending, they most likely have no regard for the law and have a history of not consistently coming back to court as directed. In those cases, prosecutors can recommend bail based on flight risk too, he said.

So all that gets into the mix of what a flight risk is. That is why it was a very good standard to determine whether a person should be held in, he said.

But the old law wasnt perfect, and hes not against change; just that the reform New York has now is the wrong kind of reform, Tendy said.

I think legislators need to realize district attorneys are also very concerned with criminal justice reform and desperately want to make common sense suggestions, he said.

But instead of talking to us, they listened to so-called experts in think tanks who have agendas or theoreticians who deal with statistics.

These people do not work with criminals on a daily basis and do not know the real world. That is why we are in this mess today.

Adding Dangerousness Into the Mix

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said the kind of reform he would like to see is to allow judges to consider danger levels.

Raymond Tierney (Courtesy of Raymond Tierney)

What the lawmakers are trying to do is to fix a problem that they really cannot fix, unless they rewrite the law from scratch and say that judges can consider dangerousness in setting bail, he told The Epoch Times.

The clearest, easiest standard is dangerousness. If a person is selling heroin laced with fentanyl, which has resulted in a number of overdoses, that person is clearly dangerous and should be held in [jail].

Its an easy standard to meet. It is also easy from a proof perspectiveI dont have to rely on fingerprints and testimony from out-of-state witnesses that I must get in 24 hours.

Tierney said he got the argument how flight-risk standard also considers the level of danger offered by a defendant, but he thinks it a skewed logic and not as clean-cut as dangerousness.

Under the current bail law, there are still ways for prosecutors to hold dangerous defendants behind bars, but they are onerous, time-consuming, and doing them crowds out other important tasks, he said.

In 2021, Tierney campaigned on the bail law issue, promising to lobby legislatures to repeal the 2019 bail reform. He won the election by 15 points against Democratic incumbent Timothy Sini, becoming the first Republican prosecutor to serve the county in 20 years.

Suffolk County lies east of New York City and covers the eastern end of Long Island.

Apparently, lawmakers in Albany didnt heed his advice in the last legislative session. He said he would continue to sound the drum while enforcing the law with the rules he is givenhowever difficult it may beto keep people safe.

Im going to keep talking about how we had to arrest a drug dealerwho was selling deadly fentanylthree times before we can finally hold him in on bail, he said.

We should have been able to argue dangerousness at the first overdose death so that he wouldnt be released back into the community and hurt others.

For Muehl, however, the laws that hes given have made it impossible to do his job.

After serving 18 years as Otsego County District Attorney, Muehl is not seeking reelection. Had it not been for the bail law, he would have run for one more term, he said.

Im of the opinion that we are living in an age where most of the legislatures dislike law enforcement and district attorneys. They dont pay attention to us or hear what we have to say, Muehl said.

Eventually, it will come around, and people will vote lawmakers in who are going to change these laws, but it is going to take a while.
Economic Woes and Violent Crime Have Oregon Voters Grumpy Before Primaries

The issues that are ticking them offby the numbers

Oregon voters are in a sour mood as they head into the May 17 primaries.

According to a February poll conducted by DHM Research, only 18 percent of Oregonians think the state is headed in the right direction. Thats the lowest number recorded in DHM Research surveys dating back to 1993.

Respondents are unhappy with homelessness, rising crime, jobs and the economy, housing costs, and more.

Of concern for Democrats is the dissatisfaction with current leadership.

Oregon Democrats in the state have what political analysts call a triplexone party holds the offices of governor, attorney general and secretary of state. The party also holds majorities in both chambers of the legislature and the treasurers office.

Both U.S. Senators and four of five U.S. House members are Democrats.

Given a choice between the two parties, 29 percent of survey respondents said they would vote for a Democrat for Governor while 47 percent preferred a Republican.

Respondents also preferred a political outsider (47 percent) versus someone with experience in elected office (27 percent) and were slightly more concerned about a candidates economic policies (48 percent) than their social positions (43 percent).

Those numbers may not bode well for Democratic gubernatorial primary candidates Tina Kotek, the former House Speaker who has been a dominant political figure in Oregon for 10 years, and State Treasurer Tobias Read, another political insider.

Already, candidate Betsy Johnson, who left the Democratic party before announcing an Independent bid for Governor, is attacking Kotek as Kate Brown Jr. in reference to the current Democratic governor, who is not eligible to run for re-election due to term limits.

In the DHM survey, 72 percent of respondents had a very, or somewhat, negative view of Brown.

Respondents also viewed President Joe Biden negatively (63 percent). Thats more than those who hold the same view of former president Donald Trump (54 percent).

On the issues, Oregon voters are more concerned about homelessness (82 percent), violent crime (68 percent), political leadership, forest fires, cost of living (each at 61 percent), illegal immigration (45 percent), and voter fraud (41 percent), than they are about climate change (39 percent), income inequality (30 percent) and racial inequality (27 percent).

Of those surveyed, 55 percent rate Oregons economy as poor or very poor and 62 percent say it is getting worse.

Respondents believe that there is more crime in their community (74 percent) and more crime in the state (84 percent) than there was just one year ago. Also, 58 percent want more police funding while just 7 percent want less,

Interestingly, just 33 percent of respondents attribute Oregons severe wildfires of recent years to climate change while 52 percent blame forest management practices and 17 percent identify natural variations in the environment.

After five ballot measures over 20 years asking voters to approve a sales tax (on top of income and other taxes), 66 percent of respondents continue to oppose the idea while just 30 percent indicated support.

The DHM survey was taken before recent revelations of CRT and transgender agendas in Oregon schools that have angered many parents.

On that note, 50 percent of respondents identified themselves as male and 50 percent as female with none identifying as non-binary or gender conforming.

Despite the poor polling, Democrats have numbers on their side.

Of Oregons 2.9 million registered voters, 1,019,668 are Democrats compared with 723,728 Republicans, according to the Oregon Secretary of States office.

For the first time in the states history, non-affiliated voters now outnumber those of the two parties with slightly more than 1.2 million, thanks in part to the states 2015 Motor Voter law.

But in Oregons closed primaries, only registered Democrats or Republicans may vote for most offices.

That means more than 34 percent of the electorate is barred from voting in publicly funded primary elections, which is yet another source of dissatisfaction for Oregon voters.

A movement is underway to amend the state Constitution to allow open primaries.

Meanwhile, Democrats have seen declining support from these non-affiliated voters since the 2020 elections.

According to a recent CNN national poll, President Joe Bidens job approval rating among independents is now just 36 percent, with 64 percent disapproving. In 2020 exit polls, Biden carried 54 percent of independents.
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/Reuters)

Elon Musk Could Still Lose Twitter Deal If Higher Offer Is Made

Several new developments have been revealed after Twitter accepted Elon Musks $44 billion takeover proposal on April 25.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that shows the deal agreement, Musk agreed to pay a $1 billion termination fee if he abandons the acquisition.

At the same time, the social media platform would be required to pay the same amount if the company chooses to accept a better offer.

A former investment banker, who requested anonymity, said the clause is a standard practice in merger agreements.

The board has to act as fiduciary, so if a higher price comes, they need to consider it, he said.

But if a higher price does come, Musk can always up his offer, he noted. Practically speaking though, there are no other potential buyers right now.

The agreement also contains a time limit. If the merger isnt finalized by Oct. 24, either party could exit the deal. Theres also a six-month extension attached to the deadline should there be any regulatory hurdles to overcome.

A mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyer working for an international law firm in New York City says that the fiduciary out is a standard provision in merger agreements that give the selling companys board a limited right to entertain competing proposals for a limited time period.

The lawyer, who wished to remain anonymous, said the boards ability to exit the deal is significantly limited despite this fiduciary out provision.

The logo for Twitter appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, on Nov. 29, 2021. (Richard Drew/AP Photo)

To be clear, they can only engage with third-party offers that are superior to Elon Musks or that the board believes could lead to a superior transaction, he said.

Twitter is subject to no-shop restrictions, according to the agreement.

Thats a provision that prohibits the board and its representatives from going out and soliciting bids now that they have a deal with Elon Musk. They cant go and shop around Twitter anymore.

Any offer that comes in after the stockholders approve the deal is ineligible for consideration by the board. Furthermore, the board of directors cant approve the third-party proposal without first giving Musk up to four business days to respond, the lawyer said.

Four business days in M&A world is a long time.

Closing the Deal

According to M&A experts, the closure of the deal might take a few months. However, regulatory approvals and specific filings with telecommunications regulators around the world may affect the closing time.

Still, the $1 billion breakup fee is insane, says Aron Solomon, chief legal analyst at Esquire Digital.

Its the Twitter board again trying to ensure that Musk doesnt try to weasel out, he told The Epoch Times.

Financing arrangements also were highlighted in the securities filing.

Musk committed $21 billion in equity, $13 billion from Morgan Stanley, and $12.5 billion in margin loans from the bank and other financial institutions. This could be a significant provision because the margin loans force him to provide Tesla shares as collateral.

In this scenario, Musk would offer more than 71 million Tesla shares at $876.42 (April 26 closing price), totaling about $62.5 billion to secure the loan. If Teslas stock price plunges to $500, it will trigger a margin call, meaning Musk would have to find billions in cash for additional collateralthe deal restricts him from using more Tesla shares.

This year, Tesla Motors shares have joined the broader tech selloff, falling about 25 percent to less than $900. Since Musks proposal went public earlier this month, the electric vehicle maker has seen its stock tumble nearly 18 percent.

Twitter stock headed in the other direction. Over the past month, shares have rallied close to 25 percent to nearly $49. Year-to-date, the stock has gained 14 percent.

Meanwhile, three holding corporations, each with a name that is a version of X Holdings, were created by Musk last week in Delaware.

According to the agreement, X Holdings II Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings I Inc., will merge with Twitter. Twitter will survive the merger. This way, Twitter will become a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings I Inc.

An Incredible Event

Many people are watching the TwitterMusk corporate saga that Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives calls a Game of Thrones real-life battle.

Speaking at the Senate GOP leadership press briefing on April 26, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) described the situation as an incredible event.

Itll be interesting to see what impact it has on the way Twitter operates, he said. But were all watching it with a great deal of interest because theres certainly been our share of complaints about the way its been run in the past.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters: In many ways, Twitter has been a dark, dark place. I hope it doesnt get any darker.

Following the announcement that the board accepted Musks offer, there were notable fluctuations in follower counts that originated from organic account creations and deactivations, Twitter confirmed in a statement.

While we continue to take action on accounts that violate our spam policy which can affect follower counts, these fluctuations appear to largely be a result of an increase in new account creation and deactivation, the company said.

One Twitter executive accused Musk of misogyny after he criticized Twitters top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, and its chief marketing officer, Leslie Berland.

Color me shocked SHOCKED that people are coming for two of our prominent female executives on day 1 of this thing, posted Lara Cohen, Twitters global head of partners.

Musk lambasted the two women for censoring news reports surrounding Hunter Bidens laptop before the 2020 election.

The Open Markets Institutea nonprofit organization that opposes monopolies and advocates for better competition policyurged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Justice to block Musks purchase of Twitter. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr rejected the request.

The FCC has no authority to block Elon Musks purchase of Twitter, and to suggest otherwise is absurd, he said in a statement. I would welcome the full FCC making it clear that we will not entertain these types of frivolous arguments.

Andrew Moran Follow Andrew Moran covers business, economics, and finance. He has been a writer and reporter for more than a decade in Toronto, with bylines on Liberty Nation, Digital Journal, and Career Addict. He is also the author of "The War on Cash."
(L) Hunter Biden at Lincoln Center in New York City on May 28, 2014. (R) Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide, Germany, on March 22, 2022. (Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Town & Country; Patrick Pleul/Pool via Reuters)

Elon Musk Weighs in on Twitter Blocking Hunter Biden Laptop Story During 2020 Election

Incoming Twitter owner Elon Musk issued a comment on the social media platforms October 2020 decision to block the reach of a New York Post article detailing Hunter Bidens overseas business deals.

With just weeks to go before the 2020 election, the NY Post released a story about the younger Bidens laptop. Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms moved to block the articles reach, while Twitter locked the newspapers account for more than two weeks.

Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate, Musk wrote on Tuesday in response to another post about the Hunter Biden laptop story.

It was in response to commentator Saagar Enjeti, who posted to Twitter a Politico article about how the social media companys top lawyer was reportedly in tears because of Musks decision to purchase the company for $44 billion.

The NY Post article revealed numerous emails and messages that were sent or received by Hunter Biden, triggering accusations that he leveraged then-candidate Joe Bidens influence as a former vice president to land lucrative business deals in China, Ukraine, and elsewhere.

When Twitter blocked the article it claimed it contained hacked material, and that the report violated its terms and conditions.

The images contained in the articles include personal and private informationlike email addresses and phone numberswhich violate our rules, Twitter wrote at the time.

Conservatives and former President Donald Trump said the move was akin to censorship and had influenced the outcome of the 2020 election. During the second debate between Trump and Biden, the former president frequently brought up Hunter Bidens laptopwhile he also brought up a former Biden business associate, Tony Bobulinski, who said in October 2020 that the emails in the laptop were authentic.

Both Hunter Biden and Joe Biden have categorically denied any wrongdoing. Joe Biden, meanwhile, has said he had no knowledge about his sons business dealings overseas, although Bobulinski told news outlets that such claims were false.

Months later, former Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey admitted that the move to block the NY Posts article was a total mistake while testifying during a congressional hearing.

It was literally just a process error. This was not against them in any particular way, Dorsey told the panel at the time. If we remove a violation, we require people to correct it, he said during a hearing in early 2021, although he did not disclose who decided to free the NY Posts Twitter account.

Musk, who is the worlds richest man, reached a deal to purchase the social media company on Monday and added that he would take it private. Hes previously said that the companys policies are too restrictive and wants to use the platform to promote free speech.

In providing more details about what he wants to change at Twitter, Musk said he also wants to curb the proliferation of spam bots and authenticate more of its users.
SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles, on June 13, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

EU Says Its Rules Apply to All Online Platforms, Mr Musk Knows This Well

AMSTERDAMThe European Commission said on Tuesday it was too early to comment on the deal Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has struck to buy social media site Twitter but recalled that the blocs digital services rules apply to all major platforms.

Our Digital Services Act applies to all major platforms, to ensure their power over public debate is subject to democratically validated rules to better protect fundamental rights online, European Commission spokesperson Johannes Bahrke told a news briefing.

Musk clinched a deal to buy Twitter Inc. for $44 billion on Monday in a transaction that will shift control of the platform populated by millions of users and global leaders into the hands of the worlds richest person.

Thierry Breton, commissioner for the internal market at the EU executive, said in a tweet: Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rulesregardless of their shareholding.

Mr Musk knows this well. He is familiar with European rules on automotive, and will quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act, Breton added.

A Commission spokesperson said it was too early to comment on any competition issues around Musks acquisition of Twitter.

By Charlotte Van Campenhout
A Russian state flag flies on the top of a diesel plant in the Yarakta Oil Field, owned by Irkutsk Oil Company (INK), in Irkutsk Region, Russia, on March 10, 2019. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Europes Russian Diesel Imports Drop, but Still Dominant

LONDONEuropean diesel imports from Russia are set to fall in April but will still exceed those from other regions, highlighting the challenge European governments face as they contemplate new sanctions on Russian oil.

Diesel deliveries from Asia, the Middle East, and the United States are set to hit their highest in almost three years in April, data from oil analytics firm Vortexa showed, as traders scramble to replenish dwindling stocks and to gradually curb the regions dependence on Russian oil.

Although European Union sanctions have so far avoided targeting oil from Russia, its biggest supplier, many traders and refiners have opted to reduce purchases of Russian crude and refined products in recent months.

As EU officials prepare a sixth package of sanctions against Russia, they are assessing the costs of replacing Russian oil with imports from other suppliers.

Germany hopes to find a way within days to replace Russian oil with supplies from other sources, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Tuesday.

The concerns over Russian supplies have led to a sharp draw in European diesel inventories in recent weeks. Stocks in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub are their lowest since 2008, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global shows.

With Europes domestic diesel production falling short of the regions consumption, traders responded quickly to the price rally, booking dozens of tankers from around the world into Europe.

Combined imports from Asia, the Middle East, and the United States are set to hit 760,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April, their highest since August 2019, according to the Vortexa data.

At the same time, diesel imports from Russia are set to reach 770,000 bpd, their lowest since December, and well below a record of over 1 million in April 2021, the data showed.

Diesel Premium

The profit margins for European refineries converting crude oil to diesel hit an all-time high immediately after the start of Moscows invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The high imports are the combined result of refinery maintenance in Europe and increased output from large refineries in India that are capitalizing on big profit margins and cheap Russian crude, said Janiv Shah, analyst at consultancy Rystad Energy.

Diesel imports from Russia are mostly being shipped from the Baltic ports, including Primorsk, into the ARA storage hub, where they can be blended with fuel from other origins, a trader said.

Some traders are also buying more Russian diesel ahead of an EU May 15 deadline restricting oil purchases from major Russian oil producers to the amount strictly necessary for Europes energy security, traders said.

But they said European diesel imports for May so far remain low.

Europe is the destination for nearly half of Russias crude and petroleum product exports, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Cutting off Russian oil will be difficult and costly as Europe will have to compete for fuel further afield and pay higher freight costs, a trader said.

Technically, if Europe pays a $100 premium, they can get rid of Russian oil, one trader said on condition of anonymity.

By Ron Bousso and Ahmad Ghaddar
Security personnel keep watch outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 3, 2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

EXCLUSIVE: China Stonewalled US Offers of COVID-19 Assistance During Early Days of Pandemic, Emails Show

Three days after Beijing officially acknowledged a cluster of an unknown pneumonia disease on the last day of 2019, then-head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dr. Robert Redfield invited his Chinese counterpart, George Gao, for a call.

Ive been trying to reach you and will try again in a few hours, he wrote, according to emails sent on Jan. 3, 2020, and obtained by The Epoch Times.

This would be the first of a series of efforts from the United States to engage with China and offer assistance over the next few weeks.

Unfortunately, that assistance wasnt accepted by the Chinese government, Redfield said. I think it could have made a big difference.

Redfield said he had extensive discussions with Gao in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and that a team of 20 people was ready to fly across the world.

Gao personally refused the offers, citing a lack of authorization, according to one report.

A review of the files obtained by The Epoch Times via a Freedom of Information Act request and the public statements offers another glimpse into how China stonewalled the United States during the early days of the pandemic. All the while, the communist regime was suppressing information about the outbreak domestically when any health data would have been crucial to formulate a more effective COVID-19 containment strategy and minimize the diseases global spread.

The day after the call, Redfield wrote to Gao again, reiterating the U.S. offer of assistance.

China has tremendous capacity in infectious diseases and outbreak investigation, he wrote in an email on Jan. 4, 2020, with the subject line Offer of Assistance.

In the spirit of cooperation, I would like to offer CDC technical experts in laboratory and epidemiology of respiratory infectious diseases to assist you and China CDC in identification of this unknown and possibility novel pathogen.

Two days later, Redfield followed up on the email, attaching a letter containing the official letterhead of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the CDCs parent department, to extend a formal invitation.

We look forward to continuing our close collaborations and stand ready to provide additional support, he wrote.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield testifies before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on a review of Coronavirus Response Efforts, on Capitol Hill on Sept. 16, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

None of the written correspondence appeared to receive a response. The request that obtained the emails had a date range of Dec. 1, 2019, to Feb. 1, 2020. Redfield and Gao didnt respond to requests for comment.

Then-U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar would later reveal that the Trump administration had been urging Chinese authorities to let U.S. experts into the country, to no avail. It wasnt until Jan. 29, 2020, that their repeated offers received an official acknowledgment, he said.

More cooperation and transparency are the most important steps you can take toward a more effective response, Azar said during a briefing with reporters on Jan. 28, 2020, a day after he raised the subject again in a talk with Chinas minister of health.

More than a week later, nothing had changed.

At this point, its really a decision for the Chinese, Azar said at a press conference in Washington on Feb. 7, 2020, seven days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a global health emergency. We are ready, willing, and able. We are here to support the Chinese government, to help China with their response.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar speaks about COVID-19 while flanked by (L-R), Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Commissioner of Food and Drugs Stephen Hahn during a press briefing on the Trump administrations response to COVID-19 at the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters on Feb. 25, 2020. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Ultimately, the United States and allies, during the early stages of the pandemic, made nearly 100 requests to ask for assistance or offer help, all of which were rejected by Chinese authorities, according to David Asher, a former lead COVID-19 investigator at the U.S. State Department.

Chinese officials at the same time had been aggressively suppressing information inside China. While Redfield spoke with Gao in one of the calls, local police in Wuhan summoned Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, one of a string of Chinese medical professionals who tried to sound the alarm about the danger of a new pneumonia-like virus, and accused him of rumor-mongering.

After contracting COVID-19, Li died on Feb. 7, the same day Azar reiterated Washingtons readiness to provide on-the-ground help.

The U.S. CDC had no access to direct data from China. More COVID-19 cases began emerging in the United States. No U.S. experts were invited onto the WHO team that arrived in China on Feb. 10, 2020.

A WHO probe into the viruss origins eventually occurred a year later, under mounting international pressure and the close supervision of Chinese researchers. Two U.S. scientists were on board, including Clifford Lane, deputy director at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It was the first time that government-affiliated U.S. scientists were allowed into China since the COVID-19 pandemic.

By that time, all viral traces had long been destroyed in Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, the site linked to the cases officials first identified. The WHO panel was similarly denied access to raw data on early cases.

Eva Fu China Reporter Follow Eva Fu is a New York-based writer for The Epoch Times focusing on U.S.-China relations, religious freedom, and human rights. Contact Eva at eva.fu@epochtimes.com
A former Green Beret named Jeremy Brown has been sitting in jail for the past seven months as a Jan. 6 prisoner. His crime: one misdemeanor count of allegedly trespassing on U.S. Capitol grounds.

However, thanks to a serendipitous chain of events, an investigative journalist at The Epoch Timesthe award-winning Patricia Tolsonobtained a letter, written by Jeremys own hand from behind bars.

I wanted to read this letter together with you all, because it is an authentic account that I believe all Americans should have access to. Its the true first-hand account of a Jan. 6 prisoner that might truly light brushfires of Liberty in the souls of men.

Resources:

 Full Letter:

https://ept.ms/39jZn1H

 Just Another Channel Video:

https://ept.ms/3kfGzCV

 Jeremys Website:

https://ept.ms/3LgjCLI

Stay tuned for our newsletter so you wont miss out on our exclusive videos and private events.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies at a House hearing in Washington on July 31, 2020. (Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Fauci Says US Is Out of the Pandemic Phase of COVID-19

After more than two years, the United States may have exited the so-called pandemic phase of COVID-19, according to top White House adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Fauci, who has been the federal governments public face for its COVID-19 response and rules, told PBS Newshour on April 26 that we are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase, according to a transcript. When asked whether there will be an end to the pandemic, he responded that its an unanswerable question.

In recent days, the United States has seen a low level of COVID-19 cases, Fauci said.

So if youre saying: Are we out of the pandemic phase in this country? We are.

Fauci then pushed for people to get COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots. COVID-19 shots might be an every year occurrence, he said, adding that it might be longer, in order to keep that level low.

His comments come after a federal judge in Florida issued an order striking down the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions mask rule for airplanes, airports, and public transportation. The CDC said it would have the Department of Justice appeal the ruling, although the Transportation Security Administration said it wouldnt enforce the mandate in the meantime.

As a result, major airlines and a number of airports announced they wouldnt enforce mask mandates. Uber, Amtrak, Lyft, and others did the same.

Outside the United States, millions of Chinese people have been forced by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to take mandatory COVID-19 tests in Beijing. Meanwhile, a severe, month-long lockdown in Shanghai has triggered food shortages and human rights violations.

Beijing was testing the more than 3.5 million residents of its Chaoyang district on April 27, all of whom had been screened on April 25. Meanwhile, 16 million from other districts were tested on April 26 and are due for another round on April 28. In total, 20 million of Beijings 22 million residents will be tested three times this week.

A widely circulated video from Shanghai showed a foreigner trying to break through metal barriers onto a Shanghai street before being pulled back and dragged to the ground by four people in protective hazmat suits.

I want to die, the man shouted repeatedly in Chinese and English. One of the unknown individuals holding him down responded, You need to respect the laws and regulations here.

Since the start of the pandemic, Faucis agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has received scrutiny from members of Congress over whether the agency funded controversial gain-of-function research at a high-security laboratory in Wuhan, China. The virus was first reported in Wuhan in late 2019.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Workers in protective suits keep watch on a street during a lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in Shanghai, on April 16, 2022. (Aly Song/Reuters)

Fed Up With COVID-19 Lockdown, Bankers, Fund Managers Looking to Leave Shanghai

HONG KONGFinance sector professionals in Shanghai are preparing to move back to Hong Kong and other offshore centers after spending only a few years in the Chinese city as a harsh COVID-19 lockdown has hurt their business prospects and upended daily lives.

Thousands of bankers, traders, and investors in the financial hub of the worlds second-largest economy have found themselves confined to their homes, with some even struggling to secure food and other essentials for their families.

The four-week-long lockdown, which has forced most of the citys 26 million people indoors, has started to weigh on prospective financial deals with some transactions being put on hold due to logistical challenges, industry executives said.

What happened in Shanghai is shocking to most of the people. Few would have imagined things will get out of hand to such an extent, said Melvyn Xu, a private equity investor who moved to Shanghai from Hong Kong in late 2020.

Xu is now waiting for cross-border movement restrictions to be relaxed so that travel becomes easier between the mainland and Hong Kong, and is considering sending his children back to local schools in Hong Kong, while paring his ties to Shanghai as a ground for work only.

I think the biggest frustration is you cannot do anything about it [lockdown], which is particularly upsetting, he said. For people living here, youve got utterly zero bargaining power.

An exodus will hurt Shanghais ambition to be a regional financial center and bring bad news for foreign investment banks, insurers, and asset and wealth managers who have been expanding their footprints in the city over the past few years.

Goldman Sachs is looking to add close to 10 jobs in Shanghai, a WeChat post showed. JPMorgan is beefing up its Shanghai unit after taking full ownership last year, while BlackRock is adding around 20 to its headcount in its Shanghai fund unit.

The industrys growth moves resulted in many bankers, traders, and fund managers moving from Hong Kong and other centers to Shanghai to be closer to their clients and gain expertise in working in new areas and on large transactions.

Those dreams now appear to be in peril.

Once this lockdown is over, expats across all industries will negotiate a new career outside of China, said Jason Tan, Shanghai-based director specializing in wealth, buyside, and fintech at headhunter REForce group.

Conversations with financial professionals in Shanghai have shown deep concerns about the lockdown measures, Tan said. [Its] not very attractive moving forward  This lockdown can happen again. Next time it might be longer and tighter.

Due-Diligence Challenge

Work-wise, the biggest challenge for bankers in Shanghai is that they cannot conduct on-site due-diligence on their clients that are planning to go public or exploring M&A opportunities.

We have to go to their factories, plants to verify things. Its impossible to get the due-diligence done virtually, said a senior investment banker with a European bank, who has been working in Shanghai on a temporary basis since February.

A senior portfolio manager based in Shanghai said that the lockdown has profoundly, at least in the short term changed the business environment of the city.

Shanghai is a financial and industrial center of China which operates like a machine but almost no adjustments have been introduced to maintain its operation even after citizens posted complaints on social media, said the portfolio manager.

Both the investment banker and the portfolio manager declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

By Julie Zhu, Xie Yu, and Selena Li
Florida Gov. DeSantis Signs Bill Creating Nations First Office of Election Crimes and Security

Ballot harvesting 'is now a third-degree felony,' DeSantis said.

During a packed April 25 press conference in Spring Hill, Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 524 into law, strengthening voting rules in the state and establishing the nations first Office of Election Crimes and Security at the Department of State, specifically formed to investigate and prosecute voter fraud.

While most legacy media news reports insist claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election are unsubstantiated, false, baseless, unfounded, or outright lies that have been debunked, other reports are surfacing with evidence of widespread fraud through ballot harvesting, the process of third-party volunteers collecting ballots and delivering them to local election offices or ballot drop boxes.

In an interview with The New York Post, Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, said much of the ballot harvesting operation in the 2020 election was funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbergs carefully orchestrated $400 million-plus campaign to convert official government election offices into get-out-the-vote operations for one political party and to insert political operatives into election offices in order to influence and manipulate the outcome of the election.

Theres standing room only as a packed house awaits the arrival of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for a press conference in Spring Hill, Fla., on April 25, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times)

And in the new documentary film 2000 Mules, premiering May 2 and May 4 in select theaters, author and director Dinesh DSouza presents video evidence of a coordinated effort to harvest ballots and manipulate election results in key swing states during the 2020 election.

On May 6, 2021, DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 90 (pdf), which strengthened voter ID rules, prohibited the mass mailing of unsolicited ballots, banned ballot harvesting, and prohibited the use of private donationsdubbed by DeSantis as Zuckerbucksfrom being used to administer elections in the state.

While SB90 effectively banned ballot harvesting in the state of Florida, DeSantis said there was still concern that the penalties were not severe enough, and that a misdemeanor wasnt a sufficient deterrent.

In this bill we actually increase penalties for ballot harvesting, he said on April 25, noting that if you ballot harvest in the state of Florida, this is now a third-degree felony that you can be hit with.

The measure the governor signed into law April 25 strengthens voter ID rules for mail-in ballots, requires the Department of State to develop more secure vote-by-mail ballot envelopes, and requires supervisors of election offices to clean their voter rolls every year.

The law also broadens the prohibition of Zuckerbucks. DeSantis said some elections offices were still taking Zuckerbucks for legal expenses. With the new law, DeSantis said theres not going to be any way, any nook and cranny, you are not getting Zuckerbucks.

While most people report suspected cases of voter fraud directly to their local Supervisor of Elections Office, DeSantis noted that supervisors and staff in these offices arent investigators or law enforcement. In fact, he noted how some supervisors dont seem to care how their elections are conducted, and somesuch as former Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipesare themselves allegedly part of the problem.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers comments at a press conference in Spring Hill, Fla., on April 25, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times)

Creating for the first time ever, in state government, an office of election crimes and security to be able to prosecute voter fraud is how DeSantis said the state can gain control.

Know the rules, he said. You can vote absentee. You can vote in person. What you cant do is collect a bunch of ballots and dump them somewhere.

Florida state Sen. Wilton Simpson said the foundation of a free state and a free country are fair and secure elections. He also said, voters expect voter rolls to be accurate and their information to be protected.

We have more and more people moving in and around the state of Florida every day as well as more out-of-state groups attempting to influence the outcome of our elections, Simpson said, adding that Floridas election laws have to keep up with these changes.

This bill sends a strong message to those who want to stuff ballot boxes or manufacture votes: stay out of Florida, he said. Florida is free economically. Florida is free from indoctrination, and Florida will stay free because of fair, transparent, and secure elections.

Florida state Rep. Daniel Perez (R-Miami) delivers comments at a press conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis in Spring Hill, Fla., on April 25, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times)

During his comments at the press conference, state Rep. Daniel Perez said the number of phone calls, emails, and media requests his office has received is a sign that election integrity is a hot topic.

When you notice the kickback youre getting, it means youre doing the right things on this issue, he said. To those who ask if Florida really needs a tough election law, and whether its necessary to make voter fraud a third-degree felony, Perez said Yes, yeshell yes, it is necessary.

During her comments, Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee noted how DeSantis made election integrity a priority in his administration from the beginning. As Floridas chief elections official, Lee said she shares his strong commitment to elections integrity: Secure, accurate, and timely.

Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee delivers comments during a press conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis in Spring Hill, Fla., on April 25, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times)

I am most excited about the establishment of the Office of Election Crimes and Security at the Department of State, Lee said, noting that SB 524 was a testament to both the governors and the legislatures commitment to securing Florida elections and providing law enforcement with the resources to investigate all allegations of fraud or impropriety.

She also said the new law will make it possible to investigate physical threats to voters or election officials and will strengthen cyber security.

We want to ensure that anyone who comes to Florida to engage in elections-related activities is following our law, Lee said. In Florida, we make it easy to vote but hard to cheat.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis displays the newly signed election integrity law that creates the nations first office to investigate election fraud at a press conference in Spring Hill, Fla., on April 25, 2022. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times)

The Epoch Times spoke to a few of the attendees of the press conference.

Mark Cartwright of Temple Terrace in Tampa told The Epoch Times DeSantis is the greatest governor the state of Florida has ever had. He added that, right now, the liberals are hurting. But they keep trying to take on Floridas governor.

Patrick M. Byrne, founder and former CEO of Overstock.com, launched The America Project in April 2021 to fight election fraud. Having built a $2 billion e-commerce company that people tried to hack a thousand times a day, Byrne said he understands the nature of cybersecurity.

Theres no way to make elections secure until we get rid of the machines, Byrne said. But I feel this is a wonderful sign of progress. This has been a beautiful step. Im wholeheartedly enthusiastic.

Brian Gamble, chief information officer for The America Project, agreed.

Im really happy to see them taking steps that we agree are necessary to combat election fraud in the state of Florida, primarily on the ballot side, Gamble told The Epoch Times. Its nice to know theyre shoring up on the cyber side because there are many vectors to election fraud.

Gamble said The America Project worked with DSouza on 2000 Mules, which will explain how fraud works on the ballot side.

While he considers this new law to be a good step, Gamble noted that more is still needed.

We need to make sure were out there working with legislators in other states in getting them to adopt the Florida model. Its really exciting to see DeSantis leading the way yet again on this very important topic.

Clarice Henderson of Tampa told The Epoch Times she believes what DeSantis is doing is awesome and these are good steps toward election integrity.

Due to what she feels were a lot of discrepancies in the 2020 election results, Maura Cruz Lenz told The Epoch Times she is happy that DeSantis is enforcing the law.

Calvin Wimbish, who is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, said Governor DeSantis is the best thing since sliced bread.

Wimbish, who lives in Orange County, said votes were stolen in 2020 and that by signing SB 524, DeSantis will ensure that every legal ballot cast in Florida will be counted.

Weve been needing this for a long time, he said. Its time to stop the steal.

SB 524 Election Integrity Highlights. (Office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis)

The Epoch Times reached out to the Florida Department of State (DOS) to obtain more details about the types of reported fraud they receive and the benefits this new law will provide to the state.

The Office of Election Crimes and Security will provide the necessary resources and specialization to ensure that our elections law in Florida are followed [sic], voters remain secure in casting their ballot, our infrastructure remains secure, and that perpetrators of election-related crimes are investigated and, where appropriate, prosecuted, Mark R. Ard, director of external affairs at the Florida Department of State, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

Ard explained that since 2019, over 23,000 people have registered as petition gatherers in Florida. Those 23,000 people are now delivering hundreds of thousands of petitions to their local election offices for review. Some supervisors of elections are reporting that fewer than 50 percent of those petitions can be validated.

There are registered petition gatherers right now, in our state, who have forged signatures of voters who did not consent to support an issue or sign a petition, Ard stated, noting that one supervisor of elections and his wife had their identity stolen and used on Petition forms they never signed.

Ard also noted the threats of violence, saying election officials and their staff have been subjected to harassment, threats of violence, and intimidation which, in some instances, may constitute criminal conduct. The DOS has also received complaints of abuse of the elderly at nursing homes, alleging that residents are victims of undue influence or have had unauthorized changes made to their voting records.

We also hear numerous claims of fraud around third party voter registration organizations, Ard said further. These complaints include allegations that third party voter registration canvassers, without consent, alter the political party affiliation or voter registration information of a Florida voters [sic], submit voter registration applications for dead people, or fill out applications without consent of the resident. Of course, we hear complaints of unsolicited vote-by-mail ballots or misdirected vote-by-mail ballots.

If proven, Ard said each of these reported incidents would be a crime or irregularity under existing Florida law. Although existing Florida law already gave the DOS legal authority to investigate crimes or irregularities related to elections, they did not have the law enforcement or investigative staff with which to conduct those investigations.

Governor DeSantis has recognized the need to support and fund these important statutory responsibilities of the Department of State, Ard said. By creating the Office of Election Crimes and Security, Governor DeSantis has recognized that the Florida Department of State has statutory responsibility to fulfill this important role and must be funded and staffed commensurately in order to do so.

According to the DOS website, the department received 262 official Elections Fraud Complaint forms in 2020 and referred 75 of them to law enforcement or prosecuting authorities.

My message, DeSantis said during the press conference, is I dont think theres any place in the country where you can have more confidence that your vote counts than in the state of Florida.

Steven Kovac contributed to this report.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, April 7, 2022. (The Canadian Press/AP-Olivier Matthys)

Foreign Affairs Minister, US Counterpart Discuss Next Steps in Ukraine

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada and the United States will continue to exert maximum pressure on Russia in response to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Joly made the statement on Twitter following a video meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

She says the two discussed shared priorities, including ongoing support for Ukraine and co-operating with NATO, although she offered no additional details.

Later this week, Defence Minister Anita Anand will be in D.C. for her own set of in-person meetings with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon.

The conversation between Joly and Blinken follows the secretary of states in-person meeting in Kyiv earlier this week with Austin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

That meeting appeared to signal a shift in the U.S. approach to the war, with Austin acknowledging that the goal is now to leave Russia sufficiently weakened so that it can no longer threaten its neighbours.

They are, in fact, in terms of military capability, weaker than when it started, Austin told a news conference in Germany.

It will be harder for them to replace some of this capability as they go forward because of the sanctions and the trade restrictions that have been placed on them.

Canada is moving in lockstep with the U.S. in that regard, Joly suggested.

Together we will continue to impose maximum pressure on the Putin regime and support Ukraine in its fight for liberty.

Blinken has said the global effort to support Ukraineinvolving more than 30 countries, including Canadais showing real results, and that Russias incursion is failing.

He noted the United States appreciation for Canadas many commitments in response to Putins unprovoked, brutal war in Ukraine, spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

The two also discussed Canadas ongoing support for Haiti as well as the upcoming Summit of the Americas meeting, which the U.S. is hosting in California in early June.

Earlier Tuesday, Blinken told the Senate foreign relations committee that the collective effort to support Ukraine is growing more efficient and streamlined by the day.

Whereas it used to take sometimes weeks to get equipment to the Ukrainians, were now getting things  into Ukrainian hands in as little as 72 hours, Blinken said.

At the same time, weve been going around the world looking for other countries that may have equipment that Ukraine can find useful.

Kentucky Republican and unapologetic Donald Trump ally Sen. Rand Paul accused the U.S. of agitating for Ukraines admission to NATO, implying it provides an explanation for Putins invasion.

Its a question of standing up for the basic principle that we strongly adhere to, that there should be and will be an open-door policy when it comes to their membership, Blinken said.

This goes to the heart of the international system and the international order, and part of that is a basic principle that one country cant dictate to another the choices it makes about with whom it allies.

It will be Anands first official visit to the U.S. capital as defence minister. Shell be joined by deputy minister Bill Matthews, Communications Security Establishment Chief Shelly Bruce and Gen. Wayne Eyre, Canadas chief of defence staff.

Anand and Austin are expected to address support for Ukraine, as well as modernizing Norad. Updating the bilateral aerospace defence system has taken on new urgency given Putins invasion.

By James McCarten
Founder Toby Young says that "free speech is in peril north of the border" as Free Speech Union launches in Scotland on April 22, 2022. (Courtesy of Free Speech Union)

Free Speech in Scotland in Peril: Watchdog

Facing what some call an unbelievably authoritarian country, a free speech watchdog has set up a Scottish office to deal with numerous claims that new laws and extreme, progressive policies are threatening and weaponising free speech.

The Free Speech Union (FSU), which supports self-styled defenders of free expression in England, has launched a Scottish office after overwhelming demand from its members who are concerned that free speech is in peril.

In the past few years, authorities have convicted a Scottish comedian for telling a bad joke, the University of Edinburgh has renamed a tower commemorating the father of the Scottish Enlightenment and 18th-century philosopher David Hume over his racist views, and a famous author has had to retrain as a truck driver because she backed JK Rowlings views on gender.

Set up by the British journalist Toby Young in 2020, who was himself cancelled by an outrage mob in 2018, resulting in the loss of five positions, said his worry is that we wont be able to employ people quickly enough in Scotland to cope with all the demand.

But the FSU said it was particularly concerned about the chilling effect of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act once it is activated, which the Scottish National Party (SNP) argues would modernise and consolidate hate crime law.

Little Tolerance for Dissent

Former law student Lisa Keogh found herself in the middle of a widely reported free speech storm when she was investigated by Abertay University, Dundee, because she stated during a gender feminism seminar that women have vaginas, the difference in the physical strength of men versus women is a fact, and not all men are rapists.

Keogh, a mother of two boys, was subject to multiple investigations which saw her eventually cleared of misconduct charges owing to support from SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC and the Free Speech Union. Writing in the New Statesman, Cherry said that she herself was subjected to an 18-month campaign of abuse because of her belief that women are adult human females.

When I was asked to define a woman I had no idea that there was a trans debate. I was your average mum trying to get a law degree, I wasnt into womens rights or anything special, I was just an average woman going about her day going looking after her children and I was asked to define a woman, Keogh told The Epoch Times.

In a statement at the time, Abertay University wrote that for the avoidance of doubt, the University does not and will not constrain lawful freedom of speech within the University community.

I didnt realise Scotland was woke until what happened to me, said Keogh, who is currently suing the university for the stress caused by the incident. When I did, and you look down the rabbit hole you see how bad things are. If I would have read my own article, I wouldnt have believed it, she said.

Keogh said that she is currently campaigning to be an Alba Party councillor. On Monday, the Times of London reported that the partys leader Alex Salmond accused trans activist students of cancelling him at an event at Aberdeen University over Albas opposition to the Gender Recognition Act. Salmond had to make a speech beside a car park.

Summing up how people feel in Scotland and why they may not speak out, Keogh said: People are so scared to go against the grain because of the repercussions. Your average person just cant state fact, because your average person has a mortgage to pay or their rent to pay, childrens clubs, and electricity bills etc. All the stuff that comes with having a real life is easier for them to keep their head down, she said.

The reason theres less free speech in Scotland than England is that the state is more powerful in Scotland and that state is effectively run by the SNP, which has little tolerance for dissent, said Young in an email to The Epoch Times.

People employed in the public sector, or by a charity or arts company thats dependent on state funding, are afraid to challenge politically correct dogma for fear of losing their jobs. Hopefully, the presence of the Free Speech Union in Scotland will embolden them to speak out, he added.

Members of the Scottish Advisory Council of the Free Speech Union include the former Deputy Leader of the SNP Jim Sillars, Joanna Cherry, the SNP MP Chic Brodie, the former SNP MSP Murdo Fraser, the Conservative MSP, journalist and former Rector of Edinburgh University Iain Macwhirter, as well as the education professor Lindsay Paterson and poet Jenny Lindsay.

In an FSU statement, Jenny Lindsay said: In nearly 20 years of programming and writing in Scottish literary culture, I have never known an atmosphere so stifled, nor the precepts of freedom of expression so disregarded by individual writers and arts organisations alike.

Stirring Up Hatred

Laws already exist to punish crimes aggravated by prejudice, but the SNPs bill, introduced by the Scottish health secretary Humza Yousaf, has been criticised for institutionalising discrimination with the offence of stirring up hatred.

But some say planned stirring up hatred offences are too broad and risk criminalising speech that is merely felt to be offensive to certain people. The bill, which became law in April last year, has not come into force yet.

The campaign group Free to Disagree has done a great job of highlighting the threat that the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act poses to free speech. I think thats one of the reasons the Scottish government hasnt activated the Act yet. Its on the statute books and has received Royal Assent, but its just lying there, dormant, said Young.

One of the things is a precedent that has been set with this law is that for example, if you say something that is defined as hateful in your own home, then you can get arrested for that, at a dinner party, or if someone is walking past your house and they hear you commenting and so on. Thats totally new, weve never had it before, criminologist Stuart Waiton told The Epoch Times.

Part of the campaign group Free to Disagree, Waiton called Scotland an unbelievably authoritarian country.

He said that one major shift is that institutions could be taken to court. This means that newspapers, universities, plays, playwrights, and actors could face legal action if they are deemed to be deliberately stoking up prejudice.

Its one of the worst bills in Europe, censorious and authoritarian, said Waiton.

Neo-Authoritarianism

Waiton said that Scotlands old factions such as liberalism and conservatism now have little sway over contemporary politics.

All of those traditions had an idea of human subjectivity, he said. Each of them accepted that a person had a certain amount of strength, responsibility, and capacity to do something. Today the modern elite work on a principle of diminished responsibility. Those past political traditions had an expectation of human freedom, whereas the modern elites think that they need to keep people safe, he said.

He called it a form of neo-authoritarianism, which is different from the kind of authoritarianism detailed in George Orwells 1984, which was exemplified by the quote, If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human faceforever.

This neo-authoritarianism says we need to protect as you are vulnerable. The more you think that people are vulnerable, the more it means they are vulnerable to something and someone, so you need more protections, laws, policing, and regulations. Its a really destructive authoritarian framework, but it doesnt appear to be, it appears to be fair and enlightened, added Waiton.

A government spokesman told The Epoch Times that these criticisms are misplacedthe Scottish Government wholeheartedly supports freedom of speech.

There is nothing in the Act that would prevent people expressing any controversial, challenging, or offensive views, nor does it seek to stifle criticism or rigorous debate in any way. As an additional safeguard, the Act includes provisions on freedom of expression to provide reassurance that the prohibition on stirring up hatred based on characteristics such as religion or age will not unduly limit peoples rights to freedom of expression, he said.

The government did not say why it had not activated the Act yet. But added that it is important that the Act is implemented effectively so that it offers robust protections to victims of hate crime. We are continuing to work closely with justice partners to agree a suitable commencement date.
Tamara Lich (R), organizer for a protest convoy by truckers and supporters demanding an end to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, smiles during a news conference in Ottawa, on Feb. 3, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Freedom Convoy Leader Tamara Lich Wins Award for Upholding Freedom

Tamara Lichs fight for Charter freedoms, which landed her in prison earlier this year, has now landed her an award.

Lich, a key Freedom Convoy protest organizer, is set to receive the George Jonas Freedom Award at a ceremony in Toronto on June 16, according to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).

Ms. Lich inspired Canadians to exercise their Charter rights and freedoms by participating actively in the democratic process, and took the initiative to help organize a peaceful protest and serve as one of its leaders. The resulting peaceful protest in Ottawa awakened many Canadians to the injustice of Charter-violating lockdowns and mandatory vaccination policies, the JCCF said in an April 26 statement.

Ms. Lich has suffered for the cause of freedom by spending 18 days unjustly jailed, and exemplifies courage, determination and perseverance.

The Freedom Convoy began in late January to protest the federal governments COVID-19 mandate requiring all truck drivers returning to Canada from the United States to be fully vaccinated in order to avoid a 14-day quarantine. As convoys of trucks drove across the country to stage the peaceful demonstration in Ottawa, the protest turned into a nationwide movement with many Canadians joining the call for an end to all pandemic-related restrictions and mandates.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to meet with the protesters or send representatives to engage with them, while repeatedly disparaging the convoy. On Feb. 14, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in response to the demonstration, giving police extraordinary powers to remove the protestors from downtown Ottawa and at Canada-U.S. border blockades held in solidarity with the convoy, although the border protests were largely cleared by the time the act was invoked.

Following the emergency declaration, Lich was arrested on Feb. 17 and charged with counselling to commit mischief. On Feb. 22, she was denied bail in a decision by Ontario Court Justice Julie Bourgeois, who said that Lichs detention was necessary for the protection and safety of the public.

Lichs lawyer at the time, Diane Magas, launched a bail review, arguing that the decision may have been tainted by the fact that Bourgeois ran as a federal Liberal candidate in the 2011 election.

On March 7, Ontario Superior Court Justice Hon. John M. Johnston overturned Bourgeoiss decision by granting Lich bail. Though he said the argument for Bourgeoiss bias had no merit, he found her ruling was too subjective in its assessment of the gravity of Lichs offences; weighing them against the impacts on Ottawas residents rather than other offences in the Criminal Code.

Lich was released on a $25,000 bond with several bail conditions, including avoiding contact with fellow convoy organizers and refraining from using social media or having someone do so on her behalf. Lich is appealing the bail terms and has hired high-profile criminal lawyer Lawrence Greenspon as her legal representative.

The George Jonas award honours its namesakea renowned Canadian author, poet, and columnist who promoted freedom throughout his life, both before and after immigrating to Canada from communist Hungary. In all of his compositions, freedom has been a consistent and important theme, the JCCF said. The annual award is given to an individual or entity that is recognized for a contribution to advancing and preserving freedom in Canada.

Previous winners of the George Jonas Award include Mark Steyn, a well-known Canadian author, radio and television presenter, and human rights activist whose campaign to restore free speech in Canada led to Parliaments repeal of the notorious Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which restricted free expression.
(L-R) Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Matt Gaetz, (R-Fla.), and Mark Meadows, (R-N.C.), speak to reporters after a closed-door meeting with Ambassador Gordon Sondland was cancelled on Capitol Hill on Oct. 8, 2019. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

GOP Lawmakers Allegedly Discussed Ways to Prevent Election Certification With Meadows

Several prominent Republican lawmakers had discussions with the White House about how to legally prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election over concerns of voter fraud, according to testimony by a former White House staffer.

In the weeks leading up to the certification of the 2020 election by Congress, many Republicans continued to express concerns that the results had been swayed by voter fraud.

According to testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant during the Trump administration, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), and other members of the House Freedom Caucus met with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to discuss ways to hold off the certification of state electoral votes in the House.

One main strategy they discussed was to have Vice President Mike Pence refuse to accept the votes from battleground states where the results were contested, including states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona.

Under the guidelines of the 12th Amendment, the vice president, who serves as president of the Senate, plays an ambiguous and much-debated role in the final certification of election results by opening the state returns to be counted.

The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted, the text of the Constitution reads.

According to Hutchinson, several Republican lawmakers had closed-door meetings with White House counsel to discuss the feasibility of Pence delaying the certification. Jordan would dial into meetings frequently over the phone to discuss the plan, Hutchinson noted.

They felt that he had the authority topardon me if my phrasing isnt correct on this, butsend votes back to the states or the electors back to the states, she said, according to a partial transcript of her March 7 testimony (pdf), which was released to the public on April 22.

Ultimately, Pence didnt send any results back to the states, despite persistent efforts by some lawmakers to push him toward it, paving the way for Joe Biden to be officially certified as president by Congress.

In the text messages revealed by the Jan. 6 Commission, congressional investigators suggested that efforts to sway Pence had continued until the day of certification.

I have pushed for this. Not sure it is going to happen, Meadows texted Jordan on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021.

The legal issue underlying the efforts to delay certification via the vice president remains controversial.

Democrats and other opponents of the effort have said that the vice presidents electoral role is only a ceremonial, and theyve accused Republican supporters of trying to hijack power. Supporters of the plan have said the strategy, although an uncommon one, was entirely within the bounds of the Constitution.

However, legal experts remain divided on whether the strategy was even practicable under the limits of the 12th Amendment.

Several of those involved in the alleged efforts, including Meadows, Jordan, and Perry, have been summoned before the Jan. 6 Committee in the past, but each has refused the summons, citing concern that the investigation was biased.

While Meadows originally acceded to some requests for documents from the committee, he later cut ties with the panel, citing a right to executive privilege as a member of the White House. Litigation over this claim is continuing.

Leaders of the Jan. 6 Committee have called for Meadows to increase his cooperation with the probe in the wake of Hutchinsons allegations.

Its essential that the American people fully understand Mr. Meadowss role in events before, on, and after January 6th, Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a written statement.

Meadows and other lawmakers identified in the texts didnt respond by press time to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.
Harris Tests Positive for COVID-19

Vice President Kamala Harris has tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, the White House said in a statement Tuesday.

Harris, 57, who is fully vaccinated against the virus and has received two booster shots, has exhibited no symptoms, according to the statement issued by Kirsten Allen, the vice presidents press secretary.

Harris tested positive after returning from a weeklong trip to California. She will isolate and continue to work from her residence. The vice president will return to the White House when she tests negative, the statement says.

Today I tested positive for COVID-19. I have no symptoms, and I will continue to isolate and follow CDC guidelines. Im grateful to be both vaccinated and boosted, Harris wrote in a tweet Tuesday afternoon.

Harris has not been considered a close contact to President Joe Biden, according to the statement. Biden last tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.

This shortage of Democrats, including Harriss potential tie-breaking vote, comes as the Senate looks to vote on confirming key Biden administration nominations. Biden has tapped Lisa Cook to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board and Alvaro Bedoya to be the chair of the Federal Trade Commission.

That is something that members and leaders will work through in Congress, Psaki told reporters on Tuesday when asked about the nominees. We are confident we have the votes to get them confirmed. Were eager to have them in place. But of course, we need all the people, all members there to do that.

This comes alongside new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that nearly 60 percent of the entire U.S. population has had COVID-19 before.

The week over week average number of COVID cases has also gone up more than 20 percent as of April 25, with the Omicron BA.2 subvariant accounting for most new cases.

We have a very, very contagious variant out there, said White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha while advocating for COVID vaccines and therapeutics. It is going to be hard to ensure that no one gets COVID in America, thats not even a policy goal. The goal of our policies should be obviously minimize infections whenever possible, but to make sure people dont get seriously ill.

The Biden administration continues to seek additional funding from Congress to combat the spread of the virus, including steps to expand availability of the COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid.
Federal Independent candidate for Wentworth Allegra Spender speaks to the media during a press conference following the Fuel Security Summit in Sydney, Australia, on April 21, 2022. (AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi)

Holmes a Court Independents Continue Long March of Green Neo-Socialism

Commentary

The Climate 200 group is running 22 independents in the Australian federal election to challenge the incumbent Coalition government from its left flank.

With preferences for the Australia Labor Party (ALP), these independents have a real chance of winning a handful of inner-city seats in Sydney and Melbourne currently held by the Liberal Party. If these independents win enough of these seats, it would make it impossible for the Coalition to win the election.

Climate 200 was created by the wealthy Simon Holmes a Court as a result of a disagreement between him and federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

Holmes a Court, who lives in Frydenbergs Kooyong constituency, ran a pro-Liberal Party fundraising group called Kooyong 200. But after Holmes a Court wrote a column in the Guardian newspaper attacking the Morrison government for extending the lifeline of the Liddell coal-fired power plant-friendly relations between Frydenbergs constituency office and Holmes a Court ended.

Holmes a Court then created a new fundraising group called Climate 200 to run an independent challenger to Frydenberg in Kooyong and other Liberal Party candidates.

The group has accused the Liberal Party of not being Green enough and for moving too far to the right under Morrison. The group will support rapid action on climate change and emission reduction.

But there is some irony in Holmes a Courts attack because his candidates are more likely to unseat left-leaning members of the Liberal Partyin other words, damage the moderate faction that is already closely aligned to his views.

It also threatens the Partys re-election chances in other ways. Funds that were previously flowing into the Liberal Partys coffers are now flowing to Climate 200. Worse, the Liberals are having to spend big to try and defeat these candidates in seats that previously did not require much campaign funding.

Liberal Member for Wentworth Dave Sharma (centre) poses for a photograph with supporters during the official launch of his re-election campaign, in Sydney, Australia, on March 27, 2022. (AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi)

Further, the Climate 200 political machine is equipped with a spin team to sell its candidates and will provide candidates with polling, focus groups, research, campaigning skills, capacity-building, and tactical support. It has also built 30 grassroots community groups to supply the independent candidates with volunteers.

Many of the candidates are women (19 of 22 candidates), and the independent label will play into the growing distrust of established political figures and parties.

Australia now faces a hung Parliament. This will contribute to Holmes a Courts actual objective because holding the balance of power will make him the king-maker of whichever party eventually partners with his candidates.

So what does Climate 200 represent in the grand scheme of things?

Effectively, it is a curious new form of green neo-socialism promoted by an affluent elite who see themselves as progressive liberals who support globalisation and climate change action.

The disjuncture between their supposed liberalism and heavy state-interventionist policies is striking.

They are in fact, British social commentator David Goodharts anywheres (unrooted cosmopolitan globalists) who apparently see no contradiction between living lives of affluent consumption while (apparently) believing they can save the world from the comfort and safety of their rich-suburbs.

It is no accident that Climate 200 looks like an alliance of affluent upper-middle-class women (who were taught to be progressive by Fabians at university) and capitalists who recognise they can get rich by establishing businesses that pocket green subsidies.

It is also no accident that Climate 200 includes people involved in businesses like the Smart Energy Council; Sustainability Victoria; Responsible Investment Association Australasia; Investor Group on Climate Change; and Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

This curious phenomenon can be traced to two sources.

First, affluent liberals sent their children to universities without realising they had been captured by radical left-wing academics. The result has been a Fabian triumph with woke, neo-socialist ideologies being diffused into what used to be Liberal Party (conservative) heartlands.

Another source can be traced to the brilliantly executed green propaganda which sold the idea that building a green economy (decarbonising) represented a set of incredible (capitalist) economic opportunities.

Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court addresses the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 16, 2022. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

In effect, the Greens linguistically reframed their ultimate goals into something that sounded like an opportunity for capitalist growth and capitalist profit-making. Clever spin.

What this Green propaganda did was to bury the reality that building this new world (called the Green New Deal in the United States) was only going to be possible via massive social upheaval.

Taxpayers would have to fund the development of clean technologies and the costs of subsidising a new economy that would be less efficient than the one being dismantled.

Taxpayers would also have to fund the costs of massive socio-economic disruption, unemployment, workforce re-training, and bankroll brand new bureaucracies needed to administer green subsidies and climate change action planning.

The propaganda also brilliantly deflected attention away from the socialist dimension of the project and focussed instead on the opportunities for businesses to get rich. And this is truecapitalists will get rich by building their businesses on the back of state subsidies (thereby pocketing taxpayer dollars).

It is little wonder that so many capitalists have suddenly jumped on the clean energy bandwagon and suddenly started backing heavy state intervention in the economy and large government subsidies.

The approach also works because it not only makes business leaders feel good about themselves, but they can also generate profitstheir affluent lifestyles remain untouched while they do something to save the planet. Win-win.

But of course, it is not a win-win if you are the taxpayer funding this Great Reset, or one of those who will lose your job when the old economy is dismantled.

Ultimately, this Climate 200 experiment will leave two lasting impacts.

First, it will encourage long-lasting change in the Liberal Party.

Second, it may produce a hung Parliament that will see the Liberal and Labor parties both struggle to run a stable government, which will damage their brands in the long term, and cause political instability in the next few years.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Hunger Grips Burkina Faso Due to Increasing Jihadi Violence

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina FasoMartine Roambas 10-month-old daughter weakly tugs at her mothers breast searching for milk.

The malnourished baby has been struggling to feed since birth as her mother hasnt had enough to eat to produce sufficient breastmilk since fleeing her village in northern Burkina Faso last year when jihadis started killing people.

Seated on a hospital bed with other severely malnourished children and their parents on the outskirts of Burkina Fasos capital, Ouagadougou, 30-year-old Roamba tries to calm her crying daughter.

Its very worrying and were praying to God that the baby doesnt deteriorate into an even worse situation, she said.

Hunger is soaring across conflict-ridden Burkina Faso, a result of increasing violence linked to Al-Qaeda and the ISIS group, which has killed thousands and displaced millions, preventing people from farming. Some 3.5 million people are food insecure, with nearly 630,000 expected to be on the brink of starvation, according to the latest food security report by the government and U.N. agencies. This is an 82 percent increase from last year of people facing emergency hunger.

The nutrition situation in (the country) is deteriorating more and more, there are more and more people in need, said Claudine Konate, a nutrition specialist for the U.N. Childrens Agency, UNICEF. The country has to prepare for a growing crisis, she said.

At the hospital in Ouagadougou, the number of severely malnourished children arriving has doubled from two years ago and there isnt enough space or staff to care for them, said Clarisse Nikiema, head of nutrition at the hospital.

A malnourished baby is cared for in the pediatric department of Boulmiougou hospital in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on April 15, 2022. (Sophie Garcia/AP Photo)

Because they were displaced, they are deeply impoverished and cant feed their families, so children become malnourished, she said. Sometimes after recovering, families refuse to leave because they dont want their children going hungry at home where theres no food, she said.

In January, mutinous soldiers ousted Burkina Fasos democratically elected president, and the ruling junta says that restoring security is their top priority. However, attacks have since increased with an 11 percent rise in incidents in February, according to the U.N. The violence is driving more people closer to starvation, say experts.

The situation is most dire in the northern Sahel region, where cities like Djibo have until recently been besieged by jihadi rebels for months, restricting the delivery of food aid. Other towns like Gorom Gorom, have almost no operating health centers. Only two out of 27 in the district are fully functioning, said Jean Paul Ouedraogo, representative for the Italian-based aid group Lay Volunteers International Association.

Jihadi rebels are also expanding and pushing south and west into Burkina Fasos breadbasket, stealing crops and livestock and chasing people from their rural farms and into cities.

The decreasing supply and increase in demand is causing prices to spike. A bag of 100 kilograms of corn has nearly doubled since last year from $30 to $50, say locals. Aid organizations are bracing for more price hikes because of the war in Ukraine. Burkina Faso buys more than a third of its wheat from Russia, according to the U.N., and while the impact is not yet visible, humanitarians say its a concern.

The crisis in Ukraine is also likely to impact soaring grain prices, making an already bad situation worse, said Gregoire Brou, country director for Action Against Hunger in Burkina Faso. Aid for the country is already underfundedlast years humanitarian response plan received less than half of the requested $607 million, according to the UNand now agencies say donors have indicated there could be a 70 percent cut to funding in order to support operations in Ukraine.

Meanwhile hunger is affecting virtually everyone in the country, even those trying to defend it. During a trip to the northern town of Ouahigouya, civilians who volunteered to fight alongside the army, told The Associated Press theyre battling jihadis on empty stomachs.

The volunteers fight for the country, but they fight with hunger, said one volunteer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The lack of farming and minimal pay as a volunteer$8 a monthisnt enough to subsist on, he said.

Malnourished people are arriving at health centers in Ouahigouya in severe condition and taking longer to recover, said Dr. Gerard Koudougou Kombassere, who works at a hospital in the town. Displaced people are the most affected and malnutrition rates among them are rising, he said. In a makeshift displacement camp in Ouahigouya where some 2,300 people have sought refuge, residents told AP they have received food assistance only once in the past 10 months.

At one of the shelters, Salamata Nacanabo said her family used to eat five times a day when they lived in their village, but now they eat just once. Mimicking the sound of gunshots, the 31-year-old recounts the day jihadis stormed her village killing eight people, seizing everything she owned and forcing her family to flee.

They stole everything, cattle, food, and they took my goats, she said. Now its very hard to take care of the children.

By Sam Mednick
Hunter Biden walks to Marine One on the Ellipse outside the White House in Washington on May 22, 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Hunter Bidens Failure to Register as Foreign Agent Could Be Case for Indictment: Investigative Journalist

Hunter Biden not registering as a foreign agent during his business dealings involving a Chinese energy giant with ties to the Chinese Communist Party could support an indictment, said Natalie Winters, an investigative reporter at National Pulse.

When the authenticity of Hunter Bidens laptopabandoned by him at a computer repair shophad been confirmed, media coverage focused on a variety of leads found in emails stored on the laptop, but for Winters, the most noteworthy was information about his foreign business dealings.

Winters told EpochTVs Crossroads program that Hunter Biden was a vulnerable point of the American political establishment and she thinks that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) knew that.

They [the CCP] saw he was surrounded by people who were just filled with greed and wanted to make a profit, said Winters who, in her own words, primarily focuses her journalism on how the Chinese Communist Party works to really subvert the United States, [using mostly] political leaders, thought leaders, people in media, people in academia.

Therefore information left on Hunter Bidens laptop related to his foreign business dealings with China was for Winters the most relevant in terms of the political application because the Chinese United Front Work Department and all various groups that work with it to subvert people like Hunter Biden is probably the most existential threat to the United States, she said.

The United Front Work Department, a unit under the CCP, coordinates thousands of groups to carry out foreign political influence operations, suppress dissident movements, gather intelligence, and facilitate the transfer of technology to China, according to a 2020 report by the think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Winters pointed out that Hunter Bidens work with CEFC China Energy Company would have required him by U.S. law to register as a foreign agent based on public business records, without a need to corroborate his involvement by the information found on his laptop.

CEFC China Energy is used as a means to exert political influence on foreign countries by the Chinese regime, Winters explained.

In 2018, Patrick Ho Chi-ping, a former Hong Kong secretary for home affairs, was convicted in the United States for bribing top officials of Chad and Uganda in exchange for mining rights for CEFC China Energy Company when acting on behalf of the company.

In a memorandum following the November 2014 midterm U.S. elections, CEFC China Energy outlined a plan to establish relationships and friendships with politicians. Ye Jianming, the now-disgraced chairman of the company, has strong ties to European political leaders and once asked a security adviser to a U.S. president to persuade the U.S. Army not to bomb Syria because he wanted to buy up oil fields there.

Hunter Biden once referred to himself as a managing director of CEFC China Energy in an email found on his abandoned laptop and that alone would require him to register as a foreign agent based on the Foreign Agent Registration Act, Winters explained, but he never registered.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), enacted in 1938, requires certain individuals or entities who work on behalf of foreign principals and are engaged in political activities or other activities specified under the statute to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, their activities, as well as of receipts and disbursements related to those activities, according to the Department of Justice.

Winters cautioned against the spin in media coverage of the hard drive content of Hunter Bidens laptop. Its sort of a misdirection play in the sense that its just focused on Hunter Biden and his business dealings, his taxes, his financial records. But the smoking gun, Winters said, is how allegedly the former Vice President Joe Biden was involved in helping his son with foreign business dealings.

Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke, co-hosts of EpochTV program Truth Over News, said in a recent interview on EpochTVs Crossroads program that an email from 2015 requesting Hunter Biden to stop the investigation into the Ukrainian energy company Burisma was found on his laptop. Hunter Biden was at that time a board member of Burisma.

A few weeks later in 2015, then-Vice President Joe Biden reached out to then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asking him to remove the prosecutor that was involved in the Burisma investigation, Carlson said.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin who was probing Burisma was removed from his post about four months later. In 2018, then-Vice President Biden explained during his appearance at the Council of Foreign Relations how he pressured Ukrainian leaders to remove the prosecutor from office.

Winters added that there are a lot of people who claim that they have copies of the hard drive of Hunter Bidens abandoned laptop. Some claim to have found images indicating that certain crimes were committed, she said. But yet, weve never necessarily seen the corroborated evidence for these allegations.

You dont make a claim if you dont present the evidence first, said Winters who described herself as an old school journalist.

We dont need to shoot ourselves in the foot by making allegations that we cant prove, .. [or] we cant prove yet. Bad faith actors are on the left and on the right, Winters added.

Cathy He contributed to this report.

Ella Kietlinska Reporter Follow Ella Kietlinska is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on U.S. and world politics.
People shop for cooking oil at a supermarket in Jakarta, Indonesia, on March 27, 2022. (Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

Indonesia May Widen Palm Export Ban to Combat Shortages

JAKARTAIndonesia will ban exports of RBD palm olein from midnight on April 28 until prices of bulk cooking oil drop to 14,000 rupiah per litre, a senior minister said on Tuesday, while a document showed it was prepared to widen the ban if there are shortages.

The export ban will be imposed on all producers of refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) palm olein and applied on products under three HS codes, chief economic minister Airlangga Hartarto said in a statement.

RBD palm olein, which is produced by crushing palm fruit and then processed to remove impurities, accounts for about 40 percent of Indonesias total shipments of palm oil products, according to analysts estimates, which means the ban could significantly affect export earnings in Southeast Asias biggest economy.

The export ban will stay until bulk cooking oil price reach the targeted 14,000 rupiah per litre throughout Indonesia, Airlangga said.

Bulk cooking oil was offered at about 20,000 rupiah ($1.39)per litre at online marketplaces on Tuesday. In some traditional markets, they were sold at around 17,000-19,000 rupiah per litre, state news agency Antara reported.

The policy will be evaluated periodically and will continue to be adjusted according to the most current situation, he said.

The government is prepared to widen its ban on exports of refined palm olein if it faces domestic shortages of derivatives used in the production of cooking oil, according to details presented at a meeting between government and industry officials.

The worlds biggest palm oil maker will allow exports of crude palm oil or other derivatives from Thursday, senior government official Musdhalifah Machmud, who verified the details presented, told Reuters.

Indonesia typically exports about $2.5 billion to $3 billion of palm oil products per month.

Authorities will strictly monitor domestic supply of refined palm oil and crude palm oil, which are used as raw materials to make RBD olein, according to presentation slides.

If there is shortage of refined palm oil, then further export bans can be carried out, read the text on a slide shown to palm oil companies on Monday.



An Indonesian worker collects fresh fruit bunches during harvest at a plantation in Kampar regency in Riau province, Indonesia, on April 26, 2022. (Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

China, India, the Philippines, and South Korea, source between 46 percent and 58 percent of their total palm oil imports from Indonesia, Nomura said in a research note, adding that China was the top buyer of Indonesias RBD olein.

President Joko Widodo announced the ban on exports of cooking oil and its raw material on Friday to help control soaring domestic prices, but provided no details.

The announcement has sent global edible oil prices soaring as supplies were already choked by other factors such as drought and shortages from Russias invasion of major crop producer Ukraine.

Markets had previously thought the ban would cover a wider range of palm oil products, sending the rupiah and shares of Indonesian palm oil companies tumbling on Monday.

The rupiah rebounded 0.3 percent on Tuesday, while palm company shares also gained. Malaysian benchmark crude palm futures, which had reversed gains after details of the ban emerged, rose 1.5 percent by 9:00 a.m. GMT on Tuesday.

Presidents Approval Rating Falls

Airlangga said a trade ministry regulation will be issued soon.

Indonesias ban on palm oil exports is unlikely to last more than a month as Jakarta has limited infrastructure to store the surplus oil and the country faces mounting pressure from buyers to resume shipments, industry officials said.

The Indonesian government has been criticised by some analysts and politicians for erratic policymaking to contain the rise in cooking oil prices, having already implemented and revoked an export restriction this year.

Approval ratings for Jokowi, as the Indonesian president is popularly known, dropped to 59.9 percent this month from 75.3 percent at the beginning of 2022, due to rising prices of necessities including cooking oil, independent pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia said.

More than 60 percent of respondents in the survey, which was conducted before the export ban was announced, also supported halting cooking oil shipments.

Students have held street demonstrations in several cities across the archipelago this month to protest against high cooking oil prices.

($1 = 14,410.0000 rupiah)

By Bernadette Christina
Irvine Passes Nepotism Law

IRVINE, Calif.Irvine formally passed on April 26 an ordinance that will prevent its councilors from appointing family members to the citys committees, commissions, and boards, though one councilman says the ordinance is politically motivated against his wife, who sits on an advisory committee.

Currently, each councilor can appoint one person to each of Irvines 23 committees and commissions, which give advice to nine city departments with a total operating budget of $200 million per year.

Councilman Larry Agrans wife, Dr. Phyllis Agran, is a pediatrician who sits on Irvines Children, Youth and Families Advisory Committee, where she was originally appointed by former Mayor Sukhee Kang and was later reappointed by her husband in March 2021.

Passed by a 41 vote at the April 26 council meeting, the ordinance will go into effect 30 days after passing and will remove Dr. Agran from the committee since she is maritally tied to Councilman Agran.

Councilman Agran said during the meeting that he felt he was politically targeted by the rest of the council, with whom he often butts heads.

Service on that committee is uncompensated, Agran said. And the ordinance in front of us I can only assume was politically motivated to effectively remove Dr. Agran from service on that committeenot for lack of qualifications, not for any misconduct, absences, not for any cause whatsoever other than her marital status, which is that shes married to me.

Councilwoman Tammy Kim, who brought the item forward during its first reading on April 12, denied that it had anything to do with Agrans wife.

The ordinance will ban any person from serving on a commission or committee who is related to any councilornot just the appointing councilorin relationships including spouses, siblings, cousins, parents, step relationships, and children.

Agran argued that the clause can lead to problems since it can be difficult to know who all of each councilors relatives are, for example.

God knows who my colleagues cousins are, Agran said. I dont need to know who my cousins are. Youre going to have to give an ancestry test [with each appointment].

Agran said that Irvine is not troubled by nepotism and that his wifes appointment is a different case because she is qualified for the position on the advisory committee and is not compensated.

The fact of the matter is, this is a political solution of some kind.  We have no nepotism problem in this city, he said. None whatsoever that Im aware. We had no cases that Im aware of where people are making appointments of relatives to compensated positions for which they may or may not be qualified.

Councilors will also be considering adding business relationships to the list of relationships barred from council-appointed positions.
The New York Stock Exchange is seen in New York on Feb. 24, 2022. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo)

Is ESG Investing an Expensive Scam?

Commentary

When you hear the acronym ESG, do your eyes glaze over? If so, youre not alone. For some, ESG represents progress. For others, however, its nothing but a scam. Nevertheless, the ESG movement is picking up steam, with an increasing number of corporations jumping on board.

The acronym, which stands for environmental, social, and corporate governance, evaluates how a corporation balances social goals that benefit the broader community alongside more traditional goals, like maximizing profits. To understand ESG, it helps to break the acronym down.

Environmental: Today, climate change is arguably the most hotly debated of all the hot issues. With countries striving to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050, companies are assessed on their environmental impact. This includes the amount of waste and pollution they create.

Social: Here, a company is judged on how it manages relationships with its numerous stakeholdersa vague term indeed. With ESG, the term stakeholders doesnt just include customers, employees, and suppliers; it also consists of the broader community. Theoretically, this could mean every human in existence. Of the three ESG components, the second is probably the most contentious.

Governance: Questions asked here include the following: How does a company operate daily? Are company policies transparent? Is the company engaging in illegal practices? Is it respecting the rights of its shareholders?

Another question worth asking is, how many people actually understand ESG? The answer, it appears, is very few.

According to Barrons, the sister publication of The Wall Street Journal, even retail investors, the very people who are supposed to understand the intricacies of ESG, have a hard time explaining what it means. According to the article, 25 percent believe ESG stands for earnings, stock, growth.

Moreover, 9 percent of respondents admitted that their familiarity with the concept is not as high or as broad as some of the coverage on the topic of ESG investing might suggest.

Why?

Because ESG is a murky ideology submerged in a sea of woke, greenwashing jargon. In the words of Chamath Palihapitiya, founder of investment firm Social Capital, the ESG movement is great marketing. In reality, though, its a lot of sizzle, no steak. ESG investing is nothing but a complete fraud.

Strong wordsand they appear to carry a great deal of truth.

ESG is just the latest addition to the woke-industrial complex. Environmental issues have become heavily politicized, with many left-leaning activists warning that the end is nigh. The apocalypse is coming, they warn, and we are ill-prepared for the horrors that await us.

Although the data suggest otherwise, environmental activists now dominate the narrative. Failure to follow their demands is punished swiftly and severely. This is why many corporations are eager to sign up for ESG initiatives.

Today, its all about appearances; corporations are desperate to give the appearance that they care, even if they dont. ESG simply elevates virtue signaling to a whole new level.

As authors at Fast Company recently reported, in a survey of close to 1,500 executives involved in different industries, 58 percent of respondents admitted that their companies were guilty of greenwashing.

For the uninitiated, greenwashing is a form of marketing spin; it involves using green PR to trick the public into thinking that an organizations products, services, and policies are environmentally friendly.

Among the leaders in the U.S., according to the report, 68 percent of respondents admitted to greenwashing. Two-thirds of executives admitted that their companys sustainability efforts were less than genuine.

One of the more flagrant examples of greenwashing in recent history involved Volkswagen, the multinational car manufacturer. In 2015, we found out that Volkswagen had been cheating emission tests for years. Before the bombshell revelation, the company had a long history of marketing its vehicles as both low-emission and eco-friendly. In reality, though, many of the companys vehicles were fitted with engines that emitted excessive amounts of nitrogen oxide pollutants.

The Volkswagen factories and administration and sales buildings in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Oct. 5, 2015. For Volkswagen, the cost of its cheating on emissions tests in the U.S. is likely to run into the tens of billions of dollars and prematurely end its long-sought status as the worlds biggest carmaker. (Julian Stratenschulte/DPA via AP)

Last June, Earth Island Institute, a non-profit environmental group, sued Coca-Cola, the beverage behemoth that prides itself on being environmentally aware. Earth Island Institute accused the company of misleading the public and being one of the largest plastic polluters on the planet.

Not surprisingly, in an effort to improve their image, both Volkswagen and Coca-Cola have acknowledged the importance of ESG. Sustainability, were told, is of prime importance.

Of all the multinationals dedicated to ESG, BlackRock, the investment firm headquartered in New York City, is perhaps the most evangelical. Executives, were assured, are committed to sustainable investing.

According to the companys website, sustainable investing involves investing in progress, and recognising that companies solving the worlds biggest challenges can be best positioned to grow. It is about pioneering better ways of doing business, and creating the momentum to encourage more and more people to opt in to the future were working to create.

However, according to Tariq Fancy, the former head of sustainable investing at BlackRock, the company talks a good game but delivers very little. In a rather explosive essay published last year, Fancy laid out how BlackRock has misled the public.

They must know that theyre exaggerating the degree of overlap between purpose and profit, he wrote. These leaders must know that there is no way the set of ideas theyve proposed are even close to being up to the challenge of solving the runaway long-term problems.

The marketing gobbledegook, he warned, is actively misleading people.

This is the problem with ESG. The goals are lofty, even delusional. When corporations commit to ESG, they desperately try to outwoke each other, making increasingly ludicrous claims. If one company promises to transform its environmental impact in less than a decade, the next company will promise to do it in five years. If one company promises to reduce its plastic waste, the next company will promise not just to do this, but also to save the Amazon rainforest.

In this game of high-stakes poker, the power to bluff should not be underestimated. Talk, as they say, is incredibly cheap. In the world of ESG, talk is everything. Isnt it about time that we stopped listening?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
J.D. Vance and Donald Trump Jr. answer questions from the media after a campaign stop in West Chester, Ohio, on April 25. (Courtesy of Everitt Townsend)

J.D. Vance Confident About Ohio Senate Primary, Campaigns With Donald Trump Jr.

Loris Roadhouse stirred with the buzz of conversation as a crowd gathered to hear Ohio GOP U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance and Donald Trump Jr. speak on April 25 in West Chester, around 20 miles from Vances childhood home in Middletown.

When the 1970s and 1980s classic rock soundtrack stopped, and the audience grew silent, West Chester Township Trustee Ann Becker stepped on stage and asked a question.

We have a primary that is a week away. How many of you have voted?

The crowd remained silent.

Last week, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced that 125,118 absentee ballots had been requested as of April 15, down 27 percent compared to 171,954 two weeks before the 2018 primary.

Of those ballots, 44,994 had been returned or cast in person. That represents a 30 percent decrease from 2018 when 63,253 absentee ballots had been requested.

In the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman, Vance is in a crowded GOP primary field that includes former Ohio state treasurer and state representative Josh Mandel, Cleveland investment banker Mike Gibbons, former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken, State Sen. Matt Dolan, central Ohio entrepreneur and activist Mark Pukita, and Columbus businessman Neil Patel.

With voter turnout already low, and a ballot that includes seven candidates, every vote is especially crucial. Propelled by Donald Trumps endorsement, which was announced on April 15, and campaigning with the former presidents son, Vance feels confident but said there is more work to be done before the primary.

Donald Trump Jr.. campaigned for Ohio GOP U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance at a No BS Tour event in West Chester, Ohio on April 25. (Courtesy of Everitt Townsend)

Remember, the primary is May 3, unless you are not voting for J.D. Vance, then it is May 4, Vance said with a laugh on the Loris Roadhouse stage. We need to elect Republicans who know what time it is. Im the America First candidate.

If the primary was held today, we would win, Vance added. But we have a week left, and we need to keep building momentum and carry it through May 3.

Since entering the race, Vance has faced abundant criticism about his disparaging remarks about Trump in 2016. The Hillbilly Elegy author and venture capitalist said, I cant vote for Trump, I think that he is noxious and he bashed Trump for making people I care about afraid.

At the event in West Chester, as he has at multiple campaign stops, Vance explained how his opinion about Trump evolved once the candidate became president.

You know who else didnt like Trump in 2016? Everybody, Trump Jr. said. J.D. has actually been by far the most consistent and intellectually honest about his positions and everything as it relates to Trump from Day One.

Dont vote for career politicians or establishment stooges. Vote for the antithesis. J.D. Vance is the only Trump-endorsed candidate in this race, he continued.

Honesty About Former President

He is a conservative outsider who we can trust to stand up to the radical left and the weak RINOs in the Senate. Hes 100 percent committed to our America First agenda and Im excited to campaign with him.

For months, Mandel was the frontrunner in polls with Gibbons second. Then the pair had a heated on-stage exchange during a debate on March 18.

Gibbons told Mandel, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served two tours in Iraq, that he had never worked in the private sector. Mandel took offense to the comment, sprung from his chair, and stood nose-to-nose with Gibbons as the two verbally sparred before the moderator eased tensions.

FreedomWorks, the organization that hosted the debate, conducted a straw poll when the event was finished.

Vance was the winter at 43.1 percent followed by Timken (20.7 percent), Gibbons (16.1 percent), Dolan (12.3 percent), and Mandel (4.6 percent).

That event, and subsequent debates, spurred momentum for the campaign, Vance said. Trump Jr. said that his father was disgusted with the conduct of Gibbons and Mandel at the FreedomWorks forum.

You can like someone individually and say thats not a performance you want to hang your hat on, Trump Jr. said.

Pretty Ugly Confrontation

Trump Jr. recalled a conversation with his father after the confrontation.

I go, you saw those things, he goes, Yeah, that was pretty ugly.

A Trafalgar Poll released on April 15 showed Mandel leading the Republican field with 28 percent, followed by Vance at 22.6 percent. That was revealed hours before Trump announced that he was backing Vance.

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.

In a Fox News poll released on April 26, Vance leads with 23 percent of primary voters, a 12 percent increase from March. Mandel is second with 18 percent followed by Gibbons (13 percent), Dolan (11 percent), and Timken (6 percent). Undecided voters account for 25 percent of the response.

Last week, pro-Vance super PAC Protect Ohio Values released a poll of 800 Republican voters showing that Vance sat atop the crowded field with 25 percent, followed by Mandel (18 percent), Gibbons (13 percent), Timken (11 percent), and Dolan (9 percent). Undecided voters were at 23 percent.

Todd Terry and his wife, Lisa Terry, live in Liberty Township not far from Loris Roadhouse. After listening to Vance and Trump Jr., the couple said they are voting for Vance.

Endorsement Swaying Voters

I didnt like him at first because he didnt support Donald Trump. I liked Mike Gibbons, Todd Terry said, holding Vance yard signs and stickers. Donald Trumps endorsement makes a difference. That swayed my opinion, and then what Vance and Trump Jr. said tonight made me feel even more confident about Vance.

Max Minniear, who also lives in Liberty Township, owns a remodeling business and was planning to vote for Mandeluntil Trump endorsed Vance.

I like Donald Trump, so when he said he was supporting J.D. Vance, that led me to give him a chance, Minniear said. I think J.D. Vance is sincere on how his opinion changed about Trump.

On April 26, Vance announced that former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes will join him at campaign stops on April 27 and April 28.

Mandel, who has conducted his campaign through Faith and Freedom events at churches across Ohio, is endorsed by Sen. Ted Cruz (RTexas).

Cruz will join Mandel at multiple events this weekend. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who served as Trumps national security adviser, accompanied Mandel at forums over the past week.

Flynn does not approve of Trump endorsing Vance.

I think everyone has to make their own decision about who to endorse, Flynn said. I just think the [former] president made a mistake on that particular front.

Ohio GOP U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel talks to supporters during a campaign stop at Top Notch Diner in Cortland, Ohio. (Courtesy of Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate)

The Club for Growth is supporting Mandel and has released more than $4.2 million in ads, according to Columbus-based political ad firm Medium Buying. Mandel believes that his support from high-profile figures like Flynn and Cruz, and the continued enthusiasm of his Faith and Freedom rallies, will lead him to a primary victory.

Im confident were going to win this primary May 3, and I look forward to working with [former] president Trump to beat the Democrats in November, Mandel said.

Last weekend, Gibbons campaigned with his team outside Trumps Save America Rally at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in central Ohio. He said he remains optimistic, even though he did not get the former presidents endorsement.

A lot of people, rightfully so, look at what he did with the Trump agenda, and what he accomplished. They also recognized that he made a lot of bad decisions when it came to picking people. And I personally think this is one of them, Gibbons said about Trumps decision to back Vance.

Gibbons, who is endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul (RKentucky), released an ad titled Believe It over the weekend.

The spot targets Mandel and Vance and highlights Gibbons strong record in creating American jobs and also lists his strong commitment to secure borders, lower taxes, and protecting the unborn, according to a statement from Gibbons campaign.

You cant believe them. Josh Mandel is a politician, J.D. Vance a celebrity, Gibbons says in the ad. They made careers creating nothing but their own image. I made mine creating jobs. Ill fight like hell to save America. Believe it.
Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a press conference in Tokyo on April 8, 2022. (Rodrigo Reyes Marin/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Japan Pledges to Increase Financial Support for Ukraine

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged Tuesday that he would increase financial support to Ukraine from $100 million to $300 million amid Russias ongoing aggression against Ukraine.

Kishida conveyed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the phone that Japan will increase financial aid and defense equipment supply, including protective masks and drones, at the request of the Ukrainian government.

In order to protect the international community and the order of peace, we will continue to work closely with the G7 and other related countries and actively develop diplomatic efforts to support Ukraine, Kishida was quoted as saying by his office.

Japan has also offered to provide additional humanitarian aid supplies to Ukraine, which include food and medicines, his office said in a statement.

Zelensky said that they also discussed prospects for post-war cooperation, while expressing gratitude to Japan for its assistance.

We see Japan as an important participant in the anti-war coalition and future security agreements, he said in a tweet.

Japans government had previously offered to extend $100 million in emergency humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and pledged to accept Ukrainians who are seeking refuge in a third country.

Kishida announced in March that his government will supply Ukraine with defense equipment, including bulletproof vests and helmets, in what was considered a rare move by Japan given the countrys long embargo on defense equipment export.

The ban was overturned by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2014, who allowed exports in cases that contribute to global peace and serve Japans security interests.

Chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the decision to supply Ukraine with defense equipment was made in accordance with Japans war-renouncing constitution, adding that Japan will not provide weapons to Ukraine.

As a nation that experienced the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident [in 2011], Japan condemns [Russias invasion of Ukraine] in the strongest possible terms, Kishida told reporters last month.
Hunter Biden attends his father Joe Biden's inauguration as the 46th President of the United States on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool/Reuters)

Joe Biden Agreed to Pay Hunters Legal Bills Connected to Chinese Business Venture: Leaked Emails

President Joe Biden appears to have agreed in 2019 to pay for his sons legal fees relating to dealings with a Chinese firm that has ties to the Chinese Communist Party, according to newly reported emails.

An email dated Jan. 17, 2019, with the subject line Hunters bills and greeting Hello VP team, shows Hunters then-assistant Katie Dodge telling bookkeeper Linda Shapero that Joe Biden had agreed to pay Hunter Bidens bills incurred in 2018 and 2019, including one relating to the restructuring of one of Hunters business ventures. The emails were obtained by The Daily Mail and reportedly from Hunter Bidens laptop.

I spoke with Hunter today regarding his bills. It is my understanding that Hunts dad will cover these bills in the short-term as Hunter transitions in his career, Dodge wrote.

Dodges email attached a spreadsheet detailing the bills Hunter Biden owed from 2018 to 2019. One of the last items on the spreadsheet was more than $28,000 in legal fees owed to law firm Faegre Baker Daniels for BHR Restructuring.

A January 2019 email from Hunter Bidens former assistant Katie Dodge to bookkeeper Linda Shapero stating that Joe Biden has agreed to pay for Hunter Bidens bills from 2018 to 2019 (dailymail.co.uk)

BHR likely refers to Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management (BHR Partners), an investment firm backed by major Chinese state financial institutions, such as the Bank of China and the China Development Bank Capital.

Rosemont Seneca Partners, a U.S. investment and advisory firm Hunter Biden co-founded, became one of the shareholders of BHR, which was incorporated in Shanghai in 2013. Hunter gained an unpaid board seat on BHR as a result. He sat on the board until April 2020.

Hunter held a 10 percent stake in BHR, but divested as of November last year, according to his attorney.

The president has repeatedly denied ever discussing or being involved with Hunters business dealings.

I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings, Joe Biden said in 2019 during a Democratic Party fundraiser.

However, some Republican lawmakers are skeptical of the veracity of such claims.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said the new email proves that the president hasnt been truthful.

President Biden has lied repeatedly to the American public, but the media is not calling him on it, Johnson told Fox News on April 27. One thing thats going to be on the ballot in November is truth versus lies and distortion.

The younger Biden is currently subjected to a federal probe into his tax payments and involvement in international dealings, including those conducted while his father was vice president.

A 2020 Senate report found that there was potential criminal activity relating to transactions among and between Hunter Biden, his family, and his associates with Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh and Chinese nationals, while Joe Biden was vice president during the Obama administration.

The report pointed out how Hunter Biden made questionable transactions with Chinese nationals connected to the Chinese regime and military.

Peter Schweizer, author of the book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, recently told The Epoch Times that Hunter Bidens business dealings, especially those connected to China, should raise alarm bells.

The author likened Hunters deals to a hypothetical scenario in which Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagans family would receive millions of dollars from Russian businessmen connected to the KGB during the Cold War.

Thats what happened here. All were doing is replacing the KGB with the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS). Its the exact same story, and it ought to be setting off the exact alarm bells, he said, referring to the Chinese regimes top intelligence agency.

White House officials and representatives for the law firm referenced in the email, now known as Faegre Drinker, didnt respond to requests for comment by press time.

Frank Fang contributed to this report.
Flowers, candles and mementos sit outside one of the makeshift memorials at in Parkland, Fla. on Feb. 27, 2018. (Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images)

Judges Mistake May See Parkland Shooter Avoid Death Penalty

PUNTA GORDA, Fla.A Broward County Circuit judges procedural mistake on April 25 could cause the Parkland shooter to get a life sentence instead of the death penalty.

Attorneys for Nikolas Cruzwho is accused of murdering 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018filed a motion asking Broward County Judge Elizabeth Scherer to end jury selection and prepare to sentence Cruz to life in prison because of a mistake she made in jury selections.

The motion went on to say that, at the very least, the judge must reinstate the jurors she previously struck.

According to Cruzs lawyers, the judge on April 5 prematurely dismissed 11 jurors. The motion was filed over a dispute with the judge for dismissing them.

Nikolas Cruz, facing 17 charges of premeditated murder in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, appears in court for a status hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Feb. 19, 2018. (Mike Stocker/Pool via Reuters)

Scherer defended her decision and offered to have the jurors return for additional questioning on April 25. However, they were not told to return to court for the additional questioning and the state moved to strike all 243 jurors that had previously passed through the first round of jury selections.

The judge agreed with the stateover objections from the defenseand began jury selection from scratch.

The court did so without attempting a single plausible remedy and without giving the defense sufficient time to respond, Cruzs lawyers wrote in a motion filed April 27.

Although this court did indicate it would give the defense an opportunity to change its mind  based on the Courts actions, the defense is concerned that the court will not give this motion due consideration.

Defense attorneys said the judges decision gave prosecutors a significant advantage in obtaining a jury more like to vote unanimously for the death sentence.

The motion continued to say that, The improper striking of all previous panels violates double jeopardy and due process.

Thus, if this court does not intend to reverse its order striking all previous panels, and further does not intend to make an attempt to return the 11 improperly excused jurors to court, the state must be barred from seeking the death penalty and the proceedings must conclude.

Under Florida law jury recommendations for the death penalty must be unanimous. If there is one hold-out Cruz could be sentenced to 34 life sentences17 for the surviving shooting victims and 17 for those who died in the rampage.

Cruz has confessed to the murders, but his fate is the subject of the upcoming trial.

The defense team wants Cruz to be sentenced to life in prison, while prosecutors want a jury trial to decide whether he should be sentenced to death.
Kelloggs is mounting a legal challenge against new Government rules which would stop some of the companys cereals being prominently displayed in food stores. (JKelloggs/PA)

Kelloggs Fights British Governments Ban On The Promotion Of Foods High In Fat, Sugar, and Salt

The food giant is mounting a legal challenge against new government rules to tackle child obesity that would stop some of the companys cereals from being prominently displayed in food stores.

The new regulations come into effect in England in October and restrict the promotion of food and drink that is high in fat, salt, and sugar. While some welcome the new rules, others have called the restrictions nannying nonsense.

Eaten with Milk

Kelloggs said in a statement that it has tried to have a reasonable conversation with Government without success.

Kelloggs UK managing director Chris Silcock said the company believed that the formula being used by the Government to measure the nutritional value of breakfast cereals is wrong and not implemented legally.

It measures cereals dry when they are almost always eaten with milk. All of this matters because, unless you take account of the nutritional elements added when cereal is eaten with milk, the full nutritional value of the meal is not measured, said Silcock.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: Breakfast cereals contribute 7 percenta significant amountto the average daily free sugar intakes of children.

Restricting the promotion and advertising of less healthy foods is an important part of the cross-government strategy to halve childhood obesity by 2030, prevent harmful diseases, and improve healthy life expectancy, so we can continue to level up health across the nation.

Regulations

Regulations will also include requiring businesses to phase out their offering of multi-buy promotions such as buy one get one free or 3 for 2 offers on fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) products. Less healthy promotions will also no longer be featured in key locations in stores and online. Free refills of sugary soft drinks will also be prohibited in restaurants.

The spokesman added that obesity costs the NHS more than 6 billion ($7.52 billion) a year and is the second biggest cause of cancer in the UK.

Chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance John OConnell told The Epoch Times by email that the governments obesity strategy leaves slim pickings for struggling families who rely on affordable meals to put food on the table.

Outright ad bans on ordinary foods and ending buy one get one free will be a hammer blow to hard-pressed shoppers, who dont need [Prime Minister Boris Johnson] piling on the pounds to their weekly food bill. Misguided ministers must stop this nannying nonsense and think of better ways to help taxpayers keep healthy, said OConnell.

Professor Graham MacGregor Chairman of Action on Sugar and Action on Salt, a charity that informs and influences sugar reduction policies in the UK, told The Epoch Times it was odd that Kellogs announced a few weeks ago that they are doing great work reducing the salt in their cereals, then announced today that they are going to sue the government.

In April, Kelloggs announced that salt in one of its biggest cereal brandsSpecial Khad been reduced by an average of 16.7 percent as part of its pledge to remove at least 10 percent of sugars and 20 percent of salt from its childrens cereals across European and UK brands.

Obesity

MacGregor, who is also the Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine (Barts and The London) and Honorary Consultant Physician at Queen Mary, University of London, agreed with the government plans and restrictions. He said that if they dont succeed we are all going to die of obesity in a few years time, noting that areas that are most deprived are being hit.

The UK has one of the worst childhood rates of obesity in Europe and we need to do something about it as obesity kills you, through itself and through type two diabetes, he said. According to the Nuffield Trust, in England in 2016/17, nearly a quarter (23.6 percent) of children in reception were obese or overweight.

We have very successfully reduced salt in the UK. We led the world in the early 2000s, getting the salt out of food without people noticing. That is in bread, cereals, take away meals. Thats a brilliant public health policy as salt intake has fallen in the UK, which is a big cause of blood pressure, the biggest killer in the world for the strokes and heart attacks it causes, said MacGregor.

Obesity is a world-wide problem. When the global food industry moves into any country, you immediately start getting obesity. We are seeing that in China and India now, he added.

.
A Ukrainian soldier stands outside a school hit by Russian rockets in the southern Ukraine village of Zelenyi Hai between Kherson and Mykolaiv, less than 5 km from the front line on April 1, 2022. (Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images)

RussiaUkraine War (April 27): Explosions in Ukrainian City of Kherson

The latest on the RussiaUkraine crisis, April 27. Click here for updates from April 26.

Explosions in Ukrainian City of Kherson

In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, a series of explosions boomed near the television tower late Wednesday and at least temporarily knocked Russian channels off the air, Ukrainian and Russian news organizations reported.

The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said missiles and rockets were fired at the city from the direction of the Ukrainian forces to the northwest.

Kherson has been occupied by Russian forces since early in the war.

Ukrayinska Pravda, an online newspaper, said the strikes set off a fire and knocked Russian television channels off the air.

RIA Novosti said the broadcast later resumed. It said Russian channels began broadcasting from Kherson last week.

Russia has been determined to strengthen its control over the city, but residents have continued to come out onto the streets to protest the occupation.

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Biden to Tour Facility Making Weapons for War

The White House says President Joe Biden will tour a Lockheed Martin facility that makes weapons systems, such as Javelin anti-tank missiles, that the administration is providing to Ukraine to defend itself against Russias 2-month-old invasion.

Biden plans to visit the facility in Alabama on May 3.

A Javelin is a long-range guided anti-tank missile that can be carried by one person. The United States says it has provided several thousand of the systems to Ukraine.

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Germany Biggest Buyer of Russian energy

An independent research group says Germany was the biggest buyer of Russian energy during the first two months since the start of the war in Ukraine.

A study published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air calculates that Russia earned $66.5 billion from fossil fuel exports since Russian troops attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Using data on ship movements, real-time tracking of gas flows through pipelines, and estimates based on historical monthly trade, the researchers reckon Germany paid Russia about 9.1 billion euros for fossil fuel deliveries in the first two months of the war.

The German government says it cant comment on estimates and declines to provide any figures of its own.

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Putin Promises Lightning Response to Strategic Threats to Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned outside forces against interfering in the Ukrainian conflict, promising a lightning-speed response to such actions, with the use of Moscows most advanced weaponry.

If someone decides to intervene in the ongoing events from the outside and create unacceptable strategic threats to us, they should know that our response to those oncoming blows will be swift, lightning-fast, Putin said in an address to lawmakers on Wednesday.

We have all the tools to do this. Tools that no one except us can brag about. But were not going to brag. Well use them if such a need arises, the president said, without specifying which tools could be deployed.

Russian authorities have already made all necessary decisions to prepare for such a response, he added.

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Pentagon Warned About Replacing Missiles Sent to Ukraine

Raytheons CEO warned on Tuesday that the company wont be able to replenish the Pentagon stockpiles for at least several years, citing a shortage of electronic components.

Were going to have to go out and redesign some of the electronics in the missile and the seeker head, Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes told investment analysts during the companys quarterly earnings call, according to Defense One. Thats going to take us a little bit of time.

Hayes was specifically referring to the FIM-92 Stinger, the portable air defense missile that the Pentagon has been supplying to Ukrainian troops. The FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile, which the U.S. has also been sending to Kyiv, is produced jointly with Lockheed Martin. Ukrainian officials told the U.S. last month that they required 500 Stingers and Javelins per day.

Raytheon hasnt made Stingers for the U.S. military in almost 20 years, and the ones being sent to Ukraine are coming out of the Pentagon stockpiles. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks has said Raytheon had a very limited stock of material for Stinger production and that the Pentagon was actively trying to resource some of the materials, again according to Defense One.

Hayes said he doesnt expect the Pentagon to place large replenishment orders for either missile until 2023 or 2024.

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Russia Withdraws From UN Tourism Organization

Russia announced Wednesday it was withdrawing from the United Nations World Tourism Organization just hours before the bodys assembly voted to temporarily suspend the countrys membership over the invasion of Ukraine, officials said.

UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili made the announcement on his official Twitter account. He said it was the first U.N. body to address Russias membership.

The organization went ahead and approved the suspension at a special meeting in Madrid on Wednesday, where the organization has its headquarters.

The assembly resolution included a clause that said the suspension could be reversed if a change in the politics of the Russian Federation were noted.

Spain was one of 22 European nations that had promoted the motion.

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NATO Member Pledges to Block Sweden and Finlands Candidacy

Finland and Sweden joining NATO is very dangerous charlatanry and amounts to provoking Russia, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday. Zagreb will refuse to ratify their membership until the United States and E.U. pressure the neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina into guaranteeing ethnic Croats their basic voting rights, Milanovic added.

As far as Im concerned, they can get into NATO, they can poke the rabid bear in the eye with a pen, Milanovic told reporters in Zagreb on Tuesday.

However, until the electoral law issue in Bosnia-Herzegovina is resolved, until the Americans, the English, the Germansif they can and want tocompel Sarajevo and Bakir Izetbegovic to update the electoral law in the next six months and grant Croats their elementary rights, the Sabor must not ratify anyones admission to NATO, he added, referring to the Croatian parliament.

NATO cannot admit new members without the approval of the current ones, Milanovic pointed out, adding that he sees Croatias role at this moment as a historic silver bullet.

Let the U.S. president or secretary of state hear this now. Lets see what they can do for Croatia. Ive had enough of them ignoring and neglecting a NATO and E.U. member, and sidelining Croatia, Milanovic said, adding that if the U.S. and its Western European allies want the two Scandinavian countries in NATO, they will have to listen to Croatia.

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Putin Vows Aims in Ukraine Will Be Achieved

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to Russias parliament that the goals of the countrys military operation in Ukraine will be achieved.

Putin said in an address on Wednesday to both houses of parliament: I want to emphasize again that all the tasks of the special military operation we are conducting in the Donbas and Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, will be unconditionally fulfilled.

That, he said, will guarantee the security of the residents of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine that Russia recognized as independent shortly before launching its military action in Ukraine, as well as Crimea and our entire country in the historical perspective.

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EU Accuses Russia of Gas Blackmail

The head of the European Unions executive Commission says energy companies in the 27-nation bloc that agree to Moscows demands to pay for gas deliveries in Russian rubles will be breaching the sanctions imposed over Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Ursula von der Leyen spoke after Polish and Bulgarian officials said Moscow was cutting off natural gas deliveries to their countries due to their refusal to pay in rubles, a demand made by President Vladimir Putin after sanctions were levied against his nation.

Von der Leyen said Wednesday that our guidance here is very clear.

She said that to pay in rubles, if this is not foreseen in the contract, is a breach of our sanctions. We have round about 97 percent of all contracts that explicitly stipulate payments in euros or dollars, so its very clear. And the request from the Russian side to pay in rubles is a unilateral decision and not according to the contracts.

Von der Leyen said Russias decision to cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria is another provocation from the Kremlin and an attempt to blackmail the EU.

She said that, following an urgent meeting of member states, both Poland and Bulgaria are now receiving gas from their EU neighbors.

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Russia Sanctions 287 British MPs; Expels 3 Norwegian Diplomats

The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced sanctions against 287 British lawmakers in response to the U.K. sanctioning 368 members of Russias lower house of parliament.

The ministry on Wednesday released a list of both government and opposition lawmakers and a few former lawmakers. They are now barred from entering Russia because they took the most active part in the establishment of anti-Russian sanctions instruments in London (and) contribute to the groundless ramping-up of Russophobic hysteria in the UK.

The ministrys statement said that hostile rhetoric and far-fetched accusations coming from the mouths of British parliamentarians not only condone the hostile course of London aimed at demonizing our country and (at) its international isolation, but are also used by opponents of mutually respectful dialogue with Russia to undermine the foundation of bilateral cooperation.

Russia has also expelled three Norwegian diplomats following the expulsion from Norway earlier this month of three Russian diplomats.

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Kremlin: Other Countries Could See Gas Cut

The Kremlin says that Russia may halt gas supplies to other European customers following a cutoff to Poland and Bulgaria if they also refuse to switch to payment in rubles.

Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, argued that the Russian demand to switch to rubles in payments for gas resulted from the Western action to freeze Russian hard currency assets. He said those were effectively stolen by the West in an unprecedented unfriendly action.

Speaking in a conference call Wednesday with reporters, Peskov warned that other European customers may see the taps turned off if they refuse to pay for gas in rubles by the time payment is due. Peskov argued that refusing to switch to rubles reflects a Western desire to punish Russia at any cost to the detriment of their own consumers, taxpayers, and producers.

He rejected the EUs description of the Russian move to halt supplies to Bulgaria and Poland starting Wednesday as blackmail, insisting that Russia has remained a reliable supplier of energy resources and stuck to its contractual obligations.

Peskov argued that the demand for payment in rubles is purely technical and doesnt change price or other contract conditions for consumers.

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Polish PM Decries Russian Gas Blackmail

Polands prime minister has lashed out at Russia for trying to blackmail his country with an abrupt cutoff of gas supplies. He says he believes the move was revenge for new sanctions that Warsaw imposed this week against Russia.

The sanctions announced Tuesday targeted 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom. Hours later Poland said it had received notice that Gazprom was cutting off supplies to Poland for failing to comply with new demands to pay in Russian rubles.

Speaking to the Polish parliament, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki vowed that Poland would not be cowed by the gas cutoff. He said Poland was safe thanks to years of efforts aimed at securing gas from other countries.

Russia made up some 45 percent of Polands overall gas usage until the cutoff. But Poland is far more reliant on coal to heat homes and fuel industry, with gas accounting for only 9 percent of the countrys overall energy mix.

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West Should Provide Warplanes, Says UK Liz Truss

Britains top diplomat says the West should send planes to Ukraine to bolster its fight against Russian invasion.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss claims the fate of Ukraine remains in the balance, and is calling for Western nations to increase military support to Kyiv.

In a speech in London on Wednesday, Truss will say: Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanesdigging deep into our inventories, ramping up production.

Truss is also calling for tougher economic sanctions on Russia, saying the West must cut off Russian oil and gas imports once and for all.

Extracts of the speech were released in advance by the Foreign Office.

NATO nations have supplied Ukraine with military gear including missiles and armored vehicles, but have been reluctant to send fighter planes out of concern about escalating the conflict.

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Jailed Ex-US Marine Reed Exchanged for Russian Pilot Yaroshenko: Moscow

U.S. national Trevor Reed, sentenced to nine years jail in Russia in 2020, has been exchanged for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been serving a 20-year sentence in a U.S. prison since 2010, Russias Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday.

Russian diplomats told journalists that the swap was the result of a lengthy negotiation process.

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Putin Tells UN Chief Kosovo Set Donbass Precedent

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Kremlin on Tuesday for talks revolving around the Ukrainian crisis. The two discussed the situation on the ground, with Putin explaining to the U.N. chief Russias reasons for launching its military operation against the neighboring country in late February.

Moscows move to recognize the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk was based on the Kosovo precedent, set up by a U.N.-backed court, Putin told Guterres. The republics emerged after people living in Ukraines east rejected the Western-backed 2014 Maidan, he explained.

Putin added that the post-coup Kyiv government opted for a military solution that led to the eight-year standoff in the Donbass.

I remember very well the decision of the International Court of Justice, which states that in exercising the right to self-determination, a territory of any state is not obliged to apply for permission to declare its sovereignty to the central authorities of the country, Putin said.

Guterres pointed out that the U.N. itself still does not recognize Kosovo as an independent entity, viewing it as a part of Serbia. Putin, however, parried that the legal precedent still exists, as Kosovo received wide recognition in the West.

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Shots and Drones From Ukraine Reported Near Huge Arms Depot in Transnistria

Several shots were fired from across Ukraines border with Transnistria into the territory of the self-proclaimed republic and in the direction of a huge arms depot, its interior ministry said on Wednesday. Two drones were also sighted in the area.

At 8:45 in the morning on April 27, shots were fired from Ukrainian territory in the direction of Kolbasna village, the ministrys statement reads. Transnistrian officials said that no casualties had been reported as a result.

In a separate incident preceding the alleged shooting on Wednesday, several drones were spotted over the village of Kolbasna overnight, according to the ministry. The Transnistrian authorities also claim that the drones had been launched into Transnistrian territory from Ukraine.

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Major Batch of Western-Supplied Arms in Ukraine Destroyed: Russia

A large batch of weapons and ammunition shipped to Kyiv by Western countries was destroyed in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, Russias Defense Ministry has said.

A military warehouse set up on the territory of the Zaporozhye industrial aluminum plant was struck by Kalibr missiles, fired from Russian Navy vessels in the Black Sea.

The facility hosted a large batch of foreign weapons and ammunition, supplied by the U.S. and European countries to the Ukrainian army, the ministry said.

Russian warplanes hit 59 Ukrainian military targets overnight, while artillery performed 573 strikes against Kyiv forces; 18 drones were also shot down, it added.

On Monday, Moscow announced the destruction of six railway hubs in western Ukraine, saying they were used to deliver foreign weapons and military hardware to the Ukrainian forces.

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Blinken, Paul Clash Over Support for Ukraine in NATO

Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the Biden administrations support for Ukraines admission to NATO, after Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said that support, at least in part, led to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

In a heated exchange during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday, Paul accused the Biden administration of beating the drums to admit Ukraine to NATO even though it was a position Russia absolutely hated and said was a red line.

Blinken responded that the issue goes to the heart of the international system and the international order.

And part of that is a basic principle that one country cant dictate to another the choices it makes about with whom it allies, its foreign policies, he said.

Blinken said the White House would be open to an eventual deal between Russia and Ukraine that results in Ukraine becoming an unaligned, neutral nation.

We, Senator, are not going to be more Ukrainian than the Ukrainians. These are decisions for them to make, Blinken said to Paul.

Our purpose is to make sure that they have within their hands the ability to repel the Russian aggression and indeed to strengthen their hand at an eventual negotiating table, he claimed.

Blinken was appearing before the committee to urge lawmakers to fully fund the Biden administrations proposed budget for the State Department, telling the panel the spending is critical to ensuring that the war in Ukraine is a strategic failure for Russia and a message to other countries that might invade their neighbors.

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Russia Reports Blasts in South That Ukraine Calls Payback for Invasion

Russia reported a series of blasts in the south of the country and a fire at an ammunition depot on Wednesday, the latest in a spate of incidents that a top Ukrainian official described as payback and karma for Moscows invasion.

Without directly admitting that Ukraine was responsible, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said it was natural that Russian regions where fuel and weapons are stored were learning about demilitarisation.

The use of that word was a pointed reference to Moscows stated objective for the nine-week-old war in Ukraine, which it calls a special military operation to disarm and denazify its neighbor.

The blasts on Wednesday followed a major fire this week at a Russian oil storage facility in the Bryansk region near the border.

Earlier this month, Russia accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters, which a top Kyiv security official denied, and opening fire on several villages in the province.

In the latest incidents, Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a fire at an ammunition depot had been extinguished and no civilians have been injured.

He later said that a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle was intercepted in the sky over the Kursk region, adding that there were no casualties or damage.

In Voronezh, the administrative center of another southern province, TASS news agency cited an emergencies ministry official as saying that two blasts had been heard and the authorities were investigating.

Regional governor Alexander Gusev said in the morning that an air defense system had detected and destroyed a small reconnaissance drone.

Russia said it was sending investigators to Kursk and Voronezh regions to document what it calls illegal actions by the Ukrainian army.

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Putin Agrees to UN, Red Cross Help to Evacuate Civilians From Mariupol Steel Plant: UN

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle to U.N. and International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) involvement in the evacuation of civilians from a besieged steel plant in Ukraines southern city of Mariupol, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

During a meeting in Moscow, Putin and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed the situation at the huge Azovstal steel plant, where the last Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol are hunkered down after months of Russian siege and bombardment.

Follow-on discussions will be had with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Russian Defence Ministry, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement after the meeting.

Earlier on Tuesday, Putin told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that there were no military operations underway in Mariupol and that Kyiv should take responsibility for the people holed up in the Azovstal steel plant.

Ukraine on Monday appealed for the United Nations and the ICRC to be involved in the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal. Guterres is expected to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday.

During a news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Guterres said he has proposed a Humanitarian Contact Group of Russia, Ukraine, and U.N. officials to look for opportunities for the opening of safe corridors, with local cessations of hostilities, and to guarantee that they are actually effective.

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EU and Russia Should Rebuild Relations: Brussels

Rebuilding the relationship between the E.U. and Russia will be a very difficult and lengthy process, but it must be done, the E.U.s chief diplomat Josep Borrell wrote on his blog on Tuesday.

Until Brussels is able to reorganize that relationship and agree on security guarantees and mechanisms to allow for peaceful coexistence to take hold again, it will back Ukraine in its fight against Moscow, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy continued.

Insisting that the E.U., U.S., and NATO had replied carefully to Russian proposed treaties and letters, Borrell argued that his bloc has always been ready to discuss all aspects of security. However, months of dialogue between the two sides failed to produce an agreement, with the U.S. and its European allies unwilling to promise to exclude Ukraine from NATO prospects or provide other security guarantees with regard to stationing missiles in eastern Europe.

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Poland Ramps Up Reverse Gas Supplies From Germany

Poland on Wednesday significantly raised its bid for reverse gas supplies from Germany after Russia halted deliveries due to Warsaws refusal to pay for the commodity in rubles, data from the German operator of the gas transmission network Gascade shows.

According to the company, the bid for April 27 was 1.232 million cubic meters per hour, while the day before it was just 237,000 cubic meters.

The fivefold increase in gas demand comes after Russias state energy giant and major gas exporter Gazprom announced a complete halt of gas exports to Poland due to Warsaws failure to pay for the fuel in rubles in accordance with the new payment mechanism, launched earlier this month.

According to a Gazprom, supplies will not resume until Warsaw complies with the new terms. Deliveries were also halted to Bulgaria, for the same reason.

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US Wants No Spillover of Ukraine Conflict to Moldova: Pentagon

The U.S. is still analyzing the recent incidents in the breakaway region of Transnistria and does not want to see the conflict in Ukraine spilling over to the area, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday at a conference in Germany on supplying Kyiv with weapons and equipment.

Were still looking into the cause of that, still doing analysis there, so not really sure what thats all about, but thats something well stay focused on, Austin told reporters at the Ramstein military base in Germany.

Certainly, we dont want to see any spillover, and again, its important to make sure we do everything we can to ensure that Ukraine is successful, he added.

Austin was in Germany to organize some 40 U.S. allies to send weapons to Ukraine, promising to move heaven and earth to help Kyiv win the conflict with Russia.

His remarks came as the government in Chisinau convened an emergency meeting on the situation in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova where a series of attacks have taken place over the past two days.

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Austria Will Pay in Rubles for Russian Gas: Official

Austria has accepted the new ruble gas payment mechanism, introduced by Russia earlier this month, and will abide by it, Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced on Wednesday.

We, that is, [state energy company] OMV, accepted the terms of payment, as did the German government. They [the terms] were found to be in line with the terms of the sanctions. For us, this was important, Nehammer said at a press conference.

He added, however, that Austria still supports Ukraine-related anti-Russia sanctions.

According to the official, Austrian oil and gas company OMV has already opened an appropriate account with a Russian bank for transferring payments. Nehammer noted that during his recent trip to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained the new payment mechanism and assured him of further gas supplies in full.

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Swiss Ok Agreement on Classified Information Exchange With NATO

Switzerlands government approved on Wednesday an agreement that forms the basis for exchanging sensitive information with NATO, it said.

Such agreements make it possible, among other things, for Swiss companies to apply for contracts with classified content that are advertised by the NATO defense alliance, it added.

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Putin Hopes Talks With Ukraine Will Yield Positive Result

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia and Ukraine were continuing talks in an online format.

At the start of his meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Moscow, Putin also said he hopes that the talks would yield a positive result.

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EU Begins Emergency Gas Talks; It Says Russian Gas Halt Is Unjustified

European Union officials are holding emergency gas talks following Russias decision to turn off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, according to the blocs top official.

Russian gas giant Gazproms announcement that it halted supplies to some European customers is unjustified and unacceptable, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, adding the E.U. was working on a coordinated response to the escalation by Moscow.

Gazprom on Wednesday said it had halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria for failing to pay for gas in rubles, Moscows toughest response yet to sanctions imposed by the West over the conflict in Ukraine.

The announcement by Gazprom that it is unilaterally stopping delivery of gas to customers in Europe is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail, von der Leyen said in a statement.

This is unjustified and unacceptable. And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier, she said.

Von der Leyen claimed the E.U. was prepared for this scenario, and would continue its work to ensure alternative supplies of gas and ensure gas storage is filled. E.U. rules require all countries to have a contingency plan to cope with a gas supply shock.

Von der Leyen said the E.U. was working on a coordinated response to Russias escalation, and its gas coordination group of representatives from national governments and the gas industry was meeting on Wednesday morning.

E.U. gas storage is currently 32 percent full. E.U. countries are negotiating emergency rules that would require them to fill storage 80 percent by November this year, to form a supply buffer in time for winter, when gas heating demand peaks.

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Britain Says Ukraine Controls Majority of Its Airspace

Ukraine retains control over the majority of its airspace, Britains defense ministry said on Wednesday, claiming that Russia has failed to effectively destroy the countrys air force or suppress its air defenses.

Russia has very limited air access to the north and west of Ukraine, limiting offensive actions to deep strikes with stand-off weapons, it said on Twitter.

Russian air activity is primarily focused on southern and eastern Ukraine, providing support to Russian ground forces, the ministry claimed in a regular bulletin.

Russia continues to target Ukrainian military assets and logistics infrastructure nationwide, British military intelligence said in the update.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

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Russia Cuts Off Gas, European Prices Spike

European gas prices have spiked by as much as 24 percent following Gazproms statement that it was suspending deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria starting Wednesday because it hasnt received any payments from them since April 1. Benchmark Dutch futures traded at one point around 125 euros per megawatt hour.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, tweeted Wednesday morning that his organization stands firmly with Poland.

Gazproms move to completely shut off gas supplies to Poland is yet another sign of Russias politicization of existing agreements & will only accelerate European efforts to move away from Russian energy supplies, he wrote.

The spike comes even as the weather turns warmer in Europe, lessening the demand for natural gas for heating homes and businesses.

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Blasts Heard in Russias Belgorod, Nearby Ammunition Depot on Fire: Governor

A series of blasts were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in the Russian city Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, and an ammunition depot in the province was on fire.

Gladkov said no civilians had been hurt by the fire which broke out at a facility near Staraya Nelidovka village. Russia this month accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters and opening fire on several villages in the province.

The Belgorod province borders Ukraines Luhansk, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions, all of which have seen heavy fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago.

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Kyiv Pulls Down Soviet-Era Monument Symbolizing Russian-Ukrainian Friendship

Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday dismantled a huge Soviet-era monument in the center of Kyiv meant to symbolize friendship between Russia and Ukraine, a response to Moscows invasion, according to the citys mayor.

The eight-meter (27-foot) bronze statue depicted a Ukrainian and Russian worker on a plinth, holding aloft together a Soviet order of friendship. The statue was located underneath a giant titanium Peoples Friendship Arch, erected in 1982 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Union.

We now see what this friendship isdestruction of Ukrainian cities  killing tens of thousands of peaceful people. I am convinced such a monument has an entirely different meaning now, Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.

Workmen started by removing one of the two bronze heads, which fell to the ground with a hollow clang.

As a crane lifted the monument off its moorings and gradually lowered it to the ground, a crowd of around 100 people cheered and shouted Glory to Ukraine and other slogans.

Russia invaded Ukraine  Can we be friends with Russia? What do you think? This is our worst enemy, that is why the monument to Russian-Ukrainian friendship doesnt make sense anymore, said Serhiy Myrhorodsky, one of the designers.

We should not have any relations with the nation of aggressors  no friendship, no relations, nothing, said Diana, a young woman, who did not give her full name.

Klitschko said the arch would remain in place but be renamed the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People.

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Blasts Heard in Russias Belgorod: Regional Governor

A series of blasts were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in the Russian city Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a Telegram message.

Gladkov said the authorities were trying to establish the location and cause of the explosions. Russia this month accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters and opening fire on several villages in the province.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Los Angeles Homeless Dying From Overdoses Spikes 50 Percent

LOS ANGELESThe number of homeless deaths in Los Angeles County increased over 50 percent during the first year of the pandemic due to drug overdoses, according to a recent report by the Department of Public Health.

The overall deaths among the homeless population across all racial-ethnic groups increased from 1,271 in 2020 to 1,988 in 2021, the April 22 report found (pdf), but added the trend is consistent with a longer-term increase in homeless deaths from drug overdoses since 2014.

Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, overdose deaths saw a 78 percent uptick from the pre- to post-pandemic onset year. Other causes of death on the rise include homicides, up by 49 percent, traffic injury, up 33 percent, and coronary heart disease, up 29 percent.

A homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles, Calif., on Nov. 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The last homeless count recorded 66,000 homeless people on the streets countywide and more than 41,000 in the City of Los Angeles in 2020. The 2021 count was canceled due to COVID. The results for the 2022 count are slated to be released this summer.

Homeless providers in Los Angeles say they arent surprised by the statistics since the county is politically following a Housing First system to get homeless people off its streets and into transitional housing without adequately addressing substance abuse first.

Housing First, which refers to a policy created under Senate Bill 1380 in 2016, requires all state agencies and departments that fund homeless programs and housing services adopt regulations that include placing them in housing or permanent supportive units.

When you dont have any detox facilities for people that want to get sober, and when youve got fentanyl, meth, alcohol, and oxycontin, these are all things that are symptoms to people that are in trauma, Brian Ulf, SHARE! Collaborative Housing co-founder and member on the LA Police Department Community Advisory Board, told The Epoch Times.

If you dont start to peel the onion as to why theyre in trauma, theyre all going to continue to do this, he said.

Ulf, who is 20 years sober himself, said homeless people addicted to drugs need to be in a recovery environment with lived experience counselors who have gone through similar struggles, or counselors who at least have years of experience dealing with recovering addicts who have had trauma in their lives.

The other problem, the reason that this death rate is so high is because theres no [enforcement], so the drugs themselves and all the access to it all is so rapid and no one no one does anything to stop them, he said.

A homeless woman sleeps on the streets of Santa Ana, Calif., on Sept. 4, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Additionally, Ulf said he thinks corruption within the temporary housing units is comparable to jails where drugs are smuggled in. Many times, he said, hes seen drug dealers who also live in the temporary units distributing drugs to the homeless people living in them.

The drug dealers are bringing the drugs into these guys because when you walk in, you dont have to sit there and get in line. Youre in the food den; they pass the drugs to each other the same way they do out on the street, so it creates a very dangerous environment, he said.

Temporary supportive housing units in Los Angeles that adhere to the Housing First practices and receive state funding dont require sobriety for entrance, but they prohibit drugs, alcohol, and weapons inside the units. Most of them follow a harm reduction model which focuses on curbing overdoses by administering reverse-overdose drugs, such as Naloxone, or Narcan, and focusing on meeting people where theyre at.

The housing first model was meant for the one percent of chronic homeless, but they sweep everybody into one box, and nobody all fits in one pot, each person is completely different, Ulf said.

Critics of this approach say without proper encouragement to enter recovery, the deaths due to overdoses will continue to climb.

In Venice Beach, fentanyl is rampant on the streets, according to Butch Say. Say lived in Venice Beach in an RV for four months and sang karaoke on the Boardwalk and Ocean Front Walk, then left to travel to other states.

Its very accurate on the overdose; fentanyl is big there, Say told The Epoch Times. Parts [of the Boardwalk] are cleared up but new people show up every day.

A homeless individual in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Outreach workers on the ground in Venice know all too well the damage that drugs like meth and fentanyl are creating in neighborhoods. Last September, three individuals in Venice Beach died from an overdose on fentanyl-laced cocaine.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyla synthetic opioidis 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine.

Stan Mohammed, a co-founder of the Venice-based gang prevention nonprofit HELPER, told The Epoch Times its going to get worse before it gets better.

It will require, in my opinion, a full-fledged state of emergency because its not just [LA] county, its the country, Mohammed said. It will take political willso right now everybody is focused on the Ukraine crisis, homeless crisis, but nobody is talking about the drug epidemic.

Most of his clients that his foundation services are addicted to drugs in Venice Beach, although its unclear how many of them choose fentanyl. Nonetheless, Muhammed said hes sure many of them have come in contact with it at some point.

Its something that doesnt require a lot of usage to die from. A lot of the people that [are] out there, theyre not conscious of it, and as a result, theyre dying, he said.

On the same day LA public health published its findings, 35 miles south of LA, the Department of Justice in Santa Ana announced seven federal criminal cases against alleged drug dealers who sold fentanyl-laced narcotics that caused fatal overdoses, including a case in Newport Beach which left three people dead.

Jim Palmer, President of the Orange County Rescue Missiona nonprofit homeless providertold The Epoch Times that 87 percent of homeless people theyve screened self-identified with an addiction, a mental health issue, or both. Similar to Los Angeles, fentanyl also remains an issue in the southern county.

What were finding is there is an increase in deaths as an increase in deaths of homeless here in Orange County, Palmer said. Whats interesting is typically the second category down would be identified as heart attacks, heart condition, cardiovascular issues, things like that  and so that many of those even in that second category, under addiction, are also dying because of the effects of the addiction.

Even though Orange Countys homeless population is much smaller than LAs, with only 12,00015,000 homeless people each year, the causes of homelessness are the same in LA.

Its very similar, because a lot of the homeless population intermingles anyways, some people that had been in Anaheim for 10 years might find themselves in Skid Row in Los Angeles for some reason, he said.

When it comes to homeless fatalities in these two counties, Palmer said the fentanyl crisis will continue to grow the number.
An apartment maintenance man changes the lock of an apartment after constables posted an eviction order on October 7, 2020, in Phoenix, Arizona. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Los Angeles Supports Ellis Act Eviction Restrictions

LOS ANGELESThe Los Angeles City Council is urging the state to pass legislation that would require homeowners to own a property for at least five years before they can invoke the Ellis Acta state law that allows homeowners to evict tenants and take their properties off the rental market.

On April 26, the city councilors unanimously passed a resolution to support Assembly Bill 2050, which would impose a five-year ownership requirement for landlords before they are allowed to evict their tenants and take their property off the rental market under the 1985 Ellis Act.

Assembly Bill 2050 was introduced on March 17 by state Assemblymembers Alex Lee (D-San Jose) and Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) after Assembly Bill 854, a similar bill they previously introduced, was defeated in February.

According to the city councils resolution, the Ellis Act may have become a major loophole for some homeowners who purchase a property, immediately evict tenants, and renovate the property into condominiums shortly after.

Councilman Paul Koretzwho introduced the resolution along with Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawsonsaid ahead of the vote that some homeowners have exploited the Ellis Act, turning housing into purely a commodity.

Like so many legislative actions, the Ellis Act has turned out to have some serious unintended consequences, Koretz said. [Some property owners] purchase buildings specifically to empty them out, tear them down, or replace them with new or refurbished units that previous tenants couldnt possibly afford.

Koretz also noted that the legislation would still allow homeowners to invoke the Ellis Act, but after having owned the property for five years in the hopes it would spread out Ellis Act evictions and lower speculative apartment building purchases.

According to the resolution, Ellis Act evictions most often affect long-term, elderly, disabled and below-market rent tenants, creating great upheaval and disruption that can lead to homelessness or population outflow because of the citys high rental costs.

Los Angeles has lost 27,000 residential units to the Ellis Act since 1985, according to the resolution.

The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, an association representing landlords, expressed its opposition to Assembly Bill 2050, saying in a statement that putting more restrictions on the Ellis Act could lead to fewer people willing to invest in real estate in California.

Daniel Yukelson, executive director for the apartment association, said on EpochTVs California Insider earlier this month that rent prices in Los Angeles have increased more than 20 percent in recent years.

Construction in the state of California has really stopped in terms of multi-family housing because the regulatory burden is too excessive, Yukelson said.

Currently, both Ellis Act evictions and owner-occupancy evictionswhich occur when a landlord evicts tenants to occupy the residence themselvesare temporarily suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic, though the council has already begun ending some pandemic-related restrictions.

A spokesperson for Councilors Koretz and Harris-Dawson did not respond to a request for comment by press deadline.
A teenage magnet fisher in England pulled a safe containing thousands of dollars from a river before returning the money to its rightful owner, who had it stolen from him 22 years ago.

George Tindale, 15, had been scouring the River Witham in Grantham, Lincolnshire, with his father, Kevin, 52, when he made an incredible discovery.

The safe being fished from the river. (SWNS)

The father-son duo recovered the chest from the water and, after using a crowbar to prise it open, they were stunned by what they found inside.

Among the mud and slime was a pouch containing AU$2,500 (approx. US$1,800).

I mean, it was amazing really. We pulled this safe out and it had all that money in, George, of Newark, Nottinghamshire, said. We counted it roughly on the bank and  we were just shocked.

The money that was found in the safe. (SWNS)

Alongside the cash were a shotgun certificate and bank cards that expired in 2004, giving George and Kevin enough information to track down the rightful owner, who happened to be businessman Rob Everett.

After contacting Rob to explain the amazing find, the kindhearted family visited him at his business in Grantham to return the stolen property on April 16.

They also learned that the safe had been stolen by a teenager during a burglary at Robs old office in 2000. The teen had been caught after Rob found a cap that the burglar had left behind with his name stitched into it.

I remember at the time, they smashed into a cabinet to get to the safe, said Rob, who runs Winkworth and the Money Options Group. I was just upset that there was a nice pen on my desk, a Mont Blanc, that was never recovered.

Since meeting up with George and his dad, Rob is amazed that the father-son duo were able to track him down.

(LR) Kevin Tindale, Rob Everett, and George Tindale. (SWNS)

For me, I just felt there are some really nice and good people in this world. They could have kept the money, they could have said they attempted to get hold of me, Rob shared. They wanted to return the contents and the goods to the rightful owners and I think that says a lot about humanity.

Pleased with the familys effort in tracking him down and returning the safe, Rob gave George a small reward.

The money that was found in the safe. (SWNS)

As George is a good mathematician and Rob runs a wealth management company, he has offered to give him an opportunity to work with him.

Id love him to work for us. Hes only 15, but gives him a bit more time and Id be happy to give him an opportunity, Rob said. Theres a big lesson there. It teaches George that doing good and being honest and giving back is actually more rewarding than taking.

George added: Rob was great. If I ever want work experience when I leave school, he said the offer is always open.

George regularly magnet fishes with dad Kevin and records his findings on his Youtube channel Magnetic G, attracting millions of views. Six months after starting his hobby, George gained sponsorship from Online Magnets, one of the UKs leading suppliers.

George Tindale, of Newark, is an avid magnet fisher who keeps discovering weapons in British rivers. (SWNS)

His mother, Denise, said her son started magnet fishing three years ago and that, although he started doing it in search of treasure, his work also highlights river pollution and the harm it can have on wildlife.

George is very environmentally conscious. He always has been since primary school, she said. When he first started to do this, he was after treasure. Everything ends up in the rivers and canals.

The teenager, whos reeled in a huge arsenal of weapons including grenades, guns, and knives since he took up the hobby, said that the safe was his best find yet.

Denise was very grateful upon hearing about Robs offer of work experience, and added: How nice is that? Its just a lovely story.

She also said its quite ironic that a teen boy had stolen Robs safe, and years later it was found by another teenager and returned to him.

Epoch Times Staff contributed to this report.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
Former FBI General Counsel James Baker testified before the House judiciary and oversight committees on Oct. 3, 2018, and Oct. 18, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Musks Mention Highlights Twitter Counsel Bakers Russiagate Past at FBI

Former top FBI attorney James Baker, who now serves as Twitters deputy general counsel, has had a spotlight thrown on him after billionaire Elon Musk, who recently negotiated a deal to buy Twitter, responded to comments about Bakers past actions during the FBIs Russia investigation in 2016.

On April 26, a day after Musk reportedly reached an agreement with Twitter, filmmaker Mike Cernovich wrote on Twitter that Baker, during his time as FBI general counsel, personally arranged a meeting with cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann, who was at the time working for the Clinton campaign.

In this meeting, Sussmann presented fabricated evidence in the Alfa bank matter, Cernovich wrote.

Sussmann was charged last year by special counsel John Durham for lying to Baker during that meeting.

Sounds pretty bad, Musk responded on Twitter to the Cernovich post.

According to court documents, it was Sussmann who asked for the meeting, which took place in September 2016 at FBI headquarters. The two men knew each other from their time working in the Justice Department criminal division.

Sussmann emailed Baker that he was going to the meeting not representing any client. But in fact, he billed the time to the presidential campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Durham alleges that this was a material lie, which means that it had a natural tendency or was capable to affect government decisions.

During their meeting, Sussmann gave Baker data and reports purportedly showing secret communications between The Trump Organization and Russias Alfa-Bank. The FBI determined that there was no such secret communication. A tech expert firm hired by Alfa-Bank concluded that the data may have been fabricated, although Durham hasnt made that assertion.

The data and reports were provided to Sussmann by Rodney Joffe, who has run several tech companies. Sussmann, Joffe, and others were in a joint venture to dig up dirt on Trump and help Clinton, Durham said, thus far stopping short of alleging the venture amounted to a criminal conspiracy.

Baker told congressional investigators in 2018 that it was unusual for him to be personally approached by somebody in order to pass on information to the FBI. He remembered two other instances: one related to the Dennis Montgomery case of alleged illegal government spying on Americans and the other being Mother Jones reporter David Corn, who said he sent Baker a copy of the infamous Steele Dossier in November 2016. Baker said he had long known Corn, and their children used to carpool together (pdf).

The dossier was prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele, who was, in turn, paid (through intermediaries) to collect dirt on Trump by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

As it turned out, much of the dossier, including its core claim of TrumpRussia collusion, was fabricated.

There was nothing inappropriate about Sussmanns passing on the Alfa-Bank information, Baker said. He said he was generally aware that Sussmann had an association with the DNC.

The Sussmann trial is scheduled for mid-May. He has pleaded not guilty.

Durham was tasked, around March or May 2019, with reviewing the 201617 FBI investigation of alleged collusion between candidate and later President Donald Trump and Russia to sway the 2016 election. No such collusion was found.

Baker told lawmakers that the FBI probe was lawfully predicated. Durham previously contested such a claim.

In October 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham as special counsel. In February 2021, Durham resigned his position as a federal prosecutor and has continued the investigation in the sole capacity of special counsel.
Burma's leader Aung San Suu Kyi (L) attends a hearing in a case filed by Gambia against Burma alleging genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya population, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, on Dec. 10, 2019. (Yves Herman/Reuters)

Burmas Suu Kyi Handed 5-Year Jail Term for Graft

A court in military-ruled Burma (also known as Myanmar) sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in jail on April 27 after finding her guilty in the first of 11 corruption cases she faces, a source with knowledge of the proceedings said.

The Nobel laureate and figurehead of Burmas opposition to military rule is charged with at least 18 offenses carrying combined maximum jail terms of nearly 190 years, all but killing off any chance of a political comeback.

The judge in the capital, Naypyitaw, handed down the verdict within moments of the court convening and gave no explanation, said the source, who declined to be identified because the trial is being held behind closed doors, with information restricted.

Suu Kyi, who has attended all of her hearings, was displeased with the outcome and would appeal, the source said.

The European Union confirmed the sentencing in a statement. The EU said the trial was politically motivated, a setback for democracy, and represents another step towards the dismantling of the rule of law and a further blatant violation of human rights in Myanmar.

The 76-year-old led Burma for five years during a short period of tentative democracy before being forced from power in a coup in February 2021 by the military, which has ruled the former British colony for five of the past six decades.

It wasnt immediately clear if she would be transferred to a prison to serve the sentence.

Since her arrest, she has been held in an undisclosed location, where junta chief Min Aung Hlaing previously said she could stay after convictions in December and January for comparatively minor offenses that led to a six-year term.

The military governments spokesperson Zaw Min Tun couldnt be reached for comment and made no mention of the Suu Kyi ruling on April 27 during a televised news conference that ran more than 3 1/2 hours.

The latest case centered on accusations that Suu Kyi accepted 11.4 kilograms (402 ounces) in gold and cash payments totaling $600,000 from her protege-turned-accuser, former chief minister of the city of Yangon, Phyo Min Thein.

Suu Kyi called the accusations absurd and denies all charges against her, which include violations of electoral and state secrets laws, incitement, and corruption.

Kangaroo Courts

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Suu Kyis days as a free woman were effectively ended.

Myanmars junta and the countrys kangaroo courts are walking in lockstep to put Aung San Suu Kyi away for what could ultimately be the equivalent of a life sentence, given her advanced age, he said.

Destroying popular democracy in Myanmar also means getting rid of Aung San Suu Kyi, and the junta is leaving nothing to chance.

Burma has been in turmoil since the coup, with the military using lethal force to suppress nationwide protests and public anger. Tens of thousands of people have been arrested and many killed, tortured, and beaten, in what the United Nations has called crimes against humanity.

Burmas State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi attends Invest Burma in Naypyitaw, Burma, on Jan. 28, 2019. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

The international community has put sanctions on the military and dismissed Suu Kyis trials as farcical. The Burma embassies of Britain and the United States didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

The military has said Suu Kyi committed crimes and is being given due process by an independent judiciary and rejects foreign criticism as interference.

The junta has refused to allow her visits, including by a special Southeast Asian envoy trying to end the crisis.

On Twitter, Malaysias Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said he was deeply concerned about the sentence, urging that the basic principles of human rights and justice should be ensured.

Nay Phone Latt, a former official in Suu Kyis ousted ruling party, said court decisions were temporary because the military rule wouldnt last long.

We do not recognize the terrorist juntas rulings, legislation, or the judiciary, said Nay Phone Latt, who belongs to the shadow National Unity Government, which has declared a peoples revolt against military rule.

I dont care how long they want to sentence, whether its one year, two years, or whatever they want. This wont last.
Employees and contractors watch as the core stage of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, that will be used for the Artemis 1 Mission, is moved to the Pegasus barge, at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility where it was built, in New Orleans, La., on Jan. 8, 2020. (Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

NASA Administrator Talks Moon and Beyond

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is looking forward to the first test flight of the Space Launch System rocket, and, later, the first manned flight to the moon in more than 50 years.

Nelson held a media briefing Tuesday ahead of the Crew-4 launch to the International Space Station.

Right now we are proceeding on. Were going to launch a test flight this year. Two years were going to launch a crew to the moon and one year thereafter were going to land on the moon with the first woman and probably the next man, Nelson said.

NASAs massive Space Launch System rocket was rolled back off the pad Monday evening.

Artemis 1 is a planned uncrewed test flight for NASAs Artemis program and will be the first flight of the Space Launch System. Artemis 1 is expected to launch no earlier than June.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks at the New York State Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on Aug. 24, 2021. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

New York High Court Rejects Democrat-Drawn Redistricting Maps

The New York Court of Appeals tossed out a Democrat-drawn redistricting map, ruling that it was an unconstitutional power grab intended to elect more Democrats.

The courtthe highest in New Yorksided with lower courts in saying that three maps backed by Democrats were unconstitutionally gerrymandered. The judges, in a 43 ruling, ordered a special master to help craft a more neutral plan.

These maps, the court ruled (pdf), were procedurally unconstitutional, and the congressional map is also substantively unconstitutional as drawn with impermissible partisan purpose.

We are confident that, in consultation with the Board of Elections, Supreme Court can swiftly develop a schedule to facilitate an August primary election, allowing time for the adoption of new constitutional maps, the judges wrote.

The Democrat-led state legislature decided to draw its own maps after the New York State Independent Redistricting Commission could not reach a consensus.

A lower-level court ruled earlier in April that the maps violated the Constitution, giving state lawmakers a deadline of April 30 to create new maps or allow the court to take over.

In February of this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, signed into law the redistricting plan, which realigned 22 districts into heavily Democratic areas and four districts into mostly Republican areas. Analysts have speculated that it means the GOP would lose at least four Republican-leaning seats in the House.

But the New York Court of Appeals concluded the process was done in an unconstitutional manner.

Petitioners first asserted that, in light of the lack of compliance by the [Independent Redistricting Commission] and the legislature with the procedures set forth in the Constitution, the legislatures enactment of the 2022 redistricting maps contravened the Constitution, according to the ruling, authored by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore for the majority. To conclude otherwise, petitioners contend, would be to render the 2014 amendmentstouted as an important reform of the redistricting processfunctionally meaningless. We agree.

Meanwhile, the court said it will likely be necessary to move state Senate and congressional primary elections from June to August 2022 due to its decision.

As a result, it added, judicial oversight is required to facilitate the expeditious creation of constitutionally conforming maps for use in the 2022 election and to safeguard the constitutionally protected right of New Yorkers to a fair election.

Several Republican elected officials praised Wednesdays court ruling. The GOP needs to obtain just five seats to take a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2022. Historically, the party of the president tends to lose congressional seats in midterm elections.

NYs Court of Appeals just tossed the hyper-partisan, gerrymandered Congressional and State Senate maps for the state. This is excellent news for the people of New York and yet another big-time defeat for Kathy Hochul and her Dem allies, wrote Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), who is running for governor, in a Twitter post.

In a statement on Wednesday, New York State Senate Majority Communications Director Mike Murphy told news outlets: We are reviewing the decision.

Since the New York Court of Appeals is the states highest court and the court of last resort, Democrats cannot appeal Wednesdays decision.

The Epoch Times has contacted Hochuls office for comment.
A file image of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt during an inauguration ceremony in Oklahoma City on Jan. 14, 2019. (Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo)

Oklahoma Bans Nonbinary Indicators on Birth Certificates

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed into law a bill on Tuesday that bans the option to indicate a nonbinary gender on state birth certificates.

While many states only provide the option of male or female on birth certificates, the latest move from the Republican governor makes Oklahoma the first state to ban the nonbinary option explicitly via legislation.

The summary of the bill (pdf) states that it requires the biological sex designation on a birth certificate to be either male or female and prohibits a nonbinary or any symbol representing a nonbinary designation. It adds, The measure declares an emergency.

SB 1100 also bars people from changing the gender on their birth certificates.

Stitt previously in November 2021 signed an executive order directing the states health department to stop amending and issuing birth certificates that have an option to indicate nonbinary as a gender.

At the time, the Oklahoma governor said the state health department was doing so without permission under Oklahoma law.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health had reached a settlement in May 2021 in which it agreed to add nonbinary as an option on birth certificates. This stemmed from a case in which Kit Lorelied, a person who identifies as nonbinary and born in Oklahoma, sued after the department initially refused Lorelieds request to identify as nonbinary on the birth certificate.

Republican state Rep. Sheila Dills, one of the co-sponsors of the latest measure, Senate Bill 1100, said the bill is codifying Stitts executive order into law.

The bill was first proposed in February 2022. The measure passed in a party-line vote of 7516 in the state House on April 21, before reaching Stitts desk.

Dills, in the closing debate, said: The question before us is very simple. Do we want the truth on a birth certificate, a legal document, representing a persons biological sex, or do we want a lie.

In a statement after the bill passed the House, Dills said in a statement: People are free to believe whatever they want about their identity, but science has determined people are either biologically male or female at birth.

We want clarity and truth on official state documents. Information should be based on established medical fact and not an ever-changing social dialogue.

Oklahoma City Representative Mauree Turner, a Democrat, and the only nonbinary member of the legislature, said she cannot help but feel this bill is a personal attack, according to the Tulsa World.

I find it a very extreme and grotesque use of power in this body to write this law and try to pass itwhen literally none of them live like us, Turner posted on Twitter the day the bill was debated.

According to the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank, at least 16 U.S. states and the District of Columbia allow an alternative gender designation besides male or female on birth certificates, with Vermonts new law going into effect on July 1.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Elon Musk celebrates after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on May 30, 2020. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Peter Menzies: On Free Speech in Canada, Trudeau Decides, Not Musk, Regardless of Twitter Buyout

Commentary

If Elon Musk is looking for a scrap over free speech, Canada could very well provide him with his first brawl.

Although his comments following his purchase this week of Twitter for US$44 billion indicated content moderation would still be a feature of the notoriously rambunctious platform, Musk is known as a free speech absolutist. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is definitely not one of those. His first run at a so-called Online Harms Actone part of a multi-pronged approach to internet regulation legislationwas so extreme it was denounced by even pre-Musk Twitter as drastic and reminiscent of censorship practices employed in totalitarian states.

Oblivious to this, Canadian Twitter users were this week either celebrating what they felt would be their pending liberation from speech restrictions or threatening to leave the platform for fear of it turning into a cesspit of unacceptable racism, humiliation, and threats of violence (their words, not mine).

As the Toronto Stars Bruce Arthur Tweeted, My bet is Musk lands on the side of the line that allows for a sewer of misinformation that bleeds into hate speech and whatnot.

Both are wrong, because at the end of the day the laws of the land still govern Twitter and the online world. As powerful a man as Musk may be, his will not be the final say on what is and isnt acceptable speech. In Canada, that final word will belong to Trudeau or a reasonable facsimile appointee. If anything, Musks reputation for absolutism might provide Trudeau with the political fuel he needs to expand control of the internet. Theres little doubt that more, not less, Twitter regulation would be something around which the Liberal/NDP political base, as illustrated by Arthurs Tweet, would willingly rally.

In other words, the nascent Online Harms bill is likely to be very bad news for free speech libertarians. While still under construction, the initial plan laid out for it called for the creation of a regulator to patrol the internet for illegal and objectionable content, impose 24-hour takedown notices on social media companies and, if necessary, order internet providers to block websites. This design is to be in concert with an amendment to Canadas decades-old hate speech law in the Criminal Code.

But as The Canadian Press reported, the original proposal was so restrictive of speech it was even opposed by groups it purported to protect.

Black Lives Matter posts have been mistakenly labelled hate speech and removed, Darryl Carmichael, from the University of Calgarys law faculty, told CP. The result is that the voices of the very groups you seek to protect would be further isolated.

While this and other rebukes of the Trudeau governments instincts forced Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez back to the drawing board, hes still made it clear that the government is determined to impose its will on social media, including Twitter.

Last month, while declaring freedom of speech to be a fundamental right, Rodriguez still felt the need to add that theres a lot of people that dont want to share what they think for fear of being abused online and the negative and violent reaction they may get.

In other words, one way or another, there will be more legal restrictions coming for Canadians and their online speech.

The genesis of this Online Harms legislation can be found in a report funded in 2020 by the Department of Heritage and undertaken by the Public Policy Forums Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression, whose mandate it is to develop policy options to directly address the harmful impacts of digital technologies on Canadas democratic institutions and public life.

That report called for the establishment of a new regulatory body led by a Digital Safety Commissioner whose job would be to patrol the internet for already illegal and other content it deemed necessary to remove to ensure public safety.

As reported last year in the National Post, the bill would target online communication service providersa new category to be defined in the bill the government said would target major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Pornhub. It would apply to services whose primary purpose is to enable users of the service to communicate with other users of the service, over the internet.'

Trudeau and his cabinet appear determined that democracy can only truly be preserved when speech is regulated to fight disinformation and propaganda, both of which are notoriously difficult to discern and define. That conviction in favour of a more powerful state prepared to err on the side of censorship seems very likely to clash head-on with the free speech mantra of Musk and others who believe that societies can only be free when speech is free.

As Musk recently tweeted, free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.

Get ready to rumble.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Over 120,000 Pounds of Ground Beef Recalled Nationwide Over E. Coli Concerns

The U.S. Department of Agricultures (USDAs) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recently announced a recall of 120,872 pounds of ground beef nationwide over concerns it may be contaminated with E. coli O103.

Lakeside Refrigerated Services, a processing facility based in Swedesboro, New Jersey, issued the recall over the affected products. The products were produced between Feb. 1 through April 8.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse events related to people consuming the beef products, the FSIS announced. Consumers are instructed not to eat any products affected by the recall, and to return the products to the place of purchase, or dispose of them.

All of the products that are subject to recall carry the establishment number EST. 46841 inside the USDA mark of inspection. The complete list of products and product codes subject to recall can be found here, and labels for the products can be found here, according to FSIS.

The potential contamination was found during routine testing of some imported products, FSIS stated. The agency said that the strain of E. coli detectedShiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) serotype O103can cause people to become ill about 2 to 8 days after consuming the organism.

Most people infected with STEC O103 develop diarrhea (often bloody) and vomiting. Some illnesses last longer and can be more severe, according to FSIS. Infection is usually diagnosed by testing of a stool sample.

The FSIS said that the usual treatment includes vigorous rehydration and other supportive care, and that antibiotic treatment is generally not recommended. It added that most people recover within a week, but, rarely, some develop a more severe infection.

FSIS said that a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) may occur, although it is uncommon with STEC O103 infection. People who experience symptoms related to HUSeasy bruising, pale skin, and less urinationshould seek emergency medical care.

E. coli is a type of bacteria commonly found in the environment, as well as in the intestines of people and animals. While most strains of E. coli are harmless, others can make people sick, bringing about conditions such as diarrhea, urinary tract infections, respiratory illness, pneumonia, and other illnesses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Most people typically get better within 5 to 7 days of a STEC infection, the CDC states on its website. However, in some people, the infection can be severe or even life-threatening.
An 11-year-old girl watches as a nurse prepares a syringe with a dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York on Nov. 3, 2021. (Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)

Pfizer, BioNTech Ask FDA to Authorize COVID-19 Vaccine Booster for Children Aged 511

Pfizer and BioNTech have asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant emergency use authorization for a booster for their COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years old.

Earlier this month, the companies released data from a mid- to late-stage study that they say shows a boost in antibodies from a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine, providing increased protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron variant.

In the trial, 140 children were administered a booster dose approximately six months after receiving the second dose. The vaccine comes in a two-dose primary series.

The children saw a sixfold increase in antibodies against the Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2 one month after receiving the booster dose, the companies stated. A subanalysis of 30 participants demonstrated a 36-fold increase in neutralizing antibody titers.

Data from this study demonstrated a strong immune response in this age group following a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine with no new safety signals, the companies said in a statement.

The data havent yet been published on a preprint server or in a journal.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 28 percent of U.S. children aged 5 to 11 years oldabout 8.2 millionwere fully vaccinated as of April.

There has been some skepticism on the need for boosters in younger children, given the reduced risk of severe infection and hospitalization in the age group.

Pfizer and BioNTech have asked the FDA to grant emergency use authorization for a 10-microgram booster dose for children in the age group. Adults are given a 30-microgram dose of the vaccine.

The primary two-dose COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech was authorized in the United States for children aged 5 to 11 years old in October 2021.

The FDA authorized in January the use of a booster dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12 to 15. The agency has also authorized a booster dose for children aged 5 through 11 years old who are immunocompromised.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a podcast interview last week that he hopes the companies COVID-19 vaccine will be granted emergency use authorization by the FDA for children younger than 5 in June.

The FDA has said it doesnt comment on submissions pending before the agency, but a spokeswoman told The Epoch Times last month that our approach has always been to conduct a regulatory review thats responsive to the urgent public health needs created by the pandemic, while adhering to our rigorous standards for safety and effectiveness.

Drug companies like Pfizer do not apply for product distribution approvals from the FDA unless they are reasonably confident the FDA will approve, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, previously told The Epoch Times in an email.

The submission being made based on data from such a small number of children is a new low for scientific evidence of a vaccines safety and efficacy and a clear indication that the pharmaceutical industry views FDA as a rubber-stamping agency, she said.

Zachary Stieber and Reuters contributed to this report.
A 3D printed Pfizer logo is placed near medicines from the same manufacturer in this illustration taken on Sept. 29, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Pfizer Recalls Some Batches of Blood Pressure Drug Over Carcinogen Presence

Pfizer said on April 22 that it was voluntarily recalling five batches of its Accupril blood pressure tablets after finding elevated levels of a potential cancer-causing agent in the medicine.

The drugmaker said it was not aware of any reports of adverse events related to the recalled batches, which were distributed in the United States and Puerto Rico from December 2019 to April 2022.

Pfizer Canada also recalled all lots of three doses of Accupril on April 21 after finding the same impurity to be above acceptable levels.

Pfizer said there was no immediate risk to patients taking this medication, in which the agent, a nitrosamine, was found.

Nitrosamines are common in water and foods but exposure above acceptable levels over long periods of time could increase the risk of cancer.

Pfizer last month also recalled some batches of another blood pressure drug Accuretic and two authorized cheaper versions due to the presence of the possible carcinogen.
The Spirit of Britain arrives at the Port of Dover, in Kent, England, on April 27, 2022. (Gareth Fuller/PA Media)

P&O Resumes Sailing Cross the English Channel for the First Time After Mass-Sacking

P&O Ferries resumed sailings across the English Channel for the first time since the firm suspended most of its sailings on March 17 following the sacking of 786 seafarers.

Spirit of Britain departed the English port of Dover for Calais, France, shortly after 11 p.m. on Tuesday carrying freight customers, with passenger services expected to resume early next week.

The ship was detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on April 12 after safety issues were found, but was cleared to sail on Friday.

It comes as another P&O Ferries vessel undergoes reinspection after it lost power at sea on Tuesday.

The European Causeway, which serves between Larne, Northern Ireland, and Cairnryan, Scotland, drifted in the Irish Sea five miles off the coast of Northern Ireland for more than an hour on Tuesday afternoon with cargo and passengers on board.

P&O said the accident was due to a temporary mechanical issue that had been resolved.

The ship, which can carry 410 passengers, had returned to port at Larne harbour under its own propulsion, with local tugs on standby, where it will discharge its passengers and cargo as planned, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The MCA said on Wednesday that suveyors were inspecting the ship, but stressed it does not mean the ship is under detention again.

Our surveyors are carrying out a full inspection of P&O Ferries vessel European Causeway. This follows the mechanical failure while it was at sea yesterday, the agency said in a statement.

It is important to note that this does NOT mean the ferry is under detention but will be inspected before it returns to full service, it added.

There are no further inspections of P&O Ferries at the moment but we will reinspect when requested by P&O Ferries.

P&O Ferries operated European Causeway vessel in dock at the Port of Larne, Co Antrim, on April 26, 2022. (Liam McBurney/PA Media)

P&O Ferries, which was bought by Dubai-based logistics giant DP World in 2019, fired 786 UK-based seafarers without any prior notice on March 17 and later replaced them with agency workers who are paid well below the UKs minimum wage, 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.

British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps subsequently 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 total of eight ferries are subject to inspections, with four vesselsincluding the European Causewayhaving been cleared to sail, two failing the inspections, and two awaiting inspection.

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.

P&O European Causeway ferry docked at Larne Port, Northern Ireland, on March 17, 2022. (David Young/PA Media)

Meanwhile, the transport secretary told a parliamentary select committee on Wednesday that the government will introduce new legislation that requires UK ports to check whether ferry crews are paid at least the national minimum wage.

Shapps told MPs that P&O Chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite, who previously acknowledged that the company broke the law by not consulting with trade unions before implementing the decision, will have to go.

The Cabinet minister urged P&O Ferries to repay 11 million ($13.8 million) of furlough money claimed from the government during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

He added that the company will have to pay the minimum wage when new legislation is introduced.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison reacts during question time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on March 30, 2022. (Martin Ollman/Getty Images)

Prime Minister Promises Lower Taxes If Australians Keep Him in Power

In the face of the upcoming election, the Australian prime minister has promised lower taxes if he is elected for another four years.

He pledged $100 billion (US$72.47 billion) in tax relief for Australian workers on April 24, saying that a low tax guarantee is at the heart of the economic plan for a stronger economy and stronger future.

Our Government has delivered income tax relief for more than 11 million Australians and reduced small business tax rates to the lowest level in 50 yearswe are the party of lower taxes, Morrison said in a release.

This guarantee will see no new taxes on workers, retirees, superannuation, small businesses, housing, and electricity.

Morrison said that he will keep taxes below 23.9 percent of GDP if re-elected.

However, the centre-left opposition, the Australian Labor Party, has also claimed that their government will deliver lower taxes for working families, by increasing the low-and-middle income tax offset by $420 this year.

Further, Labor leader Anthony Albanese confirmed on Tuesday that he wont be increasing taxes.

Australian Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese reacts as Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during the question time at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Aug. 23, 2021. (Rohan Thomson/Getty Images)

The only tax that were considering is on multinationals, thats consistent with the international negotiations that have taken place. We will have more detail to say about that. Thats the only measure that were considering, Albanese told 5AA Adelaide.

Conversely, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that Labor leader Anthony Albanese has advocated for higher taxes his whole political career, including the mining tax, carbon tax, housing tax, and retirees tax.

Without a speed limit on taxes, our legislated tax cuts will not be safe under a Labor Government led by Mr Albanese who has called them tax cuts for the top end of town and unfair tax cuts, Frydenberg said.

Whether its wasting $6 billion to pay people to get the jab, even though theyve already had it, or running JobKeeper longer than necessary Labor have shown they cant manage money.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham echoed the sentiment, saying that Labor have made $302 billion worth of vague spending promises.

At least Bill Shorten was upfront about his $387 billion of tax hikes. Anthony Albanese dodges questions so that he can keep his high spending, high taxing plans secret, Birmingham said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on the situation in the oil and gas sector at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, on April 14, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Putin Warns of Lightning Response If US Intervenes in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned Moscow would mount a quick response if Western powers intervene in its two-month-long invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking to lawmakers in a public setting, Putin said that if anyone sets out to intervene in the current events from the outside and creates unacceptable threats for us that are strategic in nature, they should know that our response  will be lightning-fast, according to a translation.

While he did not elaborate, the Russian leader said the military wouldnt hesitate to use Russias most advanced weaponry.

We have all the tools for this, that no one else can boast of having. We wont boast about it: well use them, if needed. And I want everyone to know that, Putin warned. We have already taken all the decisions on this.

So far, the United States, European Union, and their allies have opted to issue punishing sanctions against Russias economy, targeting Putin and other top government officials and oligarchs. Russia, meanwhile, halted gas exports to Poland and Bulgariaboth NATO and EU membersafter they rejected Moscows demand for payment in rubles, according to Russian state energy firm Gazprom in a statement.

The move drew condemnation from Polish President Andrzej Duda and Bulgarian officials, who accused Moscow of trying to allegedly blackmail the two nations.

Europeans can trust that we stand united and in full solidarity with the member states impacted in the face of this new challenge. Europeans can count on our full support, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement following the move.

A day prior to Putins warning to lawmakers, London and the Kremlin traded threats as UK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said in an interview Tuesday that it is fine for Ukraine to strike Russian territory.

In war, Ukraine needs to strike into its opponents depth to attack its logistics lines, its fuel supplies, its ammunition depots, and thats part of it, Heappey told the Times Radio, adding that such attacks would be viewed by the UK as completely legitimate.

Within Ukraine, Kyivs government reported on Wednesday that Russian troops had made gains in several villages there. Russia reported a number of blasts on its side of the border, and a blaze at an arms depot.

Ukraines prosecutor-general said Russian forces had used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a pro-Ukraine rally in the southern city of Kherson, the first big urban center seized by Moscow after the Feb. 24 invasion.

And despite the collapse in ties between Russia and the West, Moscow and Washington carried out a prisoner swap. The United States freed Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, jailed on drug trafficking charges. Russia released former U.S. marine Trevor Reed, accused of fighting with Moscow police.

Reuters contributed to this report.
An Airbus A321neo during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget airport near Paris, on June 21, 2017. (Pascal Rossignol/Reuters)

Qatar Airways Suffers Setback in Feud With Airbus

LONDONA British judge on Tuesday denied a bid by Qatar Airways to reinstate a jet contract cancelled by Europes Airbus in the latest twist to a dramatic feud playing out in UK courts.

The companies have been locked in a safety dispute for months on Europes A350 long-haul jet. Their unprecedented bust-up widened in January when Airbus revoked a separate deal for 50 smaller A321neos that Qatar says it needs to open new routes.

The judge rejected Qatars claim that it could not find alternatives, for example by leasing jets or deploying 737 MAX jets that it has provisionally ordered from Boeing.

The decision means the worlds largest planemaker is free to market the in-demand A321neos to other airlines, or remove them from industrial plans to ease factory congestion, while the two sides focus on their central dispute over safety of the A350.

Qatar has grounded more than 20 A350s after paint erosion exposed damage or gaps in a metallic sub-layer designed to absorb lightning, which hits airliners on average once a year.

The Gulf carrier says this raises questions over the safety of the affected jets and is refusing to take more deliveries pending investigation, while seeking $1 billion in compensation.

Airbus, which acknowledges quality problems but insists the airplanes are safe, has retaliated against Qatars decision to halt A350 deliveries by pulling the A321neo order.

In a breakdown of industry unity on safety, it has accused the A350s biggest customer of airing invalid safety concerns to avoid taking more jets at a time of weak overall demand.

Airbus is pleased that this issue is now behind it and that we can now focus on the main topic of misrepresentation by Qatar Airways of safety and airworthiness of the A350, it said.

Qatar had no immediate comment, but a person familiar with the carrier said the A321neo row was secondary to its safety concerns over A350 damage, which it blames on a design defect.

A Reuters investigation in November revealed the problem affected other carriers, though apart from Qatar none has taken planes out of service, except for surface repairs.

The sign of paint peeling, cracking, and exposed expanded copper foil (ECF) on the fuselage of a Qatar Airways Airbus A350 aircraft grounded by the Qatari regulator in an undated photo. (Reuters)

Rare Publicity

While both sides have wagered their reputations on the A350 row, the spillover to the busier A321neo segment where Airbus leads the market had alarmed airlines, with the International Air Transport Association calling the cancellation worrying.

Airbus won backing for its case that the two contracts are connected by a cross-default clause that allows it to pull the plug on one deal when an airline refuses to honour the other.

Some airline executives worry this may set a precedent allowing disputes to ricochet from one contract to another, tightening the grip of plane giants Airbus and Boeing.

People will look at this and take extra care to resist such cross-default clauses, the head of a large airline fleet said.

The court battle has punctured the secrecy surrounding more than a decade of aircraft negotiations and taken the lid off closely guarded planning methods inside the global jet industry.

Multiple industry sources say it is in neither sides interest to spark a full-scale trial, producing a flood of further disclosures and testing relations between Airbus headquarters nation France and major energy producer Qatar, at a time when Europe urgently seeks new gas supplies.

While some sources see a glimmer of an eventual settlement, the two sides spent part of Tuesdays hearing discussing the logistics of a trial to be held as soon as early 2023, accompanied by searching demands for internal documents.

The disputes lawyer-packed hearings mark a departure from the industrys usual reliance on closed arbitration, as one of its pivotal relationships unravels in Londons High Court.

The airline was ordered to pay most of Airbus costs on the A321neo part of the case.

By Tim Hepher
RCMP Supervisor During NS Mass Shooting Took Extended Leave Amid Second-Guessing

One of the Mounties who oversaw the initial response to the mass shooting in Nova Scotia was off work for at least 16 months afterwards, saying he struggled with questions about his own decisions during the rampage.

Staff Sgt. Brian Rehilla risk manager at the RCMPs Operational Communications Centre in Truro, N.S.told investigators with the public inquiry investigating the killings that support from other officers helped him cope with the aftermath.

However, he was still off work at the time of his interview on Jan. 15. Im a bit rusty because I havent worked since September 2020, he said. The inquiry removed the reasons behind Rehills absence from the transcript of the interview, saying it was personal information.

In the remaining document, the 32-year-veteran of the force describes a career that began in a small town on Newfoundlands Great Northern Peninsula and included rural policing assignments in Cape Breton and northeastern Nova Scotia.

As a risk manager, he said he worked alongside 911 call takers and dispatchers at the communications centre in Truro, giving safety directions to officers engaged in high-risk activities during non-business hours when district supervisors and commanders arent on duty.

During his interview, Rehill spoke about his decision not to quickly send in a second group of officers to help the first three officers who advanced into Portapique, N.S., after the first reports of shootings were received on the night of April 18, 2020.

Lawyers for victims families have said that if the RCMP had a full complement of six officers on duty that nightrather than the minimum fourand a system to track officers, a second team might have been able to advance up another road to where the killer actually was.

Rehill said he could have faced criticism if hed sent in a second team and officers had shot at one another. People would be saying, What the hell were you thinking, Rehill, having two or three teams there in the pitch black and they dont know where the other one is?' he said in the interview.

The staff sergeant also said that with hindsight, I probably could have sent another team in there, and he then spoke of the difficulty of looking back at the decisions taken, the distress it created for him and the reassurances he received from other officers.

I was second-guessing myself a lot and wondering, did I miss something that, had I not missed it, he (the killer) wouldnt have got out of there and (Const.) Heidi (Stevenson) would be alive, all these people in Wentworth would be alive, that kind of thing, he told the investigator. After the gunman killed 13 people and escaped from Portapique on April 18, he spent the night in nearby Debert before resuming his rampage and killing nine more people, including Stevenson.

An occupational health and safety investigators report that looked at workplace compliance issues concluded there was an environment of confusion over the roles of the initial RCMP supervisors on the night of the mass shooting.

Labour investigator Lorna MacMillan said this breached the RCMPs requirement under the Labour Code to ensure each employee has the supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety at work.

She also said in her March 29 report that the district supervisors from the Bible Hill RCMP office should have assumed command, but instructions were coming from both Rehill and the district supervisors. Radio logs indicate that at 11:45 p.m. that night, a staff sergeant in the district told officers at the scene that Rehill has command.

In the interview, Rehill said he understood he was the initial critical incident commander, and was the go between until a trained critical incident commanderStaff Sgt. Jeff Westarrived on the scene later that night.

Rehill said he relied heavily on the experience of the first officers on the scene, who were trained in immediate response techniques for neutralizing active shooters. I dont micromanage the (RCMP) members, and on the night in question, I didnt micromanage, he said. I was listening a lot.

Meanwhile, Rehill and other supervisors overseeing the response had trouble identifying the killers replica RCMP cruiser, according to commissions summaries of the events on the first night.

Within a half-hour of the shooting starting, 911 call takers and RCMP members received reports the killers car was a decked and labelled RCMP car, that it was just like a police car with lights and stuff, and it was a cop car that was white with stripes, but possibly no roof lights.

However, Rehill said in his interview he heard from operators at the Truro communications centre that the killer, Gabriel Wortman, was a collector of decommissioned patrol cars, and Rehill said everyone at the centre believed were looking for one of these white, Ford Tauruses.

In his interview with the inquiry, the staff sergeant said he didnt know until the next morning that this guy had a fully marked police car that looked identical to one of ours that just rolled off the lot.

I was in shock when I saw the photo of the police car, he said.

By Michael Tutton
In this screenshot from the Republican National Conventions livestream of the 2020 Republican National Convention, North Carolina congressional nominee Madison Cawthorn addresses the virtual convention on Aug. 26, 2020. (Courtesy of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via Getty Images)

Rep. Cawthorn Says Establishment Targeting Him With Coordinated Drip Campaign

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) is accusing certain people of targeting him with a coordinated drip campaign in an effort to undermine his bid to seek reelection this year.

Theyre going to drop an attack article every one or two days just to try and kill us with a death by 1,000 cuts, and that is really their main strategy, Cawthorn said in an April 26 statement on Instagram.

Cawthorn, 26, has been facing backlash over several controversies, including being detained by police in North Carolina over possessing a loaded gun at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport earlier on April 26.

Cawthorn, whose spokesperson didnt respond by press time to a request for comment, was issued a citation for violating a Charlotte ordinance and was released, although police kept the firearm.

Cawthorn also accused people on Capitol Hill of offering him drugs and participation in sexual activities, drawing criticism from colleagues.

In March, Cawthorn said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a thug and that the Ukrainian government was incredibly evil. The statement was criticized by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and by several Republican primary contenders hoping for the nomination over Cawthorn later this year.

Cawthorn in his Instagram statement suggested that attacks from establishment actors could continue in the form of voter fraud to shift the scales against him, noting that most incumbent members of Congress win reelection.

The firearm found in Rep. Madison Cawthorns (R-N.C.) bag at the airport in Charlotte, N.C., on April 26, 2022. (TSA via The Epoch Times)

Likely in reference to the ongoing effort to have Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) disqualified from running for reelection on 14th Amendment grounds, Cawthorn said that youre starting to see this coordinated attack against hardcore conservatives going up for reelection across the country.

Some opponents of Cawthorn have suggested that he should also be barred from running for reelection for violating the amendment, although a federal judge recently dismissed the legal challenge.

In a recent political ad, North Carolina state Sen. Chuck Edwards, a Republican challenging Cawthorn, claimed that the congressman cares more about social media fame than he does about legislating.

Cawthorn responded by saying that critics obviously dont understand whats going on.

He described Instagram as a good platform to get the truth out about conservatism out to these people when they have been indoctrinated with these lies of socialism.

Still, Cawthorn faces adversity in his effort to win reelection.

Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) recently endorsed Edwards, saying that Cawthorn has fallen well short of the most basic standards Western North Carolina expects from their representatives. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) also criticized the young lawmaker.

Amid this slew of unflattering stories, some Republican contenders and strategists have expressed concerns about Cawthorns electability in the next cycle.

Conservatives in my district are terrified that we will lose this Republican seat to a leftist Biden Democrat if Cawthorn somehow wins the nomination, Michele Woodhouse, another Republican challenging Cawthorn, said in a statement following Cawthorns comments about Zelenskyy and Ukraine.

Cawthorn has said he wont accede to demands to retire early.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during the confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson before the Senate Judiciary Committee on her nomination to be an Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court, in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Wash., on March 22, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Republican Senator Blasts US Justice Depts Boeing 737 MAX Plea Deal

WASHINGTONTexas Republican Senator Ted Cruz backed the families of passengers killed in two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes and sharply criticizing the Justice Departments deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing.

The $2.5 billion Boeing deferred prosecution agreement, a type of corporate plea agreement, was reached in January 2021 near the end of former President Donald Trumps administration. It capped a 21-month government investigation into the design and development of the 737 MAX following two crashes, in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, that killed a total of 346 people.

Families of some of those killed in the two crashes asked Texas-based U.S. District Judge Reed OConnor to declare that the deferred prosecution agreement was negotiated in violation of their rights as crime victims under federal law and determine appropriate remedies.

Cruz, who is ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee, told OConnor in a letter made public late Monday that Boeing engaged in criminal conduct that defrauded government regulators and left hundreds of people dead in preventable plane crashes.

Boeing and the Justice Department declined comment.

Cruz said the Justice Departments positionthat the relatives of those killed were not victims under the Crime Victims Rights Actwas simply nonsensical.

The settlement included a fine of $243.6 million, compensation to airlines of $1.77 billion and a $500 million fund for crash victims over a fraud conspiracy charge related to the planes flawed design.

It is likely that the crashes would never have occurred if Boeing had been honest with regulators about the problems with the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System on the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, Cruz wrote to OConnor. If the government did not think these people were victims, it is hard to see why it thought a half-billion dollar compensation fund was appropriate.

Grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft parked at Boeing facilities at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Wash., on Nov. 17, 2020. (Lindsey Wasson/Reuters)

OConnor set a May 3 hearing on the families request.

The Justice Department in February opposed the families request but apologized for not meeting and conferring with these crash victims beneficiaries before entering into the deferred prosecution agreement. Attorney General Merrick Garland met with some relatives on Jan. 26.

The crashes, which cost Boeing some $20 billion and led to a 20-month grounding of the plane that ended in 2020, prompted U.S. lawmakers to pass legislation reforming new airplane certification.

A Texas jury last month found a former Boeing chief technical pilot not guilty of deceiving federal regulators who approved the companys 737 MAX.

By David Shepardson
Russian police officers escort U.S. ex-marine Trevor Reed, charged with attacking police, into a courtroom prior to a hearing in Moscow on March 11, 2020. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)

Russia Releases Jailed Ex-Marine Trevor Reed in Exchange for Russian National

The Russian government on April 27 released jailed former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot, according to the White House and Russias Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Today, we welcome home Trevor Reed and celebrate his return to the family that missed him dearly. Trevor, a former U.S. Marine, is free from Russian detention, President Joe Biden said in a statement on April 27. I heard in the voices of Trevors parents how much theyve worried about his health and missed his presence. And I was delighted to be able to share with them the good news about Trevors freedom.

Reed had been imprisoned in Russia since 2019 and was serving a nine-year term after he was charged for allegedly assaulting two officers in Moscow who were driving him to a police station. Reports said Reed was drunk at the time.

The former Marine was exchanged for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year prison term in the United States after being convicted on drug charges, the Russian foreign ministry told state-run media on April 27. In 2010, Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia and extradited to the United States.

Russian diplomats told state-run TV on April 27 that the prisoner exchange was the result of a lengthy negotiation process.

Russia had sought Yaroshenkos return for years while also rejecting entreaties by high-level U.S. officials to release Reed, who was nearing his 1,000th day in custody and whose health had recently been worsening, his family said.

Officials in Moscow previously accused the United States of failing to notify Russias consular services about Yaroshenkos arrest and extradition. At the time, Russias foreign ministry claimed it was a violation of international laws.

Reeds family told several news outlets in a statement on April 27 that while we understand the interest in Trevors storyand as soon as hes ready, hell tell his own story, wed respectfully ask for some privacy while we address the myriad of health issues brought on by the squalid conditions he was subjected to in his Russian gulag, referring to the Soviet-era prison camp system in which millions of dissidents were detained.

Previously, his parents said Reed went on a hunger strike to protest being placed in solitary confinement, and said he hadnt received proper medical care for tuberculosis. Russias prison agency in March 2022 denied those allegations and said Reed hadnt been in contact with anyone who had tuberculosis.

Multiple other Americans still remain jailed in Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan.

The Reed family was also working with a consultant, Jonathan Franks, who has been involved in other recent high-profile releases, including the case of Michael White, a Navy veteran freed from Iran in 2020.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Gas pipelines are pictured at the Atamanskaya compressor station, facility of Gazprom's Power Of Siberia project outside the far eastern town of Svobodny, in Amur region, Russia, on Nov. 29, 2019. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Russias Gas Threat in Europe Rattles Energy Markets

Potential escalation by Russia could cause a spillover effect into other energy markets, analyst warns

European gas prices soared more than 10 percent after Russia announced that it would suspend gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria for refusing to pay in rubles for Russian gas.

Both countries, which are heavily reliant on Russian natural gas, declined to open a special bank account with Gazprombank to allow payment to Gazprom. According to a report by ING Bank, Poland maintains an annual supply deal with Gazprom totaling 10.2 billion cubic meters, which was set to expire by the end of 2022. Nearly 53 percent of Polands gas imports come from Russia.

Poland said that it wasnt interested in renewing the agreement.

However, Bulgaria looks to be more vulnerable. While the country is a small gas consumer (about 3 billion cubic meters per year), Russia meets more than 90 percent of its gas needs, according to the report.

A Russian ruble coin in front of St. Basil Cathedral in Moscow on Nov. 20, 2014. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images)

Oil and diesel prices surged after reports surfaced that Russia had cut off gas supplies. That was triggered by concerns that a reduced supply of natural gas to Europe would force the continent to rely on alternative forms of energy, primarily oil and diesel, which are already in short supply globally, Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group, said in a note.

The news helped feed the diesel price squeeze driving the ultra-low sulfa futures contract to an all-time record high close of $4.4679 after a move of epic proportions, he wrote.

Prices eased after it was reported that some European countries agreed to Russias demand.

Four European countries have already paid for energy products in rubles after President Vladimir Putin made the demand earlier this month, sources close to Gazprom told Bloomberg News.

Ten European businesses have opened accounts at Gazprombank to ensure that they can make ruble-denominated payments.

Despite initially refusing to comply with the Kremlins demand, Italian energy giant Eni reportedly is opening ruble accounts for Russian gas.

German Finance Minister Christian Linder told the public that theres no evidence yet that Moscow will cease shipping to Europes largest economy and biggest buyer of Russian gas.

Berlin has stated that its prepared to support the European Unions embargo on Russian energy if its gradual. But Germany is vulnerable to any such measures, with experts estimating that it might face a $240 billion hit to economic output over the next two years if theres a substantial disruption in oil and gas flows.

The decision to become independent from Russian supplies of raw materials is likely to remain valid even when the military and political situation calms down again, economic institutes advising the government said in a joint report. That means part of the energy supply and energy-intensive industry must realign itself.

No other European market has reported gas cuts from Russia.

In recent weeks, several EU members have asked for clear guidance from the blocs leadership on Russias rouble demands, noting that the current recommendations are too ambiguous.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has urged EU countries to refrain from conceding to Russia, adding that this would violate Western sanctions.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen makes a statement in Brussels on April 27, 2022, following the decision by Russian energy giant Gazprom to halt gas shipments to Poland and Bulgaria. (KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

In a call with reporters last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refrained from naming the states that had acquiesced to Russias request, noting that this information wouldnt be made public. He added that Moscow will not do charity by shipping free energy to Western countries.

Von der Leyen called Moscows move to disrupt flows to Bulgarian and Polish consumers unacceptable, likening it to an instrument of blackmail.

This is unjustified and unacceptable. And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier, she said in a statement. We are mapping out our coordinated EU response. We will also continue working with international partners to secure alternative flows.

British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab reiterated Russias status as an economic pariah.

While some market analysts believe the loss of access wont have an immediate effect, it could lead to more of a long-term risk for the European economy and its energy landscape.

Poland and Bulgaria together losing access to Russian gas has not had a big impact on the total European market, but a more severe consequence is likely if other large countries or individual buyers are being cut off such as Germany and Italy, Kaushal Ramesh and Nikoline Bromander, senior analysts at Rystad Energy, said in a note.

Indeed, this action by Russia should be viewed with the caution of a precedent.

The potential escalation by Russia could ignite a spillover effect into other energy markets, including Asia, Warren Patterson, the head of commodities strategy at ING, said in a research note.

This latest move by Russia and the very real risk for even further escalation suggests that European gas prices will remain well supported, he wrote. This will have a spillover into other gas markets, particularly the Asian market. Europe will have to increasingly compete with Asia for flexible LNG [liquified natural gas] supply, which will keep Asian spot LNG prices well supported.

There has been some speculation that the United States could urge Asian markets, like Japan, to ship some of their LNG imports to Europe to help mitigate an intensified energy crisis.

In March, the White House and the EU sealed a high-profile deal to ship more U.S. LNG exports to Europe.

Moreover, a growing number of trading houses with long-term agreements to ship LNG to Asia have chosen to pay the hefty termination fee and redirect these cargoes to Europe, with the prospect of earning more money.

The invisible hand of the market is helping Europe, Evercore ISI analyst Sean Morgan wrote in a report last month. Given the European gas supply crunch, most buyers have elected to divert their own supplies to the EU. Europe has been paying premiums that have encouraged private companies to redirect previously contracted gas to Europe to make money on the wide arbitrage spread.

Emel Akan contributed to this report.
Gas pipelines are pictured at the Atamanskaya compressor station, facility of Gazprom's Power Of Siberia project outside the far eastern town of Svobodny, in Amur region, Russia, on Nov. 29, 2019. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Russias Gazprom Cuts Gas Exports to Poland, Bulgaria After They Failed to Pay in Roubles

Poland and Bulgaria have had their gas supplies cut off by Russias energy giant Gazprom after the two E.U. countries did not pay in roubles, the state-owned company announced on Wednesday.

As of the end of the working day on 26 April, Gazprom Export had not received rouble payments for gas deliveries in April from the companies Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and PGNiG (Poland), the company said in a statement.

The Saint Petersburg-headquartered company noted that payments for gas delivered since 1 April must be made in roubles, and that both companies had been notified of this in a timely manner.

The move makes Poland and Bulgaria the first countries to have their gas cut off by Russia since President Vladimir Putins special military operation began in Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Russia is one of the worlds largest producers of oil and natural gas, accounting for 17 percent of the worlds natural gas and 12 percent of its oil, and is also Europes biggest oil supplier, providing slightly more than a quarter, or 26 percent, of E.U. oil imports in 2020, according to data from the blocs statistics office Eurostat.

Natural gas prices surged in Europe Wednesday morning following the move by Gazprom, with the Dutch wholesale gas contract for the day-ahead, which serves as a benchmark for Europe, rising 24.2 percent to 115.75 euros per megawatt hour.

Polish state-owned PGNiG PGN.WA confirmed its supplies from Gazprom had been cut but said that the move had had no impact on its current deliveries to customers who are receiving the fuel according to their demand.

Although PGNiG has duly met all its obligations under the Yamal contract, on April 27th, 2022 Gazprom halted natural gas supplies it is obliged to deliver according to the contract and PGNiGs nominations, the Polish company said.

Russia covers about 55 percent of Polands gas needs, which are delivered via the 4,107-kilometer (2,552-mile) Yamal pipeline that runs from Russian natural gas fields in the Yamal Peninsula and Western Siberia to Poland and Germany, via Belarus.

PGNiG considers the halt of natural gas supplies a breach of the Yamal contract. PGNiG reserves the right to raise claims in connection with the halt and will use all of its contractual rights and rights under applicable provisions of law, the statement continued.

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called Gazproms decision a direct attack on Poland and revenge for the sanctions we imposed, referring to penalties levied against the Kremlin over its invasion of Ukraine.

The executive director of Bulgarian gas network operator Bulgartransgaz told Reuters that supplies to Bulgaria were still flowing for now. Hungary and Austria also said gas supplies were normal.

Poland and Bulgaria, both NATO and E.U. members, had said earlier that Moscow would stop supplying gas to them on Wednesday as tensions continue to run high over Russias invasion.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned Gazproms move on Wednesday, calling it another attempt by Russia to blackmail us with gas.

And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier. We are prepared for this scenario. We are in close contact with all Member States, she said.

Von der Leyen added that the commission has been in close contact with all Member States and is working to ensure alternative deliveries and the best possible storage levels across the E.U.

Member States have put in place contingency plans for just such a scenario and we worked with them in coordination and solidarity, she said.

Putin warned back in March that unfriendly countries would have to start paying for Russian energy with roubles while also promising to continue supplying natural gas and respect all the obligations and the pricing under the contracts that we have signed.

However, the European Commission has said companies should continue to pay Gazprom in the currency agreed in their contracts, the majority of which are in euros and dollars.
Electronic cigarettes with different flavored E-liquid are seen on display at the Vapor Shark store on February 20, 2014 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

San Diego to Ban Sales of Flavored Tobacco Products in 2023

SAN DIEGOThe San Diego City Council voted on April 25 to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol, effective in 2023.

Passed in a 72 vote at the April 25 council meeting, the ordinance was introduced by Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert in an effort to address adolescent addiction to flavored e-cigarettes and was supported by local school officials.

Every school district in the San Diego County region has passed a resolution asking us to ban the sale of most flavored tobacco products because they see whats happening to their students in their school. It is clear that flavors hook kids, von Wilpert said at the council meeting.

In addition, the ordinance will also align the city with the state policy by prohibiting the sale of tobacco products and electronic cigarettes to people under 21.

The ordinance will take effect on January 1, 2023. Retailers who violate the ordinance may face up to a $1,000 fine.

Von Wilpert said a recent study conducted by the California Department of Public Health found that about 28 percent of stores in the city were willing to sell tobacco products to underage kids.

She also presented a petition letter from Mt. Carmel High School, a school in her district, urging the city council to approve the ordinance to [protect] the health and well-being of youth.

These products are fueling a youth nicotine crisis, the letter read. We hope San Diego will join other cities in California with the banning of flavored nicotine products.

However, she noted, the ordinance does not apply to the sale of shisha, premium cigars, loose-leaf tobacco, unflavored or tobacco-flavored e-cigarette, and FDA-approved devices for smoking cessation.

Students voiced their support for the flavored tobacco ban during the public comment session.

Joel Castro, a high school student at Hoover High School, said he has witnessed many of his peers being victimized by the flavored tobacco products.

Just across of school, in fact, there is a retailer that sells flavored tobacco to minors. It has become far too easy for youth to fall victim to addiction  tactics are engineered to target them, Castro wrote in a public comment sent to the meeting.

Agreeing with Castro, Sasha Krasnitskaya, an 18-year-old student at San Diego State University, said she was offered flavored tobacco products in 20 percent of the stores she visited when she participated in a minor tobacco purchase survey.

I support the ban of flavored tobacco, Krasnitskaya wrote in a public comment. Nicotine is not a necessity, and we must protect our population from the harmful effects of nicotine use.

Although the move was applauded by students and school officials, critics of the ban said that these products can be helpful for people who are quitting smoking and that limiting product availability will hurt the local economy and lead consumers to the black market.

Ive firsthand seen how these products are able to assist in quitting addiction to nicotine, Jacob Salisbury, a San Diego resident.

David Kanteman, owner of two vape shops in San Diego, said he opened the vape shop to help people quit smoking cigarettes, and the ban would drive customers to black markets.

The city council of San Diego would be doing an unjustifiable amount of damage to everyone by giving their city the only option of cigarettes or an illegal black market of unregulated vape sales, Kanteman wrote in his public comment.

Fidel Issa, a local business owner, said the ban will cripple the local economy because flavored tobacco will still be available in other cities and on the black market.

As business owners, we care about kids lives too. Thats why we deny selling any tobacco product to the underaged, but by doing this youre just creating a big black market out there for them, Issa said.

Another tobacco retailer, Angelo Nissou, said that he checks customers IDs before selling tobacco products to anyone.

I have been in business for a while and conduct ID checks and make sure products are sold to adults over the age of 21, Nissou said. By passing this ban, it will just lead everyone to the black market.
A health worker wearing Ebola protection gear, before entering the Biosecure Emergency Care Unit (CUBE) at the ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action) Ebola treatment center in Beni, Congo, on March 30, 2019. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

Second Ebola Patient Dies in Northwestern Congo, WHO Says

NAIROBI, KenyaA second Ebola patient has died in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, days into a fresh outbreak of the deadly disease.

Genetic testing showed an infection confirmed last week in the city of Mbandaka was a new spillover event, a transmission from an infected animal, and not linked to any previous outbreaks, said the countrys National Institute of Biomedical Research.

The second fatality was a 25-year-old woman who was the sister-in-law of the first case, the WHO said on Twitter. She began experiencing symptoms 12 days earlier, it said.

The first patient began showing symptoms on April 5, but did not seek treatment for more than a week. He died in an Ebola treatment centre on April 21.

The lag time has health workers rushing to identify contacts who may have been infected, the WHO said.

At least 145 people came into contact with the confirmed cases and their health is being closely monitored, the WHO said, noting later that one of the first cases was a health worker.

Mbandaka, a trading hub on the banks of the Congo River, is a city of over one million where people live in close proximity with road, water and air links to the capital Kinshasa.

WHO emergencies director for Africa, Ibrahima Soce Fall, said there was a risk the disease could spread to neighbouring Central African Republic and Congo Brazzaville.

This is concerning but taking into account the capacity build up and experience in Congo we believe it can be contained, Fall said at a press conference in Geneva.

Congo has seen 13 previous outbreaks of Ebola, including one in 2018-2020 in the east that killed nearly 2,300 people, the second highest toll recorded in the history of the hemorrhagic fever.

The most recent outbreak ended in December in the east after six deaths. Mbandaka, the capital of Equateur province, has also contended with two previous outbreaks  in 2018 and in 2020.

The countrys equatorial forests are a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus, which was discovered near the Ebola River in northern Congo in 1976.

By Hereward Holland and Nellie Peyton
Senate GOP to Block COVID-19 Aid Unless Democrats Agree to Overrule Biden on Title 42

Senate Republicans are going to insist on having an amendment to keep emergency border powers in place attached to a COVID-19 aid bill, party leaders say.

Its safe to say that Republicans will only support the bill unless its amended, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters in Washington.

The border is already entirely too open. Pulling back the Title 42 authorities will only make it dramatically worse, he said.

Title 42, an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been in place since early 2020. It enables immigration authorities to quickly expel many illegal immigrants due to the fact they may have COVID-19.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agencys director and a President Joe Biden appointee, announced recently that the agency will terminate the order in May.

Authorities say the end of the order will trigger a surge of illegal aliens, on top of the already-unprecedented number of immigrants crossing the U.S.Mexico border.

Its not just the issues of the numbers. its also the fact of who many of these people are in terms of criminals, drug dealers, gang members. If youre on the foreign terrorist watchlist, this is a dream come true for you in terms of an opportunity to get into the United States illegally, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said.

Republicans have held fast to the stance that the bill, which would deliver $10 billion in COVID-19 aid, must be tied to Title 42 to pass, a position they took earlier in April.

Some two dozen Democrats also say Bidens administration should keep the emergency border powers in place, asserting the administrations plans to deal with the expected surge arent adequate.

We are nowhere near prepared to deal with that influx. Until we have comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform that commits to securing our borders and providing a pathway to citizenship for qualified immigrants, Title 42 must stay in place, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said in a recent statement.

But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Tuesday that Title 42 shouldnt be used to hold up important things like COVID aid.

I would urge our Republican colleagues to pass COVID relief ASAP. Its very risky for the health of the American people, for them to be playing political games with it, he added later.

He also said Democrats were working through this to present a unified position on the matter, admitting that theres divisions there now.

Separately, a group including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) have introduced a bill drawing a growing amount of support that would force the administration to keep Title 42 in place unless Biden rescinds the national emergency declaration over COVID-19.

The Problem Solvers Caucus, composed of 58 Republican and Democrat members of the House of Representatives, endorsed companion legislation, but it remains unclear when votes will happen on the bills.
A Stryker vehicle from the U.S. Army's Company A, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, returns to base camp at the Yakima Training Center in Yakima, Washington in this undated photo. A 20-year-old soldier was killed in a vehicle accident at the training center on April 25, 2022. (General Dynamics/Getty Images)

Soldier Killed, 2 Others Hurt in Vehicle Accident in Washington State

A 20-year-old soldier was killed and two others injured during a unit exercise at the Yakima Training Center in central Washington state, officials said.

Army Pfc. Joseph A. Marquez, of Dover, Delaware, died on April 25 after a vehicle accident at the training center, the 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, said in a statement released on social media.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

It is with a very heavy heart and incredible sadness that the Blackhawk Squadron announces the passing of one of our own PFC Joseph Alejandro Marquez, the regiment said, noting that he joined the army last year.

Marquez was known for his laughter and the light he spread everywhere he went. We knew him as a loving son and brother to his family, a faithful friend to his comrades, and a loyal Soldier to his nation, the statement said.

He was and is so loved, and already so missed, officials said.

The regiment said that it will soon share details of Marquezs memorial service.

Please respect the unit and the family as we grieve our loss, the press release added.

Marquez was a member of the 2-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 7th Infantry Division based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in western Washington.

The Yakima Training Center is a satellite installation of JBLM.

We are deeply saddened by the loss of Pfc. Marquez, said Lt. Col. Michael Filanowski, commander of 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment. Blackhawk Squadron sends its deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. Our prayers and thoughts are with them during this difficult time.

The injured soldiers were treated at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital and released, officials said. The military did not release their names.

It is unclear what vehicle was involved in the fatal incident, and whether he was driving at the time. The cause of the incident is under investigation.

The Epoch Times has contacted the 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, for additional comment.

According to the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center, 20 soldiers died in the fiscal year 2021 in on-duty training accidents. Nine soldiers were lost to on-duty ground mishaps, while 11 died in aviation mishaps. The on-duty fatality total was also an all-time low, four below any previous year, according to the U.S. Army.

The U.S. Army said it studies every soldier mishap fatality to determine ways to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future, and uses leading indicators such as safety climate surveys to help commanders at all levels in their mishap prevention efforts.
A sign reads "Please Conserve Water" at the visitor center at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, near Borrego Springs, California, on March 23, 2022. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Southern California Asks Millions to Cut Outdoor Water Use Amid Drought

Southern Californias water supplier on Tuesday asked about 6 million people to limit their outdoor watering to one day a week amid a water shortage emergency owing to the ongoing drought.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the largest supplier of treated water in the United States, asked residents in parts of Los Angeles, Ventura, and San Bernardino counties to cut their outdoor watering.

We dont have enough water supplies right now to meet normal demand. The water is not there, MWD spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch said. This is unprecedented territory. Weve never done anything like this before.

According to the MWD, the affected regions face an emergency because of reliance on severely limited supplies from Northern California.

The past three years are projected to be the driest in our states history, leading to drought conditions unlike anything weve experienced before, it noted.

The MWD uses water from the Colorado River and the State Water Project to supply 26 public water agencies that provide water to 19 million people, or 40 percent of the states population.

But record dry conditions have strained the system, lowering reservoir levels, and the State Water Projectwhich gets its water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Deltahas estimated it will only be able to deliver about 5 percent of its usual allocation this year.

January, February, and March of this year were the driest three months in recorded state history in terms of rainfall and snowfall, Kimitch said.

The MWD said that the 2020 and 2021 water years had the least rainfall on record for two consecutive years. In addition, Lake Oroville, the State Water Projects main reservoir, reached its lowest point last year since being filled in the 1970s.

The measure was approved by the districts board on Tuesday, but it is expected to take effect on June 1. Officials are expected to elaborate on policy details on Wednesday morning.

The MWDs client water agencies must implement either the one-day-a-week outdoor use restriction or find other ways of making equivalent reductions in water demand, Kimitch said.

Although the water agencies support the water conservation move, it remains to be seen whether the public will do it, Kimitch said.

The MWD will monitor water use and if the restrictions dont work, it could order an all-out ban on outdoor watering as soon as September, she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Spanish maritime rescue vessel arrives with a wooden boat in tow at the port of Los Cristianos on the island of Tenerife after it was found drifting off the coast of the Spanish Canary Islands, on April 28, 2021. (Desiree Martin/AFP via Getty Images)

Spain: 1 Dead, 24 Missing After Migrant Boat Capsizes

MADRIDA boat carrying migrants capsized off Spains Canary Islands, leaving one person dead and another 24 missing, authorities said.

The vessel overturned sometime between Monday afternoon and early Tuesday, Spains marine rescue service said.

Spanish rescuers intercepted three boats heading to the islands, rescuing a total of 116 people, a spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

Two of the boats were located on Monday afternoon, drifting about 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of the archipelago, which lies off the northwest coast of Africa.

A third boat was found capsized around 225 kilometers (140 miles) south of the islands. Marine services rescued 36 people, including 10 women and two minors, and recovered the body of a woman. The search has since been halted, said the spokeswoman, who isnt authorized to be named in the media.

Authorities had been told that the sinking boat, which is believed to have set off from Cape Bojador in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, had been carrying 61 migrants, she added.

In recent years, migrants have been braving the Atlantic Ocean crossing to make it to the Canary Islands, risking one of the most dangerous routes to European territory.

Last year, 22,316 migrants arrived via the Canary Islands. From January to mid-April this year, 6,359 migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands, according to the Interior Ministry, a 60 percent rise compared to the same period last year.

By Ashifa Kassam
Montgomery County Sheriffs deputies and emergency personnel respond to a suspected drug overdose in a gas station carpark in the Harrison Township of Dayton, Ohio, on Nov. 1, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

States Join Forces to Tackle Border Crisis and Cartel-Related Crime

Ohio has been beleaguered by the opioid crisis for years. It has one of the highest overdose rates in the country, next to West Virginia, Kentucky, and Delaware.

As with all states, nearly every grain of fentanyl that Arkansas law enforcement seizes has traveled across the U.S.Mexico border.

In 2021, Arkansas State Police confiscated 10 pounds of fentanyl, enough to kill more than 2 million people, according to Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Two milligrams of fentanyl can be fatal.

In Georgia, fentanyl-involved deaths increased by more than 106 percent during fiscal year 2021, according to Gov. Brian Kemp.

On April 19, the Republican governors of 26 states announced the creation of a new Border Strike Force, which aims to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations.

The porousness of the Southern Border is an open door to transnational criminal organizations that use it to traffic drugs that feed the addiction epidemic throughout the United States, the memorandum of understanding states.

The group includes two southern border statesArizona and Texasas well as 24 others: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

In the absence of federal leadership, states are partnering together to create the American Governors Border Strike Force to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations by increasing collaboration, improving intelligence, investing in analysis, combating human smuggling, and stopping drug flow in our states, the agreement states.

The amount of drugs being seized at the border has plummeted as illegal alien apprehensions have reached record highs, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics.

If we seize even 5 percent of whats coming across the border, were lucky, said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, referring to a question about fentanyl pills.

And if theres nobody there to detect you and apprehend you, the cartels are going to push it through between the ports of entry when they know that there is absolutely no chance that were going to apprehend that narcotic.

In mid-December 2021, law enforcement authorities seized a record 1.7 million fentanyl pills in Scottsdale, Arizona.

More than 100,000 Americans, a record amount, died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in April 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fentanyl was involved in almost two-thirds of those deaths.

Sharing Personnel and Intel

The group of governors, in their memorandum of understanding, pledged to work together to serve as a force multiplier to target cartels and criminal networks financially and operationally.

Together, governors will improve public safety, protect victims from horrific crimes, reduce the amount of drugs in our communities, and alleviate the humanitarian crisis at the Southern Border, the agreement states.

States can request help from other participating states and state-specific certifications and licenses will be honored among states. Each state is responsible for its own costs.

Currently, 160 National Guardsmen from Georgia are stationed at the southern border.

As new and even larger waves of migrants approach the border, I grow increasingly concerned for their safety, Kemp wrote in a March 31 letter to President Joe Biden. The body of Texas National Guard Specialist Bishop E. Evans was recovered from the Rio Grande on April 25 after he drowned while attempting to rescue illegal immigrantswho were later identified as allegedly being involved in marijuana trafficking.

Last summer, state troopers from Nebraska, Iowa, and Florida augmented troopers in Texas to apprehend human smugglers and illegal aliens who evaded Border Patrol. Florida also sent Fish & Wildlife officers to help patrol areas of the Rio Grande in its boats.

Hutchinson said one of the most important elements of the Border Strike Force is the sharing of intelligence on the operation of criminal organizations.

Increased coordination with other states will be a benefit to our state and nation, but increased action from the federal government is still needed to help manage this, he said.

Ohio is prepared to offer other states intelligence analyst support, if asked, the governors office said.

Since 2019, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has set up four narcotics intelligence centers in his state that help trace drug trafficking organizations back to their ringleaders and suppliers.

Many times, those investigations reveal that Mexican cartels are behind the drugs being trafficked in Ohio, DeWines office told The Epoch Times via email.

State Laws

The 26 states also plan to review their state laws regarding human trafficking, drug trafficking, and transnational criminal organizations to ensure that such crimes are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Were currently in the process of determining what laws may need strengthening and where we can step up enforcement efforts in drug interdiction, human trafficking, and other crimes stemming from a porous southern border, Hutchinson told The Epoch Times via email.

Texas just strengthened its anti-smuggling laws last September, while Arizona doesnt have a state law against human smuggling, and border counties are suffering the impact.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been implementing state border security initiatives since June last year under Operation Lone Star, but has stopped short of testing state Constitutional powers to deport illegal immigrants.

The state has appropriated $3 billion for Operation Lone Star, which includes the arrest and prosecution of illegal alien trespassers, beefed-up law enforcement and National Guard presence along the border, and busing illegal immigrants to Washington.

Abbott recently caused significant delays for commercial trucks at several major TexasMexico trade bridges, which forced neighboring Mexican states to sign deals pledging to curb illegal border crossings. To date, theres no indication that the four Mexican states are reining in illegal immigration.

Title 42

Governors, Border Patrol agents, and border sheriffs have expressed concern over the revocation of Title 42a public health provision that allowed for the quick expulsion of illegal immigrants.

The Biden administration announced that Title 42 would end on May 23; however, a federal judge is preparing to block the move. Title 42 was never designed to be central border security or immigration policy, but as the Biden administration removed other border security measures, it became more significant.

The Department of Homeland Security has estimated that the end of Title 42 could mean up to 18,000 illegal alien apprehensions per day. Border agents are currently apprehending more than 6,000 per day.

Title 42 has slowly been whittled down by the Biden administration since February 2021first to allow in all unaccompanied children, then families with children under the age of 7, then, most families in general, most single females, and then, single adults from non-Spanish-speaking countries.

We are now processing illegal aliens from Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala) under Expedited Removal rather than T[itle] 42, Judd wrote on Twitter on April 19.

In February 2021, 73 percent of illegal immigrants were expelled under Title 42. By March 2022, it had been reduced to 49 percent.

Illegal border crossings lead to more drugs entering the country, more dangerous individuals evading arrest, and more victims of human trafficking, the 26 governors stated.
Supreme Court Considers If States Can Prosecute Non-Indians for Crimes on Indian Land

Chief Justice Roberts bids farewell to Justice Breyer at his final hearing

States should be allowed to prosecute non-Indians for crimes committed on Native American land, an attorney representing the state of Oklahoma told the Supreme Court on April 27, after a court ruling two years ago threw the states judicial system into disarray by changing jurisdictional rules.

The case is Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, court file 21-429. The Supreme Court agreed on Jan. 21 to take the case. Scheduled for 70 minutes, the hearing ran for 131 minutes.

The case comes after McGirt v. Oklahoma, in which the Supreme Court ruled 54 on July 9, 2020, that most of eastern and some of central Oklahoma is Native American land because it hosted Indian reservations. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the courts decision, which was joined by four liberal justices.

This means that prosecution of Native Americans on these lands may only be pursued in tribal courts or in federal courts under a federal statute called the Major Crimes Act. Another court clarified that the reservations belonged to the so-called Five Civilized TribesCherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole.

In the case at hand, respondent Victor Manuel Castro-Huerta, a non-Indian, was convicted of neglecting his 5-year-old stepdaughter, an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians who has cerebral palsy and is legally blind. The abuse took place on the Cherokee Nation reservation. Castro-Huerta received a prison term of 35 years.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the mans conviction, finding that the crime had occurred in Indian country. The appeals court also held that the McGirt decision extends beyond the confines of the Major Crimes Act to all crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian country.

That holding was erroneous, and it greatly exacerbates the ongoing criminal justice crisis in Oklahoma, according to the states petition.

During oral arguments, attorney Kannon Shanmugam, representing Oklahoma, said the state has authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes in Indian country regardless of whether the victim is a non-Indian or an Indian.

The state has inherent sovereign authority to punish crimes committed within its borders, and no federal law preempts that authority as to crimes committed by non-Indians, the attorney said.

The issue of who has the authority to prosecute has taken on acute importance in light of the situation on the ground in Oklahoma, according to Shanmugam.

There are now essentially three times as many people living in Indian country in the United States as a result of this courts decision in McGirt, he said. There are now 1.8 million more people living in Indian country. And our best estimate is that of the cases affected by McGirt, approximately 20 percent of those cases involve this permutation, namely, crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians.

Justice Elena Kagan told Shanmugam that precedent wasnt on his side.

Youre up here, and six times we have said the exact opposite of your position, the justice said. Congress has indicated that you are wrong given its  consistent enactment of statutes that make no sense in light of your position. The executive branch has said that you are wrong in all but one decade.

The respondents attorney, Zachary Schauf, said Oklahoma lacks jurisdiction because Congress exercised its exclusive power over Indian affairs to provide for exclusively federal jurisdiction.

In Indian country, federal statutes presumptively exclude state laws, and it imports the law of federal enclaves, where, likewise, states may prosecute only with Congresss approval, according to Schauf.

U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler said federal law firmly establishes exclusive federal jurisdiction over crimes by non-Indians against Indians in Indian country.

And beginning more than 80 years ago, Congress has repeatedly enacted laws that made clear that an act of Congress is necessary to authorize a state  to conduct such prosecutions, Kneedler said.

The roots of exclusive federal jurisdiction under the statute, in fact, go much deeper, though, to the Founding, when the Framers rejected the divided authority under the Articles of Confederation and invested plenary and exclusive power over Indian affairs in the national government.

After the hearing had concluded, Chief Justice John Roberts paid tribute to Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, noting that the April 27 hearing would be his last as a justice.

For 28 years, this has been his arena for remarks profound and moving, questions challenging and insightful, and hypotheticals downright silly, Roberts said, his voice breaking with emotion.

This sitting alone has brought us radioactive muskrats and John the Tiger Man, Roberts said, referring to two of Breyers more colorful hypotheticals.

Now, at the appropriate time, we will, in accordance with tradition and practice, read and enter into the record an exchange of letters between the court and Justice Breyer marking his retirement, he said.

After the court breaks for the summer in a few weeks, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, who was narrowly confirmed by the Senate on April 7, is expected to be sworn in as Breyers replacement. Breyer, who was nominated by then-President Bill Clinton, was confirmed on July 29, 1994.
Gold bars from the vault of a bank, in Zurich, Switzerland, on Nov. 20, 2014. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

Swiss Gold Exports to the United States Rocketed in March

LONDONSwiss shipments of gold to the United States surged in March to their highest since May 2020, Swiss customs data showed, as investors spooked by Russias invasion of Ukraine and the threat of a global economic slowdown stocked up on bullion.

Switzerlands exports to Britain, which like the United States is a centre for gold investment and trading, also rose, while shipments of gold to China and India, the biggest consumer markets, fell sharply.

Switzerland is the worlds biggest refining and transit centre for gold, an asset typically seen as a safe place to store wealth in times of economic and political turmoil.

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) storing gold for investors added 185 tonnes worth around $15 billion to their stockpile in March, the most since July 2020, according to the World Gold Council.

Such strong investor demand pushed up gold prices in February and March. Higher prices often put off retail consumers in Asia.

Swiss exports to mainland China and Hong Kong fell in March to their lowest in a year and shipments to India were the smallest since May 2021. Exports to Britain were the highest since June 2021.

Gold was trading around $1,900 an ounce on Tuesday.

Following are numbers and comparisons.

Swiss Trade Data

Export (Kg)

Feb-22 147,036

Jan-22 121,655

Feb-21 134,566

Shipments to Key Markets (Kg)

To China To Hong Kong To India To Britain To the U.S.

Feb-22 11,000 55 4,952 17,980 81,548

Jan-22 35,500 10,575 32,761 5,295 3,541

Feb-21 9,389 31 82,641 469 1,514

* Source: Swiss customs. Data subject to revision by source.
Former President Barack Obama speaks during an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on April 5, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Desire to Control Information

Commentary

In two speeches this month, former U.S. President Barack Obama claimed leadership of an all-hands-on-deck effort to fight disinformation. Or in laymans terms, to censor political speech damaging to Americas ruling class.

Why are Obama and his retinue of political, corporate, and media elites so keen to shut down free speech? With President Joe Bidens poll numbers cratering and midterm elections on the horizon, Democrats have no good news to tell voters, so they have to bury as much bad news as they can or else face a total rout come November.

And then theres the long-term threat to the establishments control of the information ecosystem: One of their own jumped sides. With Elon Musk buying Twitter, the opposition is celebrating the arrival of a white-hat media oligarch who they hope will set them free by practicing what he preachesfree speech is essential to the health of a democracy.

Obama sees it differently. As he told audiences at the University of Chicago and Stanford, disinformation threatens democracy. Of course, the framers of the Constitution made no provision for any form of censorship, never mind a federally supported campaign joining Big Tech to U.S. intelligence services in order to strip Americans of their First Amendment rights.

Several of Obamas former spy chiefs, such as ex-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and one-time CIA chief Leon Panetta, authored a letter last week on behalf of the U.S. spy community. It urged Congress not to regulate Big Tech flagships such as Google and Apple, lest it harm the ability of U.S. intelligence bureaucrats to weed out disinformation seeded by foreign adversaries, such as Russia.

It wasnt lost on conservatives that Clapper and Panetta were also among the 50 former intelligence officials who published the letter claiming that the emails found on Hunter Bidens laptop showing evidence of financial ties between the Biden family, including the current president, and foreign officials was Russian disinformation. Except, as The New York Times and Washington Post acknowledged, those emails are authentic.

And thus, perhaps inadvertently, Obama and the spy chiefs provided a working definition of disinformationfacts liable to hurt the Democratic Party as well as the national security apparatus that the 44th president manages from his Washington mansion.

At Stanford, Obama compared former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon to Vladimir Putin. Sure, its repugnant that a former commander-in-chief compared a domestic political opponent to a foreign adversary, but this kind of rhetorical flourish has been a feature of Obamas political style since his first presidential term. Of any policy or project or idea at odds with his promise to transform America, Obama was fond of saying, Thats not who we are as Americans. The effect was to divide the country between those who were loyal to Obama and those whose Americanness was in question.

By comparing a Trump aide to the Russian despot, Obama also echoed the collusion narrative claiming that Trump had been compromised by Putin. Russiagate started with the Hillary Clinton campaign in the summer of 2016, but after Trump won the White House, Obama picked it up and ran with it.

Weeks before leaving office, Obama tasked his spy chiefs, Clapper and ex-director of the CIA John Brennan, to produce an official document assessing, with no credible evidence, that Putin had sought to help Trump win the election. That was a fictionor disinformation if you preferthat destabilized the U.S. government under the president the American people had chosen to succeed Obama.

And this puts reports of fraud in the 2020 election in a clearer context. Obama saddled the Trump administration with a fraudulent account of reality for four years while the media and intelligence officers shoved a conspiracy theory down the throats of U.S. voters. The Obama-led confederation comprising the prestige press, social media, spies, and Democratic Party operatives misledindeed defraudedthe electorate.

Elon Musk is right: Democracy doesnt work unless different perspectives and accounts are available to inform the peoples decisions about the fate and future of their families, communities, and nation. And because hes believed to be likely to act on his conviction, the worlds richest man now has a big target on his back. Unless Musk uses Twitter like its previous executives to block information and deplatform personalities harmful to the ruling class, the Biden administration and its allies in the House and Senate will regulate his new purchase out of existence while subjecting him to congressional hearings and other legally plausible measures to hurt even him, the white-hat oligarch.

The desire to control information and punish those who contest the regimes account is a tell-tale sign that a political establishment has begun to acquire a taste for totalitarianism. Already weve seen clear signs of it, with Jan. 6, 2021, protesters unconstitutionally detained and released only after they succumbed to pressure to denounce Trump and confess to Bidens legitimacy. These are the ethics and methods of a third-world dungeon.

With Obama promoting censorship to protect the ruling faction he leads, he has shown hes not simply a divisive figure but also a destructive one, too. For it turns out his transformative vision for the democracy that elected him president twice is to make it into a one-party tyranny.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Sutter Health nurses and health care workers hold signs as they participate in a one day strike outside of the California Pacific Medical Center Van Ness Campus in San Francisco, California, on April 18, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Thousands of Nurses at Top California Hospitals Strike Over Wages and Burnout

Thousands of nurses at Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital in California are striking this week over contract issues, staff shortages, burnout, and exhaustion.

Nurses began their strike on Monday morning. The labor union representing the nurses, the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA) announced the strike on Sunday, saying 93 percent of eligible nurses voted to authorize the strike.

In a statement, Colleen Borges, president of CRONA and a pediatric oncology nurse at Packard Childrens Hospital, called on the hospitals to demonstrate leadership and work with nurses to solve the burnout and exhaustion that is driving many of us to reconsider our jobs and our profession.

A strike has always been the last resort for CRONA nurses, but we are prepared to stand strong and make sacrifices today for the transformative changes that the nursing profession and our patients need, said Borges.

The strike comes amid the collapse of contract negotiations. Their contract expired on March 31, and CRONA says three bargaining sessions with a federal mediator were unsuccessful.

The labor union is seeking solutions nurses have identified as key to addressing chronic staffing problems, supporting mental health and wellness, and ensuring competitive wages and benefits, a press release states.

Stanford nurse Mark ONeill told The Mercury News he and other health care workers are burned out.

Im exhausted, but we need to push really hard to get help for the issues were facing, said ONeill. Were asking Stanford for a change.

Charon Brown, a nurse in the cardiovascular ICU at Stanford Health Care, expressed similar sentiment.

Nurses are exhausted, and were burning out, said Brown. Striking is a last resort, but the hospitals are refusing to take our well-being seriously.

Operating room nurse Anthony Veitch told FOX 2 KTVU that Stanford has really got to step up their game in order to make nursing attractive and for people to stay on the job.

Nurses are caregivers, and so we give ourselves, and we give up our families, we give everything for the patients in the hospitals, critical care response nurse Maureen Sullivan told the news outlet. Thats a behavior that needs to change if were going to keep nursing safe. We have to start thinking of ourselves.

An end date for the union hasnt been announced yet.

According to FOX 2 KTVU, some procedures and services have had to be reduced or rescheduled because of the strike.

Stanford Health Care management said in a statement that we respect our nurses legal right to take part in a work stoppage but are deeply disappointed that the union chose this path. A union work stoppage is a serious event that is disruptive to our patients, families, and colleagues. The impact can be deep, long-lasting, and costly.

The Epoch Times has contacted Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital for comment.
To Fight Russia, Europes Regimes Risk Impoverishment and Recession for Europe

Commentary

European politicians are eager to be seen as doing something to oppose the Russian regime following Moscows invasion of Ukraine. Most European regimes have wisely concludedPolish and Baltic recklessness notwithstandingthat provoking a military conflict with nuclear-armed Russia is not a good idea. So, doing something consists primarily of trying to punish Moscow by cutting Europeans off from much-needed Russian oil and gas.

The problem is this tactic doesnt do much to deter Russia in anything other than the short term because Russian oil can turn to numerous markets outside of Europe. Most of the world, after all, has declined to participate in the U.S. and European embargoes and trade sanctions, opting for more measured approaches instead.

By limiting energy sources for Europeans, however, Europes regimes are likely to succeed in pushing up the cost of living for Europeans while doing little to cut off Russias economy from global markets.

Can Europe Totally Cut Itself Off?

For understandable reasons, most European regimes have been reluctant to completely cut themselves off from Russian oil and gas. This is because Europe has become increasingly dependent on Russian natural gas as Europes regimes have increasingly committed themselves to unreliable renewable energy sources. This is especially the case in GermanyEuropes largest economywhich faces a sharp recession if it cuts off Russian gas. There has been much talk of heavy sanctions against Russia, but this has stopped short of a full-on ban on Russian oil and gas imports.

Nonetheless, the European Parliament last week began drafting a plan for a full embargo of Russian oil and gas.

Yet, even as pressure mounts for Europes regimes to be seen as doing more to stymie Moscow, European politicians want to proceed slowly. This, however, only gives Moscow more time to adjust logistics to transfer oil exports to other parts of the world.

If Europe were to fully ban oil immediately, this would send oil prices soaring for Europe and others. According to analysts at JP Morgan: A full and immediate embargo would displace 4 million barrels per day of Russian oil, sending Brent crude to $185 a barrel as such a ban would leave neither room nor time to re-route [supplies] to China, India, or other potential substitute buyers, the investment bank said in a note. That would mark a 63 percent surge from Brents close of $113.16 on Monday.

This could trigger recessions across Europes economies, and policy makers know it. Hungary, for instance, has repeatedly opposed an embargo on Russian oil out of concerns for ordinary Hungarians, who already have a standard of living well below people in wealthier countries like Germany and France. Meanwhile, French policymakers have conveniently timed an embargo to occur after the French elections this year.

Even beyond the short term, oil woes for Europe would not necessarily end, because the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has already stated that it cannot pump enough oil to replace Russian oil.

In any case, Europe does not appear to be succeeding at convincing OPEC to do much to punish or isolate Russia in oil markets. The Saudi regime has only announced increased cooperation with Russia in recent months, and the Ukraine war does not appear to be an important topic for OPEC.

This isnt to say that none of this will hurt Moscow at all. Time will be necessary to modify Russian oil markets to serve other consumers outside Europe, and this will mean declining revenues, at least in the short term. Moreover, U.S. financial sanctions make it more difficult for Russian merchants to do business globally.

In spite of the Wests claim that its fighting some kind of war for democracy and against authoritarianism, though, it looks like the biggest beneficiaries of growing European embargoes on Russian oil are some of the worlds most authoritarian regimes. Beijing will happily accept oil and gas supplies no longer sold in the West, and possibly at a discount as potential markets for Russian oil shrink in number. Moreover, if oil prices are driven up by dislocations caused by European embargoes, this is likely to benefit at least some of the oil-fueled dictators among OPECs members.

Meanwhile, ordinary Europeans are likely to find themselves paying much more for energyand consequently for other goods and services as well. Recession risk is also growing in Europe.

The United States to the Rescue?

As is so often the case, Europe has looked to the United States to bail it out yet again. The Biden administration has stated that it can send U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe and largely replace Russia in meeting Europes energy needs. But its not that simple. As David Blackmon has noted at Forbes: While committing the U.S. to help Germany and other European nations wean themselves off of Russian natural gas seems to be a noble goal, there is just one problem: The President apparently didnt talk [to] the U.S. LNG industry about it before he made the agreement. Reading the quotes from executives at Tellurian in the New York Times article linked here, it is apparent that they were caught off-guard by the Presidents announcement. I have no idea how they are going to do this.

In the age of COVID-19, federal politicians have no doubt become accustomed to conjuring whatever they want through the miracle of printing money. But in the real world, its still necessary to produce oil and gas (and other commodities) through actual physical production. Also, complicating matters is the fact that the oil and gas industries in the United States are still largely in private hands. This means President Joe Biden can promise whatever he wants but the private sector will still have to do the work, and market incentives may not necessarily favor selling everything to Europe.

Not even money printing can make oil and gas magically appear on the other side of the Atlantic.

Ultimately, the frenzy of sanctions and embargoes pursued by the West may do little more than raise the cost of living for its own residents. Even worse are the side effects of these sanctions for poorer countries in Africa and Asia, many of which need Russian grain and Russian oil for their residents to live above subsistence levels.

These policies will make life more difficult for ordinary innocent people worldwide while failing to actually end the war in Ukraine. But thats a price wealthy men like Biden and Emmanuel Macron are apparently willing to pay.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Ryan McMaken Follow Ryan McMaken is the editor of Mises Wire and The Austrian. McMaken has degrees in economics and political science from the University of Colorado, and was the economist for the Colorado Division of Housing from 2009 to 2014. He is the author of "Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre."
Trial Delayed for Leader of Black Nationalist Militia

LOUISVILLE, Ky.A federal judge has delayed the trial of John Johnson, the black nationalist militia leader accused of pointing his firearm at a group of law enforcement officers during a September 2020 racial justice protest in Louisville, Kentucky.

Johnsons trial was set to begin on April 27, and a cameraman from a local television news station was awaiting the defendants arrival that morning outside Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse. But inside, reporters were told by the clerk that the trial had been delayed until May 23.

According to the court docket, the decision was made via telephonic conference on April 25 but wasnt posted until two days later.

A spokesperson for Johnsons militia, Not [Expletive] Around Coalition (NFAC), told The Epoch Times that the decision was made by District Judge Benjamin Beaton because of a personal issue.

Why this does not violate the Speedy Trial Act is beyond us, said NFAC Global spokeswoman Debbie James.

A receptionist for Beaton declined to comment, and prosecutors didnt respond by press time to emailed questions from The Epoch Times. Staffers at the court clerks office said they would try to find out why the trial was delayed, but they didnt have an answer before press time.

Johnson, who captured headlines with his all-black militia during the racial justice protests of 2020, was arrested in December of that year for allegedly pointing his firearm at a group of FBI agents, Secret Service members, and Louisville Metro Police Department officers.

A short time after initiating surveillance, [the officers] were blinded by a light, which they shortly thereafter determined was a flashlight mounted to the rifle aimed at them by Johnson, the governments complaint against Johnson says.

Video footage purportedly captures Johnson pointing his rifle in the air while law enforcement officers were standing on a nearby rooftop, but whats in dispute is Johnsons intent behind his actions, according to court filings.

To prove Johnson intended to assault or intimidate the officers on the rooftop, prosecutors plan to introduce inflammatory statements he made about the Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd.

The governments position in admitting this evidence is that Mr. Johnsons historical animosity and vehement hatred directed towards police in general, over time, shows his motive and intent to assault, or at least intimidate the police on this occasion, Johnsons attorney, Don Maier, said in an April 1 filing.

In turn, the defense plans to introduce Johnsons own recorded words and statements.

The government contends that it is this so-called historical animosity toward police which permeates Mr. Johnsons thought process, provides motive, and shows intent, Maier said in his filing. The defense intends to submit evidence which suggests there is no such historical animosity.

The NFAC has been largely silent since Johnsons arrest. In February, an NFAC spokesperson told The Epoch Times, We can clarify for you that the NFAC has been in a stand-down posture, as ordered by its commander [Johnson] after he was arrested in 2020.

As we are a law-abiding organization, we thought it the proper thing to do, pending the outcome of the legal proceedings, James said. We didnt anticipate it would last for 14 months.

Johnson, also widely known by his DJ name, Grand Master Jay, elaborated about his organization in a December 2021 appearance on AllHipHopTV. According to Johnson, NFAC has been quiet because its members see his arrest as political persecution, and they fear the same.

Theres a reason you dont see us: Because, as far as were concerned, were still under attack, Johnson said in the interview.

Johnson said his organization is still active behind the scenes.
Trump Appeals Contempt Order, $10,000 Daily Fine

Former President Donald Trump has appealed a New York judges order that found him in civil contempt of a subpoena and imposed a $10,000-per-day fine on him.

Trumps attorneys filed the appeal on April 27 in the New York Supreme Court days after Judge Arthur Engoron issued the finding. They say that theyll raise four issues to the appellate division of the court, including whether the imposition of the fine serves any purpose as either a compensatory or coercive remedy.

At issue is a subpoena that New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, issued in late 2021 against Trump and several of his children in her investigation of The Trump Organization, a family business.

Engoron ordered the Trumps in February to comply with the subpoena, but James said the former president didnt adhere to the order. Trumps attorneys said they checked to see whether Trump had any of the documents sought in the subpoena and that a diligent search and review found that he didnt.

Engoron sided with James, finding that the attestation by counsel was lacking.

In short, the affidavit provided the court with no basis to find that the search had been a thorough one or that it had been conducted in a good faith effort to provide these necessary records to plaintiff, he said in his ruling. Not only did Mr. Trump fail to submit an affidavit himself, which this court believes would have been the best practice, as he is the most obvious person to affirm where any responsive documents in his possession, custody, and control would be located, but the attorney affirmation submitted on behalf of Mr. Trump contained only conclusory statements, rather than details of a diligent search.

Accordingly, Mr. Trump has willfully disobeyed a lawful order of this court.

Engoron found Trump in contempt and imposed the fine until Trump purges such contempt to the satisfaction of this court.

Alina Habba, one of Trumps attorneys, told The Epoch Times in an email after the ruling that the former presidents counsel disagreed with the ruling.

All documents responsive to the subpoena were produced to the attorney general months ago. The only issue raised by the attorney general at todays hearing was with an affidavit submitted which copied the form mandated by the attorney general, Habba said. This does not even come close to meeting the standard on a motion for contempt and, thus, we intend to appeal.
Ted Budd, who is running for U.S. Senate, speaks before a rally for former U.S. President Donald Trump at The Farm at 95 on April 9, 2022 in Selma, North Carolina. (Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

Trump-Endorsed Candidate Surges to Top of North Carolina GOP Senate Primary

U.S. Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C), endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is now widening his lead in North Carolinas Senate race, according to a recent poll.

A survey by Raleigh News & Observer on April 24 showed that Budds lead has expanded by the double digits. The result now makes him the clear frontrunner ahead of former Gov. Pat McCrory, former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, and political newcomer Marjorie Eastman, who are all bidding to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr.

Budd said Trumps endorsement, clearly shown during an April 9 rally by the former president in Johnston County, has played a role in putting him on top of the field.

The candidate, in an interview with CBS 17 on April 25, said, My style is distinctly North Carolinian. But the reason he [Trump] endorsed me is because I never wavered on the America first policies.

The Davie County native has also benefited from a super PACs commitment to storm airwaves and mailboxes to help him secure the ticket in the May 17 Republican primary.

The PAC, Club for Growth Action, has announced its plans to spend $14 million on activity in the North Carolina primary, praising Budd and attacking McCrory.

The group said in its FEC filing that it had already spent $4.7 million on independent activities in the race as of February.

McCrory has accused the Washington-based organization of essentially buying support for Budd.

In response to his opponents criticism, Budd reasoned that he had garnered support from those PAC groups due to his stance on some macro policies including lower taxes, economic growth, job creation, and reduced regulation for small businesses.

Im for those things, and it seems like thats why those groups would want to support me, he told CBS 17.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has also endorsed Budd, calling him a principled and proven conservative, while casting McCrory as too liberal.

Robison said he would pivot his support to Budd as Patt is no conservative.

The states ex-governor and other primary rivals have also criticized Budd for skipping televised debates. Eastman, McCrory and Walker will reportedly compete in a live GOP debate Wednesday evening on Spectrum News 1.

Trump declared that Budd had his complete and total endorsement last June in his address to the state GOP convention in Raleigh.

In the lead-up to the May primary, Budd has campaigned in about 80 of North Carolinas 100 counties and plans to cover the rest before the May 17 primary.
Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle during a commemorative ceremony on March 14, 2022 in London, England. (Yui Mok - WPA Pool / Getty Images)

UK: Mail on Sunday Editor Refuses to Meet Commons Speaker Over Rayner Report

The editor of The Mail on Sunday has refused to attend a meeting with British Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Holyle over the papers controversial report about Anglea Rayner.

Sir Lindsay told MPs on Monday he had arranged a meeting with David Dillion following an outcry over claims the Labour deputy leader crossed and uncrossed her legs during Prime Ministers Questions to distract Boris Johnson.

In his reponse to the Speaker, published in the Daily Mail, Dillon said he would not be attending as journalists should not take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be.

In his letter, he wrote: The Mail on Sunday deplores sexism and misogyny in all its forms. However journalists must be free to report what they are told by MPs about conversations which take place in the House of Commons, however unpalatable some may find them.

He said that while The Mail on Sunday had the greatest possible respect both for your office and for Parliament [which] along with a free press they are the foundation stones of British democracy, the invitation would be declined.

Earlier, in a statement, Sir Lindsay said he wanted to use the meeting to ask that we are all a little kinder, issuing a plea to reporters to consider the feelings of MPs and their families when covering stories in Parliament.

He made the point that he had only recently rejected calls to remove the parliamentary pass from another journalist after some MPs called for The Mail on Sundays political editor Glen Owen  who wrote the report about Raynerto have his pass removed.

I am a staunch believer and protector of press freedom, which is why when an MP asked me to remove the pass of a sketch writer last week for something he had written, I said no, he said.

I firmly believe in the duty of reporters to cover Parliament, but I would also make a plea  nothing more  for the feelings of all MPs and their families to be considered, and the impact on their safety, when articles are written. I would just ask that we are all a little kinder.

That is what I wanted to talk about at tomorrows meeting.

Appearing on ITVs Lorraine programme on Tuesday, Rayner said she had appealed to the paper not to run the story, based on claims by an unnamed Tory MP.

When I heard the story was coming out and we rebutted it instantly like this is disgusting, its completely untrue, please dont run a story like that, she said.

All I worry about when Im at the despatch box is doing a good job and being able to do justice to my constituents and the work Im doing, so I was just really crestfallen that somebody had said that to a paper and a paper was reporting that.
UK Prison Service Has Underappreciated Danger of Islamist Gangs: Report

Britains independent reviewer of terrorist legislation, Jonathan Hall QC, says the Prison Service has failed to tackle Islamist gangs and has allowed some jails to become breeding grounds for terrorism.

In his report Terrorism in Prisons, Hall said: The impact of Islamist groups has been underappreciated for too long by the authorities  Islamist group behaviour has come to be seen as part of the prison landscape.

The review of terrorist activity in jails in England and Wales follows a series of high-profile cases, including the November 2019 Fishmongers Hall attack by Usman Khan, a convicted terrorist who had been released from prison, and the Streatham attack three months later by another Islamist former prisoner.

In February this year Hashem Abediserving a life sentence for his role in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombingwas convicted of attacking a prison officer, along with two other Islamists, in Belmarsh jail.

Undated videograb of Fishmongers Hall terrorist Usman Khan taken during an event in March 2019. (Metropolitan Police/PA)

In 2020 Brusthom Ziamani, who was serving a 19-year sentence for plotting to decapitate a soldier, and Baz Hockton were convicted of the attempted murder of a prison officer at Whitemoor jail.

Hockton had no Islamist affiliations before he was jailed for a series of assaults in Ramsgate, Kent in 2016. The pairs trial heard he was radicalised by Ziamani who had somehow gained access to a memory card containing extremist material, which he transcribed for Hockton.

Hall said, Public confidence in the criminal justice system is shaken if terrorism occurs in prison or if people enter prison only to come out more dangerous; and the ability of prisons to function is gravely degraded if prison officers fear imminent terrorist attack.

Terrorists Have Perverse Esteem

At the inquest into the deaths of the two victims of the Fishmongers Hall attack, the head of counter-terrorism at Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire testified about the perverse esteem in which convicted terrorists were held within the prison subculture.

CEO of International Corporate Protection Group and counter-terrorism expert, Will Geddes, said Islamist gangs find it easy to recruit common criminals, telling The Epoch Times: Prisoners are the ultimate captive audience. Individuals who feel victimised, disenchanted, and have lost purpose in life will find themselves believing they are serving a greater good.

He said: It is the age-old issue of prisoners being further criminalised in prison. They are a school of crime. One of the biggest challenges is that you get people who go into prison and are not radicalised but, sometimes by force or coercion, they join a radical group. They can be offered protection by being part of a clique.

Halls report said the Prison Service often took a softly softly approach instead of tackling Islamist gangs head-on. The report said they often negotiated with the leaders or emirs to help maintain good order, and the emirs had tried to exclude prison officers from monitoring Friday prayers or ordered them to remove their shoes.

In response to the report, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the government would not allow cultural and religious sensitivities to stymie its efforts to tackle terrorism and Islamist propaganda.

Raab also announced a new 1.2 million ($1.5 million) team within the Prison Service that will identify the most influential and charismatic Islamist leaders and move them to one of three separation centres.

The centres, at Frankland Prison in County Durham, Woodhill in Buckinghamshire, and Full Sutton in Yorkshire, have 28 places.

UK Justice Secretary Dominic Raab with a prison officer at the opening of category C prison HMP Five Wells in Wellingborough, United Kingdom, in an undated file photo. (Joe Giddens/PA)

Islamist Gangs Need to Be Dismantled

But Geddes said: Why has it taken the government this amount of time to identify these charismatic individuals who are the leaders? They need to dismantle Islamist groups, but also right-wing groups, by taking away the leaders.

In his report, Hall said there was no other comparable threat in prisons than that posed by Islamists.

He said: Prisons must not be allowed to become a second opportunity for committed terrorists whose attack plans are thwarted in the community. More fundamentally, public confidence in the criminal justice system is shaken if terrorism occurs in prison or if people enter prison only to more dangerous: and the ability of prisons to function is gravely degraded if prison officers fear imminent terrorist attack.

Raab said the governments new Bill of Rights would be used to prevent terrorists using the Human Rights Act to claim a right to socialise in prison.

Only 15 inmates have ever been placed in the special separation centres because of a fear of legal challenges by prisoners who claim it would breach their right to a private life under the Human Rights Act.

The Ministry of Justice is investing 6 million ($7.5 million) in expanding close supervision centres, special high-security wings of prisons where the most violent offenders, including terrorists, are detained.

Governors will be given greater autonomy for tackling and reducing terrorist behaviour in their prisons while new targets will be set for improving performance.

PA Media contributed to this report.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to Bury FC at their Gigg Lane ground, in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, on April 25, 2002. (Danny Lawson - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

UKs Johnson Dismisses Fears of Russia Using Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has played down fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin might order the use of nuclear weapons to avoid defeat in Ukraine.

He dismissed the idea that Putin will feel under pressure to escalate the conflict further, arguing that the Russian leader has the political margin for manoeuvre to back down.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said NATO is engaging in a proxy war with Russia and pouring oil on the fire by providing increasingly powerful weaponry to the Ukrainians.

Talking to state television on April 25, he warned that the risk of nuclear conflict is considerable now and should not be underestimated.

But Johnson said Putin has enough political space to claim victorydespite the reality on the battlefieldand back down.

Given the massive Russian backing for what he is doing, given the apparent obliviousness of the Russian media about what is really happening in Ukraine, the paradox is that Putin has far more political space to back down, to withdraw, the prime minister said in an interview with TalkTV on Tuesday.

He said Putin could just tell the Russian people: The military technical operation we launched in Ukraine has been accomplished, it has been technically a success.

Johnson added: I think he has far more political space than people worry about. People say we have to make a concession, we have to worry about what Putin might do because of the risk of his defeat. I think he has got a lot of space, he has got a lot of room for manoeuvre.

While the prime minister insisted he did not want the crisis to escalate beyond Ukraines borders, he indicated he was happy to see the Ukrainians use British-made weaponry to strike targets in Russia.

They are being attacked from within Russian territory. They have a right to protect and defend themselves, he said.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss leaves Downing Street after a Cabinet meeting in London, on April 26, 2022. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Also on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said it is important not to be distracted by Russian threats.

She told the House of Commons that the Putin regime is making nuclear threats because they are not succeeding in Ukraine.

Its very, very important that we focus on continuing to support the Ukrainians in their fight for their freedom and self-determination, and were not distracted and were not put off our course by these threats from the Russian regime, she added.

Truss said the UK is working on a joint commission with Poland to ensure Ukraine can defend itself in the longer term, including with NATO-standard weapons.

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said Britain would providing the Ukrainians with longer-range Brimstone ground attack missiles in the next few weeks.

PA Media contributed to this report.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends the special session of the UN Human Rights Council, on the situation in Ukraine at the United Nations, in Geneva, on March 3, 2022. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

UN Rights Team in China Ahead of Xinjiang Visit

GENEVAThe U.N. human rights office has sent an advanced team to the Chinese city of Guangzhou where they are quarantining ahead of a visit to the Xinjiang region, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The team of five which arrived on Monday precedes an expected visit by the U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet initially programmed for May.

Bachelets highly-anticipated visit to China will be the first visit by a U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights since Louise Arbour in 2005. It includes a planned trip to the western region of Xinjiang where activists say some 1 million Uyghurs have been held in mass detention. The Chinese regime rejects accusations of abuse in Xinjiang.

Once out of quarantine (the team) will conduct their preliminary technical mission, including a visit to the Xinjian Uyghur Autonomous Region, spokesperson Liz Throssel said in an emailed response to Reuters.

Throssel did not provide further details on the timing of Bachelets visit which would be held after the advance team has completed their work. The teams quarantine, a requirement under Chinese rules amid the spread of COVID-19, was initially programmed for three weeks, she added.

The U.N. rights chief is also preparing a report on alleged abuses against Uyghurs which her office has been working on for more than three years.
University of Cincinnati Drops COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Starting from the upcoming 2022 summer semester, the University of Cincinnati (UC) will no longer require students and employees to get COVID-19 vaccines.

The change comes about a month after UC, the second largest university in Ohio, stopped demanding people wear masks while inside campus buildings.

UC still strongly encourages members of the campus community to get one of the COVID-19 vaccines and booster doses. It also reminds those who work and learn in certain sites, such as hospitals or clinical facilities, that they may still need to comply with site-specific COVID-19 vaccination requirements.

Non-compliance may prevent one from fulfilling ones academic and professional objectives, it says.

The university now joins a handful of institutions that have dropped the COVID-19 vaccine mandate they had implemented last year. The University of Hawaii in March indefinitely suspended its vaccine and mask requirements, except for certain programs and courses such as medicine and nursing. It also halted its daily COVID-19 health screening, and no longer asks visitors to show proof of vaccination or negative test results to attend on-campus events.

Several Virginia schools, notably Radford, George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth Universities, and Virginia Tech, changed their COVID-19 vaccination policy and went vaccine-optional earlier this year. The change was promoted by Virginias newly inaugurated Attorney General Jason Miyares, who wrote in a legal opinion that public universities in his state should not require COVID-19 vaccination as a condition for enrollment or attendance, unless the state passes a law saying otherwise.

There is no question that the General Assembly could enact a statute requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for in-person school attendance, Miyares wrote. As of this writing, it has not done so.

Meanwhile, in Florida, university system officials have been asking, but not requiring, students and employees to wear masks and get vaccinated. When Florida State University (FSU) resumed normal operation last August, it told the campus community it doesnt have the authority to impose those mandates on them.

Our authority is limited by the State of Florida and the university cannot mandate vaccines, testing or mask wearing, an FSU announcement reads.

In September, the presidents of University of Florida (UF) and Santa Fe College were asked by Alachua County Commission to adhere to a public health emergency declaration and implement indoor mandated masks on their campuses. The presidents replied that they would not be able to meet the countys request.

Unfortunately, we do not read the State University system policymaking environment the way you describe in your letter, UF president Kent Fuchs wrote in response to the commission. The university does not currently have the authority to take the actions you recommend.
China's DF-41 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles are seen during a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on Oct. 1, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

US Nuclear Strategy in Very Bad Place With China and Russia: Expert

The Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) efforts to align with Russia and to build up its nuclear arsenal present a unique strategic threat to the United States, according to one expert.

China is actually building up its arsenal in ways that it wasnt doing before, said David Santoro, President of the Pacific Forum, a foreign policy think tank. So, its becoming a much more capable nuclear-armed state.

Santoro made the comments during a recent interview with EpochTVs China Insider program, in which he said that there was no historical precedent for how the United States should proceed strategically against two near-peer nuclear adversaries.

We dont necessarily need to have a symmetric arsenal to the Russians and the Chinese, Santoro said, In fact, weve really never had that. Even during the Cold War, we did not have the exact same arsenal as the Soviets did. But what I will say is that this is the very first time that the United States is facing two very capable nuclear-armed states.

The other piece that we shouldnt forget is that Russia and China seem to be increasingly cooperating at all levels, including at the strategic level. I dont think they are engaging in any nuclear cooperation, but well have to see what happens over the next few years and decades.

Santoros comments echoed warnings made by political and military officials earlier in the year, who said that the Sino-Russian partnership presented an unprecedented strategic situation, and that the United States now faced an epic nuclear threat.

Despite the rising threat, Santoro said that there was very little happening in the way of positive diplomatic developments, and that no meaningful arms control discussions were taking place between the Unites States, China, and Russia.

Unfortunately, right now, there is not much diplomacy going on, Santoro said. We had strategic stability dialogues with the Russians, and we managed to renew the so-called New START agreement, which is the only arms control agreement thats left between the EU and the United States and Russia. But now in the context of the Ukraine war, we dont have those dialogues.

The United States has really left the door open to to nuclear diplomacy, Santoro added. Its never closed it. Its always said, were ready to engage just, you know, let us know when youre ready.

The strategists dominating the conversation in Beijing right now, however, did not believe in managing escalations through mediums like crisis hotlines, Santoro said. Instead, they were more focused on attributing blame for international tensions to the United States and its allies as a means of solidifying Chinas own power.

The observation followed comments made by former assistant secretary for defense Graham Allison, who said that the CCP would likely continue its support for Vladimir Putins regime in Russia even in the event it deployed a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, as well as other warnings that China was pursuing nuclear modernization for global domination.

Fears of CCP aggression in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, meanwhile, have spurred regional leaders to inquire after the possibility of either developing their own nuclear weapons or hosting nuclear weapons from the United States, to protect themselves from the regime.

We always had our so-called US nuclear umbrella protecting Japan and Korea from North Korea, but also, for that matter, other threats including, to some extent, China, Santoro said. So weve always offered those guarantees to Tokyo and to Seoul.

Our Japanese and Korean friends want to know more and have a greater sense of nuclear enfranchisement given the fact that the environment is changing and not for the better.

To that end, Santoro said that the United States would likely need to increase its information and technology sharing with partners in the Indo-Pacific in order to adequately curb CCP aggression.

We are now at a point where well well need to share a lot more of our nuclear planning and nuclear operations and how we would resort to nuclear weapons, not just conventional deterrence, but the roles that U.S. nuclear weapons would play in a crisis, Santoro said.

Unfortunately, you know, we sometimes talk about strategic stability as the organizing principle between U.S.-Russia and U.S.-China relations, Santoro added. I dont think that we are able to reach stability right now. Were in a very, very bad place with both of them.

In the foreseeable future, I see a lot more competition than stability. The best we can get to is what what I call stabilization, which is [where] we are still in a very competitive mode with both of them, but were able to do a number of things, possibly by engaging in crisis management work, assuming we can, to reduce the most dangerous aspects of that competition.

Andrew Thornebrooke Reporter Follow Andrew Thornebrooke is a reporter for The Epoch Times covering China-related issues with a focus on defense, military affairs, and national security. He holds a master's in military history from Norwich University.
Papua New Guinea police arrive at the airport in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on Nov. 27, 2021. (Gary Ramage via AP)

US to Bolster Security Ties With PNG Amid Concerns Over BeijingSolomons Security Deal

The United States will seek to increase security ties with Pacific nation Papua New Guinea (PNG)Australias northern neighbouramid the fallout of a freshly minted agreement between Beijing and the Solomon Islands that could see Chinese troops and weapons stationed in the region.

Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told reporters on April 26 that further discussions with PNG Prime Minister James Marape would be held in the coming months, according to comments obtained by Reuters.

There is a desire on both sides to ensure we take concrete steps to expand our security cooperation, he told reporters in a call.

Kritenbrink said Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare had given assurances that the security deal with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would only be for domestic security needs and that there would be no military base.

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)

However, opposition leader of the Solomons, Matthew Wale, has previously panned the claim, saying the nation had no serious internal security threats and accused Sogavare of planning to escalate his struggle with Malaita (Province).

Sogavares government has been at odds with the leader of Malaita, Daniel Suidani, over a 2019 decision to switch the Solomon Islands diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing. Suidani has stood firm on keeping relations with Taiwan much to the chagrin of the prime minister.

The issue came to a head in November last year when riots erupted in the Solomons capital Honiara, which saw the Chinatown district razed and resulted in three deaths.

Kritenbrink meanwhile also said neighbouring Pacific nations were concerned about the implications of the Security Cooperation between the Solomon Islands and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).

We do know that the PRC is seeking to establish a more robust overseas logistics and basing infrastructure that would allow the Peoples Liberation Army to project and sustain military power at greater distances, he said in reference to the Chinese military.

Experts have warned that a fully implemented security deal between the Solomon Islands and Beijing could lead to similar geopolitical tensions in the region akin to the South China Sea. The Solomons was the site of extensive fighting during World War IIthe Battle of Guadalcanalbecause of its critical position and influence over vital sea lanes.

Map of Australias immediate neighbors in the western Pacific Ocean. (College of Asia and the Pacific/ANU/CartoGIS Services [CC BY-SA 4.0]) Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has hinted that other Pacific nations, namely PNG, have faced similar pressure to adopt a security deal with Beijing.

Do you think theres not the same pressure going on in PNG that there is in the Solomon Islands? Of course, there is. That is happening in all of those countries, he told reporters on April 20.

Beijing has previously shown interest in the autonomous region of Bougainville in the PNG, reportedly offering US$1 billion in infrastructure investment in the area under the banner of the Belt and Road Initiative. Bougainville is also on course to achieve independence from PNG by 2027.

In 2018, the CCP also offered to redevelop a naval base in PNG but lost out to a deal with Australia and the United States.

Morrison meanwhile, has also warned of the challenges of competing with Beijing for influence in the region.

We are concerned for all of the countries in the region, he told Radio 2GB on April 26. There are 20 Pacific Island foreign nations  there are 20 areas which were looking to ensure we counter that (CCP) influence.

Were the only country in the world to have an embassy in every single one of those Pacific island nations, he added. So its an area which is tightly contested, and weve always been heavily forward-leaning. But were dealing with the Chinese government that doesnt play by the same rules.
A member of the Uyghur community holds a placard as she joins a demonstration to call on the British parliament to vote to recognise alleged persecution of China's Muslim minority Uyghur people as genocide and crimes against humanity in London on April 22, 2021. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

US Universities Urged to Divest From China Over Human Rights Abuses

Bipartisan lawmakers, political figures, and advocates have called on American universities to divest from China over its human rights abuses.

A letter from the Athenai Institute, a student-led advocacy group targeting Chinese influence on college campuses, to the presidents and governing boards of Americas leading public universities calls for divesting from all entities complicit in the Chinese Communist Partys global campaign to exterminate the culture, religion, and language of the Uyghur people along with other repressive practices on the part of Beijing.

Metzs letter bears the signature of dozens of prominent lawmakers, activists, journalists, and organizations across the political spectrum, including Nikki Haley, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Hong Kong Watch, the Human Rights Foundation, the College Republican National Committee, College Democrats of America, the Tibet Action Institute, and Elisha Weisel, the son of Holocaust survivor and author Elie Weisel.

The Chinese governments atrocities against Uyghurs, including the forced detention of more than one million civilians, forced sterilizations of thousands of Uygur women, widespread restrictions on free religious practices, widespread use of torture, and efforts to reduce or eliminate entirely the use of the Uyghur language, amount to genocide, the letter states.

The letter goes on to note that in March 2021, the Biden administration formally endorsed the broad bipartisan determination that Beijings conduct toward the Uyghurs amounts to genocide. It cites the findings of a London-based independent peoples tribunal, which made a formal declaration in December that the myriad abuses inflicted on the Uyghurs of western China indeed have crossed the line into genocide.

The genocide, as well as Beijings other human rights abuses, also prompted a host of nations including Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia, and Lithuania to announce diplomatic boycotts of the Winter Olympics held in Beijing.

Far from being passive observers of the genocide and other abuses, Chinese firms are actively complicit, the letter charges. The role of Chinese companies in pioneering facial recognition technology used to identify and monitor Uyghurs, and in ethically dubious medical experiments, means that investing in such firms supports the regimes abuses, the letter said. Many of these Chinese firms have been blacklisted by Washington as a result of such activities.

For these reasons, we are asking you to take all possible steps to investigate your institutions endowment, including the endowment of any institutionally related foundation, for ties to entities complicit in the genocide of Uyghurs, and to divest from any such holdings, the letter states.

In doing so, you will protect the independence needed to keep your students safe, promote academic freedom, and stay true to the values you profess, the letter adds.

The role of U.S. universities in supporting Chinese firms, including some controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), through investments or collaboration has been subject of scrutiny in past years.

More than two dozen U.S. universities entered into financial arrangements with China-based entities during the past year totaling more than $120 million, according to federal data.

In response to these revelations, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told The Epoch Times that the CCP is exploiting our education and research institutions to steal our secrets and gain influence.
If students do not feel safe at school, they wont be able to learn. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

Violence Must Never Become Normalized in Schools

Commentary

Saunders Secondary School in London, Ontario is home to approximately 2,000 students. Its been in the news a lot lately, but not in a good way.

A recent CBC story quoted an anonymous teacher who described Saunders as a tinderbox of violence where students regularly challenge teachers to fist fights after school. Over the last six months, police visited the school 28 times to deal with incidents of assault, theft, and property damage.

Students also went on the record to describe what life was like at Saunders. So much crazy stuff happens, stated one Grade 10 student. Its kind of dangerous. You just get used to it. People breaking down windows is pretty normal these days.

This is totally unacceptable. Violence should never become normalized in any school. If students do not feel safe, they wont be able to learn.

Obviously, violent students need to be removed from school. Those who commit more serious criminal acts should be suspended for longer periods of time. The fact that violent incidents continue to happen regularly at Saunders indicates that school administrators are too slow to suspend violent students.

However, some education officials seem to have a different perspective. For example, the education director for the Thames Valley District School Board (which includes Saunders Secondary School) has stated several times that schools in his region are suspending too many students. This director wants to focus instead on addressing the root causes of student misbehaviour.

The problem with this approach is that it fails to ensure the safety of the remaining students, most of whom genuinely want to learn. When violence becomes normalized in school, it becomes virtually impossible to have a safe learning environment for anyone.

This does not mean, however, that school administrators should respond by adopting draconian zero-tolerance discipline policies. While zero-tolerance policies look good on paper, they often lead to absurd disciplinary actions.

For example, there have been multiple cases throughout North America of elementary school students being suspended for pointing a finger gun at other students. Students have also been suspended for things ranging from bringing a butter knife to school to drawing a picture of a gun. It is unlikely that these types of suspensions do much to make other students feel safer.

At the other extreme are the schools where administrators try to avoid suspending anyone, even students who commit egregiously violent acts. Obviously, criminal acts such as assault, vandalism, and drug dealing must not be tolerated in any school. Students who engage in these types of activities have forfeited their right to be in a learning environment.

However, its also important to address behavioural issues long before they become violent. Cracking down on bullying, maintaining orderly classrooms, and preventing physical altercations in the hallways are the types of things all school administrators should focus on. This would have a positive impact on safety. Students have the right to a safe and orderly learning environment.

A significant problem in our education system is that too many educators have been influenced by a faulty education philosophy. Back in the eighteenth century, philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau published his treatise on education, Emile. In this book, Rousseau speculated that the ideal learning environment for a child is one that is as permissive as possible. In other words, Rousseau had a romanticized vision of childhood and felt that children could do no wrong.

Of course, anyone with real-life classroom experience knows that Rousseau had a far too optimistic view of human nature. Without clear boundaries and consistent structure, classrooms often descend into chaos. Teachers need to have a firm hand and should take charge of their classrooms right from the beginning.

Thus, schools must avoid the equally misguided extremes of zero-tolerance policies and permissive idealism, Rather, school administrators should set and enforce clear standards of behaviour for all students, and do so in a way that allows teachers to use their professional judgment. Rules need to be carefully designed, clearly explained, and consistently enforced.

All schools, whether elementary or high school, should be orderly places of learning. While its important to show compassion to all students, its essential that students know that school rules will be enforced. Students deserve a safe learning environment.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, workers dismantle the Soviet monument to Ukraine-Russia friendship in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 26, 2022. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)

Will Moscows War Bet Pay Off?

Russia is seeking to reset the global order on its own destructive terms

Commentary

Is Russias invasion of Ukraine just about NATO encroachment?

Its almost certain that encroachment was a factor, or at least an excuse, but was that the big triggering event?

Or were there other factors driving Russias invasion?

If youre like many observers, it may seem that theres much more to the war than meets the eye. And you would be right.

As noted in an earlier post, for example, the war has resulted in Russia and China causing or worsening food shortages in the region and even much of the world.

Why is Moscow pursuing this destructive policy?

Clearly, it does not want to coexist in the current world order in which it finds it difficult to compete.

Russias Poor Prospects

Suppose we look at Russias current economic status and see how it stacks up against Western Europe, the United States, Japan, and other advanced nations. In that case, the results are depressing if youre a Russian.

On a gross domestic product (GDP) basis, Russia is the worlds 11th largest economy. But for a nation with the largest landmass, enormous natural resources, and a highly educated population of about 145 million, even Italy, with a population of just 60 million, out-produces Russia.

On a GDP per capita basis, Russia ranks 49th globally, with Italy coming in at 34th, easily surpassing Russias GDP per capita ranking. For Russia, such a low ranking is abysmal.

Today, even with Russia reaping a windfall from crude oil prices hitting seven-year highs and revenues increasing 35 percent from 2020, any broad economic recovery that Russia may gain will be short-lived.

Its easy to get a 10- or 11-point jump in GDP when the prior levels are so low and the one or two things you makeenergy and grainhave suddenly doubled or tripled in price due to your war against another country.

But that isnt a long-term strategy for sustainable economic growth. Russias regression from Wild West capitalism in the 1990s to authoritarian oligarchy in the 2000s has largely stifled new developmentif not innovative thinkingand replaced economic dynamism with the predictable mediocrity of political repression.

A (Mostly) Mid-20th Century Economy

With the exception of nuclear missiles, computer programming/software engineering, and a few other verticals, Russia has a mid-20th century economywhich is why its finding it tough to compete in a 21st-century world.

According to the World Bank, Russias economy is based on three broad sectors and major industries: 62 percent of GDP comes from the service industry, 32 percent from the industrial sector, and agriculture has a share of around 5 percent.

But look at the big picture. In 2019, oil and gas accounted for 60 percent of Russias exports and 39 percent of federal budget revenue. The energy sector makes up about 25 percent of the countrys GDP.

A general view shows an oil treatment plant in the Yarakta Oil Field in Irkutsk Region, Russia, on March 10, 2019. (Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko)

As the saying goes, Russia is a nuclear-armed gas station that hacks Western networks.

Putin Blocking Russias Development

Those 2019 percentages are even larger now. But will Russia convert this brief window of enhanced revenue into long-term wealth?

Not likely.

This is Vladimir Putins Russia were talking about. Putin doesnt share, and he doesnt play well with otherswith the exception of loyal oligarchs. The lions share of the wealth will continue to go to Putin and his oligarchy of supporters.

Thats what happens in dictatorships. Wealth and information sharing, and the innovation and market development that come with both, directly threaten dictators power and their hold on society.

Thats also why economic growth and innovation have eluded Russia. Long-term wealth and innovation need markets as well as economic and legal stability, none of which Putin can provide.

Whats more, with Russias aging and declining population, time and demographics are working against Putins visions of his empire. If Russia doesnt change in a few decades, it will likely become even more of an economic backwater than it already is.

The most significant factor in Russias ongoing economic disaster story is Putin himself. At 69 years of age, the dictator has more yesterdays than tomorrows. In other words, whatever he has planned for Russiaand his perceived enemieshe will be carrying it out sooner than later.

A Future Undone

It didnt have to be this way, of course. Theres no shortage of intelligence, industriousness, or capabilities among the Russian people.

With arguably the most advanced computer programmers in the world, Russia could be an information technology powerhouse. It should be leading the world in cutting-edge computer programming and software innovations.

In 2014, Russias Skolkovo Technoparkits so-called Silicon Valleyattracted Western capital. Then Putin invaded Crimea.

Investors eventually returned to Skolkovo Technopark, but then Putin invaded Ukraine, and again, institutional investors pulled out their money.

So where are many of Russias greatest innovators now?

In the real Silicon Valley, of course, and other tech hubs.

Ironically, Russias programming prowess makes it one of the worlds leaders in cyberthreats and cyberattacks.

That should embarrass Putin and anger all Russians.

Russia Plays the Spoiler Role

Can Russia ever hope to compete against the United States, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, or even France economically?

Not under the current leadership.

Rather than promoting a dynamic and innovative economy, Putin has his foot on the neck of the Russian people. Too many with brains and ambition leave in order to become successful or simply give up.

Given Putins track record of invasions and desire for empire building, it appears that well be seeing more of the same. Nations use the advantages they have at hand, after all. Putin knows that to survive and remain a force in the 21st century, he must leverage the ones he possesses.

As the leader of Russia, Putin had the choice to make Russia a leader in enhancing the world or to play the leading role of a spoiler. He chose the latter.

As a result, war and destruction are what will mark Putins time on this Earth.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for testimony before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington on Oct. 23, 2019. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Wisconsin County Takes the Lead in Banning Private Funding of Elections

Wisconsins Walworth County has become the first local government in the state to ban the acceptance of private monies or grants for use in the administration of elections.

Approval of the measure came after 16 states enacted legislation to ban or regulate the acceptance and use of private funds by public election officials. Good-government advocates have been incensed that a Mark Zuckerberg-funded activist group, the left-wing Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), flooded election offices in Democratic Party strongholds with millions of dollars in an apparent effort to drive up voter turnout for that party in 2020.

In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump, a Republican, beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin by 22,748 votes. But in 2020, Joe Biden, a Democrat, beat Trump in the state by 20,608 votes, according to Ballotpedia figures. Critics claim the assistance provided by CTCL to Milwaukee and other heavily Democratic jurisdictions in the state may have put Biden over the top.

The Walworth County Board of Supervisors adopted Ordinance 1271 (pdf) on April 21, banning the private funding of elections. Walworth County is located in the southeastern part of the state, bordering Illinois on the south and between Kenosha and Janesville, Wisconsin.

This is a win for Wisconsin voters, said Erick Kaardal, whose public interest law firm, the Thomas More Society, takes partial credit for the new ban. The Thomas More Society represented the Wisconsin Voters Alliance, which worked with cities and counties on ordinances that specifically ban the acceptance of private funds in elections, he said.

The county had to act because the Wisconsin Election Commission and the states executive branch have refused to bar private money from election administration, Kaardal said. This means the burden has fallen upon cities and counties to protect themselves from outside interference by illegal money sources, he said.

The people understand that the right to vote is a cornerstone of a free society and that the biased intervention of those who want to influence the outcome with their dirty dollars is not to be tolerated, Kaardal added.

The governor has been on the wrong side of the issue, he said.

Despite a plethora of condemning evidence documenting and verifying rampant election improprieties, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has vetoed the corrective election legislation that has been passed, Kaardal said in a statement.

Kaardal was referring to Everss veto earlier this month of eight electoral integrity measures approved by the states GOP-controlled legislature in Madison in response to widespread complaints about irregularities in the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin. Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman is leading a government investigation into the election. Republicans said the bills were needed to deal with problems identified in an audit by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau and by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.

Evers was dismissive of the legislation, saying the vetoed measures were passed under the guise of needing to reform our election system because elected officials in this state have enabled disinformation about our elections and elections process.

Republican state Sen. Alberta Darling criticized Evers, saying, Its clear the governor didnt even bother to read these bills and wants to lump any election reform as a conspiracy theory.

According to Kaardal, Wisconsins election bribery law, Wisconsin Statutes section 12.11, already forbids municipal clerks from receiving money to increase in-person and absentee ballot opportunities within the municipality. Walworth Countys ban on private grants or donations earmarked for elections is consistent with Wisconsin Statutes section 12.11, he said.

Kaardals firm is also suing Milwaukees acting mayor, former mayor, and city clerk in connection with an election bribery scheme stemming from CTCL grants, as The Epoch Times reported.

The complaint alleges that the citys acceptance of money from CTCL to selectively facilitate in-person and absentee voting and to purchase and place absentee ballot drop boxes constitutes bribery and is contrary to Wisconsins election bribery law and other state and federal laws.

Everss office didnt respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
A man waves a Sri Lankan national flag as he stands on a barricade blocking the entrance to president's office during a protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, April 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

World Bank to Provide $600 Million to Assist Crash-Strapped Sri Lanka

The World Bank has agreed to provide Sri Lanka with $600 million in financial aid to help cover the cost of essential imports as the countrys economic crisis deepened, the Sri Lankan Presidents Media Division said Tuesday.

The first tranche of $400 million would be released shortly, it stated, adding that the World Bank had expressed intention to continue helping Sri Lanka overcome its current economic crisis, local media Colombo Page reported.

Italy also stated Monday that it would make an in-kind emergency contribution of LKR125 million ($366,055) to Sri Lanka to assist with the procurement of medications and medical equipment.

According to the Italian Embassy in Colombo, the contribution will be channeled through the Italian Bilateral Emergency Fund at the World Health Organization and will allow payment to suppliers abroad directly.

This emergency aid measure comes within the framework of the traditional strong partnership between Italy and Sri Lanka, the embassy said in a statement.

In the past, Italy has always been ready to support Sri Lanka whenever the country was in need, including in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, it said, adding that Italy has also supported initiatives for Sri Lankas agriculture sector.

Sri Lanka is on the verge of bankruptcy, with its foreign exchange reserves plummeting by 70 percent in the past two years and $25 billion in foreign debt maturing in five years. The government said on April 12 that it was suspending foreign debt repayments.

To raise foreign currency, the government said Tuesday that it would allow foreigners who deposit a minimum of $100,000 in a commercial bank permission to live and work in Sri Lanka for 10 years under the Golden Paradise Visa Program.

It also approved the issuance of five-year residence visas to foreigners, including their spouses, who invest a minimum of $75,000 in Sri Lankas condominium properties.

Sri Lankans during a protest outside the presidents office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 11, 2022. (Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo)

Thousands of Sri Lankans have taken to the streets in protest against the governments mishandling of the countrys worst economic crisis in decades, while local doctors have reported a catastrophic scarcity of essential medicines in government hospitals.

The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) said on April 10 that doctors now have to choose which patients to treat as hospitals run out of essential medicines and medical equipment, AFP reported.

If supplies are not restored within days, the casualties will be far worse than from the pandemic, SLMA said, adding that all emergency surgeries may soon be suspended because of supply shortages.

On April 4, Human Rights Watch urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure that its financial program with Sri Lanka protects the human rights of low-income people and addresses corruption and entrenched obstacles to the rule of law.

Sarah Saadoun, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the protests send a clear message about peoples economic situation in Sri Lanka.

The IMF and the Sri Lankan government should come to an agreement that supports peoples ability to afford life necessities and addresses the problems underlying the current crisis, Saadoun said in a statement.
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Heaven Hill Distillery, one of the worlds largest bourbon producers, plans to revive its whiskey production in its Kentucky hometown  more than a quarter century after a devastating fire destroyed a previous production facility.

The family-owned and operated spirits company announced plans Wednesday to build a $135 million distillery expected to open by 2024 at Bardstown  in the heart of the state's bourbon country.

It's the latest sign that Bluegrass State whiskey producers  both large and small  are bullish on future demand for their spirits. Kentucky's bourbon sector is in the midst of an expansion phase totaling billions of dollars in projects. Bourbon production in Kentucky has skyrocketed 435% since the turn of the century, according to the Kentucky Distillers Association.

Heaven Hill said its new distillery is needed to help meet growing global demand for the company's whiskeys. Heaven Hill produces Evan Williams, one of the worlds top-selling bourbons.

It also marks Heaven Hill's return to distilling in Bardstown  where the company lost its onsite distillery, seven storage warehouses and almost 100,000 barrels of whiskey in the 1996 fire.

Afterward, Heaven Hill's distilling moved to the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, while bottling, storage of aging whiskey and other functions continued in the Bardstown area, where those operations still remain. Bardstown is about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of Louisville.

The new distillery builds on the company's longtime roots in Bardstown, said Heaven Hill President Max Shapira. It's been nine decades since Heaven Hill first operated a distillery in Bardstown.

The people of Bardstown have helped us create and build our brands over all these many years, so its a special homecoming to bring distilling back to this community, said Heaven Hill President Max Shapira. Our new distillery will honor our long-time Bardstown roots while applying state-of-the-art equipment and processes to produce the highest quality American whiskey."

The distillery is expected to employ about 30 people initially, but the workforce could reach about 90 once full production is reached in coming years, the company said. The state Economic Development Finance Authority approved up to $1.5 million in economic incentives for the project.

The distillery will be built on a vacant 61-acre (25-hectare) site, a couple of miles (kilometers) from where the previous production facility stood, the company said. Construction is expected to begin this spring. Initial production is pegged at 10 million proof gallons a year, or 150,000 barrels, and the distillery will have capacity to ramp up production to 30 million proof gallons, or 450,000 barrels, over time.

Heaven Hill said it will continue to age bourbon at existing locations and the Bernheim distillery in Louisville will continue operating at full capacity. The Bernheim distillery produces more than 420,000 barrels of whiskey per year.

Other Heaven Hill brands include Elijah Craig, Old Fitzgerald, Larceny and Parkers Heritage Collection.

Kentucky distilleries produce 95% of the worlds bourbon supply, according to the Kentucky Distillers Association. Kentucky's booming bourbon industry is in the midst of a $5.2 billion expansion, with $3.3 billion of that coming in the next three years, KDA said. The growth includes new distilleries, storage warehouses, bottling lines and visitors' centers.
NORWALKThe Maritime Aquarium announced Monday it will be part of an episode of National Public Radios weekly show Science Friday that will focus on octopus.

The live event will be hosted at the aquarium on Friday, June 14, by Science Friday founder and host Ira Flatow, according to the aquarium statement. The event will celebrate Cephalopod Movie Night with a lineup of films and experts on deep-sea creatures.

Tickets are currently on sale for the 90-minute event. It will begin at 7 p.m. in the 4D Theater and include an audience question and answer session, according to the statement.

Tickets for the Cephalopod Week event are $30 for the general public, $25 for Maritime Aquarium and Connecticut Public members and $20 for children ages 3 to 12. The prices include the pre-show meet-and-greet with Flatow, according to the statement.

Attendees over the age of 5 will be required to show proof of vaccination to attend the event, including two initial doses and a booster, according to the statement.

The event will offer a fun and informative focus on cephalopods, the fascinating class of mollusks that includes the octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus, according to the statement.

Short documentaries produced by Science Friday will be shown and Maritime Aquarium will explain some of its cephalopod care.

The aquariums Director of Animal Husbandry, Barrett Christie, will explain what it is like to work with and care for octopuses, according to the statement. Christie co-wrote and edited the Association of Zoos and Aquariums manual for the care of giant Pacific octopuses, a species exhibited at the aquarium.

Also sharing insights will be Christopher Whalen, a postdoctoral researcher at the American Museum of Natural History who recently identified a new, 10-armed cephalopod in the fossil record, according to the statement.

This year marks the ninth year Science Friday celebrates Cephalopod Week with events around the country.

abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com
STAMFORD  The murder trial for a Bridgeport man charged with fatally shooting a 20-year-old man in Norwalk in 2012 opened Tuesday with testimony from three police officers who responded to the scene of the slaying.

Friends and family members of Hakeem Atkinson, 26, sat quietly in the gallery at Superior Court in Stamford and listened as Norwalk police Officer David Nieves recounted the moments after the shooting of 20-year-old Joseph Jabs Bateman of Norwalk.

Atkinson is facing a murder charge in connection with the slaying of Bateman on Feb. 3, 2012.

Nieves said he remembers responding to the Avalon Norwalk apartment buildings, now known as The Confluence at Norwalk, at 26 Belden Ave. on reports of shots fired and a man down on the walkway toward the rear of the buildings at 5:41 p.m. that night.

The 23-year veteran Norwalk patrol officer said he pulled into the parking lot and saw a small group of individuals flagging him down to the scene of the shooting. Bateman was on the ground on a small walkway that runs along the Norwalk River, lying face up, unconscious and bleeding from his nose, he said.

Senior Assistant States Attorney David Applegate, who is prosecuting the case alongside Assistant States Attorney Daniel Cummings, played a 911 call from one of the first people to come across Bateman after he was shot.

Stay with me, bro, stay with me, the man can be heard telling Bateman during the call. Bateman, however, was not responsive, according to the 911 caller.

At about the same time, Sgt. Lee Young, Nieves then-patrol supervisor and current supervisor of a Norwalk Police Department squad of detectives, also arrived and rendered first aid to Bateman.

Young, a 30-year veteran of the department, told jurors that he performed CPR on Bateman, who he said had no pulse, until EMS arrived. Once EMS took over Batemans care, Young said he focused on taking charge of the crime scene and cordoning off the area.

Defense attorney John Gulash, who represents Atkinson, asked Young whether it was a busy area. Young replied that the area was known for loitering and people smoking marijuana and drinking.

The final witness on the first day of the trial was Lt. Art Weisgerber, head of Norwalks Crime Scene Unit and a 33-year veteran of the department.

Weisgerber said he and his colleague, Sgt. Alex Tolnay, arrived later that evening after both were called into work after the fatal shooting.

They found three .380-semiautomatic shell casings as well as a New York Yankees hat, a backpack with marijuana and a cellphone, he said.

After analyzing the scene and based on how he found the gun casings, Weisgerber said he surmised that the shooter had been moving north to south along the path, meaning he was moving closer to Bateman with each shot.

During cross examination, Gulash asked Weisgerber whether the shell casings could have been moved unintentionally as officers and paramedics worked, or as bystanders fled to or from the shooting, thereby skewing the determination.

Theres a lot of variables that are possible, but youre right, Weisgerber said.

One of the three shots fired struck Bateman in the chest and killed him. That bullet was later recovered by medical examiners.

The trial is set to resume Wednesday, when an eyewitness, the medical examiner, a firearm experts and friends of Bateman are expected to testify.

According to his arrest affidavit, Atkinson was 16 years old when Bateman, 20, was shot to death in what police said they believed was a retaliation killing during ongoing violence among rival gangs.

The homicide, which happened Feb. 3, 2012, reportedly had ties to a string of murders that began with the killing of 16-year-old Tykwan Hunt in a 2008 fight at a house party. Bateman was there the night that Amos A.J. Brown was killed in 2010, in what police said they believed was a retaliation to Hunts slaying.

If convicted of murder, Atkinson faces a minimum of 25 years in prison, plus an extra five years for a firearms sentence enhancement, which the state is seeking in the case.
Edwardsville Police Department, with assistance from Glen Carbon Police Department, arrested a homeless man last week after an attempted purse snatching at the Edwardsville Home Depot location.

David M. Guerrero, 35, was arrested April 21, according to his arrest warrant.

"The individual in this case has been frequenting the Edwardsville and Glen Carbon area," said Edwardsville Police Chief Michael Fillback. Guerrero was charged with theft from a person, theft under $500 and aggravated assault.

"At approximately 4:23 p.m. Thursday, Edwardsville officers responded to Home Depot in reference to a purse snatching and a combative subject who left on foot. With the assistance of Glen Carbon Police, the suspect was located and taken into custody on the parking lot of Lowes." The Lowes is located nearby just across the border in Glen Carbon.

"No injuries were reported," Fillback said. "Guerrero grabbed the victim's purse out of her shopping cart while she looked at merchandise outside the front doors. The victim quickly ran after the subject, pulled her purse away and a male passerby intervened to assist her. The suspect then swung a stick/spear at the man and threatened to stab him."

"The Edwardsville and Glen Carbon police officers did a great job to take the subject into custody without harm to anyone involved. We appreciate the assistance of the Glen Carbon officers," he said.

Guerrero is in custody at the Madison County Jail with his bail set at $50,000.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.N. General Assembly took a first step Tuesday to put the five permanent members of the Security Council under the spotlight whenever they use their veto power, a move highlighted by Russia's veto threat paralyzing any action by the U.N.s most powerful body on the Ukraine war.

A resolution adopted by consensus in the 193-member assembly amid a burst of applause does not eliminate or limit the veto power of the Security Council's permanent members - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

But for the first time, the General Assembly will be required to hold a debate on the situation that sparks a veto in the Security Council within 10 working days. Precedence will be given on the list of speakers to the permanent member who casts a veto.

The assembly isnt required to take or consider any action under the resolution, but the discussion could put veto-wielders on the spot and let a raft of other countries be heard.

Liechtensteins U.N. ambassador, Christian Wenaweser, who spearheaded the resolution, which had been in the works for two years, has said it aims to promote the voice of all of us who are not veto-holders, and who are not on the Security Council, on matters of international peace and security because they affect all of us.

In presenting the resolution to the assembly Tuesday morning, Wenaweser alluded to Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 and the Security Councils failure to take action: There has never been a stronger need for effective multilateralism than today, and there has never been a stronger need for innovation in order to secure the central role and voice of the United Nations.

Amnesty Internationals secretary general, Agnes Callamard, called the resolution a first step towards increasing the cost of using the veto -- and it could not have come soon enough.

The resolution had about 80 co-sponsors, including the United States and the United Kingdom. But it also had detractors even though they didnt break consensus, including Russia and close ally Belarus as well as current elected council members Gabon and India and other U.N. member nations.

The reform of the Security Council, which is charged under the U.N. Charter with ensuring international peace and security, has been debated for more than 40 years, and was front and center in comments by countries before and after the resolutions adoption.

There is widespread support for revamping the council to reflect current global realities rather than the international power structure after World War II in 1945 when the United Nations was created. But rivalries between countries and regions have blocked all attempts to reach agreement on the size, composition and powers of an expanded council.

The veto power of the five permanent members is one component on the reform agenda.

More than 200 different Security Council proposals have been vetoed, some by multiple countries, according to U.N. records. The subjects have ranged from the Korean War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to climate change, reporting on weapons stockpiles, and governance of a part of the Indian Ocean nation Comoros.

The former Soviet Union and its successor Russia have cast the most vetoes by far, followed by the United States. Far fewer have been cast by Britain, China and France.

U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mills said after the vote that the United States is extraordinarily troubled by Russias pattern of abusing its veto right over the past decade, citing resolutions it vetoed ranging from referring Syria to the International Criminal Court, protesting Russia's annexation of Ukraines Crimea peninsula and demanding Russia immediately halt its invasion of Ukraine.

British Ambassador Barbara Woodward, whose country has not used its veto since 1989, called the resolution a step in pursuit of upholding international peace and security, adding: We prefer to win votes rather than use our veto to block council action.

France didnt co-sponsor the resolution and its deputy ambassador, Nathalie Broadhurst, said it does not believe the General Assembly can become the judge of the Security Council.

She said that is why France and Mexico have been promoting an initiative on the veto for several years. It would require the five permanent council members to voluntarily and collectively suspend the use of the veto in the event of mass atrocities. Saying the proposal is supported by 105 countries, she urged all states, in particular the other four permanent members, to join it.

Russias deputy ambassador, Gennady Kuzmin, called the veto a cornerstone of the U.N. architecture and warned that without it the Security Council would become a rubber-stamping body, rubber-stamping questionable decisions imposed by the nominal majority whose implementation would be hardly possible.

Chinese counselor Jiang Hua said the resolutions automatic triggering of a General Assembly meeting on the vetoed resolution in practice is likely to cause procedural confusion and inconsistency.

India and Brazil, which have sought permanent seats on the Security Council for many years and are currently serving two-year terms on the body, both complained that the resolution doesnt address the real issue of reforming the council.

A representative council which reflects the current international system is central to the maintenance of international peace and security and to the future of this organization. Brazilian Ambassador Ronaldo Costa Filho told members.

Indias deputy ambassador, Ravindra Raguttahalli, said that a vocal minority of nay-sayers who support the status quo in the Security Council have held reform efforts hostage. He said the veto resolution ignores the root cause of the problem  restruturing the council to reflect contemporary geo-political realities.

Ambassador Michel Biang of Gabon, which is also an elected council member, said Africa has the largest number of U.N. peacekeeping missions but has no permanent seat on the Security Council.

Approving the resolution will not change the scope of the veto, nor its substance, Biang said.
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Received By Prince Eze Madumere, Nwawuwa Others

A frontline presidential aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his train visited Imo State for consultations over his bid to fly the flag of the party come 2023.

On his arrival at Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, he was received by the former Deputy Governor of Imo State, Prince Eze Madumere, Chief Ama Nwaouwa, Chief I.B Okafor among numerous others.

Amaechi had in his entourage, former Governorship Aspirant, Anambra State, Chief George Moghalu, Senator Andrew Uchendu, and Senator Ifeanyi Ararume among others.

It was a colorful reception at the airport with women adorned in attractive traditional attire rendering sonorous songs.

Speaking to newsmen shortly before Rt. Hon. Amaechis arrival, Madumere described Amaechi as a man whose time has come, saying he is embued with the requisite ideas to provide a solution to Nigerias present problem.

His trajectory is known by all. He has garnered his experience as a two-time Governor. He was able to whittle down the security tension in Rivers during the era of militancy.

In the area of infrastructures, he has left no one in doubt of what he can do even as the Minister of Transportation.

Cross section of leaders ready to receive APC Frontline Presidential aspirant, Rt. Hon . Chibuike Amaechi.

I call on the leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo to key into the vision to uplift the country and the citizenry.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has identified six residential houses and one plaza , allegedly belonging to the embattled former Intelligence Response Team leader, Abba Kyari, in Maiduguri, being investigated by the Agency.

The two-storey shopping plaza, Assurance Plaza, located along the Giwa Barracks Road in Maiduguri, has about 100 stores.

Six other residential houses within the Maiduguri New Government Residential Area allegedly belonging to the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police had also been marked by the NDLEA.

This is coming barely 48 hours after the NDLEA announced the arrest of Chief Afam Mallinson Emmanuel Ukatu, the billionaire drug baron behind the N3 billion Tramadol deal involving the Abba Kyari-led Intelligence Response Team, IRT.

A statement by Femi Babafemi, director, Media & Publicity, NDLEA said after months of surveillance and evading arrest, Ukatu who is Chairman of Mallinson Group of Companies was eventually nabbed onboard a flight to Abuja at the MM2 terminal of the Lagos airport, Ikeja on Wednesday 13th April.

Investigations reveal he has been a major importer of large consignments of different brands and high dosages of Tramadol Hydrochloride, ranging from 120mg, 200mg, 225mg and 250mg, all of which are illicit. Ukatu owns pharmaceutical and plastic manufacturing companies, which he used as a cover to import illicit drugs into Nigeria. This is in addition to operating 103 bank accounts, most of which are used to launder money.

Ukatu came under watch last year after five cartons of Tramadol 225mg were seized from his staff on 4th May 2021 when he sent them to sell to undercover police officers (unknown to Ukatu) from the then Kyari-led IRT of the Nigeria Police, Ikeja Lagos. The price of a carton of Tramadol was negotiated at N17million each as against the then black market value that ranged between N18million and N20million a carton in Lagos.

After the arrest of Ukatus staff: Pius Enidom and Sunday Ibekwete, Kyaris men were then led by the suspects to Mallinsons warehouse at Ojota in Lagos where 197 additional Cartons of Tramadol 225mg were seized by the IRT Team. The monetary value of the 202 cartons of Tramadol seized from Mallinson in one day was over N3billion.
Ahead of the 2023 election, a special Tawaf is to be held on Thursday, April 28, for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and top contender for the office of the president.

Tagged Special Tawaf for Asiwaju, the session is to commence by 12 noon and would be conducted around Kaabah at the centre of Islam's most important mosque, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Participants are to wear the ihram attire and congregate at the King Abdulaziz Gate.

The Tawaf is expected to be attended by some Islamic scholars and political leaders from Nigeria, including the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt.Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, who said the event was also to thank Allah for the former governor of Lagos ahead of the presidential election.

According to Speaker Obasa, all those expected to partake in the Tawaf have the faith that Allah would ensure a peaceful electioneering and victory for Tinubu.

We have come to seek the favour of Allah and His blessings for Asiwaju in the coming election. We are not testing Allah's will and power but soliciting for His blessings, support and anointing because Allah is sufficient for us.

We are doing this in support of Asiwajus presidential ambition.

Having consulted widely and across the country, we strongly believe that every other thing required for the success of the election and victory for Asiwaju are in the hand of Almighty Allah, the Speaker said while urging other Muslims and well-meaning Nigerians to join the session.
If there is an issue of national concern wherein the saying that if A child says his or her mothers food is not delicious, then he can be considered not to be a true child of the mother has found expression, it is unarguably that of medical tourism which most Nigerian leaders are wont to embark on. They embark on the journey with a flip of the finger, either to countries in Europe, North America or Asia, particularly India which is reputed to have well-equipped hospitals in abundance.

Without any iota of exaggeration, Nigerias public health systems are in a depressing condition. Preventable diseases still kill a large number of women and children, people travel long distances to receive health care, and across the country, patients sleep on hospital floors. On top of this, Nigerias health professionals emigrate in droves to search for greener pastures.

It is therefore not surprising that rich Nigerians, particularly politicians travel abroad for their medical needs. As gathered, medical tourism statistics in Nigeria shows that $1.25 billion US dollars are spent in a year by medical tourists; who are majorly politicians and businessmen. Not only that, every month 9000 medical tourist globally are statistically said to be from Nigeria, out of which 5000 tourists visit India for medical tourism monthly. No doubt, the growth in medical tourism in Nigeria is 20% per year. This is as 95% of Nigerians travel to South Asia for medical tourism, and there are 75% of cash paying, 15% of government-paid, 6% of the insurance company and 4% of an employer-paid medical tourist.

It can be argued that private citizens opting to seek medical help in other countries do not owe the public any explanation, because it is their own affair. But medical tourism among Nigerias political elite is a completely different kettle of fish and a big cause for concern, because they are responsible for the development of proper health care for Nigerians.

It is an open secret that most Nigerian politicians from across the 36 states including the FCT capital, Abuja, go abroad for medical treatment. The reasons for exercising this choice are obvious: they lack confidence in the health systems they oversee, and they can afford the trips given that the expenses are paid for by taxpayers.

The result is that they have little motivation to change the status quo. Medical tourism by Nigerian leaders and politicians could therefore be one of the salient but overlooked causes of Nigerias poor health systems and infrastructure.

There are records of some Nigerian leaders that died abroad while seeking treatment, and had to be flown home at huge expense. Without resort to giving the government a bad name, it ought not to be so. However, there are few fortunate ones that made it home, but died shortly afterwards.

The picture painted above is shameful. As long as Nigerias leaders keep going abroad for medical reasons, the ambition for better health infrastructure will remain an illusion.

Pitiable enough, rich people in Nigeria that have undeniably become medical tourists pay heavy cost for this unpatriotic behavior as it is estimated that the fundsthey spent to treat themselves in foreign lands every year could build more, and better equipped hospitals for both the rich and the poor in the country, particularly when the bills are subsidized.

Not only do the leaders travel with elaborate entourages, but they also travel in expensive chartered or presidential jets. For example, the cost of parking Buharis plane during his three month spell in London was estimated to be at 360,000. That is equivalent to about 0.07% of Nigerias N304 billion budget allocation for health this year. And there would have been many other heavier costs incurred during his stay.

The failure of leaders to improve health care and stem brain drain also carries a heavy price. As gathered from statistics just made available in this month of April, 2022, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Professor Innocent Ujah, stated during the Maiden NMA Annual Lecture Series in Abuja that Nigeria lost over 9,000 medical doctors to the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America between 2016 and 2018. Ujah added at the maiden lecture which has the theme, Brain Drain and Medical Tourism: The Twin evil in Nigerias Health System that the loss left Nigeria with only 4.7 per cent of its specialists to service the healthcare needs of the population, saying this does not portray the country in good light.

On top of this, Nigerian hospitals that were previously world class have been reduced to symbolic edifices due to political negligence. For example, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) was once deemed to be one of the best on the continent. Recently, it was criticized for decadence.

Essentially, when people that are charged with responsibility feel they have no need for public health systems because they can afford private health care at home or abroad, ordinary citizens bear the brunt.

At this juncture, it is expedient to ask, Which way forward? The answer to the foregoing cannot be farfetched as it is apt to opine that the effective health systems in western and Asian countries that are beenpatronized by African leaders only exist because they were developed, and are consistently maintained, through political commitment and visionary leadership, qualities that are clearly lacking in Africa.

Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to say that to bring change, Nigerian citizens must start condemning political medical tourism. They must also push for regulations to curb the shameful practice. Taxpayer funded medical trips should be banned and criteria set detailing what sicknesses that can be covered by the public purse. Though a law to this effect exists in Nigeria, it appears to be ineffective. It must, and should work.

Essentially, if the leaders do not experience the poor state of health care, they might never strive for any positive changes to it.
The embattled governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi, on Thursday, 21st April 2022, ordered the prosecution of his former media aide who is now a columnist with New Telegraph Newspapers, Monday Eze. Governor Umahi handed the order in a pre-banquet media briefing he held in the new Government House, Abakaliki on his return from his trip to Turkey. Even though Umahi did not mention any offence committed by his former aide, the governor in a prelude to the prosecution order complained about an article published by the columnist on the lingering detention of a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Abakaliki, Rev. Fr. Timothy Ngwuta, in Abakaliki prisons. The video clip of the prosecution order is circulating on social media platforms. Governor Umahi equally dissolved his media team for being "reactive" and for their inability to reply his former aide.

In the video clip, the Ebonyi State governor who was visibly unsettled by his former aide's publication entitled, "Timothy Ngwuta: The Universal Church of Christ Is In Ebonyi Prisons" said among other things: "My so-called media team, they are just being reactive. If something is in the social media, why should people be sending texts to me to say this thing. Because if I have media (team), they will be reacting to it and those people who send things to me will be seeing it. But they (media team) are just doing the job within my WhatsApp (platform) and that is why I dissolved all my media people. And I will constitute another one.

"And the Monday Eze must be taken to court. He must be charged to court immediately", Governor Umahi concluded, hitting his fist on his table to convey the seriousness and urgency of his order.

In his reaction, Mr. Monday Eze who had, "pursuant to the dictates of (his) conscience", voluntarily resigned from Umahi's government on April 6, 2021, expressed fears for his life and limb and explained that he has not committed any crime. According to him: "I have not committed any crime to warrant any prosecution. Rev. Fr. Ngwuta's arrest, toture and imprisonment without trial is an open and verifiable fact within public knowledge. Above all, the statement of the Catholic Diocese of Abakaliki on the matter, the comments of the governor and the Attorney-general of Ebonyi State on the matter all corroborated the contents of my essay. Expression of factual opinion on matters of public interest and request for release of an innocent detainee has not been criminalized in Nigeria.

"By the executive order for my prosecution, Umahi has assumed the role of both the accuser, prosecutor and judge in his own matter. Given the antecedents of Governor Umahi who had banned two Ebonyi journalists, Chijioke Agwu and Vincent Okutu, for life and under whose watch the PDP Publicity Secretary in Ebonyi State, Chika Nwoba, was subjected to extra-judicial tortures and life-threatening ordeals, I am afraid for my life, limbs and my family. I am aware that the agents of the state will stop at nothing to ensure that I am docked and sent to custodial centre for committing no offence. I call on the security agents and the courts to resist the temptation or offer of being used to hunt for me or maliciously prosecute or incarcerate me. I call on human rights activists and organizations all over the world and well-meaning citizens of Nigeria to intervene and call Governor Umahi to order ".

In a press release, a rights group, Human Rights Defenders, HURIDE, Ebonyi State has condemned Gov. Umahi's growing intolerance to free speech in Ebonyi State, calling on the Ebonyi governor to rescind threatening the freedom of Mr. Eze. The press statement signed by Comrade Sampson Oko Nweke (State Chairman) and Barr. Prayer Oko (State Secretary), HURIDE urged President Buhari and the Inspector General of Police to call Governor Umahi to order. HURIDE equally wants all rights group to rally support for Monday Eze whose rights are being threatened by Umahi for no justifiable reason.

The former Senior Technical Assistant on Media to Governor Umahi who voluntarily resigned from Umahi's government last year wondered what is unsettling the governor over the essay he published in his column, Hammer and Anvil with Monday Eze, in New Telegraph Newspaper of April 15, 2022.
The Senate has okayed a bill seeking amendments to the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2013 which supports the prohibition of payment of ransom to kidnappers in Nigeria.

The bill, Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2013 (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was passed following the consideration of a report by the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters.

The report which was presented by the chairman of the Committee, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), was thereby considered.

In his presentation, Bamidele said the bill seeks to outlaw the payment of ransom to abductors, kidnappers, and terrorists for the release of any person who has been wrongfully confined, imprisoned, or kidnapped.

According to the lawmaker, the overall import of this bill is to discourage the rising spate of kidnapping and abduction for ransom In Nigeria, which is fast spreading across the country.

The Senator further stated that in the memoranda presented to the Committee, the plethora of issues relating to the subject matter of terrorism and terrorism financing in line with global best practices were raised.

He assured that the amendment to the Terrorism Act would set standards and regulatory system intended to prevent terrorist groups from laundering money through the banking system and other financial networks.

In his words, Having policies in place to combat financing of terrorism will surely reduce or eliminate privacy and anonymity in financial and other sundry transactions as it relates to the subject in our society.

He explained further that the need to comprehensively review the Terrorism Prevention Act arose from the unfavorable ratings of Financial Act Task Force (FATF) recommendations of Nigerias Mutual Evaluation Report and consequent placement of Nigeria in FATFS International Cooperation and Review Group Process with its impending sanctions on Nigerias economy.

He stated that the National Task Force on improving Nigerias Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime in Nigeria proposed improvement on the Act in order to address the deficiencies noted in its provisions so as to align with the required standard as obtainable in other jurisdictions.

Bamidele also said that, the passage of this Bill will save Nigeria from being included among countries in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Grey List with its attendant negative consequences, which might ultimately result in international sanctions that would affect the image of the country in the comity of nations.

Meanwhile, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks after the the passage of the bill, said the bill would complement the federal governments efforts in the fight against insecurity when signed into law by the President.

In his words, It is our belief here in the Senate, that this bill, by the time signed into an Act by Mr. President, will enhance the efforts of this government in the fight against terrorism, kidnapping, and other associated and related vices.

This is one piece of legislation that can turn around not only the security situation in Nigeria but even the economic fortunes of our country.

We have done so much as a government, in terms of infrastructural development across all parts of this country, but because the security situation is not the kind of situation that we all want, this tends to overshadow all the tremendous and massive developments in our country.

I believe that the Executive will waste no time in signing this bill into law, and it is our hope that this additional piece of legislation will achieve the purpose for which it has been worked upon by the Senate, and, indeed, the National Assembly and, for the reason for which it would also be signed by Mr. President.

Let me make it very clear here, that the fight against insecurity, whether it is kidnapping, terrorism, or whatsoever, is not the sole role of a government.

The contribution and support by citizens are essential because our security agencies need vital and critical information against terrorism and other things that make life difficult for us.
CAAT confirms Thailand entry measures by airline from May 1

PHUKET: The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) has confirmed the entry measures for international arrivals starting May 1.

tourismCOVID-19health

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 27 April 2022, 11:56AM

The cover of the notice issued by the CAAT last night (Apr 26). Image: CAAT

The confirmation came through an official notice issued 11:38pm last night (Apr 26). The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) has issued a pilot notice (NOTAM) informing airlines around the world of the latest measures to take on air travel to Thailand. This will be effective from 1 May 2022 onwards to create understanding and enable airlines to comply with the measures correctly, the notice read. The measures given by the CAAT were as follows: Passengers who have been fully vaccinated - Able to enter the country without any additional COVID-19 testing. However, passengers are advised to have an ATK test if they have symptoms. Passengers who have not been vaccinated or not fully vaccinated can have an RT-PCR test within 72 hours before departure and [if the test is negative] will be able to enter the country without any additional COVID-19 testing, the same as fully vaccinated passengers. If these passengers do not have RT-PCR test results, they will be quarantined as ordered by quarantine officials and RT-PCR testing will be performed on day 4 or day 5 of quarantine. All passengers must have a health insurance coverage against COVID-19 or a letter of guarantee worth at least US$10,000 with a term of coverage throughout their stay in Thailand. Passengers can use this insurance to treat symptoms of COVID-19 if they are found to be infected. (Note: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already confirmed that this provision does not apply to Thai nationals.) Passengers must provide proof of vaccination or RT-PCR test results and COVID-19 health insurance through the Thailand Pass system before traveling. Once the documents have been verified, the passenger will receive a QR Code to present to the airline. If there is no QR Code, the airline may refuse to carry passengers. Airlines must verify that passengers have QR Code from the Thailand Pass system before accepting them as passengers on the aircraft. If a passenger is found to have arrived in Thailand without a QR Code, the airline will be responsible for sending the passenger back to the country of origin. Airports and related agencies must strictly implement government measures such as wearing masks. Checking body temperature before entering or leaving the facility CAAT also emphasises and asks airlines to cooperate with the inspection, screening of documents and surveillance in strict accordance with the new measures. At the same time, the airline must provide complete and accurate passenger information in order to be able to fully prepare and facilitate travelers entering the country under the new measures, the CAAT notice concluded.
Phuket officials give electric scooters a test ride

PHUKET: Phuket officials have approved the use of electric scooters at the Phuket Provincial Hall complex on the south side of Phuket Town as a test phase to confirm how safe the micro-mobility vehicles are to use.

transportSafety

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 27 April 2022, 05:52PM

The approval was announced at Provincial Hall today (Apr 27) during a visit by representatives from Beam Mobility (Thailand) Co Ltd, which earlier this year was renting out electric scooters to tourists in Patong and other tourist-popular areas.

At the announcement today Beam Mobility Managing Director Jeff Payne led the handing over of two electric scooters for use by officials.

Present to receive the scooters on behalf of Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew was Kanathip Sukcharoen, Head of the Phuket Provincial Office.

The scooters will be used in security operations around the Phuket Provincial Hall complex, also called the Phuket Government Center, and for conducting inspections of construction at the site.

The scooters are to be at the Phuket Government Center for a period of 10 months. The scooters will be set up with a computer system to ensure that they are used within the government compound only, and not on public streets.

In February, Phuket police banned electric scooters from all public roads in Phuket.

People caught riding electric scooters on public roads may be fined up to B10,000 following an order issued by Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikong.

People caught riding electric scooters on public roads also could be charged with operating a vehicle without a valid licence under Section 64 of the same act, as no licence exists for operating electric scooters, as they are not recognised as vehicles by the Department of Land Transport and hence cannot be registered, Maj Gen Sermphan said in the order.

The penalty for operating a vehicle without a licence is up to six months imprisonment or a fine of up to B9,000, or both, Maj Gen Sermphan added.
Today

Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. High 67F. E winds shifting to NW at 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight

Overcast. Low 44F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 65F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
If you keep voting for the same parties, nothing is going to change, says Holness, who announced his intentions at a press conference in front of the National Assembly last week.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The older you are, the less you fret about aging in your own home or community.

That's a key insight from a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, which found that U.S. adults ages 65 or older feel much better prepared to age in place than those 50-64, who are mostly still in the final stretches of their working years.

The poll also documented greater insecurity around aging in place for older Black and Latino Americans, the likely result of a deep-rooted wealth gap that markedly favors white people.

Aging in one's own home, or with family or a close friend, is a widely held aspiration, with 88% of adults 50 and older saying it's their goal in an earlier AP-NORC poll.

The outlook among those 65 or older is upbeat, with nearly 8 in 10 saying theyre extremely or very prepared to stay in their current home as long as possible.

But doubts creep in for those ages 50-64. Among that group, the majority who rate themselves as extremely or very prepared shrinks to about 6 in 10, according to the poll.

This relatively younger group is especially likely to say their financial situation is the main reason they don't feel very prepared to age in place. And they're also more likely to feel anxious about being able to stay in their communities, get care from medical providers and receive backup from family members or close friends, the poll found.

Part of it may be due to fear of the unknown among people who've relied on a paycheck all their lives.

When you've never done it before, and you are only going to do it once, you're sort of flying by the seat of your pants, said Leigh Gerstenberger, in his late 60s and retired from a career in financial services. I spent a lot of time talking to people ahead of me in the journey," says the Pittsburgh-area resident.

Also, people approaching their 60s may question if Social Security and Medicare will truly be there for them. Stacy Wiggins, an addiction medicine nurse who lives near Detroit, figures she'll probably work at least another 10 years into her late 60s  and maybe part-time after that. Older friends are already collecting Social Security.

In my group, you wonder if it's going to be available," Wiggins said of government programs that support older people. Maybe it's not. You will find people who are less apt to have a traditional pension. Those are things that leave you with a lot of trepidation toward the future.

Some people now in their 50s and early 60s may still be dealing with the overhang of the 2007-09 recession, when unemployment peaked at 10% and foreclosures soared, said Sarah Szanton, dean of the Johns Hopkins University nursing school. For an aging society, the U.S. does relatively little to prepare older adults to navigate the transition to retirement, she observed.

As Americans, we've always idolized youth and we're notoriously underprepared for thinking about aging, Szanton said. It often comes as a surprise to people. Her involvement with aging-in-place issues started early in her career, when she made house calls to older people.

In the poll, people 50 and older reported that their communities do an uneven job of meeting basic needs. While access to health care, healthy food and high-speed internet were generally rated highly, only 36% said their community does a good job providing affordable housing. Just 44% were satisfied with access to transportation and to services that support older people in their homes.

Kym Harrelson-Pattishall is hoping that as more people retire to her coastal North Carolina community, health care facilities and other services will follow. As it stands now, a major medical issue can involve a car trip of up to an hour to the hospital.

A real estate agent in her early 50s, Pattishall shares the goal of aging at home, but her confidence level is not very high. I think it would just eat away what savings I have, she said.

It's all about adjusting, says another small-town resident, about 20 years older than Pattishall. Shirley Hayden lives in Texas, near the Louisiana border and on the track of hurricanes from the Gulf of Mexico. She says she has no investments and only modest savings, but she rates herself as very prepared to continue aging in place.

You have to learn to live within your means, Hayden said. I don't charge things I can't afford to pay for.

My biggest thing I have to work around as far as expenses is insurance, she added. I don't really need any new clothes. In Texas, you live in jeans and T-shirts and they don't go out of style. Yeah, your shoes wear out, but how often do you buy a pair of shoes?

Not so easy to work around is the well-documented racial wealth gap that constrains older Black people in particular. A Federal Reserve report notes that on average Black and Latino households own 15% to 20% as much net wealth as white households.

In the poll, 67% of Black Americans and 59% of Latino Americans ages 50 and older said they felt extremely or very prepared to stay in their homes as long as possible, compared with the 73% share of white Americans saying they feel confident.

Wiggins, the Detroit area nurse, is Black and says it's a pattern she's familiar with. Part of it is generational wealth, she said. I have friends who are white, whose dad died and left them settled. I have friends who are Black whose parents died, and they left enough to bury them, but nothing substantial.

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AP Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson and Polling Reporter Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,762 adults age 50 and older was conducted between February 24 - March 1 with funding from The SCAN Foundation. It used a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based Foresight 50+ Panel of adults age 50 or older, which is designed to represent the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
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ALTON  The new addition to Bluff City Outdoors in Alton is drawing closer to completion.

Mark McMurray who owns the business at 2813 E. Broadway said, when completed, the additional space will be used as an archery range and archery pro shop.

"We'll also put in additional hunting goods and more fishing stuff," he said.

The 8,000-square-foot structure will have two ranges. Along with a Techno-Hunt video range, the building will feature a 15-lane range for paper and 3D targets.

McMurray said the extra space will also allow Bluff City Outdoors to expand its selection of trapping equipment and offer complete lines of rods and reels.

The store will continue to offer live bait and host Riverbend catfish tournaments. This year the Alton Catfish Classic is set for Sept. 10; it filled its 100-boat field in mid-February.

McMurray is pleased that the new addition will include an archery range, noting that it has been years since Alton had such a range. Bluff City Outdoors' expansion also comes as one of the area's most well known archery ranges, Town Hall Archery in Belleville, has closed.

"All the people that were coming down there are going to be looking for a place to go," McMurray said.

The addition is planned to be open by mid-July, according to McMurray.

Bluff City Outdoors was one of six Alton firms featured in the 2018 edition of Deluxe Corporations Small Business Revolution, a national TV program providing economic development assistance to selected firms. As part of the program, Bluff City Outdoors received marketing assistance and a complete physical makeover of the store that included paint, shingles and light fixtures.
EDWARDSVILLE  An Alton man convicted of first-degree murder in 2015 may go free within a year after he pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the shooting death of James E. Hubbard Jr.

Aryion Sanders, 23, formerly of the 700 block of Oakwood Estates in Alton, pleaded guilty after an appellate court remanded the case back to Madison County under the theory that Sanders taped confession was coerced.

In exchange for his plea the state agreed to a prison sentence of 15 years for Sanders, but he may get a day off the sentence for each good day he serves. Sanders has been locked up since 2015. The normal sentencing range is between four and 20 years.

Sanders and the victim exchanged words, Madison County Assistant States Attorney Luke Yager said. Under the second-degree theory, Sanders acted under a sudden and intense emotion."

Sanders was convicted in 2018 of the Aug. 15, 2014, shooting death of Hubbard in Alton. He initially was sentenced to 43 years in prison and would have been required to serve every day of that sentence

A May 2 trial date had been set in the case.

Before the first trial authorities attempted to try Sanders, but the case was continued because a witness  Aryion Sanders younger brother, Ahmad Sanders  went missing. That attempt at a trial was delayed and dismissed.

A mistrial was ruled in the first trial as a result of juror misconduct. The trial that was scheduled for May 2 would have been the fourth time the Sanders case has been set for trial.

Yager said the Alton Police Department expended a tremendous effort, including during the most recent run-up to the trial.

This has been a long, rough saga, but this murder plea brings it to an end, said Madison County States Attorney Thomas Haine.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The United States has put China, Russia and five other countries on its annual blacklist for lax enforcement of intellectual property rights that leaves American companies vulnerable to copyright and trademark piracy.

All seven countries on this years list were on last years, too.

China continues to be the largest origin economy for counterfeit and pirated goods, according to the report.

Also on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representatives priority watch list were Argentina, Chile, India, Indonesia and Venezuela.

The U.S. suspended its review this year of Ukraine -- which made last years blacklist -- while it attempts to fight off an invasion from Russia.

The trade office also removed Saudi Arabia from its priority watch list, citing its crackdown on counterfeit and pirated goods, the creation of special intellectual property enforcement courts and other steps.

To prepare the list, which was released Wednesday, the trade office reviewed the performance of more than 100 U.S. trading partners.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that the report identifies countries that are falling short and promised that the Biden administration will continue to engage with these trading partners to level the playing field for our workers and businesses.''

Russia, it said, continues to lack sufficient staffing, expertise, and the political will to effectively combat (intellectual property) violations and criminal enterprises.

In addition to the seven countries on the priority list, another 20 made the trade offices watch list, meaning that the U.S. believes those countries need to step up property rights enforcement.
The death toll from disasters in two Polish coal mines rose to 18 after the bodies of four missing miners were found Wednesday.

The rescue operation at the Borynia-Zofiowka mine in southern Poland ended after the last miners missing after a tremor and methane gas discharge on Saturday were pronounced dead. They brought the total number of deaths to 10.

Meanwhile, the toll from a series of methane explosions at the nearby Pniowek mine last week rose to eight after a hospitalized worker died Tuesday night.

Seven other miners and rescuers remain missing at that mine, but the search for them was suspended when subsequent blasts injured 10 rescue team members.

Nineteen people remained hospitalized with burns. Partitions are being built to seal off the blast area from the rest of the mine.

Prosecutors have opened investigations. The mines are operated by the Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa company, or JSW.

Most Polish coal mines are in the southern Silesia region. Many mines have a high methane content in the rock.

Some 70% of Polands energy comes from coal, a proportion that has been sharply criticized by the European Union and environmental groups who are concerned about CO2 emissions and meeting climate change goals.

Poland has been trying to scale down its use of coal. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki recently said Poland has stopped coal imports from Russia and its ally Belarus in response to Moscows invasion of Ukraine.

For years Poland has been reducing its dependence on Russian energy sources that was built in communist-era times before 1990, when Poland was Russias satellite.

Russia stopped delivering natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday. Polish leaders said the country was well prepared to end its use of Russian gas.

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BONAIRE, Ga. (AP)  A major state income tax cut signed by Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp as he seeks reelection could eventually total more than $2 billion, but the reductions may only happen by a 2029 target date if state revenue holds up.

For Kemp, Tuesday's signing was a tax-cutting triumph as he touted not only the newly flat income tax, but also a $1.1 billion income tax refund and the zeroing out of nearly $400 million in fuel taxes for more than two months.

Were doing our part to lessen the pain on peoples wallets here in Georgia, Kemp said. And today we will put into place a more long-term system of relief. I strongly believe that government should take in the very least amount possible needed to serve the people properly.

Kemp signed the tax cut in former U.S. Sen. David Perdue's hometown of Bonaire at a barbecue restaurant once featured in a Perdue campaign ad. Perdue is running against Kemp for the Republican nomination for governor and early in-person voting starts Monday for the May 24 primary. Democrat Stacey Abrams awaits the winner.

House Bill 1437 would create a flat income tax of 4.99% by 2029 or later. The current tax has a top rate of 5.75% with lower brackets below there. The measure delivers an immediate flat tax of 5.49% on Jan. 1, 2024.

After that, the measure calls for the tax rate to fall one-tenth of 1% each year, reaching 4.99% by 2029. But tax cuts would pause any year state revenue does not grow 3%, any year revenue is lower than in the five previous years, or any year the state does not have enough money in its savings account to cover the cost.

Those requirements aim to ensure there's enough revenue for state services. But pauses caused by lagging revenue could bring pressure to reconsider the approach or to bolster revenue by curtailing business tax breaks.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Shaw Blackmon, a Bonaire Republican, said Tuesday that Georgia would have met all three requirements in only six of the last 12 years. It would have easily met the standards in the 2021 budget year, when revenues soared thanks in part to federal COVID-19 aid that propped up spending and employment.

For his part, Perdue espouses gradually abolishing the entire state income tax, which contributes nearly half of Georgias $30 billion in revenue. Republican House Speaker David Ralston and others reject that, saying it would devastate state services.

Weeks after it passed, Blackmon said theres still no official estimate for the cut's total cost. The liberal-leaning Georgia Budget & Policy Institute projects a total cost of $2.04 billion.

The cut would cost about $450 million in the first year. It would increase the standard exemption on how much someone could earn before beginning to pay taxes. A single taxpayer or head of household would get a $12,000 exemption immediately. Married couples filing jointly would get an exemption that would grow to $24,000 by 2030. Taxpayers could deduct $3,000 for each child or other dependent.

That's an attempt to avoid higher taxes on low-income earners, but the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute's Danny Kanso said most benefits will go to the highest earners. A GBPI analysis using modeling by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows 39% of benefits would flow to the top 5% of Georgia tax filers  households making more than $253,000 a year. The bottom 80% of households  making less than $109,000  would get 32% of benefits.

Georgia's state and local taxes already take a larger share of poor people's income than rich people's income. Kanso said the cut would make taxes even more regressive. Georgia Democratic Party Chair Nikema Williams called it a boon for the wealthy.

Both Kanso and Kyle Wingfield, CEO of the conservative-leaning Georgia Public Policy Foundation, agree that the 4.99% rate may not arrive by 2029.

If you look at all the triggers, Im not sure that hitting all three of them five or six years in a row will necessarily happen," Wingfield said.

The bill requires a review of other tax breaks, after Republican Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Hufstetler of Rome unsuccessfully proposed limiting the $1 billion-plus Georgia gives to movie and television productions each year. That report is due by December 2023, just before the first income tax cut.

Kemp said he's committed to the review, but it's not clear if House leaders share the Senate's interest in limiting tax breaks. Blackmon said the House wants to show fiscal responsibility.

The other option, if the state does not meet revenue goals, could be to discard them, Wingfield said.

If were not hitting the triggers fast enough, but the states revenues and fiscal picture are still stable or sustainable, then you could look at expediting some of those down the road," he said.

___

Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.
EDWARDSVILLE  A Madison man was charged with multiple weapons-related felonies Tuesday by the Madison County States Attorneys Office.

Tomas L. Hicks, 29, of Madison, was charged April 26 with aggravated battery with a firearm, a Class X felony; aggravated discharge of a firearm, a Class 1 felony; and unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 3 felony.

The case was presented by the Madison Police Department.

According to court documents, on April 16 Hicks allegedly shot a person in the left forearm after firing a gun at a vehicle the victim was driving. He also was accused of having a firearm. Hicks has a 2018 conviction for aggravated unlawful use of weapons out of Madison County, making him ineligible to possess weapons.

Bail was set at $150,000.

Other felony charges filed April 26 include:

 Elizabeth M. Celis, 30, and Jerome H. Young Jr., both of Collinsville, were charged with aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony. The cases were presented by the Collinsville Police Department. According to court documents, on March 21 the two allegedly were in an altercation at Pride of Illinois in Collinsville. Young allegedly caused a laceration to Celis arm, while Celis allegedly struck Young in the head. Bail was set at $15,000 each.

 Dorian C. Andrews, 34, of Wood River, was charged with domestic battery (three prior convictions for domestic battery), a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Edwardsville Police Department. According to court documents, on April 20 Andrews allegedly grabbed a household or family member by a sweatshirt. He has convictions for domestic battery out of St. Clair County in 2011 and 2019, and Madison County in September 2021. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Christopher J. Busch, 44, of Granite City, was charged with domestic battery (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On April 25 Busch allegedly grabbed a household or family member and struck her with an open hand, causing bruising to her arm and redness to her neck. He has a 2000 conviction for domestic battery out of Bond County. Bail was set at $15,000.
John Badman

PORTAGE DES SIOUX  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers towboat Pathfinder moves downstream recently past the Portage Des Sioux power plant headed into Alton Lake on the Mississippi River.

The towboat travels the river moving and replacing missing buoys that mark the sides of the channel for river traffic. Many buoy have been moved or displaced during the recent months.
CARROLLTON  On Saturday, April 30, Greene County residents will mark the 22nd National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. Greene County residents are urged to use this as an opportunity to clean out medicine cabinets and properly dispose of unused or expired medications.

Disposals can be made at the Greene County Sheriffs Department at 403 7th St. in Carrollton 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 30.
BERLIN (AP)  Germany was the biggest buyer of Russian energy during the first two months of the war in Ukraine, an independent research group said Thursday.

A study published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air calculates that Russia has earned 63 billion euros ($66.5 billion) from fossil fuel exports since Feb. 24, the date Russian troops attacked Ukraine.

Using data on ship movements, real-time tracking of gas flows through pipelines and estimates based on historical monthly trade, the researchers reckoned Germany alone paid Russia about 9.1 billion euros for fossil fuel deliveries  mostly natural gas  in the first two months of the war.

Claudia Kemfert, a senior energy expert at the German Institute for Economic Research who was not involved in the study, said the figures were plausible given the recent sharp increase in prices for fossil fuels. Last year, Germany paid about 100 billion euros in total for imports of oil, coal and gas  a quarter of which went to Russia, she said.

The German government said it couldn't comment on estimates and declined to provide any figures of its own, saying these would need to come from companies that procure the energy supplies.

Germany has faced strong criticism for its reliance on Russian fossil fuels despite warnings from allies that this could endanger its own and European security. Then-Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed back last year against U.S. efforts to halt a Russian gas pipeline to Germany, a decision strongly backed by her successor, Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democratic Party have long advocated energy cooperation with Russia.

The pipeline was only frozen by Scholz's new center-left government shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It has since scrambled to find alternative energy supplies, particularly for Russian natural gas, which now accounts for 35% of Germany's total imports.

Kemfert said a recent pledge by the German government to produce electricity only from renewable sources by 2035 was welcome.

"But as long as Germany continues to buy fossil fuels, whether from Russia or other autocracies, it undermines both its own credibility and its energy security, she said.

The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, which is based in Finland and funded through grants and research contracts, said the second biggest importer of Russia fossil fuels in the two months since the outbreak of war was Italy (6.9 billion euros), followed by China (6.7 billion euros).

South Korea, Japan, India and the United States also purchased Russian energy after the start of the war, though significantly less than the European Union. As a whole, the 27-nation bloc accounted for 71% of Russias total income from oil, gas and coal, worth approximately 44 billion euros, the CREA report found said.

Lauri Myllyvirta, the group's lead analyst, said year-on-year comparisons were difficult, but he estimated that Russia's exports to Europe in the same period of 2021 were worth 18 billion euros.

So 44 billion euros (...) represents a doubling from last year, he said. The main driver is that market prices for gas rose from around 10 euros per MWh a year ago to above 100.
TORONTO (AP)  Roger Stone, one-time adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump, has been named as a senior strategic adviser to assist the Ontario Party in the June provincial election in Canada.

In making the announcement, Ontario Party Leader Derek Sloan called Stone a friend and accomplished American conservative political strategist.
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EDWARDSVILLE  Former Madison County Information Technology Director Rob Dorman has filed a court challenge to Madison County Treasurer Chris Slussers candidacy.

On April 18, Dorman filed a petition seeking judicial review of the Madison County Board of Elections decision in favor of Slusser regarding a challenge to his candidacy by Dorman.

As of Tuesday morning, no judge or hearing date had been assigned for Dorman's petition.

Dorman originally objected to Slussers candidacy claiming Slussers nominating petitions were invalid because he used county personnel, specifically Madison County Chief Deputy Treasurer Patrick McRae, to notarize them.

Dormans legal challenge centers on the Board of Elections hearings. After complaints about the first hearing held March 24, the hearings were reheld March 31 with no substantive change in the boards decisions.

At the original hearing Dorman's objection was quickly denied on a technical issue, that there was no basis in law to bring that specific issue to the board. Because of that, there was no evidence presented either side in Slussers case.

At the second hearing Slusser introduced evidence that McRaes notary duties were not directly tied to the county.

Dorman's suit claims the original hearing was not held in a courtroom as required by state law and violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act. It also claims that requests for subpoenas were summarily denied and the board deliberated, in secret among themselves before denying the objection.

Dorman argues it is unclear, under what authority the (election) board can simply undo the entire March 24, 2022 hearing, and redo it after the deadline.

Dorman was represented at the hearings by attorney Thomas G. Maag, who filed the suit.

Dorman also wants Slusser removed from the June 28 primary ballot. Slusser is being challenged by former Madison County Administrator Doug Hulme in the primary.

Both Hulme and Dorman were fired by the Madison County Board in April 2020 following allegations they improperly accessed personal documents. The two have subsequently filed a number of legal actions against the county in both state and federal courts.
ALTON  A stolen SUV was recovered by authorities Wednesday afternoon in Alton.

At about 1:09 p.m. Wednesday, Alton Police were notified that a Ford Excursion pulling a silver trailer had been stolen from the back of a business in the 300 block of Homer Adams Parkway. As officers began responding, a motorist reported the driver of a Ford Excursion with a silver trailer was driving recklessly southbound on Martin Luther King Drive.

Additional Alton Police began responding to the location of the reported driver. Police stopped the vehicle and detailed its driver without incident on Liberty Street at Union Street.

Alton Police Chief Marcos Pulido said officers identified the Excursion and the silver trailer as being vehicle stolen from the 300 block of Homer Adams Parkway. Pulido said a suspect was transported to the Alton Police Department, which is consulting with the Madison County States Attorneys Office for the possibility of felony charges.
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Looking for something to do this weekend?

Here are five quick ideas:

 On Friday, more than 100 homes in Collinsville are participating in a city-wide garage sale extravaganza. Most sales will run 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.; some will run multiple days.

 On Friday, the three-day Cahokia Mounds Spring Indian Market returns to the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville featuring Native American themed arts and crafts. Many tribal affiliations and media will be represented; admission is free. More than 30 vendors will offer baskets, beaded clothing, drums, jewelry, knives, musical instruments, paintings and pottery. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

 On Saturday, the Carrollton Junk in the Trunk sale returns to the Square 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Spots cost just $10 and fill up fast, offering an eclectic mix of treasures.

 On Saturday, trek to rural Dow for the TreeHouse Wildlife Center's Baby Shower at 29356 Green Acres Road. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. visit with artisan craft and food vendors, enjoy games and activities and help restock the wild animal care center. Need some ideas of what to donate? Check out https://www.treehousewildlifecenter.com/donate for some ideas.

 On Sunday, join the Madison County Transit Trails Scavenger Hunt. Check out new, challenging missions as well as all the old fan-favorites. The hunt kicks off Sunday and runs throughout May, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily while trails are open. The event does requires a mobile device.




When Twitter permanently banned President Donald Trump, it appeared that censorship had won. A tidal wave of additional censorship ensued, causing Twitter to become the dullest place on earth. Free speech vanished on Twitter after excluding Trump.

On Earth Day recently, Twitter announced that it will ban advertisements contrary to liberal assertions of man-made global warming, and the European Union recently implemented the Digital Services Act to require further censorship by Twitter and other social media. Initially, the San Francisco liberals running Twitter appeared to thwart Musks takeover bid by adopting a special poison pill to frustrate it. But apparently Twitters Board of Directors had an epiphany over the weekend, after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and 17 other Republican congressmen sent them a letter Friday telling them to preserve their emails and other records as they opposed Musk.

The Republicans letter observed that the boards reactions to Elon Musks offer to purchase Twitter, and outsider opposition to Musks role in Twitters future are concerning. Twitters Board Members have fiduciary duties to the companys shareholders, the letter continued.

These duties apply despite how many corporations leaders increasingly pursue progressive policy goals divorced from shareholder interests, Jordan pointed out. Lawyers might have also advised the Twitter Board members that they would be subject to lawsuits for shareholder harm they could cause by blocking Musks bid.

Jordan is a former NCAA college wrestling champion who knows how to take down an opponent, and his timing was perfect. The congressmen who joined Jordans letter included Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT), who is a Super Bowl champion defensive back fully adept at tackling an adversary.

Why are Twitters board members scared of @elonmusk and free speech? Jordan tweeted in addition to his letter. More than 52,000 likes of Jordans tweet showed how the public supports him, and free speech.

Free speech won on Monday, when the Twitter Board reversed itself and voted unanimously to accept Musks bid. If only a little birdie could report next on the communications among the Board members who reversed their initial opposition to Musks generous offer.

Reflecting the liberal political fixation of Twitter employees, after the announcement of the boards decision to accept Musks purchase one employee asked the Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal whether Trump would be reinstated on the platform. Agrawal said he did not know.

Trump, however, stated he does know: hes not returning to Twitter even if allowed back. This sets the stage for Musk to beg and urge Trump to return, which is how the free market works best.

Trump plans to work on lifting his own platform, Truth Social, by posting soon there. Trumps platform is outside of European censorship rules, and need not cave into demands by Leftist trolls or allow their stream of vile, senseless response tweets welcomed by Twitter to litter Trumps prior account there.

"I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth," Trump declared on Monday. "I hope Elon buys Twitter because he'll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth."

Twitters current Board of Directors took in a total of $3 million in compensation annually, and Musk has vowed to have a volunteer board for Twitter to save that waste. Indeed, Musk seeks to take the company private so that it will no longer be subject to intrusion by securities regulators.

But without Trump and his supporters, it is difficult to see how Twitter can recapture its spark of 2020 during the presidential election and its aftermath. Amid its increased censorship, Twitters stock had fallen sharply in the last nine months, and its bankers reportedly advised Twitter that restoring value required accepting Musks offer.

Twitter banned free speech about Covid-19, including terminating the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for criticizing the Covid vaccine. While it seems likely that Musk will unblock Trump, it remains to be seen whether he will allow free speech against the Covid vaccine or healthy promotion of early treatment for Covid.

The decline in the value of Twitter stock prior to Musks offer was not only due to its ban of individuals, as its suppression of speech expanded broadly to many Covid tweets. When it did not outright ban someone for Covid-related tweets, Twitter posted ugly disclaimers for disfavored tweets that were critical of vaccination.

A year ago Trump observed that Twitter has become totally BORING as people flock to leave the site. He added, I guess thats what happens when you go against FREEDOM OF SPEECH!

Elon Musk needs Trump and his many supporters to turn that around, and he should not allow Europe to stifle free speech here. To succeed, a new Twitter needs to restore blocked accounts and end its censorship.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.N. special envoy for Syria announced Tuesday that he has sent invitations to the Syrian government and the opposition for an eighth round of talks starting in late May, aimed at revising the constitution of the conflict-torn country.

Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council that agreement on a revised constitution could contribute to a political solution of the 11-year conflict.

He said the seventh session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee ended on March 25, with delegations offering at least some revisions to some of the texts presented.

Pedersen said deputy special envoy Khawla Matar visited Damascus and Istanbul afterward for further discussions with the committees co-chairs and he had issued invitations for the eighth session Tuesday from May 28 to June 3 in Geneva.

He stressed that the drafting process will only move forward if the committees work is governed by a sense of compromise and constructive engagement aimed at reaching general agreement of its members.

A 2012 U.N. road map to peace in Syria approved by representatives of the United Nations, Arab League, European Union, Turkey and all five permanent Security Council members calls for the drafting of a new constitution. It ends with U.N.-supervised elections with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate. A Security Council resolution adopted in December 2015 unanimously endorsed the road map.

At a Russia-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached to form a 150-member committee to draft a new constitution. A smaller, 45-member body would do the actual drafting, including 15 members each from the government, opposition and civil society. It took until September 2019 for the committee to be formed and little progress has been achieved so far.

Pedersen stressed to the council in a video briefing that Syria is a hot conflict, not a frozen one.

He said airstrikes have increased in the northwest, there have been intensified clashes around Afrin and the northeast, and continued exchanges of rocket fire and shelling across all frontlines as well as improvised explosive devices, car bombs and other security incidents.

Pedersen urged the council to focus on Syria.

The current strategic stalemate on the ground and Syrias absence from the headlines should not mislead anyone into thinking that the conflict needs less attention or fewer resources, or that a political settlement is not urgent, he said. Indeed, a conflict of this scale requires a comprehensive solution in line with the 2012 road map.

While the war in Ukraine is quickly catching up, Pedersen said Syria remains the biggest displacement crisis in the world with 6.8 million refugees and 6.2 million people displaced in the country -- half the pre-war population.

Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya also warned that as the world turns to other conflicts Syria is on the verge of becoming yet another forgotten crisis.

Yet millions of Syrians struggle each month to survive, to feed their families and to provide a future for their children, she said. For many, their situation has never been more dire since violence erupted in 2011.

Msuya said a staggering 4.1 million people in rebel-held northwest Syria need humanitarian aid, with almost a million people, mainly women and children, living in tents, half of which are beyond their normal lifespan.

In early July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syrias northwest Idlib. Days later, the council authorized the delivery of aid through just one of those crossings, Bab al-Hawa. That one-year mandate was extended for a year on July 9, 2021.

Msuya told the council that last year the U.N. sent some 800 trucks of cross-border aid to the northwest each month, consistently reaching 2.4 million people.

Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has said aid should be controlled by the Syrian government, its ally, and delivered across conflict lines.

Msuya said three cross-line convoys have been sent to the northwest but they cannot substitute for cross-border aid deliveries at this point.

Nebenzia called this mere unwillingness to solve the problem of humanitarian deliveries from Damascus to Idlib.

Let me be frank, in such circumstances, we can hardly see any reason why the cross-border resolution should be renewed again, he said.
MIAMI (AP)  The Biden administration is unlikely to invite the leaders of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba to the upcoming Summit of the Americas, a senior State Department official said Wednesday while sidestepping questions about an eventual role for Venezuela's opposition leader at the gathering of hemispheric leaders.

The summit, to take place in Los Angeles in early June, will focus on defending democracy and human rights in the Western Hemisphere as well as addressing irregular migration, climate change and efforts to ensure equitable growth as the region emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols told reporters.

The top U.S. diplomat in the Western Hemisphere said invitations had yet to be sent but ventured that neither Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega or Cuba's Miguel Diaz-Canel would make the cut and are considered by most of the countries in the region to be undemocratic.

They are unlikely to be there, he said.

When pressed, Nichols refused to say whether opposition leader Juan Guaido  who the U.S. recognized as Venezuela's legitimate leader in 2019  would be asked to attend, saying only that a decision would be made soon.

The White House will determine who is invited, Nichols said.

The intrigue over Guaido's role comes as the Biden administration has made tentative steps to re-engage what Nichols called the Maduro regime." In March, three senior U.S. officials, including the National Security Council's Juan Gonzalez, traveled secretly to Caracas to meet with Maduro. The visit was partly prompted by U.S. National Security concerns in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has renewed interest in Venezuela, a close Russian ally that sits atop the world's largest petroleum reserves.

Maduro reciprocated by freeing two American prisoners and promising to resume negotiations with his opponents. However, amid a backlash of criticism from hardliner exiles and even some Democrats, the backchanneling has yet to produce any concrete results.

Nichols said that the U.S. remains committed to bringing Maduro back to the negotiating table with his opponents but didn't comment when asked whether inviting Guaido would advance or hinder that goal.

The democratic situation in Venezuela is an issue that we'll obviously talk about and address at the summit but I'd ask for your patience while we wait for the White House to take a decision on how that invitation will be managed, he said.

The decision to exclude Cuba's communist government would seem to dampen hopes for some sort of reconciliation following four years of escalating tensions with the Trump administration.

President Barack Obama invited Cubas Raul Castro to the summit in 2015 as part of a quiet, sustained effort to improve relations between the two Cold War adversaries and Cubas foreign minister attended the last gathering, in Peru, in 2018, which then President Donald Trump skipped.

The Biden administration has taken a similarly harsh stance against Ortega, whose re-election last year to a fourth term Nichols called a sham after numerous of his rivals were jailed.

The U.S. is hosting the Summit of the Americas first the first time since 1994, when President Bill Clinton hosted regional leaders in Miami to push for a free trade agreement stretching from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.

But with that ambitious goal abandoned long ago amid a rise in leftist, anti-American politics in several parts of the region, many experts have questioned the need for an expensive gathering of more than 30 heads of state each pushing their own bilateral agenda with Washington but often cooperating little amongst themselves.

The region in recent years has diversified its trade and diplomatic ties and the U.S. has largely stood by as Russia, China, Iran and other foreign powers hostile to the U.S. have gained influence.

Nichols praised the region for mostly joining the U.S. in condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But he said massive supply chain disruptions triggered by the conflict had stirred concerns in the region about the future of energy and food supplies.

How do we address that to make sure that the people of our hemisphere can afford the food that they need to put on their table every night? Nichols said. These are crucial issues and that's why our leaders are coming together.



Follow Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman


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IVY GOODMAN, Stonington, Girls, Lacrosse, Senior; Goodman scored 12 goals and had 13 assists in three games. Her seven assists in the Bears win over Waterford established a school record. She surpassed the 50-goal mark for the season in Stoningtons victory over Ledyard.

DEAN PONS JR., Westerly, Baseball, Senior; Pons, a senior, struck out 14 batters in the Bulldogs five-inning win against Wheeler School/Rocky Hill. Pons had an assist on the remaining out, throwing out a runner on a groundout. Pons allowed just one hit and walked only two.

KATIE PIERCE, Wheeler, Girls, Lacrosse, Sophomore; Pierce scored five goals and the Lions beat Griswold to earn their first victory of the season. Wheeler avenged an earlier loss to the Wolverines this season with the 15-4 victory.

WEEKO THOMPSON, Chariho, Girls, Track Sophomore; Thompson, a sophomore, bettered her school record in the discus at the Classical Classic meet. She finished first in the event and also won the shot put.

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Advertising giant WPP has upgraded its sales outlook after successfully striking more tie-ups with some of the world's most famous brands.

The world's biggest advertising company revealed first-quarter revenues increased by 6.7 per cent to more than 3billion as it benefited from new partnerships with the likes of electronics manufacturer Samsung and digital payments firm Square.

Other businesses to agree contracts with the firm included foodmaker Mars, which chose WPP subsidiary MediaCom as its global media partner, Dutch beverage company JDE Peet, and Turkish supermarket chain Migros.

New deals: The world's biggest advertising group revealed first-quarter revenues grew to over 3billion as it benefited from new partnerships with the likes of Samsung and Square

In total, the blue-chip listed group won $1.8billion in new business in the first three months of 2022, which comes on top of the massive contract it gained from Coca-Cola last year to run the soft drink firm's global marketing operations.

These deals helped its revenues exceed analyst forecasts to surpass 3billion, while they expanded by 9.5 per cent on a like-for-like basis when discounting pass-through costs - its preferred net sales measure.

Following this performance, it now anticipates growth of 5.5 to 6.5 per cent this financial year, compared to a previous forecast of 5 per cent, even with the present geopolitical uncertainty caused, in part, by the Ukraine War.

WPP became one of the first advertising companies to announce that it was winding down its affairs in Russia because of the country's full-scale invasion of its western neighbour.

Chief executive Mark Read said an agreement has been reached to divest WPP's Russian businesses, a move expected to cost the firm up to $45million, although the country represented less than 1 per cent of total revenue in 2021.

He added that the group were 'very mindful of the impact of the broader macroeconomic environment on our business and will respond quickly to any changes as the year progresses.'

Big wins: WPP gained $1.8billion in new business in the first quarter, which comes on top of the massive deal it agreed with Coca-Cola last year to run its global marketing campaigns

Nonetheless, Read, who succeeded advertising tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell as boss, observed there was 'strong demand' for the company's services, especially in fields such as online commerce, marketing technology and digital media.

Just this week, WPP launched an end-to-end online commerce service called Everymile that will create online stores and look after purchases for businesses.

It also recently launched The Metaverse Foundry, a team of over 700 people who will work on 3D virtual world campaigns, and bought influencer marketing agency Village Marketing, whose clients have included Amazon, Spotify and Netflix.

Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Landsown, said the firm's increasing focus on digital marketing has been a very valuable and successful strategy for the group,

She added: 'This is an important pivot, because above-the-line marketing is very expensive compared to digital tactics and is, therefore, the first to get cut from marketing budgets when the economy sours.

'WPP will not be immune to this  it still has a lot of fingers in traditional-marketing pies.

'WPP is a more nimble beast than it was, which makes it much harder to topple in times of difficulty. That said, with the macro environment still jittery at best, the medium-term outlook isn't looking totally clear.'

WPP shares closed trading 1.4 per cent lower at 976.4p on Wednesday, although their value has climbed by more than 81 per cent in the past two years.
The Chester Inn State Historic Site & Museums current exhibit shares stories from the Cedar Grove community, founded by formerly enslaved and free African Americans in Elizabethton, Tennessee.
Eastman Credit Union is Kingsport-based, not-

for-profit financial cooperative. ECU serves areas of Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Texas and is the 39th largest credit union in the nation. ECUs assets exceed $7.3 billion, and the organization serves more than 285,000 members through a network of 34 branches, service centers, and offices and various online options. For more information, go to www.ecu.org.
Russian energy giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) said on Wednesday it had halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay for gas in roubles, the Kremlins toughest response yet to sanctions imposed by the West over the conflict in Ukraine.

It was the first time Russia has cut off gas to European customers since Moscow launched its invasion on Feb. 24.

Gazprom has completely suspended gas supplies to Bulgargaz and PGNiG (PGN.WA) due to absence of payments in roubles, Gazprom said in a statement, referring to the Polish and Bulgarian gas companies.

Polish state-owned PGNiG (PGN.WA) confirmed its supplies from Gazprom had been cut but said it was still supplying its own clients as needed.

Cutting gas supplies is a breach of contract and PGNiG reserves the right to seek compensation and will use all available contractual and legal means to do so, the company said.

Poland and Bulgaria, both NATO and EU members, had earlier said Russia would stop supplying gas to them on Wednesday.

Supplies from Gazprom (GAZP.MM) cover about 50% of Polands consumption. Poland said it did not need to draw on reserves and its gas storage was 76% full.

The executive director of Bulgarian gas network operator Bulgartransgaz had told Reuters supplies to Bulgaria were still flowing. Hungary and Austria also said gas supplies were normal.

Russias energy exports have largely continued since the war began, an exception to sanctions that have otherwise cut off Moscow from much of its trade with the West.

Ukraine has accused Russia of blackmailing Europe over energy in an attempt to break its allies as fighting entered a third month. Moscow has demanded that European countries pay for gas in roubles. Buyers say this violates contracts which call for payment in euros.

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was beginning the gas blackmail of Europe.

Russia is trying to shatter the unity of our allies, Yermak said.

Bulgaria, which is almost completely reliant on Russian gas imports, said the proposed new payment scheme was in breach of its arrangement with Gazprom. It has held talks to import liquefied natural gas through neighbouring Turkey and Greece.

Since a Russian invasion force was driven back at the outskirts of Kyiv last month, Moscow has refocused its operation on eastern Ukraine, starting a new offensive from several directions to fully capture two provinces known as the Donbas.

Ukraines general staff acknowledged that Russia had made gains at a number of areas in the east, capturing outskirts of the towns of Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody on one front, and the Zarichne and Novoshtokivske settlements in Donetsk region.

It said an assault on Azovstal, a steel works where Ukrainian defenders are holding out in the ruins of the port of Mariupol, was continuing.

In the south, Ukraine said it had attacked Snake Island, a Black Sea outpost seized by Russia early in the war when defenders became heroes to Ukrainians for rejecting a Russian demand to surrender with an obscenity.

Ukraine says Russia is trying to organise a fake referendum in Kherson, the only regional capital it has seized so far, to try to pry it from Ukraine.

There has also been increasing concern over the prospect of the conflict widening to neighbouring Moldova, where pro-Russian separatists in a small region occupied since the 1990s by Russian troops have reported several explosions in recent days.

The invasion of Ukraine has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble, and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad.

Moscow calls its actions a special operation to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West call this is a pretext for an unprovoked war to seize territory.

The United States and its allies have increasingly been supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons for the fight in the east. More than 40 countries met at a U.S. air base in Germany on Tuesday to discuss Ukraines defence. Germany announced its first delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, including Gepard light tanks equipped with anti-aircraft guns.

Blasts were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine, authorities said, and an ammunition depot in the Belgorod province caught fire. The regional governor said the blaze near Staraya Nelidovka village had been put out and no civilians had been hurt. read more

Russia this month accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters and opening fire on several villages in the province. A massive fire also broke out this week at a fuel depot in nearby Bryansk. Ukraine does not confirm responsibility for reported incidents on Russian territory.

British military intelligence said Ukraine retained control over most of its air space and Russia had failed to effectively destroy Ukraines air force or its air defences.

Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday dismantled a huge Soviet-era monument in the centre of Kyiv meant to symbolise friendship with Russia.

We now see what this friendship is  destruction of Ukrainian citieskilling tens of thousands of peaceful people, Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Ukraine accused Moscow on Tuesday of trying to drag Moldovas breakaway region of Transdniestria into its war on Kyiv after authorities in the Moscow-backed region said they had been targeted by a series of attacks.

Authorities in Transdniestria, an unrecognised sliver of land bordering southwestern Ukraine, said that explosions had damaged two radio masts that broadcast in Russian and that one of its military units had been attacked.

It provided few details, but blamed Ukraine, raising its terrorist threat level to red and introducing checkpoints around its towns.

The traces of these attacks lead to Ukraine, Russian news agency TASS quoted Vadim Krasnoselsky, the self-styled president of Transdniestria, as saying. I assume that those who organised this attack have the purpose of dragging Transdniestria into the conflict.

Reuters could not independently verify the accounts of the attacks.

The Kremlin, which has troops and peacekeepers in the region, said it was seriously concerned.

Ukraine fears the region could be used as a launch pad for new attacks. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy blamed Moscow, saying Russia was showing Moldova what to expect if it continued to support Kyiv.

We have seen that another step is being planned by the Russian Federation  it is clear why, really, to destabilize the situation in the region, he told a news conference with the visiting head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Ukraine condemns the desperate attempts to draw the Transdniestrian region of Moldova into the full-scale war against Ukraine, the foreign ministry said earlier.

It noted that the incidents followed recent comments from Russia about extending its reach in the region.

Moldova, which is sensitive to any sign of worsening security in the enclave, called an emergency security council meeting after the reports.

From the information we have at this moment, these escalation attempts stem from factions within the Transdniestrian region that are pro-war forces and interested in destabilising the situation in the region, President Maia Sandu told a news conference.

She said the Moldovan security council had recommended stepping up the combat readiness of forces, increasing the number of patrols and checks near its border with Transdniestria and monitoring critical infrastructure more closely.

Russia has had troops permanently based in Transdniestria since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Last week, a senior Russian military official said the second phase of what Russia calls its special military operation in Ukraine included a plan to take full control of southern Ukraine and improve its access to Transdniestria. read more

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was following events in Transdniestria closely.

Later on Tuesday, the Russian foreign ministry said that Moscow wanted to avoid a scenario in which it had to intervene in Transdniestria, the RIA news agency reported.

Moldovas Sandu described the situation as complex and tense, but said she had no plans to hold direct talks about it with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Washington was looking at the cause of recent violence in Transdniestria, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Not really sure what thats all about, but its something that we will stay focused on, Austin said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all concerned to refrain from any statements or actions that could escalate tensions in the region, U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said.

SOURCE: REUTERS
ALBANY  On April 12, former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin was charged with steering $50,000 in taxpayer funds to a nonprofit in exchange for campaign contributions from the charitys president, Gerald Migdol.

One outstanding question from the federal indictment: What ultimately happened to the $50,000 grant to Migdols nonprofit, Friends of Public School Harlem, Inc.?

That question is answered in records provided under a Freedom of Information Law filed by the Times Union with the state Department of Education. That agency had been charged with administering the grant.

At the end of the 2019 legislative session, the state Senate passed its annual bullet aid resolution, which allows senators to steer grants to individual education-related projects within their legislative districts. While the resolution does not state which senators steered which projects, it was Benjamin that steered the $50,000 to the Migdol charity while he was then serving in the state Senate.

The fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy classifies the bullet aid funding as pork-barrel spending, allowing lawmakers to distribute money to favored projects outside the normal state budget process  and to claim credit for landing the funding.

According to an application submitted to the Department of Education, Friends of Public School Harlem, Inc., planned to use the money to provide pre-packaged, robust school supply kits to public school students in Harlem, a Manhattan neighborhood that Benjamin represented in the state Senate. In turn, the nonprofit planned to contract with an Illinois-based vendor, Kits for Kidz, which produces prepackaged school supply kits.

One question raised by the process is why Friends of Public School Harlem would be truly necessary in such an arrangement. "Bullet aid" funds can be steered directly to school districts. State government also presumably could contract with a vendor like Kits for Kidz through funds allocated during a normal budget process.

That would have deprived Benjamin and nonprofits president, Migdol, from claiming credit. In September 2019, Benjamin presented Migdol and the nonprofit with an oversized novelty check for $50,000, according to the indictment.

The federal indictment states that Friends of Public School Harlem was not on a list of projects for which Benjamin had originally sought Senate funding in 2019. Yet late in the legislative session, Benjamin allegedly sought the funds for the nonprofit in exchange for Migdol's campaign donations.

Migdol is also a major real estate developer in Harlem, working in an industry heavily regulated by local government, and such donations might generate goodwill. On the other hand, Migdol has donated hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to the charity, and according to the records, no one from the nonprofit received any compensation for the charitable work.

One argument in favor of state lawmakers steering the taxpayer-funded grants is that they know their own districts needs, including whether certain segments are under-resourced.

The records show that after Benjamin steered the grant in June 2019, its approval by the Department of Education faced a delay, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a related state fiscal crunch. After the state Division of Budget allowed state agencies to resume approving those types of grants, the application for Friends of Public School Harlem was finally approved in July.

According to the Department of Education, however, the nonprofit never sought reimbursement from the state for any expenses. So none of the $50,000 was ever paid out to the nonprofit.

Six months before the grants final approval, Benjamin and Migdol began to face scrutiny when The City raised questions about the validity of more than 20 donations steered to Benjamins failed campaign for New York City comptroller, though an intermediary named Michael Murphy, a Migdol associate who is also treasurer of Friends of Public School Harlem.

In August, Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed Benjamin as lieutenant governor. In November, Migdol was indicted for allegedly giving straw donations in other peoples names to Benjamin's campaign, and subsequently began cooperating with the Manhattan U.S. Attorneys Office, the same office that obtained Benjamin's indictment earlier this month.

Benjamin, who resigned as lieutenant governor on the day he was indicted, maintains his innocence. Benjamins attorney has argued that Benjamins solicitation of campaign contributions was not illegal, since he was not personally enriching himself. Migdol is not accused of financially benefiting from the $50,000 grant, either, although the indictment does allege that Migdol sought Benjamins help in pursuing a zoning variance permitting construction at a Migdol property in Harlem.
The Village of Saugerties is approaching the 1.8 million gallons-per-day maximum its reservoir can provide, sharpening concerns about large-scale developments in the village that could further strain the water supply, such as the proposed Winston Farm project. The issue was among those discussed at the Saugerties village board meeting in early April.

The historic 800-acre farm, a rare unfragmented parcel with ties to George Washington, Woodstock 94 and a wide range of wildlife, sits atop the aquifer. In 2020, the farm was sold to three local businessmen  John Mullen, Anthony Montano and Randy Richers  for about $4 million. In 2017, the property was listed for over $10 million.

The trio has proposed rezoning and developing the land into a $600 million mixed-use destination venue that would include a 10,000-seat amphitheater, adventure park, multi-unit housing, technology park, campgrounds, and hiking trails. The Winston Farm project was presented to the Saugerties Town Board in September, and developers filed a zoning change request to create a planned development district.

Any actual building on the property, which sits adjacent to the NY Thruway exit at the intersection of routes 32 and 212, is still years away; an 18-to-24-month State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) is required and will commence shortly, says a spokesperson for Winston Farm. But the battle over the use of the land rages on today.

The two biggest things are the water issues and the habitat destruction. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, says Kate Hagerman, program manager at Catskill Mountainkeeper. The developers are envisioning a massive commercial development that would destroy intact habitats on the site and could impact drinking water, species of concern, and communities further downstream to the Hudson.

They asked for the moon in the initial plan and are seeing whats going to stick and what they can get, says Ken Devine, a Winston Farm neighbor and member of Beautiful Saugerties, a group of about 200 local citizens concerned about the scale of the proposed project.

Scoping will be the first step in the environmental review process and will begin soon, according to a Winston Farm spokesperson.

History of fighting proposed uses of Winston Farm

The Ulster County Office of Economic Development

This is not the first time development plans for Winston Farm have spurred community action. None of them, including a casino, have ever come to fruition. Theres even a mural in town depicting triumph over a proposed landfill on the property. Fighting Winston Farm proposals is in Saugerties DNA.

There is a deep-rooted history on the property, says Fred Costello, Saugerties Town Supervisor. James O. Winston, who the farm was named after, was the primary contractor on the Ashokan Dam. George Washington was said to have spent the night at the farm during the Revolutionary War. Its where Woodstock 94 was held.

Most recently, the parcel was owned by a family, the Schallers, for about 40 years. They sought economic uses for their land but were frequently rejected by the town. Frustrated, they worked with the town to find out what the community would accept  a laborious process that took place over a decade ago.

People wanted public access and open space, recalls Costello, plus local jobs and non-intensive use of the land. The next step for the Schallers would have been to rezone the land to a planned development district  as the current developers are seeking to do  which would have triggered a costly environmental review looking at impacts on water, habitat, traffic, and more. The Schallers declined and eventually sold the property.

The new owners are picking up where the Schallers left off. It is their want to finish the zoning change and  go through this process to create (something) the community agrees would be more representative of highest and best use of the land, celebrate historic features, and create open space that the public hopes to see in that development, Costello says.

Local owners: we would construct a wellhead

At a media briefing in March, and at an Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce meeting on April 20, the Winston Farm ownership trio shared their plans to develop the land in a responsible way, saying that the proposed ideas are a range of things they are contemplating at this early stage. While everything is on the table, they said, the environmental review will ultimately winnow the ideas list.

Still, Costello likes the amphitheater concept. The science we collect will define what the impacts of traffic and noise might be.

Considering traffic and water consultants and legal fees, the review will likely cost the developers millions of dollars, says Costello. The town will be the lead agent on the review, which raises public concern that Saugerties officials have a vested interest in working with the developers to see the site prepped, rezoned and sold off.

Costello makes no secret of wanting the rezoning. Under current zoning, the owners could build homes and retail, which does not address the communitys desires for jobs, affordable housing and open green space, according to the 2011 review process with the Schallers.

I cant speak for everyone in town, but a high percent think that would be a failure on everybody who can make a differences part, he says.

This may all be moot; environmental impact could undo any plans. There are statutes in place for air pollution. With all the wildlife that lives there, how in the world can they legitimize the destruction of the woods and the fields? says Marjory Greenberg-Vaughn, a Winston Farm neighbor and member of Beautiful Saugerties, referring to birds, bears, bobcats, turtles, salamanders, and pollinators currently living in unfragmented forests and intact meadows.

Water appears to be the most obvious potential dealbreaker. Saugerties is facing a looming crisis in terms of its water supply, and Winston Farm sits on the aquifer. Its possible Saugerties could partner with private developers for water, which begs more than a few questions about public resources.

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On the Winston Farm website, the developers say they would construct another wellhead, water treatment facility and distribution network on the Winston Farm property to provide a much-needed secondary source for the village and potable water for the Winston Farm project.

Even a fairly extensive development of that property could lead us to more water resources than we started with. Thats rare. You dont see that often. We dont know the answer yet. Its a possibility, says Costello.

Murky waters

Devine, who is turning 50 acres adjacent to Winston Farm into a farming start-up  that parcel was used for Woodstock 94 camping and parking  is certain water puts the developers in a precarious position. One of the developers, Richers, is also involved with a car wash proposal that would be built near Winston Farm.

All three properties are inside an environmentally sensitive aquifer overlay district which is why nothing too untoward can happen here, says Devine.

This project  called Denier car wash  triggered a 2020 hydrological study that concluded that every effort should be made to protect the water and that alternate project locations outside the aquifer overlay district should be considered. A car wash is a lot smaller in scope than the Winston Farm proposal.

I cant believe the town hasnt thrown it out yet. They have opened this Pandoras Box and put water back on the table as the key issue. This is like when New York State was considering fracking. New York didnt go through with fracking. Pennsylvania did. Those people are still drinking bottled water, says Devine.

Any pollution entering the aquifer  from a car wash or a total revamp of Winston Farm  would be hard to undo.

On an environmental assessment form, the three owners show plans to build 200 acres of impervious surfaces (roads, roofs, and parking lots), as well as 175 acres of lawns, and would fill in an acre of the Beaverkill stream corridor.

This is important because stormwater picks up the pollution thats on the blacktop as well as pesticides and herbicides, which they have said they plan to use, and will all flow into the Beaverkill Stream  which flows into the Kaaterskill Creek which eventually feeds into the Hudson River, says Hagerman.

Clearcutting of trees also negatively impacts the amount of water available to the aquifer as well as water quality. Hagerman wishes the developers would withdraw their zoning petition and consult with independent hydrologists and ecologists to assess the natural assets. Then they could re-propose a smarter project that treads lightly on the aquifer and wildlife.

If the process is successful we arent going to make everyone happy, says Costello, noting that there will be no shovel in the ground until 2024  if we are lucky.

I probably wont be here by the time they put that shovel in the ground, which would be okay with me, says Greenberg-Vaughn, who is 77. Do you remember Tiananmen Square? Im going to lay down. Let them run over me.
CHESTER  Catskill Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation board members on Tuesday dismissed the findings of a recently released 2018 state inspector general's report that said their longtime president mismanaged the public corporation now flirting with bankruptcy.

At its first meeting since the report's public release, the board strongly defended President Donald Groth's work and said the inspector general's report was a compilation of untrue allegations.

Board members said they had no previous conversations with Groth about the report's findings before Tuesday. During the nearly four-hour board meeting none questioned Groth about its findings.

"We know it's all fabricated and probably politically motivated," said board member Vincent Tamagna. "We spend our time trying to figure out how we can get (the) OTB to survive. It's not worth our time."

Board members also claimed the state Gaming Commission, which regulates OTBs, lied to the Times Union when the commission said it had forced the OTB to clean up its act in the wake of the report. Board members said they never saw the report until it was released in March and the commission did not address it with them previously.

"Catskill OTB was informed of the findings and concerns," said Gaming Commission spokesman Brad Maione. "The Catskill Board has direct fiduciary responsibility over all personnel matters and business actions of the corporation. Unfortunately the Board has an apparent continuing history of failing to exercise proper oversight and accountability."

The inspector general's report found Groth had spent millions to rent warehouses and office space which he filled with worthless equipment and trash. The inspector general also concluded Groth misused his company car, engaged in a romantic relationship with a subordinate and collected his state pension while working as a salaried OTB employee.

Groth has denied any wrongdoing.

"Catskill OTB has delivered amazing results for New York state, and I will not let the recent news and false allegations from many years ago tarnish the tremendous work" of the OTB and its board over the past "48.5 years," OTB President Donald Groth, who has lead the corporation for decades, said Tuesday.

The inspector general's findings came when the OTB Corporation, which runs many locations for horse race betting around the Hudson Valley, was in severe financial decline.

According to the OTB's 2021 financial statements, shared with the Times Union Tuesday, the corporation has not been profitable since 2016. In 2018, the OTB requested permission from the Gaming Commission to file for bankruptcy. Since that time, the commission has not approved the OTB's request to file, according to the financial statement and board members.

The inspector general's findings prompted some state legislators to pursue legislation to replace the Catskill board and has prompted new conversations about merging Catskill OTB and the Capital District Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation, which has avoided Catskill's financial struggles. Some local county lawmakers have demanded Groth be removed from his post.

The Gaming Commission said county lawmakers, who can appoint people to the OTB board, should hold their appointees accountable, too.

Board members said Tuesday they have not been part of any conversations about merging Catskill OTB with the Albany-area OTB. Groth said a possible merger has been considered in the past, but his board opposes it.

William Evans, who has served on the board for 34 years, said the inspector general's report did not seem accurate to him. "What I've been reading is in such stark contrast to what I've witnessed being on this board for many, many years."

Board Chair Donald Utter said to his knowledge, none of the findings were referred to state, local or federal law enforcement agencies.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

The inspector general's findings on Groth's use of his company car were referred to the state Department of Taxation and Finance as a possible violation; the department and Groth declined to comment on the matter.

Groth and board members blamed the OTB's financial issues on declining public interest in horse racing and increasing competition between gambling businesses in New York, resulting in plummeting revenues for Catskill OTB.

Board members emphasized these constraints and said they've appealed for help to the legislature and Gaming Commission  for example, requesting permission to operate video lottery terminals like some other OTBs  but their requests have not been granted.

During the pandemic, the OTB contracted its operations. It closed its full-service betting locations and laid off employees, while continuing betting online and at kiosks.

The OTB posted gross revenue of about $2 million in 2021, while its operating costs totaled $2.5 million, according to financial statements distributed Tuesday's meeting. The OTB is required to distribute a portion of its profits to horse racing causes. What's left is divided between county governments. The OTB paid $1.4 million to horse racing tracks and associations in 2021, but had no money left over to make obligatory payments to local counties.

Meanwhile, one former Catskill OTB employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, told the Times Union Tuesday he agreed with the inspector general's findings and Groth has been "wasting public funds" for more than a decade.

"I don't believe his board knows anything about these matters," the employee said. "I don't think any one of them ever visit the headquarters office."
BALLSTON SPA  Assault charges lodged against a 17-year-old girl in an alleged stabbing at a Halfmoon apartment complex were dismissed on Tuesday in Saratoga County Family Court. She is the same teen seen on video in an earlier, separate incident trying to pull a Saratoga County sheriff's deputy off her autistic brother at Target in Clifton Park.

Her attorney, Jasper Mills, alleges she and her family are being intimidated by police. Mills said the charges of assault involved in the alleged stabbing were dismissed as there was no evidence that his client stabbed another teen girl in Halfmoon early Thursday morning during an apparent dispute about a boy.

The Times Union is not naming Mills' client because she is underage.

You have accusatory instruments that were drawn up that were a stretch at the very least, Mills said. In the supporting deposition, the alleged victim stated they dont know how or when they got cut. That was a statement attached to an accusatory instrument so you cant necessarily charge anyone specifically with stabbing another individual when the victim says they dont know how or when they got cut.

Initially, State Police charged the accused teen with possession of a criminal weapon, a charge dismissed at her arraignment on Thursday, as well as endangering the welfare of a child and felony assault. The endangering the welfare of a child charge was also dismissed on Tuesday.

Mills client is still facing a felony assault charge for the incident at the Clifton Park Target on April 18 in which police allege she hit a Saratoga County sheriffs deputy with a soap dish after he tackled her 14-year-old autistic brother onto the store floor.

Since that incident, which was caught on video, the girl and her family, Mills said, have been a target of police. That includes, he said, authorities ransacking the familys home searching for blood evidence in the alleged stabbing case, even though the incident did not happen inside the home.

The family is terrified, absolutely terrified, Mills said. They havent been home since then. I think that there is an ongoing bullish behavior by the police as it pertains to my client and her family. They are continuously being harassed and they are afraid. I dont know if this would happen if not for this incident at Target.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Mills said his client, who is Black, would not be suffering at the hands of police if she were white.

State Police said they could not comment on the Halfmoon stabbing as it is an ongoing investigation. Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen said she could not comment either as the court documents are sealed.

As for the Target case, Heggen said it will be handled by Saratoga County attorney Michael Hartnett because the accused is a juvenile and the incident did not meet the criteria of significant physical injury.

Both the Saratoga County sheriffs deputy and the two teens in Target were injured in the scuffle at the store. Deputies never filed any charges against the autistic boy who, his mother said, suffered a head injury when he was thrown on the floor.

If law enforcement did something wrong, they should acknowledge the wrongs and move forward, Mills said. The intimidation is wholly inappropriate.
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WILTON  The Grant Cottage State Historic Site, where former President Ulysses S. Grant completed his memoirs shortly before his death, has been expanded.

The former Mount McGregor State Correctional Facilitys 4-acre exercise yard has been transferred to the Grant site. It will accommodate new amenities, including an outdoor pavilion for programs and events, accessible parking and historical interpretation of the original Hotel Balmoral, the first development on Mount McGregor, officials said.

The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation announced the transfer on Wednesday, the bicentennial of Grants birth. Officials also observed a ceremony celebrating the sites dedication as a National Historic Landmark.

The public has expressed growing interest in educational programs and events at the site, according to state officials, who also touted repurposing the mothballed prison facility, which is something the state has struggled with as it closes prisons statewide due to falling incarceration numbers.

Finding new uses for the shuttered facilities, said Empire State Development Acting Commissioner and President and CEO-designate Hope Knight, is important for the health and vitality of the communities that surround them.

We are thrilled that this parcel will serve as a historical and educational draw to the region, Knight said in a statement.

The Parks agency didnt respond to an email asking about the practical effect of the transfer if the former prison site was already state-owned.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Grant completed his memoirs at the site weeks before his death from cancer in July 1885.

Located below the summit of Mount McGregor in Saratoga County, the solar-powered cottage surrounded by 43 acres is kept as it was during the Grant family's stay. Open to the public seasonally by the Friends of the Ulysses S. Grant Cottage, visitors can tour its first floor, which includes items that belonged to the 18th U.S. president.

The cottage first opened as a historic site in 1890 when it was supported by funds raised by veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic and was granted National Historic Landmark status in January 2021. The former Union Army leader has seen a reassessment of his legacy in recent years, according to The New York Times, and admirers are campaigning to posthumously elevate him to the Army's highest rank.

A joint resolution introduced last fall in Congress was co-sponsored by several New York lawmakers, including Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a Harlem Democrat, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the No. 3 Republican in the House.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  Several civil rights groups are suing South Carolina over conditions at its juvenile lockups, alleging that children in state custody are subject to violence and isolation while deprived of educational or rehabilitative programs.

The lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday comes less than two weeks after officials at the state Department of Juvenile Justice agreed to make changes at its main detention center following a federal investigation that found the state was violating the civil rights of youths housed there.

But that agreement doesn't go far enough because it only addresses issues at the Broad River Road Complex in Columbia, the groups said in their complaint, arguing that the Department of Juvenile Justice also needs to fix conditions at four other facilities across the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina, the NAACP Office of General Counsel and two law firms filed the lawsuit on behalf of the state's NAACP conference, the criminal justice reform organization Justice 360, and Disability Rights South Carolina.

Echoing findings by federal and state investigators in recent years, the complaint describes routine youth-on-youth violence and violence by staff against the youths that agency employees often ignore or enable. Children who commit minor infractions are also placed in isolation, spending up to 23 hours a day in small cells without natural light.

One officer told a 16-year-old who was assaulted by three other children earlier this year to stay away from facility cameras so he would not be seen bleeding, the complaint alleges. Another child was beaten and choked by five members of the agency's police force while handcuffed and shackled over accusations of robbing staff; he was then hogtied and blocked from filing a grievance, according to the complaint.

A lack of staff means children are often detained past the legal limit of 45 days at evaluation centers across the state, the groups said. At the main pre-trial detention center in Columbia, some youths sleep in plastic makeshift boat beds because of a lack of bed space. Youths live in unsanitary conditions, with human waste on the floors and cockroaches in the food, the complaint states.

South Carolina exposes the children in its juvenile justice system  most of whom are Black  to barbaric conditions, said Brenda Murphy, president of the state NAACP, in a statement. Our most vulnerable children must receive support, not punishment.

A spokesperson for the Department of Juvenile Justice declined to comment Wednesday because the agency had not yet been served with the lawsuit.

The complaint traces the violent and unsafe conditions at the state's juvenile facilities back to the 1960s, when Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Howard James wrote about boys being beat up "with fists, rubber hoses, ropes, broken hoe handles and broom handles, and other weapons.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

A federal judge sided with civil rights groups who sued the juvenile justice agency in 1995, finding that facilities were overcrowded and understaffed, as children lived in unsanitary conditions without adequate medical care or education. The agency remained under a federal consent decree in that case until 2003.

In more recent years, legislators have been critical of the agency since a string of gang-related riots at the main prison in 2015 and 2016 that resulted in fires and property damage. A subsequent 2017 state audit led to the resignation of then-director Sylvia Murray.

Freddie Pough, Murray's successor, stepped down last year after another scathing state audit, a no-confidence vote by state senators and a walkout by correctional officers at the Broad River Road Complex.

Eden Hendrick, who took over last fall after Poughs resignation, has outlined to lawmakers her planned overhaul of the agency. The interim leader has restructured the agencys leadership, modernized facilities, instituted sign-on and retention bonuses at the agency to try to fill correctional officer vacancies and asked lawmakers for funding to move mentally ill youth out of detention facilities they are illegally housed at, she said earlier this year.
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LOS ANGELES (AP)  The Los Angeles County sheriff on Tuesday disputed allegations he orchestrated a cover-up of an incident where a deputy knelt on a handcuffed inmates head and said a Los Angeles Times reporter who used leaked documents and video to first report on the case is part of his criminal investigation.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva's comments at a news conference Tuesday brought immediate criticism from the newspaper's leadership and First Amendment advocates. Hours later, the sheriff clarified in a series of tweets that his agency has no interest in pursuing, nor are we pursuing, criminal charges against any reporters.

The paper's general counsel sent a letter to the sheriff protesting the investigation and the top editor condemned Villanueva's remarks, calling it an illegal attempt to criminalize news reporting."

Sheriff Alex Villanuevas attack on Alene Tchekmedyians First Amendment rights for doing newsworthy reporting on a video that showed a deputy kneeling on a handcuffed inmates head is outrageous, Executive Editor Kevin Merida said in a statement. We will vigorously defend Tchekmedyians and the Los Angeles Times rights in any proceeding or investigation brought by authorities.

The incident with the inmate occurred in a county courthouse on March 10, 2021  two days after jury selection began for the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder for pressing his knee against George Floyds neck for up to 9 1/2 minutes.

The video shows Deputy Douglas Johnson directing inmate Enzo Escalante to move up against a wall in the courthouse. Escalante swings at Johnson and punches him repeatedly in the face. Three other deputies help Johnson wrestle Escalante to the ground and handcuff him.

The LA Times reported that Johnson had his knee on Escalante's head for more than three minutes, even after the inmate had been handcuffed, placed face-down and did not appear to be resisting. Escalante  who was awaiting trial on murder and other charges  was taken to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

Johnson was removed from duty months later and is under criminal investigation, Villanueva said during Tuesday's news conference. No charges have been filed against the deputy.

Escalante has pleaded not guilty to two counts of resisting an officer. He is being represented by the public defenders office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Escalante has filed a federal lawsuit against members of the sheriffs department, including Villanueva, that alleges his civil rights were violated.

On Monday, Commander Allen Castellano filed a legal claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, that accused Villanueva of first blocking and stalling the investigation into Johnson's use of force, and then working to cover up the incident and retaliating against whistleblowers.

Villanueva, who oversees the nations largest sheriffs department, is up for reelection and Castellano's claim states the sheriff was seeking to avoid bad publicity during his campaign.

The sheriff on Tuesday said he did not see the video until eight months after the incident, but Castellano wrote in his claim that Villanueva had viewed it within days.

Villanueva called Castellano a disgruntled employee who made false claims. The sheriff also said the video obtained by the Times was stolen property that was removed illegally and all parties" to the act are subject to his investigation of the leak.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

She received the information and then she put it to her own use," he said, referring to Tchekmedyian. "What she receives legally and puts to her own use and what she receives illegally and the LA Times uses it, Im pretty sure thats a huge complex area of law and freedom of the press and all that. However, when its stolen material, at some point you have to become part of the story.

During his news conference Villanueva displayed photos of Tchekmedyian, LA County Inspector General Max Huntsman and former sheriff's Commander Eli Vera under the heading: WHAT DID THEY KNOW AND WHEN DID THEY KNOW IT?

In Tchekmedyian's original story, Vera said Villanueva viewed the video at an aides desk within days of the incident. Vera is running against Villanueva and also was commander overseeing court services where the incident occurred. Huntsman is investigating the allegations Villanueva lied about the incident and issued a subpoena ordering Villanueva to either testify or turn over records.

Tchekmedyian, who regularly covers the sheriff's department, attended the news conference and Villanueva ignored her questions.

The sheriff has previously targeted other reporters for their work, including when his deputies arrested a KPCC public radio reporter in 2020 while she was filming an arrest during a protest.

David Loy, legal director of the California-based First Amendment Coalition, said Villanueva's probe into Tchekmedyian was an assault on press freedoms.

The press has an absolute right to report on and publish information of public concern, even if that tape is otherwise confidential and leaked to them," Loy said. "This is bedrock First Amendment law.
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ALBANY  For decades, policymakers have tried to contend with rising cesarean section delivery rates in New York hospitals.

In 2018, New Yorks C-section delivery rate was 32 percent, one of the highest in the nation and well above the Centers for Disease Control's ideal range of 10-15 percent.

Since the hourlong surgery is typically more efficient than vaginal delivery and insurance reimbursement rates for C-sections are higher, medical facilities and doctors have little incentive to scale back the number of unnecessary procedures, observers say.

But studies associate cesarean births with higher maternal mortality rates as well as long-term health costs to the child. Lawmakers and women's health advocates on Tuesday rallied to bring attention to a slew of proposed bills they say will empower patients and help drive down the state's C-section rate.

A bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Westchester, would require hospitals and birth centers to make five years of maternity data available on the state Department of Health website to help maternity patients make informed decisions when choosing where to give birth.

While there are scenarios where a cesarean delivery is the safest option, C-sections can pose immediate risks for the mother and baby, and can have negative consequences for women who want to continue to grow their families," Paulin said. "We must educate expecting mothers, ensure informed consent for C-sections, and train providers to develop knowledge and skills on approaches that will maximize the likelihood of vaginal birth."

Another proposed law would establish a cesarean births review board for the purpose of lowering cesarean birth rates and improving maternal health.

Last year, the state established a maternal mortality review board with the intent of making childbirth safer and reducing racial disparities.

The board's first report further linked C-section numbers to maternal mortality rates. The board found that there were 41 pregnancy-related deaths in 2018, with hemorrhage and embolism as the two leading causes. The report determined that all of the pregnancy-related deaths caused by hemorrhage were preventable.

Other risks associated with the procedure include a ruptured uterus, unplanned hysterectomy, and blood transfusions, which can cause long-term health issues.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Most at risk are women of color, who studies show are four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related deaths than other women.

A third piece of legislation provides an insurance premium reduction to physicians and licensed midwives who complete a risk management strategies course in obstetrics or midwifery.

"Hospitals with practicing midwives have lower rates of cesarean births," New York Midwives President Helena Grant said in a statement.

A final bill would add a women's health care provider to the New York State Public Health and Health Planning Council, which reviews applications for birthing centers and reproductive health care clinics.
ALBANY  An independent hearing officer recommended a two-year suspension of thoroughbred trainer Bob Baffert on Wednesday, siding with the New York Racing Association in their unprecedented push to bar one of horse racing's most decorated trainers from their tracks in the wake of a drug scandal at last year's Kentucky Derby and multiple other medication violations.

Retired state Supreme Court Justice O. Peter Sherwood found that Baffert engaged in conduct detrimental to the best interests of the sport, the health and safety of jockeys and horses, and NYRA's business operations.

"NYRA has reasonably concluded that it will not condone Baffert's reckless practices, outrageous behavior and substance violations, each of which compromises the integrity of the sport," Sherwood wrote in a report issued Wednesday. "I conclude that NYRA has reasonably determined that he should be excluded from the race tracks for a lengthy period."

Sherwood's recommendation is not final. It must be accepted by a three member panel of NYRA appointees. According to the process laid out by NYRA, the panel's final decision could be issued in about a month.

The legal teams representing Baffert and NYRA have an opportunity to file "exceptions" to the hearing officer's report for the panel to consider.

Clark Brewster, an attorney for Baffert, said he and his client anticipated the recommendation issued Wednesday and plan to fight the decision.

"We will contest this recommendation until we ultimately find a neutral, detached decision-maker that doesnt rubber stamp the NYRA lawyers demands," Brewster said in a statement.

Brewster noted Baffert has never had a medical violation in New York and that past medication violations in other states were invalid and should be discounted.

Sherwood recommended the panel consider giving Baffert credit for the 59 days during which the trainer already was excluded from NYRA tracks following the Derby. If approved, Baffert's suspension from NYRA tracks could start in July.

NYRA's case against Baffert marks the first time the racing association, which operates Saratoga Race Course, Aqueduct Racetrack and Belmont Park, is using an administrative procedure to try to suspend a trainer from its tracks. Baffert and NYRA participated in multiple days of administrative hearings in January as part of the proceedings.

After the Derby, NYRA at first attempted to suspend Baffert without holding any hearings, but Baffert challenged that action in court and a judge ruled that NYRA could suspend Baffert but only using a process that awarded Baffert due process.

In a separate case, NYRA is also expected to hold administrative hearings this year to suspend another trainer, Marcus Vitali.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Baffert's horse Medina Spirit took first place at the Kentucky Derby but then tested positive for a substance not permitted on race day. That test triggered a number of legal and administrative battles in multiple states as Baffert attempted to defend his horse's win and fend of consequences, including suspensions and fines.

Baffert had also run afoul of horse racing's drug rules in other states in the 14 months prior to the Derby.

In February, Kentucky regulators suspended Baffert for 90 days as a result of Medina Spirit's positive test and disqualified the horse's Derby win. The New York Gaming Commission honored that suspension earlier in April by ruling Baffert will not be allowed to compete at horse racing tracks in this state through at least July 2.

Baffert was also banned for two years from Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby, which Sherwood referenced in his report Wednesday.

"Notably, the Churchill Downs, a private enterprise similar to NYRA, has barred Baffert from its facilities for two years based principally on Bafferts use of prohibited drugs in Medina Spirit during the Kentucky Derby in 2021 and his increasingly extraordinary explanation for the presence of banned drugs in horses he entered in races," Sherwood wrote.

"Baffert has not established grounds for any shorter period of exclusion at the NYRA racetracks," Sherwood continued. "Accordingly, I recommend that the Panel revoke Bafferts credentials for entering his horses in races at the racetracks and bar him from using stables at the racetracks for a period of two years, commencing when Baffert obtains a valid license."

Medina Spirit died in December at Santa Anita Park racetrack. According to the California Horse Racing Board, a necropsy showed no definite cause of death.
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COLONIE  The North Colonie school superintendent sent an internal letter to teachers and staff Wednesday addressing speculation that Shaker High School teacher Meghan Marohn was experiencing problems at work before her disappearance.

It's unclear what the 42-year-old teacher's employment status was when she vanished in western Massachusetts a month ago.

In an interview Monday with WGGB-TV in Massachusetts, Marohn's brother Peter Naple said the workplace issues had caused her "a lot of heartache."

"I don't know the full story  the school gave her paid leave until the end of the school year," Naple told the station.

A spokeswoman for the district said Marohn was considering taking a leave of absence for "personal reasons" shortly before she disappeared.

School officials on Wednesday sent a letter to teachers and staff referencing Naple's TV interview, and assuring them that the administration had been supporting Marohn.

"While there are things that I cannot share regarding a personnel matter, I ask for you [sic] trust to know that we were working to support Meghan," Superintendent D. Joseph Corr wrote in the letter, obtained by the Times Union. "I want to be clear that Meghan remains a valued member of this school community and we continue to keep her in our thoughts as we hope for her safe return."

Naple has created a GoFundMe to raise funds to hire a private investigator to help find his sister. Previously he offered a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the safe return of the missing teacher.

Marohn went missing on a hiking trip she took during the last weekend in March. She drove to Massachusetts on Saturday, March 26, and checked into the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, where she stayed overnight. She spoke to her brother at around 9 p.m. He told the Times Union in an earlier interview she had sounded fine.

She was enjoying the fact that she spoke with a good friend of hers earlier, she was enjoying being in bed at the hotel having a bowl of soup and reading her book, the Northville man said earlier this month. I texted her back that Ill talk to you tomorrow.

Her unlocked car  a black 2017 Subaru Impreza  was located at Longcope Park in Lee, Mass. Police and volunteers spent days fruitlessly searching the 46-acre park.

On GoFundMe, Naple wrote, "numerous search efforts by officials as well as myself and volunteers have turned up nothing. Absolutely nothing."

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Naple told outlets that cellphone data suggests she may not have entered the park but walked across the street into a nearby residential area instead. Another detail was that hiking boots were found in her car.

Marohn is 5'6", 120 lbs. with red hair. As an English teacher, Marohn also is passionate about poetry and founded The Troy Poem Project, which used to take place at the flea market in Troy. Marohn would use her manual typewriter to write elaborate short prose based on conversations with people at the market, her brother said.

Shortly after her disappearance, leaders of the North Colonie Teachers Association advised members not to speak about Marohn to the press.

"Please refrain from engaging in fueling the rumor mill regarding the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Meg Marohn," union President Scott Dolan wrote. "This is not a topic for loose talk or speculation. If anyone is contacted by the press, please do not comment on this matter. Please refer any inquiries to district leadership. We are obviously dealing with a very sensitive situation. Please treat it with the caution and respect it deserves."

Dolan declined to answer questions about whether the union was involved in Marohn's troubles at school. He said the note to members was "simply trying to quell unfounded speculation that was upsetting students and colleagues."

Naple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the Massachusetts establishment where Meghan Marohn spent time before her disappearance in March. Marohn stayed at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge.
Every once in a while, Americans get to snicker at news that a dead candidate is on a ballot somewhere, or, worse, got elected. Well, the joke is on New Yorkers this time, in the form of a politically dead candidate about to end up on the Democratic primary ballot for lieutenant governor.

Or perhaps not  if the Legislature gets its head out of the political fog and acts on behalf of voters, not politicians, and acts fast. As in, this week.

The candidate is former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, who resigned earlier this month after he was indicted on bribery-related charges involving alleged campaign finance abuses when he was running for New York City comptroller in early 2021. Mr. Benjamin had been hand-picked for the lieutenant governors job last August after Kathy Hochul rose from that post to become governor upon the resignation of Andrew Cuomo.

Mr. Benjamin has no intention of actively running. But because he had already accepted the nomination to be on the ballot, under state law he can get off of it only by dying, moving out of state, or running for another office.

Along comes Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Westchester, with a perfectly sensible bill to fix this situation, not just now but for the future. It would allow a candidate to voluntarily withdraw from the ballot if theyre indicted or convicted, have a life-threatening illness, or have resigned from the office they had been seeking. They would need to do so by May 1.

So the law would allow a dying person, or someone with no interest in holding office, or a person so politically toxic that they wouldnt stand a chance of winning, to get off the ballot. Makes sense.

Unless, of course, youre a member of the political class with a dog in this fight. Republicans depict Ms. Paulins bill as the epitome of corruption. And some Democrats who arent on good terms with Ms. Hochul oppose it, too.

Yes, taking Mr. Benjamin off the ballot would benefit Ms. Hochul by removing a reminder to voters of the poor decision she made in choosing him. Yes, leaving him on would surely benefit Ms. Hochuls challengers and delight the Republican Party. And yes, an 11th-hour scramble to pass this fix, however common-sense it is, would probably reinforce some peoples skepticism about the political process  the sense that Democrats did this to benefit a sitting governor from their party. What to do?

Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter.

Well, how about doing whats right for voters instead of worrying about which politician wins or loses or what the optics are? How does it benefit voters in any way to have a person on the ballot whose candidacy, and likely his political career, are dead?

It doesnt. Its a farce.

The job of lawmakers is neither to bail Ms. Hochul out of this embarrassment nor to stick it to her. Fixing bad law, on the other hand, is very much their job. And with the political clock ticking  May 1 is Sunday, and the primary ballots must be certified Wednesday  they should fix this now, before New York becomes a joke of its own.
Everyone cheats, declares the kid caught with the test answers. He hit me first, cries the boy punching his brother. Republicans do it too, say some Democrats in defense of gerrymandered election maps.

Perhaps we should start, then, with some simple truths. Two wrongs dont make a right. Treat others as you would wish to be treated. And dont violate the state constitution.

It should be clear even to the most partisan observers that the new congressional maps approved by New York Democrats contradict the will of voters who, in 2014, approved constitutional amendments purportedly designed to end partisan gerrymandering.

The intention behind the egregiously biased districts couldnt be more obvious. The maps, drawn without Republican input, give Democrats a massive partisan advantage, clumping Republican voters to essentially guarantee that 22 of the states 26 congressional districts are blue.

So it was little surprise when a state appeals court last week ruled that the maps violate the gerrymandering ban, a decision that largely upheld an earlier ruling blocking the districts from being used in this years elections. Democrats argued the matter Tuesday before the Court of Appeals, the states highest court.

Theres nothing honorable about the fight. Democrats are attempting to defend districts that undermine democracy by stealing real choice from voters; that encourage extreme playing-to-the-base partisanship and discourage moderation; that use existing political power to ensure future political power.

Democrats are, in other words, attempting to defend the indefensible.

It is nothing short of an abuse of power when a political party manipulates the drawing of districts to essentially choose which voters it wants. Worse, the scheming leads voters to believe a rigged system isn't worth their trust or participation.

Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter.

Yes, legislatures in some other states, including those controlled by Republicans, also have drawn biased districts. The difference in New York is that voters amended the state constitution to put an end to this tactic.

By going ahead with gerrymandered districts regardless, state Democrats and Gov. Kathy Hochul willfully created uncertainty that, at this moment, hangs over the entire election process. Two months ahead of the June 28 primaries, candidates are attempting to run for office without really knowing exactly where their districts are and which voters to make their case to. The primaries may have to be postponed.

Democrats could have avoided this absurd situation if they had put self-interested shenanigans aside, consulted with Republicans and drawn lines that took a stab at fairness. When that didnt happen, Ms. Hochul should have vetoed the biased maps but instead signed them into law.

In doing so, the governor and her party failed a test of ethics and bucked the will of the electorate. For the good of New Yorks voters, and democracy, the Court of Appeals must not allow those failures to stand.
Two sad stories recently remind us that we have a long way to go to achieve real police reform.

The first, "State crash probe at end," April 15, is about 13-year-old Tea'Shawn Walker, who died in a car that crashed while being chased by Albany police. Too frequently innocent people die needlessly from these crashes. Surely, before the chase begins, the police have the vehicle tag number, and apprehension can occur later without endangering the lives of occupants of the car, pedestrians and other drivers. As I've said twice before in letters to the editor, high-speed chases by law enforcement make no sense.
ALBANY  The Court of Appeals issued a ruling Wednesday striking down new political boundaries for the state Senate and Congress that had been established by the Democrat-controlled Senate, affirming lower court rulings that the new boundaries were intentionally gerrymandered for political gain.

The decision by the state's highest court is expected to upend the political calendar  in a highly competitive year that includes gubernatorial primaries  by potentially requiring some of the June primaries to be shifted to August. That could necessitate the many candidates for state Senate and U.S. congressional seats obtaining new petitions to get on the ballot for the primary.

The state Board of Elections issued a statement Wednesday saying they were reviewing the decision but did not anticipate it affecting other primaries, including the governor's race. Initially, the decision stoked confusion among lawmakers and campaigns about whether the gubernatorial primaries, since their petitions were based on now-discarded congressional districts, would need to be delayed and redone.

"We do not foresee the June 28 primary changing for our statewide offices, the state Assembly, judicial delegates and alternates and any local offices that are scheduled to be on the primary ballot," the Board of Elections said in the statement. "Whatever adjustments need to be made to the ballot-access process for candidates for Congress and state Senate for a new primary will be proposed to the court."

The Court of Appeals' ruling will leave it to a state Supreme Court justice with help from an expert to create new maps. The court said that "judicial oversight is required to facilitate the expeditious creation of constitutionally conforming maps for use in the 2022 election and to safeguard the constitutionally protected right of New Yorkers to a fair election."

The Court of Appeals said the case centered on two issues. The first was whether the failure of the Senate and Independent Redistricting Commission to "follow the prescribed constitutional procedure warrants invalidation of the Legislatures congressional and state Senate maps." The second, the court said, was "whether there is record support for the determination of both courts below that the district lines for congressional races were drawn with an unconstitutional partisan intent."

The Court of Appeals ruled that answer to both of those questions is "yes."

The maps discarded by the ruling could have delivered additional Democratic members to Congress at a time when the balance of control in Washington is up for grabs in the upcoming midterm elections. The retooled maps will now be created by a court with input from an independent expert.

"The decision today from the Court of Appeals affirms our position that under one-party rule, Albany politicians engaged in obvious partisan gerrymandering, violating the state Constitution," said state Senate GOP Minority Leader Robert Ortt. "Despite a clear directive from the voters of New York, Albanys ruling class decided to put their political survival ahead of the will of the people."

Mike Murphy, a spokesman for Democratic Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, said they "disagree with the Court of Appeals decision and believe in the constitutionality of the congressional and state legislative maps passed earlier this year.

"The state Senate maps in particular corrected an egregious partisan gerrymander and have not been overturned on the merits by any court," Murphy's statement continued. "We will make our case to the special master appointed by the court."

The case was argued before the Court of Appeals on Tuesday morning during a proceeding that took just over an hour.

The case challenging the political boundaries drawn by the Democratic majority in the Legislature was filed in early February in Steuben County.

Republicans won their argument before a state Supreme Court justice that the Legislature did not have the right to draw the maps and that the Independent Redistricting Commission had failed to complete the process. They said the maps Democratic lawmakers produced are designed to favor Democrats in the election.

A mid-level appeals court in Rochester largely sustained the lower court's decision, finding the maps were "drawn to discourage competition and favor Democrats." But the appeals court ruled the Legislature had the right to draw the maps after the commission became mired in political gridlock.

Democrats argued that the maps had to account for "communities of interest." Those locations could be places such as metropolitan areas, college towns, religious or ethnic neighborhoods, and that they should be kept together as much as possible.

The communities of interest standard was not at play in prior map drawing, which Democrats argued is a reason that makes it difficult to have an "apples-to-apples comparison" between the lines used over the last decade, drawn by a judge, and what has been proposed by the Democratic supermajority.

The change that created the communities of interest standard was included in a 2014 ballot proposition that voters supported, although Capital Region voters rejected it. The amended also created an "Independent Redistricting Commission."

But after a political stalemate in the commission's efforts to produce bipartisan maps, the Legislature took over the job and produced maps that Republicans had alleged were drawn mostly to damage their party in future elections.

The Court of Appeals agreed.

"The Legislature responded by creating and enacting maps in a nontransparent manner controlled exclusively by the dominant political party  doing exactly what they would have done had the 2014 constitutional reforms never been passed," the ruling states.

The League of Women Voters had supported the 2014 ballot proposition and, under the current court case, had submitted briefs that support the arguments made by the Republican petitioners that the maps were intentionally gerrymandered and drawn by a Legislature that did not have the right to do so.

The ballot language in 2014 voters read said the Legislature "may only amend the redistricting plan according to the established principles if the commissions plan is rejected twice by the legislature," but it did not give a scenario if the commission failed to present two sets of maps in the first place.

Judges throughout the three court proceedings have panned the redistricting commission and its ability, under current law, to bring forward fair maps. A mid-level justice called it "useless." The low-level judge wrote in his ruling that "nothing in the Constitution that permits the IRC to just throw up their collective hands."

"Was this supposed to completely go off the rails and there's nothing anyone could have done about it?" Associate Justice Anthony Cannataro asked the attorneys arguing the case before the Court of Appeals this week.

A memo on a 2013 bill, which eventually led to the ballot proposition and creation of the commission, said the intent was to "achieve a fair and readily transparent process" to draw political lines. The process, nearly nine years later, broke down during private talks between lead Republican and Democrat representatives for the commission. A final set of maps was never brought forward for a public-facing vote.

"This far-reaching reform will set the standard for independent redistricting throughout the United States and provide a template for other states to follow," reads the 2013 bill memo, which was sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and signed into law by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
ALBANYYoung New Yorkers ranging in age from 18 to 25 are taking part in a statewide lobbying week to advocate for additional access to birth control by knocking on the doors of elected officials.

A recent report revealed that 1.2 million people across the state live in what have been described as contraceptive deserts, meaning areas without an ample amount of health centers distributing a variety of birth control options to individuals that qualify for public health assistance.

Some of the contraceptive deserts, according to the report, are in western New York and upstate, including many rural areas.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the most common contraceptive methods from 2017 to 2019 were female sterilization, oral contraceptive pills, long-acting reversible contraceptives, such as intrauterine devices and implants and male condoms.

Activists are meeting with politicians in Albany, Buffalo, Otsego, Schenectady, Long Island, Syracuse, New York City and Rochester to help advance the passage of the Birth Control Access Act, sponsored by state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, D-Queens, and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Syracuse.

If signed into law, the bill would allow pharmacists, licensed physicians, certified nurse practitioners and midwives to prescribe self-administered contraceptives, including birth control pills, vaginal rings and patches.

Pharmacists can already prescribe birth control in 24 states and the District of Columbia.

Jenna Bimbi, executive director of the New York Birth Control Action Fund, an organization committed to finding limitations in contraceptive access, explained that the legislation would expand options for people struggling to find a preferred method.

''As our reproductive rights are rolled back on the federal level, New York can expand reproductive access here in our state," Bimbi said in a written statement. "Allowing pharmacists to prescribe birth control would also reduce health disparities among low-income and rural communities."

For Jessica Mencia, a 25-year-old social work Ph.D. student at SUNY Buffalo, the lobbying effort is a chance to dismantle systemic obstacles that keep people from obtaining contraception, like not having a car.

"In Buffalo, they do have a bus system, they have the metro rail, but they're not going to take you to the areas where you might get care," she said.

In 2020, Mencia conducted a research project that focused on service providers in her local area and young people. The prospective patients highlighted privacy, judgment by others and transportation as barriers.

Shes planning on speaking to state Sen. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo, on Friday. "I just want to let him know that this is something I want him to support," said Mencia, who is from North Carolina.

"Even though Im not from Buffalo, Buffalo and 'Buffalonians' mean a lot to me because Buffalo is a city thats taking care of me," she added. "So by supporting us, its a way that I want to give back to Buffalo and make sure that people have access to care."

On Tuesday, activists Grace Cleary, 18, and Moza Asad, 22, visited the state Capitol offices of legislators Phillip Steck, a Democratic assemblyman from Colonie, and state. Sen Samra Brouk, D-Rochester, among others. The pair spent about two weeks preparing for the meetings.

Cleary, who is studying political science and journalism at the University at Albany, said the experience was eye-opening. Shes now considering more ways to be involved in the legislative process. "I love public service and government," she said. "I've always been an advocate."

In high school, she attended March for Our Lives in Albany, where she saw Steck speak on the issue. "I thought it was kind of a full-circle moment," she said of meeting the assemblyman.

Asad, who resides in the Fleetwood neighborhood of Westchester Countys Mount Vernon, is also thinking about a career in politics. She is graduating in May and will start attending Columbia University in the fall, where shell pursue a masters degree in public health.

Her first venture into lobbying made her realize the ability she has to speak up on state policies that can affect her life.

"When you think about government, when you think about elected representatives, sometimes it can be kind of overwhelming," she said. "Whenever theres an issue that might directly impact you, you might think that you dont have any power in order to change it. But coming here seems to lessen that disconnect that we might feel between government and ourselves."
SARATOGA SPRINGS  The first time Jeannette Liebers, chef-owner of Sweet Mimi's Cafe, did a TV cook-off, the elapsed time between when she shot the episode and its airing was more than 18 months.

This time, it's one day from cooking to airing and just nine days from when Liebers first was contacted about making the appearance.

Liebers flew to Los Angeles on Wednesday to tape a a spot on Thursday for the CBS daytime show "The Talk." The episode is scheduled to air on the local affiliate, CBS6, at 2 p.m. Friday.

Liebers will cook pancakes in competition with Karie Myers from Jiggers Diner in East Greenwich, R.I., on the Food Face-off segment of the show, which pits chefs from different cities against one another in making similar dishes. The hosts of "The Talk," Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Natalie Morales, Jerry OConnell and Sheryl Underwood, pick a winner.

According to Liebers, she received a call from producers of "The Talk" in the middle of last week to ask about her availability. She said they told her she was referred to them by producers of the long-running Food Network series "Beat Bobby Flay." In fall 2019, Liebers and Chris Bonnivier, former head chef at The Adelphi Hotel in Saratoga, did a brunch cook-off on "Beat Bobby Flay" for an episode titled "The Battle for Saratoga." It didn't air until April 29, 2021, after being long delayed by the pandemic, according to a Food Network representative. Liebers defeated Bonniver but lost to Flay in the next round.

Coincidentally, "The Talk" cook-off will air a year to the day after "The Battle for Saratoga."

"It all came together so fast," Liebers said on Wednesday after arriving in Los Angeles. She said she bought a new outfit for the appearance but didn't have to bring any ingredients or equipment with her, as the show is providing them.

"I did bring one squeeze bottle just in case," for potential use with a sauce during plating, she said, but otherwise she expected all she had to do was show up at the studio ready to cook.

She's never seen a Food Face-off segment on "The Talk."

Said Liebers, "It's on at 2 on Friday afternoons. I'm always working at the cafe."
Tipperary man Patrick Quirke, who was jailed for life for the murder of 'Mr Moonlight' Bobby Ryan, has been given leave to appeal his conviction to the Supreme Court, is has been revealed today.

The decision came after Quirke recently appealed a Court of Appeal decision not to overturn his conviction or grant him a new trial.

The Court of Appeal rejected 52 grounds of Mr Quirke's appeal in what was a very high-profile case which captured the attention of the country, and which became known as the 'Mr Moonlight' trial. The appeal found in favour of the trial judge and adjudicated that the correct approach in dealing with admissibility of evidence in the case was followed and taken.

But, another twist in the story now reveals that the Supreme Court has accepted a further appeal on two grounds, which it found to be matters of general public importance, according to the Irish Independent newspaper.

Bobby Ryan - Mr Moonlight - who was murdered by Patrick Quirke. Mr Quirke is now appealing the court decision

The first relates to the extent of any requirement to identify what might be searched for when applying for a search warrant.

The second relates to the discretion vested in the Director of Public Prosecutions as to what witnesses may be called at trial, with particular reference to expert witnesses.

In a determination published today, the Supreme Court said these issues may arise in other criminal trials in the future, and it would be in the public interest to obtain further clarity.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A state investigation launched after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer has determined that the department has engaged in a pattern of race discrimination
As of this writing . . . We check Eric Greitens' social media feeds and there hasn't been any mention of the Kansas City Police Department worker that's suffering an alleged "criminal investigation" for giving this controversial politico the time of day.

Of course . . . People participate in the discourse at their own risk and maybe sending a shout out might make the situation worse . . . But for a dude who claimed "I have their back" in support of KCPD . . . He's quickly moving on from a publicity stunt FAIL.



Meanwhile, here's a peek at the politico with his far more untouchable friends . . .

The video, titled Striking fear into the hearts of liberals, RINOs, and the fake media, began with the two shooting the firearms at an outdoor gun range. Striking fear into the hearts of liberals everywhere, folks, Trump said. The footage transitioned to the two firing handguns at the range.



Liberals, beware, Greitens said.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Donald Trump Jr. And Eric Greitens Have A Message For Liberals While Shooting Firearms Guns and Gear [Screenshot/YouTube/Eric Greitens] Donald Trump Jr. and Republican Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens had a message for liberals while shooting firearms in a campaign video released Monday. WATCH: The video, titled "Striking fear into the hearts of liberals, RINOs, and the fake media," began with the two shooting the firearms at an outdoor gun range.

For Missouri Republicans, angst over Eric Greitens is about more than winning in the fall Back in February, Eric Greitens stood before a scrum of reporters in Jefferson City after filing for the U.S. Senate. Roughly four years removed from resigning as governor , Greitens was banking on Missouri Republicans to revive his dormant political career.

You decide . . .
The activist and tireless campaigner shares a personal moment from his past in solidarity with local LGBT students.



Check his very brave confession . . .



Justice Horn, candidate for the Jackson County Legislature and former Grain Valley student, said the decision brings up difficult memories from his time as an openly gay student.



Horn said the decision will be detrimental to students in the LGBTQ community."We are sacrificing kids' comfort for adults being uncomfortable," Horn said.



He said the decision triggers emotional trauma he endured as a middle school student."It was in 2011 that I felt so alone, and felt that there wasn't a community and I was strictly bullied because I was gay," Horn said.



Horn said the bullying led him to attempt to take his own life. He said the safe space signs are a way to prevent LGBTQ students from feeling the same loneliness he felt.



"I think it is getting rid of the only safety net queer students may have, and to some, which is a majority, this is just a sticker, it's not that big of a deal, but to students who may feel that they don't have a place, this means the world to them," Horn said.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Former Grain Valley student, Jackson County Legislature candidate responds to safe space sticker ban KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Grain Valley School District will host listening sessions about LGBTQ safe place signs. The district alerted parents and community members Tuesday after reaction to the district banning staff from putting up the signs.

Grain Valley to hold listening sessions after demanding teachers remove LGBTQA safe space signs In a 24-hour time span, Grain Valley Schools went from removing all stickers and signs that referenced being a "safe space" for LGBTQA students to announcing listening sessions after a community outcry."I think it's absolutely horrible," Grain Valley mother Autum Hood said.

Developing . . .


Forgive the politically incorrect post title . . . Actually, co-living seems like a decent solution to the problem of "too damn high" rent.

It beats other options like sleeping under a bridge . . . Also, in a recent online video I noticed a bunch of Asian dudes sleeping in dog kennels . . . To their credit, the didn't seem so miserable as they mindlessly scrolled the Internets via mobile phone like most Americans.



But I digress . . . Here's more on today's desperate attempt to cling to a fading middle-class lifestyle in the suburbs . . .



On Monday, a Johnson County city unanimously voted to ban a living arrangement aimed at helping tenants decrease the amount of rent they pay.



The Shawnee City Council voted 8-0 to ban co-living, becoming among the first Kansas City area municipalities to prevent the practice, which has gained popularity in recent years as rent and home prices have soared.



The new ordinance defines a co-living group as a group of at least four unrelated adults living together in a dwelling unit. The ordinance stated that if one adult is unrelated to another adult, then the entire group will be classified as unrelated.



The practice, which includes things like sharing a kitchen, living room and community areas, started to gain popularity as rental and housing prices continued to increase across the United States.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Co-living rentals banned in this Johnson County city after unanimous council vote On Monday, a Johnson County city unanimously voted to ban a living arrangement aimed at helping tenants decrease the amount of rent they pay. The Shawnee City Council voted 8-0 to ban co-living, becoming among the first Kansas City area municipalities to prevent the practice, which has gained popularity in recent years as rent and home prices have soared.

Shawnee City Council votes to ban co-living rentals KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Shawnee City Council voted unanimously Monday night to effectively ban co-living groups, or homes where rooms are rented out to different adults. The new wording in the city code bans four or more unrelated adults living together. Co-living has emerged to make housing more affordable, as rental prices rise across the country.

Developing . . .
Right now we share a quick review of local crime reports, court cases and all manner of police action as warm weather violence also heats up.

As always, we attempt to find a bit of hope toward the end of the compilation . . .



Check TKC news gathering . . .

Kansas City police say one person injured in shooting Tuesday afternoon Police lights (file photo) SOURCE: KMBC Kansas City police are investigating a shooting Tuesday afternoon that injured one person.Police said officers were called at 3:35 p.m. to the 5400 block of Swope Parkway on a reported shooting.Authorities said the victim was being taken to a hospital by private car, but stopped at Bruce R.

Blue Springs teen charged, accused of recording women in bathrooms Others report suspect touched them inappropriately BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. - A Blue Springs teenager is charged, accused of recording women in public restrooms, and inappropriately others. The 17-year-old is charged with attempted invasion of privacy, sexual abuse, trespassing, sexual misconduct, and resisting arrest.

Police: Another victim comes forward after 17-year-old 'predator' arrested in Blue Springs Police in Blue Springs, Missouri, said since news broke earlier this month about a 17-year-old "predator" accused of committing lewd acts and filming women in bathrooms along Woods Chapel Road, at least one more victim has come forward in reference to this case. However, several victims remain unidentified.

Hearing postponed for Chiefs' Lammons, Saints' Kamara in Vegas assault case LAS VEGAS - A judge postponed a hearing Monday in a felony assault case involving a Kansas City Chiefs player, New Orleans Saints player and two other men accused of severely beating a man at a Las Vegas nightclub the weekend of the Pro Bowl.

Man accused of storage unit thefts in KCMO linked to crimes in JoCo - Here's what to know A Missouri man now in custody for allegedly stealing at least $250,000 worth of goods from storage units in Kansas City, Missouri, has also been linked to similar crimes in Johnson County, according to authorities.

Lenexa man sentenced for multi-million dollar investment fraud scheme KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 51-year-old Lenexa man was sentenced to 114 months in federal prison without parole for a multi-million dollar investment fraud scheme and owes over $5 million in restitution to the victims. The court ordered Phillip Hudnall's sentence to be served consecutive to a 9 year sentence currently being served in Colorado for a separate securities fraud scheme conviction.

Family pleads for answers after mentally ill Johnson County teen found dead in KC KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The sister of a Johnson County teen is pleading for answers in her death. Jeneya Dilunga was staying at a Kansas City shelter helping with her mental illness. One day she left and never came back.

'Particularly disturbing': Independence woman found with multiple stab wounds to her face An Independence woman was found stabbed several times - including in her face - early Monday morning near a convenience store in Belton, according to police. The 46-year-old woman was hospitalized with injuries considered life threatening, Sgt. Mary Bruegge, a department spokeswoman, said in a statement Monday afternoon.

How have drug laws changed since the 2008 conviction of the KC-area man pardoned by Pres. Biden? KANSAS CITY, Mo. - President Joe Biden's office announced they granted clemency to 78 people currently behind bars because of their commitment to rehabilitation. One of those people is 46-year-old Paul Lupercio of Blue Springs, who is in a Leavenworth prison on a 20-year sentence for a drug conviction.

Biden's push to reduce sentences for minor drug crimes means freedom for 5 Missourians A Blue Springs man and four other Missourians are among the 78 people granted clemency Tuesday by President Joe Biden, his first such act as president. "Today, I am pardoning three people who have demonstrated their commitment to rehabilitation and are striving every day to give back and contribute to their communities," Biden said in a press release .

Cass County motorist stopped for careless driving prior to crash CASS COUNTY, Mo. - A picture shows just how bad a crash could have been for a Missouri driver, and troopers hope the driver, and others, learn a lesson from it. The Missouri State Highway Patrol shared the picture of a black pickup standing on its grill with its bed propped up against a pole.

Raytown police search for man missing since Saturday KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Raytown Police Department is requesting the public's assistance locating a missing man. Larry Simmons, 48, was last seen leaving a residence around 9 a.m. Saturday in the 6600 block of Maywood Avenue, according to Raytown police. Simmons was wearing a black ball cap, dark pants and black shoes.

Candlelight vigil held in honor of National Crime Victims Rights Week JEFFERSON CITY - The Office of Victim Services will host a candlelight vigil outside the Cole County Sheriff's Office in Jefferson City this evening to help promote awareness and honor victims and survivors of crime. The vigil is one of the events being held by the Missouri Department of Corrections, for National Crime Victims Rights Week.

KCPD's Social Services Supervisor Provides Resources To Fight Child Neglect, Abuse If McIntosh or team members discover abuse or neglect, they focus on preventing future harm from repeating. They'll work with the Missouri Children's Division and the family to make sure services are in place. Additionally, they help parents navigate the process of working with social workers and case managers, and of keeping appointments.

Developing . . .
What we notice is a surprising bit of compassion for drug users from law enforcement nowadays. This is a departure from the early days of the drug war and so many urban crackheads who died in the gutter with relatively few mourning their loss.



For better or worse, now that overdoses are killing TENS OF THOUSANDS of middle-class suburbanite white people . . . It's progress that more Americans are coming to terms with the complexity of addiction.



Here's the word . . .



"To explain that fentanyl laced drugs are here.Ive never seen anything like it in my 24 years ever, Detective Michael Nelson said.Nelsons message to parents is that fentanyl overdoses arent happening to bad people  but to anyone  and theyre turning out to be deadly.I hate to say it, but its almost triage that the way we are dealing with it right now, Nelson said."





Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Northland community spreads awareness of fentanyl crisis at Drug Education Summit KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Clay County Sheriff's Office Drug Squad has switched their number one priority from meth to fentanyl. That switch happened as the Kansas City area continues to see an increase of fentanyl overdoses. In the Northland, community members are paying attention to the crisis.

Clay County Sheriff's Office works to educate people about dangers of fentanyl The Clay County Sheriff's Office held another drug education summit Monday to teach people the dangers of fentanyl. Authorities said fentanyl is now the No. 1 cause of overdose deaths in the United States. An amount smaller than a pinhead is enough to kill.

Clay County hosts drug summit on same day as another fentanyl death KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Clay County detectives who investigated another death thought to be the result of fentanyl say they worry it will eventually wipe out a large portion of an entire generation. If proven to be fentanyl, it would be the 16th such death in Clay County since July 2020.

Developing . .
Political outcry and a clarification from the Police Board have sparked a crackdown on the po-po.

Moreover . . .

Denizens of Missouri politics might take this as a very STRONG HINT that the former disgraced governor is TOXIC and anybody who gets close is likely to burnt.



Here's a quick summary . . .



"The Kansas City Police Department is conducting a criminal investigation of a ride-along Friday involving U.S. Senate candidate Eric Greitens.



"Police officials said the investigation involves a member of the department but did not identify the subject of the investigation. The member was placed on paid suspension.



"During the ride, Greitens posted a video on social media featuring the ride-along that originated from the departments North Patrol Division in Platte County. He later deleted the post."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link to a better source with a rare photo of the guy wearing a tie . . .

KCPD investigating department employee over Eric Greitens ride-along The Kansas City Police Department said Tuesday that it is investigating a police employee related to political activity in connection with a ride-along involving former Missouri Gov. and current U.S. Senate candidate Eric Greitens.Last week, Greitens participated in a ride-along with KCPD and posted a video as he started the night.

Eric Greitens' ride-along prompts criminal investigation against KCPD employee KANSAS CITY, Mo. - An employee with the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department is under investigation following a ride-along that Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens conducted with the department. Greitens, the former governor of Missouri, did the ride-along on Friday.

Developing . . .


The GOP score an important victory this afternoon and prove the importance of state house domination.



Here's more deets on the power move . . .



On March 22, the Kansas Senate voted 24-15 to pass Senate Bill 496, establishing a parents bill of rights for students in elementary and secondary schools in the state.



The bill would give parents the right to inspect curriculum, instructional materials or any other materials used to teach children at school.



Specifically, it lets them inspect any materials, activities, curriculum, lessons, syllabi, surveys, tests, questionnaires, examinations, books, magazines, handouts, professional development and training materials and any other materials or activities that are provided to the parents child.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Kansas Senate overrides Kelly's veto of 'Parents Bill of Rights,' headed to House TOPEKA, Kan. - The Kansas Senate has voted to override Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of the "Parents' Bill of Rights" bill. The Senate voted 27-12 to override the governor's veto on the "Parents Bill of Rights." The bill will now move on to the Kansas House.
Or . . .

SHOW-ME ANTI-GUN POWER PLAY MISFIRE!?!



Here's a bit more about this courtroom election season power play . . .



"The plaintiffs, including Jackson County, had asked the states high court to rule on the merits of the case, but the Missouri Supreme Court declined.

We are taking a look at it, evaluating the decision and trying to see how it might affect us, a spokesperson for Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Bakers office . . .



"Along with St. Louis city and county, Jackson County sued to block the law from taking effect, arguing that the Second Amendment Preservation Act violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which holds that the federal constitution  and federal law, generally  takes precedence over state laws and constitutions.The political subdivisions also argued that the Missouri law, championed by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt as a check on federal infringement of gun rights, was vague and over-broad among other challenges. It already has forced many Missouri law enforcement groups to sever affiliations with federal task forces and other initiatives . . . "



In fairness . . . Here's a statement from the courthouse . . .

"Municipalities and law enforcement groups across Missouri are coming together to challenge HB 85, which takes away critical tools we need to protect communities from gun violence. St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and Jackson County are pleased with todays decision and look forward to a ruling that overturns this dangerous, blatantly unconstitutional legislation."



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link and notice how local news works to spin this decision:

Missouri Supreme Court reverses judge's 2nd Amendment Preservation Act ruling KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Missouri Supreme Court gave new life to a challenge against the state's year-old Second Amendment Preservation Act. The state's high court remanded a challenge brought by two counties and a city Tuesday back to the circuit court, overruling a Cole County judge's decision to snuff out the challenge seven months ago.

Missouri Supreme Court lets Jackson County, St. Louis challenge controversial gun law The Missouri Supreme Court sent a case involving the Second Amendment Preservation Act back to a lower court on Tuesday. The ruling lets St. Louis and Jackson County argue that the law, which prevents police in Missouri from cooperating with federal officials to enforce gun regulations, is unconstitutional.

Developing . . .


An ugly divorce might kill any politico's hopes and dreams and it certainly hasn't helped Eric Greitens.



To make matters worse . . . The politico's defense hinges on blaming George Soros or the boogeyman for all of the problems that he mostly created for himself.

Take a peek . . .

"Sheena Greitens, in a March 21 affidavit filed in the couples ongoing child custody case, accused her former husband of striking her and taking her phone and car keys in April 2018 and striking one of their children in 2019, causing a tooth to become infected and later removed surgically.



"The allegations came as Eric Greitens was leading the polls for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. In response, Eric Greitens has accused his ex-wife of colluding with his foes to release the affidavit to damage his campaign, calling the allegations lies.



"The phone records have nothing to do with the underlying issue, Helen Wade, attorney for Sheena Greitens, told Schneider.



The conspiracy theory that Mr. Greitens has concocted is just that  its not real, Wade said."



More insight into the argument . . .



"During Tuesdays hearing, Wade told Schneider that Sheena Greitens speaks frequently to her sister and to former Greitens campaign manager Austin Chambers, who she said is a close friend and who shares an apartment with her sister in Washington, D.C.



"The only legitimate reason to see the phone records, Wade said, would be if Sheena Greitens denied something and Eric Greitens' Attorney Gary Stamper wanted to prove she was lying. She has not denied speaking to Linkul and Chambers, Wade noted.



"This is a fishing expedition with a specific collateral purpose, Wade said. It is overboard and it is for the purpose of harassment. It is for intimidation.



"Stamper said he would accept appointment of a special master to review the 57 days of phone records being sought to determine if they contain evidence that support. The special master would look for specific numbers to determine if communication occurred, he said.



"If its not there, Stamper said, then my saddest suspicion is not true."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
How much do you know about the legacies left by past Ontario governments?
Whether you live in Niagara or North Bay, we've got you covered.
Meanwhile, Shanghai authorities said they will start rounds of testing over the next few days to determine which neighbourhoods can safely be allowed a limited amount of freedom of movement.
Catapult editor Tajja Isen: On The Berenstain Bears, sounding like Snow White and the terror of visibility

Read an excerpt: In her new memoir Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service, Isen calls out "the flaws in a world thats nurtured me"
The Scarborough-based author first won the Stars contest in 2017 and picked up her second win April 19. Less than twelve hours later, Dragicevics agent told her a publisher was interested in her debut novel.
Dott, the Dutch micro-mobility company, is launching its shared e-bike service in the Netherlands for the first time.

The companys e-bikes are now available in Amersfoort and will arrive in Enschede in the coming weeks.

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E-bike pricing will be 0.25 per minute with no unlock fee. Value passes are available by the day or month to reduce costs for regular riders.

Parking will be set up with recommended parking zones across both cities, in line with regulations. Dott has identified and mapped suitable bike racks which can be used to park its shared e-bikes. These spaces will be highlighted as suggested parking areas to riders.

The launch in the Netherlands follows other European cities including Paris, Rome, Milan, Brussels and Cologne.

Dott collaborates closely with the cities it operates in to offer a service adapted to the needs of each city. Repairs, maintenance and logistics will be handled in-house by specialists at Dotts warehouses.

Vehicles are built to last and repaired where necessary, and any parts that cannot be reused are recycled. Dott is working to reuse, upcycle or recycle 100% of used vehicles and parts, and aims to exceed a five-year life-span for its vehicles. The company is targeting a 100% electric logistics fleet and renewable energy in all its cities.
Following a number of serious accidents at the Macoya Intersection on the Priority Bus Route
Russia has already fired more than 1,300 missiles on Ukraine since February 24.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said this during a nationwide telethon on Ukrainian TV channels, Ukrinform reports.

"According to our data, their reserves have already more than halved since they have been actively using them since February 24. ore than 1,000 rockets have already been used. To be more precisely, more than 1,300 missiles, Maliar said.

She added that these are sea-, air-, and ground-launched missile.

However, according to the deputy minister, there are still enough missiles in Russia to cause serious damage.

At the same time, Maliar noted that Russia is currently considering many scenarios, in addition to the traditional use of ground forces, aircraft, and missile strikes. In particular, it concerns the use of chemical or nuclear weapons, which is outright blackmail and intimidation of the whole world.

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In Donetsk direction, the units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation conduct active operations along almost the entire line of contact.

"The enemy's offensive operations in the Eastern Operational Zone are underway in order to establish full control over the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and hold the land corridor with the occupied Crimea. The occupying forces are most active in Slobozhansky and Donetsk directions," reads the report of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of 06:00 on April 27, released on Facebook.

The enemy takes measures to replenish its units that suffered casualties during hostilities, particularly by removing the equipment from storage in warehouses and bases of military districts. The equipment is usually transported to the territory of Ukraine by rail.

The invaders continue to launch missile strikes on residential areas in the territory of Ukraine.

In Slobozhansky direction, the enemy continues to launch airstrikes and hit the infrastructure of the city of Kharkiv with artillery.

In Izium direction, the units of the 1st Guards Tank Army, the 20th Combined Arms Army of the Western Military District, the 35th Combined Arms Army, and the 68th Army Corps of the Eastern Military District and Airborne Forces conduct offensive operations in the direction of Barvinkove.

The enemy captured the northeastern outskirts of Velyka Komyshuvakha and took control of Zavody.

In order to increase the grouping of troops, the Russian invaders redeployed two battalion tactical groups from the 76th Airborne Assault Division of the Airborne Forces from the territory of Belgorod region to the town of Izium. In addition, in the areas of settlements of Belgorod region, the enemy deployed two missile divisions of Iskander-M ballistic missile system.

In Donetsk direction, the enemy units are active almost along the entire line of contact. The main efforts are focused on the offensive operations in Sievierodonetsk, Popasna, and Kurakhove directions in order to take full control of Popasna, Rubizhne and pursue the offensive on Lyman, Sievierodonetsk, and Slovyansk, the General Staff reports.

In Lyman direction, the enemy established control over Zarichne, assaulted the area of Yampil.

In Sievierodonetsk direction, the invaders established control over Novotoshkivske and launched an offensive in the direction of Nyzhnie and Orikhove.

In Mariupol direction, the enemy massively fires on and blocks Ukrainian units in the area of the Azovstal plant. In the city, the invaders continue to subject the civilian population to filtration measures.

In the Southern Buh and Tavriysky directions, the enemy uses the available forces and means to focus its main efforts on holding the previously captured frontiers and firing on Ukrainian positions. In Mykolayiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Zaporizhzhia directions, the enemy tries to improve its tactical position. To this end, it regroups units, increases fire damage, conducts air reconnaissance.

Russian Guard units take filtration measures in the areas of Kyselivka and Stanislav of Kherson region.

In Tavriysky direction, the enemy equips its positions and replenishes reserves.

There are no significant changes in Volyn, Polissya, and Siversky directions.

Ukrainian troops downed seven air targets over the past day: a Su-25 aircraft, a Ka-52 helicopter, three operational-tactical UAVs, and two cruise missiles.

In Donetsk and Luhansk regions alone, 9 enemy attacks were repulsed, 9 tanks, 11 artillery systems, 4 units of special equipment, 17 armored vehicles, 3 units of special engineering equipment, 16 vehicles, 4 fuel tanks, and one anti-aircraft gun were destroyed over the past day.

Military transport, fighter, bomber, and assault aircraft of the Air Force continue to perform tasks in Ukraines airspace.

During sudden air raids, Russian invaders suffered significant losses in their positions. A lot of enemy equipment and manpower were destroyed in airstrikes.

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Speakers of the parliaments of Northern Macedonia, Romania and Switzerland visited Kyiv regions cities destroyed by Russian invaders, stressing the need for comprehensive assistance to the Ukrainian people.

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, the joint visit to Kyiv region of Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, Speaker of the Parliament of Northern Macedonia Talat Xhaferi, Speaker of the Parliament of Romania Florin Citu and Speaker of the Parliament of Switzerland Irene Kalin took place on Wednesday, April 27.

Speakers of European parliaments were shocked by the destruction of the civilian infrastructure of the cities of Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel, as well as the airport. I am grateful to my colleagues who came at the invitation and saw with their own eyes the consequences of the Russian peace. You have seen not only the destruction, but also the heroism shown by Ukrainians. This visit is a clear example of your support," Stefanchuk said.

According to him, Ukraine needs assistance in five areas: support for a unified and tough sanctions policy against Russia; economic support for Ukraine; support for the European integration aspirations of the state; military support; creation of a joint plan for the reconstruction of not just Ukraine, but for the reconstruction of Europe together with Ukraine.

"What we have seen opens the eyes of the world to Russia's actions. Romania is accepting refugees from Ukraine, but we will provide even more assistance to Ukraine," Citu said.

The speaker of the Swiss parliament added that "with our visit we show solidarity with Ukraine." Today we saw that it was hell here. We stand on the side of international law, humanitarian law and we must help your people," Kalin said.

"It is important for us to see for ourselves what happened here. We have experience of similar conflicts in Srebrenica, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We will make every effort to support Ukraine," Xhaferi said.

As Ukrinform reported, Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel and the entire Kyiv region were liberated from Russian invaders in early April. Mass killings of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces have been recorded in liberated towns and villages.

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Russia has redeployed additional units of Russian Guard to the border area in Belarus and may carry out demonstration activities along the state border of Ukraine to restrain the actions of Ukrainian troops.

"Certain units of the Republic of Belarus continue to strengthen the Belarusian-Ukrainian border in Brest and Gomel regions. There is still a threat of missile and air strikes on the Ukrainian objects from the territory of Belarus. In order to strengthen the administrative and police regime, additional units of Russian Guard were deployed to the border area in Belarus  Bryansk region. The protection of the border with special technical means of surveillance is being strengthened and the engineering equipment of the positions in the area of checkpoints is being improved.

In the future, demonstration activities along the state border of Ukraine in order to restrain our troops are not ruled out," Ukraines Defense Ministry Spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzianyk said at a briefing, informing about the situation in Volyn, Polissia, and Siversky directions.

On February 24, Russia launched a new stage of the war against Ukraine  a full-scale invasion. Russian troops fire and bomb Ukrainian cities, towns, and villages, torture and kill civilians. Ukrainian defense forces resist Russian troops and inflict heavy losses on them. As of April 27, 22,400 invaders were eliminated.

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The U.S. Department of Defense has established a control center to coordinate shipments and streamline the delivery of military assistance to Ukraine with both US and allied forces.

As Ukrinform reports citing CNN, a senior US defense official told reporters on Tuesday that the EUCOM Control Center of Ukraine, or ECCU, is based at US European Command headquarters in Stuttgart, and is run by a US two-star military general.

The center works closely with what the US military calls the international donor coordination center, or IDCC, which is run by a one-star general from the United Kingdom, the official added.

The control center, along with US personnel, includes staff from 15 other supporting nations in Stuttgart.

The control center will also manage the network of more than 40 partner and allied nations that met in Germany earlier Tuesday and are providing assistance to Ukraine, the official said.

Read also: Pentagon chief announces creation of contact group on Ukraine

This new group of allies will meet once a month, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced earlier Tuesday. The first meeting was hosted by Austin at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Tuesday.

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Neutral Switzerland vetoed the re-export of Swiss-made ammunition used in Gepard anti-aircraft tanks that Germany is sending to Ukraine.

"The Swiss government confirmed yesterday that it vetoed the re-export of Swiss-made ammunition used in Gepard anti-aircraft self-propelled anti-aircraft gun which is intended to shield the land forces. Germany plans to supply this equipment to Ukraine," Ukrinform reports with reference to Swissinfo.

Switzerland referred to its policy of neutrality which prohibits it from sending military equipment to the conflict zone. This came after Berlin announced on Tuesday that it would send heavy weapons, including 50 Gepard guns, to Ukraine to help it resist the Russian invasion.

Earlier, the reports appeared that Switzerland had vetoed Germany's request to re-export some ammunition but it was not known what ammunition was referred to. According to Swissinfo, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) received two requests from Germany to greenlight the shipment of ammunition to Ukraine. One concerned 35mm ammunition for the Gepard tank. The other concerned 12.7mm ammunition.

"Both inquiries by Germany as to whether the ammunition received from Switzerland may be transferred to Ukraine were answered in the negative with reference to Swiss neutrality and the mandatory rejection criteria of Swiss war material legislation," SECO said.

Possible supply of Gepard tanks has been discussed lately. The KraussMaffei Wegmann plant announced back in February that they had about 50 tanks at the warehouse which can be handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine after minor repairs.

Gepard tanks are equipped with two 35mm guns and radar.

On Tuesday, it became known that Germany will provide Ukraine with 50 Gepard tanks.

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The United Kingdom announced the decision to reduce all tariffs to zero and remove all quotas on imports of Ukrainian goods thus saving thousands of jobs during the war.

I am grateful to the United Kingdom and personally to Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his prompt and positive response to our request for trade liberalization. Right now it is especially important for the support of our state. Britain has announced the abolition of all duties and quotas on imports of Ukrainian goods. This will allow us to save thousands of jobs during the war and ensure a significant intensification of economic relations with Britain. We expect similar decision from other partners, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on April 26.

He emphasized that the step is important not only for Ukraine and partner countries. This adds stability to global markets, especially the food market, which is one step away from a large-scale price crisis due to Russia's war against Ukraine, the President noted.

As Zelensky stressed, there is only one way to avoid the crisis: to strengthen cooperation and put pressure on Russia.

As reported, the United Kingdom announced the abolition of all duties and quotas on imports of Ukrainian goods. These include flour, grain, dairy products, poultry and semi-finished products, tomato paste, honey, corn, wheat, juices, mushrooms, sugar and more.

Photo credit: Presidents Office

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Ukraine is starting preparations for the reconstruction of cities, communities and infrastructure facilities destroyed by Russian occupiers.

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to Zelensky, when deciding to invade Ukraine, Russias leadership hoped for an internal split in the country, that Ukrainians would not be able to unite for the sake of victory. But, two months of Ukraines resistance showed that the Kremlin was wrong.

Every day, while the whole country is fighting against the Russian invaders, we, as central and local government authorities, in cooperation with our friends and partners, must spend on preparations for the postwar restoration of our state, Zelensky stressed.

According to the preliminary estimates, Ukraines losses from the war with Russia have reached $600 billion so far.

More than 32 million square meters of living space, more than 1,500 educational facilities and more than 350 medical facilities have been destroyed or damaged. Economic entities suffered huge losses  hundreds of enterprises have been destroyed. About 2,500 kilometers of roads and almost 300 bridges have been ruined or damaged. And its not just statistics. This is Mariupol, this is Volnovakha, this is Okhtyrka, this is Chernihiv, this is Borodianka, dozens and dozens of our cities, towns and villages, the President of Ukraine noted.

More than 11.5 million Ukrainians have fled their homes due to hostilities, and about 5 million of them have gone abroad. But, 95% of migrants already want to return home. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a plan to rebuild a comfortable European Ukraine, according to Zelensky.

The President of Ukraine said that today he had received consent from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Japan, Italy and several other countries to join the restoration of the affected territories of Ukraine.

The main principle of this project is that we are building with Europe and the world, rebuilding the whole country. A partnership will be established for each city and each country, Zelensky explained.

President of the National Council, the lower house of the Swiss parliament, Irene Kalin, President of the Senate of Romania Florin Citu, President of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia Talat Xhaferi arrived in Ukraine to attend a meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. They expressed admiration for the courage of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people, and assured their comprehensive support for Ukraine, namely regarding postwar reconstruction.

A reminder that, on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting a war. Russian troops are shelling and destroying the key infrastructure facilities, launching missile and air strikes on Ukrainian cities and villages, torturing and murdering civilians.

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The Russian Federation is blackmailing Europe over the latters refusal to pay for gas supplied in Russian roubles, arguing that Moscow uses energy as its weapon.

The opinion was expressed by the head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak on his Telegram channel, Ukrinform reports.

Polands PGNiG earlier today said that Russia's Gazprom would suspend gas supplies to Poland on April 27 due to "non-compliance with payment terms."

At the same time, according to Yermak, the Polish media write that the supply has already stopped. The reason was Poland's refusal to pay in roubles.

"We are witnessing a typical Russian move to raise stakes and their departure from rules and obligations. The EU has repeatedly said that it will not pay for gas in roubles because the signed contracts have no mention of payments in wooden currency. Russia is trying to split unity of our allies" he said.

Yermak stressed that Russia is once again proving that it sees energy resources as a weapon it can use. That is why the EU needs to stay united and impose an embargo on Russian energy, depriving the Kremlin of its energy weapons.

The chief of the Presidents Office also recalled that Poland had previously announced its intention to abandon Russian gas in 2023. Other EU countries are also looking for ways to diversify energy supplies.

In late March, Russian President Putin signed a decree requiring countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia over its armed aggression against Ukraine to pay for gas in roubles, not dollars or euros. Most EU countries buying gas from Russia have snubbed the demand. The European Commission has declared Moscow's ultimatum illegitimate.

The so-called Yamal Treaty between Poland and Russia, signed in 1996 and subsequently renewed, provides for the annual supply of about 10 billion cubic meters of gas. According to the take-or-pay formula imposed by Gazprom on a Polish company, PGNiG must buy at least 8.7 bcm of gas annually (by the end of 2022). Poland has already declared it will not renew the deal.
Employees of the Austrian embassy have returned to Kyiv last week in solidarity with Ukraine.

The Austrian Foreign Ministry wrote this on Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

We stand united with the people of Ukraine, who fell victim to an unprecedented military aggression by Russia. As an important sign of our unwavering solidarity with Ukraine, members of our Embassy returned to Kyiv last week, the report says.

On February 24, Russia launched a new phase of its eight-year war against Ukraine  a full-scale invasion. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure facilities, conducting massive shelling of residential areas of Ukrainian cities and villages using artillery, multiple rocket launchers and ballistic missiles.

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has discussed food security with Indonesias President Joko Widodo and thanked him for inviting him to attend some events at the G20 summit.

President Zelensky wrote this on Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

Had talks with President of Indonesia Joko Widodo. Thanked for the support of Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, in particular for a clear position in the UN. Food security issues were discussed. Appreciate inviting me to the G20 summit, he wrote.

As Ukrinform reported, earlier the United States and some other countries asked Indonesia, which is hosting the G20 summit in November, to invite Ukraine to participate in some events.

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Canada has announced a new round of sanctions against supporters of Vladimir Putin's regime responsible for the attempted annexation of parts of eastern Ukraine.

Canadas Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly made the relevant statement in Ottawa, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Canada will not stand idly by and watch President Putin and his accomplices attempt to redraw the borders of Ukraine with impunity. International law must be respected, Canadas Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly said.

Canadian new measures impose restrictions on 11 senior officials and 192 other members of the peoples councils of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk Peoples Republics who are complicit in the Russian regimes ongoing violations of Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Russian regimes attempted annexation of certain areas of Donbas is a blatant violation of international law. Todays measures apply further pressure on President Putin and those complicit in the horrific events occurring in Ukraine, the Ministry noted.

The diplomats promise not to stop putting pressure on the Russian ruling regime. Canada will coordinate further actions with its partners in the international community and will continue to hold President Putin and his accomplices accountable for this senseless war, the Ministry stressed.

All assets of sanctioned individuals are frozen in Canada, and they are banned from entering the country.

Since Russias invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Canada has imposed sanctions on nearly 1,000 individuals and entities from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has arrived in Ukraine after visiting Moscow where he met with president Putin.

I have arrived in Ukraine after visiting Moscow, Guterres posted on Twitter.

According to him, the UN will continue its work to expand humanitarian support and secure the evacuation of civilians from conflict zones.

The sooner this war ends, the better  for the sake of Ukraine, Russia, and the world, the UN Secretary-General noted.

On Thursday, Guterres will hold talks with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba.

As reported, after PutinGuterres meeting yesterday, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General said that Putin had allegedly agreed to involve UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. Guterres suggested setting up a humanitarian contact group consisting of representatives of Russia, Ukraine, and the United Nations to find ways to open safe corridors with local cessation of hostilities, as well as to ensure that they are truly effective.

Today, April 27, Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied UN information about an agreement with Russia on joint participation with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol's Azovstal.

According to UN General Assembly resolutions, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a gross violation of the UN Charter and international law. The documents call on Russia to immediately cease hostilities and withdraw troops from Ukraine.

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Russia considers not only gas but any trade as a weapon. The sooner Europe admits that it is inadmissible to depend on Russia in trade, the sooner it will be possible to guarantee stability in European markets.

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his video address, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

This week, Russias leadership launched a new series of energy blackmail of Europeans. The decision to cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria is another argument in favor of the fact that no one in Europe can hope to maintain any normal economic cooperation with Russia. Russia considers not only gas but any trade as a weapon. It is just waiting for the moment when one or another trade area can be used. To blackmail Europeans politically. Or to strengthen Russias military machine, which sees a united Europe as a target, Zelensky noted.

A reminder that, on April 1, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a special decree for unfriendly countries to make them pay for natural gas in rubles only.

On April 27, 2022, Russias Gazprom halted gas supplies to Bulgarias Bulgargaz and Polands PGNiG over their refusal to pay for natural gas in rubles.

Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

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Italy will unreservedly support additional EU sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

This was stated by Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the PACE meeting on Wednesday, Ukrinform reports with reference to ANSA.

"President Sergio Mattarella said in a speech to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Wednesday that Italy was ready to impose possible additional EU sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine" without hesitation, "the statement said.

Commenting on Italian companies' compliance with EU sanctions against Russia, Mattarella said that "the sanctions system is fully operational in Italy."

According to the Italian president, the Russian war against Ukraine also provides an impetus for European unity. "Russia's aggression provides an additional impetus to the unity of European countries and peoples who believe in peace, democracy, and respect for international law and the rule of law," he said.

The Italian president also said that by its "brutal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Federation has decided to position itself outside the rules to which it has once signed up."
On Tuesday, after a solemn ceremony in Riga, 11 Mercedes-Benz buses donated by the Riga City Hall left for the Ukrainian capital carrying humanitarian aid for residents of Kyiv city and Kyiv region affected by the Russian occupation.

"This is one of the projects of assistance provided by Latvia and Latvian self-governments to our country which fights against Putin's aggression together with the world community. By the decision of the Riga City Council, 11 buses were donated to the sister city of Kyiv to support the city's infrastructure affected by the Russian bombing," Ambassador of Ukraine to Latvia Oleksandr Mishchenko told Ukrinform.

According to him, it would be unwise, non-technological for these buses to drive empty. Therefore, in Riga, humanitarian aid  medicines, food, hygiene products, clothing, baby food, other baby products, household appliances, pet food and more  was collected for several days.

Upon arrival in the capital of Ukraine, these buses will be handed over to Head of the Kyiv City Administration Vitaliy Klitschko with the participation of Riga Vice Mayor Edvards Smiltens. The humanitarian action was made possible thanks to the coordinated joint work of the Embassy of Ukraine in Latvia, the Riga City Hall, and the Latvian charity fund Ziedot.lv.

The Ambassador of Ukraine expressed his sincere gratitude to the employees and management of the Riga City Hall, the municipal public transport company Rigas satiksme, and the Latvian charity Ziedot.lv.

Finally, Mishchenko added that ties between cities and regions of Ukraine and Latvia are strengthening at all levels and in various spheres. In particular, an online meeting of representatives of local self-governments of Ukraine and Latvia was held on Tuesday to discuss the progress and prospects of cooperation. Particular emphasis was placed on Latvia's assistance to Ukrainian refugees.

"Currently, there are already more than 25,000 Ukrainians in Latvia who arrived here after February 24. Moreover, during the online meeting, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Ukrainian town of Kosiv and Latvias Kuldiga within the framework of the twin cities program," the Ukrainian diplomat said.

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Trabajamos en conjunto la Agenda de Desarrollo Territorial del Vraem! Luego de una jornada de dialogo, se clausura el VII Consejo de Ministros Descentralizado realizado en el distrito de Samugari, en Ayacucho, liderado por el presidente Pedro Castillo y el premier Anibal Torres. pic.twitter.com/kIE6mopVpE
The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense, and the Mediarukh community have issued a joint statement on the journalists work in a warzone.

According to Ukrinform, the parties agreed that in order to comply with security regulations, journalists shall be allowed to gather information on the ground immediately after the strike, but publish photos and videos of damaged military facilities in 12 hours and civilian targets  in three hours, says a statement published by Media Detector.

"The authorities and the Mediarukh journalistic community have agreed that in order to comply with all necessary security conditions, journalists can gather information on the ground in the immediate aftermath of the strikes. At the same time, it is allowed to publish photos and videos taken by the media and journalists about the events at the scene of hostilities with a 12-hour delay as regards military facilities and a 3-hour delay  for civilian targets," the statement said.

It is also noted that the Ukrainian government highly appreciates the dedicated work of journalists, their professionalism and fearlessness in covering Russian aggression against Ukraine. Currently, 6,000 journalists have been accredited since the full-scale invasion of the Russian occupiers begun. They are not just authors of unique news, important investigations and reports, but people who are well versed in the field and work in extreme, high-risk conditions.

The parties also stressed in the statement that the safety and protection of journalists is the basis of freedom of speech, so the government is taking all necessary measures toward ensuring the safety of journalists. Media hubs operate in Kyiv and Lviv to create comfortable working conditions for journalists. Ukrinform hosts regular briefings, held by representatives of the Ministry of Defense, Armed Forces, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the SES. Official information is provided primarily by the General Staff of the Armed Forces, as well as through press officers of the Armed Forces and mobile press teams working in combat zones.

In the statement, media representatives called for strict compliance with the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, of March 3, 2022, No.73, which established the procedure for granting access of media representatives to military facilities in the zones of hostilities amid martial law.

In particular, the document defines the algorithm of actions to be applied by commanders when working with civilian media.

The accreditation procedure for journalists of national and foreign media, the rules for mass media in the hostility areas are also determined. Only accredited media representatives may be admitted to military facilities in the area of hostilities with the permission of unit commanders.

This order also approved the Rules of Procedure of a journalist in the area of hostilities, which they shall personally review when a press card is issued.

In case of violation of these Rules, the accreditation will be revoked. The authors of the statement urge journalists to avoid disclosing information that could lead to the enemy becoming aware of the actions of the Defense Forces and affect the progress of the tasks assigned.

Military administrations are advised to provide more information to the media about the destruction caused by enemy no later than 24 hours after the event.

Mediarukh is a community that brings together journalists from leading Ukrainian media, investigative reporters, and experts with media NGOs.
 UNHCR

Today, the UK Parliament approved new legislation on nationality, asylum and immigration  the Nationality and Borders Bill. The bill will become law once it receives Royal Assent.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, regrets that the British governments proposals for a new approach to asylum that undermines established international refugee protection law and practices has been approved.

The UK is a nation that rightly prides itself on its long history of welcoming and protecting refugees. It is disappointing that it would choose a course of action aimed at deterring the seeking of asylum by relegating most refugees to a new, lesser status with few rights and a constant threat of removal.

Furthermore, wide-ranging inadmissibility rules have the potential to deny refugees their right to seek asylum in the UK. Such provisions are potentially at variance with the Refugee Convention.

I am also concerned by the UKs intention to externalize its obligations to protect refugees and asylum seekers to other countries. Such efforts to shift responsibility run counter to the letter and spirit of the Refugee Convention, to which the UK is a party. These efforts also run counter to the Global Compact on Refugees, which was affirmed by the UN General Assembly in 2018 and calls for more equitably sharing the responsibility for refugee protection.

Currently, most of the worlds refugees are hosted by countries neighbouring crises, with the vast majority hosted by low- and middle-income countries that, despite their limited resources, have gone out of their way to admit and protect refugees. We have also seen such international protection and extraordinary solidarity in the rest of Europe, which is now hosting millions of Ukrainian refugees that have fled the war over the past weeks.

This latest UK Government decision risks dramatically weakening a system that has for decades provided protection and the chance of a new life to so many desperate people.

UNHCR has outlined its concerns and objections to the Nationality and Borders Bill on several occasions and has offered advice on how to implement a more effective and fairer asylum procedure, followed by speedy integration of refugees and return of those not in need of international protection. UNHCR remains committed to engaging with the UK, a long-standing and valued partner, on the identification of practical means to uphold the UKs international commitments.

For further information, please contact:
Like all great things, the 2021-22 editorial boards term has come to an end. Read more
The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is welcoming Chase Kratochvil as the university's new Coordinator of Federal Relations. His first day was on Monday, April 25.



Kratochvil offers significant experience in government service, coming to UNO after working as the Director of Military & Veteran Affairs for Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer. He also has extensive knowledge of UNO as an UNO alumnus and member of the Master of Public Administration Advisory Board at UNO.



At UNO, Kratochvil will be track and research federal policy; provide updates regarding federal issues for internal and external communications; and assist with logistics and management for the government and community relations functions of the university.

Just one of the areas Kratochvil will focus on in his role will be supporting and growing UNO's record-breaking research through building on existing federal connections and forming new relationships in areas with growth opportunities.



For questions, please contact the Chief of Government and Community Relations Victoria Kohout vkohout@unomaha.edu.
From Estonia to Germany to Finland to Uzbekistan to Pakistan, the U.S. Fulbright Program is bringing the world to UNO and UNO to the world.



This year, a current student, recent alumnus, and current faculty member were each selected as recipients of a Fulbright Scholarship or alternates.



Every year, hundreds of individuals looking to expand their knowledge through international engagement are selected to receive Fulbright awards. While thousands apply, only a small number of recipients receive funding.



Additionally, this semester UNO has been hosting its own pair of Fulbright recipients: two faculty members from Pakistan who are hoping to bring the knowledge they learn back to their campuses and communities.

Students

Alumni

UNO Faculty

Visiting Faculty

The Fulbright program really does represent the best of the best when it comes to academic quality and social impact, explained Lucy Morrison, Ph.D., director of UNOs Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships. It is no understatement to say that our students and our faculty are competing for these positions against a formidable field of applicants; the rigor, commitment, and motivation that each of these individuals have is truly remarkable.

Questions about how to apply for a Fulbright? Reach out to the Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships at unoonsf@unomaha.edu.







Jazmyn Cruz

: UNO Senior, Foreign Languages and Literature: Germany

Spending most of her life split between Bellevue, Neb., and her birthplace of Guam, Jazmyn Cruz has done a lot of traveling  but her first chance to travel internationally will come as part of a Fulbright Award to serve as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in Germany.

Ive already been a mentor for Exploratory Studies and worked in the Writing Center so I have the gist of what it will be like to be a teaching assistant, she said. I plan to also work with students to develop an art club as part of my contributions.

Cruz, who will graduate in May with a double major in English and German said she has always wanted to teach English in other countries. An essay she wrote in one of her German classes got her pointed in the right direction.

I looked it up and it seemed difficult and that I didnt have what it takes, but my mentor kept pushing me to apply, she said.

Thanks to support from her mentor and the Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships, Cruz will be fulfilling more than just a few bucket list items. She says while it may seem impossible, its worth applying and finding those at UNO who can support you along the way.

The worst that can happen is you dont get it, but youll never know until you try.





Ottilie Cooper-Ohm

Status: Senior, IT Innovation

Destination: Uzbekistan

From Council Bluffs, Iowa, all the way to Central Asia, Ottile Cooper-Ohm wants to help educators do what they do better through the use of new and emerging technologies. Yet, she knew something was missing as she quickly approached the end of her time at UNO.

"I don't yet have the real-world teaching experience to feel comfortable telling teachers what they should be doing," she said. "I applied for the Fulbright because I wanted to gain that experience in a teaching position where I could use the skills that I already had."

Cooper-Ohm, who is also a Walter Scott, Jr. Scholar and a member of Maverick Productions, chose Uzbekistan in part because they needed English-language teachers who has specialites in the STEM field. It didn't hurt that she also speaks Russian.

While in Uzbekistan, Cooper-Ohm hopes that she will get the opportunity to teach computer science to young women. It's a passion she said is dear to her heart.

"In middle school I went to CodeCrush at UNO, a camp that taught girls about tech, and it totally reshaped the trajectory of my life."

Cooper-Ohm credits the Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships with supporting her application and connecting her with campus resources like the Intensive Language at UNO (ILUNO) program to help get her classroom experience she could point to on her application.

Overall, she said the biggest peice of advice she could give is do your research, ask questions, and don't worry about making a couple mistakes along the way.

"Fulbright doesn't want applicants who are perfect all of the time, they want people who are flexible and learn from their mistakes."

Grahm Peschel

Status: UNO Alumnus

Destination: Estonia



A native of Lincoln, Neb., Grahm Peschel has always had a desire to travel the world.



While earning his degree in physical geography, which he graduated with this past August, Peschel had made plans to study abroad in Norway, but what was meant to be a year-long residency was cut short due to COVID. Now, he has a chance to spend a full year in Estonia as an ETA as an alternate, meaning if someone with a current award cannot go for any reason, he would go in their place.



I became interested in applying for the Fulbright after my graduation when I was looking for opportunities to return abroad for an extended period of time so I could become an integrated part of a foreign culture and community, Peschel said.



Peschel, who is now a legal runner at a Lincoln law firm, wants to pursue a career in environmental law. Estonia, he said, is a unique case study in that field.



I chose Estonia specifically due to their impressive turnaround from one of the larger polluters in the world, under Soviet control, to one of the most environmentally conscious places on Earth. Additionally, Estonians are arguably one of the most vigilant, determined, and hard-working people on the planet.



Peschel said that even though hell be thousands of miles away, and even though hes already graduated, UNO will never be far from his heart.



I attended a small private parochial school in Lincoln from pre-K through 12th grade, so making the leap of faith to attend a new school, a school I knew nobody at, was difficult. However, it was one of the best decisions of my life and helped me to grow as an individual. I will forever be thankful for all the support I received at UNO.





Christine Cutucache, Ph.D.

Status: Director of UNOs STEM TRAIL Center

Destination: Finland

This May, Christine Cutuchace, Ph.D., UNO STEM TRAIL Center Director and Faculty Fellow for Academic Assessment and Planning, will travel to Finland to exchange knowledge and establish partnerships benefiting participants, institutions, and communities in the U.S. and overseas through a variety of educational and training activities focused on educational outcomes.

Finnish educational outcomes routinely top the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) scoreboard, she said. Similarly, innovative new companies focusing on STEM conceptsfrom learning analytics to game-based educational venturesare expansive. Im eager to share some of the research from our programs in STEM at UNO, build out new collaborations, and expand my learning thanks to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Unlike other Fulbright recipients, Cutucaches time abroad will be shorter and more focused. She will travel this May and spend two weeks at the University of Eastern Finland before returning to UNO as part of the Fulbright Specialist Program.

Recipients of this prestigious and competitive award are chosen based on academic and professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership in their field and their potential to foster long-term cooperation between institutions in the U.S and abroad.





Javed Iqbal, Ph.D.

Status: Associate Professor of Economics

Origin: Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad

Economic inequity is an issue that is as true halfway across the world as it is here in the United States; however, its the differences between the real estate industry and its interaction with local and state governments that provide opportunities for finding solutions.

Javed Iqbal, an associate professor from Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, applied for a Fulbright to study in Omaha, at UNO, after a prior visit under the Pakistani Universities Linkages Programme (PULP) through International Studies and the Center for Afghanistan Studies.

"The US has an incredible experience in dealing with the housing affordability issue. They have a vast housing mortgage program that facilitates households of different income levels. By studying the US housing sector, we may have more exposure to the knowledge and information that the US has gone through over the decades. The experience and knowledge that I would come across through my engagement in postdoc research can be a good experience that we may use and apply to my country Pakistan."

Arriving in Omaha in November with his wife and children, the Fulbright experience for Iqbal has been one of initial challenges, including trying to secure housing and navigating enrolling his children in school. However, he says it is an experience that he says is not just rewarding for him, but his family as well.

The people-to-people exchange encourages countries to take more opportunities to understand each other. I think this is very good experience, even for improving other life skills; it makes me ask how can we come back in the future and expand this connection?





Humaira Jami, Ph.D.

Status: Assistant Professor of Applied Psychology

Origin: Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad

Humaira Jami wasnt successful on her first Fulbright application, but persistence paid off as, even though a pandemic, she was able to navigate processing delays and flight restrictions to make it to Omaha and begin her work helping people.

My focus is transgender health and I want to develop programs to train physicians in that area because it does not exist in Pakistan the way it does in the United States, Jami, who is working in Sociology and Anthropology with UNO faculty member Jay Irwin, Ph.D., said. My advisor has been very helpful getting us connected with various physicians at UNMC and faculty from several other universities are also helping in developing the training modules. That is what I like about the U.S.; everyone is collaborative.

Like Iqbal, Jami was part of the PULP and visited UNO in 2018. She said that familiarity helped her securing the chance to do her research here and it has helped her move forward with that research as well, saying by May she should be able to begin delivering online training to medical students in Pakistan and aims to conclude training by July.

And even beyond what she can bring back to Pakistan, Jami knows she has already made an impact locally by building a more connected world for her daughter.

This experience is letting me challenge This experience is letting me challenge my personal biases about the USA and the stereotypes about Pakistan and our people as well, she said. When we come together, we can understand each other in a better way.
MANILA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Apr, 2022 ) --:The Philippines has detected the first Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12 in a 52-year-old Finnish female who arrived in the country on April 2, the Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday.

The DOH said the patient has recovered and returned to Finland on April 21. It added the patient was not required to undergo routine isolation at a quarantine facility since she was fully vaccinated and asymptomatic when she arrived in the country.

"The female then traveled to a university in Metro Manila and then to Baguio City (in northern Philippines) to conduct seminars," the DOH said.

Nine days after her arrival in the country, the DOH said the patient experienced mild symptoms such as headache and sore throat.

Upon detecting the confirmed case, the DOH said the local epidemiology and surveillance unit conducted contact tracing to identify nine asymptomatic close contacts. Two of them were tested and found to be negative.
(@Abdulla99267510)

President Arif Alvi has administered oath to the PPP chairman at president house.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-April 27th, 2022) PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari took oath as Federal Minister in Islamabad on Wednesday.

President Dr. Arif Alvi administered the oath.

Meanwhile, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari assumed office of the Foreign Minister.

He visited the Foreign Office in Islamabad today where he was given detailed briefing about the ministry of foreign affairs and Pakistan's relations with other countries.

PPP leadership initially was reluctant for Bilawal to take oath as the Foreign Minister but later they agreed to the position.

Bilawal had visited Nawaz Sharif and held detailed meetings with him in London before his return to Pakistan and taking oath.
LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Apr, 2022 ) :The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has given a clean chit to its former director general Bashir Memon in money laundering and two other inquiries.

The FIA's investigation officer on Tuesday submitted a report before an additional district and sessions judge and submitted that investigations had been completed in all the three inquiries against Bashir Memon. He submitted that Bashir Memon was not found guilty in the inquiries and his arrest was no longer required.

At this, the counsel for Bashir Memon requested the court to allow for withdrawing the bail petition.

Subsequently, the court allowed to withdraw the bail petition in the light of a statement by the investigation officer.

Bashir Memon had also appeared before the court to get an extension in his interim bail.

The former FIA director general had approached the court, stating that the FIA Lahore had initiated three inquiries against him on charges of facilitating financial crime, fraud and others. He submitted that all allegations were baseless. He submitted that it was feared that the agency might arrest him. He pleaded with the court to grant interim bail.
(@Abdulla99267510)

This is the Prime Ministers first visit abroad after assuming Office earlier this month.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-April 27th, 2022) Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is paying a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia from Thursday on the invitation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz.

This would be the Prime Ministers first visit abroad after assuming Office earlier this month.

The Prime Minister will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, including key members of the Cabinet.

During the visit, the Prime Minister will have bilateral interaction with the Saudi leadership, with particular focus on advancing economic, trade and investment ties and creation of greater opportunities for the Pakistani workforce in Saudi Arabia. The two sides will also exchange views on a range of regional and international issues of mutual interest.

In a statement, Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are bound by fraternal relationship marked by mutual trust and understanding, close cooperation, and an abiding tradition of supporting each other. The people of Pakistan hold the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in the highest esteem.

The spokesperson said the Prime Ministers visit to Saudi Arabia will further reinforce the growing partnership between the two countries.

The spokesperson said the bilateral relationship is complemented by close mutual collaboration at regional and international fora.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is home to more than two million Pakistanis, contributing to the progress, prosperity and economic development of the two brotherly countries.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2022) US President Joe Biden spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday and accepted an invitation to visit Israel, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Tuesday.

"Prime Minister Bennett extended an invitation for (Biden) to visit Israel, which he accepted and will do. We don't have a date yet to announce," Psaki said during a press conference.

The announcement comes amid US-Israeli engagement on issues including negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program and a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as well as increased tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.

Last week, the Israeli police said that hundreds of Palestinians, some wearing masks and flying the Hamas flag, engaged in mass riots on Temple Mount. According to Israeli law enforcement officers, the demonstrators were throwing stones, setting off fireworks and building barricades, thus creating a threat to Israelis praying at the Western Wall.

The Israeli police said they waited for the end of the morning prayer for worshipers to leave and then used special equipment to disperse the crowd and restore order.
The delegation of the Bulgarian coalition cabinet headed by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov is traveling to Kiev to negotiate possible arms supplies to Ukraine, Bulgarian broadcaster NOVA reported on Wednesday

ROME (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2022) The delegation of the Bulgarian coalition cabinet headed by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov is traveling to Kiev to negotiate possible arms supplies to Ukraine, Bulgarian broadcaster NOVA reported on Wednesday.

According to reports, the delegation included the representatives of three out of four ruling parties, notably, We Continue the Change, There Is Such a People (ITN) and Democratic Bulgaria parties. The leftist Bulgarian Socialist Party that opposes arms deliveries to Ukraine refused to join the visit, saying it has sufficient information about the country.

The visit is aimed at evaluating the needs of the Ukrainian people as well as handing over helmets and body armors promised earlier, according to Petkov. Meanwhile, NOVA said that the ruling coalition is seeking to clarify the partners' positions on whether Sofia should support Kiev with weaponry or not.

In Kiev, Petkov is expected to hold meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, with the delegation also visiting the devastated towns in the Kiev suburbs - Borodyanka, Bucha and Irpen.

Following last week's visit to Sofia by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba who asked Bulgaria for military assistance, Petkov announced on Monday the launching of a public fund-raising campaign for purchasing weapons for Ukraine. This initiative spurred a heated debate in the country, with some senior officials speaking against it.

On Wednesday, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska from the ITN party told NOVA that Sofia was "already too late" to take a clear stance on rendering military support to Ukraine. As for the initiative urging citizens to donate money for purchasing military supplies, the minister called it odd.

Genchovska did not join the visit to Ukraine, saying it was organized belatedly and noting that earlier there had been plenty of chances to demonstrate Bulgaria's solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
"El Vraem no es un problema, es una oportunidad. Por ello, tenemos que impulsar el desarrollo de esta zona productiva del pais", indico el presidente Pedro Castillo durante el VII Consejo de Ministros Descentralizado en Ayacucho.#SiempreConElPueblo pic.twitter.com/PcMGbZaL2r
BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2022) The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Wednesday slammed the transit of USS Sampson guided-missile destroyer through the Taiwan Strait, accusing the United States of undermining stability in the region.

The US warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday and, according to the PLA, "hyped it (the passage) up publicly."

"The US has been frequently carrying out provocative acts to send wrong signals to 'Taiwan Independence' forces, deliberately undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China is firmly opposed to this," PLA Eastern Theater Command spokesperson Shi Yi said in a statement.

Troops of the PLA Eastern Theater Command tracked and monitored the US destroyer through the whole course, according to the statement.

Taiwan alienated from Beijing after becoming a stronghold of the Chinese Nationalist Party (the Kuomintang) following its defeat to the Communist Party in a civil war in 1949. The Chinese mainland and the island resumed business and informal contacts in the late 1980s. Today Beijing opposes any official contacts of foreign countries with Taiwan and considers the Chinese sovereignty upon it indisputable under the so-called One-China principle.
European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said on Wednesday that the European Union had delivered 34 tonnes of food and medical supplies in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2022) European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said on Wednesday that the European Union had delivered 34 tonnes of food and medical supplies in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

"Today, another Humanitarian Air Bridge landed in Kabul, carrying 34 tonnes of nutritional items and medical supplies," Lenarcic said on Twitter.

He added that it was the 15th humanitarian delivery carried out by the EU since August 2021 and called it "a sign of the EU's continued commitment to support Afghan people in these challenging times.

"

The Taliban (under UN sanctions over terrorist activities) took over Afghanistan in the fall of 2021 and established an interim government led by Mohammad Hasan Akhund, a prominent member of the first Taliban cabinet. The country has since been facing a humanitarian crisis with economic distress and food shortages. Thousands of Afghans have fled the country fearful of the Taliban and widespread violation of human rights. The world community remains committed to providing Afghanistan with humanitarian aid despite the new authorities not being internationally recognized.
(@FahadShabbir)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2022) Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow announced that he has accepted the recommendations of a committee studying universities' ties to slavery and has set aside $100 million to continue studying and documenting that issue.

"As the committee's report powerfully documents, Harvard's history includes extensive entanglements with slavery. The report makes plain that slavery in America was by no means confined to the South. It was embedded in the fabric and the institutions of the North, and it remained legal in Massachusetts until the Supreme Judicial Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1783," Bacow said in a press release on Tuesday.

The Harvard president said slavery played a significant part in the universities' institutional history.

"Enslaved people worked on our campus supporting our students, faculty, and staff, including several Harvard presidents. The labor of enslaved people both far and near enriched numerous donors and, ultimately, the institution." he said.

Bacow noted that some faculty supported and disseminated bogus positions that gave a scholarly imprimatur to racial superiority and racism.

Even after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, Harvard continued a slate of discriminatory practices that severely constrained the number and presence of African Americans on campus.

"Consequently, I believe we bear a moral responsibility to do what we can to address the persistent corrosive effects of those historical practices on individuals, on Harvard, and on our society," he said.

Bacow explained that the $100 million will create an endowed "Legacy of Slavery Fund" that will continue researching and memorializing that history, working with descendants of Black and Native American people enslaved at Harvard, as well as their broader community.

In addition to Harvard, a number of other educational institutions in the United States, including Georgetown, Brown, Columbia, University of Virginia and the Princeton Theological Seminary, have set aside financial resources to make amends with the participation the system based on slavery.
(@FahadShabbir)

As South Africa on Wednesday marks a key date in the fight against apartheid, one of the last surviving leaders of that struggle says the nation's liberators have fallen out of touch with the people

Johannesburg, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Apr, 2022 ) :As South Africa on Wednesday marks a key date in the fight against apartheid, one of the last surviving leaders of that struggle says the nation's liberators have fallen out of touch with the people.

In an interview with AFP, 87-year-old Mac Maharaj warned that corruption risked undermining the gains of the democracy that he fought and suffered for.

"Everything shows it has lost contact with the ground," Maharaj said of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

He was one of the party's leading figures, spending more than a decade imprisoned alongside Nelson Mandela.

Maharaj famously smuggled Mandela's autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" out of prison and joined Mandela's cabinet after he won the first free elections on April 27, 1994.

But a judicial inquiry this year laid out an extensive web of graft and cronyism under former president Jacob Zuma that left even basic government services gutted.

Maharaj also served as Zuma's spokesman but retired in 2015, several years before his presidency was prematurely curtailed by mounting scandal.

"The country is facing a moment where there is a conjunction of different crises that are all feeding into one major crisis," Maharaj said, citing graft, poverty and unemployment.

Maharaj believes that current President Cyril Ramaphosa is tackling corruption, albeit too slowly for some.

"There is real sense that under Cyril Ramaphosa, he is not doing enough, fast enough," Maharaj said.

"But what I think Cyril had done right is that in the face of these challenges of weeding out corruption, he has never overstepped the boundaries of law," he said. "That has slowed the process." "I hear people say they want a quicker prosecution, but we are dealing with corruption of an extremely complicated nature," he said.

The judicial inquiry laid significant blame on the Gupta family from India, accused of widespread bribery, and on American consultancy Bain, which has been forced to recant some its work and refund its fees.

The international nature of the corruption makes prosecution difficult, Maharaj said.

The inquiry also singled out senior ANC members, which has only deepened in-fighting within a party that voters are increasingly disillusioned with.

- 'Many mistakes' - "We have made many mistakes, and we have also moved the country forward in many respects," he said, sitting opposite a bookshelf at an upmarket house he shares with his older sister and son, on the northern outskirts of Johannesburg.

"We have accumulated vast experience, but we are not drawing lessons from those mistakes," said Maharaj.

During the struggle, Maharaj led the ANC's underground operation. He was jailed for 12 years alongside Mandela at the notorious Robben Island prison.

After Mandela was elected president on April 27, 1994, Maharaj joined the cabinet as transport minister. A picture of the two men together hung next to a book shelf displaying some of the books he has penned or edited.

The ANC lately has preached self-cleansing and renewal, but according to Maharaj, it has "not yet fleshed out what renewal is." It needs "real revolution inside the party to bring about renewal".

Maharaj recently co-authored a book titled "Breakthrough: The Struggles and Secret Talks that Brought Apartheid South Africa to the Negotiating Table." The book reveals intricate details about the jostling for position that unfolded before the start of formal talks that saw the country transition to democracy.

Maharaj played a key role in keeping those negotiations on track.

He joined the struggle as a student, was arrested in June 1964, charged with five others at the famous Rivonia Trial on 177 counts of sabotage. He smuggled Mandela's memoir out of prison on his release in 1976.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

More than 20 people have been killed in an attack on Muslims in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar during the funeral of a Muslim elder, a local Islamic group said on Wednesday

Addis Ababa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Apr, 2022 ) :More than 20 people have been killed in an attack on Muslims in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar during the funeral of a Muslim elder, a local Islamic group said on Wednesday.

The attackers "fired a barrage of heavy machine guns and grenades... leaving many dead while others who were injured have been taken to hospital," the religious body said.

"More than 20 have died due to yesterday's attack which also saw the looting of Muslim properties," it added.

The mayor of Gondar, Zewdu Malede, told Ethiopian public broadcaster EBC that the "incident was carried out by few extremist individuals." "There has been some destruction and loss of lives from all sides," he said, without offering further details about the identity of the attackers or the victims.

"The situation was (brought) under control by 7:00 pm."Officials at the Amhara regional government could not be reached while Gondar police declined to comment.
Russia has added 287 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom to the sanctions list, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2022) Russia has added 287 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom to the sanctions list, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

"In response to the decision of the UK government, made on March 11, to include 386 lawmakers of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to the sanctions list, on the basis of reciprocity, (the ministry) imposes personal restrictions on 287 members of the House of Commons of the British Parliament," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said that sanctioned individuals are not allowed to enter Russia as they took active part in imposing anti-Russia sanctions by the UK.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Russia halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday, after blasts in a breakaway region of neighbouring Moldova led Kyiv to accuse Moscow of seeking to expand the Ukraine war further into Europe

Kyiv, Ukraine, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Apr, 2022 ) :Russia halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday, after blasts in a breakaway region of neighbouring Moldova led Kyiv to accuse Moscow of seeking to expand the Ukraine war further into Europe.

The Russian energy giant Gazprom said it had cut supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, in Moscow's latest use of gas as a weapon in a conflict that has now dragged into its third month and claimed thousands of lives.

Explosions this week targeting the state security ministry, a radio tower and military unit in neighbouring Moldova's region of Transnistria -- occupied by Moscow's forces for decades -- followed a Kremlin commander's claims Russian speakers in the country were being oppressed.

That triggered alarm that Moldova could be Russia's next target in its push into Europe, with Moscow having exploited similar fears after launching its bloody invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

"Russia wants to destabilise the Transnistrian region," Mykhaylo Podolyak, a Ukraine presidential aide, wrote on Twitter.

"If Ukraine falls, tomorrow Russian troops will be at Chisinau's gates," he said, referring to Moldova's capital.

The United States echoed similar concerns -- though stopped short of backing Kyiv's contention that Russia was responsible.

"We fully support Moldova's territorial integrity and sovereignty," State Department spokesman Ned price told reporters.

burs-oho/je
NOAA Director Visits USMs Coastal Operations

Wed, 04/27/2022 - 16:30pm | By: Margaret Ann Macloud

The leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) ocean mapping and nautical charting program visited two University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Coastal Operations sites this week to learn more about hydrographic science education programs, research, capabilities, and potential areas of collaboration.

Rear Admiral Benjamin Evans, Director of NOAAs Office of Coast Survey, toured USM's Marine Research Center and the Roger F. Wicker Center for Ocean Enterprise, which is currently under construction at the Mississippi State Port Authority at Gulfport. Evans and staff members from the Office of Coast Survey visited with USM leadership, Mississippi State Port Authority at Gulfport leadership, and representatives for the offices of Senators Roger F. Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith and U.S. Congressman Steven Palazzo.

Dr. Kelly Lucas, Associate Vice President for Research at USM's Coastal Operations, briefed the NOAA team on how the Universitys Gulf Blue initiative brings together scientists, innovators, and industry and government partners, often co-located in the same buildings. That collaborative environment drives breakthroughs in blue technology and brings higher-paying jobs to Mississippi.

The Office of Coast Survey has been a partner with USM for mapping products, research in hydrographic science and nautical surveys conducted by the Hydrographic Science Research Center. Of particular interest is USM education programs in hydrographic science, a program that is internationally recognized and graduates students with 100 percent job placement, said Dr. Lucas. We were happy to showcase the Roger F. Wicker Center for Ocean Enterprise and provide a first view of building resources for staff members of NOAAs Office of Coast Survey occupying the building.
14:36 | Chachapoyas (Amazonas region), Apr. 26.









The government agency stated that the proposal is being reviewed by the Decentralized Culture Directorate (DDC) in Amazonas region.





Afterwards, the document will be forwarded to the Decentralized Directorate of the National Civil Defense Institute (Indeci) in said region for its opinion.





The Ministry of Culture reported that the newly-appointed head of the Decentralized Culture Directorate (DDC) in Amazonas, Jesus Esther Lozano Maldonado, performed a comprehensive inspection of the archeological monument last Friday, April 22.





During the inspection, Lozano focused on the affected area, following the perimeter wall collapse on April 10, situated in the eastern sector of the Southern Perimeter Wall to determine the appropriateness of reopening the monument to the public.





As a consequence of such wall collapse, visits to Kuelap have been suspended until visitors' safety is guaranteed.





Kuelap is Amazonas' and northeastern Peru's principal tourist attraction.





Various international publications such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal refer to it as an important destination that stands out above the rest for its prominent architectural beauty, as well as its privileged view and geography.





(END) NDP/MAO/RMB/MVB

The team of experts responsible for the Kuelap archaeological site has prepared a proposal to create a new internal tourist circuit, which seeks to guarantee visitors' safety and the protection of said monument situated in the rainforest region of Amazonas, the Ministry of Culture has reported.Published: 4/26/2022
OREM, Utah  The Office for Global Engagement, in conjunction with the City of Cusco in Peru and the Consulate of Peru, will celebrate Inti Raymi, the most important festival of the Inca Empire, on April 28 at 7pm in the UVU Grand Ballroom. For the first time in their history this celebration will be held outside of Peru, bringing great enthusiasm to the Utah Valley community and abroad.

These types of collaborations occur when we have a strong diplomatic tie with governments around the world, Baldomero Lago, UVUs chief international officer, said. Last month we held the UVU Diplomatic Conference and brought a strong representation of Peru to our campus. Now we have been asked to bring Inti Raymi to our campus.

Inti Raymi is a traditional religious ceremony of the Inca Empire in honor of the sun god Inti (Quechua for "sun"), the most venerated deity in Inca religion. It was the celebration of the winter solstice  the shortest day of the year in terms of the time between sunrise and sunset  and the Inca New Year when the hours of light would begin to lengthen again. The festival is held on June 24.

Actors, dancers, and the mayor of Cusco will attend the ceremonial Incan tradition. The event is free and open to the public and will also be live streamed to Peru and to all the Peruvian Embassies throughout the world. Incan culture and traditions will be on display in the commons area of the Grand Ballroom at 6pm.

As an academic institution we take pride in being inclusive and welcoming all cultures to our campus, Lago said. For the first time in their history this celebration will be held outside of Peru, bringing great enthusiasm to our local community and abroad. This is an opportunity of a lifetime.

About The Office for Global Engagement

The Office for Global Engagement at UVU has a mission to create opportunities for students to succeed and empower them to become responsible global citizens. They are committed to the principle that international experiences, awareness, and perspectives are vital to a strong, sustainable world.

For more information about the Office for Global Engagement, click here.
Coffins are carried to a Church after a prayer at the destroyed home of a family in Hammersdale in KwaZulu Natal (AFP or licensors)

South Africa's national religious leaders conduct a "Walk of Witness" and joint prayer at some of the flood-affected areas of Kwa-Zulu Natal. Cardinal Napier, Archbishop of Durban, talks about the ecumenical and interfaith collaboration in the Province and of how it offers concrete support to those on the peripheries.

By Linda Bordoni

Floods in South Africas KwaZulu Natal Province have displaced over 40,000 people, damaged houses crops and lands. Over 400 people died in the April 19 floods and many are still missing.

A National State of Disaster has been declared and rescue teams have been deployed to the affected areas to provide humanitarian assistance.

An interfaith delegation on Tuesday visited some of those areas and called for a nationwide prayer moment involving parliament.

Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, Archbishop Emeritus of Durban, told Linda Bordoni about the initiative and reflected on some of the causes and consequences of the disaster:

Listen to Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier

The Walk of Witness and a joint moment of prayer that saw representatives of the National Religious Forum visit some of the flood-affected areas of KwaZulu Natal stemmed from an initiative of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Christian Council and the South African Council of Churches working together.

Thus, Cardinal Napier explained, it brought a number of faith leaders from the different communities together with people involved in relief efforts, physically showing their solidarity and closeness to those who have lost so much. Following the Walk of Witness and Nationwide Prayer, a meeting was held to evaluate and assess damage and relief work and make a plan for the coming weeks and months.

The Cardinal explained that the delegation visited mainly the outlying areas of the city of Durban, Just to name a few areas, Phoenix and Verulam that are predominantly occupied by people of Indian origin; Inanda, Ntuzuma, uMlazi and Hopewell. These, he said, are big townships on the outskirts of Durban, home mostly to black people, but not exclusively.

Nkanini informal settlement

Man-made disaster

One important characteristic that emerged, he said, was that many of the houses that were destroyed or damaged were actually located on unsuitable land, on steep slopes near - or even on - the river bed or on the riverbanks.

On the margins of the towns and the townships. The peripheries, Pope Francis would call them.

These are places, the Cardinal explained, where infrastructure is not very good. Drainage systems don't actually operate or are not present at all.

And so these areas are ready-made for any kind of disaster. And with the scale of rain that we had, with over a hundred millimetres in 24 hours, - that's the scale of the rain that was coming down - damage had to be done to those places that were in such unsuitable locations, he said.

Interfaith collaboration and solidarity defeating racism

Another thing that is worth noting, the Cardinal confirmed, is that those very areas were the ones that suffered unrest and racial clashes in July 2021, but today they are where the people have come together in solidarity.

During this latest disaster, those are the communities that have been helping each other most.

And I think, Cardinal Napier added, it's largely due to a huge effort on the part of Churches to bring those communities together.

Pointing to a series of initiatives promoted by the Churches and by community leaders, he said people are helping distribute food and other aid to each other, resulting in good coming out of what started off as a bad experience for both communities: the black and the Indian communities.

Read also 21/04/2022 South Africas floods: Neighbours have been helping neighbours. South Africas Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Mariannhill, Neil Augustine Frank, O.M.I., has described the recent floods in South Africa as sad and depressing.

There was a talk shop arranged for last Friday, the Cardinal recalled, that had to be called off because of the flood. It was on the theme of racial tension in these areas and what's responsible for it: I think it's been bypassed by events where both communities have been seen to be working much more closely together than perhaps in some other areas.

The Nationwide Prayer Moment also involved Parliament and called for all South Africans to observe a moment of prayer according to their tradition. In the evening, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who declared a national state of emergency following the floods, pledged a billion rands for relief and reconstruction.

President Ramaphosa delivers his address to Parliament

Lack of trust in political leaders

I think people were glad to hear the Government is putting down a marker as to what its going to contribute, Cardinal Napier said, But there's a great deal of skepticism given what happened with the COVID relief that was made available and the way that was looted by people in responsible positions, including our National Minister of Health who had to resign as a result of what had taken place under his watch.

So while people are glad to hear [of the governments commitment] there's a great deal of skepticism as to whether and to what extent those relief funds will actually reach where they need to reach.

The Cardinal also noted that people are asking themselves where this money is coming from as so often they have been told there are no funds for other development projects.



Regarding collaboration with the religious communities, he said that in some areas there is a good deal of cooperation with government, with NGOs and other community leaders in bringing about relief and support.

Feeding schemes are bubbling up all over the place, a lot of the good action is taking place in the city and within the townships, he said, but when you get to the peripheries, that's where no one is visible.

Ecumenical efforts in the peripheries

Especially," he said, "the councillors, the ward councillors, who in circumstances like this would be expected to be there, to find out from the people, give them support.

It is the Church that is most present on the margins, in the peripheries, with the local pastors leading the efforts, the Archbishop Emeritus of Durban said, upholding the fact that those efforts are largely ecumenical.

He explained that the representatives of the various Churches have been meeting every Monday since COVID struck. These meetings, he said, organized by the KwaZulu Natal Christian Council and the KwaZulu-Natal Church Leaders Group, have proved pivotal for promoting and fuelling local ecumenical action networks.

They have also provided the space to discuss and reflect on issues that are often ignored during emergencies, Cardinal Napier concluded, important issues such as protection from abuse when people are struggling to cope with a crisis, and the need to learn from the mistakes of the past in rebuilding and planning for a more stable and secure future.
The Country Director of Jesuit Refugee Services Nigeria, Fr. Patrick Etamesor, speaks on the creation of the charity organization in the country, its work among displaced populations and the need for a multiform response to the security challenges faced by Africas most populous nation.

By Benedict Mayaki, SJ

In recent years, Nigeria has been fighting an ongoing battle with insecurity, fuelled by violent religious extremism mostly linked to Boko haram, and the activities of so-called bandits who have been responsible for raids on villages, kidnappings and killings.

The violence, mostly concentrated in the northern and middle-belt areas of the country, has led to the deaths of tens of thousands, displaced millions of people and dealt a heavy blow to the nation, impacting education, access to healthcare, religion and other socio-economic activities.

While the Nigerian government and security operatives continue to work to tackle the situation, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) - an international Catholic organization with a mission to accompany, serve and advocate on behalf of refugees and forcibly displaced persons  is directing its resources to respond to the needs of the populations made vulnerable by insecurity.

JRS Country Director for Nigeria, Fr. Patrick Etamesor SJ, spoke to Vatican News, highlighting the reason for the creation of the Nigerian branch of JRS and the ongoing work of the Jesuit-run refugee service in the country.

JRS Covid-19 awareness campaign (credit: JRS International)

The creation of JRS Nigeria

Fr. Etamesor explains that JRS Nigeria was created in 2018 as a clear response to the needs and concerns that were prevalent across the country at the time and still are, pointing at the insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria and other social issues.

In the face of the situation, the provincial of the North-West Africa Province of the Society of Jesus, under which Nigeria falls, highlighted the need to JRS international director, Fr. Tom Smolich SJ, who set plans in motion to ensure that JRS shaped a response to meet the needs of the suffering, displaced people in the country.

JRS was originally founded in November 1980 by the then Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Pedro Arrupe SJ, in response to the plight of Vietnamese refugees fleeing their war-ravaged country. Today, JRS has programmes in over 50 countries worldwide, in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Listen to our interview with Fr. Patrick Etamesor

The work of JRS Nigeria

The JRS country director notes that the context of the organizations work in Nigeria is vast and at the same time very complex, as it also covers a large geographical area.

In the north-east, where there have been more reports of the activities of insurgents, he says that JRS is doing its best to be true to its motto (to accompany, serve and defend) by serving the internally displaced people and meeting them at the point of their need, including offering educational services (refurbishment of schools, training of teachers), promoting social entrepreneurship and advocacy work in the field of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and child protection.

The northwest of the country, for its part, has seen a lot of instances of kidnappings and banditry, and is also a point of focus of JRS. There is also a growing number of internally displaced persons in the region.

To further put the situation in perspective, Fr. Etamesor says that according to UNICEF, an estimated 12.8 million people have been affected by the crisis in the northeast and northwest of Nigeria, and of that number, 2.3 million have become displaced.

Fr. Etamesor insists that JRS goes to the place where the people in need are (in host communities or settlements) and attempts to provide a good response notwithstanding the challenge of their multifold needs which no one organization can fully cater to.

A teacher in Zadama, Nigeria, receives schol supplies and sanitizers from JRS (Credit: JRS International)

Need for a multifaceted response

Drawing from his experience of working with JRS and his first-hand contact with the situation of displaced people, Fr. Etamesor recommends a response with various components to the multi-faceted challenge faced by the northern region of Nigeria.

The Jesuit priest insists that military action or giving humanitarian aid, as specific responses on their own, will not be sufficient to respond to the security crisis. And even though speaking up always helps that too, falls short of what is needed.

Rather, he stresses, there is a need to ensure a coordinated response from political, government, humanitarian, religious and development actors. This response should also include an economic dimension, including directing funding to the area and ensuring that the funds are properly spent.

It's only when all of these various sectors coalesce together, Fr. Etamesor underlines, that we can begin to see how to chart a way forward out of the various multiform conflicts that the country finds itself currently.
27 April is Freedom Day: a public holiday in South Africa commemorating the first democratic elections in 1994.

By Francesca Merlo & Linda Bordoni

People across the world watched in awe as South Africans queued for kilometeres, waiting patiently for hours under the sun, in cities, townships, villages and wide-open spaces to cast their votes for the first time on 27 April 1994.

Thanks to the witness and leadership of Nelson Mandela, that vote brought an end to over 300 years of colonialism, segregation and white minority rule and to the establishment of a new democratic government and a new state subject to a new Constitution.

Freedom Day, marked annually on 27 April, also commemorates the liberation struggle that resulted in freedom and the recognition of dignity for all. As every year, the South African President leads a national thanksgiving celebration of South Africas years of freedom with a solemn ceremony.

But 28 years on, many South Africans are asking themselves whether it is a day to celebrate as too many citizens continue to suffer poverty, inequality and lack of rights.

Fr. Russell Pollitt SJ, Director of the Jesuit Institute South Africa, spoke to Vatican Radio about the woes that continue to afflict the nation and about the consequences of deep-rooted corruption in the political class and said that he doesnt think many South Africans will be celebrating today.

Listen to Fr. Russell Pollitt, SJ

The country, Fr Pollitt said, is obviously a changed place where everybody now has the right to vote. But I think that in some ways, one could say the apartheid system has been replaced, 28 years later, with a system which is also disadvantaging the poorest of the poor.

Corruption and disregard for human rights

Its a system, he explained, of wide-scale corruption and looting, and citizens have no confidence in the South African government in terms of human rights.

In fact, he expressed his opinion that the legacy of human rights championed by Nelson Mandela, has been forgotten, and even betrayed as witnessed by a number of things that have happened in South Africa in the last 15 years.

Years, he explained, in which the rights of especially very vulnerable people have been trampled on, and nothing has ever happened to hold people who executed these terrible things to account.

The episodes he refers to include the killing of over 30 people by the police in clashes during labour protests by miners at the Marikana gold mine in 2013, and also the so-called Esidimeni crisis in which a number of people with disabilities, were moved by the Housing and Health Minister to other facilities, where many of them died of starvation.

Fr Pollitt also questions the nation's muted response to the conflict in Ukraine and how it is quite telling that South Africa is not prepared to take a strong stance against the human rights abuses that are taking place at the hands of the Russians in Ukraine.

So the question of human rights is one which I think is a very debatable question. South Africa has a wonderful constitution and South Africa has wonderful laws: The big problem is they're not applied and they're not lived by, he said.

There's a huge gap between what we've got in the statutory books and the application on the ground.

The Director of the Jesuit Institute also bitterly reflected on the large scale looting and corruption that has taken place during the crisis spurred by the pandemic, and pointed to the recent firing or resigning of the minister of Health because his family benefited by him stealing during the Covid pandemic and basically stealing protection gear from the poorest of the poor.



This is just another example of how they either really couldn't care!

The fact, he explained, that the arrogant attitude of many who belong to the ANC government who "simply have their fingers in the state coffers and do as they please, means that the poor are getting poorer in this country while the political elite carries on living a high life.

It is a common perception that in 1994, South Africa was being built on moral high ground and the countrys reputation for human rights across the world was looked up to thanks also to the new and wonderful Constitution.

But, Fr Pollitt concludes, I would say that now a lot of people in South Africa would say that generally, our government does not really believe in the human rights rhetoric they often use.
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin visits Mexico to mark the 30th anniversary of the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with the Holy See, and celebrates the opening Mass of the 1st Ecclesial Assembly of Mexico.

By Devin Watkins

We are facing challenging times caused by various ideologies and vested interests that seem to want to supplant true Gospel values.

The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, offered that assessment of the global situation in his homily at Mass to open the 112th Plenary Assembly of the Bishops Conference of Mexico.

The Eucharistic celebration was held in the National Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Monday afternoon, and was concelebrated by Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera Lopez of Monterrey, president of the Bishops Conference of Mexico, and Cardinal Aguiar Retes, the Primate of Mexico.

Assisting those suffering through solidarity

Cardinal Parolin expressed his joy for the opportunity to celebrate with Mexicos Bishops during the Easter Season under the gaze of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the Americas.

The Cardinal also lamented the countless men and women who continue to suffer due to discrimination, corruption, and lack of justice. He called it a situation of suffering that requires Christian communities to commit to building unity and seek to make effective choices in order to achieve the common good.

The Cardinal Secretary of State urged Mexicos Bishops, priests, and religious to keep their eyes open to the wounds of our brothers and sisters who are deprived of dignity.

Each day, the Lord tells us, like the Apostles, to go and meet His people of the world and be witnesses to truth and the power of love which, like our Master, stoops in solidarity to touch and heal the wounds and sufferings of other, to give them life and help them experience the compassionate and merciful embrace of the Father.

Opening of the Plenary Assembly

Dialogue within the Church

Mexicos Bishops are focusing the work of their Plenary Assembly, concluding on 29 April, on the Churchs synodal journey, which is also the focus of the 1st Ecclesial Assembly of Mexico, being held in parallel with the Bishops meeting.

The Bishops Conference released a statement earlier this week describing the week of meetings as a time to engage in closeness and dialogue with lay people, members of consecrated life, bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians, and all people of good will.

The meetings are touching on topics like violence in Mexico, wars across the world, and the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as seeking ways to solve various problems in the Latin American nation.

30 th anniversary of diplomatic ties

On Tuesday, an academic conference took place in Mexico City to mark the 30th anniversary since the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Holy See.

The event, entitled Open Secularism and Religious Freedom: A Contemporary Vision, was attended by Cardinal Parolin, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, Mexicos Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and a host of Mexican academics.

Mexico and the Holy See signed an agreement on 21 September 1992 that reestablished diplomatic ties, based on common values and joint actions to promote respect for human rights, while accounting for the importance of Catholicism in Mexico and the separation between Church and State.

At the time, Cardinal Parolin took part in laying the groundwork for that historic moment, since he was part of the Apostolic Delegation to Mexico in 1989 to 1991, along with then-Apostolic Delegate to Mexico, Archbishop Girolamo Prigione.

Cardinal Parolin (C) marking the 30th anniversary

Episcopal ordination of new Nuncio

Cardinal Parolin arrived in Mexico last Saturday, and traveled to the Diocese of Autlan, in the state of Jalisco.

He presided over Mass and the Episcopal ordination of Javier Herrera Corona, whom Pope Francis has appointed as the new Apostolic Nuncio to Gabon and the Republic of Congo.
Vietnams digital economy has seen significant growth over the last decade and is expected to be valued at US$57 billion by 2025. The countrys digital...
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS. A commemoration event dedicated to the 107th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was held on April 26 during the plenary session of the Senate of Mexico, the Armenian Embassy in Mexico reported.

During the session Senator Alejandra Leon delivered remarks touching upon the massacres of the Armenian population perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire, and urging the Mexican Senate and government to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

At the proposal of the Senate President, the attendees honored the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims with a moment of silence.

During a press conference following the session Ambassador of Armenia to Mexico Armella Shakaryan said the recognition and commemoration of the genocides of the past are vital for preventing the repetition of such crime in any part of the world. The Ambassador said the impunity of the Armenian Genocide today inspires those who are planning new international crimes. She said that the war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh in 2020, which was accompanied by crimes and ethnic cleansing, showed that the impunity of the crimes carried out in the past could have irreversible consequences.
On this edition of Straight Talk Africa, we spotlight the growing threat on media freedoms around the world and in Africa ahead of World Press Freedom Day. Well also discuss the war in Ukraine, which has placed some African countries at odds with the Western nations.
Joel Samson, a father to two minors, recounts the day in December 2020 when his family broke up due to what he says were financial misunderstandings after losing his job.

Joel says the mother of his 6- and 12-year-old daughters sent him out of their house and will not let him return.

"My wife was working, she had a job, my job was gone with Covid, so I could not provide for my family," Samson said.

An April 7 court ruling by Justice Joel Ngugi of the Nakuru law courts said fathers can be granted custody of young children.

The ruling upends decades of Kenyan law. Section 8 of the Childrens Act of 2001 says a child under the age of 10 is to be given to the mother unless there is good reason to do otherwise.

Justice Ngugi said that law is not necessarily in the best interest of children. In his ruling, he awarded custody to a man who had been caring for his child for six years while the mother lived abroad.

Samson said the ruling will give fathers like him a chance to raise their children despite divorces.

"In most cases in the scenario, like in our country here, most fathers are losing custody of their children based on gender considerations," Justice Ngugi said.

VOA reached out by phone to the mother of Samsons children, Linda Njuki, for comment. Njuki declined to be recorded but said, quote, "I believe in myself. I can take care of my kids."

She also expressed concern that children might suffer in case a divorced man remarries.

Advocacy groups like the Kenya Men Engage Alliance say the Childrens Act is keeping some children under the care of incapable parents.

Michael Onyango is the alliance's manager.

"There are so many men who are capable of doing the role and actually doing it in a way that the child will not feel left out or abandoned in a case where the family has broken up," Onyango said.

The Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA Kenya) told VOA that the best interest of a child is key in custody matters, regardless of gender. Brenda Yambo, a legal counsel at FIDA Kenya explains why.

Since time immemorial, mothers have been known to be the best caregivers to their children," Yambo said. "This may not be true in all circumstances. Thats why for each and every case it's done on merit. Each case is different.''

Meanwhile, Joel Samson hopes the landmark court ruling will help men like him change their own situation and win at least partial custody of their young children.
Russias Gazprom halted natural gas supplies Wednesday to Poland and Bulgaria, the latest step in the economic fight linked to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has demanded that European nations, many of which rely on Russia for large portions of their energy supplies, pay for natural gas in rubles, Russias currency.

Gazprom said Wednesday that Poland and Bulgaria had not done so and would therefore have their gas supplies suspended. Gazprom says that four unnamed natural gas buyers have paid Russia in rubles and 10 European companies have created ruble accounts to make payments in the Russian currency, Bloomberg News reported.

The White House said Wednesday this move by Russia was anticipated.

That is why we, of course, had been in touch with Europe, including with these countries ... over the last 24 hours, with leaders in Poland and Bulgaria, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. We have been working for some time now, for months with partners around the world to diversify natural gas supply to Europe in anticipation of, and to also address, near-term needs and replace volumes that would otherwise come from Russia.

Polish and Bulgarian officials said the Gazprom move amounted to a breach of their contracts.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said the Russian gas cutoff violated "basic legal principles," while Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said gas was being used as a "political and economic weapon."

On Twitter, European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, "It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us. This is something the EU Commission has been preparing for, with member states and international partners. Our response will be immediate, united and coordinated."

Several EU nations have moved to lessen or eliminate their dependence on Russian energy, including by seeking other sources and boosting their use of renewable energy.

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said Wednesday its forces carried out missile strikes overnight that destroyed 59 targets in Ukraine, including "hangars with a large batch of foreign weapons and ammunition" sent by the United States and European countries to aid Ukraine's military.

The United Nations said it has teams in Moscow and Kyiv that are following up on the agreement in principle that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reached with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to allow the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate civilians trapped in the Azavstal steel plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Guterres spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that discussions are taking place on the operational framework for the evacuation.

What we have still is an agreement in principle; what we are trying to do is translate that into an agreement in detail, and an agreement on the ground, Haq said. Ultimately, what we want is to make sure that a cease-fire would be respected that would allow us to move people safely.

We dont have those conditions as of this moment, the spokesman said.

The United States and its allies signaled Tuesday they are moving swiftly and powerfully to support Ukrainian forces and escalate pressure on Russia's economy.

The United States at first "needed weeks" to move military equipment and munitions to Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but it now often dispatches new armaments to the Ukrainians within three days.

Blinken said since he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv over the weekend, the two countries were "largely aligned in what they say they need and what we think we're able to provide."

The U.S. Department of Defense said Wednesday more than half of the 90 U.S. howitzers have reached Ukraine, and a first round of training on the long-range weapons has already wrapped up.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby cited the ongoing flow of weapons and aid in the success Ukraine has maintained in the battle against Putins unprovoked invasion.

He's concentrating all his firing forces in the east and in the south of Ukraine. So, he has achieved none of his strategic objectives, Kirby said. I think that's proof right there that the kinds of systems that are being provided to Ukraine have had an effect . on their self-defense needs.

The U.S. Congress could send lend-lease legislation further freeing up the flow of weapons to Bidens desk for a signature as early as the end of this week.

Heavy weapons

Germany's government said Tuesday it would send heavy weapons to Ukraine for the first time. Austin, meeting at a U.S. air base in Germany with officials from 40 countries, including NATO members, said Russian President Vladimir Putin "never imagined the whole world would rally behind Ukraine so swiftly and surely."

"We're seeing more support every day" to combat the Russian invasion, he said Tuesday. "We don't have any time to waste. We've got to move at the speed of war."

The White House said Germany's decision signaled unprecedented unity in the face of Russian aggression.

"The announcement by Germany is in line with announcements we've seen by a number of European countries in providing assistance they have never before provided, which is part of the significance here," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

"So, this is an unprecedented change to provide lethal aid to another country, and that's the significance here from Germany. But I'd also note that Norway provided Mistral anti-aircraft missiles, that a number of countries have provided types of assistance that they have never done in the past, and that really speaks to the significant unity of NATO."

Defense Secretary Austin said allies supporting Ukraine would meet monthly to coordinate further aid. As he opened the talks, he said the aim was to "help Ukraine to win the fight against Russia's unjust invasion and to help build up Ukraine for tomorrow's challenges."

Austin also rebuked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for suggesting that the war could evolve into a nuclear conflict between Russia and the West.

"We certainly will do everything in our power  to make sure it doesn't spin out of control," Austin said. "Nobody wants to see a nuclear war. Nobody can win it," he said, adding that "it's unhelpful and dangerous to rattle sabers" over a nuclear threat.

Austin's appeal to allies for more help for Ukraine came a day after he said the U.S. objective in supporting Ukraine was to leave Russia with a "weakened" military. He described Russian casualties so far as "pretty substantial," with some military analysts saying as many as 20,000 Russian troops have died.

Moscow accused the West of carrying out a proxy war against Russia by sending more munitions to Ukraine and warned of a "considerable" risk that the fighting could evolve into a nuclear conflict.

Diplomatic efforts

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Tuesday in Moscow with Putin and Lavrov in an attempt to broker a cease-fire agreement, even as Russia launched new attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine. Guterres then headed to Ukraine, stopping first in Poland to meet with that nation's president in a city along the Ukrainian border used as a base for American troops and humanitarian efforts.

During the two-hour meeting with Guterres in the Russian capital, Putin agreed "in principle" to allow the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross to assist with the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal iron and steel plant in Mariupol, Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The U.N. chief said that while Russia and the U.N. had "different interpretations of what's happening in Ukraine," there was still the possibility for a serious conversation about working to minimize suffering and "end the war as soon as possible."

Also on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said American diplomats have taken concrete steps to reestablish a U.S. diplomatic presence in Ukraine.

"I can confirm that the deputy chief of mission and members of the embassy team traveled to Lviv, Ukraine, today, where they were able to continue our close collaboration with key Ukrainian partners," he said. "Today, they met with interlocutors from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

VOA's Anita Powell and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Vagrants doze in doorways and the smell of burning trash fills the air on Commissioner Street, a rundown and dangerous section of inner-city Johannesburg. But look carefully and an observer might notice a few pagoda-style rooftops, decrepit buildings decorated with dragons, and shop signs with faded Chinese characters.



The street is home to South Africas first Chinatown, which dates to the 1880s, when Chinese from the impoverished south of the country came to the frontier mining town they dubbed gam saan, or Gold Mountain to seek their fortunes  only to discover that non-whites were barred from obtaining diggers licenses.



Some stayed anyway, setting up businesses and later battling the racist apartheid laws. South Africa now has the biggest population of Chinese residents in Africa  about 350,000 people. Since the advent of the "Rainbow Nation" in 1994, when South Africa became a democracy, and in the wake of Beijings Belt and Road Initiative for building infrastructure in dozens of countries, many more Chinese have flocked to the country.



These newer migrants, mainly Mandarin speakers unlike the early Cantonese community, have set up a second Chinatown, with a giant decorative archway, in a safer middle-class suburb called Cyrildene. Here there are numerous restaurants, travel agents, retail stores and beauty salons.



Thereve been many, many more new migrants, Melanie Yap, a third-generation Chinese-South African, author and historian, told VOA. The Chinese community has in fact become more vibrant, evidenced by the fact that theres a second Chinatown.



China is South Africas largest trade partner, with imports and exports totaling $54 billion last year, and the two countries  both members of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa)  maintain strong diplomatic relations.



Canton to Cape



It wasnt always this way. The very first Chinese to come to Africa arrived in the Cape colony as convicts sent from Batavia, in modern-day Indonesia, in the 1660s. After serving their sentences, some returned to Asia, while others settled in the multicultural and cosmopolitan Cape. Then, during the early 1800s, Chinese indentured laborers were brought to work on the railways for the British government.



Finally, free Chinese started migrating to South Africa in the late 1880s as part of the gold rush. They were, however, banned from mining. Other barriers in place because of their race also affected their ability to trade.



The Chinese teamed up with members of the Indian community in a campaign of civil disobedience led by Mahatma Gandhi - who lived in South Africa at the time. They said, We will not take up violence, but we will go to prison rather than obey your law, Yap told VOA.



Later, under the apartheid system that began in 1948, the Chinese were classified as a sub-group of the colored group, a racial categorization that lumped together anyone who wasnt black or white.



There were only certain things that were open to you, so technically you could only go to school and live in the areas that were designated to you, Yap explained.



Forbidden love



Under apartheid it was illegal for people from different races to marry.



That didnt stop Yolande Dreyer, 71, and her husband Wynand, 72. Yolande - a third-generation Chinese-South African, whose grandparents from Guangzhou, China [also known as Canton] had originally immigrated to escape drought and food shortages - defied her family and the law to marry Wynand  of mixed Dutch and British heritage.



Because we were breaking a law  they could have definitely arrested us, she told VOA, recalling how the couple married in 1980 in a multi-step process. They first married in a church in South Africa, but the officer couldnt sign a marriage certificate. They then traveled to England to wed to make it official.



We were kind of breaking the mold at the time; we were pushing against quite a lot of resistance, added Wynand, noting that both families were against the union and worried the couples children would be outcasts.



Luckily the Dreyers twins were raised in democratic South Africa, a racial melting pot, where mixed marriages are now common.



Identity politics



Some Chinese-South Africans are now involved in their countrys political system, such as Michael Sun, who belongs to the opposition Democratic Alliance and is a member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Services department in Johannesburg.



Sun was born in Taiwan and came to South Africa as a child in the 1970s when his family arrived to set up businesses. The city councilor said growing up, he and his siblings had been questioning and exploring their identities living with two different cultures. Sun still speaks Mandarin with his parents but felt foreign when he visited Taiwan after attending university.



I felt more like a tourist than anything else  other than the language, I was really a stranger, Sun said. Im more at ease in terms of my South African lifestyle.



Meanwhile, Chinese in South Africa are becoming victim to rising xenophobia, with some people - wary of Chinese loans and investments through Beijings Belt and Road Initiative - accusing them of being the new colonialists.



Sun says he himself was the victim of racism a few years ago.



I decided to put my name forward for the local election in 2006, and it was not easy. ... Ive been many times a victim in terms of racism, bigotry, racial slurs, he told VOA.



Ironically, having gone from being colored under apartheid to being regarded as white after it, the Chinese Association of South Africa took the government to court in 2008 to change their racial classification.



This was in order to benefit from South Africas affirmative action policies in the business sector known as Black Economic Empowerment.



"Only Blacks, Indians and Coloreds [multiracial ethnic groups] qualified for affirmative action," explained Yap, on why the community went to court over the issue.



"This was not economic opportunism by the Chinese, but about lack of recognition that they had for centuries faced racial injustice in South Africa," she added.



The High Court ruled in their favor and, legally, Chinese in South Africa are now considered Black.
The Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (AVCA) says Africa attracted a record $7.4 billion in private capital in 2021, more than double the year before. But while the continent provides ample possibilities for investors, it also presents challenges, from instability to climate change. At this year's AVCA conference in Senegal, investors discussed some of the trends.



More than 500 people from some 50 countries filtered in and out of conference rooms at Dakars Radisson Hotel Tuesday for Day 2 of AVCAs annual gathering.



Africa offers a rich environment for local and international investors, attendees say, as it has a growing youth population and consumer market.



Alexia Alexandropoulou is a research manager at AVCA. She said investor interest in the continent has been largely driven by the attraction of financial technology companies. A number of sizable infrastructure deals also contributed to investment growth.

And these infrastructure investments were focused on renewable energy, transportation and communication services. And they support African governments to fill the infrastructure gap on the continent. We expect to see more of these trends continue in the years to come, she noted.



Some African governments such as Senegal's have successfully attracted international investment in recent years. In 2019, it became the second African country to pass a start-up act, which eases regulations and provides tax breaks to innovative new businesses.



Venture capital activity here comprised 80 percent of total reported deals in 2021, up from 6 percent between 2016 and 2020, according to AVCA. But investing in African companies also comes with challenges, investors say, including currency volatility, small national economies, limited access to finance and banking services and political unrest.

"If you have a long-term view, and if you're well diversified, you can obviously overcome those issues," expressed Walid Cherif, the managing director of BluePeak Private Capital, adding from [the] outside you read the news, or you think it's scary, it's difficult. But at the end of the day, there's so many opportunities on the ground, so many great businesses. As long as you put the tools in them and give them a lot of assistance and support, you can definitely help them become strong businesses.



Climate change is another major hindrance. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to suffer disproportionately from extreme weather events such as floods and drought. This is disruptive to businesses, particularly those in the agricultural sector.



Some investors have begun setting climate goals.



Clarisa De Franco is the managing director of British International Investment. Last year, her company set a goal of having 30 percent of their investments dedicated toward addressing climate change.



They will have to have the specific mandate of addressing climate from a resilience, adaptation or mitigation point of view. How do we achieve that from a new commitment point of view, but also from a portfolio point of view, is something that we need to explore a bit more, De Franco pointed out.



Potential investments might include the renewable energy and plantation sectors, she said.



The AVCA conference continues in Dakar through Friday.
A British environmental group warns the war in Ethiopia's Tigray region is driving deforestation. It says blockades limiting fuel and aid to the region have forced Tigrayans to chop down trees, worsening food shortages in a region the U.N. says is already at risk of famine.

Tigray has been under a de facto humanitarian blockade for more than nine months now, with Ethiopian government forces and rebels accusing each other of preventing aid from reaching the war-torn region.

The U.N. says one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world is taking place inside Tigray, with an acute lack of food. Ordinary Tigrayans are said to be desperate to find resources for day-to-day living.

A report by the U.K.-based nonprofit group the Conflict and Environment Observatory says the war and lack of aid in Tigray is having a serious impact on the environment that could cause problems for Tigrayans for decades.

By analyzing satellite images in Tigray, the report concludes conflict driven-deforestation" is happening at an alarming rate.

Trees play a major role in conserving soil and water to produce food. Aid agencies have warned that parts of Tigray are already close to famine.

Henrike Schulte, the author of the report and a conservation scientist at the Zoological Society of London, said conflict-driven deforestation usually happens for two reasons.

One is the breakdown of environmental governance," she said. "For instance, if in a war zone, protected areas are no longer protected and people can move in and remove vegetation deforestation can also occur because of increased demand for foreign resources.

Raphael Edou, the Africa program manager at The Environmental Investigation Agency, a Washington-based non-profit group, said rebel groups in Africa frequently turn to logging as a source of funding.

Conflicts and deforestation represent one of the great threats to social development in Africa," he said. "Illegal logging is one of the ways to get quickly, money. As the forest has become the source for rebels to buy weapons. They always cut the trees from the forest.

Edou added that anywhere there is a conflict, very high rates of deforestation emerge too.

In recent years there has been a successful effort to rebuild forests in Tigray to assist development and the economy, as well as food security. The report says the effort is now facing a setback.

However, the people in Tigray may be more concerned about survival in the short term.

The U.N. says 9.4 million people in the north of Ethiopia, including Tigray and parts of the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions, require humanitarian aid.

Schulte said that the best way to stop the deforestation is to stop the conflict, but even then, the environmental damage will take decades to undo.
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed Azerbaijan in actions that inflame the situation with regard to Nagorno Karabakh.

In his remarks at the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee session, Secretary Blinken said the United States supports a long-term political settlement with regard to Nagorno Karabakh.

I have been very actively in directly engaged with leadership in both Armenia and Azerbaijan including just as recently as a week ago phone calls with Prime Minister Pashinyan and with President Aliyev, as well as their foreign ministers, trying to help advance prospects for a long-term political settlement with regard to Nagorno Karabakh, Blinken said. We have been developing and promoting various confidence-building measures. We have been trying to push back on any unilateral actions particularly by Azerbaijan that would only inflame the situation and we have a number of programs in place that are part of the budget to try to help advance more peaceful prospects.
With the onset of the fighting season in Afghanistan, small pockets of anti-Taliban resistance appear to be forming across much of the country.

The development, coupled with a spike in deadly attacks by the Islamic State terrorist group, could threaten the Taliban's hold on power eight months after their takeover of Afghanistan.

In recent weeks, about a half-dozen previously unknown resistance groups have announced their existence, vowing to fight the Taliban alongside the National Resistance Front, the only prominent anti-Taliban group.

The new groups have names such as the Afghanistan Freedom Front and the Afghanistan Islamic National & Liberation Movement. But beyond claims made on social media, little is known about their kinetic power.

Researchers who have studied the groups say while they all share the goal of toppling the Talibans eight-month-old government, they are hobbled by a lack of unity and coordination.

It will take some coordination and unity to be able to have a more decisive effect in terms of contesting Taliban governance, said Peter Mills, Afghanistan researcher at the Institute for the Study of War, who recently published a study of anti-Taliban groups.

As a result, the anti-Taliban groups have been unable to coalesce into a broader resistance movement, said Jonathan Schroden, director of the Countering Threats and Challenges Program at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), a nonprofit research and analysis organization.

In that regard, they still retain relatively low levels of capability overall, Schroden said.

But lack of coordination is not the only weakness preventing them from becoming an effective fighting force. Among other things, insurgent groups require external support. Yet in contrast to the 1990s, when Russia, Iran and India all backed the Northern Alliance against the Taliban, no country has rushed to the new anti-Taliban cause.

Consequently, in the short term, Schroden said, the groups will likely represent little more than low-level annoyance for the much-better-armed and numerically larger Taliban.

For their part, since routing the National Resistance Front from the Panjshir Valley in September, the Taliban have largely dismissed these groups as opposition propaganda.

But insurgencies have a way of persisting for many years, experts say, and what may be a small, inchoate patchwork of cells today could turn into a full-blown, bloody insurgency.

In the long term, several factors could tip the scales in the fight, Schroden said: the anti-Taliban groups success in finding a state sponsor, their ability to coalesce under a common banner and growing popular discontent with the Taliban regime.

Here is a look at the anti-Taliban groups:



National Resistance Front of Afghanistan

Led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) is the most well-developed of all the anti-Taliban outfits, said Mills, who estimates it has a few thousand fighters.

In addition to its homebase of the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the group operates in the nearby Andarab valley through an affiliate known as the Andarab Resistance Front, a collection of small cells headed by local commanders who have declared loyalty to Massoud.

The two fronts sometimes "interoperate," Mills said.

We know, for example, that the NRF was providing support and sending forces to work with the Andarab Resistance Front and fighting in the Andarab, he said.

The NRF claims to operate in at least a dozen provinces, including Panjshir and Baghlan. In a recent interview with the London-based Afghanistan International Radio, Ali Maisam Nazary claimed the Taliban had suffered repeated defeats in Panjshir, Andarab and other parts of the Hindu Kush mountains.

The claim could not be independently verified. But Mills said the NRF has demonstrated that theyre able to hold some rural, remote kind of valley, some of this remote, rural mountainous terrain in places like Baghlan, parts of Takhar, Panjshir, parts of Badakhshan.

Afghanistan Freedom Front

This group popped up on March 11 when it announced its launch on Twitter and Facebook with the goal of fighting for freedom of the country from occupation.

It has not disclosed its leadership, but recent reports have indicated that General Yasin Zia, a former defense minister and chief of general staff, is one of the Front's leaders.

Zia, who served as an aide to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud in the 1990s, could not be reached for comment.

In the weeks since the March announcement, the group has claimed attacks on Taliban targets in several provinces, from Badakhshan in the north to Kandahar in the south, offering as proof nighttime videos of fighting.

While the dark videos are not always easy to verify, we know at least some of these attacks that are being claimed and discussed are real and are happening, Mills said.

One incident Mills said he was able to confirm was an April 8 video of a daytime hand grenade attack on a police station in Kandahar.

We were able to see someone actually throwing a grenade into this police station in Kandahar, Mills said.

Afghanistan Islamic National & Liberation Movement

This is believed to be the only major Pashtun anti-Taliban group. Led by Abdul Mateen Sulaimankhail, a former Afghan Army special forces commander, the group launched on February 16. Sulaimankhail has said he set up the group in response to the Talibans alleged killings of former military personnel, calling their amnesty a "lie."

In an April 13 interview with the Afghanistan International TV network, Sulaimankhail claimed his group was engaged in military and political activities in 26 of Afghanistans 34 provinces, a claim questioned by researchers. Citing security reasons, he declined to say how many members his group has.

The group has claimed responsibility for attacks in its home base of Nangarhar and several other provinces, but it has offered little proof of the attacks, with videos posted on the groups Facebook page showing armed masked men indoors vowing to fight the Taliban.

While the groups recent claim of killing a Taliban commander in Helmand appears credible, Mills said its actual capability seems to be limited.

Other groups

In recent weeks, small cells of self-styled anti-Taliban fighters affiliated with Tajik warlord Ata Mohammad Noor have appeared in videos purportedly shot in northern Afghanistan.

In a recent video, one of several masked armed men describes them as members of the high council of resistance, led by Noor, former Balkh province governor. The man then vows the group is prepared to launch guerrilla attacks as soon as they receive orders from Noor, who is believed to be living in exile in the United Arab Emirates.

Noor's nephew Sohail Zimaray was killed in a shootout with Taliban forces in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif late Thursday, police said.

While the so-called Noor guerillas claim to be operating in every province in northern Afghanistan, Mills said he had not seen them carry out any attacks or claim any attacks.

Other groups that have publicized their efforts in recent weeks include Freedom Corps, Liberation Front of Afghanistan, Liberation Front of Afghanistan, Soldiers of Hazaristan, Freedom and Democracy Front.

Little is known about their leadership or capabilities.

Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the abbreviation for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, and to correct the spelling of Ali Maisam Nazary's middle name.
Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been convicted of one of several corruption charges brought against her by the military junta that overthrew her civilian government last year.

A judge in the capital, Naypyitaw, sentenced the 76-year-old Suu Kyi to five years in prison after announcing the verdict during a hearing Wednesday, according to a source close to the hearings. Her trial has been held behind closed doors, and her lawyers are banned from speaking to the press.

Suu Kyi was accused of accepting a bribe of $600,000 in cash and 11 kilograms of gold bars from Phyo Min Thein, a member of her National League for Democracy political party and the former chief minister of Yangon, Myanmars biggest city.

Suu Kyi has been charged with numerous crimes by the military junta, including breaching the Official Secrets Act, inciting public unrest and misusing land for her charitable foundation. She has already been convicted of several other charges, including illegally importing and possessing portable two-way radios, violating coronavirus restrictions, inciting public unrest and violating the Natural Disaster Management Law for breaking COVID-19 restrictions.

She potentially faces well over 100 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party won the November 2020 general elections in a landslide over the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. The junta claimed widespread electoral fraud in the elections as its reason for toppling the civilian government on February 1, 2021, and invalidating the results. The civilian electoral commission denied the allegations before it was disbanded.

Suu Kyi, who led the ousted government as state counselor, President Win Myint and other high-ranking officials have been jailed since the coup.

Suu Kyi earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her long resistance to Myanmars long-running military regime, which kept her in some form of detention for more than two decades. She led the NLD to a sweeping landslide victory in general elections in 2015, Myanmars first after the military agreed to hand over power to a civilian government.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Three out of every four U.S. children have been infected with the coronavirus and more than half of all Americans had signs of previous infections, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers estimated in a report Tuesday.

The researchers examined blood samples from more than 200,000 Americans and looked for virus-fighting antibodies made from infections, not vaccines. They found that signs of past infection rose dramatically between December and February, when the more contagious omicron variant surged through the U.S.

For Americans of all ages, about 34% had signs of prior infection in December. Just two months later, 58% did.

"I did expect it to increase. I did not expect it to increase quite this much," said Dr. Kristie Clarke, co-leader of a CDC team that tracks the extent of coronavirus infections.

The news came as Pfizer sought permission to offer a booster dose to kids ages 5 to 11, just like people 12 and older can get.

In the CDC report, the most striking increase was in children. The percentage of those 17 and younger with antibodies rose from about 45% in December to about 75% in February.

The older people were, the less likely they had evidence of past infections. That may be because older adults have higher vaccination rates and they may be more likely to take other COVID-19 precautions, such as wearing masks and avoiding crowds, Clarke said.

Reported COVID-19 cases had a huge surge in December and January, then fell almost as dramatically as they had risen. But daily case counts have been trending up again in recent weeks.

The case numbers are believed to be an undercount, but officials do think recent increases reflect a true rise in infections. Many COVID-19 infections are mild enough that patients do not seek care or confirmatory lab tests. CDC officials say they plan to release a study soon that estimates that in recent months there were three infections for every reported case.

Another recent trend: U.S. health officials say they have seen two weeks of increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations, though the numbers remain relatively low. Hospital admissions number about 1,600 per day, a 9% increase over the prior week, the CDC reported.

Available evidence nevertheless offers reason to be hopeful about how the pandemic is going, officials suggested.

"We are not anticipating more severe disease from some of these subvariants, but we are actively studying them," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday.

The tests that showed how many people had previous infections can detect antibodies for one to two years after infection, and possibly longer. Studies have shown previous infection can protect some people against severe disease and hospitalization, but CDC officials stressed that the previously infected should still get COVID-19 vaccines.

The study looked for any detectable level of antibodies; it did not distinguish how many people had antibody levels that might be protective. Scientists are still trying to understand what role these kinds of antibodies play in protection from future virus exposures.

Officials continue to urge Americans to get vaccines and boosters, which offer additional protection against COVID-19 for all, including those who were previously infected.

Currently the U.S. offers a booster dose starting at age 12, but Pfizer and BioNTech on Tuesday asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow healthy elementary-age kids to also get one  about six months after their last shot. The companies cited a small study showing the extra shot for kids ages 5 to 11 revved up antibodies capable of fighting the super-contagious omicron variant. Pfizer's kid-size shots are a third of the dose given to anyone 12 or older.
China has pressed long-time ally Pakistan to ensure the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan and swiftly bring to justice those behind a bombing Tuesday that killed three Chinese teachers.

The blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain, and those behind this incident will surely pay the price, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, without elaborating.

The deadly attack took place at the entrance to the China-run Confucius Institute in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, when a suicide bomber blew herself up near a van transporting Chinese staff.

The director of the institute was among the three Chinese teachers killed. A Pakistani driver was also killed and a Chinese teacher was injured.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in its statement that assistant Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao called Islamabads ambassador to Beijing, Moin ul Haque, to express his extremely grave concern.

He demanded that the Pakistani side should immediately make [a] thorough investigation of the incident, apprehend and punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law, the statement said.

The outlawed Baluch Liberation Army (BLA) insurgent group took responsibility for plotting the attack and released a picture of the purported bomber. Pakistan and the United States list the group as a terrorist organization.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that its diplomatic missions in Pakistan would continue to urge relevant authorities to handle properly the follow-up matters of those killed, treat the injured, and resolutely crack down on the terrorist organization involved.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and promised to do whatever it takes to bring the perpetrators to justice. Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad following the attack to express his condolences.

We are deeply shocked and distressed at this dastardly attack on our Iron Brothers, read the note written by Sharif at the embassy, in which he reiterated that we remain committed to eliminating all militarists and terrorists from Pakistani soil, according to Chinese state media.

Critics questioned the official claims, citing a lack of progress in Pakistan's investigations into previous attacks on Chinese workers in the country, which, analysts say, has become the most dangerous place for Chinese overseas.

Mustafa Hyder Sayed, who heads the Islamabad-based Pakistan-China Institute, said the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan has become the biggest concern for Beijing in terms of furthering its bilateral economic cooperation.

"I think this is an inflection point in Pakistan-China cooperation because this has now crossed a red line as far as China is concerned, Sayed told VOA.

Pakistan has repeatedly vowed to have foolproof security arrangements for the Chinese; however, we have not been able to walk the talk, and our rhetoric has not been able to materialize into action, he said.

Sayed said he expected that the future presence of Chinese individuals in Pakistan, whether through its Chinese companies, Confucius Institutes or other projects, would be now conditional and linked to robust and effective preemptive measures for security of the Chinese in Pakistan.

Confucius Institutes, established in universities around the world, offer Chinese language graduate classes. Critics say Beijing is trying to use them to promote its foreign policy agenda.

The BLA, which operates out of natural resources-rich southwestern Baluchistan province along with several other banned separatist groups, has been waging insurgent attacks against Pakistani forces and Chinese nationals in the province.

Baluch separatists oppose Chinese investments, particularly in Baluchistan, claiming China and Pakistan are depriving people in the impoverished region of their natural resources.

The BLA has expanded its violent activities to other parts of Pakistan, particularly Karachi, in recent years, and used a female suicide bomber for the first time in Tuesdays attack.

Beijing has invested more than $25 billion over the past seven years in large-scale infrastructure development projects in Pakistan, including Baluchistan, under Chinas global Belt and Road Initiative.

The bilateral program, known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, has built road networks and power plants across Pakistan and the Gwadar deep-water port in the turbulent province.

In a post-attack video message on Tuesday, a masked BLA commander claimed that his group has formed a "special unit" to target Chinese officials and installations to ensure CPEC projects "will fail miserably" in Baluchistan.

"President Xi Jinping, you still have time to quit Baluchistan, or you will witness a retaliation from Baluch sons and daughters that you will never forget," warned the militant commander, referencing the Chinese leader.

The BLA had taken responsibility for staging a 2018 gun and bomb attack against the Chinese consulate in Karachi in which two Pakistani security guards were killed.

In 2020, BLA militants in the city tried to storm the Pakistan Stock Exchange, where a Chinese consortium has a 40% stake, but security forces engaged the assailants in the parking area and killed all of them.

Pakistan accuses rival India of supporting and funding Baluch militants to undermine CPEC, accusations that New Delhi rejects.

In July, a suicide car bombing of a bus convoy transporting Chinese workers to the China-funded Dasu hydropower project under construction in the northern region of Kohistan killed nine of the workers and three Pakistani security guards. It was the largest loss of life of Chinese nationals in Pakistan.

Jaime Moreno contributed to this report.
Chinese loans to African governments plunged by more than three-quarters in the first year of the pandemic compared to the year before, researchers have found, with new loan commitments in 2020 at their lowest level in 16 years.

That could be due to Chinese lenders taking more precautions at the outset of the pandemic and focusing on domestic priorities, as well as African countries being less willing to borrow, the study by Boston University's Global Development Policy Center found.

Chinese lending in 2020 fell to $1.9 billion, the study released this week showed, with only 11 new loan commitments recorded. That's compared to the 32 loans signed in 2019 worth some $8.2 billion.

"As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on livelihoods within China and the debt position of some African countries, shifts in financing types and sources are expected for future Chinese financing to Africa," the report said.

China is sub-Saharan Africa's biggest single creditor and, in the two decades since 2000, has signed 1,188 loans worth $160 billion with 49 African governments, state-owned enterprises and regional organizations.

Despite the downturn, Oyintarelado Moses, one of the study's authors, told VOA that Chinese loans to Africa would likely pick up in the post-pandemic period "as other sources of financing beyond lending from traditional borrowers increase."

The biggest borrowers have been Angola, Ethiopia and Zambia. The latter became the first pandemic-era default in 2020, with debt of almost $32 billion. According to the Reuters news agency, $5.78 billion of that debt was held by China and Chinese entities. China committed last week to joining Zambia's creditor committee, a move welcomed by the International Monetary Fund.

China has long been accused of "debt-trap diplomacy" in which its massive loans to developing countries are said to leave them dependent on their creditor for support. Beijing strongly refutes these accusations, saying the West simply resents China's close ties with Africa because of its Belt and Road Initiative  which is China leader Xi Jinping's global infrastructure development plan.

A January op-ed in China's state media, the Global Times, criticized reports in Western media that Beijing was slowing lending to countries on the continent, saying, "Whether China accelerates or slows its lending to Africa, the West is ready to criticize China with their well-worn 'debt trap' story.

In fact, the op-ed continued, not one developing country has fallen into the so-called debt trap due to Chinese loans.

On his visit to several African states last year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said countries should not be left with a "tremendous debt that they cannot repay."
Analysts are questioning the East African Communitys capacity to equip a multinational military force formed to battle insurgencies in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Last week, the seven nations that make up the regional body announced the forces mission would be to ''end decades of bloodshed," Reuters reported.

The challenges of getting the force on the ground are enormous, said Onesphore Sematumba, an analyst on the DRC and Great Lakes region at the International Crisis Group. He questioned the readiness of EAC countries to provide troops and logistics for the force and deploy it.

"Unfortunately, this regional force does not yet exist. It must first be mounted and made operational," he told VOA.

Over 120 rebel groups and militias still operate in the DRC's eastern provinces nearly two decades after the official end of the country's civil wars. The effort to restore peace has, since 2010, involved the United Nations largest peacekeeping force, with billions of dollars invested in the operation.

Some of the groups in the eastern DRC have operated there for two decades or more. That includes cross-border groups considered hostile to their countries of origin, such as the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which operates in DRC's North Kivu and Ituri provinces. According to the United Nations, the ADF killed over 1,200 people in 2021 alone, an increase of nearly 50% from the previous year.

Other cross-border groups are the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), or FLDR, in North Kivu and the RED-Tabara of Burundi in South Kivu.

Naureen Chowdhury Fink, executive director of the New York-based Soufan Center, said it was crucial to "reflect on lessons learned from other regions" where multiple groups are active. "It can get complicated very quickly," she told VOA.

Fink added that it was important for groups such as the EAC military force to ensure their operations are based on the rule of law, as human rights violations can further exacerbate tensions with the communities they are intending to serve.

"Also importantly," she said, "there needs to be a clearly defined operational strategy and objective so that it does not end up targeting a wide and undefined group of actors in the name of countering terrorism."

EAC partners include Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and, finally, the DRC, which became the communitys newest member earlier this month.

"Even by bringing together all the armies of the region, it will be difficult to militarily defeat more than 120 armed groups scattered over a very large area in a region of forests and mountains," Sematumba said.

"We are dealing with extremely mobile groups that have a very good knowledge of the field and have good networks of information within the populations," he told VOA. "Their asymmetrical warfare strategy requires a similar type of intelligence and special forces response from a potential regional force. States need patience."
California-based Google wants to get a bigger share of Africa's growing online population, which is expected to top 800 million by 2030.



The internet search giant announced this month it is setting up its first product development center on the continent, to be based in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. It is scheduled to open next year and will employ more than 100 people.

Charles Murito, head of government affairs and public policy for sub-Saharan Africa at Google, said the investment will create many opportunities within Africa's tech sector.

"The product development center is going to be one that works to create transformative products and services for people right here on the continent, as well as creating a product for the rest of the world," he said. "So the announcement last week was really just a kick-off in terms of the hiring process for the people that are going to be working in this product development center for Africa. And that will include roles such as product managers, UX designers and researchers, and engineers, and this is really a starting point of the work we are going to be doing."

The multinational technology company said its mission is to make the world's information universally accessible and create a product that works well for Africans.



Bitange Ndemo, former principal secretary of Kenya's information, communication, and technology ministry, said the government needs to train more of its youth to benefit from the Google center.

"It's a wonderful investment in the sense that it's going to help reduce the problem of unemployment in this country, but what that tells the Kenyan government is they must begin to invest in skilling and reskilling young people so that they can meet the demand. Already the demand for such skills exceeds supply locally," he said.

Google has trained over 80,000 certified developers from Africa in the past few years.



The firm is investing $1 billion in projects over the next five years to help with the development of Africa internet economy.



Murito said the investment will transform Africa.

"It's the opportunity around creating products that work best for Africans at large and, therefore, whether you are thinking about products on financial inclusion or other sectors of the economy, we believe that by having a product development center right here on the continent, we will be able to know firsthand what challenges are and also be able to create products that will service and solve some of those challenges," he said.

Microsoft has also invested in Kenya, hiring hundreds of engineers from the East African nation.



The continent comes with its own challenges for businesses because some countries lack good governance and the rule of law and that creates an uncertain environment for investments. Some nations have turned off the internet to silence their citizens.



Murito said his organization works with African governments to encourage innovation and develop policies that will sustain innovation.


World leaders and U.S. political and foreign policy elite paid their respects Wednesday to the late Madeleine Albright, the child refugee from war-torn Europe who rose to become America's first female secretary of state.

Led by President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, the man who picked Albright to be his top diplomat and the highest-ranking woman ever in the U.S. government at that time, some 1,400 mourners gathered to celebrate her life and accomplishments at Washington National Cathedral.

Albright died of cancer last month at age 84, prompting an outpouring of condolences from around the world that also hailed her support for democracy and human rights. Besides the current and former presidents, the service was attended by at least three of her successors as secretary of state along with other current and former Cabinet members, foreign diplomats, lawmakers and an array of others who knew her.

Biden, who delivered a tribute to Albright, said her name was synonymous with the idea that America is "a force for good in the world."

"In the 20th and 21st century, freedom had no greater champion than Madeleine Korbel Albright," Biden said. "Today we honor a truly proud American who made all of us prouder to be Americans."

Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also were scheduled to deliver tributes at the service, while the current secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and former secretaries Condoleezza Rice and John Kerry were slated to attend. Other top current officials expected to be present included Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA Director Bill Burns, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Mark Milley and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The members of the VIP audience were masked, as Albright's family had requested.

Foreign dignitaries invited to the funeral included the presidents of Georgia and Kosovo and senior officials from Colombia, Bosnia and the Czech Republic.

Albright was born in what was then Czechoslovakia, but her family fled twice, first from the Nazis and then from Soviet rule. They ended up in the United States, where she studied at Wellesley College and rose through the ranks of Democratic Party foreign policy circles to become ambassador to the United Nations. Bill Clinton selected her as secretary of state in 1996 for his second term.

Although never in line for the presidency because of her foreign birth, Albright was near universally admired for breaking a glass ceiling, even by her political detractors.

As a Czech refugee who saw the horrors of both Nazi Germany and the Iron Curtain, she was not a dove. She played a leading role in pressing for the Clinton administration to get involved militarily in the conflict in Kosovo. "My mindset is Munich," she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.

As secretary of state, Albright played a key role in persuading Clinton to go to war against the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic over his treatment of Kosovar Albanians in 1999. As U.N. ambassador, she advocated a tough U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the case of Milosevic's treatment of Bosnia. NATO's intervention in Kosovo was eventually dubbed "Madeleine's War."

She also took a hard line on Cuba, famously saying at the United Nations that the 1996 Cuban shootdown of a civilian plane was not "cojones" but rather "cowardice."

In 2012, Obama awarded Albright the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, saying her life was an inspiration to all Americans.

Born Marie Jana Korbel in Prague on May 15, 1937, she was the daughter of a diplomat, Joseph Korbel. The family was Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism when she was 5. Three of her Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps.

Albright was an internationalist whose point of view was shaped in part by her background. Her family fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 as the Nazis took over their country, and she spent the war years in London.

After the war, as the Soviet Union took over vast chunks of Eastern Europe, her father brought the family to the United States. They settled in Denver, where her father taught at the University of Denver. One of Korbel's best students was Rice, who would later succeed his daughter as secretary of state.

Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959. She worked as a journalist and later studied international relations at Columbia University, where she earned a master's degree in 1968 and a Ph.D. in 1976. She then entered politics and what was at the time the male-dominated world of foreign policy professionals.
"Even if they shut down all the courts in Nigeria, they must not shut down the court of public opinion," said Agba Jalingo.

The investigative journalist and founder of the news website CrossRiverWatch was speaking to VOA via phone from Lagos in Nigeria.

His commitment to media freedom is what gave Jalingo the resolve to keep going through one of the most difficultand definingmoments of his career as a journalist.

He was imprisoned in 2019 on charges including cybercrime. His case triggered a chain of events that last month resulted in a landmark ruling.

A ruling by the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, in Accra, Ghana, ordered Nigerian authorities to amend the law. The presiding judge, Keikura Bangura, said the law flouted the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), to which Nigeria is a signatory.

Nigerian authorities have not responded to the ruling and have denied using the law to muzzle the press or citizens.

Nigerias Minister of Information did not respond to VOAs calls requesting an interview.

For media and civil rights activists, the court decision backs up concerns they have raised for years. If enforced, it could prevent journalists going through the same experience as Jalingo.

Media arrest

Jalingo was first alerted to a possible legal issue while at a UNICEF workshop in Nigeria's Benue state, in August 2019.

A letter from police in his home state of Cross River asked him to come in for questioning about an alleged breach of peace.

The summons related to an investigative report Jalingo published two weeks earlier alleging misuse of state funds.

Jalingo says he agreed on a date to meet with the police at the station. Before that took place, though, officers detained him.

"They came to my house in Lagos, arrested me, locked me up in their detention for one night, and the following morning they threw me in the boot [trunk] of a Toyota Highlander and we started a 26-hour journey," he said.

Jalingo, whose publication focuses on sociopolitical issues, says it was not his first arrest for reporting, but it was the scariest.

"The journey took unnecessarily long, and I was in the trunk of a car, so I couldn't even see what was happening outside. My hands and legs were cuffed. I defecated on my body, I thought they were going to kill me. I kept thinking about my wife," he said.

When they arrived in Cross River state, the officers detained him for 43 days, chained him to an old cooling storage facility, and did not allow any visitors.

When Jalingo appeared before the federal high court in the state capital Calabar, authorities charged him with treason and cybercrime.

The Cross River state governor in an interview denied the allegations of mistreatment.

Legal landscape

Nigerias cybercrime law was enacted in 2015 in order to provide legally backed regulations for online interactions, as well as punishments for offenders.

But activists say a portion of the law too often has been manipulated to punish journalists who report critically about authorities.



Those cases led to the non-governmental organization, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project or SERAP, contesting the law and charges against Jalingo.

"We witnessed the spate of those unlawful arraignments and charges, said Kolawole Oluwadare, deputy director at SERAP. So, we decided to approach the court to challenge the legality of that law.

Jalingos trial lasted two and a half years, with many twists and charges dropped and added. He says there were times when officers told him he must stop criticizing the government if he wanted to be freed.

But in July last year, with help from SERAP, an ECOWAS court called for the case to be dismissed and ordered the state authorities to pay him $75,000 in compensation. He's yet to receive the compensation.

Jalingo's triumph was a boost to Nigeria's press freedom testament, but SERAP wanted to make sure no other journalist went through a similar ordeal.

The group continued its 2019 suit against the Nigerian government at the ECOWAS court, calling for the law to be amended or withdrawn.

And in March, the ECOWAS ruled in their favor.

"We're happy that the court agreed with us ultimately, Oluwadare said.

While the ruling on the cybercrime law and Jalingo's victory raised hopes, some media rights experts say they continue to have concerns.

Only about 30 percent of ECOWAS judgments are enforced by authorities in the region the body covers. Analysts say they fear Nigeria will be slow to actually implement the decision.

Seun Bakare, of Amnesty International, says authorities must demonstrate leadership and commitment to the regional body by complying with the ruling.

"A country that prides itself as a country where the rule of law is paramount, I think such a country should continue to show its commitment to the rule of law, Bakare said.

Not everyone shares concerns, however, that media freedom in Nigeria is on the decline.

Ahaziah Abubakar, director of news at the state-run Voice of Nigeria, supports the authorities' assertion that Nigeria enjoys greater press freedom compared to others in Africa.

"I think relatively compared to other African countries, Nigeria's media has been the freest of all. I make bold to say this, I've visited several African countries. But there's still room for much more improvement," he told VOA.

SERAP and other human rights defenders say they will monitor Nigerias response to the ruling and press authorities to comply with it.

And for Jalingo, with the trial behind him, he has returned to investigative reporting.

I'll not stop doing that, he said. Since I left prison, I've continued to ask those same questions."
A hands-off approach to moderating content at Elon Musk's Twitter could clash with ambitious new laws in Europe meant to protect users from disinformation, hate speech and other harmful material.

Musk, who describes himself as a "free speech absolutist," pledged to buy Twitter for $44 billion this week, with European Union officials and digital campaigners quick to say that any focus on free speech to the detriment of online safety would not fly after the 27-nation bloc solidified its status as a global leader in the effort to rein in the power of tech giants.

"If his approach will be 'just stop moderating it,' he will likely find himself in a lot of legal trouble in the EU," said Jan Penfrat, senior policy adviser at digital rights group EDRi.

Musk will soon be confronted with Europe's Digital Services Act, which will require big tech companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook parent Meta to police their platforms more strictly or face billions in fines.

Other crackdowns

Officials agreed just days ago on the landmark legislation, expected to take effect by 2024. It's unclear how soon it could spark a similar crackdown elsewhere, with U.S. lawmakers divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more.

That means the job of reining in a Musk-led Twitter could fall to Europe  something officials signaled they're ready for.

"Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules  regardless of their shareholding," Thierry Breton, the EU's internal market commissioner, tweeted Tuesday. "Mr Musk knows this well. He is familiar with European rules on automotive, and will quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act."

Musk's plans for Twitter haven't been fleshed out beyond a few ideas for new features, opening its algorithm to public inspection and defeating "bots" posing as real users.

France's digital minister, Cedric O, said Musk has "interesting things" that he wants to push for Twitter, "but let's remember that #DigitalServicesAct  and therefore the obligation to fight misinformation, online hate, etc.  will apply regardless of the ideology of its owner."

EU Green Party lawmaker Alexandra Geese, who was involved in negotiating the law, said, "Elon Musk's idea of free speech without content moderation would exclude large parts of the population from public discourse," such as women and people of color.

Twitter declined to comment. Musk tweeted that "the extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all." He added that by free speech, he means "that which matches the law" and that he's against censorship going "far beyond the law."

The United Kingdom also has an online safety law in the works that threatens senior managers at tech companies with prison if they don't comply. Users would get more power to block anonymous trolls, and tech companies would be forced to proactively take down illegal content.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office stressed the need for Twitter to remain "responsible" and protect users.

"Regardless of ownership, all social media platforms must be responsible," Johnson spokesman Max Blain said Tuesday.

Need seen for cleanup

Damian Collins, a British lawmaker who led a parliamentary committee working on the bill, said that if Musk really wants to make Twitter a free speech haven, "he will need to clean up the digital town square."

Collins said Twitter has become a place where users are drowned out by coordinated armies of "bot" accounts spreading disinformation and division and that users refrain from expressing themselves "because of the hate and abuse they will receive."

The laws in the U.K. and EU target such abuse. Under the EU's Digital Services Act, tech companies must put in place systems so illegal content can be easily flagged for swift removal.

Experts said Twitter will have to go beyond taking down clearly defined illegal content like hate speech, terrorism and child sexual abuse and grapple with material that falls into a gray zone.

The law includes requirements for big tech platforms to carry out annual risk assessments to determine how much their products and design choices contribute to the spread of divisive material that can affect issues like health or public debate.

"This is all about assessing to what extent your users are seeing, for example, Russian propaganda in the context of the Ukraine war," online harassment or COVID-19 misinformation, said Mathias Vermeulen, public policy director at data rights agency AWO.

Violations would incur fines of up to 6% of a company's global annual revenue. Repeat offenders can be banned from the EU.

More openness

The Digital Services Act also requires tech companies to be more transparent by giving regulators and researchers access to data on how their systems recommend content to users.

Musk has similar thoughts, saying his plans include "making the algorithms open source to increase trust."

Penfrat said it's a great idea that could pave the way to a new ecosystem of ranking and recommendation options.

But he panned another Musk idea  "authenticating all humans"  saying that taking away anonymity or pseudonyms from people, including society's most marginalized, was the dream of every autocrat.
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government will offer support in choosing profession and employment to young men after completing mandatory military service.

The Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ruben Sargsyan told ARMENPRESS that conscripts will be offered to head to the unified social services office of their regions after being discharged from service. The purpose is to prevent unemployment, and also to help them to understand what they themselves want to do, he said.

Meanwhile, over 100 specialists who will provide the consultations are undergoing training.

The training program is aimed at familiarizing the experts with the tools that will allow to support the discharged conscripts in the process of education and training, employment and competitiveness in the job market. The specialists will work to re-integrate and economically activate the discharged conscripts after need assessment.
A mentally impaired Malaysian man has been executed on drug trafficking charges in Singapore despite appeals from human rights activists and celebrities to spare his life.

The family of 34-year-old Nagaenthran Dharmalingam says he was hanged before dawn early Wednesday, hours after a court rejected a last-ditch legal challenge brought by his mother. The family broke down in tears after the courts decision.

Nagaenthran had been on death row in Singapore since 2010 for trafficking less than 43 grams of heroin into the city/state, which has some of the worlds toughest drug laws. His lawyers and anti-death penalty advocates said he had an intelligence quotient or IQ score of 69, a level recognized as a disability.

But Singapores courts ruled that Nagaenthran was aware of his actions when he was arrested.

His case attracted worldwide attention, with the European Union, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson joining human rights activists in urging Singapore to either pardon him or commute his sentence to life in prison.

Maya Foa, the director of British-based human rights group Reprieve, issued a statement saying Nagaenthran was the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice and accused Singapore of a flagrant violation of international laws.

Nagaenthrans family said his body will be returned to Malaysia where a funeral will be held in his hometown.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Somalias election process faced new delays Wednesday as the president and prime minister clashed publicly over election security procedures ahead of a planned parliamentary leadership vote in the capital.



Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble issued a statement authorizing African Union forces to take control of security at the fortified airport compound where the vote was to take place.



I have authorized ATMIS (African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) peacekeepers to immediately take over the security of the air force hangar as we complete the election of the parliamentary leadership and prepare for presidential elections next month, he said.



Just two hours later, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed fired back, saying the national security election committee, which is chaired by General Abdi Hassan Hijar, Somalia's police commander, will oversee venue security.



The ATMIS mission supports the national armed forces by collaborating with the Somali police force, which has the lead in the security of the elections, Mohamed said in a statement.



By early afternoon, few lawmakers had shown up for the vote and a postponement seemed likely.



'Parallel' elections



For safety reasons, some of Somalia's parliamentary proceedings take place inside a former air force hangar at Aden Adde International Airport. The modified hangar, known as Afisyone, or the tent, will host the vote for speakership of the influential 275-member lower chamber.

It will also host upcoming presidential elections, which have yet to be scheduled.



In Somalia's parliamentary elections, which started in 2021, thousands of clan elders selected 275 members of parliament for the lower house, while senators for the upper house were elected by five different state-level legislatures. Both chambers of Somalia's bicameral parliament then elect the next president.



Although the elections of most lawmakers have been settled, a dispute has emerged over the election of 16 lawmakers representing Gedo, an administrative region within restive Jubaland in southern Somalia.



Citing security concerns, Somalia's election committee moved the venue for the parliamentary vote to resolve the disputed seats from the capital of the Gedo region, Garbaharey, to the Gedo town of El Wak. The move was endorsed by Roble, but supporters of the president rejected the move and selected 16 MPs of their own to offset the 16 chosen in El Wak.



Somalia's interim House Speaker Abdisalan Dhabanad and Roble want the 16 MPs elected in El Wak to participate in the speakership and presidential elections. But President Mohamed said lawmakers elected in the Gedo region's parallel elections should not participate until an agreement is reached.



Scuffles and a shooting preceded Tuesday's disagreement over who would provide security for the upcoming votes. House Speaker Dhabanad reported that police commander General Hijar denied him the opportunity to swear in the El Wak MPs at the tent on Monday.



He also reported that when they moved the swearing-in ceremony to a private hotel, security forces fired on the hotel. That prompted Roble to warn General Hijar and the director of the national intelligence agency, Colonel Yasin Abdullahi Mohamud  whose agents were accused of involvement in the shooting  against disrupting the election.



General Hijar denied Dhaban'ad's accusations. General Hijar also said he wants to see the parliamentary leadership vote postponed for days so that he can prepare for the security of the venue. He said he could not guarantee security if elections take place on Wednesday. That angered the security minister, Abdullahai Mohamed Nur, an ally of Roble, who said he suspended the police chief.



Meanwhile, the election for the leadership of the upper house took place peacefully on Tuesday. Veteran lawmaker Abdi Hashi Abdullahi has been reelected to the post. He has been a fierce critic of the current presidents policies.
The body tasked with monitoring the South Sudan cease-fire agreement said the latest deadly fighting between two factions of the SPLA-In Opposition in Upper Nile and Unity states threatens the countrys fragile peace.

Speaking during a monitoring mechanism technical committee meeting in Juba Tuesday, Asrat Denero Amad, chair of the Ceasefire Transitional Security Arrangement Monitoring and Verification Mechanism, said tensions between a faction allied to Simon Gatwich and forces loyal to First Vice President Riek Machar have been fighting in Unity and Upper since February 11.

Armed clashes between the signatories [to the Peace agreement] have significantly undermined the permanent cease-fire. There is tension in Unity state since Mirmir cantonment site was overrun on Feb. 11 by Kit-Gwang elements and armed youth reportedly instigated by the Koch County Commissioner, Amad told VOA English to Africas South Sudan in Focus radio program.

The fighting spread to Mayendit and Leer Counties where the SPLA-IO forces were reportedly attacked by the Koch and Mayendit County Commissioners, Amad said.

Other attacks occurred in Western Equatoria state by the hold-out opposition group National Salvation Front led by Thomas Cirilo, which refused to sign the 2018 peace deal. Tensions remain high in Tambura County of Western Equatoria state said Amad, where fighting that began in 2021 has displaced nearly 80,000 civilians.

Colonel Lam Paul Gabriel, spokesperson for the SPLA-IO Machar faction, agrees the permanent cease-fire is under threat but accuses government forces controlled by President Salva Kiir of breaking the cease-fire by attacking SPLA-IO positions in Unity and Upper Nile states.

The opposition Gatwich faction signed a defection agreement with the SPLM In Government in January this year and have been fighting alongside South Sudan Peoples Defense Force (SSPDF) since that time, said Colonel Gabriel.

The SPLA-IO has sacrificed so much to make sure this peace is implemented right from the negotiations in 2018 to date. We are here in Juba and we are adhering to the cessation of hostilities agreement, Gabriel told South Sudan in Focus.

SSPDF spokesperson Major General Lul Ruai Koang admits some skirmishes have erupted between SSPDF and SPLA-IO forces in Unity and Upper Nile states but does not agree with Amads assertion that the cease-fire is under threat.

I would respectfully disagree with his overall assessment that the cease-fire is in danger. When you say that, then youre putting things together without differentiating them. [The] cease-fire would be in danger if the two parties are in serious hostilities, for instance, the SSPDF and the SPLA-IO, General Koang said.

Suba Samuel, spokesperson of the National Salvation Front, told VOA the NAS is not adhering to any cease-fire because it was already violated by the government in Juba.

In our own assessment and in the basic assessment of every South Sudanese, there is no cease-fire going on in the country, nor even the implementation of the agreement. But what I know is that all these wars, especially in the Upper Nile, are facilitated by Juba, Samuel said. Samuel denied the NAS was involved in any recent skirmishes.

Chuol Deng Thon, spokesperson of the Kitwang faction, denied his group had fought the SPLA-IO Machar faction in Unity and Upper Nile state and said the recent fighting in Unity state was strictly between communities that support the government and those that support the SPLA-IO-Machar faction.

There are supporters of the SPLM-In government and supporters of the SPLM-IO of Riek Machar. These are the people fighting now in Unity state and they are fighting along tribal lines. We are not part of that, Thon told VOA.

The U.N. mission in South Sudan said in a statement Monday that at least 72 civilians were killed and 64 women and girls were raped between February and April in Unity states Leer County. UNMISS chief Nicholas Haysom said human rights violations were documented during a surge in violence carried out by armed youth from Koch and Mayendit Counties.
Sudanese authorities released two outspoken former government officials from jail, lawyers said Wednesday, part of trust-building measures amid efforts to end the country's political impasse.

Sudan has been plunged into turmoil since an October military coup upended its short-lived transition to democracy after three decades of repressive rule by former strongman Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir and his Islamist-backed government were removed in a popular uprising in April 2019.

Khalid Omar, a former minister of Cabinet Affairs, was released late Tuesday, and Mohammed al-Faki Suleiman, a former member of the ruling Sovereign Council, walked free from a prison in the capital of Khartoum on Wednesday, their defense team said.

The Criminal Court in northern Khartoum rejected the prosecutors' request to renew their detention pending investigation into an array of vague charges, including betrayal of public trust, according to their lawyers. The court cited insufficient evidence to keep them in custody, they said.

Both Omar and Suliman had been detained along with dozens of other officials during the October 25 coup and were released a month later as part of a deal between the military and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. The premier resigned in January after failing to bridge the gap between the generals and the protest movement.

The two men were rearrested in February amid a crackdown by the generals on anti-coup groups. Dozens of activists were also detained amid relentless protests against the military's takeover.

The crackdown on protesters killed more than 90 people, mostly young men, and injured thousands, according to a Sudanese medical group.

Suliman was also deputy head of a government-run agency tasked with dismantling the legacy of al-Bashir's regime. The agency is known as The Committee to Dismantle the Regime of June 30, 1989  a reference to the Islamist-backed coup that brought al-Bashir to power. It was created after the uprising and for two years worked to purge al-Bashir's loyalists from government institutions.

The generals, including coup leader General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, have long criticized the agency. It was dismantled after the October coup, and the generals appointed another committee to review its decisions. Many of the agency's decisions were reversed, measures seen by critics of the military as a way to enable Islamists allied with the generals.

Other detained members of the agency, including Wagdy Saleh, Taha Osman and Babiker Faisal, were also released Wednesday, their defense team said.

"After a detention that lasted 78 days, we return to the streets.  We won't forget that these streets have brought us to the positions of responsibility," Saleh said in a tweet, referring to the popular uprising.

Earlier this month, authorities freed over two dozen activists who were detained in recent weeks over the anti-coup protests.

The military's takeover has plunged the country into turmoil and sent its already fragile economy into free fall, with living conditions rapidly deteriorating.

The U.N. envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, warned in March that Sudan was heading for "an economic and security collapse" unless it addresses the political paralysis. Perthes' comments to the U.N. Security Council angered the generals, and Burhan threatened to expel him.

Perthes is now leading joint efforts with the African Union and the eight-nation east African regional group called the Intergovernmental Authority in Development to facilitate Sudanese-led political talks. Perthes and the two organizations' envoys held a joint news conference Wednesday in Khartoum on their efforts.

Ismail Wais, the development authority's special envoy to Sudan, welcomed the releases as a "very positive development." He urged Sudanese authorities to free all political prisoners and activists and lift the state of emergency as a necessary condition to help facilitate reaching an agreement on a way out of the crisis.

Mohamed el Hacen Ould Lebatt, the AU's envoy for Sudan, said the trio will launch a political dialogue after the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan early in May. The meetings are expected to start May 10-12, he said.

He said the talks will include the military and other political parties and groups  except al-Bashir's now dissolved Congress Party  with the aim of agreeing on how the country will be ruled during the rest of the transitional period and holding elections.

"The situation in this country is highly sensitive if it is not extremely dangerous," Lebatt said, adding that the talks will eventually aim at "achieving the aspiration of the Sudanese people expressed in their revolution."

There was no immediate comment from the two main protest groups  the Sudanese Professionals Association and the Resistance Committees  which have spearheaded the uprising against al-Bashir and the ongoing anti-coup protests. They have long demanded the removal of the military from power and the establishment of a fully civilian government.

The generals, however, have said they will only hand over power to an elected administration. They say elections will take place in July 2023, as planned in a constitutional document governing the transitional period.
Taiwans main military drills this year will draw on the experiences of the war in Ukraine, focusing on asymmetric and cognitive warfare as well as use of reserves as it practices fighting off a Chinese attack, a top officer said on Wednesday.

Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, has raised its alert level since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, wary that Beijing might make a similar move on the island, though it has reported no signs this is about to happen.

What lessons to learn from the war has been widely debated in Taiwan, and discussed with the United States, according to Taiwans defense minister. Lin Wen-huang, head of the Taiwan defense ministrys joint operations department, said this years Han Kuang exercises, which simulate a Chinese invasion and are Taiwans largest annual war games, would draw on the experience of the Ukraine war.

Of course, we will keep a close watch on the Russia-Ukraine war and the movements of the Chinese Communists military, and will carry out exercises, he told reporters. Taking into account the lessons of the Russia-Ukraine war, the military will continue to forge ahead on improving the use of asymmetric warfare, cognitive warfare, information and electronic warfare operations, and use of reserves and full strength of the nation.

Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it called a special operation to degrade its military capabilities and root out what it calls dangerous nationalists. Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces.

Taiwan has been reforming its reserves to make them more combat effective, a task given more urgency by the Ukraine war.

Cognitive warfare refers to how information can affect morale, something Taiwan says it already faces from China, while asymmetric warfare is about deploying highly mobile and sometimes low-tech weapons that are hard to destroy and can deliver precision attacks.

The United States, Taipeis most important international backer and arms supplier, has also been watching the strategic fallout for Taiwan from the Ukraine war, and considering how the island should prepare itself for an invasion by China.

Matthew Pottinger, deputy national security advisor during the Trump administration, told a forum organized by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies that Taiwan needs to follow in Ukraines footsteps in terms of training snipers and making improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

And theres a lot more that the United States should be doing on the ground in Taiwan, he said, according to a transcript published on Tuesday. I dont care if theyre wearing U.S. uniforms or not. They can show up in shower shoes and flip flops and Hawaiian shirts for all I care. They need to be on the ground intensively helping train Taiwan.

The United States already helps train Taiwanese military personnel, though it is rarely publicized. A small number of U.S. forces are in Taiwan to train with Taiwanese soldiers, President Tsai Ing-wen said in an interview with CNN in October.

China has dismissed any comparisons between Ukraine and Taiwan, saying that Taiwan is a part of China and not an independent country.

China has been stepping up its military pressure against Taiwan over the past two years or so.

Taiwan rejects Chinas sovereignty claims and says only the islands people can decide their future.
Four astronauts are on their way to the International Space Station after a spectacular nighttime launch.



Americans Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines and Jessica Watkins, and Italys Samantha Cristoforetti, representing the European Space Agency, blasted off from the U.S. space agency NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Wednesday morning in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Freedom.



The quartet is expected to rendezvous and dock with the ISS shortly after midnight GMT Thursday morning [Wednesday night 8:15 p.m. Washington time], where it will spend the next six months conducting scientific experiments.



Watkins is making history as the first Black woman to be part of a long-duration ISS crew.

Wednesdays launch marks the fourth time SpaceX, owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk, has sent an official crew to the ISS, and the fifth mission overall since the U.S. resumed sending astronauts to the station. A two-man crew traveled to the ISS in May 2020 on a test flight of the companys Crew Dragon spacecraft.



A four-man team from another privately-owned space company, U.S.-based Axiom Space, just returned from the station Monday aboard a different SpaceX capsule after a two-week mission, making history as the first all-private astronaut team to fly aboard the ISS.
Preparation for Rights Chief's Visit to China Begins

A team from the U.N. human rights office arrived in China on Monday to prepare for the long-delayed visit expected in May by High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to Xinjiang, where rights groups and some Western governments including the U.S. accuse the Chinese government of committing serious abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

UN Team in China Ahead of Rights Chief Visit to Xinjiang

Database Lists Victims of Beijing Repression in Xinjiang

Gene Bunin, a Russian-American who lived in Xinjiang for several years, has published a Xinjiang Victims Database of Uyghurs who have disappeared. The archives describe whats happening in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as slow-motion genocide.

Rights Chief Urged to Release Report Related to Uyghur Abuses

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield urged the United Nations high commissioner for human rights to release the report on Xinjiang ahead of her visit to China in May. The Chinese mission responded by saying Beijing welcomes the visit but there is no place for political manipulation and malicious pressure.

UK Poised to Ban Health Care Products from Uyghur Region

The United Kingdom is on the verge of prohibiting the government from buying health care products made in Chinas Xinjiang region, where rights groups accuse China of Uyghur forced labor.

News in brief

 A Wilson Center report finds more than 1,500 Uyghurs have been detained or forcibly returned to China by other countries. The report details how Chinas security ministry works with governments in other countries. The report says Chinas repression of Uyghurs overseas is a growing phenomenon. It documents methods used against Uyghurs abroad by China, including freezing of assets, cyberattacks and intimidation.

Quote of note

It was becoming very difficult to have conversations with people, because you felt like you potentially could be putting them in danger. I had one friend who I saw on the street, and he motioned for me to follow him. He took me aside and explained to me very quickly: My family is fine because I have a Chinese wife, and were OK, but I cant be seen talking to foreigners right now. Sorry, we cant interact. The next times we saw each other, we would nod or exchange glances, but eventually we reached the point where we pretended not to see each other.  Gene Bunin, founder of Xinjiang Victims Database.
The road toward Chernobyl is littered with Russian soldiers' discarded ration boxes and occasional empty bullet shells in a subtle but harrowing warning of the invasion's terrible risk for the infamous nuclear site.

Tuesday marked the 36th anniversary of what is considered the worst ever nuclear disaster, and there was relief the hulking so-called sarcophagus covering the reactor's radioactivity remains was back under Ukrainian control.

Soldiers cradling their assault rifles watched over checkpoints, including one with an effigy dressed in Russian fatigues and a gas mask, that guard the way from Kyiv to the sprawling site near the border with Belarus.

Yet concerns are far from dissipated for nuclear sites in Ukraine because Russia's invasion of its neighbor is grinding on.

Authorities said Tuesday that missiles had flown low over a nuclear power station in a close call in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

"They (Chernobyl staff) carried on their work, in spite (of) all of the difficulties.  They got the situation stable, so to speak, in this sense the worst was of course avoided," U.N. atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told reporters upon his arrival at Chernobyl.

"We don't have peace yet, so we have to continue. The situation is not stable. We have to be on alert," he added, noting the invasion was "very, very dangerous."

The plant, which fell into Russian hands on the day Moscow's troops began their invasion in February, suffered a power and communications outage that stirred fears of a possible new calamity at the site.

Those worries stretch back to the events of April 26, 1986, when Chernobyl's number four reactor exploded, causing the world's worst nuclear accident that killed hundreds and spread radioactive contamination west across Europe.

'Ice Cream Chernobyl'

The reactor number four building is now encased in a massive double sarcophagus to limit radioactive contamination, and an area spanning 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) around the plant is considered the exclusion zone that is essentially uninhabited, nuclear authorities say.

Rows of aging and abandoned-looking apartment buildings dot the road into the site and yet some have bright curtains and plants in the windows, while a kiosk labeled "Chernobyl Tour Info" greets people on their way to the plant.

The bullet hole-shattered glass of the nuclear-yellow painted hut bears the signs of the war launched on February 24 that has prompted international condemnation of Russia and backing for Ukraine.

In a sign from a more tourist-friendly time, "Ice Cream Chernobyl" is emblazoned on the side of a refrigerator at the kiosk, with a graphic of a vanilla cone and the radiation warning symbol side-by-side.

Planned to stay

The Russian troops that could easily have rolled past the stand on their way south toward Kyiv had planned to stay in Chernobyl, Ukrainian officials said.

The soldiers dug trenches and set up camps, but in areas like the so-called "Red Forest," named for the color its trees turned after being hit by a heavy dose of radiation in Chernobyl's 1986 meltdown.

"Areas with high radiation levels remain here still, but the contamination was moved around due to the actions of Russian occupiers who were using heavy military vehicles," Ukraine's Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky told journalists visiting Chernobyl.

It's a site that has drawn significant international interest because of the scale of the disaster. The original Soviet-era sarcophagus deteriorated over the years so a new one was built over it and was completed in 2019.

But for some in the area, risk is just a fact of life.

"If they (the Russians) wanted to blow it up, they could blow it up when they ran away," noted Valeriy Slutsky, 75, who said he was present for the power station's 1986 disaster.

"Maybe I'm used to it (radiation)," he added with a shrug.
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Jan Lipavsky, the Czech Republics foreign minister, spoke to VOA during a visit to Washington this week. The conversation focused on his countrys support for Ukraine including its EU membership aspirations, post-war reconstruction, and the Czech Republics EU rotating presidency beginning July 1.
The World Health Organization says the war in Ukraine has interrupted lifesaving immunizations in Ukraine, setting back years of progress in countering vaccine preventable diseases.

This is World Immunization Week, a time to celebrate the marvel of vaccines that have saved the lives of countless millions. WHO spokesman Bhanu Bhatnagar spoke about vaccinations at an immunization center in Rivne Oblast, a Ukrainian province near the border with Belarus.



The center is in a technical college that has been repurposed into a home for some 100 internally displaced people. Bhatnagar says he has come here to support the Ukrainian Health Ministrys rollout of routine and catch-up immunizations for children, adolescents and adults.



There are many children streaming through. Parents are bringing their children to catch-up on really important lifesaving, potentially life-saving immunizations from measles, to polio, to diphtheria, tetanus, and, as well the COVID-19 vaccine. ... Internally displaced people are vulnerable. They have been forced from their homes. The health system is in crisis mode and many of them do not have access to health care.



Bhatnagar says health needs do not stop in a time of war and it is important to keep up immunization activities, especially during the pandemic. Before the war, he says Ukraine was a poster child when it came to health care reform  and was making great strides in preventing vaccine preventable diseases.



Unfortunately, he says this progress has been derailed. He notes there was a polio outbreak in the country just before the war started. He says a rollout of polio vaccines that began February first was disrupted due to the conflict.



So, that is why again it is really important that we get a polio vaccine into childrens arms. Even one child with polio means that every child is threatened, any under or unvaccinated childBut at this time only 44 percent of the targeted children have been reached with a polio vaccine and that is approximately 69,000 children.



The WHO spokesman says COVID-19 vaccines continue to be rolled out despite the challenges of the war. However, the country only has 40 percent coverage across the board, which, he says, is lower than average for the rest of the European region.



Latest reports put the number of coronavirus cases at nearly five million, including more than 108,000 deaths.
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS. Police said theyve detained 18 protesters in Yerevan for blocking several streets in the latest opposition demonstrations.

11 people were detained at the Republic Square while 7 others were detained in Tumanyan Street for failure to comply with the police order.
The United States and its allies signaled Tuesday they are moving swiftly and powerfully to support Ukrainian forces and escalate pressure on Russia's economy amid its two-month invasion of neighboring Ukraine, while the United Nations said Russia's president agreed to let international aid groups help civilians leave the besieged port city of Mariupol.

The U.S. at first "needed weeks" to move military equipment and munitions to Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, but it now it often dispatches new armaments to the Ukrainians within three days.

Blinken said since he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv over the weekend, the two countries were "largely aligned in what they say they need and what we think we're able to provide."

Economic strikes

The U.S. and Russia continued to trade economic jabs, with Moscow on Tuesday announcing it would cut off supplies of natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria.

And in Washington, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress that he supported legislation that would allow seized Russian assets to go "directly to Ukraine."

Heavy weapons

Germany's government said Tuesday it would send heavy weapons to Ukraine for the first time. Austin, meeting at a U.S. air base in Germany with officials from 40 countries, including NATO members, said Russian President Vladimir Putin "never imagined the whole world would rally behind Ukraine so swiftly and surely."

"We're seeing more support every day" to combat the Russian invasion, he said Tuesday. "We don't have any time to waste. We've got to move at the speed of war."

The White House said Germany's decision signaled unprecedented unity in the face of Russian aggression.

"The announcement by Germany is in line with announcements we've seen by a number of European countries in providing assistance they have never before provided, which is part of the significance here," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. "So, this is an unprecedented change to provide lethal aid to another country, and that's the significance here from Germany. But I'd also note that Norway provided Mistral anti-aircraft missiles, that a number of countries have provided types of assistance that they have never done in the past, and that really speaks to the significant unity of NATO."

The U.S. defense secretary also said allies supporting Ukraine would meet monthly to coordinate further aid. As he opened the talks, he said the aim was to "help Ukraine to win the fight against Russia's unjust invasion and to help build up Ukraine for tomorrow's challenges."

Austin also rebuked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for suggesting that the war could evolve into a nuclear conflict between Russia and the West.

"We certainly will do everything in our power  to make sure it doesn't spin out of control," Austin said. "Nobody wants to see a nuclear war. Nobody can win it," he said, adding that "it's unhelpful and dangerous to rattle sabers" over a nuclear threat.

Austin's appeal to allies for more help for Ukraine came a day after he said the U.S. objective in supporting Ukraine was to leave Russia with a "weakened" military. He described Russian casualties so far as "pretty substantial," with some military analysts saying as many as 20,000 Russian troops have died.

Moscow accused the West of carrying out a proxy war against Russia by sending more munitions to Ukraine and warned of a "considerable" risk that the fighting could evolve into a nuclear conflict.

Diplomatic efforts

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Tuesday in Moscow with Putin and Lavrov in an attempt to broker a cease-fire agreement, even as Russia launched new attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine. Guterres then headed to Ukraine, stopping first in Poland to meet with that nation's president in a city along the Ukrainian border used as a base for American troops and humanitarian efforts.

During the two-hour meeting with Guterres in the Russian capital, Putin agreed "in principle" to allow the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross to assist with the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal iron and steel plant in Mariupol, said Stephane Dujarric, Guterres' spokesman.

The U.N. chief said that while Russia and the U.N. had "different interpretations of what's happening in Ukraine," there was still the possibility for a serious conversation about working to minimize suffering and "end the war as soon as possible."

Guterres said he wanted to further address the wider impacts of the conflict on the world's most vulnerable populations amid rising food and energy prices.

Lavrov welcomed Guterres and the U.N.'s desire for dialogue, while accusing Western governments of flouting principles of multilateralism and instead undertaking a unilateral approach to the world.

Russia's "goals are primarily to protect the civilian population, and here we are ready to cooperate with our colleagues from the U.N. to alleviate the plight of the civilian population," Lavrov said.

But Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have repeatedly blocked the attempted creation of humanitarian corridors to let civilians escape from the devastation of Mariupol.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Putin to agree to direct talks with Zelenskyy. Turkey, which shares a maritime border with Russia and Ukraine, has unsuccessfully attempted to broker an accord to end the fighting.

Also on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said American diplomats have taken concrete steps to reestablish a U.S. diplomatic presence in Ukraine.

"I can confirm that the deputy chief of mission and members of the embassy team traveled to Lviv, Ukraine, today, where they were able to continue our close collaboration with key Ukrainian partners," he said. "Today, they met with interlocutors from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

While in Kyiv, Blinken and Austin also pledged more military assistance, offering $713 million for Ukraine and 15 partner nations.

"Russia's invasion is indefensible, and so are Russian atrocities," Austin said Tuesday. "We all start today from a position of moral clarity. Russia is waging a war of choice to indulge the ambitions of one man. Ukraine is fighting a war of necessity to defend its democracy, its sovereignty and its citizens."

National security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Russia's Gazprom halted gas supplies Wednesday to Poland and Bulgaria, the latest step in the economic fight linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has demanded that European nations, many of which rely on Russia for large portions of their energy supplies, pay for natural gas in rubles, Russia's currency.

Gazprom said Wednesday that Poland and Bulgaria had not done so and would therefore have their gas supplies suspended.

Polish and Bulgarian officials said the Gazprom move amounted to a breach of contract.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said the Russian gas cutoff violated "basic legal principles," while Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said gas was being used as a "political and economic weapon."

On Twitter, European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, "It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us. This is something the EU Commission has been preparing for, with Member states and international partners. Our response will be immediate, united and coordinated."

Several EU nations have moved to lessen or eliminate their dependence on Russian energy, including by seeking other sources and boosting their use of renewable energy.

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said Wednesday its forces carried out missile strikes overnight that destroyed 59 targets in Ukraine, including "hangars with a large batch of foreign weapons and ammunition" sent by the United States and European countries to aid Ukraine's military.

The United States and its allies signaled Tuesday they are moving swiftly and powerfully to support Ukrainian forces and escalate pressure on Russia's economy.

The United States at first "needed weeks" to move military equipment and munitions to Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but it now often dispatches new armaments to the Ukrainians within three days.

Blinken said since he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv over the weekend, the two countries were "largely aligned in what they say they need and what we think we're able to provide."

Heavy weapons

Germany's government said Tuesday it would send heavy weapons to Ukraine for the first time. Austin, meeting at a U.S. air base in Germany with officials from 40 countries, including NATO members, said Russian President Vladimir Putin "never imagined the whole world would rally behind Ukraine so swiftly and surely."

"We're seeing more support every day" to combat the Russian invasion, he said Tuesday. "We don't have any time to waste. We've got to move at the speed of war."

The White House said Germany's decision signaled unprecedented unity in the face of Russian aggression.

"The announcement by Germany is in line with announcements we've seen by a number of European countries in providing assistance they have never before provided, which is part of the significance here," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

"So, this is an unprecedented change to provide lethal aid to another country, and that's the significance here from Germany. But I'd also note that Norway provided Mistral anti-aircraft missiles, that a number of countries have provided types of assistance that they have never done in the past, and that really speaks to the significant unity of NATO."

Defense Secretary Austin said allies supporting Ukraine would meet monthly to coordinate further aid. As he opened the talks, he said the aim was to "help Ukraine to win the fight against Russia's unjust invasion and to help build up Ukraine for tomorrow's challenges."

Austin also rebuked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for suggesting that the war could evolve into a nuclear conflict between Russia and the West.

"We certainly will do everything in our power  to make sure it doesn't spin out of control," Austin said. "Nobody wants to see a nuclear war. Nobody can win it," he said, adding that "it's unhelpful and dangerous to rattle sabers" over a nuclear threat.

Austin's appeal to allies for more help for Ukraine came a day after he said the U.S. objective in supporting Ukraine was to leave Russia with a "weakened" military. He described Russian casualties so far as "pretty substantial," with some military analysts saying as many as 20,000 Russian troops have died.

Moscow accused the West of carrying out a proxy war against Russia by sending more munitions to Ukraine and warned of a "considerable" risk that the fighting could evolve into a nuclear conflict.

Diplomatic efforts

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Tuesday in Moscow with Putin and Lavrov in an attempt to broker a cease-fire agreement, even as Russia launched new attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine. Guterres then headed to Ukraine, stopping first in Poland to meet with that nation's president in a city along the Ukrainian border used as a base for American troops and humanitarian efforts.

During the two-hour meeting with Guterres in the Russian capital, Putin agreed "in principle" to allow the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross to assist with the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal iron and steel plant in Mariupol, Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The U.N. chief said that while Russia and the U.N. had "different interpretations of what's happening in Ukraine," there was still the possibility for a serious conversation about working to minimize suffering and "end the war as soon as possible."

Also on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said American diplomats have taken concrete steps to reestablish a U.S. diplomatic presence in Ukraine.

"I can confirm that the deputy chief of mission and members of the embassy team traveled to Lviv, Ukraine, today, where they were able to continue our close collaboration with key Ukrainian partners," he said. "Today, they met with interlocutors from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

VOA's Anita Powell and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
The leader of South Africas opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says Zimbabweans should go back home to vote in large numbers in order to remove President Emmerson Mnangagwas government.

In a video posted on the EFFs social media platform, Twitter, Julius Malema, who addressed party members at a Freedom Day event, is quoted as saying, Zanu PF has destroyed what was a promising land of Zimbabwe. The current leader of Zimbabwe is clueless like the South African leader. They are the same, they are like twins. So, the people of Zimbabwe, we want to make a plea. When you are here is South Africa dont worry you are at home but when they are elections are home, go there in your numbers. Go and vote and remove that nonsense that is happening in Zimbabwe and come back when you want to come back. You cannot just fold your hands.

The people of Zimbabwe must rise here is South Africa and go and vote for a proper government in Zimbabwe. If they have to come back, they can come back. They are welcome. No problem. But lets help each other so that there is a proper government in Zimbabwe and we will have a proper government in South Africa and we become one big family.

He said Zimbabweans should not think that all is well back home as they are in South Africa.

Lets not forget that as Zimbabweans we have got a duty back home to deliver a progressive government that will respect human rights, that will make sure the economy of Zimbabwe grows, that will make sure it defeats poverty and unemployment. A developing Zimbabwe is a solution to the problems of South Africa. So, we want to help Africans who are helping themselves.

Presidential spokesperson George Charamba and Information Secretary Nick Mangwana were unreachable for comment.
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A Kenyan court recently ruled that fathers could be granted custody of children below nine years of age instead of the children automatically going to their mothers. Childrens advocacy groups in Kenya welcomed the unprecedented ruling as a step forward for parental custody based on merit. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Amos Wangwa
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Russia's invasion of Ukraine, one of the worlds largest exporters of wheat, has led to bread prices soaring in importing countries like Zimbabwe. The Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe has warned of possible bread shortages in the country after Ukraine was forced to suspend shipping. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, Zimbabwe. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe
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Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens.
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans recent visit to Russia, the documents signed, are positive. In this difficult period they give an opportunity to get some security guarantees and work on this direction on the one hand, and to boost the economic cooperation, on the other hand, Expert at Orbeli information-analytical center Jony Melikyan told a press conference in Armenpress.

During the visit documents have been signed which relate to the future cooperation formats, outline inter-state visits and a cooperation between different ministries. On the background of these complex geopolitical processes it is very important to assess soberly the situation, work with partners in order to reduce all possible risks, Melikyan said.

Political analyst Hakob Badalyan thinks that the statement of the Armenian PM and the Russian President is balanced. According to him, in such complex geopolitical situation getting a document which reflects the targeted directions that are important for Russia from security perspective and also contains important formulations for Armenia. Besides, in this difficult situation they have avoided wording, content that would be associated, say, with any positioning in the Ukrainian war. My description is the following, it is a balanced document that actually covers all areas. It is a working base on which the future activity should be built, Hakob Badalyan said.

Another expert of the Orbeli center Artak Khachatryan believes that one of the key foreign political cornerstones of Armenia should be the balanced policy. He says they see these steps in the efforts directed to Nagorno Karabakh or Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

In the current geopolitical race, such step of Armenias foreign policy is welcome, trying to align and make closer the interests of the sides and the corners of the Armenian interests, he said. He said that it was not a coincidence that the Brussels meeting was followed by a visit to Moscow. And in both cases the main focus was on security issues.

Taron Hovhannisyan, an expert of the Orbeli center, outlined point 24th of the statement of the Armenian PM and the Russian President, which pointed out Nagorno Karabakh and the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

It was stated that the conflict is not settled, which is very important in a sense that after the war Azerbaijan is constantly trying to claim that the conflict is over, there is no Nagorno Karabakh. This remark could have been stayed as a remark if we havent heard at least statements by internationally involved actors that the Artsakh issue exists and is not solved yet. Here the opinion of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries comes to the fore. Russia not only is a Co-Chair country, we all understand quite well that it is a country having a serious influence and presence in the region, Taron Hovhannisyan said.
The United Kingdom has authorized the deployment of white helmets in Ukraine.

This alleged non-governmental association (sic) was created by a former British officer, James Le Measurer, Knight of the Order of the British Empire. It was publicized by the Foreign Office subcontracting communication company, ARK (Analysis, Research and Knowledge) and funded by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan.

After a change of facade to make it appear less like a foreign government organization, it made a reputation for itself in Syria. It actually brought help to the population, but it also participated in the making of fake videos as well as war actions. For example, it took credit or having deprived the 5.6 million inhabitants of the Damascus region of water for more than 42 days (photo), which constitutes a war crime. The majority of its volunteers (sic) were members of Al-Qaeda and, later, Daesh.

The White Helmets have been banned from entering US territory under that countrys anti-terrorist laws. However, former President Barack Obama persuaded Netflix, where he is a producer, to devote a praiseful documentary to them.

The terrorist organization was unsuccessfully nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The United States Senate approved the bill reinstating the Lend-Lease Act (S. 3522), a remnant of World War II. The new text, which is currently before the House of Representatives, is not only intended to arm Ukraine, but also to arm "all the countries of Eastern Europe impacted by the invasion of the Russian Federation."

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Photo: Focus Features/YouTube

Spoilers follow for The Northman.

Watching The Northman and not wanting to re-create any component of its depiction of life 1,100 or so years ago would be understandable. Writer-director Robert Eggers makes it all seem pretty bleak, whether you are royalty on an island near Scotland (you could be assassinated for your throne), a regular person just scrabbling by in Rus (Viking berserkers could raid your village at any point), or a farmer trying to make a go of it in Iceland (the weather and terrain are unforgiving).

Eggers and co-writer Sjon never ameliorate the brutality and ruthlessness their characters need to survive these conditions. (As Vultures Alison Willmore wrote in her review, Relatability is the last thing on The Northmans mind  Its most notable quality is the way it refuses to bend its characters to the present, preferring instead to make them as alien in their perspective as possible.) You can root for Alexander Skarsgards Prince Amleth to get revenge, but you do have to accept the filicide, parricide, and incest that come along with it. The Northman has it all!

But there is one element of The Northman that does skew modernistic, and its one you would see in any good ol rom-com, horror, or thriller: the haircut as transformation! Its a contemporary device beloved by a wide range of protagonists: Mia Farrow and her pixie cut in Rosemarys Baby, Julia Robertss on-the-run law student hiding her signature fiery hair in The Pelican Brief, Robin Tunney giving herself a buzz cut in Empire Records. And throughout The Northman, defining events or major upheavals in Amleths life are marked primarily through his hairdos. So which of these looks is right for you? Lets discuss.

Prince Amleths pageboy

From left: Photo: Focus Features/YouTube Photo: Focus Features From top: Photo: Focus Features/YouTube Photo: Focus Features

When we meet Amleth, played in the characters youth by Oscar Novak, the character is rocking a slightly overgrown, thematically appropriate pageboy. Its fairly adorable and works well with the characters innocence, which hasnt yet been shattered by watching his uncle, Fjolnir, assassinate his father, Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke), and make off his with mother, Queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman). The cut seems as if it would require some regular maintenance so the bangs dont get too long, but the fur cap proves the look does accommodate accessories.

Head-banging berserker length

Photo: Focus Features

Have you considered pledging yourself via chanted fireside ritual to the Norse god Fenrir, a chained wolf who eventually breaks free during Ragnarok and wages all kinds of mayhem? If so, you probably have more on your mind than trimming, deep conditioning, and otherwise maintaining your hair. Youre going to let that coif get wild, which leads us to Amleth in berserker mode. After running away from Fjolnirs death squad, Amleth is found by Vikings and trained to be a warrior who raids villages, grabs spears out of midair and throws them back at his attackers, and stands by as women and children are sold off and killed. This hairdo screams My life has been taken from me and I am fueled by rage and vengeance, so maybe keep that in mind if you were to pursue. But again, accessories! Looks good with both a minimalist hairband and a maximalist wolfs head!

The impulsive going undercover chop

From left: Photo: Focus Features/YouTube Photo: Focus Features/YouTube From top: Photo: Focus Features/YouTube Photo: Focus Features/YouTube

In the years after Amleth leaves his familial home, he adopts the mantra I will avenge you, Father. I will save you, Mother. I will kill you, Fjolnir, which guides him so forcefully that when he learns from another berserker that Fjolnir was defeated by Norwegian forces and fled to Iceland to establish a new homestead, he abandons the warrior sect immediately and goes undercover to infiltrate his uncles farm. Which calls for a makeover. It takes some effort since the transformation involves stealing a dead mans clothes, branding himself with a slaves mark, and cleaving his hair into a shorter, shoulder-skimming chop. I am not sure The Northman actually provides a narrative reason for this haircut  people besides berserkers had long hair, too, no?  but its the first inclination that Amleth is edging closer to his old self and to the mission he thinks he must fulfill. This is basically the ancient equivalent of giving yourself bangs as a fresh start, but I must warn that unless you have Skarsgards particular bone structure, tread lightly.

Amleths back, all right!

Photo: Focus Features/YouTube

Amleth doesnt half-ass anything over the course of The Northman, which means that, somewhat counterintuitively, hes the hardest-working slave ever owned by Fjolnir and his son Thorir (Gustav Lindh), who oversee (read: abuse) the workers responsible for building the familys new farm, home, and temple. (Truly wild that Gudrun, herself a former slave and now married to Fjolnir, is totally fine owning other slaves, but I guess that goes back to that whole film providing its characters with no sense of modern empathy, and thats fine thing.) Amleth carries, lifts, and plows more than anyone else to gain the familys trust and kicks ass at the knattleikr game by protecting Gudrun and Fjolnirs son, Gunnar (Elliott Rose). Skarsgard does well with the characters daytime ambiguity (tight-faced, affectless) and nighttime plotting (observant, physically lithe). And when he does so well that Thorir promotes him to an overseer role and allows him to take a wife, Amleth marries fellow slave Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy), a Slav witch who joins him in his quest to kill Fjolnir and claim his revenge.

Its almost celebratory, then, when Amleth cuts his formerly messy hair into a cleaner, boy-band-reminiscent bowl cut that gleams in the moonlight, has nice bounce and body, and moves as Amleth does. Hes in love! Hes so close to fulfilling his quest! For when you realize that your mother is your betrayer, or when your blood-seeking sword needs to feast upon an enemys heart, or when you decide to take on all your uncles men so your romantic partner can be set free  consider the bob Leonardo DiCaprio perfected in Romeo + Juliet and Titanic and that Amleth makes his own. (It is, in fact, making a comeback.)

Beast mode

Photo: Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features

Remember that whole your fate is set and you cannot escape it thing that Amleth is dealing with as an adult in The Northman? It comes to full fruition in the films final act, in which Amleth  with the new knowledge that Olga is pregnant with twins, including a daughter who will become a maiden king, or queen, in her own right  realizes that he cant leave Iceland to pursue a new life. Instead, as both the shaman Heimir the Fool (Willem Dafoe) and the Seeress (Bjork) told him, his future is already decided, and it includes a duel against Fjolnir at the Gates of Hell. That certainty brings a certain amount of Fuck it! freedom, and it allows Amleth to let his hair get shaggier and his beard longer. His mop is now the closest his hair has been to his childhood pageboy, and theres a full-circle sense here given how Amleth started this journey. Have you decided to venture into a live volcano to fight your uncle and stepdad in order to avenge your father, who might have been an asshole but to whom you swore a lasting oath and for whom you shed your last teardrop? These things are complicated! Commit to a haircut that requires no styling product except maybe the blood of your enemy! It seems as if theres quite a lot of that to go around in The Northman.
Roxana Hadadi is a TV critic who also writes about film and pop culture, with the closed captions on and motion smoothing off. Photo: Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features

Spoilers follow for Robert Eggerss The Northman.

Its not that Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgard havent kissed before or fought before. They did both as married couple Celeste and Perry Wright in the HBO series Big Little Lies. But that simmering dynamic, fueled partially by lust and partially by disgust, is a little different when said actors are playing mother and son. In The Northman, the bond between Kidmans Queen Gudrun and Skarsgards Prince Amleth is key not just to the plot but also to how each individual distorts the other. One late-film exchange especially reveals their lies and delusions and, with a delirious moment of incestuous transgression, doubles as The Northmans (pun intended) emotional climax.

The Northman is relentlessly paced and meticulously imagined with an array of fantastical and supernatural elements that give the film its eerie potency and sense of danger: There are witches spells, magical swords that need to feed on blood, and a naked duel on an active volcano. But to have your illusion of a happy family and your sense of self shattered with one manipulative kiss from the person you were convinced loved you purely and unconditionally? That is the greatest wound The Northman inflicts, and writer-director Robert Eggers and co-writer Sjon wisely take their time leading us there. The scene is a culmination of what we know about Amleth  his obsessive sense of purpose, his rigid idea of justice, and his certainty that his mother needs saving. But its the first genuine glimpse into what Gudrun desires from her own perspective. The Northman travels in opposite directions in this scene, back into the truth of Gudruns past and forward into Amleths now altered future (as Heimir the Fools decapitated head tells him, Days past and days yet to come), and every other pairing in the film is affected by these few minutes.

The Northman is Amleths story, so Eggers places us alongside the young prince (played as a child by Oscar Novak) to witness the murder of his father, King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke), by his uncle, Fjolnir (Claes Bang), Aurvandils half-brother. After watching with him as Fjolnir slings Gudrun over his shoulder and carries her away, you can easily fall into the rhythm of the vow Amleth chants: I will avenge you, Father. I will save you, Mother. I will kill you, Fjolnir. As an adult, Amleth learns that Fjolnir lost their kingdom to Norway and retreated to Iceland, so he abandons the Viking berserker warriors whove trained him in combat and poses as a slave to infiltrate his uncles homestead. Once there, everything Amleth sees seems to reaffirm Fjolnirs scumbaggery: the overworked slaves, Fjolnirs smug and coddled sons Thorir (Gustav Lindh) and Gunnar (Elliott Rose), and his sexual threats toward the slave Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy), whom Amleth allied with during his journey.

Gudrun, meanwhile, is an ambiguous puzzle around whom Amleth shrinks and stalls. What he perceives as primness reinforces his belief that she married Fjolnir against her will and is devoted to their son Gunnar only because she lost Amleth so many years ago. He has created an unalterable image of his mother, and he takes that characterization with him into her bedchamber  where she destroys it.

For the most part, Eggers and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke push The Northman as wide as it can visually go to show the grandeur and desolation of the films locations. But the scene in which Amleth sneaks into his mothers room  while Olga, now his wife, uses her earth magic to confuse the bodyguards outside  is cramped and shadowy, its murkiness an extension of the doubt Gudrun injects into her firstborn sons mind. Until now, Skarsgards Amleth has adapted to every challenge and wielded his berserker training as an aggressor; he excels at the brutal sport of knattleikr and terrorizes the farm at night. Kidman, however, nullifies that menace by adding a cunning edge to her performance, a glint to her eye, and a slinkiness to her physicality. In the span of a few minutes, she mutates Gudruns seeming subservience into dominance and reframes our entire conception of the character.

Kidmans villainous roles are some of her best, and in The Northmans first honest depiction of Gudrun, there are shades of her self-assurance in To Die For, her calculated determination in The Beguiled, and the maniacal glee she brought to Paddington. (There are similarities between The Northman and Births inappropriate kisses, too, but thats another essay.) It starts with this look:

And it continues with Gudrun, literally and figuratively, moving into the light. Her double-edged dialogue  Your sword is long  only becomes more explicit when she learns that this slave is actually her long-lost son. Every choice Kidman makes in this exchange is perfectly calibrated to build Gudrun as a woman of exacting intentions and pitiless affect, from her hard stare and slight smirk to her beleaguered sigh when Amleth tells her of his oath (I see you have inherited your fathers simpleness) and the unwavering tone she uses to call Aurvandil a coward and lusting slaver who raped her and impregnated her with Amleth.

Gudruns story is one way to unnerve her son  Skarsgard plays the moment with his mouth agape and his posture frozen  and her actions are another. The camera stays on Kidman as she drops to her knees to relive how she begged Fjolnir to kill his half-brother and nephew so they could start a new life together. She overenunciates certain words (hot, savagery, untamed) as she curls her hand around Amleths throat and leans in for a kiss. Is it surprising when Gudrun tells Amleth he can be her new king and when Amleth briefly kisses her in return? Maybe initially, given the whole incest thing. But ultimately, it shouldnt be. Amleth has spent his entire life chasing his mother. He marries a woman who resembles her (both he and Fjolnir notice how Olgas fair skin and blonde hair evoke a young Gudrun). And Gudrun, for her part, says this seductive strategy worked for her once before, on Fjolnir. Like the protagonist of Eggerss The Witch, Gudrun is a woman perceived as different things to different people. She says Fjolnir loved her for who she was, while Amleth loved her for who he thought she was. But whatever drives her ambitions, her decisions were what brought her to where she is now, sparking Amleths quest for revenge and returning him to the family he now knows betrayed him. If all of this is fated, as the Seeress (played by Bjork) insists, then her attempted seduction of her son, as taboo as it is, is preordained too.

There are still about 45 minutes of The Northman left after this scene, and the swapped dynamics of Kidmans attack and Skarsgards retreat reverberate. They snap Gudrun, previously a cipher, into focus, resetting her as a woman defined not by loss and grief but by preparation and triumph. Her commands to Shut the door to both child and adult Amleth, construed previously as the actions of a queen following the modest rules of nobility, now seem wary, even defensive, as if Gudrun were shielding her true self. The way she wears Aurvandils multipronged ring now seems less like an act of melancholy sentiment than the display of a trophy. The Northman includes other figures of female strength, but they are either mystically abstract (the Seeress, Katie Pattinsons Valkyrie Shield Maiden) or understandably motivated by matriarchal protection (Olga and her unborn twins). Gudrun, in her use of seduction and murder to get what she wants, has no such limitations. And her sureness in her choices complements Amleths certainty  even as they take conflicting sides.

Fjolnir remains Amleths ultimate enemy, but the most meaningful relationship in the film is between mother and son: Its Gudrun who causes Amleth to briefly disavow his humanity (he proclaims himself a hailstorm of iron and steel) and to break his own vow never to kill a woman. In surviving his fathers acts of violence, Gudrun made him, and with a kiss, she unmakes him  a mothers love spiked with the kind of poison that this Scandinavian legends most well-known adaptation, Shakespeares The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, makes its central weapon. Thou turnst mine eyes into my very soul, Queen Gertrude says in fear and shame to Hamlet. But in centering Gudrun and giving her the power in that delightfully diabolical incest moment, The Northman asserts the opposite: Mommy knows best.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Shutterstock and Warner Bros.

Actor Ben McKenzie is best known for his portrayal of Ryan Atwood, the brooding kid delivered from the streets of Chino to a pool house in Newport Beach, California, on The O.C. But lately, the self-described former teen idol has been making headlines as a cryptocurrency critic  a curiosity that sprung up for McKenzie during the pandemic and is now the basis of a book with journalist Jacob Silverman. While McKenzie has been digging into the risks of unregulated markets, his work has raised a number of serious questions, including: What would Ryan Atwood think? Here, the shows main characters are ranked by how interested theyd be in todays web3 world.

Full-on Crypto Bros

Seth Cohen

It should be obvious that Seth makes NFTs. Even Josh Schwartz and Adam Brody agree.

Along with minting illustrations of the characters from his comic, Atomic County, as well as making a series of Captain Oats and Princess Sparkle NFTs, Seth sells the entirety of the Seth Cohen Starter Pack as an NFT. Thanks to the anonymity of the blockchain, Seth does not realize that Zach Stevens owns the Seth Cohen Starter Pack. After all these years, Zach still thinks about Summer and hasnt fully gotten over her leaving him at the airport like that. But thanks to all of this, Seth has finally been able to purchase a large enough sailboat to make it to Tahiti. Its obviously named Summer Breeze II.

Kirsten Cohen

Looking to keep busy now that her youngest, Sophie, is out of the house, Kirsten revives NewMatch, the dating service she and Julie once owned. This time, following Seths advice, she brings NewMatch to the blockchain, assured that this is more secure and will prevent her humble company from once again devolving into an escort service. Users on NewMatch can also purchase NFT avatars and use NewCoin to pay for and unlock the ability to get more matches at once. It is very successful among the Silicon Valley set, and she ends up selling it to an investor for a stupid amount of real U.S. dollars.

With the windfall from the sale of NewMatch, Kirsten then starts a second business to address Californias housing crisis. Unfortunately, this does not involve building any housing. Instead, inspired by her and Sandys early relationship, she refurbishes old mail trucks for people to live in.

Taylor Townsend

Taylor was girlbossing and gatekeeping before we even had the words to describe it. She definitely works in politics, though she had to take an extended break after being personally devastated post-Hillary 2016. She now advises progressive candidates to be bullish on crypto, helps arrange political fundraisers for insiders to raise funds in crypto, and shes published a number of op-eds on why politicians should embrace crypto. While shed never admit it, as shes had years of therapy to overcome her attachment issues, she is of course doing all of this in the wild hope that shell get Ryans attention.

Jimmy Cooper

Jimmy Cooper is constitutionally unable to avoid a get-rich-quick scheme, no matter how many times it fails and he gets his ass kicked over it. Still, he has held up his promise to Marissa that he would never return to Newport after ruining his and his familys life multiple times. After many years of absence, fading from memory even among the people who loved him most, Jimmy reappears with a Tweet. Once again the victim of both his own hubris and the cruelties of a hypercapitalist society that promises a deliverance only achieved through the accumulation of wealth, he reaches out into the void with a simple plea: All my apes gone. Please help me.

Somewhat Invested

Sandy Cohen

Sandy always embodied that early 2000s, pre-recession ethos that it is totally fine to be personally very wealthy as long as you are also sort of skeptical of other wealthy people and do something good that is only minimally disruptive to your lifestyle. Like  hey!  taking a down-on-his-luck kid from Chino under your wing and into your pool house.

Still, we love Sandy. So, much like when he traded being a public defender for working at a private firm, Sandy makes a personal bargain wherein he is somewhat morally compromised but still gets to enjoy the spoils of his familys digital wealth. Somehow, this still does not tarnish his reputation nor his self-image as an outsider who is generally above all that.

Also, being a very supportive dad, Sandy buys one of Seths NFTs, which he prints out and frames. Seth makes fun of him incessantly for this, arguing that this is the opposite of the point. Sandy definitely says nonfungible in the same way he says yogalates.

Kaitlin Cooper

Until season four, Katilins primary contribution is being the disappointed owner of a pony with alopecia, one of the many cards out of which the house of Cooper is built. She later returns from boarding school a bit of a troublemaker but, much like her mom Julie, is finding her way by the end of the series. Still, Kaitlin always loved being the center of attention  shed probably end up living in L.A. and definitely would be an Instagram influencer. The guys she dates are into crypto and so she is passively interested, just so she can find the next richest one. Shes still her mothers daughter, after all.

Luke Ward

Luke lives through no less than seven major storylines, just one of which would cause a person to engage in some serious self-reflection. Puka-shell-necklace-loving Luke has a veritable metamorphosis.

So, while the Luke we last see in season two is not the same Welcome to the O.C., bitch Luke we first meet, he remains, canonically, a little bit stupid. After high school in Portland, he moves to Seattle and is peripherally involved in the tech scene, probably in marketing or something. His friends are really into crypto  some of them have even made a lot of money  and he feels like they are smart people so they must be right. Right?

Luke has tried several times to read more about how the blockchain works, but if hes being honest he doesnt really get it. His kids have also explained it to him and still its not sticking. This does not stop him from buying into Elon Musks meme coins, which turn out to be a bad investment. He would be more disappointed, but he also lost the password to his wallet so it doesnt matter anyway.

Total Skeptics

Summer Roberts

A definite no. In the final season, Summer becomes an outspoken environmentalist and gets temporarily suspended from Brown after she sets some lab rabbits free. She later gets involved with G.E.O.R.G.E., an organization dedicated to reducing carbon emissions, and travels the country staging protests and lecturing students.

Today, Summer would be very concerned about the catastrophic effects crypto mining has on the climate. While she and Seth are still married, his breakout into NFTs is definitely causing a strain in their relationship. Summer lectures him frequently about how hes destroying the planet and urges him to read the latest IPCC report. When Seth tries to change her mind, she replies, Get over yourself, Cohen.

Julie Cooper

Julie Coopers lived experience of having been through the ruin of her first husbands fraudulent business, and then being married to and the widow of Caleb Nicol, will have made her skeptical of dubiously earned wealth and volatile currency. While its hard to ignore that both of the men in her vaguely polyamorous relationship  The Bullit and Frank Atwood  would absolutely be members of Mar-a-Lago at best, shes otherwise thriving and working in like, holistic arts. She just doesnt need this!

Ryan Atwood

Like his real-world counterpart, Ryan would also be majorly skeptical of cryptocurrency. By the end of the series we see Ryan, now an architect, about to take on a Sandy Cohen-esque role for a downtrodden kid who looks much like he once did. Ryan was and is a sort of champion for the vulnerable; crypto would seem to him like just another way for the already rich to enrich themselves, leaving everyday people susceptible to major losses in a speculative market.

Eager to combat the hype, Ryan starts a newsletter chronicling the downsides of cryptocurrency. He gains a fairly large following and, with that, a number of haters who hope he has fun staying poor. It doesnt bother him in the least, though, because you know what Ryan Atwood likes about rich kids? Nothing.

In Memoriam

Marissa Cooper

I just dont see it. If Marissa hadnt perished in a fiery car crash, Id hope shed have found the peace that long eluded her. Shed have left behind Newport and dedicated herself to a simpler way of life. Maybe shed live in Ojai and be a Cali sober yoga instructor. When she found herself overcome with bad feelings, shed deal with them constructively, taking a moment to meditate instead of flipping chairs into her pool.

Caleb Nichol

Cryptocurrency proponents tout its many legitimate use cases and economic benefits but, while illegal activity represents a small percentage of all crypto transactions, proponents of doing crimes still have found a lot of crimes to do. As one of Newports most unscrupulous residents, Caleb Nichol wouldve loved crypto. Think of how much more discreetly he couldve sent secret child support to his secret daughter! And when he had to pay off zoning board officials so he could destroy some wetlands by developing them? He couldve made transactions from multiple wallets, making it that much harder for Sandy to trace! Seth is just lucky Caleb isnt around to surreptitiously turn the Atomic County NFTs into a criminal enterprise.
What is Steven if not Marc persevering? Moon Knights penultimate episode essentially plays the same game that the corresponding episode of WandaVision did, using memory and flashbacks to unpack the main characters adverse childhood experiences before we go into the finale. With the use of green screen, mommy issues, bright colors, and ripping out of hearts, Asylum is also reminiscent of the considerably lower-budget ABC series Once Upon a Time and other network fantasy shows. This is not necessarily a bad thing! If Marvel Studios wants to make television, we should let them make television. It should be episodic. It should be goofy and heartbreaking all at once. Thats good TV.

Allow me to borrow from the star-crossed lovers of The Hunger Games with a game of Real or Not Real before we get too deep into the episode. If its good enough for Peeta and Katniss, its good enough for us.

Real: Taweret, her boat, and her scales. Tomb Buster, the film that inspired Steven Grant. Randall Roro Spectors, Wendys, and, for the moment, Marcs deaths. Marcs dissociative identity disorder and his relationship with Khonshu.

Not real: Putnam Medical Facility (at least not this version of it). Dr. Arthur Harrow. Stevens loving relationship with his mother.

Whats going on, basically, is this: Arthur Harrow shot Marc in the chest and he died. Marc and Steven (and maybe someone else) traveled to the Duat, the Egyptian afterlife, where the goddess Taweret is leading them by boat toward the Field of Reeds. She explains a few things: (1) Marc perceives the Duat as a psych ward because it is too much for the human brain to process, and (2) he and Steven need to balance their hearts with a feather by confronting some memories before the boat reaches the Field of Reeds or else sand zombies will claim their soul. Fun!

We first heard about the Field of Reeds  within the context of Moon Knight, that is  in the series very first episode. Steven gives a litterbug of a little girl a lesson on the Egyptian afterlife, and she sasses back to him, Did it suck for you, getting rejected by the Field of Reeds? That doesnt make sense, he says, because Im not dead. Am I  am I? What a disturbing bit of foreshadowing, knowing now that Steven actually does get rejected at the end of this episode. (Lets hope this doesnt mean Marc actually has been dead the whole time. My noodle couldnt handle that.)

Over the course of the episode, Marc and/or Steven occasionally get stressed out and disassociate back to Harrows office. The work to balance the scales continues there but in the form of a more traditionalish therapy session. Marcs really hard on himself. Not only does he perceive this afterlife as a psych ward, but he also perceives it as a psych ward in which a doctor tells him that most of his adult life has been delusions. Buddy! A big clue that the hospital is not real, by the way? Harrows diploma has no signature or name of the alleged institution. Thank goodness Steven has better attention to detail than Marc. When he finds himself opposite the bad doctor, hes not buying it for a second.

The trauma dump of an episode tells us pretty much everything there is to know about Marc Spectors past. When he was a little boy, his brother Randall died when they were on a hike together. His mother became depressed and abusive, blaming him for her sons death and abusing him emotionally and physically. To cope, Marc created a brave alter named Steven whose mother loved him. He ultimately left home and joined the military but was discharged after going AWOL in a fugue state and became a mercenary. Then came the mission that resulted in the death of Laylas father and Marcs rebirth thanks to Khonshu.

Then, two months before the start of the series, Marcs mother, Wendy, died. He went to Chicago for her shiva but couldnt bring himself to go inside. Steven emerged again, and ever since then, Marc has had trouble controlling his dissociative identity disorder. Thats also around the time he left Layla.

Back on the boat, eventually Marc and Steven convince Taweret to turn around and take them back to the land of the living, a.k.a. the Gates of Osiris. But once they get there, even after Steven helps Marc to forgive himself, the scales are not balanced. The sand zombies hop onboard, and a fight breaks out. One of them takes Marc down with them, and then Steven sacrifices himself to protect him. Noooooo!! Au revoir to our favorite Anglophile. While well miss the little bugger, the scales are now balanced, and Marc is instantly transported to the Field of Reeds. All he had to do was let Steven go  which makes logical sense but still feels rude.

Whats going to happen next? Marc can, in theory, go back to the upper world through the Gates of Osiris. He may need to first appeal to the God of the Underworld, but its not impossible. Once there, he and Layla can stop Harrow and Ammit and free Khonshu and ride off into the sunset. Theres just one additional issue. We have seen Osiriss Avatar on the show. He was present at the Ennead gathering in episode three. His name is Selim, and hes played by Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner). But the last we saw Selim, he seemed to be on Harrow and Ammits side. Thats quite a pickle for ol Marc. See you at the finale!

Out of Orbit

 Marc mentions that his commanding officer, Bushman, hired him as a mercenary. Raul Bushman is a Marvel Comics character and, eventually, one of Moon Knights enemies. What happens when Marc teams up with Bushman is more or less the same on the page and on the show: Bushman murders the father of Marcs future partner (their names are Dr. Peter Alraune and Marlene Alraune in the comics, though, rather than Abdallah and Layla El-Faouly) and would have successfully killed Marc if it werent for Khonshu. Putnam is also the name of the psychiatric hospital where Marc is first interned in the comics.

 When Tawaret explains that there are many intersectional afterlifes, she shouts out the gorgeous Ancestral Plane that MCU fans first visited in Black Panther.

 The Tomb Buster poster in young Marcs room has a couple of Easter eggs. The fictional studio, Timely Atlas Studios, is a reference to Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, which ultimately merged to form Marvel Comics in 1961. The actor who stars as Dr. Grant, Doug Perlin, is a portmanteau of Moon Knight comics co-creators Don Perlin and Doug Moench. Other names, like Nicola Penny, are surely just jokes.

 Is it possible we have seen Jake Lockley already and just havent realized it yet? Isaacs accent was doing something different in the episodes first scene with Ethan Hawke. Plus theres blood on his face and a Band-Aid on his nose. We dont see that in any other scene. What if Jake has been pretending to be Marc or Steven, the way various clones on Orphan Black would often masquerade as one another? Isaac is certainly capable. Marc also mentions that he went AWOL in the army and was summarily discharged; that could have been Jakes doing.

 The official Moon Knight score has been released in full if you want to vibe out to Hesham Nazihs tunes or try and discern some spoilers from the tracks to come.
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS. France welcomes the recent direct phone call between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers and their decision on convening a bilateral commission on border issues and launching talks on a peace treaty, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It added that France will continue to fully support this process.

The French envoy for the EU Eastern Partnership affairs Brice Roquefeuil will travel to Baku next week to continue monitoring the talks after his April 11-14 Yerevan visit, the French foreign ministry added.
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS. On April 27, Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan received the representatives of the delegation who carried out the OSCE/ODIHR Observer Mission, the Parliaments press service said.

Speaking about the aim of the visit, during the 2021 snap elections the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Observer Mission Eoghan Murphy has noted that they are in Armenia for presenting the final report prepared by the OSCE/ODIHR.

At the meeting they talked about the importance of the parliamentary diplomacy in Armenia, also discussing the ways of power-opposition partnership and interaction in the parliaments of the democratic countries.

The Speaker of Parliament touched upon the legislative amendments on the period followed the June 20, 2021 elections and the issues relating to the current state of democracy in Armenia.

Referring to the security problems of the region, the Speaker highly appreciated the role of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly as an important platform for strengthening the trust in the OSCE region, drawing the attention of the OSCE representative to the aggressive announcements by the representatives of Azerbaijan in the OSCE PA. He documented that it could be possible to reach peace in the region only through the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, which should include the specification of the Artsakh status on the basis of the execution of the right to self-determination by the people of Artsakh.

The sides also spoke about the international standards of the electoral systems, in this context observing the achievements recorded by the nationwide elections in Armenia.
YEREVAN, 27 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 27 April, USD exchange rate down by 3.16 drams to 459.98 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 7.15 drams to 487.90 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.07 drams to 6.32 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 9.72 drams to 579.07 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 50.55 drams to 28166.56 drams. Silver price up by 1.38 drams to 351.53 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
Court says laws requiring children to take father's name are unlawful and discriminatory.

Italian rules requiring children to be given automatically only their fathers surname are unlawful, the countrys constitutional court ruled on Wednesday.

The ruling by Italy's top court refers to children born to married and unmarried parents as well as those who are adopted, reports Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera

The court defined rules that automatically assign the father's surname to children as "discriminatory and harmful to the identity of the child."

Children should be given the surnames of both parents, the court said, in the order agreed on by the parents. If they cannot decide on the order of the surnames, the decision will be up to a judge.

The child's parents may also decide, by mutual agreement, to assign the surname of just one or the other.

New legislation, to be approved by the Italian parliament in the coming weeks, will be required to implement the court's decision.

The historic ruling results from a case taken by a family with three children from Potenza in the southern Basilicata region, reports Rome newspaper Domani.

The first two children in the family were registered with the mother's surname however the third was automatically given the father's surname as he was born after his parents got married.

The parents objected as they wanted the boy to have the same surname - the mother's surname - as his two sisters.

Giampaolo Birenza and Domenico Pittella, the lawyers who brought the case to the constitutional court, hailed today's "historic result" which they say represents a "small revolution".
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Climate change is making the planet not just a hotter place, but a more volatile one. Extreme weather exacerbates tensions over natural resources, creates humanitarian emergencies, and triggers conflict  often in states least equipped to deal with the challenges. By wreaking havoc on fixed infrastructure and equipment, climate change also threatens the U.S. militarys ability to defend vital interests and to project power abroad.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Army published its first climate plan, which, among other things, promises to slash the Armys greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. The good news is that the goals of fighting climate change and advancing national security are mutually reinforcing. Prudent investments in adaptation and green technologies are likely to boost resilience, reduce vulnerabilities, and help the U.S. to maintain a battlefield edge over competitors.

From thawing permafrost in the Arctic to sweltering temperatures in the Persian Gulf, a changing climate is making it harder for the armed forces to conduct operations. The U.S. Navys base in Norfolk, Virginia, the worlds largest naval station, is among those struggling with sea-level increases that could hit between one and three feet by mid-century. The Pentagon warns that other U.S. installations are at risk of flooding, drought and desertification.

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Even as it deals with the impact of climate change, the military remains a major contributor to it. The worlds armed forces and their suppliers account for some 5% of global carbon emissions  roughly the same as the entire civilian aviation and shipping industries combined. During the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagons heavy dependence on fossil fuels may have put forward-deployed service members at greater risk, since fuel-resupply convoys were prime targets for insurgent attacks.

In principle, greater use of green technologies has the potential to help the military operate in difficult environments. Renewable energy and effective storage on bases can provide protection against cyberattacks on electrical grids, for example; electric vehicles are quieter than gas-guzzling Humvees. Given the size of the defense budget, however, theres considerable risk of wildly overspending on sustainability initiatives that do little to enhance national security  or of making costly and hard-to-reverse bets on imperfect technology.

The militarys mission is to fight and to win wars. As such, the Pentagon should keep its climate goals achievable  and make sure taxpayers are getting value for money. The first step is to increase the energy efficiency of supply chains and military installations and work on electrifying the Defense Departments fleet of non-tactical vehicles. Bigger reductions in the militarys carbon emissions will require more complex changes  such as expanding the uses of lighter, unmanned vehicles in combat zones and synthetic fuels for military jets. Pentagon planners should work with Congress and the private sector to identify carbon-free technologies that can begin to be built into research, development and procurement, and scaled up without compromising combat effectiveness.

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The military would also benefit from being more transparent about its role in global warming. Militaries have long been exempt from climate disclosure requirements. In most countries, including the U.S., reporting about military emissions is still voluntary, inconsistent and incomplete, as documented by the Military Emissions Gap database.

The Pentagon should commit to a system for tracking and releasing as much data as possible about its carbon emissions, while still protecting the security of its forces. Doing so would allow policy makers and the public to verify the impact of investments and make sure theyre well-targeted. It can also build support for reform among the military brass, by showing that environmental aims can be achieved without damaging capability.

The climate is already making the militarys job harder. Prudent green spending, along with greater data transparency, can help bolster national security  and the planets, too.

The Editors are members of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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Call it poor judgment or bad luck, but Indias expansion of natural gas coverage to more than 90% of its population couldnt have come at a worse time. In January, Adani Total Gas Ltd. and others won keenly contested licenses to add new areas to city gas networks; in February, Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Suddenly, billions of dollars in investment are on shaky ground.

After an extraordinary surge last month, European spot prices of natural gas are stabilizing  at three times the average of the past decade. Contracted supplies of liquefied natural gas are cheaper, but with Europe scrambling to secure non-Russian fuel, the discount is shrinking, according to a Bloomberg News report last week. Worse still, its unlikely to be a blip: Credit Suisse Group AG predicts that the Russian gas deficit will lead to an annual global LNG shortage of nearly 100 million tons by the middle of the decade.

This isnt what New Delhi anticipated when it decided to raise the share of natural gas in Indias energy mix to 15% by 2030 from under 7% now, as part of a plan to improve air quality. India had nine of the worlds 10 most polluted cities in 2020. Natural gas doesnt eliminate carbon emissions, but its an improvement over diesel. Its something to hold the fort until better options  such as green hydrogen  become affordable for emerging markets.

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The environment, however, isnt the only reason Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a massive push to city gas projects. The move also has political significance. Piped natural gas, or PNG, delivered to urban homes relieves the demand pressure on liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, cylinders. Those can then be pushed to rural areas where the government has helped poor families open 90 million new LPG accounts to help them migrate from burning wood, coal, dung-cake or kerosene to using cleaner cooking gas. The campaign buttressed Modis popularity with women voters, which is why the 2016 program saw a jump in enrollment before his successful 2019 reelection bid.

But the economics of PNG  and CNG, compressed natural gas supplied to motorists as an alternative to gasoline and diesel  is wobbly. State-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp. and Oil India Ltd. produce gas domestically, as does Reliance Industries Ltd. in partnership with BP Plc. Under a complex pricing formula, this output is allocated to city gas and fertilizer firms, the two biggest users, as well as power stations and LPG plants.

The prices are artificial. Until last month, the government kept the administered gas price at $2.9 per million British thermal unit  hardly enough for the producers to make much money. The gas extracted from difficult deep-sea Indian fields was allowed to be priced at $6.1 per million Btu. Compare that with what the market is charging: The June delivery contract of the Japan-Korea marker, an Asian benchmark, shot past $50 per million Btu in March, and is currently at about half that level.

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The cheap pricing provided just-as-artificial legs to demand. The Indian government enthusiastically declared two years ago that $66 billion in investments were lined up into everything from pipelines to city gas infrastructure and LNG regasification terminals.

The trouble is with supply. It petered out a decade ago after Reliances gas discovery off Indias eastern coast turned out to be less bountiful than originally expected. Since local production never responded to the governments complicated pricing signal, industries paid $8 to $10 per million Btu for imported LNG in addition to their domestic gas quotas. That was before the war. Now that imported cargo costs a lot more, theres great hunger for the local stuff, especially in the city gas industry that has grown breathlessly with the governments encouragement.

Theres an added complexity. Setting aside more for city use means giving the fertilizer industry less, forcing it to pay a higher blended price to make the nitrogen-rich products that go into Indias agricultural land. That boomerangs on the taxpayer because the farmers cost of urea is also subsidized: Each $1 increase in the gas feedstock price for fertilizer hits New Delhis budget calculations by roughly $600 million. As global food shortages intensify, the only hope for India is that its farmers would feed the country with blowout harvests. Fertilizers cant be trifled with.

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The economies of urban gas supply will get messier still. India this month raised the administered domestic price from $2.9 to $6.1 per million Btu. City gas distributors will readily take that because LNG imports are much more expensive, but the government is holding down the supply at March 2021 levels.

The lofty expectations for demand growth of gas in India are bound to come crashing down, putting a question mark on the financial viability of the licenses won by investors. The inevitable increases in retail prices wont go down well with the public. Indian consumers dont have the income power of their European counterparts; nor can they expect checks in the mail to help them cope with higher prices. Cab drivers in Indias capital are already protesting.

Demand destruction in India wont move the needle on global prices, but China, the worlds biggest LNG importer, is a different story. If the Covid-19 lockdown of Shanghai lasts longer and spreads more widely, more spare Chinese gas supply could hit the spot market. While President Xi Jinpings draconian actions may take the edge off the headache given by Putin, it still may not make Modis city gas ambition a sound proposition beyond large metropolises.

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Indias domestic gas production is tiny, and it has shrunk by 40% over the past nine years. Keeping that base narrow with unsustainable pricing and erecting on top of it a national edifice of unviable city distribution franchises wasnt a financially prudent move. The dream of cheap gas couldnt have lasted anyway, all that the war in Ukraine may have done is to end it abruptly.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 The Second Wave of Russias Oil Shock Is Starting: Javier Blas

 Russias Coming Struggle for Markets for Its Crude: Julian Lee

 Just How Clean Can Two Billionaires Be?: Mukherjee & Trivedi

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services. He previously was a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews. He has also worked for the Straits Times, ET NOW and Bloomberg News.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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Pseudonymity will be an inevitable work trend over the next decade. I realized this while interviewing a popular pseudonymous Twitter account: @BoredElonMusk, whose musings on tech and wild startup ideas that the real Elon might invent (like a food truck ferris wheel) have attracted 1.7 million followers. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The person behind the account also goes by the name Bored and started the parody account in 2013.

During our Zoom call, Bored used his real voice but the face I saw was a floating  and expressive  avatar of his Twitter profile picture. The call highlighted for me the key fact that pseudonymity is not anonymity.

Coinbase Global Inc.s former chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan coined the term pseudonymous economy and explains the difference:

A pseudonym is a persistent name like [a Reddit user]. An anonym is like a [4Chan user] where there is no tracing across interactions. A pseudonym can crucially have reputation and metadata associated with it. An [anonymous user] is not persistent at all.

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For Bored, persistence and reputation are very important. He is an active angel investor and just launched a crypto gaming company (Bored Box). If Boreds Twitter account made outrageously off-brand statements, he could lose nine years of reputation building and hurt his businesses.

Im pseudonymous but Im still accountable for my actions, Bored says. The difference is that my ventures are mostly judged for those actions, not for where I live or what degrees I have or what I look like.

Put another way: Pseudonymity is a potential tonic for rampant credentialism and allows merit to win out. This idea is not new. The young Benjamin Franklin famously wrote under the guise of a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. Why? No publisher in Boston wanted to print the work of the real teenage Franklin.

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A default to merit has two related benefits. First, individuals have more space to express themselves without the worry of oh, will someone judge me personally. Second, creating pseudonymously allows for optionality in life: You can build up expertise in an entirely new industry and use a portfolio of work as an off-ramp into a new career.

Do the prospects for pseudonymity change in light of the (actual) Elons $44 billion move to take Twitter private? The deals official press release says that one goal is the creation of a system for authenticating all humans. To Bored, this doesnt mean doxxing. It means better verification systems (eg. CAPTCHAs) to prove that youre an actual person and not a bot.

The pandemic has accelerated two trends that could usher in a pseudonymous future:

 Remote work: The rise of work-from-anywhere has made companies more open to talent-from-anywhere. Deel, a startup that helps companies hire globally, says U.S. tech firms have increased international hiring by 74% over the last six months (based on 100,000 contracts processed).

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 Crypto adoption: In February, the number of Ethereum addresses holding at least 0.1 ETH ($310) hit 3.98 million, an increase of 50% over the past two years.

For a lot of knowledge work  like writing, software development, financial analysis or graphic design  human resource departments should focus on the quality of work. Pseudonymity removes the bias often found in the hiring process. If a pseudonymous account has a track record of the best work, pay that person accordingly, regardless of where they live or what school they attended.

This is more than hypothetical for me. I have family members in Vietnam who have been just as qualified as I am for the various jobs Ive had. But because my parents made it out of Vietnam before the fall of Saigon, I won the geographic lottery and was afforded more opportunities growing up in North America.

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Meanwhile, the mainstreaming of crypto has made it easier to monetize an online pseudonymous personality.

I didnt sell anything to my audience for the first six or seven years, says Bored. If I opened a PayPal or Stripe account, I could have doxxed myself. The rising interest in NFTs and other digital assets gave me a way to offer something to my followers with a payment from one crypto wallet to another.

The words pseudonymous and crypto have also been attached to scams over the past year that saw pseudonymous makers of sketchy projects run off with millions.

Its definitely a problem, Bored says of the scams. But you dont have to be pseudonymous to be a bad actor. There are a lot of people running scams with their legal names. And just like those people, a pseudonymous person will destroy their reputation if they do shady stuff.

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Bored acknowledges that pseudonymous actors should receive more scrutiny. The crypto arena actually has a straightforward way to do that: Check the chain.

Soona Amhaz, a general partner at Volt Capital, writes that A [crypto] wallet address is the ultimate source of truth for reputation in the space. A projects on-chain history can show you the level of sophistication, potential flight risks and how long someone has been working.

I dont give investment advice, but heres some investment advice: Dont buy a meme coin from a pseudonymous account that was only created in the last 45 minutes.

This due diligence framework will come in handy because building a pseudonymous profile is getting easier and easier. In a blog post for On Deck, Bored lays out the accessible and inexpensive tool kit for pseudonymity:

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 ProtonMail account

 Virtual phone numbers

 ENS domain or crypto wallet

 Privacy-enabled browser extensions

 Oasis (the realtime avatar creator for Zoom calls)

One old-school suggestion: Create ironclad non-disclosure agreements for business partners that legally require a real name.

Taking on a new persona isnt all or nothing, either. As Srinivasan explains, there is a concept called 33 Bits which measures a persons pseudonymity: Because 2^33 is greater than ~7B, you need 33 bits to fully deanonymize someone in a (conceptual) database table of all ~7B people worldwide.

A bit can be gender or location. With the right online tools, you can choose to expose as much or as few bits as you want. As more people go down this path, the pseudonymous economy will grow. Now, we just need someone to make sure that those food truck ferris wheels come too.

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More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

 Whats the Future of Crypto? Boring  and Bright: Tyler Cowen

 Russias Push into Crypto Is a Step Backwards: Izabella Kaminska

 On the Internet Nobody Knows Youre a KidYet: Parmy Olson

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Trung Phan is the co-host of the Not Investment Advice podcast and writes the SatPost newsletter. He was formerly the lead writer for the Hustle, a tech newsletter.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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There have been a few times in my life when Ive had a concerning health issue but skipped visiting the doctor. Even when intense stomach cramps left me doubled over for hours, or a shooting pain in my foot felt like a stress fracture, I decided to wait and see if things would get better rather than risk a potentially costly hospital visit. (Fortunately, I healed at home.)

Im not the only one whos made this choice. In 2020, a survey of more than 2,500 American adults found that 32% of respondents avoided seeking medical care because of cost.

There is a real fear about the cost of seeing a doctor and how it can impact your finances. Millions of Americans receive surprise medical bills each year. That includes insured individuals, according to research by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. A new federal law, The No Surprises Act, went into effect Jan. 1, 2022, banning most unexpected medical charges.

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This is a good start, but theres still a lack of understanding about how our insurance systems work. Were never really taught the basics of figuring out what is covered, what is considered in-network, how to better advocate for ourselves, and how to read and dispute itemized medical bills. Until our health system does a better job of educating us, its important to adopt our own strategies to get insurance-literate.

Being insured is the first step in protecting your balance sheet from a health crisis. In many cases in the U.S., health insurance is tied to employment. Other options include Medicaid (for those who qualify based on low-income), COBRA for a limited time if you lose your job and are searching for a new one, or Medicare for retirees. The self-employed can go through the Affordable Care Act health-care marketplace or private companies to secure a plan.

Once you determine how youll get coverage, its time to figure out what type of coverage is best for your needs.

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Traditional health insurance usually offers lower deductibles (how much you pay for a medical service before insurance covers the rest), but higher premiums (monthly payments). A high-deductible plan (HDHP) has lower monthly payments, but it can have bigger financial ramifications in the event of a health crisis since youll pay more out-of-pocket before insurance kicks in. Still, it is better to have an HDHP than be completely uninsured  you never know when an accident or illness will leave you needing care.

Next, you need to know what is covered by your plan, including which doctors and hospitals are in-network. Your insurance company may not cover a visit to an out-of-network doctor, meaning you could get a large bill later. And you should understand what is considered part of your annual or routine check-up, and what might end up triggering an additional bill. For instance, getting bloodwork done or a biopsy on a suspicious mole may not be fully covered, even if it happened during a routine annual physical.

The best way to confirm what is covered is to ask your insurance provider. You can also ask the doctor about how a medical procedure, such as a blood draw, will be coded for billing purposes.

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There are certain medical conditions that run in my family, which means I fall into the demographic for whom a blood test would be considered preventative care. I always ask the doctor or nurse before my blood draw, will this be covered by my insurance? That is usually a good reminder to them to code it correctly in their system so it gets billed to my insurance as preventative.

Being proactive is particularly important for planned procedures such as non-emergency surgery. You want to make sure everyone with whom you interact at a doctors office or hospital is in-network. If even one doctor in the room, like an anesthesiologist, is out-of-network, you could end up with an unexpectedly high bill. (Granted, the No Surprises Act is supposed to prohibit this.) You can also research what is a fair price to pay for your procedure. Healthcare Bluebook is one option for a price transparency tool.

Dont understand a term on your bill? Call and ask your insurance provider. Call the hospital or doctors office if you havent received an itemized bill for a visit. Once you have one, walk through each item and confirm that its a service you received  did you really use a wheelchair to leave the hospital? You may discover that while your insurance said it would cover a particular procedure, the hospital put in a different billing code, resulting in your insurance rejecting the claim and the hospital billing you for the full amount.

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If things that dont add up, you can file a formal appeal with your insurance provider. Information about how to appeal should be on the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) you receive from the insurance company. (Its that letter that says This is not a bill on top in bold.) You should also call the hospital billing department to share that youre disputing your insurers decision so your bill isnt sent to debt collections. Check for any potential miscoding yourself with an itemized bill from the hospital or doctor. Many companies also contract with experts who will dispute surprise medical bills for you.

Spending hours on the phone fighting a bill might be costly in terms of your time, but its usually worth negotiating larger bills. Call the financial assistance department of the hospital to ask about income-based programs or a payment plan. Or you could ask for a discount if you paid the full bill up front instead of through a payment plan. Sometimes theres an even bigger discount if you pay in cash.

Its wise to include your deductible, or even your out-of-pocket maximum, as part of your emergency savings fund  especially if you have a high-deductible health plan. Those with an HDHP should consider using a Health Savings Account (HSA), which is a tax-advantaged way to set money aside for future medical costs. You can use this to save  and invest  your deductible and out-of-pocket costs while lowering your taxable income. In some states, HSAs are even triple-tax advantaged because they lower your income, grow tax-free and distributions can be tax-free. In 2022, an individual can contribute up to $3,650 and a family on a HDHP can contribute up to $7,300.

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Flexible Spending Accounts are another tax-advantaged way to save up for future medical expenses by putting pre-tax dollars into your account. But these come with a use-it-or-lose-it policy each year, whereas HSA funds can be held for future medical expenses.

Unfortunately, in the U.S., its entirely on us as individuals to safeguard our physical and financial health. Taking the time to understand your particular insurance plan  or to get insured in the first place  is the best way to start.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Pandemic Economy Is Writing a New Labor Market Playbook: Conor Sen

 Crypto-Backed Mortgages Are as Crazy as They Sound: Mark Gongloff

 Elon Musks Twitter Has a Cryptocurrency Swamp to Drain: Lionel Laurent

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Erin Lowry is the author of Broke Millennial, Broke Millennial Takes On Investing and Broke Millennial Talks Money: Stories, Scripts and Advice to Navigate Awkward Financial Conversations.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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When the World Wide Web opened for public use in 1991, its enthusiasts proclaimed a new era of unfiltered free expression. That was before the internet in general, and social media platforms in particular, proved to be such effective places to spread misinformation about important matters such as Covid-19 and vaccines, disinformation (intentional falsehoods) about politics and elections, plus all manner of conspiracy theories and hate speech. Social media platforms have faced enormous scrutiny over which content it silences, and which it amplifies. Thats the backdrop as Elon Musk pursues his deal to take ownership of Twitter Inc., vowing to prioritize free speech.

1. Isnt there a right to free speech on the internet?

No. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits censorship by government, not censorship by private companies. In fact, like newspapers, book publishers and television stations, online gathering places such as Twitter and Facebook have constitutional protections to decide what to moderate and filter. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 gives them broad protection from the kinds of liability publishers traditionally face for defamatory content, along with broad leeway to moderate discussions and remove posts or leave them alone.

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2. How do the companies moderate speech?

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube routinely remove posts deemed to violate standards on violence, sexual content, privacy, harassment, impersonation, self-harm and other concerns. Most of those actions happen automatically, through decisions made by artificial intelligence. (Thats led to complaints of over-enforcement, or the removal of content that may not have violated rules.) Meta Platform Inc.s Facebook and Alphabet Inc.s Google partner with third-party fact-checkers to vet posts and news items that may be suspect. Twitter labels some posts that contain misleading or disputed claims in certain categories, like Covid-19 or elections. More rarely, the platforms ban users, such as radio provocateur Alex Jones, removed from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Apple for engaging in hateful speech. Then-President Donald Trumps Facebook and Twitter accounts were frozen following the Jan. 6 riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter barred him permanently; Facebook says it could reinstate him in 2023 if the risk to public safety has subsided.

3. What is Musks view?

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He calls himself a free speech absolutist and promises to take a minimalist approach to restrictions. By free speech, I simply mean that which matches the law, he tweeted one day after reaching a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people. A few weeks earlier, during a panel discussion at the Ted2022 conference, Musk said he would be very reluctant to delete things and very cautious with permanent bans -- timeouts, I think, are better. Hes talked about opening Twitters content algorithms -- which decide which posts are promoted or demoted -- for public scrutiny and trying to authenticate all real humans as a means of differentiating between bots and legitimate accounts. Musk has also suggested allowing long-form tweets, breaking from Twitters current limit of 280 characters.

4. Can he do all that?

It wont be easy, even for the worlds richest man. Hes launched rockets into space, and he helped solve the worlds energy crisis, said Matt Navarra, social media consultant and industry analyst. Hes about to discover tackling content moderation on social media platforms is harder than both those things. Evelyn Douek, a senior research fellow at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, writes in the Atlantic that Musk is destined to learn that user-generated platforms will lose users, advertisers and tech partners if they dont moderate the scams, pornography and other offensive material that comes flooding in. Many who thought an anything-goes internet governed by its users alone was a good idea came to regret their naivete, she writes.

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5. Who else has been unhappy about the moderating of content?

Lots of people. Trump condemned social media platforms for suppressing voices of conservatives and hiding information and news that is good and started his own platform, Truth Social, but that rollout has floundered. The presidential election of 2016, when Trump used Twitter as a megaphone, led to a torrent of criticism of social media companies about what many saw as anything-goes policies for politicians. That criticism grew as Trump, as president, used Twitter to issue threats, mock opponents and stretch truth. (Cornell University researchers found that Trump was likely the largest driver of misinformation about the pandemic.) Frances Haugen, who worked as a Facebook product manager for almost two years, mostly on a team dedicated to stopping election misinformation provided fresh ammunition for critics of all political persuasions. In disclosures to the Wall Street Journal and testimony in Congress, she said a tweak Facebook made in 2018 to its proprietary algorithm boosted the visibility of toxic, disputed and objectionable content that stirred outrage and anger among readers, leading to more interaction with the service.

6. How do other countries handle this issue?

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In China, Russia and other countries subjected to authoritarian rule, governments actively censor the internet, including blocking or greatly restricting access to American-owned social media sites. Some democracies are moving quicker than the U.S. to apply more vigorous rules to social media. India put Twitter, Facebook and the like under direct government oversight, enacting regulations requiring internet platforms to help law enforcement identify those who post mischievous information. The European Unions Digital Services Act approved on April 23 gives member states new power to take down illegal content such as hate speech and terrorist propaganda and make platforms do more to tackle harmful material. Companies like Twitter must submit annual reports to the EU detailing how theyre handling systemic risks posed by content such as racist slurs or posts glorifying eating disorders. After Musk sealed his takeover of Twitter, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton sent the billionaire a warning: Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules -- regardless of their shareholding, he said in a tweet. Mr Musk knows this well.

(Updates to add reference to Europes Digital Services Act in section 6)

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Rather like children in playgrounds, countries throughout history have had to decide how to deal with a bully. Appease him in the hope that he becomes meek? Avoid provoking him, at the cost of acquiescing to his brutality? Or counter with strength and willpower to stop and contain him? Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight If the bully is Russian President Vladimir Putin, the latter is the only tenable answer. Thats what majorities of voters and legislators in Finland and pluralities in Sweden have understood in the past two months. Traditionally neutral, both countries are now moving fast toward joining NATO. Theyll probably file coordinated applications in mid-May. If NATO is wise, the alliance will seal the deal at once.

Like each of the other four countries that are members of the European Union but not NATO  Austria, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta  Sweden and Finland have in the past had good reasons to remain unaligned. Swedens policy, like Switzerlands neutrality, dates back centuries and used to be part of the countrys raison detat. Finlands was a response to Soviet intimidation during the Cold War, a quid-pro-quo to remain nominally independent.

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But at a time when Putin assaults Ukraine, Europe and the entire international order with his bombs, atrocities and lies, neutrality is no longer an option. Thats why all six countries should irrevocably side with the West. This step is most urgent for Finland and Sweden.

Finland shares an 830-mile land border with Russia. And both it and Sweden butt up against Russia in the Baltic Sea. In effect, the Scandinavians are therefore already on the front line. They need NATOs protection under its Article 5  the one that says that an attack on one is an attack on all.

The two Nordics in turn would strengthen NATO where the alliance is weakest. Its most vulnerable members are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, just across the Baltic. Theyre all but cut off from the rest of the EU and NATO by Russias exclave in Kaliningrad. The only land border between Lithuania and Poland is a 65-mile strip, called the Suwalki Gap, between Kaliningrad and Belarus, which is in effect Putins vassal state.

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Without Sweden and Finland, the three post-Soviet Baltic republics, which also have sizable minorities of ethnic Russians, would therefore be hard to defend against an onslaught from Russia. But with the Scandinavians, which both have first-rate armies that are already coordinating closely with other Western militaries, the Baltic would become a defensible NATO lake.

The best counter-argument is that Finnish and Swedish membership would all but dare Putin to become even more aggressive, possibly escalating even to the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Ostensibly, Putin attacked Ukraine  like Georgia in 2008  to prevent NATO expansion. So hed struggle to explain to the people he fears most  ordinary Russians, who must tolerate him in power  how hed accept the exact opposite outcome, another NATO enlargement. Hed have to do something.

Like most bullies, Putin has therefore dispatched his minions to drop not-so-veiled threats. Dimitry Medvedev, currently deputy chairman of Putins security council, has said that there could be no more talk of any nuclear-free status for the Baltics  the balance must be restored. He failed to mention that Russias Kaliningrad exclave is already well-stocked with missiles and nukes. So nothing new there.

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And yet, Swedish and Finnish membership in NATO would cause what realists in international relations call a security dilemma. Broadly, it describes situations in which states escalate or go to war because they regard all other options as worse. In this case, Russia might reasonably conclude that it would lose a conventional arms race with an enlarged NATO, so that a preemptive strike is its least bad option.

Viewed differently, however, that argument resembles familiar and unconvincing ones  in playgrounds or world politics  about not provoking bullies. Putin has proven that hell never stop menacing or attacking others, if he thinks he can get away with it. For example, his new war strategy in Ukraine, apparently, is to conquer a land bridge all along the Ukrainian coast of the Black Sea so that he can link up with Russian separatists in Moldova next.

The Caucasus, Central Asia, the Baltic, the Arctic  no country in Putins perceived sphere of interest will be safe until he understands that he is up against superior power and the determination to use it. NATO must, therefore, show strength and will, not timidity.

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The more immediate problem is how to survive the tightrope walk between the Swedish and Finnish applications and their membership. Article 5 takes effect only once theyre in. Even if NATO fast-tracks its process, each of the 30 member nations must still ratify the accessions. For the three countries that joined NATO in 1999, the process took 20 months, 18 for the seven nations who followed in 2004.

This is the time Putin would be most tempted to punish the Scandinavians, with attacks somewhere on the spectrum between cyberwar and a tactical nuke dropped for show. The onus is, therefore, on Finland, Sweden, NATO and all 30 members to collaborate to eliminate this no-mans-land of time.

So NATO and and all 30 of its constituent allies should prepare right now, as though the applications were already formal. The allies should then give the green light at their summit in Madrid on June 29, with the 30 legislatures immediately giving their approval, ideally the next day.

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Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures. The West trusts NATO to protect it from bullies. That credits the alliance not only with military prowess but also with procedural nimbleness when it matters. NATO could send no stronger message than to become a club of 32 on June 30, 2022  only four months after Putin began committing the worst of his many atrocities.

More From This Writer and Others at Bloomberg Opinion:



How Is Russias Fortress Economy Really Faring?: Clara Ferreira Marques and Scott Johnson



Mariupol Could Be the Thermopylae of the 21st Century: Andreas Kluth



Why NATO Should Welcome Finland and Sweden: The Editors

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andreas Kluth is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. Hes the author of Hannibal and Me.

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Pres. Joe Biden issued a written statement on April 24, officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide for the second year in a row.

April 27, 2022, 11:31 Turkey disgraces itself by denying the Genocide after Bidens acknowledgment

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 27, ARTSAKHPRESS: Here is an excerpt from Pres. Bidens acknowledgment: On April 24, 1915, Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thus began the Armenian genocide -- one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century. Today, we remember the one and a half million Armenians who were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination, and mourn the tragic loss of so many lives. Today, 107 years later, the American people continue to honor all Armenians who perished in the genocide.

In his statement, Pres. Biden used the word Genocide four times and once Meds Yeghern, an Armenian term used to describe the mass killings, before Raphael Lemkin coined the term Genocide in the 1940s. Pres. Biden also identified Ottoman authorities as perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.

While Armenians appreciate the sympathetic words of Pres. Biden, he must be reminded that a similar danger of extinction is looming today over Artsakh. He should not have approved military aid to Azerbaijan, a country that is intent on wiping out both Artsakh and Armenia.

Pres. Biden should turn his moral acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide to actionable foreign policy by pressuring Turkey to recognize its crime, compensate for the mass murders committed by its predecessor regime, and return the occupied Western Armenian lands. Recognition without restitution is meaningless!

Just as Western countries rose to the defense of Ukraine with massive military and humanitarian assistance, so should they protect Artsakh. During the 2020 war, Artsakh was subjected to a brutal attack by Azerbaijan, Turkey, and imported Jihadist terrorists, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. But the world remained silent. There should be no favoritism for the suffering of one people over another. All human beings deserve the same protection.

In addition to Pres. Bidens declaration on the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, statements were issued by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, Vice President of Argentina Cristina Fernandez, President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades, President of Greece Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and several other leaders. However, the United Kingdom, Australia and Israel are some of the countries that are still afraid of Turkey to acknowledge the truth about the mass murders of 1.5 million Armenians.

Turkey, the perpetrator of the genocide, and its vassal state, Azerbaijan, continue to deny the Armenian Genocide. Armenians around the world and all people of goodwill continue to hold protests, exposing their lies and remind the world of the mass murders.

This year, on April 23, when Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was in Montevideo, Uruguay, a group of Armenians protested his visit. Cavusoglu mocked the gathered Armenians by flashing the threatening hand gesture of the Turkish terrorist group, Gray Wolves. Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981, was a member of the Gray Wolves. Imagine if a German Foreign Minister showed the Nazi insignia to Jewish Holocaust survivors. The President of Uruguay condemned the Turkish Foreign Ministers undiplomatic gesture and the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish Ambassador to explain the Turkish Foreign Ministers inappropriate behavior.

Nevertheless, Turkish President Rejep Tayyip Erdogan is beginning to realize the futility of his denials of the Armenian Genocide. After years of threatening the United States if it recognized the Armenian Genocide, Erdogan turned into a mouse after Pres. Biden recognized it last year. Erdogan had arrogantly announced that he will complain to the U.S. President about his recognition of the Armenian Genocide. However, when the two met last June, he did not dare to say a word to Biden about it. Afterwards when the Turkish press asked Erdogan if he complained to Biden about the Genocide, he absurdly said, No, Biden did not bring it up. Erdogan was thoroughly humiliated.

In a message to Armenians who had gathered at the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul to commemorate the Armenian Genocide on April 24, Erdogan wrote to Armenian Patriarch Sahak Mashalyan: I believe that we should build the future together, inspired by our deep-rooted unity of up to a thousand years, instead of magnifying the suffering. Rather than acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, Erdogan claimed that Ottoman citizens (both Armenians and Turks) died as a result of World War I, without distinguishing between the victims of genocide and war.

Furthermore, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced that it rejected the statements made on April 24 by various countries: This includes todays unfortunate statement by U.S. President Biden, repeating the mistake he made in 2021. We reject such statements and decisions that distort historical facts with political motives, and condemn those who insist on this mistake. This is coming from the Turkish Foreign Minister who made a terroristic hand gesture in Uruguay.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Istanbul banned the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, which had been held annually since 2010, except for the last two years due to covid.

Finally, Garo Paylan, the Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament, submitted a bold resolution to the Parliament last week demanding that it recognize the Armenian Genocide, identify those responsible, remove their names from public places, and grant Turkish citizenship to the victims and their families. Paylan came under vicious attacks from Turkish officials. The Speaker of Parliament rejected his motion. The spokesman of AKP, the ruling party, demanded an apology from Paylan and threatened to sue him. Furthermore, Pres. Erdogan condemned Paylan and urged the Parliament to deal with him.

If Turkish leaders dont mind to be humiliated and exposed to the world for denying that their country committed genocide, Armenians will continue to expose them as supporters of barbaric actions. The sooner they come to their senses, acknowledge the Genocide and make amends, the sooner they will stop being disgraced.

By Harut Sassounian
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A string of unexplained explosions in Moldovas breakaway region of Transnistria has raised fears that President Vladimir Putin could have plans for his war beyond Ukraine. A Russian general appeared to suggest that the pro-Russian enclave, which borders Ukraine, could be in the Kremlins sights. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned that Russia wants to capture other countries.

1. Where is Transnistria?

Its a sliver of land that runs roughly between the Dniester river in eastern Moldova and Ukraine. It covers about 4,160 square kilometers (1,600 square miles), or about 12% of the territory of Moldova, Europes poorest country. The mainly Russian-speaking enclave is home to fewer than 500,000 people; the rest of Moldova has some 2.6 million.

2. Whats the history?

Moldova, including Transnistria, used to be a republic in the Soviet Union. Even before the USSR collapsed in 1991, Transnistria wanted to remain part of the dying confederation as its own republic, so it declared independence from Moldova in 1990 -- a move that wasnt recognized by the USSR at the time. In 1992 Transnistria fought a war with Moldova, which had declared its own sovereignty the year before. (No United Nations member has recognized Transnistrias independence, not even Russia.) Russian troops have been in Transnistria since the early 1990s, with their main tasks, according to Moscow, being peacekeeping and protecting ammunition depots. Russian troops remain in the region despite calls by Moldovas President Maia Sandu for them to leave.

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3. Whats the status?

There have been several plebiscites on Transnistrias status, with the last in 2006, when more than 97% backed independence followed by accession to Russia. An estimated 1,500 Russian troops are stationed in the enclave, according to the IISS Military Balance. Another 7,500 well-trained and armed separatist troops are stationed there, according to a Ukrainian military think-tank.

4. How could it get pulled into Russias war in Ukraine?

A Russian general said in April that the Kremlin aims to secure control of the entire south of Ukraine along with the eastern Donbas region, according to state news services. That would give Russian forces access to Transnistria, where there is oppression of the Russian-speaking population, the Tass service cited the general as saying. While no other officials have publicly endorsed that goal, there have been several incidences of violence in the enclave since then. Moldovas government said they are aimed at creating pretexts for straining the security situation in the enclave. The leader of Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky, called on Moldovan authorities not to succumb to provocations or allow a military conflict. Still, to build a land bridge to Transnistria across southern Ukraine, Russia would have to take a lot more Ukrainian territory. That could be a challenge, as U.S. officials have said Russia faces a major depletion of its military hardware.

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5. Whats the bigger picture?

Russia supports a string of separatist regions in former Soviet republics, using them as leverage over pro-Western governments in what it considers to be its sphere of influence. Russia-backed separatists have partly controlled the Donetsk and Luhansk areas of Donbas since 2014 and Putin officially recognized them as a precursor to deploying troops there at the beginning of his invasion of Ukraine. Russia also supports the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia.

6. How is Moldova responding?

It has sought to remain neutral, a status embedded in its constitution, and hasnt imposed sanctions on Russia. But Moldova has started procedures to join the European Union after making a U-turn by electing a pro-European president and government in the past two years. Authorities in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, have banned the use of symbols used by the Russian army, seeing them as provocation. The country also has received hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine since the start of Russias invasion. Moldova counts on foreign support and assistance to manage the refugee crisis and the economic consequences for citizens, according to Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita.

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Fiction 1 SEA OF TRANQUILITY (Knopf, $25). By Emily St. John Mandel. The author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel explores the psychological implications of time travel for characters from different centuries. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight 2 TIME IS A MOTHER (Penguin Press, $24). By Ocean Vuong. Poems about living through grief from the award-winning poet and novelist.

3 THE CANDY HOUSE (Scribner, $28). By Jennifer Egan. A sequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit From the Goon Squad continues the story of tech mogul Bix Bouton.

4 THE PARIS APARTMENT (Morrow, $28.99). By Lucy Foley. A woman investigating her brothers disappearance suspects that his neighbors might have been involved.

5 FRENCH BRAID (Knopf, $27). By Anne Tyler. The dynamics of a middle-class Baltimore family evolve as the family expands over decades.

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6 LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY (Doubleday, $29). By Bonnie Garmus. A midcentury scientist becomes a sensation while hosting a feminist cooking show.

7 THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY (Viking, $30). By Amor Towles. Four boys on a road trip take an unplanned journey.

8 FEVERED STAR (Gallery/Saga Press, $27.99). By Rebecca Roanhorse. The Between Earth and Sky series continues with new alliances forming in a magical land known as the Meridian.

9 THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY (Viking, $26). By Matt Haig. A regretful woman lands in a library where she gets to play out her life had she made different choices.

10 CLOUD CUCKOO LAND (Scribner, $30). By Anthony Doerr. An ancient story survives millennia stewarded by young people in the past, present and future.

Nonfiction

1 ATLAS OF THE HEART (Random House, $30). By Brene Brown. An exploration of 87 emotions to help people make more meaningful connections.

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2 CRYING IN H MART (Knopf, $26.95). By Michelle Zauner. A Korean American indie-rock star chronicles her relationship with her late mother and their shared culture.

3 FREEZING ORDER (Simon & Schuster, $28.99). By Bill Browder. A former financial executive uncovers a $230 million tax refund conspiracy benefitting Vladimir Putin.

4 HALF BAKED HARVEST EVERY DAY (Clarkson Potter, $29.99). By Tieghan Gerard. The food blogger offers plant-forward recipes to satisfy cravings and nourish both body and soul.

5 THE 1619 PROJECT (One World, $38). By Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine. Essays contextualize the history of slavery as part of the founding of the United States.

6 ATOMIC HABITS (Avery, $27). By James Clear. How to make small changes that have a big impact.

7 THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE (Harper One, $22.99). By Charlie Mackesy. The British illustrator brings fables about unlikely friendships to life.

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8 BITTERSWEET (Crown, $28). By Susan Cain. The author of Quiet considers the role of melancholy in a resolutely upbeat society.

9 HELLO, MOLLY! (Ecco, $27.99). By Molly Shannon, Sean Wilsey. The performer recounts a childhood defined by loss and shares tales from her climb to success as an actress and comedian.

10 LEFT ON TENTH (Little, Brown, $29). By Delia Ephron. After the loss of her beloved husband and sister, the romantic comedy writer finds love and simultaneously receives her own dire diagnosis.

Rankings reflect sales for the week ended Apr. 24. The charts may not be reproduced without permission from the American Booksellers Association, the trade association for independent bookstores in the United States, and indiebound.org. Copyright 2022 American Booksellers Association. (The bestseller lists alternate between hardcover and paperback each week.)

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A Maryland sculptor has completed a replica of Baltimores controversial Christopher Columbus statue, and a local group plans to bring it back to the citys Little Italy neighborhood. Eastern Shore artist Will Hemsley created the new statue using pieces of the original retrieved from Baltimores harbor, where the monument was tossed after it was toppled by protesters on the Fourth of July two years ago.

In 2020, the crowd knocked down and dumped the original statue, located at President Street and Eastern Avenue, in protest of the Italian explorers violent enslavement of native people. The statue came down as cities across the United States experienced a racial reckoning and the Black Lives Matter movement expanded after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Monuments of figures with ties to slavery were taken down in Baltimore and elsewhere.

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The replicated statue was finished in February. It will move from Hemsleys studio in Centreville to Baltimore, probably in the coming weeks, said John A. Pica Jr., a former state senator who is president of Italian American Organizations United and chairman of the Italian Heritage Festival committee.

The statue will go into temporary storage. Where it ends up permanently is still being determined.

Its sad that it ever happened, Pica said, referring to the statue being toppled. And its caused a lot of distress among the Italian American community.

Hemsley recalled watching footage in dismay with his father as protesters dragged and destroyed the statue.

It was very hard for me, politics aside, to watch an important monument get taken down, because my original sympathies are with the artist, Hemsley said. Thats someones piece of work, a piece of themselves thats getting torn down for political reasons. And it wasnt created for that.

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The pair decided to organize a diving and crane operation to salvage the statue with support from community stakeholders. A civilian crew, including Hemsley, his father and Pica, showed up two days later and fished Columbus out the water.

Columbus Celebrations, a local nonprofit group that Pica is president of, paid several thousand dollars for the expedition. They retrieved 90 percent of the statue and whisked it to Hemsleys studio, he said.

Theres a lot of Columbus sculptures that were put up over the past couple 100 years. This one in particular is a fantastic sculpture, Hemsley said. The Italian sculptor that made this put his heart and blood into this thing.

Carved in Italian Carrara marble by sculptor Mauro Bigarani, the statue had stood at the edge of Baltimores Little Italy since 1984. It was given to the city by Italian American Organizations United and unveiled by President Ronald Reagan and then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer.

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It was definitely 100 percent my fathers idea to save the statue, Hemsley said. Had citizens not taken the initiative and stood up to it, I think it would likely still be in the harbor.

He said the city wanted nothing more to do with the statue, which had become a political hot button. The citys Department of Recreation and Parks director signed a termination agreement, finalized Aug. 26, 2020, to give the statue back to Italian American Organizations United.

The new statue is approximately 9 feet tall and weighs 2,000 pounds with the base, Hemsley said. The original was 14 feet 2 inches and weighed 17 tons.

Hemsley chipped away at the restoration process, which took 19 months and included a 3D scan of the recovered pieces. Technicians stitched the scanned pieces together like a puzzle before Hemsley and his father, Tilghman Hemsley, hired a company to make a mold, which was filled with 90 percent crushed marble and 10 percent mixed resin, he said.

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Tilghman Hemsley, a professional artist and trained painter as well as a longtime charter boat captain on the Chesapeake, spearheaded the mission to recover and re-create the Columbus statue, his son said.

The project cost $80,000 to $90,000 and was paid for in part by private donors and a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, said Bill Martin, treasurer for the Italian organizations Pica heads.

Were going to support the replica statue. Were going to support Columbus, Martin said. But at the same time, were not going to ignore the comments from those who oppose it.

Jennifer Folayan is a member of Indigenous Strong, an advocacy group representing Marylands Native Americans, and a board member at the Baltimore American Indian Center. She said Italian culture and history should be celebrated  but not Columbus.

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The actual person was not the hero. Its the fable that was the hero, she said. I think weve moved beyond celebrating Columbus as any type of hero. Moving forward, we should continue to have reconciliation and partnerships.

Some good did come out of the chaos, said Folayan, noting that her group did not organize the protest that led to the statues toppling. The Baltimore City Council voted in October 2020 to rename the citys Columbus Day holiday as Indigenous Peoples Day.

Relics that praise wrongful history are hurtful to the community, she said. Were coming into a time where Black and Brown people are visible, and to go forward for justice, we cannot allow false stories to continue.

Folayan hopes this has been a teachable moment and that the statue doesnt end up in a position of celebration.

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Ideally, Martin said, both statues would end up in museums, where they can be respected and referenced in regard to history.

While the fates of both statues are undecided, officials are considering renaming the statues former location, Columbus Piazza, as Piazza Little Italy and putting a different statue there, Pica said.

The city has granted Italian American Organizations United permission to build a fence around the old base to protect it, Pica added.

Talks within the Italian groups have also taken place about putting up signs in the area to recognize other cultures that lived in Little Italy before Italians, such as Indigenous, Jewish and Black people.

History is not a black-and-white thing. Its full of nuance, Will Hemsley said. And I think its our responsibility as informed citizens to acquaint ourselves with history.

 Baltimore Sun

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Harris tests positive for the coronavirus Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Vice President Harris has tested positive for the coronavirus, the White House said Tuesday, becoming the most senior Biden administration official to contract a virus that has afflicted millions of Americans. Harris tested positive on both rapid and PCR tests but has exhibited no symptoms, Harriss press secretary, Kirsten Allen, said.

The vice president is not considered a close contact to President Biden or first lady Jill Biden because of their respective recent travel schedules. Harris will isolate and continue to work from her residence, returning to the White House when she tests negative, Allen said.

Harris, 57, is fully vaccinated and boosted. She is in a vulnerable demographic that the Food and Drug Administration made eligible for a second booster shot in March.

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Two Democratic senators  Chris Murphy (Conn.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.)  tested positive for the coronavirus Tuesday, as well. With Harris, the Democrats tiebreaking vote in the Senate, isolating until she tests negative, any contentious votes in the Senate will most likely be on hold.

Harris had been on the West Coast last week, with stops in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and returned to Washington on Monday. She had been slated to attend the funeral of former secretary of state Madeleine Albright on Wednesday with the president.

 Amy B Wang,

Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Matt Viser

Cawthorn cited for

gun in bag at airport

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) was cited Tuesday for having a gun at a security checkpoint at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, police said, the second time he has violated rules that prohibit traveling with firearms in carry-on bags.

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Cawthorn was cited for possession of a dangerous weapon on city property, then released, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

Authorities took possession of the loaded gun, which police said is standard procedure.

According to the Transportation Security Administration, the incident occurred about 9 a.m., when a TSA officer spotted the gun in a bag. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Cawthorn stated that the firearm was his and that Cawthorn was cooperative with officers.

A police report indicates officers recovered a Staccato C2, firearm magazine and 9mm rounds of ammunition. The gun was loaded, according to two people with knowledge of the incident.

Cawthorns office didnt respond to a request for comment.

The incident is the second time in recent months Cawthorn was found with a gun at an airport checkpoint.

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A gun was taken by Asheville Regional Airport police after it was found in a bag at a security checkpoint in February 2021, according to the Asheville Citizen Times.

The TSA fine for a second offense can reach $13,900.

TSA rules prohibit passengers from carrying firearms unless they are secured in a hard and locked case and placed in checked baggage. Individuals must also inform the airline that they are traveling with a firearm.

 Lori Aratani and Eugene Scott

Air Force general's

pay to be docked

An Air Force major general in Ohio who was convicted on one of three specifications of an abusive sexual contact charge was told Tuesday that he would receive a reprimand and must forfeit $10,910 of monthly pay for five months.

Maj. Gen. William Cooley, 56, was found guilty Saturday in what was the first-ever military trial of an Air Force general.

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The week-long court-martial at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio had three specifications, one accusing Cooley of a forcible kiss and two alleging forcible touching in 2018. Cooley was convicted of the forcible kissing specification but acquitted of the other two.

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. He had faced a maximum punishment of dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for seven years.

A former commander of Air Force Research Laboratory, Cooley was fired from that post in January 2020 after an Air Force investigation and has worked in an administrative job since then.

 Associated Press

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POKROVSK, Ukraine  Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, using its most essential export in what was seen as a bid to punish and divide the West over its support for Ukraine. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The move, condemned by European leaders as blackmail, marked a dramatic escalation in the economic war of sanctions and countersanctions that has unfolded in parallel to the fighting on the battlefield.

The tactic, coming a day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to rush more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, could eventually force targeted nations to ration gas and could deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.

Poland has been a major gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and confirmed this week that it is sending the country tanks. Just hours before Russias state energy giant Gazprom acted, Poland announced a new set of sanctions against the company and other Russian businesses and oligarchs.

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Bulgaria, under a new liberal government that took office last fall, has cut many of its old ties to Moscow and likewise supported punitive measures against the Kremlin. It has also hosted Western fighter jets at a new NATO outpost on Bulgarias Black Sea coast.

The gas cuts do not immediately put the two countries in any dire trouble. Poland, especially, has been working for many years to line up other suppliers, and the continent is heading into summer, making gas less essential for households.

Also, Russian gas deliveries to both Poland and Bulgaria were expected to end later this year anyway.

Still, the cutoff and the Kremlin warning that other countries could be next sent shivers of worry through the 27-nation European Union. Germany, the largest economy on the continent, and Italy are among Europes biggest consumers of Russian natural gas, though they, too, have been taking steps to reduce their dependence on Moscow.

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It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us, said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Today, the Kremlin failed once again in his attempt to sow division amongst member states. The era of Russian fossil fuel in Europe is coming to an end.

Gazprom said it shut off the two countries because they refused to pay in rubles, as President Vladimir Putin has demanded of unfriendly nations. The Kremlin said other countries may be cut off if they dont agree to the payment arrangement.

Most European countries have publicly balked at Russias demand for rubles, but it is not clear how many have actually faced the moment of decision so far. Greeces next scheduled payment to Gazprom is due on May 25, for example, and the government must decide then whether to comply.

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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told his countrys parliament that he believes Polands support for Ukraine  and the new sanctions imposed by Warsaw on Tuesday  were the real reasons behind the gas cutoff.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov called the suspension blackmail, adding: We will not succumb to such a racket.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia views gas as a weapon for political blackmail and sees a united Europe as a target.

On the battlefield, fighting continued in the countrys east along a largely static front line some 300 miles (480 kilometers) long.

Russia claimed its missiles hit a batch of weapons that the U.S. and European nations had delivered to Ukraine. One person was killed and at least two were injured when rockets hit a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv.

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Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence findings, said Russia has made slow progress in the eastern Donbas region, with minor gains, including the capture of villages and small towns south of Izyum and on the outskirts of Rubizhne.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, conceded that Russia has made minor progress in its advance on Rubizhne through its nearly constant bombardment, but that Ukrainian troops are fighting back and retreating only when there is nothing left to defend.

There is no point in staying on territory that has been fired on so often that every meter is well known, he said.

The Western officials said some Russian troops have been shifted from the gutted southern port city of Mariupol to other parts of the Donbas. But some remain in Mariupol to fight Ukrainian forces holed up at the Azovstal steel plant, the last stronghold in the city. About 1,000 civilians were said to be taking shelter there with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders.

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The situation is very difficult. There are huge problems with water, food, Serhii Volynskyi, commander of the marine unit inside the plant, said in a Facebook video message. He said hundreds of fighters and civilians were wounded and in need of medical help, and those inside included children, older people and disabled people.

In the Black Sea port city of Kherson, which Russian forces have occupied since early in the war, a series of explosions boomed late Wednesday near the television tower and at least temporarily knocked Russian channels off the air, Ukrainian and Russian news organizations reported.

Just across the border in Russia, an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region burned after several explosions were heard, the governor said. Blasts were also reported in Russias Kursk region near the border, and authorities in Russias Voronezh region said an air defense system shot down a drone.

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Earlier this week, an oil storage facility in the Russian city of Bryansk was engulfed by fire.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak hinted at the countrys involvement in the fires, saying in a Telegram post that karma (is) a harsh thing.

In other developments:

 The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said the safety level at Europes largest nuclear plant, now under Russian occupation in Ukraine, is like a red light blinking as his organization tries in vain to get access to the Zaporizhzhia power station for repairs.

 Amid rising tensions over gas, Moscow and Washington carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in the U.S.

With the help of Western arms, Ukrainian forces managed to thwart Russian forces' attempt to storm Kyiv. Moscow now says its focus is the capture of the Donbas, Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland.

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A defiant Putin vowed Russia will achieve its military goals, telling parliament, All the tasks of the special military operation we are conducting in the Donbas and Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, will be unconditionally fulfilled.

Simone Tagliapietra, senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, said Russias goal in cutting off the flow of gas is to divide and rule  pit European countries against one another as they cast about for energy.

While Poland gets around 45% of its gas from Russia, it relies overwhelmingly on coal and said it was well prepared for the cutoff. It has ample gas in storage and will soon benefit from two pipelines coming on line, analyst Emily McClain of Rystad Energy said.

Bulgaria gets over 90% of its gas from Russia, but it could increase imports from Azerbaijan, and a pipeline connection to Greece is set to be completed later this year.

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Dobrin Todorov, a resident of Bulgarias capital, Sofia, said the suspension is not a big problem.

Ultimately, the choice between freedom and dignity or gas, the answer is clear, in favor of freedom and dignity, Todorov said, adding that a lack of gas cannot be compared to the hardship and tribulations that the Ukrainian people are currently suffering.

Europe is not without its own leverage, since it is paying some $400 million a day to Russia for gas, money Putin would lose in a complete cutoff. Russia can, in theory, sell oil elsewhere  to India and China, for instance. But it doesnt have the necessary pipelines in some cases, and it has only limited capacity to export gas by ship.

The move that Russia did today is basically a move where Russia hurts itself, von der Leyen said.

___

Gambrell reported from Lviv, Ukraine, and Gera reported from Warsaw, Poland. Associated Press journalists Jill Lawless in London, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, David Keyton in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi at Chernobyl, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.

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Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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CAIRO  The death toll from weekend tribal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudans western Darfur region has surpassed 200 people, a senior official said Tuesday. Khamis Abdalla Abkar, the provincial governor of West Darfur province, said Sundays fighting in the town of Kreinik also wounded at least 103 others.

He said attackers overwhelmed a joint security force in the town, leading to its withdrawal.

This is a crime, a crime against humanity, Abkar said in video comments, adding that the town was destroyed, including its government institutions.

The fighting, some of the deadliest in the region in recent years, grew out of the killing of two Arab herdsmen on Thursday just outside Kreinik, 80 kilometers (around 50 miles) east of Genena, the provincial capital of West Darfur.

Large numbers of Arab militias, known as janjaweed, then stormed the town early Sunday with heavy weapons in retaliation, he said.

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The violence eventually reached West Darfurs provincial capital of Genena on Sunday and the main hospital was attacked.

Shooting took place inside the facility including its emergency department. One staffer was killed, and health care workers were evacuated, according to the Doctors Without Borders charity.

Abkar, the provincial governor, also said that clashes on Thursday and Friday left eight dead and over two dozen wounded.

Abkar said authorities have taken unprecedented security measures to protect civilians in West Darfur. The military, he said, deployed a brigade to the province joining a civilian protection force already stationed in Kreinik.

Tensions between Arab and African Masalit communities in Kreinik date back to December when a property dispute at a local market triggered clashes that killed at least 88 people.

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The fighting has come at a critical time for Sudan, which has plunged into chaos since a military coup last year. The takeover upended the countrys transition to democracy after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

The clashes raise questions over whether military leaders are capable of bringing security to Darfur, which has been wracked by years of civil war. In 2020, the U.N. Security Council ended its peacekeeping mission there.

The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when ethnic Africans rebelled, accusing the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum of discrimination. Al-Bashirs government was accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes and unleashing the janjaweed on civilians  a charge it denied.

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France welcomes the recent direct phone call between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers and their decision on convening a bilateral commission on border issues and launching talks on a peace treaty, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

April 27, 2022, 18:01 France welcomes latest direct phone talk between Armenian, Azerbaijani FMs

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 27, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: It added that France will continue to fully support this process.

The French envoy for the EU Eastern Partnership affairs Brice Roquefeuil will travel to Baku next week to continue monitoring the talks after his April 11-14 Yerevan visit, the French foreign ministry added.
Elon Musk is using his powerful Twitter account to bolster right-wing users who sharply criticised two company executives, exposing them to the online masses who joined in the attacks.

It started with a Tuesday tweet from political podcast host Saagar Enjeti, who was responding to a report by Politico that Twitters legal, policy and trust leader broke down in tears at a meeting with her staff this week.

Elon Musk is taking over Twitter. Credit:AP

Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate at Twitter who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogans podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the @elonmusk takeover, Enjeti tweeted.

Tesla CEO Musk, who acquired Twitter for $US44 billion ($61 billion) this week, replied, criticising Gaddes past actions. Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organisation for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate, he wrote.
Can you remember as far back as three years ago? Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg are hoping you cant. And fortunately for them, the medias memory is notoriously short.

The media mostly live in the now. Whats being promised in this election campaign? Not much as yet on what promises were made last time and what became of them.

Kenneth Haynes memorable photo-call with Josh Frydenberg in 2019 when the commissioner refused to shake hands with the Treasurer. Credit:AAP

A big issue in the years before the election in May 2019 was the many complaints about peoples mistreatment by the banks, much of it brought to light by this mastheads Adele Ferguson. There was growing pressure for a royal commission.

But the banks denied there was a problem, and then-treasurer Morrison repeatedly dismissed the need for an inquiry. Finally, when some government backbenchers signalled their support for a motion to establish a commission, the banks begged the government to take over and ensure the inquiry had appropriate terms of reference.
When Lordes music video for Mood Ring dropped in August last year, a tongue-in-cheek take on wellness culture, eagle-eyed fans spotted a Kiwi cameo in the cast: her friend, fellow New Zealand pop star Chelsea Jade was among the green-clad flower children, fanning herself with feathers.

But Jade owes Lorde more than a screen credit. Five years ago the art school graduate was sitting on a pile of pop songs when her exasperated friend gave her an embroidered writing-robe and an ultimatum: When are you going to be a lion and put out an album?.

Home is where the art is for NZ musician Chelsea Jade. Credit:Oscar Keys

She did. And now, with her second album Soft Spot released, Jade is firmly established as a bright star in a constellation of dazzling New Zealand musicians chasing pop careers far from home.

The Cape Town-born, New Zealand-raised singer-songwriter began writing Soft Spot in Los Angeles in 2019. A return trip to New Zealand in 2021 enabled her to complete it in Auckland, supported by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).
She was on a cycle of just constantly going, she was burnt out and hugely fatigued, and you cant make decisions when youre that tired, Collette adds. And I really think their relationship was potentially coming to an end. She was not happy. It wasnt an equal partnership in any way, shape or form. And I think the story holds up because you get to see her as a very, very alive person. The Peterson family, as imagined in The Staircase. Credit:HBO Collette felt that Michael Peterson has been somewhat glorified, within their family, and certainly in the documentary. In contrast, she says, Kathleen was objectified and nothing more than really a victim. So, I think that this particular version of the story, it is much more balanced in terms of its perspective. And it is just as much about the breakdown of their marriage as it is what happens after her death. The Australian actress elected not to step too far outside the script itself, which was written by Antonio Campos, Maggie Cohn, Emily Kaczmarek and Craig Shilowich. I had seen the documentary and the scripts were just so informed, she says. There were a couple of offers to talk to different people, but I dont think that was ever going to help me. The writing was amazing, and we had those words to drawn from. Collette says she felt somewhat greater freedom than her co-stars because everybody else is still very much alive and my character wasnt. Also, I think for me in the context of the stories that Ive told in the past, it was nice not to be the one grieving; everybody else went through that and I got to play with Kathleen very much alive.

What we do learn about her is just how stressed she was before she died and the strain that was on their relationship and the imbalance of their relationship. But I did not, as an actor, have to go through all of that really intense grieving, which is exhausting. One of the shows dramatic conceits is that it does not conclusively say how Petersen died. Instead, at different points, it shows a number of potential scenarios. The challenge for Collette was that all three of those scenarios had to be filmed  which means she had die for the camera. And die again. And then die again. I thought it was a really great construct, Collette says. I think its a really wonderful kind of way of being able to look at each of the possibilities. In terms of the physicality of actually falling down the stairs, there are certain places that we have very real knowledge about where she hit and where the blood was, which we had to choreograph so that it matched those specific places. In true Hollywood style, not all the tumbles were Collettes own. I had a magnificent stunt woman who did the major part of the fall, and then I struggled with the rest of the clawing around and trying to come to and trying to get up and call for help, she says. And some of it was shot at crazy times of the day, which just added a stupid amount of strain to it. Collette acknowledges that she is drawn to these kinds of dysfunctional family stories. Its inevitable, she says. We all come from family, and we are so influenced by family, whether we want to admit it or not. I think that psychologically that just makes stories so juicy. And specifically with The Staircase, its a big blended family of different personalities.

I think it is something I gravitate towards because I think in a way we all inherit wonderful things from our families, or sometimes the opposite, and we become such a hodgepodge of those experiences, Collette adds. Some people are wily enough and brave enough to make something more of their lives. And some people are really stuck in what they were born into and cant escape if they need to. I like stories about people who are able to live their own life and follow their own path. People who are ballsy enough to be authentic. There are so many influences [in the world] to just be able to stop and to be able to listen to yourself is so important. In terms of carving out your own experience. Collette does not agree that the television miniseries serves as a cautionary tale about the potential inherent biases of the documentary form but she does say it is less one-sided. If you are in a group of people, and youre getting your photograph taken, everyone cringes, and you put your smile on. So if you magnify that and think of it, in terms of a documentary, what kind of kernel of truth are you getting? she says. I think this, even though its part fiction, delves even deeper into the story, and because it isnt so presentational and Antonio really gets into the characters in a way that you would imagine it would be more real in a documentary, that he brings something potentially even true to it. The Staircase airs on May 5 on Binge/Foxtel.
Russian military vehicles move on a highway in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces near Mariupol, Ukraine (Alexei Alexandrov/AP/PA) (AP)

The family of a British man who was captured while fighting with Ukrainian armed forces against Russia has pleaded for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to help free him.

Aiden Aslin, who is originally from Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, was fighting in Mariupol, Ukraine, when he was captured earlier this month.

Fellow Briton Shaun Pinner was also captured during the siege.

"I would like to hope that Boris will help and that there can be something sorted out"



Ukraine prisoner of war Aiden Aslin's mother Angela makes an emotional plea to the Prime Minister to help free her son.@tnewtondunn | #TheNewsDesk pic.twitter.com/pOpNN8xgZP  The News Desk (@TheNewsDesk) April 25, 2022

Mr Aslins mother, Angela, and his brother, Nathan, said he had appealed to Mr Johnson for his freedom during a phone call with them.

Last week, Conservative MP for Newark Robert Jenrick said a prisoner swap was the most likely route to get Mr Aslin to safety while Mr Johnson said he hoped that Mr Aslin is treated with care and compassion by his captors.

Nathan said he spoke to his brother on the phone following the comments, and said he was hoping there would be a swap soon.

He told TalkTv: I would hope that, at some point, there will be a prisoner swap. However, its out of my hands. It is between Ukraine and Russia.

Outlining his phone conversation with his brother, Nathan added: It was obvious that he was with the Russian people that were holding him and he was asking for me to contact Boris to get this prison swap done. And to keep on asking for this swap.

Russian military vehicles move in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine (Alexei Alexandrov/AP/PA) (AP)

Asked what he would say to the Prime Minister, Nathan said: Act now when you got the time to act. Youve got two British citizens on the line, being forced to say whatever the Russians are putting in (their) mouths at gunpoint, whether they show it on the camera or not. And its a moral obligation to do something about it.

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Angela added: I would like to hope that Boris will help. And talk to the Ukraine Government, (and) embassy. There can be something sorted out so that these two guys can come home.

Russian Federation ministry of foreign affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously said the British captives were being given food and drink, as well as any other assistance they may need during their detention.

The Government has been contacted for comment.
After its 2008 operations in Georgia, Russia began a series of reforms that set the groundwork for its recent invasion of Ukraine.

This makeover saw a reorganisation of the Russian military from its Cold War structures to what we were led to believe was a more professional, and advanced institution of higher readiness.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has overseen a transformation of his countrys military. Credit:AP

At the same time, it issued new doctrine on warfare, and integrated lessons from operations in Syria.

But the ultimate test of such transformation programs lies on the battlefield. In this regard, the Russian military reforms appear to have been suboptimal at best.
The state coroner has recommended the police consult with Queensland Health about prisoners in hospitals, after an officer was forced to defend herself and shoot a man who violently attacked her.

Tyson Lee Jessen died in 2018 in Ipswich Hospital from gunshot wounds to the neck, chest and abdomen after he attacked Senior Constable Leesa Richardson while he was under police guard.

Inquest findings into Jessens death found the Queensland Police Services procedures were inadequate, but also that Jessen had probably lulled officers into a sense of false security with compliant behaviour before the attack.

Jessen had an extensive criminal history in Victoria.
Voters were told at the last election that Labor had one message on climate change in the south of the country and a different one in the north.

Now the Coalition is trying its own version of the same tactic, but with a twist. The Coalition also has two messages on climate change, but it is sending both messages at the same time to the same parts of the country  and even the same electorates.

Barnaby Joyce and Scott Morrison campaigning together. Credit:James Brickwood

Some of the evidence is broadcast live on television when Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce fight different campaigns in the same city.

On Wednesday, for instance, the Prime Minister campaigned in Rockhampton after announcing $275 million in recent days for hydrogen projects in central Queensland with a promise to create green jobs in the transition from fossil fuels.
Labors tight control on media appearances and daily messaging has left prominent frontbenchers including Tanya Plibersek and Bill Shorten effectively frozen out, creating growing frustration inside the party about restrictions on who is featured during the six-week election campaign.

A leaked internal memo sent by Labors campaign headquarters on the eve of the election revealed the party would only be releasing transcripts of media appearances for Labor leader Anthony Albanese and a select few shadow ministers.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, centre, with the chosen few and frozen out. Credit:SMH/The Age

All interviews, including regular appearances across TV and radio, also had to be approved by campaign headquarters (CHQ).

Two and a half weeks into the campaign, an analysis of the transcripts and media alerts sent out by Labors CHQ reveals shadow ministers who are part of Albaneses inner circle and leadership group are being heavily promoted and relied upon to deliver the campaigns daily message.
West Australians are being urged to exercise personal responsibility once restrictions are eased on Friday but Premier Mark McGowan says the states workplace vaccine mandate is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

The mandate covers about 70 per cent of WAs working population and has been critical in getting the states booster vaccination rate to 79 per cent, one of the highest in the world.

WA Premier Mark McGowan. Credit:Getty

Speaking from isolation where he and his son are both recovering from COVID-19, McGowan told 6PRs Gareth Parker the workplace mandate would remain in place to increase the booster rate way above 80 per cent, but refused to set a date or threshold for when they would be abandoned.

The mandates will remain in place for the foreseeable future, he said.
On the weekend, I drove to Keysborough in Melbournes south-east for an iftar dinner, the evening meal during the Muslim festival of Ramadan. The dinner was a chance to mingle with heroes, I was told.

The brave souls in question are women judges from Afghanistan: quiet flag-bearers for freedom and the rule of law before last years brutal Taliban takeover forced them to flee their homeland.

A Taliban special forces soldier stands guard at a park in Kabul, Afghanistan. Credit:AP

So often the Wests failure in Afghanistan gets discussed in abstract terms; the judges stories reveal precisely what is at stake.

The dinner was co-hosted by the Australian chapter of the International Association of Women Judges. Together with agencies and charities across the globe, the association is working furiously to get their judicial sisters and their families out of Afghanistan and permanently resettled.
Russia has held the funeral of its 36th colonel known to have been killed in Ukraine in little over two months of war.

Lt-Col Oleg Yevseev, 43, was buried in the Siberian city of Omsk on what would have been his 44th birthday.

Russia has given no details of how and when he was killed except that it was as part of Vladimir Putins special military operation in Ukraine.

He is one of 30 servicemen from Omsk region to die in the war.

Watch: Putin attends Easter ceremony in Moscow

Governor Alexander Burkov said: By participating in the military special operation, our defenders proved themselves to be true patriots and worthy heirs of the heroic generation of winners.

Eternal memory!

Despite the outpouring of patriotism that greets each newly-announced fatality, the scale of the toll including at least 36 colonels and eight generals is a devastating blow to Russian forces.

Many deaths - estimated by Britains defence secretary Ben Walace this week to number around 15,000 - have not been publicly disclosed.

Lt-Col Yevseev was married to Marina, 36, and was a commander of the 291st Artillery Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Russia has reported a series of blasts in the south of the country and a fire at an ammunition depot, the latest in a spate incidents that a top Ukrainian official described as payback and "karma" for Moscow's invasion.

Without directly admitting that Ukraine was responsible, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said it was natural that Russian regions where fuel and weapons are stored were learning about "demilitarisation".

The use of that word was a pointed reference to Moscow's stated objective for the nine-week-old war in Ukraine, which it calls a special military operation to disarm and "denazify" its neighbour.

"If you (Russians) decide to massively attack another country, massively kill everyone there, massively crush peaceful people with tanks, and use warehouses in your regions to enable the killings, then sooner or later the debts will have to be repaid," Podolyak said.

The blasts on Wednesday followed a major fire this week at a Russian oil storage facility in the Bryansk region near the border.

Earlier this month, Russia accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters, which a top Kyiv security official denied, and opening fire on several villages in the province.

The incidents have exposed Russian vulnerabilities in areas close to Ukraine that are vital to its military logistics chains.

In the latest incidents, Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a fire at an ammunition depot had been extinguished and no civilians have been injured.

Roman Starovoyt, the governor of Kursk, another province that borders Ukraine, said explosions had also been heard in Kursk city early on Wednesday and that they were most likely the sounds of air defence systems firing.

He later said that a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle was intercepted in the sky over Kursk region, adding that there were no casualties or damage.

In Voronezh, the administrative centre of another southern province, TASS news agency cited an emergencies ministry official as saying that two blasts had been heard and the authorities were investigating.

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Regional governor Alexander Gusev said in the morning that an air defence system had detected and destroyed a small reconnaissance drone.

Russia said it was sending investigators to Kursk and Voronezh regions to document what it calls "illegal actions by the Ukrainian army".

Ukraine's Podolyak said it was not possible to "sit out" the Russian invasion. "And therefore, the disarmament of the Belgorod and Voronezh killers' warehouses is an absolutely natural process. Karma is a cruel thing," he said.

Earlier, Russian energy firm Gazprom halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay for gas in roubles, the Kremlin's toughest retaliation yet to international sanctions over the war.

Poland confirmed on Wednesday that supplies had been cut, while Bulgaria said it would find out soon. Both accused Gazprom of breaching longstanding supply contracts.

"Because all trade and legal obligations are being observed, it is clear that at the moment the natural gas is being used more as a political and economic weapon in the current war," Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said.

Gazprom said in a statement it had "completely suspended gas supplies to Bulgargaz and PGNiG due to absence of payments in roubles," referring to the Polish and Bulgarian gas companies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that buyers from "unfriendly" countries pay for gas in roubles or be cut off, starting from the date payments are due for April. The European Union has rejected this demand as rewriting contracts that called for payment in euros.
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NEW YORK  A 24-year-old man was shot to death following a dispute inside a New York City subway station, police said.

Marcus Bethea was fatally shot in the torso inside the Parsons Boulevard-Archer Avenue station in the Jamaica section of Queens at about 4:30 p.m. Monday, police said in a news release.

Bethea was standing near the token booth when another man engaged him in an argument "that quickly turned physical," said Jason Wilcox, chief of transit for the New York Police Department, at a briefing at the shooting scene. The other man drew a gun and shot Bethea several times before fleeing, Wilcox said.

The shooting occurred less than two weeks after a gunman opened fire inside a subway car in Brooklyn, shooting 10 people.

Frank James was arrested the day after the April 12 shooting and ordered jailed without bail. Defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg cautioned against "a rush to judgment."

All of the victims in the Brooklyn shooting are expected to survive.

The shooting inside a busy Brooklyn station raised questions about security inside New York City's transit system. Acting Metropolitan Transportation Authority Inspector General Elizabeth Keating announced an investigation on Monday into the failure of security cameras at the station in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood where the shooting took place.

Wilcox said police have security camera footage from Monday's shooting in Queens and are reviewing it. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday morning.

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LocalCoho, a salmon producer with a facility in Auburn's Technology Park, has announced the appointment of a new CEO and the receipt of a $500,000 grant from New York state.

The company, founded in 2017, has appointed Michael Fabbro to the CEO position. He previously led the North American business of New Zealand King Salmon Co., introducing its premium Ora King salmon to the U.S. restaurant industry and its Regal line of packaged smoked salmon to U.S. grocery stores. Fabbro succeeds Phil Gibson as CEO, the company said in a news release.

We are fortunate to bring someone with Michaels skills, vision and operational expertise to lead LocalCoho at a pivotal time in our business. We look forward to benefiting from his insights and leadership as we continue to evolve and execute our strategies, said Robert Tobin, chairman of the LocalCoho board, where Fabbro will also serve. On behalf of the entire LocalCoho board and organization, I want to thank Phil for his service and commitment to transforming LocalCoho over the last two critical years.

LocalCoho also announced it was awarded a $500,000 grant from Empire State Development last month to support the commercialization of its facilities. LocalCoho uses land-based recirculated aquaculture systems technology to raise coho salmon indoors from egg to harvest. The technology optimizes resource use and minimizes impact on the environment and wildlife, the company says.

The company had its first salmon harvest at its Auburn facility in 2019, and began selling to the wholesale market this year. The company told The Citizen in 2020 the facility is a pilot for more across the country. The company aims to supply local markets given that 75% of the salmon consumed in the U.S. is imported, Fabbro said, and therefore costlier both financially and environmentally.

It is very exciting to be at the beginning stages of salmon aquaculture in this country, Fabbro said. I look forward to working with our talented and passionate team to advance LocalCohos mission to build a local seafood company that provides sustainably-raised, premium salmon to American consumers.

For more information about LocalCoho, visit localcoho.com.

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Technical Officer (GEF - Biodiversity Thematic Adviser), Rome, Italy

Organization: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Country: Italy

City: Rome

Office: FAO Rome

Closing date: Monday, 16 May 2022

2201131

Technical Officer (GEF - Biodiversity Thematic Adviser)

Job Posting: 25/Apr/2022

Closure Date: 16/May/2022, 9:59:00 PM

Organizational Unit : Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment (OCB)

Job Type: Staff position

Type of Requisition : Professional Project

Grade Level : P-4

Primary Location: Italy-Rome

Duration : Fixed-term: one year with possibility of extension

Post Number : 2005910

CCOG Code : 1R

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device The length of appointment for internal FAO candidates will be established in accordance with applicable policies pertaining to the extension of appointments

FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture

Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply

Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAOs values

FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks

All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality

FAO staff are subject to the authority of the Director-General, who may assign them to any of the activities or offices of the Organization.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through the FAO Strategic Framework by supporting the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

Organizational Setting FAO is a specialized technical United Nations (UN) Agency, bringing unique technical knowledge, information and capacity to bear on one of the worlds great challenges: feeding 9 billion people while conserving the environment. FAO has been an implementing agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) since 2006. The FAO-GEF portfolio - currently comprised of over 200 projects worth over USD 1 billion in GEF investments - is growing steadily as countries demand more of what FAO has to offer. As a GEF Agency, FAO works with Members and partners to access GEF financing for strategic projects that help countries to conserve and sustainably utilize biodiversity while improving agriculture production, accessing value chains, reducing hunger and improving nutrition. FAO emphasizes the importance of biodiversity for food and agriculture and the importance of sustainable agriculture and food systems in order to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of wild and agro-biodiversity. The environment and agriculture sectors must work together to conserve biodiversity and eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. The FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors and the Action Plan to support its implementation, position the Organization to play a leading role in enabling countries to access financing from the GEF to mainstream biological diversity conservation objectives and practices into the critical agriculture sector policies and practices. The GEF-8 Programme is aligned more than ever with FAOs core competencies and strategic priorities in the areas of sustainable agriculture, fisheries, forestry and land and water management. FAOs GEF portfolio extends across all five of GEFs focal areas: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Land Degradation, International Waters, and Chemicals and Waste. The OCB-GEF Unit works closely with colleagues from across FAO to help Members develop projects for financing through the GEF Trust Fund, the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) and the Least Developed Countries Fund (LCDF). The OCB-GEF Unit serves as the funding liaison unit in FAO for the GEF and is responsible for overseeing the FAO-GEF project cycle. As part of this role, OCB-GEF provides thematic advice and guidance to FAO and its Members in the key priority programming areas of the GEF. In addition to serving as a Funding Liaison Officer for a portfolio of projects, this position will serve as the global Thematic Adviser on Biodiversity for FAOs GEF programme and will provide high-quality thematic guidance and specific technical knowledge to FAO, countries and partners related to GEFs Biodiversity Focal Area in support of project development and implementation. The post is located in the GEF Unit in the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment (OCB) at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy and will consult and coordinate with the workstream on Biodiversity (OCBB), which supports the Organization in the implementation of the FAO Strategy on Biodiversity Mainstreaming across Agricultural Sectors and up-scales biodiversity results across FAO, working closely with FAOs technical units and Decentralized Offices as well as with governing and statutory bodies.

Reporting Lines The Technical Officer (GEF - Biodiversity Thematic Adviser) reports to the Senior Coordinator, GEF Unit, and works in close coordination with the respective OCB-GEF Regional Lead.

Technical Focus a) Strategic thematic advice and guidance on GEF biodiversity programming priorities and approaches as they relate to FAOs comparative advantages and strategic framework; b) Identification, design, implementation support and monitoring of FAO-GEF projects and programmes. It includes strategic and policy work, with a focus on the nexus between global environmental challenges and sustainable agriculture, including biological diversity conservation and sustainable use, agrobiodiversity, climate change and resilience, land, water, fisheries, forestry, natural capital and ecosystem services.

Key Results Provision of technical expertise for the development, approval and delivery of environmental investment projects for FAO Members in accordance with FAO Strategic Framework, GEF Programming Directions and country priorities.

Key Functions

Provides technical expertise and project design guidance to project proponents in the identification, development and implementation of natural resource/environmental project proposals that address country priorities and further FAO and GEF (or other environmental funds) strategic objectives, programme priorities and operational policies and procedures.

Contributes to the strategic programming of FAOs GEF work, and assists in coordinating GEF team work for respective region.

Participates in, and potentially leads, multidisciplinary teams to assist governments and Decentralized Offices in the identification and formulation of natural resource and environmental management projects for financing by the GEF Trust Fund, Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) or other environmental funds.

Ensures quality control at all stages of the GEF project cycle in line with GEF eligibility criteria and alignment with GEF Programming Directions.

Coordinates the preparation and approval of project proposals and as required takes a lead role in drafting proposals.

Assists in the management of the FAO-GEF portfolio, monitors and supervises implementation of assigned projects and makes recommendations for improvement.

Keeps abreast of new developments and requirements in the GEF-managed and other environmental funds.

Contributes to the preparation of the annual Project Implementation Reviews (PIR) and to FAOs reporting to the GEF Secretariat and GEF Council.

Participates in the design and delivery of capacity development activities to FAO technical staff in headquarters and Decentralized Offices on the strategies, priorities and procedures, trends and issues related to GEF, adaptation and other environmental funds.

Performs other related duties as required.

Specific Functions Biodiversity Thematic Adviser

Advises the OCB-GEF Unit and FAO-GEF community to support the development of a robust portfolio of projects and programmes targeting the GEFs Biodiversity Focal Area and multifocal area initiatives, including Integrated Programs and multifocal area projects by identifying relevant opportunities under the Biodiversity Focal Area and sharpening programmatic priorities.

Works with Senior Coordinator and team to strengthen quality assurance and technical coherence for FAO-GEF proposals as related to best practices in GEF Biodiversity projects.

Serves as the primary point of contact in FAO for GEF Biodiversity work and liaises regularly with the GEF Secretariat Biodiversity Focal Area team and other key partners to inform a programmatic approach for FAOs global and regional and national initiatives in the GEFs Biodiversity work.

Provides regular updates and briefings to the FAO-GEF community on developments in the Convention on Biological Diversity, in particular on the implementation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the GEF Secretariats priorities in biodiversity, and advises on use of tools and approaches for biodiversity project design and implementation.

Engages with the FAO lead experts and divisional focal points on biodiversity to ensure synergies with respective FAO thematic strategies and activities, including the workstream on Biodiversity, the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and FAO Focal Points for the CBD, CITES and other MEAs.

Engages and establishes working relationships with partners, including governments, the private sector, and civil society and within FAO, FAO headquarters divisions and offices, Regional and Subregional offices and with FAO Representations in order to build programmes and projects.

FAO-GEF Funding Liaison Officer

Serves as a regional FAO-GEF Funding Liaison Officer for select projects in one region, in balance with global Thematic Adviser responsibilities.

Leads the formulation and implementation of complex GEF programmes and projects within a regional portfolio, ensuring operational viability and due compliance with the FAO policy standards and best practices, as well as convergence with GEF policies and priorities.

Collaborates with GEF Unit colleagues to ensure projects within a regional portfolio are prepared effectively and efficiently within the 12 month project preparation phase from concept approval to project document submission and are managed efficiently to achieve key milestones throughout the entire project cycle in a timely manner, including start up, first disbursement and closure.

Provides critical technical inputs to robust regional portfolio management and the maintenance of programme/project and portfolio information and FAO project information systems.

Provides high quality products, inputs and support to meet the standards of the Project Implementation Reviews, Mid-term Reviews and Terminal Evaluations.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

Advanced university degree in natural resources management, or related biological sciences, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, social sciences, international policy or related field.

Seven years of relevant experience in designing and implementing innovative programming at the nexus between agriculture and the environment, including providing policy advice and analysis, applying innovative tools and approaches in environmental, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes.

Working knowledge (proficient - level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate - level B) of one of the other FAO official languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

Competencies

Results Focus

Teamwork

Communication

Building effective relationships

Knowledge sharing and continuous improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions.

Demonstrated analytical and conceptual skills with proven ability to write project documents and papers in English and ability to analyse and integrate diverse information from various sources.

Extent and relevance of experience and success in mobilizing resources and building a GEF Biodiversity mainstreaming portfolio by integrating diverse information from various sources into coherent stories in the form of compelling project proposals and technical papers focused on biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

Demonstrated experience in and knowledge of developing and applying integrated, area-based investment strategies covering large landscape and seascape mosaics, including interventions on biodiversity mainstreaming in production sectors, biodiversity for food and agriculture and associated biodiversity.

Demonstrated knowledge of and ability to apply decision support and knowledge management tools and methods for mainstreaming biodiversity, conservation and sustainable use across land and seascapes, including the priorities of Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and GEF-8 Biodiversity Focal Area.

Extent and relevance of experience in providing technical expertise or advice to project proponents at national, subregional and regional levels with regard to GEF project development, results-based management, monitoring and evaluation planning, and monitoring for project impact.

Working knowledge (proficient - level C) of Spanish.

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency. GENERAL INFORMATION

FAO reserves the right not to make an appointment

Extension of fixed term appointments is based on certification of performance and availability of funds

Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances. Subject to certain exemptions, vaccination against COVID-19 will in principle be required. Vaccination status will be verified as part of the medical clearance process CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

A competitive compensation and benefits package is offered. For information on UN salaries, allowances and benefits, click on the following link: http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/salaries allowances/salary.htm Other benefits, subject to eligibility, include:

Dependency allowances

Rental subsidy

Education grant for children

Home leave travel

30 working days of annual leave per year

Pension fund entitlements under the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund

International health insurance; optional life insurance

Disability protection

FAO encourages a positive workplace culture to increase inclusivity and diversity within its workforce. FAO applies measures in which all staff members contribute equally and in full to the work and development of the Organization. This includes:

elements of family-friendly policies

flexible working arrangements

standards of conduct

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications and language skills;

Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile;

Once your profile is completed, please apply and submit your application;

Your application will be screened based on the information provided on your online profile;

Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/

Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications;

Incomplete applications will not be considered;

Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAOs behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application

Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered;

Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile

We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.

If you need help, or have queries, please contact: Careers@fao.org

Link to the organizations job posting: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1650906763078
An Albany attorney with extensive antitrust experience is President Joe Biden's pick for a federal judgeship.

The White House announced Wednesday that Biden has nominated Anne Nardacci, an attorney with Boies Schiller Flexner, to serve as a U.S. District Court judge in the Northern District of New York. The district is comprised of 32 counties, including Cayuga and Onondaga.

Nardacci, a graduate of Cornell Law School and Georgetown University, has been a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner since 2020. She began working at the firm in 2005, first as an associate and later as a counsel.

Before joining Boies Schiller Flexner, she was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who recommended Nardacci for the nomination, highlighted her experience in antitrust matters. At Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, she focused on antitrust litigation and advised clients on merger reviews performed by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission.

When she joined Boies Schiller Flexner, she continued to handle antitrust cases and commercial litigation. According to her biography, she has focused on litigation for those injured by price-fixing schemes and other consumer rights claims.

In one antitrust case, she represented plaintiffs accusing U.S. chicken producers of increasing the price of chickens raised for food consumption by restricting supply and other actions. The litigation is ongoing and there is also a criminal investigation that has resulted in indictments. One of the producers is on trial.

According to her biography on Boies Schiller Flexner's website, clients "regularly seek antitrust counseling and strategic advice from Anne on a variety of compliance and go-to-market issues." She has represented clients under investigation by federal and state antitrust agencies and has served as outside counsel to state attorneys general prosecuting antitrust cases.

Nardacci is a member of the executive committee of the New York State Bar Association's antitrust section.

"Anne Nardacci, a legal leader and Capital Region native, has spent nearly 20 years of her career fighting for transparency, the rights of consumers, and taking on big corporations for wrongdoing, making her perspective invaluable in ensuring the federal judiciary fulfills its obligation to ensure equal justice for all," Schumer said.

He continued, "Ms. Nardacci is an accomplished attorney, with profound integrity, a sharp legal mind and a passion for the rule of law that would bring dignity and honor to her post on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York."

Schumer also noted that Nardacci is the third woman he has recommended for nomination to the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of New York. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she would join Mae D'Agostino and Brenda Sannes as district court judges.

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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NEW DELHI (AP)  Eleven people were electrocuted when their truck, decorated as a temple chariot, touched an overhead power line during a Hindu festival procession in southern India on Wednesday, police said.

This image from video shows women mourning after an accidental electric shock in Thanjavur district, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Wednesday, April 27, 2022.Eleven people died from an accidental electric shock when their truck, decorated as a temple chariot, touched an overhead power transmission wire during a Hindu festival procession in southern India, police said. (KK Productions via AP)

NEW DELHI (AP)  Eleven people were electrocuted when their truck, decorated as a temple chariot, touched an overhead power line during a Hindu festival procession in southern India on Wednesday, police said.

The New Delhi Television channel said the electrical spark also set fire to the truck, which was crowded with devotees.

The 11 people died and three others suffered burns and were hospitalized in Thanjavur, a city in Tamil Nadu state, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The temple chariot procession in Thanjavur, 340 kilometers (210 miles) south of Chennai, the state capital, was organized by a local Hindu temple. Other details were not immediately available.

Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. The area is known for its old temples.
NEW YORK (AP)  As the comedy black-ish ended its run after eight seasons with a relatively modest live audience of 2.52 million viewers, ABC is already pivoting to what it hopes is its next defining sitcom.

NEW YORK (AP)  As the comedy black-ish ended its run after eight seasons with a relatively modest live audience of 2.52 million viewers, ABC is already pivoting to what it hopes is its next defining sitcom.

The black-ish series finale last week featured a storyline where series stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross move their fictional Johnson family from the predominantly white area where they had been living to a neighborhood with more Black families.

This image released by ABC shows Anthony Anderson, left, and Tracee Ellis Ross in a scene from the series finale of "black-ish," airing April 19. (Richard Cartwright/ABC via AP)

It was the largest audience for the series since its final season debut in September, according to the Nielsen company, and certain to increase when delayed viewing is taken into account.

The series earned four Emmy Award nominations for best comedy in an era where it's unusual for a broadcast series to be recognized.

Less than a week later, at a New York dinner held by ABC parents Walt Disney Co. on Monday to showcase its creators, a spotlight was on Quinta Brunson, creator and star of the new sitcom Abbott Elementary.

The series based in a Philadelphia elementary school and inspired by Brunson's mother, a kindergarten teacher, debuted in December to strong reviews. It ended its first season on April 12 with an average of 2.9 million viewers per episode, which swelled to 8 million when a full month's delayed viewing is counted in, Nielsen said.

Brunson said that she's a fan of workplace and family comedies, which have been a staple of ABC's lineup for generations.

I think the world was really longing for that kind of feeling again  the things we got from older shows like Family Ties and more modern shows like The Office and Parks & Rec, she said.

The show will be back for a second season in the fall.

CBS won the week in prime-time last week with an average of 4.5 million viewers, led by 60 Minutes, which was the week's top-ranked show for the sixth time this season. NBC averaged 3.01 million viewers, ABC had 2.96 million, Fox had 2 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Telemundo had 970,000 and Ion Television had 960,000.

TNT led cable networks with a prime-time average of 2.62 million viewers. Fox News Channel had 2.25 million, ESPN had 1.33 million, MSNBC had 1.09 million and HGTV had 1.03 million.

ABC's World News Tonight led the evening news ratings race with an average of 7.8 million viewers. NBC's Nightly News averaged 6.7 million and the CBS Evening News had 4.9 million.

For the week of April 18-24, the top 20 prime-time programs, their networks and viewerships:

1. 60 Minutes, CBS, 7.6 million.

2. FBI, CBS, 7.51 million.

3. Young Sheldon, CBS, 7.26 million.

4. Chicago Fire, NBC, 7.21 million.

5. The Equalizer, CBS, 6.94 million.

6. Chicago Med, NBC, 6.66 million.

7. NCIS, CBS, 6.34 million.

8. Ghosts, CBS, 6.25 million.

9. Chicago PD, NBC, 6.08 million.

10. FBI: International, CBS, 6.02 million.

11. American Idol (Sunday), ABC, 5.88 million.

12. NCIS: Los Angeles, CBS, 5.65 million.

13. American Idol (Monday), ABC, 5.57 million.

14. Survivor, CBS, 5.43 million.

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15. The Neighborhood, CBS, 5.37 million.

16. FBI: Most Wanted, CBS, 5.25 million.

17. United States of Al, CBS, 5.19 million.

18. This is Us, NBC, 5.088 million.

19. NCIS: Hawaii, CBS, 5.087 million.

20. 911, Fox, 5.05 million.
MONTREAL - Aldo Group Inc. says its North American creditors have voted in favour of its restructuring plan and settlement, almost two years after the footwear company filed for creditor protection.

A Reitman's clothing store is seen next to an Aldo shoe store at an outdoor mall Tuesday May 19, 2020 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

MONTREAL - Aldo Group Inc. says its North American creditors have voted in favour of its restructuring plan and settlement, almost two years after the footwear company filed for creditor protection.

The Montreal-based company says the vote is a crucial step in its effort to exit protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

Some additional legal and administrative steps remain over the next few weeks, including the finalization and approval of an agreement in Switzerland, before the company can completely emerge from court proceedings.

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Martin Rosenthal, of the court-appointed monitor E&Y, says it was pleased to find a fair settlement with creditors.

The restructuring proceedings allowed the company to stabilize the business as it underwent a transformation of the organization to focus on profitable core competencies.

CEO David Bensadoun, whose father, Aldo, founded the chain in 1972, has said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic put too much pressure on business and cash flows.

Today, after a thorough restructuring process out of which we are announcing our imminent exit, we know that the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act was the right path to take to solidify the Aldo Groups financial foundation and ensure the long-term sustainability of the business," he stated in a news release.

The retail fashion industry, already undergoing a sweeping shift amid the migration to online shopping, has been hit hard by a pandemic that has shuttered storefronts across the globe and sent apparel revenues plummeting.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2022.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. saw revenue and profits dip in its first quarter as a weak grain harvest, a harsh winter and a work stoppage took their toll  though CP still expects major growth later this year.

Canadian Pacific Railway trains sit idle on the train tracks at the main CP Rail trainyard in Toronto on Monday, March 21, 2022. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. saw revenue and profits dip in its first quarter as a weak grain harvest, a harsh winter and a work stoppage took their toll.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. saw revenue and profits dip in its first quarter as a weak grain harvest, a harsh winter and a work stoppage took their toll  though CP still expects major growth later this year.

CEO Keith Creel said last year's drought devastated grain volumes, while frigid weather early in 2022 and a two-day strike in March brought down revenue by six per cent and earnings by two per cent year over year.

"It was a tough quarter. Im not here to make any excuses," Creel told analysts on a conference call Wednesday.

He said weather and COVID-19 hurdles were "uncontrollable" with roughly 500 employees going on sick leave due to the Omicron variant.

"This was going to be a tale of two halves."

The Calgary-based company reported results a day after rival Canadian National Railway Co. cited tough operating conditions and global economic uncertainty for its weaker profits, although adjusted earnings and revenues increased.

Volume dropped across all nine shipment categories, from energy to automotive, though revenue increased in five of them due partly to price hikes.

Revenue from grain shipments  typically the railroad operator's biggest money maker  tumbled 20 per cent, putting it below container traffic. Grain carloads plunged 28 per cent, despite a major boost in U.S. grain haul.

A frigid winter reduced freight capacity, as low temperatures impair a train's air-brake systems, necessitating shorter trains and slower speeds.

Fuel costs rose by a third year over year, further slimming profit margins. And supply chain snarls, including equipment backlogs and a global computer chip shortage, brought down automotive revenues by 16 per cent.

"It was tough to build any momentum and rhythm despite what I would consider a strong demand environment," said chief marketing officer John Brooks.

Nonetheless, CP's outlook for the year remains "largely unchanged," Creel said. He still expects double-digit growth in revenue ton miles  the industry metric gauges revenue per volume of freight transported  in the second half of 2022.

He said CP has submitted data to clarify what the U.S. Surface Transportation Board deemed an "inconsistency in the calculation of traffic density numbers" that were submitted to it and to its environmental analysis office regarding the railway's proposed acquisition of Kansas City Southern.

The STB's request for that data put the regulator's review of the purchase on pause.

"We do not see this material as delaying the combination. We still anticipate a ruling, at the latest, by early 2023," Creel said, noting the pause is ongoing.

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The US$31-billion deal would pave the way for North America's only railroad stretching through Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.

CP said total net income slipped to $590 million in the quarter ended March 31, compared with $602 million in the same period in 2021.

First-quarter revenues fell to $1.84 billion from $1.96 billion last year.

Diluted earnings per share plunged to 63 cents from 90 cents a year earlier, well below analyst estimates of 73 cents per share, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.

The first-quarter operating ratio hit 70.9 per cent versus 60.2 per cent a year earlier. The figure measures a railway's efficiency, dividing operating expenses by net sales  the lower the number the better.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CP)
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Energy Department on Wednesday authorized additional exports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from planned terminals in Texas and Louisiana.

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Energy Department on Wednesday authorized additional exports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from planned terminals in Texas and Louisiana.

The orders allow Golden Pass LNG Terminal near Port Arthur, Texas, and Magnolia LNG Terminal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to export additional natural gas as LNG to any country not prohibited by U.S. law or policy.

The $10 billion Golden Pass LNG export project is expected be operational in 2024, with Magnolia coming online by 2026. The two terminals are expected to produce more than 3 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

The approvals come as the United States seeks to boost LNG exports to Europe amid Russia's war with Ukraine. The Energy Department approved expanded permits for two other LNG terminals in Texas and Louisiana last month.

Cheniere Energy Inc. said its Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana and its Corpus Christi plant in Texas have been improved and are making more gas than covered by previous export permits.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last month that the U.S. is exporting every molecule of liquefied natural gas that we can to help European buyers of Russian fuel.

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U.S. LNG exports have reached new highs of about 12 billion cubic feet per day and are expected to grow to more than 13 billion cubic feet by the end of the year, with most going to Europe, the Energy Department said.

The U.S. and its allies also have released oil from their strategic reserves to counter Russia's aggression. The U.S. has banned imports of Russian oil.

The U.S. and other countries will act quickly to hedge against energy disruptions,'' Granholm said at the International Energy Agencys ministerial meeting in Paris. We will not allow Vladimir Putin to wedge our nations apart.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, hailed the new permits Wednesday as a tremendous victory for Texans, American jobs, trade and our European allies who will now have greater access to our clean natural gas exports.''

A source familiar with his thinking said Cruz planned to release a Senate hold on Brad Crabtree, President Joe Biden's nominee to be assistant Energy secretary for fossil energy and carbon management.

Golden Pass is jointly owned by ExxonMobil Corporation and Qatar Petroleum International Limited, while Magnolia is owned by the Glenfarne Group LLC.
Heaven Hill Distillery, one of the worlds largest bourbon producers, plans to revive its whiskey production in its Kentucky hometown  more than a quarter century after a devastating fire destroyed a previous production facility.

FILE- In this April 8, 2009, file photo, bottles of bourbon are shown in a display case at the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown, Ky. Heaven Hill Distillery, one of the worlds largest bourbon producers, plans to revive its whiskey production in its Kentucky hometown  more than a quarter century after a devastating fire destroyed a previous production facility. The family-owned and operated spirits company announced plans Wednesday, April 27, 2022 to build a $135 million distillery expected to open by 2024 in Bardstown  in the heart of the state's bourbon country. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke, File)

Heaven Hill Distillery, one of the worlds largest bourbon producers, plans to revive its whiskey production in its Kentucky hometown  more than a quarter century after a devastating fire destroyed a previous production facility.

The family-owned and operated spirits company announced plans Wednesday to build a $135 million distillery expected to open by 2024 at Bardstown  in the heart of the state's bourbon country.

It's the latest sign that Bluegrass State whiskey producers  both large and small  are bullish on future demand for their spirits. Kentucky's bourbon sector is in the midst of an expansion phase totaling billions of dollars in projects. Bourbon production in Kentucky has skyrocketed 435% since the turn of the century, according to the Kentucky Distillers Association.

Heaven Hill said its new distillery is needed to help meet growing global demand for the company's whiskeys. Heaven Hill produces Evan Williams, one of the worlds top-selling bourbons.

It also marks Heaven Hill's return to distilling in Bardstown  where the company lost its onsite distillery, seven storage warehouses and almost 100,000 barrels of whiskey in the 1996 fire.

Afterward, Heaven Hill's distilling moved to the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, while bottling, storage of aging whiskey and other functions continued in the Bardstown area, where those operations still remain. Bardstown is about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of Louisville.

The new distillery builds on the company's longtime roots in Bardstown, said Heaven Hill President Max Shapira. It's been nine decades since Heaven Hill first operated a distillery in Bardstown.

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The people of Bardstown have helped us create and build our brands over all these many years, so its a special homecoming to bring distilling back to this community, said Heaven Hill President Max Shapira. Our new distillery will honor our long-time Bardstown roots while applying state-of-the-art equipment and processes to produce the highest quality American whiskey."

The distillery is expected to employ about 30 people initially, but the workforce could reach about 90 once full production is reached in coming years, the company said. The state Economic Development Finance Authority approved up to $1.5 million in economic incentives for the project.

The distillery will be built on a vacant 61-acre (25-hectare) site, a couple of miles (kilometers) from where the previous production facility stood, the company said. Construction is expected to begin this spring. Initial production is pegged at 10 million proof gallons a year, or 150,000 barrels, and the distillery will have capacity to ramp up production to 30 million proof gallons, or 450,000 barrels, over time.

Heaven Hill said it will continue to age bourbon at existing locations and the Bernheim distillery in Louisville will continue operating at full capacity. The Bernheim distillery produces more than 420,000 barrels of whiskey per year.

Other Heaven Hill brands include Elijah Craig, Old Fitzgerald, Larceny and Parkers Heritage Collection.

Kentucky distilleries produce 95% of the worlds bourbon supply, according to the Kentucky Distillers Association. Kentucky's booming bourbon industry is in the midst of a $5.2 billion expansion, with $3.3 billion of that coming in the next three years, KDA said. The growth includes new distilleries, storage warehouses, bottling lines and visitors' centers.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Native American leaders said Tuesday they were excited about a series of meetings this week with land managers as the Biden administration considers prohibiting new oil and gas development on hundreds of square miles of federal land in northwestern New Mexico that several tribes consider sacred.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Native American leaders said Tuesday they were excited about a series of meetings this week with land managers as the Biden administration considers prohibiting new oil and gas development on hundreds of square miles of federal land in northwestern New Mexico that several tribes consider sacred.

Top officials with the All Pueblo Council of Governors said during a virtual briefing that they will reiterate their support for the proposal during tribal consultations. The meetings are part of the public outreach being done by the U.S. Interior Department as it considers the withdrawal from nearly 550 square miles (1,425 square kilometers) around Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is from Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, cited the cultural significance of the area surrounding the national park when she first proposed the 20-year withdrawal during a visit in November. She has said many tribes in the Southwest, including her own, have a connection to the area.

Randall Vicente, the governor of Acoma Pueblo, said tribes were ready to band together to ensure more permanent protections are adopted for lands outside park boundaries.

He said the remnants of stone dwellings, ceremonial kivas, pottery sherds, petroglyphs, shrines and the other cultural resources that dot the high desert around Chaco Canyon were left there by the ancestors of today's pueblo people.

Together, this area is one irreplaceable, sacred, interconnected landscape unlike any other. We remain tied to those resources," he said, describing them as the footprints and fingerprints of our ancestors.

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A World Heritage site, Chaco park is thought to be the center of what was once a hub of Indigenous civilization.

The Navajo Nation is among the Native American tribes that support increased protections, but top tribal officials have called for a smaller area around Chaco to be set aside as a way to limit the economic impact on families who rely on revenues from oil and gas leasing.

In a nod to the Navajo concerns, the pueblo leaders said the withdrawal would not affect development on land overseen by the Navajo Nation or individual Navajo allottee owners. However, allottees have argued that taking federal parcels off the board would leave them landlocked and curb the interest of oil companies in leasing their land.

Pueblo leaders said Tuesday their tribes continue to work on an ethnographic study that they hope will provide more insight for federal managers on cultural resources in northwestern New Mexico.

Ben Chavarria, historic preservation officer for Santa Clara Pueblo, said Chaco's influence can still be seen today in the pueblos' governance systems, dances, songs, prayers and other customs.

Describing its essence as independent and alive, he said the greater Chaco region is "an area of such immense cultural and traditional importance to the pueblo that it cannot be conveyed in words.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The older you are, the less you fret about aging in your own home or community.

WASHINGTON (AP)  The older you are, the less you fret about aging in your own home or community.

That's a key insight from a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, which found that U.S. adults ages 65 or older feel much better prepared to age in place than those 50-64, who are mostly still in the final stretches of their working years.

A new AP-NORC poll finds most older Americans say they feel extremely or very prepared to stay in their residences as they age, but those ages 65 and older are much more likely than those 50-64 years old to say so.

The poll also documented greater insecurity around aging in place for older Black and Latino Americans, the likely result of a deep-rooted wealth gap that markedly favors white people.

Aging in one's own home, or with family or a close friend, is a widely held aspiration, with 88% of adults 50 and older saying it's their goal in an earlier AP-NORC poll.

The outlook among those 65 or older is upbeat, with nearly 8 in 10 saying theyre extremely or very prepared to stay in their current home as long as possible.

But doubts creep in for those ages 50-64. Among that group, the majority who rate themselves as extremely or very prepared shrinks to about 6 in 10, according to the poll.

This relatively younger group is especially likely to say their financial situation is the main reason they don't feel very prepared to age in place. And they're also more likely to feel anxious about being able to stay in their communities, get care from medical providers and receive backup from family members or close friends, the poll found.

Part of it may be due to fear of the unknown among people who've relied on a paycheck all their lives.

When you've never done it before, and you are only going to do it once, you're sort of flying by the seat of your pants, said Leigh Gerstenberger, in his late 60s and retired from a career in financial services. I spent a lot of time talking to people ahead of me in the journey," says the Pittsburgh-area resident.

Also, people approaching their 60s may question if Social Security and Medicare will truly be there for them. Stacy Wiggins, an addiction medicine nurse who lives near Detroit, figures she'll probably work at least another 10 years into her late 60s  and maybe part-time after that. Older friends are already collecting Social Security.

In my group, you wonder if it's going to be available," Wiggins said of government programs that support older people. Maybe it's not. You will find people who are less apt to have a traditional pension. Those are things that leave you with a lot of trepidation toward the future.

Some people now in their 50s and early 60s may still be dealing with the overhang of the 2007-09 recession, when unemployment peaked at 10% and foreclosures soared, said Sarah Szanton, dean of the Johns Hopkins University nursing school. For an aging society, the U.S. does relatively little to prepare older adults to navigate the transition to retirement, she observed.

As Americans, we've always idolized youth and we're notoriously underprepared for thinking about aging, Szanton said. It often comes as a surprise to people. Her involvement with aging-in-place issues started early in her career, when she made house calls to older people.

In the poll, people 50 and older reported that their communities do an uneven job of meeting basic needs. While access to health care, healthy food and high-speed internet were generally rated highly, only 36% said their community does a good job providing affordable housing. Just 44% were satisfied with access to transportation and to services that support older people in their homes.

Kym Harrelson-Pattishall is hoping that as more people retire to her coastal North Carolina community, health care facilities and other services will follow. As it stands now, a major medical issue can involve a car trip of up to an hour to the hospital.

A real estate agent in her early 50s, Pattishall shares the goal of aging at home, but her confidence level is not very high. I think it would just eat away what savings I have, she said.

It's all about adjusting, says another small-town resident, about 20 years older than Pattishall. Shirley Hayden lives in Texas, near the Louisiana border and on the track of hurricanes from the Gulf of Mexico. She says she has no investments and only modest savings, but she rates herself as very prepared to continue aging in place.

You have to learn to live within your means, Hayden said. I don't charge things I can't afford to pay for.

My biggest thing I have to work around as far as expenses is insurance, she added. I don't really need any new clothes. In Texas, you live in jeans and T-shirts and they don't go out of style. Yeah, your shoes wear out, but how often do you buy a pair of shoes?

Not so easy to work around is the well-documented racial wealth gap that constrains older Black people in particular. A Federal Reserve report notes that on average Black and Latino households own 15% to 20% as much net wealth as white households.

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In the poll, 67% of Black Americans and 59% of Latino Americans ages 50 and older said they felt extremely or very prepared to stay in their homes as long as possible, compared with the 73% share of white Americans saying they feel confident.

Wiggins, the Detroit area nurse, is Black and says it's a pattern she's familiar with. Part of it is generational wealth, she said. I have friends who are white, whose dad died and left them settled. I have friends who are Black whose parents died, and they left enough to bury them, but nothing substantial.

___

AP Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson and Polling Reporter Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,762 adults age 50 and older was conducted between February 24 - March 1 with funding from The SCAN Foundation. It used a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based Foresight 50+ Panel of adults age 50 or older, which is designed to represent the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Uncertainty over the safety of war-wracked Ukraines nuclear power plants has reignited concerns over a Russian-owned nuclear power station now being built in a quake-prone area on Turkeys southern coast, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot activists said Wednesday.

Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot activists with an anti-nuclear stickers on their masks take part in a demonstration to voice their unease over the ongoing construction of the Russian-owned Akkuyu nuclear power plant in southern Turkey, some 60 miles (100 km) from the island nation's northern coastline, inside the United Nations controlled buffer zone that cuts across the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. Activists say uncertainty over the safety of war-wracked Ukraine's nuclear power plants has re-ignited concerns over a Russian-owned nuclear power plant that's currently being built in a quake-prone area on Turkey's southern coastline. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Uncertainty over the safety of war-wracked Ukraines nuclear power plants has reignited concerns over a Russian-owned nuclear power station now being built in a quake-prone area on Turkeys southern coast, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot activists said Wednesday.

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About 200 activists representing two dozen organizations from both sides of ethnically divided Cyprus converged inside the United Nations controlled buffer zone that cuts across the capital Nicosia. They sought to voice their unease over ongoing construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is only 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the island nations northern coast.

Organizers said the annual event to commemorate the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that occurred 36 years ago has taken on an added urgency in light of safety concerns regarding Ukraine's nuclear plants, such as Europe's largest nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia, which has been seized by Russia.

The war in Ukraine has demonstrated that nuclear power plants are a source of great uncertainty for public safety, said George Perdikis, former leader of the Cyprus Greens Party.

Activists have long contended that Akkuyu lies near a seismic fault line and that a potentially powerful quake could cause a radioactive leak affecting Cyprus. Cyprus Geological Survey Department said Wednesday that a 4.7-magnitude quake near the islands southwestern town of Paphos late Tuesday was felt as far away as Lebanon and Israel.

Christina Nicolaou, environmental affairs chief for the leftist AKEL party, said an accident at Turkey's nuclear plant as a result of either a natural disaster or a deliberate act would have huge repercussions for the region.

Turkish officials said the Akkuyu plant would cover about 10% of the countrys domestic energy needs. The first of four reactors is scheduled to become operational next year. Russias Rosatom State Corporation holds a 99.2% stake in the project, whose total cost is estimated at 20 billion U.S. dollars, according to the plants website.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  Members of a U.S. House committee are seeking answers about a natural gas release at a ConocoPhillips Alaska drill site on Alaska's North Slope.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  Members of a U.S. House committee are seeking answers about a natural gas release at a ConocoPhillips Alaska drill site on Alaska's North Slope.

The company earlier this month reported it had identified and controlled the source of the gas release first detected on March 4.

Three Democrats on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee sent a letter Tuesday to ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Ryan Lance seeking information about the incident, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The letter, signed by Chair Raul Grijalva and Reps. Katie Porter and Alan Lowenthal, notes the committee has jurisdiction over oil and gas resources on public lands. It seeks responses by May 13.

"The ongoing leak and ConocoPhillips response raises a number of troubling questions, including how your company would respond to similar leaks at your proposed Willow project inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the letter states.

ConocoPhillips is pursuing the Willow oil project in the northeast portion of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, but it has faced legal challenges from environmental groups. Rebecca Boys, a ConocoPhillips spokesperson, said the Willow project has undergone extensive environmental and permitting reviews.

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Boys, by email, said the company was reviewing the letter. She also said lessons learned from the incident will be incorporated into future projects.

Boys on Tuesday said intermittent, trace amounts of gas that were trapped beneath underground obstructions are still finding their way to the surface and are being detected near wellhouses, which are structures enclosing the tops of wells.

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which oversees oil and gas drilling in the state, in an update Tuesday said the company was continuing work to plug and abandon a waste disposal well that was being drilled when the leak occurred.

The lawmakers, among other things, want to know why it took the company a month to identify the source of the leak and how close the leak was to becoming something more severe.

ConocoPhillips continues investigating the cause and what happened at the field, where gas escaped at a drill site called CD1, according to the oil and gas commission.

The company has said it has not detected gas outside the gravel drill pad.
WASHINGTON - U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will travel north of the border next week to meet with her Canadian counterpart, Mary Ng.

United States Trade Representative, Katherine Tai attends a rally in Detroit, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. The U.S. Trade Representative will travel north of the border next week to meet with her Canadian counterpart, Mary Ng.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Paul Sancya

WASHINGTON - U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will travel north of the border next week to meet with her Canadian counterpart, Mary Ng.

Tai's office says the ambassador will hold two days of meetings May 5-6 with Ng, Canada's international trade minister, in Ottawa and Toronto.

The pair will talk with stakeholders, visit local businesses and discuss how best to strengthen the trade ties between the two countries.

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It's Tai's first visit to Canada since becoming President Joe Biden's trade representative in March of last year.

The two have a lot to talk about: softwood lumber, dairy exports and the rules governing auto parts have proven key friction points since the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, took effect in 2020.

Tai is also sure to raise Canada's proposed digital services tax, a three per cent levy on foreign content providers like Netflix and Spotify.

They "will hold a bilateral meeting, meet with stakeholders, tour local businesses and discuss opportunities to strengthen the U.S.-Canadian trade relationship through the (USMCA) and other mechanisms," Tai's office said in a statement.

A release from Ng's office also mentioned plans to discuss "co-operation in the face of global supply chain issues" as well as the collective efforts of the two countries to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2022.
OTTAWA - The federal government is working with G7 allies to craft new legislation that would allow for not just the freezing of sanctioned Russian assets, but seizing them on behalf of Ukrainian war victims.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Canadian Foreign Minister Melaine Joly talk after a meeting with NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Thursday, April 7, 2022. Joly on Wednesday announced new sanctions on more than 200 Russians after speaking to Blinken on Tuesday. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)

OTTAWA - The federal government is working with G7 allies to craft new legislation that would allow for not just the freezing of sanctioned Russian assets, but seizing them on behalf of Ukrainian war victims.

The recent federal budget declared Canada's intention to pursue the seizure-of-assets route, which has been the subject of a bill by an Independent senator that is on the verge of being passed in the Senate.

The government's budget implementation bill also lays out its intent to enact a law that would broaden Canada's current sanctions regime to allow for the seizure and repurposing of assets.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Wednesday the bill seeks to create the "ability for the government to be able to sell the assets that were seized, and afterwards to use the profits and to compensate the victims of this war against Ukraine."

She said because many Russians have assets in Europe and the United States, Canada wants to persuade other allies in the G7 to consider similar legislation.

Joly said the assets of Russian oligarchs in Canada are "substantial."

"We know that Russian oligarchs tend to be in other jurisdictions than Canada, and particularly in Europe, because of the close proximity and because of their family links," she said.

More money can be found in Europe "or sometimes in the United States," she added.

"We're looking at ways to further punish and seize things from people who have been sanctioned," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Wednesday. "But that is work that is ongoing along with our partners."

Sen. Ratna Omidvar has a bill with that goal that is currently at third reading in the Senate. It would allow for the seizure of assets of rich Russian oligarchs loyal to President Vladimir Putin so that the money could be used to rebuild war-ravaged Ukraine.

Omidvar said Wednesday that she is pleased the Liberal government has included the "essence" of her proposed law, known as Bill S-17, in its budget implementation bill.

"Parliamentarians need to act swiftly by passing these measures and applying it to the dire situation in Ukraine," Omidvar said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion recognizing "that the Russian Federation is committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people."

The statement put forward by NDP MP Heather McPherson cites evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out by Russian forces, including the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia, systematic killing of civilians and desecration of corpses as well as torture and rape.

The United Nations definition of genocide includes a mental element, which is difficult to prove, that the acts must be committed with "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."

Earlier Wednesday, Canada imposed sanctions on more than 200 people who are loyal to Putin in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

Global Affairs Canada said the new measures target 11 senior officials and 192 other members of the People's Councils of the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk for supporting Putin's attack on the area.

Russian forces have been backing separatist rebels in the Donbas area for eight years following Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

That Russian-backed separatist insurgency claimed 14,000 lives before the Feb. 24 start of Putin's full-scale war to take over the country, an attack that has faltered in the face of a determined Ukrainian resistance backed with western weaponry.

Putin has now refocused his war on Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking eastern region, pulling back from an unsuccessful attempt to take the capital Kyiv and drive out the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Canadian sanctions are focused on the renewed Russian attempt to annex areas of the Donbas by targeting people attempting to support the next phase of the two-month-old Russian war on Ukraine.

"We moved forward as strongly as anyone else did on sanctions from the very beginning, and the key on the sanctions is that we are totally united across the West and determined to continue to put pressure on anyone who supported Vladimir Putin," Trudeau said.

"We are all looking at ways of moving forward and every conversation we have is about how we can do more as western countries to demonstrate that Vladimir Putin made a terrible mistake. He needs to lose and anyone who supports him needs to face severe consequences."

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Canada has sanctioned more than 1,000 people or entities from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus since the Feb. 24 invasion, bringing to 1,400 the total that have been sanctioned since the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Joly spoke Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the pair reaffirmed their ongoing support of Ukraine. And Defence Minister Anita Anand is in Washington for a rare meeting Thursday with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Anand and Austin will continue the discussions they had earlier this week during NATO defence consultations in Germany, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

"As you'd imagine, there'll be a lot of things to discuss," Kirby said. "Obviously, what's going on in Ukraine, but also our shared Norad responsibilities, the Arctic, the Indo-Pacific  there's a lot on the agenda."

Last week, Canada added 14 more Russians to its sanctions list, including Putin's two adult daughters, Maria Vorontsova, 36, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2022.
In response to recent events, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Suozzi unveiled a six-point plan that aims to clean up state government.

Suozzi's proposal would require legislative hearings for any expenditure over $10 million that's a last-minute addition to the state budget process. He singled out the inclusion of $600 million for the Buffalo Bills' new stadium which was announced four days before the budget deadline and the $350 million fund for Long Island as examples of appropriations that should have been scrutinized.

"This is what's broken in our system," he said. "It's why we have the highest taxes in the United States of America. It's why we have all these problems."

The ethics reform plan aims to lower the state's high campaign contribution limits. For this year, the contribution limits for statewide offices are $22,600 for the Democratic primary and $47,100 for the general election.

Suozzi, a Long Island congressman, wants to adopt the federal contribution limits  $2,900 for the primary and $2,900 for general elections  and ban donations from corporations. Under existing state law, candidates may accept corporate donations.

Under the proposal, Suozzi would also require quarterly campaign finance disclosures. While there are filing requirements ahead of primary and general elections, candidates are only mandated to file disclosures in January and July. A quarterly disclosure requirement would be consistent with what's required for federal candidates.

Suozzi is seeking to dismantle the Joint Commission on Public Ethics and establish an independent ethics panel. He is also proposing a ban on the use of state aircraft for non-official events, a swipe at Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

After a Times Union report found that Hochul used state aircraft for transportation to political events, her campaign paid nearly $31,000 to cover those expenses. Suozzi has been critical of Hochul for using state aircraft for travel to campaign events.

Suozzi is eyeing a ban on the use of statewide elected officials' names, photos and likenesses in taxpayer-funded mass communications 90 days before an election. This is in response to a New York Power Authority radio ad that mentions Hochul's name.

Hochul, Suozzi said, has "fostered a culture of corruption in New York."

Suozzi rolled out his plan as he faces a House Ethics Committee investigation into his failure to report stock transactions. A spokesman for the congressman recently said that Suozzi's investments "are managed through independent advisors with full discretion over all transactions." He added, "The congressman does not control or direct these transactions."

There is a three-way primary for the Democratic nomination  New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is also in the race. Polls have shown that Hochul has a large lead over her primary challengers.

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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Eduardo Balaquits bank card numbers were located on a sticky note in the home of the man now on trial for killing him, jurors heard Tuesday.

Eduardo Balaquits bank card numbers were located on a sticky note in the home of the man now on trial for killing him, jurors heard Tuesday.

Winnipeg Police Service handout Eduardo Balaquit disappeared June 4, 2018.

Winnipeg police found the paper stuck on the bottom of a 7-Eleven bag in a fridge while searching Kyle Pietzs Toronto Street home on June 6, 2018, identification unit Const. Susan Desender told jurors.

On it were written two sets of numbers and the words CIBC and Visa, Desender said.

Balaquits wife, Iluminada Balaquit, confirmed the bank card numbers during testimony earlier this month.

A police officer who investigated Pietzs finances told jurors Monday that Pietz had no accounts associated with CIBC or Visa.

Balaquit, 59, disappeared June 4, 2018, after leaving home early in the evening for Westcon Equipment and Rentals on Keewatin Street, where he had a contract as a cleaner. His body has never been found.

Pietz, 36, a former employee at Westcon, is on trial for manslaughter.

Prosecutors allege Pietz killed Balaquit during a robbery after forcing him to disclose his bank card numbers.

Witnesses have testified to seeing both Balaquits and Pietzs vehicles parked outside Westcon at the same time that evening.

Inside Westcon, police used a chemical agent to detect the presence of blood. "There were no signs of a blood-letting event," Desender said.

Desender said police spent two days examining Pietzs 2013 Ford Escape and sent several swabs to the RCMP lab for testing, none of which confirmed the presence of blood or Balaquits DNA.

There was DNA, but "there was no direct hit for Mr. Balaquit."

Desender said a trunk liner that would normally cover the spare tire was missing from Pietzs vehicle. She said the trunk, but for the spare tire, appeared clean and free of dust, unlike the rest of the vehicles interior, which she described as seven out of 10 on a dirtiness scale.

During the search of Pietzs home, police found a nearly full bag of zip ties and a partial roll of duct tape in a kitchen garbage can.

Police found a pair of blue jeans and a Westcon T-shirt still wet in a washing machine in the basement, Desender said. The clothes were sent to the RCMP lab for testing and came back negative for DNA.

"We were told since they were washed, the chances would be low, but we decided to try anyway," she said.

Court exhibit photo of a man entering an Ellice Avenue 7-Eleven store shortly after midnight June 5, 2018, and using Balaquits bank card to withdraw $700.

On Monday, jurors were shown security video of a man entering an Ellice Avenue 7-Eleven store shortly after midnight June 5, 2018, and using Balaquits bank card to withdraw $700.

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, Pietzs sister identified him as the man in the video.

The trial resumed Tuesday with one less juror, reducing the jurys number to 12.

Justice Sadie Bond did not tell jurors why the juror had been discharged, but reiterated cautions not to come to any premature conclusions about the case and to ignore all media reports.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Forecasters are saying with certainty another Colorado low will hit southern Manitoba this weekend, putting flood-hit municipalities  including four already in local states of emergency  on high alert.

Forecasters are saying with certainty another Colorado low will hit southern Manitoba this weekend, putting flood-hit municipalities  including four already in local states of emergency  on high alert.

The third such event in as many weeks is set to arrive Friday and linger through Sunday, with the bulk of the rain falling Saturday, said Natalie Hasell, warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

"There is agreement to the point where, yes, a Colorado low is coming, but exactly what it will mean for southern Manitoba is unclear," she said Wednesday. "I hope people are prepared for another uncomfortable weekend."

As municipalities filled sandbags and pumped standing water, weather models still disagreed on the storms track.

It could remain entirely in the United States, but the highest likelihood is communities near the international border will receive the largest amount of precipitation, according to a special weather statement issued by Environment Canada.

Most of it will fall as rain, with 20 to 50 millimetres possible in some areas. There is a chance of snow over higher terrain in the provinces southwestern corner, said Hasell.

Other risks include thunderstorms, freezing rain and 60 km/h wind gusts

Hasell said the storm isnt expected to bring as much rain as last weekends Colorado low, which led to overland flooding that inundated basements and washed over roads.

However, it has the potential to renew flooding, while rivers such as the Red and Assiniboine continue to rise.

"It will still be a difficult storm," said Hasell. "The cumulative effect of having storm after storm will rear its ugly head."

An Alberta low that moved into the province Wednesday will bring a chance of showers Thursday, but Environment Canada expects any amount to be minimal.

Manitoba Hydro said about 330 customers in the Dauphin area were still without power Wednesday, following outages that began Saturday/Sunday, as the previous Colorado low hit.

South of Winnipeg, communities are preparing for the Red River to spill its banks amid a flood warning between Emerson and the floodway inlet.

The same could happen soon on the Assiniboine in western Manitoba, where there is a flood warning between St. Lazare and Brandon.

An overland flood warning is in place for parts of southern Manitoba.

The swollen Red River has forced the closure of Provincial Road 200 (St. Marys Road south) at St. Adolphe. The towns ring dike has been closed, while partial dike closures were made in Brunkild and Gretna. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk said the rural municipalities of Cartier, Headingley, Morris and Ritchot have declared local states of emergency to respond to any major flooding.

Piwniuk told the legislature there were "small scale" evacuations in the Morris area and O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation in central Manitoba.

Ralph Groening, reeve of Morris, said one family chose to leave their home after losing road access to floodwater.

Groening said the latest plan calls for Highway 75 to close at the north dike Friday to protect the town from the Red.

St. Adolphes ring dike has been closed, while partial dike closures in Brunkild and Gretna are ongoing, said Piwniuk.

A dike closure in St. Jean Baptiste does not affect traffic, the province said.

Ritchot Mayor Chris Ewen said a local emergency was declared to put the municipality in a state of readiness in case it has to evacuate homes, close submerged roads or cut through roads to get floodwater moving.

"Its still nothing to panic about, but we want our residents to be safe," said Ewen.

He said Ritchot residents know what to expect during spring flood season, and a local state of emergency is not uncommon when the Red rises.

Communities in the Red River Valley, including Emerson, Ste. Agathe and Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation, were pumping water to protect homes, roads or other assets Wednesday.

The Red is expected begin its second crest in Manitoba the first week of May.

Communities are protected from the projected peak. Ring dikes and most individual flood protections are at 1997-plus-two-feet (61 centimetres) levels.

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The Red River Floodway, Portage Diversion and Shellmouth Dam are all operating to lower levels on the Red and Assiniboine.

Staff in the RM of Stanley continued work to lower water levels Wednesday. After last weekends storm, there were up to 200 places where water was over the road, said Reeve Morris Olafson.

"The battle is almost over for now. If we get another two inches of rain, it has the potential to bring it back to the level it was before," he said.

 with files from Danielle Da Silva

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching
Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba leadership runner-up Shelly Glover raised one-third of the money donated to Heather Stefanson, who beat her by a narrow margin.

Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba leadership runner-up Shelly Glover raised one-third of the money donated to Heather Stefanson, who beat her by a narrow margin.

In financial disclosures filed Tuesday with Elections Manitoba, Glover raised $188,483, compared to $576,625 donated to the campaign of Stefanson, who won by 363 votes (or 51 per cent of ballots cast).

The Oct. 30 leadership race was called after PC leader and premier Brian Pallister resigned in August. Stefanson was sworn in as Manitobas first female premier Nov. 2.

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Glover went to court to challenge the result of the party leadership vote. The court ruled against her, saying there may have been some irregularities but none that would have changed the outcome of the election.

In her Elections Manitoba financial disclosure, donations less than $250 to Glover amounted to $14,983, while those of $250 or more totalled $173,500.

The donors who gave the most  $3,000  include some prominent Winnipeggers and business owners, such as Peter Ginakes, Andrew Marquess, Ian Rabb, John Prystanski and Thomas De Nardi.

PC party members and operatives such as former Conservative MP Lawrence Toet gave $500, while Marni Larkin donated $1,500 and Taras Sokolyk gave $500.

The candidate donated $2,000 to her own campaign. Her husband, Bruce Glover, gave $1,000.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Municipalities grappling with overland flooding are ramping up preparations to protect buildings from another deluge, as a Colorado low threatens to dump more rain and snow on southern Manitoba.

Municipalities grappling with overland flooding are ramping up preparations to protect buildings from another deluge, as a Colorado low threatens to dump more rain and snow on southern Manitoba.

Staff in cities and towns were busy filling sandbags, getting water pumps ready and inspecting dikes Tuesday, while forecasters said the storm could bring large amounts of precipitation starting Friday and through the weekend.

In Altona, about 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, the curling rink had been turned into a sandbag station, with staff and volunteers aiming to fill 4,000 by the end of the day.

SUPPLIED The curling rink in Altona, about 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, was turned into a sandbag filling station, with staff and volunteers aiming to fill 4,000 by the end of the day.

"Its better to have some in a pile now instead of scrambling on Saturday afternoon," said Mayor Al Friesen.

The town has Tiger Dams, large tubes that are filled with water to create a flood barrier, on standby, after last weekends rain overwhelmed its drainage system and seeped into basements.

In Winnipeg, city staff are working around the clock to clear debris from ditches, catch basins and culverts, and to move water through sewer and drainage systems, said spokesman David Driedger.

Staff will likely fill up to 30,000 sandbags per day in the coming days, he said.

As it makes similar preparations, the City of Selkirk has put contractors on standby in case it needs help pumping spring floodwater, said spokeswoman Vanessa Figus.

"Were hoping for no more rain," she said.

Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk said the province is working with municipalities to make sure they are prepared and have flood-protection equipment such as sandbag machines.

He said the ring dike in St. Adolphe, located next to the rising Red River south of Winnipeg, is being closed, while a partial closure is planned for one in Brunkild. In Morris, workers prepared to erect a large earthern ring dike on Highway 75 in the event its needed.

The province is monitoring Highway 75 in case it needs to be closed, said Piwniuk.

Were hoping for no more rain."  City of Selkirk spokeswoman Vanessa Figus

An overland flood warning is still in effect for parts of southern Manitoba. Flood warnings are in place for the Red River between Emerson and the floodway inlet just south of Winnipeg, and the Assiniboine River between St. Lazare and Griswold.

Lakes in the Whiteshell area are under a high-water advisory, as levels on most lakes continue to rise due to rainfall and snow melt, the province said.

Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, is tracking two systems  an Alberta low, which could affect Manitoba on Thursday, or peter out before it gets here, and a Colorado low expected to arrive in waves, starting Friday.

SUPPLIED Altona staff and volunteers are filling sandbags as part of preparations for a Colorado low, which is expected to sweep into Manitoba on Friday and persist through the weekend.

With the ground still frozen, any rain will be runoff, she said.

"This will only make things worse  adding water to a system that is already quite overwhelmed," said Hasell.

On Tuesday, weather models still disagreed on the Colorado lows course and potential impact. Precipitation amounts could vary widely, with some models predicting 50 mm or more and others forecasting less, said Hasell.

She said precipitation in the Winnipeg area will be in the form of rain, while a mix of rain and snow could fall in southwestern Manitoba.

The Colorado low could bring thunderstorms, strong winds and a chance of freezing rain, said Hasell.

Scott Kehler, president and chief scientist of Weatherlogics, said some models show the storm missing Manitoba.

Forecasters will have a clearer picture by Thursday, he said.

Kehler said the Colorado low may not bring as much precipitation as the one last weekend, which dumped 76.6 mm in Altona and 70.5 mm at The Forks in Winnipeg.

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Amounts could be between 15 and 25 mm in the Red River Valley and 25 to 40 mm in southwestern Manitoba, he said.

"For those areas with flooding (already), it will likely worsen things," he said.

In its latest flood bulletin, the province said water levels in the Red River basin are at peak and staying steady or slowly declining after two days of rapid increases.

Levels on the Red continue to increase, but the rate has slowed "significantly."

Jay Doering, a flood expert and professor of civil engineering at the University of Manitoba, said he expects sections of the Red and Assiniboine rivers to start breaching their banks within days.

It was extremely stressful. If there was (a breach), 1,000 people would have had to have been evacuated.  Winkler Mayor Martin Harder after culverts beneath Highway 32 buckled under the force of running water late Monday night

The current worst-case scenario for the Red River Valley is a flood comparable to 2011, which would force some communities to close their ring dikes, he said.

"Depending on how much precipitation there is (this weekend), that water could begin to encroach on the upper levels of these ring dike communities," he said.

U.S. National Weather Service warning co-ordination meteorologist Greg Gust said the Red is expected to crest at 50 ft. at the Canada-U.S. border May 5.

That would be the seventh-highest crest on record for Pembina, N.D., and about half a foot lower than the flood of 2020, he said.

"Its a typical high-end moderate to major flooding scenario," he said.

The record of 54.94 ft. was set in 1997.

Gust warned the crest could be higher if the Colorado low brings heavy rain.

Joey Siemens photo Crews continued work Tuesday morning in Winkler, about 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, after metal culverts beneath Highway 32 buckled under the force of running water late Monday night.

Disaster was averted in Winkler after culverts beneath Highway 32 buckled under the force of running water late Monday night.

The damaged culverts blocked the flow of water, causing it to back up into an open field and rise against a dike, said Winkler Mayor Martin Harder.

Winkler sent potential evacuation notices to residents, as crews worked into the early hours Tuesday to pump water and clear the blockage.

"It was extremely stressful," said Harder. "If there was (a breach), 1,000 people would have had to have been evacuated."

He is concerned about the potential for more rain and snow melt on an escarpment about 30 kilometres west of Winkler.

"If we get a couple inches of rain this weekend, and that water comes down (the escarpment), its going to be tough," he said. "We have no place to go with the water, other than the natural flow."

Temperatures are set to rise across Manitoba, with Environment Canada predicting daytime highs of 8 C on Wednesday and 12 C over the weekend in Winnipeg.

Forecasters said a break in the rain and cooler weather brought a reprieve after the weekend deluge, as the effects of the last storm were still being felt.

Thousands of Manitoba Hydro customers in the Dauphin were still without power Tuesday after ice brought down lines and poles over the weekend.

 with files from Danielle Da Silva

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching
Despite COVID-19 vaccine boosters being hailed by Canadas chief public health officer as the best way to prevent serious illness and hospitalizations, the province says its not planning to do more to get Manitobans to get their shots.

Despite COVID-19 vaccine boosters being hailed by Canadas chief public health officer as the best way to prevent serious illness and hospitalizations, the province says its not planning to do more to get Manitobans to get their shots.

"All of my colleagues have been out diligently talking about the importance of getting boosters and well continue to send that message," Premier Heather Stefanson said Tuesday, when asked about rising COVID-19 cases causing problems for Winnipeg emergency departments, resulting in longer wait times and historic levels of staff absenteeism.

"We take advice from public health when it comes to this," the premier said at a news conference announcing the expansion of the St. Boniface Hospital ER.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canadas chief public health officer, said recently the third vaccine dose is "really important" because the Omicron variant evades immunity. A third shot can boost reduction against infection and transmission to others and strengthen the immunity against severe outcomes, she said.

The province has shut down its vaccination super sites and left it to pharmacies to dole out COVID-19 shots. Manitoba also shuttered its online vaccine tracker.

As of April 10, just 50.5 per cent of Manitobans ages 12 and up had their third shot, compared to the national average of 54.2 per cent, according to data Manitoba sends to the federal government.

When asked if the Progressive Conservative government is doing enough to encourage Manitobans to get vaccinated, Health Minister Audrey Gordon insisted it is.

"Were doing absolutely a lot to get that message out," she told reporters Tuesday.

"I myself was publicly vaccinated for my third dose," said Gordon. "We have social media campaigns running We still have our COVID vaccine (bus) benches (ads) out."

Gordon said her doctor checked the electronic medical record to ensure she was "triple-dosed" at an appointment last week.

"Our physicians are doing that, pharmacists are doing the same. Its a whole-of-the-health-care system approach to ensure Manitobans know about the importance of this," said Gordon. "Well continue to make those efforts to ensure Manitobans know how important it is to get vaccinated.

"Were not out of the woods yet, and vaccination is our best defence against COVID-19."

Later in the day, the province issued a news release "celebrating the success" of its vaccination campaign  more than 85 per cent of Manitobans received two doses  and thanked the implementation task force for its work.

However, "Two doses is not enough," said Dr. Nazeem Muhajarine.

The community health and epidemiology professor at the University of Saskatchewan and director of its population health and evaluation unit wants to retire the term "fully vaccinated." Before COVID-19 is under control and considered endemic, people will need three, four or potentially five doses of the vaccine, he said.

"We need to be talking about Are you up to date with your vaccines for COVID-19?" Muhajarine said from Saskatoon. "That is the language we need to communicate. That is whats going to protect you from going to the hospital and having serious COVID and maybe losing your life."

Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew said the provincial government could do a lot more to encourage residents.

During the previous stages of the vaccination campaign there were public clinics, outreach efforts and aggressive advertising, Kinew said.

"As we see our hospitals overrun with patients and we see the health system straining under the impact of PC cuts, it seems like its a pretty common sense intervention for us to throw more resources, more effort and more urgency behind the campaign to get more Manitobans vaccinated."

On Monday, Muhajarine took part in a national call with experts to discuss behavioral approaches to risk minimization over the coming months of the pandemic.

A "vaccine-plus" strategy is needed, the doctor said Tuesday, including people donning N95 masks in some situations.

"Particularly when they are inside places where they dont know the quality of the air that theyre breathing and they dont know who is vaccinated, who has had up-to-date boosters," he said.

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"Governments need to talk about this, and public health authorities need to step up and talk about what they mean by living with COVID."

The chief executive officer of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority was asked Tuesday if he thought more people wearing masks might help alleviate some of the pandemic strain hospitals are now facing.

"The challenges that we face as a system are not going to be singularly fixed by a public health order," Mike Nader said at the St. Boniface Hospital news event.

"The issues and the challenges that we are experiencing within the health system are multifaceted. I think people are doing what they feel they need to do in terms of protecting themselves," he said.

"Id encourage people to continue to do that to get the vaccinations and booster shots."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
MORRIS  Officials prepared for the potential call to close Highway 75, the main link to the U.S. border, at the northern end of town, where an excavator smoothed out massive mounds of black soil on the ring dike next to the Morris River.

MORRIS  Officials prepared for the potential call to close Highway 75, the main link to the U.S. border, at the northern end of town, where an excavator smoothed out massive mounds of black soil on the ring dike next to the Morris River.

Workers trucked in loads of earth to build up the banks near the swollen river, a tributary of the Red River.

If it gets too high, Manitoba Infrastructure will make the call to extend the dike across the highway.

As of right now, were already seeing water levels back up at the peak of what we had earlier in the spring, with potentially more to come, Morris Mayor Scott Crick said Tuesday, in reference to a Colorado low that may land in southern Manitoba this weekend.

The Red River at the eastern edge of the town had dropped considerably before the weekend rain, Crick said. At this time, the towns flood outlook was average.

They Morris River has risen to the bottom of the Highway 75 bridge, but floodwater is well below the limits of the dike.

We are fully protected, Crick said.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS After the big event in 1997, we took action and prepared for events like this, said Ralph Groening, reeve of the rural municipality of Morris. Am I concerned? Yes, because it (the flood) is going to isolate some homes.

Crick said the province will keep this route open for as long as possible, though its likely to be closed as of Friday.

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst  thats certainly what we do, Crick said.

Provincial crews will continue to monitor water levels. A flood warning remains in effect for the Red River from Emerson to the Red River Floodway Inlet south of Winnipeg and the La Salle River at Sanford.

The north section of the Morris ring dike was sealed for four weeks in 2011  the last time there was a closure. In 2020 and 2021, the province built a ramp on the Highway 75 bridge to allow traffic to pass through.

Crick expects the upcoming closure of Highway 75 will cause inconvenience people who commute in and out of the town.

However, the provinces recent upgrades to Provincial Road 246 east of the Red River will give drivers a reliable detour, Crick said.

Morris is touched with signs of flood-readiness. Some are physical, like the clumps of mud along the towns main drag lost on the way to the dike, or the Manitoba government workers who waded into ditches south of town Tuesday to take GPS readings that inform when, and to what extent, the ring dike will close.

Other signs are subtle, like conversations at coffee shops and gas stations about the rising rivers and soggy back roads.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Crews prepare the town dike in case water levels dictate closure of the dike in Morris.

After the big event in 1997, we took action and prepared for events like this, said Ralph Groening, reeve of the rural municipality of Morris. Am I concerned? Yes, because it (the flood) is going to isolate some homes.

The RMs emergency services organization is working with one family who may choose to relocate until floodwater no longer threatens their road access, which Groening says is crucial to keeping residents safe.

We will allow people to remain even if they lose road access. Most of our people have boats But young children shouldnt be in that kind of vulnerable position, Groening said. Theres a culture of meeting the challenge of high water.

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If the floodwater continues to rise, the next step is for the province to close the western opening of the ring dike, and, if the situation worsens, the southern entrance. Morris is equipped to withstand the flood, and most, if not all, residents outside the community hadraised their homes following the flood of 1997, Groening said.

RM crews continue to clear snow and ice from nearby channels, culverts and ditches so water can flow freely.

Groening said he isnt aware of any property damage, though there has been substantial overland flooding.

There are fields that essentially look like lakes, Groening said.

An overland flood warning remains for southern Manitoba from the Saskatchewan border to Highway 12 and from the U.S. border to the Trans-Canada Highway. The warning includes areas north of the Trans-Canada Highway between Highway 5 and Highway 16, and north of the Trans-Canada Highway between Portage la Prairie and Winnipeg.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
Shortly after the failure of the 1992 Charlottetown constitutional referendum, some of the Prime Ministers Office staff held a party  well, more of a wake, actually. Buttons were handed out with the sardonic slogan, The Elites Want In.

Opinion

Shortly after the failure of the 1992 Charlottetown constitutional referendum, some of the Prime Ministers Office staff held a party  well, more of a wake, actually. Buttons were handed out with the sardonic slogan, "The Elites Want In."

The black humour was aimed at the populist Reform Partys slogan of "The West Wants In."

Populism versus elitism is having a major moment in Canada today. When democracy is under duress and political cohesion is under stress, then back-to-basics is the right strategy. In a word, governance.

Canadas constitutional brand of "peace, order, and good government" is literally a bumper sticker for good governance. Good governance fosters public trust. Good governance is equivalent to what you do when no one is looking. Next to an electoral system, it is the core building block of democratic integrity.

It is not just the "how" of decision-making, but the "why." Because the reason governments act in the way they do either confirms, or corrodes, democratic legitimacy.

Three examples  one national, one provincial and one municipal  show this "governance equals trust" connection.

The national example is governments elimination of continuous public reporting of COVID-19 information. At the first sign of relief from the Omicron wave in February, our governments pronounced the end of the pandemic. The best way to return to normal was to take down the caution signals that blinked danger: no COVID-19 data equals no COVID-19 problem.

Information is the lifeblood of democratic legitimacy, just as disinformation is the poison. Information allows citizens to stay informed and keep their politicians accountable. Publicly accessible information is the building block of sound public policy. That, in turn, is bedrock good governance.

This final stumble of public-health governance didnt have to be. The early pandemic days stood up a new way of decision-making that initially worked with the public. Chief public health officers emerged as the calming faces and voices of government decision-making.

Premiers and health ministers found it safer politically, and more convincing publicly, if they allowed these previously unknown officials to talk more than the politicians.

And talk they did, providing needed direction, information, explanation and reassurance in those early, fearful pandemic days. A trust bond between the public and public-health officers formed. Acceptance of public-health measures, including the safety and efficacy of vaccines that paved the way out of the pandemic, was linked to this trust. Until it wasnt.

But governments underestimated the need to systemize this new form of governance with proper transparency and accountability about who was making decisions, and on what these decisions were based. "Trust the science" (what could sound more elitist?) became increasingly tenuous as the virus mutated with each new wave. Governments scrambled to explain why COVID-19 kept coming back, and new public-health restrictions were needed because governments held decision-making too tightly and too opaquely.

This was a missed governance opportunity with profound consequences for the countrys democratic systems as well as public health. The public-health emergency governance put in place would have worked with a "one and done" COVID-19 wave , but not with a two-year pandemic that required vaccination against public mistrust if we were to end it with minimal social and economic damage.

The provincial example is Manitobas auditor-general report last week on implementation of the Path to Reconciliation Act. It found that the "reconciliation efforts were lacking cross-government co-ordination." This is a classic governance problem, regardless of topic. Governments operate in siloes, a function of practical program delivery but also political and financial accountability to the legislature in our system of responsible government.

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Trouble is, the most important economic, social and environmental issues dont fit into a government organization chart. We will not make the progress we want or need on truth and reconciliation until we create new governance models with Indigenous peoples and First Nations. These do not yet exist.

The municipal example is the City of Ottawas police response to the illegal truckers convoy that blockaded the downtown core this winter. The Ottawa police forces inability, or unwillingness, to act generated strong public dissatisfaction. It raised big governance questions about civic direction and oversight of operational police decisions.

It led to the forced resignations of the Ottawa Police Board Services chairperson and other members. And it contributed to the federal governments invocation of the Emergencies Act to finally clear the streets. Trust in the citys police services took a hit.

These examples show that Canada faces more of a trust crisis than a full-fledged democracy crisis. But warning signs exist. The centripetal forces of alienation, nativism and populism seen in America, Britain, France and elsewhere are growing here, too.

If we cant rely on national political leaders and parties to do more than cater to their minority bases of support, then the last bastion of broad public trust is the way we govern ourselves. We need to place more attention on the "plumbing" of public governance to re-instill confidence, trust and legitimacy in the decisions taken by our governments.

David McLaughlin was Clerk of the Executive Council in the government of Manitoba in 2020-21. He was campaign manager for the PC Party of Manitoba in the 2016 and 2019 elections.
The day before a provincial election was called in March 2016, Manitobas legislative assembly unanimously approved Bill 18, the Path to Reconciliation Act.

The day before a provincial election was called in March 2016, Manitobas legislative assembly unanimously approved Bill 18, the Path to Reconciliation Act.

It was a rare moment in provincial politics when MLAs from all parties laid down their partisan arms and collaborated on a matter of urgent importance to Manitobans. The bill was fast-tracked to ensure it was proclaimed into law before an expected election the following month. It was a co-operative effort that, procedurally, required the support of all parties.

A week earlier, MLAs heard from presenters on the bill at public hearings. Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was among them. He supported the bill and suggested amendments to strengthen it  changes that were adopted by legislators.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Governments have a singular obligation to lead, because governments have, through legislation, done the most damage where Aboriginal people are concerned, said Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Mr. Sinclair reminded the legislative committee reviewing the bill that reconciliation is not just about Indigenous people healing themselves: "Governments have a singular obligation to lead, because governments have, through legislation, done the most damage where Aboriginal people are concerned," he said, adding that the need for concrete action is critical.

"Reconciliation is not a hard concept to understand," said Mr. Sinclair. "Its kind of like a dance: we each have to follow our own movements, but from time to time, we actually have to hang on to each other and touch in order to make it work."

Reconciliation is not a hard concept to understand... Its kind of like a dance: we each have to follow our own movements, but from time to time, we actually have to hang on to each other and touch in order to make it work.  Murray Sinclair

Although the bill was sponsored by then-NDP minister of aboriginal and northern affairs Eric Robinson, it was enthusiastically endorsed by all members of the legislative assembly.

Kelvin Goertzen, the official Opposition house leader at the time for the Progressive Conservative party (and now justice minister), said passing Bill 18 "cant just be talk; there has to be action with it."

"It will be important that whoever is in government continues to look and adhere to the issues of this particular bill, not just the letter of the bill, but the spirit of the bill," he said.

Six years later, there has been very little action. The PC government, under both former premier Brian Pallister and current Premier Heather Stefanson, has almost completely ignored its obligations under the act, according to a report released last week by Auditor General Tyson Shtykalo.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES The PC government has almost completely ignored its obligations under the act, according to a report released last week by Auditor General Tyson Shtykalo.

The legislation requires the province to develop a strategy to implement a framework for reconciliation within government, guided by the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. All cabinet ministers are required to take specific measures to advance reconciliation within their departments. Survivors of residential schools are supposed to be asked for their input. None of those steps has been taken.

Most Indigenous leaders in Manitoba, when surveyed, said provincial officials do not adequately consult Indigenous people, nor show them the respect they deserve, the report also found.

The Stefanson governments response to the auditor generals findings has been, at best, half-hearted. While the province has accepted all of Mr. Shtykalos recommendations, Indigenous Reconciliation Minister Alan Lagimodiere saw fit to respond publicly to the report with only a brief email statement containing mostly vague commitments. Premier Stefanson, meanwhile, said her government plans to listen to the Indigenous community and follow their "advice and wisdom" on reconciliation.

"This is going to be driven by them, not us," she said, a statement that sounded an awful lot like buck-passing.

This is going to be driven by them, not us.  Premier Heather Stefanson

Reconciliation is a two-way street. Government must listen and consult. However, as Mr. Sinclair said six years ago, government has an obligation to lead because it is government that has caused (and, in some cases, continues to cause) the most damage to the lives of Indigenous people.

Ms. Stefanson doesnt seem to understand that part of the dance.
Seventy-four new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Winona County from April 20 to April 26 by the Minnesota Department of Health.

The case increase is over 40% more than the previous week, when 52 cases were confirmed. The increase in cases has been a trend in the county during the past month.

No new deaths were reported during this time.

As of April 26, the countys totals had reached 12,853 cases and 72 deaths.

As for vaccinations, 63.9% of Winona County residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday, while 61.3% have received a full vaccine series and 42.8% are fully up to date on their recommended doses.

A 0.1% increase compared to the previous week was experienced for those who have received a full COVID-19 vaccine series.

For more information about COVID-19 in Winona County and Minnesota as a whole, visit health.state.mn.us.

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With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information.

SKYWORTH Auto launches HT-i with 1,267km of range

SKYWORTH Auto officially launched its HT-i model and the new EV6 model. The HT-i is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with a combined range of 1,267km. The model is priced at RMB149,800 to RMB199,800 ($22,858 to $30,488). In addition, SKYWORTH Auto announced that it had sold 11,105 units of the EV6 in nine months.

Photo credit: SKYWORTH Auto



Roewe iMAX8 EV to start presale on May 5th

SAIC Motors is starting the presale of the Roewe iMAX8 EV model on May 5th. The new model inherits the design language of its original oil-fueled model.

Ningbo Ronbay New Energy partners with Welion

According to an announcement made by Ronbay New Energy, it has partnered with Welion for lithium-ion battery development. From 2022 to 2025, Welion is contracted to purchase no less than 30,000 tons of solid-state lithium-ion battery cathode materials from Ronbay New Energy.

EVE Energy sets up battery-swap subsidiary

On April 27th, Chinas battery supplier EVE Energy established a new subsidiary, namely Chengdu EVE Energy Co., Ltd., with an RMB50 million registered capital. The new companys business scopes include sales of new energy equipment and battery swap equipment.

XPeng granted 7.5 billion yuan of credit line by Agricultural Bank of China



XPeng announced on April 27 it has signed a cooperation agreement with the Guangdong branch of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) for a credit line worth up to 7.5 billion yuan ($1.143 billion), the biggest amount ABC has ever granted to an NEV startup in China.

Sokon signs contract with CATL for long-term battery supply

Chinese automaker Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co., Ltd. (Sokon) stated on April 26 it has inked long-term contracts with core suppliers like CATL as part of efforts to keep its production capacity stable when facing the challenges including the pandemic and the shortage of raw materials.

UMC, DENSO ally on automotive power semiconductors

Japanese auto parts supplier DENSO Corporation (DENSO) and United Semiconductor Japan Co., Ltd. (USJC), a subsidiary of the semiconductor supplier United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), announced on April 26 that they had agreed to team up on the production of power semiconductors, in a bid to meet the global rising demands in electric vehicle (EV) field.

CATL, Aiways team up on EVOGO battery swapping project

Chinese EV startup Aiways and the power battery titan CATL recently inked a framework agreement for the cooperation on the EVOGO battery swapping project, according to a statement AIWAYS posted on its WeChat account on Wednesday.

Leapmotor's C01 features 717km CLTC range

Chinas electric vehicle startup Leapmotor released more details about its upcoming model, the C01, on April 26th. The vehicle will be available for presale in May.

HUAWEI to launch new models in 2022

Chinas ICT giant HUAWEI announced that there would be a new HUAWEI-powered models coming this year at its 19th Global Analyst Summit in Shenzhen on April 26th.

Dongfeng Hondas e:NS1 BEV model goes on sale, starting at 175,000 yuan

Dongfeng Honda, the joint venture between Honda Motor and Dongfeng Motor Group, announced its first Honda-branded BEV model, the e:NS1, formally hit the market on April 26. Coming with four trim levels, the model is priced between 175,000 yuan ($26,680) and 218,000 yuan ($33,235) after subsidies.
CHIPPEWA FALLS  A 14-year-old boy accused of killing a 10-year-old Wisconsin girl knew the girl and planned the attack, knocking her down and choking her before sexually assaulting her, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The body of Illiana Lily Peters was found Monday along a walking trail just a day after she went missing while returning home from an aunts house a few blocks away, sparking anxiety in her small western Wisconsin community before the teenagers arrest Tuesday.

The boy, identified only by his initials, appeared in adult court in Chippewa County by video from a juvenile detention center. Judge Benjamin Lane agreed to District Attorney Wade Newells request for $1 million cash bond.

Lane said the high bond was necessary to protect the community given the teens statements regarding his intentions and his statements regarding that when he did get off the trail, he punched the victim in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, essentially strangled her, hit her with a stick, before strangling her to the point of death  before he then sexually assaulted her, Newell told the judge at the bond hearing.

The teen made statements that his intention was to rape and kill the victim from the get-go, Newell said.

The defense had argued for $100,000 cash bond.

The judge sealed the criminal complaint, but Newell said after the hearing that the boy is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault and first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13 resulting in great bodily harm.

Wisconsin law generally calls for juveniles age 10 and up to be prosecuted as adults when they are charged with first-degree intentional homicide. The judge set a May 5 status hearing in the case.

Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matthew Kelm announced the arrest of the suspect Tuesday evening, after police earlier executed a search warrant at the home of Lilys aunt and the last place the girl was seen before she disappeared. Kelm said police got more than 200 tips, calling them critical to the investigation.

While nothing will bring Lily Peters back or change what happened, we are very grateful to be able to deliver this news for the family and for the community, Kelm said.

People in the town of about 13,000 left drawings, flowers, candles and stuffed animals at Lilys elementary school and on a downtown bridge to remember the girl, with some residents dressing in purple to honor her. Chelsea Torgerson said she kept her daughter home from school Tuesday, before the arrest was announced, just for my own peace of mind.

I know these things happen in the world every day, but this is just so close, she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Torgersons daughter, 8-year-old Ava Johnson, attends Parkview Elementary School  the same school where Lily was a fourth-grader.

Its every parents worst nightmare, Torgerson said.

One resident has started an online petition on Change.org to create what he called a Lily Alert for cases that dont qualify for traditional Amber Alerts. Currently, Amber Alerts may be issued only if a child is 17 or younger and thought to be in danger of serious bodily harm or death.

Any parent would agree that when a child is missing, even for a short amount of time, and they need help then help should be sent, resident Eric Henry said in the petition. The community is devastated and rallied to start a search group for the missing child. We can do better as a community and must be proactive. We need an alert with less regulations around it so we can respond quicker to missing children.

The petition had more than 56,000 signatures as of Wednesday night.

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Wisconsin River Meats, N5340 Highway HH, Mauston, will host Wisconsin River Porkfest from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 7 with music by Bree Morgan, a farmers market, arts and crafts, in-store specials and food. Pig roast dinner is $9, pig roast pork sandwiches, $4 and brats for $3.
Following an independent investigation into allegations of workplace misconduct and questionable leadership, Daniel Hardman will return to his positions with the Village of Lake Delton.

The Dells-Delton EMS and Delton Fire Commissions agreed Tuesday to a unanimous decision made a day before by the Village Board of Trustees to reinstate Hardman as the police chief and director of public safety effective Wednesday. After a two-plus month investigation by an outside law firm that included interviews with members of IAFF Local 5026, the union which issued a vote of no confidence against Hardman on Feb. 7, Hardman was cleared of any wrongdoing.

In this case, I believe that a very fair and thorough investigation was done into the allegations against Chief Hardman and he was exonerated, said Lake Delton Village Attorney Benoit LeTendre, of West & Dunn law firm.

Local 5026 represents emergency medical technicians and paramedics working for Dells-Delton Emergency Medical Services. Stafford Rosenbaum LLP conducted the investigation, and attorney Ted Waskowski presented the findings orally to the Village Board during a closed session Tuesday.

Ultimately, Ted Waskowski found one: Absolutely no evidence of criminal misconduct, said LeTendre. Second: There was no substantiating evidence related to any kind of sexual or workplace harassment. Accordingly, he recommended that no disciplinary action be taken.

Attempts to reach Hardman for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful.

LeTendre added that after extensive deliberations from the Village Board and the two commissions, the decision was made to fully reinstate Hardman to his positions.

Sometimes he is a little abrupt and he can be harsh in his criticism at times, but nothing rising to the level of certainly sexual misconduct and certainly nothing rising to the level of actual workplace harassment, LeTendre said.

The Village Board, in conjunction with the commissions, changed the grievance process for Dells-Delton EMS employees. All complaints will be addressed to the services director, Dillon Gavinski. Prior to the investigation, such complaints went to Hardman. If any availability conflicts arise with Gavinski, the complaints will go to Lake Delton village administrator Tim McCumber, and then village President John Webb if McCumber is not available.

Gavinski declined to comment on the reinstatement of Hardman.

This is to avoid a lot of the friction that seems to exist between, right now, Dan Hardman and EMS, said LeTendre. He will no longer entertain or review those complaints and grievances.

McCumber, after conversations with Waskowski and Gavinski, said that he anticipates employee departures from Dells-Delton EMS as a result of the decision to reinstate Hardman. He said the losses should be minimal at best.

As far as the relationship with EMS, obviously, we have to work to rebuild their trust in the organization, said McCumber. At the same time, were giving them new avenues to address their grievances directly to the EMS director rather than Mr. Hardman to try and keep those internal to the department.

Hardman was placed on paid administrative leave on Feb. 8 during an emergency meeting of the Village Board and the two commissions after a letter  signed by all 16 current Dells-Delton EMS employees  was released by IAFF Local 5026 President Spencer Nett detailing allegations of discrimination, harassment, sexism and unwanted physical touching in Hardmans role as director of public safety.

Attempts to reach Nett for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Even on face value, while the initial complaint somewhat caught us off guard, reading it, there was nothing there that would have risen to the level of needing to terminate the chief for any reason, McCumber said. One of the primary reasons we hired Stafford Rosenbaum was to make sure that we did not have a systemic or deeper problem we werent aware of.

Another finding of the investigation were allegations of misconduct by Delton Fire Department Fire Chief Darren Jorgenson. With the findings, Jorgenson has been placed on paid administrative leave while another investigation by Stafford Rosenbaum LLP is conducted.

As director of public safety, Hardman oversees day-to-day operations of emergency medical and fire services for the local area along with his role as police chief.
The Portage Area Community Theater is in the process of breathing new life into a story more than 100 years old, and honoring its author, a Portage native who rose to fame through her literary works.

Auditions for Miss Lulu Bett took place in March. Now, around 20 people on the cast and crew are currently wrapping up wardrobe fittings, building their last few set walls, and preparing for next weeks preview showing.

I got really lucky because the people we cast are just fitting their parts so well, said Director John Ribar. Theyre good workers.

The show was chosen this year in honor of its 100th anniversary. Its author  Portage native Zona Gale  became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1921. The PACT production will run May 5 through May 15.

In three acts, the show portrays its titular character, Lulu, through her struggle to find independence while living as a servant in her sisters house.

If you go When: May 5, 6, 12, 13, and 14 at 7 p.m. and May 8 and 15 at 2 p.m. Where: Portage Center for the Arts, 301 E. Cook St., Portage Tickets: $5 for students, $15 for adults Call 608-742-5655 for reservations or more information.

Gale, for whom the PACT was originally named the Zona Gale Center, is a significant figure in Portages history. Her former house in the town, where she wrote many of her stories, serves as the Museum at the Portage.

Gale was born in Portage in 1874, went to school at UW-Madison and spent six years as a journalist in Milwaukee and New York. She returned to the city in 1904, according to Wisconsin Historical Society, to focus full-time on her fiction writing.

While the community theater recently lifted its mask mandate, the pandemic is still a reality for the cast, which is currently one member short due to COVID.

Well have to see if shes going to make it back in time, said Ribar.

Additionally, scheduling rehearsals is a challenge.

People have jobs, they have families, they have other things theyve got to do, said Ribar.

Katie Seiler, who plays Lulu in the show, said she can attest to life getting in the way. For Seiler, the show will break a 20-year absence from the stage, during which time she was raising three sons and running a photography business.

All those things kind of take you away from hobbies, Seiler said.

Now, her sons are more independent, and she said shes excited to perform for an audience once again.

Its really been a great experience to get back on the stage and to meet all of these people, Seiler said. Just being able to be creative and kind of escape reality for a bit.

An escape from reality, said Seiler, is exactly what she hopes to offer audiences with the show.

Im excited for people to just enjoy it, she said.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  Russia and the United States have carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America, both countries announced Wednesday.

The surprise deal involving Trevor Reed, an American jailed for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace, but it was all the more extraordinary because it was done as Russia's war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

"Today, our prayers have been answered and Trevor is on his way back safely to the United States," Reed's family said in a statement.

President Joe Biden, who met in Washington with Reed's parents last month, trumpeted Reed's release and noted without elaboration that "the negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly." The Russian foreign ministry described the exchange as the "result of a long negotiation process."

Multiple other Americans still remain jailed in Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan.

Reed, a former Marine from Texas, was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though his family has maintained his innocence and the U.S. government described him as unjustly detained and expressed concern about his declining health.

The U.S. agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S.

Russia had sought Yaroshenko's return for years while also rejecting entreaties by high-level U.S. officials to release Reed, who was nearing his 1,000th day in custody and whose health had recently been worsening, according to his family.

A senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, described Reed's case as one of "utmost priority" for the Biden administration, including because of his health, which his family has said included a tuberculosis diagnosis.

"It was a difficult decision but one that we thought was worth it," the official said.

The two prisoners were swapped in a European country. Though officials would not say where the transfer took place, in the hours before it happened commercial flight trackers identified a plane belonging to Russia's federal security service as flying to Ankara, Turkey. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons also updated its website overnight to reflect that Yaroshenko was no longer in custody.

Reed was en route back to the U.S., traveling with Roger Cartsens, the U.S. government's special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

The prisoner swap marks the highest-profile release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad and comes even as families of detainees who have met over the last year with administration officials had described them as cool to the idea of an exchange.

The U.S. government does not typically embrace such exchanges for fear that it might encourage foreign governments to take additional Americans as prisoners as a way to extract concessions and to avoid a potential false equivalency between an unjustly detained American  which U.S. officials believe Reed was  and a properly convicted criminal.

In this case, though, the U.S. official said the deal made sense in part because Yaroshenko had already served a long portion of his prison sentence, which has now been commuted.

The Reed family thanked Biden "for making the decision to bring Trevor home" as well as other administration officials and Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, whom the family said traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reed's release.

The Reed family had also been working with a consultant, Jonathan Franks, who has been involved in other recent high-profile releases, including the case of Michael White, a Navy veteran freed from Iran in 2020.

The release had no immediate impact on the cases of other Americans held by Russia. Those include Griner, who was detained in February after authorities said a search of her bag revealed a cannabis derivative, and Whelan, who is being held on espionage-related charges his family says are bogus.

U.S. officials have described Whelan as unjustly detained, and Biden said Wednesday that "we won't stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends."
Beijing (Gasgoo)- In the first quarter of 2022, passenger vehicles featuring L2 autonomous driving functions accounted for 23.2% of Chinas new-vehicle market, according to a report released by International Data Corporation.

Photo credit: NIO



Among the new energy vehicle (NEV) market, L2 autonomous driving NEVs held 35% of the market. Meanwhile, L2-functioned gasoline vehicles accounted for 19.9% of the new gasoline car market.

In the L2 autonomous driving market, 67.2% were gasoline cars from Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and others. Among the rest 32.8% of NEVs, 10.9% were from traditional automakers, including BYD, GAC AION, and Volkswagen. New energy vehicle startups such as Tesla, NIO, Li Auto, and XPeng held the other 21.9%.

Among all automakers in China, Toyota had the most elaborate layout of L2 autonomous driving functions. Within its massive product portfolio, almost all models priced at RMB100,000 and up ($15,259) were equipped with L2 functions, with an exception of several entry-level models.

Different from Toyotas safety-oriented position, Great Wall Motors L2 autonomous functions leaned towards the technological side. The Chinese automaker was more inclined to use the said technologies to ramp up its brand image.

In the new energy vehicle market, BYD, who has recently renounced oil-fueled vehicles, broadly deployed L2 autonomous functions onto its higher-end models, such as the Han and Tang dynasty series.

As to NEV startups, Li Autos vehicles come standard with L2 autonomous driving functions. The high-end trims of NIOs vehicles also come standard with the functions, while the lower-level trims see the functions as add-ons, whereas XPeng only deployed L2 functions onto its premium-level trims.
Lafayette is a consolidated city-parish situated in the Acadiana Region on the Gulf Coast in the US State of Louisiana. It is the country's 234th most populous city and the 4th largest incorporated municipality in Louisiana. The city exhibits a rich cultural legacy shaped by ancestors of diverse backgrounds coming together and settling here. Lafayette's geographical location and its rise to prominence have given it the nickname "Hub City," thus enabling it to take a big part in the economic cycle of the state. The city offers an urban life convenience and has been a favorite destination for many.

Geography And Climate Of Lafayette

Aerial view of Lafayette, Louisiana.

Lafayette is a city located in south-central Louisiana and seated on the West Gulf Coastal Plain. It is regarded as the 4th largest in terms of area and 5th most populous in the state. The city is blessed with many natural streams and is situated along the Vermilion River, where the city developed itself on both sides of the river. Draining into the Gulf of Mexico, the river flows through the city as a 70 miles stretch. Other significant waterways and natural drainage canals lie within the city and lead to the Vermilion River. However, Lafayette is not made of wetlands as much as the neighboring areas on its south and west. The city is stationed on the western rim of a 325 ft deep valley between Baton Rouge and Lafayette. The valley was cut by the Mississippi River in the Quaternary period and was later filled. Lafayette was part of the seabed in the early times of that period. The valley is now known as the Atchafalaya Basin. Lafayette is stationed only 95km away from Baton Rouge and about 217km from New Orleans. The city sits on an elevation of 11.0m at its lowest point above sea level and 15m at its highest. The total area of Lafayette is approximately 144.1 sq. km, of which only 0.21 sq. km is covered by water, while the rest is land.

Like most of its surrounding region, Lafayettes climate is classified as humid subtropical according to the Koppen climate classification. Lafayettes inland location makes it relatively safe from natural disasters. However, it is susceptible to flooding as it lies at a low altitude, while also hurricanes are a common natural disaster.

Brief History Of Lafayette

Immaculata - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in Lafayette, Louisiana. Editorial credit: Victoria Ditkovsky / Shutterstock.com

Before the arrival of the early European settlers, Attakapa Indians have initially been inhabiting the region, historically known as the districts of Attakapa and Opelousas. In the 1760s, exiled Acadians from French Canada migrated to Louisiana and entered the area, leading to the foundation of the area's first European settlement. In the 1820s, Lafayette was planned and initially named St. Jean du Vermilionville, later shortened to Vermilionville. The town was incorporated in 1836, outlining the village's boundaries and later expanding them in 1869. The name stayed with the town as Verminionville until 1844, when it was officially dubbed Lafayette in honor of the French General, Marquis de Lafayette. The city still preserves its rich history, legacy, and cultural identity, mixed in Cajun, Creole, Spanish, French, and Caribbean. Till now, the Cajun dialect is spoken by many.

The Population And Economy Of Lafayette

Bonefish Grill is a popular restaurant in downtown Lafayette, Louisiana. Editorial credit: Victoria Ditkovsky / Shutterstock.com

Lafayette inhibits a total population of 121,374, as recorded by the US Census in 2020. It has seen a population increase in the past years and has grown at substantial rates since its early settlement. The city is estimated to reach its way up to 150,000 quickly. The total median age is 35.8, with more than 100,000 adults residing in the city. Females are slightly higher in percentage than males, constituting 51.9% of the total gender distribution. The racial makeup of Lafayette is mostly White, estimated at 62.8%, while 30.5% are of African American race. Hispanics or Latinos, Asians, and other races or origins constitute a tiny percentage. French or Creole French is spoken by about 11.5% of the population, while English is spoken by over 84%.

During the city's early days, Lafayette had agriculture as a primary driver of its economy, depending on cotton, corn, and sugarcane. After discovering oil and gas in the area in the 1940s, petroleum and gas industries grew significantly and placed Lafayette as a supply center for the booming sectors of southern Louisiana. Therefore, it has created a cosmopolitan community, attracting businesses and people from around the world. Today, Lafayette's economy makes its way through manufacturing and fabrication. The city still is a major distribution center for sugar, livestock, lumber, and cotton. It has seen a rise in other industries, such as the IT industry, which is growing significantly. Poverty in Lafayette is slightly high, as about 18.4% of the residents live in poverty. Moreover, the median household income is $54,139, which is relatively good, and per capita income is $33,362, both recorded in 2020. The level of education is considered high, with an average of 90.3% being high school graduates or higher, while 39.3% obtaining a bachelor's degree or higher.

Tourist Attractions In Lafayette

White Egret flies in Cajun Swamp & Lake Martin, near Breaux Bridge and Lafayette, Louisiana.

The city of Lafayette is very diverse in culture and hosts a vast selection of experiences. It is considered the heart of Cajun & Creole Country and was recognized as the happiest city in the US back in 2014. Lafayette is one laid-back and calm area that exhibits a welcoming atmosphere. It boasts a basketful of attractions such as museums, music clubs, natural wonders, and old towns.

The celebration of Lafayettes vibrant culture is shown in Mardi Gras and other street festivals that reveal the true colors of the citys traditions and heritage. The citys architecture portrays a genuine and authentic Acadian experience with historical plantations dating to the early 1800s. Lafayette is an epicenter of Cajun cuisine that is steeped in its tradition. The tasty culinary scene in Lafayette is widely expressed as the city host more restaurants per capita comparably with any other city in the US. Lafayette is also enjoyed with a blend of distinctive Cajun and Zydeco music. Continuous efforts are being made to relive and sustain some old customs and traditions in Lafayette while also conserving its nature.
Police officers escort US ex-marine Trevor Reed, charged with attacking police, into a courtroom prior to a hearing in Moscow on March 11, 2020. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP) (Photo by ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images)
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In March 2022, Guangzhou, the capital of South China's Guangdong province, was credited the second runner-up among cities on the Chinese mainland with its registrations of homegrown passenger vehicles (PVs) reaching 41,737 units, according to the data compiled by Gasgoo Auto Research Institute.

Compared to the year-ago and month-ago periods, Guangzhou's locally-made PV registrations in March grew 5.4% and 112.1% respectively.

As for year-to-date performance, the megacity saw its first-quarter homemade PV registrations edge down 1.6% year on year to 111,941 units.

The top 2 PV brands by March registrations in Guangzhou were still Toyota and Honda. The No.3 and No.4 brands were the Chinese indigenous onesTrumpchi and BYD. It is noteworthy that the vehicles under Trumpchi include those from the AION brand. Tesla was among the top 10 PV brands as the unique one with only full-electric vehicles for sales. The two luxury German brandsMercedes-Benz and BMWranked eighth and ninth respectively.

Although Tesla ranked third among PV brands by March registrations, the hottest-selling PV model in Guangzhou was under the U.S. EV brand. The other Tesla-branded vehicle, the Model 3, was also on the top 5 PV models list with 955 units registered, the same as that of the Sylphy. Products under Toyota and Honda only occupied three spots in the top 10 PV model rankings.

In March 2022, the registrations of domestically-built new energy passenger vehicles (NEPVs) reached 14,792 units in Guangzhou, surging 95.1% from a year ago, while also rocketing 113% from a month earlier. The monthly NEPV registrations consisted of 11,841 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and 2,951 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which included 539 range-extended electric vehicles (REEVs).

In terms of NEPV registrations in March, BYD was the best-performing brand in Guangzhou. Tesla, XPeng, Wuling, Dongfeng, NIO, and Venucia cracked the top 10 brand rankings with only BEVs for sale. Volkswagen had 242 NEPVs registered in the city, 71.7% of which were contributed by the ID. series.

By March registrations, BYD has three models breaking into the top 10 NEPV models in Guangzhou, while the XPeng P7 was the only one owned by a Chinese startup.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken forcefully pushed back Tuesday when Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky pointed out that Ukraine and Georgia were once part of the Soviet Union as Paul appeared to raise Moscow's alleged rationale about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Paul is shown her in an elevator at the US Capitol in March 2020 in Washington, DC.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Dongfeng Honda, the joint venture between Honda Motor and Dongfeng Motor Group, announced its first Honda-branded BEV model, the e:NS1, formally hit the market on April 26. Coming with four trim levels, the model is priced between 175,000 yuan ($26,680) and 218,000 yuan ($33,235) after subsidies.

GAC Honda, the Japanese automaker's another joint venture in China, will take orders for the twin e:NP1 next month.

Positioned as a compact SUV, the e:NS1 measures 4,390mm long, 1,790mm wide, and 1,560mm tall with a wheelbase of 2,610mm. It will offer 5 options of color skins.

The new model rides on the E:N Architecture F, a front-wheel-drive platform dedicated to pure electric vehicles. According to Honda Motor, this platform can be adapted with different frames, powertrains, batteries, and wheelbases, and is designed to work for small to medium-sized vehicles.



e:NS1; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda



The e:NS1 is reminiscent of the new HR-V, but the BEV model features a closed-off grille and a luminescent "H" emblem instead. The charging port is behind the front logo. At the back, the "H" is replaced by the lettering "Honda". The full-width LED light strip accentuates the model's width.



e:NS1; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda

The e:NS1's interior adopts a minimalist design, but also carries a 10.25-inch full LCD dashboard, a 15.2-inch console-mounted display, as well as streaming media rearview mirrors, which are expected to appeal to tech-savvy consumers.

According to Honda China, the e:NS1 will utilize the e:N OS full-stack smart control ecosystem, which integrates the Honda SENSING driver-assist system, the BEV-dedicated Honda CONNECT 3.0 in-car connected system, and a smart digital cockpit.

The model features a front-wheel-drive layout. It comes with two power solutions: the one carries an electric motor that churns out up to 150kW and 310 Nm, and delivers a CLTC range of 510km; the other is armed with a 134kW electric motor and is capable of a 420km range under CLTC test cycle as well. With a capacity of 68.8kWh, the ternary battery pack is offered by CATL.
Warning issued after increase in catalytic converters thefts in Wrexham

North Wales Police is urging everyone to be vigilant around vehicle security following a spate of catalytic converter thefts.

Officers say there has been an emerging series of these thefts has been noted in North Wales, along with the neighbouring force areas of Cheshire and West Mercia.

Since January of this year, 15 incidents have been logged across Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire.

Catalytic converters are devices fitted to vehicle exhausts to reduce the amount of dangerous gases emitted.

They are often targeted by thieves as they contain valuable metals and can be removed in less than a minute.

T/Chief Inspector Gavin Gilmore said: We are currently seeing an increase in the theft of catalytic converters across our force area.

Precious metals such as rhodium, platinum and palladium are used in catalytic converters and we know these are sought after by thieves.

The price of these metals has risen sharply in recent years and has led to an increase in theft offences.

Several converter thefts have involved Japanese vehicles, particularly the Honda Jazz model of car.

While we would ask drivers of this vehicle model to take extra care, we are warning all vehicle owners to be aware of the threat posed by opportunistic thieves.

The most recent report we have dealt with is believed to have occurred overnight on Sunday, 24 April at an address on Whalleys Way, Acrefair.

We are appealing for witnesses to that incident and for anyone with CCTV/dashcam footage to make a report via 101, quoting incident number B058050.

I would also urge anyone who witnesses suspicious behaviour around parked vehicles to act quickly and report it to us.

Officers investigating these incidents believe that a recent spate of thefts from inside parked vehicles may be linked to the same offenders.

Although catalytic converter thefts are increasing nationwide, there are steps that you can take to protect your vehicle.

To keep your catalytic converter safe, you can ask your car dealer for advice on locks or guards that are approved by the vehicle manufacturer and tested to Sold Secure Gold.

Alternatively, try to make sure your vehicle is parked in a garage overnight, or if you have a commercial vehicle, park it in a secure compound.

If this isnt possible, park in an area thats well-lit and overlooked and try to park so that the converter cant be easily reached by potential thieves.

Police say that vehicles that sit high above the road are particularly vulnerable.

Owners should also register your converter and mark it with a forensic marker, which will make it harder for thieves to dispose of it.

If you have been a victim of this type of theft you can report incidents via our online service: Report | North Wales Police or by calling 101.

For further advice on keeping your vehicle secure visit the North Wales Police website.
Wrexham choir to host big, brassy choral spectacular to celebrate hat-trick of anniversaries

A new Wrexham-based community choir will help a music festival celebrate its 50th anniversary and two other major milestones.

Organisers of the North Wales International Music Festival say the launch concert at St Asaph Cathedral on Saturday, June 4, will be a big, brassy choral spectacular and its going to be loud!

The concert is a curtain raiser for the main festivals Golden Jubilee event thats taking place from September 17 to October 1.

Its all being made possible thanks to the support of the Arts Council of Wales and the headline sponsor, the Pendine Arts and Community Trust that was set up by the Pendine Park care organisation to provide funding for arts and community activities. Other sponsors include Jones Bros and Salisburys Accountants.

According to artistic director Ann Atkinson, the launch concert is being timed to coincide with the Queens Platinum Jubilee while this year also marks 10 years since St Asaph was officially recognised as a city.

The festival was founded by Prof William Mathias, who was one of the first Welsh composers to win international acclaim.

He wrote music for a number of royal occasions, including the Queens Silver Jubilee in 1977 and the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer in 1981.

Prof Mathias chose St Asaph Cathedral as the venue for the festival believing it provided the best acoustic setting in North Wales.

Ann Atkinson, who is also a talented mezzo soprano, said: St Asaph Cathedral is the perfect acoustic environment to showcase our highly talented line-up at the launch concert and the festival itself.

The combination of the stone and the wood creates something really magical somehow.

I have also performed in the concert hall at Sydney Opera House and, while it has a brilliant acoustic, I must say that St Asaph Cathedral is actually a much better venue acoustically.

She added the cathedral would be the perfect place to showcase the new community choir, NEW Voices.

The Kana Chamber Choir, made up of talented musicians from across North Wales, and soprano Tesni Jones, from St Asaph, will also perform.

The NEW Voices choir was launched by the NEW Sinfonia orchestra that was established by brothers Robert and Jonathan Guy, who come from Wrexham.

The aim of NEW Sinfonia, which is also the festivals resident orchestra, is to provide a platform for talented young musicians.

Robert Guy, the orchestras musical director, said the programme for the launch concert had been picked specifically with the triple celebration in mind.

He said: Itll have Zadok the Priest, music that is associated with the Coronation and Royal Weddings as well as music commissioned for the NEW Sinfonia by the festival during our residency plus some music by my brother, Jonathan.

Were going to have a brass ensemble for a big, brassy choral spectacular. Its going to be loud!

The main festival straddles three weekends in the autumn and one of the concerts will be dementia-friendly.

Community events, performances in local schools and music workshops will be taking place during the fortnight.

The workshops are a feature of the festival that inspired Robert Guy to become a professional musician.

Robert said: When I was 16, I took part in an educational workshop at the North Wales International Music Festival and it was one of the early experiences of working with a professional orchestra and professional musicians.

It feels really special that the NEW Sinfonia that I founded with Jonathan just over ten years ago is now running those workshops and Im on the other side having benefited from them in the past.

Ann Atkinson commented: I can safely say the 50th anniversary festival will be a fitting celebration and theres going to be some really exciting concerts that involve young people and members of the community working with leading international soloists.

We are incredibly grateful to the Arts Council of Wales, Ty Cerdd, Pendine Park care organisation, Salisburys Accountants, Jones Bros., and all our other sponsors because it would not be possible to stage the festival without their support.

Tickets are 12 (6 for children) and available online 24/7 at https://nwimf.com or via Theatr Clwyd by phone on 01352 344101 (Monday  Saturday, 10.00  18.00), or in person from Cathedral Frames, St Asaph  01745 582929 (Wednesday  Friday, 10.00  16.30)
On April 17, the government of fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro announced the end of the health emergency decree that began in February 2020, making official the turn to scrap all restrictions on the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.

In a nationally televised speech, after admitting that the world is still facing the greatest health emergency in history, and pretending to mourn the victims and those who still suffer as a result of the sequelae of this disease, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga hypocritically said that with the strength of the Unified Health System (SUS), we saved many lives.

Bolsonaro and his health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, in May 2021 (Wikimedia Commons)

The criminal implications of the Bolsonaro administrations new decree were raised by epidemiologist Ethel Maciel at a discussion hosted by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). Maciel stated: We need to strengthen the capacity of epidemiological teams and laboratories. The great concern with revoking the [health emergency] decree is that these structures will be closed.

Together with the end of mask mandates in all Brazilian states and the prevalence of the Omicron BA.2 subvariant in the country, the Brazilian governments decision to end the health emergency can cause a new outbreak, as is now happening in the US, the UK and other countries.

On April 14, the All for Health Institute (ITpS) reported that the highly transmissible BA.2 subvariant accounted for almost 70 percent of COVID-19 cases. Less than a month ago, on March 19, 27.2 percent of the positive tests reported were from the subvariant.

In light of this, several scientists and health experts have warned of the implications of ending the emergency decree.

On April 7, it was confirmed that the Butantan Institute found the first case of the Omicron subvariant XE in Brazil, which combines characteristics of BA.1 and BA.2. On the 16th, the first case of recombination of the Delta and Omicron variants was confirmed in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Richard Steiner Salvato, a specialist from the states genomic surveillance agency, stressed the importance of continuing to monitor the trajectory of these variants. Salvato said, The case identified here has additional mutations, which does not allow us to know what impacts this recombination brings to the behavior of the virus.

Nesio Fernandes, president of the National Council of Health Secretaries (CONASS), told the Piaui magazine: With the cuts and the discontinuing of these investments, there will be a great demobilization of ICU beds. According to him, the Unified Health System did not collapse in February, during the Omicron wave, only because it maintained these beds, which will now be decommissioned.

Epidemiologist Marcia Castro from Harvard University emphasized to Piaui the great regional inequality in vaccination and the fact that less than 40 percent of the Brazilian population has taken the first booster shot: We still have many people not vaccinated, the number of cases is increasing in Europe, we have environments where the ventilation conditions are terrible. This message that its over is very concerning.

The ruling class campaign to demobilize all efforts to contain the virus is based on the narrative that, after repeated waves of SARS-CoV-2 and the spread of the supposedly mild Omicron variant, the pandemic is becoming endemic. The term has been used by governments around the world as they declare an end to all control measures, and cut the resources needed to carry out treatment of patients with COVID-19.

A critical element of this herd immunity policy is to cut funding for testing centers, effectively eliminating the ability to predict the trajectory of the virus and prepare any kind of response, while also hiding the real severity of the pandemic from the population.

In the United States, where mandatory masking on public transportation was dropped last week, the Biden administration has cut funding for free testing and vaccines for uninsured people, while criteria are being drawn up that remove tens of thousands of deaths from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) count.

In the UK, Boris Johnsons government ended free test distribution earlier this month, and other critical measures in the fight against the virus have been dropped since February 24, such as requiring self-isolation for people who test positive. The real impact of BA.2 in the country is being seen in the near-record number of hospitalizations and almost 2,300 deaths in the last seven days.

In Brazil, on December 10, after a hacker attack on the Health Ministry website brought down the counting of new cases, deaths and vaccinations, Bolsonaro redoubled his offensive against any remaining mitigation measures and against the implementation of vaccination certificates to control the entry of people from outside the country before the New Year and carnival holidays.

In December, with the impending approval of the vaccination of children ages 5 to 11, Bolsonaro incited violence against technicians of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa), responsible for the decision, and threatened to force parents to obtain a medical prescription to vaccinate their children. The federal government delayed the childhood vaccination campaign for weeks, while the governors, including of the self-declared left, declared unanimously that they would not postpone the mandatory return to schools.

After the Omicron variant wave receded in January-February, state governors, some of whom had been pushing for an end to mandatory masking indoors since October, joined Bolsonaros efforts and ended mask mandates in March.

In the face of the campaign to allow the virus to spread and the recent announcement of the end of the health emergency, the true meaning of the endemic narrative becomes clear: the population must accept a new normal of mass infections, deaths, and suffering with long COVID.

The Bolsonaro administration and governors of every political party represent the interests of the Brazilian bourgeoisie, which sees the remaining mitigation measures as an unwelcome reminder that the pandemic is not over. Their goal is to ensure that workers remain in workplaces, even if infected, to maximize profits for big business.

It is necessary to oppose these measures, which lack any scientific basis. The history of the past two years shows that continued large-scale infection risks the emergence of new variants with increased virulence and resistance to vaccines. The COVID-19 pandemic will not end by decree, but only through a policy of global elimination of the new coronavirus.

The actions of the governors of the Workers Party (PT), who carried out economic and school reopenings hand in hand with Bolsonaro, show that the election of a new government of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will not provide an alternative to fight the pandemic, and indeed any of the urgent problems confronting the Brazilian working class.

In April 2020, while Bolsonaro reaffirmed that no public health response should be implemented to fight the pandemic, Congress approved, with the support of all major parties, including the PT caucus, a multi-billion bailout package for big business, while a fraction of that amount was directed to providing limited economic aid to working people.

In opposition to the death policy of capitalist governments around the world, the working class must build rank-and-file committees as part of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), with the collaboration of scientists and public health experts to implement all necessary measures to end the pandemic.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- XPeng announced on April 27 it has signed a cooperation agreement with the Guangdong branch of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) for a credit line worth up to 7.5 billion yuan ($1.143 billion), the biggest amount ABC has ever granted to an NEV startup in China.

XPeng, ABC's Guangdong branch signing agreement; photo credit: XPeng



Under the agreement, the credit line will be used to support the operation and development of XPengs automotive business. The lastest move signifies the mutual trust between the two parties and ABCs high recognition of XPengs industrial position and development prospect.

XPeng said the newly-granted credit line is of great importance to the improvement of its cash utilization efficiency and cost management, and will be conducive to XPengs long-term sustainable development.

The Guangzhou-based automaker delivered a total of 15,414 vehicles in March 2022, representing a 202% increase year-over-year and a 148% increase from the previous month. The monthly sales volume is the third highest since it started deliveries.

Notably, monthly delivery of the P7 sedan reached 9,183 units in March, for the first time exceeding 9,000 units.

Total deliveries for the first quarter of 2022 amounted to 34,561 vehicles, a 159% increase year-over-year, consisting of 19,427 P7s, 10,486 P5s and 4,648 G3 and G3i SUVs.
The citation issued last month by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) against Amazon for safety violations in their Kent, Washington fulfillment center is another confirmation of the companys willful disregard for safety in the name of profit. The state safety agency released a statement March 21 announcing that the L&I inspection of 12 processes found that 10 of them at Amazon's Kent facility create a serious hazard for work-related back, shoulder, wrist, and knee injuries.

An Amazon fulfillment center (Wikimedia Commons)

L&I ergonomists performing the inspection found that the pace of work was unsafe. The physical work required by many Amazon jobs involves repetitive motions such as lifting, carrying, twisting, and other physical tasks. Amazon requires these tasks be performed at such a fast pace that it dramatically increases the risk of injury to workers.

The L&I citation describes the company's deficiencies as a willful serious violation and carries with it a $60,000 fine for knowingly putting workers at a high risk of injury. Amazon is required by the citation to submit a written plan to L&I within 60 days explaining how the company will fix the safety issues. L&I offered some suggestions for Amazon to use to help reduce the risks of injury to workers including height adjustable platforms to reduce awkward lifting, using powered equipment to move heavier items, and, most critically, slowing the required pace of work.

Amazon has received similar citations at three other Washington state facilities, so the company has been made well aware of these safety failures. Because of this L&I has classified this most recent citation as a willful violation, and it comes with a higher penalty. Amazon has denied that the pace of work in their facilities correlates to higher injury rates and has done nothing to mitigate these safety hazards.

Well aware of muscular skeletal disorder (MSD) risks for workers at Amazon, one of the world's richest men, Jeff Bezos, announced his plan last May to use technology to track workers' motions on the job to the point where the company would control which muscle groups workers use on a given day. These algorithms and surveillance methods are being used to ramp up exploitation of workers rather than slow down the pace of work in the interest of health and safety.

For a massive company like Amazon, with a 2021 Q4 net income of $14.32 billion, the $60,000 fine being imposed by L&I is easily ignored. The adage If a penalty for a crime is a fine, then it is legal for the rich applies very well here, as the higher penalty fine is just a drop of water in an ocean of Amazon profits.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon has been repeatedly exposed as negligent in maintaining the health and safety of its workers. At the beginning of the pandemic, Amazon forced workers to sign nondisclosure agreements, subjecting workers to civil liability if they disclosed anything relating to Amazon's operations to the public. This helped Amazon to conceal information about the severity of COVID-19 infections both from the public and from its own workers in order to avoid disruptions to its operations as its profits skyrocketed.

Despite this attempt at covering up the lack of safety in their facilities, Amazon's Troutdale, Oregon facility (dubbed PDX9) was revealed to be one of its most dangerous. In 2019, the Portland Mercury newspaper reported, 26 out of every 100 workers at PDX9 sustained an injury in 2018. PDX9 was also discovered to be the workplace with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the state of Oregon in August 2021, surpassing even those at overwhelmed medical centers like Salem Hospital and Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. Tellingly, the third place on the workplace outbreak list at the time was another Oregon Amazon facility, the Amazon Aumsville warehouse in Salem.

In August 2021, the Baltimore Amazon Workers Rank-and-file Safety Committee called out Amazon for [burying] any real investigation into what happened when workers suddenly got sick and lost their lives. The committee also said that Amazon only slows down its operations when it has to fix its machines or belts and never to sanitize or for other safety reasons.

Amazon only grudgingly enacted COVID-19 mitigation measures at the beginning of the pandemic, but pushed to end any protections against infection at the first opportunity. Mask requirements were twice dropped, with spikes in infections following just weeks afterwards. The most recent abandonment of COVID protections coincides with the larger effort by the US government and corporations to end public health measures and normalize mass infection.

On September 11, 2021, the WSWS International Amazon Workers Voice reported that Jeff Linnell, a 51-year-old safety ambassador who had worked at Amazon's Kent, Washington fulfillment center, had lost his life to COVID-19. Safety ambassadors were tasked with making sure other workers masked and socially-distanced appropriately. Linnell had contracted COVID-19 while working at the Amazon facility during the period following the second time Amazon dropped masking requirements. This tragic death illustrates the unwillingness of Amazon to adopt scientifically necessary steps to mitigate against the COVID-19 virus in its workplaces. Instead, Amazon has demonstrated that its sole concern is the removal of all barriers to profit, no matter the cost to workers.

In the last two years, the company has posted record profits, with a February 2022 report on its 2021 earnings stating that its net sales increased 22% to $469.8 billion, compared with 386.1 billion in 2020. With its massive revenue and profits, Amazon could clearly afford to protect its workers from injury and infection, but chooses not to in the interests of maximizing profits for its shareholders. Instead, workers receive wages well below the level needed to maintain an adequate standard of living while being exposed to injury, infection, and possible death.

A study performed in 2020 by the Brookings Institute found that Amazon could have quadrupled the hazard pay they gave their frontline workers and still earned more profit than the previous year.

Workers at Amazon are waging a struggle against brutal exploitation and risks to their lives and health. The WSWS calls on workers to establish independent rank-and-file committees to fight for their interests in opposition to the company and the entire corporate run political establishment and pro management unions. These committees, democratically run by workers themselves, must be based upon class struggle and not class collaboration.

We urge workers to contact the WSWS and the International Amazon Workers' Voice which will help Amazon workers around the world to form rank-and-file committees so workers can fight effectively and in solidarity with other workers in other industries globally for their lives and livelihoods.
The police officer who shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head following a traffic stop on April 4 was identified as Christopher Schurr at a Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) press conference on Monday. Schurr, 31, was sworn in as a member of the Grand Rapids, Michigan police force in 2015.

Officer Christopher Schurr

In identifying Schurr, who is on administrative leave while Lyoyas murder is being investigated by the Michigan State Police (MSP), GRPD Chief Eric Winstrom said he made the information public, in the interest of transparency, to reduce on-going speculation and to avoid other confusion.

Winstrom added, Beginning this week, as required by law, the Grand Rapids Police Department will be releasing documents in response to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) relative to this incident.

Winstrom did not say who made the FOIA request. One reason he backtracked on his previous stance that the identity of the officer would not be released unless charges were brought against him is that his name was already circulating online.

USA Today reported on Monday that Grand Rapids City Manager Mark Washington acknowledged growing demands for the officers name to be released after the funeral for Patrick Lyoya on Friday. Washington said, he would discuss the matter with Winstrom and city employment officials, according to the USA Today report.

Responding to the release of Schurrs identity, family attorney Ven Johnson said, An intentional three-week delay in releasing the name of the involved officer, which they clearly knew at the moment of the shooting, is offensive and the exact opposite of being transparent. Johnson added, Once again, we see the Grand Rapids Police Department taking care of its own at the expense of the familys mental health and well-being.

This is the second time that Chief Winstrom has been forced to backtrack on efforts to shield his department and Schurr from demands by Lyoyas family and protesters that the complete truth about what happened on April 4 be revealed publicly.

When the victims father, Peter Lyoyawho speaks only Swahili and communicates through an interpreterwas told by law enforcement not to talk about what he saw on the video that recorded his sons murder, he refused to do so. This was a critical element in the protest movement that developed in Grand Rapids in the first week after the shooting.

Protests by workers and young people have taken place in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit over the past three weeks demanding justice for Lyoya. A 26-year-old Congolese refugee, Lyoya came to the US at the age of 18, worked at an automotive parts factory in the area and had two small children. He was shot execution-style by Schurr after a traffic stop for a purported license plate violation devolved into a physical altercation in a residential Grand Rapids neighborhood.

Initially, protesters demanded that police release the videos of the brutal shooting, which had been kept from public view by both the GRPD and the Kent County prosecutors office on the grounds that they would not be released while the MSP investigation was still underway.

However, as protests grew outside police headquarters in downtown Grand Rapids, law enforcement authorities were forced to release all four videos on April 13. The videos that were released had portions of the audio redacted and an important segment of Schurrs bodycam footage is missing because GRPD says that his camera was turned off.

Nonetheless, the videos show that Lyoya was confused and frightened by the stop, while Schurr was verbally aggressive and quick to put his hands on the young man when he started to walk away from the officer after being asked for his drivers license. Lyoya responded to being grabbed by Schurr by attempting to run away, at which point, the officer gave chase and tackled Lyoya on the front lawn of a residential home.

When Lyoya was able to stand and begin to break free, Schurr attempted to deploy his taser, Lyoya grabbed it and pulled it down and away from the officer. In the struggle, the officer repeatedly demanded, Let go of the taser and wrestled the driver to the ground again. Then, with Lyoyas head pressed against the grass, Schurr pulled his handgun, pressed it against his head and pulled the trigger.

Lyoya was unarmed and the videos show that at no point did he verbally threaten or strike Schurr with his hands or anything else. An independent autopsy conducted by noted forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz and released on April 19 confirmed that Lyoya was killed instantly by a large-caliber bullet that was fired at the lower left of his head, went up through his skull and lodged in his right temporal bone. The autopsy by Dr. Spitz also showed that Lyoya had no other injuries and is consistent with what is seen on the videos: he was never a threat to Schurr in any way.

When asked about the release of Schurrs identity, MSP spokesperson Lieutenant Michelle Robinson said her department had been notified of GRPDs plans. The Michigan State Police will continue to ensure that all evidence and facts are accurately collected and documented, Robinson told the Detroit Free Press.

Although no date has been given for the completion of the investigation, MSP will forward the results to the office of Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker once it is complete. Becker was not available for comment on the release of the officers name.

A right-wing campaign is underway to brand Patrick Lyoya as a criminal and bolster standard law enforcement justifications for the use of lethal force. Among those advocating that Schurr not be fired, charged and prosecuted for murder is Tudor Nixon, candidate for the Republican nomination in the Michigan governors race. Nixon, who is from Norton Shores on Lake Michigan in the Grand Rapids area, issued a statement on April 14 that said, We will not let this officeror any officerbe sandbagged for reasonably protecting themselves and our communities by weak politicians who are afraid to say and do what is right.

These open supporters of police violence are also being given backing from the Detroit Free Press with its coverage of Lyoyas murder. On Sunday, Free Press journalists Tresa Baldas and Elisha Anderson wrote a despicable feature that included an account of Lyoyas record with law enforcement and unsubstantiated allegations of domestic abuse.

Meanwhile, on Monday, in its report on the release of Schurrs identity, the Free Press gave a glowing profile of the officer, who attended Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan. He was a top athlete, they wrote, who set a conference record in the pole vault and planned to marry his fiancee in the African nation of Kenya, which is about 400 miles east of Lyoya's homeland of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In both cases, the Free Presss report on Lyoyas run-ins with the policea common experience for working class young people of every racial and ethnic background in towns and cities across the USand the accolades for Schurr, have nothing to do with the shooting that took place on April 4. However, these things are being published to condition the public for the likely announcement by the Kent County prosecutors office that Schurr will not be charged with a crime on the grounds that he followed department procedures and Lyoya ignored his commands, resisted arrest and was a threat to the officer.
The re-election of Emmanuel Macron as French president has triggered a mixture of jubilation and relief among German politicians.

On the very evening of the election, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (Social Democratic Party, SPD) wrote on Twitter: Felicitations, hearty congratulations, dear President Emmanuel Macron. Your voters have also sent a strong message of commitment to Europe today. I am happy that we will continue our good cooperation!

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, greets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as he arrives for an EU summit at the Palace of Versailles on March 10, 2022 (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

Leading representatives in government and opposition expressed similar sentiments. Im sure its not just me who feels a load off my mind right now. Felicitations, President Emmanuel Macron & my colleague J. Denormandie! said the Green Minister for the Environment, Cem Ozdemir.

SPD leader Saskia Esken wrote: Im dancing! Great relief and our warmest congratulations to Emmanuel Macron and our French friends!

Liberal Democratic Party (FDP) leader and German Finance Minister Christian Lindner described Macrons victory as a direction-setting election, meaning the united Europe is the biggest winner of this election. Vive la France, vive lEurope.

Apart from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose leader Tino Chrupalla congratulated our partner Marine Le Pen, the opposition parties also joined in the chorus.

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz declared that with Macron, Europe has also won today. And the Thuringia State Premier Bodo Ramelow (Left Party) cheered: The election of President Macron is good for Europe and the Franco-German relationship. Congratulations President Emmanuel Macron.

Politicians and the media justify their mantra of support for Macron with their supposed opposition to nationalism and right-wing extremism. The normalisation of extremist discourse in the French election campaign is a warning, cautioned Green Party leader Omid Nouripour on Twitter, for example. It was now necessary to stand up for democracy and freedom with all our strength and defend our European values.

All of this is patently absurd. In fact, Macron has increasingly adopted and implemented the programme of the far right over the last five years. Macrons interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, a sympathiser of the far-right Action Francaise, pushed through discriminatory laws against Muslim associations and publicly criticised Le Pen for being too soft on Islam.

Macron himself called Nazi collaborator Philippe Petain a great soldier and repeatedly mobilised the notoriously right-wing French police against the yellow vests, protesting students and striking workers. In the pandemic, the president of the rich pursued a herd immunity policy of deliberate mass infection in the interests of the financial markets. He deported refugees en masse and in foreign policy pursued militarism and war.

In Germany, the same parties that are now celebrating Macron are also pursuing an extreme right-wing programme. Since coming to power last November, the traffic light coalition of SPD, FDP and Greens has steadily intensified social austerity, stepped up the powers of the state, massively rearmed the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) and implemented a strict herd immunity policy. It has ended all protective measures against COVID-19 and intensified the state crackdown on the left.

Putins reactionary invasion of Ukraine was immediately used by the government as a pretext for tripling Germanys military budget, the biggest rearmament spending since Hitler. Eighty years years after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Berlin is again waging war against Russia in Ukrainewith all the tragic consequences. Politicians and the media are engaged in an anti-Russian witch hunt reminiscent of the darkest times in German history.

It is precisely these martial ambitions that lie behind German support for Macron. Since 2014 at the latest, the ruling class has openly pursued the goal of militarising Europe under German leadership in order to pursue its global geostrategic and economic interests. As a supporter of the European Union and a more independent European foreign policy, Macron is seen as an ally in the implementation of the German-European great power offensive.

Significantly, a recent commentary in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) is entitled, In Paris sits a partner with guts. It celebrates Macron for not seeking his salvation in tactical Euroscepticism despite the large number of malcontents in the French electorate. Rather, Macron had the guts to promote the EU as a solution to the problems of globalisation, both the material and in terms of identity.

But now the French president and the EU must also deliver. And that would not be possible without Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the turning point in foreign policy he had announced. The FAZs hope: If Scholz were to succeed in making Germany a pillar of European sovereignty in military and political terms, then the Franco-German motor would gain some traction.

A look at the so-called Strategic Compass for Security and Defence shows what this means in concrete terms. The document, adopted by the European Council on 21 March, reads like a blueprint for a more independent European war policy. In an era of strategic competition and major geopolitical shifts, it must be a matter of defending our interests, it says in the introduction.

What follows is a catalogue of military and security measures that would transform Europe into a veritable war union, capable of military intervention even independently of the USA and NATO. We must be able to act rapidly and robustly whenever a crisis erupts, with partners if possible and alone, if necessary, the document says.

To that end, the EU will 1) Reinforce its civilian and military CSDP [Common Security and Defence Policy] missions and operations, 2) Develop an EU Rapid Deployment Capacity that will allow us to swiftly deploy up to 5,000 troops into non-permissive environments ... and 3) strengthen our command-and-control structures, in particular the Military Planning and Conduct Capability.

To achieve the necessary war capabilities, the EU members commit themselves to spend more and better in defence and on massive rearmament. Among other things, the aim is to jointly develop cutting-edge military capabilities in all operational areas, such as high-end naval platforms, future combat air systems, space-based capabilities and main battle tanks.

Some of these projects are already being pushed through. For example, the total 100 billion Special Assets of the Bundeswehr measure provides for spending of about 34 billion on multinational armament projects. These include Franco-German mega-projects such as the new European Future Combat Air System (FCAS) and the Franco-German Main Ground Combat System (MGCS).

In the election campaign, Le Pen had threatened to cancel these projects and called Germany the absolute negative of French strategic identity. Franco-German tensions have objective causes and will also intensify under Macron, but the ruling class in Germany hopes to continue the collaboration as long as possible and use it for its own rearmament plans.

A recent commentary in Der Spiegel headlined, How I learned to love the bomb, openly calls for German nuclear weapons and participation in Frances Force de frappealso against the background of growing tensions with the USA.

In terms of security, we are more dependent on the USA than we are on Russia in terms of energy, complains author and former editor-in-chief of Bild Zeitung Nikolaus Blome. That was why time is pressing. If Putin stays in office and Trump wins the next US election, he says, the Bundeswehr will be largely on its own by the end of 2024. Because Trump would not risk a nuclear war for Germany or Europe, let alone wage one.

Blomes apocalyptic conclusion: Berlin must be able to do this itself! It should not remain unthinkable that Germany arms itself with nuclear weapons. That it and France should stretch a joint nuclear umbrella over the EU. From Macron comes the phrase, LEurope qui protege, a Europe that protects, he adds cynically. The expression already fitted during the coronavirus pandemic and now fitted even better because of Putin.... for a long time, even better.

Such pathologically bellicose comments throw light on the essentially criminal character of the ruling class and its social system. It has already sacrificed millions of lives to capitalist profit in the pandemicmore than 135,000 of them in Germany. Now it is prepared to risk the survival of all humanity in a nuclear third world war. The only way to prevent this catastrophe is the independent mobilisation of the working class based on a socialist programme.
On Monday, New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron held former President Donald Trump in civil contempt for failing to comply with a December 2021 subpoena requiring him to turn over documents requested by New York Attorney General Leticia James. The subpoena was part of a long-running financial fraud investigation into the Trump Organization and other Trump family businesses.



Mr. Trump: I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously, Engoron said prior to issuing his contempt ruling. This is the second time in the last two months the judge has ruled against Trump.



President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)



Last month, Engoron rejected a bid from Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. to quash a separate subpoena compelling their testimony as part of James civil investigation into the Trump business empire.



In court on Monday, Andrew Amer, an attorney for James office, said that they had received zero documents from Trump, despite ordering Trump to turn over the files located in cabinets outside Mr. Trumps office, the storage room by Mr. Trumps office, the Executive Office storage closet and the file cabinets located on the 25th and 26th floors.



The New York Times reported that earlier this April, James office filed a motion claiming that Trump had refused to turn over the requested documents. The attorney general cited eight separate requests Trump had defied and asked that he be fined $10,000 a day as long as he refused to cooperate.



In finding Trump in contempt, Judge Engoron agreed to assess the requested fine of $10,000 a day until Trump complied. For the billionaire Trump, who has raised over $124 million through his Save America group since November 2020, according to Federal Election Commission filings analyzed by Reuters, the fine is insignificant.



Even so, Trump attorney Alina Habba signaled her clients intention to appeal the ruling, delaying any payment by Trump of the fines. Habba said her client is an honest person and added, All documents responsive to the subpoena were produced to the attorney general months ago.



She also argued that Trump did not have any of the documents requested and declared, This does not even come close to meeting the standard on a motion for contempt.



Engoron ruled that Habba did not present enough evidence to conclude that Trump had conducted a proper search for the requested documents. In particular, there is no admissible evidence of who, what, where, when and how any search was conducted, Engoron said. He added that Trumps refusal to comply and his justifications for doing so just doesnt cut it.



After the ruling, James claimed victory, telling reporters, For years, Donald Trump has tried to evade the law and stop our lawful investigation into him and his companys financial dealings.



Without a hint of irony, she added, Todays ruling makes clear: No one is above the law.



If the last 15 months have proved anything, it is that in capitalist America, billionaire presidents, even those who launch a fascist coup to overturn an election and impose a dictatorship, are indeed above the law. Despite the well documented culpability of Trump and his family in illegal practices that allowed them to amass an obscene level of wealth, the Democratic Party has failed to criminally prosecute Trump. The same holds true in relation to Trumps massively documented role as ringleader of the siege of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump has characterized the investigation into his business dealings as a witch-hunt by the Communist Democratic Party and repeatedly incited violence against James at his campaign-style rallies around the country.



Trump frequently calls the African American attorney general a racist for carrying out her investigation, while linking it to the January 6 Unselect Committees investigation into his failed coup.



On January 18 of this year, James office released a 115-page court filing detailing numerous instances of illegality and fraud committed by Trump, his businesses and his children.



The crimes include artificially inflating the value of his assets to lenders and appraisers to secure cheap credit, while underreporting the value of the same assets to the Internal Revenue Service to evade paying taxes.



Trumps actions, while notable for their frequency and scale, are pervasive throughout the ruling class. The son of a Hitler-praising, KKK marching millionaire, Trump is just a particularly odious expression of a historically outdated social and economic system that is on the brink of collapse.



On Monday, the Times reported that James office was nearing the culmination of its inquiry into Trump and was preparing to file a lawsuit ... in the near future.



Meanwhile, a separate criminal investigation into the Trump Organization and the Trump Payroll Corporation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been effectively scuttled. The two lead outside prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, resigned on February 23, 2022, one day after Bragg told them he was discontinuing the presentation of evidence to the grand jury.



At the end of March, the New York Times published a scathing resignation letter, which District Attorney Braggs office had refused to release. In it, Pomerantz wrote that he believed Donald Trump is guilty of numerous felony violations of the Penal Law in connection with the preparation and use of his annual Statements of Financial Condition.



Pomerantz continued: His financial statements were false, and he has a long history of fabricating information relating to his personal finances and lying about his assets to banks, the national media, counterparties, and many others, including the American people.



Rejecting claims that the DAs office was unable to find sufficient evidence of criminality, Pomerantz wrote, The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimeshe did.



He went on the warn, Whatever the risks of bringing the case may be, I am convinced that a failure to prosecute will pose much greater risks in terms of public confidence in the fair administration of justice. ... I fear that your decision means that Mr. Trump will not be held fully accountable for his crimes. I have worked too hard as a lawyer, and for too long, now to become a passive participant in what I believe to be a grave failure of justice.
More than 250,000 teachers took part in a one-day strike on Monday demanding the resignation of President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and also for relief from transport difficulties facing teachers and students due to acute fuel shortages and soaring prices.

Teachers marching in Kandy on April 25, 2022 (WSWS Media)

The strike took place as part of weeks of widespread protests by working people, youth, professionals and the rural poor demanding the resignation of the Rajapakse government and against skyrocketing price increases of essential food, medicine and fuel as well as lengthy electricity outages every day.

Teachers took strike action across the island cutting across the poisonous communalism promoted by the political establishment for decades to divide the working class. Hundreds of teachers took part in demonstrations in Colombo, Kalutara and Kandy despite the advice of the trade unions to stay at home.

The trade unions only called the strike as a means of defusing mounting anger among teachers who face all the difficulties confronting other sections of workers. The attendance of teachers and students at schools has been disrupted by the lack of fuel and public transport. During the past two weeks, student attendance has dropped by about 50 percent. High food prices have meant an increasing number of students come to school with an empty stomach.

While teachers joined the strike to fight for their democratic and social rights against the government, the trade unions are attempting to divert the struggle behind the opposition partiesthe Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB). It was called by the Teacher-Principal Trade Union Alliance that includes the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-affiliated Ceylon Teacher Service Union (CTSU) and the United Teacher Service Union (UTSU) controlled by the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP).

In its media statement, the union alliance declared that the main aim of the strike was pressurising the inefficient government to resign but remained silent on an alternative. This leaves the door open for the interim government advocated by the SJB and JVP to prepare for new elections. These opposition parties, however, support the negotiations with the IMF for an emergency bailout that will inevitably come with demands for draconian austerity measures that will only intensify the social catastrophe facing working people.

In the meantime, the teacher unions are proposing cosmetic measures. On April 21, it called on the Education Ministry to allow teachers and students to report to a nearby school until the crisis is ended. The alliance called the strike after the Ministry refused this demand, but it deliberately worked to isolate teachers from other workers by telling them to stay at home and report in sick.

Striking Sri Lankan health workers rally in Colombo on February 8, 2022 (WSWS Media)

Late last year, the same unions betrayed a strike of more than 100 days by hundreds of thousands of teachers demanding a substantial wage rise, by agreeing to the pitiful increase granted by the government and claiming it as a victory. Amid the countrys escalating economic turmoil, the union leaders declared: We have understood the crisis of the government, so we became flexible and did not ask for the pound of flesh. At the same time, their leaders offered full support to the governments unsafe reopening of the schools demanded by big business allowing COVID-19 to spread through the population.

CTU general secretary Joseph Stalin told a press briefing on April 23: We request [the government] to listen to the message of the strike on [April] 25. If it is not done, we will hold a general strike on [April] 28 and a hartal [general strike and closure of business] on May 6. CTSU leader Mahinda Jayasinghe boasted on the same day: We will use our heavy armour of strikes. We will send the government home.

Teachers should have no faith in these treacherous, pro-capitalist bodies. Their empty rhetoric is to disguise the fact that they have no intention of conducting a political struggle against the profit system that is the source of the attacks on the social position of working people. As they did last year, the unions aim to confine any struggle within the safe channels of parliamentary politics.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the Teachers-Parents-Students Action Committee (TPSAC), formed at the SEPs initiative, intervened in the strike, fighting to mobilise teachers in a united movement of the working class based on socialist policies against the Rajapakse government.

TPSAC Secretary Kapila Fernando, a member of the SEP Political Committee, issued a video statement in support of striking teachers. Fernando said: The working class, including teachers, needs to fight for its own independent class solution without stopping at overthrowing the Rajapakse government. The solution is to break from bankrupt program of unions of pressurising capitalist governments, and fighting for a government of workers and peasants which will be committed to socialist policies in unity with the working class internationally.

Fernando explained the treacherous role of the unions in repeatedly betraying the struggles of workers, including teachers. He urged teachers to establish action committees independent of the unions to fight for their rights.

SEP members spoke to teachers at Mondays protests.

Mayura Ekanayake, a teacher at the Gannoruwa Ranabima School in Kandy, explained that he was unable to properly plan his classes as he had to spend hours in queues for fuel. He criticized the unions, saying: If unions called protests throughout the country, thousands of teachers would join in all cities and towns. But unions avoided it.

Now it is much clearer that the meagre salary increase granted [last year] by the Rajapakse government to teachers was not a victory. We cant bear this high cost of living. What the SEP said at the time was correct. The working class should not accept the meagre amounts granted by capitalists but needs to form action committees and fight for a socialist program to win what they want.

A female teacher from Hingurakgoda in north central province explained the difficulties confronting teachers and students: Only half of our students attended school during recent months. The attendance of teachers was also down. They had to spend hours making their way to school due to the lack of transport. Some spent whole nights at petrol stations to get fuel. All are under immense pressure. Last Wednesday, at the morning assembly in our school, seven or eight children fainted due to the lack of food.

She commented on current anti-government protests: All are demanding Gota [the president] go home. The unions and all the opposition parties are making that demand. But they are silent on the alternative. What type of change will it be? I agree that we need our own government. We, who are suffering, must unite and build our own government.
The High Court in London has ruled that the Conservative government acted unlawfully in the early weeks of the pandemic when it discharged thousands of untested hospital patients into care homes.

Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham stated following a hearing in March that the policy failed to take into account the risk of asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19.

In this April 20, 2020, photo, nurses guide a resident at Wren Hall nursing home in the central England village of Selston. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

This was one of four policies at issue in the casepart of a declared herd immunity strategy that transformed care homes into killing fields in which tens of thousands of elderly and vulnerable people died preventable deaths. About 20,000 residents of care homes in England died of COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, the ruling notes.

Over 193,000 are now dead in Britain from COVID; fatalities overseen by Prime Minister Boris Johnson who infamously declared, No more fucking lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands.

The ruling tears to shreds government lies that it protected care homes by surrounding them, in the words of then Health Secretary Matt Hancock, in a ring of steel.

The defendants in the case were the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Hancock), National Health Service England, and Public Health England (PHE). It was brought by Dr. Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris whose fathers, Michael Gibson and Donald Harris, died in care homes after testing positive for COVID-19.

The judgement states, Claimants seek declarations that certain policy documents issued by the Defendants during the relevant period, and the policy decisions recorded in those documents, constituted breaches of their fathers rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, or alternatively were unlawful and susceptible to judicial review on common law principles.

The High Court ruled that two government policies were unlawful: The March 2020 Discharge Policy, the basis on which thousands of patients were sent from hospitals into care homes to free up hospital beds; and the April 2 Admissions Guidance, providing care homes with advice on the admissions of people from hospitals.

Point 5 of the summary states that the drafters of those documents failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission, which had been highlighted by (among others) Sir Patrick Vallance [government Chief Scientific Officer] in a radio interview as early as 13 March.

The judges found it was irrational for the DHSC [Department for Health and Social Care] not to have advised until mid-April 2020 that where an asymptomatic patient (other than one who had tested negative for COVID-19) was admitted to a care home, he or she should, so far as practicable, be kept apart from other residents for 14 days.

Representing Dr. Gardner and Harris, Jason Coppel QC told the court, The care home population was known to be uniquely vulnerable to being killed or seriously harmed by Covid-19.

The Governments failure to protect it, and positive steps taken by the Government which introduced Covid-19 infection into care homes, represent one of the most egregious and devastating policy failures in the modern era.

That death toll should not and need not have happened.

Speaking after the ruling, Dr. Gardner and Harris called for Johnsons resignation. Dr. Gardner told Sky News, When secretary of state Matt Hancock said that hed thrown a protective ring around care homes right from the startI heard him say that on television and my chin nearly hit the floor because all of us who were involved in any way with care homes at the start of the pandemic knew that was absolutely not true.

It was a lie. It was a lie then and it is a lie now. They didnt do anything to protect my father, there was no help given to care homes and the death toll in those first few weeks of the pandemic was catastrophic.

I think they never imagined they were going to be found out. You only have to look at the parties [that government officials held in Downing Street] to realise they never think theyre going to be found out.

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group spokesperson Charlie Williams said, Weve always known that our loved ones were thrown to the wolves by the government, and the claims made by Matt Hancock that a protective ring was made around care homes was a sickening lie. Now a court has found their decisions unlawful and its clear the decisions taken led to people dying who may otherwise still be with their loved ones today.

Williams father Rex, aged 85, was one of 27 people who died in the same Coventry care home.

The ruling is a damning indictment of government policy, but as with every intervention by the judiciary it lets the government off the hook on the essential issues. The claimants had an important and legitimate claim, the judges ruled, but we must emphasise at the outset what it is and what it is not. It is not an inquest concerning the deaths of Mr Gibson and Mr Harris alone. On the other hand, the case is not a public inquiry but a judicial review. There has been no oral evidence. Evidence of opinion about the actions and decisions of the Defendants is not admissible.

The ruling documents in detail how from the very earliest stages of a pandemic, many weeks before thousands of NHS patients were flooded into care homes, a growing body of scientific opinion and modelling indicated that COVID could be transmitted by asymptomatic people.

But it goes on to say that whereas there was no evidence that Hancock considered the question of whether to quarantine care home arrivals from hospitals for 14 days, there was also no evidence that he was asked to consider it. No one can shoulder any blame since it was the drafters of those documents [March 2020 Discharge Policy and the April Admissions Guidance] that failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission.

Sections of the ruling pull no punches in their opposition to the bereaved families. Point 281 states, We regard the sustained attack on the Hospital Discharge Policy as quite unrealistic.

It adds in Point 284, Similarly, the suggestion that the Government should have made provision in March for the testing of each patient before discharge to a care home is hopeless. This is explained away because there were only 5,000 tests available each day by 18 March and only 10,000 each day by 27 March.

The judges dismissed other parts of the case, including a claim against NHS England and claims under Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The government could not hide its relief. Johnson doubled down on his lies in Parliament after shedding a few crocodile tears, saying of the murderous care home policy, I want to remind the House of what an incredibly difficult time that was and how difficult that decision was. We did not know very much about the disease we did not know in particular was that COVID could be transmitted asymptomatically in the way that it was.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaking at a government Covid-19 press conference inside No10 Downing Street (credit: picture by Andrew Parsons/No 10 Downing StreetFlickr)

Hancocks spokesperson said, This court case comprehensively clears Ministers of any wrongdoing and finds Mr Hancock acted reasonably on all counts. The court also found that PHE failed to tell Ministers what they knew about asymptomatic transmission.

Public Health England was a Department of Health and Social Care agency, disbanded in October 2021 after being made a scapegoat for the governments disastrous pandemic policy.

The bereaved families welcomed a ruling which declared part of the governments COVID policy unlawful, vindicating a two-year battle to establish that their loved ones died needlessly. But it would be a mistake to conclude that any true reckoning with a government which has committed social murder on a vast scale can emerge from the High Court.

Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus stated, After Partygate, the billions in public money wasted and todays ruling, the need for a public inquiry to begin immediately is clear.

However, the planned public inquiry will be yet another whitewash, as with every previous inquiry organised by the ruling elite after a mass loss of life at its hands. What is required is not more inquiries and appeals to the criminals in Downing Street to learn lessons, but the removal of a hated government by a mass movement of the working class, independent of and opposed to both the Tories and Labour and directed against the capitalist system and its state.
This is the first in a series of articles on films from the San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21-May 1) that were made available to the WSWS for streaming online.

***

The Time of the Fireflies (El tiempo de las luciernagas), about Mexican immigrants in the US, and Sun (Sonne), about Kurdish immigrants in Austria, are two intelligent, moving films about physical dislocation and its emotional consequences.

One is a documentary, the other a fiction work. One focuses on a young man, the other a young woman. One is relatively quiet and slow-paced, the other takes its cue from rapidly shifting, fragmented social media. The first is primarily set in New York City, the other in Vienna.

At the center of The Time of the Fireflies is Miguel, who has been living in New York City for 13 years, since he was a teenager. His parents, who spent time working in the US when he was a child (and living with his grandparents), are now back in Mexico. Their lives have been difficult, toilsome. His mother Asuncion sends him gifts. In his village, every Saturday a loudspeaker announces the private mail service, which ships packages to New York, its different boroughs and New Jersey, packages that may contain tortillas, pastries, homemade chocolate, movies, religious images and so on.

The Time of the Fireflies

Miguel is close to his sister Rafaela, for whom he has made great sacrifices. She was able to attend university in Mexico because of the money he earned in the US. He worked every day in a pizzeria, 78 hours a week. He hasnt had a vacation in 12 years. In one of the most touching sequences, Rafaela tells Miguel (via cell phone), You took care of me. You were a father figure. They had a real dad, but its as though he didnt exist. She pays tribute to him for his unconditional support.

Their father Amado tried hard too, but the circumstances were difficult. Miguel barely knew him, only seeing the older man every three or four years. When Miguel was 16, he accompanied his father in an effort to cross the US border. He describes the arduous, frightening journey. The group of immigrants was arrested by the border patrol, and his father sent to prison for three months. Miguel was immediately deported, but, all on his own, his only option was to cross the border again. He eventually made his way to New York, having to pay off the smugglers, with the rest of his income going to rent.

The Time of the Fireflies (2021)

I felt abandoned, he explains. I was 16  I worked and drank. He experienced solitude and exhaustion. I should be at school, he thought. The Time of the Fireflies is unusual in the attention it pays to the psychological cost of this brutal process. The most important thing, he says, a little sadly, is the contact, being in touch with others. He has obviously missed out on a great deal. Photographs from his childhood bring back memories of rural Mexico. Here at dusk are the fireflies of the title. On a July 4 in New York, he watches fireworks along the East River among a large crowd of gringos.

Miguel, who received his GED and who reads incessantly, wants to go to college. At one point, he explains matter-of-factly, education is a right. Everyone should have access to it.

Co-directors Matteo Robert Morales and Mattis Dalton explain that the films protagonists have lived their lives on both sides of the border and their stories bear witness to the everyday ties that bind the United States and Mexico as well as to the political discord and violence that keep them apart.

Morales grew up in the same village as Miguel and Rafaela, and went to school with them. The filmmakers comment that we felt that people like Miguel and his family were being deprived of their human qualities by hate speech and targeted policies. This is when the intention to create a documentary that would rehumanize the Mexican migrant community in the USA, became more urgent. We wanted to provide Miguel with a platform to tell his story, to let his words confront the common paradigm of migration within and outside the United States.

They refer to the current political rhetoric that portrays immigration to the U.S. as an invasion by aliens, killers, predators and criminals (words used by President Donald Trump over 600 times since 2017 to describe immigrants during his rallies), there is a long history of migration flows in particular between Mexico and the U.S., a history that has supported communities in both nations and created its own collective experiences of separation, reunion, precarity and survival.

Morales and Dalton assert that it is incredibly crucial in this era in particular, that the stories and struggles of migrants are portrayed honestly and compassionately. We must place these stories front and center, again and again, before the American consciousness. The world must not be allowed to grow numb to their stories. They have accomplished their goal, artistically, vividly, in The Time of the Fireflies.

Sun (Sonne)

In an interview for Austrian Films, Kurdish-Austrian director Kurdwin Ayub described her aim in Sun (Sonne): I wanted to tell the story of three girls [in Vienna], friends who make a YouTube video where they perform a pop song for fun wearing headscarves. The video goes viral. What happens then is that two of the girls become much more interested in this fame while Yesmin, my main protagonist, doesnt: in contrast to the others, she comes from a Muslim Kurdish background.  I wanted these three friends to split up with a bang. Yesmin begins to distance herself from her friends but also from her own culture.

Sun (Sonne) by Kurdwin Ayub

The three girls, Yesmin (Melina Benli), Bella (Law Wallner ) and Nati (Maya Wopienka), do indeed make their mischievous video, a version of R.E.M.s Losing My Religion no less, in hijabs and enveloping robes. Yesmins mother is offended when the song turns up online. Youre making fun of our culture and religion, she says. Yesmin counters, Its just a video, youre over-reacting. Her father, perhaps surprisingly, is quite taken with the girls performance: Thats the world today. He becomes their tour manager.

The threesome perform at Kurdish weddings and parties. Yesmins brother Kerim meanwhile is a bad boy, hanging out with a rough crowd, getting into minor trouble with the police.

Bella and Nati are wilder, more outrageous than Yesmin, who gets good grades and is expected to go to university. Over time, their roles curiously reverse. Bella and Nati begin to defend Kurdish traditions and garb, especially after they meet two young Kurdish guys their own age, while Yesmin becomes more critical. Ayub explains the two Austrian-born girls are unhappy in their lives and with their families; they feel abandoned, lost, and thats why they search for warmth somewhere else. The fast life can be confusing: there are too many desires, too many ideals, too much thats cool and sexy. They end up searching for something more secure, traditionaland far away.

Law Wallner, Maya Wopienka in Sun (Sonne)

Much of the film takes the form of videos, texts and so forth. A certain colorful, impressionistic chaos prevails. Born in 1990, the director asserts that tapping into this chaos wasnt so difficult, because Im part of the chaos myself. I mean, it goes with my age. She also wanted to distance herself from the cliche of the girl in a headscarf who suffers terribly because of her wicked parents, and above all I wanted to turn the image of the strict father and the good-natured mother on its head.

In the final sequence, abandoned by her friends, Yesmin has gotten terribly drunk, so drunk she cant stop vomiting, so drunk she passes out. In the car, her mother is frantic, convinced they have to take the girl to a hospital or call an ambulance. Shes dying! The father is not convinced, Shes breathing well.  Her condition is good. Finally, Yesmin manages to sit up on the backseat of the car and stick her head out the window. Yesmin, Yesmin, her mother cries. Thats normal, goes her father. The wind catches her long hair, her face hidden.

Sonne is lively and often amusing, the girls are energetic and irrepressible, irreverent. At the same time, the chaos and constant movement are also troubling. Ayub asserts that her film shows that everyone feels a bit lost, immigrant and native-born alike.

To be continued
The WSWS will be publishing the strike diary of a nurse who wishes to remain anonymous for purposes of job security. Are you a Stanford nurse? Contact us and tell us how the strike is impacting you. We respect anonymity.

The picket line Monday morning felt like a huge celebration. Many nurses were in their uniforms having just come off night shift. Horns were honking, Welch road was lined with at least one thousand nurses. Handmade signs read: Nurses Unite! Am I still a hero? Profits over patients and nurses, We treat the burns, you treat the burnout. People were wearing costumes and cheering. Stanford shuttle bus workers drove by and honked in support. Security guards cheered for us.

Stanford nurses at a mass picket

We are excited to be joining waves of nurses and workers entering into struggle around the world. Right now, tens of thousands of nurses across California are in the same boat. Its critical that we reach out to nurses at Sutter and Kaiser and Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles whose contracts have also expired and get on the same page as them.

Theres a feeling that this is the beginning of something larger, that we will win. There is also a strong sense of relief to be away from the stress of our units.

Our fight is not unique to Stanford Healthcare and Lucile Packard. Many of us have worked in different hospitals and different states and we all have the same stories. Missed breaks, low staffing, racing to finish patient assessments and care tasks, lack of supplies, rationed PPE, nurses winding up as patients in the ICUs fighting a COVID infection. In the name of efficiency and profit, we are continually being asked to do more with less.

Earlier this month we had the strike vote. I heard a coworker explain to another nurse why she was voting yes. This is the time to do this. It isnt just about us. Another shrugged and noted, We have to strike. We cant keep working under this stress.

Burnout is ripping through the nursing workforce. COVID-19 has greatly exacerbated conditions that lead to burnout and as a result more and more nurses are quitting.

We are fighting for better wages, for safe staffing for far better working conditions because we deserve them. Stanford increased its assets since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we saw none of this money. We fought together with our brothers and sisters across industries to keep the population safe throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We walked under banners that deemed us heroes. Now, we cant afford our rent to live near the hospital or the gas we need to drive to work.

The shift before the strike had a completely new tone. In any spare moment we talk in the nurses station, comparing notes on what we have heard from other units. No managers were working as they were home resting before their upcoming struggle to keep the hospital running without us.

In the weeks leading up to the strike the hospital worked hard to fix any engineering issues on the units. New wall-mounted vital sign machines that wed been asking for months suddenly get installed across all units. The floors were waxed, supply rooms were organized and stocked. Nurses are visibly angry about this. It took this long?

On the picket lines, theres an understanding that our current celebratory mood will pass. My coworkers discuss how this will get harder after a week or two without pay. A strike after all is not a party.

We know we are fighting a determined, deep-pocketed and politically-connected enemy. Stanford has demonstrated its determination to defeat us by threatening to strip our families of health care benefits. We cannot fight them alone, we need the support of nurses at other hospitals.

The company has a plan to starve us out, but we need to formulate a plan for victory. CRONA (Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement) has provided no plan for victory. They apparently have no plans to broaden the struggle to nurses at Sutter, Kaiser or Cedars-Sinai. Instead it looks like they are retreating just like they did in 2016 and 2019. The union recently emailed us to say they are cutting picket lines and dropping the demand for a $3,000 bonus. Thats a sign they are preparing to sell us out. We are not even receiving strike pay, even though weve been paying our union dues.

When we are at work on a difficult and busy shift, we nurses have to work as a team, communicate, and share critical information with each other so we know what is going on. The same goes for a strike. Thats why we need a plan.

So lets start talking to each other about what we want to win in this strike and how we plan to win it. Im planning to talk to my coworkers on the picket lines, call the people I know from my shift, and start these conversations about how we make sure this strike ends with the pay and working conditions we need.

We arent just fighting for ourselves, after all. Lets set up lines of communication with Sutter, Kaiser and Cedars-Sinai nurses and work together. Why should we strike separately when we would be stronger together? Keeping us separated only helps the companies we are all fighting against.

Lets ask each other these types of questions. The main issue is: what is our plan to win? Nobody else is going to answer that question other than the nurses ourselves.
The Colorado River was declared Americas most endangered in a recent report from American Rivers.

Climate change and overuse of the body of water are imminent threats to river health and widespread water security, the report suggests. The declaration comes on the heels of federal consideration of emergency action to reduce demands on the Colorado River in a bid to preserve water levels in Lake Powell.

While such cutbacks would impact the greater Arizona region, Flagstaff would be largely unaffected.

The Colorado River provides drinking water to 40 million people across seven states and Mexico currently. There are also 30 tribal nations within the river basin Mexico are depend on water from the Colorado River. The river is also home to 30 different native fish species, two-thirds of which are threatened or endangered, and more than 400 bird species.

Extended drought in the West has tapped out multiple rivers, and the Colorado is notably overextended. As a waterway, it provides drinking water to some of the regions largest cities, including Denver, Salt Lake City, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Tijuana. It also irrigates 5 million acres of farm and ranch land, and supports a $1.4 trillion economy. These myriad uses are enough to dry out the Colorado 100 miles before its mouth in the Sea of Cortez.

The report states that the entire system is operating at a deficit, and climate change is expected to further reduce the rivers flow by 10 to 30% by 2050.

We need better management of the river that reflects the river that we have, said Matt Rice, director of the Colorado Basin Program at American Rivers. But thats not good enough.

Rice would like to see a more holistic approach that incorporates everything from water conservation to upgrades in agricultural infrastructure and evaporation reduction. According to Rice, the time is right for the river basin states to leverage federal funding collectively via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Large-scale, intergovernmental cooperation with strong inclusion of Tribal Nations is key, he said.

The federal government, NGOs, tribes, everybody that has a stake in the river, we must march in the same direction, he said.

Without a unified approach, Rice said, we are going to be really hard-pressed to meet this challenge.

I think, at its core, we have a math problem, said Anne Castle, former assistant secretary for Water and Science at the U.S. Department of the Interior and senior fellow at the University of Colorado Law School. Theres a significant imbalance between supply and demand.

The math problem points squarely to one partial solution: cutbacks.

Last year saw the first cutbacks on Colorado River water users. Arizona farmers were hit hard, losing up to 50% of their deliverable water. More cutbacks are necessary, said Castle, but the situation is politically thorny.

It is drastically difficult, politically, to tell existing water users that they can no longer use the amount of water that they've become accustomed to, she said. We've been able to avoid doing that to any great extent because we've been drawing down the water in the big reservoirs.

These big reservoirs  Lake Powell and Lake Mead  have been consistently hovering around historic low levels that have raised warning flags for both water managers and power production. If Lake Powell drops below 3,490 feet, Glen Canyon Dam will no longer be able to produce power. Currently, Lake Powell is at 3,522.5 feet.

All this points to a need for a plan, said Castle.

If the system crashes, and it would be far better to allocate those reductions and have a plan that protects the reservoir structures and allocates the burden in in a more equitable manner, she said.

Recently, the Interior Department has proposed the emergency action of holding back water in Lake Powell to maintain power production. It has requested feedback from water managers in the basin states and is expected to be revealing the results of that feedback in the near future.

We would not see physical cutbacks of water deliveries, said Erin Young, Flagstaff water resources manager.

A majority of Flagstaffs water comes from groundwater, with local surface water reservoirs, such as Upper Lake Mary (ULM), serving to make up the difference.

Despite dipping to about 22% capacity in February, ULM has seen some spring recharge. A mid-April measurement had the reservoir at 33% capacity. City water managers will aim to keep ULM above 20% capacity by the end of summer.

This leaves enough water in the lake to meet summer peak water demand in 2023, should we have a dry 22-23 winter season with no runoff, Young said.

Also included in the American Rivers report was the San Pedro, which has suffered from excessive groundwater drilling in southern Arizona.

Sean Golightly can be reached at sgolightly@azdailysun.com

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This summary has been prepared by the WTO Secretariats Information and External Relations Division to help public understanding about developments in WTO disputes. It is not a legal interpretation of the issues, and it is not intended as a complete account of the issues. These can be found in the reports themselves and in the minutes of the Dispute Settlement Bodys meetings.

Appellate Body appointments

Mexico, speaking on behalf of 123 members, introduced for the 53rd time the group's proposal to start the selection processes for filling vacancies on the Appellate Body. The extensive number of members submitting the proposal reflects a common concern over the current situation in the Appellate Body which is seriously affecting the overall WTO dispute settlement system against the best interest of members, Mexico said for the group.

The United States said that its longstanding concerns with WTO dispute settlement remain unaddressed, and that it does not support the proposed decision to commence the appointment of Appellate Body members. Many members share US concerns with the functioning of the system and its negative impact on the WTOs negotiating and monitoring functions, it said.

The US added that it wants to be clear it supports WTO dispute settlement reform and that it is prepared for continued and deepened engagement with members on the basis that such discussions should aim to ensure that WTO dispute settlement reflects the real interests of members and not prejudge what a reformed system would look like.

More than 20 delegations (including the European Union for its 27 members, Nigeria for the African Group and St Vincent and the Grenadines for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States) took the floor to reiterate the importance of the WTO's two-tiered dispute settlement system to the stability and predictability of the multilateral trading system. They called on all members to engage in constructive discussions in order to restore a fully functioning dispute settlement system, which some cited as a top priority for reform of the organization.

For the 123 members, Mexico again came back to say the fact a member may have concerns about certain aspects of the functioning of the Appellate Body cannot serve as pretext to impair and disrupt the work of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) and dispute settlement in general, and that there was no legal justification for the current blocking of the selection processes, which is causing concrete nullification and impairment of rights for many members.

The DSB chair, Ambassador Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme of Botswana, said she hoped members would be able to find a solution to this matter.

Under this item, more than a dozen members took the floor to express their strong opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian delegate responded by saying that the WTO was not the proper venue for a discussion of this nature.

Surveillance of implementation

The United States presented status reports with regard to DS184, US  Anti-Dumping Measures on Certain Hot-Rolled Steel Products from Japan DS160, United States  Section 110(5) of US Copyright Act, DS464, United States  Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Measures on Large Residential Washers from Korea, and DS471, United States  Certain Methodologies and their Application to Anti-Dumping Proceedings Involving China.

The European Union presented a status report with regard to DS291, EC  Measures Affecting the Approval and Marketing of Biotech Products. Indonesia presented its status reports in DS477 and DS478, Indonesia  Importation of Horticultural Products, Animals and Animal Products.

Next meeting

The next DSB meeting will take place on 31 May.
OMAHA, Neb.  Fire crews took advantage of a break in the weather in their battle to contain large fires in the West and Plains states, but they fear the return of stronger winds Tuesday could spread the flames further.

In Arizona, crews are working to encircle and mop up a 33-square-mile wildfire on the outskirts of Flagstaff that burned 30 homes and additional structures last week.

The Tunnel Fire increased to 20% contained and was up to 21,215 acres as of Tuesday afternoon.

Crews continued their work securing the fire perimeter on the western edge, while prepping new containment lines, mopping up fires and monitoring hot spots.

The National Weather Service in Bellemont issued a Red Flag Warning for most of nothern Arizona on Wednesday, with a Fire Weather Watch expected for Thursday as well.

The forecast calls for haze and blowing dust over the next two days, with highs in the upper 60s and windy conditions gusting up to 39 mph. After that, the winds are expected to subside a bit through the weekend, with highs around 70 degrees.

Aircraft helped firefighters battling a different major fire that continued to grow, burning 10 square miles in the Prescott National Forest.

A southwestern Nebraska wildfire that killed a former volunteer fire chief last week, injured several firefighters and destroyed several homes was about half contained, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said.

The fire, dubbed the Road 702 Fire, has burned about 70 square miles of mostly grasslands and farmland near the Nebraska-Kansas state line and was estimated to be about 47% contained.

Terry Krasko, a spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team, said Tuesday afternoon that high winds had blown in but that firefighters were able to contain the fire within the existing perimeter. He said there were no new injuries or reports of more destruction.

It's quite a bit calmer, Krasko said from Cambridge, Nebraska. I'm not saying it's out. There's still a lot of heat and we'll be working for several days to cool it down, but for the most part the fire's stayed within its previous footprint.

After a break in the weather Monday, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning Tuesday for the area of mostly prairie and farmland, with temperatures expected to be warmer, humidity dropping to as low at 15% and winds gusting up to 35 mph.

Meanwhile in the West, crews continued working to corral blazes in northern New Mexico that have charred a combined 225 square milesover recent days. Evacuations remain in place and several small villages were threatened. Authorities have started to survey the damage but have yet to tally the number of homes and other buildings that were destroyed.

The largest of the wildfires has blackened more than 94 square miles in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Crews there were bracing for the weather to take a turn later this week with more hot, dry and windy conditions forecast for the area.

San Miguel County Deputy Manager Jesus Romero described the situation as touch-and-go as the winds cranked up Tuesday afternoon.

Everybody is eager to get back home. Its still not really safe right now," he said. Theres plenty of forest still to be burned, plenty of fuels and its plenty dry and were dealing with the wind. Some places are a little bit better than others, but right now its just too risky.

Four new fires were reported Monday, two in Colorado and one in Oklahoma and Virginia, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Nationally, 11 large fires have burned about 342 square miles in six states, the agency reported Tuesday. More than 3,500 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to those fires.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Update: 27-04-2022 | 12:40:46

The 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising ended with the victory of the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign that completely liberated the South and reunified the country. The great 1975 spring victory not only recorded in our nation's history as the most brilliant milestone in the twentieth century, but also left many valuable lessons and experience with lasting value to the construction and defense cause of the socialist rule-of-law State of Vietnam in the new era. During the past 47 years, the Party, army and people of Song Be - Binh Duong inherited and promoted the spirit of the great 1975 spring victory with dynamic and creative strategies to achieve great achievements in the cause of building and developing a more civilized and beautiful homeland.

Part 1: Feelings of April

21 years of long-term resistance war against the US, along with the whole country, the revolutionary struggle movement of the land with war zones, namely War Zone D, Iron Triangle, Bau Bang, Dau Tieng... spent indomitable years, staunchly clinging, bravely fighting with many hardships and sacrifices. During the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, Thu Dau Mot provincial Party Committee led the local army and people to fight against the enemy to liberate the homeland while ensuring the task of opening the way for the main force to attack Saigon-the last stronghold of the US - puppet regime, joining hands with the whole country to make the historic 1975 spring victory, liberating the South and reunifying the country.

People participated in the meeting to celebrate the liberation of Thu Dau Mot town

Although hearing Nguyen Thi Mot to recount the historical moment when she received the task of placing the flag of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam on the roof of Phu Cuong working house on the historic April 30 for many times, but we still can't help being overwhelming by her emotions mixed with pride and happiness. For her, the memory of the historic moment of the day of complete liberation of the South and reunification of the country remains intact even though nearly half a century has passed.

On April 30, 1975, I and another comrade were assigned the task of flying the flag on the roof of the Phu Cuong working house. At that time, I did not know how to enter Phu Cuong working house. Holding the flag, I clung to the door of the annex, climbed onto the balcony, and then entered Phu Cuong working house, pulled down the three-stick flag and raised the flag of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, she recounted the historic moment 47 years ago with as much detail as what happened yesterday.

The days of April are also an emotional time for Nguyen Minh Giao, former member of provincial Party Standing Committee, former Head of provincial Party Committees Education-Training Commission. April always reminds him of unforgettable memories of the boiling days of preparing for the final battle to liberate his homeland.

In his memoirs "Unpeaceful Childhood", Mr. Giao spent many pages on bringing readers back to the heroic days of Thu Dau Mot army and people during the general offensive: "...more than 5:00 - 6:00 a.m. on April 30, the artillery of the liberation troops fired at the Phu Loi base. At nearly 8 o'clock, a number of artillery shells were fired at provincial Chiefs palace, but the bullets did not reach the palace, but fell outside the fence, exploding in the area of soldier families on Ngo Quyen street near the Piscine intersection. No matter where the artillery shells exploded, we immediately understood that it was a general signal for attack!.

On that day, Mr. Giao was in the force to liberate Thu Dau Mot town. At that time, when the general signal was issued, a series of external troops together with on-site forces approached the target and performed their assigned task. The troops were divided into many attacks to occupy and liberate assigned targets. There was a troop capturing the Ken, the Up Noi pagoda military posts and then attacking Chanh hamlet in the Lo Chen area. There was a troop occupying Ba Lua sugar factory in Phu Tho hamlet and Phu Van hamlet. Many other troops also occupied My Hao hamlet, Chanh Loc hamlet and attacked the School of Engineering Officers...

At 10:30 am on April 30, 1975, the flag of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam flew over the roof of Phu Cuong working house, marking the complete liberation of Thu Dau Mot town. The half-blue, half-red flag with a five-pointed yellow star fluttering at that moment was also an unforgettable image in the mind of Mr. Giao, Mrs. Mot and all the people in that great historical moment.

The victory of the uprising offensive of Thu Dau Mot army and people on April 30, 1975 contributed to the whole country's decisive victory in the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign, successfully ending the great resistance war against America to regain national independence and freedom, uniting the mountains and rivers and the country was full of joy... (to be continued)

Under the policy of general offensive and uprising from central authorities, on April 18, 1975, Thu Dau Mots Liberation Front Committee and Revolutionary People's Committee issued a call to all cadres, soldiers, all-level authorities and sectors and localities to be determined with compatriots to continuously attack and smash the enemy's apparatus, taking power into people. On April 29, 1975, provincial Party Committee gathered more than 400 cadres at Rung Tre base in Vinh Tan commune to implement an uprising plan. The targets of the attack on the town were determined, including: Phu Loi Sub-Region, Chau Thanh Military Zone, Administrative Building, Police Department, School of Engineering Officers, Sugar Factory... About 10 hours 30 minutes on April 30, 1975, the liberation flag flew over the roofs of the enemys agencies. We completely controlled the situation of Thu Dau Mot town. The people joyfully poured into the streets to greet the liberation fighters and celebrate the victory. The whole town was brightly colored with the flags of the Fatherland and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam.

Reported by Tri Dung-Translated by Kim Tin
RTHK: Trump appeals against New York contempt ruling

Former US President Donald Trump has appealed against a contempt ruling and a US$10,000-per-day fine over his failure to comply with a subpoena by New York state's attorney general about his business practices, his lawyer said in a Wednesday court filing.

The state judge, Arthur Engoron, on Monday held Trump in civil contempt for "repeated failures" to hand over materials to Attorney General Letitia James for a civil investigation launched three years ago into whether the Trump Organisation improperly valued assets to obtain financial benefits.

The Republican former president denies wrongdoing and has called the probe by the Democratic state attorney general politically motivated. His lawyer, Alina Habba, said during a court hearing in Manhattan on Monday that Trump did not have any of the documents James had requested.

Engoron said he would fine Trump US$10,000 per day until he complies with the subpoena. The judge said Trump did not provide enough evidence that he conducted a thorough search for the documents.

James' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's appeal.

In the past, James has said the investigation had found "significant evidence" that the Trump Organisation included misleading asset valuations in more than a decade of its financial statements.

In her appeal to New York state's Appellate Division, Habba said Trump had "proffered a timely response to the subpoena." She said she would ask the appellate court to review whether the fine "serves any purpose as either a compensatory or coercive remedy," arguing that James failed to show her office was harmed by Trump's conduct.

The former president previously lost a bid to quash the subpoena, then failed to produce the documents by a court-ordered March 3 deadline, later extended to March 31 at his lawyers' request. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2022-04-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Update: 27-04-2022 | 18:37:03

After Binh Duong returned to the "new normal", the youth in the province have been more enthusiastic and excited as participating in cultural and artistic playgrounds. Many songs praising Vietnam's revolutionary ideals have been sung, contributing to arousing patriotism and national pride in thousands of young hearts of Binh Duong.

Performance Linh thieng Viet Nam (Sacred Vietnam) of Binh Duong University of Economics and Technology at the festival for propaganda groups of revolutionary songs organized by the Provincial Youth Union.

Many playgrounds celebrate revolutionary ideals

In harmony with the joyful atmosphere of the Public Cultural Art Contest of North Tan Uyen district, 10 mass cultural art teams with more than 200 contestants from communes and towns in the district brought many special performances to the contest to celebrate the 47th anniversary of the complete liberation of the South and reunification of the country (April 30th 1975 - April 30th 2022).

The spirit of the Great Victory of Spring 1975 was even more vibrant with cultural art shows at Thu Dau Mot City Mass Art Festival. According to the evaluation of the organizers and the jury, this year's competition programs were staged staging in a imposing and meaningful manner with the desire to spread positive messages encouraging people to join hands to fight the pandemic and build a more brilliant homeland.

Coming to the contests and festivals of propaganda groups for revolutionary songs in Dau Tieng district, North Tan Uyen district and Thuan An City, youth union members reconstructed the national heroic history. Through the organization of competitions at localities, units have selected excellent persons, meaningful programs to participate in the province-level festival.

Pham Nguyen Phuong Tha, Secretary of Thuan An City Youth Union, said that revolutionary songs, songs praising the hometown, the country, praising Uncle Ho, the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union, the tradition of The Ho Chi Minh Army, and the volunteer youth recalled unforgettable years, a heroic courage, sacrifice for the Fatherland through two long-term resistance wars of the nation. These songs echoed throughout the struggles and crystallized a great strength for many young generations who did not hesitate to forget themselves to build a beautiful country. Today, these songs are words of encouragement, telling young people to uphold their role to protect, build and develop the country.

The desire to contribute to life  youths reaosn for living

With the theme " The desire to contribute to life  youths reaosn for living", this year's Binh Duong festival of propaganda groups for revolutionary song took place in three days (22, 23 and 24 April) according to four clusters with 17 youth unions of districts, towns, grassroots, branches, blocs of provincial agencies and enterprises, armed forces and schools in the province.

Do Ngoc Loi, Secretary of North Tan Uyen Districts Youth Union, said that because youth union members are working and learning at schools in the area, to practice and run the program, the whole team started practicing from 6.30  9.30 pm daily, for almost two weeks. However, most of them were enthusiastic about practicing and wanted to convey positive energy to contribute to the success of the festival. At this festival, with a program called Khat vong thanh nien Viet Nam (Vietnamese Youth Aspirations), this unit spread the message of an aspiration to devote its youth to the country.

Tran Thi Diem Trinh, Deputy Secretary of Provincial Youth Union, President of Provincial Students' Union, President of the Provincial HYPO Council, Head of the Organizing Committee of the festival, said a new thing of this year's festival was a series of performances in industrial parks serving young workers and people. The performances were also made into theatricalized video clips by the festival organizers and posted on social networking pages to participate in competitions, in order to propagate and spread the lyrics, songs expressing the youth strength in the of developing and building process of Binh Duong among all young people and the whole society.

Reported by Thuc Van  Translated by Ngoc Huynh
Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela's Maduro government unlikely to be invited to regional summit -U.S ALBA group representatives gather in Havana

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government are likely to be excluded from the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas to be held in June in Los Angeles, a senior State Department official said on Wednesday.

"They are unlikely to be there," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols told a small group of reporters, saying the summit of regional leaders would focus on the Western Hemisphere's democracies.

The comments marked the clearest message that those three governments, all on bad terms with Washington, will be snubbed once the White House releases the invitation list. That announcement, Nichols added, would come soon.

On Monday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the United States decided to exclude Cuba from summit preparations, a setback for relations just days after the long-time rivals held their first high-level talks in four years.

Nichols also said there was unlikely to be a role for Maduro's government at the 9th Summit of the Americas but said it would be up to the White House to decide whether to invite Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido in his place.

Washington and dozens of other countries have recognized Guaido as Venezuela's rightful leader and shunned Maduro, a Socialist, after accusing him of rigging his 2018 reelection.

Nichols expressed "deep respect" for Guaido's "interim government" and said Venezuela's political situation would be addressed at the summit. Despite U.S. sanctions, Maduro has held onto power, backed by the military and Russia, China and Cuba.

Relations have remained tense with Cuba's Communist government under U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration has alleged human rights violations against those who protested in widespread rallies on the island last July.

The United States has also been at odds with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, who won a fourth consecutive term in November after jailing political rivals and cracking down on critical media.

Story continues

"It's clear Nicaragua has ceased any semblance of democracy in the wake of the sham election," Nichols said.

Nichols offered no direct response when asked whether El Salvador might also be excluded but said "we are very much concerned by the erosion of democratic institutions."

Irregular migration, a big challenge for Biden at the U.S.-Mexico border, will be high on the agenda, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine will figure into the discussions. The leaders are expected to talk about related supply chain problems, rising energy costs and increased commodities and fertilizer prices, Nichols said.

Cuba participated in the 2015 summit in Panama and the 2018 gathering in Peru. Maduro was excluded in 2018 due to regional censure of his democratic record.

Nichols said at least 27 countries were expected at the June 6-10 summit, held every three or four years since 1994.

Regional heads of state and government normally attend, and Nichols signaled that was expected this time, saying while invitations had not yet gone out he had seen a strong desire to participate.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
MEXICO CITY  El Palacio de Hierro, the Mexican luxury department store network, is set to open a new store in the mixed Mitikha residential and shopping complex in the Coyoacan area in southern Mexico City, a company spokeswoman confirmed to WWD.

The unit comes as the chain continues to expand and refurbish stores, having recently spent 2 billion pesos, or $98 million at current exchange, to build the Mitikha store and remodel two of its Perisur and Santa Fe locations.

More from WWD

The Mitikha complex, which will reportedly feature the citys largest skyscraper, will open in the third quarter of 2022 and will also feature stores by rival chain Liverpool, international franchiser Grupo Axo and Zara owner Inditex.

The development comes as El Palacio de Hierro posted a 46 percent jump to 37.2 billion pesos in 2021 revenues while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization quadrupled to 4.3 billion pesos, according to a regulatory statement. On a same-store basis, sales grew 29 percent, well above the industrys 13 percent average for the year, during which the pandemic continued to pressure apparel sales.

Online sales grew 43 percent as the chain boosted traffic through marketing campaigns including Palacio Contigo [Palacio With You], which featured merchandise delivery options such as in-store click and collect.

The Perisur and Santa Fe stores located in the southern tip of Mexico City and in a sprawling office district area, respectively, were revamped to elevate the shopping experience by incorporating neighborhood elements such as nature and mountain stone in the Pedregal (Perisur) area and office towers in the Santa Fe business and hotel hub, including new merchandise selections and gourmet spaces.

Founded in 1888, El Palacio is an exclusive distributor of luxury fashion houses such as Burberry, Tiffany, Christian Dior and CH Carolina Herrera, among many others. Its main store in the citys Polanco quarter houses the largest upmarket merchandise selection in Mexico and much of Latin America.

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Click here to read the full article.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia and far-right conspiracy theorist, has unleashed her latest political attack on the Catholic Church. And the Catholic Church isnt happy.

Or mind you, the Catholic League isnt happy.

Greene, while talking with right-wing activist Michael Voris of Church Militant (via Mediaite), said that Satans controlling the church and that U.S. Bishops have taken enormous sums of money from the federal government, federal taxpayers to assist in illegal immigration, some refugee resettlement also.

You know, completely normal stuff.

Catholic League president Bill Donahue, who rarely, if ever, speaks out against Republicans, was having none of it.

She had plenty of opportunities to make rational criticisms of the agency, but instead she slandered the entire Catholic Church, Donahues statement read, which is true. From a lack of compassion during World War II to widespread pedophilia, the Catholic Church has its issues. But one of those issues isnt demonic control or illegal immigration.

Satan is controlling the Catholic Church? She needs to apologize to Catholics immediately. She is a disgrace, Donohue said. We are contacting House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy about this matter. Hes got a loose cannon on his hands.

Elsewhere in the interview, Greene said that the United States should deny aid to countries where people illegally immigrate to America. Again, just really rational thinking from a very normal human woman.

Watch video of the interview below.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  New Hampshire has a good track record when it comes to elections, but it would benefit from a voter confidence commission to address residents' concerns in a time of political polarization, its new secretary of state said Tuesday.

Bradford Cook, left, New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, center, and Dick Swett take questions from reporters about the newly formed Commission on Voter Confidence, Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at the Statehouse, in Concord, N.H. Scanlan says the state has a good track record for elections, but the commission would address residents' concerns during a time of political polarization. (AP Photo/Kathy McCormack)

"It is clear to me that for some time now, a few years, that there's just a decline, both nationally and in the state of New Hampshire, on general voters' belief about the accuracy of election results," David Scanlan said at a news conference from his Statehouse office.

He added, "I felt that it's really important to initiate a discussion on that topic  a very public one  involving some very capable people with diverse interests, so we kind of get to the bottom of why we find ourselves in a situation, and how we can put the brakes on it and turn that trend around."

Scanlan replaced Bill Gardner, who retired in January after 45 years of overseeing elections, the state archives and other divisions. Scanlan had served as deputy secretary of state for 20 years.

The announcement came months after an audit of a legislative race in Windham, where a discrepancy drew the attention of former President Donald Trump and his supporters seeking to bolster unfounded claims of election fraud.

The audit showed the cause of the discrepancy was not a vote counting machine, but a separate machine used to fold absentee ballots. But those who reject that conclusion have been pushing for either getting rid of automated counting machines or performing audits.

Scanlan said New Hampshire's elections are sound because the system is decentralized, where "literally thousands" of locally elected and appointed local election officials conduct elections.

"Because of that it is a very human process, which should also be understood to be not a perfect process," he said.

The Windham matter was a human mistake "done in good faith to try to make the system more efficient," said commission co-chair Bradford Cook. He also heads the state's Ballot Law Commission, which addresses election disputes and controversies.

Story continues

"Yet, if people think there's got to be evil in there someplace, well, all we can do is present them with the facts," he said.

The eight-member bipartisan commission, which includes activists, a member of various nonprofits, and a former legislators, wants to hold listening sessions throughout the state. Scanlan is starting to give presentations on the commission this week.

The other co-chair, former U.S. Rep. Dick Swett, a Democrat, recalled his 1996 U.S. Senate run against Republican incumbent Bob Smith. Media organizations incorrectly declared him the winner based on exit polls.

"I know how things can go a little bit awry," he said. "We want to make sure that the good technology that we have in New Hampshire, the good people that are participating in the polls, and the good system that we have can be kept as it is, or improved" by the commission.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: New Hampshire creates voter confidence commission
WASHINGTON  More than 2,000 miles from her home state, Sen. Maggie Hassan stood in front of a border fence lined with barbed wire in Nogales, Arizona.

Detailing her multiday trip, the New Hampshire Democrat had a clear message about staffing and technology at the border: The U.S. needs more, not less, of it.

"It's also really clear that the administration needs to address certain gaps in physical barriers along the border that ... are posing a real challenge for our Border Patrol agents," Hassan continued in the video posted to her Twitter account.

With her comments, Hassan joined a growing list of congressional Democrats in competitive races who have come out against ending Title 42, a public health order that allows U.S. border agents to expel asylum seekers to Mexico in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The group of largely moderate Democrats is calling on President Joe Biden to keep the policy in place  a stark contrast to the outrage many Democrats had when former President Donald Trump first invoked the policy.

Just over six months out from the midterm elections, Biden is being forced to strike a tricky balance on immigration and Title 42: trying to appease voters and advocates who helped elect him while ensuring he can get vulnerable Democrats reelected to keep his party's majorities in Congress.

End of Title 42: Ahead of Title 42 ending, Border Patrol prepares for the return of asylum

On one end of the spectrum, immigration advocates and progressive Democrats have been urging the administration to end Title 42 for months, saying it goes against international and U.S. law by prohibiting individuals from seeking asylum and hurting Democrats with core constituents. On the other end, the more centrist wing of the party is asking for the policy to remain in place, saying that they don't believe the Biden administration has a plan in place and knowing Republicans likely will use immigration as a point of attack in the midterms.

Story continues

It's a pretty no-win proposition, said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and a senior fellow at Migration Policy Institute. This is now really a political judgment, much more than it is either an enforcement or a public health judgment.

Further complicating the issue, a federal judge on Monday said he will issue a motion to temporarily block the administration from ending the controversial policy.

"The president's view is that we have a broken immigration system that's been long overdue to be fixed," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. "This is not an immigration policy. Title 42 is a health authority that's determined by the CDC, and we need to have a conversation about immigration reform. That's vital."

Democrats want a 'plan' for Title 42, but they don't all agree

The CDC announced on April 1 that Title 42, which has been used to expel roughly 1.5 million people from the U.S. over two years, would end May 23.

Since the announcement, more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate have come out against the plan.

Title 42 was put in place because of the public health emergency, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told a local news station while visiting the border. It should not be around forever, but right now this administration does not have a plan."

Kelly, who is up for reelection this year, won his seat in the Senate by roughly 2 percentage points in 2020.

Psaki countered Monday that the administration has a "multipart plan ... they've been implementing for months now to prepare for Title 42" to end.

With concerns growing over a lack of a plan to prepare for the end of Title 42, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday laid out in a memo a six-pillar plan of action for the end of the policy.

The plan includes surging resources, such as personnel, transportation, medical support, and facilities; increasing Customs and Border Patrol processing efficiency; administering consequences for unlawful entry; bolstering resources to nongovernmental aid organizations; targeting transnational criminal organizations, such as smuggling organizations; and working with Department of State and other nations in the region to deter irregular migration.

More than 600 law enforcement personnel from CBP will be sent to the southwest border, senior administration officials said in a call with reporters. As part of the plan to administer consequences for unlawful entry, a senior administration official said the administration is increasing the use of expedited removal, which means individuals are denied entry or physically removed from the United States, without going through the normal removal proceedings, such as an immigration hearing.

The pressure to delay ending Title 42 also goes beyond Democrats who are in competitive reelection races.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., last week called on Biden to delay lifting the policy.

Unless we have a well-thought-out plan, I think it is something that should be revisited and perhaps delayed, Peters told reporters last week, according to The Hill. Im going to defer judgment on that until I give the administration the opportunity to fully articulate what that plan is. But I share  concerns of some of my colleagues.

Peters' term doesnt end until 2027, but Michigan is a competitive battleground state. Biden won the state in 2020, flipping it after Trump won it in 2016.

Migrants rest in a dormitory of the Good Samaritan shelter in Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, March 29, 2022. The vast majority of people staying at the shelter are women and their children from Mexico and Central America who have been expelled under Title 42 authority or were still waiting to try for asylum, according to Pastor Juan Fierro, the shelters director. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez) ORG XMIT: XLAT401

And Democrats on Capitol Hill arent the only ones urging Biden to delay lifting the policy.

More: Federal judge will temporarily block Biden administration from lifting Title 42

Officials at the White House had been discussing whether they could delay lifting the policy, looking for ways to buy time to avoid an influx of migrants that are expected to come to the border once the order is lifted, Axios reported last week. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also expressed concerns to lawmakers about the policy ending in late-May, according to a separate report from Axios.

Despite that, Psaki said Monday the administration is continuing to prepare for our May 23 implementation."

Tyler Moran, who stepped down as Biden's senior adviser for migration in January, said Democrats need to articulate where they stand on immigration issues.

"Joe Biden ran on a fair and orderly immigration system in 2020 and won, Moran said. Democrats should never try to out enforce Republicans. They have tried that and they dont win Republican votes and just alienate base voters."

More: Biden administration jails too many asylum seekers and keeps them locked up too long, report finds

Instead, Moran said Democrats should say they stand for "a well-managed border and the right to seek asylum.

And still other Democrats are "thrilled" Biden is ending the policy.

Title 42 was a cruel and discriminatory policy that circumvented U.S. law, preventing people from accessing protections established by Congress," Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., in a statement on April 1. "Im thrilled to see the Biden administration do the right and moral thing by ending this extremely harmful, xenophobic, and shortsighted policy that disproportionately impacted Black and Brown migrants."

Immigration to play a role in midterms

Republicans have repeatedly slammed Biden and Democrats on their immigration policies, claiming that Bidens rescinding of Trump policies have led to an influx of migrants at the border.

Now as Title 42 is set to end, Republicans hope to use that as a way to motivate their base to vote against Democrats.

"Everybody in this crisis. Everybody's world is turned upside down. People's lives have been stolen. This is about bringing everyone together. It starts with keeping Title 42," Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, said Monday during a news conference after a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas. "Democrats are now starting to be on board as well because this does not stop at a party.

Chris Zepeda-Millan, associate professor of Public Policy and Chicana/o Studies at University of California, Los Angeles, noted that most Americans, including Republicans, are not motivated to head to the polls on immigration alone.

Zepeda-Millan, who wrote "Walls, Cages and Family Separation: Race and Immigration Policy in the Trump Era," said that while many Americans dont agree with immigration policies that separate children or detain families, those policies dont drive voters to the polls, especially in a midterm year when voter participation is low.

More: Congress returns to big fights over Ukraine aid, Title 42, COVID-19 relief

I don't think it's going to be the defining factor, he said of immigration. But he added that it could go on to affect some voters' decision if the Biden administration doesn't explain that it can repeal the policy to follow international and U.S. law, but also make sure the border stays orderly.

Moran warned that former President Donald Trump and conservatives tried to run on immigration enforcement during the 2018 midterms.

A wave of Democrats were elected then, but it was part of a trend where the incumbent president typically loses many seats in his party. Democrats gained 40 House seats, flipping that chamber to be a Democratic majority.

More: Supreme Court hears challenge about 'remain in Mexico' policy as Biden faces immigration backlash

"I know that Republicans are running on immigration. But look at 2018 when President Trump tried to make that midterm about the caravan, Moran said, referencing a group of Central American migrants who were making their way to the United States southern border to seek asylum. There was Kris Kobach, Lou Barletta and a number of House members that ran on that platform, and they all lost."

Because of redistricting and historical trends, Democrats are facing an uphill battle to keep their seats in the upcoming election. Moran said that Democrats should hone their messaging to fight back against criticisms from Republicans.

"Immigration is portrayed as a binary issue, open border, closed border," she said. "And if policymakers don't give the public other choices, people don't know where to go. Right now, the public isn't being presented with another option."

Not everybody will apply for asylum and not everyone will qualify for asylum," she added. "So it doesn't mean that borders are 'open,' It just means that people will now have the right to seek protection.

Reach Rebecca Morin at Twitter @RebeccaMorin_

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Title 42: Biden faces 'no-win' situation in politics of migrant policy


"On dit souvent," said a woman next to me at lunch, "that the French language is the best for diplomacy because it is the most precise language." She smiled at me. Of course as a civilized person I would share this universal faith.

"That is a complete myth which the French believe dur comme fer," I answered.

She looked shocked. Shocked. The French do universally believe that French is more precise than English (or any other language). This is such an idee recue that no one ever questions it. I think they're probably all even taught this in catechism.

In the days when France had the largest population and most powerful army in Europe (before 1814), French was the language of diplomacy. This had nothing to do with the precision of the French language and everything to do with the population, wealth, prestige and army of the country concerned, just as the use of the English language does today.

Notice I am not saying English is more precise than French. All languages are precise when spoken or written with precision, and any concept can be expressed, eventually, in any language. But French is certainly no more precise than any other language. The examples French people use to illustrate the superiority of French are laughable.

Several people have sent me this article, which is entitled, "To impose a language is to impose a way of thinking" and consists of Claude Hagege, an eminent linguist, discussing the dominance of English in the world. For the most part, I agree with what he is saying. Of course the French are right to defend their language and insist that people in France speak French. Personally, I love the French language. He's good enough to say that there is no "superior" language. In so many words. But then his emotions carry him off, and he starts ranting against English. "We are talking about an imprecise language, which makes its pretensions to universality even less acceptable." And he gives two examples of this imprecise "language of the enemy" (as he actually calls it).

On December 29, 1972, an airplane crashed in Florida. The control tower had ordered, 'Turn left, right now'...but the pilot had translated 'right now' as 'turn right now' which caused the disaster. Or look at diplomacy, with the English version of the famous Resolution 242 of the UN in 1967, which recommends the 'withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.' The Arab countries believed that Israel should withdraw from 'the occupied territories'-- implying all of them; while Israel considered that it was enough to withdraw from 'occupied territories'-- that is, from only part of them."

In the first example, it is odd that a Frenchman doesn't see that the phrase 'right now' to mean 'immediately' is exactly as 'imprecise' as 'allez tout droit' ['go straight ahead'] in French-- a phrase that literally means 'go completely right.' But isn't it always easier to see the mote in one's neighbor's eye?

In the second example, I actually happen to have read about the translation of this Resolution. The ambiguity in the English was deliberate so that the Resolution could be signed by two sides that disagreed completely. To make it unambiguous, all that would have been needed was the 'the'. It was not a lack of precision, but a lack of honesty (ambiguity is so often useful in diplomacy).

And all examples French intellectuals give of the imprecision of English (because for them, English has to be inferior, since French is superior to all other languages) that I have ever seen are in the same silly vein.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here are a few similar examples of the imprecision of the French language. Please send in more!

kind versus nice -- In French, you translate these both by gentille, but that does not convey the genuineness of kind; you can pretend to be gentille when you're not really.

like versus love -- In French that poor word aimer has to serve for both.

edit versus publish -- Editer can mean either one.

Il se tue. --He commits suicide, or he accidentally kills himself? Could be either.

Paul recoit la lettre de l'etudiant -- Does it mean Paul receives the student's letter? Or does it mean Paul receives the letter from [the hands of] the student? Not very precise, is it?

l'amour de Dieu --Does this refer to God's love for you, or to your love for God?

la fille du fermier qui nous vend des legumes --Does this mean the daughter sold the vegetables, or her father the farmer sold the vegetables?

elle ne connait que les plages de la Floride -- Has at least three different meanings in English

un desarmement des navires dans les ports francais sous le controle allemand could have FIVE different meanings in English.... *

Basically, if language is imprecise, it is the fault or responsibility of the speaker or writer, not the language; all languages can be clear and precise. French has no special gift for it. But perhaps the very belief in this precision of French contributes to carefully written language. Le Monde has a very lively blog written by its copy editors and it receives hundreds of comments a week from the passionnes of the French language. Good for them!

Lastly, if imposing a language on non-native speakers is wrong (um, I'd speak French in that case), Claude Hagege and all those who think like him should logically also be fighting for the non-imposition of French on speakers of Breton, Occitan, Basque and Alsatian German. Mais que nenni! What they really want, if they are honest with themselves, is just for French to be top dog again. I suppose I'd feel the same way.

*These last five examples are from an article called Structural Ambiguity in French by Robert Trammell and Marie-Genevieve
Persik the cat has had quite the wild ride.

The fun-loving feline was separated from his owner, Larysa Frisby, for several months during Russias invasion of Ukraine, according to a release from the Humane Society of the United States.

The ordeal began in February, at the start of the invasion, when Frisby was away from her home in Ukraine visiting family in Arkansas. During that time, her cat was staying with her cousin in Odesa.

Humane Society International helped a Ukrainian in the U.S. reunite with her cat, Persik, who was rescued from Odesa, Ukraine. (Photo: Kelly Donitahn/HSI)

Humane Society International helped a Ukrainian in the U.S. reunite with her cat, Persik, who was rescued from Odesa, Ukraine. (Photo: Kelly Donitahn/HSI)

Frisbys cousin kept Persik safe before managing to evacuate him out of Ukraine with a friend fleeing to Warsaw, Poland.

Looking to reunite with Persik, which means Peach in Ukrainian, Frisby then reached out to Humane Society International for help.

As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues, HSI has been working in Poland, Romania, Germany and Italy to help pet owners who are fleeing the war.

Kelly Donithan, the director of animal disaster response at HSI, was working in Poland and learned more about Persiks circumstances. She offered to fly the cat back to the U.S. with her.

This single story of one cat, Persik, is emblematic of what Humane Society International has seen through the chaos and trauma of this war: strangers and communities coming together to help one another however they can, including beloved animals, said Donithan.

Donithan quickly made her way to Arkansas to bring Persik back to Frisby.

The cat was fully vaccinated, microchipped and had his pet passport in paw, which helped expedite the return.

I want to express special gratitude to the people who took part in saving my cat from the war in Ukraine, to everyone who provided help and care in Warsaw for several weeks, Frisby said.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
After two years of uncertainty, this summer is expected to be one of the busiest travel seasons in history. But pent-up travel demand coupled with ongoing staffing troubles and higher fuel costs might also make it unusually chaotic. Major U.S. airlines like Southwest and American have been scrambling to make changes to their summer schedules by adding and dropping destinations to meet traveler demand while also taking into account the challenges ahead. Now, JetBlue has announced that it's pulling back from nine cities, starting in June. Read on to find out where the airline is dropping routes this summer.

RELATED: Southwest Is Cutting Flights From These 3 Major Cities, Starting in June.

JetBlue previously warned that its network would likely shrink after the pandemic.

JetBlue added around 135 new routes to its schedule between early 2020 and the end of 2021, Simple Flying reported last year. The majority of these were domestic expansions, except for around 40 added international routes. But the carrier was never planning for all of these new routes to be permanent.

"We've expanded a lotand a lot of routes won't stick around. We'll be going back to our roots and long-term plan again," Andrea Lusso, JetBlue's vice president of network planning, said during World Routes in Milan in 2021, per Simple Flying. According to the news outlet, some of these were experiments for JetBlue to chase revenue opportunities temporarily during uncertain times.

The airline just announced that it is cutting summer flights from several cities.

JetBlue is now reworking its summer 2022 network, Insider reported on April 26. According to the news outlet, the airline is dropping and suspending various routes to prepare for what is expected to a busy travel season. Starting June 1, JetBlue will temporarily suspend service between Miami, Florida, and Hartford, Connecticut, as well as between West Palm Beach, Florida, and Providence, Rhode Island.

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And the airline is also suspending several routes that were originally set to make a comeback this summer. JetBlue last operated flights between Boston, Massachusetts, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and between Los Angeles, California, and Richmond, Virginia, in March and October, respectively, but the carrier is temporarily halting their return until the fall. The Boston-Haiti route will return on Sept. 10 and increase to twice-weekly on Nov. 2, while the Los Angeles-Richmond route will return four times a week on Aug. 1.

Newark, New Jersey, is also losing JetBlue flights to and from three different cities this summer: Aguadilla, Puerto Rico; Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; and Nantucket, Massachusetts. The Aguadilla route will return four times a week on Sept. 8, while both the Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket routes will come back thrice weekly on Sept. 9.

RELATED: For more travel news delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.

But JetBlue is also permanently removing service in two cities.

JetBlue confirmed to Insider on April 26 that part of its adjustment also includes its permanent departure from two separate markets. According to the news outlet, the carrier will no longer service Kalispell, Montana, and Boise, Idaho. JetBlue flew between New York and both of these cities up until Sept. 2021, and now the routes are getting axed for good.

Travelers in Boise can still travel to and from New York via other carriers like Delta, Avelo, United, and Spirit, but JetBlue's route was the city's only nonstop connection to the Big Apple. Meanwhile, the airport in Kalispell will still be serviced from New York by American Airlines going forward, per Insider.

A number of issues have caused JetBlue to adjust its upcoming schedule.

A spokesperson for JetBlue told Insider that the company made these changes to its upcoming schedule last week, and that the dropped flights are meant to help "ease pressure on our operation during this busy season so that our customers can depend on us to get to them where they need to go."

The spokesperson also told Insider that some of the routes did "not make as much sense" given what is happening right now with "significantly higher fuel prices." According to CNN, the new flight cuts come after JetBlue already made the decision to drop 8 to 10 percent of its routes for May following a number of last-minute flight delays and cancellations in April due to weather, fuel, and staffing issues.

"We want customers who love the JetBlue experience to have confidence we will deliver it to them this summer," Joanna Geraghty, the airline's president and COO, told Insider. "We let our crewmembers and our customers down in April, and we must perform better. The investments we're making will help reduce delays and cancellations during the busiest travel period."

RELATED: American Is Cutting Flights From These 4 Major Cities, Starting May 1.
MassMutual Ventures (MMV) has launched a $300 million new fund to back early-stage companies in Asia and Europe.

The MMV Asia and Europe teams third vehicle will invest in startups across digital health, financial technology, enterprise SaaS and cybersecurity, managing director of MMV Ryan Collins said in an interview with TechCrunch.

The third fund will write checks pre-Series A through Series B across Asia countries like India, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia (but excluding China) and Europe countries, including the U.K, Germany, France and Sweden, Collins said adding that the third fund can also invest in South Korea and Japan opportunistically.

This fund reinforces MMVs commitment to the Asia-Pacific region and building a global platform as we look to capitalize on attractive opportunities in Europe, said Doug Russell, managing director and head of MassMutual Ventures. MMVs overall investment capital has more than doubled in size in just two years, underscoring the significant opportunity we see in backing strong founders building great businesses.

Collins and Anvesh Ramineni, managing directors at MMV, have led the Asia and Europe team since 2018. Collins, who joined MMV four years ago to launch the first fund in Asia, returned to the U.K. to set up a European team last year.

MMV's two Asia-focused funds have invested in 20 companies, with MMV leading or co-leading 17 of those investments. Its first Asia fund, which was launched in 2018 at $50 million, backed eight startups in Southeast Asia, and the 100 million second fund made investments in Southeast Asia, India, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, Collins told TechCrunch.

With this additional capital, we look forward to backing even more exceptional founders and supporting them as they scale over time, said Ramineni. Over the past three and a half years, we have led investments in companies fundamentally transforming the digital health, fintech and SaaS sectors in APAC, where we continue to see tremendous opportunity. Moreover, we are very excited about expanding our team and reaching Europes thriving tech and startup ecosystem  making MMV a truly global platform.

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Its sole limited partner of the third fund is Mass Mutual Life Insurance, Collins noted.

The third fund has made more than two investments including HelloBetter, a Berlin-based digital mental health company, marking its first investment in Europe; and Treehouse Finance, a Singapore-based DeFi analytics platform that delivers data and risk management to DeFi users.

The venture capital firm has backed 65 portfolio companies globally since its inception in 2014. The Boston-headquartered firm says MMVs total assets under management, which stood at $460 million as of December 2021, is now $750 million to date.

Some of the Asia teams portfolio companies include Biofourmis, a digital therapeutics company that uses AI-powered data analytics and biosensors to monitor the treatment of chronic conditions; Aspire, a Singaporean neobank that focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises; Qure.ai, an AI-based diagnostics company that assists radiologists; Zluri, a Mumbai-based SaaS management platform; and Microsec, a Singapore-based cybersecurity firm.

MMV, which has offices in Singapore, London and Boston, has four APAC and Europe team members and is actively hiring in both regions. MMV has a team of eight members in Boston.

Through our teams presence in the U.S., Europe and Asia, we offer portfolio companies insights into global markets, and access to significant networks, expertise and later stage, growth capital  allowing us to support them over the long term, said Ryan Collins, managing director of MassMutual Ventures.
Two years into the pandemic that slammed the travel industry, virtually shutting down global air travel in 2020, the demand for seeing the world is once again white-hotand airlines are adding routes and passenger capacity to meet the moment. Read on to learn United Airlines' latest announcement and how it could affect your summer vacation plans.

RELATED: Never Do This Before Takeoff, Flight Attendant Warns.

Major domestic carriers have already announced expanded routes and schedules to meet travelers' strong demand.

Beginning this summer, the JetBlue and American Airlines' regional Northeast Alliance will offer nearly 500 daily departures from the three major airports in the New York metro area, as well as 200 daily departures from Boston.

As part of the growth, American announced plans to launch new nonstop service between John F. Kennedy International Airport and Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar, in Junewhich will make it the only U.S.-based airline to offer flights to the Middle East destination. The same month, JetBlue also plans to launch its first-ever Canadian route with new nonstop service between New York's Kennedy airport and Vancouver.

United is among the airlines that announced offering expanded routes to meet demand.

Last fall, United announced it would add five new international destinations to its flight offerings this summer. The major expansion will include routes to Spain, Portugal, Norway, and Jordan.

The announcement was overall good news for travelers, but not without some caveats. For instance, the Newark to Azores route will use United's Boeing 737 MAX 8 for the flight, which is a fuel-efficient aircraft but not a wide-body jet, so it won't offer the perks and comforts premium-cabin travelers are used to.

And this week, United announced an even bigger boon for American travelers seeking a summer vacation abroad.

RELATED: Never Forget to Do This After Your Flight Lands, Flight Attendant Warns.

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United Airlines is planning a major boost to its flight offerings this summer.

In response to the overwhelming demand for travel, United Airlines is gearing up to offer more flights across the Atlantic this summer than it did in 2019, the year prior to the pandemic shutdowns. In fact, on April 26 the airline said that it plans to augment transatlantic passenger-carrying capacity by 25 percent compared with pre-pandemic levels. Flight offerings will include both existing favorite routes like London, as well as new destinations entirely.

Patrick Quayle, senior vice president of United's international network, explained that the move would be the biggest single transatlantic increase the carrier has ever made. "We will be the largest carrier across the transatlantic," Quayle told CBS News.

The outlet also noted that United had scheduled more passenger-carrying capacity to Europe in June and July than its nearest competitors, even before this latest expansion announcement. Indeed, it already offered 15 percent more than Delta Air Lines and 36 percent more than American Airlines, according to data from research firm Cirium cited by CBS.

RELATED: For more up-to-date information including travel news and advice, sign up for our daily newsletter.

United's expanded service begins its rollout this week.

The rollout will begin this week, with United serving the new locations that it announced last fall, including Portugal's Azores and Spain's Canary Islands. Beginning in late May, it will also boost flight offerings on existing routes, with a jump to 22 flights daily from the United States into London.

RELATED: If You Hear These 7 Words on a Flight, an Engine Has Failed, Pilot Says.
Five Syrian soldiers were among nine people killed in an Israeli air strike near Damascus in the deadliest such raid this year, a war monitor said Wednesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an ammunition depot and several positions linked to Iran's military presence in Syria were among the targets.

Earlier, a Syrian military source told Syrian state news agency SANA that four Syrian soldiers were killed and three others wounded in the Israeli strike.

"The Israeli enemy carried out an air assault at dawn ... targeting several positions around Damascus," the military source said. "The investigation indicated that four soldiers were killed, three others injured and material damage [was] noted."

The Reuters news agency reports that SANA said the missiles were fired from the Israeli seaside city of Tiberias and most were shot down by Syrian air defenses.

Map shows Syria and neighboring nations / Credit: Google Maps

An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment to Reuters about the reported strike.

AFP notes that, while Israel rarely comments on individual strikes, it has acknowledged mounting hundreds since 2011.

According to The Associated Press, Israel's military said the attack came hours after an Israeli drone crashed on the Syrian side of the border Tuesday. The latest Israeli strike follows another near Damascus on April 14 that didn't result in any casualties, according to SANA. Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes inside the country, targeting government positions as well as allied Iran-backed forces and the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. The Israeli military has defended them as necessary to prevent its arch-foe Iran from gaining a foothold on its doorstep. The conflict in Syria started with the brutal repression of peaceful protests and escalated to pull in foreign powers and global jihadists. It has killed nearly 500,000 people.

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Apr. 27JUNEAU  Ballots for Alaska's first-ever statewide by-mail election will be sent to about 560,000 Alaska voters Wednesday.

In the special primary election, voters will be asked to pick one of 48 candidates vying to temporarily fill the U.S. House of Representatives seat vacated by the March death of Congressman Don Young. The top four vote-getters will advance to the Aug. 16 special general election, which will use ranked-choice voting to determine who will serve out the rest of Young's term.

Ballots for the primary will begin arriving in the mailboxes of Alaska voters this week.

The nonpartisan, open primary is Alaska's first under a new statewide election system approved by voters in 2020.

In this election, voters are being asked to pick one candidate, then mail their ballot back to the Division of Elections before June 11, the official election day. Ballots can arrive at division offices as late as June 21 and will still be counted, but only if they are postmarked on or before June 11.

Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, said the division sent a postcard reminder last week.

[An information blitz on Alaska's new election system is coming, even from ranked-choice resistors]

Normally, Alaska voters who want to cast a ballot by mail must first request an absentee ballot from the division.

In March, Fenumiai and other state officials said there was no feasible way, given the suddenness of Young's death and the short timeline required by state law, to conduct a traditional election.

Instead, the division is automatically sending ballots to all registered voters, and those ballots are going out 45 days before Election Day. The state is also paying postage.

Some in-person polling places will be available, Fenumiai said, and polling locations will be announced Wednesday. Many of those polling places will be open for multiple days.

Elections officials are encouraging voters to check their listed address online at myvoterinformation.alaska.gov. If the address is incorrect, update it at voterregistration.alaska.gov. Users will need an Alaska driver's license or other state ID.

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Though ballots will have already been mailed, the division will send a second ballot to the updated address, Fenumiai said. Officials will be tracking both ballots to prevent double voting, she said.

The online registry lists whether a ballot has been sent to a particular voter and whether that voter's ballot has been received by the Division of Elections.

Fenumiai said that in the coming days, the division will be joining BallotTrax, a system that allows voters to get text, email and phone alerts when their ballot has been received by the division. (The Municipality of Anchorage used BallotTrax in this year's city election.) Information will be posted on the division's website when available, she said.

Elections officials will be posting incremental updates on the number of ballots received before Election Day, she said. The first results will be posted on the evening of June 11, and the final results will be available June 21, with final review and certification expected by June 24.
Ben Stokes could be confirmed as Englands Test captain as soon as Thursday, when new managing director Rob Key appears at Lords to outline his vision for the mens side.

Stokes was the immediate favourite to succeed Joe Root when the Yorkshireman stood down after five years in charge but, with a leadership vacuum at the England and Wales Cricket Board, no decision could be made until Keys appointment was ratified.

The former Kent captain, who was capped 21 times by his country across all formats, held positive talks with Stokes in Durham this week when sounding him out as the next skipper, the PA news agency understands.

Ben Stokes, pictured, is understood to have met with Rob Key in Durham this week (Jason OBrien/PA)

Despite his previous role as Roots right-hand man, his decision was not a given. His workload as a full-blooded all-rounder is already sizeable, he has previously distanced himself from coveting the job and only last year he took a four-month mental health break from the sport.

But as a cricketer he has defined himself by devoting himself to the needs of the team and it has become increasingly clear that, with the only other captaincy options lacking experience, form or a current place in the team, his promotion is best for business.

Rubberstamping his appointment at ECB board level should be a formality but it is not certain that it will be pushed through in the next 24 hours.

Key, an accomplished television broadcaster in recent years, is due to face the media for the first time since taking the reins on Thursday and would prefer to come bearing news on Stokes.

Stokes, right, looks set to succeed his good friend Joe Root, left, as England Test captain (Darren England via AAP/PA)

That would give him something concrete to talk about and help nudge the conversation forward with less than five weeks before the first Test of the summer against New Zealand.

With the recruitment process for specialist red and white-ball head coaches now under way, but first draft interviews not scheduled for another fortnight, the timeline does not realistically allow Key to wait for a Test coach to be in place before anointing Stokes.

Former South Africa and India head coach Gary Kirsten, currently working with Indian Premier League franchise Gujarat Lions and Hundred side Welsh Fire, has once again emerged as an option to take on the red-ball role four years after being rejected by England.

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Kirsten is understood to have lost out to Chris Silverwood on the strength of his interview in 2018, but both parties could be ready to take a fresh look at the situation.

Graham Ford, Mahela Jayawardene, Simon Katich and current assistant coach Paul Collingwood would also come with strong claims.

Welcome, @RobKey612!  It is an absolute honour to take up this role."  England Cricket (@englandcricket) April 17, 2022

Key has plenty to discuss beyond the on-field leadership and will be called upon to provide some clarity on the coaching structure beneath the new format-specific heads as well as the selection panel.

His predecessor, Ashley Giles, dissolved the role of national selector and concentrated those powers in former head coach Silverwood but that experiment was an unqualified failure.

Key, who has strong recent links to the county game, could restore the position in a bid to offer an independent voice around availability of multi-format players.

Meanwhile, the ECB will restart the process of finding a new chair amid reports the person initially overseeing the operation now intends to put his name forward for the position.

Ron Kalifa, an ECB board member, was head of the nominations committee that was responsible for finding a successor to Ian Watmore, who stepped down last October after little more than a year in the role.

The ECB Board has agreed to restart the process for recruiting its next permanent Chair. More here: https://t.co/r4019QXFIa pic.twitter.com/5txFTllC2l  England and Wales Cricket Board (@ECB_cricket) April 27, 2022

But the ECB revealed that despite a number of strong candidates undertaking interviewsit was felt that no single candidate was able to fully meet the criteria to become next chair.

A statement from the governing body added: In light of this, the board decided that the process should now be restarted. A new nominations committee will be appointed, chaired by senior independent director Brenda Trenowden, to run the new process.

It was also announced that Barry OBrien will stand down from his position as ECB interim chair because of ill health, with deputy chair Martin Darlow taking the reins temporarily.

The ECB declined to comment on potential candidates when contacted by the PA news agency.
The Cheboygan County Sheriff's Department was recently awarded more than $151,000 to reimburse the county for expenses related to COVID-19 testing for jail staff, inmates and visitors.

On Tuesday, the Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners approved the receipt of a grant for over $150,000 to reimburse the county for expenses of COVID-19 testing in the Cheboygan County Jail.

Cheboygan County Sheriff Dale Clarmont said the sheriff's department, including the Cheboygan County Office of Emergency Management  with the assistance of Cheboygan County Finance Director Sue Buitenhuis  had applied for the reimbursement grant. The grant was under the COVID-19 grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and supported through the United States Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"In the amount of $151,142.68," said Clarmont. "That was for the time period of Oct. 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022."

Cheboygan County Jail Administrator Brenda Beckwith and Cheboygan County Office of Emergency Management Director Lt. Jeremy Runstrom found the grant and applied.

The purpose of the grant is to reimburse the county for its expenditures incurred for the COVID-19 testing that had to be performed on the jail staff, the inmates housed in the jail, and all visitors to the facility during the time period.

Dale Clarmont

Clarmont came before the county board members to ask them to approve the acceptance of the grant and for Buitenhuis to make the necessary budget adjustments. The commissioners voted unanimously to do so.

In November of last year, the sheriff's department and Runstrom applied to, and were awarded funding from, FEMA to help pay for a number of COVID-19 testing kits that were needed to perform the required testing. The funding provided around 2,800 testing kits for the jail staff and inmates. At that time, Clarmont was estimating using around 200 tests per month.

More: County approves FEMA grant application for more COVID-19 testing supplies

At the meeting this week, Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners Vice-Chair Rich Sangster asked Clarmont whether the $151,000 grant award would cover all the expenses the sheriff's department incurred for the testing. Clarmont said the funds will about cover what was spent in testing supplies.

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The grant funding for the sheriff's department's testing can be used to reimburse the cost of personal protection equipment used during testing, such as the gloves and masks worn, as well as disinfecting supplies, rapid test kits, and test kits that gave results in longer than 15 minutes.

The funds can also be used for contractual labor related to the testing, data entry and disinfecting needed, and any staff labor overtime charges directly related to the COVID-19 testing of jail staff, inmates and visitors.

After receiving this grant, the sheriff's department will need to complete a reimbursement form through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services with the acceptable expenses documented.

Contact Features Writer Kortny Hahn at khahn1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @khahnCDT.

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: County receives grant to reimburse cost of COVID testing at jail
More than three in four Americans favor accepting Ukrainian refugees to the United States, a new Gallup poll shows.

It's the highest level of support  by far  Gallup has recorded among Americans for any refugee group since the start of World War II more than 80 years ago, the independent polling firm found.

Of those surveyed, 78% agreed that they would accept 100,000 people from Ukraine.

The support is bipartisan with 92% of Democrats, 61% of Republicans, and 79% of independents in favor of taking them in as they flee their war-ravaged country.

The data also shows that in previous years, not as many Americans were open to the idea of welcoming in as many refugees.

In 2018, for example, only 14% of Republicans agreed to accept refugees from Honduras and other Central American countries compared to 52% of independents and 82% of Democrats. In 2015, only 15% of Republicans, 37% independents and 57% Democrats were in favor of accepting Syrian refugees.

Gallup has conducted polls in a variety of different refugee cases and has data dating back to WWII.

"This is the highest level of U.S. public support for admitting refugees that Gallup has found" since 1939, according to the polling firm.

Alexandra Kusminova left eastern Ukraine with her daughter and granddaughter, fleeing the Russian attacks in Avdiivka. The U.N. refugee agency says more than 5 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russian troops invaded the country. The agency announced the milestone in Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War II on April 20, 2022.

The study also says that "no other refugee appeal has been supported by even four in 10 Americans, with support ranging from 16% in 1946 for taking expanded number of European refugees during World War II to 37% in 2015 for admitting 'at least 10,000 Syrian refugees'."

The poll was conducted from April 1st-19th, and surveyed 1,018 adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Under a new program that began this week by the Biden administration, Ukrainians fleeing war can seek refuge in the United States.

Biden pledged to accept up to 100,000 Ukrainians impacted by Russia's invasion through the Uniting for Ukraine program, where they can apply on the Department of Homeland Security online portal. More than 4 million people have escaped Ukraine since the Russian invasion on Feb.24.

Local civilians gather to get humanitarian aid distributed by Donetsk People Republic Emergency Situations Ministry in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Saturday, April 23, 2022.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukrainian refugees would be welcome in U.S., latest Gallup poll shows
The European Union has approved a package of financial support for Lithuanian companies affected by the trade embargo China has imposed on the Baltic nation.

A 130 million (US$138.8 million) fund, approved on Tuesday, will be available to companies for loans of up to 5 million. The loans, which must be repaid within 24 months, will be open to firms in all sectors other than finance, agriculture and forestry, fisheries and aquaculture.

Taiwanese and Lithuanian flags displayed at the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius. Photo: Reuters alt=Taiwanese and Lithuanian flags displayed at the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius. Photo: Reuters>

Under the EU's State Aid rules, Lithuanian businesses will be able to apply for loans from the government in Vilnius to use alternative suppliers instead of China, or to enter new markets if they have been frozen out of the Chinese economy.

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.

Lithuania's trade with China has dropped dramatically since Vilnius allowed Taiwan to open a diplomatic office there under its own name in November - worsening already fraught EU-Beijing relations.

Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a breakaway province not entitled to diplomatic representation, claims the naming of the "Taiwanese Representative Office" breaches its one-China principle, a charge Lithuania and the EU deny.

Companies from other European countries have also faced customs issues in China for using Lithuanian parts in their products, according to the EU and Lithuania.

Chinese customs data for the first three months of 2022 showed a 76.6 per cent drop in Lithuanian shipments to the world's second-largest economy.

A spokesman for the Chinese mission to the EU said that "China has always been following WTO rules" and that "how the EU uses its funds is a matter for the EU".

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"It needs to be noted that the whole thing between China and Lithuania is clear," the spokesman added. "Lithuania renounced its commitment and created the false impression of 'one China, one Taiwan' in the world. This has undermined China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and damaged the confidence of businesses from the two countries."

In announcing the loan programme, the EU said that "the commission found that the scheme is necessary, appropriate and proportionate to support companies affected by the exceptional circumstances resulting from the Chinese trade restrictions to reorient their business strategies".

"From December 2021, and without informing the EU or Lithuanian authorities, China began to heavily restrict or de facto block imports from and exports to Lithuania, or linked to Lithuania. The commission has repeatedly raised the matter with the Chinese authorities," it added.

The European Union is also mapping out the next steps in a lawsuit related to the blockade that it is bringing before the World Trade Organization against Beijing, after preliminary consultations with Chinese officials ended in March.

EU sources said there had been no resolution during those talks, and that they remain unsatisfied with China's response.

Speaking in Washington on Tuesday, Lithuanian Finance Minister Gintare Skaiste said China's embargo continued but that Western companies had committed to remaining in Lithuania, despite Beijing's alleged pressure campaign.

"The secondary effect from [China] pushing the companies not to buy parts from Lithuanian companies was really felt in the first days but afterwards, we have been asking for help from the Western allies - from the United States, from European Union member states," Skaiste told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute.

The G7 and some other allies have supported the EU case before the WTO, which Skaiste said was instrumental in convincing companies to stay.

"What we're seeing now is that companies are staying in Lithuania and they are not changing their mind about expanding and hiring additional workers.

"So it might seem that the situation has calmed a bit, but it's really a great uncertainty still," she said.

The Lithuania dispute was one of several issues EU leaders raised with their Chinese counterparts at a testy summit this month, which was otherwise dominated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Beijing's perceived support for Moscow.

"China must stop its unjustified trade measures against Lithuania, which violate WTO rules and disrupt the EU's internal market. Until it does, we will pursue our case in front of the WTO," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the summit.

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.
Florida Republicans may run into serious legal issues  and a $1 billion hurdle  in their effort to revoke Disney Worlds private government status due to a state pledge enacted 55 years ago, The Walt Disney Company alluded to investors last week after the GOP moved to penalize the company for opposing its controversial Dont Say Gay legislation.

Disney sent a note to investors last week saying it believed it could operate business as usual, effectively self-governing its 25,000-acre theme park complex in whats called the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The zone was set up as a special district in 1967 to entice Disney to develop the site, saving it millions in annual fees and taxes but bringing some 50 million visitors to the Orlando area every year.

The State of Florida pledges  that it will not limit or alter the rights of the District until all such bonds  are fully met and discharged, Disney wrote in its letter, saying it expected to explore its options while continuing its present operations.

Regardless, Florida Republicans voted to dissolve that special status last week in what critics say is blatant retribution after Disney said it would work to overturn the Dont Say Gay legislation.

A provision in state law, however, says legislators cant do that unless the Reedy Creek districts bond debt is paid off  a figure that may exceed $1 billion, according to legal experts. If the state still wants to move forward with the dissolution, it could result in hefty legal fees and theoretically require the counties that absorb the special district to also absorb its debt.

Scott Randolph, the Democratic tax collector of nearby Orange County, which could absorb part of that bond debt alongside Osceola County, has denounced the bill, saying it could result in an additional tax bill of between $2,200 to $2,800 per family of four.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has addressed some criticism, saying Disney would under no circumstance get out of paying its taxes or debts.

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The posturing began last month after DeSantis signed the Dont Say Gay bill, a decision that prompted Disney to pledge to fight the legislation. It was a notable statement from one of the states largest employers that came after the company drew fire for saying it would remain neutral as the bill worked its way through the statehouse.

Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that, the company said in a statement at the time. We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country.

The shift in tone, however, prompted fury from DeSantis and other Republicans.

Im just not comfortable having that type of agenda get special treatment in my state, the governor said last week. I just cant do it.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
If Gov. Doug Ducey was serious about defending Arizona against antisemitism, he would call out state Sen. Wendy Rogers.

Gov. Doug Ducey said all the right words on the eve of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In Arizona, we fight antisemitism and other forms of hate, he said in a Twitter thread on Tuesday, after signing a bill that requires the Department of Public Safety to collect information about crimes motivated by antisemitism.

We must continue to do all we can to protect Arizonans from antisemitism and ensure those of the Jewish faith are treated with respect, dignity, and humanity, he said.

The record number of antisemitic incidents is appalling and deeply disturbing. Arizona will continue to fight antisemitism, he said.

Except, of course, when its politically inconvenient.

Ducey thinks Rogers is preferable to a Democrat

Its now been nearly two months since the unmasking of the Arizona Legislatures resident antisemite, Sen. Wendy Rogers.

This far right, first-term state legislator has built a national following as she rants about election conspiracies and George Soros and the cabal of Jews, journalists, political elites and other nefarious characters who plot to create a New World Order.

But its never much bothered Ducey.

In late February, on the eve of her speech to a conference of white nationalists, Ducey defended his assistance in getting Rogers elected in 2020, after 10 years of voters rejecting her brand of politics.

Rogers may spew unhinged, antisemitic garbage but shes still, apparently, preferable to a Democrat.

Shes still better than her opponent, Felicia French, Ducey said, when asked by a reporter whether he regretted the nearly $500,000 his PAC spent to get Rogers elected and thus maintain Republican control of the state Senate.

Never mind the antisemitic tripe she spews

Rogers went on that weekend to speak to the America First Political Action Conference, where she heaped praise on conference organizer Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who notes that people are comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolph Hitler, as if that isnt a good thing. Fuentes has been labeled a white supremacist by both the Department of Justice and the Anti-Defamation League.

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During her pre-recorded speech, Rogers lauded the white nationalists as patriots and lamented that we no longer stage public hangings. Then she took to Twitter to fire off post after post of antisemitic tripe, decrying the Wests treatment of Russia and calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a globalist puppet for Soros and the Clintons.

I stand with the Christians worldwide not the global bankers who are shoving godlessness and degeneracy in our face, Rogers wrote.

Really, it was nothing new for the woman who openly longs for the days of Sen. Joe McCarthy and warns that we are being replaced and invaded  a reference to the Great Replacement Myth, which holds that white people are being systematically replaced by non-white immigrants.

But finally, at least a few Republicans were fed up.

Some Republicans have called Rogers out

Sen. Paul Boyer, R-Glendale, publicly called out his colleague.

Youre not a victim @WendyRogersAZ so quit pretending to be one, he tweeted. And stop using Christianity to justify race superiority and executing your political opponents.

Maricopa County Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates and Vice Chairman Clink Hickman lambasted Rogers and called on business, community and political leaders to speak out.

Rogers baselessly declares that everyone who doesnt support her conspiracy theories and beliefs is a Soros puppet, a traitor or a communist, they said, in a joint statement. She has made clear what her beliefs are: She asserts that we should hang our political opponents and those we disagree with. She embraces anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic rhetoric. She apologizes for Putin and condemns our allies  .

The Senate actually voted 24-3 to censure Rogers, though a fair number of her fellow Republicans seemed mostly put out that shed threatened to destroy the career of any Republican who came after her.

Ducey then followed up with all the moral outrage of milquetoast.

Antisemitic and hateful language, he declared, has no place in Arizona.

She'll probably win, so Ducey stays silent

Unless that language comes from the 16th and deciding Republican vote in the Arizona Senate.

Then, it must be OK because we are still waiting on Ducey to denounce Rogers  to say he made a mistake in 2020 or at least to pledge not to do so again this year.

Rogers was destined for defeat in this years election until the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission staged a rescue operation. At the last minute, the commission in December surgically carved Rogers mobile home out of a heavily Democratic northern Arizona district and into a safe Republican district that stretches from her Flagstaff home all the way south to Oracle, which is just north of Tucson.

That should give her safe harbor for the foreseeable future.

Assuming, that is, that she can get by state Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Apache Junction, which should be a fairly safe bet given that Rogers campaign treasury has been fattened with millions of dollars  most of them coming from election deniers who dont even live in Arizona.

Ducey, meanwhile, waxes on about the evils of antisemitism, unwilling to address the antisemitic elephant in the room.

As crimes against the Jewish community rise, we will continue to take action to prevent additional harm, he said.

Unless, sadly, the fight becomes just too politically inconvenient.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gov. Doug Ducey vows to fight antisemitism but supports Wendy Rogers
A Chinese teacher is winning the hearts of social media users for dressing up as Ultraman in a short video he showed to his students.



In an interview with Chinese news platform Wutong video, the teacher, identified only by his surname Yang, said he shared the video he created with his class of 3- and 4-year-old children in Ordos city in Inner Mongolia on April 20, reported South China Morning Post.









I thought to myself, If they like Ultraman so much, why do not I transform into him for them? Yang said, explaining that most of his students are boys who are fans of the Japanese childrens show.



Instead of coming into work dressed as Ultraman, Yang decided to push the bar higher and show his class how he transforms into the giant monster-fighting superhero in a video. Yang followed online creators who specialize in making transformation videos and reached out to them to ask for tips.



I incorporated my thoughts into the video and recorded myself transforming into Ultraman to save the preschool. Our school buildings were the backdrop, Yang said. The kids were having a great time watching the video, and they kept asking me how to fight the monsters.



To complete the image of their teacher as a superhero, Yang showed his students a scar he had received days before and told them he got injured while fighting monsters. After seeing it, Yang noted that his students were even more convinced that he was Ultraman.



Social media users praised Yang for his dedication to his students, with one writing, This teacher is so cute, and he created a fairytale dream for the kids.



I guess the kids will be bragging to their peers in the next class every day that their teacher is Tiga, another user wrote.



The Chinese government began a crackdown on violence portrayed in childrens shows in September 2021. Ultraman Tiga, which first aired in September 1996 in Japan, was the first show removed from several online streaming websites.



Other shows, including Peppa Pig, My Little Pony and Detective Conan, also received warnings from the Jiangsu Province government in April 2021.



Feature Image via Weibo

Story continues

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A YRC Worldwide freight terminal in Brooklyn, May 2, 2014. (Michael Nagle/The New York Times)

WASHINGTON  Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday released a report alleging that top Trump administration officials awarded a $700 million pandemic relief loan to a struggling trucking company in 2020 over the objections of career officials at the Defense Department.

The report, released by the Democratic staff of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, describes the role of corporate lobbyists during the early months of the pandemic in helping to secure government funds as trillions of dollars of relief money were being pumped into the economy. It also suggests that senior officials such as Steven Mnuchin, the former Treasury secretary, and Mark Esper, the former defense secretary, intervened to ensure that the trucking company, Yellow Corp., received special treatment despite concerns about its eligibility to receive relief funds.

Todays select subcommittee staff report reveals yet another example of the Trump administration disregarding their obligation to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the chairman of the subcommittee, said in a statement. Political appointees risked hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds against the recommendations of career DOD officials and in clear disregard of provisions of the CARES Act intended to protect national security and American taxpayers.

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The $2.2 trillion pandemic relief package Congress passed in 2020 included a $17 billion pot of money set up by Congress and controlled by the Treasury Department to assist companies that were considered critical to national security. In July 2020, the Treasury Department announced it was giving a $700 million loan to the trucking company YRC Worldwide, which has since changed its name to Yellow.

Lobbyists for Yellow had been in close touch with White House officials throughout the loan process and had discussed how the company employs Teamsters as its drivers, according to the report.

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Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, was a key actor coordinating with Yellows lobbyists, according to correspondences that the committee obtained. The report also noted that the White Houses political operation was almost giddy in its effort to assist with the application.

The loan raised immediate questions from watchdog groups because of the companys close ties to the Trump administration and because it had faced years of financial and legal turmoil. The firm had lost more than $100 million in 2019 and was being sued by the Justice Department over claims that it had defrauded the federal government for a seven-year period. It recently agreed to pay $6.85 million to resolve allegations that they knowingly presented false claims to the U.S. Department of Defense by systematically overcharging for freight carrier services and making false statements to hide their misconduct.

To qualify for a national security loan, a company needed certification by the Defense Department.

According to the report, defense officials had recommended against certification because of the accusations that the company had overcharged the government. They also noted that the work that the company had been doing for the federal government  which included shipping meal kits, protective equipment and other supplies to military bases  could be replaced by other trucking firms.

But the day after a defense official notified a Treasury official that the company would not be certified, one of Mnuchins aides set up a telephone call between him and Esper.

The report indicated that Esper was not initially familiar with the status of Yellows certification. Before the call, aides prepared a summary of the analysis and recommendations of the departments career officials that concluded that the certification should be rejected.

Before those reached Esper, Ellen M. Lord, the departments undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment who was appointed by Trump, intervened and requested a new set of talking points that argued that the company should receive the financial support to both support force readiness and national economic security. Lord could not immediately be reached for comment.

After the call with Mnuchin, Esper certified that the company was critical to national security and a week later the approval of the loan was announced.

Mnuchin then sent an email to Meadows that included news reports praising the loan. He highlighted positive comments from James Hoffa, the longtime president of the Teamsters union, who according to documents in the report made a direct plea to President Donald Trump about the loan.

Esper and Mnuchin declined to comment.

A former Treasury official familiar with the process said the loan saved 25,000 union jobs during an economic crisis and prevented disruption to the national supply chain that the Defense Department, businesses and consumers had depended on. The former official said that because of the terms of the loan, taxpayers were profiting from the agreement.

A spokesperson for Esper said the company met the criteria to be eligible for the loan and emphasized that the report made clear that senior staff at the Defense Department recommended that he certify it. The Treasury Department made the final decision to issue the loan, the spokesperson added.

At a congressional oversight hearing before leaving office in late 2020, Mnuchin said the loan was appropriate and necessary for saving jobs and maintaining trucking services to the Defense Department. Lawmakers from both parties, such as Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Pat Roberts, the Republican former senator from Kansas, had sent letters to Mnuchin urging him to consider the loan application.

Other lawmakers, however, have been deeply skeptical of the loan, which is the subject of an investigation by the Congressional Oversight Commission, a bipartisan panel that was set up to oversee portions of the relief money. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., who sits on that commission, said the loan should not have been given.

As Ive previously said, the $700 million taxpayer-backed loan Treasury made to Yellow, formerly YRC, was a mistake, and now the commission is focused on how we can prevent this from happening again, Hill said.

Yellow had many connections to the Trump administration. The company had financial backing from Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm with close ties to administration officials. Trump had selected the companys CEO, Darren Hawkins, to serve on a coronavirus economic task force. And he had nominated the companys former CEO, William Zollars, to the U.S. Postal Services board of governors.

The report accuses Yellow of misrepresenting its business to help secure the loan. It claimed to provide a larger share of trucking services to the Defense Department than the department assessed. Communications included in the report also showed a company executive discussing using funds to catch up on capital investments when the relief money was supposed to be used for offsetting losses from the pandemic. The executive said the company had its hand in the cookie jar.

Along with the release of the report, Clyburn sent a letter to the Treasury Departments inspector general asking for an investigation into whether Yellow had violated the False Claims Act.

A law firm representing Yellow sent a letter to Clyburn before the release of the report defending the companys actions and describing many of the allegations as baseless. The company stood by the trucking services data that it provided when applying for the loan and said that Yellow has paid more than $25 million in interest on the loan. The letter also noted that company had settled its dispute with the government last month.

The letter, which was written by Marc E. Kasowitz, who was previously Trumps personal attorney, was provided to The New York Times by Heather Nauert, an adviser to Yellow who was previously a spokesperson for Mike Pompeo, Trumps secretary of state.

 2022 The New York Times Company
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

Well, this is bananas.

According to former President Donald Trump, hurling a fruit at someone can be a lethal actone that justifies the use of violence to thwart any use of produce as projectile.

In transcripts of an October 2021 deposition, filed in court on Tuesday, the twice-impeached former president insisted tomatoes, pineapples, and bananas can be very dangerous weapons that justify violent acts of self-defense. (Elsewhere in the just-released deposition, The Daily Beast reported, Trump admitted he personally oversaw the pay of a Trump Organization exec whose corporate perks have come under legal scrutiny in a tax fraud case.)

Trump was testifying under oath in a civil lawsuit brought by protesters alleging they were assaulted by his security guards outside his New York offices in 2015. Of particular interest to lawyers representing the protesters were Trumps remarks during a campaign speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Feb. 1, 2016, in which he told attendees: If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them, would you?

Asked why he made that specific request, Trump testified that his campaign had received a threat that day. They were going to throw fruit, he claimed. And you get hit with fruit, itsno, its very violent stuff. We were on alert for that.

Trump Admits He Oversaw Pay for Executive Who Got Fishy Perks

In a comedic moment, the plaintiffs lawyer Benjamin Dictor dryly remarked, A tomato is a fruit after all, I guess, and Trumps attorney Jeffrey Goldman jumped in to confirm: It has seeds.

The former president then continued on the subject of frightful fruits: Its worse than tomato, its other things also. But tomato, when they start doing that stuff, its very dangerous. There was an alert out that day.

Trump conceded that his remarks may have been said sort of in jest, but quickly added that there was a little truth to it because hurled tomatoes are very dangerous stuff. He noted: You can get killed with those things.

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Asked whether he was trying to incentivize people to engage in violence, the former president responded: No, I wanted to have people be ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit.

Trump continued with another tomato tirade: And some fruit is a lot worse thantomatoes are bad, by the way. But its very dangerous. No, I wanted them to watch. They were on alert. I remember that specific event because everybody was on alert. They were going to hit, they were going to hit hard.

Asked whether anyone in attendance was actually found to have tomatoes in their possession that day, Trump conceded, I dont know. But it worked out that nothing happened.

Moments later, when grilled about further declaring during the Iowa speech that hed pay the legal fees of anyone who knocks the crap out of a protester, Trump once again said he faced a serious threat.

Is it your expectation that if your security guards see someone about to throw a tomato that they should knock the crap out of them? Dictor then inquired, prompting Trump to yet again rattle off concerns about dangerous fruits.

Well, a tomato, a pineapple, a lot of other things they throw, he said. Yeah, if the security saw that, I would say you have toand its not just me, its other people in the audience get badly hurtyeah, I think that they have to be aggressive in stopping that from happening. Because if that happens, you can be killed if that happens.

And getting aggressive includes the use of physical force? the cross-examining lawyer followed up.

To stop somebody from throwing pineapples, tomatoes, bananas, stuff like that, yeah, Trump replied. Its dangerous stuff.

A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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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. &&
Yakima Valley schools say they are ready for new state law that solidifies language access
Americas farms and ranches are at risk of failure without antitrust reforms in the meatpacking industry, U.S. Sen Jon Tester told the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday as Congress started its first comprehensive look at antitrust legislation in a decade.

We've got ranchers that are going broke. Ranches that are generational, that have been on the land three, four or five generations, are going broke, Tester said. Not because they're bad operators, not because they made bad decisions. The model doesn't work for them anymore. And we need to do something about that.

The committee took up two bills Friday, co-sponsored by half its members, but primarily authored by Tester, a Montana Democrat, and fellow Sens. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Deb Fischer, a Nebraska Republican. Montana doesnt have a member on the Senate Agriculture Committee. The hearing was livestreamed.

The bills are intended to address anti-trust issues in a highly consolidated meatpacking industry, in which four corporations control 85% of the nations beef supply, and even more of the United States pork and poultry industries.

The Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency act of 2022 sets minimum thresholds for private negotiated purchases of fed cattle by large meatpackers. The bill also requires quicker disclosure of slaughter statistics. The point to the bill is to provide market transparency and to bring auction yard prices more in balance with non-competitive negotiated purchases.

The Meat Packing Special Investigator Act creates a special investigator for competition matters within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The office would have subpoena power, as well. It would investigate the cattle, hog, and poultry industries for anti-competitive practices.

Tester emphasized that consumers often pay more for animal protein at the very time that ranchers are paid prices that are uneconomical. That trend was on display at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when meatpackers slowed production. As a result, ranchers couldnt sell livestock into the system, which meant supply swelled and prices paid to ranchers crashed. Meanwhile, less supply available to grocers has been driving prices upward for consumers as demand outpaced what was available. The dynamics resemble a double-kinked hose with a price bulge in the middle, beneficial to meatpackers, while at opposite ends ranchers and consumers are both disadvantaged.

What does that do? It reduces the prices for the farmer and drives up the prices for the consumer at the retail level, Tester said. And the fact of the matter is, these packers are doing pretty darn well. Tyson Foods, in the last quarter of 2021, their net income rose from $469 million to $1.2 billion. That's one quarter, OK? Net income from 2020 to 2021 went up 47%. And by the way, I'm all about folks making money. I think it's a good thing. I think profit margins are great, and we ought to have them but, people, there needs to be some transparency. There needs to be some accountability because what we're having in this country is consumers and people in production agriculture being treated unfairly.

Not everyone was sold on the legislation. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, said adding a special investigator to USDA to focus on competition, was just more government.

On the bill, which creates the Office of Special Investigator for competition matters at USDA, I believe the (Agriculture) secretary currently, currently today, has the authority to address these issues, and adding another level of government is not the answer. We need less government, not more, Tuberville said.

Witnesses for the USDA testified that the trend for the past decade has been flat budgets resulting in fewer employees to enforce the Grain Inspectors and Stockyards Act, the nations 1921 response to the market concentrations that clobbered farms and ranches a century ago.

When we have had flat resources, the reality has meant a 40% decline in the staff within the Packers and Stockyards Division, USDAs Andy Green said. And that doesn't even count the constraints on our Office of General Counsel, which we depend on heavily.

We certainly would benefit from the ability to engage in more robust analysis to do the more complex investigations and to be able to cover more ground. Because, these are challenges that producers are feeling every single day and if we're not out there enforcing the rules, you do have significant risks that producers are not getting a fair shake.

Sean Tiffany, a Kansas rancher and feedlot manager, said the prices he negotiates for selling his cattle outside of the auction yards reflect the genetic improvements hes made to his livestock to make them worth a premium price. Tiffany is a member of the National Cattlemens Beef Association, a group that frequently lines up with the larger meatpackers on regulatory issues.

I'm opposed to these bills and ask the committee to not advance either. The vast majority of cattle producers oppose government mandating a minimum level of negotiated trade, Tiffany said. In February, members of NCBA adopted policy opposing government mandates on cattle marketing methods.

However, members of the U.S. Cattlemens Association and National Farmers Union support the legislation. Those groups prefer the competitive sales brought about by price discovery in livestock auction barns. Whats happened over the years, as more producers leave the auction barns and take negotiated deals, is that price discovery brought about by competitive sales has become less effective at producing true value.

In the last 15 years, cash trades have declined from 52% to 20%, said Shelly Ziesch, a rancher from Jamestown, North Dakota. As the cash market thins, local livestock auctions are going out of business. If that trend continues, is allowed to continue, producers will lose those important marketing options. This is concerning because the cash market provides the transparency and price discovery ranchers need to negotiate a fair price for our cattle. The cash market also serves as the basis for all cattle prices.

There was acknowledgement by witnesses during the hearing that there have been recent victories against the nation's largest meatpackers concerning price fixing.

In February, global beef giant JBS agreed to a $52.5 million settlement in a U.S. price-fixing lawsuit brought by grocery stores and food suppliers against four companies who process more than 85% of Americas beef. During the same period, the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Agriculture announced they would be accepting anonymous reports of unfair and anticompetitive practices in the livestock and poultry sectors.

The Biden administration announced in mid-2021 that it would investigate antitrust issues in the meatpacking industry. It then announced at the start of 2022 that it would spend $1 billion developing independent meat processors to compete with the big four: JBS, Cargill, National Beef and Tyson Foods. Part of that 2022 investment includes reviving made-in-the-U.S. labeling for meat, a populist moves in an industry dominated by global players.

The Biden administration is also spending $1 billion on grants, including more than $3 million in Montana, to expand the number of small meat processors, in an attempt to spur competition for U.S. cattle. If theres another buyer in the auction barn, there will be competition that will naturally increase the price paid to ranchers for cattle, or so the thinking goes. Livestock sales in 2020 were worth about $1.5 billion to the Montana economy in 2020, but that number was $100 million lower than sales from the previous year, as supply problems hit ranchers and consumers squarely in their wallets.

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YORK  Arraignment proceedings were held this past week for Andrew Urena Jr., 31, of Ranch Cucamonga, California, in York County District Court.

Urena is charged with five felonies: two counts of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver, Class 2A felonies; one count of possession of more than one pound of marijuana, a Class 4 felony; and two counts of having no drug tax stamp, both Class 4 felonies.

The case began back in January when a trooper with the Nebraska State Patrol was on regular duty on Interstate 80 in York County when he stopped a Winnebago RV for a traffic violation.

The driver was identified as Adolfo Ramos Jr. and the passenger was Urena.

According to court documents, the trooper asked Ramos to exit the vehicle which prompted Urena to argue with the request.

It is alleged Ramos and Urena had conflicting stories about their travels to New York and when a state patrol drug dog alerted to the presence of narcotics, Urena began to argue with troopers once again (according to court documents).

A search of the motor home resulted in the finding of a suitcase and a tote on the rear bed holding 1,220 packages of THC products, weighing 122 pounds. They also found 35 heat-sealed bags containing pre-rolled marijuana joints weighing about 109 pounds. They also found 15 packages of marijuana seeds weighing about 75 grams.

The total amount of marijuana found by troopers weighed 231 pounds.

Urena pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him and a jury trial was set for Aug. 23.
A Billings man was arraigned in court Wednesday on two counts of sexually assaulting a child over the course of several years.

Dale Loren Jones, 57, was the third man this week to plead not guilty in Yellowstone County District Court to sex crimes against children.

Jones allegedly sexually assaulted a child several times, starting when the victim was seven years old, according to charging documents. The victims mother reported the abuse to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services in August 2021.

The same day, Jones allegedly also called DPHHS and said he had been sexually abusing the victim. The charges followed an interview between the victim and a Yellowstone County child advocate, charging documents say. The investigation remained ongoing when charges were filed April 22.

Jones appeared in court Wednesday from Yellowstone County Detention Facility via teleconference. Prosecutors asked for bond to be set at $150,000. Billings attorney Paul Chaon, representing Jones, asked that he be released on his own recognizance. Jones proved that he is not a flight risk, as he remained in Billings while charges against him were pending, and he is currently in treatment that would be disrupted by remaining in jail, Chaon said.

Standing Master Bradley Kneeland set Jones bond at $10,000. Should he make bail, he is required to avoid all contact with the victim or any witnesses involved in the charges. Kneelands decision came after speaking with District Judge Jessica Fehr, who is presiding over the case.

If convicted on either count of sexual assault, Jones faces a possibility of between four and 100 years in Montana State Prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

Jones appearance in court came a day after two men pleaded not guilty to child rape charges in separate cases. Gary Richard Jones, 31, pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent, with prosecutors alleging that he sexually abused a child under age 10.

Adam Michael Seery, 22, pleaded not guilty to 40 sex crimes, including sexual intercourse without consent, child sex abuse and felonious sexual assault. He allegedly confessed to Phoenix police in November 2021 that he raped a girl under age 16 over a period of several years in Billings and Colorado. Judge Fehr set his bond at $750,000.

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YORK  The York City Council has added wording to the zoning regulations to allow for data centers, following the sale of city-held industrial land to a private company for a data mining center in York.

The council added the definition of data center, added data centers as a permitted use in the industrial zone and added the allowance of such a center to the agricultural district by special permit.

Earlier this month, the city sold the land (located just east of the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) operations center to BginUSA for the companys venture to create an $8 million data mining complex.

The data mining project will bring about 30 units of computer servers and an office to the north end of that property.

As Lisa Hurley, executive director of the York County Development Corporation explained earlier, Data mining development fits York well because it brings sizable new revenues and new investments to the community without competing for workers in this tight job market. We anticipate seeing construction yet in 2022.

At a previous city council meeting, Nicole Sedlacek, economic development manager from NPPD, presented information on data mining as a valuable economic development opportunity for York. Data mining operations generate revenues for the city through the citys electricity lease agreement with NPPD as well as city sales tax revenues on electricity sales.

York provides an attractive location for data mining because of the low electric rates and energy capacity that NPPD provides in the area that can be put to data mining uses.

BginUsa has been working on a smaller Omaha project and the York project will help them meet the growing demand for scalable, cost-effective digital infrastructure solutions for highly specialized computing needs.

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State-owned undertakings' bus services up to the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi will be resumed soon, according to Punjab Transport Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar. The subject was brought up during the secretary-level meeting of the transport ministries of both states after a discussion between the chief ministers of Punjab and Delhi, according to Bhullar.

He said during a recent meeting with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, he apprised him about this long-pending issue, which was directly connected with an increase in the revenue of the transport department, according to an official release.

"I also informed the chief minister about the issue of looting of state's passengers by private bus operators due to non-availability of public bus service", the Punjab Transport Minister said.

Also read: All-new Mercedes-Benz C-Class production begins, launch on 10 May

Mann had recently taken up the matter with his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal.

Bhullar said he had asked Transport Secretary Vikas Garg to hold a meeting with the Delhi government officials concerned. A meeting between Garg with Delhi Principal Transport Secretary Ashish Kundra and officials of the IGI Airport was held.

The transport minister said the state-owned buses would be able to provide affordable service to passengers up to the Delhi airport from different cities of Punjab.

Transport Secretary Garg said during the meeting, Kundra assured that this issue would be resolved soon and state-owned buses would be able to ply up to the Delhi airport. The previous Congress regime had accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi of not allowing state-owned buses to ply up to the Delhi international airport.

Congress legislator Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who was the transport minister in the previous Charanjit Singh Channi-led government, had even asked Kejriwal in Amritsar in December last year why his government was not letting Punjab's state-owned buses travel up to the Delhi airport.

Warring had then said that private buses that charge almost thrice the fare were being allowed to ply all the way to the IGI Airport, but Volvo buses of the state transport undertaking had been barred from travelling to the Delhi airport.

In March this year, Congress legislator Partap Singh Bajwa sought from Chief Minister Mann to raise with Kejriwal the issue of allowing state-owned buses to travel up to the international airport in the national capital.

Bajwa had said the state-owned transport undertakings -- Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) and Punbus -- were not allowed to ply all the way to the Delhi airport.

With inputs from PTI
Air India has achieved an on-time performance rate of more than 90 per cent as per the data released by DGCA for the month of March. It is to be noted that this is the first in quite a while when numbers like this have been on tables for Air India. As per the data, the on-time performance (OTP) of the airline has increased by 28 per cent for March.

Air India's on-time performance for March was 91.2 per cent when looking at its departure patterns in the four metro airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. This occurred just months after the Tata Group took control of the airline. Air India's OTP was 75.1 per cent in October, 67.9 per cent in November, and 71.7 per cent in December 2021, to give you an idea of how significant the gap is.

Moreover, the carrier beat out every other scheduled airline in the country in terms of the least number of cancellations. Of course, it lags behind other airlines in terms of OTP, especially when compared to IndiGo, which is at the top with a 93.9 per cent OTP and a market share of 54.8 per cent, compared to Air India's 8.8 per cent.

Also read: Bagdogra airport ready for operations after IAF completes repair, civil flights resume services

Earlier, Tata had announced that they will make necessary changes to the service standards and the introduction of new passenger-friendly amenities. As per the recent data, the changes seem to be working for the airline.

Air India also released crew directions in February to enhance its OTP, including new SOPs instructing crew members to spend less time at duty-free stores and work toward on-time aircraft door shutting, among other things. The efforts are starting to pay off.

Source
Before Elon Musk decided to be the owner of Twitter, an incident took place on the social media platform that got him on the news in relation to a 19-year-old boy. The reports were that a 19-year-old teenager named Jack Sweeney was tracking Musk's private jet and was posting the data online. He even went as far as asking $50,000 from Elon Musk to delete the Twitter account tracking his jet.

Following the incident, now Elon Musk has finalised the deal to be the official owner of Twitter. However, it remains to be seen what will be the future of Jack Sweeney's account that Musk wanted to be deleted. At the time, the teenager had reportedly said he is creating dozens more accounts tracking the movements of other rich and famous people.

Jack Sweeney also claimed to have developed 16 automated Twitter accounts, or bots, to monitor jets owned by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (@GatesJet), Amazon's Jeff Bezos, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, and rapper Drake, very similar to @ElonJet. The accounts not only measure but also report on these billionaires' carbon footprints, which is one of the reasons Elon Musk wanted to buy out the account.

Also read: Biggest passenger plane Airbus A380 completes 17 years since its first flight, interesting facts to know

At the time, Sweeney, who founded @ElonJet in June 2020, expressed hope that Musk will renew discussions to buy the account and close it down. Tesla's co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, had turned down the teenager's $50,000 demand.

According to the rumours, Musk had blocked Sweeney on Twitter. Moreover, Musk promised Sweeney $5,000 to get rid of the bot, but Sweeney demanded $50,000. Musk, on the other hand, had refused to pay and blocked Sweeney's Twitter. Last November, the billionaire contacted the 19-year-old to voice his concern about the bot.

However, now the ball is in Musk's court as he will have control over who can and cannot use Twitter. It remains to be seen how the billionaire proceeds on the issue surrounding @ElonJet.
Ahmedabad: In a relief to Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday quashed a 2017 criminal case against him in connection with the stampede at the railway station in Vadodara during a train trip to promote his film 'Raees'.

The case was registered for allegedly committing acts endangering the life or personal safety of others after a man suffered a heart attack at the Vadodara railway station during the 'Raees' promotion event. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead after the examination.

Justice Nikhil Kariel allowed Khan's plea seeking quashing of the criminal case against him and the summons issued against him by a Vadodara court.

Khan had approached the high court after the lower court issued him a summons under section 204 of the CrPC (for securing the attendance of the accused).

A court of the chief judicial magistrate in Vadodara had issued summons to Khan after noting that there was sufficient ground for proceedings against him in the case under sections 336, 337 and 338 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly committing acts endangering the life or personal safety of others and causing simple and grievous hurt to them by such acts.

One Farheed Khan Pathan, a local politician, had suffered a heart attack at the Vadodara railway station on January 23, 2017, during the stampede caused by the people eager to catch a glimpse of the superstar who had arrived on a train. A few others were injured in the incident.

Khan was travelling from Mumbai to Delhi on August Kranti Rajdhani Express to promote his movie, 'Raees', and when the train pulled into Vadodara railway station, hundreds of his fans rushed to the platform to catch his glimpse. The superstar threw 'smiley balls' and 't-shirts' at the crowd, causing a scuffle.

One Jitendra Solanki had moved the Vadodara court seeking the initiation of criminal proceedings against Khan after the police refused to take his complaint and register an FIR against the superstar.

The complainant raised the issue of "criminal negligence and recklessness" on part of Khan by throwing gifts at his fans which caused the stampede and subsequent death of a person.

The victim's relative had opposed Khan's plea in the high court, saying that the actor caused chaos at the railway station by throwing balls and t-shirts at the crowd of his fans on the platform. Khan's "irresponsible behaviour" caused the death of his fan and injuries to others.

Khan's lawyer Mihir Thakore argued that throwing 'smiley balls' and t-shirts cannot be considered to be rash or negligent either endangering human life or personal safety by any stretch of the imagination.

In its order, the high court observed that the complaint against Khan was filed by a person who had no direct connection with the incident in question.

The HC also observed that it is required to consider if it would be fair and justifiable to allow a trial against Khan in Vadodara and inconvenience ordinary citizens of the city.

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New Delhi: The 'IT' Girl of Indian cinema, Rashmika Mandanna currently is working on 5 films across languages. The actress is now shooting nights and days, for her much-awaited film, 'Animal' co-starring Ranbir Kapoor in Mumbai.

A source close to the actress reveals, "Rashmika has been shooting for 'Animal' in Mumbai for more than a week now. The schedule consists of several patches of day and night shoots in the suburbs. She has been juggling different cities to concentrate on her acting projects in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi."

"Post this, Rashmika will travel to Hyderabad for a short period of time, and then return to Mumbai to fulfil her brand commitments."

Recently, Rashmika was spotted stepping out of a studio in Mumbai. Paparazzi who was waiting for her continuously called her Srivalli. The actress couldn't stop smiling and showed her love by making a Korean-style heart sign with her fingers.

She now has Sidharth Malhotra's Mission Majnu and Amitabh Bachchan's Goodbye in the pipeline. The actress will soon start shooting for her upcoming film, Pushpa: The Rule with Allu Arjun. After Sulthan, she signed her second Tamil film with Thalapathy Vijay, which is currently progressing at a swift pace.
Stockholm-based commercial electric vehicle (EV) startup Volta Trucks unveiled two smaller zero-emission truck models on April 26. The company said that it will start its production in 2025, opening more options for urban deliveries and in EU markets with restrictions for Sunday operations.

Volta Trucks said it would launch a fleet of test vehicles of its 7.5 tonnes and 12-tonne trucks for customers in 2024. The new models will join the startups Volta Zero, a 16-tonne fully-electric truck, which is due to start series production later this year, and an 18-tonne model that should go into production in 2023.

In February, Volta Trucks said it had raised 230 million euros ($247 million) to fund the launch of the series production of the Volta Zero in late 2022. Some European Union countries have bans on trucks over 7.5 tonnes operating on Sundays or holidays, and cities such as Amsterdam do not allow trucks over that weight to protect old streets and bridges.

Also read: Tata Motors emerges as lowest bidder for over 5,000 electric buses in CESL tender

While some European cities also plan restrictions on diesel commercial vehicles - Paris will ban them in 2024 - and a number of manufacturers are testing prototypes, there are virtually no electric trucks in these weight segments available today. Volta Trucks 7.5 tonne and 12-tonne models will be among the first to market.

"Our customers tell us that they really appreciate the safety and zero-emission attributes of the 16-tonne Volta Zero, but also need smaller 7.5- and 12-tonne vehicles in their operations," Volta Trucks` Chief Executive Essa Al-Saleh said in a statement.

The startup currently has orders for around 6,000 electric trucks, including 1,500 ordered by Deutsche Bahns logistics unit Schenker. Volta Trucks plans to make 5,000 trucks in 2023 and its annual production should rise to 27,000 by 2025.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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#mute
New Delhi: At least 11 people have been killed after coming into contact with a high tension transmission line during a temple chariot procession in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur, ANI news agency reported on Wednesday (April 27, 2022) morning.

As per the latest reports, the deceased also included children.

The incident took place at nearby Kalimedu when the Appar temple chariot procession was underway, the PTI news agency reported

#WATCH | At least 10 people died after a temple car (of chariot festival) came in contact with a live wire in the Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu pic.twitter.com/F4EdBYb1gV  ANI (@ANI) April 27, 2022

#UPDATE | Tamil Nadu: 11 people lost their lives in Thanjavur district during a temple chariot procession after it came into contact with a live wire.  ANI (@ANI) April 27, 2022

The temple car was negotiating a turn and faced some obstacles before being reversed when it came in to contact with the overhead line. The people standing on the chariot were thrown in the impact, PTI said.

Three persons who had suffered injuries have been admitted to the Thanjavur Medical College.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has ordered to provide financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the victims. The Chief Minister will also visit the accident site on Wednesday.
New Delhi: Eleven people, including children, were electrocuted and 15 others sustained injuries as a temple chariot procession came into contact with a high tension transmission line in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur on Wednesday (April 27, 2022).

The incident occurred early Wednesday when the Appar temple chariot procession was underway, the PTI news agency reported. The temple car was negotiating a turn and faced some obstacle before being reversed when it came into contact with the overhead line, the PTI said.

Meanwhile, President Ram Nath Kovind condoled the loss of lives and said it is a tragedy beyond words.

"The loss of life, including that of children, due to electrocution in a procession in Thanjavur is a tragedy beyond words. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured," he said.

The loss of life, including that of children, due to electrocution in a procession in Thanjavur is a tragedy beyond words. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured.  President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) April 27, 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his anguish and said that he is deeply pained by the mishap.

"Deeply pained by the mishap in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. I hope those injured recover soon," the prime minister tweeted.

He also announced Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Minister's National Relief Find to the next of kin of those who lost their lives. The injured would be given Rs 50,000.

Deeply pained by the mishap in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. I hope those injured recover soon: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 27, 2022

Rs. 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the mishap in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The injured would be given Rs. 50,000: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 27, 2022

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin also expressed grief and announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to the families of victims

"This morning in Kalimedu village of Thanjavur district, unexpectedly at the chariot festival eleven people died in the electrocution incident. I was deeply saddened to hear the tragic news. My deepest condolences to the families of the victim," Stalin said.

The Chief Minister added that he has ordered the district administration and police to expedite the rescue operation.

An FIR has been registered and an investigation has started into the incident.

(With agency inputs)
Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed AIIMS to constitute a board for hearing the grievances of employees. No punitive measures would be taken immediately on the persons identified in the incident, against whom action has not been started, the court said.

Earlier AIIMS issued a warning to its employees and faculty members, saying that no staff will cease work for any reason. No employee of staff or faculty member will cease work for any reason whatsoever or disrupt the work or aid or abet such disruption or cessation. No use of loudspeakers or shouting of slogans, demonstration, Dharna within the campus, AIIMS Delhi said in its warning.

The warning came a day after the nursing staff at AIIMS Delhi decided to go on an indefinite strike in protest against the suspension of Harish Kajila, the President of the Nurses Union. Through its notice, the AIIMS also banned the use of loudspeakers and shouting slogans inside its premises.

The agitating nurses have demanded that AIIMS management immediately revoke Kajila's suspension.

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New Delhi: Delhi reported 1,367 fresh COVID-19 cases and one fatality, while the positivity rate stood at 4.50 per cent, according to data shared by the health department here on Wednesday (April 27). It was the sixth consecutive day that the capital recorded over 1,000 new cases in a day.

The infection tally in the national capital stands at 18,78,458 and the death toll has reached 26,170, the bulletin stated.

A total of 30,346 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the city on Tuesday, it said.

Delhi had reported 1,204 fresh COVID-19 cases and one fatality on Tuesday, while the positivity rate stood at 4.64 per cent. A day before, it saw 1,011 cases with a positivity rate of 6.42 percent and one death.

The city on Sunday recorded 1,083 new COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 4.48 per cent, while one person died due to the disease.

With the national capital witnessing an uptick in coronavirus infections over the past few days, the number of active cases has now increased to 4,832 from 601 on April 11, according to health department data.

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

Currently, 129 COVID-19 patients are admitted in Delhi hospitals, while 3,336 are recuperating in home isolation, it said.

Of the 9,390 beds available for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals, only 148 (1.58 per cent) are occupied, the data showed.

In the wake of rising cases, the Delhi government had on Friday issued an order directing authorities to impose a fine of Rs 500 on people not wearing masks in 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 daily cases. The decision to bring back the mask mandate and the fine came at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, which devises COVID-19 management policies for the national capital.

The city health department said that from April 21, Delhi has started providing free precautionary doses of COVID-19 vaccines to beneficiaries in the 18-59 age group at government vaccination centres.

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New Delhi: Amid the rising number of Covid-19 infections in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (April 27, 2022) interacted with chief ministers on the emerging coronavirus situation in the country.

During the virtual interaction, PM Modi asserted that it is clear that the threat of the virus is not fully gone yet, according to a PTI news agency report.

He also said that the Covid-19 vaccination of all eligible children at the earliest is a priority for the government and specialised programs will need to be conducted for it in schools.

The prime minister cited a recent spike in Covid-19 infections in some states and said that there was a need to remain alert.

"Our scientists and experts are continuously monitoring the national and global situation. We have to work on their suggestions with a pre-emptive, pro-active, and collective approach," he was quoted as saying by PTI.

"We have to implement our strategy of Test, Track and Treat equally effectively. In the current situation of coronavirus, it is necessary that we have 100 per cent RT-PCR test for patients admitted in hospitals who are serious influenza cases," PM Modi added.

Speaking at a meeting with Chief Ministers. https://t.co/WyeQyQS0UQ  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 27, 2022

Asserting that the coronavirus vaccine is the biggest protective shield against the virus, he said that the Covid-19 vaccination of all eligible children at the earliest is a priority for the government and specialised programmes will need to be conducted in schools.

He also said that awareness of parents and children is very important in this regard.

Prime Minister Modi also called for scaling up infrastructure and manpower at medical colleges and district hospitals.

"It's a matter of pride for every citizen that 96% of our adult population has been vaccinated with the first dose of the vaccine and 85 % of the eligible population above 15 years of age inoculated with the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine," he said.

Several chief ministers, including Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel, and Punjab's Bhagwant Mann, participated in the interaction.

Meanwhile, India recorded 2,927 fresh infections in a day which pushed the active case tally to 16,279, according to Union Health Ministry data on Wednesday.

With 32 more fatalities, the death toll also climbed to 5,23,654, the data updated at 8 am showed.

(With agency inputs)
Chennai: Fire breaks out at Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital here on Wednesday (April 27). All patients have been evacuated safely. The fire broke out in one of the older buildings, the new three blocks are safe from fire.

So far no report of casualties or injuries has been reported, Principal Secretary-Health, Dr J Radhakrishnan, told ANI.

All patients have been evacuated safely. The fire broke out in one of the older buildings, the new three blocks are safe from fire. So far no report of casualties or injuries have been reported: Principal Secretary-Health, Dr J Radhakrishnan pic.twitter.com/al6f1Z29R9  ANI (@ANI) April 27, 2022

Meanwhile, Several fire tenders reach the spot.

According to reports coming in, as many as 33 patients were shifted from the fire-affected wards.

Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma. Subramanian, who reached the hospital, told reporters, "The patients have been shifted to other wards safely. No one has been injured. The fire seems to be due to electricity leakage."

State Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said the fire tenders have been deployed to put out the blaze, said IANS report.

The hospital officials said oxygen cylinders too have been removed as a safety precaution, it added.
A private school for specially abled children in Jammu-Kashmirs Baramulla has asked teachers to remove hijab during school hours to allow students to have safe communication with the teachers and the staff.

A copy of the order of the school 'Dagger Parivar' had surfaced, which was developed jointly by Indrani Balan Foundation, a Pune-based NGO and the Chinar Corps Indian Army.

To establish trust with the students to make them feel welcome, safe, and happy, Joint management committee Dagger Baramulla in a circular issued and signed by its principal instructed teachers and staff not to wear hijab during school hours.

"Parivar School is a place to learn and grow emotionally & morally. As the staff of the school, the main purpose is to provide for the fullest possible development of each learner. For the same, the trust must be established with the students to make them feel welcome, safe & happy. The staff is hereby instructed to avoid Hijab during school hours so that students can feel comfortable and are forthcoming to interact with teachers & staff", reads the circular.

Notably, the circular is doing rounds on social media and has evoked widespread anguish. Both former chief ministers of erstwhile state of Jammu-Kashmir condemned the circular.

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti showing anguish wrote on Twitter, "I condemn this letter issuing diktats on hijab. J&K may be ruled by BJP but it's certainly not like any other state where they bulldoze the houses of minorities & not allow them the freedom to dress as they want. Our girls will not give up their right to choose."

I condemn this letter issuing diktats on hijab. J&K may be ruled by BJP but its certainly not like any other state where they bulldoze the houses of minorities & not allow them the freedom to dress as they want. Our girls will not give up their right to choose. pic.twitter.com/GpqX8UWv5k  Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) April 27, 2022

Similarly, former chief minister and national conference Vice President Omar Abdullah said, "Like Karnataka, now these people (referring to BJP) want to create trouble in Jammu and Kashmir for political gains.

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New Delhi: Delhi on Tuesday (April 26, 2022) recorded 1,204 fresh Covid-19 cases and one fatality, while the positivity rate stood at 4.64 per cent, the data shared by the health department showed. This was the fifth day on the trot that the national capital reported over 1,000 fresh coronavirus infections in a single day.

On Monday, it had reported 1,011 cases and one death, while the positivity rate stood at 6.42 per cent and on Sunday, the city had seen 1,083 Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate of 4.48 per cent.

A day earlier, it had added 1,094 fresh coronavirus infections, the highest since February 10, with a positivity rate of 4.82 per cent and on Friday, Delhi had logged 1,042 Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate of 4.64 per cent.

Due to the sudden spike in Covid-19 cases, Delhi's active case count has now risen from 601 on April 11 to 4,508 on April 26, according to health department data.

ALSO READ | Delhi govt extends services of additional doctors, staff, amid rising cases

Currently, 114 Covid-19 patients are admitted to Delhi hospitals and 3,190 are recuperating in home isolation. Of the 9,378 beds available for Covid-19 patients in various hospitals, only 130 (1.39 percent) are occupied.

Amid the recent surge in the number of infections, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government had on Friday issued an order directing authorities to impose a fine of Rs 500 on people not wearing masks in public places. The Delhi government lifted the fine for not wearing masks on April 12 because of a decline in daily cases.

In view of the threat of the fourth wave of Covid-19 looming large, the Delhi government may bring back stricter curbs to stop the spread of Covid-19 infection.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: In view of increasing COVID cases in the country over the last two weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meeting to assess the situation with Chief Ministers on Wednesday via video conferencing.

According to Prime Minister`s Office (PMO), the virtual meeting will be held at 12 noon on Wednesday. Apart from the Prime Minister and senior officials of the Prime Minister`s Office, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and officials from their respective Ministries are likely to attend the meeting.

At 12 noon tomorrow, 27th April, will be interacting with state Chief Ministers to review the COVID-19 situation.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 26, 2022

As per sources, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan will be making a presentation on the present situation of COVID, the extent of vaccination, especially the booster drive and the trajectory of cases in certain states.

In the past, PM Modi has held several meetings with the Chief Ministers, and even District Magistrates, to understand the situation on the ground. India recorded 2,483 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours.

The active caseload is 15,636, while the positivity rate is 0.55 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare bulletin on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Modi on Sunday`s Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast urged people to stay alert for COVID-19 during the festival season. He advised people to wear masks and wash their hands at regular intervals to keep COVID at bay.

Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya in a tweet said that over 86 per cent of the adult population is now fully vaccinated.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on an official visit to three European countries - Germany, Denmark and France - from May 2-4, the External Affairs Ministry (MEA) said on Wednesday. In a statement, the MEA said this will be the Prime Minister`s first visit abroad in 2022. In Berlin, Prime Minister will hold bilateral talks with Olaf Scholz, Federal Chancellor of Germany, and the two leaders will co-chair the sixth edition of the India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC).

The biennial IGC is a unique dialogue format that also sees the participation of several Ministers from both sides. This will be Prime Minister`s first IGC with Chancellor Scholz, and also the first such Government-to-Government consultations of the new German government, which assumed office in December 2021. During his visit, Prime Minister and Chancellor Scholz would also jointly address a Business Event.

Prime Minister will address and interact with the Indian community in Germany. In 2021, India and Germany commemorated 70 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations and have been strategic partners since 2000. This visit will be an opportunity to enhance and intensify cooperation in a broad range of areas and for the two governments to exchange views on regional and global matters of mutual interest.

PM Modi will thereafter travel to Copenhagen on an official visit at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen. He will also participate in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit being hosted by Denmark. The bilateral component of the visit will include talks with PM Frederiksen as well as an audience with Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II. The Green Strategic Partnership was the first of its kind arrangement between India and Denmark.

According to the MEA release, the visit would provide both sides an opportunity to review its progress, as well as examine ways to further expand our multifaceted cooperation. During the visit, Prime Minister will attend an India-Denmark Business Forum and also address members of the Indian diaspora. During the 2nd India-Nordic Summit, Prime Minister will also interact with other Nordic leaders - Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir of Iceland, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland.

The Summit will focus on subjects like post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, innovation and technology, renewable energy, the evolving global security scenario and India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic region. The 1st India-Nordic Summit took place in 2018 in Stockholm, MEA said.

On his return journey on May 4, the Prime Minister will briefly stopover in Paris and meet Emmanuel Macron, President of France. India and France are celebrating 75 years of their diplomatic relations this year and the meeting between the two leaders will set a more ambitious agenda of the Strategic Partnership.
Pulwama: An unidentified terrorist has been killed in an ongoing gunfight at Mitrigam village of Pulwama district of South Kashmir. IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said that "one terrorist has been killed in the ongoing encounter. However, identity is yet to be ascertained as a gunfight is in progress in the area."

"2-3 terrorists including foreign terrorists of JeM outfit are trapped inside the cordon. The operation was halted for the evacuation of civilians. 01 soldier injured. Precautions are being taken to avoid collateral damage. Trapped terrorists will be neutralised at the earliest," added Kumar.

Earlier a joint searching team of Police and army and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation in the village on a specific input about the presence of terrorists in the area.

A police officer said "As the joint searching team cordoned the suspected spot, the hiding terrorists fired on the joint team, which was retaliated and an encounter started.

It's pertained to mention here that it's 41 encounter of this year earlier in 40 encounters Security Forces managed to kill 59 terrorists.



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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (April 27, 2022) addressed the opening of Shri Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital in Fiji and called the hospital a 'symbol of traditional relationship'.

Speaking on the occasion, PM Modi thanked the Prime Minister of Fiji and people of Fiji for the hospital.

"It gives me immense pleasure to be associated with this launch event of Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children's Heart Hospital in Fiji. I express my gratitude to the Prime Minister of Fiji and the people of Fiji for this," he said.

"This is a symbol of our traditional relationship and another chapter in the shared journey of India-Fiji. I am told, Children's Heart Hospital is the first Children's Heart Hospital not only in Fiji but in the entire South Pacific region," PM Narendra Modi added.

He said that for a region, where heart-related diseases are a major challenge, this hospital will be a way of giving new life to thousands of children.

My remarks at inauguration of children's heart hospital in Fiji. https://t.co/ThQKuyNZz2  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 27, 2022

He also expressed satisfaction that not only the children will get world-class treatment but all surgeries will be done free of cost and for that, he appreciated Sai Prem Foundation, Fiji, the Government of Fiji, and Shri Sathya Sai Sanjivini Childrens Heart Hospital of India.

The Prime Minister said that the shared legacy of India-Fiji relations is based on the sense of service to humanity.

"India could fulfill its obligations during the pandemic based on these values as we could provide medicines to 150 countries and about 100 million vaccines to about 100 countries. Fiji has always been prioritized in such efforts," he said.

Prime Minister Modi greeted Fiji PM Frank Bainimarama on his birthday on Wednesday and expressed the hope that under his leadership, the relationship between the two countries will continue to get stronger.
New Delhi: After weeks of intense speculation and expectations that poll strategist Prashant Kishor will join India's 'grand old party', it was revealed that the talks between Kishor and Congress fell through, again.

On Tuesday, Kishor declined Congress's offer to join the party and took to social media to make the announcement. "I declined the generous offer of Congress to join the party as part of the EAG and take responsibility for the elections. In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep-rooted structural problems through transformational reforms," Kishor said in the tweet.

TRS connection or difference of approach?

So what was the reason behind the outcome of the talk? Party insiders say the reason behind Kishor not joining the Congress is his company I-PAC's tie-up with the K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)-led Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for assembly polls in Telangana which was viewed as 'conflict of interest' by the party leadership. Though the party did not say anything officially, sources say that Kishor was told specifically that he cannot be associated with any other party any longer after his joining the Congress, but he still went ahead with the TRS deal. A number of senior Congress leaders raised strong concerns over Kishor's agreement with the TRS for polls and during their meeting with Sonia Gandhi also pointed out his "conflict of interest" and "lack of commitment" towards the Congress, reported PTI. In Telangana, the TRS is in power, while the Congress is in opposition.

However, soon after Congress said that Kishor has declined its offer, he took to Twitter and said the party needs a collective will to fix deep-rooted structural problems through reforms. According to some news reports, Kishor wanted sweeping changes which the Congress was wary of. Earlier, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Kishor declined the offer, adding the party appreciates his efforts and suggestions.

How several politicians reacted

Soon after the development, former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu met him and shared a picture with him saying "old friends are the best". "Had a wonderful meeting with my old friend PK. Old wine, Old gold and Old friends still the best!!!" Sidhu said on Twitter, sharing his picture with Kishor. In a cryptic tweet, Congress leader Milind Deora said, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows ~ Bob Dylan". Suspended Congress leader Sanjay Jha also hit out at the Congress leadership for "scuttling" changes in the grand old party. "A cabal of political entrepreneurs around Rahul Gandhi is responsible for scuttling change in the Congress. #PK," he said on Twitter.

Kishor had made a detailed presentation before top Congress leaders, which was discussed at length by senior leadership of the party, after which an offer was made to him. He was present during several rounds of deliberations over his plan for 2024 elections, after which Sonia Gandhi decided to constitute an Empowered Action Group to evolve a comprehensive strategy for the party for upcoming elections. Kishor has been engaged by Mamata Banerjee's TMC in West Bengal as well as Nitish Kumar's JD-U in Bihar for election management.

(With PTI inputs)


New Delhi: The initial public offering (IPO) of the Life Insurance Corporation will be the biggest issue in India despite the reduced offer size, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary, Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Wednesday.

The government has brought down the issue size from 5 per cent to 3.5 per cent.

"Listing of LIC is a part of long-term strategic vision of the government and will be of high value enhancing for the LIC in the long run," Pandey said at a press conference.

The current listing is the first step of long-term value creation for LIC shareholders, he added.

The long-awaited IP) is likely to open for investors on May 4 and will remain open to subscription till May 9.

It will be a landmark public issue in the history of the Indian capital market and is poised to be India`s biggest IPO till date.

The IPO values LIC at Rs 6 lakh crore.

"Amidst the volatile environment, the revision in the LIC IPO valuation demonstrates the keenness of the government to deliver on the IPO," Avener Capital said in a note.

Once listed on the exchanges, LIC is expected to be pinned on global portfolio watchlists, believes the financial services provider.

The issue offer of the LIC will be in the price band of Rs 902 to Rs 949. Also, the policyholders will be offered a Rs 60 discount, while for retail investors, the discount will be Rs 45.
New Delhi: Actor Ajay Devgn has been blissfully married to actress Kajol for more than two decades now. The two tied the knot on February 24 and are parents to kids Nysa Devgn (19 years) and Yug Devgn (11 years). In a new interview with YouTuber Ranveer Allahabadia, Ajay opened up about sustaining a successful marriage for such a long period of time. The actor says love alone can never do it.

Ajay explained that as a marriage evolves, Love transforms into something else. Partnership, responsibility, caring.

He then added, That, I would say, is stronger than love. Because if it is only love, then its not going to last.

Talking about his marriage to Kajol, Ajay shared, Its sustaining very well. Though there are ups and downs in every marriage, disagreements. But you have to manage those disagreements Two minds cant be alike but then we discuss and that how it works.

The actor also said that it is important to apologise if you make a mistake and not have an ego.

Talking about his early days of dating Kajol, the Bhuj actor revealed that there was no proposal and things just easily flowed on their own. I really dont know..we met, we got along very well. We started seeing each other without even proposing and then it was taken for granted that we will get marriedOur thoughts are similar, our models seem to gel together. So, it just went in a flow, said Ajay.

On the work front, Ajay is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film Runway 34 that also stars Rakul Preet Singh and Amitabh Bachchan. The movie is slated to hit the theatres on April 29. Apart from acting in Runway 34, the movie is also directed and produced by Ajay.
New Delhi: The four labour regulations on labour codes on wages, social security, industrial relations and occupation safety, health and working conditions might be adopted from July 1, several media reports have stated.

Among the prominent takeaway from the the new wage code --once implemented -- is its impact on working hours, salary restructuring and PF contribution, encashing of Earned Leaves among the prominent ones. (Also read: Made in India Micromax IN2c smartphone launched --Check price, pics, specs and other details)

Media reports say that at least 23 states have pre-published draft rules on these laws, while the Centre has completed the process of finalising the draft rules on these codes in February 2021. The central government has notified four labour codes, namely, the Code on Wages, 2019, on August 8, 2019, and the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 on September 29, 2020. (Also read: Aadhaar-based eKYC via OTP authentication available again, check pmkisan.gov.in for details)

Since labour is a concurrent subject, the Centre wants the states to implement these as well in one go, as has been reported earlier.

Reduced in-hand salary after implementation of Wage Code

The government's notification on Code on Wages 2019 may reduce the take-home pay while components like PF and Gratuity might rise. This is based on the grounds that the new wage code mentions provision entailing that the employee's basic salary will be at least 50 percent of his/her net monthly CTC. Hence, if this provision comes into effect, it will mean that employees will not be able to get more than 50 percent of his/her net monthly salary in form of allowance.

Higher PF after implementation of Wage Code

This also means that there will be a consequent rise in gratuity and PF contribution of the employee. Hence, while the take home pay of the employees may be reduced, the Gratuity and PF component may rise.

12 hours work-week

Experts also believe that the new draft will impact the working hours of employees with some media reports saying that employees may be allowed a four-day workweek but they will have to work for 12 hours on those four days. The labour ministry has apparently made it clear that 48-hour weekly work requirement is a must.

Big changes in Earned Leave policy after new wage code implementation

The biggest change could be seen in cases of Earned Leave. Government departments now allows 30 holidays in 1 year, defense employees get 60 holidays in 1 year. Employees can cash up to 300 holidays on carry forward, however the Labor union is demanding to increase number of holidays to 450 in new code. At present there are 240 to 300 holidays in different departments. Employees can take these holidays in cash only after 20 years of service.
New Delhi: The Central government is expected to release the 11th installment under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme soon. Last year, the government rolled out the installment on May 15. The government, this year too, could release the funds around the same date, according to media reports. However, eligible farmers should note that completing the eKYC process for PM Kisan is a must to receive the funds.

For the unversed, PM Kisan is a central government scheme with 100% funding from the Indian government. As part of the scheme, eligible farmers receive Rs 6000 each year from the Indian government. The funds are transferred in three installments of Rs 2000 each.

The scheme, which was launched by PM Modi in 2019, aims to provide income support to all landholder farmer families across the country with cultivable land, subject to certain exclusions.

PM Kisan eKYC Deadline

The last date to complete the eKYC for PM Kisan Yojana has been extended by the government till 31 May 2022. Previously, the deadline was 22 May 2022. According to the official PM Kisan website, eKYC is MANDATORY for PMKISAN Registered Farmers.

Heres How to complete PM KISAN eKYC:

Beneficiaries of the PM Kisan scheme can complete Aadhar based eKYC by visiting your nearby Common Service Center (CSC). You will have to share the documents with the official at the centre to complete PM KISAN eKYC.

As of now, Aadhar based eKYC through OTP Authentication has been temporarily suspended, meaning that the only option to complete the eKYC is by visiting the nearest centre. Also Read: Campus Activewear IPO: Latest GMP, subscription status, expected listing price

Beneficiaries should note that the details shared by them should be correct and updated. In case of a mistake in the documents, beneficiaries could be devoid of the Rs 2000 that are expected to be credited in their bank accounts soon. Also Read: Sanctions can have unintended consequences in interconnected world: FM Sitharaman

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The last span of Package 1 priority section (Sahibabad-Duhai) of the Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS) built between Delhi and Meerut has been installed on April 26, an official statement said. The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) statement said that with the installation of the last span, construction of the viaduct in Package 1 of the priority section of RRTS has been completed.

The construction work in the 17-km priority section (Sahibabad-Duhai) is being carried out in two packages -- Package 1 between Sahibabad to Ghaziabad and Package 2 between Ghaziabad and Duhai. The total length of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor is 82 km and is being built by the NCRTC.

"The launch of the last span of Package 1 on the 17-km-long priority section between Sahibabad to Duhai of RRTS completed today. It is installed near the special steel span of RRTS constructed for crossing railway lines at Ghaziabad. This is a giant step in the direction of the implementation of regional rail," the NCRTC said in the statement.

Also read: Indian Railways restarts linen and bedroll services on THESE trains, check full list here

It added that the pace of installation of signalling and telecom systems in both these packages will now be accelerated. The section will have five stations: Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai, and Duhai Depot.

"The civil work of the priority section was started in June 2019 and despite two waves of Covid-19, the construction work is nearing completion within just three years in this section," the statement said.

Currently, the track laying work near the depot is also being carried out at a good pace. The first RRTS train set is expected to arrive from Savli in Gujarat by next month, it said.

"NCRTC aims to commence the trial run on the priority section by the end of this year. NCRTC is planning to commence the operation on the priority section by next year and commission the entire RRTS corridor by 2025," the statement said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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After a telephonic conversation between Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on April 26, services of six trains were resumed, days after the operation of 23 trains was stopped due to track maintenance work.

According to Chief Minister's Office (CMO), after a discussion with Baghel, the Union Railway Minister has announced the operation of six major passenger trains passing through Chhattisgarh namely 18237/18238 Chhattisgarh Express, 12807/12808 Samta Express, and 12771/12772 Secunderabad-Raipur-Secunderabad Express will be resumed.

Earlier on Tuesday (April 26), Baghel urged Vaishnaw to restart the operation of all 23 passenger trains. The South East Central Railway, Bilaspur issued an order on April 23, stating that the operation of a total of 23 express and local trains passing through Chhattisgarh has been stopped for the next one month from April 24, 2022.

Also read: Delhi-Meerut Rapid Rail: Last span of Sahibabad-Ghaziabad 'priority' section complete

In a telephonic conversation with Vaishnaw, the CM apprised him of the difficulties faced by commuters due to the cancellation of these trains. "Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel had a telephonic conversation with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and apprised him of the problems being faced by the passengers of the state due to cancellation of operation of about 23 passenger trains passing through the state," said CMO.

Baghel urged the Railway Minister to resume the operation of these trains in view of public interest. The Railway Minister assured that the demand of the Chief Minister would be resolved soon after taking a suitable decision. Earlier, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister objected to the decision of the Railways to halt the operation of 23 local trains passing through the state from April 24, 2022, for track upgradation work.

The Chhattisgarh government wrote to the Railway Board urging it to continue the operation of local trains passing through the state. According to the state government, no alternative arrangement has been made for the passengers before the closure of services of these trains.

The Chhattisgarh government said earlier a total of 10 trains were discontinued by a similar kind of order by the South East Central Railway issued in March 2022. The state government wrote to Railways on April 5 requesting to continue the operation of the above trains but the request of the state government was ignored.

(With inputs from ANI)

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Kochi: The police in Kerala have booked Malayalam actor-producer Vijay Babu for the alleged sexual assault of a female actor.

Soon after the news surfaced, Vijay Babu appeared live on his social media handle on Wednesday, claiming that he was the 'real victim' in this case, adding that he would take appropriate legal steps against the complainant, whom he also named.

The police are now planning to register a second case against Vijay Babu for disclosing the name of the complainant.

The case against the actor-producer was registered on April 22 by the Ernakulam South police station. The complainant hails from Kozhikode.

The complainant accused Vijay Babu of raping her multiple times at a flat in Kochi, and even recording an obscene video of her. She accused the actor of intoxicating her before the sexual abuse.

Even though the police are yet to record Vijay Babu's statement, late on Tuesday the actor took to social media and said, "Since I have done nothing wrong, I am least afraid as to what's in store for me. I also know the laws of the country with regard to 'Me Too' allegations. I am disclosing the name of the lady. I have decided to take legal steps against this lady and it includes filing a hefty defamation suit. I have all the records with me to prove my innocence," said Babu.

"I am the victim in this case as I know how pained are my mother, my family, friends and well-wishers because of this baseless complaint. But I am not going to sit idle, I will fight it out and let it be a new beginning in such cases," he said.

According to reports, the police tried to trace Vijay Babu after hearing that he was in Goa, but he is now understood to be in Dubai.
Islamabad: Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the scion of a leading political dynasty, on Wednesday took oath as Pakistans new foreign minister in the coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Arif Alvi in a simple ceremony at the Aiwan-i-Sadr (President's House), where Prime Minister Shehbaz, former president Asif Ali Zardari and other officials as well as leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were present.

Bilawal took the oath nearly a week after he met Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif in London last week during which they discussed the "overall political situation" in Pakistan and vowed to work together on issues pertaining to politics and national interest.

It may be mentioned that Bilawals PPP is the second-largest party in the current coalition government of Prime Minister Sharif who was appointed on April 11. Prime Minister Shehbaz is the president of PML-N. Bhutto-Zardari, 33, has been tasked with the responsibility of repairing frayed ties with the United States and other Western countries.

Political lineage

Bilawal is the chief of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the son of three-time former premier Benazir Bhutto who was killed in a bomb and gun attack at a political rally in Rawalpindi in 2007. Bilawals father Asif Ali Zardari is a former Pakistani President.

Benazirs killer has never been caught, and a UN inquiry found that Pakistani authorities had failed to protect her or properly investigate her death.

His mother Benazir was the daughter of former Pakistan prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Zulfiqar was deposed in 1977 by the military when General Ziaul Haq imposed martial law. He was tried for conspiracy in a murder case and hanged in 1979. Three of his four children, including Benazir, were violently killed, making the family the most bereaved political dynasty in Pakistan.

Zulfiqar also started his career as a foreign minister in the 1960s, making an uncanny resemblance with Bilawal.

Repairing ties with India, US

Bilawal, who is an Oxford-educated, forward-looking and widely seen as a liberal politician, has taken charge at a crucial juncture as he faces multiple challenges such as fixing strained ties with the US and finding a way to restart the peace process with neighbouring India.

He will accompany PM Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday on a visit to Saudi Arabia to boost trade and investment, in an effort to mend a yawning current account deficit and falling foreign reserves.

Rise in national politics

Bilawal took over as chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), three days after his mother's assassination in December 2007. Despite suddenly being catapulted to Pakistans political echelon, he initially kept a low profile and instead focused on completing his degree at Oxford University.

However, he returned to Pakistan in 2010, and since then, took an active role as PPP chairman and in national politics. It is also for the first time that Bilawal has been given a key post in the government and assigned the key portfolio of the foreign minister of the country. He was first elected to the National Assembly in 2018.

He has become the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a time when Pakistan needs a stable hand to steer its foreign policy through the choppy waters.

Challenges before Bilawal

Among the main challenges, Bilawal needs to fix strained ties with the US in the wake of conspiracy allegations by former premier Imran Khan and find a way to restart the stalled peace process with neighbouring India.

Imran Khan was ousted from power earlier this month after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan. He, however, did not provide any credible evidence in support of his claim. The US has strongly denied his claims.

Pakistan's ties with India deteriorated after New Delhi announced withdrawing the special powers of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019. India has said that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror, hostility, and violence. India has said the onus is on Pakistan to create an environment free of terror and hostility.

(With Agency Inputs)
Islamabad: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the scion of Pakistan's leading political dynasty, on Wednesday took oath as the foreign minister in the government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at a crucial juncture as he faces multiple challenges such as fixing strained ties with the US and finding a way to restart the peace process with neighbouring India.

President Arif Alvi administered the oath to 33-year-old Bilawal at a simple ceremony at the Aiwan-i-Sadr (President's House), where Prime Minister Shehbaz, former president Asif Ali Zardari and other officials as well as leaders of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were present.

It is for the first time that Bilawal has been given a key post in the government and assigned the key portfolio of the foreign minister of the country. He was first elected to the National Assembly in 2018. He became the head of the ministry of foreign affairs at a crucial juncture when Pakistan needed a stable hand to steer its foreign policy through the choppy waters.

Among the main challenges, Bilawal needs to fix strained ties with the US in the wake of conspiracy allegations by former premier Imran Khan and find a way to restart the stalled peace process with neighbouring India.

Khan was ousted from power earlier this month after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan.

He, however, did not provide any credible evidence in support of his claim. The US has strongly denied his claims. Pakistan's ties with India deteriorated after New Delhi announced withdrawing the special powers of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.

India has said that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror, hostility, and violence. India has said the onus is on Pakistan to create an environment free of terror and hostility.

Bilawal took the oath nearly a week after he met Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif in London last week during which they discussed the "overall political situation" in Pakistan and vowed to work together on issues pertaining to politics and national interest.

PPP is the second-largest party in the current coalition government of Prime Minister Sharif who was appointed on April 11. Prime Minister Shehbaz is the president of PML-N. Bilawal's sister Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari congratulated "the youngest Foreign Minister in Pakistan's history."

"The task is daunting, and the previous government have hurt our international standing but I have no doubt that you will make our country, party, and family proud," she tweeted.

Bilawal is the son of three-time former premier Benazir Bhutto who was killed in a bomb and gun attack at a political rally in Rawalpindi in 2007. She was the daughter of former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Zulfiqar was deposed in 1977 by the military when General Ziaul Haq imposed martial law. He was tried for conspiracy in a murder case and hanged in 1979. Three of his four children, including Benazir, were violently killed, making the family the most bereaved political dynasty in Pakistan. Zulfiqar also started his career as a foreign minister in the 1960s, making an uncanny resemblance with Bilawal.

Bilawal's sister Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari had congratulated him earlier in the day for taking oath as the country's foreign minister.

"Today Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will take oath as Pakistan's foreign minister in this unity government decided by [the] PPP CEC (central executive committee) and we couldn't be more proud of him! Already outshone in parliament and always stuck to his democratic values, excited to witness this path if God wills," she had tweeted.
Residents of northwestern North Dakota who are still in the dark after last weekend's blizzard led to thousands of power outages are dealing with a mix of weariness and anxiousness as the week drags on.

"People are managing, I guess, for lack of a better word," said Sherlock Hirning, superintendent of the Divide County School District in Crosby, where the lights went out at 6 p.m. Saturday. "Weathering the storm, so to speak."

The fact that it isn't the dead of winter has helped keep spirits up in the community, he said, and the high school -- which has power -- is serving as a shelter for people who want to take a hot shower or charge their phones.

Many residents also have gotten generators. Acme Tools of Williston sent a trailer loaded with generators to the parking lot of Crosby's Jacobs Hardware Hank store on Monday.

"Everybody's just hoping and praying that electricity comes on sometime soon," Hirning said.

Montana-Dakota Utilities, which serves much of the community, hopes to restore power sometime Thursday, according to spokesman Mark Hanson. The utility brought Epping, Wheelock, Larson and Noonan online Tuesday, but some other towns aren't expected to have power restored for another week.

Crosby residents on Wednesday were preparing for an imminent return to normal.

"Its a beehive of MDU workers and trucks in town," resident Don Anderson said.

The school district hopes to resume classes on Friday for its 380 K-12 students, according to Hirning. Officials are still determining how to make up the lost time. State law requires students have a certain number of class hours each academic year.

"We think we'll have to extend the school year a few days," Hirning said.

The state Department of Public Instruction did not have information on whether any other schools in the region remained closed. A spot check of other schools by the Tribune found that some, such as Stanley and New Town, called off classes on Monday, but found no other schools currently closed.

Drone aid

The blizzard that brought heavy snow, freezing rain and strong winds knocked down thousands of power poles and electrical lines. On Monday there were an estimated 19,000 outages in western North Dakota; that number was down to an estimated 9,300 on Wednesday, mostly in Divide, Burke, Mountrail and Williams counties, according to North Dakota Emergency Services spokesman Eric Jensen.

MDU, a major electrical supplier in western North Dakota and eastern Minnesota, at one point estimated 18,000 customers without power. That figure was at 960 on Wednesday, according to Hanson.

The utility is bringing four more restoration crews to the region by Friday, boosting its total to 29.

"One of the additional crews is from Otter Tail Power Co. via a mutual assistance agreement. The OTP crew will have a tracked pole digger which will help to reach some off-road locations to replace damaged poles," Hanson said. "We also have additional tracked equipment arriving today. Any bucket truck that needs to access poles/lines off a road has to be pulled through the wet/muddy conditions."

Unmanned aircraft systems have been helping find and assess damage to electrical infrastructure in rural areas, according to Gov. Doug Burgum's office and the Grand Forks-based Northern Plains UAS Test Site. Drones have been flown by the test site and by ISight Drone Services since Tuesday.

This is one of the primary applications we envisioned in creating this UAS network, said Trevor Woods, executive director of the Grand Forks research facility that's one of seven Federal Aviation Administration test sites. We hope this nimble response can help the states residents in getting life-saving power restored, and benefit areas and businesses affected by the natural disaster. For such a massive undertaking in fixing lines and infrastructure, we know that locating damage in difficult-to-travel-to areas saves time and assets that cant afford to be wasted.

MDU also has been using airplanes to locate infrastructure damage in remote areas.

ISight and the Grand Forks test site also have offered to help ranchers assess fence lines and do cattle counts in the wake of recent storms. Officials are still tabulating cattle deaths and property damage, but the North Dakota Stockmen's Association believes livestock losses to be widespread. Information on a disaster relief fund is at https://bit.ly/397m5tG.

More rain

Gov. Doug Burgum has declared a statewide emergency and a statewide disaster in the wake of two historic blizzards this month. The emergency also applies to flooding in eastern North Dakota from snowmelt and recent torrential rains.

Burgum plans to request presidential disaster declarations for both blizzards to help unlock aid to help pay for snow removal and infrastructure repairs. The state also has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide technical assistance with flood levee construction in Valley City, which is threatened by the rising Sheyenne River.

More rain is forecast for later in the week.

"There is a 40% chance of at least 1 inch of rain for much of the state, and areas in the south and central even have chances of exceeding 2 inches of rain," the National Weather Service said Wednesday, adding that "models suggest this storm will likely impact every major watershed in North Dakota."

Moderate to major flooding was continuing in the Red River Basin in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, according to the weather service. Officials in Grand Forks and neighboring East Grand Forks, Minnesota, have activated some of their permanent flood protection measures put into place after the devastating 1997 Red River flood.

Some roads in eastern North Dakota remained closed Wednesday due to flooding, while others were reopened after floodwaters receded, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Reach News Editor Blake Nicholson at 701-250-8266 or blake.nicholson@bismarcktribune.com.

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New Delhi: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday (April 27) sworn in as the foreign minister of Pakistan under the government led by new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Bilawal Bhutto is not only known for leading one of the most prominent political parties in Pakistan but also for being the son of Pak's first and only female PM to date, Benazir Bhutto.

Being the son of three times Pak PM Benazir Bhutto who herself was the daughter of former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Bilawal was in fact expected to take over the leadership of the political dynasty.

However, the passing over of leadership did not come to young Bilawal as a fairytale but rather a horrendous reality after his mother was killed in a bomb and gun attack at a political rally in Rawalpindi in 2007.

Son of former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, 19-year-old Bilawal took over her mother's legacy just three days after her assassination in December 2007 and became the chairman of the Pakistan People's Party.

Despite sudden elevation in his political career, Bilawal kept a low profile and pursued his higher education at Oxford University in London and played an active role as PPP chairman after his return to Pakistan in 2010.

After his eletion to the National Assembly in 2018, it is for the first time that Bilawal has been given a key post in the government and assigned the key portfolio of the foreign minister of the country.

Interestingly, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's political career makes an uncanny resemblance with his maternal grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as he also started his career as Pak foreign minister in the 1960s.

Challenges Bilawal faces as Pak's New FM

Among the main challenges, Bilawal needs to fix strained ties with the US in the wake of conspiracy allegations by former premier Imran Khan and find a way to restart the stalled peace process with neighbouring India.

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The assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto took place on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi. Bhutto was campaigning for elections to be held in January 2008. Shots were fired at her after a political rally and a suicide bomber blew himself immediately after the shooting.

She was the mother of Bilawal Bhutto, who has now been appointed as the countrys foreign minister by current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

A five-member squad of militants was assigned the task of killing Benazir Bhutto because she might have allowed foreign forces to act against Mujahideen and Taliban if she came to power in Pakistan's general election, a top police official had said after her assassination.

This was disclosed by two men, Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat, who were arrested for alleged involvement in Bhutto's assassination, said additional Inspector General of police Abdul Majeed, who headed the special police team probing the killing.

"The motive behind the attack was that Mohtarma Bhutto was coming back to Pakistan with the backing of foreign powers, and if she won the polls, she may have allowed foreign forces to take action against the Mujahideen and Taliban," Majeed said.

Bilal was the man who fired shots at Bhutto after she addressed an election rally at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on December 27 and then blew himself up near her armoured car, he said.

Ikramullah, who was also wearing a suicide jacket, would have targeted Bhutto if she had survived the first blast. After the attack on her, Ikramullah spent the night in Rawalpindi and travelled to the militant stronghold of Waziristan the next day.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party had expressed dissatisfaction with the probe conducted by the Pakistani police. It had demanded a UN-led inquiry to uncover the truth.

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Karachi: The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the suicide attack at Karachi University that killed four people, including three Chinese. This was one of the most daring attacks against the Chinese in recent years, thousands of whom are involved with the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project that passes through the restive Balochistan province.

Balochistan has long demanded independence from Pakistan, and the multi-billion-dollar OBOR has further inflamed passions. It is the largest province of Pakistan, comprising 44 per cent of the countrys area, but is the least developed and inhabited, comprising only 5 per cent of the total population.

The province is rich in resources such as natural gas, oil, coal, copper and sulphur, but the local populace is not only deprived of a share in the development but also in governance. The Baloch are primarily Sunnis but have different cultural and social practices than the Punjabis who control most of Pakistans political and military power.

ALSO READ: Karachi University blast: A look at few of most notorious female suicide bombers

The BLA, operating out of Balochistan, has attacked Chinese citizens and interests earlier too. The group has for years been leading a low-level insurgency against Islamabad, and the Pakistani establishment has retaliated with a brutal crackdown on activists, often based on suspicion, thus drawing international condemnation.

BLA: A brief history

The BLA was officially founded in 2000, and since then, has been launching a series of deadly strikes against Pakistani security officials. Other than Pakistan, the group has also been banned by the United States and the United Kingdom.

Many analysts suspect the roots of the BLA lie in the Independent Balochistan Movement of the 1970s, comprising ethnonationalism insurgencies and violent student protests. That movement was said to have been funded by the Russians, who were then involved in Afghanistans tumultuous affairs. However, the movement died down soon after the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan, only to resurrect a decade later.

The Balochistan conflict

Insurgency in Balochistan started in the late 1940s but has weakened over the last few years. A ruthless clampdown by Pakistani authorities; use of Islamist terrorists against Baloch fighters; and infighting among insurgents, leading to the formation of several splinter groups often at each others throats, have considerably weakened the movement.

Probably the biggest Baloch militant leader in recent history, 79-year-old Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, was killed in August 2006 while fighting against the Pakistani Army, in which the latter suffered almost 70 casualties. The Pakistani government had blamed him for a series of deadly bomb blasts and a rocket attack on then-President Pervez Musharraf.

One of the biggest attacks against Pakistani forces lately was on February 2, 2022, when the BLA attacked two Army outposts in Panjgur and Nushki districts in Balochistan. Though the Pakistani military maintained that a dozen soldiers were killed, the BLA claimed to have killed over 100. In January this year, another attack on a check post in Kech district to the death of 10 Pakistani soldiers.

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New Delhi: Tuesdays suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan that killed three Chinese nationals was claimed by the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army. CCTV visuals showed a woman in a burqa blowing herself up near the van carrying the victims, in what the BLA said was the first suicide bombing by a woman for the group.

The BLA identified the woman as Shari Baloch alias Bramsh, and said her sacrifice marked a new chapter in Baloch resistance history. But with this, the BLA joined the select list of terror groups that have used woman suicide bombers  some of the others being Boko Haram, ISIS, Palestine-based al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

In fact, Boko Haram, which controls large swathes of territories in Nigeria and neighbouring countries, uses women for most of their suicide attacks. Those women are viewed as a lesser threat in conflict zones, an element of surprise, hesitancy of security forces to search females and increased publicity for suicide bombings by women have pushed most dreaded terror groups to turn to female suicide bombers.

ALSO READ: Those behind Karachi University blast will 'pay the price': China 'demands' Pakistan to punish perpetrators

Lets have a look at some of the most notorious suicide bombings by women.

The first thing that comes to mind is obviously the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. LTTE member Thenmozhi Rajaratnam alias Dhanu blew herself up while she was garlanding Gandhi at a public rally in Tamil Nadus Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991. The former PM and 16 others were killed in what was one of the worst suicide bombings by a woman suicide bomber.

The LTTE had executed numerous suicide attacks against Sri Lankan forces by female suicide bombers. In fact, it had a suicide squad called Black Tigers, comprising mostly women.

Maiduguri in Nigeria has witnessed repeated suicide bombings by women said to be affiliated with Boko Haram. On June 22, 2015, female suicide bombers struck a fish market, killing 20. On March 16, 2016, two women suicide bombers killed at least 22 worshippers at a mosque during dawn prayers.

Europe woke up to the horrors of radicalisation when Muriel Degauque, a Belgian convert to Islam, blew up a car bomb against a US convoy in Iraq on November 9, 2005. Raised as a Catholic in Belgium, Muriel is said to be Europes first suicide bomber. She initially worked in a bakery and moved to Iraq after marrying a Muslim man.

Puji Kuswati became Indonesias first female suicide bomber in May 2018, when she, along with her minor daughters, blew themselves up as part of coordinated attacks in churches in Surabaya. Police suspect, she had returned from Syria prior to the attack and was affiliated with ISIS.

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Karachi (Pakistan): In an explosion at Pakistan's Karachi University on April 26, at least four people, including three Chinese citizens, were killed and several others injured. As per reports, the husband of the woman who blew herself up at the university said her selfless act has left him speechless but he is proud of what she did.

The explosion took place near Confucius Institute - a Chinese language teaching centre at Karachi University. Afghan journalist Bashir Ahmad Gwakh claimed on Twitter that Habitan Bashir Baloch, husband of female suicide bomber Shari Baloch, has tweeted from an unknown location saying that he is proud of what she did. The purported tweet whose snapshot Gwakh shared stated, "Shari Jan, your selfless act has left me speechless but I am also beaming with pride today. Mahroch and Meer Hassan will grow into very proud humans thinking what a great woman there was. You will continue to remain an important part of our lives."

Who is Shari Baloch?

According to Afghan journalist Bashir Ahmad Gwakh, Shari Baloch was a 30-year-old woman who had a Master's degree in Zoology and MPhil in education while teaching at a school. Her father was a government servant, while her husband is a dentist. She is also survived by two kids - eight-year-old Mahrosh and four-year-old Meer Hassan, as per new reports. Gwakh also mentioned on Twitter that the family is well educated and had no connection with armed groups. The 30-year-old reportedly joined the group two years ago and volunteered herself for a "self-sacrificing mission".

So who was #ShariBaloch, the 1st #Baloch woman to carry out a suicide attack?#BLA says The 30 year old joined the group 2 years ago & volunteered herself for self sacrificing mission. She had a Masters degree in Zoology & MPhil in education while teaching at a school. pic.twitter.com/nO2usqpyhh  Bashir Ahmad Gwakh (@bashirgwakh) April 26, 2022

Tuesdays suicide attack in Karachi was claimed by the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). CCTV visuals showed a woman in a burqa blowing herself up near the van carrying the victims, in what the BLA said was the first suicide bombing by a woman for the group. The BLA identified the woman as Shari Baloch alias Bramsh, and said her sacrifice marked a new chapter in Baloch resistance history.

A purported statement by the BLA mentions that Baloch, resident of Nazar Abad Turbat, "was also working as a science teacher in a secondary school. As a student, Shaari had remained a member of Baloch students' organisation and was aware of Baloch genocide and occupation of Balochistan." The involvement of Shari, an educated woman, in the attack has sent alarm bells ringing.

History of Baloch nationalism in Pakistan: A quick look

Balochistan has long demanded independence from Pakistan, and the multi-billion-dollar China-initiated One Belt One Road (OBOR) project has further inflamed passions. While it is reportedly the largest province of Pakistan, it is also the least developed and a very small per cent of the total population - around 5% - live there. The BLA, operating out of Balochistan, has attacked Chinese citizens and interests earlier too. For years, the group has been leading a low-level insurgency against Islamabad, and the Pakistani establishment has retaliated with a brutal crackdown on activists, often on the basis of suspicion, thus drawing international condemnation.

(With inputs from Orin Basu and Agencies)
KYIV- Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday dismantled a huge Soviet-era monument in the centre of Kyiv meant to symbolise friendship between Russia and Ukraine, a response to Moscow`s invasion, according to the city`s mayor.

The eight-metre (27-ft) bronze statue depicted a Ukrainian and Russian worker on a plinth, holding aloft together a Soviet order of friendship. The statue was located underneath a giant titanium `People`s Friendship Arch`, erected in 1982 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Union.

"We now see what this "friendship" is - the destruction of Ukrainian cities ... killing tens of thousands of peaceful people. I am convinced such a monument has an entirely different meaning now," Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.

READ ALSO: Russia cuts gas supplies to Poland, Ukraine condemns it as 'GAS BLACKMAIL'



Workmen started by removing one of the two bronze heads, which fell to the ground with a hollow clang.

As a crane lifted the monument off its moorings and gradually lowered it to the ground, a crowd of around 100 people cheered and shouted "Glory to Ukraine" and other slogans.

"Russia invaded Ukraine ... Can we be friends with Russia? What do you think? This is our worst enemy, that is why the monument to Russian-Ukrainian friendship doesn`t make sense anymore," said Serhiy Myrhorodsky, one of the designers.

Russia`s invasion of Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble, and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad.

Moscow calls its actions a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists.

"We should not have any relations with the nation of aggressors... no friendship, no relations, nothing," said Diana, a young woman, who did not give her full name.

Klitschko said the arch would remain in place but be renamed the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People.

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Lahore: A Pakistani court on Wednesday extended pre-arrest bail to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Punjab chief minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz till May 14 in a Rs 14-billion money laundering case.

"The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) special court Lahore on Wednesday accepted Shehbaz's application seeking exemption from personal appearance for one day. However, the court directed the premier to file a reply in the case otherwise it will initiate indictment proceedings on the next hearing on May 14," a court official told PTI. However, Hamza Sharif appeared before the court.

The official said the court also directed Shehbaz's counsel Advocate Amjad Pervez to present arguments before the court on May 14 on his contention that his client can't be indicted in this case.

ALSO READ: Those behind Karachi University blast will 'pay the price': China 'demands' Pakistan to punish perpetrators

Shehbaz is also the President of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party. Shehbaz and his sons, Hamza and Suleman, were booked by FIA in November 2020 under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Anti Money Laundering Act. Suleman is absconding and residing in the UK.

The FIA investigation has detected 28 benami accounts, allegedly of the Shehbaz family, through which an amount of 14 billion Pakistani Rupees (USD 75 million) was laundered from 2008 to 2018.

The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions. The amount was kept in hidden accounts and given to Shehbaz in his personal capacity, according to the charges.

Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed Punjab Governor Omer Sarfaraz Cheema to ensure the completion of the process of administering the oath to Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz by April 28, either doing so himself or through a nominee.

Hamza was elected chief minister on April 16. Hamza and his party blamed ousted prime minister Imran Khan for the delay in oath-taking.

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Kyiv: Russia halted gas supplies to Poland under the Yamal contract on Wednesday, data from the European Union network of gas transmission operators showed, in a deepening of the rift between the West and Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Bulgaria, like Poland a NATO and EU member, said earlier that Russia would also halt supplies of gas to it. There was no word early on Wednesday if Bulgaria`s supplies were also cut.

Ukraine accused Russia of blackmailing Europe over energy in an attempt to break its allies, as fighting heads into a third month without Russia capturing a major city.

Read also: Russia still hopeful of peaceful settlement with Ukraine, says Vladimir Putin

Staunch Kremlin opponent Poland is among the European countries seeking the toughest sanctions against Russia for invading its neighbour.

Poland`s gas supply contract with energy giant Gazprom is for 10.2 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year, and covers about 50% of national consumption.

Poland`s state-owned PGNiG had said supplies from Gazprom via Ukraine and Belarus would be cut at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Wednesday, but Poland said it did not need to draw on reserves and its gas storage was 76% full.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on "unfriendly" countries to pay for gas imports in roubles, a demand only a few buyers have implemented.

"The ultimate goal of Russia`s leadership is not just to seize the territory of Ukraine, but to dismember the entire centre and east of Europe and deal a global blow to democracy," Ukraine`s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Tuesday.

His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Russia was "beginning the gas blackmail of Europe".

"Russia is trying to shatter the unity of our allies," Yermak said.

Bulgaria, which is almost completely reliant on Russian gas imports, said it had fulfilled all its contractual obligations with Gazprom and that the proposed new payment scheme was in breach of the arrangement.

It has held initial talks to import liquefied natural gas through neighbouring Turkey and Greece.

Gazprom said it had not yet suspended supplies to Poland but that Warsaw had to pay for gas in line with its new "order of payments." It declined to comment regarding Bulgaria.

The invasion of Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble, and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad.

Moscow calls its actions a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists.

Ukraine and the West say this is a false pretext for an unprovoked war to seize territory in a move that has sparked fears of wider conflict in Europe unseen since World War Two.

Russia`s ambassador to the United States has warned Washington to stop sending arms to Ukraine, saying that large Western deliveries of weapons were inflaming the situation.

More than 40 countries met in Germany on Tuesday to discuss Ukraine`s defence.

Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters while flying to Tuesday`s meeting that the next few weeks in Ukraine would be "very, very critical".

Germany announced on Tuesday its first delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, including Gepard tanks equipped with anti-aircraft guns.

Ukrainian pleas for heavy weapons have intensified since Moscow shifted its offensive to the eastern region of Donbas, seen as better suited for tank battles than the areas around the capital Kyiv where much of the earlier fighting took place.

A series of blasts were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in the Russian city Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, and an ammunition depot in the province was on fire.

Gladkov said no civilians had been hurt by the fire which broke out at a facility near Staraya Nelidovka village. Russia this month accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters and opening fire on several villages in the province.

The Belgorod province borders Ukraine`s Luhansk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, all of which have seen heavy fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago.

Fighting continued in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian farmers in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia which borders the front line are wearing body armour to plough their fields.

Russia`s defence ministry said its forces had "liberated" the entire Kherson region in southern Ukraine and parts of the Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions, Interfax news agency reported. If confirmed, that would represent a significant Russian advance.

Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday dismantled a huge Soviet-era monument in the centre of Kyiv meant to symbolise friendship with Russia, according to the city`s mayor.

The eight-metre (27-ft) bronze statue depicted a Ukrainian and Russian worker on a plinth, holding aloft together a Soviet order of friendship. The statue was under a giant titanium "People`s Friendship Arch", erected in 1982 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Union.

"We now see what this `friendship` is - destruction of Ukrainian cities ... killing tens of thousands of peaceful people. I am convinced such a monument has an entirely different meaning now," Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Russia`s foreign minister on Tuesday that he was ready to fully mobilise the organisation`s resources to save lives and evacuate people from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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New Delhi: China on Wednesday (April 27, 2022) strongly condemned the attack in Karachi that killed its three nationals and "demanded" Pakistan to punish the perpetrators.

In a statement, China`s Foreign Ministry said that Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Jianghao made an urgent phone call to the Pakistani Ambassador to China to express 'extremely grave concern'.

"He demanded that the Pakistani side should immediately make a thorough investigation of the incident, apprehend and punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law, and take all possible measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in Pakistan and prevent such incidents from happening again," the statement added.

Blood of Chinese people should not be shed in vain

China said that the blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain, and those behind this incident will surely pay the price. It stated that the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese diplomatic missions in Pakistan will continue to urge relevant Pakistani departments to handle properly the follow-up matters of those killed, treat the injured, and resolutely crack down on the terrorist organization involved.

Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif visits Chinese Embassy

China`s Foreign Ministry said that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan on the evening of April 26 to convey condolences. Sharif also said that the Pakistani government will conduct an in-depth probe into the incident, give exemplary punishment to the perpetrators, and strengthen the security of Chinese personnel, projects, and institutions in Pakistan in an all-round way.

Pakistan`s newly elected prime minister said that his government will never allow any force to 'undermine Pakistan-China friendship'.

I am deeply grieved on the loss of precious lives including of our Chinese friends in the heinous attack in Karachi today. My heartfelt condolences go to the bereaved families. I strongly condemn this cowardly act of terrorism. The perpetrators will surely be brought to justice.  Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) April 26, 2022

On Tuesday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up at the gate of the Karachi University and killed four people including three Chinese citizens and a Pakistani national. The three were among passengers on a minibus returning to Karachi university after a lunch break when the bomb exploded at the entrance to the university`s Confucius Institute.

A separatist group, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) based in southwestern Balochistan province bordering Afghanistan and Iran, claimed responsibility for the blast.

The bombing, notably, was the first major attack against Chinese nationals in Pakistan since July last year when a suicide bomber blew up a passenger bus in northern Pakistan that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese working on a hydro-power plant.

(With agency inputs)
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned outside forces against interfering in the Ukraine conflict, promising a "lightning-speed" response to such actions, with the use of Moscow's most advanced weaponry.

"If someone decides to intervene in the ongoing events from the outside and create unacceptable strategic threats to us, they should know that our response to those oncoming blows will be swift, lightning-fast," Putin said in an address to lawmakers on Wednesday, RT reported.

"We have all the tools to do this. Tools that no one except us can brag about. But we`re not going to brag. We`ll use them if such a need arises," the President said, without specifying which tools could be deployed.

Russian authorities have already made all necessary decisions to prepare for such a response, he added.

Last week, Russia had successfully tested its state-of-the-art RS-28 Sarmat inter-continental ballistic missile. The new nuclear-capable missile can carry several Avangard hypersonic gliders, which are said to be able to bypass any existing air defence due to their extreme speed and ability to make constant maneuvers during their flight, RT reported.

Unlike Russia, the US and its NATO allies currently have no hypersonic weapons in service.

Western countries have been actively supplying Kiev with weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems, armoured vehicles and howitzers, since the start of the conflict with Russia. They have also imposed harsh sanctions aimed at reducing Russia`s ability to fund its military campaign.

However, the US and its allies have so far ruled out NATO boots on the ground or a no-fly zone over Ukraine, over fears of a direct conflict with Russia. Moscow has repeatedly slammed the deliveries of lethal aid to Ukraine, saying they only destabilise the situation and hamper the prospects of peace.

On Tuesday, Russia`s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had accused NATO of "essentially going to war with Russia through a proxy and arming that proxy".
A North Dakota oil patch worker is challenging U.S. Sen. John Hoeven in the Republican primary.

Riley Kuntz, who earlier this month filed the paperwork to run for Senate, said on his Facebook campaign page that he supports limited government, protecting life, and limited taxation and spending. He said he is taking bold action to stand up for conservatives in North Dakota.

I know most of you probably have no idea who I am and thats for a couple of reasons: I enjoy my privacy and Im not even a politician, Kuntz said in a video.

Kuntz, 39, of Dickinson, led an unsuccessful bid to overturn three bills passed by the 2019 North Dakota Legislature, including laws that restricted the state auditor, funded the proposed Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, and shielded communications between lawmakers and public employees.

Hoeven was endorsed as the Republican party candidate for Senate during the party convention earlier this month, narrowly defeating a challenge by state Rep. Rick Becker, of Bismarck.

Democrats have endorsed Katrina Christenson, a University of Jamestown engineering professor.

The North Dakota primary election is June 14.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Press Release

April 25, 2022 Leni, Kiko sign covenant, vow protection and social security for OFWs VICE-PRESIDENTIAL candidate Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan has made a firm commitment to provide better protection and social security benefits to land-based and sea-based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in a covenant he and Vice President Leni Robredo signed with the sector. In signing the covenant, Pangilinan hailed anew the OFWs' hard work to give their families better lives. OFW remittances have also kept the economy afloat despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. "Patuloy ang inyong pagsisikap para sa inyong pamilya at sa bayan. Kailangan itong tumbasan ng pamahalaan ng mahusay at mabilis na serbisyo," Pangilinan said. "Ang bawat paglayo ng ating mga OFW ay hindi dapat nasasayang. Dapat katulong ang gobyerno sa pagtupad ng inyong pangarap," he added. Pangilinan said he supports the creation of migrant resource centers especially in the provinces "to make integrated and efficient migration services available in communities for OFWs and their families." The covenant also seeks "ICT (information and communications technology) to communities; to empower families to participate in migration governance; to ensure fair and ethical recruitment; to prevent abuses, violence, trafficking or illegal recruitment; to allow reporting and access to justice remedies; and to help them plan and realize employment, skills development and reintegration." OFWs also want the full implementation of Republic Act 11641 which created the Department of Migrant Workers Act to allow them to access government services and support. Each local government unit should also have a Migration and Development Committee, Migrant Resource Centers and OFWs help desks for quick and effective response to OFW needs. The covenant also calls to expand the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Trust Fund and use this to develop a national provident savings and reintegration fund for OFWs. "This is an essential part of reintegration preparedness and serves as a safety net in times of crisis such job loss, untimely return, health and other emergencies," the covenant states. OFWs also pushed for their social security rights in countries where they work through bilateral labor agreements and social security agreements. "OFWs will have portability of benefits through bilateral labor agreements and social security agreements," the covenant said, adding that the Universal Healthcare Act should also be responsive to their needs and that of their families. The covenant seeks a "recalibration" of the overseas deployment program by ensuring that OFWs will be deployed only to countries where their rights and welfare are guaranteed by national laws. Earlier, Pangilinan presented a program that encourages OFWs to venture into agriculture after they retire. The former food security secretary also suggested that adopting or establishing a farm enterprise will help these OFWs match the earnings they get from working abroad. For Pangilinan, Filipinos are seeking greener pastures overseas because the wages offered in the country are not enough to live a comfortable life.
In his unanimous opinion for the Supreme Court in the watershed case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Chief Justice Earl Warren asked the foundational question: Does segregation of children in public schools based solely on race, deprive Black children of equal educational opportunities? He answered: We believe that it does.

Therefore, the court held, segregation violates the 14th Amendments Equal Protection Clause. As Chief Justice Warren explained, the separation of children solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.

The courts recognition of the impact of segregation on Black children represented a reversal of its view in 1896, in Plessy v. Ferguson. The Plessy Court had stated that the assumption of racial inferiority was fallacious. But the Warren Court dismissed its predecessors view on grounds that modern psychological knowledge demonstrates the imprint on Black children of the feeling of inferiority. In footnote 11, perhaps the most famous footnote in the history of the courts opinions, Warren bolstered this determination by listing seven works and studies of leading social scientists and psychologists.

The courts historic reversal of Plessy, as it pertained to public school education, rested on a simple principle: separate but equal educational facilities are inherently unequal. The Brown decision dealt only with the constitutionality of segregation in public education, and did not address segregation in other realms of American life. The courts decisions holding segregation unconstitutional in other areas  public buildings, transportation, housing and restaurants, among others  would come later, each resting on the landmark precedent established in Brown. By 1963, as the court said, racial discrimination under American law was prohibited.

Criticisms of Brown have been laid at the courts doorstep. For example, the courts opinion in Brown might have more clearly demonstrated that the mere act of segregation denies educational equality, but demonstration of a truism resists unnecessary iterations. Every southerner knew that segregation in public schools was designed to maintain white supremacy. How Blacks and whites felt about inferiority, moreover, had nothing to do with the objective reality of the principle of racial equality before the law. Indeed, as Justice William O. Douglas said of the 14th Amendment: No classifications on the basis of race can be made. A negro cant be put by the state in one room because hes black and another put in the other room because hes white.

The Brown decision has been criticized for its failure to impose orders and remedies. The court did not impose on public schools any order to immediately halt the practice of segregation. Nor did it impose a remedy. While both orders and remedies typically accompany an equal protection ruling, the court in Brown departed from that norm because of the justices concerns about the impact of its ruling throughout southern states. Fears of widespread defiance and violence persuaded the court to delay decrees.

This criticism has some merit, of course. It is true that the failure of the court to issue a decree to immediately halt segregation in public schools undermined respect for the decision part of the courts claim to legal as well as political and moral authority: the defense of principle. How true and great is the equal protection principle, critics asked, if the court is reluctant to stop segregation?

The court anticipated these criticisms but nonetheless decided that a gradualist approach to the matter of orders and remedies provided a wiser course. As it turned out, the courts well-founded fears of widespread defiance and violence were not allayed by delays in judicial decrees. An entire year passed before the court issued its remedial opinion  in Brown II, as it is popularly known. In this most sensitive of cases, the court again declined to order an immediate end to segregation in public schools. Instead, it instructed the lower courts to require school boards to make a prompt and reasonable start toward compliance at the earliest practicable date. The lower courts should issue decrees to admit Black children to the schools on a racially nondiscriminatory basis with all deliberate speed.

The pervasive defiance, evasion and violence throughout the South confirmed the courts worst fears. In 1956, a Southern Manifesto, signed by 82 members of the House of Representatives and 19 members of the Senate, denounced Brown as grounded on personal political and social ideas rather than the Constitution. Some in Congress asserted that racial integration was a radical, pro-Communist political movement.

That response also reflects a harsh reality about our judicial system and the judiciarys lack of an enforcement power. The judiciary has no means of enforcing its rulings; indeed, it is dependent upon on the executive branch to implement its rulings. In the case of Brown v. Board of Education, the court hoped for support from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. For his part, however, President Eisenhower gave the decision no political support, pledging only to carry out the law of the land.

In the end, Brown itself could not change the hearts and minds of all Americans on the issue of racial equality in the schools, but it certainly brought to the forefront constitutional principles that would well serve the nation.

David Adler is president of The Alturas Institute. This "We the People" series is provided by the North Dakota Newspaper Association and Humanities North Dakota.

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The separation of church and state is a given in the American creed. But one of the most influential figures in Protestant Christianity, hence American Christianity, had a more nuanced view of the interplay of the two kingdoms. Is this the true source of our ongoing culture wars? []

John Calvin (15091564) was a towering figure of the Protestant Reformation. The author of the magisterial Institutes of the Christian Religion, published in numerous editions between 1536 and 1559, Calvin was a second-generation Reformer. In that sense he was not engaged in the polemics that we see in Luther and Zwingli in their tussle with the Roman Catholic Church, nor their nearly equally intense disputation with each other. For that we can certainly be thankful. Calvin represents a more mature view, facing the question of how to provide structure and form to the church in Geneva. He also provides us with a substantial base of Protestant systematic theologyperhaps not carrying the same degree of authority as the Fathers and Tradition do within the Roman Catholic Church, but weighty and significant nonetheless.

The spread of the Protestant Reformation in Europe meant the loss of many of the traditional institutions of welfare, from hospitals to schools, and functions often performed by the monasteries. Need, however, did not disappear with the Reformation. Consequently, this led to the development of a new Protestant infrastructure of social welfare. This then raised the question of the place of civil government in providing for such need. What does the Bible and Christian theology understand about the role of government? What are the responsibilities and the limitations? Explorations of the voluntary principle, the place of Christian socialism, and the proper role of government continue to this day. The rise of the size of the state in the modern age with its associated tax, borrowing, debt, and spending means that these questions are still very pertinent. We should remember that Christians believe there is a proper and godly role for government, but not an unlimited one. Calvin, then, is a good place to begin.

Calvin set out his main exposition and rationale for civil government in Chapter XX of Book IV of The Institutes of the Christian Religion, the last chapter of his magnus opus and his most explicit statement on the role of civil government. We should not, however, make the mistake to think it was an afterthought. To the contrary, Calvin recognizes that he cannot complete his great work without addressing the nature and role of governmental order for human society. We also have a variety of other sources, not least his Commentaries, where Calvin discusses specific verses of relevance in the biblical corpus.

In order to appreciate fully Calvins views on government, we need to consider his distinction between God as Creator and God as Redeemer. In the case of God as Creator, the glory of God manifest in the universe is discernible for all to see. This renders humanity inexcusable in respect of knowledge of God but more importantly for our purposes here establishes the idea of a created order for the good of all people for all time. Sin mars the created order, which is why nothing in that order can be sufficient for salvation (hence the need for God as Redeemer), but that order is nevertheless good and benefits all humanity regardless of their beliefs. This enables Calvin to draw a distinction between the civil realm and the spiritual realmbut not too sharp a distinction, as we will see. We can also see why this idea of the created order into which civil government is set creates a good, godly, and positive reason for government, as well as governments responsibility to restrain evil.

Calvin does not fall into the trap of later evangelicalism of ignoring the social order of the world because our true home is heavena problem that continues to beset some evangelicals (although perhaps more in America than the U.K., with its history of evangelical social activism). To explain this more fully would require a separate post, but in essence some expressions of evangelicalism create a sacred/secular dualism that tends to demonize the latter.

For Calvin, though, God in his providence created order so as not to leave the human race in a state of confusion. He explains in his commentary on 1 Peter 2:13 that, without order and the provision of civil government, human beings would live like beasts. Calvin recognizes that we are not simply individuals but part of a wider society, and that society needs social laws. He explains this in a passage in the Institutes, Book II.XII.13:

Since man is by nature a social animal, he is disposed, from natural instinct, to cherish and preserve society; and accordingly we see that the minds of all men have impressions of civil order and honesty. Hence it is that every individual understands how human societies must be regulated by laws, and also is able to comprehend the principles of those laws.

Calvin comes quite close to a natural-law understanding of creation. Government clearly forms part of the created order, with rules of society restraining sin, disorder, evil, and injustice.

From here, though, Calvins approach to government begins to diverge from others in the Reformation. Luthers doctrine of the two kingdoms viewed civil government as the kingdom of the left, the worldinstituted by God but for a very different purpose than the kingdom of the right, the spiritual realm. The two were necessary but with different responsibilities, which should not be confused. The more radical reformers, the Anabaptists, viewed government as an unnecessary evil. Consequently, the Christian should not serve as a magistrate or in the military or swear an oath in a civil court; the Lords people did not belong in any form of civil governmentthat was the world, from which they believed Christians were called out. They were to gather in the community of the saved. Calvin had a much more nuanced evaluation of the interplay of the church and the state than either Luther or the Anabaptists.

For example, Calvin advocates a role for the civil government in maintaining true faith, doctrine, and worship. To the modern mind, this smacks of theocracy. But Calvin saw no contradiction in governments maintaining good order among all people and also providing a public manifestation of the Christian religion. Karl Barth, in his The Theology of John Calvin, notes that the only distinctive Calvinistic feature in Geneva is the parallelism between the eucharistic community and the civil community.  If [the civil community] was to show itself worthy of the glory of its transcendent basis, it had to be serious about about moral sobriety. Perhaps this is most clearly explained in the sections of the Institutes where Calvin deals with the nature of the law. He argues that civil government must have regard for both Tables of the Law (the traditional distinction between love of God and love of neighbor). Calvin is at least consistent. He argues that no government can be happily established unless piety is the first concern.

Alongside these spiritual purposes, Calvin argues that civil government is to adapt our conduct to human society, to form our manners to civil justice, to conciliate us to each other, to cherish common peace and tranquillity. In other words, government is enables us to live together in society. This is achieved by aligning our behavior and character to civil justice. We are, according to Calvin, to cherish common peace and tranquillity. This clearly implies more than merely the absence of conflict between individuals.

Calvins view of civil government includes the maintenance of civil defense, military action, and capital punishment (defense and order), but his view is not restricted to these matters. To put it another way, Calvin has concern for the common good. There is much for us to learn here. Government has the right to wage war against those who threaten the common tranquillity of all and who execute violent oppressions and vile misdeeds.

Calvin goes on to explain in Chapter XX of the Institutes that the need for civil government is no less than our need for the essentials of lifebread, water, light, and air. To dismiss it, as the Anabaptists did, would be an act of barbarity. This is a remarkably positive view. However, government cannot produce utopia or even effectively reshape or remould the world, for that would mean it could reshape human nature. Governments role is limited.

In respect of the positive reasons for government, Calvin adduces four roles:

Maintenance of public order

Protection of private property

Encouragement of commerce

Honesty and modesty

We can see from this his concern for an ordered society and market, but one shaped by Christian faith and ethics.

In his commentary on Romans 12:8 (the gift of ruling), Calvin makes clear that he views this gift as applying to civil government and not just the church, the role of those in government authority being to provide for the safety of all and to watch day and night for the well-being of the whole community. The civil magistrate who is conscious of his appointment by and dependence upon God will exhibit guardianship, goodness, benevolence, and justice.

In both his Old Testament commentaries and in the Institutes, Calvin notes the importance of civil government in providing care for the vulnerable, oppressed, poor, and innocent. He argues that government cannot perform its principal duty of common safety and peace for all unless they give aid and protection to the oppressed. This is at the very least a salient reminder of not making too many assumptions about Calvin and recognizing there is a genuine debate needed over the proper role of government regarding the least among us.

The levying of tax is a legitimate duty of government, and although it was permissible for revenue to be used to maintain their dignity of office, those in office must remember, in their turn, that their revenues are not so much private chests as treasuries of the whole people. Taxes are subsidies of the public necessity and should not be burdensome upon the poor. Our contemporary political leaders would do well to remain conscious of both of those injunctions.

But how was this to work in actual practice? For Calvin, the deacon was an agent of social transformation, overseeing the provision of social welfare within and without the church. This was the voluntary principle in action. Work itself was endowed with moral purpose and dignity, the fruits of creation were to be enjoyed (Calvin had a cellar of fine wine), there was to be no begging, and laws were passed to ensure that social solidarity was achieved through the central management of funds for social welfare through the hospital and the provision of public education. A rather rich mosaic. And for the good of the whole community, money would now be lent at interest, in particular for social and investment purposes (rather than excess consumption), with rates ranging from 5% to 6.67% between 1541 and 1557 (though Calvin pressed for rates to be kept low). Usury, traditionally lending at interest, was now defined as lending at exorbitant rates. The market was also to play its role in ensuring the flourishing of all in society.

We should mention Calvins view on obedience to civil government. The principle is clear, since government is ordained by God, that the magistrate worthy of honor. This includes paying taxes, obeying laws, and undertaking public office. Obedience is also required, according to Calvin, to the unjust magistrate or bad king. Calvin notes that the Book of Samuel points out the excesses of kingship, but the principle of obedience remains. The exception is when obedience to the king leads away from obedience to the Lord himself. Calvin is a little hazy on the precise relationship between obedience to God and to man; however, notwithstanding the danger of anachronism, it would seem unlikely that he would have approved of church closures due to COVID.

Calvin painted a rich canvas in his discussions of the role of civil government. There were clearly positive elements to government, instituted by God, but also limits. The dignity of the human person shines through. The aim was the flourishing of society, good order, communal reciprocity, and the dignity of work. The moral law remains a proper concern of government. The purpose of government should be neither overstated nor understated, the voluntary principle remaining at the heart of welfare provision. Food for thought indeed.
Age of College Rejections

Life Beyond College Rejections

For most of us living 1950s through present, Joan Didion is the coolest person on Earth. Growing up a Californian bourgeois girl, she started writing at age of 5. Her artly letters in 1952 didnt impress Rixford K Snyder, a then-newly appointed director of admissions at Stanford, still they went on to win her the Prix de Paris and a celebrated career at Vogue. Behind the fames ornate to her writerly fashion, a documentary of Didion's life story premiered on Netflix on October 10, 2017.

That's when and where I began to learn Didion whose writing has comforted many in the peculiar sorrows of late last century. The postmodernism around the central borough evoked her nostalgia of the Californian sun and waters, a thought stream that submerged to her 1963 fiction Run, River. Moving back Los Angeles revive Didion's life thus her career exploded. She, together with husband John Dunne, wrote in many prominent magazines and publications, including Saturday Evening Post, the most popular magazine in 1960s.

There in the Golden State, Didion experienced, immersed, thus best situated to describe hippiedom, the behavior and culture denoted baby boomers. When she invented her fictional writing on such a popular reality four years after return to California, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, her first essay collection marked a phenomenon in postmodern American literacy. Her experiences, along with thoughts and feelings, during the period has since served the gateways for us later to freshly walk into the counterculture of a whole post- and oppose-war generation.

While she penned down the turns of American lives of an age in flamboyant realism, the blooms and glooms of her own engrossed readers through her novels and screenplays. In Play It As It Lays of 1970, Maria, the main character, comes from mentally malfunctional parents, lives New York between shuffling jobs, encounters romance outside relationship, has a daughter not of birth and under medical treatments. Reading about Maria drifting through the tumults, one again touches and feels the space and time that have casted the minds in Didion.

In a 1992 interview with Charlie Rose, Didion was asked about the beginning of her interest when her mother gave her a Big Five tablet (a children composition notebook) and asked her stop whining and start writing.

Didion: She just, just told me to write, you start writing.

Rose: So she recognize then that maybe you had some instinct [gift] that way?

Didion: I thought she just thought it was a way to pass time.

A prowess for life came by accident by a once inattentive parenting. Notably, as she might have long tried to settle, Didion didn't make some of her grades as big as her essay at McClatchy High School. What did Rixford Snyder say? He rejected her college application despite the gracious essay. Not what Mr. Snyder and his admission colleagues say may matter, but Didion has shrewdly wound up a self-respect for her age and ours in her then first-published and since well-read essay on Vogue.

one's sanity becomes an object of speculation among one's acquaintances. To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselvesthere lies the great, the singular power of self-respect.

Here below is Didion's first Essay that marked the debut of her celebrated career: Self-respect, its sources, its power.

= = = = =

Once, in a dry season, I wrote in large letters across two pages of a notebook that innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself. Although now, some years later, I marvel that a mind on the outs with itself should have nonetheless made painstaking record of its every tremor, I recall with embarrassing clarity the flavor of those particular ashes. It was a matter of misplaced self-respect.

I had not been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. This failure could scarcely have been more predictable or less ambiguous (I simply did not have the grades), but I was unnerved by it; I had somehow thought myself a kind of academic Raskolnikov, curiously exempt from the cause-effect relationships that hampered others. Although the situation must have had even then the approximate tragic stature of Scott Fitzgerald's failure to become president of the Princeton Triangle Club, the day that I did not make Phi Beta Kappa nevertheless marked the end of something, and innocence may well be the word for it. I lost the conviction that lights would always turn green for me, the pleasant certainty that those rather passive virtues which had won me approval as a child automatically guaranteed me not only Phi Beta Kappa keys but happiness, honour, and the love of a good man (preferably a cross between Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca and one of the Murchisons in a proxy fight); lost a certain touching faith in the totem power of good manners, clean hair, and proven competence on the Stanford-Binet scale. To such doubtful amulets had my self-respect been pinned, and I faced myself that day with the nonplussed wonder of someone who has come across a vampire and found no garlands of garlic at hand.

Although to be driven back upon oneself is an uneasy affair at best, rather like trying to cross a border with borrowed credentials, it seems to me now the one condition necessary to the beginnings of real self-respect. Most of our platitudes notwithstanding, self-deception remains the most difficult deception. The charms that work on others count for nothing in that devastatingly well-lit back alley where one keeps assignations with oneself: no winning smiles will do here, no prettily drawn lists of good intentions. With the desperate agility of a crooked faro dealer who spots Bat Masterson about to cut himself into the game, one shuffles flashily but in vain through one's marked cardsthe kindness done for the wrong reason, the apparent triumph which had involved no real effort, the seemingly heroic act into which one had been shamed. The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of otherswho are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputationwhich, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O'Hara, is something that people with courage can do without.

To do without self-respect, on the other hand, is to be an unwilling audience of one to an interminable home movie that documents one's failings, both real and imagined, with fresh footage spliced in for each screening. Theres the glass you broke in anger, there's the hurt on X's face; watch now, this next scene, the night Y came back from Houston, see how you muff this one. To live without self-respect is to lie awake some night, beyond the reach of warm milk, phenobarbital, and the sleeping hand on the coverlet, counting up the sins of commission and omission, the trusts betrayed, the promises subtly broken, the gifts irrevocably wasted through sloth or cowardice or carelessness. However long we postpone it, we eventually lie down alone in that notoriously un- comfortable bed, the one we make ourselves. Whether or not we sleep in it depends, of course, on whether or not we respect ourselves.

To protest that some fairly improbable people, some people who could not possibly respect themselves, seem to sleep easily enough is to miss the point entirely, as surely as those people miss it who think that self-respect has necessarily to do with not having safety pins in one's underwear. There is a common superstition that "self-respect" is a kind of charm against snakes, something that keeps those who have it locked in some unblighted Eden, out of strange beds, ambivalent conversations, and trouble in general. It does not at all. It has nothing to do with the face of things, but concerns instead a separate peace, a private reconciliation. Although the careless, suicidal Julian English in Appointment in Samarra and the careless, incurably dishonest Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby seem equally improbable candidates for self-respect, Jordan Baker had it, Julian English did not. With that genius for accommodation more often seen in women than in men, Jordan took her own measure, made her own peace, avoided threats to that peace: "I hate careless people," she told Nick Carraway. "It takes two to make an accident."

Like Jordan Baker, people with self-respect have the courage of their mistakes. They know the price of things. If they choose to commit adultery, they do not then go running, in an access of bad conscience, to receive absolution from the wronged parties; nor do they complain unduly of the unfairness, the undeserved embarrassment, of being named corespondent. If they choose to forego their worksay it is screenwritingin favor of sitting around the Algonquin bar, they do not then wonder bitterly why the Hacketts, and not they, did Anne Frank.

In brief, people with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character, a quality which, although approved in the abstract, sometimes loses ground to other, more instantly negotiable virtues. The measure of its slipping prestige is that one tends to think of it only in connection with homely children and with United States senators who have been defeated, preferably in the primary, for re-election. Nonetheless, characterthe willingness to accept responsibility for one's own lifeis the source from which self-respect springs.

Self-respect is something that our grandparents, whether or not they had it, knew all about. They had instilled in them, young, a certain discipline, the sense that one lives by doing things one does not particularly want to do, by putting fears and doubts to one side, by weighing immediate comforts against the possibility of larger, even intangible, comforts. It seemed to the nineteenth century admirable, but not remarkable, that Chinese Gordon put on a clean white suit and held Khartoum against the Mahdi; it did not seem unjust that the way to free land in California involved death and difficulty and dirt. In a diary kept during the winter of 1846, an emigrating twelve-year-old named Narcissa Cornwall noted coolly: "Father was busy reading and did not notice that the house was being filled with strange Indians until Mother spoke about it." Even lacking any clue as to what Mother said, one can scarcely fail to be impressed by the entire incident: the father reading, the Indians filing in, the mother choosing the words that would not alarm, the child duly recording the event and noting further that those particular Indians were not, "fortunately for us," hostile. Indians were simply part of the donnee.

In one guise or another, Indians always are. Again, it is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has its price. People who respect themselves are willing to accept the risk that the Indians will be hostile, that the venture will go bankrupt, that the liaison may not turn out to be one in which every day is a holiday because youre married to me. They are willing to invest something of themselves; they may not play at all, but when they do play, they know the odds.

That kind of self-respect is a discipline, a habit of mind that can never be faked but can be developed, trained, coaxed forth. It was once suggested to me that, as an antidote to crying, I put my head in a paper bag. As it happens, there is a sound physiological reason, something to do with oxygen, for doing exactly that, but the psychological effect alone is incalculable: it is difficult in the extreme to continue fancying oneself Cathy in Wuthering Heights with one's head in a Food Fair bag. There is a similar case for all the small disciplines, unimportant in themselves; imagine maintaining any kind of swoon, commiserative or carnal, in a cold shower.

But those small disciplines are valuable only insofar as they represent larger ones. To say that Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton is not to say that Napoleon might have been saved by a crash program in cricket; to give formal dinners in the rain forest would be pointless did not the candlelight flickering on the liana call forth deeper, stronger disciplines, values instilled long before. It is a kind of ritual, helping us to remember who and what we are. In order to remember it, one must have known it.

To have that sense of one's intrinsic worth which, for better or for worse, constitutes self-respect, is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love and to remain indifferent. To lack it is to be locked within oneself, paradoxically incapable of either love or indifference. If we do not respect ourselves, we are on the one hand forced to despise those who have so few resources as to consort with us, so little perception as to remain blind to our fatal weaknesses. On the other, we are peculiarly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live outsince our self-image is untenabletheir false notions of us. We flatter ourselves by thinking this compulsion to please others an attractive trait: a gift for imaginative empathy, evidence of our willingness to give. Of course we will play Francesca to Paolo, Brett Ashley to Jake, Helen Keller to anyone's Annie Sullivan: no expectation is too misplaced, no role too ludicrous. At the mercy of those we can not but hold in contempt, we play roles doomed to failure before they are begun, each defeat generating fresh despair at the necessity of divining and meeting the next demand made upon us.

It is the phenomenon sometimes called alienation from self. In its advanced stages, we no longer answer the telephone, because someone might want something; that we could say no without drowning in self-reproach is an idea alien to this game. Every encounter demands too much, tears the nerves, drains the will, and the spectre of something as small as an unanswered letter arouses such disproportionate guilt that one's sanity becomes an object of speculation among one's acquaintances. To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselvesthere lies the great, the singular power of self-respect. Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home.
Patrick Rose, Sr. retired from the Boston Police Department in 2018  more than 20 years after internal police investigators had determined that he had "more than likely" sexually abused a 12-year-old. Naturally, after determining that there was a sexual predator among their ranks, the police did absolutely nothing, claiming that they lacked evidence or even witnesses. In fact, Rose went on to become the head of the patrolmen's union, helping to protect other abusers in the department including Dennis White, who briefly served as Boston Police Commissioner in 2021. White had physically abused his then-wife, Sybil Mason, another Boston Police officer who  also in 2021  was involved in an overtime fraud scandal alongside Thomas Nee, who had succeeded the child-sex-abusing Patrick Rose, Sr as the head of the patrolmen's union.

You still with me? Okay great. The Boston Globe had first exposed Rose's history in 2021, writing at the time:

Even after the department learned of the alleged abuse in 1995, the Globe review found, Rose was allowed to have contact with vulnerable children. Boston police dispatched him in 1999 to help a 14-year-old girl who was crying at a pay phone, calling to report she had been raped, department records show. Later, Rose gave a special needs child a ride home in his squad car. And in 2006, records show, he was called to testify as the arresting officer in a child sexual assault case.

Rose finally got his day in court this past Monday, April 25, 2022, where he pleaded guilty to molesting six children over several decades. He is facing a minimum of 10 years in prison, thanks to a plea agreement that also saw prosecutors drop five counts of aggravated child rape, according to The Globe.

I'm starting to think that all cops are complicit in a bad system, or something.

Former Boston police union head Patrick Rose pleads guilty to abuse charges, sentenced to 13 years in prison [Ivy Scott and Andrew Ryan / Boston Globe]

Image: Ben Schumin / Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Florida man Wayne Bowen used his estranged twin brother's ID to collect more than $72,000 in benefits meant for military veterans. The 64-year-old gentleman started the scam in 2014, stealing his brother's name, social security number, and military discharge papers "to apply for federally subsidized housing benefits intended for indigent military veterans," according to HuffPost. But after eight years, the jig is up. In January he pleaded guilty and on Tuesday he was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

From HuffPost:

A Florida man was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison for using his twin brother's stolen identity to obtain tens of thousands of dollars in military veterans benefits.  He must also pay $63,773 in restitution.

Bowen admitted to federal agents that he had been using his brother's identity for years, prosecutors said. Bowen had obtained a Florida identification card using his twin's identity. He initially told the agents that he and his twin had served in and been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army but later admitted that those were lies.

Based on Bowen's fraudulent use of his brother's identity, the VA provided him with $32,434 in medical services, HUD provided him with $18,905 in housing subsidies, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded $12,434 in nutritional benefits for him, officials said. Bowen's twin, who lives in another state, confirmed that he didn't apply for any of the benefits and that he never gave Bowen permission to use his name.
Leviticus 19:34 says, "The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

Buy Marjorie Taylor Greene says Christians who heed Leviticus 19:34 are doing the devil's work.

"Satan's controlling the church," she told Michael Voris of the creepy far-right Catholic organization Church Militant.

From Right Wing Watch:

"I thought we had a separation of church and state," Greene sighed after Voris complained about Catholic Relief Services and other Christian organizations receiving federal funds to assist in resettlement efforts. "What it is, is Satan's controlling the church," Greene declared. "The church is not doing its job, and it's not adhering to the teachings of Christ, and it's not adhering to what the word of God says we're supposed to do and how we're supposed to live." "We are supposed to love one another, but their definition of what love one another means, means destroying our laws," she continued. "It means completely perverting what our Constitution says. It means taking unreal advantage of the American taxpayer. And it means pushing a globalist policy on the American people and forcing America to become something that we are not supposed to be." Greene then declared that the federal government should cut off foreign aid to nations from which undocumented immigrants are arriving.

It makes you wonder what she thinks of Matthew 25:35 where Jesus says, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in."
John Bennett, chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party who is running for Congress, told a crowd that Dr. Anthony Fauci should be executed by a firing squad. And the crowd enthusiastically cheered.

"We're fighting communist Democrats, establishment RINOs! We're fighting against a system that stole the election in 2020 and nobody had been held accountable.  And by the way, we should try Anthony Fauci and put him in front of a firing squad," he said to a crowd that exploded in hoots and applause.

"And for the Secret Service, if they're listening, I'm not advocating we kill Anthony Fauci until he's convicted of his crimes through a court," he concludes in the clip below.

Violent dog whistles calling for the death of anyone who disagrees with the GOP are now commonplace in the Republican party. Earlier in the week, Don Jr. Trump and Missouri's Eric Greitens, a Republican running for Senate, aired a threatening video in which they shoot guns while warning, "Liberals beware." Many other recent videos showing GOP politicians and political candidates either insinuating violence with the sounds of gunfire, or actually aiming weapons toward specific Democrats, are now so commonplace, they've become as invisible  at least in terms of public reaction and outrage  as the sound of a dog whistle, which is only heard by the dogs who are trained to act.

John Bennett, chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party and a current GOP congressional candidate, declares that "we should try Anthony Fauci and put him in front of a firing squad." pic.twitter.com/We2c13LYsk  Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) April 26, 2022

Via Mediaite
When Steven Carmina split off from Phil Silvestri to form his own architectural and engineering firm with Christopher Wood two decades ago, he had high hopes for both his new venture and Western New York.

But he couldnt have known that their firm, Carmina Wood Morris, would also be at the center of much of the prominent real estate redevelopment in Buffalo that involves revamping old buildings.

"Chris and I started the firm in the city and we believed that the city, in 2001, was the center of everything, and that there was going to be renaissance that hadnt started yet," Carmina said. "We moved our firm here with three people."

Today, that firm is a 35-person team of architects, engineers and interior designers, working from a downtown Buffalo office on Main Street that Carmina and Wood bought and renovated.

Carmina, Jonathan Morris and the other architects work on adaptive reuse projects around the city, while Wood and seven other engineers are regularly hired for civil engineering work, mostly for other architects and suburban subdivisions. Pamela Straitiff, another firm founder, leads a team of seven interior designers.

"This is what we thought, 20 years ago, would be the potential for us," Carmina said. "All the things that have happened are the things we wished for but had to be patient to wait to see it happen."

Now the firm is undergoing its first major changes. Morris, who turned 65 last fall, sold his ownership stake and is gradually stepping into a phased retirement so he can spend more time with his adult children and grandchildren. That has allowed the firm to rebrand as Carmina Wood Design to re-emphasize the nature of its work.

Its just freed me up to do what I like best and get out from a lot of the firm management responsibilities, said Morris, who joined the firm in March 2004. Im still involved, and still working with everyone and maintaining some client relationships that are important to me, and helping wherever I can.

Thats just the first of a series of moves that will transition the firm to the next generation, while expanding to new markets in other parts of the country.

Carmina, 66, remains president and CEO, but hes also taking the first steps toward his eventual retirement by gradually divesting his ownership stake. Within a year, the 53-year-old Wood will be the majority owner, although Carmina insists he isn't going away.

Leadership of the architectural practice, meanwhile, has passed to co-managing principals Paul Lang  a West Seneca native known for his work on the Central Terminal  and Brian J. Slevar, a 41-year-old North Tonawanda native who spent 20 years in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, N.C., before returning home with his family four years ago to take a job with Carmina.

Lang, 38, is an expert in historic preservation and renovation projects, having developed a reputation over 14 years of local work since the state kicked off its own historic tax credits. "Ive always been kind of a history buff, so the opportunity to do that with architecture was really appealing to me," he said.

Slevar  who interned with Carmina before heading south  previously worked for three different architectural firms and a major Southeastern developer, and honed his skills in designing ground-up development projects.

Together they lead a team that offers a broad spectrum of services not only in Buffalo but across the state. "Im the new construction guy," Slevar said. "Hes the historic renovation and adaptive reuse guy, which is a good dynamic for us."

Slevar also brought on his former clients and employer from the Carolinas. That's taken Carmina and Lang down to Greensboro, allowing the firm to break into a market where historic preservation is not as common, and help clients utilize new benefits. In one case, they got a developer $6 million in tax credits that he would not have had.

The firm has since proven to out-of-town clients that it can work for them remotely. In turn, those clients are now using Carmina Wood on jobs in other states, such as Montana, Florida, Texas and Tennessee. "We're booming," Slevar said. "We're working in all these different states now."

As a result, the firm opened an office in Greensboro. And it will be staffed by a well-known face in historic preservation circles  Julian Adams, a Southerner who joined Carmina after retiring recently as director of community preservation services at the State Historic Preservation Office. That will help raise the profile of the firm's historic preservation work, another goal of its leaders.

"As soon as we heard he was going to retire, we were all over it. There wasnt any way that we were going to allow him to escape our grasp," Carmina said. "For all of our success, were still mainly unknown in other places. These are places where Julians reputation and his persona is going to potentially attract that work."

Besides his contacts and resume, Adams also brings an eye for identifying new targets for historic reuse. So instead of waiting for clients to bring projects, the firm can now pitch proposals to them. It already has projects in Michigan and Missouri, and a list of 32 old mills in North Carolina that are ripe for reuse.

"This is a whole market share that we dont have," Slevar said. "We can now pre-develop business and take the project to them. It is a huge growth potential, and something were looking to do here."

That proactive business development is part of the reason the firm's projects and revenues have tripled in the last three years. The firm's leaders also are now working to better integrate the three divisions of the firm so that they work together more closely on projects. And they're seeking to hire - especially in engineering.

"The brand is more representative of where we are now," Lang said. "Were not a boutique design shop anymore. Were a larger firm and still growing."

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A 2019 law that promised to slash New Yorks greenhouse gas emissions and revolutionize its energy grid will leave few aspects of life or commerce in the state untouched, according to a draft road map for implementation.

Utility providers will have to ramp up wind and solar. Millions of drivers will need to buy electric cars. And before submitting their final recommendations to Gov. Kathy Hochul later this year, the state-appointed climate board that crafted the road map will have to settle on specific strategies for offsetting any negative impacts to utilities, businesses and low-income households.

Once finalized, the plan is intended to steer regulatory decisions  as well as state budgeting and legislation  for years to come. State representatives will hold a meeting at the Buffalo Central Library on Wednesday to first gather public feedback, following similar hearings in cities including Albany, Syracuse and Binghamton.

But what will the plan mean for Western New York, specifically? When will it be implemented? How much will it cost? Ahead of Wednesdays hearing, here are answers to nine common questions about the 300-page document, based on a Buffalo News review and interviews with five local and national policy experts.

What is the road map and who made it?

The recent road map  formally called the draft scoping plan  is the latest step in New Yorks ongoing efforts to combat climate change at the state level. In 2019, New York lawmakers adopted one of the countrys most aggressive climate laws, which required the state to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 85% by 2050, while dramatically scaling up its use of renewable energy sources.

Climate scientists have laid out a clear case for both those goals: Greenhouse gasses trap heat in the atmosphere, while renewable energy represents a long-term shift from fossil fuels. But the process of designing policies that effectively cut emissions, with the lowest costs and harms, is far messier.

To devise those policies, the 2019 climate act created a 22-person board called the Climate Action Council, which is composed of stage agency heads, environmentalists, utility company executives and climate scientists. The state also convened groups of subject matter experts around specific industries, such as energy and agriculture, and around two big-picture issues: how to minimize negative impacts on the economy, and how to maximize benefits to low-income and marginalized neighborhoods.

The council released its preliminary recommendations in December after two years of development. It will now solicit feedback, finalize its plan and submit it to the governor and legislature, who will  barring political disruptions or legal challenges  use it to inform future policy and regulatory decisions.

Why is this important?

A February report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, produced by 270 scientists around the world, conclusively ruled that climate change no longer represents some distant threat: Its already harming human health, economies, and food and water resources.

What does the plan recommend?

In a word: a lot. When it comes to cutting emissions, however, the scoping plan focuses on the four sources that generate 85% of the states greenhouse gasses: buildings, electricity, waste and transportation.

In each of these sectors, New York will need to transition away from fossil fuels, such as gasoline and coal, to meet the objectives of the 2019 climate act. For buildings, that means switching from gas heating, cooking and appliances to all-electric models. In transportation, New Yorkers will need to adopt electric vehicles, drive fewer total miles and embrace public transit.

The plan also includes recommendations for diverting waste from landfills  a major source of methane gas  and making more electricity with off-shore wind and solar, especially downstate. Other parts of the plan address smaller sources of emissions, such as agriculture and industrial processes. Importantly, the plan recommends many policies but doesn't always rule on which the state should adopt, leaving some significant questions about who will bear their cost.

Will everyone have to switch to electric cars?

Eventually, yes: To meet emissions goals, three million drivers will have to trade in their gas-guzzling cars by 2030, and an additional seven million by 2050. But the plan calls for plenty of infrastructure investments and buying incentives first. One idea, called a feebate program, would offer direct rebates on EV purchases, supported by a new fee on the purchase of fossil-fuel vehicles.

The plan also points out that most existing drivers will need to replace their cars over that period anyway, so these arent novel costs. Hochul already signed legislation that will effectively ban the sale of new gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035.

Whats going on with gas stoves?

Homes and apartment buildings are a major source of New Yorks greenhouse gas emissions because they frequently rely on natural gas for heating, cooking and other applications. The plan proposes that state codes require all-electric construction by 2024, a move that New York City made late last year. The Climate Action Council has also backed regulations that would require current homeowners purchase zero-emissions appliances when its time to replace their current models.

As with cars, however, the devil will ultimately lie in the details. The state could afford generous incentives for building owners, the plan says, if it implements a statewide policy such as carbon pricing, which charges greenhouse gas emitters for their pollution.

How much will it cost?

The Climate Action Council estimates its plan will cost between $290 billion and $310 billion by 2050, depending on which proposals are finalized. They also predict those losses will be exceeded by cost benefits, in the form of improvements to air quality and public health and the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs.

But the draft plan would eliminate a projected 22,000 jobs in less than a decade  a third of those in gas stations. The council recommends measures including direct financial support and career training to help workers displaced by decarbonization.

Business groups and Republican legislators have questioned some of the councils accounting methods, particularly when it comes to the cost of electrification. If the state doesnt choose to subsidize or incentivize the switch to all-electric heating systems, for instance, the cost to consumers and businesses would prove significant.

Will the plan raise energy prices?

This is also a concern among business groups, who have in the past touted low electricity costs as a reason to relocate to Western New York. For manufacturers, in particular, cost increases could prove debilitating  as could brownouts or other power disruptions, which could potentially result if electricity supply can't keep pace with demand over the next 30 years.

But as with most policies, this depends entirely on implementation, said Akshaya Jha, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. If New York subsidizes the transition to clean electricity, the cost to consumers will likely be small. But if utilities are made to make those investments themselves, they will likely pass along the costs.

One peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Energy last year, found that electricity prices have increased in many countries as they adopted renewable sources. But that increase was marginal and expected to decline over time, the authors wrote, and should not deter policymakers from promoting renewable energy. The plan backs programs that discount gas and electricity for low-income households.

Does any of this even matter, if only New York does it?

Theres no doubt that an aggressive, binding national climate policy  or even better, a global policy  would do more to address greenhouse gas emissions than New Yorks efforts will. And theres also little doubt that the lack of federal support contributes to many of the trade-offs New York now faces. If every state was moving to renewables, for instance, New York wouldnt risk becoming less competitive than its neighbors if electricity prices go up.

But climate scientists say the alternative  doing nothing  isnt tenable either. Already, there is some suggestion that state-based climate policies are contagious. Since California passed its zero-emissions electricity law in 2018, nine other states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have done the same.

What comes next?

Buffalos public hearing will take place at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27, in the Mason O. Damon Auditorium at the Central Library. Attendees who register in advance online have priority for seating and speaking, as well.

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A West Seneca police officer was arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise from home improvement stores, the Erie County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.

Ryan J. Miller, 33, a West Seneca resident who is a patrol officer with seven years on the job, was charged with felony counts of third-degree grand larceny and third-degree criminal possession of stolen property. He was arraigned Tuesday evening before West Seneca Town Court Justice Jeffrey M. Harrington and released on his own recognizance.

If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.

Miller is accused of stealing merchandise from home improvement stores in West Seneca and other locations throughout Western New York between Oct. 1, 2021 and April 8, 2022, the DA's office said. He is accused of stealing more than $10,000 in merchandise, officials said.

"Once the merchandise was in his possession, the defendant would allegedly steal the items by canceling an order or by leaving the store without paying for the items," the statement said.

In one instance, Miller allegedly bought two new water heaters and then returned the boxes with old water heaters in them and got a full refund, Flynn said.

Miller has been suspended without pay, a statement from West Seneca Police Chief Edward A. Baker said.

The investigation began in March, Baker said, when his office was alerted about "an ongoing incident involving the off-duty conduct of an officer with the West Seneca Police Department."

Baker contacted the DA's office, both Baker and DA John J. Flynn Jr. said. "As soon as they found out about it, they called me immediately and they recused themselves," Flynn told The Buffalo News.

On Tuesday, the DA's confidential crime investigators, working with West Seneca police, executed a search warrant at Miller's home on Ehinger Drive where they allegedly recovered some stolen items.

Miller is scheduled to return to court at 9 a.m. May 27.

"The West Seneca Police Department prides itself on our honor and integrity," Baker said in the statement, which was posted on the department's Facebook page. "We strive each day to ensure our officers are held to the highest standard and fulfill our established core values. We do not tolerate these actions as it erodes the public trust in our mission."

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Press Release

April 27, 2022 Signing of Judicial Marshals law to empower justice system - Gordon Senator Richard J. Gordon today welcomed the signing of Republic Act No. 11691 establishing the Judicial Marshals, calling it as a great day for the Philippine justice system. Gordon, author and sponsor of the measure, said that members of the judiciary could breathe a sigh of relief with the formation of the new body. "Today, members of the judiciary will be braver in resolving the thousands of cases within our courts. They shall not be swayed with the threat of lives against them," remarked Gordon in a statement. "This law is in recognition of their efforts, risking their lives just to uphold what is right and just in accordance with the constitution and by-laws of our beloved land," he added. With the signing of the law, the government shall create a body primarily responsible for the safety and protection of the Judiciary's members, officials, personnel, and property, including the integrity of the courts and proceedings. It is also mandated to conduct threat assessments and launch investigations on crimes and other offenses committed versus employees of the judiciary and court property. Since 1999, about 160 judges, lawyers, and court personnel have been slain, many of them slain due to the nature of their work. Gordon also underscored the importance of a healthy justice system as a pillar of a democratic society. "We hope to see the day where justice only favors the truth and be swayed by outside forces; this is a step in the right direction," said Gordon. "Without the truth, there is no reality, no democracy, and no freedom. Are we truly free if lies dominate our consciousness?" he continued. It may be recalled that Gordon has made several privilege speeches regarding the assassination of judicial officials. He decried the killing of Trece Martires, Cavite assistant city prosecutor Edilberto Mendoza by a motorcycle-bound assassin. Mendoza was killed on New Year's Eve 2021 whilst skipping rope outside his home. Gordon also made his first privilege speech in Aug. 2004, when he sought justice for Judge Voltaire Mendoza, who was brutally murdered in Tanauan, Batangas. The law is just one of the several measures Gordon filed and passed into law for the welfare of members of the judiciary. He also extended the survivorship benefits to bereaving legal relatives of deceased personnel of the state's National Prosecution Service.
Neighbors, family members and strangers have embarked on a search for Haso, a retired K-9 dog who is credited with saving many lives during his four-year career as an active duty member of the Erie County Sheriff's Office.

Haso, an 8-year-old German shepherd, has been missing since Monday night. His owner, Deputy Richard Lundberg, became anxious about Haso's fate when the dog didn't return to the house by Tuesday morning.

"My two chief concerns are that hes stuck somewhere or deceased, or someone has him and doesnt know who he is and what he is," Lundberg said.

The problem with finding Haso is that Lundberg lives in Cattaraugus County, with hundreds of acres of woods behind him. Searchers on ATVs might find him, but a search on foot would be tough.

The Buffalo News wrote about Haso in January 2020 when the dog was among the K-9s retired when marijuana was legalized in New York State, compromising their illegal drug-detection training.

Early retirement beckons for marijuana-sniffing K-9s Apollo still jumps up, barks and wags his tail when Erie County Sheriffs Deputy Robert Galbraith puts on police gear each morning. For three years the 6-year-old German shepherd worked at Galbraiths side as a narcotics detection dog and tracker. But Apollo doesnt leave for work with Galbraith anymore. Last spring, the Sheriffs Office unceremoniously retired Apollo, even though

Haso played a key role in the arrest of a city parking meter mechanic and a substitute teacher. After deputies stopped the city employee's vehicle on the Scajaquada Expressway, the K-9 discovered a bag of cocaine hidden in a side air vent on the dashboard.

The Sheriff's Office ultimately seized a half kilo of cocaine, 15 grams of fentanyl and $7,500 in cash from the couple's car.

Lundberg also recounted Haso's gifts as a tracker. The K-9 sniffed the pajamas of an elderly Clarence man with dementia who had wandered away during the night. Haso traced the scent into the woods and found him.

"Haso has done a lot of good in his life, and he doesnt even know how good he is," Lundberg said. "Theres a minimum of eight people who wouldnt be alive today if it werent for him."

Lundberg lives near the intersection of Stady Road and Route 240 in the Town of Ashford. He had let Haso out of his kennel around 7:45 p.m. Monday and went into his garage for four minutes. When Lundberg returned, Haso was gone.

Normally, Haso would be nearby, though on a few occasions, he's taken off for a neighbor's yard in search of a chipmunk. Haso has always turned up in the garage no later than the next morning, waiting for breakfast.

Lundberg used his security cameras to learn that something attracted the dog's attention, causing him to take off.

Lundberg and friends with ATVs have been roaming the woods, with Lundberg leaving pieces of clothes and bedding with his scent on it to give Haso a scent trail home. Trail cameras have even been mounted.

As of Thursday afternoon, Haso was still missing. But a professional volunteer dog search group, called "Sherlock Bones," is assisting with the search and may have found fresh tracks that belong to the dog, Lundberg said. They are setting up cameras in the area they think he's hanging out in with some food, he said.

Haso is microchipped, but was not wearing his collar because Lundberg takes off Haso's collar when he is in his kennel so it doesn't accidentally get caught.

Though Haso has been trained as a K-9, he's now a retired family dog who is social and friendly, Lundberg said. He would likely jump into the car of anyone who opens the door, or walk into someone's house.

The Erie County Sheriff's Office posted information about the missing K-9 on social media Wednesday. Anyone with information on Haso's whereabouts is asked to call (716) 858-2903.

Lundberg is hoping Haso is still alive.

"This isnt how his chapter is supposed to close," he said.

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After years of protests against Keystone XL and other pipelines, like this protest in 2017 outside the White House, Alberta is launching new PR campaigns in the U.S. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters - image credit)

New documents reveal details of a multimillion-dollar plan from the province of Alberta to promote itself in the United States and expand its international diplomacy in an era of tension over energy policy.

The plans are laid out in two sets of documents filed last month on an American federal website that tracks foreign political activity in the U.S.

Alberta plans to open offices in several U.S. cities, and these filings offer details on a pair of concurrent projects: a $1.7-million American advertising campaign on energy, and a more wide-ranging $2-million public-relations program.

Alberta's enhanced diplomatic presence comes amid impassioned debates over oil and the future of energy production, which have pitted Alberta against the national governments of both Canada and the U.S.

Premier Jason Kenney told a U.S. podcast this week that too many Americans seem unaware of the role Alberta plays, and can play, in supplying the U.S. with energy. He shared an anecdote from his last trip to Washington to illustrate a point: that his province's story isn't being heard in the corridors of federal power.

"I'm schlepping around in a yellow cab, I can barely get a meeting with a janitor in the State Department. But the emir of Oman blows into town  in a 40-car motorcade. And every door is open to him," Kenney told the conservative podcast Ruthless in an episode aired Tuesday.

"And Oman is responsible for less than five per cent of U.S. energy imports. It's a really strange situation."

He voiced exasperation with the federal governments in both the U.S. and Canada.

Mike Blake/Reuters

Feeling neglected by Biden and Trudeau

Kenney chided the Biden administration for cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada, then scrambling, amid a surge in oil prices, to get more imports from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela.

"Why didn't they give us a call? We're your closest friends and neighbours," Kenney said. "It just makes absolutely no sense."

Story continues

WATCH | Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says a Keystone XL successor project would benefit the province and Canada:

Kenney also offered details in the U.S. interview on his annoyance that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau failed to push back against President Joe Biden. Just before Biden's inauguration, last year, Kenney said he got wind of Biden's plan to cancel Keystone XL and pleaded with the prime minister to call the incoming president and lobby against it.

"[Trudeau] wouldn't do it.  They just rolled over. It was abject surrender," Kenney said.

Those comments from the premier add context to the province's planned advocacy efforts, spelled out in newly published documents.

One project involves a $1.7-million advertising campaign already underway and led by what's often referred to as the province's energy war room  the provincially funded, arm's-length Canadian Energy Centre.

Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

What Alberta's U.S. document-filings say

Alberta has begun placing ads in U.S. media saying that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed the energy conversation; that oil will be around for decades; and that Canada is the reliable partner the U.S. needs.

The ads have appeared in The Washington Post and other U.S. outlets as Alberta oil backers seek to shift the cross-border political conversation in their favour.

The Canadian Energy Centre's executive director, Mike Simpson, referred to it as a global education effort. He told CBC News that the campaign has produced about 32 million ad-views since its launch on March 22, and 500,000 visits to a website titled Canada Is The Solution.

That advertising contract with DDB Canada was registered under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act and recently published on a website run by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Another new Alberta filing involves a broader diplomatic push.

Alberta recently announced plans to open three new diplomatic offices in Chicago, Seattle and Denver, emulating a model deployed decades ago by Quebec, which has offices in nine U.S. cities and numerous countries. Unlike Quebec's operations, Alberta's offices will be inside existing Canadian consulates.

New offices, new polls, new PR

In December, the provincial government requested proposals for a company to provide several services as part of a $2 million, two-year contract. Those services include briefings between Alberta officials with U.S. journalists; daily news monitoring; arranging appearances on U.S. television and radio; and drafting speeches and written materials for Alberta representatives.

The province also earmarked $160,000 for three public-opinion polls: one initial survey this spring gauging the attitudes of "nationwide opinion elites," then polls in 2023 and 2024.

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Alberta's envoy to Washington said the expense is well worth it given the economics at stake: the province exported more than $77 billion to the U.S. in 2020, and that was before oil prices surged.

"The size of the relationship justifies this," James Rajotte said in an interview with CBC News. "Getting the attention of the world's most powerful country? It takes a lot of sustained effort to do that."

Alberta envoy's 'eureka' moment

Rajotte, a former federal MP, said he had a wake-up call shortly after moving to the U.S. capital after being posted there two years ago. He said he realized his province had only a couple of government employees in the United States while Quebec has offices in many U.S. cities and has scores of representatives in the country.

"It was just sort of a eureka moment," he said.

He cited different objectives for this new outreach: one is defensive, as in defending Alberta's interests on trade irritants, as with energy or beef labelling. Another is more forward-looking in seeking new trade opportunities in the tech sector, agriculture and energy.

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Some details on Alberta's planned messages are embedded in the contract documents posted online.

That contract was awarded to JDA Frontline, a Washington-based part of the Seven Letter communications firm, which lists as a subcontractor Crestview Strategy and its partner Maryscott Greenwood, head of the Canadian American Business Council.

The climate concerns Alberta's confronting

In its proposal, JDA Frontline promised to convey the messages that:

Alberta is a more ideal supplier than countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.

A new study by S&P Global Commodity Insights says Alberta oilsands emissions are undergoing significant enough declines per unit of production that they could soon decrease even if production grows.

But oilsands emissions remain higher than most other crudes.

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

That environmental cost has made the oilsands a target, as the world struggles to keep emissions from hitting catastrophic levels. Biden cited those environmental concerns when he cancelled Keystone XL on his first day in office, calling it contrary to his goals on climate change.

It's not clear what sorts of short-term objectives the province hopes to achieve from its promotional investments. There's no sign of Keystone XL being revived; the big Line 3 pipeline expansion is complete; and Democrats seem in no hurry to close Line 5.

Provincial officials contacted by CBC News did not identify U.S. policy changes they're hoping to achieve in the short term.

One former provincial official who has worked in energy and in communications said this kind of outreach isn't solely about immediate objectives.

"This is a long-term exercise," said Navigator Ltd.'s Stefan Baranski, who was communications director to ex-premier Alison Redford and later worked at TC Energy, the company behind Keystone XL.

He said it's only fair that Alberta try telling more of its own story: he said the private sector has not always communicated it effectively, and that it makes sense not to rely exclusively on the federal government to do it.
Recreation / Socials

Chi Alpha Campus Ministry End of Year Party

Join us in celebrating the ending semester in Hawaiian style!

Come and finish out your spring semester strong with a Hawaiian themed celebration! We will have food (wings!), fun, and games in Carter Hall D at 6:30 PM on Thursday, April 28th. Everyone is welcome!




The University of Wisconsin System named the UW-Madison provost and four academics from out of state as finalists to be the next UW-Madison chancellor.

The list released Wednesday  comprising two men and three women  includes no politicians and just one candidate with known ties to the university. Another candidate spent several years working in a leadership position at a large corporation but, like the others, has spent most of his career in academia.

The finalists are Ann Cudd, provost at the University of Pittsburgh; Marie Lynn Miranda, a University of Notre Dame statistics professor and former provost; Jennifer Mnookin, law school dean at the University of California Los Angeles; Daniel Reed, a University of Utah computer science professor and former provost; and John Karl Scholz, provost at UW-Madison.

Their names emerged from an applicant pool that included 37 candidates. Of those, 16 self-reported as a person of color and seven were women, according to System data provided in response to a Wisconsin State Journal records request.

System spokesperson Mark Pitsch said the finalists ages werent readily available Wednesday and he did not say how many of them self-reported as people of color.

Finalists are scheduled to visit the campus next week and take questions during a public forum.

A 21-member search committee chaired by UW Board of Regents Vice President Karen Walsh sifted through the names and selected a number of semifinalists.

A smaller Regents committee  chaired by board President Ed Manydeeds and including Walsh, Amy Bogost, Mike Jones, Tracey Klein and John Miller  selected finalists last week. The group will recommend a single pick to the full board, which is expected to vote on the hire sometime next month.

Outgoing Chancellor Rebecca Blank departs this summer to become the president of Northwestern University. Her last day is May 31.

The System hired AGB Search to assist in the chancellor search and is paying a flat fee of $110,000, records show. The fee does not cover out-of-pocket expenses, such as candidate background checks, travel expenses and advertising, but is far less than what other search firms have charged. The System paid WittKieffer, the firm that oversaw the Systems most recent presidential search, closer to $200,000.

More information about each candidate from their submitted resumes follows.

Cudd

Ann Cudd became provost at the University of Pittsburgh in 2018. She previously served as dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Boston University. She also held a variety of leadership positions at the University of Kansas, including dean of undergraduate studies.

Cudd earned her bachelors degree in math and philosophy from Swarthmore College and got her doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh.

Miranda

Marie Lynn Miranda became provost at the University of Notre Dame in 2020. Before that, she was a provost at Rice University from 2015 to 2019. She was dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan from 2012 to 2015. She started her academic career as a professor at Duke.

Miranda earned her bachelors degree in math and economics from Duke University and a doctorate from Harvard University.

Mnookin

Jennifer Mnookin has been dean of the law school at the University of California, Los Angeles since 2015. Shes also taught at the University of Virginia School of Law and Harvard Law School. She has published extensively on issues relating to forensic science, including latent fingerprint identification, handwriting expertise and DNA evidence.

Mnookin earned her bachelors degree in social studies from Harvard, a law degree from Yale University and a doctorate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Reed

Daniel Reed came to the University of Utah in 2018 and served as its provost until 2021. Before that, he worked as the vice president for research and economic development at the University of Iowa. From 2009 to 2012, he was a corporate vice president at Microsoft. He was also a computer science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Reed earned his bachelors degree in computer science at Missouri University of Science & Technology and got his doctorate from Purdue University.

Scholz

John Karl Scholz has worked at UW-Madison since 1988. He taught economics for more than two decades, became dean of the College of Letters and Science in 2013 and was elevated to provost in 2019. He worked as a deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Tax Analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department from 1997 to 1998. He was also a senior staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers from 1990 to 1991.

Scholz earned his bachelors degree in math and economics from Carleton College and got a doctorate from Stanford University.

Meet the finalists Each finalist will take questions at a public reception next week. Daniel Reed: Monday, May 2, 5 to 6 p.m., Tripp Commons, Memorial Union Jennifer Mnookin: Tuesday, May 3, 5 to 6 p.m., Tripp Commons, Memorial Union Ann Cudd: Wednesday, May 4, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Tripp Commons, Memorial Union Marie Lynn Miranda: Thursday, May 5, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Tripp Commons, Memorial Union John Karl Scholz: Friday, May 6, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium Source: UW System

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Signaling a recommitment to teaching the histories of First Nations peoples, the Madison School District on Monday acknowledged in a ceremony organized by students that the land its schools occupy was once home to the Ho-Chunk Nation.

Marena Fox Baker and Isa Saiz, student leaders of Native American Student Associations at East and West high schools, led the charge to have plaques installed at Madison schools to acknowledge the Ho-Chunk people as the areas original inhabitants and to better incorporate Indigenous history into the districts curriculum.

Indigenous students in our community wanted to feel safe, seen and acknowledged, Fox Baker said. The art on the walls did not reflect us, nor did the curriculum that was taught. This is known as Indigenous invisibility.

Throughout her time in the district, Fox Baker, now a junior at East, said she saw little to no representation of Indigenous people in her schools. That feeling of invisibility led to the formation of the Native American Student Association, which began to explore ways to honor and acknowledge Indigenous history and students. The land-acknowledgement plaque project was the first the organization tackled.

Her concerns come despite 30-year-old state law that requires Indigenous history education in the public schools. Wisconsins 1989-91 biennial budget bill included provisions that required the study of American Indian history, culture and tribal sovereignty of the 11 federally recognized nations and tribal communities in Wisconsin. The budget also allocated funding for the American Indian Studies Program at the Department of Public Instruction.

Mondays ceremony at the districts Holtzman Building, 333 Holtzman Road, which is used for special education services and professional development for teachers and staff, included speakers from the Ho-Chunk Nation as well as drums, songs and the exchange of gifts.

This project is much more than the plaques themselves, Fox Baker said. To us, they represent the commitment that (the district) is making and a step toward being acknowledged in our community.

The plaques, to be affixed to all district schools over the next three years, read: It is with great respect that our school acknowledges and celebrates the inherent sovereignty of the Ho-Chunk Nation and the 11 indigenous First Nations within what is now referred to as the State of Wisconsin. The land you are standing on is the sacred ancestral land of the Ho-Chunk people. Our school will continue to grow and build upon our partnerships with the Ho-Chunk Nation and all First Nations.

A path forward

Along with the land acknowledgement, the district committed to further bringing awareness to Indigenous history as well as to current Indigenous presence and to providing additional professional development for teachers, although it did not specify how it would do so.

This is the beginning of us looking at wrong done and a path forward, Superintendent Carlton Jenkins said. Now its time to dig deeper into our curriculum and make sure those things are acknowledged in a different way. Its not just for our Indigenous students; its for all students.

The Madison area was known as Teejop, or Four Lakes, by the Ho-Chunk before they were forcibly removed under an 1832 treaty. According to oral histories, the Ho-Chunk tribe had lived in the region since the glaciers receded, which was about 11,000 years ago.

For decades after the 1832 treaty, both the state and federal governments engaged in ethnic cleansing by repeatedly forcing the Ho-Chunk people out of their homes in Wisconsin. Many died during the forced removals and during the arduous journeys to new states. Despite several removals, the Ho-Chunk people kept returning to Wisconsin by foot or canoe.

Tara Tindall, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and the districts Native American Teacher Leader, said her ancestors were removed repeatedly from the area and returned each time out of love and dedication to the land.

Accurate history

We know this and were teaching our kids about the first peoples who were here before this land was taken, district deputy superintendent and former state superintendent Carolyn Stanford Taylor said. Its providing an accurate history.

The land acknowledgement ceremony was the first to be held by a school district in Wisconsin, according to Stanford Taylor. The Native American Student Association began planning for the event, in partnership with the districts Title VI American Indian Parent Committee, in 2019 but the ceremony was delayed due to COVID-19.

Each day when Im here in this community, Im always happy and cheerful because my feet are walking the path that my ancestors once walked, Janice Rice, a Ho-Chunk elder said. Every day when I see the birds and hear the songs and see the waters of the age-old area, I feel blessed and comforted and happy because Im walking the lands that my grandparents and great-great-grandparents walked.

State Journal reporter Emilie Heidemann contributed to this report.

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Throughout our many years of ownership, we have prided ourselves on the ability to stay true to our values and roots while simultaneously adapting, innovating, and responding to the unique needs of our clients and communities, said Jim Scott, director of the board for FIBK and son of First Interstates founders, Homer Scott Sr. and Mildred Scott. This combination is an extension of our legacy in the region where our familys roots began. It increases the banks community commitment while expanding our brand of community banking.

The Scott family will remain significant shareholders in FIBK and family members will continue to serve in board positions post-transaction.

To punctuate the milestone moment for the company and to celebrate the Scott familys legacy, as part this transaction, FIBK will gift over $20 million to the First Interstate BancSystem Foundation.
Pinoy supermarket owners endorse new Senate term for 'hardworking' Hontiveros

Senator Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday said she will continue to help the cause of local retailers and retail workers after the Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets' Association (PAGASA) endorsed her re-election in the May 2022 polls.

"Patuloy nating ipaglalaban sa Senado ang kabuhayan ng ating mga local retailers at retail workers, kasama ng kanilang mga pamilya. Nagpapasalamat ako sa suporta ng PAGASA sa ating adbokasiya na "Healthy Buhay at Hanapbuhay." Malaki ang naitutulong ng ating retail industry sa paglago ng ekonomiya at sa paghatid ng maraming trabaho, kaya dapat natin silang tulungan," Hontiveros said.

In a recent statement, PAGASA - which is composed of 414 member stores nationwide - said that the supermarket industry is convinced that the country "needs Hontiveros to be at the Senate for another term."

PAGASA president Steven Cua cited Hontiveros' remarkable track record as lawmaker, as well as her "unwavering support for the advancement of local retailers."

"Hontiveros emanates the values and determination that will aid us in realizing our visions of empowering our members towards global competitiveness - which will make the retail industry a significant contributor to, and a driving force of, Philippine economic development," Cua said.

The group pointed out that Hontiveros introduced an amendment to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act which raised the minimum paid-up capital imposed on foreign retail investors to up to USD 300,000, which they said "evened out the playing field for the local retail industry players."

Hontiveros and her efforts to promote the local retail industry, PAGASA said, ensured that Filipino retailers, their workers and their suppliers were not put at a disadvantage by the new law.

"We believe hardworking Senator Risa Hontiveros deserves another term to serve the Filipino people," the group stressed.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is searching for the person who shot and killed a nesting bald eagle near Garland last week  and its also monitoring the chick it left behind.

The female eagle was alive when she was found  near a nest with her mate and chick  but later died from her injuries. A state conservation officer performed a necropsy and determined the bird had been shot.

Nebraska Wildlife Crimestoppers is offering a reward for information leading to an arrest, said Stacey Lewton, southeast district supervisor for the commissions law enforcement division. To make an anonymous report, call 800-742-7627 or contact a conservation officer.

If found, the shooter will likely face federal and state charges for killing the protected bird, he said.

The commission has also enlisted the help of the Raptor Conservation Alliance to watch the nest, and the male eagles care of the chick.

So far, so good, he said. The other eagle that nests there is doing well, and were looking for that to continue.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7254 or psalter@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSPeterSalter

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The number of nurses experienced in providing care to sexual assault victims has wavered over the years at Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center.

Liz Knauss, nurse manager of the emergency department at Holy Spirit, said there were two good programs over the years with effective staffing, but recently, the hospital had only two Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, or SANEs. With hospital leadership estimating that Holy Spirit sees about 45 sexual assault patients a year, Knauss said nurses felt afraid that any mistake could affect a criminal case.

They felt very frustrated up until now, she said. It was so nerve-wracking [performing sexual assault exams]. They need specialized care. ... We had two SANE nurses who worked here, so they werent here full-time.

Its not an uncommon scenario, especially at rural hospitals that may not have even one nurse with sexual assault training. With limited staffing, sexual assault survivors may end up having to wait hours for a trained nurse to see them or even get transferred to another hospital, something that is against state Department of Health regulations but happens when staff believe they have no other options.

Its these kinds of obstacles to an already difficult time for patients that local health officials want to solve.

Penn State Health on Wednesday announced that Holy Spirit Medical Center and Hampden Medical Center are the latest in the health systems partnership with Penn States Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing to incorporate telehealth technology into sexual assault services that officials branded as the new standard of care.

The college offers SANE training to nurses at its Hershey campus, as well as its own experienced staff to help with exams via video through the colleges Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Telehealth (SAFE-T) Systems.

On Wednesday, Hampden Medical Center highlighted 11 trained nurses and Holy Spirit Medical Center honored nine trained nurses who officials hope will be retained and aided through this new program.

Telehealth service

Dr. Sheridan Miyamoto, an associated professor at the nursing college and director of SAFE-T, said they have a staff of 11 trained nurses who are available via rotation 24/7 to all partnering hospitals. Hampden and Holy Spirit medical centers along with two more Penn State Health hospitals later this year will round out the current partnerships to eight hospitals in the state.

These nurses via a cart equipped with secure technology will be able to talk to patients, view photographs of the exam immediately upon them being taken by the local nurse and guide a nurse during the exam to make sure all possible evidence is collected and noted.

Miyamoto said the extra help is a boon for a process that can be very complicated.

Theyll see the patients body in real time ... and make sure they dont miss an opportunity to collect evidence. Because we dont get another moment to get that, she said.

Miyamoto said an on-site nurse conducting an exam is usually tasked with following a rape kit that involves a lot of documentation  nearly 20 pages worth. With examination and interviews, an exam can take three to five hours.

With as much data as theyre collecting, Miyamoto said a second pair of eyes doesnt just help with the exam and with the criminal forensic investigation, it also helps give more attention to a patient while the in-person nurse may be working on documentation.

She said that in surveys of the first 76 patients who experienced the telehealth program, 95% felt better after the exam, 92% felt telehealth improved their quality of care, and 91% rated local care as either very good or excellent.

That kind of support is what Miyamoto hopes the local community will see at partnering rural hospitals, and with the recent launch at the two local Penn State Health hospitals. Hampden Medical Center nursing staff went through a course in less than 30 days to make sure the telehealth service was operational by the time it opened on Oct. 1. Holy Spirit launched its telehealth program on Wednesday with a celebration.

Technology and expansion

Even though the SAFE-T System is relatively new, the technology has grown since its first equipment was built in 2017.

Jon Essick, IT manager for SAFE-T Systems, said the college moved to create its own technology and device because of the lack of options in the field. Building off of cameras and colposcopes used for sexual assault investigations for decades, Essick said they were looking for something easier for staff to use and that didnt pose a security issue with transferring photographs or data.

The first telehealth cart developed in 2017 was a start in improving some features, but Essick said the carts being used now by partnering hospitals are much easier to use, are secure and far more capable of taking magnified photos.

As the technology improves, the staff are also looking forward to expanding these kinds of services.

Miyamoto said the first hospitals that employed the SAFE-T Systems were rural hospitals. Those like Hampden and Holy Spirit medical centers coming on now are more suburban and are entering a contract to help alleviate costs not covered by grants.

The program was initially funded through the Department of Justices Office for Victims of Crime, and U.S. Health Resources & Services provides funding to offset the costs of SANE training for nurses. The college is using hospital contracts to help cover costs not covered by grants.

Miyamoto said, however, that hospital contracts wouldnt be of interest to rural hospitals that dont have the sexual assault patient load as other more urban hospitals, so she hopes other funding, such as those proposed in state Senate Bill 1172, will be made available to make sure any hospital has the opportunity to partner with the program.

Everyone should have access to this level of care, no matter where they live, Miyamoto said. I think telehealth is going to be the answer.

SAFE-T Systems currently helps sexual assault survivors 12 and older, though Miyamoto said they are looking at creating a pediatric program, as well. Currently, Hampden and Holy Spirit medical centers partner with Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to offer pediatric sexual assault services. Hershey Medical Center itself became a partner with SAFE-T Systems in 2019.

Email Naomi Creason at ncreason@cumberlink.com or follow her on Twitter @SentinelCreason.

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Information is from police reports and may be incomplete depending on the status of an investigation. Phone numbers are nonemergency.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Russia and the United States have carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America, both countries announced Wednesday.

The surprise deal involving Trevor Reed, an American jailed for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace, but it was all the more extraordinary because it was done as Russia's war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.

"Today, our prayers have been answered and Trevor is on his way back safely to the United States," Reed's family said in a statement.

President Joe Biden, who met in Washington with Reed's parents last month, trumpeted Reed's release and noted without elaboration that "the negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly." The Russian foreign ministry described the exchange as the "result of a long negotiation process."

Multiple other Americans still remain jailed in Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan.

Reed, a former Marine from Texas, was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though his family has maintained his innocence and the U.S. government described him as unjustly detained and expressed concern about his declining health.

The U.S. agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S.

Russia had sought Yaroshenko's return for years while also rejecting entreaties by high-level U.S. officials to release Reed, who was nearing his 1,000th day in custody and whose health had recently been worsening, according to his family.

A senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, described Reed's case as one of "utmost priority" for the Biden administration, including because of his health, which his family has said included a tuberculosis diagnosis.

"It was a difficult decision but one that we thought was worth it," the official said.

The two prisoners were swapped in a European country. Though officials would not say where the transfer took place, in the hours before it happened commercial flight trackers identified a plane belonging to Russia's federal security service as flying to Ankara, Turkey. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons also updated its website overnight to reflect that Yaroshenko was no longer in custody.

Reed was en route back to the U.S., traveling with Roger Cartsens, the U.S. government's special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

The prisoner swap marks the highest-profile release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad and comes even as families of detainees who have met over the last year with administration officials had described them as cool to the idea of an exchange.

The U.S. government does not typically embrace such exchanges for fear that it might encourage foreign governments to take additional Americans as prisoners as a way to extract concessions and to avoid a potential false equivalency between an unjustly detained American  which U.S. officials believe Reed was  and a properly convicted criminal.

In this case, though, the U.S. official said the deal made sense in part because Yaroshenko had already served a long portion of his prison sentence, which has now been commuted.

The Reed family thanked Biden "for making the decision to bring Trevor home" as well as other administration officials and Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, whom the family said traveled to Moscow in the hours before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reed's release.

The Reed family had also been working with a consultant, Jonathan Franks, who has been involved in other recent high-profile releases, including the case of Michael White, a Navy veteran freed from Iran in 2020.

The release had no immediate impact on the cases of other Americans held by Russia. Those include Griner, who was detained in February after authorities said a search of her bag revealed a cannabis derivative, and Whelan, who is being held on espionage-related charges his family says are bogus.

U.S. officials have described Whelan as unjustly detained, and Biden said Wednesday that "we won't stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends."

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Missouri FBLA welcomed 4,000 registered attendees from 354 chapters to the largest State Leadership Conference in the nation held April 10-12 in Springfield. For the first time in two years, members and advisers gathered in person to expand their leadership, compete in various events, and connect with members from across the state.

Thirteen members from Farmington High Schools Chapter of FBLA attended the conference. The Top 10 individuals/teams in each event were awarded medals onstage at JQH Arena, and the Top 4 in each event took home trophies and qualified for the National Leadership Conference, which is June 29-July 2 in Chicago, Illinois.

1st * - Tessa Hand and Abbie Wigger, Business Plan

3rd * - Samantha Warren and Caroline Reeves, Sales Presentation

4th * - Breanna Mathes, Job Interview

8th - Breanna Mathes, Public Speaking

10th - Carter Murray, Future Business Leader

Farmington FBLA received high honors for being recognized as a Gold Seal Chapter (top 15%) and for earning the Gold Level of the Chapter of the Year program.

In addition, the following students were recognized at the ceremonies:

 Outstanding Service to Our Organization, Diep Phan

 Advocate Level of the Business Achievement Awards (BAA): TJ Benoist (on-stage recognition)

 Contributor Level of the Business Achievement Awards (BAA): Samantha Warren, Tessa Hand, Diep Phan, Caroline Reeves, Abbie Wigger

Throughout their time at the conference, Farmington FBLA participated in leadership academies, break-out sessions, and the Leadership Expo, which had nearly 20 exhibitors, including universities and military partners for members to connect and leadership activities for members to engage. The students also toured Glass Hall of the College of Business at Missouri State University.

Missouri Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda is a non-profit 501(c)(3) student business organization with over 11,000 members making it the second large membership in the nation. Its mission is to bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs. The association is headquartered in Jefferson City, Missouri. For more information visit www.missourifbla.org.

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The GFWC Monday Club sponsored two students to attend the Sophomore Pilgrimage in Jefferson City held April 11-12. They were Isabelle DeWaal from Farmington High School and Isabella Skaggs from West County High School.

"The 9th District of Missouri GFWC sponsored a total of 29 students that covers an area from Ste Genevieve and St. Francois counties south into the bootheel," said Karen Kleinberg, chaperone. "These students who represent the upper fourth of their class are chosen by the faculty of their school or the students of the sophomore class.

"GFWC has been sponsoring these trips since 1934 and the Monday Club has always been an active participant in this pilgrimage. The students are provided transportation, hotel accommodations and a variety of small field trips to learn more about Missouri history."

On Monday, the students traveled to Fulton to have lunch at Westminster College, toured the Churchill Memorial Museum and saw a portion of the Berlin Wall on display at the college. From there they traveled to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Museum in Jefferson City.

The group checked into the Best Western Plus Capital Inn and then made their way to the Missouri State Capital for a pizza party and to meet their state legislators and have pictures taken. That evening, they were all introduced on the floor of the House of Representatives. Some of the students and chaperones made their way to the top of the dome at the state capital, climbing up 180 steps.

On Tuesday the students and chaperones had breakfast at the hotel and then returned to the state capital. The students were given a tour of the state capital and the Supreme Court Building. Their lunch was served at First United Methodist Church where the group heard from a variety of speakers that included the First Lady of Missouri, Teresa Parson.

"It was a very full day of activities," Kleinberg said. "The students probably didn't know each other when they boarded the bus Monday morning but by Tuesday afternoon, they all were friends. It was my pleasure to be able to be one of the chaperones for this event, one I hope to do again."

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Jerry Richards, Cooperative Feral Hog Outreach educator with the University of Missouri Extension, has been on a mission to exterminate feral hogs in the area.

Richards recently gave an update on his quest to remove the wild hogs and prevent further damage to farmers' fields and local habitat.

We had a meeting at Johnsons Shut-Ins where we got all the legislators and some media there, he said. Weve had the helicopter all winter long which helps, where before we had it for a week or two. Helicopters are frequently used to find groups of hogs during eradication efforts.

According to Richards, the program has seen some success with a decreasing number of feral hogs captured.

We have areas in the western part of the state where there used to be hogs and this winter we havent found a hog, he said. We still have the movement of them. They keep progressing. We still have evidence that some are still being caught and turned loose. Genetic strains come into places that just by pigs migrating they wouldnt be there.

Catching the final 25% of the hog population in a given area is apparently the hardest part since the ones that are left are shy and become wary of traps. With feral hogs being mainly nocturnal, the last ones can be hard to clean out.

If we bring traps in and dont get them all caught, we send people there to hunt, Richards said. They have the night vision goggles.

Richards brought up that it is illegal to hunt hogs on public lands, but not on private land  a policy with which many people vehemently disagree.

Every place that has tried hunting to remove feral hogs, the problem has gotten worse, he said. Its counterintuitive, the common sense idea is, if we turn everybody loose with a gun, if were trapping over here and youre shooting over there, thats the best way to take care of it. The actual science behind it, in the places where they allow the hunting to continue, some hogs will get killed, but you permeate that hunting culture, which is people who want to sell hunts, guide hunts. We are told there are people who dont want them totally gone because they like to hunt.

At the Johnson Shut-Ins meeting, we had a panel of landowners who came in, theres some landowners that own a lot of land and cattle. They were in unanimous agreement that they are behind us. We had an article in Missouri Cattlemans Magazine and they are behind this approach.

With a rich hunting culture in this area, Richards explained that sometimes hogs will be let loose for training or for selling hunts.

I believe it is still an issue, he said. The reason I believe it is an issue is that we have a certain number of genetically-coded hogs that will show up. Down in Texas, we have another breed. We have nothing showing up in southern Missouri showing that breed. Then suddenly, that breed shows up here. I would make the case that somebody has hauled that hog rather than he has decided to traipse all the way up from Texas. I still believe it is taking place, but not as much as it was.

Richards noted that feral hogs can not only destroy a farmers field, but they will also destroy habitat for other wildlife and the wildlife itself.

People used to say they had wild turkeys, he said. Now they hardly have any because the hogs come in and eat the eggs. They used to have whippoorwills. They dont have them now. We have the photographs where a hog has a fawn in its mouth. That is one of the things that people who are intent on hunting them have tunnel vision and dont see the other stuff going on. Its one of those things that you dont notice it riding around on your four-wheeler, but once people start pointing it out, it makes sense. Plus, feral hogs dont have any natural predators.

As a future part of the program, an attempt will be made to supply equipment that farmers can borrow to drag or disc up hog-damaged property to restore it to a previous state.

For landowners who have a feral hog problem, contact Jerry Richards at 573-854-9845 or jerryrichards@missouri.edu.

Mark Marberry is a reporter for the Farmington Press and Daily Journal. He can be reached at 573-518-3629, or at mmarberry@farmingtonpressonline.com

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The offices of Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley jointly released a statement Monday saying the two Missouri senators will introduce a resolution honoring three Missouri police officers killed in the line of duty in March.

Corporal Benjamin Lee Cooper of the Joplin Police Department, Police Officer Jake Alexander Reed of the Joplin Police Department, and Patrolman Lane Anthony Burns of the Bonne Terre Police Department lost their lives in service to their communities.

Every time a law enforcement officer reports for their shift, neither they nor their families know what dangerous situations they may face, said Blunt. Law enforcement officers selfless dedication is a powerful testament to their courage and character... Joplin Police Corporal Benjamin Cooper, Joplin Police Officer Jake Reed, and Bonne Terre Police Officer Lane Burns did not hesitate to put the safety of others ahead of their own.

"We are grateful they answered the call to serve and we owe a deep debt of gratitude to their families.

"The loss of Corporal Cooper, Officer Reed, and Patrolman Burns is a tragedy and their heroic actions will not be forgotten said Hawley. I thank the brave men and women who wear blue across our state. They selflessly risk their lives every day for our safety.

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Fire crews from around the area worked early Tuesday morning to put out a structural fire in Bonne Terre.

The call for a commercial structure fire came at 4:04 a.m., Tuesday, for a building on South Allen Street in Bonne Terre, across from the Bonne Terre Train Depot. According to Bonne Terre/Big River Fire Chief David Pratte, the fire was heavy in the side south of the building, which is where the front door is.

Once the Bonne Terre/Big River Fire department was on scene and attacking the fire, Pratte called for a second alarm, hoping to add manpower due to the size of the building.

The commercial structure was 200 feet by 120 feet, so it was a 22,000 square foot building, said Pratte. It had all kinds of vehicles in it, and other items, oils, machines, it was heavily loaded.

According to Pratte, while the two crews were battling the flames, a large explosion came from the back of the building followed by heavy fire. Pratte called for a task force from Jefferson County which brought six more companies down to the scene to help with manpower.

After daylight, the fire was called under control. The scene was cleared a little after 1 p.m.

The fire is under investigation by the Missouri State Fire Marshal's Office.

Danielle Thurman is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be contacted at dthurman@dailyjournalonline.com or 573-518-3616.

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Press Release

April 27, 2022 Lacson Bares Plan to End Bloodshed in Abra, Other Violence-Prone Provinces More at: https://pinglacson.net/article/lacson-bares-plan-to-end-bloodshed-in-abra-other-violence-prone-provinces Even as he prayed for peaceful elections in Abra and other hotspots on May 9, independent presidential aspirant Sen. Panfilo "Ping" M. Lacson has mapped out a plan to put an end to the culture of violence in such areas. Lacson, who was in Abra on Tuesday, also stressed it is time to end the culture where "warlords" keep residents poor and ignorant, and always dependent on them. "Of course ginawa ko noong Chief PNP ako - pay special attention not only to Abra but in areas na traditionally historically magulo, not only during election period (I have done this when I headed the Philippine National Police - pay special attention not only to Abra but to areas that have been traditionally and historically prone to violence not only during the election period)," he said in an interview with media. Should he and vice presidential bet Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III be elected into office on May 9, Lacson said he will take the first step by implementing "without letup" a massive internal cleansing of the bureaucracy. This is similar to the internal cleansing of the PNP when he headed it from 1999 to 2001 - where the ICUs or inept, corrupt and undisciplined cops either reformed or were booted out of the service. "Ang strategy na dapat i-adopt which I already did when I was Chief PNP, massive internal cleansing ng pulis so bumalik ang trust ang respect ng public sa pulis. Ganoon din sana sa gobyerno. If we scale it up sana bumalik trust ng tao sa gobyerno. There's no other way. If there's no trust, how can the people cooperate with the government (The strategy we should adopt, I already did when I was Chief PNP - a massive internal cleansing that earned back the trust and respect of the public. It is the same with the government. We should scale it up, so the government can win back the public's trust. There's no other way - if there's no trust, how can the people cooperate with the government)?" he said. Lacson said he prayed for peaceful elections in Abra when he paid a courtesy call on Bangued Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian. He also voiced hopes for an end to a system where local warlords in some provinces prey on the ignorance and fear of voters. "Nagkakwentuhan kami, humingi kami ng prayer na sana this time maging tahimik ang election dito (We talked and I asked for prayers that this time, elections will be peaceful in Abra)," he said. Meanwhile, Lacson received a commitment from his supporters who are running for local posts in Abra - members of Partido Reporma who continue to support him - that they would not tolerate violence. These included former Abra Governor Eustaquio Bersamin, who is running for governor under Reporma but who continues to support him. Also, Lacson called on the PNP to assess the situation in Abra to validate information that local residents are living in fear. He noted the only peaceful election in Abra was in 2013 when the PNP, upon Lacson's request, assigned now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong to head the Cordillera regional police. "That was the first and only time na walang bloodshed. Sayang yan sana ang ginawang template ng PNP pagdating sa peace and order during elections (That was the first and only time where there was no bloodshed during elections in Abra. The PNP could have made that a template for peace and order during elections)," he said.
The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday struck down a $1 billion Linn County jury verdict that was intended to compensate 14 county governments for insufficient logging on state forestlands.

A law that requires Oregon to manage the forestland for the greatest permanent value does not create an immutable promise to maximize revenue for the counties, the appeals court ruled.

The appellate court said that historically, value has myriad definitions, some of which could relate to revenue production and others that do not relate to revenue production.

The statute also directs that forests be managed for the greatest permanent value to the state, rather than to the counties, which means the text falls short of the clear and unmistakable intent of making a contractual promise, the ruling said.

For that reason, a state judge in Linn County wrongly refused to dismiss the class action lawsuit against the state government, the ruling said.

Roger Nyquist, a commissioner for Linn County, the lead plaintiff, said the appeals court ruling does nothing to alleviate the hardships that forest mismanagement created for rural communities.

Aside from economic issues, the state's forest management approach has caused these communities to live with the danger of deadly wildfires, Nyquist said in an email.

"The wildfires in September 2020 that caused death and destruction have changed the publics attitude about forest practices," he said. "We hope that same change in attitude will take place with Oregons political class."

John DiLorenzo, attorney for the counties, vowed to challenge the ruling before the Oregon Supreme Court because it "does not align with the law or the evidence we presented at trial."

The ruling doesn't take into account the economic and social damage that rural communities have suffered after the state government changed its logging policies without input from the counties, he said in an email.

Oregon's leaders have decided the timber economy is inconsistent with their "urban values," but the resulting problems must be addressed to bridge the urban-rural divide, DiLorenzo said.

"The lack of productive employment in these communities has led to substance abuse, violence, lack of educational opportunity and general hopelessness and despair," he said.

After a monthlong trial in 2019, a jury determined the State of Oregon violated a contract requiring it to maximize revenue from forestlands donated by the counties in the 1930s and 40s.

State forests must be managed for the greatest permanent value by law, but the 14 counties claimed the Oregon Department of Forestry impermissibly expanded that definition beyond its original intent.

Under language adopted in the late 1990s, the greatest permanent value was changed to include environmental and recreational considerations that restricted timber harvests, shortchanging the 14 counties and tax districts within them of revenues, the plaintiffs claimed.

Attorneys for Oregon appealed the jury verdict on the grounds that the counties didnt have an enforceable contract that dictated how state forest officials must manage the nearly 700,000 acres of donated property.

The law governing state forestlands pertains to matters of statewide concern that cannot be challenged in court by the counties, state attorneys claimed. As political subdivisions of the Oregon government, the counties cannot sue over such state policies.

Federal environmental laws enacted since the property was donated, such as the Endangered Species Act, also effectively limit how much timber can be extracted from state forestlands, according to state attorneys.

The counties claimed that Oregon forestry officials werent obligated to create habitat for federally-protected species that resulted in logging restrictions. In any case, the counties said the state government can alter forest management policies but must still pay them damages for breaching the contract.

Counties provide health care and other functions under contract with the state government, so they must be able to rely on such agreements being enforceable, the plaintiffs said. If the counties had known the state government could re-interpret the contracts terms at will, theyd never have donated such huge amounts of forestlands.

Ralph Bloemers, attorney for fishing and conservation groups involved in the case, said that increased logging on the fraction of Oregon forests owned by the state government wouldn't do much to help rural communities.

In comparison, the elimination of the timber severance tax in the 1990s has allowed "Wall Street timber corporations" to avoid paying their "fair share" of taxes to support rural communities, Bloemers said in an email.

"If major timber companies paid more in taxes, that money would go to the counties for firefighting, repairing roads and essential services," he said.

The appeals court ruling affirms that state officials can manage these forestlands for the benefit of all Oregonians by protecting watersheds and wildlife, storing carbon and providing recreation as well as timber, Bloemers said.

"All of these things generate value for the people of Oregon, he said.

Editor's note: This article has been edited to correct the year the jury verdict was handed down.

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There's political movement in the mountains this week. Republicans are heading out from the shadow of Mount Hood, while Democrats make the trek east of the Cascades to Sunriver.

As Republicans concluded the Dorchester Conference near Mt. Hood last weekend, Democrats are heading to their own conference, the Oregon Summit at the Sunriver Resort that starts Friday.

GOP picks from full field of candidates

Informal straw polls taken of GOP attendees at the Dorchester Conference showed they favor former Happy Valley Mayor Lori Chavez-DeRemer in the 5th Congressional District that runs from Portland to Bend. Rep. Ron Noble, R-McMinnville, came out on top of a large slate of Republicans in the new 6th congressional district. Both candidates put out the results on social media over the weekend.

Less was released about the straw poll to choose among the 19 Republicans running for governor. Former Alsea school superintendent Marc Thielman came out on top after multiple rounds, with Portland consultant Bridget Barton placing second.

The straw poll winners were not included in two high-profile debates last week and later this week. The first, held Thursday, was co-sponsored by the Bend Bulletin and limited the stage to four candidates who had raised significant funds and also placed well in larger public opinion polls: former House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby; 2016 GOP governor nominee Bud Pierce of Salem; former Oregon GOP chair Bob Tiernan of Lake Oswego; and Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam. The same four are set for a debate Thursday co-sponsored by Pamplin Media and KOIN-TV.

Meanwhile, conservative radio personality Lars Larson used the weekend to weigh-in with his own endorsement of Barton for governor. He also told listeners they should support Chavez-DeRemer in the 5th district race, and Amy Ryan Courser in the 6th district.

Democrats maneuver into spotlight

Now it's the Democrats' turn for strategizing and intrigue at Sunriver Resort south of Bend. The agenda of the Democratic party's Oregon Summit also includes a reception for Gov. Kate Brown, who will leave office in January. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan and Treasurer Tobias Read will speak.

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Straw polls are also expected following the governor's candidate forum on Sunday.

The Democratic field is just slightly smaller  15 candidates. Read and former House Majority Leader Tina Kotek, D-Portland, are the top fundraisers so far. But insurgent candidates such as 2018 Independent Party governor nominee Patrick Starnes of Brownsville are calling for equal footing in any party-sponsored debates.

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FICTION: A group of idealistic Unitarians search for a new minister and find that they agree on very little.

"Search" by Michelle Huneven; Penguin Press (400 pages, $26)



The elevator pitch of Michelle Huneven's new novel would not do this fine book justice. What's it about, in one sentence? Um, "Search" is a deep dive into the workings of a Unitarian-Universalist committee that is searching for a new pastor.

That might be what it's about, but what it's really about  what makes it so enthralling  is human nature. Relationships, chemistry, charisma, self-awareness (or lack thereof), and, especially, group dynamics and how they can turn the best-laid plans upside down.

The story is narrated by Dana P., a writer in Southern California. Dana is in her 50s, a former seminarian. But after graduation, her writing career suddenly took off, and she abandoned her ministry plans for memoir-writing and a restaurant reviewing gig at the Los Angeles Times. (A job Huneven herself held for many years.)

Now, 20 years later, her church needs to replace its retiring minister. Dana joins the search committee, mainly because she hopes to mine the experience for material for her next book.

It would not be trite to say that everyone on the committee is searching for something, often without realizing it  and that goes for Dana, too. She thinks she's there to gather material, but as the year goes on she finds herself, as another committee member notes, caring more deeply than anyone else.

More deeply, that is, than everyone except her nemesis, the tattooed Jennie, who is determined to hire a young, hip, female-presenting BIPOC minister to shake things up and move on from what she sees as the white male paternalism of the previous ministers.

The strengths of Huneven's novel lie in her deep understanding of human nature and her ability to channel the voices of the visiting ministers  not just in their dialogue, but also in their application packets of mission statements, faith journeys and sermons.

The eight people on the committee are recognizable, fully formed characters  the young gay Latino who is new to the church and who doesn't understand why Unitarians don't talk more about God; the elderly former church secretary who knows the history, the rules, and where all the bodies are buried; the distracted and disorganized young man who is in a complicated three-way relationship that consumes all of his energy. He keeps meaning to read the packets, but he's just so busy! And he gets so many texts!

He, and some of the others, gradually rely more and more on Jennie, who becomes a force to be reckoned with. Suddenly the committee is no longer a cohesive whole, but has split into two factions.

Will Dana and "the olds" (as Jennie calls them) prevail, with their desire for a solid, experienced, middle-aged minister? Or will Jennie and the youngs get their wish  a charismatic but inexperienced young woman who charms all she meets but who might have shaky theology and lousy organizational skills?

It's fascinating to watch how skillfully Huneven moves committee members from one side to the other, and to watch, appalled, as the inevitable slowly happens. Those scenes are a master class in group dynamics.

"Search" is a fun read. While the book is laced with plenty of humor (which Dana herself does not always see), it is laced, too, with plenty of wisdom. We can search, Huneven is saying, but you just never know what you might find.

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Plans to revive a long-abandoned Wells Fargo building in downtown Albany are dead, its prospective owner said Monday, April 25.

The news came at a meeting of the Albany Revitalization Agency, which oversees redevelopment in downtown.

The former downtown bank branch on 300 First Ave. W. has sat empty since 2019, stirring debate among agency officials about what to do with the vacant building.

A trio of local entrepreneurs, BGW Partners, envisioned a mixed-use project, complete with a restaurant on the first floor and apartments on the second, along with a new third floor.

In 2020, the trio saw Matt Bennett, owner of downtown Albany restaurant Sybaris; and Buzz Wheeler of Coastal Farm and Ranch leave the partnership.

As the last BGW partner standing, Tom Gerding, building developer and owner of Gerding Companies Inc., has spent months attempting to resuscitate the project amid ballooning costs.

BGW Partners offered $1.5 million plus an additional $25,000 down-payment for the property, beating out Linn County and two local developers for the building.

In February 2020, Gerding told ARA members the price of renovating the building would be about $10.6 million. Once finished, the building would be worth around $7.5 million.

The initial plan would have had Sybaris occupying the first floor of the building with apartments on the second floor and a third floor added. Sybaris' owners now plan to move to the Oregon Railway Electric station.

In September, Gerding revised the plan to include retail or office space on the first floor with market-rate apartments on the first and second floors.

In the seven months since, estimated costs for the project have soared by about 30%, according to a memo from Albany City Manager Peter Troedsson presented to the Albany Revitalization Agency on Monday, April 27.

"Despite several meetings with staff, exploring some creative paths forward, again, in the short term, there are no workable solutions," the memo reads.

On Monday, Gerding CEO Monte Smith agreed. With costs skyrocketing beyond its willingness to stomach, the company was abandoning the project.

"We tried everything. We went through a lot iterations, and we did what we could," Smith said.

Albany Revitalization Chair Bessie Johnson said it was unclear how much money the agency had on hand to assist with the Wells Fargo building, even if Gerding Companies were to move forward.

The agency already greenlit millions for a waterfront project along Water Avenue earlier this year.

"I'm not sure how much money we have, or what grants were given, the details just aren't there," Johnson said. "I'm not sure it would be appropriate to do anything at this time."

Still, Smith said the old bank building deserves to have a owner.

"It's historic," Smith said after the meeting. "I hope someone buys it before it's knocked down."

The Albany Revitalization Agency is scheduled to meet next on Wednesday, May 11 at Albany City Hall.

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The Miss Colorado competition has found a new home in Parker, the Parker Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday.

The Miss Colorado and Miss Colorados Outstanding Teen competitions will take place at Parkers PACE Center on Memorial Day weekends through at least 2027.

Parker and the PACE Center are a perfect fit for our competitions, Mark Hinson, co-executive director of Miss Colorado Organization, said in a news release. The chamber and the town have made our leadership team feel wonderfully welcome and supported.

Miss Colorado Scholarship Organization has joined the chamber as a member, as part of the agreement, and the chamber will become the Local Host Sponsor for the organization and for the Miss Colorado and teen competitions.

I know the Parker community will embrace the candidate families and organization leadership, not just on competition weekends, but throughout the year, Stacey James, longtime Parker resident and CEO of Stacey James Institute cosmetology and esthetics school, said in the release. Thats the kind of place Parker is. This is a win for everyone involved.

James is on the Miss Colorado board of directors.

Last year's competition was held at the PACE Center, when active-duty soldier Maura Spence-Carroll was crowned Miss Colorado 2021. Based at Fort Carson, Spence-Carroll made history by becoming the first active-duty military service member to be awarded the title.

Im looking forward to the new Miss Colorado being an active participant in the Parker Days Festival and other Chamber events, she said in the release. Youre going to be seeing a lot more crowns around Parker for the next decade.

This will be a terrific economic development driver for the Town of Parker, Chamber CEO T.J. Sullivan said in the release. Families from all over the state will travel to Parker for meetings and competitions, supporting our restaurants, hotels, catering companies, award shops, and countless other local service providers.
For Parker area residents hankering for Chocolate Peanut Butter Joe-Joes or other niche products, the wait is almost over.

Specialty grocery chain Trader Joes announced Wednesday that its Parker location will open May 6. It will be the eighth Trader Joe's store in Colorado, according to a news release.

The Monrovia, California-based retailer has 530 stores in 42 states and Washington, D.C. It opened its first Denver store at Eighth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in 2014, and now has locations in Fort Collins, Boulder, Littleton, Greenwood Village and Colorado Springs. It has been six years since the last Colorado store opened.

The Parker store will be at 18374 Cottonwood Drive in the Crown Point commercial development on the northeast corner of Parker Road and E-470, next to Costco. Expect a line for the 7:55 a.m. May 6 grand opening ceremony  when customers entering the store will be greeted with leis and smiling Hawaiian-shirted crew members.

Company officials named 15-year veteran Ty Poe as store captain of the new 9,600-square-foot store.

It will be the first Trader Joes in the southeast metro-Denver area, according to the release. Its interior will feature artwork highlighting local mountain views, iconic buildings of downtown Parker, and the historic 17 Mile House Farm Barn.

Fan favorites include Trader Joe's label products like Mandarin Orange Chicken and Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate, Fancy Cheese Crunchies, Hatch Chile Mac & Cheese and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. The store sells many of its products under its own label, so its prices are lower for items shoppers would typically find in a Whole Foods or Sprouts.

The Parker store will participate in the companys long-standing Neighborhood Shares Program, which donates 100% of products that go unsold but remain fit to enjoy to a range of non-profit, community-based organizations, seven days a week, the release states.

In 2021, the private company donated $349 million worth of food to food banks and other nonprofit organizations.

Parker store job openings are posted at traderjoes.com/careers.
Press Release

April 27, 2022 "[email protected] Mobile Photography Contest" highlights Earth Day celebration--Villar Sen. Cynthia Villar said the on-site competition for amateur photographers dubbed "[email protected] Mobile Photography Contest" was launched to mark the country's celebration of Earth Day. The photo competition highlights the theme of this year's Earth Day celebration, which is "Invest on Planet Earth." Villar, chairperson of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources, noted the photo competition will capture the beauty and biodiversity at the Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park (LPPWP). LPPWP, formerly known as Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA), was included in the "List of Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. " "It was then known as LPPCHEA. Now, we call it as the Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park (LPPWP). It was proclaimed by the Philippine government a critical habitat on Earth Day 15 years ago (April 22, 2007) through Presidential Proclamation No. 1412, " related Villar. Upon the enactment of the Republic Act No. 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Area System (E-NIPAS) Act on June 22, 2018, LPPWP was legislated as a National Protected Area. Since then, Villar said, so many things have been happening at LPPWP, including threats of reclamation. "But our resolve and commitment to keep the Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in our country thriving and safe from damages and threats, is still strong," she guaranteed. "I am sure the photographers will find a lot of subjects or inspiration for their pictures in our wetland. The migratory and endemic birds, mangroves forest, the native trees, the now pristine shoreline, and of course its corner of the Manila Bay teeming with fish now," also related the senator, a known environmental advocate. The 175-hectare nature reserve LPPWP is located south of Manila Bay. It has 35 hectares of mangrove forest providing sanctuary to 82 wild bird species from China, Japan and Siberia. This last natural bastion in the metropolis, Villar also said, is home to three endangered or vulnerable bird species--Black-Winged Stilt, Chinese Egrets and Philippine Duck. The senator extolled that their collective efforts and actions have turned LPPWP into what it is now-a beautiful sanctuary and center of biodiversity in an urban setting. "Truly, a rare find nowadays amidst the concrete jungle that our cities have turned into," noted Villar. She thanked their partners, especially the DENR National Capital Region and the LPPWP Protected Area Management Board, for the support and assistance in keeping LPPWP at the forefront of their activities and programs. The activitiies, she said, included the photo contest. "We hope that many photographers will participate in the competition." ### "[email protected] Mobile Photography Contest, tampok sa Earth Day celebration-Villar Sa pagdiriwang ng bansa sa Earth Day, ipinahayag ni Sen. Cynthia Villar na inilunsad ang "[email protected] Mobile Photography Contest," on-site competition para sa amateur photographers. Itinatampok sa photo competition ang tema ng Earth Day celebration sa taong ito na "Invest on Planet Earth." Sinabi ni Villar, chairperson ng Senate committee on environment and natural resources, na ipakikita sa photo contest ang kagandahan at biodiversity ng Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park (LPPWP). Kabilang ang LPPWP na dating tinatawag na Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA) sa "List of Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. " "It was then known as LPPCHEA. Now, we call it as the Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park (LPPWP). It was proclaimed by the Philippine government a critical habitat on Earth Day 15 years ago (April 22, 2007) through Presidential Proclamation No. 1412, " ayon kay Villar, kilalang environment advocate. Sa pagpasa sa Republic Act No. 11038 o ang Expanded National Integrated Protected Area System (E-NIPAS) Act noong June 22, 2018, idineklara ang LPPWP na legislated National Protected Area. Simula noong hanggang sa ngayon, sinabi ng senador na napakarami ng pangyayaring kinakaharap ang LPPWP kabilang na ang bantang reklamasyon. "But our resolve and commitment to keep the Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in our country thriving and safe from damages and threats, is still strong," kanyang paniniyak. "I am sure the photographers will find a lot of subjects or inspiration for their pictures in our wetland. The migratory and endemic birds, mangroves forest, the native trees, the now pristine shoreline, and of course its corner of the Manila Bay teeming with fish now," sabi pa ng senador. Ang LPPWP ay 175-hectare nature reserve sa timog ng Manila Bay na may 35 ektaryang mangrove forest. Santuwaryo ito ng 82 wild bird species mula sa China, Japan at Siberia. Nagsisilbi rin tahanan ang LPPWP na tinagurian ding "last natural bastion in the metropolis" sa may tatlong endangered o vulnerable bird species--Black-Winged Stilt, Chinese Egrets at Philippine Duck. Ipinagmalaki ng senador na naging magandang santuwaryo at sentro ng biodiversity sa urban setting ang LPPWP dahil sa kanilang pagsusumikap. "Truly, a rare find nowadays amidst the concrete jungle that our cities have turned into," giit ni Villar. Pinasalamatan niya ang kanilang partners lalo na ang DENR National Capital Region at LPPWP Protected Area Management Board sa suporta at tulong para mapanatili ang LPPWP sa forefront ang LPPWP sa mga aktibidades at programa. Kabilang sa aktibidades ang on-site photo competition. "We hope that many photographers will participate in the competition."
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President Joe Biden will announce the launch of the "United for Ukraine" refugee program Thursday, which senior administration officials called the "flagship" vehicle to admit the "majority" of the 100,000 Ukrainian refugees Biden promised to shelter.
ENTERPRISE  Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey visited here Wednesday morning, touring a longtime local business and meeting with its employees.

Ivey visited ALFAB Inc., a company that specializes in architectural and structural metals manufacturing. Joining the governor at the event was ALFAB President Danny Dicus.

Ivey talked about the importance of the business that builds a variety of products for military and civilian use, including mobile runways used by the military.

Theyve been here 51 years and some of the employees have been here 51 years as well, Gov. Ivey said. This is an experienced team that makes useful products for military as well as civilian use, so its great to be here at ALFAB.

ALFAB has been in business since 1971 and has 100 employees.
Brooke Bailey of Cottonwood and Gabrielle Moore of Dothan recently were initiated at Troy University into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines.

They are among approximately 25,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year. Membership is by invitation only and requires nomination and approval by a chapter. Only the top 10 percent of seniors and 7.5 percent of juniors are eligible for membership. Graduate students in the top 10 percent of the number of candidates for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.

Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 under the leadership of undergraduate student Marcus L. Urann who had a desire to create a different kind of honor society: one that recognized excellence in all academic disciplines.

Today, the Society has chapters on more than 325 campuses in the United States, its territories and the Philippines. Its mission is "To recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others."
SALEM, Mass.  An Alabama man has been arrested in connection with the 1988 killing of an 11-year-old girl found stabbed to death in a Massachusetts railyard, authorities said Wednesday.

Marvin C. McClendon Jr., 74, faces a murder charge in the death of Melissa Ann Tremblay, of Salem, New Hampshire, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said at a news conference.

He was arrested at his home in Bremen, Alabama, and is being held on a fugitive charge pending a court appearance scheduled for Thursday. He will be arraigned in Massachusetts at a date to be determined.

The district attorneys office did not know if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf and the case was not included in Alabama court records.

I cant even express how gratified we are in this office that we are able to pursue justice for any family, Blodgett said. And it is extremely gratifying that after all these years of never giving up, we believe we have the right suspect.

The sixth-graders body was found in the Lawrence trainyard the day after she was reported missing.

Melissa Ann had accompanied her mother and her mothers boyfriend to a Lawrence social club on Sept. 11, 1988, not far from the railyard, and went outside to play while the adults stayed inside, authorities said.

She was reported missing later that night and found the following day. She had been stabbed and her body had been run over by a train, Blodgett said.

Lawrence and Salem, New Hampshire, are just a few miles apart.

McClendon, a former employee of the Massachusetts prisons department, lived in Chelmsford and was doing carpentry work at the time of the killing. He worked and attended church in Lawrence, Blodgett said.

It is unclear whether the suspect and victim knew each other, the district attorney said.

Blodgetts cold case unit has been working on the case since 2014, and McClendon has been a person of interest for some time, Blodgett said. Evidence recovered from the victims body was instrumental in leading to the suspect, authorities said. Blodgett did not detail exactly what that evidence was and did not disclose a motive.

The girls mother has since died, but an aunt and a cousin have been informed of the arrest, Blodgett said.

Its overwhelming and shocking, Andrea Ganley, a childhood friend of Tremblays who, in recent years, has helped keep the case in the public eye, told The Eagle-Tribune. I never thought this day was going to happen. There is always hope. Never give up hope.
We are still waiting and hoping that we can reach an agreement through diplomacy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.Putin said the Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul had reached a breakthrough but failed after reports of atrocities against civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.Putin said the atrocity in Bucha was a provocation and added that the Russian army has nothing to do with it.Putin added that the talks are continuing and expressed hope that they will end in a positive outcome.On April 2, Ukraine regained full control of the Kiev region for the first time since the start of the war. The Ukrainian military has liberated more than 30 towns and villages around Kiev, including the town of Bucha.According to Ukraine, the Russian military has killed more than 300 Ukrainian civilians in Bucha alone. Some of them were handcuffed and shot that way. Most of the dead were found in massive cemeteries, while others were found on city streets.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has awarded fighters against Russia, including Georgian couple Gela Beglarashvili and Rusudan Ivanishvili, as well as Andria Gharibashvili and Ruslan Gogua.According to the presidential decree, the fighters were rewarded for their personal courage and selfless actions for defending the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, for adhering to a military oath.Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The war continues to this day. Up to 10 million people have become refugees and IDPs. Thousands of civilians were killed, including more than 200 children.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the panel expects to decide this week about issuing a second request to McCarthy, who has declined to voluntarily appear before the panel. The committee is also looking at summoning a widening group of House Republicans for interviews, Thompson said, as more information emerges about their conversations with the Trump White House in the run-up to the Capitol siege.

The committee is racing to wrap up this phase of its work amid newly released audio recordings of McCarthys private remarks after the Jan. 6 attack, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol trying to stop the certification of Joe Bidens 2020 election victory.

In a Jan. 10, 2021, audio recording released Tuesday by The New York Times, McCarthy tells fellow Republican leaders that Trumps far-right allies in the House are putting people in jeopardy with their public tweets and comments that could put other lawmakers at risk of violence.

McCarthy singled out several conservative representatives, among them Matt Gaetz of Florida and Mo Brooks of Alabama, as potentially endangering the security of other lawmakers and the Capitol complex. Theres discussion on the call of disciplining Brooks, who addressed the Jan. 6 rally and urged the crowd to fight like hell before they marched to the Capitol. Theres no indication McCarthy followed up with any disciplinary measures.

Gaetz had gone on television to attack Republicans who had criticized Trump, including Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

Hes putting people in jeopardy, McCarthy said, according to the new audio. And he doesnt need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.

On Twitter, Gaetz called McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise, who said Gaetz actions were potentially illegal, weak men. While I was protecting President Trump from impeachment, they were protecting Liz Cheney from criticism, Gaetz tweeted late Tuesday.

Brooks dismissed the report, telling the Times on Tuesday that Kevin McCarthy spoke before knowing the facts. He said he did not recall Mr. McCarthy ever speaking with him directly about his rally speech.

Earlier, the Times reported that McCarthy, in conversations with House Republicans, said that Trump had acknowledged bearing some responsibility for the attack.

The audio recordings released by the Times are part of reporting for a forthcoming book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future.

Thompson said the committee met most of Tuesday deciding next steps on McCarthy and other House members.

We will probably look at engaging some of the lawmakers by invitation at this point, and well go from there, Thompson said at the Capitol.

The panel had previously sought interviews from McCarthy and Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, two Trump allies central to the effort to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost to Biden.

All three have declined to voluntarily appear, but the committee has stopped short of taking the more dramatic step of issuing subpoenas to the sitting members of Congress to compel their testimony.

Thompson noted that the earlier invitation to McCarthy was sent before this latest revelation that was reported on tape. He told reporters that in all probability McCarthy would get another invitation.

At the same time, the panel is broadening its outreach to a potentially much wider group of Republican lawmakers who are now known to have played a more substantial role than previously understood ahead of the riot and as it unfolded.

Well make a decision on any others before the week is out, Thompson said.

Brooks, a Trump ally who was with a group of lawmakers who met in December 2020 at the White House, has suggested he would appear before the panel.

Additionally, the panel is now eyeing other House Republican lawmakers reported to have been working closely with Mark Meadows, Trumps former White House chief of staff, as they sought to challenge Bidens win.

A handful of lawmakers names were included in testimony released late Friday as part of a court filing as the committee seeks access to Meadows text messages.

We will probably look at engaging some of the lawmakers by invitation at this point, and well go from there, Thompson said Tuesday.

The panel is working swiftly to launch public hearings, which it hopes to both start and conclude by June, before issuing an initial report of its findings in fall.
Wines of Ukraine to attend London Wine Fair in event first

Wines of Ukraine has been invited to exhibit at the London Wine Fair (LWF) in June, marking the first time the country will be at the show. In light of the conflict in Ukraine, organisers are currently liaising with the generic body to create a special destination stand for the winery on the trade floor, free of charge.

As the producers are likely unable to attend, a handful of industry members have volunteered to man the stand. Volunteers include Sarah Abbot MW, founder of Swirl Wine Group, Brad Horne, founder of WineTime London, and wine importer Irina Gridina from Ukraine, who co-founded the BeWine Forum which was held in Kyiv last year.

LWF organisers said the event is on track to represent a record number of countries this year, following a two year hiatus during the pandemic. It is expected that around 30 wine producing regions will attend for the 40th annual show, including long-time producers and emerging countries. Alongside Ukraine, other regions coming to LWF for the first time include Wines of Armenia, Wines of Romania and the Portuguese region of Setubal.

Hannah Tovey, event director, said: The show is filling up beautifully, and the offering has never been so broad, with huge scope for visitors to discover new territories, producers and wines, alongside a raft of spirits, beers, ciders and non-alcoholic drinks.

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2021 marked the 10th consecutive year of growth of Bayers pharma division in the Asia Pacific.

Business in the region contributed to almost one-third of Bayer's global pharmaceutical sales. Key growth drivers also came from South Asia with India delivering a strong 11 percent growth and Pakistan with 2 percent, while the ASEAN cluster achieved 9 percent average growth across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

"We increased our efforts to focus on what matters most - delivering both innovative and essential medicines to patients in Asia-Pacific, despite the challenges from the pandemic. Our consistent strong growth in the region is a testament to our innovation-driven portfolio that delivers value to patients in areas of high unmet medical needs," newly appointed Head of Commercial Operations for Bayer's Pharmaceuticals Division in Asia-Pacific, Ying Chen, said.

Innovation in chronic diseases

Every year across the globe, 15 million people die before age 70 from chronic diseases that include cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. By 2050, one in four people in Asia-Pacific will be over 60 years old.

Along with ageing, the greatest cumulative impact on health comes from the striking rise in metabolic risks  namely high Body Mass Index (BMI), high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol  accounting for nearly 20 percent of total health loss worldwide in 2019. One in 10 adults worldwide is living with diabetes and out of those, almost half are undiagnosed.

The non-steroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) antagonist of Bayer has demonstrated positive kidney and cardiovascular (CV) outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Up to 40 percent of people living with diabetes have CKD, which increases the risk of renal failure/dialysis and CV outcomes.

Heart failure is the number one cause of death affecting more than 60 million people worldwide; 50 percent do not survive five years, and one in five patients will die in two years. Patients in Asia-Pacific have suffered from the worse outcomes with late presentation of symptoms and huge gaps in treatment for the past decade. The key is to optimize treatment of worsening heart failure early and prevent the next hospitalization.

Many traditional therapies work by inhibiting signaling pathways. The soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulator of Bayer is a therapy that leads to improved myocardial and vascular function.

Reduce burden of cancer

The global cancer burden is expected to be 28.4 million cases in 2040, a 47 percent rise from 2020. Some cancers are caused by specific changes in genes and when a neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) gene joins with an unrelated gene, it is known as tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) fusion cancer. The cancer is not related to a certain type of tissue or the age of the patient; it can occur anywhere in the body, in both children and in adults.

Bayer's oral precision therapy TRK inhibitor has shown to be an effective treatment in children and adults with TRK fusion cancer. Only specific genomic tests can detect NTRK gene fusions, the underlying cause of TRK fusion cancer. By testing patients and finding out what is driving their cancer, doctors could target the root of the disease. With emerging research on TRK fusion cancer, we are one step closer to precision medicine, where tumor genetics, rather than where the tumor is in the body, help doctors select specific treatment approaches that could more likely benefit their patients.

Bayer is delivering better cancer care for patientswithbreakthrough innovations in diagnosis and treatment. Photo by Bayer

Prostate cancer is the second most diagnosed malignancy in men worldwide. In 2020, an estimated 1.4 million men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, and about 375,000 died from the disease worldwide. Bayer's nonsteroidal androgen receptor antagonist is an oral androgen receptor inhibitor (ARi) that binds to the receptor with high affinity and exhibits strong antagonistic activity, thereby inhibiting the receptor function and the growth of prostate cancer cells.

Clinical trials

Bayer is continuing to build a strong pharmaceuticals development pipeline, advancing around 50 projects in Phase I to III of clinical development. Among these projects, many have the potential to treat various types of cancers, diabetic kidney disease, and chronic heart failure that represent areas of high medical needs for the region's ageing population. Asia-Pacific is strongly represented in Bayers clinical development activities with 46 ongoing clinical trials conducted in the region throughout 2020 and 2021, over half of these in the area of oncology.

"We have approximately a quarter of patients from Asia-Pacific represented and enrolled in three key global development trial programs for Bayers new breakthrough innovations: for worsening heart failure, chronic kidney disease associated with type 2 diabetes, NTRK fusion cancer and for various stages of prostate cancer. With todays digital and decentralized model, participation in trials is more accessible and convenient remotely, allowing us to generate meaningful data to monitor and improve patient outcomes," said Dr Catherine Donovan, head of Medical Affairs, for Bayers Pharmaceuticals Division in Asia-Pacific.

Dr Catherine Donovan, head of Medical Affairs, for Bayers Pharmaceuticals Division in Asia/Pacific. Screenshot photo

Collaborate to cure

Bayer is fostering collaborations with external partners for accelerating innovation in the development of new medicines. With the support of Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) since 2007, Bayer continues to expand its collaboration activities in the Asia/Pacific region and has already invested $19 million in projects with Singapore institutions to advance clinical and translation research in cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

At its recent Breakthrough Innovation Forum, Bayer announced that it will accelerate investments by its impact investment arm Leaps by Bayer with more than 1.3 billion in funding over the next three years.

"As recovery from the pandemic begins to take shape, the company is working with healthcare professionals across the Asia-Pacific region to transform patient health through science for a better life. Innovation is our company's lifeblood and so are partnerships and integrating patient care. Putting more resources on the frontlines to educate, detect and treat conditions early before they become more serious can lead to improved health outcomes and reduced healthcare spending," Donovan said.

Commitment to sustainable health

For more than 50 years, Bayer has been supporting education programs and rights-based family planning in more than 130 countries, particularly by providing access to modern forms of contraception, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)  reaching seven million women in Asia Pacific in 2021.

With its expertise in womens healthcare, the company has committed to provide 100 million women in low- and middle-income countries with access to family planning by 2030.

Bayer consistently runs local support programs in the Asia-Pacific region to educate and support women living with hormonal disorders, like endometriosis  a painful disorder affecting 10 percent of women of reproductive age worldwide  many of whom do not seek early diagnosis and treatment due to various misconceptions. Many women are also affected by polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)  a condition that usually develops in a womans late teens in which the ovaries produce high amounts of androgens (male sex hormones) that are usually present in women only in small amounts.

"Forging ahead with our leadership in womens healthcare, Bayer Pharmaceuticals is supporting women across Asia/Pacific not only with their family planning needs but also through various stages of their reproductive lifecycles. We are committed to patient programs to shift the treatment paradigm from traditional illness-based and hospital-bound to more sustainable patient-centered preventive care," said Ying Chen.
American rapper Lil Pump will be performing his greatest hits at a nightclub in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 this Saturday.

The 21-year-old Floridan rapper will be appearing at OSLO Club, marking his first-time visit to Vietnam.

Lil Pump is touring Asia to promote his latest and third studio album titled 'No Name', released back in December 2021.

He is best known for his song 'Gucci Gang'. This song went five-times platinum, a term used in the music industry to describe a single or album that sells one million copies or more. The associated music video has raked in over 1.1 billion views on YouTube.

He also has many chart-topping songs under his belt like 'I Love It' with rapper Kanye West and 'Esskeetit'. Both videos currently boast over 500,000 YouTube views.

According to his Instagram post, HCMC is his third destination on the Asia tour after Japan and Indonesia. He will wrap up the tour in India on April 30.
Vietnam's rice exports surged 2.6 times year-on-year to over US$553,000 in Q1, according to Vietnam Customs.

The grain was one of Vietnams few exports to Russia that increased in the first quarter as the Russia-Ukraine crisis impacted other suppliers. It was one of only eight export items that saw increases out of 23.

Overall exports to Russia fell by 29.1 percent to $543.8 million.

The others to achieve positive growth included rubber, up 60.2 percent to $7.2 million, machinery, equipment, coffee, and iron and steel, which were 4-40 percent higher.

But many Vietnamese exporters see the writing on the wall which is the crisis and Western sanctions starting to disrupt trade.

They need to closely monitor and follow news from Russian banks on new regulations and payment channels as the country has been removed from the SWIFT international financial system.
Japan Prime Minister Kishida Fumio speaks at a press conference in Tokyo on April 26, 2022. Photo by AFP

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit Vietnam April 30-May 1 at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh.

The visit comes five months after Kishida became PM.

He is also the secretary general of the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Union.

Vietnam and Japan, who established diplomatic ties in 1973, have an extensive strategic partnership since 2014.

Japan is Vietnams biggest official development assistance provider, the third biggest inbound tourism market and the fourth largest trade partner.

Bilateral trade last year was worth US$42.7 billion, and Japan has invested $64.4 billion in Vietnam, third behind only South Korea and Singapore.

Chinh visited Japan in November last year and was the first foreign leader that Kishida welcomed after taking office.
Le Hoang Anh (C) and two others are summoned by police of Dak Lak Province for hitting a car into dog thieves and killing one. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Oanh

A man ran down two suspected dog thieves with his car in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, killing one of them.

Le Hoang Anh, 23, and two of his friends were detained by Dak Lak police Tuesday pending investigation of murder.

On April 23, Anh and his friends were at a restaurant when they saw 19-year-old Duy and 22-year-old Long riding a motorbike, with people shouting nearby that a dog was stolen. Anh decided to follow the motorbike with his car.

Anh hit the motorbike from behind with the car, causing Duy and Long to be tossed aside. Duy died on the spot and Long was injured. The motorbike was badly damaged.

Long admitted that he and Duy were trying to steal dogs and cats that night. The car chase and death happened after the duo managed to steal three cats.

Anh said he regretted that his action had unwittingly caused a death.

"I only planned to hit the motorbike so that the suspects could be caught by the police; I didn't expect that it would kill someone."

Vietnam consumes an estimated five million dogs a year, second only to China's 20 million. Many dogs served at restaurants are stolen pets sold to small, unregulated abattoirs, reports say.

Dog theft has become so common that many residents would turn themselves into vigilantes. There have been reports of dog thieves heavily beaten by angry mobs.
One dies as highway flooded after heavy rain

A man was tragically killed when a strong wake caused in floodwaters on National Highway 1 dragged him and his motorbike under a truck Tuesday night.

Heavy rain starting at around 9:15 p.m. in Bien Hoa Town in Dong Nai Province, a neighbor of Ho Chi Minh City, and lasting for over an hour submerged a section of National Highway 1 under half a meter of water for almost an hour.

Large vehicles were creating strong wakes, and one such caused the man's death.

Passers-by rushed him to hospital but in vain.

The flooding also stalled hundreds of motorbikes, causing severe traffic jams.

One dies as highway flooded after heavy rain Quoc lo 1 qua ong Nai bien thanh song sau mua National Highway 1 in Bien Hoa Town of Dong Nai Province is flooded due to heavy rain on April 26, 2022. Video by VnExpress/Phuoc Tuan

"It rained for almost an hour and the water drained too slowly," a man named Thang living in Bien Hoa said.

"The flooding caused many to fall off their motorbikes and people living along the road rushed out to save them."

For years the section of National Highway 1 in Bien Hoa has been suffering from flooding whenever it rains heavily.

The National Hydro-meteorological Center said the rainy season has begun in the south and localities there should expect rains in the afternoons and evenings.

The Vietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration had forecast rains would come earlier this year in the region.

Normally the rainy season begins in May.
An official check medical declaration forms of entrants from Laos at a border gate in Quang Tri Province. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Tao

Vietnam scrapped the medical declaration requirement for all foreign entrants starting Wednesday as the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths drops globally.

However, localities must still continue to monitor entrants at border gates, the Ministry of Health said.

Foreign visitors to Vietnam now are only required to test negative for Covid before departure, either via PCR or rapid testing method.

Health minister Nguyen Thanh Long on Tuesday said medical declaration requirements for domestic traveling would also soon be scrapped, though a specific timeline has yet to be announced.

In August 2020, the Ministry of Health issued a protocol to contain the spread of Covid-19, telling people to wear masks, disinfect their hands frequently, keep a safe distance from each other, avoid crowds and complete health declarations, commonly known as the 5K protocol.

While the protocol used to be somewhat of a mandate, falling Covid-19 figures in recent months have prompted proposals to adjust the policies.

Official data from the ministry showed that the average number of new infections recorded in the past week was 10,936 cases per day, down 45 percent compared to the previous week.
Workers go on strike at the Viet Glory footwear company in the north central province of Nghe An, February 10, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Phuong Linh

Wildcat strikes by workers increased by 40 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, according to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor.

At a conference Tuesday on wages and the job market, Le Dinh Quang, deputy head of the confederation's legal policy department, said the number of such strikes had been declining since 2018, but suddenly increased in the first quarter of this year.

Of the 64 strikes during the quarter, the textile industry account for around 40 percent, leather for 15 percent, electronics for 10 percent and wood processing for 7 percent, he said.

All were wildcat strikes initiated by the workers and not organized by unions.

They were mainly related to workers' welfare, with most caused by delayed wage payments and poor food, and none resulted in vandalism, he said.

The government's delay in adjusting minimum wages and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic reduced incomes even as the cost of living rose, draining workers' savings.

Quang said that at the time of the conference 1,500 workers at a leather and shoe factory in Nam Dinh were on strike, asking their Taiwanese employer for a raise.

The strike began on April 22, and 400 workers have resigned after their demands were not met.

"Many businesses have increased wages and benefits for workers, but some are still waiting for the minimum wage adjustment as a basis for negotiations.

"The government's adjustment of the minimum wage is necessary in this context."

Multiple solutions are needed, but the minimum wage raise needs to happen by July 1, not in 2023, he said.

Inadequate compensation

Vu Minh Tien, head of the Institute of Workers and Trade Union, said while factory workers make up only 15 percent of the population, they account for 65 percent of the GDP.

But despite this, they are not adequately compensated considering how many still have issues regarding wages, housing and child-rearing costs, he said.

A trade union survey in March found workers getting paid only VND4.92 million ($214.14) a month without overtime.

To avoid poverty, many had to work overtime and multiple shifts, with those in certain industries like textile, electronics and food processing working up to 70 hours extra a month.

Tien said: "Maybe it is because they work but get a meager salary that 72 percent of workers do not want their children to have the same career.

"Surveys from 2007 also show a similar percentage of workers with the same opinion."

The National Wage Council on April 12 approved a 6 percent increase in minimum wages from July 1.

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry has agreed with the 6 percent increase but wants it to take effect on January 1 next year so that businesses would have "more time to prepare."

On April 14 several industry business groups urged the government to delay the hike in minimum wages to 2023.
Foreign tourists visit Phuc Kien Assembly Hall in Hoi An ancient town, April 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Dac Thanh

Vietnam has experienced a "moderate" recovery of inbound travel demand in March after the country eased travel restrictions, search volumes from Google reveal.

Data from Google searches showed inbound travel demand into Vietnam last month stood at 55 percent of pre-pandemic levels, lower than that of the Philippines (104 percent), Indonesia (94 percent) and Singapore (64 percent), deemed to experience "fast" rebound.

Search volumes for inbound tourism into Vietnam between March 27 and April 2 grew by 84 percent compared to the same period in 2019, the year before the onset of Covid-19.

Googles internal data further revealed a 40 percent share of inbound tourism from the U.S. and Canada went to the Philippines and Vietnam.

Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnams biggest metropolises, were the most searched tourist destinations.

Google Asia-Pacific Travel Lead Hermione Joye said staycations and traveling to meet loved ones had driven travel growth in the region thanks to the dropping of travel restrictions, reopening of borders, as well as the easing of quarantine and testing restrictions.

Vietnam initially reopened international tourism from November last year, but only allowed quarantine-free entry and resumed its visa exemption policy from March 15.

Foreigners entering Vietnam now only need to furnish a negative Covid-19 test certificate.
Americas Competitive Exchange (ACE) brings high-level global delegation to Louisiana



Participants of ACE Louisiana.

Louisiana hosted the 14th Americas Competitiveness Exchange (ACE) between March 26  April 1, bringing together more than 60 global leaders representing 21 countries and multiple international organizations to share economic development best practices and explore opportunities for partnerships.

ACE is the premier economic development, innovation, and entrepreneurial network of the Americas and is one of the leading high-level events of the Organization of American States (OAS). The ACE program is one of the core initiatives of the Inter-American Competitiveness Network (RIAC) and organized in partnership with EDA, the International Trade Administration, and the U.S. Department of State.

The busy itinerary included visits with EDA grantees, including the World War II Museum, New Orleans BioInnovation Center, The Water Institute, Claiborne Corridor Cultural Innovation District and GNO, Inc.

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Alejandra Y. Castillo joined the delegation for the first few days and welcomed the delegation. EDAs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development Dennis Alvord joined the last day of the tour and gave remarks during the closing ceremony. Arthur McMahan, senior associate director of the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through Historically Black Colleges and Universities, also joined a panel discussion at Xavier University about equitable economic development.

Site Visits

The delegation explored more than 30 sites in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and the greater Acadiana region, and featured sectors such as entrepreneurship, tourism, film production, bioscience, healthcare, and manufacturing.

The partnerships developed during ACE will increase the prospect of advancing commerce and trade between participating economies and accelerate business opportunities for all stakeholders.

Highlights of the exchange included stops at the Ranch Film Studios, University of New Orleans, Tabasco manufacturing facility and the National Park Services Chalmette Battlefield. Numerous panel discussions were held on topics such as equity in economic development, entrepreneurship, tourism, bio-technology, manufacturing and rural economic development.

Global Collaboration

The international ACE delegation was comprised of representatives from throughout Latin America, including Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Jamaica, Germany, and international organizations such as the Pan American Development Foundation and the U.S.-Mexico Foundation.

Elected officials from Colorado who participated in the exchange included Governor John Bel Edwards, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, and Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development Don Pierson.

Whats Next

During the week, potential collaboration and partnerships were sparked: from possible research agreements to entrepreneurial exchanges, and even new trade and investment possibilities.

As the ACE international delegation returned home, they will continue to solidify partnerships. View some results reported by past ACE participants that were inspired or influenced by the program can be found here.

The next ACE exchange will be held Ecuador in October in late 2022.

If your region is interested in learning more about the ACE program and how they can host, visit: http://riacevents.org/ACE/.
ELKO  A Carlin man has been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison after pleading no contest to domestic battery and assault with a deadly weapon in separate cases.

Cody R. Martin, 40, was sentenced this month by District Judge Mason Simons to 28-72 months in each case, to be served consecutively.

Carlin police were called to a residence on the evening of Aug. 7, 2021, after Martin had entered and proceeded to strangle a woman while she was sleeping. He was arrested on a felony charge of domestic violence by strangulation.

At the time, Carlin Police Chief Kevin McKinney said Martin had been suspected of seven previous incidents that year. Elko County Jail records show he was arrested four times in 2021.

In November 2020, Carlin police were called to a different home shortly before 5 a.m. where Martin had pinned the same woman on the bed while holding a gun. She fled into the bathroom but Martin broke down the door and put the gun to her demanding money, police reported.

Martin was originally charged with burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted robbery and carrying a concealed weapon in that case.

Jail records also show an arrest in 2018 for felony possession of a controlled substance.

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ELKO  In January, Juanita Gaeta hosted a grand opening and ribbon cutting for the Gaeta Real Estate Group and ExP Realty at the newly remodeled Elko Business Center in the heart of downtown Elko.

Two days later, Gaeta reflected on the moment and how six months earlier she "started a new chapter with a group of people that have changed my life on a personal and professional level."

Starting a business may sound easy, but Gaeta, a bilingual Elko Realtor for 15 years, pointed to "months of change and a few challenges" that led to the creation of the Gaeta Group.

"I was with an amazing company that has a great culture," Gaeta wrote in her social media post, "but I also knew I had to take some important steps to help grow my business, be able to support my team more and better serve our clients."

Now located on the second floor of the Elko Business Center at the corner of Fifth and Railroad streets, Gaeta and her team make homeownership dreams come true, providing a support system to their clients from the house-hunting stage to closing the sale.

The journey begins

Gaeta was 5 years old when her family migrated from Mexico to Elko. "I spoke absolutely no English," she remembered. "You can imagine the first few months of kindergarten. It was a bit scary not being able to understand anything the teacher or my classmates said to me."

After starting school at Southside Elementary, her family moved to Spring Creek where she attended Sage Elementary and Spring Creek Middle School.

Gaeta's family always encouraged her to get the most out of her education. "As a child, I was taught education and learning were the foundations to a great future," she said. "I love learning and reading, so that came naturally to me."

At Spring Creek High School, Gaeta was active in sports, student council, FBLA, National Honors Society and FFA. After graduating with honors she attended Great Basin College for her Associate's degree.

After college, Gaeta then worked as an assistant for an insurance company and for a couple of other businesses before taking her first real estate classes at GBC and becoming a Realtor.

She joined a couple of agencies, eventually ending up at Keller Williams. "They're an amazing company. They taught me a lot," Gaeta said.

An opportunity to join ExP Realty -- a worldwide internet-based brokerage -- presented itself to Gaeta. It was the chance to pull all her knowledge and training into one package and start her own real estate group, becoming an agent, managing broker and team leader.

"After years of experience I decided I wanted to be in a leadership position where I could teach people everything I had learned," Gaeta said. "I wanted to be able to share and give back what others had taught me."

"I had the opportunity to learn from other great leaders in this industry, and I came to a point where I decided I was ready to implement everything I had learned over the years," she continued.

An investor in addition to being a licensed broker, Gaeta and Realtor Dusty Shipp purchased the historic two-story bank building in downtown Elko. It is now the home to other Realtors and groups, including the Shipp Group, the Luke Fitzgerald Group, the Anderson Group, the Jones-Laughter Team, the Backherms Group and Realtor Chastity Harrell.

Gaeta said some people asked her if there was enough business in the real estate market in the Elko area to support so many Realtors and agencies.

"There is," she explained. "People make life changes. They have more kids and need a bigger house. Their kids go to college, and they need to downsize. They get a job promotion, and they move elsewhere. So there's a lot of movement."

Some clients are return customers who purchase a starter home then "upgrade homes to eventually where they are owning their dream home."

Helping others

Paring homeowners with new homes is a fulfilling part of being a Realtor. But having the bilingual experience to help Latino families searching for a home in the Elko area is a "blessing," Gaeta said.

Looking back, she said being a translator for her parents throughout her childhood sparked her interest in finding a career where she could serve others.

"When they bought their first car and home, I was a young child doing the translating, trying to figure out the paperwork and everything," she recalled. "I knew I wanted to be in some type of industry where I was helping people."

Starting in real estate 15 years ago, Gaeta said she was one of two Realtors at the time who spoke Spanish and served Hispanic clients.

"It is very fulfilling to help people achieve that dream of owning a house," she explained. "Being bilingual is such a blessing, and it has opened up a world of opportunities for me. I get to work with people who feel more comfortable speaking their own language."

It especially helps to work with Spanish-speaking clients, explaining real estate contracts and paperwork. "I think it's peace of mind for them. They know somebody who speaks their language, somebody who has been through this journey and is able to help them through those steps," Gaeta said. "I love being able to help other Latinos in their own language."

Keep learning, keep growing

Gaeta's excitement for making her business dreams a reality was evident after the grand opening of Gaeta Real Estate Group and the Elko Business Center in her social media post.

"After months of change and a few challenges, we have been able to create a place where agents, support staff, and their families can have personal, professional, and financial growth while maintaining their integrity, values, culture, and beliefs," she wrote in January.

Although it is a little scary to take the leap and start a business, Gaeta said her advice to anyone thinking about doing it is "to follow your goals and dreams."

"Not everyone will see your vision, and that's OK," she said. "You need to stay focused and surround yourself with people who believe in you and have similar goals."

Gaeta said what has helped her get through challenges is "gaining the experience, and if you don't have the experience, have the education."

"I always try to educate myself. If I feel I'm good at one thing, I learn more and try always to expand," she explained. "From financial to investments and everything, just continue to take the next step."

It might be one quick step or even two or three steps back, "but don't give up. You have to be very resilient. When things happen, get up, do it again and educate yourself."

Changes won't be quick, but Gaeta said the key is not giving up.

"Sometimes we feel stuck in life, but there are always opportunities out there," she continued. "If you have a desire to change or grow, educate yourself. Empower yourself with knowledge. If you don't have the confidence, work on yourself until you do."

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ELKO  Under President Joyce Helens, Great Basin College has ridden the storms of the recession and the pandemic, and now the future of the higher education business in rural Nevada looks bright.

This is a business but, traditionally, it has not been looked at as a business, said Helens, who has worked in higher education for 47 years. Education is a business. We have employees, we have a payroll, we have all of those things.

Helens said that outlook presents many things that need to be considered.

For me, looking at this business of higher education, it has to be strategic planning  short range, long range.

When I came here and started looking around I thought, what we have is a small business and there are a lot of threats to how that small business could continue, Helens said. We had been through a recession. Whats going to happen when the next recession comes along?

She came to find out that the recession caused a loss of about 80 positions at the college -- a third of the workforce. When things settled, about 10 replacements came on board  everyone was doing multiple jobs to make things work.

You cant be a long-distance runner and a sprinter together for very long, she observed.

Helens didn't need to wait long before finding out how the college could remain sustainable when another hit took place.

That hit was the pandemic.

We had an increase in enrollment, we had budget cuts we overcame that came from the system, and then the pandemic hit," Helens said.

I put some right people in the right positions. We are the online leader of the system, she added. We actually had an increase in enrollment during this shutdown because we already knew what we were doing and people knew that.

When the doors were closed it didnt mean we had stopped business. In fact, we probably never worked harder remotely.

Instead of competing with the University of Nevada, Reno, and others she has chosen to collaborate.

Fixing some of the back office problems was first on her agenda when she came on board about five years ago.

According to Helens, a tremendous amount of money has been saved by working with former UNR President Marc Johnson and current President Brian Sandoval.

Helens has chosen to focus on the student, following the legacy left by Dr. John Collett and other college founders. She calls it focusing on the well-lit path.

Of her collaboration with Sandoval, she said If we were under a bigger tent, wouldnt that be better for everybody.

Also working with Nevada Gold Mines, Helens has helped GBC move forward in the merging of education and industry and plans for a Mining Center of Excellence.

Sam Spearing has been hired to run the center in the old Armory. He will start July 1.

Through UNR, their real estate services helped us, Helens said. We are going to renovate it for a little under one million.

We will have this natural collaboration between the Mackay School (of Mining), which I call research and development, and Great Basin which is tactical training. We merge those and the skys the limit. Now we have come full circle on a collaboration.

Brian and I will be writing something together talking about how it can benefit the state and, ultimately, we will be under the university umbrella, I believe, she said.

Of course, many things will have to be worked out, but progress is moving along well.

The ultimate goal is to make sure we are still in the rural areas offering and excellent product to anybody who wants it, Helens concluded.

--

Great Basin College graduation ceremony:

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ELKO  A district judge has ordered that Nevada Assembly District 33 candidate Nicole Siroteks name be removed from the primary ballot.

Sirotek, a licensed nurse working as a patient advocate, and Elko Realtor Bert Gurr filed to run as Republicans for the seat currently held by John Ellison, who terms out at the end of the year.

A legal challenge to her candidacy was filed April 8 by Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford. It claims Sirotek was not a registered Republican as of Dec. 31, 2021, as required by state law.

Sirotek was ordered to appear before Elko District Judge Al Kacin on April 22. She argued that she changed her voter registration from nonpartisan to Republican during a November 2021 visit to the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles to file a change of address, but that a glitch in the system resulted in her remaining registered with the Nevada Secretary of States office as a nonpartisan.

Sirotek filed her declaration of candidacy on March 17, 2022, but did not change her political party designation to Republican until March 21, according to Kacins findings.

The last day to file a challenge was April 4, according to the Nevada Secretary of States Office.

However, Kacin ruled that Sirotek failed to argue that the challenge to her candidacy was not filed by an elector within the time required by NRS 293.182(1). Instead, she argued the case only on its merits and failed to prove that a computer glitch had occurred.

Sirotek told the Elko Daily Free Press that she represented herself because she could not afford an attorney.

She provided the newspaper with a photo of a copy of her voter registration card from August 2020 listing her as a Republican, and said the judges ruling calls into question the integrity of the voter registration system.

The Nevada Independent reported in February 2020 on the DMVs new automatic registration system, saying issues with the system were preventing some people from registering with their preferred party.

Of the new voters who have been registered, 59 percent have defaulted to non-partisan, the report said.

Gurr was included in the attorney generals case as an intervenor.

Kacin ruled Monday that a preponderance of evidence supported the Nevada Attorney Generals petition, and he ordered that Siroteks name shall not appear on the ballot and she is disqualified from entering upon the duties of the office for which she filed 

Nevada Assembly candidates look at top issues SPRING CREEK  Assembly candidates provided different views of what would be the biggest issue they would tackle if elected to serve in the Ne

Elko County Clerk Kris Jakeman said Wednesday that Siroteks name will remain on the primary ballot along with a note stating that she was disqualified after the deadline to remove names. Results for this race will not be tallied or reported, the note says.

The order leaves Gurr as the sole Republican candidate for Assembly District 33. He will run in the General Election against Elko County Democrat John Doc Garrard.

The decision follows an earlier challenge to Elko County Sheriff Aitor Narvaiza, in which Wells brothel owner Bella Cummins was disqualified due to her lack of a law enforcement background.

An amendment added to Assembly Bill 440 in the final days of the Legislatures 81st session changed the county population size for the requirement to a level that included counties the size of Elko.

Wells brothel owner says she was told she could run for sheriff AB 440 as introduced in the Assembly did not include the change in sheriff qualifications.

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SPARKS  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 GennyTheres 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-drivenThe 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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Top global banks' confidence and long-term commitment to the Chinese market has not been impaired by Shanghai's temporary lockdown or short-term disruptions caused by the city's COVID-19 outbreak.

Mark Wang, president and CEO of HSBC Bank (China) Co Ltd, said it has already noticed the swift recovery in supply chains and orderly resumption of production in the city.

"We are confident in Shanghai's capability to control the pandemic as well as revive its commercial and economic vibrancy. The city's solid economic foundation, amicable business environment, as well as the openness and inclusiveness deeply embedded in the city's genes, are still of much attraction to multinational companies. Therefore, HSBC will still be rooted in Shanghai and serve China's economic development," said Wang.

Based on such a commitment, HSBC China launched on Friday its global private banking business in Shenzhen, aiming to expand its wealth management footprint in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. With that, HSBC's global private banking business covers four Chinese mainland cities: Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Public data showed nearly half of the foreign banks registered with Chinese central regulators have set up their regional headquarters in Shanghai.

Standard Chartered has noticed the difficulties that companies, especially small and micro-sized ones, have confronted due to lockdown measures. The bank has allowed small and micro-sized companies seriously affected by the pandemic to delay principal repayment by a maximum of six months.

In the meantime, the bank's Shanghai branch has made continued efforts to ensure the outbound businesses of its clients. For example, it produced over $1 million cross-border letters of indemnity for A-share listed Sieyuan Electric so it can maintain normal trade with its business partners in Pakistan, Zambia and Sri Lanka.

Considering China as "the most important and top strategic market", Standard Chartered has committed to investing $300 million in expanding its China-related businesses to capture opportunities arising from the country's continued opening-up, said the bank's executive vice-chairman and China CEO Jerry Zhang.

It is also applying to set up a securities company in Beijing, he said.

Also positioning China as a strategically important market in the Asia-Pacific region and globally, Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank, has faith in China's long-term prospects given the continued opening-up of its capital market, said the bank's China CEO Janice Hu.

Despite current challenges, Credit Suisse continues to recruit in China to grow its franchise, said Hu.

All of its Shanghai entities are in a good position, which can be attributed to the new work model that its global headquarters started in May 2021 allowing employees to work with maximum flexibility. By ensuring its productivity under a time of disruptions, Credit Suisse has pledged to work with its China charity partner to support COVID-19 relief efforts in Shanghai.

Citi China said the impact of recent disruptions in Shanghai has been "insignificant", thanks mainly to the bank's ongoing digital transformation in corporate and commercial banking in China.

Ever since the latest outbreak in Shanghai, Citi has helped a STAR Market-listed company with urgent international payments. It also helped a multinational company with a capital injection into in a Shanghai-based subsidiary.

Despite short-term uncertainties, Citi is confident in the Chinese financial market where its clients "increasingly want access".

The bank said it will hire at least 100 women tech professionals in China this year, with some of them based in the bank's technology hub in Shanghai's Pudong New Area. The Chinese mainland and Hong Kong will make up over 50 percent of new recruitment in the Asia-Pacific area for Citi's commercial bank business in the next three years, it said.




President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) shakes hands with Vice President of Laos Pany Yathotou (Photo: VNA)

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc made the statement while hosting a reception in Hanoi for Vice President of Laos Pany Yathotou, who is paying an official visit to Vietnam.

The Vietnamese President spoke highly of the contributions made by the Lao Vice President to the development of Laos-Vietnam special relations and congratulated Laos on the countrys important achievements in recent years.

He expressed his belief that under the leadership of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP), its people will effectively carry out the resolution issued at the 11th National Congress of the LPRP as well as the socio-economic development plan for 20212025, bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control, and revive the economy.

Welcoming the results of talks held earlier the same day between the Lao Vice President and her Vietnamese counterpart Vo Thi Anh Xuan, President Phuc underlined that, to promote the efficiency of the bilateral cooperation, the two sides should collaborate in order to carry out agreements reached by high-ranking officials, particularly the outcomes of a State visit by the Vietnamese President to Laos in August 2021.

The two countries were urged to seek new sources and orientations for cooperation projects, especially strategic infrastructure that connects the two economies and capitalise on the seaport system and 17 free trade agreements Vietnam has signed, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), so as to expand markets for exports of both Vietnam and Laos.

He stressed the need to enhance cooperation in defence, security, education-training, healthcare, people-to-people exchanges, partnerships between localities, and continue supporting each other at international forums, especially in maintaining solidarity and the central role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

For her part, Vice President Yathotou voiced her delight at paying an official visit to Vietnam in her new position and conveyed regards from General Secretary of the LPRP Central Committee and President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith to President Phuc and high-ranking officials of Vietnam.

She highly valued the Vietnamese peoples recent achievements in all fields, especially in the implementation of the resolution issued at the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

She also thanked the Vietnamese Party, State and people for their support to Laos during the past struggle for national independence as well as the current cause of national construction, protection and development, pledging that she will spare no efforts in strengthening the Laos-Vietnam great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation.

The two sides underscored the significance of the Vietnam - Laos, Laos - Vietnam Solidarity and Friendship Year 2022 and agreed to hold activities marking the 60th founding anniversary of their diplomatic ties, and 45 years of the signing of the Vietnam - Laos Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, thereby contributing to bolstering sentiments among people of the two countries, particularly younger generations./.
Open Letter To The Prime Minister  Call For End To Politics of Hate

26 April 2022

Dear Prime Minister,

We are witnessing a frenzy of hate filled destruction in the country where at the sacrificial altar are not just Muslims and members of the other minority communities but the Constitution itself. As former civil servants, it is not normally our wont to express ourselves in such extreme terms, but the relentless pace at which the constitutional edifice created by our founding fathers is being destroyed compels us to speak out and express our anger and anguish.

The escalation of hate violence against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, in the last few years and months across several States  Assam, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, all states in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power, barring Delhi (where the union government controls the police)  has acquired a frightening new dimension. It is no longer just the politics of an assertive Hindutva identity, nor the attempt to keep the communal cauldron on the boil  all that has been going for decades and in the last few years had become a part of the new normal. What is alarming now is the subordination of the fundamental principles of our Constitution and of the rule of law to the forces of majoritarianism, in which the state appears to be fully complicit.

The hate and malevolence directed against Muslims seems to have embedded itself deep in the recesses of the structures, institutions and processes of governance in the States in which the BJP is in power. The administration of law, instead of being an instrument for maintaining peace and harmony, has become the means by which the minorities can be kept in a state of perpetual fear. Their constitutional right to practice their own faith, follow their own customs, dress code and personal laws and exercise their own food choices, is threatened not merely by letting vigilante mobs inflict violence on them with impunity but, by twisting the law itself, to circumscribe their freedom of choice and make it convenient for a prejudiced, communal executive to make colourable use of state power. State power is thus used not only to facilitate vigilante violence targeted against a community but to make ostensibly legal means available to the administration (e.g., anti-conversion laws, laws proscribing consumption of beef, encroachment removal, prescription of uniform codes in educational institutions) to strike fear in the community, deprive them of their livelihoods and make it evident to them that they have to accept their status as inferior citizens who have to subordinate themselves to majoritarian political power and majoritarian social and cultural norms. The likelihood of our becoming a country that systematically makes sections of its own citizens  minorities, Dalits, the poor and the marginalized  targets of hate and knowingly deprives them of their fundamental rights is now, more than ever, frighteningly real.

While we are not aware if the current spurt in communal frenzy is coordinated and directed by the political leadership, it is evident that the administration at the state and local levels provides a facilitating environment for mischievous lumpen groups to operate without fear. Such facilitation and support is not limited to that offered by the local police and other administrative officials; it appears to have the tacit approval of the highest political levels in the state and central governments, which provide the enabling policy and institutional environment for local level tyranny. While the actual commission of violence may be outsourced to fringe groups, there is little doubt as to how the ground for their operations is made fertile, how each of them follows a master script and shares a common tool kit and how the propaganda machinery of a party as well as the state is made available to them to defend their actions.

What distinguishes the incidents that are taking place now from earlier communal conflagrations is not merely that a master design is being unveiled to prepare the grounds for a Hindu Rashtra, but that the constitutional and legal framework designed to prevent such a development from taking place is itself being twisted and perverted to make it an instrument of majoritarian tyranny. No wonder then that the bulldozer has now become the new metaphor for the exercise of political and administrative power, literally and figuratively. The edifice built around the ideas of due process and rule of law stands demolished. As the Jahangirpuri incident shows, even the orders of the highest court of the land appear to be treated with scant respect by the executive.

Prime Minister, we, the members of the Constitutional Conduct Group  all of us are former civil servants who have spent decades in the service of the Constitution  believe that the threat we are facing is unprecedented and at stake is not just constitutional morality and conduct; it is that the unique syncretic social fabric, which is our greatest civilizational inheritance and which our Constitution is so meticulously designed to conserve, is likely to be torn apart. Your silence, in the face of this enormous societal threat, is deafening.

We appeal to your conscience, taking heart from your promise of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas. It is our fond hope that in this year of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, rising above partisan considerations, you will call for an end to the politics of hate that governments under your partys control are so assiduously practising. The idea of India that our founding fathers had envisioned and fought for needs a climate of fraternity and communal harmony to thrive. Hate will engender hate, rendering the environment too noxious for the idea to survive.

SATYAMEVA JAYATE

Yours sincerely,

Constitutional Conduct Group (108 signatories, at pages 3-6 below)

1. Anita Agnihotri IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, GoI

2. Salahuddin Ahmad IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan

3. S.P. Ambrose IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping & Transport, GoI

4. Anand Arni RAS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI

5. Aruna Bagchee IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Mines, GoI

6. Sandeep Bagchee IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra

7. G. Balachandhran IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal

8. Vappala Balachandran IPS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI

9. Gopalan Balagopal IAS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal

10. Chandrashekar Balakrishnan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Coal, GoI

11. Rana Banerji RAS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI

12. T.K. Banerji IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Union Public Service Commission

13. Sharad Behar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh

14. Madhu Bhaduri IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Portugal

15. Meeran C Borwankar IPS (Retd.) Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and Development, GoI

16. Ravi Budhiraja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI

17. Sundar Burra IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra

18. Maneshwar Singh Chahal IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary, Home, Govt. of Punjab

19. R. Chandramohan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary, Transport and Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi

20. Kalyani Chaudhuri IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal

21. Gurjit Singh Cheema IAS (Retd.) Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Govt. of Punjab

22. F.T.R. Colaso IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Karnataka & former Director General of Police, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir

23. Anna Dani IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra

24. Surjit K. Das IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Uttarakhand

25. Vibha Puri Das IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI

26. P.R. Dasgupta IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI

27. Pradeep K. Deb IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI

28. M.G. Devasahayam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana

29. Sushil Dubey IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Sweden

30. A.S. Dulat IPS (Retd.) Former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Ministers Office, GoI

31. K.P. Fabian IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Italy

32. Prabhu Ghate IAS (Retd.) Former Addl. Director General, Department of Tourism, GoI

33. Suresh K. Goel IFS (Retd.) Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI

34. S.K. Guha IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Department of Women & Child Development, GoI

35. H.S. Gujral IFoS (Retd.) Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab

36. Meena Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI

37. Ravi Vira Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India

38. Deepa Hari IRS (Resigned)

39. Sajjad Hassan IAS (Retd.) Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur

40. Siraj Hussain IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI

41. Kamal Jaswal IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI

42. Najeeb Jung IAS (Retd.) Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi

43. Brijesh Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI

44. Ish Kumar IPS (Retd.) Former DGP (Vigilance & Enforcement), Govt. of Telangana and former Special Rapporteur, National Human Rights Commission

45. Sudhir Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal

46. Subodh Lal IPoS (Resigned) Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI

47. B.B. Mahajan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Deptt. of Food, GoI

48. Harsh Mander IAS (Retd.) Govt. of Madhya Pradesh

49. Amitabh Mathur IPS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI

50. Lalit Mathur IAS (Retd.) Former Director General, National Institute of Rural Development, GoI

51. L.L. Mehrotra IFS (Retd.) Former Special Envoy to the Prime Minister and former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, GoI

52. Aditi Mehta IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan

53. Shivshankar Menon IFS (Retd.) Former Foreign Secretary and Former National Security Adviser

54. Sonalini Mirchandani IFS (Resigned) GoI

55. Sunil Mitra IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI

56. Noor Mohammad IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, Govt. of India

57. Avinash Mohananey IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Sikkim

58. Satya Narayan Mohanty IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission

59. Deb Mukharji IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal

60. Shiv Shankar Mukherjee IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom

61. Gautam Mukhopadhaya IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Myanmar

62. Pranab S. Mukhopadhya IAS (Retd.) Former Director, Institute of Port Management, GoI

63. T.K.A. Nair IAS (Retd.) Former Adviser to Prime Minister of India

64. P.A. Nazareth IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Egypt and Mexico

65. P. Joy Oommen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh

66. Amitabha Pande IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI

67. Maxwell Pereira IPS (Retd.) Former Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi

68. G.K. Pillai IAS (Retd.) Former Home Secretary, GoI

69. R. Poornalingam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI

70. Rajesh Prasad IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to the Netherlands

71. Sharda Prasad IAS (Retd.) Former Director General (Employment and Training), Ministry of Labour and Employment, GoI

72. R.M. Premkumar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra

73. Rajdeep Puri IRS (Resigned) Former Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, GoI

74. T.R. Raghunandan IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, GoI

75. N.K. Raghupathy IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI

76. V.P. Raja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission

77. Satwant Reddy IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI

78. Vijaya Latha Reddy IFS (Retd.) Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI

79. Julio Ribeiro IPS (Retd.) Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former Ambassador to Romania

80. Aruna Roy IAS (Resigned)

81. A.K. Samanta IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal

82. Deepak Sanan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh

83. Shyam Saran IFS (Retd.) Former Foreign Secretary and Former Chairman, National Security Advisory Board

84. S. Satyabhama IAS (Retd.) Former Chairperson, National Seeds Corporation, GoI

85. N.C. Saxena IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI

86. A. Selvaraj IRS (Retd.) Former Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Chennai, GoI

87. Ardhendu Sen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal

88. Abhijit Sengupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI

89. Aftab Seth IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Japan

90. Ashok Kumar Sharma IFoS (Retd.) Former MD, State Forest Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat

91. Ashok Kumar Sharma IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia

92. Navrekha Sharma IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Indonesia

93. Pravesh Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh

94. Raju Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh

95. Rashmi Shukla Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh

96. Mukteshwar Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission

97. Sujatha Singh IFS (Retd.) Former Foreign Secretary, GoI

98. Tara Ajai Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka

99. Tirlochan Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI

100. Narendra Sisodia IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI

101. Parveen Talha IRS (Retd.) Former Member, Union Public Service Commission

102. Anup Thakur IAS (Retd.) Former Member, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission

103. P.S.S. Thomas IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission

104. Hindal Tyabji IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir

105. Jawed Usmani IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh & former Chief Information Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh

106. Ashok Vajpeyi IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi

107. Ramani Venkatesan IAS (Retd.) Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra

108. Rudi Warjri IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica
Speaking at the talks held following a welcoming ceremony for the Lao Vice President, Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan expressed her belief that the visit will contribute to consolidating the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos.

She congratulated the Lao Party, State and people on the great and comprehensive achievements they have recorded over the past nearly 50 years, saying she believes that Laos will successfully implement the Resolution adopted at the 11th Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and the 2021-2026 socio-economic development plan, effectively control the COVID-19 pandemic, recover socio-economic activities and continue to develop sustainably.





Lao Vice President Pany Yathotou (L) receives a bouquet from a Vietnamese girl. (Photo: VNA)

For her part, Pany Yathotou lauded Vietnams achievements in reform, national development and international integration, and described them as an important source of encouragement and lessons for Laos.

She used the occasion to thank the Vietnamese Party, State and people for their valuable and timely support for Laos during the fight against the pandemic.

Given the complex developments on the world stage, the two Vice Presidents shared the view of consolidating the close, friendly neighbourliness and special solidarity between Vietnam and Laos to ensure security and development in each country, as well as peace, stability and cooperation in the region.

Both noted their delight at the new developments in bilateral cooperation across multiple spheres, saying despite obstacles caused by the pandemic, the two sides have maintained regular delegation exchanges and high-level visits, made use of major bilateral cooperation mechanisms, and implemented cooperation agreements and plans in important areas.

Regarding economic ties, they said in the first quarter of this year, two-way trade reached 403.6 million USD, up 19.22 percent year-on-year. With 214 projects worth about 5.33 billion USD in Laos, Vietnam continues to be one of the biggest investors in the neighbouring country.

The Vice Presidents agreed to maintain regular high-level visits and meetings through multiple channels, coordinate to effectively implement agreements signed at the 44th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-governmental Committee, especially for bilateral cooperation through 2021-2025 and the cooperation strategy for 2021-2030.

The two sides will work together to organise activities within the Vietnam-Laos and Laos-Vietnam Solidarity and Friendship Year to celebrate the 60th founding anniversary of the bilateral ties (September 5), and 45 years of the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (July 18).

They also agreed to strengthen collaboration in national defence and security, transport, education-training and culture-sports, as well as cooperation between localities.

The officials affirmed their resolve to elevate the two countries' economic ties on par with their special relationship, continue to address difficulties facing businesses, and expand infrastructure connectivity in transport, energy, telecommunications and the digital economy.

They will also work to promote trade at border gates, and handle issues regarding the citizenship of free migrants and those with undocumented marriages.

The Vice Presidents exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues of shared concern, and concurred to tighten their coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums, particularly the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Mekong sub-regional cooperation mechanisms.

Vietnam and Laos will maintain their common principles, values and stances on matters directly related to regional peace and security, they said, stressing that disputes in the region and the world should be settled by peaceful measures and international law.

This is the first official visit to Vietnam by Pany Yathotou in her capacity as Vice President of Laos.

On this occasion, Pany Yathotou invited her Vietnamese counterpart to pay an official visit to Laos at an appropriate time. Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan accepted the invitation with pleasure.

Earlier the same day, Pany Yathotou laid wreaths at President Ho Chi Minhs Mausoleum and the Heroic Martyrs' Monument in Hanoi./.
Benjamin Petlock, senior agricultural attache of the US Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City enjoys french fries imported from the US (Photo: nld.com.vn)



The US trade official made the statement during a ceremony held on April 25 to mark the 17th anniversary of co-operation between the Saigon Professional Chefs Association under the HCM City Tourism Association (HTA) and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

He said the US is implementing the United Tastes' programme on social networks such as Facebook and YouTube in order to introduce various recipes and culinary ideas of the US, and Vietnamese chefs have made a great contribution to bringing those ideas to life.

During the event, representatives from HTA highlighted the effective co-operation between the Saigon Professional Chefs Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation in helping local chefs seize upon the opportunities to experience and gain greater access to safe and abundant food sources from the US.

The American Farm Bureau Federation has made an array of significant contribution to the development of the Vietnamese food and beverage industry (F&B), particularly as it has become one of the main sponsors for many events and culinary contests, according to HTA representatives.

These moves have subsequently helped local chefs to have the opportunity to share and gain greater experience in order to become real chefs.

Currently, there is a huge diversity of American agricultural products on offer in the Vietnamese market, including beans, pork, beef, chicken, milk, dairy products, and seafood.

Vietnam seeing branded resort real estate trend

Vietnams tourism is returning to the new normal and the resort real estate also begins getting back to the racetrack after a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with numerous projects expected to be offered for sale in 2022, reported VNA.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

The trend of branded leisure real estate is expanding, especially with the participation of big brands, to help improve project quality, attract capital flows, and improve investment property value in the long run.

Pham Ngoc Thien Thanh, Deputy Director of CBRE Vietnam Research and Consulting Division, said that the pandemic halted tourism activities in Vietnam's coastal localities. In the pre-pandemic period, Da Nang and Khanh Hoa were destinations for a large number of international visitors, with over 3.5 million arrivals in 2019.

However, this number of visitors dropped sharply by more than 80 percent in the 2020  2021 period when Vietnam temporarily closed its border.

The pandemic has also changed the tourists' taste, with Binh Thuan and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces preferred.

Thanh said that investment in the resort real estate market has shifted from traditional markets such as Da Nang and Khanh Hoa to new localities like Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Binh Thuan.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

In addition, construction of key infrastructure projects such as Long Thanh international airport, Phan Thiet airport and Phan Thiet-Dau Giay expressway has contributed to creating favourable conditions for the two localities.

Ba Ria - Vung Tau has three new projects that are open for sale for the first time, namely Hyatt Regency Ho Tram Residences, Ixora Ho Tram by Fusion and Venezia Beach Binh Chau (Phase 1) with a total of 382 villas. In addition, NovaWorld Ho Tram also opened for sale a new phase of Habana Island with 372 villas.

Binh Thuan also has a new supply with 270 villas of the NovaWorld Phan Thiet project.

The average selling price has increased continuously and achieved compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of 21 percent a year for the 2018  2021 period in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and 16 percent a year for 2017-2021 in Binh Tuan.

Night tour of Thang Long Imperial Citadel to return in late April

According to Thang Long - Hanoi Heritage Conservation Centre, the night tour of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel in Hanoi will return during the coming national holidays, including the National Reunification Day (April 30) and the May Day after a year-long hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemics impacts.

Night tour of Thang Long Imperial Citadel to return in late April (Source: CPV)

The return will be marked with a special musical programme on April 29 evening when famous piano brothers Luu Hong Quang and Luu Duc Anh, together with other artists, will perform songs celebrating the joy of the national reunification day (April 30, 1975).

The tour, named Decoding the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, was launched in April 2021 by the Thang Long - Hanoi Heritage Conservation Centre and the Hanoitourist travel company. It was available every weekend and received high evaluation from tourists.

Visitors will begin their 1.5-hour tour at the Main Gate, the entrance to the Forbidden area - the kings residence, and learn about the sites history, architecture, and functions there.

They will later enjoy an old dance right on the glass covering the archaeological excavation area and gain an insight into this dig, which contains vestiges of the Ly, Tran, and Le dynasties, via tour guides introduction. They will also visit an exhibition hall of rare antiquities with some dating back over 1,000 years.

At Kinh Thien Palace, travellers can offer incense to King Ly Thai To, who moved the countrys capital from Hoa Lu in Ninh Binh province to Dai La which he renamed Thang Long in 1010, as well as other kings contributing to the capitals development.

The last destination of this trip is the archaeological site at No. 18 Hoang Dieu street, where visitors will experience a laser light show of outstanding antiquities of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel. Tourists can take part in a game in which they have to identify typical objects of feudal dynasties in the past.

Thang Long - Hanoi Heritage Conservation Centre and Hanoitourist will add new services and experiences so as to make this tour more attractive to visitors.

Opportunity to experience colourful highland market during upcoming holidays

The management board of Vietnam National Villages for Ethnic Culture and Tourism has announced a series of cultural activities to celebrate the 47th anniversary of the liberation of the South and national reunification (April 30, 1975 -2022) and International Workers' Day (May 1).

Highland market at the common house.(Source: NDO)

Many activities will take place at the Vietnam National Villages for Ethnic Culture and Tourism from April 29 to May 3, introducing the colourful cultural space of ethnic groups in the Northwestern and Northeastern regions, reported NDO.

The highlight of event is "the highland market - Son La rendezvous" with stalls displaying handicraft products, typical cuisine, and traditional art performances of ethnic minorities in Son La Province.

Within the framework of activities, there will also be events re-enacting the dance festival of the Dao ethnic group and the rain praying festival of the Thai ethnic group as well as activities of praying for peace and blessings at the spiritual spaces of Khmer pagodas and Cham towers.

Coming to the communal house on this occasion, the public and visitors will have the opportunity to participate in experiential activities at the "Common House" of the 54 ethnic Vietnamese community living in the village, such as: learning about handicrafts public and making folk dishes, and participating in traditional games experiences./.
The delegation from the Vietnamese Embassy pays working visit to SKODA AUTO (Photo: baoquocte.vn)



The visit aims to promote investment cooperation of SKODA into Vietnam, and take advantage of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

The delegation was invited to visit the SKODA museum, auto production line, battery assembly workshop and experience the latest ENYAQ electric car of the group.

Mr. Petr Janemba, Business Director in Asian region, said that the potential of the Southeast Asian market with over a population of 600 million in general, and Vietnam with nearly 100 million people in particular, is great.

SKODA leaders highly appreciated the Vietnamese market with great potential, high growth prospect, friendly investment and business environment, and suitable with the Czech Republics requirements for an export market. The group would like to enter the ASEAN market through Vietnam.

SKODA AUTO has been researching and looking forward to investing in Vietnam. Since the end of 2021, the group has sent many delegations to work with ministries, functional branches of Vietnam and the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee to explore the market, find partners and investment locations.

If everything goes smoothly and on schedule, it is expected that the first SKODA car will be produced in Vietnam.

Ambassador Thai Xuan Dung affirmed that SKODA's presence in Vietnam will help diversify the Vietnamese automobile market, which has very strong potential and a promising future, especially in the context that both countries are actively taking advantage of the opportunities of the EVFTA.

He said that the Vietnamese Government is ready to create favorable conditions and support Czech investors in general and SKODA Group in particular, and ensure that the Group's investment and business process in Vietnam is carried out on the basis of fair competition and transparency.

The Vietnamese Embassy in the Czech Republic is ready to act as a focal point to connect partners and support the Group with information on regulations and legal procedures of Vietnam in the near future./.
The national flag strongly flies in the sound of the national anthem at the Square of President Ho Chi Minh's relic site. (Photo: baoquocte.vn)

This is a very meaningful and practical activity to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the liberation day (April 25) and 61 years since Uncle Ho's visit to Co To Island (May 9).

The flag pole project on Co To Island, chaired by the University of Transport and coordinated with the High Command to protect the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, awarded to Co To district, began construction on March 14, using nearly VND2 billion.

The height of the flagpole from the ground to the top is 27.9 m, with the foundation designed to help it withstand very strong winds and storms above level 12.

In addition, the flag pole uses the latest and most advanced techniques, technology and materials, ensuring its durability for over 70 years in marine and island climates.

What's even more special is the electronic system that controls the flag to follow the correct journey according to the time of the national anthem at Ba Dinh Square used for major national celebrations.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Nguyen Viet Dung, Secretary of the Co To District Party Committee and Chairman of the District People's Committee, expressed his respect for the University of Transport and the High Command to protect the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

He said that the special national relic site of Uncle Ho's statue and the national flag pole on Co To Island are the solid spiritual fulcrum of officers, soldiers and people.

He affirmed that each Co To citizen will be a cultural milestone and a resilient soldier who defends and builds a rich, beautiful and civilized island.

The sovereignty flag pole project on Co To Island has a very important meaning in affirming Vietnam's territorial sovereignty, and profoundly educating national pride and patriotism.

The work, together with the special national relic site Uncle Ho's statue, contributes to consolidating and raising awareness as well as educating the young generation, cadres, Party members and people about the role and strategic position of the sea and islands in the cause of national construction and defence./.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has discussed with Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca the possibility of expanding export and transit corridors through Romania, as well as using additional facilities of Romanian seaports.

"We discussed the possibility of expanding the already established export corridors, transit corridors through the territory of Romania, as well as using the additional capabilities of Romanian seaports and checkpoints between our countries," Shmyhal said at a joint briefing with Ciuca on Tuesday evening.

The parties also discussed the process of restoring the settlements of Ukraine affected by the war, and also discussed the participation of Romania in such projects.

In addition, the prime ministers discussed cooperation between countries in the energy sector, economy, business and transit potential.

Among other things, he thanked Romania for launching and operating hubs on its territory for international technical and humanitarian support to Ukraine, as well as for helping displaced Ukrainian citizens.

In addition, Shmyhal said that the countries are working on a draft memorandum of cooperation to ensure the social protection of children who have suffered in war and armed conflicts.

Later, the press service of the government reported that at a meeting of the parties Shmyhal proposed to consider the possibility of opening the Diakivtsi (Ukraine)  Racovat (Romania) checkpoint as soon as possible and further granting it the status of a checkpoint for cargo transportation to increase transit opportunities between Ukraine and Romania.

In addition, he noted the role of Romania in the international processes of condemnation and punishment of Russia for crimes against humanity and acts of genocide that continue on the territory of Ukraine.

In turn, the Prime Minister of Romania assured that they will continue to support Ukraine in its fight and will support the tightening of sanctions against the aggressor.
About 23,000 km of public roads have been destroyed as a result of Russia's armed invasion of Ukraine, of which 8,000 km are state roads, while 302 artificial structures were also destroyed.

Andriy Ivko, the first deputy head of the State Agency for Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor), said on the air of the national telethon, Ukravtodor currently estimates the damage from the destruction of roads by the occupiers at UAH 900 billion.

"Today we are performing work almost throughout the country, but we are clearing and restoring temporary crossings in three regions - Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy," he said.

According to Ivko, 500 km of roads have already been cleared - these are state roads and communal roads, of which 212 km are the streets of Irpin, Bucha and other cities. In addition, 18 temporary crossings, detours have already been built.

"For example, the highway Kyiv-Chop M-06. A bridge was destroyed in the village of Stoyanka. Now there is already a detour, and we are already restoring it. In addition, I can say about R-30: this is the entrance to Irpin. A temporary crossing was made in less than a week, design and survey work is also being carried out there. We will make a new bridge in this place," Ivko said.

Earlier it was reported that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting to develop a plan for the post-war renewal and development of Ukraine. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the presidential office, said that the restoration of the country at all levels - economic, infrastructural, social - are the main directions included in the plan.
On Wednesday morning, Russian invaders carried out repeated rocket fire on a bridge across the Dniester estuary in Odesa region, head of the board of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) Oleksandr Kamyshyn said.

"Today [April 27] at 6:45 a.m. there was repeated rocket fire on the same bridge across the Dniester estuary in Odesa region. There are no injured railway workers," he wrote in his Telegram channel.

According to him, it will be possible to determine the degree of damage to the infrastructure at the end of the air raid.
Today, Ukraine expects actions from the world that will allow it to regain control over the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (NPP), President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

"We expect from the leaders of the world, from the IAEA a firm resolute position, an effective reaction that will ensure Ukraine's control over the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. We will demand tough actions to restore justice, nuclear security for Ukraine, Europe and the whole world," he said on Tuesday evening after meeting with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi in Kyiv.

For his part, Grossi called one of the tasks of the IAEA so that nuclear power plants are not endangered, so that the tragedy of this war is not increased due to incidents.

He also said that the IAEA will carry out work to restore the infrastructure, which has been damaged over the past few weeks.
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY

PRESS RELEASE

27th April 2022

Will the Union of India and the Government of Chhattisgarh explain the existence of craters and bomb remnants in the forests of Sukma and Bijapur?

We are extremely concerned about news reports that allege aerial attacks by indeterminate platforms on the intervening night of 14-15 April 2022, in the villages of Bijapur and Sukma districts including, interalia Bottetong and Mettagudem (Usoor block), Duled, Sakler, Pottemangi (Konta block). (A partial list of reports is enclosed).

Photos from the ground by reporters from Bottetong village, Mettaguda and other places show remnants of ordnance explosives and craters in the jungles, as well as forest cover destroyed. They quote villagers as saying that there were loud noises and flashes of fire from the forest.

It must be noted that the forests are not uninhabited. This is peak mahua collecting season when villagers, especially women and children, wake up early (3 AM) to collect mahua before it becomes hot during the day. People are constantly going into the forests to collect non-timber forest products, graze their cattle, perform routine ablutions and so on. Given the extensive access to the forest by civilians, aerial attacks on forests amount to direct hostilities against civilians.

The police deny the use of drones to carry out the alleged bombing. However, they still need to explain the existence of craters and remnants of wires and other ordnance material in the forest. It is important that the authorities clarify the type of ammunition used and the reasons for this type of raid. It may be recalled that in 2010 the then Air Chief Marshal had said the military are not trained for limited lethality. The weapons we have are meant for the enemy across the border. Therefore, I am not in favour of use of air force in situations like the Naxal problem (The Hindu, 7 April 2010). Ironically, now the same appears to have happened, though it may not involve the Air Force per se. The dangers of innocent Adivasis falling prey to the use of lethal ammunition and sophisticated attacks cannot be explained as "collateral" damage. Such actions potentially targeting civilians need to be stopped immediately.

This incident raises the following questions:

1. Under what law are the Centre and State allegedly carrying out aerial attacks, with drones or other platforms, in these areas?

2. If there is evidence of air-dropped lethal ammunition, the Government can no longer deny that what is happening in Chhattisgarh is a non-international armed conflict and not a mere law and order problem. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions which India has ratified prohibits inhumane treatment of civilians. Further, India must sign on to Additional Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions which enhance civilian protection. In any case, India is bound by customary international law prohibiting the indiscriminate use of ordnance.

3. If the Government is claiming the aerial raid reports are Maoist propaganda, why does it not order an independent investigation or issue a white paper on this?

We demand that the Governments at Centre and State -

1. Do not conduct any aerial attacks in Chhattisgarh or any other Adivasi area.

2. Engage in dialogue with villagers protesting against security camps, fake encounters, and mass arrests.

3. Address human rights violations by security forces. Despite clear-cut findings by more than one Judicial Enquiry, CBI, NHRC and the Supreme Court that there have been grave violations of human rights in Chhattisgarh by the security forces, no action has been taken against them. To begin with, the Government must provide justice to the innocent victims of mass killings by security forces in Sarkeguda and Edesmetta and to the victims of mass arson, rape and killing in Tadmetla, Timapuram and Morpalli. The cases of murder, sexual assault and rape by security forces that have been brought to the notice of the NHRC and Courts must be prosecuted.

4. Stop militarizing Bastar with additional battalions and security camps.

5. Disband the DRG (District Reserve Group) as directed by the Supreme Court in 2011 which banned the use of SPOs (Special Police Officers) and surrendered Naxalites in counterinsurgency operations against Maoists, under any name.

6. Engage in peace talks with the CPI (Maoist).

List of news reports from the ground:

1. https://www.livehindustan.com/chhattisgarh/story-force-drone-attack-in-bijapur-forest-maoists-said-bombs-dropped-villagers-showed-marks-police-are-denying-6308458.html

2. https://www.thequint.com/news/india/chhattisgarh-tribals-claim-drone-attack-in-bastar-forces-deny?utm_source=WhatsApp_mWEB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=socialsharebuttons&utm_content=8b196733-3f95-410d-90b3-09f9f0c69c2a_1650553448062

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Gx3usI8Cg

4. https://www.ibc24.in/videos/sukma-naxalite-news-naxalites-accused-of-drone-attack-crpf-called-the-allegation-of-naxalites-false-ibc24-reaches-ground-zero-864971.html

5. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/chhattisgarh-maoists-allege-drone-attacks-police-reject-lies-meant-scare-people-7872546/

Signed by the following organisations and individuals

1. Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, V. Suresh, (PUCL) General Secretary

2. National Federation of Indian Women, (NFIW) Annie Raja, General Secretary

3. Human Rights Forum, (HRF) Gutta Rohit

4. Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan, (CBA) Bela Bhatia

5. National Alliance of Peoples Movements, (NAPM) Arundhuti Dhuru, Meera Sanghamitra.

6. All India Progressive Womens Association, (AIPWA) Kavita Krishnan

7. Peoples Union For Democratic Rights (PUDR), (Secretaries)

8. New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), Gautam Modi

9. All India Lawyers Association for Justice, (AILAJ) Clifton D Rozario,

10. Saheli, Vani Subramaniam

11. Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, Siraj Dutta

12. Paschim Banga Khet Mazadoor Samiti (PBKMS) Anuradha Talwar

13. Peoples Watch, Henri Tiphagne,

14. Manthan Law, Avani Choksi

15. Citizen For Justice and Peace, Teesta Setalvad

16. Bargi Baandh Visthapith evam Prabhavit Sangh, MP, Raj Kumar Singh

17. Khanan Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti, Rajasthan, Kailash Mina,

18. Domestic Workers Union, Karnataka, Sr. Celia,

19. Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, Gujarat, Krishnakant Chauhan

20. Jan Jagaran Shakti Sangathan, Bihar, Ashish Ranjan

21. Women Against State Repression and Sexual violence, Nisha Biswas,

22. All India Progressive Writers Association, Vineet Tiwari, National Secretary,

23. Nandini Sundar, Academic and Writer

24. Vijayan, MJ, Peace Activist

25. Fr. Cedric Prakash, Prashant.

26. Aakar Patel, Human Rights Activist and Writer

27. Fr. Jothi, SJ, Right to Food Activist

28. John Dayal, Writer, journalist

29. Dr. Frazer Mascarenhas, SJ, Academic Administrator

30. Brinelle DSouza, Academic and Activist

For further information, please contact:

Nandini Sundar: 9868076756

Bela Bhatia: 9479045421

Suresh V: 9444231497

Kavita Srivastava: 9351562965
Russia's attempt to create new govt in part of Ukraine will lead to new sanctions

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia's attempt to create a new government in Kherson and part of Zaporizhia regions of Ukraine will result in new sanctions.

"Russian troops are trying to present in Kherson and part of Zaporizhia region an allegedly new government. They are changing flags, demonstrating some kind of "suiciders" in the role of collaborators. And what does this give Russia? Only new losses. There will be a new sanctions package from the European Union, there will be even more restrictions on trade," Zelensky said in a video message on Wednesday night.

"Most countries of the world will inevitably refuse Russian oil and other Russian energy. Not a single adequate country would want to invite Rosatom to cooperation," the president added.

According to him, the majority of Russians will have to pay with poverty for the aggressive policy of the leadership of their state. "And we will identify, find and bring to justice every war criminal and collaborator," Zelensky said.

"The longer and more brutal this war will be, the more resources will be spent not only by us, but also by the world to establish justice and punish all those responsible," he added.

"The time will come when Russia will have to admit that peace is needed," Zelensky said.
In Severodonetsk, priest of UOC (MP) passes on to enemy information about Ukrainian troops

In Severodonetsk, a clergyman of Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) passed on to the enemy information about the deployment of Ukrainian troops, head of Luhansk regional military administration Serhiy Haidai said.

"The mobile phone of a clergyman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was checked by law enforcement officers yesterday, April 26. Correspondence with representatives of illegal armed groups was found on the phone, in which this citizen transmitted information about the number, location, and armament of the military Armed Forces of Ukraine," Haidai wrote in a telegram.
Mariupol has always been and will always be a Ukrainian city, and I am proud that the Azovstal plant has become a stronghold of resistance, businessman Rinat Akhmetov said in an interview with Le Temps newspaper.

"Mariupol was, is and will be Ukrainian. Our defenders are heroically fighting for every meter of Ukrainian land. I am proud that the stronghold of resistance is located at the Azovstal plant. I believe that our military will defend the city, and civilians will be evacuated," the businessman said.

Akhmetov called what is happening in Mariupol the deepest tragedy for which Russia must be held accountable.

"I believe that the Russian military will be punished for all the crimes committed in Ukraine and Mariupol. Mariupol is the deepest tragedy and catastrophe that cannot be forgiven," the owner of Azovstal said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has proposed setting up a joint group consisting of the UN, Russia and Ukraine to ensure proper the functioning of humanitarian corridors.

The main task of the UN, as far as Ukraine is concerned, is to improve its humanitarian situation, Guterres said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

Guterres said that at his meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier on Tuesday he had made two proposals. One is to materialize a UN proposal, which was submitted at a meeting with representatives from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Defense Ministry, to clarify the situation regarding the corridors and humanitarian aid, Guterres said.

He drew attention to the cases where Russia announces the creation of a humanitarian corridor, while Ukraine creates one of its own, thus making both unworkable.

So, the UN proposes setting up a humanitarian contact group where the UN, Russia and Ukraine together could discuss the situation so that these corridors can be effective in actual fact, the UN secretary general said.
The aggravation of the situation in Transnistria was caused by the actions of the Russian special services, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky believes.

"I fully agree with Moldovan President Maia Sandu. We have common point of view. Today I discussed this issue in detail with the Prime Minister of Romania. We understand that this is one of the steps of the Russian Federation, special services are working. It is clear that this is being done to destabilize the situation in the region," Zelensky said at a briefing on Tuesday evening after a meeting with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.

"They show them that if Moldova supports Ukraine, there will be certain steps. As for the Russian military, permanently present in the temporarily occupied territory of Moldova in Transnistria, we know that they are in constant readiness, waiting for this or that order, but we understand their capabilities and the Ukrainian armed forces are ready for them," the President said.
Over the past day, Ukrainian defenders in the South Operational Command zone have attacked Russian positions on Zmiyiny Island. During the day, 16 personnel and five pieces of enemy equipment were destroyed.

"In the Black Sea operational zone, our forces defeated hostile positions on Zmiyiny Island. A hit on the control point was recorded, the destruction of the Strila-10 anti-aircraft missile system, the losses of the Russians are being specified," the message posted on Facebook on Wednesday night said.

It is also noted that on the eve of the pseudo-referendum in Kherson region, the occupying authorities are trying to appoint their leadership from among local collaborators, continuing campaigning and attempts to bribe the local population with food.

"The enemy tried to advance towards Mykolaiv region in the area of the villages of Tavriyske and Nova Zaria, but had no success, suffered significant losses and retreated," the Ukrainian military said.

The ship grouping of the enemy fleet has been reformatted downwards.

The total enemy losses per day are 16 invaders, one tank and four vehicles, two of which are armored.

It is also noted that Odesa region was attacked by three cruise missiles, a hit on the bridge across the Dniester estuary was recorded. There were no casualties. Traffic is partially restricted. Restoration of work is underway.

In addition, the enemy continues to undermine the situation with provocations around Transnistria, organizing imitations of terrorist attacks, announcing missile strikes and sending out messages to residents of Transnistria with panic calls for evacuation on behalf of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Russian grouping of troops in Transnistria is on full combat readiness.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has said the federal government of Canada will change its sanctions law to allow seized and sanctioned foreign assets to be redistributed as compensation to victims or to help in rebuilding a foreign state from war, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has reported.

"Today, we are seeking the capacity to not only seize but to allow for the forfeiture of the assets of sanctioned individuals and entities and to allow us to compensate victims with the proceeds These changes would make Canada's sanctions regime the first in the G7 to allow these actions," Joly said in a statement on Tuesday.

The CBC said that Canada is among a number of countries to have imposed sanctions on Russia after it invaded Ukraine on February 24. The changes that Canada aims to bring to its sanctions law will mean that funds or property seized from Russia could be paid out to help rebuild Ukraine or go to those affected by Russia's invasion.

The text of the bill says the seized assets can be used for "the reconstruction of the foreign state adversely affected by a grave breach of international peace and security." The funds could also be used for "the restoration of international peace and security" and to compensate victims when that security is breached.

A similar bill that would allow Canada to seize and confiscate Russian assets for the purpose of supporting victims of Russian attacks was already tabled by Sen. Ratna Omidvar and is poised to be approved by the upper chamber.

According to the CBC, the Ukrainian Embassy to Canada has urged lawmakers to quickly enact Omidvar's bill. "We believe it is absolutely fair that Russian state property or ill-gotten assets of Russian oligarchs must become a part of reparations by the aggressor state to the victim of the aggression... By passing the Bill S-217 Canada will demonstrate leadership and could set an example for others to follow and show that the Russian kleptocratic corrupt regime will pay the full cost of its crimes against Ukraine," the embassy said in a statement.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that cruise missiles launched by Russia flew over the power units of three Ukrainian nuclear power plants at once, Zaporizhia, Khmelnytska and Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP.

"Right today they [Russian troops] launched three missiles against Ukraine so that they flew directly over the blocks of our nuclear power plants. Over three of them at once - over Zaporizhia, over Khmelnytska, over Yuzhnoukrainsk. What is it? Are they threatening? Or are they targeting? I have no words for this," Zelensky said in a video message on Tuesday night.

According to him, the actions of the Russian military near the Chornobyl nuclear power plant show that they do not understand the rules of radiation safety.

"It turns out that they do not understand what Chornobyl is. The word 'totally' fits. The Russian troops who tried to attack Kyiv through the Chornobyl zone used this closed territory as a military foothold. They set up positions on the ground, which is dangerous even to stand on. They drove armored vehicles on the territory where materials contaminated with radiation are buried. The number of radioactive particles there are off the scale. They destroyed the dose monitoring points, broke and plundered the dose monitoring points, the radioactive state control system at Chornobyl nuclear power plant, plundered the analytical nuclear laboratory. They stole even contaminated things that confiscated from violators of the exclusion zone rules," the president said.

At the same time, he said that at present, the uninterrupted operation of the stations, including the temporarily occupied Zaporizhia NPP, can be ensured thanks to the professionalism of Ukrainian specialists.
On the night of Wednesday, April 27, Russian invaders shelled an energy infrastructure enterprise in Zelenodolsk community of Dnipropetrovsk region, as a result of which one employee was injured. The villages of Marianske and Velyka Kostromka were also shelled, head of the regional military administration Valentyn Riznychenko said.

"The night was restless. The occupiers fired on Zelenodolsk community. They shelled with artillery. They hit the energy infrastructure enterprise. Lubricant leak and a strong fire. Rescuers tamed the fire for several hours. One employee of the enterprise was injured. Now he in the hospital. Zelenodolsk itself, the villages of Maryianske and Velyka Kostromka came under shelling," he wrote on his Telegram channel on Wednesday morning.
On the way to Ukraine, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Rzeszow, the parties discussed the reception and assistance to Ukrainian refugees.

"Upon arrival in Rzeszow, Poland, on his way to Ukraine, the Secretary-General was received by the President of the Republic of Poland, H.E. Mr. Andrzej Duda. The Secretary-General expressed his deep appreciation and gratitude to the President for the generosity of the Polish people for the manner in which they opened their homes and their hearts to almost two million Ukrainian refugees," the minutes of the meeting, released on the UN website on Tuesday evening, says.

It is noted that Guterres informed Duda about his meetings in Moscow and Ankara.
RTHK: Controversy-hit British prince loses freedom of York

The northern English city of York on Wednesday stripped Britain's Prince Andrew, who is the Duke of York, of the freedom of the city.

Local councillors voted en masse to rescind the honour bestowed on Andrew, Queen Elizabeth's second son, in 1987.

Andrew, who has fallen from grace as a member of Britain's royal family, in February settled a US lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager, potentially sparing him further embarrassment.

"The honorary freedom of our great city is bestowed on those who represent the very best of York. It's inappropriate for Prince Andrew to retain any connection to our city," said Darryl Smalley, a York city councillor.

Andrew, 62, did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to settle the civil lawsuit. He has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing.

Giuffre's case had focused on Andrew's friendship with the late Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and sex offender who Giuffre said had also sexually abused her. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.

Andrew has denied accusations that he forced Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, to have sex when aged 17 more than two decades ago at the London home of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, at Epstein's mansion in Manhattan and Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands.

The royal family in January removed Andrew's military titles and royal patronages and said he would no longer be known as "His Royal Highness". (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2022-04-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
[April 26, 2022]

Blexr Acquires Prime NZ Casino Review Site for Seven Figures

SLIEMA, Malta, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lead generation company Blexr has bought the New Zealand-based website CasinoReviews.net.nz as part of its ongoing drive to expand its portfolio.





The site provides honest and thorough reviews of reputable online casinos which accept players from New Zealand, helping people make better online decisions.

Blexr, which has its headquarters in Malta, plans to make the website the most comprehensive casino resource for Kiwi players.

Blexr acquired https://www.casinoreviews.net.nz/ for a seven-figure sum, demonstrating its commitment to owning properties that will further enhance its offerings to its customer base.

Koen Bongers, Blexr's Head of Marketing, said: "We believe this acquisition will blend very well into our existing product portfolio while increasing our presence in our target markets.

"New Zealand has a high interest in slot machines  called 'pokies' locally  and our bespoke free casino games technology allows us to create a highly localised offering in the market that will stand out from the competition.

"We have big plans for this website and are excited to see how it will grow in the coming months."

SOURCE Blexr
A married couple from Bakhmut, Donetsk region, was arrested without the right to bail for cooperation with the occupiers, the prosecutor's office of Donetsk region reports.

"The Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office, in accordance with Article 615 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine, applied a preventive measure in the form of detention without an alternative to making bail to two citizens of Ukraine - 46 and 53 years old, who are reasonably suspected of high treason committed under martial law, and of committing intentional acts in order to change the borders of the territory and the state border of Ukraine," the message posted on Wednesday on the page of the regional prosecutor's office on Facebook says.

The report notes that in May 2014, the spouses from Bakhmut, as members of the "district election commission," actively participated in organizing and holding the so-called referendum on the recognition of the state independence of the "DPR" in the city.

According to the regional prosecutors office, in April 2022, the suspect sent a video and text messages of the locations of military personnel and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a separate section of the region to the representative of the law enforcement agency of the aggressor state via the Telegram messenger. The information received, as noted in the message, was used by the enemy during military aggression against Ukraine.
Polish President Andrzej Duda discussed with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres the issue of evacuating civilians from Mariupol, Donetsk region, and expressed the Polish side's readiness to accept them for treatment, Secretary of State of the Office of the President of Poland, head of the Bureau of International Policy Jakub Kumoch said.

"Poland supports the UN's effort to evacuate civilians from Mariupol and is willing to accommodate the wounded and those in need of medical treatment. Polish President Duda told UN Secretary-General Guterres during meeting in Rzeszow late on Tuesday. The proposal was previously agreed with the government," Kumoch wrote on Twitter on Friday.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' proposal that representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross take part in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol will be considered, but there are no specific agreements to this end, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Mr. Guterres has highlighted the issue, and it will be considered. No specific agreements have been reached in this area," Peskov told reporters in response to a request for comment on Guterres' proposal.

He also confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Guterres and representatives of the ICRC to visit Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The time of the meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, as well as its context, has not yet been determined, according to a commentary by adviser to the head of the President's Office Mykhailo Podoliak, transmitted to the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Wednesday.

Commenting on the Turkish side's information about a possible soon meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, Podoliak wrote: "Certainly, Turkey, realizing the devastating consequences for the Black Sea region of the war, unleashed by the Russian Federation, is trying to speed up the resolution of the conflict. However, the time of the meeting between the presidents of the two countries and the context of the meeting have not yet been determined."

"On the one hand, we see a certain intensification of clashes in the east of the country, as well as ongoing attempts to completely destroy Mariupol. On the other hand, consultations continue at the level of working subgroups, which prepare the positions of the parties in legal terms. As soon as the specifics appear, we will make a special message about this," he also said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky received an invitation to participate in the G-20 summit.

"Appreciate inviting me to the G-20 summit," he tweeted after a phone call with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday.

"Thanked for the support of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, in particular, for a clear position in the UN. Food security issues were discussed," he also wrote.

The G-20 summit will take place in autumn 2022 in Indonesia.
Ukrainian Red Cross has collected over UAH 1 bln for Ukraine since start of war

Red Cross of Ukraine, since February 24, has collected more than UAH 1.086 billion for assistance to Ukraine.

During this period, humanitarian aid for Ukrainians was purchased for more than UAH 386 million, the press release of the Red Cross reads.

"In two months of continuous work, the Red Cross has already helped about 980,000 people in Ukraine. More than 200 local organizations, 500 employees and 8,000 volunteers are working. We continue to deliver humanitarian cargo to all areas, provide the internally displaced people with what they need, as well as provide first aid and first psychological assistance," the organization reports.

In addition, the Red Cross has trained about 45,600 people in first aid. Volunteers of the Rapid Response Unit transport people with limited mobility to shelters, people in serious condition to medical facilities, as well as accompany the evacuation of the population from dangerous areas.

The Red Cross also conducts education on compliance with the rules of war (international humanitarian law), mine awareness, engagement of partners and mobilization of resources to help the people of Ukraine.
In Lviv and Lviv region, employees of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) are conducting searches of the relatives of MP Viktor Medvedchuk and former MP Taras Kozak, the SBI has reported.

"Employees of Lviv Territorial Department of the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conduct searches of the relatives of Ukrainian MP Viktor Medvedchuk and former MP Taras Kozak. In Lviv and the region, investigative actions are taking place in apartments, houses and industrial enterprises belonging to the Kozak family, as well as Viktor Medvedchuk's brother Serhiy," the SBI said in a statement posted on the agency's Facebook page on Wednesday.

According to the Bureau, the searches are conducted as part of criminal proceedings on suspicion of abuse of power and violation of the rules of protection or use of subsurface resources (Article 364, Article 240 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). "The relatives of Kozak and Medvedchuk are the subjects of criminal proceedings on illegal extraction of sand at two quarries in Lviv region. The purpose of the investigation is to establish the illegally acquired property of Viktor Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak and their relatives, its further arrest, as well as documenting the involvement of the subjects in the financing of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine," the message reads.

The SBI specifies that only during the search of an apartment belonging to Kozak's wife, the investigators seized more than $108,000, EUR 8,500, 18,600 Russian rubles, and documents for real estate and bank cards.
Swiss authorities are imposing a ban on coal imports from Russia following a similar decision by the European Union, the Swiss Federal Council said in a statement.

"The new measures include far-reaching sanctions on goods, including a ban on imports of lignite and coal as well as on goods that are important sources of revenue for Russia (e.g. timber, cement, seafood, caviar)," the statement said.

"In addition, there are export bans on goods that can help strengthen Russia's industrial capacities (e.g. industrial robots or certain chemical products)," the document said.
The need to get IAEA inspectors access to the Zaporizhia NPP was announced by its Director General Rafael Grossi on Wednesday, he is negotiating with Russia and Ukraine on this issue, but there is no progress yet.

In an interview with Associated Press, Grossi explained that the IAEA needs access to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine so that its inspectors can, among other things, re-establish communications with the UN agency's headquarters in Vienna. This requires the help of both Russia and Ukraine. The Zaporizhia NPP also needs to be repaired, and this is not happening at all.

So this is an unresolved issue... At the time of our conversation, I do not see any movement in this direction, the IAEA head complained.

Grossi stressed that he would soon hold talks with the Russian side.

Speaking of talks with Ukraine on the issue, he said: I had a lengthy conversation with President Volodymyr Zelensky the night before, and this topic will still require consultations.

At present, ZNPP is under the control of the Russian invaders.
Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger suggests that instead of suspending it for a year, the import duties on Ukrainian exports to the EU should be cancelled permanently.

"Strongly welcome & support todays proposal of Valdis Domrovskis to bring tariffs on Ukraines imports to the EU down to zero for one year. This is also one of the elements of Slovakias Plan for Ukraine, which I shared at the summit in Versailles. Just not for 1 year but for good," Heger
CCTV: Yesterday, China and Pakistan both strongly condemned the terrorist attack on a van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi. Can you tell us more about the relevant situation and the emergency response work?

Wang Wenbin: We once again express deep sorrow for the loss of Chinese and Pakistani lives and sincere sympathies to the injured and the bereaved families.

This is a premeditated suicide terrorist attack targeted at Chinese citizens. It is egregious and outrageous that the terrorists targeted teachers, who are dedicated to carrying forward human civilization and promoting cultural exchanges. The Chinese side expresses strong condemnation and grave indignation over this.

The people and their lives always come first. The Chinese government always attaches great importance to the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions overseas. As required by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and diplomatic missions in Pakistan activated the emergency response mechanism and sent officials to the site immediately after the incident. Diplomats at the Chinese Foreign Ministry and diplomatic missions in Pakistan asked the Pakistani side, through multiple channels, to take all-out measures to treat the injured and handle the follow-up matters of the victims, immediately conduct a thorough investigation, and apprehend and punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law. In the meantime, the Pakistani side needs to take more robust measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions in Pakistan and prevent such incidents from happening again. The Chinese diplomatic missions in Pakistan also reminded Chinese institutions and personnel to be more vigilant, scale up security protocols and protect their own safety. Line departments and sub-national governments here in China are also taking swift actions in a coordinated manner to ensure sound emergency response. Yesterday, the Chinese Consul General in Karachi went to the hospital to visit the injured Chinese teacher, who is receiving proper treatment and recovering.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan last night to convey condolences, stressing that the Pakistani government is mobilizing all resources to conduct an in-depth probe into the incident. We wont rest until the culprits are hunted down and given exemplary punishment, the Prime Minister said. He also assured complete cooperation with China to ensure sound work in handling the follow-up matters of the casualties and take further steps to strengthen the security work for Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan. He said his government will never allow any force to undermine the great friendship and cooperation between Pakistan and China.

I would like to stress that terrorism is the common enemy of mankind. The blood of the Chinese citizens shall not be shed in vain. China firmly supports Pakistans counter-terrorism efforts. We will work with Pakistan to hunt down the perpetrators and make sure they are brought to justice and pay a heavy price.

We once again remind Chinese citizens, companies and projects to follow closely the local security situation and meticulously guard against security risks.

AFP: Sticking with the theme of yesterdays terrorist attack. Is the foreign ministry able to provide any more information on the motivations behind this attack? What is the health status of the injured Chinese national at the moment? Is China concerned that the threat of terrorism may affect its economic projects in Pakistan, especially in the Balochistan region?

Wang Wenbin: As I just said, the injured is receiving proper treatment and recovering.

I also want to stress that the iron-clad friendship between China and Pakistan is unbreakable and any attempt to undermine China-Pakistan mutual trust and cooperation and the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will never succeed. The terrorists will pay a heavy price for their crimes.

Beijing Youth Daily: According to reports, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink warned of a complete lack of transparency of the security deal between China and Solomon Islands the other day. The head of the Office of National Intelligence of Australia said Chinas motives were particularly unhelpful for the region. Do you have any response?

Wang Wenbin: The normal security cooperation between China and Solomon Islands, two sovereign states, is consistent with international law and international customary practice. It is legitimate, lawful and irreproachable.

The US and Australias accusations against China are pure double standards. The US shows no openness and transparency when it conducted nuclear tests and dumped nuclear wastes in the South Pacific region and when AUKUS opened the Pandoras Box of nuclear proliferation in the Asia-Pacific region.

The US and Australia should respect the rights and freedoms of South Pacific island countries to independently pursue exchanges and cooperation with other countries. The attempt to pursue the new Monroe Doctrine in the South Pacific region is unpopular and will lead nowhere.

AFP: A follow-up on Solomon Islands. On top of the remarks by US officials, Australian Home Affairs Minister said it is very likely that China will put troops in Solomon Islands. Do you have any comment on this? Does China plan to disclose the whole treaty?

Wang Wenbin: Some Australian politicians are used to seeking their own political gains by making denigrating remarks against China, and the international community has seen enough of this. Such statements cannot fool the international community or the Australian people. As for whether the China-Solomon Islands security agreement will be made public, we will act in accordance with international customary practice on the basis of bilateral consultation.

AFP: According to reports, Chinas Defense Minister Wei Fenghe is going to visit Iran. Could you offer more information on the visit?

Wang Wenbin: Id like to refer you to the Ministry of National Defense for this question.

AFP: Yesterday, a US guided-missile destroyer made a transit through the Taiwan Strait. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: You may have read the statement on this made by the spokesperson of the PLA Eastern Theater Command. We hope the US can abide by the one-China principle and stop such dangerous provocations in the Taiwan Strait.

Associated Press of Pakistan: A follow-up on the Karachi terrorist attack. After the incident, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Chief Minister of Sindh Province visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad and the Chinese Consulate in Karachi and offered condolences and also strongly condemned the terrorist attack. During his meeting with Acting Ambassador, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif also assured the exemplary punishment to the culprits. Do you have any comment on that?

Wang Wenbin: We noted that Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan last night to convey condolences. Chief Minister of Sindh Province visited the Chinese Consulate-General in Karachi to express condolences, and promptly launched rescue, follow-up work, and investigation in the wake of the incident. Leaders of various political parties and people from different sectors in Pakistan expressed sympathies and condolences.

I would like to stress that the iron-clad friendship between China and Pakistan is unbreakable and attempts to undermine China-Pakistan friendship will never succeed. We will work closely with Pakistan to resolutely crack down on terrorism and hold the perpetrators accountable for what they did.

China Review News: According to reports, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a congressional hearing on April 26 that the administration is determined to make sure that Taiwan has all necessary means to defend itself against any potential aggression and that it is focused on strengthening Taiwans asymmetric capabilities. What is your comment on this?

Wang Wenbin: I have noted those remarks of the US side. We deplore and reject Secretary Blinkens statement. Since China and the US established diplomatic ties in 1979, US administrations, including the current one, have all clearly stated that they would adhere to the one-China policy. The China-US Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations and the August 17 Communique clearly noted that the United States of America recognizes the Government of the Peoples Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, and it acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China. In the Shanghai Communique, the U.S. side also declared that The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position. The US admits that Taiwan is part of China, but keeps talking about the mainlands potential aggression of Taiwan. Isnt this self-contradictory since a country can not invade part of its own territory?

The US leadership has stated on multiple occasions that the US does not support Taiwan independence. However, the US side has not stopped selling arms to and having official contact with Taiwan, which have sent wrong signals to Taiwan independence separatist forces. We have this stern warning for the US side: The historical trend of Chinas reunification cannot be held back, and the one-China principle is what underpins peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The US side shall not underestimate the strong resolve, determination and capability of the 1.4 billion Chinese people in defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Reneging on the commitment will push Taiwan to dangerous waters and bring unbearable cost to the US itself.
Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak, during an online meeting with the leadership of foreign embassies in Ukraine, presented an action plan to strengthen sanctions against the Russian Federation developed by the Yermak-McFaul international expert group, the press service of the President's Office reported.

"We are not so naive as to expect that economic pressure on the aggressor country will lead to an early end to hostilities. However, this second front  the front of international sanctions  will significantly limit the aggressive aspirations of Russia. Usually, economic difficulties became its best pacifier," Yermak noted and stressed that although Ukraine withstood the first, most acute phase of the Russian invasion, victory requires both strengthening the Armed Forces and an effective sanctions policy against the Russian Federation.

According to Yermak, the plan presented to the ambassadors is aimed at depriving Russia of finances, production capabilities and technology used for the war, and forcing the Russian Federation to focus on overcoming its internal problems, and Russian citizens to pay for facilitating aggression.

"We need coordinated, comprehensive and effective actions of a wide range. We must make sanctions work without failures and imitations against entire sectors of the Russian economy," he is convinced.

First of all, we are talking about a complete oil and gas embargo, about the need to introduce a scheme that will deprive Russia of access to funds for the export of oil and gas.

Among other points of the plan, Yermak singled out comprehensive sanctions against financial institutions in Russia and Belarus, the inclusion of the Russian Federation in the FATF black list and the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The restrictions should also affect export-import and insurance operations and provide for transport measures such as the complete closure of maritime traffic.

Separately, he noted the importance of strengthening transparency and deepening coordination between the countries participating in the sanctions. Particular attention should be paid to the introduction of secondary sanctions mechanisms, which should target intermediaries providing services in evasion schemes.

"I think that armaments and sanctions policy are the most important instruments of support from your states to Ukraine and the entire free democratic world, which our country is defending today, in order to stop this war," Yermak emphasized.

In turn, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba called on the states standing side by side with Ukraine to make it a rule that there are no taboos on sanctions until Russia is stopped.

The Foreign Minister also suggested that partner countries should adopt the Yermak-McFaul Plan as a roadmap on what kind of sanctions should be applied against the Russian Federation.

In addition, he drew attention to the importance of encouraging the businesses of these countries to leave the Russian Federation as soon as possible.

"Ukraine and Ukrainians are now acting decisively and sacrificing themselves for the sake of winning this war. We thank you for standing by our side and ask you to do everything to end this war as soon as possible," Kuleba stressed.
A large-scale political provocation is being prepared in destroyed Mariupol with an attempt to attract some Western journalists, for this purpose the Russian Defense Ministry is planning a so-called "press tour" for loyal foreign media representatives on April 28, according to the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

"The program of the event includes alternative facts about the defense of Mariupol. Trained witnesses will tell the story that allegedly the Ukrainian defenders themselves bombed the city and killed local residents. To confirm this version, trained provocateurs will be presented as eyewitnesses who will talk about the mythical mass murder of civilians by the Ukrainian military," the message posted on the Agencys website says.

The arrival of the "journalists" in Ukraine is organized through Russian Rostov.

"This action is an organic continuation of the Russian policy of creating fakes that are supposed to justify Putin's punishers and shift the blame for their crimes onto Ukrainians themselves. Former 'business cards of Yarosh' and 'crucified boys' are being turned into 'self-destructive' Bucha and Mariupol," the intelligence service stressed.
Head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU must mobilize all available resources for the reconstruction of Ukraine, including local and regional cooperation.

"Therefore, I whole-heartedly support President Zelensky's proposal to involve, through partnerships, the cities and regions of the European Union in these reconstruction efforts," said the chairman of the EC on local and regional cooperation between Ukraine and the EU.

"Europe's strength is based on our citizens working tirelessly on improving daily lives and the future of our children in cities, towns, villages and neighbourhoods. Our cities and regions have experience and expertise when it comes to rebuilding and managing the daily lives of citizens. And we want to share this expertise with you," Von der Leyen said in a statement issued in Brussels on Wednesday.

According to her, "peer-to-peer cooperation at all local and regional levels will allow us to speed up Ukraine's reconstruction."

"We will expand exponentially the number of twin cities and twin regions between our two peoples. You can count on the huge solidarity of European citizens in support of Ukraine. And I know that we can also count on the 'European Committee of the Regions' that is actively linking our local and regional networks in the European Union with their Ukraine counterparts," she said.

"We will help you to reconstruct your country and we will walk together with you on your European path," Von der Leyen said.
Defenders of Mariupol ask to apply procedure of extraction following example of operation in 1940 to save people

Commander of the 36th separate brigade of marines of the Navy of the AFU, Serhiy Volynsky (Volyna), is asking to save Mariupol garrison and conduct the procedure of "extraction", following the example of the operation in Dunkirk in 1940.

"We have been fighting in complete encirclement for 62 days, now we are at the Azovstal plant, performing tasks together with units of the Azov regiment and other units that have been encircled due to hostilities in Mariupol," he said in a video message posted on his Facebook page.

The commander reported that right now "we have more than 600 wounded guys in our group with different levels of difficulty, they really need medical help: there are no facilities, no medicines, no personnel to help them."

He also stressed that there are wounded civilians that they are helping as much as they can.

"There are more civilians here with us, hundreds of them, dozens of children, there are many people with disabilities, many elderly people. The situation is very difficult, there are huge problems with water, food...," Volynsky said.

He noted that he had already made appeals to world leaders and the Pope to have the defenders heard and to apply the procedure of "extraction." As an example, he cited Operation Dynamo (Dunkirk Operation, Dunkirk Evacuation) during World War II.

"After breaking through the Maginot Line on May 10, 1940 and the surrender of the Netherlands on May 14, the German command developed its success. Parts of the British Expeditionary Force under the command of Lord John Gort, French units and formations, which were part of the 16th Corps, and the remnants of the Belgian troops were blockaded in the area of Dunkirk. The Allied troops piled up on the coast were in danger of disaster, but Hitler ordered that the advancing tanks be stopped. Hitler ordered not to approach Dunkirk closer than 10 km and not to use tanks against the blockaded group," Volynsky explained on his Facebook post.

He noted that in 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in his famous speech, called the events at Dunkirk "a miraculous deliverance," and Churchill's praise was meant for the rescue operation in which 338,226 French and British soldiers were evacuated from the beach and harbor of Dunkirk, France.

"Today my main message is to save the Mariupol garrison, carry out the extraction procedure to us. Today is not 1940, it's 2022. People will simply die here. The wounded will die and the living will die in combat, civilians are dying here along with us in bunkers, private houses and apartment buildings, where they are simply shot...A very, very many people have died in the city, the city is practically wiped off the face of the earth," he urged.
AFU repel nine enemy attacks, destroy 65 units of Russian military equipment in Donetsk and Luhansk regions in past 24 hours

In Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the Armed Forces of Ukraine repelled nine enemy attacks during the day and destroyed 65 units of Russian military equipment, Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the head of the Presidents Office said.

"In Donetsk and Luhansk regions alone, nine enemy attacks were repelled in the past 24 hours. Nine tanks, 11 artillery systems, four units of special and 17 armored vehicles, three units of special engineering vehicles, 16 vehicles, four fuel tankers and one anti-aircraft system were destroyed," Arestovych said at a briefing at the President's Office on Wednesday evening.

According to him, the main directions of concentration of the enemy forces remain the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) zone in the direction of Sloviansk-Kramatorsk and Mariupol.

He also added that the enemy fails to reach the administrative border of Kherson region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expects proposals from local authorities for the post-war reconstruction of the regions.

"There was a meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. We discussed a range of issues, including the rebuilding of our state. We are already working out all the details so that the post-war reconstruction project can be implemented quickly and as effectively as possible. I emphasized that we expect specific requests and proposals from local authorities, so that we can talk substantively with our partners, with international donors," he said in a video message Wednesday night.

According to the president, "the communities must give all the information about the destroyed housing. "We discussed how and in what sequence to build, how to organize the redemption of finished housing. Our goal is not only to restore what was destroyed by the occupiers, but also to solve the long-standing problems that exist with the housing queues," the president said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the decision of the European Commission to remove all EU customs duties and quotas for Ukrainian exports will help all Europeans.

According to the head of state, the European Commission agreed to remove all customs duties and quotas for Ukrainian exports for a year, as well as to suspend anti-dumping tariffs.

"I am personally grateful to Ursula von der Leyen and all our European friends for this step. Now this will allow us to preserve economic activity in Ukraine and our national production to the maximum. But this decision should be considered not only in the Ukrainian context. A sufficient volume of exports of our products to European and global markets will be an important anti-crisis tool," Zelensky said in a video message on Tuesday evening.

He noted that Russia is trying to provoke a global price crisis so that chaos begins in all basic markets, in particular, food markets.

"Ukrainian exports will help stabilize markets. This is beneficial not only to us, but to all Europeans. To residents of all countries that could be hit by Russian destructive ambitions," the president said.

Zelensky also added that new partner solutions for the liberalization of Ukrainian exports are in the pipeline.

"We will agree with the EU on how to increase the potential of transport corridors on our western border," he said.
Ihor Zhdanov, Information Defence Project , Open Policy Foundation

Informational Defence of Ukraine provides a daily review of the military-political situation in Ukraine as of the past day of April 26th, based on an analysis of open sources.

1. The Armed Forces of Ukraine heroically restrain the enemy's attacks in the decisive battle for the Donbas.

The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukrainian defenders had relieved 931 settlements from occupation.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the groups of enemy troops are carrying out offensive operations in the Eastern Operational Zone. The main goal remains the encirclement and defeat of the united Forces there, the establishment of full control over the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the provision of a land corridor with the occupied Crimea.

In the Slobozhanskyi direction, enemy groups from the 6th Military Army of the Western Military District, the coastal troops of the Baltic and Northern Fleets continue to partially block Kharkiv and fire on the city.

In the Izium direction, units and subdivisions of the enemy from the 1st Panzer Army, 20th and 35th Armies, 68th Army Corps and Airborne Troops, supported by artillery, are advancing in the direction of Barvinkove .

In the Donetsk direction, the enemy is taking active action along almost the entire line of the contact zone. The main efforts are focused on taking control of Rubizhne, Popasna and Marinka; the enemy is building up a group of troops to develop the attacks in the direction of the settlement of Lyman.

russian invaders have continued artillery shelling and air strikes on Mariupol. The blockade of Ukrainian troops near the Azovstal plant continues.

On the territory of the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova, units of the operational group of russian troops have been put on alert "Completely", the security forces have been transferred to an enhanced mode of service.

The total combat losses of the enemy from February 24 to April 26 were approximately: combatants  approximately 22,100 (+200) people were eliminated, tanks - 918 (+34) units, armoured combat vehicles - 2308 (+50) units, artillery systems - 416 (+5) units, MLRS - 149 (+0) units, air defence means - 69 (+0) units, aircraft - 184 (+3) units, helicopters - 154 (+0) units, automotive equipment - 1643 (+77) units, ships / boats - 8 (+0) units, fuel tanks - 76 (+0), UAVs of operational and tactical level - 205 (+4), special equipment - 31 (+3), launchers TBM / BRBM (tactical ballistic missile / battlefield range ballistic missile) - 4 (+0).

In the east of Ukraine, fighters of the operational and tactical group "East" killed up to 160 enemy combatants and destroyed enemy equipment per day. In general, 6 enemy attacks were repulsed in the Donetsk and Luhansk directions.

A week has passed since the beginning of the so-called great offensive of the russian army in the Donbas. russia's top military and political leadership, according to intelligence, has set a goal for the command of the occupying forces to achieve the strategic success of the operations and surround the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by May 9th.

The enemy has not achieved any strategic or operational success, its advance in the direction of the main strike is limited to a few, at least ten kilometers. According to Information Defence analysts, the rigid timing of the end of operations leads to the dominance of political priorities over the purely military objectives of the operation.

The russian command was unable to create real offensive groups, fully restore the combat effectiveness of the demoralised BTGs previously used near Kyiv, and create a second successful movement.

Project experts note that the occupiers' offensive actions are characterised by sluggishness and insufficient operational speed. To break through the defence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a large number of infantry are used, who ruthlessly refer to the assault on the positions of the Ukrainian military as "cannon fodder". Orders are issued demanding that a settlement be taken at any cost, which leads to great losses of manpower and equipment of the russian occupiers.

According to Information Defence analysts, the large number of russian tanks (34 units) and armoured combat vehicles (50 units) shot down over the past 24 hours (April 25th) can be explained on the one hand by the massive use of enemy armoured vehicles to attack Ukrainian positions. On the other hand, we have a really skilful use of modern domestic and foreign anti-tank weapons by servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The enemy's plan to surround the environmental group in the Donbas failed, it is necessary to finally deplete the occupying forces, bleed them, "knock out" armoured vehicles and, ultimately, deprive the enemy of any offensive potential.

The next stage of the Ukrainian-russian war will be the organisation of a decisive counterattack of the Armed Forces, during which the accumulated strategic and operational reserves, stocks of modern weapons and heavy offensive equipment, which Ukraine has received recently, will be used.

2. Information summaries, reviews and assessments of foreign, Ukrainian intelligence and think tanks.

According to the reviews of UK intelligence, russian forces are apparently trying to surround the well-fortified Ukrainian positions in eastern Ukraine.

Kreminna as it is reported has fallen, and there is a heavy fighting in the south of Izium. russian troops try to advance into the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk from the north and east. Ukrainian forces are preparing the defence of Zaporizhzhia in case of a possible attack by russia from the south, the ministry official has added.

According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine in unrecognised Transnistria a few days ago, there were preparations for "explosions" organized by the FSB to justify the war with Ukraine or to involve the Transnistrian region in hostilities in the war against Ukraine.

Ukraine recognises this is one of a series of provocative measures organised by the FSB to fuel panic and anti-Ukrainian sentiment.

3. The russian occupiers are violating international humanitarian law and committing genocide against Ukrainians.

The russian aggressors kill Ukrainian children. 608 children were injured in Ukraine as a result of the armed aggression of the russian federation. According to officials, 217 children were killed and more than 391 were injured.

Most children were affected in the Donetsk (127), Kyiv (114), Kharkiv (93), Chernihiv (66), Kherson (44), Mykolaiiv (43), Luhansk (37), Zaporizhzhia (27), Sumy (17) and Zhytomyr (15) regions, as well as in Kyiv City (16).

In particular, on April 25th, two children aged 9 and 13 died of their injuries as a result of the russian occupiers shelling of residential buildings in Lyman in the Donetsk region.

The russian occupiers kill and abduct civilians, hold them hostage and torture them. russians continue to grossly violate international rules for the treatment of prisoners of war. The Security Service of Ukraine has evidence of torture of Ukrainian men and women in the occupied territory of Ukraine and in the territory of the russian federation.

The russian military in Mariupol does not give food to men until they are involved in work, including dismantling debris, arranging mass graves, and so on.

In the occupied Kherson, the occupiers and collaborators held a meeting at which they appointed the so-called "head" of the Kherson Regional State Administration Volodymyr Saldo and the "head" of the Kherson City Administration Oleksandr Kobets.

The russian invaders are launching missile and bomb strikes on civilians, towns and villages. On the morning of April 26th (the day of the Chornobyl disaster), two russian cruise missiles flew at low altitudes over the Zaporizhzhia NPP in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, threatening the nuclear security of Ukraine and the world.

On the night of April 26th, the russian occupiers continued to fire on the east and south of Ukraine, the worst situation was in the Donbas and Kherson regions.

During the night of April 26th, 35 air strikes were carried out on Azovstal, civilians who are blockaded at the plant were injured

In the Kharkiv region, the intensity of night shelling on April 26th has decreased. The occupiers shelled the city during the day, as well as the Zolochivskyi district and Derhachi.

There were 17 shelling attacks in the Luhansk region during a day. Popasna, Lysychansk, and the Hirske Community suffered mostly. Popasna withstood four powerful artillery attacks, while Lysychansk withstood two of them. The houses were damaged there.

The night was restless in Donetsk region. It is currently known that there are three wounded civilians: two in Marinka , one in Velyka Novosilka.

In the Mykolaiiv area, there were night attacks on the city. It is known about one victim: a man died in his own house as a result of a shrapnel wound.

A tense situation is in the Kherson region. Explosions and shelling took place almost throughout the region.

4. Political and socio-economic situation in Ukraine, economic losses due to russian aggression.

The government and society demonstrate unity, patriotism and faith in victory. Today, the Unified Database of Internally Displaced Persons contains information on 3.4 million people.

More than 2 million of them are people who were displaced after the martial law. And 1.9 million of them were forced to move for the first time.

The Supreme Anti-Corruption Court has lifted the seizure of funds in a criminal case for trying to bribe the leadership of anti-corruption bodies for $6 million and transferred them to the army.

Economic losses due to russian aggression. russia's GDP will recover after sanctions in 10 years, Ukraine's GDP growth will reach pre-war levels in five years, despite a much deeper decline. This is stated in the forecast of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The outflow of foreign currency and valuables by residents and non-residents of Ukraine to the European Union since February 24th reached three billion euros.

As of April 26th, 868 settlements in Ukraine remain without electricity due to the intensification of hostilities by the russian federation and the emergence of new damage.

5. International support and assistance to Ukraine.

Military assistance to Ukraine. On Tuesday, April 26th, a conference was held at the US Air Force base "Ramstein" in Germany, where representatives of twenty countries discussed support for Ukraine. During the conference, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov delivered a message from Kyiv.

Among other things, Ukraine needs air defence and UAVs, artillery systems, multiple rocket launchers, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, aircraft, anti-ship missiles.

On April 25th, the US State Department issued a declaration of state of emergency to approve a potential sale of $165 million worth of ammunition to Ukraine to help protect the country from russian invasion.

The Pentagon said the package could include artillery ammunition for howitzers, tanks and grenade launchers, such as 152-mm shells for 2A36 Hyacinth; 152-mm shells for the D-20 gun; VOG-17 for the AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher; 125 mm caliber ammunition for the T-72 and 152 mm for the 2A65 Msta-B (howitzer).

The Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki on Polish channels confirmed the transfer of tanks to Ukraine.

Last week, the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed that the UK is sending major battle tanks Challenger 2 to Poland to replace T-72 tanks that Poland would send to Ukraine.

Financial assistance to Ukraine. The UK has lifted all tariffs and restrictions on Ukrainian exports under a free trade agreement that was due to work for Ukraine from 2023 onwards. From now, all tariffs and quotas covered by the trade agreement between the UK and Ukraine, i.e. primarily for agricultural and industrial products, have been abolished.

Such a step "will provide Ukraine with economic support in difficult times," the UK government said.

Denmark became the first donor to a fund set up by the Energy Community to rebuild Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

The Prime Minister of Bulgaria Kiril Petkov launched a fundraising campaign for Ukraine and called on citizens to donate a monthly salary, as he did.

Humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The United Kingdom donated 22 ambulances and 40 fire engines with equipment to Ukraine.

6. Statements, provocations and fakes of russian aggressors.

On April 25th , the russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov announced the real risk of the nuclear war. According to him, the risk of nuclear war is real, and this danger "cannot be underestimated."

He has also said that the russian-Ukrainian war will end with the signing of an agreement, but everything will depend on the course of hostilities.

russians may plan provocative explosions on the dam of the Karlovy Vary Reservoir in the Donetsk region.

The Center for Countering Disinformation notes that this may be an informational and psychological operation of the occupiers, but the possibility of implementing such a plan cannot be completely ruled out.

The kremlin is threatening Ukraine "with its head of the DPR (Donetsk Peoples Republic) militants, Denis Pushylin, emphasising what is happening in Transnistria.

RIA Novosti reported that Pushylin allegedly has said: "after reaching the borders of the Donetsk region" it is necessary to begin "the next stage of the operation, taking into account what is happening in Transnistria and the shelling of the border regions with russia."

russia's Ministry of Defence is threatening to strike at "decision-making centres" in Kyiv if Ukraine attacks facilities in russia.

7. Political and socio-economic situation in russia, the impact of international sanctions on it.

New sanctions and restrictions against russia. Poland has approved its first sanctions list, which includes russia's Gazprom, a number of russian and Belarusian oligarchs - 50 legal entities and individuals.

Due to the war in Ukraine, large commercial banks in Estonia are suspending payments to russia and Belarus, as well as accepting payments from these countries.

German Minister of Economy Robert Habeck has said that he is ready to cut off russian oil supplies.

The negative impact of sanctions on the russian economy. Volvo Cars and Jaguar Land Rover after General Motors is downsizing its russian offices - JLR is actually leaving russia, leaving only staff in the state to coordinate administrative interactions at the closing of the legal entity.

Against the background of sanctions and violations of logistics, telecom operators have stopped investing in the development of networks - there is already a shortage of foreign equipment for the development of telecommunications networks.
On 25 April 2022 the Pryluky tobacco factory has resumed its manufacturing operations.

BAT Ukraine has made a thorough risk and threat analysis and has decided to take a phased approach to resume manufacturing at our Pryluky factory.

In these challenging times we need to satisfy the demand of our Ukrainian and foreign adult consumers and to support the functioning of the Ukrainian economy.

The operations at the Pryluky factory comply with all applicable security and safety requirements, curfew and other restrictions proper to martial law.

We are constantly monitoring the security and safety situation in Pryluky and Chernihiv region and will adapt our activities to changing realities.

We believe that restoring manufacturing operation in Pryluky is a proof of our commitment towards our employees, adult consumers and the economy of Ukraine.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said Mali could collapse if a UN peacekeeping mission withdrew, but suggested an option could be to replace it with an African Union force backed by a tougher operating mandate.
As the EU poises to mark its anniversary on Monday, it is morphing into a more muscular global actor, a transformation accelerated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Cairos famous Al-Hussein mosque has been closed by the authorities until further notice as a result of worshippers' non-compliance with the new coronavirus precautions, mandatory since mosques reopened last week.

Some prayer-goers at the mosque had opposed the precautions related to physical distancing and had remained in the mosque after prayers were over, according to a Thursday statement by the religious endowments ministry, violating rules which prevent any non-prayer activities or gatherings from being held on mosque premises at present.

Under the new rules, worshippers are required to wear masks when they pray, bring their own prayer mats, and keep at least 1.5 metres apart for the daily prayer services, which have been allowed since Saturday.

Mosques, which had been closed since March, are also only allowed to remain open for 30 minutes for prayer services under the new regulations.

The ministry, which runs the country's mosques, decided to refer Al-Hussein mosque's imams and staff for investigation for failure to perform their duties.

The mosque is located in Old Cairo and houses a religiously significant shrine.

Under the reopening rules, doors leading to mosque shrines must be shut until further notice, in an attempt to reduce crowding.

The ministry called upon all worshippers, especially those who love Ahl al-Bayt, or the family of the Prophet, to adhere to all preventative measures, to avoid the closure of any more mosques.

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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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Nearly 5.3 million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia launched its invasion two months ago, the UN said Tuesday, warning that three million more were expected to follow this year.

In total, 5,264,767 people have fled Ukraine as refugees since February 24, according to the latest data from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

That marks an increase of 32,753 over Monday's figure.

While the outflow has slowed significantly since March, UNHCR said Tuesday it now projects that three million more Ukrainians could become refugees by the end of the year.

UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said the new projection of 8.3 million Ukrainian refugees was a planning figure, and that it was unclear when it would be reached amid a "highly dynamic" situation.

"This displacement has been on such an expansive scale, and the rapidity of this we haven't seen in recent times," she told reporters in Geneva.

The UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said an additional 224,975 citizens of third countries -- largely students and migrant workers -- have also escaped to neighbouring countries since the invasion began.

Women and children account for 90 percent of those who have fled abroad, with men aged 18 to 60 eligible for military call-up unable to leave.

Beyond the refugees, the IOM estimates more than 7.7 million people have been displaced within Ukraine.

Almost two-thirds of Ukrainian children have had to flee their homes, including those who remain in the country.

Before the invasion, Ukraine had a population of 37 million in the regions under government control, excluding Russia-annexed Crimea and the pro-Russian separatist-controlled regions in the east.

Here is a breakdown of how many Ukrainian refugees have fled to neighbouring countries, according to UNHCR:

Poland

Nearly six out of 10 Ukrainian refugees -- 2,922,978 so far -- have crossed into Poland, according to UNHCR numbers up to April 25.

Many of them have travelled on to other states in Europe's Schengen open-borders zone.

Meanwhile, more than 800,000 people have crossed from Poland into Ukraine, Polish border guards said.

Before the war, Poland was home to around 1.5 million Ukrainians, chiefly migrant workers.

Romania

A total of 782,598 Ukrainians have entered the EU member state as of April 25, including a large number who crossed over from Moldova, wedged between Romania and Ukraine.

The vast majority are thought to have gone on to other countries.

Russia

Another 614,318 refugees have sought shelter in Russia, according to data last updated on April 25.

In addition, 105,000 people crossed into Russia from the separatist-held pro-Russian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine between February 18 and 23.

Hungary

A total of 496,914 Ukrainians had entered Hungary as of April 25.

Moldova

The Moldovan border is the closest to the major port city of Odessa. A total of 435,275 Ukrainians have crossed into the non-EU state, one of the poorest in Europe, with a population of 2.6 million. Most have moved on.

Slovakia

A total of 357,560 people had crossed Ukraine's shortest border into Slovakia as of April 25.

Belarus

Another 24,578 refugees made it north to Russia's close ally Belarus as of April 24.

Returns

At the same time, many Ukrainians have also travelled back into Ukraine. UNHCR said that between February 28 and April 25, Ukrainian border guards had registered 1,185,500 Ukrainians returning to the country.

UNHCR stressed though that "this figure reflects cross-border movements, which can be pendular, and does not necessarily indicate sustainable returns as the situation across Ukraine remains highly volatile and unpredictable.

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World attention will focus on Egypt during the COP27 Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, the culmination of years of work on environmental protection and action against climate change.

The international communitys choice of Egypt as the venue for the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP27) in November this year is a recognition of the stability and development Egypt has achieved over the past seven years and a landmark in the recovery of its international status.

But the choice has not sat well with those who do not wish well to Egypt and its people. They maintain that Egypt cares little about environmental protection and that it has made no progress in this domain, a claim that is patently false, as I know from personal experience.

Some years ago, I had the good fortune to meet with and learn a lot from three leading international environmental experts, all of them Egyptian, Abdel-Fattah Al-Qassas, Mustafa Tolba, and Rushdi Said. Out of my concern for the issue, I presented a motion to discuss the issue in parliament. After I spoke, a fellow MP complimented my speech, then adding that fortunately, we live in a good and decent environment, thank God. At the time there was little awareness about environmental issues. In fact, the man thought I had been talking about the social environment.

The disappointment only increased my determination to draw attention to crucial environmental concerns. Along with like-minded colleagues, I pressed for the creation of a national council or Ministry of the Environment. A ministry was then created and was headed by Laila Iskander, a social entrepreneur long involved in promoting environmental and social development projects. She was concerned by global warming, and she urged measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She presented proposals to this end, but unfortunately the cabinet at that time was not interested.

But Egypt was not alone at that time in its lack of concern for environmental dangers. Since then, however, the question has become of paramount importance, and Egypt has made great strides at the governmental, parliamentary, and civil society levels in raising awareness and taking the necessary actions to address environmental problems.

Under President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, the environment has acquired the priority it merits. His personal concern has been practical and exacting. On opening a cement factory, for example, when given a presentation that covered the technical and financial aspects of the project, he said, now tell me about the environmental impacts. Without the proper precautions, cement production is an environmentally pollutant industry.

Al-Sisi also attended the Biodiversity Conference hosted by Egypt, making him the first Egyptian president to place the environment high on the national agenda and on the agenda of the presidency. Soon after coming to power, he issued a presidential decree on producing electricity from renewable energy sources, the first of many similar acts to promote clean and renewable energy.

In case some think I am blinded by pro-government bias, I will turn to other media sources to testify to the new political will and the consequent progress in environmental matters.

The US channel CNN, known for its biases in favour of Israel, Turkey, and Qatar and its inclination to ignore Egypts achievements, has recently hailed a number of developments in Egypt such as the new desalinisation plant at Gabal Al-Asfar, the initiative to replace old petrol-guzzling cars with more environmentally friendly natural-gas powered vehicles, the new green public transport network, the clean energy awareness-raising campaign targeting women in rural Egypt, and the grassroots project started by a group of women to recycle used cooking oil in energy production.

In addition, there is the monorail project that operates on electric power and the new battery powered microbuses that have begun to replace those operating on diesel.

The Egyptian government is applying the latest international standards for sustainable, smart, and green urban development. One example is the New Administrative Capital, which according to one report is a model of integrated sustainable development with interconnected systems for waste management, clean energy, and green lungs. According to the report, there is 17 m2 of green space per capita, in keeping with international standards.

New legislation is now in place to stimulate and regulate investment in green energy. The government has increased investment in green projects and is expected to raise it again soon. In September 2020, Egypt became the first Arab country to issue green bonds, selling $750 million worth of the five-year bonds to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability and to investing in the green economy to ensure a healthy environment with a minimal carbon footprint for future generations.

In 2020, Egypt chaired the Conference on Biological Diversity. It is co-chair of the African Group of Negotiators on the Climate Change Agreement and co-chair with the UK of a coalition on climate adaptation and resilience. To my knowledge, Egypt is the only country that has a group of environmental activists called Youth Against Coal.

Successful work speaks for itself. But it is also important for Egyptians to be aware of these developments. In her recent meeting with Al-Sisi, Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, lauded Egypts progress, noting that it was one of the first developing nations to adopt decisive policies on climate change. She added that she looked forward to the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, which she believes will be a milestone summit on climate change.

Al-Sisi expressed his appreciation of the fruitful cooperation with the UN and his hopes for the forthcoming collaboration in preparing for the conference in Sharm El-Sheikh. Egypt, he said, is eager to build on the outputs of the COP26 Glasgow meeting last year with the aim of promoting practical and internationally applicable solutions and commitments regarding actions related to reducing carbon emissions and marshalling the necessary funding.

The worlds attention will be focused on Egypt in November this year, and I have no doubt that the Egyptian government and people will rise to the task of hosting a successful conference.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 28 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi assigned on Tuesday the National Youth Conference to conduct political dialogue with all parties and youth political powers on the current priorities of national action and to present its outcomes to him personally.

El-Sisis remarks came during the Egyptian Family Iftar banquet, which has been held every year since 2017 with the participation of all segments of society.

Following El-Sisis statement, the National Training Academy announced its adoption of his directives and that it would hold a number of meetings between all elements of the various political and youth forces within a national dialogue aimed at developing a national ideas agenda to deal with all pressing issues.

Leaders of Sinai tribes and representatives from farmers and political parties, in addition to artists, intellectuals, academics, businessmen, youth and women attended the event.

During his speech, El-Sisi spoke about the current economic crisis in the country, issuing a set of economy-related directives, chief among which was directing the government to hold an international press conference to declare the Egyptian states plan to deal with the crisis.

He also assigned the government to support local wheat farmers in Egypt  which used to get 80 percent of its wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine  and provide them financial and service incentives to increase Egypts local wheat production and reach self-sufficiency.

Earlier in March, upon El-Sisis directives, Egypts cabinet decided to grant wheat farmers an incentive of EGP 65 for each ardeb (1 ardeb is equivalent to 150kg) to encourage them to increase the quantities they sell to the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade.

The government also decided to start the wheat season early this year, at the start of April, to shore up the country's strategic reserves.

The president also called on the ministries and institutions to continue to offer basic commodities nationwide at subsidised prices to the citizens till the end of the year.

Moreover, El-Sisi stated that the upcoming period would witness a double support to the private sector to allow it to be able to do its role in supporting the development of the economy.

He also assigned the government to announce a program for the private sector to participate in state-owned assets with a target of $10 billion annually for a period of four years as well as to start offering stakes from state-owned companies on the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

The government was also assigned to list companies owned by the Armed Forces on the stock market before the end of this year, El-Sisi announced, echoing his 2019 statements in which he said "Egyptians will buy shares in these companies. It is an opportunity for them.

Re-activating Presidential Pardon Committee

During his speech, El-Sisi also announced the re-activation of the Presidential Pardon Committee, which was initially formed in October 2016, to review the cases of those imprisoned for political crimes and others who meet certain other conditions, such as families who have more than one relative in jail.

The new formation of the committee will compromise the Deputy Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee in the House of Representative Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, MP Tarek El-Kholy, former member of the 2016s committee Karim El-Sakka, human rights lawyer Tarek El-Awady, and Egypt's former manpower minister Kamal Abu Eita.

The committee will start its work on Tuesday to receive the names of the imprisoned youth from various parties and political forces, the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) and the Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives. Its scope of work will be expanded to include imprisoned male and female debtors.

Thanks to 2016s committee, thousands of prisoners were granted presidential pardons.

El-Sisi also expressed his happiness for the decision of the public prosecution to release several pre-trial prisoners on Sunday, noting that Egypt as a homeland accommodates all Egyptians.

He also directed the government to resume payment of private debts owed by imprisoned debtors.

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Egypts Journalists Syndicate lauded President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisis recent call for conducting a broad national political dialogue represents "a leap in the political path of the Egyptian state after the revolutions of 25 January 2011 and 30 June 2013".

The move opens prospects for coexistence and consensus between all societal segments for the interest of Egypt, said head of the Journalists Syndicate Diaa Rashwan in a statement on Tuesday.

During the Egyptian Family Iftar banquet that was held on Tuesday, El-Sisi issued a host of decisions, including assigning the National Youths Conference to conduct a political dialogue with all parties and youth political forces on the current priorities of national action.

The president also announced the re-activation of the Presidential Pardon Committee, which was initially formed in October 2016 to review the cases of those imprisoned for political crimes and others who meet certain other conditions, such as families who have more than one relative in jail.

Furthermore, he called on the government to adopt several economic measures to support farmers, provide basic commodities at subsidised prices till the end of the year, and engage the private sector in the countrys economic projects.

Rashwan welcomed all of the presidents decisions  whether at the economic, social, developmental, or political level  saying such steps would push the country forward towards a better future, the statement added.

He also praised the presidents comment on the release of a group of pre-trial Egyptian prisoners over the past few days, in which he said that the homeland can accommodate all of us.

On Sunday, the countrys Public Prosecution released 41 pretrial detainees, some of which were political and economic activists.

Moreover, Rashwan expressed his hope that the step would be followed by other ones that release other detainees, especially fellow journalists.

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Sudanese authorities released a former member of the ruling Sovereign Council on Wednesday, a lawyer said, the second key civilian figure to be freed in two days.

"Mohamed al-Fekki has been released," defence lawyer Azhari al-Haj said, more than two months after the politician was detained on February 13.

On Tuesday, authorities released Khaled Youssef, a former minister and prominent opponent of a power grab led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on October 25 last year.

The military's power grab derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule that had been established in the wake of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir's fall from power in 2019.

Fekki's spell in detention was his second since last year's power grab.

Pre-power grab, he was a member of the civilian-military ruling council and had also headed a committee tasked with recovering properties seized by Bashir's regime.

Authorities have accused the committee of misappropriating funds that it confiscated, but its members have consistently denied these accusations.

Other key figures remain in custody including Wagdi Saleh, a spokesman for the Forces for Freedom and Change, the main civilian political bloc which was sidelined after the October power grab.

Burhan pledged earlier this month to release political detainees to set the stage for talks among Sudanese factions.

Last year's military power grab triggered wide international condemnation as well as repeated mass protests.

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At least two people were killed and 44 others injured on Wednesday after a bus overturned in South Sinai, east of Egypt.

The accident took place on the new international road, around 25 kilometres from the coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh, reported Ahram Arabic news website.

The cause of the crash remains unclear.

As many as 17 ambulances and civil protection personnel were dispatched to the accident site to transfer the injured and victims bodies to Sharm El-Sheikh International Hospital.

The public prosecution was notified to investigate the incident.

Egypt, which used to see deadly road accidents on a near-daily basis, has witnessed a steady decline in the number of road accidents over the past years in parallel with national efforts to improve the countrys road network through the National Road Project launched in 2014.

The project has successfully developed and extended Egypts 23,500 km road network and has constructed and/or upgraded 7,000 km of highways as part of the project.

When it was launched, Egypt had 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.

The country reported a drop of 28.9 percent in road traffic injuries and 8.9 percent in deaths in 2020 compared to the previous year, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in a report issued in November 2021.

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NEWS PROVIDED BY

Aliyah Return Center (ARC)

April 27, 2022



GALILEE, Israel, April 27, 2022 /Standard Newswire/ -- The following is submitted by Chaim Malespin, Cofounder and Chairman of the board of directors of Aliyah Return Center:

Even before the Russian invasion, the Lord had begun to show me Ukraine in the prophecies of Jeremiah.



The word of the Lord came to me: "What do you see, Jeremiah?"

"I see the branch of an almond tree," I replied.

The Lord said to me, "You have seen correctly,

for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled."

Jeremiah 1:1112



This almond tree will help us unlock Jeremiah's prophecies about Ukraine.



One of the things we know about almond blossoms is that they take five to twelve years before they begin producing fruit. The same is true about Jeremiah's prophecieswe can expect some variation in the timing of their fulfillment. Some things will take a longer time and others will be shorter. However, what we do know is that God is watching to ensure that every prophecy will come to pass in the right time.



Historically, when Jeremiah began to prophesy, he spoke a word from the Lord to the Jewish people who were alive at that time and who were later exiled to a country called Babylonia (later conquered by the Persians).



But because biblical prophecy is cyclicalwhich means it goes in cycles, like a wheel within a wheelthere is a second cycle of prophecy that is addressed to us in our current day and time about things that are literally happening to us now. I believe some of these prophetic words point to the current situation in Ukraine. Of course, there are also other cycles of prophecy by Jeremiah that will be fulfilled by God at some point in the future.



A NEW PASSOVER

First, Jeremiah prophesied that there would be another Passovera second Exoduswhen the Lord would again bring His people into the Promised Land.



"However, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when it will no longer be said, 'As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' but it will be said, 'As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors."

Jeremiah 16:1415



The first Passover brought the children of Israel out from Egypt, where they were slaves. This second Passover will bring them out of the "land of the north," where they were exiles.



I believe the "land of the north" refers to Ukrainewhich, if you look at any map, is located directly north of Israel.



We also know this new Passover was not fulfilled in Jeremiah's daybecause Babylon is more or less east of Jerusalem, and Babylonia itself extends further to the south. And this prophecy refers specifically to "the land of the north" and to the Jews who had been scattered there.



How many Jewish people presently live in the "land of the north"? In the 1990s we know that some 1.2 million Jewish people made their Aliyah to Israel from the former Soviet Union, leaving perhaps 600,000 Jews in Russia and that many again in the Soviet bloc nations. Of these 1 million Jewish people, 75,000 were in Ukraine before the war began in February 2022and already thousands have made their way home to Israel.



Why did God allow such a widespread scattering of His people in the first place? People often ask me that question and the answer may surprise you. Psalm 22:3 tells us that God "inhabits the praises of Israel." This scattering was part of God's plan of salvationHe permitted this great diaspora because He wants the whole world to know about Him!



All the ends of the earth

will remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

will bow down before him,

for dominion belongs to the Lord

and he rules over the nations.

Psalm 22:2728



This is not just about the nation of Israel. God scattered His people to all the nations so that every nation would understand what He is doing and have a part in this story!



FISHING AND HUNTING

Second, Jeremiah also prophesied that when the Lord brings His people "up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them," that He would "restore them to the land I gave their ancestors" (Jeremiah 16:15). How will He do this? He will send fishermen and hunters.



"But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the Lord, "and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks."

Jeremiah 16:1617



Although these prophetic words may refer to "fishermen" and "hunters" that were in some way connected with Babylon in Jeremiah's day, they definitely point the "fishing" and "hunting" that we see happening right now.



For instance, I view the work of our Aliyah Return Center with new Jewish immigrants to Israel as a clear example of "fishing." In our case, what we use to attract themour "fishing lure"is the "bait" of free housing (even the Hebrew word for "house" is bayit!).



And what we see happening now in places like Russia and Iran is "hunting" in the sense that Jewish people are being "driven" from cover and "pushed" out into the open. All of the sad examples of anti-Semitism we see in the world today reflect this kind of "hunting."



And right now, this prophecy is being fulfilled before our eyes in living color as we watch the conflict in Ukraine drive the Jewish people from their homesand "push" them from the "land of the north" toward Israel.



A NORTH WIND BLOWING

Finally, Jeremiah speaks prophetically of four winds. These winds are His appointed messengers. Psalm 104:4 tells us that "He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants."



I will bring against Elam the four winds

from the four quarters of heaven;

I will scatter them to the four winds,

and there will not be a nation

where Elam's exiles do not go.

Jeremiah 49:36



And in these days prophesied by Jeremiah, I believe a north wind from Ukraine is blowingnot a wind that scatters, but a wind that gathers. I believe we are that wind today, and together it is our privilege to be part of this great gathering of God's people from every nation, when the Lord will inhabit the praises of all His people. This is what I call the Jeremiah factor.



"The days are coming," declares the Lord,

"when I will make a new covenant

with the people of Israel

and with the people of Judah...

I will put my law in their minds

and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people."

Jeremiah 31:3133
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly attended on Wednesday in Cairo the signing of a cooperation protocol by Norway's Scatec and its partners to refinance six projects they own in Benban solar park in Aswan, with a production capacity of 380 megawatts.

Under the agreement, Scatec, which is a leading renewable power producer, and its partners will refinance the projects with 19-year green bonds worth $334.5 million through a host of international investment institutions.

The agreement was signed by Chairman of Banque Misr Mohamed El-Etreby, Scatec CEO Terje Pilskog, Chairman of the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company Sabah Mashali, Executive Chairman of New and Renewable Energy Authority Mohammed El-Khayat, and Assistant Finance Minister Sherine El-Sharkawi.

Egypt has implemented multiple renewable energy projects over the past decade, including the Benban solar park, which houses more than 32 solar energy projects from photovoltaic cells with a total capacity of about 1,465 megawatts.

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Measles cases have surged by nearly 80 percent worldwide this year, the UN said Wednesday, warning that the rise of the "canary in a coal mine" illness indicates that outbreaks of other diseases are likely on the way.

The coronavirus pandemic has interrupted vaccination campaigns for non-Covid diseases around the world, creating a "perfect storm" that could put millions of children's lives at risk, the UN's children's agency UNICEF and the World Health Organization said in a statement.

More than 17,300 measles cases were reported globally in January and February, compared to around 9,600 during those months last year, according to new data from the UN agencies.

There have been 21 large and disruptive measles outbreaks in the last 12 months to April, most of them in Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, the data showed.

Christopher Gregory, a senior health adviser in UNICEF's immunization section, told AFP that because measles is the "most contagious vaccine-preventable disease" it often serves as a warning sign.

"Measles is what we call the tracer, or the canary in the coal mine, that really shows us where those weaknesses in the immunization system are," he said.

He said yellow fever was among the diseases that could surge next after rising cases were reported in West Africa.

"We're particularly worried about those countries that are most fragile, where the healthcare systems are already really struggling, where they're still trying to deal with the impacts of Covid on top of these outbreaks," he said.

Somalia recorded by far the most measles cases in the last 12 months with more than 9,000, the UN data showed, followed by Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Ethiopia -- all countries battling some form of conflict.

There are also fears that the war in Ukraine could spark a resurgence in the country after it recorded Europe's highest rate of measles between 2017-and 2019.

Gregory said that it had been very difficult to keep track of any disease in Ukraine since the war began, adding that the biggest concern was "what we could be missing".

Impact 'Felt For Decades'

More than 23 million children missed out on routine vaccinations in 2020 as the Covid pandemic descended, the largest number in more than a decade.

The UN agencies said that 57 vaccination campaigns in 43 countries postponed at the start of the pandemic had still not been completed, affecting 203 million people -- most of them children.

Covid also continues to pile pressure on healthcare facilities and drag staffing and attention away from vaccination for long-standing deadly diseases.

"The impact of these disruptions to immunization services will be felt for decades to come," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.

"Now is the moment to get essential immunization back on track and launch catch-up campaigns so that everybody can have access to these life-saving vaccines."

Gregory said it was time to put childhood immunization on "at least the same level of priority as finishing Covid vaccination".

Measles is a disease caused by a virus that attacks mainly children. The most serious complications include blindness, brain swelling, diarrhea, and severe respiratory infections.

Vaccination uptake of at least 95 percent is the best way to avoid it spreading, though many countries fall far short of that goal -- Somalia is at just 46 percent, according to the UN data.

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Prominent Egyptian political activist and Karama Party member Hossam Mones is being released by a presidential pardon on the occasion of Sinai Liberation Day, member of the Presidential Pardon Committee Tarek El-Awdy announced on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Ministry of Interior announced the release of 3,273 inmates with a presidential pardon to mark Sinai Liberation Day, which falls on 25 April.

Mones was sentenced to four years and an EGP 500 fine in 2021 by an emergency state security misdemeanor court along with journalist Hisham Fouad.

Former MP Ziad El-Eleimy was sentenced in the same trial to five years in prison.

Member of the Presidential Pardon Committee and prominent lawyer Tarek El-Awdy said in media statements on Tuesday that Fouad and El-Eliemy are included on the lists of those imprisoned in politics-related cases that are reviewed by the committee.

So far, it is unclear if there are other imprisoned political activists included in this presidential pardon.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi recently issued a directive to re-activate the Presidential Pardon Committee.

El-Sisi also expressed his happiness with the decision of the public prosecution to release several pre-trial prisoners on Sunday.

Initially formed in October 2016, the Presidential Pardon Committee reviews the cases of those imprisoned for political crimes and others who meet certain conditions, such as families who have more than one relative in jail.

The new formation of the committee will compromise the deputy chairperson of the Human Rights Committee in the House of Representative Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, MP Tarek El-Kholy, former member of the 2016 committee Karim El-Sakka, human rights lawyer Tarek El-Awady, and Egypt's former manpower minister and veteran leftist activist Kamal Abu Eita.

The committee will start its work on Tuesday to receive the names of imprisoned youth from various parties and political forces, the National Council for Human Rights and the Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives. Its scope of work will also be expanded to include imprisoned debtors.

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Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed in a telephone call the latest developments in Ukraine as well as regional issues with his Canadian counterpart Melanie Joly on Wednesday.

According to Global Affairs Canada, Joly congratulated Egypt on assuming the presidency of UN Climate Change Conference COP27, of which Shoukry is the designated president. The two officials also discussed efforts to face climate change.

Egypt will host COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh in November.

Shoukry and Joly also discussed promoting bilateral cooperation in various domains as well as the latest developments in regional and international issues.

Shoukry said Egypt looks forward to enhancing relations on all levels.

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Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi reiterated on Wednesday his call for religious scholars to disseminate the correct teachings of Islam, rectify misconceptions, and introduce the quintessence of Islamic teachings.

During a speech commemorating Laylat El-Qadr (The Night of Power) of the holy month of Ramadan, El-Sisi said the essence of Islam bears illustrations of mercy, tolerance, cooperation, hard work, construction, and reasoning of the right understanding of God's holy text and His divine wisdom.

"Conscious and enlightened religious discourse is a key element to counter destructive extremist ideology," El-Sisi stressed, urging more efforts towards disseminating sound understanding and raising awareness of the religion and homelands affairs.

Such efforts, El-Sisi noted, would realise the country's main goal of preserving the essence of religion and raising the awareness of children and youth about the dangers of extremist thoughts and the magnitude of the challenges the country is facing.

The Egyptian president expressed his appreciation of the scholars of Egypt's Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim worlds top religious institution, and the Ministry of Religious Endowments (Awqaf), which is responsible for administering mosques nationwide.

"I look forward to seeing a promising generation of young scholars and intellectual imams who would contribute to addressing our current issues within the framework of understanding the reality, developments, and challenges of our time while adhering to the fundamentals of Islamic Sharia law," the president added.

The celebration was attended by a host of Islamic figures and officials.

During the event, President El-Sisi honoured the winners of the 28th international competition in memorising the Holy Quran.

El-Sisi said the Holy Quran and its sublime purposes uphold the interest of all mankind.

The celebration witnessed the screening of a documentary entitled "Egypt in the Service of the Holy Quran."

The film shed light on the international competition organised by Egypt in memorising the Holy Quran, noting that it now includes understanding and explaining the Quranic verses.

Laylat El-Qadr is also known as the Night of Destiny, the night on which God first revealed the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad.

The night, which is one of the odd nights of the final 10 days of Ramadan, is described in the Holy Quran as better than 1,000 months.

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Egyptian authorities announced on Wednesday the release of 3,273 inmates with a presidential pardon on the occasion of Sinai Liberation day, which falls on 25 April.

The move comes as part of the implementation of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's decision to reactivate the Presidential Pardon Committee.

The committee was first formed in October 2016 and facilitated the release of thousands of prisoners via presidential pardons in the following years.

The new committee will comprise Deputy Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee in the House of Representatives Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, MP Tarek El-Kholy, former member of the 2016s committee Karim El-Sakka, human rights lawyer Tarek El-Awady, and Egypt's former manpower minister Kamal Abu Eita.

The scope of the committee, which started work immediately upon reactivation, has been expanded to cooperation with state institutions and NGOs and to include male and female indebted prisoners.

The interior ministry said the move was made after an examination conducted by the pardon committee.

A list of those released was not immediately available.

According to the Egyptian constitution, the president can issue pardons for prisoners who had received final court rulings.

Egyptian presidents traditionally issue pardons several times a year, usually on major national and religious holidays.

On Sunday, the public prosecution ordered the release of 41 pretrial detainees.

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Members of Egypt's two chambers of parliament  the House of Representatives and the Senate  joined the chorus of the country's political forces that welcomed President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's sudden call for conducting a wide-ranging national political dialogue.

El-Sisi's made the call at a Ramadan Iftar attended by representatives of most of the country's political forces, business associations, ministers, leading MPs and senators, opposition figures, media people, journalists and youth leaders.

El-Sisi said that recommendations for this dialogue will be referred to the House and Senate for further discussion.

Egyptian MPs agreed that the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood cannot be invited to any expected political dialogue.

MP Mahmoud Badr said in a statement that he believes that President El-Sisi's call for a political dialogue is directed to civilian forces only.

"Those who have blood on their hands or were implicated in terror-related crimes cannot be invited to such a national political dialogue," said Badr, adding that "the Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organisation in 2013, and so nobody can expect that members of such a terrorist organisation can be invited to such national dialogues."

Badr said that during the iftar ceremony, President El-Sisi referred to the TV series El-Ikhtiar 3, which documents the years of confrontation between the Muslim Brotherhood and civilian forces.

"According to the president during the Iftar ceremony, El-Ikhtiar 3 is showing exactly what happened on the ground in Egypt between 2012 and 2013," said Badr, adding that "these words clearly mean that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organisation and can't be part of any national dialogue."

In his statement before the Iftar ceremony on Tuesday evening, President El-Sisi said Egypt lost $38 billion in its war against terrorist organisations after the year 2011.

Badr also indicated that President El-Sisi's support for releasing activists does not apply to the Muslim Brotherhood.

"This applies to civilian activists and not to members of terrorist organisations with blood on their hands," said Badr.

On 24 April, the prosecutor-general announced a decision to release 41 pretrial detainees, mostly lawyers, human rights activists and journalists. President El-Sisi said on Tuesday that he was happy that they had been released, noting that the homeland should be wide open for all and differences of opinion should not harm the nation.

Moushira Khattab, president of the National Council for Human Rights, indicated that most of the released detainees were political activists or journalists.

We are hopeful that others who are not involved in terror-related cases will be released, she said.

Most of the 41 released detainees were in custody pending trial in political or freedom of speech cases.

Tarek Radwan, chairman of the House of Representatives Human Rights Committee, said in a statement that the release of activists and journalists would help pave the way for a successful political dialogue.

"Those released are civilian activists and not members of terrorist organisations," said Radwan, also agreeing that "the Muslim Brotherhood can't be invited to any proposed national dialogue."

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the leftist Tagammu Party said it strongly supports El-Sisi's call for a political dialogue as it reflects a national need.

"But this dialogue should be confined to civilian forces only, including recognised political parties and civil society organisations, with the objective of drawing up a new political roadmap for the coming years," said El-Tagammu's statement.

MP Faridi El-Biaddi, a member of the leftist Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party, also said in a statement on Wednesday that El-Sisi's call for political dialogue is directed to all civilian political and social forces.

We saw symbols of some of these forces attending the iftar ceremony and I think they are the only ones who will be invited to the proposed dialogue, said El-Biaddi.

El-Biaddi also agreed that civilian activists serving prison sentences or are in custody pending trial are the ones expected to be released in the future.

"But we do not expect that members of terrorist-designated organisations who were implicated in terror-related crimes will be released," said El-Biaddi, concluding that "we want a nation for all  Muslims and Christians, majority and opposition  but not for radical and terrorist forces."

Former MP Kamal Ahmed also warned in a press interview on Wednesday against inviting the Muslim Brotherhood to the proposed political dialogue.

"Inviting this organisation to such a dialogue means that they could be integrated into the political process again and this will be quite a dangerous development," said Ahmed, wondering "how, while we are watching the anti-Brotherhood TV serial El-Ikhtiar, can we open the door for this terrorist organisation to come back to political life?"

Ahmed, a founder of the Arab Nasserist Party, said "the call for a national political dialogue should not be directed only to gather support from political forces for a new loan deal with the IMF or satisfy the American who are openly exerting political pressure on Egypt."

Independent MP Mostafa Bakri also tweeted on Wednesday that he has high hopes that "the call for a wide-ranging dialogue will put an end to the state of political sclerosis in Egypt."

Bakri also agreed that the call for political dialogue should be directed to all civilian forces without exception.

"The only exception is forces which mix religion with politics or use violence to achieve their ends like the Muslim Brotherhood," said Bakri.

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The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) hailed President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisis recent decision to reactivate the Presidential Pardon Committee following the release of 41 pretrial detainees.

During the Egyptian Family Iftar banquet that was held on Tuesday, El-Sisi announced the re-activation of the Presidential Pardon Committee, which was initially formed in October 2016 to review the cases of those imprisoned for political crimes and others who meet certain criteria, such as having more than one relative in jail.

Reactivating the committee, expanding its scope of work and restructuring it confirms that there is real intention to close a file that tends to distort Egypts image abroad and have negative effects on any opportunities to conduct an effective and integral political dialogue, a statement by the NCHR read on Wednesday.

The committee is set to receive from the NCHR and the Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives the names of imprisoned youth from various parties and political forces.

Earlier this week, the countrys Public Prosecution released 41 pretrial detainees, some of which were political and economic activists.

Meanwhile, following the announcement of the committee reactivation, Egyptian authorities announced the release of 3,273 inmates with a presidential pardon on the occasion of Sinai Liberation Day, which falls on 25 April.

The NCHR welcomes the presidents call to launch a comprehensive political dialogue commensurate with the states efforts to build a new republic based on the foundations of justice, equality, freedom and sound democratic practice, the statement added.

The council welcomed El-Sisis invitation to the National Youth Conference, which aims to conduct a political dialogue on the priorities of a national action plan.

In the same context, the NCHR expressed its full readiness to work with the administration of the National Youth Conference to ensure the success of the comprehensive political dialogue.

The council said that it looks forward to being an effective part of the launch of a dialogue involving civil society organisations and the Ministry of Solidarity to propose legislative amendments to achieve the goals of sustainable development.

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The UN special envoy for Syria announced late Tuesday that he has sent invitations to the Syrian government and the opposition for an eighth round of talks starting in late May, aimed at revising the constitution of the conflict-torn country.

Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council that agreement on a revised constitution could contribute to a political solution of the 11-year conflict.

He said the seventh session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee ended on March 25, with delegations offering ``at least some revisions to some of the texts presented.''

Pedersen said deputy special envoy Khawla Matar visited Damascus and Istanbul afterward for further discussions with the committee's co-chairs and he had issued invitations for the eighth session Tuesday from May 28 to June 3 in Geneva.

He stressed that the drafting process will only move forward if the committee's work is ``governed by a sense of compromise and constructive engagement aimed at reaching general agreement of its members.''

A 2012 U.N. road map to peace in Syria approved by representatives of the United Nations, Arab League, European Union, Turkey and all five permanent Security Council members calls for the drafting of a new constitution. It ends with U.N.-supervised elections with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate. A Security Council resolution adopted in December 2015 unanimously endorsed the road map.

At a Russia-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached to form a 150-member committee to draft a new constitution. A smaller, 45-member body would do the actual drafting, including 15 members each from the government, opposition and civil society. It took until September 2019 for the committee to be formed and little progress has been achieved so far.

Pedersen stressed to the council in a video briefing that ``Syria is a hot conflict, not a frozen one.''

He said airstrikes have increased in the northwest, there have been intensified clashes around Afrin and the northeast, and continued exchanges of rocket fire and shelling across all frontlines as well as improvised explosive devices, car bombs and other security incidents.

Pedersen urged the council to focus on Syria.

``The current strategic stalemate on the ground and Syria's absence from the headlines should not mislead anyone into thinking that the conflict needs less attention or fewer resources, or that a political settlement is not urgent,'' he said. ``Indeed, a conflict of this scale requires a comprehensive solution'' in line with the 2012 road map.

While the war in Ukraine is quickly catching up, Pedersen said ``Syria remains the biggest displacement crisis in the world'' with 6.8 million refugees and 6.2 million people displaced in the country -- ``half the pre-war population.''

Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya also warned that as the world turns to other conflicts ``Syria is on the verge of becoming yet another forgotten crisis.''

``Yet millions of Syrians struggle each month to survive, to feed their families and to provide a future for their children,'' she said. ``For many, their situation has never been more dire since violence erupted in 2011.''

Msuya said ``a staggering 4.1 million people'' in rebel-held northwest Syria need humanitarian aid, with almost a million people, mainly women and children, living in tents, ``half of which are beyond their normal lifespan.''

In early July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria's northwest Idlib. Days later, the council authorized the delivery of aid through just one of those crossings, Bab al-Hawa. That one-year mandate was extended for a year on July 9, 2021.

Msuya told the council that last year the U.N. sent some 800 trucks of cross-border aid to the northwest each month, ``consistently reaching 2.4 million people.''

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has said aid should be controlled by the Syrian government, its ally, and delivered across conflict lines.

Msuya said three cross-line convoys have been sent to the northwest but they cannot substitute for cross-border aid deliveries at this point.

Nebenzia called this ``mere unwillingness to solve the problem of humanitarian deliveries from Damascus to Idlib.''

``Let me be frank, in such circumstances, we can hardly see any reason why the cross-border resolution should be renewed again,'' he said.

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Israeli forces on Wednesday shot and killed an 18-year-old Palestinian man and wounded three others during clashes near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The ministry said that the man died from a gunshot wound to the head. Three others, including a 16-year-old boy, were wounded by gunfire, it said in a statement. An earlier report by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the slain man was 21 years old.

The Israeli occupation army said its troops conducted arrest raids in the northern West Bank and detained 12 Palestinians.

The occupation army said troops also administered a demolition order for the home of the gunman who killed three and injured dozens in a Tel Aviv shooting earlier this month.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces killed a 20-year-old Palestinian man during a raid near the West Bank city of Jericho.

Wednesday's incident came after days of rising tensions between Israel and the Palestinians following a string of deadly attacks inside Israel, arrest raids in the West Bank, clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, and rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for the first time in months.

Israel captured east Jerusalem _ which includes major holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims _ along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three territories to form their future state.

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By Azernews





Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have discussed the interaction within the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.

The discussion took place during the meeting between Azerbaijan's Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov and Kazakhstan's Presidential Administration Deputy Head Erzhan Kazykhan.

"During the meeting with Erzhan Kazykhan Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Kazakhstan, Special Envoy of the President for International Cooperation, we discussed economic cooperation between our countries and interaction within the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route," Mikayil Jabbarov wrote on his official Twitter page.

It should be noted that the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route is a vital trans-Eurasian corridor that runs through the South Caucasus. The route begins in Southeast Asia and China and travels to Europe via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. It is one of the new Silk Road routes, the Middle Corridor of the 'One Belt, One Road' project.

The East-West or Trans-Caspian International Transport Route is intended to increase freight traffic from China to Turkey, as well as to the EU countries and vice versa. A consortium formed by the participating countries manages and develops the transport corridor. Chinese Railways is a consortium member in China, and KTZ Express is a consortium member in Kazakhstan. Caspian Shipping Company in the Caspian Sea, ADY Express in Azerbaijan, and Trans-Caucasus Terminals in Georgia.

During the current crisis, this transport corridor proved to be the most profitable, safest, reliable and stable. As a result, this corridor, which runs through Azerbaijan, is attracting the attention of an increasing number of exporters and importers.




The High Authority for Communication of Mali announced Wednesday it is permanently suspending French media outlets Radio France International and France 24, two of the most listened to news outlets in the West African country.

Related Mali accuses France of spying after video of mass grave

This is the first time that Mali's government has withdrawn the operating license of foreign media.

``The Radio France International, RFI, and France 24 channels are definitively withdrawn from the subscriptions of all audiovisual program distributors and from the platforms and sites of online media bodies and cell phone operators,'' the body's statement said.

The High Authority for Communication of Mali called on the government to implement the decision.

On March 17, the Malian government announced a temporary suspension for the two media outlets, which it accused of reporting ``false allegations of abuses committed by the Malian Armed Forces against civilians, and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.``

France Medias Monde strongly contested the removal of its license and said it will use all other possible means to distribute news.

``We will continue to cover news in Mali which is of interest to all of Africa and the rest of the world. All technical solutions will be implemented to make our media accessible to Malians who wish to continue to receive free, expert information that is open to the world,'' the media organization said.

It reiterated its ``attachment to independence and freedom of information.''

A crisis in relations between Mali and France is escalating as the European nation has begun withdrawing soldiers it has stationed there since 2013 when they helped drive Islamic extremists from strongholds in the north.

On Monday, Mali's government accused the French army of violating the country's airspace and denounced what it said was the unauthorized use of surveillance drones.

The accusation came after France released videos appearing to show Russian mercenaries burying bodies near an army base in northern Mali, which had been handed over by the French to Malian forces.

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The global food system has faced many shocks over recent years, from the Covid-19 pandemic to extreme weather events and conflicts that have led to higher food prices. These are likely to remain high for the foreseeable future, exposing millions of people to food insecurity.

At the same time, unsustainable farming approaches have led to ecosystem vulnerability and competition for land and water resources, putting agricultural growth and food security at risk.

Organic farming can be one of the solutions, as it not only helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change, but can also help increase exports of agricultural products by meeting current international standards.

Experts at the Cairo Climate Talks, organised last week in cooperation between the German Embassy in Cairo, the Egyptian Ministry of Environment, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), discussed adaptation to climate change through sustainable agriculture in Egypt.

They stressed that the COP27 meeting on climate change, which will be organised in Egypt in November, will be a good opportunity to focus on sustainable agricultural practices.

Agriculture contributes about 50 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, and sustainable agricultural practices will help to decrease emissions, said Shaimaa Hatab, an associate professor of agriculture at Heliopolis University.

However, she added, initiatives to teach small farmers ways to become more sustainable in their methods are urgently needed.

Changing from conventional to organic agricultural methods is not an easy process, she explained, adding that changing the traditional mindsets and behaviours of farmers could be a challenge because their practices have been taking place for generations.

We need to work on changing the mindsets of farmers by creating awareness about the challenges and opportunities. We also need to change the mindsets of consumers to see them become more sustainable, Hatab said. Awareness and education are very important.

Organic farming is normally more expensive, commented Helmi Abul-Eish, CEO of Sekem Egypt, an organic producer, adding that serving the ecosystem and improving livelihoods were main drivers of organic farm owners.

There should be more support for organic farmers and for the ecosystem services they are providing to help in mitigating the effects of climate change, he added.

Abul-Eish said that organic farming has been increasing rapidly in Egypt over the last few years to constitute about 10 per cent of agricultural land. But more is needed through creating awareness among small farmers to ensure better future practices, he added.

Organic and sustainable farming can enjoy the benefits of improved access to more markets, noted Myriam Fernando, head of project agriculture innovation at GIZ Egypt.

However, she added that increased consumer knowledge about the importance and benefits of organic crops was needed, as more demand would mean more farmers would be willing to cultivate organic products.

The private sector was key in mobilising resources and expertise, working to channel private investment towards climate-change adaptation efforts, Fernando said, adding that it could also help scale up adaptation practices and create more jobs in the process.

Hussein Abu Bakr, founder and CEO of Mozare3, an agricultural technology startup that aims to digitise the agricultural sector in Egypt and the Middle East, said that climate change was an opportunity for small farmers, as a lot of crops had been introduced to Egypt leading the country to become a food hub for international markets.

Small farmers are at the heart of the climate change dilemma, as they are part of both the problem and the solution, he added, explaining that small farmers consume about 79 per cent of Nile water, but can help cultivate high-value crops and grow more wheat to help solve the food crisis and even export to new markets.

Experts participating in the Talks agreed that unsustainable farming methods led to ecosystem weakness and competition for land and water resources in Egypt. Climate change is expected to reduce the productivity of some crops like wheat and maize, because of water scarcity, sea level rises, and salt water intrusion.

Food security is at the heart of Egypts 2030 Vision as a national security issue, and the government is working on expanding agricultural land, reducing imports, and increasing climate change adaptation efforts.

The agricultural sector accounts for 28 per cent of all employment in the country and contributes around 11 per cent of Egypts GDP. By 2024, Egypt aims to increase agricultural production by 30 per cent.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 28 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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A set of new decisions regarding Thanaweya Amma (12th grade) exams as well as those of grades 10 and 11 were issued last week by Minister of Education Tarek Shawki, leaving students and parents baffled.

To start with, Shawki decided to postpone Thanaweya Amma exams. Instead of being held from 11 June to the first week of July, they will now be held from 20 June to 19 July.

Reda Hegazi, deputy to the minister of education, noted that the minister postponed the exams due to several reasons, among them that the academic year started late due to the spread of Covid-19, prompting the minister to give students the chance to finish their curricula. Also, technical school exams were rescheduled to start on 28 May instead of 21 May, and will end on 9 June, making the postponement necessary for logistical reasons.

During a virtual press conference on 20 April, the minister noted that Thanaweya Amma students are to be examined via bubble sheets with only multiple choice questions. There will be no essay questions as the answers will be corrected electronically.

Exams for subjects whose scores are not added to the students total grades  including religion, national education, economics, and statistics  will be part of the exam schedule taking place on 20-21 June at secured exam stations, Shawki said.

According to Shawki, students will not be allowed to use textbooks or their computer tablets during their exams to prevent cheating. Students will instead be provided with rubric sheets for each subject to guide them in their exams, said Shawki.

How can they make such a drastic change to the exam format just a couple of months from the exams? asked Asmaa, a mother of a student. She said her daughter and her classmates had been taught to take open book exams for the past two years. The new decision is leaving them disoriented, Asmaa said.

Mona Al-Sayed is another parent who does not trust the decisions of the ministry. Last year students used the tablet during their trial exams, but when it was time for the real exam, they were given bubble sheets.

Elham Ahmed, a Thanaweya Amma student, noted that the ministry comes up with new rules every year and students cannot keep up. I wish we wouldnt be taken by surprise by a new decision a few days before the start of the exams, said Ahmed who does not mind the exam postponement as this will give them more time to study.

The minister also decided to hold final exams for grade 10 and 11 students in morning and evening shifts. They will be taken in both paper and electronic formats.

Final exams for grade 10 are scheduled to be held from 11 to 25 May, while grade 11 will take place from 12 to 26 May.

Hegazi noted that grades 10 and 11 exams would each be divided into two parts: 30 per cent would be in an essay format while the remaining 70 per cent is multiple choice.

Grade 10 and 11 students will sit for their exams at secured exam stations exactly as those of Thanaweya Amma to put an end to cheating. The multiple choice part will be on tablets in order to correct it electronically, Hegazi said.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 28 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The outbreak of World War III and the use of nuclear weapons is now a real danger as a result of the escalation of the war in Ukraine, Moscow warned this week

Officially, negotiations are still ongoing between Russia and Ukraine to reach a political solution to the devastating war in the country, which has now entered its third month. However, on the ground very few still believe in the possibility of a diplomatic solution.

The vital question now is how the parties involved in the war are preparing for a long, costly, and cross-border conflict that is open to extension on other fronts, and, worse, the possibility of using nuclear weapons.

This question is being asked more than ever in Western capitals after reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has put diplomacy on the shelf and is now focused on achieving the largest possible military gains on the ground. It also comes after the announcement by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, following a visit to Kyiv with Secretary of State Antony Blinken where they met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, that Americas ultimate goal is to weaken Russia strategically so that it will no longer be able to launch any war like the Ukrainian war.

We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it cant do the kind of things that it has done in invading Ukraine, Austin said at a news conference at an undisclosed location in Poland near the Ukrainian border after the visit to Kyiv, while Blinken told reporters that Putin has failed in achieving his goals in Ukraine.

Russia has sought as its principal aim to totally subjugate Ukraine, to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence  that has failed. It has sought to assert the power of its military and its economy. We, of course, are seeing just the opposite, a military that is dramatically underperforming and an economy... as a result of sanctions that are in shambles, Blinken said.

We dont know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene, he said.

The explicit statement that Washington aims to see Russias military capabilities weakened could be a moment of reckoning in the conflict. Blinken and Austins remarks are the most outright by US officials challenging Putins longevity as Russias president. They also emphasise the US goals of encircling, containing, and isolating Russia as long as Putin stays in power.

The remarks could suggest that even if Russian forces withdraw from the Ukrainian territory they have occupied since 24 February, the US and its allies would seek to maintain the sanctions to stop Russia from reconstituting its forces.

The statements also reflect the fact that NATO will take more hawkish policies towards Moscow by increasing military spending, deploying more troops to countries like Poland that have borders with Russia, and supporting the inclusion of more countries in the alliance such as Sweden and Finland.

The potential consequences of the statements and the ambiguity about whether they reflect a shift in Washingtons policy raise questions about why they were declared so bluntly.

Some Western diplomats argue that the forthright statements could weaken Russias incentive to withdraw from Ukraine, reinforcing Moscows narrative that NATO is waging a proxy war in Ukraine aimed at weakening Russia and even regime change and deepening Putins paranoia.

Isolated and under pressure, Putin, suffering from painful international sanctions, with questions even in his inner circle about the logic of the war, whose military campaign is faltering and moving slowly even in eastern Ukraine, could be very dangerous if he has nothing to lose, observers say.

One European diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly that he was not sure that officials in France or Germany would have used the same language as the US defence secretary, describing it as counterproductive.

The pressure on Putin is increasing to quickly end the war and not expand it, but the American rhetoric might push Moscow to make disastrous choices if it felt that the head of the regime was targeted alongside the capabilities of the Russian army, he said.

These statements, if they reflect a new policy, will be a prelude to a long and open conflict with Russia not only in Ukraine but anywhere from the Middle East to Latin America, he added.

Nonetheless, on Tuesday Austin doubled down on the US stance as Washington vowed to move heaven and earth to help Ukraine win its battle against Russias invasion as he hosted defence talks in Germany with allies from 40 nations.

Speaking at the Ramstein Airbase in southwestern Germany, Austin pledged to help Ukraine win the fight against Russias unjust invasion and to build up Ukraines defences for tomorrows challenges.

As we see this morning, nations from around the world stand united in our resolve to support Ukraine in its fight against Russias imperial aggression. Ukraine clearly believes that it can win and so does everyone here, he said.

The US is already the biggest supplier of international military aid to Ukraine, and Austin said Washington will keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet Kyivs needs.

The US-hosted meeting would focus on doing things to generate additional capability and capacity for the Ukrainian forces, according to the US defence secretary.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said a key goal of the talks was to coordinate mounting security assistance to Kyiv that included heavy weaponry such as howitzers, as well as armed drones and ammunition.

The next several weeks will be very, very critical, Milley said. They need continued support in order to be successful on the battlefield. And thats really the purpose of this conference.

The US has been rushing more weapons to Ukraine and has said that the assistance from its Western allies is making a difference in the war. Blinken said Washington had approved $165 million in arms and would also provide more than $300 million in financing to buy more supplies.

More than half  $1.9 billion  of the US military aid to Ukraine since the war started has come in the last two weeks. More than 60 per cent of US military aid to Ukraine since the war started has come in the last month, amounting to $2.3 billion.

In another blow to Moscow, the German defence minister said Germany would authorise the delivery of tanks to Ukraine in what would be a switch in Berlins hesitancy to provide Kyiv with heavy weapons.

The German government has agreed to sign off on the delivery of used Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, Christine Lambrecht told the meeting at the US Ramstein Airbase.

Meanwhile, Russias top diplomat Sergei Lavrov warned Ukraine against provoking World War III and said that the threat of a nuclear conflict should not be underestimated. In a television interview, Lavrov warned that deliveries of Western weapons to Ukraine meant that the NATO alliance was in essence engaged in war with Russia.

In an apparent response to Austin, he said Russia has a feeling that the West wants Ukraine to continue to fight and, as it seems to them, wear out, exhaust, the Russian army and the Russian military-industrial war complex. This is an illusion.

Weapons supplied by Western countries will be a legitimate target, he said.

Storage facilities in western Ukraine have been targeted more than once [by Russian forces]. How can it be otherwise? Lavrov asked. NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war.

He accused Ukrainian leaders of provoking Russia by asking NATO to become involved in the conflict. NATO forces are pouring oil on the fire, Lavrov warned, according to a transcript on the Russian Foreign Ministry website.

Everyone is reciting incantations that in no case can we allow World War III, Lavrov said, adding that he would not want to see risks of a nuclear confrontation artificially inflated now when the risks are rather significant.

The danger is serious, he said. It is real. It should not be underestimated.

With the ongoing war and the diminishing prospect for diplomacy, the declared US goal of weakening Russia as a strategic goal raises more questions than answers.

I think we are at a crossroads. Moscows threat of a nuclear war may be a hollow threat, but the world cannot bear to test Russias intentions if the war escalates and things get out of hand, warned the European diplomat.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 28 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

Russia halts gas to Poland and Bulgaria

Russia's Gazprom halts gas shipments to Poland and Bulgaria for refusing to pay in rubles but the EU reacts quickly, saying it has stepped in to fulfil their energy needs.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki calls Russia's move a "direct attack" on his country and assures Poland will no longer need Russia gas from this autumn.

Bulgaria is almost completely dependent on Russia for gas.

The Kremlin blames the situation on the "unfriendly" actions taken against Russia by "unfriendly countries", referring to the Western sanctions imposed over its Ukraine invasion.

Announcing that a workaround had been found EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says: "Today, the Kremlin failed once again in its attempt to sow division among member states. The era of Russian fossil fuels in Europe is coming to an end."

EU warns against rubles payments

Von der Leyen warns EU members against giving into Moscow's demands for rubles payments, unless their contract is denominated in rubles, amid reports some customers have already done so.

"This would be a breach of the (EU) sanctions, so a high risk for the companies," she says, adding that "about 97 percent" of all EU contracts explicitly stipulate payments in euros or dollars.

Arms supplies hit

Russia claims its missiles have taken out a "large batch" of Western-supplied weapons and ammunition, that were being stored at an aluminium plant in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.

The US and Britain have been prodding allies to send more heavy weapons to Ukraine to sway the conflict.

On Tuesday, Germany announced that it planned to send anti-aircraft tanks, marking a break from its previously cautious approach on arms shipments.

Eastern villages fall

Ukraine says that Russian forces have captured several eastern villages as part of Moscow's offensive to take control of the Donbas region, which Russia has vowed to "liberate".

The defence ministry said the villages of Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody in the northeastern Kharkiv region and Zarichne and Novotoshkivske in the Donetsk region had fallen.

Russia aims to create a land border between territory held by pro-Russian separatists in parts of the Donbas and the Russian-annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

Moldova unrest

Pro-Russian separatists in Moldova claim shots were fired across the border from western Ukraine towards a village housing a Russian arms depot in the breakaway Transnistria region.

Transnistria's interior ministry says drones overflew the village of Kolbasna before the gunfire.

There are growing fears that Moscow-backed Transnistria could be drawn into the war in Ukraine following a series of mysterious attacks on state infrastructure.

Transnistria's leadership has suggested Ukraine is to blame. Kyiv has accused Russia of staging the attacks as a pretext to make a grab for Transnistria.

No EU duties on Ukraine goods

To help the battered Ukrainian economy the EU proposes suspending all import duties on Ukrainian goods, following a similar move by the UK.

Putin has 'hope' for talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin tells UN chief Antonio Guterres that he still has faith in diplomacy.

"Despite the fact that the military operation is ongoing, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track. We are negotiating, we do not reject (talks)," Putin tells Guterres during a visit by the UN secretary general to Moscow. Guterres is also due to visit Kyiv.

Friendship statue demolished

In a sign of the enmity between the two countries, authorities in Kyiv on Tuesday demolished a monument symbolising historic ties between ex-Soviet Ukraine and Russia.

"It took some effort but the Soviet sculpture of the two workers -- symbolising the reunification of Ukraine and Russia -- was dismantled this evening," Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko writes on social media.

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Russia announced Wednesday it was withdrawing from the United Nations World Tourism Organization just hours before the body's assembly voted to temporarily suspend the country's membership over the invasion of Ukraine, officials said.

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili made the announcement on his official Twitter account. He said it was the first UN body to address Russia's membership.

The organization went ahead and approved the suspension at a special meeting in Madrid on Wednesday, where the organization has its headquarters.

``(Russian President Vladimir) Putin's military offensive is an attack on the founding principles of the United Nations and on the values that tourism represents, such as peace, prosperity and universal respect, and the observance of human rights,'' Spanish Industry, Trade, and Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said in a statement following the decision.

The assembly resolution included a clause that said the suspension could be reversed if a change in the politics of the Russian Federation were noted.

Spain was one of 22 European nations that had promoted the motion.

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said Egypt has faced great challenges over the past years but achieved greater successes. Speaking at the Egyptian Family Iftar banquet on Tuesday, the president vowed to remain honest with Egyptians and loyal to the homeland.

Sinai tribal leaders, representatives of farmers and political parties, artists, intellectuals, academics, businessmen, youth, and women attended the event.

The president said that the incidents of the TV series El-Ekhteyar 3 (The Choice 3), which depicts the period following the 25 January Revolution 2011, have in fact taken place.

He said Egypt ran out of foreign currency reserves in a period fraught with crises that no president would have been able to overcome.

El-Sisi went on to say that Egypt suffered losses worth $37 billion in less than 24 months due to post-2011 turmoil, noting that the army spent EGP 1 billion monthly for seven years to eradicate terrorism.

With regard to the losses that the state incurred following the 2011 events, the president said Egypt's credit rating retreated six times from 2011 to 2013.

He added that 35,000 cases of encroachments on agricultural lands were recorded between 2011 and 2013.

The president noted that that period witnessed a hike in unemployment rates and a sharp decline in foreign reserves.

El-Sisi added that Arab countries' support since 2013 has contributed to preserving the Egyptian state, hailing the great financial support Arab states gave between 2013 and 2014, and saying that they provided Egypt with tens of billions of dollars to support the country's economy.

Egyptians have borne the brunt of implementing an ambitious and necessary programme for economic reform, which was implemented in tandem with rebuilding and developing the state's infrastructure, the president noted.

He said Egypts development strides have been firm and steady and its will to realise progress is unwavering.

El-Sisi greeted Sinai tribal leaders and thanked them for their cooperation with the state.

"We target achieving real development in Sinai," the president said.

He asserted that the state has managed to overcome the coronavirus crisis and will be able to deal with the repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

El-Sisi's directives and announcements:

President El-Sisi issued during his speech a set of economy-related directives, chief among which was directing the government to hold an international press conference to declare the Egyptian states plan to deal with the crisis and to attract investments in the fields of infrastructure, energy, tourism, and real estate development.

He also assigned the government to support local wheat farmers in Egypt  which used to get 80 percent of its wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine  and provide them financial and service incentives to increase Egypts local wheat production and reach self-sufficiency.

He announced the launch of an initiative to strengthen local industries and reduce imports while granting a five-year tax exemption.

The president also directed different state bodies to back civil society activities and community action to achieve sustainable development.

The president gave instructions to reinstate the Presidential Pardon Committee, which was initially formed in 2016.

El-Sisi directed the government to continue organising exhibitions and fairs that offer staple commodities at affordable prices.

He ordered National Youth Conference organisers to hold a wide-ranging dialogue on issues of interest to society and to refer the recommendations to him.

The president asserted that he was keen to activate political reform programmes, noting that the state intends to initiate a dialogue comprising all political forces.

El-Sisi ordered the government to draw up an urgent action plan to reduce debt and cut the budget deficit, in addition to developing the EGX.

He directed the government to launch a four-year programme that allows the private sector to hold stakes in state-owned assets, with a target of $10 billion annually.

The president revealed that a sum of EGP 45 million has been allocated to pardon indebted jailed persons.

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Egypt will start experimental exploration and production of gold in the area of Iqat in the Eastern Desert, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla revealed on Wednesday.

During talks with Australian Ambassador in Cairo Glenn Miles, El-Molla asserted that global fuel price hikes have encouraged international companies to conduct exploration to make new discoveries, according to a statement by the ministry Wednesday.

El-Molla and Miles discussed the current oil and gas exploration in the Red Sea region, where Australian Petroleum Company BHP contributes to the concession areas of Chevron and Shell in the Red Sea. BHP is the first Australian company working in the field of oil and gas in Egypt.

The two sides discussed the current status of petroleum and gas markets in the shadow of ongoing challenges and the need for natural gas as a transitional fuel.

They also discussed energy transition efforts and Egypt's preparations to host the upcoming international climate change summit, in addition to mining activities in Egypt and Australia and efforts exerted to develop mineral resources in Egypt.

At the end of the meeting, Miles invited El-Molla and Egyptian companies to take part in the international conference for mining and resources in Melbourne, Australia, on 17-19 October.

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"So, this is an unprecedented change to provide lethal aid to another country, and that's the significance here from Germany. But I'd also note that Norway provided Mistral anti-aircraft missiles, that a number of countries have provided types of assistance that they have never done in the past, and that really speaks to the significant unity of NATO."

The White House said Germany's decision signals unprecedented unity in the face of Russian aggression. "The announcement by Germany is in line with announcements we've seen by a number of European countries in providing assistance they have never before provided, which is part of the significance here," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Germany signaled Tuesday for the first time it would send heavy weapons to Ukraine. Austin, meeting at a U.S. air base in Germany with officials from 40 countries, including NATO members, said Russian President Vladimir Putin "never imagined the whole world would rally behind Ukraine so swiftly and surely." "We're seeing more support every day" to combat the Russian invasion, he said Tuesday. "We don't have any time to waste. We've got to move at the speed of war."

Blinken said after he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv over the weekend, the two countries are "largely aligned in what they say they need and what we think we're able to provide."

The U.S. at first "needed weeks" to move military equipment and munitions to Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, but now it often dispatches new armaments to the Ukrainians within three days.

The United States and its allies signaled Tuesday they are moving swiftly and powerfully to support Ukrainian forces as they defend against Russia's two-month invasion, while the United Nations said Russia's president agreed "in principle" to let international aid groups evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol.

The U.S. defense secretary also said allies supporting Ukraine would meet monthly to coordinate further aid. As he opened the talks, he said the aim was to "help Ukraine to win the fight against Russia's unjust invasion and to help build up Ukraine for tomorrow's challenges."

Austin also rebuked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for suggesting that the war could evolve into a nuclear conflict between Russia and the West. "We certainly will do everything in our power... to make sure it doesn't spin out of control," Austin said. "Nobody wants to see a nuclear war. Nobody can win it," he said, adding that "it's unhelpful and dangerous to rattle sabers" over a nuclear threat.

Austin's appeal to allies for more help for Ukraine came a day after he said the U.S. objective in supporting Ukraine was to leave Russia with a "weakened" military. He described Russian casualties so far as "pretty substantial," with some military analysts saying Moscow might have sustained the deaths of as many as 20,000 troops.

Moscow accused the West of carrying out a proxy war against Russia by sending more munitions to Ukraine and warned of a "considerable" risk that the fighting could evolve into a nuclear conflict.

 Diplomatic Efforts

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Tuesday in Moscow with Putin and Lavrov in an attempt to broker a cease-fire agreement, even as Russia launched new attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine.

During the two-hour meeting, Putin agreed "in principle" to allow the United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross to assist with the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal iron and steel plant in Mariupol, Guterres' spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.

The UN chief said that while Russia and the UN have "different interpretations of what's happening in Ukraine," there is still the possibility for a serious conversation about working to minimize suffering and "end the war as soon as possible." Guterres said he wanted to further address the wider impacts of the conflict on the world's most vulnerable populations amid rising food and energy prices.

Lavrov welcomed Guterres and the UN's desire for dialogue, while accusing Western governments of flouting principles of multilateralism and instead undertaking a unilateral approach to the world. Lavrov said Russia's "goals are primarily to protect the civilian population, and here we are ready to cooperate with our colleagues from the U.N. to alleviate the plight of the civilian population."

But Ukrainian officials say the attempted creation of humanitarian corridors to let civilians escape from the devastation of Mariupol have repeatedly been blocked by Russian forces.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Putin to agree to direct talks with Zelenskyy. Turkey, which shares a maritime border with Russia and Ukraine, has attempted unsuccessfully to broker an accord to end the fighting.

Also on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said American diplomats have taken concrete steps to reestablish a U.S. diplomatic presence in Ukraine. "I can confirm that the deputy chief of mission and members of the embassy team traveled to Lviv, Ukraine, today, where they were able to continue our close collaboration with key Ukrainian partners," he said. "Today, they met with interlocutors from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

While in Kyiv, Blinken and Austin also pledged more military assistance, offering $713 million for Ukraine and 15 partner nations. "Russia's invasion is indefensible, and so are Russian atrocities," Austin said Tuesday. "We all start today from a position of moral clarity. Russia is waging a war of choice to indulge the ambitions of one man. Ukraine is fighting a war of necessity to defend its democracy, its sovereignty and its citizens."
Newly-wed couples are falling over each other to book honeymoons abroad after quarantine for returning travelers was lifted here.

Korea's biggest tour operator Hana Tour said since restrictions were lifted last month, it has seen a 10-fold increase in queries for honeymoon trips to the Maldives or Hawaii.

But flights have yet to increase in line with demand, driving up prices. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, there are currently just 420 international flights out of Incheon International Airport a week, compared to around 4,700 before the pandemic.


Expansion of Southern Gas Corridor

He noted that the Southern Gas Corridor is really important for Greece.

"Greece is the gateway of the Southern Gas Corridor in Europe and a major goal of our international relations in the field of energy is to extend the benefits of diversified sources and routes to our neighbours. The swift realization of the Southern Gas Corridor for Azerbaijani natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Italy through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) at the end of 2020 constitutes one of the most important steps towards enhancing energy security in Europe. The quantities of gas carried by TAP play a significant role in supplying Europe with a new, reliable and affordable energy source, while facilitating the energy transition at the same time, said Fragkogiannis.

The deputy minister recalled that during the Southern Gas Corridor Meeting one month ago in Baku (4.02.2022), the General Secretary of Energy and Mineral Resources of Greece Alexandra Sdoukou represented Greece and had the opportunity to once again emphasize the importance the country attaches to cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of energy.

Fragkogiannis pointed out that Greece is willing to explore all alternatives available in order to secure its energy sufficiency.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has caused many problems, which will become even more visible in the near future. The Southern Gas Corridor could play an important role in compensating for the negative effects of the aforementioned war in the energy sector. Greece is an important partner of the TAP project. There is great potential in this field and we are expecting that during 2022 IGB connectivity will begin, bringing the expected results to the energy markets and triggering the dynamic capacity of both our countries. The possible expansion of the capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor would further enhance the energy security of Greece and Europe. However, I would like to emphasize that the expansion of TAP capacity is a business decision of the TAP Consortium and one which requires time and investment, said the Greek deputy minister.

He added that the examination by the Consortium of new technology possibilities that would allow TAP to move towards the transportation of a blend of natural gas and hydrogen is also of great importance.

Greece is very supportive of the use of renewable gases and hydrogen in order to align with green energy policies, said Fragkogiannis.

Work on Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB)

The deputy minister noted that Greece participates in IGB connectivity through a joint venture composed of two Greek companies and the competent Public Gas Corporation of Greece that have agreed on the provision of 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.

Greece has done - and is doing - everything possible for the implementation of the IGB project, which will start its operation by the end of June - early July 2022. In full operation, the IGB, together with TAP, will contribute to ensuring more diversified natural gas portfolios, greater competition in the gas sector and much more competitive prices to the benefit of the end-consumers in Europe, he added.

More room for energy cooperation

Fragkogiannis pointed out that Greece looks forward to cooperating with Azerbaijan in all fields of economic activity with a particular interest in the energy sector: Greece and Azerbaijan can enhance their cooperation in energy supplies and in several natural gas projects, as Greece is an important partner of the TAP project.

Investment opportunities exist in various fields, such as new technologies, Renewable Energy Resources, natural gas, constructions and many others; investments could be achieved by expanding the existent business interaction between the Greek and the Azerbaijani business communities and forging new synergies, said the deputy minister.

He pointed out that SOCAR is already playing an important role in the development of the Greek energy sector as it holds 20 percent of the shares of the TAP consortium.

We believe that this constitutes a solid foundation for exploring further possibilities of the Azerbaijani involvement in the Greek energy landscape. This is especially true during these times of energy uncertainty. We are open to examine fruitful proposals which would be beneficial for both sides, said Fragkogiannis.

Prospects in renewable energy sphere

The Greek deputy minister noted that as both countries are very interested in RES, there is ample room for strengthening the cooperation and taking advantage of synergies on a mutual benefit basis.

Cooperation between Greece and Azerbaijan is foreseen in the Memorandum of Cooperation signed in 2009 in the field of RES and energy efficiency. Greece could also provide important know-how to Azerbaijan and participate in common RES projects via its research and academic institutions, he concluded.
A delegation sent to Tokyo by president-elect Yoon Seok-youl met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday. They agreed to make joint efforts to restore broken trust between the two countries.

Kishida said Tokyo "can wait no longer" for relations to improve, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

He also stressed the need to develop relations based on friendship and cooperation that have been built since the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1965. He reiterated the importance of resolving issues including compensation for Korean forced labor during World War II.


The Ukrainian government on April 24 deleted a video showing Japan's wartime emperor Hirohito, beside Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and apologized for linking them.

The spat has reignited long-standing debates over Japan's culpability for its wartime atrocities.

The video had sparked furious protest from Masahisa Sato, a lawmaker with Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. In a tweet the same day, he urged the Japanese foreign ministry to "take immediate action" about the "problematic" video.

The clip was part of a social media campaign that compared its fight against Russia to the fight against Nazism and fascism during World War II. Some Japanese netizens found it offensive to place Hirohito, a constitutional monarch constrained by military dictators, to other Axis leaders, arguing that he was a mere figurehead. Others placed Sato's request in the context of a larger attempt by Japan to downplay its history of imperialism and wartime violence in China, Korea, the Philippines and other parts of Asia.

Less than two hours after Sato's tweet, Ukraine deleted the video and posted a new version without the picture of Hirohito. "Our sincere apologies to @japan for this mistake," the Ukrainian government wrote. "We had no intention to offend the friendly people of Japan."

Sato is a member of Japan's conservative ruling party, which has led attempts at whitewashing Japan's wartime atrocities.

Koichi Nakano, a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, said, "This sentiment is not new, and it is not marginal. In Japanese politics, throughout the past 10 years or so, the ruling party has been characterized by attempts at historical revisionism."

Ukraine, however, is keen to secure Japanese aid. "The people in Japan who have been more vocal in saying Japan should support Ukraine are often also the people who don't like when it's pointed out that Japan has a totalitarian past," said Nakano. "Ukrainian diplomats know they can't say no to the demands of these right-wing politicians, because they are powerful."

It was not the first time Japanese commentators have bristled at comparisons between Russia's aggression and Japan's own. The Ukrainian ambassador to Korea Dmytro Ponomarenko compared Ukraine's struggle for autonomy to Korea's independence struggle against Japanese imperialism.

"We honor the strength and national spirit of the Korean people who courageously stood for their independence on March 1, 1919," he wrote. "Ukraine knows very well what it means to fight for freedom."

Hundreds of Japanese commentators criticized the comparison. "Your thoughtlessness is putting a damper on the united mood of support for Ukraine in the Asian region," one replied.

"Your understanding of Japanese history is wrong," wrote Matsumaru Makoto, a former lawmaker for Tokyo's Adachi ward, in a post with more than 200 likes. "March 1, 1919 is the incident of Korean riots in Japan. You praised this incident. This is a blasphemy against Japanese who support Ukraine."

Last month, the Japanese government approved high school textbooks that sanitize historical facts about forced labor and sexual slavery during Japan's colonization of Korea, for example replacing the word "coercion" with "mobilization" to describe Koreans' forced labor.

"It was the Abe government and right-wing politicians like Sato who worked to revise the standards for textbook screening in Japan," Nakano said. "The politicians who pressured Ukraine are the same who are propagating these historical revisionist views."

President-elect Yoon Seok-youl hopes to improve ties between Japan and Korea. As the two countries move forward to restore relations, it is important to pay attention to attempts at historical revisionism, Nakano added.

"Normally such instances of attempts at historical revision are not big international news, but rather local news in Korea and China, the biggest victims of Japan's aggression during World War II. But this time since it involved Ukraine -- and Ukrainians know the power of historical revision -- maybe other countries will take notice."


A mentally impaired Malaysian man has been executed on drug trafficking charges in Singapore despite appeals from human rights activists and celebrities to spare his life.

The family of 34-year-old Nagaenthran Dharmalingam says he was hanged before dawn early Wednesday, hours after a court rejected a last-ditch legal challenge brought by his mother. The family broke down in tears after the court's decision.

Nagaenthran had been on death row in Singapore since 2010 for trafficking less than 43 grams of heroin into the city/state, which has some of the worlds toughest drug laws. His lawyers and anti-death penalty advocates said he had an intelligence quotient or IQ score of 69, a level recognized as a disability.

But Singapore's courts ruled that Nagaenthran was aware of his actions when he was arrested.


KYODO NEWS - Apr 27, 2022 - 19:22 | All, Japan

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to consider doubling the country's defense budget to an amount on par with 2 percent or more of its gross domestic product, citing the region's increasingly complex and severe security environment.

A set of proposals finalized by the ruling party last week, calling also for the development by the Self-Defense Forces of counterstrike abilities aimed at disabling enemy weapons, will serve as a basis for the government to update the National Security Strategy by the end of the year.

The LDP's push to allow Japan to fire upon and disable enemy missiles before launch from foreign territory and target command centers remains controversial given the country has long held an exclusively self-defense-oriented security policy position under its war-renouncing Constitution.

Kishida, also the LDP leader, said his party will need to discuss the policy review with its junior coalition partner Komeito, according to former Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera who heads the LDP's Research Commission on National Security responsible for compiling the proposals.

Komeito has shown reluctance in raising the defense spending target and Japan acquiring capabilities to attack enemy bases in counterstrikes. The two parties are not expected to undertake intensive discussions on how to amend Japan's security strategy before the upcoming House of Councillors election this summer.

The first revision of the long-term security guideline, which was originally approved by the Cabinet in late 2013, will come amid China's growing military assertiveness in the region, possibly emboldened by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and North Korea's increasing missile and nuclear threat.

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. In a situation that can be said to be the greatest (current) crisis for the international community, we must drastically strengthen Japan's defense capabilities," Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said upon receiving the proposals earlier in the day.

With the defense spending target of more than 2 percent of GDP for North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations in mind, the ruling party has said Japan should aim to increase its spending to reach a level necessary to fundamentally reinforce defense capabilities in five years.

To meet the target, Japan, which has long capped its defense budget at around 1 percent of GDP, needs to secure almost 11 trillion yen ($86 billion) annually to be spent on national security, twice as much as a record 5.4 trillion yen set aside for the current fiscal year to March 2023 on an initial budget basis.

Some senior LDP lawmakers have, however, suggested that the 2 percent target should be treated as an "indicator," rather than an ultimate goal, with Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary general of the party, saying Tuesday that Japan should secure a defense budget of roughly 6.5 trillion yen for the next fiscal year.

In the recommendations submitted to the government, the LDP also called for the relaxation of restrictions on arms exports.

Regarding the proposal to obtain counterattack capabilities, the LDP moved away from using "enemy base strike capabilities" in its wording.

The switch from that expression was decided in response to public concern that Japan could be seen as departing from its defense-oriented security policy in pursuit of the ability to make a preemptive strike.

Komeito has also raised an issue about the originally used wording which it said could give the impression that the SDF would depart from the strictly defensive role.
KYODO NEWS - Apr 27, 2022 - 11:58 | All, World

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday agreed "in principle" on the involvement of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from a besieged steel plant in Mariupol, amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

It was the secretary general's first visit to Moscow since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24. Putin said recently that Russian forces had effectively seized Mariupol, a key port city in southeastern Ukraine, but the United States has expressed doubt about the claim.

Agreeing on the evacuation of civilians who have been taking shelter in the Azovstal steel plant, Guterres and Putin "discussed the proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians from conflict zones, namely in relation to the situation in Mariupol," according to a statement released by the United Nations.

Mariupol is located between Ukraine's Donbas region, which is partly controlled by Russian-backed separatists, and the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The statement said that following the agreement, discussions would be held between the U.N. humanitarian office and Russian Defense Ministry on the evacuation.

Around 1,000 civilians are estimated to be in the plant, where Russian troops are continuing to face Ukrainian resistance.

More than 5 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the war. Several attempts to create evacuation corridors for civilians to leave Mariupol have failed.

In response to Guterres' concern over the civilians left in the steel plant, Putin was quoted by Russian state television as saying that fighting there had ended and any remaining civilians were the responsibility of Ukrainian forces.

In separate talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, Guterres proposed the launch of a Humanitarian Contact Group to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians from war-affected areas.

"We urgently need humanitarian corridors that are truly safe and effective and that are respected by all to evacuate civilians and deliver much-needed assistance," the U.N. chief told a press conference after the meeting.

Guterres said he hopes establishing such a group would bring Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations together "to look for opportunities for the opening of safe corridors, with local cessations of hostilities, and to guarantee that they are actually effective."

Describing his talks with Lavrov as "a very frank discussion," Guterres indicated that they had failed to narrow differences over the steps to be taken to end the war in Ukraine. He reiterated the U.N. call for "cease-fires to protect civilians and to facilitate a political dialogue to reach a solution."

Guterres is scheduled to visit Ukraine and meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday.

Related coverage:

U.S. to return diplomats to Ukraine, says Russia "failed" in war

FEATURE: Ukrainian evacuee fights fake news after uprooting life to Japan

Putin declares Mariupol captured, cancels plan to storm steel plant
KYODO NEWS - Apr 28, 2022 - 00:01 | All, World, Japan

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it will expel eight Japanese diplomats, likely in retaliation against an earlier decision by Tokyo to expel Russian diplomats.

The ministry demanded that the eight diplomats leave the country by May 10, saying the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is spreading slander regarding Russia's military operation in Ukraine and taking overtly hostile policy measures which hurt the two countries' cooperative relationship built over the years.

Japan decided earlier this month to expel eight Russians, including diplomats at the Russian Embassy, amid international condemnation over the scores of civilians killed in Ukraine.

The Japanese government has declined to identify those expelled, but they did not include Russian Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Galuzin.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said when the decision was made that countermeasures by Moscow would be expected but his government will take all possible measures to protect the activities of Japanese nationals and businesses in Russia.

Related coverage:

Japan parliament OKs revoking Russia's "most favored" trade status

Japan OKs asset freezes on Putin's daughters, 396 other Russians

Japan to expel Russian diplomats in concerted effort with allies
KYODO NEWS - Apr 27, 2022 - 14:28 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

A Japanese health ministry panel approved Wednesday a plan to initially administer fourth COVID-19 vaccine shots only to the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions.

The fourth shots of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will be available five months after a person received their third shot, according to the plan.

People aged 60 or older as well as those 18 or older who suffer from a medical condition are eligible for a fourth shot. The fourth vaccination will be offered for free like the first three.

The panel also said the fourth shot may be made more widely available later.

"We will examine the scope of coverage while looking at future evidence and the infection situation," Takaji Wakita, head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and leader of the panel, said at its meeting.
KYODO NEWS - Apr 27, 2022 - 18:14 | World, All

The government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday he has approved a law designating Aug. 30 as National Press Freedom Day, a move seen as ironic as his crackdowns on the free press have drawn much criticism.

The day, which will not be a holiday, was created in honor of Marcelo del Pilar, a patriot writer during the Spanish occupation of the Philippines who was born on Aug. 30, 1850, and is regarded as the father of the country's journalism.

According to the law, state and private media organizations shall lead "consciousness-raising" activities on that day to promote the rights of journalists and their protection.

Some critics remarked on Facebook it is "ironic" that the president declared press freedom day as Congress last year shut down leading broadcaster ABS-CBN Corp. Duterte had publicly expressed his unhappiness with the network's coverage of his governance.

The president also targeted Rappler, a digital media company known for its critical coverage of his government, and its CEO Maria Ressa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.

Reporters without Borders, an international media watchdog group, has called Duterte a press freedom "predator" for using brutal methods against the local media while tolerating no criticism.

It said they include spurious charges of defamation or tax evasion, rescinding broadcast licenses, getting supporters to buy up media outlets and bring their journalists into line, and using an army of trolls to subject journalists to online harassment.

The Philippines ranked 138th among 180 countries in the world in terms of freedom of the press, according to a 2021 survey by the watchdog.

Jonathan de Santos, chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said while he welcomes press freedom day, "I hope (it) will actually mean a freer press and lead to a media environment where journalists will not face the risks of legal cases, harassment, intimidation and physical attacks."

Duterte is set to step down on June 30. The Constitution limits a president to a single six-year term.
Travelers wait to buy tickets for Eid trips at Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on April 25, 2022.(Xinhua)

by Naim-Ul-Karim

DHAKA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Bangladesh travelers in desperate bid to get advance tickets face "huge snake-like" queues at railway ticket counters in the capital Dhaka.

As the holy Eid-al-Fitr is drawing near, marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the ticket counters at the city railway station have started witnessing a mad rush of people since last weekend.

People of all ages and even women in large numbers are now thronging Kamalapur Railway Station in the capital to buy tickets for Eid trips.

Akhi Akter, a Dhaka dweller, said she managed to get the tickets for her Eid trip to North Bengal, saying she felt lucky to get the reservation as ticket seekers are increasing.

Bangladesh Railway on April 23 began to sell train tickets in advance for Eid travelers who will flock home to join the festival with their kith and kin.

The Muslim majority Bangladesh will celebrate the Eid-al-Fitr festival on or around May 3, depending upon moon sightings.

The desperation for reservation of tickets brings queues of thousands standing for agonizingly long hours that are apparently getting longer day by day.

"I came to the railway station to book tickets to Noakhali district," said Enamul Islam, a ticket seeker.

He said the waiting is getting longer.

"I'm not sure whether finally I could manage a ticket," he said.

Unfortunately, an official who preferred to be unnamed said there is no guarantee for getting a ticket because the number of people seeking tickets is much more than their capacity.

Like previous years, he said, half of the tickets will be sold at counters and the rest online.

Bangladeshi Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan earlier this month said this time advance tickets for Eid would be available in train stations and on the app.

He said they would operate 92 intercity trains in a special arrangement as there would be no weekly break for seven days for trains before Eid.

Professor Md Hadiuzzaman, director of the Accidental Research Institute at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said recently that the mad rush of millions of home-bound people could impact Bangladesh's entire transportation system during this Eid occasion.

"In our research, we found that 11.5 million people left Dhaka for Eid in 2019, but it reduced to only 6 million during the pandemic."

But this time, he said, the number will be doubled again.

"Some 3 million people may leave Dhaka every day in the four days before Eid," he said.

According to the expert, trains, buses and ferries have the capacity to transport 13-14 lakh (1.3-1.4 million) passengers daily. "Therefore, there is no transportation system for (the rest) 1.6 million people," he added. 

Travelers wait to buy tickets for Eid trips at Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on April 25, 2022.(Xinhua)

A woman shows a ticket at Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on April 25, 2022.(Xinhua)

Women wait to buy tickets for Eid trips at Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on April 25, 2022.(Xinhua)

Travelers wait to buy tickets for Eid trips at Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on April 25, 2022.(Xinhua)
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (C) addresses a joint sitting of the parliament about the floods in Cape Town, South Africa, on April 26, 2022. Ramaphosa on Tuesday revealed that the government is mobilizing substantial funding to help recovery from recent catastrophic floods in three provinces, including the worst-hit KwaZulu-Natal, while the country's fiscal environment is "severely constrained." (Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua)

CAPE TOWN, April 26 (Xinhua) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday revealed that the government is mobilizing substantial funding to help recovery from recent catastrophic floods in three provinces, including the worst-hit KwaZulu-Natal, while the country's fiscal environment is "severely constrained."

The country has to provide support and rebuild infrastructure while at the same time "sustaining expenditure measures in support of the reconstruction and recovery", as it is still counting the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic and the public unrest last July, Ramaphosa told a joint sitting of the parliament about the floods, where he called on the solidarity among different political parties for the people.

Shortly before the president addressing the parliament, lawmakers observed a moment of silence for those who were killed in the floods.

Tuesday's figures showed at least 435 people have been killed and 54 people are still missing in KwaZulu-Natal due to the deluge caused by heavy rainfall from April 8-13 on the province's coastal parts. Roads, bridges and over 5,700 houses were completely destroyed and nearly 10,000 houses were partially damaged, and around 630 schools have been affected and over 100 schools are not accessible at present, according to the figures.

Parts of Eastern Cape Province also experienced flooding, where two people were killed and three people were injured and around 1,000 people were affected by the destruction of houses and other losses. In inland North West Province, a total of 1,535 houses were damaged by heavy rainfall.

Ramaphosa told the parliament that some of the funding is available in the existing budgets of departments, provinces, municipalities and public entities, and the government will also seek funding from the contingency reserve for 2022/23 for repairing and rebuilding of damaged infrastructure and other disaster recovery pending the enactment of the 2022 Appropriation Act.

The government is also looking at public donations through the Solidarity Fund for humanitarian and other forms of relief, he said.

The fund, which was formed in 2020 to fight COVID-19, has established an account to receive donations from organizations, companies and individuals to response to the floods, with the government putting in the initial amount of funds to enable the fund to undertake necessary work, he added.

According to the president, "it is clear that more money will be needed" to deal with necessary reconstruction and rebuilding work", although the assessment of the extent of additional funding is still underway.

He also said the government has to ensure that all the funds are spent effectively amid public fears for misappropriation and waste.

South Africa is responding to the flooding in three overlapping phases, namely humanitarian assistance, stabilization and recovery, and reconstruction and rebuilding.

The flooding in KwaZulu-Natal caused severe damage in the hilly city eThekwini, which hosts one of the Africa's busiest port Durban, and several other areas.

EThekwini, with many gorges and ravines and almost no true coastal plain, is the third largest city in the country by population. It received around 30 percent of its annual rainfall in a 24-hour period, equivalent to 110 days of rainfall.

The access to the Port of Durban has been restored through temporary repairs to the road, and work is underway to return the road to its previous condition.

The president also warned the parliament of climate change, saying that the national meteorological authority has noted that extreme weather events are more prevalent in recent times across most regions of the country and the effects of climate change are expected to increase in severity over the next 20 years. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (Front) addresses a joint sitting of the parliament about the floods in Cape Town, South Africa, on April 26, 2022. Ramaphosa on Tuesday revealed that the government is mobilizing substantial funding to help recovery from recent catastrophic floods in three provinces, including the worst-hit KwaZulu-Natal, while the country's fiscal environment is "severely constrained." (Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua)
By Azernews





Azerbaijan has exported 2.6 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe in the first quarter of this year, Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov wrote on his official Twitter page.

He added that Azerbaijan also exported 2.2 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey and 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Georgia during the said period.

Earlier it was reported that Azerbaijan increased its gas production by 13.5 percent in the first quarter of 2022. The national gas output totaled 11.8 billion cubic meters. In addition, natural gas consumption in the country increased by 9.3 percent and amounted to about 4.8 billion cubic meters.

To recall, with the completion of the TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) construction on December 31, 2020, Azerbaijan began commercial gas supplies to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor. The European Commission's Southern Gas Corridor initiative aims to build a natural gas supply route from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consists of the South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), and TAP.

Last year, TAP transported 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe. By late 2022, Azerbaijan plans to increase gas supplies to Europe to 9.1 billion cubic meters, and in 2023 the volume of gas supplies is expected to reach 11 billion cubic meters.

According to the forecast of the Azerbaijani government for oil and gas production in the country until 2026, about 48 billion cubic meters of gas will be produced in 2023, 49 billion cubic meters in 2024 and about 50 billion cubic meters in 2025.
YANGON, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to five more years of imprisonment on Wednesday after being found guilty of corruption, according to the State Administration Council (SAC)'s Information Team.

She was convicted of accepting gold bars and cash payment from former Yangon region chief minister Phyo Min Thein, the Information Team's leader Zaw Min Tun told Xinhua.

The case against Aung San Suu Kyi under Section 55 of Anti-Corruption Law was prosecuted by an official from the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Aung San Suu Kyi has already been sentenced to six years of imprisonment in other cases in two separate verdicts, including illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, violating coronavirus restrictions and sedition. 
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the First Innovation Exchange Conference for Craftsmen of the Nation, which opened in Beijing on Wednesday.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for contributing wisdom and strength to high-quality development and the implementation of the strategy to build the country into a leader in manufacturing.

On behalf of the CPC Central Committee, Xi extended sincere greetings to skilled workers, model workers and general workers ahead of the International Labor Day.

Xi stressed that skilled workers are a significant force to shore up China's manufacturing and innovation.

Encouraging workers to strive to meet the needs of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation in today's world, Xi called on them to continuously enhance technical skills and contribute wisdom and strength to promoting high-quality development, implementing the strategy of making China a leader in manufacturing, and building a modern socialist country in all respects.

Party committees and governments at all levels should deepen reforms in the cultivation of industrial workers and attach importance to giving play to the roles of skilled workers to fully stimulate their innovation capacity, Xi said.

Held by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the conference showcases the superb skills and innovation outcomes of Chinese workers, and serves as an exchange platform for highly-skilled workers. 

Let craftsmanship and innovation prevail

Full text of Xi Jinping's letter to the First Innovation Exchange Conference for Craftsmen of the Nation
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the First Innovation Exchange Conference for Craftsmen of the Nation, which opened in Beijing on Wednesday.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for contributing wisdom and strength to high-quality development and the implementation of the strategy to build the country into a leader in manufacturing. 
NANJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A group of Chinese and American paleontologists said they have discovered an ancient fossil group of marine species dating back about 504 million years in Linyi City, east China's Shandong Province.

The fossil assemblage, named "Linyi Lagerstatte" by the researchers, consists of more than 35 extinct species living on the ocean floor, mainly arthropods, said Zhao Fangchen, a researcher from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A variety of spongia and vermicular life-forms were also found among the fossil group. The Linyi Lagerstatte is remarkable for its excellent preservation of arthropod limbs, eyes, and guts, and these well-preserved fossils promise to yield new anatomical data bearing on the early evolution of animals, according to Zhao who leads the research.

The animal group is believed to have existed on Earth right after the Cambrian explosion, a critical evolution period that led to the emergence of the ancestors of many modern organisms.

"The multi-category marine species of the Linyi Lagerstatte can offer not only a vivid portrayal of the thriving organisms at that time, but also an important window into the morphological disparity, community structure, and paleogeographic distribution of marine faunas following the Cambrian explosion," Zhao said.

The study has been recently published online in the journal National Science Review. 
HONG KONG, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government announced on Wednesday that COVID-19 virus has recently been detected in sewage samples from many areas in the city, indicating that there may be hidden cases in the premises in these areas.

The HKSAR government said that in efforts to combat COVID-19, its Environmental Protection Department and Drainage Services Department, in collaboration with a cross-disciplinary team of the University of Hong Kong, have strengthened the sampling of sewage in all districts of Hong Kong for COVID-19 virus testing.

About 210,000 sets of the COVID-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) kits will be distributed to residents, cleaning workers and property management staff working in areas with positive sewage testing results showing relatively high viral loads, in order to help identify infected persons, it said.

The HKSAR government also urged RAT kit users to report any positive result for COVID-19 via the government's online platform.

On Wednesday, Hong Kong registered 222 new COVID-19 cases by nucleic acid tests, and 208 additional positive cases through self-reported rapid antigen tests, official data showed. 
Staff work at the motorcycle engine workshop of the Loncin Motor Co., Ltd. in the Chongqing Hi-tech Zone, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, March 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)



CHONGQING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Looking smart in his suit and polished leather shoes, Aykut Yazirli, a 35-year-old Turkish man, has kept up his habit of riding on a motorcycle to his workplace in Jiefangbei, a central business district (CBD) of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, for over a decade.

As a white-collar worker, he regards the great contrast between a motorcycle and a suit as his reason for settling down in Chongqing. "I can enjoy both a relaxing life and huge career opportunities in the city," said Yazirli.

A motorcycle marked his start in this foreign city. In 2010, he was sent by a motorcycle company in Turkey to China in search of possible collaboration with a market with great potential.

At first, Yazirli worked in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou. Yet, the Turkish company soon realized Chongqing would be a better choice.

Chongqing is China's leading manufacturing base of motorcycles. As the city's hilly landscape demands high-performance vehicles, the local motorcycles became a suitable match for Turkish consumers.

Currently, nearly 70 percent of motorcycles running on roads in Turkey are made in China. Yazirli's company once helped export about 150,000 Chinese motorcycles to Turkey in just one year, about one-third of the total from Chongqing.

However, the promising young man chose to quit his job in the motorcycle company in 2015 and began to study Chinese at a local university in Chongqing. "I knew that no matter how outstanding I was in the motorcycle business, my life just centered on motorcycles. If I got a good command of Chinese, I could dream bigger," Yazirli explained.

After graduation, Yazirli tried running a business in the catering industry but finally decided to join the Asia American European Culture Exchange & Development Center (AAEC), an NGO promoting exchanges between Chongqing and the world.

"I have helped ten local companies to export cooling machines to Turkey, and five Turkish companies export fruits and crafts to the city," he said.

Leaving the motorcycle industry did not end Yazirli's love and passion for the vehicle. He is now a member of Chongqing's local motorcycle club and still cruising down the highways and swerving lane to lane across the city and its countryside.

"I love traveling in Chongqing; even its hamlets are so developed and beautiful. In a village in Nanchuan District, you can pick up fruits in an agritainment resort, and in Tongliang District, you can appreciate the vibrant dragon dancing," said Yazirli.

"I am addicted to the amazing city with more and more bridges, railways, and buildings shooting up," Yazirli exclaimed. "As long as you live here, you would never want to leave."

The motorcycle enthusiast also likes square dancing, a physical activity popular among middle-aged and retired women who perform natural movements to a musical accompaniment in open spaces in Chinese cities.

This activity should be well-received by the elderly in Turkey as they share the common desire to enrich their retired life, according to Yazirli.

He also wants to help more Turkish people learn about the successful Chinese experience in combatting COVID-19, the country's language, and traditional festivals. An increasing population in China is turning their eyes to Turkey for its colorful tourism experiences.

"I now have a bigger role, sort of like a public ambassador of the two countries and their peoples," said Aykut Yazirli. "I want to convey the right information and good messages about China, helping enhance the connections between the two countries in culture, education, business, and many other aspects." 
DAMASCUS, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Syrian air defenses responded to a fresh Israeli missile strike in the capital Damascus after midnight, according to the state news agency SANA.

People in the capital heard two powerful explosions as a result of the attack and the interception of the Syrian air defenses.

The attack is the latest in a string of Israeli strikes against Syrian military sites over the pretext that it's targeting pro-Iran militias and weapons shipments. 
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with visiting United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Kremlin on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Putin told Guterres that the Ukrainian issue arose after the 2014 "unconstitutional coup" in Kiev and people in Donbass remained under blockade and military pressure even after the Minsk agreements on a peaceful settlement were reached.

According to Putin, the Donbass "republics" have the right to declare their sovereignty and Russia has the right to recognize their independence and provide them with military assistance in full accordance with the UN Charter.

"Despite the ongoing military operation, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track. We are negotiating and we do not refuse them," he said.

Guterres proposed creating a contact group where the UN, Russia and Ukraine can discuss the situation together so that the humanitarian corridors are truly effective.

He said that to resolve the situation in Ukraine's Mariupol, the UN is ready to fully mobilize its logistical capabilities and human resources, working together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as well as the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces.

Guterres also said that the UN is ready in two or three days, together with the ICRC, to assess the situation at the Azovstal plant in order to evacuate civilians from there.

In response, Putin denied reports that Russian humanitarian corridors are not working and stressed that 130,000 to 140,000 people have left Mariupol with the assistance of Russia and they are free to go anywhere.

Putin also offered an opportunity to UN and ICRC representatives to have a look at how Russia treats Ukrainian war prisoners.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
HOHHOT, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese official urged north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to reinforce the sense of all ethnic groups being within the community of the Chinese nation, while pursuing long-lasting stability and prosperity as well as high-quality development.

Wang Chen, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, made the remarks during an inspection tour to Inner Mongolia from April 24 to 26.

Wang inspected local businesses and research institutes and talked with grassroots lawmakers during the tour.

He called on the region to foster new development edges and strive for progress on economic and social development. The focus should be placed on key technologies, with greater energy devoted to advanced manufacturing and the sectors of wind power, solar power and new materials, Wang said.

A comprehensive approach should be taken to deal with air, water and soil pollution, he said, urging the border region to enhance its efforts on ecological preservation.

Wang also called on local lawmakers to provide strong legal safeguards for ethnic unity and high-quality development. 
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority will, step by step, push Taiwan into the disaster of war by wantonly squandering the money of the Taiwan people on buying arms and creating confrontation across the Taiwan Strait, said a mainland spokesperson on Wednesday.

"The move poses great harm to the interests and wellbeing of the Taiwan people," said Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a press conference.

The DPP's attempt to collude with external forces to "seek Taiwan independence" and "seek Taiwan independence by force" has not changed, he noted.

"The future of Taiwan and the security and interests of Taiwan compatriots lie in the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and national reunification," Ma said.

He called on the people of Taiwan to reject the coercion and deception of the DPP authority and work with the people on the mainland to promote the peaceful and integrated development of cross-Strait relations and build a peaceful home for compatriots on both sides of the Strait. 
By Trend





Israel will encourage and support local investors showing real interest in Azerbaijan, Israels Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman said in an exclusive interview with Trend, while on a visit to Azerbaijan.

The minister noted that his visit was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of establishing Azerbaijan-Israel diplomatic relations.

"We have done a lot in 30 years. I remember our meeting with Heydar Aliyev in 1997 and Im still surprised by his insight and far-sightedness. He was the first who had clearly pointed out the potential of bilateral relations and mutual benefit between Israel and Azerbaijan. Im so glad that his policy is successfully continued by President Ilham Aliyev who gives new impetus to our relations," Lieberman said.

Furthermore, the Israeli minister of tourism paid a visit to Azerbaijan three weeks ago, the minister of agriculture will come in two weeks, and the president of Israel will hopefully visit the country in a month.

According to Lieberman, Azerbaijan has opened Trade and Tourism Representative Offices in Israel. Moreover, the countries have established close energy cooperation, as well as consider the possibility of implementing joint projects in the field of energy and agriculture.

"Our cooperation contributes to the development of economy, human relations, and diplomatic ties between the two states. During my visit, I met with the ministers of finance and economy, as well as with a number of high-level officials. We talked about cybersecurity cooperation, addressed protecting financial institutions from hackers, outlined a long-term development plans, and etc.," Lieberman said.

The minister also stressed that Israel appreciates Azerbaijan's assistance in joining the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

"We see the real interest of our business community in Azerbaijan and we will encourage them and provide loans, if necessary. The most attractive economic sectors of Azerbaijan for Israeli investors are water, agriculture, agricultural products processing, dairy farming, and much more. Tourism is also a promising area of ??bilateral cooperation, so the Israeli tourist flow to Azerbaijan has resumed, Lieberman said.

Speaking of the active participation of Israeli companies in Karabakh projects, the minister stressed the significance of Karabakh in terms of agriculture, dairy farming, and a number of other industries.

"We will certainly take an active part in the restoration of Azerbaijans liberated territories. I do hope for signing of agricultural agreements during the visit of the Israeli minister of agriculture" he emphasized.

The minister also highlighted the recent progress towards the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"Resolving conflicts and cooperating are always better than fighting. We look forward to the signing of a peace agreement, which will benefit not only Azerbaijan and Armenia, but the whole region. This can serve as a positive signal for the entire world community, especially amidst recent world events, to invest the main efforts in economic development, not in wars and conflicts," Lieberman said.
CHONGQING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Looking smart in his suit and polished leather shoes, Aykut Yazirli, a 35-year-old Turkish man, has kept up his habit of riding on a motorcycle to his workplace in Jiefangbei, a central business district (CBD) of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, for over a decade.

As a white-collar worker, he regards the great contrast between a motorcycle and a suit as his reason for settling down in Chongqing. "I can enjoy both a relaxing life and huge career opportunities in the city," said Yazirli.

A motorcycle marked his start in this foreign city. In 2010, he was sent by a motorcycle company in Turkey to China in search of possible collaboration with a market with great potential.

At first, Yazirli worked in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou. Yet, the Turkish company soon realized Chongqing would be a better choice.

Chongqing is China's leading manufacturing base of motorcycles. As the city's hilly landscape demands high-performance vehicles, the local motorcycles became a suitable match for Turkish consumers.

Currently, nearly 70 percent of motorcycles running on roads in Turkey are made in China. Yazirli's company once helped export about 150,000 Chinese motorcycles to Turkey in just one year, about one-third of the total from Chongqing.

However, the promising young man chose to quit his job in the motorcycle company in 2015 and began to study Chinese at a local university in Chongqing. "I knew that no matter how outstanding I was in the motorcycle business, my life just centered on motorcycles. If I got a good command of Chinese, I could dream bigger," Yazirli explained.

After graduation, Yazirli tried running a business in the catering industry but finally decided to join the Asia American European Culture Exchange & Development Center (AAEC), an NGO promoting exchanges between Chongqing and the world.

"I have helped ten local companies to export cooling machines to Turkey, and five Turkish companies export fruits and crafts to the city," he said.

Leaving the motorcycle industry did not end Yazirli's love and passion for the vehicle. He is now a member of Chongqing's local motorcycle club and still cruising down the highways and swerving lane to lane across the city and its countryside.

"I love traveling in Chongqing; even its hamlets are so developed and beautiful. In a village in Nanchuan District, you can pick up fruits in an agritainment resort, and in Tongliang District, you can appreciate the vibrant dragon dancing," said Yazirli.

"I am addicted to the amazing city with more and more bridges, railways, and buildings shooting up," Yazirli exclaimed. "As long as you live here, you would never want to leave."

The motorcycle enthusiast also likes square dancing, a physical activity popular among middle-aged and retired women who perform natural movements to a musical accompaniment in open spaces in Chinese cities.

This activity should be well-received by the elderly in Turkey as they share the common desire to enrich their retired life, according to Yazirli.

He also wants to help more Turkish people learn about the successful Chinese experience in combatting COVID-19, the country's language, and traditional festivals. An increasing population in China is turning their eyes to Turkey for its colorful tourism experiences.

"I now have a bigger role, sort of like a public ambassador of the two countries and their peoples," said Aykut Yazirli. "I want to convey the right information and good messages about China, helping enhance the connections between the two countries in culture, education, business, and many other aspects." 
UNITED NATIONS, April 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Tuesday called for efforts to mitigate Syria's security, economic and humanitarian situation.

Last month, the seventh meeting of the Syrian Constitutional Committee core group was held in Geneva. China calls on all parties in Syria to maintain communications with UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen, strengthen consultations on specific texts, and continue to advance the Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process, said Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.

It is worth noting that Syria still faces a complex security situation. Progress made in resolving major national security issues, such as foreign occupation and terrorism, can help create necessary conditions for the political process, he said.

"China stands ready to work with the United Nations, the guarantor states of the Astana process, and relevant countries in the region to make greater efforts to resolve the above-mentioned two outstanding issues," Dai told the Security Council.

The economic and humanitarian situation in Syria is bleak. It is the responsibility of the international community to help the Syrian people overcome difficulties and move forward with reconstruction, he said.

The international community should earnestly implement the Security Council Resolution 2585 by providing humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to the Syrian people without precondition, and help them obtain sustainable basic services, he said.

"China welcomes the UN move to allocate 26 percent of the resources for the Syrian humanitarian response plan to carry out 570 early-recovery projects, and hopes that these projects can truly improve people's livelihoods, reduce humanitarian needs, and save more lives in Syria," said Dai.

China welcomes the third cross-line aid operation recently launched by the United Nations in Northwest Syria, he said. "We appreciate the Syrian government's active cooperation in the operation, and urge relevant parties in the Northwest to provide access and security guarantee for the cross-line operation to facilitate the distribution of assistance."

The cross-border humanitarian aid mechanism is controversial. The United Nations should strengthen the monitoring of cross-border aid operations to ensure their humanitarian nature and at the same time strive to promote the gradual transition of cross-border operation to cross-line operation, said the envoy.

He once again called on the countries concerned to lift the unilateral coercive measures against Syria to restore the rights of the Syrian people to develop their economy, conduct trade, and rebuild their country. 
A staff member helps a villager disinfect baggage when she returns to Lianqin Village of Beicai Town in Pudong New Area, east China's Shanghai, April 26, 2022.

All villagers of Lianqin Village were transferred to a quarantine site on April 16 due to the emerging of COVID-19 cases here. Thorough disinfection was carried out after villagers left. Since April 24, the villagers have started returning home from quarantine site. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

A mother and her daughter return to Lianqin Village of Beicai Town in Pudong New Area, east China's Shanghai, April 26, 2022.

All villagers of Lianqin Village were transferred to a quarantine site on April 16 due to the emerging of COVID-19 cases here. Thorough disinfection was carried out after villagers left. Since April 24, the villagers have started returning home from quarantine site. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

A villager carrying baggage returns to Lianqin Village of Beicai Town in Pudong New Area, east China's Shanghai, April 26, 2022.

All villagers of Lianqin Village were transferred to a quarantine site on April 16 due to the emerging of COVID-19 cases here. Thorough disinfection was carried out after villagers left. Since April 24, the villagers have started returning home from quarantine site. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

A staff member helps a villager disinfect baggage when he returns to Lianqin Village of Beicai Town in Pudong New Area, east China's Shanghai, April 26, 2022.

All villagers of Lianqin Village were transferred to a quarantine site on April 16 due to the emerging of COVID-19 cases here. Thorough disinfection was carried out after villagers left. Since April 24, the villagers have started returning home from quarantine site. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese idiom "De Ren Zhe Xing" emphasizes the importance of winning people's hearts and attracting talents to a country or government.

"Ren" stands for people's hearts as well as talents. The saying, which comes from Shiji, or Records of the Grand Historian, a monumental history book of ancient China compiled about 2,000 years ago, has two connotations.

Only by winning people's hearts and responding to their wishes can a country or government continue to thrive. This is in accord with the philosophy that "people's will is the foundation of the state" and "people are the foundation of the state."

Moreover, talents are critical to the rise and fall of a country or government. Only by identifying and recruiting the most capable and upright people and suitably employing them can a great cause be completed and a country and its government remain stable and secure.

Winning people's hearts is closely related to attracting the talented. Winning people's hearts will eventually draw in the talented, and recruiting the talented will eventually help win people's hearts.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, China adopts a people-centered development philosophy. This is best illustrated by China's massive poverty-alleviation campaign and its handling of the COVID-19 epidemic, where such concepts and practices as "no one should be left behind" and "people first, life first" have been demonstrated.

China emphasizes the development of professional talent to improve the country's workforce, and education to nurture a new generation of capable young people who are well-prepared to join the socialist cause. 
DAMASCUS, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Four Syrian soldiers were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli missile attack early Wednesday on several sites near the capital Damascus, state news agency SANA reported.

Citing a military source, SANA reported that the missile strikes carried out just after midnight caused damage to the targeted sites.

The source added that the Syrian air defenses intercepted the missiles and downed some of them.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the Israeli strikes destroyed weapon depots belonging to pro-Iran militias in the countryside of Damascus.

The Britain-based watchdog said nine soldiers were killed and eight others wounded by what it called the 10th Israeli attack on Syrian sites since the beginning of 2022. 
BEIRUT, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Wednesday called for stronger security efforts against the risks of a deteriorating security situation amid a nationwide economic collapse.

"We have been witnessing some unacceptable attacks which warn of further deterioration in the future, so we gave directions to security forces to increase their efforts and limit any security violations," Aoun was quoted by a presidency statement as saying.

The president added that security agencies should assume their full responsibilities in deterring any practices that jeopardize security stability in the country.

According to a report released by The Monthly, a quarterly online magazine, Lebanon has witnessed an increase in theft crimes by 306 percent in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period of the pre-crisis year 2019, as the economic crisis has plunged more than 70 percent of the population into poverty. 
TUNIS, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday congratulated his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on re-election victory, pledging to enhance cooperation between the two countries.

In his congratulatory message to Macron, Saied hailed the solidity and cooperative ties between Tunisia and France, the Tunisian presidency said in a statement.

Saied also expressed to the French president his satisfaction with the "permanent consultation and the strategic and fruitful partnership between Tunisia and France."

The Tunisian president affirmed his determination to further strengthen and diversy the bilateral cooperation.

On Sunday, Macron won the 2022 French presidential runoff with 58.54 percent of the votes. 
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- China has been improving its social insurance system to better support the development of the country.

The balance of the three social insurance funds for basic pension, unemployment and employment injury stood at 7.18 trillion yuan (about 1.09 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of March, said Lu Aihong, spokesperson of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, at a press conference on Wednesday.

The number of participants in the basic pension, unemployment and employment injury insurance schemes was 1.03 billion, 230 million and 280 million, respectively, Lu said.

By 2025, China's basic pension insurance coverage will reach 95 percent, according to a five-year plan released by the ministry last year. 




ABUJA, April 27, (Xinhua) -- The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict resulting in the disruption of wheat exports has pushed wheat prices higher by 60 percent in Africa, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Akinwunmi Adesina said in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on Tuesday.

Adesina, in a meeting with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, said the conflict would create global problems, particularly for Africa, which imports a huge percentage of its food from the two countries.

"Already, the price of wheat has gone up about 60 percent. Maize and other grains will also be affected. There may be a fertilizer crisis, as there would be about a 2 million metric tons deficit. And that will affect food production by about 20 percent," he said, noting Africa will lose up to 11 billion U.S. dollars worth of food.

"And coming shortly after COVID-19, that would be rather serious," the Nigeria-born Adesina said, disclosing the AfDB has developed a 1.5-billion U.S. dollars Africa Emergency Food Plan, which is now awaiting approval by the AfDB's top management.

To avert a food crisis on the African continent while mitigating the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he said the AfDB plans to help farmers in Africa cultivate wheat, maize, rice sorghum, and soybeans through the plan.

Speaking specifically of Nigeria, Adesina, a former minister of agriculture in the West African country, said in the wet season of 2022, at least 5 million smallholder farmers would be helped to cultivate 1 million hectares of maize, 1 million hectares of rice, and 250,000 hectares of sorghum and soybeans, respectively.

"In total, our support will help Nigeria to produce 9.5 million metric tons of food," he said, adding "we want to ensure Nigeria won't feel the impact of the food crisis."

Buhari gave plaudits to the AfDB for planning ahead of whatever negative consequences may come from the Russia-Ukraine conflict in terms of food security.

"We are very much aware of the need for food security, and to encourage our local farmers, that was why we closed our borders for about two years to curb smuggling. We made some progress," he added.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service




Security personnel inspect the blast site of the terrorist attack inside a university in Karachi, Pakistan, April 26, 2022. (Xinhua)

The Chinese embassy and consulates general in Pakistan has launched an emergency plan immediately, requesting the Pakistani side to make every effort to treat the wounded, thoroughly investigate the attack, and severely punish the perpetrators.

ISLAMABAD, April 26 (Xinhua) -- China strongly condemned the terrorist attack Tuesday afternoon inside a university in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan said in a statement.

An explosion ripped through a shuttle passenger van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi, leaving three Chinese teachers killed and one Chinese teacher injured so far, the statement said.

"The Embassy and Consulates General of China in Pakistan express deep condolences to the victims from both countries and sincere sympathy to the injured and the bereaved families, and will make every effort to handle the incident with the Pakistani side," the statement said.

The Chinese embassy and consulates general in Pakistan has launched an emergency plan immediately, requesting the Pakistani side to make every effort to treat the wounded, thoroughly investigate the attack, and severely punish the perpetrators, said the statement.

The Chinese embassy and consulates general in Pakistan require relevant departments at all levels in Pakistan to take practical and effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, institutions and projects in Pakistan, and to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again, according to the statement.

After the terrorist attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad Tuesday afternoon to express his deepest condolences to the families of victims and the government and people of China.

Strongly condemning the attack, Shahbaz said he is deeply grieved by the loss of precious lives of the Chinese friends in the heinous terrorist attack in Karachi.

The prime minister said he has instructed that the attack be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice, adding that the Pakistani side will provide all possible assistance to the injured.

Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, said Shahbaz, adding that such vicious acts against the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China will never dent the iron brotherhood between the two countries or hinder bilateral cooperation. 
By Azernews





By Orkhan Amashov

The OSCE Minsk Group is slowly macerating into nothingness. That it has long been in the propinquity of irreversible termination has been known for some time. Yet it has also been a task of some delicacy and precision to define the exact state of affairs concerning the format's demise, or the nature or mode of its death. The impression given is that it is currently being self-liquidated by means of disintegration.

Writing about the dull, futile routine of the OSCE Minsk Group's shambolic existence, which will go down in the annals of history as one of the finest examples of creative inertia, has never been a prospect that the author of this humble submission found exhilarating. The self-same author is also of the opinion that there is nothing intellectually stimulating in its pathetic end.

However much one may abhor the insufferable rigmarole inextricably associated with the OSCE Minsk Group, one is compelled to acknowledge there is some obdurate intricacy involved in the entire entity which, for the sake of establishing unmistakable clarity as to the precise modus operandi of the process, the logical end of which will be de jure dissolution of the format, needs to be addressed.

Protracted demise

Interestingly enough, although it is Baku that is today insisting upon the irrelevance of the OSCE Minsk Group, the first consequential blow was dispatched by Armenia in 2019. Pashinyan's clear renunciation of the terms of the process made Baku conclude that the last vestiges of hope for peaceful settlement had been lost. Then there was the war, which rendered the OSCE Minsk Group utterly irrelevant and archaic.

However, the co-chairs were presented with a chance to recalibrate by means of changing their terms, which they obdurately refused to take into cognisance. Thereafter followed the functional replacement of the OSCE Minsk Group with the trilateral formats mediated by Moscow and Brussels.

Still, purely on a technical level, there was one aspect that had long kept the institution of the co-chairs from falling into the abyss. That was the continued group activity - cooperation between France, the US and Russia - which, despite differing violently on most international subjects, were strangely united in their perspective over Karabakh. The war in Ukraine and the West-Russia confrontation removed this last vestige of credibility.

In view of their disinclination to work with the Kremlin, both Paris and Washington cancelled the format. This has signalled the clinical death of the beleaguered OSCE Minsk Group. Then the question inevitably emerges as to who would deliver a final coup de grace. After all, an irreversible end requires a mode of firm fixation.

At first glance, the expectation was that Baku's explicit renunciation of the format and subsequent act of disbandment by the OSCE would constitute its end. President Aliyev has consistently been clear on this subject. Whilst addressing the members of the Azerbaijani Diaspora in Shusha on 23 April, he reiterated that the OSCE Minsk Group should have already bid farewell to anything related to Karabakh and ignominiously retired to the obscurity from whence it first emerged.

In fact, the president went so far as to state that "the group was established not to resolve the problem, but to perpetuate the fact of occupation". The cumulative effect of President Ilham Aliyev's harsh words amounted to an open death warrant. He could not have been more crystal clear.

Face-saving adieu

Despite this, the outright liquidation by the OSCE has not followed expeditiously. Instead, what we observe now is the process of self-dissolution by means of ending the institution of the co-chairs via disintegration. Since the group activity is now an utter impossibility, the former co-chairs will now act individually as mere representatives of their respective countries.

Washington appointed Andrew Schofer, a former US co-chair, as Senior Advisor on negotiations in the Caucasus. Brice Roquefeuil has been announced as the French ambassador for the EU Eastern Partnership, whereas Igor Khovayev is now a special representative of the challenged Russian Foreign Ministry.

It is now apparent that, in their darkest hour of captivity, the co-chair countries have resorted to a "face-saving" self-liquidation mode of ending their group activity. The OSCE Minsk Group still exists on paper. Some formal procedure involving the OSCE itself will probably be required. Once that final finishing touch is added, the circumstances will be perfectly propitious to issue a definitive and conclusive obituary.
KIEV, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine is seeking to receive 5 billion U.S. dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) per month, Ukraine's media outlet Hromadske reported on Wednesday, citing the country's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

"We are talking about 5 billion dollars a month -- the need for this amount has been confirmed by both the IMF and the World Bank. These are the funds that the budget of Ukraine needs in order to fulfill all our social and humanitarian obligations," Shmyhal said.

The IMF has already set up a special administrative account through which Ukraine's partners will provide assistance for Kiev in the form of grants and loans, he said. 
VIENTIANE, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Laos recorded a trade surplus of about 100 million U.S. dollars in March, according to the latest information from the Lao Trade Portal website.

The official data showed a total trade value of 1,100 million U.S. dollars consisting of exported goods worth 600 million U.S. dollars and imports worth 500 million U.S. dollars.

The report said major exports included copper ore, mixed gold, gold bar, paper, wood pulp and waste paper, rubber, banana, clothes, fertilizer, and sugar.

Among the major imports were vehicles excluding motorcycles and tractors, diesel, mechanical equipment, auto parts, steel and steel products, plastic products, magnetic steel, premium and regular grade fuel, and chemical products.

China remained the top export destination for Laos, followed by Vietnam and Thailand, while the major source countries for Laos' imports were Thailand, China and Vietnam, according to the report.

The trade figures did not include earnings from the export of electricity. 
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 16,700 individuals have been apprehended this year for suspected crimes involving obstruction of border control, China's National Immigration Administration (NIA) told a press conference on Wednesday.

Border control authorities nationwide have seized 1.85 tonnes of drugs and 41.47 tonnes of precursor chemicals since the beginning of 2022, along with 565 guns and more than 10,000 bullets.

According to figures released by the NIA, 13,400 foreigners have been found guilty of illegal entry, overstaying, or illegal employment in China this year, with 8,000 of them repatriated.

In the first quarter of 2022, Chinese border authorities inspected a total of over 30 million entries and exits, which included nearly 14.6 million departures of Chinese residents, the NIA said. 
JAKARTA, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian police have busted the smuggling of 47 kg crystal methamphetamine at the Bengkalis waters in Riau Islands province and arrested four suspects, the national police's anti-narcotics division said Wednesday.

The division's chief Krisno Siregar said three crew members and one captain of a speedboat were throwing four backpacks of the illicit drugs into the sea when police officers arrested them on April 12.

"They tried to avoid the officers who were on patrol. The four bags contained 47 kg crystal methamphetamine," Siregar said.

According to the suspects, they took the crystal methamphetamine from a fugitive on Malaysia's Parit Penyengat beach to be circulated by another fugitive in Pekanbaru city, Riau province, Siregar said.

The suspects allegedly violated the Narcotics Law and would face a maximum punishment of death penalty and a maximum fine of 10 billion rupiahs. 
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday called for solid efforts to ensure stable employment and economic performance.

Chairing a State Council executive meeting, Li also stressed clearing obstacles to coordinate smooth logistics with epidemic control.

The meeting noted that keeping employment stable is a key underpinning for keeping major economic indicators within an appropriate range, and urged measures to help companies resume production, especially those vital to supply chains and providers of logistics services and anti-COVID supplies.

China will strive to support market entities in retaining their staff, the meeting stated, with the policy to postpone payments of certain insurance premiums extended to all virus-hit small, micro and medium firms and individually-owned businesses.

Efforts will be made to create more jobs, such as through encouraging entrepreneurship. The country will offer subsidies to firms granting college graduates internship posts and initiate a series of infrastructure projects in rural areas to boost employment for migrant workers.

Employment services will be improved to help college graduates assume their positions, said the meeting. Authorities will work out other supportive measures like deferring repayments on student loans and provide temporary allowances for the unemployed.

The meeting also demanded efforts from governments at all levels to ensure the completion of annual job-creation goals.

On smoothing out transport and logistics amid COVID-19 control, the meeting stressed efforts to ensure the efficient operation of the country's basic transport networks.

It said that highway poll stations and service areas should remain open to the public, while delivery companies will be encouraged to increase operation capacity.

The country should step up support for the resumption of operations by delivery service stations that have been disrupted by the epidemic, and ensure the smooth transport of farm produce, according to the meeting.

Logistics in key areas will be ensured, as will the transportation of daily necessities, vital products in supply chains and foreign-trade goods, the meeting noted.

The country will also ramp up support to freight transportation firms through measures like exempting value-added tax on eligible income from express delivery services and rolling out a re-lending facility for the transportation and warehousing sectors.

Travel permits for vehicles accepted nationwide will be issued in a speedy manner, while truck drivers should be given free COVID-19 testing along their routes. 
People visit a car company selling electric cars made by China's Geely Auto in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Nov. 10, 2021. (Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua)

"Israeli importers are attracted to the Chinese market because they know they will get quality products at fair prices," said Amir Shani, vice president of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce.

JERUSALEM, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Car imports have become Israel's leading import categories from China and contributed greatly to the increase of Israeli imports from China, an Israeli trade leader said.

Israeli imports of goods from China rose by 42.1 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2022, the country's Central Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.

From January to March, Israeli imports from China, excluding diamonds, totaled 3.41 billion U.S. dollars, compared to 2.4 billion dollars in the same period last year, according to the bureau.

Amir Shani, vice president of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, told Xinhua that importing Chinese electric cars contributed greatly to the increase of Israeli imports from China.

A man views China's Hongqi E-HS9 smart electric SUV in Tel Aviv, Israel, on April 14, 2022. (Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua)

Car imports have joined Israel's leading import categories from China, of electronics, textiles, furniture, and construction materials, he added.

"Israeli importers are attracted to the Chinese market because they know they will get quality products at fair prices," Shani explained.

He estimated that import figures would climb even further due to expectations of a decrease in shipping and logistics costs, which rose significantly during the coronavirus crisis.

"A possible successful conclusion of the negotiations between China and Israel on a free trade agreement will further raise the import figures," he noted.

Israeli exports to China in the first quarter amounted to 1.18 billion dollars, almost unchanged compared to the same quarter last year.

Total Israeli imports reached 25.2 billion dollars in the first quarter, an increase of 28.8 percent year on year, while Israeli exports totaled 14.6 billion dollars, a rise of 20.7 percent. 
KIEV, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Wednesday that no agreement has been reached on a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

"The time of the meeting of the presidents of the two countries and the context of the meeting have not been determined yet," Podolyak, also a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the peace talks with Russia, was quoted as saying.

Consultations at the level of working subgroups, which are preparing the positions of the parties in legal terms, are underway, Podolyak said.

Earlier Wednesday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Turkey hopes that a meeting between Zelensky and Putin would take place in the next few days, according to media reports. 
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese institution has published a series of data products to support scientific research on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of BRICS countries, according to the BRICS Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development held in Beijing on Wednesday.

The products include data from the BRICS countries collected by the satellite SDGSAT-1, and the spatial distribution of the global impervious surface from 2000 to 2020 at a resolution of 30 meters.

Also included are the spatial distribution of major built-up areas in cities with a population of over 300,000 in BRICS countries from 2000 to 2020, and the spatial distribution of global forest cover in 2020 at a resolution of 30 meters.

The products were developed and published by the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS), which is the world's first research institution providing big data services for the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The CBAS is built and operated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The products are based on the application needs of BRICS countries to achieve the SDGs, and were developed using Big Earth Data theory and Big Earth Data processing and analysis technology. They provide assessment information for the SDGs of BRICS countries, including human traces, urban development and forest cover, according to CAS academic and CBAS Director Guo Huadong.

The forum, held from Tuesday to Wednesday, was hosted by the CAS, the Academy of Science of South Africa, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy. 
MANILA, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines has detected the first Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12 in a 52-year-old Finnish female who arrived in the country on April 2, the Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday.

The DOH said the patient has recovered and returned to Finland on April 21. It added the patient was not required to undergo routine isolation at a quarantine facility since she was fully vaccinated and asymptomatic when she arrived in the country.

"The female then traveled to a university in Metro Manila and then to Baguio City (in northern Philippines) to conduct seminars," the DOH said.

Nine days after her arrival in the country, the DOH said the patient experienced mild symptoms such as headache and sore throat.

Upon detecting the confirmed case, the DOH said the local epidemiology and surveillance unit conducted contact tracing to identify nine asymptomatic close contacts. Two of them were tested and found to be negative.

Scientists are still studying whether the Omicron sub-variant is more transmissible and can cause more severe disease.

The Philippines now has over 3.68 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 60,215 deaths. 
SYDNEY, April 27 (Xinhua) -- After global streaming giant Netflix reported its first-ever subscriber loss in the first quarter of 2022, Aussies have begun to turn away from the proliferating streaming market.

Amid the losses, share prices dropping more than 35 percent in response to the decline, the company has been scrambling to open up new revenue streams, one of which is the proposed blocking of users from sharing their accounts.

Angela, a 26-year-old Sydney local, told Xinhua on Wednesday that if such a ban came into place, she would likely end her subscription.

"When I lived in a share house we all just shared one account. I doubt we would have used it if the cost wasn't split," she added that she only holds her current subscription because she shares her account with her parents.

The changes may threaten Netflix's some 6 million Australian subscribers, which make the platform the largest in Australia, outperforming local competitors and generating an estimated 1 billion Australian dollars (about 700 million U.S. dollars) in yearly revenue.

Amanda Lotz, media professor from Queensland University of Technology's (QUT) Digital Media Research Center, told Xinhua that while Australia only accounts for around 3 percent of Netflix's total subscribers, it was a "strongly subscribed market."

"By making password sharing more difficult, presumably Netflix is hoping to increase subscribers."

However, it is not guaranteed that it would not see people move to other platforms or alternatives.

Lotz said it was important not to think of the streaming industry as a "zero sum competition," as each platform has unique things to offer.

"Netflix remains fairly distinctive in offering a blend of global content in comparison to other services."

But, like Angela, many users are finding themselves overwhelmed by an industry that has grown increasingly crowded over the last decade.

Currently, there are five major streaming services operating in Australia, signing up to all of them would cost around 80 Australian dollars (about 57 U.S. dollars) per month.

"As the number of streaming services grows faster than household budgets, it's those titles scoring 10 that are more likely to keep you paying, even if those titles aren't among those on 'Top 10' most-watched lists," said Lotz. 
KABUL, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 3,000 needy persons on behalf of their families received China-donated humanitarian assistance here in Kabul on Wednesday.

The assistance, which includes a 50 kg bag of rice, is distributed among needy families from across 22 districts of Kabul province in a ceremony attended among others by Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani.

Expressing gratitude to China for sending humanitarian assistance, Haqqani told reporters, "Today we distribute China-donated food to 3,000 families from across Kabul and would also distribute the food to needy families in Afghanistan's 34 provinces in the coming few days."

Haqqani also noted that a batch of China-donated assistance including clothes, blankets, rice and wheat would be distributed to needy families across the country in the near future.

On Saturday, a total of 1,500 families also received China-donated assistance here in Kabul.

The war-torn Afghanistan has been facing extreme economic problems 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 assets in U.S. banks that further worsened the country's fragile economy.

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 dollars) in emergency humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

China has provided a total of 6,220 tons of food aid to Afghanistan. 
BANGKOK, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's export hit a 30-year high in March, mainly driven by a high demand for gold and electronics, according to data from the commerce ministry.

Thai export value in March accounts for 922 billion Thai Baht (about 28.8 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 19.5 percent year-on-year, which marks the 13th consecutive monthly increase and the second straight month of double-digit growth.

Government spokesperson Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said on Wednesday that Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was very pleased with the export performance, adding that the increase demonstrated the international confidence in Thailand's potential to become a high-income country with sustainable growth in all sectors.

The country's imports in March rose by 18 percent to 887 billion Thai Baht (about 27.4 billion dollars), resulting in a trade surplus of 35 billion Thai Baht (about 1.5 billion dollars). 
WELLINGTON, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Public health experts in New Zealand have called for more testing for new COVID-19 variants such as the Omicron XE as the country detected the first case of XE at the border on Saturday.

Although the Ministry of Health said its arrival is not unexpected, epidemiologists have urged more Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing, which is more accurate, instead of mere Rapid antigen tests (RATs), as some of those RATs aren't being put on record.

"At the moment, travelers entering the country do two RATs within a week, if the test is positive they do a PCR test," Epidemiologist Michael Baker told reporters.

This was how the first case of the XE variant was detected, Baker said, adding more PCR tests should be administered.

A person who has traveled from overseas to New Zealand has been confirmed to be infected with the XE variant of Omicron, said the Ministry of Health.

This is the first known detection of the Omicron XE variant in New Zealand, the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the person, who is currently isolated at home, arrived in New Zealand on April 19 and was tested on April 20. The whole-genome sequencing subsequently confirmed the presence of the Omicron XE variant.

"XE has been spreading overseas, and its arrival in New Zealand is not unexpected," said the ministry.

Baker said the situation would change with new variants emerging. Not all cases in New Zealand would be the Omicron variant.

The epidemic situation will get more complicated when more and more travelers enter the country later this year with the border fully opened, he said.

Epidemiologist Arindam Basu said New Zealand has not seen a rise in the cases of the new variant as it is because of the high vaccination rates of the country, with more than 72 percent of the eligible population having had three doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.

New Zealand is currently under the orange settings of the COVID-19 Protection Framework, where there is no limit for gatherings. 
BRUSSELS, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Despite most COVID-19 restrictions being lifted in the European Union (EU), the bloc's member states should remain vigilant and increase their preparedness, said EU officials on Wednesday.

"We are entering a new phase of the pandemic, as we move from emergency mode to more sustainable management of COVID-19. Yet, we must remain vigilant," declared President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

"While the health situation is improving, we must prepare for different scenarios, and do it in a coordinated way," said Margaritis Schinas, European Commission's Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life.

"It is... crucial that the Member States maintain a high level of vigilance and preparedness for new outbreaks and variants- the pandemic is not yet over," said Stella Kyriakides, European commissioner for Health and Food Safety.

To make sure that the EU is ready in case of a new wave, the European Commission calls on its member states to work on their preparedness and resilience, in order to be able to react promptly.

Actions include stepping up vaccinations; setting up integrated surveillance systems to get reliable estimates; testing and sequencing for the detection of new variants; investing in the recovery of healthcare systems; coordinating actions on free and safe travel; supporting the development of next-generation vaccines; fighting disinformation; and continuing efforts to fight the disease globally.

The European Commission said it will act to ensure the resilience of supply chains during the pandemic. It is also launching the EU FAB initiative, which will keep an ever-warm network of vaccine manufacturing capacities ready to get into action as soon as needed.

The EU is witnessing a return to "normal life", as the Omicron variant is less severe than the previous ones, thus putting much less pressure on the healthcare systems, said the commission.

"However, infections are still in the millions worldwide," said Kyriakides. 
A commemoration ceremony marking the 36th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster is held in Minsk, Belarus, April 26, 2022. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, was one of the most serious nuclear accidents in history. (Photo by Henadz Zhinkov/Xinhua)

A commemoration ceremony marking the 36th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster is held in Minsk, Belarus, April 26, 2022. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, was one of the most serious nuclear accidents in history. (Photo by Henadz Zhinkov/Xinhua)
KIEV -- Russia's missile strike has damaged a key road-railway bridge over the Dniester Estuary in Ukraine's southern Odesa region, Odesa City Council said on Telegram Tuesday.

The movement across the bridge, which connects the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district with other districts of the Odesa region, was suspended after the attack, the council said in a statement.

- - - -

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin met with visiting United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Kremlin on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Putin told Guterres that the Ukrainian issue arose after the 2014 "unconstitutional coup" in Kiev and people in Donbass remained under blockade and military pressure even after the Minsk agreements on a peaceful settlement were reached.

- - - -

KIEV -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday met with Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca to discuss Bucharest's support for Kiev, the presidential press service said.

During the talks, Zelensky thanked Romania's government for the assistance, including the defense aid it has provided for Ukraine.

- - - -

KIEV -- The Russian military appointed a new "head" of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine on Tuesday after seizing the Kherson city council on Monday, said Gennady Laguta, the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration.

In a video address published on Telegram, Laguta said that Russian forces also introduced a new "mayor" of Kherson city.

- - - -

BERLIN -- Germany would supply Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine and provide training for the country's soldiers, Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht said on Tuesday.

"If Ukraine urgently needs such air defense systems, then we are ready to support them," Lambrecht said at an international consultation meeting in the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, Rhineland-Palatinate. 
VLADIVOSTOK, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The construction of the Russian section of the first China-Russia railway bridge across the Amur River, known as the Heilongjiang River in China, was completed on Wednesday.

With a designed annual throughput of 21 million tons, the bridge connects Tongjiang City in China's northeast province of Heilongjiang and the Russian town of Nizhneleninskoye.

According to Russia's TASS news agency, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev attended the completion ceremony on the same day. He said Russia and China are holding talks on the full opening of the bridge.

The main bridge spans around 2,200 meters, with 1,886 meters of that standing in China and 309 meters in Russia.

Construction started in 2014, and the main part of the Chinese section was finished in October 2018. The tracks were laid in August 2021. 
HELSINKI, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Finland's national carrier Finnair launched a new cost reduction plan aiming to save about 60 million euros (63.25 million U.S. dollars), as it reported a ninth consecutive quarterly loss on Wednesday.

The need for savings is largely due to the prolongation of the Russian airspace blocking.

In his statement, Finnair's CEO Topi Manner described the global pandemic and Ukraine crisis, which resulted in the closure of the Russian airspace, as "two major disruptions of historic proportions", adding that both impacted heavily during the first quarter of 2022.

The closure of Russian air traffic has had a significant impact on Finnair's operating environment, particularly affecting air traffic to Asia, which played an important role in Finnair's network.

"We will complete the cost savings program while continuing to determine a long-term solution for the Russian airspace closure, "said Manner.

The savings of 60 million euros will be in addition to the savings of 200 million euros already achieved. These savings are sought from distribution, aircraft leases, and continuous improvement of operations.

In the first quarter of 2022, Finnair saw a loss of 132.9 million euros in the comparable operating result, which is slightly less than that at the same time last year. The company's revenue increased by 252 percent to 400 million euros.

The CEO noted that despite continuous losses, Finnair's cash position is still stable and the 400-million-euro hybrid loan granted by the State of Finland supports the company's balance sheet. (1 euro =1.06 U.S. dollars) 
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments regarding the conflict between Russia and Ukraine:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed Guterres's visit to Russia over the phone on Wednesday.

Guterres briefed Erdogan about his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Turkey's Directorate of Communications said in a statement.

- - - -

The Russian army has destroyed warehouses storing foreign weapons at Ukraine's Zaporozhye aluminum plant, Russia's Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The Russian armed forces used high-precision sea-based Kalibr missiles to destroy "hangars, with a large batch of foreign weapons and ammunition supplied by the United States and European countries," ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said during a briefing.

- - - -

Ukraine is seeking to receive 5 billion U.S. dollars from the International Monetary Fund per month, Ukraine's media outlet Hromadske reported on Wednesday, citing the country's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

"We are talking about 5 billion dollars a month -- the need for this amount has been confirmed by both the IMF and the World Bank. These are the funds that the budget of Ukraine needs in order to fulfill all our social and humanitarian obligations," Shmyhal said.

- - - -

Russia has imposed personal sanctions against 287 British parliament members in a retaliatory move, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

In response to the decision of the British government to impose sanctions against 386 members of Russia's State Duma on March 11, personal restrictions will be imposed against 287 members of the House of Commons, said the ministry.

- - - -

Russia has declared three Norwegian diplomats "personae non gratae" in a tit-for-tat move, the country's foreign ministry said Wednesday.

Norwegian Ambassador Rune Resaland was summoned to the ministry on Wednesday in protest over the unjustified decision to expel employees at the Russian Embassy in Norway, as well as Norway's provision of military assistance to Ukraine and Oslo's cover-up of the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists, said the ministry.

- - - -

Russia has announced the expulsion of eight Japanese diplomats, ordering the individuals to leave the country before May 10, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

A representative of the Japanese Embassy in Moscow was summoned to the ministry on Wednesday, where he was informed about the expulsion of the Japanese diplomats, said the ministry.

- - - -

The European Union (EU) is ready to face the suspension of Russian gas deliveries to its member states, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday.

The Russian gas supplier Gazprom announced earlier Wednesday that it was fully stopping its gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria, due to the two EU member states' "failure to pay in rubles." 
MOSCOW: Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced on Wednesday that the new ruble gas payment mechanism, which Russia unveiled earlier this month, has been accepted and would be followed.

"We, that is, OMV (state energy firm), as well as the German government, agreed on the payment mechanism. The terms were deemed to be in compliance with the sanctions' conditions. This was crucial for us "According to RT, he mentioned this at a press conference. However, Austria continues to support anti-Russia sanctions relating to Ukraine, according to Nehammaer.

"Of course, OMV continues to pay for gas deliveries from Russia in euros before the phoney news of Russian propaganda kicks in," he said. Austria agrees with the viewpoint and supports the European Union measures that were agreed upon jointly." He said, the Austrian oil and gas corporation OMV has already set up a payment transfer account with a Russian bank. During his recent visit to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin detailed the new payment process to Nehammer and guaranteed him uninterrupted gas deliveries.

China asks Pak to tighten security for its citizens after Karachi University blast

Israel strengthens security around PM Bennett family post death threat

Guterres condemns attack on Pakistan's Karachi University
By Azernews





Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Latvian Deputy Prime Minister, Defence Minister Artis Pabriks have discussed bilateral ties and regional issues in Baku, the ministry reported on April 26.

The ministers expressed their pleasure with the existing state of ties between the two nations and shared views on the potential for future growth during the meeting, the report added.

Bayramov stressed that Azerbaijan highly appreciates the mutual ties with Latvia and both bilateral and multilateral cooperation between the two countries is flourishing.

Underlining the strong ties between the two nations, Bayramov emphasized the necessity of sustaining mutual visits.

In turn, Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks noted that Azerbaijan is a strategic partner for the country. He stated that Azerbaijan and Latvia have a productive bilateral relationship as well as cooperation in a number of international and regional organizations. Latvia, according to Pabriks, supports Azerbaijan's extensive EU collaboration.

Bayramov emphasized that Azerbaijan attaches importance to relations with the European Union and expressed hope that negotiations on a new agreement between the parties will be completed soon.

The sides exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine, humanitarian aid provided by Azerbaijan to Ukraine, as well as other regional issues of mutual interest.

Azerbaijan recognized Latvias independence on August 30, 1991, and Latvia recognized Azerbaijan as an independent country on January 8, 1992.

Diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Latvia were established on January 11, 1994. A total of 43 documents have been signed between Azerbaijan and Latvia. In July 2017, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Latvian counterpart Raimond Vejonis signed the "Joint Declaration on the establishment of strategic partnership between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Latvia.

It should be noted that the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Latvia amounted to $8.9 million during the period of January-September 2020. Of this, export of Azerbaijan's goods to Latvia amounted to $306,530, while import to Azerbaijan from Latvia amounted to $8.6 million.
KIEV, Ukraine: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has handed over to EU Ambassador Matti Maasikas a questionnaire aimed at securing his country's candidate status for EU membership, according to the presidential press service.

At the transfer ceremony in Kiev, Zelensky said, "Today is one of the phases for our country in entering the EU, the desire that our people are striving for and fighting for." The people of Ukraine are united in their desire to join the EU, Zelensky said, adding that the quick work on giving a questionnaire to Ukraine is a positive signal for Kiev. "We believe we will gain support and become a candidate for accession, Zelensky added. Maasikas, for one, stated that Ukraine's responses to the questionnaire will be examined "quite promptly."

Earlier in the day, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, announced that Kiev had sent the European Commission the first part of a questionnaire covering political and economic issues. The other portion, which examines the compatibility of Ukrainian legislation with EU laws, would be handed to the European Commission soon, Stefanishyna said.

On February 28, Zelensky signed an official letter to the EU requesting that Ukraine be admitted under a new special procedure. During her visit to Kiev on April 8, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen handed over a questionnaire to Zelensky.

Russian military begins battle for Donbas: Zelensky

Zelensky warns world to prepare for Russian nuclear attack on Ukraine

Russian armed forces destroy ammunition plant in Ukraine's Kiev
New Delhi: There has been relief news for India from Yemen, which is facing civil war. The news is that for the last three months, the Indian government was trying to rescue its citizens from the occupation of the Houthi rebels there, they have been freed. Citizens of 14 different countries, including 7 Indian sailors, have been evacuated by the Indian government through diplomatic efforts. All Indians have been brought to Delhi safely. Mumbai's sailor Mohammad Munawar has told that those people were trapped there for about three and a half months. He has thanked PM Narendra Modi for saving him.

At the same time, according to Lucknow's sailor Mohammad Jashim Khan, the rebels of Yemen wanted to capture their ships and the cargo on it. However, when he came to know that we were Indians, he treated us well. Oman's Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi has also confirmed this by tweeting. He said that Captain Carlos Demata, Ayanachev Mekonnen, Deepash Muta Parambil, Mohammad Jashim Khan, Surya Hidayat Parma, Srijit Sajeevan, Akhil Reghu, Mohd Munwar Sameer, Luke Simon and his wife, children Mugathan and Veera VSSG Vasamsetty and Sandeep Singh were sent to Yemen. has been released in Albusaidi said in his tweet that he is being looked after in Oman and all possible help is being given.

According to the Omani Foreign Ministry, all 14 people have been taken to Muscat via Oman Royal Air Force plane. Meanwhile, reacting to Albusaidi's tweet, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar thanked him. Also said that my friend Albusaidi is waiting for the Indians to return home safely. Let us inform that media reports have claimed that among the 14 people who have been rescued, 7 are from India, 3 from Britain, one each from Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines and Ethiopia. Let us tell you that in February this year, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) merchant ship was kidnapped by Yemen Houthi rebels. All these citizens were also included in it. After this the Government of India swung into action and diplomatic efforts were started. In this, all of them were released after the intervention of Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman.

Guterres condemns attack on Pakistan's Karachi University

China records first human case of H3N8 bird flu

Syria's humanitarian situation is dire in the midst of an economic crisis, UN Envoy
NEW DELHI: As part of the 'One Sun, One World, One Grid' initiative to aid Maldives' energy transition, India and the Maldives proposed on Tuesday to establish transmission interconnection for renewable power transfer. A draught agreement for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Transmission Interconnection is being prepared, under which an Indian technical team will visit the Maldives to assess its technical viability.

Following that, a complete project report in Male (the Maldives' capital) would be created in collaboration with Indian and Maldives agencies, including an undersea cable route survey and network augmentation.

This was announced in New Delhi when Aminath Shauna, the Maldives' Minister of Environment, Climate Change, and Technology, met with R.K. Singh, India's Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy. By shifting from fossil fuels to greener options, such as renewable energy, the energy transition programme is a vital step in mitigating climate change.

Singh praised the Maldives government's commitment to achieving a net-zero carbon target by 2030. Aside from the transmission interconnection agreement under 'One Sun, One World, One Grid,' the two presidents also suggested an energy cooperation agreement.

Maldives' Environment Minister met with Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, who praised Maldives' climate initiatives. "India and the Maldives should join hands to fight climate change to assure climate justice to all, especially to developing nations," Yadav said, emphasising the significance of actual adaptation action in combating climate change.

Both sides agreed to expand continuing bilateral cooperation between India and the Maldives, not just to combat environmental challenges and climate change, but also to explore ways to further cooperation in order to achieve deeper economic integration.

Severe heatwave to prevail in Rajasthan for 4 days: IMD

Scorching Heat Wave: Schools, Colleges, Universities in Odisha closed till Apr 29

Heavy rain is expected to persist across Assam and Meghalaya this week
Jerusalem: Israeli police have strengthened security to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his family after a letter addressed to them was found to contain a live bullet and a death threat.



The Israeli police and the internal security agency Shin Bet have opened an inquiry into the death threat made against Prime Minister Bennett and his family, according to the police.

According to the brief police statement, a letter intended for Bennett and his family included a bullet, the brief police statement said. The letter was not sent to Bennett's Ra'anana house, nor to the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem, according a report released by Israeli publication Ha'aretz online. Instead, it was addressed to Gilat Bennett, the prime minister's wife's old job.

They alerted the family about the letter, which was then forwarded to the Shin Bet, according to the source. The letter also named the couple's 16-year-old son, Yoni, and stated, "We will get to you," as per the report.

The fact that the mail contained a bullet caused the investigating bodies to place a higher priority on the threat than previous internet threats, the report said.

"No matter how heated a political debate becomes, it should never devolve into violence, thuggery, or death threats," Bennett said in a statement posted on his social media. "As leaders and citizen concerned about their own and their children's futures in this country, we must do all possible to ensure that such events do not occur. We are all individuals", he added.

Joe Biden accepts Israel PMs invitation to visit Israel

Guterres condemns attack on Pakistan's Karachi University

Syria's humanitarian situation is dire in the midst of an economic crisis, UN Envoy
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that the shared legacy of ties between India and Fiji is based on a sense of service to humanity, and that despite a vast ocean separating the two countries, their cultures have kept India and Fiji connected.

PM Modi said in a video message after the opening of the Shri Satya Sai Sanjeevani Children's Heart Hospital in Fiji that the hospital will improve the health of the entire South Pacific region, where heart-related diseases are a major challenge, and that the facility will help thousands of children find new lives.

"This is the first Children's Heart Hospital in the entire South Pacific region, not only in Fiji. This hospital would provide children a fresh lease on life in a region where heart disease is a serious problem "PM Modi stated. Children will not only receive world-class treatment at the facility, but procedures will also be provided free of charge, the prime minister said.

PM Modi praised the 'Vaccine Maitri' project, which saw India export COVID-19 vaccinations to other countries during the pandemic, saying, "during the pandemic, India took care of other countries as well." "India perceives the entire world as one family exporting medicines and necessary items during the epidemic," the prime minister added, citing the ideals of "Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam."

"The shared tradition of India-Fiji relations has been based on a feeling of humanitarian assistance. Based on these figures, India might satisfy its pandemic duties by providing medicines to 150 nations and approximately 100 million vaccines to approximately 100 countries. In such endeavours, Fiji has always been a top priority "he stated Despite the enormous ocean that separates the two countries, he claims that their cultures have kept them connected, and that their connections are founded on mutual respect and strong people-to-people links. He appreciated India's good fortune in being able to contribute to Fiji's socio-economic progress.

PM Modi also praised the Sai Prem Foundation in Fiji, the Fijian government, and India's Shri Sathya Sai Sanjivini Children's Heart Hospital for building the hospital, which would give free surgeries. The Prime Minister brought up the fact that "Sri Sathya Sai Baba de-ritualized spiritualism and related it to people's well-being. Even now, his work in the fields of education and health care for the poor and disadvantaged encourages us."

Ministerial Committee to review prices of agri-commodities today

PM Modi calls for states to cut local taxes to bring down fuel prices

PM Modi to visit France and Germany amid Ukraine crisis, will also attend Nordic Summit
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a visit to France, Germany and Denmark from May 2 to 4. This will be his first foreign tour this year, which he is starting with European nations. Amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, PM Modi's visit is considered to be very important in terms of foreign policy. The first stop of PM Modi's visit will be Germany, where he will hold a bilateral meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

During this visit, PM Modi will also address the people of the Indian community living in Germany. This will be PM Modi's first meeting with him since Shoalz came to power in Germany in 2021. Let us know that last year of diplomatic relations between India and Germany has completed 70 years. After Germany, PM Modi will travel to Denmark, where he will also attend the second India-Nordic Summit, which is being hosted by Denmark.

This summit is considered to be very important in terms of India's relations with the Nordic countries. Here, PM Modi will attend a business forum and will also address people from the Indian community. Not only this, he will also meet the Prime Minister of Iceland during the Nordic Summit. He will also meet with heads of state of countries like Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Lalu's son shifted to mother Rabri's house, said - 'The conspiracy is happening from here'.

Sidhu rubbed salt on the wounds of Congress, tweeted a photo with PK and said - old gold and old friends..."

This look of Nusrat Jahan will make you go crazy
Kathmandu, April 27

In its effort to avoid the imminent economic crisis, the government of Nepal has suspended the import of various luxury items. According to a notice issued in the Nepal Gazette by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, the following 10 items cannot be imported through this fiscal year that ends in mid-July.

Here is the list:

1. Chips and similar snacks

2. Liquor

3. Cigarettes and tobacco products (except raw)

4. Diamond (except raw)

5. Mobile phones priced above USD 600

6. Colour TV above 32

7. SUVs, cars and vans (except ambulances and hearse)

8. Motorcycles above 250 CC

9. Toys

10. Playing cards

Since the first week of April, in view of the imminent economic crisis, the central bank has barred commercial banks from issuing loans for the import of such luxury items. The governments recent notice aims at further tightening the provision among reports that some importers are importing such goods thanks to their connections with powerful officials.
Home  Politics  Ward chairs in Nepals local governments are overworked. Its about time they got more powers too

Ever since Shobha Sapkota became the ward chair of Kathmandu metropolitan citys ward 14, her phone did not stop ringing. There were times when her phone started to ring in the middle of the night. Not wanting to entertain them, she did not answer during odd hours.

But, one day, a few people gathered around her house at night demanding that the ward chair do something about a dog that barked all night. She addressed the complaint and asked the community police to talk to the dog owner.

Ward chairs around the country are busy doing everything. From solving issues like the one mentioned above to dealing with domestic disputes, they also need to do many things that are not mentioned in the law or the constitution. People come to them with complaints regarding water, roads, waste and money. They try and solve almost all of them, but due to a lack of resources and proper rights, they have not been able to work to their full potential. As the local election date is approaching closer, stakeholders demand the government review their rights and responsibilities.

Pillars of democracy

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration

There are 6,743 ward chairs working in 753 local governments across the country. All of them have to maintain good relationships with the locals and work with them for the betterment of society. These people are the ones that connect the people to the upper level of the government too. But despite this, there is hardly any discourse taking place about what the roles and responsibilities of a ward chair actually are.

A ward chair mostly works under a lot of uncertainty, says Pavitra Subba, who worked as a member of the Local Level Restructuring Commission. They act as a bridge between the people and the top level, but because their roles arent defined well, they cant work as effectively as they can.

Since ward chairs work at the lowermost level of the government, they are a major component of the democratic process. But, their roles are limited and that is quite pointless, argue experts.

We should have decentralised the rights that the mayor has and given more rights to the ward chairs. That would have been more effective and helped in the development process, says Shyam Kumar Bhurtel, a local governance expert.

He says that if a ward does well, that benefits the community in different ways. This in turn strengthens the democratic process because they are the government of the people they need to be given more power, he adds.

Former secretary Mukti Rijal says the work of wards is one of the reasons federalism has thrived in Nepal.

A lack of peoples participation means the system lacks the rule of law, says Rijal. But, thanks to the work by ward chairs, people havent had to face issues.

A former secretary at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, Reshmi Raj Pandey, calls the local government the ultimate formal institution of democracy.

If this is strong, the country will become stronger because it will do its best to manage the neighbourhoods, which will help develop the country, says Pandey.

Hence, a committee led by then secretary Tirtha Man Shakya in 2003 had suggested the government connect the local governments with the community. The committee, which Pandey was also a part of, had told the government that it needed to focus on the grassroots and had suggested that all wards had a neighbourhood committee. Leaders back then were not interested in his suggestion, but he believes the plan is still applicable now.

We told them the governance would be easy if they followed this model where the local government would be the strongest government. It can still be followed, he says.

The Local Government Operation Act, 2017, has followed what Shakya and Pandey suggested in 2003. But, it has not been followed to date. There are few places where a neighbourhood development committee has been formed, but as not all wards have pushed this, its effectiveness is still not as much as Pandey and Shakya had hoped for.

Many responsibilities

For the first decade since Nepal became a republic, the local government did not have much power. It was only after the country adopted federalism in 2017 that things started to change. A lot of village development committees were changed into wards and the responsibilities carried out by the VDC chairs were given to the ward chairs. Experts even argue their responsibilities have increased, but their power has not.

According to Bhurtel, ward chairs have three responsibilities. First, they act as a local executive and disseminate information to the government. Second, they also act as a member of the parliament and are active in the local assembly and draft laws and policies. Third, they do all the work a ward chair should do and provide services and conduct development works.

The ward chairs have also been helping out to make community schools better. Weve seen them help and change roofs of schools that would leak water during the monsoon. They play a major role in community development, says Gopi Khanal, an undersecretary at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration.

They also provide recommendation and verification services to citizens. This might not look like a tough task, but there are many government offices that do not work without the recommendation of the ward. For a person to make a citizenship certificate or build a house, they need documents from the ward office. They also have data on people who are born and who die in the ward. These are directly related to peoples fundamental rights.

When streetlights of a neighbourhood in Kathmandu werent working, a ward member went to the poles and change the bulbs himself. He didnt need to do it, but he still did because this type of effort is remembered by the people, says Bhurtel.

If you look at it, most ward chairs have done more than they get from the state. They are key in the development of the country, says Pandey. I personally feel the local governments are a success story. They do more than the central or the provincial government. They make the community more active and involve them in various activities which helps the country.

Lack of resources

The Ministry of Home Affairs, Singhadarbar, Kathmandu

Mukti Rijal, who also works as a senior research fellow at the Policy Research Institute, says ward chairs are doing more than what is asked of them by the constitution.

They have to do everything, yet they arent given the resources to do them better, says Rijal.

The main issue they face is a financial crisis. For every development work they want to do, they have to go to their respective municipal offices. They have to do this even during emergencies.

Take what happened in the Thuladurlung village in Lalitpur for example. The village is 64 kilometres away from Satdobato. The village, till 2014, did not even have roads.

On July 21, 2017, a landslide in the village killed a six-year-old girl. Ward chair Ram Krishna Acharya immediately reached the incident site to take stock. Due to financial reasons, the parents could not even take the body for postmortem.

I wanted to help. But, I dont have the authority to spend a penny without permission, says Acharya. Whats the use when we cant help people when they need immediate help? Whats the use of this power?

He says he gave the father of the victim Rs 5,000 from his own pocket. While returning home, he asked himself if becoming a ward chair was a mistake.

Other ward chairs face a similar issue. They do not even have the rights secretaries at village development committees once had. Bhurtel says that decentralisation has not happened in the local governments.

Ward chairs havent been able to develop their offices into budget units. Some ward chairs asked the centre to make things easier for them, but their efforts went in vain, says Bhurtel.

Need for reforms

He says that they should be given the freedom to build teams and work toward making a change. But currently, almost everyone is dependent on the mayor.

We need to decentralise the power if we want real change, he adds.

Another official working at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration says ward chairs are busy with minor administrative work, due to which they have not been able to focus on other work.

Many ward chairs now think they should limit themselves to the responsibilities of a ward chair. They dont want to do more and just focus on getting budget for themselves, says the official.

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has conducted research and analysis on the working of local governments, but it has not done so at the ward level.

This story was translated from the original Nepali version and edited for clarity and length.
As carbon markets develop in the United States, review of established carbon markets in other countries can help address challenges. We provide a case study of the carbon offset market in Alberta Province, Canada. We specifically examine how their system has dealt with practical issues due to the need for occasional tillage, and development of procedures for when farmland is rented.

Background

Alberta has a different policy environment than the United States due to their cap-and-trade policy and carbon pricing scheme. Still, evaluating the functioning of their carbon offset market in Alberta provides background for how markets may function in the United States. On July 1, 2007, Alberta introduced legislation to regulate emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG) whose emissions exceed 100,000 metric tons of GHG per year. These large emitters were given four options by the government:

Increase efficiency, Pay a carbon price set by the province, Purchase offsets from other facilities who emit less GHG than their limit, Pay for emissions reductions in other segments of Albertas economy, including agriculture.

The last 3 options in effect substitute a payment rather than invest in production technology to reduce GHG. This creates markets which place values on carbon credits or offsets.

In regard to Option 2, the Alberta provincial government set the price of carbon for 2021 at $40 CAN ($32 USD)[1] per credit. The price has increased in 2022 to $50 CAN ($40 USD) per credit. The government-set price of carbon becomes an opportunity cost in regard to evaluating Option 4. Purchasing carbon offsets becomes an economically rationale strategy if the offsets can be purchased for less than the government-set carbon price plus other transaction costs.

Carbon offsets can only be created in Alberta by following specific government-approved protocols. There are four protocols that can be used for agriculture: conservation cropping, reducing GHG emissions from fed cattle, distributing generated renewable energy, and anaerobic decomposition of agricultural materials.

Initially, approximately 10 companies aggregated agricultural carbon credits in Alberta. Today three remain, suggesting intense competitive pressures. The three are: Trimble, Farmers Edge, and Radicle (Agricultural Carbon Offsets  Overview 2022). According to discussions with one of these aggregators, the aggregator approaches large emitters offering agricultural carbon credits for a price slightly below the government set price for carbon. This is a profit enhancing deal for both parties, as the emitters cost is lower than the government set carbon price and the aggregator benefits from increased demand for agricultural carbon offsets.

Conservation Cropping Proposal

Given this institution background, we summarize the most popular protocol, the Conservation Cropping Protocol, and examine three of the questions U.S farmers have regarding carbon markets: farmer payments, land ownership, and tillage (see farmdoc daily April 13, 2021) from the perspective of how Alberta has chosen to address them.

The most popular protocol in Alberta, particularly during the beginning stage of agricultural carbon markets, is the no-till annual cropping protocol, which was later renamed the Conservation Cropping Protocol (Goddard 2021). From 2007 through 2021, the conservation cropping protocol provided an estimated 14 million metric tons of offsets valued at over $164 million USD[2] (Goddard 2021). The protocol ended on December 31, 2021 because the adoption threshold was reached (Agricultural Carbon Offsets  Overview 2022). Once the practices reached 10  40% adoption, the policy suggests that the practice has overcome barriers to adoption so incentives for adoption are no longer required (Goddard 2021).

The Conservation Cropping Protocol quantified greenhouse gas emissions reductions from new carbon stored annually in soil, lower nitrous oxide emissions from soils under no-till, and emissions reductions from using fewer passes per farm field. The protocol used a performance standard baseline methodology where sector level census data from 2006 were used to establish a baseline based on best practices for the sector and known levels of reduced and no-till adoption. By establishing a baseline to quantify annual emissions reductions based on annual, incremental increases in soil carbon adjusted for the 2006 adoption, the Conservation Cropping Protocol allowed all farmers who practiced conservation tilling to enroll, regardless of when the adopted conservation tillage (Quantification Protocol for Conservation Cropping 2012). In the U.S., early adopters of practices may or may not be eligible for agricultural carbon market programs. In the U.S, the adoption threshold varies from company to company, with some companies requiring the practice to have been adopted in the last two years and others allowing farmers to enroll if they adopted the practice up to 10 years ago.

Farmer Payment

The money a farmer receives depends on the price the aggregator and emitter negotiate, the subsequent split between the aggregator and the farmer, and the amount of additional carbon the farmer generates. Values on the Alberta government website suggest the typical split between an aggregator and a farmer for a Conservation Cropping protocol is 2/3 for the farmer and 1/3 for the aggregator.

The typical amount of carbon that is sequestered when using the Conservation Cropping protocol in effect for 2021 is suggested to be between 0.10 and 0.20 metric tons per acre. In an example on the government website, the carbon offset is sold for $18.17 USD ($23 CAN) per metric ton. Swallow and Goddard (2013) suggest that as of 2011, at least 5,000 Alberta farmers had carbon offset contracts with aggregator companies. These farmers are 8% of the 62,050 farmers in Alberta counted in the 2011 Canadian Census of Agriculture (Leitch 2018). Swallow and Goddard also estimate that most farm participants earned between CAN$1000 and CAN$5000 ($796  $3978 USD),[3] representing around 1% of average gross income of Alberta farms. The Swallow and Goddard study is from 2013, so it is likely this figure could have changed over the last 9 years.

Land Ownership

In the Alberta program, the landowner owns the carbon offset. A land title certificate must be filed for each enrolled field. A farmer is required to obtain the landowners signature in order to claim the offset and to submit proof of this approval. It is typical for the farmer to claim the offset according to a government website (Agricultural Carbon Offsets  Overview 2022 ) . In the U.S., there has been a lot of discussion about who owns the carbon credit and how to prove ownership. Proof of land ownership and landlords permission requirements may vary from company to company. For example, some companies may require an attestation of right to sell carbon from the landlord while other companies may not require any physical proof.

Tillage

One concern many U.S. farmers have about carbon markets is whether they can till part of their field to address specific issues as they arise. The Conservation Cropping Protocol allows for discretionary tillage operations of up to 10 percent of the project area of a single agricultural field. The area tilled is allowed to change from year-to-year within the field. The discretionary tillage must be documented and the size of the disturbance must be estimated. If the area tilled is found to be greater than or equal to 10 percent of the field area, the field will be disqualified for that year and the payment will be lost (Quantification Protocol for Conservation Cropping 2012). A key takeaway is that Alberta is an example of a functioning program that recognizes and permits for special circumstance tillage needs.

Conclusion

As the U.S. carbon market develops, many questions arise about how the market should be regulated and potential problems with the market. Although institutional and policy differences exist between the U.S. and Alberta, Canada, Albertas functioning carbon market can be useful when thinking about the future of the U.S. agricultural carbon market and addressing challenges. The purpose of this article is to provide a very specific look at an agricultural carbon markets from an informative and comparative standpoint. The article is not suggesting that the U.S. should handle agricultural carbon markets in the same way as Alberta, but is simply bringing attention to Albertas agricultural carbon markets. Also, this article is not mean to serve as an endorsement of agricultural carbon markets and does not provide perspective or discussion on some of the broader topics and issues related to agricultural carbon markets.

Notes

[1] Using the April 8, 2022 conversion rate of 0.80 USD to 1 CAD

[2] 143 million Euros at the conversion rate of 1.15 USD to 1 Euro taken on February 10, 2022

[3] Using the April 8, 2022 conversion rate of 0.80 USD to 1 CAD
If theres a deal to made for acquiring Kohls Corp., the Simon Property Group would probably be the frontrunner.

The nations largest developer and operator of shopping centers has the wherewithal to outbid others; confidence in managing retail chains, having invested in J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Forever 21 and Aeropostale in recent seasons, and, according to sources, lots of ideas of how to turn around the fortunes of J.C. Penney through consolidations with Kohls.

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One hundred percent, Simon put in a bid for Kohls, said a source close to the Kohls auction process, which has continued for the past three months. No one will outbid David Simon (chairman, president and chief executive officer of SPG) if he really wants it. He wants to bolster J.C. Penney by merging it with Kohls. I think he is going to keep both nameplates, have one team do it all. There could be a tremendous amount of cutting, even closing down Kohls Wisconsin headquarters.

Neither Simon nor Kohls has confirmed media reports this week, first appearing in the New York Post, that Simon, in partnership with Brookfield Asset Management, put in a $68-a-share offer valued at more than $8.6 billion for Kohls.

If David Simon does manage to seal the deal and buy Kohls, it would mark a significant step in his evolution from landlord to multifaceted retail force.

Simon has had to repeatedly walk Wall Street through his companys growing investments in retail  from the SPARC joint venture with Authentic Brands Group, which owns Reebok, Forever 21, Eddie Bauer, Brooks Brothers, Aeropostale and more, to J.C. Penney, which Simon owns with Brookfield Asset Management. Brookfield Asset Management is the parent of Brookfield Properties, the second-largest U.S. shopping mall owner, next to Simon.

While many of the investments came at low prices, rescued companies out of bankruptcy and helped avoid a wave of store closures in Simon properties, Kohls is clearly a different case, since its stronger and has a large base of off-mall stores.

Story continues

But where some analysts appeared skeptical of the companys adventures in retail at first, Simon has been crowing over the investments lately.

And he, in effect, was already doubling down, touting this as a transitional and investment year, setting up bigger gains in retail for the future.

Simon told analysts in February that the companys platform investments, including Penneys, SPARC, ABG and Rue Gilt Groupe produced terrific results in 2021.

J.C. Penneys results were impressive, he said. Their liquidity position is growing, now $1.6 billion. [The] company de-levered their balance sheet [and] has no borrowings on their line of credit. CEO Marc Rosen strengthened his management team with a new [chief information officer] and chief digital officer. RGG [Rue Gilt Groupe], including our Shop Premium Outlet marketplace growth, continues, and we expect continued investment in 2022 to drive customer acquisition and sales growth. SPARC Group will be the operating partner for Reebok in the U.S. Theres a tremendous opportunity for SPARC to develop sportswear and footwear expertise. The Reebok integration will require additional investment by SPARC as it expands its capability and reach.

J.C. Penney, in particular, seems to be a source of pride.

Penneys success is an excellent example of how to better understand our company, Simon told analysts in November. We appointed Stanley Shashoua as the interim CEO nearly a year ago and look at the results. Much like the variety of our investments, no other company or industry has the capability to put an executive in an interim role and produce these results. This is a testament not only to Stanley but to the Simon culture.

Simon seems to have caught the retail bug.

And while he is still very much in the real estate game, he has encouraged investors to look at his company more broadly as well.

We have growth levers beyond our real estate assets that are unique attributes of our company, Simon said. We have proven to be astute investors. We have unique business models and diversity of income streams.

That being said, Simon Property still gets something like 80 percent of its cash flow from its U.S. property business as dynamic as the retail business, generally speaking, has been.

Its more its a tail wagging the dog, Simon told analysts. But you know, its an important tail and its a beautiful tail and it wags nice and is very friendly.

Bringing Kohls on board would give that tail even more heft.

Among the others said to have bid for Kohls are the Hudsons Bay Co., which operates the Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th and The Bay brands; Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm that has Belk, Loft, Hot Topic, Ann Taylor and other retailers in its portfolio; Leonard Green & Partners, a private equity firm that has been active in the retail sector, and Starboard Values Acacia Research Corp.

Representatives for Simon, Brookfield and Goldman Sachs, which is running the Kohls sale process, did not reply to WWD queries. Kohls said in March that Goldman had talked with more than 20 potential buyers.

The bidders each believe that Kohls, which operates more than 1,100 stores and generated $19.4 billion in volume last year, has the potential for greater profitability, shareholder value and sales, and that they each know how to help the retailer improve its financial performance.

However, the Kohls board and management also believe they have a strategy in place that will generate improved results over time, making it conceivable that Kohls decides against being acquired.

The Simon-Brookfield bid for Kohls came as a surprise despite the developers recent track record of buying up retail.

This doesnt make sense to me, said one retail source. Other acquisitions and joint ventures Simon has done with other retailers and brands and with Jamie Salter [CEO of ABG] made sense, but Kohls is not a mall-driven retailer. Kohls is an off-the-mall retailer. The question is what economies of scale would Simon and Penneys bring to Kohls?

There could be back-office efficiencies, but this reminds me of what Eddie Lampert tried to do with Sears and Kmart. He did fine for himself, but the concept of Kmart and Sears, bringing two struggling retailers together, didnt work, added the source. Both chains are on the verge of extinction.

Kohls, the source suggested, could be best off staying independent.

Kohls is a great operation. Michelle Gass [the CEO] has done a wonderful job of moving the business forward and trying to attract different customers as an off-mall retailer and navigating the business the last couple of years through COVID[-19].

Under the leadership of Gass, Kohls has implemented several growth strategies that havent fully kicked in yet and could bear fruit in the future, namely the rollout of Sephora shops inside its stores; the addition of several high-profile brands such as Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger; the plans to open 100 new stores over the next four years, on top of the 1,100 or so already operating, and digital growth. Kohls has about 200 Sephora shops installed in its stores, and plans to have Sephora in 850 units by 2023. Before Kohls partnered with Sephora, Penneys had a 10-year run with the beauty retailer.

Im wondering if David Simon is thinking of bringing Kohls to the mall. But everybody is talking about how off-mall and open-air centers are more attractive in the COVID[-19] environment, and Kohls whole concept is being closer to the consumer and situating in neighborhood and strip malls. Do you come up with some sort of hybrid for Kohls? the source wondered. Everyone is testing smaller formats, so would you bring Kohls down to 30,000 square feet, from its average of about 80,000 square feet.

Kohls competes directly with Penneys. The retailers have similar customer demographics. Its believed that Kohls, which expanded aggressively in the 80s and 90s, took market share from Penneys.

But Kohls has been under pressure from Macellum Capital Management, which is seeking to take control of the companys board and has been highly critical of the companys management and strategies.

On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley & Co. in a report indicated that Kohls has been underperforming its peers, and reduced its share price target to $42 from $50. On the Simon-Brookfield bid for Kohls, Morgan Stanley wrote that media reports on the $68[-a-share] bid would imply a value within 6 percent of our $72 bull case.Kohls appears to be significantly lagging department store peers, with first-quarter-to-date traffic down 1 percent, while Nordstrom, [at] plus 32 percent; Macys, plus 25 percent and Nordstrom Rack, plus 14 percent, are all experiencing a meaningful year-over-year recovery.

Further, our store checks throughout the quarter show a recent increase in clearance activity, a potential early indicator of margin pressure to come. We are slightly trimming our [first-quarter 2022] revenue estimate from plus 1.5 percent to plus 0.5 percent and lowering our [first-quarter 2022] EPS down 10 percent to 70 cents, slightly below consensus expectation of 72 cents.

In a bull case, Kohls stock could rise to $72 if its financial targets prove achievable. Should management deliver its long-term targets over the next three years, we see upside potential to a $72 price target. However, given that Kohls has struggled to deliver on its long-term targets for the past 13 years, we see a low probability of the bull case playing out.

Is the board serious about a sale? Or are they just buying time? There is always scope for shareholder value to be maximized in the event of a sale to the highest bidder. That said, there has been no announcement by Kohls regarding a potentially binding agreement, Morgan Stanley indicated.

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz photographed at the Chancellery in Berlin, April 22

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz photographed at the Chancellery in Berlin, April 22 Credit - Mark Peckmezian for TIME

Three days after Russia ordered troops into Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stood before the Bundestag, the federal Parliament in Berlin, and addressed the lawmakers in a special Sunday session. Feb. 24, 2022, marks a watershed moment in the history of our continent, he said, calling the Russian invasion a Zeitenwende, an epoch-changing event.

Scholz, who had taken office only a couple of months earlier, met this historic moment with a response that would overturn decades of military policyand with it, a crucial part of postwar German identity. He announced a 100 billion plan to boost the countrys notoriously depleted armed forces, promised to end reliance on Russian fossil fuels, and, for the first time since the Second World War, declared Germany would send weapons to a conflict zone. The issue at the heart of this is whether power is allowed to prevail over the law, Scholz told his Parliament, or whether we have it in us to set limits on warmongers like Putin.

Exactly what those limits should beand how quickly Germany should impose themhas been the subject of fierce debate in the two months since. For decades, Germany has been an economic powerhouse with a military that lagged behind, embracing pacifism in atonement for the Holocaust and other devastations it caused in the 20th century. With his Zeitenwende speech, Scholz presented a road map for Germany to emerge as a true global powerwith a military to match. We have to be strong enough. Not so strong that were a danger to our neighbors, Scholz says, during an April 22 interview with TIME, his first with a major English-language publication since the start of the war. But strong enough.

The announcement of this new era for Germany was met warmly by allies around the world, many of whom had complained about Germanys hesitancy in the run-up to the invasion. And though the speech raised questions at home, the three parties in his coalition quickly swung into line, as did the broader public: a March 1 poll for the broadcaster RTL found that 78% of Germans supported Scholzs plan to send weapons to Ukraine and fund improvements to the German army. It was a really great moment, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the Bundestag Defense Committee, says of the speech. And then it went quiet.

Story continues

Quiet is Scholzs hallmark trait. A reserved man who, as his biographer Lars Haider puts it, deliberately does not answer questions directly, Scholz has yet to find his political rise impeded by his apparent reluctance to explain himself. But in this moment of historic crisis, when the future not just of Ukraine but of the entire European order hangs in the balance, his subsequent reticence has inflamed critics at home and abroad, turning the expectations raised by the Zeitenwende speech to widespread frustration.

Read More: What Will Germanys Biggest Military Since World War II Look Like? No One Knows

When it comes to military and financial aid, the international perception has been that Europes largest economy is shirking its responsibilities at a time when smaller nations, from Poland to Estonia, are stepping up to provide hefty donations of money and weapons. It was only on April 26, after weeks of conflicting deflections, that Scholz answered Ukraines pleas and agreed to send heavy weapons directly.

And then there is the matter of imported Russian oil and gas. Not even the killing of hundreds of civilians in Bucha or the brutal siege of Mariupolwhich Scholz calls immoral crimeshave persuaded the Chancellor to implement an immediate embargo on Russian fossil fuels.

Photograph by Mark Peckmezian for TIME

Now that Gepard tanks will be rolling across Ukrainea rare delivery of heavy weapons systems from a Western nations own stockpilethe decision is being cast by many as the Chancellor caving to criticism from allies.

But when he spoke with TIME four days earlier, Scholz seemed virtually immune to pressure, calmly maintaining instead that he was committed to the promises of the Zeitenwende speech, was working as fast as possible in tandem with Germanys alliesand trying to avoid a dangerous escalation in hostilities.

In his view, he has been entrusted by the German people to lead based on what he believesand not what polls sayis right for the country. If you are a good leader, you listen to the people, Scholz says, seated on the top floor of the Chancellery, the lush green of Berlins Tiergarten stretched out behind him. But you never think they really want you to do exactly what they propose.

On the winter day in 2021 that Chancellor Angela Merkels 16 years in power came to an end and Scholz took office, his father told a reporter that his son was just 12 years old when he declared he wanted to become Chancellor. Its not hard to believe; Scholz joined the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) while he was still in high school. After practicing law for several years, he entered the Bundestag in 1998 and soon rose through the party ranks, becoming general secretary in 2002.

Although he left Parliament for a successful seven years as mayor of Hamburg, the city where he grew up, he returned in 2018. He was serving as vice chancellor and finance minister in the grand coalition government that Merkels Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had formed with the SPD, when she announced she would be retiring in 2021. Scholz lost his initial bid to become party leader, but his robust response as finance minister to the COVID-19 pandemicas well as a simple campaign theme of respect that resonated with working-class votershelped him regain the top spot and, with it, the chancellery. If its daunting to fill the shoes of a leader in power for so long that she was affectionately nicknamed Mutti, he doesnt admit it.

Like his predecessor, Scholz is tightly guarded about his personal life. Over the course of two hours with TIME, he divulges few details: he played the oboe as a child, he didnt have an Easter break because of the war, and he took up running in his 40s on the advice of his wife, fellow SPD politician Britta Ernst. He otherwise spends what little free time he has reading history books and newspapers. Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit jokes that he rarely has to give his boss a press review in the morning. When he comes in, hes already read everything.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomes Olaf Scholz during a cabinet meeting on Jan. 9, 2008, in Berlin Andreas RentzGetty Images

If the medias heavy criticism of his handling of the war made for a tough morning the day we meet, the Chancellor doesnt show it. Its fitting for a man whose dry communication style earned him the moniker Scholzomat (as in, Scholz the automaton). In this, Scholz shares another key similarity with Merkel, Haider says. He is not a great communicator. He works hard and prefers to speak out only when there is something to say. Unlike many politicians who woo voters with rhetoric and charm, Scholz has never been one for effusive expression or even the clear explanation of his actions. If Volodymyr Zelensky is Europes great orator, Scholz is his opposite: reserved instead of emotive, methodical instead of spontaneous, and reticent to the point of opacity about his decision-making.

From the Archives: TIMEs April 2021 Interview With Volodymyr Zelensky on Russia

His supporters find his combination of work ethic, knowledge, and restraint reassuring. Comparing the Chancellor with his British counterpart Boris Johnson, SPD lawmaker Adis Ahmetovic observes that while Johnson is a performer, an entertainer, Olaf Scholz is a leader. And the Chancellor cites his electoral success as proof that his understated approach works. The first rule for a politician is to be yourself, he says. Leadership needs to be clear, to have a course, an idea about where the country has to go.

Scholzs idea of where the nation should go is, of course, shaped by where it has been. Living in Germany, you cant go away from the disasters of the first half of the 20th century, which were caused by Germany. It is in all the things we do politically, and it is in my mind too, because we have a historic responsibility to help secure peace. For Germany, that means learning to think beyond itself to the broader collective. We should be the nation that is willing to find the European solutions that are good for all, not just for our country.

In the weeks before the Russian invasion, Scholz was criticized for not doing enough. Behind the scenes, he says he was preparing to respond to a Russian invasion. On Feb. 15, the Chancellor flew to Moscow in a last-ditch attempt to avert war. Describing that meeting as a very bad experience, Scholz says he pushed back as Putin expounded on his ideas of a greater Russia. I was saying: Please understand, if politicians start to look at history books for where borders were before, we would be at war for hundreds of years.

Younger Europeans might take for granted the international order that has allowed for decades of stability on a continent marred by centuries of bloodshed, but the 63-year-old Chancellor grew up in a divided Germany and believes deeply in the importance of the European Union, NATO, and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity that underpin those alliances. Nine days after Scholzs Moscow trip, Putin ordered troops into Ukraine and shattered that rules-based order. The invasion is a really severe injury to European peace, he says, gesturing for emphasis. We are fighting for Ukraines sovereignty. No country is the backyard of another; this is an imperialistic view of politics. And this is why we had to react as strongly as we did.

Scholz receives a standing ovation after his speech to the German Parliament on Feb. 27 Hannibal HanschkeGetty Images

A shift away from the pacifism that had defined decades of policy may have been seismic for Germany, but critics say Scholzs follow-through is too hesitant. We Germans are sleeping, says Thomas Erndl, deputy chairman of the Bundestags committee on foreign affairs and a member of the opposition, while the U.S. is taking a leadership role and Eastern European countries are taking a leadership role.

By the end of March, Germany had supplied Ukraine with just 1.2 million of military aidnone of it in heavy weaponswhile tiny Estonia had managed to come up with 2.2 million. (When pressed, Scholz notes that as Europes largest economy, Germany contributed a major share to the E.U.s 1.5 billion military aid package.) After the atrocities in Bucha emerged in early April, leading members of Scholzs governing coalition began pushing harder for the delivery of heavy weapons. The pressure increased on April 20and threatened to blossom into a full-blown scandal-when the newspaper Bild revealed that a list of available weapons submitted by the defense industry at the end of February had not been turned over to Ukraine until April, and only then with about half the original options removed.

Read More: A Visit to the Crime Scene Russian Troops Left Behind at a Summer Camp in Bucha

Scholz insists that Germanys deliveries are perfectly aligned with that of its allies. How, then, would he explain the criticism leveled at his government? That is perhaps a good question for you to answer, he replies, with a tiny, sphinx-like smile. In mid-April, as the U.S. began delivering heavier-duty weapons, Berlin began ramping up its own support. On April 15, it doubled an existing 1 billion military support fund for foreign nations, most of which will go to Kyiv. On April 21, it released a plan to replenish Soviet-era tanks and armored vehicles from Eastern European countries with models from its own stocks, as well as to train Ukrainian soldiers in Germany to use Netherlands-supplied Panzer Howitzers. And on April 26, Berlin announced it would send about 50 Gepard anti-aircraft cannon tanks, its first direct delivery of heavy military equipment to Ukraine.

For weeks leading up to this pivotal moment, however, the chancellery had offered contradictory explanations for why it wasnt doing more. Scholz insists that these were not delay tactics and that he was simply taking the time necessary to avoid unnecessarily escalating German engagement in isolation. There will be no activity of Germany that is not absolutely part of the activities of our allies, he says.

But as Germany has waited to see what others are doing before stepping up, even members of Scholzs own coalition have grown frustrated. The war has been going on for 60 days, says Strack-Zimmermann. In a situation that terrible, every day counts.

Meanwhile, Germanys payments to Russia continue. In February, Scholz halted his countrys 10 billion Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, which had been designed to double the flow of Russian gas into Germany. But he has refused to impose an immediate embargo on the import of Russian fossil fuels. We are implementing sanctions that will hurt Russia, he says. But not hurt us more than they do the Russians.

Cutting off Russian fossil fuels would definitely hurt. With few energy resources of its own, Germany relies heavily on imports, and, in 2021, got roughly 50% of its coal, 34% of its oil, and 55% of its natural gas from Russia, according energy think tank Agora Energiewende. Although it has reduced that significantly since the start of the war, it is still among the most dependent countries in Europe.

Read More: Germany Cant Rely on Russian Energy. It Doesnt Know What to Do Instead

Berlin ignored warnings from the U.S. and the Baltic states about that dependencywhich only expanded after Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014. Developing closer ties with Russia had been a priority for a succession of Chancellors, with its roots in Willy Brandts Ostpolitikor east policy-that sought stability through engagement with Russia, and helped Germany atone for its postwar guilt. (As many as 24 million Soviets died in World War II, the highest death toll of any nation.)

Over time, that belief in change through engagement morphed into one that held that the best way of assuring geopolitical security was to tie Russia into a mutually beneficial trade relationship. Germany got cheap oil to fuel its booming industry, while Moscow gained political influence, most notoriously with former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, who sits on the boards of multiple Russian energy companies.

Scholz is clear that the era of co-dependency is coming to an end, but he takes the long view. We are preparing for getting out of the situation, he says, with emphasis on the preparing. In line with sanctions that the E.U. recently imposed, Germany plans to phase out Russian coal by the end of summer. By the end of the year, the same will be true of oil imports, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said. But cutting off natural gas will take longer due to fewer alternative sources and the need to build the infrastructure to transport and store them.

Scholz notes that Germany is working hard to quickly build that infrastructureand that once it does, as part of its green transition, there is no going back. Russia really misunderstands the intensity and the earnestness with which we are working on getting rid of the necessity to import any fossil fuels.

Read More: How Germanys New Government Plans to Be the Greenest One Yet

However laudable those goals may be, it doesnt change the more immediate needs. Anton Hofreiter, chair of the Bundestags committee on European affairs and a member of the Green Party that is part of the governing coalition, argues that embargoes on coal and oilalternative sources for which can be more easily foundshould take effect much sooner than the government has planned. As in: the next few weeks. The Putin regime earns so much money selling oilfrom two to four times as much as it does selling gas, he says. So if we are serious about cutting off the regime from its money supply, its important we act fast.

For now, Scholz is following the lead of Germanys industry, which warns that an abrupt cutoff would lead to factory closures and mass unemployment. On April 22, the Bundesbank, Germanys central bank, reported that an energy embargo now would cause the German economy to contract 5% over predictions for 2022, and provoke one of the deepest recessions in decades. But that amount roughly corresponds to the 4.6% that the German economy shrank in the first year of the pandemic, which helps explain why many economists conclude that such a contraction would be manageableespecially if the government applies some of the same tools it did during that crisis. There would be a recession and there might be some scarcity, says Veronika Grimm, an economist at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, who sits on the council of economic experts advising the Berlin government. But it would not be a catastrophe.

Scholzs rejection of an immediate embargo, coupled with his characteristic reluctance to explain himself, has left some wondering if the German political elite remains too close to Moscowand thus conflicted over how to handle Putin.

But when pressed on whether he envisions some kind of rapprochement with Russia, Scholz concedes that there is no going back. While Russia will remain, as he puts it, a reality with which Ukraine will have to reach an agreement for peace, there will never be a special relationship between Germany and Russia that is not the European relationship with Russia.

There is no doubt that under Scholz, Germany has made a dramatic about-face. A few weeks ago, hardly anyone could have imagined that Germany would deliver weapons to a war zone at all; today they should be as heavy and effective as possible, says Haider, who sees the German tendency to think in absolutes as part of the reason many believe Scholz isnt doing enough.

But the other is a communication problem. We are not telling the story, defense committee chairwoman Strack-Zimmermann says. We must explain what is happening in Ukraine and what it means to Germans and to Europe. We must explain to our allies what we are doing with weapons. And OK, hes a quiet guy. But he needs to talk.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reviews an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony for Sweden's Prime Minister at the Chancellery in Berlin on March 28. John MacDougallAFP/Getty Iamges

Claudia Major, an analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, argues that the lack of communication also impedes Scholzs ability to bring about a real Zeitenwende at home. To change the way a country behaves in security and defense policyand this is what was announced in the speechtakes years, she says. To pull it off, you would need a long-term implementation plan for constant explanation on why the world has changed, how it has changed, and what needs to be done about it. Without regular and clear explanation of policies, she adds, the rest of the world is left wondering whether Germany cant do somethingor whether it just doesnt want to.

And without a narrative, not even actions might register. We have made some progress in the last few days, lawmaker Hofreiter says on April 25. But when I talk to colleagues from other European countries, they all say, We are still waiting for Germany.

Yet if Scholz is a reluctant communicator, he is not a reluctant leader. He remains unperturbed by the tide of criticism rising around him. In part, that is just the nature of a man who, according to spokesperson Heiberstreit, lives by two rules: dont get hysterical, and dont get offended. But its also because he believes that Germans themselves are conflicted on the best course of action. As a politician, I always have this feeling of two hearts in your breast, he says. On the one hand, people urge him to do everything he can to stop Russian aggression. On the other, they want him to do avoid any escalationespecially with Putins threats of nuclear war.

And because they understand that there are tough decisions to be made, they look to those who lead them. I trust the people, Scholz says. And Im sure they trust that we will do the job of thinking through all the difficult things.

With reporting by Simon Shuster/Berlin, Eloise Barry/London, and Leslie Dickstein/New York
Chinese banks are set to deliver year-on-year earnings growth of 5 to 10 per cent when they report first-quarter earnings on Friday, due to a record level of loans and supportive measures by the central bank that minimised the impact of the country's slowing economy.

The state-owned banks set to report earnings Friday include Bank of China, China Construction Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Agricultural Bank of China, and Postal Savings Bank of China.

China's first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) rose 4.8 per cent year-on year - just before the Omicron variant began grinding the major financial hub of Shanghai to a halt with a coronavirus lockdown imposed on April 1.

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.

Banks' lending in the first quarter rose to a record 8.34 trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion), up 8.7 per cent from the previous record of 7.67 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2021. That vigorous business and improved interbank liquidity conditions during the first three months meant that banks were able to keep their net interest margin - a key gauge of profitability - largely stable, analysts said.

The central business district in Beijing pictured on Nov. 23, 2021. Photo: Bloomberg alt=The central business district in Beijing pictured on Nov. 23, 2021. Photo: Bloomberg>

"Most banks have heeded the government's call for achieving stable economic growth this year and they have dialled up their lending to businesses during the first quarter," said DBS' analyst Lu Minyi. "We expect leading state-owned banks to report profit growth of below 10 per cent."

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) cut the reserve requirement ratio, or deposits that banks must park at the central bank, by 50 basis points in December lowering that ratio for major commercial banks to 8.4 per cent.

Story continues

The move reduced the cost of funding for banks by 15 billion yuan per year as it released 1.2 trillion yuan worth of long-term liquidity into the interbank system. The PBOC made another quarter percentage point cut in the ratio in April.

For the first quarter, banks are also likely to report that their non-performing loan (NPL) ratio remained stable compared with the end of last year, minimising their burden from charges for impaired loans.

However, going into the second and third quarters, the amount of delinquent loans is likely to pick up again, said Chen Shujin, an analyst at Jefferies.

Chinese banks generally consider a loan to be NPL once the loan, whose repayment is deemed doubtful, is overdue by more than 60 days. This makes NPL ratios a lagging indicator of the state of the economy.

"The liquidity issue miring the property sector since last year would become more obvious this year in the banking sector, which will show up as a higher NPL ratio in the property development sector," said Chen. "This is likely to come with an overall pickup in corporate and retail NPLs due to the slowing economy."

Unfinished residential buildings at the Evergrande Oasis, a housing complex developed by Evergrande Group, in Luoyang, China, pictured on September 15, 2021. Photo: Reuters alt=Unfinished residential buildings at the Evergrande Oasis, a housing complex developed by Evergrande Group, in Luoyang, China, pictured on September 15, 2021. Photo: Reuters>

Many Chinese banks are creditors to troubled developers such as China Evergrande and Fantasia Holdings, which have missed payments to bondholders. Banks are exposed to the sector through direct loans to developers and mortgage loans tied to homes they build.

NPL for the entire banking sector stood at 1.79 per cent during the quarter, down 0.03 percentage point from the beginning of this year, according to the CIBRC. Historically, whenever China's economic growth declined by 2 percentage points, bank NPL ratios would rise, Chen said.

A medical worker collected a sample from a woman at a testing site in Beijing's Xicheng district on April 27, 2022. Photo: Reuters alt=A medical worker collected a sample from a woman at a testing site in Beijing's Xicheng district on April 27, 2022. Photo: Reuters>

For the full year, Beijing has targeted GDP growth of around 5.5 per cent. That forecast predates the Omicron wave that struck Shanghai, disrupting manufacturing and consumption.

With cumulative infections at 534,000, about 2 per cent of the city's 25 million people have been infected. Shanghai's case numbers are now in a sustained decline, but concerns over an outbreak in Beijing, which recorded its highest new-case total Wednesday, are now rising.

BNP this month revised down its 2022 China GDP forecast to 4.5 per cent, from 4.9 per cent, reflecting the impact from the country's strict zero-Covid strategy as it battles to contain the outbreaks. The company said the current wave has had a deeper impact on China's economy than the previous rounds, citing widespread disruptions in production, logistics, and transport.

"Economic growth is likely to be negative in April, low in May, and a recovery not seen until June," its economists, including Chen Xindong and Jacqueline Rong wrote in a report.

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.
CREDIT AGRICOLE SA

Montrouge, 27 April 2022

Credit Agricole S.A. announces the signing of an agreement to sell 78.7% of the capital of its subsidiary Credit du Maroc to the Moroccan group, Holmarcom

Credit Agricole S.A. today announces it has signed an agreement to sell its 78.7% stake in Credit du Maroc to the Moroccan group, Holmarcom.

This transaction will be subject to the authorisation of the Moroccan authorities.

It will be carried out in two stages: a tranche of 63.7% will be sold by the end of 2022, followed by a second tranche covering the remaining 15%, 18 months after the closing of the transaction.

During this transition phase, Credit Agricole S.A. will continue to support Credit du Maroc to ensure the continuity of its services and contribute to its full integration within the Holmarcom Group.

Credit Agricole S.A. plans to continue to contribute to the development of Morocco, a country in which it remains present through the entities Wafasalaf in consumer credit and Wafa Gestion in asset management, in partnership with Attijariwafa Bank.

The sale of the stake in Credit du Maroc will have a positive impact approximately of 10 bps on Credit Agricole S.A.s CET1 ratio.

CREDIT AGRICOLE PRESS CONTACT

Charlotte de Chavagnac: + 33 1 57 72 11 17 - charlotte.dechavagnac@credit-agricole-sa.fr

Olivier Tassain - 06 75 90 26 66 - olivier.tassain@credit-agricole-sa.fr

Read all our press releases at: www.credit-agricole.com - www.creditagricole.info

Attachment




(Bloomberg) -- Drone-maker SZ DJI Technology Co. has halted all business activities in Russia and Ukraine, becoming the highest-profile Chinese company to withdraw from the war-torn region.

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The worlds largest producer of unmanned aerial vehicles is temporarily suspending business to comply with regulations in various jurisdictions, it said in a brief statement without elaborating. Its pullout follows U.S. sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine, which Washington has threatened to enforce broadly.

DJIs move sets it apart from other major Chinese corporations. The Biden administration has urged companies from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. to Lenovo Group Ltd. to join sanctions against Russia, but most have refrained from publicly commenting on the matter.

Drones in particular have been pivotal in the war, used extensively by both combatants to identify targets and coordinate attacks. Ukrainian officials have however accused the Chinese company of sabotaging the countrys defense efforts, which DJI has denied, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Read more: China Moves to Comply With Sanctions, Easing Some U.S. Concerns

We are engaging with customers, partners and other stakeholders regarding the temporary suspension of business operations in the affected territories, the Shenzhen-based company said.

China has urged an end to the war in Ukraine but refuses to criticize the invasion, vowing instead to maintain trade relations with Russia, a key global energy supplier. But U.S. President Joe Biden has warned Chinese President Xi Jinping against aiding Putins regime or defying sanctions.

Story continues

Foreign companies have pulled out of Russia in the wake of its military aggression, reversing decades of investment by Western and other overseas businesses following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But Chinas companies have been wary of following suit.

The countrys corporations and government officials are scrambling to find out how to comply with the sanctions, Bloomberg News reported in March. DJI is also the target of curbs on the export of American technology, stemming from accusations its products could aid the Chinese military. Its action was first reported by Reuters on Wednesday.

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2022 Bloomberg L.P.
HP Inc.

In partnership with Dr. Goodalls namesake initiative, Janes Green Hope, and the Arbor Day Foundation, HP is planting up to one million trees  with a little help from Jane and actress Rebel Wilson

Forest Bathing with Dr. Jane Goodall and Rebel Wilson

Dr. Jane Goodall and Rebel Wilson go forest bathing, a Japanese practice that encourages people to spend time in nature and immerse themselves in green spaces.

Dr. Jane Goodall and Rebel Wilson Plant A Tree

Dr. Jane Goodall and Rebel Wilson plant a tree together, symbolizing their shared commitment to forest regeneration.

Dr. Jane Goodall and Rebel Wilson discuss the importance of global reforestation

Dr. Jane Goodall and Rebel Wilson joined together to raise awareness of the critical role forests play in combatting the global climate crisis.

Forest bathe with Jane and Rebel  no loofah required. Learn more about how you can help HP in their mission to plant a million trees this spring at hp.com/plantatree

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ), in honor of the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day, joined together with Dr. Jane Goodall, famed conservationist and founder of Janes Green Hope  Dr. Goodalls namesake reforestation initiative  and actress, producer and writer Rebel Wilson, to raise awareness for the Plant a Tree with HP campaign. Dr. Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), and Wilson met to discuss the importance of global reforestation featured in a newly released video.

The Plant a Tree with HP campaign, running through June 30, 2022, is a partnership between HP, Janes Green Hope, and the Arbor Day Foundation to plant up to one million trees by the end of the year. This campaign will support native and community-led tree plantings toward the 1 Trillion Trees Challenge . Every HP purchase1 from now through June contributes to the tree planting milestone2.

Through JGIs Jane's Green Hope and the Arbor Day Foundation, trees planted as part of the Plant a Tree with HP campaign will follow a strict protocol to ensure they survive and thrive to maturity, are the correct native species for the region and ecology of the area, and benefit human communities through local management of forests.

Private companies have a critical responsibility to use their resources and reach to ensure were doing everything possible to restore, regenerate and protect global forests, said Dr. Jane Goodall. By working with corporations like HP, Janes Green Hope is able to leverage those resources to positively impact the lives of people, other animals, and the environment we share.

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In support of this program, Rebel Wilson and Dr. Goodall went forest bathing, a Japanese practice that encourages people to spend time in nature and immerse themselves in green spaces. During their time in the forest, Rebel and Jane discuss the importance of global native tree planting and protection through community-led efforts, and even planted a tree of their own, symbolizing their shared commitment to forest regeneration.

To plant a tree with such a legend like Dr. Jane Goodall and a company as environmentally conscious as HP, I mean, what an opportunity, said Rebel Wilson. I just hope people realize the importance of climate change, and the critical role forests play in combatting it. This initiative will help by not just planting trees but also ensuring proper forest management in places like the US, Brazil, and Madagascar, where theyll make the most positive impact.

HP is stepping up to combat the climate crisis as part of its ambition to become the worlds most sustainable and just technology company. Forest protection and restoration is a key pillar of HPs overall climate action strategy, so by leveraging the combined knowledge and expertise of like-minded organizations, such as the Jane Goodall Institute through their Janes Green Hope initiative and the Arbor Day Foundation, HP is helping restore and protect global forests and biodiversity that is rapidly disappearing.

The Plant a Tree with HP campaign differs from others in that the work here doesnt just stop with simply planting the tree, said James McCall, Chief Sustainability Officer at HP. We recognize that our role as a corporation is imperative so we have committed that every page printed through an HP printer will be forest positive. This program gives us the opportunity to bring our customers along on that journey so we can build critical mass, which is essential in addressing the extremely complex challenges were facing as a planet.



Janes Green Hope is an initiative of the Jane Goodall Institute, a nonprofit founded by Dr. Goodall in 1977. The science-driven, holistic organization turns Janes vision for a better world into a reality through interconnected programs that use community-led and local partnerships to improve well-being for people, other animals, and the planet we share. As a vital part of that work, JGIs Janes Green Hope initiative invests in and focuses on nature-based solutions like reforestation to address the intersection of threats to ecosystems, humans, and wildlife. Through the campaigns efforts and key partnerships, JGI provides a valuable diversity of benefits worldwide including local sustainable livelihoods, heat regulation, protection of watersheds, and soil regeneration, while also combatting the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.

HP is committed to forest conservation as part of its comprehensive climate action strategy. It is one of the few companies in the world to achieve zero-deforestation in its paper and paper-based product packaging3. HP is also one of the first technology companies to pledge to counteract the risk of deforestation beyond its own supply chain, accounting for the impact on nature of all paper used in HP printers, regardless of brand.

To learn more about the Plant a Tree with HP campaign, as well as ways to support the protection and restoration of trees and forests, please visit https://www.hp.com/plantatree.

About HP

HP Inc. is a technology company that believes one thoughtful idea has the power to change the world. Its product and service portfolio of personal systems, printers, and 3D printing solutions helps bring these ideas to life. Visit http://www.hp.com.

About the Jane Goodall Institute

The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is a global, community-centered conservation organization founded in 1977 that advances the vision and work of Dr. Jane Goodall in over 30 countries around the world. We seek to understand and protect chimpanzees, other apes and their habitats, and empower people to be compassionate citizens in order to inspire conservation of the natural world we all share. JGI uses research, community-led conservation, best-in-class animal welfare standards, and the innovative use of science and technology to inspire hope and transform it into action for the common good. Through our Roots & Shoots program for young people of all ages, now active in over 60 countries around the world, JGI is creating an informed and compassionate critical mass of citizens who will help to create a better world for people, other animals, and our shared environment. To learn more about Dr. Goodall and the Jane Goodall Institute, visit janegoodall.org and @JaneGoodallInst on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.









________________________

1HP purchases include all HP products and services including printers, laptops, desktops, monitors, ink and toner cartridges, and HP Instant Ink subscriptions during the promotion period.

2A percentage of profits during the promotion period of April through June 2022, up to $1M, will go to the Jane Goodall Institute to fund the planting of 1 million trees globally.

3Data sources: HP 2020 Sustainability Impact Report; Date of data: As of December 2020; Restrictions: As of December 2020, 99% of HP brand paper and paper-based product packaging was derived from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified or recycled sources. Packaging is the box that comes with the product and all paper-based materials inside the box. Packaging for commercial, industrial, and 3D products, scanners, personal systems accessories, and spare parts are not included.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f9975a89-48b5-43fd-affb-1df55e8944b7

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/196dd335-4e61-44ea-9d0b-7ca10ea14f0f

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c1292c9d-2699-4976-b81c-525a976d5e99

A video accompanying this announcement is available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/452911bb-9971-4612-9baf-7d6a3fc24acc

CONTACT: MEDIA CONTACTS: Lindsey OShaughnessy, HP Lindsey.OShaughnessy@hp.com http://press.ext.hp.com




(Bloomberg) -- European gas advanced for a second day, as buyers sought to keep the taps open amid a payment dispute with Russia without running afoul of sanctions.

Most Read from Bloomberg

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned companies not to bend to Russias demands to pay for gas in rubles. Payments for this months deliveries are due in late April or May.

German utility Uniper SE said it can keep purchasing Russian gas in euros while remaining in compliance with Moscows demand. Earlier, Gazprom PJSC suspended flows to Bulgarias Bulgargaz and Polands PGNiG, saying the halt will remain until payments are made in the Russian currency.

Benchmark Dutch futures settled 4.1% higher at 107.43 euros per-megawatt hour, the highest close since April 5. They surged earlier in the day by as much as 24%.

The developments illustrate the high-stakes brinkmanship underway over Europes energy supplies following Russias invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions aimed at isolating Moscow. Russia is the European Unions largest gas provider, and the bloc is now racing to find alternatives.

The European natural gas balance remains one supply disruption short from skyrocking prices, analysts from JPMorgan Chase, led by Shikha Chaturvedi, said in a research note.

Ruble Accounts

President Vladimir Putin last month ordered that unfriendly buyers pay in rubles or risk a cut-off in gas shipments. Companies would open two accounts with Gazprombank -- one in a foreign currency and the other in rubles -- and the Russian bank would then convert the payments into the local currency.

Also See: Russia Rejects German Gas Payment From Seized Trading Unit

Story continues

Four European buyers have already paid for supplies in the Russian currency, and ten companies have opened accounts at Gazprombank to meet Putins payment demands, according to a person close to Gazprom.

European Buyers

Orders for gas flowing from Germany to Poland via the Yamal-Europe pipeline surged Wednesday, data from network operator Gascade show. Shipments via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany were little changed from a day earlier, flowing at about the links capacity.

Read: Germany Says Its Taking Russian Gas-Halt Threat Seriously

Orders for Russian gas via Ukraine rose after being muted earlier in the day. Gazprom has said flows are in line with client requests. Data from the Ukrainian network operator show a decline for orders for Thursday.

Gas transit to Hungary is going according to plan, and the country has devised a way to pay Gazprom for it, according to Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. Austria will continue to pay for Russian gas deliveries in euros, in compliance with EU sanctions, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Twitter.

Other Supplies

Elsewhere, capacity at Norways giant Troll gas field is set to be lower in early May than previously planned, according to network operator Gassco AS. Flows via the Interconnector pipeline between the U.K. and Belgium have been curbed since Sunday due to works.

The end of the heating season in Europe this month has also reduced the need for immediate supplies, though buyers are now starting to fill storage sites for next winter.

U.K. gas futures dropped 8.5%. Britain is awash with LNG imports, but it has few outlets to store the fuel and limited ability to export it to the continent as the summer approaches.

German power for next month delivery rose 11%, curbing an earlier advance.

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2022 Bloomberg L.P.
SOLUTIONS 30

Operational performance reflected our changing geographic mix and the rapid ramp-up of telecoms and energy in Europe

2021 revenue: 874.0 million

Adjusted EBITDA: 82.4 million

Cash net of debt: 52.3 million

Q1 2022 revenue: 222.7 million

Confirmation of long-term outlook

Profitable growth for 2022 confirmed and set to accelerate in the second half of the year

With fundamentals and an organizational structure that are stronger than ever, we are ready for a new phase of dynamic and sustainable growth

Solutions 30 SE today published its consolidated results for the year ended December 31, 2021, as well as its revenue figures for Q1 2022, ending March 31, 2022, prepared in accordance with IFRS.

The supervisory board of Solutions 30 met on April 27th and examined and approved the results for the year, as approved by the companys management board. The audit has been carried out and the audit report relating to the certification of the accounts is available on Solutions 30s website. The audit procedures are detailed at the end of the press release.

Gianbeppi Fortis, Chairman of the Management Board of Solutions 30, states:

After the disruptions of the pandemic and of successive lockdowns in 2020 that helped to drive our telecoms activity in France, 2021 saw a return to more normative levels of growth in this mature market segment for France, as well as supply chain difficulties and strong growth in the Benelux and Italy.

France and Spain were some of the first European countries to roll out ultra-fast Internet networks. Today, other countries are also beginning to deploy their fiber-optic networks. In such a context, the group will take advantage of these growth opportunities everywhere it operates. This can already be seen in the first contracts signed in Italy and in the Benelux in 2021.

We have thus begun to duplicate the success of our model in France.

Over the coming months, the most important challenge will be to seize these growth opportunities throughout Europe and to put the tools, processes, and teams in place to ensure that this growth takes place in the right conditions, just as we did in France between 2015 and 2020.

Story continues

While the negotiation and implementation phases of these new major contracts are having periodic negative effects on profitability, with our experience, our expertise, and our solid financial structure, we will make it through this learning curve and scale up our processes to quickly bring our margins up into the double digits.

At the same time, in both France and Spain, we will need to consolidate our position in the more mature telecoms roll-out market and to increase our market share in fiber-optic network maintenance, electric mobility, energy savings, and renewable energy. This requires updating our tools and services, as we did in 2021, and will continue to do throughout 2022.

The group is on the verge of a new period of growth, which should begin to show more clearly in the second half of 2022.

All our teams are ready, composed, and confident going into this new growth phase, thanks to the work weve done to improve governance, compliance, and risk management, and our proven know-how.

Key figures  Consolidated data

In millions of euros 12/31/2021 12/31/2020 Change Revenue 874.0 819.3 6.7% Operating margin (Adjusted EBITDA) 82.4 106.5 -22.7% As a % of revenue 9.4% 13.0% Adjusted EBIT(1) 40,8 60.9 -32.9% As a % of revenue 4.7% 7.4% Operating income (EBIT) 12,9 48.3 -73% As a % of revenue 1.5% 5.9% Consolidated net income 22.5 35.8 -37.3% As a % of revenue 2.6% 4.4% Net income, group share 21.5 34.5 -37.7% As a % of revenue 2.5% 4.2% Free cash flow(1) 32.4 124.8 - 92.4 Financial structure figures 12/31/2021 12/31/2020 Change Equity 191.6 170.0 +21.5 Net debt 33.1 28.9 +4.1 Net bank debt(1) - 52.3 - 59.2 +6.9

(1) See glossary at the end of this document

Activity

For 2021, Solutions 30 posted revenue of 874.0 million compared to 819.3 million for 2020, representing growth of +6.7% (+3.6% organic growth) compared to 2020 and +26.4% compared to 2019, before the pandemic.

After solid initial growth of 20.9% in the first half of the year, the second half of the year stood in sharp contrast:

A mature market in France, which is returning to normal after a highly unusual 2020, with growth drivers (energy transition, 5G) scaling up less quickly than forecasted due to supply chain issues.

The end-of-year impact of high rates of quarantine-related absences due to more contagious variants, despite the continued use of prevention measures and procedures to protect the health of our employees and our customers.

Strong sales momentum in other countries where we operate, with higher and higher growth rates masking the effects of supply chain disruptions. There are new opportunities cropping up everywhere, driven by unprecedented recovery plans. The Benelux and other countries are now driving the groups growth, with revenue up 17.7% and 28.7% respectively.

Profitability

Adjusted EBITDA was 82.4 million at the end of December 2021, down 23% compared to 2020.

Operating costs increased by +4.1 percentage points compared to 2020 and represented 81.3% of revenue, compared to 77.2% a year earlier, while the burden of structural costs fell to 9.3% of revenue compared with 9.8% in 2020.

The operating margin stood at 9.4% of revenue, compared to 13.0% one year earlier.

Besides less absorption of fixed costs due to falling revenue in France and a changing geographic mix to focus on activities that have yet to reach a critical size, this decrease can be explained by:

Effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions for 4 million

Evolving business needs and the operational transition needed to adapt and to develop new activities in France for 6.7 million

Ongoing and upcoming ramp-up initiatives, especially for new businesses and countries that have not reached their critical size for 9.8 million

Removing these factors, the EBITDA margin amounts to 11.8%, a decrease of only 120 basis points.

The start-up phases of important contractswhich is currently the case in the Benelux and Italyrequire the creation of new organizational structures and more robust processes, the adoption of new IT tools, and new trainings for on-site teams. Solutions 30 is making the most of the expertise it has built up in France to shorten this investment phase, although it is an essential step for improving profitability before the industrial phase begins.

After accounting for 16.2 million in impairments and operational provisions, and after amortizing the usage rights for leased assets (IFRS 16), worth 25.3 million, adjusted EBIT stood at 40.8 million, a 32.9% decrease compared to the previous year.

2021 saw 13.3 million in non-current operating expenses, including 7.1 million in group spending to combat an aggressive smear campaign. The remaining balance came from restructuring operations to adapt our organizational structure to changes in the market, especially in Germany and France.

Customer relationship amortization amounted to 14.7 million in 2021, compared to 13.0 million a year earlier.

Financial income rose to 4.2 million in profit, from the (downward) adjustment of contingent consideration (earnout) values for 6.4 million, compared to an expense of 4.1 million in 2020.

After including tax income of 5.4 million due to loss carryforwards, compared to an expense of 8.4 million a year earlier, the group share of net income amounted to 21.5 million, compared to 34.5 million in 2020.

Financial structure

At December 31, 2021, the group had 191.6 million in equity, compared to 170.0 million at December 31, 2020. The group had 129.8 million in gross cash, compared to 159.3 million at the end of December 2020. Gross bank debt stood at 77.5 million, compared to 100.0 million on December 31, 2020, due to scheduled debt repayments. The group had 52.3 million in cash net of debt at the end of December 2021, compared to 59.2 million at the end of December 2020.

Including 66.6 million in leasing liabilities (IFRS 16) and 18.8 million in potential financial debt on future call options and earnouts, the group has a total net debt of 33.1 million, compared to 28.9 a year earlier. The group maintains a solid financial structure, with a net debt/EBITDA ratio of 40% and a net debt-to-equity ratio of 17.3%.

Outstanding receivables under the groups non-recourse factoring program amounted to 92.3 million on December 31, 2021, compared to 94 million on December 31, 2020. This program finances working capital requirements from recurring activities that are fully developed.

The use of factoring frees up the cash generated by these receivables to finance the groups growth strategy, specifically the ramp-up of new contracts, at a cost of less than 1% of the amount of assigned receivables. This program, combined with a solid financial structure, provides Solutions 30 with the resources it needs to finance its ambitious growth strategy.

Operating cash flow amounted to 60.8 million, compared to 89.0 million in 2020. The ramp-up of contracts and the return to more normal payment terms than in 2020 resulted in a 13.3 million increase in working capital requirements, which are negative at 25.0 million.

Cash flow from business activities stood at 47.5 million in 2021, compared to 136.8 million a year earlier, and net investments reached 15.1 million, or 1.7% of revenue, compared to 1.4% a year earlier. This falls within a normal range, generally considered to be between 1.5% and 4% of revenue, and goes mostly to investing in the groups IT infrastructure and technical equipment. Overall, this means there was 32.4 million in free cash flow, compared to 124.8 million in 2020.

Data by segment

2021 2020 Change France Revenue 507.3 522.7 -2.9% EBITDA 66.4 86.6 -23.3% % 13.1% 16.6% Benelux Revenue 160.4 136.3 17.7% EBITDA 22.9 21.4 7.0% % 14.3% 15.7% Other countries Revenue 206.3 160.2 28.8% EBITDA 2.2 7.6 -71.1% % 1.1% 4.8%

In France, revenue came to 507.3 million at December 31, 2021, compared to 522.7 million a year earlier. After peaking in the second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021, the telecom business returned to normal levels in this more mature ultra-fast Internet market. By the end of December 2021, 29.7 million locations were eligible for a fiber connection, for a total coverage rate of 70%, and the country already has 14.5 million fiber subscribers, i.e. 48% of eligible households or 34% of all locations. At the same time that the roll-out of smart electricity meters is winding down, the growth of other market segments connected to the energy transition has slowed due to periodic disruptions in the supply chain. A decrease in revenue in the second half of the year ate into profits in France, which will need to adapt to this new context. For these reasons, adjusted EBITDA reached 66.45 million, for a margin of 13.1%, compared to 16.6% a year earlier. Changing activity levels and preparations for launching new businesses reduced EBITDA by 6.7 million, while supply chain delays decreased it by another 1.1 million.

In the Benelux, revenue reached 160.4 million, up +17.7% (+14.3% organic growth). The group is entering a high-growth phase in Belgium and the Netherlands, in both its telecoms and energy businesses. The installation of smart meters for the energy company Fluvius began at the start of the year and is continuing at a rapid pace. As for telecoms, previously signed contracts for rolling out ultra-fast Internet are now entering the production phase. As explained above, such ramp-up phases may periodically impact group profitability. Thus, adjusted EBITDA was 22.9 million, for a margin of 14.3%, compared to 15.7% a year earlier.

In other countries, Solutions 30s revenue stood at 206.3 million for 2021, an increase of 28.7% (+15.6% organic growth).

In Germany, 2021 revenue amounted to 63.3 million compared to 67.2 million the previous year.

In Italy, revenue grew by 70% (55% like-for-like) in 2021, reaching 46.8 million, and will continue to be driven by the contract we signed with TIM at the beginning of the year.

In Spain, the group generated revenue of 53.1 million, with purely organic growth of 36.0%.

In Poland, revenue remained stable, at 24.9 million.

Finally, in the United Kingdom, Solutions 30 generated 18.2 million in revenue for 2021.

Adjusted EBITDA was 2.2 million, equivalent to 1.1% of revenue, compared with 4.8% a year earlier. This reflects the start-up of a contract signed in Italy, the integration of acquisitions made in the United Kingdom, and the reorganization initiative in Germany to make the most of expected growth in the telecoms sector in the second half of 2022.

Q1 2022 revenue:

In millions of euros Q1 2022 Q1

2021 % change Total 222.7 225.2 -1.1% From France 116.7 142.1 -17.9% From Benelux 46.7 37.0 +26.3% From other countries 59.3 46.1 +28.5%

Solutions 30s consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2022 amounted to 222.7 million, down slightly (1.1%) compared to the same period in 2021 (down (3.0%) organically).

The first quarter is a continuation of the last quarter 2021 with:

On the one hand, activity in France penalized by the triple effect of maturing markets, supply chain difficulties, and the high rate of quarantined technicians, especially at the beginning of the year, due to the pandemic.

On the other hand, business is growing strongly in the rest of the countries and this positive trend is masking supply chain disruptions and the impact of the pandemic.

In France, revenue for the first quarter of 2022 amounted to 116.7 million compared to 142.1 million a year ago.

With 84.5 million in revenue, the telecom business is down by 18% compared to the first quarter of 2021. The market is in the midst of an operational transition as fiber roll-out has peaked and the market for new subscriber connections is under consolidation after being driven by widespread remote working and measures to limit social interactions. These two market conditions are still only partially compensated by maintenance activities.

For the energy business, revenue stood at 15.9 million, compared to 23.3 million the previous year, a decrease of 32%. The business has been strongly impacted by the end of smart electricity meter roll-outs in France, revenue from which is down by 60%. Other activities, related to electric mobility and renewable energies, are not yet compensating for this decrease in revenue. They are growing by 8%, but their ramp-up remains delayed by current supply chain problems.

The IT business posted revenue of 11.9 million, up 8% for the quarter, while the security and payments business generated 4.4 million in revenue, compared to 4.6 million a year earlier.

In the Benelux, revenue in the first quarter of 2022 amounted to 46.7 million compared to 37.0 million a year earlier, up 26.3% (26.6% organic growth).

The telecoms business, which grew organically by 14%, generated quarterly revenue of 33.0 million. Sales activity remains strong and the first roll-outs began with the start-up of contracts signed with Fiberklaar and Open Dutch Fiber in the second half of 2021.

Revenue for the energy business amounted to 9.6 million, compared with 3.9 million a year earlier, representing purely organic growth of 145%. The deployment of smart meters in Flanders on behalf of Fluvius began during the first quarter of 2021 and is now fully developed.

Revenue from the IT business remained stable at 2.3 million, compared with 2.4 million a year earlier. Quarterly revenue from the retail and security businesses was 1.9 million compared to 1.7 million for the first quarter of 2021.

In all other countries, the group posted annual revenue of 59.3 million, an increase of 29% (19% organic growth) compared to the same period in 2021.

In Germany, revenue amounted to 14.4 million compared to 16.2 million the previous year. The return to growth is expected in the second half of 2022, when the efforts made by the group to adapt its organization should begin to bear fruit.

In Italy, revenue grew by 67% in the first quarter of 2022 to 14.6 million, driven by the contract signed at the beginning of the year with TIM to deploy its ultra-fast infrastructure in Piedmont and the Aosta Valley.

In Spain, revenue grew organically by 24% to 14.5 million, thanks to strong momentum in the telecoms business (fiber and 5G mobile networks).

In Poland, the group confirmed its return to growth and posted revenue of 6.7 million, representing organic growth of 19%.

Finally, in the United Kingdom, Solutions 30 posted quarterly revenue of 9.0 million, up 131% (23% organic growth), thanks to the excellent momentum in the telecoms sector and the start-up of new ultra-fast Internet and 5G deployment programs.

Outlook

In 2021, Solutions 30 announced that it would be accelerating the improvement plan it began in 2019, which has already seen concrete progress, including the adoption of IFRS in 2019, the transfer of company shares to a regulated exchange, and enhanced governance. As part of these actions to support its strong growth, Solutions 30 created a transformation plan with the goal of improving and harmonizing governance, risk management, and compliance procedures.

This project has led to (i) a review of the existing group policies and procedures, (ii) gap analysis against applicable laws and regulations, (iii) interviews with the management teams of Solutions 30 and its subsidiaries, and (iv) consolidation and analysis of the information gathered in the above-mentioned steps to define areas for improving governance, risk management, and compliance. Six workstreams have been identified

Uniform third parties due diligence processes Uniform risk mitigation procedures and enhanced internal control Revised code of conduct Improve whistleblower processes Training Definition of disciplinary actions

New procedures and policies were defined and harmonized throughout 2021 and the beginning of 2022. They are being implemented gradually over the first half of 2022.

Solutions 30 is thus opening a new chapter in its growth in markets that, no matter their maturity, have significant potential for growth and are supported by unprecedented stimulus plans that are channeling public investment into the digital transformation and energy transition.

With a solid financial structure and a business model that allows it to self-fund its growth, Solutions 30s priority this year will be increasing its market share. We are therefore expecting a new period of dynamic growth starting in the second half of the year, while the first half of the year will more closely resemble the second half of 2021. The group should also be able to return to a more active acquisitions policy than over the last two years, helping to drive growth.

Audit procedures

Considering that the previous auditor was unable to express an opinion on Solutions 30s consolidated financial statements at 12/31/2020, the groups new auditor, PKF Audit & Conseil, carried out in-depth due diligence on the opening balance sheet at January 1, 2021, in accordance with professional standards.

This work included:

A detailed review and analysis of the findings of independent investigations conducted by Deloitte and Didier Kling Expertises & Conseil in the first half of 2021. A review of the various items in the opening balance sheet and the performance of additional due diligence if deemed necessary. A review of measures Solutions 30 put into place in 2021, especially in terms of risk management and internal control.

The analysis of the opening balance sheet did not reveal any anomalies.

As the previous auditor was unable to express an opinion on the groups annual consolidated financial statements at 12/31/2020, PKFs audit opinion on the consolidated financial statements of the group for the year ended December 31, 2021 includes, in accordance with IAS 710, a technical reservation relating to the comparability of the figures in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income with the corresponding figures of the previous year.

Subject to this qualification, upon completion of the audit of the 2021 annual accounts, PKF Audit & Conseil confirms that the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the group at December 31, 2021, and its consolidated financial performance and its consolidated cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted by the European Union.

Upcoming event

HY1 2022 revenue July 27, 2022

About Solutions 30 SE

The Solutions 30 group is the European leader in solutions for new technologies. Its mission is to make the technological developments that are transforming our daily lives accessible to everyone, individuals and businesses alike. Yesterday, it was computers and the Internet. Today, its digital technology. Tomorrow, it will be technologies that make the world even more interconnected in real time. With more than 50 million call-outs carried out since it was founded and a network of more than 15,000 local technicians, Solutions 30 currently covers all of France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Iberian Peninsula, the United Kingdom, and Poland. The share capital of Solutions 30 SE consists of 107,127,984 shares, equal to the number of theoretical votes that can be exercised.

Solutions 30 SE is listed on the Euronext Paris exchange (ISIN FR0013379484- code S30). Indexes: MSCI Europe ex-UK Small Cap | SBF 120 | CAC Mid 60 | NEXT 150 | CAC Technology | CAC PME.

Visit our website for more information: www.solutions30.com

Contact

Individual Shareholders:

Investor Relations - Tel: +33 1 86 86 00 63 - shareholders@solutions30.com

Analysts/Investors:

Nathalie Boumendil - Tel: +33 6 85 82 41 95 - nathalie.boumendil@solutions30.com

Press - Image 7:

Leslie Jung - Tel: +44 7818 641803 - ljung@image7.fr

Charlotte Le Barbier - Tel: +33 6 78 37 27 60 - clebarbier@image7.fr

Glossary

Organic growth Organic growth includes the organic growth of acquired companies after they are acquired, which Solutions 30 assumes they would not have experienced had they remained independent.

The groups growth is detailed in the table below:

2020 2021 Total Organic growth of existing subsidiaries Organic growth from acquired companies Acquisitions Total Value % Value % Value % Value Change Total 819.3 27.8 3.4% 1.3 0.2% 25.6 3.1% 874.0 6.7% From France 522.7 -15.4 -3.0% 0.0 0.0% 0.0 0.0% 507.3 -3.0% From Benelux 136.3 19.3 14.2% 0.2 0.1% 4.6 3.4% 160.4 17.7% From Other Countries 160.3 23.9 14.9% 1.1 0.7% 21.0 13.1% 206.3 28.7%

These figures have been rounded and their sum may not perfectly match the totals given.

EBITDA Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, as well as non-recurring income and expenses. It corresponds to the operating margin in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income.

In thousands of euros 12/31/2021 12/31/2020 Operating income 12,880 48,276 Depreciation of IFRS 16 rights of use 25,317







23,502 Increases in operational provisions 16,225







22,168 Customer relationship amortization 14,705 12,996 Other non-current operating income -10 -464 Other non-current operating expenses 13,255  Adjusted EBITDA 82,372 106,528

Adjusted EBIT Operating income before amortization of intangible assets, including customer relationships, and non-recurring income and expenses.

In thousands of euros 12/31/2021 12/31/2020 Operating income 12,880 48,276 Customer relationship amortization 14,705 12,996 Earnings on sale of holdings 0 49 Other non-recurring operating income, including negative goodwill -10 -464 Other non-current operating expenses 13,255 0 Adjusted EBIT 40,830 60,857

Non-recurring transactions Income and expenses that are infrequent, unusual, and significant in amount are considered non-recurring transactions.

Customer relationships Intangible assets related to the fair value measurement of acquired companies at the time of consolidation. The amortization period of 3 to 15 years is the estimated time for the consumption of the majority of economic benefits flowing to the company.

Net debt Net debt includes loans from credit institutions, bank overdrafts, lease liabilities, and future liabilities from earnouts and put options, less cash and cash equivalents.

In thousands of euros 12/31/2021 12/31/2020 Bank debt 77,534 100,045 Lease liabilities 66,587 63,548 Future liabilities from earnouts and put options 18,785 24,618 Cash and cash equivalents -129,839 -159,279 Net debt 33,066 28,933

Net bank debt Net bank debt includes loans from credit institutions and bank overdrafts, less cash and cash equivalents. This represents net debt excluding the impact of IFRS 16. Net bank debt is used as a reference in calculating the covenants included in the groups debt contracts.

In thousands of euros 12/31/2021 12/31/2020 Loans from credit institutions, long-term 50,512 71,977 Loans from credit institutions, short-term and lines of credit 27,022 28,068 Cash and cash equivalents (129,839) (159,279) Net bank debt (52,305) (59,234)

Free cash flow Free cash flow corresponds to the net cash flow from operating activities minus the acquisitions of intangible assets and property, plant and equipment net of disposals.

In thousands of euros 12/31/2021 12/31/2020 Net cash flow from operating activities 47,545 136,488 Acquisition of non-current assets (15,722) 12,670



12,670,167.6398233 Disposal of non-current assets after tax 614 639 Free cash flow 32,437 124,817







Attachment




Net earnings of $730 million on revenue of $9.4 billion

Diluted EPS of $2.61, up 5.2% year over year

Cash from operating activities of $2 billion

Highest Aerospace backlog in more than a decade

RESTON, Va., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) today reported first-quarter 2022 net earnings of $730 million on revenue of $9.4 billion. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) were $2.61, a 5.2% increase from the year-ago quarter.

"Aerospace backlog grew for the fifth consecutive quarter, driven by continued strong Gulfstream demand, while operating discipline and growth in aviation services increased the group's margins," said Phebe N. Novakovic, chairman and chief executive officer. "Our defense segments delivered solid performance on key programs across the portfolios."

Cash

Net cash provided by operating activities in the quarter totaled $2 billion, or 270% of net earnings. The company invested $141 million in capital expenditures, paid $330 million in dividends, and used $294 million to repurchase shares, ending the quarter with $2.9 billion in cash and equivalents on hand.

Backlog

Orders remained strong across the company with a consolidated book-to-bill ratio, defined as orders divided by revenue, of 1-to-1 for the quarter. In addition to company-wide backlog of $87.2 billion, estimated potential contract value, representing management's estimate of additional value in unfunded indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts and unexercised options, was $41.8 billion. Total estimated contract value, the sum of all backlog components, was $129 billion.

Aerospace backlog grew $1.3 billion in the quarter to $17.6 billion, up 8.1%.

Significant awards in the quarter for the three defense segments included a contract with a maximum potential value of $4.5 billion over 10 years from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to provide hybrid cloud services and information technology design, engineering, and operations and sustainment services; a contract with a maximum potential value of $660 million from the Environmental Protection Agency for managed application, information, networking, enterprise and security services; $340 million from the U.S. Army to produce Stryker maneuver short-range air defense (M-SHORAD) vehicles; $325 million from the Army to upgrade Abrams main battle tanks; $260 million from the U.S. Navy to provide maintenance and repair services for an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer and a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship; $235 million from the Army to provide spare parts, inventory management and support services for the Stryker wheeled combat vehicle program; $230 million to produce Piranha armored combat vehicles for Switzerland; and $260 million for several key classified contracts.

Story continues

About General Dynamics

Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defense company that offers a broad portfolio of products and services in business aviation; ship construction and repair; land combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions; and technology products and services. General Dynamics employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and generated $38.5 billion in revenue in 2021. More information is available at www.gd.com.

Certain statements in this press release, including any statements about the company's future operational and financial performance, may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "forecasts," "scheduled," "outlook," "estimates," "should" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. Additional information regarding these factors is contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and its Current Reports on Form 8-K. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they were made. The company does not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this press release.

WEBCAST INFORMATION: General Dynamics will webcast its first-quarter 2022 financial results conference call at 9 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. The webcast will be a listen-only audio event available at www.gd.com. An on-demand replay of the webcast will be available by telephone one hour after the end of the call and end on May 4, 2022, at 866-813-9403 (international: +44 204-525-0658); passcode 488214. Charts furnished to investors and securities analysts in connection with General Dynamics' announcement of its financial results are available at www.gd.com.

EXHIBIT A

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF EARNINGS - (UNAUDITED)

DOLLARS IN MILLIONS, EXCEPT PER SHARE AMOUNTS





Three Months Ended Variance



April 3, 2022

April 4, 2021

$

% Revenue

$ 9,392



$ 9,389



$ 3



 % Operating costs and expenses

(8,484)



(8,451)



(33)





Operating earnings

908



938



(30)



(3.2) % Other, net

39



30



9





Interest, net

(98)



(123)



25





Earnings before income tax

849



845



4



0.5 % Provision for income tax, net

(119)



(137)



18





Net earnings

$ 730



$ 708



$ 22



3.1 % Earnings per sharebasic

$ 2.63



$ 2.49



$ 0.14



5.6 % Basic weighted average shares outstanding

277.1



284.1









Earnings per sharediluted

$ 2.61



$ 2.48



$ 0.13



5.2 % Diluted weighted average shares outstanding

279.9



285.2











EXHIBIT B

REVENUE AND OPERATING EARNINGS BY SEGMENT - (UNAUDITED)

DOLLARS IN MILLIONS



Three Months Ended

Variance

April 3, 2022

April 4, 2021

$

% Revenue:













Aerospace $ 1,903



$ 1,887



$ 16



0.8 % Marine Systems 2,651



2,483



168



6.8 % Combat Systems 1,675



1,820



(145)



(8.0) % Technologies 3,163



3,199



(36)



(1.1) % Total $ 9,392



$ 9,389



$ 3



 % Operating earnings:













Aerospace $ 243



$ 220



$ 23



10.5 % Marine Systems 211



200



11



5.5 % Combat Systems 227



244



(17)



(7.0) % Technologies 298



306



(8)



(2.6) % Corporate (71)



(32)



(39)



(121.9) % Total $ 908



$ 938



$ (30)



(3.2) % Operating margin:













Aerospace 12.8 %

11.7 %







Marine Systems 8.0 %

8.1 %







Combat Systems 13.6 %

13.4 %







Technologies 9.4 %

9.6 %







Total 9.7 %

10.0 %









EXHIBIT C

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET

DOLLARS IN MILLIONS







(Unaudited)









April 3, 2022

December 31, 2021 ASSETS









Current assets:









Cash and equivalents



$ 2,907



$ 1,603

Accounts receivable



3,015



3,041

Unbilled receivables



7,888



8,498

Inventories



5,548



5,340

Other current assets



1,436



1,505

Total current assets



20,794



19,987

Noncurrent assets:









Property, plant and equipment, net



5,450



5,417

Intangible assets, net



1,926



1,978

Goodwill



20,114



20,098

Other assets



2,592



2,593

Total noncurrent assets



30,082



30,086

Total assets



$ 50,876



$ 50,073

LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY









Current liabilities:









Short-term debt and current portion of long-term debt



$ 1,005



$ 1,005

Accounts payable



3,190



3,167

Customer advances and deposits



6,363



6,266

Other current liabilities



3,478



3,540

Total current liabilities



14,036



13,978

Noncurrent liabilities:









Long-term debt



10,491



10,490

Other liabilities



8,335



7,964

Total noncurrent liabilities



18,826



18,454

Shareholders' equity:









Common stock



482



482

Surplus



3,434



3,278

Retained earnings



35,800



35,420

Treasury stock



(19,837)



(19,619)

Accumulated other comprehensive loss



(1,865)



(1,920)

Total shareholders' equity



18,014



17,641

Total liabilities and shareholders' equity



$ 50,876



$ 50,073



EXHIBIT D

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS - (UNAUDITED)

DOLLARS IN MILLIONS



Three Months Ended

April 3, 2022

April 4, 2021 Cash flows from operating activitiescontinuing operations:





Net earnings $ 730



$ 708

Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash from operating activities:





Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 139



136

Amortization of intangible and finance lease right-of-use assets 74



79

Equity-based compensation expense 96



40

Deferred income tax benefit (106)



(19)

(Increase) decrease in assets, net of effects of business acquisitions:





Accounts receivable 26



(30)

Unbilled receivables 617



52

Inventories (234)



57

Increase (decrease) in liabilities, net of effects of business acquisitions:





Accounts payable 23



(216)

Customer advances and deposits 675



(544)

Other, net (72)



(260)

Net cash provided by operating activities 1,968



3

Cash flows from investing activities:





Capital expenditures (141)



(134)

Other, net (6)



3

Net cash used by investing activities (147)



(131)

Cash flows from financing activities:





Dividends paid (330)



(315)

Purchases of common stock (294)



(759)

Other, net 107



201

Net cash used by financing activities (517)



(873)

Net cash used by discontinued operations 



(12)

Net increase (decrease) in cash and equivalents 1,304



(1,013)

Cash and equivalents at beginning of period 1,603



2,824

Cash and equivalents at end of period $ 2,907



$ 1,811





EXHIBIT E

ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION - (UNAUDITED)

DOLLARS IN MILLIONS, EXCEPT PER SHARE AMOUNTS









Other Financial Information:

























April 3, 2022

December 31, 2021

Debt-to-equity (a)







63.8 %

65.2 %

Book value per share (b)







$ 64.87



$ 63.54



Shares outstanding







277,705,115



277,620,943































First Quarter











2022

2021

Income tax payments, net







$ 15



$ 33



Company-sponsored research and development (c)







$ 107



$ 90



Return on sales (d)







7.8 %

7.5 %



















Non-GAAP Financial Measures:

























First Quarter











2022

2021

Free cash flow:















Net cash provided by operating activities







$ 1,968



$ 3



Capital expenditures







(141)



(134)



Free cash flow (e)







$ 1,827



$ (131)































April 3, 2022

December 31, 2021

Net debt:















Total debt







$ 11,496



$ 11,495



Less cash and equivalents







2,907



1,603



Net debt (f)







$ 8,589



$ 9,892





(a) Debt-to-equity ratio is calculated as total debt divided by total equity as of the end of the period.



(b) Book value per share is calculated as total equity divided by total outstanding shares as of the end of the period.



(c) Includes independent research and development and Aerospace product-development costs.



(d) Return on sales is calculated as net earnings divided by revenue.



(e) We define free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures. We believe free cash

flow is a useful measure for investors because it portrays our ability to generate cash from our businesses for purposes

such as repaying debt, funding business acquisitions, repurchasing our common stock and paying dividends. We use

free cash flow to assess the quality of our earnings and as a key performance measure in evaluating management.



(f) We define net debt as short- and long-term debt (total debt) less cash and equivalents. We believe net debt is a useful

measure for investors because it reflects the borrowings that support our operations and capital deployment strategy.

We use net debt as an important indicator of liquidity and financial position.



EXHIBIT F

BACKLOG - (UNAUDITED)

DOLLARS IN MILLIONS







Funded

Unfunded

Total

Backlog

Estimated Potential Contract Value*

Total

Estimated

Contract Value

First Quarter 2022:





















Aerospace

$ 17,114



$ 501



$ 17,615



$ 1,829



$ 19,444



Marine Systems

27,656



15,258



42,914



4,316



47,230



Combat Systems

12,760



299



13,059



6,298



19,357



Technologies

9,067



4,579



13,646



29,347



42,993



Total

$ 66,597



$ 20,637



$ 87,234



$ 41,790



$ 129,024



Fourth Quarter 2021:





















Aerospace

$ 15,878



$ 415



$ 16,293



$ 1,657



$ 17,950



Marine Systems

23,678



21,177



44,855



4,271



49,126



Combat Systems

12,584



509



13,093



6,936



20,029



Technologies

9,005



4,348



13,353



26,997



40,350



Total

$ 61,145



$ 26,449



$ 87,594



$ 39,861



$ 127,455



First Quarter 2021:





















Aerospace

$ 11,545



$ 384



$ 11,929



$ 2,312



$ 14,241



Marine Systems

27,676



22,075



49,751



2,815



52,566



Combat Systems

14,085



143



14,228



9,120



23,348



Technologies

10,003



3,670



13,673



27,530



41,203



Total

$ 63,309



$ 26,272



$ 89,581



$ 41,777



$ 131,358





* The estimated potential contract value includes work awarded on unfunded indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts

and unexercised options associated with existing firm contracts, including options and other agreements with existing customers

to purchase new aircraft and aircraft services. We recognize options in backlog when the customer exercises the option and

establishes a firm order. For IDIQ contracts, we evaluate the amount of funding we expect to receive and include this amount in

our estimated potential contract value. The actual amount of funding received in the future may be higher or lower than our

estimate of potential contract value.

EXHIBIT F-1

BACKLOG - (UNAUDITED)

DOLLARS IN MILLIONS

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1804988/Exhibit_F_1.jpg

EXHIBIT F-2

BACKLOG BY SEGMENT - (UNAUDITED)

DOLLARS IN MILLIONS

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1804990/Aerospace_Backlog.jpg

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1804991/Marine_Systems_Backlog.jpg

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1804992/Combat_Systems_Backlog.jpg

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1804993/Technologies_Backlog.jpg

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1804994/Backlog_Key.jpg

EXHIBIT G

FIRST QUARTER 2022 SIGNIFICANT ORDERS - (UNAUDITED)

DOLLARS IN MILLIONS

We received the following significant contract awards during the first quarter of 2022:

Marine Systems:

$260 from the U.S. Navy to provide maintenance and repair services for an Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) guided-missile destroyer and a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship.

$130 from the Navy for maintenance and modernization work on the USS Hartford, a Los Angeles-class submarine.

$95 from the Navy for advanced nuclear plant studies (ANPS) in support of the Columbia-class submarine program.

$75 from the Navy for changes in scope associated with DDG-51 contracts.

Combat Systems:

$340 from the U.S. Army to produce Stryker maneuver short-range air defense (M-SHORAD) vehicles.

$325 from the Army to upgrade Abrams battle tanks to the system enhancement package version 3 (SEPv3) configuration.

$235 from the Army to provide spare parts and inventory management and support services for the Stryker wheeled combat vehicle program.

$230 to produce Piranha armored combat vehicles for Switzerland.

$45 to provide laser range finders and repair and management support services for Canadian light armored vehicle (LAV) programs.

Technologies:

An indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to provide hybrid cloud services and information technology (IT) design, engineering, and operations and sustainment services. The contract has a maximum potential value of $4.5 billion over 10 years.

$80 from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for managed application, information, networking, enterprise and security services. The contract has a maximum potential value of $660.

$260 for several key classified contracts.

$190 from the U.S. Air Force for the Battlefield Information Collection and Exploitation System (BICES) program to provide intelligence information sharing capabilities and engineering services.

$40 from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for an Identity, Credential and Access Management (ICAM) solution to provide secure identity, access and account management for Department of Defense (DoD) applications. The contract has a maximum potential value of $160.

$130 to provide flight simulation services for the Army.

$15 from the U.S. Department of Education to develop the Award Eligibility Determination system. The contract has a maximum potential value of $120.

$110 to manufacture and deliver hardware in support of the SPY-6 radar program.

$90 from the Army for computing and communications equipment under the Common Hardware Systems-5 (CHS-5) program.

$85 from the Army to provide continued software support and engineering for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2 program.

$85 from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in support of the Medicaid Management Information System.

EXHIBIT H

AEROSPACE SUPPLEMENTAL DATA - (UNAUDITED)





First Quarter









2022

2021 Gulfstream Aircraft Deliveries (units):













Large-cabin aircraft







21



25

Mid-cabin aircraft







4



3

Total







25



28

















Aerospace Book-to-Bill:













Orders*







$ 3,243



$ 2,457

Revenue







1,903



1,887

Book-to-Bill Ratio







1.70x

1.30x

* Does not include customer defaults, liquidated damages, cancellations, foreign exchange fluctuations and other backlog adjustments.

General Dynamics (PRNewsFoto/General Dynamics) (PRNewsFoto/General Dynamics)

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SOURCE General Dynamics
By Azernews





Military education experts from Azerbaijan and Georgia have met to discuss military education cooperation, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry reported on April 27.

A working meeting of the experts was held at the Azerbaijani Armys War College in line with the bilateral cooperation plan between the Azerbaijani and Georgian defence ministries.

The sides exchanged views on the preparation of STANAG tests in English, as well as moderation, mutual use, and testing of test materials, the ministry said.

STANAG (Standardization Agreement) is a NATO standardization document that outlines member states' commitment to apply a standard, in whole or in part, with or without reservations, in order to fulfill an interoperability requirement.

On December 22, Azerbaijani Defence Minister Zakir Hasanov and his Georgian counterpart Juansher Burchuladze signed a bilateral cooperation plan for 2022.

The military personnel of the two countries held joint drills and joined NATOs "Agile Spirit - 2021" exercises that took place in Georgia from July 26 to August 6, 2021.

The exercises included command, staff, and field training as well as airborne operations and live fire, according to the local media.

Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia conducted the Eternity-2021 joint military exercises on October 4-8, 2022.

The Eternity format of military exercises between the three countries has been existing since 2017 when Georgia was the first host, followed up by the excise in 2018 hosted by Turkey. The three countries signed a partnership agreement in 2018 to further enhance military cooperation between them.
NEW YORK, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Indonesia Retail Market Share is expected to increase by USD 37.32 billion from 2020 to 2025 at an accelerated CAGR of 4%, according to the recent market study by Technavio.

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Indonesia Retail Market by Product and Distribution Channel - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Segmentation by Raw Product (In-Scope/Out-of-Scope)

In-Scope:

Out-of-Scope:

Download Sample to gain further insights on the market contribution of various segments

Moreover, the report also provides Value Chain Analysis which helps companies gain a competitive advantage in the market. The Value Chain of the Indonesia Retail Market includes the following core components:

Inputs

Inbound logistics

Operations

Outbound logistics

Marketing and sales

Service

Support activities

Innovation

Highlights-

Segmentation- The report extensively covers market segmentation by Product (food & beverages, electrical & electronics, apparel & footwear, home improvement & household products, and others) and Distribution channel (offline and online)

Key Companies- CT Corp., PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk, PT Hero Supermarket Tbk, PT Lion Super Indo, PT Multipolar Tbk, PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk, PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk, PT. Circleka Indonesia Utama, PT. Indomarco Prismatama, and PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk among others

Driver- Expansion of the retail landscape in Indonesia to drive the market

Challenge- Underdeveloped infrastructure to hamper the market growth

Download Sample: for more additional information about the Indonesia Retail Market

Vendor Insights-

The Indonesia retail market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market.

CT Corp.- The company operates retail stores under the brand name Transvision.

PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk- The company runs its business under Cellular phones and tablets, Operator product, Computer and other electronic devices, and Accessories and others segments. The company operates retail stores under the brand name Erafone.

PT Hero Supermarket Tbk- The company operates retail stores under the brand names such as Hero Supermarket, Guardian, and Giant Extra.

Story continues

Download Sample Report to find additional highlights on the vendors and their product offerings.

Learn More about Key Driver & Challenge of the Market-

Indonesia Retail Market Driver:

Indonesia Retail Market Challenge:

Download sample report to find additional information about various other market Drivers & Challenges

Didn't Find What You Were Looking For? Customize Report-

Don't miss out on the opportunity to speak to our analyst and know more insights about this market report. Our analysts can also help you customize this report according to your needs. Our analysts and industry experts will work directly with you to understand your requirements and provide you with customized data in a short amount of time.

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Online Retail Market in the US by Product and Device - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The online retail market share in the US is expected to increase by USD 460.13 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 11.64%. To get more exclusive research insights: Download Free Sample Report

Indonesia Retail Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4% Market growth 2021-2025 $ 37.32 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 2.45 Regional analysis Indonesia Performing market contribution Indonesia at 100% Key consumer countries Indonesia Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled CT Corp., PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk, PT Hero Supermarket Tbk, PT Lion Super Indo, PT Multipolar Tbk, PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk, PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk, PT. Circleka Indonesia Utama, PT. Indomarco Prismatama, and PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization preview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2020

Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025

Five Forces Analysis

Fiver forces summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Product

Market segments

Comparison by Product

Food and beverages - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Electrical and electronics - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Apparel and footwear - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Home improvement and household products - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Others - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Product

Market Segmentation by Distribution channel

Market segments

Comparison by Distribution channel

Offline - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Online - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Distribution channel

Customer landscape

Overview

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Overview

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

CT Corp.

PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk

PT Hero Supermarket Tbk

PT Lion Super Indo

PT Multipolar Tbk

PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk

PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk

PT. Circleka Indonesia Utama

PT. Indomarco Prismatama

PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

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UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: media@technavio.com

Website: www.technavio.com/

Technavio (PRNewsfoto/Technavio)

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SOURCE Technavio
New York, Traditional Lenape Territory, NY, April 26, 2022 /CNW/ -Today, the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of CrownIndigenous Relations, and the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services, continued their participation at the 21st session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). The theme of this session is "Indigenous Peoples, business, autonomy and the human rights principles of due diligence including free, prior and informed consent."

Before the Forum began on Monday morning, Minister Miller, Minister Hajdu and Ambassador Rae all participated in a morning ceremony with the Indigenous Elders who shared their thoughts and guidance with the Canadian delegation throughout the UNPFII session.

To start the important work of the delegation off, Minister Miller delivered remarks for the opening ceremony where he addressed Canada's first appearance at the Permanent Forum since the confirmation of unmarked burial sites at former residential schools last summer, and emphasized the Government of Canada's commitment to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers also addressed the group with their hopes for the work ahead.

As the head of the Canadian delegation, Minister Miller attended the opening session of the Forum, along with Indigenous representatives, Member States, human rights and other expert bodies, academics and non-governmental organizations.

Canada also hosted a welcome reception for Canadian delegates, as well as Indigenous and Civil Society representatives from Canada, where Ambassador Rae addressed the group, followed by Minister Miller, words from Elders and a drumming song from a Tsilhqot'in cultural ambassador. Aluki Kotierk provided the keynote and Minister Hajdu gave closing remarks.

On Monday afternoon, Minister Miller addressed the United Nations plenary on the International Decade of Indigenous Languages and delivered a statement entirely in Kanien'keha (Mohawk). He spoke about the efforts being made in Canada to revitalize and promote Indigenous languages, including the Indigenous Languages Act. Canada is working closely with Indigenous partners to develop a plan that reflects their vision, as languages are fundamental to identity, culture, spirituality, and self-determination. Indigenous Peoples are best placed to take the leading role in strengthening their languages. With their guidance and leadership, these efforts will support the revitalization of the more than 70 Indigenous languages spoken across Canada.

Story continues

In the evening, Minister Hajdu attended a side event, led by the National Association of Friendship Centres and Hawaii Investment Ready, where participants discussed how Indigenous-led organizations are building social economies through Indigenous community-driven entities and generating community wealth, particularly within urban environments.

Minister Miller also hosted a side event, in partnership with the National Indigenous Economic Development Board, on economic reconciliation and the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The event explored the ways in which the Declaration can be leveraged as a tool for the full realization of the economic potential of Indigenous Peoples.

This morning, Minister Hajdu attended the United Nations plenary session on Indigenous business, autonomy, and free, prior and informed consent. In the spirit of enhancing the participation of Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations, she ceded her time to RoseAnne Archibald, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, who spoke about the importance of working collaboratively with the Government of Canada on supporting Indigenous self-determination.

Minister Hajdu also hosted a panel discussion this afternoon on resource extraction and climate transition, where she spoke about the critical importance of Indigenous leadership and knowledge in achieving the foundational changes required to address climate change. As new, green technologies are developed and the demand for critical minerals grows, it will be increasingly important for Indigenous Peoples to be partners in decision making processes in order to ensure industry projects are well designed, implemented, monitored and evaluated.

Throughout the Forum, the Ministers met with Indigenous representatives and international partners from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Burundi to discuss a variety of issues, such as the participation of Indigenous Peoples in the United Nations, economic development, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and COVID-19 impacts and recovery.

Canada's participation in international forums is an opportunity to further the work with Indigenous partners and the international community to address colonial legacies and advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. Our relationships with Indigenous Peoples are strengthened when we collectively pursue the truth, as painful as it is. The Government of Canada is committed to listening to Indigenous Peoples about their priorities for action and the need for change, and will move forward with them in the best way they see fit and at their own pace  in the spirit of self-determination.

Quotes

"It was a true privilege to have the opportunity to exchange with and hear from Indigenous and international partners this week. While we have made important progress on reconciliation, there is more work to be done, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act is a tool that will help us along the way. We will continue working with Indigenous leaders and advocates to move forward on its implementation, and to give Indigenous Peoples our unwavering support for their enhanced participation in United Nations institutions."

The Honourable Marc Miller

Minister of CrownIndigenous Relations

"It is important for Canada to work internationally with global partners to reconcile with Indigenous Peoples. We are committed to furthering Indigenous rights to self-determination and self-government, equality, and non-discrimination, which includes full implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. We are advancing economic reconciliation by making business supports more accessible to Indigenous Peoples and communities in Canada. We will continue to work towards those goals in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Metis."

The Honourable Patty Hajdu

Minister of Indigenous Services

Quick facts

The UNPFII is a high- level advisory body to the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and was established in July 2000 with the mandate to work on Indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights.

The UNPFII is one of three UN bodies that is mandated to work specifically on Indigenous Peoples' issues.

The role of the UNPFII is to:

Associated links

Permanent Forum | United Nations For Indigenous Peoples

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Join the conversation about Indigenous Peoples in Canada:

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SOURCE Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

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(Bloomberg) -- P&O Ferries Ltd. resumed freight-only services on the critical English Channel crossing between Dover and Calais after a six-week hiatus as it tries to move on from outrage caused by the abrupt firing of nearly 800 staff.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The Spirit of Britain arrived in the French port from Dover early Wednesday loaded with trucks, a spokesman said. The restart on the so-called short straits route came hours after another P&O vessel ran into trouble in the Irish Sea.

P&O has struggled to return its fleet to service after temporarily halting U.K. voyages in mid-March to fire seafaring crew and replace them with lower-paid workers. The Spirit of Britain was cleared by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to enter traffic last week, having been detained for failing inspections.

The agency said Wednesday that it was carrying out a full inspection of the European Causeway after that ship lost power Tuesday while making the 30-mile crossing from Cairnryan, Scotland, to Larne in Northern Ireland. It got underway using its own propulsion with tug boats on standby.

P&O, a unit of Dubai-based DP World, said the vessel had suffered a temporary mechanical issue, and the MCA said it had not been formally detained but would need to clear checks before reentering service.

The ferry operator continues to face scrutiny and criticism over its dismissal of so many workers almost overnight in a move P&O maintained was necessary to slash costs and save the company.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told a parliamentary committee Wednesday that hed instructed the MCA to go over P&Os operations with a fine tooth comb, and that they had been found wanting in a variety of areas, largely due to having new staff who didnt know the ships.

Story continues

When asked how P&O was being punished for the firings, which the companys CEO has admitted broke the law, Shapps said: The biggest penalty of all is the fact theyre not able to sail and therefore not able to make money.

P&O said on Twitter that passenger services between Dover and Calais will restart in early May.

Read more: P&O Ferries Vessel Stalls in Irish Sea After Return to Service

(Updates with maritime agency inspections of European Causeway from fourth paragraph, transport secretary comments from seventh)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Findings from a survey conducted by Actium Health uncover where doctors have both excelled and fallen behind

Study reveals Americans have less confidence in their doctors than in 2021

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Actium Health, healthcare's leading CRM Intelligence company, today released the results of a study that reveals the gap between doctors' engagement efforts and patients' needs, expectations and preferences. The data highlights the progress healthcare has achieved since the last report in 2021; in other areas, the divide continues to grow larger, revealing missed opportunities to activate patients on the journey to better health outcomes.

Actium Health (PRNewsfoto/Actium Health)

Key findings:

Americans have even higher expectations for their doctors in 2022 (62.7%) than 2021 (50.2%)

More Americans have less confidence in their doctors today (50.2%) than in 2021 (41.3%)

Half of Americans report getting most of their information about COVID-19 from the media

More than 1 out of 3 (38%) of Americans believe that no one has provided clear and factual information consistently about COVID-19

When it comes to information about COVID-19, 50% report getting the majority from the media; only 21% say their doctor.

On the right path: providers have made noteworthy progress in patient engagement efforts

In 2021, 17% of people reported that they were considering changing their doctor based on how they handled COVID-19; in 2022, that number decreased slightly to 15%.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, healthcare providers were largely not set up to communicate, engage or activate patients in an effective and consistent way," said Mike Linnert, founder and CEO of Actium Health. "Now, with a couple years' experience  and feedback from patients  they recognize that connecting with individuals outside of office visits not only enhances patient loyalty, it also drives improved health outcomes."

Across the board, providers are sending more information to their patients than in 2021.

Story continues

Information & updates about COVID19  57% (2021: 54%)

Information & updates about COVID19 vaccine  61% (2021: 55%)

General health information  58% (2021: 45%)

Information related to my chronic conditions  28% (2021: 21%)

Information about and scheduling options for preventive screenings  39% (2021: 29%)

Despite progress, Americans still get health information from other sources

When Actium Health (formerly SymphonyRM) conducted research in June 2021, nearly half (49%) of Americans reported that they had not received general information about COVID-19; in 2022, that number increased to 54%. As it relates to the COVID-19 vaccine, only 30% had received information from their doctor in 2021; in 2022, that jumped to 45%.

When it comes to information about COVID-19, 50% of Americans report getting the majority from the news media; only 21% say their doctor. That number changes slightly when it comes to the vaccine; 47% report the majority of the information comes from the media, while 26% get it from their doctor. More than one-third (38%) believe that no one has provided clear and factual information consistently about COVID-19. Interestingly, while more people feel doctors were a source for consistent, factual information (27%)  and only 17% said the media  they still turned to the latter in far higher numbers.

Linnert continued, "The pandemic presented a real-life, real-time case study of provider-patient engagement and activation. Despite widespread patient preferences for more, the majority of doctors and health systems have not identified what that looks like or how to deliver it. That leaves Americans wanting their doctors to be their go-to, trusted resource for health information, but, in its absence, turning to lesstrusted resources, such as the media."

For people that do receive proactive information from their doctors, less than half (46%) say that the information is always relevant to them. Despite that  and any previous challenges or disconnects  Americans overwhelmingly want to hear from their doctors: 62% report that they would like to hear from their doctor proactively more in 2022.

Access the full survey report: State of Engagement in 2022 .

Survey Methodology

Actium Health conducted an online survey in February 2022 to determine how the pandemic impacted patients' engagement preferences. The survey captured responses from a broad distribution of 1,230 consumers in the U.S.

About Actium Health

For more on Actium Health, visit: https://actiumhealth.com/

Connect with Actium Health on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/actiumhealth

Follow @actiumhealth on Twitter: https://twitter.com/actiumhealth/

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Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Image

Russia's Gazprombank turned down a ruble payment from a trading firm Germany had seized from Moscow, Bloomberg reported.

The payment was for some April and May gas deliveries to Germany and Austria.

On Wednesday, Russia halted gas supplies for Poland and Bulgaria.

Russia's Gazprombank turned down a ruble payment from a trading firm Germany had seized from Moscow, sources told Bloomberg.

The payment for some April and May gas deliveries to Germany and Austria was rejected even though the trading firm  Gazprom Marketing & Trading (GM&T)  offered to pay in rubles, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded.

GM&T previously was controlled by the German subsidiary of Russian state-run Gazprom, but Germany took over the unit in April. Now, the rejected ruble payment suggests Moscow looks to shut out a German-controlled GM&T.

The trading firm, which is among many that import gas to Germany, is still in talks with Gazprombank to push the transaction through, sources told Bloomberg.

The standoff comes as the Kremlin uses its energy exports to retaliate against Western nations that have imposed sanctions on Russia for its war on Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Moscow halted natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, sending European gas prices up 28% and adding to concerns that Putin could target other nations on the continent. Gazprom said the reason for the gas halt is that both countries failed to pay in rubles.

Meanwhile, four European gas buyers have paid Russia in rubles for supplies, complying with Moscow's demands, according to Bloomberg, which also said 10 European countries have opened accounts at Gazprombank to make ruble payments.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Unemployment graph.

Monroe County's unemployment rate experienced the greatest decline as labor markets across the state reported trends of recovery.

The local jobless fell to 4.5% last month, according to recent data from the state's Department of Technology, Management and Budget.

The latest metric is a 1.8% improvement to February's rate of 6.3%. During that month, state officials said the Monroe region observed the largest month-over-month jobless rate increase in the state.

DTMB officials track unemployment rates in the state's 17 major labor markets, including Monroe. Rates are calculated using two metrics: the number of people in a region paying payroll taxes and the number of people receiving economic aid from the state.

"Michigan's regional labor markets recorded positive trends over the month," Wayne Rourke, associate director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives, said. "March was characterized by seasonal job rate reductions across all regions and payroll job gains in most metro areas."

State officials said the improvement in Monroe's rate was fueled by trends in the auto industry.

Last month, those officials said seasonal layoffs associated with auto manufacturers led to a spike in Monroe's rate.

Many of those workers have been recalled to their jobs, according to a DTMB press statement.

In Monroe County, the civilian labor force had about 74,100 people. Approximately 70,800 paid payroll taxes in March.

There were approximately 3,400 receiving financial assistance from the state through its unemployment assistance program. That's a relatively large decline from February's tally of 4,600 local residents receiving economic aid.

Year-over-year, Monroe County's jobless rate also shows trends of recovery. In 2021, the jobless rate during the same timeframe was about 6.2%, which reflected heightened jobless rates in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unemployment rates across the state saw drastic surges in March and April 2020 as regulations were enacted to slow the spread of coronavirus. Rates have slowly been nearing pre-pandemic levels.

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Approximately 30,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were added to the state in March. About 9,000 of those jobs were in the manufacturing industry, and an additional 5,000 occurred in the leisure and hospitality sector.

The Ann Arbor metropolitan area had the lowest jobless rate at 3.1%. Historically, the region has the lowest jobless rate.

The Northeast Lower Michigan labor market area, which includes 12 counties, had the highest rate at 7.5%. Historically, that labor market has the highest rate.

The overall state unemployment rate was 4.5%.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe County leads jobless rate recovery in Michigan
Vijaya Gadde. Twitter

Elon Musk bought Twitter on Monday and could shift its approach to content moderation.

One key architect of those content policies is the attorney Vijaya Gadde.

On Monday, Gadde cried during a meeting that discussed the acquisition, three people told Politico.

Twitter's top attorney and a key voice in decisions such as barring President Donald Trump from the platform became emotional and cried in a meeting with employees discussing Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform on Monday, Politico reported.

Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's head of legal, policy and trust, is said to have played a large role in content moderation at Twitter. She also advised former CEO Jack Dorsey and helped negotiate the deal between Musk and Twitter.

On Monday, Gadde met virtually with employees she supervises in legal and policy to discuss the buy, Politico reported.

She "acknowledged that there are significant uncertainties about what the company will look like under Musk's leadership," the outlet wrote, citing three people familiar with the meeting.

The people told Politico that Gadde cried while relaying concerns about changes to Twitter.

They also told the outlet that she said she was proud of the employees, and that they should continue to try to make a positive contribution to the company.

Former employees have said that they don't feel Musk's ethos matches the company's values (though Dorsey has embraced the buy).

"Any sense that an exodus is building is correct," a former Twitter employee told Insider on Tuesday.

Employees asked about everything from potential layoffs to the reactivation of Trump's Twitter account in an all-hands meeting on Monday, where CEO Parag Agrawal acknowledged that there wasn't a ton of certainty about the platform's future.

Musk has remained bullish on free speech, tweeting on Tuesday that the platform shouldn't moderate anything that isn't against the law.

Twitter's policies extend far beyond that, penalizing certain content that spreads coronavirus-related misinformation, as well as various types of hate speech.

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The "free speech" concern is often cited by conservatives, who have celebrated Musk's buy and have long felt that Twitter discriminates against right-wing views, especially after it deplatformed Trump.

Gadde was a driver behind that decision, CNN Business reported in 2021, as did others at the time it occurred.

The attorney's job involves deciding when content can be taken down, and she's been referred to as Twitter's "moral authority," Politico reported.

"Vijaya is at the crossroads of some of the most important policy decisions the company is making and how it interacts with governments around the world," Adam Bain, Twitter's former COO who worked with Gadde before he left in 2016, told CNN Business.

Gadde also posed the idea to Dorsey of banning political advertising on Twitter altogether, which happened in 2019, Politico Magazine reported.

The outlet profiled her at length in 2020, discussing how she became a lightning rod for conservative criticism and discussed her childhood as an immigrant from India in Beaumont, Texas. There, her father was once advised to seek the permission of the local Ku Klux Klan to sell insurance door-to-door, Gadde said.

Experiences like this and others inspired her to become a lawyer, she added.

After her meeting on Monday, Gadde appeared to have cheered up employees, some of whom tweeted about her afterward, Politico reported.

"If you look up the word 'inspiring' in the dictionary you find a picture of @vijaya," tweeted Kennedy O'Brien, a public policy associate at Twitter.

Twitter did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
successfully voted to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Now the company has fired Jesse Mason, a worker at the nearby Seattle Northgate and Aurora Village locations. He contends his sudden separation from the company was an illegal attempt to prevent more stores from organizing, and has, with the help of the CWA, filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) charge against the company with the National Labor Relations Board.

Mason, who previously worked with AT&T (which is unionized under CWA), started at Verizon in August and had received no prior disciplinary actions  in fact, he told Engadget, he was one of the top Specialists at his branch. It wasn't until his annual review that he started to wonder if maybe unionization could be a path toward making Verizon more equitable.

"They were like, 'Well, you're newer to Verizon, therefore because you're new your raise for the whole year is going to be 1 percent. It is not negotiable," he told Engadget. Performance notwithstanding, 1 percent did little to offset the cost of living in the greater Seattle area, or the country's soaring 8 percent inflation rate. "When you're giving people a 1 percent raise, that's the same thing as giving them a pay cut," he said.

What solidified his decision to reach out to CWA was seeing the nationwide push by Starbucks workers to organize. In specific, attending a rally in his area sometime in February.

"A week after the Everett and Lynnwood vote went public, that they pulled me aside and told me that they were launching an investigation," Mason said, though he was unable to go into details on the nature of the investigation pending his ULP, "But it was about something very minor and easily correctable." What made this stranger, was the speed and lack of adherence to internal processes in his case. "There's some progressive discipline, like verbal warning, and a written warning and a final, final warning," he said "With me, the next shift that I worked after I was at the watch party to celebrate those stores unionizing, they said that the result of the investigation was my immediate separation from Verizon."

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Mason claimed to have never been given any of the documentation related to the investigation.

In between the union drive going public a few miles away at his sister stores and Mason's firing, he also claimed Verizon flew in several company higher-ups  something a worker at the Lynnwood and Everett locations also alleged happened after going public. One manager, according to Mason, pushed misinformation regarding the cost of union dues to CWA, despite such contracts being publicly available.

"Mr. Mason's termination had absolutely nothing to do with union activity. While we're not going to publicly discuss the reasons for the dismissal, we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these baseless accusations," a Verizon spokesperson told Engadget. "We respect the rights of our employees to choose whether or not they wish to be union-represented and we routinely provide facts to our employees so that they can make an informed decision for themselves."

CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens has called Mason's firing "a clear tactic meant to intimidate other workers, and it's difficult to argue that Verizon's actions may have a chilling effect on organizing efforts in the area. Still, Mason said he's fully confident the NLRB will find in his favor and reinstate his job with backpay. But the among of rigamarole in the meantime shows the limits of the agency's power.

"I think that this case really shows some of the weaknesses of the NLRB currently, not just being understaffed, but that even if I do get my job back, it's not like one of those lawsuits where someone slips and falls and they get millions of dollars in settlements," Mason said. "There's no real consequence for this kind of retaliatory union busting." He added wryly, "I think it's a bad idea, because it's only going to have me work on union stuff full time until I'm back there."

Updated with comment from Verizon.

Are you a Verizon worker looking to organize? I'd like to hear from you. Download Signal messenger for iOS or Android and text me confidentially at 646 983 9846.
Eyes in the sky

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) is embracing technology and will be using aerial drones as another means to perform equipment inspections on its pipeline infrastructure.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), most commonly known as drones, will begin flights across Hampton Roads, as well as northern James and New Kent Counties for various operations such as inspections of critical infrastructure, right-of-way assessments, and the inspection of more than 5,500 miles of gas pipeline.

Virginia Natural Gas will be one of the first natural gas utilities in the state to use UAVs while simultaneously conducting a pilot program for its sister companies in Illinois, Georgia and Tennessee that all fall under VNG's parent company, Southern Company Gas.

Building on the program already established in 2015 by Southern Company, parent of Southern Company Gas, VNG will develop best practices and procedures on how to best use the new technology in the utility space.

"Southern Company, and now Virginia Natural Gas, is leading the energy industry in deploying state-of-the-art drone operation technology and elevating their processes," said Dean Barefield, Unmanned Aerial Services program manager at Southern Company. "We see parallels between our electric and gas utilities and the ability to integrate that technology. The addition of drones to the day-to-day operations at VNG will offer a cost-effective platform for pipeline inspection while increasing efficiency and safety due to their availability, range and ease of operation."

Virginia Natural Gas will employ self-dispatched Mavic 2 Pro drones that allows engineers, and asset protection and construction managers to have the opportunity to use UAVs as part of their daily work.

"VNG is always looking at new, innovative ways to help us continue to provide reliable service to our customers," said Zack Gravely, Asset Protection specialist and one of the new drone pilots. "Drones are ideally suited for inspecting equipment because they can safely and quickly deliver high-quality photos and videos of our system in a way that can minimize environmental impact and inconvenience for customers along any rights-of-way. This technology will be another tool in our arsenal."

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In the past, traditional methods for pipeline inspection have been slower, manually intensive, expensive and sometimes cause safety concerns due to the surrounding natural environment to conduct. Even though natural gas pipelines run underground, they are accessed from above the surface for maintenance and inspection. Vegetation, for instance, will overgrow and obscure the path of workers trying to access the pipeline.

Drones equipped with a visual or infrared camera can now be used for navigating and patrolling a segment of pipeline, identifying and capturing images or videos of areas of interest at pre-defined timings and returns.

A team of three trained "pilots" will fly the drones for VNG. They recently obtained their pilot certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration and hope to have the program up in the air soon to help them see from above what they can't on foot.

A second member of the team, Randall "Ness" Peacock, Construction supervisor at VNG, said he was excited about the program when he first heard about it two years ago. Since he previously had his private pilot's license, he felt he could enhance his job knowledge while using his passion and expertise of flying and take safety to a higher level.

"I appreciated the opportunity to be part of the initial program and combine my love of flying while further developing my career," said Peacock. "To be on the ground level of this program and help define what it will look like for VNG and for our peers was something I knew I wanted to be involved with."

Kenny LeSueur, Engineer and Quality Assurance specialist, rounds out the pilot project team and will be responsible for developing a program to best incorporate drone technology that's adaptable for the rest of Southern Company Gas.

"We all have different ideas and are trying to put together a solid program," said LeSueur. "Drones will give us the flexibility to perform a variety of higher quality inspections due to their ability to fly closer to pipelines, and safety of operation. For example, when we inspect bridges, we will no longer have to be close to the water source, such as rivers or streams, so it will increase the safety for those in the field as well."

Gravely agrees, noting that there is a lot of responsibility in being the "first" to take flight with the new technology and develop a program for others to incorporate.

"But it's a challenge the group is ready to chart for VNG and our sister companies to replicate," said Gravely.

Maintaining this sometimes unseen infrastructure is critical to fueling the lives of residential and business customers across southeast Virginia, added Peacock, and the applications of having a drone and certified pilots for the energy company are endless.

"There will be situations where the drone will be an extension of the team in the field," said Peacock. "The real value is when you combine their abilities with the experience of the team."

About Virginia Natural Gas

Virginia Natural Gas is one of four natural gas distribution companies of Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO). Virginia Natural Gas provides clean, safe, reliable and affordable natural gas service to more than 300,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in southeast Virginia. Consistently ranked in the top quartile for customer satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates, the company also has been recognized by the Virginia Department of Energy and the Virginia Oil and Gas Association for its safety, innovation, environmental stewardship, community outreach and educational programs, and has been named Local Distribution Company of the Year five times since 2015. The company has been ranked by its business customers as one of the most Trusted Business Partners in the utility industry according to Cogent Reports, and as a Top Workplace in Hampton Roads by Inside Business. For more information, visit virginianaturalgas.com and connect with the company on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , LinkedIn , and Nextdoor.

About Southern Company Gas

Southern Company Gas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE:SO), America's premier energy company. Southern Company Gas serves approximately 4.3 million natural gas utility customers through its regulated distribution companies in four states with approximately 666,000 retail customers through its companies that market natural gas. Other nonutility businesses include investments in interstate pipelines and ownership and operation of natural gas storage facilities. For more information, visit southerncompanygas.com.

Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) is embracing technology and will be using aerial drones as another means to perform equipment inspections on its pipeline infrastructure. Virginia Natural Gas will be one of the first natural gas utilities in the state to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and will begin flights across Hampton Roads, for various operations such as inspections of critical infrastructure right-of-way assessments, and the inspection of more than 5,500 miles of gas pipeline.

(PRNewsfoto/Virginia Natural Gas)

Cision

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SOURCE Virginia Natural Gas
Yamana Gold

TORONTO, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YAMANA GOLD INC. (TSX:YRI; NYSE:AUY; LSE:AUY) (Yamana or the Company) declares a second quarter dividend of $0.03 per share (annual $0.12 per share). Shareholders of record at the close of business on June 30, 2022, will be entitled to receive payment of this dividend on July 14, 2022. The dividend is an eligible dividend for Canadian tax purposes.



About Yamana

Yamana Gold Inc. is a Canadian-based precious metals producer with significant gold and silver production, development stage properties, exploration properties, and land positions throughout the Americas, including Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Yamana plans to continue to build on this base through expansion and optimization initiatives at existing operating mines, development of new mines, the advancement of its exploration properties and, at times, by targeting other consolidation opportunities with a primary focus in the Americas.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Investor Relations

416-815-0220

1-888-809-0925

Email: investor@yamana.com

FTI Consulting (UK Public Relations)

Sara Powell / Ben Brewerton

+44 7974 201 715 / +44 203 727 1000

Peel Hunt LLP (Joint UK Corporate Broker)

Ross Allister / David McKeown / Alexander Allen

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7418 8900

Berenberg (Joint UK Corporate Broker)

Matthew Armitt / Jennifer Wyllie / Detlir Elezi

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3207 7800

Credit Suisse (Joint UK Corporate Broker)

Ben Lawrence / David Nangle

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7888 8888

(All amounts are expressed in United States Dollars unless otherwise indicated.)




By Azernews





Dutch ambassador to Azerbaijan Pauline Eizema has stated that the Netherlands can contribute to the demining and rehabilitation of Azerbaijans liberated lands, local news sources have reported.

She made the remarks at a press conference organized at the Dutch embassy on April 27 in Baku.

The diplomat underlined that a Dutch company had already worked together with the Azerbaijani Mine Action Agency (ANAMA) on this matter. She said that the country can also offer its other specialized companies to speed up the demining process.

The ambassador said that Dutch construction companies may help Azerbaijan with urban development as well.

Eizema noted that agriculture and water supply are two possible sectors for strengthening collaboration with Azerbaijan.

"The Netherlands, being an expert in agriculture, will be happy to contribute to the development of this sector in Azerbaijan," she said.

The ambassador added that she intends to meet Azerbaijan's agricultural minister to address the aforementioned subject in greater depth.

She said that Dutch water supply businesses are working hard to build cooperation with Azerbaijan.

Eizema said that the Netherlands would arrange technical training for the workers of Baku International Sea Trade Port.

"A delegation from Port of Baku will leave for the Netherlands to study port management and logistics skills, in the near future," she added.

Baku Port also intends to work with the port of Rotterdam. According to the ambassador, the Dutch Cabooter Group logistics firm from Venlo has begun operations in Azerbaijan and plans to organize supplies to China through Baku's port.

Furthermore, Eizema stressed that the Netherlands is willing to strengthen cooperation with Azerbaijan in the renewable energy field, especially in the offshore wind energy sector.

Despite the lack of specific projects, the ambassador stated that the Netherlands has a large expert base and that many Dutch firms can contribute significantly to Azerbaijan's alternative energy industry.

The Netherlands, according to the ambassador, supports the EU's goal to increase the gas supply from Azerbaijan.

"The dependence of the Netherlands on gas supplies from Russia is low, so the current supply crisis won't be very significant," Eizema said.

The Southern Gas Corridor began supplying Azerbaijani gas to Europe on December 31, 2020. For the first time in history, Azerbaijan sold natural gas to the European market via pipes.

Azerbaijan has diversified its export potential by gaining direct access to Europe, the world's top natural gas buyer.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is part of the Southern Gas Corridor in Europe, will provide eight billion cubic meters of gas to Italy per year and one billion cubic meters to Greece and Bulgaria.
A 5-year-old girl who police said was abducted in Pennsylvania on Monday evening was found safe Tuesday at an Exxon station in Caroline County, police said.

Sheriff Tony Lippa said the Sheriffs Office received a call at 2:48 p.m. from a person who reported seeing a vehicle and a child who had been on an Amber Alert from Pennsylvania. The caller gave police a license plate number that had been provided in the alert.

Deputies went to the Exxon at 24270 Rogers Clark Blvd. in the Carmel Church area and recovered the child. Her mother, 37-year-old Courtney Foulk, was taken into custody on charges related to the alleged Pennsylvania kidnapping.

Pennsylvania authorities said the child was with her grandmother at a supermarket in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, when her mother showed up and left with the child. Police said Foulk was not allowed to be alone with the child but had been granted supervised visits.

Foulk was placed in Pamunkey Regional Jail pending extradition. The child was turned over to social services prior to being returned to Pennsylvania.

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A Spotsylvania County man was ordered Monday to serve nearly eight years in prison for holding a former girlfriends daughter against her will during a domestic altercation in 2019.

Adrian Earl Belcarris, 39, was sentenced in Spotsylvania Circuit Court to a total of 11 years with three years and four months suspended. Judge William Glovers active sentence of seven years and eight months was at the top of the recommended state sentencing guidelines.

The charges stem from an early Oct. 24, 2019, dispute involving Belcarris and a woman. At some point, the girl testified at Belcarris trial, Belcarris refused to let the woman and her daughter leave the bedroom.

The girl claimed that after the mother got out of the home, Belcarris grabbed her by the throat, dragged her upstairs and sexually assaulted her. But a jury cleared Belcarris of multiple charges involving the girl, including sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and abduction with the intent to defile. If he had been convicted of those offenses, he would have received a mandatory life sentence.

Prosecutor Crystal MontagueHolland presented evidence at trial that Belcarris DNA was recovered from the girls body. But defense attorney TaraBeth Coleman argued that the DNA could have gotten there by some means other than a sexual assault.

Charges involving the mother were dismissed prior to the February trial. Belcarris admitted holding the girl against her will, but he denied any sexual activity involving the child.

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As promised, a midweek cool-down is dominating Fredericksburgs weather.

A look back at late April 2011 brings to mind an incredible generational tornado outbreak across the southern U.S. that climaxed on April 27. Almost 300 tornado reports occurred that day, with Virginia experiencing 19 confirmed tornadoes, more than the annual average. The photograph below shows a developing funnel in the Chancellorsville area at 6 p.m. that evening.

Thankfully, no severe weather is on the horizon, but a review of Mondays and Tuesdays weather could make even seasoned forecasters wince. A cold air damming wedge persisted across the Fredericksburg area and points north, stubbornly hanging around longer than even the most reliable models predicted. Thus, low clouds hung across northern Virginia with temperatures considerably lower than forecasted.

The good news is that this version of Da Wedge kept Tuesdays severe weather away from Fredericksburg. Richmond and areas south of there remained outside the wedge and had plenty of heat and humidity to fuel storms. As a cold front plowed across Virginia strong storms did fire, with both hail and wind damage reported in a number of locations. A brief tornado was reported in the Waynesboro vicinity.

Meanwhile, behind that cold front another abnormally cool air mass has overspread the region. Fredericksburg area afternoon temperatures on both Wednesday and Thursday are expected to top out in the low 60s, ten degrees below average for late April. In addition, despite sunny skies blustery northwest winds gusting over 20 mph both days may make jackets feel very comfortable.

A gradual warmup will work back into the region over the next few days, although temperatures will remain below average. Fridays Weather Blog entry will take a more detailed look at this weekend as April turns into May.
When Lisa Nuding was a stay-at-home mom, she found the mom part very fulfilling.

The stay at home part?

Not so much.

I didnt stay home very well, Nuding said. I enjoyed taking the kids on little learning adventures, but I also needed to spend time with friends. I loved doing crafty things and thought it would be nice to have other moms and their kids gather in a warm, cozy environment and work on projects as a group.

Nudings basement seemed to be the ideal place for creative gatherings, and that was how CREATE was started.

I never imagined where my crafty adventures would lead me, Nuding said.

Throughout the years, CREATE as a business has changed with its customers.

Our focus has moved from scrapbooking to canvases, wood cutouts, and signs, she said.

The one constant, according to Nuding, has always been to provide a clean, stress-free, family-friendly environment where creativity is encouraged.

I wanted to let people choose what they work on, Nuding said, instead of everyone doing the same thing.

In addition to creating something beautiful for participants to take home and display, Nuding also wants her studio to be a place where everyone feels safe to share whatever is on their minds.

For some, its a relationship issue, for others its a struggle with health.

At times I feel like a bartender, Nuding said. Ive gotten to know people very well while theyre at my place.

Nuding encourages what she calls art journaling.

We paint what were feeling, she said. Some days are dark and heavy, other days are light and easy. Sometimes the words come, sometimes they just dont.

The concept of a creative outlet allows participants to express their pain, frustration, fear, and their joy through their artwork.

Nuding is no stranger to pain and frustration.

Her first marriage ended in 2014. Then she found herself facing breast cancer.

After her second child graduated from high school, Nuding decided it was time to pack up and move to Fremont.

My soon-to-be second husband, Brian, lived here and I felt ready to marry again, she said. The house Brian was moving out of turned out to be ideal for my son. It gave him the independence he needed.

Nudings Create workshop was relocated to her new home in Fremont.

We had my art supplies in the basement, in the bedroom, basically all over the place, she said. After COVID, it felt really good to be able to have people around me again.

Eventually the time came for Nuding to open a studio. She found the ideal space at 1735 E. Military Ave., Suite 1, just a few yards from where Brian runs his counseling practice.

The space is welcoming as well as functional. Visitors are greeted with bright, cheery colors and a kind, gentle facilitator.

When I share with people what Ive gone through, Nuding said, I think that makes it easier for others to open up and share their struggles.

Unlike typical support groups, Create 2.0 allows participants to focus on their artwork while talking.

I think that makes it much easier for people to share whatever they need to talk about, Nuding said. Everybody is working on something.

The primary purpose of Create 2.0 is to help people discover their artistic ability. If they feel like sharing something personal, they are free to do so.

Nudings goal is to become a certified art therapy practitioner.

I love being part of a community, she said. I want more of that.

Bookings can be arranged by calling 402-954-5200 or by emailing Nuding at lisa@createartforme.com.

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The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will host its 22nd National Prescription Drug Take Back Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 30, at more than 4,000 collection sites across the nation, including 162 sites in the five-state Omaha Division.

This bi-annual event offers free, anonymous disposal of unneeded medications.

The Fremont Police Department at 725 N. Park Ave. will be participating in the event. To locate other collection sites, visit www.DEATakeBack.com.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in the United States, more than 106,000 people died as the result of a drug overdose in the 12-month period ending November 2021, marking the most drug-related deaths ever recorded, with opioid-related deaths accounting for 75% of all overdose deaths.

For more than a decade, DEAs National Prescription Drug Take Back Day has helped Americans easily rid their homes of unneeded medications  those that are old, unwanted, or no longer needed  that too often become a gateway to addiction. Working in close partnership with local law enforcement, Take Back Day has removed more than 15 million pounds of medication from circulation since its inception. These efforts are directly in line with DEAs priority to combat the overdose epidemic in the United States.

On Saturday, DEA and its law enforcement partners will collect tablets, capsules, patches and other solid forms of prescription drugs. Liquids (including intravenous solutions), syringes and other sharps, and illicit drugs will not be accepted. DEA will accept vaping devices and cartridges as long as lithium batteries are removed.

Year-round receptacles are available at more than 13,000 pharmacies, hospitals, police departments, and business. Additionally, with the passage of the DUMP Opioids Act in 2021, the public may now use drop boxes at Veterans Administration medical centers to dispose of controlled substance prescription medications. Check with your local VA health facility for more information.

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When Dodge County faced its trial by flood in 2019, Tom Smith may not have been the most recognizable face among those lauded for helping the community.

But Dodge County officials are praising his leadership during that catastrophic event and with multiple vital projects since then. They say the county is well prepared to handle emergency situations as they arise due to Smiths work in planning and training.

Smith, who lives in Fremont, is the Dodge County Emergency Management director. Hes served this area since 2018.

Whether helping secure a Blackhawk helicopter to rescue seven first-responders from the Elkhorn River or thousands of grant dollars for studies to help mitigate flooding, Smith has worked to help area residents.

Hes been instrumental in having new gauges and cameras placed along the Platte River.

Recently, Smith was named the Emergency Management Professional of the Year by the Nebraska Association of Emergency Management.

Smith was surprised and pleased to receive the statewide recognition.

Its always an honor to get an award selected by your peers, he said.

Smith didnt realize Dodge County supervisors nominated him for the award, but in their nomination letter Bob Missel, board chairman, and Bob Bendig, board member, described Smiths work.

Tom has exceeded all expectations and has performed the duties of his job at an exceptional level, the nomination stated.

As an emergency manager, Smith advises locally elected officials and coordinates resources.

His office coordinates between state and federal assets.

For instance, when Fremont Rural firefighters requested a helicopter to help rescue seven first responders on the Elkhorn River, Smith contacted the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to get a Nebraska National Guard Blackhawk helicopter to the scene.

The helicopter crew rescued all seven first-responders.

Smith also coordinated getting airboats to sites during the flood.

At other timeswhen firefighters need more water tanks that they cant get through mutual aid during a firethey can contact Smith.

Im not in command of anything. Im more of a coordination and resource management piece of the response puzzle, Smith said.

Smith, who previously served as emergency manager for Nance, Merrick and Boone counties, began serving Dodge County in the summer of 2018.

He started making connections with local fire departments. When the spring 2019 flood occurred, he already had these connections in place.

Smith spotlights other leaders.

What really helped during the flooding was the leadership of the county supervisors and the elected officials in the communities that helped my job go a lot easier, he said.

Smith has appreciated working with different departments along with nongovernmental organizations and community partners like the Fremont Area United Way and volunteers.

It required a lot of different moving pieces for us to respond during the 2019 flooding, he said.

In their nomination, Missel and Bendig commended Smith for his guidance when Fremont  Dodge Countys largest city  became an island for four days, being surrounded by flood waters.

Tom provided the critical leadership necessary for all the players to work together as a team, the supervisors said. Multiple agencies, including local, state and federal, participated in the event. In visiting with a state representative at NEMA, he acknowledged how impressed he was with the high level of leadership Tom provided.

Flooding decimated the village of Winslow. Most homes were a total loss and were red-tagged as uninhabitable.

Smith has worked closely with community leaders. He coordinated town hall meetings and created a partnership with the University of Nebraska to conduct a comprehensive study on possible solutions.

An opportunity to relocate the village to a higher elevation was identified.

Tom has worked tirelessly to identify funding avenues to make this possible, the nomination stated.

After the flooding, Smith realized the need for a better monitoring system along the Platte River so first responders and public officials would have more reliable data on river levels.

He worked with multiple jurisdictions.

Today, river gauges and cameras have been placed on the Platte at North Bend (Nebraska Highway 79), Fremont (U.S. Highway 77), Leshara (Nebraska Highway 64) and Schuyler (Nebraska Highway 15) and at the confluence of the Loup River near Columbus.

It took work to get funding for the equipment.

We thought it was a pretty simple project and it would be approved, but we had to go back and forth on using mitigation dollars to pay for the river gauges and the cameras, Smith said.

The project came to fruition.

After all these years, we have a river gauge south of Fremont and Schuyler now, he said.

Supervisors listed several other examples of Smiths leadership which in 2021 included:

Joint Water Management Advisory Board. Smith was very active with this board, which includes officials from 12 local entities. The board identified 15 projects, totaling approximately $22.8 million.

Projects included those involving the North Bend Cutoff Ditch; Rod and Gun Club-Breech Lake, North Bend Levee, and the city of Fremont.

Smith is securing available funds from federal, state and other agencies on these potential projects.

Rawhide Creek Watershed Plan and Environmental Assessment plan for flood prevention study. Working with NEMA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Smith was instrumental in securing $745,000 in Natural Resources Conservation Service grant funds for this study which runs from the Dodge-Colfax county line to Fremont.

The project is intended to help identify possible drainage improvements in the Rawhide Creek watershed.

Were looking at how we can stop water from entering into North Bend and the city of Fremont, said Smith, the project coordinator.

Elkhorn Township Drainage Project Work Plan  Environmental Assessment Study. Working with NEMA and FEMA, Smith was instrumental in securing $600,000 in Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) and FEMA grant funds for this study.

The drainage system east of Fremont in Dodge Countys Elkhorn Township was identified after the 2019 flooding as a key piece of flood control for Fremont and Dodge County.

Were looking at storm water issues within the city of Fremont and how do we get this water that can occur from a heavy rainstorm or from flooding out of the city of Fremont and into the Elkhorn River or out from damaging any additional properties, Smith said. Were looking at how we can improve our drainage system on east Fremont and Elkhorn Township.

Smith noted something about his work.

These projects arent glamorous, but theyre so important because theyll help mitigate the risk from flooding for our area, Smith said.

Smith was involved with several other projects in 2020 and 2021.

In 2020, he conducted training at the countys Emergency Operations Center that recreated the March 2019 flood. The exercise helped participants see what was done right and what could have been done better.

Smith developed a long-term plan identifying top hazards in the county. He identified numerous projects and submitted plans which have received approval under the Governors Task Force for Disaster Response to submit to FEMA.

Supervisors highly praised Smith in their nomination.

We have a high level of confidence in Tom Smiths ability to represent Dodge County in all aspects of emergency management, they said. Tom is a great asset to the citizens of Dodge County.

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For nearly two decades, the Taliban launched an annual deadly spring offensive in a bid to regain the power it lost in 2001.

As the snows melted in the Afghan mountains, Taliban fighters hastened their attacks on officials and troops of the pro-Western Afghan republic and soldiers from dozens of NATO-led Western countries allied with it.

Now, in an apparent reversal of roles, factions of the fallen Afghan republic are claiming attacks on the Taliban in many provinces in what seems to be an uncoordinated spring offensive.



Those groups are tapping into vast reserves of potential guerrilla fighters from among the hundreds of thousands of Western-trained security forces that served the former government but lost their jobs after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan eight months ago.

Former leaders of the West-backed republic hope the rebellion will eventually turn into a national uprising against what they view as Taliban rule that has repressed women and alienated ethnic and religious minorities.

They are also banking on attracting help from Afghanistans weary neighbors and global powers concerned by the return of terrorist groups to the country already reeling from rising violence by the radical Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K).

The Taliban, however, considers the resistance small and insignificant.

There is nothing that has improved since the Taliban seized power, said a former official of the Afghan Foreign Ministry close to the emerging resistance. I am sure we will see a much bigger uprising against the Taliban, he added, requesting anonymity because of security fears.

One of the most visible anti-Taliban groups is the National Resistance Front, led by Ahmad Masud, son of the Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masud who successfully prevented the Taliban from overrunning Afghanistan until he was killed by Al-Qaeda assassins two days before the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who like Masud hails from the northern province of Panjshir, is a close ally. The two left Panjshir in September, just weeks after the Taliban takeover of Kabul the previous month. But their supporters are still launching sporadic attacks against the Taliban in remote Panjshir valleys.

Supporters of former Interior Minister Masud Andrai have offered the most formidable resistance with somewhat regular attacks on the Taliban in Andrab, a high-altitude valley in the northern province of Baghlan.



One of the most significant attacks was in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif last week when supporters of former warlord Atta Mohammad Noor clashed with the Taliban.

His nephew, Sohail Zmarai, was reportedly killed in an intense firefight that was acknowledged by the Taliban.

Some reports suggest the supporters of late anti-Taliban police commander Abdul Raziq are ready to join the resistance in Kandahar.

Attacks have also been reported in recent weeks in the Kapisa, Parwan, Badakhshan, Takhar, Ghor, Sar-e Pol, and Jawzjan provinces. The violence is distinct from the IS-K attacks that have mainly targeted Shi'ite mosques and schools in Kabul and several Afghan cities this month.

Former Defense Minister Bismillah Khan, ex-General Staff chief Yasin Zia, and Abdul Ghani Alipur -- an ethnic Hazara militia leader -- are other notable names in the resistance.

The Taliban offered us nothing, Ahmad Masud said in a video message last month, elaborating on how months of negotiations with the Taliban failed to secure a political agreement.



They offered us two things: surrender and pledge allegiance [to the Taliban], he said.

The Taliban's rigid policies are apparently a reason for the increased armed resistance, with the various opposition factions claiming attacks against Taliban officials and fighters in several provinces.

[Anti-Taliban] groups are popping up everywhere in Afghanistan, the former Foreign Ministry official said. They were just waiting to see how things would go under the Taliban.

The official said former government leaders involved in the resistance are trying to unite behind a vision in ongoing negotiations. Sometime soon there will be a conference in Europe, he said.

Former government officials and leading warlords such as ethnic Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum, Hazara Mohammad Mohaqiq, Noor, and others have a long history of infighting, which might prevent them from posing a serious challenge to the Taliban.

There are also signs that former Afghan Army leaders are trying to rally their troops.

"The Taliban has left us no choice but to pick up our weapons again to win back our freedom," former Lieutenant General Sami Sadat said.

Sadat fought some of the most challenging battles against the Taliban last year and was widely regarded as a capable military leader.



We will take all practical steps for our homeland, he added. These include political and civic activism and military engagement.



But the Taliban is not impressed.



We can control these small and fragmented efforts, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Radio Azadi. "We have the intelligence to prevent and eliminate such efforts."



Mujahid said that after four decades of war, Afghanistan is awash with weapons, which makes it easy to launch attacks. Yet our forces are capable of providing security to the people and act against those trying to resist [our government].



Kate Clark, the co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network think tank, said that although most drivers of war have not disappeared from Afghanistan, it is not clear whether it will lead to an armed opposition.



She points to the Taliban, which took years to regroup and recover from their ousting in late 2001 to reappear as an insurgency.

The armed opposition that has emerged is in a relatively weak position by historical standards: it controls no territory next to a border [and] has no neighbor or great power obviously backing it, she told RFE/RL.



Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979, rebellions backed by foreign powers have succeeded in Afghanistan. The mujahedin forced the Soviet Union to withdraw from Afghanistan with generous funding and support from the West and Pakistan. And Afghan forces and their Western allies failed to eradicate the Taliban because of its safe havens in Pakistan.

Clark said that the failed republic is tainted in the minds of many Afghans because of widespread corruption and lackluster governance.

The Taliban are more used to fighting than governing and would probably prefer armed rebellion to mass civil disobedience, she said.
Colorado Springs Chorale is going abroad and also saying goodbye to its longtime artistic director.

Eighty-four members of the chorale, a 120-voice auditioned adult choir founded in 1956, will travel to Normandy, France, this summer to serve as the official chorus at the ceremonies commemorating the anniversary of D-Day. That performance also will be Deborah Jenkins Teskes last with the group. After eight years, the conductor is handing over the baton to Adam Torres, a Denver-based conductor and pianist.

Teske will continue to serve as artistic director for Colorado Vocal Arts Ensemble and director of choirs at Colorado College.

Its so bittersweet, Teske said. Im not retiring, Im redirecting to allow for a little bit of rebalancing in my professional life. Its a great opportunity for the chorale. Its rebalancing and redirecting for them, as well. The last few years have been so hard. We get to hit the refresh button and see whats ahead in our path.

IF YOU GO What: "Requiem for the Living," by Colorado Springs Chorale and Chamber Orchestra of the Springs When: 7:30 p.m. Friday Where: First United Methodist Church, 420 N. Nevada Ave. Price: $25, $10, 20% senior and military discount; 634-3737, cschorale.org

But first, a concert.

Requiem for the Living, accompanied by Chamber Orchestra of the Springs, will feature composer Dan Forrests Requiem for the Living and a portion of the musical selections the group will perform in France. Widefield High School Navy Junior ROTC Honor Guard will be posting the colors for the concert, and Colorado Springs City Council President Tom Strand will proclaim June 6 as Colorado Springs Chorale Day. The concert is Friday at First United Methodist Church.

Forrests requiem draws on centuries of choral settings for requiems, which are composed for the deceased. But in this 40-minute piece, rather than focus on the souls of the dead, hes constructed it to offer solace to those who are left behind.

Its a beautiful, lyrical work full of consolation, Teske said, which seemed fitting for these times we are in.

This years performance at the D-Day ceremonies has been a long time in the making. The chorale was first asked to attend in 2019, but couldnt make it due to time constraints. And the pandemic nixed the 2020 and 2021 invitations.

As well as the public D-Day ceremonies, which are attended by D-Day veterans from around the world, the chorale also will be the first choir to perform in a private ceremony for heads of state as part of the annual D-Day ceremonies. Before this year, only military bands have performed.

Contact the writer: 719-636-0270
By Trend

A joint meeting of the committees of the Azerbaijani Parliament on public associations and religious structures and on human rights was held in Shusha city, Trend reports.

The MPs discussed issues connected with measures to restore religious monuments in the liberated territories.

Then, members of parliamentary committees delivered speeches on the return of internally displaced persons to their native lands, ensuring their land and property rights, and other issues.
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By Azernews





By Sabina Mammadli

There are conditions for the Azerbaijan-Armenia joint border commission to begin work on border delimitation and demarcation in the near future, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has said.

Bayramov made the remarks at a joint briefing with his Georgian counterpart Ilia Darchiashvili in Baku, on April 27.

The minister noted that the main goal of Azerbaijan is to ensure peace in the South Caucasus region.

"I informed my Georgian colleague about this in detail. Azerbaijan provided detailed information on the principles of the peace agreement. I had two telephone conversations with the Armenian foreign minister. There is an agreement on the parameters of the joint commission on demarcation and delimitation of the border. There are also conditions for the start of work of this commission in near future," Bayramov stated.

According to him, following the principles of international law, Armenia can take its place in regional cooperation.

During the briefing, the minister stated that Azerbaijan-Georgia cooperation in the South Caucasus is an example and can be used as a successful model for neighboring countries.

Expressing high appreciation for the first official visit of Darchiashvili to Azerbaijan after his appointment as Georgian foreign minister, Bayramov noted strong friendly relations between the countries.

He said that Azerbaijan assesses the Georgian foreign minister's visit to Baku as a clear example of a strategic partnership between the two countries.

"Azerbaijan and Georgia are conducting a policy of good neighborliness and cooperation, and their relations are developing in many areas. Both countries support each other's territorial integrity," he stressed.

Further, Bayramov pointed out that a total of 113 agreements have been signed between Georgia and Azerbaijan to date.

He noted that the signing of 19 more documents is currently being considered by the two countries.

"In the near future, we are likely to witness the signing of these documents," he added.

For his part, the Georgian minister that Azerbaijani-Georgian strategic relations will continue to develop in the interests of the two countries' peoples.

Economic and trade projects are being successfully implemented between our countries. Such joint projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway have been implemented. These projects increase the attractiveness of our countries. Trade and economic relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia are at the highest level, Darchiashvili said.

Azerbaijan and Georgia are collaborating in a variety of economic fields. Azerbaijan and Georgia signed a number of cooperation agreements in 2021 as part of a meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation.

Simultaneously, as part of the trilateral business forum held in Baku in December 2021, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey signed five memorandums and agreements on cooperation.

In 2021, the two countries' trade turnover totaled $763.6 million, with exports accounting for $661 million and imports accounting for $102.6 million.
Senator 'saw things that I would wish nobody would ever have to see' in Ukraine
FILE PHOTO: Prince Andrew, Duke of York, stands outside the Westminster Abbey after a service of thanksgiving for late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in London, Britain, March 29, 2022. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson/File Photo
By Azernews





OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro has asserted readiness to support Azerbaijan and make recommendations on media development.

She made the remarks at a round table on Rise of disinformation: Impact on the media and effective response strategies in Baku.

"The purpose of our visit to Azerbaijan is to ensure media freedom and help fight disinformation. My office is always ready to support Azerbaijan and provide recommendations on media development," Ribeiro said.

Furthermore, she stressed that its necessary to ensure transparency and trust toward media in the fight against disinformation in Azerbaijan,

According to the OSCE representative, freedom of speech, opinion, integrity and security of journalists should be provided.

Ribeiro earlier met Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and discussed media freedom and the regional situation.

Azerbaijan joined the CSCE (named OSCE since January 1, 1995) on January 30, 1992. This was the first European organization for Azerbaijan to join.

Since February 1992, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict has become the focus of OSCE in line with the principles of this organization.

As OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries Russia, the U.S. and France had been mediating a peaceful solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts resulted in no progress as Armenia refused to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of its troops from Azerbaijani territories, which was the main obstacle to the resolution of the conflict.

The trilateral ceasefire deal signed by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders on November 10, 2020, ended the three-decade conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region which along with the seven adjacent regions came under the occupation of Armenian armed forces in the war in the early 1990s.
Bags of fentanyl confiscated by federal agents in a sting operation on the Front Range this year.
Passenger numbers at Colorado Springs Airport in March jumped to a 20-year high as its largest carrier, Southwest Airlines, celebrated its first year of service to the city.

The 87,346 passengers that boarded outbound flights last month were the most for any March since 2002, according to the airport.

That's up nearly 25% from February and 31% from January, two of the slowest months for travel, and just 612 passengers fewer than December, when the Christmas holiday boosts travel during the second half of the month.

"We are seeing a stabilization of capacity and we are filling those seats," said Greg Phillips, Colorado Springs aviation director.

"The numbers so far for April are up significantly from March," helped by the return of the Space Symposium, the city's largest convention, to full capacity of 10,000 attendees.

Traffic through the airport's security checkpoint, a key measure of passengers, is up in April more than 20% from a year ago.

The five airlines serving Colorado Springs  American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest and United  sold 78.9% of their seat capacity, up from 75.7% in February and the highest since 80.1% in December. The March load factor (percent of seats sold) was a big improvement from 63.4% in March 2021 but well below the 86.3% in March 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic slowed travel.

Passenger traffic for the first three months of the year totaled 223,934, more than double the total for the same period last year and the highest first-quarter total since 2008. The total for the 12 months ending in March  1.05 million  is more than triple the total for the same period a year earlier. Airlines sold 73.9% of their seats during the first quarter, up from 59.1% during the first three months of 2021.

Phillips said the growth in passenger traffic means the airport fills its short-term parking lot on a regular basis, and during peak travel periods sometimes fills all 5,500 spots in short-term and long-term parking.

As a result, the airport is using part of its valet parking lot to handle overflow parking but the lot won't be available on a regular, full-time basis until this summer.
By Trend





Companies from Germany are actively involved in the restoration work in Azerbaijans Karabakh, German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Wolfgang Manig told Trend.

According to him, two German companies, in particular, are mainly involved in road construction.

"Companies from other countries, such as Israel and Turkey, are also involved in restoration work on Azerbaijans liberated lands from Armenian occupation, using German technology," Manig said.

According to diplomat, there is a possibility of strengthening support from German companies with successful assistance of public sector of Azerbaijan.
North Iowa Area Community College has been named a semifinalist for the 2023 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. The Aspen Prize is the nations signature recognition of community colleges that are achieving high, improving, and equitable outcomes for students. NIACC is one of only 25 colleges in the nation eligible for the $1 million in prize funds that will be awarded next year.

Awarded every two years, the Aspen Prize honors colleges with outstanding performance in five critical areas: teaching and learning, certificate and degree completion, transfer and bachelors attainment, workforce success, and equitable outcomes for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds.

We are extremely honored to be recognized by the prestigious Aspen Institute College Excellence Program. It is our continued commitment to student success that produces student outcomes worthy of being recognized as one of the top 25 community colleges in the nation, said NIACC President Steven Schulz. I am extremely proud of the faculty, staff and administration at NIACC for their ongoing commitment to quality and student success.

The selection process began in October, when the Aspen Institute invited 150 community colleges to apply, based on data showing strong and improving student outcomes in key areas such as retention, completion, transfer, and equity. Applications went to a diverse selection committee of 16 higher education experts. Next, the committee will review interviews with leadership teams and narrow this selection of 25 semifinalists to 10 finalists, which will be announced in early June.

We are thrilled to see America's community colleges making meaningful and measurable progress, educating people from all backgrounds and preparing them for good jobs, said Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program. These 25 colleges represent our dreams for a better country and a reinvigorated democracy.

Founded in 1918, NIACC is a nationally recognized, two-year college located in Mason City. With approximately 3,000 career and transfer students, the college has been recognized as a leading community college in the nation. NIACC welcomes students from across Iowa, Minnesota, the nation, and the world. The college has served as a leader in student-centered learning, community engagement, and collaborative leadership for more than 100 years.

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A large semi carrying 14,000 chocolate milk packs came to a stop in front of Hawkeye Harvest Tuesday.

"I think it's a wonderful donation and I'm very pleased that they found us" said Carol Clayton, Board of Directors and volunteer at Hawkeye Harvest.

Kemps Dairy, which has a manufacturing facility in Le Mars, has held up its end of the "buy one, donate one" bargain made with buyers, donating 800,000 shelf-stable milks to food banks throughout the Midwest.

Kemps Dairy often reaches out to stores in areas of need, but Hawkeye Harvest was pleasantly surprised when they received a direct call from the company, offering to donate chocolate milk packs to their food bank.

Clayton said she was excited about receiving chocolate milk this time, as the food bank regularly receives white milk, which runs out quickly. She expects this chocolate milk to be a favorite among children. Clayton said the shelf-stable milk tastes just as good as regular milk.

Kemps Dairy's donated milk is aseptic, meaning it's ultra-high temperature, pasteurized milk, and has a shelf life of up to 12 months. This lasts much longer than the shelf life of store-bought milk, which is about 20 days.

"We never have (milk) here that long because we get our milk about two or three times a week from Fareway (Grocery). So it has a date that is far out there but it's gone within a couple of days," Clayton said of the regular milk.

The milk donated to Hawkeye Harvest will be further distributed to other organizations in the area, including Community Kitchen, Clear Lake Food Bank, and God's Pantry in Garner. Hawkeye has also reached out to other programs in North Iowa to share the wealth.

"We thought it was a good opportunity to coordinate and share with the Backback Buddies in Mason City, also with the Community Kitchen, because they do carry-out meals" said Clayton.

A representative from Kemps helped unload the milk pallets, and noted that within the last two years of its program, Kemps has donated almost one million milk packs to food bank programs throughout the Midwest.

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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Danville Community College is inviting members of the community to engage in the process to select its new leader.

Muriel Mickles, DCCs interim president, along with Patrick Tompkins, of Onancock, and Jerry Wallace, of Hastings, Nebraska, recently were selected as the three finalists for the position of president.

The three emerged as the top candidates from a national search that drew 63 applications, the college reported in a news release.

The position became vacant following the resignation of Jacqueline Gill Powell last May. Powell stepped down after only having the job for less than two years to become special assistant to Glenn DuBois, chancellor of Virginias Community Colleges, a news release reported last year.

We are honored and excited to welcome all three of these talented individuals to our campus, said Carlyle Wimbish, chair of the DCC advisory board. We are looking forward to getting to know each candidate better as they visit our community and learn more about us, as well.

The finalists and their spouses are expected to spend several days in Danville, tour the community and participate in forums where attendees will get to ask questions.

The public forums will take place next week in Oliver Hall in the Temple Building on the DCC campus:

Muriel Mickles, from 4 to 5 p.m. Monday;

Jerry Wallace, from 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesday; and

Patrick Tompkins, from 4 to 5 p.m. May 6.

College officials suggest those interested in attending the forums should arrive no later than 3:45 p.m. for each session. Signs will be posted to direct attendees to Oliver Hall, located in the Temple Building on Bonner Avenue.

We hope that all interested parties will attend these open forums and take advantage of the unique opportunity to ask these candidates questions, Wimbish said. This is a great opportunity for our community to come hear the vision that each candidate has for DCC and the localities the College serves.
REIDSVILLE  The Rev. Dennis Chapmon, a Reidsville native and pastor of Mount Hermon Baptist Church on Ashley Loop Road, recently spoke to the Reidsville Kiwanis Club about his experiences serving as a missionary for 15 years in South Africa.

There were no churches available in the area where he served, so at first, services were held in private homes. His mission was to introduce the people there to the teachings of Jesus Christ, he said.

He and his young family were living in Johannesburg at the time anti-apartheid crusader and humanitarian Nelson Mandela was released from prison. They were also there when Mandela was elected as the nations president.

Chapmon said people of great wealth live in Johannesburgs gated neighborhoods and behind protective walls, while people living just next door to them struggled with poverty and lived in shacks.

He told of how beautiful the country is, though troubled by heavy crime.

The clergyman himself was held at gunpoint by gangsters who took him hostage to steal his VW van, then released him, Chapmon said, explaining he never recovered the van.

On another occasion he walked into a market as it was being robbed and had a gun pointed at his head. But after talking calmly with the robbers, he was allowed to leave. As he left he heard a gunshot as the criminals shot a man just behind him in the shoulder. Heroic, Chapmon returned and tried to help the wounded man and get the police to come.

In spite of the dangers in the country, however, Chapmon said he continued to bring the gospel to the people. Life lived on purpose is a life worth living, he said.

The Kiwanis Club meets each Thursday at noon at the Main Street Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. Visitors are welcome.
By Trend

A meeting was held in Turkmenistan in a video format between representatives of the country's diplomatic missions abroad and the heads of the Associations "Turkmen Logistics" and JSC "Transport and Logistics Center of Turkmenistan", Trend reports citing Orient news.

The event was organized on the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Agency for Transport and Communications under the Cabinet of Ministers in order to familiarize the diplomatic corps of the country with the experience, opportunities and prospects of the transport and logistics sector of Turkmenistan.

During the meeting, the leaders of the National Association made introductory presentations to the diplomats about the activities of the organizations, achievements, cooperation with foreign institution, as well as about the opportunities available for further development of the country's transport potential.

Diplomats and representatives of the transport and communication complex discussed in detail a number of key issues on the development and improvement of the country's transport sector at the international level.

Special attention was paid to the cooperation of national transport institutions with priority international organizations such as FIATA, IRU, UNECE and other UN entities in the field of transport and logistics.

Furthermore, the participants of the meeting noted that the event in this format reflects objective realities and is timely and relevant for increasing international cooperation in the field of transport and logistics.
GREENSBORO  Creative Greensboro, the citys office for arts and culture, has chosen 10 Guilford County-based artists and groups for its Residency at the Hyers program.

The groups will take up residency in the Stephen D. Hyers Theater from June to October 2022 to create and premiere dramatic, musical and dance productions. The groups will receive rent-free access to the 88-seat black box theater located at the Greensboro Cultural Center, 200 N. Davie St.

The Residency at the Hyers program joins several other new initiatives offered by Creative Greensboro that are all focused on realizing the full potential of the Greensboro Cultural Center and providing support to a broader segment of our creative community, Chief Creative Economy Officer Ryan Deals, who oversees Creative Greensboro, said in Wednesday's announcement.

The Cultural Center has long been a place that provides critical support to creative organizations," Deal said. "These programs will bring in new and diverse individuals, organizations, and audiences into the space.

Selected for residencies are:

 In Tune Inc. will present a week of music and singing workshops culminating in a weekend of performances from June 20-26.

 Kaleab Kurtz will develop, shoot, edit, and screen a new film that explores the theme of teen homelessness from June 27-July 10.

 Ian Hairston will develop, write, and direct an original comedy called Messy Millennials from July 11-24.

 Duane Cyrus will develop and present Solo Performance @ Intersection, a performance and art installation using movement and visual art that explores his perspective as an artist living at the intersections of age, gender, and race July 25 through August 21.

 Goodly Frame Theatre will rehearse and present William Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing while in residency from August 22 through September 18.

 Community Theatre of Greensboro will present the 10th anniversary of its Onstage and Inclusive program during its September 19 through October 2 residency.

 Jonovan Cooper will rehearse and offer workshops discussing the history, culture, and musicianship of Ethiopian music and Ethio-jazz. The October 3-9 residency will conclude with a concert featuring traditional Ethiopian music.

 Triad Playwrights Theater will present a powerful drama, The Unders, by Triad playwright Pete Turner October 10-6.

 Carrie Plew will present an evening length production representing the culmination of her studies at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies. Her residency will run Oct. 17-30.

 Andy Ralston-Asumendi will present performances of 10-minute horror themed plays written by local playwrights. His residency runs October 31 through November 6.

Details on upcoming performances, including how to purchase tickets, will be available on the Residency at the Hyers webpage at CreativeGreensboro.com

Founded in 2019, Creative Greensboro provides support for, ensures access to and drives awareness of Greensboros creative community. Through a range of programs, services and partnerships, Creative Greensboro supports the development of a vibrant city.

To learn more about Creative Greensboro and other low-cost or free ways to use the Greensboro Cultural Center, visit www.creativegreensboro.com.
DOBSON  An elections director says the head of the Surry County Republican Party threatened to have her fired or her pay reduced last month after she would not give him unauthorized access to voting machines.

But thats not all: That official, Michella Huff, said theres an effort in the county to discourage voters from using the electronic tabulators at all.

Huff worries that the push could inadvertently backfire on voters.

That is disturbing because we dont want voters to listen to misinformation and lose their right to vote, she said, noting that if someone leaves the polling place without depositing their ballot, they cant come back. There is no hand-count option.

The fuss in Surry County is fallout from unproven claims that fraud deprived former President Donald Trump of a victory in the 2020 election.

Huff said Keith Senter, who chairs the Surry County GOP, came to her office in late March to demand access to the countys DS200 ballot tabulators in order to determine whether they had modems inside.

With Senter was Douglas Frank, who has become nationally known as the man The Washington Post called the go-to expert for those eager to argue that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

Also in Huffs office that day was a State Board of Elections staffer and two members of an organization called the North Carolina Audit Force.

The Audit Force is a group that alleges the DS200 tabulators in North Carolina have a variety of options that can be used to compromise election security and election integrity.

Dr. Frank said he had found some disturbing data, and had proof ... that (the DS200 machines) had modems in them, Huff said, recalling the meeting. I met with them for over an hour. They asked to see the machines. I told them that would void our warranty, and I would not let them have access.

Senters tone was described by Huff and others as aggressive, threatening and hostile, according to Patrick Gannon, the public information director for the State Board of Elections.

Huff said it was not a friendly discussion.

Multiple times I was told that if I denied (their request) I would lose my job, and that they had the full backing of the county commissioners, Huff said. They said that they would see to it that the commissioners would have me fired if I did not stop listening to the State Board of Elections. I cannot do that. Everything I do in this office is by general statute.

Election officials say voting machines in North Carolina dont have modems, are not connected to the internet, nor can they be so connected. A claim by Senter and Frank that the machines have a chip that pinged a cell tower on Nov. 3, 2020, and somehow influenced the election result, is an example of fabricated disinformation without evidence, according to the state elections board.

It may seem ironic that a claim could be made that election-machine shenanigans could have cost Trump any support in Surry County: Trump won 75% of the vote in 2020 and actually improved on his 2016 total by almost 4,000 votes.

But state and local election officials are taking Senters threat seriously: Theyre citing state law that doesnt give local officials the right to dismiss an elections chief, and another law that prohibits anyone other than authorized election staffers to have physical access to voting machines.

The county elections office even hired an outside law firm that wrote a six-page memorandum outlining why it is not legally possible for the state to allow a forensic audit of voting machines involving any outside group.

Both the six-page memorandum and state election officials point out that state law gives the State Board of Elections the sole authority to fire a county elections director.

Senter could not be reached for this article, but he went to a meeting of the Surry County Board of Commissioners on April 18 and, along with other individuals who spoke, made claims of voter fraud in Surry.

In a written statement, state elections staffers said the voting critics have yet to provide election officials with any credible evidence of irregularities in Surry County or elsewhere in North Carolina to any law enforcement agency or elections office.

Staffers went on to say that a sample of precincts in each county are tested by a hand count after each election, and that routine tests, audits and recounts have shown that the machines give an accurate count.

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U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn was cited for having a gun at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Tuesday morning, WSOC-TV reported.

Cawthorn was stopped after agents found the N.C. congressman with a 9 millimeter handgun at Checkpoint D, according to the station.

A TSA spokesman confirmed to The Charlotte Observer agents detected and recovered a loaded Staccato 9mm handgun at Checkpoint D at about 9 a.m.

In an email, the spokesman said, The TSA does not release passenger information in any incident and referred the Observer to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department for more information.

CMPDs media department didnt immediately reply to a request for comment.

Cawthorn Asheville airport gun incident

This is the second instance where Cawthorn has been caught with a gun at an airport. In February 2021, Cawthorn tried to go through security with a gun at the Asheville airport.

Security found a Glock 9 mm handgun and confiscated it from the congressman but allowed him to board the plane.

Hes also been twice caught with knives on educational properties.

Cawthorn has found himself in a myriad of controversies in the previous few weeks that led to North Carolinas top Republicans supporting his opponent, state Sen. Chuck Edwards, in the May primary. Those Republicans include U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, state Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore.

The controversies include driving while his license was revoked, claiming his colleagues on The Hill have participated in orgies and taken key bumps of cocaine and most recently being labeled a hypocrite after vacation photos surfaced of him dressed in womens lingerie while simultaneously speaking out against the transgender community.

Cawthorns comments on his colleagues caused Republican leaders like Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to tell Cawthorn he had lost his trust and that consequences were possible, including stripping him of any committee assignments.

Guns at N.C., other airports

TSA agents found a record 106 guns at Charlotte Douglas International Airport security checkpoints in 2021, nearly double the previous years total of 55, according to federal authorities.

Last year marked the first time TSA agents found more than 100 guns in passengers carry-on luggage at CLT, and an almost 40% increase from the previous record of 76 in 2018.

Guns were found at a higher rate in North Carolina compared to the nationwide rate, according to TSA.

TSA agents also found some unusual banned items at CLT security checkpoints last year, including a stun gun disguised as a cell phone and a cane with a screw-off top concealing a knife.

The Charlotte airport recorded the highest total for guns found at airport security checkpoints in NC last year, followed by Raleigh-Durham International Airport, with 100 guns found.

The Asheville airport had the third-highest tally for guns found at checkpoints, with 15 guns found last year.

Guns were also found last year at security checkpoints at Piedmont Triad International Airport (12 guns), Wilmington International Airport (6), Fayetteville Regional Airport (4), Albert J. Ellis Airport (5), Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (4) and Coastal Carolina Regional Airports.\
A 52-year-old Helena woman is facing felony assault with a weapon and a misdemeanor partner or family member assault charge for stabbing a man in the neck, authorities said.

Police were called April 25 to the 300 block of West Lawrence Street for a report about someone being stabbed in the throat.

A man said Elaine Marie White was upset and stabbed him in the throat and chest with a knife.

White admitted to stabbing the man, police said. She did not have any previous family member assault charges on her record.

She was taken to the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center.

All charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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By Trend

Iraq Minister of Electricity Adil Karim departed for Iran at the head of a high-ranking ministerial delegation to discuss the issue of gas injection into Iraqi power plants and "payments" to Iran's electricity and oil sector, Trend reports citing Mehr.

Iraqi Ministry of Electricity issued a statement on Tuesday, stating that Adil Karim embarked on a visit to Tehran as the head of a delegation from Iraqi Ministry of Energy to meet with Iranian ministers of energy and oil.

According to the scheduled program, Iraqi delegation will discuss issues related to the resumption of gas imports from Iran and payment of debts to Iranian ministries of energy and oil.

Iraqi Minister of Electricity will hold several expert-level meetings with Iranian side to discuss the resumption of gas imports from Iran, payment of debts and need to comply with provisions of contracts and agreements signed between the two sides, the statement added.
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Correction This story has been corrected to reflect that the judge recently modified his original injunction regarding new voter ID laws. The April 22 order reinstated new requirements for ID needed to register to vote.

Montanans casting ballots in-person can still use student identification from in-state colleges or universities as their sole form of ID, contrary to information referenced by the Secretary of State in commercials currently airing on television.

The public service announcement-style TV ads feature Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen instructing viewers to visit her offices website to learn more about current voter ID requirements. But the websites information incorrectly reflects requirements signed into law last year. Those requirements were put on hold by a state judge three weeks ago, effectively reverting the states voter ID laws back to their status during the 2020 election cycle.

Dana Corson, Jacobsen's state elections director, did not respond to questions Wednesday, including whether Jacobsen's office plans to correct the online information. An automatic email from Jacobsen's spokesman indicated he was unavailable.

In a previous statement condemning the judge's decision to grant the injunction, Jacobsen noted that her office had already begun voter outreach regarding the new requirements.

"It's impossible to undo the steps that have already been taken to implement these legislative changes, including direct voter communication, education and outreach," Jacobsen said in an April 6 statement issued by her office.

The Legislature in 2021 added new restrictions on acceptable identification to vote in-person at polling places, but those restrictions have been put on hold by the judges order.

That means that voters do not currently have to show photo ID to vote in person  although they do need to show some form of identification. That can include a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, voter registration card or other government-issued document showing the voters name and current address.

Alternatively, they can present a photo ID, including a Montana drivers license or state, tribal or school ID.

Jacobsens office vowed to appeal the injunction putting the new election laws on hold, and submitted a notice of appeal to the Montana Supreme Court the next day. As of Wednesday afternoon, however, her attorneys had not yet filed an opening brief in the case.

Ballots were mailed to overseas voters last week, while absentee ballots must be sent to all other absentee voters by May 13. The primary election is June 7.

The injunction put the brakes on portions of three other laws enacted in 2021  ending voter registration on Election Day, prohibiting voters who will turn 18 before Election Day from getting ballots in advance of their birthdays and restricting ballot-collection activities.

In an April 22 order, the judge modified the injunction to apply only to forms of ID needed when casting ballots. The law also added restrictions to the forms of ID needed to register. Those new registration requirements remain in effect, under the modified injunction.

Montanans can still use photo identification, including but not limited to a school district or postsecondary education photo identification or a tribal photo identification with the individuals name but need to pair that with documentation showing their name and address. That can include a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck or government document that includes their name and address. Under the now-suspended law, a student photo ID would have to be paired with one of those documents. Those documents must be originals if the voter is registering in person, or they can be copies of the originals if the registration is submitted by mail.

Under both the current law and the requirements passed in 2021, voters can also register using their Montana drivers license number, Montana state ID number or the last four digits of their social security number.

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The what-if questions came from all directions as a roomful of attorneys argued what the Montana Legislature meant when it passed laws rewriting a 40-year-old contract governing two aging Colstrip power plants.

Federal Magistrate Kathleen DeSoto rarely let the lawyers for Talen Energy, NorthWestern Energy, Montana State Attorney General Austen Knudsen or a phalanx of energy companies from Washington and Oregon get more than a page into their notebooks before she picked apart their claims.

What if the 1981 contract binding six co-owners of Colstrip Units 3 and 4 got changed so disputes must be settled in Montana instead of Washington? What if Montana ordered private businesses to keep supporting a declining coal-fired power plant even though those businesses own states have banned the investment in coal burning? What if one attorney general promised not to use powerful new laws favoring Montana, but the next one didnt keep the deal?

In particular, DeSoto asked why Talen thought it was possible for the court to rewrite state law to clarify vague but powerful sections giving Montana the authority to fine Colstrip co-owners hundreds of thousands of dollars for backing out of their partnership. She also asked how the Colstrip advocates thought a law requiring out-of-state companies to incur big business losses for the benefit of Montana interests wasnt economic protectionism specifically prohibited by the U.S. Constitutions interstate commerce clause.

Majority owners Puget Sound Energy, Avista Corp., PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric have all announced plans to exit Colstrip by the end of 2025. Thats made them uninterested in investing in Colstrips future.

The power plants have extensive problems. Damage to the Unit 4 boiler was estimated to cost $20 million in repairs in 2019. And a recent survey found Units 3 and 4 malfunctioned 77 days in 2018. Both units were off-line again for extensive maintenance in spring 2021.

The 2021 Legislature passed two laws, SB 265 and SB 266, that changed how management disputes get resolved over Colstrip operations. SB 265 rewrote the 1981 contracts arbitration section, requiring debates to take place in Montana instead of Washington and changing the kinds of arbitrators who would decide the debates. SB 266 gave the Montana Attorney General power to levy fines of $100,000 per day against every owner who blocked attempts to repair Colstrips aging power plants or reduce its budget.

Talen attorney Robert Sterup proposed that the simplest solution was for DeSoto to interpret the laws from the bench. So where the law said the Montana AG could impose fines for conduct hurting Colstrip, the court could clarify that did not include making a case to quit paying Colstrips bills.

Thats rewriting the statute, I would argue, DeSoto replied. The Legislature was in a far better position to write exactly what it meant in the law, she said, rather than leave it to a judge to define.

Sterup countered that judges are also supposed to do everything they can to resolve cases without ruling about state or federal constitutions. In other words, if theres a simple solution that doesnt involve interpreting a constitutional clause, the judge should take it. He suggested DeSotos adding her own definition of conduct would do that.

Harry Wilson, the lead attorney for the Pacific Northwest owners, said that lack of clarity made it impossible for the Washington and Oregon utility co-owners to know what the rules of the deal were. He was particularly critical about the lack of response from Attorney General Knudsens office, which has not told the court how it intends to handle its enforcement authority over the fines or arbitration process.

The community of Colstrip itself was not part of the contract, but its in the lawsuit as a friend of the court. Colstrip attorney Michelle Sullivan argued the laws were necessary to preserve Montanans access to reliable electric power.

Im representing the people this will impact if Colstrip becomes a ghost town, Sullivan said. The Legislature wasnt punishing the PNOs (Pacific Northwest owners)  it was ensuring access to coal-fired electricity.

Isnt that the definition of economic protectionism? DeSoto retorted. This is a really bad deal, but it helps us?

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters has already imposed a preliminary injunction blocking the two Montana laws. DeSotos magistrate hearing on Tuesday was to flesh out arguments why Watters decision shouldnt be permanent and the laws taken off the books.

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Located directly between Glacier and Yellowstone national parks, Montanans are proud to recognize our land of natural splendors as the nations last best place.

Our pride is justified, even though it is not of our own making. An idea, however, that is a creation of the human mind and is of incalculable significance, is our historically unique system of public education.

Early in our development as a free people, Thomas Jefferson observed freedom and self-governance were dependent on a society that was educated and freethinking.

In keeping with Jeffersons vision, Congress has repeatedly renewed national support for public education. Examples are the Land Grant Act which has provided significant support for Montana State University as well as for the University of Montana and Montana Tech; the Enabling Act which established Montana statehood and in doing so set aside sections 16 and 36 of every township within the state boundaries for the support of common schools; and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which since 1965 has provided broad federal support for public education in all states. In Montana a coordinated system to ensure a foundation of support for all Montana public schools has been in effect for three-quarters of a century.

Without question there has been a firm and ongoing recognition in both our nation and our state that education is a human right. In no other part of the world has such a commitment been made.

Free, public education was a major reason that millions of European immigrants fled a dead-end existence of ignorance and poverty in the old world to seek opportunity in the new world. The key to opportunity here was public education. The burgeoning American economy of the 1800s had an overwhelming need for literate workers. Those who could cipher and read the language were far more productive than those who could not. They would soon become not only the backbone of American labor, but also the entrepreneurial creators of countless private enterprises that have resulted in perpetual job creation, and thus a continual cycle of opportunity and prosperity.

This land of the American dream could not have happened without the universal opportunity for education. Most of the elite in the old world hated the concept of public education. Prosperity there was confined to the inheritors of wealth and power. The privileged classes alone enjoyed the opportunity to an education. If the masses were educated, they feared, the resulting questioning minds within the working class would pose a direct threat to the perpetual domination of the ruling class.

As an alternative to the competition for wealth and power that an educated workforce would inevitably create, the European gentry decided on the creation of a welfare state, the prototype of which occurred under the leadership of Germanys Iron Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck. By providing for basic human needs at public expense, Bismarck concluded that the masses would have little reason to overthrow the existing system as they had been doing in Europe since the guillotine time of the French Revolution.

The public welfare concept was adopted to some degree in much of the rest of Europe. It is no accident of history that upward mobility producing systems of public education did not emerge there until after the upheaval of two world wars.

While we have our inequities, and the American way remains a work in progress, Americans retain our self-governing freedom to adapt and reform. We have a high standard of living as well as a social safety net. Our productivity produces tax revenue, which makes possible our public services. The foundation of all of this  universal public education  has made creating and sharing in the American dream a tangible reality for those fortunate enough to live here.

Particularly insulated from a less fortunate world, we Montanans have more than most of humankind to be grateful for. Our fortunate circumstances are due in large part to our ongoing commitment to public education. On May 3 we will have the opportunity as free people to again renew our commitment to our time tested educational birthright by supporting our public schools.

Bob Brown is a former Montana Secretary of State and State Senate president.

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DECATUR  Parents spoke against plans to reassign the social/emotional development students to the Special Education Alternative Placement program at the Decatur Board of Education meeting on Tuesday.

Social/emotional development is a critical program for the students in it, said Julie Bolt, a teaching assistant in the program. They've already moved from Muffley School to Harris Learning Academy, and now they have to move again.

When will students come first? Bolt said. The fate of program was decided by one person, without input from students or families.

Another teaching assistant, Tara Hubbard, described social/emotional development is a middle ground between the SEAP program and returning to their home buildings, and the children who are thriving in the social/emotional program will be harmed by being moved.

The feeling of being set up to fail is so very strong as I stand here, said Abby Guenther. When the program moved from Muffley to Harris, there was a lack of transparency and sabotage. Now there's a second wave of trauma you're about to inflict on these children with the dissolving of the elementary SED program.

The lack of staff is the reason given for the change, said Hubbard, who added that the district has 86 open positions, 22 of them in special education.

We have plenty of able bodies willing to work in SED to keep it running, she said.

The board does not reply to public comments, referring all information to administration.

In other business, the board approved a separation agreement between the district and Jason Hood, director of human resources, whose employment with the district will end effective April 30. Hood will receive $191,500 within 35 days of the agreement which, the agreement states, represents consideration paid in the settlement of potential claims, including, but not limited to lost wages and is the entire obligation by the Board to Hood of any kind whatsoever under this Agreement or under his employment contract or pursuant to any other promise, procedure, policy or contract between Hood and the Board. His employment contract covered the period from March 23, 2021 through 2024.

The board also approved a settlement agreement between Stephanie Ford and her minor child Caden Ford. A district employee was involved in a traffic accident with the Fords while driving a district vehicle during working hours and the Fords filed suit in court. Under the settlement, the district agrees to pay the Fords a total of $125,000: $35,000 for the mother and $90,000 for the child.

Marques Stewart, assistant superintendent for P12 teaching and learning, gave a report on summer school. Due to staffing shortages, the original plan to have summer school at 12 buildings has been scaled back to five buildings, with all K-8 students assigned to Johns Hill Magnet School, programs at both Eisenhower and MacArthur high schools, and preschool students at Garfield School. A waiting list has been created for students who want to enroll in case seats open. The program will run only in June this year, and SMASH Camp, for gifted students, will not be available this year.

Though it was not on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting, the Decatur Education Association and the Decatur school board have reached a tentative agreement on a contract. The DEA members will have to ratify that agreement and then it will be brought to the board for approval at a future meeting.

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

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DECATUR  A joint law enforcement operation arrested a Decatur man Monday evening on charges he is a drug dealer who got more than 2 pounds of cocaine shipped to him by Priority Mail.

A sworn affidavit said when police raided the mans home on King Arthur Drive, they also seized 1 pounds of cannabis and four illegally owned guns, one of them reported stolen out of Piatt County.

The 53-year-old man was booked on a preliminary charge of controlled substance trafficking.

The affidavit said the operation to target him was carried out jointly by the Decatur Police Street Crimes Unit and the departments Emergency Response Team with assistance from the Macon County Sheriffs Office.

The man had been arrested after the package was delivered but police said they had earlier intercepted it and already knew what was inside. The cannabis cache had been discovered after officers searched the mans home.

The man is quoted as denying all knowledge of what was in the Priority Mail parcel, which had been sent from Los Angeles. His email address, however, matched that of an email used to track the packages progress.

A further search of the residence revealed multiple boxes with similar labeling as what was on the package delivered to the residence, said the affidavit.

Detectives also located multiple Tupperware containers which were the same type of containers that the cocaine was packaged in.

The affidavit said the man continued to deny everything, including even opening the package that was delivered to his home. But he was quoted as admitting a connection with Los Angeles, which is where his wife currently resides, according to police.

A check of Macon County Jail records showed that the man was freed Tuesday after posting a $2,000 bond on bail set at $20,000.

All preliminary charges are subject to review by the state's attorneys office.

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

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DECATUR  A memorial service recognizing all workers from Macon County who have died while at their workplace will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 28.

It will be held at the Worker Memorial Monument, 253 E. Wood, Decatur, in the northwest corner of the Macon County Courthouse lawn.

The public is invited to the free event which will include guests, such as families, faith leaders and local officials. Nikki Budzinski, candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives in the Illinois 13th District, will be the guest speaker.

The AFL-CIO Workers Memorial Day is held annually on April 28 and recognizes individuals who lost their lives on the job. The local ceremony will feature the reading of over 100 names of fallen workers who either lived or worked in Macon County.

Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR

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New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. Near record high temperatures. High around 95F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 71F. SSE winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph.
A jury found Bristol, Virginia police officer Johnathan Brown not guilty of murder Wednesday following a six-day trial.

Brown was indicted for murder by a grand jury in May 2021 after shooting and killing a fleeing shooting suspect in the parking lot of the Rodeway Inn on the morning of March 30, 2021.

Heather Howard, Browns attorney, told the jury that he acted in self-defense and in accordance with his training when Jonathen Kohler decided to elude by car the four Bristol, Virginia police officers who were called to the motel for multiple calls of shots fired.

Kohler, 31, of Bristol, Tennessee, drove toward Brown, who fired his patrol rifle just five feet from the moving car, evidence showed.

Prosecutors in the case claimed Brown, 32, acted inappropriately and could have gotten out of the way of the vehicle. In closing arguments, Howard called much of the commonwealths claims in the case red herrings and smoke and mirrors.

It was later learned Kohler had fired the shots prompting the police response and also had a loaded handgun under the seat of his vehicle while officers questioned him before his attempt to flee. Kohler had also sent texts threatening to shoot up the motel, investigators found.

Brown declined immediate comment following the verdict.

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BRISTOL, Va.  A jury is one day closer to determining if a Bristol, Virginia police officer will be convicted of murder.

The jury heard lengthy testimony from former Bristol, Virginia police officer John Carty Tuesday. Carty was one of three officers who witnessed Officer Johnathan Brown fatally shoot Jonathen Kohler on March 30, 2021 as he tried to elude officers at the Rodeway Inn.

Carty was the senior-most officer of the four who responded to shots fired at the motel. Dispatch alerted the officers of multiple 911 calls from guests staying in the motels rear building.

Carty testified that while en route he felt 100% confident there was a shooting in progress.

Upon arrival, officers found Kohler, 31, seated behind the wheel of his Ford Mustang parked in the rear parking lot. Carty testified that he had reasonable suspicion to believe Kohler was the shooter, since no one else was around.

Carty's suspicion grew when Kohler told him something to the effect of No it wasnt me  I wasn't the one shooting, after being asked if he knew anything about the shots. Carty also said Kohler was sweating profusely on a freezing night, and that he suspected Kohler to be high on methamphetamine.

While he was running Kohlers drivers license, Carty heard the situation escalate as another officer told Kohler to keep his hands up, and to stop reaching down. At that point, Carty was becoming increasingly uneasy and fearful Kohler had a gun.

I thought we were going to have a gunfight, Carty said.

Carty walked back toward Kohler and told him to cut the car off, but Kohler didnt comply. Instead, Kohler proceeded to back out of the parking space, put the car in drive and attempted to flee in the direction of Brown, 32.

It was chaos, Carty said.

Carty testified Kohlers vehicle was an immediate threat to Brown, who Carty said acted in accordance with his training.

It was later determined Kohler did fire the shots. He also had a loaded firearm under his seat, a high concentration of methamphetamine in his system and had sent threatening texts to shoot up the motel.

Carty said he was going to fire his rifle before Brown beat him to it.

Roanoke Commonwealths Attorney Donald Caldwell, the case's special prosecutor, pointed out Tuesday that the car appeared to be turning to the right of Brown when he fired. The car then crashed into a parked car to the right, and Kohler was found deceased of gunshot wounds to the head and neck.

During deliberations, the jury will be able to break down the shooting frame-by-frame, thanks to a high-tech re-creation produced by a forensic visualizations specialist at the request of the defense. The animation was created using a crime scene scan from the Virginia State Police and video footage.

The interactive tool takes the jury inside a three-dimensional version of the scene and enables jurors to replay a clip that spans from the time Kohler backs out to the time Brown fired his first shot. The jury will be able to make measurements in the program and view the shooting from virtually any vantage point, including Browns perspective.

According to testimony, Brown was 7 to 8 feet from the vehicle when it lifted forward and was 5 feet away when he fired his rifle.

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Liu Lijun, a veterinarian, prepares medicine for animals at Beijing Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, April 20, 2022. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Liu Lijun describes himself as an "emergency physician" who is tending to "patients" in need of urgent remedies.

"This white ball python, sent by the local residents, has a spine injury and is undergoing treatment here," said the 38-year-old veterinarian, who works at Beijing Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, as he injected nutrients and antibiotics into the snake.

"The number of injured and trapped animals has seen a rise every year from hundreds to thousands, and dozens of animals are sent in a single day during the busiest times," Liu said. The data only takes into account those sent by citizens, excluding illegally raised and trafficked animals, which are forfeited and brought to the center by the police.

The surge in the number of rescue instances demonstrates the increasing awareness of wildlife rescue and habitat rehabilitation among Beijingers, Liu added.

The theme of Earth Day 2022, which fell on April 22, was "Invest In Our Planet." This year marks the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day and the initiative calls for forging a partnership toward safeguarding the planet where everyone is accounted for, and everyone is accountable.

WILDLIFE RESCUE

"Wildlife protection is my passion and it gives me an extraordinary sense of achievement," said Liu, explaining that his routine tasks include conducting a preliminary diagnosis and forming medical treatment plans for the animals.

Liu Lijun, a veterinarian, checks the condition of reptiles at Beijing Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, April 20, 2022. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

Over the past 10 years, Liu has treated more than 8,000 wildlife. Animals are usually released into the forests of Beijing upon recovery but when it comes to migratory birds, Liu and his colleagues wait for the appropriate season.

From 2016 to 2020, the wildlife center spanning 16 hectares had received 21,432 wild animals, including 19,075 birds, 963 reptiles, 797 mammals, 38 arthropods and 31 amphibians.

"Birds are in majority because Beijing is an important migration route for them," Liu said. According to the latest survey, the Chinese capital has more than 503 bird species, the proportion of which surpasses a third of the country.

When locals spot birds in distress, most residents would send them to the wildlife care center for treatment. Such occurrences are common during spring and autumn, the migration seasons. The center has also established a breeding platform and set up numerous aid stations in wildlife habitats.

Liu Lijun (L), a veterinarian, and his colleague check the condition of a sparrow hawk at Beijing Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, April 20, 2022. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

There are two types of veterinarians in the center. Experimental vets are in charge of analyzing death cases and collecting blood, feces, and biopsy samples, while clinical vets manage the treatment plans for animals.

While the majority of the wildlife is released into the forest, a small proportion of animals are used for scientific research and demonstration. The non-local ones are sent back to their original habitats, and those deemed incapable of survival following injuries are kept in the zoo under proper care.

HABITAT REHABILITATION

In comparison to purely treating the creatures, habitat rehabilitation increases the benefits of wildlife protection.

"Hundreds or even thousands of wild animals I rescue every year seems to be an enormous amount, but in reality, it is just a drop in the bucket considering countless wildlife species are suffering in Beijing as well as the rest of the country," Liu said.

He hopes that the unremitting efforts of vets in treating animals can enhance the public awareness of wildlife protection and habitat rehabilitation.

According to the local forestry and park authority, Beijing's urban green spaces and wetland areas have increased by 3,773 hectares and 11,000 hectares, respectively, during China's 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020).

A variety of birds such as black storks, great bustards, mallards, and herons choose Beijing as their habitat. There are currently 79 nature reserves in the Chinese capital, occupying 368,000 hectares of area.

"The public's consciousness toward habitat rehabilitation will save more wildlife than clinical vets," Liu said, adding that the joint efforts of the entire society will contribute to the protection of the earth's ecology and environment. 
By Azernews





The Cabinet of Ministers has recently announced that the mask mandate will be lifted beginning in May.

Citizens have been required to wear masks indoors, on public transportation, and in schools since the beginning of the pandemic. However, the timely measures implemented by the state yielded a positive outcome. Doctors and medical experts have stated numerous times since the invention of vaccines that the high rate of vaccination will undoubtedly lead to the relaxation of restrictions. And that is exactly what occurred.

Today, despite the fact that coronavirus has not yet declined in the world, and the number of infected people in different countries is growing every day, minimal indicators of the spread of the virus are observed in Azerbaijan. Many think that Azerbaijan might be one of the first countries to fight coronavirus completely.

Azerbaijan is an example of a country that contributes to the fight against COVID-19 at the national, regional, and global levels. Since the first day of the pandemic, Azerbaijan's top political leadership has demonstrated a flexible policy in preventing the virus's spread and in the process of obtaining vaccines. The protection of public health is an essential component of state policy. Initially, talks with vaccine manufacturers were held. These negotiations have demonstrated that certain forces are taking advantage of international relations in the vaccination process. President Ilham Aliyev has taken a firm and principled stance on this issue. It should be noted that Azerbaijan's successful anti-COVID policy was also highly regarded by WHO.

It should be noted that Aliyev has also highlighted that Azerbaijan had always supported the WHOs measures to fight COVID-19.

The government had taken necessary measures to eliminate the socioeconomic implications caused by the pandemic in Azerbaijan and now the situation in this area is stable, he said.

The WHO Office with the financial support of the EU has launched a three-year project "Support for COVID-19 vaccination" in order to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan and strengthen immunization programs, since June 2021.

But that doesn't mean we should abandon the use of masks entirely. The lifting of this ban should not reassure people; on the contrary, we must be cautious at all times and in all places. We must accept responsibility for our own and others' health.

From now on, we must follow existing rules as the pandemic continues and the threat of infection remains. The risk of new dangerous strains forming and spreading remains. There is still an increase in the number of infections and deaths in a number of countries. As a result, it is necessary to maintain vigilance. The virus must not be allowed to resurface. As a result, the use of protective masks in public places remains important.

On February 28, 2020, the country confirmed its first COVID-19 case. On March 25, Azerbaijan implemented a special quarantine regime and implemented a number of measures to combat COVID-19 in the country.

The nationwide vaccination is free and voluntary, and it is in accordance with the "Vaccination Strategy Against COVID-19 in Azerbaijan for 2021-2022."

The country began vaccinating citizens with China's Sinovac on January 18, AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria vaccine on May 3, Russia's Sputnik V on May 18, and Pfizer from the United States on June 7. From May 10, the country began offering COVID-19 vaccination to citizens over the age of 18.

Simultaneously, on August 9, Azerbaijan began issuing vaccination exemption certificates to citizens who have contraindications to coronavirus vaccines approved for use in the country.
BRISTOL, Va.  The Bristol Tennessee Virginia Rotary Club recognized two outstanding area educators during the 35th Annual Frank W. DeFriece Jr. Outstanding Teachers of Bristol awards ceremony Tuesday at the Bristol Train Station.

A teacher from the Bristol, Virginia school system was chosen as well as a second from Bristol, Tennessee schools. The winners were Ginny Swaggerty from Bristol, Tennessee and Kayla Knupp from Bristol, Virginia.

Knupp was overwhelmed and surprised by the recognition and acknowledged she would not be the teacher she is today without her students.

Its special for my students because I wouldnt be able to do it without them. I would not be the teacher I am without my students, Knupp said.

Each nominee for the Outstanding Teachers of Bristol received $500, with the winners of the award getting an additional $3,000. Their school also receives $1,000.

When asked what she plans to do with the cash prize, Swaggerty emphasized she already has plans for some improvements to meet the needs of her students.

Its amazing to be honored for something that rewards my heart every day, Swaggerty said. I definitely have plans to add some really cool stuff to our sensory room at our school and some playground equipment for my students that are in wheelchairs because they need it.

Twelve teachers were nominated for the Outstanding Teachers award, six from Bristol, Virginia and six from Bristol, Tennessee.

For Bristol, Virginia, the nominated recipients were Highland View Elementary Schools Anna Campbell, Stonewall Jackson Elementary Schools Brittany Harris and Joseph Van Pelt Elementary Schools MacKenzie Murray, as well as Virginia Middle Schools Lee Walker and Darlia Williams and Knupp from Washington-Lee Elementary School.

The nominated teachers from Bristol, Tennessee include Anderson Elementary Schools Lucretia Brown, Avoca Elementary Schools Angie Meredith, Fairmount Elementary Schools Jameson Cross and Haynesfield Elementary Schools Kimberly Gassiot, as well as Swaggerty from Holston View Elementary School and Tennessee High Schools Tara Hartsoe.

At the awards ceremony, Tiffany Goforth, a Rotarian, told the story of how and why DeFriece Jr. created the award through which the Bristol VA/TN Rotary Club celebrates education and acknowledges the efforts and achievements of educators in the Twin City.

Frank was an enormous supporter of our community and what education means to our children and the future of our cities, Goforth said. He knew the importance of education and that sometimes the toughest and most important jobs get the least amount of recognition.
A victim in a domestic assault at Norton, Virginia, has died as a man charged in the case awaits extradition to Virginia.

Norton Police Chief James Lane and Wise County Commonwealths Attorney Steven Davis issued a joint statement regarding the domestic assault that occurred Friday, April 22, around 4:25 a.m. in Norton.

Officers allege that Sean Daniel Roberts had seriously injured an adult female and a child with a weapon. Authorities have not said which of the victims is deceased.

The Virginia State Police collected evidence at the scene of the assault, and the Norton Police Department began an investigation. Warrants were issued for Roberts, as several local law enforcement agencies in Virginia and surrounding states began assisting in locating Roberts.

On Saturday, it was confirmed Roberts was apprehended in Wolfe County, Kentucky, on unrelated charges. Roberts is currently being held at Three Forks Regional Jail in Lee County, Kentucky, as he awaits extradition back to Virginia, police said.

Upon approval, a warrant from the governor of Virginia is expected to be served upon the defendant so he can be returned to Virginia.
Steel prices had been falling this year.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine and created upheaval in pig iron markets as values for this important ingredient to manufacture finished steel instantly went into short supply. As a result, the spot-market price for hot-rolled coiled sheet steel has climbed nearly 50% since early March, according to S&P Global price surveys.

Why did the war in Ukraine induce this new supply chain issue?

Pig iron  ore reduced to molten iron that is cast in briquettes  is mixed with scrap in electric furnaces and melted into new steel, explained Bob Tita in his April 12 article in The Wall Street Journal. About 70% of steel produced in the U.S. is made in electric furnaces, making the U.S. particularly reliant on scrap steel and pig iron, continued Tita in his article, Ukraine war drives shortage in pig iron, pushing steel prices higher.

To make matters worse, two-thirds of the pig iron imported by the U.S. last year came from those two countries  Russia and Ukraine  and shipments have all but ceased since the Russian invasion.

There are other sources of pig iron. However, developing new supply chains in Brazil, India, and other countries isnt a flip-the-switch proposition. All of these issues surrounding pig iron have driven prices up nearly 75% since this January.

Scrap metal may help fill the gap

More scrap metal also can be used to make finished steel in U.S. plants. However, that comes with additional costs, too. Scrap metal has jumped nearly 50% since the war has begun and that additional cost will drive up equipment prices.

On the flip side, demand for old farm machinery is very high. This developing situation will allow farmers to clean up and dispose of old farm machinery and create a revenue stream for that scrap farm equipment. Many scrapyards accept intact machinery, and some even offer to come pick up decommissioned farm equipment.

Given the high price of scrap metal, its an opportunity worth investigating.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2022

April 21, 2022
Hope Colleges Baccalaureate and Commencement for the Class of 2022 are scheduled for Sunday, May 8.

Commencement will take place at 3 p.m. at Ray and Sue Smith Stadium, and Baccalaureate at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel. More than 700 graduating seniors will be participating.

The 9:30 a.m. Baccalaureate ceremony and the Commencement ceremony will both be livestreamed at hope.edu/live and via the Hope College YouTube channel.

Check out all the Commencement events and information

In the event of rain, Commencement will be held at the Richard and Helen DeVos Fieldhouse. Admission to Baccalaureate, and Commencement if indoors, is by ticket only.

The Commencement speaker will be Dr. Marcus Fila, associate professor of management. The Baccalaureate speaker will be Rev. Paul Boersma, who is the Leonard and Marjorie Maas Endowed Senior Chaplain.

Fila has been a member of the Hope faculty since 2013. He teaches courses in principles of management, human resource management, management in the British economy, and marketing management, as well as a management senior seminar designed to help equip students to transition to being successful, balanced and accountable professionals. He is also the director of Hopes leadership minor program.

His primary area of research is the relationship between people and their work in the context of occupational health psychology and, specifically, stress at work. His interest in the topic was initially formed prior to his academic role, during almost a decade of work in executive recruitment and other business development positions in both the U.S. and U.K.

He has written or co-authored multiple articles published in professional journals and book chapters. During the colleges Winter Happening event in 2019, he presented the seminar Got Work Stress? Creating Healthier and More Productive Workplaces.

Originally from the United Kingdom, he moved to the United States in 1999. He holds a Diploma in management studies with distinction from Greenwich School of Management (2003); MBA with commendation, in personal development, marketing and strategy from Kingston Business School, (2005); an M.Sc. in industrial/organizational psychology from Ohio University (2013); and a Ph.D. in organizational leadership and analysis from Western Michigan University (2016).

Boersma has been a chaplain at the college since 1994. He will retire at the end of the 2021-22 school year as the longest-serving chaplain in Hopes history.

He joined the staff during the summer of 1994. His main responsibilities have included supervising the Campus Ministries team, providing pastoral care, preaching and encouraging others in what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

He was appointed to the colleges Leonard and Marjorie Maas Endowed Chaplaincy in 2001, and delivered the colleges Commencement address in 2005. Prior to coming to Hope, he was pastor of youth and education at Community Reformed Church in Holland, where he had been employed since 1983.

Boersma graduated from Hope in 1982, and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Western Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Melody, who is a 1983 Hope graduate, have three grown children, all of whom are Hope graduates as well: Aaron (2010), Joel (2012) and Emily (2013). His parents, the late Max and Connie (Hinga) Boersma, were also Hope alumni, and established the colleges Hinga-Boersma chapel deanship in 1993.
What books are you featuring on PBS-NCs North Carolina Bookwatch this season?

When I get this question from fans of that television program, I have to explain that the program was recently discontinued by PBS-NC.

Then some people want to know what North Carolina-related books and authors would have been featured if the program had continued.

Here are some of the programs I would have recommended for inclusion.

The Last First Kiss, by Walter Bennett. A widowed retired lawyer reconnects with his high school girl friend in a hurricane on the Outer Banks.

The Beauty of Dusk by Frank Bruni. The New York Times columnist and new North Carolina resident deals with his possible blindness.

Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase by Howard Covington.

Midnight Lock by Jeffery Deaver, the bestselling thriller author of the Lincoln Rhyme series who lives in North Carolina.

Balcony Reserved for White Spectators by the late Walter Dellinger. Although Dellinger died before he completed this book of his extraordinary memories, we can hope his family and friends will find a way to finish it.

Saving the Wild South: The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction by Georgeann Eubanks.

The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich. This bestselling author who lives in North Carolina begins a new series that the publisher asserts blends wild adventure, hugely appealing characters, and pitch-perfect humor.

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler. A story of race and family set in Raleigh.

The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina by Philip Gerard.

The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, A Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice by Benjamin Gilmer. A caring doctor is also a killer.

UNC A to Z: What Every Tar Heel Needs to Know about the First State University by Nicholas Graham and Cecelia Moore.

The Unwilling by John Hart. Set in North Carolina, a fifth bestseller by Hart, who grew up in Salisbury.

Mountain Folk by John Hood. A political columnists fanciful look at the times of the American Revolution.

To Drink from the Well: The Struggle for Racial Equality at the Nations Oldest Public University by Geeta N. Kapur. A Black UNC-Chapel Hill graduate re-writes the history of the universitys admission denials.

Frank Porter Graham: Southern Liberal, Citizen of the World by William Link.

The Mays of Alamanns Creek: A Family Odyssey by John May. A family history beginning hundreds of years ago.

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott, who won the 2021 National Book Award.

The Faces of Poverty in North Carolina: Stories from Our Invisible Citizens by Gene Nichol.

Sea Level Rise: A Slow Tsunami on Americas Shores by Orrin and Keith Pilkey.

A Small Circle by William Price. A privately published book of family memories by Reynolds Prices brother William.

Andy Griffiths Manteo: His Real Mayberry by John Railey. Griffiths life story told from his beloved Manteo.

In the Valley by Ron Rash. Short stories by a master of the craft and a sequel to Rashs bestselling Serena.

Searching for Amylu Danzer by John Rosenthal. Famed photographer Rosenthals memoir of a lost friendship still haunting after more that 50 years.

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith. This No. 1 New York Times bestseller by a Davidson graduate who visited places where slavery is more than a simple memory.

The Return by Nicholas Sparks.

Pauls Hill: Homage to Whitman by Shelby Stephenson. Narrative poetry by a former state poet-laureate.

French Braid by Anne Tyler. Another best seller set in Baltimore by an author who grew up in North Carolina

Hanging Tree Guitars by Freeman Vines. Photographs and memories of Vine and his guitars.

A Consequential Life: David Lowry Swain, Nineteenth-Century North Carolina, and Their University by Willis Whichard, expected to be released later this year.

Bookwatch may be gone, but North Carolina-related books and authors continue to thrive.

NOTE: Dr. Benjamin Gilmer talks about his new book, The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, A Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice.

D.G. Martin hosted North Carolina Bookwatch, for more than 20 years. To view prior programs: https://video.pbsnc.org/show/nc-bookwatch/episodes/
URBANA  In 2019, farmers across Illinois launched into the first growing season for industrial hemp with mixed results.

Hemp is one of the newest and fastest growing specialty crops in the Midwest, and University of Illinois Extension is helping producers keep up by providing cutting edge research updates straight from the field.

By collecting data from more than 180 hemp growers over the past two years, Illinois Extension researchers now have a better understanding of how to produce hemp and are sharing that information directly with growers through the Midwestern Hemp Database.

Illinois legalized the growth of industrial hemp, which is used for fiber and food, in 2018. Demand for the new crop outpaced the data. Phillip Alberti, Illinois Extension commercial agriculture educator, recognized that producers did not have basic information about how to grow the newly available crop. The database project is a collaboration between Midwestern researchers and growers.

By working with growers to get data directly from the field, weve been able to learn a lot in a short amount of time, says Alberti. Were helping producers grow profitable hemp crops by providing recommendations based on the latest information coming in from their fields.

Information in the database comes from hemp producers who submit field samples in exchange for discounted cannabinoid level testing through partner laboratories. Researchers share the results with the public through the interactive dashboard to help growers make informed decisions on production practices and hemp cultivars. During the growing season, field data is updated weekly giving growers access to the latest information.

Alberti recently published three reports from the 2021 growing season which are available at go.illinois.edu/HempDatabase.

Extension staff worked with Simple Livin Farms in Morton to plant and track the performance of 18 cultivars to learn more about high cannabinoid hemp varieties. They examined plant height, uniformity, flowering time, biomass yield, and cannabinoid content. The study was replicated in other Midwestern states to understand regional differences. The results of the 2021 Illinois Variety Trial are available at go.illinois.edu/MHD2021trial.

The database has helped identify a list of eight cultivars that have the potential to comply with state and federal regulations limiting the cannabinoid levels. As part of the Cultivar Check program, Extension staff worked with producers to grow and test those varieties. The results, available at go.illinois.edu/MHD2021cultivar, demonstrated the best time to harvest hemp in order to meet compliance was about five to six weeks after plants flowered.

Overall results for the 2021 growing season are available in the Midwestern Hemp Database report at go.illinois.edu/MHD2021. The report has advice for producers, information on plant yield and growth characteristics, cannabinoid production and sampling, and a list of plant varieties that have good potential for the Midwest.

Producers can apply to the program at go.illinois.edu/HempDatabase. Participants receive discounted cannabinoid level testing. For more information, contact Alberti at palberti@illinois.edu or 217-300-7392.

The database is a collaborative project between four Midwestern land-grant universities: Michigan State, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Purdue University. The project also partners with the private laboratories Rock River Laboratory, Inc., Pride Analytics and Consulting, and ACT laboratories.

Illinois Extension leads public outreach for University of Illinois by translating research into action plans that allow Illinois families, businesses, and community leaders to solve problems, make informed decisions.

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CHARLESTON  John Perkins and Robert C. Brown, Mattoon men, were sentenced to the state prison at Chester by Judge Brewer yesterday after he denied a request for clemency. Perkins and Brown were charged with stealing chickens from several farmers on the west side of Coles County. Brown filed a request for parole and States Attorney Fletcher agreed to the lenient sentence for him. In court, Judge Brewer asked Brown if the mens agreement was 50-50 when he and Perkins went out to steal chickens, and the reply was in the affirmative. Brown said it was his job to hold the horses while Perkins stole the chickens. When the chickens were sold, the proceeds were divided 50-50. If that is the case, Judge Brewer said. Ill make it 50-50 now. You are both sentenced to Chester state prison.  MATTOON  The people of the United States are confronted with three great problems that must be worked out over the coming century if the inheritance of our forefathers is to be justified, David Kinsley, president of the University of Illinois, told members of the Mattoon Rotary Club and their guests, the Lions Club, at a dinner meeting last night. The first problem to be addressed, Kinley stated, is to find a solution to the economic re-adjustment of the nations natural resources. Americans must find a way to take care of our natural resources while providing for the great number of immigrants that annually pour into the country. Americans also must guard against drifting from a federal government governed by the people into a centralized government controlled by delegates in office. The third great problem, he believes, is keeping open equality of opportunity so every citizen may secure economic independence and share equally the rights provided by the U.S. Constitution.
On the afternoon of Dec. 8, frantic text messages and phone calls began to spread among a group of active and retired teachers from Lafayette High School and P.S. 65 in Buffalo.

This was hours after an international audience had watched, captivated, as a Coast Guard rescue swimmer dangling from a helicopter pulled a woman from a vehicle lodged in the raging Niagara River, just yards from the brink of the American Falls, and carried her in bracing winds to the riverbank.

Now, colleagues were asking each other in disbelief:

Was that Miss Bell who went into the water?

Amanda Jordan, who taught English to refugee students at P.S. 65 with Bell, tried reaching her friend.

I knew when Miss Bell didnt answer her phone that thats what happened, Jordan said in an interview.

Authorities determined a 69-year-old Williamsville woman drowned after intentionally driving into the river but otherwise have shared little about her and declined to reveal her name.

A police report released in response to a public-records request, along with interviews with family and former colleagues, offer previously untold details about the victim and that day's events.

Beverly C. Bell is described as a bright, talented musician who grew up downstate and later taught French, Spanish and English as a second language here for 20 years.

At an age when many peers are long retired, Bell continued teaching through the Covid-19 pandemic before going on medical leave last fall.

An only child who never married or had children, Bell had suffered health issues. But friends and family dont understand what led her to steer her sedan into the river on that frigid morning.

And they struggle to reconcile their warm memories of Bell in life with the painfully public way she died.

Things had to have been impossible for her to bear, said Patricia Laing, who taught with Bell for several years. I just, I just can't imagine.

Long Island to Buffalo

Bell's mother, Wavie Maye Cook, moved to this country from Canada after marrying Edward Bell, who worked for the Long Island Rail Road, said Geoffrey Drew-Brook, a first cousin of Bells.

Drew-Brook remembered her regular visits to Canada and the occasional trips his Canadian contingent made to visit Bells family and spend time on Long Islands beaches.

She liked playing with the younger cousins. And she was also very active on the piano, said Drew-Brook, who was six years younger than the cousin known as "Cheri" for her middle name, Cheryl.

Drew-Brook said he doesnt know when she moved to Western New York. Records show she lived on East Spring Street in Williamsville.

Bell began teaching in Buffalo in 2001, according to district records.

She initially taught French and Spanish but transitioned to English as a new language  primarily working with refugee students.

Bell spent many years as a substitute and thats one reason she kept teaching into her late 60s, colleagues said.

A quiet talent

The longest stretch of Bells time with the district was spent at Lafayette and, most recently, at P.S. 65, the Roosevelt Early Childhood Center, in Riverside.

She was quirky. A lot of quirks. But she was also very intelligent and talented, especially with music, said Alyssa Wallace, who taught English as a new language with Bell at Lafayette. Her colleague shunned the spotlight but, Wallace said, everyone knew Beverly.

On one occasion, Laing and Bell were in a classroom during a planning period at Lafayette when a skeptical colleague asked Bell if she really could sing.

Challenged, Bell launched into a beautiful rendition, in the original French, of Dominique, a 1963 hit by the performer known as the Singing Nun, Laing recalled, stunning their colleague.

She was not a joiner. She was kind of a quiet person, said Laing, who worked with Bell from around 2011 to 2015 and remembered anxiety that drove Bell to arrive at school 90 minutes early.

During the pandemic, when classes shifted online, Jordan invited Bell to her Town of Tonawanda home, where she helped Bell teach virtually.

It was an adventure, I'll say that, said Jordan, who was decades younger but considered Bell  always Miss Bell, not Beverly  a friend.

Jordan said Bell didnt like to cook, loved showing off clothes she bought on sale at Macys and occasionally purchased stuffed animals to give to her elementary-age students.

She taught me a lot and I taught her a lot, said Jordan, recalling Bells flashes of wit.

Recent health concerns

In mid-September, Bell hurt herself when she fell, or fainted, in a bathroom at P.S. 65, Jordan said, badly injuring her hip.

This came on top of other health issues Bell developed in recent years, friends said, including vision problems and a diabetes diagnosis that prompted her to throw all sugary items out of her apartment.

Bell went out on medical leave and moved into Beechwood Continuing Care for rehabilitation to try to return to the classroom, friends said.

To be honest with you, she should have retired, Laing said. But she did not want to retire. She wanted to keep teaching.

Drew-Brook said he had talked to his cousin several times in November. He said he was aware of some of her health issues but Bell didnt seem overwhelmed by any of it.

On Dec. 6, Bell called to ask Jordan to take a day off from work to ferry her from Beechwood to a medical appointment. Jordans husband and mother ended up taking her.

Before they left, an employee at Beechwood urged them to take Bell directly from the rehab unit to the appointment and back again  even if Bell asks to stop somewhere else, Jordan recalled.

This instruction sticks in Jordans mind given what happened two days later.

Retracing her steps

A State Park Police incident report shows that a friend of Bells, whose name is redacted, had picked Bell up from Beechwood about 8:35 a.m. Dec. 8 to take her to another medical appointment.

Afterward, this friend  who wasn't Jordan  took Bell to her apartment. The friend went inside to get clothes and mail for Bell, presumably to take to Beechwood, while Bell remained in the friends vehicle.

By the time the friend returned, around 10:30 a.m., Bell had driven off in her own car and was gone.

Bells car wasn't spotted again until 11:45 a.m., when a witness saw it in downtown Niagara Falls, with its trunk open, near the Seneca Niagara Casino and about to enter Niagara Falls State Park. Police found no evidence she had been inside the casino.

Witnesses did not see the vehicle enter the river, but investigators found tire tracks in the snow on the riverbank, between the Goat Island pedestrian and vehicle bridges, with no skid marks or other indications Bell tried to stop.

The responding officer found Bells 2018 Toyota Camry sedan in the rapids, about 60 yards from the brink. Witnesses said they saw at least one woman yelling for help in the car.

Officials, after determining it wasnt safe to attempt a rescue from shore, called in a Coast Guard rescue copter from Detroit, setting up the scene replayed on social media and on the news around the world.

Park Police said she had drowned before the swimmer reached Bell, who had an iPhone, a bank card and medical discharge papers on her. Three days later, her vehicle was swept over the Falls in a windstorm.

Hard to understand

Drew-Brook said Park Police called him as a family contact to inform him of Bells death.

I was shocked, and so were the rest of the cousins, Drew-Brook said. We just didnt see that coming.

All these months later, friends and family say theyre still grappling with Bells death. She did not leave a suicide note.

I couldnt imagine her doing that because she was scared of a lot of things, Wallace said. So I couldnt imagine her, like, willing herself to do that.

Celia Spacone, coordinator of the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Erie County, said suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States but the rate declined from 2019 to 2020.

This trend, also seen in Erie County, might appear counterintuitive, Spacone said, given the myriad pandemic-induced personal and professional stresses.

But, she said, she suspected more people grew comfortable discussing mental health concerns and reaching out for help.

Loved ones tend to look for one specific trigger for a suicide attempt but, Spacone said, Its usually multifaceted and very complex.

Jordan, in hindsight, pointed to her friends lingering concerns about her health.

She recalled Bell telling her: I tried praying. I tried going to the doctors. Nobody can tell me what's wrong. I don't understand.

Jordan remembered her friend as stubborn, once she made up her mind, but she still wonders about Bells intentions.

I'm not even sure If she knew what she wanted to do, as she did it, Jordan said. She could have just, in frustration, hit the gas and really didn't mean it.

Drew-Brook is left to plan a memorial service for his cousin that should take place later this spring or early summer.

It just doesn't make any sense, he said.

Anyone contemplating self-harm can call the 24-hour National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255.

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By Trend

Representatives of Albanian-Udi Christian religious community of Azerbaijan visited village of Hadrut in Azerbaijans Karabakh in connection with Easter holiday, Trend's Karabakh bureau reports.

The trip was organized by Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations.

The representatives of the community restored gravestones destroyed by the Armenians during the occupation in front of temple in the village of Hadrut.

They also read prayers and lit candles in the temple.
The elections director in Surry County says the head of the county Republican Party threatened to have her fired or her pay reduced last month after she would not give him unauthorized access to voting machines.

But thats not all: Surry Elections Director Michella Huff said theres an effort under way in the county to discourage voters from using the electronic tabulators at all.

Huff worries that the push could inadvertently backfire on voters.

That is disturbing, because we dont want voters to listen to misinformation and lose their right to vote, she said, noting that if someone leaves the polling place without depositing their ballot, there are no do-overs.

There is no hand-count option, Huff said.

The fuss in Surry County is fallout from unproven claims that fraud deprived former President Donald Trump of a victory in the 2020 election.

Huff said Keith Senter, who chairs the Surry GOP, came to her office on March 28 to demand access to the countys D200 ballot tabulators in order to determine whether they had modems inside.

With Senter was Douglas Frank, who has become nationally known as the man The Washington Post called the go-to expert for those eager to argue that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

Also in Huffs office that day were two members of a group called the North Carolina Audit Force and a staffer from the N.C. State Board of Elections. The Audit Force is a group that maintains that the DS200 tabulators widely in use in North Carolina have a variety of options that can be used to compromise election security and election integrity, according to the groups web site.

Dr. Frank said he had found some disturbing data, and had proof ... that (the DS200 machines) had modems in them, Huff said, recalling the meeting. I met with them for over an hour. They asked to see the machines. I told them that would void our warranty, and I would not let them have access.

Senters tone was described by Huff and others as aggressive, threatening and hostile, according to information provided by Patrick Gannon, the public information director for the N.C. State Board of Elections.

Huff said it was not a friendly discussion.

Multiple times I was told that if I denied (their request) I would lose my job, and that they had the full backing of the county commissioners, Huff said. They said that they would see to it that the commissioners would have me fired if I did not stop listening to the State Board of Elections. I cannot do that. Everything I do in this office is by general statute.

Election officials say voting machines in North Carolina dont have modems, are not connected to the internet, nor can they be so connected. A claim by Senter and Frank that the machines have a chip that pinged a cell tower on Nov. 3, 2020, and somehow influenced the election result, is an example of fabricated disinformation without evidence, according to the state elections board.

It may seem ironic that a claim could be made that election-machine shenanigans could have cost Trump any support in Surry County: Trump won 75% of the vote in 2020 and actually improved on his 2016 total by almost 4,000 votes.

But state and local election officials are taking Senters threat seriously: Theyre citing state law that doesnt give local officials the right to dismiss an elections chief, and another law that prohibits anyone other than authorized election staffers to have physical access to voting machines.

The county elections office even hired an outside law firm that wrote a six-page memorandum outlining why it is not legally possible for the state to allow a forensic audit of voting machines involving any outside group.

Both the six-page memorandum and state election officials point out that state law gives the State Board of Elections the sole authority to fire a county elections director. The local elections board can recommend termination of its director.

Although state law gives a county board of commissioners to pay an elections director as little as $12 per hour, another provision of the law says that the directors salary shall be comparable to those paid to counties of similar size and number of registered voters.

Senter could not be reached for this story, but he went to a meeting of the Surry County Board of Commissioners on April 18 and, along with other individuals who spoke, made claims of voter fraud in Surry.

In a written statement, state elections staffers said the voting critics have yet to provide election officials with any credible evidence of irregularities in Surry County or elsewhere in North Carolina to any law enforcement agency or elections office.

DS200 tabulators are part of federally and state certified voting systems, and all voting systems in North Carolina are tested for accuracy before each election, they said.

Staffers went on to say that a sample of precincts in each county are tested by a hand count after each election, and that routine tests, audits and recounts have shown that the machines give an accurate count.

The controversy spilled over to include signs that Huff said Senter placed outside the elections office in Dobson. The signs say that only a forensic audit can weed out fraudulent votes from real ones.

Huff took down the signs and put them aside to give back to Senter. She said that when he arrived to pick them up, he told her, You keep on keeping on, and I cant wait to watch you fall.

Huff said Senter then put up four of the signs outside her office, where they remain.

Looking toward the primary, Huff said she will make sure poll workers know what to do if someone refuses to put a ballot into the tabulator: The voter will be asked to put the ballot into an emergency bin on the tabulators ballot box.

Election workers later retrieve those ballots and run them though the tabulator, she said.

But if the voter walks out with a ballot, that voter has lost the chance to vote in the election, officials said.

Huff said she has experienced no physical threats as a result of the controversy, but the state elections office said it is concerned about the safety of the Surry County elections staff and their ability to do their jobs under increasingly hostile circumstances.

Dwayne Carter, the Democrat who heads the five-member county board of elections, said hes heard no complaints about the job Huff is doing from his board, which includes three Democrats and two Republicans.

Always in the past, the board has felt very good about Mrs. Huff and her staff, and the good job they do in running the elections, he said.

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Nebraska's seventh case of bird flu in a domestic flock is also its largest to date.

The state Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that the highly contagious virus has been found in a flock of 2.1 million laying hens in Knox County.

State Veterinarian Roger Dudley said the farm has been quarantined and the birds will be euthanized and disposed of in an approved manner. Additionally, the Agriculture Department will be establishing a 6.2-mile control zone, per USDA policy, around the affected premises.

Though state officials did not name the owner of the operation, it's likely owned by Michael Foods, which has several egg farms in the area. Earlier this month, an outbreak was reported at one of the company's farms in Dixon County, which required 1.7 million birds to be destroyed.

The company could not immediately be reached for comment.

The latest case brings the total number of birds that have had to be destroyed because of bird flu to 4.8 million, making it nearly as big as the 2015 outbreak in the state.

Nationally, more than 30 million birds have been destroyed because of disease, which is still well short of 2015, when more than 50 million were euthanized.

Nebraska officials also announced Wednesday that a ban on live poultry events such as fairs and auctions, which had been scheduled to expire Saturday, is now being extended through at least May 15.

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

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Elise Poole joined the Black Lives Matter protests in Lincoln after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 with the goal of helping make a difference, even a small one.

Nearly two years later, after suffering a grievous injury that scarred her physically and mentally, Poole says she is ready to move on from being a symbol of the very kind of police brutality she was fighting against.

The city of Lincoln agreed to pay Poole $497,500 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit the 20-year-old filed after a projectile fired by law enforcement during the protests struck her in the face, nearly costing her her nose.

Ive closed one door and Im opening another, Poole said. With that comes some anxiety, but Im overall very relieved this is all over with and I can close this chapter of my life and move on and heal.

In February 2021, Poole sued the city, Lancaster County, former LPD Chief Jeff Bliemeister and Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner for violating her civil rights in how officers and deputies responded to the protests on May 30-31, 2020.

Law enforcement documented hundreds of instances where force was used during the protests, but LPD, the Lancaster County Sheriffs Office, and Nebraska State Patrol have all said those uses were justified.

As part of the agreement with Poole, the city  which will pay the full settlement  admitted no liability or wrongdoing. City Attorney Yohance Christie said the city was unsure what caused Pooles injury.

On Tuesday, in an interview at the ACLU of Nebraskas office in Lincoln, Poole said she is continuing to heal physically from her injury, but said that she continues to battle post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

It took me a long time to fully process everything, she said. It took me a year, honestly.

Poole was standing with friends near the intersection of 12th and H streets just after 10 p.m. on May 31, a little more than two hours after a curfew set by Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird had gone into effect.

Gaylor Baird enacted the curfew after protests the previous nights had become destructive, resulting in millions of dollars of damage along Lincoln Mall and elsewhere.

The protesters from two separate groups  one that had been dispersed by law enforcement earlier at the County-City Building and another that had marched from the Capitol  had squared off against law enforcement on H Street before tear gas and munitions pushed them back.

As she stepped off the curb to retreat, a sharp pain ripped across Pooles face  what her legal team believes was a drag-stabilized beanbag, typically several grams of No. 9 shot tied inside a cotton bag fired from a shotgun.

Poole felt her nose hanging near her mouth. Her friends screamed and rushed to her aid, yelling for help from street medics that were administering first aid to other protesters that night.

Pushing a scarf to the gash across her face, Poole was helped to a car a half-mile away that sped to Bryan West Campus, where surgeons found the bone, cartilage and internal valves of her nose destroyed.

Doctors were able to reattach Pooles nose, but the physical pain has been long-lasting. Poole said she still has difficulty breathing, particularly from her right nostril, which is all but closed shut.

She anticipates needing at least two surgeries in order to restore her ability to breath correctly through her nose.

While the physical pain comes and goes, Poole said the mental anguish and emotional turmoil has continued.

The whiff of something with a hospital smell can trigger a flashback of the event. Shes experienced routine night terrors of her friends screams as they scrambled to help her. Certain images or sounds  even a song that once brought her joy  can put her in a depressive state.

Doctors have diagnosed Poole with severe PTSD and prescribed her medications to help with her anxiety and depression, which has allowed her to continue to work and maintain an apartment.

Poole says her support system  mother and stepfather, sister, boyfriend, friends and roommate  are supportive and understanding, and helping her keep afloat.

I have a lot of people who love me and people from the community that have surrounded me and given me their support, she said.

Jackie Buntgen, Pooles mother, said she and her husband had sat Poole down before she went to the protests and told her to go with love in her heart.

They later rushed to the hospital shortly after learning their daughter had been shot, and have done what they can to help Poole in her recovery.

Its been hard because she really got hurt, Buntgen said. She was out there and she just wanted so much to help. For us, its just been about trying to support her and keep her happy and well.

The support from random people she meets in the community has been surprising for the once-anonymous 18-year-old who attended a protest only to become an exhibit of the violent crackdowns on Black Lives Matter protests across the country.

People recognized Poole immediately after for the scar and swelling across her face and have offered a kind word, she said. Others have told her that standing up and speaking out and filing a lawsuit to hold the law enforcement agencies accountable has inspired them.

I was just there to help give Black and brown people a voice and try to make a positive change in some way, she said. Its crazy to see how something happening to me could be such a big thing for everyone in the community. Ive never experienced that.

It has also come with its downsides.

Poole and her family have had to step away from social media, where commenters will often opine that she got what she deserved or suggested law enforcement should have used live ammunition rather than so-called less-lethal munitions.

Why is getting shot in the face a just thing for using my rights and going out and standing up for what I believe in? she asked. I was doing what was right; I wasnt doing anything wrong, and people think I got what I deserve because they dont agree with it.

I think thats really messed up.

Poole said the experience has been a full circle. She joined the protests to speak out against police brutality and was met with police brutality.

No one should have to go through that, Poole said. Im not going to compare it to being a Black or brown person, because its not the same thing. But experiencing police brutality and living my life after that, Im scared all the time.

Settling the lawsuit  Poole called the amount the city agreed to pay life-changing money  will allow her to move on from the roller coaster ride of the last two years, she said.

Poole said she plans to use the money to continue to get the medical and mental health help she needs to live normally after this.

But, she says, the experience hasnt turned her off from continuing to support the Black Lives Matter movement, other racial justice issues, and holding police accountable.

When you do something wrong, you should take accountability for it, she said. I think compassion goes a long way, and I think people should just be more compassionate.

I care a lot and Im trying my best.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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Fully loaded with fuel, the KC-135R Stratotankers at the Nebraska Air National Guard Base can take off weighing more than 320,000 pounds and stay in the air for hours.

But one of them was recently grounded  and nearly sent to the scrapyard  by a broken, 2-pound piece of aluminum called a rudder snubber support fitting.

The bases hydraulic crew discovered a crack and a misshapen bolt hole in the part while repairing a nearby leak late last year.

They were looking at different hydraulic systems, said Master Sgt. James Kenning, who runs the bases Aircraft Metals Technology Shop. And as they were cleaning up the hydraulic fluid, they noticed it was broken.

The shoehorn-shaped part  about 3 inches wide and 8 inches long  is critical to the aircraft. It serves a role similar to a cars shock absorber mount, but on a larger, and more important scale, helping to stop the jets rudder from vibrating in flight.

Kenning and his three-person crew couldnt just order a replacement; the part was forged for this Stratotanker more than 60 years ago, and there was no surplus supply of rudder snubbers.

This aircraft has been asked to fly a lot longer as originally planned. It was never meant to be in the Air Force this long.

The 155ths planes are flying gas stations, providing in-flight refueling to U.S. military planes around the world. When not deployed, their pilots train extensively, so the jets log ample flying time. But all eight planes were built in the early 1960s, so theyre past their prime.

Which means his shop had been here before, asked to replicate an aircraft part that was no longer available. But members of his crew typically relied on drawings from the late 1950s, when the jets were introduced. They could follow directions, even if they were sometimes hand-sketched.

In this case, though, nobody had expected this part to fail, so there were no specs.

And the stakes were high, Kenning said: When this is broke, the plane is not allowed to fly. If we cant re-create this, the plane is scrapped.

In mid-January, his shop earned approval from Air Force engineers to do something it had never done before: Reverse-engineer a component from scratch, using only the broken part as a guide for building its replacement.

The process would take time, technology, patience  and a special order of high-strength aluminum.

Kenning started with a 3D scanner, measuring the failed fitting from all angles, scanning one side, then flipping it over to scan another. He spent nearly three weeks on that, staring at his monitor, cleaning up the data.

Then he printed a plastic prototype with a 3D printer. But it wasnt quite right, so he and his crew made some changes, and printed another.

The material was almost a problem. Engineers at Tinker Air Force Base near Oklahoma City had approved the use of two types of aircraft-grade aluminum, so Kenning started working the phone.

I called five different large companies to try to track down either kind. We were starting to get scared.

He finally found a company willing to mix up a special batch, and ordered a 4-inch-square, 3 1/2-foot long loaf, or billet  enough aluminum for four rudder snubber support fitting attempts.

That was insurance, Kenning said. When youre making one-off parts, the first try often doesnt work.

But after 26 hours on the CNC machine  and then an ultrasound to look for irregularities  this one did work.

And late last month, his crews efforts were recognized by the chief of the National Guard Bureau. But more importantly, it put the 60-year-old Stratotanker back in the air, Kenning said.

It hasnt fallen out of the sky yet. We essentially brought it back from the dead.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7254 or psalter@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSPeterSalter

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RACINE  A Racine woman has been accused of helping Terry Jackson escape after he allegedly killed Brittany Booker, a 30-year-old mother of six, on Sunday.

Diamond M. Hood, 24, of the 5600 block of Byrd Avenue, was charged with a felony count of harboring or aiding a felon.

Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to Jacksons arrest.

According to a criminal complaint:

At 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, officers were sent to Brittany Bookers residence in the 1300 block of Villa Street.

Inside, officers located blood and eventually found Booker dead in her vehicle from multiple injuries, including a gunshot wound.

Officers reported that they identified Jackson as the person who killed her.

During the investigation, officers were able to identify the vehicle that Jackson drove during the killing. It was a red Jeep Grand Cherokee.

On Monday, the vehicle, which was registered to Hood, was found on the 5600 block of Byrd Avenue. Hood admitted to having contact with Jackson and allowed him to use her vehicle. She also admitted she knew Jackson had warrants for his arrest.

She said that on April 22, two days before Bookers body was found, Jackson called her and said that he was at her residence. She allowed him to stay there and use her vehicle. She said that on April 23 she went out to party while Jackson left in her vehicle.

She returned home on Sunday at around 12:30 a.m. Jackson returned and then left again at some point for 3-4 hours. At around 7 a.m. Jackson woke her up and asked for a ride to his moms residence in Chicago.

Hood drove him to Chicago and then she went back home to Racine.

Police investigators have indicated that Booker had previously been the victim of a violent attack committed by Jackson on Feb. 27. According to the criminal complaint filed Wednesday, officers responded to a call from a Racine bar, Georges Tavern, 1201 N. Main St., and when officers arrived, two females were inside the bar, covered in blood and suffering from significant injuries to their heads and faces ... During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that Terry Jackson had beat both of the women with hammer, hitting them multiple times in the head, almost killing them.

The criminal complaint stated that, upon being interviewed by law enforcement, Hood said she knew about the Feb. 27 attempted homicide.

On March 15, a warrant was issued for Jacksons arrest, with the U.S. Marshals being called in to assist, but he has not yet been taken into custody.

Hood was given a $10,000 cash bond in Racine County Circuit Court on Wednesday.

A preliminary hearing is on May 4 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave., online court records show.
RACINE  Sometimes, a message from a loved one whos died can be written in stone. Or, in this case, concrete.

Noelle Vaillancourt of Racine took her younger brothers death in late 2015 hard. Nick Vaillancourt, who had been a photographer in Milwaukee, died by suicide on Dec. 27, 2015. He had been suffering with mental health issues for 20 years, according to Noelle and their mother, Maureen.

Early in the morning of Dec. 28, 2015, Noelle heard her brother's voice say to her look down. As she peeked down onto the sidewalk, a patch of concrete she said had been a circle after a dent had been filled in by her ex-husband was now in the shape of a heart. She took it as a sign that her brother was watching over her.

It was not the only sign Noelle said she has since received from her brother. She said she had been woken up by orbs of light or a red cardinal, often claimed to symbolize the presence of a family member who has died, appearing before her in moments of strife and uncertainty in her life.

When the sidewalk needed to be torn up for some water work in late April, Noelle and Maureen had concerns that the heart, the first sign from Nick they received, would have to be removed. Dan Macemon, of Macemon and Sons Plumbing, cut the heart shaped patch of concrete out of the ground a returned it to the Vaillancourts. It now hangs in what had been Nicks room, a reminder that he will always be there and watching over his family.

Another recovery This isn't the first time Dan Macemon, of Macemon and Sons Plumbing, has been part of recovering an heirloom. During a demolition in 2017 on Racine Street, he uncovered a Purple Heart  the U.S. military decoration awarded to those wounded or killed while serving  that had been awarded to Albert L. Weaver.

Macemon said it was an honor to have been able to support the Vaillancourts like he did.

Nicks room as well as other parts of the Vaillancourt residence off Westlawn Avenue are kept as memorials to him.

Nicks remains are placed on the mantle of the Vaillancourt home, where his mother and sister can return the favor by keeping watch over him.

If I could say anything to my brother, I would want him to know how much I love him, how much I miss him, how thankful I am he is not suffering and more than anything thank you for my signs. Noelle said, reflecting on feeling her brother's spirit.

Refer If you or a loved one are suffering a mental health crisis or considering suicide, or are seeking help for related reasons, call 800-273-8255. Starting July 16, you will be able to call 988 for mental health crises.

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Remembering

Few elected officials addressed Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day this year. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, was one of them. His statement, issued Sunday, is as follows:

"Today, April 24, is the day to remember the 1.5 million Armenians murdered by Turkey before during and after World War I.

The Armenian Genocide was the Ottoman government's systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, mostly citizens within the Ottoman Empire. The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported from Constantinople (now Istanbul) to the region of Ankara, 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders, the majority of whom were eventually murdered. The genocide was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phasesthe wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labor, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and the infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian Desert.

Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre.

Millions murdered.

Turkey says it never happened.

The Armenian genocide occurred during the twilight of the Ottoman Empire, which allied itself with Germany during World War I. After their ill-fated invasion of Russia, Turkish leaders became suspicious of the empire's Armenian Christian minority and began a years-long persecution.

Armenian leaders in Istanbul were detained, deported and killed on April 24, 1915  widely considered to be the beginning of the genocide  and the campaign spread from there. Hundreds of thousands were killed, and others were forced from their homes on long marches into the Syrian desert, where many more died.

Never Forget..."

President Joe Biden last year became the first U.S. president to actually refer to the genocide as a "genocide." On Sunday, he issued another statement in memory of the 1.5 million Armenians who were deported, massacred or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination by Ottoman Empire forces.

Turkey responded by claiming Bidens declaration was incompatible with historical facts and international law.
Emirates Reit, a Dubai-based real estate investment trust under Equitativa Limited, has swung back to profit making a full year (FY) 2021 net of AED232 million ($63.1 miliion), compared to a net loss of AED892 million in 2020.

Emirates Reit reported a 59.3% increase in operating profit to $46.6 million in 2021 compared to the previous year.

Overall growth in 2021 was driven by an increase in total property income to $68.6 million, up 3.9% compared to the same period in the previous year, as occupancy across the Reits portfolio grew by 2.8 percentage points to 71.8% as at December 31, 2021.

Increased occupancy

Subsequent to the year end, the successful conclusion of ongoing lease negotiations has led to a further increase in occupancy to 81.0% as at March 31, 2022. Net property income increased 7.7% as the Reit continued to focus on cost optimisation.

The Reit booked a net unrealised gain on revaluation of $44.7 million in 2021 compared to a loss of $243.4 million in 2020, as its independent valuers CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield considered the improving market sentiment in the UAEs commercial and retail real estate markets.

The Reits portfolio has been valued at $762.1 million in 2021, a 7.5% increase compared to the previous year. The Reits net asset value (NAV) at the end of 2021 was $289.8 million, equating to a NAV per share of $0.95, up 28.3% compared to the previous year.

New opportunities

Following the positive close to 2021, and the emergence of significant new opportunities in the UAE and broader GCCs real estate markets, Equitativa is expanding its management team and governance structures and the Board has appointed Thierry Leleu as CEO of Equitativa (Dubai) Limited, Dr Faisal Alayyan to the Reits Investment Board, and Simon Townsend to the Reits Oversight Board.

Commenting on Emirates Reits FY 2021 performance and welcoming Leleu as CEO, Sylvain Vieujot, Executive Deputy Chairman of Equitativa, said: We delivered a strong set of improved results in 2021, following a difficult year in 2020, as the world tackled the Covid-19 pandemic. The swift and decisive actions taken by the UAEs leadership supported a sustained recovery and renewed confidence in the local real estate market in 2021, which drove our improved performance during the year.

Our operating income increased 59.3% year on year, and we recorded a net unrealised gain on revaluation of $44.7 million during the year, as a more positive sentiment returned to the UAE commercial real estate market.

Ideally positioned

Our portfolio of high-quality commercial assets is ideally positioned to benefit from the continued momentum in the market, as demonstrated by our increasing occupancy rate which continued to grow following the year end increasing to 81.0% in March 2022 from 71.8% at the end of 2021. We also made considerable progress tackling legacy issues during the year, including the DIFC-LCIA award in favour of the Reit with regards to outstanding rent payments by the Jebel Ali School.

Commenting on his appointment, Leleu said: 2022 will be a pivotal year for Emirates Reit. The performance of the business has been strong and resilient despite the previous difficulties presented by the global pandemic. My new role as CEO will see me focused on further improving the operational efficiencies of the Reit and partnering with our stakeholders to enhance its capital structure with the aim to deliver sustainable growth in income and value to our shareholders. With our strong base of investors and balanced portfolio of very high-quality assets, we are well placed to take advantage of the upturn were seeing in the Dubai property market currently.

Leleu, who joined Equitativa as Deputy CEO in November 2021, has a strong track record of building and managing Reits. Until September 2020, he was the Chief Investment Officer of Cromwell European Reit, a trust that listed in Singapore in late 2017. During his tenure there, he grew the portfolio by 50% to about three times the size of Emirates Reits portfolio and drove outperformance for 8 consecutive quarters.

Vieujot will shift his focus on the growth of Equitativa as Executive Deputy Chairman of Equitativa (Dubai) Limited and will continue to play a critical role in the Reits strategic oversight and direction as part of the management board.-- TradeArabia News Service
RACINE  Mayor Cory Mason said he tested positive on Monday for COVID-19.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, he wrote Yesterday I tested positive for COVID. I am thankful that I am vaccinated and that so far my symptoms are mild. To help stop the spread, my family and I will be isolating in accordance with health guidelines and doctor recommendations. Stay safe Racine!

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 remain low statewide, but new confirmed cases are on the rise, indicating that the coronavirus is actively spreading but that vaccinations are keeping people alive and out of the hospital.

Down from a record high in late 2021, average new cases confirmed per day fell into the low 300s in March but have since risen to more than 1,100 cases per day, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Statewide, according to DHS, 61% of the Wisconsin residents are fully vaccinated and more than half of those who are fully vaccinated have received at least one booster dose.

Wisconsin residents not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 were 2.4 times more likely to be hospitalized with the virus and 3.4 times more likely to die from it than those fully vaccinated in March.
RACINE  Walden III High School has again been named a U.S. News Best High School. It ranked in the top 10% of selected Wisconsin schools and earned more than 50 points ahead of any other Racine Unified School District high school.

The U.S. News reviewed nearly 24,000 U.S. public high schools; 452 Wisconsin schools made the rankings. Schools were ranked based on their 2020-2021 school year performance on state-required tests, graduation rates and how well they prepare students for college.

Wisconsin had 382 school districts supporting 534 high schools in the 2020-2021 year. Students are assessed via mathematics, reading and oftentimes science proficiency tests.

Walden III, with a total enrollment of 340, was ranked 43rd in Wisconsin and No. 1,670 in the national rankings, putting Walden in the top 10% statewide of the selected schools and top 40% of all eligible high schools nationwide. Its overall score was 90.64 out of 100.

The school, now located at 2340 Mohr Ave., additionally tied for first at the state and national level for its graduation rate ranking.

We are proud of the continued success of the students and staff at Walden and the entire Racine Community should be as well. The school does a great job of ensuring each and every student graduates college or career ready, RUSD Communications Manager Jonalee Kuhn wrote in an email.

Next in line for an RUSD high school is Case, which was ranked 304th in Wisconsin and No. 11,170 in the national rankings. Its overall score was 37.4 out of 100.

Third on the list for a RUSD high school is Horlick, which was ranked in the range 362-452nd in Wisconsin and No. 13,383-17,843 in the national rankings. Its overall score was reported as less than 25 out of 100.

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It's a new term, and my friend Ray Vella shared some student projects from his NYU class on infographics. There's always something to learn from these projects.

The starting point is a chart published in the Economist a few years ago.

This is a challenging chart to read. To save you the time, the following key points are pertinent:

a) income inequality is measured by the disparity between regional averages



b) the incomes are given in a double index, a relative measure. For each country and year combination, the average national GDP is set to 100. A value of 150 means the richest region of Spain has an average income that is 50% higher than Spain's national average in the year 2015.

The original chart - as well as most of the student work - is based on a specific analysis plan. The difference in the index values between the richest and poorest regions is used as a measure of the degree of income inequality, and the change in the difference in the index values over time, as a measure of change in the degree of income inequality over time. That's as big a mouthful as the bag of words sounds.

This analysis plan can be summarized as:



1) all incomes -> relative indices, at each region-year combination

2) inequality = rich - poor region gap, at each region-year combination

3) inequality over time = inequality in 2015 - inequality in 2000, for each country

4) country difference = inequality in country A - inequality in country B, for each year

***

One student, J. Harrington, looks at the data through an alternative lens that brings clarity to the underlying data. Harrington starts with change in income within the richest regions (then the poorest regions), so that a worsening income inequality should imply that the richest region is growing incomes at a faster clip than the poorest region.

This alternative analysis plan can be summarized as:

1) change in income over time for richest regions for each country

2) change in income over time for poorest regions for each country

3) inequality = change in income over time: rich - poor, for each country

The restructuring of the analysis plan makes a big difference!

Here is one way to show this alternative analysis:

The underlying data have not changed but the reader's experience is transformed.
1. Yes. If inflation remains high and interest rates rise, the economy will be a major factor.

2. Yes. If the nation goes into a recession, it will be the issue on the minds of most voters.

3. No. Inflation will likely moderate by then; if so, the economy wont be a major issue.

4.No. All the turmoil involving Russia and Roe v. Wade will probably take center stage.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say how the economy will play with voters at this point.

Vote

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DP World, a global logistics company and one of the worlds largest marine terminal operators, announced the inaugural industrial building located in the 1300+ acre development in Orangeburg County, South Carolina.

The building marks a milestone with the continued partnership with Orangeburg County and State of South Carolina for the continued economic development of the planned 6+ million square feet industrial park.

The South Carolina Gateway Logistics Park is centrally located at the intersection of Highway 301 & Interstate 95 between Charleston and Columbia.

The logistics park offers users a strategic, inland and rail-served platform with close port proximity for industrial development. Opportunities for build-to-suit ranging in size from 50,000 sf to 1+ million sf, the park provides flexible solutions for both large and mid-size users.

DP World said it has been working closely with Orangeburg County throughout the course of the project to ensure the logistics park meets the needs of the end users, is fully integrated and benefits the surrounding communities.

In particular, the property will be placed in a multi-county industrial park shared by Orangeburg and Dorchester Counties, providing the opportunity for enhanced tax credits for tenants locating in the park. DPW anticipates this process to be completed in the coming weeks, it stated.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Group Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said: "It is with great pride that we open the Gateway Logistics Park for business today and celebrate a long-term investment that is estimated to bring more than $500 million into the economy."

"The collaboration with Orangeburg County and the State of South Carolina has been a model of the kind of economic development that public and private partnerships can create when the greater good is at the center. This expansive site is full of potential economic opportunity for South Carolina including two-thousand jobs and local tax revenues upward of $10 million," he noted.

Chairman Sulayem was joined in Orangeburg by DP Worlds Americas CEO Matt Leech who said: "DP World is using its expertise in smart logistics solutions to enable the flow of trade across the globe. Combined with our 2021 acquisition of Syncreon, the South Carolina Gateway Logistics Park, is part of DP Worlds broader vision to become a driving force in helping more US businesses face the evolving supply chain and logistics challenges that are causing turmoil in the post pandemic economy."

In 2021, Premium Peanut, from Douglas, Georgia signed an agreement with DPW to purchase a 42+ acre tract in the Gateway Logistics Park. The company is investing $64 million to build the most technologically advanced peanut shelling operation in the world.

In addition to an estimated 130 local jobs, the new operation will provide additional local capacity allowing South Carolina peanut growers the opportunity to be a part of a cooperative model of continued economic growth.-TradeArabia News Service
LEXINGTON  A 19-year-old Lexington man charged in the shooting death of a 15-year-old Lexington resident has accepted a plea deal.

Ramon Gonzalez Romero had been charged with felony first-degree murder, and use of a weapon to commit a felony.

Romero appeared in Dawson County District Court before Judge James Doyle on Friday. Per the plea deal, the first-degree murder charge was amended to manslaughter and the weapon charge was dismissed.

A sentencing hearing is set for 11 a.m. June 27.

At 7:25 a.m. Jan. 2, the Lexington Police Department respoonded to Lexington Regional Health Center for a 15-year-old teen with a possible gunshot wound.

Officers spoke with two individuals who reported a physical altercation had taken place near Airport Road and 20th Street. Romero had exited a white SUV and fired three rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun at a 15-year-old, according to court records.

The 15-year-old was transported to Lexington Regional Health Center by friends, but later died.

Officers interviewed one of the three occupants of the SUV who had been riding with Romero before the altercation. According to LPD reports, one of the occupants of the SUV reported they had been driving around when a black Chevy pickup began following them.

Occupants were the 15-year-old and the two individuals officers had spoken to earlier. The vehicles stopped around 20th Street and Airport Road, and one of the SUV occupants reported, at the beginning of the altercation, the 15-year-old possessed a black handgun, records say.

After Romero had fired the shots, occupants of the SUV asked him, Did you really just shoot him, to which Gonzalez Romero replied, Yeah, I did, records say.

The LPD obtained an arrest warrant for Gonzalez Romero, who later turned himself in.

Gonzalez Romero graduated from Lexington High School in 2020. Major Scott Ingalsbe of the Nebraska National Guard said Gonzalez Romero was joining the Guard, but had not attended basic training or been assigned to a unit.
KEARNEY  The donations covered several tables inside Room 312 on the third floor of the University of Nebraska at Kearneys student union.

There were stacks of bath towels and washcloths, piles of soap, toothbrushes and nail clippers and boxes filled with combs, Kleenex and Band-Aids.

Its incredible, said Tanner Butler, a UNK junior from Broken Bow. Most of us thought we were going to get a good number of items, but not this number.

Haley Mazour, a UNK senior from Hastings, had a similar reaction Thursday evening as around 30 students and faculty members gathered to assemble hygiene kits for people displaced by the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Im awestruck, she said. Im very overwhelmed by the amount of things that are here today. Im really proud of UNK and really proud of Kearney in this moment.

UNK and Kearney should be equally proud of Mazour and Butler. The political science majors spearheaded the student-led project that will benefit more than 150 refugees.

Mazour and Butler serve as president and vice president of the Locke and Key Society, a nonpartisan campus club for students interested in politics and public affairs. That organization worked with other student groups and community partners to collect items for the hygiene kits, which will be delivered by Orphan Grain Train, a Norfolk-based nonprofit that sends clothing, food, medical supplies and other aid to people in need.

A total of 163 care packages were created, and additional items not included in the kits will also be donated.

This seemingly small act can have a big impact.

Especially in a time when were kind of relegated to social media activism, it feels really good to get together with people, doing something with your hands that you know is going to make a real, physical difference in the world, Mazour said. It might not be huge and its not going to turn the tides of the war, but it is going to make a difference and it is going to make somebodys life thats just been destroyed and upended a little bit easier.

More than 11 million people have fled their homes in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded the country two months ago, according to the United Nations. This includes around 5 million residents who left the country and another 6.5 million who are internally displaced. Its Europes largest refugee crisis since World War II.

Theres purposeful killing of civilians, so people have to get out of there, and we need to do whatever we can to help those people, Butler said. With the number of donations we received, I think that shows people are willing to act, they truly care about this situation, and they understand the horrors.

Although theyre thousands of miles away, members of the Locke and Key Society will continue to do their part to shine a light on this humanitarian crisis.

The fact that a huge group of people got together in central Nebraska to help people all the way across the world  out of the kindness of their own hearts, just because its the right thing to do  I think thats a really beautiful thing, Mazour said.
Chubs is the sweetest older guy you will ever meet! This man is always the first to greet us in the morning when we come in with the cutest meows ever. He absolutely loves everyone he meets and will rub up against you for nonstop attention. In addition to being a super social man, he is also still quite the active and curious guy despite his age. He is always ready for his next big adventure and loves to explore his surroundings. He would love a home where he would have access to a window or two as well as he loves jumping from spot to spot to take in all his surroundings.

Since Chubs is such a well-mannered and social man he should do great in just about any home including those with children of any age. He previously lived with several other cats so would most likely appreciate another feline friend in the home. He may do ok with respectful dogs as well given slow and proper introductions.

Chubs is a 7 year old neutered male. He is current on his vaccinations, microchipped, and FeLV negative. Chubs is FIV positive. Please ask one of our adoption counselors for more information about FIV.

Chubs is experiencing an Extended Stay with us for over a month now! In hopes of helping him find his forever home sooner, his adoption fee has been reduced by 50%.

Antoinette is a spirited lady looking for a home that can appreciate her unique personality. When she first came to the shelter she was understandably very unsure of her new surroundings as well as the people around her. It took some time for her to warm up but now that she has she has shown us her truly sweet demeanor. She begs for attention from her favorite people and will follow them around chatting up a storm. And if you arent on her good side yet, dont worry this girl can easily be convinced by lots of treats! Like most cats she is also quite the curious lady and loves to explore her surroundings. She would benefit from having lots of toys and activities to keep her body and mind in tip top shape. She is looking for a home that is willing to give her the time she needs to adjust to a new setting and lots of patience and understanding as well as be respectful of her independence when she so demands it.

Antoinette does still have a strong, opinionated, and independent side to her so she is looking for a calmer, quieter home with older children who are at least 12 years of age or older. She also doesnt seem to appreciate the other cats here at the shelter so she may do best as the only pet in the home.

Antoinette is a 4 year old spayed female. She is current on her vaccinations, microchipped, and FIV/FeLV negative!

Max is a handsome tri-color boy looking for a quiet home where he can settle in and feel safe. He is house trained and kennel trained in his foster home. He should adjust well to a new home with time and a consistent routine.

Max is not fond of other dogs so he is looking to be your one and only. He has a heart of gold and promises to give you enough love for 4 or more dogs! Because Max is shy/fearful around new people and in new environment he is looking an adult only home. He will need his people to be patient and give him time to trust, approach and bond with them. He is not a boy who can be rushed and pet right away by a stranger.

We know Max is in need of an extra special home but we know it is out there! Once he bonds with you he is yours ENTIRELY and FOREVER! He loves to snuggle and give kisses. Hes a lower key guy who doesnt ask for much. He enjoys daily walks and lots of naps on the couch with some cozy blankets!

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Westby Co-op Creamery is among the 2022 Dairy Processor Grant recipients. The cooperative received $25,000 that will be used for plant modernization and expansion to utilize more milk and create new products.

Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP), announced 19 Wisconsin dairy companies will receive a DATCP Dairy Processor Grant in 2022. These grants aim to foster innovation, improve profitability, and sustain the long-term viability of Wisconsins dairy processing facilities.

Wisconsins dairy industry is not only a vital part of our economy, but its core to our Wisconsin heritage and who we are as a state, said Evers. I was proud to increase funding for these grants in our last budget, and I am glad to be awarding these funds today to ensure our dairy processors can continue to grow their businesses and consumers across the globe can continue to enjoy high-quality dairy products from Americas Dairyland.

As part of the 2021-23 biennial budget, Evers increased the annual funding for dairy processor grants from $200,000 to $400,000 to provide additional support to Wisconsins dairy industry. DATCP received 43 grant requests totaling more than $1.7 million.

Wisconsins dairy processors are a critical element of our states thriving dairy industry, said DATCP Secretary Randy Romanski. As a national leader in the production of cheese, our processors are constantly seeking new technologies, modernizing, and finding new ways to meet the needs of consumers. These grants help processors accomplish those goals.

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BEIJING (AP)  Police and new fencing restricted who could leave a locked-down area in Beijing on Tuesday as authorities in the Chinese capital stepped up efforts to prevent a major COVID-19 outbreak like the one that has all but shut down the city of Shanghai.

People lined up for throat swabs across much of Beijing as mass testing was expanded to 11 of the city's 16 districts.

Another 22 cases were found in the last 24 hours, Beijing health officials said at a late afternoon news conference, bringing the total to 92 since the outbreak was discovered five days ago. That is tiny in comparison to Shanghai, where the number of cases has topped 500,000 and at least 190 people have died. No deaths have been reported from the still-nascent outbreak in Beijing.

An initial announcement of testing in one Beijing district had sparked panic buying in the city of 21 million on Monday, but the situation appeared to calm on Tuesday even as testing was expanded. Public transport appeared to be running largely normally and roads were filled with commuters.

Im not worried that Beijing would suffer from a shortage of supplies so I dont plan to stock up, said Zhang Yifan, who was on his way to get tested in Dongcheng district. "Because if people stock up blindly, it may cause a waste of resources. If people keep too much supplies at home, it will cause a shortage.

Beijing has locked down some apartment buildings and residential complexes and on Monday added a larger urban area measuring about 2 by 3 kilometers (1 by 2 miles). Workers put up blue metal fencing along part of the area Tuesday, and police restricted who could leave. Residents are being kept inside their compounds.

Fears of a total lockdown have been fed by disruptions in the supply of food, medicine and daily necessities in Shanghai, a southeast coast business hub whose 25 million residents have only gradually been allowed to leave their homes after three weeks of confinement.

However, 86-year-old Beijing resident Chen Shengzhen said the capital had been given more time to prepare than its southern cousin.

Shanghai's lockdown came all of a sudden, so the policies and other aspects were not able to be in place, leading to short-term hardships in the city, Chen told The Associated Press.

My daughter works in a government department and they have prepared very well, such as beds, quilts, and articles for womens use. Even if we need to go into lockdown, we will be fine, said Chen.

Shanghai residents, confined to their complexes or buildings, had trouble ordering food deliveries and also faced higher prices. The lockdown of China's largest city has had ripple effects elsewhere as goods have backed up at Shanghai's port, affecting factory production, global supply chains and China's own economic growth.

Zhong Xiaobing, the general manager of the Lianhua Supermarket chain in Shanghai, said that shipments of goods from elsewhere in China have gotten smoother since the government organized trucks 10 days ago to bring in goods from key transfer stations, but that imports remain slower because of port and other transport restrictions.

Other cities have also been locked down in China as the omicron variant proves difficult to control, with Baotou in Inner Mongolia the latest to enforce one.

Beijing tested nearly 3.8 million people in an initial round of mass testing in Chaoyang district on Monday. All the results were negative except for one in a group of five that were tested together, a Chaoyang official said. Those five people were being tested to determine who among them is infected.

Chaoyang has had the most cases in the Beijing outbreak, but authorities decided to extend the testing to 10 more districts on Tuesday.

Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang and researcher Yu Bing in Beijing and researcher Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The 13th edition of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) conference will focus on ways in which business players can future-proof their supply chains against complex disruptions and overcome the challenges facing them.

To be held from May 17 to 19 in Dubai the GPCA Supply Chain Conference will examine the changing future of supply chains under the theme Future-proofing supply chains  The time is now.

Besides, industry experts will seek to answer burning questions about driving customer centricity, the impact of the Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda on chemical supply chains, reverse logistics, reducing Scope 3 emissions and many more.

Elite speakers

Over 20 speakers will come to Dubai for three days of insightful conversations encompassing over 15 conference sessions and 25 networking hours. They will draw upon the lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic and shed light on a raft of fast-moving issues including but not limited to growing container shortages, the implications of continuously high freight rates on petrochemical exports and progress on the long-awaited $250 billion GCC Rail project.

On day one, delegates will learn from expert speakers in the field, including Dr Bashar Al Malik, CEO, Saudi Railway Company (SAR), and Dr Faisal Al-Faqeer, CEO, Sadara Chemical Company, who will engage in the conferences first-of-its-kind executive panel about the GCC Rail and why it is a game changer for logistics sector and the supply chain in the region.

Saleh Al-Suwaiti, CEO, FAHSS-TUV, and Chairman, GPCA Supply Chain Committee, will present the welcome address on day one. The welcome address on day two will be delivered by Aslam Moola, Vice Chairman, GPCA Supply Chain Committee.

Key participants

Other key speakers at the conference include:

Hosam Al Zamil, VP Global Supply Chain, Sabic;

Fouzia Boutobza, Industry Commercial Head, Energy & Manufacturing  MEA, Microsoft;

Dheeraj Bhatia, Senior Managing Director, Region Middle East, Hapag Lloyd; and

Christopher Cook, Managing Director  UAE, Oman, Qatar, Maersk.

Greater scrutiny

Dr Abdulwahab Al-Sadoun, Secretary General, GPCA, commented: 2022 will mark seven years since the adoption of the Paris Accord, bringing ever greater scrutiny on our progress on emissions reduction. While commitments initially focused on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocols Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, organisations are now increasingly being challenged to reduce their Scope 3 emissions which are generated in their upstream and downstream value chain. This can be a tall order given the economic and technical complexity that comes with it but strong commitment by chemical and petrochemical companies, which operate in both energy- and resource-intensive sectors, demonstrate they are determined to achieve it.

We will shed light on the often-elusive ESG framework and what it means for companies logistics operations, dissect rapidly developing topics, such as the new energy storage systems, and unravel the latest trends in digitalisation and new technologies.-- TradeArabia News Service
CHIPPEWA FALLS  A 14-year-old boy accused of killing a 10-year-old Wisconsin girl knew the girl and planned the attack, knocking her down and choking her before sexually assaulting her, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The body of Illiana Lily Peters was found Monday along a walking trail just a day after she went missing while returning home from an aunts house a few blocks away, sparking anxiety in her small western Wisconsin community before the teenagers arrest Tuesday.

The boy, identified only by his initials, appeared in adult court in Chippewa County by video from a juvenile detention center. Judge Benjamin Lane agreed to District Attorney Wade Newells request for $1 million cash bond.

Lane said the high bond was necessary to protect the community given the teens statements regarding his intentions and his statements regarding that when he did get off the trail, he punched the victim in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, essentially strangled her, hit her with a stick, before strangling her to the point of death  before he then sexually assaulted her, Newell told the judge at the bond hearing.

The teen made statements that his intention was to rape and kill the victim from the get-go, Newell said.

The defense had argued for $100,000 cash bond.

The judge sealed the criminal complaint, but Newell said after the hearing that the boy is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault and first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13 resulting in great bodily harm.

Wisconsin law generally calls for juveniles age 10 and up to be prosecuted as adults when they are charged with first-degree intentional homicide. The judge set a May 5 status hearing in the case.

Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matthew Kelm announced the arrest of the suspect Tuesday evening, after police earlier executed a search warrant at the home of Lilys aunt and the last place the girl was seen before she disappeared. Kelm said police got more than 200 tips, calling them critical to the investigation.

While nothing will bring Lily Peters back or change what happened, we are very grateful to be able to deliver this news for the family and for the community, Kelm said.

People in the town of about 13,000 left drawings, flowers, candles and stuffed animals at Lilys elementary school and on a downtown bridge to remember the girl, with some residents dressing in purple to honor her. Chelsea Torgerson said she kept her daughter home from school Tuesday, before the arrest was announced, just for my own peace of mind.

I know these things happen in the world every day, but this is just so close, she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Torgersons daughter, 8-year-old Ava Johnson, attends Parkview Elementary School  the same school where Lily was a fourth-grader.

Its every parents worst nightmare, Torgerson said.

One resident has started an online petition on Change.org to create what he called a Lily Alert for cases that dont qualify for traditional Amber Alerts. Currently, Amber Alerts may be issued only if a child is 17 or younger and thought to be in danger of serious bodily harm or death.

Any parent would agree that when a child is missing, even for a short amount of time, and they need help then help should be sent, resident Eric Henry said in the petition. The community is devastated and rallied to start a search group for the missing child. We can do better as a community and must be proactive. We need an alert with less regulations around it so we can respond quicker to missing children.

The petition had more than 56,000 signatures as of Wednesday night.

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My wild turkey hunting season started inauspiciously. It seemed like I had just closed my eyes when Ellen woke me up at 4:30. She told me Bo had puked a pile in the kitchen. I must have done something right in a previous life because my darling girl had cleaned it up already. Anyway, El went back to bed, Bo got kicked outside and I made coffee.

One element that I really like about what spring turkey hunting has over fall bowhunting for whitetails is that one can put on their warm clothing in the house without much worry of how they smell. I firmly believe if a turkey could smell like a deer, no one would ever kill one. I pulled on camo coveralls, boots, and my warm camo jacket before I left the house.

It was breezy, gaining on windy as I stepped outside. The 41 degree temp was a little more promising after the 21 degrees earlier in the week. I couldnt see a star overhead. Up in the barn, my loaded since Saturday F150 was just where I left it.

Some turkey hunting mornings up on the ridge I get treated to a pretty-as-a-picture horizon fading up into a starry sky. This morning it was black broken only with the glow from yard lights and flashing cell towers. A couple corn shocks blew across the headlightsuh oh.

When I turned into the field driveway, I tried going without lights, but that was a no go, uh or rather no see, I bounced along in the near dark with running lights on for the half-a-mile to our ridge top. I pulled into our fields and parked. I took my coffee cup and my seat cushion. The wind was alternating from breeze to gale out of the east. I used a front tire as a backrest and after, I got down  not such an easy task anymore by the way  I sat on the cushion and sipped from my Yeti mug, listening for gobblers over the wind. I did hear one shot in the distance long before it was light enough to see.

As the black gave way to some images, I could make out something moving in the corn and bean stubble right in front of me. Mice, I thought, but no, little birds, chickadees I think were hopping about in search of breakfast or nesting material maybe. Several were only a few feet from my boots. While listened, I counted something like eight flashing red towers in the distance. I could see headlights heading north up Hwy. 35. I heard a barge chugging on the Mississippi, and then a train horn as it rolled south toward Stoddard. Eventually, I noticed that the trucks rear tire was nearly flat; but just nearly thankfully.

I figured Id have to move. One, to maybe have a chance at a gobbler and two, to get some blood back into my butt and legs. After loading her with a 3 magnum .10 gauge turkey load, I slung Wilmamy single shot turkey specialover my shoulder along with my camo boat cushion seat. I put my gear bag around my neck and grabbed my decoys for the nearly half-a-mile walk to what has been my favorite turkey honey-hole for many seasons.

I usually dont hunt with decoys this early, but I pushed Jezebel, my hen turkey decoys ground stake into the damp earth at the edge of a bean field/hay strip and then pushed down Jake, my feather-light jake decoys stake some five yards toward where I planned to set up my ambush in the woods. The jake decoy can move a little in the breeze.

Anyway, I plunked my stuff down near an ash tree that was wide enough to conceal my too wide figure, unzipped my calls, and got my face mask in place making sure I was presentable using my cell-phone camera as a mirror. Then I waited a bit.

The wind was quieter in this mostly woods surrounded spot. I could hear  another surprise. Then I heard a gobbler down in the hollow behind me, announcing he was available to impress girls and/or take on all comers. In less than a minute, another bird challenged him from the Grouse Hollow and two more at the other points of the compass joined in the fray. I put my raspy turkey call between my teeth and yelped a series quietly and shut up. The gobblers gobbled, but didnt seem to be getting any closer. After nearly 15 minutes, I yelped with a plunger box call. Just one quiet series again. Patience is the strategy I always try to use, but I was just about to pick up another call when I spotted movement in the field to my right. Two toms were racing toward the decoys. One stopped and lifted its head up looking right at my location, then took off after his buddy. The buddy suddenly did the same thing, but Jake caught a breeze and turned a bit, beguiling the two long bearded Lotharios who threw caution to the wind.

They passed a tree and I tucked Wilma into my shoulder and raised the up heavy barrel. The drama was over in just a second. The survivor frozen looked on at his collapsed chum, but only for the time it took for me to clumsily start to get to my feet. The lucky bird chose the exit stage right sign and vanished.

Anyway, now all that was left to do was calling Ellen, taking a picture or two, and cleaning the meat up for the freezer and future dinners.

Until next time, get out  were often asked how we fix wild turkey. Well, cut the turkey breast up into pieces the size of a deck of cards, roll it in seasoned flour and brown the pieces in hot olive oil. Meanwhile, put a box of Uncle Bens Wild Rice and its seasonings in a roaster with half a can of cream of mushroom soup stirred together a bit with a  cup of water. Add a can of green beans complete with its water on top and then place the browned bird on top of that. Pour the rest of the soup over the meat. Roast at 350 for about an hour uncovered. Take it out of the oven and put on the cover for about 20 minutes. This is great with red wine. Enjoy.

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Premier Inn, the UKs largest, award-winning hotel brand, has opened Premier Inn Barsha Heights, bringing a new, contemporary hotel, a diverse range of dining and leisure offerings and the best of British hospitality to one of Dubais most vibrant urban neighbourhoods.

The 11th Premier Inn in the Mena region and the seventh in Dubai, Premier Inn Barsha Heights is owned by MBT Hotel Management & Hospitality, a division of the renowned, Abu Dhabi-based hotel development and hospitality management company, MBT Development Group.

Premier Inn Barsha Heights is MBTs first hotel project in the UAE.

With redesigned guest rooms, a new look lobby and fresh concepts in F&B, Premier Inn Barsha Heights is the showcase for evolution of the already deep-rooted brand in the region.

Speaking at the opening, Managing Director (Mena) Simon Leigh said: "Premier Inn is firmly established as the hotel brand of choice for high value, high quality accommodation in the region. The opening of Barsha Heights property is a key milestone in our continued expansion, reinforcing our commitment to the region and to playing our part in contributing to Dubais tourism goals."

"Our unique new hospitality offering bears all the hallmarks of our much-loved, award-winning brand - an enviable location, excellent value, exciting places to eat and drink and of course our good night guarantee  with a stylish new twist," stated Leigh.

"Were delighted to bring our famous British charm to this buzzing community and are confident that Premier Inn will quickly become Barsha Heights chosen destination for quality accommodation, great food and classy yet casual leisure, appealing to a wide range of guests, including short term business travellers, family holidaymakers, local residents and nearby businesses," he added.

Niveen Ibrahim, Chief Operating Officer at MBT Development and Executive Director of MBT Hotel Management & Hospitality, said: "Our vision is to lead the way in revolution and forward thinking. We aim to be the benchmark for pioneering projects and strive to make a significant impact in the UAEs hospitality industry."

"Our partnership with Premier Inn is our first of many hotel ventures. The UAE is well known for its luxury and premium hotels, and we want to bring more in the way of quality accommodation and affordability," he noted.

"The demand for mid-scale hotels is increasing which inspired our collaboration with Premier Inn  one of the most well-established, international hotel brands in the region," he added.
Community Health Centers Offer Safe, Affordable Care Right in South L.A.

With clinics all over South Los Angeles, Inglewood, Compton and more, the Southside Coalition of Community Health Centers raises a unified voice for the health care needs of South Los Angeles.

The coalition, established in 2004, is now a network of eight Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), representing more than 50 community- and school-based health clinics serving the South Los Angeles region.

Southside Coalition community health centers have been at the forefront of helping Black and Brown community members get vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 and protecting themselves and their families from severe illness that can impact overall health and ability to work. Southside Coalition member clinics have provided COVID-19 vaccines and testing since both became available, which is especially convenient for community members who may need to get tested regularly to go to their places of work.

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In some cases, Southside Coalition health centers have partnered with schools, churches and faith organizations to host vaccine clinics directly in the neighborhoods they are in, such as the following recent pop-up clinic locations:

Crenshaw Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine Magnet  clinic run by T.H.E. Health and Wellness Centers;

George Washington Preparatory High  clinic operated by St. Johns Community Health.

Our church is pleased to partner with St. Johns Community Health clinic to bring COVID-19 vaccines and testing directly to our congregation, said Pastor Alvin Tunstill, Jr., of Trinity Baptist Church in Los Angeles, adding, We are so glad to be here to support our families with the necessary resources to help keep our communities healthy.

As the fourth booster vaccine has now become available and regulations are relaxing in many of our neighborhoods, the Black and Brown communities still have among the highest case rates of COVID-19. But according to data, our booster rates are low. Getting a booster vaccine is an important step to consider especially for seniors and individuals with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and more, said Andrea Williams, MPA, executive director, Southside Coalition of Community Health Centers.

At Southside Coalition clinics, Black and Latinx physicians, nurses, pharmacists and more health care workers are ready and available to answer questions about vaccines, testing and other health-related matters.

With eight leading health centers and more than 50 sites, all in your neighborhood, we are making it quick, easy and convenient to take a step to protect yourself and your family by getting vaccinated and boosted, Williams added.

To make an appointment to get the COVID-19 vaccine or a booster at a clinic, call (213) 221-2463. For more information, visit Southside Coalition of Community Health Centers website at southsidecoalition.org/booster.

The eight community health centers are:

Eisner Health: clinics in downtown Los Angeles and Lynwood.

South Central Family Health Center: clinics in South Los Angeles, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Vernon.

Watts Healthcare Corporation: clinics in Watts and Crenshaw.

St. Johns Community Health: clinic locations in areas including South Los Angeles, Crenshaw, Compton, East Compton, Lynwood.

T.H.E. Health and Wellness Centers: clinics in South Los Angeles, Inglewood, Crenshaw, Lennox.

UMMA Community Clinic (University Muslim Medical Association): clinics in South Los Angeles.

Central City Community Health Center: clinics in South Los Angeles.

Venice Family Clinic: clinics in Carson, Gardena and Inglewood.
Dream North Foundation and Los Angeles Police Museum Unite to Aid Foster Children

The Los Angeles Police Museum, located at 6045 York Blvd. in Los Angeles, is partnering with Dream North Foundation (DNF) to host Story Time with Dream North and Friends, an event dedicated to uplifting 50-100 foster children from Sycamores and Child Help foster agencies, and 10 inner-city students from Locke High School (Green Dot Public Schools).

The event will take place on Saturday, May 21, at the Los Angeles Police Museum, a historical museum in the Highland Park Police Station which serves as an emblem of the LAPDs influence on Los Angeles since its inception in 1869.

Dream North Foundation is a California charity whose mission is to promote the advancement of underprivileged women and children who are survivors of abuse, sex trafficking, and judicial and foster care systems. The organization also supplies programs for at-risk women and children including rehab assistance, group homes, and societal preparation and placement. This collaboration between the Los Angeles Police Museum and DNF is intended to bridge cultural barrier gaps between local governmental agencies and the at-risk communities they serve.

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Saturdays event will involve various activities, such as a museum tour, magic show, food trucks and more! DNF is requesting attendees bring their new and delicately used books to our events to donate to the children in foster care. Comfort Cases, an international non-profit organization that promotes hope and dignity to youth in foster care, is also partnering with DNF for this event, by donating seventy-five comfort cases filled with comfort and personal care items for youth entering the foster care system. Each backpack can include numerous items, such as a toothbrush, pajamas, stuffed animals, a blanket, books, hygiene products and more.

Guest Speakers includeAssemblywoman Wendy Carrillo and Rob Scheer (founder of Comfort Cases). Also William Romeo will receive the Story Time with Dream North & Friends: Leaders Who Dream Award.

FAMLI Inc. (Green Dot Public Schools) and sponsors Spread the Word Nevada, Sweet Es Bake Shop, First Book + Pi Beta Phi, Better World Books, Remix Mobile Stage, and VIDA and ClearMask sponsored the event masks. Brides Academic Center of Excellence contributed school supplies gift bags and Los Angeles County 2nd District Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell donated $5,000 for the Story Time literary arts programs.

The event will feature author Nychol Lyna, founder/CEO of DNF, and foster care advocate, who will read Forgotten Baby, with illustrator and co-author, Arthur Romeo. It follows the story of Mytae, a 16-year-old who loses her mother and enters the foster care system.

Nychol noted, Both my co-author and stepdaughter have been a part of the foster care system, which inspired me to start this foundation. As a family, we want to show foster youth that they are not alone, and they are loved. The purpose of the story time events are to give the youth opportunities to look forward to, offer scholarship opportunities designed to help their future, and produce events that celebrate all that they are. The future is full of hope and we want them to hold on to it, because life is beautiful!

Over the next two years, DNF will host approximately 10 onsite Story Time book reading events and more than 20 online workshops to uplift 2,500+ foster youth on a global scale.

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To learn more about Dream North Foundation and how else you can contribute to their Story Time events, please visit: https://dreamnorthfoundation.org/donate/. To learn more about the Los Angeles Police Museum, please visit: http://laphs.org/
Focus on Youth Justice  From Incarceration to Care

On KCETs series about youth justice, Kevin Rodas, a member of the Arts and Healing Justice Network (AHJN or The Network) in Los Angeles, said this about his job in delivery services, I just go home feeling good about myself. I try to carry myself with the utmost respect.

Kevin, who spent time in and out of detention when he was younger, credits The Network for changing his life. The way I live my life now is completely different. Im grateful that these resources were placed in the right persons hands to make things better, he said.

Elida Ledesma, CEO of The Network, says their program uses art to help youth who are incarcerated or about to re-enter society increase their self-esteem, self-confidence and empathy. She says, Surveys show these programs actually do help young people not just express themselves, but they are able to change behavior that makes them less likely to re-offend once they come back to community.

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Providing sufficient resources to community-based organizations like The Network is key to helping justice-impacted youth such as Kevin. Josh Green, the director of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Programs at the Urban Peace Institute, says, We really need to double down in investing in those wraparound resources, building up capacity and shifting how we think about these young people and their needs.

Josh says its important to start from a place of care instead of thinking the only way to help them is to lock them up. A punitive approach to youth who experienced early childhood trauma only makes things worse. Josh says supporting these youth will lead to greater community safety and wellness.

The Los County Board of Supervisors recently approved $75 million for Youth Justice Reimagined. Josh believes this should be considered an initial investment since a major realignment of dollars is needed to create the kind of success that is possible.

As for Kevin, he wants struggling youth to know that there are resources like The Network out there now. He says, I was blessed to have somebody save my life and now I can help save someone elses life.

And to people who wonder if this transformation of justice-impacted youth is possible, Kevin says, It does help us yes it does. Watch stories like Kevins on Bonnie Boswell Reports, Fridays at 2:50 on KCET and at kcet.org/bonnie.


Theres a New Doctor in Town/ The New State Health Bureau Welcomes a New Face

Dr. Brooke Cunningham, an assistant commissioner for the Minnesota Department of Health, is now the leader of the new state Health Equity Bureau. This well earned accomplishment comes after she spent years researching how racism affects health outcomes.

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As a primary care provider, sociologist and assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota, Cunningham has years of experience working with communities of color. She received her medical degree and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Cunningham has lived in Minneapolis since 2013 and moved to the city after completing post-doctoral fellowships in general internal medicine and bioethics/health policy at John Hopkins University. Shes also a mom of one.

As a child growing up in Richmond, Va., Dr. Brooke Cunningham noticed racial disparities early on in her life. A lifetime of seeking answers on racial disparities has led Cunningham to the position of assistant commissioner in the Minnesota Department of Health where she analyses the departments new Health Equity Bureau. Launched last month, the bureau will take forward lead on the departments health equity initiatives and solicit community input on those efforts.

Her primary care practice at Community-University Health Care Center in the Phillips neighborhood serves a diverse and versatile patient population. Cunninghams patients are mostly lower-income uninsured or underinsured people who have difficulty being able to manage the time to visit a doctor or specialist.

My patients, when we talk about racism as a fundamental cause of health inequities, have commented on the experiences of racism that have been impacting their health, she said.

Although Cunningham went into medicine to become a sociologist and researcher, being able to work at the clinic has been the prime highlight of her career that she is most proud of, she said.

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Observers agree that this is a big step forward having a woman of color hold a position that can ultimately change the health gap that the United States is facing. Many people are looking forward to seeing great work from Dr. Cunningham in the future.
The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) will participate once again this year in the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2022, the Middle Easts leading travel and tourism exhibition.



Taking place from May 9 to 12 at the Dubai World Trade Centre and on May 17 and 18 in a virtual format, ATM connects buyers, exhibitors, media and travel trade from across the Middle East and around the world.



A key objective for JNTO at these events is the generation of awareness amongst the Middle East regions leading travel and media professionals. This years efforts will highlight Japans unique and diverse tourist attractions under the banner of Japan. Endless Discovery.



JNTOs participation this year is particularly significant as 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and the United Arab Emirates. Coming on the heels of the opening of the JNTO Dubai Office in 2021 as part of the Japanese governments strategic goal of welcoming 60 million international visitors by 2030, this years participation is further commitment to JNTOs focus on making the Middle East a priority market.



Mizuki Onishi, Senior Director of the JNTO Dubai office, said: We are delighted to be exhibiting at the 2022 edition of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), the largest travel trade fair in the Middle East. We are also very honoured to be participating during the year marking the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United Arab Emirates and Japan, a significant milestone. Through our participation at such events as ATM, we plan to strengthen our cooperation with the regions airlines and travel agencies while raising interest in the Middle East for travel to Japan.



JNTO has recently launched social media channels in Arabic to engage with potential travellers from the region. The new Facebook and Instagram channels are designed to inspire, with engaging posts that show the natural beauty, culture and heritage of Japan, along with interesting information and stories that are sure to spark interest.



With Expo 2020 Dubai having recently closed its doors after an extraordinarily successful run, the excitement is continuing in Japan as the country gears up to host the next edition of this much-loved global event. Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai, Japan will take place from April 13 to October 13, 2025, under the banner of Designing Future Society for Our Lives.  TradeArabia News Service
West L.A. Kaiser Serves as a Drop-Off Location for National Prescription Drug Take Back Day

Kaiser Permanente Southern California facilities, in partnership with local law enforcement agencies, are encouraging community members to participate in National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m.  2 p.m.

The Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center, located at 6041 Cadillac Ave. in Los Angeles, will serve as one of the drop-off locations. The public will have the opportunity to drive up to the 24-hour pharmacy turnaround at the medical center to drop off unwanted, unused, or expired medications. A pharmacist will be on hand to answer any questions about the medications.

We believe we all have an important role in ensuring medications are used as prescribed, and that unused medications do not fall into the wrong hands. For National Drug Take Back Day, we have partnered with the DEA to provide residents a convenient and anonymous way to dispose of their medications safely, said Paige Lin, area pharmacy director, Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles.

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Prescription drug take-back programs address vital public safety and public health issues. In April 2021, a total of 20 boxes weighing an estimated 210 pounds were collected at the Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles event alone.

Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), more people started down the path of addiction through the misuse of opioid prescription drugs, and each year higher amounts of opioids are being turned in at the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day events.

People unable to participate on April 30 can properly dispose of medications at drug disposal kiosks in Kaiser Permanente facilities throughout Southern California. A listing of additional drop-off locations available for public use can be found on the Drug Enforcement Administration website.

For more information, go to about.kp.org.
A court in military-ruled Myanmar has found the countrys former leader Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of corruption.

The court sentenced Suu Kyi to five years in prison Wednesday in the first of several corruption cases against her.

Suu Kyi was ousted by an army takeover in February of last year. She has denied accusations that she had accepted gold and hundreds of thousands of dollars given to her as a bribe by a top political official.

Both her supporters and independent legal experts consider her prosecution unjust. They believe it is an attempt to discredit Suu Kyi and legitimize the militarys seizure of power. The court ruling also prevents the 76-year-old elected leader from returning to political office.

Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San, Myanmar's founding leader. She became famous in 1988 during a failed uprising against an earlier military government. She spent 15 of the next 21 years under house arrest for leading a nonviolent movement for democracy.

The army permitted an election in 2015 in which her party won a large victory. She then became the leader of the country.

However, Suu Kyi has also been criticized for ignoring human rights violations. She has defended a 2017 military campaign against Rohingya Muslims. Rights groups have called it genocide.

She has already been sentenced to six years in prison in other cases. She faces 10 more corruption charges. The most severe punishment possible under the Anti-Corruption Act is 15 years in prison and a fine. If she is convicted in other cases, she could be sentenced to more than 100 years in prison.

Moe Thuzar is with the Yusof Ishak Institute, a Southeast Asian studies center in Singapore. He said the charges are only believable to the court and the militarys supporters.

Even if there were any legitimate concerns or complaints about corruptionenforced military rule (is) certainly not the way to pursue such concerns."

Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party won a large victory in the 2020 general election. But the army seized power on February 1, 2021. The military arrested Suu Kyi and many officials in her party and government. The army said it took power because there had been widespread fraud in the election. But independent election observers said they did not find any major evidence of fraud.

Afterwards, there were large protests nationwide, which security forces crushed. The rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said the campaign led to the deaths of almost 1,800 civilians. Now some United Nations experts say the country is in a state of civil war.

In an earlier case, Suu Kyi was sentenced to six years in prison for illegally importing and owning mobile communications devices. She has also been found guilty of violating coronavirus restrictions and sedition.

In the case decided Wednesday, she was accused of receiving $600,000 and seven gold bars from the former chief minister of Yangon. That is the countrys biggest city. The chief minster was also a top member of her political party. Her lawyers denied all charges he made against her.

The nine other cases are currently being tried under the Anti-Corruption Act. They include several related to the purchase of an aircraft by one of Suu Kyis former Cabinet members.

Suu Kyi is also being tried on a charge of violating the Official Secrets Act and on a charge claiming election fraud.

Phil Robertson is the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. He said: Destroying popular democracy in Myanmar also means getting rid of Aung San Suu Kyi, and the junta is leaving nothing to chance.

Im Dan Novak.

Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by The Associated Press.

________________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

bribe  v. to give something valuable, like money, to an official in order to get them to do something that is dishonest or illegal

prosecution  n. the act or process of trying someone in a court of law to see if they are guilty of a crime they are charged with

legitimize  v. to make something acceptable, real or official

convict  n. to prove someone is guilty of a crime in a court of law

pursue  v. to make an effort to find out more about an issue or to do something about it

fraud  n. the crime of using dishonest methods to take something valuable from another person

sedition n. the crime of saying, writing, or doing something that encourages people to disobey their government

junta  n. a group of military officers who control a government after taking control of it by force
The United States hydropower industry considers pumped storage the best answer to a question surrounding renewable energy: where to get power when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing.

But pumped storage faces an unclear future. Even though experts predict growing demand for power storage, the industrys growth has slowed.

What is pumped storage?

Pumped storage is when water is sent from a lower reservoir to an upper one, then released downhill through large machines known as turbines.

Pumped storage dates from the early 1930s. But most systems were built many years later to hold electricity from nuclear plants.

Supporters call these systems the worlds largest batteries because they hold large amounts of energy.

The U.S. has 43 pumped storage facilities that hold about 22 gigawatts. Yet, just one small operation has been added since 1995  and it is unknown how many of more than 90 planned facilities can overcome economic, legal and practical issues that force long delays.

Three projects have received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), but none are being built.

In contrast, more than 60 are being built worldwide, mostly in Europe, India, China and Japan.

Malcolm Woolf, president of the National Hydropower Association, complained during a January hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He said official approval involves too many agencies.

The  process is crazy, he said.

Criticisms of pumped storage

Environmentalists are worried about pumped storage because reservoirs typically are formed by hydropower dams. Such dams can block fish movements, damage water quality and release methane, a greenhouse gas. Also, most plants continuously draw water from rivers.

But recent designs include closed-loop systems that use a surface or underground supply, then repeatedly cycle that water between reservoirs. Water would be added only to make up for evaporation or leaks.

The Hydropower Reform Coalition, representing environmental groups, says it might support such projects under very limited circumstances.

Yet some are drawing resistance, including the Goldendale Energy Storage Project in Washington state. It would send water between two 24.3-hectare reservoirs on opposite sides of a hill.

The facility could power nearly 500,000 homes for up to 12 hours, according to Rye Development, which is leading the project. It is seeking FERC approval and is scheduled to go online in 2028 but still needs permission from Washington state.

Environmental groups fear harm to wetlands and wildlife, while Native American tribes say the project would cross onto a sacred area.

What are we willing to sacrifice to get this technology online? said Bridget Moran, an associate director of American Rivers.

Developers say the project would include cleanup of the polluted, lower reservoir area.

Future

As the market for stored energy grows, new technologies are appearing.

Texas-based Quidnet Energy, for example, has developed a pumped storage system that forces water underground, holds it amid rock layers and releases it to power turbines.

For now, batteries are the leading competitor to pumped storage plants, which can generate power for eight to 16 hours. Lithium-ion batteries usually last up to four hours, but longer-lasting ones are in the works.

Are we going to get to the point where an eight-hour battery is cheaper than a pumped storage plant? Thats the billion-dollar question, said Paul Denholm, an expert with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

A 2016 Energy Department report said the U.S. network could have 36 gigawatts of new pumped storage capacity.

We dont think pumped storage is the be-all, end-all but its a vital part of our storage future, said Cameron Schilling, vice president of markets for the hydropower association. You cant decarbonize the system without it.

Im John Russell.

John Flesher reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

____________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

hydropower  n. of or relating to production of electricity by waterpower

reservoir  n. an artificial lake where water is collected and kept for use

evaporation  n. a change in state from a liquid to a vapor

vital  adj. very important

decarbonize  v. to remove carbon from
Scientists have successfully bred a threatened species of coral, a coral rescue organization announced recently.

The breeding was part of a project that hopes to restore damaged reefs off the coast of Florida.

Coral reefs in Florida and the Caribbean Sea are being affected by stony coral tissue loss disease. The disease causes coral to lose its color and die after a period of time.

The Florida Coral Rescue Center is in part funded by the Disney Conservation Fund and Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida. It has bred hundreds of new rough cactus coral in recent weeks. The breeding center holds a total of 18 Florida coral species that are threatened.

Justin Zimmerman of the Florida Coral Rescue Center said there is a possibility "that you could return some of these corals to the wild." He added there is a possibility of saving the species by doing that."

Stony coral tissue loss disease was first observed near Miami in 2014. By 2017, it had spread to Florida's northernmost reef and, later, past Key West to the south.

Coral infected with it die off at a rate of 66 to 100 percent.

That is deadlier for coral reefs than coral bleaching  a better-known event that is usually caused by higher water temperatures.

Stony coral tissue loss disease represents another threat to the world's coral reefs. They already face serious threats from climate change.

The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, or GCRMN, is supported by the United Nations and gathers information on coral reefs. The group said in October that 14 percent of the world's coral was lost between 2009 and 2018.

Im Ashley Thompson.

Brian Ellsworth and Julio-Cesar Chavez reported on this story for Reuters. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

________________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

species  n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants

coral  adj. a hard material formed on the bottom of the sea by the skeletons of small creatures

restore  v. to return (something) to an earlier or original condition by repairing it, cleaning it, etc.

reef  n. a long line of coral that lies in warm, shallow water
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in business for home delivery services. But some of the companies are now facing financial struggles in a highly competitive market.

Today, there are delivery services that offer a wide range of products  including full restaurant meals, groceries, coffee, medicines and just about anything else.

Many services offer delivery in 30 minutes or less. Some promise orders in as little as 15 minutes. They generally deliver from small storage centers in large population areas.

Financial experts say it is difficult for such companies to make a profit. And officials in some American and European cities have already criticized how some of the companies operate and have proposed legislative action to govern them.

Marc-Andre Kamel is a partner at U.S. investment company Bain. He recently wrote an industry report on the online grocery market. Kamel told The Associated Press he thinks some of the investors get too caught up in the popularity of delivery and the huge valuations of their companies without making any money.

At some point they will have to find a path to profitability, he said.

Some services are already shutting down. One, 1520, closed in late December, and two more, Buyk and Fridge No More, stopped in March. Buyk's Russian founders reportedly could not provide financing because of restrictions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The business did not answer questions from the AP about the company.

Fridge No More said in a message on Twitter that it was closing after two years because of growing competition and other industry related issues.

Other delivery companies are having growing pains. Gorillas dropped its 10 minutes delivery promise in American advertisements. Now, the company offers delivery in minutes. Gopuff recently let more than 400 employees go.

Len Sherman is a professor of business at Columbia University in New York. He said many of those companies do not have a lasting business model. There is going to be a lot of consolidation on some very painful terms," Sherman said.

Getir is a Turkish delivery service that operates in Europe as well as Boston, Chicago and New York. It sees a path to profitability by adding more storage spaces in cities where it delivers. We're here for the long term, said Langston Dugger, Getir's head of U.S. operations.

Getir recently raised $768 million, valuing the company at close to $12 billion. It has plans to expand in the U.S. Dugger described its users as people ordering a late night ice cream, to somebody who is doing a full grocery shop for the week for a family, and everything in between."

The smaller companies are also facing new competitive threats from established delivery companies. These include DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber and Instacart.

Lee Hnetinka started FastAF, a delivery company with a two-hour delivery model in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He told the AP that for his company, profitability is just not a priority right now. He said he is more interested in investing in good customer experiences. He points to the experience of massive online seller Amazon, which he says was also not profitable in the beginning.

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

delivery  n. the transporting of things from one place to another

groceries  n. goods bought to be used in the home such as food and cleaning products

consolidation  n. to combine several things, especially businesses

priority  n. something considered very important that must be dealt with before other things

customer  n. someone who buys goods and services from a business
Twitter has accepted Elon Musks offer to buy the social media service in a deal worth about $44 billion. Musk  the American billionaire who heads Tesla and SpaceX  has said his goal is to shape Twitter into a more welcoming platform for free speech.

Twitters board of directors voted this week to accept Musks takeover offer. The deal could be finalized sometime this year. But it still has to be approved by Twitter shareholders, as well as regulatory agencies in the United States and other nations where Twitter does business.

How did the deal happen?

Shortly after receiving Musks proposal, Twitters board established an anti-takeover position known as a poison pill. A poison pill is a financial tool used by companies to block unwelcome takeover attempts.

A poison pill is generally designed to limit the number of shares that can be bought by a single investor. Companies permit existing shareholders to buy additional stock at a reduced rate. This method can flood the market with so many newly issued shares that a company takeover becomes too costly.

However, poison pills can also be used to improve a companys negotiating position in a takeover deal. Or they can invite additional offers for more money. In Twitters case, the poison pill seemed designed to prevent Musk from raising his existing share in the company above 15 percent without negotiating a deal with its board, Reuters news agency reported.

Musk answered that position by offering detailed information about his financing plans. These plans showed that he successfully raised $46.5 billion to finance his offer. The amount included $21 billion of Musks personal wealth. Musk has been declared the worlds richest person by Forbes magazine.

Industry experts say the financing plan showed how serious Musk was about his offer. And it may have opened the door to other large Twitter shareholders interested in hearing more about his plans for the company.

John Meyer is a technology expert and investor. He told The Associated Press he thinks there is nothing better for Twitter than Elon Musk buying it Meyer said he expects Musk to replace Twitters current board, invest in new products and find new ways to improve profits.

Musk has the track record that he can do the impossible, Meyer said.

What approvals are needed?

Government regulators, both in the U.S. and the European Union, are likely to examine the proposed Twitter deal. The main issues to be considered are how the deal could affect competition in the industry and whether it violates antitrust laws.

Twitter shareholders also need to approve the deal. A company can choose to hold a vote at any time, even before regulators have completed their examinations. Twitters yearly meeting is set for May 25, so it is possible the vote could happen then.

Free speech issues

In the past, Musk has been critical of some of Twitters policies related to free speech issues. Since seeking to take control of the company, he has promised to improve and fix Twitter and make it better than ever. This includes his stated plans to take steps to ensure free speech for all individuals. But he has not provided many details on those plans.

Some industry experts fear Musks desire to establish a free speech platform without limits could lead to more misinformation and hate speech appearing on Twitter. Current Twitter policies against such content can result in users being restricted or banned from the service.

Michael Nathanson is an analyst at stock research company MoffettNathanson. He told Reuters that possible attempts by Musk to ease content restrictions could turn advertisers away.

"We expect advertisers will be less willing to spend on Twitter if Elon Musk removes content moderation in order to promote free speech," Nathanson said. If that happens, he added, advertisers on Twitter may move to platforms like Google, YouTube, TikTok or others.

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press and Reuters reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for VOA Learning English.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

Quiz - Twitter Accepts Elon Musks $44 Billion Offer, What Comes Next? Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

_____________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

platform  n. something that permits someone to tell a large number of people about an idea, product, etc.

regulation  n. the act of controlling an activity or process, especially by using rules

antitrust  n. related to efforts to prevent companies from working together to control prices unfairly

analyst  adj. someone whose job is to study or examine something in detail

moderate  v. to make sure the rules of an internet discussion are not broken

promote  v. to urge people to like, buy or use something
When police pulled her over for blowing a stop sign, she reportedly told them, her "daughter is no longer alive," according to court paperwork.
The Albany mom accused of murdering her 3-year-old daughter allegedly admitted to using a knife to kill her child, according to a probable cause affidavit in the case.

Rebekah Gasperino, 32, is accused of one count of aggravated murder for allegedly killing her daughter Sophia Gasperino.

The affidavit in the case says Rebekah Gasperino told an officer that she cut her daughters throat with a knife, and her daughter is no longer alive.

Police make contact

At around 2:24 a.m. Saturday, April 23, an Albany police officer stopped the driver of a 1998 Toyota Avalon 4D for failing to obey a stop sign near the intersection of Santiam Highway Southeast and Fulton Street Southeast. The sole occupant of the vehicle was Rebekah Gasperino, according to the affidavit.

During the encounter, the officer noted various indicators that led him to believe Rebekah Gasperino may have been experiencing a medical issue or was driving under the influence of intoxicants, according to the affidavit.

These indicators included  besides disregarding the stop sign  weaving in the lane of traffic, delayed speech and movement and more. She also reportedly could not identify from where she was traveling and kept making references to the Holy Spirit, according to the affidavit.

The officer called for the Albany Fire Department to assist at the scene. The affidavit notes the emergency personnel determined Rebekah Gasperino was not in need of emergency medical treatment.

Rebekah Gasperino consented to performing sobriety tests, according to the officer. She reportedly did not seem to be driving under the influence of intoxicants, but the officer was concerned about Rebekah Gasperinos ability to safely operate a motor vehicle.

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An alleged confession

The Albany officer asked Rebekah Gasperino to identify the source of her behavior, according to the affidavit. At this time, she allegedly told the officer she had cut her daughters throat with a knife and her daughter was dead.

A police vehicle transported Rebekah Gasperino to her home in the 2000 block of Sun Place Southeast.

Investigating officers responded to the home where they contacted Sophias father and Rebekah Gasperinos husband, Scott Gasperino. According to the affidavit, it appeared Scott Gasperino had just awoken.

Scott Gasperino consented to officers coming inside the house to check on Sophias welfare. They found Sophia dead in her crib with a kitchen knife next to her, according to the affidavit.

An interview with the suspect

Officers took Rebekah Gasperino to the Albany Police Department where detectives interviewed her. During this interview, according to the affidavit, Rebekah Gasperino said she got a kitchen knife from the kitchen with intent to kill Sophia. She allegedly told detectives she used this kitchen knife to cut Sophias throat.

Rebekah Gasperino told police she left the knife in the crib, left the home, got in her car and was stopped by police.

Officers arrested Rebekah Gasperino, and she was held in the Linn County Jail.

Court appearances

Rebekah Gasperino was arraigned in Linn County Circuit Court on Monday afternoon, April 25 on one count of aggravated murder, the conviction of which could result in a sentence of 30 years to life.

Multiple family and friends of Scott Gasperino attended the arraignment and were visibly emotional seeing Rebekah Gasperino appear on screen from the Linn County Jail.

Judge Keith Stein ordered that the defendant be held without bail. Stein ordered that an attorney from the Oregon Office of Public Defense Services be appointed as Rebekah Gasperinos defense attorney.

Her next court appearance in the matter is scheduled for May 9.

Maddie Pfeifer covers public safety for Mid-Valley Media. She can be contacted at 541-812-6091 or Madison.Pfeifer@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter via @maddiepfeifer_

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LEXINGTON  A man and a woman have been charged with possession of methamphetamine after a controlled delivery of a package containing 3.9 pounds of the substance.

Mellenize Utterback, 30, of Lexington and Nestor Gomez-Orta, 36, have both been charged with possession of methamphetamine, a Class 1B felony and possession with intent to distribute or deliver a controlled substance, a Class 2 felony.

Utterback and Gomez-Orta were arraigned in Dawson County Court on Tuesday, April 26. Judge Jeffrey Wightman set both of their bails at 10 percent of $500,000. A preliminary hearing date has been set for May 9.

According to court documents, law enforcement was advised a suspicious package was allegedly being sent from California to 408 Rimpley Lane in Lexington.

The package was intercepted by a United States Postal Inspector on Friday, April 22. A K-9 brought in and indicated the odor of illicit drugs in the package. A federal search warrant was obtained.

When opened, the package contained 3.9 pounds of methamphetamine.

The Postal Inspector from the Postal Service made a controlled delivery of two packages to 408 Rimpley Lane to Gomez-Orta.

The Nebraska State Patrol SWAT Team, with assistance from officers with the Lexington Police Department, executed a search warrant on the residence and located five individuals and two juveniles inside.

Utterback and Gomez-Orta were arrested.

During the search of the residence, around 1,000 small blue bills believed to be fentanyl were located in a safe allegedly in Utterback and Gomez-Orta room. Also located was a large amount of U.S. currency, six knives, a compound bow, pipes, rolling papers, phones, scales, computers, grinders, a small amount of marijuana and methamphetamine and packaging materials.
On March 20, 2022, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra in Tunxi, Anhui Province.

Wang Yi congratulated Algeria on the 60th anniversary of its independence revolution, and wished Algeria new achievements on the path of its own development and revitalization. Wang Yi said, China and Algeria are friends in need, and the friendship between the two countries, forged and cultivated in common struggles, should be cherished and inherited together. We remember and thank Algeria for upholding justice and firmly supporting the restoration of the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations more than 50 years ago. China stands ready to work with Algeria to carry forward the traditional friendship, strengthen strategic communication, firmly support each other in safeguarding core interests, and promote greater development of China-Algeria comprehensive strategic partnership.

Lamamra congratulated China on the successful convening of the Two Sessions, saying that China is such a great country that any goals it set can be achieved on schedule, and Algeria expects China to play a greater and more important role in the world. Lamamra said that he is proud of the current high level of mutual trust in China-Algeria relations, satisfied with the outcomes of pragmatic cooperation between the two sides, and full of confidence in the development prospects of bilateral relations.

Lamamra said, today's world is facing severe challenges, and humanitarian crises are worrying. In particular, the lawful rights and interests of a great number of developing countries have been violated, and they have been forced to take sides or even give up their diplomatic autonomy. This situation should not continue. Algeria and China share common historical experiences and similar stances and propositions. Both sides should cooperate closely to safeguard the basic norms governing international relations and uphold a fair and reasonable international order. The Algerian side agrees with China's views on the current Ukraine crisis. Together with dozens of countries, Algeria and China abstained from voting on the UN General Assembly resolution on Ukraine, sending a clear signal that we hope to maintain independence and are willing to give peace a chance. The Algerian side believes that China's proposition, based on international fairness and justice and aimed at promoting peace, stability and security, represents a correct and broad path.

Wang Yi said, we should stay focused and confident amid the turbulent international situation. Apart from some countries that are obsessed with geopolitical games, there are many countries like China and Algeria that have long histories and civilizations and favor peace and justice. As long as we join hands and strengthen solidarity and coordination, we can vigorously promote greater democracy in international relations and push the world towards a brighter future.

The two sides reached broad consensus on deepening bilateral cooperation in various fields, and agreed to sign documents on Belt and Road cooperation at an early date, continue to strengthen the synergy between development strategies, and maintain close strategic coordination on international and regional issues.

The two sides also exchanged in-depth views on the Ukraine issue, the situation in the Middle East, and China's cooperation with Islamic countries and the Arab League, among others.

After the talks, Wang Yi and Lamamra jointly met the press and answered questions.
Oliver Roberts (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP) has posted The New Federalism Frontier in Marijuana Legalization and Decriminalization (South Carolina Law Review, Vol. 73, No. 319, 2022) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Over the past two decades, the movement for marijuana legalization and decriminalization has achieved widespread success on the state level. To date, thirty-six states have legalized marijuana in some form. While once only a budding industry, the cannabis market has grown faster than a weed, with full-fledged medicinal and commercial markets in states nationwide. And now with Democratic control of Congress and the Presidency, federal decriminalization and legalization of marijuana appears more promising than ever. In December 2020, the Democratic-controlled House passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2020 (the MORE Act) to decriminalize and legalize marijuana. And most recently in February 2021, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that marijuana reform would be a legislative priority. While marijuana advocates and opponents debate the merits of marijuana use, a novel and pressing constitutional issue will inevitably enter play: depending on its scope and content, federal marijuana legislation may potentially strip states of their power to prohibit and/or criminalize marijuana within their own borders.

Because marijuana has been prohibited at the federal level since 1970, discussions of marijuana federalism to date have largely focused on the states ability to legalize marijuana against the backdrop of federal prohibition. However, in light of recent state trends and new political dynamics, this Article presents an entirely new federalism issue. With federal marijuana reform legislation potentially on the horizon, this Article anticipates the rise of a new federalism issue regarding whether states can prohibit and criminalize marijuana-related activities against the backdrop of federal legalization and/or decriminalization of marijuana. In this new debate, state laws will face constitutional obstacles in the Supremacy Clause and the Dormant Commerce Clause. First, depending on congressional intent, the federal legislation may (or may not) preempt state marijuana laws. And second, these state laws may (or may not) be struck down for unduly burdening interstate commerce. Any potential uncertainties, however, can be avoided by close congressional attention. Congress undoubtedly has the ability to avoid federal preemption of state laws, and unequivocally maintains the authority to grant the states explicit powers to regulate and criminalize marijuana-related activities within their borders. Therefore, Congress canand shouldexplicitly address this new question of marijuana federalism in any forthcoming legislation that decriminalizes and/or legalizes marijuana.

However, the most prominent and politically successful federal marijuana legislation to datethe MORE Actlacks these vital provisions. Accordingly, the power of the states to regulate and criminalize marijuana will be at the mercy of judicial interpretation, potentially leaving the states powerless in the marijuana regulatory space. To keep regulatory power with the states, this Article argues that if federal marijuana legislation is introduced, Congress must include explicit provisions that avoid preemption of state marijuana laws and grants power to the states to regulate and criminalize marijuana-related activities if states so choose.
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Commissioners hire an interim road administrator

FLOURNOY

Angelina County Commissioners on Tuesday hired Clint Caton as interim road administrator for the unit-road system.

Local attorney Bob Flournoy said the commissioners decisions are the same as those made by a crime syndicate. Acting County Judge Keith Wright said the court is not doing anything knowingly in violation of the law by hiring Caton, emphasizing the position is temporary.

The unit-road system was voted into place in November 2020. However, it took nearly a year for the county to employ an engineer tasked with managing the new system.

After months of debate, the county in the fall of 2021 hired Chuck Walker in a split vote. He was fired in March after an Angelina County grand jury indicted him for tampering with government records; Walker served his last day as the road engineer on April 21.

During the public forum at the beginning of the meeting, Flournoy told the court it would violate the Texas Transportation Code to hire a non-engineer to run the system. He read subsection A to commissioners to support his argument.

In addition to violating the law, he said, if you do otherwise, it will defy the will of the people.

He said the commissioners only fired Walker because they wanted control and to keep certain records secret. Flournoy then said the courts actions are those of a crime syndicate that will go to any extent to protect its turf  barring Commissioner Rodney Paulette.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is to quit digging, he said. Remember, you are not above the law.

The court, before announcing its decision to hire Caton, entered into an executive session to deliberate his employment and pending litigation.

Nobody is going to discover anything  were not a conspiracy theory, Wright said upon returning to open court.

The court is not doing anything but trying to work in the best interest of the county, he said. He pointed to how Nacogdoches handles the unit-road system  which they have employed a road administrator for  and said it was doing just fine. Flournoy, in his campaign for the unit-road system, often pointed to Nacogdoches County for its success.

Wright had Sec. 252.304 of the transportation code pulled up on the large screen behind his desk for guests to see and read subsection B, which says the court can hire a road administrator if it cannot hire an engineer. He also reminded the court the position is temporary and the county will begin advertising for the engineers position after the next court meeting in May.

Paulette thanked Caton for accepting the position and reiterated the point: the position is temporary. He also voiced his support for hiring an engineer or administrator and doing what it would take to get the unit-road system up and running.

I will work as hard as I can work to get this thing going, he said.

The court will be working as a team to make this happen, Wright said. Not as individuals.

The commissioners also agreed to hire Allison, Bass & Magee LLP as the firm to represent the county in the lawsuit Flournoy recently filed against Wright and Commissioners Terry Pitts, Kermit Kennedy and Steve Smith.

In other business, commissioners also approved:

 The monthly treasurers report for March.

 Election judges and alternate judges for the joint election on May 7.

 An addendum to the online banking contract with Commercial bank of Texas.

 The appointment of emergency management coordinator Ricky Conner to the Angelina County & Cities Health District board.

 Amendments to separate Employer Hospital Services Agreements between the county and Woodland Heights Medical Center and St. Lukes Health Memorial, extending the terms of agreement from May 1, 2022, to Dec. 31. 2025.

 A 60-day notice to HelpMD to cancel contract services for telemed.

 The removal of Don Lymbery and Rick Still as Insurance Committee members and installed Wright, Human Resources director Jessica Vestal and George Harmon, the agent of record for the county employee benefit plan, on the committee.

 A proclamation naming May 5 as Day of Prayer in Angelina County.

 Budget transfers of $100 from phone utility to office supplies for the county judge and another transfer of $10,000 from repair to records to capital outlay for the District Clerk.

Commissioners also did not take action on Vestals request for an agreement between the county and One Source Technology LLC for background screening services. Wright said the agreement was not approved by the countys attorneys and asked it be permitted to die on the floor due to a lack of motion.
The Dane County Sheriffs Office is warning citizens of an elaborate telephone scam in which the scammers are claiming to represent the Sheriffs Office.

Scammers leave messages with potential victims and ask them to call (608) 401-2540, the Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Calling the number early Wednesday afternoon resulted in a recorded message saying the number belongs to the "Dane County Sheriff's Department" and directing callers to press between 1 and 17 or the pound sign for a variety of department offices or alleged department personnel.

The location connected with the number on a smartphone's call log was Mazomanie. The Sheriff's Office is located in Downtown Madison; it's general information number is (608) 284-6800.

The Sheriff's Office said the scammers sound official but reminds residents that its office never asks for money over the phone. It advises residents who are suspicious about a call from an organization to hang up and call the organization directly, and not to give out personal or financial information over the phone.

People who believe they have been the target of scammers should call the county's nonemergency dispatch line at 608-255-2345.

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A Dane County judge on Wednesday threw out a defamation lawsuit filed last year by the president of the New Glarus Brewing Co., who alleged that a law firm representing a group of minority shareholders had lied about her in a press release that described allegations made against her in the shareholders lawsuit.

Circuit Judge Stephen Ehlke said the press release in question, issued by the Middleton law firm of Palmersheim Dettmann after it filed a lawsuit in August against the New Glarus Brewing Co. and its president and CEO, Deb Carey, more or less accurately reflects the allegations made in the lawsuit, including one that Carey said was most egregious, that Carey had retained over $100 million, with over $40 million in cash.

(Carey) suggests that this phrasing implies that it was Carey who individually retained over $100 million with over $40 million in cash, Ehlke said. Having carefully considered the arguments of both sides I respectfully disagree. At best, it is ambiguous and any question left in the readers mind could be resolved by reading the attached complaints or the link to the complaint.

In August, Palmersheim Dettmann filed a lawsuit on behalf of three minority shareholders of New Glarus alleging that Carey has sought to consolidate control over the business and funneled profits to side projects in ways that have kept the three from reaping the benefits of the brewerys success. They also allege Carey has shorted them when it comes to paying dividends.

The press release about the shareholders lawsuit, Ehlke said, refers to the claims and the allegations. These are not statements of fact. Rather, the press release is couched in terms indicating basically, this is what were saying happened. People reading this would not or should not, at least in my opinion, be misled into thinking it is alleged as a fact.

Because the statements in the press release are all in the context of pending litigation, Ehlke said, anyone reading them should believe they are what the plaintiffs hope to prove. It might be true, it might not be true.

Careys attorney, Mark Schmidt, had not responded to a message seeking comment.

Separate case

Ehlke said he was not going to address the specific allegations in the shareholders lawsuit against Carey and whether they have merit while considering Careys defamation lawsuit.

Those issues can be dealt with in the civil case, Ehlke said. If counsel indeed improperly filed an action without performing a proper investigation, then the judge assigned to that case can fashion an appropriate remedy.

Ehlke also said he was not deciding whether or not Carey is a public figure, an important issue in defamation lawsuits. Palmersheim Dettmann contended Carey is a public figure, while Carey and her lawyers said she is not.

Ehlke said the question of whether Carey is a public figure, which would have then required a decision about whether the statements alleged to be defamatory were made with actual malice, was more appropriate for a decision at a later stage in the case, perhaps even a trial. The motion to dismiss the defamation suit was brought by Palmersheim Dettmann based solely on the pleadings that were initially filed by Carey.

But with Ehlkes decision, that question will go unanswered.

Two counties

The shareholders lawsuit, in the meantime, has been split between two counties.

In January, Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn said that claims made in the lawsuit against New Glarus should be heard in Green County, where the business is located, while claims against Carey should remain in Dane County. In February, Bailey-Rihn denied Careys motion to dismiss the case in Dane County, finding there was enough in the complaint to keep the case moving forward. Carey has also filed a motion to dismiss the case in Green County.

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CHIPPEWA FALLS  Police investigating the death of a 10-year-old girl in western Wisconsin arrested a juvenile suspect known to the victim, they announced Tuesday evening.

The body of Illiana Lily Peters was found Monday morning near a walking trail in Chippewa Falls. Police said her death was a homicide.

Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matthew Kelm during a brief news conference declined to provide the age or sex of the suspect, whether the suspect was related to the girl or where the arrest occurred. He said there was no longer any danger to the public.

While nothing will bring Lily Peters back or change what happened, we are very grateful to be able to deliver this news for the family and for the community, Kelm said.

Officers executed a search warrant at an address in the block where Lily had gone to visit her aunt on Sunday, when she went missing, Kelm said. He did not disclose whether the search yielded any evidence of value.

Kelm thanked the community for more than 200 tips that were provided to law enforcement and were critical to the investigation.

Lilys father called police about 9 p.m. Sunday after she didnt return home.

Chippewa County sheriffs deputies and Chippewa Falls police used search dogs and a drone in searching for Lily. Police say a bike believed to be Lilys was found near a walking trail.

Lily was a fourth-grader at Parkview Elementary School, where an outdoor memorial of flowers, stuffed animals and balloons continued to grow, KSTP-TV reported.

The school district superintendent, Jeff Holmes, sent a note to parents recommending that children who usually walk to or from school, instead be dropped off and picked up by family members or trusted friends until further notice.

Chippewa Falls, with a population of about 13,000, is approximately 100 miles east of the Twin Cities.
A man who was shot by state Division of Criminal Investigation agents during a traffic stop in early February, then subsequently charged with a drug offense from April 2021, will plead guilty next month to a fentanyl delivery charge.

The plea agreement, spelled out in a letter filed Wednesday to Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds from Stephen Eisenberg, the attorney for Quadren Wilson, states that Wilson and prosecutors will jointly ask for a sentence of three years in prison followed by three years of extended supervision.

The fentanyl delivery charge relates to an allegation that Wilson, 38, sold the fentanyl to a woman who provided it to a man, who then died from an overdose of a combination of fentanyl and other drugs in the bathroom of a McDonalds restaurant on Milwaukee Street. Wilson is not charged with causing the mans death.

The drug charge was filed on Feb. 18, about two weeks after Wilson was shot by the DCI agents after his car was boxed in on American Parkway on Madisons Far East Side by agents driving two large pickup trucks. During that incident, DCI agents Mark Wagner and Nathan Peskie fired gunshots at Wilson, but the Dane County Sheriffs Office, which investigated the incident, did not say whether the agents shot Wilson.

Wilsons family contends Wilson was shot five times in the back by the agents.

District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who will have to decide whether criminal charges are warranted in Wilsons shooting by police, said Wednesday that he is still reviewing reports and has asked for some follow-up investigation.

In addition to the fentanyl delivery charge, according to Eisenbergs letter, Wilson will be charged with misdemeanor cocaine possession for an offense dated Feb. 3, 2022  the day Wilson was shot  and will make an initial court appearance on that charge on Friday.

Wilson will plead guilty or no contest to both charges at a plea and sentencing hearing scheduled for May 9 before Reynolds, Eisenberg wrote.

As part of the agreement, prosecutors will file no further drug-related charges involving Wilson for acts that may have occurred before May 9, 2022, according to Eisenberg.

Both the state and Mr. Wilson believe this is a fair and reasonable sentence and resolution to these matters, Eisenberg wrote.

Under the agreement, Eisenberg and prosecutors will recommend to Reynolds that Wilsons three-year prison sentence and a recommended 30-day jail sentence for the misdemeanor charge run concurrently, and at the same time as a sentence of 2 years in prison that Wilson received following the revocation of the extended supervision Wilson was serving for a 2018 conviction.

In that case, Wilson was convicted of firearm possession and second-degree reckless endangerment for firing gunshots in an apartment on Madisons North Side in 2017 that wounded a man. Wilson served a two-year prison sentence and was then on state Department of Corrections supervision that was to run through September 2024.

At the time the fentanyl delivery case was filed, Eisenberg charged that prosecutors threw a complaint together based on a vague description of a light-skinned Black man and some phone numbers that, at a preliminary hearing last month, were said to be registered to someone in Kansas.

But Court Commissioner Scott McAndrew, while finding that the case rested precariously on the credibility of the woman who is alleged to have bought the fentanyl from Wilson, said it was plausible that someone involved in illegal activity would not use a phone registered in his own name.

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A second year of turnover is expected among Madison School District leadership, with two principals and at least one administrative cabinet member departing, in addition to other changes in building management.

A number of school building leadership changes were announced Wednesday morning in an email from Superintendent Carlton Jenkins to students, staff and families. Among the schools are East, West and Capital High, Sennett Middle School, and Gompers and Henderson elementary schools. The changes come following the departure of the districts chief academic officer in March.

This second year of leadership changes comes after the district experienced significant turnover in the administrative office over the summer following Jenkins first year. The district attributed the first year of turnover to COVID-19 and characterized it as something experienced normally when a new leader takes charge of an organization or governmental body.

Among the changes announced recently, East High School interim Principal Mikki Smith will be made the schools permanent principal; West High School Principal Karen Boran plans to retire at the end of the school year; Sennett Middle School Principal Daniel Kigeya will become the new West High School principal; Gompers Elementary Principal Jackie Smith plans to take on the role of principal at Henderson Elementary School; and Capital High School Principal Quinn Craugh plans to leave the district to take on the role of principal at Savannah Oaks Middle School in Verona.

The changes come on the heels of the departure of the districts chief academic officer, Marvin Pryor, who signaled his plan to move back to Atlanta full time to be with his wife and children in March.

A search is underway for new Gompers elementary and Sennett middle school principals, as well as the new Capital High principal.

For a district the size of (Madison), it is common for there to be this level of movement among leadership positions every year, spokesperson Tim LeMonds said. What is a little different this year compared to past years is that normally these announcements are spread out over the course of a few months. This year, many of these changes were announced all at the same time.

Aside from Pryor and the above-mentioned building administrators, the district is not anticipating other high-level staff to depart their positions, LeMonds said.

Mike Jones, president of local teachers union Madison Teachers Inc., anticipates there will be more principals, as well as teachers, who may leave the district or education before September.

Turnover is typical, this level of turnover is not, Jones said.

He said COVID-19-related burnout and stress was a main motivating factor fueling staff departures.

Among the central office staff to leave the district last summer were Kelly Ruppel, chief financial officer; Chad Wiese, executive director of buildings and administration services; Lisa Kvistad, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning; Nichelle Nichols, executive director of equity, partnerships and engagement; Tremayne Clardy, co-chief of elementary schools; Mike Hernandez, chief of secondary schools; and John Harper, executive director of student services.

La Follette High School Principal Devon LaRosa also left the district early into the 2021-22 school year for a position as deputy chief of schools in the Chicago Public School District.

Nichols was sworn in as a new member of the Madison School Board on Monday after running uncontested for Seat 5.

Bittersweet move

Craugh told his staff, students and the district in March he planned to move to the Verona School District to take on the role as the Savannah Oaks Middle School principal at the start of the 2022-23 school year. Craugh had been an administrator at Capital High for three years, as an assistant principal for two years before becoming principal at the start of the 2021-22 school year. Prior to joining Capital High, Craugh worked in the districts central office, where he and a team revised the districts behavior education plan.

The best word is bittersweet, Craugh said of his move, which comes just before the district plans to combine all three of the alternative high schools sites under one roof in the Hoyt Building on the citys Near West Side.

Struggles at East

Jenkins called Smith a steady leader at school, a tireless advocate for students, and committed to family partnerships and engagement.

She was an East assistant principal for 11 years before replacing Sean Leavy, who began as principal at the beginning of this school year but left in late October amid criticism by students over his handling of an off-campus sexual assault of a student by another student earlier that month. Leavy was subsequently assigned to a vacant position in district administration.

Prior to coming to East, Smith was an assistant principal at La Follette High for six years and at West High for three years, according to Jenkins email. She also worked as an administrator at Sun Prairie High and was a school counselor, and has served 24 years in the U.S. Army Reserves, where shes a logistics officer and major, Jenkins said.

Jenkins referenced challenges at East this school year, including a student walkout Oct. 13 over the sexual assault that was part of what led to Leavys departure; fights outside on school grounds that in some cases drew heavy police response; and a videotaped attack on a student in a classroom that led to misdemeanor charges against two classmates.

This school year, weve witnessed East students lead the way in many important efforts, from sexual assault reporting and school safety to community building and camaraderie, Jenkins said in his email. We have much to learn from our amazing and resilient (students) and look forward to how they will transform our society in years to come.

Change at West

In the email to West parents, Jenkins said the district was told earlier in the year that Boran would be retiring. Shes been principal at West since 2017.

Jenkins said Kigeya has worked with students in an educational setting for the last 20 years and is committed to ensuring academic success for all scholars, built on rigorous instruction and authentic relationships.

Kigeya has been principal at Sennett since 2017 and previously was an associate principal at Verona High School and has held school social work and student services roles and worked for the UW-Madison PEOPLE Program for low-income and first-generation college students, Jenkins said.

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Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Urban affairs, investigations, consumer help ("SOS") Follow Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal 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
The University of Wisconsin System named the UW-Madison provost and four academics from out of state as finalists to be the next UW-Madison chancellor.

The list released Wednesday  comprising two men and three women  includes no politicians and just one candidate with known ties to the university. Another candidate spent several years working in a leadership position at a large corporation but, like the others, has spent most of his career in academia.

The finalists are Ann Cudd, provost at the University of Pittsburgh; Marie Lynn Miranda, a University of Notre Dame statistics professor and former provost; Jennifer Mnookin, law school dean at the University of California Los Angeles; Daniel Reed, a University of Utah computer science professor and former provost; and John Karl Scholz, provost at UW-Madison.

Their names emerged from an applicant pool that included 37 candidates. Of those, 16 self-reported as a person of color and seven were women, according to System data provided in response to a Wisconsin State Journal records request.

System spokesperson Mark Pitsch said the finalists ages werent readily available Wednesday and he did not say how many of them self-reported as people of color.

Finalists are scheduled to visit the campus next week and take questions during a public forum.

A 21-member search committee chaired by UW Board of Regents Vice President Karen Walsh sifted through the names and selected a number of semifinalists.

A smaller Regents committee  chaired by board President Ed Manydeeds and including Walsh, Amy Bogost, Mike Jones, Tracey Klein and John Miller  selected finalists last week. The group will recommend a single pick to the full board, which is expected to vote on the hire sometime next month.

Outgoing Chancellor Rebecca Blank departs this summer to become the president of Northwestern University. Her last day is May 31.

The System hired AGB Search to assist in the chancellor search and is paying a flat fee of $110,000, records show. The fee does not cover out-of-pocket expenses, such as candidate background checks, travel expenses and advertising, but is far less than what other search firms have charged. The System paid WittKieffer, the firm that oversaw the Systems most recent presidential search, closer to $200,000.

More information about each candidate from their submitted resumes follows.

Cudd

Ann Cudd became provost at the University of Pittsburgh in 2018. She previously served as dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Boston University. She also held a variety of leadership positions at the University of Kansas, including dean of undergraduate studies.

Cudd earned her bachelors degree in math and philosophy from Swarthmore College and got her doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh.

Miranda

Marie Lynn Miranda became provost at the University of Notre Dame in 2020. Before that, she was a provost at Rice University from 2015 to 2019. She was dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan from 2012 to 2015. She started her academic career as a professor at Duke.

Miranda earned her bachelors degree in math and economics from Duke University and a doctorate from Harvard University.

Mnookin

Jennifer Mnookin has been dean of the law school at the University of California, Los Angeles since 2015. Shes also taught at the University of Virginia School of Law and Harvard Law School. She has published extensively on issues relating to forensic science, including latent fingerprint identification, handwriting expertise and DNA evidence.

Mnookin earned her bachelors degree in social studies from Harvard, a law degree from Yale University and a doctorate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Reed

Daniel Reed came to the University of Utah in 2018 and served as its provost until 2021. Before that, he worked as the vice president for research and economic development at the University of Iowa. From 2009 to 2012, he was a corporate vice president at Microsoft. He was also a computer science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Reed earned his bachelors degree in computer science at Missouri University of Science & Technology and got his doctorate from Purdue University.

Scholz

John Karl Scholz has worked at UW-Madison since 1988. He taught economics for more than two decades, became dean of the College of Letters and Science in 2013 and was elevated to provost in 2019. He worked as a deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Tax Analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department from 1997 to 1998. He was also a senior staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers from 1990 to 1991.

Scholz earned his bachelors degree in math and economics from Carleton College and got a doctorate from Stanford University.

Meet the finalists Each finalist will take questions at a public reception next week. Daniel Reed: Monday, May 2, 5 to 6 p.m., Tripp Commons, Memorial Union Jennifer Mnookin: Tuesday, May 3, 5 to 6 p.m., Tripp Commons, Memorial Union Ann Cudd: Wednesday, May 4, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Tripp Commons, Memorial Union Marie Lynn Miranda: Thursday, May 5, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Tripp Commons, Memorial Union John Karl Scholz: Friday, May 6, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium Source: UW System
KEWAUNEE  One of Wisconsins largest dairy farms is suing the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources over changes to its wastewater permit that require the operators to limit the number of cows and monitor groundwater in an area where nitrate contamination has occurred.

Kinnard Farms in Kewaunee County said in its complaint that the business will be harmed if it isnt allowed to expand its herd and will be burdened by the cost of a groundwater monitoring system.

Farm operators say the monitoring system will cost tens of thousands of dollars initially, plus the fees indefinitely paid to experts to sample, analyze and interpret data from the wells.

Judge says Wisconsin DNR can't enforce pollution law without listing hazardous substances Environmental groups say the lawsuit brought by the states largest business lobby could undermine basic pollution control laws and return Wisconsin to the dark ages of environmental protection.

The Kinnard operation includes 16 industrial farms with about 8,000 cows. It has struggled with agricultural pollution for years as contaminants began showing up in private wells.

The permit changes are seen as a big win for area residents, who said they felt like it was the first time the DNR had listened to their concerns about their water in public hearings and submitted testimony, the Journal Sentinel reported

Kewaunee County residents have been suffering from groundwater contamination, caused by massive amounts of cow manure, for many years. Given Kinnard Farms track record, we are not surprised they would challenge basic measures that are necessary to protect their neighbors drinking water, said Peg Sheaffer, spokesperson for Midwest Environmental Advocates.

Kinnard Farms is required to submit a plan for monitoring the groundwater by May 25. After the plan is approved, the farm would be responsible for installing the wells and monitoring the water for contaminants such as nitrogen, ammonia, nitrates, potassium and E. coli.

Gov. Tony Evers says clean energy investments can create jobs, lower bills Evers billed the plan as a way to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and keep some of the roughly $14 billion a year spent on imported energy, protecting both natural resources and residents pocketbooks.

Lee Kinnard issued a statement saying the family remains committed to regenerative agriculture and sustainability and would continue to invest in cutting-edge innovation to protect our environment.

The state Supreme Court in July affirmed the DNRs authority to cap the number of animals and require groundwater monitoring as part of the facilitys permit.
Just over 100 days until Wisconsins August primaries, the Democratic U.S. Senate race has grown more competitive while voters are increasingly worried about the economy, according to the Marquette Law School Poll released Wednesday.

Still, as 69% of voters say theyre very concerned about inflation and 56% say the state is on the wrong track, Wisconsinites dont appear to be turning on first-term incumbent Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, with 49% approving of his job and 43% disapproving.

Its striking that people can be this pessimistic about the state and its direction and still have a net positive approval rating of Tony Evers, poll director Charles Franklin said.

Wisconsinites positive view of Evers persists even as 53% disapprove of President Joe Biden, while 43% approve. Only 36% of Wisconsinites say the state is headed in the right direction, including 47% of Democrats, while 46% of Democrats say its on the wrong track.

Republicans could also bear some responsibility for that pessimism as only 12% of polled Wisconsinites have a favorable opinion of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, while 29% have an unfavorable view and 58% havent heard enough or have no opinion.

For U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, 36% hold a favorable view, while 46% hold an unfavorable view of him, his highest unfavorable number in the history of the Marquette poll.

Race narrows

On the federal level, a field of Democratic candidates is vying to unseat Johnson, who announced in January that he will seek a third term despite previously declaring a second term would be his last. Political experts have declared Johnsons seat as one of the most competitive and critical to determining which party holds the Senate majority next year.

Among Democratic voters, the poll found 19% support Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, 16% support Milwaukee Bucks executive-on-leave Alex Lasry, 7% support state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, 5% support Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, 1% support others and 48% had no preference.

Still, most voters have no opinion of the Democratic candidates. Even for Barnes, the most well known among them, 19% hold a favorable view, 16% hold an unfavorable view while 57% didnt offer their opinion.

Lasrys ascent  he was 10 points behind Barnes in late February  comes as he poured approximately $4.4 million into buying ads as of March 31, campaign spokesperson Thad Nation said.

Godlewskis 4-point improvement came after the campaign bought at least $1 million in ads, campaign spokesperson Sarah Abel said.

In the Democratic field, the February poll showed 23% supported Barnes, 13% supported Lasry, 5% supported Nelson, 3% supported Godlewski, 2% or fewer of registered voters supported others and 48% had no preference.

Kleefisch leads

Among Republican gubernatorial candidates, 32% support former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, 10% support former Marine Kevin Nicholson, 4% support Rep. Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport, and 46% had no preference, very similar to a poll conducted in February.

The Republican gubernatorial primary poll did not include Tim Michels, a business owner who announced his candidacy Monday.

Kleefisch is the only Republican gubernatorial candidate for whom most polled voters had an opinion, with 27% holding a favorable view and 25% holding an unfavorable view.

Other findings

Also, a quarter of Wisconsinites, including over a third of Republicans and 13% of Democrats, want the Legislature to decertify the 2020 election despite it being legally impossible. Sixty-two percent of Wisconsinites oppose the elections decertification.

But the majority of Wisconsinites dont know enough about the 2020 election probe conducted by former Supreme Court justice Michael Gableman  who suggested that the Legislature decertify the election  to have an opinion about it. According to the poll, 13% approve of Gablemans review, 27% disapprove and 57% havent heard enough to have an opinion.

I think that the Gableman report a couple of months ago specifically raised the possibility of decertifying and its certainly been covered in news accounts, but Im not as confident that the public is as aware of what the term decertify means, Franklin said.

Both 57% of Republicans and Democrats say theyre very enthusiastic about voting in November, the latest poll shows. Among Republicans, 69% of voters not at all confident about 2020 election results are very enthusiastic about voting in November. Among Republicans who are confident in the 2020 results, 49% say they are enthusiastic about voting.

In terms of issues besides inflation, 50% are very concerned about public education, 38% are very concerned about illegal immigration, 27% are very concerned about crime in their community and 22% are very worried about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The poll included 805 registered voters interviewed by telephone April 19-24. The margin of error is 4.1%. For the primary vote choices, there was a sample size of 375 for the Republican primary and 363 for the Democratic primary, with margins of error of 5.6% and 6.6%, respectively.

Other issues

Other results from the April Marquette poll include:

58% believe private school vouchers should be extended statewide without income limits for families, while 33% say they shouldnt.

69% of Wisconsinites favor the states current law allowing obtaining licenses to carry a concealed gun, while 26% are opposed. And 16% favor allowing carrying concealed guns without a license.

Support for same-sex marriage is 72%; it was 68% in February 2020 and 55% in March 2014.

52% are very confident and 32% are somewhat confident in the accuracy of the April election, while 7% are not too confident and 7% are not at all confident in the results.

The Legislatures approval rating stands at 38% approval and 47% disapproval, about the same as the last three polls.

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The Cottage Grove Village Board is considering whether to ban delta-8 THC, a cannabinoid which remains legal and unregulated in Wisconsin despite being outlawed in other states.

Cottage Groves law enforcement committee discussed Tuesday night whether to include delta-8 in its marijuana ordinance, which only prohibits possession of marijuana and doesnt include offshoots of marijuana or synthetic weed.

Officials ultimately decided to table discussion of the ordinance pending further input from the villages lawyers. The possible ordinance tweak would cover delta-8 products derived from marijuana plants, not hemp plants, said Lt. Matt Wagner.

Were not trying to blaze a path here, Wagner said. We just want to make sure weve done our due diligence, our homework.

Delta-8, which is chemically similar to the main psychoactive component of traditional marijuana, has gained widespread popularity in recent years thanks to loopholes in federal hemp laws.

Delta-8 is found naturally in low concentrations in cannabis and hemp plants, and when smoked or ingested, produces a high. In states where its legal, the cannabinoid can be found in grocery stores and smoke shops.

A slew of states though have moved to ban or regulate delta-8 in the last year. Even a legal weed state like Colorado has said that chemically modifying or converting cannabinoids from industrial hemp violates the states hemp law, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated delta-8 either, and has said that some delta-8 products could contain potentially harmful chemicals.

Cottage Grove police have responded to two alleged overdoses from delta-8, Wagner said, adding that officers have been told to not enforce pot possession laws for delta-8 until the village has gotten more legal input.

We dont want to be put between a rock and a hard spot if one of our officers makes an arrest based off the information they have and it turns out its delta-8, a legal substance, Wagner said.

We dont want to inconvenience our citizens either when it comes to that, he said.

Prior to a vote on tabling the item, Village President John Williams recognized officials are in a legal gray area until they further consult with lawyers.

More informations always better, he said.

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POKROVSK, Ukraine  As Russian forces intensify their shelling of eastern Ukraine, more people are leaving their homes in search of safety.

In Pokrovsk, a town in the Donetsk region, people lined up Tuesday to board a train headed to the far west of the country along the border with Hungary and Slovakia. One person was lifted onto the train in a wheelchair, another on a stretcher.

The passengers took with them cats, dogs, a few bags and boxes, and the memory of those who did not flee in time.

We were in the basement, but my daughter didnt make it and was hit with shrapnel on the doorstep during shelling on Monday, said Mykola Kharchenko, 74. We had to bury her in the garden near the pear tree.

He said his village, Vremivka, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Pokrovsk, was under heavy fire for four days and everything was destroyed. With tears in his eyes, Kharchenko said he somehow held himself together at home, but once he reached the train station he fell apart.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

 Putin gets what he didnt want: Ukraine army closer to West

 Top Russian diplomat warns Ukraine against provoking WWIII

 Frances victorious Macron boosts weapons, stakes in Ukraine

 Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra organized by Met, Polish operas

Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle that the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross should be involved in the evacuation of civilians from a besieged steel plant in Ukraines southeastern city of Mariupol.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that during their one-on-one meeting Tuesday, Guterres and Putin discussed the proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians from conflict zones, namely in relation to the situation in Mariupol.

The sprawling Azovstal steel plant has been almost completely destroyed by Russian attacks but it is the last pocket of organized Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.

An estimated 2,000 troops and 1,000 civilians are said to be holed up in bunkers underneath the wrecked structure.

Dujarric said that following the Guterres-Putin agreement in principle, discussions will be held with the U.N. humanitarian office and the Russian Defense Ministry on the evacuation.

WASHINGTON  The State Department says U.S. diplomats have begun returning to Ukraine by making day trips to temporary offices in the western city of Lviv from neighboring Poland.

The department said the first group of diplomats crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border and traveled to Lviv on Tuesday morning before returning to Poland later in the day.

The step came just two days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed Ukrainian leaders during a secrecy-shrouded visit to Kyiv that the U.S. would start restaffing its diplomatic facilities in Ukraine this week.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the agency has accelerated its review of re-opening the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, which was closed shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. He said operations at the embassy would resume as soon as possible depending on the security situation in the capital.

UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned about reports of new security incidents in a Russian-backed separatist region of Moldova and urges all concerned to refrain from any statements or actions that could escalate tensions.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Tuesday that Guterres has called for efforts to lower tensions throughout Trans-Dniester. Explosions rocked the region for the second day in a row, knocking out two powerful radio antennas close to the Ukrainian border. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Ukraine all but blamed Russia.

Russian speakers of the strip of land with about 470,000 people between Moldova and Ukraine nominally seceded from Moldova in 1990, one year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, fearing the country might shortly merge with Romania, whose language and culture it broadly shares.

The separatist region fought a brief war with Moldova in 1992 and declared itself an independent state, though it remains unrecognized by any country, including Russia which bases about 1,500 troops there, calling them peacekeepers. Concerns are high that those forces could be used to invade Ukraine from the west.

Haq said the U.N. continues to fully support efforts by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to reach a political settlement of the Trans-Dniester conflict in the so-called 5+2 process which comprises Trans-Dniester, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE with the United States and the European Union as observers. The aim is to strengthen Moldovas independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, with a special status for Trans-Dniester.

BERLIN  Germanys vice chancellor says his country has come very, very close to independence from Russian oil and an embargo on deliveries would now be manageable.

Germany, which has Europes biggest economy, has said so far that it aims to end Russian oil imports by the end of this year.

Speaking Tuesday during a visit to Poland, Economy Minister Robert Habeck  who is also the vice chancellor and responsible for energy  said that his country has cut Russias share of its oil supply from 35% before the war in Ukraine to about 12%.

Habeck said the situation is such that an embargo has become manageable for Germany. He added that the problem that just a few weeks ago seemed very big for Germany has become significantly smaller  so that independence from Russian oil imports has come very, very close.

Russian gas imports, however, are a bigger issue for Germany. Berlin has said that it will need longer to do without gas supplies from Russia.

LONDON  Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain does not want war to escalate beyond Ukraines borders, and rejected an allegation by Moscow that the West is fighting a proxy conflict with Russia.

But Johnson said Ukrainians are being attacked from within Russian territory and have a right to protect and defend themselves by striking inside Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused NATO of pouring oil on the fire with its support for Ukraine, and said the risk of World War III should not be underestimated. Russia has singled Britain out for criticism after a U.K. government minister said it was legitimate for Ukraine to hit fuel depots in Russia with U.K.-supplied weapons.

In an interview with British station Talk TV, Johnson said its very, very important that we dont accept the way that the Russians are trying to frame what is happening in Ukraine.

He said: They are trying to frame this as a conflict between Russia and the West, or Russia and NATO. Thats not what is going on.

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia  Slovakias President Zuzana Caputova released a video addressing the invading Russian soldiers, their commanders and all whom it may concern, urging them to stop the war in Ukraine.

In the three-minute video in Russian with the subtitles in Slovak, Caputova condemned war crimes against women, children and civilians.

You justify your invasion by talking about liberation, Caputova told them. How were you intending to liberate Tatiana from Irpin, killed by a Russian grenade together with her two children? Or Olena from Hostomel, raped by one of you in a car? she asked.

Referring to testimonies of women who have survived, Caputova says they find that words are not enough when they try to describe the pain you have made a part of their lives simply because... Well, why even? None of us knows Do you?

She says with each passing day, you are only increasing the army of wounded souls and bodies of women, children and innocent people.

If you still feel any leftover of humanity in you, bring it to life and end this horrible war.

MOSCOW  Russias President Vladimir Putin says Moscow still hopes to negotiate a peaceful settlement with Ukraine, even as the fighting has continued.

Speaking at a Kremlin meeting Tuesday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Putin noted that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators made what he described as a serious breakthrough in their talks in Istanbul, Turkey, last month. He claimed, however, that the Ukrainian side later walked back on some of the tentative agreements reached in Istanbul.

In particular, Putin said Ukrainian negotiators have changed their position on the issue of the status of Crimea and separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, offering to leave it for the countries presidents to discuss. Putin charged that the shift in the Ukrainian stand makes it hard to negotiate a future deal. Ukrainian officials have been evasive about the details of talks and the Russian claims of Ukraine walking back from its earlier proposals.

Putin has demanded that Ukraine recognize Russias sovereignty over Crimea and recognize independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine as part of a future agreement on ending the hostilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that those issues could only be decided by a future nationwide vote.

During Tuesdays Kremlin meeting, Guterres criticized Russias military action in Ukraine as a flagrant violation of its neighbors territorial integrity. He also urged Russia to allow the evacuation of civilians trapped at a giant steel mill in Mariupol surrounded by the Russian forces.

Putin responded by claiming that the Russian forces have offered humanitarian corridors to civilians holed up at the Azovstal steel plant, charging that the Ukrainian defenders of the plant were using civilians as shields and not allowing them to leave.

KYIV, Ukraine  The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has expressed concern about the tensions in a Moscow-backed separatist region of Moldova.

The ministry noted that an attack on an administrative building in Tiraspol, the center of the separatist Trans-Dniester province of Moldova, along with explosions that hit broadcast antennas and other facilities in the region follow a Russian officers statement about Moscows intention to fully take control of Ukraines south and build a land corridor to Trans-Dniester.

It said in a Tuesday statement that Ukraine resolutely supports Moldovas territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders and condemn attempts to draw the Trans-Dniester region of Moldova into the full-fledged war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine and call for deescalating tensions.

Trans-Dniester, a strip of land with about 470,000 people, has been under the control of separatist authorities since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops in the breakaway region, nominally as peacekeepers.

WARSAW, Poland  The Polish climate minister gave assurances on Tuesday that the country has plenty of natural gas on reserve, following reports that Russia has suspended gas supplies to Poland.

Anna Moskwa, minister for climate and environment, tweeted: Poland has the necessary gas reserves and sources of supply that protect our security  we have been effectively independent from Russia for years. Our warehouses are 76% full. There will be no shortage of gas in Polish homes.

Her tweet followed reports by the Onet news portal that Russia has suspended gas supplies to Poland under the Yamal contract. Onet reported that a crisis team had gathered at the Ministry of Climate to deal with the matter. Onet said, citing unnamed sources, that Russia had insisted on a Friday deadline for payment in rubles and that Poland has said it would not pay in rubles.

Poland has been working to wean itself off of Russian energy sources and was due to end its reliance on Russian gas this year.

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany  U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the war in Ukraine has already weakened Russias military capability.

Austin said after meeting allies and partners at the United States Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Tuesday that, since Russia began the invasion, its land forces have sustained pretty substantial casualties, as well as lost a lot of equipment and used a lot of precision-guided munitions.

He said that they are, in fact, in terms of military capability, weaker than when they started, and  itll be harder for them to replace some of this capability as they go forward because of the sanctions and the trade restrictions that have been placed on them.

Austin reiterated that we would like to make sure, again, that they dont have the same type of capability to bully their neighbors that we saw at the outset of this conflict.

He criticized Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs warning that the threat of a nuclear conflict should not be underestimated.

Austin said that its unhelpful and dangerous to rattle sabers and speculate about the use of nuclear weapons.

MOSCOW  A senior Kremlin official says that Ukraine may split into several parts.

Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, said in remarks published Tuesday that the policies of the West and the Kyiv regime controlled by it would only be the breakup of Ukraine into several states.

The statement comes as Russia says it has focused on expanding control over Ukraines eastern industrial heartland called Donbas. Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian troops there since 2014 when conflict erupted following Russias annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula.

Moscow launched military action in Ukraine on Feb. 24, days after recognizing the separatist regions independence.

Last week, a senior Russian military officer said that along with taking control over Donbas, Russia also wants to overtake southern Ukraine, saying such a move would also open a land corridor between Russia and the separatist Trans-Dniester region of Moldova.

MADRID  Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Tuesday he was very worried by the explosions this week in the separatist region of Trans-Dniester, adding that they reminded him too much of occurrences in the Donbas region immediately prior to Russias invasion of Ukraine late February.

I remember before Feb. 21, there have been some series of false-flag operations in Donbas region, so called people republics, that were used as the pretext by Russia to recognize and then to sign the so-called friendship and assistance treaties and then to start the military operation, Rinkevics told reporters in Madrid.

Im very worried about the current trend in Trans-Dniester because that resembles a little bit that pattern that we have seen, he added.

Police in Trans-Dniester say two explosions Tuesday in a radio facility close to the Ukrainian border knocked two antennas out of service. On Monday, several explosions were reported to have hit the Ministry of State Security in Tiraspol, the regions capital.

Trans-Dniester, a strip of land in Moldova, has been under the control of separatists since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops there. The United States has warned that Russia could launch false-flag attacks in nearby nations as a pretext for sending in troops to those nations.

Rinkevics was in Madrid to meet his Spanish counterpart and discuss the Ukraine war and the upcoming NATO summit in the Spanish capital.

The Russian military has warned it could strike Ukrainian decision-making centers in the Ukrainian capital and said wouldnt be stopped by the possible presence of Western advisers there.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday accused the U.K. of making statements encouraging Ukraine to use Western weapons to carry out strikes on the Russian territory, warning that if it happens the Russian military could retaliate by hitting government structures in Kyiv.

It directly pointed at U.K. Minister for the Armed Forces James Heappey, who told Times Radio that it was not necessarily a problem if Ukraine British-donated weapons were used to hit sites on Russian soil.

The ministry said in a statement that the Russian armed forces are ready to deal retaliatory strikes with long-range precision guided weapons on Kyiv centers that would make such decisions. It noted that the presence of citizens of one of Western countries in the Ukrainian decision-making centers wont necessarily pose a problem for Russia in making a decision to launch retaliatory action.

The Russian military so far has avoided striking presidential, government and military headquarters in Kyiv during its campaign in Ukraine that has entered a third month.

WASHINGTON  Secretary of State Antony Blinken is urging Congress to fully fund the Biden administrations proposed budget for the State Department, telling lawmakers the spending is critical to ensuring that the war in Ukraine is a strategic failure for Russia and a message to other countries that might invade their neighbors.

Blinken said his weekend visit to Kyiv with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had left him with the indelible impression that Ukraine is winning, particularly in the capital. It was right in front of us: the Ukrainians have won the battle for Kyiv, he said.

Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that the U.S.-led global response to Russias invasion had underscored the power and purpose of American diplomacy. He said the $60.4 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year was needed to continue to rally partners and allies in the cause.

We will, we have to continue to drive that diplomacy forward to seize what I believe are the strategic opportunities and address risks presented by Russias overreach, as countries reconsider their policies, priorities, their relationships, Blinken said. The budget request before you predated this crisis, but fully funding it is critical in my judgment to ensuring Russias war in Ukraine is a strategic failure for the Kremlin and serves as a powerful lesson to those who might consider following its path.

Blinken did not name other nations that might be considering following Russias lead but his comment was seen as a veiled reference to China, which has sided with Russia in the Ukraine conflict and has made no secret of its desire to re-unify the island of Taiwan with the mainland.

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine  The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency says it was possible that an accident could have occurred when Russian troops seized control of the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster during the war in Ukraine.

Speaking on a visit to the former nuclear power plant Tuesday on the 36th anniversary of the meltdown, Rafael Mariano Grossi said the situation in 1986 was completely different. In this case, what we had was a nuclear safety situation which was not normal, and could have developed into an accident.

Russian troops moved into the radiation-contaminated Chernobyl exclusion zone in February on their way toward the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and withdrew late last month as Russia switched its focus to fighting in eastern Ukraine. The site is now back in Ukrainian hands and communications which were disrupted have been restored.

Russian forces continue to hold a working nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the Zaporizhzhia plant, where there was fighting nearby in early March which damaged the plants training facility.

Clearly, the physical integrity of one nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, was compromised, we also had situations where the external power was interrupted including here (Chernobyl) so there were a number of events that were compromising the normal operations of any nuclear power facility, Grossi said.

Those were avoided but of course, as I was saying, the situation was not stable and we have to stay on alert.

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